#i'd like to think this was decently historically accurate though

[chippedshake]

Cherry and Marcia as second-wave feminists though

Reading the Feminine Mystique as soon as it starts gaining traction

Cherry going so far as to read The Second Sex in the original French version

She didn't understand much but Marcia had read the English translation so she got the basics from her

I saw a headcanon once that Cherry listens to heavy metal, and yes, only it's grrrl riot

They joined the distribution of pamphlets about birth control and such on college campuses once they went

I feel like Cherry would have a stereotypically feminine calling to something like teaching little kids and feel really guilty about it, like she should like something that defies the status quo

Marcia would study biochemistry and work in research

Although, looking at things realistically, I think their feminism would be very heavily centered on white, upper-class women like themselves and they wouldn't really consider WOC or lower class women

UNTIL

One day

At a meeting in a feminist bookstore or whatever (my research was light Wikipedia reading before bed, don't take me too seriously)

They're in a semi neutral location

It's mostly white but across classes

They start talking about birth control and there's this black greaser girl who starts telling them all about Native American and African American and Latina women being sterilised without their knowledge by the same advances they were advocating for

She says they need to do something about that too

But when she said that, she interrupted Cherry and Cherry's proud and hot-headed and started fighting back against her and things escalated and they both stalked off

Marcia got kinda mad on Cherry's behalf because loyalty but also she could see the other girl's point, especially because things like that were so seldom talked about in white (=most well-known) feminist spaces

So they talk it over a while, Marcia and Cherry, and they realise that the other girl had a point and they really had no idea because their version of feminism has been so white-centred

And they're kinda wishing they could apologise and maybe work on something together

And there she is, closing her locker

So they go over to her and apologise and all that good person shit and the girl seems a bit skeptical at first but warms up to them eventually and then suddenly they realise they haven't introduced themselves and the other girl says,

"Nice to meet you, I'm Evie."

[columboscreens]

ive been rewatching columbo eps on prime video (idk where to get the other season after 7 :c) and i'm just done with A Case of Immunity, the one with the Suarian Kingdom and the whitest middle east guy i've ever seen ? And like. I'm not a fan of that episode, but. I feel like i'm missing a lot of political or historical context for that episode ? And I wanted to know if you knew more. Thank u, I'll get back to my little guy show now.

you're not missing much.

the latter portion of original columbo was marked by an increased desire to show him in radically different contexts--between a man on international waters, an arab diplomat, a IRA liason, a CIA agent, and a mexican matador, it suffices to say columbo got around a little more as time went on. and due to the growing US interest in the middle east throughout the 70s (most of europe's imperialist/colonialist tendrils had vacated, cold war alliances were being made, israel, oil, etc.) i suppose they thought people would want to see something topical. they also didn't want to piss anybody off, so the Very Real Country of Suari it was.

the role of hassan salah was originally intended for ben gazzara, but he was scrapped by the network for being too expensive (much to peter falk's consternation). mine too, really, because though hector elizondo did a fantastic job, i think gazzara would've played a better arab. he was sicillian, but i wouldn't be surprised if he had actual arab heritage, as sicilians very often do. his surname is arabic as hell--غزارة is arabic for "abundance", which ended up as a loanward in italian to mean "noisy".

ultimately though, the middle east is an ethnically and geographically diverse region containing a wide variety of looks and skin tones. for one, i and my entire family are lebanese. my skin is rather pale, my grandfather was tan but had pale blue eyes, my aunt is nearly blonde, etc. so elizondo's countenance may not scream "arab" nearly as much as gazzara's, but levant, maghreb, or gulf--he's not all that unbelievable either.

funnily enough, in middle ages arabia, those with blue eyes were associated with duplicitous and untrustworthy behavior....

i guess something that does kinda make me roll my eyes is the treatment of the language. to their credit, the characters do speak and write real arabic in the show, albeit...poorly. obviously it's a 70s tv movie, who cares about accurate glottal stops, but they spent like eight grand to rent a learjet for one of the scenes, and the arabic is real and (mostly) intelligible, so clearly somebody translated it. would it have killed them to hire a dialect coach?

