generalenemybluebird

[generalenemybluebird]

So I reread Ersatz Elevator from A Series Of Unfortunate Events today, and I think the fandom kinda looks over the fact that when the Baudelaires see the Quagmires in a cage, they look completely different and tormented. Lemony describes them as having dirt all over their faces, being dressed in rags, looking hungry and exhausted, and the look in their eyes as being haunted. Like, what Olaf did to these two triplets is horrible and completely overlooked by the fandom and I think we need to open this case up.

[generalenemybluebird]

okay my absolute favourite asoue detail is the sebald code that Frank/Ernest delivers on page 67 of the Penultimate Peril because if count every eleventh word properly, it says 'i can't tell if you're in or enemies please respond'

And at first, that doesn't make much sense BUT if you shift 'in' backwards one space it becomes 'i can't tell if you're associates or enemies'. Or if you shift 'enemies' forward one space it becomes 'i can't tell if you're in or out'.

So some fans are like 'it's a typo, it's either 'associates or enemies' or 'in or out'', which kinda checks out, since the sebald code has been printed wrong before (see 'O Is With Me' in the Duchess of Winnipeg's letter) but to me, it's so obviously deliberate!!!

If it's Frank speaking, then he would care about 'associates or enemies', since that's typically the language of the fire-fighting side. If it's Ernest, then he would care about whether they're 'in or out': that's Esme's language, and by extension the language of the fire-starting side. But whichever one it is, THEY MADE A MISTAKE in the Sebald code, and miscounted their words. Now even if the reader is knowledgable enough to read between the lines and use the Sebald code, it's still not clear whether it's Frank or Ernest.

The Penultimate Peril is all about mirroring, blurring the boundaries between good and evil, with the Baudelaires trying to figure out who they can trust. I think it's an incredible detail that Daniel Handler probably wrote this section of the Sebald code with the mistake deliberately placed so that even while Frank/Ernest are trying to figure out whether the Baudelaires are on their side, we don't know which side they're on. 'Associates or Enemies', or 'In or Out'. Bravo Dan, etc etc.

or maybe i'm just losing it and it really was just a typo, who knows

[generalenemybluebird]

things i think about CONSTANTLY:

daniel handler said that everyone in a series of unfortunate events and the surrounding universe is jewish “unless stated otherwise”

the only time it could possibly have been considered “stated otherwise” is in the netflix tvv, when poe and his wife mention being the only kids in their class without b'nei mitzvahs

literally the only non-jewish characters in this series are the bankers

daniel handler is the funniest man alive

[generalenemybluebird]

“the end is neverending.”

the end is where we begin — thousand foot krutch / that’s not how the story goes — daniel handler and nick urata (a series of unfortunate events) / undertow, ouroboros, and dancing with a stranger — natalia schäfer / a valediction: forbidden mourning — john donne / the end — mark strand / endings (n/a) — elly smallwood / afternoon in february — henry wadsworth longfellow / every thing on it — shel silverstein / road to hell (reprise) — hadestown

[generalenemybluebird]

“Even if Perseus only killed Medusa to save Danaë he still values the life of one woman over another” fucking yes??? That’s his mom??? And Medusa is not only a monster but a stranger??? Danaë sacrificed so much and been through hell and if Perseus wasn’t willing to conquer the world for her there’d be something wrong with him.

[generalenemybluebird]

psst. "feminist" retelling writers. yes, i'm talking to you. i have a gift for you: here are some interesting women from greek mythology that you can write about that are NOT medusa, persephone or clytemnestra! there ARE other women, shocking i know!

-medea: she literally killed her brother and her children, i thought "female rage" girlies would be all over her

-danae: her life is so crazy, imagine being imprisoned by you father, getting impregnated by a god, being locked in a box and left to die at sea and then basically becoming a hostage to a king while your son is sent to kill a monster. and she's one of the only ones who, to my knowledge, actually gets a happy ending!

-atalanta: basically the only female hero in greek mythology!! and she was an argonaut!! c'mon now there is so much potential here, why does nobody care for atalanta

-the amazons: penthesilea! hippolyta! literally any of them! you're telling me there is a whole society of female warriors and so called feminist writers aren't jumping at the opportunity??

