7 thoughts on “Zocalo: Spoiler-free Discussion of “A Late Delivery from Avalon””
It’s a small point, but an annoying one to me. JMS is usually very good about avoiding technobabble and not rubbing necessary scientific nonsense in your face.
But Franklin’s dialogue about how “Arthur” is wrong for his supposed period is basically the equivalent of equally nonsensical history. It’s not that “Arthur” would be speaking a different but intelligible version of modern English: we’re not talking about someone who claims to be from the 1600’s.
Seriously, Franklin might as well have said “No, we’d have to recalibrate the deflector shield to emit Clarkson particles.”
I was so happy this episode didn’t take the route so beloved of 90s drama – the dumb ending where immediately after the crazy delusional guy leaves, you get a hint that maybe he really *was* Arthur / Father Christmas / Jesus after all, the main characters say “you don’t think…”, “nah, he couldn’t be” etc etc, and the audience cringes and rolls their eyes.
True story (which has no bearing on the story whatsoever) from working at a station that carried the show back in the day…
I labeled the tape “A Late Delivery From Frankie Avalon” to amuse whoever wound up running it on their shift. (Because we had an incredibly hard time find people dependable/stable/sane enough to work overnights, it turned out that I was the one who ran it, during one of my legendary unannounced double-shift-because-someone-quit-by-ceasing-to-show-up-for-work 16-hour marathons. I had forgotten about it by then and really needed the giggle.)
As someone who’s name is a form of Gawain, I’m not sure that I like the idea that Gawain was called “The Green Knight” because he couldn’t handle his alcohol. I much prefer the traditional version.
Well, *that* traditional version of Gawain. Not being able to hold your drink is pretty minor compared to some of the things that Malory ascribes to Gawain…
It’s a small point, but an annoying one to me. JMS is usually very good about avoiding technobabble and not rubbing necessary scientific nonsense in your face.
But Franklin’s dialogue about how “Arthur” is wrong for his supposed period is basically the equivalent of equally nonsensical history. It’s not that “Arthur” would be speaking a different but intelligible version of modern English: we’re not talking about someone who claims to be from the 1600’s.
Seriously, Franklin might as well have said “No, we’d have to recalibrate the deflector shield to emit Clarkson particles.”
I was so happy this episode didn’t take the route so beloved of 90s drama – the dumb ending where immediately after the crazy delusional guy leaves, you get a hint that maybe he really *was* Arthur / Father Christmas / Jesus after all, the main characters say “you don’t think…”, “nah, he couldn’t be” etc etc, and the audience cringes and rolls their eyes.
My god, yes.
Have you considered writing horror novels?
True story (which has no bearing on the story whatsoever) from working at a station that carried the show back in the day…
I labeled the tape “A Late Delivery From Frankie Avalon” to amuse whoever wound up running it on their shift. (Because we had an incredibly hard time find people dependable/stable/sane enough to work overnights, it turned out that I was the one who ran it, during one of my legendary unannounced double-shift-because-someone-quit-by-ceasing-to-show-up-for-work 16-hour marathons. I had forgotten about it by then and really needed the giggle.)
Every time someone said “Arthur, Kink of the Britons,” the only thing I could think of was “King of the who?”
https://youtu.be/JvKIWjnEPNY?t=41s
As someone who’s name is a form of Gawain, I’m not sure that I like the idea that Gawain was called “The Green Knight” because he couldn’t handle his alcohol. I much prefer the traditional version.
Well, *that* traditional version of Gawain. Not being able to hold your drink is pretty minor compared to some of the things that Malory ascribes to Gawain…