Plantagenet Fandom Predictions

[transemacabre]

Because I love shit like this, I posted my predictions about what an active fandom for the Plantagenet dynasty of medieval England would look like, in some alternate universe in which history!fandom is a thing. For those who don't wanna go to FFA, here's the meat of the post:

Henry II: Popular with shippers, either with Eleanor or Thomas, with a small but vocal Rosamund contingent.
Richard I: Almost entirely slash, mostly with Philippe II, Saladin, insert-random-troubadour-here, or one of his brothers. Rough trade/sexual predator characterization.
John: Totally gets the Loki/Draco in Leather Pants treatment. Actually, I could easily see his entire character being taken wholesale from fanon!Loki.
Henry III: Ignored.
Edward I: Portrayed as The Devil. In some particularly OTT fics he may even sexually abuse his son/Gaveston/both/everybody.
Edward II: TONS OF FIX-IT FIC. Anything that isn't fix-it fic is coffee shop or university AUs where he and Gaveston get their happy ending. Despenser will be largely ignored and you will never see fic about his other 'favorites'. The Isabella/Roger Mortimer shippers will be the Harmoanians of the fandom.
Edward III: Will either be written as guilt-ridden over the death of his father, or as a psychopath. There are no popular ships for him although some will fangirl or fanboy his wife Philippa.
Richard II: So ~sensitive and ~romantic and ~misunderstood. Fic will be similar in flavor to E2, but with fewer happy endings and more pretentiousness. Most likely to be written as trans*.
Henry IV: Passionate H4/R2 shipper crew. He will be written as more sympathically guilt-ridden than E3.
Henry V: Died young and left a good-looking corpse, and will probably have a healthy fandom that will ignore all the asshole stuff he did. Will be widely OT3d with Katherine and Owen Tudor.
Henry VI: No fandom to speak of.
Edward IV: He and Elizabeth will be a popular het pairings. Will also be shipped with his brother.
Richard III: Woobie.
Henry VII: (Not a Plantagenet but whatevs). Disliked.

Comments

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

Richard II: So ~sensitive and ~romantic and ~misunderstood. Fic will be similar in flavor to E2, but with fewer happy endings and more pretentiousness.

YOU'VE BEEN READING MY FIC

...someone at FFA has been, anyway.

[curtana.livejournal.com]

And mine, except insert Richard I for Richard II >.>

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

I suppose I can't really defend myself against charges of pretentiousness, though! Not without lying through my teeth.

ROFL!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

This is a hoot, and I think you're right about how some characters would be perceived and written. I left a R3 group because of the way the poor lad was being depicted as wet and soppy and 'just wanting to be lurved' by some of the posters. Some said they regarded him as effectively a 'spiritual symbol'. He'd've been horribly embarrassed.

[transemacabre.livejournal.com]

:)

I like some of your R2 fic, but there is something of a tendency in R2 fic, not singling you out in particular, towards pretentiousness. Which I understand, I do. But if there was a fandom, I so think poor H4 would play second fiddle to either R2 or his own son even in what would ostensibly be *his* fic (hell, that Plantagenet fanfic called Henry IV Part 2 might as well be called Henry V: A New Hope).

Re: ROFL!

[transemacabre.livejournal.com]

An active Plantagefic fandom would be like 45% R3 wank at any given time, I think. Not only would there be flamewars over whether he was Saint Richard or Creepy Uncle Richard, but the E4 and H6 and H7 fans (all, like, two of them) would also get in on it. As H7 in particular wasn't a 'romantic' figure or one who inspires warm and fuzzy feelings in anyone, I'd expect him to be demonized.

BTW, this is a bit of a tangent, but DNA from a tissue dipped in Louis XVI's blood has matched the DNA from Henri IV's severed head: http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2013/01/y-chromosome-and-mtdna-of-henri-iv.html (beware of mummified head photos)

Apparently, the YDNA matches but is "extremely rare" in Europe, which thanks to previous DNA tests was established as G2a3b1a. Since it looks like Henri IV and Louis XVI matched up, that puts a nail in the coffin of my theory that Cardinal Mazarin was Louis XIV's real father after all! I remain suspicious that there was a 'non-paternity event' somewhere in the Bourbon line leading to Henri IV, as G2a3b1a is SO RARE and you'd expect a bit more of it scattered around Europe from a family as large and randy as the Capetians/Bourbons were.

Re: ROFL!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

As H7 in particular wasn't a 'romantic' figure or one who inspires warm and fuzzy feelings in anyone, I'd expect him to be demonized.

Kind of sad. Before the TB really kicked in, he was quite good-looking - with what I call the 'Beaufort face', shared by Richard III, James III, James IV, and - in a remarkable throw-back - Cardinal Henry Benedict Stuart. (See the Torrigiano bust.) His death-mask is horribly emaciated. (He was only 5 years older than me when he died.)

Since it looks like Henri IV and Louis XVI matched up, that puts a nail in the coffin of my theory that Cardinal Mazarin was Louis XIV's real father after all!

I never believed that. Louis XIV was, after all, Anne of Austria's 5th pregnancy - just the first that made it to term/survived birth. Some people have bad luck like that - and on one occasion, the Duchesse de Chevreuse (who was in with Gaston &co) was blamed for encouraging the Queen to run around playing hide-and-seek when she was pregnant, resulting in a fall and miscarriage.

Re: ROFL!

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Just to clarify confusing sentence order: I meant the Torrigiano bust of H7. I did layer it in Photoshop with the James IV portrait with the hawk, and with the pastel portrait of Cardinal Henry in armour. They have the same face shape, and the fit of the jaw-line is especially strong. Henry VII's nose is different, though - I think the beaky nose comes from the Beauchamps, as his mother also has it in an otherwise Beaufort face.

Re: ROFL!

[transemacabre.livejournal.com]

It's fun spotting the resemblances in portraiture. Charles II looked a lot like his maternal grandfather Henri IV -- actually, all Henrietta Maria's Stuart children favored her. James II looked a bit like his dad, Charles I.

Taking a long look at their portraits, it looks like Louis XIV, Louis XII, and Marie de Medici all had the same nose.

I think I mentioned this before, but similar DNA tests done on the descendants of the duke of Monmouth (bastard son of Charles II) matched up to distant Stewart cousin, descended from Charles Stewart of Ardsheal. This seems to finally put to rest the rumors that Charles II was not Monmouth's biological father. As a by-the-way, it also confirms the paternities of all the royal Stuart guys from Charles II at least back to his common ancestor with the Ardsheal Stewarts: Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland.

Herc was on a roll!

[speak-me-fair.livejournal.com]

But I reserve all my misunderstood moments for the boys our RII left behind. Callous, simply callous, to die a martyr, alas, so so sad...it does rather set the precedent...