#I have no idea about the historical accuracies of clothing and the such but I think they look pretty

[cfserkgk]

Young Maomao and Lahan siblings AU where there was no misunderstandings between Fengxian and Lakan in the beginning. They are very similar but they would never admit that themselves.

[shini--chan]

Personal pet peeve of mine: Reading a yandere story with a historical setting with the yandere reducing the target of their obsession to just sitting around all day when they are not being subjected to "affections" and it being written that way for "historical accuracy".

I mean, yeah, there were gender roles in the past, but those gender roles didn't feature women being completely reduced to fleshlights with no other purpose. That was a job and it was called prostitute or concubine, and many women didn't do it willingly. Even high society women had a lot of tasks.

Being into historical re-enactment really showed me that it didn't matter if you were a man or a woman, or even just a child; you really didn't have much time to be idle. Asides, idlness was/is frowned upon in many religions and cultures.

C'mon, even the thing with societal norms is that a great part of society didn't adhere to them 'cause it just wasn't feasible. The attitude went along the lines of: "Nice morals you got there. We're just gonna throw a few out 'cause else we're not gonna survive. Mary, go get ye scythe now, the wheat's not gonna reap itself." And high society geneally didn't really practise what it preached because it was commonly too interested in debauchery.

People didn't get married for shits and giggles either. The single lifestyle only really worked when you either inheired a lot/had relatives paying for you or that you were living under your employers roof and all your worldy possessions fitted in one bag. Or you just lived with your family until you kicked the bucket. I mean, the armour and weapons a knight had were often provided by their liege lord and a priest's housing belonged to the Church.

Also, the trope of arranged marriages is a bit overused at this point. How about more stories about both parties hating each other's guts, or the woman loving the idea of marrying her intended but the man wanting to run for the hills? The woman baby-trapping the man perhaps? Because all of that existed to!

Don't get me started on fashion. Corset =/= patriarchy. You don't see the women in Jane Austen or Mary Shelley novels complaining about corsets and burning them, so let it rest. Really, that trope of corsets being a torture device comes from men making fun of woman's fashion and actresses with illfitting periode costumes. Corsets were more comfortable than stays and only really went out of fashion due to women needing more flexability due to bicycles. Ya really think ladies removed ribs, in a period where there weren't antibiotics and doctors went from cutting up corpses to treating patients without washing their hands inbetween? Common sense, where are you?

Asides, the clothing having to be chaste and covering certain parts applied to everybody. Breeches went out of fashion because people thought women would become arroused by men's exposed calves. Such standards didn't only apply to the Victorians, mind you.

I'll stop here, else this will be ten pages long. You also get the gist of it. Over and out.

[shadysadie]

Hot take: the Wittebanes were not Puritans

So since Hollow Mind came out there have been a lot of jokes about how the Belos is a crusty old Puritan. And while he is certainly crusty and old, I don’t think he was a Puritan.

I understand why everyone jumps there, when we think of Witch Hunts in Colonial America the very first thing that comes to mind is the Salem Witchcraft Trials. However, the Salem Witchcraft Trials began in 1692, that is 80 years after Masha says the Wittebros showed up in Gravesfield, and 30 years after the events of Elsewhere and Elsewhen.

If Masha’s information is correct, (which it might not be but we’ll get to that) then Caleb and Philip arrived in Gravesfield in 1613, which is closer in time to the settlement of Jamestown (1607) than the Salem Witchcraft Trials. 

The Pilgrims didn’t even land at pride rock until 1620, seven years after the Wittebros arrived in Gravesfield. The Mayflower Pilgrims were really the group responsible for creating the idea of religious charters. They specifically wanted to leave England to create their own religious society. Many other groups followed, (notably the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which later became the home of the aforementioned Salem Witchcraft Trials) but the Mayflower Pilgrims were the first group of religious extremists who came to America looking for their Zion. 

Prior to that, the motivation to settle the “New World” was mainly financial. Ships were chartered through the Virginia Company. Which as we all remember from our favorite wildly inaccurate and problematic 90s Disney movie, the Virginia Company was in it for the money. The New World had resources and Britian wanted them, damnit, Glory, God, and Gold and the Virginia Company.

That meant, if Caleb and Philip really did arrive in Gravesfield in 1613, their family likely made the trip for financial gain, not religion. If that’s the case they were less likely a member of an obscure group of religious extremists, and more likely to be either Protestant like King James and Queen Elizabeth. (They could have also been Roman Catholic, evidence for that comes later).

“But”, you say, “weren’t Puritans the ones persecuting witches at the time?”

Yes and no. 

In the Americas, Witch Hunts will forever be linked to Puritans, but in Witch Hunting long outdates the Puritans. King James himself, was a witch hunting fanatic, he personally oversaw hundreds of witchtrials. He wrote books about finding witches, and it was specifically the King James endorse translation of the Bible that features the infamous “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (in many prior translations the word witch is something more along the line of “sinner” or “evil doer”). By many estimates, upwards of 1500 people were executed for witchcraft as a result of his reign. If we are going with Masha’s 1613 timeline, the brothers would have left England smack dab in the middle of his reign, right after the King James Bible was published.

(^this GIF has nothing to do with the Owl House, I just love sassy Gay King James in his bird mask, look at this cocky ass bastard, you know him and Belos would have been genocide buddies)

However, I can’t pretend to be focused on some semblance of historical accuracy and take Masha’s information at face value, even in the context of the show it wouldn’t add up because according to the sign we see in Yesterday’s Lie, Gravesfield was established in 1635. 

(Granted there is a difference between a settlement and a town, it is possible that 1635 was when Gravesfield was officially acknowledged as a town and the boys just lived there pre-establishment). 

However, in the name of historical accuracy, I have to assume Masha got the date wrong, because the English didn’t even settle in Conneticut until the 1630s. The Conneticut Witch Trials began in the 1640s. By this timeline and demographic, the likelihood of Caleb and Philip being Puritans goes up by a lot. 

However, if we look at Philip’s clothes an his goals, there are still signs that don’t point to Puritanism. First look at the clothes Caleb and Philip wear as children:

Philip’s pants are red and Calebs are green. While it is a myth that Puritans could only wear black, the colors that they were allowed to incorporate into their wardrobe were typically still neutrals (dark yellows and beiges). Green would be pushing it, and red would be unbelievably bold.

Additionally, the ruffles on Philip’s shirt in the journal and Jacob’s book, would have been seen as incredibly vain.

 The blue/black coat that Caleb wore in the puppet show, and Philip later wears in Elsewhere and Elsewhen and King’s Tide has gold buttons and gold embroidery. Gold and Silver accessories of any kind would have been considered incredibly sinful and conceited. 

Which would also make it really weird for a Puritan to choose gold to represent himself. Infact his whole emperor authentic is much more reminiscent of the Catholic Pope. His own role as the messenger of the Titan’s will is also very papal in nature.

Finally there is the term he uses, “Witch Hunter General” is an illusion to “Witch Finder General” which was a rank made up and used by Protestant Matthew Hopkins and not really used by any Puritans. Such a title would also probably have seemed pretty vain.

Now you might say, “It’s a fictional story, why does any of this matter?”

The answer is: It does not, but I am high and have ADHD and this was the rabbit hole I fell down.

[aemiron-main]

“even if you don’t see a detail, it’s there” aka “i dont ever want to hear again that i’m looking too deep into the costuming choices in ST”

“Even if you don’t see a detail, it’s there.”

This is straight from Amy Parris, the wonderful costume designer for ST, and yet, even though it’s confirmed that there’s details that we don’t even see, I’m supposed to believe that people are looking “too deep,” into the details that we DO see?

As well, take a look at what Amy had to say about Lucas’ jersey:

These decisions are intentional. There is thought put into them. Thought in terms of historical accuracy vs actors’ suggestions vs modern culture references, thought in terms of in-universe consistency and foreshadowing and character development and SO much more. Even when a piece of costuming, such as Lucas’ jersey, is technically historically inaccurate, the majority of the time, it’s still a choice to have it be inaccurate. Lucas’ jersey being historically inaccurate was not an accident/act of ignorance- it was an intentional choice. They KNOW that it’s not technically historically accurate, but chose to go the route of paying homage towards Kobe instead.

As well, regarding the title of this post, I absolutely concede that sometimes, I could totally be wrong about what the presence of certain details means from an analysis standpoint/why they chose to include those details, but I really heavily disagree with the idea that the details are just accidental/not there for any particular reason at all/that people are looking too far into it when they notice costuming details.

Like seriously, do people just think that the set design and costumes just came to life and assimilated with the actors like The Thing and are a complete accident? Or that they just grab random clothes for every single costume because they’re in a silly, goofy mood? If that’s the case, I cannot wait for Henry to show up in a juicy couture tracksuit in S5. 🙏

[cassius-the-kitten]

DDADDS as Content Creators (headcanons)

I don't know why I had this idea, but here you go!

have some content-creating DDADDS :3

Brian Harding

technically Brian doesn’t have a channel. Daisy just records him and posts it to TikTok.

it is all camping, fishing, and general outdoors videos. except the lawncare videos, which are actual tutorials.

Daisy actually makes these tiktoks look really nice and high-quality, even if Brian is not that good of an actor. he’s trying his best, but it actually works. surprisingly, she never really shows up on camera. it’s all Brian here

has a lot of fans of his fishing for… aesthetic reasons. yeah, aesthetic reasons. the aesthetic reason being that he is shirtless in almost all of them. and that he is obviously very confident in his body.

his lawncare videos get the same amount of views, but for vastly different reasons. all of the lawn-caring dads enter his TikTok comment section whenever he posts and they either compliment him or start discourse on which weedwhacker is the best.

surprisingly, Brian has some of the most followers out of all of the dads. he even ends up doing some lawn equipment giveaways.

