Better you die than her! Fadzai and Sandile escape monsters by becoming them with Katherine Pierce, aka Katerina Petrova.

A key figure in the first season of The Vampire Diaries (though only making a physical appearance in its final episode), Katherine is introduced in flashbacks to 1864, the last year of Stefan and Damon Salvatore's human lives. As a guest in their home, she begins a secret relationship with each of them, before revealing that she is a centuries-old vampire; she toys with the boys, intending to turn them into vampires and leaving town with them at her side, but is seemingly captured by the founders' council in an ousting of the vampires that have infested Mystic Falls.

In present day, Katherine is revealed to have never been captured, and returns to town 145 years later to plague the Salvatore brothers - as well as her doppleganger, main character Elena Gilbert. She is the primary antagonist for the first half of season 2, and maintains a varied presence in the show for several seasons after, making her the longest-running villain on the show. With her strength, cunning, and willingness to do anything to survive, Katherine takes her place as one of the most iconic characters in the series.

(This episode focuses on Katherine in seasons 2B and 3.)

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of emotional abuse, familial abandonment, gratuitous violence, mental coercion and manipulation, obsession, physical assault and abuse, racism, sexual assault and abuse, slavery, stalking, suicide and suicidal ideation, and torture.

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Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

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In the sixteenth episode of the podcast, Fadzai and Sandile double the trouble with Katherine Pierce, aka Katerina Petrova.

A key figure in the first season of The Vampire Diaries (though only making a physical appearance in its final episode), Katherine is introduced in flashbacks to 1864, the last year of Stefan and Damon Salvatore's human lives. As a guest in their home, she begins a secret relationship with each of them, before revealing that she is a centuries-old vampire; she toys with the boys, intending to turn them into vampires and leaving town with them at her side, but is seemingly captured by the founders' council in an ousting of the vampires that have infested Mystic Falls.

In present day, Katherine is revealed to have never been captured, and returns to town 145 years later to plague the Salvatore brothers - as well as her doppleganger, main character Elena Gilbert. She is the primary antagonist for the first half of season 2, and maintains a varied presence in the show for several seasons after, making her the longest-running villain on the show. With her strength, cunning, and willingness to do anything to survive, Katherine takes her place as one of the most iconic characters in the series.

(This episode focuses on Katherine in seasons 1 and 2A.)

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of emotional abuse, familial abandonment, gratuitous violence, mental coercion and manipulation, obsession, physical assault and abuse, racism, sexual assault and abuse, slavery, stalking, suicide and suicidal ideation, and torture.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

E-mail: animalattackpod@gmail.com

Refs and Links: IWAA S1

All our online stuff!

Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

Twitter: @animattackpod

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Introducing Spin-Offs! A series of bonus episodes that contain bits of discussion about shows, movies, books, and other media (whether on- or off-topic) that were cut from the main episodes of the podcast. These are unstructured, un-themed, and a little incoherent, so feel free to pick your poison from the chapters in the description of each episode.

In this first instalment of the series, you'll hear Sandile and Fadzai's thoughts on the decline of Game of Thrones, general MCU fatigue, a number of similarly-named X-Men characters, and so much more.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

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Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

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Chapters:

(01:05) - Game of Thrones decline

(03:56) - Why does everyone hate the MCU?

(16:55) - X-Men, The Wolverine, & Japanese mutants

(20:20) - Longlegs (2024) was kinda disappointing

(21:20) - CW vs superhero media

(22:43) - How long should a TV series be?

(24:01) - True Blood and vampire relationships

(26:19) - Lie to Me, Divergent, & Shailene Woodley's career

(28:59) - Pretty Little Liars & Gossip Girl

(30:32) - Immortals (2011) & its many vampire actors

(32:33) - Romance tropes in fiction

(36:37) - The Odyssey, Percy Jackson, & Norse mythology

(39:00) - Sandile gets a bunch of geography wrong

(40:20) - Fadzai ponders school districts and inequality

(44:15) - Celebrity Twitter hacking scandals

Burn that bridge! Sandile and Fadzai hop, skip, and jump through storylines as the show tries to finally make sense of Lorenzo "Enzo" St. John.

