Reposted from @manubennett Saddened by the passing of Ioane (John) King who played the role of Rhaskos on Spartacus. John had a long battle with cancer but faced that fight with dignity & a constant resolve not to be defeated. On Spartacus John was hired as an extra but with a powerful presence & ever positive attitude amongst the cast & crew, won himself the speaking role of Rhaskos. Fans may remember Rhaskos leading the song “My cock rages on!” a defiant tune sung by gladiators after surviving the games. I remember John most fondly for his huge grin & sparkle in his eye when he would welcome me & others onto set each day offering the Gladiatorial forearm handshake & acknowledging in his deep raspy voice, “Brother!” He was one of the boys who held the team together & wore the B brand for the House Of Batiatus upon his forearm with so much pride. Ioane (John) King was truly one of the Brothers. #rhaskos #spartacus #gannicus #gnaeus #barca #pietros #varro #oenomaus #agron #duro #auctus #hamiclar #segovax #pollux #tyronius #asher #dagan #rabanus #kerza #leviticus #ortius #mira #naevia #crixus #RIPRhaskos https://www.instagram.com/p/Chgeik5NiJt/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
Omg could I hear a little bit about post-war Milo and maybe the specifics about him initially getting together with kerza? He's my favorite character :)
aw yay that makes me happy! :D I’ve developed his post-war personality a lot more since the original draft, though because I’m not even close to actually writing that part in the new one, it’s still very much a conceptual WIP. What I can say is that, while it’s hard enough being a soldier as it is, Milo had to deal with #1: an elder brother dying in combat, #2: being conscripted into a war he didn’t support, #3: losing a limb and #4: surviving the often-brutal conditions of a Russian POW camp. All this, on top of coming to terms with being on the losing side of history, is a lot for anyone to handle, let alone a 17-18 year old kid. Thus, when he finally does make it home, he’s not met with the support he needs from the world at large, but rather hatred and distrust–not unlike those coming back from Vietnam back in the 60s-70s.
Essentially, this culminates into a nasty case of PTSD for Milo, who had already been uncomfortable with confronting / dealing with negative emotions even before everything went to shit. Though he’s eventually able to function “normally” again, it’s in a town and a country that’s completely shattered, thus leaving him unable to escape from what he’s lost. Plus, having lost a leg encumbers the physical labor he’d once enjoyed, leaving him with limited job prospects. All of the above will be illustrated in the post-war section of the novel (much longer than in the original draft), though most of the following will be a lot more condensed.
ANYWAY I realize that this is all super depressing and I’m sure you weren’t asking about these aspects specifically–but I have put to it into context, because it plays such a huge role in his relationship to Kerza after the war.
So with all this in mind, Milo isn’t in a good place in 1945 and ensuing years. While Kerza is initially no better, she’s very much a survivor in almost every sense of the word. Though traumatized, Kerza is significantly more adept at introspection and expressing herself emotionally than Milo is – partially because it’s just her personality, but also because her social status as a woman allows her more room to be vulnerable. Furthermore, having lost nearly all of her connections to her home town and having never shared Milo’s fear of change, she is able to physically “move on” (i.e., leave town and eventually the country itself) while he remains stuck in the same destructive cycle.
Though their shared suffering gives them common ground, the traumas themselves as well as their ways of dealing with it are very different. This begins to strain their friendship, as Milo feels increasingly resentful when confronted with Kerza’s desire to escape Germany, while Kerza feels suffocated by Milo’s inability to come to terms with post-war realities. So while their love for each other never ebbs, what that had once endeared themselves to each other is eventually twisted into something toxic and dysfunctional.
By 1946, Kerza realizes how much they’re hurting each other, and makes the decision to distance herself for awhile, which first takes the form of moving with Aunt Kitty and Daniel out of her old home and into a flat in Bonn. Here, she studies independently and eventually passes her secondary school exams. This makes Milo feel all the more abandoned, though Kerza still comes to see him often and even manages to drag him up river to visit once or twice. So when she makes the decision to travel indefinitely in 47, they break into a huge, ongoing row that eventually culminates in a very long period of static between the two. Though she sends him occasional postcards from Greece and America, they basically don’t speak to each other for a year, during which Kerza is offered the scholarship in Dublin and accepts.
