Xanina (derogatory)

Philologist, writer, translator and tiny | She/they🏳️‍🌈 | Gender and Queer Studies, D&D, Monsterhearts, Espadachinas Sáficas 🗡️| pfp by @ikiradraws go follow my baby!

[flanaganfilm]

The Midnight Club - Season Two

I'm very disappointed that Netflix has decided not to pursue a second season of THE MIDNIGHT CLUB.

My biggest disappointment is that we left so many story threads open, holding them back for the hypothetical second season, which is always a gamble.

So I'm writing this blog as our official second season, so you can know what might have been, learn the fates of your favorite characters, and know the answers to those dangling story threads from the first season.

So for those of you who want to know what we were planning to do, here's a look at what would have been season 2!

AMESH Season 2 would open with Amesh, his glioblastoma advancing quickly. He would tell the first story of the season, but would be struggling to make it through. We'd focus on his love story with Natsuki for those first few episodes as it becomes clear that Amesh's death is imminent.

Meanwhile, Ilonka is trying to reconcile how she was fooled by Julia Jayne, all while falling further in love with Kevin, and she realizes he may be fading faster than he lets on.

Ilonka begins a serialized story in an effort to encourage him to "stay alive a little longer," like he did in season one. And the story she tells is... REMEMBER ME.

This was the thing I was most excited about for this season.

REMEMBER ME is one of my all-time favorite Pike books - it tells the story of a teenage girl who is pushed off a balcony, and awakens as a ghost. She has to navigate being a spirit while trying to solve her own murder. We would have stretched this story out over 5 episodes. We were going to use it as a vehicle for Ilonka to try to come to terms with the fact that she is going to die, and to begin to trying to wrap her head around being a ghost... but this is the coolest part... the lead character of Ilonka's story wouldn't be played by Ilonka. She'd be played by...

Anya.

Because this is how we live on, isn't it? In the minds of those we leave behind. And Ilonka would use REMEMBER ME as a way to imagine her dear friend Anya, waking up as a ghost, navigating the afterlife. And this sets up one of the best mechanisms of the show - even if a character dies, as long as they're remembered by members of the club, they live on in their stories.

As the story starts to pick up steam, though, the group will have to deal with the death of Amesh, which he greets with grace and bravery.

In his final moments, he sees someone in his room - the Janitor from the first season, as played by Robert Longstreet, who says comforting things to Amesh even though he can't respond.

In his final, final moments, the SHADOW descends upon Amesh, and he is engulfed into it, which reinforces the idea that the Shadow is DEATH...

With Amesh's death comes something that upends the entire thing: a NEW PATIENT. We didn't work out too much about who this would be, but it would be a new roommate for Ilonka. Someone taking Anya's old bed. Ilonka would find herself being initially cold to her - just as Anya was when Ilonka arrived. Even feeling like this new girl shouldn't necessarily be ushered into the Club. But of course they would develop a beautiful friendship over the course of the season. The new girl joins the club, where something else exciting is happening - Cheri is telling a story. We hadn't decided which one, but I think it might have been MONSTER.

Natsuki would be the next to die, which would be heartbreaking. And again, she would talk to the janitor just before it happened... and again, the Shadow would come in the final moments.

For Spence, though, things would take a different turn.

The advancements in HIV treatment in the late 90's would come into play, and we'd see his prognosis change. The HIV cocktail came out in Dec 1995, and we really wanted to explore that.

Spence would ride the swell of antiviral advancements, and by the end of the season, he'd no longer be classified as terminal. In the finale of season 2, Spence would leave Brightcliffe just like Sandra did in Season 1, heading off to manage his disease and live the rest of his life.

But onto the BIG MYSTERIES of the season one... here are some answers: What is up with Dr. Stanton's tattoo and bald head? Well, a few things. First, Dr. Stanton is actually the daughter of the original Paragon cult leader, Aceso. Her nickname was Athena, she wrote the Paragon journal that Ilonka found in S1. She turned on her mother and helped the kids escape, but because she was part of the cult in her teenage years, she had the tattoo.

It was her initials that Ilonka found carved into the tree in season 1 (her maiden name was Georgina Ballard, hence the G.B. that Ilonka finds carved in the tree).

