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igenlodeAfter getting distracted by "Aramis no Bouken" I plunged into the final part of the Soviet "Twenty Years After" with a certain trepidation (oh no, it's going to come to an end) and no idea what to expect, having no memory of this part of the novel at all.
(It does strike me as being slightly worrying that I have now managed to write two fanfics for it without actually having finished the story myself, but unless further big chunks of backstory appear in the remaining section it shouldn't invalidate anything in what I have already written, all of which takes place at an earlier point in the plot than this!)
It looks as if the last part of the serial is going to be all about how the protagonists back in France get themselves out of the political consequences of their actions in England. We saw d'Artagnan and Porthos get arrested at the end of the last episode, and now Aramis and Athos are wondering what became of them. And are bringing Raoul to Paris, which turns out to be because Athos is worried about what will become of him if he, Athos, ends up in the Bastille; this entire section, complete with Madame de Chevreuse, has been transposed from the period before Athos launches himself into danger to rescue the Duc de Beaufort to the period when he launches himself into danger to rescue d'Artagnan. Which I imagine was done for reasons of pacing, because there is a long lacuna in the novel at the earlier point; I had assumed that the question of Raoul's parentage was going to be omitted in the name of simplicity, but instead it has merely been moved.
(And it is well done; Athos in his best clothes looks surprisingly young and handsome again in comparison to the more familar sagging Athos in his comfortable country gentleman's costume, and they manage to de-age him successfully by another fifteen years by shooting the Roche-l'Abeille sequence through flashback gauze and putting him back into his old heavy sweep of fringe ;-) I'd need to go over that again on repeat and with phonetic subtitles in order to work out exactly how they expanded on the novel, but going by the body language Athos is quite possibly drunk (asleep face-down and fully-clothed), grumpy and not at all amused by Marie Michon's idea of a joke :-p And they manage to show the actual seduction via the reactions of an envious Kitty eavesdropping at the door, which is both ingenious and tasteful.)
What did puzzle me a lot, however, is that fact that when Athos arrives home you can still see the bomb damage from Episode 2 (and there appears to be building work going on to repair it), yet so far as I could tell the subject doesn't even get mentioned -- does Athos not *notice* that he now has a hole in the corner of his house? Does Raoul not rush to tell him what has been going on in his absence the moment that they meet?
Aramis is back in cynical plotter mode, which hurts a bit (I like it a lot better when he is being unselfish), but canonically we knew it was coming. And as he would point out, the cynicism is entirely justified; Athos (suspecting that it will be both useless and probably dangerous) goes to appeal to the Queen directly on d'Artagnan's behalf by reminding her of what she owes to d'Artagnan's past efforts, and exactly as Aramis predicted, her gratitude consists of 'reuniting' him with his friends by having him likewise arrested and put in jail. (It does strike me that "Aramis, I have been arrested" is possibly not the most prudent thing to call out in the middle of a crowded palace if you want to avoid attracting attention to the one remaining member of your group who is still at liberty... :-p)
Meanwhile Aramis and Athos have previously fought a formal duel with Jussac and a fellow-courtier, over some words said during their interview with the bereaved Henrietta Maria -- that part of the conversation I didn't understand, but I think Athos was basically accusing Jussac of an outright lie where the French reaction to the death of King Charles was concerned :-(
Athos fights with economy of effort and obvious reluctance, staying on the defensive until he finally disposes of his opponent with a single clean movement. Aramis appears to be enjoying himself far too much, taunting Jussac with his past failures against d'Artagnan (although he apparently doesn't injure him nearly so badly as it would appear, because Jussac is back on his feet in time to carry out the orders for Athos' subsequent arrest).
