Largely about Bednaya Nastya
Sep. 14th, 2007 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieYes, I know all of three people on my flist are interested in this, but I can't help it. I am obsessed with Bednaya Nastya.
Seven episodes into Bednaya Nastya and I realized that I am fast-forwarding through all Vladimir-less scenes. I like the other stories and characters just fine, but this is a 120 episode series so a girl’s gotta make some sacrifices. And I am not about to skip the scenes with the angsty hottie. Hey, no one said I wasn’t shallow.
I loved loved loved the end of ep 5. So much fun. I was especially amused with the scene where Vladimir is trying to apologize so as to avoid a duel with the Crown Prince but instead ends up digging a deeper hole. It was like watching an accident. But LOL, the drunken night before, with Michael and Andrei (fiance of Michael's sister, who agreed to be Vladimir's second) is priceless. OMG. Love.
Generally, if I were into future Alexander II, I’d be in heaven, as the man spends half his time half-nekkid in bed with his mistress. Though hey, I can’t blame him. If I were a guy and had arms this awesome, I’d be showing them off all the time too (pics coming. Who knew the heir to the throne worked out?). I do like Alexander, but I kinda want to smack him entirely too often, as the other half of his time he spends complaining that he doesn’t want to be the heir but to be an ordinary person blah blah blah. Not happening, so chill out. I do love the scene where he rants at Nicholas I about how he loves his mistress, and freedom and privacy etc etc etc and Nicholas lets him finish the tirade and calmly asks ‘Would you like some tea?’ Heh.
I mean, I am cutting him slack (he is what, 21 at the time?) but his willful disregard of reality is getting a lot of people in trouble: Olga, his mistress (as she is naturally blamed for his outbursts), Vladimir (no one will convince me that if he was forced into a duel with a regular person, he’d try to shoot himself rather than his opponent), Michael (who is so in trouble because Alexander wants to play normal), Zhukovsky etc etc. Blah. Grow up.
But yeah, Vladimir seems to have a knack for the oddest duels. As far as I know, in addition to this one, he also fights his best friend Michael over Anna, and later Andrei (a friend of his) because Andrei wants him to marry his sister (Andrei’s not Vladimir’s, it’s not that kind of drama). Heh. Seriously, has the man never heard of picking on strangers? Well, it is a duty of a Byronic hero, I suppose, though if I were him I’d be careful so I don’t die before fulfilling my Byronic potential: who told him it was a good idea to get drunk with a pistol wound in his arm, relief or no relief over being alive at the end of the duel! Seriously. He must have an iron constitution to put up with that. But he and Michael and totally adorable in his quarters afterwards (if this was an American show, there so would be slashfic) what with giddiness and funniness and guy bonding. Until Anna gets brought up ;) I cracked up at the ‘we are being so ironic, dear viewers’ moment when Michael goes into rhapsodies over Anna and Vladimir is all ‘yeah, yeah, whatever’ and then Michael replies that ‘Vladimir, you have been brought up together, so of course you don’t view her as beautiful.’ LOL. Hasn’t Michael watched Korean dramas? Doesn’t he know that this very fact makes them an OTP?
I do think Michael/Anna are quite sweet together, if a bit bland. She totally sees him as her white knight, doesn’t she? Her imaginary!Michael doesn’t care she is a serf, rescues her from Karl Modestovich (the overseer) etc etc. (Since I am spoiled, I find it rather amusing, especially since this is actually what Vladimir will end up doing for her). I get the sense she is in love with being in love. She likes him because he is young, attractive, nice, an aristocrat, and seems to be smitten by her. It’s not Michael, per se, for her. It could have been anyone else, really.
In RL, I’d definitely be all about Michael (I like mine well-adjusted) but since this is fiction, I like the much more fubar but intense Vladimir ;)
Oh, and I have officially decided Korf Sr. is just clueless. He really has no idea how to relate to his kid, and for that matter, what Anna really wants, either. He is not actively malicious, just monomaniacal and rather dim. Oh well.
ROFL. I just realized that in Bednaya Nastya, the hierarchy of heroes goes by how often they kneel to their objects of affection. I mean, Vladimir spends half his time on his knees to Anna (well, he has reason, it’s hard being a repentant jerk with a string of ex-girlfriends). Hmmm, maybe he is just being kind to his serfs by cleaning the floor in such a fashion? Alexander does it a couple of times too. And oooooh, the hand-kissing…I hope ladies back then used to wash their hands fairly often.
