H:tLJ screencap update

[marycrawford]

Updated Mary Crawford's Vices with screencaps for the third season Hercules: the Legendary Journeys episodes Les Contemptibles and End of the Beginning and the latest drabble.


Les Contemptibles is a clip show, and it's unexpectedly fun. The framing story is set in a near- French Revolution time period. Sorbo and Hurst play two peasants who are in cahoots with Robert Trebor as an aristocratic confidence trickster, matching wits with the actress who plays Ephiny in Xena. She is later revealed to be the 'Chartreuse Fox', who fights for the common people and whose signature is a yellow rose.

(click on the thumbnails to go directly to the large-sized images)



It's just a hoot. They all speak in purposely terrible French accents, Hurst has an eyepatch which migrates around his head in every shot, Sorbo has great fun playing a handsome buffoon and this wonderful exchange, which was apparently ad-libbed, will keep me laughing forever:

Robert (Sorbo): "Eet cannot 'urt to lis'en, Jean-Pierre, euh?"

Jean-Pierre (Hurst): "What?"

Robert, suddenly speaking in a normal American accent: "I said, it can't hurt to listen!"

I'm also tickled by the fact that among the stock shots they used for Robert and Jean-Pierre's visions of Ancient Greece, there's a shot of the infamous "snails and oysters" scene with Lawrence Olivier and Tony Curtis in the bath that was cut from Spartacus for being a wee bit too suggestive.


End of the Beginning is an action-packed episode, fun to watch except for the lame performance of the actress who succeeded Sam Jenkins as the Golden Hind (then again, she wasn't given a whole lot to do) and by a script that twists my head into knots. It's the time-travel, you see - mess with it at your peril.

Basically, Autolycus steals the Chronos stone, which lets you freeze time and travel back in time and comes with neatly written instructions. Needless to say, the thing's almost as much of a trouble magnet as Autolycus himself. He ends up in the past with Hercules, trying to steal the Chronos Stone again since the one from the original timeline was destroyed, and meeting up with his younger self who is even more obstinate than he is. Meanwhile, Hercules tries to save his dead wife Serena, who of course is neither dead nor his wife yet in this timeline, and gets shot by Strife for his trouble. Ares kills Serena, but only the part of her that is the hind; when Hercules returns to the present she's still alive, has married someone else and has never heard of him.



I had two major concerns in End of the Beginning, neither of which were answered to my satisfaction, and the second is still confuzzling me no end. I hope you guys can help.

First: how come Strife got to shoot Hercules with an arrow coated with hind's blood? Ares and Hera are prohibited from trying to kill Hercules, but Strife gets off scot-free? (And may I add, this scene would have worked better for me if Hercules hadn't revived to the extent that he was able to pull the arrow out himself...)

Second: the hind's blood. It's the stuff that can kill gods, the Kryptonite of the Hercverse, and I keep losing count of how many hind's blood stashes, weapons and artifacts there are. Count with me, please, and tell me if I got it right so far:

- In Encounter, Ares emprisons the Hind in a thorny fence and collects the blood from the thorns. He puts the blood on an arrow and gives it to Nestor who tries and fails to kill Hercules with it (?). Arrow #1.

- In End of the Beginning, Serena/the Hind gets shot with an arrow, which Ares pulls out for her. Strife shoots Hercules with this same arrow; Hercules pounds it into a boulder. Arrow #2.

-Then Ares stabs Serena, and Hercules and Ares wrestle each other for the knife; Hercules has a chance to kill Ares with it, but doesn't. Instead, he tosses it at Ares' feet just before leaving the timeline. WTF, Herc? Dagger #1.

- Ares steals a pendant filled with hind's blood from the Sovereign in Armageddon Now, pt 1. Callisto takes the pendant from him and puts the blood on a dagger. Callisto uses this dagger to kill Strife. Dagger #2.

- Iolaus steals Callisto's supply of hind's blood and coats his own second-best hunting knife dagger with it in Armageddon Now, pt 2. Hercules eventually whacks this dagger deep into a boulder in front of Ares' temple. Dagger #3.

