#idyllic thoughts

[idyllicsimmer]

Trying to post more, but stressed AF! I swear, when life stressors come, it’s like in bulk. The only thing I want in bulk is chocolate 🤣 It’s lovely to watch everyone else’s posts though ❤️

[idyllicsimmer]

I feel this to my core ... as I compulsively bought 5 last week even though I do not need any more books ...

Me just four days ago: “alright, I won’t buy any more books for a while. There’s none I want right now anyways”

Me, yesterday: “it’s time I treat myself to something nice” *proceeds to order 6 books*

[soapssuds]

dan heng on the express: *calls jing yuan his friend and doesn't use any titles*

dan heng on the luofu: *calls him general*

me:

[gawrkin]

I normally don't like Tennyson's narrative around the female characters due to his framing of them being the source of all the faults in Camelot.

But there's a part of this story that often catches my attention and its Guinevere's rejection of Arthur:

Like, I can't help but dig idea that Guinevere rejects Arthur because of his virtue. As if his holy character actively irritates her.

If I was writing, I would take it further and outright imply Guinevere is some kind of demonic being. If Tennyson can get away with turning Arthur into a mysterious, divine entity that Merlin found instead of being born of Uther's misdeeds, then I don't see why I can't apply that to Gwen.

Welsh Myth already provides the idea of Guinevere as a Fae/Giantess so I would just present her as a "Reverse Persephone" -

Guinevere is actually a mysterious girl who came up from the "Kingdom beneath the Earth", "a daughter of a Colossus of Old" and is reared as ward of one of Arthur's vassals. Arthur, being taken by her beauty, took her as his wife. "And so, the Worthiest and Most Righteous King on Earth married a she-devil, the fairest of all her race, and made her his Queen."

The reason she finds Arthur repulsive is because she's a "primal spirit" who was born deep underground and can't stand the presence of someone so "Heavenly", so divorced from "the touch of the Earth". Camelot falls into "sinfulness" because Guinevere is in fact a physical avatar of all Materialism and Worldly Values, both good and bad.

And instead of Guinevere repenting of her actions, I would just take a cue from E.A. Robinson and have Gwen reject Arthur to the very end:

And if Arthur and Guinevere ever meet again, Guinevere could go as far as threaten to eat Arthur - "as is the habit of my kind, says the Queen" - especially if Arthur starts posturing about his (Victorian) morals and being chaste for her.

If there was a way to present Guinevere as a proper Anti-heroine or compelling villainess without the usual sexism/misogyny, this is how I would do it.

She's not so much an actively evil force as she is simply incompatible with the "Blameless" Arthur and indeed, the marriage's eventual failure was inevitable.

But for a time, while the marriage endured, Camelot was the place where the Spiritual and Material meet as fellows and prosperity ensued.

[mercymaker]

woke up at 5am for no good reason but now I'm haunted by this thought of halsin.

how months into being together with mal, after the horrifying ordeal of thoriel's birth, weeks and weeks and weeks of taking care of a depressed partner, there's finally a shift.

how maleane starts recovering, how a smile creeps back on her lips, how everything seems to shift back into its place. she's no longer bedridden, unable to take care of herself or her baby, instead slowly finding her place in his world.

and it's as if halsin can finally let out a sigh of relief, how after spending so much time worrying, caring, longing for reprieve, he can just let go and relax. everything's going to be ok.

or so it seems.

because one day, he accidentally finds her alone, crying. and it's instant, the way all the fear and worry returns to his bones. the way he slowly starts suspecting that she's been pretending, that perhaps very little from those times of relief was true. and maybe because he so desperately wanted for everything to be alright, he simply didn't notice the cracks. her sadness and anger growing under the surface.

and it's crushing, the realization that he's been living on false hope. that no matter how much he wanted something, his efforts weren't enough. that maybe he is simply not enough.

and that is the beginning of a downwards spiral for them. this weird in-between place between the reality and his own misconceptions. the want to do the right thing, to be selfless and make the choice that would bring her happiness, but ultimately being built on a misunderstanding.

she's unhappy with him.

instead of mal simply being unhappy. and halsin loves her, he wants her to be happy. even if it means letting her go.

but what if in those moments... what if he was a little more selfish? thought of himself as well? of his heart? what if he persuaded her to keep trying? to stay? push through all the misery? maybe he would've realized that he was wrong? that it wasn't him as the source of her unhappiness?

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

thinking about superheroes unfortunately

[drawnwithrage]

Hey guys! I'm still here. Just focusing on things that make me happy. Felt lost for a little while. I'm glad that I'm finally able to enjoy things again. The break up was rough and that's ok. Because of it I was able to go back to my happy moments and remember why I wanted to be an artist in the first place. And omg, I'm so proud of myself. I was able to draw all these little sketches. Little Daisy would be so happy. So here is to my inner child. May I bring her joy through art 🌸🌸🌸.

