#jane doesn't seem to be present in the devonshire manuscript for example.

[edwardseymour]

Sorry for being annoying over Anne x Jane but if you ever would have the chance to adapt this ship how would you do it?

by ‘adapt’, do you mean for a dramatisation? because i strictly believe that we need to put a moratorium on tudor related media (excluding henry vii and maaaaybe mary i since they’re underrepresented as is, and it would annoy the right people). so i don’t want an adaptation, frankly.

as for an ideal adaptation… well, i liked the idea of anne and jane’s dynamic in wolf hall — but not anne’s characterisation. it was so belligerent in stripping her of warmth and humanity, and this collective amnesia about criticisms of mantel’s handling of women (and gender) now that she’s dead is really something. personally, i’m fine with violently and bodily shoving her from her pedestal. on a similar strain, channel 5’s anne boleyn tried to give us a similar dynamic — of anne being unsettled by jane, whilst simultaneously looking down at her, and (again) i like the idea of anne being curious about jane, and the dynamic of gender/femininity being played with, with the two being seemingly polar opposites in ideological opposition, but nothing was delivered on that front. for as much as lola talked about jane being ‘machiavellian’... literally nothing was shown really exploring that. the kiss felt like everything else in that show: hollow, trying to be reactionary. you can’t try to explore that dynamic and simultaneously refuse jane any characterisation beyond the periphery of anne’s perspective; it’s imbalanced. also, i don’t like how these adaptations take every opportunity to make anne abusive to others — she is always depicted as putting her hands on jane (as well as striking others) and anne boleyn (channel 5) has her sexually harassing jane. i am not opposed to depicting anne as violent or abusive (there’s arguably evidence for it) but it seems notably one-sided: jane dormer’s account implies jane gave as good as she got (“scratching and bye blows between the queen and her maid”), and jane was clearly willing to undermine and displace her mistress which contradicts the idea of jane as passive/complacently honourable.

arguably the tudors s2 threads the needle the best? anne is irascible and clearly agitated and unsettled by jane, who is shown to be actively involved in her faction, and evidently lacks respect for anne. it just doesn’t take it far enough on characterising jane/giving her a clear motivation, and walks all of it back by s3, anyway.