we did get some extremely jewish-sounding arabic out of peter though. so. all is emphatically forgiven

the one thing that truly rubs me the wrong way about the episode is that it's noxiously sympathetic to the american political ethos of the time, which as we well know could do no wrong. watch columbo OWN this EVIL diplomat donned in traditional garb who wants to retain his country's DISGUSTING traditional ways while the new, hip young king who was probably forcefully instituted by american troops in a coup you'll never learn about is COOL and LOVES AMERICA and will lead his oil-filled country on camelback into a beautiful sunset of BEING COOL and LOVING AMERICA. there's NO WAY this could go south. STOP looking at iran NOW

(speaking of which, the state dept. rep who bursts columbo's bubble, kermit morgan, might or might not be a nod to kermit roosevelt jr. who played a central role in the CIA's ousting of iran's mosaddegh in 1953)

...least he's honest

anyway, in retrospect this episode isn't the series' finest moment, but it's a decent watch--and believe me, far and away not the worst treatment of arabs hollywood has thrown at us over the years. i know i'd certainly take a dozen of these over whatever the hell they were churning out post-9/11.

wallahi i could've forgiven the weird culturally inaccurate bowing if they just put columbo in a keffiyeh...

[kerra-and-company]

🥕🥭🍑🥝 for Kerra?

Kerra asks! :D Gladly!! (aaaand I saved this in my drafts forever aklsjd;fsaf I apologize)

🥕 [CARROT] How tough is your OC against certain situations? How weak are they against others?

Kerra has a huge range re: this question. Generally, she's very good at being tough--at least in the moment. She can compartmentalize like there's no tomorrow in order to get through tough situations and then will process those emotions later down the line. If you wanted to break her, though, you put the people closest to her directly in the line of fire. That's historically happened with Trahearne, Aurene, Canach, and Rhi, and it's going to result in extreme desperation to fix whatever the situation is and almost single-minded focus on it. Also probably anger. If you want a very clear and direct emotional and self-sacrificing response, kidnap/threaten/trap someone Kerra cares for. (You're also likely not to survive that, but at that point that's on you.)

🥭 [MANGO] What colors best represent them and why? Does this differ from their favorites?

Kerra's color is and always has been purple, in part because. Well. She is purple, haha. But it's also often associated with royalty and power, and power is one thing Kerra has plenty of, both in terms of position/title and just in terms of magical/martial capability. And is this different from her favorites...kind of? Kerra does like purple, but it's tied with blue and green.

🍑 [PEACH] How do they show their kindness? How kind are they truly?

Answered this one here! :)

🥝 [KIWI FRUIT] How does their outside appearance differ from who they are?

I'd say her outside appearance is decently accurate to who she is. She doesn't really try to hide her physical scars, so you can see some of the things she's lived through over the years. And the fact that she smiles as much as she does is also very much part of her personality. That last bit can trip people up sometimes, though, into thinking she's more okay than she actually is.

[the-golden-ghost]

For OCverse asks: 8, 12, 16, 25?

8.) what inspired your world building, if anything?

Okay so I KNOW this does exist, but I was just kinda thinking... why does so much fantasy either take place in Medieval England (Europe) Lite (but not even a very historically-accurate version of it) OR Just The Modern Day But There's Magic? Like there's SO many time periods I'd love to see covered in a fantasy-verse that are criminally underused. Even medieval-based ones are less Truly inspired by the middle ages and are more just direct ripoffs of Tolkien.

In any case, I picked the (19)20s although I've been debating whether it's really the right way to go. It's definitely going to be US-centric just cause... well, I'm from there. I thought for a ghost story too, the culture of the 20s where they're recovering from a world war and massive epidemic and still spiraling into even worse events to come would be kind of on the nose. I guess it hits home a bit with the modern day, too.

