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Life? What life?
When you can't pry yourself away from rewatching your favorite series to try something new:
When you realize how effortless it would be for you to do your thesis on a 400-episode shounen character arc:
When you try to make plans outside of anime, but your schedule won't allow for it:
When your bishounen thirst has no chill:
March 21st has been carved out as the day to celebrate verse since UNESCO made it so in 1999. We’re meant to promote the writing and reading of poetry internationally—but what I really want is to hear about your faves. You can tell a lot about a person by the poems they love.
I can’t write poetry to save my life, which is maybe one reason why I’ve always been kind of obsessed with it. I’ve gone through stylistic phases and varied favored eras, but my longstanding #1 poet remains A.E. Housman, best known for his 1896 book of poetry A Shropshire Lad.
The young Housman was infatuated with his roommate at Oxford, Moses Jackson, who did not return his affections (the whole affair inspired the Tom Stoppard play The Invention of Love), but instead set him up with a lifetime’s worth of observant, melancholy poems that are straightforward in appearance but often profound in delivery.
Here’s Housman’s poem to Moses Jackson:
Because I liked you better
Than suits a man to say
It irked you, and I promised
To throw the thought away.To put the world between us
We parted, stiff and dry;
Goodbye, said you, forget me.
I will, no fear, said IIf here, where clover whitens
The dead man’s knoll, you pass,
And no tall flower to meet you
Starts in the trefoiled grass,Halt by the headstone naming
The heart no longer stirred,
And say the lad that loved you
Was one that kept his word.
Poetry has a way of opening our eyes and searing the soul by naming truths in ways that speech and even fiction cannot. The following isn’t a “favorite” in that it makes me feel warm and cuddly, but the poem, “Dulce et Decorum Est,” taught me more about the realities of war at the age of 16 than any of my history textbooks. It still makes me shiver.
Poet Wilfred Owen wrote it during World War I, where he was killed in action at age 25. The poem was published posthumously. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori is Latin—a line from another lyrical poet, Horace—that means “it is sweet and honorable to die for one’s country.”
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Well! I’ve gotten us off to a cheery start. I’m curious what your favorite poems are, and which have stuck with you over the years. Tell me all about ’em in the comments. The Mary Suevian Anthology of Poetry is something that I need in my life.
(Image: Chatterton, painting of the tragic poet Thomas Chatterton by Henry Wallis, 1856)
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The season premiere did not disappoint! I felt the episode was aptly named considering what happened. The song in the beginning was dope too! Let’s get to it!
Recap
Sunny (Daniel Wu)
Sunny is sent to a mining colony. Seeing an opportunity after meeting the boss, who calls himself The Engineer (Stephen Walters), Sunny attempts an escape. He gets caught, but not until he kills several of the guards. Sunny has a dream about his woman Veil (Madeleine Mantock) heavily pregnant with his child. He promises to find them in his dream. When Sunny wakes up, he finds himself shackled to Bajie (Nick Frost) who gives him the lay of the land. The miners are required to collect a quota of items to avoid getting whipped. If whipping doesn’t help, then they are put in the fighting ring. Once in the ring though, not many survive.
Bajie recognizes after seeing Sunny’s back that he was a clipper in the Badlands. He even figures out through process of elimination that he clipped for Baron Quinn. Apparently, Bajie travelled to the Badlands a few times to get opium. Word is the place is in chaos after Quinn’s disappearance. Determined Sunny needs to escape so asks for a map of the mines. Bajie helps by getting a map from the miner that’s been there the longest. Sunny thanks him but doesn’t want to take Bajie with him. His leg mate gets a reprieve from mining when he steals a gold ring from another worker. Seeing an opportunity, Bajie tells The Engineer that Sunny was a clipper looking to escape in exchange for his freedom. Thanks to Bajie, Sunny is now heading to who knows where!
MK (Aramis Knight)
MK is training with the abbots that kidnapped him in the season finale. He gets frustrated because his questions have not been answered and he wants to see the master. Eva, the abbott assigned to train him, is also irritated that she repeats herself every day, “The Master will see you when you are ready.” That night he talks with one of the other novices. The guy doesn’t trust the peaceful ambiance the monks try to convey. We learn that the guy used his powers to protect his clan before getting transported to the sanctuary. He would rather die protecting his clan while he can than prolonging his life learning control. MK decides to investigate.
