#writing in a historical time period also means thinking about the time before and what events they must have lived through

[droughtofapathy]

I was going to turn in early, except now I'm plagued by thoughts of how Avis DeVoto and Blanche Knopf canonically (and also like... the real-life women) existed in a time where they didn't have the federally-protected right to vote. And sure, by the time the real Avis was 18, the 19th amendment passed two years prior, but Blanche spent eight years of her adult life unable to vote. What kind of impact must that have had on her as a person?

[writers-potion]

Writing Female Fighters

The Heroine Must. Fight.

Today's female protagonists cannot sit on the side crying and breaking down or whimpering as the battle ensues.

Readers want to see autonomous female fighters who can at least defense themselves with courage and adequate skill.

Not all women are the same, but the heroine should get her butt moving.

Less Muscle, but More Flexibilty

The average woman is shorter than the average man, which makes it more difficult to wield a long sword or slam something down on the opponent's head.

A woman who works out can plausibly be stronger than a male couch potato, but if her male counterpart works out as much as her, the man is going to be much stronger.

On the other hand, the center of gravity in a woman's body is lower than a man's which makes it harder to knock her off her feet.

She is also more flexible, which gives her advantage in grappling fights, making use of complex landscapes, or deflecting blows.

A woman's small size can also be an advantage if her opponent has only ever trained with male opponents. His big hands might not get a good grip on her slender limbs.

In historical fiction, giving your heroine good muscule build can be tricky as exercise was generally considered harmful for women, with some exceptions for horseriding any maybe archery at best.

In such cases, make your heroine an accomplished dancer or an eager horsewoman, or the only girl whose father considered to be son replacement and thus, gave her a boy's education.

Women of lower classes who couldn't afford to be fashionably weak will be plausibly stronger, perhaps even more than an idle gentleman.

More Room for Negotiation, but Prolonged Ruthlessness

In the Suspense part of your fight scene, females are more likely to negotiate and talk more, strategically trying to descalate the situation rather than attacking on a momentary impulse.

Generally, women are less aggressive than men and remain level-headed longer than her male counterparts, opting for non-violent methods first before using force.

Exceptions apply if she is trying to protect her children (or someone who she cares for as a child). Mothers can be tigresses.

A female pre-fight conversation may be: "If you had not done so-and-so and betrayed me with so-and-so, we could have been good friends as I thought we would be." "What do you mean? It was in fact you who brought bad blood between us. I can still hear you laughing with so-and-so, taunting me, purposefully making me look bad -" "But that was so long ago! If you want me to say sorry about something so insignificant, you should have just said so: I'm sorry. There. Satisfied?" "Ha! I can't believe you say that so easily. You still don't get it, do you?" "Who's being petty and unreasonable now?"

A male pre-fight conversation will be shorter: "Who's the coward now?" "You're wrong." "Prove it." "Bastard."

Compared to men, it will take more time for a woman's fight hormones (adrenaline, neurotransmitters and such) to kick in.

She would be slower to engage initially, throwing reluctant punches and thinking, but she'll grow more and more violent and lose all rational thought and compassion, and once she's in full flow, may not stop even when her opponent begs for mercy.

When writing a male-female duo, you can show him going for the first blow while she observes and strategizes first. When he's past his peak and panting, she is flying about left and right. Later when the tension wears off and she becomes wobbly and teary, she can rely on him to have recovered faster and distract other teammates so that they won't see her cry.

Plausible Skills and Backstory

In many cultures and time periods, the general attitude of society towards girls is that they have no place in fist fights or martial arts, unlike how it is encouraged for boys of the same age. So if your heroine has physical prowess that surpasses typical 'fitness' or is hidden, build a backstory of how she's obtained it.

For modern heroines, it can be as simple as signing her up for martial arts classes or yearly membership at the local gym. For historical fiction or girls with strict 'feminine' upbringing, it can be trickier.

It can be related to profession: maybe she was an erotic wrestler, catfighter, or an assasin who thought killing was more honorable than prostitution. They may have dabbles with it for a short time and is now trying to hide their past from their respectable employer or fiance.

It can be family backstory: Perhaps her mother was an accomplished martial artist or she had to fend for younger siblings on the streets from an early age. Maybe she was the only girl in a family of many boys who refused to be the punching bag.

Inexperienced Female Fighters

A woman with no fighting experience or training is likely to resort to one of these on instinct:

Try to talk herself out of the situation, attempting to persuade or negotiate for her life.

Grab something to use as a weapon. This instinct seems to be stronger for women than it is in men.

Use her hands to try and break free, or kick (often wth little success)

Pull hair

Scratch.

In a serious fight, pulling hair and scratching won't be helpful, except when the police come to find her body, they would find the opponent's DNA under her fingernails.

Plausible Weapons and Clothing

All of the above applies to scenes where both parties have no weapons, or has the bare minimum (like one dagger each).

Weapons are equalizers, and if your heroine is pointing a gun at her opponent she will definitely NOT hesitate to be the one to shoot first.

When giving your female character a weapon, choose one she can plausibly use. It would take an unusually brawny woman to wield a great medieval longsword.

For historical fiction, give your heroine something she'll plausibly own. Swords and firearm were a no-go for women, but archery was borderline acceptable.

For clothing starters, you definitely CAN NOT dress her in a tight miniskirt and chainmail bra with long, flowy hair and multiple silver chockers. Unless she's trying to seduce her way into her opponent's bedroom, and he has a chainmail bra fetish.

A practical heroine will have her thighs covered, preferably with leather but at least with fabric, since a lot of blood flows through the thighs and a slash would be critical.

She'll keep her hair tied, tucked under a helmet, braided back, etc. so that it won't impede her vision.

She'll support her breasts with a strong sport bra. In a historical eprioid, she'll either tie her breasts tight with a fabric bandage or support them with some kind of leather corset.

Invent a female version of male fighter clothing of the time you are writing about if it doesn't exist.

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[anarchy-and-piglins]

Blue-collar Techno kidnapped by white-collar SBI when? And I don't mean minimum wage Techno or cashier/clerk/other I mean farmer or rancher or otherwise physical labor intensive. Potato farmer Techno kidnapped by SBI because they loved his passion or something idk just trying to tempt you into writing more dark SBI tbh

Okay, but I can vibe with this and I'm also still very much with my brain geared towards historical AUs so maybe something that's set around the roaring 20s or a bit later (the period between the world wars basically)? Alternatively the period right before the first world war, the turn of the century. But that might be because I have the Titanic on my mind today lmao.

Techno is a factory worker, typical blue collar profession, probably orphaned or at least from a very low-income family. He's proud of his hard work and his accomplishments and he's vocal about his passions and beliefs, just stuck in a place where those don't mean much to anybody of any significance. The working class doesn't have time to do anything except physical labor to keep afloat, especially not somebody like Techno who has no support to fall back on.

SBI are white collar. Maybe a family of business attornies? I think Phil as a lawyer would be absolutely hilarious especially because I can see the vibe of him being so kind and mundane from a glance but boy does he have a sharp tongue and a good memory. He will tear you to pieces verbally if need be, and smile while doing so.

A bit grim, but I want to say it starts with a death. Somebody in the factory dies due to the company's negligence (sadly, not that unusual an occurrence) and as always the boss wants to pay as little as possible and face as few consequences as possible. Except Techno knew the guy who died, and talks to that family, and tries to push them into getting their legally owed dues for their loss, or go public. The factory hires Phil to make this entire thing go away as quickly as he can with minimal financial loss for the business and no scandal.

Phil has no moral qualms about doing this. It's not that he hates lower class people specifically, he just looks down on them as beneath him and doesn't like them stirring up trouble. He finds them dull, uneducated, and uncultured. And also, he loves money. Greedy crow.

Phil does his lawyering thing. Often it's as easy as putting some pressure on the family and using big words around them and showing them some papers they can't read anyway and they'll take the minimal offered to them, since it's still a treasure in their eyes, and agree that the company bears no fault in their beloved husband's/father's death. Even if it does go to court, Phil isn't concerned. Honestly, the entire case bores him.

What he IS much more interested in is Techno.

They meet when Phil comes by the factory, and Techno and Phil run into each other since Techno is so involved in the fallout of the untimely demise of the other worker, and Phil is enthralled. Techno is not intimidated by him, easily pushing back on his wordplay with his wit. Techno has opinions, and is rather smart for a factory worker (he can read too! Techno is mostly self-taught). Phil finds it charming. Entertaining, if nothing else. He can see the fire in Techno's eyes.

He tries to pry into Techno's past and learn more about him, Techno is guarded against this, which in turn just makes Phil MORE engaged.

Eventually, Phil offers Techno to come work for the law firm. He'll have to do some really lowly manual labor there at first, but Phil sees potential in him, and if it turns out Phil is right about that, then perhaps Techno can even make something of himself if Phil teaches him and allows him to work his way up. It's an extremely gracious offer, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity even.

Techno declines.

Phil is flabbergasted. Like, absolutely gobsmacked. But also so much more enthralled now. Techno refuses to take handouts from pompous rich bastards like Phil, and he has no interest in joining a branch that so clearly profits from keeping the upper class on top and the lower class under their heel. Most men would sell their souls for what Phil can provide them. Techno has more integrity than basically every single person Phil has come into contact with through his job in the last decade.

And god if that doesn't just make him want to have Techno more.

Even as a little kid, Phil was never told no. Thus it's not something that sits well with him. He will have his way, no matter the cost. And hey, we already established Phil knows his way around the legal branch AND that Techno has no support system so like, if you do wanna take it to literal kidnapping, that'd be easy.

I'm assuming this would be 3/4 dark sbi so my image for that is that Wilbur and Tommy are both Phil's kids. Wilbur is technically also an attorney (following in the family's footsteps, as his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all are), except he doesn't really work a lot and has more fun squandering the family's money. Phil is way too indulgent when it comes to his sons, who are as spoiled as he used to be, so he allows this. Similarly, Tommy is still in schooling though he's not sure what he'll study once he's in university (he's leaning into finance because he loves scams lol) and he spends most of his time enjoying his wealthy life.

If Kristin is there, I imagine she comes from a family of doctors, though Kristin herself never worked or got a higher education. That'd be unbecoming for a lady of her status. She loves it when Phil has a fun little project for them to occupy themselves with since she's maybe also lowkey bored being a housewife.

[goddessofroyalty]

Something i really enjoy in your Zaun Family Au is the concept of physical touch. Let me explain.

