Subtle

   Subtle, something delicate or precise as to be difficult to analyze or describe, making use of clever and indirect methods to achieve something (Webster). This is a word that I would never use to describe Dead until Dark book series and the horrid TV spin-off True Blood both of which take any subtlety that could be and burns it like Bill at breakfast.

The novel makes a better attempt at subtlety in some places while in other place it derails and crashes. Some of the positive uses of subtlety in the book are by giving hints about Sam being a werewolf/dog, the killer’s identity, and how Vampire blood could be addictive, but that’s about the end of it. Other than these few points the book is pretty on the nose about what means what and how the characters are feeling by having the characters narrate their own feelings. The worst example of the negative subtlety in the novel is when Sookie and Bill have sex in the graveyard after she thought he was dead. (Also am I the only one who thinks sex in a graveyard is both creepy and really disgusting) In most romantic novels a person orgasming is described as the character being transported to another realm of existence, feeling euphoric and understanding what it means to be in love. But in this terrible novel this moment is summed up in just three words “Suddenly I came”, how romantic (Dead Until Dark). You can just feel the author just violently beating you in the head saying “Do you get it”. No matter how I bash the book the show did so much worse.

"You just spent all day submerged in the ground, lets plow!"

The only subtle part of the show True Blood, is the actually catchy and fitting opening song called Bad Things. In the opening the song plays over stock footage of decaying animals, the KKK, images that represent Louisiana, and religion. Now some of you might think that this is not really subtle, showing the main themes of the show before the episode even starts but compared to the rest of this train wreck this is godly. Some examples of this are the “pie scene”, and any scene with Sam. During the scenes with Sam there are many hints that he is a dog from showing a picture of a dog in his office, Tara saying Sam is “Like a dog with a bone”, and Bill calling him a mutt. This and the fact he always showed up in his dog form every time Sookie turns him down or tells him to leave, nice. 

Finally we get to the pie scene, where pie is mistreated just like the audience. The scene has Sookie slowly eating the last pie that Gran had made before she died, to the tune of a southern hymn. This scene is supposed to show Sookie grieving for her grandmother, but comes off as forced and heavy handed and almost comical. (It also quickly transitions from this scene to all of the main characters having sex).  So the both book and the TV spin-off show a lot of southern pride, racism and a lot of unnecessary sex, but little to no subtlety and it clearly shows.  

How we all feel after watching the show.

           

Why the love triangle?

Why is there always a love triangle? Well let me just start off this blog post with the fact that I have no idea so please do not read this thinking I am coming at this as someone who has really studied love triangles because I haven’t, but it is a question that I keep thinking of as they continually come out. Why is the idea of a love triangle (or in Sookie’s case a love hexagon always growing bigger) so appealing for authors? It’s often depicted in movies and the books the movies were originally based off of (because there’s always a book first) - particularly if the main character is a woman or teenage girl.  

It is worth noting that within love triangles, there are often two main roles that the love interests fit into are that of what the main character wants and needs. One person is often the nice guy type who is seemingly perfect for the character, but not quite right for whatever reason and is later found to have a major flaw which kills of the perfect image that they originally presented themselves with. The other character is often “physically attractive but potentially hazardous” (thanks Wikipedia) and therefore imperfect but very endearing and later becomes the more desirable after the first is found to have some flaw.

Originally this design seemed like it shouldn’t fit into the Sookie Stackhouse Series, but upon reevaluation it really fits pretty well in spite of the number of love interests Sookie has by being used over and over. What we’ve seen in class is the first of many love triangles in the series- Sam and Bill. Sam could definitely fit into the boy next door who is seemingly “perfect” (problematic as well but whatever) and Bill is the endearing dangerous character who is later more desirable when Sam is found out to be a shapeshifter (his major flaw). This cycle happens again however with Bill and Eric. Bill is at first seemingly perfect, but it is later revealed that he was looking for Sookie on orders from the Queen/his maker and Eric loses his memory and is basically like a puppy rather than a killer blah blah there’s also Quinn and Alcide and others.

            So why is this appealing? Aside from the fact that it apparently sells, who can really know? In my opinion, it may be because to many people, the idea of being overall fairly normal yet having some special thing inherent to you that makes you desired by multiple people is not exactly an unwanted thing. While certainly being desired is not the ultimate thing to strive for, the idea of being viewed by someone as perfect and special and important is realistically something many people want to feel. And if you have two people who feel that way than you must be particularly great (or in Sookie’s case the most precious thing this world has ever seen). So overall, it is probably a reflection of the desire within ourselves to be wanted and feel special just because of who we are inside.

Sookie Stackhouse: Best at Being the Worst

                What makes a good character? Some would say that they would need to be believable; others would say that their words and actions should be justified. Whatever your definition of a “good character” is, I think we can all agree that a show needs good, solid characters, especially main characters. So then, where does Miss Sookie Stackhouse fall on the list? I think you already know.

