#unromantic and insincere

[dollfat]

giving into the [outlander] peer pressure and deciding opal moved to the city after leaving the wilderness. probably around age 13.

her and her mom took whatever shitty jobs they could, usually physically demanding and not always legal. neither were especially good at socializing and opal was overwhelmed by all the people and noise. she still thinks of the Outlands as her home.

[retiquotidianbliss]

why i liked tae eul’s confession scene (+ the drama’s problem and romantic relationship between tae eul and lee gon) | the king: eternal monarch ep.8

well, it didn’t receive the most positive acclaim... 

I will start this note by getting slightly off topic. The King: Eternal Monarch is this kind of drama where you need to rewatch every single episode at least once to fully enjoy it and understand it. Connecting the dots drawn by the writer and director, analysing everything and creating/reading theories are probably my biggest hobbies, thus The King has become my current obsession. 

Moving on to the issue, the confession scene was faintly off for me while watching it for the first time. Little rewatch session the day after has helped me realize why. I find the plot of The King really thick and quite generous; even if you know what’s going on, frankly saying you do not know what’s going on... There’re loads of stimulants. The want to know what will happen next makes me inattentive and I am missing a lot of details. I am sure it’s not only my problem, though. Also, I noticed it is most likely why a lot of people find the whole story messy, while (imo) it’s not. Maybe I am a little bit too Kim Eun Sook biased, but in my view her story-building is logical and well-organized. At the end, nothing is left. And subjectively, that elaborate plot is one of the drama’s biggest problems. It’s loaded and you always, always need to pay attention. I read this opinion not a long ago: “it’s not the creator’s business that someone isn’t catching up” and I must say this is also my conclusion. Furthermore, the story might be just too big and “fatty” to convey it as a sixteen episodes television drama, but it’s none of your or my concern. That’s why I started this post with an intro like that. Details are essential here.

Let’s get to the main topic. As I wrote previously, seeing this scene for the first time left me with mixed feelings, even when I had understood the character before. Rewatching throw some light on it and helped me in getting the (what I think is) overall message. You see, Tae Eul is slightly different than the other heroines we are used to see. Her and Lee Gon’s roles are reversed. Further, she’s a person who stands on the ground very stably. I deduce that her personality traits are interrelated to her job and Taekwondo skills. All of that lead to her “being a flat earther”. In order to believe, her eyesight comes first. People are confused because of her inconsistent behaviour towards Lee Gon and that’s a completely different subject, or should I say, a theory? The fate and their story might have been repeating, but I won’t continue this thought here as it’s not a thesis of mine and I don’t want to get more off topic. Having this in mind and watching her expressions makes me believe in her feelings. Kim Go Eun does great job here. Everything is written all over her face. The scene with confession is predated by Lee Gon’s call. He hadn’t been serious at all, but she got nervous/scared/uncertain and decided to meet him. And when he finally came (in slow-mo, to add), she probably found this moment crucial. Despite knowing how difficult situation she’s facing, she still stood stably on the ground. She took matters into her own hands as much as she could. Tae Eul tried to be concrete and cool. She didn’t beat around the bush and asked Lee Gon about what was on her mind. The answers she received were necessary to make her sure she has a good perception of what’s going on in her life and to take a chance. That was eye-opening for her. At that time and in future, when she’s saying this:

❝ It took me a long time to realize this. When it’s fate, there are no coincidences. Your fate is determined by the choices you make, but there are times when your fate chooses you. Things that are bound to happen are taking place even at this moment. I was struck with a sad premonition that this will be short-lived, but I decided to love my fate that chose me.❞

I believe that she has a great intuition since the beginning.

Tae Eul started to believe in Lee Gon and the signs that had chosen her. In their relationship, there’s no room for being insincere to themselves and each other, there’s no time to waste. The little something they have may end in a moment, with no return. Their tomorrow seems to be nearly impossible. Everything had to be rushed, for the sake of future. The decision to love her fate (i.e. Lee Gon) was for the sake of future, to not regret anything. Tae Eul is a realist. That was her destiny and she couldn’t ignore that. 

