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Post by Jeff on Sept 26, 2005 0:16:07 GMT -5
HBO's Rome is 5 episodes into its first season. On 09/12/05, HBO said there would be a second season of the series, and it would appear sometime in early 2007.
Spoilers...
Tonight, Titus Pullo tortured and killed another character named Evander. It really bothered me. Pullo was my favorite character, sort of a John Parsons type--fiercely loyal but prone to over-indulgence. I was just wondering what you guys thought of this. It really made me sick to see.
Jeff
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Post by amanda on Sept 26, 2005 7:36:28 GMT -5
I thought it was out of loyalty that Pullo tortured and killed Evander. He didn't seem to really want to go through with it (he was going to let it drop with Evander's initial insistance of innocence), but killed him after the truth came out about the character's involvement with his friend.
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Post by Betterout on Sept 26, 2005 9:53:14 GMT -5
Pullo is my favorite character, too. He's the kind of guy you'd definitely want on your side, 'cos he's quite terrifying as a foe (check out his speed and accuracy when he dispatched the guy in the bar who was palming the dice--Yow, that was Jedi fast!). But he's an easy-going, social sort when he's not diving headlong into debauchery or violence. He seemed to hold his own at snobby Atia's house, and doesn't look as if he feels too out of place chumming around with the wunderkind Octavian (who's a snotty ass, but a fun character nonetheless).
In D&D terms, I'd say he has a fairly high Intelligence (burying the bulk of the stolen gold outside of town, quickly tossing coins in the air to disperese the hired thugs backing Quintus), but almost no Wisdom to speak of (losing his entire bonus for finding Caesar's standard to a couple of low-rent cheaters, making off with the entire Roman treasury in an act of desertion, maintaining an ultra-low profile as both a thief and a deserter by riding through town on a litter and literally throwing money around, etc.). Chris told me that he read somewhere about Pullo's deity, the God of Doors. He's smart to pray to that one: Pullo is the most fortunate guy on the show! He's got a Cosmo Kramer knack for riding luck all the way to the bank. In Dave's campaigns, this would translate into a Luck score of 18+.
Yes, I was disappointed to see him kill Evander, but I agree with Mandy that it was purely an act of loyalty driving him to do it. Of course, he demonstrated absolutely no forethought about the consequences. In fact, that really seems to be a flaw in the Octavian character. Perhaps he just didn't care about how this sort of meddling would affect the lower class Lucius, but it still feels a little ill-thought out on his part. After all, Naiobe is clearly not going to react well to the abscence of Evander, especially after the subtle little fit she threw last night at the announcement of her daughter's marraige and subsequent loss of her child. Of course, Octavian couldn't know that, but I think he'd be able to intuit such a reaction from seeing his sister's downward spiral following the death of Glabius.
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Post by Jeff on Sept 26, 2005 11:33:56 GMT -5
The parallel, of course, is with the murder that Vorenus was unwilling to commit. I keep trying to make up my mind about what the writers were trying to say. Were they praising loyalty? It did seem to be a theme, e.g., Vorenus swears to Mark Antony that he is his man till death, Cicero talks of disserting Pompey, and Atia turns on Servilia who in turn curses her former lover. I am just a little confused about what the message is other than loyalty is often praised and seldom practiced and when it is it tends to be gruesome.
Did you guys notice that Vorenus is now aligned with Antony and Pullo with Octavian? These loyalties will eventually be tested…
Jeff
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