                I hate Sookie. Like honestly, she is a terrible character, and normally this wouldn’t be awful, except for the fact that she is one of the mains. But why do I hate her you might ask. Good question. I hate her, first of all, because the story makes her almost completely unlikeable. Now, to be fair, the book did a better job at making the reader kind of sympathize with her, for example, when it talks about her telepathy and the emotional and psychological problems that arise because of it.  But in the show, however, they chose to ignore anything that might make the viewer sympathize with her in favor of Jason sex scenes,

                So why is she so unlikeable? The problem stems from her decision-making skills and her sour attitude. Throughout the book and the show alike, we see Sookie make dumb and irresponsible decisions, against the wise words of her friends, and then get pissed off at them for expressing concern. “Don’t try to start a relationship with a vampire.” Probably a good piece of advice that Sookie just blatantly ignores and berates her friends for suggesting. And by the time she starts complaining about the downsides of dating a vampire, I can’t even pretend to care because, yeah, that’s what your friends were telling you!

And then there’s her attitude. Oh man, her attitude. On top of ignoring her friends and being irresponsible, I’ve already mentioned that she constantly tries to interject with her own idiotic opinions that really have no basis and just flat out abuses her friends for trying to help her.  An example of Sookie’s poor attitude in the show comes from a scene between her BEST FRIEND Tara and her. Tara bursts into the room, excited and happy that her mom is finally being the mother that she always wanted, basically pouring her heart out the Sookie, and Sookie snaps back and basically says “stop being happy, my grandmother is dead, talk about me instead of you.” Like jeez, just be happy for your friend for once, it doesn’t have to be all about you MISS STACKHOUSE.

It’s just…I can’t empathize with her at all. She’s reckless and irresponsible, she’s rude to her friends and expects everyone to care all about her, and she thinks she’s justified in all her actions. But she’s not.  And I hate her. #worstcharacter2012

Adele Hale Stackhouse x Bill Compton fanfic

“And now, if you’ll excuse Adele and me, maybe we’ll take a walk and see what else I remember from the War. It’s a lovely night” Bill reached over and took Adele’s hand. The backs of her hands had been tendered with age, mottled with spots and lines. The clumpy veins and heavy wrinkles texturing her hands spanned out as if to map her long life. As they stepped onto the porch, a couple of strands of her thick white hair were picked up by the wind, obscuring her face like a light snow flurry. Bill had to see her eyes so he brushed the strands off her face and hooked them behind her ear. His touch brought a roseate tint to her cheeks.

“I’m sorry I normally have my hair braided” she said bashfully. There was something about her soft southern accent that soothed Bill. Perhaps it was that she sounded so much like the long dead family and friends he yearned to hear again.

His hand had drifted from behind her ear to settle on the curve of her neck. He could feel her heart thundering. His thumb stroked the turkey neck hanging from her chin.

“Oh Adele” Bill breathed as he rested his forehead on hers.

Bill did not know how to make her fathom how she made him feel. His old age had made him weary. He didn’t have the same desires as he had had long ago as a young man. He didn’t want some young dollop anymore. He had already had a wife and children; he already had his romp in the hay. He just wanted a companion, someone to share and commiserate with. Bill wanted a real woman. A real woman like Adele. He had nothing in common with the millennials all around him. His old confederate soul had wandered all across the United States until he finally found a home here in Bon Temps, here in Adele.

“Bill-Bill stop. Bill look at me” She gently yet firmly grabbed his face and made him look at her. Her hands shook, whether with age or nerves or a combination of both he couldn’t tell.

“Bill I’m old. I’m not like Sookie or Jason.” Her voice wavered and dropped down into an unsteady whisper. “I can’t keep up with a strong man like you and we both know I won’t be here on this earth for nearly as long.”

Bill couldn’t wait any longer. There was only one way he could make her feel the depth of his emotions. He swooped in and pressed his lips against hers. For a couple of seconds that felt like an eternity they just stood there. Lips gently pressed together. Adele seemed to shake off any reservations and opened her mouth to breath in shakily against his lips. As soon as her lips opened his tongue entered and they were locked in an erotic tangle of tongues and dripping saliva. Bill was overwhelmed by desire and pressed her hard against the side of the house. It wasn’t until his hands had slipped up her night gown that Adele turned her head to regain the breath she had lost. As his fangs grazed down her neck, Bill felt her reach up towards her face. She looked him in the eyes, her pupils dilated, she breathed heavily as she slowly pulled out the dentures from her mouth. They fell to the ground with a heavy plop and wet saliva spattered onto his dress shoes.

“Now there is nothing holding me back” Adele said with a coy lisp.

