Zev vs Xev

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Pix click to sources.

One of cult scifi's hottest debates is Zev or Xev. Both in real life are cool European models/actresses. But this isn't real life, is it?

This is Lexx.

In a coexistent universe overlapping our own, in the same place, at the same time, Order was making a mockery of the human race across a League of 20,000 Planets. Human beings had been locked into a darker than Orwellian regime for thousands of years, and there was no such thing as freedom of choice, reality TV, or even shopping. Although all of humanity living under His Shadow played their parts in that rigidly controlled and regulated society, women especially were considered inferior, relegated by government to reproduction and slave service if they were unfit for other useful fields, such as bureaucracy and military. Make one mistake, and you could disappear into a judicial process that would repurpose your usefulness into parts for robotic drones. Everyone had a place.

Zev's place was in a box.

B3K- Lexx Wiki

The wife bank was a huge government sanctioned processing center, one of probably several kinds of what we'd innocently call boarding schools, for parents in menial roles that didn't allow room for parenting. At least their girls in the wife banks would be housed and fed during their reeducation into the mundane roles of laborer, service, wife, and prostitute. There was no shame in the programming schools taking over for kids who came from lesser families, for kids who didn't fit in with the aggressive compliance that Order required from families higher up on the food chain (literally).

ThePicBug

At first glance, we assume Zev wound up at the wife bank because she was abandoned, but if we look at the hopelessness pervading all of humanity under the Shadow of Order, I believe her parents either did what they thought was right or were pressured into doing it, maybe both. Best let go early before the horrors of Correction removed her later. No doubt this also included children who asked too many questions and took initiatives that were not in compliance with Order, and were therefore in constant danger of disappearing, being swallowed up in Corrections and never heard from again. I'm sure parents openly questioning or protesting children being removed from their families or whatever social structure there was were met with equal retribution, quashing all thought of doubting Order. Thinking outside the box wasn't allowed. Problem solving skills came with hefty guidelines, and coloring inside the lines led to longer lives.

ThePicBug

So being turned over to the wife bank nearly from birth may actually have extended Zev's life. As we watch her emotionally mature through the series, we realize her natural questioning and initiative were already deeply rooted and she would never be able to accept living as a slave to Order, in any capacity, confirmed by her rapid decline into harsh sentencing after she automatically defended herself almost as soon as she had graduated the wife bank. I believe her parents extended her chances for survival when they submitted her to the wife bank, even if the whole scene seems lame and inexcusable from our point of view. What else could they do? She'd have questioned everything growing up and drawn attention to herself.

ThePicBug

It's very hard to imagine a society without concepts for family solidarity, holiday gatherings, or even the possibility of happiness. Such large scale repression made it impossible for families to thrive at all unless they wholeheartedly supported Order and used their every waking moment to excel in serving it, as we see in the scene of children being awarded Merits of Service. Their parents likely ranked much higher and were more deeply entrenched in loyalty, and therefore had access to opportunities and the perks that came with them. Under His Shadow, this loyalty undoubtedly went far beyond anything we think of as Big Brother, as we see good children being rewarded with special invitations to mass executions akin to Superbowl sized sporting events.

We aren't privy to much of Zev's brainwashing, but we can assume some of it was pretty explicit so she'd be ready to be a good wife. Lexx fans have seen me dancing daintily around ignoring her matron coaching her on the "tower of power" scenes in the past, which immediately clue us in on how deeply sexist and layered society would be around her once she got out of that box. Lexx very clearly shows us both child and sex slavery in efficiently short scenes that leave us hanging with disturbing clues to how deeply controlling His Shadow has become over billions and billions of people that amount to him as little more than cattle in a breeding program.

I wrote all of the above to contrast the 'smut in space' mentality some scifi reviewers have had for Lexx. Fine, if that sells the show, because that's one way to sell the deeper content. Of course it's smut in space, a love slave escaped on the most powerful weapon of destruction in the two universes.

I Worship His Shadow- part 8- Zev Bellringer

I could do an entire chapter on lusticons and what their impact would be on our own society. In Zev's world, however, they were little more than sophisticated DNA resequencers that forced women into such menial roles that they had expiry dates. They were remade to be used up and thrown away. Yes, they were remade into Beauty itself, the stuff of dreamers and poets, but along with that their minds were also stripped down to compulsive service and little else. To give readers some context, I'll cross the line of bad taste and simply ask- which would you prefer, your wife to be a real person like original Zev, or a mistress that's nothing more than a responsive doll? It's a trick question, because deep down we all want both, don't we? Be honest and admit it- we want to be able to use people without repurcussion and consequence, without guilt and self loathing. And Order makes this possible. No guilt, no conscience. Just a lusticon and a very smoothly running society. If you don't want to be made into a love slave, you do your time in a box and color inside the lines. Once you're a love slave, you're no longer a citizen. You are government property and allotted like merchandise with no regard to your feelings, your misery, your sadness, and leaving behind everyone you ever cared about or loved.

