#facts about queen nefertiti

[nghtingaleoasis]

"The Stunning and Mysterious Queen Nefertiti: Unveiling Her Legacy"

Queen Nefertiti, one of ancient Egypt's most iconic and influential figures, continues to captivate historians and archaeologists alike with her stunning beauty and mysterious legacy.

Known for her striking features and elegant bust, Nefertiti was the wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten and played a significant role in the religious and artistic revolution of the Amarna period.

Despite her prominent position in history, much about Nefertiti remains shrouded in mystery, leaving scholars to piece together her life and determine her true impact on Egyptian society…

[amuseoffyre]

"There's a trick they do with three playing cards which is very hard to follow."

Ended up veering wildly into speculative thoughts lying in bed last night and the fact that S1 begins with a celestial game of Find the Baby.

In S2, Aziraphale is very proud of the fact that he fooled Nefertiti (ie. a Queen/significant and powerful figurehead) with three cowrie shells and a lone caraway seed. So we know he's very good at Find the Lady to the point he can fool a powerful ruler. But as Crowley said "That stuff is more for close quarters".

And then we have the significance of the Second Coming. According to various prophets and lore and suchlike, Jesus will come again, much like the Antichrist came in S1. Aziraphale holds all those prophecy books. We know this because he has signed editions, including the scroll of St. John of Patmos (aka the author of the book of Revelations ie. THE text about the Second Coming). He also knows full well that Armageddon 1.0 went completely tits up because "wrong boy".

And the season ends with Aziraphale in close quarters to a powerful figure who has underestimated him and presumes to know what he's about. He has also seen how the delivery of a designated Person who is to Begin Armageddon can go wrong.

Watch carefully. Round and round they go.

[memecucker]

The family tree of humanity is much more interconnected than we tend to think. “We’re culturally bound and psychologically conditioned to not think about ancestry in very broad terms,” Rutherford says. Genealogists can only focus on one branch of a family tree at a time, making it easy to forget how many forebears each of us has.

Imagine counting all your ancestors as you trace your family tree back in time. In the nth generation before the present, your family tree has 2n slots: two for parents, four for grandparents, eight for great-grandparents, and so on. The number of slots grows exponentially. By the 33rd generation—about 800 to 1,000 years ago—you have more than eight billion of them. That is more than the number of people alive today, and it is certainly a much larger figure than the world population a millennium ago.

This seeming paradox has a simple resolution: “Branches of your family tree don’t consistently diverge,” Rutherford says. Instead “they begin to loop back into each other.” As a result, many of your ancestors occupy multiple slots in your family tree. For example, “your great-great-great-great-great-grandmother might have also been your great-great-great-great-aunt,” he explains.

The consequence of humanity being “incredibly inbred” is that we are all related much more closely than our intuition suggests, Rutherford says. Take, for instance, the last person from whom everyone on the planet today is descended. In 2004 mathematical modeling and computer simulations by a group of statisticians led by Douglas Rohde, then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, indicated that our most recent common ancestor probably lived no earlier than 1400 B.C. and possibly as recently as A.D. 55. In the time of Egypt’s Queen Nefertiti, someone from whom we are all descended was likely alive somewhere in the world.

Go back a bit further, and you reach a date when our family trees share not just one ancestor in common but every ancestor in common. At this date, called the genetic isopoint, the family trees of any two people on the earth now, no matter how distantly related they seem, trace back to the same set of individuals. “If you were alive at the genetic isopoint, then you are the ancestor of either everyone alive today or no one alive today,” Rutherford says. Humans left Africa and began dispersing throughout the world at least 120,000 years ago, but the genetic isopoint occurred much more recently—somewhere between 5300 and 2200 B.C., according to Rohde’s calculations.

At first glance, these dates may seem much too recent to account for long-isolated Indigenous communities in South America and elsewhere. But “genetic information spreads rapidly through generational time,” Rutherford explains. Beginning in 1492, “you begin to see the European genes flowing in every direction until our estimates are that there are no people in South America today who don’t have European ancestry.”

In fact, even more recent than the global genetic isopoint is the one for people with recent European ancestry. Researchers using genomic data place the latter date around A.D. 1000. So Christopher Lee’s royal lineage is unexceptional: because Charlemagne lived before the isopoint and has living descendants, everyone with European ancestry is directly descended from him. In a similar vein, nearly everyone with Jewish ancestry, whether Ashkenazic or Sephardic, has ancestors who were expelled from Spain beginning in 1492. “It’s a very nice example of a small world but looking to the past,” says Susanna Manrubia, a theoretical evolutionary biologist at the Spanish National Center for Biotechnology.

Not everyone of European ancestry carries genes passed down by Charlemagne, however. Nor does every Jew carry genes from their Sephardic ancestors expelled from Spain. People are more closely related genealogically than genetically for a simple mathematical reason: a given gene is passed down to a child by only one parent, not both. In a simple statistical model, Manrubia and her colleagues showed that the average number of generations separating two random present-day individuals from a common genealogical ancestor depends on the logarithm of the relevant population’s size. For large populations, this number is much smaller than the population size itself because the number of possible genealogical connections between individuals doubles with each preceding generation. By contrast, the average number of generations separating two random present-day individuals from a common genetic ancestor is linearly proportional to the population size because each gene can be traced through only one line of a person’s family tree. Although Manrubia’s model unrealistically assumed the population size did not change with time, the results still apply in the real world, she says.

Because of the random reshuffling of genes in each successive generation, some of your ancestors contribute disproportionately to your genome, while others contribute nothing at all. According to calculations by geneticist Graham Coop of the University of California, Davis, you carry genes from fewer than half of your forebears from 11 generations back. Still, all the genes present in today’s human population can be traced to the people alive at the genetic isopoint. “If you are interested in what your ancestors have contributed to the present time, you have to look at the population of all the people that coexist with you,” Manrubia says. “All of them carry the genes of your ancestors because we share the [same] ancestors.”

And because the genetic isopoint occurred so recently, Rutherford says, “in relation to race, it absolutely, categorically demolishes the idea of lineage purity.” No person has forebears from just one ethnic background or region of the world. And your genealogical connections to the entire globe mean that not too long ago your ancestors were involved in every event in world history.

[antiquitiesandlabyrinths]

Nefretiti

Neferneferuaten Nefertiti, or Nofretiti, (14th century BC; 18th dynasty, New Kingdom) is perhaps best well known for her bust, which has become world famous for its' uniqueness and craftsmanship. But Nefertiti played a role in one of the most controversial eras of Egyptian history. She is one of the most well-recorded Queens of ancient Egypt, but very little is known about her actual life besides conjecture.

Let's start with dissecting her name. Most people will divide her name up into the words Nefer and Titi; Nefer being a common word in ancient Egypt meaning beauty and goodness. In actuality, her name is divided up as neferet - iiti, more classically transliterated as Nfr.t-jy.tj. The t belongs to nefer as it is the denomination of a female pronoun in the ancient Egyptian language, and the jy.tj means coming or has come. All together, her name means The Beautiful One Has Come.

Nefertiti is indeed beautiful; she is, as mentioned earlier, one of the most depicted Queens of Egyptian history, with her image appearing on a great number of walls, in carvings and in paintings, and of course, statues. The reason for this is partly due to her marriage to the Heretic Pharaoh, Akhenaten. To understand this connection a little better, one must have some background about the Pharaoh Akhenaten.

Akhenaten and Nefertiti were married close to when Akhenaten was coronated, which was for him around the age of 16 or 18, and for Nefertiti was around the age of 12 to 16. Akhenaten is fairly well known Pharaoh. His controversial history has made sure of that, despite the fact that after he died, the following Pharaohs did everything in their power to rid Egypt of his memory by destroying his city and erasing all images of him. Akhenaten started off as Amenhotep IV––a name which connects him to the Egyptian God Amun, often associated with the sun, but representing hiddenness, and one of the highest and most powerful Gods of Egypt. The cult of Amun at the time of the New Kingdom was perhaps the most widespread cult of worship in Egypt, and the 18th dynasty, to which the Pharaoh Amenhotep IV belongs, is the first dynasty of the New Kingdom.

