Eh, damn g-mail. He hardly saved a copy of almost my finished report, and I had to write it a second time. Well, to the point - the episodes were quite calm and there were no cliffhangers, only the development of the world and characters. We got some flashbacks showing short bits of the war, atheist training, Mom's past before it was reprogrammed from an evil and deadly robot to a child protector. The episodes were of a good standard, most of the aspects were pretty good, to say the least, so it's hard to fault anything. On the other hand, nothing broke to such a level that I could add new advantages, apart from the ones I wrote about in the last review.
As for the actors, just as I have no complaints about the androids playing the role of Mother and Father, I have many complaints about Ragnar Loth ... Sorry, Marcus. I will talk about parents in the following paragraphs, because it is easier for me to write about them in the context of the advantages of the series. If you know my opinion about the "Vikings", you probably remember my attitude towards the legendary Norman leader. I'm his fanboy, and I loved him as much as part of his female fanbase. That has definitely changed with "Raised by Wolves". While in "WarCraft" his Anduin Lothar did not catch my eye so much, in the series discussed now I can feel Ragnar from him several kilometers away. The guy has the same gestures, the way he moves, facial expressions, he looks and speaks the same. Some of these things I can write to the writer, who apparently wanted to have the popular Viking, but most of it is unfortunately his merit. Overall, it looks as if Lothbrok got bored of the epic partying in Valhalla and reminiscing "it used to be, today is no time" and has decided to take a dip from the land of eternal happiness. He hasn't changed a bit, and the same beard and almost unchanged face make it extremely painful. He's a talented actor and it's a shame that he can only play this one role. I hope that he will show something else in the next episodes, because if not, I will write his share down. And I was so happy to see it in trailers...
It is different for Mother and Father. As I wrote in the previous review, these actors perfectly portray all the characteristics of men and women. I cannot help but get the impression that one of Aaron Guzikowski's goals was to show their roles in laboratory conditions. So, what would happen if parents were given the task of raising a group of children in a territory that does not allow for changing partners or deep conflicts, and thus requires absolute cooperation and forces the maximization of profits to be able to survive. Woman and man must complement each other even more than their earthly counterparts. While on Earth, especially nowadays, singles can somehow survive, it is worth remembering that each sex has its own strengths and weaknesses. The show is very neutral (in a sense, without any form of sexism) and truly shows how dependent we are. Sometimes I say that if suddenly there were no women + it would be necessary to build the whole society and infrastructure from scratch, men would be better able to handle it than females. But there is one "but" - the males would not get far without the females. The world would be uglier, too simplistic, definitely poorer emotionally and culturally, generally downright sad and boring. We would not have many nuances that we owe to women's empathy, improving reality, and we would lack one of the best motivators for which we try so hard - a female heart.
This can be seen in the role of the Father, who, although he does not act as a defender of the house for obvious fictional reasons, has retained his feature of taking care of him and meeting the needs of the family and children. Today, some people consider it a sign of weakness and I somewhat agree with it (although this is a topic for a separate discussion, which was made up of a dozen different factors. We ourselves, males, made a few bricks to it.), But to paraphrase the famous saying of Uncle Ben from "Spider-Man" - responsibility comes with force. Women are physically incapable of hard work, and their strengths come in handy for something else and better elsewhere. And no, I don't mean the stereotypically understood housewife who is supposed to sit in the kitchen. Guys are more consistent at work, and thanks to a better developed brain in terms of logic, it is easier for us to see the consequences of certain actions. Women are more often driven by emotions, they are not always able to perceive the consequences of certain omissions so well. Referring to a specific example, Father knows Campion will not cope in adulthood unless he is prepared for the cruelty of life. Although empathy makes them very easy and avoids many problems, it is not always enough. Violence is an integral part of life, whether it is when defending what is important to us or fighting a threat. If a young boy does not learn to fight and does not know when to give up empathy and take up arms, someone will eat or kill him.
To make things up, women are better than men when it comes to consistency in some respects. Due to evolution and genetic memory, they are better able to carry out several duties at once (taking care of children, the house, etc.). Father says there cannot be several places at once or think about several things at once, and Mother is more easily able to do so. True, they are sometimes more credulous or more prone to certain types of manipulation (relating to emotions, e.g. poor children or pets), but they are much more consistent and ruthless in matters that directly affect them. An example from real life - women are less scrupulous about abandoning a clumsy husband than a man is clumsy wife. Returning to the series, Mother tells Father that he is too trusting towards Campion, because the boy has proved several times that he cannot be trusted completely. He explains that if he does too much for him, he will never become independent and learn to rely on them too much, instead of solving his own problems. His mother agreed with him, but added that he should watch him from a safe distance so that he could react in a timely manner. Coming back to cooperation at the end of this paragraph, both of them are aware of their weaknesses. For example, Mom is more susceptible to emotions, so a man sometimes has to tone them down, while Dad sometimes does not notice nuances that he considers irrelevant. There are differences of opinion between them, but they are able to reconcile for the greater good. Sometimes they argue, but in the end they always make up.
Okay, enough about parental relationships, let me talk about morality and spirituality, because in this respect the series is doing almost as well. We see moral dilemmas about killing other beings on several levels. I like the considerations and doubts as to whether it is right (or when it is) to take the lives of others. "Raised by Wolves" shows that people in life-threatening situations are able to completely ignore them, if only to survive. I'm talking about a pregnant girl who was forced to kill an unknown creature due to starvation. It is not anything special, but it is worth remembering nowadays, when people succumb to the illusion of a peaceful existence and think that it is given them for eternity. Campion is a bit too idealistic about brutality and does not understand that humans, or at least some of us, cannot survive by eating only greens and mushrooms. Especially when it comes to a pregnant girl who must eat more and healthier for the fetus to develop properly. In terms of spirituality, I liked how the Mother changes her attitude from a hardened atheist to a being in whom faith in spirituality is awakened and gradually begins to reject a cold understanding of the world. Sure, this is because she saw her past in a computer simulation and remembered her creator, but before that, she strongly cut herself off, arguing that only science mattered. Her feelings were largely due to parental responsibilities and cold calculation, as can be seen from seeing the raped girl as an incubator whose task is only to give life to a new baby. At the same time, she completely ignored her feelings and pain resulting from rape, taking it as a gift, arguing that she was incapable of giving someone life. She did it more gently than the girl's friend, but generally it came down to an equally heartless approach. I wonder how the creators will solve the thread with God Sol - I mean the voices that Ragnar heard and the rapist they found in the ruins of the ship. This gives us an interesting field to show off, especially after showing us this building or a conscious Being who drew a map of stars and a selected part of the planet.
The simulation looks nice and those effects showing that the image is rendering or at least unstable gave a nice vibe. An interesting concept at all that I haven't seen in a movie or series yet. I once heard from friends that sci-fi writers introduced this idea a long time ago. You can exchange thoughts all the time, and people's shock when they wake up isn't that strong.
And that's it, next week I will write about another 2 or maybe 3 episodes. How do you like "Raised by Wolves"?