It's not intended to be a bleak story, though. Just a little dark.

12.) okay be honest. pick a favorite oc from this ocverse.

DIFFICULT it changes? I usually say Faith, she became the protagonist after being cast as the antagonist in the last variation for a reason - I just love her a lot.

But Davy grows on me sometimes. He's probably the closest one I have to a self-insert which means sometimes I don't especially like him because we're just too similar, but he's got Vibes. Occasionally he overthrows Faith in my brain for Favorite.

16.) imagine the entire story takes place but in the meantime the characters all also have tumblr. what kind of (terrible) tumblr posts would happen?

Faith is DESPERATELY trying to Do Numbers as a Tumblr Funnyman and it isn't working. Every carefully-crafted shitpost she makes gets 10 notes or less. She doesn't seem to realize that there's no prize for getting famous on here and it's in fact a hindrance.

Davy has a main blog but he doesn't post and gets reported as a bot a lot. He also has a sideblog he runs where he posts as Smudge and it has 50k followers

Lilah has a decent if somewhat niche following and does mostly music recs, songs she's working on, life advice, and aesthetic photos. She has a few fandom blogs as well and has to be careful not to post on main cause it'd be embrassing.

Sam is dead and posts glitchy illegible posts into the void. His blog cannot be followed, but the posts will show up on your dash anyway, somehow. None of them have visible notes.

25. best scene you havent yet written, but have an idea for?

Faith and Davy re(?)union at the beginning hell yeah! I have two separate ideas depending on whether to make them Childhood Friends (the standard) or strangers (new idea, playing around with it)

[totallynotreadingatwork]

Mini Book Reviews Again

The Cargo from Neira by Alys Clare, book 5 of the Gabriel Taverner series - Been a little while since I read one of this series because I was all caught up to publication, but I don't think that's going to matter now because it felt like this was the last book in the series. If so, it was a fitting sendoff, and a good mystery with a decent little happy ending for all involved. These books aren't sweeping epics or anything groundbreaking, but if you feel like you'd like 250-page historical mysteries then this is as good a place to start as any.

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke, book 1 of the Inkworld series (of which there's apparently going to be a new book of this year?!?!) - Read this literally over a decade ago and decided to reread it now and god I'm glad I did; for starters, this book captures the joy of reading and love of books so well it's unbelievable. Second; it's just a really good story. I know it's part of a trilogy but honestly you could read it as a standalone if you wanted. Funke is a brilliant storyteller, and even though it's a kids book it's perfect for adult fans of fantasy too.

The Owl Service by Alan Garner - I'm not going to lie, this one was a bit odd in terms of language and sentence structure, but once you get past all that... the story is even weirder. It's sort of exploring one of the stories of the Mabinogion about Lleu Llaw Gyfes and Blodeuwedd, and I just thought it was a really interesting take on it. You see all of these re-explorations of Greek and Roman myths going on at the moment, and for some reason I've never thought to look into similar things going on with Welsh stories, but honestly this one was brilliant, if a bit mad.

Into the Fog by Alexia Muelle-Rushbrook, book 3 of The Minority Rule trilogy - Plagued by a lot of the things I didn't like about the previous two books; supposedly childfree main character gets pregnant and loves it; "xyz system is wrong and immoral and can't work but oh thank goodness it worked for me". I'm not a fan. The ending was also a naff copout, I felt, because half the point of this book was that the government shouldn't get to control your life, and the protagonist kind of ended the series by saying agreeing with that, but only because the goal the government was trying to achieve by controlling everyone will end up being achieved anyway if they stop, implying that if that wasn't the case then controlling everyone would be the correct choice to make.

Unrest by Michelle Harrison - Another reread from when I was younger. It really freaked me out at the time, but didn't have quite the same impact as an adult, partly because I'm not as easily spooked now, and partly because I remembered what happened. Still, I'd recommend it to any young horror fans. I've enjoyed it even the second time around; Michelle Harrison is an excellent author.

Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz, book 1 of the Blue Bloods series - Listen. Listen. This book is trash. It's kind of unbelievably rubbish. But I love it so damn much. It's from the Twilight era, this one being published in 2006, and it shows. It's hastily written, highly problematic, and seems to be a combination of Twilight and Fallen by Lauren Kate because the vampires in this book are actually angels. Like I said, it's trash and bonkers but I enjoy it because I'm trash and bonkers.

Ghost Knight by Cornelia Funke - I don't have much to say about this one really. My mum bought it for me off a charity book table for 50p so I read it even though it's definitely aimed at like... 7 year olds? It was okay. I prefer books with more substance but it was good for what it was and I have since passed it on to an actual seven year old.

Unwell Women by Elinor Cleghorn - A depressing read in all honesty; like you know the medical world is awful to women, but you never quite realise the extent of that, and it's crazy to see it all laid out there in black and white. I know it's not the world's most accurate account of the medical history of women, and some liberties have been taken to make it more dramatic in places, but I feel it should be appreciated for the spotlight it managed to help put on women's health.

The Spook's Revenge by Joseph Delaney, book 13 of the Spooks series - One hell of an ending to the series I'll tell you that. I do wish it had spent less time and effort setting up the next series however; I feel like sewing the seeds for a spinoff is fine, but if you do that too much in a final novel then it detracts from the main story and can make the ending feel a bit hollow because you know the victory won't last. Still, I enjoyed it, and I'm very glad to have come back to this series.

The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman, book 6 of the Invisible Library series - So this one is a heist book. I really enjoyed it. One thing I enjoy about this series is how each book is still introducing new characters and having new adventures. There's obviously overarching plot and you shouldn't read them out of order, but you probably could if you didn't mind missing out on the background stuff. Really, Cogman's books are just a very fun time.

[xemylixa]

#also prev would you like to share some of your favourite stuff about the russian translation 👉👈#if you have anything to say about it that is#its just interesting to me

Well, the 3 biggest baddest ones were made in the 20th century by several ppl whose names I keep forgetting... hang on. Here:

OiM: Staroselskaya, Eppel

Potop: Petrushevskaya (she's a Soviet translation legend), Staroselskaya, Yegorova, Matetskaya

PW: Staroselskaya, Yazykova, Tonkonogova

To be objective: I'm not a translation or language or culture expert in any way, and I can't vouch for the accuracy 100% because I'm not familiar with the original. And most of my love for it is about the language and style.

But. The style is amazing. It's really fitting for something written in the 19th century about the 17th century. It's a little hard to get used to - but it sure helps that the first several paragraphs of the trilogy are a long lyrical description of the Wild Fields before any dialogue or action happen, so you have time to get pulled into it and then just go along with it. I like the way they kept the rhythm of the narration and the character speech closer to Polish than perhaps is wholly comfortable for the Russian ear (I watched all the trilogy movies in original Polish w/ subs so I had time to take in the musicality of it); like putting verbs at the ends of sentences a lot. It feels more Polish even though it's not.

These translators were very knowledgeable about certain historical terminology - "podjazd" (scouting raid), for example, is accurately translated as "разъезд" which I didn't know was ever a word in that sense, but I sure do now. And they don't give any footnotes or anything: again, you just pick it up like the Sienkiewicz-reading nerd you are. They sound comfortable with this world and its language, and so trust you to immerse yourself in it too.

They also translate some idioms by their more obscure variants - "jak oko w głowie", instead of the most common neutral variant "как зеницу ока" (like the apple of one's eye), becomes "пуще глаза" (more carefully than the eye). It feels more "authentic" that way, fresh and like it actually means something instead of being an empty cliche. Isn't having a broad vocabulary nice? I could never :(

And they leave certain words untranslated - like the word "polityczny" (decent, appropriate, polite, diplomatic) and its derivatives. It used to exist in Russian as-is, too, and if you speak Russian and see this word, you just know what it means because of the context and because it feels familiar. It gives it both a sense of age and Polish-ness.

