Alright, this is going to sound extremely stupid, but I'm curious. Are there any Alexander/Reign fangirls out there? None of my friends are interested and so on.. I'm wondering if I'm alone. xD I've been wanting to draw some fanart recently (so far all I can manage are head shots/profile sketches though >_>), and once I've seen more of the show perhaps even write fic snippets. Will I end up being the pioneer once I get around to it? Eheh.

Also, I have another question. I've only seen episodes 1-5 and therefore don't know as much about the show, and what's been cut out. (I've only seen uncut 1-4, yay DVDs xD) I was wondering if there was any emphasis in the plot on Alexander and Hephaestion's relationship? I'm a typical yaoi fangirl (to put it bluntly and outrageously with a touch of self-mockery, it pretty much means I'm one of those scary, scary teenagers that look for homosexual things in every fandom and then advertise those hints through fanart and fanfiction) and I've been researching Alexander and Hephaestion's relationship for the past couple of weeks, and now I want to know if any "interaction" is ever shown, if you know what I mean. o_o I don't mean raunchy bed scenes, although that would be nice too! xD I just mean, was there any development between the characters? So far it looks as if Alexander's social life will be more focused on people such as Roxane and Darius.. hence my curiousity ^^;

Additionally, hence my question on fangirls xD If we can build a yaoi army like there is for every other fan, Reign will become very popular! o_o Trust me on this!

Thanks to anyone who can reply~ I appreciate your time and I'm terribly sorry for the menial idiocy that this is ^^;;;; I sound like a dork here, rotfl.

-- Topaz topazina@hotmail.com http://www.pinnacle-elite.com/topaz

-- Topaz (topazina@hotmail.com), March 13, 2003

Answers

Oh, and another question (SHUT UP TOPAZ), anyone got the Japanese opening song on their comp? Mehehe ^^;;;;;

-- Topaz (topazina@hotmail.com), March 13, 2003.

Having seen the work of yaoi fangirls, and being friends (and more than friends...) with them, I have to agree with you. yaoi fangirls really pull together a fandom like nothing else.

And coincidentally, I have the Japanese theme song on my computer, too.

Contact me elsewhere (email or aim) to get it.

skye

-- skye (skyknyt@aol.com), March 13, 2003.

Oh, no! Reign Yaoi seems to be sort of not so popular at the moment... But!! I am a Reign yaoi fan, and so is my friend Sarah.

-- V.M.W.P.O.C (vmwpoc@yahoo.com), March 19, 2003.

Oh how lovely lovely! It just so happened I'm searching for the theme song and ran across this site, about the only one on the internet that mentions Reign often and by sheer chance caught this thread. I shall tell you that you are completely not alone in being a yaoi fangirl *grins* for I myself am a yaoi fangirl, one who has become unusually obsessed with Alexander and his relationship with Hephaistion lately. I've taken out Mary Renault's book Fire from Heaven and am currently working my way through that. I got mad at it the other day and stopped reading for reasons I won't go into due to spoilers. But again that's beside the point!

My point is, I am a yaoi fangirl, one who has written two pieces of fanfiction on Reign, I just about died of happiness when I saw your fanart *grins* Strangely enough I'm working on my third piece of fiction about Alexander, but this one applies to the book I'm reading and not the series.

So, if other yaoi fangirls are looking to read my little fics, catch them at my site http://cookies.forchan.net/ Please don't visit if you're just coming to flame O_o i hate that, but do visit if you're curious by all means.

-- For-Chan (misstressfortune@yahoo.com), March 19, 2003.

Cool pics, great fics! Come join our RTC Yahoo group!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Reign_The_Conqueror/

-- Byrony (CMKeene@ev1.net), March 21, 2003.

Hephaestion was, historically, Alexander's lover. After his death, Alexander wept for days, kept the body in his bed, and drank himself to death in under a year.

-- Anne Marsh (DanaksZoul@hotmail.com), March 21, 2003.

Ooh yeah, Anne, I know ^_^~ That's kind of what makes the prospect of them two so much better, lmao. Hmm, I haven't seen 12 and 13 yet, do they show Hephaestion's little death scene? o_o

I was looking at a timeline, one month or less after Hephaestion's funeral, Alexander died. So maybe it was more than a fever? xD Mm, I love the history none the less. *_*

-- Topaz (topazina@hotmail.com), March 21, 2003.

i'm not into yoai, sorry. but i do support your interest for the historical/actual relationship between the 2.

in those times, homosexual relationships wherent taboo and not frowned upon like they are today. so with that in mind, i think that their love for each other (wether it was sexual or mearly a great friendship) was truley quite beautiful.

when my hands heal up (bike accident), i'll contribute some of my own fanart. ;)

-- Salena B. (rameca@bellsouth.net), March 25, 2003.

