Last Friday, Rolling Stone released a feature on Neil Gaiman, an impressively extensive interview that covered the author’s storied career, starting in the ‘80s, when a then-26-year-old Gaiman began writing The Sandmanfor Vertigo comics. During the interview, he related how he succeeded in an attempt to tank a Jon…
Welcome back to our ongoing discussion of House of the Dragon! Tor.com has been kind enough to let me spend this inaugural season doing a bit of a deep dive into some of Martin’s lore and how the show deviates from, builds off of, and informs our understanding of Fire & Blood, the history of House Targaryen, and the fate of the Iron Throne. Having been reading and re-reading books about Westeros on and off for the last twenty two years, I’m excited to see how this next chapter of the Game of Thrones saga brings more of the world of A Song of Ice and Fire to life, and there are plenty of key references and history to dig into in Episode 2, “The Rogue Prince.”
A Game of Fire and Blood
First of all, we have our new title sequence! It’s somewhat surprised to hear Ramin Djawadi’s opening theme from the original series and not a riff on it, but the visuals provide some new bits of intricate visual storytelling. Done in the same game-board style of the original series, these new titles move us through a stone model of the ancient city of Valyria—similar to the one that King Viserys (Paddy Considine) agonizes over in his chamber. The camera weaves throughout the increasingly Escher-esque model as first a trickle, then a rivulet, then a veritable torrent of blood flows through game-pieces and past murals depicting significant moments of Targaryen history in Westeros. I can give you a rundown of the major moments I spotted, though a few remain opaque to me:
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The sequence begins with a game-piece depicting the Doom of Valyria with golden dragons and a cracked, black cityscape consumed by silver flames. The Doom, which was referenced in the first episode as well as throughout the original series, is Martin’s analogue of the sinking of Atlantis, where the Fourteen Flames (the volcanoes that dotted the Valyrian peninsula in Essos) erupted at once, shattering the landmass and wiping out all of Valyria proper save the Targaryens, Velaryons, and a few scattered descendants in the Free Cities (then colonies of the Freehold).
The blood then runs down past a bas-relief depicting what appears to be the Field of Fire–the most decisive battle of Aegon I’s conquest of Westeros. It was the only time during the conquest that Aegon and his two sister-wives Rhaenys (the namesake of House of the Dragon’s “Queen that Never Was”) and Visenya all rode their dragons (Balerion the Black Dread, Meraxes, and Vhagar—more on her later) into battle, immolating the armies of King Loren Lannister of the Westerlands and King Mern Gardener of the Reach. While there would be other important battles during the conquest, the one that extinguished the line of Gardener kings and brought about the surrender of the Lannisters is why most Westerosi lords refuse to challenge the might of the Targaryen dynasty outright.
The blood rushes by a game-piece showing a dragon with a spear through its eye. I am fairly certain this represents the death of the dragon Meraxes and her rider, Aegon I’s beloved Queen Rhaenys at the hands of a Dornish scorpion bolt. The death of the Queen and her dragon were signs of the Targaryen dynasty’s inability to conquer Dorne which remained “unbowed, unbent, and unbroken” even when, one hundred and eighty seven years after Aegon began his conquest, the last of the seven kingdoms was brought under Targaryen rule through marriage rather than military campaign.
The blood then passes by a game piece with the Targaryen crown and another whose symbol is unclear to me before splitting into nine separate streams. This mostly likely represents the progeny of Jaehaerys I (Michael Carter) and Good Queen Alysanne who had nine children survive to adulthood and produce the succession crisis depicted in the opening scene of the previous episode. We can see the blood flowing across the walls and ceiling, as the ramifications of naming Jaehaerys’ most direct male relative as his heir cause fractures and doubts that are still very much at play during the timeline of the show.
One of these streams passes by another Targaryen crown and the Moon and Falcon sigil of House Arryn—representing King Viserys and the now deceased Queen Aemma (an Arryn daughter).
