#music exists solely for me to make little animatics in my head

[druidgroves]

"this song is about this" "this song is about that" "this person wrote this song about this person" wrong all songs are about ocs ive made and ocs that have not yet come to pass

edit: this post spread a lot & i managed to find a zionist in the notes so i encourage everyone to donate to any of the campaigns on gazafunds

[alchemist-shizun]

I’ll walk beside you, love

Read on Ao3!

-Part of Hadestown AU

Happy birthday @jeevashun! Words can't describe how happy I am to have become your friend and I hope you know that I love talking to you and my day gets brighter everytime I see your messages and kind words. Thank you for being the best you could ever be and for letting me introduce you to this fandom. (also for listening to all my ideas jsdhigr) Love you a lot pal, can't wait to meet you ♥ ti voglio un sacco bene

Word Count: 1,294

Summary: Roman has come to Virgil's rescue, down in the Hades. Thanks to his voice and his music, he reminded the kings of the Underworld of their ancient love and has softened them up. Virgil suggests they should leave the Hades together, but Roman isn't sure he wants to go back to the dark and cold. Virgil, however, simply needs him to be beside him, anyway the wind blows.

Characters: Roman, Virgil, Patton and Deceit

Pairing(s): Prinxiety, (background) Moceit

Warning(s): None, this is pure fluff! There are references to Promises and Epic III

A/N: Hiya everybody, yes this is a Hadestown AU, I recently listened to the musical and I'm kinda very much in love with it. I also saw yuputka's Wait for me (Reprise) animatic (Please go watch it, it's very beautiful!) and that's where the inspiration came from when I assigned the characters to the Sides! I wanted to do Chant or Wait for me (Reprise) but I had little time and the songs were too long dhsjfk I'm sorry I couldn't put in Logan and Remus as Hermes and The Fates, they would've fit so well, but I'll probably add more fics to this AU! With that said, I hope you enjoy, dialogues are taken solely from Promises if you want to listen to it while reading~

✾

« Roman? »

He looked around himself, still in disbelief and in profound satisfaction at the sight of the kings of the Underworld dancing around, their hands locked together and the song of their love finally reminded.

They halted to a stop, in each other's arms, sharing a tender look: they were, at last, able to see true beauty again, the concept only Gods could conceive, the most obscure and desired meaning that mortals yearned to comprehend.

Roman still had his fingertips brushing the strings of his lyre, the melody of the song had just barely left his lips.

« Yes? » his voice sounded strangled, almost unable to get out the word.

Then Virgil came into his view and maybe, possibly, he had just caught a glimpse of the significance of the beauty that Patton and Deceit radiated.

Especially when he focused on Virgil's small and precious smile. « You finished it. »

« Yes! » he paused, taking in all of Virgil's happiness in one breath. « Now what do I do? »

That was the first veil of uncertainty that covered him. Would he really come back with him? Was there even a chance for them to live happily, once back up?

« You take me home with you! » Virgil was beaming, his wider smile dancing on his lips. He took Roman's hands in his own, bringing them closer as the excitement of hope rushed in his chest. « Let's go, let’s go right now! » he tugged at his arm, ready to leave for the opposite direction.

« Okay, let's go. » Roman agreed, the ghost of his own smile faltered a second right after, he had not even taken a step before he was still again. Virgil turned around with a concerned look: he saw the slightest flicker of fear in his eyes. « … How? » he whispered, a pained expression now on his face.

« We'll walk, » Virgil took a step towards him. « You know the way. » he confided in him in ways Roman couldn't even fathom. The thought alone made a welcoming fire warm his stomach, burning nothing more than his self-doubt. « We’ll just go back the way you came. »

« It's a long road. It's a long walk, back into the cold and dark. » Roman warned him, as he reached out to take Virgil's hand in both of his. He looked down at him, voice soft and genuine, he talked again after a beat. « Are you sure you wanna go? »

Virgil's heart ache. He had to make sure, in any way he could find, that Roman knew the deepness of his love, how it made the flowing gold look miserable compared to what Roman could give him with a simple symphony.

He intertwined their fingers and moved closer. « Take me home. »

Roman tightened the hold a single thought crossed his mind as he scrambled for the right words, something sparked directly in his heart. “I want to”.

A reminder of their promises flew to his memories and, before he could realize, he was recalling them all, one by one, aware that he couldn't have kept them. The reason of Virgil's fall into the darkness.

« I have no ring for your finger. I have no banquet table to lay. I have no bed of feathers. » Roman untangled their hands but didn't lower their arms. « Whatever promises I made … I can't promise you fair sky above, can't promise you kind road below. » he moved closer, almost as close as a reckless child would get to a sizzling hearth.

« But I'll walk beside you, love. Any way the wind blows. » Roman placed a kiss on his knuckles without losing eye-contact.

