#talk about duchess

[internetgiraffekid1673]

Every post in the EAH tag rn: "Apple this, Apple that, can we talk about Duchess?"

GREAT IDEA, LET'S TALK ABOUT DUCHESS!!!

Everybody tell me your favorite part about the character and story of Duchess Swan in the reblogs!

I think my favorite part of Duchess is probably how genuinely oblivious she is. She gets so caught up in her own perfectionism and misery and longing for a perfect life and perfect fairytale, that she totally forgets other people have MASSIVE issues too.

She totally doesn't realize Raven not only doesn't want her tragic ending, but has NO interest in being a dark sorceress AT ALL. It doesn't even cross her mind because she loves learning the skills required for her story like ballet. She's got no fucking idea how homesick Lizzie is ALL THE TIME because she's too busy finding Lizzie annoying. She very easily falls into the trap of idealizing Daring and not realizing he is a deeply flawed human being. I don't think she fully gets the kind of damage she'd be doing to Ashlynn and especially Hunter's lives if she exposed their relationship in True Hearts Day.

It's just such a relatable aspect of her personality. It's a very HUMAN thing to let your own pain blindside you to the pain you cause others. There's a post I saw on here once that said something to the effect of "it's crazy how being tired, hungry, sad, or angry can literally make you evil." Misery loves company and it just takes so much energy to deal with other humans in all their complexities that you just DON'T have when you've got something looming over you like Duchess does.

The fact that she gets better---that she saves Lizzie in Next Top Villain and that Lizzie forgives her, that she starts listening to Raven, and that she generally learns she does not have to continue supporting a system that wants to hurt her is so inspiring. It makes me feel good and makes me have hope for our world.

I think the most UNDERRATED aspect of Duchess is her amount of discipline in ballet. I love that Next Top Villain fully depicted the insanity required to be a prima ballerina in something like swan lake. Her whole body is in shambles all the time from her constantly pushing it to the limit. She's such a good athlete and it amazes me.

[rotomartsblog]

Some EAH redesign brainstorming (though quite a few of them are covered or cropped so you can’t really see their designs…)

[ponyboyssophie]

Love iconography in Sorry We're Closed (2024)

As the Angel of Love in this game is represented by a horse-chimera, there was a lot of care put into using horses to symbolize love & relationships. There's the obvious theme of Dream Eater plastering his realm with paintings, statues, and artifacts about Chamuel and other random places like the crypt using his visage too, but I'm mostly gonna talk about something a bit more abstract.

Sorry We're Closed uses hearts as its primary symbolism for love; but it also uses a less mainstream visual motif to show us how it matters to the characters. Horse. :)

To start with, each episode of Dying Petals starts out with a shot of a horse painting, before zooming out to bring in the characters.

Shots of the characters talking will usually be accompanied by one or two paintings. This is where we first see horses associated with relationships.

[There are TWO SEPERATE paintings behind them, yknow, just in case you don't notice the first.]

You might know that the story represents Michelle's love life, (quite literally as Epiphany is played by her actual ex; the story mimics their conflict and break up) but this room also becomes the place where Michelle solidifies her destiny, whether she chooses new love, her ex, or something else.

Also, notice how the painting behind Canary is much bigger than the one behind Epiphany. This is still true when accounting for perspective.

Although the biggest (and brightest) horse painting is off-screen.

You can see it behind Chamuel on the final day, next to his door that allows you to choose love.

The Carousel.

In the scene where we watch the duchess execute a woman for lying about her 'love' for the Duchess to save her life, there is a carousel-style horse in the background.

This is, I believe, the first time we see this horse carousel, and it appears with a bleeding heart. An empty spot where there used to be something. Love is not here.

The Duchesses room.

On the outside, you see paintings of Dream Eater and Chamuel.

I used to think a lot of the paintings around the game were random - like maybe they were just filler. There's a lot of repetition of the same images over and over again, but I've come to understand it is its own visual language.

The Duchess seems to place a big focus on these two around the hotel - who are "quite infamous" in the supernatural community. There's the obvious connection to taboo love here, but I think it's also an example of a demon being able to resist the change of love. Which might explain the hierarchy here of Dream Eater being on the top/larger. More value is placed on Dream Eater, who holds onto the past.

