#we were discussing vampires vs werewolves

[kaizokuniichan]

So today at work this girl was asking me all these questions about me and my personality (she’s cool so I was happy to answer) and when I told I was flattered and asked why she was so interested she said that I seemed like a different type of person and that I’m mysterious. I’ve been called mysterious before and it makes me feel good bc I don’t always like to reveal myself to people irl, the only ones who truly know me are my closest friends and you guys here. But it was kinda nice having someone who was cool and non-judgmental wanting to understand me

[tyrantisterror]

My Personal History with My Good Friend, Satan

My first encounter with The Devil - that I can remember, at least - came when I was about three or so. My mom liked to borrow VHS tapes from libraries to show me and my siblings a lot, and one of the libraries she used was the one at our church. It was a small and obviously very religion-centric collection, but it left a notable mark on me - like, that's where I saw this weird, kinda shitty cartoon version of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe which might be responsible for irreconcilably fucking up my taste in women? I just have this distinct memory of watching the scene where Edmund is tempted by the White Witch and thinking, "Yeah, he's making the right call." If anything I was frustrated that he hesitated - three year old me was already simping for this woman. Just imagine a child channeling Ernie Hudson in Ghostbusters and growling, "When a terrifying and beautiful woman offers you candy and a private sleigh ride, you say YES!" and that's basically me as a kid.

Where was I? Right, Satan. So, the other video from that library I remember was this cartoon retelling of Bible stories, and really I just remember the Adam and Eve part. The temptation scene had this huge, super gnarly-looking demonic red snake in it, and he was so cool and badass and I was already predisposed to like snakes anyway, so of course he was my instant favorite. But, like almost all media featuring reptiles that captured my little child heart, he turned out to be the bad guy - literally The Devil, in this case - and was punished at the end of the story. And that pissed me off.

Sometime shortly thereafter - or at least that's how I remember it, this was over thirty years ago so things might be smushed closer together than they really were by the fog of ages - some of the kids in my preschool chastised me for liking snakes. "Don't you know the devil is a snake? Snakes are evil!" I remembered the movie, and it made me angry.

Because snakes aren't evil, and as a kid I knew that because my parents taught me it. Snakes were just animals, they don't know right from wrong, and to call them evil it to judge them for what they are, not what they do. That experience taught me a very important lesson: The Devil is a tool to make people hate the innocent. And as I'd later learn, snakes were far from the only innocents people would vilify because of a demonic association.

The second time I met the devil came a few years later, when I was six or seven or so. My Grampa and Grams liked to take us up North to Mackinac City and the Upper Peninsula each summer, and I have a lot of fond memories of those trips, but there was one in particular that's relevant to this discussion. We saw a sign for a "laser light show" in the shopping district, and I got to stay up late to see it with my family. The show in question was basically a cartoon projected into the night sky adapting the song The Devil Went Down to Georgia. It was super primitive and hokey and cornball and terrible and I loved every second of it. I was enchanted, absolutely delighted with the spectacle and the silly song where the devil was less a force of evil and more a comically bumbling inept supervillain - one of my favorite archetypes, even back then. So that's the second lesson about the devil I learned: The Devil can be fun sometimes.

Now, Godzilla, one of the few reptile characters I encountered as a kid who didn't end up a villain (at least not in the first movie of his I saw, Godzilla vs. Megalon), had already set me on the path to loving monsters of all stripes and, by extension, horror fiction in general, so as I grew up I had many more encounters with the devil. But while I warmed up quickly to most monster archetypes, like vampires, zombies, werewolves, etc., I always felt dismissive of demons. It kind of coincided with me becoming disillusioned with Christianity as a whole, in fact. A story about fighting evil, Christian-style demons is ultimately an allegory for fighting evil as defined by Christianity, and Christianity's definition of what evil is, well, sucks. It's bad! They got some things right, but some things horribly wrong. The devil is the tool Christianity uses to make you hate the innocent, and I struggled to enjoy a lot of demon stories because of that. Still do with some, in fact.

There were exceptions, of course - I loved The Evil Dead series as soon as I saw it at too-early-of-an-age, but then, the demons in it aren't super Christian. They aren't repelled by holy water or crucifixes or prayer, and in fact God and Jesus barely get mentioned in the series and never come up as a potential solution. They're kind of secular as demons go, and maybe that made them easier to stomach. But overall, demons ranked pretty low in the hierarchy of monsters to me - they were too tainted by the religion that spawned them for me to enjoy.

Until college, anyway. I quietly renounced my faith during my Freshmen year, and then, as if seeking one last chance at redemption in my eyes, the devil came to me again the following year. That's when I had a class on Medieval literature, and was exposed to far older devil stories than I had ever seen before. And Medieval devils kick ass. They have so much more personality and variety than I had come to expect, and some are downright affable, even sympathetic to a degree. It was one of many moments in college when I realized there was much more to a topic I'd previously written off as boring and trite.

This is when I read Dante's The Divine Comedy and Milton's Paradise Lost and Marlowe's Faust and Ben Johnson's The Devil Is An Ass. It's when I read early Gothic Horror novels like Matthew Gregory Lewis's The Monk, and dived into The Twilight Zone, which has more than a few episodes that are updates of medieval-style devil folktales in a more modern (i.e. 1960's) setting. And so many of these works presented the Devil not as a stand-in for everything Christianity hates, but as a person - a deeply flawed person, yes, but a person with actual wants and feelings and thoughts of his own, a person who was interesting and compelling - and sometimes funny, and sometimes charming, and sometimes really sad. There was, dare I say... sympathy for the devil growing in my heart.

In the last year of my undergraduate studies, I attended my college's yearly Medieval Studies Congress, where people from all over the world came to Kalamazoo just to share their research papers on medieval history and literature. One girl's thesis paper was on the subject of "rueful devils," i.e. depictions of demons in literature where they wanted to repent their sins and redeem themselves, which uniformly ended with the devils' hopes being dashed as they could not fully repent. This idea... possessed me. The idea that the devil could repent, or at least try to - that there could be hope even in the most debauched sinner. It was such a good narrative trope in my eyes - why did it die out centuries ago?

Well, because the church didn't like it, you see. If the devil can repent - if the Absolute King of Evil can choose to become a good person - then he's not very useful as a tool to make people hate the innocent anymore. The devil MUST be "pure evil" to work as intended. A rueful devil, a repentant devil, a devil that can be redeemed, forces us to be more forgiving and kind. It forces us to be better. It prevents us from hating people because an old book says so. And some people just couldn't have that, and so the trope died.

...

After I got my bachelor's degree, I entered the job market and, after applying to fifty different places or so, was finally hired as a high school english teacher about two weeks before the school year started. Said school year was the worst year of my life. Like, I've had extreme self loathing issues and suicidal ideation since, like, sixth grade, but holy shit it was NEVER as bad as it was in that nine month stretch between 2012 and 2013. There was this bridge I had to cross on the way to work each morning, and about two months in the job was so stressful that part of my morning routine was thinking, "You know, if I just swerve to the right, this can all be over and I'll never have to worry again." About halfway in I began drastically losing weight despite not changing my diet or getting more exercise and it was so traumatic that to this day whenever my weight starts to drop my initial reaction is dread rather than excitement. I impulse bought the first two Kung-Fu Panda movies and, after watching each for the first time and crying hideously, proceeded to watch them on repeat for an entire weekend while sobbing myself hoarse for reasons I couldn't comprehend at the time.

I was in Hell. And the devil met me there.

I started writing a story during that year. I didn't get very far, just a couple chapters, but it was one of the few things that gave me a sense of accomplishment. Despite all the stress and sadness and misery, I made something. It was a story about demons, and Hell, and trying to make your life better even when the world around you seems deadset on making you suffer as much as possible.

When my bosses called me into their office at the end of that year and told me that I had to quit my job so the assistant principal could take my teaching position and survive the downsizing they'd get next year, and that if I didn't quit they'd give me the lowest teacher evaluation they could and make it supremely difficult for me to get hired elsewhere... I was relieved. I'd been let out of Hell. After a handful of months left to finish out the year, I was free.

And then I went home, with nothing. No job, no desire to pursue the career for which I'd spent five years and an ungodly amount of money getting a degree to pursue, no nest egg, nothing. Nothing except a few chapters of a book.

The years that followed were hard. I did a lot of temp work, it took me a very long time to find something that worked for me. I may have left the worst year of my life, but there was still a lot of misery waiting for me. And through it all, I felt the need to accomplish... something, ANYTHING. I had to make something to prove I had a reason to exist, even if it was something that only had value to me.

With three years of work, those chapters became my first novel, No Sympathies: A Tale of Those Who Trespass Against Us. It was about the devil, and Hell, and finding salvation even when things seem inescapably bleak. It was my first novel, and now, eight years later, it's the first of five.

The devil saved my life. He saw me at my lowest, lifted me up, whispered, "It'll be ok. You have to keep going. I'll be with you, but you have to keep going," and goddammit, he kept me from swerving right.

That's when I learned the greatest truth about the devil, at least to me. The devil is a tool to make people hate the innocent, yes, this is true, but because of that, the devil can be a savior for the broken, the beaten, and the damned. You can feel like you're worthless, wretched, and doomed. But if the devil can rise from Hell, if the devil can choose to change, if people are willing to pray for the one sinner who needs it most - then there's hope for you too, isn't there?

Demons are creatures of rebellion - against God, against nature, against the powers that be, against doom and damnation itself. They were made to be a tool to hurt the innocent, but that's not what they have to be. Devils can lift us up, because no matter how far you fall, no one can say whether it's the end for you except you.

...I would like to point out that I am being figurative here. The devil does not literally exist, at least not in my view of things. He's a fictional character, nothing more. But he's a prolific fictional character, and how we portray him can say so much about us. And, to me, he is a dear friend, despite being imaginary, because the devil was there for me when I was low, and it was on his wings that I rose from doom.

...again, figuratively, not literally.

[satureja13]

Cloudy sky above Verdantis this morning. Before Greg leaves, he gathered the Boys at the duelling grounds. And since Jack is the Super Soldier (and has a few genetic modifications), he's the perfect sparring partner/training dummy for Vlad, Saiwa and Jeb. Ji Ho and Kiyoshi don't fight today since they are still not in shape. Vlad and Jack started. The classic - Vampire vs Werewolf.

It's not about winning. Jack can defeat anyone, except for Greg and Kiyoshi. But since Kiyoshi isn't Jack's Alpha anymore, Jack should win a fight against Kiyoshi too. So today it's about teaching the others how to fight, should they be in danger.

Next pairing is Saiwa and Jack. Again the classic (+ 1\2 Dark Elf). Saiwa: "Oh - I've been waiting for a chance like this since - forever!" Jeb can't bear Saiwa getting hurt and has to look the other way.

Even though Sai loves Jack dearly, he often wishes he could smack him for his endless nonsense. Usually Jack runs away and Sai could never hit him, but he hopes he can land a few punches before Jack ends the fight ^^' Jack seemed to know that and let him, lol. Poor Jeb was so worried about his Vanië, though.

