krokietnik

[krokietnik]

i think the key difference between george lucas’s star wars and disney’s star wars is that lucas is a man with an ideology. someone with a point of view, and all that entails. which comes with ideas of revolution, anti-imperialism, challenging the status quo, cultural appropriation and racist stereotypes. complex and contradictory ideas because that’s how artists are: complex and complicated people. disney is not. disney is a corporation. a corporation can’t have ideology, because ideology defeats the purpose of profit. and when the only thing you do is to turn on the movie manufacturing machine before you sit down and plan what ideas are you trying to convey to the audience, then your results are going to be washed out corporate garbage. and because when you’re a giant corporation who only cares about selling to the widest audience possible, you can’t take sides. you can’t decide on an idea. because you want to sell your product to people who are on the entire political spectrum. which results in movies without ideology, without purpose, without soul.

[krokietnik]

Ares is not the protector of women in greek mythology.

He is never presented as such in any source, there is no evidence such a role was ever assigned to him in any account, and as far as I'm aware this popular yet unattested assertion is born from the echo-chambers of tumblr. In fact quite the opposite could be argued. CW for sexual assault.

This baffling claim seems to originate from a sort of shallow examination of the way Ares "behaves in myth", and the following arguments are the most frequently presented:

1. Ares protects his daughter Alkippe from assault, and is therefore morally opposed to rape. (Apollodorus 3.180, Pausanias 1.21.4, Suidas "Areios pagos", attributed to Hellanikos)

Curiously this argument is never applied to, for example: Apollo for defending his mother Leto from Tytios, Herakles for defending Hera from Porphyrion (or his wife Deianeira from Nessos), or Zeus for defending his sister Demeter from Iasion (in the versions where he attacks her), among other examples. The multiple accounts of rape of the previously mentioned figures did not conflict with these stories in greek thought: they're defending family members or women otherwise close to them. This sort of behaviour is not uncommon, even in contemporary times, e.g. a warrior has no ethical problem killing men, but would not want his own family or loved ones to be killed. The same goes here for sexual assault.

2. There are no surviving accounts of Ares sexually assaulting anybody.

The idea that the ancient greeks pictured that, among all the gods, Ares was the only one who shied away from committing rape borders on ridiculous. In this case absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

The majority of surviving records of Ares' unions are presented in a genealogical manner, and do not go into details about the nature of said unions. This is by no means uncommon for most mythographers, where most sexual encounters are presented as such, and details of specifics are to be found elsewhere. However, common motifs that are found in other accounts of rape also appear in stories concerning Ares' relationships, e.g. tropes like shape-shifting/the use of disguises, the victim being a huntress, secrecy, and the disposal of the concieved child, are to be found in the stories of Phylonome and Astyoche respectively:

Φυλονόμη Νυκτίμου καὶ Ἀρκαδίας θυγάτηρ ἐκυνήγει σὺν τῇ Ἀρτέμιδι: Ἄρης δ᾽ ἐν σχήματι ποιμένος ἔγκυον ἐποίησεν. ἡ δὲ τεκοῦσα διδύμους παῖδας καὶ φοβουμένη τὸν πατέρα ἔρριψεν εἰς τὸν Ἐρύμανθο

"Phylonome, the daughter of Nyktimos and Arkadia, was wont to hunt with Artemis; but Ares, in the guise of a shepherd, got her with child. She gave birth to twin children and, fearing her father, cast them into the [River] Erymanthos." (Pseudo-Plutarch, Greek and Roman Parallel Stories, 36)

οἳ δ᾽ Ἀσπληδόνα ναῖον ἰδ᾽ Ὀρχομενὸν Μινύειον, τῶν ἦρχ᾽ Ἀσκάλαφος καὶ Ἰάλμενος υἷες Ἄρηος οὓς τέκεν Ἀστυόχη δόμῳ Ἄκτορος Ἀζεΐδαο, παρθένος αἰδοίη ὑπερώϊον εἰσαναβᾶσα Ἄρηϊ κρατερῷ: ὃ δέ οἱ παρελέξατο λάθρῃ: τοῖς δὲ τριήκοντα γλαφυραὶ νέες ἐστιχόωντο.

