#About this not being HP related when this is expressively an HP account...I saw the teaser for the next DetCo movie and remembered..

[hp-imagines-07]

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Sirius Black x Fem!Gryffindor!Reader

Universe: Harry Potter; The Marauders era

Type: PURE FLUFF, ok a bit angsty but really, nothing much

Summary: [y/n] had been overwhelming herself with plenty of stuff and Sirius just wants to help her because he loves her.

Request: yes|NO - pls send more requestssss

Prompt: xxx

Warnings: just cursing really

Song: xxx

Word Count: 1.3K (kinda of a blurb)

Posted: 15th of October 2020 - !PART OF 500 FOLLOWERS' CELEBRATION!

A/N: ok, i wanted to write a pure fluff one for Sirius and here it is!! it's not really big but i hope you like it bc it's just cringing fluff

My Others Accounts: @imagines-07 (Principal Account) | @obx-imagines-07 (Outer Banks) | @stit-imagines-07 (Stranger Things & IT) | @cm-imagines-07 (Criminal Minds) | @mcu-imagines-07 (Marvel Comics Universe)

MY MASTERLIST

!!hp-imagines-07's 500 FOLLOWERS CELEBRATION!!

As [y/n] felt her eyes heavy and starting to close as an instinct, she dropped her quill at the table and rubbed her eyes on the hardest way possible (without hurting herself, obviously) to take all the sleepiness far away from the bloody busy girl she has been being the last couple of weeks.

After a long breath, [y/n] grabbed the quill again and came back to the essay Slughorn had asked for everyone - except for his dearest students fucking dipshit - to the next class. Well, he had asked for this essay more than a week ago, but just as [y/n] started to read the book about the topic asked, the full moon got before she had time to think anything related to classes.

The Marauders never let her help them outside, so [y/n] would always wait for them at the common room, but this one was by far the worst of the year. Remus had transformed before they got to the safe place in the forest and where he couldn't come back to Hogwarts and attack people there, so they (basically James and Sirius, because Peter couldn't help much on his animagus form) had to contain him the farthest away from the castle, what caused a lot more bruises than the expected.

[y/n] first helped an almost-passing-out Remus, who couldn't remember what happened outside but was feeling so bad with himself that not even all of them made him feel a little bit better. Then, after Moony and Wormtail went to sleep, [y/n] helped James and Sirius with their worst bruises and cuts until the very late night.

Besides the fact that [y/n] was tutoring a third-year in Charms almost every day (because, oh, the little boy needed help with the new spells...), McGonnagal had been overwhelming her with Prefect duties. It wasn’t on purpose, Minerva just never thought that it was too much for her because [y/n] never said anything and always accepted any challenge.

But the girl was so overwhelmed…

The first one to notice was Marlene. She saw how [y/n] was barely getting any hours of sleep by being awake in the middle of the night plenty of times with the girl cursing under her breath while getting something wrong on the paper. Then Marlene talked to Lily, who is a heavy sleeper and didn't notice the missing hours of sleep from their best-friend.

After Marlene talked to Lily about [y/n], the red-headed started to notice the big bags under [y/n]'s eyes, the tiredness on her voice, how she dressed the first clothes that appeared in front of her, the way she was always looking so stressed over something that no one could point to… 

Lily then, warned Sirius about how his girlfriend needed his help more than ever and she also told him to not ask her if she wanted his help to anything, because the fucking stubborn woman would never accept help from anyone else.

And when Sirius saw [y/n] almost crying with angriness over her essay at the other side of the common room, he knew that was the moment he should act as the perfect boyfriend he was and help his love. Ignoring all the questioning looks the other three Marauders sent on his way by suddenly getting up and forgetting all about the prank they were planing on a few Slytherins, Sirius got up from the chair he was sitting at and walked in the direction of [y/n].

As the girl started to write again with her quill and the harder part being to keep her eyes open, Sirius sat on the chair beside her making [y/n] jump in surprise. "My God..." She muttered with her hand above her heart and trying to calm it down.

"Sorry for the little scare, love," Sirius said and grabbed [y/n]'s quill from her hand and closed her book before she could even protest. "but now, I'm taking you to bed..." Sirius started putting all [y/n]'s belongings on her bag while she tried to hold a few things back and protest with him, but Sirius wouldn't just give up.

