Mad Kings & Queens, Week I [Monday, Period 4]

[atreideslioness]

Ghanima was sitting on her desk, absently eating lemon drops as she watched the students wander into the room. Once the last of them had arrived, her face lit up with a smile.

"Well now," she said, her voice carrying effortlessly. "Most of you look rather familiar!"

Ghanima was not sure if it was a mark of approval in her choice in subject matter, or if her students were simply masochists.

She was not ruling out either option.

"For those of you that are new, I am Lady Ghanima Atreides, and this is Mad Kings and Queens. If you have not had one of my classes before, you may call me Lady Ghanima, Miss Ghanima, or Miss Atreides, whichever you are more comfortable with. The first person to call me Lady Atreides gets detention," Ghanima announced, smiling. "Lady Atreides is my grandmother, and I will not answer to it."

"This is a class intended to give you a basic grounding in the history of royal insanity here on Earth, as well as providing a few tips on how to survive an unstable monarch, should you ever have the misfortune to encounter one." Ghanima hopped off her desk to wander along the rows of desks. "We will not be covering every ruler who has been termed 'mad', if we tried, it would take years rather than a single semester."

"If you have a weak constitution, this is not the class for you. We will be discussing mental illness, torture, sexuality, violence, and murder. While I do not intend to sensationalize the topics, I will not sugar coat them for you either. I will not think any less of anyone who chooses not to return next week, I prefer that you are honest with yourself about your ability to handle the subject matter."

"You may think that madness is rare," Ghanima mused, drifting down the rows of seats as she spoke. "It is not. As the Roman philosopher Seneca once said, 'There is no genius free from some tincture of madness.' He was correct."

"Caligula of Rome had his father, mother and two brothers killed to become emperor. Nero had his mother and first wife killed. These two emperors were hated so much by the people that all references to them were deleted from official Roman documentation."

"The first French king, Clovis II, went mad after stealing the arm of a martyr. His great-grandson, Childeric III was known as "the idiot". The mother of Louis IX complained that he was 'not sound of mind'. And his younger son, Robert of Clermont went mad after being hit on the head with a sledge hammer. Then there was Charles VI, called Charles the Mad, who ruled France from 1380 to 1415. At stages, he believed that he was made of glass and inserted iron rods into his clothing to prevent him from breaking."

"The Habsburg Kings of Spain descended from Queen Juana la Loca of Castile, who was mentally unstable. Her ancestors increased her inheritance by inbreeding. These incestuous marriages resulted in the mentally and physically handicapped King Carlos II of Spain, who had an enormous, misshapen head, and a chin exaggerated to almost caricature-like proportions rendering him unable to chew and barely able to speak."

"Very few of these people were stupid," Ghanima said sternly. "Inbred, yes. Perhaps challenged. However, you do not hold a throne by stupidity, but by ruthlessness, fear, and a good dose of violence. To hold that balance intact takes at least a shrewd cunning, if not a reasonable intellect. To be otherwise is to be a puppet king, kept in place by those who are the real power behind the throne."

"Now, I am hoping you'll all indulge me," she said. "Hands up, those of you whom have already had to deal with a power-mad leader of some sort or another." The grin on her face as she took count was not exactly reassuring. It was not meant to be. "Fantastic! Rather than start you off with nothing but lecture, I'd like each of you to share your experiences with those in power, be they positive or negative. Feel free to be as general or as specific regarding the situation as you like, no one will judge you here."



[OOC: Wait for our beloved OCD has set the rules! Go forth and ping!]

Comments

Discussion!

[atreideslioness]

"You should know the drill by now," Ghanima teased them gently. "Name, age, and brief summary of people you've encountered that were in a position of power, mad or not."

"You," she said, pointing at a random student. "Start."

[OOC: Feel free to ping off each other and have discussions. Ghani doesn't mind.]

Re: Discussion!

[intraspective]

"Yamanaka Ino, fifteen, and I don't think most the people I know of in power are mad, but alright, um: Sandaime-sama, who lead the village I'm from 'til he was murdered, Godaime-sama, who now leads the village I'm from. I'm not sure, exactly, if this question is 'in power over people in general' or 'in power over me', which are two different questions really, so I guess I'll answer them both. Cable-san--does he count?--'cause he's the Mayor, and before that he was my boss. My other bosses, Eliza-san and Martha-san. My teachers, I guess so anyway, um, my parents if you want to get really nitpicky 'bout this question. Orochimaru, who attacked my village and has his own village, though I never really met him so I don't know if that counts, but most people think he's mad. I met a Queen in some version of Liir's world, and she was nice, but I don't know much else 'bout her."

Ino stopped and considered that. "I think that's it."

Re: Discussion!

