| 1 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/40669604.jpg]] |
| 2 | [[caption-width-right:350: ''"Good eeeevening! I am ze Maven of ze Eventide, und velcome... to Vampire Reviews!"'']] |
| 3 | |
| 4 | ''[[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjZfdrnSOrh4iFL2GCNvWVw Vampire Reviews]]'' is a VideoReviewShow covering [[VampireFiction vampire-related]] movies, TV shows, books, wine, perfume --anything with a vampiric bent, presented by the Maven of the Eventide, a brooding, gothic figure possessed of the dark, romantic, hypnotic allure of the classical vampire. |
| 5 | |
| 6 | Or so she'd like to imagine, anyway. Maven is really Elisa of [[WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick Team NChick]] indulging her VampireVannabe fantasies. When she forgets to stay in character, a ditzy ValleyGirl emerges through the corsets and dark eye shadow, and any time she tries to impose her vampire fetishism outside her bedroom full of candles, roses and skulls, she gets knocked back by the real world, mostly represented by her roommate Creator/LindsayEllis (formerly WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick), who is flatly unimpressed by her antics and keeps telling her to get a job and start paying her share of the rent. Also refusing to play along are Team [=NChick=]'s Nella, Kyle "Oancitizen" Kallgren of WebVideo/BrowsHeldHigh and occasionally WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows. Also, her other roommate Dan Roth, but no-one ever remembers him. |
| 7 | |
| 8 | The series began when the popularity of ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'' prompted Elisa (Hansen, [[AlterEgoActing the real Elisa]]) to take a deeper look at vampires in fiction. Like ''The Nostalgia Chick'', ''Vampire Reviews'' takes a non-chronological approach to {{review}}ing, interspersed with sketches for greater illustration and entertainment. Incidentally, Elisa started her own saga of books featuring vampires (amongst other things) with ''Literature/TheImmortalJourney'' in 2019. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | [[folder:Vampire Media Maven has done videos on]] |
| 11 | |
| 12 | !!Vampire Reviews: |
| 13 | * ''Film/InterviewWithTheVampire'' |
| 14 | ** ''Film/QueenOfTheDamned'' |
| 15 | * ''Film/DraculaUntold'' |
| 16 | * ''Film/OnlyLoversLeftAlive'' |
| 17 | * Video on the MonsterMash trope involving vampires |
| 18 | * ''Film/{{Byzantium}}'' |
| 19 | * ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvania'' |
| 20 | ** ''Hotel Transylvania 2'' |
| 21 | * ''Top 10 Good Things about Film/{{TheTwilightSaga}}'' |
| 22 | ** ''Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2'' |
| 23 | * ''Film/AbrahamLincolnVampireHunter'' |
| 24 | * ''Film/DarkShadows'' |
| 25 | * ''Film/Dracula2000'' |
| 26 | * ''Top 10 Female Vampires'' |
| 27 | * ''Film/Underworld2003'' |
| 28 | ** ''Underworld Awakening'' |
| 29 | * ''[[Literature/{{TheMothDiaries}} The Moth Diaries]]'' (film of the book) |
| 30 | * ''Film/IAmLegend'' |
| 31 | * ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'' |
| 32 | * ''Film/ThirtyDaysOfNight'' |
| 33 | * ''Film/TheLostBoys'' |
| 34 | * ''Film/TheHunger'' |
| 35 | * ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' |
| 36 | * ''Vampire's Portrait'' |
| 37 | * ''WebVideo/CarmillaTheSeries'' |
| 38 | ** ''Film/TheCarmillaMovie'' |
| 39 | * ''Film/FrightNight1985'' VS. ''Film/FrightNight2011'' (remake of the former) |
| 40 | * ''Film/Blade1998'' |
| 41 | ** ''Film/BladeII'' |
| 42 | ** ''Series/BladeTheSeries'' |
| 43 | * ''Film/WhatWeDoInTheShadows'' |
| 44 | * ''Film/{{Cronos}}'' |
| 45 | * ''Film/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' (1992 film) |
| 46 | * ''Film/Lifeforce1985'' |
| 47 | * ''Film/OnceBitten'' |
| 48 | * ''Film/TheLittleVampire'' |
| 49 | * ''Series/MastersOfHorror'' (anthology TV series) |
| 50 | * ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Castlevania2017}} Castlevania]]'' (season 1) |
| 51 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheBatmanVsDracula'' |
| 52 | * ''Series/KindredTheEmbraced'' |
| 53 | * ''Film/LetTheRightOneIn'' |
| 54 | * ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}'' |
| 55 | * ''The Blood Drawn Chronicles'' |
| 56 | * Creator/GeorgeARomero's ''Film/{{Martin|1977}}'' |
| 57 | * ''[[Literature/KittyNorville Kitty and the Midnight Hour]]'' |
| 58 | * ''Film/VampireAcademy'' |
| 59 | * ''Literature/{{Fledgling}}'' (book by Creator/OctaviaButler) |
| 60 | * ''Film/TheFearlessVampireKillers'' |
| 61 | ** ''Theatre/TanzDerVampire'' (musical adaptation of the above) |
| 62 | * Comentary on how Lucy Westenra has been treated in the numerous ''Dracula'' [[AdaptationOverdosed adaptations]] |
| 63 | * ''[[Literature/{{Carmilla}} Carmilla]]'' (stage play) |
| 64 | * ''Series/TrueBlood'' (Season 1) |
| 65 | ** ''True Blood'' (Season 2) |
| 66 | ** ''True Blood'' (Season 3) |
| 67 | * ''Anime/BloodTheLastVampire'' |
| 68 | * ''[[TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}} Ravenloft]]: I, Strahd'' |
| 69 | * ''Film/NearDark'' |
| 70 | * ''Anita Blake: Guilty Pleasures'' |
| 71 | * ''Bunnicula'' |
| 72 | * ''Film/{{Subspecies}}'' (1st film) |
| 73 | * ''Film/TheLairOfTheWhiteWorm'' |
| 74 | * ''Film/KissOfTheDamned'' |
| 75 | * ''Film/ShadowOfTheVampire'' |
| 76 | * ''Dracula: Pages From A Virgin's Diary'' (Creator/GuyMaddin's film adaptation of a Canadian ballet production) |
| 77 | * ''Literature/StraightOuttaFangton'' |
| 78 | * ''[[Literature/{{TheVampireChronicles}} The Vampire Lestat]]'' |
| 79 | * ''Film/BramStokersDracula'' |
| 80 | * ''Film/TheBreed2001'' |
| 81 | * ''This Is My Blood'' (book) |
| 82 | * ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}'' |
| 83 | * ''Literature/CarpeJugulum'' |
| 84 | * ''[[WesternAnimation/{{AdventureTime}} Adventure Time]]: Stakes'' (TV arc) |
| 85 | * ''Series/TheStrainTVSeries'' (Season 1) |
| 86 | ** ''Series/TheStrainTVSeries'' (Season 2) |
| 87 | * ''Literature/BloodsuckingFiends'' |
| 88 | * ''[[Literature/{{TheSagaOfDarrenShan}} Cirque du Freak]]'' |
| 89 | * ''[[TabletopGame/{{OldWorldOfDarkness}} World of Darkness]] Documentary'' |
| 90 | * ''Series/HemlockGrove'' |
| 91 | * ''Film/JohnCarpentersVampires'' |
| 92 | * ''Film/ModernVampires'' |
| 93 | * ''Series/InterviewWithTheVampire2022'' (season 1) |
| 94 | ** ''Interview With The Vampire'' (trailer for season 2) |
| 95 | [[/folder]] |
| 96 | |
| 97 | ---- |
| 98 | !!This web series provides examples of: |
| 99 | |
| 100 | * AdaptationalDumbass: Creator/JohnnyDepp's version of Barnabas from ''Film/DarkShadows''. The original Barnabas was a fiendishly intelligent ManipulativeBastard, while Creator/TimBurton and Creator/JohnnyDepp went ''so far'' out of their way to depict him as an innocent, gullible NiceGuy (who can't lie to save his life and falls for the paper-thin manipulations of the ''true'' [[ObviouslyEvil obvious villain]]) that he just comes off as a bit of a dumbass. |
| 101 | * AdaptationalHeroism: Not against this trope in principle, but usually not impressed with how directors handle it. Classic vampires like Literature/{{Carmilla}}, Literature/{{Dracula}}, and [[Series/DarkShadows Barnabas]] were deeply flawed to villainous, so adaptations that keep their villainous actions but try to frame them as romantic heroes tend to make them {{Designated Hero}}es at best, the DracoInLeatherPants trope at worst. |
| 102 | * AdaptationalVillainy: The worst thing Eric Northman does is in the books is sexually harass Sookie (and even then, it's strongly implied she's secretly into it but won't admit it), while the show has him kidnap, torture, and murder people in his torture cell under his club, explicitly trick Sookie into drinking his blood so she'll become attracted to him against her will (and {{mind rape}}s her with sex fantasies) after she made it clear she couldn't ''stand'' him. [[SubvertedTrope Yet]], he's still Elisa's second all-time favorite vampire character after Lestat. |
| 103 | * AdaptationOverdosed[[invoked]]: {{Dracula}}. Just... {{Dracula}}. |
| 104 | -->As we've discussed before, there are more iterations of {{Dracula}} than any other character in the history of anything, ever. |
| 105 | * AdaptationPersonalityChange: Snarks at ''Series/KindredTheEmbraced'' for changing the shticks of each clan. |
| 106 | ** While the Ventrue are still BlueBlood, in the show they're more ''Film/TheGodfather''-esque (sympathetic) mafia crime lords than {{Dracula}}-style modern aristocrats. |
| 107 | ** The Brujah are changed from bad boy rebels, bikers, rockers, and street youth to [[AlwaysChaoticEvil brutish]], suit-wearing mafia thugs. |
| 108 | ** The Gangrel are changed from animalistic loners to the "bad boy bikers" rather than the Brujah. Maven snarks that the Brujah and Gangrel are at war because the latter stole the former's look. |
| 109 | ** While the Toreador are technically sensitive, passionate, artistic souls, the ''only'' Toreador we see in the show are women, so it comes off more as WomenAreDelicate[=/=]HystericalWoman than passionate, beauty-appreciating souls like the (mostly male-led) Creator/AnneRice vampires. |
| 110 | ** The Nosferatu are changed from grotesque ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}''-looking monsters to humans with bald heads and big ears. |
| 111 | * AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Sees Lestat, Spike, and Eric Northman's appeal as this. |
| 112 | * AlterEgoActing: Even in-universe, Maven is really just Elisa's character indulging her pretentious vampire fangirl side. WebVideo/{{Welshy}} even [[https://youtu.be/2GiXdvgxtQg?t=2m40s asked]] her "What facet of your character am I talking to?" |
| 113 | * AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Invoked. |
| 114 | ** Has this view of ''Series/SesameStreet's'' the Count. She believes he's actually trying to avoid killing his friends by focusing his thirst for blood into a less harmful need. |
| 115 | ** Treats the antagonist of ''Series/TrueBlood'' season 2 as actually a deep character attempting to unleash the repressed sexual desires of a small town. |
| 116 | ** Maven's reading of Guy Maddin's ''Dracula'' film makes it chockful of alternate character interpretation: Jonathan and Lucy's suitors are jealous of their respective love interests' interest in the foreigner (Dracula); Van Helsing is a DirtyOldMan who reads Lucy's private diary and sniffs women's undergarments, etc. |
| 117 | * AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Claims Polidori had this relationship with Creator/LordByron. Polidori was Byron's close friend and physician, but he secretly hated the man and resented how much more famous he was. Polidori wrote "Literature/TheVampyre" hoping to become even more famous than Byron, but the short story was accidentally published under Byron's name, which was the literal opposite of what Polidori wanted. While reading "Literature/TheVampyre," Maven even twists the knife by constantly pointing out how Creator/LordByron would have written certain passages better. |
| 118 | * AntiHero: She extensively talks about how the fact a vampire has to be this by default. It's brought up in her ''Series/KindredTheEmbraced'' review that Julian Luna is too nice a vampire to have any real tragedy about him so he's just a straight up hero (and boring). |
| 119 | * TheArtifact: Maven's reviews are the only part of the Nostalgia Chick canon to still be running after Lindsay ended her series in 2015 and later deleted her older videos completely. |
| 120 | * ArtisticLicenseLinguistics: When discussing UsefulNotes/VladTheImpaler, she refers to him as Vlad Țepeș, as though that were his full name. "Vlad Țepeș" is Romanian for Vlad the Impaler; his proper title was Vlad III Drăculea, meaning son of Dracul. |
| 121 | * AudibleSharpness: Noted and parodied in her review of ''Film/Underworld2003'', ending with a bunny mooing. |
| 122 | * TheBabyTrap: Referenced in her review of ''Film/InterviewWithTheVampire'', as she tells Lestat that vamping Claudia to keep Louis around was a naughty idea. |
| 123 | * BaitAndSwitch: After she started talking about her book, Elisa started to end some of her videos discussing the publishing progress, book signing and con appearances. Come the ending of her video on ''The Breed''… |
| 124 | -->'''Elisa:''' Speaking of ''The Breed''… Look what I made! ''(holds up new baby)'' [[LampshadeHanging You thought I was gonna talk about my book again, didn’t you?]] |
| 125 | ** Which becomes a BrickJoke at the end of her {{Film/Daybreakers}} video. |
| 126 | ---> '''Elisa:''' ''(holding baby)'' You may notice that I have a little something special out tonight… It’s my book! |