And then Jack vs Jeb - Werewolf vs Witch. It was Jeb's first fight! Saiwa was about to faint, seeing Jeb fighting. It looks so rough! Is Jeb even able to breathe?

Oh oh, Jeb isn't used to fighting and so he got a bit dizzy from all this tumbling and turning - and stumbled to the ground! Jack: "Omg, Jeb! Are you ok?" Sai: "I'm going to kill you for this, Jack!"

But Jeb almost immediately jumped up again - phew! That was embarrasing o.o' He so wanted to look cool in front of Saiwa - poor Jack didn't even do anything wrong! After the fights, they were discussing what they could do better and how to proceed training without Greg (since none of the professors can remain beyond the Veil for too long). Greg wants to see Noxee as soon as possible to make the most of their time together before she has to pay the old hags the three witches a visit to discuss Jack and Kiyoshi. And when Greg finally left, poor Jack collapsed on one of the loungers. The fights took their toll on him. Jack tried to keep his composure for as long as possible to not have to argue with Greg about the state he's in. His body is still constantly under pain from the last spot and he feels horrible since that lightning struck him. Noxee's potion didn't help at all and of course he didn't go back to her to whine because he doesn't want her to think he's a weakling... (Omg, Jack!) And he's afraid she's going to tell Greg about it ö.Ö' Jack surely doesn't need another talk with Greg. Even though Kiyoshi drifted away again after Ms Coombes forbid them to hang out together, he was immediately at Jack's side to heal him. Jack won all the fights, but none of the others needed a treatment. He'd gone easy on his friends. Which was an achievement for itself. Not many werewolves have that much control over their wolf - in a fight at that.

Saiwa blinked upwards. He has to hold back tears and already regrets that he hit Jack 😭 And Jeb wants to embrace and comfort Sai, but he's not sure if he would allow it...

Eventually Jack woke up and cursed under his breath. He doesn't want to appear weak in front of Kiyoshi either. And he doesn't want Kiyoshi to see him in his wolf... (Which is stupid, since Kiyoshi made very clear that he likes Jack in both of his forms.)

'And then we lie, beneath a shady tree I love her and she's loving me She feels good, she knows she's looking fine I'm so proud to know that she is mine'

Good day sunshine - The Beatles

Outtakes

I built this lot many years ago and had to laugh when I spotted that mannequin I placed behind the divider ^^'

And Ji Ho is curious what these ointments and potions are for :3

From the Beginning 🔱 Underwater Love 🔱 Latest

Current Chapter: 'Here comes the Sun' from the beginning ▶️ here Last Chapter: 'Who killed Jack?' from the beginning ▶️ here

📚 Previous Chapters: Chapters: 1-6 ~ 7-12 ~ 13-16 ~ 23-28

[girliest-tomboy]

Of Vampires and Daydreams

You know those days when you just want to curl up in bed, let the world fade away, and become one with your blankets? Yeah, I’m having one of those. The kind where you romanticize the idea of rotting away... But here’s the twist—I also want to be in a teenage romance movie. Specifically, one like “Twilight.”

Let’s dissect this, shall we? On one hand, there’s Edward Cullen—the brooding, marble-skinned vampire who sparkles in the sunlight. He’s all intense stares and poetic declarations. But honestly, if I were Bella, I’d have chosen Jacob Black faster than you can say “werewolf abs.”

Why, you ask? Well, let me break it down:

Jacob’s Warmth: Edward might be cold (literally), but Jacob? He’s a walking furnace. Imagine those chilly Forks nights—Edward’s icy touch versus Jacob’s toasty embrace. No contest. I’d pick warmth over frostbite any day.

La Push Beaches: Forget the glittering vampire meadow. Give me La Push beaches, crashing waves, and bonfires. Jacob would teach me to ride a motorcycle, and we’d race along the coastline, wind in our hair. Edward? He’d probably compose a sonnet about my mortal fragility.

Jacob’s Absence of Brooding: Edward sulks like a professional brooder. Jacob? He’s all smiles, even when he’s a wolf. Plus, he’d never leave me hanging in the forest, wondering if he’s ghosting me or just busy hunting mountain lions.

Werewolf vs. Vampire Drama: Werewolves have their issues, sure. But at least they don’t sparkle or play the piano in the moonlight. Jacob’s pack would be my quirky, protective family. Edward’s clan? They’d be too busy discussing existential crises and the meaning of immortality.

Jacob’s Quileute Legends: I’d sit by the campfire, listening to Jacob weave tales of spirit wolves and ancient prophecies. Edward? He’d recite Shakespearean sonnets while staring wistfully at the moon. Snooze fest.

So, here’s my fantasy: I’d wake up in Forks, tousled hair and all. Jacob would be waiting by my window, shirtless (because why not?), and we’d embark on our own supernatural adventure. Screw the vampire drama—I want werewolf kisses and muddy sneakers.

But for now, I’ll settle for my cozy bed, daydreams, and the faint scent of pine trees. Maybe one day, I’ll stumble upon my own mythical forest, and Jacob will be there, grinning like the sun breaking through clouds.

[honeythispodcast]

hello! I can not remember if I submitted this already at some point - so apologies if this is a repeat.

You guys were talking about werewolf stuff a tiny bit in your monster episode and not completely knowing how they may fit into the zombie and vampire discussion. My personal theory goes as follows.

If vampires ask if you can love someone who can not change with you, and zombies ask if you can love something so incredibly changed to the point of only being a recognizable vessel, werewolfs pose the question "can you love someone who oscillates between these two modes". Can you love someone who can be your person one moment, and completely unrecognizable the next? - who perhaps doesn't even recognize you the next? How do you do that? What does that look like?

I've been working on this both as someone who has experienced abusive relationships that look like this, and as someone who can present this way myself due to autistic masking vs meltdowns and various ptsd symptoms as well.

Idk. There are my werewolf thoughts. Also as we know they fuck and there's something very horny happening with them but I'm a bit less focused on that with werewolves. More of a vampire fucker myself.

Great thoughts!! We answer this one at 3:16 on our new mailbox episode! Click the timestamp to jump right to it!

[paradox-gaming-network]

Modded Games FINISHED PRODUCT or DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM for modders The start of today’s video is a question:  Modded Games are they finished products or development platforms companies release and they rely on modders to finish?  Or are they finished products made better by modders who are more in touch with the community and can give the player base exactly what they want?

This was an important question to me, because for a long time I thought mods were a bad thing and that it should be left up to the developer to fix their games and make them playable until I came across the article that said modders made over $1,000,000,000 in 2023 from releasing Mods.  Several games (Roblox, Fortnite, Overwolf) are paying modders for their hard work.  Paradox Interactive just contracted a modder for their hard work in one of the regions of Crusader Kings 3, another game made even better by mods.  One article said that Ark Survival Ascended was only three months old with 1,000 mods in circulation and 60,000,000 downloads.  That’s an insane amount of work put in by the community to make their favorite games better.

I mentioned in the video that the grand survival game Crusader Kings 3 has a Game of Throne Mod, a Lord of the Rings Mod, even a Warcraft mod.  There’s also a Vampire the Masquerade Vampire vs Werewolves mod in there, as well as several other total conversions.  Skyrim has a massive collection of mods, being the #1 game on The Gamer’s list of 24 PC Games with the Most Active Modding Communities.  

Now a major talking point has to be, if games are having to be this modded, are they finished products?  Did the developer do the diligence to release something good, or did they just release a development platform and leave it up to the modders to make it good.  If you remember, so many things were broken in Starfield at launch that without the mods, many things were more difficult than they needed to me.  

A big question on this topic is at what utilization point should a mod feature be added to the game.  If 50% of all the players are using a mod, does that mean whatever the mod does is popular enough to be added into the game?  What about 70%  90%   

As already mentioned, many developers are willing to allow modders to mod their game, some going so far as to compensate them for their work.  Nintendo still remains against the idea of modding, often issues cease-and-desist letters to modder who infringe on their IP.

Finally, add-ons.  Add-ons are their own thing entirely and I didn’t want to detract from the discussion of modders, but I think they needed to be addressed so they weren’t neglected or forgotten.

Credits and Citations

To Mod or Not to Mod:  Why the Future of Gaming is User Generated

Modding is the gateway to a career in game development

Exploring the Similarities and Differences Between Mod Creators and Game Developers

24 PC Games With The Most Active Modding Communities

Are Gaming Companies Maddened by Mods or Embracing Them?

[bogleech]

Red Hood was disappointing because it's a bad series. If you think we're going to have a crazy bestiary with mutated werewolves, forget it. The manga enters a training arc that doesn't involve hunting down any monsters, but playing a game of police and robber. After five chapters, werewolves (and other monsters such as vampires and witches) no longer have focus and no longer appear. Also, the author tries to hook the audience with muscular and sexy female characters, half of the fandom discussion was just about how hot the waifus were. One of the characters, Grimm (who is based on Little Red Riding Hood), has been cursed by a witch and takes the form of a small child, but her true form (which she returns from time to time) looks like the second image. The manga ends in a meta-language ending that looks like it was planned, but that seems to completely clash with the original proposal. Anyway, a manga that I wish I had seen for its monsters and world building, but that got lost in fanservice and amateur script.

Aww that really sucks considering just how good the werewolves were. You sent me the werewolves and I neglected to publish it for my followers to see the werewolves, but it's probably for the best if they can instead read about why this manga sucks and THEN see the werewolves, so they don't go to see the werewolves and then have to slog through all this nonsense with no payoff. Here are the werewolves, so everybody can be as disappointed as I am now:

Grimm looks badass in her normal state, too, we all know the kind of audience the "de aging" gimmick is for but if it was just a lady dressed like red riding hood vs. these fucked up cartoon wolves with no other characters, no other story whatsoever, that could have been one of the best manga ever made actually.

[enbylesbianism]

ANY WAY THE WIND BLOWS: Simon Snow trilogy wrapped! (review)

Hi, there! It took me a while to finish this post, as I could talk about it for... a long time (not necessarily a good thing), but I got it! I like praise, so if anyone wants to tell me I did a good job... Also, I might edit this post later on. I don’t remember anything else I’d like to add, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I did after posting. My brain does not obey me. Anyways, off to it! By the way, I won’t give this book a real rating.

While this is a review on Any Way the Wind Blows, I intend on analysing some points of the overall series too. The book starts where Wayward Son left off, the end of the road trip, Simon and Baz having problems in their relationship, Penelope helping Shepard with his curse... and the whole situation of the NowNext vampires. Rainbow Rowell only seems to remember the first part. That leaves us with the second book of the series ignored almost completely, with the exception of Simon and Baz’s feelings as well as Shepard’s existence.

