#literally because of anne's downfall

[fideidefenswhore]

what are your thoughts on jane seymour?

well...to tie into another unanswered anon in my inbox, i think there is something fairly nauseating about a woman 'poor you'-ing a man that just judicially murdered his wife, brother-in-law, friends, a court musician. etc, not to mention, you know. marrying him ten days after that fact ('do you THINK she CHOSE the date', no, but, i do think she accepted it, which doesn't suggest much in the way of integrity)

i think that emotional reaction is often regarded as unfair, yk, why do people not have the same animus for henry's wives after jane, for example? they also married someone that renounced, exiled, repudiated, and forbade his first wife from seeing their daughter (whom he bastardized, for good measure) for the remaining five years of her life, arrested, tried, executed his second wife, whose daughter he also bastardized...

and, while that is technically true, none of these women had served as anne's lady-in-waiting (or, for that matter, catherine's also). jane would have at least known, probably beyond a reasonable doubt, in that intimate position, that anne was, at the very least, not guilty of adultery. the last three were told a story, by people of authority and credibility beyond just henry. i am sure jane was also told a story, but the difference is that she probably knew it wasn't true, or at least...not entirely true.

anne served as catherine's, and anne, to some degree, probably believed a story that she could not have really known was true or untrue (that of her marriage to arthur), because she wasn't there. she also probably (conveniently, if you want to be ungenerous) believed what henry believed, on that subject (and we can say the same for jane, at least in relation to the validity, or lack thereof, of anne and henry's marriage...it's more something you get from reading between the lines, but she might have mentioned the rumored percy precontract as far as the 'none consider it lawful' tack, see: 5). anne at the very least, accepted with equanimity, the derogation of her predecessor and stepdaughter, or, according to some reports, pursued them with vigor. add to the mix the arrest, imprisonment, and execution of the former within a week of her betrothal to henry, along with a close family member of the former (seeing as catherine didn't really have any at court besides mary, i guess it would have to be her); and maybe that hypothetical scenario can shed some light on why some have more animus for jane seymour than anne boleyn (being a 'bystander' does not equate with being an 'innocent bystander’, nor does having an unloving husband endow someone with sainthood...depending on the circumstances, inaction can also be damning).

alright, well, that’s off my chest. here’s some more q&a’s that give my opinions on the subject, as i just ran out of spoons: 

emotively/ circumstantially 

relationship with eldest stepdaughter and (2)

seymour/’aragonese’ faction

relationship with henry and (2)

#anon #you know the funniest thing i find about counterfactuals in regards to all this? #is that especially in regards to mary... people act like 'well i guess we'll NEVER KNOW' when #literally because of anne's downfall #we have an answer #if anne boleyn had been henry's last queen #THEN we could more credibly speculate #how much of mary's treatment was down to her. how much of it was her influence #but we literally have a timeline on which anne was permanently removed as a factor #and it is ...this one #and the same thing was demanded . it might have been both of them but anne was not encouraging henry from the grave. be fr #jane got to learn that too btw #rude awakening to say the least

[ehhgg-art]

you ever think about the fact that laios won not by being a monster but by being human.

monsters as we’ve seen throughout the manga are predictable, they have this rhythm to them that, once someone understands, can be used to take them out. take kelpies like anne where laios states that she is just a monster and cannot be trusted. even kensuke is “just a monster after all”, running away from danger when laios needs it most. kensuke is beloved by laios not just because he is a monster, but because laios, in human fashion, anthropomorphized him in his mind (giving him a name, etc.)

but people are different. they are multifaceted, non-monolithic creatures. long lived races are not all pious and apathetic towards short lived races as we see with marcille and senshi. chilchuck actively works against the prejudice against half-foots. tallmen from every region have their cultural differences as we see with shuro and laios/falin. even “demi-humans” like orcs have depth to them, having rich culture and values despite the general idea that they are a violent pillaging race.

even laios’ family and village, the nexus point for his dislike of people, have depth to them. though their parents did not actively protect their children, they did not wish harm on them either. the exorcisms performed on falin by their mother was harmful in laios’ eyes, but helpful in his mother’s perspective.

laios himself, despite loving monsters and hating humans, is so very painfully human. he hates humans but has risked life and literal limb to save his sister and his party. he loves monsters but is aware of their dangerous nature and spares them no mercy.

(big spoilers under the cut)

the winged lion mistook laios as a one dimensional entity, one which only operates on a one track mind without paradox. it thought laios to operate like a monster, and so it approached his desires like one. it believed that laios, being so obsessed with monsters, must behave like one as well, so completely disregarded the fact that laios could have something up his sleeve.

but laios is not a monster, he is human. he has ulterior motives, overlapping beliefs, contradicting values. it is his humanness that made him explain to his party what to do when things went awry. it is his humanness that allowed him to lie. lie to the world about his true plan as well as lie to the winged lion about his intentions.

sure laios WANTS to be a monster, that much is definitely true. but what he IS is a different story. laios is an unpredictable, sporadic, messy human being. it is that fact which the winged lion overlooked, and ultimately led to its downfall and laios’ victory.

#ohh the multifaceted nature of human beings and the beauty of the human condition #ryoko kui really outdid herself #dungeon meshi you will always be important to me #anyways don’t mind me i’m just having Laios thoughts #ignore the fact that i accidentally said two dimensional entity the first time i know language i swear #laios touden #laius thorden #??? #dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #dunmeshi #dunmesh spoilers #the winged lion #rambles #ryoko kui #anime #manga #analysis

[bohemian-nights]

this might be controversial but I genuinely don’t understand why people like Rhaneyra,She’s just so meh.You can’t love to hate her or anything because she’s just so uninteresting.She doesn’t have any defining personality traits or anything outstanding.Like what is there to to stan????Most people literally only like her because they can slap the word Queen in front of her name.

Prior to this show I would say by and large no one really liked her. Granted people did support her over her brother cause they felt she was wronged, but hardly anyone viewed her as a likable character. The only reason why she has been deified and has a large fanbase now that act like they are in some kind of cult is because they see her as Dany 1.0🤷🏽‍♀️

They think HOTD is going to right the wrongs of GOT s8 and give them everything (a Valyrian supremacy ship included) they ever wanted.

How they think that when Miss Maegor winds up as a half-dead dragons Sunday roast(trust, Missy Anne is still dying, and dying alone, they’ll just make it look like one big act of betrayal instead of her bringing down her own downfall) is nothing but delusions and cope(and once it does happen they’ll start crying again like the same thing doesn’t happen in the books that they refuse to read to their self insert).

#bnasks #bnask #anti rhaenyra targaryen

[une-sanz-pluis]

Reading this post about Anne Boleyn, made me think about Eleanor Cobham and her childlessness.

We don't know anything about Eleanor's childlessness beyond the fact of it. We don't know if she had pregnancies that ended in miscarriage or stillbirth or whether she was unable to conceive. But the possible impact on her mental health tends not to be even considered, let alone mentioned. In fact, her attempted defence at her trial for witchcraft - that she had only used "magic" in attempt to conceive her husband's child - has been over-interpreted by some historians (e.g. Lauren Johnson, Robert Bartlett) as a type of threat or an admission of treason. She wanted to have a baby because her son would replace Henry VI and she'd be the ~mother of kings!

Which is just bizarre. There are many reasons she could have wanted a child - and note that she did not specifically state she wanted a son but a child - but both Johnson and Bartlett reduce her to the cold-hearted scheming vixen only wants a son so she can rule through him. Also, like, Eleanor was literally the only woman alive in 1441 who could provide the Lancastrian dynasty with a clear-cut heir.

We know the succession became a point of anxiety not too long after Eleanor's downfall and while we can't explicitly trace it back to Eleanor's time as Duchess of Gloucester, it does stand to reason that she would have been aware of how fragile the Lancastrian dynasty was. Henry VI was four years away from marrying himself and twelve years away from having his only son (which, of course, Eleanor couldn't have known about). He was the only child of his father and had no brothers who could inherit the throne, while all of his paternal uncles except Humphrey had died without legitimate issue by 1435. Humphrey himself had no legitimate children. The succession after Humphrey was confused, with at least three possible claimants. Eleanor, as Humphrey's wife, was likely very well aware of how fragile the succession was and was the only woman at that time who could give birth to an heir. Yes, any child might be Henry's "replacement" and she would become the mother of the next monarch but that's how a heredity monarchy works. Maybe people should read less of the Philippa Gregory-style of historical fiction.

And that's not going into the culture of primogeniture or the idea that a woman's worth as a wife was often closely tied to the production of an heir. There are studies that talk about the stigma of involuntarily childless on modern women today, who have the benefit of feminist movements and not living in a culture based explicitly and totally in primogeniture.

Nor does it go into the fact that that having a child could have had an legitimising affect on Eleanor's controversial marriage and status, providing her with security. Nor does it discuss the emotional affect of suffering miscarriages and stillbirths - admittedly, we don't know that Eleanor suffered from these but there doesn't seem to much evidence around miscarriages and stillbirths in late medieval England and so we can't rule out the possibility this was part of her experience.

