whomstwedointheshadows

[whomstwedointheshadows]

you wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me

[whomstwedointheshadows]

im coping

[whomstwedointheshadows]

Sorry but I still haven't reblogged/posted anything about the whole. 'Nandor and Guillermo are Just Friends!!! Not ALL relationships need to be sexual!!!!! :)' thing because. hmmm. I just don't really. Like. I'm not even sure I summarised the point that was made correctly, you know? Or the words that were said? Communication, as a concept, being what it is.

Because. It, on the surface, sure SOUNDS like the sort of thing that would be said in a typically heteronormative sex-negative traditionally gendered television seriés. Which would make me quite mad!!! And would be a very easy post to make. 'This director said this, which is homophobic, and this is very easy to believe because to be honest most directors kind of are and we're all just used to that background radiation of Media that we never really thought consciously "Oh, this director is probably Homophobic."

But this show is. What We Do In The Shadows (2019).

A show in which the primary romantic relationship are openly pansexual, which comes up very frequently because they have an open relationship and casually speak about their extramarital liaisons and threesomes/orgies. Also, one of the main characters we're talking about is also canonically part of said liaisons, at least three times a week. And, y'know. "Coprophilia? Really?"

It's a show in which our two so intensely-shipped loverbirds are both canonically queer. And one, also canonically, has a crush on the other. While the other is famously reserved about his true feelings towards the former. And has a whole major character arc revolving around his romantic loneliness and search for a partner.

Is it offensive to the nature of friendship to believe that a gay man, and a pansexual man who canonically has sex with his friends, who said gay man has romantic feelings for, could have some sort of 'more than friends' relationship?

A show, might I add, in which a main character has a garden of bushes trimmed to resemble most beloved vulvas? Including that of his so esteemed dear mother?

I am afraid, dear reader, that at this point I am simply a little bit lost. I understand, you see, how to rail against hetero-blinded directors, how to vent wildly about writers who do not understand their own work. I know the script, now. I watched Supernatural.

But these events fail to produce that righteous fury within me. Instead, what I feel is a strange... dissociation? Like... am I reading, right now? Words? In the English language? Are any of us, really?

It is said that good art transports. Well, friends and fellow Nandermo truthers, I find myself abruptly akin to the soldiers of World War One, trenches high above our heads and an enemy wearing our own collective face. What is the point of this war? By what means do these bombs fly?

I'm not angry. I am a 1910s impoverished soldier about to invent existentialism and, friends, I am fuck bad at poetry.

[whomstwedointheshadows]

nandor the relentless and immortality

all nearness pauses, while a star can grow - e. e. cummings // Secret of Life - Lord Huron // Spleen - Charles Baudelaire // The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock - T. S. Eliot // '39 - Queen

art pieces:

1. "Yazdegird I Kicked to Death by the Water Horse", Folio from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) by Abu'l Qasim Firdausi -> detail

2. Fair Rosamund and Eleanor by Frank Cadogan Cowper -> detail

3. Camp kingdom in Baladeh, Mazandaran by Kamal-ol-Molk

4. Battle of Anghiari by Leonardo di Vinci

[whomstwedointheshadows]

Seasons 4 and 5 are just Nandor repeatedly failing to understand the fundamental paradigm shift that occurred during the lost year, trying to operate within the confines of their old dynamic to get Guillermo to confirm his attention and devotion is still focused on Nandor, and being surprised and disappointed when it doesn't work.

He wants Guillermo to be jealous like he was of Gail. He wants Guillermo to be indignant at Nandor's lack of appreciation like he was after the night club, with Topher, after Celeste. He wants Guillermo to push back and insist and argue and fight for recognition of his rightful place at Nandor's side like he used to. He keeps trying to recreate the successful execution of his little plan from 3x10, and it keeps not working, and he is SO CONFUSED.

When will he break down and just tell Guillermo outright "THIS is where you belong I WANT you here please STAY with me!"

[whomstwedointheshadows]

Nandermo + Wuthering Heights quotes that make me foam at the mouth, part 5

[whomstwedointheshadows]

Best language learning tips & masterlists from other bloggers I’ve come across

(these posts are not my own!)

THE HOLY GRAIL of language learning (-> seriously tho, this is the BEST thing I’ve ever come across)

Tips:

Some language learning exercises and tips

20 Favorite Language Learning Tips

what should you be reading to maximize your language learning?

tips for learning a language (things i wish i knew before i started)

language learning and langblr tips

Tips on how to read in your target language for longer periods of time

Tips and inspiration from Fluent in 3 months by Benny Lewis

Tips for learning a sign language

Tips for relearning your second first language

How to:

how to self teach a new language

learning a language: how to

learning languages and how to make it fun

how to study languages

how to practice speaking in a foreign language

how to learn a language when you don’t know where to start

how to make a schedule for language learning

How to keep track of learning more than one language at the same time

Masterposts:

Language Study Master Post

Swedish Resources Masterpost

French Resouces Masterpost

Italian Resources Masterpost

Resource List for Learning German

Challenges:

Language-Sanctuary Langblr Challenge

language learning checkerboard challenge

Word lists:

2+ months of language learning prompts

list of words you need to know in your target language, in 3 levels

Other stuff:

bullet journal dedicated to language learning

over 400 language related youtube channels in 50+ languages

TED talks about language (learning)

Learning the Alien Languages of Star Trek

.

