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cookinguptales · 9 months

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1 and 25 🖤

the character everyone gets wrong & common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

I think I can answer these together, tbh.

There are some criticisms of 4.09 I think are very valid, and others... less so. Personally, I didn't like the writing in the episode at all. I was annoyed at the wasted potential of the Marwa and Freddie storylines and just... did not think the script was there, honestly.

(I am also irritated by a lot of the backlash to the backlash, especially the people who insist that Marwa was never an important character and there's no reason to be irritated at the way she was written off.)

That said, there are some criticisms of the episode that kind of make me roll my eyes.

I usually just ignore takes I don't agree with, but one that I keep getting over and over in my inbox is that Nandor was so uniquely awful to Guillermo in 4.09 that the ship is Over, that no one should ship them anymore, that Nandor deserves to suffer before he gets the God that is Guillermo, etc. and like.

Okay, I've already written about how Nandor's characterization was actually pretty normal in 4.09. He hurt Guillermo terribly but he didn't mean to. He was selfish and oblivious but ultimately meant well and was willing to sacrifice his happiness for Guillermo's. We've seen this pattern since s1, with particular parallels in the literal first episode with the glitter portrait. I'm not actually that bothered by Nandor's behavior in the episode.

I'm not here to talk about Nandor, though, actually. I get much more annoyed by the way people talk about Guillermo. Like... I love Guillermo. He's probably my favorite character on tv. But I love how complicated and fucked up he is. I love how most of his problems are entirely of his own devising. I love that he is every bit as selfish, fucked up, and cruel as the vampires are if not more.

His smiles get to me as much as anyone and I think he's adorable! Endearing! Warm and fuzzy and sweet! But he's also a character that specifically preys on the weak in order to make his own life cushier. He specifically seeks out lonely humans and pretends to be their friend in order to feed them to his family. He makes fun of how "pathetic" they are largely to mentally separate himself from prey. I feel like he's especially scornful towards anyone who reminds him too much of himself, honestly, and he shows them particular cruelty.

He hurts humans to get in good with the vampires, but he also does it because it makes him feel powerful. It makes him feel like he's better than all the other stupid livestock he feeds to his family. It makes him feel like he deserves to be turned. When he destroys them, it's a way for him to metaphorically destroy the parts of himself he hates, too.

Guillermo! You talk mad shit about virginal nerds for a dude who plays Fortnite with your nerd-ass friend and was afraid of kissing for 30 years!

So when I get comments on my fic or whatever telling me that Guillermo is far too sweet and good and understanding for mean, evil Nandor I am just like??? On what planet???

The two of them are both disasters and they deserve each other. The living embodiment of this AITA judgment.

And being real with you, I think the fandom characterization of Guillermo as a cinnamon roll who's never done anything wrong (actual phrasing in some messages I get) is boring. Guillermo is fun because he can give as good as he gets.

Like -- I genuinely think the reason why 4.09 didn't work for so many people is that the writers forgot that Guillermo has power. At the end of the very first episode, Nandor forgets how long Guillermo has been serving him, he gives him the portrait instead of turning him, he hurts his feelings -- and the scene ends with Guillermo visibly considering exposing him to sunlight. Their relationship works only because Guillermo consents to it. He could leave at any time. He could kill Nandor at any time. He just chooses not to because he's just as fucked up as Nandor is.

But in 4.09, the bad things that happen to Guillermo largely are not because of the choices he's made. (Like lying to Freddie, which he never really seems to need to answer for.) Freddie mistreats Guillermo, Nandor mistreats Guillermo, the Freddie clone really mistreats Guillermo, and Guillermo never gets any of them back. The last shot of him is him crying, heartbroken, through no fault of his own.

I think that's what really bothered people. The weird tilt in the power differential that didn't make a lot of sense or fit with other writing decisions in the series. Guillermo is repeatedly victimized for weak laughs in that episode, and he's not given the chance to stand up for himself other than briefly yelling at Nandor and then getting victimized further. It's just... not fun to watch when it feels more like it's punching down, y'know?

I think the writers framing Guillermo as a weak and helpless victim in that episode is as boring as the cinnamon roll stuff. I need the push and pull of Guillermo's own decisions and selfishness tearing him apart. I need the weird, fucked-up power play between him and Nandor. I need Guillermo to have a fallback plan, which is that the door is always open. His stakes are always sharp.

I guess I just feel like people forget that Guillermo belongs in this horrible little family because he's horrible, too. He does not deserve better than the fucked-up thing he has with Nandor because he designed the fucked-up thing he has with Nandor. Every morning he wakes up and consents to the fucked-up thing he has with Nandor. He's addicted to the fucked-up thing he has with Nandor.

Because! Guillermo! is fucked up! too!

He's power-hungry and petty and vindictive and cruel and one of the sweetest people on tv. I love how complicated and interesting he is. How he treats people in his in-groups vs. his out-groups. How easily he can dehumanize and depersonalize his victims. How uncomfortable he feels when they are forcibly humanized without his consent. How he can simultaneously be so kind and caring and so utterly soulless.

Guillermo is victimized by the vampires because he allows them to do so, and then he takes out that frustrated powerless feeling on the people he deems weaker than him. And I love that for him.

So I guess my answer to both questions is -- yeah, I hate the way people characterize Guillermo sometimes, and I'm tired of hearing about how a nasty person like Nandor doesn't deserve a blameless, faultless victim like Guillermo. It makes them both less interesting!

#long post #wwdits tag #wwdits spoilers #replies #wwdits meta

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bratshaws · 1 year

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through the hourglass 82. brb x oc

a/n: idk how to write fighting scenes hah. felt a bit better today though, so that's a plus.

pairing: plus size!oc x rooster

warnings: eric. just eric. and some beating. hah

goodness gracious (pls read this one to know more what this fic is about!!)

chapter

50/51/52/53/54/55/56/57/58/59/60/61/62/63/64/65/66/67/68/69/70/71/72/73/74/75/76/77/78/79/80/81

(pls let me know if you want to be added to the taglist! )

taglist: @mirandastuckinthe80s @roosterschanelslut @wiipes @lcahwriter @shrimping-for-all @gretagerwigsmuse @frenchtoastix

@lizzie-rdj @fanboyluvr @atarmychick007 @comebacktoearthpls

@peachiicherries @mak-32 @lizziespidiepridie @roosterswifey @ollyoxenfrees @piceous21 @sqrlgrl22 @hofficoffi @lexhalstead3 @lorilane33 @legendarydreamersharkparty @luckyladycreator2

@emilybradshaw @j-6o @louisahale @leobabbyyy @kulicny @winter-run @ktjmac @graciereads @bigpoppajes @taytaylala12

@caitsymichelle13 @becks-things @caatheeriinee07 @dhwanishah09 @jesfreedark @katiemcrae @lilmonstrjedi @hobiismyhopeu @teacupsandtopgun @insominac23 @gh0stsgoodgirl

It shouldn’t surprise him that Beatrice’s brothers loathed Eric as much as he did. Michael and Leonardo listened to him intently as he told them everything that’s been going on. The attempts to reach Beatrice, the weird glimpses of blue from the corner of his eye and the Scream mask guy - who now he just found out was named Ghostface - that kept looking their way.

Michael even removed his mask to pay full attention to his brother-in-law's explanation, placing his several drinks down and turning his body halfway towards Rooster, “Wait, so you think he’s here?” Michael points his finger down, “In this party?”

“I have a feeling, yeah.”

Leonardo makes a face, but it’s his wife that speaks, “Considering the way our family works,I don’t think it’d be too far-fetched if Bradley was right.” she rubs her husband’s arm as she says it and Bradley can see how that information upset both brothers.

It was Michael who said something after a while, “At least Guillermo isn’t here to hear this.” Rooster looks over at the fourth Schiavoni with his brow raised, “Ah…well, let’s say that he…um…” he moves his hand trying to find the right words, “Let’s say that he wouldn’t be really happy if he knew Eric was here.”

