13 Mini Samurai Film Reviews, AKA The Toshiro Mifune Fan Post

Other Samurai Posts

More Samurai Film Reviews! AKA The Zatoichi Fan Post

Originally posted May 17, 2020

Husband John has recently started showing me his large samurai/kurosawa film collection. It’s been a lot of fun and I’ve been really enjoying it so far. Here are my brief reviews of what we’ve watched so far, in case anyone else is interested in getting into this genre. John’s collection is all on DVD, but I know a lot of these films are available on streaming through the Criterion Channel and for rental on Amazon Prime.

I’ll keep adding more of these as we watch them because John has a ton of them and like, what else are we going to do right now during all this self-isolation?

(** = favorites)

1. Throne of Blood (Spider Web Castle) (directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1957)- very good and beautifully done, but since it's based off of Macbeth, it's obviously pretty dark. I'm sad that there's only one "witch" vs. the original three and the lack of Macduff removes a lot of the personal cost of Macbeth's choices, but as friend Jeff pointed out, it makes Macbeth's ultimate fall and death more obviously the consequences of his own choices. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

Throne of Blood

Yojimbo

Sanjuro

Rashoman

2. Rashomon (Directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1950)- This film shows the same crime from the viewpoints of five different people, who tell the story in incredibly different ways. This film is considered one of the greatest ever made and spawned an entire type of story-telling commonly seen in TV shows called “The Rashomon Effect.”
It’s all beautiful and interesting and gorgeously shot, but I’ll admit that my favorite portions were honestly the ones with just the three dudes talking at the gate, trying to figure out this story. I would have loved it if the one female character wasn't so obviously deceitful and kinda evil though - like - can we understand WHY she wanted to leave her husband and go with the bandit? Was it an arranged marriage? Does she long for adventure? Come on. The shots directly at the sun were gorgeous and I loved the subtle differentiations from the versions of the story, like when the bandit tells the story, the sword fight is glorious and amazing, but when the random bystander tells the story, the sword fight is clumsy and awkward. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

3. Yojimbo (the Bodyguard) (Directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1961)**- My FAVORITE so far. The main character is a grumpy nameless unemployed samurai (ronin) who plays two sides of a gang war off each other to make money but ultimately does the right thing to save the lives of some of the innocents around town. The film is heavily inspired by Westerns and you can tell. From that summary, it doesn't sound hilarious, but it IS, I promise you. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

4. Sanjuro (Directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1962)**- The grumpy samurai with a hidden heart of gold from Yojimbo (who often uses the name Sanjuro, but it's heavily implied that this is a fake name, as he makes up his names by looking at random plants and taking their names as his own) returns in this film, where he ends up helping out a gang of well-intentioned fools who were trying to root out corruption in their clan and almost get themselves and their family members killed in the process. Sanjuro helps them out but does it in his own style, calling them idiots much of the movie. There's also an ultra hilarious bit with a captured bandit occasionally emerging from the closet in which he's been stashed to make commentary/celebrate with the heroes, and then quickly returning to the closet when he's noticed. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

The Hidden Fortress

5. The Hidden Fortress (Directed by Akira Kurosawa, 1958)- The samurai movie that greatly inspired George Lucas while he was making Star Wars! A princess and a general, some of the last survivors of their clan after a devastating war, attempt to travel with their clan's remaining gold. across enemy territory to get to safety with an ally. The story is told from the viewpoint of two greedy peasants who bicker constantly, who heavily inspired the introduction of Star Wars with R2-D2 and C3PO. Some of this movie is hilarious and some of it is beautiful (a scene in which a huge group of captured peasants stages a breakout and tries to escape down a long flight of stairs is particularly well shot), but the pacing is really odd and slow at times and I occasionally found myself bored even during dramatic sword fights. There’s also a scene where the two greedy peasants openly plot to rape the princess and it is SO FUCKED UP (don’t worry, they don’t succeed). But at least most of the men wear Very Tiny Shorts that show off their Very Toned Legs, which provides just so much entertainment. (featuring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

6. Samurai I: Miyamoto Musashi (Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, 1954)- The first of a trilogy about legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi. The story itself is well told and beautifully shot, but has some weird plot holes and details that it never bothers to explain, like why the hero is initially considered "wild" and why everyone is trying to capture him. But all the characters are really wonderful and are introduced in a really interesting way. The opening scene with Tensuke and Matahachi talking about their dreams in a tree is beautiful. Akemi and Oko are introduced in a way that makes them seem all really nice; their inner villainy is only gradually revealed. I also really love Otsu and how she goes after the man she wants in a time when like…that’s not a thing women were suppose to do. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

[SPOILERY: Also, the conclusion has a monk capture the hero and lock him in a tower with books for three years until he emerges as a better, wiser man, which I have some SERIOUS problems with. It’s very WTF.]

Samurai I

Samurai II

Samurai III

7. Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, 1955)- This is probably my favorite of the three films, as Musashi's growth in this film actually makes sense and some of the subplots in the background are really entertaining. Why is this one school of sword fighters utterly determined to gang up on Musashi and treat him poorly even when their own founder wants to fight him honorably? Why is Akemi's mother a horrible person who pimps her out and later abandons her? Why does Musashi's former friend Matahachi want to kill him when all this friend's misfortune is the result of his own poor decisions? Why is Akemi so mean and why is she so obsessed with Musashi now? Why does everyone want to kill poor Otsu? We don't know. But it's fun to watch it happen. Other historical samurai Saski Kojiro is introduced in this film and he's very handsome, honorable, and funny in his own way.(starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

[SPOILERY: The romance between Musashi and Otsu is also really beautiful, although I'm irritated behind reason at the end of the film when Musashi (the man she's waited for and searched for for like, 4+ years) tries to kiss her and she's immediately like /no, cries/ and he leaves because he's...confused? I don't know. It's all stupid and neither of their actions make sense given everything we know about their great love for each other]

8. Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, 1956) - This film gives a satisfying conclusion to Musashi’s story but weirdly abandons some of the minor characters from the previous two films. Matahachi? Gone without a trace and zero explanation for where he went. Akemi’s villainous mother Oko is never seen, and her absence is explained only very briefly. But the plotting in this movie probably makes the most sense of all the films in this trilogy?
Musashi himself has grown into a Mature And Wise Samurai who makes Smart Decisions and doesn’t just kill people willy nilly. He decides to peace out with his kid mentee from the previous film and his new mentee (a random guy who threatened to kill him until he saw him catch a fly with chopsticks out of thin air and turned into the surprised Pikachu meme) and go run a farm for a year. Otsu and Akemi both follow him and confess their love, Akemi predictably causes trouble, etc. etc. Eventually Musashi fights Sasaki in the duel in the title. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

Sword of Doom

Zatoichi meets Yojimbo

9. Sword of Doom (directed by Kihachi Okamoto, 1966)- This is a very interesting film that actually has an amoral and villainous samurai as its protagonist. He basically kills a lot of people without feeling badly about it and ultimately gets his comeuppance, but the plot is actually a lot more complicated and interesting than that, but hard to summarize just in a paragraph or two. I actually quite like it, but it’s definitely the strangest film we’ve watched so far. Mifuno plays a relatively minor role as the head of a sword fighting school who shows up later in the film. (featuring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

10. Zatoichi meets Yojimbo (Directed by Kikachi Okamoto, 1970)** - This film is utterly ridiculous but hilarious. Zatoichi is a blind master swordsman/masseuse (because that’s a thing in Japan apparently) and this is the TWENTIETH film starring him. He’s a very mild mannered character who’s basically Japanese Daredevil, with insane fighting skills and heightened sense that he uses to bring justice to the world. Mifune plays a “yojimbo” (bodyguard) who is similar to his grumpy samurai character with hidden heart of gold in Yojimbo/Sanjuro, but distinctly different. Basically, Zatoichi goes back to his hometown and found that LOTS has changed, as the townspeople are all afraid of a local gang. The plot is a bit complicated, and features a money skimming scheme from the government mint, but basically Zatoichi and Yojimbo constantly are trying to kill each other, drink together, or outsmart the gang together. Hilarity ensues in many many ways. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

UPDATED 06/08/2020 -

11. Samurai Assassin (Directed by Kihachi Okamoto, 1965).  *** -  This film is based on a historical assassination known as the Sakuradamon incident that happened in 1860, immediately before the Meiji Restoration did away with the castes in society, basically ending the era of the shogun and the samurai. It starts out as a classic heist movie, with the plotters of an assassination of an important feudal lord discussing why their first attempt failed. As the film continues, it gradually focuses more and more on Niiro Tsurichiyo (played by Toshiro Mifune), a talented swordfighter with a tragic backstory, in which he was not allowed to marry the love of his life because of his illegitimacy and lack of knowledge as to his father’s identity. The fact that his mother and stepfather knew who his powerful noble father was but wouldn’t tell him so he could marry his love made him very bitter and angry. Now he’s a heavy drinker who lives in a shack on the side of the river. The assassination is being run by a specific gang and Niiro is hired on just for the conspiracy, which he thinks will make his fortune and improve his prospects tremendously. He’s the type of guy who picks his nose defiantly when everyone in the room looks at him.

The boss of the gang leading the heist reminds me very much of a Japanese Al Pacino. It’s something about the chin or the cheeks.

There’s a very sad subplot where both Niiro and his good friend, a scholar who firmly believes that the shogunate needs to fall for Japan to modernize, are suspected of betraying the conspiracy. The boss orders Niiro to kill his friend, which he reluctantly does, as he thinks this is necessary for him to make his fortune. It’s later determined that the friend did NOT in fact betray the conspiracy.

 Do all women in samurai films have names starting with O? The heroine in this film is called Okiko, and she’s notable because she looks a lot like Niiro’s lost love. She ends up taking pity on Niiro when she learns his story and befriends him and his stepfather.  

SPOILERS: It gets VERY Greek at the end when it’s revealed that the target of the assassination is Niiro’s own father, which of course he doesn’t know. Basically everyone in the film realizes this before Niiro, including the gang, which takes steps to kill Niiro and erase his name from all the records of their plot. Niiro, still in ignorance, ends up overcoming the yakuza and beheading the intended victim (his father), walking off triumphantly crowing about how he’s the victor and he’s going to be the most amazing samurai in the world, in an act that results in him killing his own father and also leading to the end of the samurai altogether. It feels a bit Lord of the Rings at the end, in that it’s a very sad ending of an era.

12. Red Lion (Directed by Kihaci Okamoto, 1969)** - This one has a WILDLY uneven energy but I ended up really loving it. It started very manic and comedic, almost Monty Python in nature, and ends up very sad but triumphant, with a downright Les Miserables feel at the end. This one is also based around a real historical phenomenon– ee ja nai ka, which refers to a series of mass dancing festivals/protests that first occurred when sacred papers were said to have fallen from heaven. The crowds ended up celebrating with mass dancing and chants of “ee ja nai ka,” a defiant and fatalistic cry that roughly translates to “Who cares,” “whatever,” or “why not?” (I got this translation from the Wikipedia article on the subject, but the subtitles actually translated it as “It’s okay it’s okay never mind”). This mass dance/chant protest phenomenon shows up throughout the film, first when the hero has someone hiding in a tree drop sacred papers on the people to make them believe in his cause, and later, whenever the villagers end up celebrating or defying the evil magistrate or the evil army.  At one point during a dangerous, tense situation, a group of small children actually starts to dance in the streets and chant “it’s okay it’s okay never mind.” It’s incredibly inspiring. (Also husband John and I now recite ee ja nai ka at each other CONSTANTLY whenever anything falls to the ground).

Gonzo (played by Toshiro Mifune) is a minor member of the Sekihotai, an army that is going around spreading the news of the restoration of the emperor and the downfall of the shoguns, specifically telling all the villages about a brand new tax cut. Gonzo volunteers to ride ahead to tell his own home village about the tax cuts and with his manic blustery style, talks the officer into lending him his unusual “red lion” mane wig so he has some authority.

The villagers misunderstand his presence and think he’s there to rescue them from an evil magistrate who’s been swindling them for years (a la, Jayne in the Jaynetown episode of Firefly). He ends up blundering his way into success; he’s kind of an idiot and people keep joking that he’s mentally disabled due to falling out of a tree as a child, but he’s a great swordfighter and is very confident. The energy for the first half of the film is humorous but manic, with an underlying sadness, desperation, and uncertainty. Gonzo successfully gets the villagers their money back, stops the corrupt government officials, and wins back his old girlfriend, all while keeping up the pretense that he’s actually someone with authority. His mother, who formerly called him an idiot and told him he was going to get himself killed, even came around to his way of thinking and became proud of him, saying at one point “If only for three days you’ve made it a peasants world.” 

The monty python bits are so funny. There’s a weird running gag where some of the young men in the village who run to help out Gonzo keep falling over and crashing into each other like dominos. There are some amazing bits where the villagers, celebrating their success over the evil magistrate and others, fantasize about what to do with the corrupt government officials and are like “let’s make him a bull to plow our fields” and then it flashes to a scene of that dude acting as a bull, then one as a singer, one is a dog. (Also, the sort-of antagonist ronin figure has a cat and I LOVE HIM. )

About halfway through, the energy turned from very comedic to dark, although there’s still a bit of comedy. I also deeply appreciate a character whose last words as he was dying were a pun. He really committed to that joke.  

SPOILERS – Gonzo’s troop from the beginning is basically all massacred and blamed for “inaccurate information” after a change of policy once the group proper realizes that they can’t afford the tax cuts they’ve been promising everyone. This apparently did happen in real life, where the imperial forces did indeed promise one thing, then later changed their mind and kill the troops vanguard who were only spreading the news they were told to.

So at the end, almost all the named characters we’ve come to love and care about dies, but the peasants (led by the children and the women, even though they are TERRIFIED and crying) end up rising up en masse to dance and chant and push the evil imperial forces (who killed everyone) out of town. This includes Gonzo’s elderly mother, who is literally SOBBING as she dances and chants with everyone else. It’s utterly heartbreaking and inspiring and “do you hear the people sing” all at the same time. The red lion mane is stamped beneath their dancing feet at the end.

Samurai Banners

13. Samurai Banners (Directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, 1969) - This is another historical samurai film, although further back in time (1500s). Some of the characters are historical, but a lot of the plot is invented or embellished. The general Yamamoto Kansuke was real (and in real life, he had a weak leg and used a support to get around, as is shown in the film), his warlord Takeda Shingen was real, and the warlord’s son and successor Takeda Katsuyori was real, although it appears that we don’t know his mother’s real name.

The main plot focuses on Yamamoto Kansuke, a ronin who becomes the general of powerful warlord Takeda Shingen (who uses distinctive red banners, which give the film its name) and helps him conquer clan after clan. The film starts with a black and white prologue which clearly displays Kansuke’s ruthlessness, as he tricks another ronin into letting him attack him to show off to the Takeda Shingen’s family then kills him.

This plot is mostly pretty straight battles and murders and strategy, but the presence of the strong-willed and firey Princess Yu, the daughter of Suwa Yorishige, a clan leader assassinated by Kansuke’s men, adds a lot of character and interest to the story. Yu ends up joining Shingen’s household after refusing to commit suicide (like the rest of her family did). Kansuke advises her to become Shingen’s concubine in order to unite their clans. Yu refuses at first, but changes her mind when Shinge’s first wife speaks in her presence about how it would be shameful to let her lineage die. From what I can tell, it appears that Japanese beliefs about concubinage and illegitimacy were very different from Western views in the same period, as concubines had a specific status in a household and their children were both legitimate and could inherit. Yu and Shingen’s son Takeda Katsuyori ends up succeeding his father as the head of the Takeda clan (husband john says he was actually a famously shitty general).

Wikipedia calls the relationship between Kansuke, Yu, and Shingen a love triangle but the Kansuke- Princess Yu relationship really looks more like a classic courtly love relationship to me. He never seems to aspire to anything more than being able to serve her, and he puts the interests of Shingen, in pursuit of his goal of a united Japan over everyone else.

The main character is a samurai who doesn’t abide by the general honor rules we’ve seen in other samurai films, and he’s overall very ruthless and violent, but his focus on achieving his dream of a united Japan and his soft spot for Princess Yu and her son somehow tempers all that. He also has a nice friendship with a farmer named Bohei, who he takes on as his spearman after he teases him in the early moments of the film. It also helps that he’s played by Toshiro Mifune, who I just adore.

The film overall is a bit long and onerous at times, as it features lots of battle and battle strategy talks and that’s just not something I’m particularly interested in. 90% of the film is traditionally shot, with super beautiful costumes and scenes, but there were a weird few scenes where the coloring went into photo negative style? I don’t know, it was odd. I believe the intent was to show grief but it really sticks out compared to the traditional style of the rest of the film.

I noticed something in this movie that I’ve since seen in other films – the Japanese sense of honor in that even when you’re launching a sneak attack or trying to kill someone in their sleep, you announce your attack a split second before you act. I asked husband John about this (who knows a lot more about Japanese culture than I do, and he says that this is really embedded in Japanese culture, to the extent that when the Empire attacked Pearl harbor, a lot of the fighter pilots were actually very upset that it wasn’t announced beforehand.

Ran

Ikiru

I’ve also previously watched these Kurosawa films with John back in August 2019 or earlier, so I want to re-watch them again now with the Samurai knowledge I have now. :)

- Seven Samurai (1954)

- Ran (1985)

- Ikiru (1952) (not a samurai film, but an important kurosawa work)

5 Zatoichi Samurai Film Reviews! AKA The Zatoichi Fan Post

Other Samurai Posts
Short Reviews of MANY Samurai Films! AKA The Toshiro Mifune Fan Post

The Samurai movie marathon continues!

