#tbh i liked him since the tudors

[cosmic-walkers]

the funny thing to me is that people know that she is going to be overly sympathetic toward him - but they still decide to read the book and watch the show. i don't get that. if you read book one, and watched s1 of wolf hall, and you didn't like his portrayal that was the time to stop. not keep on going LOL.

(Mantel’s depiction of Cromwell is absolutely, notoriously, overly sympathetic. But come on, just take the show for what it is and live a little😭)

[wisteriagoesvroom]

LOL I can imagine for vampire au Lando starting to third wheel Carcar and so even though turning Franco is a complete accident he can’t feel too guilty bc he uses it as an excuse to hang around someone else, and somehow he learns more about vampirism lore through a human grad student than he’s learned in his whole life (he’s lived a long time, lots of info to absorb). Then also, if you don’t mind my ask, what do they all do for jobs/how do they get money and would Franco keep studying ?

HELP this is so cute. ok. norpinto-frando vampire au for those who aren't up to speed...

Lando starting to third wheel Carcar and so even though turning Franco is a complete accident, [Lando] can’t feel too guilty bc he uses it as an excuse to hang around someone else -> screaming cus, absolutely. random associated headcanons for this... i'll rewind a bit:

carlos is the oldest vampire, like, moorish/medieval era. he met lando while they were both at a masquerade ball in the early 1600s and smelled each other right away (carlos like wood and ink, lando like gas lamps and wet stone).

lando is an tudor era vampire. like he actually knew shakespeare and said he was one of the best viral marketers of the era

oscar was turned in the early days of the australian penal colony, he's like first or second generation white australian but he refuses to be called british. he moved in to the house because the rent was cheap and he doesn't feel the need to live extravagantly -- even though he, too, is $$ loaded $$

oscar didn't move in until about two decades ago - very short by vampire standards, to them it feels like yesterday - but carlos and oscar are basically They Were Roommates atp even though they squabble con-stant-ly

their neighbours think they are a new age-y polyam group but because the people who live opposite them are students, nobody ever hangs around longer than a year to remember them or dig deeper

so franco definitely brings a fun funky fresh dynamic

he learns more about vampirism lore through a human grad student than he’s learned in his whole life (he’s lived a long time, lots of info to absorb) -> things that baby vamp!franco teaches lando include

tiktok trends, like how to make ur teeth comically large in photos. lando finds this hilarious

how to use venmo

creating a roster on google docs for who needs to do what house chores

jailbreaking an apple watch so it doesn't read their pulses (they don't have any), but it will remind them of the moon phases and when they might be extra hungry to feed

at one point franco actually puts his academic skills to use and helps lando hunt down some of his family tree, because since lando was turned and it's been so long, he doesn't remember much about them : ( so one of franco's little gifts to lando is helping him trace his heritage

what do they all do for jobs/how do they get money and would Franco keep studying ? -> i love how practical-minded you are. um well let's say this fictional supernatural creatures' market mostly runs on barter trades and goodwill agreements. the entire house sometimes just gets lazy tbh so lando or carlos will just dig into one of the old chests of random shit and pull out an antique and go: "do we think this is worth anything?" then they take it to an antiques dealer who is also a mage (alex albon) and there is a 1 in 25 chance that the antique is actually is worth something, so that bankrolls them for another half a year or whatever.

carlos makes a lot of noise about being "an art dealer" just because he sold a goya painting to a museum once.

oscar is a man of industry, of the "newer" world (australia) etc etc so he spent the 80s and 90s learning C++ and Java and Python so he legit just codes for a living. or when he feels like it. oscar has helped launch at least a dozen startups under various pseudonyms and one of them is even a blue chip company by now. he doesn't do it for money tho. he just does it cus he likes a challenge, and otherwise fights with carlos too much. when he isn't coding he likes to tinker and fix things just for fun. like, he legit knows how to fix a boiler and stuff. his familiar is definitely a grumpy orange neighbourhood cat.

franco keeps studying!! he is such a nerd that he's like "i can totally learn everything about anything now, and i could in theory do like 20 masters degrees, and nobody can stop me"!! then lando is like, "well you might get bored of it after a while or burn out". but franco insists he will not. in fact with his enhanced neurological abilities he goes on an academic bender trying to fast forward through an entire harvard's undergrad degree's worth of material in a week, and he ends up faceplanting on his desk. and then poor lando has to go and find a fresh chicken or something to kill and revive franco 'cus franco wore himself out too fast being a bb vampire with accelerated mind powers.

franco promises never to do that again (but of course he will continue to do it once in a while, and everyone still looks after him in his lil study hangovers because he is so very nice. also he taught them how to use venmo.)

and. one time. franco is like. "i can't find this rare sonnet do you know what library i could maybe locate it in" and lando is like "wait i know that one" and pulls out an honest to god original copy that he at some point got laminated in the early 80s. and franco is like. "um i think this should be in a museum??" and lando is like "yeah but i gave them a copy of this, cus i spilled ink on the corner of this in 1603 after a really good night out" and franco is like "???? ok ????"

then lando swans off to moodily stare at the moon or some shit.

[richmond-rex]

I apologize for the heavy topic, but I find it kinda perplexing considering Henry vii and Elizabeth of York had for all accounts a loving relationship throughout their marriage, Philippa Gregory chose to have Henry basically rape Elizabeth in one of the early chapters. I haven’t read the white princess in a while, but I think he did it to either “test her fertility” or it was related to the fact that she was sleeping with her uncle in this continuity. I don’t know how I’m supposed to get behind their relationship after that point in the book since any nice moment they have, I’m thinking, “yeah, it’s nice that you’re both admiring your newborn son, but you raped her.” Honestly, it feels kinda gross to me. I thought I heard that Gregory also chose the story where Edward IV tried to assault Elizabeth Woodville and then she put the knife to her throat in retaliation as part of how they met. I haven’t read the White Queen, so if that’s not true, please ignore that part. If it is, it almost seems like Gregory has a weird thing about adding sexual assault to what originally seemed like decent relationships historically.

