#I haven't really organized all my Nadja Thoughts about this season yet so this is my attempt

[ghostlyheart]

I never expected this to be the season that really highlighted Nadja and Guillermo's friendship but I'm so happy it was. Them physically protecting each other was amazing, but in the last few episodes of the season she really goes out of her way to defend him from both the Baron and Nandor even though she disagrees with his choice. That scene of them in the motel together is short, but it says so much. She gives him the lecture about protecting his sire not for Derek's sake but because she's worried about Guillermo and she's trying to give him some of the important vampiric lessons that he's missed out on because his turning was abnormal. I wish we had gotten to see the rest of their conversation play out before she left because it seemed like she was empathizing with him about how complicated relationships can be once you turn into a vampire and learning to accept those consequences. She takes on an almost big-sister-like role with Guillermo where she acts annoyed but also secretly cares very deeply and is trying to help him learn from her own experiences.

The entire household has grown closer to Guillermo this season, but for me his and Nadja's relationship is special because I feel like she's the one who has held him at arms length for the longest. Last season, their dynamic changed because he became the nightclub's accountant, but in situations where she helped him, she always fell back on the excuse that it was in her own self-interest. She could have abandoned Guillermo at urgent care, told Nandor his secret in order to minimize the fallout for herself, not gone to visit Guillermo or advocate for him to Nandor, etc., but now she puts herself in those risky situations because she cares.

Woven through this season there are bits and pieces about her early life and how her turning ended up being kind of a traumatic experience. She mentioned last season that she watched most of her family die (and at another point that she was the only one of her siblings to survive). In "Local News" and "Hybrid Creatures" she talks about being forced to leave Antipaxos and the only place she ever really felt at home. The fact that she was so desperate to escape when they thought they were exposed on the news, even if that meant going without the others, speaks to her being afraid of leaving herself vulnerable. Unlike Laszlo, she also doesn't seem to have many connections outside of her housemates until she begins visiting with the Antipaxos family. I think all that amounts to her being wary of trusting people or letting in others outside her relatively small circle because she's experienced the danger of getting too attached. It's taken her over a DECADE to warm up to Guillermo, but as she becomes comfortable reconnecting with her culture and her human past with the Antipaxons, it makes sense that she would start to let her guard down with him as well. I think Laszlo's comment in the finale about vampires having a difficult time expressing their emotions externally ties in well with this. Nadja is a very expressive person, but when it comes to displaying her emotional closeness with others, it comes across a lot more subtlely. Nadja's arc didn't have the clearest throughline this season, and the hex plot itself didn't really spur much development from her, but I feel like it ultimately led to moments that demonstrate how she forms relationships and the ways in which that's informed by her past.

[davidmariottecomics]

New Job, Boom!

Hey friends, 

Going to be a short one this week, but I definitely didn't want to let it pass without saying a little something. If you haven't heard otherwise yet, I'm now working at BOOM! Studios! Once I can say more, I'm sure I will, but it's early, things aren't really announced beyond that, and there are other matters to turn your attention to. 

Announcements: It's the Global General Strike for Palestine! For the next week, people all over the world are striking from all sorts of regular activity to disrupt the economic systems supporting the destruction of Palestine and to put that time and energy into active protest movement. This is a pretty basic explainer of what you can do and know that doing anything is better than doing nothing, right? If you have to go to work, be visible. If you have to shop, be visible and thoughtful. If you have to rest, enjoy the things you already have. If you want to post, make it about what is happening. Current reports are estimating over 25,000 people have been murdered, with the death toll just going to keep rising between continued bombardments and the lack of resources. Over 60,000 people are wounded, 85% of the population has been displaced, and roughly 1 in 4 people is facing extreme hunger. No hospital is fully functional, for the ones that are still left standing. The IOF (Israeli Occupying Force) has admitted to exhuming graves, and have claimed it's to "find the hostages", but in the face of the other war crimes they've committed, it's hard to believe it wasn't vengeful malicious behavior to psychologically wound Palestinians as much as anything else. While we wait--possibly years--to find out if the International Court of Justice rules that Israel is in fact committing a genocide, people are going to continue dying from this. And so, hopefully, with a bit of concentrated disruption and pressure, this destruction that's already lasted 100+ days may finally find an end. 

In terms of using your power and time, I've mentioned it before, but you could call your representatives. Fax their offices. Email them. Contact the White House. Join actions from organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace, American Muslims for Palestine, the Democratic Socialists of America, and be sure to focus your boycotts (during the strike and generally) on the businesses called out by BDS. You can take some time to read through Verso's Solidarity with Palestine reading list. Make signs for if you're going out protesting, to put in your windows, or coordinate outfits in Palestinian flag colors that show your solidarity. Make sure you're keeping an eye out for local events. If you see art installations, share them, and, yeah, that includes graffiti that bears the message. Let Palestinians take the lead in the global conversation on social media and if you see, say, your reps talking about other things, flood them with calls for a ceasefire in the replies. 

If spending money brings you any comfort and you feel a need to put something into good practice, the Cartoonist Cooperative's page still lists a ton of resources for E-Sim cards.Bisan mentioned today that E-Sims are helpful, but their use is becoming more limited as the overall infrastructure has been so damaged that you need to be in a high place to use them. 

Again, do what you can.  

What I enjoyed this week: Nancy (Comic), Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Links (Video Game), Baldur's Gate III (Video Game), Blank Check (Podcast), Dungeons & Daddies (Podcast), How to Read Nancy (Book), Ted Lasso (TV show), my new big Taschen Ads of the 80s book, Movie Flick Chick Vol. 1 by BonerBob (Adult Comic), The Traitors Season 2 (TV show), The Floor (TV show), having a new phone and slowly getting back up to speed with it, seeing some stuff I had been working on at the old job get announced.

Pic of the Week: As I've been wont to do recently, I've made a little promo image with my announcement, so that's here, but my real pic of the week is this amazing photo of Nadja. She was in the chair sleeping and I went to move the Hello Kitty and I put it on top of her and she didn't move at all! It was very cute.