Exploring the dark hidey holes of True Blood, I have stumbled upon a lot of secrets and hidden agendas and I intend to unlock every one of them.
While I adore reading and contemplating film theory and criticism I am far from a qualified expert in the field. My admittedly amateur forte is and has been for some time in the area of conspiracy research- sussing out propaganda and official lies with it’s attendant psyops and mind control techniques which are practiced on the unsuspecting population through the corporate controlled medium of television. I QUESTION EVERYTHING I am told and I diligently apply this motto to my analysis of True Blood. My rigorous intuition tells me Alan Ball is well versed in conspiracy lore and is using it to the hilt to tell the story of True Blood.
“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
-Malcolm X
Feel free to write me at sonya.miller63@gmail.com.
Hi Charm,
How’s it going? I’m loving you’re blog and you’re new friends. These ladies know which way is up!
I’m bouncing off the walls tonight and have to share with someone who can appreciate this. As I was editing one of the Eric and Jason prediction posts, I ran across one that said Eric would take Sookie’s ring to finance the Jackson trip. Girlfriend, did you see what Eric is wearing around his neck in the new promo? http://www.ancientpythoness.com/2010/04/14/first-season-3-predictions-confirmed/
Anyhow, I’m still trying to recover some sense of order on my blog. Redirecting the old links to the new address doesn’t seem as simple as I was told yesterday. Would you be a doll and change the addy in your blogroll? It should be ancientpythoness.com.
XOXO,
Renee
Hey thanks Rygee! These ladies do indeed know which way is up. I so enjoy getting feedback from everyone and I get so excited when I see new comment, lol!
(btw, some of you guys might be interested in the fact that I got a hit to my blog last night from a us.gov site with “lang” in the url string.
Hey hey! I don’t understand fully… Explaine that, come’on!! Hahahaha You know… Whenever someone gets pissed, is because they have something to get pissed for…. XD lol
Seems I’ve had a hit from the Cee Eye A.
OOPS, I hope that doesn’t scare anyone away from my blog. LOL.
You know what… If TB is shut down (can I say that?) after s3, it will be your fault… If this “people” have an eye on you, they have an eye on AB… LOL… Mmmm. You are going to be trouble for him, hahahaha.
It’s said that the problem of internet is about copyright….money…. But “we know better, don’t we?” education (knowledge) is a problem.
Maybe someone was just bored at work? LOL!
If I’m on some government list now, Sunny, I’m holding you accountable.
LOL… Mmmm. You are going to be trouble for him, hahahaha.
Lol yup, AB’s trying to keep it on the downlow and I’m splattering it all over the place!
Maybe someone was just bored at work? LOL!
If I’m on some government list now, Sunny, I’m holding you accountable
LMAO! I’m convinced I’ve been on some sort of watchlist since the 80′s when I was studying the Kennedy assassination and corresponded with some well known researchers.
But yes, it’s perfectly likely some poor desk drone got bored and took a poke around.
OMG… Wow… you are sure getting around sweetheart
If it’s ok with both yourself and Rygee, i’m going to link this up on svmu. I really like the girls will just love it
OK by me!
maybe someone was just wandering around looking for eric pics on their coffee break. you may have an important fan
No Hon, I think that’s “Thor’s Hammer” that Eric wears around his neck.
I don’t know, Viking Lover. I’ve never seen a mjolnir shaped like a ring.
Yes, some of them have a “ring” or “loop” for the necklace. I just looked at the image and I don’t think it’s a ring. I would love it if it were her ring though! I think I would faint! LOL I’m going to try to enlarge the image so that I can take a closer look.
In the clip with Sophie Ann Eric is definitely wearing a ring. I don’t know if you can’t make it out on a computer screen, but on my tv, it is not ambiguous. The square setting is at the top and being held in place by the chain. It does look on the large side, though. I wonder if it is Godric’s signet ring.
It almost looks like a hammer with a ring around one side of it. It’s quite big. No, it’s definitely not Sookie’s engagement ring. It’s very large. Damn! That would have been freaking awesome!
