Whedon Wednesday :: color theory as it applies to a couple of Buffy season 3 cast promotional photographs

Xander (Nicholas Brendon): The trend of keeping Xander in blue continues.  Oh, Xander.
Giles (Anthony Stewart Head): A reliable, official-seeming gray suit.
Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter): That is quite orange!  Here, that possibly means “determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation.”  With some dark blue, possibly for integrity.
Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar): Well, that’s a romantic and nostalgic light purple if ever there was.  Interesting.  (This is also the outfit in some of the Buffy/Angel promo photos, and it makes sense given that context.)
Angel (David Boreanaz): For some reason, also reliable gray?  Despite the fact that he’s almost always wearing black in the show.
Willow (Alyson Hannigan): Her color scheme is the reverse of Cordy’s, though her dark blue is on top for emphasis; hers likely represents knowledge. Her pants are more red than orange, for danger, strength, and emotional intensity.
Oz (Seth Green): Healing, safe green, for some reason.

Angel: And now we’re back to the dark, mysterious all black all the time Angel we know so well.  It’s something of a comfort, really.
Giles: And Giles is never going to change.  All of the gray and brown suits all of the time.
Oz: “Purple combines the stability of blue and the energy of red,” says Color Wheel Pro, and that sounds like a very accurate description of Oz.  Oz is a very stable dude, and though his “energy” is not in the traditional hyperactive sense, it is nonetheless vital.  (It could also be the energy of wolf-time Oz.)Willow: Blue for knowledge again, lightened for understanding, and brown for potential extra stability.
Buffy: Pure romantic pink, soft and feminine.  Using pinks and purples on Buffy is a contrast to what the viewers know about her, of course, since while Buffy is very “girly” in many ways, she also kicks ass in ways that silly people don’t associate with femininity.  In this way, it’s showing the multifacetedness of her.
Xander: Enthusiastic, fascinated orange feels much more like Xander’s true personality, though there is still plenty of blue to contribute to the image he wants to present.
Cordelia: Light blue, in its softness-but-not-weakness, is much more Cordelia, too.

–your fangirl heroine.

Whedon Wednesday :: color theory as it applies to a few Buffy season 2 cast promotional photographs

First, I would like to point out that this photograph is shot so as so seem mostly blue naturally, likely for power and seriousness.

Angel (David Boreanaz): Dude is wearing black.  Spoiler, you probably won’t find a promo picture of him where he isn’t wearing mostly black, which represents “power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery.”  Check, sometimes check, sometimes check, check, check this season, check.
Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar): Blue pants because seriousness again, white to contrast Angel’s black.  White which is “light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity.”  Kind of check, check, check-but-not to the last three.
Willow (Alyson Hannigan): All you see here is green.  Growth and healing are probably the green buzzwords this season, both in relation to her magicks: growth because, oh look I can magick, healing because, hey even though I don’t know it surprise look Angel’s soul!
Xander (Nicholas Brendon): Mostly blue, probably for loyalty and also masculinity.
Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter): More whites and grays, innocence also.

Xander: More blue.  Buddy really likes to remind us he’s a guy, I suppose.
Willow: Dark blue, probably for knowledge and power.  Again because of magicks, probably, since she is knowledge girl but also she is getting knowledge of magicks, and she is a novice but she is more powerful than she knows.  This knowledge/power is contrasted to her almost sheepish facial expression, for example.
Buffy: Appears to be wearing the same outfit as in the above.
Cordelia: Also is wearing the same outfit, though the lighting for this picture reveals its actual color scheme, mostly yellows (dingy ones such as this for “caution, decay, sickness, and jealousy,” which is debatably applicable this season, but there is also an implied normalcy.)

Willow: Green!  Also black, but most noticeably green.  Definitely back to the growth and healing.
Oz (Seth Green): Black and white, and color theory be damned, it’s just for being snappy.
Giles (Anthony Stewart Head): Brown for stability and masculinity like last week, blue for knowledge.  Brown and blue is really the color way of saying “look, I know things that are important!”
Cordelia: Shades of red this time, which on her are visibility, power, desire, strength, determination, and most of the other positive connotations.
Xander: 4/5 of these pictures have had Xander in blue so far.  He wears blue inseries, of course, but not this overwhelmingly often.
Buffy: Her blue, however, is daintier, girlier; it almost looks periwinkle.  With it and white, this is an “underestimate me at your peril” outfit.
Angel: Black, black, a dark red shirt underneath I think (and a giant, humorous belt buckle, but that’s neither here nor there).  Dark red is, in his case, likely malice and wrath.
Spike (James Marsters): Also black.  These guys have the same basic color scheme.
Drusilla (Juliet Landau): Black for evil, red for blood, after all they are vampires.  Dru’s red also has a more romantic feel to it, one of emotional intensity and extreme passion.

–your fangirl heroine.

Whedon Wednesday :: color theory as it applies to a couple of Buffy season 1 cast promotional photographs

Because I am fascinated with the idea of seeing how (if) color presentation changes over the seasons.

Willow (Alyson Hannigan): Willow has a gift for wearing every color at once, she really does.  This is may be because Willow is pretty defined by her cravings for self-definition (I mean, everyone is, and Willow knows a lot of things about herself, but she still wants to be something else/more a lot of the time I think).  From the top down: blue for “consciousness and intellect,” green probably for ambition, brown for stability, and just a bit of blink-and-you-miss-it red for her latent/undiscovered power and temper.
Xander (Nicholas Brendon): Xander is less of a colorsmash (since I figure Willow is kind of the wardrobe equivalent of a keysmash sometimes).  He’s orange for encouragement and stimulation, yellow for energy and loyalty.
Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar): Aside from her brown-for-stability boots, here she is blue all the way.  Light blue is usually health and softness, which is less applicable, but “in heraldry, blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity,” which is interesting.  She is not a spiritual person per se, but she is very much defined by her powers-given destiny and is devoted to it, though nontraditionally.
Giles (Anthony Stewart Head): This man is the definition of brown for stability, here with some red for leadership and courage.
Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter): An interesting palette of yellows, anywhere from prestige to joy to jealousy.

