#what the heck nandor

[casualfr1days]

Bro I did not just speed run watching 5 seasons of WWDITS waiting for Guillermo to turn into a vampire JUST FOR HIM TO IMMEDIATELY BE TURNED INTO A HUMAN AGAIN

[beansprean]

Atlantis AU….. for @fanfic-fugue who asked the very important question what if a vampire fanboy with Van Helsing lineage led an expedition to an ancient lost vampire city no one thinks exists? And also Nandor had his tits out? 😈

(ID in alt and under cut)

1a. Background of an underground Persian palace of cracked stone and tile, overgrown with vines and moss and surrounded by pink silk trees. Closer to the viewer, beyond a plain that is half sand half meadow, is a double waterfall flanked by cracked stone pillars, pouring into a basin covered by a gulley of cypress trees. Closer still is a short set of fallen stairs leading down to a peaceful blue pond with floating lily pads and a massive cracked stone pillar set crooked in the ground. The pillar is coated in vines and algae and has a center ring of round protrusions capped by red gems, some of which are missing. Standing at the top of the ruined stairs are Guillermo and Nandor. Guillermo is dressed like Milo Thatch in an army green tank top, brown breeches, and stockings, a leather bag crossed over his chest and an old book tucked under his arm. He is reaching out towards the pillar with his free hand, smiling in fascination as he remarks, “Wow, this architecture is amazing!” Nandor stands behind him, arms tucked behind his back, and replies “I suppose. It looks like breasts.” Nandor is wearing a version of his usual layered kaftan in light purples and blues, a long dark blue sash with gold patterns draped over his shoulders and tucked into a leather belt at his waist. 1b. Full body drawing of Nandor in the same outfit, showing more detail like brown leather boots, the ancient-looking sword strapped to his belt, and the looser bun holding back his hair. Nandor is standing proud and upright, looking directly at the viewer with one hand on the hilt of his blade.

2a. Close up of Guillermo soaking wet and dripping, his tank top now translucent enough to see his nipples through. He is talking excitedly, almost manic, grinning and gesturing wildly with his hands at someone offscreen. There is a plain gold crucifix around his neck. 2b. Close up of The Guide dressed like Helga Sinclair in a long silk black evening dress, black gloves, ushanka, and fur stole, draped casually in a chair with legs crossed, the fur tucked into her elbows and one strap of the dress slipped down over her shoulder. She lifts one hand in a “what the heck?” gesture and says, “Guillermo de la Cruz… I sent, like, 50 ravens!!”

3a. Full body of Guillermo smiling confidently, holding up an old leather book with a red skull design, titled “Vampyr”. He is wearing a khaki colored sweater, brown breeches, stockings, button boots, and a long faded green coat. He has a leather bag strapped across his chest. 3b. Full body of Nandor stripped down to a tiny wrapped-cloth undergarment, standing with hip cocked flirtatiously, one arm stretched up to rest against the side of the image as he grins teasingly, one eyebrow cocked. He asks casually, “Do you swim?” 3c. Close up of Guillermo pausing in the act of pulling off his own shirt, clutching the hem with both hands at his breast line. He stares openly at Nandor, face tomato-red and shaking mouth struggling to form words, stuttering out, “I-I swim pretty guy- pretty good!!”

4. Nandor and Guillermo floating together underwater, Nandor in his cloth briefs and Guillermo in white boxers. They both have their hands placed on a cracked stone mural depicting an ancient bearded warrior on horseback, wielding a sword much like Nandor’s and a helmet and armor similar to the one his ghost wore in the show. Their hands touch against the stone and they turn to look at each other, Guillermo flushed and spilling bubbles between his lips, Nandor unbreathing with large liquid eyes. Guillermo’s crucifix is floating up in the water, shining bright gold. The entire scene is overlaid with teal and shining water effects, light piercing down at them in rays. /end ID

[kjthenbee]

Could nandermo ever go canon? What's the probability? Cus I think the show runners are being weird about it

I honestly do think it will become canon eventually, just maybe not in the way a lot of people want/expect. The wwdits writers are well-known for throwing curveballs at us when we think we know what’s going to happen (i.e. S4E9 “Freddie”, where we all thought Nandor would be jealous of Freddie instead of becoming infatuated with him).

The writers have definitely been building up the romantic tension between Nandermo as the seasons progress though, and I think the fact that in the two most recent seasons they’ve gone out of their way to show the audience that - yes, all of the vampires are canonically queer as fuck, and yes, Guillermo is canonically gay - is telling. It’s meant to indicate to the audience that a romantic pairing between Nandor and Guillermo is 100% a thing that could happen.

Additionally, it’s been shown multiple times that no matter how hard Nandor tries, he can’t find a companion or love interest who truly makes him happy like Guillermo does. And despite the shit Nandor and the other vamps put him through, Guillermo is so down bad for his master that he comes back to be his familiar every time anyway, even when he’s been established to be a better fighter and way more competent than Nandor. Heck, he’s already at least partly a vampire now - why would he need to stick around? And he used to be a bodyguard, so why has he simply reverted back to doting on Nandor?

I also think fan feedback on the ship has been pretty overwhelmingly positive and has only grown since Guillermo was first implied to have feelings for Nandor in season 3. There have been recent articles acknowledging the “will they, won’t they” of their relationship too, and I’ve definitely seen more charged chemistry in the Nandermo scenes in season 5 with the way Harvey and Kayvan are playing the characters.