True dat! Sigh…
Ok, I had written a comment but after rewatching the scenes in both series and promos I had to deleted it. The information I got just complicates this…
1. Erics changes the necklace sometime during seasson 2 (when he was at the queens he was wearing the older one yet)
2. Godric didn’t wear any ring, he didn’t wear any piece of jewellery at all.
3. If it was Godric’s he would have wore it in some scenes and Eric would have changed it after his death, we would have saw it in s 2.
4. In the first promo we don’t see the necklace, I suppose it’s under his shirt, but he does wear it on Fangtasia’s promo, I think on the first promo he hadn’t change it yet (probably a gift from AB to makes us think and to let us now there must be some amount of time and action in between those scenes).
5. It is clearly a ring, which again has many symbols, both from it’s uses and shape… We get the circle again. And it’s not Sookie’s ring, which would be Bill’s, and he doesn’t like Bill nor trust him.
I liked Godric’s ring theory, and I searched for the ring in the eps right now, but he doesn’t have one, It’s not his… I wonder what is it about. It is something important to Eric and something he obtains during seasson 3. He wore always the other necklace, so it was something meaningfull to him, if he changes it, he does it when something is even more important, and he doest it right away.
Conclusion: something is going to happen that changes Eric in a very mayor way, something that is symbolized by that ring.
[Conclusion: something is going to happen that changes Eric in a very mayor way, something that is symbolized by that ring.]
I am LOVING this theory DW!!! I think S3 will definitely be a big season of change for both Eric and Sookie.
On the hair thing, I honestly think it will have something to do with the witches and V. I doubt he’s going to go “under cover” at Russell’s like he did in the book because it seems that in TB land most of the “middle management” vamps know eachother. I would find it very strange if Russell did not know who Eric was. AB has said we will know what Eric was doing during the whole maenad fiasco so I’m thinking it will be related to that. Could be wrong though!
I know there have been some “detail” issues with TB (the infamous bull and spectacular recovery of Sam) but for the most they are really careful to keep things consistent. I just can’t imagine they would make a change like that without some sort of ulterior motive.
DWIM and VikingLover—
I think it’s already happened in the form of Godric’s death. I think Godric’s self-sacrifice and the things he said to Eric before meeting the sun, both at the nest and on the roof, are bound to have had a transformative effect on him.
Whoever’s ring it is (it does seem quite large) it must have significance because he always wears that claw around his neck. Why the change?
Well not just the claw, right? Doesn’t he also have a “silver” stake necklace, too? (I’ll admit that I haven’t really kept track.)
Anyway, I’m not sure about this. It might not mean much at all. Then again, maybe it does…
MAS, the silver stake was in the books, on TB was the claw, now the ring
. He always wears one, and only one.
Hmm, well we know Sookie is still wearing her ring in that first teaser snippet we got, which seems to take place at least a day after the kidnapping, but she wasn’t wearing it in the set photo we saw of her with her neck bandaged. In my post comments about the ‘magic ring’ I theorized Pam might ask to see the ring and realize there is something hinky about it when she touches it. Maybe she and Eric found a way to get it off Sookie’s finger to get her out from under the spell? ie convinced her the ring was collateral for the cost of the investigation?
Dwimordene this is truely a mystery because I think you’re right. If it were Godric’s we would have seen it before. Well, until I know differently, I’m going to assume that it is Sookie’s ring and it was arbitrarily changed the same way Eric’s hair was.
I don’t think it is at all, is not about the diameter, but the proportion. Sookies was thin and with the diamond. This other seems to be thicker and wider, and it doesn’t have any stoy, it seems to be more like a signet ring, a man’s one.
In Spain we have diferent names for this to kind of rings, the ones that are just the ring and the ones that have something over it (can be a stone or other ornament, but it is another piece) which is called “sortija”.
arg!! *stoy – stone, *to – two
Also it would have been difficult to catch up on her’s unless you see ther reflection of the stone or get a close up were you can see the transparent stone. And remember that Sookie wore it when they got attacked at her house, so the ring is still the same one…
But then again we got Eric’s missing hair (wich long is not even shoulder legnth, Jessica’s virginity, a missing bull, a seconds fast healing from death….
