DUDE, these images of the Jeanne d'Arc and Gilles de Rais story 👏fuck👏 me 👏UP 👏

Without subtitles I don't know in what context Jeanne was murdered so I hope I can talk about that real soon, but regarding Gilles de Rais I can't believe Miraculous referenced his (alleged? history is complicated) serial killing of children THIS directly!

I mean.. straight up THOSE children are supposed to be the stand ins for the ones murdered in real life. I can't believe they included THAT as the turning point when the question whenever Gilles de Rais is wrongly demonized in history and if he was HELLA framed by the catholic church and other royals and commoners as an easy scapegoat is up to this day stil a controversial debate!

I can't wait until the subtitles are out, I need to know what their entire canon story is!!! :D

Historical Figures in MLB

I'm glad they removed Marinette doing kung fu (why would you practice it on a seamstress mannequin anyway...)

^This is cute though

And I like the idea that instead of a having a five-minute limit they can use their powers limited amount of times

No mention of the curse anywhere though...

For those who read both

pretentious dark academia bitches (derogatory) is the secret history. pretentious dark academia bitches (affectionate) is if we were villains.

The difference between my feelings towards "If We Were Villains" and "The Secret History" is completely opposite

When I read "If We Were Villains" I cry at how tragic the story is and when I read "The Secret History" I scream:

WHAT THE FUCK RICHARD, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY REDISTRIBUTION OF MATTER, HENRY?

WHAT IS CHARLES DOING SLEEPING IN A FUCKING SNAIL?

COCAINE IN PARKING LOT OF BURGER KING? EXCUSE ME WHAT?

The tragedy of TSH is the characters, I find IWWV more compelling in that department since the characters are more likeable. But the story and writing of TSH is so good! Both have their different charms and I appreciate both of them.

Ps: I think Oscar Wilde would have enjoyed both immensely if he could have read them.

Thinking about how the Big Four of dark academia really feels like the Big Three of dark academia that a last-minute addition was added onto, not because it’s any less a part of and representative of the aesthetic but because its mood and message differs so greatly from the other three - that last-minute addition being Dead Poets Society. Hear me out as I rant about character types, classism, doing it for the aesthetic, themes, tones, and substance abuse (and, obviously, spoiler warnings for Dead Poets Society, The Secret History, If We Were Villains, and Kill Your Darlings):

Firstly, I want to draw comparisons between who I consider to be the protagonists of each story, focusing a lot on how I feel that each of them has a barrier between himself and another group of people within the story. Starting with the one that I relate to the most and progressing in no organisational order after that, we have from The Secret History Richard Papen, an English major who came from an impoverished old town in California to the lovely little college in Hampden, Vermont on account of loads and loads of scholarships. Fascinated and a bit infatuated with the Greek class, he is able through partly his own talent but mostly dumb luck to join their ranks, only to find out that the people he admired and romanticised are all a bunch of classist, selfish, rich addicts. Desperately wanting to be a part of this group, Richard has to break the financial barrier (as well as the seclusion engineered by Julian) between him and them in order to get in with the “cool kids.” However, this doesn’t work out for him at the end, as he doesn’t even get invited to their bacchanal or Bunny’s murder and yet has to suffer for the fallout of both events. It’s made clear that this is not the kind of life you want to live, and Richard even returns to California after the main body of the book concludes. Allen Ginsberg of Kill Your Darlings is confronted with a similar barrier, although his is less financial (he’s well-off enough to make it to college without scholarships) and more the sort of subcultural difference between the life he left at home and how Lu and his friends live. Just like Richard, he risks and loses it all to gain the affection of this new group, who, just like in TSH, leave him high and dry in the end. Oliver Marks also risks it all for his group in If We Were Villains, although they don’t necessarily abandon him in the same sense and really he alienates himself by taking the fall for Richard (Stirling)’s death. His barrier is also mainly financial, as he ends up having to pay for Dellecher through scholarships and a work-study deal, something which you can tell he is ashamed about (hmm classicism -_-) as he tries to hide it from the rest of the group, who can all afford the school on their own (or their families can). Since this story differs from the rest because it starts off with Oliver already a part of the tightly-knit group, you can’t really talk about him vying for approval as in TSH or Kill Your Darlings, but the sense of him being a part of a slightly different world is still there. Meanwhile, you don’t get this same sense in DPS. I maintain that Neil is the central figure in DPS, but for the sake of this let’s look at Todd, who does have to make his way into the group after it was already formed. Todd’s barrier is not financial but all in his own head: his social anxiety and awkwardness prevents him from initiating a relationship with any of the other Dead Poets. Because he has this different kind of barrier, it’s easier for him to overcome it, and it turns out well for him in the end, while it doesn’t for the protagonists of the other three stories.

