#young madeline usher

[screensland]

The Fall of the House of Usher, E07.

[nonbinarylesbianherb]

warning - flashing

The fall of the house of usher edit !

[erodingsinner]

Madeline Usher certainly is a milf. Well except she's not a mom but I'd like to make her one if you catch my drift

[themacabrebarbie]

tag drop !

[doyouwanttoseeabug]

oh OOOOOOH their deaths mirror each other. Tamerlane and Leo are both driven to what looks like suicide chasing hallucinations around an apartment that architecturally represents their psyche (as they destroy it), shortly after leaving/planning to leave their loving partner. (Both of them invite her in, at first. Both of them want her there. But now she's in the mirrors. She's in the walls.)

Vic and Camille are both killed/driven to death by Vic's experiments, their rivalry leading to both their deaths (Camille to prove it doesn't work, Vic to prove it does), immediately after they get left by people they are using in professional/personal ways - Camille hires Toby and Tina to sleep with them, Vic dates Ali to get her to work with her on the heart mesh.

Perry and Frederick both die in the same warehouse, looking at the ceiling, waiting for death to come to them - Perry with a look of ecstasy, Frederick in terror. Both of them are in that warehouse because they've been humiliated by Roderick and are now determined to prove themselves. Both get led here by drugs. Both involve the mutilation of an innocent, Morrie. Both of them see Verna not as another character, but something like her true self. And there's the parallel between all the mercy that Verna offers Perry - the most she offers any of them, other than Lenore - and her glee in explaining to Roderick exactly why he deserves to die like this.

And then you get the final pairing/quartet of deaths - Eliza Usher + William Longfellow vs Madeline and Roderick which is obvious but oh my god. oh my god you guys. Eliza's wall of crucifixes and clinging to Christian faith and the sanctity of pain as a way of hoping for reward after death vs Roderick putting Madeline through the agony of vivisection to 'honour' her + grant her Egyptian immortality. Both William and Roderick eat their young. Fuck.

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #12 – What Moves The Dead by T. Kingfisher

I initially meant to read this back last year when it was up for a Hugo nomination, but well – honestly I forgot my copy in an airport waiting room and it’s presumably now living a good life somewhere in a New Jersey compose heap. But a friend had a copy and said they enjoyed it, so! Stole it for a few days, and very glad I did. It’s a quick, fun shot fungal gothic, great for stormy nights.

The basic plot is, well, it’s very explicitly Fall of the House of Usher with a slight admixture of Ruritanian Romance. The Ushers are a genteely impoverished family of minor aristocracy in Ruravia, a less than impressive principality in Eastern Europe. Alex Easton, Roderick Usher’s former commanding officer in some recent war (the Gallacian Army they served in having a habit of getting into these quite habitually) receives a letter from Roderick’s sister Madeline begging company and help, as she is deathly ill. Of course by the time Easton arrives the pair of them look like they’re one stiff wind away from dying, and the estate and the lands around it are both decaying and full of unnerving strangeness. The only person who seems happy to be there is Eugenia Potter, an Englishwoman and amateur mycologist studying the great variety of mushrooms and fungus to be found in the area.

So yes this is very much aiming to be Gothic Classic, at least in aesthetics and trappings. An overgrown and decaying estate several times too large for the last remnants of the family who now occupy it. Genteel madness and disease, hidden behind polite euphemisms and high walls. A deep, atavistic horror at parasitism and the desecration of the human (especially the well-bred, young and female) body by an alien presence. There’s even a cowboy for some reason. It definitely all works for me, but then my exposure to the genre is all a bit second hand.

Speaking of parasitism – mushrooms! The book expresses decay and desecration basically entirely through the idiom of fungal infections, both in terms of metaphor and imagery in descriptions and just in the actual source of the horror here. The lights in the tarn are fungal blooms, Madeline’s disease and her reanimation are both the result of almost drowning and inhaling that fungus into her lungs, and so on. There are two really effective horror beats in the book for me – the image of an infected hare which had just had its head shot off slowly jerking back to its feet as a dozen others placidly stood there and watched it be shot, and the moment of realization that Madeline’s oddly long and wispy body hair is in fact mycelia growing out of her skin – and both play off of this pretty directly.

