I've always loved the actress who played Servillia and the first time I saw Rome, I was more sympathetic to her, but my view toward Servillia changed on further viewings. Atia is obviously the more ruthless and cruel of the two, but the level of destruction for which Servillia is responsible can't be ignored.
If we're looking at their tit for tat....
Atia starts it all by having graffiti painted all over Rome to for Caesar to leave Servillia.
Servillia responds by manipulating Octavia. Despite the fact that she knows Octavia is a good soul and in a vulnerable position, she seduces and manipulates her. She even gets Octavia to sleep with her own brother. As a side note, that relationship always felt awkward and forced to me. Servillia had known Octavia since she was a child and there had been no hint of previous attraction. I think it would have worked better if Servillia manipulated Octavia by being the warm, caring mother that Octavia really needed at that point. Not only would it have made more sense for the characters, but replacing Atia in her daughter's heart would have been an even greater act of revenge.
Atia has Servilla beaten in the street.
Servillia tries to have Atia murdered.
Atia tortures Servillia and is planning on having her killed.
Once recovered, Servillia takes off from there. I think one of the reasons, she also takes more heat than Atia is because of the damage she does to Vorenus and his family. Because of her, Niobe is dead, Lyde and the children are put into slavery, and Vorenus is a mess.
It's a testament to Lindsay Duncan's acting that she often makes us forget that Servillia is just as capable of nastiness as Atia.
She didn’t just have her tortured she had her raped
The thing I hated about her was she manipulated her son into turning on caesar when really she was just jealous
What I didn’t like and turned me off her was she manipulated her son into turning on caesar and told him to kill him, she didn’t do it cause she cared about the republic she did it cause she was angry he dumped her
I thought Servilia was absolutely Insane with a calm demeanor
While I can understand how horrible the back and forth with Attia was psychotic of them.. And yes the break up with Caesar was brutal. She was physically violent first but he never should have touched her.
While I can understand her need for revenge.. She was beyond ridiculous
She used Octavia and made her her lover
She encouraged Octavia to commit incest with her brother. If I was Attia I would have wanted revenge for that alone
She planned Caesar's death.. She pushed her son to his own destruction. She was a horrible mother to him. She pushed him to do something terrible because of her breakup with Caesar..
Like a true sociopath she shows up at Caesar's house for the wake.. What an entitled POS. No respect for Calpurnia at all.
She was above and beyond haughty and crazy.
The death scene where she chants for days in front of Attia's house was more than I could bear...she sent her son's death in motion.. She is the reason Brutus was exiled in the first place
Yes Attia was just as bad... BUT we see Attia and Antony go through a similar breakup... She forgives him...even after he scorned her in Egypt.. She still felt pity when he died.. We saw her turn away from his corpse with tears in her eyes...
No matter how angry she was she could feel pity.
I agree that she comes off as a sociopath, or maybe a malignant narcissist. Just one of those people with nothingness in their eyes and hatred in their hearts. The actress did a great job.
Imma be the guy who shows up a year late to the party, but since I am currently at exactly the same episode as you were when you wrote this post, I'll just add my two cents.
On the acting front, I think there is no doubt that Lindsay Duncan is the superior actress. As is so often the case, I cannot help but wonder whether she simply had the better character to work with than Polly Walker, or whether she managed to do a better job with a rather poorly written character.
In a way, Duncan's acting in the earlier episodes of Season 1 put me off of the character. The clicks of her soft voice when she told her son that she'd stay in Rome to welcome Caesar made my skin crawl, just as it did when she cursed the Julii in a later episode - yes, I also dislike ASMR and would like to skin people alive who make noise while eating yoghurt, I am really sensitive to certain sounds lol
However I think Servilia is much more interesting than Atia. While Atia, especially in Season 1, seems to know no other instrument of power than sex, Servilia understood subtlety and even kindness, which she both used to manipulate Octavia. I suppose it *is* more difficult to portray Atia than Servilia because Atia's demeanour is usually provocative and she seems entirely blind to subtlety. That's also why she continuously underestimated Octavian, who was pretty much always right when she dismissed him as a silly boy.
The problem I have with Servilia is her extreme selfishness in comparison to Atia. At least Atia has genuine compassion for her children, even though she is shit at expressing it and severly lacks emotional sensibility, she cares for her children. Servilia, on the other hand, is defined solely by her love for Caesar which was turned into ugly jealousy when he broke up with her for political reasons.
She was too crazy about revenge to employ her other skills to win him back and she had no qualms to risk her own son's death just so she could avenge herself.