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Liir Thropp," he said quickly, though he couldn't help the strange emphasis on the second name, "probably sixteen or seventeen.

"And I've lived in Oz. First, under the Wizard and currently, well, currently it's Lady Glinda and I've met her the once and she didn't seem mad, just a bit fluffy, but I have good reason to believe there were others with greater power working in secret who, er, were."

Beat.

"And there was, er-- it's a bit complicated, really."

Re: Discussion!

[atreideslioness]

"If the Lady Glinda comes across as 'fluffy', how do you think she manages to continue to hold power?" Ghanima asked. "Is she a puppet-ruler, or do you think she's more intelligent than she lets on?"

Re: Discussion!

[not_in_the_book]

"'M Ronan Nolan," he began, " and I'm eighteen. I suppose the most mad ruler I've met would be... well, the Lone Power. He's one of the Powers -- they created my universe, and the rest of the universes in my sheaf of worlds. The Lone Power decided to introduce death and entropy into creation, and got cast out because of it."

Re: Discussion!

[atreideslioness]

Ghanima blinked.

"Death and entropy?" she asked. "What an odd combination. It's not a very bright Power, is it?"

Really, if it wanted entropy, there were more efficient ways of going about it.

Re: Discussion!

[meg-powers.livejournal.com]

"Meg Powers, seventeen. Where I'm from my mother is President of the United States. Because of that I've gotten to meet a number of world leaders. Fortunately they were all sane."

Meg paused for a moment then grinned. "But I have to disagree just a bit. George W. Bush was stupid."

Fandom was great because she could get away with saying things like that. Of course somewhere in her world, her mother's press secretary probably just shuddered.

Re: Discussion!

[atreideslioness]

"In your unique opinion, how does a stupid man gain office, Miss Powers?" Ghanima asked impishly. "You would think that ignorance would be harder to hide than an occasional schizophrenic fit, yet democratic politics often seems to filter out the divinely inspired madmen in favor of the dimwitted."

Re: Discussion!

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"Aravis. Or, Aravis Tarkheena, or Lady Aravis. I'm newly seventeen," she said. "I don't find the titles necessary here, though. And at home, I am one of the ones in power, or I was. If my great-grandfather hadn't been a younger son, I'd be a princess. As it stands now, I live with the royal family of Archenland, though the rulers of my native country, Calormen, have proven to be asses in more ways than one. They have been taken care of thanks to the leader of our ally, Narnia, and as of now, the only people in power that I know are our good King Lune, his sons Cor and Corrin, and Aslan, the leader of the Narnians. I myself have a noble title and birth, but no power of my own, except that I am the only lady at court and am probably expected to marry someone powerful at some point, though no one has forced that idea upon me."

[and a bit of SP from me because omg first day of RL school, too!]

Re: Discussion!

[weetuskenraider]

"When you say more ways than one, you don't mean literally too, do you?" came out of Tahiri's mouth before she could stop herself. Rolling her eyes a little, she slid down in her seat and muttered, "I've been in Fandom too long."

Re: Discussion!

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

This was Lord Leto's sister?

"Er-- Merlin. I'm seventeen." He most certain did not look like be belonged her. "I work for Prince Arthur of Camelot. So--I suppose you could say I have experience with nobility."

Because people had such odd reactions to the word 'manservant.'

Re: Discussion!

[intraspective]

Ino wasn't sure this was going to get her in trouble or not but she couldn't help muttering just loud enough to be heard, "You poor guy."

...because, seriously, ugh. Working for that stuck up jerk? Ugh.

Re: Discussion!

[atreideslioness]

Ghanima recalled glimpsing the list of room assignments, and managed to maintain her calm facade instead of laughing.

"You are about to gain more experience," she said dryly. "Which you'll need if you expect to survive both your liege and my brother."

"Are you familiar with the concept of a teaching assistant?"

Re: Discussion!

[weetuskenraider]

"I'm Tahiri, and I'm fifteen," she said, fiddling a bit with the right sleeve cuff of her jumpsuit. "If we're counting more than just heads of government then there's Sliven. He was the leader of the Tusken tribe I lived with until I was nine, and he's the one who adopted me. There's the Jedi Masters, and the head of the Jedi Order --" this kept a little vague because she thought she might've spotted Zayne in the class, and the statement accompanied by brief, wry looks at Ben and Jaina if they were there -- "and I do sort of know a former Chief of State."

She hesitated briefly and added in a lower voice, just before dropping into her seat, "And Mezhan Kwaad. Not at the top of the ladder, but Master Shapers had pull anyway." She wasn't exactly thrilled about bringing up the Yuuzhan Vong, but if anyone out of her list fit the class subject . . .

She was a little irritated with herself for even thinking that, and then irritated about being irritated by it.

Re: Discussion!

