#werewolf kat

[cancerian-woman]

Unpopular opinion: Tyler should’ve killed Hayley and he wasn’t wrong for trying to.

Another unpopular opinion: I think Michael Trevino (along with Kat Graham) was done wrong by Plec due to him being a non white hispanic man. Tyler Lockwood could’ve been SO MUCH BETTER and could’ve had such an interesting storyline and character development along with Bonnie if Plec wasn’t a racist bum.

Facts. Not trying to make this super long. Hayley would’ve deserved whatever Tyler decided to do. She betrayed him first.

People seem to only see “innocent Hayley who’s pregnant by Klaus” but forgets that Tyler’s intentions were rooted in protecting the werewolves as a species. The irritating part in this is that it was all done on TO. Which means they weren’t going to actually let Tyler do anything to Hayley. Depending on how a fan watches the franchise Tyler looks like the villain here. Hayley even calls him a “backstabbing half breed”. I do find it funny she became a “half breed” and never shut up about being one after that lol.

I talked about how Hayley’s death is a karma moment here.

You aren’t wrong. Tyler is white, but it’s clear he doesn’t look white. He looks NOTHING like his family members. Klaus/Caroline exist as a ship to constantly sideline him. When Tyler was the introduction to the werewolves.

Michael Trevino and Kat Graham deserved better more than words can say. Their characters were used as plot devices and never given the same push as their white counterparts.

Isn’t ironic that two characters Tyler and Bonnie were introduced with these unique bloodlines yet we’re done the worst. I’m so pissed that we learn in TO, Tyler’s would’ve been protecting the hallow bones. It would’ve been pleasing as fuck to see Hayley BEG Tyler for help after she betrayed him.

Julie and the other writers were so racist they couldn’t even at least let Tonnie happen as a ship. Instead, Tyler ends up dating one of the many white Bonnie’s of TVDU lol. (i meant Liv Parker).

[sushisusii]

Geeze Nao, how come your mom let's you have two snuggles?! @aardpuff

[onbearfeet]

Queerwolf By Night: Queercoding, Media Literacy, and Werewolf By Night

Okay, @bluemoonperegrine got me thinking about a thing, so it's time for Media Studies And Writing Hacks With Kat. Grab your beverage of choice, and let's talk about queercoding in Werewolf By Night.

Let's start with a definition, because queercoding can sound like a conspiracy theory if you don't understand the context. In media studies, "coding" means using indirect means (usually details) to imply a state of being without explicitly stating that such a state exists. For example, if you're watching a TV show about a group of high-school friends, and one of the characters is consistently dressed in more expensive-looking clothes than the others, is more familiar with elite cultural signifiers like designer brands, and casually drops statements like, "Oh, yeah, I met him in the Hamptons last summer," then that character is being coded as wealthier than the others. Now, if a knowledgeable character SAYS, "Oh, that's Amelia, her family's rich," then it's not coding anymore. Amelia isn't wealthy-coded; she's just wealthy. Coding is only coding if the state of being is IMPLIED.

Now, why would anyone use coding when explicit statements are an option? Why can't people just say Amelia is rich? There are a number of reasons. First, maybe there isn't time or space to establish every single detail of a character through dialogue. Maybe Amelia's wealth is important to the story, but less important than the fact that she's dying of cancer, or in unrequited love with another character, or obsessed with rubber ducks. Or, second, maybe the coding is a setup for some kind of surprise or reversal. Maybe Amelia wears fancy clothes and has summered in the Hamptons, but surprise! Her parents just went to federal prison for fraud, and she's now penniless and sleeping on another character's couch, with no one mentioning it at first because it's painful for her.

And finally, there's arguably the most famous reason for using coding in media: because you literally can't be explicit about it. Let's talk about the Hays code.

The Motion Picture Production Code, widely known as the Hays code, was a set of mostly self-imposed rules restricting the content of Hollywood movies between the 1930s and the 1960s. There was effectively a censorship board in charge of approving, disapproving, and demanding changes to films. The Code arose in response to a moral panic about sex and violence in movies; studios instituted the censorship board as a preemptive measure to head off possible censorship legislation. At the time, movies were such a new art form that there were serious concerns that First Amendment free-speech protections might not apply to them, so studios came up with this self-censorship system to avoid dealing with external censorship.

And what guidelines did they choose, you may ask?

