#pre-Barnabas

[whatithinkaboutdarkshadows]

Episode 1172: The Deck Chairs

Black characters I wish they’d had in Dark Shadows.  Episode 1172: The Deck Chairs

[portablegoose]

I thank the merciful lord every day that the magnus archives did not exist during the 2014 tumblr era, because if it had Elias Bitch Bouchard would 100% have become one of those selfcest tumblr sexymen and I don't think the fandom would survive that level of carnal degeneracy.

[dunderella]

the zoo is open, come get your little guyyysss!!!

also, the dominants all have special holographic clasps :)

[barnabascollins]

(via @/starpeace.)

[widowshill]

pre-barnabas DS + headlines.

[greenscircus]

"You will never rest, Barnabas!  And you will never be able to love anyone-for whoever loves you will die.  That is my curse, and you will live with it-through all eternity!"

[tortoisesshells]

if you were in control of a dark shadows adaption (or, hypothetically, could alter the original; whichever you find more interesting to think about!) what does your ideal version of 1795 look like? are there things you would change? things you’d want to keep?

Let me preface this by saying I do genuinely like or appreciate a lot of the 1795 arc! When it's at its best, it's a tragedy born out of hubris and the terrible things we'll do for the people we love (or the terrible things we'll do to hold on to love. or the problem of love without respect). I'm up to episode 741, and the confrontation between Joshua and Barnabas over the latter's coffin is still one of the best scenes in the show, for my money. That said; Broadly speaking, most of my problems with 1795 either have to do with characterization, or with historical context: that DS's unwillingness to delve into historical realities undercuts its ability to talk about monsters, and that it completely mishandles Vicki to the point of functionally ruining the nominal main character (who, to be fair, was already being pushed out).

Historical Context: DS loves the past, conceptually, but it really doesn't deal in historical conditions, and that's on full display in 1795 - witchcraft trials? zippers? claiming a house built in the early 20th century, with the attendant architectural style, was actually built in the years leading up to 1795? okay. I forgive that, because we do live, narratively, in a world with witches and vampires and curses and passenger rail service north of Portland, ME after 1965 - and in a make-believe world where the costumes are as good as a budget of a crisp single and a pb&j can make 'em. I say this mostly lovingly: DS simply is not the kind of show that cares about historical plausibility, let alone accuracy. Plus, Reverend Trask was great, and on the basis of giving Jerry Lacy scenery to chew on, the witchcraft trial plotline is excused.

More seriously and damningly, I do think it's a glaring omission on a show being made and aired in the late 1960s to have three characters said to be from the (fictional) wealthiest family of planters and enslavers on Martinique and have that go unexamined and unpacked, especially when commentary on class in Collinsport has been a constant undercurrent (sometimes more of an under-trickle, or under-vague-breeze) since episode one - and because Joshua Collins is very explicit about how beneficial the connection between the two families will be for the Collinses, who always need cargo for their ships. [Since David Ford's here, you'll forgive the reference to 1776: "Molasses to Rum" playing vaguely in the background] But that's the problem with Post-Barnabas DS. Since there's a Collins running around befanged and literally drinking the blood of others, the show's lost interest in discussing how, exactly, the Collinses became wealthy and powerful, beyond the odd occasional reference to the fishing fleet and cannery or, in 1795, the shipyards. We've got a real vampire, what do we need all that metaphorical monstrosity and class/race/gender analysis for?

As a choice the show's made, I think it fundamentally undercuts one of the show's most reliable and interesting points of commentary: how charming and human some monsters are, or that humanity and monstrosity are not entirely mutually exclusive conditions.

also speaking of monstrosity. the show excuses Barnabas for so much outright evil because he preys on sex workers, primarily, and other assorted poor men and women of Collinsport, who the show ... doesn't really see as people. but that's a separate but not unrelated rant.

Characterization: really, this is about Vicki. So much of what I dislike about 1795 has to do with Vicki's characterization changing for the worse (granted, I think this problem starts much earlier, but see digression a below) once she hits the ground in 1795, AND that the 1795 arc continuously insulates her from the important parts of DS's narrative. If the whole point of Vicki landing in the past was to explain how it all began (whether that's Barnabas's vampirism, or the opening of the great house at Collinwood - Sarah's ghostly goals are unclear here), she's party to neither: Vicki spends very little time in Collinwood, and is kept completely apart from even a hint of knowledge that Barnabas is a vampire. In effect: Vicki, as nominal main character, gets sent into the past, but not as a character - she's just a windowpane, or a magic mirror as far as her importance to the narrative goes. Which is unfortunate for her, because as a character taking up space, she's given screen-time without agency, intelligence, or inner life. The only change that being dragged by her puppet strings through 1795 effects in Vicki Winters is a rope-burn from a failed hanging, an infected gunshot wound, and a I-wish-he-were-more-permanently-dead rebound boyfriend whose response to Vicki panicking about being hanged was to slap her for being hysterical.

