The Fridge Brilliance of Kings pt 1
Mar. 19th, 2013 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
babydracoAs I said, the writers and set designers are clearly fans of this story, and scholars who did their homework.
1) They don't bother to hide that Gilboa's capitol city, Shiloh, is New York City. It maps out pretty closely, and they actually used the Main Branch of the New York Public Library as a stand in for various government offices. This leads fans to assume that the rest of Gilboa maps closely to the Northeast coast of the US. But in an early episode, they actually show a map of Gilboa and Gath...it does not look like the Northeast coast of the US, barring some sort of horrific geological cataclysm. Here it is:
Which shoots down my Hunger Games Theory, oh well.
2) They changed the queen's name to Rose, mostly, probably, because it sounds more modern. But her brother is William Cross, which makes her Rose Cross. The “Rosy Cross” is an important symbol in Christian mysticism.
3) Apparently, Reverend Samuels is pastor of “The Congregation of the Silent Prayer”. Is this a religion, a denomination, or a single “parish”? It feels more Jewish than Christian (but then, it's a Jewish story) -Samuels quotes the Talmud at one point, yet his name is Reverend Samuels. It must be a weird futuristic alternate universe other planet mishmash. Christianity doesn't even exist yet in the original David story, yet on the show, Jack cracks a joke about cutting a baby in half a la Solomon, who also does not exist yet because he is David's son. But the show is clearly taking place in some version of 2009 so I'm wondering if the alternate timeline backstory may go very deep and be very complicated. Other countries in their world are mentioned, "Austeria" and "Albion", implying a worldwide timeline shift ("Albion" is an ancient name for England). Maybe something that was supposed to happen in the history of ancient Israel, doesn't, and changes the future of the entire world.
The vagueness may be Fridge Brilliance all on its own, because the Judaism of David and Saul's time was a lot less formal and rules based and contained some syncreticism from surrounding cultures (“every man did as he saw fit”) so a lot of what these characters on the show believe and practice is only hinted at.
4) Saint Paul was born with the name of Saul, and changed it when he had his famous conversion. He often traveled with a man called Silas. Which, I see what you did there but I'm still confused as to why they changed the king's name for the show. People do still get named “Saul”, which is a perfectly easy name for Anglophones to pronounce and unlike the situation with Jack, they didn't change his character significantly for the show. Everything he does is either something you could easily believe he'd do, or something he really did do.
5) Belial, the terrorist Jack and David are sent to capture, compares the boys situation to Cain and Abel. Silas has a son with his mistress, and the kid's name was changed from Ishbaal (in the text) to Seth on the show. What was Cain and Abel's brother's name? Oh, that would be Seth.
6) Someone asks David if he has any kids, “No, but I'm an uncle,” he replies. His scheming nephew Joab was one of the many extraneous characters written out for this version, which is fine but the reference was nice to see.
7) Vesper Abbadon tells Silas "You'd sooner find the ark than a true friend." Silas sends David on what he's basically hoping is a suicide mission to recapture the Gilboan Charter. When David rescues the Charter, the box behind the one he found it in is shown to contain The Arc of the Covenant.
Then there's this.
8)
During David's drug trip, his dream ends in the council chamber, but all his advisers are represented by women. There are nine women in that picture. David had eight wives in the Bible, didn't he?
1) They don't bother to hide that Gilboa's capitol city, Shiloh, is New York City. It maps out pretty closely, and they actually used the Main Branch of the New York Public Library as a stand in for various government offices. This leads fans to assume that the rest of Gilboa maps closely to the Northeast coast of the US. But in an early episode, they actually show a map of Gilboa and Gath...it does not look like the Northeast coast of the US, barring some sort of horrific geological cataclysm. Here it is:
Which shoots down my Hunger Games Theory, oh well.
2) They changed the queen's name to Rose, mostly, probably, because it sounds more modern. But her brother is William Cross, which makes her Rose Cross. The “Rosy Cross” is an important symbol in Christian mysticism.
3) Apparently, Reverend Samuels is pastor of “The Congregation of the Silent Prayer”. Is this a religion, a denomination, or a single “parish”? It feels more Jewish than Christian (but then, it's a Jewish story) -Samuels quotes the Talmud at one point, yet his name is Reverend Samuels. It must be a weird futuristic alternate universe other planet mishmash. Christianity doesn't even exist yet in the original David story, yet on the show, Jack cracks a joke about cutting a baby in half a la Solomon, who also does not exist yet because he is David's son. But the show is clearly taking place in some version of 2009 so I'm wondering if the alternate timeline backstory may go very deep and be very complicated. Other countries in their world are mentioned, "Austeria" and "Albion", implying a worldwide timeline shift ("Albion" is an ancient name for England). Maybe something that was supposed to happen in the history of ancient Israel, doesn't, and changes the future of the entire world.
The vagueness may be Fridge Brilliance all on its own, because the Judaism of David and Saul's time was a lot less formal and rules based and contained some syncreticism from surrounding cultures (“every man did as he saw fit”) so a lot of what these characters on the show believe and practice is only hinted at.
4) Saint Paul was born with the name of Saul, and changed it when he had his famous conversion. He often traveled with a man called Silas. Which, I see what you did there but I'm still confused as to why they changed the king's name for the show. People do still get named “Saul”, which is a perfectly easy name for Anglophones to pronounce and unlike the situation with Jack, they didn't change his character significantly for the show. Everything he does is either something you could easily believe he'd do, or something he really did do.
5) Belial, the terrorist Jack and David are sent to capture, compares the boys situation to Cain and Abel. Silas has a son with his mistress, and the kid's name was changed from Ishbaal (in the text) to Seth on the show. What was Cain and Abel's brother's name? Oh, that would be Seth.
6) Someone asks David if he has any kids, “No, but I'm an uncle,” he replies. His scheming nephew Joab was one of the many extraneous characters written out for this version, which is fine but the reference was nice to see.
7) Vesper Abbadon tells Silas "You'd sooner find the ark than a true friend." Silas sends David on what he's basically hoping is a suicide mission to recapture the Gilboan Charter. When David rescues the Charter, the box behind the one he found it in is shown to contain The Arc of the Covenant.
Then there's this.
8)
During David's drug trip, his dream ends in the council chamber, but all his advisers are represented by women. There are nine women in that picture. David had eight wives in the Bible, didn't he?