Don’t get me wrong, aspects of the book are mentioned, but never in a truly important way. Lamb, the Vampire King, is mentioned by Simon, but only focusing on his and Baz’s relationship, never about the fact that there are a bunch of vampires (supposedly ‘evil’) in the U.S. but I guess what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right? I could count on one hand the times the NowNext vampires were mentioned (like, literally, this isn’t an exaggeration, I looked up ‘NowNext’ on the e-book and only got five results), all of them either being one of them considering telling someone else about it, then not following through with it, or dismissing it as a concern for Lamb. Which makes the plot of Wayward Son completely useless for the trilogy. Now, that wouldn’t matter as much if everything else had been properly developed, but we definitely can’t say that.

We are introduced to a brand new, poorly developed villain, Smith-Smith Richards, whose character arc is as ridiculous as his name. He’s one of the fake Chosen Ones that started appearing after the events of Carry On (and the only one to be mentioned and/or defeated, for that matter). It becomes clear that presenting as Simon Snow-ish is part of his brand, especially when Baz describes him as looking like the Netflix adaptation version of Simon, and that he was raised and guided by his uncle, who’s just... there. I don’t think it would’ve been hard to make him manipulating Smith-Smith into believing he’s the prophetic savior of the Magickal World, which would not only make both of their characters more interesting, but it could also serve as a parallel of Simon’s relationship with the Mage. Richards also has some special powers such as increasing a mage’s magic for a limited amount of time, but taking it away afterwards, as well as making someone immune from spells. It’s worth saying those aren’t skills that are usual in the Magickal World, or else there wouldn’t be so much confusion and shock from people (specially Baz and Penny, who would definitely have heard of something like this before), but we get no explanation on why or how Richard has them.

Then, we have the Salisbury’s. We, as readers, already know Lucy and Davy are Simon’s parents, making Ruth his grandmother. It’s noticeable that Rowell builds up to that discovery, by making Simon get along with Ruth instantly, him thinking about Lucy a lot etc. It makes us excited to read the part where they actually figure it out, to know how Simon would deal with that, him dealing with the fact that he’s the Mage’s son and the fact that, technically, he killed his father. I suppose that’s the point, but actually getting to that part was incredibly underwhelming. The way they discovered about Simon—being able to lift a family sword—hadn’t been mentioned or hinted at before. One would’ve expected Simon, who’s particularly interested in swords as it’s mentioned many times throughout the series, to notice a freaking Excalibur at the Salisbury’s place before. 

And speaking of noticing things: when it’s finally revealed that Simon is Lucy’s son and the Mage’s heir, Baz pointed out the uncanny similarities between his boyfriend and the deceased Watford principal. “Those narrow eyes. That tilt of his head. I thought... I thought he’d learned it. Was imitating it.” + “Merlin, Simon, you even look like him.”  (Any Way the Wind Blows, chapter 86) Simon was the Mage’s protégé for years and I assume the Magickal authorities knew that he was the one to inherit all of his money and personal belongings, but no one, in the whole British Magickal community, thought about them being related? I refuse to believe there were no conspiracy theorist teachers at Watford or that Mitali or even the Pitch’s alongside everyone who was against the Mage didn’t at least check to know if there was something behind those characteristics. Baz literally said (chapter 88), “I think it’s undeniable. I’d cast ‘Flesh and blood’ on them, but it would bounce right off of Snow (...)”, so there is a spell for that. Plus, we didn’t even have one whole chapter of Simon dealing with this information! The chapters (no more than five, out of ninety-one) were divided between Simon, Baz and Lady Ruth’s POVs. He’s the main character, so one would think he’d get more development.

Another point that felt rushed was the romance. While Simon and Baz’s relationship wasn’t, as it’s been a topic Rowell has explored for three books (we’re not counting Fangirl here, as their ‘participation’ on it was minor and their personalities weren’t as consistent as in the trilogy. Not that it is that consistent there), the others just felt like she wanted everyone to finish the trilogy with a pair. I’ll start with Shepard and Penny. There were fans who liked them together before Any Way the Wind Blows, but it wasn’t hinted at—it was more like a fandom thing. I personally like them as a couple, but it could have had development and, maybe, foreshadowing in Wayward Son. I mean, they did fight monsters during a huge part of a road trip together.

The next one I’ll talk about is Agatha and Niamh. I love them, don’t get me wrong. Actually, it’s precisely because I love them that I wish they’d gotten a better treatment. Niamh wasn’t introduced before Any Way the Wind Blows. I get why she wasn’t introduced in Carry On—it was interesting to see a character who wasn’t caught up in Simon and Baz’s drama during the school years—but a hint of her existence could’ve been left in Wayward Son. Agatha is an important character on it, and a mention of her father training an aspiring veterinary could’ve fit somewhere, as a hint, maybe. (Also, Lucy, the dog, being absolutely forgotten during this book when a lot of Agatha’s time is spent in a veterinary clinic...) Besides, we could get the vibes from them, but after they kissed, there was barely any content. We didn’t get them calling each other ‘girlfriend’ (or if they even like that label at this point), or the aftermath of the kiss, or a POV from Niamh. Or Niamh appearing the epilogue? If Agatha was taking care of the goats, I’m sure Niamh would have a part in that too. Still on Agatha’s character, but not on Niamh’s, it felt like Rainbow Rowell was setting up for aromantic and asexual Agatha, specially because of this quote: “It was like she'd pulled the feeling right out of my heart. I could have kissed her. (I still wish sometimes that I wanted to.) (That would feel like an answer to... the question of me. Then I could say, 'Oh, thats who I am. That's why I've been so confused.')” (Wayward Son, chapter 4).

And I was leaving the best (I need to be sure everyone knows I mean this sarcastically) of the romance topic for the end: Fiona and Nicodemus. It’s just... so forced and undeveloped. Not even because, to me, they’re both gay as hell. There was just... such a lack of development! I don’t think we had any interaction between the both of them before Any Way the Wind Blows. There was no foreshadowing or why would Fiona, a vampire hunter from a family of vampire hunters, would marry... a vampire! I’d already find it weird to see fanfiction of them as a crackship, but it’s canon?! Like, canon as in they’re going to get married and use Fiona and Natasha’s mother’s ring? Seriously, nothing will take from me that this is a lavender marriage (as I’ve already discussed with my best friend, which inspired this post of theirs.)

I’d also like to speak about a topic that’d been hinted throughout the series, especially post-Carry On, which is the criticism towards the Magickal Community in the U.K.. That criticism is very much embodied in Shepard’s character. It’s explicitly said that the British mages have some kind of supremacy towards other supernatural beings, such as vampires for example, gatekeeping literal magic. Up until relatively recently, mages with weak links with magic couldn’t attend Watford (and that’s a major plot point in the final book) and there’s a denial towards any other kind of magic except the ones that are part of their craft. Even within the Magickal community itself, there are more important families that are more likely to succeed, like Natasha receiving criticism for marrying Malcolm, as a Pitch. It felt pointless not to tackle the issues you’ve set up yourself in your own universe. Penelope has very strict morals related to magickal law and beliefs, something that she could’ve deconstructed, especially considering Shepard, her love interest, symbolises that. Another point related to that is, the trilogy is very clearly heavily inspired by Harry Potter, where many of those points are very clear (e.g. wizard supremacy in relation to other species, such as werewolves and domestic elves and the status quo that makes some traditionally magical families more influential than others, like the Malfoy’s vs. the Weasley’s), so it’s not an easily forgettable concept.

The series also had a lot of inconsistencies. The one I’ve seen talked about more often is Simon and Agatha’s... intimacy status, let’s call it that. Simon’s whole thing in the first book was that he struggled controlling his magic when experiencing intense emotions, which makes it hard to believe that he managed to have sex withount an... accident. Besides that, though, there’s this quote, “She (...) presses a kiss into my temple. No one has ever kissed me there. No one has ever kissed me anywhere but on my mouth” (Carry On, Chapter 27), but in Any Way the Wind Blows, when Simon’s about to have his wings cut, Agatha says, “It’s a strange feeling to look at someone’s chest and know it’s nothing to do with you anymore, but still to remember kissing every inch.” (Chapter 14)

So, we have established that Rainbow Rowell’s work, both character and plot driven, is flawed. “But we got the characters interacting for the closure of the series, at least!” Well... we got interactions between the canon romantic relationships, yeah. But besides that, we didn’t get much. There were no interactions between Agatha and Penny, or Shepard with Simon and Baz. Or Penny and her mother figuring stuff out. Or literally anyone with a therapist. And not gonna lie, the interaction we got between Baz and Dev was underwhelming, to say the least. Niall is nowhere to be seen, too.

Rainbow Rowell’s writing is beautiful: she writes poetic lines that make the book seem perfect at first glance, if you don’t think about it for too long. Her words are very shiny, but once you get use to that light and see what’s behind them, what’s between one shiny quote and another, it has so many flaws and plot holes that it reads like a first draft. There are many concepts in there that are genuinely good: the rest of the trilogy focused on the protagonist dealing with the trauma of being a child soldier instead of being entirely an adventure, Simon being unlabelled, a fake Chosen One that gives mages fake hope... Those are all good ideas, but so poorly explored that, despite being an entire book/trilogy, it still feels like a writing pitch or something among those lines.

I felt iffy about other things during my reading of the series, but they aren’t exactly plot points, so I’ll just list them below:

Mitali, Penny’s mom, including ‘discovering your bisexuality’ as a mid-life crisis thing 

As I’ve seen people talking about biphobia/bi erasure in the books, I’ll be including this post that features both unlabelled and bisexual individuals talking about the topic (it isn’t my place, as a lesbian, to talk about this, that’s why I decided not to do so.)

Romanticising of Baz’s suicide (a.k.a. chapter 61) in the first book. If you’re not in a good place mentally, like I was when I first read Carry On, I hope you know that a kiss or romance doesn’t help any mental illness you or others might have. Don’t let anyone use your guilt to manipulate you. Paraphrasing Alice Oseman in their graphic novel Heartstopper, love can’t cure a mental illness.

Any Way the Wind Blows was... very horny. I can’t point out how this makes the book bad exactly, but it wasn’t something I enjoyed. One of Rainbow Rowell’s strongest skills is that her quotes, when loose, are good. They tend to be poetic and just beautiful, overall. But in the... explicit scenes, these skills were barely used, and I felt like I was reading NSFW tweets off of someone’s private account on Twitter. Besides, the first two books of the series weren’t written like that, so the change was very sudden.

The older people could’ve been more explored. Penelope and Mitali’s relationship and how similar the both of them are compared to each other, Daphne and Professor Bunce’s insecurities and why they believed in Smith-Smith, Fiona, Nico, and Ebb... Also, the Mage and Lucy. We could’ve had more on them, y’know. 

The pop culture references. They made the book read even more like Twitter’s feed. Honestly, if I wanted to read prompts and nice ship content alongside memes from Twitter with some horny thoughts sprinkled all around, I would’ve opened the Twitter app. Or Tumblr, Instagram, whatever.

The POV switching felt lazy to me at times. It’s nice to know how different characters are experiencing that situation, yes, but sometimes, like during the discovery that Simon is a Salisbury, it read as if Rowell wanted to create tension, but couldn’t think of any other way to do it except the switching around.