It's really important to see this from the Lexx point of view to really get all the rest of Lexx. So many viewers admit confusion, especially by season four, when it's really quite simple. All broken people want is real love, forgiveness, freedom... If you've never been around that kind of broken, you probably won't get Lexx.

All it took was one confused punch after being publicly insulted

So Zev majorly failed years of repressed wife preparation and found herself slung into the heart of the mass butchering of other poor souls not toeing the lines, actually felt ripped off that instead of being put out of her misery she'd be stripped of the last of her menial rights and be forced to ride that tower of power the rest of her quickly expiring days, and not even against her will because even that would be taken away from her via brainwashing program, and how do you even process all that while you're bolted to a slab and nothing but machines and a robot around you? Zev grew up without the warmth of humanity, yet she so beautifully expresses that very thing through the rest of the series.

So let's psyche eval Zev, the escaped love slave. First of all, surreal. Can you even imagine making it through the lusticon and suddenly the world around you has changed? The robot is broken, there's bloody cluster lizard mess and a giant (at least twelve feet long) decapitated cluster lizard on the floor, and whadayaknow, the bands are suddenly easy to pull away from their bolts on the slab. Zev doesn't seem very phased, because her entire life has been so boxed. She's simply in another box right now, a room with automatic equipment still going. And she's had a really long stupid day/week (we have no idea how long she was bolted to that slab for the trip to the Cluster), her crankiness has leveled up exponentially from the new cluster lizard DNA just incorporated into all her cells, and she's in no mood to waste time freaking out about anything. She's just pissed. And you know how funny ugly situations get when a person is a way past cranky. That's right, let's toss a robot head into a brainwashing program and giggle. Surreal.

These come from ThePicBug and click out to larger.

  

Seeing her reflection was a shock. Her struggle with Stan over who would be the human shield was pure instinctual reflex. The grab for the robot head to open the door happened in that hyper aware 'we're gonna die' state. Her dive through the doors and into fugitive escape with Stanley was coincidence. The world just kept flipping upside down over and over. We never see Zev (or Xev) go through this kind of pure flight response again. Everything she goes through after her initial flight response is calculated and consciously thought through, defying the fate that was originally intended for her as a mindless love slave. (I'm still facepalming over 'smut in space'. Really? How shallow are some of these reviewers?)

ThePicBug

By the time we reach season two, we've all fallen in love with Zev. She's way more than feisty and gorgeous, she's real. She's sad and determined and hopeful, and pretty much the tie that binds the crew into a gang with some semblance of a mission. Zev is a decision maker, despite growing up brainwashed in a box, and she very sternly draws her lines around right and wrong. In her heart of hearts, she knows what the good is that she longs for, because she's been so deep in the bad. She's a strong moral character even though she's still trapped in a DNA reboot meant to deconstruct morality into the control mechanism of Order.

The Pic Bug

And then she sacrifices her life to save an undead assassin and a traitor. I wept. I don't get very gooey over TV, but that scene ripped me apart. In the midst of being trapped in experimental medical torture fetish, she is the one who makes the moral decision to fight for the right, and since she never grew up being taught what was right, she got that from her own heart. The depths of Zev came out fighting in a greedy world with no hope left, and she died loving the loveless wanderers who had accidentally helped her escape Order. To see a Divine Assassin kneel and lift her slave bands out of her molecular remains was devastating to everyone but himself, because he could not feel it. But intellectually, that was a defining moment after billions had lived out thousands of years of slavery across a galaxy. The fandom went into shock.

The Pic Bug

And then the fandom split into camps of delight and outrage when a plant used a recombinant DNA process to reconstruct Zev's remains with the DNA of an astronaut from Potatohoe, and we get our beautiful love slave reborn, complete with memories, because Lyekka the plant felt sorry for Stanley's loneliness. Think about this- a living 'lusticon' function, a remanufacturing out of love, no brainwashing this time, and Xev is reborn and given back to the crew as a gift. It was weird and sweet and weird... And it's not our Zev, but it's still Xev, as she knows herself, but redefined. Kinda creepy, but still very beautiful. So... is she part Potatohoe-an? Sort of the astronaut's daughter? Did Lyekka impart any plant DNA into her as well? None of these questions seem to come up, but she's definitely still part reconstituted cluster lizard. (@bonenado adds "out of instant potatoes".)

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We watch Xev struggle through the rest of the series with what is it she really wants. First we see her relive what seems like teenager/young adult years, except now she's no longer in a box and sparkling with the delight and joy of sexual discovery. As season two goes on, we watch her mature and take sides on right and wrong, tolerating abuse from Mantrid and then stepping up in Brigadoom to fight for a cause. By the time season two ends, Xev knows exactly what love is, and how deeply it will sacrifice itself.

The Pic Bug

Throughout season three we watch Xev go through the heartbreaking layers of being sweetly romanced by nefarious evil with ulterior motive. Xev starts out innocently believing she has finally found love at long last, only to realize she's been used for purposes that go against her strengthening moral principles. Considering that Xev came from deep in the heart of uncompromising moral deprivation, Prince finds she's not so easy to seduce, and even rivals his indestructible ambition with her indestructible cluster lizard tenacity, going so far as to outlast him on his own planet, outwit him at his own game, and even threaten him with her own brand of instinctual cluster lizard evil. She definitely has an edge over falling prey to the Prince of darkness, being only half human, a first for the planet Fire, which allows only human souls to pass into its realm.

