#i dunno the exact english title of this side series

[sixteenthshen]

the captions are the best part of this special edition of  《快本营业中》  ❤️

some notes behind the cut (regarding the possibily confusing use of more than one nickname for GJ in this post and junzhe nicknames in general)

The nicknames for Gong Jun may be confusing here. 

He is both Junjun (俊俊) and Junzi (俊子). I used three different names for him here (GJ, Junjun, Junzi) for "accuracy" purposes. Junjun is what He laoshi and ZZH address him by; the caption used Junzi and subtitles always use the person’s full name. 

These are very common ways (Junjun and Junzi) to address someone with a one-worded first name. So if you're into RPS, ZZH calling Gong Jun “Junjun” doesn't really mean anything. 

GJ's Nicknames:

laogong (老龚): It's the prefix lao- and his last name, a play on husband (homophone). 

Junjun (俊俊): It's his first name x2. It's quite a cute nickname for people with a one-word first name. My nephew's name is Kai; we call him kaikai all the time.  This nickname shot up in popularity when Ma Jie (then ZZH) called him this during the pre-Happy Camp livestream. Before that, laogong and junzi were more popuiar.

Junzi (俊子): His first name + Zi (子). "Zi" is only used for males, as it means son. (It can actually be used for women, but not advisable unless you speak Mandarin and can gauge the context better) 

"junzi" (菌子): Homophone of Junzi, it means mushroom. Not much meaning behind it; it's just one of the more adorable options (and GJ is adorable!) that come up when you type "junzi" (pinyin input method). 

doggy "gougou" (狗狗, 狗勾): Cause GJ likes dogs and kinda has a dog personality in that he's happy, cheery and adorable. He's associated with the doge emoji and ZZH, the cat version. (ZZH doesn't have a cat personality either, he's the cat because GJ said he likes cats - gif #2 calls ZZS a cat) 

laopo (wife): Feminising, so this is the only one ion this list that I’ve never used. 

(Also, some fans may use other alternatives for laogong, such as the actual husband (老公) and "lao" with the gong from gong/shou (老攻), but the last one is rare. 

You won't normally use the above nicknames for someone with a two-worded first name, such as Zhehan. But there's no hard and fast rule. You can still do that, if you like. For example, we don’t normally use the prefix xiao- (小/little) for an adult, especially men, but ZZH's nickname is xiaozhe (小哲). And it’s not a "fan nickname" to sound cute. It's really what some people (e.g. Zhao Wei) call him.

ZZH's nicknames: 

laopo (wife): When it was first popularised, I think everyone wanted a wife like Zhou Zishu, but Zhou Zishu is WKX's (wife).

Not feminising*. One of the most famous fan memes is, "although one punch from ZZH can defeat 10 of me, he's still (my/our/everyone’s) wife of destiny".

Fans have been calling their favourites "laopo" for ages, but it doesn't get popular enough to make it out of their small circle due to the feminising aspect of the nickname. ZZH is the first because he isn't feminine. So, no one feels like they're feminising him. Laopo's quite a "powerful" nickname, actually; someone even spread rumours that this nickname was costing him opportunities, so WoH/his fans would stop. ZZH's team had communicated via his official fan club that it's an unfounded rumour, and if there're any changes, his team will update everyone.  

Princess (公主): Mostly not feminising. It’s mainly his character that started this nickname, but I have also seen it feminised (side note: I may hate Faceapp? I’ve seen way too many girl!GJ&ZZH). Main reasons for princess: 

Firstly, it's his way or the highway. His fans often say, "the princess can do whatever he wants to do", "don't try to teach the Princess what to do" (used by everyone!). He famously deleted his Weibo when some fans tried to teach him what to do, they argued, he got angry and deleted. Many celebs don’t really have the guts to say anything that may seem rude publicly to their fans (especially when they’re not very famous). So if you’re stanning a B/C/D-list Chinese celeb who openly tells their fans off for unreasonable behaviour, you should be very, very proud :) 

Also, he is insanely good at sajiao-ing. It just comes naturally to him (see the link for the explanation of sajiao, it can be a few different things. The exact meaning depends on context, but ZZH sajiaos in many ways).

xiaozhe (小哲): Explained above. But don't use it if you're younger than he is.

