#i've been downright civilized up until now

[morgandekarios]

khalid i would die for you

[warwickroyals]

queen rosalyn was mentioned in a recent post, so: can you give us any lore about her, her family, and how they managed to marry into sunderland royalty? if louisa had ended up queen, do you think she would have resisted and opposed rosalyn's politics once she reached majority?

This is actually a very helpful question, anon! Thank you for not getting mad since I took forever to answer <3

Uh, under the cut is a shit ton about the American Civil War and that means talk about slavery, so read at your own risk.

So, Rosalyn as I've made it clear was a Daughter of the Confederacy, like, a literal OG one a la Varina Anne Davis, born and raised on a plantation in South Carolina during a very contentious time. She had a very charmed childhood (like completely obvious to the horrors of slavery and raised as a true Southern Belle), but everything she loved became threatened by the inevitable Civil War and what she saw as the threat of Northern aggression.

Rosalyn in my head has always been similar to Scarlett O'Hara (Vivian Leigh's character from Gone With the Wind), she was absolutely stunning, at least appearance-wise. Sunderland and the USA are right next to each other, so it was typical for Sunderlandian royals to venture into the USA for both political and social reasons. I'd like to imagine that Rosalyn met her future husband Louis at a ball in Maryland.

Now, Louis IV, as I've mentioned before, assumed the throne at 15 years old and was of a rather weak constitution. Due to his poor health, he was used to being babied and pretty much always got what he wanted. So, giving this kid basically absolute power was bound to cause issues. For Louis, it was love at first sight and Rosalyn's family, realizing Louis's position, urged her to pursue him. They had a whirlwind Romeo & Juliet-style romance, heavily manipulated by the Southern planter class, who correctly predicted international opinion turning against slavery, and wanted to ensure Sunderland would remain at the very least neutral during a Civil War. There was no better way to promote their interests than a puppet Confederate queen who had a king wrapped around her fingers.

Basically everyone in Louis's inner circle begged him not to marry Rosalyn: Parliament, family, friends, etc. But Louis married her anyway, Sunderland lacked the proper checks and balances to prevent it (they'd fix this later). People were outraged and opinions about Queen Rosalyn ranged from dismissive to downright murderous. In Sunderland, she became a scapegoat for the coming war in America. The more things worsened in America, the more she was resented. The whole nation held its breath when she became pregnant in 1859, and rejoiced when the child turned out to be a girl.

Sunderland really lucked out with Louis's early death. For one thing, he died before the Civil War started and for another, he died before he could father a son with Rosalyn. Both prevented Rosalyn from really doing any damage or having any institutional power to promote Confederate interests. She had been Queen for just under three years. She fled Sunderland with her infant daughter mere weeks after Louis died, fearing for her life. The new king, Louis's cousin George, was fully intending to make an example of Rosalyn and Louisa if they came in the way of his accession, so it was a smart move.

However, the home Rosalyn returned to wasn't the same. Several of her brothers died during the Civil War, and Big Dick William Tecumseh Sherman marched his soldiers straight across South Carolina, destroying any plantations in his path. Suffice it to say, Rosalyn kind of lost it after that, she never recovered and became a recluse until her death.

As for Louisa, she was referred to by Southerners as the Queen of Sunderland for most of her life, but it was more sarcastically than with any real deference. She never attempted to take back her birthright and actually signalled her loyalty to King George several times. George, as a result, left her to live her life in the USA. The cousins were even on friendly terms until Louisa's death.

Lousia was still raised in the South and her mother probably spoon-fed her a wrapped education based on the pro-South Lost Cause narrative (Here's an amazing video about what that means, but it's basically the myth that the Civil War was not centred on slavery, like, "States Rights" and all that BS), but Louisa rejected appeals to becoming a spokesperson for Neo-Confederate groups. She was a very private person and valued a life out of the spotlight.

Now, had she become queen she would have almost certainly been separated from her mother and raised by the State with George serving as regent until she reached adulthood. Rosalyn would have had little power to do anything about it. There was no chance of Louisa being a Confederate sympathizer without getting assassinated. Plus, after the Civil War, there was no Confederate States to represent anyway.

[crones-trash]

For the Love of Movies...

During my 16 years away from civilization in the desolate flatlands of eastern North Carolina where the nearest big-screen cinema was an 1½ hour drive away, I've only been to one movie. And that was when I visited my daughter in California. Now that I live it Portland, there are dozens of movie houses available. And now that my son Chris lives here, too, I have a Movie Buddy. YAY!