Narrative wise, I think Simon and Baz should’ve spent more time broken up. 

[hold-me-sickfics]

Soooo I did a thing😊💙 this is the first chapter of a Yoonmin Vampire fic that I’m trying out☺️ I hope y’all like it!

TW: Alcohol mention, past parental death mention, food, blood mention, supernatural creature mention (if I missed any please let me know!💙)

Also, I promise there will be sickfic/hurt fic involved in most of the upcoming chapters💙

“Dang Jimin, how long do you take to get dressed in the morning? I’ve been down here for at least a half hour already, and your light was on when I woke up.” Jungkook was halfway done with his cereal, and was scrolling through Instagram on his phone.

“Perhaps your lack of effort is the reason you look like a stray dog then?” Jimin chuckled, grabbing a protein shake out of the refrigerator.

Jungkook just rolled his eyes. The two almost always had some sort of playful, fighting banter going on. As brothers, it was essentially a given.

Jimin turned around to face the counter.

“Oh no, please don’t do this.” Jungkook whined.

“Do what?”

“Wear that stupid Twilight t-shirt again. We’re seniors Jimin, you gotta let all this vampire vs. werewolf crap go.”

“And why is that?” Jimin knew Jungkook didn’t like his… tiny obsession with vampires. But, in all actuality, it really wasn’t as bad as Jungkook made it out to be.

“Because it really isn’t fitting for a guy who’s eighteen to have a room covered in posters and about ten journals with Edward Cullen fanfictions filling the shelf.”

“You’re just jealous because you couldn’t write if you tried.”

Jungkook looked fed up. Jimin took a sip of his shake before speaking again.

“Quit your whining. If I didn’t write so much, you wouldn’t have passed English last year. I’m still waiting on my fifty bucks for writing that essay over The Raven.”

“I’m working on it. Money is tight Jimin.”

“More like you couldn’t keep yourself from buying a few rounds for the band last week hm?” Jimin felt the same way about Jungkook’s band as Jungkook felt about Jimin’s writing. Both were deemed useless and a waste of time by the other.

“At least I made the money that I spent.” Jungkook put a lot of emphasis behind the word “made.”

Jimin didn’t respond. He too made his own money, but Jungkook didn’t view earning money through literary submissions to count as actually “making money.” He instead, went out to the car, going ahead and loading his bags. Jungkook was close behind, locking the door as he came out.

“Want me to drive or do you want to?” Jungkook asked, spinning the keys on his finger.

“You can. I’ve got some reading to finish up before we get to school.” What Jimin actually meant was that he had a fanfiction to finish.

“Aight. How’d your bio test go the other day?” Jungkook asked, turning the key.

Underneath their little bickering sessions, both boys would do anything for each other. Since their parents passed a few months ago, they were basically each other’s only support.

“It was decent. I don’t think I did great, but I’m like 82.93 percent sure I passed.”

Both boys laughed. Jimin had a tendency in situations like these to think up these certain percentages with decimals because, well why not? But, they were always quite funny when he voiced them in conversations.

“That’s better than me with my literature quiz. I think I made a forty something.”

Jimin looked down at his screen, reading the words that someone like himself had thought up and published on Ao3.

“Edward’s fingers cascaded down Bella’s back as he held her close, knowing she was his, and his alone.

“You don’t understand Bella. I’d be nothing without you.”

Bella sighed.

“You shouldn’t think those thoughts. You have me. There’s no reason to consider any other situations.”

Edward couldn’t help himself but to ponder on what his miserable existence had been like before her. He held her, trying desperately to forget.”

“You know,” Jimin started as Jungkook stopped at a stop light.

“Hm?”

“Some of these are really good, and some of these are the stupidest, cheesiest things i’ve ever beheld.”

“B-beheld? Jimin… You need a break.” Jungkook laughed.

“For the first time, I think you might actually be right.” Jimin chuckled, putting his phone up.

When they arrived at school, Jungkook went on to his class and Jimin went on to his. As he sat down at his desk, he observed that the entire floor was muddy with the shoeprints of all the students who’d come in before him. He glanced out the window, seeing the sky already a dark blue. It must have rained last night… and probably would rain more soon. Where he lived, it seemed that the weather was either raining, snowing, or storming at all times. He must have not noticed it on the way since he’d been so enthralled by his phone and then the conversation with Jungkook.

As usual, the upcoming storm inspired him, and he pulled out his notebook and ink pen from his bag, writing down a few words from an idea that had been looming around his mind since he’d gotten out of bed this morning.

“ “Ahhagghhh! It- It hurts, Jimin… “ He squirmed under Jimin’s light touch. As much as Jimin hated it, he had to keep cleaning the wound. Much like humans, vampires weren’t protected from injury or infection. It was just that they had the advantage of not being able to die from it. “I’m so sorry baby. I promise I don’t mean for it to hurt.” Jimin’s eyes softened in sympathy. “W-wait…. I- I need a break please… please Jimin just… mmmhhh…” The vampire reached his hand out, clearly pained. Jimin stopped, taking his hand. “It’s okay. You’re alright-”

And then he hit a mental block. What would he name this character? He thought for a moment, and then the teacher came in and put his creativity on hold.

“Good morning everyone. It looks to be a rather dark and dreary day outside, so I thought we could go over something to match. Have any of you ever heard of the Salem Witch Trials?”

Jimin had to admit, he was irritated at the fact that he couldn’t continue his story yet, but if it was over something as interesting as this sounded, he’d let it slide. This was the only class that didn’t get on his nerves. The professor, Kim Namjoon, had a way of making things sound way more captivating than they would normally be.

Namjoon and Jimin were on a first-name basis. This wasn’t the first time he’d had Namjoon as a teacher. In fact, this was the second time. However, only during the “summer tutoring program” had they found out they shared an interest in the mythical, and magical. They’d discussed the idea of ghosts, spirits, vampires, werewolves, you name it, all on a literary basis of course. Neither of them believed in the last two, but it was certainly fun to consider them.

However, as interested as Jimin was, his mind wandered during the lecture. He first thought of other side ideas for his fanfictions at home, and then he thought of what he needed to do when he got home. That’s when he had the idea.

“Min Yoongi.”

That was the name. It was almost as if a low, husky voice had spoken to him. He had to admit, he liked it. He scribbled down the name on the margin of his workbook page, and then made a point to keep listening to Namjoon’s lecture.

[leahclearwaterdefensesquad]

Other fictional werewolves (let's not get into Meyer's 'they're shapeshifters' turnaround, yet) are treated as subhuman, too. Is it more of an issue in the twilight saga because SM reserved that exclusively for non-white, native americans who would have/do face that disregard by many people in real life? Whereas, with others (HP, for instance) it's...well, I don't know if it's across the race spec but it's not exclusive to marginalised people (then again, JKR was exclusionary in her attitude)

Okay so this app tells me that I have a certain amount of asks in my inbox; however, there's one less ask than what it's telling me I have, which leads me to believe that Tumblr may have trashed your other ask or just isn't showing it (if you sent another one, that is). So if you did, I'm really sorry about that and it wasn't my doing, so I'm just gonna work with this ask, okay? Just wanted to clarify that just in case!

So first things first. I haven't really watched enough shows about supernatural creatures, specifically shows with a vampire vs. werewolf element, to give a statement on whether the 'vampires are portrayed as more superior to werewolves/werewolves are treated as subhuman' bit is more /across the board/ in the supernatural genre like you say it is (although I think you make an interesting and legit point that I do want to hear more about). I've watched Twilight and True Blood(a while ago) and that's pretty much it.

In answer to your first question, yes. Meyer goes every which way to beastialize the Native Americans in her books, whom are the werewolves of the series (and like you said, we're ignoring her little "they're actually shapeshifters, here's a last minute mention about the Children of the Moon" from BD). She writes it so that specifically the Native American tribe turns into animals -> makes their actions violent and their control short enough to the point that a domestic violence situation goes down (we're coming back to this bit) -> draws up the racist parallel that Native ppl, and specifically the men, are more animalistic and predatorial. Not to mention that domestic and sexual violence against Indigenous women (as well as murder) is an ongoing genocidal epidemic, so Meyer including that bit that draws a parallel to what is happening irl is so... 'Inappropriate' doesn't do it and a lot of other shit she wrote justice. (Here's a link about MMIW.)

She shouldn't have written the Emily/Sam/Leah love triangle (and especially the incident between Sam and Emily where he scars her) PERIOD because 1. Meyer writes that Emily forgives Sam and that they have their romantic happily ever after, which trivializes what Indigenous women face and 2. portrays stereotypes of Native men being violent and 3. you can tell from how much unresolved drama she creates for her Native characters (Embry's father, the love triangle, killing Harry Clearwater and placing the blame on his daughter, killing Sarah Black off page and all the grief it causes Billy and their kids, Quil's dad dying in a boating accident when he was a kid, and Quil imprinting on a toddler which we are so getting to) that she's a sadist for Indigenous pain (which is a bit more in general with the series than just the love triangle but I'm in rant mode rn and it needed to be said!!!). Like, making Quil imprint on Claire, a 3 year-old - what was the point of that??? Meyer wrote a lot of fucked up shit in those books, but making Native men be violent toward women (Sam and Jake with Emily and Bella) and child groom (Jake and Quil with Renascence and Claire) is some of the absolute worst, despicable, racist ass shit!!

The anti-Native racism becomes even more apparent when you pay attention to the double standards that the Native characters face as opposed to the Cullens. Let's take several incidents into account. We are to view the werewolves as having a lack of control over their tempers and their phrasing, as well as being violent and dangerous. The e.g. was Sam and Emily (see above), as well as Jake's mood changes and shaking post-first phase. However, the Cullens are characterized by their self-control and focus over their thirst and their general feral nature as vampires (Carlisle's god-like control to the point that he can be a doctor, Edward not killing Bella in Twilight) DESPITE a clear example refuting this - the incident at Bella's birthday party in New Moon! Bella was all cut up by the end of the evening because Señor Slavery Is My State Right lost his shit at a paper cut and then Edweirdo didn't pay enough fucking attention to not throw Bella into a glass table when he was trying to push her out of the way, which he didn't even have to do!! Then in Eclipse, his hypocritical ass proceeded to tell Bella that he wasn't allowing her to go to La Push (god imagine if your man said he wasn't ALLOWING you to do something like I'd fucking kill the motherfucker with a flamethrower up the ass) because the wolf pack was dangerous despite why he left in the first place in New Moon! There are more occurrences of this hypocritical, racist bullshit, but this is the clearest example to point out.

I've seen greater in-depth discussions going around, as well as papers you can just google and read, that have analyzed how much anti-Native racism is steeped into the series, which I would highly recommend looking out for. Actually I may possibly go back and find a few that I read myself.