And d'Artagnan and Porthos have been in prison this whole while, having various conversations of varying comprehensibility (e.g. d'Artagnan complains that the reason why he is always trying to sleep during the day, to Porthos' annoyance, is that at night Porthos is himself asleep... and snoring :-p) There is some nice chronological continuity provided by the thickening of d'Artagnan's facial hair, from 'unshaven with moustache' to scraggly jaw to a full-on beard; for someone whose moustache has more or less been a permanent trademark since the start of his career, Mikhail Boyarsky actually looks pretty good in a 'full set' :-D
But when they learn from the prison governor(?) that Athos has also been brought in, d'Artagnan cheers up a lot, despite the official's apologetic air at having to deliver such news. Clearly he has Had An Idea (and has to keep elbowing Porthos to stop him saying the wrong thing :-p) Or maybe it was the mention of Mazarin's visit(?) that gave him an inspiration, because it becomes evident that the problem was never escaping from their cell as such, but getting out of the main prison afterwards... and impersonating a couple of the Cardinal's personal Highlanders after climbing out through the barred window provides that opportunity. (Porthos is extremely reluctant to wear the kilt... possibly because bare legs reveal that Valentin Smirnitsky isn't nearly as chunky as the character he plays; it's all costuming, as I had gathered from the behind-the-scenes material :-P)
Again, I was a bit puzzled that the scene of the Cardinal counting his gold does *not* appear to feature the jaunty "reggae about money" from the YouTube 'soundtrack album'; if it doesn't fit there, I can't imagine where it fits.
https://tekstovoi.ru/text/988126328_20981067p572860924_text_pesni_reggi_pro_dengi_mushketyory_20_let.html
Having kidnapped the Cardinal they calmly install him in Athos' cell, wake Athos, who takes in the situation without a blink, and all drive off together with their hostage in his personal coach ;-)
Edit: well, that turns out to be almost *all* the remaining chapters of the book (the duel of Aramis and Athos being mixed up with a vast chunk of armies and political manoeuvring in canon). But the book does at least explain why Mazarin is apparently walking around in a greenhouse; d'Artagnan and Porthos are shut up not in a mediaeval tower as shown on screen, but in a pavilion wing in an orangery, and not for months but for a grand total, according to d'Artagnan, of eighty-three hours of frustration ;-)
(And I am also touched to find out that in the book it is Aramis who is outside the walls with horses, whereas I was beginning to fear in the film that he had simply gone to ground to save his own neck as the final survivor...)
(It does strike me as being slightly worrying that I have now managed to write two fanfics for it without actually having finished the story myself, but unless further big chunks of backstory appear in the remaining section it shouldn't invalidate anything in what I have already written, all of which takes place at an earlier point in the plot than this!)
It looks as if the last part of the serial is going to be all about how the protagonists back in France get themselves out of the political consequences of their actions in England. We saw d'Artagnan and Porthos get arrested at the end of the last episode, and now Aramis and Athos are wondering what became of them. And are bringing Raoul to Paris, which turns out to be because Athos is worried about what will become of him if he, Athos, ends up in the Bastille; this entire section, complete with Madame de Chevreuse, has been transposed from the period before Athos launches himself into danger to rescue the Duc de Beaufort to the period when he launches himself into danger to rescue d'Artagnan. Which I imagine was done for reasons of pacing, because there is a long lacuna in the novel at the earlier point; I had assumed that the question of Raoul's parentage was going to be omitted in the name of simplicity, but instead it has merely been moved.
(And it is well done; Athos in his best clothes looks surprisingly young and handsome again in comparison to the more familar sagging Athos in his comfortable country gentleman's costume, and they manage to de-age him successfully by another fifteen years by shooting the Roche-l'Abeille sequence through flashback gauze and putting him back into his old heavy sweep of fringe ;-) I'd need to go over that again on repeat and with phonetic subtitles in order to work out exactly how they expanded on the novel, but going by the body language Athos is quite possibly drunk (asleep face-down and fully-clothed), grumpy and not at all amused by Marie Michon's idea of a joke :-p And they manage to show the actual seduction via the reactions of an envious Kitty eavesdropping at the door, which is both ingenious and tasteful.)
What did puzzle me a lot, however, is that fact that when Athos arrives home you can still see the bomb damage from Episode 2 (and there appears to be building work going on to repair it), yet so far as I could tell the subject doesn't even get mentioned -- does Athos not *notice* that he now has a hole in the corner of his house? Does Raoul not rush to tell him what has been going on in his absence the moment that they meet?
