#among the classics

[fan-is-short-for-fanatic]

33 years ago, we lost one of the best singer of all time. We miss you Freddie

[i-dreamed-i-had-a-son]

jon val jon or something

[bean-writes]

Dear Disney,

Just release these movies newly, without changing anything, and watch them blow up and be hailed as the best Disney movies of all time (because they are).

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Henryk Hektor Siemiradzki (Polish, 1843-1902) Dance among swords, Detail, 1881 Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

[corallapis]

[jeannereames]

This is something entirely random that I’ve been thinking of a lot, but what do you believe Hephaestion would think if Alexander had kids of his own while he was alive? Or even what he thought of his marriage? This probably isn’t something you have evidence for based on historical fact, obviously, save accounts of their bond and general characters. This is more asking for your personal opinions/beliefs. Or just on the characters themselves in your books.

I know he probably expected him to take wives and have heirs eventually, realistically. But if he truly loved Alexander that deeply, to the point they were thought two halves of the same whole, I always wondered what he may feel about it in those situations, or even how he’d interact with the children/Roxana or his other wives in general.

I dunno, it’s just something that’s always interested me. I know I would probably not be able to take it well, personally, so it’s always made me wonder if Hephaestion did.

Hephaistion, Alexander’s Wives, and Romantic Jealousy

Honestly, I’m of the opinion that Hephaistion may have been one of those who encouraged Alexander to marry Roxana (in order to get the hell out of Baktria).

The issue of Hephaistion’s putative jealousy which movie- and documentary-makers return to again and again, creating (to my mind unrealistic) love triangles, owes to some pretty vast differences between Now and Then, regarding marriage and love.

The Greeks got jealous. We have LOTS of evidence of such jealousy in everything from lyric poetry to curse tablets and love philtres. Furthermore, there was nothing remotely like concepts of “When they go low, we go high.” No, when they went low, you were expected to go lower.

Once more, I repeat the ancient maxim for GOOD men and women: Help your friends and hurt your enemies.

Hephaistion absolutely subscribed to that—both the historical man and my character. The historical man apparently made life difficult for Eumenes, at least. And he participated in the torture of Philotas (whether or not one thinks it justified). Near the end of his life, a high-ranking Macedonian official was so fearful of him (and Alexander), he begged his brother, a Seer, to sacrifice and read the omens—and for Hephaistion first. He feared him more.

He was not a man to cross. But notice who he had quarrels with: his equals (or close enough). If there’s any truth to a quarrel with Olympias (I’m dubious for reasons I’ll go into in the monograph), it involved her influence over Alexander versus his own.

Upper-class men and women in ancient Greece, and Macedonia, simply lived very separated lives. Returning to those curse tablets, the bulk of them that involve rivals involve rivals of the same sex. Women curse other women their husbands may be involved with. Men curse other men who they believe/fear their love interest (not always a wife) might favor. If we’re often unsure WHO these people are relative to each other, as we typically have only names, I’ve just not seen much cross-gender cursing, as least not about love. Now, there are literally tens of thousands of these, so I’m sure there are some, but it doesn’t seem to be common.

And I think the reason it’s not OWES to that very gender-segregated nature of Greek life. Women are threatened by other women—not by men. And men are certainly not threatened by women. These are two different spheres. When we do hear men complaining about another man’s obsession with so-and-so hetaira, it’s the SON (or father) who’s worried their love-drunk relative will squander all his money on her.

This is why Hephaistion as jealous of a “mere woman,” even a wife, strikes me as anachronistic—especially by that point in their lives. Maybe in the first flush, he could be jealous, and I do have him initially jealous of Kampaspe in Dancing with the Lion: Rise. But not only does he get over it, he winds up friends with her! (She’ll continue to be important throughout the series, in fact.) He simply needed to know she wasn’t going to replace him.

A wife isn’t going to replace him, especially not a wife married for diplomatic purposes, which is ALL Alexander’s wives, and even mistresses (including Barsine and arguably, Statiera). It would be the same thing with heirs. Hephaistion sure can’t give any to Alexander, so of course he needs Alexander’s wife to do that.

I think, if anything, Hephaistion would have wanted to be involved in helping raise Alexander’s sons/children…just as Alexander apparently intended to be involved with Hephaistion’s. That’s reportedly why he married Hephaistion to Drypetis, the younger sister of his own bride, Statiera (the younger): so their children would be cousins.

