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droptheguillotineplease · 3 months

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If We Were Villains sketch page

#myart #drawings #sketchbook #if we were villains #m. l. rio #iwwv #james farrow #oliver marks #meredith dardenne #alexander vass #wren stirling

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chaoticmiserablelover · 4 months

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Two people who understand each other deeply. The power they hold over each other's hearts. the trust between them. That's why I keep reading books. It fascinates me.

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shakesqueers13 · 5 months

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The biggest clue M. L. Rio gives us to what actually happened at the end of 'If We Were Villains' isn't Pericles, allow me to elaborate:

Spoilers for 'If We Were Villains' by M.L. Rio below, obviously.

So, everyone talks about the Pericles symbolism and that being proof that James is alive, but I think there's stronger proof elsewhere. In the epilogue, when Oliver is told that James is dead, Filippa is said to have "a copy of Winter’s Tale open in her lap" (351).

If you haven't read The Winter's Tale, that's okay, it is a strange play. (Despite it being, in my opinion, Shakespeare's most explicitly sapphic play!!). But anyway, a key aspect of the plot is that a character everyone thinks is dead comes back to life at the end. I'll explain further:

So, in act three, scene two, a character named Hermione is said to have died after being accused of a crime she didn't commit. The audience sees her pass out, and she's carried offstage where it is said she died.

Hermione was accused of adultery and treason, and the person she was accused of cheating with, Polixenes, escapes before he can be killed for this crime with an advisor named CAMILLO — aka the same name as the gang's fight coordinator who knew James well / became Fillippa's fiancé.

Now, in the very last scene of the play, all the remaining characters gather back together including Camillo, as well as Leontes, the man who caused Hermione to "die," and who was consumed by grief and regret for the actions he took that lead to her death. Miraculously, during this scene, a friend of Hermione's named Paulina reveals that through Leontes's remorse and the resolution of this whole plot, Hermione is miraculously able to come back to life. It's unclear if this is through magic or if Hermione was just hiding out with Paulina all this time and now is able to return to her husband (booooo). She falls into Leontes's arms and everyone is happy again. This is a super weird plot point and doesn't make a lot of sense, but it does speak to the possibility of James being alive!

Interestingly, from that scene, there's also this line: "Bequeath to death your numbness, for from him / Dear life redeems you." - Winter's Tale, V.iii.1280129. To me, this line can easily be applied to James's guilt and reason for theoretically committing suicide. Is James able to find redemption through dying and then coming back to life?

I think the name Camillo is the strongest connection here - there's no way it's accidental. Additionally, this might be a reach, but Winter's Tale is only mentioned one other time in the book, on page 94 when present day-Fillipa mentions, "Frederick wants to branch out and try Winter’s Tale, but Gwendolyn’s insisting on Othello.” The comparison of these two plays seems deliberate - they aren't in the same genre, so they're an odd two plays to be choosing between for the fourth years. However, there is a KEY comparison between the two: they both involve husbands becoming convinced that their wives are being unfaithful, and they both involve said husbands killing their wives—the only difference is that in The Winter's Tale, Hermione comes back to life. Desdemona doesn't. Is M. L. Rio making a sneaky reference to the two possible interpretations of her ending here? Sort of presenting the reader with a choice of what interpretation they chose to believe?

I think it's so cool!!!

#if we were villains #m l rio #james farrow #oliver marks #shakespeare #william shakespeare #dark academia #academia #iwwv #meredith dardenne #alexander vass #if we were villains spoilers

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poppletonink · 6 months

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Best Quotes From 'If We Were Villains'

"You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough."

"You can't quantify humanity. You can't measure it - not the way you mean to. People are passionate and flawed and fallible. They make mistakes. Their memories fade. Their eyes deceive them."

"I don't know, it's like I look at you and the sonnets make sense. The good ones, anyway."

"Do you blame Shakespeare for any of it?" The question is so unlikely, so nonsensical coming from such a sensible man, that I can't help but suppress a smile. "I blame him for all of it."

'She says, “Were you in love with him?” “Yes,” I say, simply. James and I put each other through the kind of reckless passions Gwendolyn once talked about, joy and anger and desire and despair. After all that, was it really so strange? I am no longer baffled or amazed or embarrassed by it. “Yes, I was.” It’s not the whole truth. The whole truth is, I’m in love with him still.'

'I need language to live like food - lexemes and morphemes and morsels of meaning nourish me with the knowledge that, yes, there is a word for this. Someone else has felt it before.'

'Below was the motto: Per aspera ad astra. I'd heard a variety of translations, but the one I liked best was Through the thorns to the stars.'

"We cracked up. [...] But we didn't really shatter until we were all back together again."

'The clock on the mantel struck twelve, and we stirred, one by one, like seven statues coming to life.'

'Actors are by nature volatile - alchemic creatures composed of incendiary elements, emotion and ego and envy. Heat them up, stir them together, and sometimes you get gold. Sometimes disaster.'

