The Midfords and the inversion of gender roles
So the Midfords have been on my mind lately, specifically the way they establish themselves within a heavily gendered society.
This already starts when we look at their names. Alexis and Frances are incredibly gender neutral names, meanwhile Edward and Elizabeth are THE boy and girl names of that time.
They present themselves as the ideal family: a powerful husband, a dutiful wife, an ambitious eldest son and an engaged younger beautiful daughter, but if we look closer at the family, we see that they do not fit neatly into those categories.
-Alexis may be a man of high power and status, but he is also very much like his daughter. He's bubbly, incredibly affectionate, crafty and absolutely adoring of his strong wife.
-Francis is very well mannered and proper, but she is strict. She is very open about her opinions (especially regarding men) and is authoritative over the way people present themselves. She possesses over incredible strength (which lead to her husband falling head over heels for her) and acts as the head of the household.
For Lizzy and Edward we thankfully had some internal dialogues, which makes it a lot easier to read them.
-Elizabeth is a sweetheart and a girly girl in every sense of the word, but just like her mother she possesses over a lot of strength and skill. In terms of her behaviour and interests, she takes a lot from her father, being very affectionate and bubbly, but when faced with danger, she takes after her mother: jumping in the face of danger without a second thought and abandoning her image of a helpless girl to protect her loved ones. Her character arc revolves around her struggling to find the balance and connection between her girlhood and her strength. She is tied to the gender roles of Victorian society, but because of her families status as British knights as well as her future husband's job, she is also forced to abandon them in order to protect herself.
-Edward is ambitious gentleman and very protective over his family, but he's also incredibly awkward and his desire to be a gentleman is stretched to a very ridiculous extreme, causing the exact opposite effect of what hes trying to achieve: He doesn't trust other men, He's awkward, hes loud, he is very salty and very sex-repulsed. He does not possess the same strength as his sister and has come to accept that with grace. He takes after his mother in both looks and behaviour, although he fails to have the threatening aura his mother does, because of his awkwardness. He takes a lot after his father in terms of his awkwardness, being a little air headed just like him and being very obedient to Francis.
Overall, this family adheres to gender roles on a surface level, but the deeper you look, the more it is apparent they also stray very far from them. I love the way they are written and I do hope we get to explore more of them in depth in future arcs.
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If you're still taking drawing requests, then maybe Undertaker hanging out (being chaotic) with a younger Vincent and Francis? I just know this man has been lurking rent-free in that damn manor for ages now, lol.
theyre doing his hair :]
good luck getting that all untangled though
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Vincent Phantomhive is back from the dead, and back with a vengeance. He wants to avenge his wife. He wants to find his sons. Most importantly, he wants to reclaim his pride. Truly, hell has not seen the force of a Watchdog on a rampage.
The first chapter of Vincent's story [vol.1] is complete! yes I'm making a fucking black butler webcomic
READ HERE
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Kuroshitsuji Mandela Effect (Vincent and Francis)
Vincent doesn't have blue eyes, he has brown eyes.
Since a long time I've been noticing a very large amount of fanarts and people who color the manga putting Vincent with blue eyes.
This is because of the Phantomhive twins who have blue eyes and as the three have the same haircut, same hair color and are father and son, people imagine that Vincent has blue eyes, and the twins' eye color comes from Countess Rachel who is the mother of the two
-Francis
Another Mandela effect that occurs is that many imagine that Francis is blonde, when he is not! Her hair is gray like Vincent's, this is because of the lightness of her hair in the manga and her association again with her children, who are all blonde.
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I don’t know how nobody see this dynamics before with the Midfords. My bestie and I always joking about Alexis being the Golden retriever boyfriend/ Husband and Frances the Black cat girlfriend/ wife. Lizzy obviously is a cute golden and Edward is a silly golden who tried to be a cat but he can’t.
Also nobody talk about my audacity of come back to this account days before the new season
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What do you think of theory of Undertaker being Vincent and Francis Father ?
I don't think much of it! Doesn't really change my perspective of anything so I'm neutral
but if somehow the theory does end up being true, then I'm forever bullying the fuck out of Vincent and Francis cause imagine being related to this thing
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I don’t think the women in Kuroshitsuji are all sexualized or stereotypes at all. Characters like Lizzie, Sieglinde, Grell, Angelina, Frances, Mey-Rin, and Doll are all complicated characters in their own right, female characters can be flawed yet interesting just like male characters can. Even in cases where they are definitely sexualized (which I am critical of btw) like Ran-Mao, Beast, or Nina, they still are intriguing characters that have agency and/or importance in the story.
^
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