I’ve written a few more super quick Samurai film reviews, which are sort of haphazardly arranged to include lots of fun facts I’ve learned while obsessing over Samurai films. Really though, everything we’ve watched lately is Zatoichi, so just assume everything in here is going to be about him. We’ll be watching him for a while, as he was featured in 26 films from 1962-1989 and a 100 episode TV series in the 70s. John only has the first four films in it though, so we need to figure out how to access all the others here soon.

By the way, the main character’s name is simply Ichi. “Zato” refers to the lowest ranking in the Todoza, which was a guild for blind men (there actually was a different guild for blind women). Edo society was HIGHLY socially stratified with little to no opportunities to change your career or life really, so Zatoichi’s title reflects that. This social stratification is a recurring theme throughout the films. Ichi is basically one of the lowest ranking members of the society, partly as a result of and in addition to his blindness, which is a big reason why his skill with the sword always surprises everyone. In addition, during the Edo period, technically only men in the samurai class were allowed to carry swords, but this wasn’t enforced very well. As a result though, Ichi always uses a cane sword, which he keeps hidden within the cane until he really needs it.

The first two Zatoichi films are in black and white, and MANY of the characters wear very similar outfits and have very similar hairstyles, so frankly, both John and I really struggled to tell some of them apart. It got much easier in the third film and later when the color in the outfits, skin, and hair helped distinguish characters more.

One of the most common haircuts you see in Zatoichi is the chonmage, which features a shaved top of the head and long sides that are tied into a topknot at the back of the head. Like every other yakuza character in the films I’ve seen so far seems to have this haircut. The nice thing is that you can always tell the major protagonist/non-yakuza antagonist characters apart, as they usually seem to have a full head of hair, like Ichi.

Oh! So “yakuza” as its used in the films means “gangster.” Apparently the term actually originates from a traditional card game called Oicho-Kabu. I briefly tried to understand the rules of this game so I could explain it in more depth but quickly gave up – basically, tl;dr – “Ya-ku-za” is made up of the three numbers which create the worst possible hand that can be drawn in the game.

On to the actual little film reviews! *** Indicates my favorites!

1. The Tale of Zatoichi (directed by Kenji Misumi, April 1962)

The Tale of Zatoichi

Since we already watched “Zatoichi meets Yojimbo” and I seriously loved Zatoichi in it, we went back to try to watch all the other ones. This is the first one!

Blind masseur Ichi is hired by the leader of a gang, as he thinks that he’s about to have to go to war with his rival. Rival gang leader hires a ronin (unemployed samurai) named Miki Hirate. Hirate and Ichi meet unexpectedly while fishing and form a very sweet friendship; they later do everything they can to NOT actually fight in the gang war so they can avoid hurting each other, but circumstances turn against them and they do end up wrapped up in it. In the process, Ichi meets the beautiful Otane, who desperately wants to get away from her current gangster partner.

I do love the many ways Ichi fools people into thinking he’s easy pickings and then outsmarts them all. I’ve now watched five of his movies and so far, they all start with a variation on “people underestimating Ichi and getting shown up hilariously.”

Zatoichi is amazing and his samurai friend Hirate are also wonderful, but the underlying story is pretty basic gangster fighting for most of it. I’ve seen a few films with the “brilliant swordsman/samurai outsmarts one or more gangs” setup before (yojimbo and zatoichi meets yojimbo come to mind) and I really thought this was going to go the same way, but I was saddened to see it end tragically instead, as both Ichi and hitare are instead caught up in the gang violence unwillingly, just in their efforts to save each other, and end up having a tragic ending. Ichi survives but is horribly sad at the end of it all.

This film also introduces the recurring Zatoichi character Tane, who will appear three times total. I love that she’s this strong woman who chides her brother for his bad behavior, refuses to go back to her gangster partner, and tells Ichi that she loves him and will follow him anywhere. /swoon/ Of course this film is from 1962 Japan so we don’t get a kiss or anything, but at least Ichi has an OPTION of a fantastic romance. 

Stylistically: every once in a while they do these very quick camera zoom-ins that are...very odd. And over dramatic. They have occasional discordant chords in the musical soundtrack that have a similar effect. 

2. The Tale of Zatoichi Continues (Directed by Kazuo Mori, October 1962)

The Tale of Zatoichi Continues

One year after the events of the first Zatoichi film, Ichi travels back to pay respects at the grave of Hirate. He accidentally discovers a powerful lord’s unstable mental condition while giving him a massage; his retainers decide to kill him to keep him quiet about their lord’s insanity. After their attack fails, they hire gangsters to hunt Ichi down. Ichi defeats everyone per usual and gets back to Hirate’s grave, where gangsters find him and attack him en masse. Otane, who is now about to be married to a local carpenter, learns that Ichi is in town and runs to warn him. A mysterious warrior who’s appeared throughout the film ends up revealing himself as Ichi’s brother, who ran off with the woman Ichi loved. Further complications ensue and everyone cries at the end.

I was surprised at how short this one was – only 72 minutes. This one was good but had some pretty big visual and plot comprehension problems for me and John? Like, we only caught two big key points of the film by reading the Wikipedia article about it afterward (that one of the character only had one arm and that the noble lord was supposed to be insane). It’s a little annoying to watch a film closely and then just…not even slightly understand WHY everyone’s trying to kill Ichi or WHY this other character keeps referring to himself as “crippled.”

There is also some SUPER soap opera-y music at times in here that’s just really distracting.

I was delighted to learn that Zatoichi character Shintaro Katsu’s actual brother Tomisaburo Wakyama played Ichi’s brother in this film. He would go on to play Ogami Itto, a different warrior character, in the six Lone Wolf and Cub samurai films (which is apparently all about a samurai wandering around fighting people while pushing his baby son around in a pram all around the countryside – and I DESPERATELY need to see this now).

This is another one with an unexpectedly sad ending that breaks your heart a little.

Also Ichi actually got laid in this film and I actually cheered because Y’ALL, the hero NEVER gets any proper happy romance in a samurai movie and it drives me NUTS.

3. The New Tale of Zatoichi (Directed by Tokuzo Tanaka, March 1963)***

The New Tale of Zatoichi

Ichi travels back to his old village and reunites with his former sensei, Banno, and Banno’s younger sister Yayoi. It becomes apparent that Banno is involved with a group of bandits and is committing crimes around the village. Yayoi confesses her love for Ichi and asks him to marry her. Ichi is completely amazed by this and agrees to turn around his life for her, but alas, Banno is utterly furious at Ichi, a mere zato in caste, even considering the idea of marrying a samurai’s daughter. Chaos ensues.

Oh this one broke my heart so beautifully. This is the most compelling story so far, with Ichi reuniting with numerous people he’s known for many years. His usual Ichi shenanigans at the beginning actually result in him helping a good many people after they got robbed, which is nice.

This is the first one in color and it is CINEMATIC AS FUCK, y’all. Just so pretty. Also the music in this one is MUCH IMPROVED from the weird soap opera-y music of the first two films.

The romantic scene between Ichi and Yayoi is so gloriously acted, y’all. His unbelieving and rapturous expression at her declaration of love is so beautiful, which is why it makes it even more sad when her brother immediately throws him out of the house.

There’s also a really great scene where a man trying to avenge his brother’s death challenges Ichi to a fight right after he agrees to change his ways, and Ichi and Yayoi beg for the man’s mercy, as Ichi does not want to fight any more. He ends up actually being very merciful to Ichi. It’s beautifully compelling and reminds me a lot of the scene in Kill Bill where Beatrix begs an assassin to leave right after she discovered she’s pregnant, which makes her want to change her life (which I’m sure is very deliberate, as Tarantino based a SHIT ton of Kill Bill off of samurai cinema).

4. Zatoichi The Fugitive (Directed by Tokuzo Tanaka, August 1963)***

Zatoichi the Fugitive

This is another shorter Zatoichi film – only 86 minutes. However it actually has a more complex plot than many of the other films, as all the different little bits and characters are woven together more tightly than the previous three.

Ichi kills a young yakuza man he has never met when he attacks him, in order to get the monetary reward for his mother. He then journeys to meet the man’s mother Maki, offering her an apology and some money, which he claims was from her son. Though Maki accepts Ichi as honorable, her son’s comrades decide to avenge his death by killing Ichi (they’re also pissed because Ichi defeated several people in a sumo match). While staying at an inn in town, Ichi comes across Otane, the woman he loves from the first two Zatoichi films. She is now with a quick-tempered ronin named Tanakura, and refuses to be around Ichi, as she feels too ashamed at the depths to which she has fallen.

The innkeeper’s daughter Nobu is in love with the young man set to inherit the local yakuza’s banking position, but her father does not approve, seeing the young man as weak. The yakuza tell the young man he must kill Ichi or he will lose his position. He sets a trap for Ichi by claiming that Otane was taken hostage, but this only results in LOTS of people that are not Ichi dying, including Tane.

There are a few really beautiful relationships in this film that I haven’t seen as often in other samurai films. Ichi develops a very mother-son relationship with Maki, despite actually being the killer of her son, and a really sweet brotherly relationship with Nobu. He’s also very understanding of Nobu’s lover trying to kill him and basically tells him to get his shit together at the end.

This film has an underlying theme of people striving for a past which is lost forever: the innkeeper and his daughter Nobu yearn for their previous wealth, Otane yearns for who she was when she was younger, before she got caught up in crime, and the young lover yearns to live up to his family’s position in the Yakuza, even though it’s not what he really wants for himself. It’s really well done.

There’s a scene at the beginning in a festival area that’s just really gorgeous, lots of color and rainbow and festivities. It’s paralleled at the end when a heartbroken Ichi dances somewhat maniacally down a path to some music in the background, a single festival decoration rolling near his feet.

I’m literally never going to be okay with Tane’s end. :(

5. Zatoichi meets Yojimbo (Directed by Kikachi Okamoto, 1970)***

Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo

[This was in my original post but I’m putting this in here too so all the Zatoichi reviews are together!]

This film is utterly ridiculous but hilarious. Zatoichi is a blind master swordsman/masseuse (because that’s a thing in Japan apparently) and this is the TWENTIETH film starring him. He’s a very mild mannered character who’s basically Japanese Daredevil, with insane fighting skills and heightened sense that he uses to bring justice to the world. Mifune plays a “yojimbo” (bodyguard) who is similar to his grumpy samurai character with hidden heart of gold in Yojimbo/Sanjuro, but distinctly different. Basically, Zatoichi goes back to his hometown and found that LOTS has changed, as the townspeople are all afraid of a local gang. The plot is a bit complicated, and features a money skimming scheme from the government mint, but basically Zatoichi and Yojimbo constantly are trying to kill each other, drink together, or outsmart the gang together. Hilarity ensues in many many ways. (starring the glorious Toshiro Mifuno)

Disney Crowns and Tiaras: Historical and Modern Inspirations (Part I)

Related Blog Posts:

• Disney Crowns and Tiaras: Historical and Modern Inspirations (Part I) - Snow White, Alice in Wonderland (cartoon and live), Sleeping Beauty/Maleficent, Robin Hood, and the Great Mouse Detective

• Disney Crowns and Tiaras: Historical and Modern Inspirations (Part II): Cinderella, Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Frog, and The Sword in the Stone!

• Diadems, Tiaras, and Crowns, Oh My! - an overview of types, definitions, and purposes

• The Classic Disney Influences in the Costumes of "The Descendants”

I’m going through all the crowns and tiaras shown in Disney animated films, analyzing their historical inspirations, and comparing them to actual crowns and tiaras worn by royals around the world! I’m not definitively saying that these original crowns/tiaras WERE inspirations for those in the films, but am just looking for similarities. There are so many though, that I’m just going to try to talk about 5 or so in each post.

Today, I’m going to look at crowns and tiaras in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the various Alice in Wonderland films, the various Sleeping Beauty/Maleficent films, Robin Hood, and the Great Mouse Detective.

(L to R): Evil Queen , “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” - 1937; Uta von Ballenstedt statue - ~1044; She Who Must be Obeyed, “She” - 1935; and Princess Kriemhild, “Die Nibelungen” - 1924.

Evil Queen (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937) - Only one character in the first full-length Disney animated film wears a crown: The Evil Queen. She sports a spiky gold “open” crown, with only a single pearl at the top. Keep an eye out for this style of crown, because we’ll see variations on it many more times in other Disney movies.

The queen’s look was mostly inspired by a statue of Uta von Ballenstedt at the Naumburg Cathedral in Naumburg, Germany. Uta was supposedly the most beautiful woman in medieval Germany. Many elements of the queen’s costume, including her headcovering, high cape, facial expression, and large pendant necklace are drawn from this. The character known as She Who Must Be Obeyed in the 1935 film “She” also is a likely inspiration for Snow White’s queen. Her crown, however, though gold like Uta’s and tall like the character in “She,” looks to be more inspired by Princess Kriemhild in the 1924 silent film “Die Nibelungen.”

I only found one actual royal crown with large spikes on it- the Danish king Christian IV’s coronation crown, made in ~1595 (below left, on the top). It does look pretty similar to the Eastern crown (also known as the Antique crown) in heraldry, except for the taller central front spike and the pearl at the top (below left, on the bottom).

It does have some similarities to the Diamond Festoon Necklace Tiara as well! (below center)

The Evil Queen’s tiara is much simpler than any of these real crowns and appears to be just solid gold, with only a single pearl on the top. Although the crown was probably designed this way to make the animation easier, historically, relatively simple gem-less metal tiaras became popular in the mid-1700s and through to the Victorian age. These cut steel tiaras were a less expensive way for women to obtain sparkly jewelry when they couldn’t afford diamonds or other precious gems. These were still time-consuming and beautiful though, as they were specifically cut and carved to shimmer as a diamond would. You can see an example below right.

Dutch Diamond Festoon Necklace Tiara - 1889

Swedish Cut Steel Bandeau - ~early 1800s
(Credit: Pascal Le Segretain / Wireimage)

Notes:

• Quick Reminder:

  • Crown – A full circle headpiece with an emblematic function associated with sovereignty and nobility.

  • Tiara – An open semi-circular headpiece that usually does not encircle the head, but perches on the top. Worn by royal and noble women at white tie events, formal state occasions, and weddings.

• Open crowns, without bands overhead, are the oldest crowns and leave the wearer’s head open to the sky. The vast majority of crowns in Disney animated films appear to be open. However, historically, closed crowns became the dominant design in sovereignty headgear in the middle ages and are the dominant type today.

• Although the Evil Queen wears her crown throughout the movie (except when she’s disguised as an old woman), in real life, crowns would only be worn on special occasions, such as at coronations or upon other state occasions.

L to R: Queen of Hearts, “Alice in Wonderland” film - 1951; The Queen of Hearts, “Alice in Wonderland” book - 1865 (John Tenniel); Red Queen, “Alice in Wonderland” film - 2010; The Red Queen, “Through the Looking Glass” book -1871 (John Tenniel); and Elizabeth I - 1585 (portrait by Nicholas Hilliard).

L to R: The White Queen, “Alice in Wonderland” film - 2010; The White Queen, “Alice Through the Looking Glass” film - 2016; The White Queen, “Through the Looking Glass” book - 1871 (John Tenniel); and Elizabeth I, coronation portrait - 1559 (unknown artist).

Swedish Ducal Coronet

The Queen of Hearts/Red Queen; The White Queen - All of the Queens in the Alice in Wonderland (both animated and live action) movies wear spiky crowns that are relatively small and sit on top of their head instead of encircling them. This reminds me a bit of a Swedish ducal coronet (right).

In the book “Alice in Wonderland” (1865), the Queen of Hearts is drawn as a playing card character and sports a gable hood rather than a crown. She’s actually a totally different character from the Red Queen, who appears along with the White Queen in the book “Through the Looking-Glass” (1871), but the characters are commonly confused or melded together like in the live-action film series. The red and white queen characters in the books are clearly based off of chess pieces, which explains the continued spiky crown theme.

What’s interesting is that both characters in the live action films have some similarities to Elizabeth I at different times in her life. The Red Queen’s red hair, the shape of her updo, and her use of white makeup all over her face is clearly based off of Elizabeth I’s later looks. However, the white queen’s pallor and long flowing locks have some similarities to the young Elizabeth I’s look at her coronation. Both queens’ costumes have some Tudor elements to them, but neither crown looks like the Tudor crown (shown in Elizabeth’s coronation portrait), apart from the general “perched on top of head” appearance.

Notes:

• Coronet – Small crown generally worn by dukes and earls at coronations, and often worn by princes/princesses at formal events. These are standardized for various peers, with different designs for each rank (e.g., Duke, Marquess, Earl, Viscount, Baron).

L to R: King Stefan and Queen Leah, “Sleeping Beauty” - 1959; Crown of Scotland (sans cap); King Stefan, “Maleficent” - 2014; Queen Leila, “Maleficent” - 2014; Stéphanie de Beauharnais, Grand Duchess of Baden's pearl-and-diamond tiara - 1830.

King Stefan (1959) and Queen Leah (1959) - Both of these crowns resemble the crown of Scotland without its velvet cap, minus the top arches.

King Stefan (2014) - This crown is very similar to the Swedish Ducal Coronet I talked about previously under the Red Queen/White Queen section, only larger, fitting around his entire head instead of perching on top like with the Alice Queens.

Queen Leila (2014) The shape of her crown reminds me of the pearl-and-diamond tiara of Stéphanie de Beauharnais, Grand Duchess of Baden, made circa 1830.

