That community ritual was, I believed, called “running the gauntlet” and it was intended to prove courage, not punish.

I am watching both Vikings and The Last Kingdom (stretching this last one out for further enjoyment) and reading Cornwell’s War of the Wolf at the same time. Good mental exercise keeping everyone straight. But yes - and I can’t help but remember that Uhtred kills off both Ubbe (leading a Viking raid) and I think…

I don’t think I can emphasize enough how sick I am of the story line in which one character doesn’t tell another character something else, for what seems to me to be a very cogent reason - my daughter does not follow this, so I can confess here that I called the pound to see if her dog, that she was forced to give up,…

They were making a point about boundaries. And all they said was that he must pay with blood. Then, when push came to shove, they just nicked his hand. Which is what I think the writers had in mind all along. They were punishing a boy for trespassing. I thought it made perfect sense.

Now watching both Vikings and The Last Kingdom, trying to splice two completely unrelated pieces of fiction based on very related pieces of history. A crossover would be awesome. Won’t happen, I know, but still ...

Missing from Stray Observations (I thought): Graham’s comment about the group structure being somewhat flat. :)

“centering Jamie and Claire’s fear and viewing the Cherokee through their white, colonialist eyes.” But since Jamie and Claire are the POV characters, it only makes sense to see the Cherokee through their eyes. And as I like to say, how would you have them react? In some perfect way? Because if they did, our ancestors…

These past seasons could have gone a *lot* slower, I think - well, maybe not, given that we need to get beyond the ring, but a lot of interesting stuff happens before that. Overall, I’m just happy that we have a hero - a bunch of heroes, actually - who prefer not to solve everything with violence. I’ve read all the…

I won’t be back. The whole concept of “real” human nature being basically awful and anything else being a scam (we just pretend to be nice) just doesn’t work with me. True, a lot of our niceness can be washed away when conditions seem to warrant it - it’s much easier to be humane in humane situations. Otherwise in…

There are things here that are rather delightful for book readers - at least for me. I won’t go into details, but there are departures that promise something a little bit new, anyway. Loving every minute out in the Expanse.

Totally a trap. “You deserve this,”  - a nasty dig. Time alone with her lover, and then boom (in his mind). Although not certain why he arranged for Hannah to be there - maybe to twist the knife?

My not so secret hope now is for Serena to plot an escape with June and the baby. Probably not, but I can have fun with the thought while it lasts.

I want to know what the mouse whispered in Syd’s ear.

“where the show betrays the fundamental shallowness of its perspective”

And in Russia - there are Martha, and Philip’s son - so many possibilities. We won’t see it on the TeeVee, but are there any good fan fic writers out there? All fun concepts to play around with.

I think Philip thinks he owes Stan a heads up. What Stan does with it is something we’ll never really know. Fan fic time?

I have a problem with that too. The only thing I can think of is the drastic fall in birth rate that would freak people out so much that they would buy into anything.

Save the Expanse, because the possibilities for future stories are, literally, expansive.

I’m wondering if it was possible for Serena to conceive before being shot, but she couldn’t because Fred is sterile, and if she hadn’t been shot, could she have conceived with someone else, passing it off as Fred’s just as June is doing.

There are two shows that I think best deal with the frailty of human beings in the service of belief. Terror and The Americans. That being said, I still believe that belief (in one’s own civilization, in one’s own sense of honor, in actions in service to humanity) are important, whether we can see them through to the…