
The three aims of the tyrant are, one, the humiliation of his subjects; he knows that a mean-spirited man will not conspire against anybody; two, the creation of mistrust among them; for a tyrant is not to be overthrown until men begin to have confidence in one another — and this is the reason why tyrants are at war with the good; they are under the idea that their power is endangered by them, not only because they will not be ruled despotically, but also because they are too loyal to one another and to other men, and do not inform against one another or against other men — three, the tyrant desires that all his subjects shall be incapable of action, for no one attempts what is impossible and they will not attempt to overthrow a tyranny if they are powerless.~~Aristotle
You may not know it yet but trust me: Aristotle’s quote on tyrants is the essence of True Blood.
From petty local bullies to a worldwide secret society True Blood brings ‘the true face of vampires’ the predators of every stripe who want to eat you after they eat your children, Tiffany.
See, Tiffany has trouble believing all these hot vampires just want to eat, fuck, and kill her. She thinks there can be parity between her little self and the powerful, superhuman ‘minority’. They’re a minority, alright. True Blood vampires don’t represent the gays, or blacks, or women or any other oppressed group.
Please.
No, True Blood vampires represent predators, period. From gay bashers to henchman for The Man, from ruthless middle managers to propaganda peddlers, from rapists and serial killers to elite ritualistic Illuminated ‘Brothers’ who literally drink blood and wage war.
Why should they want equal rights with YOU?
While some vampires may emote and whine about discrimination they never fail to demonstrate, in often dramatically graphic and thus traumatic terms, how powerless you are to thwart their desires. Regular shows of strength and power are a must for the despot, both actual and aspiring.
Also a must: keep us apart. It’s as simple as that. Keep us apart. You can’t trust your neighbor, she might be a secret vampire. Or a child molester, a murderer, a drug addict, or heaven forfend, the ‘angel of death’. Assume the worst or you are not ‘safe’. Dangers lurk down at the local bar. There’s a curse flying around out there. The busboy is after something and every woman wants your balls in her purse like Angelina has Brad’s. Trust your leaders, we know what’s best for you. Now shush. Or sit down and shut the fuck up. Your choice. It can go down easy or it can go down hard. Your choice. You know how to make it go down easy?
Denial.
Denial is helped along by a manufactured media narrative landscape; a friendly landscape which allows elite predators to offer protestations of humanity unchallenged on the one hand and mete out brutal acts of ‘discipline’ on the other. This predictable cycle is on such a heavy rotation we find ourselves throwing up our hands in exhaustion. I’ll play along with your assumed nobility, just don’t hurt me with your stormtroopers. I’ll avoid talking about certain subjects if you won’t call me a nut and ostracize me or ‘mistakenly’ call in the SWAT team. I’ll give my kid these pills if you won’t commit me–or us– to an asylum. I’ll send my kid to your senseless bloody war if you won’t throw him in prison. You can rape my mother/sister/daughter/friend as long as you tell me she likes it and I don’t have to think about it. I’ll ruin myself with alcohol since I’d rather do that than spend the rest of my life in prison for partaking in one of God’s gifts to humankind, marijuana. [Grass cures fascism ya'll.]
~~
And on like that. You know what I mean. You feel it but you can’t prove it, exactly. Right? I know I’m not alone out here on this limb. Over on the TAP forum, where we’ve all been prolific little conspiratorial bees, we’ve come to the conclusion that underneath more allusions and devices than one could shake a stick at is the determined representation of all the ways the general populace can be distracted from seeking basic truth through honest human discourse.
If we would just all get together and talk a spell we might learn something. One of those things might be the single most important quote so far in the True Blood canon: “Somebody has to start trusting somebody or we’re all single targets“.
Thus far True Blood has been a deliberately manipulated landscape. Manufactured narratives that are designed to convince you that Bill Compton is worthy, he is the hero of the piece no matter how many heinous acts he is portrayed committing. All others are torn down to prop him up, dictator style. Do you see cognitive dissonance in action in yourself? On the one hand you see what he’s done–what he is written as doing— and yet the True Blood fringe theorists–that would be us here at TBU and TAP—have been utterly unable to convince you that Alan Ball does NOT have a ‘boner for Bill’. Alan Ball straight up admires Bill Compton, rapist and serial killer, murderer of countless women, abuser of any woman he meets, head twisting, blood-fucking sadist, sorcerer and slayer of sacrificial lambs, drowner of innocence. Alan Ball just loves him and wants you to as well. Right?
