god's Mary Sue

clark, mid 20s, shiv roy appreciator

[clarafordahwin]

Real men don't flinch or bleed in public Oh,  I think I'm a real man

Shiv Roy / Real Man by Mitski

[clarafordahwin]

And i like when story confronts the way we objectify children!! I love it even.

[clarafordahwin]

In any other story, the trans masc "twist" at the end of Boy, Snow, Bird would be tired and insulting. But given how the story centers around racialization and the identity of perception vs self-realization, it is an interesting little extension of that. The traumatized trans masc father names his daughter Boy, then hates her. The beautiful white-passing daughter is named Snow and upheld as the reward to the family's past of discrimination, until the "evil" stepmother sends her away, "condemning" her back to Blackness in order to protect her biracial sister from the worship of whiteness. And now neither of them show up in mirrors.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

starting the countdown until gaylors start saying that Adam Sandler officiating Taylor's wedding (sorry if this is how you found out) is actually proof that it's a sham because it's a reference to I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007), in which Sandler and Kevin James play heterosexual men who enter a mutually beneficial fake gay marriage, a dynamic that Taylor is inverting as a queer woman pretending to be straight while cleverly flagging the obvious farce to those with the eyes to see

[postergirlfornothing]

[coldeveryseason]

i think there's a lack of clarity on whether the writers want lestat's narration to have some wry self-awareness in hindsight or if they want his narration to represent lestat's mindset in the scenes we see onscreen, and at times i feel like they lazily drift between the two depending on what they want to depict. if his narration is meant to represent how lestat feels when he made the recordings, it doesn't bode well for his character development and limits the possibility of him coming to certain realizations by the end of s3. lestat insults louis' perception of events and calls him "insane" (yeah he adds a note about removing that comment in the final version of the recordings, but he didn't do that) but that doesn't make sense if he's come to respect louis' truth more over the course of the season. he says he's gonna talk about his relationship with gabriella "how it felt then" at the end of s3ep1 but in s3ep2 he rationalizes the incest in the present tense, especially when delivering the "*sigh* fuck it. it's different for vampires. that's it" line as if he still believes it (and again, it doesn't bode well wrt the incest being framed as a serious form of abuse or lestat coming to any kind of realization about gabriella's behavior with him if that's how he still thinks of it after the events of qotd)

in s1-s2 there was a clear separation between louis' unreliable, often distorted narration (and no i'm not calling louis a liar, i'm talking about scenes like "i don't consider myself abused. i'm not a victim" or him describing parts of the paris era as idyllic when we could see he was deeply stressed and unhappy in the flashbacks) and how the writers themselves were framing the story- but with s3 and lestat's narration being both undisputed by another character's voice and covering the entire story, the lines are blurred. i don't think the writers are firm enough in what they want lestat's narration to be- what he's supposed to think and feel when he's making the recordings v what he thought and felt in the flashbacks he's describing, how he's changed over time- for this storytelling device to work. i honestly think they should've kept the rockstat modern day plot grounded in "objective" 3rd person pov like the dubai scenes in s1-s2 and only had lestat's narration featured over the flashbacks. i feel like the writers are using it as a crutch to tell not show several key aspects of lestat's character, handwave their pacing issues and skim over the parts of the source material they didn't care about adapting, and the story is a lot weaker for it.

[tiredopinions]

It’s incredible that people are so invested in tamping down criticism of this season, particularly from Louis fans, that they will lie about basic things like claiming that all the writers have remained the same from season 1 to season 3.

Since apparently we are the only fans left with the ability to verify any type of information, here are the facts:

S1 Credits:

1x01 - Rolin Jones

1x02 - Jonathan Ceniceroz & Dave Harris

1x03 - Rolin Jones & Hannah Moscovitch

1x04 - Eleanor Burgess

1x05 - Hannah Moscovitch

1x06 - Coline Abert

1x07 - Rolin Jones & Ben Philippe

S2 Credits:

2x01: Hannah Moscovitch

2x02: Jonathan Ceniceroz & Shane Munson

2x03: Heather Bellson

2x04: Coline Abert & A. Zell Williams

2x05: Jonathan Ceniceroz & Hannah Moscovitch

2x06: Hannah Moscovitch & Shane Munson

2x07: Kevin Hanna & Rolin Jones

2x08: Rolin Jones

Hannah, Rolin, Coline, and Jonathan were retained from S1 - 2. Eleanor, Ben, and Dave did not return. The first season had 7 writers. The second had 8.

3x01: Rolin Jones & Hannah Moscovitch

3x02: Jonathan Ceniceroz & Kevin Hanna

3x03: Anusree Roy

3x04: Jonathan Ceniceroz

3x05: Hannah Moscovitch & Daniel Hart

3x06: Ryan Kattner & Kevin Hanna

3x07: Hannah Moscovitch

Hannah, Rolin, Kevin, and Jonathan returned for season 3. Heather, Coline, A. Zell, and Shane did not. This season has 7 writers. Of these 7, the only 3 that remain of the season 1 writers room are Rolin, Hannah, and Jonathan.

