#seriously this fandom feels like there's a lot of exchange happening

[kieranvalentinesboyfriend]

Sam Winchester and Themes of Sexual Assault, Bodily Autonomy and Impurity

Sam Winchester from the hit 2005 CW show Supernatural is a much overlooked character, by fans and the story itself. Despite being one of the main characters in the show he and his problems are often sidelined in order to make room for more popular characters like Dean and Castiel. This leads to a lot of his problems not being taken seriously and played as jokes by both the show itself and the fandom. Sam’s entire story is deeply routed in themes of bodily autonomy, sexual assault and the resulting feelings of impurity. However these themes are often sidelined and played as jokes due to him being a man.


The theme of sexual assault is shown very early on in the show, staring with Sam’s encounter with the demon Azazel (often referred to as “Yellow Eyes”). In the show Sam and Dean’s mother, Mary Winchester makes a deal with Azazel in order to bring her husband back to life, thus giving him “permission” to do what he wants in 10 years. This choice culminates in a 6-month old Sam being fed demon blood by Azazel, thus starting the pattern of Sam being groomed in one way or another by almost everyone in his life. Mary walks in on Azazel and Sam, leading to her death which sparks John Winchester into his obsessive hunting for the demon that killed Mary. The implications of this scene are made abundantly clear in the later interactions between Sam and Azazel where the latter refers to what happened between them as “their little secret.” Azazel also implicates Sam in his mother’s death through the line “she walked in on us.” This line is a blatant innuendo and forces Sam to place even more blame upon himself than John did. Sam’s attitude towards this whole encounter is one of clear disgust and shame which is shown when Sam says “So he could bleed in my mouth.” This line especially implies CSA (child sexual assault) as it shows just how little agency Sam has had over his life.

These themes continue throughout the series as both Sam and Dean have suggestive remarks made towards them by various supernatural creatures. One example of this in the first episode when the woman in white attempts to force herself on Sam in order to make him become unfaithful to Jess. While this is brushed off very quickly in the show, it sets a precedent for the tonality of the show regarding sexual assault towards its main characters and Sam in particular. This comes up again in a scene where the demon Meg has both of the brothers tied up but focuses specifically on Sam, making suggestive comments towards him and touching him inappropriately. He looks extremely uncomfortable throughout this entire exchange. Sam is then possessed by Meg in a later episode, with possession being used as a metaphor for sexual assault throughout the show, especially in relation to Sam, she then uses Sam’s body to harm his family and friends, making suggestive and threatening comments to them while doing so. In fact, most of Sam’s romantic and sexual interactions with female characters are non-consensual on his end. While these are all played for laughs because of Sam being a man, they are horrifying when looked at through any other point of view. An important example of this is the character Becky Rosen and her interactions with Sam; when Sam asks Becky to stop groping him it’s played entirely for laughs despite Sam looking immensely uncomfortable. In a season 7 episode Becky drugs Sam with a love potion, strips him half naked and ties him to her bed. This is often referred to as a funny episode both in the show and by the fandom, further cementing how the show refuses to acknowledge Sam’s trauma.

The themes of impurity due to CSA and grooming reappear during season 4 when Sam is in a relationship with the demon Ruby. She, in a way heavily reminiscent of Azazel encourages Sam to drink her blood in order to gain powers or so she tells him. To me, this entire relationship had the opportunity to explore Sam’s trauma in a creative and interesting way, and despite not doing this, Sam and Ruby’s relationship still portrays many interesting themes such as addiction being used as coping mechanism and the desire to take back agency after being assaulted. Through Ruby’s encouragement of Sam’s consumption of demon blood, he forms an addiction and starts to associate demon blood with sex, something that had the groundwork laid for it when he was a child. This plot line is especially interesting to me as it seems to be heavily reminiscent of the way many trauma survivors seek to have the same or similar experiences on their own terms as a way of taking back control from their abusers. Throughout Sam’s relationship with Ruby he is being groomed into opening Lucifer’s cage and letting him, thus giving way to the next important theme in Sam’s story: his lack of bodily autonomy and feeling like his body is not his own.

Themes of bodily autonomy play heavily in season 5 when Sam is pressured by everyone around him into giving up his body to Lucifer in order to bring about the end of the world. Eventually he does do this, using the last of his mental power to throw Lucifer back into the cage, thus resulting in both of them being trapped inside. Sam’s body is then brought back to life, leaving his soul to be tortured in the cage by Lucifer. It’s heavily implied that Sam was also raped during this year with Lucifer. When Sam’s soul is reunited with his body, he beings to hallucinate Lucifer and being back in the cage, with the only way to stop these hallucinations being to cause himself pain. This is once again played as a joke by the show, making Lucifer a funny and charming character, subsequently meaning that the fans perceive him as a likeable character, once again causing everyone to sideline Sam’s trauma. Another instance of Sam’s bodily autonomy being ripped away from him is when Dean helps the angel Galadriel trick Sam into letting him possess Sam. I’m in no way attempting to apply blame to Dean as he was also tricked, however he also trivialises his brother’s experience in a particularly shocking exchange after Sam managed to get Galadriel out of him. Sam says that Galadriel left some of himself behind but Cas fixed everything up, Dean then makes a joke saying that it sounded like an episode of teen moms; this conversation further displays the way that no one in the narrative takes Sam’s trauma seriously.

In conclusion, Sam Winchester constantly has his bodily autonomy taken away from him in many different ways throughout the show. He also has his struggles and feeling of impurity trivialised and played for laughs by the writers, actors and fandom. He is referred to as a freak and abomination due to his trauma and never has any of his problems resolved in any meaningful way. Sam Winchester could have been a much better character if he was not so overlooked and joked about.

[missgryffin]

Thanks for the tag @jamesunderwater! Loved reading your answers!

🍓 how did you get into writing fanfiction?

My first (very bad, very cringe) foray was between releases of OotP, HBP, and DH. Back then I was writing Marauders as well as 7th Year for the Golden Trio and a post-Hogwarts fic called "Friends" in which Harry, Ron, and Hermione lived together in Grimmauld Place 🥲

🍇How many fandoms have you written in?

Just HP!

🍈 How many years have you been writing fanfiction?

I mean, I went through the early childhood fanfic phase that lasted 1-2 years, but then I didn't write again until picking it up in 2020 as an adult. So really, only about 4 years now of writing consistently, and maybe 6 years total in my life.

🍎 Do you read or write more fanfiction?

I also definitely write way more than I read. Mostly this is a product of limited time—writing is a creative outlet for me, and when I have the time for it, that's usually what I reach for.

🍌 What is one way you've improved as a writer?

I think I've improved a lot with descriptions and vocabulary. Like for example, with revising LFTS and ES, there's been so many moments where I find myself just intuitively taking a sentence or small exchange or small paragraph, and expanding it into something that is just a better portrayal of that moment? It's hard to explain, but when I do the side-by-side comparison, it feels more elevated, and I think that's going back to improving on writing descriptions of what's happening that feel more fluid.

🍑 Do you have any bad habits as a writer?

Oof okay not sticking to a solid writing routine resonated with me too, that's definitely something I'm trying to be better at but it's hard!! Also a major bad habit for me is focusing too much on word count and setting unrealistic expectations for what I can accomplish in certain amounts of time. I've had to do a lot of mindset work to adjust to the fact that some of my old methods were unhealthy and unsustainable, and simply aren't realistic with making writing fit into my current, healthier lifestyle. But it's hard! Old habits and mindsets are ingrained and so tempting to default to. Like I've tried using daily word count goals several times, and it's always a trap. One would think I've learned my lesson, ha!

🍍 What's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

Hmm nothing's really coming to mind as being particularly "weird." I do ping @redrobyn285 and @welsh-green about Britishisms from time to time, and that often sparks funny conversations about cultural differences. Like for example, we recently had a very in-depth conversation about terminology for dorm rooms and different sizes of beds 🤣 But in all seriousness, I learn a lot from them and owe so much of the Evans family lore to their input!

🍉What's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

The play-by-play reactions are my absolute fave! It's so gratifying and fun, especially when there's suspense and tension involved in the story and you feel like you're bonding with the commenter through the shared experience of all the emotions happening.

🍐What's the most fringe trope/topic you write about?

Hmm Castling was pretty fringe, I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read, but I'm not aware of any other Jily fics dealing with ~that~. But besides that, I don't think anything on my current slate is that fringe tbh. I've mostly been writing Hogwarts Jily lately, and that's pretty vanilla as far as tropes go. But I do have some adult!Jily in my back pocket that have some more fringe tropes for me 👀

🥭What is the hardest type of story for you to write?

Angst. Hands down. I think because I'm an empath, dwelling in dark emotions for a story can be really difficult for me. Probably the angstiest scene I've ever written is the opening scene of Vindicated, and there's a reason that's only like 800 words 😂

🍏What is the easiest type?

Rom-com style fluff and smut! I'm such a sucker for all the classic sexual-tension builders: bantering, jealousy, flirting, a little sprinkle of comedy, pining, awkwardness. It makes me giggle and kick my feet while writing, and it puts me in a happy mood every time I'm writing it, which is probably why I'm addicted to it 😇

🍑Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?

Scrivener! I'm at a point now where I've learned enough of its functionality that I truly can't imagine ever going back. It's my fave. I also use Notion religiously for my whole life, and that includes fanfic, but I don't actually write in Notion unless I'm jotting down ideas on my phone or brain-dumping an idea that doesn't have a Scrivener doc yet.

🍋What is something you've been too nervous/ intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

Domestic/Pregnant/Parent Jily. For the simple reason that I haven't experienced being pregnant/having kids yet and I feel like a fish out of water trying to write it because I don't know what I'm talking about 😂

🍇What made you choose your username?

I don't really remember the whole thought process anymore, but I love the musician/DJ Gryffin and was listening to some of his first album a lot in formulating ES, I am very much a Gryffindor, and also wanted something short, sweet, catchy that would be easy for people to remember and spell. And honestly I think missgryffin just popped into my head at some point after that!

I might be late to the game on this one, but tagging @petals2fish @apalapucian @blitheringmcgonagall if you're interested! 🫶

[st-dorothy-minority]

Fic Writing & Fandom Nostalgia

To any/all that checked out my HH fic "You Didn't Know," I want to sincerely thank you. I loved writing every bit of it and sharing it. Reading the comments brought me so much joy. Seriously, I got so giddy seeing a new email come through with a comment!

