For reasons we may never know (money, it was money), Netflix chose not to give the beloved"Warrior Nun" a season 3 renewal.
Since that means we won't see how the story unfolds as planned, it's only fitting that we look back at what happened in the first two seasons and use its consistent use of historical, religious, and literary allusions to predict what will happen next. upcoming season 3. would have (and should!) have been. This will serve us well on this season 3 preview journey and not lead us into pure fan fiction.
To accomplish this, we'll look at the series' religious and historical landmarks, as well as its thematic intent. To be clear, "Warrior Nun" is intended for viewers from all walks of life, so keep in mind that any religious elements discussed here are considered from a strictly narrative point of view. In fact, since the brilliance of "Warrior Nun" was how it employed various mythologies and religions without promotion or rejection, it wouldn't make much sense for us to do things differently in this Season 3 airing.
While we could spend Da Vinci hours shuffling through all the buried clues in the Simon Barry series, let's focus on the ones that speak directly.to the general questions of the series,including: what are the fundamental natures of truth and faith? Are they in conflict? And are there limits to the respective human benefit or viability of any of them? Furthermore, is faith a benevolent force made malevolent by humanity's need to control and suppress others, or a construct bornofThat need? Finally, what aspect of these potential truths has been intentionally missed, misinterpreted, or manipulated for ulterior motives over the millennia... and to what end?
Pretty simple, yes? Great, let's do this.
Will the real Beatrice be able to stand up in Warrior Nun season 3?
"Warrior Nun" isfull of garbagewith references, from the obvious (e.g. your episode titles) to the not-so-obvious. Character names fall into both categories, and while some are straightforward (see: Padre PiousConfusion) others require further investigation, including the linguistically gifted tough guyBeatriz (Kristina Tonteri Young).
It is a name that has no shortage of potential inspirations, from Beatrice of England, who, like our Beatrice, was the daughter of English "VIPs", to Beatrice Portinari, Dante's unattainable muse. And while the most obvious "Bea" is Saint Beatrice, patroness of prisoners, there's something about Beatrice as a distinguished Christian saint that seems, well, a little too easy, unless you consider two additional Beatrices: Beatrice of Provence, who returned from the fearsome and mythological Tarascan (sound familiar?), and the medieval trobairitz (or female troubadour) Bieiris of the Romans, also known as Beatrice/Countess Beatrice.
Bieiris of the Romans"At Maria, price and good values"has inflamed academic debate for decades. The overtly romantic language of the lyrics, written by a woman about another woman and for another woman, has been a real sticking point for scholars who reject it as an expression of same-sex desire. Some have tried to deny its female authorship, while others insist that its language is somethingbutromantic (toUNC Chapel Hill "Romantic Notes""). Despite academic interpretations, the plot of "Na Maria" regarding Beatrice's love for Ava (Alba Baptista) seems like the missing piece of the puzzle. In it, the announcer implores Maria not to give her love to a traitorous suitor... As Ava has given everything, potentially including her life, to a mission we trust less and less with each episode, that notion of dedicating yourself to something "fake" seems set to disappear.
Beatrice's Mandatory Cancellation of Retirement in Season 3 of Warrior Nun
Of this we can be sure: Season 3 would see Beatrice cut short on her journey of self-discovery by the good ol'mandatory license. How else to bring her back into the fold? Whether it's a new "demons" surge, a sign that Ava might be trying to communicate from another realm, an encounter with a Tarask, or news that her sisters and/or humanity are in danger, let's say she packs her bags and he reluctantly returns to the crib. "Warrior Nun" usually gives us a voice-over recap of the off-screen events at the start of a new season, but instead of Ava's voice, we'll likely get input into the third installment through (or both) Beatrice and Lilith (Lorena Andreia ) perspective.
Ah, Lilith, the intermittent new antagonist of seasons 1 and 2. There are a few directions season 3 could take her, and like Beatrice, her name and voiceover thus far will help us navigate them.
You may be familiar with the hotly debated notion of Lilith as Adam's first wife, or the (unnamed) "first" woman mentioned in Genesis who is supposed to be Adam's equal. Genesis chapter 2 gives us a name (Eve), and as she is not made of clay, but of Adam's rib, she is often interpreted as his handmaid (and therefore, for some, as a completely different woman). . Early church leaders sought to resolve this contradiction by naming the unnamed woman Lilith and casting her as a sort of "too-independent" proto-wife who was cast out or simply left the garden because of that independence, as a historian. Bettany Hughes explores in"Daughters of Eve." But let's delve into how all of this affects the character of Lilith's "Warrior Nun" path.
Lilith knows something we don't.
Again, Genesis itself does not imply any of this, and many scholars believe that what appear to be two different women is simply the result of the same story coming from different scribes. Anyway, Lilith's journey from pagan demon to Adam's anonymous ex-wife, to accidental redundancy, to feminist icon and eponymous Lilith Fair...ourLilith.
