#thus we have anne's letter

[fideidefenswhore]

the downfall and execution of a tudor queen (2023) / the boleyns: a scandalous family (2021) / the king's pearl: henry viii and his daughter mary (2017), melita thomas / anne boleyn (tv miniseries 2021) / the mirror and the light (2024) / elizabeth (1998)

[theealbatross]

fight the alchemy (s.s)

Plot | After a tumultuous year, Sebastian’s life was finally okay – passable, up-to-scratch, satisfactory. And he had just almost reached peace – when his brilliant, painfully observant, carelessly crude genius of a friend, Garreth Weasley, started pointing out unnecessary facts that could rip all that harmony to shreds.

or, Garreth asks why Sebastian isn’t dating you. Sebastian spirals.

Tags | fluff, sebastian is a thought daughter, low self esteem, seb is a playboy BUT NOT REALLY, horny thots but we keep it pg, insecurity so deep you try to fight cupid, cupid fights back

An Ashwinder’s wand to his neck and Sebastian could honestly and truly say that he was … alright.

Life wasn’t perfect, by any means. His uncle was murdered dead, an estranged twin sister in Paris who refuses to answer his letters, a mistrustful Ominis that breathes on his neck, and a tattered companionship that was barely hanging on by a thread.

But he was okay.

Thankfully, Solomon was still dead, Anne was still alive, and still cranky Ominis is now open to reconciliation. Plus, if all else had fallen, he at least managed to save your cherished friendship thanks to your forgiving nature.

Thus, as thanks to the people who had not yet given up on him, he had sworn to live the rest of his academic life as a meek, unassuming, law-abiding student of Hogwarts.

And he did such a good job at it.

The professors are now impressed at his steadily increasing grades (so much so that the Ravenclaws are now finally seeing him as a threat again) and he even managed to make Imelda’s team as her beater to keep him occupied.

The latter, however, had a grating consequence – he had become popular.

It was thrilling, at first, he went on dates to make up for the years he had lost, kissed the pretty girls because it felt like he should (as one of the few bastards lucky enough to live every raging teenager’s dream), and accepted the slaps on the face politely when they inevitably broke up.

But now he’s just gotten tired and bored of it all.

Ominis says it’s a genius’ folly, to always find a fault in something and then drop it when it doesn’t quite meet his standard of perfect. Leander says he’s just a bastard.

He cups his face with his hand, wincing. Her fucking ring caught on his skin and he can’t be arsed to suffer through the bitterness of a Wiggenweld Potion for a mere scratch.

Garreth doesn’t bother to swallow his bread before saying, “Really, mate? I thought you liked this one?”

“Liked her rack, more likely,” Andrew quipped from his seat on the stone steps of the boathouse.

Sebastian threw his scarf on his face, satisfied at his squawk.

“No talking about my ex-girlfriends,” he warned. It was one of his few rules when it came to his male friends. He may be a bastard but as someone with a sister and a couple of good female friendships, he makes it a point to never become one of those losers who talk badly about women they have a history with. Just so he can have a moral high ground when he beats up anyone who might do it to his friends.

“All right, all right,” Andrew raised his hands in playful surrender, throwing Sebastian’s scarf back to him. “But as your friend, I think it’s about time you stop swapping out girls every time you get bored of them.”

“I don’t swap them out,” he rolls his eyes. “Breakups are normal.”

“Breakups are normal,” Garreth points out. “Six breakups in 2 years is an issue.”

“Maybe I’m just meant for the bachelor life,” he mumbles, ignoring the pointed accusation from Garreth. Fucking perceptive prick. “Not everyone gets to meet their soulmate in Hogwarts, asshole.”

Garreth grins, “Natty’s great, isn’t she?”

Sebastian and Andrew both throw their scarves at him, the three of them bursting out in laughter and boos.

“To the Three Broomsticks, then?” Andrew stood up, patting his pants.

As 7th years it was nearly impossible to take a breather with the looming threat of exams that will dictate the rest of your life and the inescapable trap of adulthood that awaits them in a couple of months. So, his friends had made it a point to at least go out once every week whenever they could, really take advantage of their last year as students where they had no other responsibility but to survive the week.

In a year’s time, seeing each other as often as they do will be nothing short of a miracle.

“Leander and Everett are already there, saved up a table since it’s a Friday, it’s gonna be packed full,” Andrew explains.

Sebastian looks around, eyes scanning the castle in the setting sun. “You go on ahead I’m waiting for –”

“Sebastian!”

A flash of movement appeared rushing down the stairs towards the boathouse, your face beaming as you waved to the three of them. When you were a foot away from him you jumped into his arms, shrieking energetically when he grabbed your waist and lifted you above his head.

“Sorry, I’m late,” you pant, smiling at your friends once you’re back on the ground. “Professor Hecate asked me to stay back for a minute, something about revisions on my research.”

“I can’t believe you got permission to research in The Restricted Section after the crazy nonsense you pulled in 5th year,” Garreth shook his head. Sebastian wrapped an arm around your shoulders, pulling you closer to his side, beaming in pride. Nobody knows but the two of you that the very thing you were researching were the technicalities of how you broke Anne’s curse so it could be taught to the nurses in St. Mungos and hopefully spread to the rest of wizardkind.

“It’s exactly because I had the nerve to break the rules that I was given the honorable opportunity,” you dramatically curtsied. “And they said Gryffindors were the brave ones.”

That made Sebastian laugh. Garreth blinks, eyes squinting at him for a second but he doesn’t look offended, more … focused on Sebastian.

“Alright, no more of that House Rivalry. Quidditch Season is over,” Andrew quips.

“Wiped your asses there too, Larson,” he quipped, Andrew’s jaw drops, looking at Garreth for help and receiving none. He was still staring at Sebastian, eyes shifting between him and you.

Andrew groans. “Slytherins are assholes.”

Slytherins are, apparently, also light-weights.

Well, at least one of them is.

He adjusts his hold on your body as the other hand wraps his coat around your body properly. After your last ‘improved’ butterbeer you had slumped into his lap, rudely snoozing off on the crook of his neck and refusing to wake up even when it was time for your group to leave – not that he would’ve allowed that to happen, with your demanding research it was a miracle to get you to sleep let alone let loose.

The rest of the group had gone in first to scope the scenery and bribe the patrolling Head students with leftover chips while he and Garreth were stuck carrying you and an unconscious Amit that they had managed to catch last-minute in Hogsmeade. Poor bastard.

“I was thinking –”

“Please don’t,” he groans.

“Why have you two never dated?”

Sebastian stops his fussing, barely able to use his head to ensure he keeps walking, and continue to Act Normal, now using both of his hands to hold you tighter.

“You’re drunk,” he deflects. The puffs of your breath warm his entire body.

“Because! When I think about it …”

Please, for the love of the great Merlin stop thinking.

“You’ve been inseparable from the start! I can’t believe it’s escaped my notice you’ve never dated. You say your past relationships got boring and got annoying but you’ve never been bored and annoyed with her and you’ve been friends for years!”

Bored with you? He’s had more near-fatal heart attacks because of you than breakups. Sebastian barely had the time to be bored. And sometimes you do get at each other’s throats but it was always fixed after a proper conversation. If his killing his uncle couldn’t turn you away then he doubts anything you do could ever turn him away.

“Plus, with all the respect and love to my beautiful darling Natty, she’s a fucking catch, mate!”

If Garreth wasn’t carrying a sinless half-dead Amit, Sebastian would’ve punched him in his mouth just to stop him from talking.

“I’m just saying,” Garreth walks ahead of him, clearly aware of the fuse he had just lit. Sebastian was tempted to kick the back of his knees just for the satisfaction of seeing him fall.  “Maybe you can join the club and find your soulmate in Hogwarts.”

Garreth winks.

“We’re still accepting members.”

He’s decided.

He needs to kill Garreth.

He has not been able to sleep properly for the past week and it’s all because of that ginger prick and his needless remarks.

“Why have you two never dated?”

Sebastian’s pencil cracks in his hand.

“Is he alright?” he hears an underclassman whisper on the other table. He glances at them and they flinch. Quickly, he softens his expression ("You really need to stop scowling at people, Sebastian."), unaware he had glared at them and sent a wary smile in apology. It would just be unfair to aim his ire at innocent people when he could just use it to rip out every strand of Weasley’s hair.

“He’s been staring at that page for an hour. Maybe we should call –”

He stands up, escaping.

Sebastian never realized just how much he spent his time with you until people were looking at him funny when he was walking or sitting alone in public places. At first, he thought there had been crumbs on his face or one of his asshole friends stuck a note on his back like a kid. Plus, he hadn’t been feeling his best since that night but he thought it had been the lack of sleep.

It wasn’t until he had met Imelda on the grounds that he found his answer:

“Where’s the rest of you?”

He blinked at his captain, “I’m sorry?”

She shook her head. “Man, it feels weird seeing you alone. Did you guys have a fight? You’re usually shadowing her like a puppy after class.”

Then everything clicks, the strange looks, the feeling of missing something (like a forgotten important homework after he had reached the top of the Astronomy Tower) – it’s been a side effect of avoiding you.

Okay, it’s not that he’s avoiding you per se. He just needs space. He needs to think and he finds that can’t do that once he feels your eyes on him. With his luck, you’re going to see right through him and that would just be unideal if not a fucking catastrophe.

That’s why he’s taken it upon himself to stay off your way until he puts his thoughts in a row and finally screws his head on straight again. Or he could just kill Garreth, get sent straight to Azakaban, and avoid confronting these complicated thoughts altogether.

“I can’t believe it’s escaped my notice you’ve never dated!”

He sits on a bench, hands on his head as he let out a prolonged groan, “The fucking bastard.”

Why did he have to point it out? Why did Garreth have to bring what he, upon reflection, had buried on the back of his head, just waiting for that one little flick of acknowledgment before it blew his brains out.

Because Sebastian is a lot of things but he’s not a fucking moron.

It’s not that the thought of being together is unpleasant. If he lets himself consider it his chest feels like it would escape his ribcage both in excitement and utter terror.

But Garreth was right: he’d never thought about it before – hadn’t thought the idea was conceivable in this reality.

He has a feeling it was his way of preserving whatever pure relationship he had left. He’s not exactly rich with true companionship and he’s not idiotic enough to risk it all over a bloody crush. 

And not just any crush – his best friend, the person who saved his life and then helped him rebuild it when he was finished smashing it to pieces. The one who never turned her back even when his blood had given up. The girl who has a line of eligible bachelors following her on their knees for a single chance, ones who could offer her more than he ever could – ones who could offer her the world.

So, yeah – forgive him, but he’s never really allowed himself to entertain the idea of them dating. Sebastian has tested his luck enough.

Unless the roles switch and he gets to save the wizarding world this time then maybe … yeah, maybe -- maybe in another fucking life.

The thought makes him stand up, walking straight out of the campus to hopefully drown the sorrows of the depressing state of his love life with the best fire whiskey Hogshead could offer. How does he even move on from this? How does he make peace with the fact that he has sealed his fate of living the rest of his life alone? 

It’s impossible, he’s decided. Even if he graduates at the top of the classes he is taking and gets accepted into the Auror Programme that Sharp had recommended him for, their social standing is still heavens apart. He’s an orphan, with a husk of an extended family and no money to his name.

It wouldn’t matter to you, never really cared for pure bloodlines or lineages and he knows anyone who brings that up when they’re courting you will receive the most disgusted look on your face. 

But he cares – you are the most special person in his life. He wants the best for you. And the best is not something he can provide.

His depressing thoughts halt as his steps falter, a familiar scent tickling his nose. A familiar scent that leads straight into the Forbidden Forest. When he looks up to the sky, he realizes the sun has almost finished setting.

She can’t be that reckless, right?

He was barely surprised when he chanted the incantation that triggered the charm they had both put in their necklaces, the sparkling thread leads straight into the forest. And if he knows you half as well as he thinks he does then he knows exactly where it’s gonna lead to.

There goes his late-night plan.

It isn’t exactly his first jaunt in the forbidden space but it still gives him the creeps especially so close to the night. Why you’re so fond of the place is something he’ll never understand.

But that’s just the way you were, just another part of your quirks that makes you so endearing.

How you throw your head back when you laugh, that you get so cranky when you’re studying that no one dares to approach you but him, even the way you messily eat your favorite chocolate pastry of the week yet never fail to share a piece with him.

With this new revelation, he bitterly accepts the reason for his philandering ways. That he simply is another prick who is coping with not being able to attain the love of his life at the expense of those poor girls.