This was, apparently, unsatisfactory for the Pharaoh Amenhotep IV. Still, for the first 5 years of his reign, he followed Amun's cult, until he made a dramatic religious change to worship of the Aten; a new God that represented the sun disc. Aten was a faceless God, and the first mention of the word aten was in the Old Kingdom, and back then, it meant 'disc'. While Aten was worshipped as a mere aspect of Ra, the Sun God, in Amenhopte IV's father's (Amenhotep III) reign, Amenhotep IV decided that the Aten should be the primary deity worshipped. Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten, and worshipped the Aten above all else, as the nurturer of the world, the creator, and the giver of life. This would've likely been fine; however, Akhenaten decided that the Aten should be the only God worshipped, and banned the worship of all other Gods.

Ancient Egypt had been polytheistic since it's very earliest beginnings. Akhenaten essentially introduced monotheism out of nowhere and insisted all his subjects follow him in his new faith, outlawing all other worships, and forcing many priests to abandon the temples of other Gods. Additionally, ancient Egyptians were very accustomed to using an image to worship a God; the image usually being an animal, human, or an animal-headed human. But the Aten was a disc. Although the Aten had been worshipped in Amenhotep III's reign as a falcon-headed solar deity, Akhenaten insisted that the Aten be only shown as a disc with rays reaching out, with small hands on each ray.

Obviously, this caused a lot of dissent in Egypt and the following reigns.

Another interesting point of contention was the fashion in which the Aten interacted with the royal family. In the past, the Pharaoh was connected to the Gods more than any other human––he was the bridge between the two worlds, and the mediator between humanity and the Gods. This was, generally, not a task shared by the whole of the royal family. But in Atenism, the Aten would only shine its life-giving rays onto the Pharaoh and his royal wife; in this case, Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Thus the people, if they wanted to experience the life and love of the only, legally worshippable God, would have to go through the Pharaoh and his wife. This power would've likely, at least in part, been given to the royal family in order to cement their changes, and protect them from any backlash.

This massive change in culture and religion had great affects on ancient Egypt at the time. The style of ancient Egyptian art changed drastically, and the figures of the royal family were now represented as sinuous and gangly, often with large, sagging bellies and breasts, and curved, graceful facial features. Since Akhenaten and Nefertiti, as the royal family, were so important to this new religion of Atenism, the two of them were depicted in a number of scenes––many of them unique to the Amarna period, which is the name for the period in which Atenism was installed. These scenes were familial in nature; depicting the royal couple sitting with their children and bathing in Aten's life-light, throwing gifts down to the people, and engaging with one another. This is one of the main reasons that Nefertiti is the most widely-depicted Queen of Egypt. Not only is she depicted often as the wife of Akhenaten, but she is drawn in her own right––she makes offerings to the Aten on her own, and there are depictions of her smiting the enemies of Egypt, which is a role traditionally given solely to the Pharaoh.

Another piece of evidence for the high status of Nefertiti comes from this famous depiction of the royal Amarna family:

Here, Nefertiti sits on the right side, opposite her husband, Akhenaten. Akhenaten is holding up one of his children, and Nefertiti holds another two children; three of the six daughters that Nefertiti would bear for Akhenaten. The children are depicted in an almost grotesque, alien fashion, though it's not something you can really fault the artists for; it took a long time for artists across the world to realize that babies are not, in fact, just tiny humans, and that their proportions are different. Still, the style of the Amarna period is not helpful; with their large, oval heads, thin limbs, and sagging stomachs, it is difficult to imagine that anyone could be traditionally, Egyptian beautiful. Yet there is still a strange beauty to it; the sagging bellies are meant to call to mind Hapi, a God of great fertility, and the artist's ability to capture the facial features and emotions of their subject is amplified by this new and forgiving artstyle.

This image is a house altar. What that means is that people were encouraged, and evidentially did, worship the royal family in their homes, which is somewhat unprecedented. House altars were usually for Gods such as Tawaret and Bes, who were protectors of the household. But now, with traditional Egyptian religion banned, the typical house altar was now a shrine to Akhenaten and Nefertiti, and by extension, their children, which again shows the importance and power bestowed upon not just the Pharaoh, but his wife as well, as the two are represented in equal size.

Another interesting note about this particular house altar is the thrones on which Akhenaten and Nefertiti are seated. While Akhenaten's seat is mostly blank, Nefertiti is seated upon a throne reserved only for Pharaohs, the reason for this being the decorations which depict the Sema-Tawy ritual; the conjoining of the two lands.

Some time during the course of Akhenaten's reign, he decided to move the capital of Egypt to a deserted stretch of land along the Nile Valley, and called the new city Amarna, for which the period was named after. Here, the royal family took up residence, and this is where the cult center of the Aten would carry out its worship. This is also where Akhenaten royally screwed up his duties in foreign diplomacy, but that is a story for another day.

Before moving to Amarna, Nefertiti had three daughters in Thebes, the previous capital, and three more daughters in Amarna. In order, her daughter's names were Meritaten, Meketaten, and Ankhesenpaaten; then in Amarna, Neferneferuaten Tasherit, Neferneferure, and the youngest, Setepenre. It was to a lesser wife of Akhenaten's that the famous boy Pharaoh Tutankhamun was born, and originally, his name was Tutankhaten.

During his reign, when concerning Nefertiti, Akhenaten placed special attention upon her and loved her dearly, which is why she was one of the most powerful Queens of Egypt. Akhenaten described her as "possessed of charm" and "sweet of love", that "one is happy to hear her voice," and that "contents the Aten with her sweet voice". The two husband and wife were rarely depicted separately, and Akhenaten gave Nefertiti the title of 'heiress', although she was not the daughter of a King. Instead, what many scholars believe Akhenaten meant by this, was that she was to be his successor.

After Akhenaten's death, two Pharaohs ruled for a short time before Tutankhamun took over, and one of those Pharaohs is believed to have possibly been Nefertiti under the name of Neferneferuaten, which means beautiful is the beauty of the Aten. It is still debated whether this was in fact Nefertiti, but given that Nefertiti had given herself the name Neferneferuaten far before Akhenaten's death, and the elvated status gifted by her husband, it seems somewhat likely.

In essence, due to the circumstances of her life and her husband, Nefertiti was elevated to a status that never came before or after her life. Women in ancient Egypt were awarded the same rights as a man, but the wife of the Pharaoh was never depicted as equal to the Pharaoh in such a fashion, as being Pharaoh meant being the intermediary between the heavenly and the earthly, and was a special accorded honour. Nefertiti, perhaps due in part to her charisma and beauty, was given a position equal to the Pharaoh, which never happened unless it was a woman who was becoming Pharaoh. As controversial as Akhenaten's reign was, he did love his wife greatly.

I want to share my opinion on this subject a little, which is essentially to say, that I don't like Akhenaten and I don't try to hide it. His worship of the Aten is alright, but it is the banning of all other worship which rests very uneasily in me. That being said, there is a good source which goes more into detail about Nefertiti, and it is very pro-Akhenaten and anti-ancient Egyptian religion, instead glorifying the monotheism of Atenism and such. Still, it is a valuable resource; Nefertiti and Cleopatra: Queen-monarchs of Ancient Egypt, by Julia Samson, and can be found on Internet Archive here.

[depressed-fanperson]

Ok so here is my theories for Good Omens season 3

☑️More Angel Crowley flashbacks (possibly his status/name as an angel unveiled[and here are my theories on that])

☑️ “Love of My Life” by Queen as Crowley proceeds to, as Castiel put it, “I found a liquor shop. I drank it.”

☑️ Aziraphale fumbling around kinda in heaven. Like he’s just kinda really awkward up there and doesn’t really know how to do things or he just changes things to have like a couch or something idk

☑️ Muriel in the bookshop (not really a theory so much as a hope) Also Muriel finally changes her clothes (I will cry if she’s still in that all white uniform even I have limits)

☑️ Crowley going to Nina and saying “Give me Death”

☑️ The Bentley acting sad/this AMAZING post

☑️ Another kiss? Maybe? Hopefully?

☑️ a happy ending

☑️ 1941 (and possibly even more apology dances) Edit: ok so I saw this post that made me realize that 1941 was the Nazi scene and that’s probably why Aziraphale did the apology dance after the whole zombie thing but I still believe that Aziraphale is gonna do an apology dance in season 3 I feel it in my rib cage

☑️ ARCHANGEL AZIRAPHALE WITH BEARD???