I dont know if you did it on propous or not but it sounds like in Zaun touching, hugging, holding or just any other of physical touch is far more common and acceptable. Meanwhile in Piltover you have to be more protocolar. It reminds me of the historical romance novels i have read where you cannot just hug or touch your friend because its "impolite"

The idea:

Since Jayce is from a lower house he is more used to hug and touch people to show them his care. But since he started his studies he just cannot do it anymore. He feels like shit but is ashamed of saying it outloud.

Enter Viktor.

They touch, they hug, they are physical affectionate in a platonic way.

As he goes more and more to Zaun and befriends his family he feels better. He missed this.

A punch in the arm from Vi, Jinx climbing over him to show him something or maybe sitying in his lap while they check some equations, Vander patting his back. He loves this small moments.

The only time Silco patted his arm to congratulate him he almost cry.

This feels like family.

Bonus: Caitlyn is taken aback because she never experimented this level of physical contact before. Yes, she has Jayce but he is like a sibling. She just sagging in Vi's embrace, trembling and feeling so warm.

Zaun having a more touch-friendly culture is an accepted headcanon for me so while I'm not consciously thinking about including details reflecting it when writing the fact it it is just a part of worldbuilding means that it will be reflected in how I write characters.

But yeah I very much believe Zaun has a culture where casual touch is much more accepted than Piltover which has a lot more strict social rules generally.

The fun thing with Jayce and Viktor is that Viktor lived in Piltover for long enough that he's learned their social rules and so is pretty touch-adverse at least when he is in Piltover. Especially because he's Heimerdinger's assistant so is interacting a lot with the very Upper Class of Piltover. And yeah Jayce also learned the rules after starting at the Academy (and gaining the Kirramans as his sponsor) but he clearly struggles more with it (possiblly because he didn't expect to have to change his behaviour compared to Viktor who knew that he would have to adapt to fit in with Piltover).

Basically though Jayce starts the physical affection with Viktor. Cautiously and probably more in the socially-justifiable 'patting a bro on the arm' kind of way that he can easily pass off as a nothing-thing if Viktor reacts like he's uncomfortable like so many other people Jayce has interacted with since joining the Academy did. Except Viktor doesn't react negatively and starts touching Jayce in return, also similarly in the small gestures that can be easily excused if it gets a bad reaction. And then slowly slowly they get more and more bold in their touch, testing out to see if there's a line where the other will push away that never comes. Until they are just very physically affectiate with each other casually.

Viktor's siblings haven't had that much exposure to Piltover when Jayce is introduced to them (only starting to be brought up there by their parents after the explosion and start of the Hextech partnership) so there isn't even that testing period with them. There's also a lot less 'secret rules' when it comes to ineracting with them (or at least different ones to in Piltover) - they are very straight about what they think of Jayce both the good and the bad as well as being very comfortable with physical touch. And it's a breathe of fresh air to Jayce who is more and more dealing with people in Piltover who stand a meter away from him and pretend they like him even when they don't. Honestly how happily he responds to them even when they are being kind of mean to him is part of what endears him to Viktor's younger siblings so quickly. He's not stiff and stuckup like the other Piltites, will let Powder literally hang herself off him, and is a good sport about their teasing. There's still definitively moments where Vander nearly knocks him over because he did not expect how hard that man can hit even when he's just patting Jayce on the back but that's fine, he'd much rather that then them treating him like they'll catch something if they touch him. There's a reason he kind of seeks them out when there's big social events where the Zaun Representative brings his family with him - it's a momentary break from the Piltover Social Rules.

Caitlyn does not know what to do with Vi's family far more so than Jayce. She grew up entirely in the culture where touch is reserved for very limited situations. Even though she's so very touch-starved she doesn't know what to do when they do just sling an arm around her or bump into her in a silent request for her to move over so probably just goes very still at it. With Vi's it's a bit different because she and Vi are dating (or at least romantically interested in each other) and so yeah physical affection with her is easier even if she is amazed at how warm Vi's hugs are. It takes a bit for her to get used to the others though.

[kneelingshadowsalome]

As a history and Mythological lover, I love your works, they are so addictive, and you write so well, and the Minotaur konig fic was such a pleasure to read. I remember when you first uploaded the Roman konig story and I was so ecstatic about it, I remember checking on my break at work, If you’d uploaded another part haha, I mean I still check tumblr on my breaks to see who had uploaded so I know what I can read after I get home lol.

I think you’ve found your niche!

Also if you don’t mind answering what other time periods you’d think konig would fit in? Victorian era?

Nasty, oily and covered in coal, konig is walking home through the streets and bumped into a clean wealthy beautiful young woman, ooh do I love forbidden romances, just like your nun fic lol.

Ahh thank you! Mythology, fairytales and historical au’s are a passion of mine 😭

And puh-leeze, a forbidden romance between a dirty worker and a rich uptown girl? Filthy coal miner König who bumps into this fancy lady dressed in white? How can he ever make up for his clumsiness?? Please don’t have him beaten like the poor bastard he is, he already fucked up today by accidentally destroying boss’s new machinery by showing off his strength...

Tries to steal a peek at her ankles, and under her dress while dusting off her skirts with some napkin that’s hardly much cleaner than his hands. And she’s just giggling at him – great, now he’s hard... How is he going to explain this when he rises from here?? (Rich lady also being protected at all costs from dirty dogs like him! He's soon panting at her door!)

As for other historical au’s and fairytales... >:)

CW: Fear of SA (historical au), wife stealing (yandere fairytale imagine)

Obviously I see König as this dark knight of the Teutonic Order, punishing pagans with his sword somewhere in the wild woods of old Europe. How about another forbidden romance between a cold-hearted crusader & a cute pagan girl who lives in the woods and worships the old gods?

She gets captured during some awful raid, and is pulled into the camp by her hair, angry tears streaming down her face. The soldiers tie her to a thick wooden cross and leave her in the rain, probably to have their way with her later, taking turns with her after they've gambled and had a drink. Then this dark, giant knight happens to walk by, not a regular foot soldier but an actual knight with armor as black as night. She remembers him from the battlefield, wielding a fat morningstar, splitting people’s skulls from atop the huge black destrier he rode...

A terrible beast, dark and silent and big, the rain batters his helmet as he takes one look at the shivering maiden on the cross, her white linen dress glued to her skin in the downpour, and stops.

The soldiers have a crude sense of humour and what’s arousing, but he has seen worse… The knights of the Holy Order are even more perverted when it comes to having “fun” with women. But something pierces his defense when seeing the frightened stare of this pagan girl, her weak body trembling on the cross, the wide dark nipples perked up from cold. He’s seen so much death, his soul is drenched in blood by this point, but somehow, this woman who hasn’t even been broken in is the last straw.

Ends up taking her down, and she attaches herself to him like he’s her saviour, even the cold black armor apparently warmer to her skin than the cold rain. The cruelest of knights feels a moment of pity for this girl and sets her free, pushes her to the woods and waves his hand in a gesture of Get the hell out of here while you still can. (=gtfo before I get hard enough to take you in the mud...)

Months later, she finds him bleeding to death under a tree after a battle. All the other soldiers are screaming and crying for their mothers, but this one is silent, eyes darkening when he recognizes her. He says something, already delusional, and she can’t help but kneel and offer him water…

(and from this point on it would go somewhere in @wordstome s Kosovo maiden territory, perhaps slightly darker? But you get the point!)

And then there’s this old Inuit story that always reminds me of König, it has many variations but it’s basically about this lonely hunter who gets a little too resentful for not having a wife yet. Goes to paddle his boat in these moonlit waters and sees a bunch of maidens dancing in the moonlight on a small little island, notices their seal skins on the ground, and because he’s lonely and in despair, he steals one of them.

One by one, the maidens put their seal skins on and rush back into the water, but one woman can’t find her seal skin no matter how hard she looks for it. The hunter emerges, holding her beautiful skin, saying he’ll give it back to her if she comes to live as his wife for 7 years. She has no other choice but to say yes, and for a while they live happily, they even have a son, but then the seal woman starts to miss her seal skin and the sea...

It’s a tragic tale and the hunter won’t let her leave even if she cries so this would make a wonderful yandere scenario, you could always make a twist and write the woman as some other animal, a deer perhaps, and König as this lonely brooding hunter of the Austrian mountains :)

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! I'm writing a fantasy story set in a setting that focuses around 12-13 century BCE. My main character, who is not the POV character, has progressive blindness due to a genetic disorder and has lost most of his hearing in one ear due to an explosion in a battle. Given that magic exists very sparingly in this universe, and no one close to him has such powers, he uses only a cane and later, a guide animal for his blindness.

I just read through your blog and I realised it might seem a little disrespectful to not accommodate other avenues of aid, especially for his hearing loss. I wanted to ask if I should add anything else, and if so, what would be appropriate for the period?

P.S.: He is also a warrior, and he fights pretty often; is that unrealistic with the aids that are involved?

Thank you for maintaining the blogs, this has been greatly educational

Hi!

So, while we don't have a lot of commonly known resources about disability in this time period because of the in general more limited resources about it, we actually found a resource that might help you a lot!

This website is called Disability History and the Ancient World, and focuses on exactly what it says lol. To quote it: "Quite contrary to disability studies for other periods, research into this subject has just begun to develop and specialists are few." It has a huge bibliography of various research papers and articles, in various languages and about various topics. Not all of them have links, but they can be copy-pasted and then searched for and whatnot. More specifically, we found an article about deaf men in the 13th century BCE! Here's the article, and here it is in PDF form if that's easier.

For more general practical writing advice, you can play a little fast and loose with accuracy. You kind of already have, a bit, with the aids for blindness – but also with fantasy, and also because you kind of have to, in a setting we know relatively little about!

It is, however, pretty accurate that wherever people are deaf, they develop sign languages to communicate. It might not historically have been a standardized language in a widespread way, but people everywhere want to communicate. If you're being a bit anachronistic anyway, which again, is totally fine especially in a fantasy setting, you could also make it so that a braille-like language exists already; and/or a tactile sign language that's somewhat known. Those are aids that DeafBlind people use today that could translate pretty well to the setting.

As to the combat/warrior, I would say that a guide animal is much less realistic to have in combat than the cane. You also mention that his blindness is progressive, which means it might vary from battle to battle depending on how his blindness progresses and how often he has to fight.

Thank you for your question, by the way! I think we were all a bit fascinated because no one has asked us anything about this time period before.

