Can’t remember if I posted this or not, but I got a commission from @painttasticpony! It’s of one of the characters for my new comic/ask blog project. This art helps me to draw my own character better, and will hopefully serve as reference until I can afford a proper one later on.

Her name is Elizabeth Talbot, and that’s all I’m gonna share for now.~

"The court also provided the forum for forging alliances to further interests in the localities: the court was the obvious meeting point for the 'feminine gang of three'—Alice Chaucer, Elizabeth Talbot, and Elizabeth Woodville— to whom Colin Richmond has attributed a successful campaign to wrest two manors of the Fastolf inheritance from the Pastons and into the hands of Alice Chaucer's son, the king's brother-in-law, John de la Pole. Again this was a queenly role that usually left no evidence but its political importance must not be overlooked."

J.L. Laynesmith, "The Last Medieval Queens: English Queenship 1445-1503"

Textile panel 'The Oxburgh Hangings' of embroidered linen canvas with silk, gold and silver threads, possibly made by Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth Talbot, probably made in Sheffield, ca. 1570

my fav part of this is that she's embroidered "a zydrach" meaning "a hammerhead shark". it's helpful for sure, and it is absolutely sending me for no reason. i am in love.

The Myth of Catherine Middleton: Mary Boleyn

Originally written by Meg McGath, 30 May 2011 PHOTO: MAX MUMBY/INDIGO/GETTY IMAGES Before their wedding in 2011, there were several articles for the ancestry of Catherine Middleton, now HRH Princess of Wales. This claim—from the DailyMail (complete with a tree!)—is that Middleton is a descendant of Mary Boleyn, sister to Queen Anne, through Boleyn’s granddaughter, Elizabeth Knollys, who’s…

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The gang's all here! Feel free to ask about my AU!

"𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝑀𝒶𝓇𝒸𝒽𝒾𝑜𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝐻𝑒𝓍𝒽𝒶𝓂, 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒞𝑜𝓊𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝒢𝓇𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓂, 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝐿𝒶𝒹𝓎 𝑀𝒶𝓇𝓎 𝒯𝒶𝓁𝒷𝑜𝓉."

Elizabeth McGovern on Maggie Smith's last day and growing up alongside co-stars

excuse me while I go cry in the corner🤧

Hulk 2003 is just superior [obviously heavy spoilers to 2003 Hulk movie]

Opening Note

David Banner was a scientist that tried to create "super-immune systems by strengthening the human cellular response". The only issue I have with the start of 2003 Hulk movie is that Banner Senior was pursuing human regeneration and immortality with the passion of Dr Connors trying to get his hand back, which makes me in turn miss Dr Connors and his obsession to get his hand back, just a little bit. This movie actually shows some greening signs on infant Bruce’s skin when he is distressed before Bruce is even exposed to the Gamma in his lab, due to his father experimenting on himself.