☑️ this post by @ineffable-cliffhangers

☑️ I am desperately hoping for this post by @feathered-serpents to happen

☑️ scenes with Aziraphale in Heaven that make you cringe with second hand embarrassment(not in a negative way more in a ‘you’re amazing and I treasure you but please don’t do that’ way)

☑️ ok but you know how Aziraphale does a super accurate drawing of Gabriel? What if he does a bunch of drawings of Crowley in heaven because he misses him so much

☑️ In season 1 we see a lot of Earth (obviously) and In season 2 we see plenty of Hell, but only a sneak peak of Heaven, so we’re definitely going to see more of Heaven, especially with Aziraphale being supreme Archangel there’s finally a reason to.

☑️what happened in Edinburgh when Crowley went to Hell?

☑️Aziraphale claims to have fooled Nefertiti, and mentions several times all the magic classes he’s been to, so maybe more history of Aziraphale and magic?

☑️ Aziraphale actually TELLING or Crowley somehow finding out that Aziraphale loves his eyes.

☑️14th Century???

☑Another reference to that 'lovely Chinese fellow' who ended up 6 feet under. I feel it in my bones.

☑️In the Shakespeare scene Crowley mentions that they’ve done the Arrangement “dozens of times before.”, so probably something in between then.

☑️God is gonna come back for narration God will come back I know she will because in s2 they were figuratively leaving the Garden and now that Azi is going back (😢) we will see more of her.

☑️CROWLEY STOPPING HIMSELF FROM CALLING AZI ANGEL

☑️Roof top scene, I swear to god there better be a roof top scene

☑️The big plane, with Jesus, and the security agents/angels; the 2nd coming. This is basically confirmed lol but I have a strong feeling that one of the Christian Big 3 will be there. (God, Jesus, Satan)

☑️In the scene where they're talking about guns and Aziraphale said that they "lends weight to a moral argument; I think.", and then Crowley snickers. He's laughing when Aziraphale says 'moral argument' and mutters it under his breath and starts walking away and Aziraphale is slightly annoyed/embarrassed and I'm sry I've started reading into everything I feel like it might have some sort of connection.

I’m going to save this and maybe add to it as time goes on then come back and fill in any checks that were right. If I’m basing any of these theories on incorrect facts or you’re confused on some of them please tell me and I’d be happy to make the corrections and further explain:).

[variousqueerthings]

And I’ve been flouting the principle of my people ever since

FINAL EPISODE FINAL EPISODE FINAL!!!!! "Time Of The Doctor," let's do it: it's ASDA's Own Brand "Parting Of The Ways"

sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 4/10

sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored, or given agency to her emotional interiority): 2/10

interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 3/10

furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 4/10

companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 3/10

the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 3/10

doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 5/10

isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 4/10

internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 4/10

Politics (how conservative is the story): 4/10

FULL RATING: 36/100 (if I can count….)

CONGRATULATIONS! ELEVEN'S RUN HAS ENDED ON THE OFFICIALLY LOWEST RATED EPISODE BASED ON THESE CRITERIA OF THE ENTIRE RUN!

Now there's a saying that goes something along the lines of being Bad is not bad. Boring is bad

well this episode is Bad and Boring. but at least the music is great!

OBJECTIFICATION: there's a woman who's the high priest of a religious organisation (it's in fact the religious organisation that filters back in time and causes all the trouble for the Eleventh Doctor this whole era) and guess what????

she's sexy

shocking, really. she's the amalgamation of the River Song/Queen Liz The Tenth/Nefertiti with a sprinkle of Irene Adler Bullshit given one last Hurrah!

genuinely she's meant to be at the centre for quite a complex arc of powerful leader with whom the Doctor has an uneasy alliance to years long antagonism with a dash of strange friendship to sticking up for one another at the last Conflict, and all I can tell you about her is that she is sexy, allegedly

OH also that she's apparently a psychopath too

there's also non-consensual kissing, which I've opted to put in the "sexiness" category, but belongs just as much here!

PLOT-POINT: Clara calls the Doctor to be her pretend boyfriend for Christmas (at least she has a family, and while we've not properly met them before now outside of her dead mum in flashbacks, I can buy these people in this estate!)

and from there Clara's feelings about things is uh. The Doctor is great and please don't leave me behind, which the Doctor does... twice!

but this is no Parting Of The Ways/Dooms Day big dramatic event -- Clara is not the focal point here, or her emotions about her life and what it means to be whisked away from it on these adventures, no matter how dangerous, or how it affects her relationship with just-met family, or anything to do with class or feelings of self-worth or or or... no nonoooo what this episode suggests is that she fancies the Doctor

and she has another similar Moment to Parting Of The Ways in which the Doctor changes in front of her (the big emotional moment is with a hallucinated Amy Pond, Clara is kind of just... also there), and she asks him not to, even though to her, as far as I've seen this season, the Doctor is a really good mate, whom she already knows regenerates, because she's seen all 11 of their lives, so where is this emotion coming from? Idk, I guess because she thinks Eleven is hot, or something, that's all I can come up with. general human angst about things not being the same? whatever it is, it's not grounded in anything character-based that I've seen

the point is that things happen and she does some things but none of this is about her and she could as well not be in this story

COMPLEXITY: ARGH okay so me calling this Parting Of The Ways redux -- the Doctor lands on Trenzalore (without knowing it's Trenzalore?) after a bunch of pointless buildup that is way too similar to Pandorica Opens and once again gathers the greatest hits of Daleks, Cybermen and... Slitheen (this has happened twice, does M*ffat know the Slitheen are a family and not a species? gosh I'm getting pedantic now, but you ain't seen nothing yet, because I've just watched all of Eleven's era and had to suffer through things that could have been good but instead were.... this!)

and other species, Sontaran uh... oh Angels at the beginning and... just take my word for it, other species. because there's a Signal, and the Signal is beaming out a Question, and the Question is... it's still Doctor Who, that's still The Question, which the Answer is a Code Word that will bring back the Time Lords from where they're hiding. so many things are Capitalised, because everything is given Capital Importance All The Time

Anyway, this is all centred on a... town called Christmas. because it's a Christmas episode. we're really going to have to get into some cultural Christianity type judgement at this point I feel, although I do acknowledge this isn't a M*ffat fault so much as the fact that there is a Christmas special. one day the Doctor is going to travel with someone who's idk. Jewish. Hindu. Muslim. Druze. Sikh. Take your pick

I do think M*ffat is worse than RTD for inserting Christmas as this all-important Universal Type Thing, whereas at least in Christmas Invasion it was just like... we're celebrating a local family's Christmas traditions. Runaway Bride? fucking hate Christmas. Titanic episode a bit shakier, but makes fun of Christmas, which I enjoyed

eh The Next Doctor... shakier. anyway, it's shaky, where was I?

A TOWN CALLED CHRISTMAS! where you can only tell the truth, which will not matter at all to the plot, I think? unless I missed something massive while yelling NO STOP FUCKING WHAT???? at the screen

and the Doctor and all these species enter into a several hundred years long stalemate, where the Doctor allegedly can't leave because... they'll bomb it to get rid of the signal that indicates where the Doctor must answer the Question to bring back the Time Lords I think? and then the people of Christmas will die

and they can't invade Christmas because the Doctor is single-handedly defending it, which the Doctor can do now I guess

but then at the end the Doctor can't because he's old and it's been hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years in this frankly boring as fuck town that never changes and has zero personality, and the Daleks invade, and then Doctor regenerates (he was afraid he couldn't because due to technicalities this is the last regeneration, except we know it's not -- not mad at that, I get it, give it some emotion, makes sense) and uses the energy to just blow up all the Daleks

IIII am not convinced that regeneration energy can blow up all the Dalek ships, dunno... but it's not the stupidest part of this episode, which is really just the Doctor's whole *waves hands* Thing about this town that needs to be this way because the Plot Demands It and the surrounding aliens and the Doctor is so very interesting and powerful and rather than dig into the plot, we have a Voice Over giving quick explanations to tie us in from one scene to the next

I'm not sure we ever find out who that is? but M*ffat LOVES a Voice Over, almost as much as he likes a not-so-cryptic mysterious prophecy wrapped in a simple rhyming sche- OH YEAH WE GET THAT TOO

If I'd known to count these from the beginning I would have done so, because frankly it turned out to be one of my biggest pet peeves of the era. why is this thing happening? oh see, there was a prophetic Rhyme said at some point by any rando so it's gotta, sorry. Prophetic Rhymes. gotta Prophecy, because it's in a rhyme that could have been put together by a five year old, that's how you know it's extra Prophetic

anyway then the Crack In The Wall/Universe reappears in this place and is just vibing with the Doctor for all these years, and at the end Clara kneels down next to it and asks it to... save? the Doctor... I've gotta be honest I must have faded out at that point, because I cannot remember if it's explained

. how does Clara come up with the idea to do this?/what is her connection to the crack in the wall that she'd think it was sentient or even that important to events or idk... capable of doing what it later does?

