#Nola beat

[my-coven-is-claudia]

finally free bitches

[yourbadbehavior]

proton at the goat in nola in april 2023

[welivefast-dieyoung]

I was wondering why bitches were losing their minds. Undo in the year of our lord two thousand and twenty three is fucking INSANITY. I'm mad about Sincerity but Undo??? They're actually very sick men.

[desperatelyfragile]

nola era louis and lestat interlocking pinkies as they walk down the quiet street at night, no one else around. their arms swinging gently with each stride, hearts beating as one. they love to see each other like this; smiles lit by the moonlight, laughter falling freely. for now, no burdens or expectations fall upon their shoulders, and it feels easy. it feels like breathing. it feels like love

[indelicateink]

all i could think was...he meant "I didn't fully appreciate that it was a gift"? "never knew" as in didn't take it in/believe/acknowledge it as.

but yeah, i blinked at that too.

(honestly it always bothered me that they never drop the v word in e1 and louis jumps into this with both feet without any instructional pamphlet on By The Way, You'll Be Eating People, and he suffered it like a curse accordingly)

i have my various cheers and beefs for iwtv s2 but this one is a beef. "i never knew it was a gift 🥺". ok it's an idea that could work but it doesn't follow at all. from what we've seen. it comes from nowhere. nothing in season 2 builds to this concept.

"it wasn't a lie: you meant it as a gift" you could make work if you sprinkle in a few more building blocks. but also how does "i never knew it was a gift" work when in the first monologue in the church lestat calls it a gift. he calls it that.

[secondbeatsongs]

"Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe" with every second beat removed

[splatooshy]

tvdu headcanons

yes these are completely correct, no i do not take criticism. either compliment me and my clever thoughts or walk away.

damon

- pretends his initials stand for ‘damon fucking salvatore.’

- Humanity isn’t something Damon lacks. He ignores it sometimes, but he did that when he was human too

- shy. so PAINFULLY shy. that didn’t change until post 70s.

- fav colour is jade green.

- born in italy, then lily had multiple miscarriages over 5 years and giuseppe decided they would move to america for better prospects, and stefan was born in mf.

- giuseppe despised anything ‘foreign’, and would lock damon in the cellar when he slipped up. never mind that damon didn’t really know any english.

- named his first horse (a shetland pony) sir handsome. loved his horses. hated people, loved animals.

- bibliophile. brains over brawn.

- gets banned from new orleans every few decades. marcel HATES him. also was in nola in 1914, freya and kol both took pity on him/ befriended damon after he managed to piss off the witches AND marcel in one day.

- always had the most inconvenient crushes as a human. the first was the daughter of some middle class storekeeper when he was eight. the second was emily bennett (his secret bff) and the third was a dude with a horse when he was a teenager. stablehand/riding instructor/ young gent passing through, named sebastian. giuseppe caught the boys fooling around one day and promptly shot sebastian in the head, before beating damon within an inch of his life (WOAH I WROTE THIS SO CASUALLY). damon never fully recovered.

- finds grimoires to bring to his favourite witch at the time. often the spells are super wacky and mostly useless.

- chatty and clingy drunk.

- after augustines, physically cant sleep alone, and half the time wakes up only to realise he’s killed his bedpartner (strangling, decap., suffocation etc.)

- in the 30s, he became a professional dancer.

stefan

- fav colour is an icy, glacial blue.

- nobody knows what his first language is. His first few words were either Italian or French, but it’s not certain which one. of course, giuseppe locked damon in the cellar for that.

- first horse was sir handsome, a hand-me-down from damon. loved both people and animals, but most of all loved when damon was introducing him to the animals.

- actually the cutest little child ever. big green eyes and floppy blonde-ish hair. looked like a five-year-old until he was 13? 14? and then suddenly shot up really quick.

- bull in a china shop. brawn over brains.

- the ‘ripper’ was created by lexi. she isolated and abused stefan, manipulating him into whatever she wanted.

- chronic migraine sufferer.

- as a human, he physically could not eat when nervous, which just so happened to be 80% of the time.

- rarely gets drunk but is a very outgoing and slutty drunk.

- lizard brain blood lusty ripper stefan only speaks italian.

- model aeroplane / train / car kind of guy.

- tumbled down into a well twice as a human.

- built the engine for the first automobile, passed it onto henry ford.

enzo

- likes the challenge of getting his way without resorting to compulsion (which is cheating.)

- has the stickiest fingers. he didn’t become a little street urchin in london without picking up some skills.

- turned by jack the ripper in 1888. approached him mid-murder.

- physically incapable of hating damon. and believe me, he’s tried.

- after augustines, physically cant sleep alone, and half the time wakes up only to realise he’s killed his bedpartner (strangling, decap., suffocation etc.)

klaus

- went to college a few times to study art. ended up stabbing the teacher [with a paintbrush] because they critiqued his work.

- was tsar nicholas 2 as a joke, purposely ended the dynasty.

elijah

- slipped ecstasy into klaus’ drink in the 80s just to see what would happen.

rebekah

- had a habit of accidentally wandering as a kid.

- clairvoyant / clairsentient.

- very partial to throwing knives.

kol

- bffs with charles 2, gets knighted (inspired by that episode of parks and rec where ben and andy meet the rich british guy)

- refers to stefan as klaus’ estranged paramour

- mixes vervain and wolfsbane into joints and such to get klaus to chill the fuck out. and mixing vervain into other drugs and stuff so that they’d affect him - damon joins the operation in 1914.

- was jack the ripper in 1888, saw a man drowning in his own blood in an alleyway, just watching as kol disemboweled a prostitute, before approaching him like ‘please sir, can you spare any change?’ and kol was delighted.

- damon pissed off marcel in 1914 and kol decided at that moment they were best friends.

- BIG fan of the ottoman empire. it only collapsed because kol was daggered.

- has grimoires full of odd spells.

alaric

- owns vervain coated knuckle dusters

- basically begs damon to talk history with him.

elena

- pre-accident: queen bee and she knew it. at her core, she is self-centred and used to getting her way. this only changes with her parents’ accident, but eventually elena reverts back into her old self.

- refers to katherine as her identical grandmother

[ - bitchy stares. not even an rbf, her face is just super expressive and you can tell when she’s judging you ]

caroline

- was second to elena all her life, and elena knew how to fuel that envy of caroline’s. but then elena’s parents died and caroline was finally #1, except stefan shows up and it’s back to the elena show again.

[ - well-meaning but tone deaf ]

both elena and caroline are just those bitchy popular girls.

[ bonnie ]

[ i have so many for her but a lot are completely against canon so here’s the ones that could be ]

[ - best cheerleader on the squad // the older girls adopted her as their flyer from day 1 ]

[ - because she’s tiny, yanno? ]

[ - known as the ‘i dunno her but she seems nice’ one, the ‘quiet, seems really sweet but i think she hates me’ one and ‘elena’s minion’ ]

[ - but she’s actually more popular overall ‘cause she does all the volunteering / xtra curricular stuff with caroline and she’s not in your face about it ]

[ - has very weirdly specific daily rituals as to what she eats and when on which day (waffle wednesday), what pyjamas she wears, how her pillows are arranged, etc. ]

[ - she didn’t even notice she did all of that until she was at a sleepover and the other kid’s mum made a different breakfast to what she would usually have on that day and bonnie was like ‘hmm. i seem to be uncomfortable with this. why is that?’ but sucked it up and ate her breakfast without saying anything ]

[andreal831]

i have heard a lot of people deny that Marbekah isn't a problematic ship, and if anyone ever discusses the issues it's usually about Marcel choosing NOLA over Rebekah. But never the fact that Rebekah knew him a child.

And usually the defence is that Rebekah (like Elijah) wasn't an active parent after Klaus' jealous tantrum. I admit that Rebekah didn't fraternize with child!Marcel with the sole purpose of dating him, so traditional 'grooming' definition is hard to apply.

But Rebekah never set any kind of proper boundaries between them. When he initially had a crush on her, she should have explained that they're 'family' now and that's not how it works, thus stopping his crush from going further but not drive him away. She was the adult at that time.

On top of it, Marcel grew up watching Klaus-Rebekah's messed up dynamic. He was a traumatized child who watched these stuff being normalized by two of his white guardians. And the show has never been subtle about Marcel being raised in Klaus' image, or how much Klaus & Rebekah date people that look or act like eachother.

Oh and the casual disregard for adopted kids.

Why do you think Marbekah goes under the radar for this, when Caroline+Alaric, Stelena , Delena and Klaroline are often ripped apart for this exact reason?

Does it have anything to do with Marcel being poc or is it the infantilisation of Rebekah's character?

I used to really love Marbekah. They were top 3 TVDU ships for me. But the more I think about it, the more I have to rewrite to keep loving them. And I do want to love them just because it is one of the two ships I loved that actually got an endgame. But in typical TVDU fashion, the ships that got endgames were so problematic.

I don't think anyone can say Marbekah isn't problematic. It's one thing to love them, but they are deeply problematic for several reasons. One of them will always be Marcel constantly choosing either Klaus or New Orleans over her.

But the bigger reason is Rebekah grooming him. Because there isn't another way to say it. Rebekah knew Marcel as a child, helped raise him, and then quickly got into a relationship with him. We don't really know how old he was but he was at least in his early twenties when they first got together.

For the most part, as you said, I just headcannon that Rebekah wasn't an active parent in Marcel's life. But the show actively tries to fight against that narrative. The scene where Marcel is a literal child saying he wants to marry Rebekah was meant to be cute, but it's gross considering they then have a romantic relationship. You do mention that it doesn't fit the traditional definition of grooming, but I think it does because of that scene. Marcel makes a comment about being attracted to Rebekah in a way that he wants to marry her as a child and instead of seeing Rebekah rebuke this, she is flattered and essentially gives him a goal, saying she wouldn't marry someone who couldn't beat her in a duel. Not that she couldn't marry a child or someone her brother was raising as a son. This is then paired with a flashback of them dueling when he is an adult and they begin to kiss. The fact that they are still dueling all those years later make it seem as if she had an active role in his life. Rebekah's failure to set boundaries and encouraging the crush is a form of grooming. As you said, she should have set him down and explained family. But also as you point out, Rebekah doesn't really understand healthy family.

Marcel being raised by the Mikaelsons turned him into a Mikaelson. In some good ways and some bad. Marcel definitely has a lot of similar traits to Klaus. I definitely think there is an aspect of Rebekah choosing Marcel because of that, but also simply because the Mikaelsons had to keep it in the family or Klaus would lose his mind. Even though he also lost his mind here. But at least Rebekah wasn't worried about Klaus killing Marcel like he had killed every other lover she had in the past.

Klaus stans will say he "punished" Rebekah because of the grooming, but that's really ignoring his entire character and the entire show. Rebekah took something that belonged to him, because he viewed Marcel as property more than a child. This is another reason people overlook the grooming, because people don't view Marcel as a Mikaelson or as a child of Klaus. I've always been curious of where the last name "Gerard" came from. Why wouldn't he go by Mikaelson if he was raised by them? Klaus gave him a first name but not their last name? Potentially Marcel dropped it to distance himself, but even in the flashbacks, we don't see him truly being regarded as a Mikaelson. The show did this because they understood they were walking a creepy line of predatory/incest.

I think Marbekah tends to get less judgment than the other ships because people think Marcel and Rebekah are morally superior than the other characters. This is not true for everyone, just something I've seen with both of their stans. I love Rebekah, but I get attacked if I ever criticize her for how she treated the teenagers in TVD. Or the fact that Rebekah dated teenage Matt and used money and the ability to travel to persuade him to be with her. Or when I compare Marcel to Klaus, because they do have a lot of similarities. I've noticed with a lot of characters who may have less terrible deeds under their belt get away with murder, literally. If you criticize them, people will respond with "You like x, and they've done worse," instead of holding their character accountable. Or like with Klaus, their abuse is used to excuse all of their misdeeds.

People will argue that Rebekah was turned as a a 16 year old teenager so she was a teenager and it was fine for her to date teenagers, but then Marcel being with her at 25 years old is problematic as he's an adult sleeping with a 16 year old. Or Even Damon who was turned at 24 years old. So that argument is still problematic.

I do think Marcel being a POC does play a role. POC children and teens tend to face "adultification" in media, so people are less concerned about them being groomed or taken advantage of by adults. I do also agree that Rebekah is often infantilized. I blame a lot of her behavior in TVD for that. She behaved like a child. But in TO, they matured her so much, even in the flashbacks. If TVD Rebekah was with Marcel, I think that would have felt creepy on his part.

Like I said, I do still enjoy Marbekah, but I can't think about it too much or it grosses me out. I do prefer my ships to be age appropriate and contain the least amount of toxicity we can expect from a series like TVDU.

Thanks for the ask!

[remaineds]

muse: nola harris. late twenties. daughter of a crime boss. fiercely independent, vain, insecure. constantly trying to get out from under her father’s thumb. open to: f/nb plot: killing eve type beat. nola’s father, a notorious crime boss, has ordered her to kill your muse, while their boss has done the same regarding nola. the problem is, they have a mutual attraction that makes things... difficult

“so,” she starts, calm as ever as she twirls her gun haphazardly in one hand. “you found me. congrats.” is there a chance nola made it easy for her? that she wanted to be found, to finally reach the endgame of this months long dance they’ve been doing? “now what?”

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep7 Musings - Loustat: The Trial (Spoilers)

Imma split my Loustat musings into 3 parts, cuz there's A LOT to unpack. So I'll do the Ep3/4 & Ep5 revisits in the next posts; this is just general/initial Louis & Lestat stuff I wanted to respond to.

They beat the dog snot outta Louis, omg. They nearly snapped his neck! Louis was barely conscious, ofc his memory's spotty.

I LOVE how they're emphasizing the physicality of the Maker-Fledgling bond, first w/ Lou & Madz, now w/ Les. It's ofc all wrapped up in how much Loustat loves e/o, but its also their blood connection thru Amel. (I wonder how Louis Merrick'ing himself in Ep5 affects his connection to Amel if his heart didn't stop, cuz Armand stopped him from burning too much?)

And I love what Jacob said in the Insider, afterwards.

Fear that Lestat's come to exact revenge; excitement (a frisson of both negative & positive emotions, excited to see Les just cuz of the tension of having not seen him in so long, but also having all his nerves & senses tingling cuz of the tense anticipation & not knowing what to expect--hence: fear); fury cuz this whole mess could've been avoided if Les had told them WHY European vampires should be avoided at all costs; and relief cuz Les's' alive, his husband's ok.

But this time Lou KNOWS he's the real deal, cuz he can FEEL it--"it wasn't NOT his hand." And Dream!Stat jumpscare in Dubai, well well well; I thought Lou'd stopped seeing him on that Parisian bench? 👀

Here we effing go, whatever this French bish has to say better be good 🍿🍿🍿

I HATE HIM YOUR HONOR 🤣 Omfg take ONE thing seriously! Not the Roland-Garros, STFU! XD Lestat going off script got the coven like WTF?!

OML 🍿🍿🍿

Well that's not helpful at all--WHICH ONE!?

Les was asleep for the whole 100 years b4 he went to NOLA--but we KNOW this can't be true, cuz Les met Marius after he left Paris❗ SAM (the vamp) has been mouthing the words to this whole script, so I wonder if that's just what Les was TOLD to say, OR! It's what HE told THE COVEN, so they wouldn't know about TWMBK❗❗

NOT LES DOING A PIROUETTE INTO THE EARTH STAHP OMG 😭

THIS GAY QUEEN CAN'T HELP HIMSELF, I CANNOT

Awoke in 1908 & disembarked in humidified daughter of Paris, NOLA--but Les told Lou he was headed for Saint Louis, Missouri. 👀

"And who did you meet there?" DANG this is TENSE--Loustat finally making eye contact for the first time, Les having to see his husband all beat up & sad; as Claudia languishes in the background, as usual.

Not Louis with the cigar 😭

"The ACCUSED," LOL, Santiago had to catch himself--stay dehumanizing the violent evil Black man whydontcha; we see you. And Lestat had to feed him his own lines after derailing everyone with that homophobic soldier's evisceration.

Omg this sounds like every court case b4 they throw the book at a Black man. And the bored unaffected way the white audience just rolls their eyes & shakes their heads & smokes--they DGAF about Lou; they've already decided he ain't ish--A STONING.

LOUIS FACE. This is EXACTLY how folk in the fandom talk about Lou--and it came back with a vengeance during all that Loumand Maitre/Arun crap, as y'all were QUICK to jump on Lou being an evil pimp, even though your fave Daniel literally said that was just kinky roleplay Armand didn't take seriously when ish got REAL.

I thought y'all were just bartering for the "last bouquet of lilies"!?

Oh great, the coven's making Louis look like a perv predator. 🤦‍♀️ And the visual centering of Lou's dastardly mind-control waves like a halo over sweet innocent victim Lestat's blonde head, I CANNOT.

Omfg Louis face, SAME! If this crocodile-crying liar don't take his To Kill A Mockingbird, Central Park Five lookin arse off that stage! 🤬

Omfg Lestat I'm finna kill you myself. Omg this nonsense is too much; I know Lou, speak up, YES! But also, STFU, Les is actually tryna save your life by tearing your reputation to shreds. 😬🤦‍♀️

I loooove this effect when the coven uses the Mind Gift on them. They effed him up so bad his left eye started hemorrhaging. 😭

Armand don't you look away for an INSTANT, don't you even BLINK! You could've prevented this, EFF ALL Y'ALL in this nasty AF Theatre!

This gaslighting is hitting way too close to the way IRL court cases go when the innocent get the book thrown at them for crimes they didn't commit.

This is so painful to watch, but Sam Reid you better werk; the way he was yelling those lines had me shook, oml.

Les knows he's effed up, but what can he do? His eyes are going red; he's gonna cry. (His contacts look different, I thought they said they were gonna stick with purple eyed Les?) "I offered it to him in the church on the altar: My companionship." And Lou nodding along, cuz that was their wedding! 😭💔

I was wondering how these frames would be used. It's about the Ep3 race riots and vampire loneliness, the night Louis left & Claudia was made. But I love the implications, cuz how could humans know ANYTHING about hows vampires feel--which is SO important when they start lying about everything else that went down with how Claudia was made and how it would affect her as a "defective" vamp.

Even the VAMPIRES don't know how other vampires feel, and the capacity they have for enduring--Armand said it over & over to Louis in Ep3 and Madeleine in Ep6. Lestat came closest in S1 when he commented on Claudia's eternally 14-yr old metabolism & needing to eat more than an normal vamp, but beyond that none of them had a effing clue what Claudia was going through. They don't know REAL loneliness, even with her diaries telling them what she thought, not HOW SHE FELT.

(And I'm reminded of what I said here about Gabrielle telling Lestat what her loneliness felt like. I think "vampire loneliness" is different for every vampire; which is precisely why Gab (and Claudia) was able to walk away from her Maker/son & live alone; while Nicky & Louis went crazy.)

Lestat crying blood tears, daaaaang 😥

Kill this dude (but I stan a Loustat ally, LOLOL).

Imma stop here, cuz I've run out of Tumblr's stupid 30-pics per post, and the Ep3/4 revisit that "took all the pieces of Louis life, defiled them, bent them into a Lestat-shaped effigy" is IMO the JUICIEST part, with the most new meat to chew on.

[nalyra-dreaming]

I was reflecting on Lestat’s role as “pater familias” aka the autocratic Father of the unholy family in NOLA that was portrayed in the second half of s1, and I feel like that was not how Lestat was at first, at all. He was much more relaxed, him and Louis were equals and equal parents to Claudia, but that completely changed. It reads as if he took that role only after Claudia started acting up and asking questions he couldn’t answer to.

To only show watchers it reads as him being a controlling asshole that disliked the fact that his daughter wanted to be independent, but we know it’s not true. We know Lestat’s background. And based on that, I feel like Lestat began to unconsciously emulate his father to protect, but did the exact opposite. (Show watchers should kind of see it coming because Lestat talks about his shitty home life in the FIRST EPISODE, but oh well you can’t have everything now can you)

The fact Lestat broke many cycles of abuse is extremely overlooked. He didn’t have that many boundaries with his mother, but he did establish them with Claudia. He was given nothing unless he was severely hurt prior, while Claudia had all she wanted and he gladly spoiled her. Where his family didn’t bother to tell him what he did wrong because they didn’t care to, he tried to show Claudia that actions have consequences. He broke so many cycles of abuse coming from his family, because he genuinely loved Claudia, but also reinforced the one he had yet to recognize as abuse, aka the one at his father’s hands disguised as discipline. Lestat’s father was controlling and didn’t want his son to leave, but it was purely because he didn’t want Lestat to “shame” the family with a lowly place as a priest or as a disgraceful actor. Lestat kept Claudia with him and controlled her because he wanted to keep her in check and protect her from the outside, for her own sake. And lastly, the marquis was genuinely a shitty person. Lestat wasn’t. His father beat up a child because he could, Lestat had outbursts of anger because of the frustration of having to lie to his family and them hating him. And it’s genuinely heartbreaking to see a man who loves his family to death be reduced to emulate the abusive asshole that broke his spirit in a desperate attempt at keeping his husband and daughter safe, because he literally has no one else to emulate.

But going back to the main point, it really feels as if Lestat went from being the mother (life-giver and primary educator) to the Father (controlling and raging). There’s this huge tonal shift in him, which I think is also dictated by the fact Nicki too was acting like Claudia was in that moment, and he didn’t want to lose her too. I don’t know if it’s mostly because of what I’ve just said, because of his father, or because Claudia souring her opinion of him + Louis having the perception of past Lestat fucked up by Armand, that the viewer initially perceives Lestat that way. Personally? I think all of them. I think we’ll see Nicki go mad with some crazy parallels to Claudia that will explain why he was so set on being rough on her rather than gentle, as love didn’t save Nicki, and i also suspect that many of the scenes where Lestat was overly cruel to either Louis or Claudia or both were twisted to fit the “shitty ex” narrative Armand established. Not that Lestat didn’t act shitty at times, but the NOLA and dream versions of Lestat don’t feel like s1 him at all.

Thoughts? I really hope they show this part of Lestat’s character properly. I understand casual show watchers being unaware, but the abuse Lestat suffered is talked about in the first episode, that should be source of some sort of understanding of his character, shouldn’t it?

So for one, a lot of the reasons why Lestat acted the way he did will only be seen in season 3, and seeing is always different than just hearing three sentences of comment from a character.

And then the first two seasons were shaped to present Lestat as exactly that - an abusive asshole, which is also how the books go.

That was deliberate. Jacob said Louis "presented Lestat as a monster".

The tale broke at the end, and it will be different from hereon.

Of course there are parallels. With Nicki and Claudia, but also between Nicki and Louis. The feeding, the depression. The way Lestat acted out on temper, and tried to be the stern father, when Louis wouldn't be.

It will be immensely interesting to see this past you address here come to life, to see the parallels click into place.

To see the cycles of abuse in action.

I'm not sure if I have further thoughts on all this at this point - you laid out all the main points already, a lot of what we'll likely see^^. I just know the echoes and parallels will be ... uncomfortable.

And I bet rewatching after s3 will be give us quite a lot of "oh shit" moments.

[lexdelioncourt]

TW: Mentions of DV

Listen, I love AMC's IWTV with my whole vampussy but I don't think I'll ever understand why they chose to make Lestat so abusive. Like yes, he's a douchebag, an asshole, a slutty little diva, a menace to society, and yes he kills people (he's a vampire, duh) ... but beating the shit out of Louis and dropping him out of the sky??

I'm nearly at the end of re-reading TVL right now and I love this little asshole. I always have. But thanks to AMC, people think I'm a DV apologist.

I'm fairly new to the AMC fandom (although I've been in the VC fandom a lot longer) so if there's discourse I've missed, please feel free to share it.

(Also I know Anne did her own little character assassination on him in later books but this is specific to the IWTV Loustat NOLA era)

[lightthewaybackhome]

I enjoyed watching the Game and the Ark together because they stand in contrast to each other as the best and worst of Sheppard and McKay.

In the Game we see McKay's arrogance and Sheppard's aggression unmitigated by any of their other virtues spread through a whole culture. Both of them are plagued with stubbornness and unwillingness to see the other side of the picture. Sheppard and McKay have to work overtime to try and keep their worst sides from hurting each other. I think this is a major part of their friendship.

McKay has almost no friends because he's so hard to work with. It's shown in such a hysterical way when Nola refuses to believe that Baden's citrus fruit is anything but an insult.

Sheppard too struggles in the friend department because he's aggressive and doesn't follow the rules. Baden actually cheats at the game and orders the attack on Nola and her people. This shows Sheppard as a man who, mostly before the responsibilities of Atlantis settle on his shoulders, might have just been a bit too quick to pick a fight.

Oddly, McKay finds a friend in Sheppard, and Sheppard a friend in McKay. They are proof that Nola and Baden aren't one dimensional, and can not only get along but thrive together.

(Also, I will always love Sheppard beating McKay at chess at the end and I will always love LORNE! and Radak playing the game.)

The Ark stands in total contrast to the Game. It is Sheppard and McKay's qualities dialed up. It is Sheppard talking McKay down from panic, calming Ronon with a promised fight to the death, knowing Atlantis (LORNE!) will come for them, fighting to save his team, and then willingly sacrificing himself for Teyla. The look on his face when he's breaking through the door is gold. He is a determined man ready to kill if you touch his people, which you did, so prepare to die.

The episode ends with Sheppard reiterating yet again that he would willingly give his life for any of them, even McKay.

Rodney is also at his best. Excited to explore, quick on his feet, comes up with solutions, listens to Sheppard, tries to save everyone, and tries to talk Sheppard out of risking his life. I love the moment he tells Lorne he's not going back to the Jumper because they don't leave their people behind, and Lorne gently agrees and explains that he's not leaving anyone behind.

Rodney may be quick to panic and quick to tell you how you're going to die, but he too will do anything for his team.

Watching these two episodes back to back is great because of the contrast they provide. Sheppard and McKay at their worst and then Sheppard and McKay as they are, which are two men who have worked against their worst traits for the sake of others.

...and next is Sunday. Big, sad sigh.

[pynkhues]

https://www.tumblr.com/pynkhues/765745419207819264/sorry-for-bombarding-you-with-asks-this-morning

Mmm, I guess one could say that Claudia leaving and Louis’ subsequent depression are a consequence of Lestat’s abuse (true) but I agree, the problem was already present. After the fire Louis had already partly detached himself from human society, who could blame him all things considered, and made Claudia the center of his world and his main source of purpose and meaning. It was bound to end badly, tbh, and if was unfair to her and to himself.

Totally! I mean, it goes back to the whole point to where turning Claudia is never about Claudia for either of them. For Louis, it's about being seen as something good (she sees him as an angel after he's just done something completely monstrous with not just the mutilation of Fenwick but the tap on effect of the attack on Black homes and businesses), and for Lestat, it's about giving Louis what he wants so that he will stay with him.

I know I just said in that other reply that Claudia was a new purpose for Louis, and I think she was, but she was also him wanting to have a mirror that reflected back at him something he wanted to see, which, tragically, is the reason a lot of people have kids. The problem is that Claudia isn't a mirror, she's a child, then a woman, and when she is reflecting them, I do think Louis tends to see Lestat in her and not himself.

Which, y'know, is something I actually love, because I think the show's done a great job of showing that she - like any child - takes equally from each parent. One of my favourite beats from s2 is Louis talking about her always marching to the next X on the map like that isn't a part of him. It's exactly what he did in NOLA era with the brothels and The Azaelia, and it's how he treats photography and art too. They're both pretty achievement-oriented people, and that delights me, haha, to say nothing of both their penchants for white French people.

But yeah, idk, that thread also I think is a reflection of the broader tendency to want to rob Louis of agency in fandom. Like, of course, a lot of that shifting engagement in human affairs is stoked by depression and other things out of his control, but a lot of the times he's also choosing not to engage, which is exactly what he does in Romania and Paris. Let him hate people! It's in his nature!

[klonnieshippersclub]

Don’t you think Bonnie and Marcel would be a badass duo? Like when she’s with Klaus. She’d have to beat his ass for what he did to the witches though.

Yeah, I have to agree with this Boncel would be a fun duo. I could see them calling each other out on their own hypocrisies. Admiring each other for how loyal they are to other people. Bonnie would snap on him for deeming other witches to servitude. Bonnie LOVED meeting other witches (Lucy, Liv and Nora) she’d be elated to finally be able to connect with other women or men that are like her. Or meet other vampires that aren’t so Salvatore-type. Bonnie was friends with several vampires don’t see why she wouldn’t take a liking to Marcel after she got to know him. In a Klonnie sense of things Marcel would find it ironic was almost killed and then saved by a self-taught Bennett witch. I believe Bonnie would’ve sided with Klaus on his thoughts of Marcel and Rebekah’s relationship.

Kat was open to appearing on The Originals in the past but changed her mind after TVD ended. We all know why.

You didn’t ask this part but I do want to say I do find it strange some people think Bonnie going to NOLA is a good idea only if she remains in the “Anti-Mikaelson bubble” (Davina, Vincent, Marcel etc) circle not interacting with anyone else. It’s okay if Bonnie shows up to play the savior but not okay if she hypothetically decided to talk to the Mikaelson’s for whatever reason. Bonnie does canonically know the Mikaelson’s and her bloodline through Ayana did have a past with them. It’s always “I love Bonnie,” until it’s time to think out the box for Bonnie. Everyone in the anti-Mikaelson group ends up tied to a Mikaelson permanently anyways. So I don’t get what’s the excuse for why Bonnie couldn’t make connections. Vincent has a child with Freelin, Marcel does end up with Rebekah and same for Kol and Davina.

That’s all I’m going to say there.