Besides that, the other characters also play a role in how DPS feels separate from the other three. All four dark academia stories are about rich kids at their core, but DPS is the only one that doesn’t feel like it’s about rich kids. Why is that? I think it’s because of how they chose to present the characters. In TSH, the whole main cast, essentially, sucks - Henry is full of it, Bunny has all sorts of problems, Charles is an abusive drunkard, not to mention his incestuous relationship with Camilla, and Francis knows about this relationship and is fine with it, even being fine to casually fuck Charles on top of it (and he’s classist as fuck, but that’s a discussion for a later date). You might think, “oh, but Richard isn’t too bad” - yeah, but he did let them all get away with not one but two murders and was only worried about Charles abusing and fucking Camilla because he felt attraction to Camilla himself, so. Anyway, my point is that everyone in the Greek class is either a rich asshole or wants to be like the rich assholes, so that’s not good. There’s a similar thing in Kill Your Darlings where they’re all addicts and alcoholics and people who generally don’t give a fuck about how other people react to their drama and fun times, and you can see how Lu even uses David and later Allen and then throws them both away casually. Yeah, they have a cool vision of revolutionising poetry, but they’re not really characters that one can necessarily relate to, because they’re all just too caught up in themselves. IWWV, too - you don’t see this as much, but it comes out a bit when Oliver hides in shame the fact that he has to work to pay for school. While IWWV has a cast of characters that I can relate to and like the most out of the three I’ve talked about so far, there’s still a little bit of disconnect, an unattainability about them, and it’s clear that they’re all deeply fucked: Richard, before he died, was an abusive asshole, James killed Richard and then not only started mirroring him a bit when he hurt Oliver but then let Oliver while away ten years of his life in prison for Richard’s death (and either killed himself or faked his death), Alexander got even worse into drugs and then presumably got clean but man did he have PTSD from that school year, Meredith is surrounded by men lusting after her and feels lonely, Wren also has PTSD from that school year, and Filippa . . . got into a relationship with her teacher and we don’t talk about this? So while they’re three-dimensional, engaging, and entertaining, they’re all still just plain messed up. However, the Dead Poets aren’t like this. Obviously, there’s Neil’s suicide, but that’s different - it’s not messed up because he was already messed up, it’s messed up because the authority figures in his life (excluding Keating) messed him up themselves, breaking his spirit with the pressure they put on him and with the criticism of his passion. But to the point, in the sense of the characterisation of the main cast, DPS feels different from the other three because the Dead Poets are three-dimensional, engaging, entertaining, and even likeable in a way that the characters from the other three are not. And they’re all rich enough to attend a very well-to-do private boarding school, but they’re not stuck-up and classist, in fact hardly ever bringing up matters of money and even making fun of the Danburrys a bit. They feel more accessible than any other group does, which is what I respect about them.