Just when he had finished, Sirius began listening to her. "What the fuck, Sirius?!" The girl said furiously at her boyfriend, that gulped with her angry expression. "I need to finish this essay today! What do you think you're doing?" Sirius didn't give himself the work to answer all the questions she was throwing at him, but just threw her over his shoulder instead. "Sirius Orion Black put me down right now! I swear I'm gonna kill you, you bastard!" [y/n] screamed at him, while struggling to make him put her back down.

"[y/n] [y/l/n], shut up and let me take care of you." He simply said and she just groaned out in frustration, [y/n/n] knew that whatever she did to make him put her down wouldn't work, and just let him take her to wherever Sirius wanted for her to be.

Sirius started to walk towards the girls’ dormitory but just as he stepped his foot, the stairs became a slider and he found himself being grateful that he wouldn't be able to take [y/n] to her dorm, where there were plenty of tired girls already sleeping. So he turned around and walked upstairs to his still empty dorm with [y/n] over his left shoulder and her bag over his right one.

The first thing he did after passing through his door was to put [y/n] down. "Thank God, I was becoming nauseated on that position..." She muttered under her breath when her feet touched the floor. "Why did you bring me here, Sirius?" [y/n] asked with a monotonous tone and sat at his bed, knowing that he wouldn't give [y/n]'s bag back to her.

"You need to rest my love..." He started while walking to his bed and standing in front of her but just as his girlfriend was going to protest with him, he continued. "Don't worry about your Potions essay, I'll finish that for you tomorrow while you take care of the tasks Minnie gave you… Just don't worry, ok?" Sirius asked with both of his hands on [y/n]'s cheeks, making her look at him right in the eyes and she softly nodded at him, already feeling her eyes heavy with his caring and loving touch.

In a matter of minutes [y/n] was wearing just one of Sirius' favourite muggle-band shirt and sleep shorts and Sirius was getting ready to bed with her.

Both of them laid on his bed, under the warm and comfy blankets and held each other as close as they could. "How long has it been that we didn't do this?" Sirius muttered with closed eyes and sleepy voice.

"I don't know… But I'm never letting you go again." [y/n] whispered back against his neck and softly sighed. "It feels like it's been years since I got relaxed like this for the last time..."

Sirius just hummed back at her, but too focused on her touch to care. [y/n]'s body was laying above his, with their legs tangled together, her head buried on the crook of his neck, his nose feeling her scent coming from her hair, her soft hands resting on his bare shoulders and his hands under her (his) shirt caressing her back.

"I love you." "I love you, my love."

[y/n] fell asleep in a question of seconds while Sirius was trying to memorize this feeling of their bodies pressed against each other.

It was in moments like this that Sirius knew that home wasn't a place where you lived and it was comfortable, home was a person who you can always ask for help when needed and it doesn't matter where you'll feel like you're home.

[y/n] is Sirius' home and he couldn't be more grateful to be hers.

☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾☽☾

Taglist:

@cheapglitter @Weasleysmuch @missmulti @writtenbypics @littlemaladaptivedaydreamer @dralf0yy @buff-bork @rd155 @seppys-return-to-madness @luciferedits @old-soul-young-mind @pxtrickhxckstettxr @sleep-i-ness @marauderswhisperer @liberty01 @gweaslvy @weasleytwins-41 @siriuslysirius07 @turtlepad @ilovewinter101 @monimillion @simonsbluee @smokey102 @aberette13 @yourbloodyqueen @loverboyreid @eeshea @susceptible-but-siriusexual​ @weareloserstogether

[chromemuffin]

Quan Zhi Gao Shou / The King’s Avatar Manhua (Chapters 0-5)

What I really enjoyed right from the start of the animation was the realistic nature of the game and characters. I only play games sporadically myself, and usually handhelds at that, but even I could relate to Ye Xiu’s journey to the top of the new server. I mean, usually you just take for granted that the main character is aiming for the top of something, but it’s difficult to relate to saving the world or leading a gang of misfits across the land fighting monsters. Climbing to the top in a game, however? We’ve probably all tried it in some way or another, even if we failed along the way (I still haven’t completed the National Pokedex in any Pokemon game, ok).

This also could have been stated at the beginning of a review for the whole series, but this is a long one, the novel translations aren’t even complete yet. So it’s here now as a preface.

And now it’s time for my far less composed liveblogging! This is not going to be as detailed as my Shoukoku no Altair one by a long shot, I think I’d collapse of exhaustion before I finished.

