can someone please explain amanda harris?

[quentincollins]

Amanda really didn't work in 1897, she broke up the pacing of the story with Quentin, Beth and Angelique. I have no doubt with Angelique in the picture Beth could've been driven to the edge and beyond without Amanada around.
I love 1897, and have often thought how the Leviathons would work in that time period.
I have read a fan fic with Barnabas vs the Leviathons in the 1870s which was great but wasn't finished.
Amanda/Olive worked a lot better in the modern day as Quentin's lost other half, another immortal he could've shared eternity with, and a connection to his past.

[michael c]

i can definitely see the appeal of 1897. and i can understand why it's a favorite time period for many fans...

i enjoy it(although,as i said it went on too long for me)but it's just not "my" dark shadows. my DS is the present. those are my touchstone characters and visually i prefer the aesthetics of the "present time".

that's one of the reasons i'm looking forward to the film so much. i understand that part of it will be set in the 1700's but it's primarily a "present time" piece...meaning 1972. it's about liz and vicki and julia(and,of course barnabas and angelique)and the characters i know and love from the original series. frankly if it was going to be about quentin and magda and petofi or any of the other 1897 characters i wouldn't really care about it that much.

but that's just my personal taste. and great assessment of the situation magnus.

[Miss_Winthrop]

I have to agree with Mscbryck that Petofi and those of his storyline wouldn't be as interetsing as Barnabas, Angelique etc.  It will certainly be interesting to view the early 1970's through Barnabas's eyes.

[Gothick]

I LOVED Count Petofi and his crazy-ass storyline back in the day, and I'm still terribly fond of darling old goo-goo-googly eyes.

It's odd to realize how unpopular the storyline is among fans today.  Which presumably is why the Petofi Era remains unchronicled in Kathy Resch's Concordances.

G.

[MagnusTrask]

It's odd to realize how unpopular the storyline is among fans today.  Which presumably is why the Petofi Era remains unchronicled in Kathy Resch's Concordances.

I've never heard that before.  I doubt it's true on this board.

[Robot_Quentin]

It's odd to realize how unpopular the storyline is among fans today.  Which presumably is why the Petofi Era remains unchronicled in Kathy Resch's Concordances.

I've never heard that before.  I doubt it's true on this board.

Among my friends and relatives that era is among our favorites; if not top 2 for sure.

... it looks like Kathy may have updated because there is at least a volume one for 1897.

http://www.morgandawn.com/kathy_resch_darkshadows.htm

I would admit though Amanda is probably my least favorite of that era. Dorcus has her beat!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I've already said it many times, but it can never be said too often that Petofi is one of my all-time favorite DS characters, mostly because Thayer David played him to such perfection, but also because he was such a unique character. If only he had been brought into the present. But alas...

I would admit though Amanda is probably my least favorite of that era. Dorcus has her beat!

Gail Strickland would no doubt be thrilled to hear that. 

[DarkLady]

I agree. Petofi is one of the greatest DS characters, and Thayer David made him so fiendishly clever and so seemingly unbeatable! The 1897 story line isn't my all-time favorite, mainly because it went on for sooooo looooong, but Petofi made it a lot more fun. TD also did a great job playing Quentin during the mind-switch story.

Compared with Petofi, Amanda Harris is about as deep as the sheet of paper on which Charles Delaware Tate first sketched her.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Compared with Petofi, Amanda Harris is about as deep as the sheet of paper on which Charles Delaware Tate first sketched her.

   And Tate himself isn't much deeper, either. 

[DarkLady]

Too true! 

[MagnusTrask]

TD also did a great job playing Quentin during the mind-switch story.

Compared with Petofi, Amanda Harris is about as deep as the sheet of paper on which Charles Delaware Tate first sketched her.

The Petofi era is my favorite, but they start to lose me when the bodyswap happens.  Thayer's great overall, but doesn't he still seem to be playing Petofi when he's supposed to be Quentin?   He still has his Petofi "accent" and cadence... and would Quentin lose all his sarcasm and aggression?

I really like the Amanda/Tate situation.  I remember the moment when it dawned on me what Amanda really was, and I went "No... NO..." to myself.   I'd probably prefer another actor for Tate, but it's a pretty good character and for once, it makes sense that he's blustering and aggressive and unstable.   He has a very bizarre life situation to process.

[Janet the Wicked]

In one of Luciaphil's summaries, she talks about Tate's ability to create people and inanimate objects. She wonders if he can create houses and landscapes that suddenly appear. And then (and this kills me, as most of her posts do), she says, "What would happen if he abandoned realism (well, chocolate box art anyhow) and ventured into impressionism? Or if he was ahead of his time and delved into abstract expressionism? What would his creations look like then?"

1897 is truly a trip into Weirdsville.

[MagnusTrask]

1897 is truly a trip into Weirdsville.

And that's a good thing.   I think about those kinds of questions with Tate.   I was wondering where you were, Janet!

[Miss_Winthrop]

Petofi is a great character ... for 1897...I don't think of him so much for the 1970's.  He was so unique.  I know not everyone likes Roger Davis but the character of CDT is one interesting fellow IMO.  I think his story could do well in the 70's.  Just personal preferences I suppose.

[DarkLady]

Miss W., your post made me wonder about CDT in the 1970s. It could work--he could be some hipster type living in the East Village before even Soho became hip. A slightly different version of Petofi could work too, I think. He would have to look very unassuming, I think, so that people would constantly underestimate him until he would twist the knife.