Please. Think about what you believe in here. Question your assumptions. After all that you’ve seen you can still entertain the thought that Alan Ball MEANS for you to idolize this beast of darkness, this vile creature of chaos, this mad monster sprung to undead life on a blood dimmed tide?
On the one hand you see Bill. You know it. He allowed an innocent young girl to be beaten to within an inch of her life so he could pump her full of drugs; a drug that allowed him to command her compliance and twist her mind. Bill has invaded and violated Sookie in every way one being can invade and violate another. Mind body and soul.
At the same time you believe that Alan Ball’s portrayal of Bill as an emotional vampire struggling with his humanity represents his Zen Buddhist ideal of forgiveness and redemption, much in the same way as Charlaine Harris’s Sookie’s continued written relationship with Bill in the books, who was at one point Sookie’s unambiguous rapist, represents the author’s Christian values.
You think Ball’s portrayal of Bill is one of personal admiration, or perhaps a fascination with ‘grey’ characters, those heroes or villains who exhibit aspects of the opposite traits regularly enough to be considered an ambiguous figure. An ambiguous character is unpredictable in his responses to circumstance. His morality is situational. Where he reacts selflessly in one instance he may turn around and be completely selfish in the next.
“Tell it to the newspapers!”~~Kitsch Maynard
This simply isn’t true of Bill Compton. We know his first instinct is always to kill kill kill. If he can’t do it in a moment of passion he cooks up a murder plot. When he can’t manipulate someone else into doing his murdering for him he arranges for accidents and ‘forces of nature’. The audience sees this in Bill and they know it but they don’t understand the implications; in this I include mainstream entertainment reporters who simply refuse to reflect on the widespread acceptance of Bill Compton as Comflicted Hero. On the one hand, we’re shown Bill’s brutal acts while we are only told–off script and on–how Bill struggles with his humanity. The audience assumes this is true even though we never see anything resembling humanity out of Bill beyond a few ludicrous crocodile tears and florid self-serving speeches.
The narrative takes the pov of the predator and we buy into it.
Why is this? Why is the audience assuming Bill’s supposed humanity is a sincere portrayal of his character? Why does all of the media without exception, buy into the hype and forget the details, the facts of what Bill Compton really is?
What does it say about a society that is so accepting of the wholly manufactured heroism of such creatures as Bill Compton?
Because the conceit of the almost totally unreliable narrative of True Blood represents our own real life manufactured media landscape, a landscape in which the views of the people are inconsequential, even dangerous to predatory agendas. Everything we see, hear and read in corporate media is from the point of view of the tyrants who own the presses, control the airwaves, and are as we speak seeking dominion over the interwebs. They tell us what we should believe while instilling the fear they want us to understand. This is nothing new. America in the 1950′s was a happy, sunshiney place in mortal fear of the Atomic bomb. Ever week at church a merciful god who will rip your heart out is spoken of in hushed tones. Bill has done this to Sookie, and through her we are drawn into the delusion. As our our covert first-person narrator, Sookie, deceived and disoriented, deceives and disorients the audience. When Bill isn’t the ‘sovereign’ His Majesty the King of the narrative, the viewer is misled and fed the same disinformation, screen memories, and hallucinations Sookie experiences through the influence of his toxic drug and doggedly focused conditioning.
I know this is pretty deep stuff to believe of a show that means nothing, has no agenda except sensationalism, pulls it’s political punches, and whose ostensible hero is apparently the manifestation of a deeply psychotic showrunner who gleefully kills women through his proxy Ken Doll Bill. *insert massive eyeroll here* What I intend to do in the next installment of this here Sub Rosa series is begin to lay out a few facts that most viewers believe are not in the True Blood court of evidence. It’s true, there is a lot of stuff in True Blood that is invisible to the naked eye, but when you ferret them out, it all adds up to a few truths that have real world impact.
