Just off the top of my head, does anybody remember the old documentaries trying to investigate how Tutankhamun died, and speculating if someone killed him and who? Before they discovered just how sickly he must have been. The prime suspect was always Ay, his high priest, and successor. The theory was that Ay was behind knocking off or at least [to poorly try] erasing Akhenaten, and putting the young boy in charge so he could be easily manipulated, say, into bringing back the old gods and denouncing everything his father had done. Then, for purely speculatively emotional reasons, Ay was theorized to have turned around and killed Tut, too, so he could succeed him himself. For example, (okay I had to go & look this back up quick cuz names agh) Ankhesenamun & Tut had 2 stillborn daughters, and ended up never having any children, so the dynasty suddenly seemed weak with an uncertain future. Someone could kill off at least 1/2 the infertile couple to supposedly take "the good of the country" into their own hands. And that was enough circumstantial evidence. Case closed.
Ay, this guy, who's shown here. Sure, he's wearing representations of dual status as High Priest and Pharaoh. But he's performing the opening of the mouth ceremony himself, and would have overseen so carefully mummifying those babies.
Then tech got updated a lot, more tests were run, and they revisited this documentary idea. Turns out Tut's health would have been House's worst nightmare, with all the different ailments and deformities he apparently had going on. So many circumstantial pieces don't do him any favors, but Tut's death is now believed to have been natural and inevitable.
So yeah... anyone else follow how those theories have changed over the years? Cuz back in high school around 2003, "The Boy Pharaoh" was an unmissable sledgehammer reference between "Yami" and King Tut. Cool right? Til you find out everyone believes he was murdered by the other historical person your fave is referencing. I put the Egypt stuff away for a while, rather than continue getting disappointed by the "villainous high priest" trope in both history and movies.
Flash forward to DSoD, I finally watched Season 5 (didn't have the heart to way back when), and what else, a villainous high priest trope. But then, it came around! Seth could have taken the throne by force, but didn't, even though he ended up there anyway. Ahh! I went hunting for documentaries again on Youtube, but this time, I found new ones, with new interviews exonerating him with longer lists of how Ay loved Tut so dearly, but all along, those controversial choices were also actually the best he could do.
I dunno what the real case is for how it happened in real world history, but I do hope it was closer to the fiction we've made up for it. 💙 And I really, reeeeeeeeeally really really can't stress enough how badly I would love to talk to Takahashi about this! (He even screwed up with Ay's blue hat & leopard skin! The leopard skin denotes high priest & the blue hat denotes Pharaoh, not vice versa! The funerary mask & even the red & white crown are more iconically known, so like tell me what exact other mural he would have been referencing at all?!)
Also, whether this is the first you're hearing about Ay, or if you haven't checked out the latest research in a while, go now! There's the Aten cult, war, the other rival priest he questionably competes and/or cooperates with, cloudy familial origins for how exactly he got so close to the throne to begin with, then marriage drama, his own short reign & successor (that rival priest!), and while the tomb Ay built for himself was found, nothing else of his remains have ever been found. It's so interesting, go!