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theotherrichardpapen · 1 year

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#its me im girls #this utterly devastated me at 1:30 pm in the middle of the break room #he's out there okay i refuse to believe otherwise #if we were villains #iwwv #iwwv spoilers #oliver marks #james farrow #m.l. rio #spoilers

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pil0ttay · 9 days

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from my instagram lol at a goodwill

i would have included dead poets society but i haven’t watched it yet

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wifeofcamillamacaulay · 2 years

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I love literary memes

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catalvarezs · 8 months

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pretentious dark academia bitches (derogatory) is the secret history. pretentious dark academia bitches (affectionate) is if we were villains.

#idk how much clearer i can make it #the secret history #donna tartt #richard papen #henry winter #if we were villains #james farrow #oliver marks #iwwv #ml rio #tsh #books

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fandomnerd037 · 10 months

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Do you know how frustrating it is to watch a man who is VERY gay for his best friend dance around his feelings for a whole book only to realize them to late, have a sad but beautiful gay moment with him for like five pages (at most), have to leave him, lose him, and get a mysterious letter from him and find out he may be alive only for the book to leave you with the ambiguous ending?

#I wanted to grab Oliver by the neck and shake him #how does he not realize he likes James #especially after James came to his house and the whole morning scene #UGH gay people #jk #oliver marks #james farrow #if we were villains #iwwv #iwwv spoilers

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gooseie · 10 months

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#if we were villains #iwwv #m l rio #meredith dardenne #oliver marks #james farrow #IWWV Memes #iwwv spoilers

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stillabookworm-ifonlyinspirit · 1 year

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If We Were Villains

Foreshadowing, or something akin to that

#et tu brute #oh how it was so obvious and still gripping #not for the of the murder but for the players and their movements and their hearts #if we were villains #iwwv #oliver marks #james farrow #richard stirling #meredith dardenne #alexander vass #philippa kosta #wren stirling #ml rio #iwwv spoilers #if we were villains spoilers

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foundmywei · 1 year

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I finished reading "If we were villains" a few hours ago, so while I'm still going through the 5 stages of grief, here are the gayest scenes between Oliver and James that I made sure to save while reading even though I had no idea at first if it's going anywhere or not.

1. Oliver unconsciously leaning in when James was pretend-hitting him during class. (ACT I - scene 9)

2. James covering Oliver with the fake blood on Halloween. (ACT I - scene 12)

3. Oliver staying with James after the Halloween incident. (ACT I - scene 12)

4. "I wanted to give Richard ten bruises for every one he'd put on James." (ACT II - scene 2)

5. Oliver waking up next to James. "The strange sudden thought that I didn't want to move struck me." (ACT III - scene 10)

6. Oliver kindly informing us that he's the only one who knows every inch of James. (ACT III - scene 18)

7. "I desperately wanted him to stay, seized by the nonsensical idea that if he left, I would lose him, irretrievably.", "Forget to think of her." (ACT III - scene 18)

8. Oliver being blindly, savagely jealous while watching James and Wren kiss during R&J. (ACT III - scene 18)

9. Oliver thinking about James after having sex with Meredith. (ACT IV - scene 1)

10. Oliver going to spend the night with Meredith in the hopes that it'll help him forget about James. (ACT IV - scene 1)

11. Oliver yelling at James that he can't be mad at him or hate him. (ACT IV - scene 7)

12. Oliver having a crisis while watching James and Meredith kiss. (ACT IV - scene 9)

13. "He was my friend—much more than that, truthfully", "My infatuation with James transcended any notion of gender." (ACT V - prologue)

14. ""You didn't tell me." I didn't realize until it was out of my mouth that that alone was worse than any of the rest of it.",

"I never wanted you to look at me the way you're looking at me right now." (ACT V - scene 5)

15. "Worthy prince, I know't." and of course, the not so brotherly kiss. (ACT V - scene 6)

16. "Of course, the only person I really wanted to see was James." (ACT V - scene 7)

17. "You know why.", and James begging Oliver to let him make things right and kissing his hand the last time he went to see him. (ACT V - scene 7)

18. "But more than that—you must know—more than anything, I just need to see James." (Epilogue)

19. Oliver admitting at least to himself that he still is in love with James. (Epilogue)

#if we were villains #oliver marks #james farrow #during the whole book i kept saying I'll go insane if these two don't kiss but i still went insane considering how that ended for them #i got the kiss but at what cost

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demisexual-eddie-diaz · 8 months

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Being in a fandom where the “ship” is actually the whole point of the film/show/book is weird. Like I don’t have to make anything up.

Henry and Alex are in love and actually together. They say the words “I love you”. And yes there’s push back but they’re still almost completely accepted.

Nick and Charlie are together. They haven’t said ‘I love you’ yet but they’re still very much in love with each other.

Oliver admits early on to himself that he’s gay and is in love with James. And, yes, their story is tragic but they both still acknowledge their feelings.

Achilles and Patroclus have been in love their whole lives. The whole point of the book is that Achilles loves him so much that he’d give up his life for him.

What am I supposed to do with this information? It’s not like I need to go read fics to fill the void of them not being canon.