Dwimordene, that was my poor attempt at humor. I agree that it looks like a man’s ring.
Here’s hoping the hair wasn’t really just arbitrarily changed. It would just be lazy, and I’m hoping that Alan Ball was fibbing when he made that suggestion.
I realize that they’ve already set a precedent with Eric’s hair being changeable… so if more time had passed between the events of last season and the one coming up, I really wouldn’t care at all. But with the timeline being what it is, the hair issue is a glaring continuity error, and would be whether Eric was a vampire or not. (It just happens to be more pronounced, given the historic level of hoopla that has surrounded that man’s head from the beginning.)
Obviously, the couldn’t make AS’s hair longer overnight– people have mentioned extensions, but it would have looked ridiculously fake and horrible, believe me. However, they could have lightened it, and given Eric’s carefully-slicked ‘do, the change in length would have barely been noticeable.
Maybe Alan Ball will make Eric’s changing hair a running joke each season? I don’t know, but I’m really curious as to whether we’ll actually get a canon explanation for that. I’ll be surprised if we don’t, despite what Ball has said about it.
Eric’s hair will probably end up being another thing we’ll have to conspiracy-theorize to figure out, lol. But I do wonder because I know it means something that his hair is so much darker and you’re right MAS, AB’s explanation was downright asinine, lol.
“Maybe Alan Ball will make Eric’s changing hair a running joke each season? I don’t know, but I’m really curious as to whether we’ll actually get a canon explanation for that. I’ll be surprised if we don’t, despite what Ball has said about it.”
That’s what I’m thinking, too. Sunny and I have talked about TB being an homage to Plato’s Symposium, and I was just reading that Plato made glaringly obvious continuity errors between his dialogues, and scholars believe they were deliberate. Once example is that in one dialogue Alcibiades (Alcide?) and another character are boys when two other characters are full grown and have teenage sons. In the Symposium, Alcibiades and his friend were grown men and the other two characters were infants. If these were all fictional characters, you could say it was artistic liscence and Plato’s dialogues weren’t supposed to be viewed as a single work, but the problem is that these are all historical figures.
Some more thoughts on the hair:
I’m still not sure why they changed it, but I must make the observation that the new hair looks an awful lot like Godric’s hair. Maybe, in the event that there’s not an overt connection, we’re at least supposed to make a subliminal or symbolic connection on our own– namely, that Godric has now been assimilated into Eric.
Also, I have now decided that we’re definitely going to see Pam doing Eric’s hair in one of the minisodes that are supposed to air before the third season begins. At first, I didn’t think so, because I thought it would rule him out as Bill’s kidnapper. BUT, because we saw Eric go down to his dungeon to deal with Royce mid-highlight-session last season, I think that viewers could just as easily assume that the cut and color is taking place POST-kidnapping– and that BILL is the one in the basement now.
In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s precisely what Sookie assumes. So go figure.
Anyway, as to the first point, I’m still grappling with whether or not this was an intentional change on the part of the show. Maybe it was a little bit of both. If it was part of the plan all along, I would have thought they’d reveal Eric’s new hair in the first scene we saw him in post-Dallas. But maybe Alexander Skarsgard’s hair actually WAS shorter when shooting began, so they decided to write it into the storyline in a meaningful way (hence the darker color) as opposed to trying to hide it.
Like I said before, they had already set the precedent… so why not? Things to wonder about…
BloodBondBlog has done a funny take on the Evolution of Eric’s hair (and will do one for season 2 next week) and i just thought everyone might get a laugh out of it
http://bloodbondsblog.com/erics-hair-evolution/
Cheers babes
**waves hello to CIA*** I just hope the CIA is not a BL. OO
——
LMAO!!
The world would be a nasty place if that was the case. I wonder how they came across the site to start with… Maybe it was your Bush comments?
Prabably a google search I did on terrorism and nothing to do with the blog, though once they got a gander at this place I probably won’t be flying out of the country anytime soon.
