#the manuscript I was looking up is the lancelot-grail | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

frenchfriesoverguys · 4 years

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my review of ‘cursed’ (spoilers)

i have a degree in film and visual culture with no use for it in the pandemic so

i’ve seen a lot of comparison to bbc merlin. it would truly be odd to compare the two shows as merlin is a light hearted fantasy action while cursed is more of a drama fantasy. they fit into two completely different genres within fantasy. in general, never judge a show based off of another. the intentions in making merlin and making cursed are obviously different. i’ve seen other people talk about the character arcs being flat and the characters being boring. again this is a drama. most of the conflict is within the characters instead of in the fighting. i will say that while i do like arthur and gawain, their characters are not truly explored. i enjoy gawain being fae as it does add to the character but he has no true arc and is more so there for a plot device. meanwhile, arthur fits into the lover dilemma of only being seen as the love interest. i admire the twist of the man being the flat, love interest character. however, with this being the first, that i’ve seen, depiction of arthur being a black man, it would have been nice to see more character development.

pym was THE best development in my own opinion. the reason being, she is so shy, so scared, so complacent. she embodied everything women are taught they have to be. she is resigned to her own duty to be aaron the fisher’s wife. pym lovingly chastises nimue for wanting escape their destinies of their mundane village life. yet she escapes the raid of her village, hides with aaron’s nets, finds an opportunity to leave and does so. she sneaks onto a viking ship and begins stitching up the men and women there so she can survive. she survives being a red paladin prisoner, the same red paladins that raided her village. iris tried to manipulate her and she saw right through it. she ends up being incredibly powerful without ever welding any power. underrated character and need more of her.

now nimue. i really like her depiction in this series. she is shown as powerful but not overly so. she cant end the war with a summon of the hidden’s power, yet she can kick some major butt. she first comes across as the damsel and quickly proves the audience wrong. however, the talk of her from peasant to queen seemed to escalate out of nowhere. it was a little rushed and could have been paced out better. that being said, it was a welcome change. it helped show her power, a rarity for female characters. morgana was also an interesting character. her conflict and growth relied graciously on her own self. having her be attracted to women was the biggest game changer in terms of her character. she seems abrasive and cold until her love is discovered. that moment with nimue was beautiful and the definition of women supporting women. it was a moment that defined their entire relationship. a friendship, by the way, that was so powerful it became a driving conflict within morgana.

by far my favorite thing about this series is the names. people familiar with the arthurian legends know these names. each name carries weight and defines who that person is, was, or could be. waiting to reveal said names by cleverly misleading the audience is significantly more powerful. i’m looking at you morgana and lancelot.

okay lets talk about the red paladin. people are probably uncomfortable talking about religion but ‘cleansing’ sanctioned by the church is based off of real events. this stuff actually happened. so awkward but necessary conversation when bringing up the red paladin. the church is supposed to be operating with kingdoms but instead we see the church as its own power, its own army. they manipulate the kings in order to continue their raids and serve their own agenda. by definition, they represent the patriarchy. or at least they are one of the representations of the patriarchy, the kings being another. they belittle nimue by calling her ‘the fae peasant girl’ while she takes down most of their men. they exclude iris who truly seems to be the only one efficient enough to kill fae and her own sisters. their blatant abuse of said sisters. ect. in later seasons it would be nice to explore the kinder side of christianity. people use god’s name in vain to defend their own ideas of hatred, it would be nice to see a character that spread love instead. (arguably morgana does this but as she rejects god and the religion by throwing her cross away, i’m not quite sure she’s the best example)

everyone wants to talk about the weeping monk so lets get into that character. one of the best character arcs on the show. i love redemption arcs - especially well done ones. so lets be clear, this is not and cannot be the entirety of his arc. he has only just begun. i want to be surprised that he is fae kind but dude showed his magic throughout the series - still a nicely done reveal. this man has been heavily abused and manipulated. and to see that dynamic between cardon and him explained everything (gotta love daniel sharman playing an abuse survivor - dude kills it every time). especially why he doesn’t kill kids as that is a line characters just cant come back from. love him and squirrel but curious as to how he will continue to recover. i personally would love to see his mental health thoroughly explored.

stepping away from plot and characters for a minute, we need to talk about graphics. i cant tell if they got better over time or i got used to them but in the end they didnt seem so bad regardless. the transitions are based off of medieval manuscripts. this may seem like a strange comparison but monty python and the holy grail did a similar thing. that film took more of a comedic route but the idea is still the same. its interesting and different but i think they could have done a little better. they seemingly tried to mix art forms while keeping with the style of medieval art and in the end, they modernized it.

the flashes were incredibly well done. every character defining moment had a flash of green, which is incredibly detailed. the flash forwards were dramatic and jarring and i loved it. by allowing the music to shift and the actors expressions to shift before the flashes, it created a beautiful transition. elevates the series into a more cinematic piece.

all in all, this series has great potential. the women on this show go from passive characters into decisive leaders. as for the next season, i hope to see more character development and exploration for arthur, kaze, and the red spear. all were underrated and need more screen tie. especially kaze.