/cw: rape mention/

Hello! Sorry for taking some time to reply, but yeah Philippa Gregory's concept of romance is very hard to get behind — of all the versions of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville's first meeting, Gregory choosing the one that involves attempted rape and that historically was meant to portray the king of England in a bad light really is something that raises the eyebrows. Specifically though I'd argue Gregory's intention was never to make Henry VII likeable or to portray him as a true romantic interest; her comments on him perverting England, corrupting and usurping the country are very clear (besides his frank sadism at tormenting Elizabeth). If I remember correctly, from Owen Tudor to Henry VIII, she wrote all the Tudor men as rapists.

I'd argue she's got a very grimdark view of women's lives in the past and she makes her heroines' lives excessively brutal as a way to make more readers sympathise and root for them (though by the insufferable and entitled way she writes them, I don't know if she is successful tbh). But in view of her portrayal of the Tudors as foreigners who didn't know nor respect the traditions of England, that depiction is certainly concerning as well.

[nostalgia-tblr]

right, so i read thorns, lust and glory recently and it's very into the importance of the french diplomatic connection/support as playing a role in the downfall of anne boleyn and something it brought up but didn't then zoom in on like i thought it would once i realised this thing, is that after the french have sent george boleyn home (the boleyn faction was def in favour when we got sent, right?) and with the "nah we're not interested in elizabeth as a bride for our princes, but we'd take mary instead if you're up for that" what henry viii has just learned/finally accepted is that even if he has has a boy with AB (which to me seems likely, tbh - i think the tudor fertility issues are a wee bit overstated generally) that boy will not be univerally accepted as unambiguously legitimate.

consider: henry and anne have a boy, henry dies, boy succeeds... and then whoever married mary suddenly decides to press his own claim to the english throne (by right of his wife, obvs) pretty much like the english did to the french with the hundred years war. (ie a claim to the french throne dismissed by the french but that didn't stop the english repeatedly invading with it as an excuse.)

and he can't just remarry anne, since that would be an admission that the first marriage didn't count and the entire anglican church thing wasn't legit either. the aragon marriage makes the boleyn one bigamous, but will everyone overseas accept that dissolving the boleyn marriage (entirely outwith the catholic church, of course) would make the next marriage legally sound? or maybe more to the point, would any ambiguity there be used as an excuse to reject that one and all its offspring too? so anne has to die, at that point, right? there's no other way to resolve this, plus I do think henry had convinced himself this marriage was Cursed By God anyway, the only way for henry to be defintely beyond all argument free to marry again is for him to be a widower, by whatever means that requires D:

i mean i'm not An 'Istorian but i feel like i should have seen this suggestion made at least a few times by now, even if just to rule it out. right? or no?

[puffpastrycrimewatch]

i would love to know more about tudor tbh, especially how his funky animals guide him 👀 i cant wait to draw cizel and tudor again 😁😁

I'll start with the funky little guys!

(some music because this is a lot)

Okay lol I don't think I ever gave the funky animals names, so the cats name is Yara (yar-ah) and the dog's name is Dobi (doe-bee)

(One thing to note is that Yara and Dobi are smarter than the average pet so they usually can understand exactly what someone is saying unless they don't know the language but they'll eventually learn)

So for Yara and Dobi they essentially do exactly what real life hearing/seeing service animals do, you can use these as an example, I'd recommend watching videos about guide dogs it's very informative plus it's fun to learn something new!

*Tudor usually snaps is fingers to get the animals attention and communicates with hand signs when giving Yara and Dobi commands

Yara acts as Tudors eyes and ears, clawing or nudging Tudor to let him know if someone is approaching and can let Tudor know if they are dangerous or friendly

(side note Dobi no longer has three legs, instead Yara will now have three legs for now on, I guess she's a caterpillar )

As for Dobi he acts as Tudors eyes and ears as well, specifically he guides Tudor, Tudor puts a leather harness on him when he needs help, an example of Dobi guiding Tudor would be letting him know if there is chair to sit in or just guide Tudor safely

Specifically this leather harness (courtesy of Amelia)

And here's how Tudor would hold it, I took a screenshotit from this video! You should give it a watch it should help with the harness thing!

Hehe I just had to draw Dobi in it

And here's little bit about their personalities!

Dobi is a classic goofy dog, he acts like a husky except when he barks it's more like a weird monster sound, Dobi gets distracted sometimes but Yara usually gets his attention back on track

(he has a weird mouth)

Yara has big ol' eyes, you can almost never tell what she's feeling, she's untrusting of strangers but there are rare cases where she can tell someone is not a threat on the spot, she's protective of tudor and loves cuddles, she almost never leaves Tudors side

And now here's a speedrun of Tudors backstory!

So Tudor is from the plane Gahenna(basically hell), life is tough there, the strong only survive, the people that live there are known as demons

Despite his disabilities he built his very own tavern with his friends! Life was good, the other demons seemed happy, until one day out of the blue his hometown was attacked and burnt to the ground leaving him feeling a bit hopeless, his friends had disappeared as well nowhere to be found, his tavern was damaged but nothing a few repairs could fix, oh and I forgot to mention since Gehenna is a dangerous place Tudor and his friends designed it in a way where it can move, it's a tavern on wheels pulled by a chimera, the tavern (also has an emergency teleport, which teleports the tavern to a random area, it's not a guarantee safety measure hence why it's only for emergencys, it takes a lot of magical power for it teleport once) unfortunately the chimera died during the pillage so it took Tudor about 4 weeks to find another one but after that debocle, Tudor was inspired by the Imps who had escaped Gehenna a century ago and was now determined to escape Gehenna as well.

