The Handmaid's Tale

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TJT

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Dom said:
Do we even know the full methods used for the takeover? Was there split within the military? Was it an overthrow of the government with the military just withdrawing to avoid civilian bloodshed? Was the mass amounts of pollution within the colonies caused by nuclear blasts? It might be due less to their success than it was due to other groups' failures.

The question I'm most interested in is why did the non-gilead military forces retreat to the red zones, and why were they able to hold onto them. Not having ports along the gulf or along the pacific is a huge handicap for Gilead.

Need to keep in mind that it's based on an older book that AFAIK didn't really put much effort at all into the world-building other than abstract concepts, and the showrunners are creating stuff like this map after the fact.
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The book was a typical setup of diminishing global resources. This was an incredibly common theme for the 70's in terms of novels. That shit was everywhere back then.

Best not to think too much about it. The TV show makes it simple. Diminished fertility led to conservative women like Serena leading the charge because the conservatives, correctly, understood that you can't go around fucking off on Tinder and promoting abortion when 50% or less of all women can actually carry a child to term. Whether or not that is something that a woman wants to do. This part is logical.

When society didn't listen to such activism and was met with violence (Serena got shot for being anti-abortion and pro-marriage all old fashioned like basically). The Holy Order or whaetver they call themselves gained steam and eventually gunned down Congress for their lack of action. This was used by the movement to reorganize the government. They slowly seized control by implementing more and more draconian far right policies and laws.

You see this as June goes through incremental changes in social mores and laws until her and her husband eventually go on the run from the authorities. The military details or whatever probably won't be explored.
 
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Lenardo

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caveat: i have never read the book(s) or watched the show.. and don't plan too either.

so giliad is the conus...

and mexico's and canada's borders are ...Exactly the same as they are now? no expansion by anyone north...or south?

when is this supposed to take place? ~100yrs in the future? 200? 300? no global warming melted the icecaps/sea level rise issues? (edit: ok supposedly this all takes place supposedly around 2005)
 
A

a_skeleton_05

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Lenardo said:
caveat: i have never read the book(s) or watched the show.. and don't plan too either.

so giliad is the conus...

and mexico's and canada's borders are ...Exactly the same as they are now? no expansion by anyone north...or south?
Click to expand...

According to what I've read on wiki's, the red zones are being held by the remnants of the original USA, whom the other powers still recognize as legitimate, so they wouldn't encroach into what's being held by them. The current political situation is similar in how Britain/France stayed out of the American Civil War until it started to drag on too long and hurt them due to losing out on the South's exports. The Giliad situation has lasted long enough and proven somewhat resilient enough for them to be worth dealing with as a power.

I'd really like to see a Gilead military character be introduced so we could see what that situation's all about, and what the transfer of power was like for the soldiers.
 
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TJT

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Not sure who's watching this but it is still pretty good. They introduced that the enslaved handmaids in DC also get the additional privilege of being Silenced Before God... where you sew their mouth shut!

This was a cool scene.

213086
 
Drinsic

Drinsic

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TJT said:
Not sure who's watching this but it is still pretty good. They introduced that the enslaved handmaids in DC also get the additional privilege of being Silenced Before God... where you sew their mouth shut!

This was a cool scene.

View attachment 213086
Click to expand...
I thought the sewn shut mouths was really stupid and only included for shock. Not even remotely practical.

Haven't seen this week's episode yet but this season's been really slow, and I figured we'd have been farther along by now plot-wise. Instead of the Serena-June partnership teased in the trailer and earlier episodes, we're back to square one. Great. Maybe Fred gets buttfucked by President Weinstein to move up in Gilead, I guess that's new.
 
TJT

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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It's kind of stupid how Gilead is the only place in the world that is taking radical steps to solve the fertility crisis. Which is the basis for the entirety of the Crusade and the establishment of Gilead itself. We've seen that other countries like Mexico barter with Gilead for handmaids to deal with their own fertility issues.

But what are any of these other countries doing to solve the fertility issues? Seemingly absolutely nothing. To the extent that they are even considering trading back June's kid to Gilead for political concessions.

