#i mean come on she named her daughter after a character from Greek tragedy that betrays her father and murdered her brother

[jpriest85-blog]

I'm getting too emotionally invested in @gonzague-if that I've decided to go develope Headcanons about my Prince Médée's family. I've even come up with concept designs and created a family tree charting their relationship dynamics with each other.

I've given Médée's younger brother Philippe the full name of Gonzague from the Le Bossu novel to tell him apart from his sister. Also, I headcanon if little Philippe had survived to adulthood, he would look very much like the novel version Gonzague. Despite the fact Philippe was on the track to turning into an abusive POS like his father, I headcanon Médée didn't actually want him to die. They probably got along when they were young children considering how close in age they were, but Médée is probably the only one old enough to remember those times. Also, even with Philippe being their father's favorite and heir doesn't necessarily mean he was free from his father's abuse. Philippe had to learn that behavior somewhere, and I wouldn't be surprised if the former Prince used harsh corporal punishment on his heir if the boy showed weakness, even if Philippe wasn't punished as often as Médée. Also, considering their father was a firm believer in only the strong survive, I wouldn't be surprised if he pitted his own children against each other to see which is stronger. Médée figured out early on that her father sees her and her brother more as valuable chess pieces rather than his children, so she doesn't care about winning his approval, she just tries to succeed just enough to avoid punishment. Philippe, however, was still young enough to care about his father's opinion. So he gets very jealous and angry when his bastard half-sister gets praised by his father for being clever when she gets better marks on their arithmetic studies, or when the girl he has a crush seems more interested in spending time with his older sister because Médée is the "cool fashionable teenager," while Philippe is still at that awkward preteen phase and bigger than most of the other kids. So he lashes out at his sister physically because acknowledging his emotions and insecurities is weakness.

Considering the previous Prince of Gonzague, didn't seem to grieve the death of his only son but instead made Médée his heir by forcing her to literally replace her brother, even giving her Philippe's name and raising her as a boy. It is safe to assume he was an absolute bastard. Which seemed fitting considering out of his children his illegitimate daughter is the one who physically resembles him the most. Médée inherited his nose, square face shape, and height. While Philippe had his father's dark curly hair and eyes, he had softer features and a rounder face like his mother. Médée despises the fact that she looks so much like him, even long after her father's death. Even though she inherited her blonde wavy hair from her mother, it started darkening as she got older. So Médée will often have Peyrolles help her lighten her hair regularly. Most people at court assume it's just for fashion since blonde hair was in vogue at the time. In reality Médée does it because she hates how much she is forcefully reminded of her father whenever she catches a glimpse of her reflection with darker hair, especially when wearing suits. He's dead now she made damn sure of it! Her father can no longer hurt her or control her life again!

It probably shouldn't have surprised Médée that her father was also controlling with her birth mother as well, a fact she didn't learn until after her father's death when she found some letters in her father's personal effects. Until then Médée never knew anything about her mother, except that she inherited her eye and hair color from her. Apparently, her birth mother was a Mezzo-soprano opera singer from Vienna named Laura, whom her father became enamored with after watching her perform Dafne for the court in Mantua during his youth. It seems that despite the fact her father despised "weakness," he was also a hypocrite, considering how pathetically in love he was with her mother from his letters. Especially since from her mother's responses Médée could figure out her mother was politely indifferent at best to her father's affections before gradually starting to resent and despise him. Considering how competitive the theater can be, actors and opera singers can be just as scheming and cut throat as the nobility at Versailles, except their poisoning and assination attempts are usually only on stage. Apparently Médée likely inherited her cunning and charisma from her birth mother as the Austrian Prima Donna earned her spot not just for her musical talents but also knowing how to plot and recruit alliances to get ahead. Unfortunately, Laura's ambitions to secure a Nobleman sugar daddy backfired, and she wound up with a possessive and controlling Baby Daddy instead. If the Prince's attempts to woo his golden haired songbird wouldn't make her love him, he has other means to get her to agree to become his mistress. His title and influence give him enough strength to threaten to ruin Laura's career she tries to leave him, and being unable to outright rejects the Prince for fear of her lively hood...well an unplanned pregnancy would shackle her to him as well as any chains. Her mother does eventually escape her father and flee the country but unfortunately had to leave baby Médée behind. Early in her opera career Médée's mother was often cast in "breech roles," where a female performer would play a male character, which not only seems to be a trait Médée inherited but helped her avoid being found after fleeing the county.

As for the late Princesse de Gonzague, we unfortunately don't know much about her other than she was a gambling addict and died shortly after giving birth to her son (although considering how Médée's father was it's a reasonable suspicion that his wife didn't die from complications from child birth like most people assume). It can be safe guess she was not happy being married to such an awful man, and like most noble women from this time period, she probably left the raising and care for young Médée to a nurse or nanny. I do headcanon that Médée's stepmother also had lighter hair, partly because it would be easier for her father to pass her off as Philippe if his wife had a similar hair color. Also, I think it's funny if Médée's father had a fondness towards beautiful blonde women, but they always wind up hating him😂.

[cornyregans]

Hermia's Place in the Capp Family

When it comes to all the Shakespeare inspirations for the Capp family, there are quite a few common threads one can look at in determining their origins. In my time researching Veronaville, I’ve noticed that Capp naming conventions tend to draw from plays that are either set in the British Isles, histories, tragedies, problem plays or plays with a clear cast divide (in which case, members of the Monty family will often be named after characters from the other side). That said, when looking at all of these naming conventions, I noticed that there’s one Capp who sticks out like a sore thumb — Hermia.

Unlike her relatives, Hermia’s original play does not fit into any of the aforementioned categories. Instead, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is set in Greece, is classified as a comedy, and doesn’t focus on two rival factions like Romeo & Juliet (and The Tempest, to a lesser extent).

So this begs the question, why is Hermia a Capp?

Hermia as a Capp

With the source material in mind, perhaps it would have made more sense to place Hermia as a member of the Summerdream family? However, while that decision might make sense on a surface level, it sort of falls apart once you take a closer look at the members of the family in question. While all four living members of the Summerdream family share names with characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, three-of-the-four sims share names with the three central fairy characters; meanwhile, the fourth is named after the only notable human character to directly interact with a member of the fair folk.

While Hermia is one of four characters whose storyline ties into a plot involving fairies, she is never shown to consciously interact with any of them in Shakespeare’s play. If we take these facts into account, it makes sense why the developers did not choose to place Hermia as a member of the Summerdream household. That being said, it does not quite explain her place in the Capp family, either.

Even if her original play does not match up with that of her siblings, the decision to place Hermia as a member of the Capp family is not entirely strange when you dig deeper into the family’s history; specifically, the fact that A Midsummer Night’s Dream is set in Athens, the Greek capital.

When it comes to Hermia's connection to Consort, you can clearly see that some of his ancestors are named after characters from Troilus & Cressida. While it might not seem like much at first, this particular play is set during the Trojan War, which was fought between the Trojans and the Greeks.

As for how Hermia is connected to Contessa, our answer lies in one Cleopatra Capp. The original Capp matriarch was named after Cleopatra VII Philopater, one of the last two pharaohs descended from Ptolemy I Soter. In life, Ptolemy was a Macedonian Greek general who not only served under Alexander III of Macedon, but was also one of his most trusted companions.

With all this in mind, the fact that the developers chose to place Hermia as a member of the Capp family makes much more sense should we take this information into account. That being said, this point only really serves to connect Hermia to her maternal grandparents, and has nothing to do with either of her siblings. This means that the developers could have potentially placed Hermia as either Goneril or Regan’s daughter, and the ties to her maternal ancestors would remain intact.

Cousin Hermia?

As mentioned above, we can connect Hermia to her maternal grandparents because, like Hermia, Consort’s parents and grandparents are named after characters from a Shakespeare work with ties to Greece, whereas Contessa’s maternal grandmother was named for an individual of Macedonian Greek descent. With that in mind, how can we connect Hermia to Tybalt and Juliette? One way is to assume that, perhaps, Hermia was not intended to be a sibling, but rather a cousin.

None of Contessa and Consort’s children share a unique Greek connection with Hermia, but perhaps we can learn something from looking at information found in an international version of the game instead? In the French version of the game, there is something peculiar about the biography belonging to her aunt Regan’s husband, Cornwall. Cornwall’s French biography is nearly identical to his English biography, the latter stating:

“Cornwall isn't thrilled that his brother-in-law Kent is living with him while he gets back on his feet after losing his job. Can he make room for his wife's family in their home?”

Conversely, Cornwall’s, or in this case Guillermo’s, French biography states:

“Guillermo n'est pas des plus ravis à l'idée que Carlo, son beau-frère, emménage chez lui en attendant de retrouver du travail. Réussira-t-il à supporter sa belle-famille? Et apprendra-t-il enfin à mieux connaitre sa fille Hermia?”

For those of you who don't speak French, the bolded sentence roughly translates to:

“And will he finally learn to know his daughter Hermia better?”

Hermia’s Biography

With Cornwall’s French biography in mind, I started to find the contents of Hermia’s to be more interesting. For those of you who are curious, it states:

“Hermia is smart, but on the shy side. She often wonders from what rock her brother Tybalt crawled out from under.”

Unlike what happened with Cornwall, Hermia’s biography is the same in both the English and French versions of the game, so we can’t really look for any differences in this case. That said, the second sentence in her biography is rather odd when taking her relationship with Tybalt into account.

Contrary to what's written in her biography, Hermia’s relationship with Tybalt is actually rather cordial (I believe their scores start roughly somewhere from high 20s to low 40s). Sure, they’re not friends, but Hermia’s a lot closer to being friends with Tybalt than Juliette is when the game starts. While I could easily see her giving him the side-eye due to their differing stances regarding the feud, the fact remains that they act civil towards each other (noogies and other immature antics notwithstanding).

Another interesting element in Hermia’s biography is that Tybalt is specifically referred to as her “brother,” thereby reflecting their relationship in the final product. By taking this and combining it with their positive relationship, a part of me began to wonder if Tybalt’s mention in her biography was something haphazardly added later in development.

If this line was in Hermia’s biography from the start, I think the developers would have likely programmed Hermia’s relationship with him to reflect that fairly early on. However, should we replace “her brother Tybalt” with something like “her father,” or “her mother,” or even “her parents,” this line would make more sense from a programming standpoint if the individuals in question were originally Regan and/or Cornwall — two sims whose relationship scores with her range from -20 and 0 on both sides when the game starts.

We cannot say for sure what the developers intended when it comes to Hermia’s place in the Capp family; however, we can make some guesses based on the information provided in the game itself, as well as from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Hermia’s Role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hermia is at the center of a love quadrangle. She is loved by two men, Demetrius and Lysander, yet she only reciprocates the latter’s feelings; meanwhile, her friend Helena has one-sided feelings for Hermia’s unrequited suitor.

The role closest to what Cornwall’s French biography seems to be implying is the one Hermia’s father, Egeus, plays in this whole shebang. Despite it being established that Hermia is in love with Lysander, Egeus wants her to marry Demetrius instead — even going as far as to threaten her life if she refuses. This results in Hermia and Lysander deciding to run away and elope, thus kicking off the main plot of the play. Luckily for the two lovebirds, Egeus eventually acquiesces to their union, but only after Demetrius is given a magical love drug that makes him fall for Helena instead.

The Other Hermia

In the final product, Hermia is the daughter of Cordelia Capp and her husband Caliban, rather than Cordelia’s sister Regan and her husband Cornwall. Unfortunately, since Cordelia and Caliban are both deceased by the time the game starts, we do not have any idea what their relationship with Hermia was like. The only reference we really have to go on is a storytelling image which shows Hermia, Juliette, and Tybalt alongside their parents; however, the picture in question was taken while Hermia was still a toddler. This does not help us in determining Hermia’s relationship with Cordelia and Caliban, as toddlers in The Sims 2 are not only reliant on older sims, but their pool of interaction with them is incredibly limited.

With the game not giving us much to work with regarding Hermia’s relationship with Cordelia and Caliban, Cornwall’s French biography does at least provide an idea of what a father/daughter relationship between the two of them would have been like, and it has some parallels to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Love and Money

While the names of her suitors don't match up with the original Shakespeare play, Hermia's place in the love quadrangle remains intact for The Sims 2. In this case, Hermia Capp has feelings for both Puck Summerdream and Mercutio Monty, and while both reciprocate, she seems to prefer Puck.

With this in mind, it seems unlikely that Cornwall not understanding Hermia would have had anything to do with her choice in a mate, what with Hermia seeming to prefer the choice that is not part of the enemy family. However, if there were anything the ambitious Cornwall would object to about Hermia’s choice of Puck, it would likely be related to family funds. When you first load their lot, the Summerdreams only have 6,573 simoleons in spending money. This is quite measly in comparison to the families inhabiting the Capp Manor and the Monty Ranch, both of whom have over 80,000. However, because Veronaville is severely lacking in premade families that are neither Capp nor Monty, this argument likely doesn’t hold as much water as it otherwise would.

If we take that into account, how else could Cornwall have possibly found it difficult to understand Hermia? Well, part of it might have something to do with their aspirations. Both Cornwall and Regan are fortune sims with a large interest in money, so it could have been entirely possible that they might have been trying to push the family-oriented Hermia into a career path she had no interest in. This potential disagreement could have also led Hermia to rebel by dressing in a way that might scare off potential employers, which might have had some influence in her final, Hot Topic-esque wardrobe.

Hermia’s Other Ancestry

Back at the beginning of this essay, I mentioned that none of Contessa and Consort’s four children share a unique Greek connection with Hermia. That said, if she was Regan and Cornwall’s daughter, her position as a Capp would be more warranted from a geographical standpoint.

Prior to marrying into the Capp family, Cornwall was a member of the Dane family, and his father and paternal grandparents were all named after characters from Hamlet. This family history is interesting for two reasons.

First, despite Shakespeare’s characters being Danish, Hamlet’s love interest Ophelia and her brother Laertes have names with Greek origins. Ophelia’s name is derived from ὄφελος (ophelos), meaning “help” or “advantage,” whereas Laertes is named after Odysseus’ father in Homer’s Odyssey.

Outside the Shakespeare canon, there’s also the House of Glücksburg (or Glücksborg), the current ruling house of Denmark. In 1863, Prince Wilhelm (or Vilhelm) of Denmark, second son of King Christian IX, was elected King of the Hellenes and ruled as George I of Greece until his death in 1913. The House of Glücksburg initially ruled Greece until 1924, when George II was deposed. They were eventually reinstated in 1935, and ruled until 1974, when a republic referendum voted against the return of the monarchy following the collapse of a military dictatorship.

These connections are rather striking, especially since none of the other “Lear Generation” Capp couples (Goneril/Albany and Cordelia/Caliban) are connected to Hermia in a similar geographical way. It’s probably coincidental, but interesting nonetheless, that Regan and Cornwall are the only couple of the three to have this sort of geographical connection to Hermia on both sides of the family tree.

Final Thoughts

I first discovered this tidbit of information back in 2018, and I’ll be honest, it set off a huge chain reaction in how I interpreted Veronaville. Not long after learning about the leftover text, I started a Veronaville playthrough on my MacBook, and it was there that I discovered just how negative Hermia’s relationships were with both Regan and Cornwall. From there, it just kind of snowballed out of control, with me creating mountains upon mountains of headcanons in order to justify their dynamics in the final product.

From an out-of-universe perspective, however, I would say that the biggest thing to come out of this discovery was that it was the catalyst for the GVGP’s existence. Initially, I was just going to look at Hermia’s genetic profile and delve into it for this essay. It was meant to be a one time thing, but once I got started, I just couldn’t help but keep going further down the rabbit hole.

As for what Hermia’s genetic profile looks like in particular, and how it makes sense with both the parents she has in the final product, as well as the ones she could have had during development, we’ll have to wait and see. At this point in time, the GVGP has been on sort of a hiatus, but I’ve fallen back into my Veronaville obsession for the time being, so maybe I’ll post some genetic profiles in the near future. Unfortunately, given that I’ve been super busy in my personal life, I can’t make any promises, though I do intend to finish it one of these days.

Thank you so much for reading this essay. It’s been in the works since 2018, but a combination of writers’ block, real life, and different hyperfixations have caused it to be delayed longer than my younger self would have expected. Nevertheless, I’m so glad that I’m finally able to share it all with you.

[lav-and-roses-answeringquestions]

The Mousai

After doing a lot of research, divining, and asking questions to everyone, I finally felt ready enough to reach forward to the Mousai!

Z20.2 PORTRAITS OF THE NINE MUSES The nine circles of this mosaic contain portraits of the nine Muses. The goddesses and their attributes from the top left to the bottom right are Calliope with a scroll, Euterpe with a flute, Thalia with a comic mask, Melpomene with a tragic mask, Terpsichore with a lyre, Erato with a cithara, Clio with a writing block, Urania with a globe, and Polyhymnia without an attribute.

I was definitely afraid that this was blaspheming God with this doing this. That this was the final nail in the coffin. I was agonizing forever on this one, even with reassurance from Lady Sophia and Our Holy Mother.

It wasn't until I cried out for a sign in my room that Big J himself said in my ear that no matter what he'd still love me. I actually cried then, scrunching up my covers and sobbing. My tears seemed to wash away my worries- or rather his words did. I told you all before how much of a Big Brother Lord Jesus is, but I never cried like that before him and felt his arms just circle me in an embrace like that.

It was such an amazing feeling! Which is why I'm feeling a lot more confident to put this down!

Now onto the Mousai below the cut!

The Mousai, more readily known as the Muses are the goddesses of music, poetry and inspiration in Hellenism. Led by Calliope, their role was expanded to encompass a variety of arts including rhetoric, philosophy, mathematics, geography, history and astronomy. They were also goddesses of knowledge, who remembered all things that had come to pass as daughters of Mnemosyne, who is the Titan Goddess of Memory and creator of language.