His self-condemnation however was cut short when he heard the waterfall, not being able to help the smirk on his face when he turned the corner and found you just as he had expected: in the middle of the clear, dark, water, floating carelessly on your back.

Gods, you are a beauty. He’s always thought so, the entire male population in Hogwarts thought so too. If they somehow get to break through your walls and manage to get to know you, he might just have to beat them away with an actual stick.

“Sebastian,” you smile, his heart stops. “I knew you’d find me.”

You swim to him gracefully, barely disturbing the water with only your eyes above the water but there was no hiding the grin in your face. Like a pitiful sailor seduced by a siren, his feet dragged him to the edge, a short ledge above from where you were looking up at him.

“You left your scent on purpose,” he states, kneeling to get a closer look at you. What a beauty – mischievous, cunning, irresistible. He’s never loved anyone more. “Naughty, naughty, darling.”

She pulls herself up the ledge, their faces inches away from each other. He nails his eyes to yours so they wouldn’t be tempted to look down at your soaking figure cloaked only by a thin chemise “I had to get you somehow, knew you couldn’t resist a damsel in distress.”

“Funny,” he softly glares, chuckling when she preens, clearly satisfied that her plan worked perfectly. “With all the water in the Black Lake, you had to pick the Forbidden Forest to swim in.”

You dip yourself back down in the water, swimming away but still facing him. “Come, Sebastian. I’ve been bored all week since you’ve been avoiding me.”

Guilt runs through his spine at the sudden coldness in your offhanded comment. Clearly, his absence hasn’t escaped your notice as he had hoped.

Like a scolded pup, he follows your command to a T. Eyes never leaving your floating figure as he removed his coat, folding it neatly along with the rest of his clothes until he was left in his underclothes.

He winces at the touch of the freezing water. A heating charm would do wonders but the way your unsympathetic eyes never left his figure gave him a feeling that this was a punishment he was meant to endure.

He steels himself, diving into the water and only resurfacing when he is right in front of you. “You called?”

“You’re so fucking full of yourself,” you splash the cold water at him, shrieking when he reaches out for your arms and barely managing to slip away.

He dives again, grinning at your confused flounder, until you realize your mistake, looking down just as he catches your waist, your surprised shriek, and his unrestrained laughter breaks through the quiet of the forest.

“You done running now, pet?” he locks his hands on your back, pushing you close until he is carrying both your weight in the water, chin resting on your chest as your hands run through his soaking hair.

Your darkened hair frames your face, like a sheer curtain it drops, teasing his cheeks, and hiding your conversation from the rest of the forest – in the dimness, your eyes have never been more radiant, even if it was clearly pissed at him.

Skinship wasn’t foreign between the two of you. When you’ve saved each other’s lives from certain death more times than you care to count, cuddling is the least of your worries.

But there is something about the forest's silence, the sparse moonlight that peaks through the dense trees, the sound of the droplets falling from your hair to the water, and the distant echoes of the animals that make everything intimate. -- more intimate than usual.

“Are you?” you throw his question back at him mercilessly, your hands on the back of his neck, locking his face to look up at you – finally at you. The weeklong separation had been torture and now that the distance had cut his regular contact with his favorite witch, he finally realized how fast his heart was beating when he was around her.

He smiles.

He was satisfied, he swore he was.

Sebastian’s life was finally okay – passable, up-to-scratch, satisfactory. He shouldn’t strive for more, couldn’t allow himself that luxury – the luxury of love, the luxury of you.

But as he stares at your eyes, as he feels the ice in your skin, as he imagines a future where it wasn't him that gets to bite the plump of your lips – that dirty, greedy part of him crawls out of the hole he had shoved it in.

He feels it win.

“Are you done running now?” you whisper, a droplet falls from the tip of your nose to the space just below his eyes, his breath hitches, like your magnetic presence had sucked out all the air of the forest.

“I wasn’t running,” she raises a brow, and Sebastian presses his lips to your ears. “I was thinking.”

“And?”

Leander was right: he really is a bastard.

But he’s a bastard who will no longer wait for another life to love you. He's a bastard who will get what he wants.

“I think,” he whispers, at peace. “I think I’m gonna marry you someday.”

[hard--headed--woman]

Hello and happy Pride Month everyone ! 🏳️‍🌈

As promised, I am going to talk about an important lesbian in history everyday. And this first post is about one of my favourite :

Renée Vivien !

I have seen some people talk about her here but she clearly isn’t as famous as she should be, and she deserves way more recognition!

Renée Vivien, whose birth name is Pauline Mary Tam, was a British writer poetess, who wrote her poetry (and most of her works) in french ; born in 1877, she died in 1909, at only 32 years old.

Renée was openly a lesbian, and she never tried to hide it despite the society she lived in being extremely homophobic and considering homosexuality as an illness. In her poetry, she mentions her love for women a lot, and wrote a lot of love poems for several of her lovers. This even earned her the nickname “Sappho 1900”. ("Sappho 1900, Sappho cent pour cent").

Of Sappho, she was by the way a huge fan : in 1903, she published the work "Sappho", in which the poet's Greek texts are followed by a French translation, as well as verses by Renée Vivien, which thus "completes" the remaining fragments of Sappho's writings. This collection greatly helped to anchor Sappho's work and her identity as a lesbian woman in our culture.

Her work consists of :

Twelve collections of poems, totalling more than 500 poems

Several translations of Greek poetesses (including Sappho)

Seven books of prose

Around ten novels (written under various pseudonyms)

A posthumously published collection of short Gothic tales (written in English this time)

A book about Anne Boleyn's life

It is also possible to read her diary and the letters she exchanged with her lovers, friends and other personalities of her time, including Natalie Clifford Barney, Colette, Kérimé Turkhan Pacha and others.

Pauline studied both in Paris and in London, then decided, once she came of age, to come and settle in Paris. She published her first collection,"Études et Préludes" in 1901, under the pseudonym R.Vivien. This pseudonym later became René Vivien (the male version of Renée) then Renée Vivien, the name under which she will be remembered. We can easily guess that she first chose these neutral then masculine pseudonyms to be able to write and be published despite the misogyny and homophobia of her time, especially given the themes exploited in her writings.

Sadness, death, ancient Greece, love, despair, solitude and love are the most recurrent themes in Renée's poems. There is actually a poetry prize in her name, the Prix Renée Vivien, which rewards poets whose themes and style are close to those of Renée Vivien.

Among Renée's best-known lovers is Natalie Clifford Barney, a famous writer and poet, with whom she had a relationship for several years before leaving her, tired of her infidelities. It is said that Natalie never accepted this breakup and tried until the end to get her back by all means, sending her love letters even years after.

Renée then had a relationship of more than six years with the rich Baroness Hélène de Zuylen, married and mother of two children, with whom she traveled extensively around the world and collaborated on the writing of several works (under the collective pseudonym Paule Riversdale). In a letter to her friend Jean Charles-Brun, Renée admitted that she considered herself married to Hélène.

While still living with the Baroness, she received a letter from a mysterious admirer, Kérimé Turkhan Pacha. What followed was an intense four-year epistolary relationship, interspersed with brief clandestine meetings. In 1908, however, Kérimé, the wife of a Turkish diplomat, put an end to their relationship when she had to follow her husband to St. Petersburg. This break-up probably contributed to Renée's tragic end.

The writer was in deep psychological distress, which only worsened from 1908 onwards. Alcoholic and suicidal, she began refusing to eat properly, and attempted suicide with laudanum. After this failed suicide attempt, she contracted pleurisy, which left her very weak, and then chronic gastritis due to her alcohol abuse. She gradually fell into anorexia, and, with her limbs paralyzed by multiple neuritis, she died on November 18, 1909, aged just 32. Her death was attributed to "pulmonary congestion", probably due to pneumonia complicated by alcohol and anorexia.

After her death, intellectuals, artists and newspapers, out of lesbophobia, tried to make her forgotten by the literary world, describing her as a woman of evil and damnation, perverse and cruel, going so far as to invent for her a life of crime, debauchery, orgies with married women, violence and cocaine consumption.

Today, Renée Vivien's name is no longer known to the general public, and is never mentioned alongside those of great ans famous poets such as Arthur Rimbaud or Charles Baudelaire, despite her gorgeous poetry, her immense talent and fascinating work.

She's personally my favourite, and not only because she was a lesbian. Her poetry is the most beautiful, interesting and deep poetry I have ever seen. She deserves to be as famous as Victor Hugo or Paul Eluard (and even more famous, in my opinion lol).

Here is one of her poems, with its english translation :

A link to some of her poems (in french but you can use a translator) ;

And two links with some of her poems translated into english : 1 and 2.

You should totally buy and read her books and poems, I have them and they're amazing!!! I'll post more translations of her poems in the future for those interested.

Anyway, thanks for reading and see you tomorrow for the second post!

[lauren-ce]

"A Nightmare at Green Lake" is a Queer Coming-Out Story

[This essay has a PDF version; the images are crisper there]

I'm probably nine months late to this particular party, but I just finished the excellent Reverse: 1999 event "A Nightmare at Green Lake" and wanted to make a case for reading it as a story about coming out, focusing on Blonney and her repressed sexuality. It's a love letter to horror films, and a love letter to girls that love girls. Crucially, it is more the latter than the former; Green Lake is a coming-out story that uses the horror film trappings as a storytelling device, not a hard and fast rule. Spoilers for the entire event.

(All my screenshots are taken from this video, which does a wonderful job capturing the entire event.)

The inciting incident in Green Lake began years before. Jennifer visits the camp regularly as a child, writing horror stories in her diary and reading them to Jessica, who loves them. Then, Jennifer suddenly has to move away, and thus, the Incident takes place.

Blonney/Jennifer threw her diary into the lake when she was forced to leave, drowning three things:

1). Her horror stories and love of horror

2). Her acceptance of her identity as an Arcanist

3). Her gay-ass self

She joins human society despite being Different and tries to blend in. She changes her name to Blonney, feigns an interest in fashion, and conforms to social norms. "Monstrous and forbidden" becomes a theme in this event which describes horror, but it also describes queer identity (this will be important later). Blonney discards her identity, drowning it in the lake.

Now allow me the rest of this rambling essay to make a point for that third thing (and to make the case that "loving horror" and "being an Arcanist" is the same thing as "being gay"). Throughout the first half of the event, we see Blonney consistently reject her love of horror movies. She calls them cliche and stupid, easy to make and low-class. Despite secretly loving them, she's built up a persona that isn't allowed to like horror.

Yet she takes an awful lot of offense to criticism of her script. . .

Anne, a recent hire to replace a sick member of Blonney's film crew (who is secretly Jessica in disguise), is mistreated by Blonney for being a naive, small-town country bumpkin that doesn't know anything. Within the movie that Blonney is shooting, Anne is typecast as the "Virgin": Christian, unassuming, sheltered, in contrast to Blonney's "Blondie": indulgent, vain, etc.

Oops, are the characters in the fake movie they're shooting maybe perhaps based on their real-world counterparts???

A contrast is drawn between the two by Blonney and the narrative at first. Throughout the rest of the event, the distance between them and their character archetypes will crumble. The important thing to remember is that Anne/Jessica is a representation of everything Blonney has rejected about herself.

As actual horror-movie type events begin to happen to the group, the characters are genre-savvy enough to realize they're in a horror story. The culprit, though this isn't revealed until later, is Anne/Jessica. She's an Arcanist and has been using her shapeshifting abilities to make a horror movie happen to the group. Ironically, the group looks to Anne as the "Last Girl", the pure and unsullied one that will survive the night.

In actuality, this is a false flag. Since Anne is Jessica is the Monster, she can't be the Last Girl.

The Last Girl is actually Blonney:

I spoiled it already, but the viewer doesn't learn until the halfway point that Blonney is actually from the area, having grown up and making frequent visits. This is why she sees herself in Anne, a gay girl from a small town. Game recognize game, gay recognize gay. Blonney uses a fake name for a fake identity. Jessica sees her actual self, and calls her Jennifer. This isn't a deadnaming, Anne/Jessica sees Blonney as she truly is deep down. Though Blonney doesn't realize it, Anne cuts her to her core, which directly leads to her mistreatment.

Anne's peculiar interactions with Blonney are some of the first hints we get of the true narrative: Why is Anne so nice to her, despite the way she's treated? And more importantly, how would Anne, a newcomer to Blonney's film crew, know Blonney's real name/true identity? Blonney certainly never would've told her, she rejects her own identity, after all. This is a big nod to the true workings of the plot. Anne knows more than what she lets on. Why does Blonney not realize that Anne knows more than she should? Because Blonney is actively trying to reject that part of her—she's blind to it. If she were to acknowledge that Anne knows her true self, then the story would already be over.