She hated what her mother became, and the atrocities of the cult. She reclaimed the property after her mom was gone, and wanted to change it into a place that celebrated life. She was trying to undo her mother's legacy and leave something behind that was beautiful. She is wearing a wig at the end of S1 not because of a sinister reason, but because she is undergoing chemo. Dr. Stanton has cancer. Having helped so many people deal with disease, she now has to deal with it herself.

Her treatment would be successful, and she'd go into remission, but having to face that - while caring for the terminal kids at Brightcliffe - was going to be a very introspective arc for Stanton.

What about the Living Shadow? It's Death, right? Well... no.

At the end of the season, Kevin will die... followed shortly by Ilonka. And as she is dying, two things will happen. First, she'll find herself talking to the Janitor, played by Robert Longstreet... and she'll make a discovery.

HE is Death. And nothing to be afraid of. It turns out no one else ever saw this character. Stanton has a cleaning service, and the Nurse practitioners make up the rooms - the only people who ever saw this mysterious Janitor were the patients. He is Death, and offers them kind words before they die. Then what was the Shadow?

This is an idea we take directly from the book REMEMBER ME, and we'll see it play out in the final moments of Ilona's final tale. In Pike's book, Shari is pursued by a dark entity called The Shadow. When it finally catches her, though, it turns out it is not a bad thing at all.

The Shadow is THEMSELVES. It's the Unknown. As it engulfs someone, in the last moment of their life, it takes them through a place of understanding and catharsis, preparing them for the next step.

THIS is what happened to Anya in S1 when the Shadow finally reached her - that's why she fantasized a life beyond Brightcliffe, which ultimately let her find acceptance of her death. It looks different for everybody, depending on their mind-set - because it is simply an extension of themselves.

The Shadow is just the final catharsis, a return to our original form - it is a moment of true understanding, and once we experience it, we move on to the next place.

We see the Shadow in full effect when it finally comes for Kevin. KEVIN DIES with Ilonka at his side, and it leads to the biggest reveal of the season:

Who were the Mirror Man and the Cataract Woman?

They were Stanley Oscar Freelan and his wife, who built Brightcliffe (fun trivia, he is named after the real-life Freelan Oscar Stanley, who built my favorite hotel in America - the Stanley Hotel. The Stanley is also the inspiration for THE SHINING!).

But more than that... there's a reason that Ilonka only sees Stanley in the mirror, and sees the Cataract Woman whenever she looked at Kevin. This is something else we took from Pike's original book... these aren't ghosts, but glimpses of PAST LIVES.

Ilonka WAS Stanley Oscar Freelan, and Kevin WAS his wife. They've lived many lives this way, and are true SOUL MATES - they always find each other, and they always fall in love. In this life, they knew it would be a short one, so they agreed to find each other in the house they built. They've been "remembering" who they are, and glimpsing their former selves in reflections, and sometimes when they look at each other. This is also why Ilonka's very first words to Kevin in S1 were "Do I know you?" and why Kevin thought she was familiar as well. They are two souls who always find each other, again and again.

The story is this: Stanley was dying, and built this cliffside home hoping that the seaside air would help him. It did, and he far outlived his prognosis (this is also true of the real-life Freelan Stanley). However, his wife began to succumb to dementia.

She would wander the halls, looking for him ("Darling!") and would even forget to feed herself ("I'm starving...") and she eventually refused to leave the basement. Heartbroken for her, Stanley painted the walls to resemble the woodland view, and the ceiling to resemble the night sky, so that it would be a little more beautiful for her.

He also painted a labyrinth on the floor, which was a technique used to try to curb the effects of dementia. She'd walk the pattern of the maze and it was believed it could help her cognition. Eventually, she developed frightening cataracts, but Stanley loved her through it all.

They were soul mates.

So while they seemed scary in season 1, that was just how Ilonka and Kevin's mind were trying to remember their pasts. We even had their faces distorting in ways consistent with how memories degrade over time. When the Shadow comes for Ilonka, and gives her this understanding - this "remembering" - she realizes she has nothing to fear. She and Kevin will shed these personas and be reborn, and have the joy of finding each other another way. The Shadow comes for her, Death takes her gently, and Ilonka goes off with Kevin back into the cosmos, ready for their next incarnation. The series would end with Cheri telling this story to a whole new table of patients, including our new series leads. Most of our original cast now would exist as stories, a story told to the next "class" of storytellers at the table, all of whom we will have met by the end of the season. A story called "The Midnight Club."

