#that vicki; by saving david's life; is preserving the collins line — providing the heir (literally; though not biologically) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tortoisesshells · 2 months ago

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#GOD OKAY. the fact that burke gives vicki the locket after laura's death is EVERYTHING to me.#burke — twin to jeremiah both physically and psychologically — giving it to vicki —#the stranger brought inside the collins family; much like josette.#(which. according to much much later dialogue laura *was* jeremiah's first wife before josette.#it's an old song. it's an old tale from way back when. and we're gonna sing it again and again and again.)#that vicki; by saving david's life; is preserving the collins line — providing the heir (literally; though not biologically)#david turns away from laura and chooses vicki; replacing laura as mother-figure permanently;#as he's granted new life after the fire; born again into vicki's arms; not laura's.#the new woman in the collins fold — after the previous wife has been defeated and fire has cleansed the memory (à la jane eyre; or rebecca)#positioning her naturally as roger's wife. the mother of his child. the inheritor of the collins bridal locket.#the locket that distinctly belongs to roger's wedding *night* — tied up fundamentally with sex & childbirth & the provision of heirs.#(fitting then that the madonna and child serves as the vicki-as-mother equivalent to the painting of laura: the virginal birth)#and yet! simultaneously! the cri du sang — david's blood calling out to burke's.#roger notably absent during the fire; unaware of david's danger; unable to help him. burke drawn to him when his life is at risk —#and the one who carries him home; over the threshold; at vicki's side. delivers her the locket from the ash.#of course she is drawn to him — david's symbolic mother; his biological father —#jeremiah & josette; the empire-builder and the lost and lonely bride.#and. the vampire-figure; the parasitic lover. meeting her at the cliffs; joking about her falling from them —#who can give josette belonging by bringing her to the family tomb. (tags via @widowshill)

the locket, motherhood, & marriage.

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#nothing to add but:#[screams] [screams] [screams]#(though. i will say i love how the show keeps revising its own lore. josette's portrait being obviously 1840s/1850s and then oops!#all 18th century!#lmao. anyway.#WHO IS DOING IT [PUTTING THE NUCLEAR DYSFUNCTION IN NUCLEAR FAMILY] LIKE THE COLLINSES [+ VICKI + BURKE]???#and. god. laura. who is the picture of motherly devotion - who's clawed out of the goddamn asylum! - to get back to david! for the;#[checks notes] express purpose of burning him alive to fulfill her obligations as a phoenix!#nope! no critiques of family structure here folks! just good clean american supernatural drama!#there's so much to be said that two people who care the most about david's welfare as a child or human are vicki - unrelated! - and burke;#who while all but explicitly david's biological father has been estranged from him for david's whole life. prison does that to you!#or that vicki almost gets coopted - seduced; even? - into helping further the collins line?#not in the sense of romantically or sexually (though whatever's going on with her and roger is not exactly what you'd call platonic!);#but in the sense of buying into the myth of the collinses?#also. like. driving me batty that josette's locket has david's picture and hair as a keepsake while josette herself had no children?#in the same way that early DS positions Josette as the patron saint of outsiders among the Collinses? those outsiders are her children;#their unhappiness is hers. it's what she has passed on for them to inherit.#[gnawing my own hands off] it's fine it's just a cheap daytime soap from the 1960s it's not ambitious or saying anything it's fine.#dark shadows

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