– mod sparrow

P.S.: For historical context for anyone else other than the original asker, this time period is 1300-1101 BCE, and the numbers go 3-2-1 instead of 1-2-3 because they're counting down to 0. It's around this time that it's the Late Bronze Age and later the Late Bronze Age Collapse, the Shang Dynasty is in place in China, it's the 19th Dynasty of Egypt, and the mythological Trojan War has its symbolic dates (it might be based on a real conflict, or not, we don't know for sure).

[sixth-light]

ok ok slightly feral post as promised.

first, some context setting: I think it's really interesting to analyse texts in terms of both what the author was trying to do (and whether they succeeded) and what they ended up doing (intentionally or not) and I think their cultural/historical context is vital if you want to do this. I'm not interested in whether Robert Jordan or the Wheel of Time are, like, morally correct in their politics or whatever. I'm interested in what the art is trying to do.

and the thing about Jordan, see, is that he projected this image during his lifetime of a Genial Older Man (see: beard and pipe) but he...wasn't actually that old! He was 42 when EoTW was published. He died at 58. He was a Baby Boomer publishing books at a time when Baby Boomers were the hip young generation taking over from stodgy WWII veterans (Gen Z: It Will Happen To You Too).

What this means is that he was a child and adolescent during the Civil Rights movement, in a then-majority Black city in the Jim Crow South*. He would have gone to segregated schools. The tertiary institutions he attended had only started to desegregate a year or two before he attended each of them. I think his war trauma in Vietnam gets a lot of attention because he did talk about it and also because that's a narrative we understand for white men, but I think we...skim over the impact on white men of growing up at this time because? Civil Rights only happened to Black Americans I guess? but it's his context too. Similarly, he was an adolescent and young man at the time the (white) feminist movement was really kicking off in the US. he was in his mid-20s when banks were first legally *required* to allow women to open accounts and have credit cards in their own names. he went on to marry a woman a decade older than him, who had left her husband to raise her son as a single mother while continuing a professional career in the early 70s; these were issues that must have been incredibly relevant for her.

and what we see in his writing is attempts to grapple with gender and race that are self-evidently of mixed success, but I think have to be contextualised in light of this period of immense change he grew up in. Think about the predominance of women as merchants and bankers in WoT, in the context of how recent their rights to even control their own money were in the US. The...everything...he was trying to do with the Seanchan, making them extra-canonically Southern American-coded. The Whitecloaks as the KKK (among other things, of course).

As an example, I think there's also something probably unintentional but fascinating in the way he presents the pre-Breaking Aiel: bluntly, they are a distinct ethnic group in hereditary servitude (always thinking about how that ancestor of Rand's in the Rhuidean sequence had to get permission from Mierin Sedai to switch to someone else's service so he could marry his girlfriend, this is...uh...super cognate to issues enslaved Black people faced). They're associated with agriculture through the Song sequence. And they're pretty much the ideal of what slave-owning Southern American culture WANTED enslaved Black people to be: completely happy to serve. Then, as the post-breaking Aiel, they become feared as a source of violence, which resonates with the way that enslaved people were feared by their slavers.

I don't think for a second that the intention here was to depict the AoL as a Secret Slavery Dystopia, I think we're meant to take the Rhuidean flashback sections pretty much as they read on the page. But I also think putting Jordan in his historical and cultural context does pose the comparison. Similarly, I find it really interesting that he positions Seanchan as riven by constant revolts and uprisings (because it's a fascist slaver regime) but he never ever goes so far as to link enslaved people in Seanchan (damane and da'covale) to those revolts and uprisings, even though that is fundamentally the deep fear *for real and obvious reasons* of all slavery-based societies.

Or then there's the changes to the Two Rivers in the books - like, both then and now I think it's actually pretty radical to present an influx of Muslim-coded refugees of colour as a thing that enriches the Two Rivers both socially and economically. Various characters are wistful that it's changed, but they don't think it's bad. The text here is really clear that welcoming the Domani and Almoth Plain refugees is both morally right and beneficial. And this is in a book being written and published shortly after the first Gulf War.

There's so many more things like this where I just have no real idea what he was trying to do on purpose and what was accidental and what was fun for him in fiction but did not necessarily link at all to his real-world political beliefs. but gosh it's interesting to turn over and poke at.

[avonne-writes]

How about a historical reenactor AU or the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) AU?

I love this, such an original idea! ❤️

John and Gale are from different kingdoms, but they meet at an event and sparks fly. Gale takes the historical accuracy very seriously, and he and Marge go to events together in period-accurate costumes. He likes learning about history and bonding with people through that.

Meanwhile, Bucky is one of those SCAdians who have more than one "persona" because he can’t settle on just one to play. Always has fancy and unique costumes, wants to stand out. To him, historical accuracy is secondary to having fun.

It's funny when they start flirting because Bucky often ends up accidentally bringing modernisms into the conversation, and Gale refuses to understand them. Bucky has to find the right historical terms to get his meaning across. Bucky also starts writing Gale period-accurate letters, which always put a small, secretive smile on Gale’s face when he opens them. Brady, who got Bucky involved in the Society, is completely stunned when he realizes how much research Bucky has done to get closer to Gale.

Eventually, Gale grows to trust Bucky enough to share what he's like in real life, what his job is etc. They finally start talking through texts and calls as well, and go on dates as them and not just their characters. They have sex as themselves a few times before Gale tells Bucky he wants to have sex in character as well 😄

In the Society, I think Gale might be a skilled archer who sometimes teaches archery to others as well. Bucky is a bit of a goofball, he just goes to hang out with his friends and who loves the dances and feasts organized.

[firedemblem]

Ailing Empire: Adrestia and the Han

tl;dr: The Adrestian Empire in FE3H is a direct reference to the rise and fall of the Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 CE).

This is the first of a few rambles I'd like to do about Chinese history, specifically on the late Han - Three Kingdoms period which influenced KOEI's writing for FE3H. For these I'll be focusing more on themes and inspirations, and less on 1-to-1 comparisons of events and characters. But I'll make it clear what the history is, what the FE3H references are, and why an educated Chinese or Japanese audience would recognize them.

Also fights about who's right or wrong will be ignored. okay lessgo

First, The History

The Han Dynasty, starting around ~202 BC, is the first major imperial dynasty of China. It's the first Chinese empire that lasted for more than 25 years, it's considered the origin of Chinese identity, and even the modern Chinese writing system (hanzi) and the term for ethnic Chinese people (the Han) still reference it. It's very influential. Unfortunately, it also collapsed spectacularly in the 200s CE, leading to a period of civil war in which 3 kingdoms with complex leaders and heroes fought over whose vision should govern China. You can see where I'm going with this.

Now, China isn't new to civil war either before or after the Three Kingdoms (3K). There are plenty of other famous periods of war. But the 3K became famous across Asia, not just China, for a few reasons.

Unique and memorable factions, popularly retold stories of loyalty and betrayals, and people not agreeing on who was in the right (again, you can see where I'm going with this).

Historical records (the Records of the Three Kingdoms, or 三国志) were written about 50 years after the period, providing historians and readers plenty of reference material.

Another 300 years of civil war happening AFTER the 3K made everyone miss the Han and look back fondly at the events near its end.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三国演义), a historical novel written by Luo Guanzhong in the 1400s CE (1200 years after the Han ended), laid out the most famous events of the period in a more readable and adaptable form.

Infinite subsequent adaptations and Dynasty Warriors games.

(For "why 3K was also popular in Japan", see this more well-referenced reddit post.)

This is just to give you an idea of how well-known and influential the late Han to 3K period is, and why it's become a source of references across Chinese and Japanese culture up to the modern day.

Okay, so why does its fall mean Adrestia--

Sorry, getting to that. But to get to that, we have to talk about what exactly happened to cause the Han Empire to fail.

The short version was that the Han ended due to a combo of corruption, failed power grabs, weak emperors, badly behaving regents, and lords with their own power bases (again, you can see... okay I'll stop). The long version is a little more thorough. Since this post is already long you can reference the full wiki'd version here, but the summary of events is as follows:

Under the Han Emperor Ling and his supporting eunuchs, the Ten Attendants, the Imperial government becomes corrupt and heavily taxes the peasantry. Revolts break out.

To put down the revolts, Emperor Ling gives regional officials the power to keep their own armies. (The Han at this time is governed by region, each with its own imperially appointed governor. Think of it as the American president letting each state governor have their own army.)

The revolt is suppressed, but then Emperor Ling dies, leaving 2 heirs aged 13 and 9 and a bunch of powerful eunuchs and officials. The older heir is declared Emperor Shao. Power struggles immediately ensue.

A general related to the Imperial family, He Jin, summons the army of the regional official Dong Zhuo to help him get rid of the eunuchs.

He Jin is immediately assassinated by the eunuchs. The eunuchs are killed in turn.

Dong Zhuo gets to court, finds a power vacuum and a weak 13-year-old emperor, and installs himself as regent with his army. Unfortunately Dong Zhuo is just as corrupt and cruel as the eunuchs, and shortly afterwards "replaces" the 13-year-old emperor with his 9-year-old brother (read: by poisoning). The 9-year-old is crowned Emperor Xian.

A coalition of other officials, now with their own standing armies, unite to fight Dong Zhuo and restore power to the emperor. They fail, but keep building up their armies anyway in defiance of Dong Zhuo's control. One of these officials is named Cao Cao (pronounced T'sao T'sao).

Dong Zhuo dies to his own men. Through a series of hijinx and fights with the other officials (who've since become warlords of their own territories), Cao Cao takes control over the emperor instead.

Cao Cao keeps control by being better at governing than Dong Zhuo, and the emperor stays a puppet. Though he's officially prime minister of the Han court, Cao Cao becomes head of the Wei faction and King of Wei while wiping out most of the other warlords. (The other 2 kingdoms being major exceptions, obviously, but we aren't going to get to them today.)

After Cao Cao dies, his son Cao Pi declares himself not just king but first emperor of Wei, forcing Emperor Xian to abdicate and ending the Han Dynasty.

NOW for Adrestia

If you read over everything above, you'll already have a pretty good idea of what I'll say. But I'd like to lay it out anyway: this is a list of the close parallels between Adrestia as described at the start of FE3H, and the state of the Han Empire just before its end.

Just as the Han empire is considered the foundational empire of China, Adrestia's founding and history are considered the start of modern civilization in Fodlan.

Even the founding story of Wilhelm & the Saints vs. King of Liberation Nemesis has shades of callback. In records of the founding of the Han, the first emperor Liu Bang is famously recorded as having the support of 3 wise generals/strategists, and having to defeat his main rival the Hegemon-King Xiang Yu.

