Fictional Women Around the World: Nadja of Antipaxos

Nadja of Antipaxos from What We Do in the Shadows is a vampire that knows what she wants and will fight for it. Possessed dolls, werewolves, witches, and female friendships are all topics of discussion.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I didn't come to stuff.
I never told your production of iHeart Radio and welcome
to another sub sub sub sub sub sub secument. I
like to add as many subs as I can. Fictional

(00:26):
Women around the World, And as promised, today, we're going
to discuss Nadia from the f X show What We
Do in the Shadows. I was gonna put a buffer
in between doing this one and Officer Leary from Wellington Impairnormal,
but I was like, how about the show just came out,
We're moving into fall, we're moving into the Spooki seasons,

(00:46):
so I wanted to go ahead and just do it,
Just do it, just do it. Yeah, and you can
see our last Fictional Women around the World episode on
Officer Leary and also, yes, my previous guest episode on
Movie Crush where I talked about the movie What We
Do in the Shadows, and yeah, the third season did
just come out. There's gonna be some brief, vague spoilers.

(01:08):
I don't imagine we're going to go into anything in death.
But if you're really like I don't want to be spoiled,
then come back later, come back later, all right, So
let's let's just start it off again. The twenty fourteen
movie was created by Taco Watiti and Jermaine Clement. And
I'm really having a hard time during the New Zealand

(01:28):
Jama Jamain. It's bad. I'm so sorry to those who
just heard that because of the show Flat of the Concord, Like,
I can't get it out of my head. But they
are both obviously involved with the show, which debuted in
twenty nineteen, and just like the other show, Willington Paranormal,
both delightful. It's a pretty similar format to the movie.

(01:48):
It's a mockumentary about vampires and Nandor last Low, Nija
and Colin and Nandor's familiar Guillermo, who was in Atlanta
just recently, as they navigate werewolves, zombies, a city council meetings, citizenships, family,
and the vampire Council. Yes, yes, I do have a

(02:09):
funny I mean it's not funny, but like a couple
of years ago, when I was at Dragon Con, I
addressed you were there. I addressed as Hiccup from How
to Train Your Dragon, which is a children's movie, and
we were at a party and this guy dressed as
Nandor from what we do in the shadows would not
leave me alone. And it was just like the dichotomy

(02:30):
of our costumes together and my friends being like, look, dude,
she's dressed as a children's character. You just back off
and he coughed and like left in a fury, and
it was very in character. But okay, today we're talking
about Najia um A Nadia of Anti Paxos played by

(02:51):
Natasia Demetrio Um, who is an over five hundred year
old vampire and kind of what we talked about was
Officer Leary. We even mentioned this at then that episode.
She is the most competent of the vampires. I guess
you could argue her and Colin are kind of in
their running, but of like the three non energy vampire vampires,

(03:11):
she's definitely number one. It's even a running joke on
the show that all these male vampires talk about is
their Dickson farts and what is she doing with her
life by staying with him? Several times she has to
bail them out. One of the biggest example I can
think of is when they all somehow get captured by
animal control and she has to go and like immediately

(03:33):
gets them out so easily She's fierce, violent, determined, and
loyal in the way that vampires are um because they
have different views on monogamy. I'll say she's quick to anger, vindictive, superstitious,
proud and wants more power, and she's very open about
her sexuality and desires. It's one thing I love about it.
Nadia grew up poor and her mother was eaten by

(03:55):
a bear when she was a child. When she was
turned into a vampire, she was cast out from her
family and her village. Many years later, she seduced the
Englishman Laslow cravens Worth and turned him into a vampire.
And they've been in a loving relationship ever since. And
I do I love their relationship and how in their
very vampire weird way, they're very committed to each other,

(04:18):
even though yes, monogamy is different in this vampire world,
but still they love each other. One of the interesting
things about her character is the relationship she has with
other women on the show. So for for example, in
the first season, she turns Jenna, who is this human
lark being assumed virgin. She turns Jenna into a vampire

(04:41):
because she kind of feels like Jenna is not getting
in respect. She deserves. She's being treated poorly by the
other dudes, and Naudia guides her into finding her power.
And a big part of that storyline too, is they
go to a frat party, Nadia like yelling at men
about not respecting her our Jenna, and it was very enjoying,

(05:02):
even though you feel weird when you're like, oh, she
just totally killed that guy. I haven't gotten to that
part yet. I'm slowly watching it. It's been a minute.
I tried to watch a while ago and I came
back to it, but yeah, I did just recently watch
the scene where she turns Jenna and the conversation like
she sees herself being treated poorly by men in the
past and so therefore and being the only woman in

(05:24):
a group of men, she needs to help her gain
her power find her way, which, by the way, I
don't know if you know this that I had to
explain this to my partner that is played by Beingie Feldstein,
who is Jonah hills sister who was I think she
wants something. Yeah, she wanted to award the book Smart
and now she's about to be in a huge Broadway play.
So yeah, tiny character, giant actor. Yeah, she kind of