On top of rejecting her love of horror, Blonney also rejects her identity as an Arcanist. This identity alienates her from her friends—they consider her a peer up until the horror story begins happening to them. The very second it is no longer convenient, they reject her as one of them and other her. The only member of her original film crew that doesn't reject her for being an Arcanist is, you guessed it, Anne.

However much you despise us, many brilliant playwrights are Queer. I mean—"Arcanists".

Horror events continue happening: a butcher chases around members of the group and monsters attack others. Vertin (R1999's main character), along with Horrorpedia, Sonetto, and Tooth Fairy, provide support, killing monsters and moving the plot along. In many of the monsters the groups find notes, pieces of paper that begin to tell a story—stories within the story. Using their knowledge of horror tropes, the main characters stay alive while Blonney's human film crew seemingly perishes at the hands of the various monster assailants.

After one such attack, Tooth Fairy (an Arcanist), gives first aid to Blonney. During the scene the two have a small argument. Tooth Fairy refuses to use Arcanist medicine to treat Blonney, because Blonney sees herself as a human. This gives Blonney a chance at some introspection, her first time opening up during this event.

Even Blonney's blood knows the truth she's suppressed.

All this happens while Tooth Fairy treats her wounds. Interesting that they're on her inner thigh, hmmm? A MILFy doctor rendering first aid to a girl's inner thighs while explaining that she's rejecting her own identity? I'm sure there's nothing to read into here.

As the plot progresses, Anne repeatedly risks her life to save Blonney. She leaps from a car to save her from a monster, and she later kills the butcher that's been chasing them. This earns her Blonney's trust, which leads to the big, plot-turning confession. At the halfway mark, Blonney is able to sit down with Anne/Jessica and confides in her.

A gay awakening ensues: Blonney feels down about her loss of identity, wanting to reclaim her love of horror. Her facade, she explains, is just that. Blonney threw away her identity as a horror-loving Arcanist in an effort to integrate with society. This conversation takes place after a danger has just been defeated, yet is one of the emotional climaxes. Blonney begins to want to accept her true identity. Throughout, Jessica repeatedly praises Blonney, telling her how amazing and wonderful she is, all the while the two cuddle on a couch.

*Does a gay little hair flip after holding hands. "You can be rougher with me, you know."

To her horror, the rest of the group hears. They had this discussion in the same room, after all, but in contrast to Blonney's old friend group, her new friends support her wholeheartedly. Then, Tooth Fairy hands Blonney the symbol of her self-actualization: her diary, which she'd found in the attic (yes, the same diary that had been thrown into the lake!!! Blonney has now retrieved her diary, her love of horror, and her identity as an Arcanist, all the things she threw away as a child.

Blonney retrieves her diary, which represents suppressed homosexuality through multiple metaphors, and achieves self-actualization thanks to her supportive friend group and a girl with a massive crush on her. The Monstrous and Forbidden are now part of her. Now the gay things really step up.

What happens next is a direct result of Blonney coming to terms with her queerness: a woman in a wedding dress shows up and attempts to marry her.

Monstrous and Forbidden, all in one package.

The woman is a zombie (because we're working with horror tropes, yeah?) but the message couldn't be more clear. Blonney has opened up to Anne/Jessica about loving horror (being queer). Now Blonney must face what that means. Consider: the corpse bride searches for her beloved (literally another bride, this could not be more fucking clear). Who is to play bride to the corpse bride? It's Blonney! The corpse bride forces Blonney down and puts a wedding ring onto her finger. The narrative has allowed Blonney to come out—now it will test her resolve.

The corpse bride is a mixed bag of metaphors. Textually, the corpse bride is a character from the horror story written in Blonney's diary. She was killed by her husband and searches for him so she can place the wedding ring back on his finger. Metatextually, the bride represents Jessica: Blonney abandoned her, effectively "killing" her. Now the scorned bride searches for her lost love.

To sum up: Jessica=Corpse Bride:

1). She searches for her lost love every night (Jessica misses Blonney)

2). She wears a hempen collar (brides don't wear collars, but Jessica does)

Blonney rises to the challenge, she defeats the corpse bride with her newfound arcanist powers, and the group pieces together the clues that the bodies carry. Her new friends are proud of her!

Horrorpedia (annoying fuckwad that he is) nicely sums up the message: by embracing their identities, they can fight back.

All the horror story clues lead to the dead body in the water. "But wait," you say, "Green Lake doesn't feature a dead body in the water." Wrong! Blonney was dead all along, remember? The corpse is Blonney's diary! Her dead body is the horror-loving gay self she killed when she threw her diary into the lake to reject her identity!

More plot happens; the story reaches a climax with Blonney using her magic to aid the group's escape from a lighthouse. On the same shore that Blonney first told Jessica all her horror stories, the same shore she killed her identity on, they confront Jessica, now revealed as the Monster. This whole plotline is the result of Blonney rejecting her identity; now is the time to make everything right.

Jessica is proud of Blonney becoming her true self. However, she's also tired of waiting for her. She's tired of being alone. Jessica offers Blonney a life of bliss: a soft bed of moss for them to share, the sweetest forest fruits, and monsters to keep her company.

When Blonney refuses to live at Green Lake forever with her, it's taken as a rejection. A fight ensues—Blonney and her group win, but the emotional arc of the story has yet to resolve.

Blonney has a chance to reject her queer identity once more. She both does and doesn't. Blonney accepts the monstrous and forbidden by accepting Jessica, a literal monster, and her queerness, the Forbidden. She rejects the monstrous and forbidden by asking Jessica to come with her, to rejoin society, to hide their identities as Arcanists (queer) and live together. Jessica rejects this. She will not be closeted. (The fear she feels at being outed as an arcanist is very similar to the fear of being outed as queer in a hostile society, eh?) This of course puts Blonney under duress—how can the story end happily?

Vertin comes in with a grenade of an offer: Jessica can come stay in the St. Pavlov Institute with her and learn to coexist with people like her. She can live with people that don't see her as weird, despite being monstrous (queer), an Arcanist (queer), and a lover of horror (queer). Vertin hasn't done much up to this point outside of moving the plot along and fighting monsters; this is her time to shine, and she shines like the lesbian lodestar we know her to be. Her conversation with Jessica is tinged with language that could easily be read as romantic, but Vertin isn't here to steal anyone's girl, she's here to offer a happy ending for everyone that guarantees the goal of each party is fulfilled. Vertin's presence is what allows this story to ultimately break free from its horror trappings. Her third option is not a compromise; it is the ending we wanted.

And what an ending it is! It's happy and good in every possible way it could be. The happiness of the ending is a large part of why I call this a coming-out story primarily rather than a horror tale. A slasher film like the ones this event draws inspiration from would see Blonney (the true Final Girl) as the only survivor of her group, still running from the monster and her own self. Instead, all her friends survive, having been held captive in Jessica's den. Blonney comes into her own; she and Jessica reconcile—we get the gay end!

Blonney leaves to finish college as a self-actualized queer woman; Jessica acheives her wish of never being alone and joins the institute to gain an education herself. I have no doubt that they will reunite, and soon: the entire plot of R1999 is Vertin recruiting every arcanist she can to ensure their safety from the Storm. Blonney's future leads directly to St. Pavlov. (For further supporting evidence, see her voice line about taking Jessica for a walk! Even before Blonney graduates, they get to be togetherrrrrrrrrrr!)

Even if you don't play R1999, please please check out this event. It has a lot to say, and it's one of my favorite things I've read all year. The soundtrack fucking whips, and it goes far in helping balm the weeping wound of the tragic yuri that is Vertin/Schneider.

Again, give some love to the video that made this document possible.

I've rambled long enough, so I'll let Tooth Fairy wrap this up with a bow: Love Wins

[m-jelly]

Hi can I get a Levi x medic!reader fic please? Where they’re secretly together as the reader is a well known doctor in sina and for her safety, they keep her ties to the scouts a secret. But like either the time when Erwin was jailed and the scouts had to go into hiding or when the rumbling happened (your choice), reader comes to Levi’s aid thus outing the relationship. How would the scouts react? The vets are already aware

@kenkopanda-art <3

The Doctor and the Captain

Pairing: Levi x fem!Dr!Reader

Genre and tags: Canon, fluff, secret romance, a secret revealed, cadets reactions.

Concept: While in hiding, the scouts get a visitor at the cottage and their Captain seems very happy about it. The cadets watch as their Captain wraps his arms around the female visitor, sharing a sweet kiss.

Taglist: @ladycheesington @skittlelover69 @levisbrat25 @li-anne @nyxiieluna @notgoodforlife @galactict3a @2moth-anon2 @thebobaprincess @nbinairyn @youre-ackermine @demonsimp6

Sasha sighed as she gazed out of the cottage window while her friends behind her cleaned. She let out another long sigh earning the attention of her friend Jean.

Jean glanced over to his friend and noticed not only was Sasha slacking but so was Connie. Jean knew their Captain would be a bit pissed off if he found out not all the scouts were cleaning.

Jean stormed over to his friends. "Hey, you're supposed to be cleaning. If the Captain finds out you two have been daydreaming all day, he's gonna be pissed."

Connie groaned. "We're just having a break."

"A break from what? You've not done a thing."

Sasha whined. "We've done some work."

Jean rolled his eyes. "I'm pretty sure I saw you move the brush twice, now move it."

Connie frowned. "Why is the Captain pacing outside?"

"Stop getting distracted."

Sasha pointed. "He's right. The Captain is pacing outside for some reason."

Jean looked out the window. "Huh..."

"What's happening?" Eren strolled over and looked out. "The Captain looks a bit agitated. We'll just work harder here to make him happy."

Mikasa stared out at the Captain before turning to Eren. "Eren? We should clean."

"I know, but this is odd."

Mikasa looked out the window again. "There is someone approaching."

Everyone pressed themselves against the windows. They watched as someone in a cloak and hood hurried closer. The person clutched a basket tightly and didn't look up at all. Levi prepared himself a little, his body tensing up. He shifted and blocked the view of the guest.

Connie inhaled deeply as soon as Levi threw himself at the visitor and held them. "He's hugging them!"

Sasha gasped as your hood fell back. "It's a woman!"

Jean cleared his throat when Levi yanked you against him and kissed you passionately. "Okay, time to stop watching."

Levi pulled back and smiled. "I missed you."

You welled up. "I missed you too. I was so damn worried about you. Erwin has been arrested and you're on the run."

Levi wiped your tears away. "We're okay. As I said in my letter, we need to hide for a bit."

You kissed him before picking up the basket you dropped. "I brought you some food, some medical supplies, some tea and cleaning things."

"You're the best."

You handed the basket over. "Please, be safe."

"I will." He cupped the side of your face with one hand as he said your name. "I love you."

You leaned into his touch. "I love you too."

"Would you like to come in for a cup of tea?"

You looked at the cottage to see the scouts staring. "Are you sure they won't mind?"

"They?" He turned and looked at the window to see the cadets panic and try and run. "Tch, damn kids."

You hummed a laugh. "They're just curious about their handsome Captain."

Levi sighed. "Come on. I better introduce you."

You walked with Levi towards the cottage. "Cute."

Levi shoved the door open. "Tch, oi, oi, oi, you brats, this is my partner." He introduced you. "Be nice."

Sasha gasped. "You're the Captain's girlfriend!?"

You nodded. "That's right. It's lovely to meet you all." You bowed to each one when Levi introduced you. "Levi has told me so much about you all."

Levi hummed. "They might be brats, but they're good."

You giggled. "Well, I think you're all wonderful. Shall we have a nice lunch break?"

Sasha jumped up and down. "Please!"

[eowynstwin]

returning for more book recs cause I eat your recommendations up like communion bread in an attempt to save me

Be saved my child

Also I’m going to deviate from the norm and recommend some manga, please don’t draw and quarter me I was a weeb in a past life

Paint the Wind by Pam Muñoz Ryan is a relatively easy book to read that nonetheless made me cry several times as a child. After the sudden death of her domineering grandmother, a young girl discovers she has family raising horses in the west, which she has always dreamed of.

A Bride’s Story by Kaoru Mori is a slice of life historical epic centered around both the daily life and marriage practices of Turkic Central Asia. This manga is meticulously researched and FABULOUSLY drawn. Mori is the kind of artist you only see once in a generation. I worship at her feet.

