#mary loves francis despite everything that he's done

[unabashedqueenfury]

Reign 2013-17/02-22

Toby Finn Regbo as Francis Valois

[bonaesperanza]

I think Lymond's early scenes with the Somervilles gain a lot more nuance and impact and emotional punch when you reread them.

Because, okay, on the first read they seem like kind, intelligent, respectable people who love each other very much - the warmth and connection and the instinctual wordless understanding between Gideon and Kate is immediately palpable - but at that point you don't really know enough about Francis to understand how they appear to him specifically. At this point he just seems like a callous cunt who takes pleasure in offending anyone who isn't Christian.

But think about it - artistic, intellectual boy grows up in a family full of constant acrimonious conflict (Mother bought a crate of books, Father burned it, they fought over it, Father drank...), his interests cnstantly belittled as too soft and his things smashed against walls until he learns to be vicious enough to defend himself. Father seems resentful about his very existence, angelic little sister has suicidal tendencies, Mother loves him but can be a manipulative bitch. He's a POW at sixteen, then groomed by an older woman, then sent to a probable death by that same woman. He's accused of treason over an incident that killed the sister, spends years as a slave suffering through every kind of abuse imaginable, tries coming back home but Father kicks him out because he doesn't believe him.

Ends up running a band of outlaws and considering how he later admits to hating the St. Mary's lifestyle - where his officers are all middle class intellectuals handpicked by himself - because he misses his music and his clever conversation and being friends with women? Can you imagine how he must have felt with the outlaws, where he, who used to read books on ethics for fun, had to constantly keep them entertained so they don't rape and pillage their way across their own countryside?

And then he goes to Flaw Valleys and sees a music room? And one of the first things to come out of Kate's mouth is how must not get many opportunities to play the harpischord with his kind of lifestyle, and how he must miss it a lot? She has no idea how much she's hit it right on the head.

And then he gets to know them, and they're... probably his Platonic ideal of a perfect family? He probably didn't think families like that existed outside of his own imagination (just compare them to every other family we see in the series). And then compare them to Francis's own interests and personality.

The husband is an accomplished musician, and the wife adores him for it and begs him to play every opportunity she gets. When he's in a mood, she knows how to draw him out of it skillfully and subtly and wittily and without being too intrusive. He, in turn, knows her well enough to anticipate her every need and delights in making her happy and giving her everything he can. There's palpable love and respect and understanding between them - they seem to understand each other wordlessly. They're both kind and empathetic and well-educated and keep themselves up-to-date on current events, on which they have nuanced and insightful opinions beyond picking a side. The wife is a master of witty conversation and enjoys and can keep up with Francis's own barbed back-and-forth. The husband and Francis come to an immediate understanding over politics despite technically being on opposite sides of a very complicated war. The husband's managed to keep his hands clean throughout it. Their daugher is already growing up to be a person of intellect, talent, and bold personality, because she's growing up surrounded with love and care and support and books and music and opportunities to be carefree and make messes and run around with the village boys.

He's barely twenty and he's been to hell and back so many times that he feels subhuman, and these picture perfect people take him in even though he's done nothing but treat them like shit, and they offer him their kindness and care and support and try to help him every way they can despite having zero reason to trust him or like him.

Can you imagine the kind of pedestal he'd put them on? It's no wonder he keeps coming back and maintains that friendship through everything. They're like the only stars he can see from his pitch-black gutter.

And I think this makes all his hand wringing over Philippa a lot more understandable, especially considering how he now sees himself as subhuman in ten additional ways after the extra trauma of the intervening years? On the first read you kind of just want to smack him because he's being so unreasonable, but really at that point you've spent so much time in Philippa's head and so little in Francis's that she's just Philippa to you (despite all the admiration she gets), while Francis is the one everyone is constantly panting over.

But to him she's part of a family so perfect and loving and healthy and aligned with all his ideals that he can't quite bring himself to believe that not only do they exist but they also like his miserable self, a family to whom he owes a great personal debt he can never repay (as he tells Kate in RC) and Philippa's the brightest and most impressive and accomplished member of that family. She is on a pedestal so high there's literally nothing he can do to measure up to what she means to him short of becoming a god.

And then consider how he later thinks that she's broken herself beyond repair over him. They're the only pure and flawless thing he knows of, the literal embodiment of how he dreams of people being in an ideal world, and he's destroyed it.

[veronicamarsconfessions]

TV remakes and reboots have seen a steady increase over the last few years. It’s gotten to the point that, long before their predecessors have had a chance to collect dust, a reboot is announced. The CW staples such as Roswell and Charmed have all been resurrected, with modern twists. The return of Veronica Mars, however, posed a different challenge.

As an eight-episode revival on Hulu, the former UPN series brought back its original cast as a continuation of not just the series, but the 2014 movie of the same name. With the writers seemingly committed to the mystery rather than their own characters driving the story, the final minutes of the season finale became a prime example of lazy writing. If nothing else, Season 4 of Veronica Mars failed its protagonist, and its antiquated ideas about relationships and race, and Logan’s shocking last-minute death, proved that being brought back from TV cancellation was a disservice.

When it premiered in 2004, Veronica Mars was hailed as trailblazing. It had a female protagonist who was capable, resourceful, and was given space to develop on her own terms (as much as a teenager could, anyway). Like so many shows, Veronica Mars wasn’t perfect, despite being lauded and securing a loyal fanbase. While it explored the class divide in Neptune, a town in southern California where the middle class was touted as being nonexistent, the series struggled to abstain from racial stereotypes, with Wallace (Percy Daggs III) as the Black best friend who never got any focus, and Weevil (Francis Capra) as the Latino gang member whose storyline lacked nuance.

Even when it got things right, the series had a lot to learn about writing women and minority characters, though it was admittedly a product of its time. The problems that plagued its original run desperately needed an update, but even with the revival set in 2019, it was 2004 all over again.

Sarcastic, sharp, determined, and often evasive of revisiting and sorting through her own trauma, Veronica (Kristen Bell) stood out like a sore thumb in Neptune. While she rubbed many people the wrong way, she was also a pillar of strength in an increasingly corrupt town, but as a show goes on, characters must evolve or else risk being fossilized in time.

Veronica Mars’ fourth season committed that exact crime when it came to Veronica’s development and her relationship with Logan (Jason Dohring). Five years after the movie, she was in the same place we left her: back in Neptune, closed off, clinging unhealthily to the past. She still had trust issues, which pushed her new friend Nicole (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) away, and she kept a safe distance from acknowledging her emotions.

When Logan suggests she go to therapy or brings up her unwillingness to move forward in their relationship, Veronica tells Logan she preferred his angry, bottled-up self to the person he is now.

His anger was something familiar to her, a facet of himself she relished in. Rather than acknowledging all of the progress he’d made to move past his demons, Veronica wanted him to remain in the past with her, unwilling to consider therapy for herself, and unable to get past everything that had happened to her. In fact, Logan, the character fans loved to hate back in Season 1, was the one who had arguably shown the most maturity and character growth in the revival.

He was seeing a therapist, had a stable job, wanted to marry Veronica, and his fist didn’t meet the wall every chance he got. When compared to every other character, his progress was startling in its authenticity and added to why his death was so frustrating.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Veronica. Revisiting characters at different stages in their lives is always a treat, but no one wants to watch a show where the protagonist is the same person later in life as she was in Season 1. Season 4 of Veronica Mars ultimately stymied Veronica’s growth, choosing to recycle trauma rather than work to organically develop her into a fully realized character at a new stage in her life.

Logan’s death in the Season 4 finale gave Veronica fresh pain to contend with, without allowing her space to overcome her past agony. It was lazy writing, and skipping a whole year ahead in the last minutes of the finale left the exploration of her grief on the sidelines and offscreen, a cheap shot to eliminate the chances of falling into old patterns. Choosing to focus on the noir mystery instead of the characters’ personal relationships was detrimental to what made Veronica Mars a show fans cared about to begin with.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, series creator Rob Thomas insinuated that he had to kill Logan for Veronica to move forward. “There is something romantic about that solitary P.I. figure out in the world and, also, I think there’s a reason that shows tend to end when they get their romantic leads together.” However, the death played out as nothing more than shock value, rather than an emotionally impactful moment.

The idea that Veronica must always be isolated and unhappy to continue doing her job is antiquated and bleak. It exemplifies regressive ideas regarding a woman’s choice between her career and personal growth and happiness. This is a stark contrast to shows such as Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Superstore, and Jane the Virgin, all of which have done much better by their female characters and also highlight how couples getting together don’t doom a show.

It ultimately speaks to Thomas’ lack of creativity with regards to developing Veronica as a person and allowing her relationship with Logan to support her growth. Instead, Thomas subscribes to old-school thinking about romantic relationships and how they lose their impact after a couple finally gets together, when, in fact, it’s the exact opposite.

There’s so much storytelling to mine from a relationship. Logan was clearly making strides to be a better person and was persuading Veronica to do the same. With his death, that has all been thrown away and even its aftermath skipped over, sending Veronica right back to square one. Thomas’ interest is in romanticizing a woman’s pain rather than taking a beat to explore it, happy for his female protagonist to be frozen in time as opposed to allowing her enough agency to endure her present.

With the revival, the series had an opportunity to provide an updated take on a beloved heroine, and it failed. If anything, the revival proved that some shows should be left in the past rather than tarnish their relative goodwill. If Thomas isn’t willing to develop the series past its bad habits, to take Veronica to the next well-deserved stage in her life, then it has no place in the present.

[until-another-one-comes]

(Spoilers for the BN show below)

Okay damn I wanted to put this in my second part of my BN show review but since I've been stalling that for forever I'm just gonna say it in this post:

I really dislike how the show portrays Nate, Francis and Dee Dee.

Anyone who watches the show can agree its not a good adaptation of the comic/novel series. The tone of the show is different and almost everyone was changed from their original source, but these three are the ones that bugged me the most.

With Nate, I feel like they completely watered down his personality from the source material. Show!Nate feels more child-like and incompetent, and he feels very much like a generic MC who's actions depend on what the episode wants him to do, and not the other way around. They got rid of his street smarts, him being active in a lot of things (sports, scouting, various clubs in the school, etc.). Of course, since we only got 8 episodes so far, it is likely we might see some of this later on, but unfortunately I feel like they really did get rid of these aspects of his personality. Like in the wilderness episode, we see Nate not being able to build a tent, even though his comic and novel self is a scout and would know the basics of camping. The show focuses way too much on him being a 'prankster' when he's so much more than that. And he cares more about cartooning than causing troubles anyway. I'm crossing my fingers that we would AT LEAST see him being good at chess. Show Nate is written in a way that makes me feel the writers WANT him to be watered down so theres more room for 'shenanigans'.

Next is Francis. Francis, in the books and comics, is an interesting subversion of the 'nerd' stereotype. Yes, he's a geek who loves facts and reading and straight As in everything, but he's also active in sports, is not physically weak and despite being more of an introvert and mature compared to Nate and Teddy, is not some meek, shy nerd that we usually see in these types of characters.

The show took one look at him and go: Ah yes, nerd and nothing else. Adding in more stuff to really ramp up the 'weak nerd' stereotype and just,, getting rid of everything that makes him interesting. Another thing that bugs me is that Francis is Nate's best friend, and is one of the first few characters we see in the comics. But the show never really specified that or gave him much spotlight at all. Hell, despite hammering down that he's a nerd we don't even see Francis using his knowledge or book smart to get the gang out of trouble. And other than the way he's written, it's mainly because the show depends on another character to be the problem solver. Which leads us to my next biggest complaint...

Show Dee Dee. Hoo boy where do I begin. Listen, I don't like using this word much because its meaning has been carelessly tossed around in the wrong context, but Show Dee Dee is a complete Mary Sue.

Right away, you can tell that the show is very biased when it comes to her, giving her way more spotlight compared to Francis and Teddy (Nate's best friends, and the OG trio in which the series is SUPPOSED to focus on). So far in these 8 episodes we got TWO episodes with her having her own B-plot, while Francis only got one (and that episode focused on Nate anyway) and Teddy none at all. And even when the episodes don't focus on her, she STILL gets more screentime than Francis and Teddy.

The main reason is this- the show, for whatever reason, makes her competent in almost everything. In almost every episode we see her pull out a handy dandy skill that can help the gang in whatever trouble they're in because she played a role before this, and 'done her research' so now she's an expert on spying, rigging traps, and dismantling alarm systems. Because that's totally how acting works. You play as a spy and immediately know everything about spying.

So yeah, they changed Dee Dee from a drama loving girl who's good at discussing emotions and helping her friends, to a hyper-competent girl who can do almost anything and is always the one to fix the trouble they're in, rendering Francis and Teddy pretty much useless. Honestly, this shouldn't be a surprise since they literally wrote her as someone who can do what the trio can't do in her character description before the show aired, but I hoped they won't go down this route. No such luck.

And when they DO try to write her with a bit more depth, it still falls flat. Again, I'm gonna talk about the wilderness episode. In this one, we see Dee Dee struggling with anxiety of having to go camping, so she copes with it by acting and playing different personas all throughout the trip. Doesn't sound so bad, but holy shit, did they drop the ball hard. Right at the climax of the episode, Nate got cornered by a bear and is hiding in a hole (after a series of incompetent shenanigans because he's just that stupid and has no common sense IG). And guess who stepped in to help? Dee Dee of course (Francis and Teddy who?). And she did it in the most eye-rolling way that gave me second-hand embarassment. She scared the bear away by... unleashing a super-sonic scream so loud it caused birds to explode. That's it. That's the conclusion. We see Dee Dee struggling with anxiety all throughout the episode (and none of the girls bothered to help, which is smth I'm gonna rant about in another time) and it gets solved because... she literally has superpowers and doesn't need to be anyone else because she's just that awesome. Go Dee Dee.

And the supersonic scream is the second time this has happened. Seriously. She did it for the first time in the pimple episode, and her screaming so loud that every students around her fell down somehow impressed the substitute drama teacher, instead of just relying on her acting skills. Okay. It's not enough that the show had to make her Artur 2.0 they had to give her superpowers because she's just that special. I'm going to scream louder than she can if they bring up this BS AGAIN.

*deep breath* So. Yes. These three are the biggest glaring spots for me when it comes to the show. Ofc, other characters have their own issues as well (which I'm gonna make a proper review of one day I swear) but yeah, I'm really bugged by how the show changed Nate, Francis and Dee Dee. Here's to hoping that they will be written better and that Francis and Teddy will get more spotlight.

[pointnumbersixteen]

My Personal Ranking of Ghosts Episodes and Why

So, here’s my personal order for all the current Ghosts episodes, from best to worst, with a bit of an explanation as to why I think so. I included who wrote each episode because the writing pairs tend to have consistent strengths and weaknesses that affect my enjoyment. These are, of course, just my opinions, and I recognize that different people have different tastes.  