Bill leaned in a licked up the trail of drool that had run down her neck. It was better than any blood he had ever tasted.

“and you thought you wouldn’t be able to keep up” Bill said with a smirk.

The Vampire Cheerleaders that will Haunt All Our Nightmares

Although most cite Bram Stoker’s Dracula as the advent of the vampire, with some true vampire hipsters even going as far back as Vlad the Impaler and his bloodthirsty ways as inspiration, but if one truly cranks back, one can see that there is a variety of vampire (and one that is exceedingly relevant to our studies) in the ancient Greek mythos.

One of the more chaste depictions of the creature I have found

The entity in question is known as the empousa (plural empousai) and is a demigoddess/monster (depending on which definition you are using). Empusa, as she was also known, was the child of Hecate, goddess of magic, the night, and crossroads, and Mormo, an entity known for biting children that misbehaved. Now, Empusa was known for one thing: seducing young men and then in their sleep draining them of blood and devouring their flesh. She also had a very particular fashion sense. Empusa was known for wearing bronze slippers and having flaming hair. Now due to the etymology of her name (being derived from one-legged) empousai are typically depicted as monstrous beings with one donkey leg, one bronze prosthesis and hair made out of fire.

              

One fan's interpretation of Kelli the senior empousa (credit to tumblr user chiefbender)

  Now to bring this back to a more modern time, in the Percy Jackson book series, the empousai are referenced as being one of the great ills that sprang forth from Pandora’s pithos. And the elder empousai (read as: the only empousai with plot significant deaths) tend to only die by either the hands of a female or by the hands of a titan and not to mention the first time the male hero encountered them he was spellbound by their charms (and did I mention they were trying to kiss him?) while his female companion was rather, erm, not (read as: she threw an entire percussion section at their heads).

                Now although this might seem like an odd and off the wall sort of collection of facts to bring up, as we noticed in dead until dark in a few instances Charlaine Harris seems to relish in making certain that we know that vampires are not human (read as: a certain graveyard scene where Sookie says he had never seemed more vampire than he did at that point) and in Dracula the actual canon for vampires where literally the vampiresses are pretty much the empousai described above, sans the mismatched legs and the phoenix/ jean grey hair (I’m so sorry I had to get one X-men joke in there). Not to mention the fact that at times the vampires are literally not human so there’s that too.

The Overprotective/Possessive Vampire

The vampires that we’ve been reading about, quite frankly, remind me a little bit of my dad. He’s insanely overprotective of me and “joked” relentlessly for years that I would never be allowed to date until I was 30—thankfully, that rule has been dismissed, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t constantly want to know where I am and whether or not I’m okay. Since entering college, he’s let up a bit, but I don’t even want to think about horror stories from high school when he made sure I was home by insanely early times.

Of course, my dad and I don’t have the same relationships as the vampires and humans do in these books, but the relationships are still overbearing on one end of the relationship. For example, Jonathan Harker, dazzled by the three sexy vampiresses, almost allows them to feed on him until Dracula saves the day by coming in and declaring “‘This man belongs to me!’” (Stoker 43). Dracula lays a claim on Jonathan, as if Dracula actually possesses him—a bit rude, considering he didn’t ask Jonathan first.

Carmilla, meanwhile, freaks out Laura during one of her emotional, lesbian fits when she tells our traditional, Victorian narrator, “‘You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one forever’” (Le Fanu 18). Carmilla, while draining the rest of her victims and causing their deaths within days, draws out her feeding on Laura because of her personal and romantic feelings. She wants Laura to be her own human forever, but Laura simply isn’t having it.

Bill Compton seems even more possessive of Sookie than the previous vampires were of their favorite humans, if that’s possible. His first instance of claiming rights on her came during the first scene with Malcolm, Liam, and Diane. They’re about to sink their fangs into her when he suddenly says, “‘Sookie is mine’” (Harris 71). When Sookie questions him about this later, the only human we see to challenge their overprotective vampire, he says bluntly, “‘It means you are my human’” (102). When they talk to Eric in Fangtasia, Bill repeats his ownership of her yet another time—talk about a possessive relationship.

In the television series True Blood, we see another instance of ownership, though this one is between a vampire and vampire-to-be. After the Civil War has ended, Bill wakes up drained of most of his blood, with Lorena, his maker, telling him that the only way to return to his family is to drink from her blood. At first he’s apprehensive, but he also really wants to see his family, so he gives in. Lorena immediately begins talking about how they’re going to be together forever, and she says while he drinks her blood, “You . . . are mine!”

This final scene shows the full extent of why vampires are so possessive over certain humans—once they find one they really like, they decide they want to be with that human forever. Perhaps all the other vampires we’ve seen intended to change their humans to vampires at some point down the line and monopolize their love, especially so no one else could have them.