#wwdits discourse

[alexisrosemullens]

The fact that the final season of WWDITS might ruin the show for me. What are you doing? Is this a giant “fuck you” to the fans? Do you even have a plan? Or are you just fumbling the ball that bad?

[perseidlion]

What We Do in the Shadows Finale Thoughts

Some people found the ending unsatisfying, but that was the whole point.

WARNING: Spoilers ahead.

I've been seeing some takes that express disappointment in the finale of WWDITS. Honestly, it ended exactly how I imagined it would. One day, the documentary crew just leaves and we are left with the impression that they're just going to keep on in the exact same pattern they've always been stuck in. And that's exactly what happened.

The point is they are stagnant. They don't grow, change, or move forward in any significant way. That is the tragedy of these characters. Eternal life at a standstill. Growth is for the living.

Anyone expecting them to make significant change didn't really get the central tragic irony at the heart of the show. They even made pointed jokes about how no ending they could have would satisfy everyone - mainly because it would not be true to these characters to have them grow in any significant way.

Guillermo also proves he's one of them, vampire or no, because he ultimately ends up sticking around despite being confronted with the reality of a stagnant existence. He can't break away from them, and they are incapable of real change. They are the people who he loves dearly, but they are an anchor around his neck that he can't remove no matter how hard he tries. Getting stuck at Canon Capital with a new asshole master just proved that Guillermo is as stuck in his pattern as the rest of them.

I see people who legitimately expected Guillermo and Nandor to get together as a couple. The show knew people wanted it as well, which is why there was the Newhart style false ending. It poked fun at the idea of them living in some kind of domestic bliss because honestly, that is not who they are and not who they are to each other.

With Nandermo, I do think people are projecting the inherent homoeroticism of a familiar/master relationship with a real core of romance between them. Personally, I have never understood why people were convinced their ship would be canon. I am an old school fandom type. I love shipping. I totally get why people would take it that way in fic. But canon? I honestly never believed the show was building toward romance.

So I think that shoehorning a romance arc into the last season would've been weird. I can understand why people would disagree with me on this but I don't think they ever promised romance between them in any significant way.

Besides, Nandor took what, 15 years to see Guillermo as an equal friend? Vampires learn and grow incredibly slowly. It'd probably take longer than Guillermo's lifetime for it to ever even occur to Nandor that Guillermo could be a romantic partner.

And frankly, I don't think Guillermo is secretly in love with Nandor. Devoted to an unhealthy, co-dependent degree? Absolutely. In romantic love? No, I don't believe so.

In the end, What We Do in the Shadows is like Seinfeld. They're all pretty bad people who are mired in their own shit and struggle to make even the most incremental of changes.

And that's why we love them.

[anxietycheesecake]

Block me now because I'll never take my queerbaiting allegations back. In fact, I'm doubling down. This was indeed queerbaiting. These bitches got a GLAAD, I can't-

[incorrectquoteswwdits]

It fits for all sides of the fandom!

[vigilantempathy]

The thing about Nandor being Guillermo's boss in S1-S5 and that being problematic is that by the start of S6 Guillermo's accepted his humanity and is off to go try to live a Normal Human Life which means... Nandor isn't his boss anymore.

Some Panera Bread manager is.

Which opens the gates for the possibility of Nandermo without a workplace hierarchy interfering.

But also creates the possibility of Guillermo working at the Panera and Nandor coming up to order at the counter with a bouquet of roses and starting with, "Now that I am not your boss..."

[your-mums-nuts]

The nandermo toxic discourse is insane and stupid.

If some people believe nandermo is going to happen and that it is already basically canon, why the fuck would you want to ruin their vibe? Let them have a good time. That’s what fandoms are for.

And on the same note, if some people are feeling let down and disappointed, why the fuck would you want to attack people for feeling upset? They’re sad enough as it is!

We all want the same end goal here, and everyone is entitled to their feelings about how it is delivered.