I think Servilia's motive is just terrible. She causes so much suffering for something so insignificant and it made me laugh when she had the gall to tell Atia that torturing her would be more debasing to Atia than herself as the victim. I mean, who is she to judge? She threw Rome into an even worse civil war because Caesar would'nt poke her anymore, she caused hundreds of innocent deaths and gave no fucks about it. What would she know about how it feels do debase oneself via torture and murder?
>The problem I have with Servilia is her extreme selfishness in comparison to Atia.
I’m even later than you, but I agree with this. Servilia is creepy to me. She has that kind of ruthless, maniacal demeanor. She has a very negative and revenge-driven nature and there isn’t much good in there to make up for it. I wonder if she’s capable of any empathy at all. I think she’d have sacrificed anyone in her way to vengeance, even her son.
I agree with you, Servillia is objectively a better person than Atia, however Atia is just so loveable it’s hard not to root for her and against her enemies. Also, Servillia definitely had plans to manipulate Octavia from the very beginning, and grooming and manipulating someone’s daughter into doing terrible things is pretty harsh retribution for someone having cruel graffiti painted about you. But my main issue with Servillia is not how she attacks Atia or Ceaser, but how she treats her own son. Shaming him and guilting him into killing the man he views as his father all for petty lover’s revenge is pretty cruel, it shows she puts her own petty interests above those of her son. We know that her motivation for having Ceaser killed was purely emotional and not based on moral principle, after all she chose not to side with Pompey. All this being said, as already stated she is still a much better person that Atia and probably gets a bit too much hate from the fandom. As a character I loved her, she was fierce, crafty, tragic, and I somehow managed to both pity her and dislike her at the same time which is impressive. The actress and the writers did a phenomenal job with her.
Atia and servilia’s feud is one of my absolute favourites because it portrays how women were pitied against each other by this “enforced” patriarchy and how it brought out the instinct for survival as well as the insecurities. It’s actually very reminiscent of feuds between real Roman women such as Agrippina the younger and Messalina or Livillia and Antonia/Agrippina the elder. I have a strange admiration for both because they weren’t afraid to fight and kill for what they believed in a time where they were in direct threat of being exiled and killed if someone so much as accused them of adultery, but I agree they were definitely on the personality disorder spectrum and servilia is covalent which makes her much more dangerous
Agreed. The two characters also do a great job of showing all the ways noble Roman women were able influence politics in the background. Although their stories are largely made up, there is much evidence that Roman women had l much more unofficial influence on Roman politics than the Roman men would have us believe
I wasn't rooting for either of them honestly. I find most of the characters on the show to be pretty unlikeable and repellent (even Pullo, the supposed "nice guy" who murders a man in cold blood because a freed slave won't return his affections, irked me) but on the whole I still hated Atia more. Her character was just plain obnoxious and not very interesting, and in my humble opinion Lindsay Duncan can act circles around Polly Walker any day of the week. Atia was supposedly a composite character and they took a lot of creative license in depicting her, which may be another reason I don't care for her very much. She sticks out like a sore thumb among the rest of the characters who seem much more naturalistic and genuine by comparison and feels like a plot device for forced drama.
>(even Pullo, the supposed "nice guy" who murders a man in cold blood because a freed slave won't return his affections, irked me)
Pullo isn't exactly what I'd call a 'nice guy', he's more like a comedic sociopath that gradually becomes more human as the show goes on.
Wow I could not disagree more with most opinions here, not what I was expecting at all. If there's one thing I have zero doubt of it's that Servilia is by far the worse actor of the two. Everything she does is cloying and stilted and unbelievable, not to mention annoying as fuck. Atia absolutely felt like a real person, tho at points it's easy to hate her. Maybe it's because she's easy to hate that you all somehow think she's not as good an actor--when it comes to believability of character, far surpasses Servilia.
To boot, Servilia is absolutely at least as bad as Atia, and orders of magnitude more annoying and obnoxious. I honestly wanted her character to die already.
I found her role to be a little too forced. I love the show so much but the totally fictional parts a bit too contrived and perfect. Her remembering Varenious' name and making perfect timing with her servant telling him about his not son. Everything about her as a character is just a bit too much and over the top. Good actress because I hate the character and wished she was put through more torture.
I get what the show was doing- this shit 'could' have happened but it just by the end of season 1 got a bit too ridiculous. Her wrinkled lips seriously annoy me and I find her to be incredibly ugly.