(or maybe it is the blog. check out the “Videos” page)
I’m gonna take another crack at that darn ring. In the Vette pic, Eric is wearing it on his finger. So something is definitely up with it. What if after the loss of Godric and his talk about human equality, Eric digs up his father’s ring? Then when Sophie Ann attacks him again. Eric decides he’s through messing around with her and puts the ring on his finger to indicate that he’s ready to follow in his father’s footsteps and become king.
Oooooooh!!!! Could this possibly tie in with the revenge arc that we’re going to be seeing is his story next season??? Here’s a theory I posted a while back on Sookieverse blog, regarding the casting call for Eric’s parents:
“You know, ASkars also mentioned in an interview that his story arc this season had a strong undercurrent of vengeance. Everyone assumed he was referring to Godric’s death (though I definitely had my doubts, and immediately thought that it would trace back to someone from his human life– maybe a love interest, or family member). This casting call might be more support for that theory.
Any chance TB Eric ended up striking out on his own because his parents were murdered? And if the story will be following that path, isn’t it suggesting that the guilty party is still “alive”… maybe as a vampire now? (Main suspect: Russell Edgington.)
Yeah, there are definitely holes in this theory. But the transition from royalty to a traveling band of rogues is an interesting one now. And Godric mentioned that he saw him fighting on the battlefield– what reason would a “rogue” have to do battle? This casting call sent my thinking off on some elaborate tangent involving Eric as the rightful heir to a throne that was taken from his family– leaving him exiled, or thought to be dead, and attempting in the shadows to take back what is his. And in the process, of course, he “dies”… leaving unfinished business that just happens to circle back around to the present day, somehow.”
I’ll admit again that my imagination might be running away from me here. But in a perfect world…
I love it.
Rygee and MAS, your theories are really intriguing.
Spoilers said that Eric will try to take revenge on someone, on account of something happened centuries ago.
I guess it could be Russell Edgington, who, according to casting calls, in the show is a 2000-and-over-old vampire. (I wonder how someone so old can have a name like Russell Edgington, but probably he changed it)
Or it could be Franklyn, or Mickey. In any case I think Eric’s enemy must be a vampire.
Maybe this guy killed Eric’s human family or something, so he became a rogue or a mercenary.
The ring must be something meaningful at 100%.
[Eric decides he’s through messing around with her and puts the ring on his finger to indicate that he’s ready to follow in his father’s footsteps and become king]
Wow, that could be really interesting. ^^
I also agree with VikingLover: “it seems that in TB land most of the “middle management” vamps know eachother. I would find it very strange if Russell did not know who Eric was”.
Actually, I found it weird and senseless even in the books.
Eric is a sheriff and a very old vampire, even Nan Flanagan knows him well. I don’t see the hair color change as an attempt of going masquerade or whatever…
Like changing hair style could be enough for a 6’4″ viking to pass unnoticed…
MA-OMG! You’re right; this does all seem to fit together. I’m thinking back to what Godric said about right and wrong and wondering if the scene when Bill and Lorena kill the Chicago couple and take over their assets prefigures what happens to Eric’s parents.Could Godric’s parting words prompt Eric to reevaluate his response to the murder of his parents?
If Russell has been in a relationship for 700 years, he would certainly be a prime candidate for the murder of Eric’s parents 300 years before that. How would that work in political terms though? If Eric were to bring down the king of MS, he would have to become king.
Prediction (sort of) confirmed, people!!!
I am now officially pee-my-pants excited for season 3.
Hee! Yay!!
I am curious though. Alex says we’ll see him exacting vengence early in the season so I can’t wait to see how this is all set up so quickly.
Well, I’m gathering from that 3.10 casting call that Talbot is dead. I also think that Eric might have had something to do with it, since his un-life is obviously in danger.
My initial speculation was that Eric killed Talbot as some kind of payback. But that would be pretty cold-blooded of him… unless we learn that both Talbot AND Russell are really, really bad vampires. (Which I think is a good possibility.)
Also, AS didn’t say that Eric’s father was the only one being avenged… or even that it was him at all… just that it was someone from his human life. It’s possible that the deaths Eric is avenging are multiple– and that they include his mother’s, his father’s, AND maybe also a love interest’s.
