mademoiselle-luz

[mademoiselle-luz]

Captive Prince trilogy | Polish version | cover art by littleulvar

[mademoiselle-luz]

One of my favourite things about Laurent is how far from frigid and unfeeling he really is. He’s so easily delighted by little things like coin tricks and animals and fancy hats. He tells awkward jokes and likes roleplaying as a cloth merchant and putting flowers in Damen’s hair. And he cares so deeply about his people and his country and will fight like hell to protect them. He’s gonna be the best king Vere has had in a long time

[mademoiselle-luz]

"If he had been offered this as an adult he couldn't remember it." King's Rising by C.S.Pacat

[mademoiselle-luz]

will you please take my whimsical ass seriously

[mademoiselle-luz]

The writers should spoil one show a day until their demands are met.

[mademoiselle-luz]

Retro Style Pride Flag Shirts from Sabor a Libertad

Trans // Queer // Bi // Lesbian // Genderfluid // Nonbinary

Genderqueer // Pan // Aromantic // Asexual // Poly

[mademoiselle-luz]

so I mainly made these for myself but I realized some of y’all might be interested…I made some captive prince dust jacket covers using the polish artwork (thank you @laurents-laces​​ for the no-text edits!) They’re not perfect but they’re sized to fit the US paperback editions. I blocked out the places where the “seams” are when you’re supposed to fold. I’ll drop a download link in the comments for those who might want to use them. They are for personal use. I also have not tested these yet so it’s probably a good idea to double check the spine measurements and such.

[mademoiselle-luz]

are we really doing this

[mademoiselle-luz]

just a heads-up for those of you (like me) who have triggers surrounding animal harm/death, PETA has released a youtube ad with sounds of owls screaming in agony and goes into graphic descriptions of ‘mutilation’ and death. it’s unskippable. 

if you see a black screen with audiowaves on it or hear owls/johns hopkins, get out of there

[mademoiselle-luz]

Is someone over on Reddit trying to make this happen as we speak?

[mademoiselle-luz]

Female Knights in Medieval History

While women have been fighting alongside men for all of history, they usually don’t get the same recognition as their counterparts. Here are some cases where women did get accepted into chivalric orders, though they typically got a separate title. Some of the women were combatants, and some were not (but non-combatant men have been accepted in chivalric orders for just as long!)

Order of the Hatchet (12th century Spain) Orde de l'Atxa|Orden del Hacha was an entirely-female order created after women defended the Catalonian town of Tortosa from invaders. With most adult men off to war, the women fought with hatchets and other tools. Women of this order were given social and financial privileges, including tax exemptions.

Order of Saint-John (12th century Malta) A military religious order, the Order of Saint-John had female soeurs hospitalières and male frères prêtres who had essentially the same role in the order.

Teutonic Order (12th century Jerusalem) The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem accepted women primarily as consorores and hospitallers, in charge of supportive and medical services. However, these women did follow men to war to perform battlefield medicine.

Knights Templar (12th-14th century Jerusalem) The members of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon admitted women for a number of roles. We know that when the final got around to writing down their rules, it included continuing the already standard practice of admitting women. Most Knights Templar were noncombatant, especially financiers.

Order of the Garter (14th-15th century England) Dedicated to the patron saint of England, Saint George, the Most Noble Order of the Garter admitted women regularly, often due to blue blood. However, women without high birth were admitted as well.

Order of the Ermine (14th and 15th century France) The L'Ordre de l'Hermine was directly inspired by the Order of the Garter and dedicated to upholding one’s personal honor. It openly admitted men and women of any social rank, including the only known instance in Medieval history of a woman serving as Officer of Arms. This woman, Katherine Potier, was titled “Espy Herault”.

Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary (13th-16th century Italy) A unique order that took up arms to pacify cities in the fractured Italian states. It was centered in Bologna and would admit women as fighters called militissa (literally ‘female knight’).

[mademoiselle-luz]

I know the joke about Izzy is “human dropped into a muppets movie” but the tragedy is that he’s a queer-coded character from some 1940s or 50s popcorn flick dropped into a pride parade in a floating gayborhood & he flat out has no idea how to deal with it. We learn he’s a great swordsman in the most homoerotic way possible when he uses his skills to cut open a man’s shirt. We see him react more openly and with less inner conflict when Ed slaps him on the back and says “I need you here” than when Ed implies to him, a minute earlier, that he could be a captain. When he’s part of an overtly queer scene where other characters get the romance & he just gets the subtext, Con O'Neill’s body language stands out even more—go back to the scene where Izzy tells Stede that Ed adores him, the way he strokes his fingers down the curtain dividing him from Stede. There is literally no straight explanation for this choice, but there is also no explicit acknowledgement that the character is queer; in a different, older show or movie, that body language would be the acknowledgment. He imbues the character with the looks and pauses that you would see in, like, Ben-Hur or something, where everyone knew a character was gay but nobody could say it out loud. Keep in mind that in the comedies where these characters would exist, the subtextually gay man would sometimes be best friends with a Strong Leading Man who got the girl in the end.

We hear him say outright that there’s no retirement for people like Izzy & Ed, only death, which is itself a hugely loaded analogy next to the title statement “our flag means death” when you consider our history & our use of flags throughout. And Izzy’s so focused on pure survival that he ends up nasty, manipulative, violent—the only way men like him can survive in his mind, or in the genre he’s from, if they don’t have a Strong Leading Man best friend like, say, a Blackbeard to protect him from the narrative. When Ed starts to live in Stede’s world, Izzy is both losing his subtextual boyfriend and also acting as though Ed’s going to get himself (and Izzy) killed if he keeps going down this path.