Since its mythologized founding, Adrestia has lost a significant chunk of its territory and glory, just as the later Han Empire was significantly more subdued in power than at its height.

Though for the Han this was more due to losses against northern tribes and usurpations, such as by Wang Mang, than by splitting off into 2 separate kingdoms.

The timelines for Fodlan have also been expanded compared to 3K, such that we're not talking about a civil war and more about 3 sovereign nations.

The holders of power in Adrestia, the noble families, are noted as being either corrupt (Aegir, Bartels), disloyal to the Emperor (Vestra), in it for themselves (Hevring, Bergliez), or otherwise ineffectual.

This closely reflects the later Han's governmental corruption, power struggles, and rise in self-motivated officials and eunuchs, which eventually leads up to the chaos of the 3K period.

Adrestia's Insurrection of the Seven can thus be seen as a heavily condensed version of the Han court's power struggles, especially between a weak emperor and their more powerful officials. The eunuchs have been combined with the officials to create the nobility, but the beats are the same.

The imperial family tries to reclaim its power from powerful officials, and fails.

A weak emperor or imperial heir is forcibly put under regentship by a more powerful official.

The regent is corrupt, foolish, and acts with impunity, leading to chaos in the rest of the nation. (Interestingly enough, Dong Zhuo, the corrupt regent who first takes control of the court, is frequently portrayed as being fat and boorish in a similar way as Duke Aegir's design evokes.)

The name "Insurrection of the Seven" also parallels that of the Ten Attendants, the title of the corrupt eunuchs.

Even Edelgard's situation, being lower in succession but taking power after her siblings are killed (indirectly) by powerful officials, can be seen as a callback to Emperor Xian being proclaimed emperor himself and having his older sibling poisoned by Dong Zhuo.

Now, I should note that these are meant more to be parallels than proofs. And FE3H makes its own share of changes and unique writing choices, which it has to do to create a European-styled universe that meshes better with the Fire Emblem structure. But due to the popularity of the 3K period in China and Japan, the way the other 3H houses match the other 2 kingdoms, Awakening referencing Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and KOEI also producing the Dynasty Warriors and RoTK series, I'm absolutely certain all of these themes are intentional. So given all this, I think there's a lot more to analyze about FE3H's portrayal of Fodlan if we keep considering it in light of Chinese history, and I hope to start doing that for the other 2 factions next.

Aren't you missing something?

Yes, and I wanted to add an additional section at the end of this long ramble, because what I find really interesting are the writing decisions that changed between history and FE3H.

For one, there is no "Cao Cao" figure to usurp the Han in FE3H. This is because Edelgard herself, while being analogous to Emperor Xian, also effectively becomes Cao Cao by trying to seize power and uproot the previous order. Since she can't usurp her own rule over Adrestia, her conflict is written to be external by focusing on the Church of Seiros, which did not exist in Chinese history. And since there's three nations instead of one civil war, a greater overall conflict has to be forced on each of them via Slithers. But Edelgard's thematic struggle remains the same as Cao Cao's; seizing control over what she views as a failed system, and righting it by any means regardless of conventional morality or opposition.

For two, as mentioned before, there's as many callbacks to Biblical and European mythology in FE3H as there are Chinese underpinnings. FE3H's names are European, Shakespearean, Greek, and Celtic. Its religion is syncretized from Abrahamic flood myths, Buddhist cycles of reincarnation, and the Egyptian goddess Isis (with a veneer of Catholicism). Its characters are school-life teenagers rather than hardened warlords, and its backstory is every conspiracy theory combined. Yet I find that in terms of storytelling and themes, FE3H is better explored via its comparison to the 3K than via any of these other references. Because there's not a whole lot to say about the Alliance being named after King Lear characters, but it's way more interesting to consider Claude being a Sun Quan outsider-analogue, or why the Blue Lions are written with a terminal case of Loyalty. But I'll get to those in other rants.

[humbledragon669]

S2E2 - The Clue Write Up P1 - Land of Uz (2500 BC) and London (Present Day) up to the credits

Ooh it’s been a while since got to use an in-screen caption as one of the headers and I am delighted to be able to do it again! I may well just use the same two headers as we switch between the two time periods in this episode, just for simplicity. Sue me.

There’s a tiny detail that’s been applied to this opening shot that I absolutely love – the video here has had an of effect applied to it to give it a vintage film feel. Sorry, that’s as close as I come to describing it with any sort of eloquence – I’m referring to the “fake” black marks and scratches that appear on the image briefly (you can see a couple on the header above). It doesn’t last long (only until Crawley finishes his first line), but I think this subtle little effect sets us very firmly in a cinematic (cinematographic?) context. I also feel like the colouring of the image has been altered for the same purpose – it puts me in mind of one of those historical films from the 50s and 60s, like Ben Hur and Spartacus (which I suspect is probably the whole point).

There’s something else interesting about Crawley’s appearance in this scene – his sunglasses. Cast your mind back to episode 3 in the first season (Hard Times), in which we saw him appearing without sunglasses all the way up to (and including) 33AD. I did comment on the appearance of the sunglasses in the 42AD scene in the write up for it:

I’m not sure I actually find this sudden appearance of sunglasses some 2500 years earlier all that interesting. There’s a part of me that feels that they have probably been included here because we, as an audience, have come to expect Crawley/Crowley’s costume to include a pair of stylised sunglasses by this point. I’d actually be strangely satisfied with that if it was the case – I feel like the reason behind his choosing to wear them could be so much more interesting if this was simply a “continuity error”.

Just wanted to include this because I am thrilled Aziraphale finally gets a really bad-ass entrance. How many times have we seen Crowley sauntering his way into a scene, looking like the coolest thing on Earth (and knowing it)? So glad the angel gets a turn at that here. That said. Why exactly is it that Aziraphale has happened to show up at this place and time? As we will come to find out shortly, Crawley is actually acting with Heaven’s authority so I don’t think the angel would have been sent there. It would present an interesting parallel to Crowley’s supposed knack of knowing when the angel is in trouble, but also resurfaces the suggestion about them being aware of the other’s whereabouts more often than not. I have to say, based on the conversation between them here, that seems unlikely – this exchange feels nothing but businesslike to me, cold even. Aziraphale even goes so far as to apologise (unapologetically) for having to do his job. We do learn that it has been about 500 years since they’ve seen each other, which is a nice little piece of backstory to have. I also consider it interesting to see Crowley providing a prompt to Aziraphale on how to complete his task, which provides a loose mirror parallel to what we saw Before the Beginning, that time with Aziraphale prompting his newfound friend that the incantations (for want of a better word) were not complete.

Side note: don’t you just love those little goats for staying exactly where they’ve been put? Pretty sure most animals would have scarpered extremely quickly when a huge flaming ball appeared above them, never mind having another being literally appearing from thin air in a really spiky portal of light. They must be some very calm goats.

Given the light show that Aziraphale has brought with him to make an imposing entrance on a demon, I’m pretty impressed with the restraint Crawley shows when he responds here – I mean he’s not exactly known for his patience is he? I also wonder if Aziraphale’s comment about jokes is meant to be a throwback to Hastur’s vehemence that he doesn’t like them, but the line is so throw-away that I can’t see what relevance it would add at this point. What I do find interesting is that, now we’re no longer in the “present day” of this season, we see Aziraphale struggling with his preconceived notions of right/good and wrong/evil. It’s something we saw quite a lot of in the first season, in both historical and “present” timelines. In the second season though, what with Aziraphale no longer working for Heaven, we tend to see it a lot less. We saw it in the first episode in the Before the Beginning segment, and we’ll see it again in the coming episodes, but predominantly in the historical scenes. There’s something about the fact that Aziraphale appears less conflicted about morality once he has been removed from the morality-defining authority, become more connected to humanity, and is found to be exercising his free will that I find deeply profound. No wonder the poor guy took 6000 years to realise that being Good isn’t just about following orders, especially when you consider that instruction is tied to his very existence. That whole thing is a big concept, and I struggled to put it into any words that made sense, so I hope I’ve at least been kind of clear. Basically, what I wanted to say was that I love that the historical scenes are being used as a way to remind us of the character development that Aziraphale has gone through over the millennia – they show us where he came from. And it’s not just the angel that gets this treatment:

We haven’t seen this version of Crawley/Crowley for quite a while, have we? The one that takes such delight in his mischief. And in case you missed it, we really should have known what he was up to – you can see two birds taking flight in the background behind his head, with an accompanying “caw” to draw attention to their presence.

I’m including that gif for no other reason that I find it Muriel’s impersonation of a goose adorable. I do wonder what exactly would have been deemed important though, if Job’s farm, camels, goat, oxen, children, and geese are all disposable. I’m not going to go into the underlying subtext of the bet that has been made between God and Satan here – the story itself is little changed from its original biblical source so I feel like it’s a bit out of scope for an episode write up. What is interesting to see is that the item on the list that Aziraphale balks at is the same as the one that Crowley has previously demonstrated (on more than one occasion) is his “line in the sand” for unacceptable acts – killing children. This will also be the first time, chronologically, that we see Aziraphale take his doubts to other angelic beings (some of whom are his superiors). I’m assuming his way of doing things is a little more diplomatic than Crowley’s was when he was in his angelic state, even if it is just as (un)fruitful.

This attitude towards Sitis and Job keeping their existing children rather than having them replaced with new ones says a lot about the Heavenly standard when it comes to understanding humanity and its eccentricities; his reasoning here being that it shouldn’t matter if Job’s existing children are murdered senselessly, as long as they’re replaced with an equal (or greater) number of different children. There is no appreciation of the complexities behind human relationships, desires, or emotions. I feel like it makes the fact that both Gabriel and Michael claim to understand the difference between the subtle technical differences between “killing someone” and “not stopping someone from killing someone” pretty ironic, particularly when they are taking advantage of this technicality to maintain their stance of being the good guys. And all said in such a convincing (and convinced) tone. Gabriel’s stance really only makes sense when you take it out of humanity’s context, which I think is why it’s just not something Aziraphale would ever be comfortable with.

Alright, we’ve jumped back into the present day to find Aziraphale apparently deep in thought about something. My take on it, and I think it’s a fairly common one, is that the whole Job sequence up to this point is a flashback as seen through Aziraphale’s eyes. (Side note: a cash register ringing noise is an interesting sound effect to employ to highlight the placards here, seeing as we all know the angel never willingly sells a book) There are a couple of things I picked up on during this delightful little scene, the first of which is this line:

AZIRAPHALE: I just didn’t see you coming.