Emma also by Kaoru Mori is another work of historical fiction, this time set in England during the late Victorian period (my beloved). It follows a maid who falls in love with the son of a social climbing nouveau riche family, interspersed again with depictions of daily life of the time period.

The Right to Sex by Amia Srinivasan is a collection of feminist essays that follow the rise and dispersion of the incel movement, particularly the multi murder-suicide of Elliot Rodger. Amia explores the sexual expectations of heterosexual culture and interrogates the scripts set up that facilitate it. General trigger warning for discussions of rape and misogyny.

Second Place by Rachel Cusk is a short work of lit fic about a woman’s emotional affair with an artist who hates her. That’s kind of the best way I can describe it but it’s also about motherhood, marriage, solitude, loneliness, Covid lockdown (tangentially), and old age. The narrator invites a painter she admires to take residence in a cottage on her property for a season, and things don’t go well.

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong is part memoir part letter to his mother reminiscing on the childhood he shared with her. Ocean’s mother cannot read, and thus this letter divulges far more about Ocean’s life than he might ever actually tell her. He relates his experience growing up in poverty as a gay Vietnamese immigrant with two women marked permanently by the aftereffects of the Vietnam war.

Time Is a Mother by Ocean Vuong is his second poetry collection which follows the death of his mother. Vuong explores the relationship of writing and grief, and honestly I have a hard time summarizing any poetry collection because I’m only an amateur poetry enthusiast. Amazon History of a Former Nail Salon Worker and Dear T hit especially hard if you’ve read the book I recommend above.

Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson is a novel in verse reimagining the myth of Geryon and Hercules as the bildungsroman of Geryon, who falls in love, or the closest thing to it, with Hercules as a young man and meets him later in life only to be disillusioned about who he’s become. Not to be irreverent but this is the best mslash lovers to strangers fanfictiony Greek retelling I’ve ever read. Song of Achilles eat your heart out. (I’m reading the “sequel” red doc> right now but I’m not finished with it yet.)

A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers on the surface is a solarpunk novella set on a world fully recovered from its Industrial Revolution, but in actuality it explores dissatisfaction with life even in the closest thing we could ever get to a utopia. A monk named Dex realizes they are no longer happy in their profession and strikes out to serve tea in the countryside, and meets a robot from the forest who wants to know if humanity needs anything. A very kind book.

I have a few others in mind but I want to recommend them specifically alongside various fic series. Hope you enjoy these!

[youroomwasquare]

Hey just wanna pop into your inbox and say: I think your analysis for Marcy really understands the core of Amphibia's theme (change) and the basis of Marcy's arc. I could nitpick with small details I don't agree with (saying that Marcy doesn't have confidence issues (Marcy tends to overcompensate thus coming off as confident but really they're a scared kid) or Marcy doesn't have control issues (Marcy has control issues in the sense that they did feel the need to drag their friends into another dimension (those these control issues do mostly come from a lack of agency in Marcy's life)) but honestly the core of the analysis is spot on. You entirely understood exactly why Marcy's arc went like it did! And I really liked you pointing out in your response to an ask about it that escapism is not inherently bad rather how much we let it take over our life is when it becomes an issue!

It was really refreshing to see someone take a look at the end of Amphibia, and realize that it really did do Marcy justice and personally I feel that it does justice to people who have those same issues in life AS Marcy. Showing us that change will happen showing us that we will never be alone even if there is physical distance even if our relationships change even if things change that doesn't mean that life is over. The end of Amphibia I feel like a is a love letter to the fact that life is not stagnant, change is not an ending it's just a new chapter. And we see Marcy after the time skip have that agency in a world that isn't Amphibia by Marcy CHOOSING what they want to do in life. Hell we see that set up for that agency when Marcy rejects the CORE. Marcy finds healthy coping mechanisms Marcy finds a way to indulge in fantasy that isn't being consumed (or assimilated). It's something that's so wholly them how can you possibly be upset that that's what they did with their life! It's looking kids like Marcy in the eyes and saying "things get better. Throwing your life into fantasy will not save you from change but that does not mean you are doomed."

Marcy's sort of "unfinished arc" is a beautiful love letter to growing up. Just like how Anne and Sasha's arcs are love letters to growing up in their own ways.

I just wanted to say thank you for such a refreshing take :]

this is so 🥺🥺. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I read your message and was on cloud nine the entire rest of the day, this message warmed my heart SO MUCH. aaaa I cannot thank you enough for connecting with it and sending such a lovely piece of writing in response :,) looking back on my analysis, I do agree that some of my points were a bit off ahaha. especially the point I made where marcy was 100% self confident in herself.. oof. during her stay in amphibia, while marcy DID grow into herself, and was truly able to see the extent of her skills and knowledge, she still had a ways to go when it came to other aspects outside of her intelligence. and you brought up a very good point, in that marcy does tend to overcompensate in order to be well liked!! but I've never even thought of the idea that marcy could have control issues. and I love this point!! you're SO right-- marcy had a lack of control when it came to what she truly wanted, so sending them to amphibia was her way of trying to gain back control & not feel extremely helpless. agh, I love how all the girl's issues seem to bleed into one another. I'll definitely think more about this, thank you for the amphibia brain food :) your whole last paragraph, yes, this, exactly. marcy's journey IS a love letter to all those like her-- kids who are (or have been) terrified of all the change that comes with growing up. kids who retreat back into their safe spaces-- the things they've known their entire lives-- for comfort amidst all the turbulent times. kids who will eventually learn, through one way or another, that change will always be present. but that it doesn't have to be a bad thing!! "even if things change that doesn't mean that life is over"-- this, to me, perfectly encapsulates the entire message of amphibia. the epilogue showed that life goes on. amphibia healed-- the amphibians healed, grew into themselves, and finally got the chance to live the lives they wanted to. amphibia honored the impact the girls made on them, and mourned their absence (and still mourn in some ways). but they still kept living. and they still carry all the memories, experiences, lessons, and love as well. the girls continued to live as well-- and they still honor amphibia in their own ways. we see it so much in the epilogue!! to me, it shows that nothing truly ends-- even worlds apart, they all still live on and still continue to love and still let new people in, and are able to let them go if needed. because of that experience they all shared together-- they all still trickle into every friendship, relationship, and connection the others have.

***

the girls learned through their experiences in amphibia that change IS scary. and that it's okay to acknowledge that. and that there are so many people going through the same thing as them. and in that way, they will always have a connection. the girls are not connected forever because of their experiences in amphibia-- amphibia ended. what they are connected by though, is the fact that they will always have a place in each other's lives. and the love that radiates out of all of them-- for each other, and for their friendship as a whole.

"The end of Amphibia I feel like a is a love letter to the fact that life is not stagnant, change is not an ending it's just a new chapter"-- I COMPLETELY AGREE WITH THIS!! and it's actually how I view the marcy from the end of the show. one of the beauties of marcy's unfinished arc is that marcy now has all of the time in the world to choose who she wants to be and what she wants to do with her life. she has so many lessons to learn, people to meet, tears (both happy and sad) to shed, smiles to make and love to share. amphibia may have ended, but for marcy-- it's a whole new beginning. the possibilities are so endless.. and that's such a good feeling!!

growing up is hard to do. we see that all the time in media, reflected in our own experiences of growing up. I'm so happy the calamity trio exists. I relate to them so much already-- I cannot wait to see the ways I'll continue to relate to them as I keep growing.

[pansythoughts]

Do you have any thoughts on the Alva and Ann relationship or any conjecture on what will go on with the cat cult?

So my biggest thought on the Alva and Ann relationship thus far is that given the information we have in canon, Alva matters a lot more to Ann than Ann matters to Alva. I don’t mean that pejoratively, or that Ann matters less as a character, but that there’s an asymmetrical amount of information from each characters’ perspective.

From Alva’s perspective right now, we have a lot of information on Herman Zeeman, and a lot of information on Luca Balsa. We know that these two fundamentally altered who Alva became, and that together their actions indirectly and then directly delivered him to the cat cult (Herman by undercutting his trust in people—pushing him to withdraw more and become more hermit-like—and Luca more directly by killing him). We also have Luca in Alva’s first essence, which kind of hard sell’s their connection. We have nothing from Alva’s perspective about his time in the cult yet, or his feelings about it. The closest we have is the very end of his intro trailer and his website background story, both of which more or less end with his introduction to the cult and the spurning of the rest of society for it.

From Ann’s perspective, I think the cult is a lot more of a formative force in her character, owing to her seeming younger than Alva, us having more information related to her vs Alva, and honestly the cult just featuring way more prominently in her backstory. From everything we can tell right now, Alva recruited her father to the cat cult, which set her on her path, willingly or unwillingly. The cat cult is mentioned as part of her childhood in her deducs, and Alva is mentioned directly or indirectly in both her character day letters so far.

So to Ann, Alva is this major figure of her childhood, of her background, and part of ultimately where her future went. But to Alva, Ann is conspicuously absent. His most formative events, the things the narrative shows us, focus on the past and the Balsas. And that’s really interesting! To Ann, Alva is the man that changed the course of her family and her life. To Alva, as far as we can tell, Ann and her family were just some people he brought into his cult. I’m really hopeful when we get more info from Alva’s first letter that gives us some of his perspective on the cult and Ann, but I don’t hate the asymmetry right now, because it really is so telling for what both characters are hung up on.

As for what will go on with the cat cult… god I don’t know. I have things I *want* to know, like how they’re resurrecting people (is magic real?) and what the hell is up with the implications of ritual surgery in both Ann’s second character letter and on the cat’s model. I hope we find out how zealous Alva is, and I hope it’s exactly zero percent (I hope he’s so resigned to doing a cults dirty work, but the opposite would be interesting too!). I want to know if Ann and Alva are actually alive again, or if they’re drug fueled hallucinations of people that once existed in whatever game they get attached to. I want to know if the cult is associated with the person running the games, or if the game runner is just taking advantage of something batshit in the world already. I think right now though I prefer to keep my thoughts open, so I can enjoy whatever comes my way rather than get disappointed by what they don’t end up doing.

[kateshistoryspot]

Firebrand Part II: Was Jude Law's Henry VIII Accurate?

TW: DV, mention of executions

I recently got in trouble on a Facebook group for my thoughts on this, which was an interesting affair to say the least. But a lot of Tudor Enthusiasts are fighting right now about Jude Law's portrayal of Henry VIII. So, as an historian, what do I think on the matter?

Apparently my take was too hot for the group I put it on lmao

In Firebrand, Jude Law's Henry VIII is violent, narcissistic, and quick to harm. In one of the first scenes with his character, Kit questions him about the implications of the execution of her on-screen friend, Anne Askew, and Henry doesn't hesitate to grab her hair, force her to kneel, and snarl at her. Later in the film, a drunk Henry beats a pregnant Kit, having begun to think that her child isn't his. This version is much colder than JRM's portrayal, and much, much nastier than Keith Michell's. But, was it accurate?

Henry VIII did have a history of pretty crap behavior: this was the person who executed the Duke of Buckingham on flimsy evidence that they were planning a coup. He was also well known for beating his advisors, specifically Thomas Cromwell. Although he began as an affable prince who was kind to women and those in need, it didn't last long: he left Catherine of Aragon to die at Kimbolton when she had heart cancer, and refused to let her daughter see her before her death.

Henry is also well known as the king who executed two of his wives: Anne Boleyn in 1536 and Katherine Howard in 1542. Anne, his second wife whom he created the Anglican church for, had failed to give him a son by 1536, and had behaved inappropriately as Queen of England: conversations about the King's death had circulated, as well as bullying behaviors. Mind you, Anne was a knight's daughter: she had not been trained for this role in her youth, nor did she receive that training after her ascent to the throne. Henry used false charges, some of which surrounded her inappropriateness, to have her arrested and executed. Anne is widely believed to be innocent: a sentiment that I, too believe.

Katherine Howard was Henry's fifth wife. Historians hope that she was closer to 17 at the time of her marriage to him, but there's a chance she was closer to 15. Katherine's main offence was a tricky one: she retroactively violated a law that did not exist at the time of her marriage to Henry: that any woman who married the king must disclose her sexual history within 30 days of the marriage. Katherine had a history, thanks to her upbringing at her grandmother's estate.

The Dowager Duchess Agnes Howard owned Chesworth House in Horsham, where she took in aristocratic children who were down on their luck. Katherine was a member of the infamous Howard clan, thus securing her place in the house. Although Chesworth sounds like a lovely place on paper, it housed an open secret: there was neglect within the walls, and the girls' dormitory had no lock on it. It is alleged that Katherine Howard had two very inappropriate relationships during her tenure there: both with older men, and both while she was a pre-teenager. Today, we call what happened to her grooming, however that was not the case back in the 16th century: it was fornication, and retroactively a crime.

