Wait … I'm going to full ramble about this topic because now that someone made me think about it i believe it fucking deserves more attention.

Troy (2004) was written by the same guy who later worked in Game of Thrones. GOT, the piece of media that skyrocketed popularity of the " we brutalize women for the sake of gritty realism and give every fem character a 'rape made you stronger' arc " trend.

However, in Troy every woman whose canonical fate in the source material was being raped was saved from this. Even if the scene where Achilles saves Briseis it's a bit unconfortable to watch, those men don't get to rape her. Hector uses the power of self awareness to warn Andromache and get her ready to fight the fate she had on the original story. During the sacking of Troy, Briseis kills Agamemnon on a scene that clearly reverse mirrors what happened with Cassandra and the lesser Ajax.

This movie had few female characters, but the few it kept they respected. Despite being older than GOT, it treated its lead ladies with kindness.

I freaking love Troy and you all can suck my left one.

Troy (2004) Masterlist

Requests for this movie are permanently open.

Pending requests - 6

Oneshots

Battle Scars  - (Platonical) Hector x Sister Reader 

Our Strenght Lies in Family -  (Platonical) Paris x Sister Reader x Hector 

Imaginary Feats - Patroclus x Trojan Princess Reader 

Silent Pray  -   Part 1 - Part 2 - Chryseis and Odysseus centered movieverse retelling of the Illiad’s startpoint / oneshot spreaded in two parts. 

The Daughter of the Priest -  Part 1 -  Continuation for “ Silent Pray.” 

Fool - ( Pre War) Paris x Healer Reader 

Songs of Sailors -  Platonical (Family) relationships of the trojan royals and allusions to different romantic pairings. 

Pairings Mentioned: Helen x Paris (most mentioned), (Implied) Patroclus x Trojan Princess Reader, (Implied) Achilles x Briseis, Hector x Andromache. 

Faith or Facts - Hector x Greek Seer!Reader (Female) 

The Insolence of Beauty - Post quarrel, Agamemnon centered. 

For Honor and Love - Helen x Paris (requested) 

Into a New Life - Paris x Spartan Servant!Reader (requested) 

For a Love Like This - Paris x (fem) Warrior!Reader (requested)

Undying Legends - Achilles x Princess!Reader (requested)

Accomplices - Patroclus x GN Reader (requested)

The Last Challenger - Ajax x Fem Reader (requested) 

Borrowed Bride - Achilles x (fem) Trojan!Reader 

A Thousand Times - Paris x Fem Reader (requested)

Anonymous Hero - Hector x Fem Warrior!Reader (requested)

Personal Guard - Eudorus (Fem) Shy Reader (requested)

Third Fate - Achilles x Fiancee!Reader (requested)

Things that will grant me your love - Paris x (Fem) Reader (requested)

The Curse of Poseidon - Paris x Helen Merman AU (requested)

Concealed Fighter - Hector x Wife!Reader / Achilles x Captive!Reader 

The Veiled One - Ajax x (Fem)Reader (requested)

Our Fight - Hector x (Fem)Reader (requested)

Artists of Deception - Odysseus x Wife!Reader (requested)

Eternal Courtship - Achilles x (Fem)Captive!Reader (requested)

Matured Desire - Achilles x (Fem) Reader smut (requested)

By Duty and Chance - Hector x (Fem) Reader (requested)

His Weakness - Achilles x (Fem)Reader 

A Man of Honor - Odysseus x Trojan Princess!Reader (requested) 

From the Deepness of the Sea - Hector x Siren!Reader (requested)

The Wave’s Caress - Achilles x (Fem)Reader (requested)

In These Arms - Achilles x (Fem) Reader

Headcanons

Achilles’ Type (requested)

-Achilles + Patroclus’ turnoffs/dislikes (requested)

- Achilles reacting to a Belle-like town’s freak (requested)

Preferences

- Reactions to your singing

- How they comfort you when the war is bringing you down 

-Their Types (Fem partner version)

Achilles x Mycenaean Princess!Reader Series

Part 1 - The Bride’s Misery 

Part 2 - Fame and Tales

Part 3 - The Veil Trick

Part 4 - To Make a Difference

Part 5 - Family Matters. 

Part 6 - A Curse, a Plot and a Rushed Farewell 

Part 7 - Invisible Influence

Part 8 - The Rejected Side

Part 9 - Consecration. 

Part 10 - Royal Treatment

Part 11 - Aligned Improvements. 

Part 12 - The Weight of Words. 