Chapter 0: Cause

It is both unnerving and relaxing to not obsess about language nuance like I do when I read Japanese stuff. On the other hand, it feels weird being back to the state of not understanding more than a few words here and there...

Colored panels are the best. The color (cold tones) to black & white to color (warm tones) back to black & white is a neat contrast.

I’m honestly really excited to get all these names and teams straight. I watched several groups’ subs for the early episodes and all the names were translated differently, leading me to have no clue who anyone was or which team they belonged to except the currently teamless Ye Xiu lol.

Chapter 1: As we drink, the lute signals to go to war

Look at that smug smirk. Ye Xiu’s relationship with Su Mucheng is just really nice with how supportive they are of each other.

Damn it, I said I wasn’t going to go panel-by-panel! But I like the contrast between these two shots. One is as he is turning away, after having reassured Su Mucheng that he will be returning and it really is fine that his old team literally kicked him to the curb. The other is once he is turned away. He seems fine in the first shot, sort of indifferent, while the dark shadow over his eyes in the next panel suggests differently. But he’s not one to complain.

Unexpected comedy shot lol. I appreciate the life in the internet cafe, everyone excited about Glory and the new server haha. In the animation, it was very quiet when he walked in, and they had to 3D animate it.

“As a female Launcher player, Mucheng never stopped smiling even when she blew up her opponent to pieces... It’s actually quite scary when you think about it.”

haha. He’s more expressive in the manhua. It lets you have these cute little musings in between scenes that the animations never have time for.

lol he just goes and hijacks her account. who does that. “the battle started already so I finished it for you. but don’t worry, I won!” that. isn’t the point.

Hi scary demon Ye Xiu! Side note: they’re doing a good job giving the background characters different features.

Also, thanks to not looking at the characters for their names, I keep getting Ye Xiu and Ye Qiu mixed up. I...really need to go find out how it’s written.

Not going to feature all of Chen Guo’s fun expressions, but so far there have been a lot of them and they’re great. (edit for Chen Guo’s name which I derped on and forgot at the time of writing this post. lol the manga doesn’t mention her whole name - Chen Guo - until a few chapters later. I think the other patrons call her ‘Sister Chen’ and the reader finds out her given name when Ye Xiu does. but in the novel, I think the narrative switches over to her at some point, so you find out her full name before Ye Xiu does...)

I love sayings, and how they are so weird when translated literally - Japanese ones are like this, too, because a lot of them are Chinese in origin. My favorite is probably 亀毛兎角.

I hope this is a translation thing because damn, what a way to sugar-coat the truth.

Chapter 2: Since ancient times, how many have returned from war?

I wish I knew the references to classical Chinese poetry/literature, it makes the series 10x more fun when you know the origin of some of their usernames and such.

Ok, overdoing it much, Sun Xiang’s posse? You don’t need to be extra nasty about it to his face.

I always really liked this expression of his reluctance, this human emotion from a guy who looks rather calm and composed (or sheepish, occasionally) most of the time. He takes things in stride, but here you definitely get the bitterness of his situation.

And now he has to laugh it off with a smile! He does a good job of keeping it together throughout this whole deal though.

lol what kind of expression is that. “I like working nights!” why the cat face/ears. why. that was such a quick interview lol.

“Actually, we aren’t lacking people, the advert you saw was from a long time ago.”

That’s...actually, interesting. So Chen Guo is hiring him anyways? Or am I missing something in the translation?

You are a surprisingly funny man, Ye Xiu.

This is me. (it says ‘Verify faster!’)

lol Ye Xiu looking at the beginner’s guide. I never read the instructions though, even for a complicated games I’m new to, I just sort of jump in and hope I don’t die in the first few stages. Pretty sure the only game I had to actually read the instructions for was Final Fantasy Type-0? It’s difficult getting into a good rhythm without reading the in-game tips for that game...plus, some of the more advanced techniques are hard to pull off.

Chapter 3: Don’t laugh at those who lie drunk on the battlefield

If I had time, I’d totally make edits, buuut I do not and photoshop is on my other computer. but when did he get those noodles...?

lol and he just outs himself right on the spot.

That is one dark expression, I love it. The retirement thing is definitely a sore spot for him.

“you’re a professional. but also an amateur.” lol must be so weird to be Ye Xiu

“Don’t fake it, actually you’re not even retired. You didn’t get a spot and got kicked out, right?”

Ouch. Hit it where it hurts, why don’t you. Though she isn’t aware of who he actually is yet. He did indeed get kicked out, and it’s probably worse because he did have a spot previously, he was at the top even.

