Those about to die gay scene
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A distinctive feature of the series is its explicit depiction of the sexual dynamics of the era, with particular attention to homosexual and sapphic relationships, offering a clear perspective on how sexuality was lived in Ancient Rome.
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Domitian and Hermes: A Controversial Relationship
One of the most fascinating aspects of the series is the relationship between Domitian and his slave Hermes (played by Alessandro Bedetti).
Focusing on some characters more than others in certain episodes would have been beneficial in driving their motivations home.
Though all the characters are entertaining, cutting some of them would have reduced the pressure on the show.
In a show about gladiators and survival, death doesn’t come soon enough to reduce the characters.
As a result, the final product feels haphazardly made because of the overcrowded narratives.
The Good
The series features two types of games.
While Spartacus features grueling sword fights, Those About to Die adds horse racing.
He was said to have done the same with Pythagoras. The series invites viewers to reflect on the complexities of human relationships and the fluidity of sexuality in one of history’s most influential civilizations. It’s thus not surprising that many have taken the show to task for being both unoriginal and homophobic in its choice to partake in a particularly pernicious form of queer representation.
And there’s no question that Domitian is also exceedingly bloodthirsty. Do you like reading fun but insightful takes on all things pop culture?
From siblings captured and enslaved to others escaping awful living conditions, it is clear that the episode has a point to make.
But when the final episode rolls around, it becomes clear that the point made in the first episode deserved an entire season of buildup for the payoff to be great.
The show tries to tackle many characters, much to its detriment.
It is elevated by a great score that heightens the senses and transports the viewer to the setting.
Those About to Die follows the social structure of Rome, where the ruling class, the middle class, and the absolute poor class are present.
In all these classes, there are several achillean and sapphic characters.
When it comes to gay characters, there is a particular trope where creators craft idealized versions of queer people.
This narrative choice provides viewers with a more comprehensive and authentic perspective on the social and sexual dynamics of the era.
The series has sparked debates among audiences and critics alike. Male homosexual relationships were accepted as long as they adhered to specific power dynamics: a free man was expected to take the active role, while the passive partner was often a young slave or a freedman.
Yet even here his power is challenged, particularly by the Numidian Kwame (Moe Hashim), and Domitian derives sadistic pleasure from trying to destroy him. Unlike Titus, for whom bloodshed is always a means to an end and to be avoided when possible, Domitian seems to savor it to an almost obscene degree. He’s Caligula and Nero and Commodus and Crassus all rolled into one.
Unlike his hirsute brother Titus, who’s more skilled on the battlefield than on the Palatine, Domitian has a sharp sense of how power operates in Rome.
It’s this moment, more than any other, that shows us (and Titus) just what kind of a person Domitian really is and how rotten his soul has become. More to the point, he also realizes that entertaining the masses is a key element of the Flavian hold on power. To begin with there was the fact that it was being released on one of the less-prestigious streamers.
Their bond unfolds within a context of power and dependency, a common dynamic in homosexual relationships of the time, especially between men of differing social status.
This portrayal has historical roots: the historian Suetonius recounts several homosexual relationships attributed to Domitian, including one with Flavius Earinus, a young slave who also gained recognition through the poets Martial and Statius, who celebrated their connection in emotionally charged verses.
It doesn’t take a great deal of squinting to see shades of this in Domiitan’s bond with Hermes, a boy who, like so many others in the Roman world, becomes nothing more than a dispensable hole and a mouth, something to be used and then thrown aside.
Obviously, Domitian partakes in a long tradition of depicting the Roman imperial elite as decadent and cruel monsters, prone to indulging in all of their effeminate and debauched sexual appetites.
The horse racing scenes are out of this world.
Okay, But How Gay Is ‘Those About to Die’?
It would be criminal to make a show about ripped, half-naked gladiators in a show set in the infamous era of Rome, where everything went sexual and did not have anything gay.
Given that the show is created by the director behind the despised Stonewall film, the show almost absolves him of that atrocity.