#JAPETH YEAR

[wisteriaum]

OMG ITS YEAR OF THE SNAKE.

[secretly-a-catamount]

Despite Rhian being both Evelyn and Rafal’s favorite, Japeth is actually the one who’s most like them.

He killed his brother and then stole his identity, all to raise his lover from the dead, a lover who never loved him at all.

They loved Rhian because he was what they wanted to be. Good.

They hated Japeth because he was what they were. Evil.

[discjude]

SO funny that the only explanation for why Aric stabbed Rhian is, in Japeth's words, "because [Rhian] said things about [his and Aric's] friendship" (the full actual quote is "because you said things! About him and me! About our friendship!"). Which is such a funny way of phrasing it because that could mean LITERALLY anything. Soman why would you phrase it like that. genuinely

The only other elaboration we get on the stabbing ever is right after the first line and it's vague as to what it's actually talking about, which is where Rhian says "Because he was a monster / a sadist with no soul" (which. yeah lmao), but that could be either "he stabbed me because he was a monster" OR "I said those things because he was a monster", and the rest of the line supports the second interpretation, so we just???? don't know what made aric do it??????? This is the single most influential event in the series it literally doubled the series' length what do you MEAN there's only ever two lines about it????? ? ? ??? arbed prequel when hello

[liketwoswansinbalance]

Fairy Tales I Associate with SGE

If anyone wants an explanation for any particular choices, I'll oblige!

⸻

August Sader: "The Golden Goose" (German)

Vulcan: "The Bad Wife" (Russian) or "Bluebeard" (German)

Japeth vs. Evelyn: "Mother Holle" (German) or "Diamonds and Toads" (French)

Sophie x Rafal: "The Three Spinners" (German)

("Rapunzel" and "Rumpelstiltskin" are more obvious but inexact answers for Sophie herself.)

Agatha x Tedros: "The Raven" (German)

Rafal: "The Peasant and the Devil" (German) or "The King of the Golden Mountain" (German)

Old TLEA Rafal: "The Duration of Life" (German) or "The Old Man Made Young Again" (German)

Prequel Rhian: "Hans in Luck" (German) or "Faithful John" (German)

Tedros: "The Pink" (German) or "Donkey Cabbages" (German)

Agatha: "The Blue Light" (German) or "Vasilisa the Fair" (Russian)

TCY Rhian: "The White Bride and the Black One" (German) (I chose this one because of the snake pit involved. Still, note the TW: racism. However, to clarify, when "black" is used to describe the devil in other fairy tales, it's not necessarily related to race in the modern sense. We, as modern readers, are probably prone to interpreting "blackness" or "dark little devils" in some tales through a modern viewpoint, so the descriptions become problematic to us, out of their original context. Yet, I will also not dismiss the point that tales can be racist. This one is, while others are more based in symbolism instead of racism directly.)

Japeth: "Our Lady's Child" (German)

[cheesefriesinyourmom]

i strongly identify with the goat (Japeth) from hoodwinked i will not be elaborating.

[liketwoswansinbalance]

Whoah. Fantastic. No notes. But I will say: I've never appreciated Aric as a character more. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, JUDE /pos.

He really is a complex character. And now I, too, wonder if leaving all that unanswered matter around him was intentional on Soman's part.

And yes, I completely agree—overanalyzing is what makes it fun.

One other fun thing. At last I've found another song that reminds me of Japeth! (I'd not known its name before and wasn't able to search for it specifically.) It's "Anitra's Dance" by Edvard Grieg. Very sinuous in my opinion.

I am going to cry now

[fourleafclovxr]

8: hewn

Only one teacher is allowed into the Theatre of Tales, the night before the Circus of Talents. The rest are locked in their rooms, doors spelled shut with a magic far older and more powerful than their own, for all the Dean of Good might try.

But August Sader walks unrestricted in the School; Rafal could not keep him trapped if he tried. Not that he would try. There’s an old analogy about two birds. One that has every luxury in the world, but is kept in a locked cage. Another that has nothing, except for its freedom to come and go as it pleases. The first will fly away as soon as it is able. The second will always come back home.