I don’t think it would be a huge leap of faith to say that this line is probably not meant to be limited to this scene, but to Gabriel’s appearance on the whole. I don’t think it’s a huge revelation, I just love that it’s dropped in there so casually. And just as a quick note, I had previously wondered where Gabriel had been that he was able to sneak up on Aziraphale so easily, but it turns out that he would have been in plain sight as he approached the desk:

I love the way Aziraphale is bothered that somebody is bringing order to his chaos. It’s my belief that those books are likely arranged in such a way that only he knows how to find anything. After all, customers can’t buy books if they can’t find them, can they? The idea that somebody might actually be bringing some order to that must be distressing. It’s alright though, seeing as nobody will ever find anything they’re looking for using Gabriel’s sorting system anyway.

We also have the first reference to the Buddy Holly song “Everyday” in this scene. I’m really pleased that it was included in the second season – apparently it was something Terry was really keen to use as a device in the first season. The script book even includes stage directions that the soundtrack for most of the end credits should be stylised versions of the song. The story goes that when David Arnold presented his version of the theme tune for the first season, it was deemed to be so appropriate that the “Everyday” theme was dropped. I do absolutely love the theme tune we got. I also love that “Everyday” was brought back in for the second season. Both things can be true 😊

Last point of interest for this scene. The book that Jim reads from is “A Tale of Two Cities”. I will confess I haven’t read it, and used Wikipedia to summarise the plot, which as I understand it revolves around a central character who is compelled to disassociate himself from the wrongdoings of his family. There’s a drunken man that testifies on behalf of the main character and helps to get him acquitted of a crime. There’s a trip to Paris in 1792 that sees the main character imprisoned in the Bastille and the same man that helped acquit the main character travels to Paris in 1793 in an attempt to rescue him. There’s also a character called Gabelle, whose request for assistance in a prison escape leads to the capture of the main character.

It’s vague I’ll grant you, and I am sure I have missed a lot of the finer plot points. With that said, I don’t think I’d be alone in feeling like there are more than a few similarities to the 1793 Paris scene from Hard Times. Paris, the year, a prison rescue, and that name that’s awfully similar to Gabriel… It makes me wonder if this might be a Clue as to Aziraphale’s true purpose in Paris, and I suspect there might be a nice little project here to look at parallels between the novel and the 1793 storyline, but that would probably involve reading the original novel. In case you had missed it, time is not something I have a lot of right now, and classics bore the living shit out of me so it’s not something I can commit to so if anybody wants to take up that mantel, please feel free.

Don’t you just love that this is the first time we actually see Crowley sleeping in the show at all? There was a scene that didn’t make it to the final cut in the first season that saw him sleeping (in a bed/against a wall/on the ceiling), and one from just after he got out of bed. There is also explicit mention of his love of sleep in the book and we as a fandom have taken that cannon well and truly to heart. Yet this is the first confirmation we have in the show that he does in fact sleep. It’s a nice little touch for us to have – there really is no denying that this demon sleeps from this point on.

I made a note of Michael referring to Aziraphale as a “former angel” at the end of the first episode, and commented on how this feels like an inaccuracy. Interestingly Crowley makes an identical inaccuracy here in referring to himself as a “former demon”. To recap:

I feel the same way about Crowley and his status. I also note that Shax doesn’t correct his use of the past tense, but perhaps that’s because she’s confused at his use of sarcasm. What’s also of note is that she appears not to have any knowledge that Beelzebub and Crowley have already discussed the matter of Gabriel, likely because the former is trying to keep that under wraps. It makes me wonder if Crowley might have noticed that discrepancy had the discussion not turned to talk about the miracle that was performed in the bookshop the night before. And now we can briefly turn to the controversy that I raised from the last episode about whether Crowley actually had anything to do with said miracle:

SHAX: A miracle of enormous power happened last night. The kind of miracle only the mightiest of archangels could have performed.

So from her perspective, it looks like she believes Gabriel (as Supreme Archangel) performed the miracle himself. My theory about Crowley not playing his part in it gets pretty shaky at this point, because Aziraphale supposedly wouldn’t have been able to perform a miracle of that strength on his own. There is a “but” here. Or rather, an “unless”. What if Gabriel contributed to the miracle that was performed, but unknowingly? Possibly even unwillingly? His power, either alone or being added to that of another, might explain the colouration of the plume we see originating from the bookshop on the globe at the end of the episode. Yeah, that’s right, I’m not dropping this theory yet! It’s such a shame we don’t see any other example of plumes, because that would really either lend weight to it or completely discredit it. Shax clearly doesn’t think much of Crowley’s claim to the miracle regardless – she doesn’t even respond to him when he offers the possibility that it was him that did it.

It's also notable that Crowley makes no protestations about Shax’s label of “friend” when referring to Aziraphale. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see his face when she says it, but we do see that it’s unchanged when the close up returns to him. I’m not saying this is a denial of his true feelings, merely pointing out that this would have been hotly refuted prior to the body switch incident. Whether Crowley doesn’t care that Hell knows about his “friendship” or just can’t be bothered to argue isn’t clear at this point. What is clear, is that Shax’s threats are convincing enough that the plants are frightened – you can see (and hear) them shaking in the background:

I’m sure Crowley probably starts the car in a pass-agg response to his being threatened, but there’s a big part of me that believes he really does it because Shax has had the audacity to frighten his beloved plants. I don’t have any evidence to suggest that’s the case, but I won’t be swayed on that regardless. As a final point of note: this will be the second time Crowley has been offered the “opportunity” to help Hell and refused. He clearly has no interest in helping them – his bridges are well and truly burned as far as he’s concerned.

And with that, we’ve arrived at the credits, which feels like an excellent place to wrap this part up. I don’t think this instalment has been quite as controversial as the last one but as ever: questions, comments, discussion, always welcome. See you for the next one! 😊

[cecilysass]

Scully the ice queen?

I often see people talking about the “ice queen” trope in XF fanfic from the 90s as an example of fanon becoming ubiquitous in fanfic. If you don't know what I'm talking about, this is it in a nutshell: basically, fanfic in the 1990s began to make reference to Scully as a perceived “ice queen,” both at work and in her personal life, meaning that she didn’t express her emotions, that she was repressed and cold. And then that became a thing, a standard trope that other fanfic writers drew on.

My theory is that the “ice queen” / Scully association didn’t actually come from specific works of fic or from specific individuals.  I also don’t think it necessarily originated in fic and then crossed over into fan perceptions of Scully. I think it’s easy for 21st century fans to get the causal arrows mixed up on this because we're missing some historical context. I believe many viewers in the 1990s—not just fanfic writers—actually interpreted Scully differently than viewers now because they interpreted female characters differently. I think people in the 1990s were simply much more likely to interpret women serious about their professional lives as “ice queens.” Especially if their professional lives involved science.

Consider the below female scientist (P.K. Newby) writing about her graduate school experience in the 1990s.

Of course this still happens today, and of course it didn’t always happen in the 1990s. But I think it’s important that this impacted actual women living their lives in the same time period, because it’s reasonable that this also affected TV audiences’ perception of a character. 

I give you this message from the Usenet discussion group alt.tv.x-files, the first season of the show, from before the fanfic Usenet group was even created. This user characterizes Scully as an “ice queen,” claiming to notice a change after Darkness Falls, and even associating it with her skepticism specifically.

(This is me showing you the whole message with the date, then showing you parts close up because it's so tiny. I'm very dedicated.)

So in this (very early online fandom) conversation, we have a fan who already read her as an “ice queen” on their own without the filter of fanfic to sway them.

Now please don’t get me wrong. Fanfic definitely took hold of the Scully / ice queen thing and ran with it. There are many examples in the Usenet group during the 1990s of people asking, “Hey, which episode was Scully called ‘ice queen’ again? and people saying, ‘Oh never, ha, that’s just a fanfic thing.’” It was a well-established trope by at least 1997. See below.

I just want people to consider that it didn’t have to be one writer, one fic, or one incident that led to the popularization of this piece of fanon. This would have been something people understood right away because it already was culturally out there in the interpretation of the character and in associations with professional women. And like the person asking the question in the above message infers, it probably did come organically from several people at once. 

That said, some 1990s fans actively questioned it, observing it didn’t seem to fit with their interpretation of the show.

Notice that in the below conversation, Scully as ice queen is mixed up in perceptions of GA as ice queen, too. 

(Side note: I mean, you can totally get where that person was coming from, right? Gillian Anderson was TOTALLY giving repressed, cold, virginal saint in 1997.)

As a prolific reader of fanfic, old and new, I think it’s also important to add this: it seems to me that fanfic writers more often made “Ice Queen” a hurtful nickname that Scully was called by other people (like Mulder being called “Spooky”), not an actual characterization of her personality. And actually, especially given her mostly-male workplace, this seems not unrealistic in the 1990s? Some fanfic writers may even have been writing from experience. (At least, I think I'm right in saying that tendency was true. I'd be curious to know if other readers of old fanfic think Scully herself is characterized as an "ice queen" more often than I'm saying.)

I’m an Old Person. I’m ashamed to admit that in the same time period, I had a high school friend who always studied really hard in school and prioritized grades over social life, and sometimes we jokingly called her an “ice queen.” There was no male equivalent term. So unfortunately, I know this was most definitely a thing outside of Scully and the XF fandom. Fortunately, it does seem to be something we see less of in the 2020s. (At least I think?)  I just want to point it out because it’s one of those things you could think was just a little fanon quirk concerning this character or this show when really I do think it’s about gender perceptions overall. 

Very interested to know, though, if others think I'm wrong.

(actual Ice queen)

[jpitha]

More #Aliens are Gardenworlders. What happens when a Human gets approval to live on an actual Garden world?

Day 1 Hey Diary! I'm so excited! It took something like 8 weeks and practically a dozen forms, but I finally got approval to relocate to that Garden world I was telling you about! It's so nice here. Everyone is friendly, the house they assigned me to so so cute, and it's just incredibly easy to get around and get food. And the weather? It's been sunny and warm, and a local was confused when I asked what season it was. They don't have seasons! No more ice and snow! I think I'm going to like it here.

Day 28 Huh. Still sunny and warm today Diary. I expected at least some clouds or rain or a thunderstorm, but nothing yet. It's been sunny and warm all month long. They don't even count months here! They just track the days in a yearly period! Went out to my "garden" (really the forest behind my house) for some lunch and just grabbed whatever I could pick. It was all tasty and easy to eat.

