acaitstuff:

iamanathemadevice:

myhamsterisademon:

iamanathemadevice:

I’m bored with people trying to woobify Milady.

If you really want to make a villain sympathetic, try giving Rochefort the same benefit of the doubt as her:

- sad story of family who lost position and wealth, forcing him to work for evil man as a spy
- shunned by the other kids for being ‘creepy’ just because he was
- tortured for years in Spain
- sustained by love of a good woman
- looks good in posh clothes
- smarter than his boss but is stifled by nepotistic hereditary system
- Unfairly discriminated against by higher ranking noble (Athos) which is totally classist of him
- socially awkward
- suffered dreadful domestic violence when his girlfriend stabbed him in the eye (more men suffer violence than women, did you know that?)
- another girl made fun of his tragic eye injury (much ableism)

Come on, give the poor man a break! He never had a chance to be good! Where’s the Rochefort Defence League to tell us how unfairly he was treated by the Musketeers? And how he was just following orders those times he killed the councillors and the ambassadors? How much did Constance deserve those two times he tried to execute her? And Aramis was so shagging the Queen and Rochefort’s girlfriend, so there!

I’m waiting….

So I’ve been reading your posts for a while and all AND I’M ASKING MYSELF THIS QUESTION

Do you hate Milady?

(I’m not trying to argue or anything I mean you’re entitled to your opinion and I agree with many of your points, but seriously, do you hate Milady?)

@myhamsterisademon I do NOT hate Milady. I do not adore her and think she is the woobiest wooby that ever woobied, but she’s an interesting character (played by an excellent actress whom I do adore) whose interactions with lots of other characters, not just Athos, bears a lot more exploration. (I was chatting with @acaitstuff last night about this in fact and the wretched girl gave me yet another plot bunny to do with her!) I’ve written a number stories with her in it, even one where she is quite central.

I sin however, in the eyes of the Milady Defence League, because I don’t make excuses for every one of her crimes, and I certainly don’t think she’s the way she is primarily because of Athos. Athos did not turn her evil.

Some of her fans get on my wick because they claim Athos is the sole reason she is a lying, thieving murderer, and twist themselves up in knots to make this argument to the point where they literally - as I commented on above - try and paint Athos as equivalent to the soldiers who whipped and raped Juliette, and drove the other women of Éparcy from their homes, because he is frantic with fear over what Milady might have done to Sylvie. Choking Milady is horrible, but it’s a horrible situation and more to the point, it’s completely out of character for Athos. That’s why it’s shocking!

When you try and claim Athos is an adulterer because he’s moved on from his wife who is not only legally dead, but who has remarried at least once since then, then you need to examine your life choices, seriously.

I do not ‘hate’ fictional characters. I like exploring the motivations behind their actions. Milady is fairly one-dimensional in the book. She is exceptional because she is a female villain who is just bad, she might even be one of the first purely villainous woman in modern fiction. The TV-series (being modern) tried to give her more layers, she was wronged by Athos and wanted revenge. She cares for him still, a small aside when she thinks he is dead (1.10) is proof of this. She even seemed on the route to redemption at the end of season 2. Her redemption is  linked to getting Athos back though, it was never about getting redemption for her own deeds imho. She is a bad girl, with a lot of talent, some emotional connections (to Athos) but like an alcoholic she relapses when he doesn’t show up at the crossroads. Could her life have been different is she e.g. had worked for Treville instead of the cardinal? We will never know. Although Maimie missed season 3 for a very happy reason I regret not knowing fully what the writers had initially planned for her. They talked about her attaining wealth and loosing it again. I think in the end I would have preferred  her to have been working in England for Treville or just a mention that she had done well there and was done with her old life. She would have been off screen but that ending would have satisified me more than the one she got on screen.

“I do not ‘hate’ fictional characters“

Is it okay, @acaitstuff if I hate Rochefort though? :)

iamanathemadevice:

I’m bored with people trying to woobify Milady.