August is still unsure of which, exactly, Rafal sees him as. Or which he is.

Rafal must know that, in the end, they are not on the same side.

But he is kind to August, or if not kind, at least lenient with him in ways no one else is afforded. Of all his colleagues August alone is allowed the privilege of freely coming and going wherever he desires. He can go home, meet his brothers, meet their children— if they want to see him. He can visit his sister and her twins, Rafal’s twins— if she lets him. Most of the time she doesn’t. The last time he saw Rhian and Japeth was their eighth birthday, the year before Evelyn sent them off to Arbed House.

A lot of the freedoms Rafal allows him are not freedoms at all, really. August would not leave the School if he could help it. He likes it here, really, likes that he’s familiar with the winding steps and the ever-alike classrooms and the intersecting hallways, likes that he knows his way around.

More than that, this is his duty. This School; this post.

And this man, just a man, who knows full well August would never believe his mystique. The School Master is sparing with his name, but he’d given it to August freely: Rafal, or, as I was known before, Rhian. Call me Rafal. My dear brother was wrong about me. He’s dead, now.

August, who had written and animated his first draft of the Student’s History of the Woods about Rafal and Rhian, or the other way around— then promptly burned it— had only nodded. Rafal’s mask had glinted, a blur of silver in August’s vision. I look forward to working with you, my Seer, he’d said.

My Seer. Rafal has always treated him like a possession, a prize. Has always been so proud that August chose to come to him. It is something that is easy to resent.

And yet August chooses to come to him, even now. Chooses to sit and listen patiently as Rafal enchants wooden likenesses of dying princes, on the other side of the Theatre for Tales. He’s spelled them to die with choked-off screams and feeble declarations of Good, though August isn’t sure how they’re dying exactly. It would be disturbing, if they weren’t in a School quite literally raising children to kill each other in their fourth year.

August has been dreaming of these things for years. Before he knew what they were.

He’s been dreaming of Rafal for longer. He knows all this already.

One last scream, and the room drifts mercifully into silence. Rafal turns, his boots clicking neatly on the floor as he makes his way back to the Good side of the theatre, cape sweeping over the floor with more flair than ever necessary.

He comes to a stop in front of August; offers his arm, fingers brushing August’s shoulder. There is not much August can do other than take it, gripping his cane firmly as Rafal pulls him to his feet. Rafal’s hands are, as always, ice-cold.

“You never have anything to say,” Rafal says lightly, half-complaining. “Perhaps this is the year my art finally gets through to you.”

“Our dearly beloved School Master,” August says, acerbic. “An artist. Perhaps you should pursue that, instead.”

“I could say the same about you, my dearly beloved Seer,” Rafal laughs. He seems happy to have gotten a rise out of August at all.

They pause just in front of the wall. August brushes his fingers over the carvings with a gentle touch; the carved knights cough and cry as he does. It’s good workmanship. Rafal has had a hundred years to improve on it, after all. But it’s not a very pleasant experience.

He says as much. “It’s not supposed to be,” Rafal replies, “they’re Evil.” He guides August to a carving of… some monster, or another, one that roars under his touch, spitting a burst of burning sparks. August tugs his hand back reproachfully. Rafal laughs, again.

“I’ll enchant something nicer for Good,” he promises. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Our first Good Seer in generations. Our first Seer with any sort of allegiance.” His voice strays dark as he completes the thought.

“You know very well why I have an allegiance,” August says mildly. It’s his duty; to kill Rafal. There is only one way this story ends.

“We could have been such good friends,” Rafal sighs. “You and I. But then I suppose we would have no reason to be.” He hooks his arm through August’s once again. They play at closeness, the two of them. Or Rafal does, at any rate.

They move to the crystal freizes, on Good’s side of the Theatre. They must be lovely, like everything to do with Good is. The stained glass is pleasantly cool under August’s fingers; he makes out the outline of a rose in bloom.

“I’m thinking of having them bloom as the students enter,” Rafal says idly. “No monsters here.”