The Pic Bug

After the shock of going through season three, season four feels a little confusing, but stay focused. Remember that Zev/Xev came from Order. She came from repression, matured through the kinds of moral ambiguity that break people, she discovered her strength against evil, and now she's finally reached a place in the Two Universes that has never been touched by the long arms of Order- Earth. We don't know if Earth humans are a surviving remnant that escaped the Insect Wars many millennia ago, much like Kai's people did for awhile, but Earth has developed all kinds of evils of its own, from governments to black market, and we get to see what happens when a genuine love slave created in the darkest heart of true evil does when she's kidnapped for porn, used to spike reality show ratings, fought over for unrequited love, captured for black market organ theft, handling a real job as a counselor, and most of all, finding out what Kai would have been like if he'd been born on Earth and how their relationship would have turned out.

Original Zev is played by Lisa Hynes.

Zev is played by Eva Habermann.

Xev is played by Xenia Seeberg.

Unlike many fans, I do not have a preference for one actress or another, and don't wish to see canon changed. The continuity works just fine for me, and I appreciate Zev/Xev in all her forms. Remembering that her character essence is what this show is all about means more to me than having favorite actors. I think they all did wonderful work and sincerely portrayed so many offenses against women with sweetness and strength of form. Following Zev's/Xev's journey across the Two Universes has deeply affected me personally, and if/when I come back to another post on Zev/Xev, I'd like to look more deeply into her role in the prophecies about the cycles of time.

More reading from other fans-
Zev and Xev Bellringer of B3K
Zev&Xev

It's Good to be Queen- Giggerota, Part Three

I normally grab awesome pix from Angelbacchae's screen captures or her newer site The Pic Bug, but it looks like she's currently transitioning some of her Lexx, so I'm grabbing my own pix again, which are hosted at LexxPix.

Girltown is a conundrum, so I'm going to start immediately with a disclaimer. I'll try to stick to Giggy, but to understand her character this season, we need to look at where she is and why.

Since Girltown is on the planet Fire (basically, hell) and the only thing the inhabitants seem to be trapped there for at first glance is being alt-sexual, most reviewers simply say homosexual, and some especially plead the case that Girltown is the only city on Fire where some of the inhabitants didn't deserve to be in hell. I agree with this first glance.

However, since we really don't know what their previous lives were like (human trafficking, sex slavery, prostitution, blackmail, drug pushing, snitching and spying, keeping their mouths shut instead of diverting the crimes of others, and yes, actual murder by OD or other means to solve a problem- all the fun 'party' stuff that more innocent viewers don't know go on in the underground, plus we must remember that many of them don't remember their past, so pleading innocence on Fire is moot) and completely glosses over bisexuals, transsexuals, asexuals, and the myriad of other orientations out there (pedophiles would be especially tormented on Fire, since it lacks children), I'd rather not lump it into a simple "gays go to hell" debate. For instance, Mantrid's servant is an interesting study I look forward to doing. He seems to be like Bunny, 'innocent', but will do anything for his obsessive love and devotion to the most evil man in the two universes. Anyway, Lexx has been known to be gay-friendly throughout the series, so we can't stop at shallow here.

I think the roots of their being there go deeper than simple sexuality issues, including bondage for slave labor (of which S&M is a necessary duality, a kind of understood partnership), which I'll deal with later when I do a review on the Girltown episode (season 3, episode 11). I'll also immediately point out that group sex is a big thing on Boomtown, and no one questions that on Water (basically, heaven), so let's knock the homosexual thing out of the way right off the bat. And with that, I give a nod to a Lexxplorations reviewer, who spent a considerable amount of time on many Lexx quotes and Lexxellent critical thinking. I think I know what the deal is behind that lengthy puzzle. And having said that, now I'll say I agree that some mistakes are made, as Prince pointed out, and perhaps some of the girls' souls were dragged there by their handlers from a past life, because handlers own their slaves. Some viewers/readers may not be familiar with trafficking vernacular.

Ok, back to Giggy.

Right before we we see Giggerota again, we see a gloved hand adjust a setting by turning a wheel.

Then we pan down to a fire underneath what looks like a really big cauldron. Since we're already on Fire, where everyone is so miserable with the heat, it's odd that we're actually seeing a deliberately controlled fire.

We know this face. And we can tell she likes the fire.

Turns out Giggerota is Queen of Girltown, only we find out in a little bit that she doesn't remember having been Giggerota at all (which raises the question of why she's not in the Tunnels with the rest of the serial murderers, but I'll get there in a minute). Hell apparently isn't hot enough for her, so her throne is a hot tub. Nearly boiling hot, in fact.

The first and biggest question that comes to my own mind is Why a queen? Why her?

