[wildhoneyvalancy]

The few academic articles written on The Blue Castle that I have read are a bit disappointing tbh. Yes, The Blue Castle is a romance novel, it is not “Literature”, but I think they are still too dismissive of it. It is a bit more nuanced than most of these essays give it credit for being. Even the last line of the novel is interesting.

I mean, it ultimately doesn’t matter, I personally loved The Blue Castle from an emotional place, not as an intellectual exercise. But also it is not as simple a book as they dismiss it as.

[wildhoneyvalancy]

I guess I have to reconcile myself to the fact that not everything I love has to be Good (TM). As a literature student, I have been too accustomed to loving canonical “serious” Literature, and when I love popular culture it tends to be really popular stuff that can compensate for its lack of academic clout with its immense popularity. For the first time I am loving and being a fan of what is essentially a relatively obscure popular novel and I have to make peace with it.

[redxluna]

Have you considered the actress for Akile Hatun/Sultan for Esmanur? She’s not as conventionally attractive as your current FC but she is very striking, like Nigar.

So, to be honest, while I outsourced the possibility of an FC for Esmanur (and a little bit with Osman too) to begin with, I'll openly admit that, whenever it comes to, "Oh, could this be Esmanur...?" literally the first step in the vetting process for me is going to @alwaysright27.

There are some folks in this fandom that can be considered "specialists" on a given character and she's 100% that with Nigar.

I do have a soft spot for Akile, to be honest, but, under just my own opinion, I don't entirely see Esmanur when I look at her? And, to be fair, that's influenced through the fact that I've always imagined Esmanur's hair much darker, like her mother's.

But, at the same time, I will say that I have no idea how I didn't think to consider her as the daughter of Gülnihal and the husband I wrote for her.

Ironically, though, while I certainly search out FCs to use for edits, the Esmanur in my mind isn't necessarily "conventionally" attractive? Or, at the very least, when I write with her, striking does feel the right word for her since, combined with her rather arresting features, she kind of holds herself in a way that, unintentionally, demands attention and her eyes are more expressive than her overall face most days.

A good example of this is how Zhou Xun in the Legend of Ruyi is able to depict so much in her acting through her eyes alone in that role, but also this quote in particular, from the Tudors, is very Esmanur coded.

"There's something deep and dangerous in you, Anne, those eyes of yours are like dark hooks for the soul."

[alwaysright27]

I think Akile kind-of sort-of resembles the child actor who plays Esmanur, but doesn’t resemble Nigar sufficiently enough to be “my” Esmanur.

Nigar has very particularly-shaped eyes that are not that commonly found in either Turkey or in the Balkans, and Ibrahim very pointedly (and in the original Turkish, very memorably, but it seems to be a bit lost in translation) wants their daughter to have eyes shaped like that. And then he is very happy that Esmanur indeed has eyes like that. Akile’s eye-shape is that of the average Turkish woman. Nigar’s eyes do look different from most Turkish people’s.

[redxluna]

And this is why I consult the expert!

Since, while I consider Nigar's eyes to be distinct, I didn't know that they were indeed that distinct.

[alwaysright27]

They are not extremely distinct, my father has eyes like Nigar’s. But:

1) They are more distinct than Akile’s eyes.

2) The show itself singles out Nigar and Esmanur’s eye shape as significant repeatedly within its text. So it matters.

[wildhoneyvalancy]

Yet another freaking parallel between Nigar and Valancy.

The Blue Castle was created in a lab for me to forsake Nibrahim.

[redxluna]

[alwaysright27]

The way House has a crush on both of his friends (Wilson and Cuddy)

[normalbrothers]

they didn't even grow up together

[alwaysright27]

Me when people try to argue that some random couple is like Catherine and Heathcliff:

[wildhoneyvalancy]

I showed my mother this blog and she asked in panic “Is that you in the profile picture?!”

I know Valancy is supposed to be “plain” but honestly I am flattered.

[ofallingstar]

Anne of Green Gables (1979)

[aroundthecoffeepot]

“Wait! Please, wait for me!”

[wildhoneyvalancy]

Commentary on Chapter 13 of The Blue Castle (Part 2)

I have forgotten to point this out:

“Don’t worry, Mother,” said Valancy, lightly but quite respectfully. “It isn’t likely I’ll do anything very terrible. But I mean to have a little fun.”

“Fun!” Mrs. Frederick uttered the word as if Valancy had said she was going to have a little tuberculosis.”

This expression is very funny but it becomes less funny when you remember that Montgomery (as the Author-as-God) gave Cissy Gay tuberculosis to absolve her of the “fun” she had.

