#the sign that corruption was innate~~~~ is always the executions of empson and dudley

[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.