At first it seems like she's being coddled, and her voice starts off soft, which is the sort of scene we might have expected on Water for someone who's led a good and decent life, but that changes real quick when she sees Stanley, who's been captured and jailed. Queen thinks Stanley is a girl, a derogatory term which has weirdly lost its original meaning, as the 'girls' of Girltown are lower-classed slave labor that also happen to all be men.

And then we are utterly creeped out when Queen finds out Stanley has never died before...

It doesn't take long to notice Queen oversees every minute detail in a society that segregates itself into girls and boys, a subset of Shes (plural of she) versus the Non-Shes that live outside of Girltown.

Queen sits in judgement at the top of a bedchamber in which Rivet sits holding a gavel attached to a torture device around her arm, supervising the points of order while Queen directs the council speakers.

Queen calls "Quorum!" and then says "Begin!" with a wink, a gesture that carries significance within a certain power group. I'm not sure the Beans were insinuating or intending anything of the sort here, but it makes sense if they did, since it would mean Queen is the one elite power on Fire.

Queen is seen by the council only through the screen.

By the way, Wrench is misspelled on imdb to Wench. Socket disputing Wrench's amendment doesn't make sense if the name is misspelled, which changes the meaning. Wrench throws a wrench into the proceedings, get it? And all the 'boys' have tool names. Getting the puns are key to understanding why these people and their pettiness are in hell. I mean, on Fire. #facepalm

#darnthesepunstoheck #thatwasaDilbertreference 

#Imenjoyingthiswaytoomuch (Also, I like to think that Lewis would have enjoyed this episode after all the work he put into The Prilgrim's Regress.)

The whole argument in court boils down to Stanley not being a girl because even though he looks like one, he doesn't behave like nor is dressed like one (like the transgendered slaves), and since it's obvious he's not a boy (like the transgendered council members), he must be a Non-She, which the council finds quite shocking. They have no other word for men. All men outside of Girltown are called Non-Shes and considered very dangerous. Queen wants them to get to the point. Giggerota was always a person of few very to the point words.

The question of whether Stanley might be Prince in disguise comes up, or that his sudden appearance in Girltown might be a plot by Duke to gain a foothold for power. Since Queen has already interrogated Stanley and knows he is a "first timer", she stays patient through the debate over which of three motions should be voted on for the highest punishment, which is death, and then makes her own motion to claim Stanley's body, which is immediately carried and voted yes without question.

I'm about to make some really big observations about the overall power structure on Fire. Prince fans may not like what I'm about to conclude. It's a line of psych-analytical reasoning that I am first to admit could be entirely wrong, but it actually works for so many questions that pop up with fans. I'll be gentle, but it's still going to feel like I'm ripping off a bandaid, ok? Let's think it through.

One can gather from the council discussion that the alt-sexed who wake up in Girltown are all familiar with the way sex is used to create a power structure, and where their places are in that structure. On Water, all sexes are equal and equally enjoyed. The question of innocence and not belonging on Fire might have nothing at all to do with being gay or otherwise alt-sexed, but how one behaves with it toward those who are different from themselves. Intolerance is obviously prevalent throughout Girltown, and even the 'girls' who proclaimed innocence didn't blink at killing a couple of 'boys' instead of simply overpowering and binding them up as slaves themselves (turn about is fair play, right), so they are, in fact, murderers and showed no remorse over doing it. Anyone different from oneself is of no consequence. I believe that is at the root of them winding up on Fire. Sexuality and orientation itself is not the issue. Plus, we must remember that the murdered boys will simply wake up again and go back to their original jobs, so that didn't really solve or change anything.

We could have all kinds of fun tying Giggerota's past rebellion against the stifling Divine Order, which tried to force pair her for its own agenda, to her current overseeing of a gender bent culture that turns sadomasochism into an all new Order. If His Divine Shadow is the male symbol of hell in the Light Universe, Queen is the female symbol on Fire. Neither one has a mate, and each is one of a kind. His Shadow is, in actual essence (Insect Essence), part of a non-human hive mind and actually sexless as far as we know (not counting his host), and Fire seems to be an exclusively human afterlife. (Note that Xev, being part Cluster Lizard, was able to outlive, outmanueuver, and outthink Prince on Fire.) So by default, Queen is a sole monarchy, virtually equivalent to His Shadow being a sole overlord or god of sorts. Queen is what happens when bioviziers strip Giggerota's soul out of her genetically restructured brain and body. The other serial murderers in the Tunnels with the worst of the worst on Fire were, simply put, natural murderers. Giggerota was created to murder, and even His Shadow had to 'put her down' when she got out of hand. She is the Queen of murderers, if you will, created by the second biggest murderer in the Light Universe (His Shadow pales to Mantrid, who, incidentally, wound up in the Tunnels), and she, too, is now sexless and bodiless, just like His Divine Shadow.

When Stanley says he's willing to do anything Queen wants and that he can make her happy, Queen replies, "Queen can never be happy. Life is difficult for Queen. Prince rules this planet. Duke wants to rule it. And will Queen ever get a chance? No. Because Queen is stuck here in this cesspool. And all we can do in Girltown is make balloons." And she goes on about how awful it is doing nothing but holding meetings and making balloons. She feels like she's missing all the action while everyone else on Fire attacks Water or each other while she stagnates. Her personal hell? "There's no body for Queen." Pretty awesome retribution for someone who feasted on other people's bodies. Queen would actually be happy in hell if she weren't stuck in a cauldron.