Craig Cahn

it’s all fitness all day with Craig. he has a TikTok and an Instagram.

he posts a lot about his business, softball coaching, healthy recipes, and once again fitness.

he has fallen for the “can you fitness dick in your mouth” joke at least 12 times by now. he keeps falling for it. help him please

completely avoids drama not only to keep away extra stress, but also because there’s literally nothing you can really yell at him for. unless you hate his recipes

probably has a series where he tries out a bunch of popular healthy recipes and rates them on a 5-star scale.

he has a LOT of followers for a LOT of reasons. good video quality, good recipes, he’s entertaining, a good father, and all of the softball moms\dads love him.

Damien Bloodmarch

plenty of Victorian recipes, fashion, and general taxidermy. he’s got a Youtube channel and a Tiktok, but he’s more comfortable with the YouTube format.

he edits all of his videos and he’s Really, Really good at it to the point where he offers to edit videos for other dads. so he’s both a YouTuber and a freelance editor.

probably gets the most sponsorships out of all the dads

has a very welcoming and kind community that he interacts with over Tumblr and Reddit. he has a Twitter but he just doesn’t use it

his space is 100% drama-free. unless you are arguing about historical accuracy.

he has an entire series rating the historical accuracy of anything Victorian; from clothes to books to recipes and more. it doesn’t stop. he will post these forever.

he manages to make a LOT of money off of this, to the point where he gets to quit his IT job altogether and gets to have more fun.

Damien really loves getting recognized by fans and always expresses his appreciation in his videos whenever he can.

Lucien shows up in his food videos sometimes, but only to eat the food and to mildly bully him on-camera. the comments call him low-rent Gerard Way and he does Not appreciate it.

Hugo Vega

he has a small YouTube channel that consists of book reviews and nothing else. until he eventually gains more popularity, that is.

there is very, very little editing on the earlier videos and it shows. Ernest refuses to help him. all of his students refuse to help him. dadsona cannot help him. please help him. he cannot edit

he uploads very rarely (once a month, maybe twice during summer months), but his videos are actually very well-scripted and well-performed. sometimes Ernest comes in to purposefully ruin his recording session, and it works every time.

eventually he somehow manages to bag Damien as his editor, and the video quality goes up significantly from there. Damien even buys Hugo better equipment and gives him advice.

he started out covering just older lesser-known works from the 18th century. somewhere along the way, he made a single video on poorly written YouTuber books and it Exploded in popularity. that’s when he started shifting towards being a bit more of a commentary channel, with Damien’s technological help of course.

some people have called him “the old librarian version of Kurtis Conner” and he doesn’t know what it means until he looks up Kurtis Conner. then he understands.

somehow he becomes well-versed in internet discourse and makes videos about it, with full-length video essays of a pretty high quality.

he doesn’t forget his literature roots, though — he still makes plenty of content on literature and art history, even if they make less views. he enjoys doing it and that’s what matters.

he always blushes when he gets recognized in public and he is way too polite to turn down a signature or photo. one time a wrestler he likes recognized him and he almost fainted from pure joy.

Joseph Christiansen

by far the most controversial of all. (\j its Robert)

just kidding it’s all baking. his TikTok is just a gay tradwife’s dream.

the man is just trying to be hip with the kids. he even dresses up as Ken after the Barbie movie premiere and makes a cake about it. this is actually his most popular video and it gets millions of views & likes

his community is Christian. mainly because he’s Christian. just that sometimes he attracts the mean Christians. he gets a lot of hate comments from them but he just deletes them and moves on with minimal worry or stress

besides that, his community is pretty supportive and full of a combo Christian mothers and Christian queers. most of his audience are 25+ but there is a sizeable portion that is under the age of 25, so technically he got what he wanted

the videos are of a fine quality, even though he’s not really an editor. like everyone else who can’t edit themselves, he just asks Damien very nicely to edit for him

he shows his kids in videos semi-often, but it’s really just because they either mess with him while he’s recording and he doesn’t know how to edit it out, or he has them try the food afterwards. it’s a win-win scenario for the kids

Mary refuses to show her face in any of the videos whatsoever and steers clear of the kitchen whenever Joseph is recording in there.

the kids at church all know him from his TikTok but either say nothing about it or actively make fun of him for it.

Mat Sella

posts baking and recipes to TikTok, along with promotion stuff for The Coffee Spoon. it was Carmensita’s idea and he just ran with it because it’s fun for both of them

Carmensita is the one behind the camera (or tripod) while Mat bakes, and sometimes she appears on camera when she wants to try the food. Pablo helps him edit and do other promotional videos. sometimes Pablo is seen helping in the videos too.

he always gets really anxious after posting it but the second that the positive comments and likes roll in, he’s completely relaxed.

any food he bakes on TikTok he sells at the Coffee Spoon, so it’s actually extremely useful at getting people to come and buy stuff. eventually people are mostly coming over for the food but also order a coffee because “may as well”

has a very positive comments section that consists mostly of people really wanting to go to Massachusetts just to order the food and give him a kiss on the forehead.

he has been called a babygirl at least twice and he has no clue what it means. Pablo and Carmensita refuse to tell him.

has done multiple collabs with Joseph and Damien, along with sharing tips with them. they’re all internet besties.

is recognized pretty often, and he’s always in-between being an anxious mess and being a really cool chill guy about it.

Robert Small

by far the least consistent and most unhinged out of all of them, for obvious reasons. he’s a TikToker solely because the format is easy for him, but he also just uploads all of his content straight to YouTube

he either posts 5 times a day or twice a month. there’s no in between.

it will be of the most random shit. one day you get him rating brands of whiskey, and next week there’s a 12 part series of him going cryptid hunting. all of it is unedited and of very poor audio quality if he’s outside

he probably visited the Goatman’s Bridge after the Buzzfeed Unsolved and also bullied the Goatman and took the bridge for himself. the only difference is that he’s drunkenly yelling at the Goatman and calling him a bitch.

he’s always at least a little intoxicated in all of his videos, and some cases he is fully drunk. he doesn’t really put an act on for the camera, he’s really just himself, completely unfiltered.

90% of his YouTube videos are either age-restricted, demonetized, or both. some of his TikToks get taken down but he always reuploads them because he is a very stubborn old man and he refuses to stop.

Robert probably has a maximum of 200 followers. he does not respond to his comments unless someone insults his whiskey or pineapple on pizza. he also responds to weird internet slang.

he doesn’t get any sponsorships. and he never will. and he doesn’t want them. the sponsorships also don’t want him. he has made multiple videos where he goes on rants about ads and how much he hates capitalism.

whenever someone in his TikTok comments calls him a blorbo he responds with a video of his honest reaction. he is confused. they also call him a poor little meow meow. he is confused. they also call him babygirl. he is still confused.

when he gets recognized in public he has no clue how to act. mainly because he very, very rarely gets recognized. his own neighbors are surprised when they find out he is a content creator.

eventually he will get recognized more, because his content is a comedy goldmine, albeit very unintentional. most of his fans are actually Gen Z, because his humor fits in pretty damn well. he is always slightly unsettled when teenagers recognize him because sometimes he forgets that young people do in fact watch his content. even though most of his viewers are half his age or less.

eventually Val finds his channel and dies laughing and confronts him about it (post reconnecting), because she never knew about it and she wants to be in those videos too because it’s fun. just some father & daughter fun: getting drunk and taking a walk in the forest being silly.

--

I actually really love doing these headcanons and i hope you do too :3

[nebbyy]

Random question. Do you think Baldwin would like puppies or kittens better

King Baldwin - Cats or dogs?

A/N: Mmmmh hard one, took me almost half a day to think about it😭😭 Loved the idea though, I think that this question and the reasoning behind its answer tell a lot about a person.

Couldn't find the name of the painting this time but the painter is by Henriette Ronner-Knip!!

Warning: puppies, but mostly kitties. Jokes aside I took the liberty of adding some historical inaccurate facts about cats' presence in medieval castles just to make the story more fit to my taste (not like historical accuracy is really the point of a fanfic but you get my point).

I'm still really torn but I'd say that it depends on which time of his life that question is asked

If it's during his childhood and first youth, he'd say dogs with no hesitation. They're great companions and so full of life, he'd love to bring a few with him during his hunting trips. He would see his own sprout of energy mirrored in his pawed companions! I see him as owning at least two of them, maybe even more (having almost a pack of dogs was pretty much the norm in noble families)

Dogs are also perceived better by Christian society, as there were quite a few theologists who believed that cats where somehow tied to unholiness or even the devil himself

But as time goes by and his condition worsens, he can't bring himself to stand for so long, let alone play with the dogs or take them out while he rides his horse

He feels bad, though, at the sound of their whines as his servants shoo them out of his bedroom, while he lays motionlessly on his huge bed (in which he usually let them lay while he rested, much to his servants' dismay)

And it is right as he's left laying there, alone and with an aching heart at the loss of his dear friends, that he for the first time notices the gentle meow of his physician's cat. He never really acknowledged his existence, for he always seemed to make it his mission to be as invisible to the people in the room as possible

The cat looked him with mil interest: of course, he knew him, but Baldwin couldn't say the same. He had been silently studying the young king, as his master tended to his everlasting wounds, or as he distracted himself form his duties with a game of chess. All while Baldwin didn't even know that the cat was in the room in the first place

Their exchanged stare didn't last long, because soon the cat jumped swiftly on the bed, waggling his tail like an enchanted snake as he made a few steps on top of the covers

He inspects the space, undisturbed by Baldwin who can't bring himself to make even the slightest movement because of how exhausted his sickness makes him

Finally, the cat seems to find a spot to his liking, right on the spot between Baldwin's side and arm, which is splayed on the side of the bed

The cat makes a few circles before snuggling close to his clothed side, resting his head on his own tail and quietly purring himself to sleep, soon followed by the king himself

That was their first official encounter, one that changed Baldwin's answer at the question "cats or dogs"

He also came to find that apparently there were far more cats in palace

In his late years, he found in those cats a silent and delicate company, it created a space in which he could let go of everything and just bask into the presence of those little balls of fur

And they are so agile and elegant in their movements, he enjoys watching them move around his room, jumping from a surface to the other like it's nothing; he feels like he can move and live through them

And he misses them oh so badly when they leave his chamber to go hunt for food or to simply explore the palace, but as they happily walk back in his room and curl up to rest all over his bed and desk, he almost feels like they're telling him all they've seen during the day simply through their eyes

And that is how Baldwin IV was born a dog person, only to die surrounding his death bed with cats

[freshmangojuice]

In 1993, Danny John-Jules wore this iconic costume in the Red Dwarf episode 'Gunmen of the Apocalypse'

It's such a beautiful costume, I wanted to know where it came from. So I did some digging. This is what I found out... (long post)

To preface, this post is about Mexican cultural dress and design. I am not Mexican and I have no Mexican connections so my existing knowledge is very limited. So although this stuff is new to me, it might be really obvious in general. If you happen to have more insight, please share!

