oh ok so its the usual no-homo bullshit you always hear, good to know.

they hate me for my homosexual tendencies and lack of social cues

I have spent far too long making this

Alright look. As mad as I am about the constant shipbaiting and the way Nandermo as a whole is treated by the cast and writers/directors, I am willing to look past it. I will be okay with Nandermo as a super special bromance with no sex or kissing or whatever. IF

AND ONLY IF.

They actually have the goddamn BALLS to commit to it. Because Nandor's entire arc revolves around being unhappy and lonely as a vampire. He wants companionship, he wants to be loved, he wants someone he can spend his eternal life with. We can already tell Guillermo fills that role, but I want NANDOR to realize that. I want him to fucking. Tell Guillermo. That he is his person. And it can be as platonic and chaste as the showrunners goddamn please as long as it happens. Because anything less would mean none of the character development Nandor underwent in the past 5 seasons would matter.

I'm already not happy with the direction they're going with making Guillermo human, but I can understand it. Guillermo thought being a vampire would solve all his life problems and make him happy, just like Nandor thought traveling would, thought getting married would, thought ANYTHING he's done would make him truly happy. They are two sides of the same fucked up coin, and their arcs are so inherently tied together that they HAVE to stick together. Because anything less would fall flat.

Its safe to say Nandor kind of sucks at cheering people up, especially when they involve dragging friends to more familiar fights

NANDOR THE RELENTLESS WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (2019-) SEASON 5, EPISODE 3: PRIDE PARADE

Forgot to share this Nandor art from …. July-ish? Anyway, canon typical Nandor vs. pre-Vampire, human, Nandor with one of his sons.

Still thinking about how s3 made Nandor my favorite character only for s4 to come and make him The Worst

MY FAVORITE QUEER CHARACTERS OF 2023

Okay how come I've seen this a BAZILLION times and not noticed they're wearing similar clothes (white shirt and dark vest)??? Like sure Nandor's got some layers under the cloak but HERE? NOW? At the anniversary??

you know, i can handle a little bit of fun "Nandor is dumb" talk, but i have a net-zero tolerance for any implication that Nandor is not educated.

Nandor would have been incredibly educated in his lifetime.

even (or especially) as a soldier in the Islamic World. being a soldier was more like getting sent to boarding school that's also a military camp. they weren't just concerned with creating loyal fodder for war. they were building the next government officials, generals, accountants, advisors, etc. it was important that young men knew how to read, write, speak multiple languages, learn philosophy...sometimes even studying art and music was mandatory.

if he was nobility (and its most likely he was), take all that shit and multiply it exponentially. Nandor would have been reading Plato at the same age most people are still potty training. he would have been specifically groomed in such a way to not be just a brilliant strategist and warrior, but also diplomate and ambassador of literally the center of scientific and cultural excellence of the age.

so like yeah, he can be a big dummy sometimes, sure. but that bitch is probably more educated than any of us will ever be.

EDIT: turns out the interview is from 2019! doesn’t change the point tho ahaha

In a very recent interview Kayvan said now it’s all up to how patient Guillermo is, and I mean, this is it. The episode was Guillermo's breaking point but I think it was also about the fact that now we know for certain that Nandor truly cares more about him than his own happiness. 

Let’s talk about it

He messed up, he messed up SO bad, but he never meant to hurt Guillermo. He even considered stealing Freddie from him but still chose not to because (to quote him) that would have been cruel. He knew that would have hurt Guillermo and he didn't want that.

We know how self-absorbed he is, it’s not like we’re finding out about it now, but when Guillermo finally breaks we can see how much shocked and truly sorry he is. He see Guillermo’s sadness, he tries to cheer him up (obviously in the most messy and stupid way) and eventually understand that what he did was wrong. He understands he broke Guillermo’s heart, he understands he hurted him very badly. He admits for the first time in 4 fucking seasons he has made a mistake. And a very big one.

That really never happened before.

In 2x05 we found out Nandor burned down Nadja’s village and he never felt sorry about it, he never apologized to her, he never gave a shit about what he had done. He has always put himself first, from the pilot to Go Flip Yourself, literally.

Even with Guillermo, in 1x04 he tried to fix things up because Guillermo was annoyed by his behavior but nothing more. In 2x08 he asked him to return home because HE was sad, not for Guillermo’s happiness. But now he chose Guillermo.

He chose Guillermo over the clone. He chose Guillermo over himself, over his happiness. For the first time EVER Nandor chose someone else over himself. For the first time Nandor acted, he tried to fix things up. HE FUCKING TRIED TO DO A GOOD THING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FOUR SEASON AND HE DID IT FOR GUILLERMO

HOW CAN YOU NOT UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH IMPORTANT ALL OF THIS ACTUALLY IS

I see a bit of back and forth on whether or not Nandermo is queerbaiting, and I just wanna say I disagree that Nandermo can ever be queerbaiting. Queerbaiting is a specific phenomenon in which the marketing of a piece of media is designed to mislead viewers into thinking characters will be queer but then the text does not follow through with the queerness.

Nandermo is never going to fall under the definition of queerbaiting, because Nandor is canonically bi and Guillermo is canonically gay, regardless of if they end up together in the end or not. These are facts about the characters that are confirmed by the text itself, multiple times per character.

If WWDITS were queerbaiting it might look something like that moment in the Atlantic City episode where Guillermo was cut off before he could say the word "gay," and then the later episode where he's actually able to say it never happens, and then we find out the line from Atlantic City was gonna be something completely arbitrary and Guillermo ends up with The Guide in the end (and if your thought is "where's the basis for THAT ship to happen?" that's my point). See the difference? Like I'll be upset if Nandermo peeters out into nothing for no good reason after all this buildup, too, and it would be worth critiquing, but it still would not be queerbaiting.

Just finished this fanart of Guillermo brushing Nandor’s hair 🧛🏼

I'm going to write an x reader based off of this headcanon I wrote earlier:

I'll probably write about this scenario for all of them, but vote for whichever you want to see first!