David Banner

David Banner doesn't actively hate Bruce like Brian Banner from the comics did, but it is only because he is curious about what happened after his augmented DNA from his experiments that he conducted on himself got mixed with regular, non-augmented DNA and gave birth to a person. Bruce was his little science experiment, so he was nice to him and was playing with him and was generally a good dad, until he took out the needle and treated Bruce like his alive test subject to see what became of Bruce. And then when he “realized what Bruce is”, he went 180 on his kid, because he was "all he feared". When the military learned about his human blood samples, they removed him from the project and he in exchange triggered a gamma bomb. He was put away for 30 years and came back to stalk Bruce, because Bruce was his creation, and he treated him as his creation more than he did treat him as his son. To the point that he was willing to manipulate his son in order to get what he wanted - his power. When he learns that Betty's existence brought General Ross onto Bruce, he steals her scarf so then his mutated dogs could attack and kill her, because he wanted Bruce to change into Hulk. David treats Bruce and Hulk as his biggest success as a scientist. He also uses the tech that turned Bruce into the Hulk to turn himself into some... molecule kinda man that can "partake with the essence of all things". David describes his life as whole and complete when he was in love with his wife Edith, and Edith wanted a baby. But the moment she got pregnant, he knew he gave her a monster, something else entirely than the son he intended to give. He says that he didn't kill Bruce as an infant only because he was curious about what happened, what were the results of the experiment. He started feeling compassion only when he realized that Bruce will be a horror for everybody around him, or so he claims. He also claims that he wanted to cure Bruce, to save him from what he had done to him, but later it is clear that he never intended to save Bruce, or if he did, it was quickly abandoned for either killing him or using him for his own gain. When his lab was taken away he came back home with intention to kill Bruce, he saw it as a mercy from a father to a son, and ended accidentally killing his own wife - "taking away all that was precious to him", because Bruce was never that to him. He was just a curious experimental subject, not a son or family to him. David tricked Betty and the military to take him close to his son. And he doesn't mean Bruce by that. He means the Hulk. He sees the Hulk as his only and real son. He calls Bruce his son first, then he calls him "a superficial shell of consciousness", and then again calls him a son, as if he thought he could make him believe that lie. He wants the Hulk's strength, nothing more and he claims that it is all done to “cure Bruce”. That proves that neither of them was ever his son to him, despite what he claimed before, and they are seen by David as his salvation and his experiment, nothing more. He may try to claim that either of them is his son, but this is just a manipulation tactic. He then calls Bruce a little speck of human trash and tells him to stop crying, literally not long after he was all supportive of his son crying it all out. This is a manipulator at his most evil. The person who tries to gaslight you into believing him to care about you, even when you know for a fact he doesn't, because he showed and told you it to your face a five seconds earlier. His first transformation into the man made of electro energy reminds me of ZZazz from one of the 1996 The Incredible Hulk cartoon. He looks the same!

Edith Banner

Dies in the same circumstances as Rebecca Banner.

Bruce Banner

Bruce in this movie was a kid that even when hit with a stick would never hit back, standing there and shacking, and taking it all and boiling it all inside. Feeding the rage bubble that will one day need to be released. Then he witnessed his father killing his mum and suffered nightmares with what happened so long that they were afflicting him still when he was a teen living with his adoptive mum. While his father had become his personal demon, monster in his own mind for what he did to his mum. His adoptive mum had faith that there was greatness in Bruce that he will share with a whole world one day as a great scientist. He is Bruce Krenzler, not Banner in this movie due to adoption, but he is still a son of David Banner. Bruce in this universe saves Harper, his colleague from the lab, from gamma exposure, not Rick Jones like in the comics and cartoons. He also finds humor in the fact that he was healed with nanomeds to the point that even his old injuries are gone, so he never actually actively seeks the cure like Bruce from cartoons and comics. Betty doesn't find it funny. It is nice that in this movie it is an accident that he becomes the Hulk. An accident born from his father's experiments on himself and accident in the lab that is true to the source material, instead of Bruce using himself as a human experiment willingly like it was shown in 2008 movie (goddammit I hate that movie). He turns into a Hulk shortly after, but when he comes back, he doesn't remember anything other than what happened before the change. Bruce describes his transformation as a dream about rage, power and freedom. "Gamma released what was already there...me...it". He knows his father provoked him on purpose. Bruce says that what scares him the most is that he actually likes it when he loses control.

