I've really noticed that Julius Caesar starts to get depicted in a more sympathetic way in later stories, that is a little odd since was a pretty brutal imperialist and the premise of the story is very much built on opposing him
Do you think cultural factors played a part or was it just a personal choice by Goscinny and/or Uderzo?
A combination of both, perhaps.
Well IRL Caesar did end up gaining the trust of the gauls so I think it's a clever way to represent it in a setting where the conflict will never resolve.
Good point actually, the ones he didn't slaughter did end up benefiting from Rome and integrating very well into the empire under his heirs.
I dont think this is true. Caesar was kinda sympathic in the first book. You can only say that they fleshed out his characters more and more over the time.
He is respectable enough but Idk about sympathetic.
In comparison in Asterix and Son Caesar even rebuilds the village and has the gauls over for dinner at Cleopatras barage.
Because they rescued his son. But i understand what you mean. I would say he gets more sympathic with fleshing him out.
I think you're pretty spot on
You cant deny, Caesar as a husband woth Cleo is just cute!
It is, I can indeed not deny
True.
Nice quads btw
>Caesar even rebuilds the village
Ever had that thing with your dad where he disapproves of everything you do and will make an empathetic point of expressing it to everyone? That's how it works for Brutus, Caesar will rebuild a whole village of long time enemies to show disapproval of him.
I have a hunch Uderzo wanted that to be the series finale.
That honestly sounds plausible
Agreed. The whole "something actually unprecedented happens to Asterix which kinda makes you reflect on the fact his character has remained static for the past 20 years" shtick + the big final banquet gave me the impression they were trying to wrap it up as well.
Even if he was a scumbag Cleopatra would have forced him to rebuild the village anyway
He whipped
That nose game is just ridiculous
They both have mighty noses, they fit together
Kek
How so?
A thread where people discuss an European comic book in a civil manner. When was the last time we saw something like this in this board?
I didn't realize that was unusual, I'm not on this board that often
normally i'd agree with you, but asterix threads are always ma chill, it's just duck threads that get spammed to hell and back
I blame NuTales
>Crismus Bonus
I know that purists hate the english translation, but god it's so very comfy
Screw the purists, if not for translation most people wouldn't know or love the series like they do
In general Asterix stories rely on making the bad guys look comically incompetent so it's a natural evolution. Plus the faults are technically terrible people too
How are are they terrible people?
I think it was a comedy.
Well yeah, but regardless
Reminder that in Asterix canon, Caesar had the Best Ending.
Indeed. Thats from the movie?
Yep, Twelve Tasks.
I keep forgetting that's part of the ending.
When recalling the movie, I usually go through the thing until I get to the laundry detergent and my mind shuts down in disgust.
The bit with all the food is fun though.
The part with the ghosts is my favorite
But that movie is explicitly not canon
Im going to chose to ignore that
If they should somehow ever tackle Asterix and the Ides of March (how can they after the shit Uderzo makes Brutus do in Asterix and Son, I do not know) the Gauls should help Caesar fake his death so he can retire
Since this is a comedy timeline, Vercingetorix has also been alive all along, just held as a hostage by Mark Antony or someone, and Octavius is a zoomer if not Millennial
Caesarion is stuck as a baby so unlikely
Octavian is 100% Zoomer, Octavia his a little older and a more levelheaded zilenial
To me that movie is the True End of the series, like the SpongeBob movie is to that franchise
I think a lot of it is them doing research on the real life Caeser and finding out what a damn chore tard wrangling the Roman Senate was.
Speaking of, has Cato ever showed up in Asterix?
He's been quoted.
Wrong Cato anon
Two Catos? Those Romans must be crazy.
There were a lot of Porcii Catones, but only two of them are well know really, Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder, and his great-grandson Marcus Porcius Cato the Younger (also know as Cato of Utica), the elder Cato hates Carthage, the younger hated Caesar.
>Utica
>Carthage
It's weird how many podunk towns in America are named after classical era states. Those two alone are in Mississippi.
