#breaking a plot

[that-left-turn]

Please would you be able to give some insight into why zabel plans the show in 12 episode blocks and then splits them across two seasons? Like, for what reason would he do that? I've never heard of it before.

And you said that after s3, AMC won't be tied into the same contracts. But could there be a different understanding with the showrunner if he's planned the 6 episodes for s4 already (since he plans in 12 episode blocks)?

You've never heard of it before because it isn't something anyone should do. From a practical, showrunning perspective, it's poor management because you never know if you'll get that second season, even though you're signed for two. The studio might cancel on you. From a storytelling perspective, it implies that Zabel doesn't know how to tell a contained story. His experience is from broadcast TV with 20+ episode seasons where you can have an extended timeline for the plot.

As is standard, Zabel got a 2-year deal and was told both seasons would shoot in France. It's hard to tell a good story in six 42-minute installments. Really hard. You can't waste any screentime, so you have to think about how to plot in a completely different way from when you have 9, 10 or 12 episodes. American TV writers aren't used to operating within those parameters, so short-season shows end up with truncated timelines and strange time jumps, which shortchange the narrative.

It lessens viewers' emotional investment when they don't get to journey with the characters and only see the arrival at the destination. We've seen it time and again when the flagship show had time jumps: chunks of time during which the characters developed and the audience is forced to play catch-up, like the time jump between the farm and the prison, or the boomerang timeline during the Gimple era when the pacing completely stalled.

Anyway, my point about Zabel is that he probably thought, oh, I get 12 episodes in France! I can use all of them for the main plot. He should've used the first six episodes on a plot to establish the new supporting characters and develop a believable reason for Daryl to get involved. Isabelle's group could have faced an existential threat from the new variant walkers. Some piece of knowledge about Jenner and his research, which Genet could be using, could've been circulating among the French. Daryl would recognize his name. The Mont-Saint-Michel cult could be in disagreement on how to fight the new threat rather than have a hokey goal of child sacrifice to offer up a Messiah to the world.

The underground nightclub, Demimonde, could've been a hotbed for the resistance to both ideological groups: Genet's followers, who want do scientific experiments to harness the potential that bioengineered walkers can provide humanity, and Losang's group, who believe that a person's soul might still be trapped inside the vessel and that humanity needs a spiritual awakening rather than another industrial revolution.

Quinn and Anna would've seen the real need of humans, running the black market and interacting with people from all walks of life. They wouldn't be concerned with philosophy, just a practical purpose and maybe they're driven by commercialism as their vice? Codron could've been caught and conflicted between the two schools of thought as he had to put his brother's walker down—in doing so, did Codron condemn his little brother's soul? That arc would have made him the ideal support character for Carol in S2.

If I can pitch a concept in the time it takes me to write a response to an ask, Zabel should theoretically manage to recalibrate his brain into considering plot in more appetizer-sized bites too. He had months to break the story for the French arc.

A showrunner can plan for future seasons—you have to, because you need to lay the groundwork for them—but they should never be taken for granted. Showrunners have to make sure that the story has a satisfying conclusion if the season finale ends up being the series finale. Hence, a seasonal arc. Zabel spoke about plotting two season in one go, for both France and Spain, but his statement and self-assurance later changed. He stopped mentioning an extended arc for Spain. I assume that there was some kind of conversation happening with the studio. They signed him for two seasons, but they are free to release him after one (S3) if he can't produce what they need. He can't leave an arc at its mid-point for some other writer to inherit and an anthology season would force Zabel into reducing the scope of his plot.

Anyway, I hope that sheds some light on things. Sorry about the long example pitch in the middle of the explanation 😬

[babybluebanshee]

Someone pointed out that a lot of recent films that previously focused on the importance of found family (Lilo and stitch is the most recent, but they also mentioned Frozen, Wreck It Ralph, and Toy Story, plus HTTYD in the tags) have had that messaging undone by their sequels and remakes. And if I were more conspiracy brained, I would point out how found family narratives are very important to queer people, who’re often rejected or mistreated by their biological families, because it reminds them that there is a place for them in the world. That even if some or all of their blood relatives won’t have them, someone out there will gladly welcome them into their family of choice. It’s been foundational to the queer experience for centuries and so much media that’s beloved by queer people (whether openly queer or merely coded) focuses on it. And how in a social and political time when backlash against queer people is reaching a fever pitch, the emphasis on “actually no, these people who were shunned, mistreated, and isolated for being different and came together to be happy anyway should split up without even a thought to the people who have loved and welcomed them and made them feel safe and accepted for the first time. They should all have normal dreams and want to live respectable, individualist lives and have socially acceptable careers and get married and have children, and the ones who want them all to stay together are explicitly shown to be wrong and holding the others back.” is actually kind of nefarious, especially with Disney’s current very, very, very bad erasure of queer themes and characters along with the revelation of their support of Florida’s don’t say gay bill. Given all that, this would all seem very concerning to me. Good thing I’m not conspiracy brained tho.

