I am happy to present my first fan video for Albert/Victoria! Finally.
In my edit there are a few points that are different from the original series:
The only criticism I had about this show was that there was not enough build-up toward their relationship. So I had to create build-up by rearranging the clips to make their courtship look longer than it actually was in the show.
In the show, it is actually Victoria who proposes to Albert.
Victoria’s father had passed away so he is not actually in the picture, so I had to refer to Lord M as her “daddy” because he is the closest thing to a father figure she has. xD And it was kind of funny because Albert wanted his approval on some level. So it kind of does fit.
I had a lot of fun playing with these clips. This video was easy to make because the storyline really lent itself to the song as it was already in some ways like Romeo and Juliet. I mean the Feel of it, it has that fairy-tale young love feel. I bet the creators wrote it that way on purpose.
I used only Season 1 clips for this idea since it is about the early part of their relationship. If and when I make more videos for them, I will be using clips from other seasons too.
I had decided before that I will put my first 2 Albert/Victoria videos in my main YouTube (SorcererRain), and any other consang-related fanvideos I make beyond that will go in the new one (Rainbowamory).
I finally finished reading the first book of the Dune series because I wanted to read it before seeing the film that’s coming out soon. I had a comment to make about two of the characters that may be relevant here.
The film I am reviewing is the one that came out in 1999. There is actually another film made in 2007.
I want to start by saying that I was a fool. I take back everything I said in my first postabout this film. I had been reluctant to watch it for the reasons I explained in the previous post, but I finally pushed myself to give it a chance and… by the end of the film, it went from being my least favourite cousin love story in a novel to one of my Top Favourite films exploring this kind of relationship. I want to explain why I loved it this time round and what my impressions were of the book vs. the film.
The truth is I read the novel by Jane Austen years ago, so I don’t really remember the exact details or what the film might have changed. The main love story is still there. They might’ve just changed some details of the scenes here and there. But I remember that my first impression of the novel was that Edmund was indecisive and took forever to realize Fanny’s worth. Or that’s how it seemed to me, and that was the main reason for the bad impression I got of the book. It’s possible I misremembered or simply misinterpreted the book’s version of Edmund.
I feel awkward mentioning this movie because I have to be honest about the fact that I never liked this story. Mansfield Park is a book by Jane Austen. I remember reading it in English class years ago. *spoilers ahead*
The reason I didn’t like the book was because I felt that the guy didn’t deserve his cousin. He spent most of the book chasing a shallow woman who was just using him, and by the end it felt like he pretty much chose his cousin only because she was the last option left… I’ll admit that I am picky, so it takes a lot to make me truly like a pairing. But this just irritated me on so many levels. Yes, some characters take time to grow, but I didn’t feel he had any good reasons for not realizing things earlier.
So then years later I tried to watch the film but ended up being annoyed for other reasons. They completely changed the female lead character’s personality… She just didn’t seem like the character in the book at all. But I did stop watching the film early, so I can’t be sure how much they changed her…
Do I recommend it? Yea, I have to, cause the story does have two first cousins as a central romantic pairing. I’m still not sure I want to watch the movie myself, especially if it’s one of those “she can’t make up her mind between two guys” kind of stories… no thanks. That is not for me.
So while this story is not for me on a personal level, someone else might like it if you enjoy these themes in fiction. Even if you don’t have Netflix, I’m sure you can find it online somewhere. If you didn’t know it existed, at least now you know ^_^
UPDATE: I wrote up a more detailed Review Here. After watching the film properly and understanding it better, I changed my mind about the stuff I said above.
The following is the story of a 26-year-old man who is in a polyamorous marriage with his two 25-year-old female cousins that are twins. As this is anonymous, unlike the stories that are out there in the media I cannot verify this story, so it’s up to you what to think. He is going by the name Jackson here.
Sometimes I come across people online in other websites that seem to be genuine, so I ask them if they can tell their story here.
It’s in the usual interview format where he is answering the questions I asked him.
The following is a link to another article about the cousin couple from Utah. I asked Angie about this (on Facebook) and she said that the news article sensationalized their story and situation. In reality all they had done was give some updates about their lives to the media, and some photos (which are really cute photos by the way :D). They’re actually both doing OK, and so is their baby. So keep that in mind when reading the news article.
I’m not going to post much more about them to respect their privacy (I’m always hyper aware of the importance of privacy. But you can check out their public YouTube and public Facebook pages which they already shared if you want to know more about them… I shared those links in previous blog posts).
It is unfortunately not in English but I have screencapped a translated version below.
As for the radio interview, I don’t know if there’s an English translation for that. If someone here knows what is being said, it would be nice to have a summary.
Here is the English translation of the article (you can find the radio interview in the audio player at the end of the article):
[This is an old post from Tumblr, originally posted in July 2014. The link to the website referenced no longer works, but the information was from there and you can find those facts elsewhere too.]
I’m not an expert on this topic, but I will share some basic information I found while reading up on it. If you’ve done your research then you will most likely know these things already.
According to http://www.talkinggenetics.co.uk (a Health Care service that supports consanguineous couples and families) one of the most common problems that consanguineous couples may run into when it comes to making a family, is that of Autosomal Recessive Inheritance. Autosomal means that it can affect both female and male children.
If you follow this link and click on the first picture to the right of the page, you will be led through a video which will explain in a simplified form how this type of gene transfer works, and what are the chances of having a child with a genetic disorder.
According to studies done on this subject, the chances of having a child with a genetic defect for a cousin couple is double the risk for a non-related couple. But the risk, to begin with, is not large, and studies have shown that cousin couples have a 93% chance of having healthy children.
Having a higher risk of passing on health issues does not necessarily mean you will encounter problems, as the risks for cousin couples are not significantly higher than that between any two, un-related people. The reason that there is a risk at all is because a couple that are related would share more genes (that are likely to be the same type of recessive gene) than those who are unrelated, since they will have received these genes from the same family tree. And if the child gets a faulty gene from each parent, this is when it may affect their offspring. There is a 25 percent chance of this happening, but only IF the parents are both carriers of the samekind of bad gene.
Since so much of this is dependent on your individual genetics and the health history of your shared ancestry, it is important to seek out genetic counseling to help you make an informed decision on what’s right for you.
This process would involve obtaining a medical history of your family (including identifying any diseases that run in the bloodline), considering patterns of inheritance of a specific condition that may suggest the chance of a recurrence down the line, genetic testing (by blood samples), as well as finding resources (for both emotional support & self-education).
Since the Internet is full of unreliable and conflicting information, the best way to get an accurate assessment of your options is to go to a professional genetic councilor. Since cousin marriages are common in certain cultures, there will always be services available for people in these kinds of relationships. The best thing about those services is that they are non-directive, which means that the third party will listen to their clients’ concerns and views, guiding the clients to evaluate their own needs and make their own decisions based on the facts, without bias.
I’d also like to add that I know someone who is in a cousin marriage. They have three children together, who are all healthy. The wife must’ve been in her 30s and the husband in his 40s when they had their third child, but this child is as healthy as the first two, who they had years before her.
Below are some more videos by the couple from Utah, sharing for educational purposes.
As YouTube has never been a reliable platform, I’d strongly recommend you check these out while they are still on there. There are more videos on their main YouTube page:
rainbowamory 