If you really want to make a villain sympathetic, try giving Rochefort the same benefit of the doubt as her:

- sad story of family who lost position and wealth, forcing him to work for evil man as a spy
- shunned by the other kids for being ‘creepy’ just because he was
- tortured for years in Spain
- sustained by love of a good woman
- looks good in posh clothes
- smarter than his boss but is stifled by nepotistic hereditary system
- Unfairly discriminated against by higher ranking noble (Athos) which is totally classist of him
- socially awkward
- suffered dreadful domestic violence when his girlfriend stabbed him in the eye (more men suffer violence than women, did you know that?)
- another girl made fun of his tragic eye injury (much ableism)

Come on, give the poor man a break! He never had a chance to be good! Where’s the Rochefort Defence League to tell us how unfairly he was treated by the Musketeers? And how he was just following orders those times he killed the councillors and the ambassadors? How much did Constance deserve those two times he tried to execute her? And Aramis was so shagging the Queen and Rochefort’s girlfriend, so there!

I’m waiting….

@tartapplesauce wrote a great comment to this post:

You say this in jest but there’s a real point here. Rochefort was wasted as a villain by giving him the creepy obsession with Anne which turned him from “intelligent and capable schemer running rings round the Musketeers to get the king’s ear and trust” to “weird nutjob”. Yes he’s a crazy stalker but when he was telling Anne about how during the years of torture he held on by thinking of her, her response is not - at least to me - a great feminist take-down.

It’s yet more of the royals’ cluelessness and exploitation of others; Louis shows it the most but Anne does it here, too. Rochefort was important enough to be entrusted with bringing the Infanta to France and educating her in how the French court worked; Anne talks of him at the start as if he’s a friend; he is captured by the Spanish - and he’s a noble himself, not a common soldier, but they make no effort to find out if he’s alive or dead.

it’s a bad omen for Constance as Anne’s friend if this is how she treats her friends! and no wonder she complains she has no friends in court - Rochefort was her friend, he disappears fighting for the king, and he’s immediately forgotten about and never thought of again. who would be her friend when they see how she treats friends?

This is all sort of true. I’m not going to make excuses for the royal treatment of courtiers generally - Louis and Anne both reward loyalty very badly at times (Louis is an absolute shit to Athos, D’Artagnan and Treville, and Anne is the same at least in “An ordinary man”). 

“they make no effort to find out if he’s alive or dead“

We literally don’t know if they did or they did not. He worked for the Cardinal. One assumes he kept track of his little tools. One also assumes Rochefort was put into play by the Spanish only because Richelieu died and they could insert him into the court again without the cardinal pointing out that Rochefort was unreliable and bonkers.

“her response is not - at least to me - a great feminist take-down.“

Historical dates go out the window with the show, but Anne was no more than fourteen when she came to France. In the show, she would be 26 or so when Rochefort returns (and in reality, should be 38 as Louis XIV was born when she was 37). Teenagers can be fairly selfish little shits at the best of times, and a woman in a new court, surrounded by lots of people, all eager to be her new best friend, might be fond of Rochefort without particularly distinguishing him from all the other people serving her needs. Nothing in Anne’s remarks indicated Rochefort was a particularly intimate friend - nor would he have been allowed to be, of course. 

That she didn’t think of him at all in five years wouldn’t surprise me at all, but you have to also consider when, exactly, he made this declaration - her lover is in prison, condemned to die. Her intimate companion was about to be executed and only saved at the bring of death by the musketeers. Her personal physician has been executed. All of this is Rochefort’s doing. He has also taken her child from her, and is now trying to force her to become his mistress (or something) by claiming he can help her escape execution as a traitor.

Do you really think, under those circumstances, we can take her declaration “In all that time… I did not think of you once” to be literally true? Or is it a proud, frightened woman using the only weapon and shield she had left - her contempt - to keep this evil, dangerous man away from her? I see it as incredibly brave - how much easier to pretend to give in to Rochefort, pretend she adored him, and use him to escape? But no, she will not lie, she will not give him a victory over her mind or her body. If she must die, then she will die a queen.

Is it feminist? Rejecting a rapist and murderer even at the risk of her life? Maybe not feminist per se, but courageous as hell.

(Rochefort was wasted as a villain, totally, but they threw the chance away to do more with the character when they cast one note actor Marc Warren - he only does creepy and rapey.)

myhamsterisademon:

iamanathemadevice:

I’m bored with people trying to woobify Milady.

