Last Sunday, I began to watch the third season of ‘The
Librarians’ (2014). As always, it is a rather enjoyable show – much more
friendly and non-conventional than most other shows that I watch on TV; the
titular heroes still have to defeat various villains with teamwork, but unlike,
say, ‘Blindspot’, they do it not through violence, but through thinking and
brainwork, and while there is SOME angst, usually there is more humor instead.
Also, unlike AoS, the cast and crew of ‘The Librarians’
treat their characters with respect and don’t appear to be rewriting the plot
on a regular basis – they are as solid as AoS would like to be, (though AoS IS
cleaning up its’ act in S4 – somewhat), which is why their treatment of the
Egyptian myths is rather surprising.
Or perhaps it is mistreatment instead? (Feel free to
make your own pun). Right now, one of the villains that the titular heroes have
to defeat is Apophis, a monster from the Egyptian mythology. Surprisingly, the
crew and especially the scriptwriters of the show had confused him with Set.
Now, Egyptian mythology IS somewhat confusing: just
look at Ra/Re (the archenemy of Apophis or Apep) and Horus (the archenemy of
Set). Both of them are falcon-gods, both of them have solar attributes, and
both are depicted as either falcons or falcon-headed humans. Both have solar
attributes, both had been chief deities of ancient Egypt at some point in time,
and at least for some time they formed a single deity – Horus-Re. (Or Ra). Yeah,
only professional Egyptologists would be bothered to distinguish between the
two gods for real at this point.
Yet, while Set
has something similar with another Egyptian god – Anubis, Apep is actually NOT really a part of this confusing
imagery problem – he is a giant snake that awaits Ra nightly at the Tenth Hour
of the Night and Ra has to defeat him, or else the sun, and the world, is
doomed. The first episode of ‘The Librarians’ S3 has a depiction of Set (or
Anubis), but it is inappropriate: Apep is a giant snake without any human or
humanoid features, (unlike the rest of the Egyptian deities). He cannot really
be confused with Set, or Horus, or any other Egyptian god or goddess – in no
small part because he was not one, but rather a demon that must be warded and
worshipped against instead.
I honestly hope that ‘The Librarians’ will be able to
sort this unexpected and strange confusion between Set and Apophis out in the
future episode, but don’t count on it, especially as the episode 3x02 promises ‘Egyptian
werewolves’ instead, which implies Anubis instead. However, you know what? This
sort of Egyptian confusion does not diminish one’s enjoyment of ‘The Librarians’
and their non-standard approach to various challenges.
…Speaking of standards and standardization, this
reminds me of ‘Deadliest Warrior’ (DW), and especially the third and final
season. Whether we are talking about ‘Teddy Roosevelt vs. Lawrence of Arabia’
or ‘Crazy Horse vs. Pancho Villa’, you are faced with a standard, two-person
team for each character – one being the book expert, and the other doing all of
the hard physical work.
…This sort of thing had not diminished the enjoyment
of watching DW, especially not while the show was not cancelled. However, it might
have contributed to the diminished ratings and to the reasons why DW became
cancelled after S3. Of course, ‘Vampires vs. Zombies’ might’ve contributed to
DW’s downfall as well – but that is another story…
Finally, AoS is returning to TV on Nov 29, so keep up
and be ready to enjoy the series again, for as long as it has time to left…
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