(no subject)
So, Kings...
I'd heard some bad stuff, so I kind of held off watching this, even though I'd been very exciting about it - I love AUs.
First impression - part bloody-amazing, part wtf. On the one hand, why does nobody bow? Or use honorifics? And parts of Shiloh look way older than 20 years. And for a King, he doesn't act very royal most of the time.
On the other hand, oh man can Ian McShane deliver a speech. I love the stylized, almost ritual quality of the pacing, and the Shakespearean formality of some of the dialog.
The first hour I kept reading it as an AU of rageprufrock's Drastically Redefining Protocol, with Merlin as the Prince and Arthur as the commoner...
AfterElton had articles both panning and praising it - so I was wary. But I don't see that Jack being gay is being presented as a bad thing. Or that he's completely bad - he wanted to serve honorably in the military, he wasn't afraid or a coward. Sure, he's being sneaky and undermining his father, but that's what sons do in this kind of story - gay or straight. And David isn't being presented as a completely good guy - his first "heroic" act was based on a lie, and he knew it, but he played along anyway. And when he stopped the war, he wasn't planning on it, he was crazy with grief for his brother. Now, if King Silas was purposefully replacing Jack with David because Jack was gay, that would be another thing. But Silas both admires and hates David, because he's afraid David is going to replace him.
I don't know if it's going to survive, but I'm hooked.
I'd heard some bad stuff, so I kind of held off watching this, even though I'd been very exciting about it - I love AUs.
First impression - part bloody-amazing, part wtf. On the one hand, why does nobody bow? Or use honorifics? And parts of Shiloh look way older than 20 years. And for a King, he doesn't act very royal most of the time.
On the other hand, oh man can Ian McShane deliver a speech. I love the stylized, almost ritual quality of the pacing, and the Shakespearean formality of some of the dialog.
The first hour I kept reading it as an AU of rageprufrock's Drastically Redefining Protocol, with Merlin as the Prince and Arthur as the commoner...
AfterElton had articles both panning and praising it - so I was wary. But I don't see that Jack being gay is being presented as a bad thing. Or that he's completely bad - he wanted to serve honorably in the military, he wasn't afraid or a coward. Sure, he's being sneaky and undermining his father, but that's what sons do in this kind of story - gay or straight. And David isn't being presented as a completely good guy - his first "heroic" act was based on a lie, and he knew it, but he played along anyway. And when he stopped the war, he wasn't planning on it, he was crazy with grief for his brother. Now, if King Silas was purposefully replacing Jack with David because Jack was gay, that would be another thing. But Silas both admires and hates David, because he's afraid David is going to replace him.
I don't know if it's going to survive, but I'm hooked.