I will never be sane over this. Izzy is a Celluloid Closet case study who’s been dropped into a Logo TV original, and so much of the conflict of his character comes from his trying to use the coping techniques from that world (including techniques used by queer coded villains! He’s not healthy!) in a world where these techniques are actively harmful rather than a way to survive.

[mademoiselle-luz]

Tā moko and Blackbeard - PLEASE READ

Omg Blackbeard’s tattoo’s are so cool-

Wait a second …

WHOA WHOA WHOA HOLD ON A MINUTE THERE

That went from zero to 100 REAL quick lets get some education about tā moko up in here before we make these wild claims! Tatau or tattoos have been found all over the world in many civilisations, but it was absolutely the Age of Sail and the colonisation of the Pacific Islands that popularised it and spread it around the world. Tatau is a samoan word that means to strike, and many polynesian cultures have a rich history of tattooing with very specific meanings and connections. Western sailors visiting the islands got their own and soon brought tattoos back to white civilisation where we know and love it today as artistic body modifications. Western tattoos usually come with deep individual personal meaning as opposed to the widespread cultural meaning that occurs in polynesian tattoos. Tattooing has also had a big impact on the queer community too which makes the ofmd connections all the more interwoven (it’s about the intricate rituals)

Edward “Blackbeard“ Teach from Our Flag Means Death is played by Taika Waititi, a maori and jewish man, and as part of his character design, Taika’s own tattoos were added upon to create the visuals of blackbeard! These tattoos are an essential part of the character and it makes sense that anyone drawing or especially cosplaying Blackbeard would want to make sure that these tattoos are included. Unfortunately there has already been a few (probably well-intentioned) call-out posts for doing so (see above), saying that cosplayers should not be drawing on tattoos that have specific cultural significance! Which is absolutely correct! The problem is these posts have also failed to recognise what is and isn’t Maori tā moko and what is literally just . . a regular tattoo 🙈  Here’s Taika and his tattoos:

The eagle on his chest, the little Rita Ora tattoo on his hip and yes, those black bands on his arms are all likely to have very personal meaning to Taika but they are not tā moko.

Tā moko is the practice of tattooing that is specific to the Maori people and a quick google search will show you just how recognisable tā moko is, a tradition that goes back hundreds of years.

Tā moko is usually the more traditional type reserved for the face and the more modern concept of tattoos as body art can be referred to as Kirituhi. Every piece is unique to the wearer, with koru (spirals) that represent family and the darker infilled parts using various symbolic patterns.

Here to give some input as Maori people themselves are my friends on twitter speaking about the specific tā moko that Taika has that you shouldn’t try to reproduce: The tā moko on his leg, the whare (meeting house) on his wrist, and the traditional imagery of rā the sun on his back (seen in the above photo of Taika also) 

@neonbirb

@weylandyuutani

@ceylonthae

So to conclude: YES as a non Maori person you should avoid drawing on tā moko as part of a cosplay as there is very deep cultural and personal significance in those specific tattoos, and Maori people who see their culture misrepresented in a poor rendition of tā moko will likely take offense. but unless Taika himself has asked people not to there’s nothing wrong with drawing on the tattoo’s that aren’t tā moko, including the eagle on his chest and yes, those two black bands on his arms. BUT ALSO: do not erase tā moko from fanart of blackbeard, if you want to draw the whare on his wrist or the rā on his back, or the kirituhi on his leg - power to you!!! And don’t bloody whitewash the man either or I’ll set the kraken on you!!!  ☠🐙 (Please go retweet and support my friends on twitter I have linked them all above their tweet screenshots!)

[mademoiselle-luz]

I’ve seen even people who are pro-ao3 say that it should just get advertisers instead of having donation drives, which is. Uncomfortable. The ad-free aspect of ao3 isn’t just about convenience or even about giving fans at least one space where they aren’t bombarded with advertisements, it’s already about protecting ao3 itself.

The thing about hosting ads on your site is that it means your advertisers can influence the content the site hosts, demanding that certain things be removed (or added) and threatening to cut their support if they aren’t listened to. Relying entirely on donations doesn’t just protect users from invasive advertising and marketing, it also ensures that ao3 can continue to exist as an archive that isn’t censored by corporations or banks.

[mademoiselle-luz]

Let’s do this. Instead of replying, though, send me an Ask.

[mademoiselle-luz]

And a family that takes care of their elders

[mademoiselle-luz]

Geralt wooing Jaskier without consciously realizing it by giving Jaskier little tokens of his hunts, pretty feathers, tiny teeth that he justifies to himself wouldn't sell for much, shiny scales. It's pleasing somehow when Jaskier carefully sews them onto his bag. At least until one spring Jaskier has a NEW TOOTH there. "Oh that? My cousin's friend Roland gave it to me, isn't it sweet?" Cue subvocal growls. (Geralt doesn't know cousin + Roland are like 7, Jaskier is Roland's first love.)

YES I LOVE

geralt starts it just because it makes jaskier so happy to have interesting things, and the bard makes for pleasant company when he's in a good mood (it's NOT that he looks adorable a little flushed pink and grinning it's nOT)

and YES. JASKIER HAS NEW KNICK KNACK?? ON THE BAG??? AMONG THE THINGS GERALT HAS GIVEN HIM??

UNACCEPTABLE

also i fucking love the idea of subvocal growls BECAUSE i love the idea of jaskier at times just feeling off and NOT KNOWING WHY. he was flirting with a guy and now??? his stomach feels weird?? hm must be a bad idea then.

just geralt accidentally (at least at first) cockblocking jaskier with vibrations he can't hear