#adow meta

I've been thinking about the true 16th-century Matthew when he returns to London after M and D timewalk back to the 21st century. How do Francoise and Pierre react? Is there a difference in their attitude to M? Gallowglass? Philippe? Roydon's human friends from the School of Night? The Queen? Mary? No one slipped? No one mentioned Diana? Or Jack?

I bet the house was scrubbed clean and shone to a polish, but wood is not metal or tiles, you cannot disinfect it the same way with modern chlorine. Did Matthew smell Diana on the furniture? I imagine Francoise got rid of her clothes, but bed linen, too? Anything Diana might have touched? The books?

And then his 'office'. He goes upstairs, and the papers are arranged differently. Being a spy, a double spy to boot, Matthew must notice everything. An occasional ink spot? A different pile of papers, a lost letter he recalled? A reply to a letter he doesn't remember writing?

I can imagine that maybe Matthew noticed many details, small enough to be dismissed, yet coming back repeatedly, enough to bother him. Maybe he got paranoid! :-) He started questioning the domestic workers and his own sanity...

Favorite Season 1 Bishmont Moments [1/?]: Matthew’s Insecurities

You may not like what you see. —A Discovery of Witches 1.05

Diana's Peacock Blue Cardigan of Hasty Vampire Elopement (aka the Cardigan of Emotional Vulnerability)

[Part 1 of ?] This is the piece of knitwear that started it all—both our quippy titles for ADOW’s gorgeous costume pieces, and then our intense, often-giddy analysis of their significance within the story. Of course, it didn’t take us to this point in the story to realize how intentional the design team had been with the color palette for this show. We see saturated blues, crisp whites, and moody tones of gray and black time and again throughout ADOW, especially on our main characters. In fact, the very first glimpse that we get of Diana (even before we know that it is Diana) tells us that, this blue? This gorgeous shade of turquoise? This is Diana’s blue.

Nor did it take us this long to start drooling over all the gorgeous sweaters, shawls, scarves and coats this show sets before us. Diana’s cozy white fisherman’s sweater, her Aegean blue peacoat, her misty-grey turtleneck pullover? All noted; all applauded; all coveted.

(All eventually analyzed, too. Trust us. We’ll get there.)

But THIS sweater, man. This was the costuming choice that left us torn between sighing “that KISS!!!” and “that CARDIGAN!!!”

By this point in 1.05, our intrepid, impatient leads have (separately) spent some time sorting out their feelings. They’ve acknowledged that a romance between two individuals with vastly different lifespans will necessarily end in tragedy; they’ve meditated on the fact that any relationship between them would contravene a centuries-old pact and shatter a fragile peace between creatures....

...and they’ve decided that they’re all in anyway. Amor vincit omnia.

But they’ve got to make their intentions plain to each other first. Tell me, Diana demands, and Matthew obliges: from this moment, we will always be one.

This climactic scene gives us an equally swoony sweater: a super-soft peacock blue duster that floats behind Diana as she runs to the gatehouse to meet Matthew, and that swirls around her in the foreground as they embrace. Simultaneously snuggly and chic; comfortable and romantic - if you owned it, you’d be finding excuses to wear it all the time.

Diana’s got a lot of gorgeous knitwear at her disposal, so she doesn’t reach for it all the time. But she tends to be wearing it at the moments when she’s most emotionally vulnerable: in this first scene, as she goes to greet Matthew, having declared her feelings without fully knowing his heart.

In the scene directly following, in which she and Matthew wait to hear whether their relationship will cause Matthew’s mother to turn them both away.

In this pre-”bundling” conversation later that evening, as Diana learns the extent of her magic and grapples with the fear that her powers will make her a target for violence - as her parents’ power did.

And, then, one very unpleasant and eventful day later, as she sits on the couch at Sept-Tours and starts to process both the trauma from Satu’s attack and the threats from the Congregation that are yet to come.