| 127 | * BeautyEqualsGoodness: Not looked at in great detail, but one of her theories for Seth in ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'' being seen as likable despite all he's done is that, well, he looks like Creator/GeorgeClooney. |
| 128 | ** One of the main reasons that Carmilla is able to dupe [[TooDumbToLive Laura]] into trusting her for so long (despite all the obvious red flags) is because Carmilla is so ''pretty'', and Laura refuses to believe that someone so ''beautiful'' could ''possibly'' be a bad person, or have ulterior motives. |
| 129 | * BerserkButton: |
| 130 | ** Don't say anything good about werewolves when she's present. |
| 131 | ** Elisa loses a lot of her friendliness and good humor whenever stories are either dismissive to women, anti-sex, or homophobic. |
| 132 | ** More mundanely, she gets frequently annoyed when people insist that Dracula was really based off Vlad the Impaler, or that Bram Stoker's intention was to parallel the two. |
| 133 | * BestFriendsInLaw: With Lindsay Ellis, her long time collaborator and former roommate who is married to Elisa's brother, Nick. |
| 134 | * BetterByADifferentName: According to her, ''Film/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' was more enjoyable when they took out the demons and called it ''Film/{{Clueless}}''. |
| 135 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: She can be sweet and lovable when she wants to, but she selfishly ruined the Chick's computer with a virus, has admitted to doing horrible (though mostly just very annoying) things and beats on Dan with Lindsay just because he drank some beer that didn't belong to him. She seems to be a NonMaliciousMonster example with a mix of ObliviouslyEvil, SkewedPriorities, being a spoiled gir who has at least some sort of conscience. |
| 136 | * [[GirlfriendInCanada Boyfriend in Canada]]: Claims to have a ''vampire'' boyfriend in Canada. |
| 137 | -->"Our love is pure!" |
| 138 | * ByNoIMeanYes: Discussed and PlayedForDrama. In her ''Literature/{{Carmilla}}'' Read-Through, Maven notes that many readers like to interpret Laura as [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday secretly into Carmilla's homoerotic come-ons]], but Elisa doesn't see it that way since Laura often makes it clear that she is ''horrified'' and ''repulsed'' by them. |
| 139 | * BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood: But it turns out that not even hypnotic powers can get the Nostalgia Chick to [[StalkerWithACrush stop thinking about Todd]]. |
| 140 | * BrokenAesop: [[invoked]] |
| 141 | ** Maven suspects the moral of the first ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvania'' is supposed to be "don't be controlling and don't be racist," but feels it comes across more as "being controlling isn't ''that'' bad as long as you're nice about it; and racism is ''over!''" |
| 142 | ** Maven also has this view of ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvania2'', since [[spoiler: [[Creator/AdamSandler Dracula]] spends the whole film aggressively pushing for his grandson to [[OurVampiresAreDifferent be a vampire]] and never really learns to grow out of it. Then, ''after'' he gets his wish, he has the gall to say Denis is [[JustTheWayYouAre "perfect no matter what.]]"]] |
| 143 | ** The film version of ''Literature/TheLittleVampire'' seems to be you should accept your friend's differences, but unlike in the books, the family vampires are all shown to be not only completely friendly to and loving of humans, but they want to become humans, so there are no "differences" to overcome. They don't even drink human blood, but cow's blood! |
| 144 | * BulletTime: Parodied in her review of ''Film/Blade1998''. She brags that she just invented "garlic time". |
| 145 | * BunnyEarsLawyer: Maven may be a pretentious, melodramatic VampireVannabe, but she's still a very intelligent and analytic reviewer. |
| 146 | * TheCameo: |
| 147 | ** Not counting WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick and her friends/[[WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows boyfriend]], Creator/AllisonPregler (whom, due to her old screen-name "Obscurus Lupa", the Maven claims is a werewolf), [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] (both dressed as Franken Berry, and attracted by the fact that ''30 Days of Night'' was a comic), and [[spoiler: [[WebVideo/BrowsHeldHigh Oancitizen]] ([[EvenTheGuysWantHim to fawn over a]] Creator/WillSmith scrapbook).]] The Maven also appears in one of WebVideo/{{Welshy}}'s videos to ask for a CrossOver. She also appears in [[WebVideo/BadMovieBeatdown Film Brain]]'s review of ''Film/BladeTrinity'' where she reviews the movie with him... only to flee at the point where Dracula/Drake kills some goths. |
| 148 | ** In the "MonsterMash" episode, Elisa's real life husband WebVideo/PawDugan is punched by her while dressed as a mummy (in revenge to [[Film/TheMummysHand The Mummy]] replacing Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera in an Ride/UniversalStudios [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetlejuice%27s_Rock_and_Roll_Graveyard_Revue ride]]), and the Maven tries to do a monster gathering of her own. Along with Maven, there is [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Moarte]], Creator/MaraWilson (the ChickCritic have shown her as an EldritchAbomination), Oancitizen ("Weresnail"), and Todd ("because he's creepy"), with the Nostalgia Critic trying to enter as [[WebVideo/ToBoldlyFlee he died once]], so in a way he's a zombie. |
| 149 | ** The [[Series/SesameStreet Count Van Count]] episode features [[DeliberatelyCuteChild Elisa's son Grey]] in tuxedo-like baby clothes. |
| 150 | * CharacterCatchphrase: "[[IncomingHam GOOD EEEEEVENING!]] '''''I''''' am ze Maven of ze Eventide, and velcome to Vampire Reviewwwws..." |
| 151 | ** SigningOffCatchphrase: "'''''I''''' am ze Maven of ze Eventide, and... [insert parting thoughts]." |
| 152 | * ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Averted for ''Series/KindredTheEmbraced'', which she argues works ''against'' the show. The entire premise is vampire clans with wildly different aesthetics, goals, and personalities clashing with each other, yet in the show you can't tell any of the clans apart on sight (apart from the bald Nosferatu), yet clan rivalries and hierarchies are still central to the plot, so it gets real confusing real fast. |
| 153 | * CompassionateCritic: She complains because she loves vampires, and even that's sprinkled amidst the fangirling. |
| 154 | * CrossOver: Reviews the [[Advertising/MonsterCereals Count Chocula]] cereal with WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic. |
| 155 | * [[invoked]]CryForTheDevil: |
| 156 | ** [[InUniverse She feels sorry]] for Richard in ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'', thinking that hating him would be like hating a puppy because he was obviously ill and should have been institutionalized instead.[[invoked]] |
| 157 | ** Believes this is the point of ''Film/WhatWeDoInTheShadows'' despite being a parody of vampires. The protagonists are all VillainProtagonist monsters who kill innocents with no real remorse but they're TragicMonster characters who the audience is expected to sympathize with regardless. |
| 158 | * CluelessAesop: The Literature/{{Carmilla}} stage play plays changes Spielsdorf's niece to a sexual abuse victim whom Carmilla empowered to free herself from her abuse... by convincing her to commit suicide. Yeah, suicide does not equal empowerment. The playwrites also turn Spielsdorf into a Nazi but kept Carmilla a SerialKiller, [[EvilVersusEvil making it impossible to tell who the audience is supposed to root for]]. |
| 159 | * CulturalTranslation: One of the things she finds effective about ''Film/BramStokersDracula'' is how the sequence with Vampire!Lucy is changed around; in the book she becomes HotterAndSexier and the men are repulsed by this, as Victorian readers would find this creepy. A 90s audience however wouldn't be repulsed by sexuality, so instead they have Lucy's seduction work...while having her vampire alter ego look more monstrous to create a sense of dissonance. |
| 160 | --> "It's not canon accurate but it is effective." |
| 161 | * DamnedByAFoolsPraise: |
| 162 | ** In her ''Film/FrightNight1985'' review, she states that nerds are cool. She knows, because her mom told her so. |
| 163 | ** When she announces she will be reviewing ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvania2'' at the start of said review, her toddler cheers. |
| 164 | * DamnedByFaintPraise: |
| 165 | ** She had this attitude towards a number of the lower entries on her list of the Top 10 Female Vampires, particularly Selene from ''Film/Underworld2003'' at #9 (who she had criticized in her ''Underworld'' review)[[note]]Mina Harker from the film version of ''Film/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' placed lower at #10, but that was more due to [[AdaptationDecay her having not been a vampire]] in [[ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen the original graphic novel]][[/note]], using them to highlight how few well-written female vampires there were in fiction, the character type dominated otherwise by [[FlatCharacter one-dimensional]] [[VampiresAreSexGods temptresses]] who existed for little more than {{fanservice}}. Later, during her review of ''Series/BladeTheSeries'', she said that, had she known about that show's female lead Krista Starr when she made that list, Krista would've knocked Selene off of it in a heartbeat. |
| 166 | ** Her "Top 10 [[spoiler:actually 4]] Positive Things About Twilight" review is ''all'' about this trope. |
| 167 | * DawsonCasting[[invoked]]: She speculates that [[Film/TheLostBoys the titular Lost Boys]] are supposed to be teenagers, but since they're played by much older actors they all just come across as 20-something man-children. |
| 168 | * DeadpanSnarker: |
| 169 | ** Maven might be the hammiest of Elisa's characters, but still has her moments. |
| 170 | ** Elisa's snark becomes [[IncrediblyLamePun a lot more biting]] whenever she's dealing with subject matter that is sexist or homophobic. |
| 171 | --->'''Maven:''' Because if a man's writing in a female-led genre, of course he's the gold standard. |
| 172 | * DeconstructiveParody: ''Loves'' ''Film/WhatWeDoInTheShadows'' because it's this rather than a ShallowParody. |
| 173 | * DefangedHorrors: Often discusses how this trope applies to vampires and {{monster mash}}es in kids' programming. |
| 174 | * DefiledForever: Comes up a lot due to vampirism being used by many storytellers to symbolize sexuality and death, and older media's MadonnaWhoreComplex regarding women being "corrupted" and killed by their own sexual awakening--er, vampirism. |
| 175 | * DependingOnTheWriter: Discusses how this trope pertains to [[Literature/{{Dracula}} Lucy Westenra]], who has been reinterpreted many ways over the last 120 years due to the story of {{Dracula}} being AdaptationOverdosed. |
| 176 | * DesignatedHero: |
| 177 | ** In-universe, this is why she dislikes Selene from ''Film/Underworld2003'' so much; she kills pretty much every werewolf she sees and doesn't show any remorse for it. |
| 178 | ** She's similarly confused about Barnabas in Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/DarkShadows''--he's a VillainProtagonist in the original series, but in the movie he's treated like a lovable goof despite murdering numerous people. |
| 179 | ** Elisa feels this way about the protagonist of ''Film/OnceBitten'' given the film opens with him deciding to cheat on his girlfriend because he's not getting laid (due to her wanting to wait). |
| 180 | ** She similarly finds Creator/AdamSandler's {{Dracula}} to be too much of an elitist bigot and controlling father/grandfather to be sympathetic, even if the movies bend over backwards to portray him as a NiceGuy. |
| 181 | ** Finds Blade to be this in ''Film/BladeII'' because, unlike in the first one where he's trying to stop the evil mafia vampire who bit his mom and wants to TakeOverTheWorld, in the second film he still wants to kill all vampires even though most of them are only ever shown partying amongst themselves. |
| 182 | ** {{Invoked|Trope}} and {{discussed|Trope}} in her ''Literature/VampireAcademy'' review. The Moroi are supposedly "good" vampires because they refuse to fatally drink human blood, but they're still socially vampiric because they're [[TheBeautifulElite elitist snobs]] who use {{dhampyr}}s as disposable bodyguards in their political power games, due to the latter's superior strength yet second-class citizen status. She argues that the books explore this, but the film doesn't. |