L to R: Princess Aurora, “Sleeping Beauty” -1959; the Braganza Tiara - 1829, Queen Rania’s diamond tiara (Credit: Tim Graham Picture Library / Getty), King Hubert, “Sleeping Beauty” - 1959; and the crown of Boleslaw I the Brave (replica made in 2001-2003 after originals were lost after 1036 and 1794).

Aurora (1959) - I couldn’t find any plain gold tiaras in this shape, but I did find a few modern silver and diamond that resemble it, such as the Braganza Tiara and Queen Rania’s Diamond Tiara.

King Hubert - I haven’t seen many crowns like this that don’t have arches but DO have a cap, but I DID find this one from the Polish crown jewels, which has arches but they’re so low to the cap that you can only see them from certain angles - The Crown of Bolesław I the Brave, which was the coronation crown of the Polish monarchs.

Queen Ingrith, “Maleficent: Mistress of All Evil” - 2019

L to R: King John and Queen Ingrith, “Maleficent: Mistress of All Evil” - 2019; George IV State Diadem -1820 (Credit: Royal Collection Trust); Aurora, “Maleficent: Mistress of All Evil” - 2019; Danish Ruby Parure Tiara ; Queen Ingrith, “Maleficent: Mistress of All Evil” - 2019; and the Spencer Honeysuckle Tiara - ~1858 .

King John and Queen Ingrith’s crowns both resemble the George IV State Diadem in their shape, color, and overall sparkliness.

Aurora’s gold vine crown bears a resemblance to the Danish ruby parure tiara.

Queen Ingrith’s silver tiara looks like the Spencer Honeysuckle Tiara in height and overall shape.

Queen Ingrith’s tall, thin tiara shares a lot in common with the tall small crowns worn by the red and white queens in Alice in Wonderland (as discussed earlier).

I’ve actually never seen Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, and now I really want to, if only to figure out why Queen Ingrith gets to wear three different crowns throughout it all!

L to R: Prince John, “Robin Hood” - 1973; King John of England’s tomb effigy; portrait of King John; King Richard, “Robin Hood” - 1973; Richard I’s tomb effigy; and Richard I .

Since the stories of Robin Hood include the historical figures Prince John (later King John I) and King Richard I as characters, we can actually look at portraits of them to see how similar the film’s crowns are to their historical counterparts’ crowns. Richard, of course, was known as Richard the Lion-Heart, so both he and Prince John are portrayed as lions.

The crown in Robin Hood appears to be a simplified form of the medieval crown used by King John and Richard I, as seen in their tomb effigies and portraits above. The animated and historical versions all appear to be gold, open crowns with alternating colors and sizes of gemstones, although the animated version has a much more simplified crenelation decoration than the fleur-des-lys/cross like decorations on the historical ones.

I’m fairly sure that the crown or crowns depicted (they LOOK awfully similar, don’t they?) are wearing their state crowns, the “working” crowns of monarchs that they wore regularly, rather than the coronation regalia, which was generally far older, heavier, and more valuable. Although the crown of St. Edward, the traditional coronation regalia for English kings, existed at the time of their reigns, Edward the Confessor wasn’t actually made a saint until 1161, and we don’t actually have any records that his crown was used again before Henry III’s in 1220. Both King Richard and King John reigned before than, from 1189-1199 and 1199-1216 respectively, so it seems likely that they were using different crowns. In addition, written records describing St. Edward’s crown describe it as having arches, while the crown seen in these effigies and paintings is clearly open and without arches.

The Mouse Queen, “The Great Mouse Detective” - 1986; Queen Victoria - 1882 (photographer Alexander Bassano); Queen Victoria’s small diamond crown - 1870 (Credit: Royal Collection Trust); and the Imperial State Crown - 1932 (Credit: Royal Collection Trust).

The mouse queen in “The Great Mouse Detective” is clearly an homage to Queen Victoria, as the character appears to have a similar age, shape, and dress to the real life Victoria. Her small crown worn over a veil is the biggest giveaway, as Victoria herself wore such a miniature crown over her widow’s cap following the death of her husband Prince Albert. After Albert died in 1861, the Queen withdrew from public life. Though she eventually came back into the public view in 1870, she refused to wear the imperial state crown again, partly due to its weight and partly because she could not have worn it over her widow’s cap. The miniature imperial crown was created as a substitute. Victoria continued to wear black and white “widow’s weeds” until he death in 1901.

The mouse queen’s crown does appear to have a velvet cap and at least one gemstone in the base that aren’t visible in Victoria’s crown. Though I haven’t seen a crown /exactly/ like the mouse queen’s, it does appear to borrow some inspiration from the Imperial State Crown of the UK, which has a similar velvet cap and prominent gemstone in its base.

That’s it for now! I have many many many more crowns and tiaras to talk about in the future. :) These posts are very fun but oh man, they take a long time. Thanks for reading everyone!

The Historical Inspirations in Game of Thrones

Plenty of people have written about the parallels between Game of Thrones and the Wars of the Roses before, but I’ve always been interested in how even the small details of the show align with history in some instances. I’ve talked about this numerous times with other English history friends and many of these examples come from those conversations. Many thanks to Leigh Beck for being my constant game of thrones history buddy!

Honestly, because there’s SO much, I’m going to keep adding to this post over many days and weeks, whenever I can. :)

A map of the Westeros and Essos in Games of Thrones

Overarching World-Building, Character, and Historical Things:

• Westeros and Essos : England and Europe. Though Westeros is significantly larger than England, you can still see the similarities when you look at the maps side by side. Essos/Europe are both much larger than Westeros/England, and is where rival claimants (like Henry Tudor and Daenarys Targaryn) go to the throne to hide from the Westerosi/English king’s reach.

Hadrian’s Wall (Credit: Gannet77 / iStock)

The Wall in HBO’s Game of Thrones

• The Wall : Hadrian’s Wall. In Game of Thrones, the Wall runs for 300 miles along the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms from the sea on the west to the Bay of Seals and separates the realm from the domain of the wildlings who live beyond. In the story, it was constructed some eight millennia before. Historically, Hadrian’s wall was built by the Romans in AD 122 (so - ancient times) and runs for 73 miles, from sea to sea.

Hadrian’s Wall on a map of England.

The Wall on a map of Westeros from Game of Thrones

• Tywin Lannister : the Earl of Warwick, the Kingmaker. The way he married off his daughter Cersei to the new king he put on the throne, Robert Baratheon, closely parallels the way Warwick married off first his daughter Isabel to George, Duke of Clarence (Edward IV’s brother) when he tried to put him on the throne, and then his daughter Anne to Edward, Prince of Wales (the son of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou), when he put Henry VI back on the throne.

Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (The Kingmaker)

Tywin Lannister in the TV series

• Jaime Lannister : Richard, Duke of York (in one context) - In the books, it’s described that during Robert’s rebellion, after Jaime killed Aerys Targaryen (for reasons not revealed until the Season 3 episode “Kissed by Fire), he sat on the iron throne. That’s how Ned Stark found him when he arrived at the castle. The Very Honorable Ned was appalled, because 1) Jaime had broken his oath to protect the Mad King and had killed him instead, and 2) Jaime had no right to sit on the throne. Though there’s no evidence that Jaime intended to claim the throne, that’s the message his actions sent.
  This can be seen as a parallel to a specific incident during the Wars of the Roses. In October 1460, after 5 years of on and off battles and political squabbling between the Lancasters and the Yorks, Richard, Duke of York (Edward IV’s dad) arrived in London and took residence at the royal palace. He entered Parliament with his sword borne upright before him (an honor usually only accorded to kings) and placed his hand upon the empty throne, as if he were to sit in it and occupy it. The assembled peers were dead quiet and clearly did not agree with his claim to the throne (for a long time, the Wars of the Roses were about making sure Henry VI was advised by the right people and didn’t focus on deposing him at all). This demonstrated that York would not be supported in his claim to the throne at that time, so instead, he negotiated a truce in which York and his heirs would be recognized as Henry’s successors. The temporary peace that resulted from this agreement only lasted a few months, and within the year, the Duke of York and his eldest son were killed. The death of York, who was extremely popular with the common people, was a huge turning point for the Wars; within a few weeks of his death, his eldest surviving son was named Edward IV.

Lady Mary Grey

A rendition of Tyrion Lannister as described in the books, by Jerg Ruber on Deviantart.

Tyrion Lannister in the TV show (Peter Dinklage)

• Tyrion Lannister : Mary Grey - Tyrion is the youngest child of a very important family in the kingdom and is referred to throughout the books as a dwarf. Mary Grey (1545-1578) was the youngest child of the Greys, who had a claim to the English throne (her sister Jane Grey was the “8 days queen”), and was also likely a little person. Mary was described by a Spanish ambassador as “by the Spanish ambassador as “little crook-backed, and very ugly.” Similarly, although Tyrion is very handsome in the TV show (because Peter Dinklage is GORGEOUS) , in the books he’s portrayed as significantly less so. This picture from Deviantart portrays book Tyrion really well.

  In the books and TV show, it’s related that Tyrion once impulsively married a commoner woman named Tysha in secret; his father punished both him and the woman rather severely for it. Although Mary’s older sister Katherine Grey had married in secret and been fiercely punished for it by Elizabeth I (who didn’t want anyone in line to the throne to get married without her approval, which she was unlikely to give), Mary herself eloped with the Queen’s sergeant porter Thomas Keyes. Keyes was only minor gentry, while Mary was in one of the highest ranking families in the country, and he already had 6-7 children. He also apparently was about 6 feet 8 inches tall! Once the Queen found out about the wedding, Mary was put under house arrest and Keyes was committed to the notorious Fleet prison. They never saw each other again.

• Aerys Targaryen : Henry VI - Decent parallel for Henry VI, the Mad King whose madness started the war over the throne to begin with, although Henry VI was a very pious man whose "madness" took the form of basically being catatonic for several months, while Aegon liked burning and torturing people randomly.

Edward IV

Robert Baratheon in the TV show

• Robert Baratheon : Edward IV, a young, promiscuous man who leads a rebellion and takes over a kingdom from the mad king.
  He and his two brothers Stannis and Renly are a good parallel for the three sons of York- Edward, George, and Richard. Renly's marriage to Margaery Tyrell (the daughter of a very powerful and rich house) can be seen as a reference to George marrying Isabel Neville right before rebelling against his brother Edward.
  Stannis and Renly revolt against Joffrey partly over fears that he's a bastard. There were many rumors that Edward IV was a bastard, a result of his mother's supposed affair with an archer. In addition, Edward IV’s children with Elizabeth Woodville were declared bastards due to their father’s supposed previous marriage to another woman, giving legitimacy to Richard III’s claim to the throne.

• The Old Gods of the Forest : Celtic polytheism

• The Faith of the Seven : Roman Catholicism - Though the faith of the seven is described as polytheistic, while Christianity is monotheistic, the concept of the Trinity is a good parallel to the faith of the seven. Both religions have traditional places of worship with elaborate architecture and decoration, specific religious ceremonies to recognize marriages and births, a supreme religious leader believed to have a a special connection to god (pope/high septon), a holy book, hymns and a specific liturgy, ceremonial garb. They also both unfortunately feature often corrupt priests.

• The Lord of Light : Zoroastrianism

Season 1 Plots and Details:

• Cersei : Anne Neville, daughter of the kingmaker who ends up becoming queen herself

  But also, Cersei : Margaret of Anjou, smarter and fiercer than her husband, ends up leading battles and killing lots of people for the rights of her son (who was portrayed as being rather sadistic in at least some fictionalized versions of history I've read, which are often based on at least rumor)

  Cersei: Elizabeth Woodville, the wife of the Edward IV analogue, from a social climbing family, very close to her brother. A powerful adversary who is fiercely protective of her children (even though they are accused of being illegitimate). In this metaphor, Tyrion is the Richard III character she sees threatening her children.

  Finally, Cersei : Anne Boleyn - Her affair with her brother can be compared to the conviction of Anne Boleyn for incest with her brother (which was almost certainly 100% made up by her enemies).

• Renly Baratheon: George, Duke of Clarence - Both Renly and George, Duke of Clarence thinks they should be king, just because. Both have to be put to death by his brother for the sake of the realm (Clarence was executed by Edward IV after he’d rebelled against him a few times, accused the queen of witchcraft, and hired a sorcerer to foretell the king’s death, which was highly illegal).

• Toward the end of season 1, Renly offers to give Ned men so they can take Joffrey away from Cersei ASAP before Robert dies. This is similar to how Richard III took Edward V away from his mother's family after the death of his father Edward IV. Most of the time when there was an underage monarch suddenly on the throne there would be a major power struggle and often one of the leading players would be the new king’s mother. Elizabeth Woodville/Edward V and Margaret Tudor/James V of Scotland come to mind.
  This situation is exactly what Henry VIII was trying to prevent when he chose not to appoint a lord protector for Edward VI but instead had a whole Council of Regents...and that lasted all of 6 seconds before there was THE FIRST coup to be Edward's regent. My advice is to always get the king in your possession ASAP. If you have the child King under your control then you're all set. Ned failed and paid dearly for it.

Magaret of Anjou and her son Edward, Prince of Wales

Cersei and her son, King Joffrey in Game of Thrones

• Joffrey : Edward, Prince of Wales (son of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou) - After the second battle of St. Albans in 1461, Cersei had the two Yorkist men who had guarded her husband Henry VI throughout the battle executed (although the king had promised them immunity). It has been alleged that she had her son, who was then 8 years old, decide what to do with the men; he replied that they should be decapitated.
  Similarly, Cersei had her son Joffrey (who became king at 12 in the books and 16-ish in the TV show) decide what to do with Ned Stark after Ned confessed to treason and acknowledged Joffrey as the true king. Although Cersei wanted him to spare Ned’s life, Joffrey ordered him decapitated.

• Ned Stark : Richard of York - Just as Ned Stark was killed by an angry queen and her young son, Richard, Duke of York, was beheaded by the forces of Margaret of Anjou, who was fighting to keep her son in line to the throne (a previous peace between the Yorks and Lancasters had been negotiated by having Henry VI name Richard of York his heir). Both Ned’s and Richard’s heads were displayed on a gate or wall after their executions.

Season 2 Plots and Details:

The Red Comet seen in the tv series.

A total solar eclipse.

The Parhelion over the battle of Mortimer’s Cross

• Red Comet : Solar Eclipse - In Season 2 of the TV show and the second book, a red comet appeared in the sky around the time of Ned Stark’s execution and the hatching of Daenarys Targaryen’s dragons. This comet was seen by all of the viewpoint characters, scattered across two continents, and was described and interpreted differently by all of them.
  Historically, a full solar eclipse occurred on the day that Anne Neville, Richard III’s queen died. It was considered a bad portent for Richard’s reign and he lost at the Battle of Bosworth a few months later.
  Another astrological phenomenon known as a parhelion, in which three suns appear in the sky, also occurred immediately before the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross in 1461. Edward, Earl of Rutland, the future Edward IV, convinced his troops that it was a good sign for their cause.

Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville

Robb Stark and Talisa Maegyr in Game of Thrones

• Robb Stark : Edward IV - The son of an executed powerful man (Ned Stark/Richard, Duke of York) young claimant who everyone underestimates until he wins all his battles. Both Robb and Edward IV also went against their planned marriage to marry an unplanned, unsuitable match for love (Edward IV marries Elizabeth Woodville even though Warwick was trying to arrange him a marriage with a princess of France, Robb marries Talisa in the TV show for love and Jeyne Westerling in the books for honor even though he was already promised to wed one of Walder Frey’s daughters).

Henry VII (Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond)

Daenarys Targaryen in Game of Thrones

• Daenarys Targareyn : Henry Tudor/Henry VII. The last of her line after the death of her brother, both of them were raised to believe they were the rightful heirs to the throne. Interestingly enough, both Daenarys and Henry used dragons as their sigils; Dany because of her family’s history with actual dragons, and Henry because of his roots in Wales. In addition, just as historically, numerous people fleeing from Richard III joined with Henry Tudor over the sea, several men who left Westeros joined with Dany to help her get the throne.
  But also Daenarys Targareyn : Elizabeth I - One of the first female claimants to the throne, someone no one expected to get to the throne, and also a woman incapable of or unwilling to have children, making succession discussions a touchy subject!

Season 3 Plots and Details:

• Theon Greyjoy : Henry Tudor -Theon, the heir of a known rebel, was raised in the house of his family’s enemies, The Starks, as one of their own. Similarly, Henry Tudor, the Lancaster heir, was raised by the Yorkist Herberts as part of their family for about 8 or so years after his uncle/guardian Jasper Tudor fought against the Yorks.

“The Princes in the Tower”(Edward V, King of England, and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York)

Bran and Rickon Stark in the TV show

• Bran and Rickon Stark : Princes in the Tower (Edward V, King of England, and Richard of Shrewsbury, Duke of York) - Both Bran and Rickon and the “Princes in the Tower” were boys of renowned families whose very existence proved a threat to others who wanted their families’ power. Bran and Rickon escaped Winterfell when Theon and the Ironborn captured it; Theon burned the bodies of two commoner boys and showed them to the people.
  “The Princes in the Tower” is actually a bit of a misnomer, as Edward V had been acknowledged as king by numerous peers and nobles when he was placed in the Tower of London; in fact, his placement there confirmed this, as it was traditional for monarchs to spend the night before their coronations at the Tower. It was only after both he and his brother were lodged in the tower that their uncle, the Lord Protector, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, had them declared illegitimate. Edward entered the Tower in May 1483 and was joined by his younger brother in June. A week or so later, they were declared illegitimate and their uncle Richard was crowned King Richard III in July. There are no recorded sightings of either of them after the summer of 1483; an attempt to rescue them in late July failed. It became widely assumed that Richard III had had his nephews killed, which turned many people against him and played a large role in his downfall a few years later. However, it seems unlikely that this was the case, as their mother Elizabeth Woodville eventually came out of sanctuary (almost a year later, in March 1484) and sent her daughters to live at court with Richard III; it is unlikely that she would have agreed to this if she actually believed that Richard killed her sons. Their fate is still a mystery.

