I’m getting caught up on the TV show “V”. If you haven’t seen the first episode since it restarted this (or was it last?) month, spoiler alert and all that. If you don’t know diddly squat about the show (or really care, for that matter), that’s what I’m assuming as I write this so feel free to read forward.
In the opening episode of the second half of the season, the Queen of the Visitors (an alien race with nefarious intentions with us humans) decided to procreate an army. Not much is known about how the V’s do procreate, but it isn’t all that hard to guess knowing what little we do about them. One of her minions lines up a bunch of studly men and she picks one and the rest go walk off.
The actual procreation scene takes place at the end of the episode, a somewhat ominous sign in and of itself. The guy is laying there naked (smoke covering what needs to be covered) as she walks in and prepares. The stud looks nervous, which could simply be because he is in the sole presence of the queen. But you know it’s not that. You know that in some alien society wherein the woman has that much power, it’s never good to be the dude that she decides to procreate with. You’re not going to end up like Prince Philip, not a king but still an accessory to the queen in a society that values kings and queens alike. No, things never end well for you if you’re that dude. you’re going to get eaten like a preying mantis. The only question is whether you get eaten before, during, or after procreation.
I’m not positive why this convention exists at least to the point that I, no big scifantasy fan, am aware of it enough to feel at least a little sorry for the stud. If we’re supposed to be shocked or horrified, it doesn’t really work. I suppose it’s supposed to tell us that these people (presented as immaculate but cold) are savages(!!!!) or something of the like. From an internal plot standpoint, one could make the case that the Queen cannot let the stud live lest her power be threatened by the father of the army. I assume that’s the internal rationale they went with. Stretches credibility, though, because their society is so rigid and hierarchical (absent “contamination” due to contact with those dreadfully “empathetic” human) it’s impossible to imagine any sort of coup.
The answer to the before/during/after question is “after.” The guy, nervous throughout, seems a bit surprised as she lunges to eat him.
He should spend less time being a stud and more time being a geek. Then he would have seen in coming.
RIP, Stud.
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11 Responses to Never Good To Be That Stud
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Let me indulge in our favorite sport here — armchair psychoanalysis of beta males. Such types can easily be imagined to feel a thrill of schaedenfreude when treated to the grisly fate of the V-Stud. He would be seen as the “alpha,” so good-looking and well-built, every inch the aggressive and powerful warrior type that the Beta viewer is not, so oozing in masculinity that the V Queen herself chooses him to be a sex toy. And his sexual potency is rewarded with an emasculating death. Better to be a beta, because even if you aren’t picked for sex, at least you get to live.
There was no need to remake V. And you could be watching some good TV instead. Damages just finished its season. Thumbs up. The new F/X series, Justified, is great too. And 24’s final season is one of its best so far. The new Showtime series, Spartacus, just finished its first season, in an orgy of blood. Not bad. A couple of HBO series were pretty good, though they had super-brief seasons: Bored to Death and How to Make it in America. Tried watching the new, hyped HBO series Treme, but it was a snooze fest. And Glee’s back on.
The girl who plays Rachel is from Tenafly, NJ, which is also where one of the stars of Damages is from. And also where Mira Sorvino is from. And where my mechanic’s shop is.
I agree with TL’s sour grapes interpretation. As for V, I’m thinking the V’s are a hive organism. The aliens aren’t so loyal to Anna(several killed themselves after failing the empathy test) because they’ve been indoctrinated, she’s their mother.
Yes, I thought it was a bit odd that he seemed surprised. Would her mating habits be any different than those of other females?
Also, since they are wearing constructed facades of our species, who knows what criteria she’s basing her choice on.
It seems odd that Mr. Tone has been missing a show called “Spartacus.” Perhaps I’ll clue him in.
Maybe studs in sci-fi are like guys named “Brad” in romantic comedies. Doomed.
Maybe studs in sci-fi are like guys named “Brad” in romantic comedies. Doomed.
Other movie characters who are guaranteed to die:
1. The pretty young woman in a horror movie, who hears a sound downstairs and goes to investigate.
2. The man in a war movie who tells the other soldiers how, as soon as the war ends, he’s going to marry his high school sweetheart and go to work in the family business.
3. Any character who coughs.
“Maybe studs in sci-fi are like guys named “Brad” in romantic comedies. Doomed. ”
Well, who do you think watches scifi movies? 😉 Gotta know your audience.
On V, am I the only one who’s annoyed that the terrorist helping the resistance is a white guy with a British accent? The writers should have been a little more realistic, and also given blonde FBI an actual ethical dilemma. Something along the lines of free a Syrian terrorist from FBI custody.
I know there was a white mercenary on the original V, but new V wouldn’t go anywhere near making a Blackwater type or Executive Outcomes Great White Hunter type a good guy. They should have updated it. Really, Hobbes is just an awful character.
I hadn’t even thought of the Nerd Fantasy idea. My armchair psychology was that scifi (a mostly male genre) Women Are Dangerous (particularly women with power).
Dave,
I’m actually enjoying V. I’m giving it a try to see if it helps fill the gap that’s going to be left by Lost a few weeks from now when it concludes. I do wish they had gone a different way with it. Damages is on my list of things to see. Phi has at least temporarily put me off of Justified.
Sheila, my guess is that most V men don’t procreate. At least not with their own kind. We do know they’re capable, but maybe the Bliss short-circuits the desire to?
If it makes you feel any better, the male lead in one written novel and one novel to come is named Brad. He’s also the only character to be slated to appeal in all of them. On the other hand, I came by the name by accident. In the first novel I wrote, he was… well… a bad guy. Well, not a bad guy, but someone aligned with the cultural forces against the protagonist. When I needed a male lead that was something of a “blank slate”, he was available. And in the first novel in which he is a lead, he is rarely called Brad because… well because the narrator doesn’t like the name.
Okay, so your point completely stands.