#(and my maggie stuff- who I hope to post a comic about soon!!)

[escape-from-arcadia]

Okay but the concept that I can just make something in my sketchbook and post it here and some people will actually seem to like it? Especially the fact the stuff in my sketchbook was something from my brain?? You know how wack my brain is???

Bonkers my dude.

[smooshjames]

forget you not (iii)

uh-oh, uh-oh, here i go again (or: interviews and old friends)

word count: just under 4k

a/n: part 3 of forget you not! i was gonna post this yesterday and then i totally forgot, but it’s here now! once again, the band in this story is based on little mix and i didn’t write any of the songs referenced (this chapter’s songs can be found here, here, here, and here). at the risk of sounding annoying, i have a ko-fi if you’d like to donate, but don’t feel obligated to do so!! if you can’t or don’t want to that’s totally fine, thank you for taking the time to read my work regardless of if you can spend money on it or not. i hope you enjoy!!

warnings: angst (again)

previous parts: one, two

Sunday morning brought with it more Twitter notifications than you’d gotten in a long time. Your alarm went off obscenely early yet again; you had a full day ahead of you. The band was recording a new single which would be released sometime later in the year (the date was still up in the air) and you had decided to do it while you were in LA since you could work with a few producers that you’d never met before.

So, at five o’clock in the morning, you rolled over in your hotel bed and groped around on your nightstand for your phone. You shot upright when you saw how many notifications you had, a bolt of panic going through you at first. What the hell could’ve happened to result in so much activity?

You scrolled through a couple of your mentions before you got to a tweet from some gossip site. There was a photo of you from the concert the night before, probably taken by a fan if the quality was anything to go by. You were mid-note, your mouth open around a word, and it was pretty obvious that you were crying. The tweet read: “‘You never brought me flowers’! Y/N Y/L/N tears up while singing her band’s hit song Towers. Could there be a mystery man that caused her to get so emotional on stage…?”

Carly mumbled a good morning from the bed next to yours. You didn’t reply. You barely even noticed her leaving the main area of the room and heading into the bathroom; you were too busy looking through the replies to the tweet. They were all pretty tame, but you still felt a pit opening up in your stomach. You didn’t have any press that day since you were recording the new single, but the next day was chock-full of interviews and other promotional shit. Your Twitter feed was showing no signs of slowing down, and you really didn't want to have to explain to some random interviewer that you'd been crying because you still weren't over a breakup from five years ago.

“Everything okay?” Carly asked. You looked up, startled, and realized that she had come back from the bathroom. “You seem… distraught.”

You beckoned her over to your bed and showed her the original tweet from the gossip site. Carly gasped and took your phone from you, beginning to scroll through the replies. “Jesus,” she said. “This’ll be a shitstorm.”

“I know,” you replied. You glanced over at the clock on the nightstand and sighed; you needed to get up and ready for the day. Carly gave your phone back to you.

You muted your Twitter notifications for the time being, not wanting to be distracted while you were recording the new single. If an interviewer brought it up you’d just find a way to gloss over it.

You shuffled into the bathroom and did your usual morning routine. You decided to forego makeup for the day since you’d just be sitting around a studio all day, anyway. You dressed in comfortable clothes for the same reason. You figured it would be a little bit hard to focus on recording if you were in heels or tight jeans or something similarly uncomfortable, and you wanted to save your remaining nice clothes for the following day, anyway. Sweatpants and an old t-shirt it was.

Once you were dressed and somewhat ready to face the world, you and Carly grabbed your bags and went out into the hallway. Alexis and Piper were still in their room next door, but they let you and Carly in so that you could all sit and talk while they finished getting ready. Once you were all good to go, you met up with Michelle in the lobby and got into the car that would take you to the studio.

It was a pretty cool space; chill, with couches and chairs spread out around the mixing board where the producers would work their magic. You met the audio engineers as you were walking in, and everyone shook hands and went in to get to work. They seemed nice, and they definitely had a lot of cool ideas for what might enhance the song’s sound. You and the rest of the band had already worked out the lyrics and a basic melody, but the recording technicians had some ideas to really make the song pop.

The day passed in a blur of singing and listening and revising, and then repeating the process all over again. By the time you left, the sun was touching the western horizon and the song was almost finished; just a few final edits before it would be perfect and ready for release. “We’ll get it to Michelle in the next couple of days,” one of the producers said.

You were exhausted as you collapsed back into your hotel bed, but it was a good sort of exhaustion; the kind of sated tiredness that comes with a good day’s work.

You were flying so high, in fact, that you’d almost forgotten about all the Shayne drama. You fell asleep with a slight smile on your face, and your sleep was peaceful and dreamless.

***

That pleasant warmth of a job well done was ripped from you almost as soon as the next day began. Your first interview was with a local radio station, and it went alright for about five minutes; you exchanged pleasantries with the hosts, Joe and Maggie, and sat down between Carly and Alexis for your interview.

The hosts did their intro, introduced the band, and explained that you were currently in LA on the west coast branch of your current tour. Once that was done and the band had all said hello, Maggie turned to you, and the smile she flashed you was… strangely apologetic.

And then you remembered. Shayne, Towers, crying onstage. That apologetic smile hit you so fast it practically gave you whiplash.

“So, ladies,” Maggie said. “There was some interesting news about your concert on Saturday. You guys sang your song Towers -- beautiful song, by the way -- and Y/N… there were a couple of tears there, huh? Anything you can tell us about that? Is everything okay?”

From beside you, Carly opened her mouth, probably to say that you didn’t want to talk about it, but you stopped her with a hand on her arm. Her willingness to defend you meant a lot, but if you didn’t address it, it would just keep getting brought up. At least if you answered this you could do some damage control. “Yeah,” you said. “Um, I actually lived in LA for a while before meeting these lovely ladies and starting up the band with them. And while I was here, I was in a pretty serious relationship with a guy -- I won’t say his name for privacy’s sake -- and we broke up. I guess being back in LA and singing that song just… brought back some memories. But that was all; no new mystery man or anything like that, I’m afraid.”

There, that was a good enough answer. It held enough of the truth that you felt confident they wouldn’t press you for any more information, but you hadn’t told them the exact real reason. They didn’t know he was in the room, and they didn’t know who he was.

Maggie smiled and nodded, and Joe asked another question about the band that was unrelated to your love life, which brought a wave of relief sweeping over you. You smiled and laughed through the rest of the interview, chiming in with answers whenever it felt appropriate, and then said your goodbyes as the hosts transitioned into the next song

All things considered, that hadn’t been so bad.

Once you were out of the radio station headquarters and into your car, Michelle got back to business. “Alright, next up… another interview which won’t be broadcasted live. You guys are performing Think About Us while you’re there. Then we have an hour for lunch. After lunch, you’ll film a video with Smosh, and then another radio interview after that, and then you’re free for the day. Assuming everything goes to plan.”

You nodded and settled into easy conversation with the girls during the car ride to your next venue. You were pretty excited to film with Smosh; you hadn’t seen any of their recent stuff, but you were familiar with them in that you had heard of them and you knew they primarily made comedic content. You figured that would probably mean it would be a fun time to film there.

The next interview went just fine, and the performance went even better. For lunch, you and the rest of the team got food at a cute little bistro near Smosh’s offices.

When you arrived after your lunch break you were greeted by Ian Hecox, the president of the company. He was super friendly, greeting you all with handshakes and a warm smile. Once you’d all been introduced he began to lead you through the office space, explaining that you’d be recording an episode of their ongoing Try Not to Laugh series. As he launched into an explanation of the rules, a hand on your shoulder made you tense and whip around, surprised. This brought you face to face with…

“Damien?”

Your eyes widened almost comically as you saw the man standing before you. He looked a little different since you’d seen him last; his hair was longer and streaked with blue, and he carried himself a little taller, a little prouder. But he still had that same boyish smile, those same brown eyes. He was still Damien, and he was here.

“Hey, Y/N,” he said.

You laughed, shocked and joyful, and threw your arms around his shoulders, practically launching yourself onto him. He hugged you back tightly. When you pulled back, you punched him jovially on the arm.

“It’s so good to see you!” you said, a little breathless. “What are you doing here?

“I work here. I’ll actually be filming with you guys this afternoon,” he replied

“No way, that’s crazy!” You leaned back and perched your hands on his hips, surveying him, half disbelieving.

He nodded and opened his mouth to speak again, but Ian’s voice interrupted your reunion. “You two, uh… you two know each other?”

“Yeah,” you said, glancing over your shoulder. “I knew Damien… God, ages ago. We were really good friends.”

Carly’s eyes now widened in recognition. She smiled at Damien and raised her hand in greeting to him.

“Hey, Carly,” he said. He put his hand on your forearm and you turned back to face him again. The look on his face made your smile fade a little bit; he seemed nervous and a little sad. “Y/N, I should warn you --”

“Holy shit!” another voice interrupted you two, this one distinctively female. And also… strangely familiar. You turned toward the source and what you saw felt like two consecutive throat punches.

Courtney, Shayne’s new girlfriend, was standing across the room. She seemed to have just entered, and judging from the wide-eyed look on her face, she was just as surprised as you were. Standing directly next to her, staring at the floor by your feet… was Shayne himself.

You heard Damien mutter something under his breath, but your brain didn’t fully process what he said. You were too busy looking at Courtney and Shayne and wondering why the hell they were here. Before you could say anything, though, Ian stepped forward.

“Sweet, we’re all here,” he said. “Y/N, Alexis, Piper, Carly, this is Shayne and Courtney. Shayne’s gonna be filming with you guys this afternoon --” of course he was “-- and Courtney is --”

“Your biggest fan!” the girl interrupted him, and even despite the resentment you couldn't help feeling toward her, you had to admit that she was really sweet. She seemed like someone you might be really good friends with were it not for the fact that she was dating your ex, which made you feel even worse; she hadn’t done anything to deserve your hatred, but here you were hating her anyway. “You probably don’t remember, but I was at the concert on Saturday. It was super good, you guys crushed it.”

“I remember,” you said, because you didn’t know when to shut up. Courtney’s jaw dropped onto the floor. “Yeah, I remember. You guys came together, didn’t you?”

The accusation was clear, at least to those in the know; Carly went pale, Piper inhaled sharply, Alexis started coughing, Damien shuffled his feet nervously, and Shayne opened his mouth to speak. Before he could say whatever he wanted to, though, he seemed to think better of it and closed his mouth again.

Courtney didn’t seem to pick up on anything unusual, though, because she just nodded happily and went on talking.

“Yeah, we did!” she said, slinging her arm around Shayne’s shoulders. If you didn’t know any better, you would’ve said that he stiffened as she pulled him into her side. His face tightened into a grimace, but you couldn't possibly imagine why. It was obvious that they were together. He didn’t need to hide that for your sake. “I was so fucking pumped when you guys sang Towers, you don’t even understand. That’s one of my favorite songs by you guys and you crushed it, especially you Y/N. Your part always hits a little different for me.”

Yeah, you and me both, you thought. But you smiled and nodded happily. “I’m glad you liked it!” you said. You turned back to the band and made eye contact with Michelle. She raised an eyebrow. You inclined your head just slightly toward Ian. She nodded; she knew what you needed.

“I hate to interrupt,” she said, “but we should probably get this show on the road. The girls have got a packed schedule today.”

“Of course!” Ian said. “Courtney, maybe you can harass them more if they have time when we’re done filming. But for now, Shayne, Damien, ladies, follow me.”

You hurried to catch up to the rest of the band. Carly and Alexis fell into step with you while Piper started walking behind you, obviously trying to shield you from Shayne’s gaze. You had another moment of profound gratitude for these girls; they took care of you when no one else would, they loved you when you couldn’t love yourself, and they always seemed to know what you needed without having to ask. That shared strength and love was one of the reasons the band had stayed together for so long.

Impressively enough, you managed to keep your shit together until you got to Carly’s. You didn’t bother texting her to let her know that you were coming. She’d let you in if she was home, and if she wasn't home, you knew her building code and where she kept her spare key.

Luckily, she was home; she let you up to her apartment without question.

Only once you’d crossed the threshold of your best friend’s apartment did you allow yourself to cry. You crumpled like a piece of paper against her and let out a sob so loud it bordered on a scream. Carly maneuvered you back onto her couch, sat down with you, and held you until you could talk. You were still crying when you pulled away from her, but you’d gotten out the full-body sobs.

“Honey, what happened?” Carly asked. You could hear the concern in her voice; it was rare that you showed up at her place unannounced, and even rarer that you started the visit by scream-crying into her shirt. She probably thought somebody was dead.

“Shayne got home from work and ended things,” you said. “Just… no warning, no ceremony, nothing. Three days ago he asked me my fucking ring size and today he told me that we aren’t working anymore. And I don’t understand because I thought he was happy! I thought we were good! I thought that we’d be fucking picking a date for our wedding, not for when I’m gonna come move out the rest of my shit!”

Before Carly could respond, your phone vibrated. You took it out and couldn’t help your tearful, almost-manic laugh at what you saw there; a text from Shayne, apologizing, asking if you would come home and talk. You went to reply, but Carly grabbed your phone and held it away from you before you could.

“Hey!” you exclaimed, lunging for your phone. She was an expert at keep-away, though, and you couldn’t even get close. You cursed yourself for all the nights out where you asked her to keep your phone away from you if you got too drunk. “Carly, give me my phone!”

“Promise me you won’t text him back and you can have it,” she said.

“That’s ridiculous! Of course I’m gonna text him back!”

“Is that a good idea?” she asked. She cocked an eyebrow. “If you can honestly tell me that you think it’s a good idea for you to say anything to him right now, I’ll give you your phone back.”

That knocked some sense into you. Immediately, the fight left your body and you sat back on the couch. She studied you for a moment and then leaned forward to set the phone on the coffee table. When you didn’t go for it, she relaxed and leaned back.

“Sorry,” you said. “I’m all over the place.”

“I know. It’s okay. That’s what I’m here for, right? Now, walk me through what happened.”

“He came home and he was being weird, and he was like ‘hey can we talk’ and then he basically just said that it isn’t working anymore and that he can’t be with me. He didn’t give me a reason besides that and I didn’t ask him for one. I just packed a bag and came here.”

Carly nodded, considering. “That’s really fucking weird.”

“Honestly, I’m surprised it took this long,” you said. At her shocked expression, you shrugged. “I’ve always said that he’s out of my league, right? It was only a matter of time before he got tired of me and realized he could do better. He probably realized that if we got married, he’d have a hell of a harder time getting away from me.”

