#always caryl

[lihiominaa]

THE WALKING DEAD, 2010 S05E06 • Consumed

[peletiersdixon]

Remember when Carol and Daryl were trapped in the cave, and Daryl told Carol that if he went through the same things she did, he’d probably react the same way she did, “unless YOU tried to stop me.” And that isn’t my own emphasis on “YOU”; that is directly from Daryl’s own mouth, and the emphasis HE placed on that specific word.

[lola-andheruniverse]

I'm not surprised.

I'm not disappointed.

In fact, as someone who pays her bills by listening to and dissecting the meaning of other people's words, I'm not even worried by Zabel's quotes. Honestly.

Caryl is endgame.

[fangirlstill]

Reading the latest BOC spoilers

[daryl-and-carol-oh-my]

The Walking Dead; Welcome to the Tombs

"It's good you found them. No one can make it alone now." - Andrea "I never could." - Daryl Dixon "I just didn't want anyone to die." - Andrea

Carylering ON<333333333333333

[butchladymaria]

could you draw rom? spider or human, i just think shes neat :)

as you wish 🕸️🕷️🕸️

[shimmershae]

Am I excited to see Carol/Melissa again? More than you can imagine. Do I give a diddly damn about being jerked around for the eleventy-millionth time w/more ridiculous shipbaiting? Seriously? Do better, AMC. Stop the bullshit & the gaslighting.

[katyahina]

me: I want to make Valentine’s Day cards, but I can’t make up flirty lines! I am not an eloquent person in the slightest!

me: 

me: I have an idea,

[lynxiepancakes]

i think i COMPLETELY dissociated from s6 of the walking dead going on cos why did i discover just know there's a kiss scene between ezekiel and michonne and just never ??? idk remembered it ?????

[lab-gr0wn-lambs]

Oh jesus wait! Only now that something might finally be starting with Carol and Daryl did I suddenly think.. what if Daryl was aroace tho. and now I'm just-

[kiybee]

the freakish lady maria in my head wants to be written about again

[peletiersdixon]

Remember when Daryl knew that if Carol was aware of what happened with Negan and Glenn and Abraham, she would be the first one leading the war, and yet he recognized her mental health was so precarious, he didn’t tell her the truth. Because as much as he wanted vengeance, he didn’t want it at the cost of her well-being.

[my-mt-heart]

Caryl’s Future

I wanted to hold off on talking about the spinoff until after the finale because without more context, a lot of this is just going to sound like jumping the shark gun and it falls right into AMC’s trap of generating buzz be it positive or negative. But here we go. 

I can’t tell you how much it frustrates me to see Caryl fans vilified for “hating” on the actress who was cast because that is not what’s happening at all. As far as I can tell, you guys have been expressing valid concerns about the characters you love and about Melissa, but when shit hits the fan, blame those crazy unhinged Carylers, right? For what it’s worth, casting a female “lead” doesn’t mean a replacement. There’s no telling how many episodes she’ll be in or what her role will really entail. I imagine AMC’s in no rush to tell us though because playing on our biggest fears is their favorite pastime. They did cast another male role too. Let’s not forget that. 

Casting isn’t the problem for me. Not necessarily. The problem is AMC trying to follow HBO’s example with more explicit content, which apparently means pandering to the male gaze. Nevermind that Daryl’s fanbase is largely women and largely Caryl fans. The problem is a dark, hypersexualized backdrop doesn’t work for Daryl’s character anyway. The problem is Gimple can’t be trusted to handle Daryl’s story with care because for whatever reason, it doesn’t compute that we. watch. for. the. characters. Not for the gimmicks. Not for the location. Not for the explosions. Not even for the zombies. And also, not everybody loves Rick. 

For as much as I talk about Carol, I also identify with Daryl in a lot of ways, namely his struggles with self-worth and fitting in. Watching him find where he belongs, and finding it in Carol, his “soulmate,” has been the most rewarding experience for me as a longtime fan, but to have years of hard-earned, beautiful development stripped away? To have him suddenly questioning where he belongs again? If he belongs with Carol? I can’t suffer through that and I won’t.  Preserving the version of Daryl that I love is too important to me, which means no matter what happens in the finale (and my expectations are extremely low because again, Gimple), I will not watch or give any further attention to something that amounts to nothing other than character assassination. 

As a silver lining, none of this means our efforts over the past several months have been for nothing. Back in April, AMC thought Carol and Melissa were expendable. Now they’re constantly using Melissa’s name and the mystery of what’s going to happen to Carol for engagement because they know she’s a major draw. That’s why Khary made the comments that he did on TTD last night. They weren’t out of the blue and they weren’t confirming that Melissa is done with TWD for good. Her own comments beg to differ (”Carol has more story to tell”), but for now we’re meant to believe everything’s up in the air. And by “for now,” I presume just for the next two weeks.  

I was trying to hold my tongue on this too until we knew for sure, but yes, I do think Carol joining Daryl’s spinoff is a strong possibility now and like I said before, I have very mixed feelings about it. I do want to support Melissa if this is what she’s decided for her character, who we know she cares about so much and would do everything in her power to honor her legacy, and of course I want more stories for Caryl. But this premise is making me all kinds of nauseous, uncomfortable, resentful and not very willing at all to re-subscribe to AMC plus. They need to stop relying on marketing ploys and start focusing on quality storytelling again. An announcement that Carol’s and/or Caryl’s story is continuing might be enough to get me to watch depending on canon, but if I have no reason to think it’s going to be handled right, I’ll just stick to my new method which works just fine. 

It’s been a long day. A long six+ months actually. I’m so tired. There are a lot of asks in my inbox that I will get to because I want you guys to have somewhere to voice all of your concerns. Unless you’re someone who’s trying to shift the blame onto Caryl fans. Then you should not expect a response. 

[queermania]

court are you ready to talk about supernatch again yet

no 😔 my brain and heart are still full of twd caryl and unfortunately i don't really vibe with the fandom so i'm just like. stewing in my feelings by myself. daphne @saintedcastiel was kind enough to let me dump a whole bunch of feelings on them but i'm still overflowing I JUST LOVE THEM SO MUCH THEY'RE SO NEAT HE MADE HER A FRIENDSHIP BRACELET AND SHE GIVES HIM FOREHEAD KISSES AND I DONT KNOW HOW TO BE NORMAL ABOUT IT OKAY

[haircoveredwriter]

Therapist: So how long would you say that you’ve been a “positive” Caryler?

Me:

[katyspersonal]

I still like how the lore says that Caryll used to be a scholar in Byrgenwerth, but Rom's scholarly status never gets mentioned, yet Bloodborne fandom collectively decided that Rom was a scholar and "teamed up" with Laurence and Micolash, whereas Caryll was actually a teacher (at least to the time these three rolled in) xd It is not a big deal that doesn't ruin anything about the lore, but a kind of fun choice of a dynamic!