Numbered among them are:

Calliope: Goddess of Epic poetry and eloquence. The mother of the poet Orpheus and the leader of the Mousai. Her name means "Beautiful voiced" from the Greek words kallos and ops.

Clio: Goddess of History. Her name means "To make famous" or "celebrate." from the Greek verb kleô. As a history nerd, I thank her greatly.

Erato: Goddess of erotic poetry. Her name means "lovely" or "beloved" from the Greek word eratos.

Euterpe: Goddess of Lyric poetry. Her name was derived from the Greek words eu- and terpô, meaning "giver of much delight." She might explain where I get all my sudden bursts of inspiration for song lyrics throughout the day!

Polyhymnia: Goddess of Hymns. Her name was derived from the Greek words poly- "many" and hymnos "praise" or "hymn." Invoking her with my hymns and prayers helps me a lot! Same thing with making devotional playlists!

Urania: The Goddess of astronomy and astrology... and mathematics. Definitely mathematics! Praying to her and Lady Sophia for discernment has helped my Pre-Calc grade more than anything else! Her name means: ”Heavenly" or "of heaven".

Thalia: Goddess of Comedy. Her name was derived from the Greek word thaleia meaning "rich festivity" or "blooming." I see myself as a (hopefully) funny person so, I can thank her and My Heavenly Mother for that!

Melpomene: Goddess of Tragedy. Her name was derived from the Greek verb melpô or melpomai meaning "to celebrate with dance and song." She's also the mother of the Sirens! Definitely have been getting inspired by her with my track record for putting my darling ocs through the wringer. Suffering builds character I'm afraid.

Terpsichore: The Goddess of choral song and dance. Her name means "Delighting in Dance" from the Greek words terpsis "to delight" and khoros "dance". While I haven't sung in a choir in a while, I still appreciate how so many people coming together for a common goal can sound heavenly.

If I could describe what I think these Inspirers of Poetic Thought are in a few simple words, I would say that they are, like My Holy Mother and Lady Sophia and Jesus and the Archangels, are Emanations of a large deity- God, that is everything, everywhere all at once. They mix and intersect into each other's domains sometimes while still being their own individuals, but all come from the same source above all. The one that created and is the universe and all living things. The one who slumbers as creation. Our Heaven Father. Khaos. God. It's all the same at the end of the day to me at least. Divine offshoots created from a single unifying source.

I'll send more stuff in the future and try to update more often so don't be spooked if I pop up from time to time! Promise!

[sillygardenduckpanda]

You Were Always Mine (Part 1)

Summary: Karma Artemis Sauveterre finds herself moving from Wizarding Britain to Beacon Hills after tragedy strikes her family. Let's see how she fits into this completely new environment while dealing with heartache, losses and gains.

Warning: This series contains smut, angst and teenage pregnancy. I'll probably place another reminder if I don't forget. I'm very forgetful. Also it was written by me and my dominant language is not English, I think that can classify as a warning because a lot of people are very particular about grammar and spelling. Mistakes are my own and I apologize in advance.

Pairing: Stiles x Artemis (Female OC)

A/N: My OC comes from the Harry Potter Universe, but HP characters will not star in this story. Only the spells and potions. And the schools. No people. This is going to be based in Teen Wolf and will follow their storyline, but not always very accurately. I did my best. I have only written until Season 2. I haven't watched Season 3 and up. I will try to start watching again and see if I can continue the story because I do want to include Void Stiles in this story. Thank you.

This is just a back story that I want to get out of the way. I'm not very good with "past tense and present" so I try to avoid writing memories and skipping from past to present. We will only start seeing more of Stiles and the gang once she has officially moved to Beacon Hills because the story starts with her childhood in Wizarding Britain.

Karma Artemis Sauveterre is a 14 year old Ravenclaw witch in 4th year at Hogwarts. She goes by Artemis, but most adults call her Karma. Her father suggested her name - meaning fate. He believes that she should be in charge of her own destiny, just as his parents had raised him. They allowed him to make his own choices, but only steered him into the right direction whenever they could. That's the same courtesy he wanted to grant his daughter. Her mother decided on Artemis, since she is a huge lover of Greek mythology. See, her mother's name is Leto. And in Greek mythology, Leto had a daughter named Artemis. If she had a son, he would have been Apollo.

Karma's father, Nicolas Sauveterre was one of French descend & the sweetest man she's had the pleasure of knowing. He's a thoughtful father who listens to her opinions & wishes, even though he was strict when he had to be.

Nicolas' grandparents moved to America right after they married since his grandmother got a job as a French teacher at Ilvermorny. His grandfather was a magical creature expert and worked as a veterinarian at the magical zoo in Los Angeles, California. They loved it in California and decided on purchasing a mansion and setting down roots.

His parents went into healing as well, since that is the branch of magic they were gifted with. His mother, Karma's grandmother, became a medi-witch and his father became a researcher for the spells division at MACUSA. He mostly researched and created healing spells instead of offensive or defensive spells.

Nicolas also went into healing after finishing his education at Ilvermorny. He worked part time at St. Jouge's as a Medi-Wizard in Wizarding California before transferring to St Mungo's where he got a job offer as a Healer. When he had moved to Britain, his parents moved back to their family home in France and left the house elves to care for the upkeep of the Sauveterre mansion in California. He had decided to stay in Britain for the foreseeable future because that's where he met the woman he married, Leto Selwyn.

He had met her in 1992 when he had first moved to Britain and was instantly captivated by her beauty. She was graceful, sophisticated, but still sassy and very outspoken. He was in awe.

He persued her and petitioned for her hand in marriage. By the end of that year, she was Lady Sauveterre. The following year, they conceived Karma and they were blissfully happy - until June 1995.

The Sauveterres didn't know much about the first British Wizarding war since it never quite reached other magical continents. They've heard whispers about a war escalating then almost immediately coming to an end, so no one was concerned.

Nicolas was unaware of the social climate of Wizarding Britain regarding light and dark families. If he heard whispers then he ignored it because the woman he was with made him truly happy, no matter the rumors of her family.

That's until her father came by more often. His wife having more and more hushed conversations with her father that wasn't meant for his ears. More and more dodgy characters occupied their home until that fateful day in June.

"The Dark Lord has returned." He heard from the floo. He was just about to enter the drawing room when he heard his father in law and his wife, so he decided to listen in on them. "He has been resurrected. Finally we will rid our world of those Muggle filth and halfbreeds."

He noticed that Leto seemed to hesitate. "Father..." she started. "I told you countless times before. I have a family now. The ideals you believe in...I don't believe in it. It seems superfluous. I have a husband who loves me. I have a daughter whom I'd die for. What could your Dark Lord offer me that I don't already have?" she asked softly.

"If that's what you believe then you are no heir of mine! I can't believe that I have a disappointment such as yourself as a daughter! You should be ashamed. Your mother died giving birth to you and I know she would want our legacy to continue. Are you going to let her death be in vain?" Her father spat out harshly.

"Father, listen." she pleaded. "I never wanted any part in this, why can't you understand that? I did my duty to our family. House Selwyn has a pureblood heir. I don't see what more you could want?" Nicolas could hear that she was close to tears.

"If you thought that popping out little pureblood heirs is your only duty then you are thoroughly foolish, daughter! I did not raise a simple-minded girl. You are better than any of these other frivolous women in our pureblood community. We will show the Dark Lord how superior house Selwyn is and if you can't do that with me, daughter, then I have no problem casting you out onto the streets!" He shouted and ended the floo call immediately after his long winded speech.

Leto sat numbly infront of the amber fire before she started crying. She felt her husband come up and hug her from behind and that just made her cry harder.

"He would let our House die out for his Lord!" she screamed, anger and pain coloring her voice. "What do I do, Nic? I can't be cast from the family. I can't be without a name." she cried.

"Shhh, love." Nicolas hugged her, "You don't have to do this, you are a Sauveterre now." he said, kissing her on the forehead.

"It's not the same, my sun. You know that." Leto looked up at him, teary eyed. "I don't want to lose my family magic."

He pulled her even tighter against him. He understood completely. The Selwyns have extraordinary family magic - Defensive magic. Just as the Sauveterres has a special affinity for healing, the Selwyns has an affinity for defending. They have natural Occlumency - protection of the mind. They have the natural talent for any type of shield, their family manor has the most severe protective wards so no one in their social circle would dare intrude where they weren't welcome.

It would surely be a major disadvantage losing a natural talent like that...something she's been able to do her entire life. Especially in perilous times such as this, Nicolas thought.

At the end, Leto did what her father wanted under duress. She did everything that was expected of her - whether it was to donate to the cause, to scare someone into submission by burning their houses and businesses down, whether she had to polyjuice herself to get things done or if it was to protect Death Eaters. She drew the line when it came to murder and torture, though.

She had kept memories of everytime her husband and daughter were threatened. Everytime her father came close to blasting her from the family tree. She even saved memories of the few times she managed to save muggleborns and halfbloods whenever she was out on an undercover mission.

In the end, it didn't matter. She was still sentenced to 10 years in Azkaban. The light families applauded her efforts, at least some of them did. Some of the dark families hated her, especially her father's associates. Her father had died during the war and the entire Selwyn fortunes were hers as the last of her bloodline.

She convinced her husband to sell their current place and move into Selwyn Manor since it was heavily warded and protected. The wards wouldn't fall so long as there was an heir with Selwyn blood alive.

She was sent to Azkaban on the same day her family moved into Selwyn manor and she felt secure having her husband and daughter protected.

When her daughter had reached her preteen years, her father would bring her to Azkaban to visit her mother. Most people frowned upon that but he was past caring. Nicolas just wanted to keep Leto's memory alive in Artemis' mind and he never stopped telling her that everything her mother did, was in protection of the family. He made sure that his daughter knew what an amazing woman her mother was.

10 years passed in a blur. Artemis was top of her class at Hogwarts, Nicolas was head healer at St Mungo's and Leto was due home soon. All three of the Sauveterres would finally have that empty space filled in their hearts and lives.

[sunriseseance]

Allison, Leadership, and the Role of a Kind Protagonist

Allison Hargreeves serves as the true protagonist of The Umbrella Academy, and the true leader of the team, and because of the leadership required by the show, these two facts link inextricably. The show, as we know, uses an ensemble cast to tell the story of a family, and I am not trying to take away from the importance of the others because ultimately, her role as protagonist is about her unique journey in the show, not about her importance versus the importance of others. It’s also important to define our terms here. I am going to be talking about Allison as the protagonist, and that means I am going to be talking about Vanya as the antagonist (yay sisters!). These terms do not mean good guy and bad guy. I do not believe Vanya is evil in any way. For my terms, I’m gonna go to The Cambride Introduction to Narrative Second Edition, which says “The Greek word for conflict… is agon and how the agon played out formed the spine of any Greek tragedy… Characters in the narrative were assigned roles in the agon. Thus there was a “protagonist”(hero) and an “antagonist”(the hero’s chief opponent)” (H. Porter Abbot 55).   TUA functions as a Greek tragedy. The main characters bring the prophesied bad shit onto themselves in a theater literally named after Icarus. These are my terms: Allison is the protagonist, and Vanya is her chief opponent. 

So, Allison. The first time we see Allison, she’s a spectacle. In contrast to Vanya, Luther, and Diego before her, she is well lit, and focus is clearly on her. She is the center of the universe, and she stands alone. Sonically, we hear people calling her name repeatedly as Vanya’s music wanes. The next time we see her, she is being told the news about Reginald. She is the conduit through which we discover what has happened. We see her learning that he died third, but it is the first time we, as audience members, hear it. I’m risking repeating myself, but we hear it with her which centers our discovery around hers. In-universe, the death is made about her. They ask her when she last spoke to Reginald, and what she will wear to the funeral. She remains the center of the universe, and the center of our universe as she is the reason we know what is happening beyond vague sensations. This sequence concludes with Vanya, who was also alone, also had a light on her, being revealed to be unwatched, and in the dark. This lack of attention in a similar situation sets her up in direct opposition to Allison. I only bring this up because the care and focus taken on Vanya in this sequence, and subsequent care and focus given to Vanya, is care and focus that we are also supposed to give to Allison. Vanya is the antagonist, and Allison is her chief opponent. 

The next time we see Allison, she’s towering again. She’s backlit with gold light as it streams through her hair, mimicking a halo. She’s descending a staircase to come and meet Vanya at her level. She hugs Vanya, which we see Vanya does not expect. As we’ve been following Vanya (a sympathetic antagonist) thus far, we see Allison’s kindness as good, and correct, and she affirms it as an active choice when Diego comes in and says, very bluntly, that Vanya is not welcome in his eyes. This moment serves as the first hint that Allison is not just the protagonist, but also the best leader in the group. She opposes Diego’s callousness to his face and she is correct. Allison reaffirms to Vanya that she knows she is making the correct choice in welcoming Vanya with literal open arms.  “Forget about him,” she says, “I’m glad you’re here.” When Vanya doubts herself, and says she thinks she should leave, Allison makes a direct decision and gives a direct order. She is positioning herself, from the first episode, as a leader who makes concrete decisions, acts on them with conviction, and steps in with said conviction when those around her lack direction or assurance. 

This is long already, and I am three scenes into episode one. Whoops. Some rapid fire seems in order. When she talks with Luther about her daughter, she asserts that she will not use her powers to benefit herself anymore because it has negative consequences. She makes a choice, and she sticks to it almost completely throughout the season (and when she fails to stick to it, it serves as a reminder of her flaws as the protagonist of a Greek tragedy). She is the one who draws the link between Klaus not being sober and him not being able to use his powers, showing that she has an awareness of her team as people and an understanding of how they work as heroes. She continues her dedication to Vanya when Vanya leaves without saying goodbye to any of them, while the others fail to care implicitly or explicitly. 

Just for flavor, I’m making this a standalone: If everyone had listened to Allison (including Allison), the world would not have ended. 

In episode two,Allison affirms that she does not know what to do with herself, and that she has things to do before she reaches her end-goal of being with Claire again. She acknowledges a void in herself that, I would argue, is and should be filled with leadership. This is reflected in her desire to see Claire again, and her having to take steps to get there. Ultimately, it is a complicated desire. She wants it for herself, and she wants it for Claire, and neither of these things are bad. It’s not bad to want things. However, her dedication to doing it right shows a dedication to seeing a plan through, and to being a good person even when it is not personally advantageous, that the  leadership in TUA demands. However, she fucks up sometimes. Her fuck ups are disastrous, and they all directly impact Vanya, our antagonist. Allison’s first fuck up comes in this episode. She says “unkind” things to Vanya that, because of her position as morally correct in other instances, lead Vanya to be more open to Leonard than is advisable, and close her off from Allison. This brings me back to my thinking about Greek Tragedy. Allison tells Vanya that her self isolation is her fault, and this leads directly into Vanya meeting with and being open to Leonard when she otherwise wouldn’t be. As the protagonist of a Greek Tragedy, Allison is responsible in part for her own demise from episode two, and this can only be the case because usually Allison is right about things, and the decisions she makes are good decisions. Allison’s time in episode two concludes with her discovering further conspiracy about their Father’s death. Pogo chooses her specifically for this task, for seeing the video tape that suggests that Grace killed Reginald, which puts her directly at the center of the conspiracy. In addition, she was about to leave, and because of this anchor, she no longer feels she can. She, as the protagonist, is trapped by the story. This centralizes crucial plot discoveries on her for a second time in two episodes. 

Episode three, for Allison, opens with her making a concrete decision that overrules Luther, the ostensible leader. In reference  to the video tape, Luther says “play it again” and Allison replies “We’ve watched it over and over, Luther. It’s the same every time.” Luther making a request of her, Allison denying it, and Luther accepting this denial. He goes on immediately to ask her what is goin on, and he seems to genuinely expect an answer. This says to me that he knows she is smart, observant, and capable. He trusts her abilities more than he trusts his own. It’s also worth noting that when Allison says that Grace did not kill Reginald on purpose, she is completely correct. While interrogating Grace, Allison prioritizes Grace’s emotional state and personal hardships over logistical questions about time and space. This echoes largely throughout her approach to problem solving and leadership in the entire show. While others focus on where, and when, Allison focuses on why. In this moment, Luther’s questions about where and when fail completely, while Allison’s give them explicit proof that something is wrong with Grace in some way or another. This confirms from the start of the third episode that she is, usually, correct in her approach. In her subsequent conversation with Luther about Grace and murder, Allison attempts to understand Grace’s state of being, and refuses Luther’s proposed idea that she does not have one. This plays partially into her projecting her motherly feelings onto Grace, but I think it’s important to note that she’s completely correct. When Allison sides with emotions and emotional intelligence over logic, she is consistently correct. 

Allison, as a leader, is capable of bad choices. We go from seeing a good choice (not killing Grace) to her explaining a bad choice she made in the past (rumoring Claire). However, she displays emotional understanding (“I know that’s what three-year olds are supposed to do”), and understanding that it was a choice she made with consequences. She takes responsibility, and is willing to do the emotional work to fix it. The end of this conversation reveals something sort of paradoxical about Allison. When Luther says “some things just take time,” Allison replies “yeah, and some things just stay broken.” To me, this line is fascinating. It feels out of line with all of the work that she is doing, and continues to do throughout the show. I don’t think it’s wrong, though. I don’t think it’s out of character or inconsistent. I think it’s further proof that she is both a good leader, and a protagonist. Allison has the emotional intelligence to understand that things will not always go the way she wants them to, and to work towards being better anyway. She knows that she will fail sometimes, and she does not let this knowledge crush her because she still has work to do. In a way, this feels pretty tragic to me. She suggests that she doubts she will ever be able to see her daughter again, but she is still willing to give up her powers and put in grueling emotional work for something that is one giant question mark in her head. This suggests to me that she thinks the work is worth something even without the result. That being good, now, is just as important as things ending well. This is reflected in her consistent tries with and deliberate prioritization of Vanya throughout the series. As far as Allison knows, being kind to Vanya will not save the world, but Allison wants to be kind to Vanya anyway. She wants to be kind even if the world is ending because, regardless of how broken things may stay, being good now is important to her. On a meta level, we know she is right. If everyone in the series acted like Allison, the world would not have ended. 