“Were it not for the state of emotional peril you’re in right now, I would slap you,” Carly said. You let out a startled laugh; of all the things she could've said, you weren't expecting that. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard you say, and I’ve known you for a long time. If that was true -- which it isn’t, by the way, you’re the sexiest, most beautiful, smartest, funniest, greatest person I know -- it wouldn’t have taken him three years to ‘get bored.’ This is one of the dumber stunts he’s pulled, which is saying something. But this isn’t your fault. He’s the asshole here, regardless of his reasoning. If you want to talk to him and try to work things out, that’s your business. But whether or not things work out, this will always be on him. And I’ll be here every step of the way, buttercup.”

You nodded gratefully, even though you didn't believe her. You’d never been good enough for Shayne. This was always inevitable. Still, you put on a brave face for Carly. Better she didn’t know what you were really thinking. “You’re right,” you said. “Thanks, Carly.”

You could tell from the look on her face that she didn’t completely believe you, which wasn’t surprising. Carly always knew when you were lying. But she also knew when to let an issue lie. “Good,” she said. “Now, Bridesmaids or Legally Blonde?”

Ian led the group to a colorful sound stage. To the right was a partition, and behind it a bunch of strange props and costume pieces. To the left was a single stool, a piano, and some bongos.

The room was swarming with activity as crew people moved around getting everything set up and ready to go. Shayne and Damien led you over to the set. “Y/N, why don’t you sit in the stool for the intro?” Shayne said, the first words he’d said to you since you had broken up. His voice was professional and upbeat, betraying almost no emotion. “And then I’ll stand to your right, Damien will be behind me, and the rest of the band can be to your left.”

“Sounds fine to me,” you said, and you hoped your voice sounded less forced to him than it did to you. You sat on the stool, glad to be off your feet; your balance was suddenly fucked now that Shayne was next to you, and you were afraid you wouldn’t be able to keep yourself upright if you tried to stand for much longer.

Shayne went to go check something with a cameraperson, and the girls formed another huddle around you. Carly stood right in front of you, Piper to your immediate left, and Alexis just behind you. “Are you alright?” Carly asked.

“I’m sorry,” Damien said, cutting into the conversation before you could even think about how to answer Carly’s question. He was standing to your right, though he was a little farther away than your bandmates were. “I wanted to let you know before you saw him. I thought maybe it would be easier that way.”

“It’s okay, Dames. It’s not your fault,” you said. You reached over to squeeze his bicep, hoping to ease his mind a little bit, but the guilt didn’t leave his face.

“How did you know we would be here today?” Carly asked. You gave her a stern look, but she either didn’t see it or just didn’t care.

Damien fidgeted, nervous. You didn’t blame him; Carly was a force of nature when she wanted to be. “Um,” he said, “what do you mean?

“I mean that you had enough foresight to know that you could surprise Y/N and warn her about Shayne. So you knew we would be here.”

“We get a filming schedule at the beginning of the week,” Damien said. You looked at Carly as if to say There, see? A perfectly good reason. Now back off and let the poor boy breathe. But then Damien continued: “and Shayne told me about seeing Y/N on Saturday, so --”

He cut himself off, clamping his mouth shut as he seemed to realize what he’d said. Your gaze flew from Carly to Damien. For a moment, you felt thoroughly like a middle schooler; the he-said-she-said was something you thought would get left in sixth grade, but here you were nonetheless. Still, you couldn’t help the way your heart rate accelerated at Damien’s words. If Shayne had mentioned you specifically…

“What?” you asked.

You didn’t want to get your hopes up. You couldn’t get your hopes up. Shayne mentioning you didn’t mean anything. Besides, he had a new girlfriend now, anyway. He’d probably just done it since you and Damien were friends before shit hit the fan.

Damien didn’t get the chance to answer your question before Shayne returned from his conversation with the cameraperson. You were pretty sure he knew that you guys had been talking about him; it was pretty obvious by the way the conversation stopped short as soon as he got within earshot. But if he knew, he didn’t comment on it. He just walked over and took his place next to you.

Carly flashed him a look colder than the south pole and moved to stand on your other side, and then she plastered the brightest smile you’d ever seen on her face. You did the same.

“Alright, everybody ready?” one of the crew people asked. You nodded your assent. “Three, two, and… action!”

[wolfwhiteflowers]

TWD ending news; thoughts and speculations

 Caryl 📺  💖  Richonne 📽

TWD is ending soon!  -not quite.

Here’s my thoughts on it. the lows and highs. Anyways so yeah 9/9/20 was a crazy TWD news day.(and other tv news too, wtf tv gods. Yeah ..been a crazy tv week.) wtf, why that day? and I guess it’s like an unofficial Caryl day, huh? lol So it’s overwhelming. I wanna write it all out and my feels.    ok I guess I’m not that super excited or invested to it than others..idk I guess the excitement will hit me later or gradual. :P ok...idk I don’t wanna speculate too much. We don’t know much on it still.

So .... they’re/AMC saying TWD show (Rick’s/Grimes show) will end in a super sized s11. TWD finally got an ending plan! lol this show/franchise. I don’t mind that it’s ending or whatever, I mainly want a good story...a good written ending. But it’s all based on how if I still enjoy this show/franchise.. ok. Plus there’s a Caryl spin-off show and anthology spin-off show later on. +movie.

It’s a long post and I kinda mapped it out.

So in a *timeline*, in October it’s the s10 ep 16 “finale” episode. Recently, we’re also getting s10C (coronavirus pandemic bonus episodes) - six episodes I think, in Spring ‘21 (filming in October ‘20). They’re like inbetween episodes to s11. Idk what they’re like. standalone episodes?  And then they’re gonna do the series’s final season, s11, with 24 (12+12)episodes. Idk when it starts.  They film next summer, i guess, and show it in the Fall ’21 and Spring ‘22. Then it’s the spin-off shows, and Caryl..but I wanna focus more on Caryl spin-off show. That will be I guess in ‘23.  ...And a movie(s) :D but everyone’s doubtful and clueless of it but I think it will be filmed next year, ‘21. (and there’s TWD:WB and FTWD soon)

Ok yeah so ldksjfaljdflsj they say it’s sad news that TWD ending but like lol it doesn’t seem like it..from a Caryler I guess, +movie. So, I have theories and I’m like not so sure what’s really gonna happen. I need more info and well we never know what the writers or the future gonna do. Yeah first of all, these plans~~~, and yet we’re in the pandemic and dumb governing on these things. So I’m gonna guess these plans are gonna change or slow down. You never know. Ok.

 I’m also like surprised that there’s gonna be a Caryl spinoff show. (it’s like if they made a Daryl spin-off show. Or any spin-off show..) I mean I didn’t think MMB and NR were still wanting to keep working on TWD/AMC. I thought like any actor..would want to do new things...Ok but they wanna keep working on AMC. NR -I’m not surprised cos he’s like a busy bee..um idk but yeah. Instead of Daryl show it’s now Caryl show from what I suspected-ish. And from the news they sound like it’s a shippy thing. It was also planned since 2018 I think..and “let’s go to New Mexico.” They knew long ago. So, I speculated awhile ago, when we learned that MMB and NR have contracts ending till s12. It’s like we all kinda suspected right that TWD will end in s12 except in episode # count. S10C + s11 (24 episdoes/+8 exra). They combined it earlier. Why earlier Idk...the pandemic? Or Gimple’s plan in franchise timeline? 

So yeah that Caryl spin-off show! Like I hope it means that Caryl are romantic and endgame on this.👀 The more I read on this and thought about it. I don’t want to like get my hopes up too high or whatever. I don’t really trust writers.. eh ...it all depends on the story every time. I also think of the fandom/carylers on how they react to a canon-Caryl or even how the writers will show canon-Caryl. Because writers..like usually writers don’t write canon couples romance well. It’s usually love triangle, reunite a bunch of times, or breakup/makeup a lot. eh. I just hope they make Caryl story good and interesting. Another thing Caryl ship had always been like a subtle ship and angsty. We get bits and bits to keep going ..so a full attention of Caryl or canon-Caryl will be different. I hope it all goes well. :3 It’s all reminds me of Mindy Project show ..there’s always sides in the fandom. Some won’t like it, some will but it’s always about the main couple. Oh, my thoughts of Caryl show is that it will be like Bones, SPN, FTWD, or BeIIarke -_- lol , or something. 

 So from what I read when they already want to keep going with the spin-off show back in ‘18, the Caryl spin-off show will actually cost less than the TWD main show. It’s interesting. It’s all contracts, deals, Netflix, $ stuff. The show might not be international and on netflix, Idk. You know the ratings aren’t that great and most fans left,..but I guess they can still make the Caryl spin-off show. (a season or more idk) I was thinking it might be a Caryl-only show with different cast and set ...or the Caryl spin-off show might actually be just like TWD main show-s10 but different deals $ etc, and they can do whatever. 

Oh, that it’s a spin-off then, and not now in s10 and s11, because the TWD main show will be done adapting the comic book storyline..(instead of thinking of the MMB and NR’s contracts). Yeah one of the theories.. like really Idk why we have Caryl spin-off show when s10 and s11 is pretty much already a Caryl show..with Maggie. But I guess it’s all due with contracts and stuff. And I guess it works timely with the comic storyline. Though the comic storyline parallel/adapting is so different now.  It’s very broad parallels. I guess it all works out in little ways. contracts, comics, and starting fresh. The Caryl spin-off show, they can really get away from the Grimes/Rick storyline which I like that it’s gonna be really separated by being a different show. (I guess also AMC have more control too.) It’s not on the same main show/s10 and on. Like storywise, I like that TWD show is always about the Grimes and it feels like it will be done right and completed to end it in s11 and that is based on comics/and the Grimes (I hope). If that make sense? Rick/Grimes show,is based on comics, will have an ending...TV-wise. Because there’s the movies too supposedly. Yeah maybe I’m not sad..because there’s the Rick movies thing in the works too. I hope s11 will still be about the connection to the Grimes. Like everyone looking after Judith and RJ and figuring out what to do with finding Richonne and stuff. To set up for the movies. (and TWD WB s2?) Because if not, then ugh then AMC should’ve had the main show ended in s10.  Wow.., the show is not based on the comics like it was before and I really can’t speculate s11 and on. Like I hope the writers got juicy stories to tie in with Rick and Michonne, and Maggie/Commonwealth comic stuff. uhh. So yeah Caryl spin-off show it means they can do whatever and writers/me? don’t have to worry that if it’s not connecting with the Grimes storyline. If AMC/Gimple wants to connect everyone.

And one of my theories or hope is that Caryl looks after Grimes kids ...in s11 and search for Rick/Richonne or help him, in part of the bigger plot of Rick movie story, in the spin-off show. Like Caryl will work on plan that later helps out Rick in the movies later on. Yeah and I just think the Rick movies are more like “TWD movies” where all the characters in the franchise will be part of the story. So yeah Rick reunites with everyone. The end, Happy ending! :3 So there’s many ways Caryl show might be like: same cast from TWD show that AMC controls more/Caryl leads/not based on comics(romantic or not), Caryl-only show, or Caryl kinda in part of the Rick movies story-like helping him in some way. etc. Oh, ..I was also thinking it’s like I guess FTWD .. I was also thinking Morgan and his friends might be also be in part of helping Rick’s plans in the Rick movies too.  (.. if Gimple wants to do that.) I hope Caryl will be romantic..I don’t want a “Caryl spin-off show” when it’s just same cast and Caryl still not together. eh. ..Why call it “Carol and Daryl spin-off show”? So I guess it’s gonna be shippy.

So I think the Rick movies (which so far is still happening and three of ‘em.../if) will be after s11 and after TWD WB s2 - ‘21/22.    idk when FTWD comes.

Oct ‘20 - TWD:WB s1

spring ‘21 -TWD  s10C 

summer ‘21? - TWD: WB s2/ends

fall ‘21 and spring/summer ‘22 (or fall ‘22? lol) - TWD s11 

‘22? *rick movie 1? (...with everyone there?)

‘23 Caryl spin-off show s1

‘23 and on? * rick movie 2? movie 3?

....etc.

So...you get it..like it’s like some big overall storyline Gimple is doing. But plans can change and anything could happen. I may be speculating wrong. Who knows. sigh. I just want Team Family reunited with Rick again and a good ending as best as writers can do. :B  If they can’t make a movie(s) then I hope Gimple find a way to end Rick’s story for fans.

sigh yeah tired of the fandom complaining and assuming/speculating wrong. (like hating on the spin-off show when they don’t know what a spin-off show is.) blah. idk. tired of shippers..generalizing. (I ship both Caryl and Richonne so. sigh go away drama) I’m tired of fans being biased and doubting and singling things out. I feel like we all won. But anyway until more news and facts it is what it is. I wanna wait till when things actually happen or news that say something won’t happen.  Keep waiting and hoping on :] *Caryl on*

[sienna27]

TWD Spoilers - Dead Or Alive Or (8x11)

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This is not a cheery post so unless you’re in the mood for grumbling, look away!

First, that’s awesome how they made Tara a fucking moron.  I mean, could we go one story arc without someone either playing the Raging Avenger (Carl/Rick/Morgan/Michonne/Daryl/Rosita/Tara) or a Complete Pacifist (Morgan/Jesus/Carol/Gabriel/Eugene/Ezekiel)?  I get it, feelings are hard, and they’re a little bit harder in the Apocalypse, but Christ, they play these same storylines over and over, year after year,and it really kind of feels like there are OTHER stories to tell.  You know.  And we finally get to a moment where Rosita and Daryl are working a hundred percent off intellect and not emotion, and here comes freaking Tara to play Bonehead of the Week!  Yes Tara, we know you want Dwight dead.  We all want Dwight dead.  It’s not the time!  He had just proven himself to be INCREDIBLY ‘helpful’ with the swamp escape route, and then you go run him off like an asshole.  Oh but wait, that finally presented an opportunity for him to truly prove to her that he’s on their side.  Who gives a shit!?  She and Daryl still plan on killing him at the end, so *shrug* to that big revelation.   It just raised another moment of making me actively dislike a character that I was previously fond of.   I honestly felt this sickening turn in my stomach seeing her pull out her gun, and all I could think was, ‘nope, you do this, I’m done here.’   This might have been another thing coming out of the comics, but either way, they keep ruining people.   Eugene used to be Amusing/Annoying but basically likable, if not frustrating.  Now tonight he’s a Full On Piece of Shit Douchebag and I am fine with him getting tossed in the oven because I don’t even have a general level of ‘fondness’ for him anymore.  Like if he’d died last year at least I’d think, ‘oh that sucks.’  Now he deserves whatever he gets.  Fuck him.  And Rosita, even if she’s using her brains again she’s still not redeemed from the Raving Bitch cycle she went through all of last year.  I don’t blame her for Olivia, that was Glenn all over again, but I do blame her for Sasha.  She got her captured and killed, and she was hateful to her all the way to the end.  So again, don’t really care what happens to her anymore.  King E was a fun likable dude, but then his little pity party he threw himself when he refused to help his people deal after the massacre.  Not a fan at all, of grown men throwing themselves pity parties. Don’t care if he had borrowed a vagina by the time Gavin died.  I just see him now as weak willed and I have no vested interest in his survival.  Perhaps some people might think I’m being a little harsh writing so many of them off for having ‘foibles,’ but you can’t build a show around people who are already Anti-Heroes (having to kill just to get by in the world) and then then make the ‘good people’ lack basic moral fiber outside of the killing.  What the hell am I rooting for?    Assholes and idiots.  Super.  Basically, they’re kind of burning me out on Team Family.   

