#a lesbian watches ted lasso

[trentcrimminallybeautiful]

i have this really stupid idea in my head that im frankly a little obsessed with and the idea is this: trent crimm doing a drunk history episode on ted lasso's first tenure at richmond. is that how drunk history works? i don't think so. do i care? absolutely not. it's a special episode who cares because this image is not only hysterical to me but treasured. i treasure this image. i hold it close in my heart and also laugh and laugh and laugh.

[hopelessfandomfreak]

lesbians exist in ted lasso!! hooray!

I still think roy/keeley will be endgame but I also think jack is exactly what keeley needs right now. she needs someone she can pour her heart and soul to, which she’s already started to do with jack, and who can validate her. eventually I think jack will be the one to tell keeley the obvious fact that she still loves roy, or jack will be a big part of keeley accepting that for herself. either way, jack is going to be important to keeley’s arc this season.

and I mean if I were in keeley’s place I would have done the same thing, can’t say I blame her

[pxme-granate]

i am so deep in so many fandoms right now i feel paralyzed. like i want to create stuff but HOW

[erraticcat]

the destabilizing magical girl transformation i go through every week between ted lasso tuesdays and succ sundays wooowweee

[hazardsoflove]

forgot not everyone looks at a character and automatically knows they’re gay whether it’s canon or not

[jenhoneys]

fave autistic-coded sitcom characters

abed nadir (community) -- a fan favourite, a must love, if you will. also his special interest is refreshingly films and videography (like me !1!1!) instead of anything stem related.

frankie dart (community) -- look, if abed is on this list, frankie needs to be too. lesbian queen. strong principles. tells it like it is (but in an autistic way). is the only character to explicitly be shown to understand abed's view of life and the way he exists in the world.

jessica huang (fresh off the boat) -- if you don't think jessica huang is on the spectrum, have you even watched the show? doesn't understand the 'rituals' that people partake in when making friends (as an autistic immigrant who grew up in a white neighbourhood, i can relate), needs a schedule for Everything, hates when things don't go her way, is honest to a fault. special interest: stephen king, murder mysteries + christmas.

mary (bbc ghosts) -- love her, little ray of sunshine who has been through too much. her stims are everywhere and she never feels the need to hide them <3 plus she's played by queen katy wix (who is also autistic!)

gregory eddie (abbott elementary) -- a relatively new addition to the sitcom family, but instantly iconic. i love the way he talks about his relationship with food.

orla mccool (derry girls) -- peak Weird Girl representation. unapologetically herself and into her special interests, takes things so literally in a way that frames her as charming instead of stupid, and covers her ears when people are yelling/being too loud <3 also nb.

adrian mallory (space force) -- just a stubborn, 'sassy' man who loves space and has a very, very rigid moral compass.

keeley jones (ted lasso) -- stunner, icon, bicon, all around amazing person. also she's autistic. the Teeth thing, obsession with the colour pink (in EVERYTHING, not just her wardrobe), needs clarification a lot. doesn't feel jealousy for other women in a Strong Feminist way, a bisexual way, and an autistic way. no i do not take criticism.

coach beard (ted lasso) -- is incredibly knowledgeable about the things he is interested in, has a vast compartment of fun facts (to the extent that ted always asks when he needs more information). extremely observant, king of the deadpan face, is mostly non-verbal. special interests: chess + coaching.

tina belcher (bob's burgers) -- i don't personally watch bb, but i can dig it.

maurice moss (the IT crowd) -- like sheldon cooper, but better, but unfortunately british.

[person4924]

new about me

my name is sam !! thats basically all u need to know but theres (a lot) more under the cut!!

im a lesbian (???) and ace

they/she (this is my pronouns page)

im probably genderfluid so u can really use any idc

i’m neurodivergent of some sort (i don’t even know anymore)

a minor (don’t be weird)

my personality type is INFP-T

things i like (the things bolder r what i talk about the most)

harry potter (fuck jkr)

marvel

the marauders

boy meets world

it

osemanverse

paper girls

teen wolf

owl house

shameless

glee

stranger things

friends

andi mack

the last of us (i’ve only watched the show tho, but i know most of what happens in the games)

riordanverse

musicals

poetry

reading

cats

animals

fictional characters

music

movies

tv shows

art

writing

women

sitcoms

brooklyn nine nine

new girl

hamilton

grishaverse

stand up comedians

ocean animals (specifically sharks)

community

moths (and just kinda winged bugs in general)

greek mythology

dawsons creek

bojack horseman

halloween

the sky (like stars, the moon, the sunset, etc)

jelly fish

criminal minds

animals

ted lasso

scooby doo (the older movies from the 2000’s ish specifically but all of it too)

everything sucks!