"And they that dwelt in Aspledon and Orchomenus of the Minyae were led by Ascalaphus and Ialmenus, sons of Ares, whom, in the palace of Actor, son of Azeus, Astyoche, the honoured maiden, conceived of mighty Ares, when she had entered into her upper chamber; for he lay with her in secret" (Homer, Iliad 2. 512 ff)

In neither of these cases is a verb explicitly denoting rape used, though it is heavily implied by the context. The focus of the action is on the conception of sons, the nature of the interaction is secondary.

Other examples are found among the daughters of the river Asopos, who where (and here there's no confusion) ravished and kidnapped by different gods to different parts of the greek world, where they found local lines through children borne to their abductors and serve as local eponyms. Surviving fragments from Corinna of Tanagra tell:

"Asopos went to his haunts . . from you halls . . into woe . . Of these [nine] daughters Zeus, giver of good things, took his [Asopos'] child Aigina . . from her father's [house] . . while Korkyra and Salamis and lovely Euboia were stolen by father Poseidon, and Leto's son is in possession of Sinope and Thespia . . [and Tanagra was seized by Hermes] . . But to Asopos no one was able to make the matter clear, until . . [the seer Akraiphen reveals to him] 'And of your daughters father Zeus, king of all, has three; and Poseidon, ruler of the sea, married three; and Phoibos [Apollon] is master of the beds of two of them, and of one Hermes, good son of Maia. For so did the pair Eros and the Kypris persuade them, that they should go in secret to your house and take your nine daughters." - heavily fragmented papyrus. Corinna, Fragment 654

"For your [Tanagra's] sake Hermes boxed against Ares." Corinna, Fragment 666

It seems that, similarly to the myths of Beroe or Marpessa, the abducted maiden is fought over by two competing "suitors", and though we can infer that the outcome of the story is that Hermes gets to keep Tanagra, apparently by beating Ares at boxing, we don't actually know what happened or how it happened. In any case, Ares does mate with another daughter of Asopos, Harpina, who bears him Oinomaos according to some versions (Paus. 5.22.6) (Stephanus of Byzantium, Ethnica, A125.3) (Diodorus Siculus, Library 4. 73. 1). There is little reason to suppose this encounter wasn't pictured as an abduction like the rest of her sisters.

The blatant statement that each of his affairs was envisioned as consensual is simply not true.

3. He was worshipped under the epithet Gynaicothoinas "feasted by women"

This was a local cult that existed in Tegea, the following reason is given:

There is also an image of Ares in the marketplace of Tegea. Carved in relief on a slab it is called Gynaecothoenas. At the time of the Laconian war, when Charillus king of Lacedaemon made the first invasion, the women armed themselves and lay in ambush under the hill they call today Phylactris. When the armies met and the men on either side were performing many remarkable exploits, the women, they say, came on the scene and put the Lacedaemonians to flight. Marpessa, surnamed Choera, surpassed, they say, the other women in daring, while Charillus himself was one of the Spartan prisoners. The story goes on to say that he was set free without ransom, swore to the Tegeans that the Lacedaemonians would never again attack Tegea, and then broke his oath; that the women offered to Ares a sacrifice of victory on their own account without the men, and gave to the men no share in the meat of the victim. For this reason Ares got his surname. (Paus. 8.48.4-5)

As emphasised by Georgoudi in To Act, Not Submit: Women’s Attitudes in Situations of War in Ancient Greece (part of the highly recommendable collection of essays Women and War in Antiquity), "it is not necessary to see the operation of an invitation in the bestowal of the epithet Γυναικοθοίνας on Ares". The epithet is ambiguous, and can be translated both as "Host of the banquet of women" or "[He who is] invited to the banquet of women". In any case no act of divine intervention occurs, and the main reason for the women's act of devotion lies principally in recognising their decisive role in the routing of the Lakedaimonians. They invite Ares to the banquet, the men are excluded.