And back along the lines of stupid, oh, oops, we killed another doctor.  Because doctors are Red Shirts in the Apocalypse.  I get that at this point it has to kind of be an inside joke for production that they kill ALL the doctors, but as a viewer it kind of takes you out of the moment watching them CONSTANTLY murder every doctor, always KNOWING that they’re mother f’ing doctors.  There are no more schools!  The doctors you have now.... that’s all the doctors.  Ever.  But yeah, kill them all.  I was kind of cranky already when I watched tonight but this is one type of stupidity that has genuinely angered me since the pattern emerged.  This is TWO doctors now that the Saviors have put down like there’s a frigging Doctor Tree and they’ll just go pluck another one.  But wait, there is no Doctor Tree.  And now there are no doctors.  😑

Also along with that scene, so Gabriel’s the blind one, yet Carson couldn’t keep track of the whole TWO people standing around him, and that’s why he gets shot.  Totally believable.  

Maggie. The LC crap tainted her.  I was afraid it would happen, and it did.  I tried to watch her but then the character was being obnoxious too, (let’s give rations we don’t have, and fun prison perks to the people who will slit your throat the second they’re given a chance, super great leadership) so I ended up muting her because I don’t care to listen to her talk anymore either.  And I absolutely think that the Savior dude (don’t even know his name) who tries so hard to play nice with her, is going to end up being the first one to turn on them and kill someone in the camp.  Fingers crossed for the J-man...but I know that’s not going to happen.

Anyway, I know this was kind of a bummer review but I really wasn’t in a great mood while I was watching so I was already viewing with a negative slant, and honestly I thought the show would make that better but it really just made it worse.   I think I would have been okay with the episode up to the halfway point, because that’s when all the stupid/obnoxious shit started happening.   Also the caryl reunion didn’t help because AGAIN, they showed the whole thing in the teaser!  WHY?!  I mean, why?  Why?  

Why.   

At this point, they have literally shown us every single moment they’ve either shared together, or has been ‘intimated’ about the ship, in a teaser.  Every moment.  And every time I think, ‘they’re not going to blow their whole wad, they’ve got more on the reel.’  Except they don’t.  They just keep blowing their wad.  So if that’s the plan of the Einstein Monkeys working in marketing, I don’t feel the need to watch any longer for them.  Seriously.   Because eleven episodes into the season, I am one hundred percent positive that if they’re going to have them screwing by season’s end, that we’ll just see that on an official website release plastered all over YouTube.  So why waste my time continuing to watch all this other stuff that’s bugging me?  Again, I know I’m grumpy tonight but it feels like the right thing to step away now before I genuinely sour on the show.  Right now it’s still individual characters that are fading to black for me.  I still love Daryl and Carol, Rick and Michonne.  Not much more, admittedly, (Aaron/Morgan) but I don’t think outside of Morgan, those other five will be going anywhere anytime soon so I’d like to come back to their world when I feel like I'll enjoy being there.  That’s not happening on our current path.

And Carylers, I’ll still be writing (I really do have an update for this week) and I’ll be here doing my little photosets and if anything happens, please do let me know.  It’s not frustration about the ship driving me away so don’t add me to the Debbie Downer negativity list, because that’s not it.  It’s the larger arc that’s pushing me off.  I just need Negan, et al, to be gone, and take whatever collateral damage is going with them, away, and we can all start fresh with something new in season nine.  So, adieu for now.  And anyone sticking with them, I honestly hope you enjoy the rest of the season :)

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[daniellethamasa]

Hey all, Dani here.

Wow, well I guess here we are at another wrap-up post where I end up combining my weekly wrap-up and my monthly wrap-up. That doesn’t happen too often, but it makes things a bit more fun/chaotic for me.

Umm…what have I been watching recently? Gosh, I don’t even know. My days have been starting to blend together. Oh, I can tell you what I will be watching very soon…as in the next day or two. First up, “Critical Role” is back tomorrow for episode 100. They have been off the air since like March, and it will be nice to watch some of my favorite voice actors play D&D again. And then on Friday “Hamilton” is dropping on Disney+. I have been wanting to see this show for four years now, and while this won’t be in a theater watching a live performance, it will be the main cast and is a recording of a live performance. So I’m super excited about that.

Most of my weekly wrap-up stuff will be discussed below, like what I read in the last week, and what I’m hoping to read soon. So I guess I’ll just talk about what I’m currently reading.

As usual with my monthly wrap-up, let’s start off by checking in on my overall goals for the year.

Reading: Well, I finished 27 books in the month of June, so I’d say it was another pretty decent month of reading…though 6 of those were single issue comics, 4 of them were volumes of manga, and 5 of them were children’s picture books. Still, I read a few incredible reads, and only a couple just okay reads, so I’m going to say it was a good month. So that puts me at 154 books read for the year so far, which I think is pretty great.

Blogging: I did all right on blogging this month. I’m still trying to figure out my time management so I can get things done in a timely manner, because I can admit that some of my posts have gone up late, or I’ve finished them and thought they were scheduled for publication and instead I guess I just hit save draft, so it doesn’t go up when it’s supposed to…and then I don’t realize it until days later. That hasn’t been fun. But I will get it figured out. I still have a lot more content to send your way. Oh, and because I’ve been busy and it has continuously slipped my mind…I hit 800 followers…I think it was a few weeks ago. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I honestly can’t believe that my blog has that many people following along. And to go along with that excitement, I reached 1,000 blog posts a couple weeks ago as well, which also feels like a pretty big milestone.

Writing: Well, with juggling two jobs and reading and blogging, my writing somewhat got shoved to the back burner. BUT I am happy to say that I’ve just started the Colorworld Creativity Club over on the Colorworld Live VIP group on Facebook, and it is a place for people who are working on creative projects–whether that is poetry, novellas, short stories, novels, screenplays, music, artwork, etc–to get help working through any blocks, as well as a place to have a support system to hold us all accountable for actually making progress on our projects. I’ve set myself a goal of 20,000 words to write on my novel for the month of July. Now let’s hope that the CCC can hold me to it.

Conventions: While in-person Gen Con was canceled, they are holding Gen Con Online on the same days, so that should be pretty interesting. Plus, Damian and I booked a hotel room in Indianapolis for those Gen Con Online dates, so we can get out of town for a few days (and have lovely reliable hotel internet). We’ll probably still do a few of our usual Gen Con stops as well, like going to the comic book store–obviously staying as socially distant as possible, and wearing masks in public. And we’re still hoping that Cincinnati Comic Expo in September will still be good to go. My friends at Colorworld Books have actually started doing Colorworld LIVE convention style events just about every week, sometimes two a week. They gather up three or four awesome voice actors, hold a livestream panel, then a VIP panel for anyone who buys some signed merch, and of course you can get shirts, metal art prints, and more with characters these actors have portrayed. It’s pretty cool.

Okay, now that the general month wrap-up is over, let’s go ahead and jump into the specific reading wrap-up. As always, if I have a review up already then I will include the link to it. So, let’s go over everything I read in June.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas — 5 stars

Super Adjacent by Crystal Cestari — 3.5 stars

Kingdom of Souls by Rena Barron — 4 stars

The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall — 3.5 stars

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin — 4.5 stars

The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory — 5 stars (review coming July 21)

Vox Machina Origins Series II #1 by Matt Mercer, Jody Hauser, Olivia Samson, Msassyk, and Ariana Maher — 5 stars

Vox Machina Origins Series II #2 by Matt Mercer, Jody Hauser, Olivia Samson, Msassyk, and Ariana Maher — 5 stars

Vox Machina Origins Series II #3 by Matt Mercer, Jody Hauser, Olivia Samson, Msassyk, and Ariana Maher — 5 stars

Vox Machina Origins Series II #4 by Matt Mercer, Jody Hauser, Olivia Samson, Msassyk, and Ariana Maher — 5 stars

Vox Machina Origins Series II #5 by Matt Mercer, Jody Hauser, Olivia Samson, Msassyk, and Ariana Maher — 5 stars

Vox Machina Origins Series II #6 by Matt Mercer, Jody Hauser, Olivia Samson, Msassyk, and Ariana Maher — 5 stars

Pride by Ibi Zoboi — 4 stars (review coming July 7)

Spellhacker by M.K. England — 4 stars

Black Clover Vol 21 by Yuki Tabata — 5 stars

My Hero Academia Vol 24 by Kohei Horikoshi — 5 stars

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor — 4.5 stars (review coming July 2)

Otaku by Chris Kluwe — 4 stars (review coming July 16)

Beach Read by Emily Henry — 4.5 stars

My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero’s Vol 1 by — 4 stars

Edens Zero Vol 2 by Hiro Mashima — 5 stars

All the unicorn books above — 4 stars

The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory — 5 stars

Now it is book haul time, and I’m starting with my digital book haul, because I picked up quite a few e-books this month, due to sales, or physical books being back ordered, or because I have a bunch of books to read for blog tour reviews. So I’ll go over my digital haul before jumping into my physical haul.

Okay, now for the physical haul.

Next up is the OwlCrate Unboxing.

Finally I suppose it’s time to talk about my July TBR. Unfortunately I don’t have a completely set TBR for this month. There are a handful of books I need to read for review, and then I have stacks of books that I’ve been eager to read for a month or so now, and just haven’t had the chance yet. So I have a bunch of options.

Here’s some reads I can definitely say that I’ll be completing in July: Mayhem by Estelle Laure (I have a blog tour review coming July 14th), Shielded by KayLynn Flanders (review coming July 18th), Lobizona by Romina Garber (blog tour review coming July 28th), and Spells for the Dead by Faith Hunter (Nell Ingram #5, blog tour review coming July 30th).

Other than that the above books might be what I pick up…but it might also be wholly mood dependent. I’m not sure.

How was your June? Let me know some of your favorite reads of the month in the comments, and I’ll be back soon with more bookish content.

June Wrap-Up and July TBR/Weekly Wrap-Up (71) Hey all, Dani here. Wow, well I guess here we are at another wrap-up post where I end up combining my weekly wrap-up and my monthly wrap-up.

[eridianshores-blog]

The Walking Dead: Season 6 - Revisited

Warning: There be SPOILERS ahead! If you haven't watched Season 6 of The Walking Dead and want to keep all the twists, turns, secrets, and deaths a surprise, stop reading!

(Maybe one day I'll whip up some fancy HTML to hide spoiler text until the area is hovered over, but until then...)

Looking back at my humble collection of around 8 or so zombie DVDs circa 2005, it’s hard to believe the very same subject matter I sought out would, in a few years time, become one of the highest rated TV programs of all time, constantly setting new records (all in an age where traditional TV is dying out, no less).  The proliferation of zombies into the mainstream is largely a very recent phenomenon, both responsible for and spurred on by The Walking Dead.

I will admit that my interest in the show is patchy - some seasons I religiously catch every episode, while others ebb by with barely a thought.  But when a new season does inevitably pop up on Netflix, I do get a little excited to see what’s happened.  I also think it’s fair to say that The Walking Dead can feel like 2 different TV shows depending on whether you’re getting your season in over the course of a few days or actually watching it week-to-week complete with holiday break.  

Watching the show week-to-week really helps those “moments” settle in.  You’ve only got a finite amount of Walking Dead to chew on for a week or more, so it sticks in your head longer and leaves you to ponder over secondary and tertiary plot strings more thoughtfully and completely.  The drawback is that the lulls and the filler are 10x more obvious.  When processing the season as 16 different chunks, drawn out plot lines, tangential episodes, and even shockers and cliffhangers are much more noticeable and memorable simply because we have more time to ruminate before our next narrative dose.

On the other hand, binge watching a season gives us a much clearer view of whatever arc the writers had planned since we’re sort of able to feel the momentum and the progress in “real time.”  Sometimes the week-to-week stuff is like moving in slow motion, and it’s difficult to see “the point.”  Conversely, some degree of detail and nuance is lost with the binge-watching approach because our minds aren’t spending time going over every single detail over and over.  We see an episode, reach back to remember what we need to, and move forward; it’s much different than sitting around for a week and wondering where every plot thread will eventually end up.

That being said, depending on who you are and also depending on what season of The Walking Dead we bring into question, one approach or the other may be a “better” or more optimal (or worse or less optimal) way to watch the episodes.  However, as the years roll on - particularly from the 4th season forward - more and more I think that binge watching is the way to go, mostly because the writers or producers or whoever seem to revel in audience manipulation.  At least you’ve only really got to put up with the season finale when watching it all at once.

Now with all of that being said, I digested the 6th season more or less in one chunk, maybe 5 sessions over the course of 3 and a half days.  As a season I would say it was maybe...75% successful?  It certainly got off to a good start after the rocky road to (and into) Alexandria in the 5th season.  I can see where the quarry situation may have initially come off as contrived and manufactured, but I think the writers actually did a good job of explaining it - these zombies had been falling in and this was one of the biggest reasons why Alexandria had yet to face any serious threats from the dead.  Of course the timing of the trucks that held the bodies at bay was mighty convenient, I’m ok writing that off as the magic of television.

Most criticisms leveled at the first half of Season 6 focus on the plodding nature of the events surrounding the quarry - in case you’ve forgotten, the group was successful at leading half of zombies away but the other half were drawn towards Alexandria due to a simultaneous assault by the Wolves.  Soon the wall gives way and the town is overrun.  I suppose I can somewhat sympathize with these criticisms, but I also feel like there’s a lot that happens over these 3 days (I think) and that it takes a little time to adequately run through all the events, especially since many events overlap and we’re getting multiple perspectives, plus enough information to know how all the events fit together.