Neither of them are happy about their separation, and it becomes clear that they have a case of “can’t live or without”. So when Kerza finally visits the Eberstarks for Christmas at the end of 1947, Milo is quite ecstatic to see her and the two share in a period of nostalgic amity. However, things quickly crumble back into the negative patterns that had plagued them before, and they part ways on sour terms when she returns to Dublin after New Years.
However, after another few months of silence, it’s actually Milo who caves first, and impulsively calls her on the number she had left for him, though one of her flat mates answers instead. Even though he panics and hangs up before giving any details, Kerza quickly realizes that it’s him and reaches out in kind. They begin writing letters to each other and talking on the telephone almost weekly, and Kerza soon entreats Milo to come visit her and see Ireland for himself. He responds with extreme reluctance, as he has nary set foot beyond the Rhineland district, let alone the country, outside of military service, and knew only broken English. He also fears the brunt of the inevitable prejudice held against Germans at the time, especially from those in the UK. Still, Kerza tells him that the Irish resent the Brits and French nearly as much as she, thus helping her feel a bit more at home.
Milo declines her invitations for quite awhile, though practices English in his spare time – just in case. Language acquisition proves to be challenging for him because of his severe dyslexia, but this hobby provides him with the much needed mental stimulation that he was unable to acquire elsewhere. His most effective strategy is through music, and he manages to acquires quite a lot of English / American records and sheet music for this purpose, as he’s always loved playing piano and teaching himself new songs. Though he still drinks too much and often lapses into periods of depression, his family notices the positive change in Milo: they encourage him to go to Dublin, if only for a weekend, and stress how much it would mean to Kerza. However, he is unable to overcome his anxiety about traveling until Kerza’s final year of University, when he at last finds it in himself to hop on a ferry to Ireland and surprise her for her birthday.
If you want to hear more, let me know! I feel like I’ve practically written another novel right here lmao
At what point did milo and kerza fall in love with each other? Was there a moment they each knew?
I’ve actually thought about this a lot--and essentially, the answer would be no, there was never a moment. Though their relationship did eventually become romantic, it was still friendship first and foremost. So in a sense they had always loved each other. But essentially, romantic love didn’t develop between them until their early twenties. It’s a long story, but Kerza eventually completes her schooling, and at around the age of 19, acts on her desire to leave Germany at large in an attempt to leave the war behind and start over: as she puts it, “This isn’t home anymore...it stopped being home a long time ago. I can’t live the rest of my life in a graveyard.”
This devastates Milo, as he has become increasingly withdrawn since returning from combat--obsessed with finding a way to rekindle the happy simplicity that had defined their lives before everything crumbled. He tries desperately to convince her to stay in Germany, as it had been hard enough to watch her leave the bombed-out shell that had once been their home town. Kerza, on the other hand, wants him to come and escape with her: to travel to places untouched by air strikes and fire and the ever-encroaching threat of communism, as she’d been watching Milo sink further into depression and alcoholism with each passing moment. This causes an extreme falling out between them, and in 1947, after visiting Greece and then across the pond to the US, Kerza is offered a full scholarship at a university in Dublin, and takes it.
Milo is resentful of all this, for he sees this as her abandoning him; but also because she seems to be moving forward while he remains unable to do so. They rarely correspond for the next year, and only see each other once when she returns briefly to Germany for Christmas. However, in early 1948, Milo’s elder brother, Fritz, encourages him to swallow his pride and accept Kerza’s manifold invitations to visit her in Dublin; and it’s during this and recurrent visits that something of a romantic relationship develops between them.
But yeah, there’s a lot more to it than that, and I’ve even considered writing a novel about it, too, along with a prequel about Petra’s life. Not now, of course, but in the future (assuming that I ever get this novel sorted out that is lol)
Does Sara always want to fight people to compensate for her shortness (though 5'2'' isn't that much below average height), or is it just a coincidence that she is both short and aggressive?
lol a little bit of both tbh: she’s naturally high strung and aggressive, but her smallness definitely gives her a Napoleon complex (and I’ve actually shrunk her down to 5′1″ so now she’s even smoler–her nine year old sister is only like five inches shorter than her)