#cursed netflix #nimue cursed #the weeping monk #pym #katherine langford #daniel sharman #morgana #arthur #netflix #squirrel #there is going to be a lot of fanfiction based around the weeping monk #wlw #morgana is gay #finally #devon terrell #kaze deserves better #kaze #more #merlin

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tillman · 4 years

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im gonna rank some of the old art i have on hand of lancelot just fucking napping in order of worst to most sexy. i cant do my whole collection because that would take an hour

6. i dunno whats happening here but like ok. hes chillin and i can respect that. the helm as a pillow is a weird call but go off man. sometimes u just need to nap while the pope does some weird magic next to you and Thats Ok. i will say the cuddling of the shield is kinda great and elevates this one but old manuscript art is too funny to call sexy. next

5 aubrey beardsleys carvings are. neat . the comps of them all are so nice but sexy? maybe not. i dunno how hes even napping like that. in full armor. bro lay down a bit your neck is going to be SOOO SORE......... 3/10 please get him a neck rest or something that has to hurt

4) hes dead here but thats . like sleep right? anwyays god just look at this. the fact he has one of those stupid monk haircuts under that robe. the whole dying on someone elses grave thing. its so wild. what a way to go, man. also finally a pose that wont kill ur neck! hes learning. 5/10 for nice lumbar support or whatever mattress commercials claim

3) this ones called The Failure of Sir Launcelot to enter the Chapel of the Holy Grail which i just think is hilarious. my man got a fireball thrown at him by god and told he cant look at a cup so he took a nap. and here he is doing so. also this is just such a gorgeous tapestry the colors are so vibrant and lovely i have to rank it high for the fact im a pretentious art student. but yeah 7/10 i love his fashionable robe and poor life choices.

2. ok i . i love this piece for many reasons but also its peak sleepy bitch ! hes chilling so fucking hard. theres a dog. hes actually supporting his head . no regard for personal safety. just naps. even the queens are like oh no! this bitch is chilling! better not wake him!!! also theres a dog did i mention the fact lancelots just taking a nap with a puppy. thats amazing. 9/10 i love this image with all my heart. cowper SIR thank yhou for this wonderful image.

1. here it is . the sexiest and most powerful lancelot napping image ..... i think about this image literally daily if thats not evident by it being my icon on two social medias. just look at him. take a look

now thats a cozy knight!!!!!! the ermine cape... the throw back and using the helm as a pillow..... the soft looking grass........ hes just god damn vibing. everyone shut up and let him sleep. hes Tired. 10/10 i hope he enjoys his nap and that the queens dont wake him when they kidnap him. william frank calderon you are a master of the sleepy bitch disease lancelots. thank u .

#txt #and thats it . im going . to bed.#thank u for ur time #lancelot

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trans-cuchulainn · 5 years

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everything i know about lancelot du lac or at least all the stuff that seems immediately relevant to questions i’ve been asked recently idk

so i often say that lancelot du lac is my favourite lancelot text because it has the most lancelot/galehaut content, but it’s actually a surprisingly overlooked text

well, maybe that’s not surprising -- the translation i have is now out of print and i had to work pretty hard to track down a secondhand copy at a reasonable price, so clearly someone at oxford world’s classics doesn’t want people out there to have the joy of gay arthurian stuff, idk

anyway, in response to a question on another post, here is everything i know about lancelot du lac’s age and provenance

i’m taking this primarily from the introduction to corin corley’s translation, because as i have mentioned, my own lecture/essay notes are terrible

lancelot du lac was written in french and in prose early in the thirteenth century by an unknown and unnamed author

it takes his story from his childhood with the lady of the lake up to the point where galehaut dies

it represents the ‘first stage in the devoplment of the great lancelot-grail prose cycle’, while also having its roots in twelfth-century arthurian tradition. i.e. it’s kind of separate / pre-cycle but then parts of it get developed and become that lancelot-grail stuff, i think

it has ‘a coherent structure of its own in medieval terms, but it is also presented as part of a wider arthurian tradition’

but it looks back at chrétien more than forward to grail/galahad stuff (it refers to perceval as grail-winner as though that’s already happened). merlin is also seen as a figure of the past

corley’s translation doesn’t cover the entirety of elspeth kennedy’s edition of the prose lancelot because it was too long, but it’s all the stuff that’s about lancelot, and feels fairly complete/substantial

corley doesn’t provide info about manuscripts, but i imagine kennedy does in her edition, and he gives some references for further reading. the ones in english (rather than french or german) are:

lancelot do lac: the non-cyclic old french prose romance, ed. e kennedy, 2 vols (oxford, 1980) <-- kennedy’s edition of the old french text

arthurian literature in the middle ages: a collaborative history, ed. r s loomis (oxford, 1959), especially pp. 295-318

lancelot and the grail, elspeth kennedy (oxford, 1986)

so that’s pretty much everything i can tell you about lancelot du lac re: age and texts. it’s like... at least as old as lancelot-grail, i guess is what we can take from this.

diverging slightly from textual tradition, someone else also asked me how the gay the text actually is (since i am well-known for making things gay even when they’re only mildly homoerotic) and... well:

galehaut literally just throws over a war and surrenders because he falls in love with lancelot and doesn’t want to be his enemy and it’s adorable

he just spends the whole thing talking about how much he loves lancelot

when somebody mentions to him that they think lancelot is in love with guinevere his response is basically “lancelot in love with a WOMAN? nope i would definitely know”

to which elias is like “i mean i was more worried about the adultery but you do you”

galehaut also does help set lancelot and guinevere up tho because he knows it’s the only thing that will make lancelot happy and apparently he loves to suffer. why. why galehaut.

later, galehaut believes lancelot has died and just wastes away and dies because he can’t live in a world where lancelot isn’t alive. his tomb says that he died for love of lancelot and the wording used is the exact same used for... elaine? who also dies for love of lancelot, and if the latter’s not platonic the former can’t really be either

so basically i think the only reason it’s not even gayer is that lancelot is an idiot who doesn’t realise galehaut is the greatest good he’s ever gonna get, leaving it all fairly one-sided. but if lancelot would stop being a disaster for one moment, who knows what would have happened!

why is every medieval irish hero i like such a disaster bi

also why are they all seventeen-year-old ‘beardless boys’

IT’S A THING

#lancelot du lac #lancelot #arthurian #lancelot/galehaut #galehaut #lancelot/galehot #galehot

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