So I intend to uncover the evidence, strip off the rot, and expose the cover up with a blow by blow breakdown of the forensic and occult clues that are always embedded in…narratives from a certain bent. From these clues we can discern true agendas and make predictions based on this knowledge that are almost certain to occur. While True Blood is not a random universe where anything might happen but a constructed universe in which certain fates are plotted and inevitable, can we really say the same is not true of our own material universe? As be beetle nourishes the lark, some things just are, and ever will be.
In any case, digging for the facts elite predators want to hide is the first step to freedom. Among the list of things as predictable as sunrise, the appetites and hunting strategies of the genus bully predator has remained a constant.
So stay tuned, peeps! And don’t forget to visit TAP in the meantime.
Thank you so much for the new post. So much food for thought that I have mental indigestion or maybe what I need is mental floss after this kind of a meal. My own personal issues have kept my head purposefully in the sand since I can see the mess out in the world and don’t want to deal with it but if we all take that attitude “they” win. Guess I have to start acting like a grownup and start dealing with it. I am actually dreading season 5 as whether it will still be a mind fuck or if we have our noses rubbed in the truth.
Thank you Mary Alma.
Don’t worry. Next installment will be more fun, less morbid. We’re going sleuthing! It’s always fun when a gang of friends get together to solve a mystery, don’t you think?
grrr. having issues logging in.
Anyhow, thank you sunny for this. I can’t wait for the next instalments.
All of us are suffering from exhaustion, popcorn viewers as well as those that dig and dig for the truths. We all know something is amiss in TB land. More casual viewers vent their frustration by bitching about Sookie’s stupidity, AB’s love for Bill as you mentioned, or subplots.
Viewers that dig for the truths are exhausted too by the sheer amount of flummery and layers that have to be peeled back to get at things.
Looking forward to solving the mysteries with friends.
I did read all those Nancy Drew books as a kid. Those were much easier to puzzle out and much less frightening with fewer implications as to the real workings of the world. Maybe I could enjoy the present day discussions of our mystery group with some of those anti fascism herbs? Do we get to ride around in a beat up multi colored van while we solve the case?
If it’s a rockin don’t come knockin
That’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout. Togetherness. Solidarity. Liberté, égalité, fraternité. Next we shall sing The Internationale. Pass the herb.
With those quotes I have a mental image of breaking out the guillotine for a certain monarch.
A king born for the guillotine. Surprisingly not uncommon in this world.
lol… But we must be carefull about a revolution… Those who use the guillotine aren’t better than their predecesors… And the people end up in a dictatorship
Buff… Bill really like the guillotine, how many vamps were kill at his word? Who kills someone for being stupid? buff
‘Tis true. A revolution born in blood dies in blood.
Thanks Sunny, another great post.
“What does it say about a society that is so accepting of the wholly manufactured heroism of such creatures as Bill Compton?”
I think part of what it says about society is that we are afraid. Afraid to learn the truth and upset the fragile status quo we believe we have. What we have been taught to believe, that is hard work and saving portions of income will pay off in a comfortable life. Then we found out in 2008 how quickly it can all be ripped away. So, some put their faith in a ‘hero’ manufactured for consumption because he/she fits the image we have been programmed to believe is on the side of the ‘little people’, he/she is just like you and me (those of us with no power).
Right on, mama. Every word.
I am definitely afraid. I find it interesting that there is so much talk about the “zombie apocalypse” and those who are preparing for it, even Arlene mentions zombies are the new vampires. The present day bogeyman is the zombies not the nuclear bomb we are preparing for, but it seems to me that we the public are the zombies stumbling around mindlessly, our brains destroyed by the diseased and distorted information we are fed. Pass the herbs, I’ll be in the van.
So glad to see you are still hard at work girlfriend!
Thanks honey, glad you stopped by!
Thanks Sunny.
As always your blog is like manna from heaven. Mainstream is feeling pretty bleak as of late. With all the talk of aliens and zombies, we are all in need of some of the “True Blood”. Perhaps the veil will be lifted and some light will shine in.
The light of truth.
True Blood is the red pill, baby!
It’s hard to choose the painful truth of reality over the blissful ignorance of illusion but if Sookie can do it [and she will] after all she’s been through, so can we.
BTW, thanks for the hits all you tumblr gals!
I hope you don’t mind Sunny but I posted a link out on Tumblr to my followers. Love to give the good blogs a shout out.