As for the JKR thing, she wrote lycanthropy as a metaphor for HIV/AIDS. Also, take notice to how the majority of the werewolves in HP were bad guys and sided with Lord Voldemort. These werewolves embraced their nature, eating (I'm pretty sure, it's been years since I've read it) and infecting ppl gleefully, which was basically a parallel to the idea that gay men were infecting ppl with AIDS, because Joanne is not only a transphobic bitch, she's homophobic as well. You wouldn't immediately think so because she made Dumbledore gay, but that was more for the ~drama~ rather than legitimate representation. (See: she released that detail after the books were published so that it wouldn't hurt sales/PR, she had him crush on the man he would have to defeat in battle for the ~drama~ b/c if there's one thing bigots love, it's inflicting pain on minority characters.)

Compare these violent werewolves in the Wizarding World vs. Remus Lupin, the werewolf who was forcefully turned by Fenrir Greyback, one of the pack leaders who sided with Voldermort, and is ~ashamed~ of his sickness.

Anyways, I think you may be onto something here, and I encourage everyone to add any other examples that are relevant and continue this conversation. I'm sure there are plenty that either have to do with Anon's point or with Stephenie Meyer being a racist.

[billiewena]

3, 12, 23, 24

OKAY I HAD TIME TO THINK ABOUT THESE (thanks you for making this ask game BTW!)

3. What's a scene that you think is underrated?

- 4x19: Adam's funeral and the comment about Sam becoming John (which he takes as a compliment when Dean clearly doesn't). This ep is probably the closest they get to discussing their Daddy issues tbh.

- 8x08: Sam & Cas in the cartoon world, where Sam gives the speech about not running away from problems anymore that motivates Cas to do the same (feel like it gets ignored over the Deancas scenes)

- 8x19 Dean meeting Naomi. THE most twisted villain, the amount of damage she did caused with "I admire your loyalty, I only wish he felt the same"

- 12x10 ending w/ Dean & Sam tell Castiel how much they appreciate him! I love the bickering in this ep but am such a hoe for them just TALKING OUT their issues.

12. Rank the eras and opinions on it (1-5/6-7/8-11/12-15)?

Before I go into it my season-by-season rank is 4, 5, 8, 1, 2, 3, 12 11, 13, 9, 15, 6, 7, 14, 10

1. 1-5: TIGHTLY written, every ep and conflict felt like they mattered and would pay off (and usually did), character and family dynamic development that always felt grounded/realistic. Cons are the misgoyny, racism and homophobia (def don't miss the only female characters being Innocent Mom, Evil Skank or Girl With Knife) but that's the 2000s baby

2. 12-S15: Love the overall tone and the show expanding to include more hunters, allies, universes, etc. Sadly these seasons would introduce the most INTERESTING and COMPELLING concepts...only to do little to nothing with them. Wayward Sisters, Empty, Banes twins, Witch!Sam, apocalypse hunters, death of the author, and (obvs) Dean/Cas. Even Jack! All his relationships were more tell than show, never fully developed on-screen. ESPECIALLY him and Cas! They have 2-3 whole scenes together in S13. Jack's born, but Cas is dead. Cas returns, but Jack leaves. They find Jack, but Cas was kidnapped and then Jack gets trapped. The show just kept following Dean and Sam from crisis to crisis with little room to breathe. The era is so cool in theory and a great playground for fanon, but...ugh.

3. 8-11: Some of THE dumbest writing decisions happen this era, usually to cause manpain or brother drama. But Carver did reign things in a bit with more overarching plots and storylines again, especially in S8 and S11. The trials! Rowena and Crowley! Re-introduction of Chuck! Purgatory! Cas and Claire! Jody and Donna! Sam's "God" visions! The Baby episode! Also nostalgic because this was when I finally got internet access and joined the fandom.

4. 6-7: Besides having a few of my fave eps (Death's Door, Man Who Would Be King, etc.) mostly unmemorable and all over the place. Like, you can TELL they didn't have any idea what to so once they ended the Kripke arc and threw anything and everything at the wall to see what stuck. Resurrected grandpa? Sure! Cas is evil now? Cool! Ancient monsters that can be killed by cleaning supplies? Why not? Wait, we need Dean and Sam drama...right, let's make up a childhood friend Sam has never mentioned for Dean to kill! And give Dean a Reneesmee monster daughter for Sam to kill! We're so good at writing!

23. What are some lores/world building that you love from Post s5?

- The morality of monsters and bad guys. We got redeemed vampires (Benny), witches (Rowena), demons (Crowley), werewolves (Garth), nephilims (Jack), etc. The MOWs are inconsistent but SO GOOD when they take this route. One of my faves is the Shapeshifter in 13x04 who becomes a Grief Counselor to use her abilities to help people

- Purgatory! Love the vibes, the every-man-for-himself energy, how harsh it feels

- The Trials! These crazy stakes! Prophets! Sealing the gates of hell! Angels falling!

- Apocalyse World! Again, the VIBES! Michael vs. Lucifer is supposed feel so world-ending. So to see a world DEVASTATED by their war? Insane! And Apocalypse!Michael was a cool villain, very strategic and focused, knowing what alliances to make and how to make the situation work in his favor

24. What are some lores/world building that you love from s1-5?

- The angels: so cool before they got nerf'd. Perfect soldiers, orders from above, varying levels of cynical, too powerful to be seen by eyes, SMITING! I miss the smiting.

- THE SEALS! I wish we saw more of them but the creativity! The stakes! And Lilith being the final seal remains one of THE best twists!

- The Trickster! I love Gabe as an archangel too, but do miss him messing with the Winchesters to teach 'em a lesson

- Special Children! All of these powerful lonely people who've been weird all their life, thrown into a hunger games where they either kill or survive! So crazy.

SPN Ask Game

[thelightfluxtastic]

30DayTheri 2: Multipotence

When discussions come up about how long one has known one is a therian/otherkin, or how early traits started manifesting, I describe my childhood self as “multipotent”. (Actually I used to use “pluripotenet”, multi is closer to my intended meaning, but both terms are on the same spectrum and get at what I am trying to convey).

Cell potency is a biological term meaning, essentially, how many cells can a given progenitor cell turn into? Early zygote cells are totipotent, meaning they can become literally any kind of cell as they divide. Then, as the body develops, cells differentiate and become pluripotent (no longer able to make certain embryonic cells) then multipotent, etc. etc. with increasing degrees of specificity. So, for example, a progenitor blood stem cell could become a red blood cell, a platelet, several types of white blood cell, but it’s not generating nerve or skin cells. That’s honestly how I see the development of my therianthropy. Looking at my childhood, one can definitely see a trend: One of my earliest obsessions was Tarzan. My sister got all the barbies, I got the stuffed animals. I had boxes of animal figurines/plastic toys. I played pretend as an animal constantly. We had those Great Illustrated Classics books, and I read the Jungle Book more times than I can count, vs. Treasure Island twice. The original Jungle Book was one of the first things I ever bought once I got an e-reader. We had to read White Fang for class. I always reread school books- I had long bus rides and was an avid bookworm- but White Fang was extra special to me. In books I read for fun, I gravitated toward series like the Underland Chronicles, with sentient animals. I read the first Guardians of Ga’hoole book and loved it. Never ended up into Warrior Cats or Animorphs but I suspect I would have liked them. Obsessively tried to catch inconsistent TV showings of Redwall. In a middle school essay I claimed shapechanging (a la beastboy) was the best superpower. You get the point. So there was a clear and present trend toward nonhuman-ness in general (I also believed myself to be a werewolf, alien, witch, vampire...) and animality specifically. But there was not yet a pull toward canine-ness. I played pretend as a dog, sure, but not more or less often than anything else, really.

The dog aspects of my nature really crystallized in high school and into college. This coincided with the development of my stable personality (and gender and sexuality, but that’s for another day). My friend introduced me to webcomics like TwoKinds and Strays and I started having the deep-set conviction that I would be canine in these universes. I started feeling strongly about werewolves and inumimi more than similar bestial species.

Around this time, I discovered the therian/otherkin communities. I wasn’t right right away- I questioned a lot of kintypes- fae, dragon, angel- based on various evidence, associations, and logic, and for a while I rejected the community entirely (long story for another day). But all the while, my brain kept itching for canine content- roleplays, games like WolfQuest, playing a shifter or druid in D&D. I had mental shifts as a dog, etc., and eventually found my way into the therian label and community. There were definitely things from my early childhood that retroactively made sense in a canine framework (chewing, food preferences) but I didn’t “feel” canine until high school. I honestly think I haven’t always been a dog, but I have always been a therian. Hence, multipotence. Looking at my childhood, I think it was impossible for me not to identify as an animal. But I wasn’t settled as a “dog” until my full personality really came into fruition. And one can argue about how much personality is genetic, etc. Someone else may take an embryonic metaphor: a human embryo resembles that of a fish very early in its development, but it’s human and will never become a fish (or chicken, or...). But for me, multiipotence is the metaphor that makes sense. I really believe that, prior to adolescence, I was a multipotent general “therian” yet to differentiate into a more specific “type”. And of course, like a differentiated cell, I can’t go back and become something else now- nor would I ever want to. I am, unequivocably and permanently, a dog. But asking if I was always a dog is like asking a red blood cell if it was always a red blood cell.

[twentiethcenturymoviesandtv]

Frankenstein: Genre and Themes

It doesn’t seem possible that Frankenstein can be sorted into any genre except horror.  A monster on a killing spree, a mad scientist in his lab, spooky shadows and an opening in a graveyard?  It can’t be anything but horror, can it?

Turns out, it can.

Like we’ve discussed before, every story ever created, no matter how simple or complicated, has to fall into at least one genre.  Genre is the sum of similarly themed parts that come together to give a style and theme to a story, a form of shorthand to give the audience an idea as to what kind of story they are about to see.  And in almost every case, it’s never as simple as it seems.

Characters, stories, settings, and even themes often correspond to different genres  As a result, it’s extremely useful as viewers to examine the categorization of films, as it not only sets up our own expectations for individual stories, it also helps us expand the boundaries of genres as their limits are tested.

Which is why Frankenstein is a bit of an odd duck.

I’ll show you what I mean.

Today, we’re going to be looking at the characteristics of the story of Frankenstein to determine what genres it is, what genres it is not, and the whys and wherefores behind them.  Let’s take a look.  Spoilers below!

An easy way to figure out the genre of any given film is to take a look at the setting of a story.  Movies set in outer space tend to be blanketed in the genre of science fiction.  Movies set in medieval times are often considered fantasy.  Movies set in creepy castles or spooky swamps tend to be considered horror.

Which would seem to be the case with Frankenstein.

It seems obvious.  Frankenstein, along with Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon created and codified the film genre of ‘classic horror’.  These were the templates from which all future monsters would spring, werewolves, vampires, zombies and fish-creatures alike.

The spooky, Gothic shadows and creepy angles, the mad-scientist lab, the scenes in the graveyard, skeletons at the fringes of shots, and of course, the monster himself, would seem to speak to an incredibly obvious horror leaning.  In fact, the story’s visual language was based on German Expressionism, which had been used in films like Nosferatu, a bonafide silent horror classic.

But…aren’t horror movies supposed to be scary?