It's all too easy, when we put aside the scheming vixen image, to imagine Eleanor's fear, distress, desperation and anxiety over her childlessness. Even if she was a scheming vixen, as Johnson and Bartlett would have it, it still would have had a large impact on her. It would have influenced the way she behaved - perhaps the motif of her disastrous pride and ambition came from an desire to emphasis her status as a way of taking refuge from her inability to have a child. Although I'm yet to find contemporary allegations that supports the not-uncommon idea Eleanor was greedy and grasping, perhaps she was in order to build up a stockpile of wealth that she could use to support herself if her marriage to Humphrey was annulled or her dower seized after his death. We might also consider that she turned to magic/witchcraft in desperation to have a child or at least in attempt to know what awaited her.

#eleanor cobham #blog #tw involuntarily childlessness #tw infertility #tw miscarriage mention #tw stillbirth mention

[maryqos]

"Anne Boleyn is an ideal focus for young third-wave feminists, Bordo argues, because she resists any easy classification. The appeal for many of these young women is that her situation is recognizable by them: she was a woman whose legendary sex appeal and charm changed the world, quite literally, yet the very roots of her downfall were contained within those same qualities. For young women living in a world that tells them that they must look and act a certain way, and punishes them for any deviation from this path, while simultaneously insisting that they are free and equal—the discourse of postfeminism—Boleyn's plight seems strangely familiar."

Stephanie Russo, "Contemporary Girlhood and Anne Boleyn in Young Adult Fiction," pp. 21-22.

#anne boleyn #stephanie russo #girlhood #henry viii #history #historical fiction #house of tudor #tudor dynasty #tudor era #tudor period #women's literature #women's history #royal history #english history #early modern history #*quotes

[dreams-of-dark-pastel]

Love Switch

"Gossip Time🖤"

Masterlist

"Come on, now, you've avoided us long enough." Ann tapped the seat next to her on the sofa and I joined her, Usagi sighing from her seat.

"Is everything ok?" Ann turned to her.

"Arisu's roomate said that he hasn't stoped sulking ever since this morning." I rolled my eyes.

"The big baby will be fine." I said with a hint of sarcasm and Ann nodded along.

"But you know what would make me feel better?" Usagi turned towards me, joining us on the couch, the gleam in her eye teeling me that she was up to no good.

"Hm?" It was evident by her miscevious smirk.

"You telling me about that handsome guy." She giggled while resting her head on my lap.

"Fine, fine." She gasped, certainly not expecting me to agree so fast.

"Hey! Everyone gather around at once." Ann announced, clapping her hands a couple of times to get everyone's attention.

"She has finally caved in? That was fast." Mira giggled as she brought the cookies and cupcakes I did and everyone jumped up to get one, Kuina snatching the bowl and running away, laughing.

"Do you want to hear it? Or not?" At the seriousness of my words, she came back, wat down in one of the chairs while still holding the bowl close to her. Everyone's eyes were now on me.

"So, remember yesterday afternoon when you, Ann, asked me to stop by the bookstore on my way home to get you that book on Genetical dysfunctions and disorders?". She nodded. "Well, apparently I wasn't the only one going for that as I didn't hear another set if steps coming, and I woke up with another hand on the same book." At that Kuina perked up, entuziastically.

"Ohhhh, so you touched hands, looked at each other and fell in love?" She sounded happy, looks like the poor thing would have to have her dreams crashed.

"No. I thought he was being nice, because, to be fair, I couldn't reach the shelf even on the tip of my toes, and I thought he was going to get it for me, but no. I struggled for a good ten minutes to reach for it and that arse just chimes in, takes it and looks at me for a good minute, smirks and leaves." Hearing that, everyone had simmilar expressions, confusion, and frustration.

"Seriously?" Asked Usagi bewilded.

"Yeah, and the most annoying part was that, when I turned, I literally could not say anything. I-uh kinda was caught off guard." It seems really stupid now, but back there I was as red as a tomatoe, half because of my fury and the other from my flustered state. He-

"By how handsome he was?" Ann nudged my side, snickering.

"Awww, but still. That was not cool." Kuina now had a pout on her face, but she looked as if she was trying to piece together something.

"Well, If he tried to take a bio book, he should be majoring on the same subject as you, right, Ann?" Mira suggested, the other girls agreeing.

"Most definetely, describe him, maybe we can find out something."

"Well, he was tall, lean, nicely built, with medium long gradient black to blonde hair that reached his shoulders and cat like eyes-" Kuina gasped dramatically and Ann seemed to scoff.

"No way.." Mira seemed just as shocked while Usagi and I were left in the dark.

"Is he the guy you're takling about?" Kuina took out her phone and showed me a photo.

"Yeah, but how?" It was him, definetely.

"Well, my first thought when I listened to your story was 'hm, that's sometging Chishiya would do' so then I asked how he looked like and here we are, he is Arisu's roomate and one of my friends." So this guy was Arisu's roomate?

"Oh boy.." I was in trouble, because all there events took place yesterday but the meeting was still fresh as ever on my mind.

And this seemingly annoying, sarcastic and sadistic guy may as well be my downfall.

Why did I have to be such a hopeless fool of a romantic?

#alice in boderland x reader #alice in borderland #chishiya shuntaro #chishiya alice in borderland #chishiya x reader #mira alice in borderland #kuina alice in borderland

[taliecin]

no wait i’m still not ok. sorry if that was already said but i just-

i have a lot to say about how starz main shows (spartacus and black sails) treat their queer representation, from both good and bad points of view, but honestly i can discuss these for hours (i did once), so let me just take a look at the wound that hurts the most

that being thomas hamilton and his relationship with flint

we don’t know that much of him, beyond his plans for new providence and his overall views on how colonialism should actually work, his relationship with his father and some other people, with miranda and, of course, with james. even more so, season 2 builds it’s narrative the way it fools us into thinking miranda was the reason james was practically banished only then to reveal it was thomas all along and james’ love for him. 

just, just think of it, of how they were perfect to each other, both complementing each other’s strengthens, differences and similarities. they were one soul indeed, we can’t help but see these, these gleams of thomas’ vision in flint’s ideas, the way he sees nassau’s future in practically the same as thomas described it. flint is literally built and ruined by the man he loves the most, and the show practically dedicates the whole season portraying this, maybe in a slightly toothless way, but portrays nevertheless, creating one of most tragic love stories in modern media

only to completely abandon it in season 3 & 4, along with thomas’ character, right till the very last episode.

sure, they keep mentioning him from time to time. but it just ceases being such a huge plotpoint. sure, you might say it’s this way so the show might focus on issue on hand, developing the plot in present. but it just bugs me how it’s only miranda haunting flint’s mind. how the very base of flint’s rage is never brought up, even in the most subtle way possible. how the show just… forgets about one of its most important characters, because even though miranda’s character is also crucial for flint’s later character development, thomas is crucial in a same relation. there would be no flint without thomas, and i’m not exaggerating for the sake of ship, don’t make me explain twice

and this whole deal is probably the thing that stops me from calling starz vision of queer representation “good”. because sure, not only they make their main character explicitly queer, actually pay attention to mlm storyline and make it crucial to the main plot, they also provide thomas and james to reunite at the end of the show, no matter how you interpret the ending. but the way they just leave this huge black hole between this point A and point B leaves thomas and flint story feel abandoned and incomplete and it shutters my heart

and thomas. the way they just use him for the sake of exploring flint’s motivation and downfall is just- i, i can’t, we’re talking about the man whi was the BARE REASON FLINT WAS EVEN BORN, AND THEY NOT ONLY DON’T EXPLORE HIS IMPACT ON FLINT PROPERLY, THEY PRACTICALLY ABANDON HIM IN A MIDDLE OF THE PLOT 

sorry if this was too incoherent. i love black sails with my whole heart, but i also love james and thomas story and i can’t help but realise how much missed potential they had with these two. Like, Ann, Max and Jack story was not perfect, but i felt complete watching the way it turned out, i saw every stage of their relationship development, i did not feel like it was rushed or brought up to end without a proper build up. and that was practically a secondary plotline!! and… man i just needed them to treat thomas and his love for james properly, honestly. i just needed the show not to forget why they introduced us to their story in season 2 in a first place

#black sails #justice for thomas hamilton #i am so normal about this show #and about these two #he said know no shame #he said james my truest love know no shame and you forgot #how could you #i’m thinking about this a normal amount

[ryderdire]

So since ya all seem interested in my crane wives Playlists post

I figured I’d show you some of my notes because I over thought some of my choices a lot basically this post is some fun character analysis using lyrics as a guide because I am insane

Marcy

Curses

when the war starts in my heart”

Tell I am good enough

This song is Marcy

This is totally Marcy

Okay this is about Marcys abandonment issues obviously so I’m thinking pre tc got the first part or maybe post tc remnenising as the night takes over

(Could explain darling ashes dust to dust the devils after both of us)

No wait because andrais and the night are the devil who’s after both Anne and Marcys respectively

Lay my curses all to rest could possibly be a reference to her shortcomings leading to her downfall? (abandonment issues + navity + lack of love = shit ton of problems)

Strangler fig

You built your kingdom around me now I’m trapped in your walls and all I want is to be free

All your doing now is using me

So this is from Marcy to andrais i thought the castle imagery fit Marcy and andrais really well and the line “I gave you everything but now I want it back” fits scarily to seeing as Marcys arc is tied to the word everything and she gave Andrais so much and got cheated and stabbed in return.