Well, that's it... that was what we had in mind. It's a shame we won't get to make it, but it would be a bigger shame if you guys simply had to live with the unanswered questions and the cliffhanger ending. I loved making this show, and I am so proud of the cast and crew. Particularly our cast, who attacked this story with incredible spirit and bravery each and every day.

But for now, we'll put the fire out, and leave the library dark and quiet. To those before, and to those after. To us now, and to those beyond.

Seen or unseen, here but not here.

I'll always be grateful that I got to be part of this Club.

[lightcannon-incorrectly]

Lux: Jinx is a perfect cinnamon roll who’s never done anything wrong in her entire life!

Caitlyn: Never done anything wrong?! She set a city block on FIRE!

Jinx: I'm scared of big crowds

[writing-in-sin-archieved]

One of these days, i wanna write a kaishin au where shinichi either barely managed to avoid getting caught by gin or got his body back early but has to go into hiding. However the method is, i just want shinichi in his true age going up against kaito in all of the heists we see in canon

Why? Besides them being absolutely badass and unstoppable together against the BO, the UST between them will be off the freakin charts dammit!

In fact, this whole idea was because i just rewatched the Teleportation ep and imagined Kaito hugging Shinichi from behind, an arm around a waist while the other is across Shinichi’s shoulders. As they talk about the 3 taboos, Kaito would have his mouth against Shinichi’s ear

And whenever it was Shinichi’s turn to reply, kaito would lay kisses across his detective’s throat, smirking as shinichi tilts his head with a content sigh to give him more room

KaiShin UST in a literal crowd everybody c'mon!

[writing-in-sin-archieved]

Okay, hold on. I got it!

Maybe shinichi was saved by kaito in the nick of time, when out of curiosity for the detective that almost caught him in the clock tower heist, Kaito followed shinichi when he went to tropical land

But when kaito saw gin and vodka, alarm bells rang and he didn’t hesitate in tracking down shinichi to pull him away in a nick of time before gin caught shinichi following them

[writing-in-sin-archieved]

And if i line up the time when kaito had to go on a date with aoko to protect his identity as KID on the same day shinichi encountered gin and vodka, all the better!

Actually, i think imma do just that 🤔

And thats when their tentative acquaintance began, with Shinichi in Kaito’s arms as the thief covered his mouth and held him close from behind until the coast was clear

After that, it was a bit of a tug of war between them. They’d meet constantly but throughout that time until the April Fool heist, Shinichi has only seen Kaito in shadows or hiding his face underneath his cap

They’d work on cases together, slowly building trust between them. Initially, kaito refused to drag anyone else into the BO’s sight but after trying and failing to scare shinichi away from the whole thing and even partnering up together in the cases kaito followed along to make sure the reckless detective doesn’t get himself killed, Kaito eventually relent

Especially after witnessing shinichi slowly understanding the weight of what he will face after miyano akemi fell into a coma when they barely managed to save her in time

So when April 1st finally arrived, Kaito appears fully as KID in front of shinichi, confirming that 1412 and KID really is the same person

[waterflied]

Ah yes tieflings, the cats from dnd

[waterflied]

Katya quick sketches bcs the power this woman holds over me is unreal

[artemis-pendragon]

Red and White: A meta analysis of color and the subversion of morality in Martin Scorsese's Goncharov (1973)

Katya Goncharova

By now everyone knows that Katya is the Woman in White. Aside from the obvious ghost/haunting implications of this color scheme, white can be used to signal purity, something Katya should, by all accounts, have left far behind.

So is this a subversion of a cliche and outdated ideal of purity (although not at the time of the film's creation, making this possibility even more daring and subversive), or is there another meaning? Virginity and innocence are only two types of purity. There is also love, and the complex purity that often accompanies it. Katya is, at her heart, a very emotional and loving person. She may not show it as openly or loudly as Sofia, but it's undeniably there: her love for her husband, and, of course, for Sofia.