I very awkwardly didn’t use any pronouns for Easton when giving the plot synopsis because the book actually plays around a bit with gender and pronouns in a way I’ve always loved and wish I saw more of. Easton is Gallacian (unrelated to the actually existing Galicia, I think), and the Gallacian language has a variety of pronoun sets beyond just he and she – one for children, one for God, and one (ka/kan) particularly for soldiers. Which, due to the exigencies of early modern warefare’s manpower requirements, eventually led to both men and women being perfectly eligible to become ‘sworn soldiers’. So y’know, Enlist today! Service guarantees citizen-transition!

(But actually I enjoy the thought and at least superficial sociological plausibility/consideration of what gender means in Gallacian society a lot more than how a lot of modern spec fic just kind of assues that every culture in the world has the perspective on gender of a well-educated 21st century progressive, material conditions be damned).

Anyway yeah, overall very entertaining read. Though Goodreads tells me it’s now the first in the series, which given how cleanly this one ended is not something that fills me with an abundance of faith.

[that-little-bisexual-mess]

I haven't posted here in a long time, but i feel the need to now, to quickly talk about The Fall of the House of Usher.

My bisexual heart was all over the place, the actors performances were top tier (wasn't really surprising to be honest, with a cast like that). Great cinematography as well (again, not that surprising). Great dialogues and story !

I particularly loved Madeline, Roderick, Lenore and Camille. Also, loved Mark Hamill as Arthur Pym. Especially loved Madeline, she's a queen, to be honest. And i ALWAYS love to see T'Nia Miller, Henry Thomas, Samantha Sloyan, Rahul Kohli and Katie Parker on screen. They were AMAZING. Carl Lumbly as Auguste Dupin, Sauriyan Sapkota as Prospero Usher, Zach Gilford as young Roderick and Willa Fitzgerald as young Madeline were also great!

But the biggest highlight was, of course, Carla Gugino as Verna. OH MY LORD. THE PERFORMANCE ! And also, gay panic everytime she was on screen, i mean WOW (yet again, it always happens with Carla Gugino, so not really surprising either). I want Verna to haunt me, to make a deal with me, idk, she can do anything to me, i'll be happy.

In conclusion, great show, loved it and Carla Gugino is a queen !

[flanaganhorror]

Mike Flanagan shares a photo of Willa Fitzgerald (young Madeline Usher), Mary McDonnell (Madeline Usher), and Carla Gugino (Verna) with the caption, "Cannot be prouder to know these three badass, fiercely talented actors! So great to see them celebrated for their fantastic work in TFOTHOU. #thefallofthehouseofusher"

[blueopinions49]

Horror Typology (Villains)

Michael Myers ISTP TiSe 8w9 sp/sx Libra (Oct,19)

Freddy Krueger ENTP NeTi 7w8 sp/sx Taurus-Gemini (May 1942)

Chucky ESTP SeTi 8w7 sp/sx Taurus (May,1)

Norman Bates ISFJ SiFe 2w1 sx/sp Libra (Oct,14)

Hannibal Lecter INFJ NiTi 5w4 sx/so Aquarius (Jan 20th)

Annie Wilkes ESFJ FeSi 2w1 sx/so Aries (April,1)

Patrick Bateman ESTJ TeSi 3w4 so/sx Capricorn

Esther ENFJ FeNi 4w5 sx/sp Aries (April,20)

Pennywise ENTP NeFe 7w8 sp/sx Saggitarius

Carrie White INFP FiSi 6w5 sp/so Libra (Sept,21)

Leatherface ESFJ FeSi 9w8 sx/so Cancer

Jigsaw INFJ NiFe 1w2 so/sx Virgo

Amanda Young ISFP FiSe 9w8 sx/so Scorpio

Pyramid Head ESTJ TeSi 1w9 sp/sx Capricorn

Dalia Gillespe ENFJ FeNi 9w1 so/sp Aquarius

Dr.Bumbi INFJ NiFe 5w4 sx/sp Virgo

Albert Wesker ENTJ TeNi 1w9 so/sp Capricorn

Johnny Swayer ESTP SeFe 8w7 sx/sp Aries

Diana ENTJ TeSe 3w2 so/sx Gemini

James Sunderland ISFJ SiFe 9w1 sx/sp Scorpio

Happy Halloween to everyone!!!

Honorary Mentions

Nancy Downs ESTP SeFe 8w7 sp/so Aquarius

Madeline Usher ENTJ TeNi 8w9 sp/so Capricorn

Rodrick Usher ESFP SeTe 6w7 so/sx Capricorn

Pearl ESFP SeFi 3w2 so/sx Pisces

Candyman INTJ NiFi 5w4 sx/sp Libra

[unapologeticfeminista]

For frak's sake, IT'S 👏🏻 ABOUT👏🏻 TIME!👏🏻

Mary freaking McDonnell receiving the recognition she deserves! I'm so incredibly happy for her.

