Welp, it's Tuesday morning.

[bjornwilde]

Ethan as a pup is very tempting but there are a few kinks I need to think about.

We still don't know a damn thing about his past, other than he did horrible things and he seems to have a remarkable amount of faith, despite a strong hedonist streak.

I'm really on the fence about whether he is responsible for the unsolved murders mentioned earlier in the series. Of course we only know details on the one they opened the series with, the mother and daughter. I seem to remember the bodies, while dismembered, were not eaten; which seems like something a werewolf would do. And the remains they showed seems more surgically disassembled than torn.

We have confirmation that Ethan is a werewolf, though we don't know for sure if he fully turns into a wolf or the half-form most modern media likes to portray. All we saw was this (link to a small animated gif) and then blood spattering the windows of the tavern he was in. It does seem to be only triggered by the full moon and I suspect he can't change at any other times, other wise why didn't he change while fighting the young vampires? The morning after his changes look like hell for him too (more animated images).

My current working theory is that he used to be a priest and helped to convert native Americans. Given his empathy, I imagine he had problems with the means and effects of his work but maybe convinced himself the eventual good was worth it. They keep bringing up the Indian wars and what happens to the children of pacified tribes, so I am sure this will be part of his backstory.

I also think when he got the werewolf curse, he kind of lost his faith in God or perhaps lost his faith that he was doing God's work. I think he definitely sees himself as damned. If this is the case, why hasn't he tried to kill himself? He has to know he's killing people. I think either he's tried and knows the curse prevents him dying or he can't commit that final sin. I think on full moons he tries to put himself in places were people likely deserve to die; places frequented by evil men and the like.

I think that despite being damned, he still wants to do good in the world. Which seems at odds with working as a hired gun, drinking, and laying with men (OK, it was only the one time but still), at least according to how I understand the Catholic church.

Regardless, if I do app him I will have to keep his past mysterious, just in case next season they reveal stuff that goes against what I have in mind. I think I will also try and keep him from England until next season starts, so that I don't run out of canon.
 
Oh, I feel I should also mention I am lagged this morning, despite OK sleep, and work's internet is being weird again. Pages just seem to be spinning in the mud as they try and load. Very frustrating.

Comments

[yakalskovich]

I do hope you'll app him!

[bjornwilde]

He's likely 99% in the running to be app'd. =D

One thing I am very tempted to do, despite the challenge, is to vary his mood by the phase of the moon. More calm and collected during the quarters, tense and more instinctive nearer the full and lackadaisical during the new.

[yakalskovich]

Hmmmm -- we might assume that the whole of Penny Dreadful is set between two full moons, except the flashback episode of course, with only a month between the first time he wakes up underneath the docks in episode two, and the time he turns in eight?

[bjornwilde]

I'm inclined to go with that except the time with Vanessa possessed seems like it took weeks, so I think it's more like a couple of months. The last episode also seemed like it happened near Christmas, so that's the end of September (the date was given at the start of Ethan's sharp shooting display in the first episode) to December or late November.

[yakalskovich]

Eight weeks, then, so it's been the same amount of time the episodes have taken being aired one a week?

[such_sins]

I would guess that is about right. Not all episodes are a week apart in canon time though, several take place the morning after the previous.

So that means Oct's full moon wasn't shown; unless you count the attack on the woman in the park. The full moons would have been Sept. 18th, Oct. 17th, Nov. 16th, and Dec. 15th. There is snow on the ground during the finale and it has been snowing for several shots before Vanessa's possession, so I would guess her possession took place in Nov. or Dec.

According to my quick online search, it doesn't really snow in London until after Christmas due to the heat of the city so they've already fudged facts a bit. =P

[yakalskovich]

Hehh, we have that phenomenon as well. What it does here is to usually snow some time before Christmas for a little, even as early as November, and then thaw off in time for Christmas, which is almost always 'green', and then start for real in January. And that's not something only Munich does, all of middle Europe does that, and if I remember correctly, in my year in England, that happened as well. So it's not so badly fudged, provided their Christmas is grey and wet...

Yep, but definitely a time scale that makes sense.