Feel free to reblog and add your own lists / masterlists!

[whomstwedointheshadows]

Aggressively and joyfully queer television shows with ensemble casts where every character is blorbo my beloved. We need more of them.

[whomstwedointheshadows]

[whomstwedointheshadows]

After seeing this wholesome post about Harvey and Kayvan's outing I remembered the insanely snowy day in the Gail ep and this was born ❄️

[whomstwedointheshadows]

i’ve had this post saved to my drafts forever because i knew i must redraw it someday

[whomstwedointheshadows]

Light & Framing in WWDITS: Nandermo Edition

I really have to give props to whoever does the lighting and cinematography for What We Do In The Shadows. They took what could easily have been an excuse to cheap out on those things--the show's format as a half-hour comedy mockumentary--and said a resounding fuck that.

Every frame of this show is gorgeously and thoughtfully lit and shot and colored, and not just the big pivotal moments. Truly every shot. The sets and the costumes also do a lot of heavy lifting here, but still everything is framed so carefully and intentionally. And considering this show is at least 55% fucking improv? That is seriously impressive. I've seen big budget network cornerstone series take less care with their most pivotal moments than this show takes with like...any random moment (I know, I know, it's okay, I can say Game of Thrones).

Take this shot for example (thanks to @indashadows!):

Now bear in mind, this is ONE shot in ONE scene in an episode. An important scene, but not a long one. And yet in this scene, every single detail--from the actors' body language to the framing to the lighting to their fucking outfits--reinforces the underpinning context and subtext of the scene.

Look at Nandor. His posture is so open and vulnerable. He's facing directly toward Guillermo, looking slightly up at him actually instead of down at him like he usually would be. They're almost eye level but not quite. His face is fully lit, and his body is more in light than shadow, with the parts facing Guillermo lit and the parts facing away from him in deep shadow.

Nandor is being very open, honest, and vulnerable with Guillermo in this scene, probably more so than he's ever been before! All the pretense, the aloofness he usually hides behind is now shoved to the back. They're also on nearly equal footing compared to their usual situation, with Guillermo possibly having a slight upper hand due to how thrown everyone, including Nandor, is by the revelation that he's a vampire slayer.

(I know Nandor knew he killed Carol and the Baron, but given those were both accidents I think it's reasonable to say Nandor was still surprised about the slayer from a long line of notorious slayers aspect of the revelation.)

Another way to read this is that Nandor is at a disadvantage because of what he doesn't know in this scene, i.e. that Guillermo can leave any time he wants, that Guillermo has been listening to their conversations, and that Guillermo is using that information now to manipulate him. It's left somewhat up to interpretation whether Nandor actually knows any of this or not, so YMMV there. But the point stands that in either interpretation, Nandor is on his back foot here a bit and the framing and lighting of the scene reflects that.

Now contrast that with Guillermo. His posture is closed off, he's hunched in on himself. He's leaning toward Nandor, but he's not facing him or looking at him directly. His eyes are downcast. He's positioned a little above Nandor, but he's not acknowledging or reveling in that change of position in any way; in fact, he seems to be minimizing it with the way he's standing. Almost his entire body including his face is in shadow, with only the parts facing away from Nandor receiving any light.

Guillermo is not being vulnerable, open, or honest with Nandor in this moment. Whether Nandor knows everything or not, Guillermo thinks he's playing Nandor here. He thinks he has information Nandor isn't privy to (the hole in the cage and the hidden cameras) and knows things Nandor doesn't know he knows (the conversations he's overheard). Guillermo is normally much more open and vulnerable with Nandor, which often results in him getting his feelings (at the very least) hurt. But this is one time when he's consciously choosing to push his care for Nandor to the backburner in order to take care of himself for once.

(I also have FEELINGS about light representing emotional honesty and vulnerability between these two characters in the show about vampires and what they do in the shadows. Maybe I'll scream about them later.)

And here's the real kicker: they are so in odds with their approach here, their usual roles in the relationship are being reversed in ways neither is fully comfortable with...and yet they're still on the same damn page.

They both have the same ultimate goal in this scene: to get Guillermo out of the cage and have the other vampires in the house accept him and stop insisting on killing him. They are both trying to take care of Guillermo in their own ways. And as the show often does, it underscores this in part via the similarities in their outfits (but that is a WHOLE other fucking massive meta-post currently sitting in my drafts).

[whomstwedointheshadows]

I just need to inform you nerds about absolute madlad academic Joseph Brennan

most notably, he wrote a paper about a queer reading of Mordred in BBC Merlin which heavily cites his own (poorly photoshopped) pornographic slash manips

but he also edited a whole book about queerbaiting, including chapters about: Supernatural, Xena Warrior Princess, One Direction RPF, Supergirl, and the fucking Johnlock Conspiracy

all the rest of his work is about gay porn

I fucking love academia

[whomstwedointheshadows]

[whomstwedointheshadows]

It had to be you 🎶 Shmoopies for @weakformemo 's birthday

[whomstwedointheshadows]

[whomstwedointheshadows]

"I want more complex female characters 🥺"

BITCH YOU COULDN'T EVEN HANDLE NADJA OF ANTIPAXOS