Allison seeks Vanya out for a family meeting, seemingly without the permission of the others, and pulls her away from Leonard on purpose. She makes the decision to prioritize the family meeting over Leonard, and although she frames it as a request, it is clear in narrative that it is the correct decision (and she is happy to speak for the entire family about it). She apologizes to Vanya for what she said in episode two, and she takes full accountability for the decisions she made. She also, crucially, meets the consequence of that decision for the first time, and she hates him. Vanya calls back to exactly what Allison said, making it clear that Leonard is a Greek Tragedy consequence of Allison’s actions. However, She uses direct language, makes it clear that Vanya was not at fault, and cops to a weakness in her ability to be a good sister, with an invitation for Vanya to communicate better what she needs from Allison. 

In the fight at the house with Hazel and Cha Cha, Allison disobeys a direct order from Luther (“You wanna rumor this psycho”) and, instead, gives Diego a knife and an order to “get her.” She holds her own without powers, and she is seen as just as necessary because her command decisions and good eye are crucial to their survival. Without being willing to use her powers, Allison needs a new role on the team, and she falls naturally into leading it when given the opportunity. After the fight is over, she checks in on Vanya, and (imo correctly) expresses to her that she is not equipped for the danger they face. However, she fucks up for a second time, and sends her into the arms of Greek Tragedy, when she listens to Diego’s shitty order to let Vanya go. If Allison had trusted in her own leadership, and followed her principle of doing the right thing now instead of later, the world would not have ended. 

In the fourth episode, Allison begins by understanding that Hazel and Cha were looking for Five, that Grace’s death is hard on Diego, and that Luther needs help. She makes the appeal to Luther, the leader, to engage emotionally with the world instead of logically. His refusal is, for our purposes, sort of inconsequential. Had she recognized herself as the leader, and he recognized her as the leader, the conversation would’ve gone differently, but what matters to me, now is that she had the right instinct, and she tried to follow it. Her arc is leadership, not her current moment. 

In Vanya’s apartment with Leonard, Allison shows herself to be a formidable opponent, and her presence there to begin with shows advance directive to make decisions, apologize, and be good. She goes, immediately, into Hero Mode when she sees the door open, and crucially, she does not let up. She does not trust Leonard after he tells his lie about having to go to the bathroom. She challenges his authority on her relationship with her sister. She takes away his next direct connection with Vanya, and she makes him leave. She does all of this on the fly, on instinct, because she is a good leader and she understands Leonard’s role in the story. 

The next time we see Allison, she is reading a magazine with an interview from (that dirtbag, scumsack, bastard) Patrick about how her old life does not need her. This upsets her, and she endures it anyway as a consequence of her actions. This speaks to a great deal of her fellow Greek Tragedy protagonists. Oedipus accepts his blindness, and his banishment, as a natural result of his actions. She continues to accept consequences regularly, apologizing and working to be better where she can. 

She tells Vanya that Leonard is bad news, after telling her that Mom is dead. These both feel like leadership to me. Complicated conversations about emotional reveals are hard, and they fall to those who can easily endure them. She feels for Vanya’s attachment to Leonard, she engages emotionally with Vanya’s connection to Leonard and the underlying feelings, but she refuses to let up on the idea that Leonard is bad. She refuses to give in, not even when it becomes clear that Leonard was there to drop off flowers. She is confirmed as correct because we see Leonard pouring Vanya’s pills down the sink. This mirrors her discovery of Reginald’s death and (alleged) murder. 

For the fifth episode, I think it’s important to talk about Allison’s fatal flaw. It ties in closely with her strengths, but sets itself apart in the way that it repeatedly, from here on out, pushes Vanya further into being an antagonist: Allison will do what she thinks is good, and she will do it unrelentingly. In this episode, instead of engaging with Vanya emotionally about Leonard while still keeping an eye on him, she searches him in the library, breaks into his house, and makes it clear to Vanya that she does not trust her judgement. We know, as the audience, that Vanya’s judgement should not be trusted, but we also can see, directly, that Allison’s approach is pushing Vanya away, not pulling her closer. Vanya bringing up Allison’s daughter ties Allison’s former mistakes, and former punishment, to her current mistakes and punishment. This feels, to me, significant in a Greek Tragedy way. Her former fatal flaw, using the easy way every time, feels opposite to her current one. She went from one extreme to another, and they both get her further away from her goals. In this case, I wanted to emphasize this, because I’ve been singing her praise a lot (how could I NOT), and I want to make it clear that I don’t think protagonist means flawless. She is still a complex character in a piece of media that is not over yet and so she still has things to figure out to be the best leader she can be. Episode five is the episode where she shows this most harshly, I believe, until her flaws come for her neck. 

In The Day that Wasn’t it is Allison’s decision to not save the world that leaves Luther shocked, because he expects her to do her best to be good. However, good in this case, feels to her like it should be loving her daughter. I find this hard to argue with. She takes the time, though, to be good to Luther, to comfort him. If this day had been left to its own devices, the world would not have ended. This is the weakest paragraph and I know that. I considered deleting it. 

In The Day that Was, Allison wants to go seek out Vanya, apologize to her, and talk her through why she wasn’t invited. She was the one to say it was a family matter in both episodes (obviously), further driving Vanya to feel isolated, othered, and angry. She knows this was what set Vanya off, and desires to fix it. She is told not to follow that instinct, and she relents. I’m a broken record at this point, but I believe that if she hadn’t the world would not have ended. She is the one to recognize Harold as Leonard, and to reprioritize Vanya’s safety. In the house, she is the one to discover the anti-shrine in the attic, and understand what it means about Leonard and his motivations. This reminds me of Greek Tragedies as well because, ultimately, Allison is the cause in one way or another of both antagonists’ actions. Leonard and Vanya both resent her and her position in the academy, and she is the only Hargreeves besides Vanya that Leonard ever directly interacts with. They are her chief opponents. 

I heard a Rumor, titled after Allison and her second most defining episode, opens with Allison ruminating on past consequences of her actions. It is her voice scoring her bad choice, her narration of a story from their childhood, and her recollection of this moment driving her to do better, now. In essence, she is the only one that matters in this moment. She is alone, and in danger, and seeking out her antagonists, and she is doing it with bravery and determination. The next time we see her, she identifies Vanya’s scarf at a crime scene, and makes the decision to lie to a police officer (something dangerous) to try to get better information in order to protect Vanya better. She does not, at this point, know that Vanya is her antagonist. The lie she tells is smart, and quick, and it works flawlessly up until the point she makes the decision to push further, again for Vanya’s safety. She then succeeds in talking the officer down from anger, but refuses his direct order to stay safe and close. She is in charge of herself. 

Allison telling Vanya about Harold, alone and opposed, shows genuine bravery and determination. Her unwillingness, even in the face of Vanya’s powers, to let up on worrying about Vanya’s safety and wellbeing shows a dedication to her position as responsible, and to her dedication to doing good. She feels responsible for this moment.

When Allison tells Vanya that she is the reason Vanya spent her entire life out of the spotlight, Allison takes her position on doing good now to the extreme. She takes responsibility for something she did at four, in hopes that good now means enough, but ready to accept that it might not. The decision to rumor Vanya, I think, comes from the same place that the decision to break into Leonard’s house does. She feels so deeply responsible for the wellbeing of others that she is willing to bend herself to make sure they are well. It is not lost on me that Vanya aims for Allison’s throat, runs away, and then in the next episode refuses to take responsibility for actions that actually are her own. Allison feels responsible for everything, and she takes responsibility for her own brutal assault, because she is a Greek Tragedy and Vanya is an antagonist.“MY FAULT,” Allison writes. Icarus, meet sun. 

In the final episode, Allison proves me right, and wrong, in equal measures. She is still a great leader. She suggests the lanes at the bowling alley for an escape. She asks Luther to let her go in alone just to try to connect to Vanya, in the face of powers that potentially robbed her of her last ever opportunity to talk with her daughter. She is the one that makes it to Vanya in a meaningful way, and, as the protagonist of a Greek Tragedy, she is the one that refuses to let Vanya be her antagonist. “SHE’S OUR SISTER,” she wrote. Allison moves the gun to Vanya’s ear, and chooses not to kill her. She chooses this out of her continued, unrelenting dedication to doing good, now. She refuses to see Vanya as the enemy, as someone who needs to be killed, and the show tells us that she is right. Allison’s final facedown with Vanya ends in the decision to save her, and this decision lets all the Hargreeves walk in Allison’s footsteps. They must act with Allison’s kindness, Allison’s emotional intelligence, and Allison’s unyielding dedication to good, now, regardless of later. Allison is the leader, and the protagonist, and she is going to save the world. 

[itsclydebitches]

Why do you like Lore Olympus? I'm genuinely curious because I've seen a lot of harsh criticisms toward the comic, from its inaccuracies regarding its use of Greek Mythology to the plethora of harmful queer stereotypes. I tried reading it myself but honestly, if you took out all the Greek Mythology references and naming, it just seems like another "far older man courts a barely adult woman" love story with bad queer rep thrown it.

Happy to explain! Let’s tackle what’s perhaps the most complicated aspect first. 

As a former Classics major I can tell you that there is no “Greek Mythology.” Meaning, there is no singular Greek Mythology that can be referenced and consulted in any uniform way. Which is a really difficult thing to conceptualize in an age of print publications and careful record keeping. Unsure about whether Harry ever cursed Draco with such-and-such hex? Re-read the Harry Potter books to find out. Want to claim that Sherlock was horrible to Watson and frequently insulted him? We can comb through Doyle’s shorts stories and novels, tally every insult, and find out. These are canons and, as messy as the term “canonical” has become with more adaptations and transmedia storytelling, most characters have a set, fixed existence that we can return to and use as evidence. Not so with Greek Mythology. Born of oral storytelling, there are a hundred different versions of every myth, some changes more stark than others. Some of those versions were written down. Then written down again (differently). Then written down again (differently still). Then we realized they were almost all being written down by men and huh, I wonder if that has any impact on how they framed the story (spoiler: it absolutely does). And all of this doesn’t even take into account the issue of translation. Regardless of what Ovid may have put down on the page, you’re going to get a different experience depending on whether you read Melville or Gregory. There’s a reason why everyone was so excited over Emily Wilson being the first woman to translate The Odyssey into English. Her perspective and her experience as a woman by default changes the way she approaches the text. Even something as simple as a single description can have a HUGE impact depending on how it is translated. Take this excerpt from a NYT article: 

“The prefix poly,” Wilson said, laughing, “means ‘many’ or ‘multiple.’ Tropos means ‘turn.’ ‘Many’ or ‘multiple’ could suggest that he [Odysseus] is much turned, as if he is the one who has been put in the situation of having been to Troy, and back, and all around, gods and goddesses and monsters turning him off the straight course that, ideally, he’d like to be on. Or, it could be that he’s this untrustworthy kind of guy who is always going to get out of any situation by turning it to his advantage. It could be that he’s the turner.”

Is Odysseus a poor victim turned around by monsters and fate, or is he a schemer capable of turning it all to his advantage? It all depends on how it’s translated and whoever wants to make a case for Odysseus being a “good” or “bad” guy can point to this translation as evidence… or another. Or another. There are just too many versions for anyone to definitely say what these gods and others are “really” like. 

I put so much emphasis on this because the biggest criticism I’ve seen leveled against the comic is the characterization of Apollo. He would never rape Persephone! How dare you twist his character like that! Except Apollo isn’t a character that exists in a fixed canon. He belongs to an overwhelming corpus of complicated, contrary, contrasting myths… and yes, in some of those he raped. Arguably. It, again, comes down to translation and interpretation. Take this excerpt from Nancy Rabinowitz’s paper “Greek Tragedy: A Rape Culture?” 

Creusa, raped by Apollo years ago, conceived a child and abandoned him… For the purposes of this paper, I have to address the question of whether Creusa was in fact raped by the god. Hermes mixes the terminology in the prologue; he asserts that the god Apollo “yoked the daughter of Erechtheus in marriage (γάμοις)”, but he also says “by force (βίᾳ)” (10-11). Ion later (1524-25; cf. 341, 325) wonders whether Creusa was really raped, or whether she was just alleging that the god took her by violence to cover up an indiscretion of her own – a similar situation could be imagined in our own day, where false allegations may arise from young girls’ fear of confessing consensual relations to their parents. Lefkowitz argues that women tend to cooperate in their seduction by a god. While it might seem obvious that Ion is simply wrong, there is the further implication that though Apollo raped Creusa, she also desired him” (11-12). 

So if we’re looking for evidence that Smythe’s interpretation of Apollo is the “correct” one, it exists… depending on what you read and how you choose to interpret it: whether a mortal woman can ever truly give consent due to the power difference between her and a god, whether it was safe to say no, whether she might have lied to protect herself, whether it was something a part of her desired but perhaps didn’t entirely want, etc. It’s that last bit in particular—those difficult questions—that Smythe explores in her comic. Persephone wants to explore her sexuality. She wants a way out of her virgin obligations. But she’s also pressured into sex by Apollo. He doesn’t stop when she expresses discomfort. She doesn’t feel safe asserting herself and telling him to stop. It’s rape, but it’s a far more complicated situation than the rape scenario of “Evil man forces himself on woman in the back of an alleyway” and Smythe treats the tragedy with nuance and respect, even in a comic filled with so much humor. 

The people I see most upset about Lore Olympus are those who talk about the gods and their associated mortals as if they’re characters out of a book. They read one version once—or maybe two—and, as is natural in the 21st century, decided that This Is How The Story Goes. Even though every academic would be losing their mind over such definitive statements as, “Such-and-Such would never do this.” That’s simply not how records this ancient, sporadic, political, and downright messy work. So as someone with some knowledge of how Greek Mythology functions, I’m not at all put off by the comics’ “inaccuracies.” Because they’re simply not inaccuracies, just interpretations. Not liking those interpretations is fine, but that doesn’t mean Smythe was wrong for providing them. 

As for the rest, I’ll try to limit myself to bullet points: 

The age difference between Persephone and Hades is definitely A Thing and I admittedly didn’t realize that was the case when I started reading. I assumed that Persephone, like most of the cast, was hundreds/thousands of years old and just had a child-like personality. I basically realized around the time Hades did that she’s so young. That being said, the issue of age differences changes for me once you reach such insane ages. That’s why I still ship Ozqrow: Ozpin is hundreds of years older than him but at that point he’s going to be older than everyone. Always. Limiting his ships to only those who are close to Ozpin’s age means you can’t ship him at all (unless you ship him with Salem post-grimm pool and… no). It’s a similar situation with Hades. Yes, there are plenty of gods his age that he could date (and indeed he does) but he is always going to be thousands of years older than Persephone. She can literally never catch up to him, so if someone has an issue with the age gap then they have to accept that it will simply never go away. They can never be a couple in which case yeah, then the comic just isn’t your thing. 

Really, I think the bigger issue is not the gap itself but Persephone’s age, period. Again though, I appreciate that Smythe treats the situation with a great deal of respect. This isn’t a story of a much older man hunting a younger woman. It’s the story of a much older god who, like me the reader, assumed he had fallen for a slightly younger goddess… and then freaked out when he found out he was wrong. He’s called out for his ignorance. Others are incredibly protective of Persephone. They both try to stay away from one another and find themselves struggling. Which, to be frank, is an interesting dilemma to me. And it’s one I’m more interested in with gods as characters as opposed to humans. Because it feels less predatory to me. A man going after a much younger woman is threatening in part because we’re mortals who have so much to lose, including our youth. If you enter an abusive relationship that alone is horrible enough, but it also means you’ve lost all those years and all that experience to toxicity. When a god goes after a much younger goddess… they’re kind of static. They have eternity stretching out before them. Persephone potentially “losing” ten years to a relationship with Hades just isn’t the same thing as a mortal losing ten years to a relationship of their own. Gods, though they seem quite human, simply aren’t and thus for me questions of morality and what’s ethical in any given situation changes. We have a cast who, when Eros gets upset and murders a whole bunch of humans, Zeus shrugs and says they’ll just make more. Their concept of right and wrong differs from ours and it invites the reader to apply that to every situation: is it as wrong for an older god to go after a 19yo goddess as it would be for an older man to go after a 19yo woman? Many readers may decide it is—to some extent the text decides it is—but the story still possesses ambiguity and invites the reader to grapple with it. That’s compelling. 

Connected to this, I like how much agency Persephone has throughout the series. She’s very much a character who defies expectations, particularly when it comes to her sexuality. Far from being a meek, vulnerable woman who is preyed on by Hades, she is making constant, active decisions about her own romantic and sexual encounters. Even if that decision is just acknowledging how unsure she still is: does she want to remain a virgin? Does she want Apollo? Does she want Hades? Is it okay to make out with Ares? Wear this very short dress? Get drunk? Explore a city? Invite this person over? Have feelings for your boss? Persephone is grappling with a lot of questions that don’t have easy answers and the fact that the story gives her the room to do that grappling is fantastic. I’ve spoken before about my dislike of the Strong Female Character—someone who is not just physically intimidating but who also never, EVER hesitates. She knows precisely what she wants and she’s going to take it! Which is a great portrayal of one kind of woman… but I’m not that kind. I hem and haw and am anxious like Persephone. So for me it’s refreshing to see a story that paints uncertainty as strength. She’s allowed the space to be unsure and confused and is never belittled for that. 