If you read the latest chapter shortly after I posted it, you may have missed the note I added saying it was going into an indefinite hiatus. I'm calling it quits on writing. (Maybe for now, maybe forever)

I go through periods where I want to "burn it all down" because I get caught up in the comparison game. My writing isn't as good or creative as other authors. I never get as much attention or comments as other authors, and I have nowhere near the popularity level of artists. I think of all the ways my writing sucks and "why didn't I come up with *that* idea? They're so good (author or artist), why do I even bother putting out my stuff? No one would notice if I just disappeared and stopped posting."

I've been working on my tumultuous relationship with fic and fandom in therapy (yes, it's embarrassing to have to explain what fandom/fic is to your therapist 😅), and what I've found at the core is the longing for connection. I keep thinking it will happen, that I'll connect with a reader (or readers), or that I'll get more comments in order to make said connections happen (and receive the validation I am unfortunately conditioned to need), and when it doesn't happen, there's significant disappointment and feelings of worthlessness.

I haven't seen people talk about this, but the way people engage in fandom is so different than it was when I first started 2 decades ago. Back then, there were limited sites people would post to (livejournal, fanfiction.net, and DeviantArt being the main 3 imo), so there was more opportunity to really get to know others. You had your own little communities and friendships formed beyond the centralized community and it spilled over into people's personal LJ's and even the exchange of phone numbers. People left comments regularly on art and fic alike.

Now, there are so many sites to post on, so many more people in fandom (especially with it being more "acceptable" nowadays), and it's much easier to just leave a like/kudos and move on to the next thing rather than staying and engaging. Of course, there are some people who make a name for themselves in a particular fandom and have their regulars who engage, but for the most part - people just don't put in the same kind of effort to engage with the work/creator as they did when I was just starting out. And reading a fic? That takes a lot of effort!! So I can see why fanarts gets way more likes and reblogs than a fic because there's more time that has to be invested to read rather than just look and like.

I miss when I had fandom friends and how we all kind of knew each other. I miss genuine connection. I miss sharing my interests with someone who loves it like I do and will geek out with me.

If any of this resonated, I'm glad I'm not alone 😅💜 just something that has really been on my mind and needed to get it out.

[nobodysdaydreams]

My Last Minute and Probably Wrong Guesses for @tmbswhodunit (and my undoubtedly flawed logic to go along with it)

Drumroll please...

Petrichor - @mashpotatoequeen

The title is lowercase and most of her recent titles are also lowercase

Many of her fics have titles like this (fancy words like eucatastrophe or bellis perennis)

This fic is very beautiful, amazing word choice, gorgeous visuals (which is what I really love about her writing 💖). I also enjoyed Constance and Sticky's sibling dynamic very much!

We'll Both Be Completely Home in Midair - @oflightningandstars

The title of this fic on AO3 ends in a period, which Moth has done on occasion

The AO3 version also lists where the title is from, which is a Moth staple

The fic is locked. Moth is one of the only people who consistently locks his fics

Even when you ignore the first three points that make me look overly analytic (sorry), the fic is about aliens, which is very similar to the "Cirque des Etoiles" concept which involves stars and spaces AND the Dr. Who AUs, which at some point involved Moth.

The writing, characterization, and concepts are also absolutely beautiful, so they match Moth's style perfectly!

Steady On - @mvshortcut

Milk always double spaces between their paragraphs and also this feels a lot like Milk's writing (and had me on the edge of my seat the whole time! seriously the part where Martina doesn't take Mr. Benedict's hand...why do you do this to me... /lh /I loved this fic!)

Milk's titles are all capital letters, so this fits that (sadly so do many of these fics, but that at least narrows it down)

Milk consistently tags both the books and shows for their fics. There are only two fics in this that fit that requirement. It was for this specific reason that I only tagged the TV show for my own fic (at least for now. I'll probably edit my tags now that the exchange is over).

The Interview - @acollectionofcuriousreblogs

Summary is a longer sentence, other authors usually use shorter ones.

The way the paragraphs are spaced is very similar to her other fics

The angst is AMAZING and very similar to that one snippet I saw on her tumblr during whumptor with her OC's (which was also very well written, but also hurts??? And what happens to Sticky??? The public (me) needs to know! /lh /great writing).

The Alpaca -@lizardwoman-from-earths-core-2

Has used *** to separate lines in fics before

The fic is unrated, and some of her fics on AO3 are also unrated, which is generally rare.

I really enjoyed this fic. The line "some has Godfathered my daughter" made me laugh. 😂

Art: A Psychic Among Us - @heyitsthatonesmolgay

Has made fan art for me before (which I love😍) however, that was a pencil sketch, so it's hard to compare the styles.

You can make gifs and animations for free with fire alpaca (according to google) which I know Nick uses

The way Nick titled the fan art was to put "art" or "fan art" before the title of the art in all caps, which matches this style.

This art is fantastic, I love the animation, I love the concept, just...all of it. 10/10. Anyone in the fandom who makes art is officially a wizard in my book because I don't know how they do it.

Fairytale- @fandom-queen-13

This one gave me the most trouble out of all of them by far. At first I was 100% sure fandom-queen-13 was the one who made some of the fanart, because I have art drawn by her for my SOS fic (if you haven't see it, it's amazing!) BUT! The art submitted to the exchange didn't match the style. Also, I know Crow does a lot of fairytale AUs, and I know Sophie and I have talked about them too, so that really threw me off. HOWEVER, there were three key things about this fic that tipped me off:

1) The bold alternating text in the fic and use of ~ matches other works of hers on AO3

2) The fact that it says in the description that this fic was inspired by "@sergentsporks". There is no one with that URL on AO3 or tumblr, HOWEVER, there IS someone named "@/sergeantsporks" and I found this post: https://www.tumblr.com/sergeantsporks/695958143301255168?source=share. Only one person in our fandom liked the post. Once I figured that out, it cracked the case wide open (unless of course someone else liked and unliked the post in which case this entire guess post is completely wrong. If that is the case then um...my bad? 🤷🏻‍♀️)

3) The writing is amazing and completely blew me away, not unlike the art style I'm more familiar with. Seriously, this was a FANTASTIC concept and I loved it so much! Werewolf Kate and Milligan my beloveds!

Card Games - @ae-jurumi

This one was difficult. Once I determined that fandom-queen-13 was in fact likely NOT an artist, I was down to Amphibian and surprisingly, realized at the last minute that I forgot to consider Sophie as an artist. I've seen some art from Amphibian in the past, but it can be hard to track down because they have two blogs, and as for Sophie, she writes such great fic that I find myself forgetting "oh yeah, she's also an amazing artist, like really good???" however, I had to go with amphibious entity for this. Why? The art seemed slightly more their style, and most of Sophie's recent fics have titles where all words were capitalized.

Most seem to agree with me, as the tmbswhodunit poll had them winning for this

Has only written one fic that I know of (which was INCREDIBLE everyone read it) but the odds of them doing art for the exchange seemed higher

This art was amazing. It's so beautiful, I can't even tell if you drew it or use software to do it, but either way, it's incredible and proves my earlier point that all fandom artists are wizards.

I Have Spent My Entire Life Clamoring Towards It - @mysteriouseggsbenedict

All words of title are lowercase which Frances sometimes does

Posted to an anon collection as well as WhoDunIt and I know from the discord that Frances was worried about the fic being posted properly

Mary Oliver is a poet, and we know Frances studies library science

A wonderful and sweet fic, and we know that Frances is a wonderful and sweet person. Suspicious. /lh /affectionate

Seriously a very wonderful fic. I love anything where Nicholas Benedict is a good dad and a good mentor.

Cat Fic - @crow-in-springtime

Second word of title is lowercase, which is consistent with how recent fics on AO3 are titled

Author took finals according to the tags, and Crow is in the right age range for this

Has tagged fics "I wrote this instead of sleeping" before

Usually writes fairytale focused content (which I LOVE), however, this fic also seems very much in the wonderful adorable whimsical style of Crow

Crow also tags both the TV show and Book on AO3 (as does this fic)

I love this fic. But the cliffhanger though: what is the cat's name??? 👀

Don't Grow Up Too Fast - @sophieswundergarten

It is to my great shame that this took me the longest to guess and it might not even be correct

But it matches the technicalities of Sophie's writing: the use of long dashes, each word of the title is capitalized.

The biggest give away is that it’s one of the only works Sophie DIDN’T give kudos to, and you can’t leave kudos on your own work.

Also, the writing really does feel like Sophie. I know she loves nicknames, and the "Pen/Penny" thing is a nickname. So. There's a clue right there.

She also loves sibling dynamics, so focusing on Rhonda and Number Two's relationship fits that too.

Sophie already commented on two other fics and she doesn’t seem like the type to comment on her own fic and throw everyone off (would be impressed if she did though)

The writing leaves me with a warm feeling that I get whenever I read fluff by Sophie. So the more I think about it, there more confident I am about this guess. I think I just had to eliminate a few other choices first.

Amazing fic btw. They are such a family 🥰

And...finally...as many were quick to guess both on tumblr and in the discord:

Sirens of the Sea and Sky - @nobodysdaydreams

The Crangst (Crack + Angst) style is my bread and butter (though I usually emphasize the angst more).

It’s the longest fic in the bunch, because in classic Bods fashion, I never know when to quit. The whole paragraph of backstory was completely unnecessary.

Also in classic Bods fashion, the fic has a glaring typo (I wrote that Mermaid Curtain drove into the water instead of dove into the water. I fixed it on AO3 but not before everyone read it on tumblr. Oh well. At least this way we can imagine mermaid Curtain driving his golf cart into the sea).

Genuinely curious to know the exact moment in the fic that made @sophieswundergarten and @myfairkatiecat go "oh gosh dang it Bods" and all but @ me and/or private message me about it (as I suspected they might).

Don't judge me. This is finals did to my brain. They melted my mind. I swear, if this is the first fic of mine you've read, literally any of the other 7 works on my AO3 are so much better than this, I promise.

Really, who else could it be? Who else would do this? The silliness and absurdity haunts me like a plague. I will never be free. Never. I didn't even try to make this funny, this is just what my brain is like 24/7. I've never seen one episode of Sailor Moon and have barely watched any H2O and that was years ago. So why write that into a fic? I don't have the answer. I know not what I do. But I hope that at least some of you enjoyed it, because despite everything, I really enjoyed writing it!

