#guilermo

Alright, I’ve gotten back into WWDITS fandom in the wake of binging the rest of Season 4 this week, and I’ve been in adjacent fandom orbits like Good Omens and OFMD for practically as long as the shows have been out. While I haven’t been seeking out a ton of fan content directly from WWDITS, I’ve seen plenty tangentially. Often, posts that mention our beloved Silly Vampires in passing make comments like, “Oh, I can’t wait for Nandermo to become canon” or, “I know things are bad between Nandor and Guilermo right now, but I fully anticipate them becoming a couple eventually”. I know that they’re some of the main leads of the show and people are hungry for more queer content, but I’m rather surprised about how universal and positive people are about this ship, and the extent to which people believe that their relationship is a foregone conclusion. Soo, I’m just gonna give my two cents in the form of an essay of a meta post. Whoops, my hand slipped. xD Full disclosure, as I’m writing this the last episode of the season hasn’t dropped yet, so this speculation may be rendered completely irrelevant depending on how the finale plays out next week. However, I hope that it still fuels fandom discussion about critically examining the show, especially through the lens of Guillermo’s character and how he impacts the show as a whole. 

The two elements that I think would fundamentally make their relationship challenging to execute in a satisfying way are the goals of the show and Guillermo’s pseudo-character arc.

I’ll address the former first. As much as fandom, including myself of course, likes to celebrate the similarities between this show and other queer content like OFMD, Good Omens, etc., I think within that it is important to differentiate the focus of WDDITS from those shows for the purposes of this discussion. While OFMD and Good Omens are both tonally comedies, the plot revolved principally around their A couples and their themes. Both shows, with OFMD to a more obvious extent, were willing to sacrifice their usual levity for the sake of furthering themes or character arcs. The humor was a facet of the show, not it’s main purpose. 

WWDITS is different. WDDITIS isn’t just tonally a comedy, being irreverent and absurdist is it’s entire goal. While characters may superficially change, their growth isn’t the purpose of the show, it’s mostly an element designed to keep the premise of each season fresh and to spawn new conflict for characters to bounce off of. The characters are exaggerated and selfish in service of the comedy. Continuity and logic are optional easter eggs. 

Pointing this out is not meant to de-legitimize WWDITIS or suggest that it is vapid or meaningless. Tons of “pure comedy” shows can absolutely have value. Some people prefer a more relaxed, less serial show that’s fun to watch rather as opposed to all shows feeling like they need to have Shakespearean levels of tragedy and drama in order to have meaning. Additionally, a less plot focused show can perform more ridiculous stunts and satire and have more creative freedom. For example, the last season of The Amazing World of Gumball really found its niche in this ridiculous, over the top genre of comedy, but had some surprisingly biting sarcasm and political commentary under the guise of zany humor. 

So, to bring it back around to Guillermo, what does Guillermo need to be to maintain this tone? At the end of the day, Guillermo is absolutely the linchpin of the show, both in universe and on a meta level. He’s the straight man, and the most intelligent member of the group. He keeps the ragtag band of vampires together, mediating their disputes and solving their problems. He protects them from both internal and external threats, and puts up with their absurd demands and mistreatment as the show’s punching bag. It is to the show’s advantage to maintain the status quo and Guillermo’s unique position as someone invested, but often a step removed from, the conflict. It’s funny and an essential component of the show for Guillermo to parent the vampires, constantly giving them advice to be ignored and feelings to thoughtlessly trample for the sake of a joke. 

However, is that what’s right for his relationship to Nandor? Right now, for all that Nandor has made tentative, ham-fisted attempts to befriend Guillermo, there’s a huge power imbalance in their relationship. So long as Guillermo is his familiar, no matter how much progress they make or how much they bond, he won’t be Nandor’s equal, he’ll still be his servant, even if he’s treated better. That transcends comedic and becomes uncomfortable. If they’re meant to become a couple in any reciprocal way, Guillermo needs to become a vampire, and thus symbolically a full member of the household. While I personally may not be a huge Nandermo shipper, if this was the start of personal growth for them, I would accept this outcome as one of the few that could be the backbone for a healthy(ish) relationship between them. 

However, taking this route would fundamentally undermine Guillermo’s pre-established role, and thus it would be difficult to retain the dynamic that makes him so crucial to the comedic elements of the show. Guillermo becoming a vampire would essentially give Guillermo the agency he is currently denied. Right now, he can suggest smart, efficient uses of the vampires’ powers as solutions to their problems, and then subsequently be ignored as a catalyst for further shenanigans. If he were a vampire, he would have the ability to follow through with his own ideas without having to persuade or seek the approval of his supernatural housemates. He would also be able to stand up for himself and pursue his own interests, rather than repeatedly having to answer to the whims or be the victim of the other vampires’ drama of the day. While this creates conflict, it’s a different kind of conflict that the other vampires can already have with each other, and thus Guillermo’s niche as someone the vampires can boss around and mistreat without consequence also vanishes, along with its liberal comedic functions. It also makes him a much less sympathetic figure for the audience, as his underdog and bullied status endears us to an otherwise flawed character. He helps guide and orient the audience by having somewhat relatable and (sometimes) altruistic goals to protect his found family in contrast to the vampires’ non stop egotism. As soon as Guillermo is just one of the vampires, his goal accomplished and no longer pushed around, it makes him less approachable for the audience’s sympathy. 

