Queen And I Episode 8
Millard Winnin
Deposed kings could not be killed in any way that would leave marks on the body. Because they were anointed by God, only He could do away with them, so there could be no signs of physical injury. Richard II is believed to have been starved to death. Edward II was said to have fallen, but some sources say that a hot poker was thrust up into his bowels. There was not any mark on either of their bodies that would have shown after they were dressed for burial.
Margaret and Anne are both widows. Edward is king again, and Henry VI and his son are dead. Jasper and Henry Tudor are gone. George of Clarence is restored in favor and is now the highest duke in the land. Elizabeth is queen once more. We will have to see where they go from here.
Like Anne, Margaret is way too old. Margaret gave birth to Henry when she was 13. In 1465 Margaret would have been 22-years-old, and in the first episode she was just 18. I suspect that since she has been singled out as the antagonist, she was made older so that the audience would not sympathize with her. That would have made them pity her, and the audience is supposed to hate her.
When creating a fictional universe, if you create a rule you must stick with it. Every detail, no matter how small must be consistent throughout, or the audience will become confused, and will stop paying attention.
When taking notes for episode 3, I noticed that there was a lot of the same from the first two episodes Women were not allowed to handle their own fates, there was misuse of the name Tudor, and Margaret Beaufort acted like a crazed zealot. Some of the new historical changes are just elaboration of the ones we have already seen, so I am trying to avoid repeating myself if I can.
The Henry Tudor we see in this episode is older, more educated and has better manners. He is polite with his mother, showing her and his step-father respect. He may seem a little cold, but he is treating his mother as he would be expected to. If he wanted to show her affection, he would have to greet her properly first. I like this Henry. But Jasper sneaking back into Pembroke Castle without anyone knowing? That would be a cause for alarm, since nobody should be able to sneak into such a fortress, even the man in charge of it!
Edward is alone with Elizabeth in his room when she catches him getting sick. Kings and queens always had servants around them, whose job it was to watch over them. They had body servants who would have been there at the first hint of illness, ready to get him into bed and nurse him back to heath, with the physicians of course. This show has shockingly few servants in the royal household.
I rather enjoyed this week's episode, maybe because quite a lot happened, plus we're inching closer and closer to an actual battle (judging from the preview of next week's ep, it looks like we'll see Barnet).
Elizabeth has a vision in her washbowl (no, really) of the baby Isabel lost and freaks out. Jacquetta comes running into the room, and Elizabeth tells her mother to leave her alone. Jacquetta gives Elizabeth this look that says, "You may be the Queen of England, but I'm still your mother, and don't you dare speak to me like that." Elizabeth feels a bit guilty about summoning the wind that battered Warwick's ship on which poor Isabel had to give birth and worries that Warwick is more desperate than ever to get a handhold on the throne.
In France, Anne wonders when it'll be possible to return to England, and Isabel informs her that after everything that's happened, there will be no return for them. This is only the beginning of the bad news for Anne in this episode.
Young Henry Tudor is practicing his swordsmanship, and Margaret wholeheartedly approves of his mad skills, obviously. She also nearly has a heart attack when her precioussss takes a nick to the face from his instructor's sword. Imagine what her reaction would have been if Henry had gotten seriously injured.
Warwick's latest power scheme involves marrying Anne off to Edward of Lancaster, son of the former King Henry VI, and return Henry to throne. George, upon whom Warwick once rested all of his dreams of being an in-law to a king, does not approve of this plan and lets Warwick know it.
Yorkist Sir William Herbert turns up at Pembroke Castle looking for Jasper Tudor and and busts up Margaret's happy reunion with Henry with the news that the place is now his. But it belongs to Henry, protests Margaret! She gets all agitated and not very nicely tells her husband that Jasper would have done something about this travesty. I really do feel sorry for Henry Stafford; the guy never gets a break from hearing about how awesome Jasper Tudor is.
Back in England, Edward receives news of Warwick and George's alliance with Margaret of Anjou. Edward, ever the forgiving brother, is prepared to offer George yet another chance to prove his loyalty. Jacquetta and Elizabeth go see Cecily, the Duchess of York, and ask her to persuade George to ditch Warwick and return to Edward. Cecily complies, sending one of her ladies to France to deliver the message to George via Isabel.
