#because you DO NOT WANT TO FUCK WITH OCTAVIUS CAESAR

[teamlarl]

So I’ve been reading a book I own on Augustus. Learned about Augustus' daddy's tenure as a judge, where the elder Gaius Octavius was noted to actually be really damn good at his job despite the position being purely political with no legal experience necessary. So I think that would honestly be a good career for Ren's daddy, Octavius Nicator, to have because I never really settled on that.

Honestly, Augustus had a really sweet childhood. Well, bittersweet. Said dad died when Augustus was only 4, so Augustus never knew him all that much. But then guy, Lucius Marcius Philippus, his mom, Atia, married after treated Augustus and his siblings like they were his own.

Something that was really notable, because Gaius Octavius, while an up and coming senator, died before he could really do anything. God knows he wasn't a patrician either.

So it was a whole "he may have been your father, but he wasn't your daddy" situation that honestly I can relate to a lot.

When Augustus was named as Julius Caesar's heir, Philippus kept trying to dissuade Augustus from accepting it because he was just so worried that Augustus would end up like Caesar. You know, murdered. Which is just... such a dad thing to try and do that it makes me emotional.

Which, naturally, is a whole situation I try to impart on Ren's background... Having a really nice family. They die, but the person who adopts him treats him like their own and only wants the best for him. It's just that I let Ren know his father for longer than Augustus did, and I cut out the middle man by adding Philippus' traits to Ianus, who's my Caesar expy. Consolidated the two and all that. Streamlined it.

Anyway, I fucking live for the really supportive step-dad idea, even when it might be politically and socially inadvisable to do so. And even when disagreeing, it comes from a place of wanting the kid to live a long and happy life.

Because, yeah, Augustus became Caesar’s heir and started his empire building at 19 years old. No wonder his step-dad was freaked out.

[thatsuhboldchoice]

i've decided i'm just going to intuit my way through the productions i want to watch which means next up is the bridge theatre julius ceasar with whishaw and fairley

modern julius caesar productions are for having a drum set onstage

oh i see you red hats

i see u there kit young

handing caesar a full report that he ignores oh my god brilliant

i love michelle fairley so much and the slow build in her and whishaw's first scene is heart eyes

god okay this is why i want to watch productions back to back because whishaw/fairley are so much more restrained and tightly wound than walter/laird

the latter you get the feeling say what they feel with the full force of what they feel whereas the former must speak more in subtext and are constantly looking over their shoulder and are dressed like they're in a spy thriller

and i love both of them in both versions

ooo the way they wove such sexism into that very short 'yon cassius has a lean and hungry look'

ohhh adjoa andoh

"i know not what you mean by that" read: i know exactly what you mean what by that

officially obsessed with andoh's casca

they cut the "he would not humor me" section!! interesting

oh but we've kept the cassius/casca alliance and cassius pulling them all together with her machinations and i am LIVING

oh my god the conspirators arguing over which direction the sun will rise i see you partisan infighting this bodes well

i am yelling at decius brutus trying to get caesar to come forth by using sex appeal what a perfect choice for this production and i've literally never seen this tug of war played like this

oh this flag thing also 100% over the top and worth it

also a shout to this modular set because hey we're in the round again and also hey we haven't managed to crush anyone with these platforms

okay but how did they get this scene to sound like it's taking place in the halls of power? is it their hushed tones? is there something in the sound design that is ever so slightly echoing things? what is it???

guns! i've never seen the assassination with guns!

i love it when they actually bathe their hands in the blood but i forgot how extra it is

oof putting blood at decius brutus' face

brutus' idealism is so strongly woven into how badly this will all go and there's something in whishaw's portrayal that makes me believe half of the shit he says is quite dumb and muddying the purpose...and usually i love all of brutus' observations and ponderings

okay i'm now officially obsessed with the sound design??? like the way the mic echoes at the funeral and the way antony plays with using the mic vs not

imagine being in the audience and just being in the middle of this battle sheesh

AHHH they're literally rebels and don't have the army and resources that antony and octavius do

for the brutus/cassius argument though, the state of their hideout and their clothes and everything makes it that much more petty...like brutus trying to assert his moral superiority when they're all in the same shitty boat i'm screaming

although they cut "how escaped i killing when i crossed you so" :( okay it makes sense with their portrayals though

wait i'm sorry cassius and brutus barely touch each other the entire argument scene even on 'i give you my hand', but brutus pets cassius' hair to comfort her when they hear that cicero is dead?

okay i've never wanted to smack brutus so hard because his idealism is going to get them all killed!! cassius lays out very clearly and pragmatically that they have no strength and are fucked and shouldn't make an attack, yet brutus yells "under your pardon" to cut her off, not unlike him refusing her very wise advice not to let antony speak, and not unlike him explaining away her insistence at the very beginning of it all that they kill antony too, and this production is tracking this particular conflict between them so decisively!!!

everyone literally drops their head into their hands when cassius give in and agrees with brutus!!