So while yes, I think that Nandermo will eventually become canon, I’m still not certain it will happen this season (I remember thinking it might happen in s3 or s4 and was disappointed lol). They may drag this out til the end of the show… Or maybe at the end of this season, they’ll pull a “they finally kiss but there are misunderstandings that keep them from being together” - like Nandor finding out that Guillermo went to Derek to turn him and feeling betrayed. I would honestly not be mad if they went that route because then at least there would be confirmation that this is a ship that is being taken seriously by the writers and not just something they tease.

[apocalypticavolition]

Wheel of Time Season 2 Episodes 1 - 3 Thoughts

In my reread - which I won't be doing today, or probably any day that a show episode comes out in the immediate future - this is the part where I'd have some sort of snark warning about spoilers to shoo away the viewers who might not have blocked the relevant tags for some reason. This is about the show, but I will be discussing a few things that will be spoilers to show-watchers only - and if you haven't caught up at all then obviously I'll be spoiling the show.

After seeing Apple TV's Foundation blossom into this beautiful and entertaining show that had almost nothing to do with its source material, I figured I could come to Wheel of Time's second season with an open mind. And hey, episode 1 of the show made me think that we were over the rough part. Yeah, I had to meet its plot changes in the middle, but if I was willing to do that, the show seemed to promise that I would be rewarded. After the three episodes released so far, I'm not quite sure. I want to love the show, but I'm not a show lover.

And yeah, it starts with the opening. Jordan's world is one in which evil doesn't prosper and makes no illusions about being an alternate system of morality that good guys just besmirch because they're meanie pants. Having a little girl pet a rape-and-murder machine that's purring at the prospect of human contact isn't a great start for me, and frankly there's just something about Ishamael in this scene that feels like Nandor from What We Do in the Shadows, which isn't a worthwhile comparison.

Nor does the new show intro excite me. The previous season's over-focus on the Aes Sedai felt to me like a mistake overall but the concept of the opening sequence was still strong. I wanted to see it change and evolve over the course of the eight seasons, but now we're just given a few seconds of a snake devouring itself. It's a major step backwards.

But these are quibbles. I know they're quibbles. If they were the biggest kinds of complaints I had against the show I'd move on. Things get a lot stronger from there, showing us some great TV! Let's break it down:

Moiraine and Lan: Moiraine is not taking being shielded well. This is a legit reaction. Her misery is clear and the bath scene is a great contrast. Lan's attitude isn't much better. It's well-acted, well-set, and seeing changes like Verin being folded into Vandene is good! Like I said, I get that it's TV, I get that there have to be changes, and this little change works. Heck, Bayle Domon showing up works. He's fun, Moiraine fucking him over is fun, it's good TV. It's a little frustrating that we still don't know what the poem is (I mean, I know as a reader but still), but that's all in good fun.

But I do have problems with the division forming between Lan and Moiraine. Not that it's happening at all, under the circumstances it makes perfect sense. However, the characters and narratives taking the stance of, "Moiraine is suffering trauma so she's allowed to be as cold to her best friend of twenty years as possible and he just has to take it" does not work for me at all.

Then there's the Fade sequence. In the next episode, Lan will apologize for not sensing the Shadowspawn coming, which raises the question - why didn't Moiraine sense them coming? She's shielded, not severed. Why did the first Fade go down so easily? Why is Lan so terrible at fighting Fades when he spent his whole life training to do so? At least Verin saves the day. Really, Verin is awesome in general and I have no complaints, she's everything she should be for this adaptation.

And then comes the double dose of cruelty. First we get a summary of how Lan and Moiraine met, based on the New Spring novel, but we leave out the coolest part, which frankly only does Moiraine dirty. Though, they do Lan dirty too by making the sexual assault he suffered something to laugh about as a funny cultural affectation instead of the rape that it clearly was.

And then things go downhill. Book Moiraine might have been cruel in setting up the transfer of her bond to Lan, but she didn't make it happen right away and she didn't explicitly tell Lan she never thought of him as an equal. Her behavior is abhorrent and unheroic and while Moiraine's always been on the utilitarian side of things, this is just more than I'm willing to deal with. It also only makes Alanna feel skeevier as a character, which is impressive considering all the rest of the stuff she pulls. And that's it. They're gone - and frankly, for show Moiraine all I can say is "good riddance".

Wondergirls: Egwene is overall good, Nynaeve starts well enough. I don't really like Nynaeve's getting to skip the novice phase taken away from her - I feel that Rafe's love of Egwene consistently tears down the characters around her and now that she's chiding Nynaeve that she should be happy I feel very vindicated in this belief - but I can live with it. Nynaeve choosing to suffer rather than address her block is good. The Aes Sedai politicking about how to train Nynaeve and who should be her mentor is great! Egwene's jealousy is in-character.

Nynaeve training with Alanna's Warders though, while impressive, feels like mostly an excuse to give those two a few extra lines. And Alanna feels genuinely skeevy in this incarnation; I had thought her advice to Egwene was just inappropriate metaphor until the characters clarified, and at that point I'm just wondering why Alanna is supposed to be a positive representation of polyamory if she's clearly trying to groom Egwene on the side. Like, at least Liandrin being a bad mentor and person overall is clear from her interactions with Nynaeve. Of course, much less about Liandrin is clear in general. She steals medicine as if an Aes Sedai wouldn't be able to obtain such things without question)

And then we meet Elayne. Book Elayne is a sweetheart, only stuck-up in the most basic of ways (taught to walk around with her nose in the air). Show Elayne makes several faux pas and doesn't seem to present much reason for Egwene to want to be her friend. "I haven't seen a soul", she says, surrounded by servants. She says she spent six summers in Tar Valon but her attitude screams six summers in Seandar. Sheriam at least seems like she's gonna beat some sense into her, but I shouldn't be rooting for that outcome, should I?