If this were the case, it would make more sense that Talbot’s death (or whatever happens to him) would qualify as “vengeance”… and if he does in fact make his exit sometime before the 10th episode, I’d say that qualifies as being fairly early in the season. That’s about when Godric died, too.
Of course, that’s assuming any of these things are related at all. And they may not be… at least, not in the way that we’re speculating now.
MAS–
You know what? I’ve been thinking that this whole “vengence over something that happened in his human life” is a complete misdirection. Eric has had a 1000 years to exact revenge and if it has something to do with Russell why hasn’t he done something before now? He surely knows who the vampire king of Miss. is.
and didn’t Eric say there were none above Godric in the New World? Eric is not given to outright lies and I don’t think he was exaggerating because of his devotion to his maker. Hyperbole isn’t his thing either so I think the ‘spoilers’ about Russells age are also a lie.
By his interview, I took it to mean very early in the season, as in 1, 2, or 3.
i think we’re looking at a scenario we haven’t even considered, something that will shock even us! Exciting!
[Eric decides he’s through messing around with her and puts the ring on his finger to indicate that he’s ready to follow in his father’s footsteps and become king]
This could def be the case! Plus I highly doubt that Eric is happy about SA having him sell V – unless she gave him all of the details and it really is some sort of sting operation (which of course he would be involved in since he is the Sheriff). I thought Eric looked VERY defiant in that last teaser clip we saw. As I commented on the SVB blog, it really gave me pause because he did not look as reverent and scared of her as he did in S2.
I’m still thinking (hoping) that SA is using her blood to track a witch, a witch she’s used in the past to facilitate her many plots and machinations. This will tie her to Hallow, maybe, and that would be extremely interesting!
I don’t know about the blood being for tracking, but I think you’re definitely onto something in speculating that Sophie Anne might have a witch in her employ. Ludis’ comment about using magic to cheat would be way random otherwise.
Along these lines, I thought I’d point out that in season one, during the Bill-and-Sookie-take-a-walk scene, Bill talks about magic then, too: “You think it’s not magic that keeps you alive?Just because you know the mechanics of how something works doesn’t make it any less of a miracle– which is just another word for magic. We’re all kept alive by magic, Sookie. My magic’s just a little different from yours, that’s all”
That gorgeous and poetic speech– in conjunction with Bill’s considerably more saccharine “You’re my miracle” proclamation– makes me wonder if there isn’t a LOT more to all of this magic/miracle talk.
And yes, that witch would probably turn out to be Hallow. Ta-dah!
IDK Sunny. I read some speculation that Russell could have been Godric’s maker. If Godric was released, he would answer to no one and his death would free up Eric to seek vengence on the one who killed his father and/or family and usuped his throne, After Godric’s speech about right and wrong this makes sense to me. Eric had to accept the death of his father by a vampire because Godric taught him that there is no right and wrong; Russell was just doing what vampires do and what Eric himself will do, and Godric would have also taught Eric that his allegiance is to vampires over any human, even his own family. After Godric’s speech about being mistaken about right and wrong, and that human life is as valuable as vampire life, Eric would have to reevaluate what Russell did. Godric’s death is giving Eric permission to have feelings about his family, feelings that have been denied and buried for a mellenia. This is why Eric broke down. Not only was he losing Grodric, Godric was telling him that what Russell did to Ulfric was wrong.
This scenario would shed light on what Eric and Sophie Anne were talking about at Fangtasia. If he’s going after Russell, he would have to clear it with her first, and neither of them would want that discussion to be at the palace. He would probably pledge to deliver Mississippi to her if he succeeded. Apparently, Eric killed Talbot. Did the spoiler say that Russell was incoherent or disoriented as he wandered the streets? If Eric is the cause of him being homeless, losing his position, his life long love, and mental faculties, Eric’s amnesia in S4 would be the beginning of Russell’s payback..
All of these thoughts totally make sense to me Renee. And if it’s true, I agree that there are a lot of potential reasons why Eric may not have gone after Russell sooner. I mean, he may not even KNOW who the guilty party is, and this season might find him putting the puzzle together piece by piece.
With that said, Sunny’s right about the “none above him in the New World” bit. Then again, Eric could have been speaking hyperbolically about someone whom he loved very much. I do that shit all the time. LOL.