The blood coalesces around three interlinked loops of Valyrian steel—perhaps standing in for Rhaenyra and the necklace she was given by her profligate uncle Daemon in the first episode.
The blood flows past a mural of a dragon rampant over a number of sigils of Westerosi lords including the Lannister lion, Baratheon Stag, the Tower of Hightower, and perhaps the seashells of House Westerling (bringing to mind Ser Harrold Westerling of the Kingsguard, played in House of the Dragon by Outlander and The Hobbit’s Graham McTavish).
The opening titles end with the various rivers of blood emptying into a fiery pit over which floats the three-headed dragon of House Targaryen.
You can watch the whole sequence here:
There is a lot to unpack here. On an obvious level, the blood is a reference both to royal blood (which is passed from monarch to heir and is spilled in violent conflict) and to the Targaryen house motto, “Fire and Blood.” The blood in that phrase is in reference to the blood of Old Valyria which sets the Targaryens apart as slightly inhuman—the last scions of a dead civilization far more advanced than any others in the known world.
That Valyrian blood is also the basis for the Doctrine of Exceptionalism—an article of the Faith of the Seven that holds that, because of their origins in Valyria, with different roots, heritage, practices, and traditions that set them apart—Targaryens are allowed to practice sibling and close-cousin incest as a way of keeping their all but extinct bloodline pure. Martin explains in Fire & Blood that the doctrine is the result of a hard-won Targaryen charm offensive against a church rightly horrified by practice but that it results in an enduring perception that the Targaryens are, in the words of Rhaenyra, “more like gods than men.” The original series got away with focusing on incest through the Lannister twins, Jaime and Cersei, who assured one another that they had a right to the practice because the Targaryens had paved the way for it. But while their affair is painted as a liability to their reputation (and their children are illegitimate heirs as a result of it), during the events of House of the Dragon the Doctrine of Exceptionalism is very much still in play. This series is going to have an uphill battle selling us on a world where Targaryens are exempt from the incest taboo as a result of their magical heritage.
Finally, the blood of Old Valyria is not just symbolic of a lost heritage. Martin often describes the Valyrians as having dabbled in blood-magic, even going so far as to have characters suggest that practicing forbidden arts led to the Doom itself. In Game of Thrones, the Targaryens are an all but extinct line who the majority of characters on the show remember only for a horrific legacy of madness and destruction. In House of the Dragon, the Targaryens are at the height of their power and the links to Valyria are ever present. Viserys I’s model of the city is a major focal point of this second episode and having the opening titles show the blood of the dragon moving through that model reminds the viewer that Valyria was only destroyed about two centuries prior and its blood magic, dragon-mastery, and wonders aren’t so very remote in this era.
Screenshot: HBO
Dragonlore
Finally, this series is not just about Targaryens but about the dragons they ride, and “The Rogue Prince” gives us some insights into how they operate. While Viserys speaks with Laena Velaryon (Savannah Steyn) in a wildly uncomfortable interview as he considers a future marriage, she mentions that Viserys was the last person to ride Balerion, the Black Dread before he died. In turn, Viserys explains that Balerion was the last living creature who remembered Valyria before the Doom. Martin has Archmaester Gyldayne chronicle this in Fire & Blood, making Viserys himself the last tenuous link to Old Valyria and a sort of endpoint for Targaryen exceptionalism. Balerion (along with Vhagar, Meraxes, and Syrax) was named for a Valyrian god and his skull is shown on House of the Dragon as a sort of cult object, appearing in the previous episode surrounded by candles as Viserys tells Rhaenyra about Aegon’s Dream of Ice and Fire.
