WWDITS writers: We're going to intentionally make our finale disappointing and unsatisfying! That's the point!
Fans: Wow, that finale was unsatisfying and I'm disappointed with it.
WWDITS writers:
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@heartguardians
WWDITS writers: We're going to intentionally make our finale disappointing and unsatisfying! That's the point!
Fans: Wow, that finale was unsatisfying and I'm disappointed with it.
WWDITS writers:

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So I've seen some really weird takes about the What We Do in the Shadows finale complaining about how they didn't wrap up all the stories or characters not having completed arcs…
…and I'm like, did you not watch the episode?
That's literally THE WHOLE POINT.
Like the entire thesis of the show is that these characters don't change. And the finale is a commentary on both that AND how when documentaries end… the people in them keep living their lives.
Like most mockumentaries ignore the fact that in real life "storylines" don't get wrapped up. It's not even subtext -- it's TEXT. Guillermo literally talks about it in the episode.
I'm pulling my hair out with these people. Media literacy is truly dead.
They spent the last 5 seasons having these characters grow and change. Pilot Nandor wouldn't have been so tender and kind with Guillermo turning back into a human. Pilot Laszlo wouldn't have been nice to Colin for a year before his death and then raised him from a baby. Pilot Nadja wouldn't have tried to understand and encourage Guillermo to express his feelings. Pilot Colin wouldn't have tried to protect and nurture his and Laszlo's Creature. These are a mere handful of examples.
If their thesis was that they don't change, then they have failed every step of the way.
You can't develop characters for five years and then claim your point was the opposite.
Five years is nothing for these characters in the contexts of their lives.
I don't see Lazlo's relationship with Colin as indicative of growth. Part of it was how Guillermo's short term experience with them only gave the illusion of growth among Nandja, Lazlo and Colin. Colin's reversion at the end of his "kid" storyline was literally foreshadowing for this.
They've been telling us this is coming for quite a while. The groundwork was there already.
The only vampire character who had any growth was Nandor, and the instigator of that change was Guillermo. Which is why we end the series with the two of them.
I really don't know what to tell you if you can rewatch the pilot and then, say, season 5, and tell me that these characters haven't changed. They all have, not just Nandor. All of them actually tried to encourage Guillermo to express his feelings in the finale; in the first season, they frequently ignored him and told him to shut up whenever he tried. And again, these are just a handful of examples.
Also, even if they hadn't developed these characters over the entire previous seasons of the show, there's also the fact that "it's unsatisfying and reductive on purpose, actually" isn't a flex. It's bad writing. The journey of getting characters from point A to point B is the craft of writing. So even if they had managed to pull off their alleged thesis, it would still be bad! Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean that you SHOULD. It's just not how storytelling works.
You saw them get close to Guillermo. Their attitude towards humans didn't change. Nadja cares about Guillermo the way a person cares for a pet dog. Her starting to view Guillermo as special is not a fundamental change of character.
That's the point.
The finale was not a reversion, it was a perspective shift. It was Storytelling parallax. Subversion of narrative expectation is not a bad thing. It wasn't reductive. Arguably it's more complex. And Guillermo, arguably the protagonist of the show, did have an arc throughout the series.
The episode was it's completion, where he had to learn that while he had changed and grown over the six years of the show, the people who were his closest friends weren't capable of it -- and he chose to accept them for who they were.
Subverting your expectations does not make it bad writing. You not personally enjoying it doesn't make it bad writing. It not being the story you wanted it to be is not bad writing.
I don't care about my personal expectations, I care about the rules of storytelling. An art I have studied my entire adult life and care deeply about. An ending can be not too someone's personal taste but still be cathartic and/or satisfying in other ways. This was not.
You can not purposefully make your finale intentionally unsatisfying, claim that was your entire point all along, and then act shocked when people are unsatisfied with it. It is an absurdity.
If you enjoyed it, then that is up to you and your taste levels. I will not try to convince you otherwise. But I will not be told I "lack media literacy" because I disagree. I know the rules of storytelling. You are not morally superior for being more willing than I to tolerate the violation of them.
"I care about the rules of storytelling."
You care about a story fitting into the rigid structure that you personally prefer.
But I've seen what you've reblogged. It's clear that there are a lot of things you didn't understand.
I really hate to be the one to break this to you, but storytelling, particularly screenwriting, is almost entirely about structure. Like, there's a formula to it.
So I've seen some really weird takes about the What We Do in the Shadows finale complaining about how they didn't wrap up all the stories or characters not having completed arcs…
…and I'm like, did you not watch the episode?
That's literally THE WHOLE POINT.
Like the entire thesis of the show is that these characters don't change. And the finale is a commentary on both that AND how when documentaries end… the people in them keep living their lives.