Firstly, there is no information about the Riviera Kid costume itself other than the fact it was thought to be too small for Danny (it was, but luckily he looks good in tight clothes), and was rented for the shoot, which means it was not the work of our beloved Howard Burden.

But whoever made it must have gotten the idea from somewhere, the costume is clearly Mexican-inspired. But do we get that sense because of Hollywood, or is it legitimate cultural dress appropriate for the time period the episode was trying to represent? WELL! Let's see!

To start with, the image below is a gorgeous mariachi suit designed by contemporary Los Angeles tailor Jorge Tello.

Note the four symmetrical faux pockets with embellishment surrounding them, and the same continuous pattern bordering the edges of the jacket as well as patches on the upper arms and going down the side of the pants. And of course the big floppy bow tie. Excepting the details in colour, fasteners, and the decoration, this is the same as the Riviera Kid in terms of shape and style. Okay so it's mariachi dress!

I also found out that this specific suit is called traje de charro and is the traditional dress for horsemen in Mexico, now worn mostly by mariachi performers but also anyone for heritage events like festivals. And its origins come from Salamanca in Spain, though the evolution has brought it a long way from the 16th century. More on that later.

To back this up there are also a lot of results for cheaper costumes that actually have similar designs to the Riviera Kid with the squiggle appliqué.

But these are recent designs, with Tello's from around 2013. Gunmen of the Apocalypse was supposed to represent the 1880s (or thereabouts), is there anything older? Where does the squiggle design actually come from? WELL! (again)

Tracing back the decades, I managed to find some strikingly similar pieces. Including this jacket made in Mexico and worn by Alice Cooper in the 1970s. Yes, the rockstar Alice Cooper.

This jacket is VERY similar to the Riviera kid, down to the four corner knot motif on the arms, the squiggles, and even the fasteners are done in the same braiding technique. Clearly this is the jacket that inspired the one worn in Red Dwarf. Or was it...?

This one was worn by the actor Guy Williams in 1958 and was likely designed by Hollywood costumer Chuck Keehne. It is exactly the same as the one from the 70s. Like, exactly the same. Which leads me to believe the Alice Cooper one was copied from this design.

However, we have to look at the context. The jacket above was made for an actor in a movie (The Sign of Zorro) in the 1950s, and if it was indeed Chuck Keehne behind it, that guy was born in Missouri. Not much there to legitimise the design as Mexican. Nor is there much to suggest historical accuracy since the movie is meant to take place in the 1820s and they looked like this in it.

(Guy Williams and Britt Lomond in The Sign of Zorro)

I can tell you right now that yes the military uniform is pretty 1820s. The details are off, but the silhouette is there, the cut of the jacket is there, the right buttons are there, the right pistol is there. We are in the 1820s. So I have reason to believe that the military uniform, for which I have many references for, is just as historically accurate as the flashy charro. Surely, right?

Eh, not quite. Because after digging some more I'm sorry to say I doubt the squiggle design and sharp cut of the jacket is as old as the 1820s. That just isn't realistic for how fashion changed over time, and I have also found things like this photograph.

Taken in the 1860s, the two men look fabulous, but the man on the left is wearing what appears to be a suit that will eventually evolve into what we see later on. The decorated legs, the length of the jacket and gap in the closure is about all the similarities I can find. So obviously 1820s is very optimistic for what we're talking about.

Which are suits like this!

These lovely ladies were photographed in Mexico c. 1918–29 and they're wearing the squiggles! The jacket of the lady on the right has vertical pockets which is so fascinating to me, but the lady on the left has exactly what I've been looking for all this time. She has the squiggles, the four pockets, the round decorated collar. It's stunning. And it's the earliest version of the design that I can confirm. All that's missing is the four cornered knots, but I'm assuming that comes in 1950s and may even be a celtic reference.

Unfortunately, that's the end of the 'I'm pretty sure this is accurate information' thread, but I've also found other vintage jackets that have been sold online.

The two on the left are listed as being from the 1940s, and the one of the right is listed as a women's matador jacket from the 1920s. How true those claims are I cannot know, their provenance is not given.

Though it would seem that the design that inspired the Riviera Kid is definitely more 20th century. And it's surprising to me how common it actually is! So although it may be a fabrication for the time period, it is very true to life for actual traditional dress and it's not completely made up!

TL;DR

The Riviera Kid costume took inspiration, along with other costume work, from actual Mexican fashion that originate no earlier than the 1910s, although those fashions can trace its roots to around the 1860s, which can trace its roots to Spain in the 1500s.

[captain-mj]

I’m asking. Here it is. Ghoap outlander au. I have nothing to offer but my left kidney

Keep your kidney. Ive been shaking and waiting for someone to send me this ask. Real quick though, besides the basics of “modern person gets sent into 1700s Scotland” This won’t follow the show that much. Also, we are IGNORING homophobia. Realistically they were Catholic at the time but i do not care. Chances are there's going to be quite a few historical accuracies (plus I'm planning on making multiple parts because I fucking adore this idea) so just like... little heads up about that

Also, I'm doing this based off og SoapGhost, obviously it doesn't matter much, but I wanted you guys to know :)

Ghost had never believed in... well anything mystical really. He thought it was nonsense. For some people, it was helpful, but it meant nothing to him. Gunpowder held more meaning than a cross. He was a medic in the army for fuck’s sake.

So when he walked into an area he was told was sacred and asked to be careful, he treated it the same way he treated everything else of this nature. That was not to say he was in any way disrespectful, but he didn't treasure it the way his colleagues did. He was a soldier first, person second. The dark stones reached up to the sky, unnerving in their monolith, but they didn’t strike the fear of God into him.

And then, he felt a knife go through him. It aimed for one of his organs. He didn't remember hitting the ground, just knew that he was on it suddenly. Blood filled his mouth and he couldn't breath. Silently, he prepared himself for the next blow. Accepting death was maybe a bit too easy for him.

But he didn't die. He just laid there in a puddle of his own blood. Weird. It hurt a lot more than a regular stab wound but he was alive.

Ghost tried to get up to call for the others but someone's boot landed on his back, pushing him into the ground. The person started to speak, though he didn't understand the language.

"Get off of me." He tried to stand up and then a blade was against his neck. A sword. The person had a fucking sword. Ghost managed to glance up.

The person must be some kind of weirdo fucking larper. They had a mohawk with braids in it and blue swirling tattoos all over their shoulders and chest. As for their clothing... it was traditional. Kilt, furs over their upper half. He was hot but that was besides the point.

The person looked irritated, barking at him in his language again.

Ghost thought it through. "I can't understand you. I'm English?" He hoped the word “English” would mean something to him.

The man made a very upset face when he said English and that wasn’t what Ghost had in mind when he said something. He hissed at him and dug his heel in. Ghost groaned and gritted his teeth, glaring.

Someone spoke from elsewhere and he paused.

The man stepped off of Ghost and made a motion to get up, sword still pointed at him. Ghost got up and went for his gun, only to find the holsters empty. All of them. Even his assault rifle, which he was pretty sure only landed a few inches from his hand, was gone.

What the hell.

He looked up at him cautiously.

The man looked down at him and slowly used the blade to force him to tilt his head back.

His mask. Ghost's eyes widened as he thought about it. The stranger knelt down and went to remove it and Ghost tried to shove him off. Quickly they were surrounded by more men and something blunt hit the back of Ghost's head.

It was hours later when he woke up. He groaned softly and sat up, feeling thin restraints tug at his wrists. They were just thin leather straps, clearly more of a message than to keep him down.

Ghost looked around the room. It wasn't that well furnished, but it was rather cozy. The few pieces of furnishings he could see had clearly been hand carved. That did not mean they weren't well made, just it was clear they weren't machine manufactured.

He slipped from the binds anyway, touching himself to check for injuries. The knife wound had been well stitched and bandaged perfectly. Funnily enough, it looked like the supplies came from his own bag which was next to him on the floor. His shirt had been taken but the blanket had been pulled to his collar, so he had some privacy.

His mask. Fuck. He quickly touched his face, but luckily, his fingers met the soft fabric. They hadn't taken his mask.

Ghost started to get up but someone came in. The same mohawked person from before. They stared at each other before the man set the plate on the dresser.

They were roughly the same height, but Ghost was sure he could fight him off if needed. However, he was injured and the man brought food.

"English?" He said slowly, like he was feeling out the word. Ghost had a feeling it wasn't his native language. His thick scottish accent grated on the words.

"Yes... Speak it?" Ghost held his wound.

"Vaguely. Soap."

Ghost blinked, a little taken back. "Soap?"

Soap pointed at himself and nodded before pointing at Ghost.

"Ghost." He didn't want to tell him his real name. "What do you speak?"

"Gaelic."

"Don't speak that..." Ghost backed up and tried to joke.

Soap smiled and held out the food. It looked simple. Meat, potatoes, almost laughably what you'd expect from a Scottish person. "Eat."

Ghost reached out slowly and took it from him. The plate felt funny under his hands. He held it to himself, but Soap wasn't leaving.

Ghost decided to try to get some information. "Where am I?"

"Highlands."

"Here with a lot of people?" Maybe if there weren't too many, he could fight his way out. Or maybe just escape silently.

"Dozens. Better you stay here." Soap reached out and Ghost backed up, pressing against the wall. He pulled his hand back though it still lingered in the air.

