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oviids · 4 years

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pls share some of your spn fic recs 🥺🥺

ok, a few things first:

followers and mutuals who do not have supernatural brainworms, kindly avert your eyes

i don’t normally rec or even read much fanfic any more but this is a CRISIS ok (cont.)

there is so. much. content for deancas out there and i have incredibly high standards, several ancient ao3 bookmarks, can speedread, and want to spare you guys the experience of wading through it all.

i also have a section for spn femslash since I was pretty into that back in the day (sadly a lot less fan content for this :/)

I don’t really like au’s or pure smut (I honestly usually just skim or skip those scenes) so if you’re mainly looking for that kind of thing this probably won’t be very helpful to you. jsyk.

i’m not great at describing stuff but i’ll do my best, i’ll also try and add tw’s when neccesary.

i wil try and keep updating this with any other decent fics i find, feel free to rec stuff too since i’m like 7 years behind.(edit 1/25/21) this is getting looooong so i’m going to start making another list on my spn blog rather than update this one

(edit 1/3/21) since this has gotten pretty long i’ve added rating/approximate word counts and marked my particular favorites with an asterisk.

Dean/Cas fic:

So Says The Sword*** - explicit/85k. FUCK its good...au/time travel where dean is not pulled out of hell by cas and says yes to becoming the michael sword. honestly could serve as an alternative to actually watching the show, if you want to get into dean/cas without actually doing that to yourself.

Fata morgana.* - teen/6k, pst s9 finale. very bela centric and i love it, she finds cas looking for dean in hell.

Redemption Road -misc/600+k. an incredibly long fic from a collaborative writing group back in the day. canon divergent from the end of s6 on, has a cool take on godstiel and the leviathans, as well as the lovecratian mythos connection. ngl when i reread it i only made it about 28% in but imo the casual reader can actually stop around there, the rest concerns a lovecraftian apocalypse that is still good (i think i don’t remember it very well) but not required to enjoy the first half. if you prefer i have an ebook version i can send you on gdrive.

Someone Who's Feeling For Me* - mature/45k, s12. they run into lisa braeden and dean thinks cas is into her while cas thinks dean still likes her. treats lisa way better than the show ever did and the miscommunication is pretty funny rather than annoying.

a turn of the earth - mature/95k. time travel fic where cas from s10 keeps showing up in deans life from a few years before s1 to right before the hellhounds take his soul. slow burn, good character study, and at one point cas punches the dad in the face and it rules.

On the Wings of War - teen/85k, canon divergent s5. dean accidentally becomes the Horseman of War. plays fun, fast and loose with biblical lore, michael has some rights.

Named - mature/95k, alternate s5. EXTREMELY blasphemous in a fun sexy way. manages to predict metatron almost to a T. there’s one major character death and its literally jesus christ, everyone is very sad about it and it sets the rest of the story rolling. an alternate interpretation of cas’ mission to raise dean from hell which had me on the floor. ngl its kind of misogynistic at points, but its from 2010 and tracks with late oughts-2010 spn (sorry anna the author did you dirty here:/).

The Girlfriend Experience - explicit/15k. uhhh i don’t normally rec or even read smutty stuff unless someone i know is specifically asking for it but this has stuff like sam trying to be a good ally and dean thinking holding hands with cas is ‘kinda gay :/’ minutes after having gay sex with him.

i crippled your heart a hundred times - explicit/19k, s8. cas confesses his feelings and dean spends a long time getting his head out of his ass about it. truly hits different after the actual confession, despite being written six years early it feels like its actually what could have gone down more or less if the writers weren’t talentless demons who hate us.

My Roots Take Flight** - mature/125k. reverse au where cas is a hunter and dean’s an angel...OR IS IT???? an alternate retelling of s4. tw for briefly being set in a psychiatric hospital/the hospital being mentioned somewhat frequently throughout the fic, plus more references to torture in hell and heaven than usual.

The One Thing You Can't Lose* - teen/4k.you know those posts about how cas is a super-strong super-tough ancient warrior but he just lets dean tug him around because he likes it? thats it thats the fic.

Hands, From Which All Things Are Built - teen/14k, post s8′s ‘goodbye stranger.’ cas is on the run with the angel tablet but keeps in touch with sam and dean by text, he and dean still manage to be terrible at Actual communication.

Autrement, Danger - or, The Account of an Exceedingly Long Day - mature/30k, post s11. a monster that takes the appearance of your soulmate leads to some wild miscommunications and dealing with years of repression, also dean gets to see cas’ true form which is always cool. tw for non-graphic mentions of underage sexual assault/sex work.

Down to Agincourt - mature/explicit/900++++k, endverse continuation. endverse!cas survives his encounter with lucifer and discovers another time-displaced dean from s7. i’ve only read the two of four parts but its really good, veeeeery slow burn, has a lot of fun oc’s and takes a rather surprising but (imo) entertaining and intriguing turn into Hellenic history and mythology. usual tw’s for endverse/endverse!cas but nothing graphic, it’s actually pretty light-hearted (relatively speaking of course).

Nothing Equals the Splendor** - explicit/8k, THEE finale fix it fic you’ve been waiting for! posits that the entire final episode was just a (very bad and lame) djinn’s vision.

like moses and batman and james dean - explicit/31k, post s8. explores dean’s trauma and internalized homophoba from his technically canon experience with sex work and its impact on his relationship with cas. the sex work itself isn’t really shown in any detail but it’s still a relatively heavy fic.

Crazy Diamonds - explicit/25k, s4/alternate s14. fresh-out-of-hell dean and dean from 10 years in the future are displaced from time and sent to each other’s present.

where the weeds take root - explicit/30k. au where the men of letters kick them out of the bunker and they accidentally move out into the country, get over their codependence and semi retire. featuring chicken coop building, sam volunteering at a dog shelter, gardening, and blissfully mundane domesticity.

No Resting Place - teen/6k. djinn dream fic, switches back and forth between cas’ dream of being married to dean and retired from hunting to the aftermath when he wakes up. tw for brief mention of suicide since, y’know, djinn dream.

any port in a storm - mature/52k. post s8 finale. cas and dean have to pose as a couple going through a rough patch for a case and actually deal with their emotional baggage, cas struggles with being human and metatron is up to stuff.

all this and heaven too* - explicit/7k. in the author’s own words ‘...a love letter to every trans person who ever projected onto Dean Winchester.’ absolutely unzipped me emotionally and theologically, its just. so good. tw for very brief mentions of internalized transphobia/dysphoria.

Because it is* - mature/6k, finale fix it. killing chuck does not bring back anyone back and the winchesters spend a very long time dealing with what they’ve lost, cas and dean SOMEHOW still manage to have signifigant communication issues even after the confession. tw for suicidal thoughts/brief attempt.

Vena Amoris and Other Old-Fashioned Bullshit* - teen/4k, s6. when cas fell for dean it automatically soulbonded/angel married them, shenanigans ensue when dean finds out during the angel’s civil war. funny and actually written back when s6 was airing so cas is still (or at least pretending to be) kind of an OP asshole which is fun.

Rinse, Repeat - teen/3k, s8. angsty character study of cas as he’s reprogrammed and trained to kill dean. not really dean/cas since its just cas’ pov of canon events but its beautifully written and ends with him snapping out of it through the power of love (also now a canon event!).

Emergence - explicit/59k, canon divergent after s11. dean meets a hunter he only recognizes as their friend claire novak’s missing father, but soon realizes he might be the answer behind the mysterious void in his memories and feelings (aka everyone’s memories of cas are completely wiped away for three years).

Cuckoo And Nest - explicit/10k, early established relationship/character study, cas tries to figure out how he fits into dean’s life and space in the bunker.

Build a Home* - teen/20k, canon divergent s12. sam and eileen are cute and turn the bunker into men of letters/hunters hq and everyone but cas moves in, mutual miscommunication issues and pining ensues.

Down in the River - teen/5k, early s8, cas prays to dean in purgatory while sam and dean try to figure out a way to get him out.

Teaching Poetry to Fish* - mature/52k, ?? BC through the entire series/canon divergent s14 and 15. retelling of crucial scenes throughout the shows timeline from cas’ pov, feat. actual fish and poetry.

the minor fall, the major lift - gen/4k, post confession/finale fixit. dean goes into the empty to save cas and runs into several old friends (and enemies).