It's also an interesting departure from the red/black femme fatale/black widow color schemes of Soviet women spies and assassins in films made around the same time. Katya is a killer and a player in this deadly game, yes, but at her core she wants so desperately to be a good person, to escape the life her husband has condemned himself to. Katya hopes, against all odds, that love can redeem her. Perhaps her insistence on always wearing white is meant to hint at her longing for innocence and purity, even though her hands are already stained red.

Love and its complexities, as well as the discussion of traditional red and black color schemes used for femme fatales brings me to

Sofia

Sofia is both Katya's foil and mirror. She challenges Katya's morality by upholding her own, living off a value system that, while twisted in its own way, is ultimately one of the strongest moral compasses in the film. Her descent into the role of killer is not only Katya's doing; Sofia was destined for bloodshed long before they even met, and only comes into her own as a real player after the cocktail scene. This is demonstrated through Sofia's red and black color scheme, which, as I mentioned earlier, is typically associated with femme fatales and black widows.

However, Sofia also wears white, notably at the end of the film after the Boat Scene, after her descent into destruction and The Life. This shot is especially powerful, as it uses a red backdrop to emphasize the change that Sofia has gone through, and her merging with Katya while also retaining her own history and morality.

While she starts out as Katya's foil, over the course of the film the two women begin to merge, their twisted morality aligning until Sofia's femme fatale false persona become her truth. It is only then that she comes into her own and begins wearing white, and, interestingly, that half white/half red color pink: the mixed feelings and emotions of a changing woman.

Ultimately, color plays a critical role in Goncharov, especially in the portrayal of Sofia and Katya and their complex, emotional, and ultimately tragic joined fate. Sofia loses the vibrant reds and deep blacks of her scheme after the Cocktail Scene, which is when it seems that she's finally accepted her feelings for Katya and lost herself to that lifestyle. She has spilled blood, and the red of her clothes becomes the red on her hands.

For example, this is Sofia's outfit before and during the Boat Scene:

This is her outfit directly before the Cocktail Scene:

Tumblr won't allow me to add another image (reached my limit ranting it seems lol) but in Sofia's final scenes, she is seen in all white, just like Katya.

Winter has, truly, come to Naples, and it has swept Sofia up in its bitter white embrace--the embrace of a colder, more calculating mindset and morality, as well as the literal embrace of Katya Goncharova, her salvation and her doom.

[flagellant]

Okay so I know we're all talking about the blatant lesbian tension scene between Katya and Sofia, but I want to get more into the actual details of the scene itself and how it characterizes both of the women--namely, as emblems of the unbridgeable gap between the lower working class and old money families.

The creation of the tension is due to the strangled intimacy of Katya, who feels fascinated by Sofia's cynical venomous personality towards her. Katya is old money, she's never known the sort of pain and suffering Sofia has--she has suffered, and that is what bonds the two women together, but they're from polar opposite worlds. Additionally, everyone wants Katya. She's the Helen of the movie, and is arguably more of the main character than the eponymous Goncharov--or at least has more agency than him working within the standards of the tragic mafia genre.

But Sofia doesn't want Katya. She isn't charmed, she isn't swayed, she isn't even curious about this Russian mobster's wife who has been spending so much time with her. She's just the latest pet project of a rich person's whims and Sofia has no choice but to go along with it.

Now, the dinner shared at Les Poisson has four members attending--Goncharov, Andrey, Katya, and Sofia. Pulling from the clock/time thematics, Katya and Sofia are 20 minutes late to the restaurant (incidentally allowing some interesting implications to happen between Andrey and Goncharov, because we never see what they were doing but they clearly were both flustered). This is because of what I'll be calling the Pearl Scene.

Pearls have always been a standard precious gem for old class. Gold is gaudy and diamonds are loud, but silver and pearls? Eternal heirlooms. Katya inviting Sofia to an incredibly upscale restaurant was an embarrassment for Sofia, yet another layer of vulnerability she didn't want to have to reveal, but she had no clothing appropriate. So Katya purchases her a lovely evening dress in silver brocade. The overlapping patterrns on the dress itself are even reminiscent to both the patterns of light off of the waves seen from the lighthouse and the scales of the anchovies, though I think that's just lietmotif more than actual tying together thematics.