Ghost slowly pulled his mask up and started to eat. He was starving. It tasted pretty good. His sunglasses were gone and the candle lighting of the room made Soap look otherworldly. A angel. He quickly glanced away again.

“You’re injured. Shouldn’t be out of bed.” Soap chided him, his head tilting slightly. He waited though until Ghost was done eating, hand reaching out for the plate. Once it was set to the side, Soap grabbed him, wrestling him back down.

Ghost fought back, trying to get away from him, but Soap had the advantage of not being fucking stabbed. He ended up straddling him to the bed as he retied him, this time much more securely.

Ghost tensed, feeling Soap’s weight on him. Panic filled his mind until it overflowed and he was kicking and thrashing. He didn’t make a sound, but he didn’t really need to.

Soap grabbed his face. “Breath.” It was a command and Ghost found himself following it. “Good.” He took a deep breath for Ghost to mirror and soon, his head was slightly clearer.

“Don’t touch me.” Ghost managed to spit out.

Soap nodded and got off of him. “Stay down, yes?”

Ghost glared and Soap put his hand firmly in his chest. “Won’t have to touch you if you stay down. Now. Stay. Down.”

Slowly, Ghost nodded.

“Good boy.” Soap grinned and Ghost felt heat rush to his face. He patted him gently and left Ghost alone again.

Ghost started to plan how he would escape.

[arlo-rose]

My ramblings about On the Brink of Scientific Discovery and fashion history

I’m very very normal about both Brink and historical fashion, so I decided to go down a research rabbit hole of what the characters would realistically be wearing in this fic, and it just kinda spiraled from there. I’m not in any way a professional or super qualified, I just think historical fashion is neat. I’m also not a writer so I apologize if any pacing or formatting in this is weird.

(WARNING, VERY LONG POST)

(Seriously I’m gonna go into detail about a lot of the characters and my reasoning for why they’d wear that, and sometimes background on the clothes themselves if it’s really interesting)

Disclaimer: a lot of the fable characters, and therefore the characters in Brink, are nonbinary or otherwise don’t fully conform to one gender, and while Brink takes some liberties with historical accuracy so these characters can live openly as they are, I’m still going to sometimes refer to the clothing as “men’s clothing” and “women’s clothing” because that’s how it was categorized in the period. 

“On the Brink of Scientific Discovery”(by ConnorsNotHere on Ao3) is a Victorian gothic/cosmic horror AU of FableSMP that takes place in 1889. Brink and its sequels do a decent amount of globe-traveling, but most of the characters are from and live in England. However, a lot of them have connections to or are from places like France, the US, etc. By this time in history there’s(very generally) not drastic differences between the fashions of America and western Europe, so while I’m gonna try to find things as accurate as possible to what I think the characters would wear, I’m also not going to be overly picky about if say, a specific suit is from England or America.

What were the clothes like then?

In 1889 we are coming off of the second bustle period, so skirts still had a lot of fullness in the back, however, they were starting to transition into the more “trumpet shaped” skirts of the 1890s. Bodices and sleeves were both still very fitted, and sleeves are starting to get a little bit of a puff on top, rather than the smoother, more rounded styles of previous decades. In the 1880s more tailored, menswear-inspired clothing also started to gain popularity for women, so you’ll start to see jackets and bodices that resemble menswear more than in previous decades.

Year to year men’s clothing doesn’t change a drastic amount, but there are still a lot of things characteristic of the 1880s. Suit jackets were often buttoned very high up, sometimes to the point where you were barely able to see the shirt and tie. When the jackets were left open, it was actually quite fashionable to have bolder, more colorful waistcoats, which were often beautifully patterned.

However, not every person dresses like the latest fashion plates, and this photo is a good example of people who are still fashionable, but also just normal people and not wearing anything overly fancy. The entirety of the Fable Society has a decent amount of wealth, so they would be able to afford fashionable, good quality clothing, however, they still wouldn’t be dressing in their best, fanciest clothes every day, especially if it’s not practical for their job.

This is a photo of some teenage boys from 1889. This gives a really good idea of what characters like Athena, Easton, and Jamie would be wearing when they’re not wearing more casual or practical things.(side note, I really like the suit on the left I would 100% wear that)

Individual Characters

I’m not going to go into detail about *every single one* of the characters in Brink, as that would get repetitive and excessively long after a while, but I wanted to talk about a lot of them still.

Momboo

I want to start with Momboo cause in my opinion she would probably be the most fashionable(to the period's standards) of the Fable Society, and I had a lot of fun looking for things I think she would wear. Lots of pretty trims, ruffles, and florals were very popular at the time so there was a lot to choose from. While I can see her enjoying fancier clothing a lot of the time, she also loves to garden and care for the plants on her estate, so obviously she would wear different clothes for that, something with darker colors and less elaborate decorations so it would be easier to wash when it got dirty. There honestly isn’t much super unique going on with her clothing, it’s just very pretty so I wanted to talk about it first.

(That green and pink dress on the right is one of my favorites that I found the entire time I was researching for this, it’s so pretty) (also these 2 fashion plates give me such world sisters vibes, I like them a lot)

More pretty pink dresses :Athenafire:

Sherbert

In the 1880s there wasn’t yet standardized protection or uniform for chemists and people working with more dangerous compounds, and in pictures I’ve seen they just seem to be wearing normal(if slightly more casual) clothes with maybe an apron over them. In Brink neither Sherbert nor Easton wear any protection in their lab out of pure “well nothing bad has happened yet”(which I’m sure will be great for their health and will never have any adverse effects later in life /s) which is actually pretty accurate to chemists of the time.

(I had a really hard time dating this photo, it’s probably closer to the 1870s but still gives really good examples of protection used by chemists in their labs)

It was pretty difficult to find pictures of chemists in the clothing they would wear while working, but I did find a lot of really cool pictures of chemistry labs that are really interesting to look at.

A really fun detail that I realized when I was researching things for Sherbert(that was probably accidental but I still like it) is that Sherbert’s jacket is often described as being very long and having a large collar that is often turned up. This actually wasn’t a very common style for overcoats in the last couple years of the 1880s, *however* it was a lot more common just a couple years beforehand, so I like to think of Sherbert’s jacket in Brink as being something they’ve held onto for a while either out of practicality or just because they like it.

Caspian

One of my favorite details about Caspian’s clothing in Brink is that even when he’s given new clothing from the other characters after he’s rescued, he still wears his old blue jacket from when he was traveling around the world in the mid/late 1810s, looking for a way to bring back the lady of the world. To me It’s a really cool detail, and if Brink was in a visual medium rather than written, it would be such a cool way to show the audience that Caspian doesn’t quite belong, and has been in the End for a lot longer than the characters think.

During and slightly before the regency period(1811-1820), men’s fashion went through a massive shift from the elaborately embroidered and patterned fashions of the 1700s to a more toned down and subtle style(and contrary to popular belief, Beau Brummell was not the sole reason this change happened, he just became the face of popular trends that were already happening, but that could be its own whole rant). The most common type of men’s coat in this era was called a dress coat or a tailcoat, which was cut high in the front with long “tails” in the back, and large high collars.

I’m not sure if I really like this style of coat personally, but I think it’s really interesting that the men’s coats from this era are so different from what all the other characters would be wearing in the story.

(Don’t pay attention to why his hand is in his pants here, I have no idea why but a lot of men in fashion plates from this era are posed like this)

Rae

Rae’s research comes before most things in his life, including staying up to date with the latest fashions. However, in fable, Rae really likes fancier clothing so I think it’d be fun to have Brink!Rae also really like good clothes. Rae also does a lot of traveling and working outside at archeological sites, and so most of the time would be wearing more practical things.(though in the 1800s this still means he would often wear a full suit, just one made of different materials and not as fancy)

I really like this painting and I can definitely see brink Rae wearing something like this when at his home(or at least when not traveling or working in the field), I like the super dark blue/almost black of the suit and whatever he’s wearing on his neck is really pretty(I can’t actually tell what that is specifically but I like it)

Haley

I can see Haley wearing pretty fashionable clothing, but probably more subtle and practical designs than Momboo, and she would wear things in more subtle colors, but she would still have an overall pretty feminine style.

I wish I could have found more purple or gray dresses to use as examples for her, but I don’t think those colors were very common, at least in the fashion plates I was looking at. I was able to find some really pretty darker navy dresses though, which I think fits really well too. I don’t have a ton to say with her either but pretty dresses>>>

Jamie

Connor has talked about Jamie’s clothes in Brink before so I’ll keep this one shorter, but Jamie is the only person in the main Brink cast who regularly wears sweaters, which was a deliberate choice. At the time sweaters were associated with college students, working class people, and people who had very physical jobs, such as sailors. Sweaters were considered extremely casual and people outside of those groups didn’t really wear them often, but as Jamie is an orphan who was later adopted onto a very large farm, it makes sense that they would wear one often and feel more comfortable in one.

Ocie

I think Ocie is the character I’m taking the most liberties with when it comes to historical accuracy, mostly cause she is described in some scenes as wearing a naval jacket, and as it was only men wearing those, I couldn’t find anything completely accurate to what she was wearing. I can definitely picture how her jacket would look though. I picture it as being mostly in the men’s style, just cut more like a woman’s jacket of the time. 

During the 1880s some popular styles of women’s fashion started to become more tailored and more resemble menswear, especially in jackets and some bodices, so it was pretty easy to find menswear inspired women’s jackets that I think fit pretty well.

Riding habits(outfits for horse riding) have also been very inspired by menswear for hundreds of years, and I can see ocie wearing something similar as her jacket.

this image is very crunchy and slightly too early for brink (1886), but give a good idea of menswear inspired womenswear from the late 1880s

Other than her jacket I actually found some blue dresses I think fit Ocie really well.

The blue dress on the right is probably more fancy than Brink!Ocie would realistically be wearing, but it fits her so well I had to put it in, and I just think it’s really pretty.

