#byg

I feel like Matriarch can be either first, or dead last. Matriarchy is where women, moms in some contexts, hold "control" of leadership or situations. Chapter 3 has Matron as the main antagonist, so it could be her need to control Nocturna, with her disapproval for her running the tv shows. She doesn't think she's fit to take care of human children, since she's a monster. Matron uses her weaknesses against her, taking advantage of how she feels about herself.

Nocturning would be second. It's slow, mellow, sweet sounding... Its literally a lullaby in a way. Her trying to calm herself, her trying to cope with what she feels is inadequate about herself. She struggles with self worth, and doesn't truly know how to be herself. She doesn't know what it's like to be "human", she isolates and feels like she's lower than everyone around her, simply because she's a vampire.

Glass Cages is third. She feels like she's constantly walking on broken glass, on thorns. It's sudden, upbeat, almost... Cathartic. But she's pushing through, trying to break out of the cage she's in, without hurting herself or the people around her. She's trying to protect herself from causing too much damage and ruining her self-image.

Hallow Queen would be fourth. It's her realizing she's worth more than people think she is, that she is strong, independent, although she's still... Hesitant in a way. It's a spooky "Halloween" song, because y'know. She's a vampire. Maybe it's because she feels like she still sticks out from the rest, but wants to fit in. Like a kid wearing a costume in a room full of adults in suits and ties. She's a vampire, a monster, and Matron actually uses that against her. She has "human" emotions and feelings, and cares for the little humans of this foreign world, even though she doesn't know how to be a kid, and hasn't in a very, very long time.

Progenitor is her "relaxation" song before Matriarch, if it's last. It's her feeling Completely Confident in her abilities and taking the proper steps to take care of her mental health and personal comfort. It's her feeling confident in who she is, knowing she is worth what she says shes worth. It's still a challenge sometimes, but... She pushes through. Because she's worth it.

But if Matriarch is last, it feels like Nocturna is finally taking control, of herself and her Life. One of the main things she cares about, plus friends. Nocturna is entirely, wholly independent, and she wants to Stay that Way, and won't let anything stop her from being Herself and protecting who she cares about, all while being in "charge". Y'know?

Below is a discord screenshot of a chapter 3 analysis my oomf wrote. This kinda helped me solidify the fact that, while Nocturna believes she's flawed and feels like she's not worth anything, she's strong. She's independent, confident, she's a leader and can do whatever she wants if she puts her mind to it. She's powerful, and while she's still insecure deep down, she pushes through to protect herself and the people around her.

We have a tag with a bit of Bury Your Gays stuff here, but honestly, this is a question we get a lot, and--

The problem with killing your characters isn't killing them, per se. It's refrigerating them.

An unfortunately nonzero percentage of stories with gay characters tend to follow a specific trend:

Gay character is introduced.

Protagonists reap the benefits of gay character. (Media creator reaps the benefits of gay character.)

Gay character no longer serves their aesthetic purpose.

Gay character is killed off.

Death of gay character traumatizes main character and pushes them toward an action.

Gay people are more than just plot devices to be introduced and later discarded when no longer useful, and the fact that is happens most often in the form of killing them also just...isn't great. We already face a disproportionate amount of harm in reality--why would any LGBT person who's reading a new character they relate to want to see that person suddenly murdered for seemingly no reason?

This trope is extremely similar to the "Women in Refrigerators" trope, coined by Gail Simone in 1999, a comics author who realized that a lot of the female characters in comics tended to end up dead.

...Violently. Raped, murdered, cut into pieces, sliced and diced and shoved into a refrigerator, these women served as mere plot devices to motivate a (male) protagonist.

Bury Your Gays is very, very similar, in that it treats gay people just as disposably. Worse, it often happens just after the character in question has had their first kiss/come out/other important moments in exploring their own identity, which undermines that development and, frankly, just doesn't fucking feel good to any gay reader.

But none of this is to say that you shouldn't kill your characters, even if they're gay. I've killed off a lot of queer characters in my time. The difference is that those deaths were actually well-written, significant and properly explored, part of the story in a way that a lot of "disposable" gay characters weren't.

My protagonists felt long-term, agonizing grief at losing their friend/girlfriend/etc. It affected the way they thought and acted about relationships for the rest of their lives. More, the death of that character was natural, part of the story in a way that felt reasonable and realistic. It wasn't unnecessary violence for the sake of shock value, or disposing of a no-longer-useful character; these were people who lived lives for as long as they could and affected the world around them.

All of this is basically to say: Kill any character you want. But think about why you're doing it. What narrative purpose does it serve? If they left another way, would it achieve the same effect? Is it a real, true tragedy, or just death for the sake of drama?

T: Daniel Ricciardo has a history with the team as well and you worked with him 10 years ago when it was Toro Rosso. How has he changed in the time he has been away?

M: You walk in the team, you see Daniel and you see the race winning guy. You see in the car the guy who has been hunting for races and podiums. The Daniel you see in the car is the Daniel who was fighting for the very top position. For whatever reasons, I'm lucky to have in our team right now a race winning guy. The Daniel we have now is the best Daniel we have seen. Of course, he has had a rough patch in the last few years, but ironically, it's probably putting him now in the best mindset, in the best spirit, in the best energy. He has this incredible technical sensitivities. He's buying into the project, he's living Visa CashApp RB with us, he's proud of the colours. He's pushing us with all the positivity we know about him. In the start of a project like that, having a guy like Daniel with us driiving the car is a game-changer.

T: Have you talked to him about the rough patch?

𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚕 𝚝𝚘 𝙼𝙿𝙸𝙽𝙳 ☁︎ 𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚘𝚛𝚜 𝚍𝚘 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝 𝙴𝚂𝙿𝙴𝙲𝙸𝙰𝙻𝙻𝚈 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚊𝚜 𝚒𝚝 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚜, 𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚒𝚏𝚒𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚐𝚎𝚛 𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚘𝚗 𝚖𝚢 𝚖𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝

☁︎ 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒏𝒆 ☁︎ 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒘𝒐 ☁︎ 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒆 ☁︎ 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒓 ☁︎ 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒊𝒗𝒆 ☁︎ 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒊𝒙 ☁︎ 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 ☁︎ 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 ☁︎ 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒆 ☁︎ 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒆𝒏 ☁︎ 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