Part 13 - Occulted Relic

Part 14 - Goodbye Encounters 

Part 15 - Separations, welcomes and the story of an avoidable disaster 

Part 16 - Service to Good Judgement. 

Part 17 - Galatea and a Maenad fighting in the second front

Part 18 - The Enygm of the Horse Emblem

Part 19 - No Space for Loneliness. 

Part 20 - The Games.

Part 21 - The Man of Aphrodite 

Part 22 - Diverted Course

Part 23 - Golden Chains

Part 24 - Loving in the Shadows

Part 25 - The Trial of Achilles

Drabbles

Calm After the Storm - Odysseus x Reader 

Divine Beauty - Paris x Reader 

A Breath of Life - Patroclus x Gender Neutral Reader (Requested)

The Right Way - Achilles x (Fem)Reader (Requested)

Because it's not about either.

Troy (2004) is a Helen of Troy (1956) and Fury of Achilles (1962) crossover remake made in the mixing of styles between Gladiator, Braveheart and the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Hope that helps.

In spanish, the equivalent for the term " prince charming " used as global reference for standard fairytale prince is "príncipe azul". A very literal english translation for it would be " blue prince".

Whoever decided these two should have blue capes ...

Aside from the fact that they come from a land famous for horse breeding and the movie makes it part of their fighting style like if this was medieval fantasy instead of the bronze age.

Greeks use charriots, but they are horsemen.

Príncipe Azul behavior.

OMG, WHO DID THIS? I NEED CONTEXT, I MUST SEARCH THIS THING 🤣🤣🤣

Perfect summary of Hector's character.

I take him anyways, the chaotic dumbass brother is part of the deal lol. ( Poor boy, he is a mess but a really pretty one.) Possiblities of ending up killed aside, and many headaches, Paris sounds like tons of fun.

In his treatment of Hector, Priam's attitude irritates me and not so much Paris. He doesn't listen to him even tho he is literally saving the legitimacy of his rule with his efforts in war and the faith he inspires on the people.

They would kick me out of Troy for yelling at the king to pay some fucking attention to his exahusted eldest son.

Out of context angry Achilles is kinda cute.

Me waiting for a Troy sequel seeing Gladiator and even Passion of Christ are getting theirs.

I found this on pinterest and I can't find the sharing option from mobile to do it properly, but I wanted you to see this amazing Troy edit that perfectly works as lockscreen.

Awww thanks 💕💕

It won the poll by a huge difference, so the people have spoken and here is Achilles :) I love it too, and I am amazed to have read a few times that my online persona has Achilles vibes lol.

Luckly, the picture didn't upset staff like I feared when the poll was taken out of the tags, so I could go for the winner one.

To thank you for the sweetness in this congrats, here some of the other pictures I saved to possibly use as icons before sticking to two for the poll:

Bonus: I separated Hector and Paris from the same screencap with matching icons potentiality.

Why were Achilles and Briseis written the way they were?

The following meta is a contextual analysis of the movie, not necesarily a ship defense post.

In this opportunity i am going to present my personal interpretation on a few factors that I believe can help explain what remains to this day the most controversial point of the film: the romance of Achilles and Briseis. Keeping it short and simple, my arguments here will be mostly linked to the conventionalities of the film genre and the specific time period in which the movie was created.

In this case, not to simply shrug shoulders and confortably claim " those were other times" and dismiss the problematic aspect, but to list a few sensical reasons I find behind the choice regardless of how potentially problematic it was.

The purpose of this analysis is understanding the movie in context, not changing anybody's mind in what comes to the moral sanction in its reception. The reader's approbal or dissaprobal of the film doesn't affect it, because the intention is to merely provide a contextualized explanation.

That being said, let's begin:

-The historical/epic films that served as inspiration for Troy often include a precise formula that the pairing emulates in a synthetical way.

As pointed out before, the list of epic films inspiring Troy (2004) is endless. From subtle references in the scenery and costume design to direct copy in the use of tropes or character archetypes, this movie is like a summary of the whole genre. However, the particular historical context in its release made three particular titles the core influencies of the film.

These are Gladiator, Braveheart and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Listing every single aspect in which Troy nurtured trying to replicate their success is worthy of an entire different meta, but here I will take one precise element to examinate.

In all cases, there is a warrior lead hero and a woman of nobility that find themselves tangled in political intrigue/war and have (or have had) some form of forbbiden love. Both Lucilla and Isabella find themselves contextually in between the movie's hero and villian, walking the thin lines of negociation while wishing for the insane emperor/asshole king's demise.

