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Half of 1/3 of Romeo x Juliet left!
Cut because I go off on several tangents, although they are related. Also overuse of the word "I" and the comma.
Whatever, manpain. I remember thinking this was a great episode, and it's not bad, but the trope of fridging a woman to motivate some guy is used twice in it. Twice! Yes, it's to draw parallels between two guys who hate, to say killing people because you hate them is bad, but it's completely unnecessary. It's also hard to feel sorry for Tybalt in particular. By his own admission, he was raised in a rich house and that combined with the little details suggesting snobbery ten episodes ago tell me he had an easy life. Of course he doesn't get along with Camillo, but we get no details as to why, so I don't see the reason for him to be filled with such rage and hate.
That's also a difference I'm noting between now and his previous characterization. Before, he said he hated the guy, but he was all smirky and condescending, giving me this impression that he just mocks things from what he thinks is his superior perch. Though still somewhat broody and serious, and talking about sacrifice and responsibility. But this episode, aside from his first comment about intruders, he's pretty much all brooding rage.
I also don't like the trope of poverty makes you a bitter evil guy. The first time around I liked the detail because I thought it was like what was happening now, that if you let people suffer they don't always take it lying down. But it's really not. The people aren't being depicted as evil for rebelling, though they were kind of violent with Romeo, but that's later. But Montague's just evil, except for the snatches when he seems like he cares for Romeo and Portia, and he thinks he's doing well by the land - I can only assume he means the literal land, because later orders the burning of all the citizens. Offtrack, offtrack! Again. Incidentally, the subs on these official dvds don't say the names of Romeo's mother, Portia, and Tybalt's mother, Volumnia. I don't remember if they were in the dubs. But I recall that I know them because they're on the Internet.
I also wasn't aware that Juliet had ever hated Prince Montague, so her saying she didn't hate him was a mild surprise. Can't remember if that was in the dub as well. But her struggle with her identity as a Capulet heir was partly that she didn't hate him and didn't want revenge.
The rest of the plot. I wish we had had more Lady Ariel. Apparently she's always critical and we know she's been hiding Juliet forever, so I'd like to know how she stayed in power.
The first time I watched this episode, my reaction is that Titus is asking to die. That hasn't changed at all. He's seriously trying to threaten his Prince so he could get something out of him? Does he not see how incredibly violent he is? Admittedly he hasn't been that violent towards nobles yet, but he goes into obvious instability when the Capulets are involved. Like Tybalt in this episode, as we're meant to realize. Come on. Is him being drunk making him careless? Another of the flaws of this series is how these supporting/minor characters are used to further plots and themes but not really elaborated on. There are hints on his relationship to the Prince and to Mercutio, whose arc about being dissatisfied with his father and getting more than he bargained for is important here, but they aren't elaborated on ever again.
18:
"it was somehow an accident" is very awkward language. Just say he died in an accident, translator/writer. Why aren't the subtitles the same as the dub?
I note that we get Hermione's reaction to hearing gossip about what really happened to Titus. This isn't really important since her arc is done, and we only get to see her one more time in the epilogue. I guess it's to show viewers that she might be putting things together now.
More tree foreshadowing. But I wish I knew more about this old guy. Plot device suffering again. Despite that I'm looking for all this tree stuff to justify its presence in the climax, the series would have been better off going with what was in the first 9 or 10 episodes. You had the love story, you had the hate and violence and resistance. You don't need a tree to emphasize love versus hate. You could even give them a happy ending. Though if you didn't, I don't know how they would made the love versus hate story happen, since in the play the tragedy is what makes the hate subside. That couldn't happen in the show even if Montague was more layered and such, since I don't see him and Conrad coming to peace over the deaths of Juliet and Romeo, and it doesn't make those two look heroic either. Or maybe it could have happened, I don't know. I'd like to know when the writers decided to put this tree thing in and whether it changed their plans. Because it might be the reason for the slowed momentum - those middle episodes with the tree roots and the land failing are necessary to establish a reason for the climax. Yet those middle episodes are what drag the show down -along with trying to make Romeo's arc important without succeeding in making me care. That's a serious issue.