Xander: Here the blue is for loyalty and also to an extent faith (in Buffy and her cause).  Also perhaps masculinity.
Giles: In addition to being stability, brown is masculinity as well, though of a less in-your-face kind.
Buffy: The same boots, but here she is sporting pure gold.  Illumination, prestige, high quality – all that whatnot.  She is not wealthy and she is not bookish-wise, but she is world-wise and also she is noble as they come.
Cordelia: She’s smarter than she wants you to believe, which is partially reflected here; the light blue is also soft i.e. feminine, and Cordy is fairly girly in ways.
Willow: Yellow for intellect and to an extent happiness, orange for endurance, and again the hints of red.

–your fangirl heroine.

Whedon Wednesday :: life’s a show and we all play a part [a sartorial analysis of Once More, With Feeling]

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a show that does not inherently invite sartorial analysis.  It invites sartorial giggles, yes (“oh, look at that wacky 90s outfit!”) and the characters do have fairly distinct styles and memorable outfits, but honestly, some of the outfits are totally out of left field.  (See: mostly everything that Willow wears, bless her heart.)  The interesting thing about “Once More, With Feeling” is that since it’s the ~musical episode~ you have often more deliberate and exaggerated costuming, because, well, they’re all playing parts.  The parts are themselves, of course, but themselves in extremis.  Mostly.

This isn’t really true of Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) in the traditional sense.  Her wardrobe is normal, perhaps hyperconsciously so.  Her source of tension is just wanting to feel alive, wanting to feel normal, and so she is dressed normally.  The blue top and red top have semi-interesting necklines, at least, but the white tops are the plainest that can be.  And pairing a colorful top with a leather jacket (short or long as the case may be) is pretty much standard Buffy.  Her normalcy is almost a parody of itself.

But then you have Anya (Emma Caulfield).  The first outfit I include two pictures of, because it is just that absurd.  And as far as the characters go, Anya is the one who’s probably more likely to wear something weird in that way, but a satin midriff top with a giant sequin butterfly?  That’s extreme.  That is “Anya is about to sing possibly the most ridiculous song in this entire episode, so let’s give her the most ridiculous top we can think of.”  But from her “retro pastiche” “book number” onward, she’s dolled up, well, rather retro.  Despite the fact that you don’t see Anya (or any character) wearing lingerie like hers during the entire rest of the series, it’s very reminiscent of 60s movie musicals, and while her later dress is plainer, her hair stays vintageesque the entire time.

Xander (Nicholas Brendon) gets matching silk jammies, the likes of which he’s never seen in again, and in keeping with the 60s musical theme, they’re even appropriately colored (red for girls with Anya’s, blue for boys with Xander’s).  They don’t really seem very Xander, though.  Anya’s lingerie-jammies at least seem like something she might wear in “real life,” maybe, but Xander’s are definitely costuming.  Later he’s back to something that’s a little more him, though, because he’s one of those Whedonverse men who wears ridiculous button-up shirts.  (There are several of them.)

Basically every positive meaning of the color yellow (joy, happiness, intellect, energy, warming, cheerfulness, freshness, thank you Color Wheel Pro) is applicable to Tara (Amber Benson).  She is often the kind of character who gets dressed in sweaters or tops and long skirts, so structurally her outfits (particularly the second one) are not out of character in the slightest.  The corset, though?  Well, it’s part of that costuming.  “Under Your Spell” is the closest that this episode gets to a love song, and the corseted outfit is fairly ~romantic~.  Tara is also the most olde-timey magicky of the bunch, rather spiritual and feminine, so it makes sense that here, where the dial is turned up on everyone, for her to be wearing the most standardly costumeyRenaissancey (and memorable) costume.  (With extra notes of aqua for “emotional healing and protection.”)

And then you have my dear Willow (Alyson Hannigan).  She’s got a bit of the mystic magic Wiccan thing going in the pinky-purple tree dress, not as traditionally so as Tara, but still definitely not something she’d be wearing in a different episode.  Then by the end, she’s good old “what the heck are you wearing, baby” Willow.  Giant purple duster sweater with… furry?… collar, purple skirt, purple texture-patterned top.  And here, I’ll bring out those analyses of light and dark purple again: “Light purple evokes romantic and nostalgic feelings.  Dark purple evokes gloom and sad feelings. It can cause frustration.”  Romantic and nostalgic, because though she’s going about it in way the wrong way as per addiction, romance and nostalgia is what she’s going for in the beginning.  And, well, Willow doesn’t let go of her worry face for the entire time she’s wearing the second outfit.

Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) is pretty standard, too.  He doesn’t wear suits so much by this point, but there’s nothing unusual about Giles in a suit.  And there’s really nothing unusual about Giles in a sweater.  Giles is an emotional constant, and his wardrobe reflects this.

(Also, the sweater that Dawn [Michelle Trachtenberg] wears in the beginning number is a similar shade of blue.)  Dawn’s outfits are designed for purpose: the sleeveless turtleneck and black capris are functional for dancing, the strange prom dress thing is functional for being… shown off and discussed as a demon child bride?  Good old pale blue with its straightforward innocence.

And then there’s Spike (James Marsters), whose outfit doesn’t change.  And really has not changed up to this point and will not change often at all.

–your fangirl heroine.

be nicer to yourself, you

Fictional Friday :: 6 ruling bodies that have made me wary of fictional ruling bodies as a whole

I am not, as I have said before, an inherently political person.  I have opinions, but there are only certain debates I feel comfortable getting into.  But I have learned, maybe this is just the nature of the fiction I partake of, to be exceptionally suspicious of the ruling bodies therein, especially the ones who say that they are doing things for the good of their citizens.  They might think they are, even, but I tend toward skepticism nonetheless, because it almost never ends well.

6. The s2-current and recent past political crowd of King’s Landing (Game of Thrones and also the books)
Because I don’t think anyone’s pretending that Robert (Mark Addy) was exactly aces as a king, and Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) is so very much not a good king.  And while the others are interesting, and some of them like Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) actually know what they’re doing sort of, and some of them like Cersei (Lena Headey) are cool in an antagonist way, and some of them like Ned (Sean Bean) had good intentions, it’s a mess.  Political crowd: actual rulers, those on the council, others.  Also, I am inherently suspicious of any group of thinkers that Baelish (Aidan Gillen) is a part of, because he is interesting and maybe reading more will change my opinion, but right now he just makes me uncomfortable.