He goes into a room where on the shelf are small origami animals. MK sees Sunny’s clock and notices a female monk. He demands to see the Master (Chipo Chung), not realizing that he’s talking to her. She brings him something to eat, telling him she has had rice prepared since he arrived. MK believes he has wasted his time with his training but the Master disagrees. She also knows about Sunny and Tilda. He demands to leave if she doesn’t want to show him how to control his powers. The Master stipulates that he can if he passes the crane origami without using them. The crane’s wing cuts his cheek so his eyes turn black and attacks the Master. She shuts him down speedily restoring MK to his normal state. When he leaves the arm where she caught his punch is broken. Like you can see the bone! She heals herself and gets this worried look on her face.
The following day, during the training session MK confronts Eva about revealing things about him to the Master. Her explanation: it was her duty to report on his progress. The Master interrupts, indicating that she will be overseeing his training. When Eva leaves, the Master asks MK if he’s ready for the hard part.
The Badlands
Baron Ryder tried to erase his old life by staying at Jacoby’s house with his wife, Baroness Jade. However, his old home calls to him so he goes there. Jade tries to beef up his ego by reminding him that he “killed his father and Baron Jacoby,” earning the respect of the other barons and his clippers, rules three territories, and the oil refinery. Speaking of the refinery, Ryder brings Jade to check on the progress. When they get there, they learn that more cogs have defected to the Widow and the production of the oil is taking longer because of the lowered work force. Jade makes the decision to lower the hours, negotiate for more cogs with Baron Chau and up the rations for the cogs that remained loyal. Ryder agrees. Just as Jade starts walking away, staying to work on the schedule, Tilda, fires an exploding arrow from her crossbow at one of the trucks, causing chaos. The Widow, with her butterflies, attacks the refinery. She goes after Jade, who goes up to the roof of one of the buildings. After defeating several clippers, she reaches Jade. The Widow has a message for the Baron. The refinery is now hers.
At the Widow’s sanctuary, Tilda updates The Widow of casualties and additions to their sanctuary after the attack. Tilda wants the Widow to interact with her new charges. Outside at one of the food stations, Tilda introduces the Widow to one of the dolls rescued at the refinery, Odessa (Maddison Jaizani) who killed one of Ryder’s clippers in the chaos. She explains to everyone there that they are not forced to stay with her, they can leave if they wish. She wants to create a better world where men and women are on equal footing and the labels of cogs, clippers, barons, are gone. One of the clippers get huffy because he enjoyed his status just fine. When he realizes she is serious about letting him leave, he does with a group of his buds. Tilda later catches them on the road. Hearing how he treated Odessa and the other dolls she orders them killed. Tilda walks away as the butterflies exact vengeance.
A baby cries in a room somewhere with a dark alley. We see someone clean, then hand the baby to Veil. Aww! The person that hands her a new baby son is none other than Quinn (Marton Csokas), alive and well! Yep we end on that note!
Review
This was a great season premiere! There is so much nuance in this episode! The title, “Tiger Pushes Mountain” described a few of the main characters. Sunny trying to escape the mines. MK trying to learn his powers. The Widow getting the refinery back. Clever wording on the part of the writers. The time jump is fine as it gives context to the differences from when the show started.
I thought it flowed like the first few episodes last season. There were at least two major fight scenes, world building, and even the way that the main characters were reintroduced was familiar but also shows how vastly things have changed. For example, I remember in the series premiere we first met Sunny, he fought in a badass way, then he met M.K. We get introduced to Baron Quinn and his family, Sunny’s girl Veil newly pregnant, then the widow. In the season 2 premiere, we see Sunny again, but in dire straits, he fights for survival, then we see how MK is doing at the monastery. We catch up with the new Baron and Baroness Ryder and Jade, then what the Widow is up to with her butterflies. Veil has just given birth to a son, which Quinn, very much alive, has helped with the birth. I sense a pattern.
The Widow win hands down for the fight scenes this week! Sorry Sunny, but you came close! I feel like the Widow did Sunny proud slicing and dicing her way to Jade. Although the way that she killed Cormac (Muiris Crowley) was overkill. I felt bad for the guy. The heels that The Widow wore was used to good effect! Is it just me or has she gotten even more ruthless when she kills? They way that she used her butterflies to kill the last few clippers to get to Jade was like she was saying, “This is too easy.”
