July 2015 – shipcestuous3

sandalaris VERY helpfully wrote out a summary of the Tut/Ankhe scenes in the Tut miniseries.

Don’t know if you still needed a quick run down of the incest in Tut, but here it is.

I was both pleasantly surprised and a little disappointed in the relationship between Tut and his sister/wife Ankhesenamun, or Ankhe as she seems to mainly be called.

The show starts out with 9-year-old Tut’s father slowly dying and Tut being told he’s about to be made Pharaoh and that he’s going to marry his sister.

It’s said several times throughout the show that they are not in love, that their marriage is based on duty and honor and to keep the line pure and that there is no passion. Hence the disappointment. But they also deeply care about each other. Ankhe is in love with another, Tut’s best friend Ka (who Tut loves like a brother, but sadly isn’t actually his brother although that would have been an interesting twist), which might have been a source for conflict, but she doesn’t hate Tut for being what’s keeping her and Ka apart. During the first episode, Tut tells Ka to let Anaksunamun go from his heart, saying that she is Tut’s and basically letting Ka know that he sees more than people think he does. (It should be noted that Ka and Anaksunamun are not having an affair. She claims she put her hope at being with Ka aside when she married Tut and besides a small slip up just before Ka and Tut leave for battle, doesn’t show physical affection towards him, even as they give each other longing looks.)

Later on, in battle, Tut is injured and left by his general for dead. When Ankhe finds out Tut is dead, she breaks down, denying it and wanting to see his body and basically acting like you’d expect a wife to act after finding out her husband died in battle. There’s even a wonderful line where she tearfully tells Ka, who has proposed marriage now that Tut’s gone, that no matter how much she prayed to be able to marry Ka, she never once wanted her brother dead. And he comforts her while telling her that he understands her continuing to grieve her husband/brother. It’s little moments like that that show how much she does love him. Her and Ka sleep together and later it is revealed that she is pregnant.

But Tut is not dead and with the help of Suhad, a peasant girl who helps him heal his injuries, and a soldier he befriends from his army, he gets better and heads back to Thebes. Tut arrives back at the palace just as the wedding ceremony is going on between Anaksunamun and Ka. He reveals himself and kills Ka, and then we get a flashback where we see that it wasn’t just the general who found him alive and left him, it was Ka too.

I was really afraid that that would be a turning point between Tut and Ankhe, who up until now have shown genuine affection for each other, but she forgives him….or at least doesn’t seem to hate him, although she grieves Ka and yells at Tut for killing him, claiming that Ka would never have left him behind.

There’s a lot of talk through all three episodes about how it is only the two of them that understand the duty and expectations put on them. They often bring up about how it’s their burden to share and no one else’s, which keeps their bond strong even when they hurt each other.

Ankhe has a problem now though, first is that she’s pregnant and it’s not Tut’s. An heir is needed and she has already suffered two still births. Plus, she’s a mother, she does not want to lose this child no matter who the father is. The second issue is Suhad, whom Tut has fallen in love with and has taken to bed. So not only has he not touched her since he got back, but if Suhad gets pregnant, Tut could marry her and make their child heir. (Which bothers in on several levels, in part because Suhad is part-can’t remember exactly the name but Egypt is at war with them-so therefore any child will not be full blooded Egyptian, and because they were supposed to keep the bloodline pure. Plus, she wants to be mother to the next Pharaoh. All in all, she clearly feels threatened by Suhad.)

She keeps trying to remind Tut of his obligation of her so he’ll sleep with her and she can claim the child is his. It works, and Tut becomes very happy to find out that he’s going to be a dad. Which also seems to be the final straw in him forgiving her for almost marrying another.

However there’s still a war and now a plague spreading through the kingdom and Tut is distracted by that. He finally decides that since they can’t afford to be weakened in the time of war, they need to round up all the sick. This only works for so long before his advisers convince him to burn the sick to stop the spread of disease. It’s not an easy decision for him to make, but he does. while that is going on, Ankhe finds out that Suhad is pregnant. She talks to Suhad about it, telling her that her child will be the mixed blood child of an enemy (although she’s surprisingly not that cruel. She doesn’t come across as petty or anything. She seems more like she’s just being blunt), but their conversation is halted with Ankhe, whose in the bath at the time, starts to have a miscarriage. She cries, begging the gods not to take her baby while Suhad runs to get a doctor.

Tut comforts her, holding her hand and kissing her forhead while she lays in bed to recover. She cries softly at the loss of the baby and he comforts her as best he can.

Later he’s talking to Suhad who tells him she’s pregnant and he’s overjoyed and tells her he will marry her.

