NASIR: The man, he spoke of your woman.
CRIXUS: What did he say? Find fucking voice!
AGRON: Dead. Naevia is deadthe look on Nasir’s face in the last GIF. gets me e’rytime.
I always wonder why Nasir didn’t react more shocked at Agrons lie here. You can see him decide to not comment on it. But why didn’t he? We later learn from Chadara that they’ve been spending a lot of time together, and had a lot of conversations, and apparently Nasir already has feelings for Agron, so I know that’s why, but he doesn’t even seem surprised at the lie…
Ugh how I wish we could have seen one of those conversations Chadara refers to. What did they talk about? How personal did they get? They obviously care a lot about each other by now, but how did they get there? I always feel like we skipped an important bit of their relationship.
I always supposed that at first Nasir may have being going along the same line of thinking that Agron argues later. That being sent to the mines is tantamount to a death sentence and to go after her would be insane and pointless.
When, Argon tells Spartacus and Mira that Naevia parished on the way to the mines Mira says “Death a kindness then.”
This is how I justified why Nasir held his tongue initially because on the surface it seems like a logical decision made for the greater good. That’s kind of what I love about the whole situation, because there is a cold, kind of logic to the choice Agron makes. Though how he ends up benefitting from it (by getting Spartacus to agree to go to Neapolis and having Crixus removed from decision making because he’s all emo in a sunlit corner) makes his logical argument ring hollow.
One of the reasons I LOVE the conversation between Chadara and Nasir, isn’t just the cuteness of her calling him out on his crush, but the real ethical quandary it brought up for him.
If up until that moment Nasir hadn’t really allowed himself to acknowledge his feelings for Agron, having Charada point out his very obvious affection for Agron could have made him reevaluate his own motivations in going along with the lie. Imagine you’re Nasir and you ask yourself, did I agree with the choice Agron made because it makes sense or did I go along with him because I want him to like me?
Knowing Nasir background in slavery and being a yes man, would this situation torture him? After all, to compromise your own beliefs and choices for the sake of another could be perceived as a kind of enslavement or weakness.
This is just where my brain goes with all of this and honestly this entire section of their storyline is what won my love for Nasir. He is such a compassionate, conscientious man, with wisdom beyond his years.
*stops before she tips over the edge in full on fangirl flailing*
Where is my readmore function when I need it, because this is going to get long.
The thing is, I don’t think they discussed anything about this while they were at the corpse, I’m pretty sure Agron thought it up on the spot, without thinking it through. Because if they did, Nasir wouldn’t have brought up that the man even spoke of Naevia. The way it happened in my headcanon is that Crixus approached, Agron angry!panicked that Crixus was going to lead them all to die for nothing, because the mines is a suicide-mission, and just told the lie (because we see him explain his reasoning to Nasir later, which implies he hadn’t before). I think Nasir trusts Agron (thanks to the conversation previously mentioned) and doesn’t trust Crixus (who has bitchslapped him before, and I assume doesn’t treat him very kindly, since he apologises later for his behavior), and that explains why he goes along with it at first (but still doesn’t explain why he wasn’t surprised by the lie here).
The thing that drives me crazy about this episode and the next, is that Agron is right (but so is Spartacus - Crixus isn’t rational here yet), and the problem doesn’t lie in their reasoning, but in the way they go about it. None of these people is used to organising, and planning and compromising. I think they have been slaves for too long, and they make way too much instant decision without thinking them through. What should have happened here is that Agron should have told the truth, and then he, Spartacus and Crixus should have divided the people between the rescue mission and the retreat to Vesuvius. Because they never could have taken all the houseslaves with them anyway, so the Vesuvius thing needed to have happened anyway. And then they could have actually have organized the rescue-missions retreat to Vesuvius, and less of them would have died.
But neither Agron, Crixus nor Spartacus are ready yet for this kind of organization, and they aren’t a team. Crixus his focus is on Naevia and the Gauls (he even says Spartacus can’t give his men orders in the episode before this - which always makes me very angry with all his issues and distrust when the Germanics arrive), Agron is focused on slaughter and survival, and thinks way too much survival of the fittest, and Spartacus is focused on revenge, and is waaaaaay to easy to influence (again with the Germanics thing - why on earth would Agron betray him, and why does it matter that people follow Agron more than him, when there’s people who follow Crixus instead of him, and later he has Gannicus is running around who is only there because Oenomaeus is).
They are free yes, but they aren’t free men yet (or just kinda bad at it).
Back to Nasir and Agron. At first I think Nasir goes along because he trusts Agron. He starts doubting when he sees Crixus’ pain, and that doesn’t sit right with him, but then Agron explains his reasoning and he gets it (because it isn’t wrong as far as motivations go) and he doesn’t have any affinity with Crixus. He still struggles with it, but I think he decides to follow the man who is kind to him and treats him as an equal (and a free man). But then Crixus apologizes and treats him as an equal, so Nasir can’t be dishonest anymore. And then he finds himself torn between going where he is most helpful, or going where his first ally goes. And I think that both the fact that Crixus came around and the fact that he made a decision for himself for the first time, gives him the strenght (and the desire) to do the right thing and be helpful.
And it was awesome. And it was awesome that Agron didn’t blame him for it, but respected his decision. And so both were on their way from that moment on to being free men.
Sorry for the longness dash, sorry for the tangent, but sooooo many thoughts on this, and the readmore function has disappeared for some reason.
YES! THIS ^^