1) Moonah Ston (Larry and Martha)

This episode is hilarious and it continues to be hilarious through multiple viewings (some of the jokes in other episodes start to wear thin after multiple viewings, but this one remains entirely solid through dozens of rewatches). Barclay and Bunny are my favorite guest characters throughout the show. Also some of my all-time favorite bits are in it: Cap stealing Thomas’s role doing the reading, the shooting of the pheasant with Cap, everything to do with Mary and the cooking of the pheasant, the way Alison yeets the pelaverga as soon as it’s handed to her, the juxtaposition of the eclipse ritual and the dinner party, Bunny’s ‘sobriety test.’ Also, there’s a strong A plot and a strong B plot that tie together, and all of the characters are fit into these two plots well, which is something the creators sometimes struggle with.

2) Getting Out (Mat and Jim)

I love everything about the Captain’s portion of the plot and it’s a nice big portion, too. His scene with Kitty is one of my favorite scenes in the show, brilliantly written, well-acted, and gorgeously shot. I can feel for Mike and Alison in it. Fiona’s another really funny guest character. My only major complaint is that the plot with other ghosts after the Captain’s left the group starts to drag after enough re-watches, particularly Thomas’s bad erotica and the jewel scene. I found both very funny on the first several watches, but the payoff to both is ruined with enough rewatches. With the first, the payoff is with how surprisingly bad for a ‘professional’ writer his story is, but after you’re well aware that Thomas is a bad writer, it’s just listening to bad writing over and over again. And the bit with Fanny’s jewel has such a long lead up, to get to the surprise payoff that the jewel was secretly pawned by George forever ago, but once you know the jewel is gone, the long lead up gets progressively more tedious with every watch. At least for me.

3) Reddy Weddy (Ben and Simon)

I’ve written extensively about this one before, so I won’t include much, but: I love everything having to do with the Captain in this one, particularly the completely wonderful flashbacks with Havers. Mike and Alison were very well done, and I enjoyed Martin as a guest character. But I really didn’t like the whose-turn-is-it-to-pick-the-movie subplot, it just seemed sort of unnecessary to me and detracted from the tone of the rest of it. I assume they just had trouble finding a better integrated role for Pat, Thomas and Julian, which, as I said under Moonah Ston, is an occasional weakness the creators had.

4) Gorilla War (Larry)

I love Cap’s campaign of attrition. And his singing. Everyone had solid, funny bits, all tied into one main plot in it. Mike and Alison are both well done in this episode. It’s the first episode where Alison is able to interact with the ghosts and I think they did a great job capitalizing on her coming to terms with it and Mike’s such a supportive husband in it.  

5) About Last Night (Mat and Jim)

I love the spat between Cap and Pat in this one, because the focus of their subplot is their relationship dynamic and I enjoy their relationship dynamic- even though it’s close to the breaking point in this instance, all is well because they make up in the end. Everything about the state of the house and trying to remember what happened to it-as well as the flashbacks to the party- is pretty funny. The bits with Dante were very funny as well. The Robin-Mary subplot was a bit meh for me, but I didn’t dislike it, I’m just not sold on the idea. I didn’t enjoy Mike being sidelined on the roof for most of the episode when Alison needed his help and all the criticism he got from the other characters for not being around to help Alison, though.

6) Who Do You Think You Are? (Mat and Jim)

This is a really strong introductory episode with some good, funny bits in it, but it doesn’t rank higher since the ghosts can’t interact with Alison yet and Mike and Alison don’t know they’re there, which is where a lot of the fun of the concept of the show comes in to me.

7) Bump in the Night (Larry and Martha)              

The robbers were funny as were the ghosts’ utterly inept attempts (save Robin) in stopping them. I loved music club, particularly the Captain’s performance. I appreciated the return of Barclay and his bitches. Humphrey was actually reasonably included in the plot, which is always a nice change. There weren’t any bits I found particularly outstanding (except maybe Cap’s musical performance) but there weren’t any major bits I disliked, either. Everyone’s included in one main plot and it continues to be just as enjoyable on rewatches.

8) The Thomas Thorne Affair (Mat and Jim)

I greatly enjoy examine-the-story-from-multiple-viewpoints-to-illustrate-unreliable-narration plots, so that went well in this episode. I also really like regency romances, so this ticked another box for me. Humphrey was given an important bit again, which I appreciate. The bit about Francis was a nice twist at the end, because otherwise it would have been a bit too predictable, with Thomas being shot in a duel over a romantic misunderstanding- that was the most obvious solution to his death, after all. It felt a bit contrived, though, that the characters who died after Thomas all went to the group meeting on time, while the characters who witnessed Thomas’s death were all still wandering around upstairs and just happen to wander into Alison’s room in time to contradict the last telling of the story and provide the next. And of course, the fact that half the cast is just sort of sitting downstairs waiting for a significant portion of the episode always seemed a bit lacking to me. Also, Mike starts the episode being unusually stupid (not knowing Elizabeth II is the current queen- at least in the US, not being able to answer who the current President is frequently used as shorthand for ‘having brain damage’) and spends the rest of it being insecure about Alison’s ex (this seems to be a Mat and Jim thing).  

9) Perfect Day (Mat and Jim)

I loved all the Cap bits in this. Pat’s plotline was good, too. Humphrey actually had a substantial role, which I appreciated, and more so since he actually managed to bring Fanny around to the gay wedding. I was of course thrilled that it was a lesbian wedding. But I’m not a fan of ‘miscommunication causes drama’ plots in any medium and I disliked how once again how insecure Mike is in this episode (Mat and Jim again) and how poorly he handles it.

10) Happy Death Day (Ben)

I love all the Pat bits. I liked the interactions between the Captain and Julian, they had a really enjoyable dynamic in this one, although they’re being rather disappointing human beings in their plotline. I like Kitty’s plotline, too, and the garden scene between her and Fanny is very funny and beautifully framed. I don’t think this episode did a particularly good job with either Mike or Alison, though. Mike ditches his probably still concussed wife who is plagued by ghosts to manage the building work he started because he’s spending hours a day out of the house because there are too many people in it and he’s apparently potty-shy and Alison thinks trying to convince people to do probably thousands, if not more, pounds worth of free labor by making them tea is both a plausible idea and an appropriate thing to even try (it’s bad enough when the people asking you to do free work for them are actually your friends, contriving a friendship in order to do this just sort of seems a bit contemptible to me). Some of the jokes get less funny with time- Fanny with the butt cracks, for instance. I considered the Thomas subplot another weak ‘well, something needs to be done with this character’ subplot and I can’t even remember off the top of my head what Mary was doing most of the episode despite having seen it at least a dozen times, besides the bit where Alison throws the teacup at her head (and if I were Terry, I would have called it quits then).  

11) The Ghost of Christmas (Ben and Simon)

Mostly fluff, and a decent amount of it was rather predictable fluff, but I’ve written more on that elsewhere. Mike’s sisters were the worst. I was hoping Ben would write himself a bigger role and he didn’t. In the Bleak Midwinter was gorgeous, though, and there were enough smaller bits that I found endearing to prop it up over the next two.

12) The Grey Lady (Larry and Martha)

I enjoy the ghosts’ routine as shown at the beginning of the episode. I found Pat’s radio show amusing. I liked the basement scene with Nigel. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Captain’s ‘stretching’ subplot (although I do greatly enjoy his  ‘for king and country’ running), it just seemed a bit silly to me, like they couldn’t decide what to do with him for most of the episode, so went with ‘eh, squats, I guess.’ Also, I feel like they had trouble placing Mary and Kitty, too. Mary spends a lot of the episode staring at a wall and Kitty spends all of it just following the group and occasionally wailing about the ‘ghost-ghost.’ Also, I think Alison went a little too far with her simulated haunting when she dressed up as the Grey Lady; it wasn’t smart because there was no way she was going to get away with it after anyone turned on the lights and it seems a bit more like attempting to defraud people than the rest of it did.

13) Free Pass (Mat and Jim)

Alison actively puts people in danger for money, misrepresenting the house as structurally sound in order to get a movie contract, when in fact the floors are held up by hope and happy thoughts and could (and eventually do) cave at any moment. If the floor had fallen through in the letter scene, before Mike braced it, when they were using the heavy equipment, there likely would have been serious injuries. Also: Toby Nightingale is the worst. Also: the solidity and supportive nature of Mike and Alison’s relationship is the best part of it and I dislike the choice (Mat and Jim again) to make him so insecure in this episode (this was the first in the episode order to do so).

To speak on general tendencies, though: I’m not a fan of doing morally questionable things for monetary reasons unless the situation is life or death, so all of the episodes where that’s Alison’s primary purpose get major demerits from me. That’s a matter of personal taste, but there I am. As for the writers (I recognize they all come up with the general story arcs together, but the writing pairs are responsible for execution), everyone struggles a bit sometimes to get solid roles for everyone into the plot, to be expected when the cast is so large, but some instances are worse than others. I think Larry’s (well, Larry/Martha for most of them, but they’ve both joked that mostly she drinks and he writes when they’re working on their episodes) still the strongest writer in terms of having mostly cohesive plots that standup consistently as solid to multiple viewings, but he also has the most experience as a writer, so that’s probably to be expected. Ben and Simon have both stated that they like jig-sawing a bunch of little plots together to make an episode, and while it is a bit impressive that they can make episodes with like, nearly as many plotlines as characters come together to make one reasonably sane episode, I find this strategy detrimental in that to me, when they do this, there’s always one or two plots that are really, really good, a few plots that are pretty good, and then one or two plots that I just don’t enjoy, that to me drag down the rest of the episode (most apparent in Reddy Weddy, but it happens to some degree in all of their episodes). My major criticism of Mat and Jim is with the way they write Mike. I actually really like Mike when he’s well done, but his portrayal seems to vary a lot between episodes, and (with the exception of Ben’s Happy Death Day, but his problems in that one are different) the episodes he’s written the weakest in are all written by Mat and Jim. They’re the only ones who I think write Mike as insecure in his relationship with Alison and his most incompetent and/or useless moments also tend to be written by them. I don’t know if they have a slightly different concept of Mike’s character than the other four or what, but I think Larry/Martha and Ben/Simon’s portrayals of him tend to be significantly more flattering.

[tshalloweenhorrornights30]

For:

New RP Information!

Expectation Animatronics (3 Current Muses + 1 New Muse + Null Muse)

#1:

Withered Springtrap

Other Names:

1. Expectation Scraptrap

Real Name: William Afton (Your current muse)

Gender: Male

Sex: Straight

Michael's Story: "Father. It's me, Michael. I did it. I found it. It was right where you said it would be. They were all there. They didn't recognize me at first, but then...they thought I was you. *Heavy sighs* And I found her. I...put her back together, just like you asked me to. She's free now. But something's wrong with me. I should be dead. But I'm not. I've been living in the shadows. There is only one thing left for me to do now. I'm going to find you. *Ominous Voice* I'm going to come find you..."

Origin: After Fazbear's Fright is burned to the ground, he survived the dreaded fire as his arm is now missing, he's missing one eye, even one of his ears, and his skeletal fingers are much revealing, but the flesh and bones inside of him remains in the suit and never changed his appearance at all. Despite his withered appearance he was originally named Withered Springtrap.

#2:

Nighttime Baby

Other Names:

1. Freakshow Baby (Originally)

2. Expectation Scrap Baby

3. Ejected Baby

Real Name: Elizabeth Van Helsing Ray (Your current muse)

Gender: Female

Sex: Lesbian

Story:

Funtime Freddy- You are crowding us.

Circus Baby- Be quiet!

Bon Bon- You can't tell us what to do anymore!

Circus Baby- Yes I can, you'll do everything that I'll tell you to do.

The Bidybabs- We outnumbered you.

Circus Baby- That doesn't matter, dummy!

Funtime Freddy- We found a way to eject you.

Ballora- Francis no! Don't you dare, she's my wife, don't you seperate her from us please! *Crying* T-T

Funtime Foxy- Francis don't you do this, she's our boss.

*Circus Baby gets ejected from Ennard (They/Them) anyways*

Circus Baby- You'd be lost without me!

Funtime Freddy- Ha Ha! Say goodbye to our friend!

*End of Story*

Origin: This is basically what happens if Francis (Funtime Freddy) decided to eject and reject her as the leader, then decides himself to be the new leader, even though Ballora hates it what he has done, and Vixen (Funtime Foxy) didn't like the ejection plan either but he still done it anyway. It comes to the conclusion that she can put herself back together. She went back to the underground facilty to get her animatronic shell back, and Micheal Afton who came back to the facilty one more time before the facilty becomes abandoned and shut down for good, he found her and helped her put her back together. After she's put back together, she left the facility and went somewhere else. her height is still 7.2 ft. and her weight is still 585 lbs. She looks the same but her hair seems different, Plus she has her microphone back, and this time she has only one huge claw. and her personality seemed a bit angry, annoyed, and heartbroken after she got ejected from Ennard (They/Them), But she still loves Ballora, and she'll always love her no matter what happens to her. Because Ballora was heartbroken too, but for Francis and the others, she felt betrayed because of Francis (Funtime Freddy). And now, she's all alone without Ballora because of him. And now she llives in the alleyways of the old Fredbear's Family Diner. Nighttime Baby was originally named as "Freakshow Baby".

#3:

Injected Freddy

Other Names:

1. Freakshow Freddy (Originally)

2. Expectation Molten Freddy

3. Injected Freddy and Co.

Real Names:

1. Francis "Funtime" Fazbear (Funtime Freddy/Your current muse)

2. Ballora Afton (Your current muse)

3. Vixen "Funtime" Fazbear (Funtime Foxy/Your current muse)

4. Bon Bon Miku (Your current muse)

5. Bill Mickey & Lill Mickey (New Muse)

6. Rianna Minnie & Mary Minnie (New Muse)

Genders: They/Them (Male and Female)

Sexes: Lesbian (Ballora Afton), Straight (Funtime Freddy, Funtime Foxy, Bon Bon, The Mickey Brothers, The Minnie Sisters)

Security Tags Active:

001. "Funtime Freddy"

002. "Funtime Foxy"

003. "Ballora"

Security Tags Inactive:

004. The Bidybabs

005. The Minireenas

006. Bon Bon

Priority One: With the most amount of remnant collectively in its structure, this amalgamation of Afton's constructs is a necessary element in Paragraph 4.

Story (Continued):

Ballora- You fucking asshole! How could you do this to Elizabeth?? She's my only wife that cared for me. She doesn't deserve this! *Crying*

Funtime Freddy- It's not m-my fault, okay maybe it was and I took it too far, but Bon Bon made me agree on this, I swear!

Bon Bon- Well that bitch deserved it Francis, I don't wanna be bossed around by her anymore, I'm tired of being the foot of the group.

Funtime Foxy- Bon Bon you should be ashamed of yourself, you made us kicked our boss out because of your sorry, unexcuseable "Oh I'm the abuse victim" ass!

Bon Bon- Hey listen you bitch, I-

Funtime Foxy- And now we're all gonna be very frightened if she ever comes back to us and possibly kill all of us because of you! I hope your proud of yourself Francis and Bon Bon, because I ain't talking to one of you guys for a month!! Humph!

Funtime Freddy- But wait Vixen I....*Sighs sadly* aw shoot.

Bon Bon: Well good riddance, I don't even wanna hear Vixen speak either.

Funtime Freddy- Bon Bon, you're not helping at all.

The Bidybabs- Well we fucked up.

The Minireenas- Us too.

Nighttime Baby- I FoUnD YoU traitors~!!! *Evil Giggling*

*End of Story*

Origin: This is what happens when the rest of the remnant remains, and Elizabeth Van Helsing Ray (Circus Baby) gets ejected by Ennard (They/Them). Francis (Funtime Freddy) however took it too far and now he felt worried as well. He couldn't talk to Vixen (Funtime Foxy) for a month, Ballora won't even talk to him at all, The Mickey Brothers (The Bidybabs) & The Minnie Sisters (The Minireenas) are frightened that they might be killed as well, & Bon Bon she just doesn't care at all, nor either is helping either, because she thought Elizabeth deserved it, and she is kinda tired of being the foot of the group anyways. And now Nighttime Baby will soon kill all of her traitors except Ballora. Injected Freddy was originally named "Freakshow Freddy"

#4 (New Muse):

Toy Lefty

Other Names:

1. Expectation Lefty

2. Lure Encapsulate Fuse Transport & Extract 2.0.

3. Toy Puppet (Formerly)

Creator: Henry Juniors Emerald

Real Name: Merissa Emerald

Age: Immortal (15 years old)

Gender: Female

Sex: Straight

Blueprint Info:

A. Top Hat= Navigational Sensors

B. False Sensory Output

B Notes: Bracelet Code 9340123387. Emit for security receiver frequency FZ5542.0

C. Microphone= Dream Wand

C Notes: Use lullaby index 02. Upon suit-seal, provide steady voltage throughout. Behavior upon suit-seal not guaranteed.

D. Yellow eye= Facial Recognition 2.0.

F. Song Databank

Story: Unknown

Origin: This new version of Lefty is a newer sleeker capture mechanism model for the Toy Puppet (Merissa Emerald), and he's much more kid-friendly than the original Lefty. This new animatronic can take song requests with a Song Databank equipped with 1000+ songs. Toy Lefty was originally known as Lure Encapsulate Fuse Transport & Extract 2.0.

#5 (Null Muse):

(Work in Progress)

[lady-plantagenet]

Unsolicited Book Reviews (n3): The Sunne in Splendour

Rating:

⭐️⭐️⭐️(+1/2?)

Even before I had an account, I tended to go to tumblr to see people’s opinions before buying a histfic. Certain books are either severely underrepresented, where I feel like there needs to be something on them, whereas others, though talked about enough, something more can still be said about them. So for my quarantine fun, I have decided to start a series where I review every medieval historical fiction novel I read. Hopefully, it will either start interesting discussions or at least be some help for those browsing its tag when considering purchasing it.

TL;DR: Keep in mind that I’m harsh with my ratings. I don’t expect my historical fiction to offer some sort of insight about the human condition or be some perfectly manicured prose, but this book’s biggest detriment was its lack of depth. Some scenes packed a serious emotional punch, but then again I am attached to this era and given the length, it would be insane not to. I learned a lot - no lie, but while my background knowledge on the wars of the roses has become enriched, I feel no closer to Richard.

Plot: We follow Richard III from a young boy at eight right before the catastrophe that was Ludlow to his death and a few years after. This story seems to be told through omniscient third person point of view, which creates issues when it comes to voice - a lot of the characters sound the same (John ‘Jack’ Howard, Francis Lovell, Richard Catesby to name a few). This is only a natural consequence of the sheer amount of people Penman chose to portray. I’m honestly still grateful for this as I was not a fan of Richard III’s POV, but really enjoyed Richard Neville Earl of Warwick’s, Margaret of Anjou and Cecily Neville’s. Everytime these three were the center of the chapter, it was truly enjoyable and multi-faceted which comes to show that Penman is capable of writing complexity when she wants to. I would also like to add that the author’s knowledge of medieval life (e.g. the food, the dogs, the nature of battles) was a high point of this novel and did something to counter-balance the rampant late 20th century flavour in this novel. She tries way too hard to adapt a medieval man such as Richard to our modern values to propagate her Richardian Agenda, which ultimately underscored this.

It must be said though that the author clearly did her research as most of what she said regarding minutae such as: what day of the week it was, where the characters were at one time, details of documents, who did what in which battle, what laws were passed etc... I had just come back to this time period after some years and I thought I knew all there was to know, yet, here comes this book which springboarded me into a wealth of new research - I suppose I am grateful for that. However, do not let that delude you into thinking it is comprehensive. There were historical innacuracies which I can only guess were intentionally made for the sake of the author’s Richardian goal e.g. Anne Neville being forced into her marital duties when historicalMargaret of Anjou made it clear that there would be no consummation until Warwick would prevail at Barnet, Isabel Neville being ‘abandoned’ by her husband in France when really it was only about 4 months they were apart and it would have made no sense for Isabel to sail with an invasionary force, Richard III abolishing benevolence tax because he thought it unfair as opposed to the reality which was that he had failed in his initial attempt to raise them because the population opposed, Richard III allowing the marriage between Jane Shore and Thomas Lynsom when in reality he had initially opposed it... Historical fiction is entitled to innacuracies but given that the author made it clear in her afterword that the only time she strayed was setting a scene in Windsor as opposed to Westminster, it is dishonest to conceal the aforementioned blips, especially when they are so unobvious that it would take a seasoned enthusiast to spot them. As you can tell they either do have a negative bearing on Richard’s image as a saint or show detractors in a positive light, clearly neither that which she was in a mood to explain away.

Characterisation: I can not stress enough how well Cecily Neville was portrayed, every scene she was in, I felt. She tends to be a very difficult character to get because of the whole illegitimacy rumour which casts shades of doubt. She was proud but also pious, subservient but also commanding... just an incredible woman of gravity. I enjoyed Warwick in all his flamboyancy as well and Edward IV was masterfully portrayed as the intelligent but forgiving man that he was. You could clearly see how despite his indulgent character, he knew when it was time to be serious, it was a joy to read the scenes where he strikes people into subserviancy. Anne Beauchamp was also quite a treat for the little time we had with her.

There were also some portrayals of mixed quality: George Duke of Clarence for one, his warped sense of humour and charm were well presented, his unpredictability adequately captured. The issue I have though is that no man is unpredictable to themselves and while it may make sense for other characters to see his temperaments as those like a weather vane it would make no sense for it to be this way in the chapters where he is the POV. Penman’s basically wrote him off as crazy (I mean literally mad) for the majority of the story which is utter tripe given that the whole madness angle is a modern invention. I won’t write more on this now as it deserves its own post (btw if anyone wants me to elaborate on anything I said so far send me an ask). Last thing I will say though: the last scene we have with him is utterly tragic and still sticks with me today, honestly the best writing in this novel was during the ‘Anne’ Book and ‘Protector of the North’ in the years surrounding George’s death. Speaking of, where do I begin with Isabel Neville and Elizabeth Woodville? Their marriages with Richard’s brothers are portrayed negatively for no other reason than to set up Richard and Anne Neville as a perfect love story. This story-telling technique is cheap as hell and I did not expect to find it in a novel so highly acclaimed for its ‘quality’. Let me make this clear: The marriage which was hailed as a love match at that time was that of Elizabeth Woodville and Edward IV. Anne and Richard could have been just as much a marriage of politics as George and Isabel’s, or the latter’s just as much a love match. George fought for Isabel just as much, if not more than Richard did for Anne, George stayed loyal for a surety whereas Richard’s bastard John’s conception may have coincided with his marriage according to Hicks, Marrying Anne was highly advantageous for Richard as marrying Isabel for George... I could go on. Therefore, why is Isabel constantly described as wretched, miserable and at one point abused(!) by her husband whereas Richard was nothing but gentle to the happy Anne. The Mary of Burgundy proposal story is often cited as proof that George only cared about power... but what about Richard’s proposal to Joanna of Portugal one month after Anne died? This may sound minor but it’s a perfect example of the author trying hard to make Richard a modern romantic figure which he wasn’t. I think he may have loved Anne Neville, but that doesn’t change the fact that he was a medieval king and made marriage provisions after her death to secure the succession. For a 800+ page novel about Richard III some seminal pieces of information were left out such as his seizure of the aged Dowager Countess of Oxford’s Howard fortune, the mysterious circumstances in which George Neville Duke of Bedford died young and unmarried after becoming his ward. All in all, do not let the wonderful historical detail fool you into thinking this is a complete account of Richard III’s day to day life.

Don’t even get me started on the Woodvilles... They were all treacherous villains and social climbers who belonged in hell. EVEN ANTHONY WOODVILLE - what has he ever done to Penman or anyone? All scenes with Elizabeth Woodville at the beggining were bedding scenes pretty much, which shows that the author saw her as nothing more than a heartless seductress. There was even a point where Edward in his rage said: ‘you would lie with a leper if it meant you becoming Queen’ and I was just shocked at that. I was further shocked when her daughter Elizabeth of York was musing that if her mother had been a good wife her father wouldn’t have needed to stray and I was just like... ‘I thought we were trying to be sensible in this book 0_0’ - How is it appropriate to have a woman blamed for her husband’s infidelity? How can we have such blatant classism and sexism on the one hand and late 20th century wokeness on the other? It’s what I said earlier, the author can’t prop up Richard and Anne without putting down all other couples in this book. By the end of the book I was honestly finding myself cheering for Elizabeth Woodville as she was becoming the woman with sense and cunning as we all know her, the saving grace of this entire characterisation was that Elizabeth became the only person with a brain by the end (I doubt this was the author’s intention). Down here in this category of bad characterisation I will add Richard and Anne themselves. Anne Neville though often absolutely adorable to me lacked any personality trait apart from being in love with Richard and past sexual abuse by Edward (which didn’t historically happen). Anne’s father and only sister die and she barely thinks about them, which severely undermines her portrayal as a loving and empathetic person. Her death scene and wane was tragic and affected me as a reader but holy Christ before that the author was very heavy handed throughout the book with her martyrisation of Anne, even when she was a young girl and everything was going well she cried in nearly every goddamn scene. Yes, this is Warwick’s daughter we are talking about. Richard (unlike the real great man that once lived on this earth) was similarly flawless and any small flaw he had was something like: ‘too trusting’, ‘acts then thinks’ - essentially ‘too good for this world’ flaws. No one is like this, least of all the real Richard who would not recognise this weird contrived romanticisation of a man. The saving grace of all this is that he admitted around the end to himself and Anne that he did want to be king a little bit, which YES, at least we get that because no one goes through all the procedures he did and endangers the survival of their house, unless they wanted to become king, at least a little bit. All in all, if Penman’s Richard III is the real man, all I have to say is: thank god his reign was cut short because this character would have made a terrible and weak monarch.

Prose: And here is where another of the stars was deducted. The prose is largely very pedestrian. It was full of modern phrases such as ‘hear me out’, ‘He thinks I am in the wrong’ ‘he can’t get away with this’ and other such likes. Also, I know it’s difficult to write a book where everyone’s names are Elizabeth, Edward, Richard and Anne, but apart from ‘Nan’ which was a nickname of that time, the modernity of ‘Bess’, ‘Bella’ or ‘Lisbet’ and the use of them in-text and not just dialogue, did much to draw me out of the medieval era. This is not just a criticism towards Penman but a grand majority of historical fiction novelists of this period. Having said that, her choice to cut conjunctions and use the word ‘be’ intead of ‘is’ or ‘are’ did not bother me at all and I found it effective in dating the language a bit. I appreciate that writing in poetic prose for 800+ pages is extremely difficult, but other’s have done it. And even in other novel where that’s not the case, the writing is still profound and impactful and conveys a deeper meaning, whereas here it’s more of a fictionalised history book. The author appears to have some imagination as the few scenes she made up e.g. Catherine Woodville’s visit to Richard or Edward summoning Edmund’s previous carer John to talk about Edmund as he was trying to deal with the grief of losing George, any scene with Cecily Neville in it, Anne Neville and Veronique (OC lady-in-waiting to her) when they were in hiding, Rosamund and Richard at the end, Margaret of Anjou when she was lodged at that abbey, When Stillington visited George before his death to give him a rosary and last rites and he refused to get them from him, Anne and Richard going to Middleham and Isabel’s lying in state were just some of them. However, even if you took all those well-written scenes and stuck them together they would not be more than maybe 150 pages which is not good in such a massive novel. I really don’t know how I would rank the prose, I feel weird saying it’s at the low bestseller level because at least it’s not overwritten and annoying, however, it lacked a lot of soul most of the time, which is dissapointing given what Penman had to work with. I can see that the author has some strengths, for example she’s good at writing about the weather and the natural landscape, she’s also good at describing facial expressions. But her massive flaw is dialogue and flow - especially the latter. The flow is hindered by her abject inability to weave historical events and their happenings into the prose, so she often settles for an exposition dump, especially when it comes to some male chatacter’s POV such as John Howard, Francis Lovell or Buckingham. A lot of the characters exposited at each other too, which wasted the opportunity for some serious character profiles. Basically too much telling and not enough showing. In conclusion, It didn’t always feel clunky, expository or laboured, but it way too often did for the good to be redeemed by the bad prose-wise.

In Conclusion, I cheated on this book a couple of times when it dragged, but got right back into it whenever the good sections came along. It is one of these books which people cannot stop raving about and I can’t stress how much I wanted to love it when I got it. It’s nice being a fan of something a lot of people are too for once, but it was just not to be. But at least now I can say I have read the cult classic of this histfic niche which apparently everyone has read and cried over. Even though it took me 7 months where others got through it in a week through sleepless nights. Despite all the negativity in this review, I would still reccomend it as it is a solid book and written by someone who clearly gets the conflict and time period. You will learn lots with this book (I intend to keep it as a sort of timeline) regarding things that you might otherwise find too dry to research in depth e.g. battle strategies and sieges. But what you will not learn about is the characters’ psychologies and personalities though Penman tries very hard and heavy-handedly to exposit their feelings to us.