(*the towns demons couldn't get to the tavern due to them being at a festival that was being held out of town)

So Tudor ends up wandering by himself, he's not completely helpless by himself though, he can take care of himself pretty well using a broom stick and ASL (ASL is pretty common in Gahenna it's usually used for safety reasons) but anyways he travels for about 8 years, over those years he first finds Yara (the cat) in her demonic form injured and fighting for her life, Tudor decides to help not knowing who he was helping, soon when they are both safe Tudor tends to Yaras wounds and she calms down and returns to her relaxed form and he lets her rest in his tavern however Yara escaped the next day but flash forward Tudors in trouble and Yara comes in and saves him, turns out shes been following his tavern this whole time and she lets herself in and makes herself at home, next is Dobi! Ummm...Dobi found Tudor this time, he was a little puppy when dobi found Tudor he was all alone in the open barking at Tudors chimera playfully Tudor decided to take in Dobi seeing as Tudor needed all the help he could get to escape (Tudor may not be able to see but anything small is cute to him lol) , Yara acted as a replacement mom for Dobi, showing him discipline and teaching him how to hunt and so on. Tudor had to make deals with other demons, sometimes to his disadvantage.

One day something strange happened in Gahenna, a gate to the mortal plane had opened, he could feel it for some reason but he didn't know where it was, so he took a chance and pulled emergency teleport lever and got lucky enough to be teleported to the mortal realm, Tudor was shocked he didn't know what to do

I hope that's enough info! (⁠・⁠∀⁠・⁠)👍

If not feel free ask me for some more info! ( ⁠´⁠◡⁠‿⁠ゝ⁠◡⁠`⁠)/

My phone is at 3% so excuse the typos I'm rushing now ヘ⁠（⁠。⁠□⁠°⁠）⁠ヘ

[fideidefenswhore]

What if Anne Boleyn had lived to see Mary come to the throne? Do you see Mary doing everything she can to get rid of her? Would Anne suffer from the same fate as Thomas Cramner?

Mm, that's a popular AU to be sure, but I think the political realities would have been rather more complex in such a counterfactual.

First, I'd have to ask the circumstances of them both surviving and Mary coming to the throne-- has Henry had his marriage with Anne annulled, with her being exiled from court? Or has Anne been Queen throughout the remainder of his reign? Has she had a son? Has there been any alteration or reversal to the Act of Succession (1534)? Has there been any alteration or reversal to the Act that declared Anne regent for her children, should Henry die? Have all her child/ren died, or has Elizabeth merely been married abroad (ie, is she currently living at the French court, wed to whichever prince or duke)? Does Mary have a husband, and if so, who is he, and what wealth and power and claims (to the English throne, or others, or merely title) does he have?

Assuming the second, and assuming Mary, as a sole femme, has a successful coup regardless (so, perhaps Anne attempts to assume regency with Elizabeth but is overthrown), again, the political realities are going to be complex. Edward VI's death happening in such secrecy and him altering the succession to make Jane Grey his heir without the approval of Parliament were circumstances that were to her advantage; all bolstered the rhetoric and justification of her coup, accession, and reign (based on the Act of Succession of 1543, even though she reversed her illegitimacy therein). The Marian myth was that John Dudley, out of pure ambition and greed, usurped the royal prerogative (of both HVIII and Edward VI) and forged an altered succession to place his daughter-in-law on the throne (and, as you mentioned, Cranmer as well).

So, in these altered circumstances, Mary's task would be near impossible. How could her propagandists argue that Anne had done the same, when all she had done was adhere to Acts of Parliament which were very well-known by the people? What would the justification be for her arrest in this scenario, much less execution? Historically, after his arrest, Mary petitioned the Pope at the time to have Cranmer excommunicated (likely, she didn't want to have any parallels with her father drawn in the case of the execution of Bishop/Cardinal Fisher) before his execution. In this, she succeeded, and being thus excommunicated, Cranmer was no longer Archbishop of Canterbury upon his day of execution. I would imagine that she would attempt the same in this counterfactual with AB and Cranmer both, and whether she was successful in securing their excommunications might then inform her actions.

Edit: Tbh, what I conceptualize for this scenario would be more like a succession/civil war for the throne with two female claimants (so, Mary and Elizabeth/Anne’s regency), similar in nature to that of Princess Juana vs Princess Isabella in the 1470s (it would be … very difficult for Mary to argue Elizabeth wasn’t Henry’s child had these Acts of Parliament remained and Anne herself remained Queen, though, as Isabella did for Juana re: Henry IV of Castile, since she didn’t really manage to do that even in the aftermath of Anne’s adultery accusations, and she certainly tried) and I think it’d be a toss-up as to who would emerge the victor. Reason being, as I was just reminded of answering another ask, Anne was the greatest landowner among all the Tudor consorts. Mary I was also a great landowner by the time Edward VI died, because the council was at pains to ‘buy her goodwill’… this backfired, though, because it strengthened her base of power (Jeri L. McIntosh has done some fantastic work in this subject, btw), and played a huge part in why her coup succeeded. Simply put, landowning was power, was wealth. That’s probably what it would come down to, had she been granted as many lands during the beginning of the regency council for Elizabeth or whatever son AB might have had.

Another thing that would tip the scales would be if Mary received foreign aid via Imperial forces, but given Charles V never supplied any in 1553…

And again, excommunication, although Elizabeth or whatever son probably wasn’t going to be excommunicated as a minor (just like Edward VI wasn’t), maybe Anne might have been? This could also be a factor in whether or not Mary received foreign aid from any Catholic powers. Although, yk, HVIII and Elizabeth I both were excommunicated and yet they were never ousted from their thrones.