- in Stranger and Stranger, Ares apparently steals the pendant from the Sovereign again (I'm going by the Whoosh summaries, since I don't own this episode yet), puts some on a dagger, and kills the Sovereign with it. Hercules...wait for it..pounds this dagger into an altar in the alternate world. That would be dagger #4.

And Hercules takes the pendant away from Ares as well, but what did he do with it?

My head hurts.

Comments

[halimede.livejournal.com]

The Spartacus wikkipedia link says that that entry doesn't exist yet?

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the catch - it should work now. :-)

[maggiez.livejournal.com]

The whole dagger issue gets even stickier when you figure that Hercules and Xena were crossing over like crazy that season. The dagger we see Herc pound into a boulder in Armageddon Now 2: Why didn't Iolaus just race back in time and stop Callisto getting the Hind's blood to start with, you illogical asshats? is actually removed by Xena and used to kill Callisto in Sacrifice part 2: must you ruin both my shows at the same time?. Never mind that Ares has had it sitting around his courtyard all this time and never thought to take it for himself.

On a much less bitter note, thank you so much for all the amazing screencaps; you always manage to balance it so that every character gets a fair amount of face time: a lot of screencappers play blatant favorites and short-shrift anyone they aren't personally obsessed with. I totally love the series 61-63 from End of the Beginning where the posing is just so straight out of a soap opera it screams of slashy overtones. You've got Ares and Strife in these completely opposing poses, which you caught just as a flame is rising dead center in Strife's crotch, then the two of them look two seconds away from a kiss, with Ares holding this arrow so it looks like he's stroking Strife's chin with it, and the last shot where Strife has pulled away, looking all guilty, and this phallic object is just jutting up between them. All I can think of is whenever a romance heroine is putting up her token resistance and crying "No, I mustn't!". Friggin' hysterical.

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

Thanks for adding in the Xena continuity - I knew Xena did something with the dagger, but I couldn't remember what exactly.

Armageddon Now 2: Why didn't Iolaus just race back in time and stop Callisto getting the Hind's blood to start with, you illogical asshats?

Snerk. Indeed. I think that's the big trouble with timetravel plots, they create more questions than they answer unless they're very well written indeed.

On a much less bitter note, thank you so much for all the amazing screencaps; you always manage to balance it so that every character gets a fair amount of face time

Thank you! That's a terrific compliment. I sometimes worry at how clearly my obsessions are coming through in the caps *g*, but I do try.

I thought that arrow was very suggestive, too, and I love your description of their body language.

I have a theory

[kate2.livejournal.com]

its called continuity which was really misused (but not to my dissatisfaction) like it is on Andromeda.

um MC could you do me a favor? I just posted an entry regarding a MB controversy and I was wondering if I could get your views on it?

Re: I have a theory

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

I think Michael Hurst put it really well on one of the DVD commentaries: "Continuity is for wimps, we always used to say." *g*

um MC could you do me a favor? I just posted an entry regarding a MB controversy and I was wondering if I could get your views on it?

You're welcome to ask, but I don't think I have a view - I'm not on the messageboard, don't know the people involved, and it all sounds very convoluted. Sorry.

Re: I have a theory

[kate2.livejournal.com]

regarding continuity..you are so right..:) however, I think that made others (and passing fans) annoyed with the show.

regarding MB. Thank you..I appreciate any and all comments.

Splurgle

[mythdefied.livejournal.com]

Strife screen caps!!!!!one!!! Thank you so much! Just made my day! (Uh...early morning I guess, since it's past 4 am. I'm so getting away from the net for a few days.) Great shots from the last really good ep he had. Happy happy!

I've been waiting years for a decent view of the scene in cap #85, with Strife and Ares standing there looking so incredibly dangerous as Ares is about to murder Serena. (And who can blame him? The woman playing her that time around was beyond annoying to me. I wanted the other one back.)

Now the first Ares/Strife pics (starting at 34, I think) are just too slashy for words. Maybe not as much as 61-63, but I remember the first time I saw that ep I kept thinking, "Wow, Strife, d'you think you can get any closer to Ares? Maybe wrap yourself around him or something?" Guh.