[starlene]

The Blue Castle Book Club: Chapter 13

"I remember Grandfather Wansbarra. He was one of the few human beings I have known—almost the only one."

Lately, I have spent quite a lot of time thinking about what knowing someone really means. I haven't come to any concrete conclusions yet, I'm afraid – but I am very glad that Valancy has had someone in her life that she feels like she has known, nevertheless, even if he has long since passed away.

Grandfather Wansbarra seems to have been something of an eccentric, in a fun but also, perhaps, somewhat annoying way. So far, we've learned that he chose Valancy's name, that he claimed to be the reincarnation of his great-great-grandfather, and that apparently, he didn't have too much time for social niceties ("He talked all his life exactly as Valancy did today.")

All this makes me wonder how on earth he managed to father and raise someone like Mrs. Frederick. Perhaps that was Amelia's quiet form of rebellion, becoming someone completely unlike her father? And like someone said, she has likely had to put in a lot of effort to be accepted into the Stirling clan despite her family background, so whatever small peculiarities she might've inherited from her father must've been ironed out in the process.

~

Sidenote: I keep thinking of starlings whenever I read or write the name Stirling. That's too nice an association for this bunch, really. Starlings are such beautiful birds.

(photo by TheOther Kev on Pexels)

~

"“Fun!” Mrs. Frederick uttered the word as if Valancy had said she was going to have a little tuberculosis."

This made me laugh.

~

Anyway, this is a fun little chapter, but with such a dark undertone. This family is losing it so completely over their former punching bag saying no to them for a change that one of them is literally suggesting locking her up. No wonder Valancy used to be so afraid of them, really – it's a very sinister mindset on display here.

[wildhoneyvalancy]

Amelia reminds me of Peyker from Aşk-ı Memnu a bit. Conforming as a way of rebelling against a non-conventional parent.

[sersh]

HAVANA ROSE LIU Makeup by Shayna Goldberg ahead of attending the 79th Cannes Film Festival, May 17th 2026

[alwaysright27]

Nelly Dean starts her story in the Wuthering Heights Comic Book I have bought.

[alwaysright27]

I watched the House Autism Episode.

1- I like that it was Wilson who suggested House could be autistic instead of Cameron.

2- The ending of the episode was meant to be uplifting but it felt bleak to me. Well it was the 2000s I guess.

[alwaysright27]

I won’t read Tess right now. It is too depressing.

[alwaysright27]

I am randomly miserable and unmotivated again.

[redxluna]

Have you considered the actress for Akile Hatun/Sultan for Esmanur? She’s not as conventionally attractive as your current FC but she is very striking, like Nigar.

So, to be honest, while I outsourced the possibility of an FC for Esmanur (and a little bit with Osman too) to begin with, I'll openly admit that, whenever it comes to, "Oh, could this be Esmanur...?" literally the first step in the vetting process for me is going to @alwaysright27.

There are some folks in this fandom that can be considered "specialists" on a given character and she's 100% that with Nigar.

I do have a soft spot for Akile, to be honest, but, under just my own opinion, I don't entirely see Esmanur when I look at her? And, to be fair, that's influenced through the fact that I've always imagined Esmanur's hair much darker, like her mother's.

But, at the same time, I will say that I have no idea how I didn't think to consider her as the daughter of Gülnihal and the husband I wrote for her.

Ironically, though, while I certainly search out FCs to use for edits, the Esmanur in my mind isn't necessarily "conventionally" attractive? Or, at the very least, when I write with her, striking does feel the right word for her since, combined with her rather arresting features, she kind of holds herself in a way that, unintentionally, demands attention and her eyes are more expressive than her overall face most days.

A good example of this is how Zhou Xun in the Legend of Ruyi is able to depict so much in her acting through her eyes alone in that role, but also this quote in particular, from the Tudors, is very Esmanur coded.

"There's something deep and dangerous in you, Anne, those eyes of yours are like dark hooks for the soul."

[alwaysright27]

I think Akile kind-of sort-of resembles the child actor who plays Esmanur, but doesn’t resemble Nigar sufficiently enough to be “my” Esmanur.

Nigar has very particularly-shaped eyes that are not that commonly found in either Turkey or in the Balkans, and Ibrahim very pointedly (and in the original Turkish, very memorably, but it seems to be a bit lost in translation) wants their daughter to have eyes shaped like that. And then he is very happy that Esmanur indeed has eyes like that. Akile’s eye-shape is that of the average Turkish woman. Nigar’s eyes do look different from most Turkish people’s.