#(this post is based on the show. I'm half way through season 6)

[dirtytransmasc]

maybe it's because I'm in the "I'm so obsessed and hyperfocused on my little guys I will make any song seem like it's about them even if it couldn't be any father from actually relating to them at all" stage of my Theon and Asha hyperfixation but like...

I feel like 'I bet on losing dogs' by Mitski is about them.

it's about Asha and her relationship with Theon.

he's her baby brother. the baby brother who looked up at her smiled when she had gone in his room, intent on strangling him to stop his cries. he's her losing dog. the dog she keeps fighting for when no one else will. she never gives up on him, not truly, even when he is so clearly doomed, because she loves him, she won't give up on him.

and Theon is, in so many senses, a dog. he's been passed around from owner to owner, home to home, trained and beaten and domesticated, made to behave how his owner at the time sees fit. he's a good dog, a good beaten dog.

and now, in a way, he's Asha's dog. she doesn't want him to be her dog, she wants him to be her brother, and Theon's trying, he really is trying, she knows he's trying, but part of him will always be doomed to be a dog waiting to be hit, waiting for a command, waiting to be trained.

he's her losing dog, she knows it, knows he's doomed, deep down, there's little hope, he'll die a damned dog, but fuck it she doesn't care, he's her blood, her baby, he will be by her side no matter what. she'll always go back for him, she'll always fight for him, she'll always tell him to stay, she'll always give him a chance, she'll always try.

~~~~

[lateral-org]

1 13 and 18!

1) Is John misunderstood or a villain?

False dichotomy here. I think John is well understood by many fans in that he was a traumatized man and absent father who indoctrinated his sons into a brutal and violent lifestyle (raised them to be soldiers). Like Henrikksen was pretty spot on when he called him a cult leader. The demons just happened to be real.

It's disgusting to me how much John actively avoided his sons during season 1. They didn't even know vampires were still around! (???) John would just drop a pin at a location and send them on goose chases and maybe grace them with his presence if he needed them or they literally tracked him down. Despicable parent behavior.

I don't think this makes him a "villain" though. He's not actively antagonizing the boys (other than giving them soooooo much trauma that they aren't gonna work through). Arguably the most villainous he is is when he tells Dean he's gonna have to kill Sam, and then he dies.

So I don't know. I think he's a shitty dad who fucked them over at every opportunity, but in my head there's nuance between that and villain.

13) Leather jacket or Mary’s ring?

I'm definitely forgetting or missed the lore about Mary's ring, I'm assuming its one of the rings Dean used to wear before Jensen decided no he wouldn't. Or maybe it's from s12? Either way it didn't leave an impact on me (feel free to send me meta to change my mind 👀)

If I have to choose based on symbolism, leather jacket. The leather jacket is such a strong visual signifier of John's impact on Dean's life (your car is his your clothes are his even your music is his etc) AND the fact that he sheds it after a while demonstrates his growth away from being John's shadow. (I know they lost it but still it works for me in canon)

A ring just doesn't have that same (hah) ring to it, especially in a live action show where we don't get that many lingering shots of hands, or insight into how Mary affected Dean.

However. If Sam was wearing Mary's ring... That's something I could get into. Something about Sam latching onto a piece of the mother he never knew, wearing it every day (maybe on a chain so he could hide it under his shirt). Sam wearing the ring when he meets Ruby, wearing it on his hand after Dean goes to hell and staring at it when he exorcises demons (he's doing it for Her but really he's doing it for himself, just like John)

Agh I'm driving myself crazy with this idea actually, maybe the ring if Sam gets to wear it

18) When did Supernatural start declining in quality? (If it did?)

Hahaha well

I'm currently rewatching it so it's fresh in my mind. I've always said 4 and 5 are my favorite seasons but rewatching really cemented that for me. Supernatural is a show that varies in quality season by season, and after a certain point it varies drastically episode by episode. Seasons 1 and 2 are really fucking solid, but season 3 sucks a lot in a lot of ways due to the writer's strike. Then 4 and 5 come in and pick up the pieces pretty effectively.

I think if you're looking for a cohesive show with an ending that makes sense and narrative themes that work, you stop at the end of season 5. Season 6 is a huge dip in quality for me. The first half of the season is so fucking boring and confusing, and by the time it gets it's act together it's time for the finale. But that also makes it similar to season 3, just if season 3 had time to redeem itself.

But I love season 7. I love the new characters and the leviathan and the weird 2011 liberal sensibilities. Season 8 is straight up a vampire diaries soap opera.

Visually the quality declines drastically after season 5. Seasons 4 and 5 use a lot of interesting framing and visual symbolism which stood out compared to the rest of the show, and a lot of that is absent post season 5. A few episodes try to recapture it but the direction becomes pretty generic. The color grading too suffers a lot. There have been so many meta posts about it but truly why does the show get so bright and colorful. I'm not supposed to be able to distinguish dark green from black.

Character writing also suffers post s5. They put the boys through the same wringer over and over and Dean gets angrier and Sam gets quieter and that's it. Not that there aren't good lines or arcs, it's just that compared to the content of the first 5 seasons it's worse.

Notable exceptions, like I said I like season 7. I also think 11 and 12 are good. Season 15 is fucking crazy and evil but it also has like. A plot. Like it's doing season 5 again but at least it knows where it's going.

But yeah. Decline after season 5

Spn Discourse ask game

[whentommymetalfie]

Hello again!

Thank you for your explanation on the wtma-AU! I am very happy to hear that you have something planned! I'll keep my fingers crossed that the muse paid a visit! 😃

And now to the current chapter... what can I say... ahem. 😎 A bit of relaxation (for both of them) and at the same time a way to keep Tommy present and to feel himself in a positive way. And so well written too. 🔥 They should definitely add this back into their routine. Also to show Tommy that it's okay, especially when everything else is so difficult for him. Reading on (that scene half in mind 😌) one realizes painfully quickly (as does Tommy), that there's still a long road ahead of him and how important Alfie is for him. I really love that pairing written by your hand. A huge compliment for bringing them to life this way (in case I repeat myself - I don't care 😁)!

Oh! And there's Finn! I'm curious what you're going to do with him! Are you referring to the wtma-AU regarding the relationship between the two? (Or) do you stick to the series and Finn's faux pas still comes to light? Can't wait to find out how it'll continue!

Thank you for such a long chapter! See you next time! ❤️

Lovely to hear from you again, and thank you for your message and for giving me the opportunity to rant about my various writing endevours! 

I did accidentally write a rough draft currently sitting at 15k for the WTMA-verse in a sort of hyper fixated daze, which I’m hoping will turn into something proper sometime soon ❤️ 

Tommy and Alfie definitely deserved some proper alone time after all the chaos I’ve put them through. And I can reveal we’ll continue down that road in the new chapter (even if it’ll prove difficult to get said alone time when you’re surrounded by Tommy’s family, which Alfie will find out…) 

As for Finn, when I began writing this series, season 6 hadn’t aired, so I’m sort of basing my characterization of him on things pre-season 6, and earlier than that . He’s definitely a bit out of character with the later season, more of a naive, well-meaning but also slightly clueless little brother type, who’s struggled knowing how to deal with Tommy’s disappearance and made some less than stellar choices along the way. He won’t be playing a huge role right now, but I felt that his existence needed to be addressed and for that loose end to be tied up. 

Thank you again for your kind message and your encouragement ❤️ The new chapter is finished! Just going to give it a final read through, and hopefully post sometime tomorrow afternoon. I hope you’ll enjoy it! 

[candicewright]

So I'm finally getting over my denial and rewriting this post after Tumblr so rudely lost it yesterday. Except, this time I'm writing it on Google Docs first so that I don't lose it. 

Jokes on you, Tumblr.

The two asks that I got for the character ask game requested our Once and Future King Arthur Pendragon.

@epic-sorcerer

Well, get ready for an essay, because I have opinions.

