Unbetitelt

[elexuscal]

A big part of why Captain William Laurence works is because he is the full embodiment of the romantic ideal of the 1800s British gentlemen.

Which means he has the flaws inherent in those-- flaws which he, more or less, works through over the course of the series. But frankly the first chapter of His Majesty's Dragon is a master-stroke in efficient characterization, getting you onboard with a character who could have easily become unlikeable by modern sensibilities. Laurence is unfailingly polite, at ease both on a battle field and in Society, dedicated to the ideals of honour, nobles oblige, and doing what's right.

Now. The problem, fandom-wise, becomes what to do when you want to make a modern day AU. Because Laurence is the ideal of masculinity from that specific time and place. So, do you...

a) make him conform to modern idealised norms of masculinity? (norms, that frankly, i don't think exist; so much of Culture War fighting is wrestling with this question)

b) stick him with his original characterization... and make him deeply fucking weird by result?

[superiorsturgeon]

Lung Tien Lien explaining with dignity that Celestial dragons cannot breed outside of their own kind meanwhile Temeraire is hate-fucking a Turkish dragon in the bushes outside of town.

[ottovanvonveen]

"and Laurence knew him; knew him and knew himself" what if I exploded.

[frenchoynonsoup]

naomi novik i owe you my life

[darkandstormyart]

trying to break the drawing curse with yet another bird guy🪶

[reddwarf93]

My latest Temeraire headcanon is that when Laurence is very tired, he starts using navy slang without realising it.

He's usually very conscious that he's the interloper in their world, has been diligent about learning the aerial corps terms for everything, and does his best to talk like an aviator (within the bounds of his own sense of propriety). But when he's exhausted, and there's no emergency to keep him focused, a lifetime of habit creeps up on him, and the naval terms slip out without his notice.

Unfortunately, Laurence also has the skill of a seasoned senior officer of not appearing tired in the slightest, even when he's about to keel over (see what I did there :-D). So on those occasions when the crew are all knackered and short tempered at the end of a hard day's training, and their endlessly upright and proper captain starts speaking gibberish with no other change in his demeanor, everyone presumes he's doing it on purpose just to be a dick.

After the Victoriatus rescue Granby asks him about it, and Laurence is naturally extremely embarrassed and profusely apologetic. Once the crew are aware that Laurence slowly becoming incomprehensible means he's exhausted, they use it as a handy barometer of when they need to herd him off to bed. They actually find it kind of adorable that their captain has this quirky little tell (not that they'd ever say that to his face).

When they're aboard the Allegiance on the way to China, with little else to occupy them, Granby insists that Laurence teach them basic naval terminology (since they currently have a ship handy so he can show them what he's referring to), plus the kind of sailor's slang that even the officers use in ordinary conversation. That way if he ever does slip up in an emergency, they have a chance at understanding what the hell he's talking about.

Temeraire picked up some of it during his first few weeks living aboard the Reliant, but he's always eager for more knowledge, especially about something that's important to Laurence. He takes to these lessons as enthusiastically as he does those in Chinese, and by the time they reach China he knows the names and functions of each part of the ship inside and out.

At various times during their following journeys, Temeraire will have Laurence make a game of it. They figure out ways to translate sailing terminology to dragon flight, and Temeraire delights in confusing people by being able to take directions as if he had masts and sails. It eventually becomes handy in battle when it's just the two of them, letting both Laurence and Temeraire openly shout out instructions and warnings for surprise manoeuvers.

Laurence still does his best to speak like a proper aerial officer while working with other aviators, but he eventually lets himself relax somewhat when he's off duty, and uses whatever mix of naval and aerial vocabulary comes naturally to him. He's privately delighted every time he notices that he's infected his friends with his seafaring turns of phrase.

(And on the rare occasions that Laurence is truly, profoundly drunk, he can be goaded into swearing like a true sailor, and teaching his aviator comrades the filthies sea songs he knows.)