Virgil let go of his hold, only to bring his hands on Roman's cheeks, fingertips brushing his skin slowly. « I don't need gold, don't need silver. Just bread when I’m hungry, fire when I’m cold. » he went through everything he had told him, hoping to reassure him until his deepest doubt was erased. He let himself smile yet again. « Don't need a ring for my finger … just need a steady hand to hold. » Roman looked at him adoringly, then placed his hand on Virgil's wrist and allowed himself to lean on his touch. « Don’t promise me fair sky above, don't promise me kind road below. Just walk beside me, love. » he brought their foreheads together. « Anyway the wind blows. »

Roman wanted to believe him, with every cell of his body, with every fiber of his being, but there was always this force, this malevolent deity pulling apart his brain, telling him he wasn't cut out to manage such a great quest. He wasn't worth enough.

« What about him? » he pulled away slightly, Virgil knew exactly who he was talking about.

« He'll let us go! Look at him. » so Roman did. And he saw it, he could see the long lost loving laugh on Patton's lips and the admiration Deceit felt for his husband, absolutely all smitten over him as if he had seen him for the first time in forever. He wasn't the fearsome God of the Underworld, or a King of shadows, just a man in love with another one, with his arms outstretched towards him.

« He can't say no. »

Roman knew he was right, but he couldn't still feel satisfied enough, there was some kind of unsettling agitation at the pit of his stomach. His head moved toward the workers of the Underworld.

« What about them? »

« We’ll show the way » Virgil moved his hands, placing them on Roman's forearms, getting his attention once again. « If we can do it, so can they. »

Before they knew it, they were in each other's arms once again, their feet dancing to the melody of their heartbeats, moving around a place that had now become the holder of their musings of love.

« I don't know where this road will end. But I'll walk it with you, hand in hand. » their bodies became a single twirling shape that sparked delight all around. « I can't promise you fair sky above. Can't promise you kind road below … » for a moment, they feared the goddess of love would have been envious of their devotion. Deep inside, however, they knew she, too, would've melted the moment Roman sang of her enchanting deeds, how thankful they were she existed, otherwise they wouldn't have known of each other in such an affectionate way.

« But I'll walk beside you, love. » Virgil threw his arms around Roman's neck, their noses barely brushing. « Any way the wind blows. »

« Do you let me walk with you? » Roman asked, as the thrill of successfully leaving with Virgil pervaded him.

Virgil gifted him a soft look, he cupped his cheeks and pecked his lips slowly.

« I do. »

Roman nodded almost imperceptibly, not pulling away from his hold. « I do. »

« I do. » they repeated, looking fondly in each other's eyes.

«  And keep on walking, come what will? » Virgil ensured, almost demanding. Neither of them wanted to turn their backs on their mission now.

They shared another chaste kiss, before Roman moved away some inches.

« I will. » he confirmed, an authentic promise he intended to keep until the end of his days.

« I will. » Virgil nodded, their noses brushing again, eyes now closed to savor the moment wholly.

« We will. »

And they believed that.

But, alas, it was a sad song.

[attemptingthoughtfulness]

Narrative Reconstructions of History or The Butler isn’t as bad as I thought

For my English finals we had to watch two movies, one of them was the 2013 movie The Butler that retold the story of Cecil Gaines, an African-American who became a butler at the White House in the 1930s after escaping enslavement in the South. It greatly dramatizes the Civil Rights Movement through the lense of a figure whose job description entails to be non-political (which is an entirely different can of worms). The movie had gotten a lot of flag due to its Oscar-bait properties and stretched the phrase “inspired by real events” quite a bit, inventing an entire b-plot to heighten the tension and create conflict.

When I first watched the movie, I met it with the scepticism we all reserve for most things we’re forced to consume and don’t really have any personal stakes in. It was an Oscar-bait, it wasn’t historically accurate and it wasn’t very good – narratively and visually. It was okay, from what I remember more than a year later, but it did inspire a rather lengthy written rant the lights of which I would love to share if the hard drive it is on wasn’t literally 600 kilometres away from where I’m stuck in social distancing.

From what I mostly remember, I criticized it a lot for being historically inaccurate and there were definitely some weird choices from cinematographers but here we get from my rather apologetic insights to my passive aggressive rant: So. I just. Read… I mean, basically a rant on AO3 that was a version of all those very good and insightful video essays that centre around media criticism on pop culture. Basically, it was “Hamilton is bad and here’s why” and I mean, of course I just had to read it, right? I am aware that I am a bit more biased than the usual Joe, but yeah, let’s get into it.

For what the description promised, an essay on deconstructing Hamilton the Broadway Musical and something about the toxic fandom, it started out very rough before I realized what was going on. This wasn’t the work of a media critic at all (okay, if you publish your essays on AO3 and not on your personal tumblr-blog, the aspects of academically sound criticism seem laughable), it was a historian’s perspective.