Thank you @mahpotatoequeen for putting this together and thank you to everyone for your wonderful fics! When I have more time, I will be leaving comments on them all because you all are extremely talented deserve them! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 💕💕💕💕

[vashti-lives]

look i have a lot of feelings about murderbot & art’s relationship in network effect-- this is very long good luck.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the conflict between ART and Murderbot in Network Effect. Fandom tends to view it through a very humorous lens which is not criticism-- the whole thing is largely played for laughs in the book, both because the book is at its heart a fairly light space romp and because Murderbot’s only coping mechanism aside from escapist media is dark humor. BUT for all that the absurdity of a fight between two non human artificial beings is highlighted its also taken seriously and its made very clear that Murderbot is sincerely hurt and upset. However for all that we spend a lot of time with hurt Murderbot we never really see any granular reason why because Murderbot is allergic to introspection.

(Given that its spent most of its existence hovering somewhere between an appliance and a slave this is reasonable. Introspection is not a useful skill when you have no freewill.) 

The reasoning outwardly given in the book sits nebulously between anger that ART has put its humans in danger and being upset it thought ART was dead with a brief stopover on what I actually think is the biggest clue-- ART told the targets Murderbot was a weapon. BUT even that isn’t the real problem.

Because ok-- to back up for a moment. Murderbot meets ART at the very beginning of its journey into autonomy, a journey ART actively participates in and supports thus turning ART into Murderbot’s first real friend. Murderbot really clearly has a lot of warm feelings about this. It is extremely distraught when it thinks ART is dead.

And then it turns on a dime-- not when it learns that ART told the targets it was a weapon, but when it learns ART actively used Murderbot as a weapon, once more subverting its free will and autonomy. Because really that’s what happened, by manipulating things to kidnap Murderbot ART was actively using it as a weapon to get rid of the targets controlling it and get its humans back. And then to top it off it doesn’t even apologize, it doubles down. Murderbot IS going to retrieve its humans.

Its very telling to me that the first thing Murderbot accuses ART of after its been repaired is being a liar, like of all ART’s crimes in that book it doesn’t initially seem like lying is one of them? EXCEPT IMO the lie Murderbot is referring to is the lie of friendship, and more specifically the lie that ART was in any way invested in Murderbot’s autonomy. Because that entire interlude goes from being one non-human helping another non-human gain independence to being a thing ART does very casually for amusement without any real feeling. A thing it has no problem completely subverting the MINUTE its more convenient for Murderbot to be a weapon without free will again.

Its also hugely telling that after this exchange Murderbot locks itself in the bathroom and immediately reverts back to behavior it had cultivated while still owned by the company-- completely checking out of the decision making and only filtering for key works. Because hey when the thing controlling you is a giant ship you need to live it doesn’t actually need a governor module to control your behavior! Which ART absolutely knows and isn’t afraid to point out.

(A lot of this post right now probably feels pretty anti-ART which I truly am not-- I really think ART is mostly just overconfident in its understanding of human and construct behavior more on this in a minute-- BUT I will say the moment it threatens to fucking space Murderbot is a serious dick move. Bud you should know better.)

Luckily for ART Murderbot has its humans with it and they really help keep Murderbot from going full “appliance owned by the company” mode. Now, honestly I don’t think any of Murderbot’s people ever truly understand the implications of what ART has actually done because even the humans who were present when Murderbot was still legally owned by the company really take Murderbot’s autonomy for granted. To them it’s a person and I don’t think any of them really get on a real visceral level that Murderbot was not meaningfully a person for most of its existence. They do not think of Murderbot’s personhood as being removable.

When they look at ART’s behavior towards Murderbot they really treat the whole interaction as though Murderbot is a human, not consciously but essentially. And on one level this does mean they don’t take the situation as seriously as might have been warranted, but on another level their absolute faith in Murderbot’s personhood and autonomy pretty clearly helps ground it and keep it stable. I am 100% convinced that if ART had managed to kidnap Murderbot without also accidentally taking a bunch of its humans their friendship would have been irreparable, and if Murderbot’s humans had died during all this uh, then we’re looking at some kind of murder-suicide I think.

Anyway ART was extremely fortunate! Which it absolutely realizes in the end. Because ART eventually does pull its head from its metaphorical ass and start actually utilizing its processing power efficiently at which point it does work out what its done.

This is another scene that’s really interesting to me because we see a lot of it filtered through Amena and in addition to being human with a very human understanding of relationships she’s a very *young* human with a very teenage understanding of even human relationships. So when we get to the suggestion of Murderbot 2.0 she’s looking at this whole scene like ART and Murderbot are having a baby and its fixed their relationship like something out of a very shitty soap opera but really its much less human than that. This is the scene where ART really understands what its done, because Murderbot is casually suggesting using its consciousness to create a piece of killware, and ART immediately understands that Murderbot 2.0 will be a person. Murderbot itself doesn’t really see it that way because for Murderbot it is its body, but ART is not physically the ship.

ART is an AI that runs a ship and uses the ship to interact with the world but it exists outside the ship in away Murderbot does not exist outside its body. So when Murderbot suggests 2.0 its first reaction is the immediate understanding that what Murderbot is really suggesting is that they create a person and then immediately send it into a super dangerous situation where it could and probably will die; that will be its purpose. And it immediately wants to reject this situation as horrific and nightmarish. And then it gets Amena and, I think, as it does so it reevaluates the entire situation and realizes it *can’t* refuse because it has already done to Murderbot what Murderbot is suggesting they do to 2.0 and thus ART has no real grounds to object. For Murderbot 2.0 will be an at most an extension of itself, but ART knows better.

I feel like so far this has probably felt very anti-ART and again I’m really not, because I think when Murderbot realizes ART never understood its quest of autonomy that’s true but not in a malicious way. I think ART, as an AI who lives in a giant spaceship, just doesn’t have the same relationship with freewill that a human or a robot or a human/bot construct does. ART is its function, it cannot separate function from self. And even though there was evidence otherwise I think it still thought Murderbot was the same, after all even after getting free like the very first thing it does is go be a SecUnit on its own terms and help humans.

So I imagine that when ART put its plans to have Murderbot go rescue its humans it really looked at the whole thing like an extension of what happened in Artificial Condition. ART helped Murderbot save Murderbot’s human friends and now Murderbot can help ART! They can be a team again! And then Murderbot wakes it up and Murderbot is so furiously angry and won’t let it go and is acting so weird and now suddenly ART understands that this isn’t at all like what happened before-- that ART has done something pretty awful.

The apology gift of access to the ship’s cameras really highlights this-- ART sees what its done and gives Murderbot the gift of wider autonomy, and I think Murderbot does understand what the apology really represents.

(So then we move on from this and we get Murderbot 2.0 and between the above meta and 2.0′s POV I think there’s a strong argument that on a spectrum of human to pure AI like art Murderbot skews far faaar more human than it would ever want to admit to, but that probably belongs in its own post... )

And then we get to the end, and we get the fun scene where ART is panicking because Dr. Mensah is coming on board and it feels very meet the parents-- on purpose, clearly-- but I actually think this circles back to their conflict because if there’s ONE person who might look at that situation and correctly understand what their fight was really about, its Dr. Mensah. And ART, who values and loves Murderbot, wants Murderbot to stay, but if there’s one human who could prevent that it’s Dr. Mensah, who honestly might do so if she thinks ART isn’t good enough, or might still be a danger. Honestly to me this makes the panic over cleaning the ship EVEN funnier because its so pointless. Art, buddy, clean bedrooms will not make Dr. Mensah forgive your crimes against Murderbot’s personhood if she was going to hold a grudge about that.

And that concludes this novel length piece of meta that has been sitting in my drafts for six months. Good night folks!

[lumiereandcogsworth]

1 3 8 13 and 16 for Adam 🫶🏻

thank youuuuu i talked too much because that’s My Boy so it’s under the cut now hahah

1. Why do you like or dislike this character? i like so MUCH about this boy!!!!!!!

i love how ridiculously hopeless and stubborn he is at the beginning. he hardly even cares that belle is there at first, she’s more a nuisance than anything.

i love that first moment when you see how truly scared he really is. after he sees belle in the mirror, the reflection returns to a regular mirror and he sees himself, sees the monster that he still is, and you just see how scared he is!!! he looks at the rose and he’s just!!! aahhh!!🥺🥺🥺 he wants to be freed, it’s just so hard for him to Try And Change.

i love how nerdy he is :3 like i just said this in a recent post but GOSH making him a pretentious asshole about books was just the most incredible thing the live action writers did to improve him. i LOVE how much of a nerd he is, and how suppressed it’s been his whole life!! i mean i don’t love that for him but it makes for a compelling character!! he’s been forced into such a specific box all his life and belle is the first person to be like “hey what if you just like. existed how you wanted to. i do it and it’s kinda fun :3” and he’s like “but everyone ridicules and bullies you” and she’s like “yeah, but i’m free.” (i don’t think they have this dialogue i think this is just like. the vibes exchanged between them. the sort of revelation that belle’s presence gives adam. anyway) i love the nerd boy

i love how DEEPLY he feels his emotions. like gosh when he’s sad, HE IS SAD. when he’s happy, HES SO HAPPY. he’s just so extreme all the time and i love it. especially with the way he loves!!! he’s so protective and worries so much about belle (and later their children) because he just loves them so so much. he can’t fathom anything happening to them. they’re his whole world 😭 he’s just… such a sweetheart🤧

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character? i am wracking my brain on this one bro. i actually saved it to answer last and i Still have nothing. i’m a canon girlie!! i love canon!!! canon is beloved to me!!! like sure it sucks that his mother died when he was a child?? or sucks that it’s very implied that his father was cruel and probably abused him?? but i still wouldn’t say those are least favorite because they make up who adam is! scars and all! demons and all! he’s a very sad and damaged little guy and he needs lots of love and hugs and kisses (enter: belle) but i don’t think there’s anything that is least favorite ?? i do always find his little Nest™️ in the corner of his room a little like… yikes 😬 but it also equally makes sense that he stopped sleeping in his own bed. the way his body is as a beast it probably Was more comfortable to sleep curled up on the floor 🤷‍♀️ so again it’s like!!! there’s a reason for everything!!! i don’t know the karma taylor swift lyrics but that’s me with canon. canon is my boyfriend, etc. etc.

