I remember seeing a post about Philippe and his relationship with Baldwin and Matthew - I cannot remember who wrote it but it was discussing how Baldwin was Philippe's pride but Matthew was his joy.
But I just thought, that's sort of Matthew parents, in regards to Marcus and Jack.
Marcus, despite his troubled youth, is incredibly intelligent, versatile and has grown to be responsible, so responsible and strategic even that he is a grandmaster of the Knights that even Baldwin and other elite vampires respect.
But it isn't enough. Marcus is shown to constantly question in the books if Matthew loves him, exacerbated by the way he treats his surviving children and Phoebe.
Matthew is proud of him though. He always expresses his pride in Marcus
But Jack, despite his blood rage, extremely troubled background and that time he went around murdering people, is clearly his favourite. He tells Jack that he loves him, explicitly.
Just want to ask what is your opion about POC representation in ADOW? Cause I watched shows with good and bad representation and I (as a white woman) would like to know POC's opinion. Thank you.
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Also could you write about Phoebe and Marcus having fight with fluff in the end? This week was really difficult for me and maybe it would make me feel better.
Firstly, really sad that you had a bad week and am writing, so hopefully it improves
Representation in ADOW
Overall representation is decent, in my opinion. All the characters of colour have their own unique personalities, and identities, which I love. This is in both the book
But, let's get down to the nitty and gritty. Note: this is longer than I thought it would be lol but I hope you appreciate my thoughts.
Miriam's arc as being Matthew's protector has always irked me. I know that Bertrand asked her to, but I don't know why it's her responsibility to stop Matthew, a whole grown man, from making bad decisions. He got her husband killed because of his bad decisions. Also, in the books, Diana is straight-up disrespectful, as I explain in this post. As if Miriam isn't risking her life helping her. It's almost that trope of a brown female character being presented negatively in order to lift her white counterpart.
Emily Mather deserved to live. She was a badass witch, which I love, but something unsettling about her being sacrificed for the Bishops. But also, I want a whole book on her and Sarah. I want to know about her family's history because black witches in the USA and also, their descendant is a black gay woman who lives with her gay wife and rude cat, chilling.
Fernando. Sweet, Sweet Fernando makes very little sense to me. I get he has a kind and good nature, but he spends way too much time with the de Clermonts, helping clean up their mess. Let's not forget Philippe racistly didn't like him. I like to think that it's because he loves Gallowglass, his son, which he obviously does. But yeah.
Phoebe is such a cool character, as the first human, we see her interact with the de Clermonts. Not scared of any of those weirdos. I think I have said this before, but I don't like in the book, that her mother Padma, is given little to no identity but the agreeable wife. Like, I would have loved to see that scene where Padma and Phoebe talk about her marrying Marcus because her mother is an immigrant who moved to marry Edward. Also, I would have loved to know more about her heritage in the books, especially as Miriam makes a point to give her a non-western middle name because this girl is mixed race. The show does this slightly better, but I would have liked to see more development.
Nate and Agatha - a lovely mother and son duo and the show did they so much better than the book. Nate is such a good diversion from the many stereotypes of young black men in British TV - he is actively shown to be an emotional person, cares about everyone, very involved as a husband and father. Also, the way he supports Sophie, they were adorable in their little moments. Agatha is also brilliant, I love seeing her.
Chris is such a cool character because he straight up reminds Matthew that he has lived as a white man for the past 1500 years, so he has very little idea of the cruelty humans are capable of. Matthew was chilling with slave owners back in the day and has the audacity to yell at a brother from Alabama?? Lights him up in a few sentences. No notes and we love to see it.
Juliette deserved better than being manipulated and abused by a gross white man for another white man who just leaves her after using her to help him kill a group of black and brown people in NO (which always irked me because Matthew knows what it is to be manipulated by his father) then gets murdered brutally by his white girlfriend. Free my girl. In my mind, she ran away, living peacefully
adow rant because I can't sleep. But the scene where Baldwin bites jack and Diana puts a chain around him kinda piss me off??? I don't even know why, but I hate it, like idk something about it I guess
It is such a jarring scene - even in the books. It very much shows the division in the family.
Baldwin really just angry and bites this kid who he's never seen before - yes, fine, he's right in the end because Jack had just run around Oxford killing everyone but could have maybe approached the situation differently.
Diana attacking Baldwin shows how powerful she's become and her misunderstanding of clan dynamics. The neck biting to see who is lying is the duty of the head of the family, and trying to kill Baldwin, the head of the family, is not a great way to bring the other de Clermonts, especially his sisters and his daughter, even Gallowglass on the side. Philippe would not exactly approve of her killing his last son and heir after giving her a blood vow
Times Marcus should have been allowed to hit Matthew throughout A Discovery of Witches.
