#historical elements

[daguerreotyping]

Tintype of a group of barefoot sailors at ease, c. 1870s

#I love images like this where there's such a jolting contrast between modern-looking elements and very period-specific elements #like center front guy's casual pose and t-shirt wouldn't be out of place on a modern man but then MASSIVE MUTTONCHOPS #and his buddy on the left—did this guy straight up rip the sleeves off his naval uniform?! punk's not dead... punk's not even born yet #19th century #19th century men #19th century fashion #sailors #men's fashion #fashion history #historical fashion #19th century photography #tintype #ferrotype #1800s #1870s

[absolutebl]

BLs with Strong Historical Elements

Costume dramas, historical BLs, and BLs with time travel or flashbacks to historical locations & times.

These are in order of my personal preference, best at the top.

I Feel You Linger in the Air

2023 Thailand

IFYLITA is an exquisite BL, from filming techniques to narrative framework (much like Until We Meet Again). It's about a gay man from our time who falls into the past, becomes a servant to a noble house, and falls in love with the heir. It turns out this has all happened several times before. Steeped in history and family drama it edges into lakorn (but not as much as To Sir With Love and with way less scenery chewing). This is an elegant and classy soulmates BL... from Thailand which normally doesn't even try for classy. The main couple (both as a pair and as individuals) were excellent, particularly Bright (Yai) whose eye-work acting style is a personal favorite of mine. Pity about the ending. Oh it wasn’t that sad but it wasn’t good either. This show could easily have earned a 10/10 from me except that it fumbled the… erm… balls in the final quarter. Argh. Whatever.

Nobleman Ryu's Wedding

2021 Korea - WeTV

A boy cross-dresses to take his runaway sister's place as a bride to a shy scholar, turns out they like being married. A historical setting allowed this BL to use some seriously old fashioned romance tropes (arranged marriage, evil step-sisters, Cinderfella) but also modern BL stylings like fake relationship & secret identity (drag) plus some cute gay panic. It reminded me of 12th Night more than anything else which just happens to be my favorite Shakespeare play. For all these reasons, I adored it.

(the ghat kiss!)

Tinted With You

2022 Korea - Viki

Fun stylish time travel meets portal fantasy with a likable cast, historical setting, and two actual kisses that mitigate the rough plot and issues around anachronisms.

Word of Honor

2021 China (censored) - Viki/YouTube?

I don’t rec Chinese stuff often, because I believe in censoring the censors, but this show is one of my favorites of the post 2016 censored bromances. It’s two murder-gay assassins (pining sunshine/tsundere), and they are so insanely gay for two boys who will never be allowed to kiss. Tropes include: wuxia, soulmates, paranormal, historical, and fantasy elements.

To Sir, With Love AKA Khun Chai

2022 Thailand - YouTube?

This is a true lakorn (basically Thai tellenovella or soap opera) with scenery chewing performances, especially from the mother characters. Gone With the Wind + Days of Our Lives but gay. That said? I loved it: A glorious central brother relationship (the best, made me cry), het romances, class divide + gay *gasp* main romance - oh my word, the campy drama of it all! Arranged marriage, rebellion, cut sleeves, over-the-top death with curses and regrets, beautiful if inaccurate costumes, secrets unraveling, cover ups, sparkle murder, sex herbs, coils within coils including snakes and murderous green metallic sequins (is anything gayer on this earth?). It’s a WILD ride but it does end happy for our gay boys. A man cries when he finds DEATH GLITTER. Come on! You haffa watch it. That said, like Manner of Death I struggle to rate something on a BL scale when it patently isn’t a BL. So I ended up giving this exactly what I gave that show, 7/10 I enjoyed it a whole lot, but not as a BL.

The Untamed (Special BL Edition)

2020 China (censored) - YouTube

Censored wuxia bromance, amorphous ending. Probubly the best known BL of its kind out of China and responsible for bring many fans to the BL side.

Our Skyy 2: Never Let Me Go

2023 Thailand - YouTube

I was nervous to watch this PondPhuwin vehicle but I liked it a lot! Doomed soulmates + paranormal time travel to fix the past. I’m happy for the outfits and the dancing (if not the singing). It’s not a bad premise and it’s nice to see GMMTV lean into its high production values for a change. I'd adore a full historical starring these two and this was definitely the best of the second series of Our Skyy. I don't think you have to have watched the original Never Let Me Go to enjoy this.