That's not to say I missed the whole Autolycus/Herc vibe going on in the first few screen caps. Some of those are begging for an NC-17 caption or story focused on them.

Thank you thank you for posting these! (I can see how pretty Strife's eyes are in a few of the shots and again with the guh. So happy.) :)

Re: Splurgle

[mythdefied.livejournal.com]

Oh, on the continuity thing? Good luck; we've been having that discussion in various parts of the fandom since the day the episode aired. Parts of AN just plain made no sense as Maggie pointed out. The writing in this ep and in AN1&2 was shaky and it left so many questions unanswered.

For instance (one we talked about on Strife_lust recently), when Hercules and Autolycus got back from the past, who remembered that they been there? Obviously Herc and Auto, from the dialogue, but in the next season (in one of the Jester Iolaus eps) Aphrodite sees Serena and thinks she looks familiar. So do Ares and Strife have vague memories of Hercules being there, do they outright remember it, what? It does appear to affect the gods differently, the whole memory thing, but we're never sure how.

As for Strife shooting Hercules, about all I can think on that one is that no one saw him do it, not even Herc. The only one who knows for sure is Ares and he won't say anything because he'd get in just as much trouble (or at least that's the impression I got from his dialogue with Strife). Of course if it came to that, I don't doubt (and likely neither does Ares) that Strife would try to find a way to lay the blame entirely on Ares because Strife isn't exactly the most loyal subordinate.

That's a lot of conjecture, maybe, but it's the best I've been able to come up with over the years.

And if you really want a frustrating discussion, try the one about whether or not Strife, or any of the other gods for that matter, are really dead. Since "Yes Virginia...." was aired after AN1&2 and it states in YVTIAH that it's all just a show and Zeus is very much alive and well, then yeah, the gods are still alive. (But of course the eps were aired out of order so you're still left with a question there....)

Re: Splurgle

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

Hey, glad you like the screencaps! I agree, this was the last really good Strife episode. Enjoy. :-)

And I'm glad that I'm not the only one who got a distinct, somewhat unsettling Herc/Autolycus vibe there, what with the body language and Autolycus saying "You're just a big softie" and everything. *g*

Re: Splurgle

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the timetravel/memory wipe is just too much for me - I really dislike the idea that Iolaus might not remember the whole painful Golden Hind marriage/death/breaking up the partnership arc, so that the Herc/Iolaus relationship is 'reset' as it were. The memory wipe effect might not apply to gods, but presumably it does to mortals? Agh.

As for Strife shooting Hercules, about all I can think on that one is that no one saw him do it, not even Herc.

But presumably Zeus sees all in his magic mirror thingy? Then again, maybe Callisto stabbing him was Zeus' way of saying, "Don't mess with me"? Hm. No, it just doesn't add up, try though I may.

And good point on the YVTIAH approach to continuity. That's a whole other can o' worms.

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

Aaand this is totally unrelated, but hello, I'm Jules, and halimede just pimped the Star Trek songvid Closer to me this afternoon. I whimpered and drooled and begged her for more, at which juncture she pointed me to you. Good thing, too, as Google seems to be useless in the situation. Anyhow, I was wondering if you could point me to where where I could go to find more? By any vidder, but more from her would be fantastic. Thanks in advance!

[marycrawford.livejournal.com]

Hi there! I know, that vid blew my socks into orbit, even though I've gafiated from K/S. *g*

It's by killabeez, and her vid page is here (http://www.frankworsley.com/vidland/protected.asp); you'll have to email her at the address mentioned there and ask for a password (which is a strategy a lot of vidders employ to keep the Cease & Desist letters away), and I encourage you to do so - she has more TOS vids, and I think they're all excellent; some are hilarious, some serious.

Have fun,

Mary

[gjstruthseeker.livejournal.com]

Mm, yeah, I heard about the strict C&D crackdown in the Trek fandom. Unfortunate, really, for reasons myriad and immaterial to them, but such is life in a world whose technology advances beyond its means to handle it. Thanks for the information - I dropped her a line this morning and can't wait to see the rest. Songvids are such an ingenious little medium, and you know, I thought I'd seen it done well, and then these two ladies go and raise the bar into the stratosphere. The editing alone!