I don’t mind at all! I really appreciate it. <3
Great post, again… I missed them
He really is creepy and scary from second one.
This new seasson will need such a carefull eye! It’s so exciting! lol
I just got into rewatching with a friend all the series (just the first 2 ep for now, lol) and I really think everybody should watch them a few times, is incredible how your views change… She was pretty shocked about Bill’s hints on his manipulation and other details
Which just goes to show how closely the narrative is tied to Sookie’s pov. She knew he was creepy and so did we. When she ignored her suspicions so did we. It’s actually a good thing that so many are discontented with Bill’s portrayal. The manufactured hero. It proves we are willing and capable of dismissing the ‘dominant narratives’ as unreliable.
I have gone back to the beginning and watched from the start of season one also, and now that amazon is actually shipping the dvd set for season four I can complete the experience. I did watch on HBOgo too. The change in Sookie is amazing plus all the lies Bill tells from the start(like he can’t levitate then he does at start of fight with QSA, the OSM in season two when he admits to Sookie that ingesting Eric’s blood will make her sexually attracted to Eric specifically not just increase her libido in general and Sookie doesn’t jump up and say you shithead). Yes, sometimes the revolution does bring in worse tyrants, when Queen Bill suplants QSA Pam remarks how his subjects are finding out what a tyrant he is even though QSA came across as a raving nut case. The French revolution was definitely a case in point. Unfortunately overthrowing a tyrant leaves an opening in the power structure that allows someone else who is ruthless enough to take advantage of the chaos to step in. It seems that those who are good hearted enough to rule kindly are the less likely to seek power and the masses who have been cowed into submission by the previous regime just want someone else to take over as long as they keep the bread and
circuses coming. It will be interesting to see what happens this season with the monarchy with a death warrant on Bill and the emphasis on The Authority being the real power. If RE is still around is he still king of Mississippi? Et cetera. Stay tuned to this bat channel as they used to say.
Reminds me of Game of Thrones S2 when Tyrion Lannister (once again) hauls off & slaps King Joffrey while exclaiming, “We’ve had vicious kings and we’ve had idiot kings, but I don’t think we’ve ever been cursed with a vicious idiot king!”
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Nice appetizer, Sunny!
I love the ‘alternative interpretations’ I always see on this site and TAP. I was raised on them: CoIntelPro,Patrice Lamumba,JFK, MLK, Roswell,Agent Orange, Freemasons etc. I too see a vast number of messages embedded in the subtext of this wonderful show. In fact, there may be various layers, each speaking to a different areas of our society.
I know of Alan Ball’s distrust of the mainstream media and it’s ‘gatekeeper’ agencies. I find this perspective bold and refreshing. I also totally get your premise of an ‘unreliable narrative’ and how this relates to our everyday lives. Hopefully, we will someday see the way in which the mainstream media (unreliable narrative) influences our view of each other–>our treatment of each other–>reinforcing the strength of the vampiric PowersThatBe.
Hi mbb, I’m glad you enjoyed it!
This is why I am here, to help that process along.
“That’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout. Togetherness. Solidarity. Liberté, égalité, fraternité. Next we shall sing The Internationale. Pass the herb.”
ROTFLMAO!…you know you’re my favorite, right? *wink*
lots of info – solidly presented . GREAT JOB once again, oh sunny-one! keep’em comin’
Thanks again! I’m TRYING to bring Sub Rosa III to a conclusion but I keep adding and deleting stuff. I’ll try to get it out before the premiere on Sunday. **SIGH**
sunny – you’re over-thinking it! Go with your gut and trust your instincts….who says it only has to be 3 parts anyway (i live with a writer and honest to Goddess, sometimes the OCD about the article is off the charts! LMAO!)
i have no doubt it’ll be great….so,
POST IT ALREADY – I’M DYING HERE! lmao! *wink*
(and not for nothin’ – i’m going to be shamelessly pursuing Renee for another fabulous post about the alchemical process over at TAP, as well…LOVE IT!)
Oh yes, I am finding it’s definitely going to have more than 3 parts; possibly 5!! Guhhh.
So yeah, splitting it into more parts might help the situation.
Waves hello
Patiently twiddling thumbs looking for new installment!