But the really important part--and the reason this scene is so thick with heavy lesbians--is Katya taking her pearl necklaces off and placing them around Sofia's neck as Sofia holds the hand mirror.

See, again, pearls are standard old money looks because they were fucking expensive as shit. A single quality pearl even now can go for over 20,000$. Just one pearl. And we know that Katya's necklaces are her deepest prides, symbols of her own ancestry and family before she married Goncharov. Her taking them off is symbolic of her tying herself to Sofia, but more than that, it complicates the thematics further. The pearls have been the barrier preventing intimacy and vulnerability between Katya and Goncharov the whole time. And now they're a sort of poisoned gift, though none of them realize it at the time.

The 10 minute anchovies scene within Les Poissons Diner is possibly the emotional climax of the movie. Katya, Sofia, Andrey, and Goncharov are all suddenly thrown into questioning their relationships with each other as they've been brought together to try and save Goncharov from his pursuers. Andrey is jealous of Katya over her ability to publicly be involved and intimate with Goncharov, and furious that she chooses not to do so. But when Goncharov notes that Katya gave Sofia her pearls, Katya responds "Every woman should be allowed to feel like she is looked at beautifully." This has the entire table in shock--even Katya herself!--as it basically ties together the whole complicated mess of interrelation feelings.

Sofia feels offended that Katya has placed her mark on her like this, but also cannot deny that she agrees with Katya and that she's being given opportunities she never could have been given otherwise. Goncharov is suddenly hopeful as the speaking look he gives his wife is finally reciprocated. Andrey and Sofia become suddenly connected by the feeling of being outsiders to this whole affair, brought on only out of whim and circumstances. And Katya, the Helen of Moscow, has with a single choice--of giving Sofia her family's pearls as a gift--doomed the entire cast. She wants everything, and to do this she gives everything she can--but it is never enough, and she finally realizes this at the lighthouse, starting the final and most ultimate conspiracy to betray Goncharov--herself.

[j0rgemg]

I cannot sleep but I woek tomorrow, fuvk anyways here is an old drawing for you

[perissologist]

ok but i cannot stop thinking about the IMPLICATIONS of the final scene with katya and sofia. katya is an immigrant. she left her homeland with goncharov when she was sixteen. she took on his name, his business, his sins for twenty years. by the end of the movie, everyone she knows and loves outside of goncharov's ring of destruction is either dead or wants nothing more to do with her.

sofia was meant to end katya: her relationship with goncharov, her place in goncharov's business, her life. goncharov let sofia into their lives to make katya jealous, to amplify katya's insecurities so that katya would stay loyal to him. and then we find out that sofia was literally sent to kill them. to end the goncharovs not only in the figurative sense but the literal one.

but she can't do it, so she leaves. now what does katya have left? who is she even anymore? she's not a goncharov; she destroyed that part of her when she betrayed him. she's not ekaterina, the name her mother gave her, the name she bore when she was a scared little girl: that person died a long time ago. this movie is so special because the female side character has her own journey that mirrors the main character's: your old self is dead. who is your new self?

so she goes to paris, to be with sofia. sofia, the woman who was meant to destroy her. and she lets it happen. she lets sofia destroy katya goncharova. her old self is dead. and she is finally free :')

[not-the-blue]

listen. LISTEN. you know mafia wives is my entire jam but when Sofia stands in front of Katya's gun and tells her to shoot? it's not because she "knows Katya won't go through with it". it's not a trust moment. she would simply rather be killed by Katya than by Goncharov, and Katya would've 100% ABSOLUTELY PULLED THAT TRIGGER if it weren't for the fight.

they're not your uwu pure lesbian cinnamon rolls or whatever, they're ruthless and calculated and what they have together is ugly and complicated and AMAZING.

basically

[waterflied]

Listen I'm new here and this is so old but I love him to pieces so he has to be my first post

[ikiradraws]

Hi, this is a trial, tumblr is being tried, a try is being made

[ikiradraws]

Hi, this is a trial, tumblr is being tried, a try is being made

[ikiradraws]

They're in love

[ikiradraws]

They're in love

[ikiradraws]

Hi, I’m a dnd nerd, have a pic of Morwel, queen of the eladrin

[ikiradraws]

Hi, I’m a dnd nerd, have a pic of Morwel, queen of the eladrin