Oh, and here is cute, cute, cute scene from their first kiss. Eeee ;) (Yes, I am five, why do you ask). Kissing is at the end, after discussion of their escape from being at gunpoint and a long talk about murdered daddy of Vladimir (with whom Vladimir seems to have a better relationship when he’s dead than the dysfunctional mess they had when he was living). Not the sexiest topics, IMO, but to each their own. I mean, this is a total way to a guy’s heart: weep beautifully for his dead father. He will totally want to kiss the tears away :P My favorite bit is at the end, afterwards, when she is all ‘I never thought we’d actually become friends’ and he grins and asks her ‘So, do you kiss all your friends?” :)
Heh. There is the scene in this ep (but not in the vid) after this that cracks me up immensely. Michael, who is understandably put out (as at that point he is Anna’s official beau) is talking with Vladimir about the kissing and Vladimir is trying to defend himself (and totally fool himself too) by saying that it was a brotherly kiss, because they were both remembering father. To which Michael reports that he has a sister and somehow he refrained from ever kissing her like that. Heeeeee.
I have to say I adore the heroine. She is so endearingly dim. I was thinking of her reaction some eps earlier, when she is all ‘He must want something from me. First he makes me dance to humiliate me in front of Michael, then he guards me the whole night, and then he kisses me. What is going on?’ LOL. Girly. He is doing it because he is mad jealous and in love. Where were you brought up, a monastery? Come on ;) She also keeps repeatedly asking him ‘Why do you hate me?’ Why indeed :P
But she must be incredibly talented, the same way Madhuri Dixit was in Koyla. ‘Huh?’ you might ask? Well, the fact that she made it to her wedding a virgin, after a spate of attempts on her by half the secondary characters, two steady boyfriends, her own attempt to climb into Vladimir’s bed, and her kidnappings and sellings into a brothel (Vladimir has his hands full with the rescuing. Seriously, it’s a good thing he is independently wealthy, he’d never have time to hold down a job), not to mention some interesting outfits? A total miracle.
ETA: I went to a BN forum and was completely amused to see that people seem to share my view of Korf Sr. as someone who should have been drowned in a bucket. He is so much better as Vladimir’s figment of imagination post his death ;P Also, I am amused at the general level of Vladimir-droolage. I seem to be quite unoriginal in my fic crushes, as always. There is even some link to the official actor-related forum and it’s labeled as a good forum (no idea, as I have not yet fallen far enough to check it out) and added, as a huge recommender, that sometimes HE (yup, in capitals, like God) has been sighted on there :P ROFL. I am glad to see that fandoms, whatever the language, are the same.
ETA2: Not really related. If you want true horror, read Bertrice Small translated into Russian.
Oh, and I got fed up and cut up my drama watching list ruthlessly. Now it’s only a bit over 10:
Taiwanese:
1. Why Why Love [13/15]
2. The Outsiders [19/20]
3. Smiling Pasta [5/17]
Chinese:
None. Seriously, I might watch the Nic Tse bits in Handsome Siblings or not, but I am done with it.
Japanese:
4. Brand [9/11]
5. Beautiful Life [7/11]
6. Proposal Daisakusen [3/11]
I am going to save Yoshitsune for some other time. I watched little of it as it was.
Korean:
7. Witch Yoo Hee [4/16]
8. Time Between Dog and Wolf [5/16]
9. Lovers [17/20]
10. Coffee Prince [2/16]
11. Sang-Do, let’s go to school [10/16]
Considering I only watched the very beginnings of ‘Hello Miss’ and ‘If in love…like them,’ I’ll just treat them as new and take them off the list. And I am going to save Jumong for when I get the whole set.
And to finish on another Bednaya Nastya note, a cute MV:
Seven episodes into Bednaya Nastya and I realized that I am fast-forwarding through all Vladimir-less scenes. I like the other stories and characters just fine, but this is a 120 episode series so a girl’s gotta make some sacrifices. And I am not about to skip the scenes with the angsty hottie. Hey, no one said I wasn’t shallow.