Juliet's some melodramatic actor. I wonder if Emilia isn't bisexual, since she was upset over Juliet being Odin but now wants to kiss her. Yet another minor character we don't get much on.
Curio has another character trait! For one episode. He can draw.
The administrator has his drink tied to his hand. And it seems like alcohol from his pink cheeks.
We get textual evidence that Juliet is taking on the role of revolutionary for the sake of the people, not vengeance.
This scene between Francisco and Curio is weird. I mean I'm not a slash shipper, but I liked this pairing and I don't understand the scene. Textually, Francisco's saying he expresses his love for Juliet by wanting her to do her assigned job, because only then can she be happy. I don't know what he means by that, if he's referring to her love for the people or her love for Romeo - which he wasn't happy about because it distracts her - and I never get the impression he cares about her that way. I don't get that impression with Curio either, and that also makes it difficult to get why Francisco keeps saying he should have made up his mind, even in a scene that doesn't sound teasing. Maybe Francisco's saying he only wants her as a symbol, and he cares about her platonically otherwise. I understand nothing.
And Juliet's character arc is almost over.
It's a wasteland, but Romeo has irises.
19:
Where'd the animals come from? And all the tools? I keep criticizing the time spent on Romeo's arc, and part of the problem is that it both takes up too much time when it's boring and it takes up too little. I need to know how he could do all that, how much time they've been there, to see him actually growing instead of abbreviating the thing and then giving me the results here.
Yeah, you guys are cute. They both know where they stand, in contrast to the previous angst. Which is good, even though their fluff is boring when it needs to be carrying the show. Everything's all hopeful certainty and some maturity on Juliet's part, and allegedly Romeo's. Again, the middle episodes set things up so that there has to be a tree climax and their tragic deaths, because they seem at peace with where they are right now and what they're going to do. So for everything to go right after this, would be too much. I didn't pay close attention to the music, but I think the epilogue theme came up again. Probably I shouldn't call it that, since it seems to be their fluff theme. It makes me sad.
Dressing as the Whirlwind is kind of an anvil. However, the play itself seems improvised -with the acting at least- and melodramatic, so her presence uplifts it. I had the sudden thought that Tybalt should see this play, so he can get the point about Juliet's character arc.
Good, it seems like they're letting her go when she finishes being a symbol of revolution - wait they're going to try to crown her later.
They're coming to respect the Red Whirlwind idea! I really don't see why they didn't before. They needed the people, the Capulet name was smeared, and people loved the Whirlwind.
You see, we need more backstory like this. Maybe losing his eye was Curio's reason for not encouraging the Red Whirlwind job. Though he always helped her with it anyway.
I'd be nice to have seen how they got all these horses. Yet more emphasis that it's not a resistance story.
A great callback to Lancelot's death.
20:
Has it been a whole year since they got here? I wish we had more of a sense of time. Well, it's harvest time, but I don't know when they planted.
Who are you, odd hermit? You are a plot device to tell us that even if Juliet's on the verge of winning, it might not be enough.
Romeo's conflict between the guys at the mine and Juliet is ridiculous. It is a shadow of Juliet's affecting conflict of the first half of the series, and we don't even know how long he knew them! This guy is incredibly underserved as a character.
I didn't pay attention, but I assume that wasn't Cielo Romeo was riding.
BenxCordy! Pushed to the side, but at least they have an arc.
What, did you expect to be let in? Maybe if you hadn't announced yourself as the Prince's son.
I'm having Ozai flashbacks. By now, Mercutio should realize there's no benefit to serving the Prince. Except to avoid his killing tendencies. But he should just do like the other nobles and only pretend to suck up. His little comment to Romeo about him not being special anymore suggests Mercutio did have more to his wishes than to become powerful. It hints that he had some emotional issues that made him want to be special, and maybe wanting to stay attached to the father figure who already betrayed him in a way by killing his actual father. But I have to make this up, because aside from him setting the city on fire and then killing the Prince, and then going off like he was falling apart, we get nothing about him, his motivations, and his past. Why even have this arc? Why does he get a father figure arc while Romeo doesn't?
What's 'greenhorn'? I get that it means naive, but I'll look it up.
Hammer in the nail about love and the tree and Montague not getting how love works. This is a flaw - Escalus should have been in the first half of the show. And now Juliet will get it hammered in too, and her angst starts again.