-hecuba: such a tragic and interesting figure, being the queen of troy, she lost her whole family in the war, i wish more people explored her relationship with her children (especially paris) and apollo

-andromache: i'm shocked andromache isn't more popular with the "tragic female characters" people, she literally lost everything basically because of men

-cassandra: i know cassandra is fairly popular, but i love her so much and i want more people to explore her relationship with her family, every dynamic has the possibility to be SO interesting

-electra: this whole family is a MESS and yet i see people mainly focusing on clytemnestra (with iphigenia), but not exploring the relationship between electra and clytemnestra is such a missed opportunity

-helen: i just want the focus of her story to be shifted from paris to the other people in her life, like her daughter hermione! how did they rebuild their relationship after troy? or her sister clytemnestra! what happened to her bond after the murder of agamemnon? or her brothers, castor and pollux! there is so much untapped potential

-demeter: there is a story about a mother's grief for her daughter, her journey looking for her, her anger, and yet every retelling of the homeric hymn to DEMETER focuses HADES to make him a dark romance mafia boss?? come on

and more!

conclusion: i'm tired of seeing the same stories being retold over and over again when there are so many characters to explore

[generalenemybluebird]

feel free to cite the deep magic to me witch i was there when it was written but my memory is like REEEEALLY shitty

[generalenemybluebird]

Hi! I was thinking about the Illiad, as I am not nearly as familiar with it as I am with the Odyssey, but did they have a specific...herarchy among the kings? Besides Agammenon being the leader I mean. Like some of the main Acheans are all kings of their respective cities but it is very clear they didn't stand on equal footing- was it merely a thing of whoever had the most wealth/territory was the most respected one or was it more of....an merit thing?? Like I remember very vividly that it was mentioned that Ajax and Odysseus hadn't brought that many ships compared to some of his fellow Acheans but they honestly didn't seem to look down as much....Hell, one could say that Odysseus was the Atrida brothers' personal counselor or smth xd unless its just.... who the one on top liked the most

Oh that is a very good question! Wow. Well here goes. Although we do see them speak to each other as equals and Agamemnon being chosen/proclaimed/ elevated whatever as the leader of all and we see them have their opinions and talks equally you are absolutely right that from the conversations also give you the vibe that even if in theory they are equals the reality is more complicated than that. Much more complicated. In fact I think the kings have different authorities between each other and if I say so there are multiple factors that make someone superior or inferior than the other! So in one way we still return to the equality factor a bit given how they do seem to...battle each other hahahaha 😆 let me explain a bit better:

Economic power

As you brilliantly stated many kings seem to be domineering each other through their economic power and their influence. The richer the king the more influence they have. Hence we see people like Agamemnon who brings the most amount of ships being the top and people like Ajax who bring less ships be often not so projected or heard among their peers.

Age

Hierarchy of age is a real thing in ancient greece in general and so the Achaean army is no exception. Ancients believed the elder should be respected and heard for their advise is precious. Hence we have Nestor or Odysseus who speak up and their power to persuade is linked to their skill as well as their age while people like Diomedes who not only is great at war but also has massive wealth is often kicked around and compared to his father or being "educated" a lot and he makes himself heard by saying "I might be young but..."

Battle Skillls

The better the warrior is, the more respected he is. This is why Achilles despite his age or lack of actual experience to war before the epic cycle he is more or less irreplaceable and the entire army dances to his tune while other kings must give away to him

Reputation or past deeds

Odysseus despite his lack of impeccable wealth or other he is still the top tier of the people respected because of his reputation and skills. Likewise the reputation of Achilles is enough

Bloodline

The Noblest the bloodline the more respected the king is. So we have Achilles who is the Noblest of all with a goddess for a mother, a powerful king for a father that also has roots to gods and with a bloodline that goes all the way to Zeus. And then the kings also seem to compare each other based on the nobility of their bloodline.

Skills

The more skilled the king is the more respected they seem. For example we have of course Achilles at top tier and we even have others like Agamemnon who is being praised for his skills or his looks and then you have characters like Odysseus who is also pointed out how good he is with the spear or how fast he is etc.

And so on and so forth. We seem to see many different factors that determine the value of a king and his position in hierarchy. We seem to see their importance start from Agamemnon who is the king of kings that possesses economic power and leading skills and then we have some of the main factors being Achillles Odysseus and Menelaus (the latter also has to do with the fact that Menelaus is the organizer of the war and brother to Agamemnon) while Diomedes and Nestor also are top tier to their fields such as advising and war. And the rest of the kings each based on these factors try to show their worth.

Thank you for the great ask Anon! It was one of the most interesting to contemplate!