“You just resent that Good keeps winning,” August sighs.

“I do,” Rafal admits openly. He has nothing to hide from August. He could not, either way. “There are more carvings, lower down, if you care for them.”

August nudges at the base of the wall with his cane, curious; he kneels to feel the raised patterns. Textured feathers. There, a wing, another. Borne in flight.

“Swans,” Rafal provides. Of course. He’s more predictable than he thinks.

August moves his cane along the wall, then starts walking back towards the other side, cane knocking against the continuous loop of carvings. Twin swans hewn all around the Theatre. A reminder of a promise unfulfilled.

Rafal doesn’t usually care so much.

But, of course, this Circus is special.

“This will be the tale to end all tales,” the School Master says, almost to himself. “Won’t it, August?”

“I don’t take questions,” August says.

“This is what you’re here for, after all,” Rafal continues, as if August had never spoken at all. “What role are you going to play, I wonder? Will we have to be enemies?”

This is the second to last time they will ever meet each other. August has spent years knowing Rafal, years with the idea of him— the shadow of him— living in his head. It was never going to amount to anything more than this.

Will he fly free, out of this gilded cage? Or has he sworn himself to Rafal, and his tale, and his end? You go on, no matter the cost. Seers don’t speak of costs, they only speak of duty.

Either way, both of them are trapped.

“You know,” Rafal says. Almost wistful. “You know, if I had the chance, I would want it to be you.”

[sarascamander]

Am I the only one imagining all the characters in The Camelot Year to be in their early twenty???? Because I legit couldn't imagine them as little kids with the plot that's going on. Agatha and Tedros is engaged, Tedros is being King, Sophie is engaged and forced to get married. She is also a Dean. Agatha and the gang are literally being hunted, people are dying, Japeth and Rhian's charisma..... Nope. What do you mean they're teens?? They haven't even graduated yet!?!?

[nothing-to-see-hi]

Everything I currently have about the siren Rhian au that I keep bothering his tag with.

Okay so, 1, sirens are typically powerful people who were cursed by other powerful people. Yes, I am basing this off of Persephone's myth.

On that note, no, they are not the bird sirens. Usually. Rhian is not a bird siren at least.

Summing up my previous post about the origins, at the end of Fall, Rhian tries to stab Rafal only to end up cursed as a siren in the middle of nowhere instead. He ends up going kinda feral and is running off of hatred by the time we catch up to him in The Camelot Years.

Hort knows. You cannot tell me that the guy who grew up on Hook's ship doesn't know about sirens. Particularly the one who has been going after the Hook family for 200-ish years.

Anyway, how we get to Rhian in the first place.

Hort, being the guy who's familiar with the sea and whatnot, tells them not to take a right at the fork because that's where a siren is and they end up taking a right at the fork anyway.

Enter the boyo

So who is on this ship? Sophie's on this ship. And what does Sophie absolutely reek of? Rafal's magic. And who does Rhian want to tear limb from limb more than anything in the world? Rafal!

A storm is conjured and the singing begins. To cut matters short, Sophie gets some nice claw marks on her face and Rhian gets blasted off the ship.

Cut to around the time where Sophie has the scims in her ears.

Twins v2. Electric Boogaloo kidnapped their uncle and tried to little mermaid him. It partially worked. Rhian's got legs again and regained a bit of himself. Bad news: the legs go away whenever he gets wet and the scims are in his throat so he can't talk, or sing, or use basically any of what little magic he has left.

Does this stop him from attempting to add a sub romance plot to what is already a subplot? No!

Enter nameless kitchen boy. Who for some reason I gave a vague family backstory. Japeth catches them making out in a closet.

Now why is Rhian in Camelot? The twins v2 want to lure out Rafal because they can't have the healing powers + wife + Aric if he's still alive

Also Rafal kept his limp and at least occasionally uses a cane because the Storian is not letting either of them go unpunished for the events of their books.

How is he alive? Idk. Idc.

Anyway at some point there is a massive battle between twins v1. in Camelot's throne room where Rhian seems to get some of his old powers back. At least temporarily.

