#this ask made my week for real though

[patrice-bergerons]

Omg I soo agree with u on most points! (Esp the q whump and the bond is a bastard one. There have been fics I've read 20k of and dropped because I was like this bond is entirely too stable. He needs to messier and sader. As for q whump, yeah like. Sometimes it just meanders into stereotypes and suddenly q is helpless like... ugh. fanon in general has a tendency to neatly relagate Q to the brains and bond to the brawn, in a manner of speaking and it's lowkey annoying.)

Other than that, I agree with sticking to a few authors fr.

Personally tho... I like fics where bond is miserable hffjjd. I'm here to watch him suffer but not in the like misery porn spectre way if that makes sense. Like if something happens (ahem ahem DRILLS TO THE SKULL AHEM.) then it needs to have a consequence. Canon already has too much misery porn with 0 consequences and I'm tired of it. I want to see the toll these movies take on him! He's messed up! I like fics that address his issues like his alcohol dependence and ofc... his relationship with M. She had such an interesting relationship and dynamic with him and I'm always dying to see more of it. In general, more of his life outside of his whirlwind romance, or lack thereof.

I'm a hypocrite tho, I'll read pretty anything provide it's like. Not Vesper hating. I despise vesper hate she's perfect and if she did something wrong no she didn't.

Jokes aside I hate 00q fics where vesper, or mostly as it happens, Madeline is suddenly a terrible person for no reason other than the author wanted 00q togther. That doesn't need to happen relationships can just. Not work out it's fine. Madeline doesn't need to be evil and working for spectre.

I do like those time travel aus where someone meets the past versions of their friends/partner a lot tho. I want nttd!q to meet cr!bond and go oh wow I can't believe he was worse. How did M deal with him. I should write this actually.

- vl (I'm singing my asks if u don't mind.)

Anon you made SO MANY excellent points in one ask, I wanted to give you the response it deserves and then...work got massively in the way rip. So here we are a week later, with my sincerest apologies.

You are spot on with all of your points. I also find it extremely annoying when fanon relagates Q to the brains and Bond to the brawn because they are both so much more than those neat stereotypes - hell, them figuring this out is a whole Skyfall subplot.

Which is to say, absolutely yes to a Bond who is intelligent and also miserable, because so much of his glamourous lifestyle of sex and fast cars and martinis seems like a facade. Like just because he is not wearing his pain on his sleeve doesn't mean it's not there you know? (Also- Bond and gender performance can make for a whole essay on its own). Here it must also be noted your "bond is entirely too stable" line took me out - hard same though, I know exactly what you mean!

Also HARD SAME re actions needing to have consequences. This, I think, is precisely what sets CR-Skyfall apart from Spectre, and even NTTD, because when Vesper dies or M's orders gets Bond shot, or even when Le Chiffre tortures Bond, we see what it does to him and we go on that journey with him through the pain and come out some place new. Which is entirely missing in Spectre, whether physically with the skull drills or - my God - emotionally for what Blofeld being Bond's foster brother means. Argh!

It also makes me so happy to hear you always want more M & Bond content because that is also the relationship that makes me go absolutely feral and I love it when other people are there for it too. 💖

Lastly yes!!! absolutely yes! re fics that unnecessarily hate on Vesper or Madeleine - although let's face it, Vesper gets more of a free pass because she doesn't commit the unforgivable crime of not dying. when you say "relationships can just. Not work out it's fine" that's it, i could not put it better.

As for a time travel au where nttd!q meets cr!bond both the sheer angst AND crack potential is off the charts - you should absolutely write it!