Season 4

• Tommen : Henry VIII - the much younger brother of the previous heir to the throne who married his brother’s widow (Catherine of Aragon/Margaery Tyrell).

• Tywin Lannister : the Earl of Warwick, the Kingmaker - Rounding back to this theme from earlier, Warwick died in battle with Edward IV, with whom he was very close and who he put on the throne, after betraying him by rebelling against his rule (twice). Tywin was killed by his son Tyrion, after betraying him by sentencing him to death for the murder of Joffrey (which he didn’t commit) and sleeping with Tyrion’s beloved lover Shae.

Season 5

• Tommen : Edward VI, child king who brings in a new harsher form of religion. In Tommen’s case, this was the Sparrows. In Edward VI’s case, it was a conservative form of Protestantism. Both religions were led by persuasive, dynamic figures who removed a lot of the pomp and decorations from the previous religion and sought to get rid of corruption in the religious leaders.

Edward VI

Tommen Baratheon in the TV series

• Margaery Tyrell : Anne Boleyn - Her closeness to her brother and tolerance for his sexual habits (considered abnormal by the church) could be compared to Anne Boleyn's closeness with her brother George, with whom she was falsely convicted of committing incest. Margaery too, was punished for her closeness with her brother, in her case, knowing about his homosexuality and not reporting it to anyone.
  The yellow rose of Tyrell : the white rose of York likely (the red rose of Lancaster wasn't really used much contemporaneously, although they did occasionally use a golden rose apparently).

Richard III

Stannis Baratheon in the TV show

• Stannis Baratheon : Richard III - Both men believe that they are the rightful heirs after their deaths of their brothers (Robert Baratheon/Edward IV), as the royal children are/are supposedly illegitimate. Both men were supported by lots of people until the murder/disappearance of a child (princess sheeren/ the princes in the tower, although I should note that no one knows what happens to the princes in the tower). Both were very religious and devout and loyal - up to a point.

Breaking the Fourth Wall: Shakespeare’s Richard III and Fleabag

I’m a big Shakespeare nerd, in addition to my love for history, and have spent the last few months stage managing a community theater production of Shakespeare’s Richard III, one of my favorite plays. The timeline and family tree of the Wars of the Roses I posted a while back were specifically created to walk the cast through the historical background of the play. That production is going up THIS WEEKEND in Northern Virginia; if you’re nearby, please do come! The cast is incredibly talented and our director Megan Fraedrich has such a wonderful vision for the show.

Richard III and Hamlet regularly battle it out for the title of my favorite Shakespearean play. Richard may slightly win out due to its historical roots (even though it’s…terribly inaccurate). It’s a beautiful play with a very intelligent, twisted anti-hero at its center, who you can’t help but cheer for, even though he’s awful. It’s a little like Tudor Breaking Bad in many ways.

Over the course of the rehearsal for the play, I’ve noticed some similarities between Richard III and Fleabag, the acclaimed Amazon series from Phoebe Waller-Briggs. I know, I know, it sounds wacky at first, stay with me here and I’ll explain it all.

Phoebe Waller-Brigg, the creator of Fleabag, playing the main character in season 2.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Richard III in The Hollow Crown.

Richard III:

Throughout Richard III, Richard has a habit of talking directly to the audience about all his plots, like we’re his friends. Though many Shakespearean plays feature characters with muttered asides or longer soliloquies, which no other character on stage can hear, Richard’s are a bit different.

DISCLAIMER: I am getting into a bit of literary analysis here but haven’t taken an English class since college, and that one was pretty useless, so let’s say I haven’t taken a GOOD English class since…oh, 2006? So be nice, friends, lol.

Though both asides and soliloquies indicate private thoughts and are, as a rule, not heard by the other characters, they have some key differences. An aside is usually a short, direct and simple line pointing out an immediate conflict, issue, secret, or judgment; a soliloquy is longer and more complex, and shows the character wrestling with an internal struggles, motives, or moral dilemmas. Soliloquies date back to ancient Greece, where they were seen in Oedipus Rex and Antigone (although it could be argued that they served a different function in this genre of play, in which choruses commonly served as narrators and commentators on the events shown onstage). And plenty of Shakespeare’s contemporaries used them as well. So Shakespeare wasn’t by any means the only playwright to use them, but his plays are probably the most famous example we have of them that you commonly see in society today.

Richard’s lines, particularly his opening soliloquy, generally are long and detailed, commenting on immediate issues and his current plans, thereby having the length of a soliloquy, but the function more of an aside. Throughout the play, he displays no sign of a conscience, happily seducing women who hate him into marrying him, having family members, enemies, friends, women, and children alike all killed in his quest for power, without ever expressing any sort of regrets.

Only in one speech towards the end of the play really ever demonstrates any remorse or wrestling with morality, and that one is brought on by an attack of ghosts telling him to “despair and die” during his dreams (which, you know, could bring feelings out of even the most hardened sociopath, i would imagine). As you can see in the excerpt below, he’s clearly tormented in this scene, and audibly goes back and forth on his own nature; is he a villain? Does he love himself? If so, why? What has he done to deserve such love? He has committed such horrible acts. No one truly knows or loves him, not even Richard himself.

(I stylized several of my favorite portions because it’s my blog and i can do what i want. :D)

O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!
The lights burn blue. It is now dead midnight.
Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh.
What do I fear? myself? there's none else by:
Richard loves Richard; that is, I am I.
Is there a murderer here? No. Yes, I am:
Then fly. What, from myself? Great reason why:
Lest I revenge. What, myself upon myself?
Alack. I love myself. Wherefore? for any good
That I myself have done unto myself?
O, no! alas, I rather hate myself
For hateful deeds committed by myself!
I am a villain: yet I lie. I am not.
Fool, of thyself speak well: fool, do not flatter.
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain.
Perjury, perjury, in the high'st degree
Murder, stern murder, in the direst degree;
All several sins, all used in each degree,
Throng to the bar, crying all, Guilty! guilty!
I shall despair. There is no creature loves me;
And if I die, no soul shall pity me:
Nay, wherefore should they, since that I myself
Find in myself no pity to myself?

-Richard III, Act V, Scene 3-

These asides/soliloquys set the entire tone of the play and make Richard’s motivations very clear. If you took out these speeches to the audience and just had the rest of the play to go on, you would only see the face Richard shows to the world and miss an awful lot of his machinations. These also show Richard’s state of mind; the number of his asides and soliloquies distinctly decrease over the run of the show, as he becomes more and more stressed and agitated by his responsibilities as king and as he begins to face the consequences of his various murders and manipulations.

The only person who ever hears any of his asides is his nephew, Edward V (who is only ever referred to in the play as a prince, but was in fact, actually a king by the time we see him in the play, even if he’s still a minor. This…irritates me). Richard improvises quickly when he realizes Edward can hear him, but at least in our version, evinces surprise at the incident, for no one has ever heard his asides before.

It’s unclear /why/ Edward hears his uncle; we certainly don’t get a chance to find out, since Prince Edward only ever appears in this one scene (well, except as a ghost, but he doesn’t exactly show us his innermost thoughts at that point). Perhaps the young boy is more connected to the Duke of Gloucester than we realize. Could he be as intelligent as Richard is? Or is he perhaps already suspicious of his uncle?

Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). [Aside] So wise so young, they say, do never
live long.

Prince Edward. What say you, uncle?

Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). I say, without characters, fame lives long.
[Aside] Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity,
I moralize two meanings in one word.

He’s young, but appears to be rather perceptive, as demonstrated in a later quiet exchange with his uncle Richard:

Prince Edward. I fear no uncles dead.

Richard III (Duke of Gloucester). Nor none that live, I hope.

Prince Edward. An if they live, I hope I need not fear.
But come, my lord; and with a heavy heart,
Thinking on them, go I unto the Tower.

* In case you can’t read the caption on the photo, it says: “Photo of Matthew Rauch as Richard, Duke of Gloucester in Richard the Third by Scott Suchman.”

Phoebe Waller-Brigg, the creator of Fleabag.

*I saw this production last year at the Shakespeare Theater Center in DC and it was really well done, although some of the production choices were….very different. It had a very mad scientist/dystopian/steampunk feel to it and featured growing stomp percussion/dance sequences building throughout the second half of the play, indicating a growing tension as Richard takes the crown. I actually really liked its effect, but it was divisive, and I know a lot of my friends hated it.

Fleabag:

I recently watched the acclaimed comedy series Fleabag; the unnamed protagonist of the show is constantly giving asides to the camera (literally known only as Fleabag, although no one actually ever refers to her that way), breaking the fourth wall to comment on whatever’s happening at the moment. These asides are definitively from her own biased point of view and are usually jokes; she does not usually use them to discuss moral dilemmas or issues with the audience. No one in the show ever hears her asides or even notices the pauses….until Season 2.

Fleabag really doesn’t talk about these asides at all until Season 2, Episode 2, when she sees a therapist (after her father gives her a voucher for a free session). In this brief session, the therapist describes her as “a girl with no friends and am empty heart.” Fleabag defensively responds.

FB: “I have friends.
Counsellor: “Oh so you do have someone to talk to?”
FB: “Yeah.” /clicks tongue and grins at camera with a grin/ “Oh they’re always there. they’re always there.” /chuckles/
C: “Why do you find that funny?”
FB: “Look, I don’t need to be analyzed, i have a nice life.”

By admitting that she has friends that are “always there,” but who do not actually respond to her (as the very medium prevents such a response), the dialogue highlights the narrator’s loneliness and raises questions about the audience’s role in the show’s universe. It becomes more apparent that FB specifically slips into these “asides” when she’s feeling intensely, and uses them as a way to slip out of the situation and detach herself from it.

Although this narrator’s interaction with the therapist is short and limited to just one episode, it seems to have far-reaching consequences, as for the rest of the season, Fleabag seems to actually want to understand her actions and interactions with the audience and do the right thing. Although, according to the therapist, maybe Fleabag was always going to get to that place.

FB: “Can you just tell me what to do?”
C: “You know. you already know what you’re going to do. Everybody does.
FB: “What?”
C: “You’ve already decided what you’re going to do.”
FB: “So what’s the point of you?”
C: /visibly annoyed/ “You know what you’re going to do.”

(it occurs to me that a few episodes later, in the midst of a near breakdown, she expresses her desire to have someone tell her what she’s going to do - every moment of every day - to the priest. She doesn’t want to have control over her own life anymore. It’s interesting to see that desire outlined earlier in this exchange with the therapist)

In season 2, she also befriends the priest (also unnamed) who is performing the marriage ceremony of her father and his girlfriend. This character, played by the brilliant Andrew Scott, is super interesting and curses, drinks beer, writes restaurant reviews, and has an intense fear of foxes. The two bond very quickly and have a very tight connection, along with romantic and sexual chemistry that the priest tries to deny for several episodes. Their connection is highlighted in Season 2, episode 3, when the priest becomes THE FIRST character in the series to ever notice her mental or emotional absence from a conversation, specifically, in a conversation about his celibacy in which he explicitly states that he’s not going to have sex with her. The intensity of the conversation seems to get to Fleabag, who glances away at the camera several times, visibly uncomfortable.

Priest: “I’d really like to be your friend though.”
FB: “I’d like to be your friend, too. /aside, looking at camera/ We’ll last a week.”
P: “What was that?”
FB: “What?”
P: “Where’d you, where’d you just go?”
FB: “What?”
P: “You just went somewhere.”
/looks questioningly at camera/
P: “There. There. Where’d you just go?”
FB: “Nowhere.”
/looks at camera with a look of panic and confusion/

Since the only really close friend Fleabag has ever been shown to really connect with died before season 1 began, it’s truly touching to see that someone notices her enough to see when she’s gone somewhere else. She seems flabbergasted by it. This connection later proves a bit embarrassing to Fleabag, as he hears her cooing about “his beautiful neck” while they’re out on a shopping trip together. It seems that he /sees/ her, even when she’s at her worst.

FB: “His beautiful neck”
P: “What?”
FB: /looks at camera in panic/ “What?”
P: “You just said ‘his beautiful neck.’”
FB: “No, i no, i-i- said th-that they were already gone.”
P: “Okay. Weird.”

Later in the day, the priest gives more attention to the guinea pig at Fleabag’s cafe more than anyone else in the show has really since Boo died, petting her and cuddling her sweetly, calling her “a gorgeous little thing” and continuing to pet her while carrying on a different conversation with FB. This connection to a pet that no one else has ever really paid attention to seems to, again, symbolize Fleabag’s close connection with the priest.

It’s later in that conversation, when the priest asks FB whether she runs the cafe by herself and she tries to tell him about her dead friend Boo that she, first, does the aside to the audience again, and second, he notices again. (If you’ve watched the first season of Fleabag, you’ll realize that the mention of Boo specifically brings up a lot of complicated, conflicting feelings in FB).

P: "Do you run this place on your own?”
FB: “No, I opened it with a friend.”
P: "Oh cool, so you run it together?”
FB: “No, she….she uh,” /sees flashback of Boo in the corner, stares at the camera in a panic/
P: "What?”
FB: “What?”
P: “She what?”
FB: ”She” /laughs uncomfortably/ ”He’s a bit annoying actually.” /behind her back, to camera/
P: ”What is that?”
FB: ”What?”
P: ”That thing that you’re doing, it’s like you disappear.”
FB: ”Nothing.”
P: ”What are you not telling me?”
FB: ”Nothing.”
P: ”Tell me what’s going on underneath there.”
FB: ”Nothing”’
P: ”Tell me, come on, tell me.”
FB: ”nothing, nothing.” /directly to camera/
P: /screams quietly/ “Ahhk what are you doing?” /looks directly to camera/
FB: ”No, stop being so churchy.”
P: ”I’m not being churchy, I”m just trying to get to know you.”
FB: ”Well I don’t want that.”

He seems concerned when he notices her disassociation from the present, and expresses the desire to help her. This ends up pissing her off and she kicks him out of the cafe. The next scene we see, she’s hurriedly trying to walk around the corner and lose the camera/audience, as she flashes back to her mother’s funeral.

Later, when the two characters finally, ah, connect, Fleabag straight up pushes the camera away, and in turn, the audience, possibly indicating that she is at home with her own emotions and doesn’t need to joke about them in this moment.

At the very end of the season, she says goodbye to the audience and her habit of saying asides entirely, joyfully walking down the street and waving goodbye to the camera. She’s grown as a person. She doesn’t need to dissociate herself from the present anymore. She’s accepting her intense feelings.

Breaking the fourth wall is just an interesting way of building the story now as it was in Shakespeare’s time, and it feels just as revolutionary.

(Sidenote: Fleabag is based on Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s original one-woman play, which apparently was quite a bit darker, at least in terms of how it handled the guinea pig! Eek.)

OTHER SHAKESPEARE EXAMPLES OF BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL:

At least some of Shakespeare’s characters seem to be aware that they ARE characters in a play, and comment on it in a lampshading style fashion.

• Julius Caesar: "How many ages hence shall this our lofty scene be acted over in states unborn and accents yet unknown!" (Act 3 Sc 1)

• Twelfth Night: "If this were play'd upon a stage now, I would condemn it as improbable fiction" (Act 3 Sc 4)

• As You Like It: "All the world's a stageand we are but players." (Act 2 Sc 7)

• The Merchant of Venice: "I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano; / A stage where every man must play a part, / And mine a sad one." (Act 1 Sc 1)

  1. Henry VI, Part 3:

• Macbeth: "Life is but a walking shadow[= actor], a poor player [= actor] who struts and frets his hour upon the stage" (Act 5 Sc 5)

You often see this lampshading specifically at the end of a play, as a character speaks directly to an audience. These tend to comment on the play itself as a play, in a terribly meta fashion.

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1, Epilogue

  Puck
  If we shadows have offended, 
  Think but this and all is mended: 
  That you have but slumbered here 
  While these visions did appear. 
  And this weak and idle theme, 
  No more yielding but a dream, 
  Gentles, do not reprehend. 
  If you pardon, we will mend. 
  And, as I am an honest Puck, 
  If we have unearnèd luck 
  Now to ’scape the serpent’s tongue, 
  We will make amends ere long. 
  Else the Puck a liar call. 
  So good night unto you all. 
  Give me your hands, if we be friends, 
  And Robin shall restore amends.

• As You Like It, Act 5, Scene 4, Epilogue:

Rosalind
It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue;
but it is no more unhandsome than to see the lord
the prologue. If it be true that good wine needs
no bush, 'tis true that a good play needs no
epilogue; yet to good wine they do use good bushes,
and good plays prove the better by the help of good
epilogues. What a case am I in then, that am
neither a good epilogue nor cannot insinuate with
you in the behalf of a good play! I am not
furnished like a beggar, therefore to beg will not
become me: my way is to conjure you; and I'll begin
with the women. I charge you, O women, for the love
you bear to men, to like as much of this play as
please you: and I charge you, O men, for the love
you bear to women--as I perceive by your simpering,
none of you hates them--that between you and the
women the play may please. If I were a woman I [this slyly refers to the fact that female characters were played by young men in shakespeare’s time]
would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased
me, complexions that liked me and breaths that I
defied not: and, I am sure, as many as have good
beards or good faces or sweet breaths will, for my
kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me farewell.