This mystical, worshipful attitude is a recurring theme in Martin’s books as dragons are continually shown to be something more supernatural and strange than simply large, fire-breathing reptiles. Martin implies psychic bonds between a dragon and its rider. They also have unnatural births. This episode hints at that with the Dragonkeepers quickly taking Dreamfyre’s stolen egg from Rhaeynra and placing it in a hot brazier. Dragon eggs are hatched with fire magic and often with sacrifice (more fire and blood). In the original series, Daenerys’ three eggs are old enough to have been fossilized but hatch when she places them on Khal Drogo’s funeral pyre. This series seems more than willing to engage with the occult weirdness of Martin’s dragon lore, something I am very much here for…
The aforementioned conversation between Viserys and Laena also references Vhagar, whom the showrunners have (delightfully) chosen to make the subject of a bit of a mystery. Laena intimates that Vhagar is missing, being too large and uncontrollable for the Dragonpit. Viserys tells us that the Dragonkeepers believe she has made a nest somewhere on the coast of the Narrow Sea. Fire and Blood is told from Archmaester Gyldayn’s bird’s-eye view and that book often lacks the specifics and details that this show seems more than willing to fill in. In this particular case the intractability and prodigal nature of the last of the dragons of Aegon’s Conquest feels like a perfect set up to have her reappear at a spectacular, opportune moment (perhaps during the War for the Stepstones that seems to be teased on the next episode). Viserys also suggests that dragons get lonely. This inscrutability and inability to read their moods (as both animals and strange magical portents) is one of the hallmarks of Martin’s take on dragons and something that will hopefully be explored in detail in this series.
That’s it for this week. So much more to talk about as the series progresses. The tease of Craghas Drahar, the Crabfeeder, and his absolutely wild costume design is sure to be a fascinating point going forward. What other details struck you in this week’s episode, and what are you hoping to see as the season continues to unfold?
Tyler Dean is a professor of Victorian Gothic Literature. He holds a doctorate from the University of California Irvine and teaches at a handful of Southern California colleges. He is one half of the Lincoln & Welles podcast available on itunes or through your favorite podcatcher. His fantastical bestiary can be found on Facebook at @presumptivebestiary and his article “Exhuming M. Paul: Carmen Maria Machado and Creating Space for Pedagogical Discomfort” is forthcoming in Victorian Studies.
Once again, the second episode of She-Hulkhad some really excellent connective tissue for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. New characters and situations are introduced that not just explain where and when the show is happening, but tease what’s going to come next.
Things are still getting shook up in the DC film universe in the aftermath of the Warner Bros. and Discovery merger. After the shocking news that the new company, led by CEO David Zaslav, is shelving Batgirl (news that one of the directors found out during his wedding), we find out that those directors couldn’t even see their movie one last time.
In an interview with the French outlet SKRIPT (via Entertainment Weekly), Batgirl directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah shared that they have nothing to show from their work on the movie. “We have nothing,” Fallah said. “Adil called me and said, ‘Go ahead shoot some things on your cellphone.’ I went on the server and everything was blocked.”
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El Arbi was equally distraught with the news, especially since some of that footage included the return of Michael Keaton as Batman. “We were like ‘fucking shit! All the scenes with Batman in them!’” he said. “Shit!”
The directors also said that Warner Bros. said they didn’t axe the movie because of talent concerns. “They told us it was a strategic change,” El Arbi said. “There was new management, and they wanted to save some money.”
In a recent quarterly earnings call, however, Zaslav strongly implied that Batgirl didn’t meet his standard for what a DC film should be. “We’re not going to launch a movie to make a quarter and we’re not going to put a movie out unless we believe in it,” the CEO said.
Another Batman project that has been pushed off the production train is the animated series, Batman: Caped Crusader.Warner Bros. greenlit the show backed by Bruce Timm, J.J. Abrams, and Matt Reeves in May 2021. Caped Crusader along with five other series, including Merry Little Batman, were axed by Warner Bros. Discovery yesterday, though all projects are reportedly still moving forward and looking for another platform besides HBO Max to stream on.