So, she sees herself as the bottom of the power structure, instead of embracing Girltown as the cornerstone of a power structure. Jealous of Prince and Duke being able to stride around fighting each other and waging war on Water, Queen thinks she simply can't advance until she is free of her cauldron, little realizing that neither Prince nor Duke can win anything without winning Girltown first.

Queen obviously trumps Prince as a baddie, and even being stuck in her cauldron holds a few cards over him. Prince doesn't seem, from our point of view, to mess around that much with Girltown, although we can tell from the council discussion that he has clearly tried in the past. The Prince of Fire, being a persona that one could argue represents the son of perdition, could also be reasonably argued to be next in line for the crown, except that on Fire, there is no succession since this is Death. Prince often talks of escaping Fire, even though he seems to be the most powerful person there, except for Girltown. Why? Is he really trying to get away from his mother? (Metaphorically.) (Slipped a little Freud in there, which I'm sure he'd find amusingly charming. Forgive me, I'm having fun Freuding up Dantean Lexx.)

Aristocracy is a funny thing. It's stifling for the kids who are anxious for some real action of their own, while the adults sit around minding the store, which pretty much runs itself since everything is already set into place. It was mentioned during the council meeting that Duke was more capable of sending spies to sabotage Girltown than Prince was, and they all seemed aware that banishing Prince by death couldn't stop him showing up in disguise again, so we know they've had experience with both Duke and Prince. We can look at Duke and Prince as rivaling cousins trying to capture Girltown before the other does. Capturing Girltown is the key to changing the ultimate power structure on Fire before the Lexx arrives, and I'll show you why.

Queen's Girltown runs the balloon industry, providing transportation for the entire planet, giving Girltown a pretty sweet spot in the hierarchy of ownership. Girltown houses a smoothly operating slave labor of 'girls' (hence the name Girltown), a voraciously mean army of young leather-clad 'boys', and a judicial system of hardened and utterly unmerciful older 'boys'. Does this tightly controlled power structure remind anyone of the Cluster? By comparison, the other cities on Fire don't seem nearly as resourceful and organized. Since this is so very unlike Giggerota, who was hellbent (get it?) on creating chaos and tearing down Order, I think it's important to ask why such a leap has happened with her character.

I think Queen is the new Shadow, a remnant from the Cluster. Giggerota the cannibal and the Giga Shadow were both insatiable in their lust for eating humans. Also remember, I said in Part One that I think she was unkillable until the Super Nova took her out, and now I think that is why Prince needs the Lexx. Follow me here, let's think about this. Check out this foreshadowing from the Lexx wikia wiki- "Giggerota however is left on a retracting power pillar on Brunnis and wildly screams at the Brunnis Sun and Star demanding a show, resulting in the two merging and going supernova, destroying the planet and incinerating her." Um, Fire and Water, guys? Locked in orbit together like Brunnis Sun and Blue Star...

By the way, Doily didn't kill Queen, he just turned the heat up on her. Probably another pun, but remember we didn't see her die. I think this was very brazen of Doily after that big speech he gave Kai about we're not like that, we're not like the others, we don't belong here, we wouldn't hurt anybody. Doily uses his sexuality as a cover, hiding behind indignant whining about his frailty when he's actually quite capable of stepping up without an eyeblink. I think the word for Doily is 'experienced', not 'innocent'. He understands the S&M power structure quite well and knows how to manipulate it.

Ok, back to why Queen trumps Prince. First please note that Queen owns more water than Prince does, and instead of using it to cool off, she uses it to make things hotter. Prince wants to upset the balance. We think he means by taking over Water, and yes, of course he does, but I think he also means not needing Girltown. The Lexx is his dream come true in that regard, since Lexx obviously trumps balloons and everything else Fire has to offer. I almost get a visual of an impatient prince doing figure 8s with a Lamborghini on the palace lawns. Lexx does figure 8s around Fire and Water. Why am I making a big deal of this? Because we never see Prince either confront or use Queen or her minions in his plans, nor rescue any of the Lexx crew from her for his new plans. If Queen had managed to kill Stanley before Prince did, she would have not only owned his body and soul, but by default would have become captain of the Lexx, which we know Prince would have been wildly against happening. The fact that Prince didn't show up and rescue Stanley, like he did in Tunnels, shows me that he is powerless over Queen.

Those of you who just went into shock, my apologies, but it does explain some weird incongruities. Lexx is the kind of show that doesn't stop and explain things in conference rooms like some other scifi shows do. Lexx expects you to hit the ground running and try to keep up.