I loved loved loved the end of ep 5. So much fun. I was especially amused with the scene where Vladimir is trying to apologize so as to avoid a duel with the Crown Prince but instead ends up digging a deeper hole. It was like watching an accident. But LOL, the drunken night before, with Michael and Andrei (fiance of Michael's sister, who agreed to be Vladimir's second) is priceless. OMG. Love.
Generally, if I were into future Alexander II, I’d be in heaven, as the man spends half his time half-nekkid in bed with his mistress. Though hey, I can’t blame him. If I were a guy and had arms this awesome, I’d be showing them off all the time too (pics coming. Who knew the heir to the throne worked out?). I do like Alexander, but I kinda want to smack him entirely too often, as the other half of his time he spends complaining that he doesn’t want to be the heir but to be an ordinary person blah blah blah. Not happening, so chill out. I do love the scene where he rants at Nicholas I about how he loves his mistress, and freedom and privacy etc etc etc and Nicholas lets him finish the tirade and calmly asks ‘Would you like some tea?’ Heh.
I mean, I am cutting him slack (he is what, 21 at the time?) but his willful disregard of reality is getting a lot of people in trouble: Olga, his mistress (as she is naturally blamed for his outbursts), Vladimir (no one will convince me that if he was forced into a duel with a regular person, he’d try to shoot himself rather than his opponent), Michael (who is so in trouble because Alexander wants to play normal), Zhukovsky etc etc. Blah. Grow up.
But yeah, Vladimir seems to have a knack for the oddest duels. As far as I know, in addition to this one, he also fights his best friend Michael over Anna, and later Andrei (a friend of his) because Andrei wants him to marry his sister (Andrei’s not Vladimir’s, it’s not that kind of drama). Heh. Seriously, has the man never heard of picking on strangers? Well, it is a duty of a Byronic hero, I suppose, though if I were him I’d be careful so I don’t die before fulfilling my Byronic potential: who told him it was a good idea to get drunk with a pistol wound in his arm, relief or no relief over being alive at the end of the duel! Seriously. He must have an iron constitution to put up with that. But he and Michael and totally adorable in his quarters afterwards (if this was an American show, there so would be slashfic) what with giddiness and funniness and guy bonding. Until Anna gets brought up ;) I cracked up at the ‘we are being so ironic, dear viewers’ moment when Michael goes into rhapsodies over Anna and Vladimir is all ‘yeah, yeah, whatever’ and then Michael replies that ‘Vladimir, you have been brought up together, so of course you don’t view her as beautiful.’ LOL. Hasn’t Michael watched Korean dramas? Doesn’t he know that this very fact makes them an OTP?
I do think Michael/Anna are quite sweet together, if a bit bland. She totally sees him as her white knight, doesn’t she? Her imaginary!Michael doesn’t care she is a serf, rescues her from Karl Modestovich (the overseer) etc etc. (Since I am spoiled, I find it rather amusing, especially since this is actually what Vladimir will end up doing for her). I get the sense she is in love with being in love. She likes him because he is young, attractive, nice, an aristocrat, and seems to be smitten by her. It’s not Michael, per se, for her. It could have been anyone else, really.
In RL, I’d definitely be all about Michael (I like mine well-adjusted) but since this is fiction, I like the much more fubar but intense Vladimir ;)
Oh, and I have officially decided Korf Sr. is just clueless. He really has no idea how to relate to his kid, and for that matter, what Anna really wants, either. He is not actively malicious, just monomaniacal and rather dim. Oh well.
ROFL. I just realized that in Bednaya Nastya, the hierarchy of heroes goes by how often they kneel to their objects of affection. I mean, Vladimir spends half his time on his knees to Anna (well, he has reason, it’s hard being a repentant jerk with a string of ex-girlfriends). Hmmm, maybe he is just being kind to his serfs by cleaning the floor in such a fashion? Alexander does it a couple of times too. And oooooh, the hand-kissing…I hope ladies back then used to wash their hands fairly often.
