It Was an Animal Attack

Spin-off! Sandile and Fadzai play six degrees of separation with CW shows and actors, get into Kaos and its untimely cancellation, and opine on the casting of Wiccan and Hulkling after the end of Agatha All Along. They also duke it out over the website TV Tropes, and its impact on media critique.

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of racism and ethnic erasure in media.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

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Refs and Links: IWAA S1

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Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

Twitter: @animattackpod

Instagram: @animalattackpod

Tiktok: @animalattackpod

YouTube: @animalattackpod

Chapters:

(00:05) - Lauren Cohan, The Walking Dead, Supernatural

(02:25) - Fadzai's bid for a CW role

(03:25) - Sebastian Roche, Supernatural, Destiel

(04:25) - Six degrees of CW separation

(07:56) - Mawaan Rizwaan's "Are You Checking Me Out..."

(09:15) - Kaos and its untimely cancellation

(12:22) - Orpheus, Eurydice, and Hadestown

(13:28) - Reinterpretations of myth, fairytale, and history

(14:58) - Ian Somerhalder's retirement from acting

(16:47) - Gossip Girl, The O.C., and actor relationships

(18:08) - MORE six degrees of separation

(19:08) - TV Tropes and its impact on media critique

(21:11) - Debating the terms "anti-villain" and "anti-hero"

(25:18) - "White Fang"-ing, aka why Sandile should never speak

(27:01) - Little Women (2019) and Little Women (2014-2019)

(28:01) - Agatha All Along, ethnic erasure, Billy and Teddy's casting

(30:28) - Sandile conducts an impromptu physics lesson

(32:50) - Fadzai explains Azimov's Three Laws of Robotics

(35:14) - Sandile and Fadzai trade boat stories

Spin-off! Fadzai has finally seen Interview with the Vampire S2, so your hosts download on Armand All Along, unreliable narration, the future of the Immortal Universe, and the vampire genre in visual media (Sandile also recounts the bizarre case of "Swifties v de Lioncourt, 2024").

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of domestic abuse, gaslighting, grief and loss, manipulation, mental illness and related stigma, Nazism, sex trafficking, sexual assault and abuse, slavery, and suicide.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

E-mail: [email protected]

Refs and Links: IWAA S1

All our online stuff!

Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

Twitter: @animattackpod

Instagram: @animalattackpod

Tiktok: @animalattackpod

YouTube: @animalattackpod

Chapters:

(00:46) - Armand All Along

(03:20) - Claudia: doomed by the narrative

(05:00) - Changes for the movie vs the show

(06:11) - Vampirism and the frozen psychological state

(09:24) - Lestat's involvement in the trial

(10:46) - The Lestat de Lioncourt image rehab

(11:46) - Vampires, evil queers, and theatre

(12:46) - The future of the Immortal Universe

(13:46) - Swifties v de Lioncourt, 2024

(15:55) - Cousins Klaus Mikaelson and Lestat de Lioncourt

(17:44) - Merits and drawbacks of unreliable narration

(21:02) - Claudia and the vampires that failed her

(22:18) - Immortality, perspective, grief, and forgiveness

(23:48) - Santiago - a fraud and an opp!

(25:00) - The vengeful Louis precedent

(26:20) - Madeline Eparvier - controversial? Brave?

(27:55) - Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles

(29:10) - The eras of vampire media

The myth, the legend, the queen of mildly inexplicable return. Fadzai and Sandile meander down the road to hell with Katherine Pierce, aka Katerina Petrova.

A key figure in the first season of The Vampire Diaries (though only making a physical appearance in its final episode), Katherine is introduced in flashbacks to 1864, the last year of Stefan and Damon Salvatore's human lives. As a guest in their home, she begins a secret relationship with each of them, before revealing that she is a centuries-old vampire; she toys with the boys, intending to turn them into vampires and leaving town with them at her side, but is seemingly captured by the founders' council in an ousting of the vampires that have infested Mystic Falls.

In present day, Katherine is revealed to have never been captured, and returns to town 145 years later to plague the Salvatore brothers - as well as her doppleganger, main character Elena Gilbert. She is the primary antagonist for the first half of season 2, and maintains a varied presence in the show for several seasons after, making her the longest-running villain on the show. With her strength, cunning, and willingness to do anything to survive, Katherine takes her place as one of the most iconic characters in the series.