QUICK HISTORICAL NOTE ON THE ACCURACY OF THE PLAY:

I also find Richard III a legitimately fascinating historical character and have based my character Claudius in my Hamlet prequel “Most Horrible” on him (King Hamlet is based on Richard’s older brother Edward IV). He was definitely not the villain that Shakespeare portrayed him as. I could seriously give a whole TED talk on how badly Richard III has been treated by history, but I’ll just give a few quick examples.

• The play has Richard taking credit for killing Edward, Prince of Wales (Henry VI’s son) and Henry VI himself. However, the only historical sources that claim that Prince Edward was killed by Richard 1) were highly biased Tudor propaganda tools designed to impugn Richard III, the king that Henry Tudor killed and unseated, and 2) also said that Prince Edward was killed by all three York brothers (Edward, George, Richard) together, not just Richard alone (interestingly enough, Shakespeare’s Henry VI Part 3 has the story of all three brothers killing Edward as well, but Richard III itself has Richard as the only killer).

• In the Shakespearean play, Richard ends up wooing Lady Anne Neville during the mourning rites for her father-in-law, Henry VI. He later kills her in the play. In real life, Richard married Anne after tracking her down from the London cookshop his greedy brother George of Clarence had hidden her in. It’s a terribly romantic story and I so wish they had portrayed that instead of just showing him as an outright villain. They were married for 13 years and had a child together; they also adopted George’s son Edward, Earl of Warwick, after his death. Anne was very ill when she died and there’s no sign that she was poisoned or hurt in any way by her husband.

The Classic Disney Influences in the Costumes of "Descendants"

• Disney Crowns and Tiaras: Historical and Modern Inspirations (Part I) - Snow White, Alice in Wonderland (cartoon and live), Sleeping Beauty/Maleficent, Robin Hood, and the Great Mouse Detective

• Disney Crowns and Tiaras: Historical and Modern Inspirations (Part I) - Snow White, Alice in Wonderland (cartoon and live), Sleeping Beauty/Maleficent, Robin Hood, and the Great Mouse Detective

The main characters of The Descendants, Carlos, Evie, Mal, and Jay, posing with pictures of their parents, Cruella DeVill, The Evil Queen, Maleficent, and Jafar.

The Descendants is a series of three movies following the lives of four teenagers, the children of classic Disney villains, who have been picked from the magicless Isle of the Lost to attend school in Auradon. Specifically, the movies follow Mal, the daughter of Maleficent (from Sleeping Beauty), Evie, the daughter of the Evil Queen (from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), Jay, the son of Jafar (from Aladdin), and Carlos, the son of Cruella De Vill (from 101 Dalmations). Their boarding school is filled with the children of heroes and heroic characters from other Disney stories.

The movies themselves are about the level of the High School Musical franchise, including lots of songs and dancing, and a decidedly junior high level of maturity. However, although the plots are thin and not fully developed, I find them interesting, and the costuming and theming of each character includes loads of callbacks to the original story from which they’re derived. For a big Disney fan like me, it can be super fun to find all the different references. A lot of the characters in the movie have costumes, accessories, hair, and styling very similar to their parents' looks in their original movies (or in some cases, their parents' famous nemeses). 

Kara Saun is the costume designer for The Descendants and she is BRILLIANT. I've combed through her instagram and through a lot of Tumblr posts, youtube videos, and various disney social media accounts to find a lot of this information.

I've read that the aesthetic of "The Isle of the Lost" was intended to evoke "dirty candy," like bright colors that have been run down and messed up by life. In addition, since they've been trapped on this island for the past twenty years and don't have wifi (which is explicitly stated in the intro to the first movie), the idea is that the island's fashion is a bit dated. Their parents' clothes are hard to date, because they're based so much off their looks in their original movies, with their various different locations, cultures, and time periods; most of these settings and times are not explicitly stated, but over the years, viewers have made educated guesses based on the costumes, language, and items present in the movies. Sleeping Beauty dates to medieval France, probably around the 1300s. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is set in Germany in around the early 1500s (although the Evil Queen's look is actually based off of a medieval statue dating more to ~1040). Disney's Aladdin is set in the fictional Agrabah in the 800s or 900s, but before the Persian Gulf War occurred, Disney planned to set it in Baghdad, in modern day Iraq (although fun fact, in the original 1001 Arabian Nights containing the story, Aladdin is said to take place in China). 101 Dalmations is set in England in the late 1950s-early 1960s.

The kids on the Isle of the Lost though, have solidly 70s punk style. They wear lots of leather and denim with many rips, shreds, and holes, spike and stud accents, fingerless gloves, asymmetrical zippers, and biker type clothes. They also sport big, bright, bold hair and outfit colors. The Villain Kids' clothing silhouettes tend to be pretty fitted, which was a characteristic of 70s punk clothes that specifically retaliated against the loose, drapey, hippie styles big in popular culture at the time (and the peace and love ethos that went along with them, naturally).

The kids at Auradon Prep, in contrast, tend to be dressed in mostly preppy styles, lots of feminine and flowy blouses, cardigans, bows, pencil skirts, and delicate floral patterns for the girls and sports coats, sweaters, and letter jackets for the boys. Their outfit colors tend to overall be more muted than the Island kids, like pastel versions of their parents' chosen colors. The big exception to this is seen in blue and yellow, the high school colors which are seen on every athletic, cheerleading, and band uniform. These are based off of the Beast's blue and yellow coat look and Belle's own yellow dresses; Prince Ben (the son of Beauty and the Beast) dresses in blue and yellow almost exclusively.

Note: All the photo galleries in this post scroll to the right! So just press on the right of the graphic above to see more photos of that character from throughout the series!

Mal (Dove Cameron), the daughter of Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty (Kristen Chenoweth), has bright green eyes and generally has purple or purple-pink hair. When she turns into a dragon, she’s a purple one with bright green eyes. Like her mother, who is shown to be THE leader of the VK's parents in the few scenes we get of them in the first movie, Mal seems to be the de facto leader of the Villain Kids and pushes herself more to be the most evil she can be than the others do. She's shown to have great artistic talent as a graffiti artist, but despite Ben suggesting that she join the art club in the first movie, she doesn't seem to pursue this hobby outside of her own personal fashion styling and locker and room decorating.

She almost always wears purple, green, and black, like her mother (who wears purple and black and possesses green skin in the original film. The Descendants version just has green eyes instead of skin). You can see other Maleficent elements in the ragged sharp edges and “aged” look of Mal's coats throughout the series, which resemble the ragged, distressed edges of Maleficent's original robe and sleeves. She also wears coats with high collars, which resemble Maleficent's own iconic purple color. 

Mal's makeup isn't super obvious, but she seems to wear lavender eyeshadow a lot, and her cheekbones usually seem emphasized, like her mother's.

She also wears some pink and blue tones, which may be a reference to Sleeping Beauty herself or perhaps her father, who is revealed as Hades (he of the blue hair) in Descendants 3 (she definitely does pick up more blue tones in that film than previously).

Each of the villain kids has a personal icon relating to their family's history which features in a lot of their clothing and accessories. Mal's is a dragon, which is emblazoned on the back of her coat (note: I’ve had a LOT of trouble finding pictures of the coat backs so I’m using a lot of pics of costumes for sale online to actually give you an idea of what they look like). She also wears claw earrings at times and has carried purses with dragons on them.

Press on the right of the graphic above to see more photos of that character from throughout the series!

Mal does have blonde hair (with light purple tips) and wears different colors at the beginning of Descendants 2 (the colors of Sleeping Beauty!) but that’s specifically noted as a time when she’s denying her true self and trying to be something she’s not. Her dresses during this time are mostly blue, pink, and white, but the cotillion dress Evie’s making for her is yellow and blue, the colors of Auradon, rather than Mal's own colors. However, this yellow and dress changes into a much punkier style by the time our VK heroes' adventures are done, and after Mal turns human again after morphing into a dragon, the dress is purple and pink, with singed edges and holes in the cape to refer to her dragon self. 

Press on the right of the graphic above to see more photos of that character from throughout the series!

Evie (Sofia Carson), the daughter of the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Kathy Najimy), has blue hair. Evie is initially very focused on finding a nice prince and going to live in his castle, but is shown to be very intelligent and resourceful, making her own clothes and accessories. This seems like a much more Snow White trait than Evil Queen trait, right? The Disney cartoon version doesn't have Snow White live with the Dwarfs long enough for clothes-making to be relevant, but I've seen other versions where she stays there for years and has to continually remake her clothes to fit her; it also fits with Snow White's general traditionally feminine house-keeping skills (no sign of Evie having Snow's glorious animal hypnotizing abilities though, alas).

[You know, it's literally never stated whether Mal and Evie's original hair colors are natural or not. No one else in this universe has rainbow hair color (except Audrey in Descendants 3, when she takes on bright pink and blue hair as she goes "mean"), and Mal does get her hair dyed purpley pink again in Descendants 2 after getting sick of her magicked blonde hair, but there's no sign that the girls actually dye their hair from the start. ANYWAY.]

Evie generally wears a lot of blue, with touches of red and yellow, matching her mother’s original colors (although I’d always read the Evil Queen’s primary color as dark purple? maybe I’m blind or just misread it. I dunno. but I’m finding photos showing it as blue so….yeah. Guess I was wrong.). Anyway, the box that the Evil Queen gives to the huntsman to put Snow White's box in is definitely bright red, blue, and yellow; when the VKs arrive at Auradon Prep, Evie's carrying a purse that is clearly based directly off of this box (I also mayyyy have finally bought this purse for myself after lusting after it for like a year). And in The Descendants, the Evil Queen’s outfit is clearly rendered in red, blue, and gold.

Evie's makeup is clearly based off of her mother's, as both tend to sport bold lips (sometimes red, sometimes more of a pale pink) and smoky eyeshadow (Snow White also wears bright red lipstick).

It's funny, by looking at these characters, I'm realizing how similar the Evil Queen and Snow White's outfits really are in some ways. They both wear high collars, strong central accessories in their hair (the Evil Queen's crown vs. Snow White's red bow headband), black capes with red lining, and bright, bold lips.  Evie almost always has a gold and/or red accessory in her hair, usually positioned centrally. This is often a tiara or a mini tiara, but she also has headbands and clips. She wears a blue cape with a contrasting red lining to start off the first movie, and often wears a cape like detail in her outfits- like loose or flowy sleeves. She often wears a necklace with a red pendant, just like her mom. Evie also sometimes wears a red belt or waist accent similar to the Evil Queen's.

Evie's signature insignia is a red heart, which she often wears in her hair, around her neck, or pinned to her clothes somewhere. She sometimes is shown holding an apple in promo stuff and the Descendants logo actually features an apple with a bite taken out of it, but this seems to be more a reference to the "Rotten to the Core" song from the first movie rather than to the Evil Queen's temptation of Snow White with an apple; Evie doesn't seem to actually wear any apple accessories.

Evie’s costumes occasionally borrow other more obviously Snow White only elements, particularly the short puffy blue and red sleeves in her casual t-shirt look. She also is usually wearing some sort of red hair accessory, which calls back to Snow White’s red bow.

Press on the right of the graphic above to see more photos of that character from throughout the series!

Jay is the son of Jafar (from Aladdin). Jay starts off as a big thief and a very physical kid who's constantly rough-housing with the smaller, nerdier Carlos, but quickly turns his energies to being amazing at sports at Auradon Prep as well. He's not the brightest kid around, but he's happy with his new life and seems to generally want to help out his friends. 

Jay is usually shown wearing a mix of blue, red, and yellow, although once or twice, he’s shown wearing his father’s original red, black, and yellow/gold. In The Descendants, though, just like the Evil Queen, his father is shown wearing a costume of blue, red, and yellow. I really don't know where this color scheme comes from, honestly, as Aladdin wears a lot of purple, red and white. The only character in Aladdin rendered in blue, red, and yellow, is Iago the Parrot. Is that what they're referencing here? Jay has long dark brown hair, which doesn’t seem to resemble anyone’s hair in the original Aladdin.

Jay’s outfits tend to very closely parallel Aladdin's, as he wears a lot of vests and/or sleeves shirts and hats in a contrasting color. His athletic skills and general personality also seem to more closely resemble Aladdin than Jafar. 

Jay's signature insignia is the gold cobra of his dad's staff, and is often found on the back of his coat or shirt. 

Press on the right of the graphic above to see more photos of that character from throughout the series!

Carlos De Vil is the son of Cruella De Vill (from 101 Dalmations). He's kind of got an innocent vibe to his personality, and is the one who's often hanging back looking at things while the others yell at him about needing to leave. Although it's specifically said that the island doesn't have wifi (and presumably wouldn't have access to a lot of software and technology then), Carlos shows major tech skills within just a few days of coming to Auradon Prep. He also thinks on his feet very well. He starts off the series absolutely terrified of dogs and under the thumb of his somewhat hysterical mother, who actually forbids him from leaving the island, as someone needs to stay behind to touch up her roots, fluff up her furs, and scrape bunions from her feet. One of my favorite elements of this series is how Carlos actually becomes REALLY attached to the campus dog super quick and learns that his mom was totally just lying to him for years about how dangerous dogs are.

His hair is platinum blonde/white with black roots and he wears primarily white (sometimes silver or grey) and black, with accents of red, just like his mother. Although in the original movie, Cruella De Vill is portrayed wearing a black dress and a solid golden cream colored fur coat, in the Descendants, her fur coat is all black and white, with more patterns and juxtapositions of black and white throughout the whole ensemble. Carlos's clothes generally follow this trend, and include lots of juxtaposed patterning. His clothes in Auradon seem to remain much more punky than the others do; although Mal and occasionally Evie retain some punky elements in their clothes, Carlos is the only one showing up at like, the cotillion in formal punky shorts and combat boots (of course, all of them revert to their former leather and punky styles on the island itself). Jay's clothes quickly take on more athletic and preppy elements, like double stripes and sleeves that evoke shoulder pads, while also going in a huntsman type direction?

Carlos's signature insignia is a design of crossed black and white dog bones, which can be seen on the back of a few of his coats and jackets. 

Sadly, actor Cameron Boyce died from an epileptic attack in his sleep shortly before Descendants 3 released. His family has formed a foundation in his name to support causes that were important to Boyce, namely, spreading kindness, ending gun violence, clean water, and epilepsy awareness.

*All of the notations on Uma’s photos and any other photos in this post are from the Instagram profile of Kara Saun, the costume designer for the Descendants.

Press on the right of the graphic above to see more photos of that character from throughout the series!

Uma, the daughter of Ursula, shows up in Descendants 2 and plays a big role in that and Descendants 3. She works in her mother's fish and chips shop. Sadly, we only get a brief glimpse of some of Ursula's tentacles and don't get to see her in all her glory (Whoopi Goldberg cameoed as her with a super brief line!). Uma is the leader of her small pirate group on the island and basically has taken over as queen of the teenagers on the island now that Mal is gone. She also has a major chip in her shoulder about the whole "they left us and are living a great life out in Auradon while the rest of us are struggling back here" thing.

Since purple is already Mal's color, Kara Saun based Uma's costumes off of Ursula's dragalicious teal eye makeup. Uma's gorgeous teal braids and the fringe on her dress totally evoke water and Ursula's tentacles. Uma also always wears a shell necklace like the one her mother used to capture Ariel's voice in the film. Her outfits also include a lot of seashells and trinkets on them, as the designer wanted to make her look as if she had been dragged across the ocean floor. Her formal look at the end of Descendants 3 is INSANE and includes just so many of these elements. 

Press on the right of the graphic above to see more photos of that character from throughout the series!

King Adam (Beast) and Queen Belle (Beauty) always wear their distinctive blue and yellow colors from their movies, which as I mentioned earlier, are adopted by Auradon Prep as their school colors. Prince and then King Ben (how does this system work?? Who makes teenagers kings when their preceding sovereign parent is still alive? This is a stupid set up) always wears blue and usually wears yellow with it as well. I love that it’s Ben that initially wants to bring the villain kids to the island; it ties so much into the theme of his parents’ fairy tale, that not everyone who looks bad is bad, that there are layers to the world and it’s not always as simple as black and white, hero and villain.

Press on the right of the graphic above to see more photos of that character from throughout the series!

Doug, the son of Dopey (from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), generally wears green and sometimes wears purple with it, when he’s not dressed in his Auradon Prep band uniform. HOWEVER. Doug gets to break out of his color scheme more than anyone else seems to; at the coronation he wears burgundy and at the cotillion, he wears yellow and black. Perhaps these are references to some of the other dwarfs? Burgundy would be…what, Grumpy, and yellow would be Bashful or Happy? I don’t know. I’m just guessing here.

Press on the right of the graphic above to see more photos of that character from throughout the series!

Chad Charming is a delightful and arrogant dunce who pretty much always wears the light blue of his mother Cinderella accented with his father Prince Charming’s light yellow. His color scheme is similar to Prince Ben’s but more pastel. His hair also is sometimes coiffed in the distinctive slicked back coif of Prince Charming.

Press on the right of the graphic above to see more photos of that character from throughout the series!

Audrey, the daughter of Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), always wears light pink and white dresses and skirt outfits, but sometimes light blue is incorporated as well. This is a fun reference to the “Make it pink! Make it blue!” dress debate in Sleeping Beauty. Her hair is magnificent and totally follows the swooping profile of her mother’s. Her clothes occasionally feature 50s touches like big a-line skirts, cardigans, and wide collars (Sleeping Beauty came out in 1959) . In Descendants 3, she embraces her “mean” side; she starts off the movie with blonde hair with blue and pink highlights, her hair goes FULL blue and pink when she decides to be a villain. It goes back to the lighter highlights by the end.

