Stories From The Bible - Esther

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• published: 22 Jun 2013
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Some time later, the travelers find themselves in Persia in the city of Susa (Shushan in the video). The king Ahasuerus (also known as Xerxes I of Persia) has returned from a humiliating defeat against the Greeks, the battle of Platea and decides to throw a party. Esther and her elderly cousin Mordecai befriend the time travelers and try to help them fit in with the party, providing them clothes. The travelers routinely confuse their ancient hosts with 20th-century slang and technological terminology. When the queen, Vashti, blows off a request by the king complete with an insult, he grows angry with her and calls for a divorce, sending her into exile. Without making it an official law, the king decrees soon afterwards that out of respect, those beneath the king should bow before Haman out of respect, as he also gains favor from the king. He immediately starts a contest all throughout the Persian Empire in search of a new queen. Esther and Margo are chosen to be among the contestants, in spite Margo's initial defiance towards Tarsik, whom she labels "Buster." Esther ends up winning the king's favor and Margo becomes one of her honored palace guests. When Mordecai realizes the abusive implications behind Haman's desire for others to bow before him, Mordecai refuses to bow routinely, irritating Haman. Mordecai's justification is that men should really only bow before God. Haman, feeling insulted by Mordecai's defiance, formulates a plot in an attempt to get revenge. To win legitimacy for his plot, he tricks the king into signing into law a decree giving him power to eradicate all the Jews living in the kingdom. The three travelers do their part to help Esther and Mordecai formulate a plot of their own, to expose Haman's deception to the king. Their plan succeeds, and when the king learns that Queen Esther herself would be a target of Haman's plot, the king has Haman executed for treason. The travelers leave soon afterward, with Margo having to carry all of the gifts the travelers received from Esther. Along with The Nativity and Noah's Ark, the Esther episode is one of only three in which the travelers' usage of 20th-century terms leaves the ancients utterly confused. In most episodes, the confusion revolves exclusively around the protagonists' lack of understanding of the ancient world, combined with Moki's implied lack of understanding of nearly everything. This episode featured Helen Slater as the voice of Queen Esther; with Dean Jones as King Ahasuerus, Werner Klemperer as Haman, and Ron Rifkin as Mordecai. Originally created by Hanna-Barbera