| 183 | * DifferentForGirls: She's surprised to learn that ''WesternAnimation/MonsterHigh'''s [[{{Franchise/Frankenstein}} Frankie Stein]] is the main character while [[{{Dracula}} Draculaura]] is a side character, since the vampire is ''always'' the central character in a MonsterMash. She then wonders if their gender has anything to do with it, since a male Frankenstein-equivalent would most certainly be a [[BumblingSidekick bumbling]] [[TheBigGuy oaf]] rather than a CuteClumsyGirl, while a male Dracula-equivalent would ''of course'' be [[DiabolicalMastermind slick and formidable]] instead of a [[TheDitz Ditzy]] FunnyForeigner. |
| 184 | -->'''Maven:''' Why is it so different once they're girls? |
| 185 | * DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Explicitly spells out that in ''Film/{{Daybreakers}} (2009)'', vampires overpopulating and squandering the natural resources they need to survive and being on the verge of self-inflicted extinction unless they change their consumer habits, yet consumers turning a blind eye to it while for-profit corporations actively sabotage reform efforts because the status quo makes them a short-term profit (even knowing long-term it'll spell their species' doom) is exactly like real-life first world humans ignoring climate change. |
| 186 | ** Laura's description of being prayed upon by the vampire Literature/{{Carmilla}}. |
| 187 | --->That's a very orgasmic description, there. |
| 188 | * DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: Averted. Chick and Maven beating on Dan (with his face offscreen) might be seen as funny when it would be horrible the other way round, but they've been established as terrible people with issues so they can get away with it. |
| 189 | * DracoInLeatherPants[[invoked]]: Gets discussed quite bit on her channel (due to VampiresAreSexGods), but Maven is not a fan since she feels a vampire's sympathetic qualities should come from being a TragicMonster, not a hottie. |
| 190 | * DramaQueen: Goes into tears at the slightest provocation. |
| 191 | * DrinkingGame: From the end of the "Top Ten Female Vampires" video: "I hope you didn't start taking shots every time I said 'emotional', 'complex', or 'relatable'. *{{Beat}}* You know what, I need to stop giving you ideas." |
| 192 | * DrivenToSuicide: Tries staking herself rather than say nice things about ''Twilight'', but "Damn this steel-boned corset!". |
| 193 | * EmotionalRegression: Still prefers this to a static character since the character is still dynamic, even if they don't progress. |
| 194 | ** Likes ''Film/Blade1998'' the best out of [[Film/BladeTrilogy the trilogy]] because even if it ends on something of a downer for Blade ([[spoiler:he's forced to kill his vampire mother, his mentor/father figure is killed, and he rejects TheNotLoveInterest 's offer to help him fight vampires, making him more alone than ever]]), at least his character is dynamic; not the static one he becomes in the sequels and spin-off series. |
| 195 | ** She finds [[spoiler:Vlad]] from ''Film/WhatWeDoInTheShadows'' to be a TragicMonster because, of all the vampire roommates, he's the only one who regresses emotionally over the mockumentary. |
| 196 | * EmpathicEnvironment: Believing that "[[Creator/AllisonPregler Allison "Obscurus Lupa" Pregler]]'s name means she is a werewolf, she call her to ask about them: |
| 197 | -->'''Maven:''' Call...the ''she-wolf''. ''[A distant wolf howls.]'' |
| 198 | * EpilepticTrees[[invoked]]: She speculates that Count von Count from ''Series/SesameStreet'' is obsessed with counting as a way to keep his thirst for blood under control. |
| 199 | * EveryoneHasStandards: |
| 200 | ** She might be a fangirl who loves a bit of FemaleGaze, but in ''Film/DarkShadows'' she still dislikes Creator/TimBurton trying too hard to make Barnabas a woobie, failing, and counting on him still being liked simply because Creator/JohnnyDepp is a hottie. |
| 201 | ** Strongly dislikes a lot of the more sexist and exploitation-based vampire works she reviews. |
| 202 | ** While (in character) she's automatically opposed to werewolves, one of the reasons she dislikes Selene in ''Film/Underworld2003'' and its sequels is that she goes around killing ''every'' werewolf she comes across, regardless of whether they've actually done anything wrong. |
| 203 | * EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: InvokedTrope. Elisa believes that vampires are metaphors for sex, death, and real-world social issues, whether authors realize/intend it or not. Whether an author is self-aware and utilizes it can make the difference between a memorable work that makes a meaningful commentary about society, the human condition, or both; or if it becomes a confused, [[SoOkayItsAverage forgettable]] mess. |
| 204 | * EvenTheGirlsWantHer: She has a girl-crush on Lily Cole. |
| 205 | * [[invoked]] EvilIsCool: Averted with Maven as she's often disgusted by protagonists who display no redeeming qualities. |
| 206 | * {{Expy}}: The Maven's not too dissimilar to the SNL skit "Goth Talk" character Circe Nightshade as played by Molly Shannon--except more vampire-focused. |
| 207 | * [[invoked]] FairForItsDay: |
| 208 | ** Elisa has this opinion of ''Literature/AnitaBlake'' as she thinks the series was hugely influential and that she would have loved it in the nineties but elements about it (like Anita being a HolierThanThough FemaleMisogynist) haven't aged well. |
| 209 | ** Has a similar opinion of ''Film/TheLairOfTheWhiteWorm'' which has a biracial female protagonist but is also shockingly racist in places. Amusingly, she has a similar belief about the surreal 80s movie adaptation which she believes is a parody of Thatcherism. |
| 210 | * FanonDiscontinuity [[invoked]]: She has firmly decided that ''Film/UnderworldRiseOfTheLycans'' never happened. |
| 211 | * {{Fanservice}}: |
| 212 | ** You'll be seeing a lot of cleavage. |
| 213 | ** Amusingly averted in her reviews as she's basically bored with vampire movies that try to rely on this too much like ''Film/DarkShadows'' or ''Film/Lifeforce1985''. |
| 214 | * FantasticRacism: Suffers a bad case of this with werewolves and it (jokingly) affects her reviews of ''Film/Underworld2003'' and her interactions with Lupus Obscura. This is, of course, due to the FurAgainstFang trope. Notably, it doesn't really effect her appreciation for the ''Literature/KittyNorville'' books, which are so far the only non-vampire centered media she's reviewed (though she still fills the review with backhanded comments about werewolves). |
| 215 | ** Talks about the problems of vampire media that make use of this trope like ''Film/TheBreed2001''. Maven comments on the fact that associating vampires with persecuted minorities is something that real-life racists used to do all the time, even when the characters are a ModelMinority. |
| 216 | ** Praises the book ''Literature/StraightOuttaFangton'' for tackling the issue head on as the protagonist is a FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire but all of his efforts to not be evil are hurt by the fact vampires are monsters no matter what. The protagonist, [[TwoferTokenMinority a black man as well as a vampire]], is actually offended when people compare racism against one to racism against another. |
| 217 | * FauxActionGirl: The complaint comes up in Maven's reviews of the original ''Film/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' movie and ''Film/Underworld2003''. In the former, she points how Buffy always has to get saved by guys. In the latter, she loses her temper over Selene ''fainting'' due to not knowing her limits despite being a centuries-old vampire. |
| 218 | * FauxSymbolism: [[invoked]] |
| 219 | ** ''Film/TheLostBoys''. Maven speculates that clear symbols and allusions to Literature/PeterPan and [[TitleDrop the Lost Boys]] [[WhatCouldHaveBeen would have worked back when the script called for a child cast]], but since said cast was bumped up to teenagers, who were then played by [[DawsonCasting obviously much older actors]], most of those same symbols and motifs became confused or no longer applicable. Maven particularly can't figure out whether Star's names is supposed to have any symbolic significance at all. (Second Star to the Right? Star of David?) |
| 220 | ** Maven also tells the viewer point-blank that most of the symbolism in ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' is made up of Kohta Hirano's random interests, or things he just felt like drawing at the time. That said, it sure [[RuleOfCool looks cool]] and [[ViewersAreGeniuses makes the reader feel smart]] when [[GeniusBonus they recognize]] or [[UnconventionalLearningExperience learn about]] the said obscure references. |
| 221 | * FemaleGaze: Believes ''Film/DarkShadows'' tried to rely on this and failed. She says it was much more successfully used in ''Film/InterviewWithTheVampire.'' |
| 222 | * FemaleMisogynist: Finds ''Literature/AnitaBlake'' to be this due to her insistence that RealWomenDontWearDresses and her general contempt for traditionally female traits. |
| 223 | * FirstPersonSmartass: In her review of ''Film/VampireAcademy'', she refers to writing first-person narrators as a "quirky voice", with "voice" being a general term for writing style. |
| 224 | * FluffyFashionFeathers: Wears a feather boa in some reviews. |
| 225 | * {{Foil}}: Often discusses how this is used to explore vampirism, and {{Love Triangle}}s. You've got your brooding, tortured, self-loathing brunette vampires who wish they were human again like [[Literature/TheVampireChronicles Louis]], [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Angel]], and [[Series/TrueBlood Vampire Bill]], and then you've got your cheerful, snarky, shamelessly-relishes-being-a-vampire blond bad boys like [[Literature/TheVampireChronicles Lestat]], [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Spike]], and [[Series/TrueBlood Eric Northman]]. |
| 226 | * FollowTheLeader: [[invoked]] She criticizes ''Byzantium'' for essentially being a {{gender flip}}ped retread of ''Film/InterviewWithTheVampire'' (the film of which was, perhaps not coincidentally, [[SelfPlagiarism made by the same director]]). |
| 227 | * ForeignFanservice: According to her interpretation of Guy Maddin's stage-to-screen adaptation of the ''Dracula'' ballet, Maddin sees Dracula as a symbol for Lucy's sexual awakening, who feels more drawn to the foreigner that to the proper British gentleman pursuing her romantically/sexually. This becomes an EnforcedTrope, when revivals of the production [[RaceLift cast a person of colour]] in the role of Dracula, while slotting white actors on the other roles, to highlight Dracula's "foreigness" and "exoticness". |
| 228 | * [[invoked]]FranchiseOriginalSin: Remarks at the beginning of her ''Series/TrueBlood Season 3'' review that Creator/{{HBO}} tends to fall into a... particular pattern. They start each series with a large cast, but manage to keep it ThreeLinesSomeWaiting. However, due to ''never'' writing any characters out of the show but steadily introducing new ones over the series, it inevitably becomes [[FourLinesAllWaiting Forty Lines, All Waiting]]. |
| 229 | * FunTShirt: Wore loads in the ''Film/Dracula2000'' review. |
| 230 | * FurAgainstFang: |
| 231 | ** Maven and Allison have an argument like this in the former's review of ''Film/Underworld2003'' (she's convinced that Allsion [[ButIPlayOneOnTV is actually a werewolf]]), with some [[SlobsVersusSnobs class warfare]] thrown in there too. |
| 232 | ** She later does a RageQuit on doing a video with [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Longbox of the Damned's]] Moarte because he says he likes werewolves too. |
| 233 | * GatewaySeries:[[invoked]] |
| 234 | ** One of the things listed in "Top 10 Good Things About ''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]]''" is that as bad as the series is it did provide a gateway drug to not only other vampire fiction, but reading in general. Especially since it'll often lead to way better stories. |
| 235 | ** While Maven doesn't personally care for the ''Literature/AnitaBlake'' series due to its RealWomenDontWearDresses and QuestionableConsent themes, she ''deeply'' appreciates how it single-handedly defined and launched the (female-led) urban fantasy and paranormal romance genres, and inspired countless future authors and stories that she enjoys much more. |
| 236 | * [[invoked]] GeniusBonus: Believes ''Series/SesameStreet's'' the Count being cursed to count things is this as well as well as a simple pun on his name. |
| 237 | * GeniusDitz: Fairly gullible and flighty, she's still genuinely good at analyzing the crap out of something. |
| 238 | * GenreShift: She half-complains, half-praises ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'' for starting out as a tense thriller and then morphing into a campy vampire gorefest. |
