#the flea

[littledeadling]

Space cowboy transgender faggotry

#self portrait #sowry but I’m about to start drawing a bunch more like this so get out while u still can if u don’t wanna see it. #my art #artists on tumblr #cowboys #transgender #the Flea #nudity #500 #1000 #@ the person who tagged this binding: no it’s not. it’s a crop top. idk what that mad me mad #don’t make assumptions ig

[canisalbus]

In my family the period punctuation is a flea so whenever you answer an ask (in my mind, at least) it looks like a flea ambassador speaking for the characters. I'll scroll through the dash and see "." and think oh! I wanna hear what this fella has to say :]

🐜

#THE FLEA #the flea ambassador #gosh that's adorable I can't #anonymous #answered #no flea emojis out there so today he's subbed by his good friend the ant

[mars--madness]

"Hey kids! The fiesta is THAT way!"

I seriously CANNOT believe my favorite show is ALL GROWN UP!! ✨️✨️✨️HAPPY 21st ANNIVERSARY to ¡MUCHA LUCHA!💪🎉 It's (forever) a WAY OF LIFE!

#mucha lucha #muchalucha #my art #lucha libre #ricochet #buena girl #the flea

[muchalucha-art]

Not only does Daily ¡Mucha Lucha! on TwitteX bring a smile to my face everyday, but it also features some great depictions by other artists. This by @MaurixDibuja is especially wonderful...

#mucha lucha! #mucha lucha #rikochet #the flea #buena girl #fanart #lucha libre #twitter #x

[wormvermin]

Captured by bandits in Outlaw Town

twitter / cohost / bluesky

#wormvermin art #the flea #shibari

[newlunapastel]

the flea is in the backrooms :o

#mucha lucha #the flea #fanart #the backrooms #joke art

[adarkrainbow]

The Tale of Tales movie analysis (3)

After looking at the "crone" segment of the movie, let us take a deep dive into the "maiden" segment of Tale of Tales: the adaptation of "The Flea".

To make "The Flea" the story illustrating the "young girl" archetype is an absolutely fascinating subversion of the original tale because, when you look at the text of Basile, you realize that the princess is a secondary character quickly swept under the rug and dominated by the male characters. At the beginning of the tale, it is a story about the king and his flea. The princess only appears in the middle of the tale, to serve as the wife-victim of the ogre. And during the last part of the story, it is the supernatural brothers that shine, to the point the ending of the story is all about them, and not about the princess. Putting a great focus on the old sisters of "The Flayed Old Lady" was just a regular adaptation move, since they were the protagonists of the original tale - but here, making the princess the main character of her own tale is already a big twist compared to the original material.

If we compare the openings, this effort of shifting the point of view is very clear. In Basile's tale, as I said, the princess is entirely absent until she is put up as the prize of winning the guessing game. It is a story about the king and his flea and that's it. But in the movie, the princess is already here, and we are presented the character of a "bird in a cage". She loves her father, and tries to prove it to him with her music, but he gets distracted by a flea much to the chagrin of his daughter. She dreams of getting away and getting a husband, but her father refuses to let her do so, and when he finally agrees, it is by an impossible and ridiculous game which she hopes is just a ruse... Before she realizes much to her horror that her father is serious. If "The Enchanted Doe" segment presents a bad mother figure, the "Flea" segment is about the bad father.

The movie exacerbates the king's nature. He is still a selfish tyrant, but the movie removed his burst of foul anger and brutal verbal abuse when his daughter refuses to marry the ogre - instead here he begs, he pleas, he whines... And that's because in the movie, his selfish tyranny is due to misplaced love and uncaring kindness. Aka, the king is here purposefully depicted as a childish character, an excentric man so lost in his whimsical plays and bizarre games he ends up hurting all those around him without meaning to. We saw above that he dearly loves his daughter - but he keeps switching between not paying her attention when he should, and yet refusing to set her "free" by giving her to another. The treatment of the princess is set in parallel to the king's behavior towards the flea, that he takes as more than a beloved pet - almost a child substitue... And yet what does his kindness and protection results to? Overfeeding, the beast growing unnaturally big, and dying as a result of it. In the original story, the king decides to end himself the flea's life merely to get its skin, clearly seeing it as a cattle more than anything - in the movie, the beast very obviously dies due to obesity. The king overprotected it, overfed it to death - clearly hinting at the deadly smothering of his own daughter.