Warner Bros. Discovery is far from out of the Batman game, however. According to Deadline, The Batman director Matt Reeves signed an overall first look film deal with Warner Bros. Pictures, which includes a sequel to The Batman with Robert Pattinson attached to once again play the sad Bat. The Penguin spinoff Reeves is working on also still appears to be moving ahead, so there will still be DC projects in the future, just as long as they meet Zaslav’s purported standards.
Plex-användare bör byta sina lösenord då deras inloggningsuppgifter och e-postadresser kan ha blottats efter ett dataintrång. Enligt utvecklaren finns inga tecken på att de krypterade lösenorden har exponerats, men de uppmanar ändå användare att byta lösenord för säkerhets skull.
Ingen annan data ska ha läckt ut och Plex skriver att betalningsuppgifter inte lagras på deras servrar. Utvecklaren berättar samtidigt att säkerhetsluckan har upptäckts och täppts till. Runt 20 miljoner människor använder Plex för att strömma sina egna film- och musikbibliotek.
Yesterday, we discovered suspicious activity on one of our databases. We immediately began an investigation and it does appear that a third-party was able to access a limited subset of data that includes emails, usernames, and encrypted passwords.
Lately I’ve noticed a lot of people are feeling drained by life — the challenges they’re facing, their workloads, the anxiety of the world around them, and more.
Someday soon I’ll write a longer guide to how to get yourself to a place of renewed resilience … but for today, I’d like to share how I practice when I just don’t feel much of a capacity to do anything.
1. First, I notice that I just don’t have it today. I’d like to crush life and get a ton of crap done, but today isn’t the day. I’m drained, depleted.
2. Then I ask: “What do I need to do to take care of myself?” That might mean taking a nap, taking a day off, doing a lighter workload, skipping my workout for today, meditating, going for a walk, taking a bath, drinking a cup of tea, talking to a friend, listening to music, watching some trashy television, eating a little dark chocolate, giving myself love.
3. I like to empower the time off. That means, instead of feeling bad about it — I see it as a way to love myself and get myself back where I’d like to be.
I savor the rest time. Create the space, and experience it as delicious. Bask in the spaciousness, in the love.
4. Next, I ask: “Is there anything I’d like to do with my limited capacity?” If I’m drained, I might still have it in me to do a little. If I really want to exercise, I can go for a short walk, or an easy swim. If I have work that needs doing, maybe I can just do a little.
I can do a little, and do it slowly and easily. I don’t have to push myself hard. I can breathe, and bring a sense of relaxation and ease to everything I do. Lower my expectations of myself, let go of whatever I think I should be doing, let go of any pressure. And just do things on Easy Mode.
5. Finally I ask: “What do I need to do to get myself to where I’d like to be?” Maybe it will take a day, a week, a month, or more, depending on what you’re facing in life. For me, it usually only takes a day or two, but I know people facing huge health challenges, and how long it’ll take them is completely unknown, except that we know they’re in for the long haul.
However long it takes, the question might still be worth asking — what do I need to do to get myself to where I’d like to be? Maybe I need to start sleeping better, start exercising more, start putting more whole foods high in fiber into my body. Maybe meditate, go for reflective walks, journal, get therapy or a coach, join a treatment program, go to a doctor.
Then I take the smallest step in that direction. With low energy, I can’t get it all done … but I can start. Whatever my capacity is to take a step in that direction is perfect — I don’t need to have a huge capacity to move towards self-care, self-love, and nourishment. I use whatever capacity is available to me.
Sometimes we just don’t have much. This might just be the perfect place to be today. That doesn’t mean we’ll be there tomorrow. But in this place of drained energy, can we still find beauty?