Personally, I found the threat of zombies refreshing.  Our heroes have become pretty adept at dispatching these things and it’s been a while since we’ve seen more than a few quick stabs here and there.  Maybe the group was splintered into 1 or 2 too many subgroups for the show’s own good, but I was still glad to see all the running and cornering and eventual evisceration of several lesser characters.  It reminded me a lot of the show’s earlier days when plots revolved around simple supply runs or fortifying a place to sleep.

As for the attack of the Wolves...meh, I could take it or leave it.  It wasn’t entirely original, it was 100% expected (at some point anyway, and what better time than the worst time possible...), and I felt like it was a forced means for the show to get to this whole “kill or not to kill” theme that ends up dominating the season.  Now don’t get me wrong, I think this is a great question to ask - I’ve been asking it myself for the last couple of seasons - I just thought the whole Wolves attack with “Alpha Wolf” and Carol and Morgan was a weird and slightly unnecessary spark for the conversation.

Morgan’s obvious reticence towards killing has always brought with it a tiny air of mystery, but it wasn’t until this season’s 4th episode that we fully understood the breadth of Morgan’s journey from Atlanta to Terminus.  As a sidenote, I have mixed feelings about these flashback episodes.  Usually the information presented within is interesting, informative, and worth the use of an episode, however, no matter how great it is as a standalone piece, it still interrupts the flow of the season.  I guess it can’t be helped (other than to do away with these types of episodes, though I don’t think that’s the answer) but maybe they could place these episodes more strategically, i.e. not following a cliffhanger.  Oh well.  Back to Morgan and his Odyssey.

When I was finally able to get my mind off of Glenn’s fake death and get into the tale of Morgan (who I’ve always been mildly ambivalent towards as a character) and the one-shot Eastman, I thoroughly enjoyed the renewed interest in morality.  Rick & Co. have continually oscillated between “kill fucking everything” and “we’re all a big happy family” but from very early on it’s been established that killing the living is par for the course and must be done. Via Morgan, we’re finally getting around to, “is it really necessary?”  It’s not only interesting but also a vital component of the equation at this point in time and I kinda dig how it’s rippled outwards from Morgan, eventually deeply affecting Carol.  Daryl isn’t so closely associated with all of that, yet he also seems to have developed a renewed appreciation for human life.

It’s a little early to get into the implications of whether or not killing is wrong and if people can truly change, but I hope we’ll move further into this territory.  All of this Negan shit sort of turned the concept on its head and basically gagged and blindfolded us and dropped us smack dab in the middle of everyone-needs-to-die-NOW land.  I hope that the issue resurfaces somehow and wasn’t merely heaped on just to create the jolt that was Negan...I guess we’ll see before long.

And then there was the fake Glenn death which I feel obligated to mention...it was stupid.  Anyone disagree?  Didn’t think so.  Moving on.

Wrapping up the season’s first half, which thematically runs through the 9th episode, I’d like to add that I especially enjoyed the payoff that was the death of the Andersons.  Don’t get me wrong, I was rooting for Rick and Jessie, but what better way to keep us viewers on our toes than by BAM killing the little kid and BAM killing Jessie and then BAM killing that other kid who also shoots Carl’s fucking eye out.  That last part was a little gruesome and perhaps overkill, but I get that it was adapted from the comics.  Still, Carl doesn’t have but so many lives....and at the same time it’s kinda cool to watch him become battle-hardened and world-weary - a true product, both mentally and physically, of this post-apocalyptic existence.

The back half of Season 6 kicks off on a positive note.  I thought it was great that Michonne and Rick finally got together.  Back on the road to Terminus it seemed like there was a spark between the 2, but once that was abandoned I gave up on it.  To see it happen was an interesting moment for the show...as far-fetched as the pairing seemed, it also totally makes sense.  The cherry on top was seeing that Carl was cool with it.  He and Michonne had definitely established a bond, plus I don’t think any of the viewers are in the mood for some “you ain’t my mama” drama.

Of course this is a very minor plot point compared to the flavor of the next few episodes.  For anyone in need of a refresher, we meet “Jesus,” the Hilltop Community, and learn about Negan.  To hell with morality - the citizens of Alexandria make a decision to launch an all out assault on Negan’s crew, albeit somewhat out of desperation for food (which they intend to trade for Hilltop - exterminating Negan in exchange for necessary goods).  

At first the march of war seemed pretty damn interesting.  The assault itself was pretty awesome, and we also see both Glen and Heath (I think?) struggle with their “duty” to kill other humans.  Some of this guilt seems to subside as they study the Polaroids of smashed skulls pasted to the walls.  Then we deal with more Negan as Carol and Maggie are captured, and then the season sort of spins its wheels for a few episodes in anticipation of the long awaited confrontation with Negan.

Watched as a whole, this string of episodes creates some mild exasperation, so I can only imagine that when viewed weekly the show seemed to absolutely slow to a crawl.  We do get the death of lesbian M.D. Denise somewhere in there, which actually kinda pissed me off.  It seems like - lately anyway - secondary and tertiary characters will continually languish in the background, only to be gradually brought into the forefront.  And then, just when you’re starting to settle in with the new addition, they’re unceremoniously killed.  It actually seems pretty tough for secondary characters to make the jump to the front row.  Either they’re given the axe, or they continue to doddle in the background without being given any real significance.

When we finally meet Negan and ultimately put the pieces given to us in the season finale together, we get what I feel is a wildly unrealistic picture of who Negan and his followers are.  First of all, how has any group out there amassed this many members?  There was the motorcycle crew, the crew at the outpost, the reinforcements that were inbound, and then enough members to create several roadblocks, impassable to even Rick and his well-armed and well-trained crew.  To me, this feels like a huge convenience created just to stymy Rick and Co.  No one we’ve ever seen has had this much of a following, and furthermore it seems that this following isn’t confined to a single location either, as evidenced by the “outpost.”  

I guess it is possible that they just happen to be the ones that made it long enough and stayed well enough off to become so large, but there’s a few problems with this.  For one, there’s the tyrannical nature of Negan.  If this show has shown us anything, it’s that violence begets violence and if you rule with a violent hand, all you’re doing is setting yourself up to be overthrown by the next badass under you.  Pretty soon you’ve got a group with poor leadership and in discord and they get eaten by zombies or whatever.  (Shane, the Governor, Alpha Wolf)  The second issue is how predatory Negan’s group is.  To maximize their spoils, they’d need to keep their numbers small.  They’re not the sort of community that can just continue to grow, especially since they’re relying on the exploitation of others.  Too many mouths to feed.  No no, you need servants, not comrades.  There are just some glaring logistical issues with having a group so big yet so dependent on taking what they need by force - eventually they’re going to run out of people to extort.

Finally there’s the common issue of how many people would seriously pledge their loyalty to a guy who beats people to death with a baseball bat and laughs about it, but that’s more of something to discuss with Season 7.

Any damn way, this big climax with Negan was pretty darn disappointing.  I know that Jeffery Dean Morgan garnered a lot of praise for his portrayal, but honestly he just talked too damn much.  (And if you don’t think so, just wait until you get into Season 7...)  Yeah, he was definitely evil and unnerving and made for some serious suspense, the problem was that it was just drawn out too long.  By the end of the finale we know that Negan wasn’t bluffing and that somebody bit the dust, but in true Walking Dead sensationalism, we got no idea who.

Like so many of The Walking Dead’s biggest moments, this one was also polarizing.  Plenty of critics loved the buildup and plenty others were unsatisfied.  Good TV shows will almost always create this sort of division, though I can’t help but notice that many of these “shock” moments are the target of harsher and harsher criticism as time goes on.  My concern is that the show will become something like Jerry Springer or Maury - a once serious show that ostensibly remains so, but in reality is just out for the shock factor.  What it seems like the writers and producers don’t seem to realize is that a) TV is not a comic, and b) it only takes 1 or 2 severe blows to shatter a viewer’s interest and emotional investment in a show.  (Yes, I’m looking your way Season 7...)  Sure, you can keep pulling the rug out from under us and making us gasp and cringe with the very things we thought would never happen, but there’s only so many times you can play that card before unpredictability becomes predictable; where viewers learn to expect the unexpected, and as a result, go into the show with a degree of skepticism that hinders their full enjoyment.  

Furthermore, the number of possible storylines grows ever smaller with many of these moments - whether it be someone minor like Denise or Noah (huge waste of potential in my opinion) or a bigger player like, let’s say, Lori or Dale - and to be honest, the show has had a difficult if not impossible time when it comes to replacing these folks.  Frankly no one has even come close to replace people like Herschel, or Dale, or Shane (ok, Shane had to die), or even smaller roles like Beth.  Looking back on it, Michonne was really the last great character they introduced; I guess Tyrese was alright once he came into his own.  But the other sorta-newcomers - Sasha, Ford, Rosita, Eugene, Father Gabriel - none of them really come close to hitting the highs that much of the Seasons 1 - 3 cast did.  The Walking Dead has all but become “The Rick Show,” and while part of me can get behind that idea, part of me wishes it was a little more balanced.

So for all these reasons I’m giving the season a 75% success rate.  Obviously we had a stronger first half and though some may see it as drawn out, looking back on it I enjoyed the multitude of perspectives and events taking place.  And like I said, it gets a big “thumbs up” from me for once again featuring zombies as the primary threat.  As far as the second half, I don’t have a problem with Negan and I think that - eventually - it’ll create a fun context to explore the morality of killing people within, but as of the season finale, the road was just too damn long and too damn uneventful.

Currently I’m 4 episodes deep into Season 7, and as soon as my cable’s OnDemand is fully functional again I hope to catch up to the mid-season finale.  Hopefully I’ll feel strongly enough about it to follow up...I certainly have some choice words concerning those first 4 episodes already!

Until then...brains?

[twdmusicboxmystery]

8x12: The Key - Re-Watch

Welcome to episode 12. Let me start by saying this episode had a lot of stuff with Simon and Dwight, which is kinda boring and I don’t have much to say about it. I didn’t see many TD smoking guns in it, so I won’t mention it.

We also have the Rick/Negan/Hell theme. I think when this aired (again, before we knew anything about Rick leaving) we just equated it with Beth because it’s all the same symbols we saw around her in Still. And just as Still was one season before her death fake out, this is one season before Rick’s. So it’s obvious that this pointed, more specifically, to his death fake out. I don’t have tons more to say about that. Re-read these posts for details (X, X, X).

At one point, Negan did call himself a cat. Rick asks, “Are you still alive?” and Negan says, “I’m a GD cat.” Now, if Rick represents Beth (because death fake out) then Negan might represent Daryl (who we know is a cat). But I’m still not sure exactly what the point of this line was. I mean, Negan isn’t one who’s had 9 lives or anything, but we equate the cat symbol with a resurrection symbol. So the only thing I can think of is that this line is there to equate this sequence with resurrection (Rick’s) or else to equate it with Beth and Daryl, because it’s a parallel to them. Either one works for me. ;D

Oh, and Rick and Michonne get to Hilltop. Once again (I’m sure you could have guessed this) I think this foreshadows Rick and Michonne returning from the helicopter group. Especially because Rick goes right over and hugs and kisses Judith, and thanks Daryl for keeping her safe. Just feels like something we’ll see on the show after Rick returns.

And this is also why I do think Rick and Michonne will return to the show, despite what they’ve told us to the contrary. It just feels like they’re setting up something where there will be a big war with the helicopter people, but Rick and Michonne will return to lead it. And I just don’t see all of that—including the entire cast of the series—being put into the Rick Grimes films, you know? It’s very possible that something will happen to make me realize I’m wrong about that, and I’m okay with that, but for right now, I just don’t see how anything but their return is possible.

Okay, let’s get to the big cheese TD stuff: Georgie and the “A Key to A Future” book. 

Honestly, I was kind of floored by it. And let me start by saying this. At first, I felt like I was waffling again, but then I read something that made me realize that maybe it doesn’t matter because all storylines point to the same thing.

I know that was vague. Let me explain.

We’ve all (especially me) waffled back and forth about how Beth will return. Will she return with Maggie? Is she the gray ninja? Even if she’s not, is the gray ninja with Beth’s group? With Maggie’s group? Or will Beth be with Stefanie’s group? We simply don’t know.

And I’ve been heavily leaning toward Eugene’s group lately, mostly because of what Nicotero has said (and the idea that this gray ninja is a new character named Melody.) But when I watched this stuff with Georgie again, I immediately thought I must be wrong and Beth really will come through Maggie, not Eugene. Because there’s just no way this DOESN’T point to Beth. I’ll explain in a second, but it simply HAS to.

So here’s another point that’s important to illustrate. In the comic books, Stefanie (yes, the one Eugene has been talking to on the radio) is part of the Commonwealth. Now, I’ve been kind of assuming that wouldn’t be the case in the show, for several reasons. 

1) The show always remixes what happens in the comic books, so chances are it won’t be exactly the same. 

2) Stefanie is acting really secretive with Eugene in the show, like her group is in hiding or something. I’ve kind of assumed they might be hiding from the helicopter group, which would make them different from the Commonwealth. 

3) If Georgie represents the Commonwealth (she’s one of the leaders of it in the comic books) and Maggie is with her, which we know she is, then why wouldn’t Stefanie know about Alexandria and the other communities, if she’s part of the Commonwealth too?

I ran this past my fellow theorists and they pointed out some possibilities. The Commonwealth is a big place, and maybe it’s a lack of communication. That sort of thing.

But I mention this just to say the following:

Maybe these are all part of the same story line, and that’s why we’re seeing signs of Beth in all of them. Maybe, just as all the tracks converged at Terminus, all the story lines will converge in the Commonwealth. So, even if, in the show, Stefanie isn’t part of the Commonwealth yet, maybe she will be at some future point, and that’s how they will remix the material from the comic books.

Okay, so let’s talk Georgie. She shows up and wants records in exchange for knowledge. Not only is that a musical theme, which I’m sure we connected to Beth before, but they specifically mention records at Grady. And then there’s the fact that since then, we’ve seen both Jesus and Beta listening to records with Emily’s Turtle and Monkey song on them.

The twins with Georgie are also a big deal to me. I don’t remember how extensively this was discussed back in S8, but at the very least, I don’t think I gave it its proper due. We saw the twin boys around Beth in 5x09. Beth was in that episode, next to the number 8 and a 5:10 clock. And train tracks. And ABIBEL suns.

Now, with Georgie, we see all these other Beth symbols, and a pair of twins. Not much happened with them back in S8, but in S10 (which is 8 years post Coda) Maggie will be returning and we’ll probably be kicking off the Commonwealth story line soon after. See what I mean? There’s no way this doesn’t tie into Beth in some way.