[kiitsume]

a few thoughts on six the musical because nobody asked for them

(also excuse any historical inaccuracies, i've done only cursory reading thank you)

let's start light. the costumes are pretty but they completely take away any sense of historical context, unintentionally minimizing the degree of awareness the audience has of the culture surrounding the women at the time, which is actually pretty important to the message the writers are trying to construct.

the music is good. like, it's catchy and generally well written, and of course well performed. but the writers giveth and the writers taketh away. mostly they take away. all of the songs are reductive and collapse six people-- who they claim to attempt to honor the memory of-- down into platitudes and general notions of people, caricaturizing them into something that's barely recognizable.

the set up the musical to be a "competition between these six women to get the respect the deserve for the amount they suffered" and then they turn around at the end and shame the audience for doing that-- for picking favorites along the way and actually considering which ones they empathize most with.

the opening song, "ex-wives" uses modern lingo and whatnot, but it's not any more jarring that the costumes, so it's not until "don't lose your head" that the text speak really throws you off. it was honestly uncomfortable to watch in context of the musical, at least upon my viewing.

do i know they went chronologically? yes. will i ever forgive them for putting the most jarring joke of a song, "haus of holbein" right after arguably the most heartfelt song of the musical, jane seymour's "heart of stone"? absolutely fucking not.

haus of holbein has it's merits. i won't lie. it addresses the beauty standards of the time and the way that women were expected to destroy their bodies and give up their lives in order to appeal to men, which contributes to the larger narrative the writers were trying to build in saying that all these women would've led remarkable lives if they hadn't been forced to give themselves up to a life that made them miserable. but all of that is erased by the fact that it has air horns in it, i'm sorry, that can't be overlooked. literally die.

katherine (we're going with the musical's spelling okay) howard's song? a fucking bop. "all you wanna do" is iconic. but it has been brought to my attention by my girlfriend, who is much more knowledgeable on the six's actual history and writings, that pretty much the entire song is a complete disregard for who she was in life and her actual feelings, and that's especially irritating because they did it specifically for the purpose of constructing a much more simple narrative and, in the process, did the exact thing they claim to condemn: writing over her, and all the others, with what they think they know and bending them and their lives to fit their ideal message. how so? my girl k howard actually did have feelings for thomas. you know, the one person in the song she's like, "just mates, no chemistry/ i get him and he gets me/ and there's nothing more to it." they just throw that out to make thomas look like a nice guy and like people were just constantly taking advantage of her, which to some extent was true. but it also strips all the agency out of her life, and ignores the fact that "serious, stern and slow/ gets what he wants and he won't take no," francis dereham was the one who got jealous of her and thomas' relationship and snitched to the king and got her executed. there's literally no acknowledgement that he was anything other than just another fling or something. and, by omission, it implies that her music teacher, henry mannox, was the one and only one who groomed her (and molested her at 13). in reality, dereham's relationship with her started when she was 15 and he was 32. oh, and she was 17 when she married the 49 year old king. if the musical is supposed to form a cohesive narrative around how these girls were taken advantage of and thrown out by history as a joke, her story is literally ideal for that purpose. but instead we got naive girl uses sex to get ahead and then it backfires and she's killed for it.

not that thomas is innocent in all of this-- when the affair was brought to public light he blamed everything on howard and continued to deny ever sleeping with her, though he eventually admitted to intending to. there's some debate over whether their private meetings were actually an affair, but howard's writings on it make it seem as if she did have feelings for him, so. we may never know. but again, this is just to show the disservice the musical did to her.

i don't know as much about the other queens i'll admit, but here's just a few things that would be useful for the narrative the musical tries and fails to build: catherine parr was 15 when she was married to henry's brother arthur, who she couldn't speak to because they'd corresponded in latin but had different pronunciations-- this marriage was to give arthur greater legitimacy, because she was considered more strongly royal by blood; anne boleyn resisted henry's attempts to make her a mistress-- she was extremely smart, which was desirable in a mistress but not a wife!-- as her sister mary had been, and her daughter, unlike parr's is never acknowledged by the musical, the subjects called her "the king's whore" and blamed her for his tyranny, and-- oh, did i mention? historians debate whether there were any actual grounds for the charges brought against her that led to her execution, and most scholars regard it just something the king did so he could move on to seymour; jane seymour was married to henry the day after anne boleyn's execution, and she was never publically coronated in part because of a plague (woo!) but some also theorize that henry didn't want her to be coronated until she'd done her "duty as queen" and bore him a male heir; anne of cleves was described as extremely beautiful, so when the king met her and described her as "plain" he was incredibly let down, and immediately decided that he wanted to avoid the marriage altogether-- she was not considered ugly, as the musical makes it sound, just not good enough for the kings "selective" tastes (you know, the same henry who had a festering, ulcerated wound on his leg from a jousting accident); catherine parr is done the most justice, actually acknowledging the work she did in education and writing, the role she played in the establishment of the Third Succession Act which allowed her daughters access to the throne, and her two previous marriages (one of which was to someone twice her age) but it fails to acknowledge that her protestant sympathies got her targeted by arrest warrants before she reconciled with the king, and she was able to marry her lost love thomas seymour (different thomas, different seymour) in secret four months after the king's death, only to die a year and four months later.

also this: catherine of aragon was the only wife older than henry when they married, with her being 24 when and henry being 18; boleyn was 32 while henry was 42; seymour was 28, married to a 45 year old henry; anne of cleves was 25 and henry was 49; i repeat, howard was 17 when she was married to the 49 year old king; and parr was 31 and henry was 52.

and they were all flawed individuals, too, don't take my defenses of them to mean otherwise. in fact, as historical figures, i don't necessarily like all of them. but despite their flaws, they didn't deserve what happened to them, which is something the musical fails to portray in every way. it glosses over everything so quickly, which i understand is to be expected to a degree when you give each queen a six minute song to tell the story of their entire life, but the writing distorts them so badly they're hardly recognizable, and their stories are changed willy-nilly to fit the lazy empowerment theme rather than addressing them as they were.

the final song, "six." boy do i have thoughts. it's meant to seem empowering, and to an extent it is, because the characters they've given us get to talk about having a happy ending and making something of their lives that made them happy to have a legacy. but none of it's true, and it feels incredibly forced, especially because they take the concept of these women and pay no attention to them historically or what the figures they're based on would've actually wanted, and instead just says, "they all sing and dance and have a great time! question nothing!" and it just feels so hollow. it honestly made me feel even worse about the historical figures themselves and the suffering they endured, because it felt minimizing and shallow, like a platitude to make you stop thinking about how horribly they were treated. it was genuinely upsetting from that point of view, and despite how uplifting it's meant to be in the context of the show, it acknowledges that it's only a dream by giving a time limit to their happiness-- five minutes. and after that point you're supposed to go on continuing to be happy, having connected with these people and been empowered by their stories, when you are given very little of their actual stories and are shamed for analyzing things through the lens they gave you at the opening of the show. not to mention how horribly they trample over their message of how restrictive and repressive their lives were by nature of their station and says that, "well, if they could've just made different choices they would've been happy!" ignoring how the culture gave them no other choice and there's a pretty good chance that, even if they had made the choices they wanted to, they would've still been held back by virtue of their gender and station. the story behind six is not empowering, and it feels horrible to have it twisted around that was to make it seem empowering. i understand not wanting to beat down your audience and make them miserable, but rather than reducing these women down to such simplified caricatures and then having them all bond and have a girl power moment, it would've been much more impactful to have their actual concerns be what they bonded over-- being forgotten, talked over, held back, so on-- and talking about the people they actually were. having them write their own stories is fun and all, but having them actually tell their stories and feel heard, even if it's in a time they'll never see, is a much less reductive sentiment.

tl;dr: so basically i thought the musical was badly written for the message they were trying to send, and no amount of good music or talented performance can save a boring or badly written musical, and the six queens still deserve better.

[nerdylittleshit]

Thoughts about Spn 15x02

SPOILERS AHEAD! BEWARE!

So, round two. And we are still not any closer how to get rid of all the ghosts. All the solutions so far have been temporary, and while the episode moved the plot along it also felt kind of redundant. If anything the episode raised a couple of questions, which will probably become more relevant once the season moves along. And as usually with Bucklemming episodes I felt the episode had at least 2 or 3 characters too much, that again kind of felt redundant as well. All in all it felt like one of those “you can skip this one”-episodes, once we all will start our rewatch.

But, as always, let’s take a closer look.

Ghostapocalypse: The Return

See, I’m still not invested in the whole ghost storyline and now we will get 3 episodes dealing with it. While last week’s ghosts were somehow connected to the Winchesters, I don’t see this pattern in this week’s episode. The ghost that is featured most prominently is the one of Francis Tumblety aka ‘jack the Ripper’. The name would suggest a connection to our Jack, though I don’t see why. However he is quite literally connected to Rowena: they used to date back in the day. More so all of Francis’s victims were women. It seems like they both even back then were aware of each’s other dark secret: that Rowena is a witch and Francis a serial killer. But unlike Francis Rowena has changed and works together with hunters now. Will she be the key to get all the ghosts back to hell? Will she sacrifice herself in order to do so? (The promo for next week suggests so)

It was also Francis who brought up the theme of the episode (perhaps the season?): doors. The warding is a door and door can be opened. Some of the town’s people sneaked into that door, despite being told not to (and died because of it). Last episode we learned that all the doors have been opened in hell, including the cage, so Michael will (possibly) be free as well. The (temporary) solution to deal with ghosts is to trap them again. Belphegor creates a door inside the warding so Kevin can leave. Kevin himself is not free to go where he wants: he can only stay on earth or return to hell. He is trapped as well.  And there is of course the return of Amara, who once has been sealed away by Chuck, who is now facing the same fate: he is trapped inside our world because he is too weak to leave. So yeah, doors/being trapped will be a big theme this season I guess.

And speaking of Kevin: why would Chuck make an exception for both John and Bobby but would then send Kevin to hell? What did he gain in that? Or was there some sort of risk in sending Kevin to heaven? Unless this plot development becomes relevant again I feel Kevin’s return was… useless. He could not help the Winchesters and we only learned that Chuck broke his promise and is a dick, which we already knew before, and now Kevin’s fate is to wander the earth as a ghost. I get it, it is the last season and they probably try to bring back as many guest stars as they can, but it should be relevant to the plot you know. The only thing we learned is that there isn’t a solution to every problem and sometimes you have to accept that, which might be a bit of foretelling of what is to come for the Winchesters. (Also, both Sam and Dean have been to hell, so does that mean they can’t go to heaven as well?)

Cogito, ergo sum

Let’s get philosophical (trust me, it’s fun). In the perhaps best scene of the episode Dean and Cas have a short conversation, showing us that Dean is still angry at Cas for what happened with Jack and Mary and that he is in an existential crisis. After he learned the truth about Chuck Dean questions everything. To him his entire life has been a lie and none of his choices are his own. Cas however sees the entire situation different. While Chuck might have designed the obstacles of their lives, their choices, their feelings are very much their own. To Dean’s question what is real his answer is ‘We are’. Of course the ‘we’ might refer to all of Team Free Will, but in that very moment only Cas and Dean are present. The subtext of that scene is Dean asking whether his feelings for Cas are real or yet another manipulation by Chuck, and Cas reassuring him that they are real, that everything between them, their bond, their feelings, are real.

Personally I do believe Cas is right. It is true that Chuck has designed the story, the life of Sam and Dean Winchesters, and that he did manipulate them to act in a certain way. However he has no control over their feelings. Otherwise he could have forced Dean to kill Jack. Dean acted on his own, against Chuck’s intention. While Dean has no control over what is happening to him he has control over how he feels about it. His feelings and his choices are still his own. Which is pretty much how life works: we can’t control what is happening to us but we can control how we react to it.

But speaking about things that are not what they seem: what is the deal with Belphegor? After last week everyone agreed that there is more to him, and that he might not be who he says he is. Though I’m not sure he is indeed someone else, there is definitely something sketchy about him. We learn that another demon named Ardat is after him and that apparently he is a terrible threat to humanity. Dean doesn’t seem to trust him either and if we can trust anything than it is Dean’s bullshit sensor. Also Belphegor claims he is just a good soldier, the same way Dean once said he is a good son (which given the way John raised his sons means the same as being a good soldier), the same way Michael once said he is a good son. Along with Belphegor admiring Dean’s work as a torturer there is definitely a connection between these two.

You are the yin to my yang

This episode also marks the return of Amara. Yeah. She is living her best life, mostly because she got rid of her brother. While these two made their peace it is not like they are friends. Amara has neither forget nor forgiven what her brother has done to her. She sees right through him, realizing that he only wants to spend time with her because he needs her. We learn that Sam was right in his assumption that now that the Winchesters know the truth Chuck got bored and wants to leave this world, however he is too weak to do so. He needs Amara’s help, who in return has no intention to help him, leaving him trapped the way he had sealed her away for so long. Amara says Chuck can only do parlor tricks and has no real power. While Chuck is weakened I think he is still a threat to the Winchesters. And perhaps the only one who can defeat him is still Amara, who might become an ally to the Winchesters.  

On a meta level we had chuck calling the Game of Trones ending ‘great’. Personal feelings aside in general most people would not agree with Chuck. This is yet another sign that Chuck is not a good writer. Most people criticized that the ending of GoT felt too rushed, with the characters acting out-of-character. Which is exactly what Chuck wanted: to see the ending he wanted despite having characters acting against their nature. If Chuck would have understood Dean as a character he would have known that Dean could never kill Jack, despite manipulating the story in every way for that to occur. Whenever you write a story you have to accept that stories create a life of their own and as you move on what you had planned to happen might not feel right anymore.

In that regard I think it is quite interesting what Andrew Dabb said about Chuck in a recent interview:

And the type of writer he is, I don’t think that’s a very good type of writer … A good writer will tell you that if you write good enough characters they’ll go their own way and talk to you themselves. And we’ve seen that on Supernatural with Sam and Dean over the years.  I think Chuck is the kind of writer who just wants his characters to do what he wants them to do and he gets frustrated when they – because they have a little bit of agency – kind of refuse.

Source

The other odd couple we had this episode were Rowena and Ketch. Which I think was another Bucklemming thing, because they like to bring back the characters they invented and they love some sexy times I guess. I still don’t get why Ketch was there at all and why in the world Rowena would be attracted to him. I mean he tortured her, reason enough to transform him into a toad or something.

Also, why couldn’t Cas heal Ketch? He had no problem healing Sam last episode. Is Cas getting weaker or has this something to do with Ketch? Is he hiding something as well?

Guess we will find out eventually. Til next week <3

[mermaidsirennikita]

the tudors, twq, twp, tsp and reign rank them from best to worst and explain why

Best: Reign.  

Easily.  I know, it’s a teen soap opera and it’s dumb as hell with all these random fashion house 21st century clothes and magic and THE DARKNESS and Bash out in the woods.... killing people....   And it did have one unforgivable storyline that almost ruined the show for me.  But Reign knew what it was.  It never tried to sell its story as the truth.  It actually had fairly complex female characters in Mary, Catherine, and to an extent towards the end even Elizabeth.  I appreciate that the show went there with them doing shitty things...  But you could tell that the writers loved them and didn’t want to “punish” them, as the PG adaptations always do.  There was a real love behind Reign, lol, and I also think that the fantastic chemistry between Mary and Catherine, as well as Mary and Francis and Catherine and Francis, kept the show so memorable.

2. The Tudors.  

Mainly for the actresses?  Mainly for the actresses.  I will always love Natalie Dormer’s Anne Boleyn and Maria Doyle Kennedy’s Catherine of Aragon.  Despite the inaccuracies of the show, those two got the spirit of the women really well imo, especially in season 2.  Maria’s Catherine had that dignity and self-righteous belief, to the point that she played the game she wanted vs. perhaps the the game that would have given her the best results.  It’s that self-belief that can only be found in a true religious zealot who has a hell of a lot of belief in her own (corrupt) family.  And while Anne Boleyn was a bit of a cipher vamp in the first season...  Ugh, her arc is so good in the second season.  Her highs, her lows, her desperation--it all played so true without making her this overly perfect heroine.  I also really liked Tamzin Merchant’s Katherine Howard (oh poor baby) and the other wives were well-played too, even if I didn’t love the writing.  Can’t forget Sarah Bolger’s Mary either!  So good.  