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise? HOW MUCH FUCKING TIME DO YOU HAVE. the fandom does two very specific things that makes me want to grab my own torch and pitchfork and burn the place to the GROUND. the charges against the “fandom”:

refusing to call him by his name

wishing he’d remain a beast

*bangs gavel* the sentence? jail for one thousand years.

no but seriously why is everyone so stupid about my boy, hm? why is it so difficult to understand. i realize they don’t say his actual name in the movies, but disney has very much confirmed that adam his name. like why ? ? don’t you want him to have ? ? a name ? ? oh i’m so glad you asked. it stems to the second charge. they far prefer him to remain a beast (in the form that he hates, in the form he was punished to be in, in the form that prevents him from ever being human again, ever truly getting a chance at a normal life where he can be a good man) people prefer him to remain a beast and therefore DENY him his humanity (you guys remember he was born a human, right? you know this isn’t shrek, correct? okay just checking) and force him to be a monster.

LOOK. does belle make him comfortable, make him feel loved, make him see that beauty is found within? yes ! of course ! but no matter how comfortable belle makes him feel in his skin, this is Not The Form He Would Ever Choose To Remain In. i think people genuinely forget he was born a human. like for real i think that’s the main issue. they think we’re watching shrek. guys it’s not shrek. he’s a human being trapped in a body that isn’t his. i’ve seen a post by a trans person who connected with him because he was like “yeah being in a body that doesn’t feel like your own fucking sucks!!! i’m glad he got to be freed and be himself!!!” anyway, don’t know why everyone fails to understand such a simple concept. but i’m done here. WHEW. constantly angers me. i’ve lost count of the amount of people i’ve blocked for making some dumbass comment about favoring him in beast form or some shit. it’s why i don’t even really consider myself in the fandom because the “fandom” is filled with lunatics for some reason. ANYWAY !!!!!! moving on!

13. What's an emoji, an emoticon and/or any symbol that reminds you of this character or you think the character would use a lot? okay in modern au i think he’s absolute rubbish at emojis. belle uses them constantly but adam never does, besides the occasional classic red heart ❤️ when he’s feeling particularly affectionate while texting belle or their kiddos. in terms of symbols and such, hmm. someday i’d really love to design his family crest. i also headcanon that maurice designs their OWN family crest that combines his and adam’s family crests. i’d love to design all these crests!!!! but anyway. i think adam is very cat-coded, so i think there’d be a big cat somewhere on the crest, like a lion. i think his wax seal stamp is just a really fancy AB (Adam de Beaumont) with some swirly flair around it. when i think of adam i think of books and maps and telescopes and the moon and cherry blossoms and clothes, he loves his clothes :3

16. What's your least favorite ship for this character? i don’t really think i have a least favorite ship! like, in my mind, you either follow canon and ship him with belle, his true love, his beloved darling, OR you deviate from canon and have some fun shipping him with others! i’ve always been a canon ship kind of girlie so while i don’t Entirely understand shipping him with others, it’s also like, you do you 🤝 i don’t particularly hate any other adam ships, they’re just not my cup of tea! but i get it like, he’s a cool character to ship with. i like dabbling in his past, pre-canon relationships every now and then myself. and that’s fun because he’s a different sort of man than he is with belle, but you can still see the little nuggets of true adam even in the early days. anyway i’m not the shipping police i’m just here for my blorbos. i care way more that we see eye-to-eye on the Treatment of adam, rather than who he’s paired with.

character asks!

[heredis-sanguinis]

𝘒𝘕𝘖𝘞𝘐𝘕𝘎 𝘠𝘖𝘜𝘙 𝘗𝘈𝘙𝘛𝘕𝘌𝘙 𝘞𝘌𝘓𝘓 𝘊𝘈𝘕 𝘗𝘖𝘛𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘐𝘈𝘓𝘓𝘠 𝘔𝘈𝘒𝘌 𝘞𝘙𝘐𝘛𝘐𝘕𝘎 𝘛𝘖𝘎𝘌𝘛𝘏𝘌𝘙 𝘈 𝘓𝘖𝘛 𝘌𝘈𝘚𝘐𝘌𝘙.

Name: Cella

Pronouns: She/Her

Preference of communication: I prefer Discord. Tumblr's IM system is spotty as hell and most of the times does not update for me. Especially on mobile, which is where I'm at most of my days, because of my work schedule being all over the place. I'm willing to exchange Discord handles if people ask for it.

Name of muse(s): Active: Vladimir, Vayne (In process of re-making blog theme and sorting out archives) Inactive: Kalista, Karthus, Thresh, Illaoi, Swain, Veigar, Scarlet (LoL OC), Emperor Mateus (FFII), WoL (FFXIV OC), Erza Scarlet (Fairy Tail)

Experience / How long (Months/Years?): Oh man, I lost track of that stuff. I've been in the League rpc since before the lore reboot, back when we still had summoners and the Institute of War and the single circular-like continent. And before that I've been in other fandoms. I'd say, including ttrpg rping I've been at this game for over 20 years now (yes I am OLD) I've used Tumblr, Skype, Discord, MSN Messenger, PlayByWeb among others as mediums.

Best experience: I can go over the various specific threads and interactions that are close to my heart. But I really think that the lasting friendships I've build with past and present partners to be my best experiences. To meet so many different flavours of people, with their own lives and interests and stories, and become a part of their life (and vice versa) is what matters more to me than whatever rp-ing does.

RP pet peeves / dealbreakers: I'd like to think that I'm fairly easy-going as a writing partner. But, like anyone, I do have some lines I do not cross. Aged-up canon muses are a big no-no for me. I've had horrible and unpleasant experiences both personally and in fandoms with those. i.e. Annie is a child and someone rp-ing a young adult version of her just creeps me out, because obvious reasons are obvious. I adhere very strictly to the canon ages of canon characters, especially since Riot gave us an actual timeline to work with, or at least moderately accurately deduct dates with.

As far as pet peeves there is actually only one I can think of right now, my muses not being taken seriously and being ridiculed and made silly or memed at. This has happened to Vlad a few times and I just hard-pull the plug on interactions if it happens. He's a 1500+ year old homicidal tactical-thinking bloodmage, who is bored out of his mind most of the time. The fact he may crack a joke or two, or act aloof at times, does not mean he will not turn your muse inside out when insulted. This does not mean, in any way, he is unavailable for more casual interactions, but there is a very fine line between casual talk dare I say banter and downright memeing on him, and pushing him around. Luckily this has not happened in a long while, but it is something I can be sensitive on.

Muse preferences fluff, angst or smut: Angst > fluff > smut; though it can change depending on vibe and muses. Smut is something I rarely post publicly or write with someone else. I become extremely self-aware of my writing and over-analyse each and every word to the point it can take literal weeks until I come up with a reply that I do not want to gouge my eyes out at. Angst works wonders for my singular brain cell that thrives on it. Fluff is something that does not often happen, especially with my selection of muses. But it can be nice every once in a while.

Plots of memes: I can work with both. I don't mind plotting at all, but I prefer to not plot every little step out of an interaction between two muses. I like to be surprised by a partner's muse's reaction or response. And it feels a lot more natural, because there is always a certain level of compromises when it comes to plotting. Memes are a perfect ice-breaker as opposed to a first-meeting interaction (because let's face it, those can be pretty boring if it falls down to 'hi my name is x, who are you?') It makes us writers think out of the box slightly to have our dumbass children play together.

Long or short replies: It depends on the setting for the interaction. But I try to at least go for several paragraphs to give my partner something to work with and also offer development for both muses and give insight into mine's thoughts and actions. I'll never expect to be matched in length and will never fault someone for this either.

Best time to write: Since I work in three different shifts, which alternates per week, my activity hours shift a lot. So my 'best time' to write also changes. It mainly depends on a mood to write, especially with a manchild like Vlad as a muse.

Are you like your muse(s)?: Somewhat? I share some interests and personality qualities with my muses, for sure. But I wouldn't say I am a lot like them per se.

Tagged by: @blackrosesmatron Tagging: Anyone that hasn't done this yet and wants to do it. Consider yourself tagged!

[thezfc]

"I’ve always had a feeling Tom doesn’t actually take criticism very well in general. He’s probably one of those people who really just excelled at a lot of things all his life and throughout his career and then he got OVER THE TOP criticism for TS and especially the GG speech....

I think anon's right. He can't really deal with criticism and rejection. And when that happened for the first time in his career he curled in on himself and never recovered. He's been a different person ever since 🐍. Sometimes when I watch old stuff with the still confident Tom, it is almost painful to see how distanced he has become and how he now always looks a little afraid in public. I guess he has started to take himself and his brand too seriously at some point."

Everyone stop and give the crazy Zawe hero-worshippers the attention they're demanding, because someone screenshotted this and sent it to everyone's favorite Tumblr troll: drwhohiddles, and now those crazy fake fans are losing their minds over a couple of opinions they don't agree with, because apparently they never matured beyond middle school and thus never learned how to get along with those who disagree with them. And somehow they've taken the above and linked it to the "Tom is depressed" theory and ... racism against Zawe. Their ability to drag racism and Zawe into every internet conversation is truly impressive and I would admire this ability if I didn't feel so sorry for these people because they must truly lead sad, uneventful, and depressed lives to keep doing this constantly to complete strangers on the 'net. It's funny how they point fingers at us all the time for exchanging a bit of gossip about a few celebs, when here they are acting far worse then anything we've said on here. And can someone please explain what the hell Zawe has to do with the above mentioned because I'm still struggling to understand that leap. Also, I see nothing racist or derogatory towards Zawe in the above mentioned so again, I need an explanation here because I don't speak crazy. Zawe is a grown-ass woman who does not need you and your little gaggle to defend her especially if you're going to continue trying to defend her from something that is barely an issue because 99% of the fandom loves her, and the constant false racism accusations are immature and makes you look like the boy who cried wolf. Yes there are a few actual racists out there, but they are on Twitter and I'm pretty sure Miss ZFC has them blocked on here, so kindly crawl back into the hole from whence you came and leave us to our gossiping and theorizing. You should know what those things look like since you people do EXACTLY the same things on your own blogs.

I was going to delete this but then I decided to point out that you’re basically doing the same thing that they do and then yelling at them for five paragraphs about it. Just ignore it. I don’t care. I never look. Let them get all up in arms and their panties in a twist about every single thing that is said on this blog but you don’t need to go over that blog and then get your panties in a twist and come back over to mine and report it. So I’m posting this as an ask to all of you to not do this anymore.