Whatever, manpain. I remember thinking this was a great episode, and it's not bad, but the trope of fridging a woman to motivate some guy is used twice in it. Twice! Yes, it's to draw parallels between two guys who hate, to say killing people because you hate them is bad, but it's completely unnecessary. It's also hard to feel sorry for Tybalt in particular. By his own admission, he was raised in a rich house and that combined with the little details suggesting snobbery ten episodes ago tell me he had an easy life. Of course he doesn't get along with Camillo, but we get no details as to why, so I don't see the reason for him to be filled with such rage and hate.
That's also a difference I'm noting between now and his previous characterization. Before, he said he hated the guy, but he was all smirky and condescending, giving me this impression that he just mocks things from what he thinks is his superior perch. Though still somewhat broody and serious, and talking about sacrifice and responsibility. But this episode, aside from his first comment about intruders, he's pretty much all brooding rage.
I also don't like the trope of poverty makes you a bitter evil guy. The first time around I liked the detail because I thought it was like what was happening now, that if you let people suffer they don't always take it lying down. But it's really not. The people aren't being depicted as evil for rebelling, though they were kind of violent with Romeo, but that's later. But Montague's just evil, except for the snatches when he seems like he cares for Romeo and Portia, and he thinks he's doing well by the land - I can only assume he means the literal land, because later orders the burning of all the citizens. Offtrack, offtrack! Again. Incidentally, the subs on these official dvds don't say the names of Romeo's mother, Portia, and Tybalt's mother, Volumnia. I don't remember if they were in the dubs. But I recall that I know them because they're on the Internet.
I also wasn't aware that Juliet had ever hated Prince Montague, so her saying she didn't hate him was a mild surprise. Can't remember if that was in the dub as well. But her struggle with her identity as a Capulet heir was partly that she didn't hate him and didn't want revenge.
The rest of the plot. I wish we had had more Lady Ariel. Apparently she's always critical and we know she's been hiding Juliet forever, so I'd like to know how she stayed in power.
The first time I watched this episode, my reaction is that Titus is asking to die. That hasn't changed at all. He's seriously trying to threaten his Prince so he could get something out of him? Does he not see how incredibly violent he is? Admittedly he hasn't been that violent towards nobles yet, but he goes into obvious instability when the Capulets are involved. Like Tybalt in this episode, as we're meant to realize. Come on. Is him being drunk making him careless? Another of the flaws of this series is how these supporting/minor characters are used to further plots and themes but not really elaborated on. There are hints on his relationship to the Prince and to Mercutio, whose arc about being dissatisfied with his father and getting more than he bargained for is important here, but they aren't elaborated on ever again.
18:
"it was somehow an accident" is very awkward language. Just say he died in an accident, translator/writer. Why aren't the subtitles the same as the dub?
I note that we get Hermione's reaction to hearing gossip about what really happened to Titus. This isn't really important since her arc is done, and we only get to see her one more time in the epilogue. I guess it's to show viewers that she might be putting things together now.
More tree foreshadowing. But I wish I knew more about this old guy. Plot device suffering again. Despite that I'm looking for all this tree stuff to justify its presence in the climax, the series would have been better off going with what was in the first 9 or 10 episodes. You had the love story, you had the hate and violence and resistance. You don't need a tree to emphasize love versus hate. You could even give them a happy ending. Though if you didn't, I don't know how they would made the love versus hate story happen, since in the play the tragedy is what makes the hate subside. That couldn't happen in the show even if Montague was more layered and such, since I don't see him and Conrad coming to peace over the deaths of Juliet and Romeo, and it doesn't make those two look heroic either. Or maybe it could have happened, I don't know. I'd like to know when the writers decided to put this tree thing in and whether it changed their plans. Because it might be the reason for the slowed momentum - those middle episodes with the tree roots and the land failing are necessary to establish a reason for the climax. Yet those middle episodes are what drag the show down -along with trying to make Romeo's arc important without succeeding in making me care. That's a serious issue.
Juliet's some melodramatic actor. I wonder if Emilia isn't bisexual, since she was upset over Juliet being Odin but now wants to kiss her. Yet another minor character we don't get much on.