Hulk

This movie just like 2008 one too makes Hulk mostly silent. Just screaming in rage, not responding to Betty at all. However, what I like about the portrayal of the Hulk in this movie is that he is mostly shown as a stoic figure that reacts in rage occasionally, but interacts with people without screaming in rage at all. Hulk seems to only have access to very early memories of Bruce, the ones with his trauma, his mother being murdered in front of his eyes by his own father. But he doesn't attack his father even when he meets him for the first time, despite recognizing him. Just gets agitated and runs away from him. I suspect that he was scared of him, of what he did to his mum and what he could do to him, without realizing that there was very little that man could do to him when he is the Hulk. When he looks at his father and Betty he just looks like a big confused puppy at times. In comparison to 2008 Hulk that had always that angry expression, this Hulk is always just confused or curious whenever he is not raging around, and he doesn't seem to like scaring people he cares about with his rage, which is shown in his face when Betty sees him kill that one mutated dog just in front of her, and she looks terrified and Hulk feels bad about causing it. Hulk yelled at the helicopter that he put down once in the entire movie as if he was saying "and stay down". Trying to intimidate and scare the thing to stop attacking him, without understanding that the pilot cannot attack him anymore without the chopper. This is one of very few instances when he intimidates people, as like I said he tries to avoid it. Hulk cannot be put to sleep by the gas in this movie, which is neat. He just sneezes, lol. He tries to avoid hurting people, but he sometimes does it accidentally. He purposefully shakes the tank’s cockpit chamber to make humans fall off, so he would not hurt them. The military wants to stop Hulk in his tracks without realizing that if they stopped pursuing him, he would just stay in empty silent places and enjoy the nature, because that's who Hulk is. When it comes to his battle style, he runs around to avoid being hit by the artillery, and on top of that smacks the missiles as if they were just bugs on his way. And in all of this, he manages to not kill the soldiers from the choppers that he punched out of the sky. He prefers avoidance and only charges when he feels like he is trapped and has no other choice than to go through people instead of turn around and run. This includes being targeted by tanks, as he felt he cannot move anywhere with them firing at every place he turned to, so he naturally had to dispose of them. He got close and personal with the tanks, scaring the soldiers shitless and destroying the tanks as if they were very big plastic toys. Some of those Choppers vs Hulk scenes feel like taken straight out of 1996 cartoon and I love it. Hulk is also attacked by more advanced aircrafts and saves one of his attackers when they cannot pull up. If Hulk didn't jump onto the aircraft, it would hit the busy bridge road full of civilians. Hulk stops attacking when he sees Betty. He calms down a bit thanks to that. When he gets surrounded by police and military, he doesn’t resist, just looks resigned. He looks sad and a bit guilty when he sees Betty come to him. Like a kid. He probably doesn't like what he had done to protect himself.

Window / mirror scene with Bruce and Hulk was short, but nice AND HE SPOKE! HE CALLED BANNER “PUNY HUMAN”! FINALLY A GODDAMN WORD! But sadly it is the only thing he says in the whole movie. He never even says “Betty” or anything which I always associate Hulk with. Like “Hulk smash” or “Hulk hurt” or anything other that describes how he feels or in what condition he is or what he wants. Which is seriously a shame, especially considering that this movie goes to such lenghts to portray Hulk accurately.

Glenn Talbot

Glenn Talbot is no longer a military man in this universe. He is a lead of the science lab called Atheon and wants soldiers that can self-heal on the battlefield. Bruce and Betty want to create a cure for injuries that would serve EVERYONE, not only the privileged few, so they don’t agree to join his lab, even when Talbot tries to take over their lab forcefully. Talbot goes around General Ross to secure Bruce, he wants to get samples from him, analyze them and patent him to get rich out of the potential his power and his genome can bring. Talbot is blonde blue eyed cruel man. Kinda reminds me of the Nazis. He has no nuance, he is just purely evil manipulative guy that wants to get rich. He happy tortures Bruce and tells him that he would have killed him himself, because then he would be able to make an autopsy on his corpse, which is part of a lie he tells him to rile him up and change. He then realized that Bruce can control his change conciously, but not subconciously and trapps him in a water tank, attaches his brain to some technology and induces nightmares to force him to change. The nightmares were created from Bruce's represessed memories and due to that he started changing. Talbot and his lab could not drill through Bruce's skin to get the Hulk's samples. He didn't want to kill him, disagreed with neutralization, because he would not get anything from "goop". He orders lockdown and ignores General's order for full evacuation of the base. And funnily he accidentally killed himself when he tried to hurt the Hulk with M2 weapon that bounced off of Hulk's peck like a very fast flying fly, or any mere bug lol. That's so hilarious. I do not know much about the original Talbot, so I cannot even compare the accuracy or lack thereof, but I never liked him anyway, so who cares.