And knowing how big Guillermo was, it was obvious why Eric should be worried. But maybe he should be worried about everyone at this table, especially him, Guillermo and Shells who was too busy dancing with Bob to know what they were talking about. Bradley sighs, leaning back on his seat to rub his eyes, “I don’t get it.” he begins, “This guy…the way Bea talked about him, it was like he didn’t care about her at all.”

“He didn’t.”

“Then why is he trying to talk to her?”

Both brothers share a look, Michael’s eyes turning back to Rooster with a grim smirk on his face, ‘Because he doesn’t think she could get someone better than him. Pretty boy who got everything handed to him can’t handle the idea that our sister is smart and deserving of a good guy like yourself.” he scoffs, falling back against his seat with his arms hanging by the sides, “Or get married. Or have a kid.”

“Or be loved as equally as she loves.” Leonardo adds with a quiet voice, rubbing his thumb on the edge of his glass, “He’s fucked up in the head,I’ll tell you that much.”

That’s an understatement.

Rooster holds his head upwards with his hand, narrowing his eyes as he looks to the side with his leg anxiously bouncing under the table, the heel of his shoe hitting the floor underneath in a repetitive pattern. He hated it, he was getting angry at it the more he thought about that man.

Man. That wasn’t a man, hell he had no idea what Eric could be considered to be, even animals have more respect towards others than he does.

But at least his brothers in law knew about his own worries, well, the two of them knew. He wasn’t sure if sharing this with Guillermo would be a good idea yet, if what his brothers told him was any hint of how he’d react…well, maybe he should wait until it was sure Eric was around.

He couldn’t help but look around a bit, trying to find a glimpse of Beatrice anywhere but without luck. He knew her and Guillermo had a lot to talk about, so he could just pay attention once he saw his brother-in-law’s huge frame and see Beatrice’s smaller size next to him.

Bradley tries to have a normal conversation with everyone else but something inside of him keeps tingling and saying that he should get ready to stand up at any second now. Something felt off and he couldn’t identify what it was.

When Guillermo comes back he doesn’t have Beatrice with him. The oldest Schiavoni just juts his thumb towards the bathrooms, “She said she’ll be back soon.” he announces, walking towards his seat and sighing once he sat down. Rooster tried to play as if it was completely fine, but his eyes kept moving back to the only visible part of the doors were the threshold with the pumpkin lanterns hanging from it.

He taps his index finger against the table, the little pumpkin drink ignored on the table since it was Bea’s and he didn’t want to drink all of it - especially with how strong it was. And so he waited, checking every now and again to see if she left the bathroom but the amount of people inside the club doubled, now he couldn’t even see the top of the bathroom’s doors…and if he couldn’t see that, he couldn’t see Beatrice.

“I’m going to check on her.” he says in passing, standing to his feet with a hurry in each step that no one at the table would be able to stop him. He shouldered people gently, just enough to nudge them out of the way so he could reach the opposite side.

He squinted a bit, the bright purple,orange and green lights added to the dark surroundings were making it difficult for him to see clearly. He still had a few more steps to take, but he could see part of the bathroom’s doors from where he was.

He also checked his surroundings, knowing if Beatrice was nearby she’d immediately reach for him or call him. Since she wasn’t, he only assumed she remained in the bathroom.

But he wasn’t ready to see what was standing in front of the doors when he got closer.

At first he thought it was two women, with the other keeping her friend up because of the amount of drinks she had…but the closer he got, the more he couldn’t believe what was happening in front of him. It took him a while to identify that the woman there was Beatrice and the other person wasn’t a woman.

It was Eric.

And he was holding Beatrice’s wrist, trying to pull her back. It takes a while for Rooster to notice that yes, Eric is holding his wife by the wrist and yes, he’s trying to pull her to him.

It’s strange, because suddenly there’s nothing else around him, there’s no sound, there’s nothing but the fact that Eric is holding Beatrice’s wrist and he’s clenching it. He could see the way the fingers dug on her soft skin and the way she complained about it, she hadn’t seen him yet, matter of fact neither of them did.

“Get your fuckin’ hands off my wife.” It comes out dark, dangerous, like a bear ready to attack. Eric barely has time to see the massive frame of Rooster until the pilot is clenching the other man’s hand and yanking it off Beatrice’s arm. He was seeing red, there was no way he’d be able to control himself.

“Roos-” she holds his shoulder, widening her eyes when her husband just grabs Eric by the collar and drags the shorter man away from the bathroom, “Oh God, Rooster! Bradley!” the music makes it easier for the other partygoers to ignore what’s going on, for all they know it was a group of friends and nothing more.

Beatrice tries to keep up with her husband’s long strides, rushing past their table and not being able to see her brothers - alongside everyone else in there - looking over. Nor she heard Guillermo’s deep voice ask ‘is that Eric?’

“Roos! Oh my God,Brad!” but he doesn’t stop, in fact he drags him to the parking lot, right where the blue corvette was and pushes him away from him. Eric twirls on his feet by the force, almost losing his balance but managing to stand upright only to glare at him.

Rooster’s eyes were on fire, he’s licking his lower lip with his nostrils flaring, clenching and relaxing his hands, “Why were you touching my wife?”

“What?”

“Why.” one step closer, “Were you,” then two, “Touching.” another one, “My wife?” and they are face to chest, Rooster got Eric pinned against his own car, his stature was a great advantage before he could stare Eric down without any worries.

Eric’s eyes flashed with fear, only for him to put on a fake bravado and smirk at him, “I’m touching no one’s wife.” and he immediately regrets it because Rooster steps forward again in such a quick movement that the other man flinches back and hits the car’s door with a loud metallic bang! before meeting those whisky colored eyes that only seemed to burn more and more with each second.

“I’m going to ask again,” Rooster says with his teeth gritted, “Why were you touching Beatrice?”

“Beatrice- what? She’s not your wife.”

Rooster’s fingers curled into a fist, his joints clicking when he does so, “She’s not?” he is laughing but his mouth doesn’t turn into a smile, it’s dry and raspy, like gravel on Eric’s skin, “So the ring on her finger, that’s just because she feels like it, huh?”

“Look man,I get it, I know this whole ordeal,” Eric tries, with a disbelieved smile, “I know this whole game you two have going on. It’s funny and all, but it lacks creativity.”

Rooster’s jaw clenches when he hears those words come out of Eric’s mouth, he feels Beatrice’s smaller hand touching his bicep, “Brad, please, don’t-” but Rooster doesn’t move, he stares Eric down like a hawk ready to eat the parasitic mammal that’s near it’s nest. “Brad,” she tries again, touching his face, “Baby, please, don’t do this.”

“Baby? Damn, you must be paying him very w-”

“You have two seconds to shut the fuck up before I do it for you.” Rooster growls, “Do not direct your words towards her.”

Eric, either by stupidity or his ego - or both - just gives Rooster a look. He still didn’t seem to grasp that him and Beatrice were together - married with a child - because he couldn’t understand how someone like Bea could get someone better than himself. Eric tried to appear tough, but it was hard when your opponent was two heads taller than you and could easily crush you one handed.

Beatrice was glad that there was no one outside, glad that the parking lot was out of the security line of view but she still wanted Rooster to leave Eric. Not because she cared about her ex, but because she cared about her husband. If that dipshit touched Rooster she was going to lose her mind.

“Bea, what’s going on-” she clenches her eyes, the sound of footsteps and the obvious voice of no one other but Shells made this situation even more complicated, “Oh…fuck me. What is he doing here?!”

“Shells-”

“What’s that crazy bitch doing here?!”

“Hey!” Bob steps in front of Shells more to hold her back and defend her from the words Eric was spewing, “Do not call her that!”

Eric should admit when he was outnumbered, especially once he saw the three massive figures of her brothers approaching as well. The oldest one was especially staring at him, eyes wide and murder all over his face, “Oh for fuck’s sake, I’m going to-” he tries to leave but Rooster pushes him back against the car, he doesn’t slam him but that was enough for Eric to bristle, “Don’t fucking touch me,man.”

“Oh, you don’t like when I touch you but you can touch my wife?”

“She’s not your wife, you can stop the whole theatrics.”