Nigerian sff author Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, a 2022 Hugo finalist, will not be able to attend Chicon 8 because the U.S. Embassy in Lagos denied him a visa during an appointment where, he says, they spent only a minute on … Continue reading →
For anyone wondering how Dream can be so reliant on his 3 tools to the point that he can’t rebuild his kingdom without them, just imagine yourself losing your phone, your wallet, and your keys
The Kampcon 2028 bid to hold a Worldcon in Kampala, Uganda stepped up its publicity this week. Full information about the group is at their website: Kampcon 2028 – Connect to fiction & fantasy fans, talent and stories in Africa. Micheal … Continue reading →
Look, sometimes you wake up in the morning and think, “What can I do today that would make J.R.R. Tolkien proud of me?” And your brain, rested and wise, supplies the only true answer:
You will rank hobbits by hotness because nothing on Earth (or Middle-earth) can stop you.
Disclaimer: This is a ranking of hobbits by hotness, not the humans who play them. They are being ranked on their hobbit forms. Take no offense, dear reader. We will also not be ranking any harfoots from Amazon’s upcoming Rings of Power series because we don’t know any of them well enough for that, alas. Maybe next year. Or not, seeing as they’re harfoots, not hobbits.
Note: Peregrin Took is not on this list because during the events of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, he does not reach the hobbit coming-of-age of 33 years old (he does in the appendices, but that’s not where the bulk of his story can be found). He’s only 28 when the story starts, which puts him at roughly 16 or 17 years old in human terms. Ranking the hotness of a hobbit teenager (no matter the true age of the actor playing him) is not cool. Unless the person doing the ranking is also a teenager! Which I am not.
11. Odo Proudfoot
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
Look, while we must appreciate his declaration of “ProudFEET” at Bilbo’s birthday party, Mr. Proudfoot is clearly a hobbit with no love in his heart. His angry glare as he sweeps this stoop while Gandalf ambles past in his cart proves that he is a very bitter fellow indeed. He’s so bitter that he hides his own happiness! When Gandalf sets off some fireworks for hobbit children, old Proudfoot forgets that he should not laugh… and then promptly reverts to glaring when this is brought to his attention.
10. Sméagol/Gollum
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
The overall effect here drops him pretty far down the list, since there’s not very much hobbit left in Gollum by the end. But he did help get that pesky ring into a very big fire, so he’s not bottom of the list. Helping to save the world bumps you up a place.
9. Déagol
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
Deagol technically started most of the world’s Ring Problems when he scooped the One Ring off the bottom of a river bed, and while it’s true that the ring was trying to get found, it still bumps him down the list. Also, he wasn’t very good at sharing, which led to his unfortunate demise.
8. Lobelia Sackville-Baggins
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
Bilbo’s cousin is a genuinely nasty person. We know this because Bilbo takes every opportunity to let us know. (Is Bilbo an unreliable narrator? Well yes, but a cousin who takes every possible opportunity to loot your house for the purpose of looking richer isn’t a very nice cousin.) She’s not all the way down at the bottom because she didn’t bring about the end of the world, and also, she has spectacular taste in hats.
7. Gaffer Gamgee
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
Not necessarily a smokin’ babe, but we have no idea what the old Gaffer looked like back in his heyday. He’s a pretty okay dad, even if he does get a little bit caught up in the gossip of pub buddies. He does his hobbit job well. He’s just pretty okay all around. And he’s an inspiration to his kid.
6. Bilbo Baggins
Screenshots: New Line Cinema
Poor Bilbo could be higher on this list. He’s an adventurous spirit despite all intents not to be, and he’s always got a full pantry stocked. He writes stories (mostly about himself, but they say “write what you know” and it’s not his fault that he’s learned quite a lot in his travels). But he also stole a ring from some poor creature in a cave and then lied when questioned about it. Then he tried to take said ring back from his nephew, and the act made him decidedly unattractive. For about two whole seconds. Guess in this case, the ugliness on the inside really does show on the outside. Yikes.
5. Farmer Maggot
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
Farmer Maggot is fine. He’s got a proper hobbit job, he’s never short on mushrooms, and he’s got a very cute dog. Sure, he betrays the location of the Baggins family to a terrifying dark stranger on a horse, and he chases thieves away from his farm with a scythe, but those are reasonable actions in certain lights. And there’s still the dog to consider.