Katherine also had a friendship with one Thomas Culpeper: Culpeper had a history of sexual violence, and it seems he became much too close to the naive, young Queen. Their letters were used as evidence that they both committed adultery with one another: once against a statement that is being seen through different lenses in the history community today. Henry swore once he heard the news of her infidelity that he would strangle her himself, and often wept.

Both would lose their lives over this malarky.

On another note: what we call domestic violence in the 21st century was once legal, and it was so in the Tudor era. Within marriage vows, a woman promised to be "bonny and buxom in bed and in board," and if she failed, she could be expected to be beaten. Men were the head of the household: a woman was beneath him, and so were the children, and he was expected to discipline both. This often came in the form of hitting, boxing, or using a switch to get the job done. However, there were rules pertaining to how a husband could beat his wife: if the rod he used to beat her was too thick (thicker than his thumb), he could get in massive trouble with the church. If a man used violence too often in the household, or his discipline was life threatening, a woman could annul her marriage on the grounds of cruelty.

Henry, by the time he was married, was expected to discipline his wives: he was their leader and their head, and they were to obey. It was nearly expected that he would discipline them.

So, was Jude Law accurate to Henry VIII? Very much so. I think he captured the essence of the real man perfectly. Law really got into this role, even securing a perfume that smelled like stool to be more accurate to his character. I think it's high time that we stop fantasizing about Henry VIII as a cordial and romantic husband and recognize him for who he was: cruel, cold, and tyrannical.

[fideidefenswhore]

Mary I was really delusional about Elizabeth's paternity. She would tell anybody who would listen that Elizabeth looked like Mark Smeaton, when Elizabeth looked almost like a carbon copy of her father,

I wouldn't say she was delusional, but rather that insisting to herself and others that Elizabeth wasn't really her sister was Mary's way of compartmentalizing.

According to Lancelot de Carles, despite the adultery allegations (might this have been after she was informed that the alleged dates in question began in October 1533? If so, she was far less credulous than Chapuys, who seemed to have used this information to conclude Elizabeth was going to be declared 'the daughter of Norris', the first man accused in the consecutive list of dates, and had to quickly retract this claim), Mary in 1536 actually expressed no doubt whatsoever that Elizabeth was truly her sister:

"'And, since her daughter is the king's, I promise That, to the best of my ability, she should never want for anything.'" The story of the death of Anne Boleyn : a poem by Lancelot de Carle, JoAnn DellaNeva (Translator, Editor, Writer of added commentary)

This was a common refrain for Mary in the 1530s, she told the Duke of Norfolk in 1533, also, something similar:

True, if the King, her father, acknowledged [Elizabeth] as his daughter, just as he called the duke of Richmont his son, she could treat the latter as brother, and her as sister, but in nowise as princess 

And later, in her letter to Cromwell in 1536:

concerning the Princess (so, I think, I must call her yet, for I would be loth to offend), I offered at her entry to that name and honor to call her sister, but it was refused unless I would also add the other title unto it; which I denied not then more obstinately than I am now sorry for it, for that I did therein offend my most gracious father and his just laws; and now that you think it meet, I shall never call her by other name than sister."

And then we arrive to the 1550s, which is when Mary was reported to have claimed that Elizabeth was, in fact, not her sister at all (not just by Jane Dormer much later, but by Philip II's confessor at the time). Generally the argument presented for this was that she simply didn't want Elizabeth to be heir due to her religion, but I find that reductive. This was definitely an element, but once it's set into relief and context, I believe she came to claim that Elizabeth wasn't her sister because, if she wasn't her sister, she didn't owe her honour and respect, and thus had no moral imperative or obligation to treat her well.

I really liked Becoming Elizabeth's portrayal of Mary's sibling relationships, but my reaction was not quite the fandom reaction (if you can even call Tumblr that...tbh, it's so small and insular that I almost feel a show doesn't really have a fandom until it's hugely active on Twitter or TikTok, largely because I feel had BE been when the episodes were coming out, it would have been renewed). I don't really get misty-eyed over Mary's relationships with her siblings. She had affection for Edward and Elizabeth, but underneath that affection was always her belief that she was innately superior to them. Granted, I don't believe Mary was like, this merciless bully towards her younger siblings...especially because that belief went both ways (it's clear from his letters and diary entries that Edward VI also believed himself innately superior to Mary, and the subtext of the Micheli report was that not only did Elizabeth not consider herself inferior to Mary, she considered herself superior to her). Tl; dr I'm not sentimental over these relationships, but I find them, in all their dynamics and facets, quite fascinating.

[pebblysand]

okay, i'm going on a rant and i might make enemies but honestly this has been brewing inside me for weeks and i can't hold it in anymore.

i've seen a lot of content lately (and this is no one in particular, just a general trend) of people getting mad when fanfic writers 1) try to monetise their craft and 2) try to link their ko-fi/patreon/what-have-you to ao3. the general consensus seems to be that this endangers ao3 as a platform, that these "gen z-s" who aren't scarred by anne rice don't know the risks they're taking, that everyone will get sued, etc.

now, for the record, i do not put my own ko-fi in my a/n-s because a) i do want to respect the rules and, b) i don't really need to make money from ff, but:

i wish people would mind their own fucking business sometimes. if someone wants to take the risk to monetise their work because they need to, then that is their risk to take, not yours. stop acting as though Money Is The Devil. money allows people to put a roof over their heads and food on the table. i've always found it sort of ironic that ao3 keeps lamenting every year about their struggles re:staff turnover and lack of diversity when only very fortunate people with a lot of time on their hands can actually afford to dedicate hundreds of hours of their time to allow them to function. not everyone can afford to work/do art for free. and, sure, we can all agree capitalism is bad but also that is the world we live in. you want to change it? revolt. have a revolution. don't report people to a fucking website.

this is tied to my first point but when it comes to links on ao3 specifically, just because AO3 has been the best site so far, doesn't mean it cannot be questioned ever. for the record, i love ao3. i think it's a great website. it's a fantastic idea. but, after spending an evening looking through their public accounting (yeah, i'm ✨fun✨ like that), i have loads of questions about the hundreds of thousands of dollars they seem to be hoarding year on year and refusing to reinvest to "keep it safe". ao3 as a website are extremely risk-averse in their functioning. that is their ethos. and, it can be a good thing (i'm not denying that) but that can also be a bad thing. we should at least be allowed to publicly debate certain decisions without being called "traitors" who want to bring the website down. it's healthy to debate.

for the love of jesus, mary, joseph and all of the people of jerusalem, stop telling people that if they make money off fanfic they will get sued and die. first of all, the legality of the monetisation of fanfiction is a lot more complicated than tumblr discourse makes it out to be. i don't want to go into too much detail because i have a life but know that: just because you monetise, doesn't mean you will get sued (and lose). at the same time, just because you do not monetise doesn't mean you won't. since these people love quoting anne rice as an example, i will say this: the people who got cease and desist letters, as far as i know, were not monetising. that is because monetisation is one of four factors related to the fair use exception, not The Only One. this is me making an educated guess here but i suppose that when they refuse to monetise, ao3 is actually just protecting itself and its users (again, that ngo, risk-averse strategy). they are not only leveraging that in a potential fair use argument, they are also taking a gamble that the lack of monetisation will discourage lawsuits. this may come as a shock but very few sane people sue each other for no money. it is thus safer not to monetise fanfiction, but not safe. making people believe in that dichotomy is misleading.

building on the above, i think the misunderstanding here comes from the fact that ao3 has become so mainstream and has outdone itself so much that the use of it has superseded its primary purpose. ao3 sees itself as an archive first and foremost, not as a reading tool/content host. its purpose is the safekeeping of History, which is why it's so risk-averse. but, that might not be what we need anymore as a collective. i don't know. but the idea that AO3 is going to get sued and disappear immediately if people start profiting from fanfic is flimsy at best. ff.net runs ads and monetises, so do tumblr and wattpad. they're fine. yes, it is a more difficult position to defend, but not an impossible one. tumblr even lets you put your fanfiction behind a paywall if you want, and the money transits through them. sure, that means that their terms of service push the responsibility onto you to respect copyright laws and defend yourself if you get sued (it's obviously a very different business model) but it is a thing. the fear-mongering about the doomsday of ao3 if anyone at all sought to question their system is ridiculous.

which brings me to my next point: stop blaming this on gen z. who allegedly don't remember what it was like "before," when we all swam in a sea of cease and desist letters and fanfiction websites were collapsing left, right and centre. this is not the first time i make this point online but why are we, millennials, turning into our parents, questioning young people's capacity for intelligent reasoning? even if the above was a realistic picture of the 00s, it was twenty years ago. times have changed. fanfiction has become democratised. we do not know what would happen if people started earning money off fanfiction. we don't know that they would get sued. if they did get sued, we don't even know what would actually happen because very few fic-like cases have been litigated. so let's just step back and let people do what they want.

lastly, a lot of people seem to think that bringing money into fanfic (even the smallest amount) would ruin their enjoyment of it, and would ruin the whole medium altogether. i understand this, i feel it sometimes myself. but, that's sort of a me problem, isn't it? we are projecting our own issues about how we feel money would decrease our enjoyment of fanfic onto other people. but that's for them, not us, to decide. to each their own.

and, bonus point: this is HP specific but if you are one of those people who only buys merch off etsy creators because you don't want JKR to profit and then scream at fanfic creators for trying to monetise, you are making literally no logical sense.

which is all to say: the conversation about the monetisation of fanfiction is a fascinating one, and a very complicated and nuanced one. there is no black and white. i have doubts myself and i have been thinking about these things for a long time. i do still feel very uneasy about the idea of the exploitation of someone else's property by another without their consent. it's tough. but i think it's important to sometimes get off our high horses and see both sides of a story, and feed intelligent discourse, not fear-mongering.

#rantover, thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[lake-archive]

Drabblecember Day 16 - Scrapbooking

Prompt List - Fling Posse Selfship / Yumeship Masterlist

Fandom: Hypnosis Mic

Characters: Ramuda Amemura, Ann Wolff (OC), Ole (OC) (mentioned)

Pairing: Ramuann (Ramuda/Ann)

Words: 500

When being asked to crash at his place to make a scrapbook Ramuda had not expected that. After all, Ann was known for having two left hands so trying to do something like a scrapbook was a surprise on its own. But he was ever so curious, though he had tried not to pry. But of course, Ramuda being Ramuda, he couldn't stop himself from prying. Curiosity had gotten the better of him and thus he snuck up behind them. They had been sitting on the couch, putting photos together or cutting shapes out first. Not to mention decorating it.

Stickers, doodles and scribbled letters to make it look more appealing to the eye and not just filled with pictures of… “Ole?” He asked, making them freeze in place, though calming down quickly and turning around, smiling lightly. “Heh, looks like I've been found out.” They responded, chuckling ever so slightly. “Yeah, the Ole scrapbook.” Hearing that Ramuda decided to lean against the couch and getting a closer look, he saw several images of the black and white cat. Him sitting, sleeping, eating, hanging out with two other men in Osaka and even standing on top of a Christmas tree.

Sometimes Ole even wore costumes – A cat tailored yukata, a scarf, several tiny hats and even a coat with long sleeves, worn like a cape. The images varied and Ole seemed to have a better fashion sense than Ann… Then again, not like Ramuda was surprised about that. Something else was impressive… “That's a lot of pictures within the span of a year.” He noted, slightly impressed. “Does he enjoy having pictures taken?” “More or less. I just want to take as many pictures of him as possible, y'know. “ They responded as they turned their attention back to the scrapbook.

“Why's that? Is he going to apply for a model job?” Ramuda joked at first, though when thinking about it… “I never tried making clothes for cats… And he has potential… Aha! Say, you think Ole would model for me!?” The thought kind of excited him actually. Sounds like fun! And yet, Ann only shrugged, yet chuckling. “You can ask him next time he comes over. “ They responded ever so calmly. “I'm just collecting memories.” – “Memories?” – “Of course. He isn't very young y'know! Who knows how long it'll be! So to never forget I wanna make yearly scrapbooks of Ole.“

Yearly scrapbooks… That was something Ramuda had not expected, not even how close Ole and Ann grew. A scrapbook to collect shared memories, to remember the past and look back at it fondly… Honestly, the idea of something like this… It made him fuzzy. He couldn't help but smile before suddenly suggesting: “Hey, can we also make a yearly scrapbook? Together?” – “Huh? I mean… Sure but where's that coming from?” – “Hehe, no special reason! It just sounds like fun~! Pretty please~?” – “I mean, I see why not?” – “Yay! Thank you Ann–Chan! Let's make sure to make lots of memories together!”