. how does it become sentient??

. uh what does it do other than be kind of spooky and suck up a few daleks?

. where does it go?

. why was it there?

OH and the Daleks infiltrate that Religious Organisation and take over all of them/turn them into the human Daleks we saw back in Asylum and it's... idk whatever, I never cared about this organisation (but we'll get to that)

and then the Doctor regenerates into Peter Capaldi

the point is, I couldn't help but think of Nine's final episode, staying behind to protect the earth, as every character we met in this two-parter has died doing the same. in this episode Eleven stays to protect... some people in some place who have no real character other than as reflecting onto the Doctor. Rose and Clara are both sent away, and both come back, but for Clara that's not part of her arc, it's just that she arrives at key moments to witness the Doctor Doing Stuff

all of the emotional weight behind Parting Of The Ways is superficially recreated in this story, right down to big old Massive Dalek Spooky Voice, which I think epitomises M*ffat's writing. stay on the surface and it'll feel epic and big and complex and like it's emotionally doing something and going somewhere, look at it the tiniest bit closer and it's just... Flash Scene after Flash Scene

CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: And then the Doctor regenerates into Peter Capaldi. nothing else important happens in this episode. Clara and the Eleventh Doctor end statically (no real Anger anger about being abandoned twice, it's a short little argument and then they hug the first time and the second she's just... there at the end)

no new info really on the Time Lords/Gallifrey. the name being a Code Word might be new actually

um. Christmas is just some place at the end, why is it safe now?

COMPANIONS MATTER: Sorry Clara you got pulled into the Bullshit of a patented M*ffat finale episode

“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurgh the Doctor can single-handedly hold off fleets of Daleks, Cybermen, Angels, Sontarans...... Slitheen... I guess... etcetc... and yes they can't bomb the place from orbit, but wow what a way to render all of the main players in DW as apparently utterly boring when up against specialist boy of all time

also the episode cloaks itself in so much grandeur (the most successful layer of which is of course Murray Gold's score), and so much alleged mystery and Oh The Doctor Is So Interesting for a story in which, I cannot stress enough, despite my large write-up above, Barely anything happens!

back into pedantic mode but having just watched Eleven's whole era, which had a few great episodes, a bunch of mediocre ones, and wahaaay too many absolutely unwatchable ones, I find the speech at the end to be entirely too meta self-aggrandising. what are the important things about Eleven, what do we take away? that it was all super awesome and "I'll never forget when the Doctor was me" said straight at the camera -- I'm shocked he didn't wink

yes, Nine had "you were fantastic and so was I" (paraphrased I know), and Ten had "I don't want to go," but it's based in what's been going on with the characters up until that point in various ways, and also wasn't preluded by seasons of narrative that made you want to claw your brains out, so that a line about not wanting to forget a single moment makes you go "actually I'd be happy to forget a fair bit"

this probably feels different if one really enjoyed this Era outside of select episodes, but since I have sooo much baggage tied into it and it hasn't mysteriously improved upon rewatch, it makes me want to shake M*ffat by the scruff of his neck

PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: mmmm as far as I'm aware there's barely anything here, apart from youknow. Daleks and Cybermen and a throwaway about TenToo being down to "vanity issues" which I can take, because the Doctor often trivialises things in order not to discuss them

I guess all the callbacks were for Day Of The Doctor, but still. kind of an oddly connectionless regeneration episode. it's your last Hurrah and it's tying up all of M*ffat's loose ends unsatisfactorily and in a rush before getting the heck outta dodge (because who cared about this town where the whole thing is set, really???)

oh and "reverse the polarity"

“SEXINESS”: OHHHHHHH WELL YOU SEE! YOU REMEMBER! that woman I mentioned who's the allegedly mysteeeerious powerful leader of the Religious Organisation?

well she just can't resist the sexy sexy Doctor. her introduction scene includes all of this within idk. ten seconds: Hey babes. New body, give us a twirl. Nice though. Tight.

it is important to note that although the audience can't see it, the Doctor is technically naked when she says these things, because there's a pointless plotline where they have to briefly beam onto the planet and can't bring anything with them, including clothes, so they... hologram them on???

the Doctor also does this in front of Clara's family who all see him naked and don't really interact with this beyond grandmother being visibly into it, and Clara pushing the Doctor into the kitchen and saying "he's Swedish"

also actually, in the beginning of the episode Clara calls asking the Doctor to "be her boyfriend" (omitting the word "pretend" by accident) and he responds by going "Ding Dong"

it's just... really M*ffat's Greatest Hits

I wrote the words WHY IS THIS BEING SEXY??? AGAIN???? several times in my notes, including one bit where he insults Religious Lady enough to make her angry enough to reverse her Dalek brainwashing/death... whatever just to slap him (I think this also doubles as a sexist moment, because the Doctor starts the insulting by pointing at Clara and going that is a Woman! meaning Clara is just representing People better by not being cowardly, but like... why frame it like that, when there's been all this badly-written non-tension between you two), at which point he grabs her and dip-kisses her without her consent

Religious Lady, winded: Kiss me when I ask The Doctor: Well you’d better ask nicely

she smiles, clearly kind of turned on by that bit of misogyny

oh so sexy

INTERNAL WORLD: Town called Christmas? Nonsense, no personality, nothing. Big Religious Organisation that engineered the whole set of events of this era? as bland and boring as when we met them back in s6 (seriously what do they stand for, I still don't know who they are in any meaningful way). Clara's family? yeah I'll give it that, she has a family, which is, again, more than can be said for Amy

POLITICS: I've already done my Christmas Spiel. the other thing is something I said in the review for the last episode, which is that "ordinary" people don't matter. the people of Christmas, Clara, her family, they're just set-dressing for the really Important people (Big Religious Organisation, Dalek Commanders, The Doctor) to do their Important People Things

how do they feel about it? what part of the story do they affect? why do we care about these people?

no, the important thing about this story is apparently the Gods, the Military, the Religious Institutions, who also aren't represented by ordinary people for that matter, but by their Structures and the Leaders Who Uphold them... as practically Inhuman

FULL RATING: 36/100 (if I can count….)

listen... Capaldi is here. and yes, he starts underground in terms of the bar and has to claw his way up, but I know he does it!

meanwhile what can I say about the end of an era?

there were some good'uns. we'll get to that on a bigger summing up, but I will not lie, they were there. not... when M*ffat was writing

it was around this time (actually earlier s7) that I stopped watching, and I'm glad I did, because I can watch it now and enjoy the good without taking the bad so much to my very emotional teenage heart

this episode shouldn't exist, if I'm being honest. they should have ended Eleven's run in the 50th Anniversary, which, while very very flawed, was at least suitably actually epic and is the episode that sets up a lot of the next arcs

the most I can say for this is that it leaves behind a lot of the baggage of s5-7 -- not tying it up suitably, but at least ending it. don't need to care about cracks in walls, the silence and their weird cult, Trenzalore, or The Question... at least I bloody hope not!

[unsoundedcomic]

I've been enjoying a lot seeing Maha around, I feel like older ladies aren't allowed to look cool often, specially if they're taking less violent roles. Is there any fun or interesting fact about her design you have to share?

I always wanted her to look culturally unique. I didn't want her to bring to mind any queens from our world, not Victoria, not Nefertiti, not Catherine, no one. She's Sonorie of Cresce.

I also wanted a certain warmth to her, and I wanted to get that from letting her look a little ridiculous. So I gave her those goofy shorts she was wearing in her first appearance, and her fascination with the flowery doggos, and her current ham hair. Like Duane, I wanted to tap into the power of Not Too Cool. When a character is a little silly, you can't help but like them more. No one likes an edgelord.

