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also (with some reference to my previous post about Andy’s origins and her name) it’s interesting to note that Andromache the Scythian is undoubtedly a Hellenized version of Andy’s given name.

The Scythians spoke an Indo-Iranian language, while “Andromache” is obviously from Greek roots (I think I saw somewhere what it means, though I don’t remember). “Scythian” also is a Greek term for that people, not what they would have called themselves. But because the Scythians left no writing behind, we don’t know what names they would have used instead.

The Scythians didn’t become culturally Hellenized until the 2nd century BCE, but they did have frequent contact with the Greek city-states around the Black Sea since the beginning (900-700 BCE).

Andy probably first learned to read and write in Ancient Greek, and so that’s the version of her name that gets documented and spread. Once that happens, with the Greek influence/Hellenization around the Mediterranean, using that name would have gotten her more clout, especially as tales of the Amazons come into the picture. Ultimately, of course, the Scythian language dies out and Greek sticks around, so Andy’s kinda stuck with it.

But I do wonder if she ever misses her first name.

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so, i’ve finished my third rewatch today and this time i really paid attention to the end credits and noticed this in the “section” dedicated to joe and nicky

now, that painting is actually this painting, by Renaissance artist Paolo Finoglio (and it dates back to mid-17th century)

it represents the duel between Tancredi and Clorinda, two characters from Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata (or Jerusalem delivered in English). long story short, he’s a christian and she’s a muslim, he loves her and she doesn’t, pretty standard epic poem stuff. their duel happens under the walls of Jerusalem— Tancredi kills Clorinda without recognising her, and it’s only when he removes her helmet that he recognises her as his beloved. which, like, already rings several bells like killing your beloved??? during a holy war??? that you’re fighting on opposites sides???

but what’s Even Better is that Torquato Tasso is only one of the many people tackling the subject of the Crusades and the chansons de geste around Charlemagne’s paladins and in fact the Gerusalemme liberata wouldn’t exist without Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso, which in turn wouldn’t exist without Matteo Maria Boiardo’s Orlando innamorato (if you’re wondering, the Furioso is arguably the most famous of the three, at least in my school experience, bcos Boiardo’s too niche and Tasso’s too religious lol)

and those too have a romance between a christian and a muslim— in this case, she’s christian, and her name is Bradamante, and he’s a muslim, and his name is Ruggiero. he’s kept prisoner by his wizard dad Atlante she wants to save him they get separated a whole lot of times he falls in love as well and converts to christianity bcos of course he does [Clorinda does the same as she’s dying and like, these are Renaissance authors in Very Christian Italy so it’s pretty much to be expected], and then her parents want her to settle down but not with Ruggiero so she says “fine i’ll marry whoever can best me in combat” and guess who bests her in combat it’s Ruggiero and then they marry and start the house of Ariosto’s noble patrons bcos he had to somehow make their feeding him worth their while so what better way than to invent ancient and mythical roots for their house i mean he was just continuing what Virgil started

what i mean to say is that the story of a christian warrior and a muslim warrior falling in love during the time of the Crusades while fighting on opposite sides is very much recurrent throughout Renaissance literature and art and i’m not saying that Joe and Nicky waltzed into 15th and 16th and 17th century Italy and had everyone from Boiardo to Ariosto to Tasso take several seats and be like “wow look at that i want what they have i have to find a way to at least work some of that into my poem” while also having given birth to the very archetype itself but that’s exactly what i’m saying

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I haven’t seen any posts about this yet but the three main male characters in The Old Guard all have a scene where they’re shirtless (or mostly shirtless) and not a single one of them has Captain America style abs, pecs, or biceps. Yeah all of them have muscles and based upon the multiple fight scenes can do more than enough damage but none of them look the way most men in movies who have shirtless scenes look. They look normal and human and I think that it is very cool of The Old Guard to show realistic bodies for centuries old warriors, no matter the gender.

