I just love the super realistic historical shows where they show how filthy and disease ridden the era is by having every nameless peasant look like they rolled in mud right before filming while every noble has three layers of painstaking makeup on to create the illusion that they’re just naturally flawless. Sure we know what it was really like, but clearly only the filthy poors ever had to deal with that kind of thing while the elites of society have always been pictures of beauty and health. No one ever used urine in beauty treatments or got the pox or had a particularly unflattering jaw from years of inbreeding cause everyone would rather fuck their cousins than anyone even slightly below their “station”. Because hey, being realistic is great, praise us for our gritty realism in showing how disgusting the poor are- I mean were, but it’s just too much to ask our viewers to consider them actual people. That’s why we focus on nobles, who definitely all fit into modern beauty standards at all times and in all places.
Meanwhile LOTR allows everyone who has been wandering around in the wild for weeks or months to look like it.



