(05:47):
suddenly disappears from the show and you're like, uh, huh,
she got real faintous. There's also they play a lot

(06:09):
on the women hating women trope, so a bit later on,
I believe in the second season, we meet Lilith, who
is a witch who kidnaps Laslow and Nandora for their sperm,
and Lilith and Nandia were best friends until Lilis slept
with Laslow, and that was a moment where I'm like,
I don't know, because Doddie is really she's generally very

(06:34):
even big, but she is kind of like equal opportunity vindictive.
But I think because we've seen that trope so many
times of like, oh you slept with my my man
and now we're fighting kind of thing, that I was like,
I don't know about this. I don't know about this storyline.
But I don't know if they heard that critique or
are maybe like they were just very aware of it

(06:55):
when they did it. But in the most recent episode
we meet Gail the where Wolf. Such a fun conversation
Gale Gail that we're with who is with is a
love interest of nandor on an awful love interest and
It's a running joke throughout that episode that Nadia like Scale,

(07:19):
and but she'll say something very minor like I'm afraid
Gale is gonna break Nandor's heart. And last it will
be like, oh you hate her, You've made your feelings
perfectly clear. Um, Like they all joke that she hates Gale.
She's the one that hates Gale, and she keeps us like, no,
I like her. But she even says like it's because
we're two women, right, like I had to make this

(07:40):
catfight between us. And then there is something else I
find interesting about her character is there's an episode where
they communicate with their ghosts as vampires because technically they're
human selves have died, so they summoned like their ghost

(08:01):
and they do their unfinished business um with a ghost.
Nadia's ghost is like, what are you do? You have
so much potential? What are you doing with your time?
Why are you hanging out with these Why are you
hang out with these dummies wasting your your eternal life?
But then they connect like there's the same and they
connect on such a close level that Naughtia gets the

(08:24):
ghost of her human self to possess. This really creepy
looking doll. And now she is a character on the show,
The Nadia Doll Um and they kind of get up
to shenaniganst together and when the dudes of the house
are being insufferable, they kind of they talk it out.
But that's another example I find of Like, it's just
interesting to me how many examples I can think of

(08:46):
of people loving themselves. Essentially, it is it is. I
can't wait till we talk about Loki. I've got a
lot of thoughts about it. Yeah, but also her, it
kind of feels like she just she really does want
more female companionship in her life. And there's several episodes

(09:09):
where she we get to see into her past and
and find out that she did have close women friends
and that she misses them, and um, her relationship with
her mother, which is really fascinating. I won't say it's healthy,
but she clearly cared about her mother. UM. So that
they're there, we just don't get to see them that much.

(09:31):
And I feel like the doll is sort of a
she's trying for to have this companionship and we'll see
where that goes. Now we've got Kristin Shawl kind of
involved in in there, so I don't know what's going
to happen with their relationship. And then another thing like
this is just something it's not only this show, but

(09:53):
for sure I've had like kind of moments of anxiety
around like she'll use these problematic sexist insults, and I
get because it's you know, they're vampires and they say
things very strangely in their accents are interesting, and it's
just supposed to be there out of touch, and they
are old and they haven't learned how to adapt to

(10:14):
her modern world in a lot of ways. But it
does come up a lot where they all say like, uh,
you know, are you soft like a girl? Or are
you put your all those those kinds of things, and
she'll say them, and so that's just something else that
I'm like, I get, I get where you're coming from.
And she's definitely not like she's got a lot of issues.

(10:35):
She's violent and cruel in a lot of ways, but
also like tender and caring in a lot of ways.
That makes her an interesting character. But that has been
something else that's kind of given me pause around around that.
Mm hmm. That being said, I adore this show. The
market handle episode thing of beauty and I really recommend it,

(11:01):
and I read a lot of articles about how because
this came out before Wellington's Paranormal and people were saying like,
this is what what we do in the Shadows really
needed was because the first one was pretty much as
has made the joke in the movie a sausage fest.
I was mostly just dudes. And how her character has
been so funny and interesting, and I love how open

(11:22):
she is about like her sexuality and her desires and wants,
and how she's so power hungry and not ashamed of
it at all. So she Yeah, she's really she's a
good addition to it, and she's really interesting. Recommend delight.
It's a delight. Yes, it is. So that brings us
to the end of this sub sub sub sub sub

(11:43):
subsub god of fictional women around the world. But as
I always, we love getting your suggestions listeners. If you
would like to send those to us, that you can
or email is Steppy da Mom Stuff at iHeart media
dot com. You can find us on Twitter at month
to Podcast or on Instagram as stuff I've Never Told You.
Thanks as always to our super producer Christina also on

(12:05):
asset Oh Yes, and Thanks to you for listening stuff
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