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I feel like tariffing the "entire world" is literally just functionally sanctioning yourself

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"enthusiastic consent" "dubcon" "noncon" ???con where we're both so neurotic and strange about vulnerability and emotional and physical expression that it'd take a crack team of philosophers to figure out whether anything about what we did together was consensual or even semiotically definable as sex

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oscar is an iconic he/him nonbinary lesbian

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Holy shit Andre was giving red flags in the rose of versailles movie (Andre overriding Oscar's "no") but he was actually worse in the series???

Rose of Versailles

I’m quite disappointed that majority of tumblr anime don’t even know about Rose of Versailles. I think it’s debatable as good as or even better than Utena. It has the almost same theme, but RoV message was so strong and empowering. It the first time that I have ever watch a Historical-fiction romance that as well written as RoV.  Rov just take the tragedy genre to the next lv, it’s a work of a noble literature. 

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There are also a good number of chinese period dramas that are basically like this <- you can't just say this about Ming Dynasty in 1566 and not drop a recs list

@feathers-little-nest

Unfortunately many of the good stuff do not have any english subtitles, so its difficult to share.

Zhenguan Zhizhi/Rise of the Tang Empire (贞观之治), The Emperor in Han Dynasty (汉武大帝) and Eastern Zhou Kingdoms - Spring and Autumn & its Warring States sequel (东周列国·春秋篇 & 战国篇) are ones I know do not have subs, or only have scattered subs by some misc. enthusiast somewhere.

However, nowadays there are many, especially newer series that do have english subs available. In no particular order:

Qin Empire series 1-3 (Warring States)

Considered a modern classic. Surprisingly all are officially available on Netflix. Avoid the fourth part though called Qin Dynasty Epic, which is legendarily bad)

Toward the Republic (1800-1900s, so Late Qing to early Republic of China)

This one is considered the Top Best historical next to Ming Dynasty 1566. Also like Ming Dynasty 1566, a sort of satire & reflection on Chinese modern politics as well (which is pretty common with these as well)

Yongzheng Dynasty (Qing dynasty)

Kinda the go-to example of historical political court drama centered around a specific emperor.

Longest Day in Chang'an (Tang Dynasty)

Based on a Ma Boyong novel, who is currently one of the prolific historical writer superstars, known for being esp. attentive to history & delving into obscure topics.

This was originally his pitch for "What if Assassin's Creed, but set in the Tang dynasty?". This show launched a modern renaissance of Tang dynasty aesthetic in the pop culture osmosis due to its prolific production and historical accuracy.

Under the Microscope (Ming Dynasty)

Also a Ma Boyong story; this time a microcosmic view on mid-to-late Ming dynasty through small town corruption. As in, literally errors in land distribution and tax numbers. Only in Chinese historical dramas...

Palace of Desire (the one from 2000) (Tang Dynasty)

Mostly a story on Princess Taiping and Wu Zetian. Well-liked for being a more female-centric story from back then.

Judge of Song dynasty

More of a detective serial, but a good one and involves the political landscape of Song dynasty.

Ripe Town

Ming dynasty, also a detective story. I think its the same production team as Under the Microscope.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms 1994

Three Kingdoms, obv, and the best overall show about it by far. Watch this to understand the origin of about 70% of everything East Asian ever.

The Wind Blows From Longxi

Three Kingdoms, but as a spy thriller. Really demands you to pay attention, but its great. And also written by Ma Boyong.

If you also don't mind shows that are basically fictionalized history, but still good and treat their material with just as much integrity, there are:

Nirvana in Fire (nominally Nothern and Southern dynasties; is mostly fictionalized)

Royal Nirvana (looks like Song dynasty, but is a completely fictional story)

The Rise of Phoenixes (vague stylized Song to Ming dynasty, but heard its very well-liked)

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This is such beautiful addition i am going to cry 😭

Two things I always enjoy when reviewing Three Kingdoms history and fictional adaptations:

Cao Cao’s awesomeness as he rises from a eunuch’s grandson to a military leader, and then conquering the northern lands, city by city, county by county. His desire to recruit the educated elite to work for him, to accept and legitimize his hard won political power. I adore this famous line from his poem 短歌行 Duan Ge Xing: 青青子衿，悠悠我心。但为君故，沉吟至今 (I cannot find a translation that does justice to the beauty and homoeroticism of this line so I’m not putting one here)