So who came first, Queen or Prince? I think, like the Time Prophet, Fire and Water lie outside normal time. I don't think there was a beginning as we would understand it, I don't think time there is linear and relative to our time, and I think they sprung into existence, as the above linked reviewer has postulated, for the Lexx crew, possibly even from Giggerota's death. Another idea is when the Lexx freed Mantrid to destroy the Light Universe, I make a case that the Lexx tipped the balance and broke the cycles of time, which we could now conceivably argue may have created a backlash bubble that trapped all the souls lost when the Light Universe collapsed. But I severely digress.

But how can Queen be the metaphorical mother of Prince, you ask. Simple authority. Queen is unbendable, immovable, the worst of the worst of the worst. Prince cannot win his conquest for ultimate overlord while Queen rules. Once again, worlds must literally blow up to get her out of the way.

Go back to part two.
Go on to part four.

gettin Giggy with the afterlife: Giggerota- Part Two

Pix are my own snips, hosted at LexxPix.

Ok, where were we? Giggerota bit the big one, so we are really surprised when she suddenly shows up in season two, episode 14 "Patches in the Sky". (The external, I mean Lexxternal links there are awesome.) Turns out she's part of some really creepy nightmares.

It's psychologically interesting that Stan dreams of Giggerota, who was a cannibal, just before they discover the entire Light Universe is disappearing bit by bit, as if it's being swallowed up by a big nothing.

It's also interesting that Stan, Captain of the Lexx, is the one having the nightmares about getting mired and stuck and trapped and threatened. At first glance it almost looks like he's having a premonition about the end of the universe and doesn't know yet he is the only one who can truly do anything about it, although I'm not sure the writers had that in mind.

Yes, it all starts off with the guilt thing, which we know actually goes clear back to a complicated mess of Reform Planets being blown up, resulting in the deaths of 685 billion people because he got caught with the codes, and yes, it turns into a payback nightmare, but why Giggerota? He dreamed of the globe with her in it before he ever sat in the narco-lounger, so again, I call premonition. But what of?

One could make an argument at this point that Giggerota's soul was on its way to the planet Fire in the Dark Zone (season 3), and this dream representation could partially be a real haunting.

It's pretty scary that a murderer is demanding that Stanley face being a murderer himself. Is this really Stan's own brain tormenting him? Again I ask, why Giggerota? After everything Stan has been through, it could have been any number of people representing the dead in his nightmares, and this is especially weird because Stanley didn't kill her.

That lone tear for his fear while she mocks him is delightful.

What makes this point of view even more interesting is that his argument with her about his guilt and sins is almost identical to what Prince says to him in season 3, after which Stan winds up in hell, so one could go further out on the branch and presuppose this is Prince already playing his games while he waits for the Lexx to reach Fire. This won't be the first time we see Stanley trapped up to his head.

"More than anything else, you are afraid of death! That's what I'm going to bring you."

Thank goodness things start going wrong outside the dream bubble, interrupting it in progress, although it wasn't good for Gubby.

Since this isn't a Patches in the Sky review, I'm not going to say more about it, except that the dream imagery is really cool when you notice it goes through a gradient reduction, like planet rubble. It might be easy to overlook what's happening until you remember Stanley's history, which is why we're all here watching Lexx in the first place.

I'm known to overthink things, but Giggerota is a really fun character to overthink. And you guessed it, there's a part three and a part four coming.

Go back to part one.
Go on to part three.

Heresy in the First Degree- Thodin of the Ostral-B Pair

That omg moment when you wake up at 5 a.m. nearly 13 years after the show is over and realize that they probably added Thodin to the Divine Assassin collection (you can own them all!) and used him to help with the culling and cleansing in s1ep4's Giga Shadow. Disclaimer- I don't read fanfic. Ever. Unless a friend shoves one in my face and that hasn't happened in years. If a Lexx fan out there has actually written about this happening to Thodin, kudos to you. I'm sure there is at least one Russian fan out there who was brilliant enough to run with this idea.

Thodin, proclaimed Arch-Heretic by His Divine Shadow, is the leader of a small gang of Ostral-B rebels, or "heretics" opposed to the Divine Order when we see him. He was likely much more than that, since leading a strike force into the heart of enemy territory to steal the biggest weapon of mass destruction ever created would take the sort of precision and team loyalty that any black ops team knows means do or die.

We have some idea of how long this had been in the planning stages. In the first movie I Worship His Shadow, we learn that Stanley Tweedle is still carrying one or more secret codes embedded in his teeth. We further learn in the fourth movie Giga Shadow that Stanley was originally caught by Sub-Nebulae mercenaries (Sub-Ns for short) and turned over to His Shadow, who then named him Arch-Traitor and kept him alive for years in the ironic position of processing prisoners as a security guard, which sent strong messages to outlying planets not yet incorporated into the League of 20,000 Planets. Thodin not only knew Stanley Tweedle and mocked his title of Arch-Traitor, but was probably his commanding officer when Stanley was assistant deputy backup courier in charge of getting the codes across enemy territory.

Not turning this into a Stanley bio, but Stanley is crucial to understanding more about Thodin, since he is the last living person to have spoken to him (unless you count the Zev kiss and then the heretic who was immediately eaten by a Cluster Lizard), and their last conversation revealed so much in so little time about their relationship before Thodin was killed.