Legend of Long Yang: Rebirth

2017 China

Gaga

Whipping boy trope... literally, servant character takes the strap for the prince, who then makes him his bodyguard and lover when he becomes king. Low budget historical, comes off as kind of cosplay wuxia version of Irresistible Love, but we get (in the credits) an actual kiss, and they both live. So yay for small mercies.

The Director Who Buys Me Dinner

2023 Korea (historical flash backs)

iQIYI

A new employee at a film company encounters a director who claims to have lived 300 years and insists that they have to date (eat, hug & kiss) if baby doesn't want to die. It has a lot of Japanese elements, not the least of which are: an office setting, the fact that every character in this show is unhinged, and a killing of the gays. Featuring a gorgeous & stellar cast, TDWBMD should have utilized them less for melodrama and more for chemistry. This BL surprised me by going there with a lipstick mark AND an actually gay idol. But (you knew there was a but) while it's a unique twist on an office romance it is NOT a unique twist on the doomed red thread trope, resulting in it feeling less than the sum of its parts and ultimately unsatisfying. This might have also had to do with the fact that this was one of those KBLs where I felt how very short it was the whole time I was watching, like I was missing something constantly, in every episode. Worth watching for some but seriously flawed.

First Love Again

2022 Korea (historical flash backs) - Viki

A popular novelist who remembers his past lives meets his soulmate for the third time, only to find she has been reincarnated into the body of a man. This one started out a touch mean-spirited, but we eventually got a good kiss. The confession/rejection scene was justified and the reconciliation and ending was... fine. All in all, the pacing felt rushed and the romantic arc was underdeveloped. They go from like to love to boyfriends in a red hot minute. But that’s par for the course with Korea’s short form. If you don’t mind a heavy does of melodrama in your BL this one has a solid story with a strong concept that’s well acted and produced, making it a classic KBL with better than average chemistry but ultimately a touch forgettable.

Love in Spring AKA Spring of Crush

2022 Korea

This show was all over the place with uneven acting, narrative, and focus (sometimes it wanted to be a slapstick comedy, sometimes a depressing melodrama) which meant no one, actors or viewers, took anyone or anything seriously.... AND it’s a bromance. I was left wondering if SalHyung is now code for “they were roommates” in Kdrama historicals but otherwise largely apathetic and unimpressed. Korea, I now know you can do better. Do better.

Mermaid's Jade

2019 China (censored-esk) - Gaga

Kills the gay.

The Male Queen: Han Zi Gao

2016 China - Gaga

Kills the gay. Schrodinger's BL, both a BL and entirely not one at the same time.

Diary of Heong Yeong Dang

2014 Korea

Kills the Gay

I was gonna do a top 10 list, but there aren't enough by my metrics, so many end sadly.

This post at the behest of @verymuchof thank you for the idea!

Dated April 2023, includes only BLs that had finished their run by that date. Not responsible for cool costume flix that come after that. But you should check the comments to see if any have been added by others!

I might have missed a few that only have time historical elements since I don't always track those.

Also I would like to point out a decided lack of Japan on this list. My ninja yaoi consuming tiny past self is VERY upset about this void.

WHERE ARE MY GAY NINJAS??!!!

(source)

#historical bls #time travel bls #bls with historical elements #korean bl #chinese bl #thai bl #I Feel You Linger in the Air #Nobleman Ryu's Wedding #Scholar Ryu's Wedding #Tinted With You #Word of Honor #Khun Chai #to sir with love #The Untamed #Never let me go #Legend of Long Yang #The Director Who Buys Me Dinner #First Love Again #Love in Spring #Spring of Crush

[avelera]

David Jenkins was a playwright before he was a TV showrunner and it so clearly shows in how OFMD was designed as a stage play. Indeed, our logistical questions around how Stede managed to find his crew with just a dinghy or why distances don't matter only come up because we can see the ocean and the distances thanks to the power of CGI movie magic and wouldn't even ping our collective consciousnesses if this was all happening on a stage as the story in its bones was clearly meant to, in this essay I will...