With the Kisses of His Mouth* - teen/3k, gen later seasons. dean and cas keep kissing by accident.

Remaining Grace - explicit/109k, alternate s6. au where cas asks dean for help with raphael and dean, of course, does. tw for temporary major character death/semi-graphic depictions of alcohol withdrawal.

The face of heaven.* - teen/10k, au, dean is a regular guy and cas is a fallen star (think ‘stardust’, kinda).

Stories Are Made of Mistakes* - teen/5k. newly human cas has trouble getting used to a human body and humanity in general, but still figures out that he and dean are A Thing before dean does.

Hurry Up And Wait - mature/21k, canon divergent s12. a fairyland and quite possibly LOTR related case comes up and dean goes full fanboy, mary is introduced to the wonders of the peter jackson adaptions, many references and comparisons (including between cas and dean’s ‘friendship’ and arwen/aragon). also charle is still alive and has just been doing fairy stuff this whole time.

There Are Many Things - explicit/28k, s9. cas is extremely lonely/touch-starved and trying to figure out this whole human thing, as well as where he and dean stand after being kicked out of the bunker.

It's A Long Life to Always Be Longing - teen/40k, post s11 finale. amara helps dean by putting him in a magical coma so he can finally get some much needed rest and show him possible futures for him, sam and cas. meanwhile sam and cas go on a roadtrip (or several) to find componets for a spell to wake dean up. really good sam and cas friendship, they actually talk about their shared lucifer trauma and stuff.

Non-Photo Blue - gen/2k, s4/5/alternate s5. fifty moments from cas’ memories of dean.

Tall Grass - explicit/57k, canon divergent post series. cas becomes the ultimate plant dad. feat the wayward sisters gang, cathartic character growth, fun oc’s, domesticity, and lots of actual botanical info-dumping.

on vessels - no rating/gen/2k. established dean/cas, cas tells dean about how he used to imagine what it would be like to have him as his vessel.

search for tomorrow on every shore* - teen/11k, post-finale (extremely derogatory). some angels in jack’s new heaven act out and dean gets temporarily resurrected in 2003 and runs into his younger self.

Architecture of the Minotaur’s Heart - explicit/45k, very canon divergent post s1. dean’s new house seems to have a life and mind of its own, while in his dreams he sees glimpses of a world and apocalypse that never came to be and an angel that looks strangely like his mysterious neighbor, cas. loosely inspired by the book house of leaves (which i highly recommend for fans of weird horror).

The Distance Of The Setting Sun - explicit/17k, post s5. established dean/cas relationship, team free will finally takes advantage of cas’ abilities to go on vacation around the world.

diamond star halo - teen/5k, s11. dean lets cas use him as a temporary vessel while he recovers from rowena’s spell, sam is a long-suffering third-wheel.

Make Known** - teen/16k, s6/7. dean struggles to understand how cas could have become his enemy and whether he ever truly knew him in the first place.

blunt little instrument* - mature/1.4k, post finale. dean finally confronts his father in heaven, very cathartic.

my heart a compass*** - teen/10k, post confession. the empty forces cas to re-experience his most regretted moments while dean tries to snap him out of it and bring him home.

A Crash Course in Someone Else's History - teen/11k, s6. cas from the very start of s4 is brought forward in time by s6!cas to distract the brothers from his and crowley’s plans.

The Cuckoo Father - mature/8k, s7 au. the woman who found cas in the river post-leviathans does not marry him bc he was sent to her by god or whatever, but actually identifies him as jimmy novak and sends him back to claire and amelia.

The Dead Dean Clause* - teen/5k, post alt s5 ending. team free will celebrates surviving taking down lucifer by getting blitzed, cas lies to a cop and gets an impromptu driving lesson. title/description sound dark i know but it’s actually very funny and light.

Suck It, Judy Garland - mature/20k, s12 (after the ‘i love you...i love all of you’ episode). cas and sam have to pretend to be a couple for a case and dean is NOT happy about it.

By Daylight and In Dream - teen/16k, s5. pre-dean/cas, dean invites cas to use his dreams to hide from the other angels. tw for very brief mention of a memory/dream of alastair sexually assaulting dean.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven - mature/22k, post-canon. an actually happy (if sometimes bittersweet) heaven endgame written several years ago, though some details are rather eerily similar to the show’s ending.

heaven is a place on earth* - teen/2k. dean’s pov of some of the times cas left him behind throughout the show, and one alternate ending where he finally gets to stay.

I Cleanse The Mirror - teen/20k, alternate s6. dean’s body is stolen by an ancient elemental and his soul has to hitch a ride in cas’ vessel.

an exploration of gender; angelic*** - mature/4k. *oscar isaac voice* lets get into angel gender politics!! aka cas is trans.

Zenith - explicit/33k, s9. after 9x06 an angry witch curses cas with the ability to see supernatural beings and human souls.

La cucina. - gen/3k, alt s9. dean goes wild helping a newly-human cas find out what kinds of food he likes, or the early s9 domesticity we deserved!

Dean Winchester, Cocksucker at Rest***** - teen/7k, post-finale. john and mary finally come over for dinner and john reacts to dean/cas in a rather predictable fashion. SOOOOOOOOO good omg, its so funny and a little sad and very very cathartic. part of a series that has a few other really good short fics.

The Way You Didn't Go - teen/5k, s15. coda to 15.09, dean has nightmares about the moc!cas timeline.

On Drowning - teen/28k. dean saves cas after he nearly drowns, they both try and deal with the physical/mental fallout (aka the fic where thee iconic “you only touch me when you think I’m dead or dying” originates). tw for realistic depictions of drowning/triage/misc medical information.

The Thirty-Six Questions That Lead to Love* - mature/13k. claire has dean and cas pretend to be her gay dads for a case and they play the titular 36 question game, get mistaken for swingers, and birdwatch, among other things.

Assorted F/F stuff:

Deep Breaths* - mary/ellen, au where mary said no to azazel’s deal and let john stay dead, still becomes a milf.

Like Rebel Diamonds - krissy/claire, they become hunter gf’s on the hunt for cas to kick his ass for taking jimmy. not-so-stealth dean/cas as well.

To Ash and Bone - anna/ruby, same author as the previous fic (p much all of her stuff is good from what i recall). au where ruby is a witch and helps anna when she’s cursed.

Holy Clockwork Angels - jo/ruby, STEAMPUNK au with very cool worldbuiilding.

At Day's End - jo/anna (my fucking KINGDOM for more jo/anna content, the dean/cas parallels are allllll there), au where they are both at the camp in the endverse and gfs.

these posts - ok so not actually a fic but i’m now obsessed with this hannah/meg dynamic.

Tagelied - mary/ellen, the true story of how ellen got into hunting before angels interfered.

Hell's Bells** - meg/abaddon, alternate s8/9 where meg survives crowley’s attack with sam’s help and teams up with abaddon (who she has a sk year old crush on) to take back hell.

The Ecstasy of the Rose - anna/ruby, anna travels back in time to escape heaven and becomes a signifigant part of ruby’s old human life.

Angel Underground - anna/jo, kind of an urban fantasy au with a very intriguing premise (sadly its very short, i’d love to see more if this ‘verse).

Clover, Flame - billie/mary, billie was always the reaper that showed up to take mary after her death(s) over the years.

Drag Me To Heaven - anna/ruby, a variant on the ‘last night on earth’ thing with dean.

Come Home* - jo/anna, canon-divergent au where anna is the new waitress at the roadhouse and helps jo set up a (probably not really) haunted house for halloween.

