From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V9 #43 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 Friday, June 11 2010 Volume 09 : Number 043 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [chakram-refugees] Saving Private Varia [cr ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Jun 2010 23:56:18 +1300 From: cr Subject: [chakram-refugees] Saving Private Varia Tonight's episode is Helicon, which is not one of my favourites. I don't think it does anybody any favours - not Gabrielle, who decides to attack a defended castle across an open beach; not Xena, who surely should know better; and not Varia, whose character is twisted out of recognition for Gabrielle's benefit. (Much as Amarice's character was in Them Bones, Them Bones, when she was suddenly exposed as a 'fake' Amazon, solely so that Gabrielle could show her magnanimous side. Nothing against Gabs on that occasion, but it was absurd - if anyone was worthy of being an Amazon, it was Amarice; even her impetuousness was typically Amazon. That she wasn't qualified because she hadn't been 'initiated' was surely ridiculous, if fighting in battle on the Amazon side didn't qualify her, what would? But that's all blood under the bridge, as Ares would say...) The ep starts with Varia and Gabs linking arms 'to a strong Amazon nation' (this rapidly becomes ironic). Then they politely throw Xena out, she can't attend the ceremony (I'm starting to think the Amazons deserve General Gabrielle, at that :) So they have a dance and Lo Duca's still reprising Sin Trade, the hypnotic drum rhythm from Sin Trade 1 appears. And a snatch of the chant that followed it, if I'm not mistaken. All of a sudden (but Xena sensed it coming!) figures in white attack; Xena was obviously close enough to make it to the party. Varia (who has traded in the sword Ares gave her last ep for a Mark 1 Winged Amazon) is snatched and the raiders run off back to Helicon, leaving damaged Amazons all over the place. So, um, they've lost their Queen (but wait on, last ep they had at least 5 queens of various tribes), but it seems they want Varia back and need someone familiar with the terrain of Greece to lead them, Gabs suggests Xena but they can only go to war under an Amazon leader doesn't this all seem a bit contrived? So then they decide to attack, not via the mountain pass which is the best route but will be defended, but via water (presumably on the grounds that the Heliconese will never expect them to be so dumb). And apparently Xena doesn't know any better, she says 'good call'. Ouch! Xena meanwhile sneaks into the castle as a diversionary tactic (so howcome she couldn't sneak out again with Varia?) But she runs head-on into Bellerophon, who is Artemis' son and mightily cheesed off that the Amazons forgot about his mother and Xena killed her. Xena dives off the battlements while Bellerophon scores a direct hit, first go, on the Amazons' boat and sinks it. So then the Amazons get to attack across a wide open beach under fire, which is exactly what every army commander doesn't want to do. Bellerophon's catapult (a very quick-firing piece of artillery, too) is firing phosphorus shells and there are arrows and they don't even have any tanks. "We are not dying here" says Gabrielle, which may be a statement of intent but is certainly not one of fact. So then Gabs asks Trudis to create a diversion, Trudis runs off and this catapult targets her precisely (but why would the crew fall for such an obvious diversion ?) but, oddly enough, stops being a quick-firing weapon long enough for the Amazons to run to shelter. So then Varia appears, having been released by Bellerophon. She plans to wait till nightfall, then retreat, (which is surely the only sane thing to do). Gabs objects, saying Bellerophon won't stop till all the Amazons are dead - and Xena backs her up (but so what, one picks ones ground to fight a battle and this is insane). And then Gabs wants to leave the wounded behind, which both Varia and Xena think is a Bad Idea. Also, not remotely like the Gabs we know. So, Gabs is looking for a path to attack the fortress when Varia tries to shoot her, is stopped by Xena, and all of a sudden Bellerophon's catapult resumes quick-firing mode and showers Gabs with shells. It seems Bellerophon promised Varia to spare the Amazons if she kills Gabrielle, thus causing Xena distress. This seems to me to be exactly like the deal Gabs gave Trudis, but Gabs doesn't seem to see it that way. She says Varia is no longer an Amazon queen - hey, on what authority? Varia _is_ the queen, if she decides Gabs