#tb8 spoilers

[flanneryculp]

hey sorry we bludgeoned your boyfriend to death at our party last night. yeah with a croquet mallet. dont worry it wasnt for satanic reasons tho. we shoved what was left of him in our friend's car. sorry

#adam state #flannery culp #the basic eight #tb8 spoilers #violence #< just in case

[beatricebidelaire]

here’s one for my fellow tb8 fans

#the basic eight #tb8 spoilers #vera.txt

[ellington-f3int]

tb8 spoilers //

isnt it interesting how natasha was the only one to object to flora habstat coming to the dinner party?

#the basic eight

[thaumaturtles]

The Basic Eight AU where Natasha actually is real and Douglas and Flora were just pulling the sickest prank on Flan

#tb8 #the basic eight #daniel handler #asoue #i guess? #tagging it as that anyway since my snicket tags dont get enough love #also i wanna be clear: everything else totally still happened #like mr. carr did overdose on absinthe and flan did kill adam #but that last scene where douglas said 'who?' was all just a prank #also #the basic eight spoilers? #i suppose? #the books been out for almost two decades now so i think im safe #god i love this book #lemony snicket

[flanneryculp]

traces of natasha left on flan. chipped red nail polish. yesterday's makeup. a lingering perfume. being intoxicated from a flask she didn't even remember drinking out of. ohhh my god

#natasha hyatt #flannery culp #flantasha #tb8 spoilers #do you understand!! #the basic eight

[flanneryculp]

Hi my name is Natasha D. V. Hyatt and I have long ebony black hair that moves like its in a shampoo commercial that reaches my mid-back and ruby red lips like pinot noir wine and a lot of people tell me I look like Marlene Dietrich (AN: if u don’t know who she is get da hell out of here!). I’m not related to Bette Davis but I wish I was because she’s a major fucking hottie. I’m a manifestation of trauma but my teeth are straight and white. I have pale white skin. I’m also a student, and I go to a school called Roewer in San Francisco where I’m in the senior year (I’m eighteen). I’m a vamp (in case you couldn’t tell) and I wear mostly black. I love Hot Topic and I buy all my clothes from there. For example today I was wearing silver earrings, a dark green rayon dress, a cape that made me look like a visiting countess, and black boots to match. I was wearing red lipstick, foundation, black eyeliner and red eye shadow. I was walking outside Roewer. It was snowing and raining so there was no sun, which I was very happy about. A lot of non-preps stared at me. I put up my middle finger at them.

#the d. in first grade natasha's name stands for dark'ness dementia raven way ahah #tb8 spoilers #natasha hyatt #the basic eight #ebony dark'ness dementia raven way

[flanneryculp]

one thing thats interesting to me abt natasha's character is that as confident as she is, the one thing that leaves her apologetic or even shy is when flan compares herself negatively to her (esp about her body). i'm sure we all remember how natasha reacts when flan calls herself ugly but when natasha accidentally makes her feel bad she straight up does not know what to do

#okay spoilers in tags (hello mutuals who are currently reading it for the first time 👋) #// #i've always thought the way natasha and flan see each other was so interesting #flan idolizing natasha and natasha loves flan just as much but in a slightly different way #there's a lot of friendship (and attraction lol) on both sides but they both see natasha as the best version of themselves #(i.e. when she says ''we're better than them...at least i am'') #but on the other hand natasha is constantly focused on flan's life; what she wants; how to make things better for her; protecting her #shes fully devoted to her with the hopes of flan eventually getting to a point where shes so confident she won't need her anymore #essentially *becoming* natasha #but natasha has always been an impossible standard. both too flawless and too flawed to ever reach #and every time flan gets close to that point she ends up in a situation where she feels even worse; setting herself back #and *that* is the one thing natasha is afraid of #(also writing this out i don't necessarily believe all this ^^ i have like 80 different interpretations of them lol) #tb8 spoilers

[flanneryculp]

flan mentions "most of these people won't meet my eyes now" when describing the photo of her friends. but most doesnt mean all. who is still talking with flan after she killed adam i need to know immediately

#actually its probably kate #because she was the only one who was 100% down to cover up adam's murder and most wanted the friend group to stay together #and flan also knows things about kate's life past high school #i wonder if theres anyone else though. lily maybe. #tb8 spoilers

[flanneryculp]

whats v talking about? shes calling flora an outsider here, but at the same time she uses the name the basic eight. so who does she think the eighth member is?