I know this is gonna be the first of many, Mary's performance as Madeline Usher is outstanding, brilliant, magnificent!

Shout out to Willa Fitzgerald for her work as young Madeline as well. This is how you know a character is well-written and will be unforgettable.

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻✨

[screensland]

The Fall of the House of Usher, E04 — The Black Cat.

[lonelypep]

spoilers for episode 2 of the fall of the house of usher

the end of episode two is just a masterpiece kinda

before i get into the meat and potatoes, this show is very interesting just in the way its formulated. we have a plotline in 1980, when madeline and robert are young, a plotline in the recent past, following all of our tragic bisexual kids' deaths, and a plotline following dupin and robert's conversation. theres so many layers to every conflict in this show so far, and i love it.

we're told from the start of the show that roberts kids will all die. this is already interesting, instead of it being a twist, we're told from the get-go. instead of being surprised at a bomb going off, the writers tell us the bomb is there, making it all the more interesting seeing it go off.

towards the final moments of episode 2, perry is having a conversation with verna, and she warns him that its not too late to stop. this isn't perry's last warning, it's ours. more media-savy viewers couldve guessed perry would die at the end of the episode, but this is our confirmation.

perry's death is ultimately a tragedy. throughout the episode, we see his brilliance. he's smart enough to manipulate his peers into whatever he sees fit, clever enough to rewire a "watering" system, and cunning enough to get some of the most influential people ever into a single one-night orgy. his smarts, his intelligence could've gone towards anything. he could do anything he wants, napoleon says so. but he focuses his time into something this meaningless and inconsequential. but everything has consequences, thats something verna says.

after our warning, our premonition, we're pulled back into the party. wicked game by the newton brothers begins to play, and that is when shit goes nuts. the camera movement is fast, eccentric, making damien chazelle's camera quake in its boots. and on screen, hundreds of people fucking. its a moment without thought, people are consumed purely by carnal desire, and its simultaneously beautiful and disgusting. then the rain starts to fall, but its acid.

the people, previously connected by sex, are forced together as their skin melts together. their screams are unheard, they are simultaneously together and more alone than they ever were. perry's brilliance, consumed by desire for sex, is melted and conjoined with the other bodies in the room. its the scariest thing ive ever seen flannigan make. ive never felt this uncomfortable since a similar scene in nope.

its brilliant, poetic, tragic, and gory and fleshy.

sorry for my rudimentary pointless pretentious essay i literally couldn't sleep until i wrote this stuff down.

[chippdhearts]

incoherent rambling about tammy usher

for a start her self worth issues which are pointed out to her by verna just before she fucking dies. but then this bitch also has like 5 million mirrors. probably because she likes to torture herself as she stares at all her self perceived flaws.

I think she has a very high opinion/standard of what beauty is and this is likely party tied into her mother and how Annabel died young. This most likely gave her a complex with ageing and also her mortality. The mirrors also clearly play into whatever kink she has going on for watching her husband and another woman. This woman who is clearly her little dress up doll, who she is moulding to be either a budget version of herself or the version of herself she wishes she could be (I can't quite tell which.)

This combined with the mirror on her ceiling, an odd choice, is also probably linked to her control issues, she needs to know what is going on, everywhere, at all times. She likes to be in the know, all seeing, as it helps her to feel grounded and in control of the situation.

Personally I read this as i's likely tied to her having suffered some kind of assault/abuse, most likely after she met her husband because she states during their fight that they used to be sexually involved.

Which leads to the fact she has deep rooted intimacy and vulnerability issues anyway. She will not let herself be in any sort of position of vulnerability, she shies away from physical touch (the flinch when bill touches her arms in e1 and pulling away from juno when she tries to hug her in e6.) She has a hard time expressing her emotions, which she seems to be trying to do in episode 6 in her own weird way. The scenes with Bill and with Juno where she has just the faintest hint of tears in her eyes during both before she bottles up her feelings again. I think her admission that she misses her husband was genuine but Madeline shuts that shit down extremely quickly because she clearly doesn't believe that women should have to rely on a man for anything. And Tammy wants so desperately to be able to live up to her father's name that she's willing to sacrifice almost anything to get there. But that moment where she is yearning for her husband to be by her side and for them to do the right thing (save the company) together is the one moment I think she's most like her mother and we see that tiny bit of her shining through. But as always Maddy is not here for the soft housewife approach, she wants results that she thinks only women can produce.