[atreideslioness]

"Those that have 'pull' shape the galaxy, Tahiri," Ghanima replied. "I may be the Princess Royal of my galaxy, but my brother and I are surrounded by a host of advisers and sycophants. No decision is ever truly ours alone. The only question is how much each ruler allows themselves to be influenced by outside sources."

Re: Discussion!

[momslilassassin]

Ben finally looked up from his desk. "I'm Ben Skywalker," he said, voice completely calm. "I'm fourteen. Through the course of my apprenticeship to the Jedi, I've met a number of people in power. Chief of State Cal Omas--" before he'd killed him, "the prime minister of Corellia--" before he'd killed him, "my aunt is a former Chief of State. My father is the Grand Master of the Jedi Order."

His hand reached up to touch his still-swollen cheek. "And my cousin Jacen," he said. "Who's currently in charge of the galaxy. And is probably mad."

Re: Discussion!

[atreideslioness]

Oh for the love of the Maker... Ghanima muttered some very unpleasant things in Chakobsa before stalking over to his desk.

"I can think of some less-flattering things to call Mr. Solo than 'probably mad,'" she said briskly, gesturing for Ben to turn his head so she could see the full extent of the damage. "Which he will no doubt hear the next time he sets foot in my office."

"Get out of my class, Mr. Skywalker. You are injured and most likely exhausted. I want you to report to the clinic, and do not come back until you look less like something that's been chewed on by a Laza tiger."

Re: Discussion!

[raspberryturk]

"Reno, eighteen." Reno straightened his shoulders slightly, cocking his head to the side. "Worked directly under two generations of crazies. The first guy did a decent job holdin' his position. Used the money he made killin' the planet for electricity and weapons to build himself two armies and a secret service kinda dealie, yo. His son's the one that worried me, but he didn't get a hell of a lot of opportunity to put his 'rule through fear' theory to work before a giant monster made a building fall on his head, a giant rock crushed the rest of the capital city, the whole world turned against him, and he wound up contractin' a lethal, incurable disease, yo."

A pause.

"He got better."

Re: Discussion!

[atreideslioness]

"'He got better,'" she repeated dryly, resisting the urge to beat her head against the wall. "And you're not worried about him re-instating his policy of 'rule through fear?'"

Re: Discussion!

[lordofthecats.livejournal.com]

"I'm Lion-o, 14, and my father is currently the ruler on my home planet of Thundera," he started out. "Overall, I guess you could say he's a good leader, though I may be a little biased. If anything, I guess my only complaint is that I haven't seen him since last summer. Twice now, I was supposed to go home for a visit, and at the last minute, my transportation has been canceled. Each time, Father has told me that the ships were needed for something more important."

Considering that his father hadn't been well last time, Lion-o was worried. He also was wondering if there was something else going on at home that no one was telling him.

Re: Discussion!

[atreideslioness]

"Welcome back, Lion-o," Ghanima said warmly. "It's good to be able to recognize your own biases, even in regards to family."

Especially in regards to family.

"Although if you think he is a good and well-liked leader, and you're in a good position to observe him, then you are most likely correct."

Re: Discussion!

[blackmagic-eve.livejournal.com]

"Eve Levine, eighteen, and... let's see." She frowned in thought. "There's the leaders of the Coven. Not mad, just... kind of bitchy. And not at all open to other ideas on magic. Then there's the Fates. Those three have a twisted sense of humor -- they sent me down here, after all. They're not mad, just annoying. And I don't think they like me very much."

Re: Discussion!

[solo_sword]

Between Ben's words and appearance, Jaina was not having a great class period so far, and she was currently trying to do the thing where she shoved it all down so she could focus on anything but that. It did mean her answer was shorter than it would be otherwise, though. "Jaina Solo, nineteen, and if I started listing people off I would honestly be here all day."

Re: Discussion!

[cataclysmicluck.livejournal.com]

"I'm Zayne Carrick, sixteen," Zayne said. "My experience with people in power is mostly through the Jedi Order. I was taught by one of the members of the High Council when I was a youngling, and he's one of the beings I trust most in the galaxy. And my Jedi Master comes from a powerful family both in the Order and in business, and he... is fair. Then there's the local authorities on the planet Taris who I only really know from being lectured, but they seem like they're just doing their jobs. So overall, I guess I don't have any issues with people in power."

Re: Discussion!

[stucklikadope.livejournal.com]

Giselle was beaming at Ghamina when her turn finally came. "I'm Giselle!" she announced happily. "I'm 16. I haven't known too many people in power. Well, my true love is a Prince and his stepmother is the Queen, but I never really met her. Oh, and there's Snow White. She married a Prince, you know." She thought for a moment. "And in the forest, the blue jays pick on the smaller birds."