Not to mention, the water aspect. If you remember, when I talked about 8x10 HERE, I said I might have found something that points to the sequence with Aaron in 5x10 not only making him a Beth proxy but also pointing to the helicopter group, right? Well, here it is. Let me start at the beginning.

A couple of things Michonne said here in 8x12 really jumped out at me. Maggie, Michonne, Enid, and Rosita were all debating whether to go meet Georgie. Michonne was the only one who really wanted to. Maggie and Enid were both arguing that it was too dangerous, Rick wanted them to stay put, etc.

Michonne said (and I paraphrase) “The last time we took a chance like this, it changed everything, and Rick didn’t agree with me then, either.”

The “it changed everything” really jumped out at me because I was thinking that something about meeting Georgie would change everything, and that screams Beth to me.

So, take a step backward and look at this from a bird’s eye view. If all of AOW is a foreshadow for a coming war with the helicopter people (and I’m operating from the idea that it is), then we have Georgie showing up in the middle of it and giving them something that’s going to change everything.

Back in S8, I’m sure we all hoped that whatever that was (Beth) would show up right then and turn the tide of the war (AOW). Obviously, that didn’t happen, and Georgie hasn’t figured in that war or the Whisper War at all, which means this is symbolic and foreshadows something else (helicopter war, most likely).

But what Michonne is specifically talking about is when they took a chance on Aaron in 5x11 and it paid off because they found Alexandria, which became their new, permanent home. 

So, we have Aaron being a Beth proxy in those episodes for obvious reasons we’ve discussed before (Beth dialogue, symbolism, etc.). Plus, he left TF water in the middle of a drought, and we know the helicopter people will probably have clean water, when others don’t. And of course there’s that pesky music box.

But now we have Michonne referring to meeting him in the midst of this Georgie thing. So, if he’s a Beth proxy, I think Georgie must be as well.

There are also other things we can point to around Georgie. She’s blond. The two “As” in the title of the book: A key to A Future. Also Key Theory.

I also noticed that she said the book was full of medieval machines for them to build because she wanted them to “build a future from our past.” Given that Beth is a part of TF’s past, that line could definitely apply to her.

So yeah. Not tons more to say about this episode. (Again, I’m not going into the detailed symbolism because I’m only looking for new and more broad interpretations, so if you want the details, read these: X, X, X.)

But my basic thoughts are that Georgie definitely connects with Beth in some way. We all already thought that after seeing this episode back when it first aired, but I’m feeling it much more powerfully, now, and once Beta and the rest of the Whisperers are dispensed of, the Commonwealth story line will be right around the corner.

Thoughts?

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Tarot Cards: The Tower and the Star

Okay, this won’t be terribly long, but it’s SUPER important. Several people have asked me about this, and I’m so glad. I haven’t gone back and looked at this particular symbolism in a while. This is why TD is a collaborative effort. I probably wouldn’t have thought to anytime soon.

Nonny sent me the below Ask and, wow! Holy rabbit hole and a half!  Thanks so much to whoever sent this to me. I hadn’t even thought of this since reading spoilers. Now I’m super excited!

So we can definitely find all kinds of TD symbols in this card. I haven’t even done that in great detail yet. But the point is, TF is now inhabiting a tower and the card generally means great calamity. And we know from what Ryan said on TTD last week that this battle is going to be huge. He said it would dwarf the one we saw at Hilltop.

I’m even thinking now that because Grady was a tower, rather than a smaller, two or three story hospital. I hadn’t connected that to the tarot cards before. We literally have two towers book-ending the time that Beth has NOT been on the show. But that’s not even the biggest deal. Guess what card comes after the tower? That would be this one.

The star card. The one Emily posted a few months ago on her account, hinting that Beth is close and coming soon.

Guys, think about that. In terms of tarot card chronology, we’re at the Tower. Beth is the Star card, and that comes next in the chronology. Which means she’s going to show up right after the Tower. Either right after the battle or perhaps just before the end of it.

She just is.

Which means she’ll have to either be in 10×16 or 11x01. No way to tell for sure, but, after all the Emily promo and hints they’ve given us this season, my guess would be 10x16. It would just make so much a better finale than a premier, and we talked many times about how having her show up in the finale would build all kinds of hype over the summer for the next season. Oh, and just to sweeten the pot? Guess what card comes right after the star? The freaking Moon.

As in Beta? Half Moon?

Geeeeeeeez!

See why I think we’ll see her in the finale. And honestly, them pushing the finale out was a little suspicious to us. They say it’s due to the pandemic, and okay. Maybe. I don’t claim to be an expert at that sort of thing or know what all goes into post-production, but AMC has enough money, and enough of the post production stuff is done digitally that I think they could figure it out if they REALLY wanted to.

So while I’m not calling them liars—they probably are dealing with some concerns, and rightly so—we’re also thinking that perhaps they just took the opportunity to push the finale out so they could make a bigger deal out of it later on.

It also could be business based. Maybe people are so worried about pandemic-related stuff that the ratings are down, and people are just distracted in general. But AMC wants the audience’s full attention for this episode.

So the next question is…why?

Well, since Maggie wasn’t in ep 15, and they’ve told us she’ll be back this season, I think we have to assume she’ll be in the finale (and this has been confirmed, now). 

But that’s really not a huge deal, even if everyone will be happy to see her, because they TOLD us about that. So what else? Well, we know it will be an epic battle (more on that in a minute) and it’s been suggested that maybe Connie will return. I don’t care if she does or doesn’t, but again, that’s not really an epic enough reason to push the date out.

So all this is to say that my not-so-secret hope is that Maggie, Connie and Beth will return together in the finale to turn the tide of the battle. (Remember the symbolism from 10x01 that suggested Connie will bring Beth back to Daryl in some way.)

Another thing we’ve talked about?

No one really knows much of anything about this finale. I was really surprised to hear Ryan talk about the huge battle, because no one has really talked about that. We got spoilers about them filming at the hospital, but that’s all. I’m just surprised they haven’t dropped more hints about such a huge story line before now. It makes us think that they’ve guarded this finale carefully. More so than they usually do.

Another reason to be suspicious. Think about it. In most seasons, we have been able to guess where the finale was going based on the storyline. And granted, some of that is because of what happens in the comic books, and people can just figure it out. But things still leaked very early in most cases.

Spoilers of Beth being shot leaked VERY early in the season. Long before the MSF. Word of JDM playing Negan leaked months before he showed up. And from there, and what was happening in the show, it wasn’t hard to figure out that he would show up in the finale. Most of them have been like that. But this was different. I already talked about how I was surprised they killed Alpha so early, because they usually save that for the finale. But even then, we really had no idea what the next few episodes would be about. Based on precedent, that IS a bit odd.

Could they be guarding this episode closely because there’s going to be a huge reveal? Will they even send out screeners for the episode? Will we get spoilers? If nothing else, this episode will be set apart from all others in a way no other finale in the history of the show has been.

Now, I recognize that if she doesn’t show in the finale, it will be a huge letdown and what I’m saying here is getting people excited. If that happens, you already have my profuse apologies. But given everything we’ve seen this season—Emily posting the tarot card, her songs being in the show, all the on-the-nose foreshadows we’ve gotten, the fact that it’s S10, and now this Tower situation—I just can’t believe we WON’T see her. If we don’t, chances are she’ll show up VERY soon after in S11.

But it’s also interesting that they’ve pushed the new spinoff—The World Before—which is about the helicopter people, back as well. They say it’s for the same reasons. And, okay. That makes sense. But maybe they can’t air that until after a certain reveal in the finale, you know.

It just all makes perfect sense to me. So I’ll wait with baited breath for this damn pandemic to pass so we can finally see the Star that shows up just before dawn, in the darkest part of the night.

Who’s with me?

Oh, one more interesting fact? If not for the pandemic, if the episode had aired next Sunday as planned, it would have aired on Easter Sunday. 

[wolfwhiteflowers]

RG movies and tv speculations

So since we’ve been getting lil non-confirmation news that the Rick movie(s) will be starting soon (like Jan. maybe), I’ve been thinking about it. Everyone’s reaction is all bringing back the same comments and concerns they said before. The fandom is skeptical and doubtful. Everyone’s tired and want closure. I get that. Anyway, I think it’s gonna happen at least the first one. We waited for like a year and some months for actual news of it starting. lol This all reminds me that it’s all show business, $$$, and hoping for GREAT writing and luck. Eh I really need to somehow have low expectations and stuff. :\ I think we waited more because of new deals, like movies being in theaters/Universal.(and it was always trilogy movies right?) I just want a good ending to Rick’s story. sigh.

I’m excited about the Rick movies starting, but then I’m like idk ..what to expect and, even if we get some kind of an idea, will it be good? idc about Jadis at all (but she’s the one who brings him to somewhere he’s at) Will Heath be there? ...and I hope Michonne will be in those movie(s)!!! It all comes down to great writing, cast, etc. Ahh.

I think I need to write down what I want and hope for...and also think of what would be the most disappointing ways and just be ...expecting less. bleh

-Random thought.. Maggie speculations... and spoilers!

I saw a post about if I still miss Maggie during s10. I realized that I don’t care that much. I guess it’s partly because of the writing and AMC...Maggie didn’t have other friends, loose end arcs in s9. I wasn’t that interested in Maggie in s8 or s9 because it’s like she was not with the TF that much and she’s mostly angry. :\ Then also her friends are all dead in Hilltop. But mainly, I don’t feel like I miss her because, even though it was a shitty “ending/exit” for her, she took her son and went with Georgie in a different community, and they’re doing fine. I think all the comic Maggie moments had been shown already - Negan plots. So in a way I feel Maggie’s story is done and fine/happy ending. But Maggie is returning to the show in s11 (and lil bit in s10 in some way that Idk). I think Maggie will be like a new character. Kind of like how everyone’s changed a bit from the big time jump. I think Maggie will be ..like comic Gov. Pamela or someone like that. Maggie might be president (like in the final comic issue/endgame/future.) Both comic characters are kinda similar. Idk but I’m curious what the writers will do with Maggie in s11. Maggie might be the ..erm “antagonist” or so. Yeah....I hope, if the show does it, it would be interesting and complex. But ofc it’s gonna rile up remaining TWD fans. Idk. ahh I really hope Hershel Jr isn’t gonna be like Sebastian. :| Idk..I liked Hershel Jr’s story even tho it upsets people but I liked his reasons. He misses his dad. So..I think s11 will be like s10 but kinda like Carol and Daryl/TF as the mains and Maggie introducing Commonwealth/communities..as a guest star? supporting character?. Kinda like we say Atlanta group but Morgan isn’t part of it but he’s still part of the group. Anyway, there’s gonna be a lot of traveling ..bigger world..political. Maggie is a main from the other side of the show.

-Other remixes (plots) I recently noticed that could be shown in s11. I think Aaron will be like comic Rick. Yumiko will be like comic Michonne with the lawyer stuff. Magna will be like comic Dwight-maybe, with not so loyal to Daryl.The mains will be adapting a lot to either comic Rick, Michonne, Carl, Andrea, Eugene’s plots.  Lydia is like Sophia or Carl. ???

- So I’m kinda wondering why the first movie is starting their pre-productions now in December. Idk much about movies and just speculating. I’m wondering if it’s to wait till DG is done filming and maybe even NR and MMB/and others to be done with s10. (filming was done before Thanksgiving). Maybe it’s also Jan to March is when the writers and GN are have time to write and set things up to film the movies. They had FTWD and TWD:WB to think about too and scripts. Idk but Gimple thinks he can do it. heh.

Anyway, so if it’s not about the timing or something, it would be cool if NR and MMB are part of the movie(s). They already have the contract deal to work for three years. Which it’s like I guess the show will end in s12? And that deal said like they’re also part of the TWD universe prj. so maybe they also do the movie(s). Idk. For me, I would love to have Carol and Daryl in the movie(s)! I think for show business it would be even better for Gimple to have all the mains and from other shows (FTWD, TWD:WB) in the movie(s) to be part of it. Because the movie(s) is a big deal right? They gotta sell it big. But Idk how that would work. Ahh I would love it if the movie(s) is a big Rlchonne and CaryI movie. :P

-My theory..my wishes...

I think Gimple kinda also wanted the first movie to be made after s10/after Michonne left the show-to find Rick. Idk when the movie will come out in theater but some fans say winter of 2020. So with that theory, it’s like s10 finale, movie-1, s11, movie-2, s12, and this could be where everyone comes together and do movie-3 for the final ending of Rick’s story (and maybe TWD show’s series finale).

oh tv gods, so many promises and commitments. O_O

-My wish so far(or an idea I hope it goes that I have rn)is that I want Carol and Daryl to be part of the movies...like C plot of the movie. I want Michonne to be reunited in first movie or be like a B-plot star of the movie.  Idk I have these ideas of how the movie(s) will go and I keep thinking of Lord of Rings for some reason or a movie where characters travel and reunite in the end.

-So I have these ideas so far of the movies. Michonne leaves to find Rick (without the kids). There’s a lot missions and traveling Michonne had to do to get to him, make friends, and maybe once she does find him and is with him, they both fight their way back home. First movie could be about why Rick couldn’t get back to his family, his recovery from his injury, introduce these new characters that are friends and foes.(Maybe some father and son trope in it?) Since, I’m a biased Carol fan/Caryler, I think Carol and Daryl will go travel with the Grimes kids to get the kids to be with their parents. I call it the Carol’s mission. Her story’s endgame might be like being able to have the Grimes kids protected, live, and have them be with their parents.

I feel like the Carol’s mission idea might not happen because it seem like it won’t work out. Maybe Carol’s mission will work in the third movie. I just think it’s part in plan (or not and writers just want Grimes legacy in the show and ratings stuff) that plan to have Carol to look after the Grimes kids as Michonne leaves in s10. Idk why Michonne will leave without her kids..but there’s a reason...idk what. Or, I’m wrong with this kids thing. From the s10B trailer and spoilers.., it seems like it’s Uncle Daryl looking after the Grimes kids. But what about Lydia? It seems like Carol is actually gonna be the one to look after her and be a parent figure to her. Idk why it’s like the writers switched this. In s9 and s10..writers kept like mentioning that Daryl is Lydia’s parent figure. So ?? Unless it’s some kinda pre-set up to the Caryl family? Carol bonding with Lydia, and Daryl bonding with Grimes kids..= Carylydia and Grimes kids.  Dixons and Grimes kids. ??? Anyway, I feel like Caryl will be part of the movies and travel or follow Michonne’s path to get her kids to her (in third movie maybe). It would be kinda like Caryl’s New Mexico dream/endgame in a way for them.