Also this a local epithet that isn't found anywhere else in Greece. As such it would be worth reminding that not every Ares is Gynaicothoinas, in the same way not every Zeus is Aithiopian, not every Demeter Erinys, or not every Artemis of Ephesos.

4. He is the patron god of the Amazons

He was considered progenitor of the Amazons because of their proverbial warlike nature and love of battle, the same reason he was associated with another barbarian tribe, the Thracians. In this capacity he was also appointed as a suitable father/ancestor for other violent and savage characters who generally function as antagonists (e.g. Kyknos, Diomedes of Thrace, Tereos of Thrace, Oinomaos, Agrios and Oreios, Phlegyas, Lykos etc.). Also he was by no means the only god connected with the Amazons (they were especially linked to Artemis, see Religious Cults Associated With the Amazons by Florence Mary Bennett, if only for the bibliography).

Similarly Poseidon was considered patron and ancestor of the Phaiakians mainly because of their mastery over the art of seafaring, and was curiously also credited in genealogies as father to monsters and other disreputable figures.

On another note I have found no sources that claim he taught his amazon daughters how to fight, as I've seen often mentioned (though I admit I'd love to be proven wrong on that point).

Finally, the last reason Ares is never portrayed as a protector of women is because of his divine assignation itself:

The uncountable references to his love of bloodshed and man-slaying don't just stop short of the battlefield, but continue on to the conclusion and intended purpose of most waged wars in antiquity: the sacking of the city. The title Sacker of Cities as an epithet of Ares (though it is by no means exclusive to him) is encountered numerous times and in different variations (eg. τειχεσιπλήτης or πτολίπορθος), and the meaning behind the epithet is plain. Though it is hard to summarise without being reductionist, the sacking of a city entails the plundering of all its goods, the slaughtering of its men, and the sistematic raping and enslavement of the surviving women (for the most famous depictions see The Iliad, The Trojan Women or The Women of Trachis, to name a small few of the literary references). There is little need to emphasise that war as concieved of in ancient greece, especifically the aspects of war Ares is most often associated with, directly entail sexual violence against women as one of the main concerns. The multiple references to Ares being an unloved or disliked deity are because of this, because war is horrifying (not because his daddy is a big old meany who hates him for no reason, Zeus makes very clear the motive for his contempt in the Iliad (5. 889-891): "Do not sit beside me and whine, you double-faced liar. To me you are most hateful of all gods who hold Olympos. Forever quarreling is dear to your heart, wars and battles.")

Ares was only the protector of women inasmuch as he could be averted or repelled:

"There is no clash of brazen shields but our fight is with the war god, a war god ringed with the cries of men, a savage god who burns us; grant that he turn in racing course backward out of our country’s bounds, to the great palace of Amphitrite or where the waves of the thracian sea deny the stranger safe anchorage. Whatsoever escapes the night at last the light of day revisits; so smite him, Father Zeus, beneath your thunderbolt, for you are the lord of the lightning, the lightning that carries fire. (Oedipus Tyrannos, 190-202)

~~~~~

All that being said, this is a post about Ares as attested and percieved in ancient sources, made especifically in response to condecending and self-victimising statements about how "uhmmm, actually, in greek mythology Ares was a super-feminist himbo who was worshipped as the protector of women and was hated by his family for no reason, you idiot". It is factually incorrect. HOWEVER, far be it from me to tell anyone how they have to interact with this deity. Be it your retellings, your headcannons or your own personal religious attachments and beliefs towards Ares, those are your own provinces and prerogatives, and not what was being discussed here at all (I personally love retellings where Ares and Aphrodite goof around, or art where he plays with his daughters, or headcannons that showcase his more noble sides, etc.)