“Dude,if you don’t stop your own theatrics-” that’s when Eric committed his biggest mistake, because Rooster leaned back to protect Beatrice when he moved forward but in that moment he, feebly attempted to hit Rooster.

Of course there was a fist to face contact and Rooster grunted over the sudden impact only to regain his focus and look back at Eric. Eric’s grin disappeared, the Napoleon complex was gone and there was nothing - not even Beatrice - holding Rooster back when he returned the punch.

But of course, while Beatrice’s punch to his nose hurt, the one on his eye and nose hurt even more. He barely had time to avoid the hit, one, two in quick succession, followed by Eric fumbling to the ground holding his face, “Alright!” Shells tossed her purse to Bob, “My turn!” only to be held back by her spectacled boyfriend.

“Rooster,” Beatrice tried to hold him by the waist, digging her feet on the floor - she didn’t know when she lost the heels - and interlocking her fingers on his stomach, “Rooster!Stop!” but Rooster just dragged her along as he followed Eric’s pathetic crawling.

It could be much worse, all things considered, he was still conscient.

Beatrice lost her grip when Rooster leaned down to pick Eric up, slamming him against the blue corvette as the other man tried to keep his one bruised eye open - already swollen and turned purple - “Look at me, look at me.” he was furious, “You are going to hear me and hear me well you dipshit. Beatrice is my wife, she’s my girl, she’s the mother of our daughter and you shouldn’t have touched her.”

“But there’s no-”

“Don’t you dare finish this sentence.” no one dared to interfere, not even her brothers, Leonardo even held Beatrice back “She is in a happy relationship,she’s loved, she’s cared for and she deserves the world. If you can’t understand how to fuckin’ treat a woman that’s on you-” Rooster jostles him a bit so his eyes go back to his, “That’s on you, but you fucking touched my wife, you touched my wife and you had no right to.”

“You don’t know w-who you are messing with.” Eric’s threat was empty and shaky, like not even he could believe those words, “My family is-”

“Your family kicked you out,shithead!” Shells laughs loudly, “They won’t help you out on this!”

Eric would never admit defeat but the way his eyes lowered with the recognition that, well, she was right only made him angrier, “Let me go!” he tries to claw his way out of Rooster’s grip, gasping when the taller pilot just lifts him off the ground, slamming his back on the car with more force, “Shit!”

“No.” comes the reply, “No, you aren’t leaving. You touched my girl…you shouldn’t have touched my girl.”

All Eric could do was gulp in response, “And as far as I know,” Rooster looks back to where her brothers and Shells were, Guillermo being the one closest to them, “I’m not the only one who has a beef with you.” if Eric was scared before, he looked ready to shit his pants when Guillermo’s huge body blocked the light above them, his presence in itself making this whole situation worse than before.

“I-I-”

“Oh,no, no you better be quiet pal.” Rooster smirks dangerously, his eyes glinting with a fire that would just burn Eric alive at any second, “Because we are resolving this now…you know I’m a bit hot headed sometimes and you know who calms me down?” the other man gulps, so Rooster nods to a worried looking Beatrice, “She does.” Beatrice could only watch with her hands against Leonardo’s arm, “But I hate to say it, it’s not working now.”

“Rooster-” she calls, “Please, don’t waste your time on him.”

But unfortunately, her husband couldn’t hear her, he was too focused on scaring the shit out of Eric, “He is already fucked,babe…after all, he assaulted a Navy officer.” he couldn’t hide how his smile widened at the pure horror on Eric’s face.

“You are lying.”

“Am I?”

Eric paled, trying to scurry away only for Rooster to slam him back against the car, their noses almost touching as he leaned closer, “I could fuckin’ break you.” he snarls, “Every single piece you consider yours would be gone…because you dared touch my wife. My girl. My gorgeous.” the fabric from Eric’s shirt squeaks against Rooster’s fists as he tightens his hold, “And because you can’t handle the fact she moved on…and she fuckin’ did. You are never going to contact her again.”

Eric gulped, looking from him to Guillermo and to the others behind them. He was stupid, because now he noticed how big everyone else was and how they had military esque haircuts. The other guy with a mustache was typing something on his phone, “I’m calling the cops, Rooster.” the mention of police was more than enough to leave Eric terrified.

“No!H-Hey, we can resolve this without the police. C-come on man, it was a misunderstanding!” he tries to break free but Rooster doesn’t budge, “Let me go man, let me go!” he didn’t know what he was thinking, perhaps it was stupid fight or flight instinct but he swung at Rooster again.

Feebly so.

And the pilot was not happy.

Because the third time his fist connected to Eric’s it went straight to his mouth. It was like a shotgun explosion, there was blood and spit spattered all over the car and Eric fell to the ground, “Rooster!” Beatrice finally broke free from Leonardo’s hold, rushing over to her husband and holding him back the best she could. Both of them could only watch as Eric coughed parts of his teeth alongside the red and pink dribble from his mouth. Beatrice was amazed for two reasons:

No one called the police yet with the exception of Payback.

And Rooster only punched Eric when he attacked first.

Beatrice could only hold Bradley’s arm as they look down at Eric trying to crawl away, only for Guillermo’s legs to stop him in his tracks, “Oh…fuck…”it sounded wet and the ‘f’ was whistled when he spoke. Guillermo just stood there, unmoving and unamused, staring him down.

It doesn’t take long for the police to show up, but the sounds from the party plus the sounds around the neighborhood made it possible that no one got out. Beatrice wondered if God was just saying that this ‘karma’ was theirs only. Eric,amazingly, tried to escape the cops but was easily subdued.

It wasn’t hard for the officers to figure out who was in the wrong in this.

Beatrice and Rooster watched as her ex is taken to the hospital, the female officer asking if she was okay or if Rooster needed medical attention. Both of them said they were fine and the female officer just smiled before walking away. Beatrice folds her arms over her bust as she watches the police car drive away, rubbing her tongue against her lower lip, “What did they say?” she wasn’t paying much attention with the adrenaline still pumping.

“He has a warrant.” he says, standing close to her with one hand on her back, “Apparently he’s been stealing a lot of money.”

“Sounds like something he’d do.” her husband just hums in agreement. Beatrice turns to look up at him seeing a tiny scab on his lower lip, “Oh,Roos. Your lip.”

He immediately touches the only bruise with his tongue, then with his fingers, to check for blood, “I’m fine.” but Beatrice just looked at him with her eyes glazed, making him tsk with a frown, “Gorgeous,I’m fine.”

“He hurt you.”

“This is barely a scratch.”

She almost laughed at the Monty Python reference, but she just looked at him with so much worry and love…and maybe all of the several emotions running through her. She lifts her hands to cup his face, “Let me see-” his eyes drop to the perfect red imprint of Eric’s fingers against her wrist, something she had told the police officer about but…hadn’t noticed until now.

“...he hurt you.”

“I-It’s not hurting.” she says, but he just gently cradles her hand in his own larger ones, “I swear it’s not.”

“Bea.”

“I promise.”

But neither of them could admit that what happened wasn’t traumatic. Rooster sighed, wrapping his arms around Beatrice and bringing her to his chest, so he could drop a kiss to her head just as she tightened her hold around his waist.

#bradley rooster bradshaw #rooster bradshaw #bradley bradshaw x oc #top gun maverick #bradley bradshaw x reader #bradley bradshaw x female reader #bradley bradshaw x named reader

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kjthenbee · 9 months

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The actors for Guillermo and Nandor are also very on board with nandermo!! Kayaan even said “Nandor’s realising he’s into whatever flavour Guillermo is” or some iteration of that. Idk if it will happen this season but pining Nandor on its own is so funny that I kind o hope they keep this up for a while. Guillermo pined after Nandor for so long that I don’t know if I want then to get together AS SOON as the tables turn. Or if they do, I want Guillermo to have a hot vampire summer as well. Discover his sexuality through vampirism stuff if yk what I mean

Yes!!! And I agree lmao Nandor deserves to pine for a bit. I would also really like for him to finally consciously realize/acknowledge that he has romantic feelings for Guillermo at some point this season because it would make the pining so much better.

