Not Even Joking, I Helped Out At The Christian Kids Camp For A Week (despite Being Agnostic At Most-)

Not even joking, I helped out at the Christian kids camp for a week (despite being Agnostic at most-) and we had to dance enthusiastically (with the actions-) and sing this every morning for a week with these 6 year olds and this post honestly nearly brought me to tears lmao

i’d like an edit of Maurice (1987) where everything is the same EXCEPT for the boat scene where instead of singing the church hymn they sing my lighthouse

Nandor and Guillermo ft Hadestown's wait for me

team-genuinely-believing-that-nandor-was-just-testing-him can i get a whoop whoop

i don’t think agreeing to bring guillermo along was a spontaneous decision that nandor made to manipulate him because he was losing the fight. i think he genuinely wanted to test his mettle and find out where they really stood. i think his reverting back to season one nandor was (or at least became) a ruse to goad guillermo into snapping, to:

see how far he would go. sure he killed a bunch of vamps at the theater, but since then? i mean he used non-lethal force on the wellness vampires. i also think nandor wanted to know if guillermo was willing to do what it took to protect himself FROM nandor if it came down to it.

TO SEE IF GUILLERMO WOULD BE HONEST WITH HIM. as much as we like to joke here on tumble dot edu, nandor is not actually stupid. he knows guillermo has secrets, he knows guillermo censors himself in front of him. HE KNEW ABOUT THE HYPNOSIS THING YALL. HE ALREADY KNEW. GUILLERMO SLAPPED HIM ACROSS THE MOUTH IN FULL VIEW OF GOD AND EVERYBODY. HE KNEW IN THAT MOMENT THAT THE HYPNOSIS HADN’T WORKED. HE JUST WANTED TO SEE IF HE COULD GET GUILLERMO TO BE REAL WITH HIM AND ADMIT IT.

i just think he’s fully corny enough to do something like this, all ‘oh you’ve passed the test.’ and he seemed to be really getting into the camp of it all. like really exaggerated over the top shit that season one nandor didn’t even say or do. i think it was a performance. he went from ‘you guys gotta stop treating him like a familiar he’s a bodyguard now please make him feel included’ to ‘once a familiar, always a familiar’ in a handful of episodes? nah. i think he said that shit when he was in the basement cage because he was upset, but i don’t think his whole opinion and view of guillermo would just regress all the way back to their season one dynamic.

guillermo’s incredulous, ‘is this you trying to make me feel better?’ seems like a clue. i don’t think that was nandor trying to make him feel better, he’s not that socially inept. he was just poking and poking and poking. it was on purpose. there was just something about the way nandor was acting that was slightly weird and extremely bitchy and campy and i really think he was putting on a performance.

i think he wanted guillermo to stop babying him by hiding things from him to protect his ego (because what could be worse for your ego than that?) and just tell it like it is.

‘i just pretended so that you wouldn’t feel weak.’ ‘i never feel weak.’

to me just felt like, ‘i don’t need you to pretend to be small so that i can feel big.’ cause like, that’s the whole arc right? nandor is hungry for the companionship of an equal. this whole season has been about them becoming equals. nandor doesn’t want to be on guillermo’s pedestal anymore; that’s lonely. he doesn’t want to be patronized anymore; that’s humiliating. i do think there was some real anger in nandor here but it was very precise, very purposeful goal-oriented anger.

i don’t have a good way to wrap this up. i just don’t think it makes sense to think his behavior in the first half of the episode was genuine and then he disingenuously changes his mind to manipulate guillermo into backing off. not within the larger context of the season and the rest of the episode.

after the ‘test’, nandor never tried to ditch guillermo, in fact he went out of his way to logistically facilitate his coming along. it clearly wasn’t just for servant purposes, because he was doing his own packing and lugging around guillermo’s bags. he went back to treating guillermo the way he had been back before the cult shit (warm, joking, respectful). he waited for him at the station. he called his name.