Depending on your angst levels Rhian might die at the end of it. Or he survives and goes off to lick his wounds with his love interest. Either one.

They might vaguely appear at the ending in a crowd or something. Maybe Japeth brought his siren reinforcement in case something went wrong with the sword hunt. Idk again.

Misc.

Sophie and Rafal might have a Talk about how screwed up his entire family is.

And if there's anything he can do about her face

Rhian is used by v2. as the proper weapon he is and I could not be prouder

He also uses his undetermined relationship label guy to see what's going on around the castle

Is this all of it? No. Is it most of it? Yeah. If there are any questions they will happily be answered.

[adamwatchesmovies]

Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs Evil (2011)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

Hoodwinked! Looked awful; so terrible anyone who caught it in theatres probably wondered if there was something wrong with the projector. The writing saved the movie. It featured catchy songs, a novel angle on the fairytale thing and pretty good jokes. Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil doesn’t have such redeeming qualities. It looks like garbage and the writing is just as poor. Had I seen this in theatres and paid that extra $3 for the 3D, I might’ve died of shame.

Wolf (voiced by Patrick Warburton), Granny (Glen Close), and Twitchy Squirrel (Cory Edwards) now work for the Happily Ever After organization under the supervision of Nicky Flippers (David Ogden Stiers). While Red (this time voiced by Hayden Panettiere) trains in a monastery far away, the group fails to rescue Hansel and Gretel (Bill Hader & Amy Poehler) from the hands of a wicked witch. Their kidnapping is tied to the theft of an age-old desert recipe that grants supernatural abilities, meaning it’s more important than ever for the group to let go of their disagreements and band together.

Once more written by Cory Edwards, Todd Edwards and Tony Leech, the script is abysmal. This sequel came 6 years after the first. Instead of working on the script during that gap, the writers wrote it hours before their deadline, grabbing liberally from the bag of references you’ve seen a thousand times whenever they couldn't think of a joke. Andy Dick returns briefly as Boingo the Bunny, just so they can steal some lines from Silence of the Lambs. We're subjected to references from Star Wars, Goodfellas, and John McLane’s catchphrase from Die Hard… twice. The only children who could possibly tolerate this film are too young to understand these winks and the adults will only furrow their brows. The gags aren’t merely unfunny, they’re anti-funny. You resent "Hoodwinked Too!" and if anyone amusing did actually come up (theoretically, mind you), you wouldn’t laugh out of spite.

This movie constantly pelts you with gimmicky voice acting - Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong voice two of the Three Little Pigs. It’s a desert barren of imagination and creativity. At no point does the film do anything pleasantly surprising. Japeth the Goat returns. Your heart leaps. Perhaps a comical song is underway? Nope. Just a forgettable, horrid tune. They find a way to crowbar in the Woodsman (Martin Short) again but he’s nothing but a plot device to get us from the second act to the third. Nothing more. You don’t care about anything on-screen. The animators didn't either. Granted, they had to stick somewhat close to the visual style of the first movie to maintain some kind of continuity, but generally, scenes are empty, and the conclusion - which features a Godzilla-sized rampage - has the big threat varying wildly in size from shot to shot.

The only good thing about Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil is that it's forgettable. You’ll groan and gnash your teeth while it’s playing, you’ll be in agony listening to the bad jokes, the stiff animation will make you desperate for anything better. Once it’s over, however, the ordeal is so bland and mirthless you won’t even have the rage necessary to set it on fire. (On DVD, October 4, 2019)

[secretly-a-catamount]

WIP for a fanfic, I guess

  Dinner was a tense affair. The meal itself was lovely, of course, Camelot’s chefs not knowing how to make any other kind. A lush, creamy, goat-milk, lemon, and mint soup with a side of pan-fried potatoes wedges. Six separate salads, three of which were composed entirely of fruit. Roasted nuts and seeds dipped in a salty black sauce. Cuts of nearly every kind of meat imaginable, waterfowl and poultry, white meat and black meat, livestock and game, all so tender they bled juice the moment a knife sliced through their crust.