#I mean it's already an essay but you get my drift #our flag means death #ofmd meta #the opening episode shows a lot of stage play structure that comes across as a bit awkward on TV like not opening with a bang line #instead it opens with crewmates muttering plot irrelevant dialogue and with Frenchies song #this is when the audience should be taking their seats #but it comes across as a bit strange in modern prestige television #where we expect to be gripped from the very first second of the script #actually I find it a bit awkward and think that element of the script should have been refined a bit but it does play to overall charm #of OFMD being more firmly in the pirate theatrical play tradition than in any kind of historical pirate tradition

[alexkablob]

not to wade into discourse about shows online which I swore to stop doing but I think some of you need to recognize that not every piece of media is about you, and that focusing only on the themes that you personally identify with while erasing the ones you don't is Not Great

#some of you only know how to analyze things through a VERY specific queer lens that matches your own personal experiences and it shows #and I just think there is a lot more to enjoying narratives about having a complex relationship to gender in a very specific historical era #than arguing about what specific pronouns and labels they would use in 2023 #and that white queer people reducing stories that are about a character's struggle with being multiracial #to *only* the queer elements that we identify with is. not great??? #you can't separate these things you can't just ignore them #I'm obviously not equipped to do in-depth *commentary* on that aspect of mizu's character because I am in fact a white queer #that is for other people to speak about and I'm enjoying reading their takes on it #but like. you need to engage with media that is not about you. you need to assign artistic merit beyond what you personally identify with. #you can find things that resonate with you in them but you should not make the whole thing about you

[marzipanandminutiae]

petition for pop history writers (and like. sometimes the actual MET museum, I guess?) to start talking about historical men’s fashion the way they talk about historical women’s fashion

“glove-fitting breeches were consciously, intentionally designed to emphasize men’s Fathering Groins. this was the one single reason they looked like that”

“this particular cut of jacket drew attention to his strong arms, highlighting his ultimate role as a provider for his family”

“Victorian men often fainted from the tightness of their waistcoats, but they still wore them because Society insisted they show off their V or be ruined for life. we know this because they faint a lot in novels and plays”

“the shirt’s high collar represents his stoic lack of emotion”

“heavy, cumbersome riding boots made it impossible for men to walk more than five steps at a time, ever”

#historical fashion #dress history #'because they thought it looked cool?' what's that? there is ALWAYS a weird uncomfortable psychosexual #(heteronormative) #reason for EVERY element of women's clothing throughout history!!!!

[aroaessidhe]

Aro & ace Books: Historical & historical fantasy (1900s)

The Reckless Kind (set in 1904) - aroacespec MC

The Murder Next Door (set in 1912) - ace lesbian MC

The Diviners (set in 1926) - ace lesbian major character (later in series)

Fire Becomes Her (1920s insp fantasy) demidemi MC, ace 'love interest' (QPR)

Moonshine (1920s insp fantasy) - bi ace man major character

Foul Lady Fortune (set in 1931) - demisexual MC, aroace side character

The Spy With The Red Balloon (set in 1940s) - demisexual mlm MC

Innsmouth Legacy duology (Winter Tide) (set in 1948) - aroace coded / word-of-god MC

The Society For Soulless Girls (set in 1990s) - ace-spec wlw MC (questioning/vague about it) (90s is not quite the same vibe as the rest of these but I could not think of another one lol)

#aspec books / aspec database / tumblr masterpost

#aspec books #asexual books #the reckless kind #the murder next door #the diviners #fire becomes her #foul lady fortune #the spy with the red balloon #innsmouth legacy #the first two are historical realistic all the rest have fantasy elements

[ifindus]

cw: gore

"Division of territories", day 16 of @propagandistisk's hetalia goretober 2023 ✨

This is of course a reference to the wars between Scandi bros in the 1600s; more specifically the outcome of the wars predating the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. The Treaty of Roskilde saw the entirety of Trøndelag (central Norway) given up to Sweden, and the region would be Swedish for two years until Trøndelag became Norwegian again in 1660 after another treaty. The treatment of trøndere during these two years has been referred to as the genocide of Trøndelag by local historians due to the large prescription of trøndish men to the Swedish army. It almost emptied the region of men overall and the large farmland region suffered greatly as many of the men were already overseas and fighting in the Danish-Norwegian army. The trøndish men in the Swedish army were then sent abroad to fight wars as the Swedish King was afraid they would rebel if left close to home. Only one third of the men would return to their homes, which by then would be plagued by famine.