[voluptatiscausa]

Temeraire dashboard simulator

☁️ dragonflyer

temeraire the boat 🤝 temeraire the dragon

stolen from the french

😠 angrywinchester

ok for a moment i was going crazy i was like. wasnt it english built. but apparently the battle of trafalgar temeraire was named after an earlier temeraire stolen from the french

😠 angrywinchester

also fantastic move by william laurence, after stealing a dragon egg from the french. “yknow what would be so funny-"

☁️ dragonflyer

the royal navy: rubbing it in since 1759

☁️ dragonflyer

going through the wikipedia for the temeraire-class and I swear like a third of these things were captured by the british lmao

😠 angrywinchester

“should we build a new temeraire?” “no….just wait….wait for the french to build it…"

32 notes

🗡️ rolandinthedeep

New South Wales core

😎 kuling-chill-e

:(

🗡️ rolandinthedeep

/affectionate

😎 kuling-chill-e

:)

17 notes

🚓 is-william-laurence-currently-a-convicted-criminal

no

#check back tomorrow

51 notes

🐉 temer-marry-me

fellow dragonfuckers I’m thinking about those tendrils today

🧚🏽 dragonrider69

#girl I am at WORK you cannot be distracting me like this

103 notes

🗣️ morelikeaerialbore

people thinking we can’t let dragons walk around London because of the size of the streets or the citizenry pissing themselves in fear, WRONG, the real reason is dragons talk too loud and you would never escape the sound of Perscitia arguing with the finance bros about bitcoin

#I’m the only one brave enough to say this #dragon rights

437 notes

🪽 wingmanbutnotmid

the captain and tharkay are back from yet another harrowing adventure

#the sight of tharkay literally cured his amnesia and you’re telling me I’m tinhatting

1,527 notes

👑 vivelempereur

New chapter of The Emperor’s Greatest Conquest (E, 183,832k, 42/?) is up!

Laurence does not turn away from the window as Napoleon enters the room. He must not have heard the footsteps, too absorbed in contemplating the beauty of the Emperor’s work, the gracious pavilions, the broad streets, the well-tended and loyal beasts. That is the only explanation; Laurence is ever courteous, even when held as a guest of honour in a land not his own. It gives Napoleon a chance to study Laurence in profile; the proud raise of the chin, the intelligence in the gaze, the slight frown of the lips. To any other, perhaps, his face would be unreadable. But to the Emperor…he knows. He knows the war that wages in that noble breast, of loyalty and desire. Today, Napoleon vows, Today. Today, I will taste a tongue that has never told a lie. Today, I will have him.

#Napoleon x Laurence #Napolliam #rpf #things are finally getting spicy! #don’t like don’t read #next chapter will post after this one gets at least 500 comments

37,421 notes

👩🏼‍✈️ themainjane

Longwing captains in books written by men: The wind tousled her auburn locks and parted her shirt, revealing the creamy hills of her bosom, as she stood on the neck of her dragon. She sighed, fearing such would be the only caresses she would ever know. When, oh, when would the admiral look upon her, and see, not a Captain of the aerial corps, but a woman? A soft and tender woman, with a woman’s needs and a woman’s heart?

Longwing captains in real life: I think I left my neckcloth in the tent of the courier I pegged last night

860 notes

💅 notsolittle

Napoleon if he was @kazilikdeeznuts’s captain

🔥 kazilikdeeznuts

As if my Granby wouldn’t look perfectly splendid with his tits out, I will commission this at once

🧯 longjohns

do nOT

692 notes

🇬🇧 ioutrankinyou

@/identifying-ships-in-posts was literally convicted of treason but y’all still reblogging. He is not your “wholesome navycore dad” he’s a fucking criminal. And all you apologists can stop sending me anons, it’s like I’m the only one who has any fucking loyalty to their country

🧯 longjohns

girl….just say you’re pro-war crimes it’s faster

#he’s really out here saying this shit with his whole chest still

72 notes

🏳️‍🌈 queerthesky

#just met admiral roland #join the corps they said #it’ll be fun they said #you can wear breeches and hang out with dragons #I am here to warn you that this is a joke they are playing on the sapphics #they want us dead