5. The Watcher’s Council (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
There’s a reason, after all, that Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) disowned them.  I like to imagine a nicer world where the Council could be this cool thing where people who aren’t Slayers but are dedicated to fighting supernatural evil an really like books and whatnot could band together to help Slayers do their thing, but that isn’t the way of it in canon.  The Council is controlling and generally not with the times, these or any other; they’re more concerned with the superficial acceptability of circumstances than the reality of what the Slayers do, and that’s not helpful.

4. The Authority (True Blood)
I think I’ve made this point plenty of times, no?  Even before season 5, when all we really knew of them was Nan Flanagan (Jessica Tuck) and a group of vampires sitting before a screen with their backs to us, the Authority seemed ominous.  The sitting before a screen thing is actually not unlike the SHIELD board in The Avengers (they are not on this list because I don’t know enough about them to discuss them beyond this mention, but I’m sure they very well could be did I know more) and tends to be a good visual representation of, again, those who are Not With The Times.  They’re detached from the reality of their constituents.  And as season 5 teaches, yep, the Authority is very much that.  Nora (Lucy Griffiths) says as much, and while she probably was being snarky because of her at-that-point secret Lilith thing, it was an apt observation.  Roman (Christopher Meloni) was so focused on an ideal that he wasn’t 100% dealing with what was actually being done, and then it all went to Lilith hell and they were all wonky because of that.  So, kind of a lose-lose.

3. Rossum (Dollhouse)
I should also clarify something: Rossum, like Angel‘s Wolfram and Hart, is a company.  Yes.  Rossum is on this list and Wolfram and Hart isn’t because (I still don’t know all of the ways that Wolfram and Hart is heinous yet and) Rossum canonically infiltrates the government, i.e. their world’s technical ruling body.  And then they start an apocalypse and preside over that.  Starting a full-blown apocalypse so you have a sad little hill (or, you know, whole world) to be the sad little king of is one of the lowest possible things you can do.  And that’s what it basically comes down to with them.

2. The Ministry of Magic (Harry Potter)
The distrust of the Ministry is established pretty early overall, and it just gets worse and worse.  These guys are easily corruptible, they’re highly fallible, they’re highly shallow, and eventually, they get pretty malicious.  It’s a fairly convoluted issue, the Ministry (or rather the British Ministry; other countries have Ministries of Magic too, but they don’t get much discussed), so if you want, here’s the wiki page.  Half of the items on this list are Whedonverse, because there is an innate distrust of ruling groups in Whedonverse mythologies, but I think it’s interesting that overall, this distrust spans a reasonable range of fantasy/sci-fi subgenres.  Fake medieval times, technology issues, vampire issues (on both sides), magic issues, future governments.  Network TV, epic series novels, cable TV, novels for adults and novels that at least started as being for children.  It’s found in many places.

1. The Alliance (Firefly/Serenity)
These guys get to be number one because they hit every single reason that other items are on this list.  They’re an evil government, they meddle, they directly and adversely affect the lives of characters, they are the sole overarching antagonist of their canon, they have many sub-contracting evildoers involved, they don’t start an apocalypse per se but they are responsible for the creation of evil space zombies, they do start a war.  They are the essential questionable ruling body.

–your fangirl heroine.

Television Tuesday :: 5 of the many different reasons for strength found in female television characters

Television women (and film women, and literature women, and theatre women, and real life women, and anything in between) can be strong in a whole variety of ways.  I’ve talked about this before.  It’s not the same as Strong Female Characters, but it’s characters who are strong and oh, look, women.  Tonight I’m exploring some reasons why characters exhibit strength.  This is by no means a comprehensive list, of course, I haven’t seen nearly close to everything there is to see.  But here are a few things off the top of my head.

5. Because of family.
Dear.  Dear god.  There are few things more tiresome than a stock Mother character, whose only purpose seems to be to blandly care for the children and her husband, cook dinner, clean house, and look pretty.  But being a mother does not by any means negate a character’s strength, and oftentimes it motivates it at least to an extent.

• Alma Garret Ellsworth (Molly Parker), the wonderfully flawed adoptive mother to darling little Sofia (Bree Seanna Wall), who I’ve discussed at length in the past.  Does she make mistakes in her life when acting as a mother?  Of course.  Does she love that little girl, despite the accidental circumstances of their becoming a family?  Of course.
• Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley), who… okay, yeah, I’ll own that the show hasn’t always done Catelyn right.  There are plenty of discussions of that on the internet already, so I’ll skip it, and just say: okay, but Catelyn Stark is actually pretty badass.
• Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), who I have to bring up just because of those woe-inducing discussions about loving her children, even if Cersei and family is a much slipperier slope than that as a whole.
• Sarah Connor (Lena Headey), who I won’t say that much about because I’ve still only seen season one of this show (I know, chastise me) but who I would feel wrong not including.
• Joyce Summers (Kristine Sutherland), as long as we’re talking about moms…
• …and Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Dawn Summers (Michelle Trachtenberg) because family strength can be a sisters/daughters thing too.  Oh, the Summers women.  Again: they had their flaws, they did, but in the end theirs was a ridiculously strong family.
• River Tam (Summer Glau), because Simon (Sean Maher) spent the entire series taking care of her, but then it was her turn.
• Priya Tsetsang (Dichen Lachman), because I’m sure that having a baby in the apocalypse isn’t easy, if it doesn’t lead to terrible death (I’m raising my eyebrows at you, Walking Dead), and knowing that said baby’s father is off living on a flash drive can’t be easy, but there she was, looking out for T (Brandon Dieter) with everything she could.
• Gemma Teller (Katey Sagal), because while she has been in a very consistent downward spiral, but family is what she’d like her guiding light to be and that counts for something.
• Tara Knowles Teller (Maggie Siff), who is mother to both of Jax’s sons and even though Abel isn’t hers by blood, he’s her son.  And if you screw with those kids, or with Jax for that matter, Tara is not going to forget it.
• Luna Garza (Janina Gavankar), who has had to actively work to get her Emma (Chloe Noelle) back before, but who loves that little girl, no matter what animal she grows to turn into.

4. Because of friends.
Since as I always say, family ain’t always blood.  I’ve discussed all of this before, basically, but I’m just going to list it out anyway.