Honestly I’m not sure what the issue with the queer rep is? Beyond the fact that Lore Olympus doesn’t seem to have any (unless I’m forgetting some. Very possible). Which, admittedly, is far from great, but if I dismissed every story due solely to a lack of queer characters I would limit a lot of my potential media. So for me, personally, that’s not a deal breaker. Taking a stab in the dark, I’ll make an assumption that people are upset about certain characterizations like Eros? Which, fair. But we also have the flip side that effeminate, flamboyant men do exist. It’s another complicated, touchy subject, but there’s a fine line between enforcing stereotypes and acknowledging that those stereotypes often do arise out of something. Some people hate the media image of the queer kid decked out in rainbows. Other people look at their own wardrobe and backpack and go, “Actually… yeah. That can be accurate.” For me stereotypes are primarily an issue given their prevalence. It’s an issue when that’s the only way queer characters are portrayed, but Lore Olympus doesn’t have that problem because, again, it’s focused on het relationships. Eros might potentially be a (non-confirmed?) queer stereotype… or he’s a battle-hardened warrior who also likes to gush about gossip while baking, the sort of complex gender portrayal that people claim to want. It depend on how you approach it. So no, Lore Olympus isn’t breaking any ground with queer rep but, as said, I do appreciate how it treats sexual assault—among other sensitive, relevant issues. It’s a trade-off. No piece of media is going to be perfect. I could say the same thing about so many great stories. The Mandalorian doesn’t have any queer rep! No, it doesn’t, but it is giving us a fantastic story about a bounty-hunter turned dad that challenges a number of Western gender assumptions so… trade-off. 

I likewise enjoy that characters call one another out on shitty, toxic behavior without completely losing who those characters are. (Again, supposedly who they are based on the lecture I gave at the start lol). Meaning, it would be kind of weird if Zeus wasn’t a womanizer. That’s what we expect of him, so changing that would likewise change one of the most fundamental aspects of what makes Zeus-Zeus in the general public’s perception of him. But we still have scenes of Hera and others calling him out on that shit, so it’s a balance between modern sensibilities and character expectations. 

The characters overall are just wonderfully complex. Persephone doesn’t seem so at first glance, but that’s partly the point: she’s nothing like what everyone assumes she is and it’s those assumptions that she’s learning to push back against. But overall Smythe has a real knack for emphasizing the human (or god) complexity. We hate Eros for helping Aphrodite punish Persephone. Then we feel bad for him because of his sob story. Then we pull back because he’s called out for being a dick and making himself look like the victim. Then we come to the realization that his side of the story was still accurate in many ways and finally end on… he’s flawed. He’s just a flawed person. He’s not a saint. He’s not the devil. He’s a guy who screwed up one moment and did something good the next. Perhaps it’s just me coming out of the nonsense that was Volume 7 of RWBY, but it’s refreshing to read a story where that complexity is emphasized and (most) flaws are forgiven while still being acknowledged. 

Overall I just find it to be a fun, entertaining story! lol. The artwork is beautiful. The humor is great. There’s a nice balance between plot and introspection. There are issues with the series, sure, but none thus far have kept me from enjoying the experience of reading it. I fully support anyone’s right to go, “Nope. Not for me.” For any reason. But I also feel like Lore Olympus is a good example of Tumblr’s recent emphasis on pure media: it must be PERFECT. Otherwise chuck it in the bin. Lore Olympus does a lot of the things that people on this site call for. Respectful depictions of assault. Emphasis on mental health. Storytelling from a woman’s perspective. Numerous types of woman characters. Being careful about who engages with sensitive material and how (each chapter that contains such issues has a trigger warning at the start, impossible to miss). Lore Olympus does a lot right… and some things wrong. Which is what we would expect of any good story. So it feels disingenuous of me—if not outright dangerous—to paint it as worse than I actually think it is. I want media to continue to improve, but I also don’t want to scare off authors from even trying because they were raked across the coals for not creating perfection. Smythe, to my mind, is definitely trying and that should be acknowledged. 

[hello-robin-goodfellow]

Top Five Favorite Books

TAGGED BY: @hmmm-what-am-i-doing​

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The other famous novel by Victor Hugo. Written in 1831, Notre-Dame de Paris, known in English as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, is a rich, meandering tale that addresses messy relationships, fate, and the future of architecture in 1482. The English title is a misnomer, since the protagonist of the story is Esmeralda, the original title being a metaphor on the cathedral who serves as the central location of the novel, and Esmeralda herself (though one could argue the cathedral is itself a character). Victor Hugo strongly protested against the English title, as it turns the focus from the cathedral onto the characters.

The hunchback is Quasimodo, the deaf, one-eyed, hunchbacked, monstrously ugly bell-ringer of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Abandoned outside the church at the age of four, he was taken in out of kindness by the Archdeacon of Josas, Claude Frollo, who raised him in the church and introduced him to the bells. When the hitherto chaste Frollo sees the  romani girl Esmeralda dancing in the street one day, he finds himself stricken with lust, and doesn't know how to deal with it. So, sure as Love Makes You Evil, he grabs Quasimodo (for muscle) and tries to kidnap her. The attempt is foiled by Phoebus, Captain of the Archers. It is spectacularly not foiled by lovable slacker-poet Pierre Gringoire, who gets knocked out trying to save the girl.Later that night, however, Esmeralda temporarily marries the poet, to save his life from her friends at the Court of Miracles. That doesn't mean she's going to let her new "husband" touch her, mind you, or that she's going to give up her dreams of marrying Phoebus. Phoebus likes the look of her, himself, and although he's already engaged to his teenage cousin Fleur-de-Lys, he's not opposed to a bit on the side. Esmeralda's small kindness to Quasimodo when he is in the stocks for the kidnapping attempt (Frollo having let him take the fall) makes her an angel in Quasimodo's mind, and he is henceforth devoted to her. This eventually, and painfully, puts him in conflict with Frollo, whose combination of lust and loathing for Esmeralda makes him increasingly unstable. Amidst the drama and tragedy resulting from everybody's fatal obsessions, Hugo includes leisurely chapters on the architecture of Paris and the expected impact of the newly-developed printing press.

Frankenstein

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, usually abbreviated to Frankstein is a novel by Mary Shelley. It was originally published in 1818. It had a 1823 reprint without Shelley's involvement and a third edition in 1831, this time with significant edits from the author. Frankenstein is considered an Ur-Example of Science Fiction and inarguably has vast historical significance.

The novel tells of Dr. Victor Frankenstein who unlocks the secrets to Creating Life. He uses this knowledge to create an artificial man, larger and stronger than most mortals, by means which he chooses not to describe. While he is initially triumphant with his success, a few moments of observing the flailing and moaning patchwork being leaves Victor disgusted by and fearful of his creation. Realizing the ramifications of his success, he is horrified. He abandons the Creature and flees to his family's estate. In his absence, the Creature is forced to come to grips with suddenly finding itself alive and alone without explanation or guidance. He learns about humanity by watching a family cottage from afar, but is again driven off when he attempts to offer his friendship- one of many bad run-ins with humanity which leave the monster bitter and cynical. Eventually, the Creature comes to resent his creator, whom he views as his father, for abandoning the Creature to a life of torment, and decides to come home to seek vengeance against Frankenstein...

The subtitle, The Modern Prometheus, compares Victor Frankenstein to the Greek titan Prometheus, who brought the secret of fire from Mount Olympus to mortal men, reflecting on Frankenstein's spiritual would-be theft of the secret to creating life — but like Prometheus, Frankenstein also came to regret his transgression.note Many would say that Frankenstein was the ultimate warning of Science Is Bad, though similar stories were common throughout the industrial revolution and it is not even clear whether the act of creating the Monster was bad in itself, if the world wasn't ready for it, or Frankenstein was just a horrible and abusive parent.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

One Hundred Years of Solitude is a 1967 novel that won Gabriel García Márquez the Nobel Prize for Literature. It's become a staple of Spanish-speaking high school curricula everywhere.  Arguably one of the most important pieces of literature written in the 20th century, or to put in context, almost as important as Don Quixote to Spanish speaking literature. Famous, among other things, for using every conceivable trope one could ever hope to fit in 28.8 oz of paper.

The book follows the story of the Buendía family and the town they create, Macondo, from its foundation to its end. Of course, it is told in a non-linear fashion with every generation having the same few names, as well as the same basic attributes (except for a pair of twins whose names are thought to have been accidentally switched at some point). Alongside the story of the Buendía family, there are an abundance of vignettes recounting both the everyday and the supernatural occurrences that shape the lives of the inhabitants of Macondo. The themes range widely, incorporating legendary figures (such as the Wandering Jew), historical events (Sir Francis Drake’s bombing of Rioacha, the Massacre of the Banana growers), and short stories about the love of two minor characters who never get to interfere with the main action. Believe it or not the story takes place in a time span of a hundred years.

Netflix has announced that it will be adapting the story into a television series.

The Arabian Nights

The Arabian Nights, correctly known as The Tales of One Thousand and One Nights (Farsi Hezār-o yek šab, Arabic Kitāb 'alf layla wa-layla), is a massive collection of Fairy Tales drawn from sources as far apart as the Middle East, North Africa, India, and, to an extent, even China and Greece. It has for centuries shaped the European view of the [relative to Europe] "(Near) East" or "Orient", even though only some of the stories are widely known. In fact, early Arabic-language versions only contain about 300 nights. The 701 others were added later; most of the additions were by Arab writers, but European translators added some other folktales they'd collected in their editions. Some of these additions were based on other Arabian sources, but others, including Aladdin and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, were stolen by Antoine Galland (the French translator) from Syrian Maronite writer Hanna Diyab, who recounted those tales to Galland and based them on various aspects of his own life. Diyab's autobiography was found in 1993 and greatly expanded our understanding of these stories.

The Framing  Device for the story cycle is the tale of King Shahryar and Shahrazad. The King's first wife had cheated on him, so he had her executed. Then, feeling that no woman could be trusted, he hit upon a plan only a powerful and insane tyrant could pull off: He'd marry a woman, spend the night with her, and then, in the morning, send her off to the royal Wazir (chancellor) to be executed. No woman would ever betray him again! After a great many wives were executed in this manner (Richard Burton's translation says the King did this for three years, which would be about 1,100 wives), the Wazir was running out of marriage prospects to present to the King. Then the Wazir's daughter, Shahrazad, came to him with a plan. Since her plan involved marrying the King, the Wazir objected in the strongest manner possible, but nothing would deter the girl, and finally he brought her to the King.

Come the wedding night, once he started putting the moves on her, she feigned becoming upset, and pleaded to see her younger sister one last time. The King acquiesced, and allowed Shahrazad's sister Dunyazad to stay in the room with them until dawn. Even while they consummated the marriage. Awkward. After that and the three of them went to sleep, the sisters woke up at midnight. Just as planned, Dunyazad asked Shahrazad to tell her a story, but by the morning she was not finished, and ended the story on a Cliffhanger. The awoken King was so hooked on the story that he postponed the execution for one night, in order to hear the rest. But after Scheherazade ended that story, it was still the middle of the night, and she started up another story, again ending on a cliffhanger in the morning. The nightly routine continued. Some of the stories were simple, some complex and multi-layered; sometimes a character in one story would begin to tell a second story, and sometimes the story was never actually ended because Scheherazade had gone on two or three layers and never returned to wrap up. Or sometimes she claimed she didn't know the ending, but had another tale that was even more intriguing than the unfinished one. But all of the stories were so compelling that the King could never bear to order her execution without hearing the ending. So Shahrazad kept up the stories for three years — in the meantime bearing Shahryar three sons — and finally, after 1,001 nights, she said that she had told all of her tales and was ready to die. But the King had fallen in love with her, and had been calmed by her entrancing stories. He declared that no woman in the kingdom was as wise as Shahrazad, and he made her his queen for keeps this time, and they lived Happily Ever After.

Unlike many legends which deal primarily with the deeds of the nobility (who after all were the ones who could afford to have a bard as a permanent resident at their palaces), Arabian Nights has the fascinating twist that it covers people from myriads of occupations in a highly-complex society.

The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana

A novel by Umberto Eco.

Yambo Bodoni has a problem. After suffering a stroke, he lost his episodic memory. Now he can't remember his name, family, or any aspects of his life. Thanks to a lifetime of work as an antiquarian book dealer in Milan, however, he can recall anything he's ever read. In order to rediscover his lost past, Yambo heads to his childhood hometown of Solara. As he pores through old newspapers, comics, and magazines, Yambo - and the reader - get glimpses into the often tragic and bittersweet reality of a boy coming of age in Italy during World War II.

[butchgwenwhyvar]

The Star Wars Prequels are a Greek Tragedy

Ok folks, buckle in because this classics nerd has made some Connections™

One of the main themes in the prequels (and by extension, the clone wars) is the inevitability of it all – I know it’s because it’s a prequel and as such, we know their fate, but that’s why it works.

(For the purpose of this meta post, please assume that when I say ‘the prequels’ and proceed to talk about Ahsoka or Rex, I mean ‘the prequels and the clone wars’ – it’s all part of the same story)

 (Important fact that relates to this meta post but doesn’t have much bearing on the actual argument #1: Anakin’s name comes from the Greek Goddess of inevitability, Ananke.)

 But the main argument is this: the prequels follow the format and pattern of a Greek tragedy. A Greek tragedy always has the audience take part in the form of the ‘chorus’ on stage – the chorus keep the story going and tell the audience what’s up, but they also provide an insight into the characters and question the characters on behalf of the audience (most tragedies are set in populated cities and palaces but a theatre troupe was traditionally around 5 people, so they had to get creative with extras and stuff). In the prequels and the clone wars, the role of the chorus is directly on the audience because we know what’s going to happen. We know about order 66 thanks to the start of season 6 and the end of season 7. We know that the sweet nine year old we meet in the phantom menace will become Vader. We know that Padme will die and that the Republic will fall and Palpatine will take power.

 To us, the chorus, it’s inevitable. But we also know the future of the characters, so there’s a thread of dramatic irony woven in (dramatic irony is a central part of the format of a Greek tragedy) because we know about the original trilogy and the fact that Luke will save Vader and the Empire gets royally fucked up by the rebels.

In Greek tragedy, the dramatic irony is a little less on the nose though. In Oedipus the King (Oedipus Rex in Latin), the chorus and the audience know what’s going to happen from the start. By the time Sophocles had written down the play it had already been performed at least once at the Dionysia, an Athenian play festival where everyone got very drunk and people ran play contests – Sophocles was a common contributor to the contests, and it was recorded that he never got below second place. So as this play is being performed in the late third century BCE, it’s been around for around 100 years. The audience knows what’s up – they know that Jocasta is actually Oedipus’ mother, they know that Oedipus is actually the one that killed Laius and is bringing down the gods’ displeasure on Thebes. So when Oedipus and Creon are talking to Tiresias and saying ‘well, someone has to be cursed because that’s the only way we’ve pissed the gods off enough,’ the audience (and to an extent Tiresias, because he was a prophet) get a sense of dramatic irony. It’s similar to the scene in Attack of the Clones when Dooku’s talking about the sith in the senate – we as the chorus and the audience go ‘It’s Palpatine!’ because we’ve seen the originals and we know about the fall of the republic.

The sense of dramatic irony really helps to build the inevitability of it all because as the chorus, we know the future of these characters.

 Another thing that characterises the prequels as a specifically Greek tragedy is the use of fatal flaws and how they relate to the character’s virtues. Anakin’s main character traits are his general mistrust of authority, his sense of personal loyalty and his need to help others – he’s proven that he’d burn the galaxy down for his family and the people he loves, and there’s quite a few poignant scenes in the clone wars EU novels where he’s mourning the clones and generally caring a lot about them (if you want specific novels, Karen Miller’s ‘Clone Wars: Gambit – Stealth’ is excellent and is the source of that excellent ‘blind me and I’ll tell you who laughed’ quote, and Karen Traviss’ novelisation of the clone wars movie has lots of scenes with Anakin being a good bro to Rex and caring about the 501st). Padme’s main trait is her belief in human decency (we’re using human in this case because I’m relating it back to humans) – she cares deeply about seeing the good in people, up to her dying moments. Obi-Wan’s main trait is his dedication to the Order and their rules.

However, if you turn these traits on their heads, you get their fatal flaws and their ultimate downfall. Vader’s issues with authority and his need to save those he cares about lands him in the suit and as the Emperor’s attack dog. Padme can’t see the problems in the republic and all the things going wrong with Anakin until it’s too late because she’s so focussed on seeing the good in what’s left. Obi-Wan fails as Anakin’s mentor because he was too focused on the way things should have been (let the record show I am not shitting on Obi-Wan, this is just my thoughts about the narrative and this part of the Skywalker debacle).

In Oedipus Rex and Antigone (written before Oedipus, set after Oedipus – it’s about his daughter), the same thing happens. Oedipus’ loyalty to Thebes and his unwavering sense of duty makes him an excellent king – he listens to his people and takes their complaints into account. Creon’s ability to stick to the rules and provide a safe kingdom makes him the perfect second choice as king (this will make more sense when I talk about Antigone because Creon is a main character in this play as well – his character arc spans the two plays). Jocasta is kind and sees the best in everyone (I’m sensing a theme). But if you turn that on its head, all the ugly details come out. Oedipus has inadvertently committed one of the worst sins that the gods can think of a punishment for, and he’s promised the people of Thebes that whoever has cursed the land will be banished for life. When he finds out that his wife is also his mother and he murdered his birth father years ago, he blinds himself in shame but asks to stay in Thebes. This is where Creon’s flaw starts to appear – Oedipus asks to stay and Creon casts him out. Oedipus keeps his loyalty to the Thebans by maiming himself and marking himself as the cursed person, but he doesn’t think his actions through. If he’s banished, his four children will also be banished with him and will suffer for the rest of their lives. Staying is the only option. But Creon is too obsessed with placating the Thebans and the gods, so Oedipus and his children are cast out because of Creon’s determination to stick to the rules. Jocasta’s need to see the best in everyone leads to her denying that her husband is also her son, even once she’s put the pieces together – there’s a scene where she’s talking to her main and her maid asks and she refuses to acknowledge it. This leads to her killing herself in shame once the news has gotten out. It’s inevitable. The audience know and love this play. They know what’s coming.