the sun bearer trials

atypical

octonauts

spencer reid

my fav movies are tick tick boom, my girl, dead poets society, breakfast club, the outsiders, hamilton, stand by me, cmbyn, lady bird, beautiful boy, luca, nimona, (500) days of summer etc.

musicals i like are hamilton, tick tick boom and the greatest showman

my fav taylor albums are folklore, evermore, reputation, 1989 and speak now but i love all of them really (please please ask me abt them omg)

my current hyper fixation is the marauders (more of a life-long obsession atp) and criminal minds

i’m currently reading the extraordinaries

my fav music people (i’m really just giving a short list of many): conan gray, cavetown, current joys, queen, rainbow kitten surprise, the front bottoms, harry styles, noah kahan, taylor swift, phoebe bridgers, the fray, coldplay, olivia rodrigo, billie eilish, boygenius, gracie abrams, sufjan stevens, maya hawke, the smiths, lucy dacus, julien baker, the smiths, sleeping at last, mitski

i mostly post about whatever hyperfixation and/or character/person has overtaken my brain, music and analysis things

i appreciate tone tags and i try to use them as much as possible

i’m always looking to talk to more people and i’m always bored (don’t be weird istg)

my fav books are any alice oseman book, the outsiders, the perks of being a wallflower, i fell in love with hope

child of athena (i think) and a ravenclaw

biggest pandalily shipper you’ll find

i love love love making character analysis’ or song or movie or tv show or books or ships or whatever

i also write sometimes!! (i suck ass)

and i’m person4924 on ao3 but i can’t figure out how to link it

this is my spotify (i have the best music taste in the history of human kind btw)

this is my discord (in case of KOSA or if it’s just easier to talk on there)

this is my airbuds idk if anyone actually uses it but i thought it’d be fun to share music with mooties

please please please send me asks i have no hobbies or friends and im always bored please please please (im on my hands and knees begging please please please)

i have a tagging system!! idk how much ill remember to use it but yeah!! (its also new so only my new posts will have them) #sam shut the fuck up -> rants/yapping #asks!!! -> asks #polls!!! -> polls #crazy? i was crazy once... -> headcanons for characters/analysis things

[artsoupsoupart]

Also�� y’all be “het ship” this “het ship that”. Babe… I’m a whole lesbian… have literally never had any need to be w a man in my life, nor really see it be represented. YOU boiled it down to heterosexuality. I saw it for the POTENTIAL. For the cosmic connection they CLAIMED those two characters had, just to separate them like A LOT of Hollywood showrunners do for potential ships that have a large fan base. Regardless of if you wanted tedbecca to stay platonic or not, you’ve got to admit they did not write s3 to that finale. They simply didn’t.

And tbh, knowing that Jason sudeikis and Hannah waddingham and really that whole cast and crew said plainly multiple times that they SAW ppl shipping t/r, all it would’ve taken was a “ted lasso is about mentorship, fatherhood, and forgiveness. If you found anything else in it, that’s beautiful but we’re not going to explore that” to TEMPER EXPECTATIONS. But they didn’t do that. They knew what a small fraction of ppl were watching for, leaned into it, just to throw it in our face and call us stupid for seeing the subliminal context clues and tropes. So don’t play that bullshit with me frfr.

[daily-coloring]

Best of 2023 - TV Series

I think I watched over 50 TV shows this year and most of them were great which means, the making of this list was hard and took me a few days and I'm still not sure about the order.

01. Deadloch - Season 1. - "Welcome to the Tasmanian town of Deadloch! It’s the site of a simmering culture war between the blue-collar, old-school residents and a recent influx of lesbians who’ve put the place on the map, bringing performance art and gourmet nose-to-tail dining with them." - Vanity Fair

02. The Woman In The Wall - Miniseries - "People think that this couldn't happen again. Then they forget that the last laundry closed in 1996. It wasn't medieval times. The f**king 'Macarena' was in the charts." - Philippa Dunne

03. Nolly - Miniseries - "This show follows Nolly through the very public sacking and its fallout, and paints a sympathetic and adoring picture of the woman behind the headlines. Bonham Carter sails through this as if on the campest of clouds, but also beautifully articulates the grief behind the glamour. Nolly is part of the old guard, the oldest of guards in fact – she was the first woman ever to appear on colour television. " - The Guardian

04. The Newsreader - Season 2.

05. Heartstopper - Season 2.

06. Mood - Miniseries - "Like Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag and Michaela Coel’s Chewing Gum, Lecky’s Mood started life as a one-woman show on the London stage; she debuted Superhoe at the Royal Court in 2019, with the Standard describing her performance as “a revelation”. That’s probably where those comparisons should end, though, as Mood is a very different beast, and not just because of the aforementioned musical interludes. The darkness in this story isn’t necessarily mined for laughs (though our deadpan lead Sasha can be savagely funny, just like some of her brutal song lyrics) and there’s a real sense of precariousness at its heart." - Evening Standard