And of course I wanted her to contrast with Aldish women. Aldish women are reticent to show off the lines of their bodies whereas Crescian women are more revealing. I wasn't going to get her Majesty's titties out, but I do put her in skintight dresses that celebrate her form. She's not sexless but she also isn't provocative.

Yeah, a lot of consideration went into each of her outfits :)

[jtem]

Cleopatra wasn’t black and neither was Nefertiti 

So by now you know that Cleopatra wasn’t black. You heard the controversy over the Netflix thing, you heard the angry shrieks from right wing agitators, you saw the shaking heads of the experts as they “Corrected” the error of an African heritage for Cleopatra but, are you ready for round-2?

*Ding!*  *Ding!*

Nefertiti

Let’s back up some.. start closer to the beginning...

The famous and very powerful Queen Tiye, chief wife of Amenhotep III, was the daughter of Yuya & Thuya, who in turn are best known from their well preserved tomb.

Yuya & Thuya are believed to have been "Asiatic," as the Egyptians might've referred to them, or of Asiatic descent... from the Levant, probably. They were of very high status, one presumes, based on their tomb and the fact that their daughter was the chief wife and what we think of as "Queen" to Amenhotep III. After Amenhotep III died his son was crowned, Amenhotep IV aka Akhenaten, the heretic king, and the famous Amarna Period soon followed! 

Akhenaten was married to Nefertiti. Yes. And it is presumed she was related to queen Tiye in some way, while others argue the more obvious answer: She was queen Tiye by another name!

I'm not saying he banged his mom, though he may have, and I definitely am not saying it was standard practice in Egypt for even kings to marry their moms! 

Their sisters, maybe even their daughters but not their moms! But this is about power. This is about control. And not just for one woman. Queen Tiye was in every real sense "The Power Behind the Thrown." We've actually got records preserved, foreign correspondences, where foreign leaders are writing to HER!

So, anyway, by keeping Queen Tiye chief wife and queen she wasn't just keeping herself in power, she was maintaining the status quo. Every high official in their court owed their position to her, or at least the way they fit in with her rule. Change her and the new power, be it queen or king, is likely to start bringing in their own people. 

“New broom sweeps clean”

So, it wasn't just Tiye, it was the whole goddamn court, everyone with power, who had a motive for wanting her to remain queen. Tradition or not, everyone in power had reason enough to go along with it:  She invents a new name and continues on as Queen!

And there’s evidence for this.

Queen Tiye and Nefertiti seem to disappear (die) around the same time. The famous bust of Nefertiti includes wrinkles! The bust of Nefertiti depicts an older woman!

Yes it is claimed that Nefertiti had daughters, so she couldn't have been queen Tiye -- biological clock & all -- but Queen Tiye is known to have ADOPTED children even before Amenhotep III had died. So, the children aren't an issue.

Anyway, Nefertiti wasn't black. The Egyptians painted her, including the aforementioned bust, and she wasn't black. And she was likely just queen Tiye renamed, who was "Asiatic" i.e. middle eastern.

LET THE NETFLIX CONTROVERSY BEGIN! 

[imaginationstimulation]

Introduction

What is beauty? You know it when you see it, but can you describe it? Can people agree on it, or is it purely subjective? Is our concept of beauty based in nature, or society? These are the questions that people have been asking themselves for thousands of years. It’s important to remember that beauty ideals are ever-changing. By looking at the past, we can see that at some point, just about everyone was considered the ideal.

We are going to learn a changeable women ideals of beauty throughout history in the pictures, sculptures created by those self-elected gods we call artists. History provides us a record, and from it one basic, inescapable, and ultimately unconscionable truth stands out: the ideals women are asked to embody, regardless of culture or continent, have been hammered out almost exclusively by men. This fact, more than any sort of evolutionary determinism, has meant that a fairly narrow range of attributes resurfaces across eras, returning every couple of decades.

Beauty, as defined by Webster’s Dictionary, is “the qualities that give pleasure to the senses or exalt the mind.” But what exalts my senses, something that I find beautiful, may very well be considered average or even ugly to others. Hence, the constant debate throughout history about what constitutes beauty.

Egypt

Nefertiti (1370–1330 BC)

This representation of the pharaoh’s wife, Nefertiti, is thought to be the most beautiful by both modern and ancient Egyptian standards.

The kohl around Nefertiti’s eyes and her apparently rouged lips speak to a desire for enhancement and adornment that seems too much a part of being human to have a historical starting point. Trends in altering how we look through fashion and jewelry in all likelihood predates any culture-wide preference for a specific body type. The Egyptian example has proven especially influential in the West, particularly since the 1920s.

Goddess Isis (332–30 BC)

For the ancient Egyptians the image of the goddess Isis suckling her son Horus was a powerful symbol of rebirth that was carried into the Ptolemaic period and later transferred to Rome, where the cult of the goddess was established. This piece of faience sculpture joins the tradition of pharaonic Egypt with the artistic style of the Ptolemaic period. On the goddess’s head is the throne hieroglyph that represents her name. She also wears a vulture head-covering reserved for queens and goddesses. Following ancient conventions for indicating childhood.

Cleopatra VII (69 BC — 30 BC)

Cleopatra VII Philopator, contrary to popular belief, was more Macedonian Greek than Egyptian. Her family tree consisted of siblings who married each other (Yes, incest was the custom in the Ptolemaic Kingdom), descended from the Macedonian general Ptolemy I. When she was presented to Julius Caesar, she made a grand entrance by being rolled up in a carpet. It was said that her beauty impressed Julius Caesar to side with her against her husband(he was her brother, Ptolemy XIII). She allegedly gave birth to Caesar’s son, Cesarean. After Caesar was assassinated and the Roman civil war was over, she used her beauty again to charm Mark Antony to side with her, to the point of him donating Roman territories to her children and moving the Roman capital to Alexandria.

Cleopatra is a famous cultural icon of feminine beauty from far history. She was the Ptolemaic Queen of Egypt. Even today, she is portrayed in many media and literature like 1934 and 1963 films Cleopatra, William Shakespeare’s tragedy Antony and Cleopatra and George Bernard Shaw’s play Caesar and Cleopatra.

She is a famous source of perpetual fascination in the Western culture. Cleopatra was the last known pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt. Even in the ancient world, she was regarded as a great beauty. A good deal of literature described and praised her beauty to a great extent. In Life of Antony by Plutarch, she has been remarked as “her beauty, as we are told, was in itself neither altogether incomparable, nor such as to strike those who saw her.”

Mummy Mask (60–70 AD)

Plaster masks seem to have been particularly popular in Middle Egypt. They develop of course from Egyptian traditions, but appearances could be strongly individualized and Roman fashions of hairstyle, dress and jewelry were followed to varying degrees. The woman is represented as if lying flat upon her bier. She wears a long Egyptian-style wig made of plant fibers, a deep-red tunic with black clavi (stripes), and jewelry that includes a lunula (crescent pendant), and snake bracelets. At the lower edge of her tunic are two holes, which were used for attaching the mask to the mummy. Over the top of her head is a gilded wreath encircling a scarab beetle that represents the sun appearing at dawn, a metaphor for rebirth.

Conclusion

This relationship between beauty and youth is a very significant part of the concept of beauty in Ancient Egypt, women were encouraged in their independence and beauty. Ancient society promoted a sex-positive environment where premarital sex was entirely acceptable and women could divorce their husbands without shame.

Egyptian women were small in overall stature. In this era, the ideal woman is described as slender, narrow shoulders, high, symmetrical face. Women — used wigs, hair extensions, and hairpieces, as thick, long hair was highly valued.

Women of high rank wore makeup. The Egyptians are, of course, well-known for their opulent eye makeup, which was applied from the eyebrow to the base of the nose. What many do not know, however, the ingredients of the makeup had antibacterial qualities and helped to deter flies and protect against the hot Egyptian sun. Many tinted their nails with sheep fat and blood or henna. Tattooing, generally from henna, was considered erotic, and was heavily practiced among certain classes in Egypt.

Greece

Until in the century of Pericles, fifth century BC, when Athens won a significant development, becomes the cultural, political and economic center of Greece, there was no clear definition of beauty. Before painting and sculpture to develop great beauty was attributed to other virtues such as truth, loyalty, harmony. However, when artists began to paint or write, began to outline some features that, if a person or an object had, they deserved to be called “beautiful.”