Haha--notice how at the beginning of episode 10, when Alexander tells Cleitus he was dreaming of a woman, Hephaestion gives him this strange look.

-- Kaitlyn (princess_diva45@msn.com), March 25, 2003.

LMAO @ kaitlin

-- Salena B. (rameca@bellsouth.net), March 25, 2003.

Watch the anime one time and you're bombarded with homosexual themes. I like yaoi, so it never bothered me. There aren't very many intriging girl characters, so if I was ever to take an obbessive interest in Reign, I would invision the characters paired up male-on- male. However, if lack of any decent female character's isn't justification enough, you could turn to this site:

http://www.input.blogspot.com/

for historical backup.

Quote: "Alexander the Great, who is a famous Greek hero and married to a woman loved yet two men. 'Alexander was deeply in love with a Persian boy (an Eunuch) named Bagoas. (Mary Renault)' but 'Alexander's greatest lover was his best friend, a Macedonian warrior named Hephaiston. The two were reared together from young boys and inseparable from 14 years old until the end.'"

*shrugs* I didn't research enough to validate the statement, but it seems logical.

- Sundial

-- Sundial Eve (sundialeve@mailcity.com), March 27, 2003.

Finally, I've seen the whole series~ I'm kinda disappointed in the lack of any development between Hephaestion and Alexander (minus episode 11, but that leaned more towards Alexander and Philotus o_o) but well, at least they *had* him xD

Thanks to For-Chan I found that Fire From Heaven from Mary Renault is very delicious, I'm in the middle of the book now and it's focusing a lot on Alexander and Hephaistion ^^ So I definitely recommend it~

Also, to the last person who replied (Sundial?), the book is usually considered as historical reference too ^^ So it has a lot of.. "evidence", would you call it? o_o Oh, and actually I thought the female characters were very interesting! Olympias was an amazing villian, Roxanne was gorgeous, and Cassandra really had an interesting airtime around the end of the series. But still, can't help but prefer the yaoi for some odd reason~ o_o

Anyway ^^

-- Topaz (topazina@hotmail.com), March 27, 2003.

Alright, admittedly while I sometimes find YAOI amusing, and yeah, maybe even a little arousing, it isn't my typical thing. However, I do find it funny that so many people dislike that artistic style used in the series. *shrug* Okay, granted that thong-style armor isn't for everyone, but I happen to like the sort of androgynous style of art. You see it in a lot of manga and anime series, it just usually doesn't have the nice g-strong look, and the cod piece from all. All in all, I appreciate the original and expressionistic qualities in the artwork done for "Reign". Second, maybe it is just me, but guys like David Bowie, Queen, Axl Rose and members from The Cure who play around with efeminite and androgynous looks fascinate me. Always have. No small wonder that when I discovered bishonen artwork and YAOI I was interested. A few years back when Aeon Flux came out, I was really interested in the series because it tested the gender lines so much. After seeing anime series with so many androgynous characters, I was sort of looking foward to what "Reign" would be. I'd have to say I really do like "Reign", I'd love to see fanfics and fanart. I guess I would have to call myself a fangirl of the series. Give my current math TA brown hair and skimpy armor, and you have Alexander.

-- Erika (XvEmeralvX@aol.com), April 07, 2003.

Hello!! ^_^ I have recently become obbsessed with Reign, even though I rather dislike the animation at times. 0.o I am an "official" yaoi fangirl. I researched a lot of Greek and Roman hero's and such and I found a lot of things of Alexander and Hephaestion. But that is not my main focus ^^() I am very very upset about the seeming cut out of Bagoas, the enuch (sp?) who was Darius's slave, but caught the eye of Alexander at a dancing contest and therefore became his slave/servant/lover.advisor. ;_; Someone E-mail me please! I have no friends here that share my views and I would like to discuss Reign yaoi!!

-- Sephielya J. Maxwell (sephielyamaxwel@aol.com), April 09, 2003.