Coming back to the overall process of the scene. In between the monologue (which is Tae Eul’s perspective and comes from future) she admitted that they had skipped too many things, necessary when developing a relationship naturally. A lot of viewers have been complaining about bad writing because of the stepped-up and “unromantic” climate of this part. It’s not a bad writing, per se. Characters know about that hastiness too. We, as a watchers, are used to objectively slow development of the romantic plot in dramas. The pair usually has to overcome a lot of obstacles in their relationships. The issue is mostly in their personalities and behaviour. Protagonists tend to create problems by themselves. An individual has to cope with his or her own mind or surroundings in order to be with the other half. They become happy (or not) at the end of the drama and that’s it. Is it often believable? It depends. Of course, there are a lot of exceptions and I’m sorry for generalizing. All of you probably know that ordinary life might be unappealing at times. It made me watch dramas and for sure I’m not alone. Why am I saying all of that? Lee Gon and Tae Eul have no luxury to be ordinary or slow. Ordinariness may be an enemy of every fresh romantic relationship, but in their case… It’s a real release. The moment chosen by Tae Eul was just suitable to them. Of course, she’s not a romantic and we all know that. Yet, her realizing she wants to  express her feelings by word, acting like she’s completely cool and unshakable by confessing her love while holding tears was so raw and moving for me. Lee Gon was tender too. They don’t need to legitimate their affection by kissing in the surrounding of cherry blossoms in order to make me believe in them. I love how sincere they are with each other from the very beginning, how they try to just make it work with good partnership, as well as how subtle and mature they are. For me, they’re this kind of couple who might go through a real shit together and still grow even stronger. They’re a team from the start. 

I am sure we will receive an explanation to things we don’t understand yet. This scene is one of them. Everything will be justified, in future or past... We are only in a half-way of the story. 

It might have been a silence before lightning.

[michelles-garden-of-evil]

Episode 1 Review, Part II: Jacques’ Vintage 1630s Wedding Party

I meant to post this on Halloween, but this post took much longer than expected and I was too tired from work yesterday to write. So happy belated Halloween to anyone who is reading this and I hope that you find it interesting.

In my review of Episode 1, I wrote that I wanted to analyze the flashback from the episode in a separate post “because, despite being only a minute and a half long, there is a lot to unpack and I want to critique the costumes in addition to analyzing the content.” I am publishing this a little later than I originally intended (as the first part of this review took longer than I expected to write), but I don’t think that anyone minds.

Unlike the more famous Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, which ran extended flashback arcs that lasted months, the flashbacks on Strange Paradise all lasted only a scene each and were infrequent. Maljardin had only three (although Ian Martin had planned at least one more (spoilers)), and the first half of Desmond Hall had none. Desmond Hall Part II had a lot, but none of them were costumed if the screencap slideshows I’ve seen from them are any indication. (I haven’t seen any episodes from 131 onward yet save some short clips, because I don’t currently have access to them. I have, however, read the synopses of 131 through 160 on this website and 161 through 195 on this old Yahoo! Group and looked at all the screencaps I could find, so I’m at least familiar with what happens and what the characters look like in the final arc.)

So let’s look at the first flashback, shall we?

Flashback

The flashback opens at a ball on Maljardin at some point in the late 1680s, with Jacques drinking from a huge red goblet while cheesy fake harpsichord music plays in the background. “Zounds, mon cher Jacques des Mondes,” a man in a beard and very obvious wig teases, “you are a poor chevalier! You marry a young beauty like this, but stand off in a corner drinking by yourself. That’s damned unchivalrous!” (I was about to write, “He might have said ‘monsieur‘ and probably meant to, but the guy’s French pronunciation is so bad that he honestly could have said either one.” However, I just pulled up the script to this scene* and discovered that he does indeed say “mon cher.” So I was right the first time.)

Madame Huaco des Mondes and Bad Wig Guy.

“And unromantic,” Madame des Mondes (Patricia Collins) adds, fluttering the feather fan she is holding despite Jacques obviously not paying attention to her. According to Episode 6, her first name is Huaco and the original draft of the script that I linked to in the last paragraph indicates that she “might be an Inca princess.” (The first two Paperback Library novels confirm this. while the third mistakenly calls her an Aztec princess.) Presumably, this means that she is of Inca royal blood and would have been a princess had the Spanish not defeated the Inca Empire in 1572, more than a century earlier. Or, alternatively, it could mean that Chevalier of Worlds Jacques traveled back in time to marry her, perhaps using the des Mondes family’s magical clock that is mentioned in a later episode.** There is also the possibility of a critical research failure on the writer’s part, but I love this show in spite of all its glaring flaws and so I want to try to justify this blatant anachronism.