Press on the right of the graphic above to see more photos of that character from throughout the series!

Harry, the son of Hook (Pete Pan), clearly owes a lot to the depiction of Hook in Once Upon a Time, with lots of red and black, leather, short hair, and black guyliner. He does wear a fluffy shirt in the third movie though, going back to his dad’s original roots in Peter Pan. He wears skull insignia trinkets.

Gil, the son of Gaston (Beauty and the Beast), has embraced the pirate lifestyle with Uma and Harry, so he’s got a lot of pirate touches in him, but his costume still pays homage to his famous villain dad, specifically in the v-neck cut of his shirts with collars, short sleeves that emphasize his big arm muscles, and big belts. His costumes are yellow, pulling off the secondary colors of Gaston’s outfit, probably because he’s always with Harry, who wears red.

Jane, the daughter of headmistress Fairy Godmother, always wears a light blue dress with pink bow accents, just like her mother’s Cinderella outfit (Fairy Godmother herself seems to just wear light blue these days). Her formal dress at the cotillion is my single favorite dress in the entire series.

Lonnie, Mulan’s daughter (hopefully with Shang?), wears the pale pink, light blue, light green, and pale orange colors of her mother’s costume and usually wears at least one Chinese-inspired floral fabric. She often wears a thick obi belt of contrasting fabric She wears a jumpsuit to the cotillion and is the one girl who tries out for the fencing team.

And I just included a photo of Cheyenne Jackson as punk rock Hades because he’s brilliant in this role.

Dizzy, the granddaughter of Lady Tremaine (Cinderella), has one of the cutest costumes, with wild paint colors and trinkets all over. I love seeing how Kara Saun pulled inspiration from the villains of Cinderella to design her.

Celia Facilier, the daughter of Dr Facilier (The Princess and the Frog), has the burgundy and purple colors and the fun suitcoat of her father, along with a lot of other New Orleans-style bright colors.

Squeaky and Squirmy, Smee’s twin sons, dress basically exactly as their dad, just a little punkier then Smee appeared in the original Peter Pan. Lots of light blue and white stripes, red hats, and white-blonde hair.

I hope y’all enjoyed this post! I had a ton of fun creating it. :)

All the photos on this page are the property of Disney or Kara Saun and are used for purposes of commentary and critique only.

Disney+ Marathon: Revisiting Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

 So for my blog, I’m doing a Disney+ movie marathon through all the animated feature length films I haven’t seen in 20+ years/have never seen! I’m starting off with the first animated full length cartoon feature in the United States, Snow White!

• Setting: The original Snow White story is a 19th-century German fairy tale. It was featured in Grimms’ Fairy Tales in 1812. The time period isn’t explicitly stated anywhere that I can find, but since the Queen’s clothes are based off of a preserved Medieval statue of the German noble Uta von Ballenstedt (c. 1000 -1046), it seems to be set in medieval Germany somewhere.
  The Disney version, of course, is a very simplified version that removes a lot of the original elements of the story, namely, any sort of backstory. The fairy tale also featured the Queen trying to kill Snow White three times rather than just with the apple shown in this film.

• Why is Snow White in a peasant outfit at the beginning? The only explanation given is in the little story book page at the beginning that says “Her vain and wicked Stepmother the Queen feared that some day Snow White’s beauty would surpass her own. So she dressed the little Princess in rags and forced her to work as a Scullery Maid.”
  What happened to Snow White’s father or original mother? No one knows; we’re certainly not told.

• Clearly Snow White is some kind of witch who can get Woodland creatures to somehow all get along follow her and do her bidding, namely, unpaid household labor. I need her skills. Can she teach cats? Actually, she may be a vampire given the whole skin as white as snow and lips as red as blood thing.
  ALTHOUGH, the origin of her name isn’t explained whatsoever in this movie version, so perhaps that isn’t canon for Disney film? The original story has Snow White’s mother wishing for a child with “skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as night,” after pricking her finger with a needle and seeing her blood drip onto freshly fallen snow on a black windowsill.

• Are the trees in the forest actually evil and do they have faces or are they just representations of snow white’s fears?

• The dwarves definitely say Jiminy crickets before Pinocchio The movie came out. What on earth did it mean before then? Was it a reference to the book?
  I later looked this up and discovered that “Jiminy” is an exclamation of surprise dating back to 1803, which may be a disguised oath referring to Jesu Domine, or Jesus Lord. “Jiminy cricket” was used starting in 1848; the “JC” initials also refer to Jesus Christ. The Adventures of Pinocchio wasn’t published until 1883 and featured a character named the Talking Cricket, but he didn’t get the name Jiminy Cricket until the 1940 Disney movie came out.

• Interesting fact: This movie’s title uses the more common at the time “Dwarfs” instead of the “Dwarves” plural form popularized by Tolkien later.

• We never see snow white with her stepmother the queen. Do we ever see any women talking to each other? I guess the witch (the evil queen in disguise) talks to snow white. But I can’t think of anyone else. It just barely passes the Bechdel test (they talk a little bit about Snow White wanting to marry the prince, but they also talked about dreams more generally), but it’s hardly progressive.,
  For that matter, we never hear about Snow White’s father, his relationship with the Queen, or Snow White’s relationship with the Queen at all. There’s really no backstory given.

• They kept the plot very very simple. There are no complex characters, no outside friendships, and no motivations outside basic survival? Snow White is nice to animals but that’s basically all we know about her. Except that she likes to sing and appreciate a clean house.

• The entire dwarves sneaking into the house to figure out who’s in there segment is like a tribute to slapstick comedy.

• What were the dwarves’ names before they were old enough to have personalities and/or noticeable health issues (sneezy- hat fever, sleepy- narcolepsy). It appears that dopey is maybe intended to have some sort of mental delay but it’s passed off as “he’s never tried to talk.” Not sure such a character would fly in today’s society.

• “Oh good, you talk.” Jesus, Snow White, they’re short men, not mute animals.

• I had completely forgotten about the whole Snow White having to harass them to wash their hands and faces because they haven’t done that in weeks bit. Mildly appalled. This reminds me of the cruise we went on where they played an entire video about how you definitely need to wash your hands every time you go to the bathroom.

• It’s a total myth that people in medieval times didn’t wash or keep themselves clean, by the way; I’ll explain this more later but even if they didn’t take full baths all that often they did wash their hands and faces daily.

• "A Pedslar's disguise" what a convenient spell she just happens to have there. Is that a commonly used spell? What does she use it for? Shopping in disguise in the kingdom?

• It's nice that everyone in this kingdom knows everyone else. You wouldn't expect a Queen to know who the dwarfs are (it makes sense that the dwarfs know who Snow White is though).

• "A thunder bolt to mix it well" - wait. What? Doesn't she mean lightning? There's lightning when she says that about her potion. Plus, can sound even mix a potion? It has to be lightning right? She says "look my hands, my voice" as if she's surprised by the results of the potion she just gave herself.I have a feeling that this plan wasn't totally formulated or thought through very well, as she doesn't think about the poison apple part.

• John made a valid point when I talked to about - why are they making spells that can be broken easily? Can you just not make a spell permanent?

• -I somehow only figured out that Snow White is set in Germany a few years ago and listening to this Silly Song tune with all the yodellling and the super German organ, I just really don't know how I hadn't ever figured that out. Did we see that organ at all when Snow White and the bewitched woodland creatures were cleaning the house? Also - what kind of organ can you play with your butt like that? Why does Grumpy have such a flexible butt? What sort of exercises do you do in order to be able to move one butt cheek at a time? Is that a thing people can do? I'm pretty sure i can't.

• Gooseberry pie? Is that a thing? What is that? Is it German?
  Later: YES, it’s a thing. Gooseberries are berries with tart skin and sweet flesh. Gooseberry pie adds in sugar to balance out the tartness. However, it appears that their presence in this film is anachronistic; the 1879 Encyclopaedia Britannica said, “Although gooseberries are now abundant in Germany and France, it does not appear to have been much grown there in the Middle Ages, though the wild fruit was held in some esteem medicinally for the cooling properties of its acid juice in fevers.”

• Good lord, Snow White is an idiot, isn’t she? The dwarfs specifically tell her that the queen is dangerous and a master of disguise and the animals straight up attack the witch to protect her and she lets her in and eats the damn apple anyway, the dumb girl. I know she's supposed to only be 14 in this movie but....COME ON. 

• I’m not really going to get into costume analysis much for most of these movies, but suffice it to say that these movies generally reflected the time in which they were made. It’s not a coincidence that Snow White’s hairstyle and face look distinctly Betty Boop-ish. Many other people have done great work discussing the historical influences of the costumes; I highly suggest the great work done over at Frock Flicks!

• Walt Disney may have been a visionary, but he was a total asshole in some ways. He held the 19-year-old actress Adriana Caselotti, who provided the voice of Snow White, to an extremely strict contract which basically kept her from singing professionally for the rest of her life (she had extremely small parts in Wizard of Oz and It’s a Wonderful Life). She wasn’t credited as the voice, she was only paid $970 for her work on the film (equivalent to about $16,905 in 2018), and Disney refused to let her work on radio shows.

• This movie is really gorgeous and I understand why so many people consider it a classic, but the characters and plot are paper thin and I don’t personally feel it holds up very well when I watch it as an adult. It’s very important for its role in movie history as the first full-length cel animated feature film and the earliest Disney animated feature film, but it’s not something I plan to rewatch much.
  THAT BEING SAID, I adore Snow White’s costume and aesthetic and Disneybound as her more often than any other character. :D

Over-Analyzing The Crown: S3E9 Imbroglio

A scene in The Crown set after the Duke of Windsor’s funeral.

All My Posts on The Crown
S3: 1 & 2: “Olding” & “Margaretology” 3: “Aberfan” 4: “Bubbikins, 5: “Coup” 6: “Tywysog Cymru” 7: “Moondust" 8: “Dangling Man” 9: “Imbroglio” 10: “Cri de Coeur”
S4: 1: “Gold Stick” 2: “The Balmoral Test” 3: “Fairytale” ( + Cinderella References) 4: “Favourites” 5: “Fagan” 6: “Terra Nullius” 7: ”The Hereditary Principle” 8: “48:1” 9: “Avalanche”
The Medals, Sashes, and Tiaras of The Crown; Tiaras/Crowns Overviews: Season 1 ; Season 2

The Duke of Windsor’s funeral takes place. New Prime Minister Edward Heath handles a labor dispute with the coal miners badly and the country (including the palace) has to deal with ongoing brief blackouts, which eventually result in a three-day work week and significant hardship. After realizing how serious Prince Charles is about Camilla Shand, the Queen Mother and Lord Mountbatten plot to get Charles sent off to a Naval posting far away and to get Camilla married off.

• The episode starts off with the Duke of Windsor’s funeral. The Queen’s and Wallis Simpson’s outfits at the funeral seem very similar to what they wore in real life.
  It’s so sad later when Charles reflects later that he felt like he had become the new Duke of Windsor, the new outsider in the family.

• Is this new Prime Minister always wearing black and white? It seems like he really is always wearing the colors of the piano, his beloved instrument.

  “My father is a builder.” Heath’s comment here to the coal miners hearkens back to Harold Wilson’s comment about how he makes out that he’s a common man but actually, he has higher brow tastes and comes from a privileged background.

• I like how they Illustrate the power cutbacks at the castle by showing the butlers lighting candles.

The real life Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, and Queen Elizabeth, at the Duke of Windsor’s funeral (Credit: Bettmann / Getty).

Queen Elizabeth and the Duchess of Windsor at the Duke of Windsor’s funeral in The Crown.

• Charles says he’s going to need dickie’s help wih the family because he so trusts that he will be on his side. AND THEN HE ISN’T, you suck mountbatten. He later says: “you don’t love a girl like Camilla shand. She’s a bit of fun and a welcome distraction from the rigors of the navy. The first few months can be pretty tough.” [GAH, ANGER]

• After Charles gets his posting abroad, he runs back to the castle to talk to his mother immediately, thinking that this is definitely her fault. Interestingly enough, she doesn’t work very hard to disabuse him of this notion, but merely lets him yell at her and then calls for the true culprits.
  When Charles is trying to get to his mother, all the butlers and staff are suddenly in his way and keep saying “excuse me,” three times. It’s like he’s already just very in the way and out of place in his own home.

  How did Queen Elizabeth IMMEDIATELY figure out that it was the Queen mother and Lord Mountbatten who are interfering with Charles’ relationship? I love that in this one scene, both queens are wearing coats insid. But the lamps are on? Are they trying to lower their electricity use? What is going on here?
  “We’ve learnt that lesson time and time again,” they say, about the importance of not letting a royal get permanently romantically involved with the wrong person.

• ALL THE BUTLERS STANDING AROUND WITH LAMPS. This is the most delightful and ridiculous picture. Anne is iconic, as usual, with her gorgeous “Starman” driving entrance, which then transitions to her walking down the hallway of Buckingham palace singing with staff following her and carrying candles.
  Her reaction to seeing her entire family sitting there in the dark waiting for her is also classic. “God what’s all this?” 
  Philip knows that this is all serious but he can’t help but laugh out loud when in response to a request for calm, Anne just deadpans, “As opposed to how I am usually-hysterical.” And afterward, after she’s thoroughly shocked her mother by noting that she had “fun” with Andrew Parker Bowles, she notes, “I hope that wasn’t too emotional for you all.”

The real life Prince Charles and Camilla Shand (Credit: Serge Lemoine / Getty).

Prince Charles and Camilla Shand in The Crown.

• In one scene (I can’t remember whether it happened in this episode or in the previous one), Charles' sister Princess Anne warns him that if he gets involved with Camilla, there will "always be three people in the relationship". A wise point indeed, considering the ongoing nature of her relationship with Andrew. And the wording of Princess Anne's advice was chosen very carefully and deliberately, and pays homage to Princess Diana, who famously described Camilla as "the third person" in her relationship with Prince Charles.

• The Queen and the Queen Mother wear a lot of yellow and tan colors in this episode. Possibly to refer to the candlelight and the blackouts throughout this episode?
  I love it when Queen Elizabeth, with great irritation, has to ring a bell to end her meeting with Heath because her buzzer isn’t working due to the blackout.

The real-life Prince Charles while he was stationed in The Bahamas.

Prince Charles in The Crown, immediately after he was moved to his new post in the Bahamas.

• Philip: “Are you warming to him yet?”
  Queen: “Mr. Heath? I’m not sure there’s anything to warm to.”
  Philip: “Give him some time, he’s rusty. You’re the first woman in decades he’s had a meaningful relationship with. It’s what his enemies have always held against him. The fact that he never married. People find it hard to trust a leader without a wife or family.”
  Philip then relates the story of the doctor’s daughter that Heath let get away and concludes with: “There you are. When you find the right one, snap em right up. As a central theme, it’s perfect.” He means for the Queen’s speech for their 25 year wedding anniversary. As he points out, “it’s your turn, I made one on the ten year anniversary – mon petit chou.”
  This refers to the speech he made in season episode of the Crown. So I didn’t realize this, but “mon petit chou” is probably where Philip’s nickname for the queen, “cabbage,” came from, as this French phrase translates to “my little pastry puff” and “my little cabbage.”

The real life marriage of Andrew Parker Bowles and Camilla Shand.

The marriage of Andrew Parker Bowles and Camilla Shand in The Crown

• Charles philosophizing about being on the sea to Camilla on the phone: “Something about the wave, one begins to disappear. And then suddenly, you’re somewhere else entirely. And it’s a feeling I’ve never had before – a sense of safety and belonging and all that loneliness having vanished – and it’s all rather miraculous. I think you are miraculous. Tell me is there any part of all this that’s surprised you?” Camilla: “Of what?” Charles: “Our friendship.” Camilla: “You should ask if there’s any part of this that hasn’t surprised me…. I wasn’t supposed to fall in love with you. None of this was supposed to happen. “ (she says this while Andrew Parker Bowles lurks in the background).

• In real life, it appears that the royal family had absolutely nothing to do with Charles’ breakup with Camilla. Her relationship with Andrew Parker Bowles was very complicated and on and off; he cheated on her numerous times, but she loved him and wanted to be with him. Their fathers finally worked together to force them to get married, by literally putting an engagement announcement in the newspaper.

• Heath’s positioned as a symbol in this episode, with his piano playing run over Queen Elizabeth’s 25th wedding anniversary speech at the end. I’m not entirely certain what the goal is here though, as it is explicitly noted that he is single and has a tragic back story with “a doctor’s daughter,” who waited for him until the end of the war, and then he chickened out of marrying her at the last minute. Perhaps he’s meant to refer to Prince Charles, who has to give up love in this episode and is stationed abroad in the Bahamas.

Over-Analyzing The Crown: S3E8 Dangling Man

All My Posts on The Crown
S3: 1 & 2: “Olding” & “Margaretology” 3: “Aberfan” 4: “Bubbikins, 5: “Coup” 6: “Tywysog Cymru” 7: “Moondust" 8: “Dangling Man” 9: “Imbroglio” 10: “Cri de Coeur”
S4: 1: “Gold Stick” 2: “The Balmoral Test” 3: “Fairytale” ( + Cinderella References) 4: “Favourites” 5: “Fagan” 6: “Terra Nullius” 7: ”The Hereditary Principle” 8: “48:1” 9: “Avalanche”
The Medals, Sashes, and Tiaras of The Crown; Tiaras/Crowns Overviews: Season 1 ; Season 2

The Duke of Windsor, the former king whose abdication had put both Queen Elizabeth and her father on the throne, develops terminal cancer. The Queen, who’s visiting France to assist with the UK joining the EU, visits him and provides him some peace before his death. Prince Charles falls in love with Camilla Shand, while Princess Anne hooks up with Camilla’s ex/possibly not ex Andrew Parker Bowles.

