What’s giving me so much hope for Guillermo’s arc in WWDITS this season is the many little (and not so little) hints that Guillermo is fucking WEIRD. Like a weird goth kid who was comfortable watching movies with a corpse, possibly before he even became a familiar, who saw Grima Wormtongue in LotR and thought “What an ICON” and dreamed of becoming the power behind the throne, who genuinely wants to get ravished by vampires and eventually become one to the point where he’s entirely comfortable disposing of bodies even when it’s not expected of him, and who is entirely more at home in the supernatural community than he is with normal people even if he grumbles about it sometimes. The guy has put up with so much shit that no normal human would do and rather than going with “uwu poor little guy, this place is toxic for him and he should leave” the show went with “Uh, yeah, he is NOT normal??” Guillermo knows exactly what he’s doing even if what he’s doing sucks most of the time but by god our homeboy has his eyes on the prize and I honestly think that’s very sexy of him
Nandor the slim thicc legend, and Guillermo hot-as-breakfast de la Cruz giving me everything in ep2, as well as some Guillermos in the aftermath of his chat with Meg
I didn’t go into WWDITS believing that Nandermo was a thing. In fact, I didn’t start shipping it until the show did. And the show definitely took a turn and began seriously exploring the parameters of that relationship.
So, I want to talk about Gail.
After Nandor learns that Guillermo is a vampire slayer, his world is more or less turned upside down. That information rearranged their power dynamic, and made him question reality, so he turns all his attention to replacing that relationship.
Gail, sadly, is one of his more enduring connections. She drops in and out of his life for a bit of fun, stringing him along with the distant promise of commitment.
However, as a plot devise, she is fascinating. She reflects Nandor’s and Guillermo’s conflict of wanting to become a vampire vs. stringing that desire along, except now it’s Nandor experiencing that struggle. She also creates an opportunity for Nandor to explore his feelings about falling for the enemy. Gail is a werewolf, a mortal enemy to vampires in much the same way a vampire slayer might be. Why explore so many parallels?
But as I said before, the parallels also reveal the differences. Gail does not actually care about Nandor, whereas Guillermo does. She isn’t loyal, Guillermo is.
It’s also interesting how they explore the creation of conflicting identities in Gail, making her in the end, both werewolf and vampire, which seems to reflect Guillermo’s own duality of vampire slayer and (hopefully. one day) vampire.
Again. Why explore so many parallels in this relationship?
People think the will-they-won’t-they of What We Do In The Shadows is Nandermo. Nah, kidlets, this ain’t Rachel and Ross, the will-they-won’t-they is “Will they vampirize Guillermo or won’t they?” The tension is “Why haven’t they already? Will they ever? What’s it going to take?” Nandermo getting together appeals mostly to the shippers, but the resolution of whether Guillermo will ever get to achieve his dream of being a sexy undead superhuman is more universal to the whole audience of the show: it’s his Red Rider BB Gun, his Golden Ticket, the thing he pines for and has for so long. We’ve been linking he and Nandor acknowledging their makey-outy feelings for each other with Nandor automatically agreeing to vampirize him–that’s the condition, and it’s a given, right?–but the fans are now at thirst’s door with the Horny For This Ship-itis, and if the writers want to extend the tension of the overall show for longer, they’ve got a good shot at doing so by separating the two. So I’m all for makeouts, but don’t forget that the two plot resolutions going together ain’t a given, kids!
I kind of have a different interpretation, so let me know if this sounds crazy.
We meet Guillermo as a kind of passed-over moon-eyed familiar who believed he would be turned very soon. When he isn’t, he becomes disillusioned with his master, and we saw some of that hero warship fall away to an affection that was a lot more real.
Sort of like, “you are an ass, but I care about you and feel responsible for your safety/happiness” - and that is what we really see develop. It’s not expressly romantic at this point, but there is love there.
When Guillermo learned that he was a Van Helsing, that suddenly conflicted with his desire to become a vampire, and it is my belief that his Van Helsing lineage is what truly starts to define his relationship with Nandor. Why? Because up till that point, Guillermo wanted to become a vampire to finally feel powerful, and Nandor was his ticket. However, as he explores his lineage, he discovers he is already powerful. In fact, he is so powerful he conceals, for instance, his immunity to hypnotism, so the vampires would feel safe and “not weak”.
So, now Guillermo is powerful on his own, he becomes confident on his own, and suddenly becoming a vampire is a huge conflict of interest. His relationship with Nandor is a huge conflict of interest. What is he doing there? Why would a vampire-slayer consider himself the bodyguard (and heartguard) to a vampire? What makes him stay? Why would Nandor, a vampire, wish to have a murderer of his own kind live with him and take care of him? Why does he fight for Guillermo?
So Guillermo has these conflicting identities and desires making the will-they-won’t-they aspect of his becoming a vampire less to do about Nandor finally turning him and more to do with his decision to be turned.
And should Guillermo decide to become a vampire, it would no longer be about becoming powerful, but perhaps it would be about joining Nandor in eternity. The will-they-won’t-they is more about Nandor and Guillermo accepting that their relationship is personal, that they mean something. Whatever that looks like
it’s such a shame guillermo has it so bad for nandor cuz he would absolutely wreck shit at a gay club based on what he’s wearing in that teaser trailer. does he know how many men would be throwing themselves at him if he showed up in himself like that. he’s literally such a catch. babyboy you are wasting your time on nandor if he doesn’t immediately drop to his knees for that embroidered waistcoat and sparkly sneakers combo :/
wwdits fans are like omg did you see how they paralleled nadja x laszlo and nandermo with the dancing next to each other and twerking that must mean something and actually tbh we’re usually right. happy wwdits season !
they don’t know shadowsfx was liking ofmd renewal tweets today and then hours later someone leaked that wwdits s5 is happening so basically the wwdits official account didn’t post because hbo beat them to it
nandor meeting freddie and then next ep is the wedding but last min he calls it off because it doesn’t feel right and why isn’t he happy??? and then the next ep is called memories and what does he have to remember??? how happy guillermo makes him. guillermo is the only thing that makes him happy
if s4 doesn’t have heavy nadja/guillermo friendship and him helping her open the nightclub then i Will Cancel season 4 myself. thats literally the only thing that matters