For elite classes, there are just a LOT more people involved in raising children than a nuclear family. Alexander’s (and Hephaistion’s) children would have had nurses, attendants, tutors, etc. There wouldn’t have been any expectation that Alexander would “settle down” with his wife and spend all his time with them, like a Macedonian Father Knows Best. Hee.

Hephaistion’s REAL rivals for Alexander’s affections would be competing Hetairoi who might want to muscle in and usurp his influence, or younger teen boys who caught Alexander’s eye, especially if he seemed to be getting too close to one. Pretty Euxinippos was more of a threat (and maybe why he was packed off with the Scythians as an ambassador, at least for a while) than Roxane.

As I’ve said many times, Hollywood really is missing out with Hephaistion when they have him fuming over Roxane (or Bagoas). SO, so much more mileage could be made of the rivalries AROUND Alexander among his top men. The whole Philotas-hatred thing…it’s *juicy*. Eumenes as a bit of a dick at the court, and Leonnatos’s meat-headed arrogance. Perdikkas and Ptolemy sassing at each other. Krateros and Hephaistion. Kassandros like a little weasel back in Macedon. Kleitos cussing at everyone for getting too Persian. There’s the fun stuff!

But that’s mostly not romantic. It’s still about love though: affection.

[lofan]

Missy, darling, can you be a little bit more precise? Which abandonment are you referring to?

The last one when you saved him and he left you on Gallifrey with Rassilon? The Cheetah planet? In the fire on Sarn? With pissed off Xeraphin? The Death Zone, twice? Is it the Castrovalva?? With Axos? THE ACADEMY, MAYBE???

[fanonical]

so there's this small crew on a spaceship, right? they get stuck in, and the ship is malfunctioning in weird ways. they have to work together to fix the ship, but there's possibly something else on the ship with them! and people suspect that this alien presence is inside one of them. the crew start acting suspicious and violent towards each other and accuse each other of sabotaging the ship and wanting to kill all the others

which is the plot of among us, but it is also the plot of the season one doctor who episode edge of destruction, and i think that is beautiful

[illgiveyouahint]

TOP FIRST-TIME WATCHES OF 2024 tagged by @gael-garcia thank you it's an honor <3 I've had a weird year with film watching but I did manage to catch up on some classics so...

Rules: Post 9 of your favorite films you saw for the first time this year that are not new (2023/2024) but are new to you, and tag 9 others to do the same.

Pictures of the Old World (1972🇨🇿), dir. Dušan Hanák Joyland (2022🇵🇰), dir. Saim Sadiq Where is the Friend's House? (1987🇮🇷), dir. Abbas Kiarostami The Double Life of Véronique (1991🇫🇷🇵🇱), dir. Krzysztof Kieślowski Higher Principle (1960🇨🇿), dir. Jiří Krejčík Taste of Cherry (1997🇮🇷), dir. Abbas Kiarostami Distant Journey (1949🇨🇿), dir. Alfréd Radok Perfect Blue (1997🇯🇵), dir. Satoshi Kon The Blue Caftan (2022🇲🇦), dir. Maryam Touzani

tagging @amirathaliasgf, @museofnightmare, @dangerliesbeforeyou, @mynameisnotthepoint, @kajepan, @therhythmismyblanket, @maggiesmith-teaparty, @liciapocalypse, @als-vuur

[dizzehdakillah]

GAMERSSS LOOK AT COOL SCHTUFF I GOT AT THE MALLLLLLLL FOR LIKE 100ISH BUCKS SOMEHOWW WOWOWOWOWOWOOWHAHWO

edit: THE GUN-I FORGOT ABOUT IT-BUT I DIDN'T BUY IT WITH THE OTHER STUFF, ITS A TOY I HAD FOR A WHILE THAT I FOUND WHILE DOING A MOVE SO I GAVE IT TO JAX BECAUSE WHO ELSE WOULD HAVE IT (dw i won't let him shoot anyone with it tho :D)

[metamorphesque]

1. The Flag of Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (under the Rubenid dynasty) 2. The Flag of Narnia (The Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis)

[vaguely-concerned]

I feel that during the first coffee date walk through the market, rye has a fraction of a millisecond's kneejerk trauma freakout of '...wait. wait. am I really catching feelings for a rich boy again. with how that went down last time. am I truly that stupid' (once derogatorily referred to quite openly at a party as 'young master anaxas' pet mortalitasi' to which the young master anaxas only grinned and shrugged and STILL you don't break up with his smug controlling ass for good for six more months because you have a desperate bottomless yearning pit where your self respect should go, twice shy lol). and then he actually looks at lucanis standing next to him getting harding spearmint to help with bad dreams and generally being so quietly thoughtful and sweet through the prosaic yet necessary medium of grocery shopping it makes me feel a little unwell to truly contemplate. and rye is like '*the softest fondest eyes anyone has ever turned on anything* ...you know what. I suspect we don't have to worry about that repeating, I think we're probably safe. I am comfortable being this level of stupid. (slowly dawning marital intent even at this stage)'.