Another example: instead of "з��жечь" (to light [a fire]) they regularly use "запалить" which is more jarring and poetic-sounding, but is a direct cognate to the Polish verb "zapalić", which is a trick I love. It's in the first dialogue line in the first book, and it made me go "oh? is this what we're doing with the style? I'm here for it!"

And more little touches like this which give it a specific air that feels right for the work.

I didn't look up any critiques of these translations or any others bc I'm scared to be disappointed, lol. But the passing comments were like "eh, it's good". I'd like to see what a linguist/philologist thinks about them. But again am scared to actively look it up ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For those moments of Trylogia boys emoting so prettily and dramatically that you think “this can’t possibly be canon”:

[not-poignant]

Can you talk about how you came up with Dogwill Borough's name?

I would love to say that I spent a lot of time on it, but I think I had it in about 10 seconds.

I generally find name creation for characters really easy unless there's a cultural component that requires a deep dive (like Damilola Adayemi's name in Falling Falling Stars required some decent research into name structures and names used in Yoruba linguistics - the one thing I wanted to do least was a mish-mash of words across different African language groups that would make no sense for that character for example).

But otherwise, yeah, I just sat there and thought of a name I thought fit the character, lol. I wanted something more British sounding, and 'Will Borough' sounds completely ordinary, but 'Dogwill' sounded just ordinary/fae enough for the character. I wanted him to have a surname due to the community/area he'd been raised in. Sometimes Fae Tales has too many 'single name' Madonna types, lmao.

Tbh if you asked me to name 100 characters in about an hour I'd find it pretty easy to do. That's one area where I don't struggle much. The names aren't necessarily good, but I find characters tend to grow into their names anyway.

The character I struggled naming most was Mosk. And I'm struggling a bit with some of the side characters in Malloory & Mount, not because I can't think of a name, but because I have too many, lol. It's pretty common before writing a big fic like Stuck on the Puzzle to just make a relatively culturally accurate 'name list' with like 50-70 names on it. I just pick a name when I have a new character that comes up, that seems to suit the character. The name list for Mallory & Mount is truly excessive (sitting on like 300 names) with names from like 1700s Brittany, 1800s Ireland and Scotland etc.

I kind of love names x.x

I wish I had like more deep symbolism about explaining why I chose them though. A lot of the time it's 'I just think it suited them' or 'I liked the sound of it.' I can't imagine calling Betsan anything other than Betsan for example. The root word of that was Betsy, but in Dragon Age, some of the characters have names that are just slightly outside of what's familiar. So characters like Hensley and Betsan etc. have names that are deliberately sort of familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. The most research I do tends to be into language groups and historical usage of names at the time.

But since Dogwill Borough was a fae OC that wasn't going to live that long, and I didn't have to fit any canon except my own, I gave him a very quick throwaway name. Hell, the fact that he's a dog shifter is literally in his name. x.x

[ashe-wottlin]

Tag 10 People You Wanna Get to Know Better

tagged by @cloudheaded thanks for the follow back and tag!

Doing this on mobile so sorry for the wonky formatting xD

--

Relationship Status: single and not looking to mingle because I'm aro af

Favorite Color(s): a purple that's more blue then red, I also like the deeper reds like burgandy

Favorite Food: in the US I'd say it was potatoes or chicken Alfredo, but now that I live away from decent Mexican/TexMex food it's Picodillo xD it's the one dish that I can make fairly accurately every time xD

Song Stuck in My Head: Birds by Kat Cunning

Last Thing You Googled: "George Washington Carver gay?" I read a queer pamphlet yesterday about how queer people in general don't get to learn about famous queer people in the past and how it's extra hard to find the same intersectional type of historical queer too because everyone eventually learns about like Alan Turing but never about how George Washington Carver was gay even though people in the US usually learn of him for Black history month.

