Ion know_fuckit

Intro

I always thought their relationship was so cute! They had such a tragic sort of getting together from their personalities - they blended so well. Enough contention for excitement but both such passionate people. Just passionate about different things. I think how it worked out in the show made sense - I’m guessing Kenna’s actor needed to be written off. I just feel like their situation was rushed. I could see her cheating and eventually leaving him, but it just all happened too quickly. They didn’t have a strong foundation, and she is fickle, which I love about her! And yes of course she’d lie to protect herself, that’s on self-care! Lmao. But I think that arc needed more time for it to feel like a natural progression of their relationship. But yes that seed of passion naturally of and between them - I think that’s really the core of what I enjoy about the ship and what connects them. Of course being conventionally gorgeous helps!

On Sebastian

~~Honor, Virtue, Perceptions~~

We meet him, and he’s relentless in his sense of justice, honor - protecting and defending the weak and downtrodden. His whole life he’s lived in the periphery of opulence, allowed half a seat at the table. Very emotionally intelligent too. Growing up as the King’s bastard has given him a sort of realism about the world.

He sees very clearly the costs of the monarchy, and it has rejected him, and he’s rejected it in turn.

His anger at his station has morphed in part into that sense of honor and justice, manifesting as intense passion for life and it’s pleasures - riding, sex, love and the like. Contrast that to those in the monarchy, who portray themselves in this virtuous, stiff manner, while doing all types of evils and violence and debauchery on the low.

So he’s internally battling between being this virtuous person - both a presentation and his character - and being the bastard people think him to be. Not that his righteousness is a farce - he does honestly care deeply about righting the wrongs of the world because of how it’s harmed so many. But there is also the aspect of his life, and of anyone whose lived life as part of the ‘secondary class’, where one is pressured to try to defy the prejudice, be twice as good, to show ‘them’ you’re better than what they expect you to be. He’ll never be allowed to touch court politics, or national, so he doesn’t bother. What he can do is shoot, hunt, sword fight, idk other medieval activities. And just generally be a kind, helpful person. But he also doesn’t reject the things that come with the ‘bastard’ label. He knows even if he rejected drinking and sex, people would associate that with him anyway. So indulging, almost petulantly, is a rejecting of their standards and norms. It’s hard to get a read of him - he’s supposed to be good on the inside, bad on the outside, but we only see him in a good way the whole time tbh lol. 

On Kenna

~~Sexuality, Class, Gender, Madonna-Whore, Power, Girlhood, Christian Beliefs~~

Kenna! I love her character so much lol. I don’t remember much about her family situation, and I don’t think we get that much background. All we know is she’s titled, somehow, and used to a certain standard of living. She probably spent a lot of her youth as the belle of the castle, her parent’s jewel and the darling of their town or village or whatever. The realm’s delight!

We’re introduced to her character immediately as sort of boy-crazy, on the surface. But I think what they were trying to do with her character is examine some the era’s attitudes on sex and desire, and how no matter what was or wasn’t proper, young girl’s have always had desires. So within the narrative of course her character explores the ups and downs and strategies available to a young woman looking to make a good marriage and also coming of age.

Her touching herself in the random hallway didn’t seem realistic to me, I think they played up some of her sexuality. I don’t think the king necessarily would’ve been her first. She’s in this place where her whole life and future is dependent on some single man in some vague future. I can imagine she probably saw something similar maybe in her mother’s life, or another. However, she’s also very clever, so I can imagined she quickly inferred that this will truly be her only years she’ll have to herself. Not as a wife or a mother, but as Kenna. And someone so free-spirited and full of life - sex is just a place it can go. 

And her flaws of course exist within these contradictions of her heart and the world around them. Social expectations are the death of ambitious young women. She’s very spoiled. Rather, she’s used to a certain standard of living, and has high expectations for her life and future. Again, remember, she knows this is essentially all life has to offer her. How people, women especially, are perceived is harshly hierarchical. A woman is more revered and thus given more value with a wealthier husband, more title, more lands, closer to the seat of power. That’s probably all she’s been taught her whole life.

We’ve seen in her love for her friends, and towards those she sees as less fortunate. Her nature is also compassionate, part and parcel with her passion. But these are not tangible things that society truly values. That’s where her social intelligence lies.