Meanwhile, Nynaeve follows Liandrin out of the tower and discovers her dark secret, a son dying of old age. At first my associate and I thought it was all going to be some kind of ploy to impress Nynaeve and influence her ajah choice, but it's all legit. I thought that Liandrin having a son was fine, but my friend is less convinced and there's something to be said for that. Liandrin's attitude doesn't scream, "son she's outliving", and it adds to the sense of incoherence to her character.

Elayne just barely manages to recover as a character during the drinking sequence when she chews Egwene out, which also sets her up nicely for her bullshit. Not sure what I think about the convenient drama of Nynaeve overhearing Egwene bitching about her, but at least it kind of goes places. It helps explain why Nynaeve's so vehement about the testing, anyway.

Her testing is... where things start really going downhill. The beginning is fine (though the whole "attacked by bandits" thing doesn't work for me at all for the Two Rivers - not in the last season, not in this one), and the middle is a good adaptation, but then we hit the end. The fake out's good, but then... Ugh. In the books, Nynaeve wills the portal back, but that's not what happens here. Further, Liandrin's motivations remain incoherent: if she's a Darkfriend working to bring about these peoples' downfall, Nynaeve's death (a huge loss for the Light) shouldn't be something she's this upset about. Like yeah, corrupting her would be more fun, but a win's a win. But the Shadow doesn't want wins in this episode. It wants to lose as hard as it can.

Sheriam is also a bit odd here but since she may not know Liandrin is Black I can buy her behavior as being generally shitty while covering for herself. I mean, "your grief is your own" is so unnecessarily cruel that it's clear that she's Black. That said, not sure why she's discussing arches with the girls when my impression is that the test was supposed to be something of a secret until the novice was ready to advance. Nor do I think Elayne is done any favors with her absolutely hollow condolences - Sheriam was more believable as a sympathetic ear.

Egwene confronts Liandrin, which leads us to yet another situation where somebody on the Shadow could easily eliminate one of the five ta'veren but absolutely refuses to do so because... it wouldn't be sporting? She then tries to save Nynaeve while Elayne talks her out of it, but makes absolutely no difference whatsoever (ah well, at least she isn't personally responsible for bringing Nynaeve back). Then Nynaeve... does come back. For no apparent reason. Apparently every other woman who entered this segment just killed themselves after missing the first door out. At least book Nynaeve forces the arch to reappear - show Nynaeve only forces the scenario to stop being scary and the arch shows up anyway.

Perrin: I thought that Marcus was the weakest actor last season, and while he's grown quite a good deal, it also feels like he's been given the least to work with. He's with mostly new characters bar Loial, who doesn't get the love and attention he deserves. Everyone in his sequence exists to push him along, and he doesn't have much going on just yet as he's reacting to what goes down. I do like how they're representing his power, and again combining Elyas and Hurin is the right sort of choice for TV, but I feel like Perrin was meant to be bouncing off of at least Mat at this point. His writing is very on the nose when he and the Shienarians are burying the Darkfriends, it feels very much like we're just being told what he feels instead of being shown it.

But hey, while the woman in the house horror sequence was not remotely something Perrin went through, and it was pretty changed, I honestly didn't expect it to show up at all, so I'm calling that a win for him. It's well-acted too, he doesn't have too much dialogue telling us how he feels so it works. That said, his place in the world gets a lot less certain as we go on - I assumed he was in the east like the books, but he seems to have crossed thousands of miles to go west considering what happens. Why are the Seanchan here? Why is Perrin where they are? This isn't a coincidence, it's blatantly forced.

Also sorry not sorry but the damane outfit isn't dehumanizing like it should be, it's just dumb. The damane in Perrin's arc is, as far as I'm concerned, named Little Miss Binky. Speaking of LMB, it bothers me a bit that she can sense all these channeler women when in the books the testing required the use of the a'dam. This is a random-ass village, there shouldn't be two sparkers. And Uno should not be fucking dead and no amount of Suroth's nail batons is going to make it okay for me (okay actually there is an amount but the season isn't going to run that long so same thing).

We end Perrin's arc in these three episodes with him waking up in a carriage with Ishamael, being stabbed to death as part of the Shadow's plans to bring about-- No wait, that would be competent. Instead, Ishamael is super interested in Perrin's character development (why bro?) and lets Perrin escape with Elyas while the two ditch Loial (unforgivable).

Mat and Min: Being imprisoned at this point works based on where the story ended up, but Liandrin is just kind of a cipher throughout his story. She's clearly relishing the opportunity to be evil editing him out of the letters she reads, but this is about as evil as she gets beyond the wrongful imprisonment. Why does she give him cakes in the next episode? Why is he being kept alive for months on end? There's no clear motivation for her character - if she's being a villain, she should have offed him long ago. If she's following Tower procedure in some fashion, it should be clearer.

Mat manages to make contact with Min - no one noticed his efforts, which is fine, but it stretches credulity that none of Min's captors notice that her wall is suddenly damaged after this. They're great friends and I love this for what it is, or rather what it seems to be. It really helps their relationship - though not her characterization - that he's not interested in having her read his future. Shame, considering what she sees.

After some more time, Nynaeve's apparent death prompts Liandrin to set Mat free. He almost goes to help Egwene, but then decides to ditch her because fuck Mat's character, amirite? One actor ditched us so all Mats have to be shitty now even when it's a central facet of who he should be. Then he doubles back to Min - why is he doing things in this order, this is the least logical order - but it turns out that this whole thing is staged by Liandrin and that Min is working with her. What the actual fuck?