~~~~~

I've seen that other people on tumblr have made similar posts, the ones I've seen were by @deathlessathanasia and @en-theos . I have no idea how to link their posts, but they're really good so go check them out on their pages!

[krokietnik]

IT should rhyme not repeat.

Also, overexplaining everything. I don't want to point fingers but some characters and references lost a lot when they they are show point blanc by authors desperately wanting to adress every criticism they had seen on the Internet.

It's hard not to recognize that overreliance on cameos is weakening current day Star Wars shows. Of course it's a nuanced discussion about how the franchise has long been self-referential and leaning into the motif if, "it's like poetry, it rhymes" but modern Star Wars doesn't understand how to make it part of the theme instead of just there for nostalgia bait and it's leading to weaker sto--HOLY SHIT IS THAT A DARTH VADER GUEST APPEARANCE!? MY TRASH MAN IS BACK!!!! UNFOLLOW ME NOW THIS IS ALL I'M GOING TO TWEET ABOUT FOR THE NEXT WEEK!!!!

[krokietnik]

Why should she say it? Why "my biological mother is there" should change his mind? He was prepared to blow out his family.

I don't know why giving an inteligent and strong willed woman a brain damage could "fix" anything. Just let her die with dignity

There's a lot that could have been done to make revenge of the sith better but one change I would have made is this. Instead of Padme dying from the sads, I would have had obi-wan go into the operating room and do a jedi mind trick/meld to try and get her to forget about Anakin. It works, but it breaks her mind. It was the only way to save her life.

So when Luke and Leia are split up, Padme would have gone with the Organas, faked her death/had a closed casket funeral, and spent the rest of her days in an alderaanian hospital on the Organa's dime. This reconciles Leia's line about her real mother being sad.

That way, when a new hope comes around, there's an added layer of tragedy when the death star blows the place up with Anakin there in the control room.

[krokietnik]

When you have a small leak you can work it out with partner or a friend. When you have a flood you call the plumber.

y’all need therapy. not girlfriends

[krokietnik]

Don't use any form of birth control. Blame wife for getting pregnant and getting ugly. Preach simple life and criticise everyone for materialism, especially that stupid woman who tries to manage on pennies- but throw a tantrum when you don't get your dinner exactly as you want. Blackmounth her to the point your contemporaries tell you you are telling on yourself and should shut up.

Cheating optional.

And then historians proceed to smear your wife because she caused her nothing but pain.

Seriously, that fits so many writers around the globe.

And speaking of Sophia Tolstoy, her diaries are just so depressing. 

“I am to gratify his pleasure and nurse his child, I am a piece of household furniture, I am a woman. I try to suppress all human feelings. When the machine is working properly it heats the milk, knits a blanket, makes little requests and bustles about trying not to think […].“

She wrote this when she was 19, one year into her marriage to Leo and as she was pregnant with the first of his 13 children.

A few years later, when she was 25 or so:

“I am so often alone with my thoughts that the need to write in my diary comes quite naturally … Now I am well again and not pregnant—it terrifies me how often I have been in that condition. He said that for him being young meant “I can achieve anything”. For me […] reason tells me that there is nothing I either want or can do beyond nursing, eating, drinking, sleeping, and loving and caring for my husband and babies, all of which I know is happiness of a kind, but why do I feel so woeful all the time, and weep as I did yesterday? I am writing this now with the pleasantly exciting sense that nobody will ever read it, so I can be quite frank with myself […].“

During her 12th pregnancy she wrote about taking scalding baths and jumping from high pieces of furniture to try and miscarry.  And at one point while reading her husband’s diary (which he told her to read) she found the sentence “There is no such thing as love, only the physical need for intercourse and the practical need for a life companion.” In her own diary she wrote “They ebb and flow like waves, these times when I realise how lonely I am and want only to cry…”

A few years before her husband’s death, she published a cycle of prose poems titled “Groans”, under the pseudonym “A Tired Woman”.