It is actually better than I initially gave it credit for, not much but definitely a little. I can’t really comment on the aspects of the toxic fandom because I’m quite new to this and never really deeply engage with The Fandom™ as a collective entity but fandoms, by their nature, tend to be very intense and often times inspire a lot of gate keeping and, in that regard, toxicity, so I am sure the writer had some reason for being annoyed by it.

What I had a problem with was the second kind of argument: They were doing what I had done with The Butler, but better. With a more clickbaity title, but still. They wrote a lengthy, historical analysis citing sources and everything; it wasn’t “deconstruction” in the way it’s generally used in academia, or rather philosophy, referring to semiotic analysis rather than literally taking something apart. It was historical analysis, which is, for all intents and purposes, fine.

So, here’s my problem with that: it felt like a rant because it was a rant. It wasn’t an essay because the way it constructed its argument towards the conclusion kind of didn’t work and I should have expected that, but I didn’t, so, let’s get started.

The entirety of the document is “here’s where Hamilton is historically inaccurate” and “here’s why your waifus are shit”, which is. Big ouf. Until we reach the conclusion, which did have rather meaningful insights that we’ll be getting to later. The reason reading it prompted me to write this rant was that I, since The Butler, had finally understood what narrative and creative freedom means. There are actually a lot of parallels between The Butler and Hamilton (one’s probably got more artistically skilled people and a bigger box office but let’s not get there): They’re fictionalized history for consumption – and to a wider extend education.

What Hamilton ultimately did was to take a lot of creative freedom to make a good mixtape and stage show and one could argue, that it is a perfectly sound decision to dramatize and focus on certain aspects of the Revolutionary War than all of them. And I would agree with that argument. I don’t think judging media for its accuracy towards its source material is a very productive way to look at; no matter if you don’t – or particularly if you do – care a lot for its origins. I won’t go too “Death of the Author” on you, because that’s not really the conversation we’re having here and because context does matter and there are more layers to that argument.

You could also make the same argument for the “your waifu is trash”-part, that however we chose to fictionalize a stage musical that already is a narrative construction of history in our heads (in the business we call that “headcanon”) doesn’t really matter. At this point it’s a story of a story of a person who’s been dead for centuries that we only have stories about – it’s pretty much the closest to fantasy we have for reality.

But here’s where that rather long historical analysis in search of inaccuracies and falsehoods has a point that it communicates rather poorly but is a very valid point: History doesn’t exist in a vacuum and how and who we chose to idealize it and its actors in our heads does have effects on how we view history. The reason media that is based on history is often times criticised is because it’s critical (pun intended) to cautiously keep our eyes on the way it sheds light on its actors, on who we chose to dramatize, who we antagonize, whose story we tell. Stories, by their nature, are not reality, they can’t be. They’re narratives that are cherry picked and cherry picked for a reason – and they have a huge responsibility in the impact they have.

While “The Butler” performed unexpectedly poorly at the box office and is probably only watched by bored English students in one of Germany’s 16 states, Hamilton dwarfs that by comparison probably going down in history (pun intended) as one of the biggest cultural artefacts of the early 21rst century, while telling the heroic story of way more #problematic people.

But here’s a thing I learned from all the Hamilton animatics on YouTube: Hamilton the American Musical has ceased to be solely a musical on history; there’s a reason the AO3 fandom-tag for Hamilton is “Hamilton (Miranda)” and not “18th century revolutionary war” or “history” or “actual Alexander Hamilton”.

Here’s a question: Do you even know how Hamilton looked like? How Lafayette or Mulligan looked like? If you aren’t an American citizen and carry his face around in your purse all the time, you probably don’t. I’m sure I didn’t until I searched for songs of the musical “Hamilton” on Google and have his portrait pop up. I would argue that most people who know and love and listen to Hamilton don’t imagine the actual, history-canon, Alexander Hamilton when they imagine the story of the musical, the imagine Lin Manuel Miranda in the costume and role of Alexander Hamilton.

I remember the outrage when Hamilton got released about the historical inaccuracy for casting people of color as the founding fathers and Miranda actually had to justify it by saying he casted whoever was best for the job, which is a perfectly fine statement, and that race is a social construct and it really doesn’t matter, but I bet he also thought at some point that if he only casted historically accurate it would have been the whitest musical ever – even whiter than musicals historically already were. The 1770s were pretty white in terms of players in major historical events and who was allowed to fight in war and participate in politics. Like, super white. Just imagine how fucking white a musical on war and politics would have been.

I’m not saying it doesn’t matter. It does. I’m not saying Hamilton the American Musical can be viewed completely shut off from its historical roots, and in fact shouldn’t be - it’s important to remember that probably every single one of them was super problematic by today’s standards. I’m not saying the historical lense is a wrong method of criticism, it isn’t. But I’m also saying that this are not reasons to disregard it as a meaningful piece of art and ironically Hamilton, the musical not the person, makes the exact same argument in its inherent flawedness: History matters and breathes in our present and telling those stories is important.