"flatterers!" sometimes michelle just bellows certain words and i love her with all my heart

she goes to hug him and he just puts his hand up ow

cassius usually tells brutus that it's her birthday here but instead she does so all alone?? she has to die by herself??

i have some choice words

also i would literally die for the tenderest way fairley does deliver the birthday speech and "my life is run her compass" i'm not crying it's just dusty in here

the sun again!!

out of all the things to love in julius caesar i don't yell enough about time and the natural world

"this was a man" sure, jan

i'm only half joking usually i agree with this speech but it truly feels like just antony's perception what it means to be a man

and the balloons!!!

alright i love when they include curtain bc i like seeing everyone appreciated for their hard work

[matronoftheblackrose]

New Lore? My thoughts?! Is this clickbait??!

No. As in no, it's not clickbait, I just titled it as such because I can and I'm cruel.

So! Let's get into this, shall we?

My thoughts on the new lore are...are...

Unimportant.

I've been lurking here and there my darlings and dears, and I have kept silent watch. So, what am I going to be posting about if my thoughts on the new lore is unimportant? Well, I'm going to detail why it's unimportant.

What exactly is dissecting the new lore going to yield? Nothing. If you enjoy it you enjoy it, and it should spark your creativity and it should spark new thoughts and possibilities and you should enjoy it, and not be ashamed that you do. I stopped all of my posting because well, I do not enjoy it and even if I do a Mr. Plinkett equivalent style rant, what's it going to actually yield? Nothing, because my opinion's not been asked for, and whatever my thoughts may be on it, well, do you really care? Really? Does someone dissecting it into the core and the meat of it really sway your thoughts and your opinions? The answer's no, because this is not the platform for it.

So, something I've been seeing from the sidelines is how characters are changed, and I won't lie I've done that too. But hey, at least Swain's still the leader of Noxus, and hasn't gone and become a vigilante like Warwick nor has he gone and ascended and lost his native country like Soraka who is now Targonian in her new updated biography but keeps her old biography when you click onto the League entry. Normally I'm not an extremist in the sense of "You must hate everything, or you must love everything", but I think by this point it should be evident to everyone (except Riven because no one remembers her in writing) that the lore is going to change for every champion. You have to accept that it'll happen because it's not your world, not your work, and if you want to keep at it then go ahead, but that's why it's a fandom- you're the fan.

Now I'm not one to defend the new lore (go ahead and read my archives, I hide nothing- or do I? dun dun dun), but I need to make something very, very clear: Noxus being related to Rome is not something I disagree with. Is making them more "morally grey" a bad thing? Maybe it is, maybe it's not, and although they don't have the literal goddamn skull mountain anymore (Thank fuck they got rid of that, that thing was stupid) they have a literal Palpatine Khadgar Hot Daddy Sauron's Human Form Fan Idea as the leader. Triumvirate or not, they want to pull historical references, there were 2 Roman triumvirates: Caesar's and Octavius'. Guess how those went- the 3 people bickered, turned on each other and one came out on top. If that doesn't happen with the literal Love Child of Darth Vader Ozzy Osborne Motherfucker at the helm of all this then colour me surprised.

Is Riot's writing nuanced? No. As far as what I have read it is not nuanced, it is not deconstructing the genre it is not groundbreaking it is not subverting expectations. Didn't before, didn't now, won't in the future. However, when criticizing the writing, something I want to make abundantly clear is this: Make sure you know what you're talking about.

Reading Noxus' colonial methods of conquering places and forcing people to fall under their foot or be crushed, is it problematic? You can say the word choice is off, but the point is being missed. Is it being justified? Maybe, but is that because of sloppy writing or because they're trying to secretly inject the idea that colonialism or absolutism in government control is the best and if you go against the state you need to be removed (I wonder who owns Riot!). But you cannot say in the same breath that Riot are sloppy writers who are also encoding colonial ideas into their writing because that takes actual talent to do so without being overtly obvious.

No, the question isn't "Is Riot Secretly Condoning Colonialism!?" or "Is Riot Condoning Masters Raping Slaves?!" (yes this is something I read) when the question you should be asking is, "Who the hell is this colonialism happening to?" Not in reality, I mean in the bloody story I'm not making the argument that it doesn't happen in reality so on and so on.