[Spoilers for inside the Duchesses room]

Straight off the bat, you start to notice a trend in this room. This is where I started picking up on the meanings behind certain pieces and noticing the emphasis on horses throughout the game, especially in regards to the Duchess. It might feel like maybe they just like horses - having a picture book with horses or framed paintings all over their room seems like more of an interest, but it continues to entwine them in the language of love.

Also - I won't go into this too deeply but the repetitive paintings of the Duchess, especially the close ups of their eye/features, is a parallel to the fractured, disjointed images of Chamuels face that represent his 'mortalisation' and get more and more frequent (and also, violent) the further he gets into his struggle with love. It implies to me that the Duchess has already begun this process, or at least reflects how they've been fractured by love as well.

Ironically, the picture of the lead singer of Michelle's favourite band, who they brought to the hotel to make her feel more at home is right next to it. It's not mentioned if the Duchess was already a fan, or if they checked it out because of Michelle/how much they love her outfit (fish fight shirt included!) :)

Here we see the horse with the bleeding heart again.

Over their clean, neat bed which is kind of a mix between elegant hotel opulence and rusty torture chamber imagery (the case on the left side of the bed..... if you know you know). Their room itself is a beautiful illusion that seeks to cover up for their one weakness, but it still shows through.

You also find some assorted Duchess-themed artifacts.

Notably, the missing heart fragment. T.A.D says this is "said to be what remains of the Duchesses heart after the incident."

(There's also the presence of Dying Petals in the Duchesses room, but that's a topic for another post.)

I also find it interesting that they has these on their shelf. A visual reference to Dream Eater fighting himself, maybe?

[Also, Bonus A La Mode games reference. Or, the Duchesses version of the warriors that I've just now realised is a reference to the devs logo]

Hotel Ascent is when things start to get more... surreal.

There's a repeated trial throughout this area where, to pass to the next room, you have to charge your heartbreaker before shooting the heart of the horse statue. The first instance of this is also accompanied by a literal anatomical heart you have to shoot to charge it up.

Usually, it's aggressively defended by giant roller-spikes and/or enemy hordes. The Duchess doesn't want you to break past their barriers and into their heart, that's for sure.

This is the opening scene for the final boss fight.

The statues stay in the background for the whole fight. Notice how these ones no longer have arrows jutting from their chests.

(We also see these weird abstract horses from the start of hotel ascent again - even they have a true form which can only be seen with the third eye.)

Other uses in the game.

I think Dream Eater's Palace would take up wayy too much, so I'll skip it. It's already something that is canonically brought to attention in-game so Iif you've played it of course you'll already know how obsessed this guy is with, uh, horses, and what that says about him. :)

There is also a picture of Dream Eater (a.k.a "a forlorn being") in the church where Benedict and Robyn (the OTHER angel/demon relationship) spend most of their time together. You can imagine it's not on the side Beloved chooses to hang around haha.

Oakley doesn't have anything in his diner as far as I know, but Darrel does have two paintings of the earlier picture of Duchess riding a horse in his bar.

He has other Duchess paintings also, likely because they're his boss, but this feels very in-place in the bar for a reason.

It does mean that all three relationships in the game have some connection to Dream Eater/Chamuel imagery. Some of it may be coincidence, but I thought I'd mention this anyway as it solidifies the connection to love.

Okay fine I'll talk about the crypt.

The examples/relationships I've used here are romantic in nature, but it's worth noting there are excessive amount of Chamuel statues in the crypt as well. A crypt that belonged to a broken family, that has mostly covered up it's traces of said family after Gabriella took revenge on her parents. Traces of angels are systematically replaced with demonic imagery, as though Gabriella was insulted by the appearance of love being featured so heavily throughout her families tomb. You might see love in the past (using your third eye), but it's disappeared/fractured.

So what's up with the horses?

I already kind of mentioned this at the start, but in this fictional world the concept of love and horses are pretty much inherently linked through Chamuel, so I appreciate how they leaned into this by making it sort of a cultural concept of love.

Horses can be seen as a symbol of love historically, but generally the cultural zeitgeist uses something a bit more fragile and delicate, like doves or rabbits.