So those are my ideas..it’s a mess but it’s on the post. :) Now I go think of those headcanons/fanfics whenever and hope the movies goes... well.

-Man the writers gotta know their themes, tropes,...I hope uh Gimple really planned this story out.

Idk what the heck is gonna happen or how or even to think it will happen. But if the movie(s) do happen, I do hope it’s way better than the SW’s sequel trilogy movies. I hope the movies have good writing and a happy ending where the Grimes family are all together.

[wolfwhiteflowers]

ep 6-ish filming spoilers/spec. *twd comic spoilers

I rambled a lot. I also mentioned. SDCC news, Kang articles, Skybound(s9 promo pic) 

It’s a messy post. I wrote it like journal. vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

There’s filming spoilers of Eugene up on the water tower and his foot got stuck..and I guess got outta there. Also maybe a lady there..the casted lady there. Alpha? ..a crew member? idk. He’s up in the water tower similar to comic-Gabe’s uh death. 

Well in the comics, Gabe went up there to look out for any signs of a herd during/ later-ish in the Whisperer war. He’s very new to being a solider and cowardly-like...like Eugene is but not tv-Gabe (oh, also tv-Gabe is partially blind too). So, comic-Gabe saw the huge ass heard coming, freaked out and went down the ladder, his foot got caught in bottom of the ladder. And then a whisperer killed him before Gabe could warn others about the herd and whisperers that are coming to ASZ. 

I’m gonna think it’s not a remixed of that scene. What about the radio (comic Eugene)? Idk anymore.

Ep 6 sounds like a big Eugene episode or he got a lot of outside action stuff in this ep.

-thoughts-I’m thinking of the moment they introduced Georgie in s8 which the lady is similar to Pamela from the Commonwealth. I’m starting to think that TWD writers shouldn’t introduced Georgie or someone that’s similar to this Commonwealth arc in s8. So Idk in s9 the spoilers sound like stuff all from after the time jump and Whisperer War arc. Everything seems rushed. Maybe they’re remixing these plots. Some plots in other seasons were there earlier than the comic storyline. Who knows. But if Eugene has a radio and contacting Stephanie. It’s like different from the comics. The radio plot from Eguene and going to Ohio to find Stephanie -Commonwealth -Michonne’s daughter, Elodie. It was all a mystery. So meeting Georgie ruins the mystery.

-JDM’s haircut! Dang idk anymore! Seems like a lot cast members got groomed lol So, another time-jump? 

-So I guess another Lintz kid will be in TWD or Matt will be teen-Henry! Maybe Henry won’t die(braces). I’m glad.. cos I think that’s important part of Carol’s story, imo.  But Idk for sure who he play as.

-ok so recently TSDF are saying that there will be a time jump based on what i just mentioned. 5 years or so jump based on Matt Lintz possible playing at teen-Henry. Matt is like 5 years older than his bro.

This timejump, I’m like NO. Blah I don’t like it. Is it in ep 6?

 Also ... based on the Skybound tweet, I don’t feel sure about TSDF, it seems like they’re rushing to announce a spoiler, again. I don’t think they got enough info yet..but yeah a lot of cast members are groomed..so I guess time jump is happening. I was like ok with it at first but ...later in the week, I noticed there’s no spoilers on characters grieving on Rick (leaving or dead) and no heads on pikes scene. Idk what’s going on storywise.

-(repeating the same thing) Skybound/TWD tweet. lol “don’t believe what u hear.” Idk what it is about but if it’s about the spoiler on the spoilery script pic, then ???? lol First, TSDF were saying WTF. They’re pretty sure Rick Dies in ep Five.

my comment on the thread.

I'm curious. Did you guys got more info or sources that Rick died in ep 5? Or you guys speculated over on the spoilery script pic?

What if Rick gone missing (like tv-Heath)? It's something that I kind of hope for in the show with AL wanting to leave. I was hoping Rick would go missing and then Michonne and Judith go on a boat to idk Commonwealth after s9.

We don't know much on why AL is leaving and why AMC is keeping a secret and all that. We just have to wait and see.

I hope you guys will get more info soon.

I mainly just want to know how Rick leaves the show. Does he die or go missing? And what about the Grimes fam.? And when?

I guess I was right? TSDF are saying some kind of craziness happening with Rick’s departure like a dumpster-gate. BUT, AL supposedly? got one episode left to film and the news is that he will exit TWD. So ...Rick is still leaving, right? :( I hope he doesn’t die. Back on rollercoaster ride..on hoping for the TWD AU to be good.

-I’m guessing Rick won’t even see this new windmill built. I don’t understand this windmill being built way later. Rick isn’t like “old man Rick” no cane, no windmill, blah.

-The time jump=

...well TSDF may be wrong about all this. Maybe Oceanside is dead or not focused anymore. Young Henry is missing like comic - Elodie or dead. New Lintz teen boy may be playing as a different character. Negan is groomed because from the comics he got groomed..so yeah. 

----if TSDF is right, ...

I get it now(Beth). I guess. Reason why s8 finale didn’t tease or set up for the timejump in s9 because it’s not the big time jump they wanna mention or tease about. Finale still sucked and didn’t excite me for next season. If ep 6 - time jump will happen (5 years) then I guess first 5 ish episodes are about Rick with a hair cut and yeah he’s gone. Maybe Gimple’s plan of s9 is in these 5 episodes and ep 6 is all Angela Kang’s ideas.

I’m so lost on the play of time. Maybe s9A is like FTWD’s recent half season. Idk. 9A goes half of the story is one year later and the other half is 5 years later. Or 1-5 episodes are one year later. 6-8 and on are five years later? Idk 

It’s really bad for Caryl. Idk much on storywise and filming spoilers, but I don’t think whisperers/Alpha does their thing before ep 6. So after the ep 6./5 years time jump, that means Carol ...I guess is in a romantic relationship with Zeke  in Kingdom for 5 or so years. Daryl still single cos wtf idk.. writers don’t say he’s asexual, gay, or whatever from the start. 

Like we already know but yeah really bad for Grimes family. They don’t show characters grieving over him? Michonne ofc is gonna be sad and wtf alone(?) for 5 years. Depressing. ehhh s9 is such crap for Michonne’s story. If Rick doesn’t die but gone missing or taken into the helicopter, then it reminds me of the soapy show Jane the Virgin (spoilers!!!........) where Michael “dies” and a year later he came back fine but had lost his memories and that’s why he didn’t come back earlier. Anyways, with that theory, it still wouldn’t work well with that 5 year time jump (and more). Like if maybe Michonne and Judith went a boat and found Rick after 6 years. That’s nice...? Depressing tho...uh? Then the end for TWD? lol

-5 years is a lot. TWD s1-8 was like 2 years. So...everyone and everything is so different.

---

omg those articles from Kang. sorry but she’s just being like any other showrunner trying to sell her show yada yada. Daryl will have romance? she’s like sure. But remember skybound said nope on s9.  Girl power?She’s like yas.  Skybound said nothing much new with Michonne and Carol. Ofc, it’s not gonna be good plots for the ladies./ It’s all depressing and idk the show doesn’t show them interact anyways.

WTF 

-... when AL finished his filming, I was like uh what to look forward to in the spoilers? sigh. yeah. It’s what it is. S9 is just awful. :\

-I don’t know what Carol is gonna do. MMB is a ninja, people can’t spot her during filming. It’s sad..I don’t know (s9)Carol anymore actually. I wish Carol was single and just idk. I want to know what Carol is like after the war and living in Kingdom (and why live there or show Carol telling TF that’s she’s living there and they still bond with her.) I don’t what Carol is like after 5 years either. I don’t know anything about Carol rn. ...I don’t think there’s much on Carol with Rick/TF. :(

---

SDCC.

ok but first, omg i just wanna see the cast interactions only. I love this lil group. (they’re like my ‘twd players’ and also it’s shippy like. Caryl, Richonne...and used to be-Gleggie)They’re main cast members and they’re like originals of the show plus JDM. But questions and answers..oh boy it’s gonna be awkward and crazy. 

eta. I heard that LC won’t be at the TWD panel. Maybe she will be at the con somewhere else? I’m not sure and it’s probably from her contract with ABC. Anyways, that’s sad...TWD fans won’t see LC at the panel for the last time.

 I realized that we’re gonna learn a lot about s9. Like confirmation on what’s gonna happen in the story. It’s gonna be crazy. They may be like Caryl is always just friends.duuuuh.durrrr.  TWD is not Rick’s story. durrr. Maybe, Rick (and Maggie) isn’t gonna diiiiiee ;) ep 5, he dies. SIGH.

I heard AL is gonna announce that’s he’s leaving the show. That’s nice, imo. I like to know if the actor will leave or not that kind of stuff. I don’t want this big surprise death or whatever.  Idk. whatever AL  want to or will do. I just want writers/AMC to treat their fans with respect. 

-------------------------

So um ..I just feel that s9 is actually crappy. It’s all AU to me in the first place, and that even as AU-onscreen, it still sucks. :\ So yeah give me fanarts and fic pls.

 I hope the actors and others have fun at SDCC. I hope s9 isn’t that bad but well I don’t think so. (not planning to watch it either so.) 

I’m still waiting what s9A will be like and does Rick dies or not. 

[wolfwhiteflowers]

ranting on TWD s9 again. :] ... other rants in #*twd or #*twd s9h

uh this is more about recent news, recent filming spoilers. Also FTWD deaths. -Carol, shows, pro-Rick. 

‘wait and see’ is hard. I guess I just want TWD AU to be good too and hoping/waiting is hard.

i guess i go rant till next year lol.

vvvv

Lately im just waiting for more info on Carol. I wanna know what Carol will be like in s9, TWD AU or the fumbling dead...BUT the filming spoilers tho...it’s like rubbing salt in my wounds about TWD’s potenial runied/AL leaving over and over.

It’s all just a bummer. I should not read into the filming spoilers that much. ..and omg avoid forum drama.

 Like I wanna see spoilers and I can’t help but hope for good Carol spoilers. Like getting spoilers about Caryl (and answers about C/E), Carol & Henry, and Carick/TF. :((( But then I get sad again and again. Idk what’s going on. I guess I assume there’s no good Carol spoilers and no Carick. :((((  Actually it’s just seeing any Rick spoilers is just sad. Also this whole Rick (and Maggie) dying/leaving the show thing is like dragged out rubbed in our wounds all till like when the ep airs their death/leaving. Like November or December.  Ugh. I just wanna get it over with it and to know what’s canon. Cry and move on. :\ So then we can make TWD AU fanarts..or do it now. ......I think it’s good to know what’s canon so then we don’t wonder and worry about avoiding it. It doesn’t mean to watch the show live but just reading it and know it and then just let it go and then make fanarts. xP

I was gonna not watch s9 anyways but dang just learning about s9 or what is canon ...is hard. sigh. but in time we will be alright. ...

------------------

TWD s9 speculations ~

so some filming spoilers coming out sounds like the gory comic death scene will happen. The heads on the pikes, killed by Alpha. They’re gonna film a zombie herd soon and whisperers may be part of that, I guess. i think of FTWD s4A and the deaths of Nick and Madison and how it seems like cheap deaths. I guess Rick and Maggie will go out like that... boring. not moving,imo. Doesn't impact the story or..............I’m just bitter. I just really want a good ending for Rick (thee main character). Like he saved his people and he dies and everyones lives without walkers as a threat and they’re safe in a community forever. 

  Travis’ death was meh (k it was really bad. wtf). ..I know I just won’t like whatever will happen with Rick and/or Maggie. For some reason, I feel like some characters got a good death scene for the overall story. Like Glenn, Sasha and Carl,imo. Their deaths were like they brought a new chapter to the story/show. Idk I liked Sophia and Merle’s deaths too. Anyways, their deaths changed the story. ..Or I guess they changed Rick characterwise in his story.  sigh.

Dang it’s like three weeks and AMC still didn’t confirm it or anything about AL leaving news. It makes me think AMC/writers wanted it to be a surprise that Rick dies/leaves the show (like how Nick and Madison died). ugh that’s even more lame. 

Dang it’s like AMC/showrunners? doesn’t let fans to trust them or get them excited at all for the story. It’s like some writers/AMC don’t care about the story’s core story and the fans.   So blah. I know some fans were disappointed that they were ‘spoiled’, but like that’s way to hard for me to handle that. I’m glad it was leaked and for me to know ahead of time...though the waiting and the dread sucks. 

UGH Skybound mailbag thing makes this hiatus worse by dragging the unknown..rubbing the salt..with their vague spoilers. And saying it in a troll way too. It’s cos we don’t know what’s up with Carol and writers made it that dumb way on not making it clear in their lackluster s8 finale (s8 finale shouldve been like s2 finale foreshadowing timeskip and next arc-Michonne/prison). I just wanna know if C/E happens or not, or Caryl be endgame, or will Carol ever have romance, will Carol interact with TF/Rick/Henry, in this TWD AU. geez. ...I want spoilers. I want confirmations and then leave the show-canon alone.

Carol speculations in s9.

- uh it seems like Carol is in Kingdom and just hanging out with Henry and Kingdomers in 9A. idk about Carick but we got a lit bit of something from filming spoilers, in 9x01. meh. :\ Some Caryl moments but how Skybound answered it, idk it depends on how I see it (on tumblr). As long as Caryl still be soulmate-y. Sigh I miss Carol or I miss what the show used to be and the potential. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

AMC is having a bad year/June, huh? lol ..partly their fault, anyways. wtf TWD shows are like destroying itself and then now the Hardwick (TTD) news of him being an abuser. sigh. Damn we really got BTS drama. :\ With the shows losing their leads, is it part of the lawsuits and diverting away from Kirkman’s story or something? idk.

I just wanna say, poor FTWD fans who watched recently. Writers/Gimple/AMC? litterally just scraped off the original storyline of the Clarks family for to focus on newbies, Morgan. So it’s a spinoff show within the show. ( It’s like TWD in s9 will be doing...with changing to Daryl’s) Anyways that’s really awful to the FTWD fans to suddenly to change the storyline. That’s like ..probably something I would just quit the show ..It’s something to feel like I won’t the trust the writers. Gotta have trust in the writers and the writers gotta gain your trust.