If I say Roman expansion I know that cultural assimilation was a common Roman tactic which is how the expansionist empire came to be and people like Augustus tried to stop it so the Roman empire wouldn't collapse from the sheer size. Who did it affect? Well let's see, Rome conquered Britain, Syria, Byzantium, Carthage, Gaul, Spain and parts of Germany from the few cultures I can remember.

Who the hell is Noxus conquering? Shurima? Ionia except they're losing the war still? The Freljords? Piltover/Zaun? Some place we never heard of?

If you say any of these fictional countries are scored for Noxus' conquest then ask yourself this- why wasn't this ever addressed in any of the past lores? Because this is what happens when you write by the literal seat of your pants and you are expected to turn out whatever it is you can. It took them 6 years to make that Annie short (Granted 2 years in production), and I am making the argument that there's not enough time to actually sit down and create a fully fleshed world for 130 independent characters who maybe have to all be protagonists in their own right.

When this question cannot be answered confidently, then why the heck is there any discussion about the moral relativism or moral absolutism or the acceptance of colonialism when the very basic premise of it all is missing. This Noxus is morally grey?

As morally grey as this guy maybe:

(Let's give him a hug)

So maybe it'll be rewritten so Noxus has conquered some who gives a crap lands, maybe Alistair will be remembered maybe he won't, but the main fictional countries have no reason to really dislike Noxus. There's no narrative reason. When the very premise of it all fails, ask yourself: Is it poor writing, is it rushed writing, what's the actual issue at hand? It's not those Dove commercials that can be easily misinterpreted, it's "This will work for now and we'll see next year if we have to make changes". Tell me if I'm wrong, then I'll point you at every champion (except Riven) that's been changed. Spoiler: More than 100 of the champions have had their lore changed.

There are reasons I can come up with, and reasons you all can come up with, and I hope you do because it's a good exercise in writing, but you are looking at a company that is juggling ladders, didn't change Singed's lore for literal years then forget to change Soraka's lore to be her new Targonian aspect.

https://puu.sh/zimaX/143cc47a72.jpg

https://puu.sh/zimbz/03ee62681c.jpg

Word choice is their last concern. But is it worth nitpicking all of this?

Yes and no. Yes for your own development, no if all you do is just sit there and whine every time something new comes out and you decide you need to make everyone else feel stupid for liking it.

My favorite Batman movie is "Batman and Robin". I shit you not, I dare you to fight me on it, I'll have that Bat credit card in hand ready to defend it to the death, just like the ice age killed the dinosaurs. Ice pun.

The point is guys, honestly, just freaking go have some fun. That's the point of the fandom. Go have fun, go worldbuild, and if it's not going the way you like guess what- you can pack your stuff and make your own things. Funny things about archetypes- everyone uses them, and just because you developed it here it doesn't mean it's invalidated in your own work. Just bloody have fun with it, poke fun at it, but don't get all uppity about it because guess what- all that time, all that energy I know that I've spent, was better spent in just pursuing my own thing.

Heck, I see a lot of people in the fandom who adjusted, had fun and are actually pursuing things in Riot, and that's great for them! Legit, that's awesome and I'm so glad to see people do that! You're furthering your careers, you're having fun and you're doing something you like!

Just because I may not like the new stuff doesn't mean I should invalidate, or drag you down so you can feel bad about it too.'

Also Swain looks hot as fuuu-

[catilinas]

top 5 CUTEST moments between the creamy one & infrastructure boy

they’re all colleen because im a demon. i want you to know that i went through 57 pages of kindle highlights for this

that whole first meeting scene i sent you. you Know

boat cuddling 1: ““You’re not well,” said Agrippa as they walked down to the quays in the teeth of a rising wind. “That subject is forbidden. I have you, and you’re enough.” […] When Octavius fought to sit upright, Agrippa took him into his arms and and held him where his feeble gestures indicated that he could breathe easiest”

when The Fam etc are arguing abt if octahedron should accept the inheritance or not: ““I’m going to call him Caesar,” said Agrippa. “And I will never, never forget that the first person to call me Caesar was Marcus Agrippa,” the debatably named heir said, gaze soft. “Will you cleave to me through thick and thin?” Agrippa took the outstretched hand. “I will, Caesar.””