07. Workin' Moms - Season 7.

08. Blue Lights - Season 1.

09. The White Lotus - Season 1. and 2.

10. Ted Lasso - Season 3.

11. Starstruck - Season 3.

12. The Following Events Are Based on a Pack of Lies - Season 1. - "The show touches on some serious themes around abuse, misogyny and gaslighting, but it is so compelling because it doesn’t forget how much fun there is in the art of the con." - The Guardian

13. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart - Miniseries

14. The Night Agent - Season 1.

15. The Dry - Season 1.

16. Foundation - Season 1. and 2.

17. The Change - Season 1. - "Bridget Christie writes and stars in The Change – her sitcom debut – as Linda, a much put-upon wife, mother and retail worker who reaches a crisis point at her 50th birthday party. It’s not just the menopause. It’s also the cluelessness of her husband (Omid Djalili), the open disdain of her teenage children and society’s general denial of the full humanity of older women that pushes Linda over the edge." - The Guardian

18. Sex Education - Season 4.

19. Fleishman is in Trouble - Miniseries

20. Slow Horses - Season 1. and 2.

21. The Last of Us - Season 1.

22. The Fall of the House of Usher - Miniseries

23. Fisk - Season 1. and 2. - "You can tell Fisk is an old-fashioned sitcom just by looking at it. That goes beyond Fisk’s awesome brown pants suit; the visuals here are firmly in service to the story (and to the jokes) rather than feeling like a cinematographer’s audition reel. The locations are basic – an office, a café, Fisk’s temporary Air B&B home – and filmed in a straightforward way that never detracts from the comedy. For audiences used to expensive production values and flashy locations this may take a little getting used to, but the effort is most definitely worth it." - ScreenHub

24. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - Season 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

25. The Diplomat - Season 1.

26. Gen V - Season 1.

27. Secret City - Season 1. and 2.

28. Severance - Season 1.

29. Wolf - Miniseries

30. The Crown - Season 5.

31. Shrinking - Season 1.

32. Three Pines - Miniseries

33. Beef - Miniseries

34. The Sixth Commandment - Miniseries - "Evil characters can be just as one-note and boring as the good, but Hardwicke manages to infuse Ben with such a disconcerting blend of calculation, charm and quiet, almost hidden glee in the harm he inflicts that it is impossible to look away. You will want to. It is harrowing." - The Guardian

35. Swarm - Miniseries

36. Bodies - Miniseries

37. The Long Shadow - Miniseries

38. Wellmania - Miniseries

39. Boat Story - Miniseries

40. The Morning Show - Season 3.

[sagevalleymusings]

Ted Lasso is an extremely subtle and nuanced show that we don't deserve and I'm going to defend a character I hate to prove it

So the series finale of Ted Lasso aired last night and I went out of my way to watch it even though I don't have a Hulumaxflix plus account, because I have utterly adored this whole season. I have seen a lot of disappointed fans and negative takes, even outside of the "it's woke now" brigade, and I disagree with pretty much all of the analyses I've seen so far. People are disappointed at the Tedbecca tease that never panned out, they're disappointed Jamie is talking to his dad again, they're disappointed all this stuff they wanted to happen didn't happen, tale as old as time. But I think the issue here is that Ted Lasso is written in the style of a daytime tv comedy while actually being an extremely heartfelt and pained letter to an abusive father that one of our writer was never able to send.

Co-creator and star Jason Sudeikis has gone on record saying the show is about bad dads. And we see examples of this all over the place. Some are more subtle than others.

But the problem with subtle shows is that you have a very wide audience to appeal to. I have seen and dare I say it even enjoyed both Primer and Groundhog Day. But trying to apply the time travel logic of the former to the latter just because they're both time travel movies would be folly. And this is how I feel about Ted Lasso. It has a lot of similarities to a style of show which is usually nowhere near this deep and it makes people expect something of it that it isn't providing. 

How do you know I'm not talking out my ass? Jack Danvers.

I hate Jack Danvers. We get a fucking lesbian for a change and she's an abusive cowardly closeted slut shaming piece of shit.

I love Jack Danvers. Because I knew she was 1) Keeley's financer and 2) a lesbian in under ten seconds of meeting this person, having seen only her shoes.

Jack is quiet and possibly even a little uncomfortable chatting with Keeley in the bathroom. But Keeley's so charming and open that you can't help but appreciate the quiet bonding moment it turns into.

But I've definitely been there. Women are so comfortable talking to each other in the bathroom and it makes me so uncomfortable. There have been so many times I have been made to feel unwelcome in this space and you want to have a chat...  Please go away.

Once it's revealed this is in fact Jack, it comes as a minor shock that Jack is a woman actually. Why is her name Jack if she's a woman?

It's because "my father wanted a boy."