It's the one thing that really takes me out of it. You have to ignore everything else and treat Gilead as a vacuum despite the interesting way it came to be.

I don't really understand why that Martha got hanged this time... because Mrs. Lawrence went to the school? Who were the handmaids?
 
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Kuriin

Kuriin

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I believe the only real country in the entire world that seems to be completely against Gilead is Canada. Even the Swiss (?) are trying to make deals with Gilead. Gilead definitely does come across as the more fanatical of the bunch.

Martha got hanged because she was overseen talking to OfJoseph/June by the June's companion handmaid. It was told at the end that June had been followed - all tabs to Aunt Lydia. Lydia definitely has it out against June. Talk about serious sadism; especially given how she was conflicted in the beginning of the series.
 
Synj

Synj

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Just started watching the show a month or two ago and caught up last night. Good show but I get confused by some of the wild mood swings from Serena and Lydia.

There's an interesting lack of sympathizers and I don't think they play up the big brother is watching/betrayal angle enough.

I hope they have the good sense to not drag it out too far, I can only handle so many will June escape or wont she seasons.
 
Frenzied Wombat

Frenzied Wombat

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TJT said:
It's kind of stupid how Gilead is the only place in the world that is taking radical steps to solve the fertility crisis. Which is the basis for the entirety of the Crusade and the establishment of Gilead itself. We've seen that other countries like Mexico barter with Gilead for handmaids to deal with their own fertility issues.

But what are any of these other countries doing to solve the fertility issues? Seemingly absolutely nothing. To the extent that they are even considering trading back June's kid to Gilead for political concessions.

It's the one thing that really takes me out of it. You have to ignore everything else and treat Gilead as a vacuum despite the interesting way it came to be.

I don't really understand why that Martha got hanged this time... because Mrs. Lawrence went to the school? Who were the handmaids?
Click to expand...

If I recall last season it was mentioned on the Canadian side that researchers were on the cusp of figuring the fertility issue out, and that it seemed like the problem lied with the men, not just the women. So it appears that even if the world isn't enacting laws to force procreation, they are at least trying to figure out why there is a fertility crisis.

Kuriin said:
I believe the only real country in the entire world that seems to be completely against Gilead is Canada. Even the Swiss (?) are trying to make deals with Gilead. Gilead definitely does come across as the more fanatical of the bunch.

Martha got hanged because she was overseen talking to OfJoseph/June by the June's companion handmaid. It was told at the end that June had been followed - all tabs to Aunt Lydia. Lydia definitely has it out against June. Talk about serious sadism; especially given how she was conflicted in the beginning of the series.
Click to expand...

My impression is that at least in the case of the Swiss, it isn't ambivalence at all. The Swiss delegate seemed to be heavily on June's side, but mentioned that "Gilead has a very powerful military" when pressed on her neutral like position. So if other countries are tolerant, it seems more out of fear than ambivalence or support.

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I'm liking this season a lot more than the last one. Overall seems darker and more dramatic, and less "trump allegory" type shit.
 
Kiroy

Kiroy

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Frenzied Wombat said:
If I recall last season it was mentioned on the Canadian side that researchers were on the cusp of figuring the fertility issue out, and that it seemed like the problem lied with the men, not just the women. So it appears that even if the world isn't enacting laws to force procreation, they are at least trying to figure out why there is a fertility crisis.



My impression is that at least in the case of the Swiss, it isn't ambivalence at all. The Swiss delegate seemed to be heavily on June's side, but mentioned that "Gilead has a very powerful military" when pressed on her neutral like position. So if other countries are tolerant, it seems more out of fear than ambivalence or support.

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I'm liking this season a lot more than the last one. Overall seems darker and more dramatic, and less "trump allegory" type shit.
Click to expand...

ya i'm glad they finally mentioned "has a very powerful military" because up until that point the world standing by was pretty crazy, although I guess we currently do it with islam so maybe not
 
Utnayan

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Season 5 out - last season saw a lot of action - this one seems to be setting a big stage for season 6 up to this point.
 
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