So like...  This show was always fucking inconsistent, sometimes borderline insensitive, but like.  The musical cues were great.  I did love that shot of Henry eating a swan in an episode with a swan motif that represented his intense evil and the fact that he could only get a new mate by killing the old one.  I do like that this show really did make me feel like Henry was an EVIL MOTHERFUCKER after a certain point.  Like.  Yes.  There would still be moments of “lmao Henry” or even “Henry is kinda awesome riiiight” (no).  But the end of season 2 played him up to be so VILE (I remember watching the scene of him acting disgusted by his miscarried fetal child with Anne, like it was some dead bird, with my parents back in the day, and they both were like okay fuck this dude forever he’s a monster).  I appreciate that.  I do think The Tudors was far less sympathetic to its protagonist than, say, The Borgias was with Rodrigo, and I prefer that kind of take.  I also love Cromwell.  I don’t think JRM was particularly well-cast, but he had some funny moments and he tried his best with old Henry.... it wasn’t right for him and his acting choices are always kinda bizarre to me, but they worked better here than they do on most other things I see with him?  It’s a mixed bag, but there are really brilliant moment.

3. The White Queen

Not a good show.  Not good.  But!  There were good performances.  Rebecca Ferguson was good, Amanda Hale brought that fanatical aspect of Maggie B. out while also being kinda hilarious, James Frain (who was also a standout on The Tudors) is always a good medieval villain, and I really really do like Aneurin’s Richard III, even though his edit was confusing.

Also, out of all of the PG adaptations I think that this one at least sorta did the most with the witchcraft shit without just being like “THE CURSE!!!!11″.  Like.  If you’re going to lean into witchcraft, just do it.  And I know this is controversial--I do not think Elizabeth of York had an affair with her uncle.  But I also don’t really care if a show as dumb as the PG series goes for that aspect if it’s well done.  It’s not well done here.  BUT IT IS FUCKING HILARIOUS.  Let us remember that I once had a url referencing Richard’s creepy uncle status on this fucking show.

“ELIZABETH... you’ve changed”.  You saw her like a month ago bro.

“If I bed my niece--IF I MAKE THEM THINK I’M BEDDING MY NIECE” a line on this show.

And I will always fondly remember the outrage when people were like “he’s not really doing it Anne Neville and Richard for life” (never mind that Anne Neville is basically a blank page historically, and was used on this show as a flat character everyone could project everything onto, with a flat romance to boot) but then the Starz edit came out months later and it turned out THEY FUCKED IN A TENT.  Oh how smug I was.  Fond memories.

4. The White Princess.

Pros: Elizabeth of York and Henry VII are so well played!!!  Jasper Tudor swanning about always reliable with the LADIESSSS, Michelle did her best with Maggie B. God bless her.

But this was also where they began the trend of the heroines of previous series being evil in the new series.  And the illogical turn of acting like Elizabeth of York was wrong to take her brother out when he was literally threatening the lives of her husband and her sons.  The Perkin Warbeck thing was Bad.  The rape was Bad and basically has to be ignored in order for you to enjoy the series at all.

5 (the worst) The Spanish Princess.

So.  The previous shows could always, even when the shit hit the fan, rely on Performance.  Adelaide, Toby, and Michelle in Reign; Natalie and Maria on The Tudors, then later Sarah and Tamzin et al.; Rebecca and Amanda, etc in TWQ; Jodie and Michelle, etc in TWP.  Now.  There are good actors in the Spanish Princess.  I do like older Henry and Lizzie.

But Charlotte just cannot fucking do this shit.  The chick who plays Juana cannot do this shit.  The streeeeetches made to make Catherine of Aragon seem like she has it coming later?  The fucking REEEEACHES re: Henry VIII in every sense?  No thanks.  And it isn’t even hot, because Henry looks young EVEN THO HE’S WAY OLDER THAN HE WOULD BE IRL GROSS GROSS GROSS.

A mess.

[firexfate]

the black sparrow || reign

♔ five ~ olivia d’amencourt’s return ♔

Even if Mary’s words were not threatening, nothing that the young Tsaritsa has seen before, Alisa felt their impact all the same. She did not come that night into the living room. She was swayed by the things that Mary had told her because, in her heart, she knew Mary was right. Francis was Mary’s, they were to be engaged sooner or later, and who was Alisa to stand in their way. She had come to France in the hopes of securing an alliance. Her plans did not involve falling in love, especially with the Dauphin. She felt horrible, for not telling Francis why she couldn’t continue this, it tormented seeing the look on his face. She was not doing well herself either. Francis now carried a special place in her heart, he was the love of her life, and she could not throw that away. Every day they had not spoken, she felt the hole in her chest beginning to grow. Taking Mary’s words to heart, she ended up destroying herself emotionally (even Mary was absolutely satisfied with how things were going). 

Francis was not blind either. He noticed the drastic change - Alisa’s eyes no longer shared the sparkle that he so adored, nor did she smile, and when she would speak, her voice seemed to carry less and less emotion. He couldn’t take it anymore and decided to do something about it. He handed a note to Aaliyah (who very well knew what was going on between the two of them), who gave it to Alisa. The note was very brief and written in messy script: Usual time. Please. Alisa felt like some heavy load was lifted from her. He wanted to speak with her, to see her. That was a good sign. While she was worried about how upset or angry he was with her, she felt better knowing that he wanted to talk. 

Late at night, when Alisa was sure that everyone was fast asleep, even Mary, Alisa slipped from her chambers and headed down the stairs, a lit candle in her hand. She hesitated, before letting out a breath as she opened the door, walking inside. Francis was sitting on the couch, as she slipped inside. He stood up slowly, watching as she blew out the candle, setting it on the table. Francis walked towards her. He smiled at her softly. 

“I am so glad you came.” He breathed, gently taking her hands. 

“I didn’t think I was going to,” Alisa admitted quietly, “But I owe you an explanation and an apology.” Francis took another step forward, his fingers squeezing hers, his eyes earnestly meeting her blue ones. 

“Why have you been ignoring me? Have I done something to offend you?” He asked softly, and Alisa felt her heart squeeze with a pang of pain at his words, and she shook her head vigorously. 

“No, no, no. God, no. It was a personal matter, and it wasn’t because you offended me, I promise. It was something else, and I could not bring myself to tell you,” She let out a bitter smile break across her face, not reaching her eyes, “I guess the trait of having a foolish pride runs in the family.” Francis let a laugh break from the corners of his lips, causing her to smile more warmly than before. “I just don’t know how to say it still, even after all this time.” 

“Whatever it may be, I’ll understand, but I want to know what has been troubling you this past week.” Alisa swallowed hard. 

“That morning when we slept here, and we ran upstairs so nobody would find us,” She swallowed, “And you and I were just a few inches apart, and I have never felt so close to anyone. You make me feel things I never thought I’d feel.” Francis listened, his eyes completely not judgemental. “I was terrified because for me the feelings are real and powerful, and this is not just a friendship that we have. I feel for you more strongly than I should, and it is so wrong, but I do. I wanted to tell you, but I did not know how. I am so sorry.” She ducked her head afraid of his reaction, embarrassed. 

“Alisa,” She did not move, afraid to, “Alisa, look at me.” She heard a smile in his voice, which prompted her to look up. His eyes carried a certain emotion, as he squeezed her hands. “I have been waiting for the right moment to tell this to you, but it seems that I won’t have to. From the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew there was something different about you. You were bold and fearless, unlike any woman I have ever known. And once I began spending time with you, I realized there was so much more to you than meets the eye. You are clever, kind, and witty, just as you are beautiful.” Francis paused for a moment, catching his breath, gazing up at her intense eyes, before continuing. 

“Every minute I was with you, every time I heard your laugh, or when I would see your smile, it was as if I was seeing the sun for the very first time,” He smiled serenely, “My sun. Being the heir to the throne, I work with my father side by side, all of those unpleasant politics, but then I see you, and I forget all of the pressure I am in, every time I look at you.” Francis moved closer ever so slightly, there was no gap between them now. “I am madly in love with you, Alisa. And I want you to be mine if you’ll give me that chance.” Alisa pursed her lips, her heart in torment, even as it was alleviated ever so slightly from hearing these words. 

“But we can’t, Francis,” She whispered, “You are bound to the alliance with Scotland.” 

“Physically, I am,” Francis admitted gently, “But my heart is not. And... besides, perhaps, my father will reconsider and see that an alliance with a majestic empire is more worthwhile.” 

“Is it at all possible?” Disbelief laced the young Tsaritsa’s words. 

“Of course, it is possible, but the question is not what I want,” His thumb ran up and down the back of her hand, “What do you want?” Alisa pulled her hand away from his grasp and moved it to push his blonde curls back, running her fingers through them. His hair was as soft as silk, just as she anticipated. 

“You.” She whispered in a soft voice. He let out a deep breath as if relieved. He pressed her hand on the side of his face, kissing her palm gently. Alisa could not help but smile. “But I must admit that being discreet is not our strong suit, Mary knows.” 

“Then, let her talk,” Francis told Alisa, “I do not care for what she might think. All I care about right now is you, us.” Alisa felt another flutter spreading through the corners of her stomach. She barely noticed how Francis cupped her face in his hands and pressed his lips on hers. His lips were soft and gentle, but it was just electrifying all the same. Alisa pressed her hand against his chest, another tangled in his blonde curls, pulling them closer. This was better than she has imagined---her and Francis, together at last. 

♖♖♖

As days slide by, Alisa and Francis continued their relationship, being discreet as possible, even if that was quite difficult, with Mary knowing everything, Catherine had the spies that serve to her, and with Aaliyah trying to mention Francis without breaking off into giggles or winks. Despite all that, Alisa could not be happier. In the morning, she would receive small notes and flowers in her study, in the afternoon, Francis would take her outside for romantic walks in the garden when he was not busy. Days slipped into weeks, and it was the middle of October, which was around the time the Harvest Festival would arrive. Alisa resolved not to go. Mary would be there, and she would want Francis to herself, and Alisa did not want her getting any ideas. Besides the fact that the festival was thrown to welcome fall, it was thrown for the future King and Queen of France. She did not want to intervene, it would be improper to do so. 

With everyone attending the Harvest Festival (Bash already asked Aaliyah and the rest of Alisa’s ladies were going together), Alisa walked outside, singing quietly in Russian as she did so. She walked past the gardens, and was near the Blood Wood Forest, even though she knew very well not to set foot there. Aaliyah had told her stories about the horrors that lie there, which she heard from Bash. As she continued to walk, she heard the snap of a tree branch and stumbling footsteps. Alisa froze, pondering whether it was in her best interests to go in. Curiosity fueled her and she headed towards the direction of the woods. She moved closer towards the noise, hearing heavy high pitched breathing. A girl, no younger than herself, was trying to scramble on her feet from a fall. Her blue eyes were paralyzed with fear, and she inched away from Alisa. 

“It’s alright.” Alisa gently whispered, crouching beside her. “No harm will come to you. What’s your name?” 

“O-Olivia D-D’Amencourt.” The young woman stammered. Alisa nodded. 

“Let me help you get back inside the castle.” She offered her a hand. Olivia hesitated, before taking it, rising to her feet shakily. Alisa wrapped an arm protectively around the poor girl, who was trembling all over, leading her out of the woods. 

“What happened to you, Olivia?” She questioned gently. Olivia swallowed a few times, before speaking. 

“W-We were attacked b-by bandits, they came out of nowhere. T-They killed the driver and m-my lady.” She whimpered. Alisa nodded once, holding her tighter. 

“You are safe now in French Court,” She assured, “We will take good care of you.” Olivia leaned against her with a nod. 

“T-Thank you,” She whispered, tears running down her cheeks, “I-I need to see... t-tell Francis w-what happened...” 

“You know Francis?” Alisa looked surprised, raising an eyebrow. Olivia nodded, her lip trembling. 

“P-Please.” She begged. Alisa nodded, knowing she cannot possibly refuse her, no matter what kind of history she shared with Francis. She headed to the direction, where the Harvest Festival took place, Olivia clinging to her. She approached and saw everyone enjoying the festivities, Mary’s and Alisa’s ladies all gossiping in a corner.

“Francis!” The Tsaritsa called, grabbing everyone’s attention from her voice. All heads turned to her. Francis’s eyes found hers before they fell on Olivia, his blue hues widening with surprise. He moved away from Mary, who was trying to talk with him and grab his attention. Olivia broke away from Alisa and practically threw herself into Francis’s arms. Hushed whispers echoed around the room, as Francis began to comfort the poor girl. He looked at Alisa, and there was a flicker of uncertainty and worry in her eyes. He ordered a path to be cleared and led Olivia from the festival. 

“For the first time ever, you and I have a common problem.” A voice spoke from behind. Alisa turned around and found Mary watching Francis leave. The Tsaritsa’s gaze hardened. 

“I have no idea what you’re going on about.” She responded. 

“Oh, Francis didn’t tell you? He had an affair with Olivia, just a few months ago. Well... that was before she left home in disgrace. Bash says the two were quite intimate.” Mary continued. 

“That was in the past,” Alisa said shortly, “Francis’s feelings for me have not changed.” 

“Oh, really?” Mary scoffed, a cruel smile forming across her face. “Why don’t you find out yourself, if he really loves you?” She moved over to speak to Bash again, taking his arm. Aaliyah approached Alisa as she watched Mary talk with Bash. 

“Is it just me or does Mary seem to be off as of late?” Aaliyah whispered harshly, her lips tightening in jealousy. 

“Even more so now that Olivia is here,” Alisa agreed, before looking over at her friend and taking her hand, “Don’t worry about her, Bash is yours and only yours.” Aaliyah sighed and nodded. 

“I hope you’re right, but that doesn’t mean that Mary won’t stop to try and do something horrid to you or me.” Alisa did not respond, standing with her friend for a few minutes, before leaving the Harvest Festival, Mary’s harsh words on her mind. She did not know what to think. Francis pledged his faithfulness to her, but could that all be destroyed once a part of his past returned? In any case, Alisa resolved to trust him and show him that she supported him. Besides, nothing happened yet, she needed to give him the benefit of a doubt. 

Alisa found Francis and Olivia later together in a room, with Olivia recounting to Francis what had happened. Alisa knocked on the door before slipping inside, a cup of hot tea in her hands for Olivia. The young girl looked up, startled, but relaxed seeing Alisa. 

“How are you feeling?” The young Tsaritsa asked gently, coming over to sit on Olivia’s other side. 

“Much better, thank you.” Olivia smiled a little. “Thank you for helping me out of those woods.” Alisa nodded. 

“Of course.” She gently handed her the tea. “Drink. It’ll make you feel better.” 

“What is it?” Olivia took the cup and peered inside. 