Aramis is back in cynical plotter mode, which hurts a bit (I like it a lot better when he is being unselfish), but canonically we knew it was coming. And as he would point out, the cynicism is entirely justified; Athos (suspecting that it will be both useless and probably dangerous) goes to appeal to the Queen directly on d'Artagnan's behalf by reminding her of what she owes to d'Artagnan's past efforts, and exactly as Aramis predicted, her gratitude consists of 'reuniting' him with his friends by having him likewise arrested and put in jail. (It does strike me that "Aramis, I have been arrested" is possibly not the most prudent thing to call out in the middle of a crowded palace if you want to avoid attracting attention to the one remaining member of your group who is still at liberty... :-p)
Meanwhile Aramis and Athos have previously fought a formal duel with Jussac and a fellow-courtier, over some words said during their interview with the bereaved Henrietta Maria -- that part of the conversation I didn't understand, but I think Athos was basically accusing Jussac of an outright lie where the French reaction to the death of King Charles was concerned :-(
Athos fights with economy of effort and obvious reluctance, staying on the defensive until he finally disposes of his opponent with a single clean movement. Aramis appears to be enjoying himself far too much, taunting Jussac with his past failures against d'Artagnan (although he apparently doesn't injure him nearly so badly as it would appear, because Jussac is back on his feet in time to carry out the orders for Athos' subsequent arrest).
And d'Artagnan and Porthos have been in prison this whole while, having various conversations of varying comprehensibility (e.g. d'Artagnan complains that the reason why he is always trying to sleep during the day, to Porthos' annoyance, is that at night Porthos is himself asleep... and snoring :-p) There is some nice chronological continuity provided by the thickening of d'Artagnan's facial hair, from 'unshaven with moustache' to scraggly jaw to a full-on beard; for someone whose moustache has more or less been a permanent trademark since the start of his career, Mikhail Boyarsky actually looks pretty good in a 'full set' :-D
But when they learn from the prison governor(?) that Athos has also been brought in, d'Artagnan cheers up a lot, despite the official's apologetic air at having to deliver such news. Clearly he has Had An Idea (and has to keep elbowing Porthos to stop him saying the wrong thing :-p) Or maybe it was the mention of Mazarin's visit(?) that gave him an inspiration, because it becomes evident that the problem was never escaping from their cell as such, but getting out of the main prison afterwards... and impersonating a couple of the Cardinal's personal Highlanders after climbing out through the barred window provides that opportunity. (Porthos is extremely reluctant to wear the kilt... possibly because bare legs reveal that Valentin Smirnitsky isn't nearly as chunky as the character he plays; it's all costuming, as I had gathered from the behind-the-scenes material :-P)
Again, I was a bit puzzled that the scene of the Cardinal counting his gold does *not* appear to feature the jaunty "reggae about money" from the YouTube 'soundtrack album'; if it doesn't fit there, I can't imagine where it fits.
https://tekstovoi.ru/text/988126328_20981067p572860924_text_pesni_reggi_pro_dengi_mushketyory_20_let.html
Having kidnapped the Cardinal they calmly install him in Athos' cell, wake Athos, who takes in the situation without a blink, and all drive off together with their hostage in his personal coach ;-)
Edit: well, that turns out to be almost *all* the remaining chapters of the book (the duel of Aramis and Athos being mixed up with a vast chunk of armies and political manoeuvring in canon). But the book does at least explain why Mazarin is apparently walking around in a greenhouse; d'Artagnan and Porthos are shut up not in a mediaeval tower as shown on screen, but in a pavilion wing in an orangery, and not for months but for a grand total, according to d'Artagnan, of eighty-three hours of frustration ;-)
(And I am also touched to find out that in the book it is Aramis who is outside the walls with horses, whereas I was beginning to fear in the film that he had simply gone to ground to save his own neck as the final survivor...)