Like most mockumentaries ignore the fact that in real life "storylines" don't get wrapped up. It's not even subtext -- it's TEXT. Guillermo literally talks about it in the episode.
I'm pulling my hair out with these people. Media literacy is truly dead.
They spent the last 5 seasons having these characters grow and change. Pilot Nandor wouldn't have been so tender and kind with Guillermo turning back into a human. Pilot Laszlo wouldn't have been nice to Colin for a year before his death and then raised him from a baby. Pilot Nadja wouldn't have tried to understand and encourage Guillermo to express his feelings. Pilot Colin wouldn't have tried to protect and nurture his and Laszlo's Creature. These are a mere handful of examples.
If their thesis was that they don't change, then they have failed every step of the way.
You can't develop characters for five years and then claim your point was the opposite.
Five years is nothing for these characters in the contexts of their lives.
I don't see Lazlo's relationship with Colin as indicative of growth. Part of it was how Guillermo's short term experience with them only gave the illusion of growth among Nandja, Lazlo and Colin. Colin's reversion at the end of his "kid" storyline was literally foreshadowing for this.
They've been telling us this is coming for quite a while. The groundwork was there already.
The only vampire character who had any growth was Nandor, and the instigator of that change was Guillermo. Which is why we end the series with the two of them.
I really don't know what to tell you if you can rewatch the pilot and then, say, season 5, and tell me that these characters haven't changed. They all have, not just Nandor. All of them actually tried to encourage Guillermo to express his feelings in the finale; in the first season, they frequently ignored him and told him to shut up whenever he tried. And again, these are just a handful of examples.
Also, even if they hadn't developed these characters over the entire previous seasons of the show, there's also the fact that "it's unsatisfying and reductive on purpose, actually" isn't a flex. It's bad writing. The journey of getting characters from point A to point B is the craft of writing. So even if they had managed to pull off their alleged thesis, it would still be bad! Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean that you SHOULD. It's just not how storytelling works.
You saw them get close to Guillermo. Their attitude towards humans didn't change. Nadja cares about Guillermo the way a person cares for a pet dog. Her starting to view Guillermo as special is not a fundamental change of character.
That's the point.
The finale was not a reversion, it was a perspective shift. It was Storytelling parallax. Subversion of narrative expectation is not a bad thing. It wasn't reductive. Arguably it's more complex. And Guillermo, arguably the protagonist of the show, did have an arc throughout the series.
The episode was it's completion, where he had to learn that while he had changed and grown over the six years of the show, the people who were his closest friends weren't capable of it -- and he chose to accept them for who they were.
Subverting your expectations does not make it bad writing. You not personally enjoying it doesn't make it bad writing. It not being the story you wanted it to be is not bad writing.
I don't care about my personal expectations, I care about the rules of storytelling. An art I have studied my entire adult life and care deeply about. An ending can be not too someone's personal taste but still be cathartic and/or satisfying in other ways. This was not.
You can not purposefully make your finale intentionally unsatisfying, claim that was your entire point all along, and then act shocked when people are unsatisfied with it. It is an absurdity.
If you enjoyed it, then that is up to you and your taste levels. I will not try to convince you otherwise. But I will not be told I "lack media literacy" because I disagree. I know the rules of storytelling. You are not morally superior for being more willing than I to tolerate the violation of them.
the "it was all a dream" scene was not representation, it was not vindication for nandermo shippers, it was the creators POINTING AND LAUGHING AT US. it was "ha ha silly gays, is this what you want?? are you happy now you got your stupid unrealistic gay porn ship?? hahaha theyre in bed together isnt that so FUNNY! here's a laugh track!! this is all you're ever going to get!! we will always see queer relationships as a punchline!!" like yeah ok we got to see a meagre cheek kiss but at what cost? that was straight up homophobic.
So I've seen some really weird takes about the What We Do in the Shadows finale complaining about how they didn't wrap up all the stories or characters not having completed arcs…
…and I'm like, did you not watch the episode?
That's literally THE WHOLE POINT.
Like the entire thesis of the show is that these characters don't change. And the finale is a commentary on both that AND how when documentaries end… the people in them keep living their lives.
Like most mockumentaries ignore the fact that in real life "storylines" don't get wrapped up. It's not even subtext -- it's TEXT. Guillermo literally talks about it in the episode.
I'm pulling my hair out with these people. Media literacy is truly dead.
They spent the last 5 seasons having these characters grow and change. Pilot Nandor wouldn't have been so tender and kind with Guillermo turning back into a human. Pilot Laszlo wouldn't have been nice to Colin for a year before his death and then raised him from a baby. Pilot Nadja wouldn't have tried to understand and encourage Guillermo to express his feelings. Pilot Colin wouldn't have tried to protect and nurture his and Laszlo's Creature. These are a mere handful of examples.