While I too would love to see Guillermo have a hot vampire summer, I also feel like he's way too committed to Nandor at this point to do that. He already felt guilty and regretful about going to Derek to do something as intimate as being made into a vampire, and he's sticking around playing the part of Nandor's familiar despite the likelihood of Nandor killing him (and then himself) if he ever finds out. Nandor is definitely the reason he can't stay away or move on.

I'm personally hoping for another fight like the one at the end of S3, except it ends in a kiss this time, and maybe the kiss is the cliffhanger?? Honestly, knowing wwdits' track record I wouldn't be surprised if they straight up just banged lmao. Like I can imagine all the other vamps walking in on it, and the episode just ends with Lazslo saying "What the fuck?!"

#wwdits #wwdits s5 #wwdits spoilers #what we do in the shadows s5 #what we do in the shadows season 5 #wwdits season 5 #nandermo #nandor x guillermo #guillermo x nandor #guillermo de la cruz #nandor the relentless #wwdits speculation #wwdits predictions

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devilofthepit · 9 months

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also while i’m at it i just got caught up on wwdits and mannnn i wish it were better. that’s another show that i have so much appreciation for as it was a past hyperfixation and therefore it’s still so important to me but i really cant feel the way i used to about it. this season is better than s4 don’t get me wrong but it still has the same problem which is that there really is no plot. i get that it started out as the funny vampire show but then all of the contradictions and complications that arise from vampirism like guillermo’s familiarhood(?) and nandor’s existential crisis really end up grounding the show and giving it somewhere to go. these plots run throughout the first three seasons and by season 3 it’s evolved past just a funny sitcom about vampires who live together. i say this all the time but the end of s3 was so so well done where it felt like the stakes (hehehe) we’re continually being raised each episode and that was such a good cliffhanger and then it just went downhill. since then there haven’t been any really complex season long arcs that get the attention they deserve. s4 was almost entirely putting the characters in one situation or another without it affecting anything else. s5 feels like that a little as well although the writing is marginally better. at least we have guillermo’s vampirism and laszlo and nadja keeping it a secret i like how this heightens the tension but it always somehow feels like a background thing to all the other silly things that happen in the episodes, it really feels like the writers don’t know how to weight different aspects of the plot. and meanwhile the relationship between guillermo and nandor (and the rest of the vampires too) never seems to change. i know the point is that they’re vampires and they can never see him as one of them but there are sooo many times throughout all 5 seasons where the vampires’ mistreatment of guillermo is brought up but there’s absolutely No evolution which makes sense to some extent bc they’re vampires but at this level is so interesting like truly no one is changing from episode to episode except guillermo (quite literally) and even that isn’t focused on enough compared to like. various characters running for comptroller or nandor making a new friend. and all of this especially after nandor promising to make guillermo a vampire and the way their relationship evolved at the end of season 3. nandor and guillermo’s relationship is the most central relationship, even the most central conflict of the entire show. i love nadja and laszlo dearly but their relationship isn’t really going anywhere except for maybe the antipaxan family storyline which got resolved within an episode. guillermo himself could have been the most central character given that he’s the first person we see, the one we most relate to, etc, but he’s relegated to the background in favor of Vampire Antics. and when i, tumblr user boydykecreature, formerly bloodcreature and thousandyearoldvampire, am complaining about too many vampire antics, it’s a problem. i used to love the novelty of this show and now it feels like the same thing over and over.

#fang speaks #wwdits #wwdits spoilers

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myckicade · 8 months

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Thoughts on the Finale Double-Header

Because I have so many, I want to corral them into one post, instead of the fifty or sixty I could make.

I'm genuinely surprised by all of the posts concerning dislike - and even hatred - for the finale. Not calling anyone out! Everyone gets their own opinion, and I stick by that, 100%! While I feel that it could have benefitted from another episode or two, or even another week for the final episode (which was surely impossible due to the Season Opener of the NFL next Thursday night), I loved this season. I think it contains some of their best stuff yet. The inter-character growth has felt fantastic, everyone getting closer, even without openly admitting it in audible words. Every episode made me feel something positive, which was nice. (See my notes on Mayans M.C. for how I react to negative feelings... Heh...).

I'll dive into the Nandermo first, because why not? This entire season has been about hiding betrayal, which has been just delicious. Like a group of friends who uncover infidelity amongst a long-married couple, unsure of what to do, but not wanting either party to get hurt. (They knew the guilty one had it coming, but they still tried to keep things hush-hush). I loved that Nandor knew not only what would draw Guillermo out of hiding, but he knew where to find Mama de la Cruz. (Because, let's face it, he was never going to hurt the woman. Fucker nearly got staked because he was so distracted). The intensity of Nandor's forgiveness, for lack of a better term, the whole time they had that stake between them? MM. It was better than makeup sex, because it was heartfelt, and genuine, if a little raw and drowning in hurt. Nandor getting everyone together for his turning-back ceremony? Happily staking the fucking guy who turned his familiar? Knowing Guillermo wasn't ready. The glasses. The effort. The love. That is the kind of Nandermo I enjoy seeing. Would I be upset if they (eventually) got to something romantic? Of course not. But now is just... not the right time. There is so much healing to be done now. Regaining of trust. Rebuilding of bonds. A romantic relationship right now would be the equivalent of a divided couple having a baby to save their union. It wouldn't look good, and it would be a set up for utter failure.

Speaking of that damned ceremony. The fact that everyone came together to save that boy's bacon? Come on. Come on. That even Baron Afanas and Goëjlrm turned up? Even if that part was just for sake of realism, they could have easily said no. They all give a damn about Guillermo, and that was wonderful to finally see. Words are a dime a dozen. Actions are where the proof hides.

FURTHERMORE, everyone checking in on Guillermo made me so happy. The kids coming to see him. Nadja scolding him for speaking to Derek in a manner ill-befitting his station. Even if they were mostly shit at it, aside from the Guide and the Kids, they kept a close eye on him, and that warmed my heart.

"We have a babysitter at home." That made me simultaneously AWWW!!!!, and wonder whether the poor sitter was going to be alive by the time they returned. Y'all know I'm all for their domesticity, so that little snippet was just perfect for me.

While Derek got the short end of the stake, he now has what he has always wanted. Friends. Community. Somewhere to belong. It's just a terrible, ugly way to have to get it.

I want so much more for the Guide. I do. I do agree that they all collectively suck nut at being good to anyone, more than 90% of the time, but that chick was well within her mind to pull her stunts at the Manor. I really do wish we could have had a twelve-episode season, at the very least. Both of last night's episodes deserved to be two-parters. Mm.

Good on Nadja, too, turning the noisy neighbors into an opportunity. She's an enterprising, resourceful broad, that one. Just love her. <3.

I'm still fucking floored, by the way. If someone had asked Nandor from the fucking beginning, this whole season could have been avoided. Granted, yes, that was the point, but it deserves the spotlight for a moment or two. He's such a dumbass, but he knows his vampiric shit. And really, so much good came out of everyone else being dopey as shit for a change. Guillermo learned a valuable lesson. New little lives were created. (R.I.P. to the one those that were ended). The secret surely broke up the monotony for the household for a little while. And, of course, my personal favourite... There are new parents in New Jersey! I'm so giddy for that one!

Liked it or hated it, one thing is for sure. Season Six is going to bring so much inner conflict for Guillermo, and a change of dynamic amongst the household, that I just can't wait!

#What We Do in the Shadows #WWDitS #What We Do in the Shadows Spoilers #WWDitS Spoilers #Nandor the Relentless #Guillermo de la Cruz #Nadja of Antipaxos #Laszlo Cravensworth #Colin Robinson #Nandermo #Baron x Sire #Afanas x Goëjlrm #Mycki Rambles

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memosminifridge · 2 years

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Hi!! Is it okay if I ask what you see in Nandor and Guillermo? As a ship. I binged the whole show and idk it just feels like Nandor isn’t really into him :( he’s always so mean. If he was nicer I’d probably ship it myself but I’d really like to know why people like it so much despite the fact?

Hello anon thanks for asking!! I'm about to out myself as an undeniable dweeb by taking this mission extremely seriously.