Greek philosophers were the first people who asked what makes a person beautiful. Platon, who saw beauty as a result of symmetry and harmony, created the “golden proportion”, he found that in order to be considered “beautiful”, women’s faces should be two-thirds as wide as they are long, and both sides of the visage should be perfectly symmetrical.

But the Greeks were not just obsessed with symmetry, but also long blond hair that is associated with youth and fertility.

Helen of Troy (1300–1200 BC)

For 3,000 years, the woman known as Helen of Troy has been both the ideal symbol of beauty and a reminder of the terrible power beauty can wield. Helen of Troy and the Trojan War were central to the early history of ancient Greece. She is the object of one of the most dramatic love

stories of all time and one of the main reasons for a ten-year war between the Greeks and Trojans, known as the Trojan War. Hers was the face that launched a thousand ships because of the vast number of warships the Greeks sailed to Troy to retrieve Helen.

The poems known as the Trojan War Cycle were the culmination of many myths about the ancient Greek warriors and heroes who fought and died at Troy. With so many men were willing to put their lives on the line to go to battle for her, it’s clear even without a contemporary portrait that Helen had a very special type of beauty.

Aspasia (500 BC)

Aspasia was an influential immigrant to Classical era Athens who was the partner and lover of the statesman Pericles. The exact details regarding the marital status of the couple are still unknown. Aspasia’s house became the center of intellectual teaching in Athens, attracting and influencing prominent teachers like Socrates.

Aspasia is known to have to become a hetaera in Athens, and she has displayed great physical beauty and intelligence. Aspasia’s role in history proves to be crucial to the clues for understanding the women of ancient Greece. In Athens, she was more than just an object of physical beauty and also she was noted for her ability as a conversationalist and adviser.

Phryne of Thespiae (370–316 BC)

Phryne of Thespiae was a famous courtesan of Athens, best known for the court case she won by baring her breasts. Her actual name was Mnesarete (“commemorating virtue”), but she was called Phryne (“toad”) because of the yellow complexion of her skin.

Ancient writers such as Athenaeus praise her extraordinary beauty, and she was the model for many artists and sculptors in Athens, including chiefly posing as Aphrodite.

She was acquitted and went on living a life of luxury as one of the most beautiful and sought-after women of Athens. She became wealthy enough to live as she pleased and even offered to re-build the walls of Thebes, which Alexander the Great had destroyed, if the people would consent to her inscription reading, “Destroyed by Alexander, Restored by Phryne the Courtesan”, but the Thebans refused her offer. Phryne is a famous figure of beauty from the ancient world who is still admired through statues and paintings.

Aphrodite (200 AD)

The Aphrodite exists only in copies of which there were many, because this Aphrodite represented the embodiment of female beauty for Classical Greeks. For us, she is the original Western model, woman as goddess, to be adored and feared. Her soft, rounded flesh bespeaks the power of her sexuality and advertises her life-giving potential. Aphrodite, the goddess who won the goddesses’ beauty contest that led to the Trojan War should be counted among the all-time world-class beauties.

However, this is a list of mortals, so Aphrodite (Venus) doesn’t count. Luckily, there was a woman so beautiful she was used as the model for a statue of Aphrodite. Her beauty was so great it brought about her acquittal when she was put on trial. This woman was the courtesan Phryne whom the famed sculptor Praxiteles used as his model for the Aphrodite of Knidos statue.

Conclusion

Ancient statues show us artists’ idealized form, which for women featured largish hips, full breasts, and a not-quite-flat stomach. But the Greeks were defining more than just “beauty” — they were nailing down the math of attractiveness.

Ancient Greece worshiped the male form, going so far as to proclaim that women’s bodies were ‘disfigured’ versions of men. In this time period, men faced a much higher standard of beauty and perfection than The Greeks were defining beauty literarily, thanks to 8th-7th Century BC author Hesiod, who “described the first created woman simply as ‘the beautiful-evil thing’. She was evil because she was beautiful, and beautiful because she was evil.”

The Greek idea of beauty was pale skin, golden locks and natural makeup. This is vastly different than that of the early adapters to cosmetics the Egyptians and soon we will find that to an extent this ideal is far less dramatic to that of the Romans.

In fact, I think we can conclude that most of the Greek and Egyptian makeup trends are vastly different. In Greece only rich women were able to use cosmetics due to their price.

When it came to Greek women and their hairstyles different lengths and arrangements meant different things. If one was a female slave she would wear her hair short, if a woman wasn’t a slave she would have long hair.

While many women today would pluck a thick “unibrow,” women in Ancient Greece liked the look, and many used dark pigment to draw one in.

Italy

Both for women and men, Romans inherited the Greek standards about symmetry and harmony. Beautiful bodies were proportioned in shape, limbs and face. The ideal of beauty for women was small, thin but robust constitution, narrow shoulders, pronounced hips, wide thighs and small breasts.Smooth white skin was very important for Roman women. To keep it beautiful, they put at night a mask called tectorium (traditionally invented by Popea, Emperor Nero’s wife), which they would remove the next day with milk. They exfoliated their bodies by smearing olive oil and then applying calcium carbonate or with pumice stones. Then they rinsed the mixture with water or with scented oils (cedar, myrrh, pine, lily, saffron, quince, jara, violet or roses). Women in the aristocracy also took milk baths (although Cleopatra is famous for it, it was a usual solution).

By the 1st century AD in the city of Rome the obsession with white skin became very important. Many women used products like bean flour to appear the maximum pale but according to Galen some of them also used lead powder which is extremely toxic.

Women had to be careful with cosmetics because applying them too much was considered only proper for prostitutes. By Greek influence, the eyebrows were very thick, painted with antimony or soot to create almost a unibrow. This custom fell in disuse at the beginning of 1st century BC and they started trimming the eyebrows.

Long eyelashes were considered very beautiful, eyes were shaped as big as possible with black antimony powder. Only in very special occasions, and after Cleopatra went to Rome, some women shaded their eyes with greenish clays (rich in celadonite, malachite or glauconite) or with bluish earth containing zurita.

White regular teeth were very valued (both in men and women). For a long time they used pumice powder or vinegar to clean them. Hispani used urine and this was considered very funny for the Romans (Catulus made a poem about a friend using this method). In the 1st century AD Escribonius Largus, the physician of the Emperor Claudius, invented the first toothpaste based on a mixture of vinegar, honey, salt and heavily crushed glass. If they were lacking teeth, they could use false ones made from ivory, human or animal teeth, sewn with gold.

For centuries Roman women considered mahogany (or red) hair the most beautiful. When Julius Caesar brought so many Gaul slaves to Rome, blond hair became a new obsession (and probably blue eyes, too). Many women started dying their hair with vinegar and saffron, sprinkling it with gold dust (or using gold hairnets) to make it golden. Pigeon droppings, goat fat and caustic soap were also used at the end of the 1st century AD. If they didn’t have enough hair, they had wigs made with real hair from German slaves.

The Republican hairstyle was quite simple, parted in the middle and a bun. In imperial times the fashion were complicated creations with several layers. Even modest women used crossed braids over the forehead. Married women, like vestal women and priestesses, would wear a hairstyle known as sex crines (six braids).

About body hair, from the existence of slaves only dedicated to shaving, historians think that they shaved the whole body. The mosaics don’t show hairy women. The canon for the face was large almond-shaped eyes, sharp nose, medium-sized mouth and ears, oval cheeks and chin.

Bikini Girls (300- 400 AD)

Part of a mosaic found in the early 4th-century Villa Romana del Casale in Sicily, the “Bikini Girls,” as they are known, provide one of the few celebrations of the female figure performing athletic acts, other than dance, in the history of art. Thin without being wrought by exercise, their vivacious bodies would not be out of place in mid-20th century Italy or America. Which is to say, the present a “natural” ideal, formed by activity rather than training.

Conclusion

Roman men preferred modest women who do not use too much make up or ornaments, but still had their ‘natural beauty’. This didn’t mean that Roman men were against cosmetics, since there is a lot of evidence that showed that the cosmetic business was popular then, but Roman men felt that makeup should be done for ‘preservation of beauty’, not ‘unnatural embellishment’.

Natural beauty symbolized chastity and purity, values held up high in the Roman Empire. Women wearing too much makeup or jewelry were seen as seductive and manipulative. Roman men liked women with a light complexion, smooth skin, and minimal body hair. White teeth, long eyelashes, and no body odor was preferable as well. To maintain these standards, rich Roman women used extensive measures to keep their ‘natural beauty’.