#if you told me i'd be doing this in 2020 three weeks ago i'd have laughed in your face :/#deancas #supernatural #fic recs #spn femslash #destiel #fic #the alie tag #spn posting

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rahleeyah · 3 years

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When do you think Elliot fell in love with Olivia? I can never truly pinpoint when Liv did. There’s a couple spots starting from s1 on when I’m like “yeahhhhh she’d happily date him if he didn’t have a family”. But Elliot? I don’t think that happened to him for a bit. (This is my theory, but really curious what you think!? I love hearing everyone pinpoint when they think it happened because I love talking about love sick Elliot 🤣)

My theory? After Alex got shot/finding out she was alive and in Witness Protection. S1-4, they’re pretty close but definitely not overly close like they were in the end (besides the s1 touches). I think after Alex got shot and the fact that she got shot while she was with them, really fucked them up so Elliot spent that first night with Olivia. After leaving the hospital that night, he brought her home and just never left and they mourned quietly together. And then finding out she was in Witness Protection? I think they spent a solid week together hashing it all out after because who else were they going to talk about it with??? And we learn later they really didn’t tell a SOUL. (As they shouldn’t have but also (as me and my best friend call them, husband privileges) wouldn’t have been surprised if they did.)

And I think that started it all. And then sometime in the last two episodes of season six, I think they hang out a lot. Because they have no one to go home to! They have no one to help remind them there is something else in the world besides this job! So they talk to each other because they understand what they are going through but also it helps them connect with the world again. And they go to each other’s places and sit at the counter or on the couch with some beers and they spend their nights just talking. Sometimes they chill at a diner and then suddenly it’s been four hours. And they learn a lot about each other. (I’m reminded of your post where you talk about how they stand on separate sides of issues but they have some of the same core values, I think this is when they really learn a lot about each other is during s7)

And then Fault makes him realize that. And THAT’S what gets him. I think Elliot always knew how much he cared about Olivia, even before then. That he knew if there was a situation it would be hard because really he cared for her so much even before he loved her. I think they probably thought of each other as best friends starting late s4/early s5. (If not earlier honestly. Season 2 wouldn’t be a stretch. Maybe even late s1.)

But when Elliot picked Olivia over Ryan? When the panic that had gone up his spine is more about her falling to the ground than not getting to Ryan in time? THAT’S what scares him. Because his love for her had slowly intertwined its way through his entire being unknown until he thought he would never have it again. And he can’t believe he never even noticed it.

This is a question we've had before but this time I have just got up to s12 in my rewatch and i have had more time to think about 1.0 and i wanna come at it again

first off, i love your take about all this hitting him post Alex. I think that's the premise for a damn good fic tbh. Just digging into all those feelings bc the three of them had a special bond and now Alex is gone, and this show doesn't kill a lot of mains, like there's a lot of collateral damage but they don't kill a lot of fan favorites, so a lot of the people close to eo haven't actually died - and of course Alex isn't actually dead but they don't know that initially - so it's more realistic that they'd be devastated to lose their friend, and Liv doesn't have anybody to go to, and El's marriage is on the rocks, and yeah. that's fucking perfect.

there are moments where I think Elliot's mask starts to slip. in 2.0, when he's in the middle of his HIV scare and Liv asks him to go out for a drink and he says no and she says see you tomorrow and he says you will all warm and reaches for her, there is a softness in him, there is something knowing in him. her heart is in her eyes, her fear for him, her desperation not to lose him, and he reacts to that with aching fondness and physical touch. it's notable to me bc they have stopped touching so much, after the s1 love fest. but he goes home to kathy.

there's the end of s4, when she comes to him, turns up at his door, and they have a heart to heart; the difference is you can walk away, and no I can't. I think he is trying, then, to save her, bc he can see how the work is killing her and he doesn't want her to burn out, and there is a quiet, familiar intimacy to them in that moment that feels heavy.

but really I don't think he has it in him to actually consider her as anything other than a friend until Kathy leaves in s6. He cares for her, she is important to him, she is the other half of him, but he is too focused on be a good man, be a good husband, be a good father, I don't think he can spare the breath to want her, whether he could articulate it to himself or not. but then Kathy is gone, and I can't pinpoint the exact moment but everything shifts. the trapdoor has just given way beneath their feet.

I think we all agree that Fault is the lightbulb moment, for both of them. That is the point at which they cannot ignore it, cannot hide from it, cannot pretend that the connection between them is anything other than what it is. they both know, in that moment. Gitano's gun to Elliot's head, and Liv can't pull the trigger, they are stripped bare right in front of each other's eyes. He knows he loves her, and chose her over Ryan. And she knows she loves him, and chose him over Rebecca. But in that moment they both see the other's love, too. He sees her love of him. She has seen his love of her. They are exposed.

But they button it back up; Liv leaves him and maybe they could have gone for something more but he can't do the job without her and she doesn't want to do the job without him and she comes back, and when she sits down at her desk she is saying i am here to do the job with you, and that means that the rest of it, the love has to be put aside. they have to choose which side of the coin they get, home or work, love or partnership, and they choose the job.

But the love is there, now, and it keeps rearing its head, over and over until he snaps and leaves. They can't hide from it.

I watched intentionally trying to pinpoint a Moment, but no great revelation came to me as a specific point at which it became clear that it was love. It's just. one day you look up and it's there, and it's like it's been there all along.

I was in the middle before I knew I had begun.

#anonymous

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lilydalexf · 3 years

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Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Circe Invidiosa

Circe Invidiosa has 11 stories at Gossamer, but there are even more X-Files stories at her website. Some of my favs I’ve recced here before, like Make It Worse and Slap a Goatee On Me and Call Me Evil. She also made a bunch of X-Files collage art, including some cover art for fics (hers and others), which you probably saw if you were reading fic back when authors posted fics on their own websites where art could be shared. Big thanks to Circe Invidiosa for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

Well, it would surprise me if people did read my fic. As it happens, I don't hear much feedback from my fic these days. Probably because the bulk of it is on Gossamer and my own site rather than AO3. Also, I was never a BNA. I worked a lot behind the scenes – hosting other authors' sites and making fanart and dustjackets. I think that's what I'd be remembered for, if anything.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience?

I miss the collective excitement and discussions we had as groups. When you got in with a group in the XF fandom, you felt like you knew everybody there. Now the fandom feels a little faceless except for the people I still follow from my old groups.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

Most of my experience was on Yahoo Groups. I joined Scullyfic while it was still there and then E-muse when it became an e-mail list, which I'm still a part of. I was part of several Yahoo Groups (can't remember all of them now), where I'd post my fic, RealPlayer slideshows (remember those?!), and collages. I never really took part in discourse because I'm shy and don't think anyone cares about my opinions (still don't!). The e-mail address I used for those groups was purged a couple of years ago, so I've lost all those messages.

What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?

My take away is that fanfic made me a better writer, thanks to having some great betas, and it made me a better professional writer for it (my real-life work is writing but not fun writing) because I learned to take criticism.

I also used to make a lot of fanart, collages and dustjackets for fic mostly. My big take away from that was that I really got into graphics and I got super proficient at Photoshop, which helped my own artistic endeavours and photography. I didn't realize how much skill I had developed until I've had to help someone with their graphics or photo editing.

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

My mother was watching X-Files before I was and she was raving about it. I don't have a great relationship with my mom, but one thing she was usually right about was TV shows. It's where I got my love of Sci-Fi.

I think the first episode I watched was Ice, which definitely hooked me. As for when the shipping started, I remember we were watching Lazarus, and when Mulder was yelling at Lula (I had to look that up) about hurting the hostage Scully, my mom said, "Oh, he's so in love with her." And I was all, "What?! Pfff." But then I could not stop thinking about it. And then I thought about it way, way too much.

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

I was in my late 20s, and it was around the end of S7 and I kept thinking about what if these two dumb idiots actually talked one day. And I kept thinking about dialogue in my head about what they'd actually say. The internet was still in its infancy back then, but I'd seen fan sites here and there. So I decided to search around to see if other people were talking about it and thinking about it like I was. I was such a noob I'd never even heard of fanfic. Imagine my delight when I discovered it. I found a few stories and thought, 'Well, I can do that.' And I wrote up my first story, found a place to post it (wasn't Ephemeral the best?), got some kind feedback, found a really nice person (not sure she wants to be named since she used her real name in the fandom back in the day) who encouraged me a lot and directed me to all the e-mail lists and Yahoo Groups that I needed to be on, and then, Bob's your uncle, I wrote more and more.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

Periphery. Most of my experience in any fandom is now on Tumblr because that's where my attention span is. Show me pretty pictures and funny stuff. I am old now and don't want to think hard.