I'M A REIGN FANGIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yaoi too ::wink::. there is some fanart on Alexander and Hephaestion on the web right now, i've found some, but there are only three peices, and so far are all done by the same artist, P.L.Nunn, who does a lot of other stuff. her site is www.bishonenworks.com and the Alexander Hephaestion art is in the Miscellanious section section thirteen. http://www.bishonenworks.com/miscyaoi13.htm the art is awesome. yea i'm trying to find more people who like Reign, but so far all the ones at my school brush it off with being weird and un-anime like. but i feel that the art is awesome. i really want to build a Reign army of course, but we need to find people who are actually interested in Reign. there is some character development, but it's minimal. Hephaestion as a character doesn't talk much, but he is always there to protect Alexander, often being to the first to go to him or the closest. example of this is when cleitus was going to kill Alexander because he needed to know why he killed Philotas in Act 12, but Cassandra stopped him, and then we see that Hephaestion was prepared all along, with his knives out and all. also, a supreme example of that was when in the last act, Hephaestion saves Alexander from death and gets killed himself (cries). something else that's interesting is in the Gordion Knot, i think Act 6, where Cassandra and Cleitus are on the cliff looking down on the tents of the camp and hear Hephaestion's harp, saying he was a child of the muses. Alexander was not there, so could he be with Hephaestion? from all this you can clearly see i've got an insane obsession with Reign. ah well, i'm a fangirl.

Rue

-- RueRoyale (thbogzdd@aol.com), April 18, 2003.

actually, though based on Historical Fact, Mary Renault's works are all historical fiction, and though a boy named Bagoas did exist, he was just a briefly mentioned Dancing boy in Plutarch's the Life of Alexander. i suggest you read the old texts on alexander, like Plutarch and Justin, or try to get some real info on Bagoas before saying he was Alexander's love like that. i really don't think that Alexander would fall for a dancing slave boy at first sight like that. if Alexander did have two male lovers, i think they would be Hephaestion and Crateras, his other best friend. Crateras and Hephaestion actually had a duel once over Alexander. Alexander broke them up though and publicly reprimanded Hephaestion and privately scolded Crateras. also, Hephaestion and Crateras were the real people to torture Philotas into confessing that he was involved in a plot to kill the king. they both tortured him, Crateras probably out of jealousy of Philotas, since they were military rivals, and Hephaestion probably just angry that Philotas might have tried to kill the king.

Rue

-- RueRoyale (thbogzdd@aol.com), April 18, 2003.

RueRoyal- O>O SWEET ANGRY JESUS! *stares at thoses pictures for way to long* *smacks self* NO! NO! BAD GIRL! BAG GIRL! *falls down the stairs*

*sits up* Um. Yeah. Ultimate Reign fangirl here. Yaoi too, but sadly I'm a pitiful yaoi writer, so I usually end up conjuring OC's. *sighs* It's really, really annoying but I can't help it! Please don't hate me you guys! *weeps* But I do love HephXAlex (I'm waaaay to lazy today to write their full names) relationships. Episode 11 made me half squeal (the way Hephaestion was their so quickly to protect Alexander *swoon*) but half sob (Phiiiiiiloooootuuuuuus...)

-- Alexia (TwistedAngel1959@aol.com), April 19, 2003.

I caught Reign on CN during Spring Break, and I have to say that it's probably more historically accurate than most people will ever realize, but I miss my Alexander/Hephaistion. One too many women on the battlefield (Kassandra never existed in RL, but yeah, India had giant elephant tanks! Like that.). Stupid Clydias came out of nowhere and there was weakling!Ptolemy (which, if you've read Fire From Heaven, you'll resent) and effiminate!Darius (he was a Persian king; rule is that he's fat and sleeps with eunuchs) So yeah, I write slash. The artwork of Reign doesn't allow wide fandom. It's an acquired taste, I think. I haven't finish Reign, but given the nature of the series, I doubt there's anything more than subtle hints. I don't know why Hephaistion was made so GIRLY. I mean, he was taller and more masculine than Alexander. Alexander was the one playing the lute, not Hephaistion. To quote the last biographical Alexander book I was reading: "[Alexander] was one to talk, sleeping with his best friend, a eunuch, two wives, three mistresses, and probably a lot more than people dared say." I've never read a book on Alexander that didn't touch up on his closer-than-friends relationship with Hephaistion. I dream of the days when people would go back to Grecian days, minus the squabbling of Athenians.

Good luck on your quest. After reading Renault, I'd die of shame before I write Alexander slash. I'd just feel terribly incompetent.

-- Juuchan (juuchan@myrealbox.com), April 23, 2003.

AAAAGH! I want to see this anime! i don't have cable. O__O Can anyone email me some episodes or something? I am such a yaoi fangirl, and I WANT to see this series. Ugh, oh, I read those novels, Fire from Heaven and The Persian boy, I liked them very much.

Anybody have images of Hephaestion I've only seen the odd screen cap here or there of him wearing his mask thingy. O__O

Lee

-- Lee (dee_dolly7@yahoo.ca), April 28, 2003.

@_@ I love Alexander the Great so much!!! I've been obsessed with him since the 2nd grade and anyone who thinks that he never had sexual relations with Hephaistion is just ignorant ^^;

I searched long and hard for anything and everything on Alexander and hanve enough proof for myself (yaoi fangirl but that besides the point)

I've even gone to reading the translated biography written by the great Pindar himself...tedious task too.