Time: 15:09 pm

Dream Trip: I wanna go around south America and just kinda get seeped into the culture and eat a shit ton of potatoes because they are the birth place of the potats and apparently have more flavorful ones

Last Thing You Read: Book: Mort by Terry Pratchett ; Fic: A Bow for the Bad Decisions by Curriositykilled

Last Book You Enjoyed Reading: I liked Mort! The ending felt a bit handwavy but the world building and author voice was really fun!

Favorite Thing to Cook/Bake: I like cooking in general, deboning a chicken and chopping veggies are my fav part during the weekend when I have time and want to cook, but like are the worst during the week when all I wanna do is eat dinner xD I don't care for baking but I like kneading and eating yeasty bread things sometimes

Favorite Craft to do in Your Freetime: not a craft but I got back into piano again so I enjoy making little tunes. But also I make origami roses if I'm bored and have paper.

Most Niche Dislike: I really hate whipped cream. I don't care for bacon or chocolate much but they've grown on me over the years but whipped cream is still just so awful I don't understand the appeal at all.

Opinion on Circuses: I didn't care for them as a kid and I really don't like the idea of the exotic animals being moved around constantly instead of having a proper home :/ I like that French acrobatic circus thing though but like that's not what I think of for a circus.

Do You Have Any Sense of Direction: OH god no, I get lost using Google maps sometimes too xD I accidentally told my favorite singer the wrong direction because she remembered me from the meet and greet and found me in the street and this haunts me to this day it's been like 7 years

--

Tagging: @agenderdanvers @architeuthisducks-blog @kat-anni @the-face-in-the-moon @the-sage-of-dissolution @theliteraryluggage

As always if you wanna do it cool if not also cool

[mimicofmodes]

Hey, I love your blog! I want to wear more Victorian/Edwardian dresses or maybe even get into historical reenactment but I can't make my own (no equipment or skill lol) so I was wondering if you knew any websites that sell those styles? I know they aren't going to be 100% accurate but I'd appreciate your insight either way, thank you so much ❤️

Hey!

In general, nothing that comes off the rack is going to be very good. Historical Emporium has a few separates that are decent: in the blouses, I would recommend the Margery and Pinstripe styles for a ca. 1905 look, and the Pauline for anytime in the 1910s and early 1920s; in the skirts, the Walking Skirt and Constance are okay for the 1890s and the Suffragist could be used from about 1910 to 1914. Recollections is also generally bad, but the Marta and Bella are passable.

Originals by Kay is a good shop - Kay Gnagey is an expert and knows what she's doing, and she does both custom and off-the-rack work, but she only provides Civil War-era clothes. Vintage Victorian does a larger range, but only custom.

Another option would be to get good patterns (I can help with that if you want more advice there) and take them to a local tailor or seamstress - they don't usually advertise actual dressmaking services because customers just don't want them anymore, but typically they will do the work for you.

The most important aspect of an outfit is the corset you wear beneath it, though. Even a period-original dress will look off without a corset to put your bust and waist in the right places. Redthreaded is the best place to get off-the-rack corsetry.

But I really encourage you to think about learning to sew! You can even do it by hand, without a machine. (I made a regular everyday dress almost entirely by hand a few years ago because I was depressed and the step of getting off the couch and going to the machine was too much.) If you start with simple projects like petticoats and chemises and work your way up, you'll be confident and skilled enough for outerwear in no time.

[marzipanandminutiae]

If you want to talk about it, do you have any thoughts about Kirsten Larsen's outfits? When I was 6 I was obssessed with American Girl books and pioneers in general, but I always thought that her outfits were accurate solely because she had an apron. So as an adult who'd been debating on making myself a pioneer dress based off hers, I'd like to know what you think of her wardrobe!

So first of all, as a kid, I found Kirsten’s outfits the most boring of the entire historical lineup. Oh look, a printed calico prairie dress. And another printed calico prairie dress. And another- you get the idea. Honestly I still stand by this perspective. Regardless of accuracy, the whole Little House homespun pioneer look just does nothing for me. Subjective personal preference.