Betty Ross

Betty in this movie is very snarky like and playfully mean. She and Bruce were together before and now she sometimes makes a little fun of him when they talk and this is like their thing as ex-couple. And what is the most important to me: SHE IS SHOWN WORKING IN A LAB. And not in just quick montage scene to show the Hulk. Just in general. She is shown AS A SCIENTIST THAT HAS A CARRIER AND RESEARCH AND LAB AND DOING THEIR SHIT. She and Bruce were working on a healing technology using nanomeds and gamma radiation as inducer of cells replication. When Talbot appears, she cuts through his charade, straight to the meaty gritty point and then shows him the door. Sassy little lady. Who doesn't speak to her father unless she has a business for him. I really like how Bruce and Betty speak about something else than Bruce all the time. It feels like they both are independent humans. Betty is very much not happy though that Bruce finds his unique situation funny. She saw him throw himself at the gamma radiation releasing machine and she knew it will kill him, that she will have to watch him die. She doesn't want to loose him even if they are not together anymore. Because she already lost everybody else. She lost her father, because she feels that he never is there for her, never wants to just see her, without any funny buisness attached. She has trauma over being left alone, because he was summoned when she was on an outing with him as a kid and was left alone at a restaurant due to him having to go and manage the gamma bomb explosion. She is so worried about Bruce she invites herself to his house using her keys, which she still has for some reason. And then she is very not happy that Bruce lied that he was not at the lab at night and then not happy that she needed to leave him alone with her father, but left. She is though a cunning little detective who instead of sitting on her ass when her dad forbade her to visit Bruce, goes to investigate the mysterious new janitor. Betty's first meeting with the Hulk is in much calmer setting than in 2008 movie. They just have a quiet moment together before they get attacked. Then after the attack Betty is scared after what happened. Betty suspects that Bruce's anger triggers nanomeds. They should react only on physical damage, but Betty says that emotional damage can manifest physically as well, like serious trauma does in the form of repressed memories. Betty says that physical damage is finite, but emotional one can fester and keep going and create a chain reaction. Betty called her father on Bruce, who gets sedated by General Ross people. She believes she protects him this way. She wants to take him somewhere safe, but she is tricked by her father, who wants to keep Bruce sedated till he dies of natural causes. Betty thought he will keep Bruce safe and she feels betrayed once again, when her father says she can trust him to do what he thinks is right, but not what she asked him to do. She just wants her father to help Bruce. Betty is a scientist and she knows that she can help him, while she also knows that the army sees him as a weapon to be either studied and replicated or pacified and used. This is such a beautiful scene (in a grittty way) between Betty and her father. Has a lot of vibes from the 1996 cartoon minus Betty knowingly manipulating her father in the cartoon to get equipment and funding to help Bruce. Betty manages to convince her father and takes Bruce to his old home to help him remember and deal with his trauma. The imagery of Betty swinging on a swing in a nuclear wasteland is so NICE. The contrast of her beign alive and doing a thing that is associated with being lively in a place that is dead. After that she loses access to Bruce, because NSA gave the authority to study him to Atheon - the research lab that Talbot is in charge of and where he wanted to force Betty to work. When Hulk gets out and military targets him she is first to realize that Hulk is getting stronger with rage. The more mad he is the stronger he will become. She manages to convince her father to let her go and calm the Hulk. Betty cries when Bruce changes back. Probably because she can see him again. And then she cries more when she realizes that he will be taken away once more, that they cannot just be together. She suddenly goes very quiet when Bruce is captured again. Not reacting to any orders her father gives. Nothing. And then when the Gamma missile is levelled at Bruce and David, she just puts her hand on her father's shoulder. I don't like that. She should be angry at what they had done to him. Then 1 year later she seems to have a good contact with her father despite him murdering the man she still loved but was not dating at the time it happened, and I don't buy it that maybe she thought he killed him with heavy heart or smth. General’s heart was not heavy at all. Anyway, she still admits she would not tell him if Bruce called if he was still alive, and pointedly reminds her father that her phone and tech are bugged, so she doesn't really have to tell him, because he is spying on her 24/7 and would know it anyway. THE AUDACITY. THE SASS.

I LOVE THIS WOMAN. Despite her behavior at the end of the movie she is so much more well rounded character than 2008 Betty.

