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beep-beep-robin · 1 year

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screaming at the idea of a dark academia steddie au (still in the 80s)

- steve being the one that lives in a deteriorating old apartment one winter because his parents cut him off, almost dies from the cold before eddie comes and gets him out of there

- steve being impressed by everything eddie knows bc he‘s used to being around pretentious know-it-alls and eddie isn‘t like that at all

- now listen it isn‘t dark academia without a little murder. sorry not sorry. hear me out - what if billy was in their friend group and they "accidentally" killed him because he‘s an asshole. and eddie gets pulled into it bc he‘s in their course

- said friendgroup obviously contains robin, nancy, steve and now eddie

- steve‘s the one that‘s used to showing off with his material possessions (and girlfriend, aka nancy) because he thinks that‘s all people really want from him, the only people he lets somewhat close being his friends, but only robin truly knows his real self (before eddie comes along)

- for robin i‘m thinking eleanor from do revenge. pretending to be rich so she fits in, but also just fascinated by the actual classes and everything they‘re studying. steve used to help her out with money, that‘s what made his parents cut him off. bonus if she has a huge crush on nancy and she‘s the only one that sees her as an actual person from the beginning whereas the guys just see her as ooh a girl for a while at the start usually (aka camila in tsh)

- jonathan as eddie’s dorm neighbor. he‘s chill and usually has good advice, knows basically everyone on campus but has his own separate group of friends (including argyle)

- nancy as the groups it girl. always dressed to impress, but upset that no one truly wants to get to know her. her and steve are the campus‘ hot couple, everyone knows them, wants to be them. but they have their issues, which come out once eddie‘s in the picture. she likes robin, maybe a little too much.

- eddie as the new student. originally only interested in his studies, because he really doesn’t want anything to distract him - once he’s distracted, it’s over - is immediately intrigued by the group, befriends robin, that‘s his in. get‘s sucked into the whole murder mystery, which forces them all closer. watches steve and nancy‘s relationship crumble, both of them needing support that the other one can‘t give.

- i‘m thinking wild parties in old buildings, dark furniture, secret glances, hungry kisses, denial. oh lord give me the denial. jealousy, rebounds, steve and nancy hooking up again -

- bonus points if eddie lives with steve for a while. and they get closer. steve has nightmares, terrified of the police finding them out, they share a bed? SLOWBURN though. very important

- listen i haven‘t thought about what they‘re studying but if they have a theatre class……. i neED steve to help eddie cover himself in fake blood for a play and just stare for a bit bc oh shit he‘s hot

- nancy gives robin a makeover, robin hates it, but loves spending time with her. robin supports nancy through her downward spiral after the murder and gets her out of it, with the support of eddie and steve.

- think long nights, windowsills, shared cigarettes and deep talks. the terrifying feeling of being known as a murderer to the person you love more than anything mixed with the knowledge that nothing will ever be the same again

#dark academia #steddie #stranger things #ronance #steve harrington #eddie munson #robin buckley #nancy wheeler #if we were villains #the secret history #i WILL add onto this #this is so horribly structured i hope you get what i mean #kdkdksd #mainly inspired by tsh #and iwwv #eeeek #original post #vanessas headcanons

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flowersforfrancis · 7 months

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shakespearesdaughters · 7 months

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To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

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readsbydes · 2 years

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Some penguin classic covers I made of some of my favorite books.

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droptheguillotineplease · 3 months

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If We Were Villains sketch page

#myart #drawings #sketchbook #if we were villains #m. l. rio #iwwv #james farrow #oliver marks #meredith dardenne #alexander vass #wren stirling

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legendarycollectiveflower · 1 year

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For those who read both

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bozoclowncake · 1 year

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My entire taste in media is "gay people commit murder and are mentally unwell" and i think thats beautiful

#these violent delights #hannibal #iwwv #herbert west #gotham #nygmobblepot #micah nemerever #a lesson in vengeance #if we were villains #the sandman #tsh #mine #kill your darlings

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shakesqueers13 · 5 months

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The biggest clue M. L. Rio gives us to what actually happened at the end of 'If We Were Villains' isn't Pericles, allow me to elaborate:

Spoilers for 'If We Were Villains' by M.L. Rio below, obviously.