[mdhwrites]

Extra Jumbled Thoughts: Character Arcs, featuring Anne Boonchuy Versus Amity Blight

SPOILERS FOR SEASONS 1 and 2 of THE OWL HOUSE! AND OF SEASON 1 OF AMPHIBIA! Also, if you don’t want to hear me ramble about how this blog is different from my other writing analysis blogs, skip to the first bit of bold text below. So I’m going to start with a warning. I try to make sure I don’t just make review blogs anymore because I want these to be more approachable. More useful. Simply saying an episode of something is bad or good, especially as White Guy on the Internet #48987532, can be very repetitive and honestly pointless. Not that there isn’t merit in it but without deeper insight, an audience may go “Yeah, that was bad!” without understanding the underlying cause for why it may have been written a certain way or what actually failed. This isn’t going to be one of those. It’s actually not even because of vitriol or anything I have to get out. It’s just because of the nature of character arcs. To provide an example... Is a bitch. Because for you to understand why something does or doesn’t work, you have to get into a lot more of the minutia of the character and what they undergo. That’s also why it’s featuring two characters and not two series. You may not know enough about either one without seeing the show (and many Amphibia fans might not know enough about Anne’s arc to even know why she’s here because a lot of them skipped season 1). I’ll try to include the information needed but I’m also going to be straight forward about saying this is, like the title says, extra jumbled up. Not helped of course by the fact that I’m pitting a main character’s arc against a major supporting character’s arc. Now, admittedly, I’m including Seasons 1 and 2 of The Owl House for Amity while this is STRICTLY talking about Season 1 of Amphibia. So Amity is getting extra time here to make up for the fact that, inherently, she’ll get less because of her role in the story. But uh... *looks at the flat line of Luz’s character that just ends with ‘smiles less’ in bold letters* This is also due to the nature of the two shows. Amphibia is much more about the other world’s impact on the main characters and their changes while The Owl House is about the main character’s impact on the other world and the changes they inflict on it. So the character who should have the most character growth in the former is the main character while the character with the most growth in the latter should be the main’s foil, or in other words a main supporting character. Thus: Amity. And see. There’s a bit of just literary analysis for you. I swear, this blog DOES have a point. And that point is to get me killed because Amity is the NEGATIVE example here. So, let’s go on a journey into what character development looks like, the steps to analyze it, and the over all... curve that happens with a character by the end of it. 1. THE FIRST AND SECOND STEPS So as these arcs have to have a starting point, we need to get into character introductions. There is SO MUCH to say about introducing characters but specifically for those with an arc in mind, the second introduction is almost as important as the first. Why? Well, the first introduction of a character is usually their most extreme, especially depending on the amount of time they have to introduce themselves. After all, the audience needs a quick snapshot of the person to gain an understanding of them unless the reality of them is meant to be a mystery. Part of their arc. I would argue simply revealing who a character actually is rather than the change they undergo is not a strict character arc but more about teasing out a full narrative over time, especially dependent on the narrative role of said mystery character. Put a pin in that for later. This point... Actually Amphibia more than Owl House, at least at first blush. This is for two reasons. The first is that Anne is the main character. We don’t need a drastic introduction to her and honestly, we don’t get one. We get enough of one, how she’ll protect someone in need but reject what she doesn’t like out of hand, be a bitch, be selfish, etc. like that. Anne is not a good person in the first episode but she isn’t a bad one either. Just less caring and more brusque than might be able to be enjoyed by many. There’s a good core there with her quickly growing friendship with Sprig though. Amity on the other hand has an INFAMOUS first step on the scene. It actually starts way more in line with how most of the show is by having her just be a bully. Like not even a special sort of bully. She’s queen bee, top student and she’s willing to be condescending to those weaker than her or failing, especially in her field of magic. It’s a good contrast to the main character’s motto of “We weirdos gotta stick together” and is a great introduction to a foil for that main character. It’s a shame it decides to not just double or triple down, it goes ALL IN. In her first episode’s introduction, where she probably gets comparable time to the time Anne gets in the first half of her episode (Amphibia episodes are split into two halves) she exhibits a brutalness that comes out unreasonably quickly that... Is fine. At first blush. She’s an unhinged, perfectionist, gifted student who will do anything to keep that position. Even murder. The second she loses her top student badge, she goes entirely off the rails for some pretty great animated moments and an enjoyable episode. But for a character with an arc in mind, this is where the second step comes into play. See, if the first step establishes who they are, the second step establishes what it truly is that they need to change and refines the purpose. Some of this happens in general but for a character who is meant to shift, it’s even more important. This is where Amphibia starts to shine. The second half of the first episode starts to imply that Anne’s selfishness isn’t entirely her own. It somewhat comes from an admittedly blunt approach to making it clear that her friendships at home weren’t healthy. They were incredibly conditional and that some of her selfishness comes from the selfishness of those she interacts with. When push comes to shove though, she chooses others before herself. Is it her fault they get in a bad place to begin with? Sure, but she does still go to fix it. It shows a glimpse into the better person Anne can be while staying true to what she was in the first step. Amity fumbles a lot more here. Yes, technically, she also tries to kill the main character in this one. Not so much of her own pushing though. She’s not the one to challenge the main character to a duel. That’s the main character’s fault. Otherwise, now she has a reason to be the normal bully she showed herself to be at the beginning of her first outing. She is crueler than she has to be but Luz can’t do magic, as far as she knows, humiliated her before and the event they’re both at is just a fun tour for Luz but a harsh reminder of her goals for Amity. To be the best and what that looks like. To not be happy about this human being here makes... logical sense. Worse yet, she doesn’t go too far in trying to prove herself this episode. When she cheats, it’s because her mentor slyly had her cheat without her knowing. She immediately is devastated by this, showing a want to be good on her own, not through tricks. Which is good, it shows a nobler heart in Amity, as does her giving Luz encouragement to keep up her studies when shown kindness. It’s good for a bully character who needs to learn to stop taking things so personally. It doesn’t line up with how extreme her first episode is. Even if we include that character introductions are meant to be more extreme, this was a few steps farther than was reasonable for the tone of show (which is saying a lot because this was during the more whimsical portion of the show) or for her character. She really does go from 3 to 15 instantly after all. Which is where the real warning of the second step problem comes into play: Without a DAMN good reason, your first step can come off looking like you wrote the character out of character. And hey, if you’re looking to make a character arc look impressive, look larger than it is, starting with a base that actually isn’t relevant to their normal behavior is a good way to do it. And unfortunately, as we’ll continue... We’ll see a lot of that out of Amity.

2. The Speed of Change, large and SMALL. So as the name implies, arcs need time to travel. A throw doesn’t have much of an arc if you throw the ball and it’s caught less than a second later and character arcs are much the same. If change comes too quickly, it can feel like there was no change. If it comes too slowly, it can be frustrating for the audience as they stop expecting improvement. Now neither here are lightning fast. I would need to be talking about Hunter from The Owl House to talk about an arc that is over and done in a blink of an eye and you’re just waiting for him to accept it. Neither are either perfect, as they both exemplify different approaches to how to do an arc and how to show it off well in this middle portion, as well as some of its stumbles. A quick mention though: This is also sometimes where a character starts their arc after some big moment FORCES them to realize that change is needed. A betrayal by those they thought were right as they showed themselves evil, a friend turning their back on them because their personalities no longer align (put a pin in it), etc. like that are all things that can jump start this process and have them start showing the changes in behavior you want here. Again, not Anne or Amity’s style, and it’s honestly a more common fantasy style (both shows have this theoretically in them too, though one comes too late in the character’s arc to hold much of the blame for it) than the slow burn that both Amity and Anne were supposed to be. So what does this look like for the two of them? Well, for Anne... It’s a lot of hijinks. She’s the main character of a comedy fantasy show. That’s her life. It’s also probably makes S1 frustrating for a lot of people because while she is making progress, it’s hard to always realize what is progress and what is a sticking character flaw of hers. Anne will have MANY times where she shirks responsibility but she only really needs one lesson in not judging others by their cover or her own agenda before being able to pass that onto Sprig in the second half of the season. And that’s where the brilliance of Anne in this section comes into play. She never once stops being Anne but you start seeing more and more her willingness to question why she’s doing something or her having enough self awareness now to pass that knowledge onto someone near her. These can easily be attributed, especially in the moment, to just what the writers needed for an episode. If it’s a Sprig focused episode, seeing as he is as much a main character as Anne, it makes sense that Anne might not screw up as much. Mind you, that’s a REALLY big might. Anne is the reason Sprig gets into trouble all the time in the first half after all because, well, she’s a 13 year old girl stuck in a different world. She wants to explore, wants to have adventures, etc. like that. She wants the hijinks and glory that her genre would commonly bequeath her with and usually needs to save herself or someone else from being eaten by a giant animal because of it. It makes it hard to appreciate in the moment... But when the lead up to the season finale comes and the frogs name her person of the year and all of her worst traits come out... The moment she questions why she was given this honor is when the method of the arc is shown. It’s a genuine slowburn. One that is true to HER. When the frogs say there are better people in town technically than her, you believe it. But the fact that she also ruined her own party to save them all show they aren’t wrong when they say she’s the one to have improved the most. And that improvement, that slow fade from someone who can’t care to someone who can and will care and accept anyone with a good heart, shows itself in all the small details. It’s great for a book report *gestures at the mutliple paragraphs here* but terrible for Twitter. SPEAKING OF-

Let’s get to Amity’s style. I won’t be going to her literal final parts of her arc like Anne because those parts aren’t necessary for this part of talking character arcs with Amity. Hers is a lot less big picture than that as she takes larger strides at a time than Anne did. You can tell there is an arc with her even by the time her second episode is over instead of needing to wait and see what the plan with her is. It’s done pretty well at first though and the cracks in the style aren’t going to show themselves as easily from an episode to episode basis. After all, the cracks in Anne’s style show the minute one of negative traits shows it still needs some smoothing out. If you don’t like one the traits Amity’s showing, well, by the end of the episode, the trait is gone. So what are her next few episodes? Well, her next literal appearance just solidifies that being a fairly stock bully is really her base except in saying in big, neon letters “AMITY HAS A GOOD HEART SOMEWHERE” because while Amity is mean that episode, we find out she used to be friends with one of the outcasts Luz has befriended and that it was her lack of magic at an early age that stopped them from being friends. It reinforces Amity’s focus on magic, grades, what one can do and that she is ruthless in these ambitions. It also makes the first appearance of hers maybe make more sense even though this section will show the problems in claiming those excuses. Put a pin it. In her next episode, she befriends Luz after telling Luz she wants nothing to do with her thanks to a shared interest and Luz coming to her rescue after a fuck up by Luz and Amity’s siblings. It’s a very endearing episode where... Amity doesn’t act like a bully, Like ever. She acts stand off-ish and a bit rude but at this point, she’s right when she points out Luz has humiliated her every time they’ve met (even the previous episode, Luz was ATTEMPTING TO HUMILIATE HER and just failed) so we bridge a gap VERY quickly in this burgeoning relationship. It cools, pun somewhat intended, next time they meet though. Amity is still being nice but they are ostensibly friends now so it makes sense. Honestly, this next episode is more about solidification and doing a bit more of Anne’s arc as she shows her capacity to worry about others. Hell, for how she acted before, you can already see strides because when Luz is at fault for stealing from Amity which leads to Amity’s siblings and Luz’s mentor almost being eaten (and in S2 Luz still struggles with acting brashly and in selfish/fantasy fueled ways so if you’re wondering why I’m not doing Luz, THAT’S WHY)... Amity locks Luz up. With her reasoning being not that Luz will fuck things up harder but that Luz will get hurt. It’s a level of compassion, especially with Amity’s base character in mind, that possibly NO ONE in the show thus far or since has exhibited. Unsurprisingly, this is where the next part of her arc comes into play. Her crush on Luz. And this is also the high point from which this style will fall to its doom. 3.5 The Importance of SMALL Things