• Pam de Beaufort (Kristin Bauer van Straten), Tara Thornton (Rutina Wesley), Nora Gainesborough (Lucy Griffiths), Jessica Hamby (Deborah Ann Woll), who are family but aren’t family and did some ass-kicking for the sake of such things to some extent (also for other reasons, listed below).  Special shout-out to Tara (because taking a bullet for someone, even if they misguidedly get you turned into a vampire after, is pretty badass; also because “and you still owe Pam”).
• Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), who regularly kicks ass in the name of her friends (and [former] lovers too, and her brother sometimes but whatever Jason) even when it’s maybe not the best of ideas and especially when nobody else will.
• Echo (Eliza Dushku), and at this point it’s easier if I just restrict this to talking about mid-season two and onward Echo so there aren’t issues of Caroline thrown in there (other people, again, can discuss Caroline much more intelligently than I), who leads her friends into the fight to save the world, then has to deal with the fact that the world hasn’t been saved and continues to fight anyway…
• …and here I’m just going to list off Priya again and Adelle DeWitt (Olivia Williams) and Mag (Felicia Day) and whoever else, everyone involved in the Epitaphverse.  These guys.  Fighting to protect themselves and those they love and whatnot.  And while Echo is inherently a fighter, these guys are largely not.  Priya fights when she has to, but it is not her default.  Adelle is much more of a fighter-with-words.  Mag, as I’ve previously discussed, probably wasn’t Combat Girl pre-thoughtpocalypse.  Etcetera.
• All of the Scoobies.  Period.
• All of the women of Serenity.  Period.
• Trixie (Paula Malcomson), going to shoot at Hurst (Gerald McRaney) as revenge for Ellsworth (Jim Beaver) with no thought to the consequences, just to her complete rage.  Among other things.
• Also Alma, and Joanie Stubbs (Kim Dickens) and Jane Cannary (Robin Weigert) and everyone else ever on Deadwood.  Period.

3. Because of self-preservation.
Surviving can take special effort sometimes.  And I celebrate it always.

• Yet again Priya.  I’m just going to let the instances of “Belonging” speak for themselves.
• Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner), because my darling is literally the definition of this category.
•  Can I just say all of the Scoobies again?  Because all of the Scoobies, in one way or another.  Buffy persevering through countless ordeals, Willow (Alyson Hannigan) struggling her way out of a dangerous addiction at least somewhat, Anya (Emma Caulfield) learning humanity, Tara (Amber Benson) finding a voice amongst everyone, Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) and her personal journey that I am largely unfamiliar with on Angel, and I’m just going to say Fred (Amy Acker) of Angel too even though I’ve seen literally three of her episodes yet but I know she is this kind of strong especially, Faith (Eliza Dushku) fighting to redeem herself, Dawn working to be taken seriously amongst the group, everyone.
• Tara Thornton is getting some extra credit here, too.  Damn, that woman has been through a lot, and maybe it took her being a vampire for me to actually get affectionate toward her for whatever reason, but special points given for literally trying to destroy oneself right off the bat and then learning the reasons why, even if she still isn’t forgiving Sookie for arranging it, being a vampire might actually be working for her.
• Joanie Stubbs, holy moly.  Joanie who could easily have collapsed under the weight of all that was on her shoulders, after her failed business venture particularly, but who soldiered on as best she could.
• Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), because surviving her d-bag brother all those years and finally ending up the stronger for it is the greatest ever, and because self-preservation is also a good way to encompass the fact that I love that my Dany learns from her mistakes.
• Bennett Halverson (Summer Glau), because I can’t get through a list like this without mentioning her somewhere.  Requisite “yes, she made some questionable choices, particularly re: her torturing Caroline-Echo plan” comment, requisite “but holy crap, she was a genius and did not let anything diminish that” comment.

2. Because of injustices that need to be combated.
Injustices of all sorts.

• Joan Holloway Harris (Christina Hendricks) and Peggy Olson (Elisabeth Moss) both, in their ways, combat the injustice that is icky 1960s sexism.  And also the injustices of (in Joan’s case) d-bag husbands/lovers and (in both cases) d-bag bosses.
• Caroline Farrell, who I am mentioning here briefly to note that she was seeking to combat the injustice of animal and then human testing.  Among other causes, I’m sure.
• Echo, on the other hand, joins the abovementioned entire cast to, in one way or another, combat the injustice that is the thoughtpocalypse.
• Nora Gainesborough is getting a shout-out here, because I can’t not, and also because combating the injustice of the Vampire Authority that she had recently defected from after a moral epiphanyis pretty hardcore.
• And yet again, all of the Scoobies.  Combating the injustices of high school, college, demons, vampires, the Watcher’s Council, each other, personal struggles, interpersonal relationships, evil, and anything in between.
• And all of the women of Serenity.  Combating the injustices of the Alliance, d-bag criminals, d-bag clients, interpersonal relationships, and anything in between.
• Margaret Schroeder Thompson (Kelly Macdonald), combating the injustice of poor reproductive health education for mothers in the 1920s (among other things, but the “come talk about your vagina” line is my favorite forever).

1. Because why the hell shouldn’t they be.
This is the part where I point out how many of these listed women repeat.  Because strength is for everyone, for every reason, for anyone, for any reason.

–your fangirl heroine.

Whedon Wednesday :: The Chosen Two [a Buffy/Faith fanmix]

1. Combat Baby (Metric)
Get back in town, I wanna paint it black.  Wanna get around, easy living crowd so flat.  Said it all before, they try to kick it, their feet fall asleep.  I want to be wrong but no one here wants to fight me like you do.

2. Clouds (The Submarines)
When I said I’m not in love you made me count the ways, but I couldn’t hope to be both cause and balm for pain.  Well it breaks my heart to break your heart, I know that means I’m still in love.

3. I Stole Your Wishes (The Ditty Bops)
On your birthday, guess who blew the candles out?  While you were sleeping, I plucked a lash from your brow.  It wasn’t mine for the taking, but I took it just the same, for I stole your wishes, darling.

4. Three Hopeful Thoughts (Rilo Kiley)
If things don’t work out quite the way you planned, it’s almost half past two and I’ve begun to hate the way you smile, so smile.  And I hope that you close your eyes, block out the pain of a thousand lives.  I hope that you die tonight, just close your eyes, there goes the light.  Smile, I’ll brave it while you wave your hand goodbye.

5. Watch It Die (Eisley)
So I caught you in a lie singin’ hey (oh no you don’t).  I’ll never be what you want, no (that’s plain to see).  Fabulous teeth and a smile that’ll melt your heart, now come on, don’t you know how to play?  And do I fail to know what’s in your eyes?  Do I fail to know?  Do I fail to know what’s in your eyes?  Do I fail to know?