If you see a post where someone is sharing how they feel about the current state of nandermo, and you disagree with it- then guess what you can do? Fucking leave it. It’s as easy as shifting your finger slightly upwards and doing what is famously known as scrolling.

[petrapng]

there are still people in the tag saying that wwdits (the show in which EVERY main character is queer) is queerbaiting, so i'll just say this

you're allowed to dislike the direction a tv show is taking without it actually being 'problematic'. you can be disappointed if nandermo doesn't go canon without attacking the creators of the show.

shipbaiting is a normal (if frustrating) experience that is just as common with heterosexual tv romances. it can really really suck for fans (i'll be disappointed too if they aren't canon!), but it's not morally wrong.

"it's queerbaiting because they are queer, not despite it!" (<- actual tag i saw on someone's post) please use your noggin. here is the definition of queerbaiting from the oxford dictionary:

The practice of incorporating apparently or potentially LGBTQ characters or relationships into a film, television show, etc., as a means of attracting or appealing to LGBTQ audiences, while remaining deliberately coy or ambiguous about the characters' sexuality.

i think we can all agree that guillermo and nandor's sexual orientations are anything but ambiguous. they are very openly queer, and that is shown repeatedly throughout the seasons.

but if you must keep calling wwdits queerbaiting, please just don't do in the tags. it's getting old.

[oneshotsfunshots]

I saw a post calling the surprise coffin elevator ending of WWDITS tonally inconsistent with the rest of the show, and like, this is a great example of why fandoms are never satisfied. Fandom brain talks about a thing so much that eventually they invent a version of the show that doesn’t exist, and then get upset when they return to the source material.

I think the show ended wonderfully. There was always going to be the question of how to end a show like this. The nature of vampires is that they don’t change. I’m glad the show hung a light on it, while also clearly demonstrating that, actually, the vampires have. Guillermo and Nandor are equals now. They will continue to live and go on adventures but we won’t stick around to see them. I think the final episode gave us a couple different ending options, and I’m glad they ended on the most inconclusive, but also the funniest.

[bisexualbailorgana]

i think we should put the q word on the shelf as a fandom bc how are people saying that about one of the best pieces of queer media to grace our screens in recent years Please can we be serious for a moment

[columboposting]

When I predicted last month that Nandermo was going to end in an ambiguous mutual commitment that was not explicitly romantic or sexual I can't say I was imagining Batman and Robin

[casebasket]

so this thought isn't very well formed yet but I wanted to know how the people who's been on here since circa 2012 thinks about how the nature of fandom discourse has changed or stay the same. How does the new good omens/ofmd/what we do in the shadows (??? is that the third one???) triumvirate stack up with 2012 OG superwholock whose name I can finally say out loud without wanting to lock myself in a fridge? Is it as insane? does it even qualify? To me I think it doesn't because like. tumblr really is the best site out there for fandom culture and I know there's a whole lot of very hot takes in the ofmd fandom being made on tiktok or insta now instead, and i've dipped my feet there a bit, and it doesn't feel the same. idk. superwholock entrenched every corner of this shithole to the point it leaked out to other sites. but sometimes i see posts there like 'i've never watched a show before that has altered my brain chemistry this much' and the james franco "first time?" meme pops in my head and how time is a circle that is, in this case, a decade long lol. what are we thinking about the recent generation of discourse.

[edscuntyeyeshadow]

something so relieving about getting a break from all this queer media before iwtv s2 comes out next year. the universe letting me catch my breath before it tries to kill me again

seriously my brain needs a thorough reboot after being tossed around in a blender non-stop since good omens 2 aired in july

[anxietycheesecake]

I'm sorry that you're being attacked and blocked for having valid criticisms. It's really weird to be new to this fandom and watch it go from a fairly positive space to fans being as nasty to each other as Star Wars fans in such a short period of time, especially when the crumbs people are cobbling together and calling a canonized ship is what we scrape for in other fandoms with ships we know will never be canon and we KNOW we're stretching the material we're given. I love my queerplatonic ships, found families, and platonic soulmates. I can absolutely enjoy Nandermo through that lens, but the gaslighting and mental gymnastics here is raising such a fucking eyebrow and you don't deserve to feel like you've done something wrong for recognizing it.