Let’s pretend they don’t exist. Everything is better that way.

[chibiranmaruchan]

There's something that's been on my mind about the fandom scene, that's kinda bugged me for about as long as I started taking tumblr more seriously for posting art and taking part in fanzines, bangs, gift exchanges etc. quite a few years ago now. Sometimes in fandoms that are older than Gen Z, (which in the majority of these fanbases, people would at least be in their late 20's, usually the majority are in their 30's and 40's) there's a lot of resentment to younger fans, particularly the Gen Z's. Now I'm not saying, with Gen Z, there aren't problems specific to our generation when it comes to fandoms; however from what I've observed, (this might be in the older fandoms that I'm specifically in) a lot of the issues come from the original fanbase themselves and Gen Z's are just the scapegoats to blame, instead of actually fixing the fanbase those issues, which I find come from rigidity to keeping the fandom the same way it was 20, 30, 40 years ago.

Sometimes older fandoms do feel gatekept by older members, which is a shame, because more fans, means more exposure, more content, more creativity, more joy. I've definitely felt talked down to and know others have, just for giving an opinion or suggesting something, like a headcanon, often with good natured intentions to bounce around ideas and as prompts, just because it doesn't fit what the fandom olds have decided to be canon (which isn't always canon/word of God or act like they personally are the director/writer/mangaka etc's mouth pieces delivering upon us, the holy gospel). If you're older than me, I don't need you to take me under your wing to teach me what's right and wrong for a fictional piece of work, just because one generation decided it's one way and another likes another way better. You aren't my parents, so please don't talk to me in a strict tone like you're correcting my bad behaviour; it's personally insulting and infantalising. In fact, I believe this phenomena is so common, the term 'fandom mom' was coined because this happens a lot.

I've heard a lot of older people in some fandoms blame Gen Z for ruining things, but a lot of the things that I've heard them being accused of, I see the older members fight with each other on, such as rules established by the older generations themselves like "If you don't like X ship, character, franchise, tropes etc, move on to what you do like and don't stay around to hate on X thing". It just comes off as hypocritical to me if you're going to instruct young people on established fandom ettiqute, but break them yourself and make excuses for other fandom olds when they do something wrong, but would crucify a younger person for doing the same thing.

Another thing I've seen, is envy towards the talent of Gen Z, especially when it comes to their fanart and fanfic output and the technology available to them with digital fanart. I understand wishing that you had that technology when you was younger and more energy and time now to contribute to these fandoms, as you're in a different stage of life to most Gen Z's, but it's not our faults that we're the ones that exist in the time for technology to be really good to create art with. I've seen this cause a divide between older and younger fans, by older ones trying to keep up the younger ones, to an obsessional level and half the time, we're not even seeing it as some competition, we do it for fun.

I keep seeing younger fandoms such as My Hero Academia, Miraculous Ladybug and Steven Universe, as well as rebooted/alternate versions of older fandoms like My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and Voltron: Legendary Defender, be used to justify treating Gen Z fans a certain way and projecting this image that every Gen Z is this frothing, cringy mess of a person who will rip others to shreds. While some people are like this, I think it's unfair to say the majority are, especially when comparing it to older fandoms or the original version's older fanbase, since the young people in those fandoms will eventually grow up and mature over time. You can't judge people who are mostly in their teenage years, as if they'll all be like that forever, especially not when I've seen some people pushing 40, say and do a lot worse over fandom.

The fandoms especially where the original source material is old, but still around and continuously aimed at children, just to name a few that I personally still enjoy, such as My Little Pony, Transformers, Pokémon, Sailor Moon, Kingdom Hearts etc. I don't understand when the older generations of fans get so possessive of keeping it gatekept from Gen Z, to the point they forget first and foremost, that it isn't even aimed at older people anymore, but children. If a lot of these kind of franchises were going to age up in accordance with the original fanbase, then they would have in the majority of their future installments; I could then understand this hold to gatekeep a little bit more. But a lot of them haven't and the companies making and selling them, still want to primarily focus on being marketed towards kids, but just of a new generation. No one's stopping older fans from liking older franchises aimed at kids, which they grew up with, but please let kids have things that are aimed at them and more than likely always will be, without this struggle to keep it just as it was when you were younger. You can dislike the direction something is going in, criticise it and prefer an older version, but you can't expect it to cater to you as an adult.

At a certain point, you have to accept that things change over time, including fandom. Demographics will naturally change, as more younger people come in and will eventually become the majority and fandom olds get older, eventually becoming the minority. With this change, generally, Gen Z are not trying to pry fandom out of your hands; we're just trying to co-exist and like the same things older fans do. Generally, we're not trying to antagonise older fans, by having a different opinion or different way of doing things. The Simpsons puts it best, "I used to be with it, but then they changed what it was. Now what I'm with, isn't it and what's it seems weird and scary to me. It'll happen to you". It's ok to feel out of your depth with younger people, who seem better at something than you with more charisma, energy, time, followed and engagement with their socials, but please don't project that on us as if we're undeserving or we're doing something wrong. I don't want to feel like any time I draw, it's a competition, I just do it for fun. I don't want me giving an idea, to be shot down, because you don't want to think of something in a different way. I just want to share inter-generationally the things I like and interact with like-minded individuals, but only if they're not going to do these things that I've grown weary of seeing and personally experienced.

[killerandhealerqueen]

Hi! How are you?😊 For the ask game:

F: Share a snippet from one of your favourite dialogue scenes you've written and explain why you're proud of it.

T: Any fandom tropes you can't stand?

X: A character you enjoy making suffer.

Z: Major character death—do you ever write/read it? Is there a character whose death you can't tolerate?

Hello! Thank you for asking!

F: Share a snippet from one of your favourite dialogue scenes you've written and explain why you're proud of it

Okay, okay, okay, let's see...I like a lot of the dialogue in my fics...but I think one of my favorite dialogue exchanges would be a recent scene in my Killer and Healer rewrite:

            “If you’re in danger later, save yourself, then save the others” he instructed, gently rubbing his thumb up and down the side of his neck.  Chen Yuzhi looked at him before he shook his head.             “If you were me, you would do the same thing” he argued.  Jiang Yuelou smiled softly and shook his head.             “My situation is different.  I’m a cop, it’s my duty.  But you…you don’t have the obligation to take the same risk.  Understand?” he asked, still gently caressing Chen Yuzhi’s neck with his thumb.  Chen Yuzhi was quiet before he looked him in the eyes.             “If you want to take the risk, I can’t stay out of it” he replied, causing Jiang Yuelou to look at him in surprise before he softened, and his smile turned fond.  God…he loved him.

I'm particularly proud of this scene, just because trying to capture microexpressions in the drama and turn them into words and try and get the poignancy to read through for those who haven't watched the drama to you know...feel what those who watched the drama felt when watching the scene. And I think I pulled it off

T: Any fandom tropes you can't stand?

Love triangles or like...miscommunication that never gets brought back up later/explained. I hate love triangles. I just think they're pointless and they end up hurting one person. It's so dumb. And overused.

And as for miscommunication, I only like it if it's done well. Like, if the conversation is brought back up later in the fic and they like...explain the miscommunication. If they let the miscommunication drag, it just drives me nuts. I also hate when someone is trying to explain themself and the other person won't let them speak. Like motherfucker, let them explain themselves and then we all won't have to deal with fucking drama that could have been avoided if you took a fucking chill pill for two seconds

X: A character you enjoy making suffer.

I love making Chen Yuzhi suffer. He's the doctor and one of the main leads in the drama Killer and Healer. He's just so...whumpable. And by making him suffer, it makes the comfort that comes from Jiang Yuelou (a police man and the other lead in Killer and Healer) so much better. Also, because Jiang Yuelou is so feral whenever Chen Yuzhi gets hurt, it makes writing is rage just...that much better.

Z: Major character death—do you ever write/read it? Is there a character whose death you can't tolerate?

I avoid MCD at all cost. AT ALL COST. Because of Killer and Healer, which had MCD that like...none of us were expecting...I dislike it even more. Like, I always hated it, but because of ep. 37...like, I won't touch anything that has MCD tagged. And I won't write it either. I'll write temporary character death but I won't write MCD. Nope. Not happening.

And yes, there is a character death that I can't tolerate and that's Chen Yuzhi's death from Killer and Healer. It was pointless and dumb and it's like...you put him and Jiang Yuelou through all that bullshit and then you just....take him away from Jiang Yuelou? And his sister whom he literally just reunited with a few episodes beforehand?! Seriously?! THE FUCK?! Still very salty about it (because he could have fucking survived it too and that's what makes me even more angry)

fanfic ask game | send me asks

[glorious-spoon]

For the meme: 🤡 (btw, I feel like this emoji is going to eat my soul!)

SOUL EATING CLOWN DEMON. i mean i have spent a lot of time in the IT fandom so... :D

I'm pretty fond of the 'Nancy Reagan' exchange in Calamity's Child, but the scene from that fic that actually made me cackle like a middle schooler when i wrote it is this one:

He’s still pondering this when Steve wanders back out in a pair of Eddie’s black jeans, a Megadeth t-shirt, and wet hair, and the sight of that is weird enough to take Dustin’s mind off the subject.

“Oh my god,” he says. “Seriously, Steve?”

“Hey, man, it was this or underwear. I’ll get these back to you, by the way,” he says to Eddie, who flaps a hand dismissively.

“Sure, sure, dude, I know where you sleep anyway.”

For some reason, this makes Steve laugh. Dustin peers at him as he pours himself a cup of coffee and comes over to the table to sit. “What happened to your pants?”

Steve blinks, takes a slow sip of coffee.

“Spilled something on them,” he says finally.

By the stove, Eddie makes a strange noise. Dustin stares at him, then at Steve, who takes another sip of his coffee and doesn’t elaborate.

(from the emoji fic ask game!)

[aelaer]

Hey, there! For the ask game: 😎, 🎬, 📗, 🌻, 🎁?

PS, I've been a fan of your works since forever <3

Ugh I was mid-writing this and tumblr ate it :( I want to say "thank you so much!" and also ask how long forever is, because I'm definitely in the fandom-old category these days with my 20 year fanfic anniversary coming next year :B But seriously, whether it's 10 days or 10 years, it is super appreciated <3

Now let's try this again. From this post:

🌻 How often do you read your own fics? Pretty often! If I'm in the middle of fanfic-reading nights (which come on-and-off throughout the year) and I don't see anything new interesting, or don't feel like reading an old favorite, I'll go to one of mine that scratches the itch I want itched. I definitely write what I want to read, for the most part. There's only a couple fics that are exceptions for exchanges as experiments and pushing my own boundaries.

