Two Sigfrieds and a Swan King: Wagner’s operas and King Ludwig II of Bavaria
This is a rambling infodump copy-pasted from tumblr dms to discord to this post. I have no sources except my beautiful mind; however, for further and more coherent reading, I suggest this essay: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324758225_A_Performance_between_Wood_and_the_World_Ludwig_II_of_Bavaria's_Queer_Swans
-king ludwig ii, also known as mad king ludwig, adored swans and wagner's art.
-he was a very peaceful man with just absolutely no interest in kinging at all. he just wanted to design castles, and his pechant for riding around the countryside and being generous/kind with common folk on the ride made him very popular, like a fairy-tale prince
-wagner is a major source of inspiration to his most famous castle, known as the swan castle. many sets and designs in princess tutu are based on this castle
-lohengrin is the knight of the swan, and the protagonist of wagner's opera lohengrin. this was ludwig's favorite opera, and you may recall fakir's "lohengrin sword" in episode 10
-another major wagnerian protagonist is sigfried, which is also the name of the prince in tchakovsky's swan lake; mytho's real name is a reference to both
-sigfried's funeral march is a recurring motif for raven mytho (and the concept of the raven as a whole in s1), and that is from wagner's opera as well
-king ludwig was queer and rejected all women in his life, perusing only men. swans - often associated with tragic romance - seemed to be a form of queer escapism, similarly to tchaikovsky's ballet.
-tchaikovsky was also attracted solely to men, and his 'swan lake' is generally accepted as an expression of not being able to have a 'happy ending' as a gay man.
-we could also say something about mytho's genderqueerness here, such as how he often dances the female parts early on in s1, and his relationship with fakir and femio
ultimately, i think mytho takes some inspiration from the irl figure of king ludwig, not just fairy-tale characters (though that is the vast majority.)