(AND LIKE. WHAT DID HE JUST SEE HAPPEN BETWEEN NADJA AND DOLLIE NADJA THIS SEASON???? HE SAW ONE PERSON ACT OUT TO GET A REACTION FROM THE OTHER PERSON SO THEY COULD HASH OUT THEIR SHIT AND MOVE PAST IT AND HE SAW IT WORK. JUST. SAYING.)

tl;dr nandor is a campy bitch who lives for drama and the whole thing was a ruse to get guillermo to snap so they could hash out their shit i will die on this hill so help me god

Ah yes, I’m re-watching Gentleman Jack for the plot 😌

The plot:

Not usually one to promote my own fics, but I love this one so much and very few people have seen it - so here it is in the hope someone else may enjoy it :)

[i do not agree with nor condone the views or opinions of the creator of the original source material- this is wholly based on fandom created versions of the characters, my own imagination, and my own love of Bright Young Things]

Summary

The sweet sound of the clarinet, reaching up to the highest points of its soaring range. The sharp accompaniment of the trumpets blasting in agreement. The low, gutsy undertones of the trombone growling below the rest. The driving snare, the crashing cymbal, the bass drum, propelling it all on in a mad, cavorting dance that wove its way around the dancers that crowded the room, winding its way up the stairs between couples entangled in a dance all their own, and banisters adorned in cocaine.

The 30s roared past them in a blur of drug fuelled partying and gossip, yet there was a group that stood out from the rest. They partied harder, loved stronger and lived quicker than any others. The papers and much of the youth adored them, whilst the elderly looked on in scandal.

The papers dubbed them The Marauders.

Roaring 30s/Bright Young Things AU inspired by the first scene in the movie of the same name

To be honest, I think if they got together it would’ve been extremely out of character and jarring pacing-wise. Not to mention not leave any room for drama next season. Nandermo is endgame- we’ve just gotta be patient lmao.

Also, the group splitting perfectly would mean they would have no motivation to come back together. It’d just be the Nandermo/Lazdia show- we wouldn’t get to explore any of the other relationships between the group (such as Nadia and Guillermo) which we haven’t really seen much development of.

Not to mention the pacing of the finale in general was masterful, in that it gave us those nandermo moments, but didn’t overshadow too much of the Colin Robinson arc, Lazlo’s arc (this episode being the crux of both) and Nadia’s arc. Really each character ended in a really interesting position, with lots of potential for new and interesting stories to explore.

The actual show cannot be just a fanfic. Fanfic is a great creative outlet, and sweet fluffy travel fics where nothing goes wrong are great in that setting, however for a Comedy/Drama mainstream TV show - they need that drama to keep it engaging and new and interesting for more seasons, which is why I think the finale was a masterclass in how to both wrap up existing plot lines in a satisfying was, but also open new opportunities and stories for next season that I can’t wait to watch explored!

To conclude, you’re entitled to think whatever you think about that finale, but for me personally, it was possibly one of the most satisfying, interesting and exciting season finale’s of any TV show I’ve watched recently.

If you haven’t watched the latest episode of What We Do in the Shadows, then please look away now because here there be reactions and spoilers. Mainly centered on Guillermo and Nandor. I’ll put them under the cut just in case.

So I loved this season, but that finale’s ending was really disappointing to me because of what happened with Guillermo.

We have been waiting three seasons for Guillermo and Nandor to get together (Well, at least I have), and now when we’re about to have that… we don’t get it?

We were robbed of seeing Guillermo and Nandor travel the world? The fighting in this episode, the banter, the fact that Nandor asked Guillermo to come with him and brought his suitcase, and most of all the turning away the hug with “they’ll be plenty more of that”… it was making me so excited for next season and seeing the nighttime adventures of Guillermo and Nandor touring different landmarks and attractions as well as them finally getting together. The comedy of them seeing everything and Nandor being like, “Why doesn’t the Sphinx have a nose?” or “Where’s the Colossus of Rhodes, Guillermo? It’s supposed to be right here.” And Guillermo’s reactions.

I wanted to see them throw coins into the Trevi Fountain and kiss in front of the Eiffel Tower… and we’re not getting that?

I think I’ll have to add to my list of works in progress because I need Guillermo and Nandor’s world traveling adventures if they’re not going to give them to us.