First, I want you to know I was like you at first. I fell almost immediately in love with Guillermo as a character and, although Nandor is hawt, I felt Guillermo deserved much better in a partner than his boss who is mean to him. AND, were these somehow real events and real people, I’d say no, this relationship is quite flawed and both parties should probably stay far away from each other. But since it’s fiction, the ~themes~ and ~dynamics~ of the relationship are more important to those of us who are on board!

My personal Nandermo awakening happened around the time of Gail/The Cloak, where with "It's not gonna last" and "No we're just work friends" (and later on, "My Nan-master," Guillermo hugging the Nandor dolly etc) it was confirmed that Guillermo at least has feelings for Nandor and that this is a plotline that will be explored further. With that in mind, I saw with new eyes several things that happened previously...

At this juncture I want to quote a good post by @nonagethimus which lays things out very simply:

whats so good about guillermo and nandor's relationship is that they both have stupidly complicated feelings about the other. if guillermo was just starry-eyed in love with nandor their story would be boring, and if he just secretly hated him it wouldn't work. if nandor only ever looked down on guillermo and didn't care about his life or feelings the whole thing would be pathetic, and if he secretly loved him from the start it would be cliché. what's great is that guillermo deeply admires nandor and also thinks he is stupid, childish and hapless. and what's great is that nandor treats guillermo badly and genuinely finds him kind of pathetic and yet he would rather die than let guillermo take the fall for them in s1 and is completely miserable and lost whenever guillermo leaves him

It’s complicated; both parties feel both affection and trepidation towards one another, which is what makes it so intriguing. For me the most important throughline on Nandor’s side is the tension between his own looong-felt obligation to appear powerful and relentless to his subordinates, and the genuine but well-hidden care he feels for Guillermo. He feels he is expected to treat Guillermo harshly, but is often much nicer to him when they are alone.

As early as Manhattan Nightclub, we see the whole underlying theme of “Nandor needs a friend” conclude with Nandor confessing that Guillermo is his friend, only for him to not be able to handle admitting it and immediately take it back.

In the Celeste episode, Nandor gets rather vulnerable (for him) and admits he is very unhappy without Guillermo around and even concedes a bit of his power and gives him a gift that he actually wanted in order to get him back. Though Guillermo is standoffish at first, he quickly accepts and goes in for a hug (which Nandor isn’t ready for, but still).

In the s2 finale when Guillermo leaves again, Nandor says the telling line, “I drove him away, didn’t I? Perhaps I should have been a bit more aloof with him.” Against all common sense, this suggests that every time Nandor is standoffish with Guillermo, turns down hugs, and abruptly says something mean when conversations get too respectful or affectionate, that’s him actively TRYING to get Guillermo to stay! The way he keeps promising to turn him but never does, that’s Nandor being afraid that Guillermo would leave for good after getting “what he wants.”

But, the juicy part is, we know that Guillermo actually loves Nandor for more than just his ability to turn him, and that Guillermo would, in all likelihood, wish to continue their partnership whether he was turned into a vampire or not!

Then Theatre des Vampires happens. Guillermo continues caring for Nandor despite being caged, and Nandor fights against his roommates and all vampire tradition to prevent Guillermo from being killed. He has been doing this, in fact, from as early as the first vampiric council meeting, through the Topher episode, and again in the beginning of s3. He cares, undeniably, despite his relentless facade! And he admits that at the beginning of Wellness Center.

And at the end of Wellness Center, while Guillermo is heroically and sexily rescuing Nandor, Nandor objects verbally, but he still takes Guillermo’s hand. He waits patiently while Guillermo kicks vampire ass, and he takes his hand again and again. He’s down bad for Guillermo, but he STILL won’t admit it even to himself! And that’s just juicy!!!

The dynamic continues through “Farewell” (the super slumber ep) and builds to a devastating climax that seems so inconsequential on the surface, when Nandor agrees to take Guillermo’s bag to the train station, and actually follows through. This seems like the most basic favor. BUT! This really indicates Nandor is starting to understand, through his own extreme hardheadedness, that Guillermo will fight and risk it all for him, and he allows himself a tiny act of kindness, trusting that Guillermo will stay “despite” this. And then Laszlo fucks that up lol

In conclusion, they love each other in spite of themselves, but neither of them wants to admit it, and that is the Austenesque romance dynamic we’ve all been eating up since forever!! If it’s not for you, it’s not for you, and that’s fine. Everyone’s different. But it’s For Me big time lmao

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to sort through this! Sorry it got so long lol, I never get asks so it was building up inside me. I know I missed stuff, if anyone wants to add on feel free! (cuz this is obviously not long enough lol /s)

#nandermo #my post #wwdits analysis #ask #nandor the relentless #guillermo de la cruz

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diamondcitydarlin · 2 years

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my thoughts on the leaked eps and expectations vs reality (yes they got leaked in Russian again, I haven't watched them at all just read the plot summaries from those who have, so I'm suspending full judgement until I watch the eps when they air). DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS.

So. Idk, kinda double-edged sword here. On the one hand, we had a magnificent time this season coming up with supplementary development and subplots about the side characters (Marwa, the Djinn, the Guide, etc) and we had such good fun imagining how Nandermo might be jealous of each other and do other typical slowburn trope-y things we've come to expect from slowburn romances in TV shows. On the other hand, I think in the process we may have lost sight of what this show is and always has been, which is, at the end of the day, a group of idiotic, self-obsessed vampires that continue to make the same mistakes over and over and fail upwards. I think because the show is so unapologetically queer, we keep expecting those elements of found family and self-progression to stay true throughout the course of the story, but that's not really what this particular show has ever aimed to be.

To be sure, I'm disappointed with what ends up happening with Marwa. I can't imagine that watching it properly in English is going to change my mind about that, but I wonder how much of my disappointment was set up because I couldn't parse those amazing headcanons about her from the actual text of the show and what they were setting up to have us expect from her which, if you think about the actual text of the show, isn't much. I still think she deserved more and I still don't agree with the optics of the first regular WOC being treated like a sim in CAS before having her entire identity erased in favor of a yt dude and then shipped off to probably never be seen again. I really think to some extent they dropped the ball with Marwa, maybe underestimating how much viewers would love and want to see more from her (as well as her revenge). Because I will say, to be fair, that most tertiary characters get treated this way, though perhaps maybe not to the level of mindwashed horror as Marwa. I don't think we as viewers are misplaced in wanting to see at least Nandor get some kind of comeuppance for this.

As far as his sins against Guillermo go though, I don't think this is anything too off base from what Nandor would normally do, and I don't think he necessarily does it out of maliciousness towards Guillermo. That's the point I think they're trying to make about Nandor here; he's so self-focused, he does whatever he thinks the immediate gratification solution would be without any concern for the consequences. He clones Guillermo's boyfriend without a single thought to how this might negatively affect anyone else. He's an idiot, basically, of course.

And Colin having his entire plot as a child erased from his memory is doubly frustrating and tragic, even as I love knowing we get old Colin back.

So yea there's definitely a cynical kind of vibe to this season that I think is leaving a bad taste in everyone's mouth. We're wondering what the writers are trying to say about the characters, if there's any point to keep watching or if we can just rest assured that these characters will go on making the same mistakes, never changing, and always ending up back at the restart button. BUT THE THING IS...we do have at least two more seasons, and an element of vampirisim in this show has always been that struggle to break free of endless cycles in an existence that goes on indefinitely, so it makes sense that this would continue as a conflict before the story reaches it's final denouement.

But I do have to say at this juncture that I agree some things were indisputably fucked up this season, my main complaint being the way Marwa's character was treated. Sure, there's time for them to bring her back and remedy this, but they could have done better by her to begin with than leaving us with this unpleasant bookend.

#wwdits leaks

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toadminako · 2 years

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While we count down to the release of S4, I just wanted to let people know that they should check out Volume 2 of the What We Create in the Shadows zine while it’s still available. There’s so many gorgeous pieces of fanart and fascinating interviews in there, but I especially want to draw attention to a small detail in the interview with Harvey because he gave us Guillermo’s theme songs for season 4!