Anyway! Something to think about . Thanks for the intriguing question ☺️

[gablehood]

hi, i'm assuming you know more about this than me. okay so there's been some recent "scholarship" i can't tell how reliable that's revising anne boleyn from "just another one of henry's mistresses" to an extremely agile and able political actor possibly only cast out of favor due to a traumatic brain injury making henry increasingly volatile. she had involvement in a major and beloved reform at the time? and perhaps intentionally lead henry to schism due to being a long-term and committed religious radical?

anyway i was wondering if you had any thoughts

Hello!

Tbh despite talking about almost nothing but the Tudor period I'm very much not an expert. I'm not a historian myself and any studying I've done is purely as a hobby and out of interest and also a passion for period drama and historical fiction that I've had since adolescence. So I'm definitely not a font of confirmed knowledge or factual sources, unfortunately!

Buuuut if we're purely going off of my opinion, based on what I've read of other historians and the cases they've put forward, I'd definitely characterize Anne Boleyn as being a very involved political figure in the English Reformation. There were a huge number of important figures at this time working towards protestant reform in England, but I'd say Anne Boleyn's influence was pivotal, with regards to her immediate and intimate proximity to the King allowing her to open him up to ideas as well as to other texts and voices in the movement that he likely would have been less willing to consider. Though, this didn't quite make her a champion of a new, enlightened age for many of her contemporaries, since reform at that time in the early 16th century was extremely unpopular in many parts of the country.

Outside of religious reform, I'd say that rising to the height of queen certainly would suggest Anne possessed a considerable skill at politics-- especially when you consider that politics, at this time, often revolved around the King's will and how best to shape it to your own. Anne was among that small circle of people in the kingdom who had the King's ear, and considering the King had at least a handful of mistresses prior to her, it's telling that she was able to inveigle herself into the role of Queen-- something even Elizabeth Blount, the mother to the King's only living (if illegitimate) son, had not even attempted, nor in fairness to her, likely thought possible. That would suggest to me Anne's influence lay in something more than her role as a mistress (if one can even call her that, since it seems they never actually consummated their relationship until 1532, very shortly before they married) or her possible ability to bear a son.

As to her downfall, the theory of Henry VIII having suffered some severe brain injury during his jousting injury in 1536 seems very plausible, although even with that aside, the political tide was definitely turning against Anne by this stage, and the litany of charges against her and her "fellow traitors" were almost certainly fabricated in order to discredit her completely beyond any hope of survival, as well as tarnish her name after death.

So, that was all a bit rambly and not particularly well thought out, so I apologise! But I guess the abridged answer would be that, yes, I certainly do personally think that Anne Boleyn was an active political figure of her time, and that, while the English Reformation may well have still happened without her influence, she was a massive catalyst for it, and her personal actions had a huge impact on the trajectory of the future of Europe and the future of the church.

And the extra abridged answer, I suppose, would be... Stan Anne Boleyn, I guess?

[in-my-feels-probably]

hi! congrats on hitting 1k! <3 could i request Fred Weasley (romantically) please? I chose him because of his personality mainly, just that i really like his personality and find it really attractive

my name is Elodie (she/her), i didnt know if i had to include it or not but i thought so since i like that its quite a unique and rare name

i've got quite long, wavy, blonde hair (down to about the top of my waist) and green eyes and i would say im somewhat tanned

i absolutely love anything history related, i can name every english monarch, almost every single thing that happens in the tudor dynasty and i know so many greek myths and could talk about the ancient greek every day life, mythology or theatre for days tbh. i love going to museums or art galleries and could spend hours in them, i usually drag my friends around them with me as well

i get high grades, usually top or second to top of the class, i wont lie i do usually need academic validation

i love classics, romance and fantasy books sm, some of my favourites are heartless, six crimson cranes, circe and macbeth

pink is def my favourite colour by far

i love slow burns that dont drag on too long and allow time in the story to see the couple happy n stuff and soulmate tropes, they always feel so sweet, i love movies like that - my favs are howls moving castle, little women (2019) and cinderella (2015)

sorry if this was too much, i didnt really know how much you'd want so i just included all that, tysm anyways! <3

hi!

thank you for participating :)

i wouldn’t consider fred a very academically inclined person. it’s not that he’s bad at it, he just think there’s better use of his time. muggle studies is really the only version of history he’d get, and he probably wouldn’t pay much attention to it. so while he probably wouldn’t be that fascinated by history, i do think he’d hyperfixate on things a lot. so he’d think it was really cute when you’d ramble about something you found interesting, and he’d listen to you with a smile on his face even if he wasn’t personally interested in whatever it is you were talking about. he’d also really appreciate that you listen to him ramble on about whatever he’s interested in, so he’d always want to return the favor. i actually do think he’d find mythology interesting. and he’d use any excuse to go to muggle london with you and let you drag him around to the museums and galleries. he’d also sit with you while you studied, despite being bored out of his mind. but he knows how important to you it is, and he wants you to he happy. and plus, it wouldn’t hurt him to get a little studying in too.

i don’t think he’s a reader either, but i do think he’d actually really enjoy the classics and epics. something tells me he’s a sappy romantic, and i do think he also would love the adventures. and he really likes you, so he would really love laying with you while you read to him. honestly, i don’t think he’d really mind what you did together, as long as you were with him.

despite him not really paying attention to academic things, i do think he really pays attention to things that matter to him. he’d notice the little things about you, and all the things like and the things you don’t like. it’s really sweet, he’d show it in little things. when he started developing products with george for the shop, he’d keep you in mind.

one day over the summer, he’d invite you to the burrow. at night, he and george would set off a case of fireworks they developed. the last one would explode into giant pink hearts that twinkled.

you’d smile, watching them sparkle in the sky. “pink. i like pink.”

“i know that, darling,” he’d smile, throwing an arm around your shoulder. “i picked it for you.”

“you did?”

he’d smile, pressing a kiss to the top of your head. “i did. contrary to popular belief, i do notice things. i knew you’d like it.”