Wealthy women like Cleopatra and Poppaea were known to have bathed in milk to keep their milky complexion. Many skincare products were sold in the Roman Empire. Examples are oil from sheep’s wool for makeup, chalk powder as a whitener, gum Arabic as wrinkle cream, and ash from snails as treatment for freckles and sores. Roman women shaved and plucked with resin paste and pumice stones. Perfume was to be strong enough to block off body odor, and not too strong to the point of reeking. As for things that couldn’t be taken care of such as oral hygene(oral hygene was backwards then), fake teeth made from bone and ivory were used. Romans may also have preferred light haired women, a tradition borrowed from the Greeks.

Greek and Roman women used oils, vinegar, and customized hats to keep their hair light. Hairstyles were important too. Young maidens had long hair, slave girls had shorter hair, and matrons had their long hair tied into a bun and adorned with accessories.

[davidastbury]

How it Started … 1962

The strongest memory is of the night they met. Saturday night was ‘top of the week’ and the best place to be was in the Palais de Dance. It was the most loved of all buildings in our little town - everyone had a story about it and many met their future wives/husbands - Dirk Bogarde visited when he was stationed nearby in the army, (although he didn’t find a wife). From the outside it was simply a huge shed with extensions but inside it corresponded perfectly with everyone’s idea of luxury; chandeliers, velvet curtains, concealed coloured lights, half hidden intimate nooks, cocktail bars, waiters in dinner suits and patent leather shoes, a gleaming expanse of wooden flooring for dancing and a raised platform for the band.

And that’s where they met. All the women were dressed to kill but she stood out - she was like a film star. She was wearing a tight silver lamé dress, low at the front and not much at the back. Her dark hair had been tweaked and teased into a halo of candyfloss; huge eyes, haughty nostrils, not quite perfect teeth, sharp chin and a wonderful Queen Nefertiti neck. She was instantly irresistible and impossible.

They clicked immediately. He was with a mixed group but she ignored the offers, choosing to squeeze in next to him. All the attention - not just his - was on her and she revelled in it. A waiter brought her drink over, she’d left it at another table, and was rewarded with her number 1 smile, which stunned him - in fact we were all stunned.

Very little memory of how the scene developed. She was getting drunk but because she wasn’t old enough to buy drinks he had to keep waving for waiters. She amused everyone with little conjuring tricks - she took the tissue paper from a cigarette packet and twisted it into the shape of a pair of legs, with feet and bent knees. We all watched her lay the figure on the table and dip her fingers in a drink and then carefully drip the liquid onto her mini sculpture. Everyone laughed - she most of all.

Eventually the others drifted away. She reached out and turned his face. She leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his. ‘Don’t move’ - she said. He could see nothing but her eyes - they shone back at him, then gradually they started to slide towards each other, becoming a single eye; one huge pool of magic and mischief.

He was absolutely entranced and whispered - ‘Oh you beautiful, crazy Cyclops!’

[tim-hoe-wan]

If Jada really cared about black queens, she should have gone for Queen Nefertiti. Not some woman people who care to research would show is greek. Now the team behind the docu are beefing with Egyptians right now ☠️. The woman king may have not been accurate, but it didn’t pretend it was and at least they were undoubtedly black kweens 💁🏾‍♀️

Gotta be honest with you guys, my exposure to Ancient Egypt outside school is limited to Prince of Egypt, Joseph the Dreamer, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Assassin’s Creed. I’m no expert in this and it seems media loves appropriating Egypt. I guess I can understand the outrage of presenting yourself as a documentary and then be unapologetic in not using research or facts. But I do find suing netflix and harassing the wrong people as over the top. I’m also no Cleopatra expert, but I can imagine the family’s propensity for inbreeding and living life separate from the people can give you clues about her looks.

[rjinswife]

I hope you don't mind me sending me an ask about it but one thing that really annoys me about this Cleopatra business is that now the opposite of what they theoretically wanted is happening because people are being super blatantly antiblack (not to imply you are obviously, I think your complaints are totally justified) and so instead of having representation they've just created another toxic atmosphere.

And what's particularly frustrating about it is that there's definitely other African women who were leaders they could talk about that do correspond to what they want to talk about, that deserve more recognition. But instead they're going to talk for the millionth time about Cleopatra and lie about her (despite it being a "documentary") to qualify as representation, which is so superficial and is so insulting to both Egyptians and Black people who both deserve to see their actual cultures shown. Modifying historical facts doesn't benefit anyone in this situation

hello! this is something that a lot of Egyptians have been pointing out as well, and as i said in the tags, Africa has a very rich history, different cultures and races, different languages. it makes us, in my opinion, unique that we don't look alike, that we are all so different from each other, and each country has gone through so much, even the "north africans" that are unfortunately labelled as "not africans enough" or "not africans at all" by some and/or described as "very much alike" by others, are not alike at all, we don't even sound or speak alike, we barely even look alike.

it's frustrating because celebrating black queens is an incredible thing and should be done, a factual docuseries is an incredible idea and would bring a lot of awareness to the beauty of the african history and african women. so choosing Cleopatra in particular does not make sense at all, making a greek colonizer black is.... disturbing to us Egyptians, cause no she was very much greek, very ugly, and her reign and her ancestors' reign over Egypt was terrible! and quite frankly Cleopatra has been talked about too much, which is understandable as she's closer to our time than she was to the pyramids being built for example, and, as i pointed out before, was practically the only one, of her "people", to learn the Egyptian language. but if they want to talk about actual great african queens then they should talk about 'Amina of Zaria' of Nigeria, known as a the "Warrior Queen". or 'Ana Nzinga' of Mbande Ndogo (Angola) who fought slavery. or, if they really wanna talk about Egyptian queens, then there's Queen 'Nefertari', wife of Ramesses the 2nd, who built a temple called the temple of Hathor for her, it's located in Abu Simbel. or Queen 'Nefertiti', wife of Akhenaten.

basically there are many incredible african queens who have done great things for their countries, to choose one like Cleopatra is quite frankly very stupid and disgusting to us Egyptians and our history.

note: I am not qualified to talk about antiblackness and racism, and cannot talk about black people's feelings towards this situation, as i am not black, but I've also seen the antiblack tweets and it makes me incredibly upset this was not what this docuseries was supposed to be about, but unfortunately here we are.

racists have found a wave to ride on which pisses me off cause like seriously they need to fuck off, there is so many bad things, bad angles, to this situation, i don't even know where to begin with at this point .

[navree]

does hollywood realize that other egyptian queens existed prior to cleopatra and that lupita nyongo needs to be cast as nefertiti

[quandaryqueen]

So I just read that post about what the Riddlers smell like (and I'm glad we can all agree that Arkham!Eddie needs to be thrown into the shower!🐀) Any headcanons on what scents they might like on their partner? 🤔

The Riddler's favoured scents on their S/O headcanons

Edward Nygma X Reader

I love the way you think, Mun 👀

It is now once again time to run around the house to sniff perfumes 🤧

All I can say is the fact that they have on thing in common-- is the fact that your perfume shouldn't be too overwhelming.

💚 Gotham

No, omg 'coz I just remembered that this dude canonically sniffs people by the back of their necks like a creep. But anyways, I bet he tries to guess what fragrance do you wear, by watching you and sniffing your neck when you walk away— which is yes, bordering on creepy stalker guy status and I can't blame you if you think that's fucken creepy. Because it is, regardless of his intentions. Once he's figured what you use, depending on his current budget, he'd buy and gift it to you.

But that didn't answer your question 😅

He happens to be fond of cooking, baking to be precise. Perhaps some vanilla, oh! Shea butter. He likes Shea butter. Cleopatra apparently loved shea butter. There is a mention of caravans of clay jars filled with shea butter for her use. It’s also said that this luxurious ingredient was beloved by the Queen of Sheba and Nefertiti. But yeah, Shea butter.

💚 Young Justice

Of course, nothing too overwhelming but let's be honest, he wouldn't care about himself if you happen to spritz yourself 37 times from head to toe. Nausea? No, it's just him getting drunk of your presence. But if you choose something subtle, something that won't kill him, he finds something citrus or fruity scents in general soothing. But he doesn't mind about which scent you use either way.

