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bedofthistles · 6 months

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The Little White Horse: Robin Minette

In continuation with my analysis of the novel, the Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge, I want to cover the characters and the main themes of both the book and the movie.

Here's my thoughts and opinions one Robin De Noir, and Robin Minette, two wildly different characters

TL;DR

My enemy.

My beloathed.

The one I despise!

This boy is insane, he is the definition of toxic masculinity, he’s only a child and already he sucks, and I know for a fact he will never get better because he is never punished for his actions.

And what did he do wrong?

Well first I would like to remind you all of my beautiful, wonderful, fantastic, baby-eyed Robin De Noir. I have no idea how we got Robin De Noir out of Robin Minette, but I am forever grateful.

For starters, Robin De Noir takes the place of Mr. Cock in LWH. Where Mr. Cock has trapped the hare, Robin De Noir has, where Maria gets chased by Mr. Cock in the book, she gets chased by Robin De Noir in the movies (and yes, technically the Coeur De Noir and all of the De Noirs are chasing after her as well), where Maria and Mr. Cock run through the forest so she can show him the White Horse, she and Robin De Noir run through the forest in search of the pearls. Additionally, he is no longer Robin Minette, Loveday Minette’s son, but the son of the Coeur De Noir, and Loveday’s brother.

One, this change is already ten times more dynamic. Throughout the book, we are only told that the De Noirs are wicked, and it isn’t until Maria’s last minute change of heart about them that suddenly they aren’t. Those poor people are demonized in the book, and are not given any sympathy. Now I hear you saying, the movie was the same! They were evil until Maria decided she needed Robin’s help!

I need you to go back and give Augustus Prew his due, because that boy acted his ass off. I don’t think I’ll be able to go over all of his exemplary acting choices, and I may make a separate post for that, but that will require gifs and screengrabs. Anyway! There are several scenes that show us, the audience, that Robin De Noir is just a boy who is trying his damnedest to make his father proud of him. We see this when the Coeur De Noir calls him a ‘dolt’ after the rabbit trap, and you can see his face just fall, he is devastated, not that he lost the princess, but that he disappointed his father.

We also see this when Robin quickly decides to help Maria. The very first time I watched this, I didn’t really understand his reasoning, but once I started thinking about it (probably about the time I started writing fic and needed to get inside of his head) I realized that he is fundamentally good, just born on the wrong side of the valley. Robin chooses the Valley over his father, he chooses to help Maria despite not even fully trusting her, he is beside her until the very end because he knows she is doing the right thing, because he loves the Valley and wants to save it. So, despite what we are told about the De Noirs (as by sir Benjamin, who calls them bandits, poachers, and plunderers) we know from visual cues, Robin De Noir’s desperation to be a good son, and his choices at the end, that the De Noirs are not purely wicked.

Robin Minette on the other hand can die on a stick. Robin and Loveday Minette are actually a part of the Merryweather family (more on that later) and are not associated with the De Noirs at all.

So what are all of Robin M’s sins?

Well, if you’ve heard about the bird theory, it is the simple idea that when you call out “oh look, a bird!” the response of your partner/friend/companion should be “where!” Not because they are necessarily interested in the bird (though they should be) but because you are interested in the bird. The logic being that the person will listen to whatever random, boring, stupid thing you’re saying because they are interested in you, and are not looking at you as a source of entertainment. It’s a very simple, and beautiful concept, that shows a person who is interested in you, is interested in you!

Robin Minette is not interested in Maria.

I say this because in the book we are told multiple times that whenever Maria asks too many questions, Robin just walks away. He does not answer, or even asks her to stop, when he is astral projecting into Maria’s dreams, he just leaves the dream and wakes up. Again, this is in conjecture with one of Goudge’s morals: female curiosity is of the Devil.

“All my life, Robin, I'll always tell you all about everything." “And I'll tell you," said Robin. “If I didn't you'd ask me so many questions that life would not be worth living."

This is not an okay lesson to teach to children, any boy or girl should not be learning that her voice does not matter, that her questions should be squashed, and that curiosity is a bad thing. I genuinely have no idea where Goudge got this idea from, other than it is just a very old and misogynist viewpoint. It’s not even Christian, as scripture encourages followers to study, and yes that includes women.