📗 Do you want to write something outside of fanfiction? If so, what about? I may be in the minority of writers that have been writing for several years (at least I think I am), but the answer is actually no. Lord knows my dad has asked me several times over the years why I don't, and the answer simply is that I enjoy playing in other worlds that happen to be currently under copyright. I enjoy expanding on worlds that already exist rather than creating one fully from scratch.

I mean if I really enjoyed Wizard of Oz or the original Sherlock Holmes it might be different, but dealing with the publishing world is also a serious pain in the ass and I'd rather just keep writing as a fun hobby as opposed to something I depend on income for. My creative side definitely burns out, so I find having my creative stuff such as art and writing as hobbies rather than job-dependent good for my artistic health in the long run. Any aspiring writers/artists here should keep that in consideration as they go into school and then the job world; it's not always a bad thing to keep your passion as a hobby. Depends on your personality!

(I definitely prefer the stability of my current job!)

🎬 If a movie or show were based on your fic, which fic would you choose and who would you fancast? Oh this is a cool question. Uhhhh. Yeah, the Earth-197320 series, which is basically one long fic split into sections as I find time in my life to write it (the final part has like over 40k written or something like that, so it's coming along!) Everyone in the MCU is still cast as they were. I don't have too many OCs in the fic and I'm terrible at fancasting - for OCs in the past I usually start Googling lists of actors and actresses of the right heritage and/or age range and go from there.

There are a couple though, most of which are seen the most in the still-unpublished last part, but they all make at least one appearance earlier in the series. So I'd need an eastern Asian woman around 40-60, a Hispanic or Hispanic-passing man from 35-50 (Latinx appearances vary quite a bit!), and a black woman probably 30-50. But I don't know actors/actresses well enough without really doing deep dives into these profiles, which I've only done for one fic that basically co-starred the OCs xD

😎 What fics do you prefer on a scale of canon compliant to wildly original? Varies for each fandom. For the ones I read most in:

LOTR: Canon compliant/canon gap-fillers. There's a lot of years to fill in. The occasional canon divergence works for the really, really, really good authors. Minor canon divergences like "dead Gilraen early on" for Aragorn is fine. The one exception to this rule is modern AUs where the characters slowly relearn their past selves or have to act like, the heroes their past selves are. I wonder if those fics are still around... it popped up here and there in the mid-late 2000s. If they are, I should download them from ff.net before the site is wiped off the face of the earth.

BBC Sherlock: Really went with "anything goes" in this fandom. I found myself enjoying wild AUs the most than any other fandom here. That said, the top of the top list still tend to be canon gap-fillers or canon divergences, even though the AUs were quite a lot of fun.

MCU: Canon-compliant or canon divergence (especially after Endgame haha). I do not tend to prefer huge world AUs (like no superpowers) or fusions (like they're students at Hogwarts). I find that a fic can still be wildly original while still being canon compliant/canon divergence. A great example of this is Signature Move, my favorite MCU fic. It's canon until after Endgame then goes into a fully original story that turns canon divergent, but still feels more original than most "high school" or "high fantasy" fics. If I cannot recognize the character anymore from his core personality, I grow less interested in the character. I can go on this topic for *ages* though, aha.

🎁 Have a piece of a WIP you want to share? Here's another one. I literally wrote this snippet in the wee hours to scratch an itch that like, there's no other fics that exist out there to scratch it. It's another one of those "this probably won't ever get completed/published properly" fics.

Also, the snippet's called "yet another kidnapping" because I've written this trope a stupid amount of times. It's not my fault it's such a fun way to make characters meet.

----

When Tony woke up again, there was another man in his cell.

Under the single dismal light bulb he couldn't make out much of his features. He sat in the corner, slouched, a head of dark, tangled hair shot with strands of grey obscuring his facial features. His clothing was dirty and, in a word, weird. It looked like he was wearing some sort of long Ye Olde Tunic that went to his thighs. All blue, too. One leg lay out in front of him while his head and arm rested on the knee of the other. Interestingly, there were metal bands on his wrist, slightly lit by a small green light on each of them. He wondered what those were for.

The man didn't acknowledge him as he pulled himself into a sitting position. Maybe he didn't hear him and realize he was awake. "Hey."

The man didn't lift his head. "Don't talk to me."

What the hell. Of all things he was expecting his cell buddy to say. "Well, that's rude."

The man didn't reply and, fine, if he wanted to play that game Tony was happy to oblige. He didn't need this asshole to figure a way out of there.

…..scene break cuz i didn't write the filler...

When he looked back at the man, disbelief was written all over his features. "You're real?" he whispered. 

Tony snorted in disbelief. "Seriously? Of course I'm real."

The man pulled himself to his feet, slow and unsteadily, and walked closer. As he came into the light, Tony could see that his pupils were blown wide. 

"Jesus, what're they giving you?" he asked.

"I don't know," he said. He swayed, then lowered himself to the ground again, now just a few feet from him. "I keep seeing things. I thought—I  thought you were just another hallucination."

"Nope. Tony Stark in the flesh," he said. In the light, he could see the cuffs even better—and the man's hands, which were heavily scarred and slightly shaking. They were older wounds, though, that was clear. "What's your name?"

"Stephen. Stephen Strange."

What a name. But he wasn't a completely heartless bastard and he wasn't going to mock his drugged out cellmate, who was looking at the wall as if there was something worth looking at there. "What're you in for?"

Stephen blinked and tore his gaze from the wall. "What?"

Drugged out of his mind, right. "What do they want with you?"

"Ah. My ah, my powers."

An enhanced human; he figured it was something along those lines with those cuffs. "And what are those?"

Stephen muttered, "Go away," swatting at something only he could see, then said, "Magic."

Tony waited for his answer for another three seconds before realizing that *was* the answer. "Magic? Like 'You're a wizard, Harry' magic?"

"Sorcerer," he said as he swatted the air again.

Was there a difference? He didn't think he'd get a clear answer currently. "Right," he said instead. "And what exactly does that entail?"

"Uh, lots of things."

He waited. Nothing. "...like?"

-----

And that is all that may ever exist of that. For whatever reason, I really, really enjoy Stephen Strange meeting various Avengers AUs. Especially if it's mid fight or in less-than-perfect circumstances for one side. I tend to make that side Stephen because I'm biased and I find the idea of this super powerful guy appearing harmless at first until a Big Reveal absolutely hilarious. I will read seemingly-harmless-until-provoked Stephen + anyone until the end of time. Sadly it's not a genre heavily explored.

[lizhly-writes]

🤡 😈 🛒 🎯 🤩

okay!! let's see.

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

this scene, from my normal orv fan knw au. Everyone gets fancy, exclusive magical powers. On the more meta side of things, our isekai'd protagonist gets access to the full text of the story he's in. My guy, though. My guy gets the ability to scroll through the fandom twitter, and this scene is him discovering this and going "this is useless as fuck."

😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers?

Hmm I feel like I'm never purposely mean to people in the actual text of the story. If it happens, it happens more in the comments.

Once, one reader of mine commented that they've realized it would be horrible if [x] happened in my fic, and I responded with "Yeah it'd suck if I did that wouldn't it? Lucky i'm not doing that, probably."

"liz you can't do this to me" said my poor, distressed reader, with that punctuation exactly, and that comment still fills me with joy now. love you volt <3.

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

The first thing that comes to mind? Getting hit in the face. I think it's kind of a very immediate kind of violence, you know? There is a certain impact to it that you don't quite get if I just said 'punch'. But getting punched in the face? That's different.

So I feel like there's a lot of people running around in my writing either punching other people in the face or wanting to punch someone in the face. Occasionally, this is seriously meant, but most of the time? It's to ruin or diffuse dramatic moments. Even when people don't actually get punched in the face, I tend to use it as a descriptor or a metaphor or whatever. "feels like he's gotten punched in the face with x" or something.

This didn't used to be part of my writing! But there was this brick joke in Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint about getting hit in the back of the head, which, when I started writing fanfic for this fandom, I called back to. I suppose it eventually morphed and just... stuck.

It's even infiltrated how I actually talk... when I'm talking to people on Discord, I don't suddenly realize things, I'm punched in the face with them...

🎯 Have any of your readers accurately guessed major plot points? Care to share which?

I was going to say "no, I've never plotted far enough in advance for that to happen", but! I've remembered something that technically counts.

I wrote a brief scene of a character mentioning he has a sort-of-girlfriend to his mother. Now, I write and post hideously out of order -- chronologically speaking, it should have come up in a story I had already posted, and as such, the identity of the not-girlfriend should not have actually been a secret. As I did not specify which story the scene was from, or actually, indicate it belonged any of the universes of my existing wips at all, it became a mystery.

@wildcardjoey got it in one, though. Congratulations, you were entirely correct. The sort-of-girlfriend was, in fact, Han Sooyoung, and you found one of the connecting wip snippets as proof. Well-reasoned!

🤩 Who is your favorite character to write?

For fanfic? It's somehow become Kim Namwoon, from Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint. This didn't used to be the case! He isn't actually my favorite character! Since writing my normal orv fan knw au though? He's kind of fun to poke around.

[azurefishnets]

Yuletide Letter 2022

Dear Author,

I’m excited to have you join me for this Yuletide Exchange! I hope you find something that resonates with you here and thank you so much for taking this on! Feel free to mix and match as necessary; in all cases, all listed characters do not have to be included. I am 100% open to treats of all kinds, visual art included; they've been marked open for this exchange always.

You can always check out previous letters if the prompts here don't grab you too.

Chocobox Letter (2021) - Yuletide Letter (2021) - ToT (2021)

I am also also azurefishnets on Ao3.