| 239 | * GirlOnGirlIsHot: When WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick reviewed ''Film/CruelIntentions'', Maven inserted herself into the review and attempted to recreate the infamous make out scene between Creator/SarahMichelleGellar and Creator/SelmaBlair, Elisa even dressing up as SMG's character, under the belief the review needed a [[{{Fanservice}} gimmick]]. Lindsay adamantly [[{{Fandisservice}} disagreed]]. |
| 240 | * GoryDiscretionShot: We don't ''see'' Dan's face getting bashed in, we just see Maven and Chick beating him and the sounds of their punching. |
| 241 | * GuiltyPleasures: Admits in her Series/TrueBlood Season 2 review that [[VillainousCrush villainous characters being irresistably drawn to the heroic lead]] (like Eric Northman to Sookie) is one of her all-time favorite tropes, even knowing its QuestionableConsent undertones. |
| 242 | * HappilyMarried: To WebVideo/PawDugan, complete with two children. |
| 243 | * HarsherInHindsight: In Universe, as when reviewing "Film/TheFearlessVampireKillers", she mentions how its director and leading man Creator/RomanPolanski is a felon who can never come back to America, as he would immediately be arrested after his admission to rape of a 13 year old child, while also detailing how his character, the supposed bumbling NiceGuy hero, having many, many moments of him displaying a hidden perverted nature. That's on top of the death of Pulaski's wife Creator/SharonTate, the film's leading lady, two years later at the hands of the Manson family while she was eight months pregnant... |
| 244 | -->'''Elisa''': But this is a comedy...\ |
| 245 | ''(her smile quickly fades into a wince)'' |
| 246 | * HaveAGayOldTime: For ''Literature/{{Carmilla}}. Though surprisingly not the word "queer." Apparently, "strange" used to be a British slang term for homosexual, and a few chapters in Carmilla describe a "strange love" and "strange agony." That, when combined with Carmilla's heavily implied lesbianism and her feeding on Laura having heavily erotic undertones, and Maven is pretty sure this was intentional on Le Fanu's part. |
| 247 | * HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: Maven shuts down the {{Fanon}} theory that Laura was secretly into Literature/{{Carmilla}} but too far in the closet to realize it, since Laura herself often mentally goes out of her way to explain to the reader that she is ''not'' attracted to Carmilla that way ''[[JustFriends at all]]''. Laura even muses at one point that if Carmilla were secretly a ''boy'' disguised as a girl to get close to her, then she'd be thrilled. But if Carmilla really is a girl then she is horrified, repulsed, and can only explain her "[[HaveAGayOldTime queer]]" come-ons as ''insanity''. |
| 248 | * SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct:[[invoked]] Says this of Creator/JimCarrey in ''Film/OnceBitten''. Before this film, he was mostly known for his impressions, and earlier script drafts called for more gags, but his acting proved so good that they weren't needed, and the film pretty much launched his acting career. |
| 249 | * HePannedItNowHeSucks: Occasionally [[InvokedTrope Invoked]] when she's reviewing a work with the NostalgiaFilter on. Notably, she asked Dungeons&Dragons fans to take off their "blood-colored glasses" when she reviewed [[{{TabletopGame/Ravenloft}} I, Strahd]]. |
| 250 | * HoistByHisOwnPetard: Happens at the end of her ''30 Days of Night'' review. During the review, she chases Linkara (who's attracted because ''30 Days of Night'' was originally a comic) claiming that she doesn't need his expertise, which leads to the following scene: Maven boasts that she can review anything with vampires in it. Linkara challenges her to do ''Twilight'' (which she hates). When she says that it's been reviewed enough already and that she'd just be repeating what they said, he challenges her to give a ''positive'' review. She's boxed in by her statement that she could review anything with vampires in it (and Linkara prodding her along), so she does a top ten list of good things in ''Twilight'' (which is reduced to four). |
| 251 | * HollywoodHomely:[[invoked]] In her ''Series/KindredTheEmbraced'' review she snarks about how the show ''acts'' like the Nosferatu clan are all deformed monsters (like the ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}'' they're based on), but they just look like regular humans with bald heads and big ears. |
| 252 | * HonorRelatedAbuse: Sees Lucy from Bram Stoker's ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' being killed by her three repressed boyfriends and Van Helsing as this. While in-universe they're trying to keep her from feasting on children or creating other vampires, killing her for becoming a "wanton" and "voluptuous" vampire to restore her "innocence" and "purity" and rescue her immortal soul so she can get into Heaven, feels uncomfortably similar to three men murdering a woman for becoming sexually promiscuous. |
| 253 | * {{Hipster}}: According to Elisa (the real one), Maven wears the clothes she does because she thinks they're cool, when really their OTT nature is supposed to be silly. |
| 254 | * HypocriticalHumor: While reviewing ''Literature/StraightOuttaFangton'', she comments on the fact that the protagonist is an enormous nerd for researching fictional vampires so studiously. |
| 255 | * IdiotPlot: [[invoked]] Maven blasts the plot of the original ''Literature/{{Carmilla}}'' for hinging on Laura being too painfully sheltered, naive, clueless, and ''dumb'' to see the ''obvious threat'' Carmilla poses to her until days after Carmilla is killed. |
| 256 | ** Notes how "Literature/TheVampyre" hinges on the human protagonist Aubrey being too dim to see that the titular vampyre he has an obvious man crush on is bad news, then staying in the scary woods after dark against the local villagers' warnings. |
| 257 | * {{I Knew It}}[[invoked]]: In her playthrough of ''Videogame/{{Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines}}'', she cops quite soon that Jeannette and Therese [[spoiler: are one person with dissociative personality disorder]]. |
| 258 | * InfoDump: States this to be the FatalFlaw of ''Literature/VampireAcademy'' film, despite being so loyal to the book. The book has a ''lot'' of lore too, but cleverly and interestingly weaves it into the plot. The film... doesn't. |
| 259 | * InformedAttribute: |
| 260 | ** Notes in her ''Film/BladeII'' review that while vampires are supposedly AlwaysChaoticEvil monsters and a threat to humanity, in both movies we only ever see them wanting to party amongst themselves or find a niche place in the fringes of human society (whether organized crime like the mafia vampires in the first film, or the wild party scene in the second film), and some even show more emotional depth and attachments to each other than Blade ever shows for anyone, so she fails to see why they all ''deserve'' to be killed. |
| 261 | ** Skewers ''Film/OnceBitten'' for positing that teenagers are supposedly having sex younger instead of waiting for marriage like they used to back in the good old days, so it's ''so hard'' for [[NoNameGiven the Countess]] to find an 18-year-old virgin to drink from... even though teens used to get married much younger... and the five main human characters are all 18-year-old virgins... |
| 262 | -->'''Maven:''' Yeaaah, this doesn't hold up to scrutiny ''at all''... |
| 263 | ** In her ''Literature/AnitaBlake'' review, Maven discusses how Laurell K. Hamilton wanted to write a female character who got to do all the morally questionable things that male characters got to do: drink, smoke, curse, have casual sex, and even kill without feeling guilty. Maven notes that aside from the vampire-slaying, Anita doesn't do ''any'' of these things. (At least, not in the first book.) Far from it, she's chaste, faithful, prays over meals, and judges people who do these things ([[FemaleMisogynist especially other women]], [[{{Hypocrite}} ironically]]), making her come across as more of a self-righteous goody-goody. |
| 264 | ** Aubrey from "Literature/TheVampyre" is described as an IdleRich UpperClassTwit with no skills or talents, but he's later shown to be multilingual, a good amateur archeologist, and a decent sketch artist. |
| 265 | ** "Laura is a very smart girl," which the narrator tells us at the beginning, but we see no evidence of since Laura keeps dismissing or ignoring all the obvious red flags that Literature/{{Carmilla}} displays. |
| 266 | * InformedWrongness: [[invoked]] Notes that Polidori expects readers of "Literature/TheVampyre" to take the titular vampyre's womanizing and gambling as signs that he's pure evil. Except that, apart from being a literal blood-drinking monster, the only two things he does "wrong" before TheReveal is cause women he comes into contact with to "act slutty" (which comes off as SlutShaming by today's standards), and while he robs people blind at the card table, Maven notes there's no evidence that he ''forced'' them to gamble their entire fortunes in the first place. (Though, given that Polidori drank and gambled himself into an early grave because he blamed Creator/LordByron for his life's problems, [[RealitySubtext it could be projecting on Polidori's part]]...) |
| 267 | * InherentInTheSystem: In ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}'', vampires have over-converted humanity so there aren't physically enough humans to produce enough blood to sustain the global vampire population, and large corporations put the onus on consumers to ration blood during the crisis. But this isn't a sustainable solution because drinking too little blood causes vampires to degenerate into feral, animalistic, ravenous monsters that have to be put down. The film makes it clear they have to change the system from the ground up, but this is easier said than done because it's too easy for consumers to turn a blind eye to how their blood is aquired, and for large-scale corporations to sabotage attempts to revitalize humanity. |
| 268 | * InnocentFanserviceGirl: She doesn't realize the appeal of {{spy catsuit}}s, opera gloves, low cut dresses and corsets. Elisa in real life, of course, knows exactly how they affect her audience. |
| 269 | * InternalizedCategorism: |
| 270 | ** Discusses how brooding, tortured, self-loathing, brunette heartthrobs who wish to be human again like [[Literature/TheVampireChronicles Louis]], [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Angel]], and [[Series/TrueBlood Vampire Bill]] can make them sympathetic to the audience due to being ProHumanTranshuman, since vampires have always symbolized outcasts and many audience members personally relate to vampires for being "different," seeing a self-loathing outcast desperately wish to be "normal" can feel like a bummer. |
| 271 | ** Averted with the ''Literature/KittyNorville'' series. While one of Kitty's defining characteristics is hating her werewolfism, allying with werewolf hunters, and blaming her werewolfism for ruining her "normal" life, Maven has no issue with it and deems it one of the few werewolf series she can actually enjoy. |
| 272 | * IntoxicationEnsues: The entire point of the Vampire Wine and Vampire Beverages reviews. Part of the humor is when Elisa and Nella get at least a little intoxicated for real. It's much-much funnier than the scripted faux intoxication scene later. |
| 273 | * IronicEcho: Critic's arrival in ''Monster Mash'' to his entrance in ''The Wiz'' two years earlier. Same con, same room, same being confused with the Nerd. Only difference being instead of happy obliviousness to the last thing, he killed a little girl for it. |
| 274 | * {{Irony}}: Elisa blasts Creator/TimBurton and Creator/JohnnyDepp for making their version of [[Film/DarkShadows Barnabas]] into an unrepentent murderer, yet expect audiences to forgive him because of how ''nice'' he is about it. Yet, she does the same thing in a different review when she gushes about how Viago from ''Film/WhatWeDoInTheShadows'' is an unrepentent, blood-sucking murderer, but he's just so ''nice'' about it that she can't help but forgive him. |
| 275 | * ItsPersonal: Her review of ''Hotel Transylvania 2'', since Elisa became a mother between her review of the first movie and the second one. She takes personal umbrage with a family film glorifying an elitist bigot of a grandpa who undermines his daughter's parenting and pushes his grandson to be what ''he'' wants him to be [[spoiler:and gets rewarded for it at the end.]] |
| 276 | * LargeHam: Deliberately done when she is in full Maven mode. |
| 277 | * LesbianVampire: Has an interesting relationship with this trope as she's quite fond of the WebVideo/{{Carmilla}} series and when this trope is used for serious relationships. She's very bored and uninterested in it when it is used as an excuse for {{Fanservice}}. |