And then Antigone happens. Antigone is Oedipus’ eldest daughter. Her siblings are Ismene, the youngest, Eteocles, and Polynices. Eteocles and Polynices have declared war on each other (Eteocles is fighting for Thebes, where Creon is the king now) and have killed each other. Eteocles is to be buried with full honours, while Polynices’ body is to be left in the dust (the Greeks believed that being buried in the dirt was the only way to get into the afterlife). So Antigone tries to bury Polynices over the course of the story – her main character trait is her loyalty and her persistence. Creon is still too wedded to the rules, but now he’s also stuck on his own idea of power – the king’s word above all else, even the gods.

The play ends with Antigone’s suicide after being banished  to a sealed cave for the rest of her life (she keeps covering Polynices’ body in dirt until Creon gets sick of it and sends her to the cave). Her loyalty and her tenacity have become her downfall and led to her death (for those interested, Antigone’s death led to Creon burying Polynices properly). Creon’s virtues of being a rule-following king lead to him essentially going mad with power, which leads to his son killing himself after he hears of Antigone’s sentence, his wife killing herself after she hears of Haemon’s death, and Creon’s apparent suicide (he gets an open ending but it’s widely accepted that he dies as well).

 Relating this back to Star Wars and the point I made earlier: the prequels are pretty much the only Star Wars media where the character’s virtues become their flaws. It’s very hubristic and I love it. Ahsoka’s virtue is in her persistence and her drive to survive while trying to do what’s right – turn it on its head and she’s unleashing Maul on a bunch of 66’d clones to escape. On first watch, Rex’s virtue seems to be his loyalty to the Republic, but that’s brought into contention in season 1. His actual virtue is his loyalty to his brothers but that’s turned on its head in episodes 11 and 12 when he’s forced to shoot and stun them and know that they’re going to die and there’s nothing he can do to save them, which almost leads to him giving up entirely in episode 12.

 And that leads me back to my main point. George Lucas wrote the prequels and most of the clone wars like the archetype of the Greek tragedy on purpose, to show the inevitability of the story.

The main parts of a Greek tragedy are as follows: Hubris (personal pride leading to a downfall)

The Chorus and the use of dramatic irony

Virtues as fatal flaws

Catharsis

 The main parts of the prequels are as follows:

Hubris (the Jedi and the Republic’s pride lead to their downfall, Anakin and Obi-Wan’s pride leads to Mustafar)

The Audience and the use of dramatic irony

Virtues as fatal flaws

Catharsis

Hope

 Back to inevitability: the use of virtues as flaws leads to the inevitability of the tragedy of Anakin Skywalker. He can’t not be loyal and caring to the point of obsession, jealousy, and overprotectiveness. Padme can’t not deeply believe in the power of human kindness and their ability to believe in a better system. Obi-Wan can’t not be wedded to the rules far too much. To take all of this away from their characters is to leave them as completely different people. An Anakin that doesn’t care as much is an Anakin that’s closer to the ‘perfect Jedi,’ a Padme that doesn’t believe in a better system is a Padme that lets even more atrocities fly under the radar in the senate. An Obi-Wan that’s not wedded to the Code and the Order and the Rules is an Obi-Wan seen in the early Jedi Apprentice books – a Jedi always on the brink of snapping, falling, or expulsion from the Order. So you see these character traits and you see what’s coming and it’s inevitable because these virtues and therefore flaws are what makes the character them, which progresses the story.

 The use of dramatic irony also highlights the inevitability within the stories of the prequels and the tragedies. The audience of the films and the chorus/audience of the plays know what the characters don’t. They know that Oedipus is Jocasta’s son. They know that Antigone and the rest of Creon’s family will kill themselves. We know Anakin will fall. We know Padme will die. We know about the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire. But they don’t and that’s why the dramatic irony works so well. We’re on the edge of our seats, waiting for the moment when it all clicks – when someone listens to Fives about the chips and takes action – when Anakin gets help – where Padme survives – where Obi-Wan puts aside the Order and tries to help Anakin and reassures him. But it never happens, and we know that.

Every time we watch the prequels or the clone wars, we think ‘maybe this time it will turn out alright’ but it’s inevitable that it won’t because it’s written like a Greek tragedy and those always end in the darkest possible way.

 There’s another common thread between the prequels and Greek tragedy as well – catharsis. It’s the breaking point and the aftermath, where consequences are dealt out. The catharsis in Oedipus is obvious – it’s when Oedipus blinds himself and is banished. The catharsis in Antigone is subtler but infinitely more painful. Creon is punished for disobeying the gods and as his punishment, Antigone (his son’s fiancée), Haemon (his son), and his wife are all dead, all by their own hand. This brings him shame and it’s widely accepted that he goes off and kills himself, which is even more of a punishment (suicide was not welcomed in the Greek afterlife – they’d often go to the Fields of Punishment or the Fields of Asphodel). The catharsis in the prequels is glaringly obvious in comparison. Anakin faces massive consequences for his actions, which stay with him for the next 25 or so years. He can’t go back to the way everything was, because he’s burnt it all down around him. He’s punished psychologically and physically until his death, as punishment for his mistakes and his actions. The audience feels catharsis here as well, as Anakin doesn’t get away with his actions. His end is especially cathartic, not just because he got his comeuppance, but because he dies to undo a little bit of the horrors he’s committed.

 So the prequels and a Greek tragedy always end in tears, and the quote at the start of the Revenge of the Sith novelisation (thank you Matthew Stover) sums this up perfectly. ‘This story happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. It is already over. Nothing can be done to change it. The inevitability of all of these stories I’ve talked about is woven into it’s very fabric, and nothing can be done to change it.

 However, there is one way in which the prequels are different to a typical tragedy – the prequels end with a shred of hope. Tragedies have to finish with the catharsis and complete and utter bleakness and the destruction of a heap of lives – Creon’s family dies, Oedipus loses his wife and his sight, Anakin and Palpatine destroy the Jedi – it’s one of the hallmarks that makes it a tragedy and not just ‘some play by Sophocles.’ The prequels finish with Bail and Breha and Leia in the palace on Alderaan. They finish with Luke with Beru and Owen on Tatooine, where Shmi and Anakin were from. They finish with hope, which is a complete turnaround from the tragedies that the story is written to fit in with.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Anonymous asked: I always think of you as Kristin Scott Thomas’ character Fiona in Four Weddings and a Funeral as a beautiful woman who is scarily clever and classy. So with my upcoming wedding (next year!) and especially wedding music I thought of you. I really would appreciate your advice on Mendelssohn or Wagner as they seem to be the traditional choices of music to play at a traditional church wedding. My fiancé isn’t bothered what music we play but I can’t decide. Please do help as I value your unvarnished truth.

Thank you for the flattering words which while well intentioned are nevertheless entirely misplaced.

Swiftly moving on, a sincere congratulations on your forthcoming wedding. I can only imagine how stressful it must be running around like a headless chicken trying to desperately organise everything. And desperate you certainly must be - perhaps even certifiably insane -  if you’re turning to me on Tumblr for advice!

I’m not married....yet ( oops! better get that caveat in before I am chastised by those who really know me)  but I am a wedding veteran - some would even say, a jaded one (thank you, mummy).

Every season there is a string of wedding invitations that I can’t turn down and I feel obligated to attend. While great fun, one wedding starts to blur into another especially when the champagne starts to copiously flow. I have my own thoughts on the good, the bad, and the tacky about wedding etiquette but I don’t want to disappear down that rabbit hole. Instead let’s talk about Mendelssohn and Wagner.

Both music pieces have traditionally struck a chord (pardon the pun) and have become a staple of traditional weddings since time immemorial.

Mendelssohn's ‘Wedding March’ was originally composed in 1842. He got there first.

Wagner's ‘Bridal Chorus’ came later in 1848. The ‘Bridal Chorus’ became a popularised piece to play at weddings around Europe after it was most memorably used as the processional at the wedding of Victoria, the Princess Royal to Prince Frederick William of Prussia in 1858. Nowadays - certainly in Britain and the US -  it is generally known as "Here Comes the Bride”.

I suppose the straight forward answer is that it doesn’t have to be Wagner vs. Mendelssohn. Why not both?  Wagner’s ‘Bridal Chorus’ can be used for the entrance processional of the bride walking down the aisle and the Mendelssohn ‘Wedding March’ for the recessional walk out of the church.

But you did say you wanted my ‘unvarnished truth’ so allow me the small luxury of an arm chair rant from the Coronavirus self-isolation of my Paris apartment. 

Of the two I would definitely ditch the Wagner piece. Please don’t misunderstood me. I am a huge fan of Wagner’s music - like any true Wagnerian I have taken more than one pilgrimage to Beyreuth - but in this case playing Wagner’s music would show a frightful ignorance of the meaning behind the ‘Bridal Chorus’ piece.  

I don’t know why more people haven’t picked up on this but I’ve always found it a terribly odd piece to play at a wedding especially as it originates from Wagner’s masterful opera, Lohengrin.

Wagner came upon the opera's inspiration around 1845 when he took interest in the legend of the Holy Grail through the poems of Wolfram von Eschenbach and the anonymous epic of Lohengrin. Composed by 1848, Lohengrin features "Bridal Chorus" as the prelude to a very short-lived, doomed marriage between Elsa and Lohengrin.

The famous ‘Bridal Chorus’ is lustily sung by women of the bridal party serenading Elsa to the bridal suite after the wedding in Act III. Elsa is not allowed to know her true knight’s true name and identity. But this is a romantic German opera and so of course Lohengrin is found out with dire consequences for all.  A sad Lohengrin ends up revealing that  he is in fact a knight of the Grail and son of King Parsifal, sent to protect an unjustly accused woman. The laws of the Holy Grail say that Knights of the Grail must remain anonymous. If their identity is revealed, they must return home. Lohengrin is lead back to the castle of the Holy Grail. Elsa is grief stricken at being left behind.  Poor Elsa (naturally) collapses and dies with a broken heart.

Charming.

To say it’s not the happiest of allusions of looking forward to a long life of wedded bliss would be an understatement.

However my objections against Wagner’s ‘Bridal Chorus’ goes beyond this. For one thing I find it rather too sombre - Oh dear God! Is marriage really like this?!

My main ire is that it overly used and therefore boring to listen to. And when one is bored the mind wanders.

In my case, without sounding malicious, my mind just drifts to whispering mischievous lyrics under my breath that go like, “here comes the bride, big fat and wide, here comes the groom, skinny as a broom.” Try as I might I can never get those words out of my silly mind whenever I hear the organ music playing “Here come’s the bride.” Not my finest hour.

Now Mendelssohn’s ‘Wedding March’ is different beast entirely. Beast being the operative word as we are dealing with Pagan deities.

Typically used in church wedding recessionals, the ‘Wedding March’ piece has sparked controversy due to its literary origins. The Prussian monarch Friedrich Wilhelm IV commissioned Mendelssohn to compose incidental music for many pieces that were based upon Greek mythology and tragedy in order to revive the genre of literature and performance. Among his commissions, in 1843 Mendelssohn composed a setting for William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream; the setting comprises twelve musical numbers and a finale. The plot of Shakespeare's play focuses on a pagan god and goddess and is filled with fairies, magic, and fantasy. Due to the piece's pagan, fantastic inspirations, some puritanical leaders and musicians - particularly in Roman Catholic churches - have found the piece to be inappropriate for a Christian religious ceremony. In its defence at least Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream was a comedy with a happy ending.

If you’re feeling traditional rather than puritanical then the joyous Mendelssohn ‘Wedding March’ might still be a great option either as a processional or recessional.

If you’re looking for options outside of either Wagner and Mendelssohn then it’s really a matter of exercising good taste alongside what suits the personal tone of your wedding.

Off the top of my head I keep coming back to Johann Sebastian Bach.

Bach’s many cantatas and fugues seem to tick all the boxes. In particular there is Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (derived from the cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, "Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life”). There is also the Toccata and Fugue in D minor ‘Dorian’ BWV 538 and the Toccata and Fugue in F Major, BWV 540.  Arioso in A flat for solo piano from Cantata No. 156 "Ich steh`mit einem Fuss im Grabe is softly elegant. A particular favourite piece of mine is Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten, BWV 202, the ‘Wedding Cantata’. Of course many would point out that Bach’s Ave Maria would be perfect for a processional but I would think twice about that. As beautiful as the piece is it is about the Virgin Mary after all and you may invite unwanted speculation from your guests if you are (cough) chaste.

Trumpet Tune in D by Jeremiah Clarke is a little more festive. Or consider his more famous Trumpet Voluntary ‘The Prince of Denmark's March’.

Charles-Marie Widor  was a fine composer and his Toccata (from Symphony for Organ No. 5) is spiritually intense for traditional organ music.

Eugène Gigout's famous Grand Chœur Dialogué might appeal to you as well.

G.F. Handel’s Water Music Suite - Air has a graceful and calming tone. The Arrival of The Queen of Sheba (Solomon) HWV 67 is upbeat and was made for a processional.

Beethoven’s Für Elise is perfect to calm last minute panic attacks before you go up the aisle.

And how can one forget Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?

The Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major, K. 525 or more commonly known as Eine kleine Nachtmusik KV. 525 - II. Romanze: Andante is a beautiful melody familiar to many and sets a soothing tone. Ave verum corpus, K.618 is profoundly spiritual and lifts your hearts up to the angels. ‘Alleluia’ from ‘Exsultate, jubilate’ is wonderful if you can get your hands on a competent soprano. If you are feeling more adventurous then the Spanish Wedding March from The Marriage of Figaro which might be to your taste. 

Elgar’s Salut d'Amour, Op. 12 is soft, inviting and makes one feel you’re in some 19th Century romance novel set at court.

Elgar finished the piece in July 1888, when he was romantically involved with Caroline Alice Roberts, and he called it Liebesgruss ('Love's Greeting') because of Miss Roberts' fluency in German. When he returned home to London on 22 September from a holiday at the house of his friend Dr. Charles Buck, in Settle, he presented it to her as an engagement present. The dedication was in French: à Carice. 'Carice' was a combination of his wife's names Caroline Alice, and was the name to be given to their daughter born two years later.

Edvard Grieg’s Wedding Day at Troldhauen, Op. 65, no. 6 is magnificently playful.

Jean-Joseph Mouret’s Rondeau from Sinfonie de Fanfares is a beautiful Baroque piece. What’s a wedding without trumpets that could be heard all the way into the heavens?

Gluck’s Dance of the Blessed Spirits from his Orfeo et Euridice can be an elegant choice to do a recessional. Perfect for sensitive souls.

Gabriel Fauré’s Pavane, Op. 50 is sublime. I can never get tired of listening to it. Would make a worthy piece as a processional.

I would also throw into the mix Gaetano Donizetti’s ‘Una furtiva lagrima’ (A furtive tear) is the romanza from Act II of his delightful opera L'elisir d'amore.

It is sung by Nemorino (a tenor) when it appears that the love potion he bought to win the heart of his dream lady, Adina, works. Nemorino is in love with Adina, but she is not interested in a relationship with an innocent, rustic man. To win her heart, Nemorino buys a love potion with all the money he has in his pocket. That love potion is actually a cheap red wine sold by a traveling quack doctor, but when he sees Adina weeping, he knows that she has fallen in love with him, and he is sure that the "elixir" has worked. It may not fit your idea of a processional but I would try and use it some where in your wedding - perhaps at the reception.

I feel guilty about trashing on Wagner and Mendelssohn so I will leave you with two final thoughts. Reconsider Wagner’s opera Lohengrin. Forget the Bridal Chorus but instead listen to the chorus ‘Gesegnet soll sie schreiten’ in Act II. The various horns give this chorus a dreamlike quality and you feel like you are floating on air. Mendelssohn’s On Wings of Song is a powerful and poignant piano piece and quite suitable to play as your guests away your arrival in church.

I am sure there are other great classical music pieces that I have neglected to mention but others reading this might give their thoughts in the comments below.

If knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, then wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. So give careful and considered thought to what music you throw together into the mix as your church wedding processional and recessional.

Congratulations again and I hope it’s a special day for both of you and your families and friends.

Thanks for your question.

[amatalefay]

@oc-october 

Day One: Ismeni and Teo, Basics

Yes, I’m giving myself double the work by doing two characters, so I won’t be answering every question for both. Just enough so that you get a feel for each of them. So, without further ado...

Ismeni

Full Name: Sovereign Lady Ismeni Melinoë Kyrini

What’s the meaning of their name? Ismeni comes from Ismene, a character from the Greek tragedy Antigone whose name means “knowledge.”  Melinoë is the minor goddess of nightmares and madness, the daughter of Persephone, and Kyrini means “woman of Kyrios” in the language I created for her culture.

Why did you name them this? I wanted to suggest a Mediterranean setting and create thematic parallels to the Persephone myth.

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Age: 32

Sexuality: Bisexual

Occupation: Queen and conqueror

Height: 5′9″

What do people notice immediately upon looking at them? Her elaborately braided hair, threaded with gold ornaments, which also gives information about her gender, sexuality, and relationship status to others of her culture.

MBTI: INTJ

Strengths: Cunning, persuasive, an insightful manipulator. She knows what makes people tick and how to leverage that information to get what she wants.