Rand: I'm not loving how little attention he gets in the first episode, but whatever. The main problem is that his motivations are obscured to us for such a long period, and we aren't really given a clue as to how he figured out this was an option in the first place. At first I simply thought it was weird that he'd go to Cairhien when he knows he's a time bomb and that being a nurse-type made sense considering his overall sense of altruism.

Really, most of the hospital stuff works in isolation. The soldier suffering from PTSD is a nice touch and it helps build up the Rand as Aiel foreshadowing that the show hasn't had much time to get to yet. I don't like that Rand is cheating on Lan with another teacher but TV shows I guess.

Then we jump into a darker Rand. He stalks the asshole orderly and assaults him, in part with the power (though this seems to be unwilling). I thought this might be madness coming on early, but the truth isn't much better. Of course, before we find it out we get to see Rand hook up with Lanfear. Book Rand was clearly compelled and overwhelmed by a hottie being interested in him, but this atmosphere is gone here as well. Rand took one look at the slippery slope and said, "Watch how fast I can get to the bottom!"

And meanwhile, Lanfear is bizarrely self-aware! "I pretend you're Lews Therin," she all but says. "Go ahead and think of other women while you're having sex with me, your crazy and obsessive stalker!" The Forsaken are cartoonishly evil people because only someone cartoonishly evil would sign up to work under Satan. They shouldn't try to argue that they're actually good guys and they shouldn't have healthy standards in their romantic relationships!

So Rand's secret plan was to get close to Logain, which just... Why is he here? He's a war criminal who had an army of loyal fanatics! Even with the severing, he's way too much of a risk to toss amid the general populace for exactly the reason we see: a young man who can channel goes to him to learn how to carry on his traditions! Logain being Rand's teacher might be a good way of combining book characters, and he's certainly an awesome actor, but there's not enough of this stuff.

Rand learns more about the hunt being called, which is just going to raise further questions. I will note "Queen of Illian" and thus have to ask: have they relocated Berelain in this show? Have they just gender-flipped the king? These books don't need gender flips like they seem to like doing with her and Farstrider.

Then Rand and Lanfear end up at a fancy party. There's no clear explanation for how they got in, nor why the royals would be confused about Rand and Lanfear's identities. She lives at the Foregate, people! He's renting a room! The foreign prince thing doesn't work in this context! Then Rand gets an awkwardly designed infodump about the cruelty of the royalty and the reveal that the Hunt is a fake. Presumably the whole thing is supposed to be a fake that isn't happening outside of Cairhien, but that's not actually clear - and after a long sequence of Rand's arc being well-written if objectionable for his hunting down a man and beating him half (?) to death to steal is job, it's just a low note.

But hey, we get to see Logain be psycho and Lanfear be psycho, so that's pretty fun. Not really sure where Logain's gotten the impression he's the descendant of a man that is most famous for having killed his entire family, but that's crazy for you I guess. Rand also burns down the inn, an incident which everyone treats as no big deal despite the general flammability of everything in the vicinity.

Closing Thoughts: The TL;DR of all of this is, "Just as I got comfy with it, it got weird." Rand is darker than he should be at this point, Mat continues to lack the loyalty that defines him, Moiraine is awful to Lan in ways that the narrative gives no hint it disagrees with and past and future sexual assault is on the table for him, Nynaeve loses the behavior that justifies her being special and just survives by fiat, Elayne is way too awkward and rude, and the Darkfriends pass up every opportunity to eliminate or properly capture Mat, Perrin, Egwene, and Nynaeve, all of whom should be high priority targets. This season started strongly and I hope it can recover from these hiccups, but I'm worried that little details will continue to fail to add up like this.

[gerardwaygirlmoments]

How or why should a 23 minute comedy show go into religious details about a random character?

This show deserves a lot more credit than “23 minute comedy”. They’ve been building a fascinating and sophisticated urban fantasy world throughout these 5 seasons and I just want that development to continue. And it’s not the religion I care about so much as the culture and history. The Ottoman Empire was a predominantly Muslim empire that ruled over some formerly Jewish land and had Jewish citizens as, IIRC, both protected and second-class (I believe they were called “dhimmis”, but that might be a different Muslim empire or I might be mixing some stuff up). The Ottoman Empire was also a refuge for Jewish refugees at times, primarily following the Spanish Inquisition. But with Nandor being a brutal warlord in life, I would doubt he was great to Jews, as he wasn’t to really anyone who stood even vaguely in his way. Pillaging everyone and all that. But with Nandor more mellow now, I think it would be really interesting to see him befriend a modern Jew if they let it fit within the historical context. It makes perfect sense Alexander would be presumably Ashkenazi, as this is New York City, but it would be cool if he was Sephardic or Mizrahi instead, so he might have ancestry in the Ottoman Empire or even Iran. There could be something like that bit where Nadja realized Nandor burned down her village 200 years before she was born, where maybe Alexander mentions his ancestors had to escape a tyrant and Nandor awkwardly realized that was him and his past actions haven’t, for lack of better words, aged too well.

On the topic of religion though, the only religious stuff they’ve shown harming vampires has been Catholic. I would like to see more religions represented in this Mythos. Besides Judaism, Nandor likely would have been Muslim in life, so I would like to see how Muslim, for lack of better words, iconography might effect him now and how his beliefs have changed over time. I’m also curious how he came to believe his whole turtle thing. And heck, maybe Nadja was Orthodox Christian when she was a medieval Greek peasant? Idk all the details there, but from what little I know that could be possible and I’d be interested to see something with that. And Lazlo would have been around during the first or so century of the Church of England, so something could be done there too.