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

Veronica Mars was my next fandom experience. A number of my XF friends got me hooked on VM. The VM fandom was a LOT younger compared to the XF fandom. When I joined the XF fandom, I was the kid compared to most of the other fans who were all goddesses and royalty in my eyes. But in the VM fandom, I was in my 30s and the rest of the fandom were all in their early 20s if not younger. It often showed, so I stayed out of discussions and just posted my fic once I started writing it. I took a new handle (invida) when I started writing VM fic. Just in case these kids felt like my writing sucked, I didn't want it getting back to the XF fandom that I’d branched out and failed spectacularly.

By then fandom experiences had moved over to LiveJournal. I never really got involved in the discourse or the fandom fights. I knew what people were saying and where the schisms were, but I was all about the fanfic and the pretty pictures. Most of my LJ friends just discussed the episodes and posted their fic and that was good with me.

What got me writing fic for VM was Anjou's brilliant VM fic Into the Blue. Seriously, if you love VM S1, read her fic. Just so beautiful.

VM was also where started writing a WIP, which was a wild trip. I wrote a much-loved WIP called Damn, Damn the Circumstance which people still ask me about finishing to this day. Someday…*wistful sighs*

Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why?

Scully. She was everything! Lapsed Catholic, degrees in science, skeptic, always trying to work within the rules but still not taking crap. Yeah, she was the best.

Veronica Mars was great until she wasn't. I have a lot of issues with her beyond S2. And don't even talk to me about S4. For me, S1 was the best, I enjoyed the movie, the books were okay, but nothing else happened after that. NOTHING.

And the first character I ever loved was Princess Leia. She was also everything to me growing up. I wanted to be her. I still do.

Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

Now and then. Not as much as I used to. I sometimes have it on in the background when I'm doing other things. Back before the pandemic, my BFF and I would have get togethers where we would play Scrabble, eat a lot of candy, and binge several XF episodes. I miss doing that. Hopefully, we will get back to that soon.

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

I am not an active XF fanfic reader right now. I will read any stories my friends put out. Otherwise, I only occasionally read some I come across on Tumblr in my feed, but I am not seeking them out. I will beta for any XF author who asks me as well.

I am reading fic in other fandoms though – Endeavour, Broadchurch, Sherlock…huh, I'm just realizing that's a lot of British stuff. I have been really into British detective series for the last few years.

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

I used to run an XF fic recommendation site called How Will It End usually with at least one other person (I went through at least 4 partners on that project because I'm a control freak). We'd compile our recs and then I'd post them on my site. We'd also feature authors we really liked and interview them. Not unlike these interviews!

I'm terrible at giving feedback/comments. So I solved that problem by making a rec site. That way I could tell authors I loved their fics by recommending them. I didn't have to comment, I'd just say, 'I'd like to rec your fic'. And then they'd get promotion. Win-win. Back in those days, the fandom would absolutely roast you for promoting your own fic, so to get on a rec site was a big deal. Not that I had a popular rec site or anything. But I think authors really enjoyed being asked.

All that to say I've liked a lot of fics. I can pull up the archives of HWIE and show you all the faves I liked. :)

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

Back in the day, E-muse would hold Improv Challenges, where other members would give you a prompt that you had to include in your fic. I was always really proud of the stories I created from those challenges (No Earthly Means and Elephant in the Room if you want to read them).

I enjoyed writing Dead to Rights which is an XF/Dead Like Me crossover because I loved the challenge of writing a crossover. It was the first crossover I ever tried writing even though I only recently published it.

Otherwise, I like re-reading In a Graveyard, Importuning Life for Life, and Some By Virtue Fall. Of my more recent fic, I like Slap a Goatee on Me and Call Me Evil because the premise was ridiculous and I think it's funny as all get out.

Probably my favourite of my VM fic was Stay Outta Riverdale. Because: 1. The title is a Simpsons reference who doesn't love a Simpsons reference? And 2. I think I was hilarious throughout it.

Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

I'm always open to writing more fic (and, of course, I don't mean my WIPs…don't look at me like that). Lately, my only motivation has been from writing prompts on Tumblr. I haven't had anyone give me a prompt in over a year, so here we are. I have snippets of dialogue in journals and word documents that have never found their way into stories. I'd be happy to dust off any of those and shoehorn them into a new story.

Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work?

The last fanfic I wrote was a mini-fic over a year ago (with a prompt from Lilydale!). I've written a bit of original fiction but I haven't been able to finish it. Otherwise, I do have a number of real life hobbies which are where my creative outlets lie now.

Where do you get ideas for stories?

Lately, challenges and prompts. It used to be from wanting to see more from a scene. I really had a thing for fill-in-the-blanks or scene continuations. And sometimes my motivation is just plain old spite. :)

What's the story behind your pen name?

Circe Invidiosa is the title of a painting by John William Waterhouse. Love the colours and the absolute malice on the face of the subject. It felt like a good pen name – the envious witch. That's me!

I chose it when I posted my first XF fic (which I cringe to read now, ugh so terrible) without knowing there was already a Circe in the fandom. Whoops. I tried to go by the full Circe Invidiosa or Invidiosa as much as possible after realizing that (invidiosa is my url and my username on a lot of sites, etc.). Now I think that I've been around long enough that it doesn't matter as much but I still like it.

As I said, I took the name Invida for the VM fandom which is just a shortening of Invidiosa.

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?

My significant other knows and that was quite a reveal (oh how awkward). However, the SO has been very supportive and has read all my stories since the reveal and sometimes betas them. The SO also wants us to collaborate on writing some original fiction but we haven't found a project that works for both of us creatively or timewise.

My BFF knows because I dragged her into the online fandom. We've known each other since we were 14, but our love of XF really solidified our bond in our 20s. She wrote some short but sweet fics under the penname Helen Quilley which I bullied her into posting, and we wrote Of Ladies Most Deject and Wretched together. She is mostly embarrassed that she wrote fanfic now but we still fangirl together.

No one else really knows other than fandom folks I've met in real life. And some friends know I've written 'short stories' but I don't elaborate. I work in a stodgy, uptight industry where anything fun or actually having a life is frowned upon.

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

Over the first lockdown, I got my shit together and got my fic site, invidiosa.com, up and running again. My site houses fic by Rain (now @doctorhelena on Tumblr and AO3), Helen Quilley, ML (who I miss so much), Folieadeux, Shelba, TLynn, Oracle, Piper Sargasso, Diehard, and me. And I made all their dustjackets (except Folie's). The site got hacked a few years back and it was so much work to get running again that I put it off for years and years. I still feel terrible that I did not get the site back up before ML passed away, especially when ML had asked me about it a few months before she passed.

Anyway, all my XF fic is here: circe.invidiosa.com. I have 3 of my newer XF stories on AO3. And my fic-LJ also has some of my stories. Some of the newer stories are on Tumblr but the tagging is so erratic that I'd have to list several tags before you'd find them all. I don't know why I haven't moved everything over to AO3. Probably laziness.

I'm @invidiosa on Tumblr. I'm still on E-muse. I'm still on LJ. I'm always reachable by e-mail (invidiosa at gmail).

Is there anything else you'd like to share with fans of X-Files fic?

Thanks for reading, writing, and commenting. It is always appreciated.

(Posted by Lilydale on January 5, 2021)

#new post #old school x #xfiles fanfic #xf fanfic #xf fanfic author interviews #circe invidiosa

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emetophobiahelp · 3 years

Text

Some warnings for South park (I specify that I have not seen the whole series so I will add things as I go)

Unsafe episodes:

S1 ep 1 "cartman get an anal probe" 8:41 and 13:58 and 14:03 and 15:15 and 20:23. All of these scenes are when Wendy is talking to Stan (common joke in the show)

S1 Ep 7 "pink eye" 20:30 Wendy talks to Stan and he v *

S1 Ep 13 "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut" 5:56 in flashback Liane (drunk) v *. 9:31 in another flashback a drunk man v *

S2 Ep 2 "Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut" 13:25 Stan v * when he sees the doctors operating on Kenny, later at 20:43 almost everyone in the room v * when Doctor Alphonse Mephesto reveals the identity from Father Catman.