The Swedes wanted Trøndelag because then they would effectively divide Norway into two parts, separated at the middle, and easier to attack in the future.

#historical hetalia #hetalia goretober 2023 #tw gore #cw gore #hetalia #aph denmark #aph norway #aph sweden #hws denmark #hws norway #hws sweden #hws scandinavia #aph scandinavia #I have written down every prompt and marked each one I wanted to do and it happened that today was the 16th! #wonderful timing #I know dark historical events is not everyone's cup of tea in hetalia but I do enjoy portraying those elements of history sometimes #especially because the consequences of the wars between Denmark and Sweden are not really talked about much #and I find these things facinating #thinking about how the events would affect the nations etc - especially with Norway being split in two here #and both denmark and sweden sending norwegians to wars and then trading land that weren't theirs back and forth without Norway having a say #that's why I dressed Norway in a military uniform of the time here - while the other two have more upper class outfits not really practical #It's to symbolize how Norway was used as a puppet to fight for them #damn I love history #too bad there is a lack of historical clothing references from the back 😅😅😅

[moondancer71]

The Spirit of Christmas | a Jonerys Christmas one-shot

Summary: With a promotion at stake, Dany must secure an appraisal for a historical inn before the New Year. The only problem is the ghost who occupies the inn during the twelve days before Christmas won’t let that happen.

“The door was open,” Dany explained, even though she lacked the need for an invitation as this was a business and not a residential property. 

“It wasn't,” the man countered, lips pressed in a thin line. “I’m actually in the middle of closing the inn down for the holidays.” 

Dany furrowed her brow. “Closing? Isn’t this the high season?” She looked around and saw that the inn lacked Christmas decorations. 

“Tradition.” He took the picture from her hands and returned it to its spot on the mantel. “I’m Davos Seaworth, the innkeeper.” He extended his hand to her. “You must be Ms. Targaryen from Manderly and Hornwood Law Firm.” 

Dany returned Davos’s handshake. “Please call me Dany. Yes, I’m here for the property appraisal.” 

Davos scrubbed a hand across his beard. “Yes, Mr. Tarly arrived early and…he left early.” 

“Yes, I saw him leave. Did something happen?” 

Davos shrugged. “It’s probably the ghost. Jon has never harmed anyone, but every once in a while he does like to assert himself.” 

“Jon.” Dany snorted. “You’re on a first name basis with the ghost?”

Read the complete fic on AO3. Thank you @arielchelby for beta reading and the encouragement! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 🎁🎄

Ice and Fire Jonerys Discord

#jonerys #jonerys fanfic #jonerys fanfiction #jon snow #daenerys targaryen #jon snow x daenerys targaryen #jon x dany #jon x daenerys #jonerys christmas fic #jonerys christmas #christmas magic #supernatural elements #ghost!jon #modern au with historical elements #moon writes #my moodboard #ice and fire jonerys discord

[amygdalae]

cant stop thinking abt disco elysium. im obsessed w the Pale. i love how its an extremely prominent and fundamental part of that world but it only comes up a handful of times. you can very easily go through the whole game without knowing what it is. its just not super relevant to Harrier’s current situation

when you ask Joyce about it Kitsuragi gets concerned learning about it will break your brain because its such a horrifying thing but its also mundane and every1 knows about it, slowly swallowing the world. its like. imagine waking up with complete amnesia and having someone explain that global warming is happening

#i just really really like that in this setting the world-swallowing anomaly isnt centered in the plot. youve got murders to solve #im fascinated by the world in DE in general. its like #its so vastly different from ours in many ways but like politically and economically its extremely similar #its like. alternate historical fiction and also dystopian and also sci fi but not in the ways youd expect #its a very easy world to place yourself within because it doesnt overdo the more fantastical elements #theyre just there #mercs have high tech shiny ceramic armor that blocks bullets and the pale is slowly expanding #idk man its cwazy. its weird and wobblly #i love it #long post #haley plays disco elysium #disco elysiums spoilers #spoilers

[mothmiso]

Uzbekistan (2) (3) (4) (5) by Caspar Tromp

#historic buildings #islamic architecture #decorative elements #uzbekistan #tashkent

[withercrown]

It’s in the accent. It’s ALL in the accent.