#i think this might just be a continuity error but i'm not sure #tb8 spoilers

[flanneryculp]

why flan is a lesbian (and why it’s important)

when i first read tb8, i thought, “well, i think flan is a lesbian, but maybe that’s just projection,” and then i went online and saw that everyone else had come to the same conclusion. now i actually do think theres quite a bit of canon evidence pointing to her being gay. this post puts it really really well :)

spoilers below cut

for one thing can we talk about how differently flan talks about female characters from male characters in general? if you look at how she describes the photograph in the beginning it’s obvious. flantasha nation for life but how many times has flan gone on about jennifer rose milton being beautiful or v____ looking pretty? not even adam gets description to this extent.

also, transvioletbaudelaire made a really good point about flan’s reaction to this. it was a big tonal shift despite the paragraph having nothing to do with what was going on. flan was more affected by a few sentences about being gay than the rest of ron’s speech about adam being missing……

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something i’ve recently noticed is that most of natasha’s idols are queer. marlene dietrich had the first on-screen kiss between two women ever, as well as being openly into women irl. bette davis and dorothy parker were historically popular within gay communities, and anais nin wrote about wlw sex in her diary. this is coming from the book that foreshadowed douglas’s sexuality by having him be associated w/ gay artists!!!!

even natasha’s very first and last mentions are associated with gayness. her first mention being how she watched a fellini movie with flan (context says it’s la dolce vita, which has an explicitly gay plotline), and of course, dr. tert explicitly stating that a version of natasha is a lesbian (!!) ofc dr. tert isn’t the most reliable source, but the point is that after you just finished the book, the final thought youre meant to have about natasha is that she’s gay!!!

another one of the most important scenes is halloween, which literally opens with natasha pinning flan to her bed. then, natasha yells at flan to break up with gabriel and get over adam. natasha empathizes in her speech that flan isn’t being true to herself by liking them. considering that flan is natasha and usually natasha has more awareness over what flan knows but can’t admit.....

and then they go upstairs and undress together.

flan notes:

they were constantly looking at each other’s bodies

flan feeling “liquid and naughty” when they did. even before putting on the dress, she feels powerful.

“[natasha] looked at me as i felt the sudden true flush of desire.” <- actual line from the book

later during the party, while flan and adam are having sex, flan spends half the paragraph thinking about how gorgeous she/natasha is. flan really does not miss an opportunity to talk about natasha’s beauty throughout the book lmao

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another thing flan does is describe natasha using romantic metaphors.

like she literally associates natasha’s gum with a kiss and then admits to using pathetic fallacy.

flan does it a lot throughout the book.

and not just that. natasha also plays the role of a boyfriend in flan’s life, and flan is always happier to be with natasha than with gabriel or adam.

and when adam flakes on his date with flan, natasha literally takes her out to the movies.

speaking of movies, the day flan was supposed to go to the movies as a date with gabriel is the first day that she helps douglas hide his homosexuality. most of flan’s friends’ issues mirror flan’s own, as shown in the halloween party. callous breakups, jealousy, etc. struggling with being gay in a homophobic society is a major theme in the book with characters like douglas and ron, and it would make sense for flan to experience it, too, even if she doesn’t realize.

a lot of gabriel and flan’s relationship reads to me as a metaphor for comphet. not only does flan not like him, but she talks about how things are supposed to be.

(also, on the previous page, flan compares kissing gabriel to opening an old carton of milk. she isn’t thrilled lol)

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even though flan’s feelings for adam are more intense than the ones for gabriel, they’re also forced to a certain extent.

heres the first time she talks about adam:

natasha is shocked. if flan truly loved adam, wouldnt she love him fully? if she did, natasha’s inital reaction would be supportive, but instead she just makes fun of him. flan never even admits why she likes adam, not even to herself. flan doesn’t even think that she and adam will work out, judging by her hesitancy. over and over, natasha tells flan that adam is a jerk and to get over him.

flan tries very hard to convince herself that she likes adam, and it works. she’s telling everyone (and herself) that she loves adam while also avoiding him and not having any reason to love him, other than the superficial.

“he is the only appropriate person for me to like”

natasha didn’t find out gabriel’s crush on flan until september 21st, over 60 pages later. lily might have known, but who was natasha thinking about???

also, flan and adam are also cast as husband and wife in the play. they are literally playing the parts that were given to them!!

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even though flan has gotten herself in deep, there have been multiple times where flan almost does get over adam! she mentions feeling bored of him, avoiding him, just not caring until he always ropes her back in at the last minute. she’s put her self-worth in his opinion of her, and doesn’t give up until the very end.

from the beginning, adam was always more of a symbol than a person. he represents men as a whole, or the idea of them. flan literally falls in love with an image of a man (the statue of david) rather than an actual one, and projects that image onto adam. kate and flan talk about how they would be better off without all the adams.

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all her life, flan has been fed these societal expectations on what kind of relationships she should have and who she should be. she clings onto those expectations, even when she never loved adam to begin with. it takes her until halloween to accept that whether he likes her or not doesn’t matter -- he’s a jerk. in general flan’s arc is about how societal pressures, to act a certain way, look a certain way, love a certain way, etc etc can mess with their own self perception and maybe cause them to kill someone.

