fond of ladybugs on the sidewalk

If Darla has a whole storyline of being a mother against her will, Drusilla had a recurring theme of frustrated motherhood, in which she WANTS to play the role of someone like a mother; but she is chronically not able to. She is attracted to creatures that would require nurturing (children, flowers, birds, babies, newborn vampires) but she is not able to take care of them or make them thrive, only to bring them death. ("everything I put in the ground withers and die”). Not only because as a vampire she is not able to give life in the "normal" way, and this impossible desire clearly makes her obsessed about becoming a "mother" in other way (see the birds and the dolls and her referring to herself as Spike's mommy and to Darla as her daughter), but because she spent most of her unlife as a vampire being labelled "mad" and being "taken care" of and she doesn't know very well how to play the other role for long or in a very efficient way. It's a miracle and a surprise in itself when she demonstrate to be able to take care (even well, many times) of herself.

irritating as fuck when people get mad at Black people existing in premodern historical fiction/fantasy media. like first of all, you're racist. and second of all, you are acting as though Black people didn't exist in premodern Europe which is simply false. especially when we're talking about the Mediterranean, like what the fuck do you people think is along the southern half of the Mediterranean Ocean?? everyone's on boats, there are GOING to be interactions with Black people in Northern Africa, and there are GOING to be Black people in Mediterranean Europe. stop being stupid. your imagined homogeneous white European past is not historical reality, get over it you massive losers