#leontes

[valaena]

All hail Baelor Targaryen, Second of His Name, King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm.

(angry and jealous version?)

Bertie Carvel as Leontes in The Winter's Tale, Royal Shakespeare Theatre (2025)

[dilutedh2so4]

Aeneas and Creusa, The Aeneid.

Astyanax and Leontes, The Shattered Horse.

[shakespearenews]

[queerhamlet]

sometimes a family can be you, your shepherd adopted dad, his sheep and his bisexual son, the vagabond he has a gay thing with who happens to be the greek god Hermes, your princely bf, his dad, his loyal boytoy who's lavender married to a dykeish witch, her bff and lady aka your mother who's Jesus Christ if she was a statue, your reformed cunt biological father, 12 dancing satyrs and a man eating bear symbolizing justice

[historicalreusedcostumes]

This Brown Ancient/Midieval Costume is worn in Just Visiting (2001) on an ekstra and worn in MythQuest: This Sir Caradoc at the Round Table (2001) on Christopher Jacot as Alex Bellows and worn again in Camelot: Guinevere (2011) on Philip Winchester as Leontes and later worn in Vikings: Born Again (2015) on Alexander Ludwig as Bjorn Lothbrok.

[its-shakespeare-baby]

So I’ve been watching Cheek by Jowl’s production of The Winter’s Tale and taking notes, and there are two that I’m really proud of/things I think are interesting about this production/parts of the general play that I find interesting:

“Leontes is literally crazy now. And when a king is crazy, it’s dangerous. Everyone is deeply disturbed and confused. Everyone is holding him back and trying to prevent him from lashing out. He’s like a rabid animal. And that’s really interesting, because he calls his wife a thing, but he’s not acting like a rational person. But he thinks he’s very rational.

Even full of hatred, Leontes loves so hard. He clearly still loves his son and cares about him so much. In one of the scenes, he seems very distraught over his wife’s “betrayal,” and he is very emotional about it. When he basically starts crying, you realize how much he fully believes it.”

“This man said that he hasn’t been sleeping, like, at all. He’s having a mental breakdown and I kinda feel bad? Like, I’ve had my own ‘episodes’ that have caused me to act very irrationally and emotionally, so I understand the feelings. I also remember the personal aftermath of these episodes, and any guilt that may occur once you come back down to earth. But he’s also hurting innocent people, and it’s really disturbing to see, and you are also perfectly justified in feeling very angry at him for doing this to those who love him.

So that makes it all the more tragic to me. He’s truly in a state of mental unwellness, and when he recovers, he’ll see the damage he has caused, and the damage itself is incredibly tragic as well. Hermione loves and trusts him, and you can see the hurt and betrayal written on her face when he turns on her. Even though he is the more touchy-feely one, she does love as deeply as him. And she doesn’t even seem that mad, just hurt, and she probably sees how unwell he is. And when you realize that a loved one is in a state like that, it’s horrible, because you love them, and one of the main things you see is their suffering. But you yourself are suffering from the hurricane.”

I just love this production because, as I said in my notes, Leontes feels so passionately about everything. If he feels love, he feels it intensely. If he feels even a twinge of jealous, he becomes full of hate. He is full of extremes, so it almost makes sense that he’d react so intensely to something so small. But it also makes sense that everyone would be surprised by thing. Because again, he has only really shown them his loving side, and you would never expect something from someone who loves so intensely.

Which is really sad. All of it is.

[stfin]

[Exit, pursued by bear]

[harrypotterhousequotes]

GRYFFINDOR:

"If this be magic, let it be an art Lawful as eating."

–William Shakespeare (Leontes: The Winter's Tale: Act V, Scene iii)