The real life Duke and Duchess of Windsor in 1955. Photo: Frank Scherschel/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images.

Alex Jennings as The Duke and Lia Williams as the Duchess were featured in Season 1 and 2 of The Crown. (This scene was set during 1953)

Geraldine Chaplin and Derek Jacobi as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in Season 3. This scene was meant to take place around 1972.

• The Duke of Windsor is such a controversial character historically. Modern eyes often want to look favorably upon his abdication to marry the woman he loved, but at the same time, he and Wallis Simpson undoubtedly supported Hitler and the Nazis (as shown in S2E6 Vergangenheit, which means “past,” by the way) and engaged in treasonous acts against England. They also clearly were somewhat petty and mean toward the royal family, although it’s hard not to understand their viewpoint. Apparently, Edward/David was under the impression that he would be allowed to live in England again a few years after he abdicated; he didn’t take well to being told that he could only enter the country again at the invitation of the sovereign. They were essentially in exile the rest of their lives, although Queen Elizabeth was far kinder to him then really anyone else in the family. This is shown in The Crown when both Philip and the Queen Mother are much harsher in their judgments toward the Duke and the Duchess than Elizabeth ever is, at least aloud.

  His actions did have a very significant result on Elizabeth’s life in forcing her to become queen, and as she stated in S3E5 “Coup,” it’s not something she would have chosen. His abdication has already been seen to have a huge impact on how the Queen and the government dealt with Margaret’s relationship with Peter Townsend. It will later also impact Margaret’s divorce from Antony Armstrong-Jones, and the relationships and divorces of several of the Queen’s children. It also led to the Queen having firmly held views against abdicating under any circumstance. A very recent article quoting a spokesman from Prince Charles’s office noted, “There are no plans for any change in arrangements at the age of 95 — or any other age.”
  I do have to say, Alex Jennings, the actor who played the Duke of Windsor in the first two seasons looks SO much more like him than Derek Jacobi does, as brilliant as he is.

• The Duke and Duchess’s meeting with Emperor Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kojun, really did happen. The photos from that event show off how close The Crown can get to reality if they so choose.

  The moment where doorman Sidney (who really existed) applies rouge/blush to the Duke’s face to make him less ill is very similar to the blush that was applied to George VI’s face in S1E1. And just as the Duke jokes that “we don't want it to look like kabuki,” the King’s assistant then said that they didn’t want to overdo it.
  Emperor Hirohito grumpily says, “They promised no cameras. I don’t want people to see me to visit a man who couldn't hold on to his throne.” I also love the contrasting comments at the end of their meeting: Emperor: "imagine living in exile from his homeland. I would rather die.” Duchess: “He never leaves japan. Imagine being stuck on an island your whole life.” Duke: “An island which is home and where you reign as sovereign. I can think of worse things." There’s that same nostalgia we saw in S1E5 “Smoke and Mirrors” (when he plays the bagpipes and cries after Elizabeth’s coronation) and in S2E6 Vergangenheit, when he looks for a way to be useful to England.
  The Duke of Windsor did indeed keep his red leather dispatch box marked “The King” in his foyer in real life.

• My husband (who speaks Japanese, works in a primarily Japanese law firm, and knows just a ton about Japanese culture) tells me that I shouldn’t actually call the Emperor Emperor Hirohito, as the emperor gets a new name after death! This is from Wikipedia: “In Japan, reigning emperors are known simply as "the Emperor" and [Hirohito] is now referred to primarily by his posthumous name, Shōwa (昭和), which is the name of the era coinciding with his reign; for this reason, he is also known as the Shōwa Emperor or Emperor Shōwa.”

The actual meeting between the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and the Emperor and Empress of Japan took place in October 1971 (Credit: Bettmann / Getty).

The meeting between the Duke and Duchess and the Emperor and the Empress in The Crown.

• In real life, Prince Charles did correspond with his great-uncle, the Duke of Windsor. His other great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten (Uncle “Dickie”) encouraged this; he was both the Duke’s friend and keenly aware of the damage he caused with his abdication. Mountbatten was actually in charge of the Duke’s estate after his death and arranged for numerous items to be returned to the Royal Archives.
  Charles did visit the Duke and Duchess once in October 1970, but apparently they had a party going on at the time. Charles didn’t stay too long and didn’t seem too impressed by it all. After both the Duke and Duchess died, a businessman named Mohamed Al-Fayed purchased their home and estate; he took Charles on a tour of it in 1986 and said he could choose anything he wanted from the estate, but Charles wasn’t interested in any of their family albums or souvenirs. So it seems that perhaps Charles didn’t view the Duke as a mentor after all.
  I loved Olivia Colman’s line about this meeting in the crown: “One doesn't usually get the opportunity to meet a former king. Former kings are usually dead.” Also, in the show, Charles tells Mountbatten that the entire house smelled “Like joss sticks and dogs.” I had to look up what joss sticks are, but it refers to incense.

The Duke of Windsor and Prince Charles in The Crown.

Charles and Camilla in The Crown.

• If Andrew Buchan, the actor playing Andrew Parker Bowles looks as familiar to you as he did to me, you may have seen him before in his role as Mark Latimer in Broadchurch. Princess Anne and Parker Bowles did indeed date in real life, but apparently only for a short time. They have remained good friends and have been photographed together many times over the years.

• "Where's mehmsahib?" a friend asks Captain Parker Bowles, referring to Camilla. In case you were wondering, this is a leftover Indian colonialism term that means “a married white or upper-class woman (often used as a respectful form of address by nonwhites).”

• Apparently Charles’ real life first conversation with Camilla was rather hilarious. She joked “My great-grandmother was the mistress of your great-great-grandfather. I feel we have something in common.” I so wish they had actually shown that in The Crown; as it is, we don’t really see their first meeting, but just a bit of them checking each other out before Charles calls up Camilla to ask her out.
  At the time, Camilla was in a years-long on-again, off-again relationship with Andrew Parker Bowles. The couple only got engaged after their two fathers conspired together and published an engagement notice in The Times, which forced Andrew to finally act.

• Charles' inaccurate description of Camilla and Andrew’s relationship to Dickie (that she and Andrew fell out over ANNE, when we saw in the show that they had quite obviously fallen out before that) illustrates all the rumors and misconceptions around everyone involved. It’s also interesting that Charles’ description of his visit with the Duke of Windsor to Mountbatten doesn’t seem to quite align with the video we see of it later in the episode, while the Queen is reading Charles’ letter to the duke. This “audio says one thing, video says another” trick is a classic unreliable narrator film style which was also used when the Duke was writing to Wallis in both Season 1 and Season 2; his words often exaggerated the number of supporters meeting him, etc.

The real life Charles and Camilla (Credit: Shutterstock).

This scene was recreated in The Crown, but I don’t remember seeing it in the final cut.

• When Edward Heath disses Harold Wilson, by saying Wilson had expected the most recent election to be his coronation, the queen responds frostily, “nothing wrong with a coronation under the right circumstances,” indicating her subtle support of Harold Wilson. Wilson would end up being one of the Queen’s favorite prime ministers; he’s the only one other than Winston Churchill who hosted her and Prince Philip at a dinner at Downing Street.
  Heath is so awkward. When he’s with the Queen, he sits on the front of his chair the entire time, like he’s terrified to lean back.

• The Queen is wearing blue when she tells Philip she’ll be going to France to charm Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou, who was prime minister of France from 1962-1968 and then president from 1969-1974. The French flag, naturally, is blue, white, and red.

• Prince Philip reminds me so much of my husband, who also meets people several times and then somehow doesn’t remember them.
  "I never see the other one anymore…where's the other one… the bald one?" “He retired. Three months ago. You gave him a clock!”

• Philip-ism, on the Duke of Windsor and his visit from the Emperor and Empress of Japan: "He didn't cause them offense. He didn't abdicate the Japanese throne or kill the emperor's father. For the last time, no. That man, his shame - like the stench of livestock - it seeps into the woodwork and never goes away." What is philip doing during all of this - polishing a gun? That’s what it looks like.

• As Charles is getting everything ready for his date with Camilla, The Four Seasons’ “Beggin” plays in the background, with the curiously applicable lyrics:
  ”Ridin' high when I was king,
  Played it hard and fast cause I had everything
  Walked away, wonderin' then
  But easy come and easy go and it would end”

Princess Anne and Andrew Parker Bowles in real life.

Andrew Parker Bowles and Anne in The Crown.

• Camilla walks into Buckingham and just looks around shocked for a little bit, very in awe of the whole place, and then has to run to catch up to the footman. Charles looks pretty unhappy when Camilla keeps going on about him being prince during their date.

• Charles says something very profound about his life right before he plays a prank on Camilla; he plays it off as a joke, but I’m not so sure: “I live not so much an existence but a predicament. I am both free and imprisoned. Utterly superfluous and quite indispensable. One can never fully invest in one thing or another, because at any moment, it could all change.”
  “How can one be a good son even though [her dying] is the thing you most dread, it’s the thing you most, not desire, well yes, desire , because until she dies, I cannot be fully alive. Nor can I be the thing for which I have been born, so one is condemned to this frightful business of waiting.”

  Charles refers to “Dangling Man” by Saul Bellow and describes it as being about “existing in a timeless and slightly ridiculous abyss. … an unemployed man from Chicago waiting to be drafted to go to a war. And he actually wants to be drafted because it will give his life meaning.”

• Camilla wears a string of pearls on their date (with a really cute peach ruffled shirt, mini skirt, and black jacket). Most of her outfit doesn’t seem to have any deeper meaning, but the Queen wears a pearl necklace so often that I imagine it has to be an intentional callback to Charles’ mother, who is such a big part of their conversation.

Real life Prince Charles (Credit: Tim Graham / Getty).

Prince Charles playing polo in The Crown

• During the Duke’s interview with the BBC, his grey suit appears to be too large for him. The Duke of Windsor was known for being quite a natty dresser, so I imagine this oversized suit is meant to indicate his weight loss from cancer. The Duchess is wearing a scarf that makes her look incredibly French.
  The Crown is really good at showing the reach of media, how so many people are watching it. As the Duke talks about how he had wanted to change the role of the Prince of Wales when he was younger, the b-roll cuts to other people watching, namely, Lord Mountbatten petting his dog, the Queen Mother eating what appears to be strawberry ice cream, and the Queen and Prince Philip, before going back to Charles and Camilla.

• Some of what the Duke is saying in his interview call back to a lot of what was said S3E2 Margaretology. She referred to the black and white men, Duke of Windsor refers to the “grey men".” “I soon discovered that any attempt to make even the most trifling change was met with hostility and suspicion [by whom] by the establishment, the grey men of the court, and by my family too.”
  Just as in Margaretology, the reporters said that Margaret brought color to the black and white world for the royal family, Wallis describes David as a “colorful, dynamic”; he counters with “individualistic.”
  Philip calls them ghastly and monstrous and kisses the queen very sweetly, subtly checking her expression to see how she’s doing before he goes off to bed.

• Princess Anne shows up in the next scene wearing a kicky military style jacket and pants, with a striped shirt – all blue and white. I think this is meant to indicate both her close connection to her father and her approach to life. She knows her brother and knows he gets attached easily, so she checks in on him and warns him lightly about Camilla’s continuing attachment to Andrew.
  ”Yes. And you’re seeing her ex Andrew.
  “Not sure you can call what we’re doing seeing. Not sure you can call him an ex either.”
  “Camilla told me, he’s definitely an ex.”
  “Just make sure things remain the right way around; us playing with Camilla and Andrew, not them playing with us.”
  “What does that mean?”
  /Anne scoffs and walks out/

• I don’t see a specific color story in the Duke and Duchess’s clothing, but they do tend to match. When we see the Duke in his green and white robe after taking a turn for the worse, the Duchess is in a green dress.

• The Queen visits President Pompidou in Paris in order to support Prime Minister Heath’s push for the UK to join the European Economic Community (the precursor to the EU, which didn’t go by that name until 1993) and laying poppies on a memorial for the allied fallen in World War I. She wears two outfits for this - both light purple/lavender. This may be to emphasize her royal position in contrast to her uncle, who gave up the throne.
  She says: “Though we live through times of conflict, our two countries share an ancient relationship. Let us not forget our deeper bonds, our sense of common purpose, on which can be built a new partnership, a new entente. Joined together in this august European enterprise, a great adventure lies ahead.”

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip meeting President Georges Pompidou on their visit to Paris in 1972 (Credit: Popperfoto / Getty).

Olivia Colman as Queen Elizabeth in The Crown.

• Olivia Colman is so brilliant. Her face changes ever so slightly when Martin tells her that the Duke is dying and she needs to visit him now, just a strange falling of her expression.

• The moment the duke hears the queen is coming he struggles to get up. When his wife says “You can’t be serious,” he shouts “I’ve never been more serious!” and forces his way up and out so he can get dressed and at least sit in a wheelchair while talking with her.
  He wears lots of green and red for his meeting with the queen. Wallis is also wearing green, matching him as usual. I didn’t figure out where the red was coming from until I realized that this likely is a callback to his red dispatch box as king, which is the first thing Queen Elizabeth focuses on when she enters their house.

• In real life, the Duke was still in his bed when the Queen visited him ten days before his death, not in a wheelchair as shown on The Crown, but he still struggled to his feet to bow. In both real life and on the TV show, she seems to deeply appreciate this.
  "There was no need for that.” “If the roles were reversed, you would do exactly the same.” She smiles because she knows it’s true. “Yes.”

• In their meeting, the Duke says that he underestimated the Queen and works to reassure her about Charles’ fitness for the throne.
  “We’ve had our disagreements but you’ve always been my favorite uncle.” “Dear Lillibet.” “Shirley temple.” “I underestimated you. We all did. But the crown always finds it way to the right head. My father, my brother, you, and one day, god willing your son.”

• The Duke and Charles together have all the colors of the flag of the United Kingdom in their outfits. The Duke wears a bright coral suit, red pants, and a pink and blue tie. Charles is wearing a grey suit, light blue shirt, and dark blue tie. They’re not the same but they clearly coordinate.
  The Queen, as she reads Charles letter, is wearing the same colors as Charles - grey with black lining.
  Prince Charles’s letter to the Duke of Windsor: “I do recognize myself in you. Your progressiveness and flair, your individuality and imagination, what a king you would have made in a kinder world. What a king you were denied.” …”I will not be denied what you have been denied. The crown is not a static thing resting forever on one head. It is moving, alive, divine, the changing face of changing times, and if god willing, it has been ordained that I shall wear it, than I shall do so on my own terms, and hopefully make you proud.”

• I thought it was so dreadfully sad that the Duke’s dog ran away from his door whimpering when he died. :(

Over-Analyzing The Crown: S3E7 Moondust

All My Posts on The Crown
S3: 1 & 2: “Olding” & “Margaretology” 3: “Aberfan” 4: “Bubbikins, 5: “Coup” 6: “Tywysog Cymru” 7: “Moondust" 8: “Dangling Man” 9: “Imbroglio” 10: “Cri de Coeur”
S4: 1: “Gold Stick” 2: “The Balmoral Test” 3: “Fairytale” ( + Cinderella References) 4: “Favourites” 5: “Fagan” 6: “Terra Nullius” 7: ”The Hereditary Principle” 8: “48:1” 9: “Avalanche”
The Medals, Sashes, and Tiaras of The Crown; Tiaras/Crowns Overviews: Season 1 ; Season 2

Prince Philip has a Very Special Episode dedicated to his midlife crisis and the moon. Also- astronauts, and corgis, and priests, oh my!

Princess Anne (Erin Doherty) and two children (probably the actors playing her brothers Prince Andrew and Edward) during the rocket launch party scene in The Crown.

Prince Philip (Tobias Menzies), enchanted by the moon in The Crown.

• This may be a particularly quote heavy blog post, as I find Philip absolutely hilarious (if sometimes ridiculously inappropriate). He’s one of my favorite characters and reminds me very much of my own husband, who often says hilariously inappropriate things and is also tall and slim like Philip.

• At the start of the episode, Prince Philip is watching the astronauts talk on television while wearing blue and dull green. The queen (also in green) comes in to join him and mentions that she’s sending a message to the moon, which will be inscribed with other messages on a disc and left on the moon along with an olive branch “for the little green men to wave about.” I haven’t noticed much of a color story in this episode, but I do love that they’re both wearing some sort of green while she’s joking about the “little green men.”
  Here’s the text of the note the Queen sent to the Moon. “On behalf of the British people, i salute the skill and courage that have brought man to the moon. May this endeavor increase the knowledge and well-being of mankind?

• I love how grumpy Philip is when he’s walking up to the church with his wife.
  Queen: “[The dean] has been with us for nearly 20 years.”
  Philip: “That may make him loyal, but it does not make him interesting.”
  “Shh.”
  This exchange starts off a theme of Philip finding people or events in his life boring throughout the entire episode.

• The queen wears a purple hat and just a ridiculously gorgeous coat to church. “They have ears, but they hear not” speech is hilariously on point for Philip. Anne, behind her father, shows a little more restraint and doesn’t cross her arms like he does, but her face still shows how annoying and boring she finds the Dean (like father, like daughter).
  Philip-ism about the old Dean of Windsor, as he says that he’s not coming back to church again: “It’s not a sermon, it’s a general anesthetic.” 