I search high and low for fanfics and such (have read Fire from Heaven...dun wanna read Persian Boy though, never acquired a liking of Bagoas...and true he never was very prominent in Alexander's life) I think the relationship between Alexander the Hephaistion is quite beautiful ^^

Anyone wanna talk to me about it, I'll be more than happy AIM: Marourin

-- Nataku (kokuneko7@yahoo.com), June 10, 2003.

Well, I have had a fascination for Alexander the Great since I was really young. Just discovered the whole Reign series. ;)) I am such an Alexander fan that I have way too many books (over 20 Lol) and have even started a yahoo group on him and whatever is related to him. But, the whole thing between him and Hephaeston was most likely true. I want to say it is canon but, that is not the right word.

Menina

-- Meninaiscrazy (menina1976@yahoo.com), June 12, 2003.

Everything I learned about Alexander was learned in school, and we were taught that Alexander died a month after his WIFE. I don't think so... I've researched a bit, and from what I know about Grecian history, it is fully possible and more than a little likely that it was Hephaestion he died after.

And of course, I'm an obsessive scary yaoi fan girl as well. I started watching Reign on CN a few weeks ago, and while the art style is different, and they're not conventionally attractive (the LIPS...) most of the men have a certain appeal. I admit to liking the barely-concealing armor. Hehehe. I'm also a writer, but I haven't yet tried a Reign fic. I don't know enough about the characters and their personalities to do it justice.

-- Ashley (Ashley_Kamine@hotmail.com), June 20, 2003.

AXL ROSE FOREVER!!! i used to really like reign, but then i saw the episode where alexander's mom is touching him when he's a baby and she's all, "his face is so pale and his eyes are so hollow, almost like a little skull" and i freaked and my friend holly kept saying 'my beautiful little skull' in this freaky ass voice and now the whole show scares me. but alexander is friggin HOT and the thongs aren't bad, if i may say so. ps. if anyone knows where to find axl rose fanfiction, preferrably slash, PLEEEEASE tell me.

-- sara (Xoectyle113@aol.com), August 03, 2003.

Have you all heard about the Alexander movie that is in filming? Here's the plot line: Alexander, the King of Macedonia, overthrows the Persian Empire, the Egyptians, and India over an eight-year period--with his lover and vizier, Hephaestion, at his side. Yup, Oliver Stone is going to acknowledge the relationship between Alexander and Hephaestion. SO, I'm looking forward to that. Oh yeah, Baz Luhrmann is also going to direct another Alexander movie but he hasn't begun.

-- Jackie Equigua (yaoilover_13@yahoo.com), September 29, 2003.

Its funny, a lot of scholars don't want to admit to any sexual relationship between alexander and hephiastion, but homosexuality wasn't anything out of the ordinary back then. alexander's father, and grandfather were bisexual, there is really no dispute over that, but when you watch reign from now on, realize that Phillip was bi, and try to figure out who with. probably Philotus's father, its been freaking me out. oh, and another interesting thing i've been looking up since i got obsessed with reign is the pythagorean cult, they actually had some pretty interesting ideas. women and men were considered equal, the hard core members lived at this school, and were vegetarians, and had no personal possesions, they also got into ideas involving reincarnation and karma. i want to look up the dionyus cult and kabira of samothrace, which i believe is the cult his parents were involved in. i love reign, because its not just great anime, or a good story, its history.

-- Jasmine Sheridan (noondreams@aol.com), December 24, 2003.

yaoi/slash fangirl here! I started watching the anime just last week but I always liked the Alexander/Hephiastion realtionship. I'm looking foward to read M. Renault's books, and I already read Valerio Manfredi's 'Alexandros' a couple of years ago, which is amazing! I highly recommend it. I've heard the Luhrmann's movie will base strongly on this book, which has really sweet pasages about the boys realtionship: the way they meet been children and swear eternal frienship is just the first, and melting. About A/H relationship, you have to understand that in those times is was not only normal, but also expected from boys (above 16 years old) to behave that way, to take a male partner as a 'especial friend' or lover. About that topic I recommend Anna Komnene's 'Alexias', it's about an athenian boy in the times of Socrates, it shows how normal male/male relations were. Anyone feels like talking I'm in..

-- Atriex (atriex@yahoo.com.ar), April 02, 2004.

In the serie, there's not much interaction between the characters, but I've heard there are uncensored versions of the serie spread on Internet, I would like to find them, I'm searching... If someone finds them MAIL ME!!!!!!

-- Hephaestion (hephaestion_okama@yahoo.com.ar), September 15, 2004.