---------------------------------------------------

I was thinking about fandom stuff..and reading some posts. i guess i let it slide that the TWD show was going downhill early on. idk when. most say s6 is when it got worse. i always say that TWD was not the best but it was just a fun drama ensemble show for me. Well thats what fandoms do..they want the very best of the show/media. Also fandom is all opinions...it’s best not to read into it too much.

s2 is my fave season...even when I didn’t feel the TF love like on other shows or when I got annoyed with Shane/love triangle. (why is everything relate to OUAT wank. I learned a lot from that show/fandom. maybe just being deep in the fandom. it hurts more.) Ok like s2 or other seasons compared to s6-8 is different.. Different style and stuff-writers/showrunners.., idk. There are some good moments. It’s also like based on the comics’ story. Most say s5 is the best is what comic fans say is loving the Hunters arc. (s3 and the prison arc-tho i dont like this season). So yeah ..kinda depends on the comics and it’s all show business. Kinda hard to compare or not idk, Kirkman’s comic story may be better because it’s original and flows better naturally. There’s more personal intimate moments with like 5 main characters but the show got other good parts too. (better medium story telling) idk. like the show has Carol and other plots went better, but lack TF moments and many dull characters. Also Kirkman isnt the best writer either so...idk what im saying. TWDG telltale game has the best storytelling. tho super depressing but also got realistic moments.

Just idk Oh well. I watched TWD for the main characters, Caryl, Carol. But lately things are not happening like I want or like it was in s5-6. There’s Less TF (like how the comics are..tho s9/after AOW was hopeful but AL and LC wanna leave.)Caryl and Carol/ TF interactions or Carol part of main plot haven’t happened since s6 and Idk if we come back to that. Like will Caryl’s relationship grow and does Carol and TF moment return-like will we have Carick moments? SIGH Waiting and hoping. It’s tiring. do whatever you want. I’m still a fan of Caryl, Carol/TF/Carick, Richonne.

Idk I’m just bummed and having a hard time with s9 and yet Rick and Maggie are leaving. Yeah ..I just wish I have an ending to just end it but I don’t have one. There’s no end...Idk it’s hard to make an ending to stop and to not hope or expect more. 

I want to not watch s9 yet I want/hope this TWD AU to end it right..blah. I guess till I get more info ..wait and see...

Whatever this rollercoaster ride continues and I probably rant again soon. :P

[wolfwhiteflowers]

Issue 175 thoughts and speculations, and tv show’s remixes.

*Michonne  *Richonne

> TWD comic spoilers

> TWD tv spoilers

(keep reading. vvv)

---------------------the comics

-OMG! Issue 175 had been out for awhile and I’m just still shocked about Michonne and that she’s on her way finding her daughter(s?).  I did not see this coming. It’s like I should have known. Because yeah it was kinda obvious or I just didn’t think it would happen at all. lol

In issue 168, I think, when Michonne decided to lead the Ohio group for Eugene, I was wondering why Michonne have to leave her bff Rick when he’s grieving over Andrea(wife) and alone in ASZ. I thought this was some plot that was setting up for Rick and Negan to parallel or get Rick downward spiral or something. I thought maybe Michonne didn’t want to be around Rick like maybe she have feelings for him. Idk or Michonne wants change, something new. But instead, Rick kinda adopts Mikey. He’s doing alright rn. I guess that’s ..also.. the point Kirkman wanted on Rick’s side of the story. We’ll see. My main point is that the reason why Michonne went to Ohio wasn’t all about making Rick alone (Jesus/Aaron at Hilltop. Carl at Hilltop). Kirkman wanted Michonne to leave ASZ to get to the story plot of her finding her missing daughter(s)! I did not see that coming. I think others thought of that but I was like ehh Michonne didn’t find them in Oceanside so? She grieve it out and was like feeling better lately. So yeah, now she gets see her Elodie soon and perhaps Colette!

-So this issue was such a big deal for Michonne. OMG Ok. Michonne is my fave in the comics. I don’t really trust Kirkman and sometimes doubt his writing, but I’m surprised he did this...or not. I mean I feel like this is what it suppose to happen. Make Michonne a mother again. I think her character journey is all about not finding her daughters and dealing with that pain, slowly letting it go and being more open with her past lovers, being close with the Grimes boys, being more human. And now she’s finally getting answers and closure to what happened to her daughters and ex-husband. She may even be a mom again to Elodie. This moment is something that I wanted before Kirkman would someday decides to finish the comic book or kill off Michonne. This was what I want and hope for her and her character’s journey, and so I’m like idc what else happens. I got what I wanted. (unless Kirkman screws up something else or I want more stuff. whatever. no can trust writers. lol)

-I am starting to think around issue 175 and on, is the beginning of the end. It seems like everyone’s getting closure or something. Maybe the end is not coming but everyone’s getting new chapters in their journey. Eugene and Siddiq learned the truth of Rosita, Jesus loves Aaron & wants to stay with him, Negan is changed, Maggie got closure, Michonne will find her daughter or what happened. idk about other characters. Grimes boys are changing..Rick is a widower and adopts Mikey?,Carl is starting to lead, Dwight wants to lead?..

-Even communities are changing. They’re all rebuilt from the Whisperer War but there’s this a whole new community, Commonwealth that is really protected, strong and huge. Idk if they’re safe or the good guys, but Kirkman including Elodie makes us fans interested in the community! I really wonder what will happen next with the Commonwealth in OH and other communities in VA.  Will the main characters leave Hilltop, Sanctuary, ASZ, Kingdom? Will Commonwealth and other communities become like an east coast territory being led by a higher rank group or person? Will our main characters even want to live in Commonwealth? idk I mean like Rick would he even want to go there ...maybe he would want to stay at ASZ where Andrea is buried at. Anyways, it’s gonna be interesting to know what will happen.

-There could be other potential drama to it with Elodie and Michonne, and the communities/people. Like what if Michonne is all excited about finding her daughter and everything’s great but she’s like I want to go back home. Elodie be like why? What is home to you? Then Michonne realizes she got another family back in home, VA. Riiiiiiiick. ok lol idk. Maybe the Ohio traveling group can’t leave Commonwealth or something. Maybe there will some civil war with all the communities against Commonwealth, or Rick or Carl will be president some day(of the east coast..like Falling Skies show). IDK i just want Mikey and Elodie to meet and be like some crossover ship-name thing with Stranger Things. El and Mike.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~TV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s crazy how in issue 175, comic-Michonne found her daughter(s) (Jan.) after in the show where tv-Michonne’s (and Rick) will lose her second son, Carl(Dec.). It was just all emotional to think of those two stories. It’s also reminds me of this speculation or theory that I did long ago that seems like ..I was right or will happen or something like that. :P

My old-ish theory of the comics (issue 169, before s8 happened) and TV show. My theory or speculations are about tv-Richonne and comic-Richonne. #twd remix theories  I was trying to think of ways on how tv-Michonne will still live on after comic-Andrea died. Like how tv-Michonne still be Rick’s wife and perhaps adapt to comic-Michonne as well. *If only the tv writers wanted Michonne to live on and NOT take comic-Andrea’s death too. If Rick will not lose both Carl AND Michonne.  So, future stories are gonna be hard to remix or they will be a couple. My point is, my theories of tv-Richonne/comic-Richonne might not even work out and it’s kinda impossible. I’m not sure about comic-Richonne becoming a couple. Though they’re one of the leading characters and best friends.

But......one of theories? right now is that the TWD show writers killed off tv-Carl like how comic-Andrea did, so that tv-Michonne can live. And, since Michonne will lose another son, maybe Michonne will do what comic-Michonne did in future stories based in the comics; leave ASZ(pirating or Ohio traveling trip) to grieve or something else.

Here’s a bit of my old post of my old theory....

* Instead of miscarriage, it’s death of Carl. *Carl’s death = Negan redemption.

So far I got an idea that popped in my head and it’s instead of Michonne dying based on comic Andrea’s death, maybe Michonne would have a miscarriage or they lost their child from walkers/enemies. So it’s all angsty and tension between Rick and Michonne. It’s hard for parents to deal with their death of their child. idk why I thought of this :( …overthinking is bad (ok I’m kinda thinking Fringe’s final season with Peter and Olivia dealing with their issues since their daughter went missing). …Oh I know..I kinda was thinking of something that Rick and Negan could bond or whatever Kirkman have in mind later on in the comics. In the comics, they lost their wives recently-ish. I think Kirkman wants Rick and Negan to bond or something really in common in the story right now.

*Michonne left because she wants to. Later, Kirkman had in mind to have Michonne finding her daughter(s).

I am also thinking of comic michonne’s storyline. Right now, comic Michonne left with a group to check out Ohio/another community(ies). She said she has to go. We don’t know why, it could be just Kirkman wanting Rick to be alone and go crazy…

*more speculations

….So with that thought, Michonne’s leaving Rick and my thought of how tv show adapting it with loss of their child, it’s like tv-Michonne needs a break and think about her life and grieve her own way and stuff and same with Rick. And then…Michonne comes back home, ASZ, and Richonne are able to move on and still be in a loving marriage. (And like… comic-Richonne happens after Michonne comes back from the Ohio trip.)

I guess I was thinking of this because of issue 169. Andrea died and I think it develops to another plot with Rick and Negan. Then Michonne left. Like how does tv show do it without tv-Richonne being over.  I know there’s many other scenarios. Like maybe tv-Michonne wouldn’t go to Ohio.

So, I guess it’s like I’m saying Michonne will leave ASZ for awhile to do the pirate arc or Ohio trip or anything. But!.... I think the whole “Michonne leaving ASZ” part doesn’t matter or it’s a need in the story. Because, Carl died during All Out War and we already know Oceanside from Tara, Carol being away in that house, and Siddiq. So, I think there would be other remixes. Like someone else will take comic-Michonne’s part of going to Ohio or to the sea(Morgan?).  Plus, s8B and on will be more different than the comics. Anything could happen in the show. It’s just a theory.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Michonne’s child remix~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I feel like Idk anymore. lol  Some stories are already remixed and happening, so some stories aren’t needed. ..Now that comic-Michonne will most likely see and be around Elodie, Idk how TV show will do it. Maybe things will make sense later on when we get more comic-Rick story and other stories, later.

I don’t think tv-Michonne will find Andre again. We’ve been told Andre is dead. Unless Michonne is also totally surprised like us if we see see Andre alive and found again.

It’s also doesn’t quite be the same as comic-Michonne’s story. I think this is so comic-Michonne’s thing…like ever since. I think for her not knowing where her daughters are and if they’re alive, was what made her who she was/is since she was introduced in the comics. Comic-Michonne is like tv-Michonne in s3 but for a long time. I don’t think any TV character is that way, imo. Tv-Michonne and Carol isn’t like her. I’m saying how comic-Michonne found out about her daughter and the emotional impact of it, wouldn’t be the same in the show, imo. So I don’t think this plot will happen..to Michonne or about Andre.

It can be done similarly, I guess. Like Michonne can’t find Judith for 3 years and Richonne split or something. Like Carol adopting Henry but can’t find him for 3 years. Oh, it’s like repeated misery for the characters. I feel like that’s too much for those characters. Like Michonne just lost Carl, had a child with Rick or Judith went missing in short time. That’s just so sad. Idk..so I think it’s better if a new character was introduced and was always grieving their missing child or someone. Like (for a couple) Desmond reuniting with Penny from tv show Lost.

-------------------------

So yeah so much is happening for the comics and the show in 2018. Speculating is crazy and fun to do ..and confusing. overthinking is bad. I think the show will be even more different than the comics now because of tv-Carl’s death and comic-Elodie’s return. (and with Kang showrunning in s9) Also, who knows how long the show will be on air.  

[twdmusicboxmystery]

8x08: TTD and Analysis

Okay, let’s talk about a couple of things on TTD, and then I’m gonna discuss some general analysis and where I think they’re going with all of this. There’s just SO much to discuss, I can hardly keep up with my group. So much going on it’s making us all crazy. But the bottom line is that we have more hope than ever for Beth showing up this season.

But first, TTD:

1. Gimple was really weird about answering how Carl’s bite will play out on the show. Again, it’s been pretty well confirmed that he’s leaving. So unless everyone is lying through their teeth, I’m not holding my breath for Carl’s survival. And I know I’ll get the question that we think they lied through their teeth about Beth. True, but they’re handling this very differently than they did with Beth. Everyone was just so tight-lipped around Beth’s death. No one would explain everything. Here, they’re being very open and talking about just about everything there is to talk about.

So why didn’t Gimple want to answer? Well, check out this interview as well. He just keeps saying that it will make sense when we see 8b, and that it’s very important—vital, in fact—to the next part of the story. That just screams Beth to me. Especially as in 4x16, Rick picked up the hat when it fell off Carl and actually put it on Beth’s head. For her to lead, I think she has to have Rick’s blessing, and the main reason he’ll hand the reins to her will have something to do with losing Carl.

2. The Quiz. In the quiz, they emphasized the egg in Carl’s book (resurrection symbol as I said yesterday), Carl dropping a rock into the sewer (not sure what to make of that, but I’m reminded of Rick’s Rock in the Road speech. I think the rock always represents a trial to be overcome, and Carl’s death will definitely be that for TF. Check out THIS POST for how it may all relate to Beth) and Jerry’s “lustrous” hair. ;D

3. They talked a bit of Maggie’s turn toward brutality. Just pointing out that they emphasized it, and I’ll talk more about it in my deeper analysis.

4. Khary Peyton pretty much confirmed Carzekiel will happen eventually. He said Carol made Ezekiel feel human again and helped him “get back up.” Then he said Ezekiel definitely wants to get laid. That’s the second time he’s said that on TTD, the first time being on the TTD after 7x02, when he was introduced. I can’t help but compare it to the TTD after Still, when they kept calling Beth Daryl’s girlfriend. They’re pretty damn obvious about the ships that will eventually sail on the show, even though neither of these are canon yet.

But there was more. After saying the above, Khary looked at Gimple and said, “Was that too on the nose?” Gimple just laughed, not really saying yes or no. So Khary asked Gimple if he’d said too much, which implies he knows they’ll be together and he’s being too obvious about it. Yeah, Carzekiel is totally gonna happen. No way to tell when, but Khary totally knows it and really isn’t as tight-lipped about it as he probably should be. (I’m not sad about that though. ;D)

5. Okay, the best thing by far on this TTD, the thing that made my jaw drop, came when a fan called in a question. The caller asked what Yvette Nicole Brown had written in her notebook when Daryl got his vest back, which sparked discussion of the vest itself. YNB then said something that was very profound for TD, and I’m sure she didn’t even realize how deep what she said was. She made the comment that when Daryl Dixon loses something (she mentioned his bow and his bike) she never despairs very much, because he ALWAYS gets it back.