If you really want to make a villain sympathetic, try giving Rochefort the same benefit of the doubt as her:

- sad story of family who lost position and wealth, forcing him to work for evil man as a spy
- shunned by the other kids for being ‘creepy’ just because he was
- tortured for years in Spain
- sustained by love of a good woman
- looks good in posh clothes
- smarter than his boss but is stifled by nepotistic hereditary system
- Unfairly discriminated against by higher ranking noble (Athos) which is totally classist of him
- socially awkward
- suffered dreadful domestic violence when his girlfriend stabbed him in the eye (more men suffer violence than women, did you know that?)
- another girl made fun of his tragic eye injury (much ableism)

Come on, give the poor man a break! He never had a chance to be good! Where’s the Rochefort Defence League to tell us how unfairly he was treated by the Musketeers? And how he was just following orders those times he killed the councillors and the ambassadors? How much did Constance deserve those two times he tried to execute her? And Aramis was so shagging the Queen and Rochefort’s girlfriend, so there!

I’m waiting….

So I’ve been reading your posts for a while and all AND I’M ASKING MYSELF THIS QUESTION

Do you hate Milady?

(I’m not trying to argue or anything I mean you’re entitled to your opinion and I agree with many of your points, but seriously, do you hate Milady?)

@myhamsterisademon I do NOT hate Milady. I do not adore her and think she is the woobiest wooby that ever woobied, but she’s an interesting character (played by an excellent actress whom I do adore) whose interactions with lots of other characters, not just Athos, bears a lot more exploration. (I was chatting with @acaitstuff last night about this in fact and the wretched girl gave me yet another plot bunny to do with her!) I’ve written a number stories with her in it, even one where she is quite central.

I sin however, in the eyes of the Milady Defence League, because I don’t make excuses for every one of her crimes, and I certainly don’t think she’s the way she is primarily because of Athos. Athos did not turn her evil.

Some of her fans get on my wick because they claim Athos is the sole reason she is a lying, thieving murderer, and twist themselves up in knots to make this argument to the point where they literally - as I commented on above - try and paint Athos as equivalent to the soldiers who whipped and raped Juliette, and drove the other women of Éparcy from their homes, because he is frantic with fear over what Milady might have done to Sylvie. Choking Milady is horrible, but it’s a horrible situation and more to the point, it’s completely out of character for Athos. That’s why it’s shocking!

When you try and claim Athos is an adulterer because he’s moved on from his wife who is not only legally dead, but who has remarried at least once since then, then you need to examine your life choices, seriously.

elphabaforpresidentofgallifrey:

arahir:

arahir:

arahir:

i’m reading a very manly 1950s account of a hunt for el dorado but i’m thirty pages in and the narrator has already described his traveling companion as “handsome” 4 times, “extremely handsome” twice, “exceedingly handsome” once, his voice as “quietly husky” and “a husky whisper,” his fingers as long and deft, his body as “tall and cat-like,” and his eyes as some variation of ice-blue at least three times.

just men being dudes. dudes being pals. it’s great. this is great.

“Ever since he had aimed that gun at my throat, I had liked him immensely. And now I liked him even better.”

oh my god

“I awoke when a beam of light fell across my eyes. Jorge had come into my room carrying a lighted candle.

‘I’m going with you,’ he said quietly.

‘I can’t pay you.’

He smiled. ‘I thought I was a partner?’”

OH MY GOD

according to apparently every adaptation of a search of el dorado, i think we can conclude that maybe the real el dorado was the homosexuality we found along the way

(via moppetcakes)

I’m bored with people trying to woobify Milady.

If you really want to make a villain sympathetic, try giving Rochefort the same benefit of the doubt as her:

- sad story of family who lost position and wealth, forcing him to work for evil man as a spy
- shunned by the other kids for being ‘creepy’ just because he was
- tortured for years in Spain
- sustained by love of a good woman
- looks good in posh clothes
- smarter than his boss but is stifled by nepotistic hereditary system
- Unfairly discriminated against by higher ranking noble (Athos) which is totally classist of him
- socially awkward
- suffered dreadful domestic violence when his girlfriend stabbed him in the eye (more men suffer violence than women, did you know that?)
- another girl made fun of his tragic eye injury (much ableism)

Come on, give the poor man a break! He never had a chance to be good! Where’s the Rochefort Defence League to tell us how unfairly he was treated by the Musketeers? And how he was just following orders those times he killed the councillors and the ambassadors? How much did Constance deserve those two times he tried to execute her? And Aramis was so shagging the Queen and Rochefort’s girlfriend, so there!

I’m waiting….