S2 Ep 17 "gnomes" 6:48 and 7:14 Cartman v* because he drank too much coffee

S4 Ep 5 "cartman join nambla" 4:13 Kenny throws a bullet in his father's testicles and he v *. And 10:58 to 11:12 Kenny's father v * After drinking what Kenny to prepare for his mother and 12:57 to 13:11 Kenny's father v * After doing an attraction

S4 Ep 12 "trapper keeper" 12:54 the child who has just been released from the hospital v * his lung. 20:13 the monster (Cartman and the scrambler mixed) v *

S5 Ep 1 "It Hits the Fan" 4:48 and 7:16 and 11:53 and 21:34 several people v * their intestines

S5 Ep 4 "Scott Tenorman must die" 20:38 when Scott Tenorman finds out that he eats his own parents in Cartman's Chile, he v *

S5 Ep 9 "Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants" 9:43 the man vomits when he gets on the plane and smells Cartman's farts.

S6 Ep 1 "Jared has air" 6:42 and 6:47 and 7:04 Butters v * when he tries to eat when he's overeating.

S6 Ep 8 "red hot catholic love" 7:45 and 10:39 and 17:14 and 17:27 and 20:52 therefore and 20:36. In this episode Cartman finds a way to eat ass and shit through mouth and in this episode everyone shits through mouth. It's not really v * but it looks like it

S6 Ep 14 "The Death Camp of Tolerance" 21:08 mr Slave v * a gerbil

S7 Ep 13 "butt out" 3:57 when the 4 main characters smoke for the first time, Stan v * in his hands

S8 Ep 3 "the passion of the jew" 4:05 when Stan is at the cinema, he is shocked by the graphic violence of the film "the passion of the christ" and he v *

S8 Ep 6 "meet the jeffersons" 13:19 the policeman v * when he sees that Jefferson and if son is not black

S8 Ep 12 "stupid spoiled whore video playset" 1:23 and 1:48 and 3:05 and 8:30 and 8:33. In these scenes Paris Hilton v*. Also, I point out that Butters' parents spit out coffee at one point, but he doesn't.

S9 Ep 14 "bloody Mary" 3:46 Randy v*

when he takes the alcohol test at the police station. This is the only scene but during the whole episode Randy is drunk and may have thought that he is going to * but no, only this scene there.

S10 Ep 7 "tsst" 19:28 Cartman v * a black liquid when he is about to kill his mother and he realizes that he is not the center of the world (liquid which is probably evil in him).

S10 Ep 10 "miss teacher bangs a boy" 19:20 a man v * After being sprayed with tear gas by Cartman.

S11 Ep 13 "queer guitar-O" 16:09 the episode is a metaphor for the life of a star and Stan v * After playing too much "heroine hero" a metaphor for the heroine

S11 Ep 14 "the list" 21:43 Stan v * when he's on the bridge kissing Wendy

S12 Ep 3 "major boobage" 10:35 Kenny v * After Stan tells him to stop using drugs

S12 Ep 6 "over logging" 17:42 Randy watches porn where girls v* get in their mouths. Audio only

S12 Ep 9 "breast cancer show ever" 9:08 Cartman v * his slip

S12 ep 12 "about last night" 4:45 and 16:20 and 16:36 several people v * when they celebrate Obama's victory

S12 Ep 14 "the ungroudable" 14:02 Butters v* remembering the taste of tomato juice when he thinks it's blood

S13 Ep 5 "fishstick" 4:14 the TV presenter makes such a funny joke that somebody is laughing so hard

S14 Ep 2 "the tale of Scrootie McBoogerballs" 4:31 to 4:50 and 5:28 to 6:39 and 9:02 to 9:08 and 9:19 to 9:44 and 11:18 and 12:26 to 12:46 and 12:57 to 13:35 and 14:55. The 4 main characters write a disgusting book so that every time someone reads it they see v*

S15 Ep 12 "1%" 7:32 Cartman v * when he sees Clyde hanging on the tree

S19 Ep 1 "stunning and brave" 16:48 Randy v* when he's hangover

S19 Ep 5 "safe space" 16:06 when Butters sorts the comments he v * in a trash can

S20 Ep 5 "douche and a Danish" 7:06 Barbara v*

S21 Ep 5 "hummels and heroin" 1:30 the mascot of Chuck e cheese (drug addict) v *. The v * comes out of his costume. 8:36 during the autopsy, the policeman v *. The rest of the episode is safe but just during the end credits we see the first scene again but you just have to skip the end credits to not see it

Episodes safe:

S1 Ep 2 "weight gain 4000"

S1 Ep 3 "volcano"

S1 Ep 4 "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride"

S1 Ep 5 "an elephant makes love to à pig"

S1 Ep 8 "starvin'marvin"

S1 Ep 9 "mr Hankey christmas poo"

S2 Ep 12 "clubhouse" - just when Kyle kisses Barbara he walks out of the room but can't see him and can't hear your v*

S2 Ep 15 "spookyfish"

S3 Ep 6 "sexuel harassment panda"

S3 Ep 7 "cat orgy"

S3 Ep 8 "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub"

S3 ep 9 "jewbilee"

S3 Ep 10 "chimpokomon"

S3 Ep 15 "mr Hankey christmas classic:

S3 ep 17 "World Wide Recorder Concert"

S4 Ep 8 "something you can do with your finger"

S5 Ep 2 "cripple fight"

S5 Ep 5 "Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow"

S5 Ep 6 "cartmanland"

S5 Ep 7 "proper condom use"

S5 ep 8 "towelie"

S5 Ep 9 "majorine"

S5 Ep 13 "Kenny dies"

S6 Ep 2 "asspen"

S6 Ep 4 "Fun with Veal"

S6 Ep 6 "professor chaos"

S6 Ep 7 "Simpsons Already Did It"

S6 Ep 10 "Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society"

S6 ep 13 "The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers"

S6 Ep 17 "red sleigh down"

S7 ep 1 "cancelled"

S7 Ep 4 "I'm a Little Bit Country"

S7 Ep 5 "fat butt and pancake head"

S7 Ep 9 "christian hard rock"

S7 Ep 11 "casa bonita"

S7 Ep 12 "all about mormons"

S7 Ep 14 "raisins"

S8 ep 1 "good time with weapon"

S8 Ep 5 "awesem-o"

S8 Ep 11 "Quest for Ratings"

S8 Ep 14 "Woodland Critter Christmas"

S9 Ep 5 "the losing edge"

S9 Ep 11 "ginger kid"

ep 12 "trapped in the closet"

Ep 13 "free Willzyx" when one of the zookeepers gets shot, he spits blood

S10 Ep 1 "the return of chef"

S10 Ep 2 "smug alert"

S10 Ep 6 "manbearpig"

S10 Ep 8 "make love not warcraft"

S10 Ep 11 "hell on earth 2006"

S10 Ep 12 "go god go"

S10 ep 13 "go god go part 2"

S11 Ep 2 "Cartman suck"

S11 Ep 3 "lice capades"

S11 ep 7 "Night of the Living Homeless"

S11 ep 9 "more crap"

S11 Ep 10 "Imaginationland part 1"

S11 Ep 11 "Imaginationland part 2"

S11 Ep 12 "Imaginationland part 3"

S12 ep 13 "elemantary school musical:

S13 Ep 1 "The ring"

S13 Ep 2 "The coon"

S13 Ep 3 "margaritaville"

S13 Ep 9 "butters' bottom bitch"

S14 Ep 3 "medicinal fried chicken" (it's my favorite episode)

S14 Ep 11 "rise of captain Hindsight (coon and friends part 1)

S14 Ep 12 "mysterion rise (coon and friends part 2)

S14 Ep 13 "coon vs coon and friends" part 3)

S14 Ep 14 "crème fraiche"

S15 Ep 1 "humancentipad"

S15 Ep 3 "pudding royal"

S15 Ep 5 "Crack Baby Athletic Association"

S16 Ep 9 "raising the bar"

S17 Ep 2 "informative murder porn"

S17 Ep 7 "black friday part 1"

S17 Ep 8 "a song of ass and fire (black friday part 2)

S17 Ep 9 "Titties and Dragons" (black friday part 3)

S18 Ep 6 "freenium isn't free"

S18 Ep 8 "cock magic"

S19 ep 2 "Where My Country Gone?"