LIKES:

worldbuilding (I love prompts where it’s like, pick a character and toss them in a location and see what happens)

sensory details (textures and smells especially)

unusual interactions (anything from slice of life to full adventure!)

puns and wordplay

cool symbolism & unexpected parallels

relationship level ups, whether that means platonic bonding or friends-to-more, etc

non-mundane AUs (no coffee shop, school, etc

fandom crossovers or fusions (but taken seriously, not cracky unless specifically requested)

missing moments

emotional support/intimacy

OKAY WITH:

any tense

any amount of plot or none

out-of-the-ordinary story structures

any amount of dialogue from none to screenplay

character explorations

characters appearing that aren’t requested as long as it doesn’t go against my DNWs

DNWS:

any kind of consent issues whatsoever

disrespect of the holy & symbol (AKA non-requested romantic relationships)

angst without a happy ending or at least some kind of resolution

infidelity

pandemic stuff

underage relationships, non-canon children

terminal illness

GHOST TRICK: PHANTOM DETECTIVE

Alma

Cabanela

Jowd

Emma

As always I’m really really feeling my OT3 love, so any amount of goodness with them would be great please and thank you. You can split them, you can write just two of them or one of them, that’s OK, as long as no infidelity is implied. I'm also OK with Cabanela being the world's most fantastically annoying yet fantastically wonderful friend to Alma/Jowd, if you'd prefer.

Or, if romance isn’t your bag, I'd love some Emma &! Jowd owes her big time in the new timeline... Cabanela schmoozing with her at a party in the old timeline could be interesting... Alma and Emma becoming friends is a friendship prompt of my heart!

BATEN KAITOS: ETERNAL WINGS & THE LOST OCEAN

Lyude

The Great Mizuti

Xelha

Worldbuilding

I would love some more worldbuilding here! Although I haven't played Origins (so please no spoilers there), I became very fond of this ridiculous crew and their weird, unique world... It would be a lot of fun to see Lyude getting adopted by Mizuti and her clan (I mean, he literally has no one and they no longer have a home. It's a match of the & variety!)

More worldbuilding would be awesome. Where DO they go after the end of the game? Xelha's got a lot of work to do with the other rulers to figure out logistics there... Xelha & Mizuti getting excited over new places would be cool! Xelha & Lyude could be interesting as Xelha finds herself in the place of giving advice on being a leader to Lyude...or, again, any X & Y + worldbuilding stuff would be really cool!

LIVE A LIVE

Cube

Li Kuugo

Tadokoro Akira

Takahara Masaru

I am so fascinated by the conceit of all these heroes having so little in common beyond being in the wrong place at the right time. It was very much a paradigm flip on what I THOUGHT was their connection and that's just freaking cool! So I would love some &s here. Any combination, although it doesn't have to be all of them, any kind of slice of life thing. The place where they find themselves in the end of the game isn't a place geared to build loving friendships but I'd love to hear how these manage it! Cube is just so loving and kind... Li has so much to learn about friendship and she is so alone... Akira has just come from a genuinely horrific place and needs some sweetness (He & Cube would be particularly good, come to think) and Masaru is just kind of a himbo but I think he & Li would have a lot to talk about. Plus I'm sure he'd love to spar with her and learn some moves! Or any other slice of lifely thing between any or all would be lovely.

I can't wait to see whatever you do! Thanks again for reading and see you at Yuletide!

[adventureofthedancinggirl]

Thoughts on Ch. 400 that no one asked for

I wasn't planning on posting my thoughts publicly because I don't feel like getting caught up in a bunch of fandom discourse but I have thoughts™. Spoilers and a disorganized brain dump of my thoughts below the cut.

Well, first off...hi, Hagakure. I mean, we all knew her becoming fully visible was inevitable and I like the concept of her being able to control her quirk in the future but the opening panel of this chapter was just super frustrating. Like, yes. We get it. Her hero "costume" is just being nude all the time because of her quirk. But seriously...she's 16. Can we skip the creepy fan service? It's obviously possible to cover her up and still imply that she doesn't have clothes on. Geez.

Other than that, I did like her and Aoyama's exchange - the way she realized that his quirk evolved, his plan to combine their quirks again to save everyone, her asking if he's okay because she knows his quirk hurts him, then the way Aoyama says that this is his last day as a UA student...like he's not expecting to survive this

But then instead of letting them have their moment of being heroes and saving everyone, we cut back to armored All Might and I'm just...bored.

I knew it wouldn't happen because of how spread out everyone is across the many battlefields and also because a lot of the kids are already down for the count but I would have liked AM's use of the laser at the end of the previous chapter to parallel Aoyama's intended "sacrifice" in the licensing exam when everyone saw it and came together to work as a team. But nope, no call to action, no big hero team up. And no, the fact that he's calling out the kids' quirks does not count. Almost all of them have been "blink and you'll miss it" appearances and others (like the invisible girl heat-resistant resin) don't even make sense.

Then there's panels with the random foreign civilians watching All Might's fight. First of all...La Brava was able to get this to stream world-wide? I guess that's kind of impressive, but...why? I mean, sure, we get some social commentary on how people are self-centered and don't care about things that they think don't affect them but is this random kid watching going to have some kind of wider symbolism in the story? Personally I think it would have made more sense if they had shown viewers in Japan who know what's going on and who are rooting for him, like back in the previous AM vs. AFO fight in Kamino.

Oh...glowing baby...I'm not even going to bother theorizing whether he stole the glowing baby's quirk or if he IS the glowing baby because I don't really care. Just let him rewind out of existence already. Unless...if he is the glowing baby and he rewinds out of existence, maybe all quirks will also disappear? At this point nothing would surprise me.

Yup. Stain's here. That's not a surprise. At least something is actually happening but I get the feeling we're going to spend way too much time on some kind of flashback to whatever he and All Might talked about when he met. Probably some backstory on what shaped his warped ideals, which in theory might be interesting but I don't think it's necessary and it would drag the pacing even more than it's already been dragged. Please don't try to give him a redemption arc.

So anyway, I went back and double checked 5 freaking chapters of this mech suit nonsense to be sure but yes, the Class 1-A quirk countdown just has 1 person left.

So I guess Bakugou's waking up soon. I'm hoping for something with the vestige world because it was hinted at way back in 362. We'll see how much longer it takes us to get there. It would make the most sense to cut to him at the very end of the next chapter but who even knows anymore.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Why Donnie, Once Again, is Not a Canon Thing.

Okay, let’s talk about Donnie. As I said yesterday, I get that the writers are teasing it pretty hard, but guys, it’s SOOO just a distraction.

I’m going to give you my thoughts on last week’s TTD, because it was very Connie-centric, along with the some of my fellow theorists’ thoughts here in a minute. But once again, everyone needs to stop freaking out about Donnie. The shippers believed (and many other ships feared) that ep 22 and the “tunnel of love” would be when Donnie went canon. I was never worried about it, but unlike other scenes in the past (i.e. the apple/reunion scene) which understandably encouraged the shippers, this tunnel scene was pretty much the biggest nothing-burger in the history of ships.

(With the possible exception of every time Caryl was going to go canon, according to the shippers. And…didn’t. 😏 )

I don’t mean to sound disrespectful. I have an ask in my inbox, which I haven’t answered yet, but I will (bear with me; there’s been a lot to post lately so I’m a bit behind on Asks) that accuses me of throwing shade at the Donnie ship. I’m sorry if it comes across that way. That isn’t my intention. As always, everyone is both welcome and entitled to ship whomever their heart desires. I’m just pointing out that it’s not going to go canon on the show. And we’ve been saying that since Connie first came on the scene.

Feel free to doubt me if you wish, but we haven’t been wrong yet, have we? And it just wouldn’t make any logistical sense to suddenly throw Daryl into a relationship with only 2 episodes to go and tons of stuff they have to cover before the end.  Just not gonna happen, my friends.

Now, as to the TTD and all the poles and everything, I have my suspicions about those. I’ll talk about them below, as will my theorist buddies. Keep reading. Overall, just know I’m not worried about this. Never have been. They’ve told us too many times in the show that that’s not where they’re going with it. And, low and behold, once again, they didn’t.

Here’s our discussion about other, recent, Donnie-related stuff.

@wdway:

In the beginning of the TTD episode Chris announced that they would be sharing the 5 most romantic moments in TWD. Apparently, it was some type of survey that's had been going on elsewhere online. This is just my guess that fans submitted what they thought were the most romantic moments and then they narrowed it down (still guessing) to the final 5. 

So, it wasn't known to everyone. It wasn't anything that had been announced previously on the ttd. I believe it was on a TWD site that a lot of people frequent but not everyone knew it was going on. No indication of how many people entered a romantic moment suggestion it was just, here's the results. 

There was no other talk of other possible romances for Daryl. There was no mention of Leah or Beth. Only talk of Carol and Connie. Seriously guys can you blame the viewership? 

Daryl carrying both out of Grady was an iconic moment but you would not call that romantic, heart breaking but not really a romantic moment. If no Bethyler submitted the intertwined fingers at the grave site or Daryl watching Beth at the piano or eye exchange "oh" moment at the table then there would be no Bethyl moment to vote for.

@galadrieljones:

I think you’re probably right. The bethyl fandom feels a bit diffused as well, like ppl ship it but aren’t as active online in big droves. Sort of related, but I’ve found a lot of ppl from other fandoms I’m in also ship bethyl but haven’t watched TWD in a while. It has a lot of crossover with certain other Desperately Tragic™ ships I partake in lol. So, I am also not really surprised there wasn’t a bethyl moment.

Even though like you said, Norman talked about Daryl having had feelings for Beth in season 4 in his origins episode, I think it would be kind of a major eyebrow-raiser for them to include a bethyl moment. People would immediately be like, “Ummmmmmmm is she coming back?” I can’t tell at this point whether that’s what they would want, or not. But I do know that if they want fans to start figuring things out, it will be highly orchestrated, and it won’t happen until they’re perfect and ready.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

I finally watched TTD and wanted to put some thoughts in about it. They suggested “designation 2” simply meant death, but I agreed with the Rick guy who said if they wanted to kill Connie, they would have just done it at the CW. They were clearly taking her somewhere else for some other purpose. But I thought the fact that they even suggested “death” might have been a hint that maybe people might have believed her dead, even if she wasn’t. And of course then AMC put in the option for the CRM, which is what everyone chose. I enjoyed seeing that, not only because clearly their hinting at the CRM story line, but because a good deal of the GA is now aware of and anticipating it.

They did mention Maggie looking for Hershel along the tracks being a parallel to her looking for Glenn in S4. It’s always nice when they confirm our thinking. ;D

Then Lauren Cohan said something about there being a lot of “accidental sentimentals” this season. By that, she meant accidental callbacks to things in earlier seasons. I literally laughed out loud at that. We all know nothing is “accidental” with AK and Gimple. But more than that, I’m pretty sure this was a practiced answer from Lauren. Who comes up with the phrase “accidental sentimentals” on the spot?

