PRINCE OF THE CAMORRA

&.   edits  of  santino  d’antonio   ›   01/?

all eros types are organized around ascent ,   seeking to supplant their status as   "  human ,   all too human  " .   eros types are ideational and cerebral lovers who experience a continual drive towards making the most of their capabilities in order to realize the highest stage of accomplishment that it is possible for them to attain in life .    by continually searching out self - improvement ,   and by being  intensely self - critical about anything too mundane  in their personalities ,   most eros types strive to achieve an otherworldly ,   icon - like facade whereby they will indeed be seen as something   "  more than human  "  ;    indeed as giving off the impression of having ascended   "  beyond the human condition  "  and onto something quasi - divine ,   like the socratic seeker on the one hand ,   or the nietzschean overman on the other .

as for bad eros ,   when beset by preoccupations with competency and worth ,   there is always the temptation to replace the true ascent towards fairness and justice with more immediate manifestations of superiority ,   such as bossy ,   authoritative ,   and entitled behavior ,   even in cases where there may not be much in the way of genuine underlying qualities to warrant such posturing .    by tending to  your own need for superiority  before tending to concerns over what is actually fair and good ,   the icon - like facade of an   '  ascended  '   individual is achieved at the expense of those principles of impartial justice and intellectual honesty that you would otherwise like to claim for yourself .    hence ,   instead of embarking on the long and tortuous quest to hone your abilities for the long run ,   you default to manifesting a superior persona here and now ,   and you tend to do so regardless of whether this haughtiness is justified or not .   

♔　　misc sentences　　—　　selectively accepting.   @boogyslcyer​.

              i’m doing it for them .               ah ...   the dead wife and the dead puppy .   a sad story ,  indeed ,  perhaps as infamous as the baba yaga himself at this point ,  though hardly a reason worth his time .   santino isn’t one to admit to his own ignorance ,  but he can’t help but wonder ...   dead wife and dead puppy ...   why is it that john continues to fight for them ?   he says he’s not back ,  but that’s a lie .   a man who was happily retired wouldn’t have jumped so quickly at the chance to raze the bratva to the ground .   wouldn’t have killed eighty men in his attempt at convincing himself he wanted more .   (   no life ,  no wife ,  no home   )   ...   for a man like john wick ,  vengence is all he has .

the camorristi takes a second to watch the other before he dignifies him with a response ,  taking in the whole of his suit ,  the placement of his hands ,  the tension in his shoulders ,  and lastly ,  perhaps most briefly ,  the ire in his face .   no .   for all his worth ,  santino doesn’t get the appeal of a life outside the system ,  but he understands that the dead wife and dead puppy mean something .   they’re nothing more than flesh rotting in the ground ,  and yet they hold a power over lo spettro that he can’t help but envy .   it’s a conclusion that makes his jaw work ,   mouth carving out a line ,  and he finally exhales .

&.   santino   +   his  avoidance  of  getting  his  own  hands  dirty .

if you’ve started plotting with me or have read anything on this blog within the past few days ,  you probably noticed how i like to joke about  santino having other people do almost everything for him .   and ,  yeah ,  it’s mostly to take the piss out of him for being a  spoiled brat ,  but i just want to take a moment to emphasis that him having any kind of hired help has  nothing to do with incompetency on his part  and everything to do with his  elitism ,  arrogance ,  and wealth .   as shown in canon   (   both film and deleted scenes   )  ,  santino knows how to throw a punch .   he may not be especially graceful about it and he may not be able to hold his own for very long ,  especially against those who are more skilled than he ,  but he knows enough to where he’s more likely to break the other guy’s nose than his own hand .   he can shoot a gun and he can handle most high powered weaponry .   he’s not a master marksman but he can hit his intended target with at least 70% accuracy and not get thrown by the kickback .

a study on the reoccuring significance of art in JW2 and how it particularly relates to santino .

01.   the scene with santino standing in front of the statue of ercole e lica  (  hercules and lichas  )  by antonio canova .   sculpted between 1795 to 1815 ,  it depicts a moment in the story of hercules' death .   it’s a story of betrayal ,  revenge played out via a murderous rage and hasty agreements made with the wrong people which eventually come back to bite hercules in the ass .   like  !!!   they’re not even being subtle here .   santino’s standing in front of a statue of a guy known for completing impossible tasks ,  surrounded by a pantheon of twelve gods watching as said guy kills a man he percieved to betray him .    what beautiful foreshadowing .

02.   when john meets santino in the gallery ,  he’s sitting in front of la battaglia di custoza  ( the battle of custoza )  by giovanni fattori ,  painted in 1880 .   it depicts the first battle of the third italian war of independence ,   where the kingdom of italy tried to seize back control of venetia from the austrians and reunite the italian peninsula .   in the simplest terms ,  even though the italian army was almost double the size of the embedded austrian forces in venetia ,  they still got their asses kicked and never really recovered from the loss ,  resulting in them being pretty much ineffective during the rest of the austro-prussian war .   aside from the tamer  “ santino’s starting an italian civil war by killing his sister ”  comparison ,  it tells the story of john and santino’s feud :   how santino shouldn’t have assumed he’d win just because he had the superior forces ,  and how even though he was taking what was rightfully his  (  i.e. making john fulfill the blood marker ,  despite the less than noble situation  ) ,  it's no guarantee of victory and you run the risk of embarrassing yourself and getting your ass kicked if you don't know what you're doing .

03.   another big painting seenin the museum was bersaglieri a dogali  (  battle at dogali )  by michele cammarano .    it depicts another crushing italian military defeat which in turn lead to two italo-ethiopian wars .   the story the painting makes is that trying to establish a colony in ethiopia via military force  (  in santino’s case ,  his trying to establish a foothold in new york  )  wasn't all that clever .   throughout their whole museum exchange ,  john and santino are surrounded by gigantic billboard-sized reminders that attempting to reunify or expand italian territory by force of arms is a bad idea .

santino  -  john wick: chapter 2 ost