Ribs

Listen, I just really like the implications of the line” the night doesn’t frigten me I chose to close my eyes” and “the night doesn’t frighten me I chose to let it thrive” In the context of Marcys arc okay

Allies or enemies

Honestly I almost didn’t put this one in but “now listen close- this will be the death of me” struck me as very marcy .

“You caught me in a moment of weakness” could be referring to her spilling out her heart to andrais

It works quite well with “forget it all “right before too. I like the idea of Marcy asking andrais to just forget everything she’s said if only because it adds to later betrayal

are we allies or enemies /this will be the death of me is the betrayal of andrais or even Marcys betrayal to Anne and her fear she is no longer loved. Or hell was never really loved.

Either way this will be the death of me serves as either ominous foreshadowing to the you know what or just the you know what happening

Sasha

Take me to war

listen to this song listen to it this is literally Sasha

“And I’ll rangle the beast with words”

“Dress me in red and throw your Roses// And I’ll rangle the beast with words”

It is literally Sasha like come on

It’s hard to explain exactly why this song works so well with Sasha without just repeating myself a lot. It fits with her manipulative tendency’s and her growth her role as the strength gem and how she grew to fill it and didn’t fill it at the beginning like marcanne (I could make a whole other post about this honestly but idk it ya all would wanna hear my ramblings about it) but yeah also I just the vibes are sahsa it almost Sounds like a war March at first and it slowly gets more and more complex a lot like Sasha and a lot of peoples perceptions of her

“all the words I’ve swallowed all of the sharp things I’ve kept in my mouth// honey I am always bleeding out //

id imagine it’s referring to her pretending to change in thrid temple to true colors (notice the first time this line is used it also has the singer using violence give me something to break with my fists in the next line)

all of the ire I’ve swallowed all of the coals that still sit on my gut

I am always burning up//

I like to think of this line in reference Turning point and more speffically Anne’s return to wartwood in comander Anne and Sasha still making an effort to change and it being hard on her sometimes

Take me to war honey I dare you!

Hehe sahsa is at war to save her gfs

-

Metaphor

Another Sasha song

Do…do I even need to explain this one?

Like this is Sasha “lies manipulation and backstabbing are her whole thing in s1-s2

“you can't trust a single thing I say” Okay so this to me changes from a prideful boast to a pained realization throughout the song and like seeing as andrais”s manipulation is part of what pushed her to change it’s really fun to imagine that’s about when it happens

I cant trust a single thing you say

Is either from her to andrais or Anne to her either way it works really welll

OR MAYBE TO MArcy??? Oooh that’s fun actually and then maybe directly regretting it with the next couple of lines where Marcy gets stabbed and maybe a singer switch here to Marcy idk

Allies or enemies

I think the beginning fits sasha (post reunion maybe post turning point) really well seeing as her main thing is relying to much on manipulation and shit like (I swear I didn’t mean what I said I swear i didn’t mean it) is absolutely my favorite line in the context of Sashas arc

Remember when I could tell you not to smile /when you where mad and you would crack /and we’d both be laughing in the end /now your not so quick to forget

So this is current Sasha looking back To pre amphibia times and then the and reunion (possibly true colors maybe like seeing the consequences of her actions like Anne hating her and Marcy d wording from her pov).

All is fair in love and war /but I can’t fight with you anymore .

Still looking back but specifically when Anne catches Sasha and right before Sasha falls definitely what Anne says or maybe even what is going through Sasha's head at the moment

Anne

Not this ghost

This song is super fun In the context of Annes character and especially her earth arc

My dear there are secrets here //there are secrets here

And I will carry them home

Carry them home

I thought this line was really interesting because Anne directly after being lied to by Marcy for good intentions lies to her parents to protect them and don’t get me wrong I get why but the idea of Anne carrying on the lies for good intentioned reasons the realization she’s doing the thing Marcy did is… just really interesting

This is about her trust issues and carrying the weight of everything that went down in true colors

“If only I could break the chain of disappointment waying me down” I think this fits Anne being stabbed in the back (metaphorically and honestly it’s terrifying I have to specify) over and over by people she trusts

//It’s the fear not the ghost that leaves me haunted// haunted

Anne had the least danger to deal with after true colors Imo which is saying something because she was being chased by killer robots and the government but she also did have a lot of time to think about what happens and Process it probably more then Sasha did it’s not the physical danger that leaves her afraid it’s the memories

Allies or enemies

What happens now/do we have another go?or do we bow out and take our separate roads/

So I think this is Anne before the third temple she’s looking back on all that’s happened and wondering if things CAN be fixed between them and if they even should be. Obviously she wants Sasha back in her life in some capacity but not the same Sasha who was such a toxic infulance.

I’ll admit I had my doubts I want to be their In not out x2

This is Sasha and Anne’s reunion in third temple and Anne growing to trust her again before the betrayal in tc this is basically like Anne’s POV of some of the Sasha stuff so far and her thoughts on it.

Are we allies or enemies

This is mostly about how Sasha and Anne went from besties to enemies to having each other’s back in tc

That’s the last one check keep reading for thoughts

Thats all I have unfortunately some of this has been in my docs drafts for months and some of it is newer I had a lot of fun with this i enjoy character analysis a lot but I do find it difficult to organize my thoughts alot of the time which is why it was so fun to use songs as a way to start thinking and building on. Plus I doubt I’d Thought of these without the prompts of the lyrics

I had a lot of trouble Anne and tbh I’m not exactly sure why but she was the Hardst

Marcy was the easiest though Sasha was the one I enjoyed the most

#amphibia au #amphibia spoilers #amphibia #Amphibia Analysis #Marcy wu analysis #Sasha waybright analysis #Anne boonchuy analysis #the crane wives #lyric analysis

[fideidefenswhore]

ok, so, i was reading this sort of snark-review of the above movie (which i'm not going to search for because it just overall had little merit, not worth a reread) which cited a specific critique of this above scene ('the matter of religion'), that if elizabeth was told that 'religion' killed her mother her primary response would be confusion, her mother was killed on accusations of adultery, incest, and treason, etc. and also that no one would say this because this obviously was not true.

while technically correct-- obviously the charges leveled against anne were not ones of heresy (although the prevalence of the theory witchcraft was in the suggestion if not literal text of the indictment by 1998 could be the explanation here)-- i would actually defend this creative choice, as a historically sound perception, ie, actually, a sophisticated creative choice in the context of the historical sources available.

protestant martyrologists such as john foxe did rewrite anne into the pantheon of protestant martyrdom, as a symbol if not literal martyr, much like catholic hagiography adopted catherine of aragon as catholic martyr for having suffered for upholding papal primacy, even if not literally dying for this belief as more, fisher, the carthusians, etc. catholic polemicists would not view her as a 'martyr', obviously, but they did view her as a heretic who deserved to die for her heresy among 'other crimes', even if this was not in the official indictment. so, actually... yes, it would be plausible that a marian councilor might threaten elizabeth with the salient reminder that religion 'killed her mother'.

moreover, this movie exists in a post-ives world...it was ives who made mainstream the theory that anne's stance on the dissolution was the catalyst to her downfall, based on strong primary source analysis and timeline recreation of events. after this, we saw a watershed in tudor fiction as it came to portrayals of her... it forced some movement in that binary mold which had existed for so long, anne as either femme fatale or tragic romantic heroine/victim (maybe she was neither of these things, maybe she was, actually, entirely more). in this way, it can be argued, she did 'die for religion'; and even if you disagree, there's still an emotional truth and resonance to this scene (in that this was what certain people believed, whether they cast anne as the heroine or villain of the tale...anne as the victim of a religious conspiracy by 'papists', alexander ales only one among them, anne as the 'wellspring' of 'heresy' in england), even if not a literal paint by numbers 'historical accuracy'.

tl; dr in the words of the immortal florence welch: who's a 'heretic' now?

#michael hirst #i love to hate and i also hate to love .

[tomb-bloom-noctem]

Since I think he's such a great villain anyway, what do you think of Andrias so far?

Well my apologies this showed up in my inbox a few days ago before Yunan and Olivia and I started answering it but then I paused and I'm actually glad I did since this episode and then Froggy Little Christmas gave me some more to think about with him! So sorry for the delay on this. Long post incoming!

Honestly, I think King Andrias is my most favorite villain in a Disney TVA show and hell, maybe even more so than in any Disney film too. This guy has got such a great balance going on of being hilarious and fun to watch but also frightening and powerful enough to be a legitimate threat. Andrias is like all the things I love about Bill Cipher, Lord Dominator, Toffee, and The Beast, all rolled into one giant evil newt king.