It reminds me of Disco Elysium, where love is understood through the lungs rather than the heart due to it's association with Dolores Dei; a pseudo-religious symbol who was just a deified historical figure. Changing what love 'looks' like in a way that serves the story. It shows how well-intergrated Dream Eater and Chamuel are in the world-building and story. They represent the fear of change, and the consequent leap of faith you need to embrace that change. Something the Duchess needs.

Why not use horses? It still feels childlike and nostalgic. They're strong, lively creatures who still exist as prey animals to be hunted - the Duchess doesn't want to be hunted. They want to hunt.

And, life didn't really go that way for them.

By the way I lied earlier, not every episode of Dying Petals has a horse painting. In the Duchess route, during the final episode when Epiphany and Canary break up, they are cramped into the only corner of the room that doesn't have horses. I guess Michelle really did move on from Leslie. :)

[nenoname]

stan twins the canon cptsd brothers i will always think about all your unaddressed issues that would make perfect plot fuel for your spinoff

and also the whole 'stan getting that poem by bill via a website which contrasts with bill getting one from the axolotl via a website' foreshadowing thing

like idk i would love something like su future but like more optimistic, aka not an accumulated breakdown that has to be mostly resolved off screen at the end :/// but something thats being kinda addressed throughout? (although would love to see one of them turn into a monster thats always fun lol)

stan having severe issues from his dad and those years of being homeless that we keep on getting more info on but never really getting confronted on (the drifter catalogue and tijuana incident...), him being completely alone for like twenty years when running the shack before soos comes along to the point that 1998 is noted as his low point, and him not really learning about bill+what he did to ford until ages after he killed him if he ever did get the full context

while i think amnesia and everyone seeing him as a hero actually helped with stan's 'i'm a worse version of my brother' thing its still a lingering issue too and we now got him being insecure over his own hands

ford being immediately thrown from 'being tortured by bill' to 'being stuck in the multiverse and being chased by bounty hunters constantly', him fully expecting himself to die when destroying bill, and him only now being safe for the first time in 30 years ....relatively safe, he's still in constant danger because of course he is

idk in the end the series wants them to be happy and they deserve it, its why i wasn't too worried about the book being like 'ooh bill is back!! and the book is haunting ford' thing cos i knew they'll be ok

[padfoot-lupin77]

I thought I almost missed the Satine Kryze week but turns out it’s next week :) anyways, gonna post these now cause I don’t trust my procrastination to “post them later”, I might forget to post them for a month or smth

[imp8lse]

duchess favorite fairytale is the ugly duckling & she cried when she first heard the story as a little kid

[sailorsplatoon]

Today my friends and I somehow ended up having a conversation about what the ideal life would be like if we were leeches, and I ended up saying a little too loudly something that, when taken out of context, sounds very strange. It was too funny for me not to share.

"Put me on a duchess and I will suck her dry."

[spontaneousful]

thinking about faybelle and now i fear i must go on a rant abt fairy's got talent because suzanne selfors did her so dirty don't wory bby i'll defend your honor

[vaguely-concerned]

'strong poison' is high up there in the wimsey book rankings so far. most crucially for me: so much love for bunter, so richly deserved (the scene where he and peter are tiptoeing around each other like 'so uh... are you breaking up with me to get married then?🥺'/'of course not, that's -- wait what are -- are you breaking up with me if I'm getting married?? 😟😢😭'/'of course not my lord don't be silly'/'then don't scare me like that bunter oh my god!!!!'). also more bunter as pseudo-mother (/wife and very overtly so lmao the duchess directly comparing him to helen as gerald's wife... immensely favourably so.) figure, yes-tumblr-user-vaguely-concerned-you-are-so-valid textual underlining. peter literally wanting to smash his own reflection in a wild and unguarded moment. not doing it, because it would change nothing and bunter would just have to deal with a lot of broken shards before a new one got ordered. him recounting going to his mother in a State because uh-oh he's gone and love-at-first-sighted himself and if he can get her off death row and also maybe introduce himself to her the wedding is back on!! parker being a useless lesbian except he's a very well brought up boy with victorian values. mary noticing that peter's feeling low because he's class clowning it up at christmas and giving him a hugggg 🥹. harriet with the 'life is already so fucking weird. this might as well happen' vibe throughout quietly editing a novel from prison in the background because what else is there to do. ms. climpson who could set the murderous machiavel to school if she wanted to actually richard iii go home. in another world she's the moriarity of the wimsey 'verse. an honest soul with a fine criminal mind indeed. the hilarity of looking back through the ages and seeing with all the tiredness of living in the age that before there were astrology girlies there were ectoplasm girlies. peter having a pet safe cracker on speed dial who's seen the light ('allelujah) but y'know a man still has the pride of his craft. impey biggs is there. delicious. characterful. brimming with flavour and also arsenic of course