I’m not going to go in too hard on Anne’s side of this. There is good here, it’s just hard to talk about, much like a lot of positive analysis is. The things I’m talking about though is going from rejecting bugs, a normal part of frog diets, to relishing them and enjoying them, or bare minimum not blinking at them. It’s a small thing but it speaks volumes about how she’s changing to be a better person and a more accepting one. Her increasing willingness to help instead of avoiding responsibility but also making sure to do it her own way. It’s hard to talk about because the changes are minute. There’s very few small things to note that should be a part of her character because it all is a part of the cohesive picture. For me to REALLY comment on it all, I would have had to rewatch the entire first season before writing this blog, preferably in the same week, which is again better for a book report or video essay than a Tumblr blog I’m doing randomly. And, unfortunately, of the two series I am just MUCH more familiar with The Owl House. Amity shows a lot more of the importance of this because the small things often will define either how believable the base of a character arc was or how much care is being put into it at all. What the actual goal of the arc is. So let’s get into the second half of Season 1 of The Owl House. Technically we already have but barely. Amity’s next appearance is mostly a cameo to show some likely gay panic which will be confirmed later as gay panic so her next real showing is in an episode mislabled “Understanding Willow”. It’s about Amity so it should have been named that because it REALLY is about Amity... And the idea that she was never a bad person. The large part of this episode is her and Willow theoretically coming to terms with having been friends in the past. This is done enjoyably with a trip into Willow’s mind and the pain inflicted by Amity... With a final revelation that the decision to not be friends with Willow wasn’t Amity’s. It was her parents. That she never wanted to stop being friends with Willow and BAM! They’re friends. In theory, the show will explore more of it but uh... Yeah, waiting an almost entire season to make a comment on it, when it’s not even the first or second time they’ve worked together since this, really feels like backfill of “Oh shit, the fandom is right that Willow should kind of still be pissed for almost a decade of bullying.” But we’re not here about Willow. We’re here about Amity. Who, in this episode, chose to take back her old friend regardless of what her parents though. No stress about it, that side of this problem will NEVER be brought back up and Amity will actually continue to think Willow is a much weaker witch than most despite seeing constant proof otherwise. All of the reasons in her base for no longer being friends with Willow are just ignored... Why? Well, if those base characteristics were a lie, it suddenly makes sense. And unlike the rest of Amity’s episodes, she gets a three pack in a row that is all about the lie that has been Amity’s arc. The next one is the reveal that Amity doesn’t want to just be friends, she wants to date Luz. Specifically, she’s afraid of asking Luz out on a date. Reminder: At this point, Luz still only has two glyphs to Amity’s knowledge (Luz gets her third spell this episode), probably misses plenty of class due to her mentor being a LITERAL CRIMINAL and now we have the additional information that Amity has strict parents who push her towards the future she claimed to desire for herself. This is a lot to be worried about. If they ever found out she liked Luz, they’d crack down harder on that relationship than her friendship with Willow. If a friendship with a weak witch is unacceptable, what is dating someone who can’t cast magic without glyphs? Who is socially an exile? It’s something to be terrified about. So when the big bad of the episode, a creature who manifests into your greatest fears, hits Amity... Why is it a facsimile of Luz that shows up? It shows up, reaches into Amity’s pocket and rips the letter that Amity never gave to Luz asking her to the dance in two. It’s powerful, it’s one of the best moments in the series... And why wasn’t it her mother? It doesn’t even have to be a big change. Literally could take no extra time and little extra animation to have it resemble her mother, or at least her mother’s silhouette as that’s all we had at the time for her design, and rip up the note. This isn’t a big ask unless you want NOTHING distracting from the fact that Amity wants to be Luz’s girlfriend. Which, for this episode is... Fine. It could be improved but it’s powerful and still one of my favorite episodes in the series. The fact that the next episode has her destroying all of her social connections EXCEPT THE ONES CONNECTED TO LUZ, the social connections that were DICTATED BY HER PARENTS, makes the previous episode harder to swallow. Especially when it also shows even more that Amity has always had a whimsical and caring side as she hurt her teammates back when she was CAPTAIN OF THE FANTASY RUGBY TEAM (AS THE FUCKING TOP STUDENT GIRL) and so quit and put that behind her with no comment on how her parents feel about it. Or feel about anything Amity is doing as someone literally calls her out for destroying her social life and Amity responds with “I think I just improved it.” And honestly? Any one of the three and I shrug. Maybe any of the two and I shrug. It’s a kids show and Amity is a supporting character. Yes, she’s coming ever closer to a main character even in this first season as time goes on, but some slip ups and some shrugs are to be expected. The fact that three episodes in a row entirely ignore any outside force besides “Luz is cute and I want to be with her” for why Amity is doing much of anything she’s doing, is bad. It’s especially bad because these are small things when it comes to all of this. Now *cracking his neck* let’s get to part 4.

4. Challenging the Arc

So the obvious poster boy for good character arcs I haven’t brought up is Zuko from Avatar. People have talked about him in every way conceivable for how amazing his arc his and for good reason. He goes through effectively multiple character arcs in each season of Avatar and somehow each are better than the last. The reason I bring him up now is that he stumbles, narratively, not analytically, once: When he betrays everyone and sides with his sister to get what he THINKS he has always wanted. The base of his character comes back in a very nasty way for a final hurrah that is ENTIRELY REASONABLE. And it’s in realizing the mistake he made that he finds renewed resolve and reason to be a better person. Anne has this. Amity doesn’t. For once, to explain this, I’ll actually be swapping the two and talking about Amity first as we get into S2 of Owl House and the first time her parents show up properly. In the episode, her parents get Luz and her friends expelled so as to get rid of any distractions Amity is experiencing. In the smaller category, we also find out that Amity’s grades slipping, literally stated, and this greatly upsetting her mother to the point where she is demanding effective repayment for the disappointment. It makes it incredibly clear how manipulative and cruel Amity’s mother is. And in an episode so important to her character, theoretically the one you would expect to set her season long goal of getting out from under her mom’s thumb and not letting her mom control her... She tells her mom to go fuck herself, show’s stronger regardless of letting her studies slide, all within an episode where she is a part of MAYBE a quarter of it at best because there’s so little time spent with her. It’s hard to call it a challenge or a call back to the past when she barely treats it as one. She claims she can’t do anything about her mom but the moment she has reason to suspect her mom has put Luz in danger, it’s time to break the rules and save the girl she has a crush on. In an isolated moment, it can be very satisfying, especially because it’s just good to see a child escape their abusive parent. From an arc perspective... Well, I claimed neither of these characters ever had something so flat as a fastball pitched a foot away but Amity does. Period. And the fact that the pressure here is also the pressure that supposedly formed the base of her character is INCREDIBLY DISAPPOINTING.

And telling. Anything that could actually get in the way of Lumity doesn’t matter. The fact that Amity had a character before she eventually gets with Luz feels almost accidental at this point because of how much is being bled dry, even before the show’s shortening would have affected any of its pacing, for the sake of this lesbian getting a girlfriend. Meanwhile, Anne’s ‘girlfriend’ is back baby! But girlfriend as in best friend! The same best friend who obviously, and explicitly in this episode, manipulated and hurt Anne through their friendship. Who constantly forced Anne to choose her over even her own family. For Sasha, Anne’s reality had to be about her. And... That has been true in the small and large ways. Her trying to force Polly to be more girly? Sasha was a fucking cheerleader back home. Her telling Sprig that friends don’t ask questions and just do as they’re told? Sasha literally will not hear another word from Anne when she doesn’t want to steal the music box that will transport her and her friends to Amphibia. This person is awful. Not pure evil, Amphibia is WAY too well written for Sasha to be a 6-’s cartoon villain like Amity’s mom is, but she is abusive and manipulative in similar ways. And when Sasha tells Anne to side with her despite it meaning the execution of the old frog who took her in, Anne hesitates. After all, this is Sasha. She doesn’t say no to Sasha. She doesn’t fight Sasha. She fights with Hop Pop, the old frog. She’s only known him for a few months while she’s known Sasha since they were little kids. Not only that but Sasha has a real plan and capability to get them home. She even has a better life than Anne does, just like back on Earth. For every reason Anne has been cruel, she has every right to agree to her friend. She even almost does it. Almost decides that the glitz and glamour that Sasha promises is worth a life. But come on. Every good narrative arc always ends with- 5. Payoff

The moment you get to see the character’s new form take shape and be put to use in a way that makes the pain they’ve caused before worth it. It’s when Sprig, the REAL friend that Anne has made, stands up to Sasha and berates Sasha for thinking Anne is so much less than her. Not when Anne is as incredible as she is. And so Anne takes a blade and fights her best friend. We’ll get back to it though. Because if that moment has you going “HELL YEAH!” GOOD! It should. It should be the moment where even without music, sound, ANYTHING other than just hearing that this happened with everything that came before, you should be losing your shit. A good arc, any arc, let alone a character arc, should be able to have this sort of moment. Where just conceptually, the idea and catharsis of it makes anything that happened before worth it. And for Amity... It’s what you’d expect. Though also not quite. I’m not going to be an ass about this and say that we do get ONE episode in Season 2 that does pay off her arc and also show what could have been had the writers cared more about the grander scheme of her life. And that is when Luz calls Amity her awesome girlfriend despite Amity failing Luz. Amity goes on this grand adventure for something that will help Luz get home (if you’re wondering if the division of their worlds has been brought up btw, as of Season 3 Luz has decided that she would have been willing to stick in the human world and give up on Amity while Amity has never brought up the possible problem) but in the end fails. Actually fails so hard as to get some of the resource into the villain’s hands and only by sheer luck did she get any of it back to Luz. But Luz doesn’t care. Luz calls her an awesome girlfriend and assures her that she’s just happy that Amity is safe. It is one of the few truly just good moments of Lumity after they get together and if Amity’s base character was more accurate, it would hold way more weight. And hey, if you accept her base character is mostly looking for love and a girlfriend, this is honestly an even bigger hell yeah than when the two got together and WAY better than when they eventually kiss, a moment I still get frustrated thinking about from a romantic arc’s perspective. That’s probably not helped that romance is literally my main genre. BUT let’s go back to friendship rather than love. Because there’s another side to the coin for Anne: Does she go too far? She beats Sasha in the duel they have after all. Puts a sword to her throat and everything. Now for her to actually finish it here would have been a GROSS break in character and also hurt the idea that she cared about the average person much more if she let her anger boil into a pure murder rage here. Her arc is about caring after all. Caring, acceptance and the ability to see more than the face value of those around her. We saw it first with her protecting her friends, despite knowing it’d upset Sasha, acceptance of the love around her by believing in her new found family instead of the cruel barbs that she always thought were true and then the ability to see more by being able to properly see through Sasha’s sweet veneer.

And somehow, in literally the last two minutes of the S1 finale, I have way more to talk about with the final part of a character arc in Amphibia... Than I do with half a season+ of The Owl House. 6. Paying It Forward

What’s more satisfying than seeing a character arc come to fruition and make for a badass moment? Letting the lessons learned by that character rub off onto others! Amity... I have literally nothing to say about for. She literally FAILED the time she tried to take Luz’s lessons and apply them to someone else and we’ve never seen payoff for that attempt. Otherwise, she hasn’t interacted enough with other characters, especially in a meaningful way, to help anyone. In fact, mostly she’s either been very weakly trying to bring back threads that needed to be followed up on way before now to feel relevant (and just better than they are) or continuing to be told that she has some of her shitty traits, she’s just more accidental with them like still denying Willow is a super strong witch despite everything Willow has literally ever done the entirety of the series. But Anne? Oh... Oh Anne. After she beats Sasha, she gets ready to leave with her found family and you get the impression that while she doesn’t hate Sasha, that she still wants good to come to Sasha, you’re not sure where they lie as friends and I know that that’s a thread that continues into S2 just through osmosis with the fandom. Well... That and because then the place they were fighting on explodes. That’s even hyperbole. Someone literally destroys the supports for the tower they were fighting on. It knocks Sasha to the edge of the tower and she begins to fall and without hesitation, Anne goes to save her. Then Anne’s found family joins her in trying to save Sasha but it’s clear it just won’t work.

All the while though, Anne is telling Sasha not to worry. That things will be okay despite the fact that they’re all literally about to fall to their dooms. Honestly, this moment more than the duel seems to be when everything Anne said before hits Sasha. Sasha realizes just what a terrible friend she’s been and tells Anne “You’re right. You probably are better off without me.”