Part of what I think makes Andrias so good too is the way the writing with the slow but eventual reveal to the audience alone that he's not to be trusted. From his very first "appearance" where we hear his voice overlooking Anne and Marcy and then a strategic move of a chessboard piece, saying how it's time for the game to begin. Oof, legit chills. We didn't even see his face at all and yet that still told us to be on guard with him. That *something* is not right with this guy. Yet without giving too much away.

(Massive props to Keith David, man's voice is liquid gold. Incredible skill of balancing the hilarious and likable, the dad humor and fun guy side as well as methodical and dangerous side. Literally I can't think of anyone else who could carry this role the way Keith David does.)

Then the next time, the first time we officially see his face, he's SO over the top helpful and friendly and hilarious that at least speaking personally I couldn't help but immediately love him. Yet that previous hearing him speaking vaguely was more than enough to keep me on guard.

Again I think part of the greatness of him is WE know something is coming yet to the characters they don't and have no reason to suspect to. As Anne said, we were too busy fighting to see what was right in front of us. Cause yeah maybe without everything else keeping them distracted, the overly friendly attitude and all might have started to be suspicious. But other things were happening and they needed all the help they could get. Andrias didn't turn his back when no one was looking and maniacally rub his hands and monolog his evil intentions thinking no one would hear it, we saw the moments none of our characters saw. They weren't idiots who missed giant red flags because they were too blind to them. They were legitimately manipulated by someone they thought was a friend.

Twist villains can be tricky. People tend to either spot them a mile away or they come so far out of left field that the story bends over backwards trying to justify it. Rarely does one stick the landing. I feel Amphibia handled this really well. Cause I feel like if Andrias had only presented as "funny helpful newt king," we would have all figured him for a villain long before True Colors aired. So in clueing us in right away yet doing so in a way that doesn't make our main characters look like idiots, I think it helps make him more interesting and pull off being a twist villain without the usual twist villain pitfalls. Andrias was never meant to trick the audience. He was meant to trick Anne and Co.

And it worked.

Even after his true colors are shown though, Andrias remains fun to watch and interesting to know more about. We still know so little of him and he's still so funny. Yet now after True Colors he's also so despicable. This is another thing I think makes Andrias such a great villain where many others fail. I WANT TO SEE HIM FAIL. I feel legitimately motivated because of what he's done. Thus desire for our heroes to defeat him. SO often the villain is kinda just there to be defeated but it doesn't carry that same weight. For this guy though I'm legitimately invested in his downfall. I don't know how it will happen but I believe it will and I'm READY FOR IT.

Andrias is such a great fleshed out villain. From his voice to his design to his writing, everything about him is great. He's hilarious, manipulative, dangerous, fun, mysterious, and can still go in multiple directions. Will he get a redemption arc? Will he overthrow his master to try to be the big man in charge after all? Will he sacrifice himself for the girl who legitimately cracked his shell despite his intentions? Will he betray his master yet remain an enemy to our heroes or become an uneasy ally? Who knows. Time will tell how it plays out but good lord I'm nervous and ready.

I want to see more him and his hilarious shticks.

I want to know more about him and why he's like this. Like does he regret his actions? Why did he become the servant to his lord?

I want to see what else he can do in terms of his power and dangerous side.

I want to see what's next in all his methods and madness.

And I want his flipping head on a platter for what he's done.

#tomb talks #amphibia #amphibia spoilers #king andrias #andrias leviathan #amphibia andrias

[dwellordream]

“…Now, if people are taught anything at all about medieval history it often is English medieval history. People with absolutely no other frame of reference can often tell you when the Norman Conquest of England took place, or the date of the signing of Magna Carta even if they don’t know exactly why these things are important. (TBH Magna Carta isn’t important unless you were a very rich dude at the time, sooooo.) If you ask people to name a medieval book they’ll probably say Beowulf even if they’ve never read it.

Here’s the thing though – England was a total backwater in terms of the way medieval people thought and was not particularly important at the time. How much of a backwater? Well, when Anne of Bohemia, daughter of my man Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV (RIP, mate. Mourn ya til I join ya.) married King Richard II of England in the fourteenth century there was uproar in Prague. How could a Bohemian imperial princess be sent to London? How would she survive in the hinterlands? The answer was she was sent along with an entire cadre of Bohemian ladies in waiting to give her people with whom she could have a sophisticated conversation.

This ended up completely changing fashion in England. Anne is the girl who introduced those sweet horned headdresses you think of when you think of medieval ladies, riding side-saddle, and the word “coach” to England, (from the Hungairan Kocs, where the cart she arrived at court the first time came from). Sweetening her transition to English life was the fact that she didn’t have to pay a dowry to get married. Instead, the English were allowed to trade freely with Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire and allowed to be around a Czech lady. That was reward enough as far as the Empire was concerned. That’s how much England was not a thing. (The English took this insult very badly, and hated Anne at first, but since she was a G they got over it. Don’t worry.)

If England was unimportant why do we know about English medieval history and nothing else? Same reason you’re reading this blog in English right now, homes. I’m not sure if you know this, but in the modern period, the English got super super good at going around the world an enslaving anyone they met. When you’re busy not thinking about German imperial atrocities in the nineteenth century it’s because you’re busy thinking about British imperial atrocities, you feel me? So we all speak English now and if we harken back to historical things it gives us a grandiose idea of English history.

Say, then, you are trying to establish a curriculum for schools that bigs up English history, as is our want. Ask yourself – are you gonna want to dwell on an era where England was so unimportant that Czechs were flexing on it? Answer: no. You gonna gloss right over that and skip to the early modern era and the Tudors who I am absolutely sure you know all the fuck about. The second colonial-imperialist reason for not learning about medieval history is that medieval history doesn’t exactly aggrandise the colonial-imperialist system.

Yes, there are empires in medieval Europe. In addition to the Holy Roman Empire there’s the Eastern Roman Empire, aka the Byzantine Empire, whose downfall is often pointed to as one of several possible bookends to the medieval period. You also have opportunists like the Venetians who set up colonies around the Adriatic and Mediterranean, or the Normans who defo jump in boats and take over, well, anything they could get their hands on.

Notably, when these dudes got where they were going, they didn’t end up enslaving a bunch of people, committing genocide, and then funnelling all resources back to a theoretical homeland. The Normans settled down where they were eventually creating distinctive court cultures, and the Venetian colonies enjoyed a seriously high level of trade and quality of life without major disruption to local customs. Force was certainly used to take over at the outset, but it wasn’t something that resulted in the complete subjugation and deaths of millions halfway around the world from where the aggressors started.

No, the European middle ages are a lot more about local areas muddling along with smaller systems of rule. That’s why you have distinctive areas like say, Burgundy or Sicily calling their own shots and developing their own styles and fashions. Hell, even within imperial systems like the Holy Roman Empire Bavarians or Bohemians saw themselves as very much distinct peoples within an imperial system, not necessarily imperial subjects first and foremost.

You know where you would go to find some history that justifies huge imperial systems that require constant conquest and an army of slaves to keep them afloat? Ancient Rome. Remember how you got taught how great Rome was? How it was a democracy? How they had wonderful technology and underfloor heating, and oh isn’t that temple beautiful? Yeah, that’s because you were being inculcated to think that the ends of imperial violence justifies mass enslavement and disenfranchisement.

In reality, Rome wasn’t some sort of grand free democracy. Only a tiny percentage of Romans could actually vote. Women of any station certainly could not, and even men who were lucky enough to be free weren’t necessarily Roman citizens. Freedom here is particularly important because by the 1 century BCE 35 – 40% of the population of the Italian peninsula were slaves. Woo yeah democracy. I love it. And that’s not even taking into account all those times when an Emperor would suspend voting altogether.

Those slaves were busy building all the grand buildings your high school history teacher was dry jacking it about, stuffing the dormice that the rich people were reclining to eat, and basically keeping the joint running. Those slaves also necessitated the ridiculously huge army that Rome kept going because you had to get slaves from somewhere after all, so warfare had to be continuous. How uplifting.

Eagle-eyed readers will notice that this Roman nonsense is pretty much exactly what was going on during the modern colonial imperial age. You can say whatever the fuck you want about how free and revolutionary America was, for example. That doesn’t change the fact that only a handful of white property owning men could vote, and that the entire project required the mass enslavement of Africans and the genocide of Native Americans. That’s why you’ve been taught Rome is great. It helps you sleep well at night on stolen land because, really, haven’t all great societies done this? I mean without a forever war against anyone you can find, how will you keep a society going?

Our imperialist ideas about history lead to some weird historical takes. People love to tell you that no one bathed in the medieval period when medieval people had pretty much exactly the same sort of bathing culture as Romans. People laugh at medieval people believing in medical humoral theory despite the fact that Romans believed exactly the same thing and get a total pass on that front. The Roman ban on dissection is often taught as a medieval ban, shifting Roman superstition onto the shoulders of medieval people.