| 278 | * LetsPlay: At the request of Patreon backers, she does a LP of ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' with WebVideo/{{Paw|Dugan}} riding shotgun. |
| 279 | * LifeImitatesArt: [[invoked]] Tragically, Elisa argues this to be the case for [=2009=]'s ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}'' In-universe, by 2019 vampires have quickly taken over the world, forced "native" humans to assimilate or be arrested, imprisoned, and harvested as factory-farmed blood donors to feed the rich. [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything But rampant mass-consumption has caused vampires to quickly squander the very natural resources they need to survive and are on the verge of self-inflicted extinction.]] But rather than address this hard reality, vampire consumers remain willfully ignorant of their destructive lifestyle, and large-scale corporations actively sabotage reform efforts and place the onus on consumers to ration the blood they buy so they themselves can turn a short-term profit by price-gouging an ever-dwindling resource even knowing in the long-term it'll spell their species doom. Now, in the real [=2019=], are we talking about vampires? Or the immigration/refugee crisis, the widening gap between rich and poor, horrific factory-farming and humans rights violations in vegetarian farming, and--oh yeah--''climate change??'' |
| 280 | * LoserProtagonist: Maven is a melodramatic, unemployed vampire wannabe who bums off her roommate Lindsey. Need we say more? |
| 281 | * LostAesop: |
| 282 | ** Maven can't tell whether ''Hotel Transylvania 2'' humans are the "norm" and monsters are the "other," or whether monsters are the privileged elite and humans are the undesirable "other," and since it keeps flip-flopping so much over whether Denis would be part of the shunned minority if he was a human or a vampire, by the time he's revealed to be [[spoiler:fully vampire]] she has no idea what the audience is supposed to take away from it. |
| 283 | ** Happens again for TheEighties film ''Film/OnceBitten.'' The film sometimes [[VirginShaming virgin-shames]] the male lead (played by Creator/JimCarrey) for being such a ''loser'' that he can't get ''laid'', but sometimes [[SlutShaming slut-shames]] and "punishes" him for trying to lose his virginity with a sexy vampire lady. So when movie's conflict is resolved by [[spoiler: Creator/JimCarrey and his [[LetsWaitAWhile formerly reluctant]] [[AllWomenArePrudes girlfriend]] doing it]], Maven has no idea what to take away from it. |
| 284 | --->'''Maven:''' ''Which is it'', movie? Are you sex-positive or not?! |
| 285 | ** She discusses a stage play adaptation of ''Literature/{{Carmilla}}'' where the enemies are made into Nazis but they keep Carmilla as a murderous vampire. As such, she has no one idea what to make of it as both sides are EvilVersusEvil but the play expects you to side with the heroine. |
| 286 | * LovedINotHonorMore: Was interested in a minor character detail of ''Literature/StraightOuttaFangton'' that a character cursed to never love or be loved is actually uninteresting to vampires. The KissOfTheVampire is so tied to sex and love in the book that it means he's not suitable as food. |
| 287 | * MadLibsCatchphrase: Her SigningOffCatchphrase always ends with "'''''I''''' am ze Maven of ze Eventide, and..." followed by parting thoughts or gags pertaining to the episode. |
| 288 | * MadonnaWhoreComplex: Irritably points out that numerous ''Dracula'' adaptations do this to Mina and Lucy, when the original novel didn't. The 30s version makes Lucy into a proto-Goth with a fondness for dark things, while Mina becomes a conservative DistressedDamsel. The 70s Frank Langella does the opposite - with Lucy as the ShrinkingViolet and Mina as the outspoken sexually liberated one (which she points out is at least a bit more progressive). ''Film/BramStokersDracula'' meanwhile makes Mina more of an obvious FinalGirl, and Lucy into a ReallyGetsAround flirt. She backtracks on the latter when reviewing the film proper, offering an interpretation that Mina envies Lucy for being more sexually liberated. |
| 289 | * MaleGaze: |
| 290 | ** She's a little confused as to why Salma Hayek needed to do a sexy bikini dance when all the humans were trapped in the bar already. |
| 291 | ** ''Film/TheHunger''. Maven is very disappointed that an otherwise progressive portrayal of two bisexual women engaging in consensual intercourse filmed in TheEighties is undermined by the sex scene itself. |
| 292 | --->'''Maven:''' If the camera would just let us ''see'' these fabulous actors' faces... But those damn curtains are in the way, because apparently the film thought the audience wanted to feel like Peeping Toms instead of connecting to the characters' feelings. |
| 293 | * ManChild: How she sees Creator/AdamSandler's characters, and the young vampire men in ''Film/TheLostBoys''. |
| 294 | * MeaningfulName: |
| 295 | ** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maven Maven]] means "a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others." In this case, that field is vampires. |
| 296 | ** Also Morty (her travel skull). ''Mort'' is French for dead (and the root word for words such as mortician). |
| 297 | ** Maven snarks about this for ''Film/TheLostBoys'' review, since most of the names are so subtle they'll hit you like a hammer. |
| 298 | * MenAreTheExpendableGender: {{Discussed|Trope}} in her [=Vlog=] of ''Film/UnderworldAwakening;'' she theorizes that the main character is ''[[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic supposed]]'' to be sympathetic and ass-kicking because she kills only men, and not other women. |
| 299 | * MisplacedRetribution: In her [[Literature/{{Dracula}} Lucy Westenra]] review, she is horrified by the 2014 [=BBC=] {{Dracula}} show for having Dracula find out that Jonathan Harker cheated on Mina with her best friend, but instead of being enraged with ''him'' for his betrayal, his first reaction is "That bitch!" and a rush to punish ''Lucy'' ([[BuryYourGays who is also lesbian in this version]], and deeply regrets her actions soon after). Elisa is glad the series was never revived for a second season. |
| 300 | * MonsterMash: Absolutely adores these, and discusses them in her ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvania'' and MonsterMash reviews. |
| 301 | * MsFanservice: |
| 302 | ** Albeit one who [[InnocentFanserviceGirl doesn't know]] that the clothes she wears are sexy. Her persona is this in general to suitably inclined geeks with her PerkyGoth persona, corsets, redhair, and dazzling smile. |
| 303 | ** Elisa also complains of the omnipresence of this regarding vampires while doing a list of female ones, stating that they're mostly only used for cleavage instead of horror. |
| 304 | * NewerThanTheyThink: In her "Read-Through" of "Literature/TheVampyre," she snarks that in a lot of vampire literature local peasant character will claim they have these ancient folk beliefs about vampires, and then describe [[OurVampiresAreDifferent new vampire features]] that the author just made up for the book. If the story is enduring, then through PopCultureOsmosis future audiences end up believing the described vampire features really were "ancient" folk beliefs when in RealLife, they weren't. (See Polidori writing vampires as pale aristocratic types rather than ruddy peasants, or ''Film/{{Nosferatu}} burning up in the sun...) |
| 305 | * NightmareFetishist: Her obsession for vampires is why she's doing the show in the first place. |
| 306 | * NoNameGiven: Rips into ''Film/OnceBitten'' for not even giving "The Countess" a ''name'' despite propping her up as MsFanService. |
| 307 | * NotDistractedByTheSexy: ''Anime/BloodTheLastVampire'''s gorgeous animation isn't enough to distract Maven from the fact that it lacks any kind of story, plot, or characterization. |
| 308 | * TheNotLoveInterest: Kind of ''loves'' that the filmmakers didn't make Karen into Film/{{Blade|1998}}'s LoveInterest, since so few Hollywood movies refrain from shoehorning the lead male and female heroes together. |
| 309 | * NotAMorningPerson: Being a wannabe vampire and all, she's almost totally nocturnal. |
| 310 | * NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer: She doesn't particularly relish having to say she's serious when she notes that film!Buffy had period pains as a spidey sense. |
| 311 | * OfCorsetsSexy: She wears some [[{{Fanservice}} nice corsets]]. |
| 312 | * OncePerEpisode: Her viewers always begin with her opening catchphrase and some kind of gag, then the opening theme song. Similarly, each episode ends with her SigningOffCatchphrase, followed by last-minute thoughts or gags regarding the episode, then the closing credits. |
| 313 | * OohMeAccentsSlipping: |
| 314 | ** Speaks in florid VampireVords when she remembers to, but she can never keep it up for long. Elisa says Maven wishes she had Bidialectical Disorder. |
| 315 | ** Exaggerated in her ''Hellsing'' vampire review, where she does the opening greeting in Japanese with a VampireVords ''accent''. Based on the [=YouTube=] comments, most viewers will thank her never to do that again. |
| 316 | * OutOfCharacterMoment: Rips into ''Film/OnceBitten'' for basing its entire movie off this. |
| 317 | -->'''Robin:''' I can't believe you're willing to throw away our relationship on a chauffer and a butler and a slut who eats buttons!\ |
| 318 | '''Maven:''' [[SincerityMode I can't believe it either.]] Nothing in [[NiceGuy Mark's character]] shows me that he would do that, buuut it's the entire premise of the film, so it's gotta happen. And Creator/JimCarrey's sweet sinerety hurts more than helps in this case. If he's just so ''nice'', and ''innocent'', and ''clueless'', then why is this the first time in four years that he'd make a mistake like this? It doesn't add up. |
| 319 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Maven usually puts on a very hammy, melodramatic affect. In her ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}'' review, she keeps the affect to a minimum (due to the serious {{reality subtext}} the film is dealing with) and implores the viewer to ''please'' go out and ''vote'' to stop climate change before we're all doomed. |
| 320 | * OrgasmicallyDelicious: Maven enjoys her [[Advertising/MonsterCereals Count Chocula]] cereal but doesn't go overboard. Critic, on the other hand, flutters his eyes and practically commits oral on his spoon. [[FemaleGaze As you might expect]], the camera focuses on him more. |
| 321 | * OrSoIHeard: |
| 322 | ** Todd said that NuMetal fans probably moved into Music/FallOutBoy. Maven agrees before going "...not that I would know that." |
| 323 | ** In the ''Film/OnceBitten'' episode she briefly touches on the VampireVannabe...not that she has any experience with that. |
| 324 | * OurVampiresAreDifferent: Invoked in her ''Series/KindredTheEmbraced'' review and points at the show's lack of clear distinction between the different clans, one of the things that made the original tabletop succeed in the first place, as one of the reasons why the show failed (Apparently, ''her'' vampires are green, only drink the bood of millionaires--symbolizing the inherent vampirism of classism--and they're immune to crosses, but weak against credit cards... ''so deep''...) |
| 325 | * OutWithABang: Comes up a lot in her reviews since a lot of vampire media uses vampirism to symbolize sexual awakenings, promiscuity, (or, more darkly, rape), and the "corrupted" mortal ([[SlutShaming usually a woman]]) often being killed off for it. |
| 326 | * PerkyGoth: Maven is this to a T. She is cheerful, happy, vampire-obsessed, Goth obsessed, and just so enthusiastic about the undead. She's also a great mother (who wants her child to appreciate ''Interview with the Vampire'' at age 1). |
| 327 | * PetPeeveTrope: The trope she really seems to loathe is the AllLovingHero / MessianicArchetype. |
| 328 | * {{Pride}}: Rejects [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]][='=]s offer of a crossover and tells him that she's perfectly able to review "anything about vampires, in any way" by herself. To her distress, she walks right into a challenge to review ''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]]'' in a positive way. |
| 329 | * ProHumanTranshuman: Discusses the ups and downs of this trope in a number of reviews, especially ''Series/TrueBlood'' and ''Literature/TheLittleVampire'' movie. On the one hand, it can make vampires [[TragicMonster tragic]] and sympathetic since they still like humans after becoming creatures that feed on them. On the other hand, it can carry some UnfortunateImplications since vampires have always been coded after outcasts, so the implication is that it's okay to be different only as long as you're self-loathing and wish you were normal. |