I don’t think it is a harsh stance to take that a character who walks away from another while they are talking, is not interested, or in love with that character. Maybe possessive, but not in love, and it's certainly not the kind of love anyone should be idolizing.

Furthermore, like most entitled men, Robin Minette has anger issues. I don’t want to quote the entire section, but I can post it somewhere because it is absolutely insane.

After Robin and Maria defended Paradise Hill from the De Noirs, they go back to his house. Since it was raining, they had to change out of their wet clothes. For whatever reason, Loveday Minette decides to put her old wedding dress (that she never wore because she ran away) on Maria.

Maria loves it, and asks if it can be her wedding dress, and Loveday M says yes.

When Maria joins Robin in the kitchen so they can have tea, Robin asks what that is.

“It's my wedding dress. I'm trying it on to see if it fits." "Are you going to be married?" asked Robin sharply, his munching jaws suddenly still. “Of course," said Maria, reaching for the cream. “You didn't expect me to be an old maid, did you?" “Are you being married today?" demanded Robin. “Of course she isn't being married today, Robin. She isn't old enough to be married yet. But when she is married she will wear that dress." [Loveday] “When you do marry, whom will you marry?" Robin asked Maria. Maria swallowed the last of her bread and cream and honey, put her head on one side and stirred her tea thoughtfully. “I have not quite decided yet," she said demurely, “but I think I shall marry a boy I knew in London." “What?" yelled Robin. “Marry some mincing nincompoop of a Londoner with silk stockings and pomade in his hair and a face like a Cheshire cheese?" The parkin stuck in his gullet and he choked so violently that Loveday had to pat him on the back and pour him out a fresh cup of tea. When he spoke again his face was absolutely scarlet, not only with the choke but with rage and jealousy and exasperation. “You dare do such a thing!" he exploded. "You--Maria --you-- if you marry a London man I'll wring his neck!"

Now, you’ll notice three things here:

One, the fate of all Moon Princess’ is to get in a fight with her love, and if she doesn’t humble herself, she’ll be forced to leave Moonacre. This is something Maria knows at this point.

Two, Robin is a thirteen, fourteen year old boy displaying this much anger, possessiveness, and audacity. This is not something he is punished for, and he gets away with this behavior.

Three, his mother is right there???? And her chief concern is:

“Robin," said his mother, “that's not at all the way to propose. You should go down on one knee and do it in a very gentle voice."

Ma’am your son is a maniac and you’re giving him tips on how to propose properly?

Now, I want to swing back to my first point. To state it very plainly, this is one of the reasons as to why people stay in abusive relationships for so long. Maria knows that if she and Robin hadn’t made up right then and there, she would have to leave Moonacre. This language and ideology puts the blame on the victim’s shoulders, making the victim feel as if they have to be the one to make amends, to fix what is broken, and appease the abuser. This is the cycle of abuse that is seen time and time again, and while Goudge does not frame this as an ideal relationship we can gather that based on all that Maria has learned, it is her job to keep the peace.

Am I calling Robin Minette an abuser? Yes, yes I am.

Maria immediately forgives his behavior, Loveday is obviously okay with it, because she does nothing to stop him or scold him, and Goudge obviously sees this as okay male behavior.

It's preposterous and yet this book is only eighty years old, we can obviously see people who behave this way, and we all know people who are like this. However, I think we have finally pivoted to presenting this behavior as abusive in media and art. Too often we think of abuse as just physical, but so often it is emotional, financial, and sexual, and the consequence of that mentality is people suffering abuse thinking that they aren’t because they don’t get black eyes.

Here, I would also like the mention the BBC miniseries, Moonacre. The Miniseries is boring, it’s praised for being a more direct adaptation of the book, however they do make some major changes, especially to the plot. They add this thing about the ‘Blackheart’s’ having their water supply being cut off, all their wells are saturated with saltwater, and they blame Sir Wrolf for cutting off a pipe that would lead freshwater back into the valley. In this, we do get Loveday and Robin (still mother and son) as De Noirs. Loveday is the direct descendant of Black William, and despite teaching her son to hate the Blackhearts, he is also a De Noir. Robin Minette in this movie is boring, he doesn’t get mad at Maria for asking questions, but all he really does is show up at convenient times to save her from the Blackhearts. He’s fine, he’s not as problematic as Robin in LWH, but his character is not as compelling as Robin De Noir in TSOM.