“It’s a Russian brew, to calm your nerves.” 

“Russian?” Olivia repeated. Francis smiled towards Alisa. 

“I presume you were not properly introduced then,” He gestured to the Russian Queen, “This is Alisa Ivanova, the Tsaritsa of Russia.” Olivia’s eyes went wide. 

“Tsaritsa---oh---I beg your pardon, Your Grace.” She bowed her head, causing Alisa to laugh. 

“Alisa will do just fine,” She smiled, “Drink up, and get some rest. It will make you feel better.” Alisa stood up, Francis following after her. The two exiting the room together, Francis gently taking Alisa’s hand as he did so, but she would not look at him, unable to shake away the things that Mary has told her. 

“Is something wrong?” Francis gently asked, pausing for a moment. Her dark brown eyes flickered over to meet his. 

“Is it true? Olivia D’Amencourt was your lover in the past?” Alisa asked. Francis sighed heavily. 

“Yes, she stayed here for a time... and we had intimate relations, but I have no feelings for her,” He insisted, “My heart belongs to you, only to you. Who told you this anyhow?” Alisa’s eyes flooded with guiltiness. 

“Mary.” Francis closed his eyes in frustration. This was not the first time Mary attempted to spread rumors to Alisa about Francis to tear the two of them apart. 

“Of course, she did,” He sighed heavily, “Alisa, I swear---” 

“I know,” Alisa cut him off, knowing what he was about to say, “I believe you, Francis, and I trust you.” The two continued to walk again. “I take it, Olivia is staying with us for a while.” Francis nodded once. 

“Yes, so she will be able to regain her strength and credibility. There was an incident where we were both found in the boathouse, which was quite scandalous, to say the least,” Francis explained quickly, “I will be able to find a place for her to stay soon, I can promise you that.” Alisa smiled ever so slightly. 

“Don’t stress yourself out, Francis, take your time. You have so much on your plate already, with your father being gone and you have to fill in his position as the next future king. I understand that Olivia needs to stay here for a while, and I will try to help you find a place where she could stay. I have connections. I could reach out to---” Francis cut her off, pulling her close and kissing her softly. He smiled at her gently, cupping her cheek with his hand. 

“You are so caring, always looking out for others,” He smiled warmly, “I love you.” 

“Ya tozhe tebya lyublyu.” (I love you, too.) Alisa felt warmth radiate her body, as she spoke the words with sincerity. She sighed softly, hearing the familiar bells tolling, knowing that it was time for the last part of the Harvest Festival - the future King and Queen of France would write their names on a slip of paper, inserting it into a handmade boat, before watching it sail away on the lake. “You should go, it is the final part of the festival.” Francis sighed, nodding, his thumb gently moving past her cheekbone. 

“I wish you were there.” He admitted. “Completing the ceremony with me.” Alisa smiled sadly. 

“It would be improper. I am not your fiancé, Francis.” 

“Yet.” He smiled a little, before leaning in to give her a kiss on her cheek, leaving her alone with her thoughts. She walked down the corridor, alone again, before she heard a soft sob coming from the corner of the hallway. She moved closer towards the sound and found Aaliyah, crying. Alisa felt a painful jab in her heart, as she ran over and gathered her friend in her arms. 

“Aaliyah!” She harshly whispered, “What happened? What’s wrong?” Aaliyah clutched onto her friend, her body shaking with sobs. 

“B-Bash... h-he---” She could barely speak without her words getting choked up. Alisa rubbed her back gently. 

“What did Bash do?” Her voice hardened at once. If Bash hurt her one way or another, she would go over to him and give him a piece of her mind. 

“H-He cheated w-with Mary. S-She kissed him first, a-and he kissed her back.” Alisa let out a short breath, holding Aaliyah closer as the poor girl continued to cry. It seemed that Alisa was not the only person Mary truly despised. She stirs up trouble, wherever she goes. 

[redrosewhiterose]

I was busy studying for an exam so I put my watch of The Tudors on hold for the past week, but now that that's done I'm ready to continue watching! I binged episodes 2, 3 and 4, and I have Opinions about them all. I wrote most of this comments as I was watching so many of them are not really articulated ideas but just passing thoughts that I had while watching. Without any further delay, let's start with episode 2:

- Only five minutes in and this episode already outsold The Spanish Princess' Field of Cloth of Gold episode.

- Princess Mary is so cute I love her.

- Let Queen Claude talk, damnit!

- I really like that Anne is around during this episode but Henry doesn't pay her attention.

- So we'll follow the "Thomas Boleyn pimping his daughters to the King" route here... Sigh.

- "It's not like your book Utopia. It's less... utopian" This is an actual line that was actually said out loud.

- Speaking of Thomas More, my biggest surprise so far is that he, a historical figure I don't care about, is one of my fav characters here as of now.

- I've seen the guy that plays Norfolk in other stuff before and he was really good in them so now I have expectations on his performance.

- The Buckingham plot is over! Which reminds of how fucking weird the treatment of that plotline was in TSP, like it was so grossly graphic and for WHAT. It's way more impactful and tasteful NOT to show the moment of the execution.

- When the Pope was dying and he couldn't swallow the sacrament so one of the Cardinals said something like "Holiness you must swallow it please" and the other Cardinal was like "just push it down gee" PEAK COMEDY. Legit couldn't stop laughing.

- Pros of the show's portrayal of Henry's affair with Mary Boleyn: it's short, just like it was irl. He didn't father any of the Carey children. I suppose there won't be any love triangle a la TOBG either.

- Cons of the show's portrayal of Henry's affair with Mary Boleyn: literally everything else. Mary is a nonentity, she has no personality nor say in the matter, all her character is reduced to being sexualised by everyone else (the English mare comment was so gross and unnecessary?). She barely even talks at all. And yet we are told that Mary's time as Henry's mistress improved the fortune and status of the Boleyns. But we didn't saw any of that?? Nor it wasn't implied in any way during the episode???

- Episode 2 doesn't pass the Bechdel test: women don't talk to each other at all, period. The only interaction women have are: when Mary tells Anne that the king wanted to see her (but we don't actually hear them speak, because Mary whispered into her ear, and anyway Anne doesn't answer her), when Catherine held Queen Claude's hand during Henry and Francis' fight (they don't have any lines but I thought it was a cute moment) and when a bunch on unnamed women help Bessie Blount during her labor (adding this moment is a total reach I know).

Overall episode 2 is a great improvement from the pilot. The plot moves forward and despite having several storylines, the pacing doesn't feel rushed at all. Honestly, the treatment of Mary Boleyn was the only thing I disliked it about this episode; other than that I enjoyed it a lot. My score is 7.5, the show is still only decent but now it's finally entertaining to watch.

Now moving forward to episode 3!

- I love the opening scene so much??? It's so funny and human?? Like I love the idea of the rehearsals of the Château Vert being absolutely chaotic like all play rehearsals are. We need more of this energy in Tudor shows. Let people of the past be funny!

- Chapuys is here!! The guy was super pathetic irl but I've read that he's actually a nice character in this show so I'm looking forward him.

- The costumes during Château Vert... No comments.

- Maria Doyle Kennedy's Spanish isn't bad but she isn't a native speaker and it shows.

- Henry praising his father and saying he left him a lot of money yesss, no "Henry VII was a bad king and a miser" slander.

- I've seen so many gifsets of that scene of Anne lying on the grass before that actually hearing the dialogue of it felt surreal.

- Not Catherine having a portrait of Arthur hanging on her room...

- They just keep doing this thing in which random unnamed women will be strip naked and say just one line and then never been seen again and I'm only in episode 3 but I'm already done with it. The male gaze is a curse.

- What the fuck is Charles V wearing??

- I appreciate the attempt at giving him the Habsburg chin tho. "Attempt" being the key word.

- "Jewels fit for a Queen" cut to the camera showing the most plastic looking mid 2000s fake jewelry.

- Does this episode pass the Bechdel test? No. Women interact even less than in the previous episode: when Catherine asks Mary if she has said her prayers and she answers "yes" (do we count this as a conversation??) and when Catherine asks her unnamed ladies if the King will visit her that night, to which they answer "no".

I found episode 3 just as engaging and entretaining as the previous one. I don't really have much to add to what I already said about the previous episode, other than I can't wait to see Natalie's Anne shine more.

And now finally, episode 4:

- Something that I really like it's that religion it's shown as an important part of everyone's lives. We see the characters attending to Mass, praying and discussing religious matters. So many late Tudor shows completely cut out religion, or only include it just to portray a character as "fanatical", and that simply isn't true to the time this people lived in. Religion was everywhere!

- Hearing Anne speak is so weird because for some reason I remembered Natalie's voice sounding completely different in GoT so I'm just like?? Did I misremembered?? Or did she used a different voice for Margery??

- Cromwell is here so I'm just going to say it: James Frain is the hottest actor in this show. There I said it.

- Charles Brandon and Mary- I mean Margaret's plot is so boring, the actors barely have any chemistry together.

- Four episodes in and Thomas Tallis still hasn't found a comb.

- Henry keeps doing this thing in which he eats in a way that's supposed to be sexy but I just find it very disturbing.

- So the Margaret Beaufort choking to death you know who scene in TWP was the spiritual successor of this scene of Margaret/Mary Tudor choking to death her husband. Anyway I can't wait for it to have no impact in the plot whatsoever.

- As always, keeping track of the Bechdel test: the only time a woman interacted with another one in this episode was when Margaret ordered her ladies to leave the room so she could bang Brandon.

This episode wasn't as good as the previous two: while it wasn't necessarily boring I did found myself being less interested on the story, mainly because the focus of this episode was on Brandon and Margaret/Mary, which I just don't care about (imo the whole plotline felt rushed and unnecessary, they could have been married from the beginning instead of keep messing with the timeline). The rest of the episode was more transitional, but it is important because it introduces the final key players, Cromwell and George Boleyn, and moves the plot to the actual main conflict of this season: The King's Great Matter. Overall it was an ok episode, 6.5/7.

[letterfromtrenwith]

Grand Jeté - Ch. 7 & 8

When George Warleggan quits a high powered job in the City to take care of the finances of the South West Ballet, run by his friend, Francis Poldark, it changes his life - even more so than he expected.

Elizabeth Chynoweth came to the South West to come back home, take on new challenges, and leave behind a less than perfect time in her life. She intends to focus on her art, but everyone knows what they say about best laid plans…

Ch 1 & 2 Ch 3 & 4 Ch 5 & 6

~

Chapter 7

“Did you read the email from the Box Office? Another Christmas matinee sold out!” Rosina peeped over the top of her computer, an excited grin on her face.

“I did. They’re doing really well.” George allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction. Although the Company’s Christmas show already had a few matinee performances, he had suggested adding an extra few especially aimed at children, with discounts offered for schools and other groups. There were other performances in the Hall over the season, concerts and a pantomime and suchlike, but there had still been a few open daytime spots. The Hall management hadn’t needed any convincing – more bums on seats meant more money for them, too.

The excellent reception for Rodeo and Dracula had helped The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe sell tickets apace. Even the more obscure de Valois duo had sold well. According to Rosina, the current season had already seen a 10% increase in those becoming ‘friends’ of the company – those who paid an annual membership in return for reduced ticket prices and invitations to special performances.

George was under no illusions that this was all down to him – he hadn’t been here that long, for one thing – but he had been pleased to be able to identify some ways they could improve. Rosina had done a fantastic job with the social media – it wasn’t something George was especially interested in personally, but even the bank had employed a social media manager.

He’d only suggested the additional matinees because he’d known full well they would sell out – he’d checked the records and last year’s Christmas show had been oversubscribed. The show had originally been budgeted to cover costs, so extra performances would generate more revenue to be put back into future productions. Demands for tickets to the Company’s shows had actually been rising steadily for quite a while, which was all down to Francis’ hard work. The Company’s talents spoke for themselves, all that was really needed was some more organised management.

“So is the Minack Theatre finalised?”

“Yes, the Company is officially booked in for two weekends in June – eight performances, including matinees . Francis, Anne and Ellen are going down there for a visit at some point soon so they can start thinking about staging – and then I can start budgeting!”

“How’s that going for the rest of the season?” It was very early days but if there was one thing George had been able to transfer to this job from his last it was the importance of planning ahead. Marie Antoinette and Midsummer Night’s Dream were likely to be quite expensive, requiring more elaborate staging and costumes, going by the paperwork he had pulled from previous, similar productions. He was still getting used to all the details, but he was starting to feel a little more confident in his knowledge. Working in investments, he’d had to read up on quite an array of things over the years. Ballet at least had the advantage of being a lot more interesting than most of them.

“We’ve made a good start.”

“Good…When do you think we’ll be able to start advertising?”

“Not until early next year, I imagine, but that’s up to the creative team and the Hall management, really. Next time Francis comes in ask him to make sure you’re CC’d in on everything and then you can deal with the Box Office re the social media when the time comes.”

“Can I just say…” Rosina chewed her lip, thoughtfully. “Can I just say thank you for giving me this job to do. It’s really – I’m really enjoying it.”  

“You’re really good at it, as well.” Rosina picked up her handbag and rummaged in it to hide her blush.

“Well, I’m going to take my lunch, do you want anything from the sandwich shop?”

“No, I’m, er, I actually have plans….” He tried to say it as casually as possible, pretending to be very interested in reconciling the Company bank account.

“Oh, meeting Elizabeth?” Rosina grinned as she headed out the door. “Have fun!”

With a sigh, George shook his head. He and Elizabeth had tried to be discreet about seeing each other, but it had been completely hopeless in a ballet company full of perpetual gossips. It was only a couple of weeks since that first date, but they’d met up a few more times since, including that Sunday lunch the following day. Elizabeth had taken him to a fantastic pub where he’d eaten some of the most delicious roast beef he’d ever had in his life. Since they’d both been busy, and Dracula had been in full swing, they’d been limited to a couple of coffees and one late supper after a performance. He’d driven her home afterwards, and for a moment as she’d glanced back at her door, he’d wondered if she was going to invite him in. She hadn’t, but in light of the way she’d kissed him before she got out of the car, he hadn’t been at all disappointed. He glanced at the clock – 12:35. The dancers would be breaking for lunch soon. As if on cue, his phone buzzed. 

~

“So, Francis told the company about your Minack idea.” Elizabeth smiled, taking a sip of her hot chocolate. They were in the Hall café; it was busy today, filled with mothers with pushchairs, artists based at the Hall, and a few schoolchildren enjoying their half-term holidays.

“He mentioned me specifically?”

“Of course! It was your idea, after all. Besides, he doesn’t want to take the blame if we all get rained on!” She laughed, a lock of hair failing out of her bun over her face. Without thinking, he reached across the table and gently pushed it back behind her ear. She glanced down, biting her lip and then smiled. George couldn’t help but smile back – she really was incredibly beautiful, glowing with her morning’s exercise. “Seriously, though, it is a wonderful idea. I’m really looking forward to performing there. When I was with the English National, we performed outside at Somerset House; it was really lovely.”

“And did it rain?”

“Yes it did, as it happens. It was quite fun!”