Ankhe, fearing her loss at her brother’s side, even though Suhad will be a second wife and therefore not as high up as herself, becomes scared and tells Suhad her parents are in town to see her and sends her off with one of the queen’s personal guards to show her where they are staying.
The guard takes her to a quarantine house, where Suhad is mistaken for a sick person and locked in the buidling. It’s the night the pharaoh has set aside to burn the sick and guards start lighting the buildings on fire.

Tut, knowing what night it is, is pacing. Upset, he asks for Suhad to be sent to his chambers to be waiting for him. Meanwhile, he sits in his throne outside watching the night sky start to burn. Ankhe shows up, sitting in his lap. He wraps his arms around her stomach, burying his head into her shoulder blade as he cries silently and she pets his arms and hands in silent comfort.
The next day Tut is frantic as he realizes Suhad hasn’t been seen in several hours. He demands a search be done and that everyone be interviewed. When he finds out Suhad spoke to the queen hours before she disappeared, he has the queen’s guards questioned.

Suhad is found alive, barely. Her lungs are badly damaged and the doctor does not think she’ll make it. Meanwhile, Tut has to ride for battle.

Ankhe panics. She grabs a knife to go and finish off Suhad, despite Tut’s vizier telling her to wait. Only when she gets there, she finds Suhad has woken up. Suhad has no memory of what happened, but Ankhe goes on a bit of a downward spiral as she tries to figure out what she’ll do if she does remember and tells Tut.

Eventually Suhad does remember and writes a letter to the pharaoh. However she trusts it to the wrong person who gives it to the vizier who in turn, tells Anaksunamun. She ends up chocking Suhad to death in a fit of fear/jealousy, but immediately afterwards starts crying to gets a “dear god what have I done” look on her face.

Tut comes home, victorious but with a broken leg. He finds Suhad dead and confronts Ankhe, who still has the bruises and scratch marks from the fight. She tells him that she thought about lying to him but decided against it. He becomes angry with her, demanding to know why. She says it’s not different than when he killed Ka. He says that Ka betrayed him, left him for dead. She points out that Suhad did the same thing the moment she walked in that door. He demands her to be arrested, saying she’ll be executed after the celebration.

The doctors tell Tut not to stand on his leg, that it has become infected. However he says he has no choice, since there is a murder plot against him. Ankhe, in prison, begs his most trusted guard not to leave his side, saying she doesn’t want him hurt and “he’s my brother. Keep him safe.”
Tut defeats the traitor, but his leg has gotten worse and he is dying. He calls for Ankhe to be by his side, asking him what will he be remembered for because he fought no great battles for land, built no great monuments, etc. She tells him he’ll be a king remember for respecting his people and trying to keep them safe. He asks her if she’ll stay with him until the end and she agrees. She pets his hair and holds his hand and cries silently as he dies.

So there you go. Could have been a lot more incestuous, they cold have let them be in love, but they did love each other. For being an arranged marriage where they both were in love with other people, they were very close, cared very deeply for each other and loved each other deeply enough to forgive each other killing the other one’s lover. So that’s wonderful…in a sad, angsty sort of way.

I know exactly what you mean, Anon.

I think it’s because they are just SO MUCH.

Not only are they twins, but they are the twinnest of twins: Jaime was holding Cersei’s foot when they were born; Cersei knows that if she was a man she would be Jaime, and Jaime knows that if he was a woman he would be Cersei; “We will die together as we were born together.” Their incestuous relationship began basically right from the start.

He gave up everything to be in the Kingsguard so he could be with her.

She had sex with him on the morning of her wedding to Robert. Cersei made sure Jaime was the father of all of her children. And how he’s never been with anyone but her, never been in love with anyone with her. When they’re apart he’s always thinking about her. And Cersei’s got a lot of different priorities, but she’s never loved anyone the way she loves Jaime.

As many problems as they have, they’re still kind of (A LOT) amazing.

GRRM wanted his incest, and he wanted it on crack.

shipcestuous3

Month: July 2015

Hi! A movie recommendation to add to the list if you haven’t seen it – Shell (2012). It’s about an isolated father and daughter in the Scottish Highlands. It’s kind of a moody, slow character-driven film. It reminded me of The Ballad of Jack and Rose in some ways.

Tut/Ankhe

I want to recommend a korean tv movie, it’s called We All Cry Differently. Available on youtube w/ eng sub on Kbsworld. Basically it’s about Jihye who need to find her estrange father in order to go to abroad for exchange program. The scenes between

as fucked up and problematic as the couple is both in and out of canon, why does jaime and cersei still feel like one of the purest incest ships ive ever seen?