And also she’s young! SO young. She needs time and age for her to learn the lesson of “what really matters.” Which ties in part to her being fickle, changeable. So much of life is out of her hands, so she sees no point in staying fixed to any one person or in any one place. She’s probably experienced a lot of loss in her life, abandonment. So that manifests often in flighty behavior, and hurting the people that care for her. Assuming people view the world she does - that’s her mistake.

Definitely self-centered too - just a very rich internal world. Again, a necessity for a woman of title. Your inner world is the only one you can control, so of course that’s where you like to be, and feel most comfortable. She’s only ever known how to have ‘ties’ with most people, men in particular, via wealth and later sex. She’d never known love, the king was her first.

--“Woman, not a maiden” - Season 1, Episode 2. --

Perfect line to describe her contrast, of the archetype versus the person. All young women are women, but in this type of world, they’re maidens. This otherworldly, impossible to reach, figment of the imagination. The Virgin Mary, in many ways. Her sensuality is inherently human, and as in in the story of Jesus it is He who bridges the divine with the material. And Kenna represents this sort of dichotomy wrt women and womanhood. She, like all of them, are flesh and blood. Omg that’s why she loved the king as much as she did.

He was the first person not just to excite her sexually. But to tell her these things she knows have no real value, concepts like virginity, actually don’t. Here is what is supposed to be the rightly anointed king, validating her! She was freed, to be who she is, with him. Except that he ended up lying to her because, surprise! Society obliges what it does. 

Kindred Sprits: Comparing Kenna & Bash

~~ Social expectations, Passion, Isolation, Sensuality, Intelligence - Social and Emotional, ‘Morality’ ~~

Social Expectations

Neither of them fit into the mold of who they're supposed to be. Bash because of his birth, and Kenna because of her nature. The pair both seek and reject society’s - can’t find the word, the aspects of people that are considered good or right for them. Whether Bash knows it or not, his dedication to doing what’s right is him trying to seek society’s approval. Especially when he gets the title. Half of his ardentness to seeking the ‘demons’ was absolutely him trying to ignore his life, his pain and heartbreak over losing Mary - throwing himself into his work. But the other half, the reason he became to tied into the situation. Not just that it involves people he cares for, and his pagan heritage. But he could’ve easily pawned it off on the person whose job it is to sort those kinds of things out - there were absolutely other people with knowledge of pagans or what have you. But he saw, subconsciously, an opportunity to prove himself, to receive admiration from his ‘betters’ for solving the crime, saving the day. All of his successes are why the king, his father, favors him.

Coincidentally why his father liked Kenna too, both very earthly people. More later. 

And Kenna also seeks out those social rules by way of her acquisitive nature, her materialistic nature. I think she absolutely does have a genuine appreciate for the beautiful, coming naturally with her sort of earthly nature. The aesthetic of the natural world is inspiring, and from it inspires the aesthetic appreciation for all things - beautiful gowns, intricate gardens, decadent structures, elaborate events. The right color, the right song touches just so, and the heart blooms. But the manner in which she achieves these things, and what they end up representing, and how they’re read by others all end up vapid and superficial. The biggest house, not the most beautiful. The highest title, not what it means for her life.

She knows these things, like virginity, don’t really matter. They’re just representations of their society’s values - human reproduction of the ideal, flawed thought it may be. Kenna and Bash see these flaws, realists to the last. They see the contradictions of the world. 

Passion

Secondly, their passion is so tangible. That’s why it was so exciting when they got together! Their awareness of life’s contradictions, it’s absurdities - the push against the confines of court has a certain thrill to it - allows them a certain level of release. He loves a beautiful woman, she loves a beautiful man. Even in the first episode, she said he’s gorgeous! 

Virtue

Why was Bash interested in Mary first? Of course, being a bastard, he knows he would have no ability or “right” to be formally with any noble woman, Mary near most of all. But we can infer he’s had dalliances with noble women - just keeping them quiet. I would assume his thoughts were a. Keep his distance from all of them - they’re going to be the ladies in waiting of his sister-in-law, so around for a while. Best to be cool and see how things work out. Or b. Just lying low. He’s not a dog, more of a rake. He wanted to see who they were before trying anything.

Mary, he couldn’t help flirting with. She just has this natural charm that pulls people. And he saw something of himself in her, that sense of righteousness and the blood behind it. Willing to take things as far as they need to. He’s met many beautiful women. But there’s something about her.