There are no jump-scares in Frankenstein.  Characters do not die in horrifying ways.  They aren’t stalked, nor are they picked off in a way that’s traditional of horror films, and of the three characters who actually die, two were killed in what could be argued as self-defense by the monster.

Weirdest of all, except for possibly the initial scene of his creation, up until he breaks into Elizabeth’s room, the monster is not set up as being ‘scary’.  He’s set up as being sympathetic.

From the first real scene we have of the monster, where he’s lifting his hands in fascination towards light and then cowering from Fritz’s brutality, this is a creature that the audience finds themselves sorry for.  This is not typical of movie monsters.  There was no pity for Dracula, no concern for The Invisible Man or The Mummy.  They were truly monsters, who knew what they were doing.

The Frankenstein monster doesn’t.  For a long time, the monster reacts, rather than acts.  With that knowledge…he doesn’t really come out of this, at least, the first half, looking like a monster.  He’s a scared creature, mistreated into becoming a twisted version of what he could have been, a blank template upon which cruelty has been imprinted.

After the change has occurred, after the monster turns into an active character and goes after Elizabeth and attacks Henry, after so much time of the audience’s built sympathy for this creature, then we feel scared of him.  We realize that he is an incredibly threatening figure, that he can be dangerous, but we never truly let go of that sympathy.  At the end of the film, we don’t necessarily feel victorious that he is trapped, burning to death in that mill.  We feel sorry.  As much of a threat as the monster became, he didn’t start out that way.  It didn’t have to end like that.  But it did.

Hence my case for a rather unconventional idea.

I hypothesize that Frankenstein is a tragedy.

Like I’ve said before, this is a sad story, and I think it was that way by design.  I subscribe to the theory that you can best tell the genre of a film based on what kind of characters are in it, and that works especially well for Frankenstein.  

You see, as I’ve said before, there is no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ side in this film.  The monster is framed as both victim and threat.

And so is Henry Frankenstein.

As an audience, we are not encouraged to wholly dislike either character.  (In fact, the only character I believe we are meant to truly hate and fear is Fritz, a character who manipulates his power to inflict cruelty on the monster.)  We recognize Henry’s mistakes, we realize that he’s not making the best decisions and we want him to perhaps not reanimate the dead, or maybe at least once he does, treat his new undead son with some respect, but we don’t completely hate him, even as we accept that this whole thing is basically his fault.

Henry is framed as sympathetic.  We understand why he feels the way he does, even if we don’t agree with it, and we can figure out why he’s acting the way he is.  He has his redeeming moments: his relationship with Elizabeth, once he stops digging up graves is genuine, and the fact that he doesn’t want the creature destroyed could point to a sign of his caring about his creation, even if he sucks at showing it.  Even if we don’t relate to Henry, exactly, we understand him, and we don’t necessarily want him to die.  He’s a tragic character, a figurative Icarus who aimed too highly for a mortal.

Besides, he was so delightful in that whole ‘raising the dead’ scene.  I mean, that’s movie history, right there.

As for the monster?

The monster is actually the most sympathetic character in the entire cast.  (Except for maybe Elizabeth.)  We get to see his entire lifespan, his birth, life, and death, (Until the sequel) and it’s not a pretty picture.  He’s hurt, frightened, and alone, with no-one willing to actually help him function as a being, as a person, instead of as a successful scientific experiment.  Henry doesn’t seem to know what to do with him once he proved that he could create life, and as a result, the monster is left alone, with no education in how the world works.  He has to figure it out on his own, and the makeshift teachers don’t really help much, either.  Fritz abuses him, Dr. Waldman tries to dissect him, and Henry doesn’t pay him much mind after showing him light.  Even when the monster meets Maria, he doesn’t know enough about the world to understand that his actions would kill her.

Even further supporting my theory is the ending.

The end of the story, after Henry chases his creation down and faces off with him in the mill, eventually struggling and falling while the villagers burn the mill down, is not played as a victorious climax.  This is not the end of a good vs. evil struggle, there is no breath of relief that an audience feels after the defeat of Dracula, Michael Myers, or Freddy Krueger, or even Norman Bates.  The ending is solemn, if not sorrowful, as the audience is left with the death of a creature who had experienced misery for the few days that he had lived.

Both protagonist and antagonist share in what is, quite simply, a tragic ending.  Henry isn’t even the one to right his own wrong.  The monster is slaughtered by an angry mob.  Henry never reconciles his mistake.  People have died, senselessly, and it could have been avoided, and not in the no-don’t-split-up-you-idiots-there’s-a-killer-in-the-woods way.

The audience is not meant to feel happy or triumphant at the end of this film, in my opinion.  In my opinion, we are to mourn both Henry’s arrogance, and the monster’s demise, representative of a life wasted.

Does this mean that Frankenstein is not a horror film?  Absolutely not.

Frankenstein codified almost everything we know about classic horror to this day, potentially inspiring things like the zombie horror-genre and influencing Gothic horror in general.  None of this to say is that Frankenstein is not meant to be a scary movie, because, in 1931, it certainly was.  People were scared, and it was definitely the filmmakers goal to do so in some scenes.  The scene where the monster stalks Elizabeth in her room is definitely scary, and the dark lighting adds to the unsettling look and feel of the entire film.  The scene where Frankenstein creates the monster remains a staple of best horror scenes, and has influenced countless films since then.

No, Frankenstein is definitely a horror film, make no mistake about that.  It’s delightfully scary, full of creepy visuals, unsettling imagery, and a genuinely frightening core story idea: humanity being just capable enough to create life, but not capable enough to see it through competently.

But, horror is not the only genre that Frankenstein demonstrates.

Mary Shelley’s original Frankenstein novel, despite being an excellent example of horror fiction, is also considered the first example of science fiction.  If you’ve been following our ‘Legacy of Science Fiction’ series, you’ve probably noticed a few of the trends that tend to go along with science fiction.

A story doesn’t need to be set in the future for it to be a science-fiction story, nor does it have to have aliens or space-ships.  All it has to do is be about something just beyond our current understanding, founded in science of a sort.  With that understanding, it’s easy to see how Frankenstein fits that bill.

The very creation of the monster himself is the codifier of science-fiction.  Although it’s different in the original novel, the fact is, the idea of a man creating life that turns into a monster is an idea thoroughly grounded in the realm of science-fiction, a story concept rooted in the idea of science.  It’s also an example of speculative fiction: bringing the audience to contend with questions such as nature vs. nurture, man’s place in creation, and the dangers of not being aware of the limits of common sense and the laws of nature.

Mary Shelley’s original novel came at a time when technology was changing much of the landscape of the world as they knew it, and it makes sense that in her story, this strange, unnatural technology would create a monster to be feared and pitied.  In Frankenstein, the methods of this new generation of scientists, presenting seemingly no limits, is as horrific as the monster itself, the power that mankind can access without necessarily the wisdom to do so.

To quote Jurassic Park, the basic premise of the horror and science-fiction of this story is:

“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

And in the end, much like Jurassic Park, it works out terribly.

Like we’ve discussed in the ‘Legacy of Science Fiction’ series, Frankenstein practically invented the science-fiction theme of humanity’s creations inevitably leading to our own destruction, whether directly or indirectly.  In the case of Frankenstein, it’s pretty direct.  Henry’s creation turns on him, and although Henry survives, (and the monster seemingly does not) the premise is still there as a science-fiction device, twisted into a bit of a horror spin.  The idea of human beings creating the things that will destroy them is legitimately frightening, especially when it’s played up as being ‘monstrous’.

But there’s a little more to Frankenstein than a tragic horror/sci-fi story.  It’s also a drama.

A drama film is a serious story, one that presents us with situations that show us realistic characters struggling with themselves, others, or sometimes, nature itself.  Drama usually doesn’t mix with horror, or science fiction for that matter, but it does here.

As I mentioned earlier, not only do we understand Henry and get where he’s coming from, we experience the exact same thing for the monster, if not more so.  Unlike many examples of horror films, we’re half on the side of the creature, and get to know him as a character, rather than just a monster.

The conflict is simple, and fairly obvious.  Henry’s created this being, and due to his own lack of care, is forced to ‘fix’ his mistake and go up against the monster himself.  While the idea of the creation of life, and the character of the monster isn’t ‘realistic’ in traditional terms, the character is understandable and sympathetic to the audience.  We understand him, and the conflict is made far more personal than it would be in a traditional ‘kill-em-all’ horror film.

In the end, that’s what sets Frankenstein apart.

Sure, the film is an excellent horror and science fiction film, but it’s not the scares or the sci-fi that we remember the most about this movie.  It’s the heart of it, the sad, personal stakes of the movie that sticks with us as an audience, and a culture.  There hasn’t really been another ‘Frankenstein’ type film, asking you to consider, not in a high-browed way, but in a simple, emotional way: who is the monster, and who is the man?

We don’t necessarily remember the ‘kills’ of this film.  Maybe we forget things like Henry’s wedding, or the scenes with his father, but we do remember the monster lifting his hands up to try to touch the light, his dynamic creation, and the ending, far from a happy one.

We remember Frankenstein because, not only is it a good horror film, it’s also a good story that, unlike a lot of horror films, forces us to care, not only about the men, but the monsters as well.  As long as we can still feel emotion for the ‘Other’, there will always be a place for Frankenstein, even almost ninety years later.

Thank you all so much for reading!  Stay tuned for next time, when we’ll be discussing the characters of Frankenstein.  I hope to see you all in the next article.

[shadowamongfireworks]

Patton and the “Woofman” costume Theory/Speculation

My theory is that Patton purposefully misunderstood the directions he was given to dress as a Wolfman (Werewolf) in favor of dressing as a “Woofman” because of what the werewolf represents to him. This can be understood by looking at what werewolves are, the perceived differences between wolves and dogs in American culture, the resulting perception of each species by Patton, and parallels regarding Patton’s past actions and behaviors.

A werewolf, in American culture and media, is a person, who at a certain point in time -generally a full moon- will transform into either a near regular looking wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf. As the werewolf primarily appears in horror movies, it is often specifically the latter form, and this is the kind Patton would have been dressing as.

https://eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/monsters/2016/11/08/the-werewolfvampire-dichotomy/

Heather McCallum writes, “...the werewolf also represents the loss of control, becoming too naturalistic and losing identity to the passions... Giving in to that monstrous impulse eliminates all forms of self-control, removes that person entirely from society into a very isolating existence. Oftentimes, those who transform wind up hurting the ones they love most in the course of their unnatural existence. The werewolf/transformation narrative is a suitable allegory for addictions and self-serving pleasures: while pursuing their desires, they become slaves to their urges, and those urges destroy them.”