So, everyone talks about the Pericles symbolism and that being proof that James is alive, but I think there's stronger proof elsewhere. In the epilogue, when Oliver is told that James is dead, Filippa is said to have "a copy of Winter’s Tale open in her lap" (351).

If you haven't read The Winter's Tale, that's okay, it is a strange play. (Despite it being, in my opinion, Shakespeare's most explicitly sapphic play!!). But anyway, a key aspect of the plot is that a character everyone thinks is dead comes back to life at the end. I'll explain further:

So, in act three, scene two, a character named Hermione is said to have died after being accused of a crime she didn't commit. The audience sees her pass out, and she's carried offstage where it is said she died.

Hermione was accused of adultery and treason, and the person she was accused of cheating with, Polixenes, escapes before he can be killed for this crime with an advisor named CAMILLO — aka the same name as the gang's fight coordinator who knew James well / became Fillippa's fiancé.

Now, in the very last scene of the play, all the remaining characters gather back together including Camillo, as well as Leontes, the man who caused Hermione to "die," and who was consumed by grief and regret for the actions he took that lead to her death. Miraculously, during this scene, a friend of Hermione's named Paulina reveals that through Leontes's remorse and the resolution of this whole plot, Hermione is miraculously able to come back to life. It's unclear if this is through magic or if Hermione was just hiding out with Paulina all this time and now is able to return to her husband (booooo). She falls into Leontes's arms and everyone is happy again. This is a super weird plot point and doesn't make a lot of sense, but it does speak to the possibility of James being alive!

Interestingly, from that scene, there's also this line: "Bequeath to death your numbness, for from him / Dear life redeems you." - Winter's Tale, V.iii.1280129. To me, this line can easily be applied to James's guilt and reason for theoretically committing suicide. Is James able to find redemption through dying and then coming back to life?

I think the name Camillo is the strongest connection here - there's no way it's accidental. Additionally, this might be a reach, but Winter's Tale is only mentioned one other time in the book, on page 94 when present day-Fillipa mentions, "Frederick wants to branch out and try Winter’s Tale, but Gwendolyn’s insisting on Othello.” The comparison of these two plays seems deliberate - they aren't in the same genre, so they're an odd two plays to be choosing between for the fourth years. However, there is a KEY comparison between the two: they both involve husbands becoming convinced that their wives are being unfaithful, and they both involve said husbands killing their wives—the only difference is that in The Winter's Tale, Hermione comes back to life. Desdemona doesn't. Is M. L. Rio making a sneaky reference to the two possible interpretations of her ending here? Sort of presenting the reader with a choice of what interpretation they chose to believe?

I think it's so cool!!!

#if we were villains #m l rio #james farrow #oliver marks #shakespeare #william shakespeare #dark academia #academia #iwwv #meredith dardenne #alexander vass #if we were villains spoilers

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poppletonink · 7 months

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Best Quotes From 'If We Were Villains'

"You can justify anything if you do it poetically enough."

"You can't quantify humanity. You can't measure it - not the way you mean to. People are passionate and flawed and fallible. They make mistakes. Their memories fade. Their eyes deceive them."

"I don't know, it's like I look at you and the sonnets make sense. The good ones, anyway."

"Do you blame Shakespeare for any of it?" The question is so unlikely, so nonsensical coming from such a sensible man, that I can't help but suppress a smile. "I blame him for all of it."

'She says, “Were you in love with him?” “Yes,” I say, simply. James and I put each other through the kind of reckless passions Gwendolyn once talked about, joy and anger and desire and despair. After all that, was it really so strange? I am no longer baffled or amazed or embarrassed by it. “Yes, I was.” It’s not the whole truth. The whole truth is, I’m in love with him still.'

'I need language to live like food - lexemes and morphemes and morsels of meaning nourish me with the knowledge that, yes, there is a word for this. Someone else has felt it before.'