[dear-ao3]

pov your ex held your collection of thrifted spoons hostage for over a year (not entirely his fault, they got mixed up in his things during a move and you did not realize it, though he did adamantly deny that he had them) and reached out to your roommate on instagram nine months post break up after being thoroughly blocked for several months just to ask if you were still roommates and then to very cryptically reveal that he had in fact found the spoons (among other, mystery items that he did not reveal and you also have no idea what they are) in his car that he had not driven for a year cause he decided to make the worst financial decision of his life and buy a tesla and then tried to coordinate a meet up to drop off said spoons and mystery items which you did not want but you do want your spoons so you told him to either mail it or show up to your place of work when you were not scheduled only for him to entirely miss the point and still try to see you, then you reveal that you do not want to see him so he finally says that he will put on his big boy pants and mail it (though him actually mailing it is entirely unlikely) and also aparently hes gotten a perm since the last time you saw him and it looks terrible

[suntails]

true love

[bumblebeebats]

Just watched the episode of Leverage where Nate chooses not to kill his notorious conman of a father and instead forces him to leave town and sail back to Galway and i gotta say.... you know all those "cozy murder mystery" series where some sleepy rural town is inexplicably besieged by murders? I always used to wonder, what the hell is going down in Badger-upon-Twyne that's causing so much damn crime, but now I know. This is presented in the show like some kind, honorable thing, like oh, yes, I'm sure ol' Jimmy "Felonies Georg" Ford will stop doing crime once he's back in Ireland - why on earth would you assume that!! You've just unleashed this hardened Bostonian gangster upon the innocent sheep and also people of County Galway! Like, don't get me wrong, Galwegians, I'm not trying to say you're pushovers or anything, but i once saw a news article about the police trying to 'clamp down on organized crime' in the city and it said they were on the hunt for a dangerous gang consisting of *checks notes*.... four people. Jimmy Ford is going to own Ballynahinch castle by the end of the week. He's going to start smuggling in cocaine on the little dolphin tour boats. He's going to wreak more havoc on the local ecosystem than an outdoor cat on a nature reserve. YOU DIDN'T SOLVE IT, NATE. YOU HEAR ME, NATE? PEEPAW'S ON HIS WAY TO MAKING GALWAY THE MURDER CAPITAL OF EUROPE.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Don't test me, Bestie!

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[enemywasp]

HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF A CHARACTER FLAW.

Last year everyone and their mother was complaining about all the Mary Sue ocs! Pick a lane!!

[gunsatthaphan]

2017 // 2025

[swagglessmoth]

My grades are suffering and so are they

[random-cockroach]

Random quick animatic

[andr0nap]

pirate au stuff i never did anything with but i still really like the designs

[inspisart]

dick took the news that a strange thirteen year old broke into his apartment while he was away at the circus pretty well, I gotta say

[elvyn]

Interesting how one sad worm almost turned the world upside down

[wrenmkingsley]

Nothing like falling ass over tea-kettle into a twenty year old fandom.

It's like you're following a cat into an abandoned mansion and you round a corner and there's a five star buffett and people vibing with champagne flutes in their hands.

[muttoncon]

was just pondering on how in a lot of fics frank is very possessive of mel (love it, can’t get enough) but please consider possessive mel.

this is mostly just a snowball from a previous post but like i think she’d be so attached to being frank’s favorite student. just the concept of someone preferring her over anyone else is so new and exciting that she’s so protective of it. doing literally anything to be in frank’s favor and trying so hard to not seem like a clingy freak at the same time (spoiler alert: this does not work). she’s bringing him redbulls at the start of their shifts, packing extra snacks to give him, researching sports teams he mentions offhandedly so that she has something to talk about with him that’s not work. she wants to be his favorite everything. not just his favorite student.

langdon obviously has this deep-seated need to be well.. needed. he craves attention and affection, all he wants is for someone to fawn over him. so now there’s this new resident who actually responds well to how he teaches, wants to learn more from him, how can he not favor her? but now he’s back from rehab and he doesn’t want to look worse so he tries to not be too obvious about how much he likes mel. it’s difficult though when she pouts when he passes her over, or when she’s presenting all her cases to him, or when she very obviously tells the new med students to go check on their cases before he even has the chance to ask if they want in on something new.

so he stops trying! mel gets to have langdon (almost) all to herself and it keeps him on his best behavior so who can be too mad about it. she feels a little bad about convincing the new students that langdon has a bit of a history of aggression so they’re all a little scared of him, and telling robby that she would be more than happy to keep an eye out on langdon so she doesn’t get in trouble for constantly trailing behind him. but it’s all worth it when she hears “there’s my favorite resident” when she walks into work everyday.

[nibbelraz]

How long does Luo Binghe and Mobei Jun need be be gone for before Shen Yuan and Shang Qinghua get desperate enough to both draw their husbands on the biggest pillow they have to make there own husband body pillows