To further emphasize the king's childhisness, the set design and costumes clearly all highlight Toby Jones's small frame, making him look younger than even his own daughter - and further drawing a contrast with the giant "wild man/ogre". In fact, the king and the ogre are clearly meant to be seen as doubles - something which wasn't present in Basile's tales. In the movie, both men love the princess and want the best for her... While also denying her anything she wants and ruining her life in various ways (social abuse and emotional neglect for the king, physical and sexual abuse for the ogre). Both men try to act out of love and kindness, but are so self-centered they end up hurting the princess more than anything.

Speaking of the ogre (or the "uerco/orco"), we follow this same "realistic fantasy" approach that we already discussed for when it came to the Witch of The Flayed Old Lady. This character lacks all the traits of Basile's ogres, which are clearly supernatural beings: no obvious magical powers, no monstrously deformed appearance, no animal features... He is just a very strong giant (but a realistic giant, not a fantasy giant), and a dirty wild-man that can barely speak. In fact, almost nothing hints at him being an ogre - nothing except subtle clues here and there, clearly showing a supernatural nature, but drowned by the realistic appearances. The ogre's unnatural smell sense that allows him to say the skin is a flea (kept from the original story), his unnatural strength, his impossible lair (changed from a house of bones in a deep dark forest to a grotto up impossibly high and steep mountains), the presence of some human bones and remains in his lair (but hidden among other, animal bones - while Basile's ogres was just all about human carcasses). And it all finally explodes during the last segment, when the ogre proves himself clearly an unnatural being as he hunts the group with the same abnormal abilities most masked slasher horror villains a la Michael Myers or Jason Voorhes use against their victims.

In fact, the entire hunt segment is a very clear homage and reference to horror movies - which serves to better highlight the ogre's true nature, but also allows us to open the eyes on the king's own nature, and unravels the logic of any abusive relationship. The ogre is actually "cute". He is this gentle mute giant, who tries his best to make his home as welcoming as possible for his bride, carries her on his back all the way from the king's castle to his lair when it is clear she cannot move, tries to find the food she can like, and sincerely loves her... But these gentle, touching scenes where the princess seems like an entitled little brat for just crying and screaming at this kind and misunderstood soul, always alternate with the ogre behaving like a monster, by either raping the princess like a wild animal, or killing anyone that places themselves between him and his bride. And so, we see we shouldn't be fooled by the ogre's kind appearance and demeanors, the same way the king shouldn't be forgiven just because he is a quirky and whimsical, almost clownish figure.

And this entire story is actually the story of the revenge of the princess - and ultimately, as we see by the end, of her empowerment and rise to power by replacing or destroying the bad masculine figures. If The Flayed Old Lady depicts a very grim picture for women, subjected to the tyranny and brutality of men's lust, forced obsessively into an impossible quest for eternal youth, and even betrayed by their own sisters for greed and ambition ; The Flea is here to rather show a frail and soft young girl who, after being broken in body and mind, ultimately vanquishes and gets rid of her abusers.

It begins with how her acceptance of following the ogre begins - in the original story, it is the king's angry shouting and vile insults that force her into the arms of the uerco, but in the movie the daughter decides herself to uphold her father's deal out of spite, very clearly saying to her father she will make him pay for his bad behavior by literaly giving him what he wants - leaving him and going off with a monster. A decision which will destroy the king as we see, since not only does he revives the trauma of losing his flea-pet, but he also loses his actual most beloved "belonging" and as such ends up bedridden and very sick.

Then comes her revenge on the ogre, and this is presented through THE big twist of the adaptation. In the original story, the princess is rescued by a group of seven brothers with supernatural abilities - a traditional character-archetype of fairytales, the "gifted ones" or "talented ones". But here? The brothers are a family of circus-performers. Acrobats, junglers, tight-rope dancers, they certainly have impressive abilities - but they are entirely humans. And as such prove entirely useless when the ogre comes for them - from a strange, bizarre, entertaining magical obstacle-race, we pass into a merciless horror massacre, a series of slasher murders making the princess understand that no one can save her, and no matter how much she runs the ogre will always find her - and ultimately, only she can save herself. Which she does in the second big twist of the adaptation - the ogre ends up with his head cut-off, indeed... But by the princess herself, who pretended to give up and abandon herself to her monstrous husband to better slice his throat.

Finally, it all culminates in the final corruption/distortion of the retelling. The return to the castle. As I said before, in Basile's tale the ending sweeps unde the rug the princess to rather focus on the king, who regrets his actions, and the brothers, who are rewarded for their brave deeds. The brothers offer to the king the head of the ogre in echange for their reward - the story ends between a passing of power and belongings between the two male forces of the story, around the third (now dead) male force of the tale, all the while the female characters (the princess or the brothers' mother) are background evocations and mere pretexts. In the movie? The girl returns to her father - covered in dirt, blood and gore - show him what he did to his daughter, and it is her who brings back the head of the ogre. And it is not a happy ending. It is a reunion where everybody cries and every falls down and where nobody is happy but everybody hurt, exhausted and traumatized.