What I yelled at the TV: “What about Beth? He lost her too! She’s kind of the only thing he hasn’t gotten back. YET!”

It’s profound because he lost Beth, and YNB isn’t even a Bethylr or TDer, but even she has picked up on the theme. He systematically lost everything, but now things are coming back to him. In the same season tptb randomly put Beth on a fake magazine cover. Just saying.

But that wasn’t even the jaw-dropping part. YNB and Khary started listing things Daryl has gotten back, and Merle was mentioned. (Again! That’s a TD thing! After all the parallels between Beth’s disappearance Merle’s, how can people not see it? We even saw a helicopter this season, which we also saw right before Merle disappeared. So even non-TDers are unconsciously picking up on this.) Then YNB turned to Gimple and said, “What about the poncho? That’s the only one I’m sure about.”  

Gimple laughed, as though he was surprised by the question. Then he said, “the poncho is the exception that proves the rule.” I had to think about that response for a few minutes. It’s kind of cryptic, but that figure of speech just means that the fact that there is one exception proves that a general rule exists. So 1) he confirmed that Daryl always gets things back. That is the rule.  2) He just confirmed that the poncho is still in Terminus!

Anyone who’s followed me for a while knows I have a head canon about Beth finding the poncho at Terminus and showing up wearing it. Did Gimple kinda just…suggest that? The poncho isn’t just something that disappeared. It’s a big part of the story. Big enough that Gimple still thinks about it and knows where it is. Like Beth’s knife, it’s an important symbol and Gimple has kept track of it. And answer me this, if he knows exactly where the poncho is and is still thinking about it, why couldn’t he give us simple answers about Beth’s body? The answer is he can. He knows them. He’s being mysterious for a reason.

With all the Terminus stuff we’ve seen lately, especially them filming there, this can’t possibly be a coincidence. I was shocked that he said all this.

That’s it for TTD. Now let me briefly mention some more general analysis about where we think this is headed.

Analysis

As of this last episode, TF’s home is gone. There were a lot of ways in which this felt like a repeat of S4. Their home was destroyed. They’re now pretty much nomads. When Carl talked to Negan across the fence, it felt a WHOLE lot like Rick talking to the Governor at the prison. He even said there were children and families inside, which Rick said to the Governor. Almost the exact same wording. 

Rick fought Negan, much like he did the Governor, though the outcome was obviously different, since neither of them died. But I kind of felt like Michonne going full-Shane on that savior inside the walls might have been a callback to her mental state in S4. Not only when she stabbed the Gov, but when she did her PTSD thing, and then slaughtered all the walkers around her before going to find Rick and Carl.

One follower pointed out that Rick and Michonne meet up in the aftermath and head off together, much like Bethyl did when the prison went down. And Ezekiel used a bus to save his people. (Remember the bus at the prison?) So many callbacks!

So yeah, we could point out that Bethyl happened in 4b, right after the prison fell, but that’s honestly not even my point. It never occurred to me that Beth wouldn’t see Alexandria as it was. I guess they destroy it in the CBs as well (which I didn’t know) but even so. Blowing everything up suggests they’re moving into a whole new phase. Whenever Beth returns, it will be a new world that will need to be rebuilt.

But I feel like this is all really significant. Alexandria has been the major arc for TF since Beth’s death. I noticed a really interesting shot in the show. When the house Carl is next to blows up, we see a shot of the corner of the porch with the rocking chair as it explodes. 

That’s the same porch where Daryl sat and was sad and lonely for Beth in 5b. I think it’s significant that they specifically showed that blowing up.

I feel like the message is that this arc, this Alexandria, this part of the story where Daryl is lonely, is over now. They’re literally burning it down (or just blowing it off the planet ;D).

Another thing we’ve been discussing in my group is Carl’s arc. I’m not going to go into tons of detail here, but the reason they mentioned Lori so many times here at Carl’s end is significant. Of course it’s because of what Lori told him when she died. It’s very poignant and a very big part of who Carl is. But from a story-telling standpoint, it just makes a lot of sense. Just as the sunrise in 5x10 and the sunset in 7x16 book-ended Sasha’s final arc, Lori book-ended Carl’s. His was just much longer and deeper.

Carl is the sheriff, right? Has been for a long time. He’s heir to his father’s leadership. You could argue that began in S2 when Rick gave him the hat. But Carl’s FINAL arc began when Lori died. She told him he was good and would beat this world. I think by dying heroically, saving Siddiq, he’s done that.

I know I mentioned this before (X) but one of my FB peeps also told me that TV-Show-Carl is really not much like Comic-Book-Carl and he was unsurprised that Carl would die because he just couldn’t see how TV-Show-Carl would ever turn into Comic-Book-Carl. That plays into this too. Lori told Carl he was good, and he honestly has been ever since. So now his arc, started and inspired by his mother, has ended. I hoped it wouldn’t end with his death, but it did.

But the point is that back in S4, when Beth was prophesied to be the “new sheriff in town,” Carl was still the sheriff. No one was ever going to usurp him. Nor would they or we want them to. But now that Carl’s gone, the position of sheriff is open. (Sorry if that sounds a little flippant. I don’t mean it to be. Just can’t think of a better way to say it.) Honestly, Beth COULDN’T have come back, at least not as the new sheriff, until after Carl’s sheriff-arc ended. We’ve never realized that before. If we had, we probably wouldn’t have pushed so hard for her coming back in earlier seasons. The narrative wasn’t quite there yet. Now, it just makes total sense.

I don’t know what it means for 8b or what episode we’ll see her in, but I definitely feel like she’s coming and soon. I’ll probably do more predictions later in the week. There are a lot of possibilities that we have some evidence for, and all of them are promising.

Um…the wonderful @doeroseq pointed out that it’s significant that we saw the burning phoenix in this episode, which we think represents Beth, and that Daryl got his wings back in the same one. Remember THIS THEORY? Beth seems to have died physically, but Daryl died emotionally. He needs to be resurrected every bit as much as she does, just in a different way. And it’s something most of the GA is picking up on now too. I can’t tell you how many posts I’ve seen saying that Daryl is no longer open or happy or loveable like he used to be. And surprisingly, even non-TDers are now connecting it to Beth, commenting that it was her death that marked the beginning of the change. The GA is starting to “get” it in a way they haven’t before. So two pairs of wings? Definitely a good thing.

So where’s it going? It’s obvious that AOW will continue to the end of the season. (So all those who hated on TD for saying the war would last all season and there wouldn’t be a time jump can go jump in a lake.) The line that jumped out at me was Maggie saying that it would be up to Hilltop to make the last stand. That was a super significant line for many reasons.

1) Maggie has lost her hope. She’ll keep fighting of course, as she told Jesus, but if she’s foreseeing a “last stand,” she no longer things they can win, and she no longer believes the other communities are viable. (Which is kind of true when it comes to structure, but many of the people are still alive.)

2) It’s an obvious foreshadow of what’s to come. There will be a last stand at Hilltop at some point. In the sneak peek on TTD, the Alexandrians hiding in the sewers have made plans to go to Hilltop, so we can assume they’ll head there in 8b.

3) Darkness. As I said before, I didn’t think Maggie would become dark and hopeless like many of the others. That surprised me, even if it makes a lot of sense in the narrative. But it’s good for TD. When everyone loses their hope, that’s when Beth will appear. Lots of people also noticed how dark the episode was. I had to lighten most of my pictures, which is why they looked grainy. That was totally on purpose. They shot all these scenes at night, because this is TF’s darkest hour. They’re all in dark, hopeless places. Even the events point to that. As I said in an Ask on Sunday, they’ve effectively lost the war. Obviously it’s not over, and they’ll keep fighting, which is good. But things are NOT going well. And last stands are called such because the people putting them on die fighting.

As slow as they’re moving, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it takes all of 8b for them to simply travel to Hilltop and get their last stand together. I’m thinking the last stand will be in the S8 finale. And what better time for Beth to show up?

I have high hopes that we’ll see her before that (I’m hoping for either 8x09 or 8x10, but more on that later) but I think we, the audience, will see her before TF does. Hopefully. Chances are they won’t see her until the finale. Like Morgan in S5, she’ll show up right at the end. And I still think she’ll come through Oceanside. Which means Aaron and Enid will see her, but no one else will. Hopefully they’ll show up with the Oceansiders to save the day. At least, that’s what I’m hoping for.

So that’s all I have for today. Thoughts?

[wolfwhiteflowers]

So, here’s my thoughts on issue 167. Thoughts about comic Andrea and comic/tv Michonne. Caryl. comic Richonne. etc.

Wow issue 167! One of the biggest issues of the comic series. Andrea died! She died like what anyone hoped for by being surrounded by loved ones in a safe place. The issue was like a movie..written and shown so beautiful and sad. Inspiring and ended in a good note. But, the more I thought about Andrea’s death, I’m like ehhh ofc Kirkman. It was like manpain-death and poor Andrea fans didn’t really get much of Andrea being Andrea. Instead Andrea was mostly pushing Rick to keep going..like it’s all about Rick. I’m surprised it happened. I still don’t know why it happened and why during this part of the story. I guess we will find out more. Seems like it’s unplanned..or bad writing from Kirkman and he wants Rick to bond with widowers-Negan and Dwight. More thoughts of Andrea’s death here.

About TV Michonne...  So, I ship comic Richonne and hope they will become canon. If comic Richonne do become canon, I can see TV Michonne living on as she adapts on comic Michonne. So, with that theory, I kind of think it’s a slim chance to happen. I mean it means that comic Richonne have to be canon and comic Rick and Carl’s stories don’t change much after Andrea’s death. It just depends on the story and the situation. Like what if comic Rick’s story is now about being widower like Negan and they bond, and Rick goes crazy with his leadership. How does that work in the TV show(season 12) and with Michonne? So, that’s why I think it’s a slim chance of tv Michonne living during this part of the story. But, so far I see some posts that changes my mind. Like Andrea’s death could be remixed to anyone (different couple) or no one. In issue 167, we did see comic Richonne bonding already and the issue ended Rick being stable..ready to lead his group again. 

I found this interesting comment from Youtube...

“The thing is they don't need to kill off Michonne. The whole purpose of Andrea dying was to show Rick he can move on without her and keep living, except tv Rick already knows that, he told Michonne himself“

 Also, a lil theory I have.  If TV Michonne does mash up with Andrea(personal/romantic side) and, then later on with the new issues of comic Michonne, then maybe her quote “We’re the ones who live” (based on Andrea’s “We don’t die”) will come up with comic Michonne later on in the comics, but similar and different to it. The quote “We’re the ones who live.” have more meanings than Andrea’s. Maybe comic Michonne will say “Keep living.” Or, something cool. idk lol So far people liked the quote from comic Michonne. “I’ll always be here for you until I’m not.” So, then tv Michonne is saying her quote that goes with comic Andrea’s and comic Michonne’s.

Sigh. I would be so disappointed if TV Michonne dies during this part of the story.(s12) Because then it’s like saying she WAS always following comic Andrea’s all along. ugh. No. Michonne is not comic Andrea. ...she’s MICHONNE. It’s kinda sucks...I just want TV Michonne to be herself. I also hope she doesn’t adapt so much from comic Andrea ..and from after All Out War. (comic Andrea didn’t do much...) Even if the TWD TV show was ending in like s12, then I still don’t want MIchonne to die. Okay..my faves live! 

Caryl doom...Anyways, I believe if the TV writers want to do a death during this part of the story, then it for someone with who fits well with the situation in the story. So, if the TV show is ending soon, then I’m alright with having Carol to die. And, it’s Daryl who is grieving and is like comic-Dwight-pissed-off and mad at Rick (or whoever) then Daryl gets killed too later on. OK I sound contracting. Also my predictions for the next issues of TWD comics, is that Dwight will die too. (Andrea and Dwight’s deaths = Caryl deaths) It’s just one of my theories...that Caryl die at the same..and only toward end of the show like the last season. Because I don’t wanna see one keep living without the other. Also, I think a lot of main characters will die in the end. I don’t think Caryl will live all the to the end-end. Anyways..... :| (idk it could be Rosita who dies there or no one. Remixes from the comics and speculating is hard ok)

About comic Richonne in 167... OMG the talk in issue 167. I wondering about the ‘kitchen talk’ that Richonne had in issue 147 and wondering what Michonne will think of it then. Read my old post here. Callbacks! I really liked Richonne’s talks in 167. It really showed that they’re best friends. TBH, I was kind of surprised Michonne was in it a lot in the issue but she’s next closest person to Rick. They’re “best friends.” Like duh..ok. So I think we will see a lot of comic Richonne like as we usually do or perhaps more. I’m just glad to see them interact and I hope they continue so. Also, about what Michonne said to Rick in 167, is that it reminded me of Negan and Rick’s talk. I think Rick’s fear/guilt ..that about him living when people he care about die before him. Then Michonne said something that Rick needed to hear. It’s a cool callback.

I’m really curious what comic Richonne will do later on. TWD comics are my guilty pleasure..and I really enjoy comic Michonne, the Grimes, and Maggie. I have so many ideas of what might happen later on in the comics. I just have to wait. ahh I think there will be a civil war plot coming and if there is one, I really hope there’s no foreshadowing of the fall of Richonne, but Richonne sticking together.

About shipping comic Richonne... Most of the time I hope for comic Richonne to be together but sometimes I don’t know. I don’t trust Kirkman’s writing much haha. He writes romance weird. I’m afraid hehe will might mess them up and stuff but.. whatever. 

It’s interesting that after issue 167, some comic Richonne shippers or fans who used to read the comics, they really don’t want comic Richonne to happen because they think comic Michonne deserve better and think Kirkman sucks and all that. They don’t want Michonne to be Rick’s second choice.

 I understand what they’re saying and respect that. But, I don’t see it that way... or I don’t think it will happen that way. I hope if comic Richonne happens, it would seem genuine and respectful. So far, I think it’s about Rick and Michonne growing up and getting over their issues on some things . Then they’re ready for love ..this new strong love they can have. I keep thinking about comic Michonne, who went away on a boat and dealt with her guilt and her issues. She came back and had heart to heart chat with Rick and recently in 167. I think comic Michonne’s misery arc~  had ended. I think she doesn’t feel guilty about her daughters. She’s ready now to stay still..and not feel miserable as before. Idk about Rick...he had a good relationship with Andrea, so maybe he will have another good (but more mature) relationship with Michonne, but it will be different and they’ll die old together. Also I hope Michonne to be a mother again. IDK, I have these hopes for Michonne, but TWD comics is Rick’s story. Either way, I hope for good comic Richonne interactions for a long time.