should be sacrificed for the tribe it's exactly analogous to Gabs expecting Trudis to do same. Gabs has no authority to demote Varia, surely. So then they're all retreating by raft (exactly on Varia's plan, incidentally) when a huge shark looms up, Gabs feeds it a wounded/dead Amazon to distract it (but it doesn't work that way in reality. My wife keeps throwing all our old bread on the lawn in the hope the birds will eat that and not her garden, I haven't the heart to point out the flaw). So then Gabs gets to make a rousing speech to the troops and they do what they should have done in the first place - Xena lures Bellerophon into the forest and they ambush him, which is what Amazons are good at. So why DIDN'T they do it in the first place? Temporary insanity? The writers wanted to do Saving Private Ryan? You choose. So then the Amazons attack (where's Amarice got to? She would have excelled at this stuff! Oh, I forgot, she was reported killed before Lifeblood). And a spirited fight it is. Much more to Amazon tastes than running around on a beach being used for target practice. Cyane gets to shoot a few people herself. And Xena kills Bellerophon, who might be half-god, but is half-mortal too. (Odd, the combination worked OK for Hercules. Though, as I recall, his immortality was never actually tested). So it concludes with the survivors - and Xena - repeating "To a strong Amazon nation". (Nobody adds 'what's left of it' - where is Amarice when we need her?) The last ten minutes were so much better than the middle of the episode, I think. Because Xena and the Amazons were in character and doing what they did best. The ep certainly got the full works with the audio commentary - Rob, Michael Hurst, Lucy and Renee. Michael said it was Saving Private Ryan, Xena-style (I assume he's correct, I've never seen that movie); and "in my head it was Kill the Amazons, basically, that seemed to be what I was trying to achieve". (He certainly succeeded). Various comments about how violent the fight sequence (the ambush by Bellerophon's men) was, and how good Tsianina was at fight sequences. Rob commented it was difficult to work out everybody so nobody looked like a chump. Michael recounted that the crew gave him his own bottle of blood (because he wanted blood everywhere. He wouldn't be directing 'Spartacus' by any chance?) Rob commented that Michael protected all the characters, because this was a difficult episode for Gabrielle's character. Interesting. Michael Hurst was getting all enthusiastic at the sheer quantities of blood and carnage on the beach (and this was after a lot of it had been edited out). I certainly wouldn't let him run my invasion. Rob: "It was always a stretch as to why Xena never took control". (Yes, I thought that too). The ostensible reason, that she wasn't an Amazon, I find a bit thin - that didn't stop her in Endgame. Then Varia arrives across the dunes - Michael: This was weird - spot the error. She was walking along with a blindfold - why doesn't she just take it off? Michael commented that the sand dune behind was a favourite of his (from the height, this can only be the dune face at the Wainamu Stream at the eastern end of the dunes). Lucy thought the same as I did about Gabs demoting Varia - "Howcome you can take that off her?" Gabs' rallying speech to the Amazons got rewritten time after time, according to Rob. It started out as a hell-raising George Patton type speech. Apparently Liz Friedman (the writer) thought it was a mistake to change it. But Rob, Michael and Renee thought the result was better. In the ambush, Michael notes the Amazons need to get some payback here (which they certainly did. This was a great fight scene). At the end, Michael Hurst points out that the little group of 15 or so Amazons is the whole Amazon nation - that's what's left of it. Rob notes that Xena still doesn't go into a circle with the Amazons (she stands a few yards away. Still not an Amazon, though she has known - and fought alongside - more Amazon queens than any Amazon there.) Right at the end, as the camera tracks up, there are a couple of arrows stuck in a pine tree (these have caused puzzlement to fans in the past, as to why they were shown). As Michael Hurst points out, the tree is bleeding. "I said 'let's make the trees bleed' - and they did!" So now you know. On reflection, I feel a little kinder towards this episode. The writers (and Michael Hurst) did what they could to lend some credibility to a highly improbable storyline. 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 #43 *************************************