On-going Roman warfare is reported in glowing terms with emphasis on the “brilliance” of Roman military technique, while inter-kingdom warfare in the medieval period is portrayed as barbaric and ignorant. The Roman people who were encouraged to worship emperors as literal gods are used as an example of theoretical religion-free logical thinking, while medieval Christians are cast as ignorant for believing in God even when they are studiously working on the same philosophical queries as their predecessors. None of this makes any fucking sense.

But here’s the thing – it doesn’t need to. In a colonial imperialist society we have positioned Rome as a guiding light no matter what it’s actual practices and that’s not a mistake. It’s a design that helps to justify our own society. Further, this mindset requires us to castigate the medieval period when rule was more localised and systems of slavery had taken a precipitous dive. If only there had been more slavery, you know? Things might have been so much better.

Historical narratives and who controls them are always in flux. That old adage “history is written by the winners” comes to mind here, but that’s not exactly true. What the winners do is decide which histories are promoted, taught, and broadcasted. You can write all the history you want and if no one reads it, then it doesn’t really matter. That’s the gap that medieval history has fallen into. Colonial imperialism hasn’t figured out how to weaponise it yet, so it’s ignored. You could write this off as a “so what”, of course. Sure, maybe teaching the Roman Empire as a goal is a negative, but is ignoring medieval history really that bad a thing? You will be unsurprised to learn that I definitely think it is a bad thing, yes.

Ignorance about the medieval period is one of the things that is allowing the current swelling ranks of fascists to claim medieval Europe as some sort of “pure” white ideal. Spoiler: it was not. However, if you don’t know anything about medieval society how are you gonna argue with some chinless douche with a fake viking rune tattoo?History is always political. We use it to understand our world, but more than that we also use it to justify our world. Ignoring it helps us prop up our worst impulses, so let’s not.”

- Eleanor Janega, “On colonialism, imperialism, and ignoring medieval history.”

#colonialism #imperialism #history #medieval #eleanor janega

[miazeklos]

The narrative of Jaime "breaking free" from Cersei is bad because it delegitimizes the experiences of mentally ill women (especially relating to relationships, sexuality, etc) and falls back on the good woman/bad woman dichotomy. I hate with the burning passion of a thousand suns the implication that he’s better off without Cersei because she’s “crazy,” which unfortunately seems to be how many fans view it. Mentally ill women are gaslighted and abandoned and taken advantage of by men all the time in the real world and it’s hugely harmful that Cersei, who’s the prime example of a mentally ill woman in ASOIAF, is treated the way she is by GRRM and the fandom. She’s damaged, as a result of the patriarchy, sexual assault, rape or other abuse by men.

There’s this quote which I think about when regarding relationships with mentally ill women, it’s by Anne Theriault, bolded mine:

“The Sexy Tragic Muse fetishizes women’s pain by portraying debilitating mental health disorders filtered dreamily through the male gaze. The trope glamourizes addiction and illnesses like depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia – diseases that are distinctly unglamorous for those of us who live with them. The Sexy Tragic Muse is vulnerable, and her vulnerability is sexualized. Her inability to properly care for herself or make decisions on her own behalf is presented as being part of her appeal.

And perhaps this is the most frustrating thing about the Sexy Tragic Muse – the fact that this character type seems to be a neat way of removing a woman’s agency without the film or book or song coming across as overtly misogynistic. She occupies the intersection of ableism and sexism, and her mental illness is portrayed in a way that makes it commendable, even necessary, for others to care for her. We feel gratitude to the men that step up and save her, because she obviously cannot save herself. We feel empathy for the men that break up with her, because we see that she is difficult and volatile. We never get to see things from her perspective; often it is implied that this would be impossible, because her perspective is too confused and fractured.”

As a society, we’re conditioned to feel more empathy for Jaime than for Cersei because she’s the crazy bitch and he’s the proper man who’s doing the right thing for himself. And like, I really really really hate that we didn’t get Cersei’s perspective until she’s on her downward spiral because it’s not inherently misogynistic that we see her downfall so vividly but it just feels that way when comparing how GRRM writes Cersei compared to how he writes Jaime (or Tyrion and Tywin for that matter). Look at how Euripides wrote Medea.

This is a wonderfully apt quote, thank you for sharing it! And yes, this is literally it: part of what makes me mad about that whole thing (and also makes me as invested in Cersei as a character, since I identify with her in a lot of ways) is that people will do that to you allll the time IRL face to face if you're a specific brand of unstable. Explosively angry women with a plethora of only halfway concealable issues exist at a weird intersection of 'I can fix her' brand of men who think that their (obviously asked for and needed, duh) empathy (which is rarely that, tbh) will simply put you to rights and the anger of those same men when you tell them you're more than capable of caring for yourself without their help.

GRRM's decision to only include her POV when she's supposedly ~descending into madness~ (and even then, she's right about the majority of the things going on around her even if she's heavy-handed int he way she deals with them) can be fuelled by things others than misogyny, but to tell you the truth, I don't think it is.

There are times when I think he criticises that same treatment of such characters through Jaime's POV when he's being profoundly unfair to her in his own mind, but then I remember him writing his fave Tyrion talking about how 'all he wants' is to kill and rapе his sister' and GRRM saying that he needed a shower after writing her chapters or w/e and it's like.... yeah. Sentiments such as these are part of the reason why I dread the way he's going to write her ending and also why I was so profoundly pleased by her show ending. All I wanted for this character was to be allowed to have her end in dignity and I was astonished when it happened and that's all you need to know about how media usually handles characters like her.

As for Jaime and his supposed betterment through leaving her behind, I'll combine this answer with the one to another ask, because YES:

I am once again asking about the specific ways in which Cersei is worse than either of her brothers.

#asks #discourse #I guess #war flashbacks to the guy at the beach this summer who came to me to tell me that he'd been watching me for a while #and also that I had 'angry tatarian eyes' and 'looked like I wanted to beat people with a whip for looking at me' (yes really) #and that made me really unapproachable #and I was like 'well apparently not unapproachable enough' and lemme tell you he Did Not like that #many such cases unfortunately #because it really is some weird fuckin brand of indecision where they'll go 'you're mentally ill and that's hot' #and you're like 'yeah' and a symptom shows up and everyone loses it because it's suddenly inconvenient and not sexy #because wouldn't you know #this fascinating object of interest would actually like to be treated as a person #the audacity

[the-romantic-lady]

Surprised to hear you like Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou, given that you're a fan of Richard, Duke of York. Isn't that a conflict of interest or something? Lol. What's your opinion on Elizabeth Woodville and the Woodville clan, Margaret Beaufort, Warwick and the Neville clan, and George, Duke of Clarence? (Basically what's your opinion on the rest of the players of the Wars of the Roses lol.)

Gosh, anon you are encouraging me!! I love that you care about my thoughts <3. Alright then, let's start.

I used to be very anti-Margaret of Anjou. Until I started to look at things from her perspective. York was dangerously popular with a lot of children and a formidable wife. Margaret must have felt insecure. Also, there is this theory that Margaret's mentor and confidant William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk was murdered under the order of the Duke of York. That must have been a tipping point. But I still think that York was the better ruler and person. I will get a lot of hate for this, but women in general were not suitable rulers for the Middle Ages. They were often driven by more personal ideals (Empress Matilda vs. Stephen is a great example and Margaret was no different). Ofc there were men like that too but women seemed to always be like that. As a woman, I understand and the later periods were more suitable for female leadership. York was a much better ruler. He was driven by the stability of the realm rather than his personal issues (he put his own son-in-law in prison and Margaret wouldn't even budge on her failure advisors). And her entitlement was mind-boggling. I love how messed up she was. And Henry...I just feel sorry for him. The Middle Ages also were not a time for artistic and kind kings lol.

Elizabeth Woodville and the Woodville Clan:

As I have said, I pretty much like everyone before 1485 lol. But Elizabeth Woodville was annoying af. That made her interesting but I can't get over how incredibly greedy she was. She was the daughter of a minor gentry and widow of a Lancastrian knight. Edward makes her queen and she abuses that power so much. She has problems with everyone. Warwick, George, Richard, any noble who didn't kiss her arse and even Edward. Queens were meant to level the mind of King. Edward III's queen famously saved French clergy by going on her knees to beg the King for mercy. Ofc that was a bit dramatic but many Queens did this. It was called the Queen's mercy or something like that. But boy was she a hell of a woman. Despite being raised in a pretty privileged household, she was shrewd and survived to the end. She could have learned a thing or two from Cecily Neville about how to put that strong personality to better use but regardless. Also, I love how she was shunned fron Henry Tudor's court when Richard welcomed her to his with open arms. I mean...karma. But all in all, I like her. Its as they say "well behaved women seldom make history". She had flaws (so did the everyone else!) but her character is interesting and admirable. And despite that shaved forehead, she is a gorgeous woman. So I get where Edward was coming from XD The other social climbing members Woodville..not so much. The shameless way that they tried to push themselves in and take hold of power when they had literally fought on the losing Lancastrian side is embarrassing and oh so disgusting. Like Warwick secured the throne for Edward and they were given precedence over him. I just...yeah. John Woodville legit married a 65 year old duchess (he was 19) for money and power. They were a hungry bunch and courting them was Edward IV's biggest mistake and towards the end of his life, I think he saw that.

