#i think I accidentally drew a religious icon or something

[friszil]

quick helen richardson doodle <3

[nightcolorz]

I know you are not home (home being the internet) but you can answer when you are back

(hey! if you are reading this, welcome back!)

Anyway I've been thinking lately about Marius's handling of Daniel when he was "sick" (crazy) and what it says about him and his core values

Specifically:

Not informing Armand that Daniel was unwell and with him

And

Not tolerating Daniel's choice of creative outlet fully, namely not letting him use recycling and assorted objects to build his little cities and making him use only mass produced packs

I think both things are very telling of who Marius is as a person, he doesn't see Daniel and Armand's relationship as something valuable, he is blindsided when they get back together (which happens basically the second they are allowed the privacy to have a full conversation) and he doesn't think what Daniel is doing with his models as real art

I can't help but think he made sure Armand and Daniel didn't have contact those years because he knew if they did they would both abandon him, but he told himself (and maybe even believed that he was doing it to protect them both out of love)

He thinks love equals control and that love can not exist without hierarchy and subservience

Thoughts?

It took me so long to answer this bcus I have massive thoughts!

I think the way that Marius treats Daniel and Armand when it comes to their creative outlets is rlly interesting and telling and I’m so happy u brought that up. I’ve always gotten the impression that Marius is kind of pretentious about art. He has the whole “control = love” mentality and I think that’s plays into what he thinks art is/means. The way that Marius creates is by making exact replicas of real life or pre existing paintings with his vampire mimicking skills. So his art always comes off as very detailed and fascinating but also impersonal and in some way artificial. When he ends up accidentally inserting parts of himself into his work (like painting pandora into his piece when he’s thinking of her) he considers it in error and erases it. I get the impression that Marius considers art more the act of possessing smth preexisting and making it in his own image, taking control over it by immortalizing it, rather then expressing a part of himself or reflecting on some meaning.

he sort of pushes that perspective onto Daniel when hes under his care by making him use store bought items to create his models instead of letting him delve into his mind to sort through some creativity and make smth of his own. Marius likely thinks that by allowing Daniel to only build things in this specific correct way he is both teaching Daniel how to correctly make art and he is also controlling daniel and any kind of narrative that may be happening by restricting Daniel by exploring any of his self or emotions that Marius doesn’t have a say over. Daniel can’t delve into his “crazy” mind to create if Marius controls what he is creating, and I think Marius sees this as a good thing. The less access Daniel has to his sense of self the less likely he’ll go “mad” (and the less likely Marius won’t be able to keep him docile anymore)

when it comes to Armand, when Armand was a child he was very artistically skilled and inclined. He was so religious and faith meant sm to him that he only drew religious icons, which caused him to be taken advantage of and exploited by figures in his community. When he is sexually assaulted and sold into slavery he represses his childhood memories and his ability to paint. painting becomes traumatically triggering for Armand, and reminds him of how he feels like he’s lost his faith and connection to god bcus of what’s happened to him, and he refuses to do it. Instead of trying to encourage Armand to recontextualize his relationship with art and to use it as an outlet to regain his identity Marius instead takes advantage of the opportunity he sees of Armand being a blank slate and pushes his own views of religion and art onto him as to replace to old ones. I know Marius had good intentions there, and was probably like “by giving Armand a more positive view of this he will be less terrified”, but what he ends up doing is further depriving a slave child from his cultural identity and religious values by teaching him that his faith is the wrong type of faith and he should consume art the way marius does. Marius is once again asserting his control over someone in his care’s capacity for creativity by making sure his perspective is the one that is dominating the creation.

The way I see it, as an artist Marius understands the power of art and creation and knows that to keep his “love = control so these dudes I love need to be under my control” mentality he needs to limit how his loved ones r able to engage with their own creativity so that they aren’t tapping into a level of independence that is beyond Marius’s power.

I think this is also exactly why he limits Armand’s ability to interact with Daniel while he’s “sick”. Armand and daniels relationship is such a hurricane and Marius definitely knows that if he puts those two in the same room they r a force that he can’t push around to his will. But I think Marius is definitely telling himself that he’s separating Armand and Daniel bcus Armand is a mentally ill unstable lunatic who will ruin daniels brain and Daniel is too fragile to deal with that. I also think that since Armand and daniels relationship doesn’t follow this master and apprentice dynamic and is instead this emotional colorful hot mess crazy kid combo who can’t keep there hands off each other and r addicted to each others blood that it’s therefore Bad and Irresponsible (it is but it’s better then whatever Marius thinks is correct 💀) so he needs to be the big parent and protect them from themselves (keep them reliant on him so that they don’t leave him)

thnak u for the ask this is all so interesting !!

[littleholyterrors]

ahh i don’t know horror super well and have only gotten into it ~relatively~ recently as a genre (i’m baby) but it seems like you know horror WELL!!! are there any more thoh movie parodies you’d wanna see?? also!! who do you think would ENJOY horror movies in springfield?? i like to think tim lovejoy does secretly have a side to him that likes “Non American-Christianity Sanctioned Fun”, maybe he had a whole collection of spooky movies hidden away that jessica accidentally found and then uses to torment other kids?? i feel like she’d definitely be the kind to teach kids swears so why not show them scary movies too lol

AHHH honestly i only got into horror a few years ago so i’m still very new to the game but i’m so glad to share what i know!!!

THOH parodies i’d die to see are jennifer’s body, re-animator, american psycho, beetlejuice, evil dead, trick r’ treat, black christmas, hereditary & midsommar (which my bf drew excellent art for), house of 1000 corpses (or any of the firefly trilogy movies tbh but obvs house of 1000 corpses is the most iconic), the cabinet of dr. caligari ... there’s definitely so much more i could think of but these are the big ones i’d die to see!!!

and OOO i love the idea that tim actually likes horror movies, i wouldn’t be opposed to the idea 👀 jessica inheriting her father’s taste by finding his movie stash and tormenting other kids with it would be amazing, like i could see her freaking rod & todd out with them. maybe tim likes horror movies bc they make him feel something, but idk what he’d think of movies that have a religious premise to them like the exorcist or the nun..... he could either love em or hate em

i’m p sure bart canonically likes horror (or at the very least, splatter films since the itchy & scratchy movie he watched w homer is essentially that), and i could also see nelson really liking that same grossout gory stuff. lisa might prefer more intelligent horror, like the recent wave of “elevated horror” that started in the 2010s with movies like the babadook and include movies like ari aster or robert eggers’ works. we HAVE seen her watch itchy & scratchy so i could see her appreciating campy slashers but ultimately being turned off by them bc of how women are objectified and tortured. slumber party massacre might be the exception though, considering it was written AS a critique on the slasher genre’s misogynistic tropes by women.

i ... really can’t think of anyone else who might like horror those are the only ideas that come to mind HFKDHFK obviously more ppl in springfield would appreciate the genre but these r my most fleshed out thoughts!!