• Queen: “Is it possible, do you think, the dean, might have reached, how can i put this kindly, the moment of his own obsolescence? I noticed one or two people struggling to stay awake.” (maybe the most British way of saying this ever)
  Private Secretary Michael Adeane: “We could discreetly start the search for a replacement.”
  ”Yes, Good riddance. Someone with a bit of oomph, I think so.”
  “Zest.” “That’s it.”
  “Pep.” “Yes, thanks.”
  “Vim.” “Yes, thank you.”
  I enjoy how Michael Adeane ever so subtly pokes the driest of humor at the queen here in his use of many many synonyms to describe what she wants in the new dean. He’s been her private secretary for 16 years as of the time of this episode (which is partially why it’s so unbelievable/funny when Philip can’t remember Michael’s name in a few episodes after he retires) and they clearly known each other very well at this point.
  The practice polo cage Philip uses in one scene to outrace His Demons is so fucking ridiculous looking. 

• I was curious as to why they seem to be at Windsor for most if not all of this episode and looked it up. As this Harper’s Bazaar article on the royal residences states, “Buckingham Palace is the Queen’s working residence during the week when she and the Duke of Edinburgh are based in London. However, they go to Windsor Castle most weekends, spend each August and September at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, and head off to Sandringham House in Norfolk every Christmas.” So it makes sense that they’re at Windsor most of the time, since most of this episode seems to take place on Sundays (Apollo 11 launched on a Wednesday and the moon landing took place on a Sunday).

Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth at church in The Crown

• It looks like a really amazing rocket launch party. There’s a lunar module cake and they have like astronaut helmets and space banners and rocket party hats. I wish I could find ANY screenshots of it to share here. I particularly enjoy the little quick background scene where Anne carefully places multiple party hats on her sleeping grandmother, with Margaret’s help. Charles also appears to be present, if in the background, and he looks pretty happy to be hanging out with his family, so perhaps he and the Queen have mended things up a bit since the last episode.
  Philip looks even more excited about the rocket lift off than any of the children and it’s pretty amazing.
  Philip-ism, as he looks for his wife: “If I say She and we’re in Buckingham palace, who do you think I mean?” 

•  I literally didn’t even realize Margaret and Tony came to the rocket launching party at first, because Margaret is wearing a dark brown dress that is just so damn toned down for her. We really don’t spend any time with them in this episode, but based on the Margaret and Tony episode we get at the end of the season, I’m guessing the dark brown might indicate the sad state of their marriage. It’s also barely ever mentioned in the series, but they have two children themselves, named David and Sarah. You can read all about them here.
  As was hinted at in S2E7 Matrimonium, Tony did, in fact, have an illegitimate child with Camilla Fry, the wife of his friend Jeremy Fry (The Crown portrayed Tony and the Frys as having a three-way relationship, which is alleged in the 2008 book “Snowdon: The Biography” but hasn’t been fully substantiated). His daughter, Polly, was born a few weeks after he married Princess Margaret; his paternity was confirmed by a DNA test in 2004. “Snowdon: The Biography” also alleged that Jeremy Fry was actually intended to act as Tony’s best man at the wedding, but had to drop out due to illness.

• As he sits up to watch the moon landing, there are American flags behind him and a toy astronaut in front of him. 
  I love that Philip asks the staff to wake up all the children to see the moon landing. We get a really quick montage of all the butlers and maids gently shaking Andrew and Edward awake and helping them put their robes on.
  Anne’s dress in the moon landing scene is really cute – black, with multicolored lines on a slightly offset bit. 

• The newspapers Philip is reading when he’s ignoring his private secretary not only talk about the race to the moon, but also mention a few other things that seem to emphasize other men’s achievements, such as, “Man dies saving daughter.” He’s wearing a tie that’s dark blue with little white dots on it, vaguely reminiscent of the moon. He’s also wearing his military coat here, which seems to refer to his longing for his lost career. Basically, everything in this scene emphasizes Philip’s midlife crisis.
  Philip-ism: “British Concrete Society, is that a joke?”
  Sidenote: The concept of a “midlife crisis” was first named in 1965, so the concept is still relatively new when this episode takes place. Philip does admit at the end that he’s going through a crisis, but he avoids actually calling it a midlife crisis. Wikipedia defines a midlife crisis as “a psychological crisis brought about by events that highlight a person's growing age, inevitable mortality, and possibly shortcomings of accomplishments in life.” Plenty of people don’t have midlife crises, but of those who do, a death of a loved one is often a precipitating factor. “Moondust” almost unfolds like a mystery, in a way, as we don’t realize until the very end that Philip is experiencing these feelings primarily because of his mother’s death, which hadn’t previously been revealed.

• Philip’s private secretary gives some choice knowing glances as the new priest discusses his priest sanctuary idea, seemingly realizing that this is exactly the situation Philip is in. 
  Philip-ism: “But If one of those buildings is free and you want to fill it with hot air and thought, be my guest.”

• Tobias Menzies has the most ridiculously expressive eyes, which he uses to great effect as Philip. This is a much quieter, less dramatic role than his role as Jack Randall in Outlander, and although Philip is funny, he’s not as hapless or pathetic as Edmure Tully in Game of Thrones, but I think it may be the finest work he’s ever done.
  Philip doesn’t have the anger that he did in the first two seasons and he definitely seems more “settled” (which was pretty much the Queen’s end goal in Season 2), but there’s kind of a new hopelessness, as he stays up late every night to watch all the space and moon reports, the lone holdout among his family. He even cries a little at the sight. As he goes through his various duties, at a textile mill, at a dental prosthetic lab, he’s smiling, but he just looks a little lost. 

• It seems like Philip’s wrinkles are much more emphasized than we’ve seen previously. This may be because we’re getting tighter shots on his face as he' focuses on the space mission, but the show also definitely uses makeup to subtly age the actors throughout the season. They definitely look older and look their character’s age, which supports the decision to replace the Season 1 and 2 actors with older actors for season 3. I feel like if Claire Foy had continued to act as the Queen, you’d have an “aging” look similar to how Clare and Jamie look in Season 3 of Outlander, after supposedly 20 years have passed. They both look older then they did, but they’re also the youngest looking 40-somethings I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s just hard to make really young actors look like they’re entering middle age.
  Apparently most of the main actors also wear wigs in order to properly replicate their character’s hair color and period-accurate hair styles. Thinning hair, graying hair, and changing hairlines in the wigs also help age up the actors as the season progresses. I couldn’t find a definitive list anywhere (there’s a lot more info about Season 1-2 still than there is about 3), but the Queen, Prince Philip, and Princess Margaret definitely all wear wigs.
  If you’d like to read more about how accurate the makeup on The Crown is to real life, Harpers Bazaar Australia did a pretty great article on the makeup seen in the first two seasons.

• Then we get a shot of Philip flying for the first time this season; I’m pretty sure this is put in here not just to emphasize Philip’s discontent with his life but also to remind us of this part of his life before he later asks to meet the astronauts privately so they can talk “pilot to pilot.” I really enjoyed how the pilot frantically buckles his seatbelt back in as Philip takes over the controls and starts aiming the nose to the moon, going as high up as he can, much higher than the pilot would have taken it. When the pilot says that they need to get down from the elevation quickly, Philip replies, “But look, we’ve also lived. Just for a minute.” 

Dean Robin Woods with the Queen (Credit: Mirrorpix).

Tobias Menzies as Prince Philip with Tim McMullan as Dean Robin Woods in The Crown

Tim McMullan as Dean Robin Woods in The Crown

A scene set at St. George’s House in The Crown

• I have a theory that the queen specifically asked Dean Woods to check in on Philip and help provide him some guidance through his current crisis and feelings of loss. Right before the rocket launch party when Prince Philip asks her about the new dean, she says cagily that he’ll be a good fit “for the job I’ve asked him to do.” She then looks at her husband with a knowing smile. And then Woods is extremely persistent in engaging with Philip, even after Philip makes it very plain that he doesn’t really want to spend time with him or any of the priests.

• Dean Woods gives a sermon about exploration and space that would have been great for Philip to hear. The queen definitely seems to think this, as she looks next to her and misses him. But Philip is off trying to outrace his own demons by jogging through the grey-skied countryside because he has Feelings. As the audio of Dean Woods’ speech continues over his running though, we hear heavy breathing, like that of the astronauts' over their radios to space. Neither the scene immediately before or immediately after this one have any footage of the astronauts themselves, so this has to be Philip’s breath, intentionally laid over the audio to emulate space.
  The bit of Woods’ speech we can hear before it trails off into Philip’s overwhelming ennui goes: “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. Those words by T.S. Eliot have never rung more true. We stand at the dawn of a new age of space exploration. The promise of space has never felt more real….”

• The new dean of the church at Windsor wears a red shirt and cassock sometimes. This is apparently pretty normal in the Anglican church.

  Philip-isms about Dean Woods’ spiritual retreat for priests: “Your concentration camp for spiritual defectives.” “Do I need to show symptoms of despair? Should I sigh and moan dramatically. One does like to fit in.” 
  Philip trying to pretend that he cares about the priests’ problems is pretty hilarious. They talk about their “sense of directionlessness and redundancy” and how they feel like they’re failing to connect with the people. Honestly, they’re pretty much summing up Philip’s issues and he’s just in total denial.
  I love that Philip admits that his new religious faith is basically the moon and the space race. He at least knows himself!

• Dean Woods quotes Keats in response to Philip’s observation that the space race and the moon have become some people’s religion: “What is there in thee, moon, that thou shouldst move my heart so potently?” He then continues on, “Now we know what the moon is - nothing. Just dust. Silence. Monochromatic void. We see no god beyond those rocks and space dust, simply an unknowable vastness.” Then he switches to Psalms 8:3: “When i consider the work of thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars that thou hast ordained, what is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
  The Keats quote is from a poem called Endymion, which you can read in full here. I’ll admit, I often am skeptical of characters just quoting a perfect poem at the perfect time in period dramas without rehearsal, as Dean Woods does here. We also see Margaret and Tony quote poetry at each other when they first meet at a party in Season 2. But I try to remind myself that people had a lot less entertainment in the past and read and memorized more than we do now, just as plenty of us can recite various quotes from our favorite movies, TV shows, and pop songs.

• Though Philip had actually been trying to be tactful for once in his life, when Dean Woods actually asks for his opinions, he lets loose his vitriol pretty ferociously. “Me? You want my thoughts? Really. Okay, right. I’ve never heard such a load of pretentious self pitying nonsense. What you lot need to do is get off your backsides, get out into the world, and do something. That is why you are all so lost.” He then continues to wax philosophic about how action is what defines us, not suffering, and says that men need to make their mark on the world. These beliefs all hearken back to his schooling at Gordonstoun, which were examined pretty thoroughly in S2E9 Paterfamilias, and his young adulthood in the British Navy.
  He also calls them all “navel-gazing underachievers infecting each other with gaseous doom” and tells them “If you want to start with action, clean up the floor.”

• Another Philip-ism comes up when they’re eating dinner, as he jokes that he’s eating so much venison that he’s going to turn into a deer. “I’m listening, with brown furry ears.”
  THE CORGIS WANT VENISON.  Well of course they do. Good puppiessss (y’all, I want a corgi SO BADLY, you have no idea. But husband John says he’ll only agree to me having a dog when I get a New York Times bestseller).
  By the way, the dogs playing the Queen’s corgis apparently eat just a boatload of cheese on set.

The Apollo 11 astronauts meeting the royal family at Buckingham Palace. In real life, Prince Philip was right there with his family meeting the astronauts. He also didn’t have a personal meeting with them (as the episode depicted) (Credit: PA / Getty).

The actors playing the Apollo 11 astronauts and their wives at Buckingham Palace in The Crown.

• Philip is obviously delighted when the Queen tells him that the astronauts are going to come visit the royal family. The Queen says, “I thought that would cheer you up.” “Do I need cheering up?” “A little.” 
  It’s sweet how she so obviously knows him better than he knows himself. Right before his meeting with the astronauts, the queen stares at Philip with obvious concern, like she’s not quite certain how he’s going to react to anything. 

• Various stray thoughts about the astronauts’ visit to Buckingham Palace: Philip is basically a kid on Christmas morning when the astronauts come; he is absolutely way too excited. And he’s not the only one. Even the BUTLERS and the maids and footmen are excited, racing to the windows to see them, even though as staff of the royal family, they’ve obviously seen a lot.
  I laughed out loud at the background bit in which Margaret lights a cigarette and says “Please don’t tell me you want to talk about children” to one of the astronauts’ wives, who looks suitably flabbergasted.
  We really get to see Anne and her little brothers interact with each other and other family members for the first time this season. Anne at one point shoves her little brother out from behind her to meet Neil Armstrong.
  The Queen wears a blue dress with a white purse that’s very similar to what she wore in real life, but not identical. I always wonder why they made the little changes they do - like why this dress has sleeves added, but the dress Jackie Kennedy wore to Buckingham Palace in season 2 had its sleeves taken away.

Queen Elizabeth meeting the Apollo 11 astronauts at Buckingham Palace (Credit: Bettmann / Getty).

Olivia Colman as the Queen meeting the Apollo 11 astronauts in The Crown.

• In the episode, the astronauts all have colds and Prince Philip runs out of handkerchiefs to give them. In real life, only Neil Armstrong is known to have had a cold at the time of their meeting, but it apparently was bad enough that he considered backing out of the meeting. However, his wife had other ideas. “She told me that if I had to be embalmed, we were going to see the palace,” Neil Armstrong said. “She wanted to see the place.” He apparently coughed on the Queen and when he tried to apologize, coughed on her again. His illness was apparently memorable enough that the Queen later asked an acquaintance about Armstrong’s health.
  Buzz Aldrin also revealed on Twitter in 2016 that "Mike Collins almost fell down the stairs trying not to turn his back on Queen Elizabeth II."

• Historically, the queen had met space travelers before this visit and continued to show interest in space afterward. She met Yuri Gagarin, the first man to go into space, in July 1961, and Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, in 1964. She also met an astronaut from Apollo 8 prior to the Apollo 11 astronauts’ visit. When Apollo 12 returned to the moon in November 1969, she woke up early to watch TV coverage of the event.

• It appears that, for their meeting with Prince Philip, the astronauts are placed in the same big room that Princess Alice was exploring when the journalist found her there in S2E4 “Bubbikins.” Is that the big, grand room they use to impress visitors? This also ties the episode back to Philip’s mother, whose name has not actually been spoken as of this point in the episode.

Neil Armstrong (Henry Pettigrew), Buzz Aldrin (Felix Scott) and Michael Collins (Andrew Lee Potts) in a scene with Prince Philip (Tobias Menzies)

Jane Lapotaire as Princess Alice in The Crown.

• Philip’s meeting with the astronauts is super awkward, with lots of long silences, and disappoints him. He tries to ask the astronauts big profound questions about how they felt up in space, e.g., what their thoughts were out there about humans’ place in the universe, but the astronauts respond that they really didn’t have time for thinking of that, as they were constantly busy performing different procedures and checking items off the list. This is exactly how he guessed it would be earlier in the episode, when he told off the priests at St. George’s house. “Action is what defines us, Action, not suffering - all this sitting around, thinking and talking. Let me ask you this, do you think those astronauts up there are catatonic like you lot. Of course not, they are too busy achieving something spectacular. And as a result, they are at one with the world. At one with their god. And happy.”
  He was terribly disappointed when the astronauts’ most profound observation to him was that their water cooler in space sucked and kept them awake with noise. They then took the opportunity to ask him lots of mundane questions about his life - how many rooms are in the palace, how long the hallways are, and how many staff they had, before the audio trails off.

• Philip later comments to the queen: “I don’t know what I was thinking. I expected them to be giants, gods. But in reality they’re just three little men, pale-faced with colds.”
  The Queen notes in response that the very qualities that make one a good astronaut (their sense of duty, reliability, modesty) and perfect in a crisis are not necessarily those that make for a really interesting person (originality or inventiveness). It almost seems like she’s talking about herself and Margaret again, hearkening back to her discussion with Philip at the end of S3E2 Margaretology about the dull, trustworthy people vs. the interesting, unreliable people of her family. “They never wanted to be public but because of one event, they will be forever.” (They must have known what they were getting into though, right?) “They delivered as astronauts but they disappointed as human beings.”
  Philip-ism: “Good job there were no little green men. They could be forgiven for thinking, ‘if that’s all planet Earth has got to offer, let’s give the place a miss.’”

• After the astronauts disappoint him terribly, he pauses by the staircase leading up to his mother’s empty room and walks up to look around at it sadly. He then goes to St. George’s again and finally admits that something’s been wrong with him lately; although he’s generally a cantankerous person, he’s been over-exercising, over-zealously following the space race. He talks about his mother’s death and his own lack of faith for the first time in the episode, says straight out that he’s desperate and lost, and asks the priests for help.
  Sidenote: He says something slightly mysterious while talking about his crisis. “Just like other people hitting that crisis, you resort to all the usual things to try to make yourself feel better. Some of which I can admit in this room and others which I probably shouldn’t.” This seems to imply that he may have committed some big sin he can’t talk about with the priests. Just like in the second season, where Philip never actually denies that he’s cheated, it’s left really ambiguous as to whether Philip has had affairs or not.

• As the end of the episode notes, St. George’s House is a real organization that Prince Philip helped found (although in real life, it was started a few years before the moon landing occurred). He also was apparently quite a bit more enthusiastic about the concept from the get-go than is portrayed here. You can find out more information about the founding of St. George’s House here.

• Wonderfully, the entire episode seems to fulfill the T.S. Eliot quote from Dean Woods’ sermon. “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” After meeting the astronauts and trying to find meaning in the space race, he finally comes back to the priests and admits that he’s been lost since his mother’s death; he is coming back to where he started and now knows himself better.