523 notes

☀️ alwaysanensign

look LOOK I’m glad the captain got his memories back too ALL I AM SAYING is it was so fucking funny to watch the most proper gentleman ever invented realize women served in the corps, AGAIN, we got to see it TWICE like you can’t pay for that kind of entertainment

🦅 flyyoufools

I knooooow I’m glad he’s loosened up but remember what he was like when he first got to Loch Laggan idk sometimes I miss that guy

🗡️ rolandinthedeep

petition to hit him on the head once a year and say “it’s ok sir we will take you to meet with the admiral” and re-introduce him to my mom

#please it would be so funny #I would trade christmas for this

953 notes

🪽 wingmanbutnotmid

Captain Laurence when you’ve been serving with him since the year 5 but still call everything that floats in water a boat

#he’s not mad he’s just disappointed

484 notes

[ottovanvonveen]

Naomi Novik making unbroken eye contact in book 1 as she loads a gun and places it on the table.

[galexibrain]

‘He said you did not like dragons, and that you wanted to be back on your ship,’ Temeraire said, very low. ‘He said you only flew with me out of duty.’

Laurence went breathless with rage; if Dayes had been in front of him he would have flown at the man barehanded and beaten him.

I love those reminders of feral Laurence is in his heart. That man is a menace barely reined in by good manners.

[grammarpedant]

Temeraire dragon things that live rent-free in my head:

precocious hatchlings who learned language from hearing it before they hatched

the way life starts before "birth" in general

talking, fully sapient dragons in general, and the way they're clearly also a species of living being different from humans and experiencing different instincts and urges from humans

the Tswana dragons, for whom identity is shaped in the egg by community and history and creates an unbroken chain of ancestral memory

humans packbonding with dragons

humans as sapient animals that also experience their own instincts and urges

humans, packbonding with dragons, for their lifetime. the intense loyalty and the grief of loss that come mutually, on both sides

this fic by Chi, the implications of which I'm obsessed with

the way Jane Roland says they've bred themselves as much as they breed their dragons, to love and serve and bond with them,

the way that Temeraire, an intelligent and principled character who cares so much about doing the right thing even if it costs you personally, at the mere suggestion of Laurence feeding a new-hatched dragonet recoils and sounds like he'd kill that baby himself to prevent it from bonding to his human,

the Incan dragons, who bond to many humans, families and generations of them over their lifetimes, knowing and loving them fiercely and possessively and guarding each one like treasure, but not quite like people,

the love and loyalty of it all, complicated by what it means to be two different species, so alien to each other and yet reaching out, over millennia and across the globe, to be companions

[fenrir-flamekeeper]

Naomi Novik, the characters that you write

[finrays]

I keep thinking about the scene from Victory of Eagles where the British military leaders give “the promising young militia leader” a commission as a Colonel and in short succession witness…

A) The militia leader that arrives is a fuck-off huge Chinese dragon bedecked with jewels whose best friend is a man slated to be executed for high treason

B) The Admiral of the Air (who is, scandalously, a WOMAN,) comes out of the command tent and starts roasting said dragon as if it couldn’t eat her whole in not even a bite

C) It ACTUALLY makes the dragon embarrassed to the point that he cringes

What a day for the normies.

[greaseonmymouth]

you know what, the actual funniest part about Harcourt’s pregnancy announcement isn’t Laurence being like “ha! Consequences for Tom Riley!” but the moment before that, where Laurence looks around the table and assesses each man’s fuckability

[greaseonmymouth]

Laurence’s conniptions over these things never cease to amuse me. Later when Jane Roland meets Laurence’s mother and goes “oh she thinks Emily is your by-blow?” and Laurence miserably explains that yes and also he can’t correct the mistake because We Do Not Talk Of Such Things and Roland goes ah. Dreadful. Sorry for you and all that you cannot communicate. My best wishes for your swift recovery etc

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

[crownomancer]

Freedom.

[rollforthings]

The Temeraire series: come for the 19th-century dragon air force, stay for the anti-colonial storytelling and worldbuilding

[chimaerakitten]

Sometimes I’ll be reading something else that mentions Principia Mathematica and the feeling I’ll get will be like

[smallerdelusions]