The thing that jumped out at me about the Daryl/Connie question was Lauren Ridloff’s answer. When they asked her directly, she kind of puttered around and said that Daryl and Connie were awkward together and are “not clear where they stand with each other.”

It’s kind of similar to what they said about Daryl not understanding his feelings for Beth back in S5. And I know that sounds like an argument for Donnie being a thing, but I don’t mean it to be. Back in S5, when they said this about Beth and Daryl, nothing went canon. It’s almost a sign that it WON’T happen. Or at least, in Bethyl’s case, not yet. And you might be able to argue for seasons down for Donnie…except that this is the final season and LR is heading off to film a different series and several films, so I don’t see her being on screen much with Daryl in the next year or three, even if her character survives the finale.

I also want to contrast this hemming and hawing and, “we don’t really know where we stand” with what they said on the TTD after Still. They literally raised a toast to “Daryl, and his girlfriend Beth.” So yeah. Once again, much like the “tunnel of love,” there’s just literally nothing going on here. I noted when Norman talked about the train scene being filmed out in the middle of nowhere, away from cameras. You talked about that, Ann.

Also, AK said Daryl and Carol are best friends and soulmates. She equated those two things. Which is important because she’s using it in a platonic soulmates way. They’ll always be BFFs. Mother/son or siblings. Whatever you want to call it. She talks about how they can even get really mad at one another, but then forgive one another and come back together and it’s not a big deal. So, just important to note that sometimes, when AK talks about soulmates, she’s not talking about romance.

Lauren Ridloff had a line when she was talking about Kelly. I think Chris asked her what Connie would have thought if she knew what was going on at the labor camp with Kelly or something. I didn’t write the entire thing down, but she said something about how it was a bad situation where people could be hurt or killed (referencing the three who tried to escape and were shot) and Connie would not have been happy if that happened to Kelly. It was just kind of the way she said it; the way she emphasized it, that made it feel like perhaps a clue to me. But I’m not sure to what. Maybe to either Connie or Kelly’s deaths? Idk. Like I said, just kinda stood out to me.

The only other note I had is that when AK was talking about Daryl becoming a parent these past seasons, it showed a picture of him sitting by the fire in Inmates with Beth. She’s not in the shot. It’s just him sitting there with his knees pulled up. But it still jumped out at me that they’d used a shot from a Beth scene. I still can’t decide whether it fits with the rest of the pics they used.

Maybe I’m reading too much into it. AK was talking about how Daryl came from a bad family background, so he’s trying to provide the stability for the kids that he never had. It showed scenes of him hallucinating Merle in Chupacabra, and a few others. And my first thought was that the scene from Inmates really doesn’t fit with those. Then again, he did open up to Beth about his father. And Merle. But those weren’t the scenes it showed either. Just the one from Inmates. Anyway, I’m rambling. Just something that caught my attention.

Again, I don’t think I have anything new to say about anything else. I agree with your analysis of the “top 5 romantic moments,” @wdway. If Bethylers had known, there would be a Bethyl moment there. But honestly, I don’t think even many Carylers knew. Sure, the Cherokee Rose moment was there, but it seems to me that if Carylers were choosing this, we would have seen either the hug after Terminus or the hug at the Cabin in S7 be in the top 5. Both of those moments, in the Carylers’ eyes at least, had more “romance” than the Cherokee Rose did.

Honestly, I can’t imagine the fandom at large choosing Aaron and Eric as one of the top 5 moments. I’m not saying it wasn’t sweet and sad, but it also wasn’t a romance that was showcased for the audience. They were already together when we met them, and the writers didn’t go too far out of their way to make us invested in the relationship. Eric’s death was more about Aaron’s grief than about the relationship itself. So yeah, I think the writers just chose some romantic moments to put in, and specifically steered clear of Beth and Daryl.

And what about the Donniers? I get that they could not have chosen the moment when Daryl freed her in this episode because the “poll” (if there really was one) was done before this episode aired. But still, we had him taking her hand a couple of seasons back when they were looking for Kelly. And the hug when they reunited, and he dropped the apple crate. The Donnie ship is arguable the most active ship right now because the writers are actually having moments of interaction between Daryl and Connie on the show. Are you honestly telling me all the Donniers knew about this poll and none of those moments made it into the top 5? But…Aaron and Eric, who died four years ago and whose relationship no one was super invested in, did? See what I mean?

ANYway. I think that’s about all I have. 

@galadrieljones:

Want to just write this down before I forget it because it really struck me, and I’ve never thought of it before. Per the note about the shot of Daryl from Inmates and becoming a father. Daryl and Beth’s arc in Inmates is short and brutal and the whole thing is about him following Beth and trying to find the kids. He is hopeless and numb all through the episode while Beth is taking charge and trying to get a rise out of him.

In that shot he’s just numbly sitting staring at the fire while Beth is telling him all the things that could be true and who could still be alive. Eventually, she goes off and he follows her, and she tells him to start tracking, which he does. They walk past the dead bunnies, and they see the squished grapes. 

Beth starts picking the grapes frantically saying that the kids will be hungry when they find them, grasping for hope. He hands her the bandana. They then track Lizzie, Mica, Judith, Tyreese, and Carol (tho they don’t know it at the time), out to the train tracks where they find all the carnage, including Luke’s shoe, and Beth breaks down crying, while Daryl remains yet emotionless.

So, the episode is really about them trying to find their children, who they ultimately determine to be dead, and Beth cries for the first time in a very long time, because she knows they have failed. It’s an echo of when Rick and Carl find Judith’s empty car seat in “After.” It’s just a horrifying failure. That might be why Angela chose that shot.

Also, this may be kind of…crass? Lol idk the word. But in the first shots of Inmates, we ofc see Daryl and Beth running from walkers. When they can’t run anymore, they fall to the ground and there’s this sexual imagery. I really don’t think I’m along on reading it that way lol. Anyway, this then gives way to them searching for their lost children. I don’t know if it’s foreshadowing. But it does feel like they’re a “family.” Same way that Tyreese, Carol, and the girls are a family, and Rick, Michonne, and Carl are a family.

I was also thinking, with Connie, they had this opportunity to make her disappear the same way Beth did, and to be a motivating factor for the spin-off, but her kidnapping becomes a nothing burger and Daryl and Carol rescue her in two seconds. Ultimately, I could never ship Donnie because tptb clearly don’t care about Donnie. They might use it to drum up ship wars, but the truth is, Daryl and Connie had chemistry in the beginning and easily could have become a romantic couple. Instead, they made LEAH. Why would they do that if Donnie were endgame? It makes no narrative sense.

In some ways, Connie seems like she was made to annoy Carylers, lol. That whole cave-in plot seems made to complicate things between Carol and Daryl, not Daryl and Connie. When Beth is taken, it’s about Beth and Daryl and nobody else. HE loses her. It’s not Carol’s fault. Wouldn’t it make sense for tptb to do this, like make the fandom look left, while they secretly ready the universe for Beth to return? Seems like something they’d do. The best plot twists are those that you never see coming, but when they do happen, you’re somehow not surprised.

I want to know like if Daryl has had these love options like Connie and Carol for all this time, like why did they feel the need to invent a villain with Beth’s hair in order to give him some sort of love story? Seems weird to me!!!!

@wdway:

Let me just say I was smiling the whole time. It was just so much a decoy kind of thing. Do you choose ship number one or ship number two? Well guess what there's a ship number three that the audience will eventually actually get.

@galadrieljones:

They are trolling, lol. I guess to me, I see that Daryl had never truly been able to love a woman since Beth. He’s had several chances. Connie was it. But it never happened. And she straight up disappeared, and it wasn’t him looking for her. He stopped looking.

@wdway:

Seriously, it was so easy to see through. Yes, they were stirring the two ships. But it made me if possible, feel even more confident about Bethyl.

@galadrieljones:

I’ve watched a lot of TV shows with epic ship wars and the Daryl ship wars aren’t even that hot because he hasn’t had any romantic contact with either Carol OR Connie. It’s all in the fans’ heads.

I mean ppl are so in denial about Beth because she was a teenager or whatever, but they at least HELD HANDS. He watched her sing, carried her on multiple occasions, stared at her with intensity, got drunk with her?? Looked at her like he still hasn’t looked at anyone. I know we’re all biased but I’m just stating the facts?? Like to a totally nonchalant outsider with no weird hang-ups about the age difference coming to the show for the first time (aka me two years ago) it was so clear to me that Bethyl was Daryl’s OTP.

@wdway:

Then they had a recording of AK talking about the relationship between Carol and Daryl. Nothing she has not already said in the past. She started out about them being friends and then saying soulmates and how they communicate with each other and sometimes that's involves they don't always agree but they love each other. Yes, she actually used the word love. But that is so surface, she has said that so many times before and it's all true. But she never said romantic love.

@galadrieljones:

I always love Angela’s Caryler trolling lol

@wdway:

Just a reminder that the powers that be in Daryl's origin story Daryl talked about having feelings for Beth. So, there's no fight here. Beth was not given as an option in this conversation tonight. She is going to be the prize no one knew was coming. Except for like several hundred thousand Bethylers, haha.

@galadrieljones:

Still in love with Hilarie Burton for saying she shipped Bethyl to the dismay of everyone lol. And JDM in that one interview shouting “Beth’s still alive!” In the background. Best couple ever lol.

@galadrieljones:

I am just being belligerent now but the scene when Daryl watches Beth play piano while chewing his thumbnail off in inner-turmoil over how he could be in love with the farmer’s daughter is imho the most romantic moment of the series LOL.

@wdway:

If I wasn't sitting here smiling because I'm yelling option 3 then I would be concerned, too. I just cannot convey how relaxed I am about it. Tonight was a little over the top to the point that there's no way it's going to be either of these people because they would never lead you down the path of it going to be one or the other. It's going to be that Decoy. That 3rd choice that the general audience does not even realize is out there, yet.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Couldn’t agree more!

@wdway:

The way I see it is they are bringing up (officially pointing) to the fact that Daryl has not had a True Romance. They're planting the seed. They're indicating that the series is coming to an end. And we already know that the episode that will air next week episode 22 there is absolutely nothing there between Daryl and Connie. We have not seen any sign of romance between Daryl and Carol. Yes, they are setting up the thought of Daryl and romance. That's what I was smiling about.

 twdmusicboxmystery:

I’ll leave it there. I think you all the get the idea. Thoughts?