Like when you'd hug him after a long day, he'll bury himself in your hold and breathe you in, before clinging closer. Maybe stop the pricking tears from the corner of his eyes when that particular day was extra rough on him.

💚 Arkhamverse

As Riddler simps, we really need to bond together. How about we abduct the Riddleman and lock him in the shower? You know, for team building? Great! I'll get the duct tape, you guys hold him down. I neglected to mention that this guy probably uses 3in1 bath products. So let's make sure to give him proper shampoo, conditioner and soap. Maybe throw in some skin care.

But jokes aside, let me tell you, this man is addicted to your scent. When you're gone (let's not kid ourselves here, when he's gone), he looks for your warmth, your touch, your fragrance. He'd grow extra fucking hissy when he misses you and in his frustration of getting constantly side tracked due to his longing, tantrums will be thrown in the workshop until you go there to undo whatever damage he's done to his environment, and himself.

And the instant you got near, he is latching himself on you. Good luck prying him off.

He likes musky scents, maybe throw in some floral scent to it. Something calming, perhaps lavender or Arabian jasmines (Sampaguita, to my fellow countrymen). He never knew he liked floral scented things, it was an accidental find.

💚 Batman the animated series

BERRIES! The scent of berries and cinnamon. Not necessarily mixed together, but perhaps separately. Oh, and caramel and coffee.

Perhaps it was something he's fond of when he was still downing the berry flavoured energy drinks and caffeine to substitute his need to sleep during tumultuous hours in college, but he really does love the scent.

He is also inhaling the scent of his significant others when hugging them and it really makes him think about how lucky he is that he finally has someone who loves him. In a way that he doesn't question their every actions, whether they have hidden intentions behind kind gestures, that something sinister his behind your sweet smile... But no, you genuinely just love him, with no personal agenda at all.

💚 Batman Unburied

Yeah, every iterations of Riddlers have not given a kind touch in their life. He attained some sort of trauma from a scent, an expensive musk worn by one of the guards in Arkham that regularly would regularly degrade him so whenever he smells this certain scent, he'd have an anxiety attack.

But anyways, favourite fragrance on his significant other... Well, the scent of chai doesn't fail to soothe him and I think there are some perfume with hints of ginger flower and almond cream, I think he'd be really into that.

Developing his acute sense of smell towards a person wearing a particular scent he hates, he also can smell when you're near if you're wearing the chai perfume and he will be instantly running in your arms. Like the other Riddler's, he will fucking cry if you just embrace him in your arms, he will cling tightly and just grip your flesh, you'd feel his nails dig in your skin. Damn... Let's all gather the Riddlers and just hug them.

[misssylvertongue]

women that i love : [1/5]

↠ meritaten, pharaon of egypt

↠ Meritaten was probably born in the city of Thebes, as the first child of the pharaon Akhenaten and her wife, Nefertiti. Her exact date of birth is unknow but is estimed between the year III to VI of her father (-13353/-1350 or even -1355 are eligible date of birth). The fact than she is presented in official events at the year V suggest even a early birth, before her father accession to the throne.

Meritaten has five younger sister : Maketaten, Ankhesenpaaten (Ankhesenamun), Neferneferuaten Tasherit, Neferneferure and Setenpenre. She also has, at least, one half-brother : Tutankhaten (later Tutankhanum).

Around -1333, Meritaten was probably made Great Royal Wife of her father.At this time her mother, Nefertiti, appear to be less and less evolved in politics or officials affairs, maybe due a sickness and later, her death. The fact that the Armana and Hittite letters speak about the quick raising of a “ your daughter Mayati” [Hittite Letters] at the court, seems to show than despit her young age (maybe from 13 to 16 years old) Meritaten was now coregent of her father, great wife and diplomatic representant.

This same period, a epidemic of plague killed successively the queen mother Tiyi, probably Nefertiti, Kiya, the two youngers princesses and maybe Maketaten.In -1338, Akhenate died. Her son, Tutankankhaten is only four or five years old and don’t have any political experience. Meritaten was crowned Pharaon (by choice of the court or by making a Coup is not know), under the name of Ankh-Kepoure, at the place of her younger brother.

We don’t have any concrete proof than she was the Queen asking for a King Hittite as a husband. If it was her, she never married him because that prince (Zanzanna) was murder on the way.More concretly we know than she married a mysterious prince Shemkhkare. He doesn’t live long, her only inscription is unfinished, less than two years.

It is also impossible to say with absolute certitude that he was the father of Merytaten child : Merytaton Tasherit (it not even certain that she was Meritaten child or not)During her short time, Meritaten moved to capital from Amarna to Thebes, the ancient capital before her father decision to move out of Thebes.

Her death in -1336/5 was brutal, resulting of a brief reign of only three years. Her brother Tutankhaten was eignt or nine years old. Only Ankheesenpaaten was definitively still alive at this time among her sisters.

[lokadottr]

LIST 5 SONGS THAT INSPIRE YOU TO WRITE YOUR MUSE.

bells in santa fe  - halsey //    But, Jesus, you've got better lips than Judas I could keep your bed warm, otherwise I'm useless. I don't really mean it, 'cause who the fuck would choose this? Well, maybe I could hold you in the dark. You won't even notice me depart. Secondhand thread in a second hand bed With a second man's head. Leaving through the door without a word You won't even notice little bird. Better off dead so I reckon I'm headed to hell instead...So don't wait for me Don't wait for me Wait, ah It's not a happy ending

929 - halsey //  That I wasn't in love then and I'm still not now And I'm so happy I figured that out. I've got a long way to go until self-preservation Think my moral compass is on a vacation And I can't believe I still feed my fucking temptation And I'm still looking for my salvation...i’m a liar, i’m a fucking liar

honey -  halsey  // She was sweet like honey But all I can taste is the blood in my mouth And the bitterness in goodbye Dripping like honey Down the back of my throat and out the front of my mind And now she's impatient and I'm complacent With just a little taste of wasting time looking for honey But she stings like she means it She's mean and she's mine Out and about Without a reason or rhyme And now she's dancing on a table And she spins on a dime She's hell in a basket, just making a racket I love every second, it's fucking fantastic Good things aren't easy to get I know that I won't regret

the tradition  -  halsey //    Oh, the loneliest girl in town is bought for pennies of prize We dress her up in lovely gowns, she's easy on the eyes Her soul is black and it's a fact that a sneer will eat you alive And the buyer always brings her back because all she does is cry So take what you want, take what you can Take what you please, don't give a damn Ask for forgiveness, never permission Take what you want, take what you can Take what you please, don't give a damn It's in the blood and this is tradition  

whispers  -  halsey  //  This is the voice in your head that says "You do not want this" This is the ache that says "You do not want him" This is the glimmer of light that you're keeping alive when you tell yourself "Bet I could fuck him"Why do you need love so badly? Bet it's because of her daddy Bet she was brutal and bratty Bet that she'll never be happy I bet that you're right And I'll show you in time But I Sabotage the things I love the most Camouflage so I can feed the lie that I'm composed  

& LIST 5 QUOTES THAT INSPIRE YOU TO WRITE YOUR MUSE.

“Now you are no longer a giggling child, smiling at whoever comes along. You are a woman with power. Learn to control your smile, and you can control what men will think about you.”     // michelle moran - the heretic queen  

“...she laughed and flirted, tossing her long neck back...I studied the way Nefertiti held men in her power. She spoke softly, so they had to bend closer to hear, and she gave her smiles sparingly, so that when she laughed a man felt like he had been bathed in her light. “ // michelle moran - nefertiti

“  Well. I'm not a poet, I'm just a woman. And as a woman I have no way to make money, not enough to earn a living and support my family. Even if I had my own money, which I don't, it would belong to my husband the minute we were married. If we had children they would belong to him, not me. They would be his property. So don't sit there and tell me that marriage isn't an economic proposition, because it is. It may not be for you but it most certainly is for me. ” // amy march - little women ( 2019 )

 “As my sister ascended the dais, my aunt’s eyes never moved from her face. Nefertiti was beautiful in a way that made even queens stare.”   //  michelle moran - nefertiti

 “Be careful here, my lady. Let history forget your name. For if your deeds are to live in eternity, you will have to become exactly what your family wants you to be.”  // michelle moran - nefertiti

tagged by: @twistedwit tagging: @viperbit, @stcrlght, @starsspin ( for any of the lockridges ), @vegvisr and anyone else who wants to do this meme!