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Aug. 30th, 2019
via https://ift.tt/2ZybTnI
honourablejester:
I’m just rewatching Baahubali 2
(If anyone has not watched the Baahubali movie duology, absolutely do watch them! They are six hours of Indian historical fantasy, wall-to-wall bombast and batshit-crazy spectacle, but also ridiculously affecting with grand tragedy and giddy romance and horrific betrayal and amazing triumph)
And one of the things that surprisingly really affected me was Amarendra Baahubali’s interactions with Kumara Varma.
Because, okay, there’s this standard story. The godlike hero goes undercover as a peasant in a foreign kingdom to win the heart of its princess. He pretends to be an idiot and winds up serving this noble ass of a suitor as part of his disguise. He performs godlike feats and makes it look like it’s the idiot doing them, and gradually the cowardly idiots starts to get a big head about it because he’s starting to wonder if he actually is doing these things. It comes to a head when the kingdom is being legit invaded by a massive bandit army, and our hero drops cover a bit to try and warn them, and the noble idiot gets uppity and not only yells at him but then kicks him. Kicks our hero solidly in the chest. Our hero who promptly goes on to reveal his godlike badassery and save the day.
In any other story, that poor uppity idiot would have been given his comeuppance and shamed for having attacked the hero.
But Baahubali raises him up instead.
Granted, by swinging in a window as a roomful of women is about to be slaughtered by about twenty enemies, handing the poor guy a knife and telling him this is his time to shine, and then swooping back out the window and leaving the poor bastard to either man up or be messily slaughtered as every woman in the room is stolen away or murdered …
But Baahubali realises that Kumara actually does have proper fight and honour in him, gives him the opportunity to prove it, and when Kumara does, when he fights and wins on his own merit and to protect his people, and thereby proves he genuinely is a worthy man and noble, when they meet again after the battle …
Kumara apologises to him for hitting him, clearly realising that here is the hero and quite possibly a literal god in mortal flesh, and clearly expecting to be shamed for what he did, and Baahubali tells him well done. He tells him that kick was how he knew Kumara really did have the strength to fight, and that the wounds he now bears are proper warrior wounds, and basically just tells him that he did good, and then hugs him. Genuinely. Like, that was amazing dude, I knew you had that in you, you did so good. And Kumara is ridiculously affected and it’s amazing.
This is just … not how this story normally goes. I mean, yes, the uppity noble often is shamed and humbled, and sometimes becomes a better person because of it, but usually they’re humbled just by seeing the hero’s badassery. They’re not usually given the opportunity to be badass themselves. They’re not usually handed a knife and told to fight or die, get themselves cut to ribbons, then stand back up and save at least part of the day. And then get genuinely and honestly thanked and admired for it, by the hero. I mean, Kumara started out as the comedy relief. The rich idiot for our hero to be godlike beside. And then Baahubali says fuck that shit, and gives Kumara a chance to be a hero for real. And is so proud of him when he genuinely lives up to it.
It’s a ridiculous and hilarious little thing and a tiny fraction of a much, much bigger story, but it honestly really affected me, and I loved it so much! They were adorable!
(And then tragedy happened, because of course it did, and for real Bhallaladeva you deserved every last second of what happened to you at the end of this movie, you absolute bastard)
I just like that Baahubali is not just a ridiculously amazing badass, he’s also a genuinely good dude who wants to lift people up just so they can be honestly proud of themselves for having done something terrifying and heroic and for real
(Admittedly by dumping them in the middle of an honest-to-god fight for their lives and then vanishing, but, I mean … it worked?)
Also, watch these movies!
(Your picture was not posted)
honourablejester:
I’m just rewatching Baahubali 2
(If anyone has not watched the Baahubali movie duology, absolutely do watch them! They are six hours of Indian historical fantasy, wall-to-wall bombast and batshit-crazy spectacle, but also ridiculously affecting with grand tragedy and giddy romance and horrific betrayal and amazing triumph)
And one of the things that surprisingly really affected me was Amarendra Baahubali’s interactions with Kumara Varma.
Because, okay, there’s this standard story. The godlike hero goes undercover as a peasant in a foreign kingdom to win the heart of its princess. He pretends to be an idiot and winds up serving this noble ass of a suitor as part of his disguise. He performs godlike feats and makes it look like it’s the idiot doing them, and gradually the cowardly idiots starts to get a big head about it because he’s starting to wonder if he actually is doing these things. It comes to a head when the kingdom is being legit invaded by a massive bandit army, and our hero drops cover a bit to try and warn them, and the noble idiot gets uppity and not only yells at him but then kicks him. Kicks our hero solidly in the chest. Our hero who promptly goes on to reveal his godlike badassery and save the day.
In any other story, that poor uppity idiot would have been given his comeuppance and shamed for having attacked the hero.
But Baahubali raises him up instead.
Granted, by swinging in a window as a roomful of women is about to be slaughtered by about twenty enemies, handing the poor guy a knife and telling him this is his time to shine, and then swooping back out the window and leaving the poor bastard to either man up or be messily slaughtered as every woman in the room is stolen away or murdered …
But Baahubali realises that Kumara actually does have proper fight and honour in him, gives him the opportunity to prove it, and when Kumara does, when he fights and wins on his own merit and to protect his people, and thereby proves he genuinely is a worthy man and noble, when they meet again after the battle …
Kumara apologises to him for hitting him, clearly realising that here is the hero and quite possibly a literal god in mortal flesh, and clearly expecting to be shamed for what he did, and Baahubali tells him well done. He tells him that kick was how he knew Kumara really did have the strength to fight, and that the wounds he now bears are proper warrior wounds, and basically just tells him that he did good, and then hugs him. Genuinely. Like, that was amazing dude, I knew you had that in you, you did so good. And Kumara is ridiculously affected and it’s amazing.
This is just … not how this story normally goes. I mean, yes, the uppity noble often is shamed and humbled, and sometimes becomes a better person because of it, but usually they’re humbled just by seeing the hero’s badassery. They’re not usually given the opportunity to be badass themselves. They’re not usually handed a knife and told to fight or die, get themselves cut to ribbons, then stand back up and save at least part of the day. And then get genuinely and honestly thanked and admired for it, by the hero. I mean, Kumara started out as the comedy relief. The rich idiot for our hero to be godlike beside. And then Baahubali says fuck that shit, and gives Kumara a chance to be a hero for real. And is so proud of him when he genuinely lives up to it.
It’s a ridiculous and hilarious little thing and a tiny fraction of a much, much bigger story, but it honestly really affected me, and I loved it so much! They were adorable!
(And then tragedy happened, because of course it did, and for real Bhallaladeva you deserved every last second of what happened to you at the end of this movie, you absolute bastard)
I just like that Baahubali is not just a ridiculously amazing badass, he’s also a genuinely good dude who wants to lift people up just so they can be honestly proud of themselves for having done something terrifying and heroic and for real
(Admittedly by dumping them in the middle of an honest-to-god fight for their lives and then vanishing, but, I mean … it worked?)
Also, watch these movies!
(Your picture was not posted)