Wolves and dogs, despite being similar species, are perceived very differently in American culture. Wolves are often seen as predators, as a threat to humans.

https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=kent1222706628&disposition=inline

“Throughout the history of English folklore and interest in the natural world, the wolf has been associated with a variety of socially unacceptable traits...Summers states that the “distinctive features of the wolf are unbridled cruelty, bestial ferocity, and ravening hunger. [. . .] He is the symbol of Night and Winter, of Stress and Storm, the dark and mysterious harbinger of Death.” Pg 36

Dogs are widely seen in a much more positive light; as pets, as companions for humans, and as protectors. They are heavily associated with friendship, affection, and loyalty. Patton is associated with dogs, though this association much less discussed than his association with cats. In Embarrassing Phases, he describes what makes his costume a “Woofman” costume, focusing on the floppy ears and the dog tag. Both of these traits are indeed associated with dogs specifically.

In a way, dogs are essentially diluted wolves, wolves who over thousands of years adapted to fit their changing surroundings after teaming up with humans, and then later further changed/were changed to suit the needs and desires of humans.

This may be comparable to what happened with Patton. Patton would have originally just represented Thomas’ feelings, but overtime, as they started to grow up, his role as Morality would also be introduced. He would be influenced by Thomas’ parents teachings as well as those of other adults and people in general that Thomas interacted with. However, at some point, Patton subconsciously took many of those teachings to an unhealthy, but not uncommon, extreme, and he began to filter out and repress the things that he had been taught were negative; certain ideas, and potentially feelings as well. It has been at least heavily implied that Patton consciously caused the separation of Roman and Remus, there are some theories that Virgil may have also been a result of Patton’s filtering, and I believe Patton may have even split himself into two, seeing as how he’d repress the emotions he’d come to believe were bad.

We have never, ever seen Patton outright angry, but we may have caught smaller glimpses of it here and there in the series in the form of passive aggression. “Boy what an ass-et to your personality”, from Making Some Changes (0:37) is one major instance of this. (Patton flipping Deceit off in S vs S would be evidence, but according to Thomas himself it was actually a blooper that accidentally got through the editing process). Most often, it seems to be converted into another feeling or action, such as Patton’s determination to try to get Virgil to stop being self-deprecating.

Knowing about Patton’s repression is important. Going back to the concept of the werewolf, like quote 1 said, turning into a werewolf is essentially the destructive wolf side taking over an individual and going rampant. Taking into account his circumstances and actions in regards to his filtering and repression, and the overall cultural association with wolves and negative ideas and feelings, Patton may feel that the Wolfman and the general werewolf narrative is a symbolic representation of his worst fears for Thomas and himself : that he will fail or has already failed to do his job, and that because of his failure(s) the negative feelings and negative Sides will come back, and that those Sides will win. So when he was given the instructions to dress as a werewolf he found a loophole and actively decided to change the Wolf part of his costume into a Dog, a similar but separate species related to wolves that he viewed much more positively, and then he covered up his motivation for the change by making it look like a misunderstanding by utilizing the dog pun.

Body Language Analysis and Other Connections

Body Language Analysis

In the Embarrassing Phases episode, this interaction occurs:

Patton appears to consistently mishear “Wolf” as “Woof”, despite the clear pronunciation by the others. He insists that that he’s hearing “Woofman”, and doesn’t appear to start to back down until Roman’s “Wolfman” line. Look at Pat’s body language after Logan’s third “Wolf man” correction (panel 7) . He is mirroring Logan’s body language to an extent. He’s making Direct eye contact, his head is slightly tilted forward (which if it was tilted forward more would become a clearer sign of aggression in this context), upper body leaning forward, hands on hips, feet planted. This is an aggression/dominance body language cluster in everything but his facial expression. Then it drops immediately as soon as Roman starts saying the word; in the next shot Patton is standing further away from the camera, and is also off-center making him further away from Roman, with much more neutral (just verging on passive looking at his facial expression) body language. This may mean that he realized he was becoming too aggressive trying to defend his point, so he immediately stopped and took on neutral/passive body language, all the while continuing to act oblivious so the group wouldn’t realize something was wrong.

Hear no Evil

There are multiple theories going around regarding the “See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil” picture spotted in the Can Lying Be Good? video. One such theory is that the image is actually related to the Core Sides rather than the Other Sides, and that Patton is specifically related to Hear no Evil. Looking at the “Woofman” interaction, I feel like that interaction may be further evidence -along with this thumbnail from DWIT and other interactions in the series- pointing towards Patton being Hear no Evil, as he seems to be actively choosing to not hear the correction he is being given by the others. He always says “Woofman”, never “Wolfman”.

Orange Dark Side’s Animal Association

I believe that the next Dark Side will be associated with the Wolf. Both snakes and octopi/deep sea creatures are both animals people fear (going off the idea that the series as a whole has to do with being able to accept and work with all parts of yourself), so it would be safe to say that a wolf would not be out of place, as wolves have been feared by humans for centuries and still face stigma today. Patton may have split himself into two individuals in the process of trying to filter out the more “negative” parts of himself, so if that resulting dark side was associated with wolves, it would make sense for Patton to actively avoid using wolf imagery or saying anything directly related to wolves, even to the point of avoiding just saying the word “wolf” like he may have been during the interaction I analyzed.

[mittensmorgul]

Jack vs Zombies

13.04: Jack’s first introduction to the concept of zombies. His fascination begins as he learns that apparently sometimes people can come back from the dead, in an episode where he openly grieves his mother’s death, immediately following his unintentional (based on his complete lack of understanding that he’d done it after the fact) awakening of Cas in the Empty, effectively giving Cas the chance to come back from the dead for real-- and not as a zombie...

DEAN: All right, here we go. Victim, Wes Bailey. His wife, Erica, died six months ago. Heart thing, out of the blue. Uh, question is, why’d she come back from the dead and knife his ass? JACK: People come back? SAM: When a person dies and their soul can’t move on… DEAN: They’re called ghosts. And hanging around makes them go loony tunes. Uh, they go crazy. SAM: Yeah, question is, since when do ghosts kill somebody and walk out the front door? DEAN: So maybe it’s a revenant. JACK: Wait. What’s a revenant? SAM: A revenant’s more like a—a zombie.

13.06: Jack learns what a zombie is, and he thinks he’s found a case where there might be an actual zombie. His weird fascination with death, with “what’s burned stays dead” being defied by Cas’s resurrection, continues:

we start with flashback scenes to Jody from 5.15, and her zombie son killing and eating her husband, and Dean recommending head shots to kill them. Athena plays the song “They Call Me Zombie” while working in her morgue later in the episode, too. But it’s not a zombie, no matter how hard Jack pushes that theory:

JACK: I can move the pencil. And… I found a case. Hunter's case. DEAN: What kind of a– JACK: Zombies. [He whispers confidentially to Cas] I know what zombies are now. [He pulls the came info up on the computer] You see?

and

SAM: Okay, so "code three" means an officer down. Looks like the victim was– JACK: Covered in bite marks. Like from a zombie. DEAN: Or anything else that has teeth.

and

SAM: Yeah, bite marks. Looks like a ghoul. [Jack looks to Castiel, confused] CASTIEL: Oh, a ghoul is a monster that feeds on the dead. They can take the form of whomever they've eaten. Decapitation kills them. DEAN: Yeah, or bashing their brains in. [Dean tosses the bone to Cas] JACK: So like a… zombie shape-shifter? SAM: Pretty much, yeah. And he could have tunnels all over that graveyard.

His analysis of a ghoul as a zombie shapeshifter is accurate enough, and he’s satisfied. He’s not satisfied, however, by their inability to resurrect the security guard he kills accidentally while trying to kill the ghoul. He’s barely mastered pencil levitation, and doesn’t yet understand his own power over life and death.

13.12: Jack’s not in this one, but Rowena is. Through the Black Grimoire, she has access to spells that can raise the dead. And a couple of inexperienced witches use it to do just that, bringing their mother back as a mindless zombie. Rowena gets to see the ugly side of that sort of magic, in a creature she can’t defend herself from with magic. The magic she’s used to protect herself her whole life fails her, and Dean tells her to shoot the zombie in the head to save herself. Interesting experience for our witch, whose fate also seems tied up in this whole drama with Jack... (and zombies...)

14.05: It’s only a little reference, and not even directly tied to Jack, but to Maggie-- who’s already been resurrected by Lucifer once because Jack demanded it of him. So Maggie is literally someone else that Jack has indirectly brought back from the dead, and the case she’d gone out on was based on this report:

Sam: Uh, Maggie was working a lead. Kids online said they were studying when -- and I quote -- 'a walker tried to end them.' It's a zombie -- a "Walking Dead" thing --

I just wrote this post about 14.06, 14.07, and 14.20:

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/185030339610/1406-jack-im-already-writing-isnt-that

Which only leaves us with 14.16 to discuss here:

Eliot: Zombies are real? Jack: Well, no. Not really. It's kinda disappointing. But there are other monsters. Eliot: Like what? Jack: Oh, vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters -- I've seen one of those -- djinn, rugaru -- That's a funny name, yeah. Wraiths, sirens, demons, ghouls. All sorts of things.

and

Jack: Did you know Article 246 of the Haitian criminal code officially makes it against the law to turn a human into a zombie?

While Sam and Dean are out in the woods investigating what turns out to be a man cursed into becoming a monster, forced to roam a specific section of the forest and cursed to feel a terrible hunger for human flesh, in punishment for being a cannibal in his life. So... effectively a zombie...

[amandajoyce118]

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Season One Easter Eggs And References

I so greatly enjoyed Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, and I’m really interested to see what they do in season two, which is almost done filming. I still maintain that this show is like if Riverdale and Supernatural had a baby. It’s definitely creepy and not for everyone, but I found it fascinating.

I’ve got Easter eggs galore, though I didn’t go through and explain who every comic book character is like I would normally do with a superhero show. And yes, the Netflix series is based on the 2014 Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comic, which in turn was named after another comic from decades earlier. Sabrina Spellman is an Archie Comics character, but it’s not clear if her show is set in the same universe as Riverdale or not.

There are spoilers here, but as usual, I’ve broken this list down episode by episode for those who want to read while they watch. Enjoy.

S1E01 “Chapter One: October Country”

Opening Credits

The opening credits feature the artwork of Robert Hack. Hack is the artist who actually illustrated The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comic book. A lot of his art inspires the look of the show as well.

The Episode Title

October Country gets its name from a collection of stories by Ray Bradbury. They were all considered pretty dark, and the volume mostly reprinted stories included in a different anthology, only adding a few new pieces, king of like this show.

The Very 70s Aesthetic

The show kind of has a weird timewarp thing going on like sister series Riverdale. There’s a lot of cars, furniture, and even clothing that seem to be inspired by the 1970s. That’s likely because Sabrina made her comic book debut in the 70s. It’s a way to give an homage to the original books as well as the newer series the show adapts.

Cerberus Books

Cerberus was a three headed dog who guarded the gate to the underworld in Greek mythology. We’ll discuss him more in a later episode.

Dr. Saperstein

My guess is that someone on staff is a Parks and Rec fan. This is Jean-Ralphio’s surname, and his father, was, in fact, a doctor. Of course, it’s also the name of the doctor in Rosemary’s Baby, so… pick your reference.