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Full wedding dress excerpt

#IM NOT SORRY #ROBIN MINETTE SUCKS AND I HATE HIM #the secret of moonacre #the little white horse #moonacre #TLWH dissertation #robin m actually reminds me of my absuvie ex boyfriend #so thats not a positive

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florencewellch · 5 months

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Ranking tour movies

Speak Now Tour > Eras Tour > Reputation Tour > Journey to Fearless >>>>>>>>>>>>> 1989 Tour movie

#speak now gets an extra point even though coloring it can be challenging #but it doesn't put any cut songs after the setlist #journey to Fearless loses a bit bc she talks over half of the performances #so stuff like white horse the way i loved you and you're not sorry were left off #and i dont even need to go on about the 1989 tour movie. its unwatchable 😭

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whysamwhy123 · 8 months

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Any unpopular opinions?

(Sleepover Sunday, I guess, because I'm only getting to this now, whoops!) ALL I HAVE ARE UNPOPULAR OPINIONS, LOL. Seriously, I'm lucky I only have, like, seven followers because otherwise I'd be chased off this website with torches and pitchforks. I'll try to give a mildly spicy one and not to be too much of a bitch...we'll see...

Toni Storm's current character/gimmick is A THOUSAND times more creative and original than anything any man on that roster has done in YEARS. And the fact that she's not on this PPV card is a fucking travesty. But I'm not surprised because TK hates women, and wrestling fans simply do not show up for women's wrestling the same way they do for boring white guys doing the most generic, tired, old Heel 101 bullshit 🙂🙂🙂

Ah, fuck it, one more because I bitch about this every week anyways - that Nigel wanker on Collision is one of the worst commentators I've ever heard. He's so annoying! He spends more time putting himself over than the talent in the ring (literally the opposite of a commentator's job) and he clearly has no respect for the women because as soon as a women's match starts, he immediately starts talking about unrelated male wrestlers. Or just himself! And that's when he's not making pervy comments about them - dude makes JR sound like a feminist icon by comparison. I am uncooly judging everyone on here who thirsts over him. Come on, people, standards! Y'all gonna start thirsting over the Qanon moron next?

#Thanks for sending this in - sorry for going off and being a huge bitch!#*swirls my brandy glass from up here on my high horse* Why I could NEVER thirst over any random shitty white man in his forties! Poohoohoo!#*grumbles under my breath*#No I merely thirst over 20-something fuckboys who look like they have to call their moms on the phone every night without fail #So I really shouldn't judge but I am anyway *shrugs*#*looks both ways* OK is everyone gone? No one still paying attention?#Then a BONUS SUPER SPICY SUPER UNPOPULAR OPINION APPEARS! Read at your own risk...#Better Than You Bay Bay is some of the lamest shit I've ever seen #I already found both of those characters relentlessly uninteresting and/or stale but now they're so watered down it's UNBEARABLE #It drives me crazy how much TV time is dominated by this one thing #AND IT SIMPLY WILL NOT END!!#Max should have turned on Adam months ago then we could have moved onto something new but nooooooooooooooooooo #This thing has to DRAG ON FOREVER while the women can't get more than 30 seconds to cut a promo #Also it sucks how they took Maria out of the Kingdom just for this storyline #Because TK didn't want a GIIIIIIIRL getting her gross COOTIES all over his precious bro-tastic manfeels story #And everyone's eating this shit up with a spoon #Because nothing drives fandom crazier than two mediocre white dudes queerbaiting 🙂🙂🙂#....but like I respect other people's opinions if they enjoy it power to them! Good for y'all- at least someone's eating well #But I will never understand and I'll ALWAYS wish that a women's storyline could get half as much love and attention #....please don't hate me for this!#Is this my personal Gripebomb? LOL #*CM Punk voice* Contrary to popular belief I'm a very nice guy...

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agnesandhilda · 1 year

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so does a disco elysium furry mod exist yet or

#bolo liveblogs #like terrier du bois & kim catsuragi are fairly popular fanon designs so I imagine those would be used #but as for everybody else oh boy I have IDEAS #klaasje should be a fox for the deception symbolism + so there can be a joke about her being a vixen somewhere #I saw a squirrel cuno design once and liked it but maybe he and cunoesse could be some other kind of rodent? idk I just want them to be #little rat kids #cindy the skull should be a vulture. goth girl rights #joyce messier would be one of those really fluffy white cats or maybe a secretary bird?#judit minot gets to be an actual horse sorry I have one joke #for dros I'm either thinking raccoon or some kind of lizard #the hardie boys are all different breeds of dog with varying levels of swag #or maybe that's lazy? idk #ruby the instigator is uhhhhh an owl??