Han-ge (瀚哥): Han from his name and ge (older brother). Fairly self-explanatory, as with xiaozhe, age-specific rules apply when you're not close.

meimei (妹妹): Little sister. I think it's from ZZH's hairstyle while filming Word of Honor. Fans called it "妹妹头/meimei hair" and his current hairstyle, "寸头/inch-long hair".

“zhehan” (折汉): “Zhe” is bend, “Han” is man. It means he can bend any man. There's more than one interpretation to this, lol. I'm sure you can think of the non-PG explanation. The kid-friendly version is that he sajiaos a lot, and he can get his (very many) male friends to do whatever he wants.

"zhehan" (折菡): "Zhe" is bend, "Han" is a flower. I find this is feminising (based on the limited times I've seen it), so I'm not too fond of it either. But I suppose fans may mean that he can bend any woman (flower?) to his will.

As always with nicknames, the most important thing is whether or not the person you're addressing is alright with it. 

If you're interested in how pinyin is transcribed, you can check out this link, like why it's Zhou Zishu, Wen Kexing instead of Zhou Zi Shu & Wen Ke Xing.

Notes:  

I tried subbing this first, but it was impossible to read both the subs and captions simultaneously. 😋 So gifs it is!

I use He laoshi (while using GJ and ZZH) because He laoshi deserves all the respect. 

*When I say not feminising, I mean for the majority. There will always be some fans who are into feminising male celebs, especially young idols and those who have acted in danmei. I spent longer on ZZH because multiple nicknames may come off as feminising, and I wanted to clarify that most of them aren’t. 

[confusedbutstillgay]

Oh Don’t Mind Me, Rambling About a Side Character

Backstory, this is about a character from a really funny K-drama that doesn’t have a huge community but I’ve seen people post about it Tumblr. Anyways little things I noticed about Hoon-seok while watching a second time and I will def add to this later on when I rewatch again :>

(Slight trauma trigger warning up ahead)

Let’s just jump into this. 

1. So apparently Hoon-suk (Cheol-bum’s bodyguard) has the title “Director.” He’s called this to his face by Jang-ryang and even Dong-ja. Could be a fluke in the Korean to English captions, but... yeah. I guess I’m gonna have to explain a little bit of stuff here.

Since the only other characters with the last name “Kim” besides Hoon-suk are Hae-il, the female nun, and Kim Gun-Yong (who I don’t believe had the title of Director, I’ve been trying to dig around but it isn’t working :/), Hoon-suk is the only person who has the chance to be known as “Director.” Besides, Dong-ja wouldn’t address them as such. Now in Korean culture calling someone by their first name is actually only reserved for people who are good friends and such, and it’s almost disrespectful if you call someone you don’t really know by their first name. So you call them Mr. or Ms. or Mrs. [enter last name]. But if they happen to have a title to their name, yeah, you also call them by that, since it would be a little awkward if you didn’t (much like American culture). 

2. On occasion, Cheol-bum will call Hoon-seok “Hoon-seok-ah.” Why is this important? Adding “-ah” to someone’s name is a sign of endearment, it shows your bond. It’s usually, from what I know, used by lovers but can also be used by friends. This is odd to me because it would signify that either:

a. They’re secretly dating (yes this is a ship, yes I kinda ship it, yes there’s stuff on Ao3 about it, and no I have not contributed to the ship yet).

b. They’re good friends. Could completely and entirely be true since we know nothing about Hoon-suk’s past and very, very little about Cheol-bum’s. 

or c. Cheol-bum just throws out random endearments to Hoon-suk, maybe as a way to show he doesn’t really care about their relationship in particular, maybe he just does it without knowing. I dunno.

3. I’m gonna talk about a little scene. Boy, oh boy, do I have some FEELS about this scene. 

Okay, so first we have this pic. 

Hoon-seok seems mildly surprised; Cheol-bum rarely pauses to talk to him, which we see throughout the majority of the series. If he does it’s to bark a quick command or to unleash his anger. Then Cheol-bum asks him if he’s tired of the life he lives. Hoon-seok’s answer? “I’m just trying to take care of you.”

Okay, so you’re trying to take care of him. I believe this is what lead many people to think that Hoon-seok was Cheol-bum’s bodyguard; I’m not confident what he is myself, but I like that headcanon. Then Cheol-bum, at its core, asks Hoon-seok if he would be willing to die for him. 

There’s no hesitation on his man’s face. He looks almost proud, even, as he says (again, at its core, the actual script was quite a bit different): “Of course.”