It is obvious that Tilda decided to choose the tincture instead of the poison on the Widow when she was injured in the season finale. Now Tilda is regent. The relationship between the two seems to have improved, but Tilda is starting to make decisions that could have consequences later. She went and killed the clippers that treated the dolls badly, even though the Widow let them leave her compound unharmed. I have a feeling that Tilda will continue the Widow’s first vendetta in creating a safe world for women. The Widow is starting to realize that as her numbers have grown, she needs to start realizing her ultimate goal. She has mentioned that she wants to create a world where there are no labels. If everyone is considered equal, would she still be considered a leader then? Would it create more chaos? The other barons would want to protect their power structure. My guess is they will make their move soon after that attack. There is also a darkness or ruthlessness that I’m seeing in Tilda which I hope is explored this season. Will the Widow notice in time to reign it in?
I do not trust Odessa. There is something off about her. She may be a plant but she could also cause discord between Tilda and the Widow for reasons like obsession or power. I will be watching her like a hawk!
I had this reaction when hearing Ryder killed Quinn and Jacoby.
Ryder’s “power” is a joke. He is a fraud for even remotely claiming he killed his father and Jacoby. I feel like if Jade was not his wife, he would be in even worse shape. At the refinery, I’m wondering what Ryder would have said if Jade had not stepped in with a sound decision. I am starting to compare Ryder with Quinn more now that he’s Baron and Jade with Lydia (Orla Brady). I just think that Quinn would have been in the fight against the Widow when she attacked instead of escaping. Quinn would have checked to see if his wife is okay.
I also think that Lydia would have showed less fear faced against The Widow. In Jade’s defense, she was a cog before becoming Baroness so she is now being brought into the politics of ruling which is whole other game. I still felt the Widow would have defeated her no problem which would have been disappointing. I hope this causes Jade to get a backbone and learn defense. Jade and the Widow have a lot more in common though because of how they want to treat cogs and others. It would be interesting if they ever aligned.
If the Engineer looks familiar, it is because he also plays Angus on the hit Starz show Outlander. So even though he is playing a jerk, it is nice to see him while Outlander is still on break. I still need to watch the rest of last season sigh…
Nick Frost brings some needed comic relief to the series as Bajie. From his story to how he became a miner to the fact that he was bored with Sunny always threatening his life gave a brief lightness to the episode. The only major thing that bothered me about his character was when he hit the woman to take her gold ring away. Bajie warned Sunny that he likes new opportunities, so as someone who dealt with shady Barons, he had to have known Bajie would use him to get ahead. But what if Bajie also did that on purpose? Sunny is the one most likely out of anyone to succeed in escaping the mines. Maybe Bajie threw him a bone to the point they both escape alive. We will see next week.
MK wins for best location because that waterfall was gorgeous! Seeing all that lush greenery was heaven. Because of this I got irritated with MK because his accommodations are better than Sunny’s that’s for sure! While I do agree that the monks are hiding secrets, I am going to reserve judgement on the reasons for them. And should MK be surprised that Eva would reveal information about him? Really? Maybe he should have kept his story to himself. Didn’t he learn anything while in the Badlands?
The master just became my new favorite character! I thought it would be Bajie but you can’t beat someone that can heal herself! My guess is the reason she wants to take over MK’s training is because she broke her forearm stopping that punch. His power must be deep if she is unsettled. I like the mystery the actress Chung brings to the character which makes me want to know more!
I’m not surprised that Quinn is alive. Sunny didn’t stab him in the heart or cut off his head. Also, I did not see a dead body. Since Veil was looking for Sunny during the season finale, she probably found Quinn and for some reason decided to help him. It feels creepy him handling the birth. That makes him useful though so I’m conflicted. It was very timely of Sunny to have the dream he did of Veil. I wonder if she was about to give birth right around that time?
There are many more questions I have after this episode which has me curious about this season. Here are just a few of them:
- What are the abbots, in particular the Master hiding?
- What makes MK so special?
- How is the master able to heal herself?
- Why are the miners digging for buried old things? Who oversees that area?
- When will Quinn makes his move to exact revenge on his son?
- Is Quinn keeping Veil there under duress?
- Will Ryder EVER have a fight scene?
- Are we going to see more of the guy that MK talked to? He also seemed like an interesting new character.
- How many will Sunny and the Widow add to their body count this season? I feel like they are in a dead heat at the moment.
What did you think of the episode? Favorite fight scene? Any questions you have after the premiere? Sound off below in the comments!