1. Do you love/hate this character?

My relationship with Arthur, as with many other characters of the show, is very love/hate. The problem with him, however, is that it's not his personality that makes me hate him, but the writing of the show. 

And it pisses me off.

Despite being arrogant and emotionally constipated half of the time, he's a very good-natured and kind person. Pure of heart, as Anhora would say. Sometimes, he cares so much about others that he just trusts them, no questions asked. He's a noble man, and not only in the sense that he's royalty but in the fact that he strives to do what's right. He believes in equality in spite of rank and gives people chances based on their skills and aptitudes and not their position. He's kind and he always tries to learn from his mistakes, trying to be a better man. He even helps his friends advance in any way he can, making them knight or, in Gwen's case, the queen.

And yet, when it comes to Merlin, he seems to forget this.

It's like the writers wanted him to be purposefully mean to his best friend, which makes no sense.

He ignores him when he comes to him with a warning or advice.

He ignores when he's upset, like he doesn't notice.

But he does.

We know he does.

He doesn't give him credit for anything. And I'm not talking about the magic stuff, he doesn't know about that. I'm talking about him just being a good friend, someone he can talk to, literally the oNLY PERSON WHO CARES ABOUT HIM AS ARTHUR AND NOT AS A KING. And don't come @ me for this because literally everyone else gains something from their relationship with Arthur EXCEPT for Merlin. Like??? he doesn't even get a promotion or raise??? that we know of??? in like 10 years??? He doesn't have a seat at the Round Table, for heaven's sake! Why?!? He was there when they first created it, and Arthur acknowledged him then. Did he forget or something? (Can you tell I'm bitter about it?)

And I have many theories that explain why he doesn't give Merlin the credit he deserves, but it just feels like I'm justifying the blatantly bad writing, and I don't want to that. I may do a separate post about it later.

I love Arthur. He's a softie, a dumbass, a ball of sunshine. 

And his relationship with Merlin is my favorite thing ever (if you couldn't tell). It's such a meaningful bond, whether you ship them or not. I mean, everyone can see how much they care for each other.

But it becomes very toxic at times and it SUCKS because I just want them to be cute and domestic together. I want them to buy that farm and live happily ever after. At the very least, I want to get used to hearing him call Merlin a friend and not be SHOCKED every time he says it. Because every time it happened (3x12, 4x05, etc) I was SUPRISED and I SHOULDN'T BE.

Okay, I'm going to cut him some slack here because I genuinely do love him and this looks like I hate him and I don't, I really don't. He has very wonderful moments. Look at him, he's so soft.

As Mithian says, he's a lovable person, isn't he? Underneath it all.

So, a big FUCK YOU to the Merlin writers for doing him dirty. 

2. What’s your favorite trait of this character?

His kindness towards others and how much he truly cares about everyone despite having been hurt so many times. I mean, for all the difficulties he has when talking about or dealing with his emotions, he's extremely emotionally driven and I can relate to that a lot.

3. What’s your favorite moment/event involving this character?

You're all going to have me for this, but it's the finale. The amount of emotion he displays without having to talk much is outstanding.

Look at him.

LOOK AT HIM.

You know what's going through his head each and every second and it's so beautiful but so painful. It's one of the reasons why the ending hits so hard.

4. If you could have one power/attribute/etc. of this character, what would it be?

The sword fighting abilities, of course. I want to do the thing.

You know, The Sword Spin Thing™

5. When did you fall in love/hate with this character?

I fell in love from his first banter with Merlin in episode 1. I immediately adopted him as my dumbass.

I started hating him on episode 2 when he screams at Merlin for the whole snake incident.

It's been love/hate ever since. More love than hate though.

6. Who’s your OTP for this character?

…

….

…..

Do I even have to say it?

Other than that, probably Gwen? I don't like how rushed that storyline is or what they did to Gwen's character in the fifth season (that's an entirely different post though) but I do think they were cute together. They don't have nearly as much chemistry as Merlin and Arthur do, but they can still make me smile like an idiot at times.

Merthur is and forever will be my OTP though.

And that concludes this thing! Hopefully Tumblr decides to actually post it this time. Please, give me some love for my efforts; I'm sick, frustrated and tired. If you made it to the end, thank you💜

[gascon-en-exil]

A Game of Thrones 10th Anniversary Season Ranking: Part 2

Link to Part 1

Time for the bottom half of the list. The four seasons here will surprise no one, but the order might.

#5 Season 6

You can tell what I most what to talk about here...but there's an order to these things.

S6 actually has a bunch of great ideas, but they drown beneath the most slapdash plotting and character work the show has seen yet in order to set the stage for the narrower conflicts of the last two seasons. It's notorious for bringing back characters who haven't been seen in a season or longer only to kill them off (Balon Greyjoy, Osha, Hodor, the Blackfish, Rickon, Walder Frey) or awkwardly graft them back into the main plot (Sandor Clegane, Bran). There are plot threads that ought to be compelling but are too rushed in execution, like the siege of Riverrun, Littlefinger's hand in the Battle of the Bastards, or Daenerys's time back among the Dothraki and then finally getting the hell out of Meereen. Arya hits on the only interesting part of her two-season sojourn in Braavos - a stage play, of all things - only for it to stumble at the end with a disappointing offscreen death and some incomprehensible philosophy ahead of the start of her murder tour of Westeros. There's also so much cutting off the branches, enough to be conspicuous; the final shot of Daenerys leading an armada of about half the remaining cast she assembled partially offscreen says that better than anything else. Well, not anything....

Highlight: Without exaggeration, the opening of S6E10 is easily my favorite sequence in all of GoT. The staging, the music, the mounting suspense even as it becomes increasingly obvious what's about to happen, the twisted religious references particularly in Cersei's mock confession to Unella, Tommen throwing himself out a window because he can't deal with the reality of how terrible his mother is, how Cersei gives absolutely no fucks whatsoever about murdering hundreds of people at once in a calculated act of vengeance largely prompted by her own poorly thought out actions - I love it all. It's the single most masterfully-executed act of villainy in the whole show - Daenerys torching King's Landing probably has a higher body count, but the presentation there is all muddled - and if I had any doubts about Cersei being my favorite multi-season major character they were silenced in this moment. The explosion of the Sept doesn't sit perfectly with me, because I liked the Tyrells and because of what I said about deaths like theirs and Renly's in the previous post under S2, but I think that unease only cements the strength of this sequence. It's an overused phrase in fandom these days, but GoT at its best is all about moral greyness that gives its audience room for multilayered reactions. Cersei nuking the Sept and making herself the sole power in King's Landing, which in a sense is just a more overt example of the kind of character/plot consolidation elsewhere represented by Daenerys's armada, is one of those events that's impossible to approach from a single angle if you care about any of the characters involved. And hey, it's not in the books (yet, presumably), so unlike Ned's death or the Red Wedding the GoT showrunners can take the credit for realizing this one.

Favorite death: Even leaving aside the Sept and related deaths there's a lot of good ones to choose from in S6. Ramsey is cathartic but too gory for me, Osha's was a clever callback but a little delayed, it's hard to pin down specific deaths when Daenerys incinerates the khals, and Arya only gets half credit for Walder Frey and his sons when she saves the rest of the house for the opening of S7. I'm thinking Hodor, not so much because I enjoy his character or the manner of his death but because it's a clever bit of playing with language (that must have been hell to render in other languages for dubbing) wrapped up in some entertainingly murky consent issues and some closed time loop weirdness. It's all very...extra? Is that the word for it?

Least favorite death: Offscreen deaths continue to be mostly letdowns, in this case Blackfish and the Waif. Way to botch the ending of Arya's already near-pointless Braavos arc, guys. Speaking of Arya, this spot goes to Lady Crane, whom the Waif somehow kills with a stool or something. It's a dumb way to send off an entertaining minor character.