S19 Ep 3 "The city part of town"

S19 ep 4 "you're not helping"

S19 ep 6 "Tweek x Craig"

S21 Ep 4 "Franchise Prequel"

S22 Ep 4 "tegridy farms"

S22 Ep 6 "time to get cereal"

S22 ep 7 "Nobody got cereal"

S22 Ep 9 "unfufilled"

S22 ep 10 "bike parade"

S23 Ep 1 "médical joker"

S23 ep 2 "band in china"

S23 ep 3 "shots!!!"

S23 ep 4 "let theme it go"

S23 ep 5 "tegridy farms Halloween special"

S23 ep 6 "season final"

S23 ep 9 "basic cable"

S23 ep 10 "chirstmas snow"

S24 ep 1 "pandemic special" Cartman pretends to be sick on Kyle so as not to go to school so he makes false g * noise. It's not at all realistic

#submission #south park

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flowercrownjay · 3 years

Text

i rank ninjago seasons because i said so:

SONS OF GARMADON (s8) I think this is probably my favorite season because it’s so much darker than the rest of them? Also, it’s the first really Lloyd centric season since s2 (I know Possession was kind of his season but it was Morro in his body so it wasn’t really him?). I absolutely love the vibe of this one as well and the angst is amazing too. Also it kind of starts a storyline that continues through to the next few seasons which is what I love about it.

POSSESSION (s5) I’m sure I’m not the only person who thinks this but I love this season so. freaking. much. I was never a fan of Nya before this season just because I felt like she was always reduced to this basic stereotype of “girl wants to fight but guys won’t let her but she’s actually a genius” and it kind of bothered me. But her being the Water Ninja was definitely a step up and I really started to like her after this season (although I’m still salty because I was the Water Ninja long before s5 came out but whatever). Also, another reason I love this season is because of the implications and the extra character building you can do behind the scenes, especially for Lloyd since he himself isn’t in the season as much.

LEGACY OF THE GREEN NINJA (s2) I don’t think it should surprise you that my top seasons are all Lloyd-centric but I’m biased towards him, obviously. I’m big on nostalgia so this season kind of just hits different for me (listen, hearing “way of the ninja” makes me cry so this is nothing). I know in terms of plot this season kind of sidelined the rest of the characters but I just... the final battle absolutely makes up for all of that. Also! Darreth. And the Garmadon + Lloyd relationship that I absolutely live for.

MASTER OF THE MOUNTAIN (s13) COLE CENTRIC SEASON COLE CENTRIC SEASON- other than this one being the first season Cole really got to himself it was just a beautiful season overall. It flowed really nicely plotwise and the ninjas, even though they were split up for a lot of the season the way they came together in the end was *chef’s kiss*. Anyway Cole Brookston-

TOURNAMENT OF ELEMENTS (s4) I love the vibe of this one. It’s such a light hearted season for the most part, unlike its successor, Possession. Also, Skylor and the rest of the Elemental Masters were amazing as well. And I kinda vibe with the whole “only one can remain” tournament thing. There are only I few times I actually cried in the whole series and the Corridor of Elders was one of those points (of course, when I rewatch I cry over every little thing).

HUNTED (s9) Hunted was a very good story plot-wise and continuation-wise, my only complaint was that the ninja were split up during most of it. But this season definitely let some of the background characters like Dareth and Skylor shine on the Ninjago side while introducing some more history on the Oni and the Dragon side. And young Wu! I love him. A lot. And the whole revolution-vibe was very well done.

RISE OF THE SNAKES (s1) I honestly can’t remember what this one was called but I think that was it. This one is only this high-up for nostalgia’s sake. I felt like it was a pretty decent season but it definitely wasn’t the best. The standout moments were definitely episodes 7-10 where they were unlocking their true potentials. (Those shaped my childhood LMAO).

PRIME EMPIRE (s12) I’m honestly not sure what the later seasons are called because Netflix doesn’t have the same names most of the time but I really vibe with this one. Also the idea of being in Prime Empire sounds appealing as fuck but whatever lol. I think this was a Jay-heavy season, as far as I can tell and it was pretty good. There could have been more Zane but that’s alright. Also bringing Harumi back was a solid 10/10 move.

SKYBOUND (s6) I know a lot of people like this season but I just cannot. It was probably the absence of the rest of the ninja for a lot of the season and having it be really Jay-centric, which of course I don’t mind at all, but still. The whole Nadakhan-sky-pirates thing I just did not like. But other than that it wasn’t the absolute WORST season. I did like the first three-ish episodes and the last one but I hated the ones where the ninja were disappearing I NEED THE GANG BACK TOGETHER.

MARCH OF THE ONI (s10) THIS SEASON HAD SO MUCH POTENTIAL AND THE ONLY REASON IT’S DOWN HERE IS BECAUSE OF THE LENGTH. They only used four episodes to cover that huge plotline and I hated that. I did not cry when Cole fell because I watched it over the summer when I knew he got a season later on. (Yeah, when I stopped I had only watched till s7). Jay and Nya were pretty cute and so were Cole and Kai. Garmadon supremacy as usual.

REBOOTED (s3) I spent an hour arguing with my little brother last night on why this was one of the worst seasons and he just. Would not listen. There are so many problems with this season, the least of them being the digital Overlord bullshit they wrote in. (This is no hate to the writers as I understand they were pressed for time writing this one since the show was renewed). My main complaint is the JayxColexNya crap they wrote in and it completely ruined all three of their characters. Cole had never been remotely interested in Nya until this season and Jay was just. Upset? Over what a machine said? I’m 100% convinced the Overlord did that on purpose to divide their team. OH AND NYA WAS *LITERALLY* REDUCED TO AN OBJECT. BASICALLY. I didn’t even watch this season all the way through because it was so BAD. The only redeeming factor was the Titanium Ninja where Zane dies because I sobbed like a little bitch during it.

HANDS OF TIME (s7) There are so many things wrong with this season. I cannot think of single good episode. Honestly. They completely wrecked Lloyd’s character by making him sound like a whiny baby (I know he’s a kid but STILL). The ninja were just RUDE through the entire thing and maybe the only decent episode was Out of the Fire, Into the Boiling Sea. MAYBE. Lloyd not knowing how to make an energy dragon in midair? I thought he conquered his fear?? Yeah I just hate this season for so many reasons.

SECRETS OF THE FORBIDDEN SPINJITZU(?) (s11) I’m not sure what this season is called and I really don’t care enough to find out so we’re calling it this for now. I hated the Fire Chapter of this season with a *burning* passion (get it lol). Kai lost his powers, which is fine, but he was such a bitch about it. I hated it. Hated. It. In the past Kai has been known to be irrational but this was a whole different level? He wasn’t being irrational, he was just being straight up rude. Especially to Wu, who I know deserved it but it doesn’t sound like a very Kai think to do? And then the Never-Realm part was OKAY at BEST. The only good episodes were the first few, I don’t make the rules. (Also, LloydxAkita bothers me for many reasons. Akita’s probably like way older than him. And she just... reminds me of a furry. I don’t hate Akita I just don’t like them together.)

Okay yeah so that’s my ranking, it changes a lot but this is it for the most part. I don’t think anyone read all the way here but if you did thanks.

#my post #ninjago #reviews #ninjago s1 #ninjago s2 #ninjago s3 #kai ninjago #jay ninjago #lloyd ninjago

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nomattertheoceans · 4 years

Note

The 100?

Thank you Nonnie!!! :)

Top 5 favourite characters:

Echo / Emori / Raven / Murphy / Octavia

Other characters you like:

A lot, actually! Off the top of my head, Lexa, Clarke (although not in the way most people like her, I enjoy her as an anti-hero lmao), Bellamy, Monty, Jasper, Lincoln, Indra!

Least favourite characters:

Aside from the obvious villains obviously, I’m gonna say Kane and Abby. I never really cared for their stories, I’ve hated Abby since season 1 and Kane since s5 there’s just something about them being absolutely awful leaders and blaming kids for their failures that I can’t get behind.

Otps:

Basically lmao.

No but seriously, I think their love story is just great on so many levels, they’re the only love story I really care about in the show.

Other couples I really like are: Bellamy and Echo, Octavia and Lincoln, Octavia and Niylah, Octavia and Diyoza, Murphy and Emori and Raven, Echo and Raven, Jasper and Maya, Monty and Harper

Notps:

..... Bellarke lmao.