Jack is one of Jason's "bad dad" characters. Which means her actions are a reflection of her childhood environment in a very pronounced way. Slowly but surely, we learn that Jack believes love is conditional.

Jack introduces us to the concept of love bombing and I think because the relationship progresses past that point, the audience is encouraged to forget this, but… love bombing isn't just new relationship energy. It's an abuse tactic. And we're told pretty explicitly that it's an abuse tactic because the person telling us about it is Rebecca, regarding her shitty and manipulative ex husband.

That Jack's relationship starts on this beat is noteworthy, because it sets up the dynamic that Jack believes she can only retain Keeley's affection if she buys it. Why does she think that?

Moving forward, we start to lapse into a false sense of security as Jack loudly proclaims their love in front of the whole office and is planning on showing Keeley off, only to have the rug ripped out from us the second something even slightly bad happens. 

But it isn't Jack's decision to make Keeley read out that apology and then pull funding when she refuses. Not if we're to believe Jack's word on it at least. It was "the board" whoever that is.

Jack peaces out to Argentina before the final shoe can drop, and it displays lastly an absolute cowardice on her part that she didn't even give Keeley the satisfaction of a break up. 

All of this combined makes me realize though that the sudden scrambling retreat is literally the other side of love bombing - we didn't drop that plot point just because we stopped talking about it. The motivations for both actions come from the same place. Jack believes love is conditional. She feels that she must earn Keeley's affection, and sees nothing wrong with withdrawing her own if Keeley doesn't do the same. And also, the actions of her partner reflecting negatively on her means that love can be withdrawn *from her* if she doesn't bow to pressure from those whose respect she's trying to maintain. 

The coming out moments in parallel with this lens are stark. Coming out to the office wasn't just about being open -it was about speed running earning Keeley's love and trust with grand acts of affection. And there are no consequences to coming out to people that far beneath you socially. Jack owns the HR firm that KJPR… might not have? Meanwhile her old college friend does matter. And when Keeley was a successful business woman to show off, that would have been fine. But now that she's part of a scandal? They're just friends. It serves her to come out to the firm in the interest of gaining Keeley's love, and it serves her to keep it hidden from her college friend, to avoid messy questions later that might make her look bad.

With her very name, Jack has been taught that there's a version of herself other people want her to be that she's incapable of reaching. And absolutely nothing we see from her suggests she's worked to unpack that trauma.

Jack is a minor character - a brief love interest in Keeley's life. But her decisions are deliberate and weighty. The good and bad moments are both informed by the same parental trauma, and the writers stick to it. They're true to character, even if it's "bad representation," even if it's not what fans want.

So let's talk about Tedbecca. I will reiterate that this show is about "bad dads" and more broadly about the ways in which who our parents are and how they raised us results in intergenerational trauma that's difficult to disrupt.

Ted and Rebecca are foils for each other. They both have absent fathers (eventually even they both have dead fathers) and they both have emotionally controlling mothers (more on that in a moment). They both are starting a new chapter in their lives because of a divorce, and family is an important component of that divorce. 

And they are both responding to their trauma, especially in early episodes, the way they've always been taught to respond to that trauma. Rebecca schemes vengefully while pretending everything is fine on the outside because she's been taught that the people in her back will not support her. Her mother put up with shitty behavior from her father for years. Then when her father left, her mother turned into a flighty unreliable hypochondriac. She doesn't want to allow Rupert the same power over her, so she reacts like a cornered tiger.

But at the end of the day, what she wants is a family, and in a lot of ways Ted can't give her that. Is Ted going to have one child in America and another in Britain and split his time between the two? Does that sound like the kind of thing Ted would be willing to do? Nor do I think it's what Rebecca really wants because her desire for family isn't just about having a child, but having a stable family unit to come back to, one she didn't really have growing up. Maybe you could see them hooking up, but by the time their relationship has progressed that either of them could have, they've both grown past the desire to do so. Tedbecca isn't endgame because Rebecca needs someone calm and warm and relaxed to come home to, in contrast to her childhood being a parent to her mother, or the cat and mouse dance with her ex husband.

But Ted isn't much better. We see that his father's suicide soured their relationship, but holy crap do I want to talk about Ted's mom.

In every single scene that Ted and his mom are interacting in right up to the blowout fight, she is guilting him into behaving a particular way. She says he "was born nice" but in reality it's obvious that he's extremely used to having to guess at what someone wants and bend his life around that. Ted's mom wants to visit him so *waits around his apartment* until he notices and offers her a place to stay. Ted's mom wants to sleep in the bed while insisting otherwise (but immediately starts having specific plans about what that means re: suitcases don't go on the bed). Ted's mom wants to go to the game and Ted doesn't insist she go, so she sends a text saying she wishes she were there. It is a relentless barrage of emotional abuse.