6. Effect & Cause (The White Stripes)
I guess you have to have a problem if you want to invent a contraption.  First you cause a train wreck and then you put me in traction.  Well, first came an action and then a reaction, but you can’t switch around for your own satisfaction.  Well, you burnt my house down, then got mad at my reaction.

7. Loosen the Knot (Lissie)
I’m gonna give it up, toughen up, like it or not.  Maybe it’s all that’s stopping us, keeping us together now.  Undermining what I do, no one does it better than you.  When you change your attitude, things will change ‘tween me and you, but the end is coming, darling, and I’m bringing the news.

8. Troublemaker (Jed Whedon and the Willing)
Though her body shows no signs, there’s a life inside.  In the rain, tears run and hide.  Lift her up and out the door, screw the traffic laws, they’re unsafe now, boy, to abide.

9. In For the Kill (La Roux)
We can fight our desires, ooh, but when we start making fires we get ever so hot, ooh, whether we like it or not.  They say we can love who we trust, ooh, but what is love without lust?  Two hearts with accurate devotion, ooh, what are feelings without emotions?

10. Bottom of the World (Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton)
Is it true you and the other girls, you all stood in a circle?  Sophie left me in a bar at the bottom of the world, all followers pick out a word around the room.  I’m on my way, you’re always “Remember you, to stay on the move.”

11. To Go Home (M. Ward)
God, it’s great to be alive, takes the skin right off my hide, to think I’ll have to give it all up someday.  And if I ever treated you mean, you know that it was only because I’m sorry I couldn’t have you for my own.

12. This Love (Will Be Your Downfall) (Ellie Goulding)
Who are you to make me feel so good?  Who are we to tell ourselves that we’re misunderstood?  Oh, who am I to say I’m always yours?  Who am I to choose the boy that everyone adores?  Oh, I don’t see a reason why we can’t just be apart, we’re falling on each other like we’re always in the dark.  Oh, I don’t think you know me much at all, at all.

13. Soldier (Ingrid Michaelson)
I sit in the back of a bus watching the world grow old, watching the world go by all by myself.  I took a faithful leap and packed up all my things and all my love and gave it to somebody else.  But how do I know if I’ll make it through?  How do I know? Where’s the proof in you?  And so it goes, this soldier knows, the battle with the heart isn’t easily won.

The Chosen Two at 8tracks.

–your fangirl heroine.

Television Tuesday :: 6 of the times that family ain’t always blood

As I mentioned last week and as I mention always and forever, I absolutely just love created families.  These can take a whole variety of forms.  They’re based in organizations, in necessity, in friendship, in trust, in, uhm, vampirism, in care for others, in whatever.  And they are beautiful.  I heard in work orientation that the “my friends are my family” thing is sort of unique to the younger generations, and I suppose I understand how that’s true (it’s certainly true in my case, but I think that comes as much from generational differences as from my latching onto a few people with everything I have) but it has fascinated and will always fascinate me.

Honorable mentions to the Angel Investigations crew, who I’ll discuss a teensy bit more in a minute, and the cast of Community, neither of whom I’m discussing in detail because I’m still working through those two particular shows, but augh I love them already.  I’m just waiting till I’m done to discuss.  Another honorable mention, actually, to Dany (Emilia Clarke) and her dragons and her khalasar, which is a kind of family in its way (and, y’know, “blood of my blood” and stuff) but since it’s more conceptual/re: dragons than re: specific characters (I mean Jorah [Iain Glen], yeah, and her maids, though that’s a whole other meta, but) I’m not going into it much.

6. Sofia has four or five mommies and a daddy or two (Deadwood)
This one is complicated because strictly speaking, Alma (Molly Parker) basically adopts Sofia (Bree Seanna Wall), and Alma and Ellsworth (Jim Beaver) do get married.  But it’s my favorite adoptive mommy&daddy situation ever, basically; it’s different than if Alma was actively seeking a child to adopt, which is cool too, but this is more a case of stumbling into it and deciding that yes, she liked the little impromptu family.  And Ellsworth was a great fake dad.  I also bring this up because this is a relatively literal “it takes a village to raise a child” situation – I guess it’s more “Sofia has a mommy and three or four aunt figures” than the above, I just like how the above sounds.  Considering that Sofia is influenced by Trixie (Paula Malcomson) and Jane (Robin Weigert), to a lesser extent Martha (Anna Gunn) and occasionally even Joanie (Kim Dickens), as well as sometimes having Sol (John Hawkes) and Seth (Timothy Olyphant) in her life (and even Bill [Keith Carradine] a teensy bit back in the day), well.  Everyone is contributing to the life of this one adorable little girl, and I think it’s really sweet.

5. The Sons of Anarchy (Sons of Anarchy)
Wow, I don’t have nearly as much meta about these guys as I do about, y’know, everyone else, but they’re worth mentioning.  They’re totally a family, and for a long time Clay (Ron Perlman) and Gemma (Katey Sagal) were the daddy and mommy, easy; they’re married, yes, and Jax (Charlie Hunnam) is their RL kid, and the whole mess with Maureen (Paula Malcomson) and Trinny (Zoe Boyle) and Abel and Tara (Maggie Siff) and my point is there are a lot of blood relations, yes, but the whole extended club is family in their way.  Sometimes a family that doesn’t get on that well, but family nonetheless.

4. I heard it called “the family Godric” somewhere online and I don’t remember where, but I’m going with it (True Blood)
(Well, technically vampire families are by blood, just not in “we share blood because I literally contributed to the creation of your DNA” way.  But they count, because it’s a family that’s chosen and created.)  The family Godric is all of the vampires who are descended from the bloodline created by now-deceased Godric (Allan Hyde), with his children Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) and Nora (Lucy Griffiths), Eric’s child Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten), and Pam’s child Tara (Rutina Wesley).  And now I’m all curious about whether Nora’s ever been a maker.  But I’m shutting up about it now.  Because even vampire families aren’t always by blood, I also sort of count Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) in the family Godric – well, Bill (Stephen Moyer) was her maker, but Eric and Pam did foster her when she was a newborn, and she totally does act like Pam’s bratty little sister sometimes.  (Bill can maybe be the uncle in the family, the one that nobody really likes that much but they’ve all had to deal with him.)  And now that the family Godric is a proper thing, ridiculous family times with the whole crowd now that they all know each other is one of three things I want from season six.  I basically just want them acting like they’re all in high school: Pam and Tara, the snarky ones who make out with each other and then threaten you with physical violence just ‘cause and insult everyone, Nora the socially maladjusted genius child (since going from the Authority to not just that is probably sort of like going from private school to public school or something) just being dry and British all over, Eric the golden boy, the noble bad boy type, and for good measure Jessica naïve and also not naïve “good girl” who isn’t really that “good,” just chipper.  This is their family dynamic, and yep, it works for me and I like it.