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Thodin was beyond angry at the sight of Stanley, to the point of distraction from his mission. One might think that if Thodin had been able to set his emotions aside, he might have been able to utilize Stanley's inside knowledge of the Cluster, particularly the finer points on security (makes sense, doesn't it?), but Thodin was so obviously incensed to find Stanley still alive that he couldn't help taking the extra minute to berate Stanley personally for the difficult position his capture had put them all in, on top of the many years Stanley had been humiliated as the Arch Traitor anyway. Meanwhile, Stanley was surprised and relieved to see Thodin still alive since the Reform Planets had been destroyed after his capture, based on coordinates found in one of his teeth. Basically, Thodin had to come re-steal what they had stolen in the first place, except now the Lexx was more than codes- it was fully grown and would have to be flown out.

:edit: 3-22-15 I originally prepublished this post before I was done, which a handful of you saw (12 direct link hits from twitter and G+, additional whole page views also happened before I did this update). The issue I posed to twitter (which turned out to be a nonissue for the one fan who responded) was about how the Ericon raid was played out. I have oscillated from one event to two events back to one event. "The first raid to smuggle out the Lexx codes must have gone off without a hitch until Stanley got caught, after that it turned into a war going back to steal a copy of the Key so they could steal the actual Lexx." I recant that. It was one trip to Ericon for both the codes and the Key, they barely made it out alive, and the Key lived inside Thodin all the years Stanley was prisoner on the Cluster, where the Lexx was being grown. How Thodin actually acquired the key during the heist is left to speculation. It was doubtful he throttled anyone for it since a- the Lexx hadn't been grown yet, and b- it was meant for His Shadow. This makes Thodin the true original captain of the Lexx, and this may be why he was able to willingly pass it along. Everyone afterward has inherited the key by means of death or sexual ecstacy, a spiritual 'death' state.

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Originally, the Lexx was designed by two Ericon biocode specialists, one of whom turned out to be Brizon. The Lexx was meant to be grown on the Cluster for His Shadow, a planet killer more powerful than any weapon that had ever been built in the two universes, including the Foreshadow, which we watched destroy every living thing on Brunnis 2 in only 20 shots (I counted the firing noises, it might have been 19 if editing put two sound effects too close together), leaving behind a blackened dead planet. The Lexx would be able to blow a planet up into pieces with one shot, making the stolen codes (over which a war cost millions of lives) a last desperate hope against a government that had been spreading across the Light Universe for thousands of years engulfing all of humanity, following a war with a race of Insects that had lasted thousands of years more before that. The League of 20,000 Planets forced a restrictive political religion that not only turned humanity into a slave culture, but very literally absorbed humanity into itself, as we see in Giga Shadow. The League didn't hesitate to reward crime syndicates for their cooperation in acquiring and turning over information and hostages, and Stanley Tweedle happened to be the one who got caught attempting to smuggle the stolen codes after the Heretics finally wrested them off Ericon.

The planet of Ostral-B, above all the other Reform Planets, was apparently famous as a staunch hold-out from the League and became synonymous with heretics and traitors, which is most likely League-speak. Joining the resistance meant politically aligning with Ostral-B, which was very dangerous since His Shadow had the resources to wipe out all life on a planet in minutes. As we must imagine, defense technology had developed into planet-level cloaking capabilities, which is confirmed in season two's Brigadoom. Since Brunnis 2 was destroyed 2000 years before Thodin's attempt to steal the Lexx, we don't know whether Brunnis 2 was part of the Ostral-B reform alliance or if the Ostral-B alliance came later. We do know that the Ostral-B were aware of the Brunnen-G being lost to history, and could reasonably make the assumption that they either once shared technology or one may have grown out of the other from another time further back, which could also conceivably make the Brunnen-G and Ostral-B very distantly related, as Vulcans and Romulans are in the Trek universe. But all that is speculation. For now, let us assume that Thodin and Stanley Tweedle were both actually from Ostral-B.

I have mentioned the curious incongruity between what appears to be low level culture and high level tech keeping that culture in place on the Cluster and throughout the League. That Thodin and his gang look a bit like steampunk warriors belies the sheer knowledge and experience they had with Insect technology for what must have been not only lifelong but intergenerational warfare. We can probably assume from even this small amount of information gathering that Thodin was an extremely high-ranked and well-known person bordering on legend across the Light Universe. The Cluster had evidently been attempting to acquire this publicly named Arch Heretic for years, as we see they already have his judicial proceedings prerecorded for very swift justice and execution. Ironically, it would seem that Thodin and his rebels might have somehow previously infiltrated the Cluster's automatic coding locks and procedures and used being captured as a sure way in without getting caught, because they were ingeniously already caught. I also believe they chose the gate change, but this is still highly debatable, and they obviously had no idea their own Stanley Tweedle would be manning that particular switch, just as Stanley had no idea they were on board the transport to which he was refusing to give docking permission. From I Worship His Shadow- Part 2- The Cluster, "A security guard with 991 demerits is almost late reporting to work at Department 511 Level 4. A prisoner transport has been diverted to Gate 511. This is Thodin's day of justice... "

This being the most important day in the history of the two universes, we're very surprised to see Thodin killed early on, after surviving so much war in the first place. His presence turned out to be crucial as he carried a copy of the Key to the Lexx, biotech created to reside within the body of its captain, which should have been His Shadow. As Thodin rants to Stanley about the war on Ericon where millions died so he could get the Key, we don't yet realize that Stanley failing to smuggle the Lexx codes in the first place is the reason it must be stolen now after it is grown. The Key, originating from Insect Essence and biocoded along with the Lexx, is the only way to operate the Lexx, using a host as an interfacing catalyst. If the codes had been smuggled successfully, Thodin would already be on the brink of using the Lexx himself as its captain, instead of stealing it.