Starting avatar! I love the character designs in this series, across the animation and manhua.

“Suddenly I miss those games that let people pass through each other!”

HOW COULD THEY WITH SO MANY PEOPLE PLAYING. It reminds me of the Sims flailing their arms because you stuck a cabinet in the wrong spot and they can’t get through.

“Such a civilized way to kill monsters, I’m not used to it.”

“This only happens when a new server opens, you’ll definitely wish you can queue again in the future.”

I really like the side comments. I don’t play multiplayer games, but the comments definitely breathe some life into it.

LOL. “How to endure the shame? I was once known as Glory’s textbook level expert and now I have to use a beginner’s guide to do beginner’s quests.” You can feel his soul dying little by little in these panels...

I love how many titles he earned...”Does no commercials”.

And, of course, him trying to reveal who he actually is, only for her not to believe him.

lol this comment: “It’s so hard to play in first person view!” That’s actually how I feel, I dunno, I mostly play handhelds and older games. I flipped out when I tried to play Final Fantasy: Dirge of Cerberus in first person, before I figured out there was actually a third person view...I’m just really lame when it comes to games, ok.

Ooh, it’s here! The umbrella! What an odd choice of weapon, usually they’re the joke weapons. Well, it’s better than the bus stop sign from Persona 3.

I’ve read spoilers about who this guy standing behind him is, and I am not ready to actually come across that part in the novel.

Side note: I like the avatar’s design better here than in the animation. Wonder if he changes outfit later on...

Chapter 4: Green Forest’s Sleeping Moon

“Let me help you, I’ll give you the drops as well.” “I’m [a] male.” Lol. I really do love these little dialogues.

I also love the usernames, I really am hopeless with it comes to naming things myself.

Hello, Sleeping Moon! I remember you! Sort of.

I love how Ye Xiu totally has a plan going into this, and his thought process is written out. It’s a mundane detail, but I like it. (I’m the type of person who doesn’t read the instructions provided by the game, but will go look everything up online because regardless if I played the game before or not, I like having a Plan when I go into it...I’m impatient, Shadow of the Colossus is the only game I actually take time to explore.)

The two modes of communication for Glory also make it interesting...Both text and audio. It’s fun having both.

haha these drawings have so much life in them

Including these.

Way to look awesome and dramatic with your umbrella in hand.

lol “You planning to advance into a Cleric? Why don’t you just be our caretaker for good?” dying inside, I tell you, dying inside

Knowing the spoilers like I do, THIS ISN’T OKAY. no sad flashback scene so early on. c’mon.

I like how Sleeping Moon keeps talking to him like he’s a newbie, too. It’s pretty funny.

Chapter 5: You reap what you sow

Finally, a chapter title I’m familiar with!

The naaames: Sleeping Moon, Just a Passerby, Not Just Cannon Fodder, Lord Grim, and Fallen Sun

I like ‘Just a Passerby’.

Hey, you even get to say some last words after your HP hits 0 haha.

“Don’t you know that if you die in a dungeon in Glory, you can’t come back?!” lol I’m side-eyeing all the other ‘if you die in the game you die in real life’ stories...

They gave Sleeping Moon some really awesome expressions, gotta say.

“But your acting isn’t at all convincing.” Actually, this is vaguely terrifying.

Also, I appreciate how Ye Xiu is calling him out on this whole plan and how he meant to cheat everyone while Ye Xiu is basically doing the same. haha

I’m not going to screencap it all, but the sequence of the boss slowly killing Sleeping Moon like the cat it is, and Ye Xiu’s reactions, are gold.

The umbrella is also really cool of course.

And here starts the drama on the 10th server! It’s honestly great, and quite true to real life haha. Well, real life can probably be weirder than even fiction...

AAAND that’s finally it! 5 chapters + the 0 chapter done! Oh geez that took forever...Anyway, I love all the little details the manhua can fit in that the animation can’t and I look forward to reading the novel version of these chapters sometime soon.

onward →

[languages-and-first-world-war]

The Ladies from Hell

Ladies from Hell

 The study of ‘war languages’, ‘war words’, ‘trench slang’, from the First World War – and clearly variant forms are a major part of the subject – occasionally leads the researcher into the area of folk-etymology and the mythology of language. Folk-etymology takes two forms, erroneous stories of etymology, and word forms that through change propose phenomenological meanings (such as ‘sparrow-grass’ or ‘alligator pears’, for asparagus and avocado pears). Current from Autumn 1914 were stories that the German soldiers confronted by kilted soldiers from Canada, England or Scotland were so terrified that they called them ‘ladies from Hell’ or ‘devils in skirts’.