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The Old Guard twitter AU

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Whether fate be foul or fair, Why falter I or fear? What should man do but dare? (Unknown, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight) // Nile Freeman and Arthurian Legends

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888 CELEBRATION | The Old Guard (2020) - requested by @milcsmorales (PT. 2)

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Immortal Family portrait 🍓

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Immortal family - The full set 🧡

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Camp Old Guard - Andy: Camp Director

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Camp Old Guard - Nile: CIT (Counselor-in-Training)

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OK but niles' friends were such cunts for talking shit about her for being immortal. Like imagine your friend gets stabbed in the neck and is miraculously revived and you're like ew.

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yusuf al-kaysani + nicolo di genova throughout history

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i love baby guard posts and i also like to think the guard have a collective lore for each others childhoods because they cant remember them. joe sees a little girl with skinned knees standing up on a bike no helmet screaming with joy and racing down a hill and informs andy that's her. nile sees a boy in the park with coke bottle glasses sitting alone in a bench reading a book while dozens of other kids are playing together and tells booker that must have been what he was like. then another boy emerges from the bushes he was inspecting and goes up to that boy and invites him to look at the worms with him and oh that must have been what nicky was like. they all drive past a scene where a couple of firefighters are depositing a feral looking cat they've just gotten out of a tree into the arms of a grinning boy whose mother is standing there with her face in her hands to hide a smile and yeah that would have been joe.

they print out nile's baby photos (and backup copies) from her phone to keep them safe, but they still include her in the game even though they already know she was a joyful little troublemaker, her dad's partner in crime. a little girl laughing with joy tromping through the mud puddles? that must have been what nile was like

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bakery au where nicky works in a popular bakery that gets crazy lines around the holidays because they do themed cookies cakes treats etc and joe has the worst luck for craving something sweet on days that are either abnormally busy or are holidays (joe doesn’t notice this pattern; he thinks the bakery is just crazy busy everyday because they have good cookies) so he’ll wait in line for twenty minutes meanwhile nicky is behind the counter fighting for his life putting together all these insane holiday orders worth hundreds of dollars trying to prevent customers from fist fighting over cakes and then joe always appears for 0.5 seconds in the middle of the rush like i would like one cookie please :) whichever one you like the best :) and tips more than double the cost of the actual cookie so nicky starts giving him free extras and the first time he does it joe gets back in the line just to come back in and politely offer to pay because nicky accidentally gave him three cookies instead of one and nicky makes him take another cookie and insists it’s a perk of being a favorite customer before he has to turn away to prevent a middle aged mom from throwing a tantrum because they’re sold out of the sugar cookies she wants. joe finds this confusing bc the reason he tips so much is that he feels bad for only getting one little thing when everybody else seems to be leaving with huge bags but the hot bakery man is giving him free food so hey he’s not going to argue. he and nicky get onto a first name basis, even if they never have time to exchange more than a sentence or two. nicky somehow figures out that joe likes vanilla and buttery flavours more so than chocolate. it’s cool being a regular. 

cut to one fateful valentine’s day that joe somehow has failed to realise is valentine’s day. he waits in the line, comes in and asks for a cookie. nicky charges him the cost of one cookie and then grabs three at random as per their usual exchange, which turn out to be sugar cookies iced to look like those valentine’s sweetheart candies. the first one says hey cutie, the second one says be mine, and the third one says what’s your number? 

joe, a little confused but a lot flattered, scribbles his phone number and a little message with a winky face on his receipt and stuffs it into the tip jar with a bill. then he walks out of the bakery and goes about his day, wondering absently if anything will come of it, and if a baker would enjoy a first date where joe cooked him dinner. 

it takes him 45 minutes to realise it’s valentine’s day. it takes 3 more for him to realise that nicky didn’t personalise those cookies just for him, and half a second more to decide he can never enter the bakery again, and in fact might have to leave the country. 

at 6:07 that evening, seven minutes after the bakery has closed, when joe is on the way over to andy’s to lament the state of his life, he gets a text from an unknown number that says you are either the boldest man i’ve ever met in my life or the dumbest. when are you taking me out? xx - nicky

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x x x / x x x / x x x

@nilefreemanweek2021 day 2: Nile & Art

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Joe & Nicky + coming as a matched set™

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when the whole squad‘s love language is roasting each other