iwtv ep 4 rewatch thoughts

ep 4 starting with a sunrise bc the baby trap—the vampire Claudia—is the start of a new dawn in hell. only just like paul, she’s dead too…

ive shared some thoughts on this opening scene here

it breaks my heart that the first time we see the library with all it’s threads to Louis’ humanity/past (the books, the bench, the rocks etc. etc.) is when we’re properly introduced to Claudia given all she represented in Louis’ undead life. He brought her home to make up for what he was losing in the natural world/humanity (his sister/family etc. etc.) and to make up for his sins. but neither could ever truly live under his expectations or be what he needs (to no fault of theirs. tbc i don’t believe Claudia should have had to be what he needed). Claudia expected to play the role of their eternal child could not survive in their castle of lies in her own truth. a real magnolia tree could not survive within the confines of his penthouse coffin of self imposed (and maybe also imposed/enabled by Armand) delusions.

a magnolia tree is said to symbolize luck and stability (according to my quick google search) it’s first introduction in the show is being juxtaposed against the introduction of a character who suffered terrible luck and whose outcome contributes to Louis’ emotional instability. truly dreadful times.

the pink flowers symbolize: grace and femininity as well as joy, youth and innocence which reflects how Louis wants to remember Claudia i think. also the fact that it symbolizes Grace makes me want to be shot into the stratosphere. like please 😭. This is the pain with the vampire show.

i like the joyful and hopeful tone of the soundtrack as we dive in and get to know who she was. it really doesn’t give away what’s to come. it really speaks to the positive shift her addition to the rue royal townhouse brought, even though there was something much more grim happening beneath it. it also juxtaposes Daniel reading out a passage from her journal that is also bitter against the sweet feel of the soundtrack.

i also like that when Daniel picks up the journal that describes Claudia feeding from POWs there’s a wide shot that includes a blurred branch of the tree. which makes me think about that innocence symbolism in regards to how Claudia and her fate is viewed. Every decision that was made for this scene is encouraging/seducing the viewer to have a nuanced approach in how to we perceive Claudia before we get to the grit of it. Just like Louis/Rashmand encouraging Danny to start from the left—the sympathetic beginning—like i spoke about in the link above.

we see a quick shot of a drawn image of a bell in the journal Daniel picks up to read. bells are usually rung at the beginning and/or the end of something. in this case it is both the beginning and the end as we are introduced to Claudia when she is already dead.

and as we transition into Claudia’s pov Daniel takes the journal closer to the magnolia tree in a shot where the branch is once again blurred in the foreground.

Captain Drake is giving villain vibes...

in the hour or so it took me to draw this op turned reblogs off

EDIT: reblogs are STAYING OFF. op was right and correct and i have never regretted making a post as much as this one. if you want to reblog my art you can reblog something else from my blog. or commission me, lord knows i deserve financial compensation for the nightmare this post has put me through

i think we should remind musicians they can absolutely make up little stories for their songs btw. it doesn’t have to be about them at all. you can invent a guy and put him in situations to music. time honoured tradition in fact.

me when the disability disables me: oh what the fuck? this sucks. what the hell man!

can't believe we're all adults being forced into the club penguin level of censorship in 2024

somehow instead of saying "as a treat", I've started using the phrase "for morale", as if my body is a ship and its crew, and I (the captain) have to keep us in high spirits, lest we suffer a mutiny in the coming days.

and so I will eat this small block of fancy cheese, for morale. I will take a break and drink some tea, for morale. I will pick up that weird bug, for morale.

I'm not sure if it helps, but it does entertain me

the men and boys are innocent too.

we cry "the innocent women and children" to appeal to the masses, to try and force their sympathy, but the men and boys are innocent too.

I have seen sons crying out for their mothers, their fathers, their siblings. I have seen them break down at the loss of their families. I have seen them cling to their dead and grieve.

I have seen fathers cradle their dead children, seen them kiss their faces and hold their little hands. I have seen them faint with grief when asked to identify the dead. I have seen them carry their sons and daughters. I have seen them fasting to provide what little they can for their families.

I have seen men and boys digging through the rubble with just their bare hands, I have seen them comforting strangers, playing with children, rocking them, hushing them, even if the face of such imminent danger. I have seen them cry, seen them grieve, seen them break down into each other's arms, seen them be selfless, beyond selfless, becoming something I don't have a word for.

I have seen the men who are doctors refuse to leave their patients, even when they have no medicine or supplies to give them, even when they're threatened with bombings. I have seen fathers who have lost all their children pick orphans up into their arms and proclaim them their child so they are not alone. I have seen men and boys digging pets out of the rubble.

the men are innocent too. the men and boys are being hurt and killed too. the men and boys are grieving too. the men and boys are scared too. the men and boys are fighting to save their people too. the men and boys deserve to be fought for too.

WARNING 18+

19

maya angelou saying the funniest thing anyone has ever said about editing, which i can never let myself forget EVER AGAIN [x]

can you believe that we have fanfiction. that we have websites dedicated to fanfiction. that there is a place that you can go and read tens, hundreds, thousands and thousands of pieces of writing that strangers have made. people who are not "writers". people who come home at the end of the day and have feelings and say, i am going to put that into words. i am going to share those words. short, long, sweet, sad, horny, funny, wonderful words. we are all just human and we all love to make and remake and share that with others. can you believe that.

If my mom sees a significant amount of blood she gets lightheaded, and has fainted on some occasions. Once it happened when we were kids, I wasn't there to witness it but I heard the story from my dad. Basically my brothers, around 7 or 8 at the time, were playing outside while my mom was making their lunch, and she accidentally cut her finger. It wasn't anything serious, but it drew a fair bit of blood and she passed out. My dad saw this and rushed over, but he didn't really know what to do so he just sort of started slapping her to wake her up (not recommended, but he had no idea and panicked)

At that exact moment my brothers both came in from playing, and all they saw was our mom unconscious on the floor and our dad slapping her. So, like, without even saying a word to each other they both just INSTANTLY start whaling on him, like, full blown attack mode to defend our mom. Which obviously didn't help the situation, but she did wake up and everything was fine.

Now our dad says that he's actually really glad they attacked him over what they thought was going on, because it means he raised good boys. And I still think that's true, they're very good boys.

my dead goth son and his friendly neighborhood personified concept of insanity

her pronouns are HE/HIM

Disclaimer these are just a small sampling of some possible writer traits I’ve noticed either in myself or in fics I read. Also consider a rb for sample size !

Expanding a thought from a conversation this morning:

In general, I think "Is X out-of-character?" is not a terribly useful question for a writer. It shuts down possibility, and interesting directions you could take a character.

A better question, I believe, is "What would it take for Character to do X?" What extremity would she find herself in, where X starts to look like a good idea? What loyalties or fears leave him with X as his only option? THAT'S where a potentially interesting story lies.

In practice, I find that you can often justify much more from a character than you initially dreamed you could: some of my best stories come from "What might drive Character to do [thing he would never do]?" As long as you make it clear to the reader what the hell pushed your character to this point, you've got the seed of a compelling story on your hands.