Starkiller

#mylivejournal #lj18 #happybirthday

It's been a few hours since I watched the "Spartacus" finale. And I still have ALL THE FEELINGS, by Jupiter's cock!


The cheesecakiest beefcakiest promo photo for the show ever. So far, anyway. Clickee to embiggen.


I seriously love this show. It's pretty damn true to the history, the story of Spartacus and his slave rebellion (The Third Servile War), as recorded by Cicero, Plutarch, Livvy and Appian. The first season, starring Andy Whitfield as Spartacus introduced us to the major players in terms of the history of the first part of the story of the Rebellion - Spartacus, Oenemaeus, Crixus, Batiatus, Glaber. With Andy's very sad death from Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Liam McIntyre took over the role - not gonna lie, I wasn't sure I'd enjoy the show with him in the titular role. It took me a few episodes, but by the time the season was over, I had become totally sold on both of them as Spartacus.


Sparty (as portrayed by Liam McIntyre) and his feisty Briton girlfriend, Mira.


crixus and Sparty plan and muse. Half-nakedly. (Clickee to embiggen).


While Andy was recieving treatment for his illness, Starz made "Gods of the Arena," a mini-series prequel, which gave us the awesome that is Gannicus and the backstory for Crixus. As Gannicus, Crixus, Oenemaeus and Spartacus were the main leaders of the Rebellion in history, getting a meaty introduction to Gannicus instead of possibly one or two eps only was awesome. It also gave us more of the decadence and violence of the Roman Empire.


Oenemaeus can't believe you did that, smirky face Gannicus.

One of the things I particularly love about this show is the language. It took me a minute to work out, when I started watching it, why the dialogue was structured the way it was, and then reading articles, etc, I realised it was English with LATIN grammar rules. How awesome is that, right? Totally awesome! The set dressing was amazing, down to the detail of sponge-onna-stick to wipe your bum with after using the public loos (ew, I know.), and the togas and tunicas of the Roman noble classes, the armour of the soldiery and the plainer clothes of the regular people were pretty spot on. Liberty was taken with the tunicas and acoutrements of the noble Roman women, but the designer made those gowns absolutely *gorgeous*. Not to mention their hair.


Leading ladies of Capuan society: Ilythia, wife of Gaius Claudius Glaber and Lucretia, widow of Lanista Quintus Lentillus Batiatus. (Clickee to embiggen).

And then the casting. Perfect, every single one. And there's a whole lot of pretty going on - all these grrr gladiators in their manpanties (not historically accurate, natch! XD), sweaty and fighty and muscly and awesome. The Romans in their armour or togas. I've seen a lot of people hate on this series and look down their noses and declare they have all the sadness for the ruination of history and... seriously, get over it. It's closer than any other historical telly drama. Also? Amphorae of Lighten Up to the head.


Okay, this is wine, but still. TO THE HEAD. (Cap from Hey, Don't Judge Me Sparty recaps. Which are win and should be read, unless you don't want spoilers.)

Craig Parker, who you may remember as Haldir the Elf in the LOTR movies, was Gaius Claudius Glaber. And, he was made of motherfucking awesome. Of course, as per history, Glaber dies in the first major assault on the slaves, which, even more awesome, occurs at night, after Sparty and friends have abseiled down the side of Vesuvius and come on the Romans from behind. I shit you not. History, you are awesome.

In a conversation with rian219, I extolled the virtues of show.

starkiller: I love this show. After being clocked over the head with a full amphorae of wine by his (Glaber) angry mistress (Seppia) who confronts him about killing her brother (Seppius), falling over against the side of the bath – all red from the wine – his mistress prepared to stab him forever in the heart, his wife (Ilytia) comes out of nowhere, grabs his mistress’ arm and stabs *her* in the heart, THEN cuts her throat. Blood goes all over him, and now he’s all covered in sticky blood and wine, and his wife, who’s pregnant for what looks like 900 months (she’s so pregnant, omg), tells him she wants him to fuck her, then they have hot, bloody, winey sex up against the wall while his dead mistress floats in the bath full of her own blood!

And they say romance is dead.

rian219: Hahaha well if that isn't the best ad for the show I could have ever heard I don't know what is!


Collage by Wilderwind @ Tumblr.

Glaber: We cannot be what we were.
Ilithyia: Then let us be what we are. We have done terrible things to each other. I would see such venom turned outward, to those truly deserving of it- Seppia. The Senate. And the man they dispatch to steal your glory.
Glaber: You would move against Varinius?
Ilithyia: We are both monsters, Gaius. Let us be so together- and seize the fucking heavens!


YEAH.


Ilythia and Glaber, quite a long while before getting with the bloody, winey, Roman sex. (Clickee to embiggen).

Plus? LUCY LAWLESS. YEAH, XENA. Only less armour, more silk, and wow, I did NOT see it coming, what happened to her in the finale tonight. Also, this show has given us genuinely tender and loving relationships that are heterosexual and gay. Fan favourite (and yeah, ngl, mine too,) is Nasir and Agron.


They are adorbs. Nasir (left), Agron (right). (Clickee to embiggen).

So many deaths in the finale, omg. Most of them, thanks to history, I was expecting. BUT. Steven DeKnight, creator/writer/producer/big shaved headed tattooed man of awesome who looks like he rides a Harley everywhere, shocked the shit out of me with the execution of the, er, executions on the screen.