(this is a joke but also not lol)
1. 1.01 - Not you getting upset about Marcus' friend dying as if you haven't kept a secret from your son for like three hundred years about why his sirings go wrong. Quick time punch Marcus.
2. All of season 2 - I know they are in the past, but my guy is stressed. Matthew is out here making life difficult and he's not even here. Finds out about blood rage. You know it's bad when Baldwin who would prefer him dead is being more honest. Another quick punch to the wall, imagining Matthew's face.
3. 3.01 - Firstly, the tone of disgust at Phoebe is ironic like you did not just start a war because of your relationship. I know he's tired of his son hanging around all these black and brown people, I stag. Secondly, your son, that one, yes, almost died protecting your wife's aunt and you want to yell at him to do better?? I love Em too but Marcus is your son. Sarah and Diana are not even pressed. Nah, Marcus is nicer than me, that's scrapping talk. Quick family fight like in the books.
4. 3.04 - Matthew asks Marcus what more could Ransome want?? My brother in Christ, you killed his children and their children. A quick apology is a start. Bit of remorse. A punch would have probably meant they would have been home months ago.
+ just let Ransome and Geraldine get in a few punches. Reparations.
Did Philippe not like Fernando because of his skin colour? If so, how would he have reacted to Marcus and Phoebe?
It is never explicitly said so, and I am wary about calling beloved characters racist flawed, especially as a black woman and I don't want to-
Haha no. When Fernando and Hugh met, there was a lot of conflict between Moors (Black and Brown people who occupied Portugal and Spain) and Catholic Europe because of racism.
So, Fernando would not have been able to serve a purpose in the same way other members of the family would have in European courts.
This, I would argue, should not have influenced Philippe's outlook on their relationship. Hugh and Fernando were in love, they were mating. If he can marry a woman who brought back blood rage, he should be fine with his son marrying a black person.
But it seemed not.
With Marcus and Phoebe, it is in the modern era and both in the book and show, she is a woman of colour (In the books, her mother is Indian, in the show, she is portrayed by Adelle Leonce who has a black mother.)
Considering the way the aristocracy treat people of colour, as in they are still very racist, he probably would have been wary about her marrying into this family.
Marcus, shown through his various support of abolitionist movements, black and brown people over the centuries, probably would have told Philippe to shove it and married her anyway. Phoebe also being a headstrong, modern woman, would have also told him to shove it and stay mad.
In conclusion, there seems to be an unspoken rule in the de Clermont family.
I want to write a wedding one shot for Marcus and Phoebe but I have issues which led me down this spiral.
Deborah writes that Phoebe's mother, Padma, is Indian. But where in India is she from? Which language does she speak? Which religion is she or does she partake in wedding traditions??
Moreover, not being Indian, I'm not trying to misrepresent a diverse and colourful culture.
Even in the show, she is black and yet, we get to know even less about her. Do you know how complex black British culture is??
One the few things we have in common is that we all hate East London (jk, but I do have beef with the east). But aside from that, the diaspora is different in so many ways.
Even if you are raised in the traditional manner Phoebe was raised in, you don't escape your mother's culture.
All we get is that she supports Phoebe turning, given that she too left home to marry Edward. That's that.
I would have loved to see that conversation between Phoebe and Padma in Time's Convert. A contrast between Miriam and Padma. A detailing into her mum's mindset, the similarities between the two, aside from looks!
If I'm correct in the assumption that Stella is Phoebe's elder half sibling, fully explore that tension! I wanted to see the first time Marcus met the Taylors.
Anyway, I still like Time's Convert, I just love women of colour having depth in media.
Also when Miriam tells Diana what happened to her husband after Matthew killed Eleanor and Diana says "I'm sorry about your husband but this isn't the middle ages and I'm not Eleanor" that just felt really insensitive to me, and Diana taking her voice away when she tried to tell Sarah and Em about Gillian was just unnecessarily aggressive.
No because I was glad they did not include that in the adaptation! Miriam is literally telling her that Matthew tends to get people killed when he does something wrong, people he cares about and she deadass went, 'RIP to Bertrand and Eleanor but I'm different!'
Also, when people try to paint Miriam as aggressive, that moment where she gets silenced and doesn't immediately attack Diana soon after shows how much shit she's put up with. Free all the people of colour who have to put up with this!
Miriam is the only person with common sense and Diana is just pure special witch vibes.
"Baldwin dragged the rest of the De Clermont men and Fernando outside"
I know that officially Fernando is "not" a De Clermont but Diana doesn't seem to classify him as one either, despite the fact that Matthew treats him like his uncle.
The nice part of me wants to say perhaps it's because his husband's dead, so she doesn't see him as a de Clermont because of that.
But the very fact that Baldwin issues orders and threats to Fernando like he is one of his brothers and Matthew treats him as another uncle, then it is strange. But also, Fernando probably looks at that family and goes, "nah, not part of that mess'