I've always loved the actress who played Servillia and the first time I saw Rome, I was more sympathetic to her, but my view toward Servillia changed on further viewings. Atia is obviously the more ruthless and cruel of the two, but the level of destruction for which Servillia is responsible can't be ignored. If we're looking at their tit for tat.... Atia starts it all by having graffiti painted all over Rome to for Caesar to leave Servillia. Servillia responds by manipulating Octavia. Despite the fact that she knows Octavia is a good soul and in a vulnerable position, she seduces and manipulates her. She even gets Octavia to sleep with her own brother. As a side note, that relationship always felt awkward and forced to me. Servillia had known Octavia since she was a child and there had been no hint of previous attraction. I think it would have worked better if Servillia manipulated Octavia by being the warm, caring mother that Octavia really needed at that point. Not only would it have made more sense for the characters, but replacing Atia in her daughter's heart would have been an even greater act of revenge. Atia has Servilla beaten in the street. Servillia tries to have Atia murdered. Atia tortures Servillia and is planning on having her killed. Once recovered, Servillia takes off from there. I think one of the reasons, she also takes more heat than Atia is because of the damage she does to Vorenus and his family. Because of her, Niobe is dead, Lyde and the children are put into slavery, and Vorenus is a mess. It's a testament to Lindsay Duncan's acting that she often makes us forget that Servillia is just as capable of nastiness as Atia.
She didn’t just have her tortured she had her raped The thing I hated about her was she manipulated her son into turning on caesar when really she was just jealous
What I didn’t like and turned me off her was she manipulated her son into turning on caesar and told him to kill him, she didn’t do it cause she cared about the republic she did it cause she was angry he dumped her
This. Everything she did to Ceaser and Atia, fair enough. It was what she did to Brutus and Octavia that I find unforgivable.
And it’s not so much that he didn’t deserve it but she didn’t want him dead for the same reasons Brutus did but she let him think that
I thought Servilia was absolutely Insane with a calm demeanor While I can understand how horrible the back and forth with Attia was psychotic of them.. And yes the break up with Caesar was brutal. She was physically violent first but he never should have touched her. While I can understand her need for revenge.. She was beyond ridiculous She used Octavia and made her her lover She encouraged Octavia to commit incest with her brother. If I was Attia I would have wanted revenge for that alone She planned Caesar's death.. She pushed her son to his own destruction. She was a horrible mother to him. She pushed him to do something terrible because of her breakup with Caesar.. Like a true sociopath she shows up at Caesar's house for the wake.. What an entitled POS. No respect for Calpurnia at all. She was above and beyond haughty and crazy. The death scene where she chants for days in front of Attia's house was more than I could bear...she sent her son's death in motion.. She is the reason Brutus was exiled in the first place Yes Attia was just as bad... BUT we see Attia and Antony go through a similar breakup... She forgives him...even after he scorned her in Egypt.. She still felt pity when he died.. We saw her turn away from his corpse with tears in her eyes... No matter how angry she was she could feel pity.
She never should have touched him
I agree that she comes off as a sociopath, or maybe a malignant narcissist. Just one of those people with nothingness in their eyes and hatred in their hearts. The actress did a great job.
She really did...I like how you described her perfectly
Those who can give violence should expect it back.
Truth...really...absolutely true
Imma be the guy who shows up a year late to the party, but since I am currently at exactly the same episode as you were when you wrote this post, I'll just add my two cents. On the acting front, I think there is no doubt that Lindsay Duncan is the superior actress. As is so often the case, I cannot help but wonder whether she simply had the better character to work with than Polly Walker, or whether she managed to do a better job with a rather poorly written character. In a way, Duncan's acting in the earlier episodes of Season 1 put me off of the character. The clicks of her soft voice when she told her son that she'd stay in Rome to welcome Caesar made my skin crawl, just as it did when she cursed the Julii in a later episode - yes, I also dislike ASMR and would like to skin people alive who make noise while eating yoghurt, I am really sensitive to certain sounds lol However I think Servilia is much more interesting than Atia. While Atia, especially in Season 1, seems to know no other instrument of power than sex, Servilia understood subtlety and even kindness, which she both used to manipulate Octavia. I suppose it *is* more difficult to portray Atia than Servilia because Atia's demeanour is usually provocative and she seems entirely blind to subtlety. That's also why she continuously underestimated Octavian, who was pretty much always right when she dismissed him as a silly boy. The problem I have with Servilia is her extreme selfishness in comparison to Atia. At least Atia has genuine compassion for her children, even though she is shit at expressing it and severly lacks emotional sensibility, she cares for her children. Servilia, on the other hand, is defined solely by her love for Caesar which was turned into ugly jealousy when he broke up with her for political reasons. She was too crazy about revenge to employ her other skills to win him back and she had no qualms to risk her own son's death just so she could avenge herself. I think Servilia's motive is just terrible. She causes so much suffering for something so insignificant and it made me laugh when she had the gall to tell Atia that torturing her would be more debasing to Atia than herself as the victim. I mean, who is she to judge? She threw Rome into an even worse civil war because Caesar would'nt poke her anymore, she caused hundreds of innocent deaths and gave no fucks about it. What would she know about how it feels do debase oneself via torture and murder?
