I was asked on Tumblr about whether I thought Helene was actually having an affair with Dolokhov or if Dolokhov was just trying to "make everyone, especially Pierre" believe that. So here are my thoughts on that account.

So, first, I don’t think Dolokhov was trying to make anyone believe anything. We have no indication of that. He was definitely ( Read more... )

Boris - fair hair - book 1 chap 11

Natasha - “black” hair - book 1 chap 11

Nikolai - dark hair implicitly, as he is growing a dark mustache - book 1 chap 11

Sonya - brunette - book 1, chap 12

Mlle. Bourienne - blonde, fair haired - book 1 chap 26

Dolokhov - fair hair - book 2 chap 2

Anatole - light brown (Russian word is “rusiye”) - book 3 chap 4

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So, I saw someone say that the fact that Natasha’s mother’s maiden name was Shinshin (Shinshina, actually - Shinshin is an anglicization) means that she “isn’t white.” Now…this confused me a bit because even when I was reading the book (in Russian) the first time, the last name didn’t sound particularly foreign to me. But I decided to poke around ( Read more... )

I was asked to Explain Myself about why I dislike Natasha and like Anatole despite how alike they are. I do kind of struggle to articulate this properly and have to constantly question myself on it. I don't want to fall into some kind of internalized sexism trap but here's some of my feelings/reasoning on this...

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Seriously, though. The Kuragins aren’t broke. The Rostovs are broke, and Tolstoy makes a big show out of how that plays out. The Kuragins are not as rich as Count Bezukohov or the Bolkonskys, but they’re not broke. Nothing implies this. In fact, on the contrary:

• They have multiple estates (we know, because Vasili goes to inspect them in November, ( Read more... )

This goes for both War and Peace and Great Comet, the book obviously has a lot more context and stuff to go off of but:

Natasha is not scared of Anatole. She is scared of herself.

She is scared of her own feelings, of her desires. Yes, these feelings and desires are caused by Anatole, but he’s not the problem for her, the way she reacts to him is ( Read more... )

This was originally written in responses to a Tumblr ask asking why I love Dolokhov/why he's my fave <3

So, I really love Dolokhov. Sometimes I get confused between just loving him and loving him as a character - i.e. I’m not sure how I’d feel about a person like Dolokhov in RL, we probably wouldn’t get along, but on the other hand, he’s very ( Read more... )

So I’ve already talked some about how the scheming seducer stereotype doesn’t fit Anatole’s character at all here. But I wanted to pull a few more quotes and make a few more characterization comments.

( characterization )

Hmm. So. Despite the time it took me to do the re-watch and write this up, I’m actually a little less annoyed with this episode than with most of the other ones.I still have a shit ton to say though, lol.
( SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS )