Episode 195: Death and Honor

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inlieu

@inlieu

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Posted: 7 years ago

#21

Hi Aunty,

Thanks for your response.

Yes, Hephaestion would have stabbed Dasyurani from the back, but what I meant was that I was glad they didn't show it. It's against the Macedonian code and I've seen enough of that going down the drain with Alexander. I didn't want to see it with Hephaestion too, his intent notwithstanding.

As for Dasyurani, I meant the CVs gave her an honorable death in the sense that she had made up her mind not to help Alexander before death was upon and not as last-minute penance. She did not die a traitor and fought to protect her ideals and her beloved husband. She would have liked to go this way. I also think as a mother, it's probably a good thing she never found that her son was indeed a traitor. It would have broken her heart and her spirit and made her death even more pitiful.

Alexander acknowledged that Dasyuraj had the confidence of knowing he wouldn't be killed since his skills were needed for bridge building. But if Dasyuraj refuses to cooperate, with that still be the case? Also, if Alexander chooses to have all the Dasyus around him executed, will Dasyuraj still protest or would he prefer to avoid more bloodshed. A lot hinges upon his next steps too because his death would mean something else altogether for Laachi and PR in general.

Hmm. I hadn't noticed that Bamni departed with a bare forehead. Is that the bad omen Anusuya is concerned about, i.e. will Bamni die? I think they are just going out to destroy the bridge and that is the victory Anusuya was referring to. If Dasyuraj ends up building the bridge for some reason, then Porus might misunderstand and fight him instead. Laachi had asked him not to hesitate to raise his sword against the Dasyus before he left the PR palace, so it's got to mean something.

I suspect the bridge building failure would mean Alexander would take the tough route that he had been asking Ambhiraj to, or maybe he'll just take his men further up the river and station them there. There were recently some Instagram photos of Alexander and his men at a campsite with their swords raised, so I expect we will see that soon.

The overhead shot of them galloping across the beach was indeed wonderful. Cleitus might have been sent with the Taxila army to prevent Ambhiraj from double-crossing Alexander. Who knows?

As for the Hindukush terminology, well if Alexander is now suddenly saying Persia instead of Faras, what else can you expect of the writers? I suppose it's done to make it more familiar to the viewers than Caucasus.

I just can't see how they will show Alexander winning the final battle. Worst case it will be a draw of some sorts to appease both sets of viewers. After all the lectures about patriotism and good vs evil, they surely can't show "evil" winning over. Never mind that there have been questionable actions on the Bharati side too. As I said on the other thread, every little advance he makes will lead to him facing a new defeat of some sort. That these are done through sneak attacks is another story.

One thing I'll say though. We know it's quite likely Porus will return Olympias himself but they are going to paint it as an honorable thing to do instead of doing it because he has no other choice. This will also deprive Sony Alexander of the honor of saving his mother. After her moving words in the letter that she was waiting for him and knew he'd come for her soon, it would be a royal shame for Alexander to fail this rescue mission. I am praying the CVs don't go that far. 😕

I know that beggars (or viewers) can't be choosers but I hope he inflicts some major damage on PR and gets Olympias out himself. I am also suspecting he or his men will find a way to capture Barsine and co and then force Porus' hand somehow. That might be the bad feeling Anusuya was talking about. Porus and Chanakya need to have a major fallout so that the aalem can go try his self-destructive yojnas elsewhere. Methinks Ambhiraj is going to make some last-minute move that stumps everyone, including PR and might end up being killed by his own sister at some point, thus turning Ambhikumar and Taxila against PR permanently.

Alexander will probably be shown more and more ruthless until everyone hates him. The CVs are not done with him yet and with every defeat he gets, he will be more reckless too and shown to be making mistakes that Alexander is not supposed to.

I also wonder as do you that after showing all their cards this early on, what else is left to create a really spectacular Jhelum battle sequence? The elephants will not longer be a novelty. As for how Alexander eventually crosses the river, well he could ferry his men using boats for the rescue mission itself but it won't work to transport a large army. Maybe he won't and the battle will be fought on the Taxila banks, or maybe just maybe, the CVs have mercy on us and take a little inspiration from the tactics that the real Alexander took and send his men swimming.