[kikithecoconut]

USHER HEADCANON/THEORY!!!!!!

I think that Roderick had a system of how/when he brought in each child.

Freddie and Tammy he’s had since birth

Vic to me was young when she was brought in like still a kid

Leo was 18

Camille was 20

Perry was 16

I think that the options for the youngest 3 were,

1. They’re fully grown, 18+. He doesn’t have to actually raise them

2. He’s looked into them and knows they would be good at business.

“If you’re my blood you’re my blood” he does mean that but it doesn’t mean that as soon as he finds out you’re alive that you’re in the family.

I refuse to believe he didn’t know about Leo and Camille until they were adults, there’s no way their mother’s didnt try to contact Roderick before he ‘found out’

For Freddie and Tammy he didn’t get a choice. They’re his kids they were always going to be in.

Vic was the first so I think he felt obligated to take her regardless of age. I think she must’ve been young because Tammy tells her “we still remember when you showed up” which implies to me that they were all still kids when Vic came in - it’s also why she feels more comfortable with the older 2. They’re closer in age. I also wonder if something happened with her mother that meant he had to bring her in earlier because her mother wasn’t at the funeral, so dead maybe?? Or just didn’t want Vic.

With Leo, I’m sure he knew before 18. Leo obviously doesn’t care about the business side of things. He’s their press guy he talks to the reporters and whatnot. I think Roderick had people watching his bastards to see what they would be good for, and they found that Leo was confident he was a good speaker, and so they brought him in at 18. Not a child so he doesn’t need to raise him and he has something he can do.

Camille was 20. Complete adult, she’s not on the precipice of being a child or an adult she’s fully grown. Again he must’ve known about her beforehand, they never speak of stepfathers or even imply they exist which means their mothers were all single?? They must’ve needed SOME financial help. He finds that Camille is smart, she’s maybe the smartest of them all so far except for Vic. I like to imagine it was Madeline who really made Roderick utilise Camille. Both options check off for her; she’s over 18 so no raising her and she has something lined up.

Perry is the outlier. He was 16 and he also was obviously not good at business. Because we don’t get a lot of Perry at all, there’s not much info on him so most of this has to be guesswork?? I think Roderick had his 5. Everything was as good as it gets in the Usher house, and then he finds this kid. The other kids he knew about, he found Vic and Leo and Camille, but Perry was the outlier. He came out of nowhere, there’s seven years between him and Camille, and 23 between him and Freddie. He’s just so YOUNG. But he’s Roderick’s blood and he clearly wasn’t living well (“rags to fucking riches”) so he gave into the guilt and just brought him in. He didn’t think of the repercussions bringing a 16 year old into a life like that would bring.

[bluecurtainsstuff]

Madeline Usher and Daisy Buchanan

: an essay no one asked for

—————————————-

The connection between the characters Daisy Buchanan and Madeline Usher may not be the most significant imagery in Mike Flanagan’s The Fall Of The House Of Usher, however, it may have been a key insight into Madeline’s mentality.

Daisy Buchanan comes from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, which was published in 1925, and Madeline Usher was originally from an Edgar Allen Poe’s short story The Fall Of The House Of Usher which inspired Mike Flanagan’s limited television series by the same name in 2023. The version being analyzed is the latter addition of Madeline. In the television series, one of the first appearances of young Madeline Usher is her dressed as Daisy Buchanan. Her twin brother, Roderick Usher is dressed as Jay Gatsby.

The scene is 1979, New Year's night and both twins take a seat at a bar. The curious bartender will later be revealed as Verna (an anagram for ‘Raven’ and a subject for its own essay entirely) and Madeline is laying out a plan, specifically to and not with, her brother; they are laying out an alibi.

The twins have just gotten away with the murder of Fortunato CEO Rufus Wilmot Griswold. Madeline gave him sherry laced with cyanide and seduced him into the basement, which was still in construction. She walks away from him, saying he can have her if he can get to her, but the poison kicks in and he struggles to walk, collapsing on the floor. Madeline taunts him, calling him a “big strong man.” Before this encounter, there had been a business meeting where Griswold refused to listen to Madeline, blatantly sexualizing, and telling her ‘not to fuck with him’. Every encounter between the two shows Griswold thinking he has the upper hand, however with Madeline being regarded as a genius by her brother and the audience, Griswold does not realize who is really in charge until she is laying out her plan for him while he is chained up behind a brick wall. Madeline gets away with murder.