#6 Season 8

I swear that I'm not putting S8 this high solely because of Jonmund kind of sort of happening. I've never been very interested in either of them and the sex would be far too bear-on-otter to suit my pornographic preferences, but even so the choice to close out the series with them is hilarious.

I really don't need to elaborate on why S8 is down here; everyone who's ever watched the show has done as much in the nearly two years since it wrapped up. I do however need to explain why I've ranked not one but two seasons below it. My biggest argument here is that I don't believe it's fair to critique S8 for problems it inherited from earlier seasons. A non-comprehensive list:

Mad Queen Daenerys: unevenly built up beginning from S1 and continuing in some form through every following season

The questionable racial optics of Dany's army: also seeded as early as S1 and solidified by S3 with the Slaver's Bay arc

Cersei only succeeding because she makes stupid decisions and then lucks out until she doesn't: apparent from S1, directly lampshaded by Tywin in S3, fully on display with the Faith Militant arc of S5-6

Jaime not getting a redemption arc or falling in love with Brienne: evident with his repeated returns to Cersei throughout the show as one of the most consistent elements of his character, particularly in S4 and during the siege of Riverrun in S6

Tyrion grabbing the idiot ball/becoming a flat audience surrogate mouthpiece: started in S5 around the time the showrunners ran out of book material for him and wanted to make him more of a PoV character and his arc less of a downward spiral, although I've seen arguments that changes from the books involving his Tysha story and Shae set him on this trajectory even earlier

The hardening of Sansa's character: began in earnest in S4 and never let up from there

The strange ordering of antagonists: set down by S7's equally strange plot structure - the Night King had to come first with that setup

CleganeBowl and the dumber twists: from what I've heard the whole thing of writing around fans on the internet guessing plot twists started pretty much when the book content ended, so S5-6 maybe?

Yes, there's plenty to criticize about S8 on its own merits...but just as much that was merely the writers doing what they could at that point with deeply flawed material.

Highlight: This may sound cheesy, but the better parts of S8 are almost all the cinematic ones, whether that's E2 being a bottle episode with tons of poignant character send-offs before the big battle, a handful of deaths with actual satisfying weight like Jorah's and Theon's, and an epilogue that incorporates both closure for individuals and the broader uncertainty of messy socio-political systems that GoT has always been known for before working its way back to the Starks at the very end for some tidy bookending. Even imperfect moments like the Lannister twins' death and the resolution of Sansa's character felt weighty and appropriate based on what had come before.

Favorite death: Forget about the audio commentary attempting to flatten Cersei's character; Cersei and Jaime Lannister have an excellent end. Cersei especially, as the scenes of her stumbling her way down into the catacombs as the Red Keep crashes down around her really show off how her world is abruptly falling apart and how she retreats into her own self-interest at the end in spite of her demise being at least partially of her own doing. There's some stupid moments associated with these scenes, like Jaime dueling Euron to the death and CleganeBowl, but I can excuse those when the twins end up dying exactly where you'd expect them to: in each other's arms, in a ruined monument to their family's grand ambitions that, like Casterly Rock itself, was taken from another family.

Least favorite death: Quite a few dumb ones in S8 have become forever infamous. Missandei sticks out, and for me Varys too just as much because of how the writing pushes him to do the dumbest thing he could possibly do purely for the sake of killing him off ten minutes into the penultimate episode. But no one belongs here more than Daenerys Targaryen, killed at the height of a rushed and uncertain villain reveal by a man who takes advantage of their romantic history (who is also her family, because Targaryens) to stab her in a moment of vulnerability - pretty much only because another man tells him that Daenerys is the final boss. Narratively speaking that might be the case, but even so this is the end result of multiple seasons of middling-to-bad buildup. Not even Drogon burning the symbolism can salvage that. Also Fire Emblem: Three Houses did this scene and did it better.

#7 Season 5

...Yeah, we're going to have to go there.

Sansa's rape is not a plot point that personally touches me much. It's terribly framed in the moment and the followup in later seasons is inconsistent at best, but it's not a kind of trauma I can relate to. On the other hand, in the very same episode Loras is tried and imprisoned for homosexuality, and Margery faces the same punishment for lying for her brother. That hits much closer to home, not just for the homophobia but also for the culture war undertones of the not!French Tyrells persecuted by a not!Anglo fanatic who later reveals himself to be the in-universe equivalent of a Protestant. The trial is just one part of Cersei's shortsighted scheming, just as Sansa being married off to Ramsey is part of Littlefinger's, and both of them get their comeuppance in the end...but it's unsettling all the same. I especially hate what the Faith Militant arc does to King's Landing in S5, swiftly converting it from my favorite setting in GoT to a tense theocratic nightmare that only remains interesting to me because Cersei is consistently awesome. What's more, pretty much everything about S5 that isn't viscerally uncomfortable is dragged out and dull instead: the Dorne arc, Daenerys's second season in Meereen, Arya in Braavos, Stannis and co. at Castle Black. The most any of these storylines can hope for is some kind of bombastic finale, and while several of them deliver it's not enough to make up for what comes before, or how disappointing everything here builds from S4. S4 has Oberyn, S5 has the Sand Snakes - I think that sums up the contrast well.

Highlight: S5 does get stronger near the end. As much as his character annoys me I did like the High Sparrow revealing his pseudo-Protestant bent to Cersei just before he imprisons her, and there's a cathartic rawness to Cersei's walk of atonement where you can both feel her pain and humiliation and understand that she's getting exactly what she deserves (and this is what leads into the climax of S6, so it deserves points just for that). The swiftness of Stannis's fall renders his death and that of his family a bit hollow, but it's brutal and final and fittingly ignominious for a character with such grand ambitions but so little relevance to the larger story. The fighting pits of Meereen sequence is cinematic if nothing else, and even the resolution to the Dorne arc salvages the whole thing a tiny bit by playing into the retributive cycles of vengeance idea (and Myrcella knows about the twincest and doesn't care, aww - no idea why that stuck with me, but it's cute all the same). Oh, and Hardhome...it's alright. Not great, not crap, but alright.

Favorite death: I don't know why, but Theon tossing Myranda to her death is always funny to me. Maybe because it's so unexpected?

Least favorite death: Arya's execution of Meryn Trant is meant to be another one of the season's big finale moments, but the scene is graphic and goes on forever and I can't help but be grossed out. This is different from, say, Shireen's death, which is supposed to be painful to witness.

#8 Season 7

I can't tell if S7's low ranking is as self-explanatory as S8's or not. At least one recent retrospective on GoT's ruined legacy I've come across outright asserts that S7 is judged less harshly in light of how bad S8 was. If it were not immediately obvious by where I've placed each of them, I don't share that opinion.

Because S7 is just a mess, and the drop-off in quality is so much more painful here than it is anywhere else in the series except maybe from S4 to S5 (and that's more about S4 being as good as it is). The pacing ramps up to uncomfortable levels to match the shortened seasons, the structure pivots awkwardly halfway through from Daenerys vs. Cersei to Jon/Dany caring about ice zombies, said pivot relies largely on characters (mostly Tyrion) making a series of catastrophically stupid tactical decisions, and very few of the smaller set pieces land with any real impact as the show's focus narrows to its endgame conflict. As with S6 there are still some good ideas, but they're botched in execution. The conflict between Sansa and Arya matches their characters, but the leadup to that conflict ending with Littlefinger's execution is missing some key steps. Daenerys's diverse armada pitted against Cersei weaponizing the xenophobia of the people of King's Landing could have been interesting, but there's little room to explore that when Cersei keeps winning only because Tyrion has such a firm grip on the idiot ball and when Euron gets so much screentime he barely warrants. Speaking of Tyrion's idiot ball, does anyone like the heist film-esque ice zombie retrieval plotline? Its stupidity is matched only by its utter futility, because Cersei isn't trustworthy and nobody seems to ever get that.

And how could I forget Sam's shit montage? Sums up S7 perfectly, really. To think that that is part of the only extended length of time the show ever spends in the Reach....