'Below was the motto: Per aspera ad astra. I'd heard a variety of translations, but the one I liked best was Through the thorns to the stars.'

"We cracked up. [...] But we didn't really shatter until we were all back together again."

'The clock on the mantel struck twelve, and we stirred, one by one, like seven statues coming to life.'

'Actors are by nature volatile - alchemic creatures composed of incendiary elements, emotion and ego and envy. Heat them up, stir them together, and sometimes you get gold. Sometimes disaster.'

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theotherrichardpapen · 1 year

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#its me im girls #this utterly devastated me at 1:30 pm in the middle of the break room #he's out there okay i refuse to believe otherwise #if we were villains #iwwv #iwwv spoilers #oliver marks #james farrow #m.l. rio #spoilers

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elainiisms · 1 year

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#dark academism #dark academia #dark acamedia #tsh #donna tartt #the secret history #bunny corcoran #henry winter #richard papen #charles macaulay #camila macaulay #francis abernathy #literature #english literature #homoerotism #homoeroticism #if we were villains #iwwv #dead poets society

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xxselenite · 10 months

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Why we should stop comparing The Secret History and If We Were Villains

I've seen people putting the two books together as pillars of dark academia countless times, often trying to explain why their favourite one is the best and it is useless. The two books are incredibly different and you will inevitably be disappointed in one of the two if you read them with the same intentions.

The Secret History is a reversed mystery novel: from the very first lines, we know who died, how, and who killed him. The questions we are left with are "Why did they do that?", and "Will they get away with that?" The book is fundamentally psychological, it's a character-driven book, which explains why such a long part is dedicated to establishing them, their relationships, while the actual murder is surprisingly short.

If We Were Villains, on the other hand, is a more traditional detective novel, though it doesn't totally fit the standard. It's a whodunit, and when we start the book, we know who got arrested but the mystery throughout the novel follows four questions: "Who died?", "Who did it?", "Why did they do it?" and "Why did Oliver get arrested?" We are trying to solve the murder at the same time as the detective. It's a plot-driven novel, and although the characters are very important, they are all defined by one quality and one flaw during the first act (the characterisation in this book is amazing, I'm probably gonna make a post about it).

Obviously, if you read TSH and IWWV with the same expectations, one of them is going to bore you. However, if you consider their differences, they are both excellent books in their genre. If they do have some common elements (a group of students that's almost sectarian, and murder), saying that IWWV plagiarized TSH sounds pretty ridiculous to me. IWWV is a love letter to Shakespeare and the madness in his characters, TSH is a critic of elitism in academic spaces. And they both deserve praise, if only people would stop comparing them.

#the secret history #if we were villains #dark academia books #i adore both of these books #i do have a favourite tho #but it's not relevant here #(but it's iwwv)

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shakespearesdaughters · 7 months

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catalvarezs · 8 months

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pretentious dark academia bitches (derogatory) is the secret history. pretentious dark academia bitches (affectionate) is if we were villains.

#idk how much clearer i can make it #the secret history #donna tartt #richard papen #henry winter #if we were villains #james farrow #oliver marks #iwwv #ml rio #tsh #books

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leovaldezs · 6 days

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"Actors are by nature volatile—alchemic creatures composed of incendiary elements, emotion and ego and envy. Heat them up, stir them together, and sometimes you get gold. Sometimes disaster." — IF WE WERE VILLAINS. | M.L. RIO

#if we were villains #iwwv #iwwvedit #litedit #bookedit #literatureedit #booksociety #mialook #usersmimi #useraish #userrsun #mine.#something a little different !

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fandomnerd037 · 10 months

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Do you know how frustrating it is to watch a man who is VERY gay for his best friend dance around his feelings for a whole book only to realize them to late, have a sad but beautiful gay moment with him for like five pages (at most), have to leave him, lose him, and get a mysterious letter from him and find out he may be alive only for the book to leave you with the ambiguous ending?

#I wanted to grab Oliver by the neck and shake him #how does he not realize he likes James #especially after James came to his house and the whole morning scene #UGH gay people #jk #oliver marks #james farrow #if we were villains #iwwv #iwwv spoilers

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