ok friends i was talking with the lads on discord about hans and his relationship to the prose lancelot and arthuriana in general, and i had some Thoughts that i figured i would share with the class!!!
so i was thinking. hans is a Medieval Jock, and Medieval Jocks were OBSESSED with stories and poems of knights and chivalry. from my (very light) research, it seems like bohemians preferred stories about alexander the great over stories of king arthur's court, and may have actually thought king arthur was kinda lame. but we know that hans tends to go against the grain in some interesting ways, and we know that hans has had exposure to at least one arthurian story and is able to interpret it well enough to use it to define a romantic relationship between two men. so, yknow. i'm choosing to believe hans is a fan of arthuriana.
so i think that, prior to reading/encountering the vulgate, hans was more obsessed with tristan and isolde, firstly bc there's some evidence indicating that medieval bohemians were more fond of tristan than any other arthurian knights, and secondly bc hans would be That Bitch who thinks tristan and isolde are peak romance. tristan is his favorite, especially when he was younger. which led me to thinking about young hans being obsessed with tristan. trying to find and read all the stories about tristan he can, or hear them performed by bards and minstrels. he knows that tristan is part of this larger mythological cycle, but he's really just in it for tristan and isolde. then he learns about the vulgate cycle, this giant compilation of tales purporting to retell the legend of king arthur's court in its entirety. maybe he finds part of it in the library at rattay, or maybe he sees part of it performed. either way, he finds the prose lancelot. which obviously isn't about tristan. but that's fine! surely tristan will show up at some point in it, bc obviously tristan is the coolest and bestest and awesomest character ever (hans' opinion not mine lmao). he reads/hears the story, and tristan isn't showing up. it's just lancelot. and then he gets to the part with lancelot and galehaut, which is like. probably the greater half of the prose lancelot. he reads it, and he has a lot of Feelings that he doesn't have words for. feelings he can't explain, except as "i wish i was also a knight on a quest with another knight with whom i am closer than anyone else in the world."
he finishes the prose lancelot. tristan never showed up. he's extremely disappointed by this. but lancelot and galehaut's story is compelling and tragic enough for him to be satisfied, although he keeps trying to get access to other parts of the vulgate in search of tristan (unbeknownst to him, this is a lost cause, because tristan doesn't show up in the vulgate). and since he can't find tristan, he keeps gravitating back to the prose lancelot, and to lancelot and galehaut's relationship. he keeps turning it over in his head. he doesn't know why he fixates on it, why he finds it so fascinating. but he also doesn't really think about the why, the same way he doesn't think about why he fixates on the doomed romance between tristan and isolde. there doesn't have to be a why, right? he just likes it! it's a good story! it's compelling! it's compelling, how much these two knights care for one another! it's compelling how galehaut knows his affection for lancelot will doom him! it's compelling how galehaut remains devoted to lancelot, up to and including helping lancelot with his trysts with guinevere! and galehaut's death! the epitaph on his grave! lancelot's desire to be buried in the same tomb! it Fascinates him!! why does it fascinate him? well, there doesn't have to be a why! it's just good!!! right???
obviously not. we are fascinated by stories because they speak to us. sometimes, they speak to something missing in us. though hans would never admit it, he's an incredibly lonely man. a great deal of his life is defined by his loneliness, by this absence for something he can't even name, because he never had it enough to know what it was. he's never had friends his own age, or even peers. he's only known his own worth in relation to his position of nobility. he has never had someone care about him unconditionally, or if he has, he was too young to remember it.
so hans fixates on the romance of tristan and isolde, longs for a romance like theirs, even though it ends badly, because it ends badly, because he wants to feel anything, even if it's pain. even if it's agony. he wants a love like their because that, to him, is love without conditions, love that is devoted to the point of madness and death. and he is similarly fixated on lancelot and galehaut because he longs for a friendship like theirs, wants to have someone who will stick with him unconditionally, who cares about him not because of his titles but because of who he is as a person.
and then he meets henry. for the first time, he has a friend. he starts rotating the prose lancelot in his mind again. maybe he rereads it with new eyes, or maybe he sees it performed in a slightly different way, or maybe he just starts thinking about it differently for whatever reason. he starts reassessing it. and it slowly dawns on him, what the true nature of the relationship between lancelot and galehaut is. he looks at the story. he looks at henry. he loses his fucking mind.
First time posting my art, I'm sorry if it's blurry! The photo is crisp until I upload it for some reason (I am internet illiterate). I've always been more into watercolour and acrylic painting, but this year my bestie gifted me Prismacolor pencils so I've been learning a new skill. And of course I naturally had to start by drawing her favourite baby girl pookie for her. And of course I didn't think to scan it before giving it to her so this image is from her framed signed gift.
Every time I see a take thatâs like âdurge is the correct way to play bg3 story wise if you want a custom characterâ or similar takes that are all like âlarian should have stuck to their original plan and made durge the only available custom character tav is pointlessâ it makes me wanna continue my durge playthrough less as someone who leans towards preferring tav for the freedom. I like durge donât get me wrong but itâs a set backstory and story just like all the other origins.
Like I think part of why bg3 is so good is that you have both options!! As someone who plays Skyrim and avoids the dragonborn stuff as much as possible Iâm so happy I have a choice where I can truly just fuck around and do what I want! Sure you donât get as much/any unique scenes to your character but i donât mind. It just means I can play origins (including durge) for extra content!
Like durge is great but itâs a set backstory and character. Like even the evil path as durge you are evil in a specific way. If you are evil youâre mostly evil in the way Baal tells you to be. Maybe you wanna be evil but not a murder hobo! Having the options for tav and origins just, makes it a lot bigger.
Especially when all the companions have these big deal backstories itâs kinda fun to play as truly just Some Guy who got wrapped up in all of this.
Well, that was quite the adventure to wrap up 'Season One' on. I'll be taking a break to think up some storylines as I play through the Underdark sections of the game now.
I hope you are all enjoying this comic series so far and a big thank-you for all the likes and comments.
I saw this absolutely divine Astarion cosplay by @woodsmokeandwords and the âAstarionâs backstory is really sadâ hit and I ran to try to do a render of their amazing cosplay shoot đââď¸đ¨ My little light ray is not as great as the original picture, so the second slide is the render without the light ray added. Off to sleep now đď¸đââď¸đ¨
I am screaming to the instagram gawds this doesnât get compressed Iâm proud of this one PLEASE DONT COMPRESS IT AAAA
fangs in the nightđŚ @davenswitcher - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