More info below the cut – I am only providing minimum detail on the interview itself because you should absolutely buy the zine. Proceeds are going to a very worthy cause with Refugees International.

The first song he suggested was Save Your Tears - The Weeknd, Ariana Grande

[What Harvey Said]: "’Save, your, tears for another day’… You might have a couple moments where you might have to sing that song, because otherwise you’ll just… you’ll fall apart.”

Let’s look at some more lyrics…

“You look so happy when I’m not with you”?

“I kept my distance ‘cause I know that you

Don’t like when I’m with nobody else”???

“I realize that it’s much too late

And you deserve someone better”!!??

Season 4 is sounding way more angsty than I anticipated...

The second song he suggested was Both Sides Now – Joni Mitchell

[What Harvey Said]: "’I really don’t know clouds at all.’ It’s just like assumptions of what you think life is, and the aspirations of what you think life should be, and just to be reminded that clouds shift and clouds change, and sometimes... you know nothing about life.”

It’s a very poetic song (a good choice!) so I’ll largely let the lyrics speak for themselves…

Most prominently there are themes of life ending up drastically different from what you expected, and also specifically love turning out very different from how you expected. These could allude to Guillermo’s ongoing Vampire vs Slayer journey as well as how his relationships are going to change.

I really can’t wait to come back to these after the end of S4!

#i love harvey he's such a fanboy #he feeds our brainworms directly #I simply had to share the news that joni mitchell is canonically nandermocore now #wwdits #wwdits s4 #harvey guillén #wwdits speculation #what we create in the shadows #nandermo

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ryanatwoodenthusiast · 1 year

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my thoughts on different rebelde characters

jana

so my opinion on jana is a bit confusing. i don't dislike her unlike a lot of people in the fandom - tbh i like all characters in rebelde except for gus, sebas, kuri and anita - but her character arc in both seasons 1 and 2 revolved around her wanting to show people that she's not who they want her to be but... she fails to show us how she really is. i think she really is the 'basic' person she seems to be and the writers forgot to give her a personality apart from not wanting to seem basic

esteban

i just want to let everyone (aka me and my 0 tumblr followers) know that i never gave up hope in him. he was doing stupid things but i knew esteban from season 1 was still in there somewhere. when he told everyone gus was a murderer i was happy because i never gave up on him. and then he killed gus. so, the thing is, i don't like gus. obviously. but couldn't gus have been arrested or something instead? my boy esteban has to deal with having murdered someone now (possible season 3 plot) but all he said was 'wow i'm so happy i managed to make it to graduation with my friends i abandoned and treated like shit but hey who cares :D'. like... idk. esteban from s1e1 would be very disappointed.

luka

i obviously didn't like him at the beginning. but when he helped sin nombre/rebelde in s1e8 i was so happy. he's sarcastic and hurts everyone's feelings but he's still luka and doesn't deserve any of the things that happened to him (🖕 marcelo and gus). he had some really good character development and is still an asshole but i love him anyway <3

mj is so sweet and didn't deserve anything sebas put her through. i don't really know what to say about her character apart from that she stayed nice and respectful no matter what happened. she always helped others. like at the battle of the bands when she helped sebas. she didn't do that to abandon her friends but to help sebas because she felt sorry for him. (he didn't deserve that but that's a completely different topic) she wanted to stay friends with rebelde even after she joined sebas's friendship group (except for jana but that wasn't mj's fault)

andi

andi is so cute <3 she's the reason i carried on watching rebelde and even though dixon's knocked her out of the number one spot of my fav rebelde characters i still love her <3 she deserves so much better than what happened in season 2 and i want her season 1 self back. like, how does someone manage to be this soft and cute and adorable but somehow also so badass?? i guess that's a question only andi agosti knows the answer too

dixon

i love him sm <3 he can do no wrong. i love that he always wants to help people. and the way he looks at everyone, especially mj. his eyes say everything. from the moment he first saw her sing, you could see he was in love with her (not me though because i thought he was okane and would date luka so i never considered him and mj as a possibility until he tried to kiss her in s1e6. oops.) i just want him to be happy. also, i still think the funniest thing to happen in rebelde was that at the end of s1 everyone was sharing their secrets: luka and esteban that they were half-brothers, mj that she'd lied to her parents, andi that she was dating emilia and dixon that he'd lied and said he was poor because he thought no-one would take him seriously as a rapper if they knew he was rich. it was just so random. and his birth name is guillermo. no offense to anyone with that name, it's not a bad name, i just think it's so funny that that's his name. like, that's dixon. not guillermo.

anyway, in conclusion, i love them all <3

#rebelde #rebelde netflix #dixon alvarez #andi agosti #mj sevilla #luka colucci #esteban torres #jana cohen gandía

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macgyvertape · 2 years

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wwdits s4 thoughts (spoilers)

I didn’t start till October so I knew some stuff through my dash, very glad I saw the post where the interviewers said Guillermo and Nador wouldn’t get together to set my expectations after OFMD

The djinn is a really fun character

Glad The Guide is more of a main character the series needed another female character.

Marhwa is one of the most sympathetic characters in the show, peak she deserves better than this dude

I saw that Guillermo embezzles from the club in a LOT of posts because it was cute to see him take care of his parents. But it’s still heavily implied from this early ep.

The season is really clear in setting up each character's motivation and character arc.

Nadja’s arc has been my favorite. Lmao to the way she said “kill them all” to solve her workers unionizing.

Lazlo’s struggles of fatherhood where he’s a bad dad in different ways has been my least favorite. But then again I don’t want kids so I’m not interested in parenting subplots.

Guillermo FaceTiming someone twice is notable, only people he pays this much attention to outside of the vamps and family is a potential victim. But this is a very different vibe

Nador vs Guillermo fight is even more tense and charged than last season. Even after rewatching I'm confused at what parts of the fight they were staging for escape versus actually into beating the other

Nadja union busting through narcotic bribery, Nadja’s always been a fuck you got mine "girlboss", especially when her power is being challenged. Nice that it didn't work, workers unite!

The parent interview was just too much cringe comedy for me

Love Guillermo’s jewel tone jacket outfit. Hope there's a post that points out all the designer items

Wedding episode had an ad that I noted down since I was watching ad-free. Clever trick it was for the go flip yourself tv show in universe.

Everyone looks so nice in their wedding outfits. Costuming in this show has always been great and its easy to overlook it

I was trying to pin why Guillermo seems so different this season, and I really think it is that he found confidence and is less desperate . Other characters are respecting him more too.

Nandor made peak cursed wish with “like the same things I like” I was confused until the end of the season if he immediately wasted 2/3 wishes instead of fixing that wish since he obviously seemed so uncomfortable with it

“Because I’m gay” holy shit! Such an emotional moment, yeah the family always knew but still it’s such an impactful moment. The show has had a range of queer characters but it's often more played for laughs while this is more heartfelt. I'm old enough it's also a brief moment of "wow things have come so far"

Lmao at the cliche home renovation episode, I love when a tv show adopts the visual style of another genre of show (like Leverage "The office job"). I deeply enjoy home renovation shows, good or bad they're only reality tv I enjoy. I think it's my favorite episode in the show, and I genuinely wasn't expecting Simon the Devious.

Maybe because I am watching these all at once that the heavy parody parts of each episode stick out. Guillermo being the overworked friend planning the wedding is a romcom classing. The Baron doing the cliche makeover montage.

Wow so Freddie gave the business card as if he's trying to buy valuable antiques from someone he thinks is senile, and Nador is fine cheating and being a home wrecker to meet up. hmm

Wait Marhwa ends that episode overwritten and basically dead in body and mind?! Freddie is a cheater! I feel really bad for Guillermo, ESH but him

Holy shit sunrise and sunset the song from Fiddler. As a theater nerd I know this ep is going to be sad also wow Matt berry can sing

Colin feeding on anger makes sense, I though he was being annoying at times but chalked that up to finding all kids annoying, but you can farm a lot of anger as an annoying kid.

Classic that Nadja got so proud her arrogance led to the club's downfall. Very short-sighted she didn't take the money out before the arson for insurance fraud.

