switchbladeeyes

I don't know if print zines are still a thing, but they were certainly popular back in the day. I picked up two Forever Knight zines back in the 90s, "F is for Flashback" and "The Wisdom of LaCroix."

"F is for Flashback" was a charity zine containing humorous flashback stories and very funny cartoon illustrations. "The Wisdom of LaCroix" was a mini-zine containing a collection of LaCroix quotes organized topically.

( Here are some images from the zines. If you were hoping to see illustrations of LaCroix wearing lederhosen and a vampire doggy, you've come to the right place. )

Oh boy, we watched "Blind Faith."

Vampooches, yay! This episode goes to a weird place, and I can’t help but enjoy it. I mean, vampire dogs. Sometimes you have to lean in and embrace the gifts the show gives us.

The crime story element of the show raps up quickly thanks to the swift action of Perry (cue in my mind, the “Perry” theme from Phineas & Ferb). And the rest of the present day non-vampire story is mainly focused on Jody's story, which is compelling in its own right, vampuppy notwithstanding. I find how Tracy has behaved toward Jody to be very real. Certainly, it is not good behavior, but it is real. I thought the show developed that well.

Meanwhile, in the vampire story, aside from learning that houndpires are a thing, we also learn that (1) there are two different "types" of vampires, and (2) Nick is a huge snob. A carouche is a "lower form" of vampire because... they prefer animal blood? Nick, bruh, you drink animal blood. In fact, it seems Nick's life would be a lot easier if he craved animal blood instead of human blood. Maybe a "downgrade" (if you could even call it that) would actually be a scientifically more achievable interim goal than becoming human. Just saying. Aside from blood preference, I can't discern a meaningful difference between a carouche vampire (Screed being my only real way to measure) and, for lack of a better term, a vampire vampire. (And in true FK fashion, this concept will never come up again, at least as far as I can recall. Sigh.)

We can't not talk about Perry turning Jody into a vampire. Not only are vampire dogs a thing, but vampire dogs can turn humans into vampires! Amazing! I wonder if Jody is a carouche? Who knows. I have Questions about how Perry turned Jody into a vampire. Once again the show stumbles a bit on the whole "how vampires are made" issue. Ah well. And now Perry is Jody's master, but is also Jody's dog. What happens when he wants her to throw the tennis ball, but she doesn't feel like it?

And finally, the flashbacks. It's been a minute since we've seen LaCroix be a straight up evil MF'er for no real reason. (At least in "Outside the Lines," he was making a point. It was F'ed up and it was evil, but at least there was a discernable point that I could kind of understand in an academic sense.) But here, I cannot figure out his deal. Like okay, it's true that as a dog, Raleigh might be amenable to another owner. So what? Seriously. Who cares. LaCroix cares and really doesn't want Nick to have a pet, I guess, so has Raleigh turned into a vicious killing machine (a vampire dog, who even in the end, actually still seems to care about Nick, in a dog way). This forces Nick to kill Raleigh and all of us viewers who were traumatized by "Old Yeller" as kids get to relive it. LaCroix is just The Worst here.

Lastly on the flashbacks, the tie in to the "The Hound of the Baskervilles" was a little forced, but since I love both FK and Sherlock Holmes, I'll allow it.

P.S. The existence of vampire dogs implies the existence of other vampire animals. I've spent too much time thinking about this while also side-eyeing my cats (I have concluded if they were vampire cats, they'd definitely take me out.) It also made me reminisce about "Count Duckula" and "Bunnicula," if anyone else remembers those from when they were a kid.