I enjoy the dynamic between Bellamy and Clarke, but I never saw it as romantic, and that’s how I enjoyed it. I love their ennemies to reluctant allies dynamic, I love the fact that their relationship is dysfunctional I love the parallels between Clarke and Octavia. But I don’t enjoy it at all as a romantic dynamic.

Favourite friendships:

Monty and Jasper, Octavia and Jasper, Raven and Murphy

Favourite family:

This is almost only found family because this show has a ton of found family dnamics that I love!! The Blake siblings, Spacekru, Octavia Diyoza and Hope, Raven and Finn.

Favourite episodes:

Murphy’s Law, Blood Must have Blood part 1 and part 2, Thirteen, The Chosen, Pramfayia, Red Queen, The Garden

Favourite season/book/movie:

Season 2. It has my favorite version of Lexa, it has Bellamy and Echo meeting, it has the most interesting antagonists (in my opinion haha). Season 4 is a close second though!

Favourite quotes:

“You believe that to defeat an ennemy who will stop at nothing, you must stop at nothing. How is that any different than Blood must have Blood?” - Luna in s3, because I think this quote shows very well the central conflict of the show, one that was established by Finn in s1: We have to try not to repeat history, and yet everytime, they do repeat it. I disagree with Luna in that instance because the threat that was ALI wasn’t like any other, but I agree with her sentiment.

“In peace, may you leave this shore. In love, may you find the next. Safe passage on your travels. Until our final journey to the Ground. May we meet again.” LISTEN. If there’s is one thing of the world building I absolutely adore, it’s the Traveler’s Blessing. It’s a beautiful prayer, and it gives me all the right emotions when I think about it. I was disappointed with what the show was making of it in seasons 2 and 3, with characters saying it all around, but then there are two instances that really get to me: Octavia and Bellamy saying it over the dead radio at the end of s4, and Monty / Bellamy and Clarke saying it at the end of season 5.

Best musical moment:

I loved the way the music carried the scene right after Lexa’s death, how it melts from Lexa’s death and Titus saying his ritual words, to Becca reaching earth, back to Lexa and the Flame coming out of her.

Moment that made you fangirl/boy the hardest:

Oh boy there are a LOT Off the top of my head: when Monty refuses to leave Jasper alone when he gives his blood to Maya, when Murphy says “Touch me again and I’ll end you... in a non-criminal way”, when Becho was confirmed in s5, When Clarke managed to align the satellite dish in Pramfyia, when Octavia confronted Skaikru in The Chosen,.... I can’t think of others right now but there are a lot lmao You can check out my favorite scenes series if you want, I’m working on it slowly!

When it really disappointed you:

A lot of times, honestly... I’m gonna say, all of season 6. I hated it. It had so much potential, with characters having to deal with the aftermath of season 5, Monty and Harper dying, Jordan existing, Wonkru.... Instead we got a whole mess that didn’t do much for any character and I was really disappointed.

Saddest moment:

Lincoln’s death. I knew it was coming because I knew the actor was leaving the show, but I was so NOT READY for it omg it’s the scene I still cry everytime I watch it because it’s so sad and heartwrenching....

Most well done character death:

Okay so I think The 100 is really bad at having well done character deaths, so I’m gonna say my less well-done one lmaoooo

Lexa’s. Her death was so stupid. I wasn’t in the fandom at the time so I wasn’t aware of the awful queerbaiting that was going on, so without talking about BTS and marketing ploys, I do believe that her death was heavily predicted by the show. However, it was a stupid death and Lexa was too awesome a character to die by a stray bullet. She deserved a proper send-off, she deserved to die in an epic battle, or fighting for what she believed in,..... not a bullet.

Favourite guest star:

I know Shawn Mendes (Mendez? I don’t know lmao i don’t know him) was a guest star but I don’t know any other guest star so I guess that’s my answer lmao

Favourite cast member:

I don’t follow the cast, so I don’t have a favorite xD

Character you wish was still alive:

Jasper and Finn both deserve to still be alive, because the show treated their mental struggles like shit and I’m very bitter about that!

One thing you hope really happens:

Honestly, I don’t know? We have four episodes left of the entire show and I have no idea where it’s headed lmao I guess I hope both Emori and Murphy survive to see the end and have a long and happy life <3

Most shocking twist:

Okay I actually have three so I’ll you my top three:

1- The revelation of the Mountain Men. I was absolutely NOT expecting this to happen and I was gasping and going “nooooooooo way!!!” at my computer because it was so out of nowhere!! I loved it lmao

2- Murphy discovers that ALI destroyed the world: the ending of s2. That scene is so chilling, Murphy watching the video of Chris crying and killing himself, cut with scenes of Jaha getting to the mansion and the wholse scene with ALI herself... that whole scene was really cool and unexpected!

3- Clarke and Jaha steal the bunker during the conclave. I was so SHOOK by this moment, it was such a bold move and I loved it!

When did you start watching/reading?:

Early January, 2015. I was back at my appartment waiting for the semester to start, my roommates weren’t back from the holidays yet, and I was bored. So I started the show, and I binged all of season 1 and half of season 2 in 24 hours xD I caught up at Spacewalker, and then had to wait two weeks for the next episode to air and it was agony!!!!

Best animal/creature:

HELIOS THE BEST HORSE THERE IS

Favourite location:

The Second Dawn Bunker. Yeah I know it’s strange coming from me because I absolutely hate so many things about the bunker xD But it was such a cool location!! With the rotunda/arena, the farm, the huge corridors,.....

Trope you wish they would stop using:

“It’s the end of the world, whatever shall we do???” I’m just tired you guys. Nuclear apocalypses and other bombings should not be that common lmao

One thing this show/book/film does better than others:

I love the fact that it has so many different and well developped female characters.It shouldn’t be rare, but it still is, and this show really stands out to me for that reason. I’m not saying it’s the peak of feminism or anything because lmao IT’S NOT. But the women of the show have agency, freedom, they’re all distinct from one another and not just tropes and cliches. I really like it.

Funniest moments:

Nothing comes to mind right now? I feel like an idiot lmao I have so many moments that make me laugh and I can’t think of a single one right now x)

Couple you would like to see:

I would love to have canon Murphy x Emori x Raven!!

Actor/Actress you want to join the cast:

Nobody haha sorry

Favourite outfit:

Blodreina’s cape thingy!

Favourite item:

Raven’s necklace!!! I’m actually hoping to make myself one someday, it’s my favorite thing ^^

Do you own anything related to this show/book/film?:

Nothing!

What house/team/group/friendship group/family/race etc would you be in?:

I wish I could be spacekru haha they’re the best found family of the whole show and we deserved a flashback episode for them <3

Most boring plotline:

the entirety of season 6 xDDDDD

No but seriously, I’m gona say Illian’s plot. Honestly I never got into it at all, I didn’t care enough about him, or his family.

Most laughably bad moment:

I mean, the pilot is pretty cringe-worthy xD

Best flashback/flashfoward if any:

the flashbacks of the Dark Year.

Most layered character:

Octavia

Most one dimensional character:

Jordan lmao I was so disappointed with his story in s6.....

Scariest moment:

OMG in season 2 when Bellamy, Octavia and the guards go into the old parking garage and CAROL OF THE BELLS START PLAYING THAT WAS SO FUCKING CREEPY

Grossest moment:

Ewwww the whole worm thing happening in s5, AND the weird trees growing inside people in s6 xD

Best looking male:

S5 Murphy, hands down. Also s7 Murphy cause he spends half his time shirtless lmao

Best looking female:

Emori! She’s so pretty.

Who you’re crushing on (if any):

I mean everybody is gorgeous but I don’t have a particular fixation haha

Favourite cast moment:

I don’t watch interviews or BTS stuff so I don’t know much, but Richard Harmon wearing hie sister’s costume and wig was really funny ^^

Favourite transportation:

Becca’s rocket

Most beautiful scene (scenery/shot wise):

It’s very obvious symbolism, but I love the last shot of Blood must have blood part 1, with Clarke standing alone in front of the door of Mount Weather.

Also, Octavia forcing the clans into submission in Red Queen, the mini conclave in fron of the doors of the vafeteria. The shots in that scene were really good!