4. Meriadoc Brandybuck
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
Some people will cry foul that Merry isn’t in a top three spot, and they might have a point. But in the end, Merry is the perhaps the least “hobbit-y” of the Fellowship crew. He’s constantly looking after cousin Pippin to his own detriment. He shouts at Ents when they seem less than keen to help with the war effort. He insists on fighting in the battle he’s entirely too small for, which leads to him having a hand in Eowyn’s vanquishing of the Witch-King of Angmar. He’s just very insistent on being a rebel, and that’s a totally hot thing for a human to be, but probably less so for a hobbit? He’s still a handsome fellow, though.
3. Frodo Baggins
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
If we were ranking hobbits by the likelihood of drowning in the depths of their haunted eyes, Frodo Baggins would definitely take first place. If we were ranking hobbits by their ability to be elven and otherworldly with a melodic cadence to their voice, he would also take first place. But we’re ranking the hotness of hobbits as hobbits, and Frodo Baggins falls just a little outside of that brief. He saves the world (for the most part), which bumps him way up the list, and those eyes are gonna get you whether you mean for them to sway your rankings or not. So he comes in third with the acknowledgement that he’s far too pretty for a mere list to contain.
2. Samwise Gamgee
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
Sweet sunshine perfect soft boy who never did anything wrong ever including dropping eave on wizards. Excellent farmer, wonderful cook, lovely father, protects you with frying pans, cries when you’re sad because he feels your sadness, would literally die for you without hesitation and never regret doing so because he believes you are worth it. A++ please swipe right and give him all of your poh-TAY-toes for boiling, mashing, or otherwise sticking in a stew.
Which brings us to the #1 spot, who could only be…
1. Rosie Cotton
Screenshot: New Line Cinema
If you hadn’t guessed that Rosie Cotton took the top spot on this list, then shame on you. She is perfect. Her smile is like a blooming flower, and her curls are well-moisturized. She’s an excellent dancer. She’s neither a gossip, nor a ring thief, and she doesn’t make terrible split-second decisions all the time, like some other hobbits we could mention. Plus, she’s always ready to hand you a tankard of ale. Samwise Gamgee would die for you, but we would all die for Rosie Cotton, and should not pretend otherwise.
And that’s the list! It is accurate and brooks no argument. It is eternal. It is written on a door somewhere in Sindarin. Sorry, I’m just delivering the news.
This month, we’re celebrating the legacy of J.R.R. Tolkien with a look back at some of our favorite articles and essays about Middle-earth. A version of this article was originally published in September 2018.
It’s not unusual for the creative team behind a cancelled series to have some idea of where they wanted to go next. But for better or worse, we don’t always get to hear about those plans. (Sometimes it’s painful to know what we missed out on!)
When Stargate Atlantis ended in 2009, it was on a note full of potential. And, as writer and executive producer Joseph Mallozzi explained on a recent podcast, they knew where they were heading: Back to Pegasus, with a time travel twist.
On Dial the Gate, Mallozzi explained that series co-creator and executive producer Robert C. Cooper had suggested that the show’s final season get an extra two episodes—episodes they would’ve used to either set up a sixth season or an announced standalone movie, Stargate Extinction. They didn’t get those episodes, and season five ended like it did, with Atlantis in the sea outside San Francisco.
Mallozzi and Paul Mullie were commissioned to write a script for Stargate Extinction, which was announced but never made. Previously Mallozzi has shown a few pages from the script. On the podcast, though, he went into some detail about what would have happened, saying, “Atlantis is going to make its way back to Pegasus, and en route they end up experiencing engine problems. And they end up stranded between Pegasus and the Milky Way in another galaxy.”
The team would have encountered an alternate version of the Wraith Todd, “who has designs on the planet, and designs on Atlantis.” The story, Mallozzi said, would have been Teyla-centric.
