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Survival School
I was just reading ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tgabrielle's most interesting old post about Survival School here and it got me thinking about two things.
1) Napoleon's student A-number one, top dog, big cheese, etc., at Survival School. That gets me all girly inside, initially, about how entirely sexy and cool he is, but you know what? Given what's required to be top dog at Survival School, it kind of makes Napoleon an asshole, doesn't it? Or at least, not really very admirable as a human being. Cunning, ruthless, underhanded, manipulative ... hm. Good UNCLE agent, not so good person.
2) tgabrielle points out that we see only the physical training and wonders if they simply didn't show the intellectual stuff because it's hard to film, which makes sense. But it got me thinking ... what if Survival School is just that? A physical survival school. And there's other schools, maybe one or more than one, with courses the agents must pass to enter the field. There's nothing indicating for sure that agents only take Survival School and no other training, is there? So there could be History School and Intelligence School and all that other stuff (or, one school for the physical stuff and one for the intellectual/psychological stuff). And what would that other school/those other schools be like?
So ... that's all. I was just thinkin. :)
tgabrielle's most interesting old post about Survival School here and it got me thinking about two things.
1) Napoleon's student A-number one, top dog, big cheese, etc., at Survival School. That gets me all girly inside, initially, about how entirely sexy and cool he is, but you know what? Given what's required to be top dog at Survival School, it kind of makes Napoleon an asshole, doesn't it? Or at least, not really very admirable as a human being. Cunning, ruthless, underhanded, manipulative ... hm. Good UNCLE agent, not so good person.
2) tgabrielle points out that we see only the physical training and wonders if they simply didn't show the intellectual stuff because it's hard to film, which makes sense. But it got me thinking ... what if Survival School is just that? A physical survival school. And there's other schools, maybe one or more than one, with courses the agents must pass to enter the field. There's nothing indicating for sure that agents only take Survival School and no other training, is there? So there could be History School and Intelligence School and all that other stuff (or, one school for the physical stuff and one for the intellectual/psychological stuff). And what would that other school/those other schools be like?
So ... that's all. I was just thinkin. :)
Re: intellectual survival school
I don't think Napoleon is a klutz and maybe he could do everything physically Illya could (and elected not to) or maybe he was even better than his friend. As Lee and Cindy have already pointed out, Napoleon on the show displayed a talent for other things. Maybe he's just great at EVERYTHING. To me this makes him less interesting as a character.
Re. Survival School, the action stuff they show the students practicing is definitely up Illya's alley. Cutter doesn't respect Illya so it seems likely he did not do well at some of the classes (the ones not shown) and Napoleon did. I don't think UNCLE has the budget to have various schools--Survival School is IT. Plus, the mole stole a codebook indicating there is some sort of intellectual content to the school. And just as I don't think Napoleon is a klutz I also don't mean to suggest Illya is a dummy, that he couldn't do the classroom work but in an UNCLE school Solo would have been the better at it.
Re: intellectual survival school