2025, books, Fantasy, Media, Movies, TV

All For One….

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When we talked about esoteric knowledge the other day, I would not have said that The Three Musketeers was a particular interest of mine.  Then I stumbled upon a tv series from 2014-2016, a British production.  Binge-watching is a perfect occupation when you’re nursing a knee. 

This particular series is a little darker than I like, but I realize that I’ve seen quite a few of the musketeer movies over the years, so it’s intriguing to see this one.  The production values are quite good – costumes and dialog seem more realistic than a lot of historical dramas.  Of course, there seems to be at least one nubile young woman each episode who manages to fall for one of the musketeers in just a day or so.  Then there’s the fact that all of the musketeers except D’Artagnan (the only character played by an actor who I recognize – Santiago Cabrera) have old, unhealed loved tragedies in their past.  Athos in particular can’t seem to get over his.

And it’s VERY violent.  I find myself listening more than watching every now and then.  I’m not surprised that there were only three seasons.  I’m about half way through the second season and I’m starting to wonder if Paris is going to run out of population, so many people get murdered each episode.  Last night I actually muted it for about five minutes while Captain Treville was getting operated on.  (Thank goodness I live in an age with anesthetic.)  It’s another show that I can’t watch up until bedtime or I have dreams that are much too intense.

As I’ve been watching the show, it occurs to me that I can’t remember if I ever READ The Three Musketeers.  All the comparisons that I’m making in my mind may be from other movies/series I’ve seen.  And there is still the one big question of why Dumas titled his tome The Three Musketeers when there are clearly four of them?  Maybe the book explains this?  So I put it on hold at the library.  I’ll let you know!

Did you have a play sword as a kid?  Ever taken fencing or shooting lessons?

31 thoughts on “All For One….”

  1. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I loved to play swords as a kid, dressed as Annie Oakley, of course, so my historical and fictional characters were mixed together. Any stick or toy or garden tool could become a sword. The smack of the “swords” hitting each other was so satisfying, as I remember it now. I must have seen this on some TV show, but I don’t remember which one. I think there might have been a 40s-50s era Three Muskateers show. Anyone else remember that?

    Meanwhile, VS, is there any update on the knee?

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    1. Knee is better than last Friday/Saturday, but I did overdue a bit much on Monday and Tuesday so yesterday I was feeling it. Trying to be a little more patient today. MRI is currently slated for Sunday morning.

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  2. I must have played swords a little, but don’t have clear memories like Jacque does. But a young Joel was all over that… Husband fashioned a very nice shield for him one Christmas, and I helped with costuming. There is a great photo of him in costume, sword arm upraised, stern expression, shield and his stuffed bunny in left hand.

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    1. I have a Three Musketeers English translation from the French by Lawrence Ellsworth. It might be interesting to check it with other translations.

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    2. Wes is our resident Monty Python expert. If there is such a thing besides the Black Knight, he would know. Off the top of my head I can’t think of anything.

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    3. I don’t recall a funny Three Musketeers, but there are literally dozens and dozens of them that have been made….it’s always possible

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  5. My four budgies are named (with adaptions) after the Musketeers.
    Dart, Port, Arm and Art(rip). One green and three blue.
    Sword was a wooden surveyor’s stick.
    Shield was a metal trashcan lid.

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  6. Shooting lessons: Well, if you consider a large part of Basic Combat Training at Ft. Ord, CA between August and October, 1969 with an M-14 to have been shooting training (I’d never handled a firearm before) and the subsequent “ready for Vietnam training at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO in December of that year to be “shooting lessons,” then, I guess I’ve had that.

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  7. I think every kid played with swords of some short; tree branches, sticks, wrenches, pitch forks. I still do, especially right after watching ‘The Princess Bride’.
    I have a selection of swords in our theater props department. It’s hard to explain to youngsters (of all ages) why real sharp pointy things are dangerous onstage.
    (Like the kid that made a bayonet at home in his garage and doesn’t understand why I won’t let him use it…)

    A show recently, the director wanted real swords for the authentic ‘clank’. Watching it, even during rehearsals as they went slowly, was scary. You lose the audience if they’re afraid for the actors or themselves. Eventually, she went back to plastic swords. Whew. THANK YOU!

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  8. I took fencing in college as a PE requirement, and was subsequently on SIU’s fencing team. No swords or shields involved.

    During my years between husbands, I dated a guy who once took me to a pistol shooting range our near Shakopee somewhere. Turns out I was a better shot than he, so he never took me back. I didn’t have any training, but I knew enough to aim at the target and pull the trigger. I much preferred archery which is much, much quieter.

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  9. It is a good thing my cousins and I fidn’t have access to our grandfather’s Oddfellow sword, which was about 3 feet long and quite capable of running someone through. I ended up with it, and now my son had it.

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  10. Once in Arizona, a client and I did a desert Jeep tour. Out in the middle of nowhere, the driver stopped, set up some pop cans on rocks and showed us how to fire a revolver. I actually managed to hit mine three times out of three. I kept it on the ledge in the kitchen for several years until I finally recycled it. Also took archery as PE in college but was not very good at it. Those are my only weaponery experiences.

    When YA was about 7 or so, I asked her if she wanted a wooden sword and shield when we were at the Renaissance Fair but she wasn’t even remotely interested.

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  11. Clever photo up top… back to the question of why “Three..” when there are four
    From: https://sage-advices.com/why-is-it-called-3-musketeers-when-there-are-4/

    “The three Musketeers of the title are Aramis, Porthos, and Athos, three close friends and exceptional Musketeers known as the Inseparables. And since D’Artagnan’s goal throughout the novel is to become a Musketeer, if Dumas had entitled the novel The Four Musketeers, that would have given the story away, wouldn’t it?”

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    3. I guess I thought of it as something you might dream, and then wake up and think, that was a strage dream! But for me it didn’t rise of the level of being disturbing.

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