Chann

american indian men are at the 2nd highest risk of death by murder compared to all other ethnic groups. in their lifetimes, 82% of native men report having experienced domestic violence. yet the overwhelming majority of perpetrators are non-natives (88% of native men and 92% of native women who reported violence said their attacker was non-native). what’s more, tribal governments are often stymied in their attempts to bring justice against non-natives, meaning that many of these cases go unresolved.

this was an intersectional attack. the fact that he is indigenous matters, even if the motivation was homophobic, because it made him even more vulnerable and disposable in the eyes of his killer.

saw this book in B&N yesterday and just ordered it from the local lesbian bookstore, its by a fourth generation user of Hand Talk. i had never once heard of or thought about it before (yet another erasure from colonization and occupation) that of course before there was asl, the first nations people across turtle island would come up with some sort of signing system. it was (and still is, though like many native languages is now endangered) utilized for cross tribal communication, storytelling, and use by the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. this specific variation is often known as PISL/Plains Indian Sign Language but author Mike Pahsetopah chooses to realign with the original terminology and stresses it was never intended to be translated to English and adds a lot of cultural context.

and it's only one example, this map below shows how many varieties of hand talk / sign languages were being used across pre-colonization turtle island. (stolen from the PISL wiki page)

1. The map shared is not a map of “pre-colonization sign languages.” Some of these were used before colonization but some are definitely more recent. The one around New York labeled OSL is Oneida Sign Language, which was created starting around 2016 by Oneida Deaf community members, who have worked to incorporate Plains Hand Talk, ASL, and spoken Oneida language into a culturally-relevant and appropriate sign language for their community. It’s cool af but it’s not precolonial.

So when Mizrak considers Olrox (and by extension, the winged serpent blatantly representing Quetzalcōātl) to be the embodiment of temptation, sinful, evil, anti-Christian, pagan, etc. - you do realize that this is racism? "He considers Olrox inherently evil for what he is." Part of that is literally for Olrox being Indigenous, not just for being a vampire.

Like, this is exactly the reason why conquistadors and Christian missionaries sought to crush Indigenous beliefs and cultural identity. They thought we were infidels and things to be saved via conversion, and there are whole pervasive stereotypes about Indigenous people being 1. evil, violent savages, and 2. seductive and promiscuous.

You see this?

That's not a river. That's the South Canal in Mesa, Arizona (Phoenix metro area).

This is a view of the East and South canals. At least half of all the Phoenix metro canals were originally built by the Hohokam (from roughly 200-1400 CE), and are still in use (restored) today.

Phoenix, Arizona actually has more miles (kilometers) of Canals total than both Venice and Amsterdam. No, really. Phoenix has about 180 miles of canals, many of which are built on ancient canal foundations.

below is an aerial view photo taken in the late 1930's of one branch of Phoenix's canal systems:

Also have the "Montezuma Castle," if you need a castle:

You all will do anything to not give us our land back huh

Both characters are powerful vampires who lost the people they loved most and sought retribution for it, but while Dracula tried to destroy the world around him, Olrox (who has already had his world destroyed) stops at going after "the one responsible".

"There are no innocents! Not anymore! Any one of them could have stood up and said: No, we won't behave like animals anymore." - Dracula, S1E1, "Witchbottle"

"Your mama took someone from me I loved, just as much as you loved her. So, she had to die. Oh, I could kill you too. And I will one day. But not tonight." - Olrox, Nocturne S1E1, "A Common Enemy In Evil"

I think about the way the people of Boston were celebrating independence that night and how that compares to the way the Archbishop in Targoviste thought it was a good idea to celebrate the anniversary of Lisa's execution/Dracula's warning—how in both cases Dracula and Olrox are confronted with displays that seem to dismiss or even make a mockery their grief and trauma.

But I also think about the way Julia seemed to be expecting Olrox, versus the way the people of Targoviste seemed to be surprised that Dracula would make his good on his threat and to have believed that they had "defeated evil" that day.

"One year. I gave you one year to make your peace with your God. And what do you do? Celebrate the day you killed my wife. One year I gave you, while I assembled my armies. And now I bring your death. You had your chance." - Dracula, S1E1, 'Witchbottle"

It makes me wonder if Olrox had issued a similar threat to Julia. The man he loved supported the revolutionary cause, and it makes me wonder if Olrox clung to that little morsel of "he almost made me believe in it, too" and was waiting to see how things played out. If American Independence would deliver the promise his lover believed it would. Just as Dracula gave the people of Targoviste one year to recognize the errors of their ways and do better— because Lisa so much believed that people were capable of as much.

It makes me think about the contrast of the Targoviste celebration plainly condemning Dracula and dark magick and evil—the cruelty of Lisa's burning having been the point—versus the way the celebration in Boston erases and ignores the cruel, rotten foundations of colonization by sweeping it under the rug of the ideals of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

"He burned with such passion. About the world, about how the people, "the people", that's how he talked, could win this thing called freedom. Even people like him. People whose land had been stolen, I mean. Like mine was, oh, so long ago. But he fought with them, the revolutionaries. He fought with them. He almost made me believe in it too." - Olrox, Nocturne S1E6, "Guilty Men To be Judged"

And it makes me also think about the contrast of Dracula, whose grief drives him to depression, withdrawal, and suicidal tendencies—versus Olrox, who continues to seek out connection and be driven towards survival at all costs. Despite the grief and trauma of not just losing the man he loved, but witnessing millions of people like him suffer the loss of their entire worlds and ways of life to colonization the same way he did.

I think about Dracula as the classic vampire trope of this unnatural, immortal thing who has overstayed his time in this world, finally accepting the fate of all living things to die in the end—but I think about Olrox as an inversion of this trope: this wonderfully human, passionate thing who is brimming with a will to live despite existing in a world that wants him dead, that wants to bury all evidence that he was ever there at all.

"My boy... I'm- I'm killing my boy. Lisa, I'm killing my boy. We painted this room. We... made these toys. It's our boy, Lisa. Your greatest gift to me... and I'm killing him. I must already be dead..." - Dracula, S2E7, "For Love"

"You're not just a beast consumed by lust for blood. You have a mind which can think and a heart which can love." - Olrox, Nocturne S2E1, "A Living Legend"

I think about how Dracula struggled to live as a man in a society he saw as savagely cruel, versus Olrox who is undeniably 'human' in a society that refuses to see him (and more broadly, anyone like him) as anything but savage (a 'dragon ', a snake, an 'animal who lost its soul').

I think about how despite everything, Olrox is resilient. Olrox endures.

Obviously we don't know the specific circumstances of why Olrox turned his lover, why Julia killed him, etc., and obviously her death was highly traumatic for Richter to witness as a nine year old boy. But if Olrox's arc in a potential S3-4 is to die, then the writer's room is gonna catch these hands. He does not need a redemption arc—certainly not one that effectively echoes, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian". He needs justice.