The lovely thing about the Peacock Blue Cardigan of Hasty Vampire Elopement (and Emotional Vulnerability) is that every time Diana puts it on and prepares to get hurt...the blow never comes. Matthew not only tells her that he loves her; he makes a permanent commitment to her. Rather than kicking her son and his new wife out of her house, Ysabeau (yes, somewhat grimly) acknowledges their relationship and welcomes Diana as a daughter. In response to Diana’s fears about her power, Matthew reassures her that they’ll face whatever comes together - and then matches her emotional vulnerability with his own, as he shows her his scars. And once something terrible does happen, even sooner than either of them could have possibly expected, Matthew meets Diana’s blunt questions in the aftermath with honesty, loyalty, and respect.

I would have to say I would liken Matthew and Diana to Marie and Pierre Curie who happen to be a favorite historical couple of mine.

Marie (Skoldowska) and Pierre Curie. At the age 24 Marie studied physics and mathematics at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1891 where she gained her first degree and by 1894 she gained a second degree. Marie was already deep into her scientific studies and a burgeoning career when she met Pierre Curie, who was eight years older then her. Pierre was an instructor at the School of Physics and Chemistry in Paris. 

They were introduced by a mutual friend, physicist Professor Jozef Wierusz-Kowalski. It was an introduction based on Marie’s need for lab space and Pierre’s having access to it. Later Marie and Pierre fell in love based on a shared love and interest in natural science. Pierre proposed, but Marie was uncertain based on her interest in returning to Poland, her home country, to work in her field. Pierre would have done anything to be with Marie, even move to Poland and teach though he was over qualified for positions there. After a long visit with her family in Poland on summer break in 1894, Pierre sent Marie a letter that convinced her to comeback to Paris and continue her studies in the form of a Ph.D. During that next year in 1895 Pierre had been promoted as a professor, written about his researches into magnetism, and gained his own doctorate. They were married later that same year and were from then on true partners and collaborators in love and science, studying Uranium and then discovering Radium. I won’t go on, you can read more about them elsewhere if you are interested. I love them to.

I would liken Matthew and Diana to Pierre and Marie because,

1) They both have quite a bit of an age gap.

2) Both couples were already well established in their own careers and studies by the time they met, as well as Marie and Diana both being quite young with very impressive credentials. 

3) Neither couple held their spouses back in pursuing any interest they had in life or their own researches and in fact both actively lifted the other and encouraged continuing their education and studies.

4) Both couples fell in love based on their shared interests in science and history. 

5) Both couples were fairly infamous or well known in their respective communities and later well known for their ground breaking discoveries… 

Hamish to Matthew: I know about [your past], and I love you.

I am from the times when there was no Google, let alone AI, you learned from books and book-form printed encyclopedias. I only came here because I wanted to see what people say about BBC Sherlock--was hoping for an old-style "book club" hahaha.

The fun (for me) is in constant analysis. People still read ancient Greeks or Shakespeare, because you can see more and more in it. People will continue to watch and rewatch BBC Sherlock because it is layered and full of metaphors.

Anyway, I really like the intersection of literary theory, theatre, and psychology to read the series.

EDIT: Now also A Discovery of Witches and Dept Q.

***

I really like this metaphor. The four elements of life. They are not only part of Diana’s and other witches’ skillset, but are present in our lives, too. Here’s my take on them.

WITCH WIND is the anger we feel when faced with injustice. Anger is often vilified in our culture, especially in women, but ‘holy wrath’ is a natural reaction when we witness oppression of the vulnerable and the innocent. We need to own this anger so that it doesn’t become destructive, but instead gives us the energy to face our enemies.

WITCH WATER is grief. We need to grieve what we have lost. The people we loved who are no longer with us, because they passed or left. The dreams we had that never materialized, the childhood we didn’t have because of trauma, the life we expected and never got. We need to feel the pain and release it, with compassion for ourselves.

WITCH FIRE is the action we take to protect life. The experiences we endured that made us understand who we are deep down, that shaped us into warriors. Our La Pierre torment that scarred us for life but also freed our magic. It is also our purpose, the inner nudging that would not let us settle until we set out to do what we are meant to do.