[krokietnik]

The scale is smaller, indeed.

Dathomir in Legends- various clans, single clan could- woth minimal effort- muster an army of skilled Witches that could go toe to toe with elite Imperial forces.

Dathomir in Canon- Two dozens of weak force users in mud huts. And Maul and Ventress who were apprently neightbours. Mandalorians- various clashing clans accepted everyone who could join. Mando in Canon- Aryan dream. etc. I wonder how much is because of the medium, but since the cartoons and TV series took thelead we are given less weirdness, fewer aliens and everythings shrinks. Or the producers just don't get it Andor looks like every cyberpunk show. There no aliens in background, no alien children in school in Mandalorian. Instead of civilisations having their own weird technology we have people wondering what the mirror is.

I think one of the biggest problems with Star Wars right now is that not much feels like it's making Star Wars bigger, but instead everything feels just a little bit smaller, a little bit more crowded in with every project. The sequels almost made a new world to play in, but with the shitshow of not planning their trilogy out ahead of time and the mish-mash of writing/directing styles, it's not what it could have been, the sequels are not in the position the prequels were after the same amount of time had passed. The Mandalorian almost felt like it could expand the world, but then the cameos (as excellent as they were and as many of them made sense) and the lack of allowing those characters to be in books or anything, as well as the sequels basically saying, "Hey, don't bother getting invested in the New Republic, it's going to be dead in a few years anyway." and not being talented enough writers to overcome that obstacle. Andor was an incredible series, but there are only so many ways to make an Empire-based story feel fresh again. Ahsoka and Obi-Wan Kenobi were both fun to watch and deserve their place, but they don't feel like they gave us a new world to play with. I love the High Republic, but I don't think it's a strong enough new thing to really inspire people, hence why I can barely find any fandom for it, despite that books often get fandoms for them. Many of these projects are really, really good and exciting, but I wouldn't say any of them have made Star Wars feel bigger to me, it just feels like more stuff added into the already existing framework instead of expanding the framework to make room for more stories.

[krokietnik]

Judging from European POV- that's not just chromebooks. I often have flashback to 90s but now the basic questions aren't asked by

confused middle age office people but by younglings who had grown with screens that gave them everything on silver plate. -Google search has gone to hell.

-Loss of fora and blogs means that Reddit is your only chance to find a solution or ask a question.

-Shrinking of Internet. What is on Internet besides media platforms? What was once a Wild West where one made his homestand is now corporate field

We need to lay more blame for "Kids don't know how computers work" at the feet of the people responsible: Google.

Google set out about a decade ago to push their (relatively unpopular) chromebooks by supplying them below-cost to schools for students, explicitly marketing them as being easy to restrict to certain activities, and in the offing, kids have now grown up in walled gardens, on glorified tablets that are designed to monetize and restrict every movement to maximize profit for one of the biggest companies in the world.

Tech literacy didn't mysteriously vanish, it was fucking murdered for profit.

[krokietnik]

Those supposely "feminist retellings" are usually so tone deaf that I strongly suspect them to be a secret conservative agenda. The one about Ariadna atributtes her deeds to everyone but her, the one about Troian Woman is about Sad Boi Achilles. Now I just skip them on my ebook library. Maybe it's not bad will. Maybe writers are just scared of anything that's not simplest relationship trope. So Achilles and Patroclos are totally gay with totally modren concept and roles in relationship and of course they did Bryseis a favor by taking her in. Nobody can accept that Persephone may see her marriage contract as a good deal because it's not about romantic reltionship and she knows her mother has her back. No, she must be really in love and thus Demeter must be abusive nag.

The myth of Hades and Persephone is - and I cannot stress this enough - actually about Demeter. It's one of those ones that's not named after the protagonist. It's like how Bill of Kill Bill and the Wizard of The Wizard of Oz aren't the protagonists. Not surprising since the oldest was called The Hymn of Demeter.