boat cuddling 2: “Agrippa propped Octavian in a sitting position on the bed to help him catch his breath. An hour later, sailing free on the Adriatic, held now within Agrippa’s arms, he laboured fiercely and stubbornly to draw enough air into his lungs, his hands clenched around Agrippa’s so strongly that it was to be two days before all the feeling came back.”

the bit where antony insults octahedron during? after? philippi and agrippa instantly offers to duel antony to the death for octahedron’s honour

the bit where antony and fulvia are having a romantic/scheming dinner (during which fulvia is like. so are they fucking???) and then the scene immediately cuts to octahedron and agrippa having a narratively symmetrical romantic/scheming dinner. you can’t deny the cuteness inherent in parallel structures

““You must have your own standard, Agrippa,” Octavian said […]. “I suppose I should,” Agrippa said, taken aback. “What do you recommend, Caesar?” “A pale blue background with the word FIDES written large in crimson,” Octavian said immediately.”

““By the way, I’m going to award you a Naval Crown.” He giggled. “It will suit you, Agrippa—all that gold.” “Thank you, Caesar, that’s very nice of you.””

“Oh, what’s a triumph when Caesar needs me? […] “Caesar!” The malachite inkwell went flying; Octavian leaped up among the fluttering papers and bounded across the room to clutch at Agrippa in an ecstatic embrace. Then realisation dawned. he stepped back, horrified. “Oh no! Your Triumph!” Agrippa hugged him, kissed his cheeks. “There will be other Triumphs, Caesar.” […] “Agrippa, my own Agrippa!””

““Caesar Augustus!” Agrippa roared, and embraced him. First among his adherents, first among his friends. Augustus walked out of Divus Julius’ Curia Hostilia in the midst of a host of senators, but arm in arm with Agrippa.” these are the antepenultimate sentences of the ENTIRE SERIES. this is the image she chooses to end 7 fuckign books with….

[thatsuhboldchoice]

okay i am ready to be overwhelmed by julius caesar yet again so here we gooo

okay i'm already obsessed with martina laird's cassius--usually cassius is all manipulation and jealousy but she is just full passion and concern--less ambitious more just ride or die

also alright caesar's more a dick than usual cannot wait to see where this goes

also jade anouka i see you there

"i would not humor him" AHHHHH nevermind it's just me crying bc cassius says brutus shouldn't give him the time of day and is then so emotional over the fact that he does!!

holy shit overhead shot you cannot do this to me the middle of a play!!!

holy shit portia

holy shit calphurnia

(also just like what clarity in the striking difference between their relationships with their wives. like it's on the page but i've never seen it so clearly on stage.)

this fucking tricycle

ooo yeah bring those house lights up

the poor lady sitting next to caesar when he's murdered is just like i didn't sign up for this

"how many ages hence shall this our lofty scene be acted over in states unseen and accents yet unknown" i will never not get shivers at this line

fuck i will never not love anthony going from party boy that no one except cassius takes seriously into a force to be reckoned with

okay i love taking out the plebians lines and just building tension with silence because they're all hella awkward anyway

um i'm sorry that transition into anthony's speech

he literally has to talk his way off the ground at gunpoint i'm on the floor

okay

NOW WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO UNPACK ALL OF THAT

this may be my absolute favorite delivery and staging of this speech ever and one of my fav scenes in a production ever

god it could be too obvious and over the top but it treads that line so perfectly and anouka is so chilling and the singing and the rhythm and the pace of it and the literally not so subtle imagery that anthony may be caesar come again but like even stronger

*screams*

oh my god the interruption with cinna

the play within a play starting to dissolving is hitting all my kinks right now

like cinna the poet is hard to pull off and usually cut but by watching them accidentally injure their fellow actor/inmate suddenly that emotional beat is crystal clear

my internet is lagging and i want to scream

portia/octavius double casting i'm in love

brutus and cassius' brotp fight :(

walter's brutus being so mocking here!!! and again laird here with the full force of earnestness even in cassius' misteps!!

oh this scene never fails to get me

i do have to say portia's death by swallowing fire has to be one of the most hardcore in shakespeare

i am losing it at the bowl of wine

um sheila atim has the voice of an angel

this dream sequence is so solid

god i always forget that they have to have a pre battle sass off

singing happy birthday i'm wheezing

major mad max vibes from this drum set

i will never be over brutus and cassius because there's no bond like a co-conspirator bond because a co-conspirator bond is only over when you both inevitably die in the civil war you started

i will never tire of watching productions creatively tackle massive battle sequences with a tiny space and a tiny cast

octavius i'm just gonna butt in here don't mind me

holy shit that ending okay i understand now why they kept stepping out of the play towards the end