Anyway, I’m still wondering whether Eric will be avenging his parents or a woman (or man!) that he loved. AS made pretty clear that it was someone from his human life, so I’m fairly certain it’s not Godric or another vampire.
Whatever turns out to be true, I’m totally intrigued.
Oh, and I mention the possibility of Eric avenging a lost love because Alan Ball has said that there’s “another reason” Eric is so attracted to Sookie, which we’ll find out about next season. Everyone assumes that he’s talking about Sookie being a fairy… and maybe he is, but that seems a little obvious to me. All the fairy stuff is hardly a secret at this point– and Eric himself has even pointed out her “otherness” in the show already.
That’s why I wonder if maybe Eric gravitated toward Sookie because she reminds him of someone he used to know from his human life. (Just hopefully not his Mom, because then things would get all Freudian and icky. LOL.)
It might be a slightly cheesy plot device. But let’s face it– this show is NOT above cheese, and that’s one of the reasons I love it! Besides, if it’s presented in a clever enough way, I don’t think it will come off quite as cliched as it sounds.
Anyway, just a thought to add to the ever-growing pile.
I like this scenario MAS. I know some people have said that it would diminish or taint Eric’s love for Sookie but I don’t think so. You can love more than one person in your lifetime after all. It does not mean that you love the person less. Besides, it’s been over a thousand years since this happened. Also, Sookie is bringing up some aspects of being human that Eric has long forgotten. She’s kind of stirring the pot for him.
Of course Russell kidnapping Bill is really what sets all of this in motion.
Right. I definitely wouldn’t see this scenario happening in an obvious way (e.g. she’s the spitting image of an old lover, or something along those lines). More likely, it would be based on a personality trait– like Sookie’s courage and devotion to her loved ones, as Eric pointed out in her dream. And just as you said– it would simply be an awakening on Eric’s part, for which Sookie somehow provides the impetus.
Anyway, I don’t even know if this is going to be the case or not, so I guess it’s silly to even talk about it. It’s perfectly likely that Eric will only be avenging his parents’ deaths, and that romance doesn’t even factor into the equation.
I’m just saying I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if it did.
Nah, it’s not silly at all! I think it’s great to come up with new theories and new ways of looking at things. Thinking outside of the box is food for the soul! Hahaha! There’s some cheese for ya!
In any case, it’s fun as hell. Besides, there are a lot of parallels on this show so what you’re suggesting is not farfetched. For example, we were shown a flashback of how Bill was turned and then later we were shown a flashback of how Eric was turned. Apparently we are going to get a flashback of Bill and Caroline so it’s conceivable that when we see flashbacks related to Eric’s life, there may be a woman as well. Although I haven’t seen any casting calls for that so maybe not. But who knows?
Yeah… other than that casting call describing the Viking version of a Hooters girl. LOL.
Maybe Eric just has a 1,000-year-old kink for hot blonde waitresses.
maybe eric couldn’t deal with his vengeance until godric died because godric would be punished for the actions of his childe, or godric forbid it. even if the childe is later released they must still obey a direct command. (look at mickey’s reaction when eric phones his, or bill’s to lorena).
so if eric was forbid, now godric is dead he can continue. maybe russel was pissed that godric turned eric, so russel killed eric’s village…. or something. russel was either godric’s maker or close and so godric couldn’t allow eric to take his revenge.
Hey Guys, I found this and I thought you Guys would find this interesting:
True Blood Development History:
Series creator Alan Ball had previously worked with premium cable channel HBO on Six Feet Under, which ran five seasons. In October 2005, after Six Feet Under’s series finale, Ball signed a two-year agreement with HBO to develop and produce original programming for the network. True Blood became the first project under the deal, after Ball became acquainted with Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire Mystery books. One day, while early for a dental appointment, Ball was browsing through Barnes and Noble and came across Dead Until Dark, the first installment in Harris’s series. Enjoying it, he read the following entries and became interested in “bringing [Harris's] vision to television”. However, Harris already had two other adaptation options for the books. He said she chose to work with him, though, because “[Ball] really ‘got’ me. That’s how he convinced me to go with him. I just felt that he understood what I was doing with the books”.