3. The Whirlwind (Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel)
(Also technically a bloodline, but.)  Darla (Julie Benz), who sired Angelus (David Boreanaz), who sired Drusilla (Juliet Landau), who sired Spike (James Marsters).  In the above vampire family,  the lines between parent and child are a little blurry, but in the Whirlwind, even taking the romantic relationships out of the equation, it’s very clear who’s what: Darla and Angel are the parents, period, and Dru and Spike are the kids, period.  Or at least it’s very clearly big sister and brother/little sister and brother.  There is no room for flexibility with these guys, and who’s in charge is clear, period.  Age isn’t relative, it’s very necessary.  But despite the fact that these guys are evil and crazy, their interactions are intriguing.  A lot of bad goes down, yes, but… well, this.

2. The Scoobies (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
(Okay, at this point I’ve seen enough of Angel to have seen a lot of the Whirlwind flashbacks, which I’d read about anyway, but I’m still in season two, so I don’t know enough about the whole Angel Investigations group to really discuss their forever dynamic.  Since people add in on the fairly regular.  I love them as far as I know them, though.  I love them a lot.  I just don’t have intelligent thoughts in excess yet.)  This is a whole lot of characters: Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Willow (Alyson Hannigan), Xander (Nicholas Brendon), Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), Angel (David Boreanaz), Oz (Seth Green), Anya (Emma Caulfield), Riley (Marc Blucas), Tara (Amber Benson), Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg), Spike (James Marsters), even sort of Andrew (Tom Lenk) and Faith (Eliza Dushku), not to mention I guess technically the Potentials sort of count, and eh, I’m probably forgetting to throw others in there because there are so many Scoobies.  What I love about the Scooby Gang is that yes, they’re a family, they’re a family easily, but they’re variable.  The lineup changes all the time.  Several of the Scoobies are reformed baddies to one extent or another.  The group is comprised of Slayers, of witches, of vampires, of ex-demons, of ex-energy blobs, of (ex-)soldiers, of (ex-)Watchers, of werewolves, of just regular people hanging out fighting the good fight.  Provided they want to fight the good fight and aren’t assholes, any variety of person can wind up a Scooby, and everyone gives something unique and necessary to the group.  Giles is the dad, of course; Buffy and Dawn play big/little sister pretty obviously, Xander’s the big brother, Willow’s sort of the middle sister who’s trying to prove herself, Cordy and Anya are the sometimes-abrasive cousins, Tara’s the big sister who ends up playing mom, Oz is the middle brother who’s shrugging and going along with it, Angel’s sort of the older cousin type who never knows what to do with himself at these family things, Andrew’s the twerpy little brother, Spike and Faith are the rebellious middle children who also want to prove themselves, it’s just this big mess of how people work together.

1. The crew of Serenity (Firefly)
The best best ain’t always blood family that ever has been and ever will be.  Literally they are the reason I started saying “family ain’t always blood,” which should be abso-bloody-lutely obvious, really.  Mal (Nathan Fillion), Zoe (Gina Torres), Wash (Alan Tudyk), Kaylee (Jewel Staite), Jayne (Adam Baldwin), Inara (Morena Baccarin), Simon (Sean Maher), River (Summer Glau), Book (Ron Glass), and it doesn’t matter that Zoe and Wash are married or that Simon and River are siblings for true, it is perfect.  Mal’s the protective big brother and occasionally the daddy, Book’s sort of the grandpa or the kindly uncle (sorry, Book, it’s true), Zoe and Inara are big sisters forever, Jayne’s the douche big brother, Wash and Kaylee are the middle siblings (Kaylee tending to be little sister a lot of the time, but not always), Simon’s the mannersly big brother, River’s the littlest sister forever.  But the magical thing about these guys is that even in all of the gēgē/dìdì/jiějie/mèimei stuff, it’s not like the roles are static.  Big sisters/brothers look after little sisters/brothers or after each other, but little sisters, for example, look after big brothers (and everyone else).  Captain Daddy doesn’t treat l’il albatross like a child exactly (sometimes treats her like a liability, but that’s when it’s reasonable, not knowing everything, to feel that way) and when Zoe comic-canonically births her child, that child is going to have a whole passel of aunts and uncles.  L’il Kaylee is clearly everyone’s little sister (the baby before River shows up) but nobody ever underestimates her on account of it.  Everyone looks out for each other.  They made this family that counts for so much, that often counts for more than the families they were born to anymore, that matters so much they’ll all die for it if need be and a couple of them do.  It’s a family made by circumstance, by proximity, by camaraderie, by belief, but by love most of all, absolute and pure and real familial love that is so so good.

–your fangirl heroine.

Whedon Wednesday :: so I have a little bit of a vampire family couple thing.

So this is the week of True Blood, and that means it’s… kind of the week of Nora Gainesborough (Lucy Griffiths).  (As I’ve before said, I am in love, and love makes you do the wacky.  So roll with it.  Or, y’know, come back later if you’d rather.  I’m not taking attendance.)

If you’ll remember, last year I was talking about a bunch of little things that made me think Buffy thoughts.  There were fewer of those this year, but I fully acknowledge that some of my inherent weakness for Eric/Nora – not necessarily for Nora herself, because there are a thousand other reasons I’ve listed previously why that happened – is because of my feelings about Spike/Dru.  So tonight?  I present to you a discussion of how things that are so theoretically the same in ways can have drastically different results.  With all the spoilers.

First off, aesthetics, namely the blond male/brown-haired British woman vampire thing.  (Even though Eric’s [Alexander Skarsgard] really more dirty/dark blond nowadays.)  That’s a surface similarity, yes.  There’s also the vampire relations thing, though Drusilla (Juliet Landau) had been the one to sire Spike (James Marsters), whereas Eric and Nora were both sired by Godric (Allan Hyde).  But Dru and Spike were sexin’ and Eric and Nora are sexin’.  So.