Okay, look. These two are either childhood friends or lovers and you cannot convince me fucking otherwise. Hoon-seok is either obsessed/in love with Cheol-bum or he’s just really, really, REALLY good friends with him. 

LOOK AT HIS LITTLE SMILE HERE. Not only is it fucking adorable, it’s filled with absolute pride. And it’s the only time we see him smile (besides his absolutely hilarious oxygen-drained smile in the vault) in the entire series.

I don’t believe this is a coincidence. This is Cheol-bum pushing Hoon-seok’s feelings aside and twisting his words into something he never meant. Hoon-seok made himself vulnerable and he got nothing in return for it. In my mind I think he just wants praise, since it’s obvious Cheol-bum never gives him any. 

He wants to be told that he did something good for once, he wants to be commended and appreciated. But nothing. 

Now look at him. We see that he’s crushed, we see everything I just talked about in these two little frames. But of the most heartbreaking things about this is he’s not even surprised. Just... sad. 

So that would insinuate that this has happened before. Or maybe it’s just something that happened in his childhood. Anyways

4. Oh, god, another scene I have quite a few feels about.

(If you’re wondering’s happening in both of these scenes, a gun got fired. This is from before they got sent into the vault.) 

Now, you may be thinking, “Well maybe it’s just his normal reaction to those things!” Okay, I get your point. But lemme give you this.

Exact same thing happened; a bullet was fired. In chronological order this happened before that last gif, which I’ll talk about a little later.

Look at his reaction. He completely and entirely flinches away, one could even say his arm is trying to protect his body. Usually when a gun is fired people jump, look scared, maybe a bit shaken, but are otherwise okay. 

This, on the other hand, is just... not that. A few things this could be, and I’ll let you chose which one.

1. Maybe he just doesn’t like loud noises. That’s understandable, I semi-relate, but I can’t imagine someone taking on the life of a criminal without being able to handle loud noises. 

2. Maybe trauma of some sort. Again, you pick and choose; childhood trauma (maybe his parents were abusive and very loud, so he’s sensitive to loud noises), first-hand experience (he himself or someone he cared about got shot once. The latter seems a bit more likely in my opinion), idk.

(Actually talking about the second type a little more maybe someone he cared about got shot while he doing this, because once you get in you don’t get out and he wouldn’t be able to back out of this if he decided to leave). 

3. Maybe he’s just... really scared of guns. Again, this goes with #1, can’t imagine someone deciding to take on this life while being afraid of guns.

Look. I love this man, okay? I want his character, his backstory, everything to be elaborated on more in season 2, or at least some day, along with Jang-ryang (another character we really don’t know that much about). So anyways if you read through all of this thanks for being here, hope you enjoyed and I may come back with a few more things to add <3

Edit:

Photo credit goes here

This is a small note. But it shows the difference between Hoon-seok and Cheol-bum rather well. Cheol-bum would make a more demanding statement, such as: "Leave now while I'm showing mercy."

However, Hoon-seok's statement is less challenging and more "Look just leave and everything'll be fine" type of statement.

This isn't a really huge thing, but I wanted to add it :)

[janeaustentextposts]

Hello, I know this isn't exactly austen related but you're the only one I can think of who might be able to clarify this for me. I was wondering how exactly cadet branches of houses are formed? I mean I know It comes from a yonger son and so on but what makes him not take his ancestors name/house and instead found a new one? Like the yorks that came from the plantagenets for example? thank you so much for all the questions you answer here, It makes my history nerd heart very happy

Oh boy, genealogy and the Wars of the Roses are not in my wheelhouse, but I’ll paraphrase Wikipedia to the best of my abilities try.

As best as I can tell, the reason why a younger son wouldn’t just take the family name and establish himself elsewhere is just that there’s no real getting away from a powerful dynasty, and it’s probably more advantageous to be connected with the main family than to try and strike out on one’s own.Cadet branches were not expected to submit to ancestral duties in quite the same way as senior heirs, so they could enter into alliances and lines of business which perhaps would have been considered beneath the main family line, though they could then bring in useful wealth and connections, and establish themselves as men of importance in their own rights, to some extent, though they would always be somewhat inferior to the main line with the best ancestral titles and properties.For example, in my own family I can trace a line back to the Howard family of England, but my connections are only to the Carlisle branch of the family, which is itself a cadet branch, alongside other such branches–the Effingham Howards, the Suffolk Howards, and the Penrith Howards. (Also my exact connection is nothing very noble or even definitively provable–my great-great grandmother was a servant at Castle Howard who bore her employer’s illegitimate child.) These families are certainly wealthy and have their own standing, peppered with earls and barons, but the head of the family as a whole is still the Duke of Norfolk, highest in rank and likely holding the best properties traditionally gifted to the holder upon the creation of the title.As to the Plantagenets…are you at all fond of the names Henry and Edward? You won’t be by the time I’m finished.