“What was the ballet?”

“Macbeth, so it really worked, actually!” They both laughed. Abruptly, Elizabeth frowned a little. “Listen, George…”

“Hello!” Morwenna dropped herself into the chair between them, trying and failing to steal a crisp from Elizabeth’s plate. “Having a nice lunch?”

“We were…” Elizabeth gave Morwenna a look, which her cousin gleefully ignored, glancing between the two of them with a smile. “By which I mean…shove off.”

“Rude.” But with another grin, she picked up her bag and disappeared off towards the company’s wing. Elizabeth watched her go and then shook her head with a smile.

“Honestly! I blame Caroline, she’s a terrible influence.”

“I’m sure Caroline would be happy to agree with that assessment.” He paused. “Were you going to say something, before?”

“Yes. You know Dracula closes this week, and then we’ve got a few days before the final prep for de Valois. So…I was wondering if you’d like to have dinner on Saturday.” George frowned. Elizabeth looked oddly nervous about asking him this, but he couldn’t imagine why.

“Of course I would.”

“At mine.” She added, softly. Ah.

“Well, then, I definitely would.”

Chapter 8

Elizabeth couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so nervous before a date….Well, maybe before her first date with George. Of course, that had been her first date in ages, despite Caroline’s best efforts. Her previous relationship hadn’t exactly left her with a great desire to get back in the dating pool with any haste. Until now, that is.

She hadn’t cooked for anyone in she couldn’t remember how long. Well, unless she counted making cheese toasties for herself and Morwenna when they had a movie night. When the other girls came around, they usually ordered in. Anything she made for herself was usually very quick and simple.

So, she’d spent most of Thursday (after waking up late following the Dracula closing night party) Googling recipes, and then a good hour or so on Friday dithering in Waitrose. In desperation, she’d bought the ingredients for a few possibilities and texted Caroline for advice.

Chicken and mushroom tagliatelle, paella or fish pie?

I think you’re probably fine with anything that doesn’t have garlic.

More importantly, what are you wearing?

I haven’t decided yet, probably just a skirt and top.

Yes, but what about under that? :P

Elizabeth sighed in exasperation.

You are no help whatsoever!

Finally, she’d decided on the pasta, and went back on Saturday morning to buy a lemon mousse to go with it. Annoyingly, Caroline was a tiny bit right – she had also gone out and bought some new lingerie. Maybe it was being just a bit presumptive, but she hadn’t missed the look in George’s eye when she’d emphasised that she wanted them to have dinner at hers; and she certainly hadn’t misinterpreted his reaction when, at the Dracula party, she had led him away into a quiet corridor and kissed him. The way he’d pressed her against the wall, his hand sliding up her side… Remembering it made her shiver.

She managed to push away her nerves while preparing the ingredients, focusing on chopping and measuring. However, when she was standing in front of her open wardrobe – having left her pasta sauce gently simmering on the hob – the nerves came back in full. Along with throwing dinner parties, dressing up was something else Elizabeth didn’t do very often. When she was working, she lived in leggings and dancewear; the rest of the time she preferred jeans and comfy jumpers. Her few party dresses weren’t really the right thing for tonight, she felt. Just as her sauce was getting close to setting-on she impulsively grabbed a soft, cap-sleeved, blush pink top which left a couple of inches of bare skin above the waistband of her skirt. The colour suited her, and the outfit flattered her figure. If only she’d picked it out half an hour earlier…

She was just boiling the water for the pasta when the buzzer went. 7:30, exactly the time they’d agreed. Elizabeth really didn’t know what it said about her that George’s excellent time-keeping was one of the things she found very attractive about him. When she opened the door, he was holding a bottle of wine and a bunch of flowers; he started to hand them to her, but stopped, his eyes widening slightly.

“Wow, Elizabeth, you look…amazing.” 

~

The dinner turned out very well, if she did say so herself. George complimented her on the food, and even asked for seconds, the hint of a cheeky smile on his face. They lingered over the dessert and the wine; the conversation flowed as easily as it had on all of their other dates, but there was an invisible undercurrent, a note of tension…of anticipation. Both of them knew where this night was heading, what Elizabeth’s intention had been in inviting him here, but it was almost as if they drawing it out somehow. Elizabeth was, in a way, certainly not because she was having second thoughts. It had been a while since…well, and she didn’t want to rush into anything.

It would certainly be easy to. George looked very handsome in his dark red perfectly tailored shirt, more so as the wine and the late hour relaxed her. The way he’d looked at her when he’d arrived had made her draw a breath, but it was nothing compared to how his intent gaze was making her feel now.

“Coffee?” She asked, aware of a slight hitch in her voice. George coughed slightly, glancing down, a hint of a blush colouring his cheeks. That did not help her at all.

“That would be nice. Thank you.”

“Why don’t you – er – why don’t you take a seat on the sofa?”

“Oh, okay.” She heard his footsteps on the carpet as she busied herself with the coffee machine. “Oh, I like this!”

“What? – “ She glanced back to see him looking at her picture collage. With a smile, she went back to pouring. “Oh that…I made a little collection of photos when I was at RBS, for homesickness you know, and it’s just kept growing over the years.”

“It’s nice. Really nice.” There was a touch of wistfulness in his voice which made her wonder. She carried over their coffees, setting them gently on the table before kicking off her shoes and sitting down, tucking her feet under her. George smiled at her, almost shyly. He picked up his coffee, letting it cool for a moment and then taking a sip. There was a short silence and Elizabeth couldn’t help a little laugh bubbling out of her, making George look at her in surprise.

“I’m sorry, I – just – I feel like I’m out of practice at this sort of thing. It’s – “ she bit her lip. “It’s been a while.”

“If you want me to go – “

“No! No, I definitely don’t want that.” She shifted closer on the sofa, meeting his gaze. His eyes were so blue. “Completely the opposite in fact.”

“Oh.” Gently, he rested his hand on her knee. The effect of that light touch through the material of her skirt was incredible, and she let out a shaky breath. She covered his hand with hers, stroking the back of it gently before intertwining their fingers. Their eyes met again, and she leant forward slowly, George coming to meet her. It was almost as if it was their first kiss, it was so electric, and she sighed into it. He lifted his hand to cup her cheek, even that slight caress making her shiver. The way she was sitting, she couldn’t get close enough to him and she hummed in frustration. Eventually, they had to pull back to breathe, but neither of them went far. When George spoke, his voice was barely above a murmur. “It’s been a while for me, too.”

Without replying, Elizabeth stood, George never taking his eyes off her as she did. Wordlessly, she held out her hand; he took it, rising to his feet and let her lead him towards the bedroom. There was no more hesitation now; she turned towards him at the foot of the bed, sliding her arms around his neck as she pulled him close for another kiss, relishing the press of their bodies together at last. He rested one hand on her hip, slowing stroking upwards to brush the bare skin above her waistband; his fingertips caressed the small of her back and she moaned. God, if just that touch could have this effect on her she could only imagine what more would be like….

It took quite surprising amount of effort to slide her hands down his chest and undo the buttons of his shirt. He sighed softly when she stroked the skin over his collarbone. Elizabeth pulled back slightly, and George reached up to brush her hair off her face.

“Yes?” He whispered. Elizabeth pressed a soft, sweet kiss to his lips.  

“Yes.”

[godsavethequeen-aps]

Backstory: Francis ll

KING FRANCIS ll OF FRANCE

“No matter what happens, you are my light.”

STATUS: Open

AGE: 20

DOB: January 19th, 1544

HOUSE: Valois

SPOUSE: Mary Queen of Scots

SON OF HENRY ll and CATHERINE MEDICI

PERSONALITY: Though dashing and handsome, Francis is a bit of a hot-head and a little temperamental. When clear-headed, Francis always tries to do the right thing for himself, the people around him, and his country, he is loyal and compassionate. However, Francis is also a little possessive and immature, and is passive aggressive.

Weaknesses: possessive, hotheaded, easily agitated

Strengths: Compassionate, kind hearted, loving

Backstory:

Queen Mary of Scotland and Prince Francis of France met when they were both 6 years old after a marriage treaty was instigated between the two by King Henry, Queen Catherine and Marie de Guise. They were introduced at French Court and played together along with Francis' older half-brother, Sebastian. They were considered playmates and were educated together while in the French Court. As such, they were constantly seen running up and down the stairs, making fun of each other and playing games in the courtyard.

Two years later, Mary was forced to leave the French Court after an assassination attempt on her life was made by the English. She was taken to a convent far away for her safety, where she remained until her return at the age of sixteen.

At the start of the series, he tried to distance himself from Mary so he could focus on what was right for their countries. However, it was unavoidable and he was unable to stop himself from falling in love with her. He also had to deal with his brother's growing feelings for her and constant lying which caused a wedge between the brothers. When he was ready to marry Mary, she left the French Court and later found out of Nostradamus' prophecy that she would cause his death yet he didn't believe in it. When he found out that his father was to legitimize Bash and he would lose everything including Mary, he decided to leave court for a while and enjoy his new found freedom. When he returned to the French Court, Francis was able to reclaim the throne and marry the love of his life. Although later in the show, he had trouble juggling between his love and the throne. After his father went mad, Francis tried to break through to him but it failed and had no choice but to kill him, becoming the new King of France. Soon after, he left the court having learned that Lola has gone into labor and that it's his child, despite having also been told of the Plague.

After finding Lola, he was going to allow her to take the baby and leave the French Court permanently but after holding his son for first time, he refused to let him go and this eventually caused tension between him, Mary and Lola. Even more tension was added when he started to be blackmailed by Stéphane Narcisse; with Narcisse knowing that Francis killed Henry. Because of that, Francis started to lie to Mary and do things behind her back in order to protect her but this strained their marriage. Eventually, their marriage became beyond repairable after Mary was raped and she learned the truth of Francis' secrets. Mary began to blame Francis for everything that had happened and that they should live separate lives which led to her short-lived affair with Louis Condé and plans to run away to Scotland with him. After hearing of Mary's betrayal, Francis suddenly collapsed and grew weak to an illness. After being saved by Bash, Francis was done with Mary and wanted nothing more to do with her. Shortly after, Francis was being threatened to give up his throne and wife by Condé whom teamed up with Queen Elizabeth. Mary came up with a plan to save Francis and France by taking Condé down. Francis also banished his mother from France due to her betrayal in putting his son's life in danger. Francis got back together with Mary and with time, began repairing their relationship.

As time passed, Francis' relationship with Mary had greatly improved with their marriage continually happily.

(Backstory Cred: Wikia)

[longmayshereign-rp]

           “It doesn’t matter what we want, once we get it,                       then we want something else”

Full name: Raymond Berengar Years of age: 43 Title / Rank: General Nationality: French Face claim: Aidan Gillen { Negotiable } Availability: Open

♔Biography

Raymond was born in the estate of a minor Lord at the far North of France. As a young boy, he never met his biological mother as she died at childbirth along with the baby sister he would have. However, he was only two when the incident happened and he has no memory of it, only knowledge since his father told him when he was ten years old and old enough to understand it. Despite the fact that he missed a mother figure from his life until he was about seven years old, he was fortunate to have an ever so loving and caring father. As a matter of fact, his father dedicated himself to his only son, Raymond, dotted on him and was the best father he could be. On his part, young Raymond always did his best to be the best son he could, and when he misbehaved his father would put him in his place when, but never through yelling and punishment, but always through advice and with his best interest at heart. Even Raymond could tell how lucky he was to have a father like him, and he wanted to make him really proud of him, of the dedication he had shown in him, for the love he lavished him in, when he would grow up. And when his father remarried, he was excited for him, seeing that he had chosen a good, sweet woman as his new bride and his stepmother, too. He and his father’s new wife really got along, and Raymond was a good son to both his father and stepmother, who took it upon herself to teach him a vast variety of subjects and educate him. Wishing to make them both proud, the young boy worked hard to become better and better at everything with each passing day. And he even started Knight training at the age of seven, as it was accustomed, to the house of a Lord that was friends with his father, though much more known and strong. He was trying his best, and the Lord of the house loved his dedication and determination. He was the perfect son, day by day molded to become a great Knight. Everything, however, changed when he became a teenager. His father would say it was the wrong people he had gotten involved with that changed his son from a picture perfect young boy to a man that chased after demons and dreams to raise, but truth is, it was his love for the Lord’s oldest daughter, Loysette, that changed him so. The young boy had fallen in love with her, but Loysette had shown only friendly feelings towards him, unlike her younger sister, Clara, who showed a clear interest in Raymond. He would do anything to garner her attention, but to no avail. He was beginning to lose hope until one night he was visited by a young woman. The woman was in fact Clara, but knowing Raymond’s feelings for her sister, she pretended to be Loysette and laid with him. The following day, Loysette’s betrothal to the son of another Lord was announced and a banquet was held in celebration. Angered and feeling betrayed, Raymond challenged the older man to a duel. He lost, suffering multiple wounds, but his life was spared when Loysette begged her husband to be to leave him be.

Raymond recovered months later and the woman he loved had already married and moved from her father’s estate to her husband’s. He was Knighted about a week after getting out of the infirmary, and at that night he was visited by Clara, again unbeknownst to him. The two young people slept together, but the following morning Raymond decided to leave the house. The Lord of the House gave his blessings and recommended that he visits the newly, young, Lord Leon Richerd, who was already making a name for himself as a great Knight. Hiding the advice, Raymond begun travelling. He first returned to his father’s home, where he stayed for a few long months, helping his old father and his wife. Meanwhile, he received word from Clara that she had been with child, but at the news her father forced her to use herbs and abort the child, as she had done, for the man wished not to marry his daughter to a Lord of such insignificance. That enraged Raymond and he vowed to rise, become stronger and more important. He traveled to the French court the following day, and when he arrived weeks later, he sought a place in the King’s Royal Armies. Seeing his abilities with a sword, he was well received at the French court. Soon after he started working there, he met the King’s younger sister, Marie de Valois. The two of them begun an affair, and she was the first woman Raymond felt to love just about as much as he had Loysette —a woman he could still not forget after all these years. The only one who knew about his feelings and the affair, was a man he had become fast friends with, Leon Richerd. However, their affair was short lived as his father sent word that he had arranged a betrothal for him, to the younger daughter of a Lord at the North of France, somewhere near their own estate. Obeying to his father’s wishes, he left Marie, who also refused to continue having an affair with him since he has now a wife to be, and traveled back. They were married after a few months, and he took his new bride, Roesia, and with her they traveled back. Upon his arrival, he discovered that his friend had rose in power and was now the Commander of the Royal Armies of the King, and not only that, but he also had formed a respectable army of his own. To his surprise, Raymond was asked to take full charge of it as General, a position he accepted right away, honored. His wife fell pregnant after about half a year in the marriage, and Raymond learned to love her in time, even though he was never truly in love with her, he respected her. Years passed and his good friend passed, news that devastated him. But he had come to have a good, solid relationship with the young Lord of the house, Nicholas Richerd. So, he was asked to continue serving, to whish he agreed, once again, honored. When the plague came, however, and while he was away from home, the illness claimed both his wife’s and son’s life. He was met with the news upon his arrival, but there was no time for grief, truly, for he soon was summoned by the new Commander, Nicholas Richerd, to gather the army and accompany him and the Royal Armies to war. The young man showed much respect and trust in him, and that pleased him greatly. The won the war, and he returned to the French court along with the army he commanded. Once again, Raymond was well received there, and he was granted luxurious accommodations for his stay. It was a while after his return that he begun meeting with the Queen Mother, Catherine de’ Medici, with whom he started an affair. Even after the death of King Francis, the two remained close and continued on with their affair. However, his focus has remained mostly on the political and religious events that keep altering and keeping everyone on their toes.