Weaknesses: Cynicism and trust issues due to her abusive marriage. 

Fears: Powerlessness, burning alive

D&D Alignment: True Neutral

Family: Born into the ruling family of the city-state of Kyrios. Her mother died of childbed fever when Ismeni was six, leaving behind her, her sister Eilani, and their newborn brother Ariones. Her father was loving but made very clear to Ismeni and her sister that their duty was to marry well to secure their political position. Eilani married and moved out when Ismeni was fifteen. Ariones died in battle five years later during the siege. This broke Ismeni’s father’s spirit and he surrendered shortly after, offering the invaders a marriage alliance with Ismeni.

Favorites:

Color: Gold or pale green

Food: Baklava Honey pastries (essentially baklava)

Drink: Barley water

Mode of transportation: Horse

Time of day: Early morning, an hour or so after sunrise

Miscellaneous Character Questions

Are they single? It’s complicated. She was in an arranged marriage for nine years before she murdered her husband and took over his army. His spirit still haunts her, preventing her from moving on emotionally and romantically.

What are their religious beliefs? People are reincarnated upon cremation, but only if all the proper rituals are preserved.

What are their hobbies? Horse riding, games of strategy, plotting the murders of abusive husbands.

Do they have any dreams/goals? Killing her husband was the major one. After his death, she took on his dream of conquering all the city-states of the peninsula, and she almost succeeded. Now that she’s been thrown into another universe, her goal is much more narrow: escape this place.

Teo 

Full Name: I actually don’t know his sign name, as I am not at all confident in my ASL, but it involves the letter T handshape in some way and is written as Teo. I’m honestly probably going to change his surname, but right now, it’s Midshipman, reflective of where on the ship he was born.

Pronouns: he/him/his

Age: 24

Sexuality: Queer

Occupation: Rebel marauder (formerly one of the ship’s mechanics)

What time period do they live in? Post-apocalyptic dystopia where rising ocean levels means land is scarce and only the privileged can live on it, leading to “undesirable” populations being forced to wander the seas in old submarines.

Height: 5′11″

Build: Muscular and broad-shouldered yet slender

What do people notice immediately upon looking at them? His ear implant, though he usually tries to hide it. Even so, it’s usually not long before they realize he’s d/Deaf.

Clothing Style: Military-style jackets and cargo pants in muted browns and greens, with a few steampunk accessories such as his welder’s goggles and tool belt.

MBTI: ISTP

Strengths: Determined, resilient, strong-willed, and principled. Fiercely loyal and will defend those he considers “his” people to his dying breath.

Weaknesses: Defensive, quick to anger, lets his ideals blind him to reality.

Fears: Being captured, medical mutilation, genocide

D&D Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Family: On the ship, children are raised communally, though they do know who their parents are and are generally quite close to them. Teo’s father works in desalination, helping to purify the water, and his mother is a fisher. He has no full siblings but three half-siblings, one on his mother’s side and two on his father’s. Since all the children are raised together, Teo never really thinks of them as siblings rather than friends.

Do they have a good relationship with their family? Yes. He gets along well with his parents, especially his dad.

Favorites:

Color: Aquamarine

Snack: Kelp biscuits

Mode of transportation: Submarine, of course!

Time of day: His six hours of personal time

Miscellaneous Character Questions

Are they single? If not: who are they involved with? Are they happy with their partner(s)? He has a partner named Alej, who is non-binary. Alej once stole one of the ship’s escape pods to follow Teo, who had been captured, and infiltrated the military base to break him out. Teo would do exactly the same for Alej. They’re basically soulmates.

What are their hobbies? Whale watching, tinkering, a little piracy.

Do they have any dreams/goals? Wreak vengeance on the landmen and protect Alej, his crew, and his culture, whatever the cost.

[bespectacled-skelly]

Gotham Rogues as Greek Gods

 I was watching some videos talking about Batman: The Animated Series and stumbled across a video talking about the episode “Fire from Olympus”. At the end, Maxie Zeus sees some of the other villains as gods from Greek mythology. So that got me wondering, what would the other characters Greek counterparts be? So that’s what I’m researching. I am only looking at their characterization in the Animated Series. 

I will not be covering all the Rogues, just the big ones sadly. But if this gets popular maybe I will do a part 2. 

DISCLAIMER: I will not be talking about Poison Ivy or Two-Face because I agree with his saying they are Demeter and Janus respectively.  

First up is Joker. Now I don’t agree with Maxie calling him Hermes. This guy is in no way Hermes. Who I think he matches up with more is Dionysus. But wait, I hear you say, Dionysus is the wine and party guy! While this is true to a degree, Dionysus has a strong connection with madness and rebirth. 

Here is a snippet from Encyclopedia Britannica about the whole rebirth thing.

“Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele, a daughter of Cadmus (king of Thebes). Out of jealousy, Hera, the wife of Zeus, persuaded the pregnant Semele to prove her lover’s divinity by requesting that he appear in his real person. Zeus complied, but his power was too great for the mortal Semele, who was blasted with thunderbolts. However, Zeus saved his son by sewing him up in his thigh and keeping him there until he reached maturity, so that he was twice born.”

When Jack Napier fell in those chemicals he was reborn as the Joker, hence the rebirth tie-in. Then we come to the Maenads, or female followers of Dionysus. Here is excerpt from Wikipedia.

“Cultist rites associated with worship of the Greek god of wine, Dionysus (or Bacchus in Roman mythology), were allegedly characterized by maniacal dancing to the sound of loud music and crashing cymbals, in which the revelers, called Bacchantes, whirled, screamed, became drunk and incited one another to greater and greater ecstasy. The goal was to achieve a state of enthusiasm in which the celebrants’ souls were temporarily freed from their earthly bodies and were able to commune with Bacchus/Dionysus and gain a glimpse of and a preparation for what they would someday experience in eternity.”

If you want to learn more about Dionysus, I suggest this video!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5brAr51ip_k

Riddler is my favorite Batman villain of all time (especially the BTAS one). Now HE is Hermes. Hermes is not only the messenger of the gods, take a look at this excerpt from Greek Gods and Goddesses.Net.

“He is also the patron and protector of travelers, herdsmen, thieves, orators and wit, literature and poets, athletics and sports, invention and trade. In some myths Hermes is also depicted as a trickster where he would outwit the gods either for the good of humankind or for his own personal amusement and satisfaction.”

Eddie here is an incredible clever and intelligent man. Most of the crimes he commits are because he wants a challenge. This is why I think he fits Hermes more than Joker. 

Next is Harley Quinn, who’s first appearance was in BTAS. Harley is Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. Just like Persephone, Harleen Quinzel also has a connection with rebirth. She left behind her life as a doctor to become Joker’s “puddin”. Just like Persephone's return from the Underworld heralds the return of spring. And even when she tries to leave the Underworld behind, she will always come back. 

He connection with Ivy (who we have established is Demeter) also gives her a strong connection with Persephone. In the show, Ivy is very determined to show Harley how bad the Joker is to her and tries to keep her away from him and protect her, just like Demeter and Persephone.  

I had trouble finding a god for the good professor. At first I thought about Thanatos, but he is the personification of a gentle death. I needed someone who was fear itself. Then I stumbled across a minor god, Deimos, who is the personification of terror. His name literally means dread.

Deimos is one of the sons of Ares and Aphrodite. He and his brother, Phobos (fear) were Ares chariot attendants. Unfortunately, there isn’t as much information about him as there are the others here. But I still think there is enough to draw a connection. 

 For some reason, Deimos seems to be very popular in pop-culture. 

Mr. Freeze was also difficult. I broke the rules a little bit and started to look at all the Greek gods. While not male, Nemesis works quite well for him. 

Nemesis is the goddess of revenge and retribution with a strong connection to tragedy. Mr. Freeze’s tale is one of tragedy and revenge. His wife, Nora, contracts an incurable illness. While looking for a cure, he freezes her to give her more time. In the show, his experiments are halted by his boss. In his fight to save Nora he is knocked into some chemicals and turns into Mr. Freeze. He then seeks revenge on his old boss for what he did to him and his wife. 

Here are some excerpts from Nemesis’s Wikipedia.

“The word nemesis originally meant the distributor of fortune, neither good nor bad, simply in due proportion to each according to what was deserved. Later, Nemesis came to suggest the resentment caused by any disturbance of this right proportion, the sense of justice that could not allow it to pass unpunished. .In the Greek tragedies Nemesis appears chiefly as the avenger of crime and the punisher of hubris, and as such is akin to Atë and the Erinyes. She was sometimes called "Adrasteia", probably meaning "one from whom there is no escape...”

If you thought that last two were difficult, they pale in comparison to the Penguin. This guy was a bitch-and-a-half to find a god for, but I think I found someone.

Plutus: God of Wealth

The Penguin likes to think of himself as a gentlemen of refined taste. He is probably one of the wealthiest criminals in the Gallery, and he needs to be to fit his image of being of high society. Plutus also has a form of government named after him, “plutocracy”.  Here is the definition of plutocracy from Greek Gods and Goddesses.Net.

“Plutocracy” means a system of government in which the wealthy rule. Other English words that derive from Plutus include “plutonomics,” which is the study of wealth management, “plutomania,” which is an irrational desire for wealth, and “plutolatry,” which means idolizing wealth.” 

I don’t know about you, but that sounds like the Penguin to me.

Thank you for reading this far! These are my opinions only, so please feel free to add your own thoughts!

[ofshampain]

ANTIGONE “ANNIE” RÓISÍN MAEVE FINNEGAN LAZZARO: AN INTRODUCTION

{ hayley atwell, 39, cis female, she/her } hey, antigone “annie” finnegan lazzaro? good to see you, with all the insanity going on! still working at pinehaven theatre as the artistic director? that’s good. i mean, you’ve been around thirty-nine years, what do you make of this insanity? hey, i heard that people have been saying that you’re into re-reading the books you learned about at school to see if they’re more lovable when you’re not being forced, sculpting the world’s most magnificent sandcastle with your child with a free smile on your lips & making a family for your daughter between stage-hands and actors. you also remind people of the lipstick that almost convinces you your life’s together, the strong desire to finally do something yourself without the help of others, an annotated copy of the theatre’s next play, work-glasses set atop the open pages with a half-finished cold coffee, and pathetic fallacy, which i like. well, stay safe out there and remember to listen to the fog warnings.

TWs: ( amicable ) divorce, referenced parental emotional / physical abuse, depression

antigone isn’t her birth name: she was born aisling ( ash-ling. ) if you ask why she changed it, she’ll tell you it was to stick it to equity: ‘try telling me that’s a name an actor already has,’ with all the anger in her chest ( it wasn’t much; it never has been ) but really, she had to get away from the child who lived in that house with their father. and if you know where to look, the theme of punishment for defending family & particularly the character of creon, it’s almost heartbreaking that that is where — of all the choices she could’ve made — she decided to go: especially when you consider that the character of antigone, in her determined defiance, is an aspiration for annie rather than a reflection. she’s more of an ismene, but she wants to be better. but most people do call her annie, and thus they miss the greek tragedy she was named after.

she truly has all the love in the world. for everyone but herself, that is. she’s never quite mastered the concept of self-love, perhaps because any notion of it was crushed by their father. but she’s very maternal, because she doesn’t want anyone who might need it to go without what rory did for her: if you’re having a rough day, she’ll happily have you over, make you food, and you can vent. backstage at the theatre can oftentimes be a support group — but if you talk to her, you can count on her confidence.

that being said, she’s never gone to actual therapy herself and probably never will, because to her that would mean doing the unthinkable: conceding that she is not, in fact, fine. if she can keep the number of people who see her with tear-stained cheeks in a given week to rory and just about nobody else — especially not her daughter sophia — she thinks she’s got it made.

yeah, she’s definitely got depression.

antigone married sebastian lazzaro, who she met while she was studying literature & drama at the university of maine. it was almost fairytale, how head-over-heels they were. until it wasn’t, of course, but they were happy first. dated for five years, married twelve, and have their little sunshine: twelve year old sophia. 

sophia was raised at the pinehaven theatre, annie’s project, and she’s still the artistic director there to this day. but there was always space for sophia in annie’s work, and though she knew it was hard for bash, he could’ve made more of an effort to manage his time.

annie divorced him — bash, to her — not because she didn’t love him. it wasn’t even truly for herself. it made sense to her and to the little voice in her head that she would be... insufficient. it was the fact that her husband’s timetable didn’t make time for their child that really pushed her over the edge. she could see sophia’s hope that her father would be home, that he’d tell her stories from work ( he couldn’t ) being continually crushed. she knew he wasn’t bad, knew his heart was in the right place ( she’s certainly got perspective on bad fathers ) but sophia needed something stable, and it had quickly become apparent to annie that the only way their daughter was going to get that was via a custody arrangement that she could legally hold him to. 

she both regrets it, and doesn’t. because after all, it got her what she aimed for: stability for sophia. the only remaining sign of her regret — that she didn’t want it for herself — is that she’s never gotten rid of her last name.

champion cookie maker. if you’ve had a rough day, you’re going to have an annie finnegan lazarro giving you cookies. after all, i don’t make the rules. that’s just the way that she is.

5′8″ literature & theatre nerd who spends too long putting her face on in the morning. the annie behind the lipstick and the rest of it is more... tired. you can just see more of her, and that doesn’t fit her goal of seeming okay. she listens to anything & everything, she’s got quite the eclectic spread, so it’s quite likely really that her choice reflects her mood. you just have to know where to look for it. ( her favourite musical is six, in case anyone was wondering. it’s her dream to find a way to put it on in pinehaven, but in the current climate, it seems a little blasé. )

she lives in the house that bash bought for her. she works in the theatre someone helped her set up. and the theme continues — annie wants nothing than to be able to stand up and say i did it myself. annie has a sensitive heart, so that often means people feel protective of her, or like they need to be. 

her theme is she used to be mine from waitress thank you for coming to my ted talk. her song for when she’s not coping but trying to: happiness happening by lost witness. amsterdam by daughter is my angsty song for days and... yeah, it fits her too. ‘by the morning i will have grown back.’

enfj-t. hufflepuff.

[eyreguide]

Jane Eyre’s Library

The novel Jane Eyre is full of literary references, allusions, and quotations that enrich the story and showcase how well-read Charlotte (and consequently Jane) was.  This post highlights those literary references and gives a bit of context for each work that might help illuminate their use in the book.  I have done my best to note all instances where Charlotte references a literary work (not including references to historical events) but I probably missed a few.  If you know of any I missed and the particular quote, please let me know!

I thought it would be interesting to start this post with Charlotte’s recommendation of books to read to her friend Ellen Nussey.  Charlotte was eighteen when she wrote this letter.  I can’t say I was as well-read at her age!

“You ask me to recommend some books for your perusal; I will do so in as few words as I can. If you like poetry let it be first rate, Milton, Shakespeare, Thomson, Goldsmith, Pope (if you will, though I don’t admire him), Scott, Byron, Campbell, Wordsworth and Southey.” (letter dated July 4, 1834):

The Bible: I must acknowledge that there are many references to Biblical passages and characters in Jane Eyre but I have decided not to list them here, as it would be a lot of work.  It’ll be something I’ll save for a future post.

Greek and Roman Mythology: Another omission are the references to mythology throughout the novel.  Something else I’ll save for another time.

History of British Birds by Thomas Bewick

“Where the Northern Ocean, vast whirls, Boils round the naked, melancholy isles Of farthest Thule; and the Atlantic surge Pours in among the stormy Hebrides.”

A History of British Birds is a natural history book, published in two volumes. Volume 1, "Land Birds", appeared in 1797. Volume 2, "Water Birds", appeared in 1804.  The quote is from the second volume.

Pamela or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

Referenced in the novel as being one of the stories Bessie tells young Jane. Published 1740, Pamela was is an epistolary novel and was a best-seller in it’s time.  But the story about a young maidservant who endeavors to resist her employer’s advances and ends up marrying him in the end, was a controversial novel at the time.

The History of Henry Earl of Moreland by John Wesley

Also called The Fool of Quality this is another novel that Bessie (probably more appropriately) tells stories from to Jane.  It follows the life of Harry Clinton and his attempts to better his lot.  There are frequent intervals in which the author offers philosophical digressions and commentaries.  The final two-volume set was published in 1781.

History of Rome by Oliver Goldsmith

“I had read Goldsmith’s History of Rome, and had formed my opinion of Nero, Caligula, etc.”

Originally published in 1838, this is a definitive work on the History of Rome.

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

”Bessie asked if I would have a book: the word book acted as a transient stimulus, and I begged her to fetch ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ from the library.”

Gulliver's Travels, or Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships is a prose satire of human nature and the ‘traveller’s tales’ literary subgenre. It was an immediate success when published in 1726.

The History of Rasselas by Samuel Johnson

“I could see the title - it was ‘Rasselas;’ a name that struck me as strange, and consequently attractive.”

The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia, originally titled The Prince of Abissinia: A Tale, though often abbreviated to Rasselas, is an apologue about happiness, published in 1759.  The story is a philosophical romance with similarities in theme to Voltaire’s Candide.

The Arabian Nights

”That night, on going to bed, I forgot to prepare in imagination the Barmecide supper of hot roast potatoes, or white bread and new milk, with which I was wont to amuse my inward cravings”

The Arabian Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales and is also known as One Thousand and One Nights.  The stories have been collected over many centuries but they are all framed by Scheherazade telling these stories to her husband, the King.  In one story Barmecide invites a beggar to an imaginary feast.  Also, Mesrour is the name of an executioner in the book.

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan

“He may be stern; he may be exacting: he may be ambitious yet; but his is the sternness of the warrior Greatheart, who guards his pilgrim convoy from the onslaught of Apollyon.”