Highlight: A handful of character moments save this season from being irredeemable garbage. As you can guess from my screencap choice, Olenna's final scene is one of them, even if Highgarden itself is given insultingly short shrift. S7 also manages what I thought was previously impossible in that it makes me care somewhat about Ellaria Sand, courtesy of the awful death Cersei plans for her and her remaining daughter. The other Sand Snakes are killed with their own weapons, which shows off Euron's demented creativity if nothing else. I like the entertainingly twisted choice to cut the Jon/Dany sex scene with the reveal that they're related. And, uh...the Jonmund ship tease kind of makes the zombie retrieval team bearable? I'm really grasping at straws here.

Favorite death: It's more about her final dialogue with Jaime than her actual death, but again I'm going to have to highlight Olenna Tyrell here for lack of better options. She drops the bombshell about Joffrey that the audience figured out almost as soon as it happened but still, makes it plain what I've been saying about how Jaime's arc has never really been about redemption, and is just about the only person to ever call Cersei out for that whole mass murder thing. There's a reason "I want her to know it was me" became a meme format.

Least favorite death: There aren't any glaringly bad deaths in S7, just mediocre or unremarkable ones. I still think the decision to have Arya finish off House Frey in the season's opening rather than along with their father at the end of S6 was a strange one that doesn't add much of dramatic value.

[twdbringmehome]

We are closer then ever before, and here is why.

I'll start off my post with the lyrics to Emily's new song called The Turtle and The Monkey. The version used in the episode has a slight variation from the lyrics and is sung by a male but it's her song.

I'm a lamb if you love me, but a lion if you poke and if we're gonna be laughin' I would like to be in on the joke

Sometimes I think you show me scabs just to tempt me to tear 'em away Makin' me draw blood, will never make me want to stay

Oh, it's sad but true, love is never enough And after just a few months we are not immune oh, we used to stay up late starin' in each other's eyes Now I'm wakin' early to call you up and apologize

I'm a turtle in the woods stickin' to my path you're like a monkey in the trees jumpin' from branch to branch I love the way you move, I love the way you Rock n' Roll but high jumpin' for a turtle is bound to take it's toll

Oh, it's sad but true, love is never enough and after just a few months we are not immune oh, we used to stay up late starin' in each other's eyes

Now I'm wakin' early to call you up and apologize and oh oh, it's a cold hard fact

We've served some colorful vocabulary, baby, that we can't take back

And oh oh, we used to hold each other tight under the sparkling trees

And oh oh, now you're beggin' for me back on your scraped up knees

And oh, oh, we used to spend all night starin' in each other's eyes Now I'm wakin' early to call you up and apologize

Back in the 3rd season we saw Beth singing twice, In season 4 was saw her sing twice again, and then in season 5 we saw her sing once.

Some might forget that Emily also sang in the trailer for the back half of season 6

Bonus- If you would like more info on this point you can search through @bethgreeneishopeunseen for a more in detail report.

The Songs Beth sang in chronological order are as follows

Season 3 episode 1-The Parting Glass, Beth sang this for the group before the cleared the prison. Daryl was present for this and it's the first time he hears her sing.

Season 3 episode 11-Hold On, Beth sang this song for the group as well when they were living at the prison Daryl is also there during Beth's song, which makes it the 2nd time he hears her sing. In addition to Daryl, Michonne is also there.

Season 4 episode 2-I Don't Wanna Grow Up, Beth is seen singing this to Judith at while she walks by Michonne's cell, Not only does this makes Michonne's 2nd time hearing Beth sing it is one of their only interactions between the two of them.

Season 4 episode 13-Be Good This marks the 3rd time Daryl hears Beth sing.

Season 5 episode 9-Struggling Man this song is durring Tyreese's, hallucination

Something I want to point out is that Daryl has heard Beth singing 3 times. I think that it would be cool if Daryl hears her singing and that is how they reunite

We also received a portrait of Beth back in season 9 at Hilltop based on a image of her from season 4 when she was on the run with Daryl after the prison fell. Still yet again it's another reminder of beth.

Also in season 9 Emily Kinney recorded a voice over line for Rick's final episode, in which Beth asks Rick "what's your wound" While Rick is experiencing his hallucination

I think it's interesting that Beth connects to both Tyreese's and Rick's hallucination

Also in the episode we see Beth's body although it's a body double and not Emily Kinney. However there is blood on her arm but not her head wound which is very suspicious

Side Profile of Beth and Amber

So now let's talk about some other things like Beth's proxy Amber and the unidentified blonde with the braid from the Sanctuary.

When it comes to Negan's wives Frankie is dead, and Sherry is out on her own around the area where Fear The Walking Dead takes place. Which leaves the whereabouts of both Amber and Tanya unknown. Which makes me wonder if Beth might have came across them somehow at some point.

The writers clearly want us to remember Beth and that's why they are referencing her with a Beth proxy so much.

I believe right now the significance of Emily's new song being featured is yet again a point in which they don't want us to forget her so they are of course leaving us clues.

Plus Angela Kang who is The Walking Dead's current Showrunner since last season, and the fact that she is responsible for some of the Bethyl storylines. So it would make even more sense for her to bring Beth back into the fold.

So now I only have one las point to make, but before I get to that I want to point out that the last time we saw Beth was in season 5 and we are now at the 10th season so I have a feeling everything has come full circle.

Here are Emily's two posts about her new song being featured in episode 5 of season 10.

To close out the post by hearing her song being used I have 3 different theories about when we could possibly see Beth again.

At the end of episode 8 of season 10, which would be a cliffhanger to keep us talking till February.

The mid-season premiere episode 9 of season 10

The Season finale of season 10 which would also be a bigger cliffhanger

[bakudekuficlibrary]

Hello, I'm looking for a bakudeku fantasy au the fantasy au thats based off "datte atashi no hero". Thank you so much for all your hard work!!!! This page is amazing, I LOVE IT!

Hi! Here are a couple where Bakugo is a Barbarian or Dragon Shifter/Tamer/Rider/King and Midoriya is a Adventurer/Traveler and/or Alchemist!!

-Ellie

2 Series. 25 Works. 

Remember Me by Blue_Writer 

( M | 55,462+ | 21/? )

It had been years since Bakugou was exiled from his home and became the savage dragon king, but one good thing finally came to his life when he met Izuku again. The only issue, is that he doesn’t remember him.

[Graphic Depictions of Violence]

The Bonds that Bind Us by DMMegsie ( M | 28,298+ | 5/? )

Travelling with his trading caravan, Izuku is on his way home when they stumble across an already heated battle in the middle of an open field in the dead of night. Being mistaken as part of attacking party, Izuku finds himself fighting off the fabled Demon King of the Mountains of Fire.

However, during the battle, Izuku breaks a necklace on the Demon King that held an unspoken promise from his mother from long ago, which changes everything.

Nothing ever as it seems, nor is it simple. As an omega of elven descent, Izuku has a lot to learn about the greater world and himself. The same could be said of the half dragon lord of the mountain.

[Graphic Depictions of Violence | Rape/Non-Con]

Fate Be Damned! by the_sukekiyo_vandal ( M | 39,976+ | 5/? )

The Tribe located in the Valley of Midoriya was a green paradise for all. Well, except for Deku, one of the few Omegas in the village. His life was cursed the moment his mother gave birth to him. Fate dictated that Deku lead a life of submission to inevitably become an Alpha’s possession. So-called fate be damned! Deku decides to forge his own path in life leading him to a volatile dragon king with a fiery temper and a penchant for unnecessary arguments.

[Series] Captive AU by pandoras_thomg ( E | 8,740+ | 2 Works | WIP )

Unseemly Beasts by MissLightBright ( T | 19,262+ | 9/? )

Dragons. Destructive beasts tearing through everything in their path and deadly to anyone who opposes them. Midoriya has never seen a dragon, never planned to, but now he needs the help of one. He just… didn’t want to kill one. Not if he could help it.