Izzy Hands does not represent homophobia. He is not fucking up shit because he hates femininity because sexism. He is not secretly motivated by racism. He’s a cunt, but he’s not that kind of cunt.

His accent is aggressively, unabashedly working class. I can’t directly place which specific county his accent is from, but it’s most influenced by the Northern counties. For the purposes of this analysis, there is more emphasis placed on the fact that his accent is regional, not received. The influences appear to be primarily Northern.

There is a lot of friction between the North and the South in England. Northerners do not like Southerners. Historical context: There was considerable resistance from the existing rulers and princedoms in the North of England against the Norman colonizers who essentially imported (imposed) aristocracy as we recognize it today into England. The distance from the South was further and the conditions harsher. There was less assimilation.

The invaders struggled to exert the same kind of power in the Northern countryside that they did in the South because of distance and supply lines. When conflicts did happen they were often incredibly brutal, eg. the Harrying of the North, in which the Normans slaughtered, burned, and starved the North. As much as 75% of the population was lost in an attempt to bring the North to heel.

The general perception in the North is that Southerners perceive Northerners with contempt and loathing, deliberately deride and overlook the North, and when they do take an interest it is for the explicit purpose of exploitation. Northern suffering is worth less than Southern inconvenience. Even today, a Northern accent is often synonymized with a lack of education, empathy, or intelligence, or used as the butt of a joke.

Stede and Lucius benefit from literacy, received pronunciation and a wider vocabulary. In Stede’s case this would also include multilinguality in French and Latin, a literal language barrier to either permit or deny participation in the main institutions of European and British power: the aristocracy, the courts of law, and the church. An educated accent is used in almost explicit contrast to make traditional working class dialects, gradually evolved over centuries from Old English and contact through work with other trading nations like Holland, appear embarrassing and insufficient.

Izzy, a literal pirate with a strong working class accent, has every cultural reason to loathe the posh, aristocratic, well-educated Stede and Lucius (Lucius can read and has a London accent). Femininity is not the issue here; foppish upper-class affectations are. The authority. The entitlement. The bastards that prosper because he suffers, and his parents, and their parents, and their parents. Their extravagance and theatrics are in direct contrast to the down-to-earth, masculine modesty valued by the average Geordie or Yorkshireman.

I cannot stress enough that all of Izzy’s interactions with Stede are historically British class-based grievances.

So before you twist Izzy into some fake effigy of homophobia or self-hating gay or whatever the fuck else, try to look at it from this perspective:

Izzy is losing the man he cares about most in the universe to a fucking posh bastard aristocrat. It’s not just that he hates Stede - Izzy’s position in society, dignity in his own country, and even his self-worth and the value of his own life has been constantly and forever overlooked in favor of people just like Stede Bonnet. People who are lucky, who are born lucky. And now the place that he feels he belongs, the work that he takes pride in, the life he’s cultivated and the people who matter to him, are all being co-opted apparently on a whim, for fun by the exact kind of person who has oppressed him and his ancestors for the past seven hundred years. 

And frankly, I can kind of see why he’s pissed.

If you take this read of his character, he ceases entirely to be just some shallow and two-dimensional villain. He’s a character who has suffered at the hands of the privileged, entitled elite that Stede represents to a working class man. He takes out that suffering on those around him in a desperate attempt to protect his place in the world. Being second-in-command to the great Blackbeard is an enormous accomplishment that he has every reason to protect. He has a chip on his shoulder that makes him feel like he has to bite, scratch and claw for every single inch of empowerment he has.

And it makes him a rich and fascinating character! One who is tragically too damaged to accept kinship with the people he actually has so much in common with. His innate identity made him feel completely powerless, so he seeks power over others. He’s insecure and bitter. It’s tragic in a nuanced, Shakespearean sort of way.

Izzy Hands adds so much to the story, and it shows just how much thought and care went into creating each and every important character in this series - even the villain.