I don't think Sony Alexander himself swimming across the river would make sense to me because of his track record with near-drowning so far. Hephaestion can't always keep fishing him out of the water. 😡

Originally posted by: sashashyam
My dear Inlieu,

I liked this crisp and comprehensive analysis of the Friday episode, though there are parts of it with which I do not agree.

As I had written in the RIP Dasyurani thread, Hephaestion would have stabbed Dasyurani from the back. He was bearing down on her from the back, and he had clearly NO intention of warning her. If Dasyuraj had not shouted out to her, and she had not turned, she would surely have been stabbed in the back.

Let us not be in a hurry to talk of the Macedonian code. Yes, Alexander does declare to Darius that he never stabs anyone in the back. But what he does to the Farsi soldiers he has killed after offering them a safe conduct is nothing but stabbing them in the back. He pledged his word as a Shah, and then went back on it blatantly. What kind of honour is this?
When you say "they gave her an honourable death", I take it you mean the CVs. Well, there was no other way in which she could have died, as she is a warrior through and through, but I am not sure it was an honourable death. She was attacked when she was not attending to the fighting, which was wrong of her, and but for the Dasyuraj's warning shout, she would have been stabbed in the back. Anyhow, she died fighting, so I suppose your phrase can pass.
I too HATED the way in which the Macedonian soldiers were dragging the Dasyurani's dead body along the sand, just two of them, one holding each foot. It was most disrespectful and ugly, and I wonder that Alexander allowed it. Why could four of them not have carried her body properly? Instead, it was treated like a sack of potatoes. It is all part of the same process of pulling Alexander down inch by inch. 😡
I am not going to enter into the Great Guessing Game, but I feel that Dasyuraj will want to fulfil his wife's last wish and NOT complete the bridge, regardless of whether he is able to cremate her or not. Alexander might well be stuck with a decaying dead body.
I can think of no one else that Porus is going to fight right now except the Dasyus, and now that is ruled out. So what will he do to justify the elaborate veer tilak and all the rest? (Curiously enough, there was no veer tilak for Bamni) . He does not know that Alexander is coming to attack him. Not that one can see how Alexander is going to attack him.
That shot of Alexander in Rohit's instagram photo is magnificent, and the shot of him galloping along the Jhelum shore at the head of a large body of cavalry (where was Cleitus? ) was excellent. But I don't see where he is supposed to be.
Coming back to Puru, with all these elaborate and stretched out sending off ceremonies, complete with speeches, for one knows not what battle, what on earth are they going to do to top all this when the battle of the Jhelum comes along? Have elephants garland Puru?
The CVs treat the treacherous, 500 mile long Hindukush, with its highest peak being over 25 000 feet, as if it was a neighbourhood hillock. Before Porus' elephant debacle, Alexander was shown crossing it first thing in the morning, and when he was coming to India, he was shown crossing it alone and getting back 😕, as if he had gone for a ride in the park.
Using that name here is a gross anachronism, for Hindukush means killer of Hindus, and this was a medieval name given by the Central Asian invaders. The proper Greek name for it was the Caucasus Indicus, to distinguish it from the great Caucusus range in the Black Sea region. It is all right for the voice over to say Hindukush, but not for Alexander & Co.
I am not really interested in what happens to Barsine and her kunba, or how and when the actual battle will turn up. As I wrote on another thread, I am not sure of anything any more. They are showing Alexander losing every single encounter, if one can call a night chaapamaar attack an encounter, with Porus, and none of his otherwise very clever plans is working. Not with Chanakya and the bull, not with Puru on the bridge, not with Puru's attack on the Farsi camp, and now not with the Dasyus. I am sure the bridge will never be completed.
This round he is going to lose for sure. All this breathing fire and brimstone will come to nothing. Puru will restore Olympias to him, with a solemn lecture thrown in as a bonus. I only hope Alexander is not made to commit any more atrocities.

As for what they meant by soch ka takraar, I doubt if they know either. It sounds nice, so they have shoved it in. Nothing here means anything. So don't addle your brains with umpteen permutations and combinations, for as you remarked sapiently at the end of a comment, CVs ka koyi bharosa nahin.
Good night.
Shyamala Aunty