  Sophie ventured into the topic of conversation near the start of the sixth course. Her jade green eyes focused on the man seated across the table from her, taking note of the fact that his plate was a mirror of her own, treated more like a prop than something he was actually going to use.

  “Japeth, darling, do tell me about yourself. Your brother and I already get along so swimmingly”—sitting on her right, Rhian gave a wane smile, as if he was amused with her half-truth—“and since we’re going to be roommates I thought—“

  Japeth’s head snapped up. “What did you just say?”

  “There’s no need to throw a hissy-fit around it, I’m not any happier about this than you are,” Sophie sniffed, nibbling on the edge of a cucumber sandwich, “your brother’s the one who suggested it.”

  “Than he can un-suggest it.” Japeth snarled, tightened his grip on his knife, wearing the resigned expression of a dog who knew a beating was coming but was too tired to try and defend himself.

  Rhian didn’t look up. In the low light cast from the fireplace at the other end of the room the scar on his head looked like a thick, pink rat tail. Sophie had to fight the urge to reach over and brush it off.

  “Rhian—“

  “I’m not going to answer you while you’re emotional like this, Japeth, it’s unbecoming for our family.”

  “Rhian—“

  “Control your emotions, Japeth.” Rhian reprimanded, with the inflection of someone who was saying something so obvious it didn’t merit repeating.

  Like wiping a chalkboard clean, Japeth slowly managed to ‘control his emotions’, as Rhian had said, although not without some effort. Sophie was disappointed, she’d been hoping that they’d kill each other.

  “Better?” Japeth spat through clenched teeth.

  “Extremely.”

[discjude]

If you ever catch me calling Aric "well written" I want you to know I am NOT talking about anything pre-TCY I am exclusively talking about the Real Thing. Rhian's death chapter being called Rhian And The Real Thing - which is where he's confronted with the fact that his brother will always choose Aric over him - suggests that the Real Thing refers to Aric and Japeth's love, or could just refer to "Aric" as the Real Thing. The chapter title and quote "flesh and blood" also links to that idea of something 'real', or tangible, Japeth only believes it's real if he can physically touch it, instead of being the illusion of Aric he creates briefly earlier in that chapter. But then you have the fact that that last quote isn't actually from Aric at all, it's from Tedros pretending to be Aric, which implies that everything that "Aric" says in F+B isn't real at all; he's "more real than the real thing", more of what Japeth convinced himself was there between the two of them than of Aric's actual feelings towards him.

There's two interpretations you can get from that, one being that there isn't a Real Thing, that what Japeth thinks was real is a delusion - the fake version of Aric being symbolic of that - and the fact that he only realises it's not actually him is because this Aric is willing to kiss him, and the real thing would never do that. So then the other interpretation is that Aric never loved Japeth - Tedros-As-Aric is "more real", more close to Japeth's idea of Aric than the actual guy, and so everything he says is likely exaggerated. It's possible that Tedros just played into Japeth's idea of Aric, rather than recreating what he knew he was like, since that would've definitely been more effective (and I mean. it worked for a while). The only thing we ever see from the real Aric about Japeth in the entirely of TCY is the letter in book 5, which pleads with Japeth to come and find him, but it never mentions love. The entire Real Thing analogy is genuinely one of my favourite parts of TCY (if anyone knows anywhere else where it comes up other than RATRT and F+B, PLEASE tell me) and is the sole reason why Aric is one of the most interesting characters to look at in TCY. Happy year of the snake everyone

[liketwoswansinbalance]

hi, do you have any takes/opinions or analysis of japeth? sorry if you've already posted something and i've missed it, i'm just eagerly hunting for japeth content 🫡🫡

I haven’t really done any substantial #japethposting, or anything exactly full-scale, but he has been a part of certain sections of some of the analyses I've done. You can find some of them by typing "#japeth" into the search bar of my blog. Or, if anyone wants me to, I could look for the links and send them to you. And, this overall precedent doesn’t mean I won’t possibly post about him in the future, potentially if/when I start my reread of The Camelot Years.