You can definitely say the writers who have been retained from season 1 to season 3 are the strongest writers if you want to. I absolutely think that Jonathan and Hannah are two of the strongest writers. I can’t say Rolin is my favorite. But they definitely lost a lot of wonderful writers season to season and I think that is very much felt.

This isn’t even putting into perspective the reality of a writer’s room and what each person might bring to the table regardless of whether or not they get an actual writing credit for it.

[tiredopinions]

Guys, I thought I was making a joke earlier when I said it should be illegal for more than 2 white straight men to be in a writer’s room but honestly I think that there was only 1 (Rolin) in the season 1 writer’s room and 2 (Rolin and Kevin) in the S2 writer’s room. Now there are 3 🤣

[tiredopinions]

I think it should be noted that Shane and Coline are both women. Coline Abert is noted on IMDb as a bilingual French-English screenwriter. So if you note a difference in quality of the French writing this season, maybe that is a contributor to it. I wouldn’t know.

As I said in the comments - Ben Philippe, Dave Harris, and A. Zell Williams were the Black writers who wrote for S1-2. @coldeveryseason shouted them out on Twitter.

[kutputli]

I've seen some weird defences of the IWTV writers room couching in 'erasing the contributions of the non-white writers' type arguments and I just want to use this helpful breakdown of the writers to take it a bit further.

I also want to start off referencing a quote that screenwriter-director Nida Manzoor made where she talked about being in white-dominated writers rooms where she felt she was there to just sign-off on what they were writing. And what a difference it was when she was able to set up her own writers room, especially in season 2 of We Are Lady Parts, where every writer was a Muslim woman.

If you're not familiar with how writers rooms work, you might think every episode is created by the person credited with the script. (Flashback to the Buffy fandom where Marti Nixon was blamed for every single thing in the Joss Whedon is God days.) But the whole point of a writers room is that everyone breaks the episode beats together, and it is headed by the showrunners.

Now let's look at the racial breakdown of that IWTV writers room again

1x01 - Rolin Jones (white)

1x02 - Jonathan Ceniceroz & Dave Harris (Latino and Black)

1x03 - Rolin Jones & Hannah Moscovitch (white and white)

1x04 - Eleanor Burgess (white)

1x05 - Hannah Moscovitch (white)

1x06 - Coline Abert (white)

1x07 - Rolin Jones & Ben Philippe (white and Black)

2x01: Hannah Moscovitch (white)

2x02: Jonathan Ceniceroz & Shane Munson (Latino and white)

2x03: Heather Bellson (white)

2x04: Coline Abert & A. Zell Williams (white and Black)

2x05: Jonathan Ceniceroz & Hannah Moscovitch (Latino and white)

2x06: Hannah Moscovitch & Shane Munson (white and white)

2x07: Kevin Hanna & Rolin Jones (white and white)

2x08: Rolin Jones (white)

3x01: Rolin Jones & Hannah Moscovitch (white and white)

3x02: Jonathan Ceniceroz & Kevin Hanna (Latino and white)

3x03: Anusree Roy (Indian-Canadian)

3x04: Jonathan Ceniceroz (Latino)

3x05: Hannah Moscovitch & Daniel Hart (white and white)

3x06: Ryan Kattner & Kevin Hanna (Wasian and white)

3x07: Hannah Moscovitch (white)

So - not a single Black writer has been given solo credit on any episode. None of them have ever made it beyond one season into a writers room. Of the non-Black writers of colour, Jonathan Ceniceroz is the only one who has written for all 3 seasons, and he only got solo credit for one episode this season. Anusree Roy being the only other non-white writer to get a solo credit. Ryan Kattner probably contributed most to song lyrics, since he's a musician who is also acting in the show.

The show runners and producers are all white.

This is a white-dominated writers room, and this is a show where white writers set the tone of how race and racism will be addressed in the scripts. And if you have followed some of the things Hannah and Rolin have said in interviews, you should know that neither is to be trusted when it comes to racial awareness.

[crazykuroneko]

These are such great information.

Just want to add: even though A. Zell Williams wasn't credited in Season 1, he was part of the mini room (a smaller writers' room format so the network can have a draft of a first season without spending that much money prior the series being greenlit. This practice was erased after the WGA strike in 2023) for that season. He said this on his podcast. He was then promoted for S2.