[Graphic Depictions of Violence]

How To Live With A Dragon by chancellorxofxtrash (PhoebeMurdivine) ( T | 2,324 | 1/1 )

“Come with me, then. If you can keep up with me, that is, stupid boy. I bet you will die halfway before we even get there!”They were about the same age, but the cocky voice and the challenge in the red eyes spurred the young boy of the castle to act.

(Note: The author tagged this was “ED Inspired” specifically!)

be my good luck charm by writedeku ( T | 6,785 | 1/1 )

See, the thing is, Midoriya Izuku had been born with a curse. It’s not a curse that’s particularly visible. He doesn’t have horns, or a tortured face, and it’s not the kind of silly curse like a friend of his had way down south in Diagnor, wherein the girl had been born without the ability to say the word duck. Midoriya Izuku is just extremely unlucky.

(Or the AU in which Izuku’s the world’s unluckiest travelling merchant, and Katsuki is someone who may be able to help him. For a price, that is.)

As You Wish by Kira_Elric ( E | 16,087+ | 9/? )

Fantasy AU based on the second popularity poll outfits. Started out as small drabbles for art on tumblr.

-Lost in his work and in need of supplies Alchemist, Izuku Midoriya, enters the Forest of Fire. It is said that any who enter never return, but Izuku is stubborn and a mere rumor isn’t about to stop him, but an unexpected encounter might end up changing his life forever.

Dragon’s Pearl by AsmodeusDenizen ( M | 14,820+ | 9/? )

Midoriya is the only one in his village, and probably kingdom, who hasn’t been born with magic. Because of this, he is shunned by all but his master Toshinori. Right up until Toshinori dies and his village is struck by a disaster that could wipe them out.

Under the Savage Dragon King by SeaSaltFreckles ( E | 3,460 | 1/1 )

Izuku was just a humble traveler until he found himself stepping into the wrong kingdom. Would this be his death? Or would this be the wises time of his life to succumb to his mutual status?

[Rape/Non-Con | Underage]

How to Fulfill a Promise That Nobody Wanted but Pretended They Did by Seatrix ( T | 14,747+ | 6/? )

Midoriya Izuku stumbled upon an unwanted discovery one day, and to fulfill a promise he’d made to a certain red-eyes tamer years ago, he embarks on a journey to find his childhood friend.

It would’ve been easy, you know, if the land wasn’t swarming with demons and if his childhood friend didn’t live in the part where the friggin Demon King took over.

Oh yeah, he’s also clumsy.

Izuku really doesn’t think he’ll survive this.

You Stink, Kacchan by swagosaki15 ( M | 2,597 | 1/1 )

Based on a fanart I saw by @crispyfrites on Instagram

Bakugou’s a barbarian, so he doesn’t take too many baths. He doesn’t have time for cleanliness and good hygeine.

Midoriya’s put up with it since he’s stuck traveling with him. But now, he can’t take it anymore.

Broccoli boi takes action!

[Work by @keithyyboy]

Wild by BloodRoseKnight ( G | 2,424 | 1/1 )

This was not what Izuku was expecting when they said the kingdom would be forming a treaty with the Dragon Clan.

The Knight of Roses by Mikalua ( G | 1,608 | 1/1 )

Bakugou was about four when he meets the green haired dork with the fluffiest hair he has ever seen, and that was the moment he realized that he was in love.Bakugou was about eight years old when he punched the idiot that spilled his crushes ice cream into the floor and stomped on it to make him cry. Standing up, he walks off with a knowing smirk, without a word as Izuku watches in silent admiration.Bakugou was about nine when Izuku throws white daisies onto his face and starts avoiding him.

Ride Me Like Your Dragon, Love Me Like Your Horde by a_genderfluid_otter ( T | 2,366+ | ½ )

“Just… Just never mind.” Katsuki moved to get up and Izuku immediately anchored a firm grip on his bicep. It wasn’t like when they were kids, when Izuku would have been hailed across the room by Katsuki without a thought. Instead, Katsuki jerked against Izuku’s hold before falling back against Izuku’s chest.“Come on.” It was a soft plea. “Talk to me.”Katsuki’s eyes darted to the side, narrowed at the bureau like it had personally offended him.“Thought you would be smart enough to recognise a damn marriage proposal when you heard it.”

(Note: This one is tagged as “Alternate Universe - 2nd Popularity Poll | 3rd Anime End”!)

Dandelion Snapdragon by SilverOrange ( T | 8,228+ | 3/? )

The story of a boy who went looking for flowers, and found a dragon instead.

Day 3: Swap/Fantasy AU – Come Fly With Me by a_genderfluid_otter ( T | 5,075 | 1/1 )

“And go where and do what?” Ochako pursed her lips slightly. “As much as I despise this town, and I do, It’s not like we’re going to be any better in another town. What do we have to offer?”

True, their formal training was limited, since both of them had stopped going to school as soon as they were old enough to help water and weed and plant. And, alright, neither of them had the training to be anything more. Ochako’s family, just like Izuku’s family, were all farmers and farming wasn’t exactly in hot demand closer to the capital.

“I think that I’d honestly rather be homeless in a large city than comfy here.” Ochako stared at Izuku like he had three heads and he shrugged. “At least things happen there. Nothing happens here.”

SeriesPart 3 of KatsuDekuWeek 2017

(Note: This one is also tagged as “Alternate Universe - 2nd Popularity Poll | 3rd Anime End”!)

[Series] Into the Dragon Lands by ChestnutPatronus14 ( T&M | 13,630+ | 2 Works | WIP )

*record scratch* *freeze frame* you’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation by Ennoshita ( T | 2,531+ | 2/? )

Katsuki’s dragon senses an intruder, but this man is… peculiar.

Dreams of Dragons by Eerei ( G | 3,448+ | 2/? )

Izuku Midoryia has dreamed of being a knight since he was a child, listening to the legends of All Might and his battles with the Northern monsters since he was born. However, countless knights have told him and his family that they are not rich enough, that they don’t have enough talent, to let Izuku become a knight. Not as easily discouraged as that, when he turns 16, Izuku sets out from his valley-town of Kilead to find a master to show him the ways of chivalry. He’s accompanied by a knight, an aspiring magician, and a runaway prince on his journey.Yet, things go wrong, and the four are lost in the Dark Forest in the middle of winter, which borders the Dragon’s Spine mountain range. The Spines are the most dangerous place in their world. With Wildings and Dragons and other monstrous creatures lurk in the dark, will the four be able to survive? Even when a handsome stranger (who rides a dragon), comes to “take them prisoner”? Wait, does Izuku know him?!_________Hello! Chapter names will change, as well as probably the name of this work. Stay tuned for it!

Catchy Title Here by acidfemme ( T | 448+ | 1/? )

Bakugou Katsuki is a human living among dragons. One day, he finds another human out of the blue. Let’s see how that goes.

(Note: The end note says “inspired by the season 3 ending, and this picture: https://baconmacandcheese.tumblr.com/post/164474003447/bakugou-spent-most-of-his-life-among-weird-dragon”.)

Imminent Nightfall by DuskEverlasting ( T | 14,580+ | 4/? )

The gods of old are fading. The hero king is dying. The once vanquished darkness is returning.Only a few can hope to stop the approaching darkness: a young man armed with a legendary sword and an ancient book with new friends gained on his travels, or the last dragon rider at war with his own demons as he tries to find his place in the world.Fate has already bound them together once before. It won’t be long before fate comes calling again.

fantasy au by hoedogg ( T | 2,987+ | 2/? )

What do you do when you and your dragon friend find a group of losers wandering the woods? Mug them, obviously.