And lets go. Now, of course, she doesn’t die but from EVERYTHING we’ve seen with Anne before now, the flashbacks to when they were together, how Sasha was WILLING TO KILL A MAN TO EXTEND HER GOALS, you get the feeling that if not for Anne’s growth, they all would have died there. That Sasha would have stayed stubborn about Anne needing to support her. But instead she shows how complex she’s capable of being, and the fact that she’s capable of growth too, because Anne literally extended a hand to her to a place where they could be happier together. As much as I love Anne standing up to Sasha, this is the part of the S1 finale of Amphibia that hits the hardest. I don’t even think it’s because I’m a Sashannarcy shipper. It’s just a supremely well written scene that takes all the weaknesses of S1 of Amphibia and turns them into strengths. Honestly, it makes me baffled that I still haven’t watched S2 when obviously it’s just SUCH A GOOD SHOW. And it did all of that in one season. Anyone who wants to say Amity couldn’t have been given a smoother curve, one that wasn’t lacking in cohesion, honesty, or anything like that, well... 7. The Pins

Honestly, the blog is mostly over but here are the followups now that you have a larger picture as to why they’re problems for all the pins I made before: The mystery character’s character arc: This is what I think Amity’s real character arc is. It’s not about growth, it’s revelation. You constantly learn more and more that all the characteristics that were shown at the beginning of her arc and that helped provide the base of her character were actually all lies. Her character is incredibly different, and this is in part actually from something I brought with the one facilitating her arc. Unlike Anne, who has good people treating her well and giving her reasons to believe that changing as a person would be a good thing, you have Luz CONSTANTLY lying to Amity, keeping secrets from her, fucking up Amity’s life and in general only having less than a handful of times where Luz is doing something positive for Amity that isn’t to make up for having made her life worse. It makes it hard to believe that Luz’s good nature rubbed off on Amity, especially with how insistent the show is that all the rough edges Amity had were purely from outside forces. That that’s not who she is. Which is... Accurate. A mystery character’s arc is different from a normal character’s arc because it’s much more about explaining the reasoning behind their actions rather than growing them into a new version of themselves. Commonly, by the end, the first version you meet is gone because they have no reason to be keeping secrets. This also fits for Amity as all the class, respect, knowledge etc. that defined her character to begin with is fucking gone. She is clumsy, she’s a complete mess who gets embarrassed easily, she has bad grades and she is EASILY not the strongest in the main cast, beat pretty handedly by someone who is even two years younger than her, if not by Luz herself. And not for any reason like giving up magic entirely being something that she thinks would make her happy. It just... I mean, it can be entertaining to watch to many but to me it’s become increasingly infuriating. And for it to have been fixed feels less like they needed 14 more episodes, like a full season 3 would have given them, but instead about at least three more seasons with the glacial pace that following up on any of Amity’s potential went at during S2. Personalities not aligning: Like I said, Sasha has a whole character arc! Maybe once I’ve watched the entirety of Amphibia I can do a follow up and talk about her sort of arc that starts with a wake up call. The excuses for Amity’s first appearance Any excuse about pressures from her family needed to be followed by her family ever being a factor to her. It has literally been a real thing on her mind once and it wasn’t about her mom hating her; It was about her having daddy issues. Because her dad is neglectful and too hands off. I really, really wish I was kidding.

So yeah! Those are my all together way too long thoughts on the subject that I hope were coherent enough to at least be entertaining. Let me know your thoughts, I always love new topics to ramble about that you can send me in my ask box and before I go I want to say that if you like Amity’s arc and what not: Good for you! Honestly, you’re probably a happier person than I am because I want so badly to still love Amity and The Owl House and if you still like them, none of this should make you stop doing so or make you think you’re a bad person, it’s just my ramblings and my insights. And I’m just a random dude on the internet with a bunch of jumbled thoughts. One of which is to wish you a wonderful night and farewell.

[acrossthewavesoftime]

Hornblower AND WHO, though? (Or is it Hornblower and what?)

The title is a bit of a place holder as I don't have a proper name for the story yet. The idea was developed together with the wonderful @nordleuchten, who was just as distraught over Bush's death in the novels as I.

But, see, they never recovered any body(-parts) that were identfiably Bush... The story is set in 1824. Hornblower, a national hero, is trying to convince himself that the domestic idyll of having a wife, a son and a vast estate is all a man needs, but secretly suffers from severe nostalgia for his old days at sea.

Then one day, a curious letter arrives...:

Admiral Hornblower Smallbridge, Kent Grande-Bretagne.

My Dear Sir,

It is with some reservation I send to you this missive, for we have not been introduced to another, nor were we ever acquainted in another way, yet I am compelled to write to you following an incident in Le Havre—: at the harbour, I was approached by a sailor, a one-legged fellow who spoke French with an accent. At first, I was certain he would ask me for money, but he did not, though he appeared to be in some state of destitution and quite drunk: “Sir”, he pled with me, “Sir: from your dress, I can tell you are a man of import in this country, and thus beg your aid: I am but a poor sailor, and cannot write, and neither can I go home for the lack of funds that will not even allow me to send a letter: I have four poor sisters at home, and an ailing mother: will you please write to the good Admiral Hornblower of his Britannic Majesty’s Navy for me, with whom I served? He shall remember his old shipmate, and surely aid me, once he knows of my situation. He resides at Smallbridge in Kent, and shall no doubt accept the word of a gentleman such as you are.” I, moved by his speech and the destitution of the man, and no doubt his poor siblings and mother, asked him which name I was to give, but he was gone within an instant, only thanking me greatly, before disappearing from view amongst the alleyways.  

I have long thought on it, not wishing to accost a stranger with what might be but a mere trifle; yet those blue eyes seemed to haunt me until I put my pen to paper, and wrote this letter to you.

I am, etc. Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette.

Thinking instantly that the man described can only be Bush (but how did he end up in this situation? He's supposed to be dead after all), Hornblower travels to Le Havre, who indeed finds Bush alive, and rather well; it appears that Bush had been rescued and returned to England by fishermen. Since at the time his demise had already been widely reported, Bush became an asset for the government as a spy, a position Bush only took on because the increased pay offered to him as compared to the Navy meant he could more efficiently care for his mother and sisters.

Bush admits to having tried to lure Hornblower over to France via La Fayette because he needs his help: the British government has received news that several British individuals are planning on kidnapping the Marquis on his way to his tour of the US as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of American independence.

The people behind the kidnapping are Irish nationalists who intend to stir up trouble between America and Britain by kidnapping La Fayette using a ship sailing under the British flag, their idea being that perhaps Irish nationalism will be received with greater political interest, credence and perhaps even support (especially from France; they have not forgotten 1798 yet) abroad if there is a rift between the US and UK. They also plan on maybe using La Fayette as a hostage to negotiate arms deliveries.

The head of the group of people Bush and Hornblower are up against is Lucy Anne FitzGerald, historically staunchly true to her brother's, the famed Lord Edward FitzGerald's, (political) legacy, who, rather inconveniently for Bush and Hornblower, was married to the Royal Navy captain Thomas Foley, so the threat is sort-of coming from within.

They are joined on their mission by Hornblower's son Richard, who has followed his famous, but largely absent, father as a stowaway.

The people Hornblower perceives as antagonists are not meant to be portrayed in a negative way, on the contrary; Hornblower and Bush are set up against people with good intentions and reasons Hornblower might, in other circumstances even understand or even sympathise with to a certain extent.

I always found that Hornblower's antagonists are a tad shallow, from Barry McCool to the infamous "Wolfe" of the TV series, I thought the topic of 1798, or the fight for Irish independence could be dealt with with much greater nuance.

And, I think it would be interesting to set the oh-so-moral and correct Hornblower up against (gasp!) a lady.

While I have the faint outlinings of an ending in mind, I haven't fully planned it yet; the idea is however that there isn't a clear triumph or victory for one or the other side; the journey is what matters, a journey on which the newly resurrected friendship of Bush and Hornblower is put to the test, and Hornblower and his son grow closer over the mutual adventure.

Thank you for the ask! :)

[realcatalina]

Margaret of York wears a B pendant on her veil. Could Anne Boleyn have inherited it and be the famous pendant of her portraits?

I doubt very much it is same pendant. Jewelry based upon initials was popular in 15th and 16th century for quite a long while, so multiple people whose title or name started with letter B could have similiar looking pendants, brooches, etc.

But tbh i don't know what happened with Margaret of York's jewelry after she died. ...if something of hers was returned to England, or if it all stayed in Netherlands/Burgundy.

It's also difficult to guess size of this B pendant, because Margaret of York was reportedly around 6 feet tall. Very tall for woman even nowadays. So on smaller woman, that pendant would look bigger.

So...I don't think it likely, but I can't rule it out, especially given we have no surviving confirmed original of Anne Boleyn thus no original depiction of that pendant either. Either way, even if it was same pendant it'd have to be altered...because Anne's has 3 pearls not just one.

[ribbonscene]

ㅤ️ㅤ️ㅤ️ㅤ️ㅤ️ㅤ️ anne and her tales 𓆩♡𓆪 𝅄 ⋆

ᅠㅤ️act i : who is anne?

ㅤ️welcome, lovelings. hereby you are entering anne’s fairytale. now... you may wonder, who is anne and what do you need to know about her? well, you have taken a great start here. ♡

ㅤ️anneliese claire is an alter-ego created by ralynsha clairanne, a normal corporate worker who spent most of her time crushing herself against life and the problems within while half of her mind wandering around what she called “beyond the universe”. unlike ralyn, anne is a free-spirited ego who isn’t afraid to speak to her truth. and like a little kid, just as pure and as curious about the world, anne finds beauty in the mundane; spending her days writing about her layered feelings, to let out what ralyn can’t due to her principals.

ᅠmeanwhile, most people have a back-to-back different alter-ego, ralyn and anne got each other’s back like a figure and its shadow. what ralyn couldn’t say, anne would. and what anne couldn’t do, ralyn will pursue.

ㅤ️both ralyn/anne often describe themselves as an orange cat, having infp-t as their mbti, and a proud libran all the way. she preferred being addressed using feminine pronouns, and in case you are bewildered with all this new information, you may address the human form with both names {let’s just say it’s the same person, different name}. :]<3

ᅠㅤ️act ii : what intrigues anne?

ଙ♡ generals : anne/ralyn likes anything pink, sanrio, and positivity contents. she believes in manifestations and the power of mindset; universe, and everything in between. she has always been a one-true worshipper of makeup, skin and body care, food, and perfumery. she indulges in fiction books a lot, as it helps her to write better. and one of her quirky qualities is that she is always curious. be it you started to talk about science, which she isn’t fond of, she will spend her times to search around for answers so she could have a conversation with anyone. she loves strawberry, green tea, and mochi a lot {you would find her talks about these three things a lot}. she loves learning new things as she treasures what’s already there.

ଙ♡ music : she is fond of k-pop music since her early years of living {nowadays her lenses are focused on enhypen, seventeen, theboyz, riize, ive, newjeans, le sserafim, aespa, csr, itzy, and stayc}. besides those, she is an avid listener of taylor swift, niki, mitski, beabadoobe, olivia rodrigo, melanie martinez, laufey, dept, hivi!, bruno major, nadin amizah, gracie abrams, and so much more musicians! ♥︎ her life rotates around music and always will, and listing all her favorite musicians will be a long-life job she couldn’t finish.

ଙ♡ movies and series : during her worst days, she found reading books overwhelming since the letters were running around her head; thus, cinema helped her recover her feelings on those times. two of her favorite genres is romcom and child flick; as she could watch movies with those genre forever. before trilogy, 13 going on 30, 10 things i hate about you, mean girls, wild child, legally blonde, la la land, the devil wears prada, you are the apple of my eye are some of her favorite movies to watch. while modern family, brooklyn nine-nine, young sheldon, superstore, anne with an e, reply 1988, extraordinary attorney woo were some of her favorite tv series. she likes cartoons {especially anne} and disney is the one who accompanied her growing up. besides that, she loves the baby boss series and studio ghibli productions! well... the list is taking too long, isn’t it? shall we stop now?

ᅠㅤ️act iii : where is anne?

ㅤ️you are reaching the last’s part of anne/ralyn’s mega-bank {phew, finally...}! now that you are here and before you find out about where you could directly speak to both anne and ralyn, i think it’s best for you to know that the place is her safe place; so if it’s uncomfortable for you to stay around with all her stuff going around, please always know that you are allowed to skim her presence from your life. and she would prefer new friends whom she could talk to; so if you aren’t up for that also... please skip this message, kindly. c:

ᅠㅤ️✧ㅤ️anne’s main-residential

ㅤ️ㅤ️✧ㅤ️ask anne anything!

ㅤ️ㅤ️✧ㅤ️hot-or-cold tea sesh with anne

ㅤ️ㅤ️✧ㅤ️anne and her ancient tales.

and that is that, anne and ralyn hope you enjoy your short stay here. and she is looking forward to see you somewhere above. see you on the other side! 🤍