Day 62 Diary. It's still sunny and warm. I don't get it. Every day is exactly the same. All the locals don't notice or care, and when I ask about weather they look at me oddly. Didn't feel like foraging today, so I just ate some of the "grass" in the backyard. It's fine, tastes like pistachio.

Day 180 OMG DIARY! It rained today! Everyone was so scared! They said it only happens once a year or so and was all worried about it. Schools were closed and everyone stayed inside. It wasn't even a thunderstorm! It just rained for about 90 minutes in the morning, then the clouds parted and it was sunny and warm again. I stood outside in the rain the whole time not even caring that I was getting wet.

Day 200 I've read just about every book I can get my hands on, twice! I've watched all the shows that I can get off my pad, human and non! (I will say, those K'laxi historical dramas are very good, but I don't like the Xenni war documentaries). I. am. bored.

Day 250 Okay, you're going to think I'm getting weird Diary, but this can't be normal. It rained once the whole time I was here, it's never gotten too cold or too hot, has always been sunny or partly sunny, I can eat practically everything around me and get this - it's so easy to sneak up on the locals. It sounds mean when I write it out, but I can just crouch in the bushes and when one walks by jump up and go BOO! And they scream and run away. The fourth time I did it, the authorities came by and asked me nicely to stop. They said they didn't want to "interfere with any human predator rituals" but that I had to "stop stalking the locals."

Day 380 It's been more than a year, and I'm more convinced than ever that I am in hell. After that one time it rained last year, it hasn't done anything else! Also, I got in trouble again for stalking the locals - I wasn't even going to attack them or anything, it's just TOO EASY to sneak up on them. I need to get another hobby or something.

Day 420 (nice!) So Diary, I got in some pretty big trouble with the planetary authorities this time. It turns out, nobody here had ever heard of Extreme Sports before. I was just so bored, that I had a motocross bike shipped over. I had found one that was just like I had when I was a kid on Earth! It was so cherry. Someone had done a lot of work to it. Anyway, I had built a little course in the back forest of my house, nothing crazy! But someone saw me doing jumps and getting some sick air, and called the authorities, worried I was "exhibiting symptoms of self-harm." They took my bike!

Day 500 Okay, I give. I can't live here anymore. If you can believe it, I'm getting burnt out on nice weather! I did a telehealth session with a human therapist off-world and they recommended I apply to be transferred back to a human world, or at least moved to a Starbase or ship. Somewhere where things can change, and there's more going on.

[jinnaizaemon]

Nintama Rantarou: Ninjutsu Gakuen Zenin Shutsudou! no Dan commentary

I've been wanting to write about this movie for a while because it was my entry point into the franchise, and since I've been neck deep into the script recently after translating it, I thought now is a good time. However, I wasn't sure how to articulate my post, and what direction to give it... So in the end, it looks like a collection of my own thoughts, mixed with some trivia, notes about the script and how I translated some things, in my best attempt at following the movie chronologically. I hope it doesn't come off as too messy and that it is at least a little bit of an interesting read to you. Let's begin under the read more! Beware of spoilers, and forgive my broken English.

(by all means, have a snack while reading)

A little background first of all: The first Nintama Rantarou movie came out in 1996. This one, Ninjutsu Gakuen Zenin Shutsudou! no Dan, came out 15 years later, in March 2011. And 13 years later, in December 2024, we will get the third movie in the franchise... the gaps are too long, I don't want to wait a decade between each movie >< More precisely, this movie came out in theaters on March 12 2011, that is to say one day after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of March 11 2011 ; it resulted in promotional events related to the movie being cancelled, and in general theaters in Japan shortening screenings or closing entirely. As a consequence of this, the movie is a box-office failure, despite having extremely positive reviews.

The movie itself adapts the contents of volume 37 and 42 of the manga, which had already been animated in the 16th season of the anime series, making the movie a remake of sort, with movie-only original scenes, and an adaptation of the plot so that it includes every member of Ninjutsu Academy.

Personally, I only watched this movie recently at the recommendation of friends, and while I've felt a bit overwhelmed by the HUGE cast of characters, I've been charmed by the colorful palette, cheerful characters and positive, optimistic tone contrasting with the setting of the story - the Warring States period in Japan not being an obvious background for a fun children cartoon... It's a strange mix Nintama always does brilliantly and it's shown at its best in this movie I think, daring to show actual battlefields (as opposed to the usual dust clouds of the TV anime version) and wounded soldiers as explicitely as an anime for children can allow, while giving the spotlight to the Health Committee, most importantly to Rantarou as he finds his role and what he's best at in battle. The movie isn't about Tasogaredoki VS Oomagatoki, it actually opposes war and healing at many scales ; Tasogare Jinbei and Oomagatoki Magatoki's abusing villagers VS Ninjutsu Academy protecting them and giving them their freedom and independence, the great ninja Zatto covered in wounds and his mirror opposite clumsy Isaku the healer, and finally Rantarou who offers to heal (free of charge!) soldiers and let them go when the expectation at the time was that surrendering meant death. It's like, in an era poisoned by war and death, Ninjutsu Academy is a little pocket of optimism where children grow to make the future a little bit kinder, here shown most explicitely in the Health Committee and Isaku's good influence but not only ; and I found that surprisingly sweet. I also have an interest in historical settings and anime so... yeah, that movie left a good impression on me!

Anyways, now to follow the movie chronologically! Iza~

Opening scene

The movie opens with a flashback scene involving Zatto and Isaku, introducing the big themes of the movie I mentioned before. According to Amako Soubee, the original author of the manga Nintama Rantarou is adapted from, cloth was expensive at the time, hence the recurring use of flags, clothings, underwears, etc recycled as bandages.

Isaku is dressed as yamabushi, practicioners of shugendo, known for retreating to the mountains for ascetic practices, rituals, etc. In the context of nintama, the outfit permits to hide Isaku's affiliation, making him an enemy of no one, and signify a knowledge of herbs and medicine giving him credibility to care for the wounded.

if i had a nickel everytime i wrote on tumblr about yamabushi because of anime I'd have two nickels etc etc...

Ninjutsu Academy

The TV anime seems to go back and forth with this, sometimes showing background students in classrooms, sometimes showing very small classrooms (like how 1st year i-class and ro-class each have 4 known students, and they are sometimes the only ones in their classroom while sometimes there are more desks occupied by nameless mob characters), but the movie features a BUNCH of unknown, nameless students appearing in the back. It's probably an effort to give the school a feeling of greatness to fit the grand scale of the story, but it's a bit weird to see unfamiliar students especially in older years haha.

The 名物 meibutsu, or local specialty of Sonoda Village. It's a flower tha is never named, and despite showing up multiple times throughout the movie no big attention is brought to it, apart from it being mentioned that while it can be used as a painkiller, a wrong dose is poisonous. It finally gets a significant role at the very end, though, when it's used by Tasogaredoki to halt the Dokutake army. I think I could write a lot about the symbolism of this flower and how it relates to Isaku but it may border on crazy fan rambling so it'll be for another time. (maybe)

(They appear in numerous scenes taking place in Sonoda Village!)

Komatsuda was probably too busy thinking of his big brother, owner of a fan shop, to notice the pattern on the floor spelling へっぽこ heppoko, "useless", "incompetent".

When the ha-class is discussing the mixed-up homework, Chouji is shown growing asagao, Japanese morning glories. Because these flowers grow fast and easily, they are often used as teaching material in lower grades of elementary school where students have to care for them and report on their growth as homework.

In the same scene, while all of ha-class is laughing, only Shouzaemon and Kingo stay serious, Shouzaemon being well, Shouzaemon and Kingo being Kisanta's roommate.

Before the Headmaster enters, there's a sheet of paper on the floor with every student's name and the homework they received. If they got the right homework, it's marked with a O. Flipping and zooming on this frame reveals whose students got the wrong homework, and what the assignment they got was. Sadly, since the text is blurry I couldn't decipher everything, and putting the whole list will make this post even longer than it already is. But I can tell you that apart from Kisanta, Monjirou, Chouji, and the Rescue Team... Heita, Kyuusaku, Shirobei, Sakubei, Kazuma, Takamaru, Heisuke and Hachizaemon got the wrong homework too.

...Takamaru's summer homework was "crossdressing".

Kisanta Rescue Team's introduction scene has a LOT of interesting details, so I already dedicated a post for it.

Talk with Tegata Kessai

Tegata Kessai explains how he wants to get a 庇いの制札 kabai no seisatsu from Tasogaredoki's lord, which I translated as a "protection decree" for ease of reading, but it's actually a little bit different. In the words of Doi-sensei: "Don't burn, steal, and kill. Basically, a document prohibiting the army from committing violence." kabai means protecting or sheltering, while seisatsu refers to an edict publicly displayed on a wooden board in a specific place to make the public aware of a law in place in the area, a recent proclamation of the local lord or of the shogun, etc.

Danzou misunderstands kabai no seisatsu as kaba no keisatsu, literally "a hippo policeman" - I don't know if the average Muromachi child would be knowledgeable of animals in Sub-saharan Africa, though!

I think the people behind him are Maasai people, but I'm not very knowledgeable so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

In this post, under the read more, I wrote about the meaning of the words "Tasogaredoki" and "Oomagatoki".

Kousaka makes his only appearance ever in civil clothes in the next scene. I have to point it out. It's important., okay. By the way, badminton only became a thing in the 19th century. But feudal Japan already had a similar game called hanetsuki, which started as a game reserved for nobles, but grew in popularity during Muromachi and became a New Year tradition by Edo. He's not being anachronistic... just a little bit avant-garde.

Opening theme and to Sonoda Village

The noodles they are eating is a dish called kuzukiri, a popular, refreshing summer dessert from Kyoto, so it's a local snack for nintama. It's made by mixing kudzu starch with water, and once thickened, cut in the shape of noodles with the tool seen above. It's then served with black sugar syrup traditionally, and with a variety of others toppings in modern times.

Given Sanjirou, Isuke and Heidayuu's reactions, looks like there wasn't enough for everyone.

What I translated as "hand", as in a manual worker, is 夫丸 bumaru in the original script, and is a word specific to Muromachi-Edo. The bu part means male and maru is a suffix for names used at the time for children (like Kirimaru!) or lower-class workers. Shinbei explains that they are "the people carrying supplies to the battlefield", which is true, but it seems that the word refers to lower classes laborers in a more general way.

When Kirimaru explains how he traded his lunchbox for a bunch of things until he got the Oomagatoki hands' uniform, Rantarou tells him it's just like Warashibe chouja, or the Straw Millionaire story. It's a folktale that became popular during the Muromachi period, about a poor man who starts by trading a piece of straw, and after a series of trades, meets with a rich man who offers him his daughter in marriage, making the poor man a millionaire.