(This episode focuses on Katherine in seasons 4 and 5, as well as the series finale.)

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of emotional abuse, familial abandonment, gratuitous violence, mental coercion and manipulation, obsession, physical assault and abuse, racism, sexual assault and abuse, slavery, stalking, suicide and suicidal ideation, and torture.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

E-mail: [email protected]

Refs and Links: IWAA S1

All our online stuff!

Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

Twitter: @animattackpod

Instagram: @animalattackpod

Tiktok: @animalattackpod

YouTube: @animalattackpod

Better you die than her! Fadzai and Sandile escape monsters by becoming them with Katherine Pierce, aka Katerina Petrova.

A key figure in the first season of The Vampire Diaries (though only making a physical appearance in its final episode), Katherine is introduced in flashbacks to 1864, the last year of Stefan and Damon Salvatore's human lives. As a guest in their home, she begins a secret relationship with each of them, before revealing that she is a centuries-old vampire; she toys with the boys, intending to turn them into vampires and leaving town with them at her side, but is seemingly captured by the founders' council in an ousting of the vampires that have infested Mystic Falls.

In present day, Katherine is revealed to have never been captured, and returns to town 145 years later to plague the Salvatore brothers - as well as her doppleganger, main character Elena Gilbert. She is the primary antagonist for the first half of season 2, and maintains a varied presence in the show for several seasons after, making her the longest-running villain on the show. With her strength, cunning, and willingness to do anything to survive, Katherine takes her place as one of the most iconic characters in the series.

(This episode focuses on Katherine in seasons 2B and 3.)

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of emotional abuse, familial abandonment, gratuitous violence, mental coercion and manipulation, obsession, physical assault and abuse, racism, sexual assault and abuse, slavery, stalking, suicide and suicidal ideation, and torture.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

E-mail: [email protected]

Refs and Links: IWAA S1

All our online stuff!

Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

Twitter: @animattackpod

Instagram: @animalattackpod

Tiktok: @animalattackpod

YouTube: @animalattackpod

Fadzai and Sandile double the trouble with Katherine Pierce, aka Katerina Petrova.

A key figure in the first season of The Vampire Diaries (though only making a physical appearance in its final episode), Katherine is introduced in flashbacks to 1864, the last year of Stefan and Damon Salvatore's human lives. As a guest in their home, she begins a secret relationship with each of them, before revealing that she is a centuries-old vampire; she toys with the boys, intending to turn them into vampires and leaving town with them at her side, but is seemingly captured by the founders' council in an ousting of the vampires that have infested Mystic Falls.

In present day, Katherine is revealed to have never been captured, and returns to town 145 years later to plague the Salvatore brothers - as well as her doppleganger, main character Elena Gilbert. She is the primary antagonist for the first half of season 2, and maintains a varied presence in the show for several seasons after, making her the longest-running villain on the show. With her strength, cunning, and willingness to do anything to survive, Katherine takes her place as one of the most iconic characters in the series.

(This episode focuses on Katherine in seasons 1 and 2A.)

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of emotional abuse, familial abandonment, gratuitous violence, mental coercion and manipulation, obsession, physical assault and abuse, racism, sexual assault and abuse, slavery, stalking, suicide and suicidal ideation, and torture.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

E-mail: [email protected]

Refs and Links: IWAA S1

All our online stuff!

Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

Twitter: @animattackpod

Instagram: @animalattackpod

Tiktok: @animalattackpod

YouTube: @animalattackpod

Introducing Spin-Offs! A series of bonus episodes that contain bits of discussion about shows, movies, books, and other media (whether on- or off-topic) that were cut from the main episodes of the podcast. These are unstructured, un-themed, and a little incoherent, so feel free to pick your poison from the chapters in the description of each episode.

In this first instalment of the series, you'll hear Fadzai and Sandile's thoughts on the decline of Game of Thrones, general MCU fatigue, a number of similarly-named X-Men characters, and so much more.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

E-mail: [email protected]

Refs and Links: IWAA S1

All our online stuff!

Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

Twitter: @animattackpod

Instagram: @animalattackpod

Tiktok: @animalattackpod

YouTube: @animalattackpod

Chapters:

(01:05) - Game of Thrones decline

(03:56) - Why does everyone hate the MCU?

(16:55) - X-Men, The Wolverine, & Japanese mutants

(20:20) - Longlegs (2024) was kinda disappointing

(21:20) - CW vs superhero media

(22:43) - How long should a TV series be?