Jacques--who is still clearly uninterested--approaches her and kisses her hand. “You do me wrong, my pigeon,” he says, comparing her to the likes of Speckled Jim. “To question your husband’s devotion?”

The newlyweds. Huaco looks really pretty in this shot, and Jacques is dashing as always.

“How could I not, when my eyes see your eyes on every woman in the room?” I’m not sure who talks like this. Presumably it sounds more natural in Huaco’s mother tongue. Either way, this is the first indication that Jacques is a womanizer.

“To compare, my dove,” he responds insincerely. “Your loveliness. So far above theirs.”

“Is it then my turn to bed?” she asks, grinning widely in a questionable acting decision that pushes this flashback to David Wells levels of so-bad-it’s-goodness. How many women has he bedded already on what is presumably their wedding night? Or before, to her knowledge?

Jacques, however, has other ideas: “First, let me show you the cliff heights at sunset,” he says, leading her outside. “And then my undying love.” This is followed by Bad Wig Guy laughing about the bed being in the other direction (when Jacques clearly said that he was going to show her the cliffs first), then the close-up of his smouldering face from the last entry, which seems to imply that he at least was contemplating pushing her from the cliff. I, however, doubt that he pushed her that day, considering that Bad Wig Guy’s dialogue implies that he just got married and that this is his wedding ball, and, by the time of the next flashback, Huaco (who is still alive then) has given birth to Jacques’ heir.

Costumes

Ever since I watched this show for the first time, I have wanted to take the flashbacks from Episodes 1, 6, and 20 and give them the Frock Flicks treatment. I’ve even thought about requesting a real Frock Flicks review of the flashbacks, but I fear that they’d judge the show too harshly, especially given the complete absence of the late 17th-century full-bottomed wigs they love so much. I, on the other hand, find full-bottomed wigs ugly, so I don’t mind their absence. In fact, I don’t really mind the absence of anything even remotely resembling what a French nobleman like Jacques Eloi des Mondes would have actually worn in the 1680s, because I’m not fond of most men’s fashions from the Louis XIV period.*** (If you are fond of them, good for you! There’s nothing wrong with liking periwigs or anything else that was fashionable in the Louis XIV era; they’re just not my taste. I prefer men’s styles with no/more naturalistic wigs and a broad-shouldered/narrow-waisted silhouette.) Nevertheless, I shall try to review the costumes as objectively as possible--and I shall try to keep it brief, because the amount of time I have already spent writing about Episode 1 alone has gotten me seriously questioning my life choices.

In late 17th-century France, fashionable dress for men consisted of a long coat called the justaucorps which reached to around knee length, a vest of equal length underneath, silk stockings, a lace cravat tied at the throat (sometimes with a ribbon to hold it in place), and an enormous long, curled periwig which, from 1675 until the 1690s, increasingly featured curls piled high on the crown of the head. Judging by this series of engravings of Louis XIV, who set the fashions of the era, noblemen’s justaucorps cuffs were often huge with voluminous shirt sleeves underneath. If you want more images of real 1680s men’s fashion, see this gallery on Kipar.org or this category and its subcategories on Wikimedia Commons.

Obviously, this style bears little resemblance to the clothes that Jacques and Bad Wig Guy wear, which are clearly patterned after styles from their grandparents’ generation. They most closely resemble the clothing popular in France in the 1630s, particularly post-1633 when Cardinal Richelieu passed an edict outlawing excessive decoration. (Source: Tom Tierney, Jacobean and Early Bourbon Fashions, p. 31.) Compare their outfits to that of Henri II de Guise (the grandson of that Duc de Guise) or this unnamed courtier. Obviously, there are some differences, most notably the higher waistline and the sleeve openings on Jacques’ doublet being on the outside of the sleeves instead of the inner seams like they are in every painting I’ve seen from this era. Jacques also has a massive baldric (the belt over his shoulder, which noblemen of the era used to hold their swords) compared to the men in the period images linked to above. But the aesthetic overall is very 1630s-esque, and it may be that Jacques and his friends are into 1630s vintage. ;)

From Episode 20, carefully cropped to avoid spoilers. Jacques’ baldric is much wider and his waistline a few inches lower than that of Henri II de Guise or the courtier in the Bosse engraving. For some reason, he wears a baldric but not a sword, which is weird.

