so Deadline has reported Starz canceled House of Ashur, but that Lionsgate is still shopping it around. as of tonight DeKnight is giving me reason to stay optimistic?? but i am always down to clown
Thinking about Achillia and how much I love the emotional complexity this show grants it's gladiators regarding their own status. From the first episode we see that Achillia cares only about her freedom, and will throw her life away rather than serve as a slave. Then, when she holds on to the hope that she might earn her freedom, she has to fight in the ludus to survive, both because she is ordered to and because she is in danger from the other men. She has to defend herself from Creticus and right after from Korris, so more than a matter of pride it is about continuing to live so she can one day be free.
That all changes after her victory against Ammonius. I was surprised but so intrigued when she talked about the arena being "a feast for the senses". We see that despite her fear she enjoyed that live-or-die situation, and she enjoyed winning.
It may appear weird at first that she seems like she became a full on gladiator, accepted her fate and started to believe in "glory", wanting to be champion. But it makes full sense considering especially her backstory: she is a woman who has been disgraced and exiled, feels worthless to the point that the god of war has turned his back upon her. Then, she is thrown into this challenge and emerges victorious despite the expectations of all. She proves herself to Romans and the other gladiators. In a way, in servitude she manages to find redemption.
With the Schytian, again it feels weird that Achilia gets vengeful considering the other is also just a slave. She doesn't have a choice, so it makes no sense to "get revenge". But the thing is they have to look at it this way, both Achillia and Tarchon, because that is how they can make meaning in whatever happens to them. They can't acknowledge that both them and the Schytian are devoid of choice and responsibility, they have to almost make this scenario where they fight for a cause and are in conflict with each other. Otherwise it would be impossible to find any purpose to live.
It's just so important to me that the show acknowledges such contradictions. These days it's hard to find media that points out the hard truths, the dark sides of the human psyche, the pleasure that can be found in suffering. Everything revolves around the moralizing impulse, writing characters that do right and feel right. It's always asking what the show is trying to say, what it supports. But the best thing about fictional narratives is that they can simply show you the world in its complexity and make you engage with it the way you will. Spartacus has always been good in this way, exposing that nothing is as simple as we sometimes want it to be. Like I know I say this a lot but I love this show so damn much 😭
i’ve been thinking about Viridia, and latrunculi. again. always. lol
earlier, in response to @gothgleek’s poll i noted that i struggle to imagine Viridia having a lot of female friends, and i wonder if her love of latrunculi doesn’t have something to do with that.
latrunculi has been coded as a man’s pastime since the original series. we were first introduced to the game in “Party Favors,” when Ashur & Batiatus were playing and Spartacus surprised them both with his knowledge of it (“I’ve had occasion [to play], during my time with the auxiliary”). sensing a more formidable opponent, Batiatus quickly sends Ashur away and tells Spartacus, “Come, let us have contest between men.” (interesting that Batiatus doesn’t include Ashur in that category.)
later, Magistrate Calavius is surprised that Batiatus plays, to which he responds, “Well, I consider myself a student of military strategy.” there seems to be an element of class here, as well—it’s not just a game for men, but in particular the upper crust. in short, it’s a game of politics, which very much describes the match played between Gabinius and Pompey in House of Ashur.
...and then there’s Viridia, who plays the game with Gabinius as a father-daughter bonding activity, and seems to really enjoy it—albeit with a slightly different viewpoint. when she schools Ashur in the game (who acknowledges that he has played before but “deeper strategy eludes,” a callback to his game with Batiatus), she describes it in more erotic terms:
“Pieces do not move of own accord. They rise and fall in response to hand upon them. Firm, at times… to insert where movement is desired; soft at others… when seduction of opponent is aim.”
this is of a piece with her Achillia-inspired questioning of what constitutes a woman’s proper place in Roman society. here we see her engaged in a traditionally male activity—and assertively teaching it to a man, no less—but also bending it to her own personality & purposes. she's even wearing her signature feminist blue!
in reference to Ashur’s lack of skill at latrunculi, Batiatus noted, “The Syrian could swindle the scales from a snake, but never command a charge.” Ashur himself seems to agree—he is great with improvisational short-term schemes, but struggles with a longer game, and with leadership. Viridia, on the other hand, has the long-term vision to play a man’s game, and win.