| 330 | * QuestionableConsent: Believes ''Series/TrueBlood Season 2'' is all about exploring this trope. The maenad removes Bon Temps' inhibitions so they commit acts of sexual indulgence and violence in a {{geas}}. Eric Northman manipulates Sookie into drinking his blood so she'll become attracted to him against her will. Arlene at one point worries that she forced herself on Terry (she didn't, but it's still discussed). Barry the Bellhop discusses the inherent [[UnEqualPairing power imbalance]] in any human and vampire relationship, forcing Sookie to question just how consensual her relationship with Vampire Bill is and if its' really any better than her MindGameShip with Eric Northman, etc. |
| 331 | * [[invoked]]RealitySubtext: |
| 332 | ** Argues that what makes ''Film/FrightNight1985'' memorable (if instantly dated) is how it served as a meta commentary on the changing state of the horror and vampire genres in the TheEighties. {{Dracula}}-style vampires in dusty Gothic castles were cheesy and old-fashioned, while modern suburban slasher and psychological thrillers were in. Therefore, the story centers around a fan of and a washed up old actor for classic Gothic vampire genre having to adapt their vampire knowledge to combat a new kind of vampire threat who blends in with modern suburbia as [[TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse "the serial killer next door"]]... much like how the filmmakers had to adapt classic vampire tropes for then-modern suburban sensibilities. |
| 333 | ** Due to being stuck in DevelopmentHell for 9 years, ''Film/WhatWeDoInTheShadows'' had to incorporate changing social attitudes about vampires into the script, due to the rise of ''Literature/TheTwilightSaga'', the VampiresAreSexGods craze it sparked, its backlash, and vampire burnout society experienced between 2005 and 2014. She argues that it makes the film stronger since the post-''Twilight'' vampire craze gave it so many more popular tropes to satirize and comment on, and a much more poignant DeconstructiveParody about how vampirism would not be as glamorous as people think. She concludes that the vampires ''themselves'' are as burned out from their own hype as society was by the time of the film's release. |
| 334 | ** ''Literature/{{Bunnicula}}'' was written by a closeted gay man and his Jewish wife, who both felt like outsiders their whole lives, and who subconsciously wrote a humorous children's story about a vampire bunny who is adopted by a "normal" white suburban family and is suspected of being dangerous at first, but is accepted by the end. |
| 335 | ** In her ''[[Literature/TheVampireChronicles The Vampire Lestat]]'' reviews, Elisa discusses how Creator/AnneRice's emotional struggles unintentionally showed through in her writing. While writing ''Interview with the Vampire'', she was subconsciously working through the grief of losing her young daughter, and grappling with her deeply Catholic upbringing. Likewise, she wrote ''The Vampire Lestat'' during a period in her life where she rejected Catholocism, returned to it, then rejected it again, as Lestat grapples with philosophical and existential debates about "What is goodness and meaning without God?" |
| 336 | ** ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}'' came out during the then-topical fossil fuel shortage in the US that had many people talk about switching to alternative fuel sources, and being sore with Big Oil companies for sabotaging this in favor of keeping people dependent on fossil fuels so they can turn a short-term profit. (Much like how in the movie, vampires are running out of human blood to sustain themselves and large corporations actively sabotage efforts to reverse this because the status quo makes them a short-term profit). Unfortunately, now it can be seen as applicable to ''climate change'', and First World humans' continued refusal to meaningfully combat it. |
| 337 | ** "Literature/TheVampyre": According to Maven, Polidori was Creator/LordByron's physician and "frienemy," trailing on his coattails yet hating his guts and resenting his fame. So, Polidori decided to write a short story that, in his mind, would expose Byron's sinful character to high society and be so successful that Polidori would surpass him in fame. The story is about a young noble who becomes the companion of the titular vampyre (who is [[BlatantLies sooo not Lord Byron]]), becomes disillusioned when he learns what an evil cad he is, then [[spoiler: is slowly driven mad from his inability to warn high society of the The Vampyre's true nature and dies tragically young after the Vampyre destroys his life]]. Polidori himself couldn't get over his own perceived inability to "reveal" how wicked Lord Byron really was to high society (they knew, they just didn't care), and was so depressed that he could never surpass [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter Lord Byron]] that Polidori drank himself into an early grave at age ''25''. |
| 338 | * RealWomenDontWearDresses: |
| 339 | ** Suspects this to be the main reason that, of the two female leads in ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'', the more traditionally-considered "masculine" [[{{Bifauxnen}} Integra Hellsing]] tends to overshadow the more vulnerable, emotional, skirt-wearing [[NiceGirl Seras Victoria]]. |
| 340 | ** Discusses a similar issue with ''Literature/AnitaBlake'' and says that it makes the character UnintentionallyUnsympathetic. |
| 341 | ** Similarly can't get invested in [[TheStoic Saya]] from ''Anime/BloodTheLastVampire'' since ([[MsFanservice apart from being a Japanese schoolgirl in a fetishy sailor uniform]]) she has all the personality and depth of a standard burned out male AntiHero, like Deckard from ''Film/BladeRunner.'' |
| 342 | * RedShirt: So, let's say you're trying to adapt a classic vampire story (especially ''Film/BramStokersDracula'', ''Literature/{{Carmilla}}'', or ''[[Film/DarkShadows Barnabas]]'') and you want to make the vampire a romantic hero this time, while still keeping their SerialKiller tendencies from the original story. How to make them sympathetic? Why, just have them kill off a bunch of characters the audience doesn't personally know or care about! [[SarcasmMode That'll keep them sympathetic.]] |
| 343 | * [[ReluctantMonster Reluctant Vampire]]: Discusses the trope by name when discussing ''Film/DraculasDaughter'' and ''Literature/{{Carmilla}}'' in her "Top Ten Female Vampires" review. |
| 344 | * RichBitch[=/=]TheScrooge: She's a snob who owns [[EverythingsSparklyWithJewelry diamond necklaces]], [[PimpedOutDress pretty dresses]], and HighClassGloves, but complains when the Chick demands rent money. Although the implication seems to be that she doesn't actually have a lot of money, she just wastes it on this stuff instead of important things. (She's still saving up for a coffin to sleep in.) |
| 345 | * RomanticismVersusEnlightenment: Claims Louis and Lestat share this dynamic in ''Literature/TheVampireChronicles'' (especially the first two books), with Lestat as the rational and godless Enlightenment to Louis' deeply Catholic Romantic. |
| 346 | * PseudoRomanticFriendship: Not a fan of this trope when used for {{Queerbaiting}}, but loves when it genuinely explores deep, platonic bonds between female characters. |
| 347 | ** ''Loves'' the campy live-action remake of ''Anime/BloodTheLastVampire'' better than the original [[TrueArtIsAngsty OVA]] because it centers around Saya's budding friendship with the human girl [[BadassNormal Alice]], and too few vampire stories feature strong friendships between women at all, let alone the emotional focus of the story. |
| 348 | * RootingForTheEmpire: InUniverse. While reading ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', she admitted she found Dio Brando the most sympathetic character due to his upbringing and revolutionary ideals, and was disappointed he became a CardCarryingVillain after becoming a vampire. |
| 349 | * RuleAbidingRebel: Snarks in her ''Series/KindredTheEmbraced'' review that the Gangrels in the show are supposedly biker bad boys ([[AdaptationPersonalityChange rather than the Brujah]]), but the only ones we see are all loyal and obediant lap dogs to the [[BlueBlood Ventrue]]. |
| 350 | * RuleOfCool: Maven admits that ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' and ''Film/TheLostBoys'' pretty much ''run'' on this trope. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Not that it hurts their enjoyability whatsoever.]] She feels this trope was less effective for ''Film/Underworld2003'', though. |
| 351 | * RuleOfSymbolism: Maven admits that ''Literature/TheMothDiaries'' throws every bit of symbolism into scenes they can, but they enjoy themselves so much so she didn't get annoyed with it. |
| 352 | * RunningGag: During her Carmilla Read-Through, Maven chirps, "Laura is a very smart girl," every time Laura ignores or dismisses an ''obvious'' red flag of Carmilla's true nature. |
| 353 | * SexIsEvil: ''NOT'' a fan of this trope, and tends to come down hard on vampire media that plays it straight. |
| 354 | * ShallowParody: [[invoked]] |
| 355 | ** Loves ''Film/WhatWeDoInTheShadows'' because it's ''not'' this. |
| 356 | ** She calls ''Film/DraculaDeadAndLovingIt'' one because of the jokes it makes about BritishStuffiness - which are extremely odd considering how more sanitized the American ''Dracula'' adaptations were compared to the British. |
| 357 | ---> "1930s Hollywood was even more repressed than the actual Victorian Era." |
| 358 | * SharedUniverse: Because of the cameos, Maven's part of the Reviewaverse. |
| 359 | * ShipTease: Maven asks herself in “Monster Mash” why she keeps going over to Moarte's crypt. |
| 360 | * ShowDontTell: Maven’s review of ''Film/Underworld2003'' praises the convoluted {{backstory}} of centuries of drama, passion, betrayal and murder, but notes it only comes up in exposition. |
| 361 | * TheSlacker: She owes the Chick a lot of rent, but doesn't want to find a job because nothing hires at night. Which in New York City is a {{Blatant Lie|s}}. |
| 362 | * SlobsVsSnobs: How the FurAgainstFang debate is depicted in ''Film/Underworld2003''. Vampires party in a DecadentCourt while [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent "Lycans"]] enjoy drinking cheap booze and pit fighting in a filthy sewer. |
| 363 | * SlutShaming: Not a fan of vampire media that uses vampirism to symbolically "punish" sexually liberated characters, particularly female characters. |
| 364 | * SomethingAboutARose: |
| 365 | ** Maven holds a red rose in the ''Underworld'' review to make herself look all mysterious and cool. |
| 366 | ** She also gives Todd a black rose in ''Film/QueenOfTheDamned''. |
| 367 | * SpeakOfTheDevil: In her ''[[Advertising/MonsterCereals Count Chocula]]'' review, saying "Nostalgia" three times summons WebVideo/TheNostalgiaCritic, a la ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}''. |
| 368 | * SpellMyNameWithAThe: "Good eeeevening. I am ze Maven of ze Eventide, velcome." |
| 369 | * SpoiledSweet: Her description of Lucy from the ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' mythos, even comparing her to the trope picture [[WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog Charlotte "Lottie" LaBouff]]. She describes how Lucy is a beautiful and wealthy aristocrat, yet rather than being a RichBitch and a SpoiledBrat she's a very sweet, caring, and loyal friend to the middle class Mina and equally caring to all of her suitors. |
| 370 | * SpotlightStealingSquad: Finds Creator/AdamSandler's {{Dracula}} to be this in the ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvania'' movie series. |
| 371 | * StatusQuoIsGod: Notes that Film/{{Blade|Trilogy}} is never allowed to change or grow in any of the sequels or spin-offs. [[spoiler:The second film even brings his mentor/father figure back from the dead so Blade can continue business as usual.]] |
| 372 | * SturgeonsLaw: Maven fully admits that most vampire fiction is schlock, so when it comes to quality she'll take what she can get. |
| 373 | * TakeThat: Has one with WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows at the entire genre of Nu Metal. Basically, their review of ''Film/QueenOfTheDamned'' devotes a considerable amount of time to the fact that Lestat's world changing musical persona is undercut by the fact that he's playing in a genre which they consider faddish at best, and was already going out of fashion when the movie was released (Todd even believes that 2002 was the last year it ''could'' have been released). They also point out that Anne Rice set it up so Lestat's musical persona was based on rock legend ''Jim Morrison'' so the switch to using Korn is a big step down. Which isn't even necessarily an insult to Korn so much as BigShoesToFill. |