Of course, this being a fairytale movie, this is later subverted with an ACTUAL happy ending concluding the entire segment - the princess restored to a proper and happy life, her forgiven father having stepped out of the throne to become the helper and servant of his daughter, the princess becoming a queen all of her own, made stronger by her trials and becoming a powerful figure without any need of any husband or father. Through the blood and gore of this horror movie-like tale, we ultimately have the rise of the princess-maiden, frail prize, spoiled daughter, object belonging to her father ; into a strong and happy queen, who became the slayer of her own monster.

#tale of tales #pentamerone #tale of tales movie #movie analysis #fairytale movie #the flea #basile #dark fairytale

[bluebutlikenotalways]

And these guys!

and here's the sketch so you can kinda see it better

I guess this goes without saying, but not a ship

#Mucha Lucha #Mucha lucha rikochet #Mucha lucha buena girl #Mucha lucha the flea #Rikochet #Buena Girl #The Flea #Mucha Lucha! #They're bffs

[afieldinengland]

the flea, john donne | hannibal 2x04, 3x09, 2x13, 1x13, 3x06, 3x13

#long live abigail hobbs #my edit #hannibal #john donne #the flea

[ml-appreciation]

Today’s Random Clip: S3E02b - The Incredible Penny Plutonium

#mucha lucha #videos #penny plutonium #buena girl #rikochet #the flea #buena girl is bi confirmed🩷💜💙

[alas-poor-cesario]

For anyone giving 0.o eyes at the "we're basically married" thing from Dracula, please, please read The Flea by Donne because:

Mark but this flea, and mark in this, How little that which thou deniest me is;    It sucked me first, and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;    Thou know’st that this cannot be said A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead,     Yet this enjoys before it woo,     And pampered swells with one blood made of two,     And this, alas, is more than we would do.

Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare, Where we almost, nay more than married are.    This flea is you and I, and this Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;    Though parents grudge, and you, w'are met,    And cloistered in these living walls of jet.     Though use make you apt to kill me,     Let not to that, self-murder added be,     And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since Purpled thy nail, in blood of innocence?    Wherein could this flea guilty be, Except in that drop which it sucked from thee?    Yet thou triumph’st, and say'st that thou    Find’st not thy self, nor me the weaker now;     ’Tis true; then learn how false, fears be:     Just so much honor, when thou yield’st to me,     Will waste, as this flea’s death took life from thee.

Basically: we've shared blood because of a flea and therefore it's like we're married and we can have sex and it's fine and not a sin. And to kill the flea would be absolutely awful because its a representation of us and it was innocent.

Now, relate that to the themes in Dracula...

#dracula daily #dracula #john donne #the flea #lucy westenra #arthur holmwood

[littledeadling]

New icon 🌵✨

#self portrait #the Flea #my art #artists on tumblr

[ashmaggot12]

some practice with poses using the flea. he’s also just a fun character to draw.

#the flea #mucha lucha #fanart #my art #cartoon #digital art #sketch page #Doodle Page

[mars--madness]

💪It's a way of life💪

Thank you so much for being patient! Here's Mucha Lucha's 20th Anniversary pic FINALLY DONE 🎉🎉This show means the world to me STILL✨️

¡FELICIDADES!

#this took me for EVER but im very happy im finished! #mucha lucha #20th anniversary #lucha libre #rikochet #buena girl #the flea #there are TWO sides to the entire coin i believe! #one side is the three mascaritas #on the other are the students #everyone has a story to tell✨️

[muchalucha-art]

This is actually pretty great!

...although everyone knows that Snowpea will NEVER grow :D

#mucha lucha! #mucha lucha #the flea #rikochet #buena girl #youtube

[newlunapastel]

💥🍩👊MUCHA LUCHA! 20th ANNIVERSARY👊🍩💥 (2002-2022)

srsly tho, this show meant a lot to me, it helped me so much thru middle and high school (i was on 8th grade on that time!) and HELL, it was so much fun and enjoyable, and the theme song is STILL a banger. although i watched the movie back in 2017 it makes me proud to be a fan of this show! and as an hispanic myself heheh xD (soy chilena de corazon)

oh, it's also a redraw of this promo pic: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/muchalucha/images/f/f1/Muchalucha2.gif/revision/latest?cb=20171104211111

#mucha lucha! #20th anniversary #fanart #my art #rikochet #buena girl #the flea #forever proud of this piece :D