The Pilgrim's Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come is a 1678 Christian allegory.  Greatheart and Apollyon are characters in this work.  It is often cited as the first novel written in English.

"La Ligue des Rats" by Jean de la Fontaine

‘Assuming an attitude, she began ‘La Ligue des Rats: fable de la Fontaine.’

This French poem was first published in 1692.  Jean de la Fontaine is famous for his Fables and was one of the most widely read poets of the 17th century.  Read the original tale in French here.

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

‘Yes - “after life’s fitful fever they sleep well,” ‘ I muttered.

“She stood there, by that beech-trunk—a hag like one of those who appeared to Macbeth on the heath of Forres.”

Macbeth was first performed in 1606 and dramatizes the physical and physiological effects of political ambition.  The first line is a reference to Macbeth’s words concerning the dead Duncan.  And the second refers to the three witches in the play.

Bluebeard by Charles Perrault

”I lingered in the long passage to which this led, separating the front and back rooms of the third story: looking, with its two rows of small black doors all shut, like a corridor in some Bluebeard’s castle.”

“Bluebeard” is a French folktale, the most famous surviving version of which was written by Charles Perrault and first published by Barbin in Paris in 1697 in Histoires ou contes du temps passé. The tale tells the story of a wealthy man in the habit of murdering his wives and the attempts of one wife to avoid the fate of her predecessors. An interesting example of foreshadowing from Charlotte.  Read this fairy tale here.

Francis Bacon’s Essays

‘I see,’ he said, ‘the mountain will never be brought to Mahomet, so all you can do is to aid Mahomet to go to the mountain; I must beg of you to come here.’

This is in reference to a proverb that has been traced to Francis Bacon’s essays: “Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law.  The people assembled: Mahomet called the hill to come to him again and again: and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abased, but said, “If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill.”

It is unclear if this is a true legend of Mohammed or an English invention.  The Essays were published in 1625.

"Fallen is Thy Throne" by Thomas Moore

“Like heath that, in the wilderness, The wild wind whirls away.”

I could not find a publication date for the poem, but the poet Thomas Moore lived 1779-1852.  The poem these lines are from is about the fall of Israel.  Read this poem here.

Duncaid by Alexander Pope

“Yes, just as much good as it would do a man tired of sitting still in a ‘too easy chair’ to take a long walk; and just as natural was the wish to stir, under my circumstances, as it would be under his.”

The Dunciad is a landmark mock-heroic narrative poem published in three different versions at different times from 1728 to 1743. The poem celebrates a goddess Dulness and the progress of her chosen agents as they bring decay, imbecility, and tastelessness to the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Paradise Lost by John Milton

This pale crescent was ’The likeness of a Kingly Crown’; what it diademed was ‘the shape which shape had none.’

“Some natural tears she shed’ on being told this, but as I began to look very grave, she consented at last to wipe them.”

Paradise Lost is an epic poem with the first version published in 1667, and the second edition in 1674.  The poem is about the biblical story of the fall of Man with the temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden.  The first quote in Jane Eyre concerning Jane’s paintings is a direct echo of the description of Hell in the poem: “If shape it might be call’d that shape had none/ Distinguishable... What seem’d his head/ The likeness of a Kingly Crown had on”

The second quote describes Adele’s disappointment at not joining the party and is inspired by the line about Adam and Eve departing Eden: “Some natural tears they dropp’d”

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

“Rise, Miss Eyre: leave me; “the play is played out.”

Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a romantic comedy, believed to have been written around 1601–1602 as a Twelfth Night’s entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centers on the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated in a shipwreck.  This is believed to be the source of the above line from Jane Eyre.

The Scornful Lady by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

“She never did so before,” at last said Bessie, turning to the Abigail.

“In the servants’ hall two coachmen and three gentlemen’s gentlemen stood or sat round the fire; the abigails, I suppose, were upstairs with their mistresses; the new servants, that had been hired from Millcote, were bustling about everywhere.”

The Scornful Lady is a Jacobean era stage play, a comedy first published in 1616, the year of the author Beaumont's death. It was one of the pair's most popular, often revived, and frequently reprinted works. The term abigails, meaning ladies’ maids, comes from a character named Abigail in The Scornful Lady.

King Lear by William Shakespeare

‘There, then - “Off, ye lendings!”

King Lear is a tragedy where King Lear decides to leave nothing to his honest, third daughter who refuses to flatter him like her two sisters have done.  It a story of human suffering and kinship.  The first known performance of the play was in 1606.

Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

“It’s a mere rehearsal of Much Ado About Nothing.”

Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy and thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599, as Shakespeare was approaching the middle of his career. In Shakespeare’s time the word “noting” (which sounds close to “nothing”) meant gossip and rumor which is what leads Benedick and Beatrice into falling in love, and Claudio into rejecting Hero at the marriage altar.  Mr. Rochester uses that quote above to indicate to his guests that nothing is wrong.

The Turkish Lady by Thomas Campbell

”It was now the sweetest hour of the twenty-four: -- ‘Day its fervid fires had wasted,’ and the dew fell cool on panting plain and scorched summit.”

The poem’s author, Thomas Campbell, lived from 1777-1844) and the poem “The Turkish Lady” is about a captive English knight who is visited by Eastern lady who releases him from captivity and he takes her away as his bride.  A fitting reference given that this quote is used in the chapter where Rochester proposes to Jane.  Read this poem here.

A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare

”Is this my pale, little elf?  Is this my mustard-seed?”

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy written in 1595/96. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta, the Queen of the Fairies. Mustardseed is one of the fairies in the play.

King John by William Shakespeare

’I might as well “gild refined gold.”

The Life and Death of King John is believed to have been written in the mid 1590s and dramatizes John, King of England, who ruled 1199-1216.  The quoted phrase is but one of several examples of “wasteful and ridiculous excess” in the play.

"Bonny Wee Thing" by Robert Burns

“Yes, bonny wee thing, I’ll wear you in my bosom, lest my jewel I should tyne.”

A 1791 poem (also written “The Bonie Wee Thing”).  This poem has also been set to music.  Read this poem here.

Lay of the Last Minstrel by Sir Walter Scott

”Looked to river, looked to hill.”

Published in 1805, Lay of the Last Minstrel is a long narrative poem in which an aging minstrel tells of a sixteenth-century border feud between England and Scotland.

The Robbers by Fredrich Schiller

“‘Da trat hervor Einer, anzusehen wie die Sternen Nacht.’  Good! good!” she exclaimed, while her dark and deep eye sparkled.  “There you have a dim and mighty archangel fitly set before you!  The line is worth a hundred pages of fustian.  ‘Ich wäge die Gedanken in der Schale meines Zornes und die Werke mit dem Gewichte meines Grimms.’

This quotes from the first drama by playwright Schiller, published in 1781.  The story revolves around two aristocratic brothers, Karl and Franz.  Franz is beloved by his father and Karl plots to wrest away his inheritance.

A translation of the lines:

Da trat hervor Einer, anzusehen wie die Sternen Nacht. - One stepped forward to look at how the night was filled with stars.  

Ich wäge die Gedanken in der Schale meines Zornes und die Werke mit dem Gewichte meines Grimms. - I ventured the thoughts in the shell of my wrath and the works with the weight of my ferocity.

Lalla Rookh by Thomas Moore

To live amidst general regard, though it be but the regard of working people, is like “sitting in sunshine, calm and sweet;” serene inward feelings bud and bloom under the ray.

Lalla Rookh is an Oriental romance, published in 1817. The title is taken from the name of the heroine, the daughter of the 17th-century Mughal emperor Arangzeb. The work consists of four narrative poems with a connecting tale in prose.

Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field by Sir Walter Scott

“Day set on Norham’s castled steep, And Tweed’s fair river broad and deep,  And Cheviot’s mountains lone; The massive towers, the donjon keep,  In yellow lustre shone”—

Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field is a historical romance in verse of 16th-century Britain, published in 1808. It concludes with the Battle of Flodden in 1513.

"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Coleridge

The sternest-seeming stoic is human after all; and to “burst” with boldness and good-will into “the silent sea” of their souls is often to confer on them the first of obligations.

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”  is the longest major poem by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, written in 1797–98 and published in 1798 in the first edition of Lyrical Ballads.  Read this poem here.

[absolutiions]

´   ･   .   ✶   ⧼    madchen   amick,   non   binary,   she   &   they   /   fucked   my   way   to   the   top   by   lana   del   rey   +   eyes   the   color   crimson   and   hands   stained   in   crimson,   too.   victim   of   the   underworld,   you   are   not.   you   came,   not   to   sit   silent   at   his   side   as   dutiful   wives   do,   but   to   whisper   in   his   ear.   pouted   lips   smeared   ruby   stoke   the   flames   of   his   darkest   impulses   and   his   deepest   desires.   you   are   the   conqueror.   you   are   the   queen.   and   may   god   have   mercy   upon   anyone   who   underestimates   this   :   because   you   will   not.    ⧽   ━━   don’t   look   now,   but   that’s   ATHENODORA.   the   TWO   THOUSAND,   FIVE   HUNDRED   &   TWENTY   TWO  (   varying   physical   )   year   old   GIFTED   VAMPIRE   has   been   here   in   seattle   for   three   minutes,   and   is   considered   a   member   of   the   VOLTURI.   they’ve   always   been   MACHIAVELLIAN   &   INDOMITABLE,   but   i   guess   this   town   just   brings   out   the   worst   in people   ;   apparently,   they’ve   been   way   more  INSOUCIANT   &   SUPERCILIOUS   than   usual.   it   wouldn’t   surprise   me   if   they   knew   what   was   going   on.   click   HERE   to   check   out   her   stats.

they   told   you   that   you   were   a   nobody,      so   you   became   the   QUEEN.   (   now   everybody   knows   your   name   )

SECTION ONE OF THREE : background / human era. trigger warnings for talk of pregnancy, death, abuse

born circa 502 bc, in a little village that has no lasting name nor impact in ancient greece. 

five of the children born to her parents survived to adulthood, and since she was the last one... it is almost like, her whole life, she has been suffering from younger child syndrome. who knew !

she very literally grew up in a diff time, so when i say she wasn’t rly close to any of her siblings, i don’t mean it in a like... horrible way. it’s not a reflection of character. they just didn’t have a tight sibling bond, though she loved them greatly. 

same w her parents. they were unexceptional people who lived unexceptional lives, and though she was grateful for, u know... their creation of her - they were not close. they did not, in laymans terms, have the lorelai and rory gilmore dynamic. 

her whole family were content to live their dismal lives, and... tho athenodora did not vibe, she, again - grew up in a diff time. of course she dreamt of more. of course she prayed to the gods for something better. but she was achingly aware of the fact that no such future would ever exist for her. such is life in 400 whatever bc, bumfuck, greece.

she was just barely eighteen when she was married to athanasios, to secure land, or smth, because those were the times. of course it was something like that. 

he was... fine, at first. a little small minded ( that wasn’t the ONLY thing that was small, haha ). he, like everyone, was content to live the same old life, and athenodora just... wasn’t. she had been raised on stories of grandeur, and her parents had thought she would settle for the regular - it should not have been a surprise that she didn’t want to, but gods, did she try.

she never loved him, she can safely say ; but she wished that she did. for a long while, athenodora thought it would be easier, and thought that she could do a lot worse. unfortunately... she cld not.

their lives were meant to follow a certain pattern. they had gotten married, and now he would work all day, make them money, tend their land. she would stay home. cook. clean. raise the children that they were sure to have. athenodora was capable of almost everything expected of her, except for the most important part - she couldn’t seem to give him children. not strong sons. not beautiful daughters. 

at first, he told her that it was fine. 

after a year or so, he still told her that it was fine, but she could see in his eyes that it wasn’t.

two years after this, he called her the ancient greek version of defective for the very first time - and things only got worse from there.

he had always been a perfectly fine husband, until he was not, and athenodora had always wanted to love him, until she did not. she prayed to the gods every morning and night, to give her what her husband so desired. to give her that which would make her life better, even if she knew it would not heal the wounds already caused.

sometimes the gods r not dicks. a miracle! she becomes pregnant, aged twenty four ( i kno it sounded like she was a crone but again please remember the times ). she always thought it was just what was best n only athanasios would care, but , wow... suddenly. she cares. she has never felt this level of love with anything, until now.

but, tragedy :// straight white men ( idk, i just feel like her husband was the root of all evil ) are not so easily satisfied. who wld have guessed he wld continue to be an abusive asshole even after his wife succeeded in getting pregnant? i bet i shocked u all. who wld have guessed that a huge part of his problem wld end up being that suddenly, athenodora clearly cares abt something - and it isn’t him. again. got you all!

over the course of her pregnancy, he becomes, for the first time, a real threat to her - or maybe, athenodora simply never took him seriously until there is another person to think of. either way, she TRULY fears him and what he’s capable of by the time she gives birth, and after he makes some passing remark abt their baby, she yeets the FUCK out of there in the middle of the night, eirene ( baby ) only a handful of days old. she takes what she can carry and nothing more, and she... makes it pretty far, thanks to the kindness of strangers. you love to see it.

she settles somewhere ( she considers to be ) far away, and she makes up a good story : her husband died in a war ( there were probably a lot of time, i dont know ) and she was widowed, left to care for their young daughter alone. i know. its really original. they didnt have tv shows back then to rip stories from though.

stays in a hovel on the edge of their village. think the shittiest home you’ve ever seen and then make it shittier. there are rumors about her being a witch, and she kind of appreciates them, because it keeps kids out of her yard. and shock of all shock : in spite of being... u know. a woman. and not very skilled. she finds a very hot ticket job - working for the very wealthy volturi family who live on the other ( opposite ) outside of town, but like, in a considerably better home, obviously. 

honestly, i don’t kno what the ancient greek equivalent of that secretary in new moon is, but that’s the vibe we’re going for, here. she’s like, a chambermaid or smth. and she makes a tidy little sum. doesn’t question her weirdo bosses that much. doesn’t know what anemia is because im p sure it wasnt discovered by then, but presumes they have it.

and maybe, just maybe, it’s the finesse of the century : or maybe, just maybe, it is destiny. in no time at all, she has caught the eye of the volturi’s most eligible bachelor(tm) : caius volturi. many another worker is made upset by this fact, as athenodora is very quickly alotted VERY special treatment as the apple of his eye, which includes, i don’t know... hand delivered baskets of pomegranates, a nicer home and in due time, the simple pleasures of the flesh.

so that’s pretty neat. and life’s pretty fine. she feels like an ancient greek sugar baby, and honestly, isn’t that all she’s ever deserved? she’s got some nice digs ( i don’t think she’d have called them that ) and a man who worships the ground she walks on and who spoils her with pretty things, and most importantly : she is taking care of her daughter, who i absolutely didn’t forget about. eirene is the literal light of athenodora’s life, and everybody knows it. if i say jean valjean and cosette vibes, can we all pretend we get it?

and then it goes to shit. as things do.

her daughter is fourteen years old, when her father finds them ; and she doesn’t know, she never knows, if he was seeking them out or whether it was all DUMB luck. regardless of it all, he is stood inside her home, his breath coming in angry half pants, and athenodora is convinced that this is it. that her end has come. that her freedom is over. she dies, she thinks, or she returns back to the house that was not her home with him. these are her options. 

she tells her daughter to leave. she stops him from following. when she is shoved and her head hits the table, she is aware of the option he has chosen for them more than all else - but the gods, or perhaps, just one - intervenes.

until this night, athenodora had never known the truth of the volturi. but when her beloved saves her from athanasios, she sees him for what he is. she UNDERSTANDS. and she isn’t frightened. she should be, for sure, she should be running as fast as she can - but all she can think in that moment is that she is free now in all the ways she has never been... and caius, her love, is something so much larger than this life. 

for the first time, the godhood that athenodora has always dreamt of is within her grasp. she makes him promise that once eirene comes of age, he will make her into the same creature that he IS. she makes him swear a solemn oath, and he who has been so infatuated by her for so long cannot argue.

four years. this is all it takes, and then eirene is eighteen - capable of standing upon her own two feet. athenodora leaves her everything - all the gifts she has ever been given, all the wealth accumulated, the home. everything she will not need, once she is gone. and she says a final goodbye.

caius turns her himself. the greatest gift he could ever give her.

and reborn, athenodora is MORE than everyone in her life could ever dream of being. she is the queen of the underworld, the goddess of death. she is all of this, and more. at his side, she finds GREATNESS. and once she had it, athenodora decided she would never again be without. 