“i do,” you’d say, wrapping your arms around his waist.

“you gonna help me with the next batch of products? i need your smart little brain, george isn’t cutting it.”

you’d chuckle, nodding. “of course i will, love. only if you don’t use any of them on me, though.”

he’d smirk, shaking his head. “no promises, darling. no promises.”

—

thanks again for participating! hope you liked this :)

[alwaysahiccupandastrid]

Me watching Torrance Coombs play Bash, an actual decent and nice bloke in Reign: 😶😐😒🙄🥱

Me watching Torrance Coombs play Thomas Culpeper, a creepy, vile, awful excuse of a human being for 5 episodes in The Tudors: 😍🥰🥺👀🥵

[distort-opia]

Hiiii, is it annoying to ask you for some reading recommendations from your country?? 😅 I study literature so I will inhale pretty much anything you give me: poems, scripture, myths, essays on ANY topic, neat articles and studies, love letters, philosophy, oral tradition, books of course... Whatever you like :)

Hey! No, not at all, I appreciate the interest.

Romania does have some great writers that are worth reading. For poetry, if you're interested in a thorough overview, "Romanian Poetry from its Origins to the Present: A Bilingual Anthology" by Daniel Ioniță, Daniel Reynaud, & Adriana Paul would be a good start. I personally favor the modernists, and especially the symbolists; Tudor Arghezi, George Bacovia, Ion Minulescu, Nichita Stănescu, Lucian Blaga... Ion Barbu too, on occasion. And even though he's considered an icon of romanticism, Mihai Eminescu (THE Romanian poet) also has some poems I really like -- Memento Mori especially, which you should be able to find in the anthology. By Bacovia, I really like the poem Ideas, hope it's in there. I couldn't find any translation online, but this is my favorite part (with the caveat it's me translating):

This'll give you an idea of what Bacovia is like, at least. God, so much of his poetry relies on how it sounds though, and translation is really difficult.

When it comes to prose, the following books aren't a comprehensive taste of Romanian literature; however, I tried to mix classics with books I more personally liked:

The Hatchet, by Mihail Sadoveanu

The Spider Web, by Cella Serghi

The Town with Acacia Trees, by Mihail Sebastian

Desert Forever, by Octavian Paler

Forest of the Hanged, by Liviu Rebreanu

Ciuleandra, by Liviu Rebreanu

The Lucky Mill, by Ioan Slavici

The Procustean Bed, by Camil Petrescu

The Most Beloved of Earthlings, by Marin Preda

La Medeleni, by Ionel Teodoreanu

Lorelei, by Ionel Teodoreanu

Invitation to Waltz, by Mihail Drumeș

Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent, by Mircea Eliade

Nineteen Roses, by Mircea Eliade

Nostalgia, by Mircea Cărtărescu

Travesti, by Mircea Cărtărescu

Tbh, if you can find anything translated by these authors, it might be interesting to read.

We also also have some cool philosophers. You might've heard of existentialist Emil Cioran, from which I recommend "A Short History of Decay", but he has other books translated worth reading. Then there's Lucian Blaga who's also delved into philosophy, and Mircea Eliade, who's actually world-renowned for his "History of Religious Ideas". I also recommend "The Sacred and the Profane" by him.

For more cultural analysis, might be fun to read "History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness" by Lucian Boia. And for a book on history, "A Brief Illustrated History of Romanians" by Neagu Djuvara might be interesting, since it's a bit lighter.

This got longer than I expected! If you do get through these, I hope you have fun. I admire your zest for reading and for widening your horizon, it's great that you want to sample works from all kinds of cultures as part of your degree.

[simonfarnabyslegs]

do they eat pussy? bbc ghosts edition

i've never made one of these posts about a non-star trek series, but as ghosts also has an ensemble cast thing going on, i thought it would be fun.

robin

yes, he does. i'd rather not think about it though.

humphrey

tbh he most likely hasn't since sophie could barely stand to be in the same room as him, but i feel like he would, given the opportunity. also i feel like this is the opportune time for me to throw out the fun fact that men in the tudor era believed it was necessary to make sure their wives came. so like. at the very least, he knows what a clitoris is.

mary

she be a puritan most likely, so i'd guess not. but as she also be a loose woman..... 'haps she does....

kitty

my daughter katherine does not even know what this means, and none of you are allowed to tell her.

thomas

he probably never even heard of such a thing until after he died. he's never done it, but he probably would, enthusiastically. but also like. realistically speaking, like most things with him, he'd probably be kind of terrible at it.

fanny

the activities a lady engaged in in her youth in the privacy of her own bedroom are her business and no one else's! (tbh she's pretty repressed so probably not. maybe one day though.)

the captain

again. probably not. this man can't even say the word "pussy" without looking uncomfortable.

pat

this is my dad. i don't want to think about this. but he probably has at some point. if not, mrs. carol, i am so sorry, ma'am.

julian

with the way he talks, he better. if he doesn't, that would be pretty funny too though. like. i can just see all the dj khaled-esque memes which would follow if it was ever revealed that he doesn't.

the plague ghosts

every day, babey, sometimes several times a day. (just please don't make me have to see or think about it, ever.)

[zalrb]

Ooo looking forward to your thoughts on HOTD! I was pleasantly surprised, but my expectations were very low, so that might not be saying much lol. I hope that the voiceover isn’t going to be something they do every episode, but I forgave it this once

It doesn't seem like it will be. Tbh, I felt the same way about the premiere that I felt about the first episode of GoT when it premiered, I wasn't particularly impressed then either, it wasn't until episode 4 that I started to really get invested, I'm not sure if that's going to happen here, it might, who knows but I think at best it's just something for me to watch on Sunday.