And this is what actual navy captain’s uniforms like around the 1880s(it was really hard to reliably date these but they’re from approximately then) 

Galahad

Contrary to the popular image of the brave lone wolf cowboy who lived a life of courageous freedom, a majority of old west cowboys were actually very poor and rarely owned even the horse they were riding, which usually belonged to the man who owned the cattle they were herding. Obviously there were exceptions to this, including Galahad in Brink, but I think it’s interesting to see how much the fantasy of the old west has changed the image of the cowboy in America.(I highly recommend checking out Kaz Rowe’s video on YouTube, “Exploring the Queer History of the Old West… Yehaw”, its a really fascinating video on the old west as a whole, and honestly just check out Kaz Rowe’s channel in general, it’s so good)

There was no one uniform way cowboys looked, as they had to adapt to a ton of different climates depending on where they were working. Galahad travels often but he stays in the southwest, which makes their wide brimmed hat very practical, and he also wears a serape, a type of colorful wool shawl that’s draped around your shoulders. A serape isn’t the same as a poncho because a poncho has a hole for your head in the middle, while a serape doesn’t.

The variety of clothing cowboys wore in the old west is really fascinating to me, because even though fashion and style was pretty low on the priority list compared to things like their work and getting their next meal, these people still valued what they wore and took pride in it, and the variation of it is so cool to see in photos.

Athena

Throughout Brink, Athena wears both suits and dresses depending on their environment and what they are doing at the time, but I want to use this section to talk a lot about Victorian mourning wear, cause that’s what Athena is wearing for the end of Brink and a large portion of On the Edge of Worlds Unknown.

In the Victorian era, mourning was a very serious practice with many many rules that depended on gender, class, time period, and closeness to the deceased. While Victorian mourning clothes existed and were widely worn before the death of Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert in 1861, the fact that she wore mourning clothes for the rest of her life skyrocketed their popularity and made mourning wear a social requirement. 

Depending on how you knew the deceased you could be in mourning anywhere from a few months to several years, and some(usually widows) chose to be in mourning for the rest of their lives. The exact time you should be in mourning varied greatly, and was often a source of anxiety for the mourners as coming out of mourning “too soon” could be a social death sentence for some.

As mourning practices became longer and more complex, different stages of mourning started to become common. During full mourning, you would wear only black, dresses were usually less ornamented, and close family of the deceased would very rarely take visitors or go in public. During half mourning, black was still the predominant color but some purple, white, or gray was also allowed, and the close family of the deceased was allowed to venture out in public a little more.

As dress styles and silhouettes started to change more rapidly starting in the 1870s, It became more impractical to buy or make a new fashionable mourning dress every year just in case someone died, and extravagant mourning practices started to become less common, though mourning dress was still a requirement for a few decades afterwards.

WWI was the final thing that ended mourning wear as a common practice, as so many people lost loved ones that practically everyone would have been in mourning if it was still a social requirement, and many people who’d lost sons or husbands simply wore a black armband to symbolize their mourning.

The one plate that started this whole thing

The one fashion plate that started me down this entire research rabbit hole was this plate from 1851 that I think just works so so well for Brink!Isla, and it lines up with the timeline too, cause as long as Brink keeps the timeline relatively the same for the Morningstar family, 1851 would be right before all of the god drama starts happening with her. I wanted to include her as a kind of honorable mention to the rest of the character breakdowns, cause that blue dress it so pretty and fits so well for her, and it’s what started me down the path of “what would all the other brink characters be wearing?”

If I got any details or information wrong please let me know and I’ll correct it! 

If ya’ll have made it this far in the post, thanks so much for reading. This has been a project for me since like July for a while now, and I’m so glad I finally got it finished and out here! It was so cool doing all the research for this, and turning all of my semi-coherent bullet points into something that would actually be comprehensible was a lot harder than I thought, my hat goes off to anyone who writes things ever.

Most of the fashion plates I put in here are from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries, as well as Mark Hartley(bygonewhimsy) and Melinda Kovács on Pinterest, but a lot of the plates and portraits were just things I had in my camera roll so I unfortunately don’t have sources for all of them.

[amphibious-thing]

One thing Kaz Rowe does, which is not unique amongst youtubers, but still annoys me, is that they will tell you who said a quote but not where they got the quote from. For example this quote is simply cited "Le Chevalier d'Eon".

Misgendering aside this doesn't tell us where or when d'Eon said this. Or whether this is a direct quote or a translation of something she wrote in French. You might think this information would be in the description but no there is just a list of sources not specifying where any quote or particular piece of information is from.

Now in spite of Kaz Rowe's lack of proper citation I can tell you that this quote is actually a translation from Gary Kates book Monsieur d'Eon Is a Woman. Kates citation for this quote is "Préface général de l'éditeur de Paris, qui en 1798 ...," Papers of d'Eon, Brotherton Collection, University of Leeds Library, Box 7, p. 59.

There isn't anything wrong with Rowe using Kates rather than tracking down the original source from the University of Leeds but I do think they should have cited where they got this quote from. There is no mention that this is a translation by Gary Kates. And this isn't just about crediting Kates for his work but also about historical accuracy. Understanding that this is a translation is important. Knowing when and where d'Eon said this is important.

When it comes to a quote I can easily write out that quote and paste it into google and voilà its from Kates book!

But when it comes to claims made in Rowe's own words I have no idea which of their sources they got that information from. In a section of Rowe's video where they explain their choice to use they/them pronouns for d'Eon (in spite of the fact that d'Eon used she/her pronouns) Rowe states:

They also disliked wearing women's clothes in general, as well as the narrow social restrictions that came with being a woman. In one letter, they described themself as a prisoner of war. And in another letter, they described their situation as being forced to take on womanhood.

These are some pretty significant claims so I'd be incredibly interested in what Rowe's sources are. I know d'Eon talked about disliking women's formal dress and preferring women's informal dress, she wrote; "The informal dress suited me very well, but when I had to wear the formal dress with accessories and jewels, it was a great torment for me". (translated in Dressing d'Eon by Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell) But to say she "disliked wearing women's clothes in general" seems to me a bit of an overstatement.

While I'm lost as to which letter in particular d'Eon talked about being "forced to take on womanhood" the words "prisoner of war" certainly rang a bell for me. My initial assumption was that the "letter" that Rowe was referring to was probably not a letter at all but d'Eon's autobiography in which she writes:

It was then that a new theater of confusion and glory opened before me and swallowed me alive in my skirts at Versailles, where I was kept as an honorable prisoner of war in the household of Madame and Mesdemoiselles Genet, ladies-in-waiting to the Queen, who endeavoured to have me emulate their dress, their work, their conduct, and their virtues. They had to please both their mistress, who was a sovereign, and their husbands, who dominated them. For I who have neither husband, nor master, nor mistress, I would like to enjoy the privilege of obeying only myself and good sense.

~ The Chevalière d’Eon, The Maiden of Tonnerre p16

However considering that Rowe doesn't cite The Maiden of Tonnerre as a source its probably actually from Kates who writes:

A few weeks later, d’Eon’s mood had grown even worse. “Don't remind me, Madame,” he wrote to his closest new friend, the Duchesse de Montmorency-Bouteville, “about the errors of my youth, nor the happy follies of my military career, for the problems found in the midst of a war were more pleasing to me than the tranquillity of being in the midst of the Court during peacetime. In actuality, I live here in the respectable home of Mme Genet as an honorable prisoner of war.” Although d’Eon wanted to be known as a woman, he was having trouble defining the kind of woman he might become. Patriarchal France was intent on forcing him to accept a narrow gender role that meant giving up his military and political career.

~ Gary Kates, Monsieur d'Eon Is a Woman p28

Or maybe Rowe is thinking of the following conversation between d'Eon and Marie Antoinette that Kates includes in his book:

“Madame,” d’Eon responded, “today I realize that the death of my past condition gives life and glory to my present state and to the future for eternity. Allow me to swear that I will remain a prisoner of war in skirts, in faith and in homage to the law. For faith is the first theological virtue; without it we are but a drum echo in the air.”

~ Gary Kates, Monsieur d'Eon Is a Woman p31

Or perhaps Rowe is thinking of something else entirely there really isn't any way for me to know because they don't clearly cite a source.

None of this is unique to Kaz Rowe. This criticism could be made about numerous video essayists. Its a symptom of pop history content in general where people who do not have the expertise in a topic attempt to summarise it for people who will likely never do any further research into it. Rowe doesn't have to cite their sources in a comprehensive way because their fans are never going to do in-depth research on d'Eon in the first place. So they can say that d'Eon "described their situation as being forced to take on womanhood" in a "letter" without ever saying which letter they're referring to.

[cinnamonsikwate]

Talokanil Clothing, Part Two

thank you to everyone who engaged with this post!

seeing more bts footage plus reading interviews and doing my own research has had me reevaluating some of my earlier assumptions, so here's a part two!

i've been sitting on the idea that the talokan plant is like a coconut (aka the tree of life in the tropics) equivalent to the talokanil for a while, but i wasn't sure if there was enough canon or real historical equivalent evidence to support this.

this post suggests that early talokanil clothing was made of the talokan plant's fibers. initially i was unsure about this bc i thought it was some kind of succulent, but then i came across this post suggesting it's a type of agave & suddenly everything made sense!

this gets long, but hear me out: agave is endemic to the americas and its variants hold historical and cultural importance in central america (pre-hispanic up to present). it takes a long time to mature, the exact length varying from species to species (hence the moniker century plant), and flowers and seeds only once before dying (radding 2012, 84-115). parts of the agave are edible, but its two most prominent uses are for fibers and alcohol production. two agave cultigens, A. fourcroydes (henequen) and A. sisalana (sisal) are known fiber producers, and are both native to the yucatán (trejo-torres, gann, and christenhusz 2018, 366-379).

another variant, A. americana aka maguey (although it seems the term maguey is can be used to refer to other agave species), also produces fibers that can be used for woven and non-woven textiles and even paper (hulle, kadole, and katkar 2015, 64-75), and is a species of agave that can be used to produce the alcoholic drink mezcal. A. tequilana is the sole agave species used to produce tequila (which i believe can be technically called a type of mezcal). both mezcal & tequila are distilled from the fermented, roasted "hearts" of the agave. the method to distill mezcal (and later, tequila) was introduced during the colonial era, likely by indigenous filipinos who arrived via the manila-acapulco galleon trade (walton 1977, 113-132).