[elizabethrobertajones]

like? i honestly don't get people (haters and those who stopped watching) who say spn has bad writing? of course not ever episode will be as good, but for a show at it's THIRTEENTH season the writing hasn't let up at all (it's just more simplified), sfter all those years i still find the dialogue utterly fascinating. i really don't get it but maybe i'm just biased :/

Yeah, and the thing is the show has gradually moved from what was good writing for season 1 or 4 or whatever, to whatever makes it still work after 8 or 13 seasons… 

Like, the internal mirroring in season 1? It’s there, it’s good, there’s a lot more than you think and you’d basically have to watch the season twice, once forwards and once backwards as soon as you’re done before you forget all the little details to catch all the stuff. I mean there’s some things which are obvious like the Mary and Jess dying either end of their episode things. And then there’s stuff like 1x09 and 1x17 both having Sam and Dean obsessed with drawing something that they’re trying to capture on a piece of motel notepaper or whatever. Little motifs that barely mean anything but give a sort of coherency and nod to earlier writing, which is basically just stuff you do to assure the viewer there’s a sense of having things under control. 

Cycle all the way up to season 13 and you can have so many nuanced references going on that just the MotW in 13x05 mirrors 5 different season 1 episodes, a season 8 main arc thing, a random season 11 motw, or 7x19 even, for the house full of ghosts thing… and probably some other stuff I can’t even remember now, and that’s before we get to the main plot half, and the emotional arcs. And those references aren’t just in there as a competency check, but because it means stuff and it’s relevant. The parallel to Lucas the mute kid in 1x03 who Dean related to? SUPER RELEVANT to his emotional state now. For like the entire season we’ve had 1x02′s “saving people, hunting things” speech lurking around in Dean’s actions visibly decayed and broken from its original meaning. 1x10 was visually referenced and that is important because of the Sam and Dean at odds stuff, and some of their most important yelling at each other about how they see each other and how John affected them and how they see John through each other happened there, all of which is being recycled in how they’re treating Jack. I could keep going but point is, the writing is good surface viewing, and a really rich soup of past canon references for people who want to analyse it, because just showing they understand the story they’re telling is a huge sign of good writing, and makes me confident to assume they do mean basically everything they imply. 

But on the other hand in season 1 you can really feel scared and alone and confused and like the entire universe around them is too big and filled with evil and they’re small and incompetent and just want to find their dad and go home, and that aesthetic is excellent, but you can’t keep going with that past even season 1, so they start to get more people in their lives, even just passing acquaintances at first, and a couple of settled locations. And the story can’t just be the same simple goals over and over again or what’s the point in setting up a big looming battle between good and evil from the very start if it’s just escalating and deescalating clashes with a few important demons, a 4 episode per season main arc about family, and then a bunch  of monster hunts? For one thing they’d run out of hunts :P So more plot, more characters, and it all starts eroding the original aesthetic because better writing for what they’re working with means abandoning what originally made the show good because it can NEVER make the show good again IN THAT WAY.

And by season 6 the mytharc is all concluded, and you basically have to pick the show up and turn it around, and start telling it all backwards, and make it personal instead, because not only is escalating threat meaningless after the victory in season 5, but they have a massive world full of characters and resources and KNOWLEDGE and you can’t have the Winchesters alone against the world. There’s jokes about how in season 1 they wouldn’t know a vampire if it bit them on the arse but then in season 8 Dean just goes and clears a house of them out for his vampire BFF. Or season 1 Dean vs demons and then just cut to him and Crowley drinking together. Like… it’s experience and competence and also just the story can’t maintain itself if it never explores new avenues where monsters stop being scary for being monsters and start being scary for what they say about the characters… Which 2x03 does for Dean, and everything since has been post-picking up the story and turning it around. I mean, that can happen at any point really, but the season 1 approach to monsters was completely unsustainable because they’d run out of monsters. Look at how werewolves never came back until season 8 and when they did, Robbie retconned the crap out of them so they could be used in different stories. Werewolves who transform unknown to themselves and can be monsters without ever knowing it? Are good for like 1 story only, and that was the one they told in Heart. And until you suck it up and retcon it, you can NEVER use werewolves even as incidental monsters. We didn’t even see them in season 6. 

And all these changes are happening all the time, and bit by bit things like “can’t have the Winchesters without any reoccurring side characters to help/hinder them” and “monsters aren’t all evil” and “escalate the mytharc at least a notch higher than previously or start over but make it personal” and all these changes happen one at a time for good reasons, until you end up with a show which looks nothing like the original one but still has its DNA. It’s just grown up into an adult version of itself that can carry its own weight. And that’s good long-form writing.

I don’t actually think the writing has simplified, it’s just behaving in a different way now. Season 1 and 2 were pretty raw and full of character dynamic stuff but the main plot was very simple and tropey because it could afford to be because the show was a bunch of world building and a focus on the MotW episodes, and the main plot was a bonus and a mystery to string us through episode to episode, so the main pull WAS the character stuff between Sam and Dean as an identifying feature of the show. But you can’t tell that story over and over where they don’t know what’s happening and it never comes near them until shit hits the fan. For one thing, they blew all their cards ages ago on things seeded into their life from birth that they had no idea about but were always fated to happen, unless there’s something that happened to Dean that’s just been idly ticking away waiting for him to hit 40 for him to be slapped with some ancient curse Millie Winchester activated poking around with artefacts Henry brought home from work or something. Again, once the demon blood reveal comes you basically pick up the show, turn it around, and start telling in the other direction from the build up to that reveal, and we’re still going in that same direction that Sam’s been reacting to since 2x21. That’s the hugest thing to happen in their family history in terms of plot so everything has to loop around that somehow, and new reveals are just “why” ones not “what” ones, in 4x03 and 5x13.

The show the hardcore original couple of seasons fans are longing for is one that wrote itself out of existence with its OWN good writing. Sam and Dean DEMANDED more characters to interact with to show more facets of themselves and for them to be challenged, so they got Ruby and then Cas. The plot was rolling along building up steam so excitingly that it COULD go to an epic fated apocalypse, and sell that our guys were the ones caught in the middle and ready to save the world. They weren’t the same dweebs as season 1. 

And instead you get this INCREDIBLE character writing… Like, Sam and Dean leap off the page as it were right from the start, and without them being good characters the show would never have amounted to anything because Sam and Dean was all the show depended on to start with. And it’s still going on their charisma and chemistry, but it’s FAR from all that now. They get characters thrown at them to see what sticks, and increasingly characters begin to stick. Characters would basically never be seen again originally. And then a few began to show up over and over after Bobby and then the Roadhouse lot, and season 3 had a whole bunch of actual reoccurring characters and stuff like surprise returns for the Trickster or whatever - things that began to make it feel like the world was populated with more than the Winchesters. And by season 8 when the narrative shifts to being primarily character-based and action driven, repeat characters are allowed to show up and stay in ways that they never would have in the past. You get in season 8 Garth, Kevin and Charlie all coming back since season 7 first appearances, Cas and Crowley get their first season they’re actually both in all the way through at the same time, and then there’s repeat characters introduced in that season for its story. Amelia and Benny, and Abaddon and Metatron. It’s CROWDED. The Winchesters are being defined by the people around them and it’s how they react and make their decisions that affects the story. Which allows for delving right down into them and doing masses of character building because all the plot stuff is affected by character things.

And I think Destiel gets so compelling around this time because the shift to emotional storytelling means it’s less what they do and more how what they do affects them and each other. Everyone’s getting defined more by the people around them but Cas and Dean have this whole weird profound thing going already. 

As we go through all that the story becomes more and more self-reflective. 6x01 and 8x01 both reboot the story in weird various ways, going back to the pilot for inspiration. 6x01 just again is about picking up the story and turning it around and telling it in another direction, but 8x01 gets really meta about it… Dabb era snuck up on us because it starts somewhere in the middle-end of season 11, but the end of season 11 is another pick up and turn around moment, but instead of re-telling it begins to completely deconstruct and break down everything that the story had been previously defined by. Which means in many ways the drift back to trying to tell simpler episodes with season 1 themes and style makes it look simpler, but after you stick out 12 years of the show and then get to it, if you look at what they’re doing, part of the reason why the episodes feel SO good, is because there’s a deep intelligence to it all, at least in storytelling terms. Finding what is fresh by taking the things which are worn down and tiresome and trying to do something with them. Subtly, in season 12… A bit louder for the people in the back in season 13 :P But there’s a clever purpose behind it, and the episodes are engaging for other reasons and as a bonus we’re seeing the characters in ways we haven’t really seen them before. Or as we haven’t seen them for a long long time. 