Ben was also story editor for S1

[fandiagnosis]

THE VAMPIRE LESTAT 3.4 | 3.3

[coldeveryseason]

i've seen a lot of people defend the increase in uncritical antiblackness and racist scripts in tvl/s3 by saying "well lestat and daniel are racist white men, ofc they make racist comments" and it's like, well yeah that's true but they shouldn't be making racist comments with the exact same voice and with seemingly the exact same pov. lestat is a french aristocrat from the late 18th century who grew up in a rural backwater and then moved to paris at the height of the french revolution, during the enlightenment when many modern ideas of "whiteness" were being defined, lived in new orleans during the jim crow regime in the early 20th century and then was significantly isolated from human society until 2022- daniel is an american man (possibly of jewish or armenian heritage since he's played by luke and eric) who grew up middle class in modesto california (a small city that had a significant population increase during the post-wwii baby boom) in the late 20th century and spent most of his adulthood in liberal urban centers around the states. there's little to no overlap in their lived experiences- lestat was in his shack era for the vast majority of daniel's lifetime. they come from radically different cultural contexts and even though they would both have racist views that fit the norms of white supremacist society, they wouldn't have the same racist views or express their racism in the same way.

but the show has both of them speaking in the same irreverent, quippy voice and cycling through the same types of jokes in a way that makes it clear this is what the writers think is funny, that this is a reflection of the writers' (esp rolin's) racism. rolin said the audience was gonna feel the whiplash of the show suddenly being taken over by lestat and feeling like we're in lestat's head, but the tone shift fails bc it specifically doesn't feel like we're in lestat's head or that the kind of narration and dialogue we're immersed in reflects lestat's character in any meaningful way- instead, it feels like rolin has taken the fact that the show is now set mostly in the present day and the general premise of "lestat is chaotic and terminally online" as a free pass to use lestat as a mouthpiece for his own voice and sense of humor. lestat isn't just any random mid-30s rockstar edgelord on tour, he's a specific character with a specific background, and while it's believable that he became terminally online and obsessed with pop culture in the 3 years since he reunited with louis in s2ep8, that doesn't mean all traces of his past and the history that shaped him is gonna vanish from the way he speaks, narrates and views other people.

for a season that's meant to be all about digging into lestat's character and everything that made him who and what he is, the writers seem to have completely disregarded that when shaping lestat's voice this season- and why "oh well aren't they supposed to be racist white guys anyway" isn't an excuse for the racism we're seeing in the scripts. (and honestly even daniel's voice, even though his context is a lot closer to the context the show's writers would have, doesn't always land right- a man who spent most of the 70s/80s in gay bars wouldn't be calling a 6 ft tall beefcake a "twink" and his septuagenarian ass wouldn't have adopted the 2020s derogatory use of the term where people use "twink" as a substitute for "fag" either. he'd just say fag.) if the writers had done more research and had lestat doing archaic 18th-century racism pulls while contrasting that with his misuse of 2020s slang he doesn't fully understand, if daniel was actually speaking like a white guy who survived the aids crisis and cut his teeth as a journalist in late 20th century good-ol-boy newsrooms, i could give the show more grace and say there was some intentionality behind their dialogue- but everything so far just points to the writers themselves thinking "so armand is an abused sub bottom, that's his defining trait" and shoving dialogue about that into every other character's mouth without thinking if that specific person would actually say or think that. there's no reason a 265 yo french former rural aristocrat, a 72-yo usamerican journalist, and a 20-something french-canadian bookseller should be making the same kind of "armand is a beta bottom lawl" comment- but they are doing that in the show, bc the writers think it's funny and expect the audience to laugh along with them.

[fishy-lilic]

there’ll be a time when I get to watch them walk away.

[theehorsepusssy]

[iphigeniacomplex]

taylor swift is a tyrant for real like value neutral judgement but you can tell in her music the specific point that caligula started visiting her in dreams

[iphigeniacomplex]

she has this 3d-printed mini desk recreation of the bust of caligula with whom she communicates daily and in order to evade football’s suspicions she told him it was jesus and he was like Niiice jesus is actually awesomesauce ❤️ Like jesus helps you with touchdowns🏈🔥 and she was like yess exactly and then asked caligula in perfect latin if he could connect her with the ghost of genghis khan so they can talk strategy

[clarafordahwin]

Wait a minute. Adam Sandler? For real? No. Girl, what would Caligula say.

[clarafordahwin]

hey mr fireworks >:( my girlfriend is trying to SLEEP.

[3liza]

do you live in seattle (the american city)?

yes

no

Remaining time: 5 days 14 hours

please reblog to get this poll out of my bubble, i want reach

[neiljostenpussyindulgence]

I love gay people theres a guy in my neighborhood who named his one singular dog “simon and garfunkel”

[clarafordahwin]

Does anybody have the text message screenshot of "if we try hard enough do you think you can get me pregnant with the strap?" "Yes but this would be the baby." *baby doll image*

I need it. It's important.