 To date no documentation in German, in newspapers, letters, diaries, memoirs or anywhere else, supports this. It is entirely a story reported, and reported vigorously by Allied soldiers, via newspapers at the time, and in postwar memoirs. It can be found as the title of R. Douglas Pinkerton’s 1918 memoir of his time with the London Scottish; in A. Corcoran’s The Daredevil of the Army (1918, p. 139); Over There and Back, by Joseph S. Smith (1918, p. 192); Private Peat, by H. Peat (1917, p. 175). Soldiers repeatedly reported its use to the press, enjoying their reputation for engendering terror. ‘Devils in skirts’ is found significantly less frequently, for example in the Daily Record 30 April 1917, p.4., in an article titled ‘Praise of the Scot’, which proposed that the Scottish soldier ‘considered it a soft impeachment when the Huns defined him in the early days of the war as the Devil in skirts; but he kept his senses when, for for some unknown reason the German papers devoted much of their space proving, to their own satisfaction, that anything good that came out of England was of Scottish extraction’. Unfortunately what the German papers did not do was offer any evidence of German soldiers using the expression. In the British press ‘Ladies from Hell’ appeared in September 1914 (Dundee Courier, 28 September 1914, p.7), continued through the conflict - the Aberdeen Press and Journal 18 October 1915 (p.4) specifically states in an article on ‘War Words’ that ‘The Germans have a phrase for our Highlanders which means “Ladies from Hell”’ -and after the war (The Sphere, 4 January 1919, p.12: ‘“Ladies from Hell” the Germans called the kilted soldiers then, and the term was one which, from the Germans, carried the highest sort of compliment’). An interesting variation/reaction, from the Highland Light Infantry, was published in October 1918: the Evening Dispatch, 4 October 1918, p.2, reported that they were calling themselves ‘Harry Lauder’s Idiots’; ‘no German, however, has yet been brave enough to call them that’. A further suggestion was ‘Hell’s Latest Invention’. After doing a trawl through the British Newspaper Archive, my impression was that reports in Scottish newspapers were outnumbering those in newspapers from the rest of Britain; in reality fewer than a third of the reports were from Scottish papers.

 What did the soldiers specifically say about the term, and did their comments in any way focus more on the gender or the infernal aspect? Private Alick Moore of the Camerons, reported in the Aberdeen Evening Express, 25 December 1914, p.3, stated that ‘ … the Germans nicknamed us ‘the ladies from hell’. We looked as if we were relations of the devil sure enough, our kilts covered with mud, and a few weeks beard on our chins.’ Private Clifford Walker, serving with the Cameron Highlanders, whose letter to a relative in Leeds was reported in the Leeds Mercury, 14 July 1915, p.2, stated that ‘The French people in the villages nearly go daft when they hear the pipes and see us in our ‘frocks’, as they call them. A good many times I have been offered money and a pair of trousers for the kilt, but it is far warmer and helps to frighten Johnny German away’. An interesting use of ‘the’ rather than ‘my’ in ‘the kilt’, indicates its role as an abstract identifier rather than merely an article of personal clothing – each individual kilt is a metonym of ‘the kilt’. There are plenty of comments about bayonet charges, war cries and the Germans running away, but no remarks on the concept of gender.

 ‘Ladies from Hell’ has stuck. Fraser and Gibbons, in their seminal Soldier and Sailor Words and Phrases (1925), define the term as ‘A name coined in the War by the German newspapers and adopted among the German troops on the Western Front’. This is confirmed by an early report from a soldier: Private John Trafford of the Gordon Highlanders (Dundee Courier, 18 September 1914, p.4) wrote that ‘the Gordons had some captured Germans with them, and the latter informed them that in Germany (NB) the Highlanders were called “the Ladies from Hell”’. Perhaps repeated hearsay made it stick faster, and allowed some elaborations: ‘A lady working among the troops’, as reported in the Western Mail (13 March 1915, p7), said ‘By the way I hear that the Germans call our kilted regiments “the ladies from Hell” (Hollenweiber, I suppose; it was told me in English)’. The levels of projection here are very clear – first the term, and then its ‘original’ version. The same German term was reported as being used by General Joffre, commander of the French Army, in the New Zealand Evening Post, 20 November 1915, p.11: on a hospital visit the general, on meeting a Scottish soldier, said ‘you are one of the men the Germens call “Hollenweiber”’. The actual German word would be Höllenweiber, which should be transcribed into English as ‘Hoellenweiber’. A word search on a site digitizing German language newspapers (http://anno.onb.ac.at/anno-suche#searchMode=simple&from=1) brings up no results, while another site digitizing newspapers Europe-wide (http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/tel4/newspapers/issue/3000113894506?hp=3&page=3&refine-query=%22ladies+from+hell%22&query=%22ladies+from+hell%22 ) provides only an article in French about Scottish troops during the First World War, from Le Figaro, 25 September 1939, p.3, which finishes thus:

 Lorsqu'en septembre 1914 ils chargèrent furieusement, devant les étangs d'Ermenonville, un regiment de fantassins allemands qui, tous, périrent noyés, ils gagnèrent un surnom : dans l'armée britannique, on ne les désigna plus que sous le sobriquet « The Ladies from Hell » — les dames de l'Enfer... —R. L.

 Specifically this notes that ‘in the British army, they were only designated under the nickname …’ The revival and enthusiastic use of the term during the Second World War shows that it clearly was reckoned successful.

 Other British articles bring a further nuance to the story: a brief note appended at the end of a story –

“The Ladies From Hell”

The German soldiers call the highlanders ‘Ladies from Hell’ because of their dress and their principle of no quarter to the enemy. – D.P.

Thus the ‘from hell’ notion derives from killing surrendering men.

 Other stories refer this back to a song from the Crimean War, ‘The Kilties in the Crimea’, written by John Lorimer of Paisley, in 1865; as reported in the Huddersfield Daily Examiner 9 November 1914, p.2, it runs:

 The Kilties are the lads for me,

They’re aye the foremost in a spree,

And when they’re in they’ll no’ come oot

Tho’ a’ the warld should turn aboot.

They’re no’ the lads will run awa’,

But feicht while they ha’e breath to draw;

Just tell them whaur they’ll meet the foe,

And shoulder to shoulder awa’ they go!

 Etc. The regiment portrayed is ‘the Royal forty-twa’ commanded by Sir Colin Campbell ‘wi’ his kilted clan’. The battle takes an interesting turn when:

 The kilties gaed to help the Turks,

Wi' a' their pistols, guns, and dirks.

But when the bagpipes ga'e a blaw

The Turkies fainted clean awa'.

Their lassies, too, and wives sae queer

They werena like our lassies here,

For they buckled up their e'en wi' clouts.

As if our kilties had been brutes.

 Islamic female dress it seems caught the attention in mid-battle. Later:

 The Russian General, when he saw

The kilties chase his men awa’

Cried oot, " Does ony mortal ken

Whether they're wild beasts or men ? "

Sir Colin cried, « Come here, my man,

And I will tell, for weel I can,

The kilted lads are just,'' he says,

" Our horsemen's wives in Sunday claes."

 Presumably the joke is that the Scots are so terrifying that the Russians are afraid even of Scottish women. The Aberdeen Weekly Journal repeated excerpts from the poem on 4 December 1914 (p.5), an indication that it was not altogether unknown. But it would be unwise to make a definite link between this poem and the appearance of the phrase; despite the use of the kilt in the British Army since the early eighteenth century, this phrase does not appear till 1914, making it more likely an invention, or less likely an adoption, of the New Armies rather than a term from the pre-1914 army .

 If we are to discuss this in terms of concepts of gender, as well as of terror, which the phrase proposes, we need also to take into account that women as well as men used the term. Should gender be discussed as part of the phenomenon? Yes, of course. The responsibility for the term, and thus raising the question of gender, is safely projected onto the enemy: projecting the responsibility for the issue onto the ‘other’ allows it to be discussed, ignored, challenged, whatever, but we cannot pretend that the issue is not raised. But there are two parts to the phrase: if the first part of ‘ladies from hell’ is a clear challenge to the soldiers’ gender, the second half of the phrase stares down any challenge to their masculine power. And being the second part of the phrase, since language is linear, it supersedes the first part, making the whole a celebration of the ability to engender terror, whatever the expectations of gender. Primarily a phrase for expressing the enjoyment of being able to create fear, it as part of the process proposes and then crushes any thoughts of effeminacy. No wonder they enjoyed it.