Being allosexual or alloromantic is as valid as being asexual or aromatic and it's actually so fucking unchill to conflate being gay or pan with being ace or aro just because they are all under the queer umbrella.

Ace =/= celibate, but half this fandom thinks Guillermo is a virgin and I can't help but think that's being bundled into the hot takes that are coming out right now when it's canon that he's uncomfortable due to being in the closet and his Catholic upbringing. Yes, he could be ace, but that means at best were batting 1/4 for aroace Nandermo.

Nandor has sex with Gail onscreen and is very clearly not ace. The vampires would have MINIMALLY mentioned Guillermo being a virgin and wouldn't have eagerly asked about his sex life in Atlantic City if they thought he was one and they practically have radar for it. He was panicking over Jeremy being a virgin and having brought him into the house and the only thing that saved the guy was losing his virginity. Nandor and Guillermo are both romantic in romantic relationships, and both are expressive about it and tell others they love them.

When you speedrun the entire series and the notable interviews with fresh eyes and not over a stretch of years the leap between 'My Nan- Master' vs. best friends, cuddling a Nandor puppet at night, the I'll make you a vampire speech vs. the vibe in the warrior speech is SO visible and it fits perfectly with Simms' public discomfort with fans shipping Nandor and Guillermo. He is openly uncomfortable with them being in a romantic relationship or having sex with each other and uses every homophobic gaslighting tactic in the playback when speaking about it.

“No, I do think there’s a small subset of very vocal people on Twitter who are like ‘We want to see Nandor and Guillermo hook up,’ and we’re always like, I think their love is bigger and more profound than that,” Simms said. “And also do you really want to see that? Do you?”

This is literally how straight people talk when they're uncomfortable with queer shit. What haven't we seen in this show other than that? Is Nadja and Laszlo's love lesser for it?

“Times that we’ve talked about it and explored it, the power dynamics seem so problematic,” Simms continued. “I mean, that’s his boss.”

In a show where the main couple started with nonconsensual sex (it's still noncon if it turns out that they could have had sex without hypnosis) and Laszlo fucks Colin Robinson after raising him for a gag. Sure, keep telling yourselves that the power dynamic is what makes Simms uncomfortable.

"I mean, it's a nice thought, for some...I don't know about these guys" Kayvan says as he nods toward Simms.

I've seen the Harvey interviews and talking heads from earlier seasons on the subject of Nandermo. The 2024 panel couldn't have been more different, and Harvey seemed completely subdued when the others were discussing Nandermo fanart and them being a ship.

This isn't a person who deserves applause for queer representation and it seems toxic af that Harvey has been stuck in a workplace where he has to hear this drivel when he's openly gay. Yes, I am side eyeing the fuck out of this and it's not because I'm crying over wanting my blorbos to smooch.

You can actually have a romantic pair not kiss or fuck or say I love you without pulling a very clear 'no homo.' That would have been totally fine, but they didn't do that. Copy and paste that scene into anything starring Andy Samberg, or literally anything bro centric and tell me it's a romantic love confession. Or rather, try taking it off tumblr and see if anybody thinks it isn't deep platonic male friendship.

It's okay for people to be upset when they've been hoodwinked. It's okay to separate fanon from canon and still enjoy your ships. But ffs stop gaslighting each other and saying non-romance is romance or that non-romance has more worth than romance and that people are shallow for not valuing it when that's not the problem people have with this, and when that isn't the bill of good audiences we're sold in earlier seasons.

The call is coming from inside the house it shouldn't be.

(Also SO sorry for how long this was).