Forgive me for being unimpressed.

As far as fixing it goes - there's where I've been striking out. She's fatally passive in 1795 as written. Why doesn't Vicki try to figure out how to get back to her present? (and if she doesn't, perhaps ... gesture at why Vicki might feel like there's not a lot to return to in the present? She nearly jumped from Widows' Hill about 10 episodes before 1795 started.) Why does Vicki persist in making herself suspicious, when she was introduced as a character hampered more by inexperience than true ignorance? In the idea 1795 that lives in my head, why wouldn't Vicki try to figure out who the real witch was, because - given her experiences with the supernatural! - surely a witch might be any help in getting her out of the 18th century and back into the present? End of day, she needs a real plot which doesn't end with her in prison unconnected to the Collinses. Whether that's searching for an escape hatch back to the Swinging Sixties, or Sarah's ghost giving her clear instructions - some kind of a goal! - Vicki either shouldn't exist in 1795 (recycle Moltke as another Collins sibling? that would add a wrinkle to the question of Vicki's antecedents) or she has to be given something to do.

&, finally ...

Digression A: In fairness to the 1795 arc, I think the arc was only following a pattern of characterization and plot involvement that started with Barnabas's arrival: first, that Vicki initially wasn't really involved in the Barnabas plot because she was more involved with the Liz & Jason plot, and, unfortunately for Vicki, everyone still talks about Barnabas, where no one (alas for Patrick and Bennett!) talks up the blackmail thing; second, I think, that the one-two punch of the definitive end of the era of metaphorical monsters & the Burke recast meant that a lot of the dramatic tension that Vicki was carrying either got dismissed or dissipated. We're not playing Jane Eyre any more, we're doing Dracula: Vicki's relationship with Roger and David no longer bears any dramatic weight. We've completely sidelined the question of Vicki's origins, so whether or not Liz is her mother doesn't matter (and the revelation and dismissal of Liz's not-actually-monstrous conduct sort of defangs that relationship, too? oh, Liz isn't actually a murderer? so mother or not, there's no strain on her relationship with the conspicuously virtuous Vicki.). Burke's no longer threatening to burn down Collinsport for revenge, and all of his various relationships with the Collinses or Collinsport denizens have gotten abruptly normalized, so there's no tension to his relationship with Vicki any more: he's rich (don't ask where the money came from), he's in love with her, and now he's chummy with all her friends/stand-in family members. He doesn't even have conversations that are totally just about pens or guns with Roger, for god's sake. The show kicked out all the pillars Victoria Winters as a character had been built on, and it only gets worse after 1795. No wonder Moltke left.

[paranormal-creativity]

if i post enough jonah/barnabas propaganda maybe i can gaslight the tma fandom into believing they are canon

[flock-of-cassowaries]

Love to see how Barnabus applies the same expectations of physical affection to Josette that he established with Angelique. Prince of a man.

Go drown in the ocean, dude.

[collinsportmaine]

Josette Du Pres

[waloeders]

ALSO i forgot there was a scene before u beat benedikta where shes seducin barnabas and i,,,, hevhdhsvehdb ok put them tiddies away barny whadda hell (/lh)

[whatithinkaboutdarkshadows]

Episode 554: What must be

[askens-konge]

𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍: 𝐎𝐃𝐈𝐍'𝐒 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐃

Another custom among the Tharmr family is the taming of horses, which is rooted in the connection between Odin and his loyal steed. When the child reaches a certain age, which is normally around fourteen or fifteen, the parent takes their child to tame a horse with them since most of the horses are taken from the wild. They serve as loyal companions to the children and used in battle as well. When the new Dominant of Odin is picked, the horse is turned into an egi and in that sense, Odin's steed is an actual horse that was changed by magick. At the time, the bond between person and horse is already strong enough to connect their souls safely without causing much distress for the animal.

Barnabas did not experience this custom due to his mother's early death, which means he tamed a horse by himself. His attempt was only semi successful, however, and left permanent scars on Sleipnir's soul and changed his overall behaviour toward Barnabas and the world. While horses were always broken in a way to make them loyal, Barnabas was not gentle during the process thanks to his lacking experience and his own pain. He took a stallion from the wilds, which was Sleipnir, and broke him to create an egi from this in a quite rushed process that normally takes years.

This resulted in Sleipnir developing love and hate toward his master and creator, and caused several attempts on Barnabas' life later down the line. Remember the scar on Barnabas' chest? This was Sleipnir.