Just glancing back at her original collection for a refresher, though, I don’t see anything glaringly wrong for the early 1850s. She has her little drawers and her little sunbonnet and her little back-closing dresses in sturdy, serviceable fabrics. I like the touch of having tucks on some of her skirts, a practical choice to “build in” extra fabric so the dress could be let down as its owner grew. And there is SOME variation. I actually like her sweater, blouse, and skirt set in particular. My sister had those and I remember yoinking them from the Big Basket of Family AG Clothes(TM) often for my own dolls.

(Bear in mind that my sister is 12 years older than me, so we never actually played with these things at the same time. But I digress.)

I could probably find some quibbles if I looked long enough, but at a glance, it seems pretty decent in terms of accuracy!

UPDATE: @in-pleasant-company has a tag about this sort of thing on her blog if anyone wants to delve in deeper

[the-busy-ghost]

☕️ It seems like so many shows fumble the ball, but I'd love to hear about a portrayal of Scottish history in period drama that you thought did a good job?

Thank you for asking! I don’t watch that many tbh and so far I’ve never really found one that was really good. I said the other day that Outlander probably can’t be said to be all bad- but I really haven’t watched it, it’s more that it doesn’t at first sight look completely unrecognisable as the eighteenth century (also the soundtrack is dope).

There is also actually very little content about medieval and early modern Scotland to go on. We don’t even have that many televised documentaries to watch (I may be remembering incorrectly but I think it’s something like two in the last twenty years- one of which was appalling). 

Which leaves by process of elimination, ‘Outlaw King’. The plot is not hugely accurate, there wasn’t enough Gaelic in it, and the whole depiction of Edward II was... not that good (I mean it wasn’t as bad as Braveheart but that’s such a low bar). The accents were a bit dodgy. There were also some annoying plotholes and in general it would probably have been much better as a tv series. On the other hand it was somewhat recognisable as fictional representation of fourteenth century Scotland, there wasn’t quite so much silly costuming and nor was the political situation reduced to ‘The Clans Are Fighting’. The Comyns got a bad rap but that’s about par for the course in popular Scottish history.

It was also a genuinely beautifully shot film and actually shot in Scotland for once- and some of the CGI was actually worth it for once, even if not 100% accurate (Stirling Castle, god what a great moment- and it even felt suitably dreich for Stirling. And Berwick was interesting too). One of the things too many people don’t have an appreciation for when it comes to Scotland is the variety of its landscape and the cultural and regional differences. 

Characters who cracked jokes were actually quite funny and not just drunk stereotypes! And attention to detail was good (if sometimes a bit gross- James Douglas’ “Farmers’ Hanky” for example). 

I think there was only one made-up character? I’m not sure I didn’t count- but it was a kid who served to drive home an emotional point about war so I suppose I’ll let it slide, even if Drew is not at all a believable name.

The obligatory sex scene could have been much worse. Also if there has to be a romantic plot at least the two leads felt like they had some chemistry. 

I felt what really sold it for me was that if you watch carefully there are little asides and hints towards characters who don’t have important roles in the movie, but whose own interesting careers can be followed in the historical record. I think that is important because what’s often forgotten about the Wars of Independence is that it was so much bigger than one or two men, it’s not Bruce and Wallace alone against the world. Hundreds of people had their own complex reactions to the conflict and even though the film obviously didn’t have time to show all that on screen, it really gave a nod to some of these characters that showed that the creators had at least tried to build the world (even if some other characters were less well-researched).

From a general medieval point of view it’s not terrible either actually- at least the costumes are more colourful and the religious bits are not all one sided. The sheer level of violence is A Lot to take in, but tbh it can’t really be called gratuitous given how bloody the year 1306-7 was. But no gratuitous sexual violence on screen- even if some is implied.