The early Americans were kinda Romaboos
Especially for the Republican period.
romanophile
A man of culture I see
Greek/Roman names used to be really popular here in the 17/18th centuries. I grew up in Ohio, I remember there was a Syracuse, a Gallipolis, Athens, etc, all of them being pretty small towns that didn't really deserve these grandiose names.
They really were insane with their names
There should be a joke about the time Caesar fricked Cato's sister
Cato the Younger is quoted here
My bad its not a quote by Cato, but an expression that references him
What does it translate to? I love these jokes but I never know what they say.
the victorious cause pleased the gods, but the conquered cause pleased Cato says the first link off google
Like the other anon said, its pretty much says that losing and dying for a just caus is what Cato (of Utica) believed in.
This is because Cato hated Caesar so much that after he was defeated by him he refused to be pardoned by him and killed himself instead. He cut his gut and ripped up the stitches his son's doctor put on him, teaing out his intestine to finally die.
This was years ago but I seem to remember reading an article on the publication of Asterix that explained that the authors often deliberately put in historical myths and other outdated facts because they knew the latin curriculum in schools hadn't been changed in like 100 years and they wanted to make jokes their young audience would understand without having to go to the library and sift through academic journals. They tried to counter this somewhat by regularly adding "behind the gags" articles to Asterix adventures when they were published in Pilote magazine.
>adding "behind the gags" articles to Asterix adventures when they were published in Pilote magazine.
Aaaah too bad they weren't printed into the comics.
Yeah. It's even more strange because Goscinny did exactly that with Lucky Luke. Most adventures had a back page with some basic facts about the plot or characters involved in the episode. From memory I think at least The Judge, Klondike Rush and Sarah Bernhart had them, though idk if all editions kept them.
Thats pretty smart
[Spoiler]I always found Asterix's Caesar to be pretty hot
Anon, he's basically Peter Cushing.
I want to hug him and call him daddy.
"And Men worshipped the Beast, because he was based" -Revelations
You say that as if it was negative
Cinemaphile is doomed to the lions
Well, the comics, at least partly, as a coping mechanics in a post-war France. You got the plucky underdogs getting one over on the Hostile force occupying the homeland.
With the relationship to Germany relaxing in the 60s and 70s, they might have eased up on Caesar to a degree, consciously or not.
Ah thats a very good point, didnt think of that.
Well as one of the anons ITT already mentioned, Caesar was always presented as someone with quite a bit of honour, gravitas and dignity in Asterix, because unlike what
says, Goscinny was always a bit of a latinboo. I'd say at least a quarter of all jokes in the entire series is Goscinny lampooning high school latin classes. Plus you often have scenes of Caesar playing the straight man to whatever loony of the week he's hired to defeat the Gauls, which also helps at progressively humanising his character.
As for romans themselves there really is an evolution going on through the series. While roman characters always remain the main villains, Rome as an entity morphs from "evil occupying empire" to "pastiche of the 1960s French state". I think this transformation really gets going with Asterix the Legionary, from which point on, the Roman legion fully becomes a pastiche of Goscinny and Uderzo's army days, along with a hefty spoon of how French pop culture sees the foreign legion. You kind of have the pinnacle of this with Asterix in Switzerland where the heroes have to help a roman tax inspector against a corrupt roman governor.
Very interesting points, I never thought about any of this
Use the moment and buy some fresh fish ITT! Dubs get 20% off, trips get 30% off!
Fresh?! Your fish stink to high heavens. causing Gods to heave.
But you have to admit that the price isn't that bad, especially with your discount.
Congrats anon 20% off for you!
Got any catfish?
But yesterday it was 40% for dubs!
The cgi movie of this volume was unironically good
Sequel was too
Same people are doing the TV series too
Sequel was better until the end
Maybe I deserve shit for this but honestly I thought the mechacentaur was kinda cool
Damn, even Gauls aren't safe from the (fish)oil prices skyrocketing.
They'll have to wageslave for Rome too eventually
Expensive and stinky, just like Gaul women.
Stinky food is the best tasting
I chalk it up to Bowser syndrome. Basically, when a villain character becomes so popular that in some stories they act less villanous to justify them interacting with the good guys in a more cordial setting without trying to fight each other, while still allowing them to act villanous when the plot demands it. Happens all the time in cartoons.