Joining The Vampire Diaries halfway through its fifth season, Enzo is introduced as a vampire being held by Augustine when Damon is captured, having himself been there a decade already. After helping him get through years of medicalised torture, and hatching a plan for their escape, Enzo is abandoned by Damon who chooses to turn off his humanity to save himself, and presumably perishes in a fire.

In present day, it turns out Enzo was spared by a member of Augustine, and has remained under their capture and experimentation for over sixty years. The season's events result in his escape from his prison, and he focuses his efforts on rebuilding his friendship with Damon and finding his place in the new world, though his propensity for violence towards the other Mystic Falls characters - and his lack of relevance to the goings-on in the main story - make that road virtually impossible.

(This episode focuses on Enzo in seasons 7 and 8.)

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of familial abandonment, gratuitous violence, isolation, medicalised torture, mental coercion and manipulation, obsession, stalking, suicide and suicidal ideation, terminal illness, and torture.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

E-mail: animalattackpod@gmail.com

Refs and Links: IWAA S1

All our online stuff!

Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

Twitter: @animattackpod

Instagram: @animalattackpod

Tiktok: @animalattackpod

YouTube: @animalattackpod

In the fifteenth episode of the podcast, Sandile and Fadzai carve a bloody place in the world with Lorenzo "Enzo" St. John.

Joining The Vampire Diaries halfway through its fifth season, Enzo is introduced as a vampire being held by Augustine when Damon is captured, having himself been there a decade already. After helping him get through years of medicalised torture, and hatching a plan for their escape, Enzo is abandoned by Damon who chooses to turn off his humanity to save himself, and presumably perishes in a fire.

In present day, it turns out Enzo was spared by a member of Augustine, and has remained under their capture and experimentation for over sixty years. The season's events result in his escape from his prison, and he focuses his efforts on rebuilding his friendship with Damon and finding his place in the new world, though his propensity for violence towards the other Mystic Falls characters - and his lack of relevance to the goings-on in the main story - make that road virtually impossible.

(This episode focuses on Enzo in seasons 5 and 6.)

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of familial abandonment, gratuitous violence, medicalised torture, mental coercion and manipulation, obsession, stalking, suicide and suicidal ideation, terminal illness, and torture.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

E-mail: animalattackpod@gmail.com

Refs and Links: IWAA S1

All our online stuff!

Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

Twitter: @animattackpod

Instagram: @animalattackpod

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In the sixth instalment of the Gilbert Journals, your hosts pull out the town charter, because it's time to talk about the Founding Families. Important names in The Vampire Diaries, these are the families that founded Mystic Falls, were privy to the supernatural that lurked within it - and, for better or worse, have historically been charged with protecting the town from it.

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of colonialism, enslavement, racism, and sexism.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

E-mail: animalattackpod@gmail.com

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All our online stuff!

Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

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In the third instalment of Killer Bites, Sandile and Fadzai protect and swerve with brief vampire hunter, Thomas Vincent Fell III - AKA Tripp Cooke. Introduced at the beginning of The Vampire Diaries' sixth season, Tripp has started up a community protection squad after a string of attacks and murders just outside Mystic Falls, though it appears he has more secret - and more sadistic - motivations for his actions.

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of grief, loss of bodily autonomy, mass murder, mental coercion, and torture.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

E-mail: animalattackpod@gmail.com

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All our online stuff!

Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

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In the second instalment of Killer Bites, Fadzai and Sandile pull some schemes with the surprising Nadia Petrova. Introduced as a player amidst the Traveler plotline, she is revealed to be the long-lost daughter of Katherine Pierce/Katerina Petrova, which - for better or worse - ties her inextricably to her mother's latest antics.

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of child abandonment, child loss, loss of bodily autonomy, maternal loss, sexual assault, and suicide.

Questions, queries, or just to say hi!

E-mail: animalattackpod@gmail.com

Refs and Links: IWAA S1

All our online stuff!

Podcast: It Was an Animal Attack

Twitter: @animattackpod

Instagram: @animalattackpod

Tiktok: @animalattackpod

YouTube: @animalattackpod