Never apologize for articulating this better than I ever could. I'm too lazy to look for all the recipes I know are out there, so most of the shit I say is like "source: trust me bro"; I'm glad someone else did it.

The aspec thing makes me so mad because, as a writer, I'm always going out of my way to properly and respectfully represent aspec folks. Like, I've got two novels starring an ace woman and an aromantic man. Do I deserve a medal for that? Of course not! It should be normal. But it's kind of infuriating that people are willing to give aspec rep credit to a show just because it made two male characters stay platonic after teasing their relationship for years and call me aphobic for pointing out that's not the case.

[funnelcloudd]

I always end up in the fun part of every fandom I’m in and for that I’m grateful. People already fighting over ships and shit in the pitt tag meanwhile all us doctor michael robinavitch stans are over here talking about how much we wanna fuck that old man.

[blood-choke]

Is it bad that I relate to Valentina? If this was 2010 tumblr I would have kinned her and blocked anyone else who kinned her too and I would put in my DNI that if you're a mutual you're not allowed to follow any other Valentina kins.

i love this message

you got the spirit, Valentina kins would be ripping each other apart, a horrible but vital component of the tumblr ecosystem

[starstruckbyacomet]

The New Kids on the Block

Speculations about new characters on The Rookie and Brilliant Minds.

Officer Aaron Thorsen (played by Tru Valentino).

Why did Tru Valentino leave The Rookie? The official statement is because of "creative decission made by the writers". A reason so cliché which had made some fans speculated that the actual reason was racially biased. I disagree. The fact that one of his replacement, Deric Augustine, is black, should immediately counter that speculation. My guess is that money was the actual reason. Valentino had been with the show for 3 seasons (S4 to S6). Perhaps, it was the time for his contract renewal. The decision makers of the show might not agree about his asking raise, so they let him go. The way they hired two actors to replace him seems to show that they could get two equally good actors with about the same cost.

Left: Officer Seth Ridley (played by Patrick Keleher). Right: Officer Miles Penn (played by Deric Augustine).

The next question is what's in store for Officer Aaron Thorsen's replacements, Officer Miles Penn (played by Deric Augustine) and Officer Seth Ridley (played by Patrick Keleher)? Having two new rookies is a good plot device for Chenford's competition storyline. However, it could be a waste of money in the long run. Thus, one of them probably had to go by the end of the season. But which one?

Officer Miles Penn (played by Deric Augustine).

Considering the blatant efforts of various TV shows to fulfill the racial diversity quota (not that it is a bad thing), it's safe to predict that Miles Penn might be the one who'd stay. Seth Ridley could be transferred to a different station, resigning, turned villain, or even killed on the job (God, I hope not 🤞, but it would be good for drama!). After what happened with Travis Montgomery of Station 19, Buddie (Buck/Eddie) & Tommy Kinard of 9-1-1, and Nandermo of What We Do in the Shadows, I try to learn the pattern and predict what TV shows would do, in regards with racial and queer/gender diversity. If possible (frankly, I don't know how), I don't want to be too attached to characters or couples who would not last until the end of the show.

It's the same reason why I don't want to be too attached to the new lesbian couple in Brilliant Minds, Dr. Dana Dang & Katie Rodriguez. Brilliant Minds has already had one main queer couple, Wolfnichols, who is shown-off front and center. Both Dr. Oliver Wolf and Dr. Josh Nichols are main casts. They most likely wouldn't go anywhere until the show ended. Katie Rodriguez is only a side character so far. Considering what happened with queer couples in other shows, I don't think Dana & Katie's romance would last long.

Officer Seth Ridley (played by Patrick Keleher).

Back to the new rookies, it would be ashamed to lose Seth Ridley, though. I'm already fond of his big-eyed babyface and dimpled smile. However, it's better safe than sorry, so I plan to manage my expectation somehow. I don't want to get my heart broken again by a damn TV show!