[pygmy--tyrant]

house in the cerulean sea essentially has the same plot as a hallmark movie and to be clear this is not a criticism

[missr3n3]

Archangel Uriel is probably the local teddy bear in Heaven, because their name means "God is my flame" and they're considered an angel of wisdom and light (they teach people alchemy sometimes btw)

Want a hug to feel cozy? Go to Uriel Want to start your alchemy course? Go to Uriel

oooouuughhhh thats so cuuuuute T_T

[idyllicsimmer]

So … infants are FREAKIN’ adorable and I never want them to age up 😅

[chiropteracupola]

WOW I am going to be EXTREMELY SOUPED about the NEW PART OF THE IDYLL OPUS for THE FACT THAT IT IS BOATSTHEME but also because it has given me a potential opportunity to be WEIRD ABOUT D.K. BROSTER'S 'THE WOUNDED NAME'

[soapssuds]

you all know how boothill sends voice messages to trailblazer? has anyone asked boothill's english va to do the voice over for those messages? cause like, i would pay to hear it lmao XD

[gawrkin]

Morgause' Innocence

I once said in the tags of one of my reblogs that Morgause needs to be blameless in the conception of Mordred because of Lancelot and I felt I need to clarify:

Morgause must be fundamentally innocent any wrongdoing regarding the incest with her brother, so that Arthur alone is responsible for Mordred's existence - The Fall of Camelot must be Arthur's responsibility in some capacity.

This is because one of Arthur's fundamental pillars of his narrative: King Arthur is a divinely chosen ruler. The whole of point of "the Sword of the Stone" is to physically prove to both the in-story characters, and to the Medieval readers, that Arthur has the backing of God himself. Therefore, for narrative purposes, Arthur's sovereignty and properity as a ruler is because of God's Favor and anything bad that happens to Arthur and his Kingdom, has to have some measure of "Arthur must have broken his relationship with God somehow" (This is why during the Galehaut War arc, where Arthur is losing, he consults with a wise man to confess his sins, in order to reestablish his rapport and standing with God)

The problem that arises with Lancelot's inclusion into "the Fall Narrative" - that is, the collapse of Arthur's reign - is that the "Exposure of Lancelot and Guinevere's Affair" negates and replaces the Conquest arc, where Arthur engages in the moral grey zone of conquering all of Europe, thus at least providing at least a passable rationale for why Arthur lost favor with God.

With "the Affair Narrative", Arthur is innocent overall and totally in the right to defeat Lancelot and win. With all the bias and favoritism Lancelot gets from the French writers, having Lancelot lose would not only be humiliating but also defeats the whole purpose this version of The Fall was written in the first place - the real reason Lancelot is even part of this story: to enshrine him as an unquestionable element of Arthurian history.

So, what did the French Writers do? Simple: they retcon Mordred from nephew to a bastard born of incest (perhaps inspired by certain Charlemagne stories, where Roland is secretly his bastard son).

This is their out, their clever little plot device: having Arthur commit such an abominable act - even if unwittingly - removes whatever favorable ties he has to God, and thus, Arthur has his kingdom collapse from right under him while he's fighting Lancelot.

Which ultimately brings us back to Morgause. Making Morgause evil defeats the whole point why incest!Mordred was introduced in the first place. Evil!Morgause absolves Arthur of wrongdoing.

And if Arthur's squeaky clean, then he can't Fall and God would prevent any negative narrative consequences from occuring to Arthur.

Lancelot would lose (hah!), Camelot/Logres would be perfectly fine and Arthur would move on with his life.

This is why Tennyson's and T.H. White's narratives never made sense to me: Why is Arthur being punished for the actions of others? It makes God look incompetent in punishing those actually responsible and the Sword in the Stone/Excalibur of the Lake end up looking like pointless gestures.

(It's worse in Tennyson's because he's trying to portray Arthur as a semidivine figure unrelated to Uther) (Ughh)

Their stories feel like they ignore God as an active force in Arthur's royal life and in the lives of others. *Points to the Post-Vulgates' version of the Mayday Massacre, where God protects all the infants - They SURVIVED, unlike Malory's*

[iphisesque]

call me guilty the way i feel the need to atone for wanting to be my own person

[leondegranced]

9 People You’d Like to Get to Know Better

Tagged by @the-tenth-arcanum (on my personal account but I'm posting here instead hello something non-merlin related)

Last song I listened to: I watched Camelot last week (the 1967 film version) and the Guenevere track has had me in a chokehold, so that's been on repeat while intermittently being interspersed by the rest of the OST (very good movie, very good music, would recommend)

Currently watching: I'm slowly catching up with the new season of It's Always Sunny, along with Dead To Me and Five Star Chef (really I'll inhale any decent competition show)

Currently reading: The Committee by Sonallah Ibrahim. It's… a strange one, and not a book I would've picked up myself, but my aunt gave it to me for my birthday last year and I needed a short read after getting through Idylls of the King so I figured why not give it a go (I should finish it by tonight and then I'll start reading Inferno by Catherine Cho)

Current obsession: All things Arthuriana, I'm compounding the brainrot bby 😎

Tagging (no pressure): @gardenbastard @feuxx @groundbreakingdot872 @gargoylewithcottagecheese @kitmarloweki @anamericanwerewolfintraffic @tamaha @agapantoblu @kuronnii

[girlspecimen]

i want fluttershy’s life so bad just chilling in a cute cottage with all my pets sort of unemployed but sort of essential to the society around me. awesome giant garden, grow my own weed and herbs, the rabbit can answer the door for me if need be