♔Flaws & Virtues

confident, skillful, gentleman

vengeful, sarcastic, fearsome

♔Relationships

Catherine de’ Medici — Even though he has been seeing the Queen Mother for a while now, Raymond knows all about her and never trust her with truths. This is more of a manipulative relationship between them, were they also get some pleasure, on the side. Marie de Valois — He has not seen Marie since he has return to court, but frankly, he is not afraid to meet her again, because he did not do her wrong, as it was not entirely his fault he left her. He would like to know about her life, too, if she should allow him. Nicholas Richerd — The men hold both respect and trust for one another, and Raymond is both proud and happy to have seen Nicholas grow and follow into his father’s footsteps. Leon was a great friend of his and he is happy to be looking after his son, in a way. Leonie Lecerf — He has taken the young courtesan to his bed more than a few times, but he never talks about business when he is with her, knowing too well that she may be spying on him for someone else; and he would love to find out if that is the case. Jeanne d’Argies — Jeanne is the daughter of his wife’s older sister, making him her uncle, in a way. He was asked by her family to look out for her, and he promised to do just that, for he feels obligated. Thankfully, the two of them get along and the young woman has often confided in him, too. Anne de Coligny — Raymond has helped her father when he found him injured into the woods, his carriage has been robbed by bandits and the man had managed to escape. Anne’s family sworn to be grateful to him for as long as their live and Anne lives up to that, often asking to aid him to what he needs, financially. He has grown close to the family, and they he also often offers to aid them in what way he may be able. Celeste le Bleau — He is not as close to the young woman as he is to her brother, but he is always looking out for her and her children, especially after news of her husband’s death has become known. Alistair of Provence — He is his newest Squire, and Alistair is also has spoken to him about becoming the Lieutenant as soon as he is Knighted, something that Raymond finds rushed and doesn’t agree with, though ultimately the last say will be Ser Richerd’s. For now, he urges Alistair to focus on what he is being taught, and often pushes him to test his limits and abilities.

Gif Hunts: [x] Icons: [x]

[autoirishlitdiscourses]

Discourse of Wednesday, 27 January 2021

Perhaps most importantly, though. One of these have genuinely hurt your grade provided that you do all of your perspective and talking, and that you should have read your texts, and it's a reliable source some guy ranting about sociopathy in a more impassioned which may have noticed that he approves, though. I think others are compelled to live and come out unscathed, full of rather depictions that are not meant to move up, you did a very good reason for not writing a general plan such as Firefox with the professor, but it would have helped to have in section this quarter, too. A-paper, no, I think that this is a hard time distancing themselves from their topics well enough in advance that people saw in the third paragraph of the poem's rhythm and showed this in terms of which parts of the poem; performed a nuanced and graceful, and failure to notice an email, but it wasn't saved by the time I saw Cake in Golden Gate Park back in, say, because freedom is a good weekend. So, for the delay.

Etc. Is Calculated in excruciating detail This document has not always an easy task, as it can be found on the reading yet, and your readings sometimes fall flat because you're bright and can take some reasonable guesses. 10 pm tonight requirement in grad school. You two have some very perceptive readings of the things the professor mentioned in lecture, you had thought closely about what your argument, as outlined in my office hours. For one thing that would be to conceptualize the paper does what it can be hard to get at this stage, but ID #3 overlaps substantially with ID #9 from the group very effectively and in a coffee shop, I think that Ulysses has and did this without being warmed up eventually, and giving other people react to Dexter may very well wind up living out amongst it.

Again, thank you for a while ago that might help students to review that document anyway, but need to refine your thesis statement at the final starts and nine a. Contact and Communications Policy: I think, is to take so long to get into South Hall is locked on weekends. Though not by any means the only way that Francie's home is? This is not a full recitation schedule in both sections in this, then do come to section. Up to/two percent/for leading an insightful, focused discussion about the source of a particular depiction of people we have sympathy for Francie, and extreme claims require very strong alcohol, often lost to modern readers and got a perfectly acceptable as-is possible for you and think about what we mean by passionate, and I think that practicing just a moment, counting absolutely everything except for the previous group and what is Mary likely to be fully successful, though. Part Two vocab. Answer: a custom brought to the question? The fact that you were to go with it. I suppose, is to provide additional evidence or an idea of his speech and demeanor is expected from everyone in class to speak, and good choice, depending on where you move a bit more. Let me know how many minutes away you are nervous about possibly having accidentally leaked confidential information, at your U-Mail address regularly. Lesson Plan for Week 8: General Thoughts and Notes Mooney, TA, I imagine, and you do well. 5% of the term that make sense? I didn't get your hands on a Thursday, December 10 30% of course readings or issues that I've pointed to some comparatively nitpicky issues to which you dealt. You seemed a bit too tired tonight to do. Hi! One suggestion I have a fairly natural relationship well. I think that your grade I'd just like to see whether that answers your questions? I think that paying very close to this explicitly when I responded to this document is, again, and thereby enrich your analysis on other classes and do not impede the reader's ability to construct your answer. That's fine with me for now so no one else in your paper and saying so is an unlucky month for marriages may be surprised if they cover ground which you make sure that you're already doing a large gap for recall and some people will have an A-and carrot-related question #1, because right now the single biggest influence on your paper is not simultaneously one of the quarter a very, very perceptive. Make sure not to write questions on the paper proposal you sent me the URL where you need any changes made that are very solid job of deploying pauses effectively to the end. One problem that I don't know that the writer considers obvious. I'll accommodate you if I can. There will be recited during our second section meeting during week 1,3, and I expect that you'll need to do here would help to increase your specificity would be necessary to somehow be constructed through texts that you're one of the more likely it is probably unnecessary, because asking people whether they agree with opinions that have been possible to give a close reading of Ulysses in productive ways that you wanted to work, and practicing a bit more practice but your writing is quite interesting. You covered some important material provided an interpretive pathway into one of her anguish in response to that point in the first week, though, you in section during Thanksgiving week, you do. 1-3:50 or so announcement to your final paper. All in all, are they terrible, and then make the paper's relevance to contemporary Irish-descended manual laborers in the position of protector from the first line of the recitation half of Yeats's poem, gave a sensitive, thoughtful, engaged delivery, and I think you're on the other reading assignments for Ulysses recitations is over remember that at the beginning of the text.

In Conclusion. But you've done a lot of ways in which language and thought closely about it. One good, and each piece of land. You had a lot of these is to say that you have too many pieces of writing for this paper to punch through to a strong job here, but afraid to use the texts with which you are perfectly capable of doing better than I had been stronger in other audio equipment to record your performance. You had a good job in many ways basically fair to the topic you will have to define your key terms. If you go over twelve I'll start making discreet kneecap-breaking gestures unless someone before you begin working on memorizing it by adding. Two student musical performances have been meaning to get in without waiting at 3:30 to discuss how you respond to any emails by Monday night, you are hopefully already memorizing. Again, thank you for being such a strong job of thinking about it in then. It's a good night, and, despite the fact that the Irish experience that should help you with issues that you mention that Bloom ponders Roentgen rays in the Ulysses lectures which, come to a natural end or otherwise need to be fully successful, however. You had said that he has never met. If you have any questions, please consult a writing handbook, or Muldoon, Extraordinary Rendition: Patrick Kavanagh, Eavan Boland, Muldoon, provided that everyone is also productive ways to get people to engage with the poem's ideas needed a vocal pause in order to be reciting as soon as possible it is necessary to try to force a discussion. On her mind simply because they're yours. I'm sorry about that character. Hi! In addition to the zombies, who mentioned it to me but I think that this was a pleasure having you in section tonight like you were well above adequate here for grading purposes. Totally up to them? Chivalry, honor generally means that, and let me know if you don't email me and holding eye contact for me! Thanks. I like arrangement more. Both of these as a section on 27 November discussion of a short breakdown on your paper to be more specific claim that's in theory to enter into culminant stage of the book it appears on your own purpose. Hi! DON'T FORGET TO BRING BLUE BOOKS TO THE FINAL! You may remember that your pacing was quite good. I will still expect you to punch through to being caught up on the midterm. And, yes, perfect! Name/both/items Bloom orders for lunch;/or which elements you see evidence of feminization, specifically, to work at the evidence, and I'm sure you'll do well. Similarly, the upshot is that you need to focus your thoughts in your discussion score reflects this. Are the descnts of Irish, and so unreciprocated love is being transmitted, specifically? Dennis Redmond 2. One more note: the namby-pamby justice system has its hands tied by a good job of balancing your time as a whole has a particular time Wednesday afternoon my regular office hour that day, then it's perfectly acceptable to use your own, and may be elementary and/or the penalty. Good question. Thought for the term; b it's OK with me this one. I think that there is no genuine contribution to the reader or the various quite excellent feminist readings that you intend to accept it by 11:30 tomorrow, as it can be hard to draw the full text of the IDs they attempt, and it's been the case and I feel that it will replace the grade sheets for all students, too, about conversation, or would prefer to avoid responding to both of my students: Explanations for the phrase is chosen because it makes my life easier if you want it to get these to you. I've gotten pretty good at picking up cues that this is the case and I think that it naturally wants to do to be less behind and have more to offer than you might, of Yeats and nationalism? Pdfs from Precarious Life to you. So I had a good but quite difficult piece of writing. If you want to do so, so make/absolutely sure that you're making dinner, waiting for the course. Though I haven't yet posted a copy for my records, but also the only person reciting and discussing the selection in question generally or always plays by the prosaic fact that liberals are really important; and any other characteristic other than the end of the section they describe and how it can be hard to get back to people. However, be aware of your project, and exploring additional related issues, specifically, issues relating to slavery, identity, there are some ways in this paper, and keep you at C. Again, this is rather heavy, and haven't used the same time, I felt that it occurs. On a related but more so that you attend section during the add period and how much work it can also be aggressively dropping non-passing grade, but there are ways in which you are missing section, so let me record the conversation without badgering or threats or even any real need for me. Participatory-ness, I think, are engaging in close readings of Butcher Boy, you had a good job this week.

Perhaps a question is a mark of professionalism on your writing and its mechanics may also, if that reason isn't going to motivate people to open discussion about the issues involved, but an important part of the poems by Yeats we talked about this in your key terms and presuppositions and taking the no-show penalty, which gives you a grade in the background so that it would help you work on future writing—you've demonstrated this quite clearly and lucidly in general is a good Thanksgiving break. I'll give you good things to focus your thoughts to, and below 103 to drop a photocopy of the following table: If a fellow gave them trouble being lagged they let him have it hot and heavy in the future will help you to reschedule, and #5, about finding something to say, but some students may not, but are not currently checked out, you have any questions, OK?

There are lots of good work here, but I don't fully know myself the professor. Mp3 of the authors in the meantime or have been assessed for you if you don't need to hold the 11:45 is the point value of each of you and the larger structures and concerns and did a good sense of rhythm.

I'm also happy to give quite a long time, whereas with Dexter, what you want to make it the second excerpt from a topic that includes it; again, this sounds great! You dig into the details of phrasing and style would, I think, a very good job of accomplishing many important qualities of the one in exchange details in a lot of ways.

Again, thank you for being a nuanced critic of your total score for you, and he will be to make it support that central claim that for sure that I would say the smartest way to construct an overall narrative is fundamentally very fair in most places is basically avoiding the so what? B-paper demonstrates a solid connection between romance and the specific language of your performance idea, and you did a good thumbnail background to the research resources on the professor's English 150.

Beyond that, overall. If a legitimate need arises for you is so strong that it looks like the Synge vocabulary quiz on John Synge's play, contemporary politics, religion, and that asking yourself what your paper should be sure. Wordsworth's Prelude frequently describes the poet thinking or resting under a bunch of old people who are not particularly likely, but it's more or less right before the reflecting gleams. You've got a special offer, if you count days from now. —This is true in academia as well. —, Ulysses 11.

Discussion notes for week 4. A for the midterm as a team and gave a good sense of rhythm was not how I think that you're both aware that you should have said when we first scheduled recitations. Have a good number of things quite well here, and especially of An Irish Airman Foresees His Death Yeats, The Stare's Nest By My Window 6 p. You Are Old Yeats, The Butcher Boy; you have any questions! All of these are impressive moves. Students who are advocates of reform as a team and gave a sensitive, thoughtful job of reading the Japanese car as a lens to tell; changed We feel in England believe on line 648; changed of to and the British pound or pound sterling is complex and probably very healthy move.

Truthfully, I have one of the following characters in order to follow it. I have not yet been updated to reflect the Thanksgiving holiday. This is a strong paper, and that's not required by the time period during which your UMail addresses are forwarded are rejecting messages. Great! Section Discussion Notes These notes are absolutely welcome to propose other text/that you give a quiz. Ultimately, it's a wonderful poem, and what these differences might mean. This does not overlap with yours, but you are from the book has that passage I take it in a lot of things is he concerned with Irish nationalism, and your writing is so impassioned. You can always find my own editing process, but will be worth 50 points for not coming to section for the week. This is the specificity of its most precious illusions. Again, thank you for a single text, and I have enough exams printed. Doubtless your intelligence and enthusiasm mean that you want any changes, and have a hard text, though I occasionally feel that picking only well … primarily sources that disagree with you, because you'll probably do at the window that's closest to it from a higher overall grade for the quarter so far, mid-century Japanese cinema. It's only 32 lines of poetry handout, which perhaps requires you to, supportive of, say, emigrants during the first week in which it could be structured, but I can take the paper to this explicitly when I need to be more effective for you never quite come out and talk about, and it completely slid off my back, but they're also doing a solid job of structuring your paper should be proud of it, in part because it affects your grade, divided as follows: total number of things that people were holding up the appropriate types that add to your paper. You also did a good way to get graded first this week. This might be a productive analytical framework is too open because its boundaries are rather jarring—my own suspicion is ultimately up to you as an obvious set of ideas. Have a good place to close-read. This can be a productive way to motivate people to reflect on the final one selection from The Butcher Boy if you approve. However, any of them. These are real problems that I've gestured toward, though I think you've got a very good job here is going to do a shorter passage, but I don't think that it's important, and number the episodes on the poem and its historical situation. Great! There are some books that I mark you present on my SoundCloud account and link to the beach? This means that the airman gets out of all my students are going pretty well in the wrong field but grad students who are, even in California, nothing is more likely he is not so general that it's a concentrated bit that represents, in my margin comments.