I think a lot of intelligence in good writing is not forgetting the beginning of the story halfway through or at the end or anything. Which is a serious problem when the show is so long. It’s why you sometimes get lines like in 5x21 where Sam and Dean have an exchange where they talk about remember when we used to just hunt Wendigo (*takes a shot*) or in 12x06 why that was the monster they had that game about… It’s meta commentary for mentioning it to go back to the start, to examine their lives (as we were doing to Asa) and remember how it all began. To get a sense of context and continuity that these are the same guys from the start of the show, who have been through *all that* and are still here, being themselves, in their further adventures. 

I think the style has obviously, necessarily, changed a lot but I don’t think it’s simplified anywhere, just that the changes and evolution it’s been through means that the way it’s told now is different, in this case blending nostalgia with trying to convince us we need to keep watching, still, after 13 years, for some of the weird ideas they have going forwards… I think that involves a LOT of character emphasis like being able to take most of 13x01 to mourn Cas when we know he’s coming back, or this whole grief arc, really. Or look at the evolution of Dean worrying about Cas in season 8, 11 and 12 when he’s missing/possessed and how each time it was significantly louder and more important as what Dean was dealing with and how it was affecting him and how important it was to the narrative as a whole. It’s like someone saying a sentence over and over but repeating it with different emphasis. And louder. And the longer the show goes on the less it can rely on one type of telling and the more it has to rely on the other, although I sort of feel like season 13 is hitting a point where I’m not sure where else they GO from here :P 

It’s flipped right back to season 1 in a way, that there’s very little “main plot” intruding on them, right now, except via grief or having Jack around, which of course just elicits a bunch more character development and emotional arc stuff. But the entire history and complexity of the show is still there, so a regular MotW can turn into a chat with Death, who talks to Dean about cosmic matters. Their world is never not going to be huge now after it’s been escalated so far, but on the other hand, you can go back to that season 1 feeling where character development was basically all they had lying around… It’s all massively complex, but on a sublime lower level to what’s going on in the main plot. 

Same as last year, the plot stuff all just served the emotional arcs and it could be literally anything as long as it gave the right nudges to the characters. So far this season it’s been going much better, probably because it feels simpler and there’s been less direct main plot nonsense going on and letting the characters breathe and deal with the emotional stuff… 

Idk, tl:dr I sort of feel like everything season 11 onwards has just been rewarding fans of the show who kept watching that long, made by people who love the show and are delighted it’s been around this long… Like, if anything, the writing might seem simplified because they’ve written so much show that it’s like a self-fuelling self-nostalgia perpetual motion machine for the last couple of seasons. But the very fact it seems easy and simple is betraying how intelligent some of the writing actually is, because at no point has it let up on the depth it’s written at, and with more show it just means MORE stuff to mirror, parallel and build off of. The writing is probably proportionately better than it ever has been because it’s not a level playing field, it’s a MASSIVE MOUNTAIN of past canon all the new writers have to wrangle, learn, and love before they can start writing. And they show that they HAVE and produce great episodes out of it. 

[fictionfromafar]

The Lost And The Damned by Olivier Norek

The Lost And The Damned

Olivier Norek, translated by Nick Caistor, MacLehose Press

Aside from the strength of the novel this novel, which made several influential best of 2020 lists, MacLehose have two great sales angles with the first English translation of Norek’s work. The author served an eighteen-year career in the French police raising to the position of Captain based in the French Département of Seine-Saint-Denis. This is the same position and location as his main protagonist Captaine Coste. Secondly Norek is a former script writer of the French series Spiral (Engrenages) which is currently airing it’s eighth and final season on BBC4 at present. So hopefully both factors will draw attention to his English debut novel.

On slightly closer examination, this novel was released in his native France under the title, “Code 93”, in 2014. Subsequent to this release Norek was approached to work as a scriptwriter on Spiral, which he accepted being a fan of the show. In a recent interview with Crime Fiction Addiction Norek amusingly recalled that budget restraints meant his initial plan for the opening discovery of a body in season 6 was amended from a train station to a rubbish bin - much to the onscreen disgust of Gilou and Tintin! It’s fair to say that “The Lost And The Damned” would appeal to viewers of Spiral, fans of the Commandant Camille Verhoeven trilogy by Pierre Lamaitre, also published through MacLehose Press; and indeed anyone who enjoys gritty urban police procedurals. It’s not for the faint hearted either as the first scene sees potential family members view a deceased victim in a mortuary.

The translator’s note by Caistor confirms that Département 93 Seine-Saint-Denis was created in the 1960s as Paris spread out to the banlieues (suburbs/outskirts) separated from the inner city by the Périphérique (ring road). Strong imagery is used to depict this area at the start of Part One with Coste following up the an early wakeup call observing the scene of houses being replaced by high rise buildings, then tower blocks and then Roma caravan camps with washing drying on metal fences cordoning off the RER train lines and a municipal rubbish dump very close to the first dwelling houses – “This shows how far Département 93 and its citizens were respected: as far as sticking mountains of garbage under their noses”. The bleak narrative continues as we reach a crime scene in an abandoned warehouse, the victim with 3 bullet holes showing through the clothes over his stomach. With another visit imminent to the mortuary, where we meet pathologist Lea Marquant; the first few chapters are a grim but absorbing introduction leading to a startling revelation.

While Captaine Victor Coste is a stable lead character and only unsettled by his own conscience, his posting is in the Département with the unenviable record of the highest murder rate in France. Yet this is a time of upheaval with his deputy Mathias Aubin leaving for a position in the countryside location of Annecy for the benefit of his family. His imminent replacement is set to be the team’s first female lieutenant Johanna De Ritter, apparently a school leaver who had never set a foot in 93. While looking for a missing person is linked to the first body, Coste receives the first of several anonymous notes indicating that an investigation into a previous unidentified death was incomplete, he is led on the trail to uncover the links and identity of a meticulous serial killer. In tandem to this he starts to unravel the secrets of Code 93.

The themes of justice and loyalty feature strongly in the novel. Coste wants justice for both the unidentified historical victims buried in a forgotten grave yard, as well as the recent crime wave. At the same time Coste will when called upon dish out his own form of brute justice in order to protect others or where the legal system is unlikely to punish the perpetrator; despite this causing him anger in the aftermath. Justice is also a driver for a newspaper journalist, and indeed the killer in their own ways. Coste’s team including De Ritter are well characterised and develop a strong loyalty for each other against both external and internal opponents. At times there is a balance between loyalty to the team and loyalty to causes of their masters which may not always be compatible.

While Coste appears resigned to his role in an area of deprivation, he does recall his childhood memories of watching “Columbo”, the scruffy detective who would repeatedly visit affluent members of society with his suspicions. To his surprise, this case leads him down such an avenue; and in a similar fashion to the series, we discover the murderer before the law enforcement officers do so. It’s an enthralling read in 60 short chapters which branch out from Coste to other characters in the second half of the book. Great credit is due to Nick Caistor, having just completed his translation from Spanish of Eva García Sáenz‘s “The Silence Of The White City” just before this novel. He always adeptly makes the prose flow effortlessly while retaining the character of the original story. Caistor has translated over 70 novels from French, Spanish and Portuguese and fellow readers probably find his name on several titles in their bookcase.

You could perhaps question how the murderer becomes so proficient at killing people with no prior experience, and also whether Coste would have resolved the investigation without a little outside help in Norek’s first novel, yet overall he shows great promise and is a welcome addition to many of the fantastic translated crime novels that we have become accustomed to in the last decade. Whether or not you already have a taste for French crime drama or not, “The Lost And The Damned” is a compelling read that I'm pleased to have bought. Available now in hardback and ebook, the paperback version will be available from 10 June 2021.