Sabrina’s Thermos

You’ll notice some characters on Sabrina’s thermos. Those happen to be a musical group named The Archies. Yep, they’re Archie and the gang from Riverdale, which does make you wonder if the two shows are in the same universe or if one is the fictional version of the other or what.

Sabrina Makes Harvey Forget

She does it with a kiss here, but in the 90s television sitcom, she made him forget she was a witch a lot of times. This made me wonder if she might have to do it a few more times over the course of this series, or if the next time he finds out, it sticks.

Her Parents Were Flying To Italy

This is an awfully interesting destination. Why? Because what’s in Italy? That would be Rome and the Vatican, home of the Catholic Church, which is interesting in and of itself. It’s both a very romantic and a very religious destination for a witch and a mortal to be traveling to. It also happens to be where the first Sabrina The Teenage Witch movie was set, if I remember right.

The Weird Sisters

These three get their nickname from the trio of witches in Shakespeare’s MacBeth. There’s a lot of Shakespeare references throughout the show, but I think that’s really just because writers like their Shakespeare.

Salem

The show’s take on Salem is interesting. In the Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina comic, he was Sabrina’s familiar, but that’s not became he was a goblin. Instead, he was cursed by a witch in Salem to become a cat. He was a mortal man named Samuel who got her pregnant and, because he had nothing to offer her, he didn’t want her to have to marry him. She took offense, Satan ate their kid and she cursed him to become her familiar. When she died in the witch trials, Satan renamed him Salem as a nod to what happened.

The 90s sitcom had Salem as a warlock who was cursed to cat form by the witches council after committing a crime. It seems like Ambrose on house arrest is filling that role this time around.

S1E02 “Chapter Two: The Dark Baptism”

“...a movie star like cousin Montgomery.”

I like the idea that this is a nod to Elizabeth Montgomery, the star of the series Bewitched, which followed a witch named Samantha who married a mortal. Samantha’s evil cousin on the show? Her name was Sabrina.

A Riverdale Mention

So, Riverdale is likely just across the river from Greendale here since we hear the town named.

Black Narcissus

The name of the goat snagged for Sabrina’s baptism is also the name of a 1947 film. There’s actually a ton of classic movie references, posters, etc in the show, just like in Riverdale. I probably won’t point them all out because this would be a list of nothing but movie references.

S1E03 “Chapter Three: The Trial Of Sabrina Spellman

“Conserve water. Plug it up, plug it up…”

This is a sign on the bathroom door in the high school It’s a nod to the horror movie Carrie, which was based on a book by Stephen King. The movie also inspired a musical episode of Riverdale in season two.

Daniel Webster

The lawyer is named after a character in a pretty famous short story about a farmer who sells his soul to the devil and is then defended by a talented lawyer.

Archie’s Madhouse

Another comic from the Archie world of comics. One of its covers is on the wall in Harvey’s room. He’s clearly a fan of many different types of comics.

Ravens VS Bulldogs

We get another nod to the fact that Riverdale exists. About half way into the episode, there’s a kid putting up a flyer for a bowling match between the Baxter High Ravens and the Riverdale High Bulldogs.

Dr. Specter

I just thought it was funny that an eye doctor has this name. It’s not really an Easter egg, just cute.

Side note: Ambrose asks Luke if he’s a vampire. So, I’m going to go with witches aren’t the only supernatural beings the show will eventually introduce. Vampires, werewolves, there is no limit to what I expect now.

S1E04 “Chapter Four: Witch Academy”

Gehenna Station

“Gehenna” is an old biblical term that means hell-like. I kind of think it’s fitting that the school is disguised as an old train station as well since a lot of artists imagine purgatory as a train station. Hell-like purgatory seems like a good training ground for witches.

Nick Scratch

Old Scratch is a common slang, or at least it used to be, for the devil. Here, I think it’s just a nod to the fact that Nick’s a warlock. (Also, Nicholas Scratch was the name of a Marvel villain once upon a time, but that’s a whole different publisher.)

Valac

One of the names seen in a book is that of Valac. I think fans of The Conjuring franchise will recognize it as a demon there. Another movie reference in this episode? The “light as a feather, stiff as a board” chant used by the harrowed kids. That’s courtesy of The Craft.

S1E05 “Chapter Five: Dreams In A Witch House”

Batibat

Her makeup looks pretty reminiscent of The Witches (movie based on a Roald Dahl book), but that’s actually all I’ve got for this episode. Unless we count Sabrina using the children’s string game Jacob’s Ladder as her way to get the spiders’ webs going, but I think that’s just a result of that particular game being a prevalent one in the 90s, and thus, amongst the writers.

S1E06 “Chapter Six: An Exorcism In Greendale”

Harvey As Johnny Depp

Harvey with his headphones on in the #10 tee? That’s am almost exact remake of a shot of Johnny Depp in A Nightmare On Elm Street. (Side note: I kind of feel like this shot should have been in the previous episode, the one that actually focused on nightmares.)

Apophis

Apophys is a death metal group. Apophis is the name of an asteroid, but also a derivation of the name of an Egyptian ruler, as well as an Egyption entity of chaos. Apep was drawn as a giant serpent and was an enemy of “the light.”

The Exorcist Homage

Okay, this episode really just plays as a loving homage to The Exorcist. There are so many shots that echo frames from the film. I’m not going to even attempt to list them all.

The Witches That Came Before

Okay, Sabrina calls on the power of a whole lot of historical figures as she names “witches” during her exorcism. My personal favorites? The goddesses Artemis and Luna, the queen Anne Boleyn, and the mythical first wife of Adam, Lilith. She also calls on Morgan Le Fay of the famous Arthurian legend. She actually appeared in an old Archie comic involving time travel called Jughead’s Time Police. Yeah, even Archie comics got weird back in the day.

Afterlife With Archie

This is the more supernatural version of the Archie comic book universe. Luke actually has a copy of an issue in his hands while he’s in Cerberus. It’s funny because this comic book storyline was created by Sabrina trying to bring Jughead’s dog back to life… we’ll call that foreshadowing for a future episode.

S1E07 “Chapter Seven: Feast of Feasts”

Grandpa Kinkle

TV fans might recognize Grandpa Kinkle as Michael Hogan. He’s been all over genre shows for decades. Most recently though, and where Sabrina’s target audience will know him from, he played a hunter on Teen Wolf. There, he came from a long line of werewolf hunters. Here, he’s from a long line of witch hunters. Coincidence? I have a feeling it’s not.

Ben

Poor, tragic pizza delivery boy. Okay, so the most recent season of Riverdale also featured a character named Ben. Specifically, Ben Button. Ben Button was played by Moses Thiessen. Guess who this Ben is played by? That would also be Moses Thiessen. And, guess what else? They both (spoiler alert for Riverdale fans who haven’t watched yet) died in weird ways. What does this mean? I have no idea.

Side note: The only witches in the coven who don’t seem to partake in the feast are Sabrina, Zelda, Nick, and surprisingly, Prudence. (And Hilda and Ambrose, but they aren’t invited) There’s a part of me that wonders if that will be significant in season two.

S1E08 “Chapter Eight: The Burial”

1693

Above the entrance to the mine, we see that the Kinkle’s took over, or created, the South Line in 1693. I’ll admit, my first thought was, oh, that’s when the Sanderson sisters originally died in Hocus Pocus. It’s also the year that the Salem Witch Trials took place, providing a nod to the history the show pulls from. The Von Kunkles hunted down witches and stole their land while the trials were going on in Salem, which also indirectly led to the hanging of the original Greendale witches. Yikes.

American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares

A comic book published by Vertigo, this happens to land on Harvey’s bedside table. Another vampire reference, eh? I hope we see one eventually.

S1E09 “Chapter Nine: The Returned Man”

Dr. Phibes

He’s named for a Vincent Price character. If you don’t know who Vincent Price was, he was pretty much the face of horror in American cinema for a while. Do yourself a favor and look him up.

Pop Culture Nods

I have no idea why someone who claims to be as dark as Zelda chooses a song from The Sound of Music for the Church of Night’s choir. Your guess is as good as mine. Susie tries to shoplift Orlando by Virginia Woolf. I’ve never read it, but it’s certainly the type of novel Susie, or even a witch in Greendale would be interested in. It follows a poet who changes sex (male to female) and lives for hundreds of years.

S1E10 “Chapter 10: The Witching Hour”

Mr. Loomis

This is likely a nod to the Halloween franchise, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that it was also the last name of Sidney’s boyfriend in Scream, but that was a nod to Halloween in and of itself.

Riverdale

Again, a Riverdale nod. Harvey’s dad had the funeral home in Riverdale take care of Tommy instead of the Spellman’s. But is it in the Riverdale we know on TV? Who knows?

“Let Greendale cast a spell on you…”

This is the town motto on the sign at the edge of town. (I’d like to point out the sign is designed just like the one of CW’s Riverdale, so nice consistency in set design there.) It’s cute, but I’m also wondering how the town got this motto since everyone seems bent on rewriting the towns witchy history.

Cerberus

The owner of Cerberus books? His eyes flash yellow after getting a kiss from Hilda. I’d like to think he’s something canine to go with his name, and perhaps his store stands over an actual gate to hell. Whether he’s a real hellhound or a werewolf, or the show pays off on its vampire nods with him, remains to be seen.

Madame Satan

She reveals her real name. She also reveals she’s Lilith, first wife of Adam. I find it funny that Sabrina actually invoked her during the exorcism.

Comic Book Look

Sabrina gets her comic book accurate hair in the end here. You know, I don’t think she needed it, but it’s a nice nod that there’s been a transformation in her power level.

Bonus Motifs

These things showed up a lot, and I didn’t want to have to write about it every single time.

13

Pop culture has got 13 as being unlucky and associated with magic, so I like that the show embraced it. A witch’s pregnancy lasts 13 months, 13 minutes is just enough time for a soul to leave a body, and 13 hours is how long Sabrina has to wait to see if her resurrection spell worked.

Cain And Abel

These two brothers were the sons of Adam and Eve, for those who know their biblical stories. They represent jealousy and murder, etc. We’ve got Hilda with her Cain pit in the garden, but there’s actually a lot of more subtle references to them. Cain was a farmer (Hilda) and Abel was a shepherd (Zelda, leading the way), for example. There’s a lot of focus on sibling relationships considering the show’s main character is an only child. Harvey and Tommy, Hilda and Zelda, the Weird Sisters, etc.

Suspira

A lot of the set design (windows and ceilings, specifically) are nods to the horror film Suspira. I’ve never seen it, but it got a lot of notice from horror fans on social media, so I figured I should add that here.

Real Spells

According to interviews and set visits, the crew wanted the set to be authentic, so that had practicing witches cast protection spells on the set and used real symbols around the Spellman house. The Spellman house even has a German protection spell carved into the floor.

Jughead

Also according to set visits, one of the shelves in the Baxter High library has a shelf where you can see a crown and “Jughead was here” carved into it. I don’t think it’s actually visible while watching the show though.

So, what did you guys think about the show? Love it? Hate it? Did you spot more Easter eggs?