Rantarou misreads the tag as "Size rerere" because the roman letter L looks like the katakana character レ, which is read re. So レレレ is read rerere.

When Kirimaru first tries to carry Shinbei on his shoulders, they both talk in a very theatrical, over the top way, and wear red make-up. You can also hear a nohkan flute, hyoushigi wood clappers and tsuzumi drum in the background. This is all typical of Kabuki theater.

Just a cute detail, but Rikichi was carrying Shouzaemon on his back in this scene.

Okay.. that's a very poor attempt at adapting Rikichi's joke, I hope we find something better by the time we release it publicly hahaha. In the original script he says 斯く斯く然々kakukaku shikajika, which simply means "this and that", "such and such"... while holding a puppet of the bishop shogi piece, called kakugyou or kaku for short, and a puppet of a deer, or shika in japanese. So the joke is that as he says kakukaku shikajika, he shows a kaku and a shika... hm...

Lord Oomagatoki, in hiding, wears a raccoon dog mask to conceal his face. Raccoon dogs with the ability to shapeshift to conceal their true identity and play tricks on others are a common motif in japanese folktales and they are known as bakedanuki. They are usually portrayed as goofy and fun characters, with um, large testicles reminiscent of Oomagatoki's chin under the mask lol.

Zatto turns his head to listen to lord Tasogare from his right side, since he's deaf in his left ear.

Sonoda Village

Everyone is here! This is the part where you point in excitement at your fave getting two seconds of screentime.

Chouji is shown with the 震天雷 shintenrai, or thunder crash bomb, which will play a big role later in the story.

There are a few words used related to Ninjutsu Academy's whole defense tactic that are a bit specific, either to warfare or to the period, which I swapped for ease of reading. For example, 逆���木 sakamogi is "abatis", as in a fortification made from stacking wood. I left it as simply "barrier" for ease of reading.

The rabbit design of the telescope is explained in the manga and TV anime, but not in the movie. According to Shousei-san, it's a common motif on telescopes, but when I tried to find pictures of real telescopes with a similar design I only found Nintama Rantarou related webpages. So. Okay stay with me this is a little look into how tricky nintama can be to translate sometimes hahaha... The design is a pun based on the 12 animals of the zodiac, ordered like this: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig. If you count ten animals starting from the rabbit, you end up with rat. Rat in japanese is nezumi, or "ne" for short. "tenth is rat" is 10番目がね juubanme ga ne, which you can also read as 十目がね toome ga ne, which is itself an homonym of 遠眼鏡 toomegane, "telescope". ...Phew!!!

When the Explosives Committee destroys the bridges leading to the village, Takamaru and Saburouji, being newer additions to the committee, have to cover their ears while Doi and Heisuke are okay.

While most soldiers in the Tasogaredoki army simply wear the skull kamon (emblem) of their lord, higher ranking members wear kabuto helmets with... interesting designs, like a crab, squid, or a banana design. In the Muromachi period, when the tanegashima matchlocks were introduced, armors had to be redesigned to become thicker and bulletproof ; as their design evolved, so did the datemono, or crests on helmets. Initially U shaped, these crests got a number of designs, usually one's kamon or fortuitous animals like rabbits, dragonflies, etc. Yes, samurai walked around with cute rabbit ears. The country of moe, truly.

Here, Isuke and Shouzaemon call Hieta Happousai 冷えた 発泡酒 Hieta Happoushu, hieta meaning cold and happoushu refering to an alcoholic drink similar to beer. Unless I find something better, it's Hieta Happousoda in the translation.

Look at how cute Hikoshirou dozing off is. Yes, that's all.

This scene puts a lot of focus on the two tins containing the leaves from Sonoda's local flower ; it can be used both as a painkiller or a poison depending on the dose. When Zatto enters the room, Fushikizou throws a bunch of stuff at him, including one of the tins. Just after, Fushikizou notices that Zatto took one of the tin with him... but doesn't seem to have told anyone about it. I guess that makes the first time Zatto and Fushikizou work together!

Tasogaredoki's assault

The tactic used by Ninjutsu Academy... well... Torawaka to defend the village against Tasogaredoki is very reminiscent of the battle of Waterloo, where Wellington's army was posted on a slope made muddy by bad weather, slowing down French troops.

The shintenrai, or thunder crash bomb, is just as Senzou explains in the movie: "Ordinary cannonballs don't explode on impact. But this thunder crash bomb has a timed fuse, and its shell itself explodes." It comes from China, and is one of the first bombs developed in history.

I love this scene so much... well, I already explained the reasons why above. But even though he's the titular character, Rantarou rarely gets the chance to shine like this, doesn't he? After this line, you can hear hyoushigi again, as Kirimaru and Shinbei cheer for Rantarou. This evokes Japanese theater again ; what they are doing is called kakegoe, shouts from the audience to encourage performers. When a kabuki play reaches its climax, when an actor does something really impressive, he will often strikes a pose and the story will stop for a moment just for the audience to shout such kakegoe.

I don't know if it's intentional, but there's a scene earlier in the movie where Tasogare Jinbei repeats multiple times "Nine for me, one for Magatoki-dono", referring to their respective share at dinner but obviously to the taxes taken from Sonoda Village, too. Yuki wasn't here to witness it, I think, but I find it ironic that she specifically goes "One for my lord" here as he hasn't realized yet his scheme has been found out.

Tasogaredoki ninja corps used the leaves taken from the Health Committee earlier to stop Dokutake.

Credits

It's more explicit in the manga but Monjirou is bonking his head because he's frustrated he didn't get to fight haha.

And Kisanta isn't the only one who completed his summer homework in the end, Isaku did too!!

Finishing with one last pic because Doi crying for Kisanta is just way too cute.

And now I think I'm done! There were so many things I wanted to mention, I know that the moment I press publish I'll realize I forgot something important... oh well!! That means I can write another post later. If you've read this far, thank you! I hope it wasn't too boring ^^ Now I can't wait until the next movie...!!! Tenki...!!

[fr-wiwiw]

well, to indulge myself i'm writing this post to ramble and share a bit of my Gahan barbarian!au. it's going to be a bit of a long post i think, we'll see.

i saw noel's post about their gladiator!yohan & prince!gaon (check it here!) and it makes me miss writing the arranged marriage barbarian!au i have, it only has what.. 3 or 4 chapters I think. you can read it here.

i've always been fascinated by the visuals of medieval, historical, period era. even post apocalyptic future settings like Horizon Zero games franchise.

i think i started au bcs i've played too much Assassin's Creed Valhalla— i haven't finished it yet, too preoccupied with Monster Hunter World— but i have sketched my female Eivor several times in my sketchbook. this was when i'm curious and interested enough to draw human but haven't fully grasped the gesture, anatomy, shapes and all. i usually draw what i take interest on and it helps me tremendously, to keep on learning and push through my frustrations.

and of course.. my Gahan brainrot picked it up. hence the barbarian!au for TDJ born

i have sketches of Gahan in this au, i think i've shared them here too but i'll re-share here. it doesn't catch many eyes, i admit it's a bit of a bummer but I like the idea anyway. I used to imagined them before I went to sleep, now it's idol/celeb!gaon x mysterious husband!yohan that's occupying my mind. but anyways! here are the sketches.

1st sketch is me trying to see his body proportion in viking/barbarian attire. the upper left sketch was me wanting to see modern Yohan stripping off his clothes ig haha.. anyways, between Gaon/Jinyoung and Yohan/Jisung, it's VERY difficult to nail down his face. less lines doesn't resembles him at all and add some more lines he looks too realistic to my simplified version of Gaon/Jinyoung. it was hard trying to find the balance for these characters to be in the same picture and look like they belong in the same style. i want to do Yohan/Jisung's pretty face justice but i still struggled in this sketches. i think this was 2021? 2022?

2nd sketch— his long protruding neck lmao i haven't fully grasped how a person can pose naturally but it came out as if he has turtle neck syndrome going on. well done Yohan! you are a turtle apparently according to my hand. all jokes aside, this was me attempting to paint his face bcs i never really attempted to paint gahan. i doodled and sketched more than i paint/rendering and i'm on my way to learn more of rendering daily if possible, alongside with my daily sketches. you can also see i've tried to give some color to his attire and some medallion or such. do you see a braid there? i will get there, the braid is something significant in this story ;)

3rd sketch is basically me planning out his character design as a barbarian/viking chief. you can see bits of references cuts here and there, took me quite some time bcs i just started to really try my hands on concept character design properly— i love cloaks and capes and vikings has exactly just that, and the winter times are especially my favorite type of attire on them so i thought why not give Yohan polar bear fur as his official formal attire while still flaunting his wonderful body to the world be it summer or winter lmao. here's where you know it's fantasy. i'm sure people back then drink ales and what not to keep their body warm so they can go bare-chested in winter even but i'm sure the day after that they will regret it. but i make Yohan and his clan to have special abilities for living in cold places. doesn't mean i don't make them wear winter attire but this is only bcs i want him to be bare-chested xD the one I post here was before i dabble on the sketch a bit more. hopefully one day i can share it again with more updates for this au.

now.. onto Gaon's sketches.

he's a Prince in this story. his parents, the King and the Queen, arranged a marriage for him for political reasons. but they have special reasons as to why they pick Yohan, aside from political purposes, to be their son's betrothed and gave him away to Yohan's barbarian clan.