pulque is the pre-colonial equivalent of mezcal/tequila, made from the fermented agave sap (many species can be used). its consumption was highly regulated & associated with religious rituals (escalante et al. 2016). described as a white, slightly viscous liquid, pulque does somewhat call to mind the liquid the shaman made from the talokan plant, although the latter was, of course, blue. this is a side note, but a mural in cholula, puebla, mexico, depicts a gathering of people purportedly drinking pulque. the production team may have taken some inspiration from this as well for the flashback scenes.

the goddess mayahuel is associated with maguey & pulque, as well as femininity & fertility (guzmán 2016). (i'm a bit confused bc wiki says she's aztec, but escalante et al. & guzmán don't give a specific indication. her name though is nahuatl-derived.)

so anyway! we have a wonder plant with cultural and religious significance that can provide both food and clothing, and may even be used in construction (including in composites)! it makes so much sense that the talokan plant is a type of agave, albeit of course one with properties that no irl species has.

i've read several hannah beachler interviews but i haven't come across one where she talks about whether or not there was more of the talokan plant. the rest of this post hinges on the assumption that the talokanil are actively cultivating the plant, or something similar (which i'll be referring to as talokanil agave from now on), so if later canon lore proves me wrong — well, i'll cross that bridge when i get there lol.

for additional context, since i'm only here to speculate on the materials used in-universe, this twitter thread here provides a breakdown as to the accuracy of the clothing styles of the talokanil vis-à-vis pre-colonial maya.

now that's done, let's get to the actual speculation:

i'm inclined to retract my previous assertion that coconut coir was used in the warriors' uniforms; instead, what i took to be coconut coir is probably talokanil agave. (although they could probably still use coconut if they really wanted to!)

when i wrote the first post, i didn't realize how many outfit changes k'uk'ulkan goes through during the talokan scenes, but from what i can tell of the textures, they could all very well be made of talokanil agave or even just regular maguey. while cotton was more associated with elites over maguey in irl pre-colonial mesoamerica (tremain 2020, 1-11), i haven't seen anything yet that would indicate that nobility wouldn't wear maguey.

i'd thought namora's ceremonial dress would be heavy but we see it in action in mabel's ig post and it's actually very light! iris van herpen, the designer, has said in an ig post that the cape feathers are made of silver-lined silk organza. underwater, the effect is something like seagrass or kelp moving with the currents, which is very pretty. when i look up silk in mesoamerica, many of the sites are, strangely, associated with the church of the latter-day saints, but one textile-focused website at least indicates that widespread silk production began and flourished during the colonial era, so i think we can rule out actual silk as the in-universe material for the dress. maybe very high quality cotton or talokanil agave (especially for the silver lining. unless it's vibranium!).

we also see one of namora's surface outfits used underwater in a bts clip from mabel, one which i thought would be too heavy to wear in the water. i mean, i guess, technically, you can wear anything you want underwater, but comfort is a different matter. in my previous post, i'd said i'd thought this particular dress and the others she and the handmaidens wore were made out of some kind of barkcloth, but, surprise, again, it's probably talokanil agave or regular maguey (agave sisal is resistant to seawater).

the twitter thread i mentioned above has some insights into attuma's ceremonial outfit, including that he's wearing a jaguar pelt. the talokanil could very well have some kind of coming-of-age ceremony where they go to the surface for the first time to hunt. or attuma could just be an adrenaline junkie lol. hammerhead sharks, jaguars — it's all the same to him. as for the rest of the outfit, i'm gonna say different grades of talokanil agave bc why not!

at different points in the film, namora and shuri both wear body jewelry primarily made of jade. iris van herpen has said that shuri's also has pearls and Spondylus shell beads (the orangey-pink ones). namora's doesn't appear to contain Spondylus but perhaps other precious stones (maybe obsidian?). that might indicate some kind of difference in status, or some kind of oblique reference to namora being a warrior, since obsidian was often used for weapons (saunders 2001, 220-236).

shuri's second talokan outfit has feathers on the back, reminiscent of the tail plumes of the resplendent quetzal (yes, as in the bird associated with quetzalcoatl, the aztec equivalent of kukulcan. this man is never beating the egocentric allegations 💀). however, the color is wrong. resplendent quetzals have primarily green plumage & only the males sport the iconic tail feathers. moreover, resplendent quetzals live in the highland rainforests, not the coastal areas. so i'm not sure if this means that the feathers are from a different bird species altogether, or, like namora's headdress, they are not actually feathers but fish fins. i haven't found a high-res enough photo of the outfit so i still can't be sure.

the rest of the outfit appears to be a mix of fabrics, heavier on top and lighter on the bottom. i'm intrigued that the bottom half is pants, because we haven't seen any talokanil wear anything similar. could this be a leftover from the cut scenes where shuri & riri were supposed to work on something for k'uk'ulkan, & this is an outfit she came up with herself? they might have given her the fabric & told her to go to town, which could explain why the design looks very different from what we've seen of talokanil fashion. i think riri also gets a different outfit but i can't find good photos of it.

now her scenes were cut from the final version of the film, but one of the talokanil extras posted some intriguing bts footage. her character was supposed to a scientist (likely from the cut scenes with shuri & riri). she's not blue & isn't wearing face/gill masks, suggesting her parts take place underwater.

her outfit is pretty unconventional compared to namora's or the handmaidens'. she appears to be wearing more plant life (probably some sort of kelp & seagrass, among other species i don't recognize), but the main body of her outfit looks strangely artificial. i'm not sure if this is intentional or if her final appearance was meant to be tweaked with cgi (the mesh underneath is throwing me off). i would like to say her outfit is probably mostly made of talokanil vibranium, but i'm not sure if that would be realistic in-universe (would that mean she is of high status? another relative of k'uk'ulkan perhaps? or does jade still mean more to the talokanil than vibranium, therefore her use of it doesn't necessarily indicate status?). in any case, she's the only talokanil we're aware of who eschews traditional clothing styles.

additional bts footage from jewelianna ramos-ortiz (the scientist) also show other talokanil who are dressed differently from the regular warriors we see. they aren't blue either, but we do see that they have on red body paint (which we have not seen other talokanil use). google scholar is being reticent but as far as i can tell, body paint in pre-colonial mesoamerica, when not in a funerary context, was associated with ceremonies or festivals. the latter likely used organic compounds such as cochineal or achoite (that's achuete/atsuete for us filipinos), while the former employed the toxic cinnabar (source). with the talokanil, it could really go either way; we don't know if they're as immune to toxins as they are to stab wounds. i'm not sure about the seawater resistance of either type of pigment though.

interestingly, they appear to be wearing the leaves of surface plants (none of which i recognize, unfortunately, even after some googling of native yucatán flora). their different manner of dress may indicate the nature of their role in talokanil society, though as to what that role is remains to be seen.

one funny implication though of practically everyone in talokan wearing talokanil agave is that shuri could've just taken anyone's clothes to re-create the heart-shaped herb, including the ones she was given 💀 but the talokanil still could've cultivated the plant in the past centuries such that the variant they use for clothing differs quite a bit from the original so it wouldn't work as well. like maybe they have a "drink this to save your life. for emergencies only" cultigen & a "for everyday life" cultigen lol.

aaaaand that's it! if you're still reading this, thank you! this was a fun research exercise, although i probably still missed a lot. this was practically a whole damn research paper lmao. let me know your thoughts!

[rudjedet]

Totally hate to be a bother if there is already a post you’ve made about it, but I couldn’t seem to find any in the FAQ. I want to delve into writing historical fiction for Ancient Egypt eventually, as I’ve got an idea for a paranormal-romancey-esque story, and I want to make it as historically accurate as reasonably possible (since the protag is an Egyptologist herself). Do you have any advice for depicting it realistically/researching in particular areas or in any specific books? Thank you! :)

Nah no worries, I haven't answered anything like this specifically yet! So recommendations for historical accuracy and realistic depictions depend on a few things, the first of which is the time period of ancient Egypt your story deals with. I don't know if you've already made decisions about that, but the easiest Dynastic period to set it in would be the New Kingdom, since we have the most material from that time period. Any earlier than that and you have to deal with gaps in our knowledge, as well as a very different kind of Egypt from the image popular media paints (no horses or khepesh swords, for example).

There's a book I like to recommend for research into daily life specifically for fiction writing, which is Life of the Ancient Egyptians by Eugen Strouhal. It has a somewhat too optimistic tendency which borders on romanticising at points, but not in a way that would lead to awkward or harmful representations of the ancient Egyptians. Personally I think it's well-suited as a research work for fiction writers because it places emphasis on the good and human things. When you read it you get a good sense of ancient Egypt as the very verdant, very rich society it was, as opposed to the "dusty barren sand cities" image Hollywood likes to concoct. So in a sense, it takes the kind of liberties I'd like more writers writing about ancient Egypt to take.

Other than that, assuming you're wanting to write New Kingdom (though depending on whether you're writing about elite or non-elite), I'd see if you can pick up Andrea McDowell's Village Life in Ancient Egypt. It deals with the worker's village of Deir el-Medina and life there. Caveat: DeM isn't a "normal" Egyptian village but we do have a ton of information on it, and it isn't necessarily a bad thing to base any fictional villages on this one imo.

From a personal point of view, I can recommend writing about the Middle Kingdom, despite the relative lack of material. Wolfram Grajetzki has some excellent and accessible (some for free) overview works that deal with this period that will give you a solid base. The Egyptian Middle Kingdom, and Middle Kingdom Studies (various authors) are great.

No matter the time period, I'd supplement with Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood's Pharaonic Egyptian Clothing for the all-important "what are these people even wearing" question. imo, that's a big one in terms of realism. The same goes for Steven Snape's The Complete Cities of Ancient Egypt.

Now, as for the realistic portrayal of an Egyptologist character, my one big tip would be: do. not. infodump.