(part of the reason rye buys NONE of illario's bullshit at all right from the beginning is that he's basically vaccinated against this exact type of dude after that relationship lol. charming suave guy who in the beginning pays you a lot of lavish attention and takes pains to make you feel special every time you're in a room with him -- but shallowly and mostly, it slowly dawns on you, when there's something he wants from you (and he's often doing it at the expense of someone else, raising you up to put someone else down and you won't believe this... it can turn into a seesaw at a whim. yay). and beneath that there's just a seething pit of resentment and inferiority complexes and bitterness left to fester until he can make it everyone else's problem and that IS going to start to bubble up between the cracks with you too if you stick around for long enough. no thank you been there done that wasted my youth and potential on it and all I got was this lousy shiny set of new emotional intimacy issues haunting me for life! trust me illario I HAVE, as it were, chosen the wrong dellamorte before, which is exactly how I know I didn't this time. go get him lucanis I've got your coffee

hilarious mental image: rye and illario sitting quietly together while everyone else is busy milling about during a cursed dellamorte family dinner (the vibes are so bad. you know the vibes are bad. sitting as still as you can and hoping for calm skies is your best bet without lucanis or teia favourite child privileges to work with) and rye out of the blue gazing thoughtfully into nothing over the edge of his glass with half-lidded eyes to go 'you know. you remind me a lot of my ex. not in a good way' and illario with absolutely no shame and hilariously also something that's the closest he ever gets to real sympathy going 'yeah, I get that a lot'. best talk those two ever had, unironically. their bond leveled up to its final form that day. *soulsborne boss defeated text* MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING REACHED)

[class-of-classic-blog]

I need to talk about Ophelia Ella before she became Cinderella.

Ophelia was not like other princesses even thou she had a happily ever after like others. She likes cooking, cleaning, gardening and sewing her own clothes. Everything other royals would call "servant work", but she took great pride in her own hard work.

She also had a lot of fears regarding her destiny, but she couldn't tell anyone because even her close friends praised it and couldn't wait for them to start. Was she really ready for it? Was she really ready to lose her mother? What kind of prince will hers be? What if he doesn't like her hobbies and her interests? What if he is a traditional prince and would stop her from cooking, cleaning and gardening because that's 'not what proper princess do"? What if he doesn't love her and only marries her for destiny and crown? Could she live in a loveless marriage? And what about her future child? Is she willing to die and not watch them live their life past teenage years?

Louis Charming. That was her destined prince. From some minor Charming family. They didn't know each other before legacy day, but they both agreed to take it slow, first being friends.

First, they would have short conversations about general things at lunch and between classes. Then they would from time to time go together for a coffee, to get to know each other better. After that, they started going to the library together to do homework and study. Sometimes they would just be in the garden together not saying a word, Ophelia doing her gardening, and Louis reading a book. Just feeling the presence of each other was enough. Nothing romantic yet, just platonic for start.

Then he started bringing her gifts. Nothing big, just some simple thing things she liked. Her favorite flowers, favorite chocolate, new tools for the garden, and a pretty embroidery set. Small things that she appreciated. And she started giving him some small gifts. Books he liked, his favorite childhood dish, embroidering his new cape and gloves with things he likes. They started spending more time together. Having breakfast together in the garden, walking trought woods, going horse riding, dancing together at night knowing they're alone.

They were falling in love slowly but deeply. Their love was simple and quiet. They understand each other the way no one else could. And Ophelia wasn't scared anymore.

That's until she held her daughter crying in her arms about how she rebelled and fell in love with a boy named Hunter Huntsman, who was not her destined prince, and how she was scared of destiny. That's when she remembered her scared and lonely teenage self.

She couldn't put her daughter through that, she loves her little girl too much for that. Ophelia knows that many of her friends would not approve of her choice, especially a certain queen. But she's ready to burn all bridges with Snow White for her daughter.

[the--highlanders]

being in the classic who fandom for literal years on end is so wild bc like. so many memes have risen and fallen. do you guys still know about total eclipse of the nimon

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Henryk Hektor Siemiradzki (Polish, 1843-1902) Dance among swords, 1881 Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

[ferrarisbabygirl]

brown haired qualifying geniusses and their respective halos