No wonder Ted is so sensitive to the lies she's telling people, also the whole time. How many fights have they had where he's done something because she asked him to, only for her to turn around and say "I never asked for that" and have that technically be true? And in fact we are explicitly told in the blow out that she responded to her *husband's suicide* by pretending everything was normal.

And then, finally, we get the truth. She's not there because she wanted to visit London (a thing she said explicitly which turns out was also a lie). She's there to guilt Ted into coming home by using his guilt over leaving his son. Is Ted… also a bad dad?

Ted's entire generous, forgiving personality was shaped by these two parents. One, who was a good man despite making what I would say is the only unforgivable act of selfishness, and the other, who is a manipulative woman who demands generosity from the people around her despite never overtly saying such.

Ted isn't just forgiving of Beard because of the guilt and anger over his father's death. He's also willing to go the extra mile for people because he thinks it's his job. 

Ted leaves for Richmond because his wife wants space, but in a lot of ways it's also an act of selfishness. After all, his ex wife says that she didn't want them to take a break, she wanted to know that Ted would fight for their relationship. And he doesn't - in fact he does the opposite. We now have context to know that asking for something without really asking for it explicitly is a trigger for Ted. So he sees what looks like the emotional manipulation of his mother coming from his wife, panics, and runs as fast and as far away from the situation as he can.

That Ted could never be in a relationship with his boss. Tedbecca isn't endgame because Ted needs a relationship where he can be selfish. 

And I think, genuinely, that all of this is intentional on the part of the writers. A relationship with Ted and Rebecca could never have been healthy, because they are the same character, but one of them is fight and the other is flight.

This show is so, so smart. And I think it's absolutely tragic how much of that smartness is missed because we aren't used to shows with this level of carefully crafted nuance. My god, the scene where Nate comes out of his room and the first shot is an all white hallway with absolutely no distinguishing features? My god. The flex of having the characters singing, and you can hear them walking off, Dani is literally getting louder as he gets closer to the camera! That's studio audio because their breathing doesn't line up with the dancing, but it sure sounds like it was recorded on a soccer pitch. I looked up the name of Keeley's form because I distinctly remember the last scene *not* saying KJPR and turns out in a blink and you'll miss it moment, she changed the name to KBPR to honor the fact that Barbara stood by her when Jack pulled funding.1

I could go on and on and on. There's so many moments where the writers just jam packed meaning and nuance to bursting in this show. 

In the "morning after" scene in the series finale, Ted is wearing a KC shirt, specifically a KC Current shirt, which is a women's professional soccer team. That says a lot all on its own for that being the shirt

In fact, Ted wears a lot of KC shirts on the show. He wears Richmond shirts… when he's at work. 

There's a lot more I could say, and maybe even will. I want to give the jamie/keeley/roy OT3 another look from the top at some point. But I just wanted to get something topical out quickly, because good shows deserve to be showered in praise, and I really think the negative publicity on Ted Lasso specifically is an absolute crime. We can't expect to see writers take a chance on something this detail oriented and nuanced again any time soon if we just skip all the nuance and get mad they didn't doll smash our favorite characters together.

[chocolatepot]

Completed chaptered fic:

If You Don't Love Me Now: Sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better. Ed goes back to playing Blackbeard before he finally comes face-to-face with Stede again. (9k, 3 chapters, rated T)

Prisons Of Our Own Perceptions: A hurt/comfort epic. Instead of being saved by Ed from the Spanish, the Revenge was captured by a crueler captain, and the crew scattered. (60k, 18 chapters, rated M)

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: AU in which Stede makes it to the docks and Ed doesn't. (16k, 7 chapters, rated T)

Works in progress:

I Saw You And Sealed My Fate: Stede's become resigned to living a quiet life under his parents' thumbs when they introduce him to Benjamin Hornigold and slowly slide him into an engagement. Ed, meanwhile, chafes in his position in Hornigold's massive corporation and is in fact planning a way out. The two of them meet at the engagement dinner and immediately hit it off … (6.5k, 2/5 chapters, rated T)

Dirty Rotten Pirates: Ed is the most successful con artist of the twenty-first century. Stede is a nobody with a penny-ante grift. When they meet, everything changes. (3k, 1/? chapters, rated T)

Series:

Sweet Damsels: Genderbend fics with lesbian Blackbonnet, mostly not in continuity, ranging from sweet to smutty.

A Kiss on the Hand: A series of fics based on a prompt list of different types of hand kisses.

Twelvetide Drabbles 2022: Drabbles, drabble multiples, and ficlets written for a fest. Multiple ships and characters!

My one important meta: Stede's presentation and historical standards of masculinity in clothing

One-shots:

Canon compliant one-shots:

The To-Read Stack: Domestic fluff, post-reunion, Stede finds some books missed in the purge.

First Night Home: Stede returns to his ship.