Oh, and here is cute, cute, cute scene from their first kiss. Eeee ;) (Yes, I am five, why do you ask). Kissing is at the end, after discussion of their escape from being at gunpoint and a long talk about murdered daddy of Vladimir (with whom Vladimir seems to have a better relationship when he’s dead than the dysfunctional mess they had when he was living). Not the sexiest topics, IMO, but to each their own. I mean, this is a total way to a guy’s heart: weep beautifully for his dead father. He will totally want to kiss the tears away :P My favorite bit is at the end, afterwards, when she is all ‘I never thought we’d actually become friends’ and he grins and asks her ‘So, do you kiss all your friends?” :)
Heh. There is the scene in this ep (but not in the vid) after this that cracks me up immensely. Michael, who is understandably put out (as at that point he is Anna’s official beau) is talking with Vladimir about the kissing and Vladimir is trying to defend himself (and totally fool himself too) by saying that it was a brotherly kiss, because they were both remembering father. To which Michael reports that he has a sister and somehow he refrained from ever kissing her like that. Heeeeee.
I have to say I adore the heroine. She is so endearingly dim. I was thinking of her reaction some eps earlier, when she is all ‘He must want something from me. First he makes me dance to humiliate me in front of Michael, then he guards me the whole night, and then he kisses me. What is going on?’ LOL. Girly. He is doing it because he is mad jealous and in love. Where were you brought up, a monastery? Come on ;) She also keeps repeatedly asking him ‘Why do you hate me?’ Why indeed :P
But she must be incredibly talented, the same way Madhuri Dixit was in Koyla. ‘Huh?’ you might ask? Well, the fact that she made it to her wedding a virgin, after a spate of attempts on her by half the secondary characters, two steady boyfriends, her own attempt to climb into Vladimir’s bed, and her kidnappings and sellings into a brothel (Vladimir has his hands full with the rescuing. Seriously, it’s a good thing he is independently wealthy, he’d never have time to hold down a job), not to mention some interesting outfits? A total miracle.
ETA: I went to a BN forum and was completely amused to see that people seem to share my view of Korf Sr. as someone who should have been drowned in a bucket. He is so much better as Vladimir’s figment of imagination post his death ;P Also, I am amused at the general level of Vladimir-droolage. I seem to be quite unoriginal in my fic crushes, as always. There is even some link to the official actor-related forum and it’s labeled as a good forum (no idea, as I have not yet fallen far enough to check it out) and added, as a huge recommender, that sometimes HE (yup, in capitals, like God) has been sighted on there :P ROFL. I am glad to see that fandoms, whatever the language, are the same.
ETA2: Not really related. If you want true horror, read Bertrice Small translated into Russian.
Oh, and I got fed up and cut up my drama watching list ruthlessly. Now it’s only a bit over 10:
Taiwanese:
1. Why Why Love [13/15]
2. The Outsiders [19/20]
3. Smiling Pasta [5/17]
Chinese:
None. Seriously, I might watch the Nic Tse bits in Handsome Siblings or not, but I am done with it.
Japanese:
4. Brand [9/11]
5. Beautiful Life [7/11]
6. Proposal Daisakusen [3/11]
I am going to save Yoshitsune for some other time. I watched little of it as it was.
Korean:
7. Witch Yoo Hee [4/16]
8. Time Between Dog and Wolf [5/16]
9. Lovers [17/20]
10. Coffee Prince [2/16]
11. Sang-Do, let’s go to school [10/16]
Considering I only watched the very beginnings of ‘Hello Miss’ and ‘If in love…like them,’ I’ll just treat them as new and take them off the list. And I am going to save Jumong for when I get the whole set.
And to finish on another Bednaya Nastya note, a cute MV:
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-15 03:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-15 05:40 am (UTC)I felt plenty the same (re translating devise) about Chinese dramas...
no subject
Date: 2007-09-15 09:07 pm (UTC)Ooh, then. I've never seen a russian telenovela, but this one seems interesting. And come on. The costumes? Fabulous.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-16 05:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-15 05:36 am (UTC)ETA: I went to a BN forum and was completely amused to see that people seem to share my view of Korf Sr. as someone who should have been drowned in a bucket.
Heh :)
I love your posts.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-15 05:41 am (UTC)There is fanfic too (het AND slash, but I stay far away from it as to read fanfic in Russian would be horribly traumatic, somehow).
no subject
Date: 2007-09-15 07:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-16 05:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-17 12:32 am (UTC)I'd say the best intro/early wuxia I've seen are ROCH, SSWRB, Little Fairy and(from a more historical stand point) Young Warriors. Patriotic Kights looks it, too, but I've only seen the one ep so I can't really comment about it.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-17 04:00 am (UTC)YW has silly hats so I am staying away :)