#essie mcgowan

[buthigor]

[bs-au]

Black Sails x  American Gods crossover

[mask131]

I just discovered the account of Colin Penman on Instagram thanks to @ettume . (@colin_penman, link here: link). He is one of the special effects and makeup guys on American Gods, and he posted on his Insta a ton of cool photos and videos of behind-the-scenes.

Of course I won’t repost all of them, go look for the rest at his account, but I’ll still post the stuff I think is really neat and cool.

Here are a series of pictures Laura-centered. Penman posted a LOT of pictures centered around Emily Browning transition into Essie, because he is so proud and obsessed with the freckles makeup. 

[browningsource]

[sweeneyxlaura]

Given your interpretation of the Laura/Eorann connection, I am interested to see your interpretation of the Laura/Essie connection? Especially since even the actor and creators can't seem to agree on one interpretation. Does Laura just remind him of Essie and that's why he remembered Essie in her face? Is Laura an incarnation of Essie? Or is Laura a descendant of Essie (which is a possibility since her maiden name is McCabe so she has irish roots)?

Heyyy…great question. It’s definitely ambiguous as to how Essie connects to Laura herself, but I think what we’re supposed to extract between the two women isn’t so much about them, but moreso regarding Sweeney and what he’s going through. But even THAT is a little wonky because the Essie story is told and remembered by Ibis, not Sweeney. And him re-telling the story neatly coincides with Sweeney’s experiences with Laura as well as with Essie in the past, and the similarities (and contrasts) between the two tales.

I definitely don’t think the show intended for Essie to be a descendant of Laura, or even if that was their intent, I feel as though they would’ve tried to make that a bit more transparent. And Fuller/Green never really explained what their intent was to cast Emily in both roles - just that they wanted to illustrate more of a connection between Laura and Sweeney, name in this interview (at around 4:12 and on).

We’ve also got Pablo, when asked directly about the Essie/Laura connection, said:

I think the Essie MacGowan thing is a little more complicated because that’s memory, right? The fact that Essie MacGowan looked like Laura, we don’t know whether that’s a fact or if they’re actually related, or if that’s just how Sweeney is remembering Essie. Sweeney owed Essie a debt because she brought him to this country, and he has similar feelings about Laura, but the circumstances are different. You could spin the story in a number of different ways. But what was clear about the Essie MacGowan thing was that he has made Laura part of his reason for being. Whatever that means and wherever it’s going to go, we don’t know, but he feels the guilt and shame of being involved in Laura’s death, and he wants to see her through to the other side.

I think what Pablo’s trying to say is that the foremost connection between Laura and Essie is what he owes them, rather than this idea that Laura, as a person, reminds him of Essie - mostly because they’re pretty different in the most obvious of ways: Laura’s surly and unmovable in adopting any kind of belief system, and Essie is a true believer…as Emily describes her, “bubbly and happy.” Essie and Laura are probably more different than they are similar. 

But the thing they share is their connection to Sweeney and what Sweeney’s debt to them. And I think this is the primary reason why Sweeney (or we) are remembering Essie with Laura’s face. For one thing, we know Sweeney’s memory of Essie (from a physical standpoint) is probably shit, and we can guess this because 2.07 showed how his memory’s been marred over the years through long hard living and hard drinking. 

So, I can’t help but feel like, if he is remembering Essie, he transposes Laura’s face on Essie because she’s the woman who is now, as Pablo says, “part of the reason for his being”, as Essie was to him back when she was one of his most ardent followers. He, as a mythological figure, could only exist and thrive because of her and her beliefs. And while he was existing just fine (sorta) before he met Laura, the idea here, to me, is that she’s renewed some purpose in Sweeney, to help him thrive - some of it because of how feels about her, and some of it because of what he did to her. (Yeah, I’m throwing my shippy headcanon in there because….I CAN. And because I think his “duty” towards her evolved from “GET MY COIN” to “I still want my coin, but i killed her so…*guilty face*” to “I care more that she left me”…)

I’m definitely not saying this interpretation is the end-all, be-all….but I think based on Fuller/Green wanting to draw Laura closer to Sweeney, narratively, and Pablo finding that connection from Sweeney’s POV - I think, to me, this makes the most sense. But I definitely think it generates all kinds of interpretations and none of them would necessarily be wrong. :)

[screenshotingmonstertv]

[ithappensoffstage]

What do gods do?

[jagthepsychic]

"Although it was you who brought me here. Into this land with no time for magic, no places for faeries and such folks."

[calamity-bean]

My rewatch has reached the blessed episode 1.07 (A Prayer for Mad Sweeney), and a couple thoughts:

1. In the novel, it’s mentioned that Sweeney doesn’t have an Irish accent, which he puts down to having been in America too long. In the series, of course, he does have an accent, but it’s not terribly strong in the modern day. Rewatching this ep reinforces my suspicion that that might’ve been a deliberate choice on Pablo’s and/or the creators’ part, as his accent is, imo, noticeably more pronounced in the flashbacks. If deliberate, a nice touch!

2. I am still absolutely dying to understand what, exactly, they’re going for with the Laura&Essie thing. Like... if you choose to do an entire episode where you have two characters, in different time periods, played by the same actor, that’s gotta MEAN something. If both of those characters have meaningful connections with the same other character, THAT TOO has really gotta MEAN something! And yes, yes — I know it could be as simple as “they’re both played by Emily simply because Laura reminds Sweeney of Essie, somehow,” or even simply because Sweeney acts as a psychopomp for both of them (in very different ways). But to me, it feels like something more, especially because Essie and Laura don’t really seem to have that much in common other than looks — they’re both intelligent, resourceful, a certain level of ruthless, yes, but they diverge a lot in their overall personalities and especially their attitude toward the supernatural. All i’m saying here is that this episode feels like it’s implying something bigger, more along the lines of reincarnation / intertwined destinies / Meant To Find One Another Across Centuries than just “Laura vaguely reminds Sweeney of someone else.” Please, please let this pan out further as the series goes on.

[all-that-feminist-drama]

The cast of American Gods and many Jesuses. 

[vegaillustrator]

Happy #StPatricksDay you all!

[franceskray]

emily browning meme: one of three hair colours → red

[stzamericangods]

American Gods - Season One Episode Titles

[browningsource]

[bynightafangirl]

American Gods Meme: [2/2] Locations: Ireland

[screenshotingmonstertv]