Drusilla is really the only Buffyverse vampire who seems to put a whole lot of stock in the family line thing, whereas it seems much more culturally prevalent in the True Blood ‘verse – in addition to makers and children, there’s the issue of siblings, which isn’t even relevant in the Buffyverse (I suppose you could make assumptions about Wishverse Willow and Xander, but even that’s tentative), and family loyalty seems to be definitely more the rule, whereas the Whirlwind was definitely more the exception.  In both situations, being vampire-related doesn’t seem to stop folks from the aforementioned sexin’, though, so there’s that.

But here’s the real difference in family presentation.  Season two of Buffy was largely dominated by the plot of Angelus (David Boreanaz), made instantly evil by his sex with Buffy, wreaking havoc and eventually deciding to end the world because why not?  Dru, made starry-eyed by her sire, was going along with the plan; Spike, still devoted to his sire, felt that Angelus was driving them apart.  Besides, ending the world is lame.  So once Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) the love of Angel’s undead life is there to fight Angelus, an apocalyptically apathetic Spike knocks an unrepentant Dru out and skedaddles out of there.

Season five of True Blood was largely dominated by the plot of the vampire Authority getting not-good vampire religion and Bill (Stephen Moyer), made slowly evil by his getting of said religion, wreaking havoc and eventually deciding to set in motion the dawn of a new era in the world because the vampire Bible tells him so.  Nora, made starry-eyed by vampire religion, was going along with the plan; Eric, still devoted to his (y’know, dead) sire, felt that vampire religion was driving them apart.  Besides, massacring humans everywhere is lame.  So before anyone else gets dragged into the plan (except dearly departed Molly [Tina Majorino]), a determined Eric knocks an unrepentant Nora out and tries to skedaddle out of there.

Except there were still three more episodes of the season left, so they get caught.  And then Eric and Nora do blood-drugs and Eric pretends to convert to crazy vampire religion.  And then Nora starts thinking about their (y’know, dead) sire and repents hardcore.  And then Eric and Nora fly off into the night, hear that Eric’s progeny is in danger, gather backup forces which includes Sookie (Anna Paquin) the love of Bill’s unlife, and head back into the fray to do some saving and ass-kicking (the latter of which was the plan anyway) their own damn selves.  Oh, and Bill takes all of the blood-drugs and in the last minute explodes into a bloody mess and is resurrected all messy and naked and maybe godlike or maybe just demonic.  That too.

In short: season two of Buffy ends with my delightful vampire couple being driven apart (not to reconcile), season five of True Blood ends with my delightful vampire couple being driven closer together.  Spike and Dru head off by themselves, Eric and Nora join up with the rest of the created family (ugh and I love created families).  And I understand these differences, and I’m not taking sides, but it’s an interesting contrast of arcs: Spike/Dru is the first we know of Spike, and the breakup with Dru eventually facilitates Spike’s feelings for Buffy, whereas Eric/Nora happens once Eric/Sookie has already happened many times.  In 5×14 of Buffy, “Crush,” Drusilla is presented as a direct adversary to the Spike/Buffy relationship, someone that Spike once cared about and now cannot, whereas in 5×12 of True Blood, “Save Yourself,” Nora is presented as someone that Eric cares about and Sookie is presented as someone that Eric also cares about and it’s not a competition.  This could well be to do with the timing of the vampire couples in regards to the overall arc, but.

Despite the fact that Dru sired Spike, Spike does a lot of taking care of Dru in the first part of the season, because she’s infirm.  To be fair, Dru then takes care of Spike when he’s infirm, though not quite as attentively as per Angelus.  The issue of who sired who is only really prevalent in flashbacks, and that’s mostly just Dru prouding on her darling deadly boy ‘cause she likes being a mommy.  Even though vampire mommies and their children can and do still sex.  Spike also takes care of Dru because she’s crazy.  He acknowledges that she’s crazy, more than once and very openly, but he’s fine with it.  He loves her no matter what, at least for those first hundred-some years.

There is never an issue of infirmity regarding the Eric/Nora relationship, but there is one of crazy: crazy Nora is still more clear-headed than crazy Dru, though both of them float around wearing pretty dresses and are totally more evil than they let on.  Eric doesn’t do a whole lot of taking care of crazy Nora, though, and since the crazy is more self-inflicted and behavior-patterny than actual psychological damagey he’s not exactly all “pat, pat, I’ll go along with it.”  Eric always loves Nora, in their weird messed-up siblings/f-buddies that are actually totally kosher to coexist way, but he doesn’t really like her a lot when she’s crazy.  He’s hopeful that she’ll snap out of it, which she eventually does, not because of him exactly but because she just does.

The difference in the presentation of Spike/Dru and Eric/Nora is that the former were presented from their entrance as antagonists, whereas the latter were presented as… morally gray who-knows-whats.  Spike and Dru’s relationship, despite being delightful and still one of my favorites in the canon, was clearly based in wickedness and bad deeds, and bad characters don’t get to stay bad for more than a season in the Buffyverse, not really.  That’s just how it’s structured to work.  So one or the other of them had to turn good, or at least morally gray that led to eventually good, and that one was Spike.  Which is a pretty interesting arc of itself, so.

Eric’s arc started long before Nora was probably even an idea in the writers’ minds; he was morally gray and he’s… slightly less morally gray now, and in his way I think he is a good guy, but he’s not a Good Guy.  I don’t think he would personally sit for that, in all honesty.  Eric and Nora’s relationship was a thing that had been on-off for hundreds of years but was only introduced to us once Eric was already having his moral journey of sorts, and it was clearly based in… well, they were vampire siblings who had been on-off together for hundreds of years.  There is no discussion of them going on merry slaughtering rampages with Godric, though I’m sure at least one merry slaughtering rampage probably took place over time.

Nora herself was presented as morally gray in the extreme from day one, and as evidenced by the fact that she was playing for at least three different teams throughout twelve episodes, this is valid.  Eric played for a couple of teams too, but we and he both knew it was faking; he makes it very clear that the old, pre-evil god Bill was more of a mainstreamer than he would ever be, but at the same time he doesn’t condone the senseless massacring of all humans.  Nora, in her crazy period, did condone that, but late in the game, she undertook a redemption mission of her own alongside Eric.  (Wow, in this way these two are more like Buffy and Faith, and I literally just realized that.  Weird.)