Curio has another character trait! For one episode. He can draw.
The administrator has his drink tied to his hand. And it seems like alcohol from his pink cheeks.
We get textual evidence that Juliet is taking on the role of revolutionary for the sake of the people, not vengeance.
This scene between Francisco and Curio is weird. I mean I'm not a slash shipper, but I liked this pairing and I don't understand the scene. Textually, Francisco's saying he expresses his love for Juliet by wanting her to do her assigned job, because only then can she be happy. I don't know what he means by that, if he's referring to her love for the people or her love for Romeo - which he wasn't happy about because it distracts her - and I never get the impression he cares about her that way. I don't get that impression with Curio either, and that also makes it difficult to get why Francisco keeps saying he should have made up his mind, even in a scene that doesn't sound teasing. Maybe Francisco's saying he only wants her as a symbol, and he cares about her platonically otherwise. I understand nothing.
And Juliet's character arc is almost over.
It's a wasteland, but Romeo has irises.
19:
Where'd the animals come from? And all the tools? I keep criticizing the time spent on Romeo's arc, and part of the problem is that it both takes up too much time when it's boring and it takes up too little. I need to know how he could do all that, how much time they've been there, to see him actually growing instead of abbreviating the thing and then giving me the results here.
Yeah, you guys are cute. They both know where they stand, in contrast to the previous angst. Which is good, even though their fluff is boring when it needs to be carrying the show. Everything's all hopeful certainty and some maturity on Juliet's part, and allegedly Romeo's. Again, the middle episodes set things up so that there has to be a tree climax and their tragic deaths, because they seem at peace with where they are right now and what they're going to do. So for everything to go right after this, would be too much. I didn't pay close attention to the music, but I think the epilogue theme came up again. Probably I shouldn't call it that, since it seems to be their fluff theme. It makes me sad.
Dressing as the Whirlwind is kind of an anvil. However, the play itself seems improvised -with the acting at least- and melodramatic, so her presence uplifts it. I had the sudden thought that Tybalt should see this play, so he can get the point about Juliet's character arc.
Good, it seems like they're letting her go when she finishes being a symbol of revolution - wait they're going to try to crown her later.
They're coming to respect the Red Whirlwind idea! I really don't see why they didn't before. They needed the people, the Capulet name was smeared, and people loved the Whirlwind.
You see, we need more backstory like this. Maybe losing his eye was Curio's reason for not encouraging the Red Whirlwind job. Though he always helped her with it anyway.
I'd be nice to have seen how they got all these horses. Yet more emphasis that it's not a resistance story.
A great callback to Lancelot's death.
20:
Has it been a whole year since they got here? I wish we had more of a sense of time. Well, it's harvest time, but I don't know when they planted.
Who are you, odd hermit? You are a plot device to tell us that even if Juliet's on the verge of winning, it might not be enough.
Romeo's conflict between the guys at the mine and Juliet is ridiculous. It is a shadow of Juliet's affecting conflict of the first half of the series, and we don't even know how long he knew them! This guy is incredibly underserved as a character.
I didn't pay attention, but I assume that wasn't Cielo Romeo was riding.
BenxCordy! Pushed to the side, but at least they have an arc.
What, did you expect to be let in? Maybe if you hadn't announced yourself as the Prince's son.
I'm having Ozai flashbacks. By now, Mercutio should realize there's no benefit to serving the Prince. Except to avoid his killing tendencies. But he should just do like the other nobles and only pretend to suck up. His little comment to Romeo about him not being special anymore suggests Mercutio did have more to his wishes than to become powerful. It hints that he had some emotional issues that made him want to be special, and maybe wanting to stay attached to the father figure who already betrayed him in a way by killing his actual father. But I have to make this up, because aside from him setting the city on fire and then killing the Prince, and then going off like he was falling apart, we get nothing about him, his motivations, and his past. Why even have this arc? Why does he get a father figure arc while Romeo doesn't?
What's 'greenhorn'? I get that it means naive, but I'll look it up.
Hammer in the nail about love and the tree and Montague not getting how love works. This is a flaw - Escalus should have been in the first half of the show. And now Juliet will get it hammered in too, and her angst starts again.