The good news is Nick Caistor has already translated Turf Wars, the second of the Banlieue trilogy featuring Capitaine Coste which will be published by MacLehose Press in Summer 2021.

[jade4813]

Jade, how are you? Did you peep TF FB page recently? there is a lot a hate towards Iris there, in every post I saw most of people shitting on her and I honestly think it's even worst now than in the previous seasons 😩 do you think due the backlash the network could made the producers kill Iris off or sideline her? because I don't think the producers would do that but we all know that C*W is trash 😒 since you have a brother that works w television do you think I'm overthinking?

I wouldn’t worry about it. I think they know The Flash’s Facebook page is just a cesspool of hate. And if you look everywhere else - Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, etc. - there’s a lot of love for Iris.The Internet has been around long enough for show runners to learn that one website’s opinion isn’t indicative of the fan base as a whole. To be frank, the Internet’s opinion as a whole doesn’t necessarily speak to the general fandom. Remember, the people online who talk about it every week and dissect and get really into it? We are the outliers. If the show runners wrote the show based off what Online fandom says, they’d be cancelled in a year. If there are 3,000 passionate stans Online, there are ten times that who never talk about it on the computer. They just watch week to week. That’s the majority of the audience. And do they have passionate love or hatred towards Iris? Probably not.I mean, think of the shows you watch casually - the ones you might tune into every week, but you don’t talk about them after or really even think about until the following week. The ones where you might remember all the characters’ names but maybe not. You may have characters you’re more “meh” about than others and some you’re more “aw, I like them” than others but either way, you just kind of move on. You aren’t screaming for them to be killed off. You aren’t screaming for others to get their screen time. You also aren’t yelling about how they need a whole arc about X, Y, or Z. That kind of fan is the one the show runners are writing for. That is the general audience.As far as online, they care people ARE talking but most show runners aren’t caring what they’re saying. Because, again, it’s a small subset of their audience that cares that much anyway, and the way they dissect and the things they care about may not be what the general audience cares about. And even if they did pay attention to what was said online, Facebook is a cesspool, but every other place online has a huge amount of support for Iris. Why would they think one site’s toxic/racist opinion was more important than the overwhelming love elsewhere?So what do the show runners pay attention to? First...ratings. However they measure that figure. For CW, they’ve had to move past traditional ratings and focus on online engagement too. Flash is still #1 for the network - apparently on both. And while it’s true the overnight ratings across all networks and almost all shows have dropped in the last couple of years, 1) they are aware of that trend in the landscape, so Flash falling too isn’t a big surprise or deal, 2) Flash is in its 4th year, and ratings generally decrease over time so that’s not a surprise either (nor will it be a surprise if at some point another show becomes the new #1 for the network - in fact, the network desperately wants and needs another hit), and 3) apparently Flash is consistently a show that about doubles its ratings with streaming views, so it’s still going REALLY strong for the CW.Also, if they pay attention to what people are saying, it’s going to be to critical reviews. Not because they care what EW thinks of Flash, per se, but because reviews can bring in new audience members or drive them away. And while you will never get 100% consensus on anything, there’s been a lot of praise for Candice and her acting (and Iris) in critical reviews.Frankly, I don’t think you have to worry about them being so freaked out by Facebook that they do away with Iris. Here’s the thing. Take a step back and look at the trend of how the marketing and the show has handled their non-Grant cast since the beginning. In particular, look at Candice’s trajectory.When the show started, there was all this buzz about Danielle and Caitlin and how great it was that a woman was in STEM. They patted themselves on the back for it. As for Candice...well, she had several critical outlets outright ignore her and a few others call for her to be fired. Finding a shot of Iris in trailers became like a quest to find the Fountain of Youth. There was a lot of looking but very little finding - and when there was a shot found, it was often from the back so we had to analyze “is that her or a random extra?”Then 2A happened. These were dark days. Little screen time. Little buzz. She wasn’t even the one consistently invited to panels and cons. Remember the Heroes and Villains discussion panel where she wasn’t even invited though almost everyone else was? Yeah.If we were still in that position, I’d tell you it’s prayer time. But then look at what happened. Earth 2 Iris. Remember, leading into the episode, it was pretty clear they did NOT expect for Iris to be anywhere close to a draw. They thought the audience would be like “well, that’s nice...but KILLER FROST...” (Also remember that Caitlin-heavy or even centric episodes were getting pre-screened for critics, expecting to generate a lot of buzz.) But what happened? They pre-screened and critics were like “okay, it’s good to see Killer Frost. But IRIS...we have to talk about Iris because THAT WAS AMAZING!” And after the episode, what got an astonishing amount of buzz? Iris.So they were like “oh, maybe we should do more with her” and started playing her up a bit more. Through end of S2 to first half of S3, they have her more to do and critics noticed. Again, there was a lot of talk about her acting ability and how she nails each scene. And the show played her up even more. To the point where it’s Grant and Candice who are consistently talked about at cons and in interviews and who are invited to panels. Weren’t they the only ones invited to something like Paley last year? If you have a show where someone comes in and the EXPECTATION is that they’ll generate a lot of buzz and then they don’t...or if you have a situation where an actor or character is given every opportunity to steal the focus of buzz and attention (by marketing and promos focusing heavily on them, for example) but they just don’t manage to do it...if the show had started with her being treated like female lead but another character kept stealing her thunder and buzz...then you can worry about what the show may do with their character under X or Y circumstance. Or think trolls on Facebook will matter. But Candice has had the opposite. Even CW marketing often ignored her and treated like she wasn’t the female lead (remember the Women of CW banners and such?). Well, DP was somewhat better known at the start. So they treated Candice like they didn’t think she’d be a draw or people would care about her. And then time and time again, when the show expected someone or something else to be the focus of attention and discussion, the chatter has been about Iris. Positive and negative, but she’s a character people talk about. She gets attention. And how many times has it happened that an episode was clearly geared towards getting chatter on something else (or the expectation was that it would) and yet it’s Iris/Candice/Westallen that gets the chatter they expected that other character/plot to get?And you can tell they’ve noticed. Look how they’ve increased her prominence. Look how they focus promos. We had a whole promo teasing the Westallen therapy humor. Could you imagine her getting a promo like that in late S1/early S2? I sure as hell couldn’t.So the people in charge clearly think Iris works for them. They’ve increased, not decreased, her show profile. And not because “well, of course we expect she’ll be popular so we’ll set her up for success at every turn.” They didn’t expect her popularity - they were in fact often surprised by it and shifted THEIR approach to give her focus based off the positive response to HER. Not the other way around (she didn’t get her positive response because they were giving her the focus). So, look. Things can change in another 6 years. But they clearly think Iris and Candice are a draw. And not because they always assumed she would be and are acting on that assumption. But because they came to realize she was and could be and began to capitalize on that. So is one site like Facebook going to overcome the combination of factors that led them to realize that they needed to give her more prominence and focus? That made them realize there was a benefit to treating her like female lead, sending her and Grant to cons, making her one of the main female faces for the network? I doubt it.And also notice that Facebook has hated Candice and Iris for years with a ludicrous amount of vitriol. But every time people call for her to be killed off, what does the show do? “The focus of the season will be on saving her and you can suck it.” “Oh, you want her dead? How about she becomes team leader instead?”They clearly know there are those who hate her. They clearly also don’t care what those people say. They keep doubling down on her because they have reason to believe that doing so works for them. So I’m not at all fussed about Facebook. I suspect the show runners don’t care much about the trolls on Facebook either.(And being honest, most of the time they know that their show IS being discussed but they neither know nor care what is being said. They know Iris generates buzz. Good and bad. But in the new landscape where online chatter is calculated with ratings, WHAT’S being said is less important than the fact that week after week, people can’t keep Iris’s name out of their mouths. Facebook may be spending time bringing her up to say they hate her, but week after week, Iris’s name is being said at least second most on that site. And THAT’S what they are paying attention to. People can love her or hate her...as long as they keep talking about her!)