[mymangamemes]

When you're aroace and the conversation inevitably turns to romance

From The Duchess’s Secret Boutique by sizh and All ages Ga

[pourablecat]

A promo sketch! It was going to be pencil and watercolour - but I left them all in Glasgow so, scribbles instead.

So a couple of months ago I was proposing the Monstrous Regiment stageplay at Edinburgh and we didn't get a slot, but reproposing will happen next semester! Fingers crossed!

Also, un-updated promo sketches under the cut! Needless to say, they leave something to be desired...

[athena-xox]

Just pointing out that the Princessology girls are paired with guys from wooing 101 and duchess bullies ashlynn into trading to be with daring… maybe it was an assignment guys

[impossibleprincess35]

Since you're an American, what are your thoughts on the comparisons of the Duchess and the Death Watch to the election? I read one of your stories and you compare them to alt-right politics in the U.S. Thx!

Heyoooooo, thanks for the ask! I'm going to go TL;DR, so please forgive me and feel free to wish you'd never asked. :)

So, I've never been a Trump voter. Never. It's been a major point of contention with close family and friends, and in the 8 years since his first campaign, it has been eye opening watching people blatantly fall for fascism in the guise of security and strength.

And so, during the pandemic, dealing with so much misinformation and seeing so many people subject others to danger to make a point about their "freedom," when I rewatched "The Clone Wars," the Mandalore storylines hit so much harder.

A lot of times, when people are hating on the Satine character and blaming her for Mandalore's fall, what I see is a lack of acknowledgement that Death Watch was so hell-bent on getting their way that they had to stage incidents to make her look weak and unfit as a ruler. They weren't starving. They weren't exiled from their system. They got a moon. They had political representation with a governor. They had resources. But instead of using everything at their disposal to do better and to evolve as a people, they used it to stage bombings, attacks, and incidents that only hurt their own people and undermined their own system.

But what Death Watch did so well was they spun a narrative that is so false that even FANS believe it.

Like, we're supposed to see that they're domestic terrorists.

But people are out here like, "Fuck Satine, she's the worst."

Oh, okay.

As an American, I've seen two viable, suitable female candidates who have lost to Donald Trump, a piece of shit grifter, a convicted felon, an impeached dirtbag of a human being, and BOTH of these women have lost.

The bar is so high for them, and it's so low for Trump.

And I see that with Satine Kryze and Pre Vizsla.

The damning theories about Satine committing genocide on her people and white-washing them of their history and culture are assumptions made from information given to us on the show by Almec, who turns out to be as corrupt as Pre Vizsla and Tal Merrik, and inferred from the animation choices made due to budget constraints; but those things are held over Satine's head and her reputation as though they are gospel. As though she herself confirmed them.

Meanwhile, Pre Vizsla is out here running an entire terrorist group that intends to destabilize Mandalore's peaceful government just to reassert themselves as strong warriors. He has shown us who he is. He shows us every time we see him on screen after his reveal as the leader of Death Watch. He commits himself to it. He has gaggles of lackeys behind him putting him up on a pedestal, enabling him.

But Satine's always the villain, and always to blame; nevermind the fact that she has proven herself to be a resilient leader who put her people above all else, including her own desires, and she fights to keep them out of the fray between the Republic and the Separatists. More than anything else, their stability and their independence is her top priority.

And I guess, for me, I see strength in Satine's diplomacy, strength in her kindness, strength in her restraint; so when I see people who only acknowledge strength in name calling, in divisiveness, in threats of violence, like Pre Vizsla and Death Watch, I'm instantly reminded of the crowd of American politics who believe that we must bully our way around the world.

The bar for women, especially women of color, is set so high that it's unattainable; but the bar for men is so low it's in hell.