The concept of Lilith as an outcast-turned-icon appears to be most in the spirit of "Warrior Nun", so it's safe to assume that in Season 3, our Lilith was, and will be, equally misunderstood and shunned for her refusal to fall in line. For all the abject badass of OCS, the show never lets us forget that these warriors fight in the name of a seemingly male god and take orders from powerful men ("All heroes are women," says Ava in season one, "but the top of the cake is a type"). Hehe wantslet's remember this setting from "Charlie's Angels" and add it to our list of things that make the whole warriors' quest suspect. And while the series has yet to fully spell out that mission, by the end of Season 2, we can be sure of this: Lilith knows something we don't.
When Adriel (William Miller) asks Lilith what happened to the other side, she says she doesn't remember, but her body language says otherwise, and closer inspection of her actions in season two's "Warrior Nun" reiterates her possession of secret knowledge: another intentional call to the Bible, probably.
However, what would Lillth do in Warrior Nun season 3?
"Adriel likes you," Lilith tells Ava at a key moment in season two, adding, "That's why he hasn't killed you yet."
However, this is not true. In fact, Adrianhe doestry to kill Ava, so we know it's not right. It's Lilith who doesn't want Ava to die (and who, in fact, tells Beatrice how to heal her, perhaps because she needed Ava to enter the other realm all along), and it's also Lilith who stands between Ava and Adriel in multiples. manners.occasions. occasions. Also, remember how Lilith is the one who tells Beatrice about the impending holy war, and the only place she could have gotten this information is during her supposedly "forgotten" time in the other realm.
Here's something else we know: Lilith will knowingly anger those she loves to do what she thinks is right. He even tries to stop Ava from unknowingly releasing Adriel in season 1, much to his sisters' chagrin. Everything indicates that season three (lower case r) reveals that Lilith is, at least from one perspective, well-intentioned and was simply using Adriel to further her own agenda.
Lilith's desire for freedom drives her actions and extends not just to her sisters, but anyone she sees as oppressed by the use of accumulated knowledge and manipulation as a means of control. Lilith may simply be struggling to provide another option: lifting the veil that she holds truth and knowledge sacred, and that religious institutions (though not necessarily religion) stand in the way of these things. However, Lilith isn't the only one who knows something we don't.
Semantics returns in season three of Warrior Nun
Meena Rayann's Yasmine Amunet, whose Egyptian mother goddess surname means "the hidden one," is likely the mole who betrayed the OCS with Adriel (she sure seems to get in the way a lot, through some endearing but potentially feigned ineptitude). However, it's clear that he cares about his new family, and like many of the show's more mysterious characters, we can assume that his motivations are complex and potentially justified. At the very least, they are unlikely to be intentionally nefarious.
Then, of course, there's our first warrior nun, Areala de Córdoba (Guiomar Alonso), and her ever-evolving, unreliable flashbacks. Despite its unreliability and continual manipulation, we can extract a lot from this figure and its "history". A major theme in "Warrior Nun" is the frequent questioning of the line between the reality of what happened and the political revision of it. Areala's story sits at the intersection of these dueling narratives and hints at some of the key revelations of season three.
Let's start at the beginning. Given the tone and subtext of "Warrior Nun" as a whole, Areala's handful of flashbacks may not be the last we hear about the crusades, and the semantics at play in Ava's reading of Areala's history echoes that: her " fought in his name," the story goes (and Ava emphasizes the "his"), but that doesn't necessarily mean we know who "he" is or what Areala fought for. Considering how reality contrasts with the toxic mythology of the crusades (recently revived, butTempo), it is hard to believe that the show's ancestral hero figure would buy into Pope Urban II's hateful propaganda or endorse such transparent political bloodshed.
"You lie like a man," she tells Adriel, a line that says a lot about who she would be willing to take orders from.
And Areala also comes back
It is important to note that the landmark Areala and his knights approach through in the opening flashback is the Castillo de Almodóvar, located near Córdoba. We can assume that the history of Areala is not linked to the crusaders in Jerusalem, but rather to the complex and multicultural history and composition of the Iberian Peninsula in the 11th century.
We will avoid trying to "summarize" centuries of intricate political and cultural conflict and cooperation and simply say this: if she had grown up near Córdoba, Areala would no doubt have seen how the once prosperous region benefited from religious tolerance (forThe Met Museum), and collapsed with the emergence of factors such as political infighting, power struggles within the same religion, more general religious persecution (e.g.BBC). The tug of war in this period was complex (to say the least) and saw the still-debated concept of Coexistence – that is, the practical coexistence of Jews, Muslims and Christians in the region – trumped by its violent alternative: a destructive intolerance that would devastate the region for centuries.
