#they do love some popelka

[enarien]

for all my czech cod lovers! do you know how excited König would be to watch you-know-what with czech S/O? very

[rianamblings]

📔 Maidenly Affairs - Sequence Notes #1

The Idea

This sequence started out as a distraction to working on a sequence I was already working on. But in a way, this was the earlier idea.

In my story class back in 2022, I had an idea for a story between a noble lady and her friend who was working as a maid, who was once a noble herself. The heart of it was two friends who needed to say goodbye to one another. The maid girl had a fiance she was going to run away with, while the noble lady wanted to keep her friend with her, offering her a job at her estate. This conflict of interests happened as a war was brewing in the background, of which the noble lady was soon to get involved with as part of a military family. There was of course an undercurrent of a romance between the two. (How saucy)

This idea was ambitious! And I still think it has some merit, but capturing this moment and conflict was quite a task to do in my self-imposed constraints of a 200 panel count. I still like this idea now, but it works far better as a short story or something in another medium. Not necessarily for a sweet and simple portfolio piece.

✨ Rehashing It!

So coming back to this idea now, I've had a new sequence creep up on me with similar stylings. I've boiled it down to the same conflict of a noble lady and a maid with differing social statuses, and aimed for a much lighter tone this round. I'm also making the effort to try and board this on Photoshop, a workflow I'm not too familiar with.

A snippet of my new characters! Lettie on the left and Kalmia on the right.

This sequence was inspired by this lovely Laufey song, alongside an idea of yearning and longing. But I didn't want it to just be romantic, either! I wanted to tap into the sentiment of being jealous of another girl, of not knowing whether you want to be her or be with her, or both. All in messy youth fashion.

The scope of this sequence remains quite small, and it's still very much in my realm of two talking heads in a room -- drama ensues. But I wanted to make it a bit lighter and more fun to watch than my usual somber fare.

With our POV character of Lettie, her main conflict comes in the form of her feelings towards Kalmia and her impending engagement. She tries to navigate her feelings of being envious towards her carefree lifestyle, her perceived freedom, and status. She's had a lasting disdain for nobility, given their opulent lifestyles and treatment of those below them. At the same time, knowing her for so long, she's come to harbor feelings for her... but has been very good at compartmentalizing it.

Kalmia takes a lot of inspiration from a character of my previous sequence, inspired by the Czech film Popelka (Three Wishes for Cinderella), shown to me by my best friend. I wanted to tap into my love of fairy tale princesses with her, and I really enjoyed the cross-dressing tomboy aspect of Popelka. Kalmia dresses up as a man to sneak out of her bedroom and go hunting, where she meets her fiance. (Though we don't see that part in my sequence) She reports back about him, saying that perhaps she wouldn't mind marrying him, but still laments her lack of choice.

This story sequence is very much an exploration of being a woman and perceived freedom by social class, with queer undertones.

Everything's still in the idea stage so far, but everything's coming along!

✨ Goals with this sequence:

Push my facial expressions and acting more! Allow myself to get sillier with it!

Balance the levity with the emotion of this scene.

Give these characters a range of emotions!

[princesssarisa]

So far I've watched as many adaptations of Cinderella as I could find up until 1990 and I've already noticed an interesting trend.

Even though Charles Perrault's original 1697 Cendrillon directly asks to try the glass slipper on, I can count on one hand the number of adapted Cinderellas who do.

Disney's Cinderella does, Faerie Tale Theatre's Cinderella does, and both Leslie Caron's Ella in The Glass Slipper and Libuše Šafránková's Popelka in Tři oříšky pro Popelku openly claim the slipper as their own before trying it on. Massenet's operatic Cendrillon also calls on her Fairy Godmother to take her to the palace where the slipper-fitting is held, although she doesn't actually ask to try on the slipper because her Prince recognizes her the moment she arrives.

But it's far, far more common to have the Prince and/or his steward (depending on whether or not the scene has the Prince there) just discover Cinderella in some out-of the-way spot, and either (a) insist that according to the decree, every maiden must try the slipper on, or (b) recognize her before she tries on the slipper. Cinderella almost never actively steps forward to reveal her identity. In fact in two Japanese anime adaptations, she even lies at first that the slipper isn't hers, because she feels unworthy of the Prince.