Was rewatching the finale, and when Caesar says to Ashur "Upon my life you shall be seen to deserved reward" and Messia walks in with the strap-on, did anyone else think for a split second that they were gonna peg Ashur as reward or am I crazy
the set photos of unlikely duos always get my wheels spinning. what would a Celadus & Messia friendship look like? Viridia and Celadus? Viridia and Tarchon?? delightful.
Virdia needs some female friends, who from the OG series would she get along with?
Lucrezia
Illythia
Gaia
Seppia
Laeta
Licinia
Voting ended onMar 8
I might make these polls a regular thing because I love this fandom so much. Also, I didn't include any slaves because I don't know if Viridia acknowledges them as people.
another random thought about the Ashur & Gabinius dinner scene (truly one of my favorites of the whole season!!): i love how they're sitting at one of the latrunculi tables, as their whole conversation itself is basically a game of wits, and one which Ashur gets backed into a corner and loses.
there's a small moment that is endlessly fascinating to me in the episode two meeting between Ashur & Gabinius—
ASHUR: My stock drains fortune, and with it hope of grander aspiration towards the games in the arena. A subject I would broach…
GABINIUS: You refer to your gladiators as stock? Do they not carry title of men?
ASHUR: They are but slaves.
GABINIUS: As you once stood.
ASHUR: A distant memory.
GABINIUS: Yet forgotten by none.
Gabinius highlights the position of freedmen in Roman society—Ashur may no longer be a slave but he is still, essentially, viewed as such ("The commonly held cultural belief, especially amongst the Roman elite, was that slavery conferred a 'moral taint,' from which freedmen were not exempt. This moral taint was a common theme in Roman literature, with the traits of 'subservience', 'deceitfulness,' and 'intractability' being seen as specific to slaves and freedmen, unbefitting of freeborn Roman values." -wikipedia).
but what also stands out to me is that even though Gabinius views slaves as humans and not animals, he is still himself a slave owner. indeed, one thing i wish we could have seen more of in this first season was how slaves were treated by the various members of the Gabinius household (and i hope that Viridia has something of an awakening in that department next season, to coincide with her newfound understanding of the subjugation of women in Roman society). Gabinius may have been "decent" by the standards of other Romans on this show, but he was still an upholder of the status quo... which brings me to Caesar.
i would venture to say, regardless of one's feelings about Caesar 2.0, that there was an implicit critique within this new portrayal. many assumed that after his character development over the course of War of the Damned he would be, well, less shitty. in her essay "The Rape of Lucretia," Anise K. Strong writes:
While Spartacus' war on the Roman slave system was fundamentally unsuccessful, the justice taken by rape survivors within the narrative and the lessons learned by Caesar and Crassus offer the hope that Rome will at least be governed by men who have sympathy for the worst oppressions of slavery. Spartacus, Sura, Naevia, Crixus, Lucretia, and Kore may all die, but the audience can envision a future in which rape is not a ubiquitous feature of human life.
indeed, the original show was destined to end in tragedy, but there was a note of bittersweet optimism in its final moments (also signified by the survival of Nagron, Laeta, and Sibyl), narratively and emotionally necessary to make for a satisfying conclusion.
House of Ashur, then, serves as something of a reality check: we are now post-rebellion (even if in an alternate timeline/universe), and the status quo was upheld; Rome was victorious. for Caesar to beat up freedman Ashur and brutally force himself on slave Hilara came as a rude awakening, and demonstrated that whatever sympathy he may have had for Kore and others like her could not survive contact with his "regular" life after the war's end. in this way, the show punctures the myth of the benevolent slaveholder.
Ashur himself decisively came down on the side of the status quo, and this new series explores his attempts to buy into that rotten system. he may have more empathy for slaves than most given his background, but he still murders them on a whim; he may care for Hilara in some way (evidenced by how gently he let her down), but the relationship is still fundamentally abusive. again, there is no way to be a “good” slaveholder.
would that we could have seen more interactions between "decent" Romans Gabinius and Viridia and their slaves—it might have complicated their already ambiguous moral standing in the series even further.
i DO appreciate that they highlighted Gabinius cheering on Celadus' death, and just an episode before we were meant to feel for his own (and his fatherly words of approval for Ashur)
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