General Ross

General Ross in this movie is not obsessed maniac. He is a man who tries and continuously fails to connect with his daughter. He always does something she doesn't approve of and that drives them further and further apart. He is also angry that he is indepted to Bruce for saving Betty, especially after he told him to keep distance from his daughter (very controlling dad behavior, not nice and not cute). He thinks Bruce and Hulk are dangerous, because Hulk put 3 people in a hospital and Talbot barely can walk after his encounter with him. The issue is that General doesn't know that Hulk treats like this only people that attack him, never innocent bystanders. Though on the other hand police officers would probably get into hospital too if they ever shoot at Hulk, though Hulk still prefers avoidance tactics and only attacks people if they are in his direct path of escape. He never attacks when he has a choice to turn any other way and run. So he needs to be backed into a corner to attack people in his way, whom he doesn't know and only sees as his assailants. Ross thinks that Bruce is the same as his father David. That he is dangerous man that fooled his daughter. That he is manipulator and liar and psychopath willing to hurt others, even people he loves. This is also the reason why General wanted him to keep his distance from Betty at all cost. He is angry that NSA took away his authority over Bruce, because he is a military man and he doesn't make policies of higher ups and still has to follow their orders as a General. He is furious that Talbot went around him to secure Bruce for himself. He thinks studying Bruce can bring a lot of interested people a lot of money. He was still willing to let Betty say goodbye to Bruce, but the decision was taken out of his hands, so he could not give her permission to do it even if he wanted to. he also mercilessly LEVELED WHAT WAS LEFT OF BRUCE'S CHILDHOOD HOME! Still, this general is definitely better when it comes to civilian casualties. He tries to avoid them, not like the Thadeus Ross from 2008 movie. After Hulk’s escape from the lab he was kept by Atheon, General is all set on destroying Bruce to protect Betty from him. He believes that the Hulk is heading straight for his daughter and like overprotective patriarchal father he sets himself into protection mode even if she doesn't want him to do so, because he will just make everything worse. When Betty's presence calms the Hulk, Ross orders to hold the fire in the end. He doesn't want to make him angry again and stronger than before and wreck more havoc than he already did. When they capture Bruce again, General is ready to incinerate Bruce if he moves just a little. He claims that he is doing it for Betty's sake and that he is preparing for the worst case. Then after the battle and “killing” Bruce, General admits he is sorry, but I do not buy it. He is not sorry that he “killed” Bruce, he is sorry that he hurt Betty. He couldn't care less about Bruce. He only cares if he lives or dies, because it would cause Betty even more pain.

Things I dislike apart from Hulk being silent:

- Random murder of a black man. - That Ross is purposefully darker skinned than white to show he is the bad guy. But what I like is that he is nuanced at least. - Betty going silent at the end and not protesting at all what was happening. She was bargaining all this time for Bruce's sake and now suddenly she stopped. That's just too weird and kind of OOC. - I don't get the point of that whole dream Betty had that Bruce will choke her one day, and then the follow up scene when he grabs her by the troat for real after he comes back to his senses after he killed the dogs. As Hulk he was able to not hurt her, but as Bruce, when he talks how he killed the dogs, he suddenly cannot control what he is doing? That's just weird. Andrenaline rush, or what?

Elizabeth Wayte (Lucy) & Stoke Charity

Between rainstorms, we were out in the countryside doing some church-crawling, a grand way to do some ‘medievalling’ when long journeys to castles and houses, most still closed for the winter, are out of the question. We happened on Stoke Charity by pure accident. I was attracted by the unusual name, which also began ringing a few bells…. The church of St Mary and St Michael is tiny, with a…

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Elizabeth Carter, the classical scholar and translator of the Greek poet Epictetus, called Catherine Talbot 'my passion, I think of her all the day, dream of her all the night and one way or another introduce her into every subject I talk of.'

"Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History" - Philippa Gregory

Here’s the thing I need people to understand:

Even if we believe that the (entirely unproven and far too politically convenient) pre-contract story between Edward IV and Eleanor Talbot was true, it doesn’t actually matter. Even if it was hypothetically true, there was still no reason why Edward V – who was already King at that point and was referred to as such – couldn’t have been able to succeed his father regardless.

David Horspool (Richard's own historian) summarizes it better than I could, so I’m just quoting him here:

"[Richard also made] no allowance for any potential solution to the problem that might have re-legitimized Edward V and his siblings. These included securing a retrospective canonical or papal judgement of the invalidity of the pre-contract; an Act of Parliament legitimizing the children of Edward and Elizabeth Woodville’s marriage, as happened to Henry VIII’s variously tainted offspring; or even ignoring the issue and proceeding to the coronation of Edward V, which would legitimize him by making him the Lord’s anointed, and render allegations of his bastardy as newer versions of the old tittle-tattle about his father."