Beside the One You Have Waited For: A missing moment when Ed and Stede are up in the maintop that first night.

What Dreams May Come: Stede has a steamy dream about two Eds on his way back to the Revenge. (Not explicit.)

Sugar Baby: How Lucius got hired by Stede, somewhat by accident.

More Nicer: A missing moment - Stede's conversation with Doug in the kitchen in ep 10.

Waitin' For My Dearie: An exploration of what it's like to be queer and autistic when you don't really realize that's what's going on with you. (Has a happy ending.)

Parched: After Stede leaves home in the middle of the night, Mary grows and changes.

I See A New Horizon: Stede and Ed escape the Academy, and begin to navigate the new changes to their relationship.

Interesting Accounts: Wellington's interrogation on the subject of Stede Bonnet.

An Officer and a Gentleman, or, All Kinds of Situations: Samuel Hornberry hopes that by writing some of his fantasies out, he can escape them.

Momentum: An angsty reunion, illustrated by @feriowind.

there'll be peace of mind: Reunion where Ed and the crew rescue Stede and nurse him back to health.

Proud of You: Ed realizes Stede has a praise kink, and he enjoys playing into it. (Rated E)

no sign of land: Ed/Izzy, the latter topping from the bottom.

Watching Over Olu: Olu is ill, and Jim watches over him.

Rescue Me: Stede is captured.

Take Me In Your Arms: (Sequel to the previous.) Stede's been rescued, and now Ed's in trouble.

Those Savage Beats: Things have gotten stale since Anne and Mary left the seas. Anne takes matters into her own hands. Or rather, teeth.

Fresh Towels: Ed and Stede have retired to run the inn of Ed's dreams. Ed is still nervous about customer service, and Stede does what he can to help.

Alternate universe one-shots:

Going Nautical: A Going Postal AU.

What Else Could I Do (Again): An AU where Stede did stop the Revenge's construction, but still goes to sea.

Making An Entrance: Role reversal AU about the famed Gentleman Pirate and newcomer Edward Teach.

A Perfectly Diabolical Angel: A Good Omens AU.

It Might Be All That You Get: A Ted Lasso AU.

Be Careful, It's My Heart: AU in which Stede gets back to the Revenge when Ed is still in his depression-robe era.

An Offer of Matrimony: A Regency AU where Ed is a rake and Stede is a wallflower, and they have a marriage of convenience.

In the Conjugal Sense: Sequel to the previous - the wedding night!

Drinking Out of the Same Bottle: A Prohibition-era speakeasy AU.

Fiftieth Ficlets (A Miscellany): Five ficlets, written to celebrate a milestone.

Bird of Paradise: A soulmate is a complicated thing. (Stede/Lucius and Stede/Ed.)

[providing-leverage]

Fic in Review 2023

This looks fun, thanks to @writer-and-thrasher for the tag

Total Number of Completed Stories: 16, which is great because my goal was 12 (one a month, which didn't happen, but oh well)

Total Word Count: 77,440! Again, I had a goal and surpassed it (getting to 300k on my account) and it feels really good.

Fandoms Written In: So much Ted Lasso, which I discovered after Sunflowers came out and was trending. I saw canon gay characters and went sign me up even if I don't normally like comedy stuff. I'm super glad I did because I've not written so much for a fandom so fast since my Shadowhunters hyperfixation years ago. Other than those 12, I did some PJO, Supernatural, and Batman, and Teen Wolf.

Looking back did you expect to write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expect: so much less! Ted Lasso brainworms truly won this year

What’s your own favorite story of the year, personally?: I'm super proud of myself for finishing Past and Present Now Embrace, one of my few non Ted Lasso fics. Bianca was a very interesting character and the Percy Jackson universe it a great sandbox to play in.

Did you take any writing risks this year?: I think my trend towards gen stuff, because obviously romantic stuff gets more hits a lot of the time so I've trained myself to sprinkle it in even when it doesn't really need to be there. But with Ted Lasso I really felt like I could embrace the platonic stuff and when I did write romance it was because I wanted to.

Do you have any fanfic goals for the New Year?: I want to write a multichapter, and I'm hoping that multichapter will be either Stranger Ranger or Guard Your Heart. I've also been watching to rework the second and third parts of SSA Sam Singer.

Best story of the year: personally I'm really proud of the Fundamentals of Love and Lying, which is so self indulgent

Most popular story of the year: Get It Off Your Chest for sure, and I think that's all to do with the blurb I used in the summary

Most personal story of the year: Oh for sure it's a rather touching notion which is also probably the one I wrote the quickest. An aroace character figuring out who they are, feeling outside of so many social interactions because they lack romantic and sexual attraction? Pure projection. Also The A Team because yay autism.