Yes, Areala may have been (like Santa Aura de Córdoba/Sevilla before her) Christian. But for all we know, she could also have been a Muslim, Jewish or Andalusian Christian persecuted by "reformist" Christians (according to "The Ornament of the World"). It can't be a wardrobe accident that the women she assembles in the flashback are wearing a variety of medieval religious garb. Is it possible that she created the order not to fight in the name of one religion, but to fight for the peaceful coexistence of many?
In that case, a season 4 exploration of the struggle for peace paradox seems inevitable, but let's tackle it one imaginary season at a time.
Reya's roots reveal a lot in Warrior Nun season 3
When "Warrior Nun" introduced Reya (Andrea Tivadar), it opened a whole new can of worms. But if we focus on what the series has been trying to promote so far, and combine that with a surname game, we can rule out what it might stand for.
Again, Reya's name has a variety of potential inspirations, including: Rhea from Greek mythology, the mother of the gods; Asherah, the consort of the ancient West Semitic god El, and another mother of the gods; and the Scandinavian goddess Freyja. Relevantly, as it speaks to the "Warrior Nun" interpretation approach, some scholars believe that Asherah was also once worshiped as the consort of Yahweh (throughGuillermo J. Dever), or as the feminine component of God's genderless/transcendent nature (forBBC). As for the Greek Reah, like Reya, she had a troop of demonic-looking creatures who did her bidding on Earth, the Kouretes, who protected her son Zeus from his cannibal father Kronos after Reah hid the baby in a cave on Mount Ida ( not unlike Reya's protection against Jack Mullarkey's Michael).
Which brings us to Freya (or Freyja), the Norse goddess of not only fertility and love, but also battle and death (she even leads half of the soldiers who die in battle in her Great Hall, Fólkvangar, the Valhalla of Odin be damned). Although her origins and fusions with other goddesses are quite intricate, she is often linked, like Frigg, to the Proto-Germanic mother god Frija (who she tells, that's why).fourgod-mother who came into being), and her connection to mysterious and powerful objects, including the Brísingamen necklace, which is stolen and re-obtained from Loki, is another direct line from "Reyan".
Now, here's what all of this means in regards to Reya and Season 3.
This helps Warrior Nun Season 3 maintain its ethos.
While it's not a huge leap from stolen necklace to stolen halo, we're not suggesting that a third season of "Warrior Nun" strays to"Ragnarok"territory, or that would reimagine some unique version of these stories. These goddess-mother connections, however, feel less like a Joseph Campbell shocker and more like an intentional, collective nod to a final revelation:
If Reya is indeed an all-powerful mother goddess who, like the goddesses mentioned here, is neither good nor bad, but simply "is, "as Michael says, it could be the unintended origin of the gods, and God at the center of both polytheistic belief systems and also Abrahamic religions. We know that her realm isn't heaven or the afterlife of anyone's faith, and that Adriel only uses terms like "angel" and "prophet" because they have meaning for humans. It is possible that various beings from Reya's realm have invaded ours at various points and in various places throughout human history and, for obvious reasons, this has led to them being worshiped as deities.
It is important to note that this does not negate the idea that they stayed and fulfilled the role they assumed. Thus, such disclosure would allow the "Warrior Nun" to avoid ridiculing, denying, or contradicting someone's faith (since that would, at the very least, support their respective origins), while also allowing them to condemn, as they have so consistently done. . — the many ways faith can be manipulated in our realm to control and subjugate others and justify hatred.
Which brings us back to Beatrice…
Death and Revelation in Season 3 of Warrior Nun
Certainly Season 3 would see Beatrice struggling to resolve her faith after the events of Season 2, as a sort of avatar of the show's own struggle to resolve science with the characters' beliefs. Much has been made of the ambiguity of "Warrior Nun", as if she doesn't realize that she isn't answering the questions she raises, or is afraid to give a conclusive answer. Oddly, alien invasion stories don't get this particular criticism, although by necessity they ask similar questions about humanity without answering them. And if we think of "Warrior Nun" as the alien invasion story that it is, the endgame becomes clearer.
unfortunately forChargers "Avatrice", Ava will have to die (this time for real), and not just because Happily Ever After makes TV extraordinarily boring. Ava's death would prompt Beatrice to return the OCS to its original purpose, namely to challenge those who would use faith and knowledge as a weapon to gain power (including demon puppeteers).
This might not work for critics who think "resolution" means providing simple, trite answers and conclusions to every minor plot thread, but it would reveal a (frankly, more important) thesis: namely, that the truth (again, the truth big) is not a zero-sum game, andit is notin conflict with any faith. Rather, it is the greed-driven games humanity plays with these things that stand in the way of intellectual and spiritual freedom.
In the end, the ideology of "Warrior Nun" turns out to be much simpler than its complex narrative suggests: "Be free," Beatrice tells Ava at the end of season two. It's a feeling for both the viewer and the audience. humanity as a whole, as it is for Beatrice and Ava.