All egis are capable of turning into people if asked, or if they simply feel like it. Some prefer their human form, others prefer to stay a horse if they are not needed at the moment. In that aspect, every horse egi is different and has its own personality that is connected to their corresponding Dominant. Sleipnir usually remains a horse if Barnabas does not need him as Lord Commander, and actually despises to be a man most of the time.

Similar to Odin's overall appearance, the spectral steed varies in appearance depending on the horse's appearance. Sleipnir has always had a black coat, while his mother's horse looked different and would have looked different as a spectral steed too.

A small addition because of my Anabella's Waloed!AU ( and her in general, let's be real... ) : Barnabas is a bit particular with the custom regarding his family since he was never fully introduced to it. While it is not a custom to create a horse egi for a spouse or a loved one in general, he does anyways and created the mare Gladr, who serves as Anabella's handmaiden and messenger between her lady and Sleipnir. Additionally, he already steals a foal from the wild ( yes, he is that person ) to create a horse egi for any child he might have as a birth gift. They grow up next to his children as their companions and age at the same pace.

[phoenixfiiire]

@styxisms asked: Bleed (from Barnabas) HORRORS | Accepting

It was not difficult to make the Dominant of Fire bleed. Weakened as he was by the power of Ultima he had taken into himself, it wasn't uncommon for him to brush against something that was just a bit too sharp and discover later that he had bled through his undershirt. The wounds always healed, the skin knitting back together by the power of the Phoenix, and while aggravating it was always something he had simply accepted as part of his life.

The wound cut by the Dominant of Odin was not likely to heal in so neat a fashion.

For a moment there hadn't even been blood, just neatly severed skin and muscle that Joshua found himself reaching up to grasp at in vain, almost as if he could forcibly hold his shoulder together. Seconds ticked by before he felt the warmth of hot blood trickling down between his fingers, soaking through his glove and running down his wrist as it grew in force.

The only blessing was the fact that it did not hurt. The cut had been so clean he had felt nothing, and that feeling was slowly spreading down his left arm as well. A blessing, of course, and not a worrying sign that the wound may well end up permanent.

It didn't stop him from trying to reach inside himself to summon the Phoenix. His flames were weak and barely crackled along his skin, a sign of his stubborn resistance against the King despite this battle already becoming one-sided.

"Most people use their words as greeting," Joshua spat out toward the King of Ash. "I see you feel you are above even that formality."

[thenightling]

The Little Endless storybooks are going back into print this summer and will be available on June 4th. These are the *ONLY* children's books tie-in for Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. They are storybooks by author and illustrator Jill Thompson (The Sandman comics and Scary Godmother books). The Little Endless books depict The Endless (God-like entities that represent aspects of sentient life) but as chibi-fied small children, sort of like Muppet Babies. The Endless were first shown in this cute, kid-friendly form for issue 40 of The Sandman when Abel was telling a story to baby Daniel. In the early 2000s they even sold plushies of Morpheus, Daniel, Death, Delirium, Mervyn, and Goldie in these forms. The first Little Endless book deals with Barnabas, the talking dog, trying to find Delirium and meeting each Endless along the way- all the while he thinks he's being chased by a monster that turns out to be his own tail. The second book is The Little Endless: Delirium's Party. In this story Delirium attempts to cheer up her sister, Despair, by throwing her a surprise party. Despair does not react well to each of her gifts, which in turn, makes the other Endless sad. This ultimately is what makes Despair happy. Again, these are the only kid-friendly Sandman tie-in books. They have been available before in soft cover and hardcover but had been out of print for over a decade. These new reprints come in a box set and are available for pre-order now on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Little-Endless-Storybooks-Box-Set/dp/1779525524/ref=sr_1_1?crid=23NGY53C6YP5P&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.EL3Asebwtr4ffBgMNneFqFWZphc7DehnX8jgkIgTckmDQUDaBWedJ4RvixIPFGUMkTXW1QAuR5iG31et_wTpaNO2vIMsosMjs3IAgBGYXXngsFkgk2ANd6Aygn8uUVL-zD2cL8fNuT76VDxdLv4IzRdJT1xSNnjZtCv0D_QZ5iY1h11IrP0595Hl-DpVuoPRWbnAkhBBUPl9ZUV0Hi9Wgd1BixKjc--6VmvDJkyrgeI.07ZMMNXkRFkObpok7wWfJ6t872hUca47krbZeQWlq4A&dib_tag=se&keywords=Little+Endless&qid=1705805319&sprefix=little+endless%2Caps%2C136&sr=8-1

[widowshill]

joyful posting time. i genuinely love love the way everyone in the dark shadows fandom has their arc and the characters and/or actors they cherish and just post crazy about their special guys. it's so much fun to me to see every time. yeah that's my mutual's guy from the soap opera.