Then at the bar, she is seen dancing and flirting with another man, returning to the bar and telling Roderick it's his turn to dance with someone. Roderick does not want to, and Madeline does not care, telling him that they need to build an alibi. He listens, and Madeline ends up having a conversation with Verna.

While there are many incidents and examples of Madeline’s genius, this is about her connection to Daisy Buchanan, and that she does all of this (minus the business meeting) dressed as Daisy Buchanan. At the end of Gatsby, Daisy gets away with murder, never being caught because she is an ‘innocent woman’ and this is all Madeline was seen as by Griswold. Throughout the series Madeline has an open distaste for men, saying “Men are as stupid as they are simple” in a future conversation with her oldest niece Tamerlane Usher. Madeline went into the situation knowing she would be underestimated and sexualized by Griswold, and her costume perfectly reflects that.

Aside from false perceptions, there is also the point of philosophy. Daisy says “I hope she’ll be a fool- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” Madeline is anything but a fool, and time and time again she demonstrates that she is constantly aware of her surroundings. For example, in a conversation with her brother, they talk about a foster home they had been in, and how Madeline had befriended their foster mother, who practically tortured them. This alliance gave Madeline access to important documents and she was able to ruin the foster mother's life. Madeline is anything but a fool. Furthermore, in the conversation she has with Tamerlane, it seems like she has at least some sort of faith in her oldest niece; she does not want Tamerlane to be a fool, she wants her to be a savior of Fortunato Pharmaceuticals. Her other nieces, Victorine LaFourcade and Camille L’Espanya are both extremely smart as well. Camille in particular consumes knowledge voraciously, using it to benefit her in her family. This thirst for knowledge does end with her gruesome death via chimpanzee, but Camille doesn't seem to regret this.

As for Lenore Usher, Madeline’s only great niece, she is aware of how horrible her family is, with this awareness growing as the series continues. She questions people, especially her father, in both legal matters and about her mother’s care. The Usher women who had Madeline as an influence in their lives were certainly not fools. This is all to say that while that quote may be a reflection of Daisy's outlook and an insight into her beliefs, it is the inverse of what Madeline sees. Madeline sees women as superior, agreeing with Verna when she says “Women are the natural leaders of the species.”

On New Year, 1979, Roderick was dressed as Jay Gatsby as previously mentioned. The twins’ classic couple costume might even hint at the roles they play in each other's lives- or rather Madeline in his. Madeline is the planner, this is evident from the beginning. In her own words “If it was our birthday he would forget to eat cake unless I took a bite first.” Roderick needs Madeline to lead him, to mother him, even. The comparison is in no way sexual or romantic of course, but it could highlight who they became in each other's eyes. Roderick saw Madeline as a leader, a strong woman to follow, even if he didn't realize it. In contrast, Madeline had times when she saw Roderick as she saw all men- something to be managed.

It's unclear if Mike Flanagan thought too deeply into the comparison but that does not stifle its relevance to Madeline Usher’s character. Daisy Buchanan represents how the world perceived her, at least for a time, the opposite of how she saw life, and who she became in her brother’s life. In conclusion, understanding Daisy's relationship with Madeline is key to understanding Madeline Usher, “a queen without a crown.”

[theemptyislost]

Tagged by @atrueneutral, I peeped your answers too! lol

Favorite Ships: (oc/reader/Tavs are all any gender idc)

Raphael/Tav(or OC)/Haarlep (BG3) - Any variation of the three

A!Astarion/Tav(reader, oc whathaveyou) (BG3)

Jareth/Sarah Williams (adult) (Labyrinth)

Lucifer/Reader (SPN)

Madeline Usher/Verna (FTHU)

Rhulk/Guardian (Destiny)

Almond(Aemond)/OC (HOTD)

etc, etc

First Ship: Sesshomaru/Kagome also Kikyo/Kagome and anything with Hiei <- I was young back then.

Last Song: Who Did You Touch? - Montell Fish

Last Movie: Significant Other (2022)

Reading: (listening) The Exorcist - William Peter Blatty

Currently Watching: Re-watching the first two seasons of Locke & Key - avoid the third if you enjoy the series.

Currently Craving: More Vietnamese Iced coffee and TIME so I can finish up these wips.

No pressure tags (and anyone else that wants to chime in): @haru-sen @aevallare @adevilyoudo @ineadhyn

If you have already been tagged, ignore <3