SECTION TWO OF THREE : volturi era.

became cool. became powerful. very emma frost of her, rly 

didnt rly care for the rest of the coven outside of caius but sometimes u gotta hang w scrubs 

didyme dies sometime after her turning, and that kind of fucks everybody up

not so much her bc like i said she didnt rly care but... caius b frightened of losing her, i guess

kind of throws a spanner in the works 

she spends a lot of time ‘locked away’. not , like, literally ( bc that’s gross! ) but... caius takes over protective to the extreme

uses this time to harness her power and fuck

not always in that order

also spends a lot of time telling him he deserves to b leader

deserves to b the new aro

who needs powers?

not u, caius

go kick their ass baby i got ur flower-

( he doesn’t go kick their ass but man she wishes he wld )

she’s genuinely devoted to him, however, as much as it sometimes seems as if she’s using him as a means to an end

she DOES do that with a LOT of people, but caius... that’s her baby! her darling! her sweetie pie! fuck everybody else in this house caius, she respects YOU ! 

she jus wants to see him be the best there ever was, and he’s.... p... happy to giv her everything she wants, so their dynamic is actually p equal 

we love to see it

anyway lots of years happened and now she’s here

seattle sucks -athenodora’s official review

but she’s fucking SICK of aro’s shit and thinks her 2020 birthday wld be the best time for an official change of pace

obviously aro can read minds so he knows athenodora has high aspirations but he has learned his fucking lesson w killing ppls mates, i guess

lucky for her!

that’s all i got

hehe

SECTION THREE OF THREE : power.

athenodora is an ungifted vampire in twilight canon, but to that i say : fuck ya chicken strips. in equinox, she be special. her power is life force manipulation, in a pretty unique ( and dare i say ) way.

she was a forty two year old woman, when she was turned. she had lived a life, and she had the MARKS to show for it. but the very first time that she drank human blood from the vein, athenodora realized that she was not as unexceptional as she had always been lead to believe she was. vampires do not change. they’re frozen in time, like statues, portraits, photographs... and yet, before caius’ very eyes - athenodora did what no other vampire could. mere seconds passed, and suddenly ; she was stood before her beloved, decades younger. it lasted as long as her thirst was sated, with her age returning to her as her eyes darkened once more. and it happened all over again, when next she fed. 

over time, she’s come to understand it well enough. she has a particular love of younger humans ; those in their twenties, and thus, physical primes. she thinks that is, in part, down to her gift ; she seeks these out to drink from because when she feeds, she’s not simply drinking their blood, but also, their life force. she’s taking theirs to add to her own.

like many gifted vampires, she has spent time learning what she can of her gift, and learning whether there is some other way to apply it. it took almost two thousand years, but eventually - athenodora discovered that with a touch, her fingertips to their skin ( and a great deal of focus ), she could render another changed, also. it lasts for only a short amount of time - an hour, maybe a little longer, depending on how strong she is. but it works. and it makes her think that, in all her unlimited time : she might just be able to do even more. be a danger. manipulate life force in a way that can DESTROY. she’ll keep on working on that for as long as she lives. 

[stellamacmillan]

Is that ESTELLE MACMILLIAN? It’s so nice to see them back at Hogwarts! SHE is 17, and a HALF-BLOOD, 7th YEAR HUFFLEPUFF and totally looks like the muggle CAMILA MENDES. They are known to be CONFIDENT, and METICULOUS but also have a tendency to be HAUGHTY and DUBIOUS. There are whispers around the castle that in the unrest that is brewing they are NEUTRAL. 

OTHER INFO: She’s ¼th Veela.

Full Character Name: Estelle Fernanda Macmillan

Does your character have siblings? What are their names?: She’s an only child.

What is your characters best subject in school? Surprisingly? Herbology.

What is your characters wand?: Come back later, I need to do the test on Pottermore. rgnsrlgk

Can your character cast a Patronus? What is it? What memory do they use?: She is noncorpeal right now, the shape it would take if she were able to is currently unknown.

Who is your characters best friend?: She doesn’t have one, I’d like to plot one out for her though!

Does your character look up to anyone? Who?: Other than herself? Her late mother, who put the stars in her sky. Her father is also quite important to her.

What is your characters relationship like with their family?: The only immediate family she has left is her father, who dotes on her like you wouldn’t believe. Stella is incredibly spoiled, and it couldn’t be more obvious. He’s a good man and a good father, which shines through in how he takes care of his daughter.

If your character has siblings, do they have a favorite?: N/A

What is your characters go-to spell in a duel?: Incarcerous

What spell does your character use most often?: Wingardium Leviosa, so she doesn’t have to carry her books to and from class. 

BIO/HEADCAONS:

TW: parent death, mental illness, manipulation, suicide mention.

She’s Mr. Ernie Macmillan’s daughter, so that’s fun. Strap in lads. Her parents met when the schools came together for the triwzard championship. He asked her to the Yule Ball, which originally started as a plot to get back at respective significant others (or, in his case, to rub Hannah’s nose in it bc………how dare she not go w him?) but stranger things have happened.

They fell and love and it was definitely a whirlwind relationship. They spent their summers following split between Scotland and France. They were married as soon as the war ended, and after Ernie came back to repeat his seventh year, he made the move to be with her and to work under his father-in-law at the French Ministry of Magic. All was well and good for them; they lived happily and were over the moon when Estelle came along.

She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and wanted for nothing. Literally, the girl could not have been more spoiled. She STILL is.

Her mother was a Cursebreaker so she got to experience all sorts of things in different magical communities. She’s quite cultured as a result. She speaks French (which is her mother tongue), English, Spanish, and some Greek.

This bitch had it made up until second year. She was yanked out of class near the end of term and shipped home without given any information. It wasn’t until later that night that her dad sat her down and did his best to explain why her mother was no longer with them.

A few blood purists were unhappy with the fact that Ernie gave up his pureblooded line and decided to mate with someone beneath him (not to mention the fact that he’s always been on the light side and even fought in the war prior).

So, naturally, they stuck their nose where it didn’t belong and found out that Mrs. Macmillan suffered from mental illness. They decidedly used that to their advantage and began manipulating her. Eventually it ended up being too much for her to handle and they drove her to suicide. Her father never told her the more gruesome details to spare her the heartache, only that she’d died tragically.

So, ofc she’s in the dark about the true circumstances and has no idea how/why she’s lost her mum.

OK ACT II HERE WE GO.

Her father couldn’t handle staying  and being so close to the tragedy, so away they went. Enter in her being forced out of her childhood home and being made to move to dirty Scotland, tbh.

Transferred to Hogwarts from Beauxbatons in the middle of her third year. She absolutely despises the school and (most) of it’s inhabitants. Isn’t apart of any clubs or even on the Quidditch team because she can’t be bothered, she’s well and truly tired of everything.

Neutral as fuuuuuck, definitely hasn’t picked a stance in the impending war. Decisions? Don’t know her. 100% in it to protect her money and her own skin, basically. Has tendencies towards the good side bc she’s not a monster, but she’s….not great, either. Very morally grey.

Doesn’t much like that she’s halfblooded; and by that I mean she hates it. CANON DIALOGUE: I’m part veela, so that basically cancels out the halfblood ///:

2 good 4 u. Pompous, self-important, the list goes on. Probably scares people bc they never know what the fuck she’s going to do. A Reckless Nightmare ^TM.

i left out so many things this is rly only scratching the surface but uhhhhhhh, I’ve talked a lot so come love my trash baby she needs friends.

P.S. If I missed any triggers with the darker bit of her bio, pls let me know!

[diveronarpg]

Congratulations, MANDY! You’ve been accepted for the role of GONERIL. Admin Rosey: How long have we been clamoring for our beloved Goneril? Far too long, I think. But the wait was worth it because Mandy, you delivered us to her with a little bloodied bow on top. You gave us a taste of Goneril, and here we are, begging for more. The plots you laid out for her future captured her well, and the para sample you provided gave an insight to the narration of her thought and I absolutely adored it. But, what really sold it to me, was the very end of the application: “... I don’t think Grace has ever stopped long enough to get bored. Maybe that’s for the best though; I’m not sure the world could withstand a bored Grace Daly.” And honestly, I’m not sure I can withstand the Grace Daly you will be bringing to our stage either. But I can’t wait to try! Please read over the checklist and send in your blog within 24 hours.

WELCOME TO THE MOB.

OUT OF CHARACTER

Alias | Mandy

Age | 18

Preferred Pronouns | She/Her

Activity Level | For the next 3 weeks or so, I can probably post about 3-4 times a week. After that I start university, so maybe 1-2 posts per week?  

Timezone | BST

How did you find the rp?  |  I came across it a while ago (9/10 months?) so I can’t remember exactly how, but I figure I must’ve been looking for mob-related roleplays on tumblr.

Current/Past RP Accounts | This is actually my first-time roleplaying on tumblr so I don’t have any past accounts to show. I have been roleplaying for around ¾ years though, just on different forums. I can provide some samples of my writing if you want to make sure I’d fit in here.

IN CHARACTER

Character | Goneril aka Grace Daly! And I like her current faceclaim (Úrsula Corberó).

What drew you to this character? | What initially attracted me to Grace Daly was, in fact, another character; Calina Sokolova. Whilst writing out my application for Cleopatra herself, I noticed that I had a lot to say about wanting to explore her relationship with a character so primal and brutal as Grace Daly. And the more I wrote, the more I felt I understood Grace. At the same time, my infatuation for Calina’s character diminished, and I think that was because I realised that I didn’t actually understand her all that much. Then I read the application of the last successful writer for Calina, and I know that people can have different interpretations which are equally good, but it just made me realise that I had only scratched her surface with my own. I couldn’t do a character like Calina justice; at least, not yet. Not that I consider Grace to be any easier a character to write, or inferior in terms of depth, not at all; I just understand her much better. Turns out, Calina simply wasn’t my mystery to unravel, and so here it is, my application for Grace “Goneril” Daly.

What I love most about Grace Daly is that she remains true to her nature. The violence, the brutality, the chaos—it is her and she owns it. She does not run away, or attempt to hide her darkness, she doesn’t entertain any notions of herself as a ‘good guy’, nor does she fear or try to fight the darkness within her. Right and wrong are seen as abstract concepts, and even when she knows things are ‘wrong’, it makes no difference because she does not care. She would much rather be remembered as ‘great’ than ‘good’, anyway. What Olivander said about Voldemort comes to mind; “After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things — terrible, yes, but great.” Terrible but great, could there be a better analogy for Grace Daly? The rest of the world might see her as rotten, having lost her humanity, but one couldn’t be more primal or truer to their human nature than her. She takes what she wants, when she wants it, no matter the cost. She is a queen waiting to rule, a tragedy waiting to happen, a whirlwind to be respected, but most importantly, feared. She will carve herself a throne, whether that be from gold or your bones.

Despite being known as Goneril, she could actually be likened to Regan, in my opinion. It might seem like the sisters are an interchangeable evil duo in King Lear, but I actually think Regan is the more brutal of the two. After all, it is her who gouges out Gloucester’s eyes and thrusts him out to “smell his way to Dover”. Goneril is driven by ambition too, but I don’t see that love of violence in her characterisation. Catherine spills blood apathetically, whereas Grace thirsts for it, much like the Regan of King Lear.

Pride and the grandiose sense of self-worth, rather psychopathic traits, are also rather important cornerstones of her character. Because she has never been humiliated, never needed to ask for help, never been denied, she has this kind of smugness about her, an air of superiority. She wants to be remembered as such, a glorious vision of power, ambition, bloodlust and savagery—a legacy if there ever was one. Grace has always wanted more – more things, more money, more power, more blood – but perhaps what she craves most is recognition. Not the cheap recognition her parents gave her for simply being their daughter, no, she wants to be known as something great, something invincible, supreme, garnering as much recognition from the beggars and vagabonds lining the streets of Verona as the kings and queens in their palaces. She wants to be feared and worshipped like a God.

Along with the need to be known and remembered, comes the fear of being forgotten. People might sing Catherine praises for her angelic-ness, but they will not remember her name when she has passed like so many saints before her. At least, that’s what Grace thinks. The oldest Daly girl has long forgotten to fear death, but to become a ghost of bygone times like so many others have done in the past and most continue to do? That is literally a fate worse than death. She craves to be different, and to be revered for that difference. Death or glory—these are her options.

Whilst her impulsiveness might be seen as a weakness or a flaw, I think it makes her even more dangerous, because you can’t ever really know what she’ll do. She’s so unpredictable—one can never know whether they’ll get the cold, calculating Grace, or the wild, reckless Grace, who’s far more likely to give into her base instincts, until it’s too late. It’s unnerving how quickly she will switch between the two, but perhaps what is most alarming is when she is both at the same time. You ask how one can be cold and reckless, calculating and wild, at once? Oh, you should watch our raven-haired angel of death in action. She will beat you within an inch of your life and enjoy every second, but an inch she will leave, an inch to tell the world of your most foolish mistake: attempting to withstand the supernova that is Grace Daly.

I’ve never written such a raw, unremorseful character. In fact, I’ve never even come across such a female character in any sort of literature, let alone roleplaying. When other characters will tip-toe on the borders of insanity, Grace will crash in there with a battering ram without flinching. That is why it would be a delight and an honour to write Verona’s resident bloodthirsty empress, not that the world ever remembers one who wasn’t.

What is a future plot idea you have in mind for the character? |

1. Maybe some sort of face-off between the sisters? I don’t mean the three of them get into a ring and fight to the death, I just want a reunion of some sort, I suppose. I don’t imagine it will be at a café over brunch to discuss their childhoods, but perhaps they all need to meet up to discuss some mob business? In my mind, Grace joined the Montagues to give people a reason to remember her, not out of loyalty to anyone in the Montagues. So, if she sees an opportunity to rise the ranks, and she thinks that can be achieved by ‘offing’ one of their own captains to free up a space, I think she would definitely go to her sisters. They are Capulets, after all, and I doubt they would pass the opportunity to get rid of a high-ranking Montague. Regina, if not Catherine, anyway. At the same time, Grace doesn’t really consider her sisters to be her equals, so she might not care to do something mutually beneficial to all of them. Instead, I think she’s more likely to deceive both parties, because she’s arrogant and thinks her sisters are too naïve to understand her true intentions. Maybe that goes badly for Grace, because they really aren’t as clueless as she treats them? I don’t know, it obviously doesn’t have to pan out this way exactly, but I would really like to see the three of them having some sort of heated altercation, or just circumstance which invariably forces them to spend time together.

2. Calina vs Grace? Okay, so I know a lot of my plotting for Grace involves ‘facing off’ against other characters, but what can I say, Grace is a fighting sorta gal. In Calina’s bio, it says that “So long as [Grace’s] teeth are bared in another direction, she won’t have to make her shut her mouth,” aka Calina is happy to let sleeping demons lie, but what if they stopped lying? For whatever reason, they step in each other’s path and BAM! Chaos! Pandemonium!

As for how it happens, I was thinking something like this: Calina’s alias is Cleopatra, right, and, historically, Cleopatra was the first pharaoh to get the support of both the Greek and Egyptian subjects she ruled. In this case, the Greeks and the Egyptians are of course, the Capulets and the Montagues, respectively. Perhaps, at some later date, they are attempting to broker peace between the two mobs, and Calina, being Cleopatra, is at the forefront of this? Peace and harmony don’t work for Grace, of course, and so she tries to throw a wrench or two into their plans. Or maybe even a grenade.

3. I’d really like to explore some fiendish kind of plot that she and Ivan have. They are both quite chaotic and brutal characters, but I’d say Ivan does it for the love of chaos, whereas chaos is a side-benefit for Grace. Her true love is power; unlimited, absolute, power. So, say she hatches a plan to move up in the ranks, and figures that she might need some help from the Capulets for that. The help would be unintentional or accidental if her sisters were involved (see Plot 1), but I think she would be fairly upfront about it if she went to Ivan. Though Capulet by name, I’d say that he is first and foremost an anarchist, and Grace knows this. So, if she wants to stir the pot a bit, and wants to have some fun in the meantime, why ever not get in touch with the platonic Clyde to her platonic Bonnie? He’s never said no to a bit of mayhem. It could also be that they both plan on betraying each other, y’know, for a little more drama? Grace knows that his love of ruin and destruction is a little too dangerous to have around if her plans for dominion are ever to come to fruition, and Ivan knows that he cannot tear the world apart if there are people who wish to maintain the social order, so that one can actually hold dominion. In the end, no matter how similar their methods might be, their endgame couldn’t be more different.

Are you comfortable with killing off your character? | Yes, but I would really like a fitting death for her; ‘’all or nothing”, essentially. Either she goes out in a blaze of glory, doing what she loves, or it somehow becomes that she loses everything, and is at the lowest of lows, and is then killed. I’d rather she didn’t die in some random mugging sort of thing, y’know? Also, pleeease, nothing like how Goneril and Regan go out in King Lear—sure poison can be involved, just not the whole other “jealous, superficial, evil sisters kill themselves over some man/throw themselves at his feet” trope. Grace thirsts for blood and power, not men.

IN DEPTH

I would genuinely do both, but I really want to send this in time for Sunday acceptances and I don’t have very long left. So, in-character para sample it is!!

***

Naivete? No, that couldn’t possibly be it. They had survived too long, accomplished too much, to be naïve. No, what truly plagued her family, whether that was their parents, or her sisters, it was blindness—or lack of vision, to be more precise. They had grown too accustomed to their life, too comfortable in the plush armchairs in front of their warm hearth, to envy the jewel-encrusted palaces that their kings and queens resided in. They were happy to settle for something mildly better than mediocrity, content to be second best, good but not that good. The Daly’s were well-off, there was no two ways about that, but they were hardly mice next to the mammoth that were the Capulets.

It was disgraceful to her. Shameless, even. How dare they be so complacent?

The babe turned girl turned woman, who had always wanted more and more and more, could not fathom the meaning of leading such an unremarkable existence. What could possibly be the meaning of life if you didn’t keep fighting for more, until there was no one left to fight, until you were the most powerful person in the room?

Throughout history and mythology, there were always trinities. Hydra, the three-headed serpent, Cerberus, the three-headed hound, and she had held out hope that herself, Regina, and Catherine, would themselves be a trinity to behold one day. Her mother and father had resigned themselves to ‘the simple life’, but children did not have to repeat their parents’ mistakes. They could be better, the Daly girls.

And yet, it wasn’t to be. Regina had come as uninspiring as they did, and Catherine, well, all saintly Catherine wanted to do was be nice. For a time, she tried convincing them, inspiring them as the eldest, but even back then Grace had had little patience for lost causes. And lost causes they were, the whole lot of them.

If she was to be anything more, it would be alone. Her family would not, could not, help her, and that meant looking for another family. Perhaps one with a little more backbone.

Extras:

I’d say that the Grace I’ve envisioned is quite similar to Villanelle from Killing Eve. However, whilst Villanelle kills because she is bored, I don’t think Grace has ever stopped long enough to get bored. Maybe that’s for the best though; I’m not sure the world could withstand a bored Grace Daly.