I don't have a character I care about, I didn't find the intrigue particularly intriguing but again, I didn't feel that way about GoT either. And then certain things just had me like am I supposed to feel something about this choice being made because, like, of course Viserys is going to choose his heir over his wife, maybe I would find it to be more of an emotional gut punch if I saw him dote on her before this but that isn't really what happened, they had a talk when she was in the bath, so, like, I mean ... yeah. The irony of the son dying after he chose to kill his wife was also kind of just skipped over so I was like well OK that happened. The Tudors does the frenzy for an heir better imo, like I get him doing a tournament is premature and they're telling him to wait, but it's all pretty matter of fact, Henry is ecstatic in The Tudors with Anne

and he's cautious with Jane

he goes to church and prays for a son

and Jane is in labour for hours and we see the passage of time in a quick shot from day to night

like there's emphasis

And it may seem nitpicky but this entire show is about the succession of Targaryens and if it's about the succession of Targaryens I need to feel invested in that succession and these characters for any of this to matter.

Even Rhaenyra and how she has the will to rule that's been overlooked because she's a girl, I was like I believe it objectively because patriarchy but all I've seen her do is ride a dragon, which isn't very impressive to me since she's a Targaryen and that's what they're supposed to do unless it IS supposed to be impressive in which case nothing has made the clear to me, have some knowledge about Nymeria, be cute with Alicent, and have some weird lowkey lusty vibes with her uncle. Like I guess her being a cup bearer is supposed to be some kind of indication of what her place is because instead of being taught how to rule she's being a cupbearer to men but because she hasn't indicated any promise of being a ruler, I kind of just went ... ok.

Daemon is the only character who I feel like I actually know and I don't find him compelling at the moment, like yes, you're the impulsive, violent brother, which is fine, everything falls into categories, there's nothing wrong with that, I'm just not enamoured with Matt Smith so the fact that it's Matt Smith being Daemon isn't enough for me to care about Daemon.

Like honestly, when they said they were doing a prequel and it was about the Targaryens, at first I was like oh, is it going to be about the days of the Mad King because THAT would be interesting and then I found it was this and I was like, oh. I guess.

Also, people are going on about the visuals but I don’t know, most things to me looked like a set, when I watch GoT, it’s on location and if it is on a set it looks realistic enough for me to really get involved in the atmosphere, but with HotD I just kept being like, it’s kind of like budget GoT despite the fact that it had a huge budget.

So basically, I was just like ... well, that happened. Let's see if it gets more interesting.

[iamanartichoke]

I still don't understand the "you were both born to be kings" thing Odin said. Loki of Jotunheim presumably but then why tell a kid that and have him purposefully misinterpret it? And I've seen some argue that age had nothing to do with it but they keep reinforcing that Thor is the "first born" and I've seen interviews where they say the fact Thor is older means he's in line for the throne? Sorry for the rant but I've been trying to figure this out since like 2011.

In order to have it all make sense to me, in my head, I've always interpreted that line - and, by extension, Asgard's ruling hierarchy - to function in much the same way that real monarchies do (or have, in the past). That is, in a ruling family, the first born (son, usually, but occasionally a daughter if she had no male siblings) was automatically the heir and would take the throne in the event anything happened to the king (or queen). After the first born, the line follows chronologically so the next oldest would be second in line, the third oldest third in line, and so on.

However, if the original heir has children, then the line changes and the heir's children become second, third, etc in line, and the heir's younger siblings fall further back. If all of the blood heirs die without leaving behind children, then the throne would go to the next closest blood relative (I think) and the line would follow that family.

Depending on how patriarchal Asgard is and how far back in human history we go, if the oldest child is a girl, she falls behind the first-born son of the family. If Asgard functioned that way, then Hela would not actually have a claim to the throne above Thor - it would go to Thor, then Loki, and then Hela. (To put it in perspective, when Henry VIII died, Edward became king despite still being a child and both Mary and Elizabeth being older. Once Edward died, only then did the line go to the women - first Mary, as the older sibling, and then to Elizabeth after Mary died.) But that's just if you headcanon that Asgard was particularly patriarchal (which tbh I think it is, but that's just me).

Now, whether or not the writers/tptb intended for Asgard to work this way is unknown, but I interpret it this way bc to me, it makes the most sense and anything else becomes kinda convoluted. It would explain why Thor is first in line to be king and, as such, Odin's first choice over Loki, but it also explains the "you were born to be kings" line, if you interpret it as "you are both born royal and you both have the potential to rule, should it work out that way." To go back to the previous example (I just like the Tudor period a lot, so it's what popped into my head), if Henry VIII told Mary, Elizabeth, and Edward, "you were born to rule," then he wouldn't necessarily be wrong or misleading. Each of them has the potential to rule and would be capable of doing so, should they find themselves on the throne. (And, ultimately, each of them did.) I feel like it's the same concept with Thor and Loki.

Of course, historically, what made kings and queens "legitimate" was the belief that they were chosen and appointed by God to rule, so saying "you were born for this" would imply not only the potential to rule but also the idea that being born royal meant that they had been chosen for their role by a power higher than that of humans. So, again, if there was a similar belief on Asgard - that the norns, for example, appointed Odin's bloodline to be the ruling line, then again, Odin't assertion that Thor and Loki were both born to be kings isn't wrong. They were born with royal blood and, by extension, they had been chosen by a higher power and it was their right to rule. In that sense, it doesn't matter who's older or how the line goes; what matters is that Thor and Loki are both in the line.