1st sketch (ignore the upper left, that's Jinyoung from his other drama). i want to see him in medium and long hair length. there's a purpose to this. he has his canon Gaon hairstyle when he was the Prince in the palace. but with time and some adjustments living with Yohan and his barbarian clan rubs off on him. perhaps it's due to that, or he's grown tired to cut it off again and again (he has no one to groom him properly now unlike in the palace), practical reason is to maintain heat around his neck while in winter, or it's his idea of adapting and blending in with the enemy. you can't blame him for being wary. he's whisked away from his comfort place and home and married off to a fearsome and famous barbarian on the land at that time, almost willingly got raped by Yohan on 1st chapter (yes, you read that right). other reasons why he grows his hair, as i mentioned the culture rubs off on him, is something to do with the hair braiding too. and personal reason is that i want to see pretty Gaon in long hair lol

2nd sketch on the left was him on early days on Yohan's fur beddings. the right was him perhaps laughing out loud by some surprising and amusing thing Yohan said after living with him for some months, you can see the different hair length there. gosh he looks unalive in here lol idk why.. my sketches were still rigid here

3rd sketch is them after establishing a genuine intimate relationship and Yohan has to be away to fend off some unexpected visitors. unfortunately it cost Yohan some of his men's lives. but he made it back to his clan and his betrothed. i make it as if Gaon was anxious waiting for him and one of the barbarian shouted for Yohan's arrival and he ran immediately. lunged at Yohan perhaps, the barbarian Chief managed to catch him but didn't quite have the strength to carry them both upright as the weariness sinks into him post battle & adrenaline wearing off of him. he's home now, in Gaon's arms.

now.. the hair braiding.

barbarians/viking has long hair and braids on their hair. styled cascading down or up into a pony tail or a mohawk and such. idk if this is historically correct but i'm winging most of this anyway but the idea of braids in this story is that it's significant to lovers. it's a mark between special intimate relationship (like lovers, spouses, soulmates). one can have a braid or braid their lover's hair should they wish to, it's very intimate and special for them. jeweleries might have certain status symbol for them and their ranks but I also prefer these barbarians have something simple to symbolize their intimacy. something that can get overlooked but enough for their significant other to know (and some people) what it means.

I like the idea of Yohan having accessories for his attire but his hair is clean from braids. clearly it's saying something if you've read this far and seeing my sketches for their different stages of relationship. over the years of them finally developing feelings and genuinely established a relationship, despite already being married an Gaon almost got raped by Yohan, they are lovers.

yet Yohan never really initiates anything about him wanting to have braid(s) or braiding Gaon's hair. he might have explained about what braids are to Gaon when the bambi was curious or off-handedly commented something about it. Gaon really finds out the real meaning from Yohan's ppl and he wonders why Yohan never asks or wants braids from him. then he realizes Yohan has always been respectful to him, even years after that night he almost raped him. always keeping healthy distance, outside of their sex and other intimate physical affections, he usually waits until Gaon ask first regarding intimate things. not that he never initiates things, he figures something as serius and committed as this is something Gaon wants to have an option to bail out from. they were arranged to have marriage for political reasons after all, Gaon has the freedom to not have feelings for him as long as he stays within the wedding pact rules Yohan make with the King & the Queen ( for Gaon's sake too). He never expects to have feelings for the Prince and he always keeps the option of Gaon falling out of love of him one day. it is only fair, he thinks.

but then Gaon asks him if he wants Gaon to braid his hair. the Prince never ceases to make him falter. it still shocks and amuses him, to have someone have this much effect on him. even with nervousness and blushing state Gaon is in now after uttering those words.. Yohan wonders what he has done to have this kind of luxury to have someone this precious in his arms.

and if his people noticed a single braid just near the back of his neck when wind swept his hair or if he pulls his hair into a ponytail on hot summer days? they will all grin smugly.. Yohan likes to keep it a bit hidden from view mainly bcs it's practical and he doesn't want ppl to accidentally graze it off when he's having friendly wrestle matches or axe practices. or even having people cut it off when he's at war. he doesn't hide it per se, it's visible when it's visible. Gaon smiles sweetly and adoringly when he finds this out bcs to him, it feels as if Yohan is unconsciously protecting it. protecting their relationship, protecting Gaon.

and if Gaon walks out of Yohan's tent, that days when he asks if he can braid Yohan's hair, with a braid or several on his hair? visible to everyone? the people cheer and roar in celebration. they throw a huge feast and toast to their relationship, congratulating the power couple. wishing the gods to give these two their blessings and to protect them. they're finally able to see their Chief have a partner that is equal to him. it's a memorable day

but if you think this story doesn't come with heavy angst, tears, pain and betrayal.. well think again ;))

i will stop here. thankyou for reading! i hope i can pick up this au again in my drawings & writings

[poibynt]

Just finished HTTYD book 4 (I am relistening to the series completely out of order why not) & the Hysterics, specifically Norbert, clock Hiccup and Fishlegs as Hooligans pretty damn fast. This might just be assumption, seeing as Hooligans are the most likely people to be on the Island of Vilany since it neighbours Berk but that's not a total given. Not to fall into my forever habit of fleshing out and complicating fantasy settings to be more realistic but is there a possibility that different viking tribes have distinctive clothing which marks who they are, or maybe that they speak different dialects? Its been a while but I remember something about there being like 70 something words for rain 'in the Berk language' not Norse, in the first book (I think I could be wrong). Also, in 8 Hiccup says that Ugg runes are hard to read, thus meaning the Ugglythugs have a mildly different writing system to Hooligans (or...shit handwriting (carvewriting?) but also so does literally everyone in this series so). They have to all be speaking Norse since there's never any issues with communication throughout the series. Hiccup is shown to be a bit of a polyglot but other characters never seem to struggle to understand each other. However, it would make sense if different tribes have drifted away from the standard Norse that was likely spoken during the OG Wilderwest days enough to have distinctive accents or maybe mild dialects (like, tribes closer together who interact way more have kept in lingiustic lockstep so the Hooligans and Bogburglers have very similar vocab but just some different accents whereas the Hooligans and the Beserks would have less in common & their Norse would sound more dialectical to eachother) OR maybe the tribes have existed as distinct groups since before the Wilderwest unification/were created and maintained during that time period and to maintain a cohesive nation (what....the fuck did the OG Wilderwest look like actually? Like politically, how did it operate? That is a whole other post but I'm assuming there was some element of centralisation and unification seeing as how it's talked about in the series) standardised Norse grew in popularity but the original languages of the tribes still influenced speakers and fused with the standard Norse. Which would make sense with the 70+ Hooligan words for rain, since historically it seems like native names for flora, fauna and the natural world stick around since imposed or adopted languages often don't have replacement words for these things or don't need to rename all the birds or whatever. Idk, maybe Hooligans have really distinctive helmets! People who know more about linguistics than me feel free to muse, ponder and or contradict me.

[consanguinitatum]

And Now For Something Completely Different: I look for an early 1993 Michael Sheen project!

As everyone who reads me regularly knows, I'm a David Tennant researcher/archivist (it's what I do!) and write A Tennantcy To Act, a Substack about his career. But last night at an ungodly hour, a question from a MS fan on Twitter got me amped to find a missing Michael Sheen project...so that's what I did. My body might be pissed I stayed up til 2 am (I'm an OLD!) but my soul and spirit are cleansed. I found it! So if you're a Sheen fan, buckle up. Let's take a ride on the Sheen side (and oh yeah, I just learned Michael's mum has retweeted all my research. So there's that!) The question was about a 1993 episode of a 1991-1996 ITV series, narrated by Edward Woodward, called In Suspicious Circumstances. Michael's Wiki had the series listed, but no further info on the title of the episode Michael appeared in, nor any date but 1993. Last night this fan asked Michael himself if he could remember the name of the episode (as apparently it's a bit of a mystery for his fans). Michael couldn't recall. So I went on the hunt. Luckily a tiny clip of the episode was featured on Twitter, so I could use it as a reference. And boy did it end up to be important!

The smart researcher analyzes what they've got. We see men in mustaches, bowl hats and sack coats using wagons instead of cars, so 1890s? Early 1900s? Michael plays "William Wright" and looks like he's fixing a wagon wheel. He reads his bible, and has an accent. Keep these details in mind. They'll be important. Okay - some background on the series: In Suspicious Circumstances was an anthology series which re-enacted historical crimes. Beginning on 16 March 1993, it broadcast three one-hour episodes, each of which contained two thirty-minute stories. Okay, so that means there are nine possible mini-episodes Michael could've been in. But which one? Let's narrow them down! The series' first episode aired 16 March 1993. It was called "Laugh Baby Laugh" and was about Elvira Barney, acquitted of murdering her lover in 1932. The second mini-episode was called "Shadows of Doubt" and was about Robert Hoolhouse, a laborer hanged for murdering a farmer's wife in 1938. Here are some newspaper articles about this broadcast:

I felt pretty comfortable ruling these two out immediately - mostly because both crimes were set in the 1930s, and our clip tells us Michael's episode was way before then. Moving on! Now let's talk about the third episode, which aired 30 March 1993. (I'm deliberately skipping over the second episode because I think that's the one Michael's in. Back to that in a second.) Anyway...the two mini-episodes from the third episode were called "Falling Starr" and "Good as Gold", and were about two very different women found dead on beaches...one in 1931, the other in 1900. Here are a few newspaper articles about these episodes:

The 1931 one we could rule out. But the 1900? Hmmm, it's a possibility, sure, though the clip we have sure doesn't look like it's anywhere near a beach town with sand dunes like Great Yarmouth, right? So that also seems improbable. Now let's examine that second episode, which was broadcast 23 March 1993. The first of the two mini- episodes was entitled "Dancing With Death" and was about the 1960s Glaswegian serial killer known only as Bible John.

Um, the 1960s certainly doesn't sound like it fits the clip Michael's in, right? So what's the second mini-episode, then?

Well, it's set in Suffolk in 1902 and is about a murder of a servant girl in "a scandalous affair in a Suffolk village which may have led to murder." Sounds promising! The time period certainly seems like it would fit. But what is it called? After all, no one was sure what the episode was entitled, because if they had, they would've known which episode Michael was in.

It's called "Candle In The Window!" So now we have to switch gears here to find the final proof. There are two possibilities, time period-wise, so we have to go to the source to find out if we can determine which one is the right episode. And by that, I mean newspapers of the period. After all, In Suspicious Circumstances was a historical series about real-life crimes. So I started with the Suffolk one, which I thought the most likely.

Remember we talked about Michael's character's name, and how he was working on a wagon wheel? Well, here are a few articles printed at the time about the scandal, the murder, and the resulting trial. From the Hull Morning Telegraph and the Nottingham Evening Post, both 6 November 1902:

This is a LOT of text - and newspapers at the time loved to print drama and florid language and up the scandal (they didn't have television to satisfy that urge, I guess?) But here are the relevant parts.

Notice the name of one of the witnesses: William George Wright. And gee.....he's a wheelwright! Ya know, a maker and repairer of wagon wheels!

Bingo! The circumstances of this case, Michael's character's name and occupation, and the descriptions in newspaper blurbs about the 23 March 1993 broadcast of In Suspicious Circumstances all line up.

"Candle In The Window" is the episode Michael was in. I published this earlier today on Twitter and within an hour, industrious Sheenies collated all my work (with my blessing and permission!) and updated Michael's Wikipedia entry to include this new information. I'm just out here doing what I do - for the fandoms. I wish David-bloody-Time-Lord Tennant was this easy to find *harumph*! Anywaaaaaay...... Peace out!