I just love history of cultures and I love vampires as a medium to explore them. Perhaps I’m taking this show too seriously and I need to find a different fiction that has this serious tone and complexity. I just think this show has been smart before and I think it could continue to be if it gave itself the chance.

[nellie-elizabeth]

What We Do in the Shadows: The Roast (5x08)

Oh my god, this was an AMAZING episode.

Cons:

I feel bad for continuing to harp on this, but The Guide continues to feel like such a wasted character! I like the performance, I don't think it has to be this way, there could be some really funny stuff here! But instead it's the same joke again and again. It's like she's the Jerry from Parks and Rec or the Toby from The Office. But this show didn't really need that, they're all a bunch of losers, and there's already the vampires treating Guillermo like he's disposable to fall back on as a joke? I don't know. She had plot relevance this week, but it feels like we could have done this without her.

Pros:

Lazlo's ennui was really funny, the way he keeps dismissing everyone's attempt to snap him out of it... one of the funniest exchanges was right at the top, when Nadja and Nandor were talking about Lazlo lacking interest in his old hobbies: Nadja - "We are down to like sixteen fucks a week." / Nandor - "We're down to three". And Nadja reaches out and puts a hand on Nandor's arm, in horror and sympathy to hear something so terrible! That really made me laugh.

Honestly, this episode was laughs all the way through, I can't even pick favorite lines from everyone. But I loved Colin's failed roast of Lazlo, I loved Nadja saying that maybe dying wouldn't be so bad, and Nandor being like "wtf" and then Nadja being like "I've just been going through a lot lately."

The main plot here is that the Baron discovers that Guillermo was the one who accidentally burned him up a few years ago, and he wants revenge. As ridiculous as all the antics were, I was also genuinely moved by Nadja and Nandor both begging for Guillermo's life and trying to dissuade the Baron. But at the same time, they're all worried about Guillermo killing the Baron, because he's the origin of their line of vampires, and his vampire descendants might die as well! What a fun and twisted web of allegiances. Guillermo doesn't try and kill the Baron, in part because it puts his friends at risk. And yet his friends can't let the Baron kill Guillermo either!

Things are... sort of resolved... when Guillermo tells the Baron that he has renounced his vampire killing family legacy by becoming a vampire himself. The Baron finds the whole situation with Nandor not being the one to change him kind of hilarious and he's also sympathetic to Guillermo because of it, so he calls off his vengeance. And then... Guillermo accidentally burns him in the sunlight again.

Genuinely, the sight of Nandor clutching Guillermo's sweater, and then his grief when he sees "Guillermo" dead on the ground in front of him... I'm sure the whole fandom is celebrating hardcore. It was so much. Pair that with the utterly callous way that Lazlo guts the corpse, to show everyone that it's not really "Gizmo", but one of his clone experiments gone awry... this show is utterly ridiculous in the very best way.

The sweet Guillermo and Nandor moments don't stop there. When Nandor finds Guillermo hiding in his coffin, after thinking he has fled never to be seen again, he asks him questions to make sure it's the real him. One of them is, what's in the card you gave to me the first day you were my familiar? And Guillermo quotes it exactly, with Nandor mouthing along. "To be a vampire is my dream, but to be your familiar would be my honor." What the heck kind of high romance? Amazing. I can't believe next week we're going to see Nandor find out about Guillermo at last. Everyone's been building up again and again how Nandor will be forced to kill Guillermo and then himself. I wonder what's going to happen!

Turns out, Lazlo's strange mood was just because he was trying to figure out how to alphabetize his books. I love this gag as like... a fun example of what longevity and immortality might really be like. You can afford to just space out for a couple weeks to make a decision if you like! There's so much time stretched before you.

It was so funny to see Doug Jones as the Baron, sans any weird crazy make-up or prosthetics, only for the episode to involve him getting all burned up and disfigured again. I guess he's back to untold hours in the makeup chair any time he's on this show! I love it. I also loved how the Baron accepted Guillermo as a vampire right away, in a way the others who are in the know haven't quite done. He's all-in for his fellow vamps, and now he's got a bunch of Guillermo animal clones to hang out with at his place!

I'm not ready for this season to be over, it all happened too quickly! This may be the best episode of the season.

9.5/10

[inverted-writes-stuff]

That ending hurt, what the heck Nandor

I'm not sure why I'm even surprised tbh

At least they're spending time together :/

[raemeh]

just watched episode 8 of wwdits

Nandor and Guillermo are so gay what the HECK

[sparkletastic-cookiedough]

So I’m watching What We Do in the Shadows for the first time.

Guillermo is by far my favorite character. He deserves the best in life.

I’m only 6 episodes in, and I am already protective of that boy. He deserves better than Nandor.

There is no way to improve Guillermo, he is already perfect.

Update: just finished season 1

Holy heck, that plot twist with Guillermo?

It makes everything a whole lot more interesting. The vampires could potentially use him as an assassin for other vampires. That’s only if they realize, and don’t immediately try to kill him.

He’s a guy going against his fate. He’s probably going to kill a lot of people accidentally in these next seasons.

I think it was a very important plot point. It kind of adds a new dynamic to his relationship with the other characters. It gives him more power over them, balancing out their relationship a bit more.

I’m not exactly sure how much power this means Guillermo has. Like, if he actually leaned into killing vampires, what would happen? Hopefully we meet an actual vampire hunter in these upcoming seasons. Maybe we can see what kind of skill he has for it.