In Gladiator it's mostly a political alliance with a mere romantic undertone that comes from the fact that they had a past together, while in Braveheart the meeting through political matters is a gateway for romance. In contrast, Arwen's conflict comes from having to choose between her family and Aragorn in the middle of a war that has her kind leaving Middle Earth.

The Briseis of Troy is like an abreviated and more simplified synthesis for all of these. Outside conflict begins as soon as she is in the middle of Achilles and Agamemnon, the fighter-hero and ruler-villian that she equally challenges through their argument scene. Later, her inner conflict comes from having to choose between her family in Troy and her growing feelings for Achilles.

So subtle, yet so powerfull, the influence is so evident that we can even see a gender reverse of the Evenstar necklace moment.

The seashell necklace is a gift of his mother, who is rumoured to be a goddess. It's purpose on this scene is slightly similar yet very different as in lotr. Achilles is giving to Briseis a gift of possibly godly origins that represents him as he tries to compensate her for the pain that his vengeance has caused her. It's also an act of love, the last one they can share because he is allowing her to choose her family and leave to be with them.

This simple example ilustrates too well how far the similarities went in the strange mashup of formulas.

At the same time, one can point out that the principal deviation Troy took was having Briseis as the only woman arround. In both Gladiator and Braveheart a dead wife haunts the narrative and motivates the hero to seek revenge against the cruel ruler. In the case of lotr, the side love interest is the one that the context encourages in contrast to the one forbidden for the hero. The men of Rohan already respect Aragorn and Theoden shows himself supportive of a possible union between him and the obviously infatuated Eowyn.

Instead of a hero that oscilates between two women, the dead wife and the princess or the adequated love vs the impossible one, Troy presents the enemies to lovers dynamic product of Briseis' war captive status making her conflcted feelings oscilate through the story.

-The Sheik meets Titanic: iconic romances and sex symbols.

The casting of Brad Pitt in the role of Achilles was definitely an influence for the tone the romance adquired. If I had to describe the Achilles x Briseis romance without listing the influences I mentioned before, I would say " it's a bit like The Sheik with a Titanic ending" and I feel this is not entirely casual.

( Most evident paralel that can be made is that the Josh Groban song " Remember" feels pretty much like reverse" My Heart Will Go On". James Horner worked on both films, so maybe that played a part in this particular aspect but I am merely speculating.)

Valentino and Di Caprio were iconic in their romance performances, they made history in their roles, and both shared with Pitt the fame of being actors super popular with female audiences. I can't blame Troy for wanting to evoke a bit of that magic when the man doing the job is Brad Pitt. Back in the day, people used to popularly claim he was the most handsome guy in the world. His name is a synonym of male beauty.

I feel his Achilles does a good job balancing two contradictory goals the movie has for him: being the embodiment of an epic hero and seducing the audience through the romance scenes. In this point I want to add that the basic structure on the dynamic for the abduction romance is very similar to the one in The Sheik: civilized and outspoken lady that represents modern viewpoints gets kidnapped by a seductive man of savage ways. In a good kidnapper/bad kidnapper game with the antagonist, she discovers that she has fallen in love. In Troy it works as a sort of reactualization for this basic premise adquiring a different flavor when mixed with other elements of the film.

And here is when the most iconic moment makes so much sense:

This was the one part of the movie that made history. Not only the quote is beautifull, here is also where you get the distinctive flavor that is also a byproduct of the general themes in the film permeating the romance. Achilles proves himself to her above the mere act of rescuing her from someone worse.

While this is the response of Briseis.

She keeps challenging him because she was made aware that he can do better. Sure, she later sleeps with him anyways because that's almost an ineludible part of the charm in that scenario. In both cases, it is used as a sort of indulgent fantasy for the eyes of a (straight) fem audience expected to go crazy for the actor. Unlike in the 1920's, by the time troy came out spicy scenes are already a standard and I can distinctively point out those tend to be particularly prevalent on media about ancient greece and rome.

For tumblr censorship reasons I won't show a picture for the following claim, but the scene itself doesn't expose her as much as him. It's all focused on the beauty of Brad Pitt, in his seductive ways and how the girl slowly gives in to him. His naked body covers her from the camera, all we see its a glimpse of her legs and stomach as the lense follows the way of his hands undressing her. It's the same dangerous seduction feeling that turns the strong woman defenseless applied in an film age where you can show it on a love making scene.