This has been a lot of discussion about what would be best for the comedy, and what would be best for Nandor, but what would be best for Guillermo himself and his aforementioned germ of a character arc? Guillermo thinks he wants to be a vampire, but would that actually solve his problems or be the proper culmination of his character arc thus far? Each season we have a different “flavor” of Guillermo character arc. Season one he’s a door mat, slowly coming to terms with how little the vampires actually respect him. Season two he wears himself ragged grappling with his vampire hunting legacy and trying to protect the vampires without being found out. Season three is him regaining their trust, wrangling with his crush on Nandor, and then having their falling out. Season four Guillermo is more jaded and resigned to his role, but also stands up for himself more, and desperately tries to balance his familiar duties with a personal life. Again and again, Guillermo tries to balance his co-dependent relationship with these vampires and his desperation for their approval and companionship with his own needs, and crucially continues to fail. He runs himself ragged covering up for the vampires and fixing their self destructive tendencies, while only Nandor seems to slowly warm up to him and treat him with any semblance of decency. But even Nandor is often blinded by his own needs and is thoughtlessly cruel to Guillermo, most recently and obviously regarding Freddie. And Guillermo’s not a blameless little angel either. He obviously directly and indirectly kills and injures people on behalf of the vampires regularly, scandalized looks at the camera notwithstanding, and is embezzling from the night club. His relationship with the vampires is mutually unhealthy and toxic, and has been amply demonstrated in every season. 

This why I propose, radically, that the conclusion of Guillermo’s character arc that makes the most sense logically is for him to leave. As much as we love these self-centered vampires, for Guillermo they’re a supernatural cult that preyed on his loneliness and desire for community and broke him down so that he feels like his own self worth is tied to successfully saving them from themselves. He considers the vampires family, but that sentiment is rarely if ever reciprocated. They see him as an occasional walking solution to their problems, but usually an unwelcome irritant. Even if Nandor is trying to improve, it’s against his nature to be kind, and as Guillermo’s closest confidant within the house he frequently looks down on and manipulates Guillermo in order to fix his problems. Guillermo has spent this entire season desperately trying to live with one foot in both worlds. He can recognize the vampires are bad for him, but he can’t bring himself to cut ties so he tries to squeeze in his personal life in around the edges of his duties. Each failure further isolates Guillermo and dilutes his confidence, thus making him even more bitter towards, but contradictorily more dependent on, the vampires. Guillermo has always been in conflict with himself and hiding secrets from others. His Van Helsing lineage, his sexuality, his affiliation with the vampires and all their subsequent secrets, and this pressure and secrecy stems from Guillermo’s insecurity and feeling like an outcast. He uses the vampires as a crutch because they need him as much as he needs them, so he can fall back on them when he feels like he can’t maintain a functional life of his own. Choosing to become a vampire would essentially be giving up on any semblance of a normal life, and all of his close personal relationships with mortal humans. 

@silentwhirl @vampir-guilhermo

Havia sido uma pilha de acontecimentos desde a morte de seu irmão, desde que teve que matar o seu irmão em nome da proteção de todo mundo das sombras, simplesmente não podia deixar um louco a solta com aquelas ideias e com o poder que ele tinha, livrar o mundo de seu irmão era mais do que um desejo, era um dever.

Na situação em que estava, as coisas estavam um pouco diferente

-Sério, um Vampiro numa mansão? Acho que eles gostam de grandiosidade - comentava para Kira, a Shadowhunter que estava junto dele naquela missão. O dever dos dois era a investigação sobre o vampiro que tinha sido torturado, só para deixar a situação mais delicada, tudo o que ele precisava. Ao menos ele tentava conversar com  Kira, para tentar não deixar um clima chato - Vamos tentar ver o que conseguimos com o Guilhermo Bartonski - eles passavam pelos corredores da mansão, Leo, encarando os vampiros sem medo

Chegavam então à sala principal de Guilhermo, o líder dos vampiros dali, por mais que tivesse lido os dados no resumo da missão, Leo já ouvia falar dele, conhecia os rumores sobre a sua personalidade - Guilhermo Bartonski - dizia direto - Meu nome é Leonid Zherdev e essa é Kira Yuriona, somos os Shadowhunters enviados pelo instituto, precisamos fazer algumas perguntas para você