If their thesis was that they don't change, then they have failed every step of the way.
You can't develop characters for five years and then claim your point was the opposite.
Five years is nothing for these characters in the contexts of their lives.
I don't see Lazlo's relationship with Colin as indicative of growth. Part of it was how Guillermo's short term experience with them only gave the illusion of growth among Nandja, Lazlo and Colin. Colin's reversion at the end of his "kid" storyline was literally foreshadowing for this.
They've been telling us this is coming for quite a while. The groundwork was there already.
The only vampire character who had any growth was Nandor, and the instigator of that change was Guillermo. Which is why we end the series with the two of them.
I really don't know what to tell you if you can rewatch the pilot and then, say, season 5, and tell me that these characters haven't changed. They all have, not just Nandor. All of them actually tried to encourage Guillermo to express his feelings in the finale; in the first season, they frequently ignored him and told him to shut up whenever he tried. And again, these are just a handful of examples.
Also, even if they hadn't developed these characters over the entire previous seasons of the show, there's also the fact that "it's unsatisfying and reductive on purpose, actually" isn't a flex. It's bad writing. The journey of getting characters from point A to point B is the craft of writing. So even if they had managed to pull off their alleged thesis, it would still be bad! Just because you CAN do something doesn't mean that you SHOULD. It's just not how storytelling works.

Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Loved the WWDITS ending! I loved that they decided to make the Guide a racist maga supporter, an AU cop, and get sexually harassed the entire episode after being ignored the entire final season! I loved that they decided to take one of the most loving relationships (Nadja and Lazlo) and just not have them show any affection for each other the final season! I loved how they took so much time to establish Lazlo as a great father only to do a 180 and have him be a borderline abusive prick to his monster! I love that they spent 5 years queerbaiting us only to make fun of the audience by calling us stupid and hallucinate a """perfect ending""" in which it was all a dream (????) and they barely gave each other a cheek kiss. I loved that they ended the show by depicting a monster going through a """normal phase of horniness""" by sexually harassing every female character they have!
I loved the fact that they claimed to be a progressive and queer show despite only having one main female character compared to three males and never showing any true queer representation that didnt last longer than a single episode!
So I've seen some really weird takes about the What We Do in the Shadows finale complaining about how they didn't wrap up all the stories or characters not having completed arcs…
…and I'm like, did you not watch the episode?
That's literally THE WHOLE POINT.
Like the entire thesis of the show is that these characters don't change. And the finale is a commentary on both that AND how when documentaries end… the people in them keep living their lives.
Like most mockumentaries ignore the fact that in real life "storylines" don't get wrapped up. It's not even subtext -- it's TEXT. Guillermo literally talks about it in the episode.
I'm pulling my hair out with these people. Media literacy is truly dead.
They spent the last 5 seasons having these characters grow and change. Pilot Nandor wouldn't have been so tender and kind with Guillermo turning back into a human. Pilot Laszlo wouldn't have been nice to Colin for a year before his death and then raised him from a baby. Pilot Nadja wouldn't have tried to understand and encourage Guillermo to express his feelings. Pilot Colin wouldn't have tried to protect and nurture his and Laszlo's Creature. These are a mere handful of examples.
If their thesis was that they don't change, then they have failed every step of the way.
You can't develop characters for five years and then claim your point was the opposite.
You know what? this:
This is the moment the show ended in my mind, I'm going to rewatch it and turn it off as soon as this magnificent creature appears and pretend that's the end because it's so much better than what ever the hell season 6 was
I would buy the whole "it's supposed to be about how they never change" a lot more readily if they hadn't spent the last 5 seasons demonstrating all the characters changing and evolving over time.
Like look me in the eyes and at a bare minimum tell me that the pilot versions of these characters would've actually tried to help Guillermo and encourage him to dance or give his speech, etc.
Tell me that pilot Laszlo would've been kind to Colin for a year leading up to his death and then raised him from infancy. Tell me that pilot Nandor would've been so gentle with Guillermo during his little ceremony to become human again.
Tell me--actually they never gave a fuck about developing Nadja or The Guide that much but even Nadja has changed over the years, albeit far less than her male counterparts.
They've all changed! What do you mean your thesis is that they never change when you literally had a scene of them rewatching the pilot, reminding us of how far they've come!
on the wwdits ending and queerbaiting:
a lot of yall didn't live through the 90s and 2000s when off camera non-sexual not-shown-only-implied queer relationships in media were all we got. we held onto every last crumb and watched the creators deny any gay intent (because of network censorship etc.) and we just accepted it.