I think adaptation writers are always concerned with not wanting Cinderella to seem like a gold-digger. They seem to think that if she actively tried to claim the slipper, and thus the Prince's hand in marriage, it would compromise our sense of her virtue. Presumably this also explains why the versions where she falls in love with the Prince before the ball almost never have her try to seek a relationship with him knowing his royal identity. Most often they have her not realize he's the Prince until the ball, or even not until afterwards, or if she does know, they have her go to the ball just to "see" him even though she thinks they can never marry.

It's an interesting pattern.

And I love the fact that of the very few screen Cinderellas who do ask to try the slipper on, one is Disney's animated version. Disney's Cinderella is so much spunkier than pop culture gives her credit for!

[valerieandherweekofwonderz]

I found Three Wishes For Cinderella through you blog and it instantly became one of my favourite movies ever! Do you have a list of favourite Czech fantasy/fairy tale movies? Everything looks so interesting and so damn beautiful, like out of a picture book. I want to watch them all!

Ahh, so happy to hear that 💗 I’ve already listed the most popular ones time ago, but I can write it again. Unfortunately, many Czech and Slovak fairy tale films do not have English subtitles, so if you don’t speak Czech or Slovak or at least some Slavic language, it’s impossible to watch them without subtitles and understand them.

Time ago I’ve created a folder on my Google Drive where I upload Czech and Slovak films with English subtitles and there’s a special folder for fairy tales.

Here is the link

It includes:

Byl jednou jeden král… / Once Upon a Time, There Was a King… (1954)

Jak se budí princezny / How to Wake Up Princesses (1977)

Perinbaba / The Feather Fairy (1985)

Princ a Večernice / The Prince and the Evening Star (1978)

Princezna se zlatou hvězdou / The Princess with the Golden Star (1959)

Pyšná princezna / The Proud Princess (1952)

S čerty nejsou žerty / Give the Devil His Due (1984)

all of them are iconic and brilliant

Then I found another iconic Czech fairy tale on YT

Malá mořská víla / The Little Mermaid (1976) - here

Then watch Panna a netvor / Beauty and the Beast (1978) and Deváté srdce / The Ninth Heart (1978) - both kind of dark but beautiful, directed by Juraj Herz, who was a genius - you’ll find them under the Juraj Herz folder on my GD as well

I also recommend the tv series called Arabela - fun, love, amazing special effects, just watch it :) also on my GD under the folder TV Series :) But of course, you should watch all of the uploaded films, haha ;D

AND if you are still interested in more and more Czech, Slovak, co-production fairy tale films, here is the list:

Tři veteráni / The Three Veterans (1983)

Nebojsa / Fearless (1988)

Šíleně smutná princezna / The Incredibly Sad Princess (1968)

Dařbuján a Pandrhola (1959)

Hrátky s čertem / Playing with the Devil (1956)

Obušku, z pytle ven! / Stick, Start Beating (1955)

Princ Bajaja / Prince Bajaja (1971)

Honza málem králem / Almost King (1977)

O princezně Jasněnce a létajícím ševci / Princess Brightness and the Flying Shoemaker (1987)

O statečném kováři / The Brave Blacksmith (1983)

Třetí princ / The Third Prince (1982)

Pohádka svatojánské noci / A Midsummer Night’s Story (1981)

Zlatovláska / Princess Goldilocks (1973)

Soľ nad zlato / The Salt Prince (1982)

Kráľ Drozdia brada / King Thrushbeard (1984)

O Janovi a podivuhodném příteli (1990)

Popelka / Cinderella (1969)

Princezna ze mlejna I,II / The Princess from the Mill I,II (1994, 2000)

Z pekla štěstí I,II / Helluva Good Luck (1999, 2001)

Nesmrtelná teta / The Immortal Aunt (1993)

Jezerní královna / Queen of the Lake (1998)

Kouzelný měšec / The Magic Purse(1996)

Pták Ohnivák / The Firebird (1997)

Anděl Páně I,II / Angel of the Lord I, II(2005, 2016)

Čert ví proč / The Devil Knows Why (2003)

Lotrando a Zubejda / Ruffiano and Sweeteeth(1996)