Margaret Beaufort

I will keep this short since I don't know much about her but I dislike her. I understand that she went through a lot. Her father apparently suicided when she was 1 and that is traumatic. And back then suicide was mocked and disgraced. She ofc blamed the Duke of York....cause at this point why not? She ofc went through a really young and traumatic birth at 13. Her husband was gross and that's that. And we know that Edward kept her son exiled so she couldn't see him. But despite all this, I just don't like her? I suppose its the super impressive Plantagenet women who just make me look at the sleezy and dull Margaret with disdain. And she gives me real phony vibes. Like at times, she just seemed to cosplay Cecily Neville lol. When you see women like Cecily Neville and Margaret of Anjou taking charge in the way they did, Margaret and her deceptive ways are just cringe worthy.

The Earl of Warwick

This man. Just this man. The way that England seemed to revolve around his whims is amazing. He was a real Duke of York stan and so I have to appreciate him. But he was so fearless. Henry VI, Edward IV, Margaret of Anjou, you name it. He stood against them. The Duke of York seemed to be someone he admired but other than that, he fought for himself. He helped Edward take the crown and worked hard to keep Edward's throne. He was embarrassed with the whole secret marriage saga but still stuck by. But Edward clearly forgot who he owed his success too. The man escaped an assassination by Henry VI's men and saved his father and uncle from it. He actually took charge in the first Battle of St. Albans in 1455 because his rivals the Percys were mocking him. I just love him. Ngl, sometimes when I read about him, I just blush. A man if there ever was one. There were so many attempts at disgracing him. He was the Captain of Calais and in that role fought Medieval pirates! And he was ruthless at it. People loved him and he carried that popularity well. I should stop fangirling over a dead guy. I think I made it pretty clear that I love him XD.

Neville clan

I like them too. Warwick's father was pretty much York's best friend and I love him for it. They were also social climbers like the Woodvilles but so much better at it. They didn't have the entitlement that the Woodvilles did and managed their powers well. Cecily Neville was ofc a Neville and she is one of my favorites. One of my favorite thing about them is how courageous they were. Like all of them. Unfortunately, Anne and Isabel are both obscure figures. I wish we knew more about them. They were pushed around like prizes. Good on Richard for giving Anne a position to make her own decision. I feel bad for those girls. Although the York brothers were known to be good looking so lucky them?

George, Duke of Clarence

Ah, George. I love this man. If there was one son of York who inherited his father's glamour and charm, it was George. And I love that he stood up to his brother and sister-in-law. He was sometimes too problematic but I still love that! Glamourous and problematic. How can one not love the man? Although his betrayal of Edward is kind of sad considering that Edward really tried to be like a dad to his brothers. George took Edward's love for granted for too long. His breakdown after his wife's death is really sad too. Interestingly, this seems to be a pattern with the Plantagenet men. They all have breakdowns and downfalls after the death of their wives. Their women are so much stronger emotionally.

I know this was long! I hope you enjoyed the post :D. I would love to know your thoughts too and if you agree or disagree. Seriously, thank you for letting me talk about this. Nothing makes me happier than to discuss these people!

#elizabeth woodville #edward iv #george duke of clarence #richard neville #earl of warwick

[be-not-afeared]

Black Sails fic recs

Working titles: 12 fics for christmas? 12 days of ficmas? 12 fics none of which actually have anything to do with christmas?

OKAY, so I love nothing more than a fic rec post, and I’ve seen a few Black Sails rec posts floating around but they mostly seem to be a couple of years old and they all recommend a similar bunch of fics (and deservedly so! they are all amazing!). But I thought I would make one to highlight some newer or less shouted-about fics, because I may have only been here for a couple of months but jfc there is so much talent in this fandom and more of it deserves to be hyped. 

So, here are 12 of my favourite fics for the 12 days of christmas! (i.e. an excuse to put an arbitrary number cap on the list or we’d be here all day)

The majority of these are Silver/Flint and the ones that aren’t still all feature Silver prominently because that boy owns my soul, sorry for who I am as a person.

we should rip it straight out by minormendings

45K (Silver/Madi, Silver/Flint, Flint/Thomas)

Madi has always wondered if Silver understands what is between him and Flint as well as she. To her, it has always been obvious, from the way the two of them had fit together, had worried about each other, had acted as one. She had tried to bring it up with Silver back when they were together. But Silver had shaken her off, too enmired in the idea that he or Flint would prove each other’s downfall. Or perhaps just unwilling to open his eyes to the fact that he had loved Flint.

It was, unfortunately for the both of them, even more obvious after the thing between them had broken. Just as Silver had thrown away the war out of love for her, Flint had let Silver take away the war rather than kill him.

God. What a group the three of them were, showing love by betrayal.

Post-canon. Madi and Flint find their way back to Silver.

This fic diverges from canon right at the end of the 4x10; Silver has Flint held in a cell in Port Royal and Thomas delivered to him rather than taking him straight to the plantation. It is a BEAUTIFUL character study of how Flint and Madi could both come to forgive Silver, and has a great FlintMadi dynamic too. It also centres Madi’s struggle between wanting to provide for her people and wanting to experience the freedom of piracy, and fleshes out Julius’ character in a way the show never did. 

we can lose and call it living by I_wouldnt_be_one_of_them

31K (Silver/Flint/Thomas, Silver/Flint, Flint/Thomas)

It's been twelve years since everything fell apart, and John Silver is settled in New England. He has a nice house and a job he likes, and he's gotten used to the loneliness. It's a good life, he thinks, but of course that's cast into doubt when James Flint and Thomas Hamilton show up to find closure and, apparently, to see whether he's happy.

This is an inverse of the ‘silver arrives on flint and thomas’ doorstep’ trope and has Flint and Thomas instead being the ones to interrupt Silver, who is living a sad and lonely existence post-series. I love the ThomasSilver dynamic here. And this Silver feels so true to canon he makes me want to WEEP.

Tell me we're dead and I'll love you even more by Craftnarok

21K (Silver/Flint)

In the year 1725, or thereabouts, John Silver finds himself driven by a storm into an inconsequential little port town, barely a speck on any civilised map. Returned to the life of a drifter, tired and rough around the edges, he is resigned to waiting for the weather to pass before he can sail on again to the next town, and the next, and the next. That is until he overhears a conversation in the inn about a local fisherman, one Captain Barlow, and his tall tales of tempests and becalmings, devils and sharks, and Silver finds a new future opening up to him, haunted by the spectres of his past.

All of Craftnarok’s fics are amazing but I am particularly drawn to this one; it’s set 10 years post-series and is a delightfully angsty exploration of how Flint and Silver could find their way back to each other in a scenario in which Thomas wasn’t at the plantation. It doesn’t let Silver off easy and I love that.

armed with the past and the will by whimsicalimages

3K (Silver/Madi, Madi & Julius)

The language of winning and losing, this language that men favor – Madi can speak this language, though she disagrees with its precepts. Success takes different forms, and failing once does not mean failing forever. It does not even mean failing the next time.

Post-series, Julius teaches Madi how to fight. This fic is BEAUTIFUL - give me anything that centres Madi post-canon - and it explores Madi’s relationship with both Julius and Silver so well in so few words. 

Always In Season by mycapeisplaid

60K (Silver/Flint, past Flint/Thomas, past Silver/Madi)

Towering sand dunes, crystal-clear water, miles of forest, vineyards, orchards, and very spotty cellular service -- John Silver finds himself in a part of the state he's never been before and decides to take on seasonal work. Meanwhile, back from his yearly wintering in Florida, James Flint thinks that perhaps he'll take on a new business venture, even though it means he might have to interact with people other than his two close friends. Their summer employment fosters a friendship that could become something more. Like construction season in Michigan, the two must navigate through their own obstacles in order to seek an alternative route toward happiness.

This is an AU and so much fun!! Silver finds himself in Michigan and takes on some seasonal work at Guthrie Dunes. The whole cast features and the setting just WORKS SO WELL. And this Flint feels brilliantly in character despite the difference in setting.

to make a life by gone_girl

53K (Max/Anne, Max & Silver)

“What am I going to do with your name?” Max asks, a little incredulous.

“Whatever you want,” the salesman says. “Didn’t you want something real?”

Max heard a story once about the importance of answering questions like that carefully. If something emerges from the forest and asks for your name, don’t give it up, the story went. Offer only what you know you can live without. She’s never heard a story that tells her what to do when something emerges from the forest and offers its name to you.