I do NOT want to go back to that. WWDITS brought us back to that.
the creators intentionally hit every textbook romantic beat with nandermo and teased it for years and then turned around and essentially said the fans were sick perverts for wanting them to kiss on screen when they literally showed lazlo giving bodyswapped nadja doll/colin robinson who lazlo was a father figure for backshots but noooo nandermo is too kinky because it's his boss??
don't act like it's out of character because nandor is shown to be forward with his affections towards women and sexual with men, and has spent his whole character arc searching for a wife. guillermo has spent his whole character arc coming back to his love for nandor again and again in new ways.
yes their love is pure and transcendent and whatever but showing them kiss or fuck doesn't sully that!! it deepens and confirms it!! sex is not impure!!
yes nandermo is canon, it's confirmed in the finale in the implications and stolen glances. but that is NOT ENOUGH for me. it's a cop-out.
saying "these two are kissing but only when the cameras are off" does a disservice to gay fans who remember the time when that's all we had.
if you're going to market your media as queer you have to ACTUALLY SHOW THE QUEERNESS ON SCREEN.

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Harvey as a gay man had to film this and sit on the knowledge that they pulled this shit for a year while getting asked about it in every fucking interview. Like, really think about that.
"omg the entire point of it is that they don't change, they used the sitcom format to comment on that, it was so smart" ok but what if I find it dumb and unsatisfying? What if I think it's a weird ass thesis to build a long running series upon? What if I'd rather have it being good than smart? What if making it the show's entire point was a choice any professional writer would have thrown out the window the second it was suggested because it's BORING AND FRUSTATING? WHY WOULD YOU EVEN WANT PEOPLE TO BE BORED AND FRUSTRATED WITH YOUR WORK? DID COLIN ROBINSON GHOSTWRITE THIS
It was queerbait, actually (A repository)
(It's almost three am but I am fuming, I've been collecting these for a while, my evidence, I WILL write a detailed post about this in a few days but I wanted to leave this here in case anyone else wanted to see how fucking deep this goes)
HYPOTESIS: Nandermo is textbook queerbaiting, not in spite the characters being queer but BECAUSE of it. The ship was used deliberately by the writers, the actors and the marketing in order to bring lgbt viewership to the show with NO intention on ever delivering on their promise.
Also the show presented itself as queer, marketed itself as queer and went to win GLAAD awards two years in a row then proceded to have no m/m or f/f couples for SIX seasons. Their queer rep were just jokes.
WHAT'S QUEERBAITING:
(I hate that I have to use wikipedia and dictionary.com but the actual articles about it are behind paywalls and I am poor)
Okay on to WWDITS
Let's talk marketing:
These are from season 3, 4, 5 and 6
Season five:
The show is over, it had six seasons, where were my m/m or f/f couples? Because I sure as hell didn't see one apart from the one episode with Freddie, that's it, that's all we got. Apart from that it was just jokes.
---
But that's not about nandermo, you say, it's just about queerness, then what about this: FUCKING HEAVY HANDED NANDERMO MARKETING FOR YEARS:
OR THIS:
How about what the show's socials were posting, this is from season 3 or 4
Now let's see what the writers were saying (this is before season 5):
The infamous that's his boss moment came from this:
But before that we had:
This is Harvey in 2022:
Here's Harvey today:
And here's Kayvan in 2022
Here's Kayvan last year:
And today:
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS (2019-2024) SEASON 6, EPISODE 11: THE FINALE
They could have kept it civil by just making an ending that was bittersweet while completely ignoring nandermo ever existed, but Paul Simms truly hates us this fucking much and had to go out of his way to mock us. Like, I didn't think I could get even more pissed at this show.

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Also Guide being mavga?! Jesus why not shoot her on camera how rude she was acab a few weeks ago
They have never known what to do with her since they made her a series regular.
It's so weird how WWDITS just ended in the middle of the last season finale, right before Guillermo revealed whether he wanted to stay a vampire or not and then the show got cancelled, forever leaving it up to the viewers' imaginations on what his decision would be. What a cliffhanger!
But I'm glad, you know? Because the Guillermo that I knew and loved for years would NEVER have chosen mortality, at least not permanently. Maybe temporarily, so that he could have a redo on his turning, but with Nandor this time, the way it should've always been. But not permanently. I mean, what would he do? Get a human job and live a boring little mortal life? Not the monster fucker I know and love! This man paved his path to immortality with the dead bodies of the lambs he brought to slaughter and hardly batted an eye! He'd never give it up after all that! What terrible writing that would be!
So wild how that happened, just stopped mid-scene and then never came back, but a way better ending than, say, the writers lacking a fundamental understanding of their characters and asking us to watch another season about giving up on your dreams while they shove two characters who barely interact into each other's romantic orbit for no god damn reason. Sure glad that didn't happen.
Really is wild how this happened. And then there were no more episodes. At all.