(24:01) - True Blood and vampire relationships

(26:19) - Lie to Me, Divergent, & Shailene Woodley's career

(28:59) - Pretty Little Liars & Gossip Girl

(30:32) - Immortals (2011) & its many vampire actors

(32:33) - Romance tropes in fiction

(36:37) - The Odyssey, Percy Jackson, & Norse mythology

(39:00) - Sandile gets a bunch of geography wrong

(40:20) - Fadzai ponders school districts and inequality

(44:15) - Celebrity Twitter hacking scandals

Burn that bridge! Sandile and Fadzai hop, skip, and jump through storylines as the show tries to finally make sense of Lorenzo "Enzo" St. John.

Joining The Vampire Diaries halfway through its fifth season, Enzo is introduced as a vampire being held by Augustine when Damon is captured, having himself been there a decade already. After helping him get through years of medicalised torture, and hatching a plan for their escape, Enzo is abandoned by Damon who chooses to turn off his humanity to save himself, and presumably perishes in a fire.

In present day, it turns out Enzo was spared by a member of Augustine, and has remained under their capture and experimentation for over sixty years. The season's events result in his escape from his prison, and he focuses his efforts on rebuilding his friendship with Damon and finding his place in the new world, though his propensity for violence towards the other Mystic Falls characters - and his lack of relevance to the goings-on in the main story - make that road virtually impossible.

(This episode focuses on Enzo in seasons 7 and 8.)

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of familial abandonment, gratuitous violence, isolation, medicalised torture, mental coercion and manipulation, obsession, stalking, suicide and suicidal ideation, terminal illness, and torture.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

E-mail: [email protected]

Refs and Links: IWAA S1

All our online stuff!

Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

Twitter: @animattackpod

Instagram: @animalattackpod

Tiktok: @animalattackpod

YouTube: @animalattackpod

Sandile and Fadzai carve a bloody place in the world with Lorenzo "Enzo" St. John.

Joining The Vampire Diaries halfway through its fifth season, Enzo is introduced as a vampire being held by Augustine when Damon is captured, having himself been there a decade already. After helping him get through years of medicalised torture, and hatching a plan for their escape, Enzo is abandoned by Damon who chooses to turn off his humanity to save himself, and presumably perishes in a fire.

In present day, it turns out Enzo was spared by a member of Augustine, and has remained under their capture and experimentation for over sixty years. The season's events result in his escape from his prison, and he focuses his efforts on rebuilding his friendship with Damon and finding his place in the new world, though his propensity for violence towards the other Mystic Falls characters - and his lack of relevance to the goings-on in the main story - make that road virtually impossible.

(This episode focuses on Enzo in seasons 5 and 6.)

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of familial abandonment, gratuitous violence, medicalised torture, mental coercion and manipulation, obsession, stalking, suicide and suicidal ideation, terminal illness, and torture.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

E-mail: [email protected]

Refs and Links: IWAA S1

All our online stuff!

Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

Twitter: @animattackpod

Instagram: @animalattackpod

Tiktok: @animalattackpod

YouTube: @animalattackpod

In the sixth instalment of the Gilbert Journals, your hosts pull out the town charter, because it's time to talk about the Founding Families. Important names in The Vampire Diaries, these are the families that founded Mystic Falls, were privy to the supernatural that lurked within it - and, for better or worse, have historically been charged with protecting the town from it.

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of colonialism, enslavement, racism, and sexism.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

E-mail: [email protected]

Refs and Links: IWAA S1

All our online stuff!

Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

Twitter: @animattackpod

Instagram: @animalattackpod

Tiktok: @animalattackpod

YouTube: @animalattackpod

In the third instalment of Killer Bites, Sandile and Fadzai protect and swerve with brief vampire hunter, Thomas Vincent Fell III - AKA Tripp Cooke. Introduced at the beginning of The Vampire Diaries' sixth season, Tripp has started up a community protection squad after a string of attacks and murders just outside Mystic Falls, though it appears he has more secret - and more sadistic - motivations for his actions.

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of grief, loss of bodily autonomy, mass murder, mental coercion, and torture.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

E-mail: [email protected]

Refs and Links: IWAA S1

All our online stuff!

Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

Twitter: @animattackpod

Instagram: @animalattackpod

Tiktok: @animalattackpod

YouTube: @animalattackpod