I literally only finished this this morning but holy shit this fic is amazing, it’s a Max-centric AU set in Missouri the early 00s and it’s all about found family and building community and platonic love and it has a brilliant SilverMadi dynamic. And there just aren’t enough fics out there that focus on Max & Silver!! 

the straight walk home by vowelinthug

73K (Silver/Flint)

Let me tell you a story, about a vaquero named Vasquez…

Obviously vowelinthug’s fics are recc’d all the time and rightly so as they are AMAZING, but one that I don’t see featured as often as the more prominent ones is this incredible Western!AU. It’s 73K guys!! It adapts the canon narrative into the Western setting SO well!! It has background Vane/Billy which I was not at all sure about going in but just WORKS!! Go read it.

The Truth about Eros by Aisalynn

21K (Silver/Flint, Silver/Madi, Flint/Thomas)

Silver understood one thing very well.

Being Fated did not mean you were safe.

It did not mean you were loved.

This one is hot off the press! I am not normally a fan of soulmate AUs but this is such an interesting take on the trope, and the world building fits around the polyamory theme of the show really effectively! And it is SO well written.

With Nothing on My Tongue by RosieTwiggs

13K (Silver/Flint, Silver/Madi)

"Silver thinks: Maybe God likes it when I fight with him.

He wonders now, whether he’s been playing into God’s plan all along. Because no matter how angry he gets, how defensive, how many “fuck you”s he flings to the heaven, isn’t it all just proof that he still believes God is there, despite it all?

Silver doesn’t know how to counter that.

Maybe he doesn’t want to anymore."

An incredibly well written (and angsty! read the tags!) Jewish!Silver character study. This one has really stayed with me.

Maybe in Another Life by samedifference61

31K (Silver/Flint/Madi, Flint/Madi, Silver/Flint, Silver/Madi)

At the rail of a ship James doesn’t command, they stand shoulder to shoulder.

“John still thinks you’re dead,” James states, because it’s something that needs to be said aloud before they continue.

With eyes unblinking toward the rolling sea, Madi says, “And he still thinks you should be dead.”

James’ lip curls in anger. The wounds of betrayal are too fresh for either to say anymore.

Canon-divergent from 4x09, this is a brilliant MadiFlint centric fic exploring their relationship post Silver’s betrayal, and how he could find his way back to them both whilst acknowledging the weight of his actions.

in a vault of starlight by whimsicalimages

7K (Silver/Madi/Flint/Thomas)

The distance between Nassau and Savannah can be measured as: six hundred and thirteen nautical miles, five thousand pounds’ worth of pearls, or four extraordinary lifetimes.

Alternatively: in the aftermath, Madi writes her own story.

There aren’t enough Madi centric fics out there! This one is a lovely extension of canon with a great MadiSilver dynamic in particular.

the aftershocks remain by pdameron

31K (Silver & Miranda, Silver/Flint)

For as long as he can remember, John Silver has been able to see ghosts. He has no trouble keeping this secret from Flint - until Charlestown. Until Miranda.

Again all of pdameron’s fics are brilliant but I loooove this SilverMiranda centric one, plus who doesn’t love a ghost!au.

#Black Sails #black sails fanfic #black sails fic recs #silverflint #silvermadi #john silver #james flint #12 days of ficmas #obviously this only scratches the surface of the many amazing fics in this fandom #i might do another one of these after christmas i just love making lists #enjoy!

[alinaastarkov]

There's a dilemma that you Dany morons don't think about. If Dany is going to be seen as an heir she needs Dorne's support because they have gender equality. Without it Dany is behind Aegon, son of Rhaegar and Stannis, great-grandson of Aegon V. And after that there's even the chance of Robert's bastards being legitimized so she's behind Mya Stone, Bella, Gendry and Edric Storm. Dany has nothing without Dorne. But you idiots can't even acknowledge that she fucked up majorly with Quentyn Martell.

Right, you asked for a history lesson so you’re gonna get it.

George R. R. Martin has based ASoIaF on a lot of things, but it’s fair to say he has been most heavily influenced by British/ English history. The laws in Westeros are very similar to medieval England, the geography is similar, the Dance of the Dragons is literally The Anarchy (the war of succession between Empress Matilda and King Stephen), the main conflict is based on the Wars of the Roses, etc. 

Succession laws in Westeros are one of the things he took from English history, besides Dorne. The main part of this was something called male primogeniture, which he has copied into the series pretty much unchanged. Male primogeniture meant a female member of the dynasty (or, more specifically a dynast’s daughter, i.e. the daughter of the ruling monarch/ head of the family) only inherited if she had no living brothers and her brothers had no living children themselves. After that, older siblings come before younger siblings, etc. Dorne practices absolute primogeniture, where the eldest child of the dynast will inherit, no matter what gender, and they will always come before younger siblings/ anyone from extended branches of the family.

Having educated you on that fact, let’s educate you on your Stannis/ Baratheon claim which is honestly the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. No one has brought this up before cause it’s really that fucking stupid. Stannis has a claim because of Robert, but you, sir, decided to base this on Targaryen lineage, the ruling dynasty for 300 years, so let’s go. 

Obviously the daughter of the dynast (Aerys) comes before the great-grandson of the king from 50 years ago. Stannis is at least 3 generations removed from any claim to a Targaryen throne. Even in male primogeniture, the daughter of the dynast will always come before cousins/ uncles/ nephews/ any extended family. It’s why Matilda fought for her claim against her cousin, it’s why Mary I became Queen over Jane Grey and other male relatives, why Elizabeth became Queen over Philip II and Mary Queen of Scots and a bunch of male relatives, it’s why Mary II and Queen Anne both ruled, it’s why William of Orange only became King with the express permission of Anne herself who was the rightful heir. I could go on. I don’t know where this idea that Stannis has a better claim comes from cause it makes no sense. Female or not the child of the ruling monarch comes before extended family. Always. That extended family may contest it because they’re misogynists, but that doesn’t actually weaken the claim itself.

The same goes for Robert’s bastards but even more so as they are illegitimate, meaning they technically have no claim to anything at all until someone legitimises them. And by someone, I mean the monarch. Tommen will never do that and I don’t see any reason why any other claimants would either, unless it’s to put someone in charge of Storm’s End. To use another example, this is why Henry Fitzroy was never considered as a future king even as Henry VIII struggled endlessly for a son and both his daughters’ legitimacy was called into question. He was a bastard. End of story. They have less of a claim than Stannis, and Stannis has basically none. Besides, to make a claim to the throne that is weaker, you need a strong army. Robert’s bastards have none, Stannis is losing more of his every day, meanwhile Dany has the strongest army in the series. She has the strongest claim and the power to back it up.

Now, onto Aegon. Going off the law I’ve just explained, Aegon would come before Dany. There are a few problems in universe, however. For a start, Aegon is likely an imposter, and so would have no claim. See Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck as good examples of this sort of thing. The second is that Aerys (likely) disinherited Rhaegar and his children, passing over him in favour of Viserys as his heir.

When Prince Rhaegar and his new wife chose to take up residence on Dragonstone instead of the Red Keep, rumors flew thick and fast across the Seven Kingdoms. Some claimed that the crown prince was planning to depose his father and seize the Iron Throne for himself, whilst others said that King Aerys meant to disinherit Rhaegar and name Viserys heir in his place. Nor did the birth of King Aerys's first grandchild, a girl named Rhaenys, born on Dragonstone in 280 AC, do aught to reconcile father and son. When Prince Rhaegar returned to the Red Keep to present his daughter to his own mother and father, Queen Rhaella embraced the babe warmly, but King Aerys refused to touch or hold the child and complained that she "smells Dornish." - TWOIAF

Had any whiff of proof come into their hands to show that Prince Rhaegar was conspiring against his father, King Aerys's loyalists would most certainly have used it to bring about the prince's downfall. Indeed, certain of the king's men had even gone so far as to suggest that Aerys should disinherit his "disloyal" son, and name his younger brother heir to the Iron Throne in his stead. Prince Viserys was but seven years of age, and his eventual ascension would certainly mean a regency, wherein they themselves would rule as regents. - TWOIAF

Birds flew and couriers raced to bear word of the victory at the Ruby Ford. When the news reached the Red Keep, it was said that Aerys cursed the Dornish, certain that Lewyn had betrayed Rhaegar. He sent his pregnant queen, Rhaella, and his younger son and new heir, Viserys, away to Dragonstone, but Princess Elia was forced to remain in King's Landing with Rhaegar's children as a hostage against Dorne. - TWOIAF

The last passage is especially damning. If it was simply that Rhaegar died, his children would be next in line to the throne over his brother, as I have explained. But Viserys is clearly stated as Aerys’ “new heir”, meaning he passed over Aegon and Rhaenys, deposing them to put Viserys as next in line. Before anyone says this can’t be done/ doesn’t count, it does. Henry VIII deposed both Mary and Elizabeth after removing their mothers and it was completely valid/ recognised. It’s why people called them both “bastards” throughout their lives. He also had to undo that decree before he died, meaning they were both able to rule after Edward. If Henry himself hadn’t undone it, they never would have ruled. So, Aegon’s status as disinherited will stand, even if he is really Rhaegar’s son. Aegon now has an army, meaning he can back up his weak claim, but so does Dany. And the army doesn’t mean his claim is better, either.