In short, even if Edward IV truly had a pre-contract with Eleanor Talbot, and even if all of his children with Elizabeth Woodville were supposedly illegitimate, it should by no means prevent Edward V from succeeding his father to the throne. If Richard truly wanted to support his nephew, he had a variety of useful and entirely workeable options to choose from. Instead, he officially declared his nieces and nephews (including a literal 3-year-old) illegitimate, kept Edward V and his even younger brother confined in the Tower of London, and declared himself King.

Why didn't Richard take these actions, all of which he would have been well aware of? As Horspool says simply: "that Richard took none of these courses was because he had no interest in doing so."

The ONLY conclusion we can come to based on Richard's actions is summarized most succinctly by A.J Pollard:

"The truth of the matter is that Richard III did not want Edward V to be legitimate because he did not want him to be king."

i do.

"Hardwick Hall; more glass than wall"

I visited Hardwick Hall for the first time this week; check out some of what I discovered!

Hardwick Hall (photo is author’s own) I have visited Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire for the first time this week, and wow, what a place. Even though I’ve seen pictures of the hall, they don’t do justice to the sheer amount of glass. In the sixteenth century that must have been incredible to anyone who saw it! I also hadn’t realised that Bess of Hardwick had died at the grand old age of around 80,…

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So, Frankenstein; but Victor came back as a zombie.

This AU takes place after the original novel, and Hyde decided it was a smart idea to bring Victor back from the dead. Oh, and to make matters worse, there is a curse in the Frankenstein family bloodline where you cannot die once you become undead. Just like the izombie show, Victor has to eat FRESH brains to retain his humanity, but get visions of how the victim died.

This AU is a crossover between Frankenstein, and the Netflix show IZombie.

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Check out this lovely tribute Downton Abbey TV series Anniversary 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

As reported in 2010,

ITV's lavish new costume drama Downton Abbey started strongly last night, Sunday 26 September, attracting just over 7.6 million viewers.

Downton Abbey, written by Julian Fellowes – an Oscar winner for his Gosford Park script – is set in 1912 and stars Maggie Smith and Hugh Bonneville.

The seven-parter opened with an average of 7.685 million viewers and a 30% audience share from 9pm on ITV1 and ITV1 HD. The HD channel's share of this audience was 295,000. (The Guardian)

PBS started airing Downton Abbey in America on January 9, 2011. The rest is history! 🔝🎩❤️❤️

As Robert and Matthew stroll across Downton’s vast, lush grounds, the Earl turns to the young man and says: “You do not love the place yet.”

“Well,” Matthew stammers, “Obviously, it’s —”

“No, you don’t love it,” the Earl declares. “You see a million bricks that may crumble, a thousand gutters and pipes that may block and leak, and stone that will crack in the frost.”

“But you don’t?” Matthew wonders.

“I see my life’s work,” the Earl says.

(The Washington Post)

Album Review: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Toast

After 21 years, Toast finally popped.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse recorded the album in 2001 and shelved it.

“I had forgotten about these songs, put them out of my mind and went on living my life,” Young said in a statement.

Somewhere along the line, Young remembered them and now Toast is ready for consumption. With two decades of build up, it’s become a bit of a legend; in truth Toast is a mid-tier NYCH LP.

With seven tracks running 52 minutes, the album needs editing, particularly as the tracks are generally built around a single riff. That works on three-minute numbers, but not for opuses. The fact the lyrics seem to foreshadow Neil and Pegi Young’s 2014 divorce don’t help to lighten the mood.

Despite a splash of piano and some uncharacteristically tuneful background vocals, Toast is what one would expect: snarling garage-band rock with exceptions like “Quit,” which nicks Elizabeth Cotten’s “Freight Train” for a melody, and the calypso-flavored “Gateway of Love,” which sounds like an unfinished Los Lobos track.

It’s a fine collection that Young’s hard-core followers will gladly gobble up. Less-partisan listeners will likely not find Toast so appetizing.

Grade card: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Toast - B-

7/14/22