This weekend Oppenheimer & Barbie were sold out but, Wes Anderson's Asteroid City is past the initial crush of interest & available in an art house cinema. Chris & I love funky cinemas so we met up at the Hollywood Theater for the 2pm matinee.

It's a non-profit devoted to the love Cinema that opened almost a hundred years ago in 1926 & is possibly the most elaborate art house I've ever seen. The exterior Baroque/Gothic/Moorish façade is impressive and inside the décor swallows you up in velvety red darkness w gilt-gold trimmings. Compared to the usual bored teenagers who usually have these jobs, their adult ticket takers were enthusiastically welcoming.

It has 3 sizes of auditoriums & my first hurdle was climbing the stairs up to the smallest one. I saw maybe eight steps that ended in a left turn & thought I could handle that much knee pain. But, at the turn, I was confronted by a steep ramp that required me to pull myself up a thankfully solid railing. I kept losing my balance & thought I was losing my mind until I accepted that it was the uneven flooring! It tilted to the left then right then left again! Egad!

The upstairs lobby has no flat floors & was downright trippy like a funhouse at a carnival. I lurched like a drunkard across it to the opulent marble-floored Ladies Room while Chris waited in the concession line to hide my physical distress from him. I spent maybe 10 minutes sitting on the toilet to restore my regular breathing & fight down the pain to restore control over my body. When I rejoined Chris in line, he directed me to find us seats inside & I was relieved to have more time to recover.

The auditorium was extremely small, maybe only a dozen rows perched on steeply raised platforms. The middle rows were further divided by long shelves in front of the seats to accommodate eating & drinking. The concession stand sells local craft beers & Oregon wines, glass-bottled artisan soft drinks, popcorn ("rated best in Portland") & pizza! Oh my!

Physically, the easiest row to access didn't have a table & we didn't need one since we were only getting popcorn & the comfy chairs had drink holders. Chris got me a Cane Cola. He chose a Root Beer & the popcorn came in a brown paper bag.

This place is the epitome of hipster anti-commercialism. Instead of seeing a preview for Oppenheimer, which is playing in the largest 70mm auditorium downstairs, we were treated to delightfully funny promotions for the theater itself including their upcoming program of old Japanese Samurai movies. Chris nudged me w his elbow & whispered, "I love this place." I replied, "Me, too."

Next, I'll write up my review of Asteroid City...

[yazthebookish]

Hello there! I saw your post about the artist Dominique Wesson and I wanted to thank you for bringing that to everyone’s attention as I was unaware until I saw your post. Artists should NEVER be attacked or bullied for the characters they draw whether for fun or for commission.

One thing I do want to ask is that all sides be exposed when they present such awful behavior. I have heard that a lot of elriel stans are attacking gwynriel artists and supporters on twitter mostly and am disgusted by the posts I have seen. I have also seen that a lot of gwynriel stans are attacking elriel artists and supporters on Instagram and tiktok mostly (saying their art is terrible but could be redeemed if the artist redrew elain with red hair instead, death threats, etc). I’ve definitely seen a mix on tumblr but not to the magnitude of the other social media platforms.

As a whole I think elriel, gwynriel and elucien fans are passionate and kind readers but unfortunately there are disgusting, troubling and downright awful members of each fandom (people threatening to kidnap SJM’s son if she doesn’t make a certain ship endgame?? Excuse me??)

When I see posts that only call out one side of the toxic fandom I worry that it causes the trolls of the other fandoms to feel validated in their behavior. (For instance, if only the toxic gwynriel stans are called out, the toxic elriel stans will feel validated for continuing to attack gwynriel supporters because they think that fandom as a whole is as toxic as those extremists.) Obviously you are going to continue as you please and I support you no matter what as a fellow non-toxic SJM fan. But I do ask that if you speak on the toxicity of the fandom, you include all sides so as to target all of the trolls and not just the ones from the ship you happen to not support. I will do my best to do the same!

I hope this message comes across the way I intend-full of compassion and good-intent and no ill will at all. Thank you for supporting our artists and doing your part to put an end to this madness!

I'm not gonna sugar coat what some members of my own fandom do because I know and called out previosuly Gwynriels annoying Elriels on Tiktok. It's childish and just ruins the fun for everyone or those that send anon hate or comment under artists' work that are known to be Elriels.

Toxic behavior is not validated on both sides of the fandom. I'll do what I can but I can't keep up with everything because I'm not aware of it and for the sake of my own mental health. I've been particularly avoiding Elriels because we're all heated now and can't continue having a civil discussion without it turning into a vicious argument.

I don't even have much to add to this. It's an important message that I want to share with everyone. Thank you anon🤍