| 374 | * ThereWasADoor: Variation in her review of ''Underworld'', when Selene shoots her way through the floor to catch up with her love interest, who's taken the elevator. [[StatingTheSimpleSolution Maven points out she could have just taken the stairs.]] |
| 375 | -->'''Maven:''' Selene? Th-there was a door to the stairs right there, and it's only one flight down, and those are silver bullets too! Do you know how soft those are?" |
| 376 | * TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: Remarks that the original ''Film/FrightNight1985'' is effective because it moved the ''horror'' of vampires away from the BMovie aesthetic that had dominated (and stagnated) the genre before it, and made Jerry into "the serial killer next door." Affable, ordinary-looking, and the last person anyone would believe is a ''vampire.'' |
| 377 | * TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: InUniverse, she feels this way about Mavis from the ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvania'' movies, especially ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvania2'' where the story shifts from the MonsterMash premise into a private family matter. But rather than exploring Mavis' feelings of wanting to see the world, [[InterspeciesRomance falling in love with a human]], [[MalignedMixedMarriage being in a mixed marriage]], [[HalfHumanHybrid or raising her biracial son]] ([[DatingWhatDaddyHates all against her father's wishes]]), the movies focus on giving Creator/AdamSandler and his buddies big fat paychecks. |
| 378 | ** She also feels this way about [[spoiler:Max the head vampire]] from ''Film/TheLostBoys''. Two of her favorites tropes are the TragicMonster who struggles with morality, and the VillainousCrush on a main character, so both would have been perfect to explore here. However, Maven notes that he's just kind of there and doesn't seem that into Lucy apart from [[spoiler:seeing her as a potential mother for his boys]], then gets killed off shortly after TheReveal, so it was all wasted potential. |
| 379 | ** She feels that Film/{{Blade|Trilogy}} as a character is pretty underdeveloped and under-explored franchise-wide, due to the writers wanting him to remain strictly a RuleOfCool [[ByronicHero Brooding Loner]] EscapistCharacter, rather than a flawed and dynamic character who learns, grows, and changes over installments. |
| 380 | * [[invoked]]TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: |
| 381 | ** This is her assessment of ''WesternAnimation/HotelTransylvania'', particularly for having NoAntagonist. |
| 382 | ** She felt ''Film/BladeII'' had the potential to explore the vampire's [=POV=] since Blade teams up with a group of them, and even challenge Blade's belief that they're AlwaysChaoticEvil since his LoveInterest hints that he's their boogie man and is sympathetic herself--but nope! Everyone's a FlatCharacter except Blade, all the vampire characters are killed off, and Blade continues his one-man war against all vampires without any character growth or insight. |
| 383 | * TooBleakStoppedCaring: [[invoked]] One of her main criticisms of ''Film/ModernVampires'' is that, other than the protagonist Dallas who's ultimately presented as powerless to change the system, everybody in the movie, both human and vampire alike, is a monster. |
| 384 | * TooDumbToLive: Laura from the original ''Literature/{{Carmilla}}'', whom Maven states was so ''dim'' she doesn't make the connection that the vampire who killed Spielsdorf's niece, drains local peasant women, and causes her own anemia could possibly be her friend - against all evidence - until ''after'' Carmilla's death. |
| 385 | -->'''Maven:''' In order to keep up Laura's serious case of the [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday "Not-Gays,"]] the novel has to lay it on ''reeeally'' thick with her naivete. Spielsdorf tells his whole story about his niece dying that's almost exactly the same with what's happening with Laura, but Laura is so ''clueless'' that she doesn't connect it to Carmilla. Even when she sees Carmilla act all vampire-y at the end and disappears, ''she still doesn't get it''. The author makes Laura sooo '''dumb''' to try to keep the reader in suspense and worry that Laura remains in danger of falling prey to her cluelessness. |
| 386 | ** Aubrey from "Literature/TheVampyre," showing 19th century GothicHorror protagonists have always been this way. He similarly refuses to believe local folklore about vampires, promises to at least return from the scary woods before nightfall, doesn't, and is predictably attacked by a vampire. (She argues even if he didn't believe local "superstition," staying out in a forest after dark isn't a good idea anyway.) |
| 387 | * TopTenList: |
| 388 | ** One of them of positive things about ''Twilight''... [[spoiler:which is reduced to just 4 as Elisa isn't ''that'' generous.]] |
| 389 | ** She later does one with female vampires. Which limited to both one per franchise "because two would dominate" and visual media (which hurt Literature/{{Carmilla}} due to inferior adaptations). |
| 390 | * TragicMonster: This is Elisa's favorite type of vampire. |
| 391 | ** She points out it's why she loves ''Film/WhatWeDoInTheShadows'' because while the protagonists are all evil, they're still cursed and humanized people suffering under a dreadful curse. |
| 392 | ** She notes this is a largely unexplored element of ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'' as while Alucard is the embodiment of RuleOfCool mixed with an EscapistCharacter, he is also a figure who is suffering from a curse that makes him a DeathSeeker. |
| 393 | ** She finds the original ''Literature/{{Carmilla}}'' the most tragic and complex version, since she is ''repulsed'' by death and yet her very nature requires her to take others' lives to further her own existence, and she tries so desperately to rationalize it, fails, and is eternally ''miserable'' as a result. |
| 394 | ** Subverted by ''Film/DarkShadows'' in that she doesn't find Barnabus or his situation tragic at all despite the film playing him that way. |
| 395 | * {{Transhuman}}: ''Film/DarkShadows'' gives her the power of hypnotism. It doesn't work on Chick the first time (for reasons you can guess), but it does the second until she gets hit on the head with a beer bottle. |
| 396 | * TrueBlueFemininity: [[DiscussedTrope Notes in her]] list of top female vampires, that it's refreshing to see that trope once in a while. |
| 397 | * TwoDecadesBehind: She and Todd go on that the book of ''Film/QueenOfTheDamned'', it made sense for Lestat [[ThePowerOfRock becoming a rock star]] considering how influential the genre was in TheEighties. Not so much in 2002, especially using NuMetal like the movie did. |
| 398 | * UnbuiltTrope: {{Discussed|Trope}} in her Top Ten Female Vampires list: Carmilla from ''Film/TheVampireLovers'' is a complex and interesting character, but the film fetishizes her status as a LesbianVampire, which helped lead to future female vampires being portrayed little more than murderous sex fiends. Also on the list is Countess Marya Zaleska from ''Film/DraculasDaughter,'' a well-rounded and less sexualized character from all the way back in 1936. |
| 399 | ** Discussed again in her read-through of Polidori's "Literature/TheVampyre," as while it was the TropeCodifier for the modern vampire as we know it (pale aristocratic types rather than ruddy peasants), it also predates a lot of the common vampire tropes we've come to expect, so you see things like vampires leaving teeth marks but not having fangs, going out into daylight without problem, apparently being able to be killed from a regular bullet wound to the shoulder (where there are no organs), and vampires being able to take on fake identities that aren't just anagrams of their birth names (like Literature/{{Carmilla}} and {{Dracula}} do). |
| 400 | ** Notes that ''Literature/InterviewWithTheVampire'' was the first urban fantasy as we know it. It depicted this idea that there's a secret underworld of vampires (and other folk creatures) who always hid in plain sight among humans well into our modern world, but have their own secret laws and societies that [[KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade uphold the masquerade]] from the shadows. While the Victorian Gothic genre had vampires fitting in and preying upon polite society (Polidori's ''Literature/TheVampyre'', Le Fanu's ''Literature/{{Carmilla}}'', and Bram Stoker's ''Literature/{{Dracula}}''), those vampires were depicted as solitary creatures or clans who didn't bother to hide their existence from peasants (whom they fed on), and who blended in with upper class society as a means to an end (to hunt the nobility) and the [[PrideBeforeAFall British upper crust were too proud]] to believe these silly folk superstitions were real; not because the vampires were part of an underground society who actively hid their existence from humans while hiding among them in plain sight. She further notes that ''Interview'' is much more ''literary'' than the more casual popular fiction genre as we know it, since the ''Literature/AnitaBlake'' series [[TropeCodifier defined the genre]] as we know it today. |
| 401 | * UncannyValleyMakeUp: If her amount of eyeshadow gets any bigger it'll have its own credit. |
| 402 | * [[invoked]] UncertainAudience: Has discussed how this has hurt vampire media's critical success more than once. |
| 403 | ** ''Series/KindredTheEmbraced'': Tried too hard to appeal to mainstream [[TheNineties 90s]] audiences and thus alienated the ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' fanbase it was based on. Then it played up the macho "mafia vs cops" aesthetic that scared off female viewers, yet included too much schmaltzy SoapOpera stories (and vampire stuff) to interest adult male audiences. Maven notes the showrunners seemed to realize this and quickly switched the AudienceSurrogate character to a female reporter rather than the male detective of the pilot, but it was too litle, too late and the series was unceremoniously canceled after just ''eight episodes.'' |
| 404 | ** ''Film/FrightNight2011'': Notes that the remake came out in the midst of the ''[[Literature/TheTwilightSaga Twilight]]'' backlash and was meant to harken back to the classic [[TheEighties 1980s]] horror vampire that the anti-''Twilight'' crowd yearned for. Yet, the film's marketing sold it as another soft, sensitive ''Twilight'' knock-off. The result was that the ''Twilight''-hating crowd avoided it in disgust, while the few ''Twilight'' fans who went to see it were rightly ticked by the BaitAndSwitch. |
| 405 | * UnfortunateImplications: [[invoked]] |
| 406 | ** {{Discussed|Trope}} in her review of ''Literature/LetTheRightOneIn'', given that the seemingly female Eli is [[spoiler:revealed to be a boy whose genitals were mutilated by his sire and forced to pass as a girl]]. Maven tries to give the author credit for probably not doing this intentionally, but it nonetheless encourages the harmful [[spoiler:"trans women are just gay men in dresses out to trick straight men into having sex with them"]] stereotype; not helped by Eli being a literal blood-sucking monster who ravages the victims she tricks into trusting her. |
| 407 | ** In her ''Film/BladeII'' review, she remarks that vampires in both movies are never really seen hurting humanity at large (first movie vampire mafia antics aside, but even then they were working alongside human crime lords), but just partying amongst themselves. The second movie especially plays down their violent-to-humans antics but plays up their "debaucerous" lifestyle (drug rave parties, fetishes, tattoos, etc.) which implies that they ''deserve'' to die because "they're all slutty and wild." |
| 408 | ** Likewise, discusses how ''Series/BladeTheSeries'' reduces Blade, one of mainstream media's few black characters, into a [[FlatCharacter flat]] side character and gives all the drama, conflict, and story to two white characters (his fledgling and the series' BigBad). |
| 409 | ** Discussed in her [[Literature/{{Dracula}} Lucy Westenra]] review. No matter how you slice it, tons of ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' adaptations having [[TheSmurfettePrinciple two named female characters]] who serve as foils for each other, where one dies early on and the other becomes the FinalGirl, says a lot about what type of girl "deserves" to survive. (Especially since the FinalGirl always embodies feminine traits her society approves of, while the Lucy character always embodies less socially acceptable traits for a woman of her time.) Especially since the original book didn't paint either as being more deserving to survive; as she points out, book Lucy's death is the ultimate tragedy because of what a NiceGirl she is, and merely symbolizes the fading of the aristocracy. |