Funniest story of the year: While the summary for Get it Off Your Chest is funny, Colin's reasons for picking up lesbians is deeply sad so I can't really say that. Eliza's exasperation with Jamie in Flowers for Dani is pretty funny though.

Story of mine most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Fundamentals took a lot of work but it's also a rarepair I invented the tag for and narrated by a character that is basically an OC, so I understand why it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Most fun story to write: Holy Novelty Socks Batman is pure fluffy crack and made me smile a lot

Story with the sexiest moment: none of them really. Fundamentals and some of the other TL fics have some sex allusion though.

Sweetest story of the year: I'll say Shake It Out, a teen wolf fic from early this year that I'd completely forgotten about. What's sweeter than breaking into your school at night for a date?

“Holy crap that’s wrong even for you!” story: dito on not doing scandalous, but for angst then maybe this fic where I give Dani my caffeine sickness

Hardest story to write: Past and Present Now Embrace, for sure took the longest, with me working on it for over a year. I wanted to get it up before the Sun and the Star came out but that didn't happen.

Biggest disappointment: Not any published fic in particular but I have a lot of drafts I wish had been able to see the light of day this year

Biggest surprise: the community I feel like I've found this year, especially within Ted Lasso. Doing these tag games, trading asks and ideas with other writers, is something I've never gotten to do before and I feel so lucky and grateful for my mutuals.

Speaking of... @orbitalpirate @mearpsdyke @manwholovescabins sorry if any of you have already been tagged

[cooking-with-hailstones]

Partner has finally persuaded me to watch Ted Lasso. We're now halfway through S1. Here are my thoughts so far:

- I would die for Keely

-Roy is a good dude who needs to get over himself

-Jamie needs to get punched in the nose

-I want Ted to be my dad. I want Ted to be everyone's dad.

-Sam is the absolute cutest oh my GOD

-Keely and Rebecca lesbian arc when???????

That is all I've got for now, suffice to say I'm enjoying this immensely and if you've wondered about giving Ted Lasso a try, you totally should, it's a delight.

[trickarrows-bishop]

I would love to know what fandoms you're into bc I swear I find the randomest shit on my dashboard and they usually correlate with a fandom I'm in.

drum roll please 🥁🥁🥁

GADIES AND LETELMEN. I GIVE TO U . EVERY FUCKING FANDOM (im lying there's no way these are all of them) THAT IM IN

movies, tv and books and yh u get the idea: (no particular order. im reading off a list) - lost in space - do revenge - the sex lives of college girls (leighton murray the beloved <333) - ted lasso (ted is literally just a little guy i love him fr) - free guy - star wars (i haven't watched anything thats new tbh (aka ashoka) BUT IM GETTING THERE) - crush (the best 2022 movie Of All Time) (ignoring that cast drama ofc cuz wtf was that) - warrior nun (beatrice i am on my knees please) - willow (2022) (jade claymore i am single) - hsmtmts (maddox single handily got me to watch season four tbh. saylor bell curda the woman you are. MY GOD-) - hunger games (SAW TBOSBAS YESTERDAY IT FUCKING ATE RAHHHH) - paper girls (i would sell my left kidney for this) (my left kidney hardly works but im sure you get the gesture) - stranger things (atp finn is all i interact w the fandom most of them have acc ruined it. im looking at the stancys, b*lly defenders/stans and the people who basically helped explode steddie. (idm steddie it is just Everywhere) - the half of it (its just a sweet lil movie yk :') ) - tlou (i've only seen the show but ellie is so fucking funny) - mcu (im blaming my father for this one he acc made me watch them from such a young age that the mcu is just in my fucking dna atp. i haven't watched basically any of phase five other than gotg 3 tho BAHAHHFDJFH) - ALSO THE ATSV MOVIES EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I LOVE EM EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

musicals WOOOOO (yh im kinda a musicals kid moving along): - six the musical (im a lesbian. no explanation needed) - dear evan hansen (cried seeing this live. i am NOT talking about the movie) - & juliet (idk this musical just. ate.) - mean girls (ITS COMING TO THE UK IN SPRING 2024. AND THE MOVIE IN JANUARY IM GONNA BE SOOOOO ANNOYING) - rent (i need like every version of I'll Cover You to be injected to my DNA immediately fanks) - the prom (nothing compares to the lesbian musical of all time (i am NOT talking about the netflix adaption (although araina debose did kinda eat)))

MUSICIANS RAHHH - t swizzle (need u to immediately realise although i am a swiftie i : am aware her music is not for everyone and can accept that she very much is not this perfect person. she has made mistakes in her career . no one is a perfect person. but i will NOT tare this away from her songwriting being fucking insane) - renee rapp (she's the loml she wants me fr (she doesn't know i exist)) (renee releasing any piece of music makes me better and worse at the same time) - holly humberstone (COOLEST FUCKING PERSON ON THE PLANET I LOVE HER MUSIC SM GOD ITS JUST SAD MUSIC RAHHH) - muna (i love cool gay people) - girl in red (see previous point) - sabrina carpenter (although i don't like acc know that many of her songs (rip) she's so fucking cool dude i can't even deny it if i wanted to) - foo fighters (yes i went from taylor swift to foo fighters what about it i love rock music too <3) - arctic monkeys (their music eats next question) - foals (RAHHH AWESOME BAND RAHHHH)

[gingerylangylang1979]

About the Carmy x Sydney Ship and Race... Cause I’m Tired of Talking About It

This ramble is in response to the ask I sort of lazily answered here. 