In short, Spike/Dru was a wonderful moment in time that I still love with all my heart.  I adore it.  It is my favorite kind of evilcrazywrongbad love.  Appreciate Spike’s redemption arc as much as I do, evil Spike is still my favorite Spike, and I actually love that Dru was the one that stayed pretty much evil forever.  I never really rooted for them in their overall mission as characters, because ending the world is lame, but I love them together in that moment.  Eric/Nora is a wonderful moment in time that I will choose to believe is going to at least on-off continue, at least unless the hypothetical Eric/Sookie endgame comes to pass.  I appreciate Eric’s overall arc, I appreciate Nora’s smaller arc, I appreciate them.  I would have loved Nora even if she had stayed evil, but I love her redemption too (mostly because I’m pretty sure that evil Nora would have met the true death, and I really, really want her to stay around forever).  And I root for both of them together and separately and just in general.

–your fangirl heroine.

Monster Monday :: on religions and vampire canons

So.  Vampire canons and religion.  I’ve touched on some of this stuff before, but I think it’s appropriate to explore it again.

Buffyverse:

• These guys are susceptible to religious objects.  Crosses, bad.  Holy water, bad.  Fairly standard stuff in that regard.
• Those who fight the vampires do not seem to be beholden to any particular religion at all.  Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) wears her cross necklaces, but that’s because they stop vampires.  Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Tara (Amber Benson) are practicing Wiccans, but save a few prayers, the religious aspects of that are really not touched on at all; Willow is also ancestrally Jewish, but does not often mention it save a few frowny-faced “not everyone celebrates Christmas”-type comments.  Religion is not the why behind anyone’s vampire fighting, they just did it because vampires are often bad and should be stopped.
• Ethan Rayne (Robin Sachs) does practice a religion, or at least a religious worshipping of the deity Janus, as a part of his villainy. But he’s only around for a few random episodes here and there, so we don’t get a lot of detail with it.  And also he’s not a vampire.
• Glory (Clare Kramer) is a hell god, but she’s not a vampire either.  So.
• Flashbacks to the lives of those who are now vampires do include religion: dying Darla (Julie Benz) scorns the efforts of a visiting religious figurehead who really isn’t, Drusilla (Juliet Landau) is targeted by Angelus (David Boreanaz) for her piety and actually seeks to become a nun in order to escape his torment.  Darla retains that snarky faithlessness into her vampire life; Dru completely abandons her faith and replaces it with belief in her sire and their crazy evil fun.
• Also, I should point out the puns and ironies made possible by Angel and Faith (Eliza Dushku) by virtue of their names and contrasting actions.
• The idea of hell is deeply entrenched in the Buffyverse: the town is on a hellmouth, multiple characters visit or spend time in hell dimensions.  Hell is a very real concept, though it doesn’t seem to be technically associated with any one religious tradition.  It simply is: it exists in a dimension alongside ours, it can be reached.
• And the idea of heaven really isn’t discussed until Buffy’s return from the grave in season six, when even she, who has probably been there, can only really say that she was probably there.  There is no explanation for the how or why of heaven and, again, no real association between heaven and a religious tradition.

True Blood:

• These guys aren’t susceptible to religious objects, though they have plenty of other weaknesses so it’s okay.  They actually address that myth in canon, so.
• For the most part, the show’s main characters don’t fight vampires most of the time, they sort of just exist alongside them to varying effects.  Those who are clearly anti-vampire and act on it are people like Rene (Michael Raymond-James) in season one, people like Steve Newlin’s (Michael McMillian) Fellowship of the Sun in season two, people like Marnie (Fiona Shaw) and her witches in season four, people like the gang of anti-all supes who wear the Obama masks this season.  Steve Newlin definitely made it out to be a religious thing, a branch of Christian fundamentalism – I, at least, always took it to be a splinter group that didn’t reflect the beliefs of the entire religion, like how some real churches are more avid about not being all right with some things than other churches – that was devoted to values and to eradicating vampires because they were a slight against nature and God.  And Marnie’s whole thing was she just was really curious about necromancy and then whoops, possessed by the ghost of a lady who was killed by vampires in the Spanish Inquisition or something.  Which also has religious background, but Marnie herself was really more of a practicing Wiccan who just delved too hard into the bad stuff.
• This season’s foray into vampire religion is kind of the flip side to human Steve Newlin’s thing.  It’s religious fundamentalism, and they all say as much: the vampire Bible exists for all vampires, but most of them don’t really take it seriously, and the problem that’s occurring with the members of the Authority is coming from taking it too seriously.  Taking it literally, which is not so much a good idea, all things considered.  Though they do refer to it as the vampire Bible and it is steeped in a lot of the same language as the Christian Bible, the sanguinista movement is really more of a cult than anything; lots of cults are based in extreme interpretations of religious texts, and that just helps me say with certainty that no matter what you do or do not believe, it’s probably not fair to judge an entire group based on the actions of beliefs of the extreme few.  ‘Cause that’s generalizing and sometimes leads to bad.  This is not to say that the extreme few are not doing bad; often, as in the show, they are.  But the cool thing about True Blood is that the “good” characters at least seem a lot of the time to take things on a case-by-case basis, judging a small group or an individual; speciesism is reserved for the bad guys nine times of ten.
• The only of the vampire characters who come from a religiously influenced human background are Tara (Rutina Wesley), who really only has the fact that her crazy mom recently married a pastor going on there, so it’s at most the appearance of religious propriety and nothing more, and Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll).  I’ve mentioned this before: Jess’ family background, her too-religious parents and her abusive dad, her need to rebel leading to what seemed like an out if she looked at it the right way.  There’s not too terribly much to say here that I haven’t said already, but it does color the proceedings interestingly.  Presumably others of the characters had some baseline religion in their human lives, but not so much that it warrants mentioning.
• Despite the prevalence of ghosts hanging out on this mortal plane, the only discussions of heaven or hell that we really get are the terms being dropped in passing or maybe Sookie (Anna Paquin) speculating about her gran.  Good and bad could very well exist in other dimensions, but the only other dimension we ever deal with is the fairy world, which is also not heaven or hell.

Twilight:

• They’re not vulnerable to religious objects.
• Blah blah, I’ve heard speculation that the whole thing is a metaphor for Mormonism.  I don’t know if that’s true, I don’t know enough about Mormonism, so I won’t go into it. But that’s what the whisper is.

–your fangirl heroine.