I know that sounds like just bog standard advice for any genre of book, but in this case there's a second reason to avoid them: having your Egyptologist main character infodump is the way to mark them out as not an actual expert. Not because we never talk about ancient Egypt in real life (we do), but because we don't really talk to ourselves about Egypt in the way of a novel infodump. Absolutely have them explain something super specific to another character, whilst forgetting that the other character doesn't have the full context to understand most of what the fuck they're saying though, that's something we do all the time. Just don't infodump basic concepts, that's half the job done when it comes to realistic portrayals of Egyptologists.

And as always, my evergreen tip: do your research, and then take the liberties your narrative needs to make it the best version of your story (while keeping respect for the ancient Egyptians themselves in mind, but I don't think I need to tell you based on the way you asked this question).

Lastly, I can't technically make any promises considering my health/energy for the foreseeable future, but if there's anything you want me to proofread, feel free to ask!

[muninnhuginn]

okay okay so thoughts on unwanted guest. this is mix of my thoughts when reading and my thoughts thinking back on the overall thing afterwards. My later thoughts will just be distinguished by 'future notes/FN' and everything else is my initial read through.

See below:

Reading the first section and I'm having to tell myself that not everything is an Utena reference. Probably.

Gaudy masks aside from Palamedes whose mask is taped together? Well, that's sure not a metaphor wdym. Guy's been all pieces since GtN.

Ooh the layout is literal script/theatre production? Nice nice. (FN: No wonder it went meta with audience interaction)

Palamedes soliloquy on social etiquette my beloved...

Ianthe playing multiple roles? This is theatre fr

"Almond room"? So... old-style butler, almond, is this a murder mystery ft. cyanide this time?

Coffins 1 through 7... there are nine houses so I'm blanking a bit on the meaning of this. Seven can be considered 'lucky' but somehow I doubt that's it

"A pair of leather trousers" we're losing historical accuracy for the sake of the Draco in Leather Pants reference. Fair enough. (FN: I googled how long leather pants have been around. It's been centuries. Oops.)

"Inspector"? Murder mystery vibes are growing

"You said that three visits ago". This is the second reference to Palamedes having done this before. I wonder how many attempts we've missed. Still, that provides context for his clothes earlier despite he himself being "uninjured"?

I would love to annoy Ianthe via an incredibly long-winded Pokemon battle

Well-timed middle finger from Ianthe

He asks if she's going to play fair and she's already there using genie wish rules 😔

"I'm kind of into the trousers though" Voice confirmed for either Palamedes himself or Muir self-insert (FN: lol)

"The soul is the only thing capable of supplying power without being consumed in the process" interesting. that goes against pretty much everything I know about science but Palamedes is still there trying to science it and that's why the conclusions he draws are so different from Ianthe's? Not to underestimate Ianthe. She was able to backwards engineer lyctorhood. Just, Pal is a STEM guy and it shows

Talking about decay makes me think souls as a radiation metaphor? I mean. To be fair. Nuclear war on Earth would definitely have upped the background radiation there for… quite some time. So it's literal in some ways too. (FN: in retrospect not quite sure I agree with myself about radiation metaphor given how souls having half lives would imply the initial rate of decay is pretty fast and then it slows down. which, yes sure, it could be? But the way it's worded seems to be more of a gradual siphoning so that the reduction in energy won't be noticed for millennia rather than a huge drop and then the rate of energy dropping decreases. That said, I guess if a soul contains so much power that even a tiny tiny bit has a lot of energy then it could still be possible. But eh, I digress.)

The voice???? Hey come back what does that mean (FN: this is at the "I believe in you." "You didn't always. I had to fight for that". Because it maps with what we know about Dulcinea and Palamedes' relationship but it makes their approach to trust more explicit? Palamedes spent a lot of time trying to earn his way into Dulcinea's mind/heart and Dulcinea had a lot of reasons to rebuff him (she literally spells out later that age was a factor but also the fact she wasn't particularly well and the idea of changing that.... well, hope is dangerous))

(FN: Also, knowing the voice is Dulcinea makes me think a lot about "my topic of expertise is putting on a show". Like, huh, she and Cytherea were more alike than I realised. I wonder how much of that is the shared chronic illness and how that impacted their approach to life?)

Courtroom battle time!

Not just courtroom but ace attorney specifically? She is avoiding the question!

"She and I both understand that the goal is always worth the cost". Oh wow, I think Ianthe misreads Harrow so badly here. I'm lowkey amazed at how they lived together for months and yet Ianthe has this perception of her

"I didn't know you smoked" the genre is catchy, can't be helped (FN: rip I missed this clue entirely as being a clue because I was too busy with the meta genre fun)

"she wandered around like she was the protagonist" because she was

These mini duels remind me of the student council segments in Utena. The knife throw one especially

Dulcinea voice? (FN: this was at "oh, you used to say this a lot" because, well, it narrowed things down a lot)

"Harry" pshh, going even more explicit with the drarry roots

Also wow did not call Pal being jealous of Gideon. Genuinely kinda puzzled as to why he was (probably missing something obvious here). Both Palamedes and Ianthe's views on Gideon are kinda eye-opening. I knew Ianthe looked down on Gideon but at the point at which this is set I thought perhaps her opinion would have shifted? Unsure if this is because she sees Kiriona as different or if she's just genuinely doubled down. They're both using past tense during this entire bit though

"I gambled on the truth" this is about the stoma theories? She says she died but that doesn't necessarily mean she was wrong. I am so curious about this. "Awful in the old sense of the word." Full of awe.

I'm just struck as always by the campaldulcie of it all. "I loved real, unfinished things. Gracelessly uncompleted things". Side-eyeing Paul so much rn

"I'm not in the River and I won't ever be again". Just adding this to my long list of questions. Speaking of, how is she even here?

"Was I cute?" "you're perfect" this feels so familiar to me but I can't place it and the closest I'm getting is the ice cream scene in Asteroid City (which timing-wise came out too recently to be it)

Palamedes' final question is such a banger.

(FN: I was trying to do this post blind but I did see a post about my dash about souls as grief and it is so on point. Ianthe's plan for the future has always had Corona in it as another individual by her side and she refuses to contemplate otherwise. Apple experiments for immortality etc etc. Of course, this is the one cost she refuses to pay.)

Ahhhh the genre. Babs is in him?

Babs is in both of them?

Oh icky he's everywhere

Murder mystery deduction time ft. Palamedes as the Inspector

The implications of the souls rubbing off in each other... messy is about right. This kind of thing applies to interactions with people in general to an extent, but the memories and not knowing what is yours and what is someone else's? Shifting preferences? I know this story technically is a side story, but it fits right in with NtN's whole deal about identity and loss of it

Also adds more context to Pal's decision behind Paul if he believed they would always end up like this and he just fast tracked it to ensure they'd live. (You can get this in Nona itself tbf but it's much more implied rather than spelled out?)

"She reaches out and places one hand against its closed lid as the curtain falls". Ianthe refuses to confirm and we as the audience do not get to see. We can take what Pal has told us, what Ianthe doesn't want to think about, but we are denied that complete confirmation.

[oneknightstand-if]

Been brainstorming ideas about my mc so: will Camelot have a historically accurate fashion or more of a fantasy one? A bit of both??

I'm going more for lore accuracy here (unless it's something completely whack, like I don't care what Le Morte d' Arthur says, we're not having "England" in fifth-century Britannia) which isn't terribly historically accurate, but I'm jamming in as much historical accuracy as possible. When lore accuracy directly conflicts historical accuracy... then a fae did it.

Those fairy-tale style castles (like Camelot) that won't exist for hundreds of years? A fae did it.

That horribly anachronistic full plate armor that all knights are wearing which won't be possible until the High Medieval/Renaissance period? A fae did it.

If it's historically accurate (like the swords now called 'Migration Period') than the humans made it, if it's lore accurate and horribly anachronistic (the knightly/arming swords) then the fae did it.

Regarding fashion, the upcoming Camelot flashback section will have good descriptions for both the normal wear of men and women during the time depending upon who you end up meeting on which path (although I didn't go full Wheel of Time level of description with describing every embroidery stitch).

The fashion is mostly historically accurate with me throwing in some of the lore stuff that gets popularly described (samite, hosery, surcoats, "long cloak lined with ermine").

So mostly...

Men: slit tunics with sleeves + braies (tight breeches if its going under armor)

Women: peplos gowns over long-sleeved tunics

Hooded Cloaks fastened with clasps/brooches on the shoulder

Clothes dyed in various colors/stripes/chequered

Bright colors, embroidery, fringed fabrics, jewelry, and long braided or styled hair

Bronze/silver/gold torcs of twisted metal for the nobility

Lots of brooches/clasps everywhere

Shoes: soft leather boots, slippers, sandals, raw cowhide, simple turn shoes

Soldier Boots: Made from thicker leather and studded with hobnails

Irish (not called Irish at the time): long léine tunic, short inar (ionar) jacket/tunic, broc (breeches), later trius (trews)

These sites have some nice summaries + illustrations of the fashion at the time.