It also makes the whole familiar thing a lot more interesting. Maybe one of the reasons he hasn’t been turned into a vampire is that he cant be. It just wouldn’t work. (Maybe his blood is poisonous to the vampires or something)

His ambitions run against his nature. What now? Personally, I’m hoping he ends up embracing his fate a little bit. He should go murder people. Ideal confrontation- he has to protect his current master from another vampire trying to kill him. (We kind of see this in the trial episode, but playing out in a situation where Guillermo is aware that he can kill the vampires? That’s a whole new setup)

I couldn’t resist and read the little blurbs for the episodes. I’m really excited for ones that seem to be around playing with the dynamics between Guillermo and the vampires. Ones that showcase how much they rely on him, ones that demonstrate the fact that they need him around, ones where they are separated from each other.

Very excited to watch season 2

[tinytinybumblebee]

Oh geez. Imagine if Guillermo got zapped by that baby beam. Nandor comes in to find him tiny and wailing with his too-big clothes around him in a puddle.

🥺 awwwww oh my goodness

Nandor at first thinks Guillermo just shrunk or turned invisible without clothes but then he finds the curly haired baby wailing, one of his chubby little hands clenching onto the now oversized glasses

Of course Nandor scoops Guillermo, his now baby familiar and runs around the house like, "GuuuuUYYYYYYS" absolutely panicking be Guillermo is a baby baby and he doesn't know /anything/ about taking care of a pint sized human!

Laszlo is the one to the rescue here. He took care of Collin when he was an infant, and, I mean, Collin didn't grow up with too many injuries- so, he's got the best grasp on child care between these four vampires xD

Laszlo ask Nandor to hand Guillermo ovet but, Nandor holds Guillermo away because he doesn't want anyone else to lay a finger on Guillermo, he might not know what to do but he sure as heck knows he /wants/ to!

They find a couple of the left over baby things in the attic and soon enough Guillermo is changed into clothing that actually fit.

Nandor is sitting in the parlor, craddling Guillermo in his arms, talking to him about, literally everything and anything as it seems that his voice keeps Guillermo calmed and soothed ;w;

The itty bitty baby Guillermo is just looking up at Nandor with those precious brown eyes, pure wonder and adoration. Nandor is using his free hand to speak but, as he moves his hand around, Guillermo grabs hold of Nandor's finger with all his little fingers.

And Nandor melts- how could someone so small give Nandor such big love in his chest??? It surely must be part of the magic that turned Guillermo into a baby, suuuurely

It doesn't last all that long, possibly a couple days and Guillermo is back to his adult size- no memories of the last few days (a couple incredibly fuzzy ones but they felt dream like) but, Nandor remembers and he'll never admit it but, he cherished it all ;u;

[strawberryseeded]

ok more thoughts (tbh just typing out stuff until it makes sense) abt the wwdits finale cos i was kind of out of it/frustrated whn i made the last post lol ^^;

literally everything, EVERYTHING until now indicated that nandor didnt give a fuck about guillermo and he was gonna 100% kill him, actually, literally, for having another vampire turn him, since this is a HUGE disrespect towards him in the vampire world. and ill be honest we as the audience kind of know already that nandor does care abt guillermo... but we also know that nandor isnt really aware of this, and thats hes pretty selfish and proud (and also an idiot). so yeah, hes very well capable of killing guillermo tbh!! but he doesnt!!!!

instead, he tells guillermo hes too important for him to do that, and that hell be sad if he dies! AND he even helps him turn completely by giving him human blood. unusually quick to catch on to what the problem was, i might add. as if he had taken guillermo's vampire hunter's blood and how it would affect turning him into consideration before. AND when he realizes that guillermo is unhappy he not only -as i said before- is the 1st one to notice, but he IMMEDIATLY cooks up a plan to help him revert the process. a GOOD one (wtf) and again, very quickly too, as if he was expecting this turn of events. HECK HE EVEN SAYS THAT EXACTLY he says that he suspected/feared that guillermo wasnt 'cut out' to be a vampire, which i think is something that has come up before in the show but in context im sure we all brushed off as a mere excuse for not turning him, since thats just the reality for familiars in this universe.

in the end, they go back to how things were b4 guillermo was bitten. everything goes back to normal… right? right, except we as the audience have a different perspective on things.

again, we kind of knew that the vampire clique(?) uh yea idk sorry im calling them that rn lol) kinda, sorta, cares about guillermo. maybe. well, now its... somewhat? confirmed, via the guide subplot that vamps are assholes to others bc they just hv a vampire way of expressing things. then again, this whole thing was towards another vampire, and until the last episode they dont see guillermo as a (true) vampire.

so like okay whats these two (guillermo and nandor)'s deal then

ok so this is the first time i actually think abt this sorry im slow lol.. until now ive been just seeing things unfold and just kind of paying attention to some details or other's ppls opinions. BUT NOW(?) i can actually SEE (kinda) whats goin on !!!!! i have some Personal Opinions & Feelings after the s5 finale

clearly theres the plot embryo structure at play here, and i think i now understand guillermo's arc a lot better.

theres something he wants, somethings he's always wanted: to become a vampire. for some LONG 4ss time now hes been very frustrated bc his master doesnt seem to have plans for turning him any time soon. hes growing anxious bc of this but we know thats not the only reason; he clearly thinks the vampires in the house dont value him, dont see him as an equal. he thinks nandor doesnt care about him. and hes not entirely wrong, tbh.

the "final" decision to ask derek to turn him comes from mostly these feelings of being inadequate, of feeling like hes the only one who actually cares (about guillermo himself. about what he wants. about him and nandor's apparently dead end relationship)

so he gets sick of waiting, and he just goes to get what he always wanted by his own means.