I get what Anonymous is referring to, I made a whole post about it, but I think my answer may come as a shock to many. After thinking more on a series of interesting posts regarding the ship lately that were very race focused and a bigger assessment of my own posts and what I see coming from all sides, I think everybody needs to take a deep breath and CHILL.

Yes, fandom can be extremely racist regarding Black women and BWWM ships. I know this. I’ve been a fan of several shows featuring both and have witnessed the bias and resultant shenanigans that ensue just because a Black woman is onscreen. We always get less grace, we are always the subject of intense scrutiny about our looks especially the darker we are, we have historically been marginalized and sidelined as the trusty side-kick, asexual, masculinized, made the default lesbian, made the butt of jokes. I recently had to stop watching a show and stop following an Instagram account because of both’s outdated reliance on punchlines based on stereotypes delivered by the white stars. We seem to have come far but we have a long way to go. 

Sydney is receiving the same treatment I’ve seen  with other Black female characters. I always go back to Michonne on TWD as a touchstone because that was the ugliest I saw fans get about a Black woman, especially one shipped with a white man, especially when the ship went canon. We only have one season so far. I haven't seen the anti-Sydney sentiments get as bad as the anti-Michonne sentiments but I have seen some really disgusting takes that I predict will get worse as seasons progress. Sydney gets a special flavor of scorn and dismissal that I see solely reserved for Black women. 

That said, and I may make some enemies saying this, everyone who doesn’t want Sydney with Carmy isn’t racist. I think there are often conclusions that because the ship is BWWM every anti is a racist or has unconscious bias. The misogynoir weaponized against Sydney can exist and be acknowledged without making the knee jerk defense that it’s all race-based dissent against the ship. I would say a good percentage is but I have no way to quantify. I don’t know these people, I can’t read minds. Some opinions and motivations are obviously coming from a bad faith perspective but sometimes so are the categorizations assigned to any dissent. Some people just aren’t going to like the ship and it may or may not have anything to do with race. 

I don’t watch Ted Lasso but I did watch the X-Files until I didn’t. Both shows historically have fandoms with anti-ship wars. All parties involved are white. I’m not trying to “what about” this but I think we have to have some perspective. Some people are just never going to want romance on a show, some people are just not going to want a non-platonic relationship between co-workers, some people are just not going to see what you see, some people are just not going to be fond of the pairing you think is only natural. Does that dismiss those that may be hiding behind those opinions? No. But assuming that is always the case is not healthy.

The truth that Sydney is the new hated Black woman on the block and not all dissent about her with Carmy is racist can both be true at the same time. And assessing that every anti is racist doesn’t serve the ship. Point it out where it exists but don’t make assumptions. I saw a recent post on another platform that basically just blatantly accused everyone against the ship as being racist or biased and while I get a lot of the points it just came across as bad faith and out of touch. I even backed up some of the points but the OP didn’t seem to get why the thread devolved into the chaos it did. Bad faith only makes one look foolish. 

I think I’m coming into a place of my Black womanhood where yes I’m tired of the shenanigans but I’m also tired of focusing the anger on all corners of my life. I’m not saying I never want to talk about it, I’m not saying it won’t inherently manifest in spaces that should be safe, I'm just saying I’m deciding more and more where it belongs and how I react to things colors my experience.

Does it matter if biased people hate my ship? In the grand scheme of things nothing I say or present is going to change minds. The only thing that will change that is if they keep watching and start to see what I see. I can’t force that, I can’t diatribe my way to that, I can’t argue that. All the arguing and anger does is upset me who has bigger fish to fry. I can’t expect fandom and media to satisfy my needs for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the way I want. It’s just a bunch of broken people, just as broken as I am, expressing opinions and creating without personally thinking about me at all. I have to make the change I want, not expect it from others. 

Maybe because I gave up judgment for Lent (hardest Lent ever) I’m just trying to reevaluate my expectations of others. It’s a struggle, I fail at it daily. But I know the place I need that struggle the least is on the internet with strangers. 

So yes, the BWWM ship controversy can be exhausting but I’m not going to let it be. I’ll continue to engage in discussions that touch on those things but I’m not going to just sit over here seething at every anti-post and ruminating about racism. Sorry.