(Incidentally, in another area I found this from CH: Ball had read the first book in the series and found himself enthralled. He picked up the rest of the books and decided this was a television series. “I can’t say I was awfully surprised, because I’d had options on books before and I’d had other offers on the Sookie books,” Harris said. “Actually, it was Alan Ball who contacted me, not HBO. He didn’t have the deal with HBO until later. Alan’s offer was the most interesting artistically.” )
Opening title sequence:
True Blood’s Emmy-nominated title sequence was created by Digital Kitchen, a production studio that was also responsible for creating the title sequence of Six Feet Under and Showtime’s Dexter. The sequence, which is primarily composed of portrayals of the show’s Deep South setting, is played to “Bad Things” by Jace Everett.
Digital Kitchen wished to explore themes of redemption and forgiveness in the opening title sequence.Conceptually, Digital Kitchen elected to construct the sequence around the idea of “the whore in the house of prayer” by intermingling contradictory images of sex, violence and religion and displaying them from the point of view of “a supernatural, predatory creature observing human beings from the shadows …” Digital Kitchen also wished to explore ideas of redemption and forgiveness, and thus arranged for the sequence to progress from morning to night and to culminate in a baptism. In editing the opening, Digital Kitchen wanted to express how “religious fanaticism” and “sexual energy” could corrupt humans and make them animalistic. Accordingly, several frames of some shots were cut to give movements a jittery feel, while other shots were simply played back very slowly. Individual frames were also splattered with drops of blood.
Cast and Characters:
True Blood employs a broad ensemble cast composed of regular, central characters and a rotating group of impermanent supporting characters. Though the series is based in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, a noticeable number of the actors comprising the cast are originally from outside the United States. In an interview, Ball explained that he didn’t intentionally seek out “non-American” actors, but was willing to go anywhere he needed to in order “to find the actor who makes the character breathe.” Ball went on to explain that, in casting, there was more of a focus on who would portray the character in a compelling way rather than who would physically resemble the characters from the book. Noting that there’s a definite difference between the characters portrayed in True Blood and the ones depicted in The Southern Vampire Mysteries, he described Harris as being very understanding in terms of how her work was being reinterpreted.
____________
Sunny, I hope you don’t mind that I posted this. Sorry to post it here in this thread, but I wasn’t sure where to place it. I thought it would be an interesting read for you guys especially since we have all been discussing the changes that have been made and how AB is in essence heading in the same direction as CH – he’s just taking an alternate route. I think CH was aware of this and I also believe that he told her exactly what his story and his artistic vision for the story would be. I don’t think she would have sold the rights to him if she didn’t feel confident that he would be sensitive to her characters and her overall vision. Sunny, I thought you would a kick out of the info related to the opening sequence.
Indeed! I’ve read the piece on Digital Kitchen but it’s good to be reminded of how every element of TB is related to each other into a cohesive whole.
I don’t think she would have sold the rights to him if she didn’t feel confident that he would be sensitive to her characters and her overall vision.
I agree! She had other offers on the table and she chose Alan Ball with good reason.
Sunny, I sent you an email.
Sent you a message! ;~)
Just found this site. LOVE it..
re: Nov.22 JFK. I was having with the Dr’s at Parkland Hosp when JFK was brought in. I knew Jack Ruby also.
TB is the 1st TV program I’ve EVER been obsessed with. esp, EN.. even traded my 19″ TVs for WS’s.
I Love reading anytheories & specs re: TB. It’s NOT just a TV show..
Hey eriklover, welcome!
Yes, it’s much more that just a tv show.
Fascinating that you were at Parkland when JFK was brought in.
In what capacity did you know Jack Ruby? Do tell…
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Dear sunny,
all your speculations and analyzes (here and at TAP) made me enjoy the show SO MUCH MORE. Just wanted to contribute a bit: Here’s what Nelsan Ellis said recently about playing Lafayette/Marnie and it might provide further proof for your “third entity” theory.