and regrets it completely. so much so that at the end he makes the decision to turn back.

so... what it is what he truly wants, then? or, better yet, what does he need? his true wish. why did he want to become a vampire this whole time? what is he after?

in the last ep is also revealed that (apparently?? idk im gonna need a bit more context) its guillermo who choose nandor as his master. or at least, he genuinely thought nandor was a really good choice. the best even. he admires him, wants to be like him. wants to be near him.

guillermo probably admires the vampire's lifestyle more than being a vampire itself. he has a very supportive family but they are also... vampire hunters, so its clear they dont like vampires, and probably disagree with their lifestyle for that same reason, which obviously ties together with it being a religious family and also the fact that guillermo's sexuality is pretty obviously closeted.

ok im gonna leave it there i think the conclusion its p obvious at this point

but what about nandor??? welllll ok i think i got it but lemme try to figure it out entirely?

i think nandor's most important arc until now was... kind of the opposite but also the same as guillermo's. he tried to become human.

the reason he did this was bc he felt lonely as a vampire. yea being a vampire is cool as fuck but its kind of isolating in a way too when youve got no one to share it with. im not gonna go super in depth talking abt this bc 1) i saw this season whn it came out n havnt rewatched it since n dont wanna misquote anything -.-;; and 2) i think the meaning its also pretty self explainatory. im literally describing it and you can already tell what everything means. of course its guillermo who goes to get nandor back to tell him that thats not who he is.

ok moving on. nandor is p much still alone in the romantic/lifetime partner sense. he alredy tried changing who he is to get a partner (or at least, to have a place where he doesnt feel as lonely) and that didnt make him happy. NEXT, with the help of the genie (sorry idk if thats how u write it eng is not my 1st lang im lazy etc) he tried, on the contrary, to change all his partnerts to the point they werent themselves anymore to accomodate his needs and whims. he tried to find the "perfect" partner, one that did everything he wanted, exactly. well, surprise, that didnt work out either. that didnt make him (or anyone) happy.

at this point i think its p obvious that he needs to compromise with other people. hes too self absorbed, too focused on what he wants as an end goal and doesnt truly see who his partners are as people. for him, they just serve as a role, they just exist to feel this void he has, this loneliness.

woooow guillermo's and nandor's issues are way more similar than what i thought!!!!!!!!!!!wooooooooooow using my brain worked u guysss ^^

[ilostmypensandpaper]

Oof okay I see why people are upset about the Freddie episode

[beesforeyes]

happy freddie episode day!!! feeling very normal about tonight's episode !!!!

[treba-neco-napise]

No spoilers but... WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ENDING???????? THAT WAS LIKE CRACKING AN EGG WITH RED SLIME IN IT WHAT THE HECK YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO CHARACTERS HOLY JESUS

[thanatoaster]

Nandor's problem is he doesn't know what love is. He thinks loving a person is wanting to have them or own them. He "loves" people the way someone loves objects. I "love" Squishmallows. I buy them, collect them, put them on a shelf. That's how Nandor thinks you love people. He collected wives and he thinks he "loves" them just because he wanted to own them and fuck them and have them agree with everything he says.

But love is a lot more complicated than that, and that is why Nandor has no idea what the heck he is feeling with Guillermo. He thought he basically owned Guillermo at the beginning, but he knows that has changed. He still wants Guillermo around him forever and keep his own opinions and beat his ass into the floor. He doesn't think he loves him since he doesn't want Guillermo as a submissive wife he leaves at home while he goes out to do other things.

[faelapis]

Since I'm still in WWDITS mode (and probably will be until after the season finale next week), I need to share what I want to happen. Specifically regarding Nandermo. Especially after "Freddie."

Ok. So. I’ve been thinking forever that I want Guillermo to turn into a vampire before he gets together with Nandor.

There’s several reasons for this, dealing mainly with character motivation and agency: Guillermo serves the vampires as a familiar because he wants to be a vampire. Arguably, this complicates his ability to realize his feelings for Nandor because their relationship is so uneven - Nandor refuses to provide what Guillermo wants and Guillermo’s own desires to be a vampire and be with Nandor are probably all bundled together, especially when he wants Nandor to be the one to do it.

Would Guillermo even stick around if he got what he wanted? Maybe, but that requires him getting what he wants. Then realizing it’s not the only thing that tethers him to Nandor and the rest of the vampires.

Nandor on his side has always had issues respecting Guillermo and treating him as an equal. This is complicated by their work relationship where Guillermo is essentially his employee. Every act of goodwill by Nandor is still hampered by that power imbalance.

Even at the end of s3, Nandor confessing that Guillermo passed “the test” of not going soft and being able to take care of himself... is given the caveat that Nandor still expects Guillermo to take care of him. He still sees him as a familiar, on some level. Even when growing to respect Guillermo more, he still has some lingering feelings of superiority over humans and familiars generally.

And yes, Guillermo could kill him. But Guillermo would also lose everything he wants (being a vampire, being turned by Nandor, being with Nandor) in doing so. He doesn’t want to kill Nandor. He wants to be respected and seen as an equal worthy of being turned into a vampire by Nandor.

So. Then s4 started airing. I kinda thought this idea was impossible to realize, because this season seemed to lean so hard on being “The Nandermo season”: It revolves around Nandor finding love, constantly ship-teasing him and Guillermo, how unhappy Nandor is married to anyone else, etc... And I highly doubt we would get both Guillermo being a vampire AND Nandermo at once - after all, the shows been renewed for 2 more seasons.