So that's how I have always understood it to work - but, again, this is my interpretation and there's not necessarily anything in the canon that supports it unequivocally. That being said, because I interpret it this way, I also never felt that Loki misunderstood what Odin meant when he said both sons were born to be kings. Nor do I feel that Odin was being purposefully misleading. As a royal child, Loki would know and understand how the line works and also how divine right works (assuming they've got a similar belief). To me, I always felt like it was more a matter of wanting to be seen just as worthy as Thor so that, if Loki did end up on the throne, he would get the same respect, admiration, and support as Thor would. In other words, Loki knows ("knows," at this point) that both he and Thor are of royal blood and have the ability and the right to rule, so Loki sitting on the throne shouldn't be any different or "less" than Thor sitting on it. And yet, it was different and it was different for no real reason except that Asgard - including their family and friends - viewed Loki as inherently lesser than Thor due to how different he was from Thor and from what a "man" should be, societally speaking.

If that makes sense?

[letsgoravendors]

OK SO I WANNA HEAR ABOUT THE VILLAIN AU LIKE ANY IDEAS U HAVE OR CONCEPTS OR ANYTHING IT JUST SOUNDS COOL (if u wanna share too!!)

also i think it could be interesting in tudor times but i also kinda wanna see it in modern times to im a bit conflicted tbh lmao but i think i’m leaning more towards tudor times for the aesthetic

OK YES IVE BEEN WAITING TO TALK ABOUT IT

I think im gonna take your advice and have it take place in tudor times cause the aesthetic is pretty dope so once I figured that out a lot of the stuff fell into place (like the vague plot)

Basically, I have each Queen ruling their own land (perhaps just a kingdom or maybe the whole country but that seems bold), like Aragon rules a kingdom in Spain, Cleves is in Germany, Anne is in France, since Jane and Kitty are her cousins and technically french i was gonna have them rule different areas of france (dunno about that yet but that's the main idea), but then Cathy is in Ireland (cause historically she was queen there). The ladies in waiting are with their respective queen.

I have no idea what each Queen’s full backstory is, like why they turned evil and whatnot, i have a vague idea for Kat, Jane, Anne, and Aragon but I'm still deciding what i should do with Cathy (im in between two options) or Cleves. Kat was basically manipulated by men (original right) but then had enough of their shit and took over, Jane i think I’m just gonna give her family trauma because he family is a bunch of a-holes, Anne… idk some type of trauma, and Aragon either just overthrew the person in charge or became a corrupt authority figure (i swear it’s more interesting then it sounds… i think). With Cathy i was thinking either a misunderstood ruler or the fallen hero trope (she gives off those vibes idk why), and Cleves i think maybe got a little too much power and it went to her head? No idea yet, any suggestions are welcome, i wanted to stay away from classic tropes but…. clearly, that didn’t happen so

But the main idea now is just them trying to take over England and to do that they have to get rid of Henry, but idk cause that seems like a very “stab him, boom it's done” kinda thing so i need to plan more. If i do go that route, it would be a plot point in the story but not the resolution (i have more ideas for some characters after that so)

Honestly, the whole reason I thought of this was because i wanted to write Unhinged Anne™, writing any evil character is so fun, i don’t do it very much but i want to. Like she’s still Anne and has redeeming qualities (at least for me) but just an absolute villain with no mercy and lowkey a little insane (but in a fun way). I have this line of dialogue that i love: “let’s kill him.” “No. We aren’t killing anyone, I have a line.” “You have a line? Aww, that's so cute *turns to someone else, laugh* she has a line, that’s adorable—“ “we’re not killing anyone” Fine! Then you figure out the plan!”

(But cause im a fucking cliché they’re all or mostly all just some fucked up people who are really broken, cause relatable—to a certain extent—villains are my weakness)

[marybeatriceofmodena]

Been reading a lot about Jane Seymour lately just to piece together her story from the VERY little we know about her, and there seems to be that line of thought that Henry didn’t really love her and/or that he may have married her in a rush because she believed she was pregnant and/or miscarried later... 

And honestly, I have my gripes with David Starkey’s book about Henry’s wives (and him as a person lmao), but one thing I do agree with him is that Henry tended to marry women he knew before marriage and that it came as close as it possibly could to marrying for love at the time (making that one of the reasons why the marriage with Anne of Cleves fell apart)? 

I guess I would go one step further by saying that Henry may have married these women because he was more in love with the archetype they represented in his eyes rather than the women themselves? To sum it up: 

Katherine of Aragon: She *was* a catch, after all, being the daughter of two of the most respected monarchs in Europe at the time (Ferdinand and Isabel), and she did bring a lot of prestige and legitimacy on an international level to the Tudor dynasty (I make her sound like such a broodmare, barf, but that’s medieval political alliances for you). Add to that the whole aspect of her being a bit of a damsel in distress due to being impoverished after Arthur’s death, and that all appeals to Henry’s sense of chivalry. Add that to how ambassadors would write that Henry and Katherine seemed very close and loving in the first few years of their marriage - except, of course, that luster starts to wear off with Katherine’s miscarriages. So, um, I guess the broodmare comparison isn’t so far off from Henry’s PoV. *barfs again* 

Anne Boleyn: She had the Renaissance Queen thing going on, similarly to Margaret of Austria or Marguerite de Navarre? Katherine was no dunce herself but my guess is that Anne was probably the kind of Renaissance Humanist Nerd who just goes on and on about stuff and is super passionate about it, added with a sprinkle of courtly love, so no wonder Henry is all heart-eyes about it? That gets shattered (or at the very least troubled) by Henry’s infidelity, but it does seem like his vision of her as the Perfect Renaissance Intellectual Queen was still going strong even close to her death, to the point it’s entirely possible Cromwell may have wanted Anne dead since Henry would have trouble completely detaching himself from her if she stayed alive (although I do think that thanks to some serious mental gymnastics and probably some brain damage after that 1536 jousting incident, he ended up really believing Anne was guilty).

Anne of Cleves: I mean, there’s the whole debate on whether she looked like her portrait or not, and what exactly pushed Henry to divorce her - but you know, while I agree that a big part of it might have been political motivations, I also think it may have been a lack of chemistry that just wasn’t compatible at all with the imagined idea Henry had of Anne before she came to England (whatever that was). 