“As for his day job, Ellis claims that his current True Blood arc, where Lafayette finds himself possessed by the witch Marnie, wasn’t an easy thing to film. “Alan Ball told me I couldn’t try to talk like her, and I was like, ‘Really?’ So that was challenging. ‘Who do I act like?’ ‘Not her.’ I had to create something else .”
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/09/nelsan_ellis_the_help.html
Greeting, Elisa
Wow Elisa, thank you so much!
I’d love to sit down with Nelsan, or any of the actors, and have a real go at them.
OMG!!!! Now I am SURE that AB reads the Rigorous Institution Blog!!!
There is an article on shapshifting and here are some excerpts:
For definitional purposes we can talk about Shapeshifting occurring on three different levels:
The first is cellular, and that is when a person of an indigenous culture shapeshifts into a plant or animal, or in our culture when a cancer grows in someone and then miraculously disappears.
The second level is personal Shapeshifting. That is when we decide to transform our personality — and usually that means becoming more of what we most expect in ourselves. It might mean when a person honors themselves as a good writer or a better dancer or politician. It could also mean transforming an addiction.
The third form of Shapeshifting is about transforming the society that we live in, whether its at the town or city level, or the corporate level — the place where we work — or the institutions that help shape our lives.
There are lamas in Tibet who fly across mountains and melt snow with the heat of their bodies.. I think cellular Shapeshifting is very important, because when we cellular Shapeshift, we realize that we really are one with everything.
This is what I’m trying to say: we don’t need to look to Alpha Draconis to find a culture of shapeshifting. Shapeshifting is as American as Cowboys and Indians, and even more so than Cowboys. Regardless of what we think about the subject, even if we say this cannot be so it can’t be true, a living culture which holds such things both possible and essentially evil is indiginous to the United States.
lucasa, I’ve suspected this for a while now. Jeff’s blog is the premiere blog on several deep subjects that are embedded in the TB narrative. Thanks for reminding me of that article–here’s the link:
http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2005/12/bad-medicine-part-one_113584552883908346.html
Here is Jeff’s book, which is a selection of his blog posts:
http://www.amazon.com/Rigorous-Intuition-What-Dont-Know/dp/0977795322/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315668991&sr=1-1
“In Jeff’s hands, tinfoil hats become crowns and helmets of the purest gold. I strongly suggest that you all pay attention to what he has to say.” —Arthur Gilroy, Booman Tribune
A welcome source of analysis and commentary for those prepared to go deeper—and darker—than even most alternative media permit, this collection from one of the most popular conspiracy theory arguments on the internet will assist readers in clarifying their own arguments and recognizing disinformation. Tackling many of the most difficult subjects that define our time—including 9/11, the JonBenet Ramsey case, and “High Weirdness”—these studies, containing the best of the Rigorous Intuition blog as well as original content, make connections that both describe the current, alarming predicament and suggest a strategy for taking back the world. Following the maxim “What you don’t know can’t hurt them,” this assortment of essays and tools, including the updated and expanded “Coincidence Theorists’ Guide to 9/11,” guides the intellectually curious down further avenues of study and scrutiny and helps readers feel empowered rather than vulnerable
So glad you had pointed the way to his blog over at TAP. I am slowly digging through it. I think Pam said it all, “there are bigger things, you infatuated teen”. Kind of makes me LOL at some of the fan reaction to this season.
I know, right? I love RI. The more you read it, the more your eyes are opened.
So what we could superficially gather from this is that:
1. Eric experienced personal skinwalking in that he becomes “more”.
2. Could we have some proof that the blood exchange ie the blue mist between them change something to allow them to skinwalk at the cellular level since they both thought “everything is possible” and the melting snow on the skin comment?
3. Was Sookie comment “Maybe it’s just chemical” a way to show the difference between the Cowboys and the Indians (the good skinwalking and evil skin walking)
4. Is Bill the evil skinwalker (ventriloquist etc) using the third kind of shapshifting to transform the supe society into one of HIS making.
We see the cigar store Indian in Marnie’s shop which was originally a marketing technique used as a giant sign advertisment to “Look in Here” (or evil masquerading as good.) We also discusses the cowboy symbolism.