Colin back to himself with no memory nothing changed. Hmm did the experience of being a parent change Lazlo?

Guillermo spent a year of his life devoted to things that as he put it didnt change. The reasons he gave in first episode for not walking out didn't amount to anything in the end

GUILLERMO BUYING HIS WAY INTO VAMPRIISM FUCK YEAH. he's really changed since season 1. The chorus ending is pretty great.

I’d rate it 2nd best season behind last season, major points lost because I liked Marhwa and I’m sad what happens to her. I'm not judging Nandor's actions this season as morally "worse" than the others, but being shitty to your SO is more relatable and personal.

Wow for the first time I’m interested in fanfic for this show starting with “different choices canon divergence” au and “picks up right where season ended” since next season will prob start with a timeskip.

#what we do in the shadows #wwdits #wwdits spoilers #mac watches tv

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transvampireboyfriend · 2 years

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i am on my knees, begging you all to acknowledge your anti-fat bias before you write Guillermo de la Cruz

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cookinguptales · 1 year

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Guillermo de la Cruz

favorite thing about them I love everything about Guillermo, lbr, but probably my absolute favorite part of his character is the way that he really, truly believes he's the straight man (so to speak) of the series, but in some ways he's the most unhinged person there. He's so sweet! As he calls in a bomb threat to a church!

least favorite thing about them the iffy writing in s4 regarding the time skip His tendency to make big, dramatic exits and then come back approximately five business days later. I love melodramatic mess as much as anyone, but it kind of loses the punch after the first time. Even though it does seem to be effective on Nandor, at least, every time.

favorite line This is hard for me, because my favorite things about Guillermo are typically what he does more than what he says. That said, I fucking gasped at his little "I didn't have to" when Nandor accused him of cheating during their last fight. Guillermo, my beloved.

brOTP Probably... Laszlo, maybe? Except they're not bros, they're vaguely antagonistic but occasionally supportive coparents of the creature that crawled out of their deceased friend Colin Robinson. I do really like their dynamic in s4, though, where you can tell that Guillermo is 1000% done with Laszlo but Laszlo is slowly coming around to respecting Guillermo's opinion (even if he drives him nuts) and that makes Guillermo come around, too. I think Guillermo growing some claws has grudgingly impressed Laszlo, even as it's confused and thrilled Nandor.

OTP I feel like this one is... obvious... I've written many thousands of words about why I love Nandor/Guillermo, and I'll probably write many thousands more. They're both fucking insane, but in a way that suits each other so well. I love their incredibly complicated power dynamics. I love the way they make each other better, when they let themselves. ;o;

nOTP Honestly, probably every other character with Guillermo. lmao. I'm a terrible monoshipper like that. But I especially hate any female character with Guillermo, Laszlo/Guillermo (just not the vibe I see there), Colin/Guillermo (feels... like incest now...), and... honestly, probably Derek/Guillermo. I feel like Derek can do better, as cruel as I am to the man.

random headcanon Guillermo's love language is providing for people. He's got an almost pathological need to be needed, but I think that especially comes out with food. We know that his family feeds people to welcome/comfort them (see: his mom in 2.10), we know that he used to have a job in food service, we know that he's an excellent baker (and is adorably proud of that fact), and we know that when he wanted to reconnect with his family, he chose to do so through a dinner. I think food really probably is Guillermo's love language, and it drives him crazy that he can't share that with his vampires, especially Nandor. It's assuaged a little bit by procuring victims (especially virgins) for them, but I think he really wants to break bread with them, so to speak. I foresee him going out to feed with Nandor a lot some day. If he ever gets changed.

unpopular opinion Guillermo is my sweet little baby but he's also a gigantic asshole -- to humans and even occasionally to the other vampires. I see a lot of people saying he "deserves" good things, but I don't think he does. I think he deserves exactly what he's gotten. He made the choices that got him here and they've been deeply cruel choices. I love him more than pretty much any other character on tv, but he's incredibly selfish and petty and mean. I love that for him, but I'm not willing to pretend that he's some sweet cinnamon roll, y'know? He'd be so boring if he were.

song i associate with them Quite a bit of the bird and the bee's work, tbh, especially Again & Again, You're A Cad, and Birthday. (And for a bonus, I associate their song Man with Nandor.) And, of course, Danse Macabre. (ETA: A lot of people didn't know that I didn't choose Danse Macabre for Guillermo when I wrote Sway! No, guys, that's Guillermo's BGM in the show! They use it for him a lot!)

favorite picture of them

my sweet, insane darling

but seriously, him smiling after showing off his stakes in his mini fridge was a close second.

#wwdits tag #memes #replies #I do REALLY love him tho god I love Guillermo

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theveryworstthing · 3 years

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So over on patreon Trevor asked for my take on the Addams Family and I grew up LOVING the Addams family movies so here we are. Instead of doing a straight up style interpretation, I decided to do a full on design challenge, using the characters as bases to make a black southern gothic Addams au. I actually drew the kids first, using the character bases of Wednesday and Pugsley to create some delightful kiddos I'm calling Sunday and Blanche. I of course then redesigned Gomez and Morticia into Carlisle and Mortesha.

The Addams have a very specific high aristocratic goth aesthetic (they've got a butler and nobody really works among other things) so in this re-imagining I wanted to go with vibes that run a little more middle class/upper middle class. I thought it would be interesting to think about what would be considered weird and off-putting in an entirely different culture, and how being a big ol' goth is way less controversial than it used to be.

I tried to keep this short (HAHAHAHAHAHA) so I didn't spin off into an essay about villain coded families, black people in the horror genre, and normalcy as it pertains to social survival, but just...bits of that are in these designs and lore. Keep that in mind.

Also I made the kids twins because they've flip flopped in age so much in different media and also twins run in my family (i'm the daughter of one). And let's face it, I'm pulling a lot of their southern gothic traits from living as a southern goth so *shrug*.

10 thousand pounds of lore incoming loooooooooool.

The Parents

From the moment he saw her he knew that there was a 50/50 chance of him either never making it out of that swamp alive or marrying the figure that was creeping out from under the distant willow tree in a black cocktail dress. The third time she found him trussed up in one of her traps, he complimented her rope work and asked if she'd like to go out sometime after his head wound stopped bleeding.

Or while it was still bleeding.

If she was into that.

Some kids and a mysteriously burnt down Piggly Wiggly later, their love is still as strong and inescapable as a bear trap in a sink hole.

Carlisle Guillermo (now Addams through marriage but I wanted to give him two first names for a name since Gomez has two last names) makes a vaguely described living practicing ‘law’ around town. A loophole king, people come to him from miles around with contracts signed in blood, fights over chunks of hair buried in their rivals’ yard, dehydrated primate hands, memories that seemed like dreams until the evidence of their happenings became too real, and other regular Legal Items asking for counsel which he is all too happy to give. For a price. Sometimes that price is a homemade pie and sometimes it’s a million dollars, depends on who you are. Whatever you’re asked to pay it’s worth that price, and if you try to scam him out of work or he just plain doesn’t like you? Well. He knows how to twist a contract better than anything at the crossroads.

And he always gets his due.

He doesn’t just serve the local (living)humans though, there are many things that need proper legal representation in this day and age. You wouldn’t believe how many city councils try to build on sacred burial grounds even after he lets them know that his ghostly clients are totally gonna haunt the FUCK out of the ensuing shitty condos and curse their families for all eternity. At least 50% of his energy goes towards dealing with real estate bullshit.

Carl is an excitable and good natured(?) man who loves his family, cigars, dancing, and his many knife-based hobbies. People find him very charming once they get past the feeling that they’re talking to a sultry gator badly disguising itself as a human. I didn’t put a ton of deep thought into designing him, mostly I wanted to make a middle aged dude who looked like he would have been voted ‘most likely to smooch the literal devil’ in high school. Tbh he probably has, but no demonic ex’s can compare to his lovely wife~

Mortesha Addams(her name was already perfect so I just tweaked it)is a woman of many talents. A self proclaimed homemaker, she prides herself on a greenhouse full of Concerning Foliage, a beautiful wasp apiary, and a coop full of what are probably chickens that she keeps for what are probably eggs. She’s also an avid creator of the outsider art that can be seen around the estate. She has taken on the family business of selling her homemade goods in a little stall by the road just outside the swamp with her mom, and makes pretty good money doing so. A surprising amount of poison gets bought in quaint southern towns.