It's the story of a mother's grief at her stolen child and how she, in defiance of her social role and the legal rights of Zeus, managed to bully the king of the gods into (partial) submission and get her daughter back (for half the year) by holding the entire world hostage.

The myth of Hades and Persephone was the myth of a mother going up against the world and expectations and winning.

And yet. And yet. Somehow modern writers and readers think demonizing Demeter to justify consensual HadesXPersephone is "feminist".

The myth was already feminist.

A more accruate, actually feminist, retelling would be if Taken was starring Wonderwoman instead of a CIA-dad.

Anyway. Stop being afraid of older single women curb stomping powerful old men who think they have the right to make women's decisions for them.

(Edit: since at least one TERF has found this, I would just like to remind everyone that Trans Rights Are Human Rights. Also one of the oldest myths in the world is about two gods deciding how to structure society and one of them explaining that there absolutely are roles for genderqueer and trans people in society and that there's nothing wrong with them. Although, of course, they do not use that terminology. Furthermore the majority of what terfs believe is in direct contradiction to actual feminism.)

[krokietnik]

Worry not, in Dark Disciple Assajj has this totally cool redemption arc where she acknowledges her wrongdoings and people she hurt Just kidding. She calls him animal and never ever tells anybody what she did. But she felt in love with this dude and smiled to some children so she redeemed herself, right?

More people need to start talking about Savage Opress right the fuck now because hey. Possibly the most horrifying thing I can think of is having your mind irreparably warped by magic until you're entirely unrecognizable and no longer in control of yourself and then just. Having to live with that in perpetuity

[krokietnik]

So I have seen "Poor Things". Liked the visuals. Hated the plot Spoilers and musings. Saw that I can be free unbound woman... as long as being free and unbound means having sex like rabbit in heat because that's what counts and what leads to character development for woman in fiction. I just don't buy it. Bella is ultimate tuberose, sheltered potted plant that everyone waits on hands and feet. Daddy will send money, fiancee will wait forever, that bad jealous guy will conviniently go mad and other will just shot himself. So she can have sex in peace wihout fear of social stigma, pregnancy or STDs. There was a minute or wto about Bella being concerned about anything but her own pleasure but they were quickly dismissed in favor of more sex. And that sex somehow miraculusly cause this conviniently attractive woman to become a master doctor in no time, because that's the way it is.

[krokietnik]

Beloved female ancestor of my father told me that my generation is lucky that we can adopt or bear kids on our own and be self sufficient single mothers, because "woman are alone in marriage anyway". Certainly there was a lot to unpack about granddad

I'm fascinated by the logic of those Return To Nature "your ancestors would be ashamed of how weak you are" kind of dudes. Like you really think that? You think that your ancestors would see you, being nobody's slave and nobody's serf, survived into adulthood, reaching 30 while still having all your teeth, having never had a child you didn't want or buried one you wanted to keep, never had to starve through the winter wondering how many of your kin will be alive next solstice? Like do you really think they would hate you for not having suffered like they suffered?

I mean I know mine would, but they were a bunch of bitter and petty crabs in a bucket who would seethe at the idea that someone else had better luck than they did, without ever getting the chance to ruin it out of pure spite. No idea what you did to offend yours.

[krokietnik]

Cheers to Christopher Lee who decided to go against the script and let Dooku die with dignity. Stover's ROTS has him begging for his life as it was planed and it was absolute cringe.

I shouldn't do these early prequel fandom takes because they age me and --let me assure you -- I am VERY young and VERY hot and cool, but DID YOU KNOW that we Dooku girlies/idiots at the time had to find out he dies in the first 10 minutes of RotS as a footnote to Anakin's fall IN THE THEATER?? That SOME of us had built up elaborate redemption headcanons?? That Yoda: Dark Rendezvous came out in November, Labyrinth of Evil in January, ahead of RotS in May? Both of which have plots that center around Dooku's doubts about the cause, his desperate desire to just go home, his mental instability, and Yoda's willingness to still take him back? That seem to set up a clear path for a very interesting role for him in Revenge of the Sith?? That some of us had written very bad speculative essays about it on TheForce Dot Net probably?! THAT SOME OF US WERE HIGH STRUNG LITTLE TEENS AND CRIED IN THE THEATER BECAUSE WE REALLY THOUGHT IT WOULD HAPPEN AND THEN ANAKIN CUTS OFF HIS HANDS AND HEAD IN THE FIRST SCENE LIKE "GOT THAT OUT OF THE WAY" AND THEN YOU HAVE TO WATCH THE REST OF ROTS?!