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allylikethecat · 1 month

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hi! i haven’t sent a message in a while but as usual i’ve been here! so here’s an update lol

i’m such a sucker for a sick fic and you always write them so perfectly! as always i loved the update!

also, i don’t know why i put off starting atkh i just started it last night and it is so good!

and as you know i think im make way for ducklings #1 fan lol i love this universe and fic SO much. so naturally ive still been thinking about the teen!dad matty ask from forever ago! do you have any plans to still do that? i’d love to see how you’d navigate that! :)

i hope you had a good weekend!

-💟

Ahhh Hello my dear 💟 Anon! It is so lovely to hear from you! I hope you are doing well!

Thank you so much for reading the sick fic! I know I made people wait way too long for it, and then it was a little lackluster (at least, that's how I felt because I put way too much pressure on myself with it lol) so I'm extra grateful for you taking the time to let me know you enjoyed it!

AHHH Thank you so much for reading All the King's Horses! That thing is currently my favorite fic and I am having the absolute best time working on it! I'm so excited for how it is shaping up and am so thankful people are giving it a chance - I know it is a very niche AU!

Thank you so much for your continued support of Ducklings! Hopefully we will have a Duckling's update soon! The Teen Dad Fictional!Matty fic is very much still in the works - it will probably end up being the next project, I just need to finish something else first lol (Most likely it will be next after I finish The Birthday Fic) Just be warned, it's going to be really sad, and make sure to read the tags and warnings carefully!

My weekend was good but exhausting! Thank you for asking! Pop and I were at a horse show last week, so it was lots of long days - he was a little super star though and won our final class out of a whole lot of entries - ironically this came right after I was sobbing on the phone to my Mom that I needed to either sell him or move him somewhere else and get a new jumper since he wasn't competitive anymore. I guess he heard me because he was like - oh hell no, hold my beer, and actually picked his hind feet back haha (I would never actually sell him - he's my heart horse and my entire world and I think it would break both of our hearts I could never do it - but sometimes I get dramatic) I hope your Tuesday is going well and that you have a great rest of your week!

❤️Ally

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please-picturemeintheweeds · 2 months

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what do you think White Horse/Coney Island is supposed to communicate?

I wish I knew 😵‍💫!!! Coney Island baffles me and also makes 10000% sense to me, so that’s confusing!! White horse is probably one of the first songs that I ever felt in my soul as a tween, and it was something an old friend used to play on the piano so beautifully.

I don’t remember how exactly she pieces the lyrics together in the mashup, so I’m hesitant to just talk without going back and looking, but I think that there’s something about break down in communication and ~small things~ piling up and harboring resentment. They both seem to deal with the confusion in the immediate aftermath of an important talk, presumably a breakup (that maybe was a long time coming and maybe has happened before but didn’t stick), and the regret and pain that mixes when something is painful and also important. They also both are apologies- I’m so sorry, this ain’t our fairy tale + I’m sorry for not making you my centerfold/winning you an arcade ring over and over. Something also about wading through the mud of a breakup and looking back and wondering and feeling like it’s the right thing but it’s so so hard right now. I think a theme that stands out is “it’s too late”, and while WH is more straightforward about who fucked it up, CI shares responsibility in a lot of ways.

so just… heartbreak. Simple and profound and complicated and straightforward.

#So yeah idk if there’s like… a secret fact or message that she was trying to communicate with us #As much as vibes #But like… someday I’ll find someone who might actually treat me well this is a big world that was a small town there in my rear view #Mirror disappearing now #And it’s too late for you and your white horse to catch me now #Sorry for not winning you an arcade ring not making you my centerfold #Idk if I were backed in a corner to say what this combo tells us about joever- I would guessssss that it’s a huge breakdown in communicatio #And things piling up and getting murkier and murkier and apologies ending up being meaningless because of how often they occured #Idk #makes me UNHAPPY TO THINK ABOUT!!!!#Asks #white horse #Coney island #c

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