#sinners meta

That being said, I am truly so so so attached to transmasc Sammie Moore because I think it works so thematically well. Sammie's story is about having this thing you know you're meant to do, this thing you're good at that feels right and beautiful and magical, and yet people tell you this thing is wrong and evil and sinful even though it's not. And I think abt how blues music (and later rock music) does have connotations as this very "masculine" thing; going to sing for drunkards and debaucherers is not exactly "feminine" (and historically [and even today, grimaces] there's a high precedent for women being singers, but musicians almost always being men). But even among men, these musicians are looked down upon (as cis Sammie is in the film, of course). So there's that aspect that I think is very powerful when reading Sammie as transmasc - he's not only chosen to act like a man, but the worst kind of man. There's nothing cis people find "understandable" about that. So often I see people complain about this or that transmasc headcanon of a "textually male" character by saying "this man is uncomfortable with masculinity, why would it make sense for him to be transmasc?" (which I haveeee mixed feelings about but like, that's for another day), but transmasc Sammie avoids that because he's not uncomfortable with this masculine social role he occupies - it's just that the people around him are. He never gives it up. The things that form a trans Sammie read are the very things that embody his joy - he is trans to me because he loves this thing that no one else wants him to love. He embodies this "wrong masculinity" wholeheartedly, holds onto it, avoids the pressure to succumb or conform, and he literally survives the movie because of that. The symbol of his music protects him. And that's a character type we can stand to hc as trans more often!

But at the same time it's also easy to headcanon Sammie as someone with, yknow, Problems. He has family trauma, religious trauma, the trauma inherent to the time period of the film (and the following decades he lives to see). I always think of the events of the film as being something that fundamentally changes his personality, at least for a while. Getting quiet and reserved and closed-off, afraid of your own joy... that's a very transgender feeling. It's so easy to headcanon manifestations of his dysphoria into this - performing "nonstandard" sorts of intimacy with women to avoid fully undressing (luckily being an eater helps), perhaps even pursuing only women and suppressing another side of queerness because performing heterosexuality helps you pass. There's something so evil and wicked and horrible about so much of his face being scar tissue that's unable to grow facial hair, were he to start hrt as an adult. So Sammie can also be a trans pain character, especially if you're doing post-canon explorations of his life following the events of the film, as he starts his life over and deals with the aftermath of that. But it's not the "discomfort with masculinity" sort of trans pain I think Many transmasc headcanons fall into. Just so much to explore if you're someone who makes fan content of any kind

preaching equality and love but only through accepting him/vampirism (the dominant culture). thinking a lot about how grace is the one to let the vampires in (no matter her intention) and the model minority myth. thinking about how annie is the one to correctly recognize and warn them of the threat they're facing. thinking about how mary, who wouldve been considered black by the one drop rule and yet is 'white-passing', is the one willing to trust the vampires. thinking about sammie and his power with music, and how in the movie they say something along the lines of "white folk like the music they just dont like whose playing it." wow.

very enjoyable movie!

this right here shows what they had, and what they lost. family. friends. community. freedom. this is what smoke is willing to die for. it’s not just remmick that took that from him, but the klan, because the klan was going to take that from them come morning light anyways. but it’s not just the contextual importance of the scene that makes it the hardest hitting one for me - it’s the social importance.

because THIS is what colonialism and white supremacy has taken from people of colour, especially the black community.

I am not a member and so cannot speak on the matter, but as someone who comes from a country very heavily exploited by colonialism, I felt this in my bones. our oppressors took this from us - they took our brothers and fathers, our husbands and sons, our grandmas and sisters and wives and daughters. our friends, our culture, our history.

Human Remmick, turned into a vampire in medieval Ireland, and at first his status as a filí is unaffected, maybe even enhanced. Anyone he would have encountered and turned in those early days would have been from the same soil he was born on, have similar experiences, know the same songs. Maybe the music helped him lure victims and create families, his existence as a being between life and death making him an ideal bridge to his ancestors.

But it turns. After he lives past his natural lifespan, memories of being a vampire crowd out his memories of being human. He can't connect to the ancestors anymore - he's no longer one of their kind. His immortality draws suspicion, and he has to flee familiar territory or be killed. He leaves Ireland, and the more people he turns and the more memories he absorbs, the more his human self is buried. Soon he can barely remember what being a human ever felt like, and the filí power dies for good. The connection is severed.

Because that's what vampirism represents, doesn't it? Cultural appropriation and assimilation, sacrificing the unique elements of one's culture to become white, losing one's identity to the monoculture, just as Ireland was assimilated into the British empire. Not all at once, but piece by piece, down through the generations.

The only people who know what Remmick is and how to fight him - the Choctaw and Annie - know this because of cultural traditions that have been passed down to them. By being still connected with their own ancestors, they nullify the advantage of Remmick's hivemind, two types of collective knowledge cancelling each other out. It makes me wonder if the Choctaw haven't just encountered vampires before, but have dealt specifically with Remmick; if he maybe just shows up every few generations, hoping they don't remember him.

It would also explain how Remmick was able to survive this long despite being kind of a swagless moron. As his time as a human gets farther and farther in the past, he has to rely more on the hivemind and rote instinct to appear human, and the charade gets less convincing as it becomes a copy of a copy of itself.

Which makes Remmick's intentions for Sammie all the more sinister, because that would mean he knew he was dooming Sammie to the same eventual fate. He'd use Sammie's power to connect to his ancestors again, knowing it wouldn't last, because a vampire is a parasite and can't help but feed. Because it's all he knows how to be, anymore. And Sammie would be destroyed in the process, just as white supremacy in the name of "preserving culture" has destroyed so many black lives.