#i dont think any one of these points alone is enough to prove that flan is a lesbian #but there are so many i cant help but think it was intentional #also sorry about the varying image quality. you can see i was writing this at multiple times of day lol #the basic eight #flannery culp #analysis

[flanneryculp]

tb8 spoilers + brief mention of sexual harrassment

i can't get over how cruel it was that flan begged her principal, clearly upset, to put her in a separate class from mr. carr, and he told her to get over it.

and how many times do you think people complained about mr. carr? not only did he have a reputation for hiring young female assistants and then taking advantage of them, there was a scene where he was getting handsy with a sophomore girl and the school did nothing.

and that poor authority is what guided flan/natasha's actions in the second half. they learned that the only way they can solve their problems is by taking matters into their own hands, and that mindset ultimately led to them growing more distant from the rest of their friends and taking more risks. even as flan kills adam, she thinks about all the stupid things that the adults in her life said in elementary school when she went to them for help because boys were being mean to her. she was never, ever taken seriously, and even after killing adam, everyone played it off like it was for satanic reasons instead of actually taking accountability in how society treats girls.

#the whole dr tert thing is funny but also really depressing like everyone's reputation was dragged through the mud #and even though the basic eight made mistakes; no authority figure wanted to recognize their part in it #tb8 #the basic eight

[ellington-f3int]

so! seeing as i am sick and have nothing else to do here's some TB8 quotes that for one reason or another i highlighted in the ebook. tbh i marked a LOT of quotes but im only using a few here because a, this post would be way too long if i used all the quotes i wanted to and b, i didnt really have a lot to say about the ones not included here. my only commentary on those would've been keysmashes. major major spoiler warnings obviously.

so uhh im gonna start w some quotes that felt like very danhan things to say. some snickety sentences, if you will. not much to analyze here its just his distinctive voice

its giving poison for breakfast

kind of reminded me of the mitchums idk

and to keep this post from getting too long im gonna stop it here and reblog with some more

#the basic eight #daniel handler #this isnt gonna be as analysis-y as i thought #one of these days ill reread and find all of the natasha foreshadowing bc theres a lot

[ellington-f3int]

quick tb8 update //spoilers obv

so my public library literally doesnt own a physical copy of this book. fine ig. im about 300 ebook pages in(no idea how many physical pages that would be) right after the dance. daniel handler's writing style is obviously pretty different than when he's writing as snicket but you can definitely still tell they're the same person. like he's got such a specific sense of humor and there are a lot of snicket-esque sentences if that makes sense. im also loving that whole "forshadowing but im telling you exactly whats going to happen" thing thats going on since flan is going back and editing the whole thing! suuuch an interesting concept and its executed really well! but its a little confusing figuring out when shes switching between journal entries and present-day annotations bc theres not really any formatting in the ebook ://

#the basic eight #daniel handler #literally cant stop thinking about this book #ive been highlighting and making notes ill post a list of quotes once i finish #but flan and natasha #so gay #i love them

[flanneryculp]

tb8 spoilers //

it's just heartbreaking to think that natasha only exists in flan's diary. flan still can see photos of her, presumably, but no one else can. how many unique experiences did the rest of the basic eight have with whom they thought was flan that she just doesn't remember? natasha was with flan for years! she had interests separate from flan's, all of her quirks, the earrings that flan still thinks of as natasha's. it really feels like a character death, even though she was never there to begin with.

#i dont think i'll ever get over this </3

[ellington-f3int]

whos your favorite tb8 character? 👀👀

//spoilers//

gotta love natasha ofc. but as of right now in the book (october 29th) shes trying to convince flan to Do Something about adam... love it when ur best friend tries to convince you to murder the guy ur in love with (WAIT but that kinda makes sense from a "nat and flan are in love" pov. just really extreme jealousy). i do know that natasha just straight up isnt real (both from a post i saw a while ago and from my habit of reading the last pages of every book to make sure my faves dont die). super not sure how thats gonna work out but ive noticed a few sentences that are a little 👀👀 foreshadow-y in regards to this.

oh and also douglas <33 im only halfway through but i hope we see a lot more of him before its over

as i (probably) mentioned ive been highlighting a lot of quotes and making notes so ill post all of those once im finished :)

#the basic eight #daniel handler #flannery culp #natasha hyatt #douglas but i forgot his last name #also that was such a violent and specific description of murder #what with all the blood and meat #is mr handler okay over there

[beatricebidelaire]

about: counting the characters

i’ve been watching community recently and got to the remedial chaos theory episode where jeff rolls the dice to decide who to get the pizza and abed says sth like “you know you’re creating six timelines right” and jeff says “sure abed”. and the thing is even though in an earlier episode of partnering up for biology class i already knew that they have 7 people in the group i totally didn’t register this fact when watching the remedial chaos theory episode and it’s not until abed points out how they have 7 people and jeff have created a situation that no matter which number comes out from the dice roll he wouldn’t need to get the pizza. like i just completely did not think about the total number of people in the group up until then.

and then i was thinking about how when i was watching the ocean’s 8 i didn’t realize at first that without hathaway’s character they’d only have 7 people so she must eventually get involved nor did i realize, before the revelation of the biggest twist of the basic eight, that there’s a very simple explanation for why flora habstat is always hanging out with the group and they can still be the basic eight. sometimes the clues are just there all along.

the moral of this, perhaps, is to count the characters, which i never do until it’s too late, so it seems.

#vera.txt #tb8 spoilers #the basic eight #flora habstat #natasha hyatt