[generalenemybluebird]

a quick psa to anyone recently getting into greek mythology and is a victim of tumblr and/or tiktok misconceptions:

-there is no shame in being introduced to mytholgy from something like percy jackson, epic the musical or anything like that, but keep in mind that actual myths are going to be VERY different from modern retellings

-the myth of medusa you probably know (her being a victim of poseidon and being cursed by athena) isn't 100% accurate to GREEK mythology (look up ovid)

-there is no version of persephone's abduction in which persephone willingly stays with hades, that's a tumblr invention (look up homeric hymn to demeter)

-as much as i would like it, no, cerberus' name does not mean "spot" (probably a misunderstanding from this wikipedia article)

-zeus isn't the only god who does terrible things to women, your fav male god probably has done the same

-on that note, your fav greek hero has probably done some heinous shit as well

-gods are more complicated than simply being "god of [insert thing]", many titles overlap between gods and some may even change depending on where they were worshipped

-also, apollo and artemis being the gods of the sun and the moon isn't 100% accurate, their main aspects as deities originally were music and the hunt

-titans and gods aren't two wholly different concepts, titan is just the word used to decribe the generation of gods before the olympians

-hector isn't the villain some people make him out to be

-hephaestus WAS married to aphrodite. they divorced. yes, divorce was a thing in ancient greece. hephaestus' wife is aglaia

-ancient greek society didn't have the same concepts of sexuality that we have now, it's incorrect to describe virgin goddesses like artemis and athena as lesbians, BUT it's also not wholly accurate to describe them as aromantic/asexual, it's more complex than that

-you can never fully understand certain myths if you don't understand the societal context in which they were told

-myths have lots and lots of retellings, there isn't one singular "canon", but we can try to distinguish between older and newer versions and bewteen greek and roman versions

-most of what you know about sparta is probably incorrect

-reading/waching retellings is not a substitute to reading the original myths, read the iliad! read the odyssey! i know they may seem intimidating, but they're much more entertaining than you may think

greek mythology is so complex and interesting, don't go into it with preconcieved notions! try to be open to learn!

[generalenemybluebird]

welcome to the french revolution. we've got catty bitch of a journalist who got executed for being a catty bitch, even cattier bitch journalist who somehow didn't get executed but wrote from his bathtub, big loud guy who cheats on his wife and cheats in his financial reports, fancy dressed lawyer who takes his dog on two hour walks, broke 26 year old goth genius, a few women who burn down buildings and kill shopkeepers, another woman who suicide baited the dog walking lawyer, failed playwright who commits white collar crime, hot bisexual with an orgy cave, another journalist whose paper is primarily expletives, two guys who blew up civilians for no good reason, guy who brings a knife to the government to threaten his fellow officials, guy who thought he got paralyzed from having too much sex, asshole mathematician whose grandson became president of france, and a guy everyone calls bonbon.

[generalenemybluebird]

Character who acts how “horror characters are so stupid, if they made good decisions this wouldn’t happen” people want characters to act, but it’s not a horror movie and it’s abundantly clear that this person is paranoid beyond the point of being able to function

[generalenemybluebird]

I think my favorite part of potc is just how fond they all are of each other in these silly silly movies. It’s so special to me

I mean obviously there’s Will and Elizabeth’s constant pining. They work so well together and clearly like each other, and it’s one of the few pairings I’ve ever been able to fully get behind with relative enthusiasm.

But beyond that—boundless platonic fondness be upon ye

Will and Jack’s friendship has always been one of my favorite things about these movies. Jack may be planning to use him when they first meet yeah, but he also instantly just takes him under his wing in the best way. The little “aye! Avast! >:D” and then looking to Jack is so cute man. And Jack always giving Will meaningful looks when he’s planning something and trusting he’ll be able to pick up on it, and he always does. Even when they turn to constantly betraying each other as Will gets more confident and competent as a pirate, it’s still there and I adore it

Also the way Elizabeth and Jack respect each other so much. They had a rocky start sure and Jack is weird around her sometimes but she trusts him to do a lot of things and he trusts her with the fate of the pirate world even after she pretty much killed him

Also the Will and Elizabeth instantly correcting “Captain” at the beginning of Dead Man’s chest even after not seeing each other for a long time, instant found family traumabonded for life lmao

Even with the supposed ‘villains’—the movie doesn’t just tell you Jack and Barbossa used to be friends (or at least close coworkers), and it makes me believe it. Their little squabble over percentage cuts at the end of Curse of the Black Pearl—“I’ll buy you a really big hat” “🤨 fine” it’s so funny. So perfect. And then “Hector! :D” in Davy Jones’ locker

[generalenemybluebird]

"did no one come to save me just because they missed me" is like top ten craziest lines in the whole trilogy if you're a professional full time jackgirl like me it speaks to such a deeply pathetic desire to be liked and it's coming from the most unpleasant man on the planet I can't help but go insane you would too if you were me

[generalenemybluebird]

So like... it's a Thing in all fandoms where fans sort of latch onto fanon versions of characters and their dynamics with each other that are actually completely off-base, right? I don't know if this phenomenon has an official name, but I've seen it so many times and it's fascinated me every time. Especially when a character's popular fanon selves don't end up just diluted from their source material, but straight up OPPOSITE their canon portrayal.