Heck, Guillermos desire to be a vampire has almost seemed muted this season compared to before, as the show focuses more on the tension between him and Nandor. And forming the love quadrant of Guillermo currently dating someone else + Nandor looking for love in all the wrong places.

So obviously, I thought we were building to Nandermo this season. Maybe the discussion of Guillermo being a vampire would be benched for the time being.

…Then the Freddie episode happened.

Ouch.

Suddenly, Nandermo being canon seems a bit less likely this season. It brought Nandor’s every character flaw kicking and screaming into focus, especially how he struggles to respect others agency AND treat Guillermo well. How even when he THINKS he’s treating him well, he still crosses every common sense boundary and ruins his other relationships out of his own misplaced jealousy.

So that leaves a bit more potential for my hope of Guillermo being turned first. Maybe even this season finale.

Here’s a scenario that I’ve been daydreaming about for months now that suddenly feels much more likely. Mind you, I would be surprised if this is exactly what happens, but it’s something I would absolutely love as a “what if” and I think fits where both of their characters are.

So. The theme for this season is still “Nandor’s search for love”, and that will probably be resolved in some way in the season finale. Probably not two-sided canon Nandermo at this point, but quite likely Nandor realizing he’s in love with Guillermo and maybe even making some sort of romantic confession.

So what if... We go in to the finale THINKING it’s time for Nandermo to become canon. We’re upset about what Nandor did to Marwa and Freddie, but still think that’s where this season is headed.

And at first, it follows the predictable story beats. Nandor realizes he’s in love, confesses to Guillermo, admits that everything he’s done up until now has been because he wants Guillermo but hasn’t been able to admit it to himself. Maybe even peppering in some condescending comment that it’s awkward to be in love with a familiar. I mean geez. But now, he says, Guillermo can get “everything he’s always wanted” - (being self-centered, Nandor assumed he himself is what Guillermo wants. If he loves Guillermo, Guillermo must love him back, right?)

Nandor pulls Guillermo in for an embrace. It’s not quite clear how Guillermo feels. Maybe he looks hesitantly happy, maybe he looks torn, confused, or maybe we don’t see his expression at all. Then Guillermo finally hugs him back, and it seems like all is well.

And Guillermo is happy, realizing that he can finally get what he wants. For a moment, he forgets his anger towards Nandor about Freddie and everything that happened. This is Nandor’s chance to make amends. Then, paralleling the first episode of the show, Guillermo leans so his neck is exposed and says something like “I’m ready, Nandor.” Because of course, if Nandor really loves him, he’ll turn him into a vampire, right?

...Right?

Then Nandor says back: “Ready for what?”

“For you to turn me into a vampire, of course.”

Nandor pulls back. He’s confused, and maybe a little hurt that Guillermo would immediately bring this up after the love confession. Is this all Guillermo’s wanted all along? Does he even love Nandor? Nandor’s unnerved and says something like “Ah… we can talk about that later, don’t you think? The important thing is that we’re together. Besides, I still need my familiar to take care of me. Come here, Guillermo.” And pulls him into another embrace.

This time, we do see Guillermo’s expression. We see as it shifts from excitement to confusion to anger - revealing the suppressed anger for everything that happened. For what Nandor did to him and Freddie. How after everything, Nandor is STILL holding this over his head, dangling the vampirism carrot and expecting Guillermo to go along with whatever he says. He still expects to have the power, and that Guillermo will just obey and be like Marwa, kind and sweet and a doll he can mold.

Then Guillermo hugs back anyway. Tight. Painfully tight. Nandor starts to pull away, but Guillermo holds him firmly, and Nandor can’t get out of the embrace.

Then Nandor feels something pointy at his back. Right between his shoulderblades, aimed at his heart. A stake is gently balanced against his skin, just barely not puncturing it. And Guillermo whispers darkly: “Turn. Me. Right. Now.”

And Nandor, realizing the seriousness of the threat, does. Not happily. It’s not the act of love or tenderness you would expect - it’s bitter and tinged with justified anger on Guillermo’s side and disappointment and hurt on Nandor’s side. And the season ends with Guillermo leaving the house, a vampire at last, but fed up and intending not to come back.

In being disrespectful, callous, selfish, and disregarding others wishes and agency, Nandor got what he was always secretly afraid of: Guillermo leaving him as soon as he got what he wanted.

And we, the audience, realizes that this is how it had to happen. Neither of them were ready to be together. Maybe just becoming a vampire was always what Guillermo wanted the most. Maybe if Nandor had been kinder, more respectful to Guillermo and not fucked with peoples lives, he could’ve gotten his beloved and all would be well. But Nandor just couldn’t change until he lost everything.

Guillermo, on his side, is not as happy as you would expect. He’s totally justified in leaving, it seems like a straightforward “good for her!” moment… but defiant and furious as he may be, and despite finally being a vampire, there’s tears in his eyes. He didn’t want it to be like this. He wanted Nandor to fucking learn and respect people and be a better person. But he didn’t. And now he’s lost it all, just like Guillermo is realizing that being a vampire is not enough to make him happy. That he really does love Nandor. But he has to leave anyway.

Fade to black. Tune in to s5 to see if they’ll work it out.

But now, Nandor HAS to respect Guillermo as an equal, as a vampire. Not only because he's able to kill him (he already was), but because now, there's no obvious reason for Guillermo to stay with him. So he has to earn it. And in turn, Guillermo has to confront that there’s more he wants out in life than being a vampire, for immortality is bitter and cruel if you have to spend it alone.