[krokietnik]

I’m sorry friends, but “just google it” is no longer viable advice. What are we even telling people to do anymore, go try to google useful info and the first three pages are just ads for products that might be the exact opposite of what the person is trying to find but The Algorithm thinks the words are related enough? And if it’s not ads it’s just sponsored websites filled with listicles, just pages and pages of “TOP FIFTEEN [thing you googled] IMAGINED AS DISNEY PRINCESSES” like… what are we even doing anymore, google? I can no longer use you as shorthand for people doing real and actual helpful research on their own.

[krokietnik]

There is also a lot to be told about Death as great equaliser, coming for rich and poor alike. ---- I used a scythe to cut grass because at first lawnmowers were expensive here, then they become cheap and I come to hate them so I still use good o'l scythe. When you sharpen it to the point that blades of grass don;t even resist before failing in nice waves you see that there's something magical about them.

Also, they can be easily converted into effective poleaxes. Death by Jacek Malczewski

the grim reaper being armed with an enormous razor sharp scythe becomes a lot less intimidating when you understand just how common a tool scythes actually were in the pre industrial era of agriculture. it's like if we invented a personification of death called "the dark handyman" who takes souls by loosening them from the body with his wrench.

[krokietnik]

Honestly, squad of the suicidal handmaids is beyond stupid. Indoctrinating young girls to die for their queen would have made sense had Naboo been a hereditary monarchy with Padme as last heiress. But as now they die so the Naboo won’t... have to hold earlier election? My cynical heart says that Padme was not that much bothered- of course, a bit sad, but c’mon that’s what they were for. Having people ready to die for you during your formative years doesn’t promote being a picture of empathy. Quite the opposite. (And shotout to Queens Shadow- where those supposely brilliant girls weren’t able to find woman who moved like, from small town to village nearby). Really, salt of Naboo.

padme's handmaidens are such an underrated concept. i mean, yeah you can call it women supporting women and leave it at that but like. its so much more intense than that. they basically created the persona of queen amidala together. they assigned her specific mannerisms and tone of voice and breathing patterns and all of them studied that well enough to play the role perfectly. they put all of the derangedness teenage girls put into discovering their own identity into perfecting mimicry instead & they did all that knowing that their role will always be to die in padme's place if it comes to that. idk what insane levels of devotion does it take to be like 14 and you've become so intimately familiar with your friend that you can quite literally become her. there's friendship & traumabonding and then theres "my entire life is dedicated to dying for this woman" and then there's that but with added identity fuckery and thats what the handmaidens have going on with the bonus point of being 14

[krokietnik]

Strugeon lives in Europe- native to basin of the Black Sea and probably introduced somewhere in 1000s to Baltic.

It's meat was so ubiquitous that we don't know for sure if "wizna" in old Polish recipes means strugeon smoked or dried because nobody bothered to write it down.

Before xix centry caviar was something of a curiosity- sometines send between rich and powerful as a souvenir or gift but it was an acquired taste, often ending up somewhere in the pantry :)

Caviar as The Luxury Food make a career in XIX centry when fabulusly wealthy russian aristocrats brought IT to France during their lenghy journeys. It was exotic, shelf stable thanks to canning and with proper marketing become the thing to eat when you are aspiring and rich.

It's just a roe. Probably not much people wiuldnpay attention anyway if IT wasn't for fancy cans