So one of my "favorite" variations on this was how the early PotC fandom used to get Will EXTREMELY wrong, especially in comparison to Jack, and it made finding in-character fics SO. DAMN. DIFFICULT.

I've talked about this MULTIPLE times before, as have several other fans. It's a dead horse being beaten. But basically certain prevalent takes on fanon!Will have in the past leaned towards a personality that was very patient and grounded and even demure to contrast against Jack's off-beat personality and Elizabeth's fiery rebelliousness. Because Elizabeth has the drive to push back against social norms, Will became the foil who fell back to his pre-pirate version, reluctant to break rules unless she pulled him into it, even in post-CotBP timelines. Likewise, Jack was the one with the WTF decision making, while Will was more rooted in reasonable decisions.

And by their appearances, archetypes, and certain elements of their world views, you'd THINK that's how it works. When we meet Will in the governor's foyer, Will is so lovestruck and doe-eyed and subservient to the governor, I think that people thought that's just Who He Is. Especially because he often acts as Jack's straight-man foil in the comedic elements. Straight-laced. Rigid. Even boring or timid.

But if you actually pay attention to the movies, it's very much the opposite. In canon, Jack's USUALLY the level-headed one who just happens to have chaos follow him, because of the way he can wield it. He thinks in long run, tries to solve problems with words and as little fighting as possible as often as he can. Ideal situations for Jack are more like a thief--he wants to be in and out of the job as silently and slick as possible. The scenarios he's in are insane, because the way he throws other people around with those scenarios is kind of insane, but he himself remains largely cool and collected.

That's Jack.

THIS is Will:

Canon!Will starts out literally so impulsive and rash, Jack has to physically manhandle him at certain points to keep him from blowing up his plans--and then still gets taken out because he underestimates his listening skills and impatience. Will corners Jack into what is functionally a cage match to the death by sanely locking the door with his sword and very nearly wins. He is constantly at 11, constantly demanding things be done faster, more directly, and at the same time quietly scheming behind Jack's back almost from the get-go. He does flashy jumps and flips off of things because using the stairs is too slow or whatever. He shows up in DMC yelling at Jack to give him his compass at the point of the sword, and insisting he'll get Davy Jones' key by just "cutting down everyone in his path."

Even when Will mellows out significantly in AWE, there are remnants of this contrast still there. Jack's plan for leading Beckett to Shipwreck Cove seems to have been a very reasonable and underhanded effort to deliberately make sure Elizabeth is inside the Cove while Will is on Beckett's ship, in command of the Compass. Meanwhile Will's plan was to leave a breadcrumb trail of vulture-sea gulls feasting on dead soldiers' corpses.

What I'm getting at is, yeah, Jack's a charismatic "rogue" and Will's a "romantic hero" TECHNICALLY. Jack makes quippy jokes, and Will glares and scowls and WTFs back. But not only are they are both more alike than people give them credit for, they are also totally opposite their roles' traditional personalities in ways that the fandom tends to overlook.

TLDR; Jack's crazy, Will's a sweetheart. But Will is also a manic gremlin, and Jack doesn't always know what to do with him about it, so they often end up something like this:

And more fans need to play with this fact, the end.

[generalenemybluebird]

"did no one come to save me just because they missed me" is like top ten craziest lines in the whole trilogy if you're a professional full time jackgirl like me it speaks to such a deeply pathetic desire to be liked and it's coming from the most unpleasant man on the planet I can't help but go insane you would too if you were me

[generalenemybluebird]

disney deleting the scenes from dead mans chest/at worlds end which characterized jack sparrow as someone ideaologically against the idea of slavery in a time where such an idea pits you against the establishment is diabolical

[generalenemybluebird]

Nobody is doing it like pirates of the caribbean was doing it. The first movie spends 20 minutes introducing us to every main character, their thoughts on piracy, and how nuanced and fraught the subject is in port royal, and then proceeds to introduce the most pirate pirate to ever pirate