Some of the elements from Extinction wound up in Stargate Universe, as Mallozzi explains in the clip below:
Last year, Mallozzi said in a blog post that he expects there to be some sort of Stargate revival in the wake of Amazon buying MGM: “In a best case scenario, an executive familiar with the franchise, and its amazing fandom, will recognize the huge potential there and fast-track his series. In the worst case scenario, someone else is brought in, 20 years of canon gets wiped out, and the fans get screwed.” Co-creator Brad Wright told SYFY Wire, “I can’t imagine Amazon not doing something with the franchise, or empowering MGM to do something with the franchise for [them].”
If you’d like to revisit Stargate Atlantis, it’s currently streaming on Hulu.
It turns out that breaking an encryption algorithm meant to withstand the most powerful cyberattacks imaginable might not be as tough as we’d been led to believe. In a paper published over the weekend, researchers demonstrated that a PC with a single-core processor (weaker than a decent laptop) could break a …
Misunderstanding Lucifer from the Sandman series and why Gwendoline Christie is the right choice (an art historian and occultist’s opinion)
I am writing this post as I’m absolutely baffled by the issues people seem to have with the portrayal of the character of Lucifer in the Sandman series. For some reason people find it problematic that the fallen angel is played by Gwendoline Christie, a powerful and androgynous-looking woman, but there is seemingly no problem with Lucifer being played by a black-haired man in the nightclub business (Tom Ellis in the Netflix series ‘Lucifer’). Don’t get me wrong, Tom Ellis is entertaining and wonderful to watch, but that particular version of Lucifer is neither canon when it comes to the comics nor does it have anything to do with the actual angel Lucifer.
Angels are genderless beings and they have always been portrayed as androgynous in the history of art. Multiple literary sources, including grimoires (books with supposed instructions on how to summon these beings and many others), state that angelic beings as well as demons are able to change their appearance. Many of those forms they might take aren’t even humanoid and they can choose not to show any physical form at all. They aren’t corporeal beings, the fact that they do take on any resemblance of a physical form is just so humans can understand them better. That’s why we’ve been painting them as human-like ever since the early times of human civilization. What we make to be similar to us is what makes it comprehensible. Portraying beings from other dimensions/realms as human-like but with androgynous features is a way to show they don’t belong in the physical dimension, as gender is likely a non-existent concept in other realms of existence. Androgyny of mythical beings, therefore, emphasizes the fact they are different than physical beings such as humans.
Therefore, when portraying an angelic being in art, or in any type of media, making them androgynous is making way for their essence to come through. In a way, the same applies to the way elves are portrayed as ethereal and androgynous since they don’t have to be corporeal beings at all, at least when it comes to folklore. I know this opinion might not be understandable to others or it might sound controversial, but I believe that not portraying an angelic being as androgynous and not showing any signs of their divine origin (these include mannerisms that emphasize their etheriality for example, a cadence in their voice that is different etc.) is a huge missed opportunity that might rob these interesting mythical beings of what they are. Not making angels feel like angels beats the point of having an angel character (in a movie, series or video game for example) in the first place.
This is why Gwendoline Christie is the right choice. At a height of 6′ 3″ (1.91 m), captivatingly pale. androgynous with a powerful specific sort of grace and presence - a perfect ‘vessel’ for the Morning Star. What’s more, she understands the importance, complexity, grandeur and the mythical dimension of the figure of Lucifer, as well as the whole 'spirituality’ of the Sandman universe which is rather evident from her approach to this role and the interviews she has given so far. I might go so far to say that, even though the Sandman series isn’t even out yet (though there is some footage available already), the casting of Gwendoline as Lucifer feels right just as the casting of Lee Pace as Thranduil in the Hobbit felt right and I consider the character of Thranduil to be the best portrayal of a humanoid mythical being on TV. Lee felt like an elven king, moved like an elven king, spoke like an elven king and radiated an energy of the dimension the elven king might have come from (I’m talking about the folkloric 'Otherworld’ where elves supposedly live). I feel the same might apply to Gwendoline and Lucifer.