I would say it was a half-decent historical film, with its fair share of inaccuracies. It’s no Lion in Winter in terms of Pure Class either, but it can still be an enjoyable film for someone who loves studying mediaeval Scotland to watch- and it’s even enjoyable to pick inaccuracies out! So often with Scotland there’s not even much point picking out the inaccuracies, because it’s all so inaccurate it’s practically fantasy. It’s a bit of a luxury with Outlaw King to actually be able to point out where it’s inaccurate for once, rather than just making incoherent whining noises. 

Also if someone knew nothing about Scottish history, it does not have very many hugely misleading stereotypes that would hinder them in finding out anything more (except maybe the portrayal of Edward II).

And I’m not sure it would be everyone’s cup of tea but (aside from a few rather sickening scenes that I will only watch once, even though I know the history) I sort of enjoyed the film. I had issues with a lot of it but I can admit that I genuinely adored the colours, the dry humour, the tiny details and the attention to landscape, buildings, and weather. 

Sorry I ranted a bit, I just have a complex emotional relationship to this film and that’s a new experience for me when it comes to Scottish historical media! I do think, to answer your question in short, it did a reasonably OK job, not sure about plain ‘good’. I just reacted to it with such relief my judgement may be clouded.

Thank you so much for asking!

Edit: Oh I forgot- funny thing is that Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in itself, isn’t that terrible either. The plot’s all wrong, as are the character’s title, but (perhaps because it was written in the sixteenth century) the usual stereotypes are not present in the script and the people in the play are about as human as in any other Shakespeare tragedy. The problem comes more with how most people decide to stage Macbeth rather than the play itself. The same could be said of Douglas’ scenes in Henry IV Part 1 (honestly what were the Hollow Crown thinking with that costuming?). So it’s not a period drama per se but when on screen the reason Macbeth adaptations are bad (in terms of portrayal of Scottish history) is because of the preconceived notions of the modern directors and not because of Shakespeare. But if I talk about Shakespeare too much I’d have to bring up historical novels which can sometimes do a better job too. 

[korolevskiy-sekret]

Hey, I saw your d'Eon shelf and I'm really really curious about your thesis. I'm somewhat of an amateur history buff regarding d'Eon (my own d'Eon shelf sadly only contains The Maiden of Tonnerre, her autobiography, but I'm aiming to add to it). I'd love to hear what you're studying/writing about, and also if you'd recommend any of the books you currently have!

 Hello!! Thank you for your interest! I’m always excited to talk about d’Eon! :’D

My thesis as it stands right now is about the relationship between history and historical fiction, and how they influence each other! D’Eon is a really neat case study for this because of the sheer amount of fiction about her, and also the messy relationship even the most accurate histories about her have with the truth! I’m really just starting and still in the theoretical and source-gathering phase, but I like to think I have a decent collection! It’s actually grown since I posted those pics, and I’ve got a few more in the mail. I tend to buy the fiction, but borrow the nonfiction from my uni library - they have a decent number of books (two), and I have access to a decent number of articles. I don’t actually own any of d’Eon’s (endless - good lord, lady) writing, because all of the ones I’ve found are either super expensive, or were made with that scanning technology that makes everything illegible. 

Recommendations are a little tricky because there’s a) so much, and b) so much of it is bad. My favourite work about d’Eon is the YA series L’agent secret du roi by Anne-Sophie Silvestre, but it’s in French and four volumes long. The Le Chevalier d’Eon anime and manga are two different but related acid trips. There are apparently two different French bande dessinee, and I’m desperately hoping the new one isn’t an erotic because the currently available one is, and it’s a nightmare! There’s a play by Renny Krupinsky on Amazon that looks decent, but also might even have a trans d’Eon (shockgasp!) - I haven’t begun reading it yet, though. If you want to make a drinking game, M. C. Hobbs’ Chevalier is a good excuse to get drunk!

This isn’t really a good recommendation list, mostly because I don’t really have one yet. When I’m further into my research though, I’ll almost certainly make a post with a number of them!!