| 410 | ** Probably goes without saying that ''Literature/{{Carmilla}}'' is very lesbophobic by today's standards. To slip a LesbianVampire story past the MoralGuardians, [=LeFanu=] had to depict Carmilla's love for Laura as [[PsychoLesbian toxic, predatory, and destructive]], and [[BuryYourGays kill her off for it]]. Laura, in turn, was given a strong case of HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday and constantly internally insists she sees Carmilla as JustFriends. |
| 411 | * [[invoked]] UnintentionallySympathetic: Believes this about the villain of ''Film/TheLairOfTheWhiteWorm'' where she is given all the best lines, a sympathetic backstory, and is just fabulous in all ways--except for being a murderous psychopathic rapist. |
| 412 | * [[invoked]] UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: |
| 413 | ** Has this opinion of Barnabus Collins in ''Film/DarkShadows'' where she indicates despite his TheWoobie status being invoked, he's actually an enormous prick who murders innocent people left and right while expecting the audience's sympathy. |
| 414 | ** The protagonist of ''Film/OnceBitten'' is a cheating asshole who is pressuring his girlfriend into sex, yet he's the protagonist? |
| 415 | ** Finds Blade in ''Film/BladeII'' to be not so different from the supposed AlwaysChaoticEvil vampires of his setting, but since they're only ever shown wanting to party amongst themselves [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything while he wants to hunt them to extinction just by virtue of their race]]... ''well''. |
| 416 | ** Finds Laura from the original ''Literature/{{Carmilla}}'' novella to be TooDumbToLive, let alone to find sympathetic or relatable. |
| 417 | ** Finds Carmilla from the stage play to be this (despite Spielsdorf being changed to a literal pedophilic Nazi) because she is still a SerialKiller of human girls, but now without her ReluctantMonster anguish from the novella. |
| 418 | ** Notes how Polidori tries to show how evil [[Literature/TheVampyre the titular vampyre]] is by having him allow card-sharps to win while robbing "good" gamblers blind at the card table, and expects the reader to sympathize with all the poor men who gambled their entire fortunes and estates away and now they and their children are destitute. She notes that the vampyre didn't force any of them to bet anything. |
| 419 | --->'''Maven:''' Never gamble anything you aren't prepared to lose. |
| 420 | * UnintentionalPeriodPiece:[[invoked]] In her words, ''Film/TheLostBoys'', ''Film/FrightNight1985'', and ''Film/OnceBitten'' are "''sooo [[TheEighties 80's]].''" |
| 421 | * UnsportsmanlikeGloating: [[invoked]] Vampires are more popular than werewolves, and she won't let werewolf fans forget it. |
| 422 | * ValuesDissonance: [[invoked]] There've been about two centuries of mainstream vampire media to review (not counting centuries of drooling corpses in Eastern European folklore before Polidori's "Literature/TheVampyre" in 1819), and a number of Vampire {{Trope Codifier}}s were developed in UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain literature and early 20th century Hollywood cinema, so you'd better believe this trope comes up a lot. |
| 423 | ** In her Vampire Read-Through of ''Literature/{{Carmilla}}'', Elisa has a field day snarking at all the outdated Victorian British values: The belief that [[WhatMeasureIsAMook servants don't really count as people]], the ScaryBlackWoman trope, the "foreign and exotic = scary and dangerous" trope, the firm belief that BeautyEqualsGoodness, Carmilla being portrayed as a PsychoLesbian, the human characters all being TooDumbToLive yet the reader is still supposed to identify with and root for them... The straight white male characters all slaughtering a woman for the crime of being gay and hitting on their women... |
| 424 | * ValuesResonance:[[invoked]] Despite being a children's book written in TheSeventies, ''Literature/{{Bunnicula}}'' has an enduring message. Chester the cat assumes the titular bunny is a literal vampire and thus a threat to everyone. You expect TheReveal to be that Bunnicula isn't a vampire and Chester should feel ashamed of assuming he is based on his appearance, right? Actually, no: Bunnicula ''is'' a vampire, but harmless since he only sucks the juice from vegetables. The lesson is not "Don't assume someone who looks different is different," but rather "Just because someone ''is'' different doesn't mean they're dangerous or deserve to be shunned." It's definitely a value that resonates (and needs to be stated) more in TheNewTens than the TheSeventies... |
| 425 | ** ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}'', which doubles as a case of LifeImitatesArt. 20MinutesIntoTheFuture of 2019, TheBeautifulElite vampires have taken over the world, forced humans to "assimilate" to vampirism, [[ANaziByAnyOtherName and those who resisted assimilation]] [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything are arrested, imprisoned, and farmed for their blood to sustain the wealthy]]. However, vampires have squandered the very natural resources they need to survive and are on the verge of self-inflicted extinction, but rather than confront this grim reality, consumers turn a blind eye to how their blood is aquired, and large for-profit corporations place the onus on consumers to ration the blood they buy so they themselves can turn a short-term profit by price-gouging the rising demand for an ever-decreasing resource, even knowing in the long run it'll doom the species. Maven points out how in [=2009=] audiences thought the movie was about the then-fossil fuel shortage, but in [=2019=] one can easily draw parrallels to ''climate change'', and first world humanity's continued refusal to do anything about it. |
| 426 | * VampiresAreSexGods: Frequently Discussed as she mentions vampires are characters which can be used to tackle issues of sexism, homophobia, and the status of outsiders while also being used ''against'' those kind of individuals. |
| 427 | * VampireVannabe: Her entire schtick. Taken to the next level in the Vampire Wine review. |
| 428 | * VampireVords: [[OohMeAccentsSlipping Lapsed into and out of]], but always used in her intro: |
| 429 | -->"''Good eeeevenink!'' I am ze Maven of ze Eventide, and ''velcome'' to Vampire Reviewz! ...bleh!" |
| 430 | * VillainousCrush: Admits in ''Film/TheLostBoys'' and ''Series/TrueBlood Season 2'' review that this is one of her all-time favorite tropes. Especially when a "villainous" vampire becomes irresistably attracted to a "good" human, like Eric Northman to Sookie in ''Series/TrueBlood.'' |
| 431 | * WarIsHell: Argues that ''Anime/BloodTheLastVampire'' and its many spinoffs use vampirism to explore this theme. |
| 432 | * WeakWilled: She's incredibly gullible when it comes to what heroes (or anti-heroes) do in movies, always trying them in real life. |
| 433 | * WerewolfThemeNaming: Assumes this (incorrectly) about Lupa. |
| 434 | * WhatDoYouMeanItsNotDidactic: {{Invoked|Trope}}. Maven makes good on her promise that she'll make ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'' blow your mind. |
| 435 | * [[invoked]] WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: |
| 436 | ** Averted. Elisa does a lot of material which is related to classist, feminist, racial, and otherwise political topics related to vampirism. |
| 437 | ** Discusses the political underpinnings of both the book and movie version of ''Film/TheLairOfTheWhiteWorm.'' Basically, that the rich nobility are literally feeding off the poor in order to sustain themselves and their evil god. |
| 438 | * WhatMeasureIsAMook: |
| 439 | ** Suspects this to be the reason Selene is supposed to be sympathetic in all ''Film/Underworld'' films. She slaughters dozens without remorse in every fight scene, but they're just disposable video game fodder, so who cares?! |
| 440 | ** Takes a moment to wonder if the dozens and dozens of mooks Saya drops in every fight scene in the live-action ''Anime/BloodTheLastVampire'' have any friends, family, loved ones, hopes, dreams, or reservations about their job since the BigBad sent them out as disposable fodder, how they might feel seeing dozens and dozens of their friends die in front of htem as they pursue Saya and--oh wait, they're dead. Never mind. |
| 441 | * WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: |
| 442 | ** A big running theme of discussion in Maven's reviews. Justifiable, seeing as how she's vampire obsessed. |
| 443 | ** {{Discussed}} in ''Film/Underworld2003'' in particular, where she notes that the werewolves are portrayed as hairy monsters so [[DesignatedHero Selene will still look sympathetic as she guns them all down without remorse.]] |
| 444 | --->'''Maven:''' Once they shift, you can't tell them apart. And when they're ''slaughtered'', the audience feels ''no'' connection to their deaths. They're just shooting fodder. This is "disposable video game enemy" logic. |
| 445 | * WhereDaWhiteWomenAt: Still carrying a torch for Film/{{Blacula}}. |
| 446 | * WishFulfillment: Often discusses how vampires serve as some degree of wish-fulfillment for the audience (since vampires get to live forever and enjoy all the social and moral freedoms denied by society), although their lifestyle is often treated as repulsive by in-universe characters to appease MoralGuardians. |
| 447 | ** Argues that the original ''Literature/{{Carmilla}}'' and ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'' including sexually suggestive female vampires coming onto the [[AudienceSurrogate proper English characters]] would have been very titilating for repressed [[UsefulNotes/VictorianBritain Victorian]] readers, but the in-universe characters treat the vampire's sexual liberation as ''horrifying.'' |
| 448 | ** Likewise, argues that [[TheEighties 80's]] vampire movies like ''Film/TheLostBoys'' and ''Film/OnceBitten'' clearly depict the vampires and their lifestyle as cool, hip, exciting, and carefree (and include an out by revealing "half-vampires" can return to normal after they have sex or kill the head vampire) that it led to the mainstream VampireVannabe, yet in-universe characters only ever treat vampires and their lifestyle as repulsive and horrifying. |
| 449 | ** Although, she comes down hard on ''Literature/TheLittleVampire'' movie for being nothing but a bare-faced wish-fulfillment fantasy for kids, since the AudienceSurrogate main kid gets to befriend a "cool" vampire, have some adventures, get even with his bullies, then return to normal life once the fun is over. She wouldn't mind so much if the film didn't include some UnfortunateImplications[[invoked]] about discrimination or be so mean-spirited about its Revenge Fantasy. |
| 450 | * WordOfGod:[[invoked]] Often invokes this to provide metatextual analysis of vampire media. |
| 451 | %%* WorldOfWeirdness: The Reviewaverse. |
| 452 | * WriteWhatYouKnow: [[invoked]] Elisa admits in a number of her promotional videos for her book ''Literature/TheCompanyOfDeath'' that she based a number of characters off real life friends and experiences. |
| 453 | * YouKeepUsingThatWord: While discussing ''[[https://youtu.be/cadPQZgw2eM The Vampire Lestate]]'' she mentions that she'd frequently seen critics of the ''Literature/TheVampireChronicles'' series take FirstInstallmentWins to the point of calling the rest of the series "the autor writing fan-fiction about her own characters". What they think 'fan-fiction' means is anyone's guess. |
| 454 | * YuriFan: Oh yeah! |
| 455 | ** She believed Marceline and Princess Bubblegum of ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' were exes long before the official reveal. |
| 456 | ** She is quite excited about Louis and Lestat's relationship dynamics in ''Film/InterviewWithTheVampire''. |
| 457 | ** She's also giddy about the SubText that David has an obsessive crush on Michael in ''Film/TheLostBoys''. |
| 458 | ** She interprets Aubrey's interest in "Literature/TheVampyre" as an obvious bisexual romantic crush. |
| 459 | ** She mentions her wish of a sequel to 1930s ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'', in which a Vamp Lucy, who was never killed off like in most adaptations, reunites with Mina, adding in a gleeful "Yes Please!" when thinking about it. |
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