From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V9 #37 Reply-To: chakram-refugees@smoe.org Sender: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk chakram-refugees-digest Saturday, May 22 2010 Volume 09 : Number 037 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [chakram-refugees] Which god? [cr ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 20:51:45 +1300 From: cr Subject: [chakram-refugees] Which god? 'The god you know' as a title is obviously a play on words on the old saying 'Better the devil you know than the devil you don't'. (This is only intermittently right and hence as unreliable and useless as most wise old sayings). Anyway, this presumably refers to the god we know (Ares and/or possibly Aphrodite) being better than the upstart Caligula, who is plain barking mad, and not nearly as handsome as Ares. So, no contest. (There is, of course, another god in this ep, Eli and Michael's god, and on showing so far I'd trust him/her/it rather less than I would Caligula. :) Speaking of which, I find it intriguing that Michael's wings are black. "Michael, don't forget - if I can kill gods, I can kill angels too" - nice line, Xena. Eve, of course, just has to go and confront the insane Caligula with Eli's message of peace. "Now I know why I love to kill Elijans - it's the only thing that shuts them up". Caligula may be mad, but he's not dumb. Enter Xena, wearing a truly hideous mask, about to knife Caligula, when Ares tackles her. (Caligula looks bemused by all the goings-on). It seems that Caligula and Aphrodite's lives are linked, Caligula is somehow stealing Dite's immortality. Gabs pops up and explains that her 'client', 'Saba', merely wishes to challenge Caligula to a chariot race. (Would you buy that? No, me neither). Aphrodite, for no very good reason, has acquired the most hideous hairstyle ever seen on XWP, even bald would look better. However, as she promptly starts feeling up Ares (her brother, remember?), it's apparent that she's completely out of it, so presumably she thinks the haystack on her head is high fashion. Caligula, not to be outdone, feels up Xena, apparently forgetting that she was waving a dagger at him just moments ago. Ares meanwhile gets hauled off to the dungeons, which somehow doesn't seem fair, since he just saved Caligual's (and Dite's) neck. At the party, Gabs tried to ask Dite what's going on, but gets only nonsense. Caligula is peeved that 'Saba' hasn't appeared (Xena is visiting Ares in jail, Ares thinks the lack of a God of War has unbalanced the God of Love, which is the only explanation we're going to get). So to placate Caligula, (any excuse will do :) Gabs has to do a sort of Apache dance, fortunately the palace guard seem to know the right moves. Xena appears, in a negligee to rival Gabs', and says she will prove herself worthy of Caligula, just name the task. Caligula promptly orders her to kill Ares (is there anybody who didn't see that coming?) Xena proposes that she and Gabs will do a floor show with Ares, which is apparently enough to make Caligula forget his recent order. Xena kisses Caligula passionately and bites his lip, he bleeds (which gods ain't supposed to do, but of course Xena can do worse things than that to them, remember?). Caligula notices this and throws a wobbly, swats Dite, and chills the party. Dite finds she's bleeding too, and can't dematerialise the way she used to. Xena explains her ability by claiming to be immortal too - Saba the Celtic goddess of sex. (Yeah, nice one, that'll do me :) She offers to partner Caligula and walks out, waving her arms haughtily at Caligula's two guards on the door, who instantly uncross their spears with military smartness (nice touch). Caligula's having nightmares of his mother's voice when a very male laugh interrupts, and there is Michael. Scene cuts (so we don't know what they discuss) to Eve, in hiding, when Michael appears - busy guy. He asks Eve if she's ready and leads her off, we don't know what they discuss either. Two soldiers drag Eve in to Caligula's presence, he's about to stab her when Xena interrupts, Eve starts to tell Xena she doesn't need her help (and about to blow Xena's cover, of course) so Xena knocks her out (I'm really starting to quite like this episode :) and asks Caligula why here and now. He says 'The demon with wings (Michael, but C's description isn't far off, at that) said if I spilt her blood it will ensure my legacy as the greatest of all gods'. (So Archbastard Michael set Eve up good. Why does he want her dead? So he can control/destroy/take over the Elijans? Is there some power struggle going on in Heaven? To make her a martyr? Or, as Xena thinks, to force her into killing Caligula? Whatever the reason, methinks Michael must die.) Gabs and Dite are chatting when Michael appears, sword raised. Xena piles into him and it's all on (I'm cheering for Xena, of course). Xena chucks him in the pool and puts the pinch on him. He says he was trying to kill Aphrodite before Caligula kisses her one last time and becomes a full god (but if he could kill Aphrodite, why not Caligula? And what sort of lowlife scum would kill the Goddess of Love? Oh, right, the No 1 henchman of the God of Love, that's who. Doesn't like competition, obviously.) Xena is unimpressed and asks him one last question, 'What happens to angels when they die?' and pushes his head under water, when Michael's boss zaps Xena and beams up Michael. Bastard! So now Xena's lost the power to kill gods, and Caligula's a full god, and it seems all Michael's scheming and backstabbing (you can tell how much I love the guy, can't ya?) was a complete waste of time. At least Aphrodite, as a mortal, has now got her marbles back. So, to the chariot race, winner gets to kill Eve. It's quite impressive, two full laps of the sets in Lion Park, and they're actually *drifting* on the corners (I didn't know anything horsedrawn could actually do that!), and the horses are leaning into it at a thirty-degree angle - yow! And it ends with Caligula rolling his chariot in one of the most daring stunts I've seen - there's a ramp on one side, one of the horses (and one wheel of the chariot) goes up the ramp, the other doesn't, and the chariot rolls as 'Caligula' dives out of it - amazing stuff! Those horses must be superbly trained. The race was kind of irrelevant, though, since Gabs shouts out that 'Saba' is Xena, the warrior princess. Caligula's heard of her, and her rep as killer of gods. To convince him, Xena starts to beat him up, a huge bluff, since she can't really hurt him, and he could zap her any time if he tried to. And thus she convinces him to kill himself rather than have her do it. Xena's a bit remorseful about that. But she shows no sign of regret at having tried to drown Michael. With which I concur. cr ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ End of chakram-refugees-digest V9 #37 *************************************