Essentially, the guidelines were the conservative Catholic values of the 1930s. Yes, Catholic specifically; the man in charge was Catholic and talked a lot about how he applied his personal values to the task. So the Code included rules like a ban on insulting or denigrating religion or its institutions, among other things. There were also restrictions on what kind of crime and violence could be displayed, sex rules so strict that even married couples couldn't be shown in the same bed (if they even sat on a bed together, they had to keep at least one foot on the floor), and you KNOW there was a ban on anything gay. It was called "perversion" in the text of the code, but it meant gay stuff. Or trans stuff. Or kink. Or women being interested in sex. You get the idea.

But there was an exception to all these rules, and it was that more "objectionable" traits were allowed for villains. After all, a film isn't endorsing murder if the murderer goes to jail at the end and everyone stands around saying, "Wow, murder sure is terrible!" Right?

Yeah, what happened in practice was that filmmakers started giving villains and monsters traits that were stereotypically associated with queerness, supposedly to heighten how eeeeeevil these characters were, but actually for any number of other reasons. Apropos of absolutely nothing, here's Peter Lorre being extremely heterosexual with a cane in The Maltese Falcon.

Now, how does this relate to WBN? Well, we all know WBN is an explicit love letter to 1930s and 1940s horror movies. If you don't believe me, here's Lon Chaney Jr. in 1940:

And here's Gael Garcia Bernal in 2022:

So let's talk about queercoding in classic Hollywood horror movies.

Obviously, confining queer material to villainous characters meant that monsters and their movies could be MUCH queerer than the rest of Hollywood's output. It also helped that horror filmmaking was full of extremely queer artists like James Whale, the openly gay director of Frankenstein. He's often brought up as an example of really obvious queercoding in horror cinema, especially in regard to his film Bride of Frankenstein, in which a young scientist is literally lured away from his impending marriage to a woman in order to create life with a VERY queercoded older man.

Look at these proud new dads.

And lest you think this is an outlier, let me introduce you to Dracula's Daughter, aka the Carmilla adaptation with no lesbian overtones, no sirree:

Yeah, queercoding is absolutely A Thing in classic Hollywood horror. It's part of why horror movies are as much of A Thing in gay culture as they are.

The Hays Code went away in the 1960s, partly due to the fact that Code compliance was SUPPOSED to be the one true path to wide distribution and profit, and yet the genderbending comedy Some Like It Hot made piles of money despite not being even CLOSE to Code-approved.

But 30 years is long enough to develop an entire cinematic language, and the legacy of the Hays Code lives on in things like queercoded Disney villains.

Now, let's talk about Werewolf By Night. A movie made under conditions not dissimilar to those of the Hays code in that Disney, for all its vaunting of First Gay Characters, absolutely refuses to put those characters in anything with wide distribution in such a way that they can't be edited out for Singapore.

So if your choices are 1) No Gay Stuff, 2) Easily Deleted Gay Stuff, and 3) Gobs and Gobs of Queercoding That Can't Be Removed, and you're making a retro black-and-white horror movie, you may find that option three makes the best, and queerest, movie. The cinematic language is all there for you, and you know at least some of your audience will pick up what you're putting down. And at this point, it's practically a genre expectation.

Now, I want to be clear about something: coding of any kind is, by its very nature, subject to interpretation. If we say something is queercoded, we are NOT saying that it's explicitly queer or that no heterosexual explanation exists or whatever. That's not how coding works. Queer theory and queercoding are a lens through which to look at a work. Sometimes queercoding is even unintentional; it's baked into so much American media by now that tropes like queer-coded villains sometimes happen not for particularly queer reasons but because an actor decided he wanted to sound like the villain in his favorite black-and-white movie. When I say WBN has queercoding, that is ALL I'm saying--that the coding is there. (And yes, I do realize this is the piss-on-the-poor website. Sigh.)

Queercoding is also not queerbaiting; the latter is where a piece of media deliberately builds up the expectation of expressly queer content and then refuses to deliver, often while mocking queer fans who fell for it. (Looking at you, Sherlock and Supernatural.) Queercoding may be used for queerbaiting, but the terms are not synonymous. Because WBN makes no queer promises (no romantic promises at all, really), it cannot be said to be queerbaiting.

So with all that in mind, let's look at coding in Werewolf By Night. And because he's the protagonist and everyone's favorite woobie, we'll start with Jack.

Look at this man. Enjoy him.

He will be the subject of Part Two.