Brittonic Historical | Celtic Historical

[theflyingfeeling]

#(today i was distracted by this way too elaborate olli/allu + olli/tommi + allu/joonas murder mysteryAU set in the early 50s i came up with#(which you are welcome to ask more about btw)

oh????? 👀👀 please do tell some details about it if you want to? i'm very interested 👀👀👀👀👀👀

have an amazing day 💖💕

Yes yes yesssss!! 😌 But before I proceed, a couple of disclaimers: 1) the summary below is gonna contain referenced murder and sexual assault (NOT by any of the main characters though and nothing is described too graphically/explicitly), 2) it's rather vague in parts and I'm yet to figure out some of the details, and 3) I'm not planning on ever writing any of this, in fact I think it'd work better as maybe a TV series? I don't know. I for one don't have the skills (or patience) to actually write this (...plus I'm actually terrified by this whole thing myself ngl 😅). I hope you enjoy it though! As much as one can enjoy a murder mystery... 😥

First I'm gonna have to explain what inspired this. I learned today that last week it was the 70th anniversary of one of Finland's most famous cases of unsolved homicide, the murder of Kyllikki Saari. The link will take you to the Wikipedia page of the case (in English), but to summarize it (skip the rest of this bullet point if you don't want to hear about stuff like this!!), a 17-year-old girl was murdered on his way home from a religious gathering and 5 months later her remains were found buried in a bog. To this day, no-one knows who's behind the murder; there have been a couple key suspects, but no clear evidence to prove anything for sure. There's also nothing that would directly prove it was a sexual crime, although it can't be ruled out, since the victim was not wearing any clothes on the bottom half of her body and her other breast was out of her blouse when they found her. Now PLEASE don't take me for some weirdo and think I'm somehow fascinated by the case or think it's cool: I'm creeped out as fuck about this tbh, but ever since I first heard about the case, it's been haunting me a bit. Not daily obviously, but every now and then something reminds me of it. In the late 50s - early 60s there were also two other equally famous, unsolved murder cases in Finland: the double murder of Tulilahti (two young women killed on their bicycle/camping trip, also buried in a bog + a number of other similarities with the case described above) and the Lake Bodom murders (three campers killed inside their tent, one camper in the group survived but suffered injuries that caused memory loss; the link will lead you to Wikipedia). This idea of mine is probably most inspired by the Tulilahti case, but only vaguely.

- So based off the cases I described briefly above, I'm basing this story in rural/countryside Finland in the 1950s or the 1960s (sorry for any possible historical accuracies that may occur 😅) - The story begins with Olli and Aleksi, two friends who want to... explore each other, themselves, and their sexualities, if you get what I mean 😏 They're not boyfriends per se, but they do enjoy each other's company maybe a little more than is appropriate for friends of the same sex (in the context of the 1950s/60s). Of course, this all has to happen in secrecy, and so they seek out secluded places for this purpose - One day they decide to go for a swim in a pond they had found deep in the forest. I know this story is full of plotholes lol but let's imagine it used to be a popular swimming place for kids and that an old, wooden changing room has remained there from those times. I don't know if such things existed in the 50s already, but please humour me a little and imagine a simple wooden hut with two rooms in which to change into your swimwear, yeah? (one for boys, one for girls) - So they go for a swim and have all sorts of fun in the water, and as the sun's about to set (as much as the sun ever sets in Finland in the summer), they head back to the hut. They should be changing back into their normal clothes, as soon it's gonna be too dark for them to easily find their way out of the forest, but they get a bit carried away... 💞 - In the middle of their fooling around, they hear noises from somewhere by the pond. Two people talking in the distance, footsteps, etc. They can't recognize either of the voices from that far. - (plotholes plotholes plotholessssss) - After a while of listening to the noises in terrified silence (afraid of getting caught by whoever's out there), they hear screaming. - There are noises of fighting/struggling. The screams start coming closer to the hut. - The person (a woman, they can tell) is still screaming in terror when she's pushed to the other booth (the one next to Olli and Aleksi) - Then the screams are first muffled, then weakened, until they stop altogether. - Sounds of something being dragged. A man grunting. Steps around the (windowless) hut. Olli and Aleksi are paralyzed with terror and don't dare to even breathe. They stay the night at the hut, awake and trembling until the morning, not daring to sneak out until they're finally sure no one's around anymore and return home. - They find an item on the path from the lake. A watch maybe, I haven't decided yet. They can't remember seeing it before, but of course that doesn't mean it wasn't there already when they arrived. In any case, one of them picks it up and takes it with them. Just in case.

- I'm not sure what either of them do for a living in this AU, but I'm imagining Olli working at some kinda office (at the town hall maybe? I don't knooooooow) and Aleksi maybe as a farmhand with Joonas as his roommate (both details crucial to the plot) - They swear to each other to not talk about what they had heard in the forest to any other living soul, but when Olli returns to his office job the next day and hears that one of his co-workers (a woman around his age, more an acquaintance and a co-worker than a friend) has not showed up for her workshift, Olli gets a bad feeling. - Olli mentions this to Aleksi and says that they should go talk to the police about what happened, but Aleksi forbids him, as he's afraid they might get in trouble, not necessarily because they might be key witnesses to an alleged murder, but because of what they were up to at the time. - "What are you gonna tell them when they ask you what we were doing there, huh?!" - They have a proper quarrel about it and depart on bad terms :( - Obviously the case is bothering them both; even though Aleksi tells Olli to forget about the whole thing and act as if nothing has happened (between them nor in the forest), he has nightmares about the incident. He hears the screams of terror in his dreams and wakes up with a gasp (only to find out the screams had been just a seagull screaming outside at sunrise), which rouses Joonas' curiosity - Cue a side-plot of Aleksi and Joonas lending each other a helping hand/mouth to let off some steam before/after their farmwork (maybe Aleksi tells him he's just stressed about idk??, while Joonas has trouble coping with surpressing his sexuality, which obviously reflects on their thing). I'm not yet sure what's the purpose of this side plot, other than to give Aleksi (and Joonas) something to do during his fall-out with Olli

- Speaking of which, meanwhile Olli remembers that his old schoolmate / childhood friend Tommi works as a police officer in town these days. Olli can't handle keeping the secret to himself anymore, and without Aleksi around to stop him, he decides he can trust Tommi with it, without fearing what he might think if/when Olli needs to spill the truth about why he had been in the forest - Indeed, Tommi is curious to hear why (you know, for the purposes of the investigation), and Olli doesn't explicitly tell him, but rather... implies it. Not saying the words, but it doesn't take a genius to understand what he means - Tommi understands. He undertands perfectly well, in fact - Olli refuses to tell who the other key witness is, but agrees to help Tommi with the investigation as much as he can, if Tommi in turn promises to keep his little secret - Tommi is so into the case that he uses his free time on it as well, and he invites Olli to help him out at his house one evening (he still lives at his parent's farmhouse). - ...which means they have to be extra quiet when making passionate love to each other in Tommi's room 🥺💕 - Usually Olli manages to sneak out at night, but one time he accidentally falls asleep and doesn't wake up until there's a knock on the door - Tommi gestures Olli to stay in the bed and be quiet while he goes to get the door. - There's a man, asking if Tommi borrowed his watch again (he hasn't). Olli recognizes the voice. - When the man's gone, Olli asks Tommi who it was. Tommi's brother. (much older than Tommi and lives out of town, so Olli never knew him - Olli can't wait to get out of the house 💀 - He practically runs to Aleksi to tell him about his discovery, and accidentally spills the whole thing to Joonas too (he didn't notice Joonas was in the room as well (nor does he pay attention to the fact he's half-naked on Aleksi's bed)

Aaaaaaand that's what I have so far 😬 I'm not sure if the plot makes any sense (for example, I have no idea what Joonas' actual role in this is), nor have I given much thought to the motive of the murder (secret lovers who got in a quarrel that was taken too far? a random lunatic losing his temper with a girl who rejected her? I don't knoooooow) or any details as to how the victim and the offender ended up at Olli and Aleksi's hideout (without noticing they weren't the only ones there at the time). I also have no idea how this all will be resolved. Will Aleksi eventually be ready to give his witness's report as well? Will Olli be able to tell Tommi who he thinks is the murderer and show him the watch they had found? What will happen to Aleksi and Olli if they have to publicly confirm they had heard the murder because they had been doing something illegal themselves in the next room? Will the body of the victim be found? I don't know 🤷‍♀️

Also, I'm sorry Joel and Niko are not in this, I just couldn't imagine them with in the 50s/60s setting with their long hair 😂

[light-koe-pinsky]

Man we need more high budget looney tunes bc I miss bugs and daffy particular comedic body language.

So much of their charm is based on their movement. Daffy is more wacky and energetic and bugs usually has more subtle ademants, therefore in a less careful animation i get that is way easier to save the looneyness for daffy and the calm and collected pose for bugs, but they add so much to his characterization that when you take those details away he feels kinda watered down.

I feel like ive been over this way too much lol but I still don't feel like I get the point across that Bugs IS actually supposed to be funny AND have fun.

He's a clown.

Daffys charm comes from him being a mess up, he's clumsy, accident prone, slapstick is his forte, guy's a living elastic band.

While bugs also posses this quality is not quite as often that this happens so in the meantime his charm comes from his grace, his movements are graceful but silly, because of his TIMING, thats what makes him a good clown.

While I love how these two characters complement eachother, bugs doesn't exist solely for the purpose of making daffy the joke of every sketch (argh looney tunes show I love you but you have your flaws) they're both individual characters that can shine on their own and not one is zanier than the other if you think about it. Like bugs status didn't became a thing just to shit on daffy.

Actually Im not that sure of the historical accuracy of this but the status of bugs is more of a response of the actual public?

Bugs wasnt created to be loved by everyone in the looney tunes universe, lmao if you watch the classic cartoons you realize that bugs is often hated by everyone, he's annoying, loud, an inconvinience where he goes, tex Avery and the other directors before the Chuck Jones era versions were like that.

Bugs just doesn't give a fuck, in fact he craves for more, like that one cartoon where hes trying increase the recompense on rabbits.

Thats where his charm comes from, he doesn't let people tell him who he is, he's this kind of anti hero, who sometimes does good deeds but is a) out of Pitty or b) to inconvinience the bad guy.

What Chuck Jones did was subvert bugs's priotities, suddenly bugs was mostly this hero godlike figure, he took this heroic version of him and just sometimes shows the antihero part in subtle passive agressive outbursts, and it WORKED.

BUT seems like he got encaged into that characterization. And I feel like is because CJ scalated on how untouchable he could be and then didn't know/care how to de-scalate.

But truth is hes not so funny when you don't have the whole picture and THIS is where I think people who write him off as someone boring/always the voice of reason get him wrong, so let me tell you what I mean

Is not just the clothes, this character is so funny:

Because You know deep down he's this character:

I'm often saying how he needs a transformation from hero to villain bc it gives both characters (him and daffy) what they need but he has already gone through an evolution before which just goes to show that the idea can work

Anyways i'm losing the track here, hope i somehow make sense

What i'm trying to say is either through dialogue, body language or the enviroment, bugs is a cunt, i mean clown.