And last but not least, the message. As far as the moods/tones and themes of the Big Four go, DPS is the only one with any sort of hope at the ending, and the only one with a “true” aesthetic for the characters to chase. The three of the dark academia Big Four all focus on taking something too far and it going horribly wrong - the Greek class gets so into studying the Classics that they have a bacchanal and kill a man and then kill a man to prevent him from telling someone that they killed a man, which leads to yet another man dead and the rest of them unhappy; the Dellecher fourth-years get so into Shakespeare and the roles they play/their typecasts that Richard ends up dead, Oliver ends up in prison, James ends up either dead or faking his death, and everyone else suffers like I mentioned earlier; and in Kill Your Darlings, David ends up dead, Lu ends up in prison, and Allen ends up expelled. TSH has a very bleak epilogue - Richard is confused and yearning, Charles is still drunk and who-knows-where cut off from the rest of them, Camilla has her dying grandmother to worry about, Henry and Bunny are dead, and Francis is forcing himself to marry a woman he doesn’t even like as a person, let alone not being physically attracted to her whole-ass gender, because he would rather make himself miserable than be cut off from the financial support of his family. Donna Tartt leaves us with a depressing, unsatisfying ending - which is all part of the theme, but I’ll get to its relation to DPS later. All in all, TSH’s tone is a very dark one, and its message to not let yourself get so caught up in the aesthetic that you let yourself fall/sacrifice your morals (and also not to idolise rich assholes because they can and will use you and ruin your life), while relevant and important, is far from inspiring or uplifting. Similarly, they go too far in IWWV, pursuing Shakespeare until it fucks them all up, and it has a similar theme to TSH. Its ending, while I like it better than TSH’s, is still quite pessimistic; there’s a little glimmer of possibility there, but not really all that much, and you get the sense that things are never going to fix themselves. In Kill Your Darlings, too, Lu and Allen get so caught up in the New Vision that they let the rest of their lives fall apart around them, and the ending is a bit confused and “meh.” DPS, however, has a lot of hope in its ending. Yes, Neil’s death was sad, and so was Keating taking the fall for it, but despite that, Keating is able to walk out of that classroom with a smile on his face; the ending isn’t entirely sad, it’s bittersweet. DPS’s message is all about carpe diem, seize the day, make your lives extraordinary, and they all presumably go on to do that (except Neil, who died because he was unable to do that). While the aesthetic the characters chase in TSH sort of hinges on their rich assholery, the aesthetic the characters chase in IWWV more or less depends on their isolation and general fucked-up-ness, and the aesthetic the characters chase in Kill Your Darlings is pretty much based on substance abuse and not giving a fuck, all of which lead to their lives being ruined on varying levels, the aesthetic the characters chase in DPS not only doesn’t really ruin their lives and also seems to be much more attainable in a tangible way. While Keating loses his job, he’s able to walk out of the classroom with a smile on his face because he knows that he did what he came there to do - he inspired his students to live life to the fullest and think for/be true to themselves, which is actually a quite healthy aesthetic to strive for, especially compared to the other ones I’ve talked about. The ending of DPS isn’t entirely happy, but there’s so much hope in it, something which the other three lack, and because of that, it feels separate from them.

Anyway yeah. I’m not going to write a big ol’ conclusion because I’ve already taken up so much space, but yeah. Thanks for coming to my TEDTalk lol.

About Jeanne d’Arc and her own Chaton...

(Edit: Yes, I know Thomas Astruc said on Twitter that it's not him.

1. That doesn't mean I need to take the post down, and 2. After "Wishmaker" aired there was a massive Fans reaction regarding Adriens dream picture where theories ran so wild that members of the crew deadass on Twitter claimed that basically NOTHING of it had any particular meaning, which we know by now isn't the case and it was kinda a ridiculous statement in the first place concerning how well DONE that image was. It's damage control when Fan reactions get way too heated and will way too quickly. Doesn't mean people weren't initially right.

Gilles de Rais and the negative fan reactions to him from the Fandom are definitely worthy of damage control. Doesn't mean that my theory post about Jeanne's Black Cat not having been the hero her memories claim he is is invalidated. It just means there is a 50% chance the "it's not him" was damage control and I was spot on. And even if not, than that's that.)