In the power-struggle between the houses of York and Lancaster, the problem was that York and Lancaster were both cadet-branches of the House of Plantagenet, and could not (or would not) agree which of them had a greater claim to the English (or, by then, mostly English) throne. The family had its roots in France, (we’ll try to ignore this because it’s less important as time goes on and the real beef is over England,) and eventually established themselves as kings of England, with some apparent discord between historians as to whether Henry I is the first English Plantagenet king or whether it’s actually Henry II via Henry I’s daughter Empress Matilda or even Henry III; and they didn’t actually really call themselves Plantagenets, exactly, because they were also “Angevins” with holdings in France but it’s hard to draw a line between where they stop being Angevins and start being Plantagenets with the shifts in what land was held in France being lost over the years and alternative political changes happening in England at the same time.

Henry II has a younger brother, Geoffrey, and French inheritance customs are different back then so it’s assumed Henry will take over the English holdings belonging to his mother Empress Matilda and maternal grandfather Henry I of England, while his brother Geoff will take over the paternal claims to French lands, dividing up the ‘kingdom’ holdings of the family. Anyway, with people being busy ruling on different sides of the Channel and all that, when Henry I died, Matilda’s cousin Stephen (who was also mostly French but again the lines between French and English are super-murky at this point with all the inter-marrying and having all these French and English holdings,) seized the English throne, and Matilda hears about this over in France while she’s dealing with the French side of the family’s stuff and was like oh shit that’s a problem.

So England ultimately falls into civil war because a lot of powerful people all over the British Isles and France are now giving Stephen some obvious side-eye like dude, seriously? Also if there’s a power-vacuum EVERYBODY IS GONNA PILE IN AND TRY TO GRAB A PIECE OF THAT SWEET, SWEET FEUDAL TERRITORY; so if it’s good enough for Stephen to step up and say “I’m having this throne” what more encouragement do other power-hungry entitled men need to try the same trick?

This is also why a cadet branch wouldn’t just go off an establish its own dynasty–you need to control vast swaths of land to have that kind of power, which is why all of this in-fighting happens. To these people it makes more sense to fight their own relatives for control of the biggest and richest bits of property than to try and go off and establish their own rule over smaller and shittier bits of property. After all, what’s the point of having something if someone else has something better? Mix ambitious power-grabs with a staggeringly heady sense of God-given bloodline-based entitlement, and hey presto you’ve got civil wars happening because when these royal relatives aren’t marrying each other, they’re killing each other. There are some peasant rebellions and insurrection-type movements happening at important points throughout this history, particularly when we get the Magna Carta with King John and some commoner uprisings in the rule of Richard II which were a public-relations nightmare I tell you what; but ultimately the driving force of most of the strife is this one mega-batshit extended family unit who can’t agree.All these minor kingdoms and duchys and whatever else they had in France which was obviously not THE France we know as a whole collective country today were having armed conflicts over territory, themselves, so basically there’s a whole lotta fighting going on. Anyway, eventually Steve the Ultimate Black Sheep of the Family and Matilda’s son Henry agree to just let Stephen be king until he dies, and then Henry can take over, promise! Which happens shortly thereafter, luckily, and Henry II is now King of England.He is married to Eleanor of Aquitaine, who I have definitely already heard of, and she is fierce as fuck, rich as fuck, was the Queen of France for fifteen years, got that annulled because the King needed a son, not daughters (high-fiving Henry VIII in the afterlife, honestly,) and so she then married Henry II and became Queen of England because why not? Went on to have eight kids, including five sons because fuck you Louis VI. And spent long stretches of time in prison because schemes galore. (Where is her dramatized biopic miniseries, BBC?) Three of those sons went on to be kings, including Richard the Lionheart, who Disney interpreted rather literally in their version of Robin Hood.