As an occultist, art historian, anthropologist and someone who is rather fond of the figure of Lucifer, I am looking forward to seeing how Gwendoline interprets him. Finally, we might get something completely different from a frequently portrayed 'demonic’ side/version of this important mythical character. We might just see the Light Bringer who has not forgotten his divine origin.
…See also C. S. Lewis’s discussion of the portrayal of angels (good and evil) in the introduction to The Screwtape Letters:
They are given wings… to suggest the swiftness of unimpeded intellectual energy. They are given human form because man is the only rational being we know. Creatures higher in the natural order than ourselves, or animating bodies of a sort we cannot experience, must be represented symbolically if they are to be represented at all.
Meaning that, as regards angels, any representation or attribution of human-style gender is pretty much meaningless except as a convenient shorthand.
(Haven’t we had this discussion about some other angels recently…?) :)
…I’ve been watching the complaining from the Usual Suspects going on since the trailer dropped, and the vast majority of it seems to express two major themes: (a) “Lucifer’s not exactly the way he was in the comics”, and (b) “Don’t try to distract me with this androgyny bullshit, Lucifer ought to be a boy but instead he’s a guurrrrrrrl and that’s just wrong,” or (b1) “…Lucifer’s a guurrrrrrrl and wrong, and also too butch.”
Re (a), I wholeheartedly take Neil’s side on this issue. It’s his character: it’s his right to do what he likes with it in a second creative pass over the same material. In his place, I’d assert that he’s absolutely correct to say (though more kindly than I would) “Tough!” and move on, having the right—along with other creatives, and echoing the old Hebrew National commercial—to emphasize that he’s in service to a Higher Authority.
As for (b) and (b1), I find it hard to believe that Lewis wouldn’t come down pretty hard on Neil’s side as well. It’s interesting to note that C. S. gets quite cranky a little later on in the Screwtape intro when talking about how the representation of [good] angels in the arts has had the power sucked out of it. “The angels of Fra Angelico,” he says, “in their face and gesture carry with them the peace and authority of Heaven…” But nowadays, instead, mostly we’re stuck with angels Lewis describes as descendants of “the soft, slim, girlish and consolatory angels of nineteenth-century art…shapes that avoid being voluptuous…only by their total insipidity. In scripture,” Lewis goes on to say, “the visitation of an angel is always alarming; it has to begin by saying ‘Fear not’. The Victorian angel looks as if it was going to say ‘There, there.’“
I’ll tell you this: If there’s one thing you’re not going to think Gwendoline Christie’s Lucifer is ever going to say to you, let alone “There there”, it’s “Fear not”… because frankly, that ship has sailed. I got the chills the moment Lucifer started to move and speak. …And I for one prefer it that way. So don’t bother attempting to argue the point with me. When you eventually get to the top of the local hill, you’ll find my corpse there already.
…Can’t wait for next weekend.
(Or no, excuse me: it’ll be week after next before I can get to grips with The Sandman, as @crossingscon has dibs on me until Sunday’s over.) :)
[Afterthought: It still amuses me that I never heard any complaints about turning the Archangel Michael (aka “the One’s Champion”) into a guurrrrrrl in High Wizardry.Maybe the would-be complainers were still too shocked on discovering that I’d first made the Archangel spend two and nine-tenths books as a macaw. :)))) ]
It’s the end of a dirty era in Hawaii. The state’s last-ever coal shipment arrived in Oahu on Wednesday, bound for the last remaining coal-fired power plant, which is due to shut down in September.
In early 2012, the New York Times Magazine put out a cover story about Andrew Pole, a statistician working for Target who was tasked with inventing a way to identify potentially pregnant shoppers, even if those shoppers didn’t want the company to know. The rationale, Pole said, was that moms-to-be are a multi-million…