How much of an asshole am I when I tell you guys that "Grimalkin" - as in Jeanne d'Arcs Black Cat Dark Grimalkin -

is a term that in the century these two lives in (1400-1500) was at its high of being used in relation to cats, the devil and witches/witchcraft.

Witchcraft that, if I may remind you, the real Jeanne directly accused Gilles (her Black Cat) of when she showed up in "Ephemeral" for a few seconds and seemingly attacked Adrien directly because he's the Black Cat miraculous holder:

She saw him and said "Gilles", hence why we know it's Gilles de Rais.

Gilles de Rais, who in real life was accused and trialed for (allegedly, its history is complicated) one of the worst and most disgusting serial killings of children in history

(subtle reference is subtle)

AND for witchcraft.

Witchcraft, which we today understand as alchemy and that's what Gilles de Rais is said to have practiced back then: Alchemy.

Alchemy, which in 4x01 "Truth" our very own Gabriel Agreste practiced to repair the peacock miraculous.

And Alchemy/Witchcraft Gilles apparently practiced so frequently and on such massive scales that Jeanne in "Ephemeral" may have been angry as HELL, but she sure wasn't too surprised that the world around her suddenly completely changed and fell into bizarre chaos

Also, literally the first thing Jeanne does is blame Gilles, her black cat, of having done this by practicing witchcraft and then gets super pissed at him

I thiiiiiiiiink the Memory Jeanne in "Reunion" - who is only the spirit manifestation of Jeannes memories as a Ladybug miraculous holder and not the real person Jeanne d'Arc - might be an unreliable narrator regarding certain aspects of her living history she wasn't comfortable with in the first place.

I have the feeling the love story here was in actuality a bit more complicated than memory Jeanne let us know or maybe isnt quite aware of either for some reason.

Idk, might just be me though. Or, yknow, the word DARK in his name

If We Were Villains is NOT the same as The Secret History btw. TSH is at its core satire. IWWV is a book plotted to represent the rises and falls of a Shakespearean tragedy. The only similarity is that they both: take place on a college campus and that someone is murdered. (Also TSH is a why-done-it while IWWV is a who-done-it.) They’re both wonderful books by talented authors but. Be so fr right now

We can finally know what the Orb was!

I suppose this means the akumas were a finite resource then (unless they were capable of reproducing?)

something that always tickles my funny bone is when people mention in fanfic (or even in aftg canon itself iirc) that kevin is reading history books. books on history. what history? historical history. history of what? of the people. just the neutral entity of history. don’t worry about it. this isn’t a dig i’ve done it before it’s just really funny

Art dump (mostly feralnette au but some of my own future au that I'm going to start writing soon!) I *really* hate the last two so when I'm not sleep deprived and can function ill redraw it :3

been thinking about james and oliver for days and will never stop

Anybody have advice for a poor soul who just binge read The Secret History, If We Were Villains, Vicious, and These Violent Delights back to back and now feels like their life has no meaning? Is there any other book out there that can come close to these four??

It’s always Donna Tartt this, The Secret History that, but what about If We Were Villains? Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore TSH, I just wish I saw more people talking about IWWV, as well. TSH was easier for me to get through in one read, but I feel that IWWV is a more well-crafted book despite me being able to handle it only in little bits at a time (it's like a dense brownie - unspeakably delicious, but a few bites will make me full very quickly). TSH has some raw-ass lines, but I had more respect for the writing of IWWV overall. I felt like TSH just . . . ended, and while it certainly doesn’t end with a line like “his body was never found,” I somehow felt a better sense of closure from the ending of IWWV than from the ending of TSH. IWWV also just plain made me feel more in general as I was reading it. What I’m saying is both books are awesome but If We Were Villains, man. That book is my dark academia book.