The Liu Bei / Zhuge Liang relationship. This is one of my favorite historical fiction ships, and their real life history also provides so much fodder for shipping! For example, the temple I’m planning to visit in Chengdu is a “combined resting place” 君臣和祀 for both of their spirits, which is unique in Chinese history. Liu Bei is the only emperor who is honored with his prime minister in the same burial temple / spiritual grave. And during the thousand or so years since their deaths, many royal temples were lost to time, but Zhuge Liang was so popular among the people of Shu (aka Sichuan) that they continued to honor his temple for over a thousand years. And Liu Bei’s shrine, which is housed in Zhuge Liang’s temple, continued to be honored alongside his prime minister. Even during the cultural revolution, when the red guards went around smashing up old temples and desecrating cultural relics, Zhuge Liang’s temple was spared by government orders. Zhuge Liang dedicated his entire life to supporting Liu Bei and their shared dream of reviving the Han Empire, and in death, his temple continues to protect Liu Bei’s shrine

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Two things I always enjoy when reviewing Three Kingdoms history and fictional adaptations:

Cao Cao’s awesomeness as he rises from a eunuch’s grandson to a military leader, and then conquering the northern lands, city by city, county by county. His desire to recruit the educated elite to work for him, to accept and legitimize his hard won political power. I adore this famous line from his poem 短歌行 Duan Ge Xing: 青青子衿，悠悠我心。但为君故，沉吟至今 (I cannot find a translation that does justice to the beauty and homoeroticism of this line so I’m not putting one here)

The Liu Bei / Zhuge Liang relationship. This is one of my favorite historical fiction ships, and their real life history also provides so much fodder for shipping! For example, the temple I’m planning to visit in Chengdu is a “combined resting place” 君臣和祀 for both of their spirits, which is unique in Chinese history. Liu Bei is the only emperor who is honored with his prime minister in the same burial temple / spiritual grave. And during the thousand or so years since their deaths, many royal temples were lost to time, but Zhuge Liang was so popular among the people of Shu (aka Sichuan) that they continued to honor his temple for over a thousand years. And Liu Bei’s shrine, which is housed in Zhuge Liang’s temple, continued to be honored alongside his prime minister. Even during the cultural revolution, when the red guards went around smashing up old temples and desecrating cultural relics, Zhuge Liang’s temple was spared by government orders. Zhuge Liang dedicated his entire life to supporting Liu Bei and their shared dream of reviving the Han Empire, and in death, his temple continues to protect Liu Bei’s shrine

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Three Kingdoms 1994 Episodes 59 to 67 Released

Hello everyone! After months of hard work and reviewing, we have a new batch to release! Zhuge Liang faces a hard and long journey in the southlands, will he succeed or not? Watch out to find out! Do read the foreword to it to know what to expect, but otherwise, I hope this batch gives you some entertainment! We are grateful for your patience, thank you for staying with us! Regards, everyone on the team!

https://gentlemenofthehan.wordpress.com/2024/10/17/romance-of-the-three-kingdoms-1994-episodes-59-67-english-subs-release/

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it's really telling that some of these bloggers have never shared a callout post about Dong Zhou

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Thank you for this

useful reaction image for online discourses

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An illustration of Marie Antoinette breaking up a fight between Louis Auguste (future Louis XVI) and Louis Stanislas (the comte de Provence) over a broken porcelain object. This illustration, from Era Magazine, was based on a real incident.

In June of 1772, ambassador Mercy wrote to Maria Theresa:

"M. le comte de Provence had an object made from beautifully worked porcelain on the fireplace in his room, and when M. le dauphin was in his room, he usually picked it up and looked at it. This seemed to worry M. le comte de Provence and, just as Mme la dauphine was teasing him about this, at that very moment, M. le dauphin dropped it and it smashed to pieces. M. le comte de Provence, in his immediate reaction of anger, went up to M. le dauphin; they grappled with one another and punched one another. Mme la dauphin, who was very embarrassed at this behavior, had the presence of mind to separate them. Reconciliation followed immediately; no one witnessed the quarrel and nothing happened as a result."

Translation: Margaret Macleod, There Were Three of Us in the Relationship. Image from my collection.

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— Timothy Tackett, "The Glory and the Sorrow: A Parisian and His World in the Age of the French Revolution"

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I unironically need to see cross collab of these two together

reading innocent after first reading rose of versailles (quite recently, even) is really fun because you can't not read them as works in conversation; the latter is transparently inspired by the former (ikeda even put an endorsement of the work in volume 8) but innocent is mostly about characters in the second/third estates while rose mostly takes place in the first estate. if you can ignore that marie and oscar are the same guy you can imagine these stories coexisting as a shared text*. which is great because rose' louis xvi is drawn relatively close in appearance to historical portraits (picture a french nobleman in your mind, there he is) and it would be very funny if he was having an emotional affair with The Prettiest Man Alive

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I think the funniest dynamic for arranged-marriage royalty would be a queen who came here 100% prepared to murder her future husband and rule as a widow queen in her own right, only to discover that the king is autistic as hell and responds to her wish to rule with "oh thank god please do, I don't want to be bothered by these people. I can just tell them to go bother you instead, if you really want that. I've got beetles I wanted to study."

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Fan art by Ami Thompson

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“what do angels do that makes humans upset?”🧀