Speaking of poison, people who come out to the edge of the swamp to buy it are usually carrying a lot of secrets around, and Mortesha knows most of them. It’s not like she pries the truth out of people, it just so happens that many nervous hellos eventually turn into the tragic backstory power hour if she’s alone with a client for long enough. She supposes that’s just how people are. Despite the fact that the Addams are very active in the community (whether the community likes it or not) she especially, as a direct descendant of the first Addams matriarch, is seen as…Well not an outsider because the community feels A Certain Way about outsiders and despite it all the Addams are their people, but maybe something like an exception. They feel like whatever weirdness they’re hiding can’t be weirder than any given Addams, so they get a little loose with their words.

This is amusing to her, since Addams’ don’t naturally keep the kind dramatic secrets that their surface level prim and proper neighbors do. It’s much more fun to openly talk about those things.

Do they have a sadly decrepit yet terrifying grandma up in the attic? Yeah, like three. They got a tv, all the creepy porcelain dolls they could want, and they’re close to family. Where do you keep your gram-grams?

Any bodies buried on the property? Yeah some, but most are thrown to the gators.

Any creeping through the balmy summer night with ill intentions? Yeah dude, everyone loves a nice family stroll.

What about dangerous forbidden love? If an adult Addams isn’t incorporeal then they’re either queer or in a torrid romance with some person/thing mysteriously drawn to that awful swamp. Sometimes both at the same time. Most times actually.

Mortesha would know.

The current head of the Addams family is just as outgoing as her husband but a lot quieter and harder to read. She never really seems to get mad about much and always has a genteel smile for everyone whether they deserve it or not. A seven foot tall human shaped “Oh, bless your heart”. A perfectly composed Lady even when she’s, oh I dunno, burning down a Piggly Wiggly. You know. A regular southern mom. Chat her up at the hair salon for 50% off a jar of wasp honey with your next purchase of a mysterious but foreboding packet of herbs.

Designing her was pretty easy because I just drew a lankier Grace Jones and called it a day. I had some problems with her outfit simply because if we were going HARD southern gothic then she’d probably be wearing a white/cream dress with a fuller skirt but I thought keeping the silhouette and the black was more important. She’s supposed to be an anti southern gothic southern gothic character anyway. A woman who looks like she has a million secrets who is actually the most open person you could meet. For better or worse. The red hair came from a coloring error that I really ended up liking (my mom had red hair her whole childhood that only darkened up in high school so I can buy that an Addams can be naturally fire engine red) and the veil was to get more of that classic Morticia silhouette in there.

The Children

Sunday and Blanche are the twin children of Carlisle and Mortesha Addams. Some say the Addams clan got their cursed homestead when a wealthy local businessman made a deal with the devil and lost, leaving his grand mansion to his least favorite maid and cutting his losses once he realized that the swamp would do everything it could to drag the house into the water and take what was owed with its horrible curse. Others say that the family has just always squatted there and no one really cares because man, fuck that particular swamp. Have you been in there? Absolute horror show.

Anyway.

Blanche is the more outgoing sibling and quite the engineer/mad scientist in the making. He started going grey at 2 weeks old but considering he was also rocking some extra fingers, toes, and a tiny tail (he takes after his dad), his parents just put it on the 'not life threatening' pile and decided not to worry about it. He's the kind of smart that teachers find utterly infuriating, less a dog eagerly learning and obeying commands and more a hyena who keeps teaching itself how to pick locks. He has a few friends in his school's robotics club (which they honestly allowed him to make so the school could contain his... creations) but mostly hangs out with his sister exploring the swamp. They find all sorts of neat things in there! wedding rings, suspiciously lumpy garbage bags, cloaked cultists who can't read private property signs, it's an adventure every day!

Blanche is all about experimentation with his creations, his look, and his tether to this mortal coil. Is lipstick a cool thing to try? Let's find out. Can he get out of a strait jacket fast enough after being pushed into the depths of the swamp by his sister? let's find out. He's not dead yet and confused local doctors can attest to the fact that he's rarely attained more than a bad bruise so he's pretty set on continuing to kiss rattlesnakes on their cute little heads and have his sister practice her knife throwing at him until that fact changes.

Blanche is very much a country goth. Cowboy boots (customized by his mom), knife, and lighter are daily accessories. He likes to wear the crusty swamp jewelry they find (the rust adds a splash of color!) and despite appearances he does try to keep himself neat. He's just got natural Grunge Colors and a tendency to wear clothes he likes until they fall apart. Pugsley always seemed the most modernly styled to me (which might just be because little boys clothes have been the same for a long time) so I wanted Blanche to be the most purposely fashionable Addams. Everyone else is goth by nature, but he's the only one truly familiar with goth as an alternative fashion.

I got really into designing Blanche because honestly, I find Pugsley to be the most boring member of the family. And he was hard to design! I had to mess with his vibe a lot to get him looking how I wanted. I know he's supposed to evoke an " 'evil' little boy next door who's parents never reign him in", but that's just goth Dennis The Menace. I's 2020. We can at least go queer goth Calvin.

Sunday was much easier to design. Wednesday was my favorite as a child (of course) and I really wanted to keep the spirit of her look while adding things like billowy sleeves (it gets HOT down here), big poofy twists instead of braids, and a nice tie. She's a professional after all, been running the local pet cemetery since she was 6 and the previous groundskeeper met with an unfortunate accident after telling her that tarantulas don't have souls. Her specialty is creating beautiful naturalistic animal funerals similar to those that Maquenda (https://linktr.ee/artofmaquenda) makes, and she takes pride in creating miniature dioramas of her subjects after each burial which she uses as a kind of 3D catalog for future clients.

She really wants to try out her skills on humans one day. Well. Publicly try out her skills. Lotta random bodies float into the swamp. None of them have turned down her requests for diorama models so far. Most seem downright flattered. Plus, she usually figures out which graveyard/crime scene they floated over from and gets her parents to give them a lift back. She'll even help enact terrifying revenge from beyond the grave on whoever put them there if she's not, y'know, busy.

Besides arts, crafts, and pet based funerary arrangements, Sunday is an avid lover of archery (any ranged weapon really), books where little fantasy adventure animals die dramatic deaths, and history. She is That Kid who eagerly raises her hand when asked who Christopher Columbus was and ends up being sent out of class after 15 minutes for making 'a scene'. Her favorite party trick is just picking an item in the room and talking about how it relates to either some obscure historical figure with a buck wild life or a horrible disaster. At least one charity pancake breakfast ended with children in tears after her vivid description of the Great Molasses Flood of 1919.

Social-wise, while Wednesday is the girl that people ask to smile because they think she'd, "look so pretty", Sunday is rarely asked anything at all. People just kind of assume from her quiet nature (in between horrible history facts) that she's angry all the time and that she hates everyone. This is untrue. She hates some people but she's ambivalent to most everyone else and even downright friendly if you bother to talk to her like a person instead of a terrifying cryptid. Like, she IS a terrifying cryptid but she's also a little girl.

That’s about it for now. One day I might do the other family members but for now I’m happy with the four I’ve redesigned. Making an au! Lurch in a family that doesn’t do butlers could be interesting. Over on patreon I put forth that he could just be Motesha’s mute little brother (similar bone structure) but Amy Crook had the nice idea of quote: “ a mysterious "cousin" that "helps around the house" whose origins are both long in the past and faintly unsettling. He's good for lifting heavy things, like that tank of propane you're about to throw into the burning Piggly Wiggly... “ which i now consider canon. Who's kid is he? How old is he? Not important. Anyone willing to commit arson with you is family.

Annnnyway. This challenge was a lot of fun! I love indulging in AU’s.

#long post #the addams family #Character Design #au #design challenge #i am incapable of doing a design challenge like a normal person #oh god i forgot the cut lol

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