Dany doesn’t need Dorne for her claim, only for extra support when backing up her very valid claim to the throne. As I have just explained to you, Dany is currently the person with the best claim to the throne who is not currently sitting on it. Besides, she didn’t “fuck up” anything with Quentyn. She accepted him into her court graciously and did all she could to keep his support, foster a relationship with him and Doran/ Dorne by extension, shy of calling of her own engagement which would have meant the deaths of all her people. Everything Quentyn did after that was because he wrongly felt he was letting his father down and was his own mistake entirely. None of it is on her.

In summary, Dany has the best claim and the power to back it up, Aegon (might) have second best claim (though it’s highly unlikely, in fact pretty much impossible as he was disinherited) with slightly less power to back it up and Stannis has one of the worst claims without the power to back it up. Hope you enjoyed your history lesson! Read the books next time and you could avoid embarrassing moments like this 😬🤗

#asoiaf #daenerys targaryen #daenerys meta #my meta #stannis baratheon #young griff #asoiaf meta #british history #succession

[thecatsaesthetics]

Anne Boleyn 2021 Review

Okay, so I want to start this off by saying I am a day late and a dollar short. I know that. Who wants my, over thousand-word, essay on this... but I've gonna give it to you. So please keep reading and leave me comments with your thoughts about this show.

So I will start this off with the positives:

I think Jodie Turner-Smith was excellently cast as Anne Boleyn. Jodie has a remarkable range as an actress. Especially since this version of Anne Boleyn, she is both victim and villain Jodie was able to pull it off flawlessly. She jumped from being a heartbroken wife to manipulating Henry VIII very well. Two scenes that really highlight this are:

The one after her miscarriage and Henry riding off; showed Anne’s desperation and sorrow very well. “Won’t you say goodbye to your wife?” was a heartbreaking line and I very nearly lost it when she collapsed.

The second was in the next episode where she manipulated herself back into his “good graces” by proposing Cromwell had been double-crossing him. This didn’t come across as villainous to me, it came across as a woman in a struggle for survival. Playing the game to keep her station after miscarriage.

I will say this about the show Jodie carried it on her back. She made Anne very sympathetic but highlight that she had this temper that harmed her. However, unlike Claire Foy’s Anne Boleyn I never felt this Anne was unlikable. She came across as someone struggling to survive. The scene with Mary after she learns of potentially Mary being reinstated in the line of succession also highlighted this. The whole "The King never likes to be without me for long" was a lie given he had left her but it was to puff up her station. Reminding Norfolk that she helped his daughter marry the King's son. Forcing Chapuys to kiss her hand. These weren't just power moves, they were survival moves.

This Anne was similar to Natalie Dormer’s Anne in season 2 of the Tudor and Geneviève Bujold in Anne of a Thousand Days. I enjoyed how Jodie both made the performance utterly her own but also obviously drew inspiration from the others.

Moving on,

Another positive was George and Anne’s relationship. I did like how touching their scenes were. The final meeting between George and Anne was heartbreaking.

The horse symbolism, while oddly ripped off from The Tudor’s swan symbolism what I liked. Also, the clock from King Francis implying the “Her time is up” I truly enjoyed. I am just a sucker for symbolism

The Norris Comment

I LOVED THIS. I loved how not only it was said, Anne being flirtatious and joking but the immediate drop. This was the moment Anne truly screwed up. I loved how Norris reacted and the reactions of everyone in the room. This comment is oddly overlooked by most productions of Anne Boleyn or Henry VIII. From what I have read it was an incredibly important comment that was made by Anne. This in combination with her final miscarriage left her in a dangerous position.

Now to a more mixed feeling:

Henry and Anne’s relationship:

On the one hand, I liked it, it showed they were still into each other a lot. This is unlike The Tudors where Henry VIII weirdly loses all sexual interest in Anne (but somehow still expects her to have a baby). Most productions show Anne and Henry’s marriage crumbling the second she has Elizabeth which just isn’t true. I also liked how the miscarriage alone didn’t cause Anne’s downfall, which is usually how it’s done.

That being said the physical violence… Henry VIII was a lot of things but he really wasn’t a physically violent guy himself. He’d execute you but he was a coward about it. I think the one notable time Henry got physically violent with a wife is when he ordered a sword after discovering Katherine Howard’s prior “relationships” and people thought he was angry enough to execute her himself. Even with Jane Seymour, he seems more degrading of her at times than physically violent. Emotional violence was more Henry’s style.

I do understand that they were trying to show the relationship as chaotic, volatile, and unhealthy. However, I just didn’t think it was necessary to add physical violence to do this.

Now with the petty:

The costumes… were so god damn ugly. Just as a side note before we pass from the positives to the true negatives. I just don’t understand what goes through the minds of costume designers. Jodie is a beautiful actress and they put her in the ugliest of clothing.

I mean I have seen worse costumes. They weren't as bad as The White Princess or Wolf Hall. But I would put them alongside The White Queen honestly.

I don't think costumes must be accurate, but I want them to be pretty at least. If you aren't going to make them accurate can we at least have something interesting to look at?

The Negatives:

Jane Boleyn: Ummm I don’t know what to say other than this is fucking dumb. I mean I guess we should be glad there was no physical violence between George and Jane this time around. Other than that I don’t get it. We literally are three mins into episode one and they have Anne call Jane a “spiteful little bitch” why? Because she’s upset her husband is cheating on her? Like Anne is upset her husband is cheating on her? Why wouldn’t Anne sympathize with Jane if that were the case? Even if they wanted to make Jane Boleyn evil they did a bad job. Am I not supposed to have sympathy with the wife getting cheated on?

Also, Dan Jones should have his degree ripped from him. Dan Jones is an actual historian who is an executive producer on this show and he allowed them to have Jane be brought as a witness to Anne’s trial.

On that note let’s move to the Jousting Head Injury thing. Again Dan Jones should have his degree ripped from him. This event did not happen, at least not like this. You can watch Claire Ridgeway’s video on this but the historical records do not support Henry VIII being unconscious at all after this fall. And it was funny they had Chapuys heavily involved in these scenes since he never even wrote about this event. You’d think if it was that important he would have.

That gross miscarriage scene… for all that is holy I do not understand why we are getting these intense miscarriage scenes. The camera was literally between Jodie’s legs at one point. It was so nasty. The sounds… I just can’t. I won’t go into it further but I’d rather have Natalie’s Dormer’s implied miscarriages with just some bleeding then this shit any day.

Now before I tactical the racism I want to say the final episode was probably the weakest one. Anne’s trial… I hated it. I hated Anne speech it was way too much Feminism™. I would have rather had her execution speech or her confession with Crammer. I do get why they only chose to have one of these in the episode, it would totally over crowd the episode. That being said… not only was the directing weird in this scene the speech they wrote just was subpar at best.

The Racism:

Okay, I am going to try my best to tactical the racism in the show. Now I am white and I don’t want to say I should be speaking over ANYONE. Plenty of black Tudor fans have written this better than me.

However, two plot points on this show really struck me as racist.

Jane Seymour: the odd predator behavior Anne has around Jane Seymour. It must be noted that the age gap looks apparent on the screen. Jane’s actress is 25 and Jodie is 34. Jane looked like an innocent schoolgirl and the aggressive scenes with Anne made these seem incredibly predatory. In ALL other productions, I’ve seen this is never how Anne and Jane come across.

The weird kiss between them was both racist and homophobic. I think they said it was about Anne wanting to see the “appeal”. Again it just made her look predator. The worst scene was when she was circling Jane as she spoke a hymn. Honestly, they made Jodie look like a fucking shark in that scene. It was so nasty.

The second and less talked about was Anne and Kingston. I don’t get why nobody is talking about that disturbing scene where Kingston physically pushes Anne onto the bed and holds her there. It was utterly disturbing, and quite frankly I am shocked anyone found that appropriate. You cannot separate Anne being portrayed by Jodie, a black woman, and having a white man grip her head down on a bed saying “She’s only a woman” as an insult. It was incredibly disturbing.

Also in general having Kingston treats Anne so awful… when all other productions of Anne Boleyn have Kingston treat her remarkably well. Racism is implied here. Why in every other production Anne's ladies are kind and gentle to her, and Kingston is moved by her, but when it's Jodie he's physically brutalizing her?

I think there were obviously other incidents, including all the shit with George and Jane but I don’t feel that equipped to handle them. I just wanted to bring these two to light.

Overall:

Jodie was amazing, carried the show on her back. That’s kind of it. It was very subpar. For a show that claims in the beginning inspired by “The Truth… and lies,” it seems more inspired by lies than by any sort of truth.

I mean did we need another Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn TV show. Probably not. Which makes me feel sad. Jodie was so good. She truly pulls off regal. I want to see her in more period dramas. But other than that… 5.5 stars maybe?

#anne boleyn 2021 #anne boleyn #henry viii #jane seymour #tudors #jane boleyn #george boleyn