I figured I'd sum up the rest of Margaret's shenanigans here. She goes ballistic when Herbert won't let Henry leave Pembroke because the boy is now under his guardianship as punishment for the treason committed by Margaret's brother. Her departing words to her son take the form of her diving into her "You'll be king one day, Henry!" inspirational speech. Later we see Margaret all depressed because she hasn't heard a peep from Henry, and she confesses to her husband that as a girl, she wanted to join a convent and become a saint. That was like, the funniest thing I've heard her say so far, seconded by her cry later on in the episode that it's against God's will for Henry to fight for York when he's forced to go with Herbert to support Edward against Warwick and George's impending invasion.
Elizabeth's sons from her first marriage, Thomas and Richard Grey, rush to their mother in the Tower of London to tell her that Warwick didn't land where he was expected to and took Edward and his troops by surprise. Edward, Richard, and Anthony Woodville have fled to Flanders, and Warwick has ordered Jacquetta's arrest for witchcraft. Elizabeth narrowly escapes the Tower with her children and seeks sanctuary in Westminster Abbey, where she gives birth to a male heir for Edward. Meanwhile, Warwick has successfully restored Henry VI to the throne, but worryingly for Warwick, Margaret of Anjou still hasn't upheld her end of their deal to bring her promised army to England.
Richard has a new hairstyle! Not sure how I feel about this yet. He only had a handful of lines again, but at least he was by Edward's side during the discussion of bringing George back into the fold. I really, really hope that if the battle of Barnet is the centerpiece of next week's episode, Richard gets the spotlight he deserves because, you know, he only commanded the vanguard and all. Oh, and this is the battle that took place in a thick fog, and I think I've already figured out how the show is going to explain the weather conditions. It looks like Elizabeth and Jacquetta will be quite busy next week.
Well, not exactly. The camp section is a far more dangerous beast; an episode where the players have a wide variety of options available to them. If the players choose poorly, they could quite easily be captured and killed. And, although the players will choose the approach they use, it will be your DMing that will set the tone of this episode.
Hoard of the Dragon Queen gives a number of suggestions as to how the players can infiltrate the camp and the challenges they might face. This is one of those sections where, as a DM, you should aim to help players who are struggling, but if the group are going through it without a care in the world, then throwing complications at them is going to be more fun.
We were never due for a truly cathartic ending. That was clear from the first episode\u2014from the first scene, even. Whitney and Asher Siegel, along with Dougie Schecter, are not people we root for to succeed, so it was always an open question what we would even want from the conclusion of their character journeys. Did we want the central trio to face the bleakest outcomes possible\u2014marriage and friendship ruptured, TV show canceled, exiled by the community they tried so hard to make their own (heavy emphasis on the possessive \u201Ctheir own\u201D)? Not necessarily. There\u2019s certainly an element of schadenfreude in this show, like when we watch Asher get humiliated in a comedy class, but by and large it hasn\u2019t been \u201Cfun\u201D to watch any of these people suffer. They\u2019re too pathetic not to pity.
Rather than offering a final confirmation of how we\u2019re meant to feel about these characters, \u201CGreen Queen\u201D boldly refuses to clear it up; it muddies the waters, if anything, though I don\u2019t think I mean that in the negative sense. There\u2019s little evidence that Whitney and Asher have grown all that much at their core, but this is still the least I\u2019ve ever hated the couple\u2014if only because they appear happy, and their behavior is far less abhorrent than what we\u2019re used to. And then, well, there\u2019s what happens halfway through the episode.
When I first got into reading episodic TV criticism, I found it tremendously useful in helping me figure out how I felt about a series, or a particular episode, or a specific moment in that episode. So when I later started watching advance screeners and writing about TV, I felt a slight panic at the idea of having to form my own opinions before I\u2019d read what anyone else thought about a given series. What if my interpretation is wrong? What if I\u2019m missing something obvious? Of course, writing about anything means accepting that other people will have different interpretations than you. But I have to admit that my first watch of \u201CGreen Queen\u201D brought some of those anxieties roaring back. I immediately felt excited to write about this finale, sure. But I also wondered how the hell I was going to write about it. Not only was I unsure what I\u2019d just watched, but I wasn\u2019t sure what it represented on a thematic level\u2014and I wasn\u2019t even sure I totally liked it, though I was certainly captivated.
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