I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS, OMFG. I'm just going to cut the brief shrieking of the deaths, for the sake of hiding spoilers.

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Naevia, Crixus' girlfriend. (Click to embiggen.)


Mira, Sparty's girlfriend. (Click to embiggen.)

So no more until January 2013. Mr. DeKnight, I take my hat off to you, sir. You've done a truly amazing and wonderful job with a very well known story from history, kept it real to the history, made us care about all of the cast (even the evil characters), and thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for the manpanties and the soundtrack of hard rock guitars. Gratitude.


Collage of moments by Wilderwind @ Tumblr.


Images from fuckyeahspartacus @ Tumblr unless otherwise stated. Except for the scan of the cheesecake photo, I don't recall where I found that one.

Seriously, it doesn't take much to make my entire year. A chat on twitter with JMS aka The Great Maker aka J. Michael Straczynski does it very nicely. Behold our conversation. (Yes, I'm @brbsiberia. He's @straczynski. Obvs.) Click to embiggen.

I've been on a bit of an American contemporary poetry kick lately. I like this one.



Towards Peace by James Bertolino.

To begin he remembers green
Iowa hills
speckled orange
with Tiger Lilies,
land his mind stretched, hands
trembling with
the wheel,
road breathing beneath.

The cracks repeat the names of love.

A flock of farm pigeons
breaks above
the windshield, now joins in
the mirror, pulling
to the new sun
the last
of the suffocating Iowa night.

It is with great sadness that I post to let you all know that Minotaur of the wonderful Minotaur Sex Tips for Slash Writers site (we link to it in our link list), has passed away. I only have a little information right now, but I know that he was a friend to many and many others found his resources invaluable.

He passed away this morning, June 14. During the night he suffered a massive heart attack, and despite tremendous efforts to save him, he passed away at 6:00 a.m. He had good friends by his side until the end, and his family is gathering to decide on the next steps.

My deepest condolences to his friends and family at this time.

I've been on LJ a long time. Longer than I thought.

Created on 2001-07-15 07:33:21

2,724 comments received, 2,411 comments posted

876 Journal Entries, 51 Tags.

Isn't that like, a lifetime in internet age? No wonder I feel so old...

I watched Ashes to Ashes over the course of two days. Thanks to mon cousin for the eps, muchly appreciated.

I wasn't expecting anything one way or the other apart from a lot of 80's hair and makeup (and got it in spades, hahaha) and a trip down memory lane. I had no expectations of Alex, but overall, I really enjoyed the show. I didn't like it better or worse than Life on Mars, because it isn't, imo, trying to be LoM. I enjoyed it for what it was, being the next chapter in the story of cops who travel in time.

Which leads me to…da da duuuuuum….meta! And spec, so beneath the cut for you.

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I watched 5 hours of 'The Tudors' last night and went to bed with a head full of Tudor English history. Also, went to bed with a headache which comes from watching 5 odd hours of telly in one sitting. My thoughts, let me show you them.

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So, season 3 is confirmed, with Lady Jane being the next in line as Henry's queen, followed by Anne of Cleves. The final shots of Henry show that they're slowly moving towards later Tudor era with Henry getting a bit portly and a bit gross and icky. So, if things follow the trend, and there's a season 4, that would be Catherine Howard then Catherine Parr and then Henry dying. I wonder if they'll do a season after his death with Mary as queen. Actually, I wonder if they'll follow it through to the end of the Tudor dynasty with the death of Queen Elizabeth. Hm.

Fuck, I love this show. SO MUCH. And I still haven't seen season 1, hahaha.

One of my favourite blogs that I have on my rss feed is the English-Russia blog. The latest entry today was a photo tour of Chernobyl, 20 years after the nuclear reactor went boom. It's a fascinating, if sad photo tour, the pictures speak louder than words. (The comments at the end are mostly crap, it's like troll city when trolls get bored.) The entry itself is fascinating. The blogger talks about how there is absolutely no sound, how it is deathly quiet and how the trees are reclaiming the city and surrounds, nature taking back what man ruined.

Because I am a Russiaphile and I love history, and I (like many of my flist I'm sure) remember the Chernobyl disaster, I followed the merry link hopping trail as you do and ended up at the site of Elena Filatova, a Russian lady living in Kiev, daughter of a nuclear physicist, who riders her Ninja motorcycle around what's called the Dead Zone and the Wolf Lands of Chernobyl and photographs it. On her site, she says, "Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go to hell, girls on motorcycles go where they want." I like her attitude.

I just finished reading her photo journals of her rides into the Dead Zone and surrounds. I link because I love, but I'm also warning you that some photos may distress some people. Remember, this is a nucelar fallout zone, and some of the photos in the journals are...heartbreaking. Elena talks in her journals without any softening of the topic, and I think she's absolutely right to do so. She tells things like she sees them, and the majority of the photos and entries are absolutely amazing and astounding. (In her site map, for those who might be interested, she also has a page on Stalin's Gulags in Siberia. Again, warnings for those who might find the topic distressing.)

Anywa, after all that blah blah from me, here's her journal. My name is Elena. I run this website and I don't have anything to sell. What I do have is my motorbike and the absolute freedom to ride it wherever curiosity and the speed demon take me.