I think it’s also what she represents. She, his brother’s bride to be, the Queen of one nation and the future queen of another. The entirety of the world he doesn’t belong to. Of course a part of him as always been jealous of his brother, on some level, wanted what he has. Or at least the stability of it - I don’t think he’d be jealous at all as a legitimate second son or something. So to have Mary, to take her and her love away from his brother, to deny him, the dauphin, this one thing - it’s alluring to be sure.

To meet your kindred and to be able to gain a secret little pieces of the faraway empire and its riches for yourself. 

(Bash to Mary)...

What Bash didn’t see in Kenna until later is what he sees and loves about Mary, her goodness. She has a black and white sense of morality, and it is unwavering. He aspires to be like that, and in many ways is. If anything his brother touches the line more than he does. And Mary too, compared to Kenna. In part because of the positions they hold, which also explains what they value and how they live life. Mary and Francis are royals, at the very center of their world. They have duty to their station and have been instructed on its significance all their life.

Mary & Francis truly believe the idealism of their world, unable to truly grasp all the injustice and violence it takes to make it so.

Of course they understand it objectively, and care, but they care because there’s an inherent order in the world, so they believe, and it is their divine obligation to see it through. So all the violence and chaos is not really ‘real,’ they don’t believe anything structurally needs to change. Just the people. To acknowledge otherwise would disintegrate the foundations of the very thrones they sit upon. 

Bash and Kenna are posed differently. Of course they’re not peasants by a long shot, but they’re still more of the periphery, in comparison, and represent the greater periphery in the narrative. They have been fed a similar idealism, but have lived enough life, and the stakes are lower, such that they can see through it. Kenna in particular, because of her realism, in fact is unable to glorify morality the way Mary does. Yes, the ‘real’ things that matter are love and family and the like. But the boundaries of their society’s are real as well, not abstract.

Women can only rise via title, wealth, and position. These things that are not virtues are yet the things that decide the contour’s of one’s life.

Of course, the greater challenge would be to reject them, and demolish them. But they are limited even in their ability to see - it seems as if there is no option between living fully in this artificial sort of reality, or rejecting it. They can’t fully reject it, however, the way Mary and Francis pretend to. They can reject it because they ‘have’ it - they are near enough at the highest level of their society, there is no place to rise. Such, they can acknowledge it’s worthlessness, so deeply do they benefit from the worth of these worthless things. 

This is what Bash loves and hates about Kenna.

Kenna is a woman, not the maiden, not the heavenly being on a pedestal.

Kenna has the same clarity he does. She cannot live in the fictitious realm where these superficial-seeming things don’t matter. She knows how untenable life truly is, and rising in society is all she’s been given as purpose. Of course she’s romanticized it to some level, as the show does inherently. You have to almost. It blends with her love of aesthetic pleasures as well. Kenna reflects that truth back on to him. That’s what chafes him, not just her seemingly banal interests. It’s the reasoning and significance behind it. With Mary, he can live in this fantasy world, where right is right and wrongs is wrong and all monsters are slain and the hero’s get the girl. That probably made it burn even more, their wedding. A sham ceremony that shames them both. What is supposed to represent a covenant between God and the love of your life is bastardized, like him! The child born of what is supposed to be a covenant between God and the (legal) love of your life lol! The whole thing is the destruction of the ideal, and he can’t face that. 

Similarly, the reverse is what Kenna hates about Bash.

Bash openly discusses the triviality of their life, their world. It shatters that illusion for her, or at least the one she tries to hold up.

Her life is limited, as discussed, so she expresses herself and finds freedom in enjoying the pleasures of society, and trying to rise. If Bash shatters it all, what’s left for her? A family she’ll never see again? Friends who can be taken or killed at any moment? A husband she can’t choose and and future not her own? But, of course, these things are ultimately unfulfilling, and no one can hold up an ideal forever. It’s like they’re parallel on a quadrant. The material becomes her ideal, and the ideal becomes his material. Not truly material, but there’s a word I still can’t find! It’s how they cope. Neither is perfect, his side is just more respected. 

Conclusion

Their union is this beautiful, perfect thing for this very reason! If they’d had more time, less challenges and distractions. Had they been allowed more opportunities to be truly vulnerable with each other and do life together, I think they really could have figured something out. Came together and discover another option, another way. 

Damn it I’ve intellectualized all the sexiness out of it lmao. They’re just hot! I mean yes these are the tensions at work but laid out like this - someone would be intrigued, but not exactly like wow what a couple! 

These frustrations with life put them in direct contradiction with each other. So when they’re bound together in drug-addled matrimony - boom!crash! Fireworks and explosions abound.