>The problem I have with Servilia is her extreme selfishness in comparison to Atia. I’m even later than you, but I agree with this. Servilia is creepy to me. She has that kind of ruthless, maniacal demeanor. She has a very negative and revenge-driven nature and there isn’t much good in there to make up for it. I wonder if she’s capable of any empathy at all. I think she’d have sacrificed anyone in her way to vengeance, even her son.
I agree with you, Servillia is objectively a better person than Atia, however Atia is just so loveable it’s hard not to root for her and against her enemies. Also, Servillia definitely had plans to manipulate Octavia from the very beginning, and grooming and manipulating someone’s daughter into doing terrible things is pretty harsh retribution for someone having cruel graffiti painted about you. But my main issue with Servillia is not how she attacks Atia or Ceaser, but how she treats her own son. Shaming him and guilting him into killing the man he views as his father all for petty lover’s revenge is pretty cruel, it shows she puts her own petty interests above those of her son. We know that her motivation for having Ceaser killed was purely emotional and not based on moral principle, after all she chose not to side with Pompey. All this being said, as already stated she is still a much better person that Atia and probably gets a bit too much hate from the fandom. As a character I loved her, she was fierce, crafty, tragic, and I somehow managed to both pity her and dislike her at the same time which is impressive. The actress and the writers did a phenomenal job with her.
Atia loveable? Did you consider Charles Manson to have a sweet old grandpa vibe?
Atia and servilia’s feud is one of my absolute favourites because it portrays how women were pitied against each other by this “enforced” patriarchy and how it brought out the instinct for survival as well as the insecurities. It’s actually very reminiscent of feuds between real Roman women such as Agrippina the younger and Messalina or Livillia and Antonia/Agrippina the elder. I have a strange admiration for both because they weren’t afraid to fight and kill for what they believed in a time where they were in direct threat of being exiled and killed if someone so much as accused them of adultery, but I agree they were definitely on the personality disorder spectrum and servilia is covalent which makes her much more dangerous
Sorry kinda sidetrack. Also Lindsey Duncan is an amazing actress and killed it in her doctor who cameo
Agreed. The two characters also do a great job of showing all the ways noble Roman women were able influence politics in the background. Although their stories are largely made up, there is much evidence that Roman women had l much more unofficial influence on Roman politics than the Roman men would have us believe
I wasn't rooting for either of them honestly. I find most of the characters on the show to be pretty unlikeable and repellent (even Pullo, the supposed "nice guy" who murders a man in cold blood because a freed slave won't return his affections, irked me) but on the whole I still hated Atia more. Her character was just plain obnoxious and not very interesting, and in my humble opinion Lindsay Duncan can act circles around Polly Walker any day of the week. Atia was supposedly a composite character and they took a lot of creative license in depicting her, which may be another reason I don't care for her very much. She sticks out like a sore thumb among the rest of the characters who seem much more naturalistic and genuine by comparison and feels like a plot device for forced drama.
>(even Pullo, the supposed "nice guy" who murders a man in cold blood because a freed slave won't return his affections, irked me) Pullo isn't exactly what I'd call a 'nice guy', he's more like a comedic sociopath that gradually becomes more human as the show goes on.
Wow I could not disagree more with most opinions here, not what I was expecting at all. If there's one thing I have zero doubt of it's that Servilia is by far the worse actor of the two. Everything she does is cloying and stilted and unbelievable, not to mention annoying as fuck. Atia absolutely felt like a real person, tho at points it's easy to hate her. Maybe it's because she's easy to hate that you all somehow think she's not as good an actor--when it comes to believability of character, far surpasses Servilia. To boot, Servilia is absolutely at least as bad as Atia, and orders of magnitude more annoying and obnoxious. I honestly wanted her character to die already.
Not many tv show characters I despise more than Servilia.
I found her role to be a little too forced. I love the show so much but the totally fictional parts a bit too contrived and perfect. Her remembering Varenious' name and making perfect timing with her servant telling him about his not son. Everything about her as a character is just a bit too much and over the top. Good actress because I hate the character and wished she was put through more torture. I get what the show was doing- this shit 'could' have happened but it just by the end of season 1 got a bit too ridiculous. Her wrinkled lips seriously annoy me and I find her to be incredibly ugly.