He was ultimately followed onto the throne by his unruly brother John, and the lack of direct heirs began the crumbling of the Angevin empire. John loses a bunch of lands in France, but signs the Magna Carta in England, so he’s a pretty mixed bag as monarchs go, but undoubtedly important, history-wise.

John’s son Henry III refocused on power in England, though he did try to gain back some of the French lands, without much success. There was no more English messing about with Crusades, though Henry III was very shitty to Jewish people in his kingdom, so fuck Henry III, moving on.

His son was Edward I, aka Edward Longshanks, which I only know because I was am a hopeless nerd who loved playing Age of Empires II back in the day and the William Wallace campaign is the learning campaign you gotta play through and Longshanks is the antagonist, so…he…fought the Scots. That’s all I know. Something something they may take oor lives but they’ll never take oor frrreedom! I am flying blind here, can you tell? I just wanted to gather berries and build my castles in peace, okay? It was Sim City for history nerds.

His kid Edward II takes over pounding on the Scots, (and was probably also pounding Piers Gaveston, if you know what I mean. God bless.) He actually had a lil’ family tiff with a branch of the family which was also called the House of Lancaster, but it was a different House of Lancaster which ultimately caused the problems later on down the line with the House of York, so we’ll ignore this House of Lancaster.

I dunno what Edward III did exactly but his accomplishments and failings are largely irrelevant for my purposes of trying to determine what happened with the Plantagenets, so he passed on the crown to his grandson Richard II, who was the son of Edward, the Black Prince, who was played by James Purefoy in the totally factual and in no way fanciful documentary A Knight’s Tale.

(…take five, everybody. We’ll pick this up once we have our breath back.)

So Richard II became king when he was ten years old, and this is where shit starts getting out of hand. His uncle, John of Gaunt, (himself a son of Eddie #3,) holds a lot of power. While most nobles preferred Richard to rule with a series of councils, rather than a regency under the legal control of his uncle, John still had a lot of influence over the young king. Richard II’s rule was riddled with rebellions and crises, and ultimately it seemed to be felt by some that he was a weak and tyrannical young king, leading his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt, to overthrow Richard and place himself on the throne as Henry IV. Bolingbroke would not have been Richard’s heir–that was Richard’s first cousin twice removed, Edmund Mortimer–but Henry argued that that was a claim through Edmund’s grandmother, whereas his claim was through male descendants. Edmund, understandably, was super-pissed about this development and spent the rest of his life plotting and rebelling against Henry and Henry’s son…Henry V.

His son, Henry (…wait for it…) VI, was the king in whose rule conflict would break out which would later be known as the real starting-point for the actual Wars of the Roses. (There’s more fuckery involving wars over territory in France but I am not going back over all that so help me God. All these dudes just need to maybe admit that they are not owed kingdoms by grace of who their parents or grandparents or second-cousins-twice-removed were.)

Edward IV (Yorkist,) having inherited Edmund Mortimer’s indignant rage, kicked Henry VI’s ass and took over the English throne while Philippa Gregory went positively giddy with excitement and I tried not to wince at this casting:

His twelve year-old son reigns for 86 days as Edward V, then enter everybody’s favourite propaganda chew-toy: RICKY THE THIIIIIRD! [blasts airhorn]

Endlessly maligned Good Egg with gentle ways and good bone-structure or cold-blooded incestuous vicious child-killer with a visible disability because back then they believed that kind of thing was a Sign from God that He hated that person for a reason. Depends on who you ask.

Anyway, Richard III was definitely the last of the Plantagenets and he was killed by Henry Tudor, who then took the throne of England as Henry VII and if you can guess what royal dynasty he founded, you get zero points.

So it was John of Gaunt’s legitimate male descendants who would form the House of Lancaster which began causing problems when his son Henry Bolingbroke/Henry IV overthrew Richard II and usurped Edmund Mortimer, the heir apparent. The House of York that would fight them were the descendants of Edward III’s second and fourth sons, in different lines. I don’t fully understand what it all means, exactly, but clearly there’s a lot of arguing going on about family trees and which bits of it are technically better or make a blood-tie to a common ancestral king stronger or weaker than someone else’s blood-tie. As the Yorkists had connections to TWO sons of Edward III, well, clearly that counts for something. Mostly a worrying amount of inbreeding among nobles, if you ask me. Which you did. And I’ll bet you’re sorry you asked, now! :)