Et bien, mes readers-along, si vous n’avez rien de mieux à faire, go to the master post for the read-along schedule and more.

I was going to save this for the end of the read-along, but I didn’t find much to remark on in this section. Well, okay, two quick things:

1. Helene tries to get out of her marriage to Pierre by… converting to Catholicism?? I thought Pierre was being a dick when he insulted Helene’s intelligence, but I’m sorry, that’s just dumb. Have you seen The Tudors? You need to get away from the Catholics, girl!

 

2. Pierre figures out a way for the letters in his name to add up to the same number in Napoleon’s name… so… he has to…. murder him… this whole plot has got me like:Moving on! Let’s talk about the world of fan videos.

I don’t even know if that’s the correct terminology, but I’m talking about videos one finds on YouTube, which are spliced together from TV shows or movies, either to celebrate the themes or relationships within that show, OR, to insert the creator’s own interpretation of what the themes and relationships SHOULD have been. Like… video fanfic? I became aware that this was a thing when I was searching for the theme song in Far From the Madding Crowd (wonderful movie, watch it!) and found stuff like this.

With a recent adaptation of War and Peace, there’s a whole world of this stuff to explore. Let’s get to it!

Videos about the themes or plot (so, yes, spoilers): There are two standouts in this category. I have watched both of these an embarrassing number of times. The first features Pierre’s wonderful “we must live” speech. The second has beautiful music and features Sonya and Nikolai in the barn 😉

 

Videos about the power couples: Obviously there’s lots of Andrei & Natasha here. One odd thing is that there are plenty of Nikolai & Marya but no one has made a Nikolai & Sonya video. I hate Nikolai, but for some reason, I really wanted those crazy cousins to make it! The first video is a nice summary, the second is an Andrei & Natasha video, with scenes from a 1960s Russian adaptation cut in, and the third is Nikolai & Marya (grumble grumble).

 

Videos about… other couples: I think this is what the kids call “slash”? I dunno. Some of these are real head scratchers! We’ve got some second tier couples and hookups, like Anatole and Natasha (admit it, the coat room scene was hot) followed by some incest with Anatole and Helene, which is kind of in the book but not really, and lastly, a very speculative Natasha and Helene which… you know… I could see, in “screw these guys, let’s get outta here” kind of way.

So… fall down this rabbit hole with me, and tell me your favourite fan videos!

PS: This is the song I was looking for in Far From the Madding Crowd. If you don’t get chills at 0:41 then, I dunno.