Despite sticking to the basics, that oldass concept adquires a more unique modern feeling.

-For Plot Reasons: they work as a parallel with Helen x Paris.

From the beggining of the film, forbbiden love is the big topic of the film when it comes to romance. I know I have written in previous analysis that Achilles and Paris, through their selfish and romantic driven choices, become a parallel of each other. Helen, the willing runaway, and Briseis, the captive, are also made a parallel.

However, I want to go back a second on the specific way the behavior of Achilles directly mimics Paris triggering the war: he seduces the girl, sleeps with her, and decides he is ready to abandon his countrymen for her. While Odysseus tries to convince him out the rational way, the recriminations of Patroclus evoke the angry Hector who had just discovered the spartan queen in his ship. Fighting the war due to the reckless choices of their relatives, they die. At the end Achilles and Paris are on their own.

The trojan prince leaves Helen behind to fight and, when he gets the chance, avenge his brother, while the greek warrior is there for only love and remorse. Dreams of glory are behind him, he got inside the trojan horse seeking to rescue the woman of his affections.

It's a fascinating role reversal where, motivation-wise, Paris becomes Achilles and Achilles becomes Paris. This conclussion comes as evolution of the romances written parallelistically as side plots of the big family tragedy.

I want a Troy Icon, but can't decide

( I still love Andy, it's most likely I would get him back after a few weeks)

So far the ones i'm considering are these two:

Option 1 - Hector breaking the fourth wall.

Option 2 - Achilles challenging Hector at gates of the temple.

Help me decide, please :)

I'm in the mood for other short troy meta debating with some of the most common perceptions I have seen about the film.

Following the line of my other posts on the topic, I want to talk of how I never understood the claim that Achilles' thirst for vengeance was cheapened or downplayed because it was made about a relative.

Here i'm going for the " WHO cares that much about their cousin?" argument.

Look, I totally understand people can be frustrated because they expected romance and the movie made it about family, but HOW is it any less of a tragedy because they are related? In the film, Patroclus is not just his cousin. Not only he was little brother coded, the story makes it clear that Achilles feels very responsible for him since the lad became an orphan.

Fun fact: in the (luckly rejected) first draft of the script he was going to be his son. When Benioff did the rewriting, the family relation was changed to cousins, but something of the spirit in the first script remained in their dynamic.

Like i said before, it also had a plot function creating a pretty much in your face parallel with Hector and Paris.

Patroclus being like the little brother Achilles feels responsible for and he failed to protect brings him even closer to Hector. He is moved by the same motivation causing the death of Menelaus, Hector knows he is a dead man the same way the spartan king seiled his demise when he threatened Paris. It even creates a tragic parallel between Achilles and Agamemnon!

At the start of the film Agamemnon has for Troy the intentions of a colonizer. Destroying it is not in his original plan, he wanted to take over the economical and militar control keeping the trojan rulling class enslaved to mycenaean interests. The death of his beloved brother triggers this monstruous thirst for vengeance the movie uses as vehicle to explain the horrors of the sack of Troy.

In a similar way, Achilles' plans for his eventual combat with Hector were merely about personal glory. When he has the first chance of killing him, he doesn't do it because he doesn't have enough audience to make it epic, and he has nothing personal against him. With the death of Patroclus, he ends up desecrating the body of Hector guided by the same blind rage Agamemnon keeps since the death of his brother. The marks he leaves on the remains of Troy's fallen hero are an omen for the wounds Agamemnon will inflict in Troy itself later on.

In both cases, it leads to their deaths, but with different meanings. Agamemnon is at the peak of his vengeance during the destruction of Troy, he orders for no one to be spared and attempts to attack Briseis as perfect culmination of it.

His death is not only a defensive act, but a revenge for the whole fallen city. In contrast, Achilles feels remorse for what he has done, gets inside the horse with the sole purpose of fixing something up, and ends up paying with his life when Paris gets revenge for his brother.

Unlike Agamemnon, who is surprised by death while going through the more evil version of that peak on revenge satisfaction he experienced when he dragged Hector's body with his charriot, he embraced the death he knew was awaiting him as a redeeming experience.

Achilles cares for his cousin with the same affection Agamemnon and Hector had for their little brothers. He killed Hector moved by the same grief leading Agamemnon to destroy Troy in memory of his brother because Hector couldn't watch his own brother die.

The film presents a tragedy structured on a chain of revenges moved by family. You are totally valid in disliking that, but it doesn't make it any less tragic.