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:edit: 3-22-15 Since I'm coming back to this two days later, that's go ahead and switch gears before I get lost in the history obsessing again.

Thodin was played by Barry Bostwick. I don't think he has a twitter, but here he is on facebook.

Ok, THODIN. This outfit is outrageously awesome. I've seen all kinds of speculation in forums through the years about what kind of warrior outfit this is, is there any significance, on and on. First of all, get standardized military uniforms out of your head. This isn't Earth, and it's not the Cluster. Next, notice the vibrant colors, much like the Brunnen-G. Kai wasn't wearing a warrior outfit when he was killed. Now think about what Thodin was actually doing, his goals, how he aimed to achieve his goals. I'm going to jump to a scenario that helps me visualize a little more what's actually going on.

Thodin and his gang of heretics wanted to be caught so they could get to the Lexx. They wound up on a transport carrying Zev Bellringer and Giggerota. Zev is from B3K. It's highly improbable that Zev had ever been off-planet, so I'm going to assume that the prisoners on this transport were gathered from B3K. Giggerota was charged with ravaging temples and eating priests, a setting which seems to be a theme when we look back through Zev's memories and conceivably fits in with being assigned to a wife bank training center and then going berzerk. But why are the heretics on B3K? Because the Reform Planets have all been destroyed. These are presumably the last of the heretics hiding out among the B3K citizenry, and we know that B3K is part of the League of 20,000 Planets. Thodin has probably been lurking in a base of underground operations on B3K ever since Stanley got caught. Or, who knows, maybe they had previously infiltrated the League and established this base before it all went down, and now it came in handy.

So if Thodin is hiding and wants to get caught so he can get into the Cluster and steal the Lexx, what does he need to do to get caught? Well, I'd call donning a ceremonial Ostral-B outfit and wearing it in public on B3K a good way to get some big attention real fast. From there it wouldn't take much for Thodin and a few co-conspitators tussling with authorities and being recognized to wind up exactly where they wanted to be, on a transport heading to the Cluster for special execution. We know Thodin smuggled in a bug bomb which was preprogrammed with blueprints and detailed instructions, so it's likely that B3K was an ideal place to lay down an undercover information pipeline that might have gone all the way into the Cluster. That would explain how they were able to get the gate change, which apparently got them as close to the Lexx as possible once they were inside. From there, Thodin and his gang acquired black packs and then managed to quickly reach the Lexx, so they clearly had help on the inside regarding building plans, codes, timing, you name it. This plan must have taken years to set up. (Remember that when you see Stanley slapping at the bug bomb.) At any rate, I can imagine how apropos it would have been, had Thodin successfully pulled off the Lexx heist, to blast up the Cluster wearing ceremonial Ostral-B garb after his planet had been blown up. BOOYA!!

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There are two things that Thodin unwittingly did that weren't according to plan and unintentionally made huge differences later. After the bug bomb detonated and he was pulling his heretics off the prisoner slabs, Thodin caved to releasing a prisoner known as Giggerota the Wicked. Giggerota is later responsible for getting Stanley up to the command center of the Lexx in a moth, then it's her idea to steer toward the Frontier, which gave them a head start. While we are speaking of prisoners, remember that Thodin was detained inside his own special unit during transport, so he isn't wearing the slab bands like the other heretics or like Zev is still wearing even after her transformation. He and Zev probably never saw each other before they met near the Lexx, even though they came in on the same transport, since she was already in processing by the time the bug bomb detonated and Thodin was brought back to the slabs. He and the other heretics never blinked at her slab bands (I doubt any of them recognized her as being from the same transport), and were so caught up in running into Stanley and stealing the Lexx that Zev wasn't much more than a wild card thrown into the mix. Thodin is responsible for shoving her onto the Lexx before she could be killed by a Divine Assassin. Zev is responsible for both bringing 790 on board and knocking out Stanley's tooth, a combination that proved extremely useful as another code was discovered for a flight path to the Dark Zone. She also told Stanley to stand up and die with dignity, which Stanley later exaggerated into mocking Divine Predecessors like no human in the Light Universe had ever done in all the millennia that humans had been savagely enslaved and abused.

I know I go off on tangents, but because of Thodin, these other things happened. Under all that brusque, Thodin apparently had a heart of gold for the ladies, and it made all the difference in the Two Universes.

--there may be a part 2 down the road--