As for their hairstyles, they are not historically accurate. Jacques’ hairstyle is just a messier version of Jean Paul’s 1960s combover and not 17th century at all. Bad Wig Guy’s bad wig is about the right length for the 1620s (see here and here), but not curly enough. It goes without saying that neither one resembles a late 17th century periwig in the least. (Thank the Great Serpent! *makes wavy hand motions in air*)  Bad Wig Guy’s beard is a very early 17th century style that I associate with King Henri IV of France, who died in 1610. It is also very much not the aesthetic of the Louis XIV period, when most men either shaved or wore a small mustache.

The best screencap I could get of Huaco’s dress.

Huaco’s outfit also bears little resemblance to 1680s French women’s dresses. In that period, fashionable French noblewomen wore dresses called manteaux that were cut in one piece (as opposed to as a separate bodice and skirt) over petticoats and conical corsets designed to push up their breasts. Necklines were low-cut and did not have collars, in contrast to styles in the first half of the century. (Source) In the late 1670s, Louis XIV’s mistress the Duchesse de Fontanges invented the fontange, a style that consisted of curls piled on top of the forehead and topped with a distinctive ruffled headdress. Here is a good engraving showing the style. See also this gallery on Kipar.org and this one on WIkimedia Commons.

The most noticeable differences between Huaco’s dress and the actual fashions of 1689 are (1) the lace collar and (2) the separate bodice and skirt, with tabs on the bodice. Both of these are more characteristic of English styles from earlier in the century, particularly circa 1630-1640. Compare the screencap of her dress above to this 1632 painting of Queen Henrietta Maria of England and her daughter Mary’s dress in this 1640 portrait (no tabs, but otherwise very similar). Also, I don’t think that she is wearing a 17th-century-style corset underneath, because her torso is not a rigid conical shape and her breasts are in their natural position. So, in short, more vintage 1630s for Madame des Mondes.

Her hairstyle is...fascinating, to say the least. It appears to consist of a bouffant decorated with large faux pearls and white ribbons and/or strings of more faux pearls, with tight curls around her face, pigtails resting on her shoulders and some loose hair hanging from the back of the bouffant. The decoration may have been inspired by images of early fontange hairstyles like the one from 1682-83 in the center of the first row on this page, but it does not resemble the more common fontange look. While there are some examples of beehive-like hairstyles in 17th century paintings with a similar shape (take Anne of Denmark for example, or the Spanish lady in this Velázquez painting), they are from much earlier in the century and don’t involve pigtails. Her makeup is definitely 1960s and not even close to any authentic 17th-century European looks, which rarely used noticeable eye makeup.

The best view that I could get of her hairstyle.

I think that Huaco’s bouffant may have been intended to imitate a head shape created by artificial cranial deformation, which the Incas practiced at least until the Spanish outlawed the practice in 1585. (More evidence, perhaps, for my “Jacques traveled back in time to marry Huaco” theory?) Alternatively, she could just have a bouffant because the pilot was filmed in the 1960s and TV shows and movies back then tended to put bouffants on characters in inappropriate historical periods. But I like my theory better, so I’m sticking with it.

In conclusion, the costumes in the flashback are a loose hodgepodge of styles from the early to mid-17th century, with some elements that are not from the period such as Jacques’ and Huaco’s hairstyles and Huaco’s makeup. I’m not certain whether the costume designer knew or cared that the styles weren’t even remotely accurate to the 1680s. Even so, I am only slightly ashamed to admit that I prefer this loose adaptation of 1630s men’s fashion to the styles that Jacques would more likely have actually worn were he a real person in 1689.

With this post, I am done writing about Episode 1, save perhaps to post more screencaps. My post about Episode 2 should be up sometime next week.

Notes

* This link is part of a series of webpages comparing the original draft of the pilot script to the final screenplay for Episode 1. Bryan Gruszka, the author of StrangeParadise.net, has some interesting commentary about it.

** Episode 60, to be exact (which was written by Cornelius Crane). Why the writers never did anything with the magical clock idea is beyond me.

***Now I feel like a hypocrite for making fun of the men’s “Elizabethan” costumes on A Discovery of Witches on my other blog for the lack of ruffs and trunk hose, when I have less of a problem with the historically inaccurate costuming on Strange Paradise. (Still, there is a huge difference between a modern high-budget drama based on novels written by a professional historian and a low-budget soap from the 1960s hastily thrown together to compete with Dark Shadows. One expects historical accuracy from the former but not the latter.) While Colin Fox probably would have still looked cute in a full-bottomed wig and 1680s justaucorps, I prefer his vintage 1630s(-esque) outfit.

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