And as an American who voted for Vice President Kamala Harris, and who was genuinely thrilled to imagine a Harris/Walz administration, I've found myself annoyed by the remarks about her that I've read. The claims that she's not tough. That she couldn't hold her own with a room of world leaders. Because I don't see that. And I'm heartbroken to see that the popular vote wanted brute force and displays of bully behavior instead of a steady, calm hand to bring us together as a nation.

Worst of all, I fear the very possible outcome that, much like Mandalore, Americans are sacrificing their liberties for what they believe is security (ie. the xenophobic hate and the border talking points, lower grocery prices, etc.), but like Ben Franklin said, they'll lose both and deserve neither.

And in Mandalore's case, the people were scammed into believing that Satine failed them, when really, the attack on Sundari was an inside job - and when the flames of fear were stoked, the people turned on Satine, on peace, for the safety they believed Death Watch was going to bring them.

And then their asses got glassed by the Empire.

I look at what's going on around me, and I'm disappointed because I'm a dumb optimistic bitch who believed Americans were better than this. And there's a lot of blame to go around, but the vibe is off and things do not feel right. My gut tells me that the game was rigged - that Madam VP Harris was meant to fail from the word go, because the right aligned themselves to win at all costs, even at the costs of their own nation.

But Jyn Erso said it best: Rebellions are built on hope.

So, hopefully we don't get glassed..?

Jesus, how do I even end this post?

I'm sorry. I know you're wishing you'd never asked. <3

[padfoot-lupin77]

Do you ever have a super specific headcanon about a character that is very important to your interpretation of the character and you just need every person in the fandom to at least consider your headcanon?

Anyway that’s me with my headcanon of Satine seeing an entire village bombed during the civil war. Except she didn’t see the bombing, no, she saw the aftermath. A few days after Life Day, Satine and Obiwan and Qui-Gon were out of supplies and dehydrated and malnourished because the war had dragged on for too long and they’d lost their ship and they ended up in a seemingly empty town. Eerily empty, like in horror movies, where you can tell that something is wrong. All houses seemed empty too, so they went into the first house they found and had their first proper meal in weeks. The next day they decided to figure out why the town was abandoned. Something was wrong in the force, the Jedi could tell, but they weren’t in any immediate danger. As they neared the town’s square the air began to smell terribly, and when they reached the center they saw the remnants of a massacre. The village’s entire population, which had been gathered in the square to celebrate, had been killed by bombs. Think District 12 from the hunger games, the scene with the grey skeletons littering the entire area. Satine didn’t forget that image until the day she died. She thought of these people, her people, whom she hadn’t managed to protect, every time she refused the war and stood her ground regarding her pacifism. Because a war would mean such atrocities would be repeated. And she couldn’t live knowing she let that happen again.

[octodrawn]

[quatregats]

HORNBLOWER OFFICIAL DIVORCE ARC SONG

(lyrics below cut)

It's the evening of an August 34th From the bed I watch her smoke on the balcony The twinkling lights of the boats Do you think there's any better backdrop For her hair that goes halfway down her back, For her stunning profile?

My complexes (and you know I've got a collection) Two hours ago she paid them all off in one go With a finger against my lips, she says, "Why are you chatting so much if what you want is to make love?" Am I not making myself clear, or do you not understand?

Do you not understand? You don't understand? It seems to me that you don't understand, no That we were a whole That we didn't know any better but we learned That she embraced me like there was no tomorrow That there, I was almost as happy as when I was with you

She puts on her lipstick, repeating a song If we look at each other, the laughter comes and goes in a second She's been lying to me for weeks And with this one, yes, I realized it all on my own And I'm not taking it as any sort of victory I'm highlighting how stupid I am

While she puts on her shoes, she says, "I'll definitely be late" And as for me, I only manage a "Hey, hope everything goes great for you guys!" And that's called free-falling Until you crash you can live with the end Am I not making myself clear, or do you not understand?

Do you not understand? You don't understand? It seems to me that you don't understand, no That this is hitting rock bottom That I stood paralyzed in the doorway With a smile that was beginning to crack That there I was almost as screwed as when I was with you

And I'll do it with the first woman to pass by But I always end up discovering shades of grey It's so difficult to accept That the black and the white are still you