Later it a bit more lighthearted and comedic.
Which honestly fits the series since it isn't turbo serious.
But in hindsight it does seem a bit weird at first.
Yeah the development of the series is pretty interesting
>I've really noticed that Julius Caesar starts to get depicted in a more sympathetic way in later stories
The newest comics are more kid friendly. I'm fine with it since the later Uderzo ones were very cynical and angry and characters I liked turned into buttholes.
Was Asterix and Son one of his solo ventures? I remember liking that one.
I dunno, but I liked it. Made him a better villain by making him a complete character, compared to just being a mean figure in charge.
Yeah I really like the Asterix characterization of Caesar.
Looking back, wasn't he just truly evil in 3 books? First was when he started destroying an Egyptian temple out of spite, second was when he invaded Britain (I think the only time we actually saw him invade), third was when he was about to burn the village down to look for his son. They almost lost there. The Romans should just have tried again.
I think it was Brutus that was burning the village
OH true. My bad.
how the HELL did italians move away from those badass names? I mean, italian names are cool today, but in a more romantic or musical, instead of a harsh proper way.
What about the French? I'd rather be named something like Visitorix or Tourisius instead of the podunk names available today.
We Germanics also abandoned our badass names for some reason, I'd much rather be named Ulvric or Amleth.
Romans were more than just the Italians.
Yes but their naming traditions originated from Italy.
What do you mean?
Roman nomina, praenomina, cognomina and victory titles were developed in Italy, names like Germanicus to mean "victorius over the Germans" come from Italy.
Italy didn't even exist until the 1800s.
Anon we're clearly talking about the geographical region
Christians were encouraged to not give their children pagan names.
Lame
He was never a truly bad guy and a constant trait across the comic run was that Julius Caesar could be pretty reasonable even if the missions he assigned to his men failed miserably.
He was also pretty quick to give good rewards and recognize his men's deeds if they showed him good results, and was pretty grateful if you gave him help or mercy when he was down. Finally, he was also able to admit he was wrong or had fricked up, and could recognize his enemies' worth instead of being a spoiled cretin.
Even after Uderzo's death his good character traits have remained constant.
Yupp this, Caesar is vain and arogant, but not spoiled.
It was also good to see how sometimes the poor bastards who were the butt of ton of jokes through the book ended up being rewarded by Caesar after managing to succees at their mission.
Caesar could also forgive failure if it meant having lost at the rebel Gauls' village because he was aware they were virtually unbeatable and so he couldn't expect his men to do the impossible.
I felt good for those guys, they were really trying their hardest and with no malicious intent.
Also remember the two drunken legionars who were promoted because they were the only ones who didn't end up looking all dirty and messy at the end of a story.
Can you recal what volume that was?
Asterix and the Chieftan Shield
Yeah just dudes doing their job ordered to them by the dictator
>ordered to them by the dictator
Yes and?
My point was that they really don't have much of a choice and that its nice to see that they didn't end up being beat up too bad by Asterix and Obelix or punished by Caesar
Very good storytelling honestly
Caesar was brutal but he was also EXTREMELY popular with the plebeian masses since he showered them with money whenever he needed to get some support, which was often.
Plus he got the Gauls pretty fond of him like a previous anon said so there's that.
Worth noting that he didnt just give people money, he did political reforms which benefited a lot of people in the long run.
The gods bless this thread.
What you blushing for anon?
Cinemaphile doesn't support hieroglyphs that I used in my joke
Bummer
Thanks!
It takes balls to admit you fricked up and accept your defeat without holding a grudge.
Manly
>that is a little odd since was a pretty brutal imperialist
stopped reading after I realized this was a gayddit thread
He was, he was a literal Imperator and concured the region with force
>the process that led to the Roman Empire wasn't imperialist
Really anon?
Contrarians gonna contrarian, anonymous.
Gérard Depardieu as Obelix is a god tier casting just like J.K.Simmons is to J.Jonah Jameson.
True, all the other live-action castings have been a bit hit or miss for me
bump