Katheryn Howard: I mean, that one is pretty obvious. Pretty young girl who’s very graceful and joyous, makes Henry feel young again, and the minute he has enough evidence to believe she’s not as pure and wholesome as he thought, and worst of all, she reminds him of his own long lost youth... off with her head. 

Katharine Parr: Like, I think that a lot of the traditional point of view on Katharine being Henry’s ever-patient nurse might be due to how she was presented during her position as Queen Consort and after - nevermind her accomplishments but also the less savory parts of her life... And yeah, her Protestant sympathies might have not vibed with Henry’s traditionalism, but ya know, a caretaker also shouldn’t make you feel annoyed when you’re in pain with *GASP* heretical thoughts... 

So with Jane... the problem with people who’ll go on how she was boring/plain/nasty/cold or even a sociopath is that a) we have next to nothing of Jane’s own words so she can’t even present herself as guilty, much less defend herself; b) I feel like that kind of PoV is exactly the kind of treatment Anne Boleyn gets from her detractors, which leads to a rather ironic case of a double standard? 

We don’t even know the circumstances that led to her becoming Henry’s mistress, considering there are so many unanswered questions about her earlier life, such as the following: 

1) Why wasn’t she married yet, when at least one of her younger sisters was wed before her? And no, the “because she was boring and ugly lol” excuse doesn’t work, simply because it wouldn’t have mattered much for noble parents of the time, especially an ambitious family like the Seymours, since it was all about properties, riches, and getting heirs (and with Jane’s mother having lots of kids, it would be expected that Jane would be similar). 

2) How much of her marriage with Henry was her doing and her will? Like, I can buy the narrative of a young woman seeing herself becoming an old maid and being constantly belittled by her family as a failure of sorts, going for the golden goose but getting more than she bargained for, just like she could be a pawn used by various factions of the court who would have a reason to see Anne out (Catholics, for one, and Cromwell and his people, not to mention that Edward Seymour WORKED for Cromwell, so people who’ll try to claim that Cromwell had nothing to do with Anne’s trial and/or Jane becoming Queen make me lol). And for all the people accusing her of being a sociopath for getting engaged to Henry the day after Anne was beheaded, one begs to ask the question of how much of it was her will, and moreover, what kind of say she would have in it? For all we know, she *could* very well be the only one of Henry’s wives along with Katheryn Howard who had pretty much no say in marrying the King - not to mention that I don’t think her family would have been kind to her after failing to do that and effectively becoming an old maid. 

And, most importantly, it wasn’t a case where “it happened one night”, where Henry sought comfort to Jane, she fell pregnant by accident and welp, time for a shotgun wedding? Simply because Jane *was* Henry’s mistress for a certain period of time, three months at least (unlike Mary Boleyn probably lmao), which does kind of make me think: “Yeah... I don’t think she was that boring and nasty, tbh”

Now yes, Henry didn’t exactly treat Jane with the same amount of respect he treated his other wives - but I wouldn’t see that as evidence that he didn’t love her, simply because of the archetype he may have attributed to her? Namely the one of the Modest Daughter of a Country Gentleman Who’s Elevated to the Highest Position But Keeps Her Humility, unlike her predecessor? 

It’s entirely possible that Henry saw Jane as a sort of Cinderella figure, but that more importantly, he expected her to stay demure. So him treating her like garbage at times? It’s probably him realizing that Jane had a mind of her own (although I don’t really think she was some sort of mastermind, since some of her doings as Queen seem a little... gauche, added to the fact her husband was a wee bit of an arse and didn’t have much patience for her “mistakes”) and wasn’t the demure country girl he wanted her to be, so added to his probably still present turmoil about Anne, it made him snap, while she found redemption giving Henry a son... and conveniently die afterwards after fulfilling her duty. 

[fideidefenswhore]

1, 7, 12 🔥 (about Tudor History?)

the [character] everyone gets wrong (1)

many of you are about to get real mad at me, but it must be said:

henry viii

what [character] did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them? (7)

c/ oa, for sure. i actually used to be a stan of hers; but the (c)overt misogyny and historic illiteracy of her standom smothered that little flame in my heart. ECM since then has firmly stamped out all the remaining embers... (god, she is so fucking annoying)

edit: i don't really 'hate' her but considering how many anons i've gotten accusing me of doing so, i'm willing to say i do if it means you will all leave me tf alone. cheers ♡

the unpopular [character] that you actually like and why more people should like them (12)

i'll say henry viii again bcus i just love to be hated; tudor media is such a popular entity unto itself that calling him 'unpopular' sounds weird but i do also feel that as he's been continually decentered from the narrative (six the musical, faceless and dialogue-less even in recent documentaries, nonentity and/or one-dimensional villain in many of the newer tudor productions centering on the tudor queens, etc) he has become gradually underrated in pop culture and almost invisible as an individual with his own private hopes, dreams, fears, beliefs, insecurities, etc.

and certainly in this 'fandom' as it exists he is not what i would call 'popular'.

anyway, what was i saying.... 'like' and 'appreciate' are probably not the appropriate words. but i think many are very quick to judge and not acknowledge how gradual his corruption was. the common sentiment seems to be 'i don't understand him and also i hate him' which seems inherently contradictory.... but i don't actually think henry is that hard to understand (speaking from the rare vantage of someone that's read a lot of what he wrote and was recorded to have said, tbf); i just think people don't want to understand him (which, is understandable, tbf, also). we would all love to say that were we born into immense power, privilege, wealth, and instilled with the belief that we were divinely ordained to rule, closer to god than anyone else save our few contemporaries (anointed monarchs), that we would be unequivocally just and merciful and remain humble. but tbh, we're kidding ourselves to believe that. that besides all the other principles of the age, is the mindset you have to put yourself into in order to understand henry.