#izzy hands #ofmd #our flag means death #I live in Northern England #BTW #aristippus helped me with the historical elements #stede bonnet #blackbeard #edward teach #meta

[minecraftbookshelf]

@shutitk

Not to get too specific or anything but like. Having a member of your family you love dearly living not only in an enemy country but the leader of said countries house does tend to make one more inclined to persuade one’s allies to Not Attack said house. Or do things that could otherwise cause harm to said family member.

#rain rambles #marriage of state au #even arranged marriages #that could produce children #realistically had a hostage element to them #in this sort of historical context #this just ups that level #presumably children would still be used for hostage EXCHANGES #but no one has children at this point #so here we are!

[nostalgia-tblr]

The immense satisfaction that comes from saying "wait, how old is this book?" when Amazon tries to sell me a very old-fashioned-looking work for 'just £1.99' and then finding it on Project Gutenberg for free instead.

#that history book from 1900 is going to be very out of date but sometimes there's some appealing element in there #and obvs many primary sources themselves are already old anyway #and old fiction too! mary shelley wrote a novel about perkin warbeck! (i need to get round to reading that one) #70000 free books you are bound to want at least one of them right? #has the author been dead for long enough that you think of them as a historical figure? their work is probably free by now! #tumblr faves Moby Dick and Dracula are there you know. Sherlock Holmes! Oscar Wilde and Jane Austen. Mary Shelley AND her mum! #protip: rename the files as you download them otherwise you'll never guess which is which as the filenames are just numbers #*slaps the roof of project gutenberg* you can fit so much out-of-copyright material in this thing.

[uwmspeccoll]

Science Saturday

Here are some wood engravings and a chromolithograph from a new addition to our Historical Curriculum Collection, two titles bound in one volume: A Handbook of Natural Philosophy and Elements of Sound, Light, and Heat, both by American educators William James Rolfe (1827-1910) and Joseph Anthony Gillet (1837-1908), published in 1868 as part of the 6-volume Cambridge Course of Physics series by Boston educational publisher Woolworth, Ainsworth, & Co. with the second title also published in New York by A. S. Barnes & Co.

The chromolithograph of the spectrograph was printed by the Boston German-American lithographer Augustus Meisel (1824-1885). The wood engravings (probably metal plates produced from the original blocks) depict, from the top, a hydraulic press, a vacuum jar, a stationary steam engine, and a steam locomotive. The last image depicts the interaction of waves:

It represents the forms produced by the intersection of direct and reflected water-waves in a vessel. The point of disturbance is marked by the smallest circle in the figure, and is midway between the centre and the circumference. . . . In like manner a great variety of sound-waves may exist together in the air. . . . In this way thousands of waves may be transmitted through the air at the same time without losing their individual character. The same case holds good here as in the case of water-waves; namely, that every particle of air is affected by a motion which is the algebraic sum of all the single motions imparted to it.

View more Science Saturday posts.

View more posts with chromolithographs.

View more posts with wood engravings!

#Science Saturday #science #mechanics #sound waves #William James Rolfe #Joseph Anthony Gillet #A Handbook of Natural Philosophy #Elements of Sound Light and Heat #Woolworth Ainsworth &Co. #A. S. Barnes & Co. #Augustus Meisel #chromolithographs #yay chromoliths! #wood engravings #Historical Curriculum Collection

[whitherwanderer]

— OF BLOOD

#ffxiv #ffxiv screenshots #[ the longest road ] #[ ooc ] #[ reshade ] #[ unedited ] #[ anamnesis ] #[ custom pose ] #don't think about it too hard #i know shinryu is historically a water elemental and sif is fire #but the more you look the more conflicting things are in this screenshot so uhhh #let's call conflict the theme

[luxaofhesperides]

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

Nine years divided them, but time meant nothing to hands: her fingers interlaced with his as naturally as if they were eight years old, or ten, or thirteen. Palm to palm, thumb over thumb. A bridge between them.

#vampires of el norte #isabel canas #litedit #new adult books #historical fiction #romance novels #bookedit #my edit #this is one of my favorite books i read last year #like in the top 3. stellar writing. incredible characters with flaws and so much tension #i adore how the setting/time period was written with the fantasical elements of magic/vampires #if you like historical fiction or characters deeply in love but with difficult histories between them. read this book. right now