#HBO's Rome

[naranjapetrificada]

Good morning, crew mates.

Last night when I should have been asleep, I read about the rumored behind the scenes bullshit that tried to take our pirates away from us. This morning, I'm thinking about Batgirl and that Scooby-Doo film that both got canceled despite being almost complete. I'm thinking about Coyote vs. Acme. I'm thinking about Turner Classic Movies.

But also, because of my current WIP set in a similar (but OFMDified) world, I'm thinking about another IP owned by Warner Brothers now. One that even before Zaslav the Destroyer arrived, was canceled earlier than it was meant to be. One that was also groundbreaking in its own ways. One that's offering me a type of consolation in these trying times.

I'm thinking about HBO's Rome.

It was absolutely not perfect, especially around certain things to do with in-world consent and sexual assault. I'm not making this post to litigate that, though I will say that it was made in 2005, when we as a society certainly weren't having mature conversations about consent.

[Also that it was set in a society so patriarchal that daughters didn't receive their own given names, just names that said who their fathers were and designations that told you where they fell in the birth order (i.e. the daughters of Lucius Vorenus are named Vorena the Elder and Vorena the Younger).]

But it did pave the way for the sort of gritty, trope-inverting, epic series we saw different networks take a stab at in its wake. Many people say, correctly, that Rome walked so Game of Thrones could run. And yeah, GoT eventually ran right off a cliff, but the fact remains that networks, including HBO again, became willing to make large initial investments in shows with lavishly and lovingly detailed sets and costumes, top-notch casts, and beautiful but expensive effects in part because of the prestige and lasting praise for Rome.

So what does this have to do with OFMD? Besides being canceled after two seasons when there were plans for more, the way it redefined a setting and genre that previously felt stale, and the way people will probably talk about its unanticipated influence for years? I'm thinking about scenes that I'll never forget, and how both shows have those indelible moments, and how emotionally cathartic certain moments from Rome feel in the context of the cancelation of Our Flag Means Death.

I'm thinking about the rivalry between two characters in particular, Atia of the Julii and Servilia of the Junii, and the way the show depicted their conflict during their bitterest, most desperate, and most devastating moments. Obvious spoiler warnings for the second season below, including the death of a character, but also TW for a brief mention of rape, and for canon-typical (but not especially graphic?) attitudes toward and depiction of suicide. Because Rome was ugly, and if the show had one guiding principle it was to remind viewers that Rome was ugly.

But also: a character reading another for absolute and utter filth, and two truly terrifying curses, in case there are any studio executives you're feeling angry towards.

Firstly, there's the moment when Servilia curses Atia, inspired by IRL lead curse tablets found in Roman Egypt iirc.

"Gods of the inferno, I offer to you his limbs, his head, his mouth, his breath, his speech, his hands, his liver, his heart, his stomach..." indeed.

The second, which I won't embed because it is quite dark, features some things that I'd guess lots of folks have increasingly wished on Zaslav, especially "let [him] taste nothing but ashes and iron" for me.

And last but not least, some hope. Even if our efforts for a reversal of the decision or a move to another network don't come to pass, we will still be here. Artists will keep creating and figuring out new ways to share their work with the world.

Zaslav is not the first executive to destroy an industry but the fundamental human impulse of art is eternal. Remembering that makes it feel much more possible to look at this whole fucked up situation and these fucked up capitalist ghouls who aren't unique at all and point to their predecessors and say "go and look for them now."

[spockvarietyhour]

[brother-emperors]

WILL NO ONE RID ME OF THIS TROUBLESOME PRIEST ROMAN?

When Caesar arrived in pursuit on the third day, Theodotus showed him Pompey's head and ring, but Caesar was offended and wept.

-Liv. Per. 112.4

the title quotation is referring to the famous quote associated with the henry II-thomas becket conflict. the uhhhhh. the themes match, somewhat. feels the same, in some kind of way. anyway, fucking RIP to caesar and pompey. it's gotta be lonely, to start off as three, and then two, and even locked in conflict, there's a familiarity of being known that you're never going to have again. ah, what loss. what tragedy. etc etc etc.

[susiehunsecker]

let his penis wither thursday

[woozapooza]

favorite character per show 24/∞: Rome → Mark Antony (James Purefoy)

[wouldyoumakeitgood]

save me red-blue character dynamic *rolling around on the floor, clawing at the walls* red-blue character dynamic save me save me red-blue character dynamic

[toffee32]

Triumph of Caesar

[aeaeaexxzd]

there will never be a man as sopping wet as him on tv ever again

[cup-noodle]

When he let you in – when the sun shone – it was warm. Yeah, it was warm in the light.

[lady-arryn]

PERIOD DRAMA APPRECIATION WEEK 2023 ‣ Day 2 ‣ Favorite Period Drama TV — ROME (2005-2007)

[terenos]

Tobias Menzies as Marcus Brutus in Rome (2005)

Gentlemen, this is not some cheap murder! It is an honorable thing that we do, and it must be done honorably. In daylight. On the senate floor. With our own hand.

[spockvarietyhour]

Rome "Triumph"

[brother-emperors]

It’s a little bit ‘I was the match and you were the rock, maybe we started this fire/We sat apart and watched all we had burn on the pyre,’ and ‘Do you understand that we will never be the same again?’ from Bastille’s The Things We Lost In The Fire

and a little bit:

‘A l’instar de son aîné, Caius Antonius sait se montrer délicieux. Il est cultivé, intelligent, plein d’esprit, gracieux, amiable. Surtout, il appartient à la même génération que Brutus, au même milieu. Depuis le départ de Cassius pour l’Orient, il y à quatre mois, Marcus a vécu avec des hommes dont il pourrait être le père, ou avec les soldats, des bas officiers plus âgés mais qui ne sont pas de son monde.’

and also

‘En juin, Cassius a enlevé Laodicée et définitivement défait les forces de Dolabella. Jugeant les autres à sq propre mesur, le beau Publius Cornelius s'est souvenu de ce qu'il avait fait subir à Trebonius…Cassius passant pour un homme violent et rancunier, pour un ami fidèle aussi, Dolabella s'est dit qu'il allait payer la mort horrible de l'ancien gouverneur.’

Brutus: Assassin par idéal, Anne Berner

actually it’s mostly about how my entire playlist for the road leading up to Philippi (after both Brutus and Cassius leave Rome after the assassination of Caesar) is Bastille’s Bad Blood album on repeat. I want their relationship to get messy. There’s another version of this scene that gets a lot more teeth to the subtext of the conversation, but I wanted to play around with it first before committing to like. room layouts. there was originally a couple of transitional panels before the last 2 because I wanted Brutus to really chew on this thought he has, but augh. stairs. didn’t feel like drawing those.

ko-fi⭐ bsky ⭐ pixiv ⭐ pillowfort ⭐ cohost ⭐ cara.app

[illustratus]

[pulquedeguayaba]

Tobias Menzies for The New York Times

📸 Ryan Lowry

[fuckyeahcostumedramas]

Indira Varma as Niobe in Rome (TV Series, 2005-2007).