[saintsir4n]

I think my issue with vampire diaries after many rewatches, fics and online opinion is there are so many useless characters or characters that end up with repetitive arcs or just end up with nothing to do.

I’ll give examples…

1) Bonnie isn’t a character, not a proper one. It was clear she was the magical negro, only there to save and sacrifice her life for her white counterparts. However the reason why I believe most of us love her, other than Kat Graham’s amazing portrayal is because she is essential to every plot.

2) the originals being in season 4. They had nothing to do and were clearly there until their spin off. Kol gave us some exposition on Silas. Klaus was there to involve himself with high school drama, and they wasted Rebekah’s character. They had no clue what to do with them and as stand alone characters they had so much more to give in my opinion.

3) Caroline was a self under and you can’t tell me otherwise. I feel for the girl especially in season 1&2 but after that I clocked out of her character. She’s in scenes where she doesn’t need to be, placed with characters that she doesn’t need to be with… she in my opinion if she wasn’t played by Candace would’ve had a smaller role and pushed to the back like Tyler, Matt and Jeremy.

4) most of the plots were centred around shops instead of any substance. It worked for the first three seasons but after that it just got boring. Most people say season 4 was where the show peaked by it’s clearly season 3 and even then there were many plot holes and inconsistencies, especially with my girl Bonnie.

5) the confederacy

6) the show should’ve been finished in season 4 and had a big final showdown between the mystic falls gang vs Katherine (the original big bad) and maybe an non humanity Elena.

7) Bonnie should’ve had a coven or a witch friend or her grams.

8) “bigger is not always better” this is in reference to villains like Silas. He was pointless and everyone needs to bffr. He was ultimately just so boring. Sure everyone loved Paul acting like himself but omg, he was just playing an exaggerated non humanity Stefan/ ripper Stefan and that’s it. Also his existence diminishes stelena.

9) they should’ve killed off Caroline, Tyler or Damon in season two instead of Jenna. I know Damon is a main character but I like when a show shows off how high the stakes are.

10) the show runners, producers and writers needed more BIPOCS around because majority of the storylines especially regarding race (lemme not start on marcel’s origins because wtf) were poorly written

P.s

They should’ve expanded more on Katherine’s origins, she was one of most compelling characters and although I do not like her actions, she was a perpetrator of sexual assault (Stefan/ Damon were her victims), I would say she was a victim of Klaus and his terror. She both makes me feel some sort of sympathy for Katerina but for Katherine, I don’t like her, I just found her presence entertaining. She not an anti hero more of an Antagonist. I like that she didn’t get redemption, we just saw why she is the way she is yk?

[tomdarsh]

you ever get really excited about something but you have no one to tell it to because it’s

a. too weird

b. you have 2 friends (like me lol) and you’ve already used your texting privileges and can’t text again till they respond out of fear of seeming desperate (i am VERY desperate)

[chess-draws]

cool cat club members enjoying a nice break from work (only 1 of them is a paid employee)

@the-whispers-of-death i hope i did Laila and Monster justice. i did not know what i was doing with them

and @asexualbuthorny woe my silly doodles be upon thee

[h0t-p1nk-ch33tah-pr1nt]

Vampire cherry au..... ughibj

[pamithebunterfly2007]

Coop Burtonburger transforming into a werewolf (request for @softpawsxd)

[fruifruit]

imagine being thirteen and a new werewolf. now imagine you dont know that last part.

[georgcfan]

my questions have questions and I’m impatient so I need season 3 on my television by October

[i-will-physically-fight-you]

New Gibbous chapter not fake news!!!

[talbot-larry]

Kat from letterboxd, if you're here I DO have a ranked werewolf movie list if you're interested I could make it public...

[onbearfeet]

Ted is stoic in the face of three-hour flight delays.

[blackkat15]

I love how they brought back the Hex Girls but I hate how they didn't bring back werewolf Shaggy.

[josephslittledeputy]

Sparrow (OG Verse) || Endymion (Eldritch Terror/Sparrows lovely head guest!) Juniper Valentine, Pre Attollo (Attollo IF) || Juniper Valentine, Post Attollo Kat "Kitty" Bennett (OG Verse) || Sidra Navros, embracing her demon side

Tagged by @inafieldofdaisies @detectivelokis @direwombat to do this picrew, thank you lovelies!

Tagging anyone else who wants to do this and hasn't gotten a chance to! (Feel free to tag me in it!)