Generally speaking, I don't think I've paid enough attention to him to be able to analyze him in great depth. That said, I will redirect you to @discjude as she/they is/(are?) the Japeth expert, and her/their analyses are phenomenal! (Please tell me if I've gotten your pronouns wrong and sorry in advance if anything is wrong, Jude.)

Though, I will leave you with one meager headcanon: it seems unlikely, but if Japeth were musically-inclined, I think he’d play atypical instruments, like the serpent and the ophicleide because of course he would. Music could be his opportunity to rebel, defy what's expected of him, while also referencing his snake symbolism.

Here, you can listen to some orchestral performances involving these instruments. If you start the first of the videos around the timestamp 3:38 and listen to the end, you can hear the deeper, foreboding, lower-pitched parts and some tense, stringent parts that sound higher, like his Scims whirling, to my mind. There's a very obviously sinister "march" of sorts, with ghastly, winding, serpentine "movements," twists, and turns.

[ramikotorchwick]

7: What’s your strangest talent? 16: Simple but extremely complex. Favorite band? 20: What is your greatest weakness; your greatest strength? 21: Who is your celebrity crush? 27: What’s a sound you hate; sound you love? 49: Ever had a rumour spread about you? 60: Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you? 82: What is your favourite word?

7: What’s your strangest talent? Probably how well I can sing perfectly like Bode Japeth of the film Hoodwicked xD A less strange talent is that I'm so intelligent that I end up being pretty dumb most of the time (that's so Roman xD) 16: Simple but extremely complex. Favorite band? Caravan Palace, by far. They're a modern band that makes lots of Electro Swing in kinda of a retro style, and my favorite music is Lone Digger <3

20: What is your greatest weakness; your greatest strength? My greatest weakness is also my greatest strength: being in love with women On one hand, it makes me more idiot, emotional, afraid of mistakes; but on another hand, it's a fire of motivation that makes me care a lot more about myself, do things I wasn't doing, like the gasoline I was missing to live! It's a double-edged sword 21: Who is your celebrity crush? Actually I never had any celebrity crush. But if we could put fictional characters here, it'd be Marceline from Adventure Time. She's perfect in all meanings, except that she doesn't exists (or maybe I just don't have found her yet...) Here's a print of her in my favorite episode that she sings xD

27: What’s a sound you hate; sound you love? I hate when someone mimics a cry baby. I literally have the urge to slam my head in the nearest wall everytime someone does it!! I don't have it with actual babies, why tf I hate it so much?! Idk The sound I love the most is when I'm in love with someone and the person speak about their passions. In those 25 years it was something rare? Yes, but it's still my favorite sound... 49: Ever had a rumour spread about you? A main rumor maybe not, but my entire family is full of telling gossips about people when they go away, so maybe there's a lot. I sometimes suspect that my friends know and have the rumor of me being trans because in my old twitter account I just started acting like myself online and forgot/not realized that there was one friend added there, but that's just a thing that I ignore. 60: Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you? oh shit, it's write in american imperial! Ok, 3 meters... Yes, I have this. Idk why it is in my desk, but here it is: a deodorant!

82: What is your favourite word?

Question. It is what made me until today and what I ever do, question why the things are the way they are, seek for the deep meaning of the things, seek for knowledge and comprehension.

[promptuarium]

JAPHETH with his brother Shem received a blessing from their father, because they both covered his uncovered privates. Then Japeth begat seven sons. The first was Gomer, from whom came the Gomerites, later called Galatians by the Greeks. The second was Magog, from whom came the Magogae, named Scythians by the Greeks. The third was Madai, from whom came the Medes. The fourth was Javan, from whom came the Ionians. The fifth was Tubal, from whom came the Iberians, who are now called Spanish. The sixth was Meshech, from whom came the Meshechini, who were later called the Cappadocians. The seventh was Tiras, who was the first of those called Tirenses, who were later called Thracians by the Greeks. This is all the nations and peoples that began with Japheth. The rest about the three brothers Japheth, Shem, and Ham, who were born of Noah 100 years before the flood, we have already said above. See above.