Unanswered question/continuity issue/plot error that bugs you:

Lmaooooooo do you have ten hours? Because that’s how long I can ramblr about the inconsistencies and plotholtes of this show x) Off the top of my head:

- Why does everybody on the Ark speak Enlighs?

- If Becca knew Nightblood could let you live on Earth then why didn’t she distribute it among the space stations?

- Why did Cadogan build the bunker in the middle of the city when he had a prefectly good FOREST??

- If Lexa is the first Commander to unite the clans then what was the role of the Commander before her?

- Why didn’t the Ark send one adult with the 100 (Pyke) to protect and help them?

- How come the Eligius IV prisoners don’t die when they come back to Earth in s5 since they have no nightblood and didn’t adapt through evolution?

- How is it that Spacekru survived with algea alone but Wonkru had to have this huge variety of plants?? WHAT’S THE MAGIC ALGEA MONTY???

- Why did Mount Weather crash the Exodus ship?

- If the ressources on the Ark are so scarce then why would they float people with clothes on them?

- How come Raven could visit Finn in prison but Bellamy couldn’t visit Octavia?? If Octavia was in solitary, why?

...... Okay i’m gonna stop for now lmao but I could write an entire memoir on the inconsistencies of this show lmao

Best promo:

That one:

At what point did you fall in love with this show/book:

I’m thinking Murphy’s Law? The first few episodes were a little too teenage-drama for me but this episode shifted my opinion enough to get me to keep watching ^^

#the 100 #Anonymous #Asks

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mylifeeinfandoms · 4 years

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parting shot

One last game of Tag? Agents of Shield #PartingShot

With this tag game, I want to know the answers to these five (5) questions and then tag 5 or more mutuals. Wasn’t tagged but want to join? Join in ! Everyone is an essential part of this fandom! Name from @ agent.of.shield_ on Instagram ( @agents-of-fangirling ) who had a great idea to post a picture of yourself with a drink (or just a drink) and tag it #partingshot as a finale goodbye to the show (which I also am going to post tomorrow on IG).

tagged by @untying :)

Where were you in life when you first started to watching AoS?

it was the summer before my sophomore year of college.

[side story: s1 of agent carter pemiered during my freshman year and i absolutely loved -still do- that show. when hayley and james got into the dubsmash war with clark and chloe during sdcc, i was hooked. then aos did a dubsmash with the song we are the champions and the entire cast was involved. my very first thought after watching it was "ok, i have to find out who all these amazing people are." so i did.]

the timing couldn't have been more perfect because i caught up on the first two seasons just in time for the s3 premiere and i watched those episodes as they aired. they were a huge comfort for me since sophomore year was honestly my toughest year mentally and emotionally.

Where are you now?

i'm a little over 2 years into my first job. construction management kinda thing.

[side story again: ngl, after s3, i stopped watching aos it was huntingbird's departure that did it. i had always planned to watch the later seasons eventually so when i heard the show was ending, i caught up on s4-6 all at once. that was this past january.]

oh goodness, i've definitely changed.

What character development arc (or storyline in general) did you love the most?

i was a mechanical engineering major in college so fitz has a special place in my heart. but, being a woman in a stem field also allowed me to connect very closely with jemma. that said, the fitzsimmons storyline is why i continued watching. i stayed for them.

but if i had to choose, jemma's arc means the world to me. i reasonate with her awkwardness, kindness, gentleness, compassion, sense of justice, and much more.

What will you miss the most?

mmm probably being spoiled! i was completely out of the loop when seasons 4-6 were airing but i still followed people on tumblr who posted about aos. that meant i saw all the gifsets and all the fitzsimmons scenes without any context.

it's actually very amusing to think about now because when i watched those seasons this past january, i realized i was never really spoiled. none of the gifsets i saw gave me any solid info about what was going on (and i didn't recognize half the characters). so yeah, i was being spoiled without actually being spoiled loool. kinda my superpower?

Favorite quote?

sorry not sorry, i'm bending the rules and writing my favorite quote per character. oh c'mon! not just one. can't do it. so here we go this actually didn't take as long as i thought it would:

jemma: "i prefer him in cardigans." she would.

hunter: "lance amadeus ravenclaw hunter" love it.

daisy: "i already have a sister to save. her name is jemma simmons." that's right, she does!

coulson: "big fan." he is.

fitz [about the communications academy]: "that's where you'd be, skye." LOL i miss the bus kids dynamic.

mack: "fbi cyber investigative task force, how may i help you?" pure gold.

may: "you always listen to the whole menu. always!" you should.

bobbi: "my name is bobbi. as in the name usually short for ‘robert’, but in my case, ‘barbara’, which, to me, is worse.” is not!... is kinda?

OR now that s7 has completely aired and daniel sousa has made a reappearance (talk about best of both worlds- agent carter and agents of shield?!)

sousa: basically anything he's said. but actually. "some of my favorite people are people like you." !!!

hmm, don't know many people who watch aos but if @sammax883bb8, @ink-blot-angel, @aurora-australis-tumbles, @oh-wow-i-have-nice-cheekbones or @animallover81 want to give this a go, i'd love to hear from you! and anyone else wanting to is welcome!!

#parting shot #partingshot #agents of shield #me #mine #dang this is long sry

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inkandcamcorder · 4 years

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Okidoki! This is my little theory post after watching the S7 trailer for The 100, I’ll probably add as I go and cancel or confirm as we watch.

As a little disclaimer, of course I know nothing for sure. If you see something that doesn’t make sense with the facts please let me know. Some of these may be completely wrong and probably most are. I’ve started this list from the fact that I believe the wormhole will let the mains go back in time, stopping te nuclear war or earth from going ka-boom or whatever it did at the time or during Praimfaya, and therefore they will erase themselves from existence. I don’t expect a happy ending but I’d still be happy if it were the case. Some of these are also repetitive or completely contradictory. Anyways, we’ll see! I’m also quite lazy so I often use initials to shorten the character’s names, I hope it’s clear enough! Obviously you’ll have seen many of these around, and some were inspired by what I’ve read on Twitter and over here of course!

I refer to the guys in the weird suits with the electric batons as the Big Human Menace, a.k.a BHM.

PS: I often mention “teams”. I don’t mean allegiance, I mean which plot line they’ll be allocated too as that many characters get split over different plot lines. Also sorry this is so long! I’m using it as a self tracker.

Here’s what I think we know from the trailer:

Jordan is going slightly creepy or cult-ish (not from the trailer but that weird look from S6),

Dyoza is in the Anomaly but alive.

Bellamy will cry & B & O will try to save one another through sacrifice.

Echo will cut her hair.

Madi will be threatened (by Russell I think).

Clarke will grieve her mom.

There’s a wormhole.

Raven and Clarke will team up and be close (and go on a mission to Nakara, the ice planet, with Jordan, Nate, Nylah, Gaia and Jackson I think? Hard to tell from the shots).

There will be skeletons.

Murphy and Emori will kick ass.

Murphy and Raven will team up.

Hope’s hair changes and she too is part of the team against the BHM.

Some guy bleeds.

Some girl screams. (I’ve seen people think it’s Raven, but that seemed unlikely to me).

Murphy get a gun put to his head.

Sheidheda (sorry about the spelling of it’s wrong!) is free. (S6)

Clarke points a fun to someone’s head (Russell I believe).

Hope screams behind a window, held by O next to C.

Echo screams.

There will be a sort of lab or torture chamber.

There seems to be a scene of Finn tied to the pole.

There’s some sort of flashback with Hope and Octavia.

There’s an icy planet, Nakara.

Bellamy should show up clean shaven at some point.

Gabriel is on the Echo plot team.

“I say live and let die.” - Murphy

There’s a change of plans for Echo and Gabriel.

O is on a white room, strapped down to a chair.

“If you fail, all our people are dead too.” (Bellamy to Clarke)

Echo is running after someone unconscious being taken (from the butt/cardigan it’s Bellamy).

Dyoza is seen holding O back.

A man is playing chess.

Russell says “we want peace”.

Here are the theories :

Jordan is going to lead a sort of rebellion for peace, similar to a cult, perhaps with him as a sort of priest.

Dyoza will be back in “The Garden” and try to get back to H and O, and will help with the Anomaly. She will eventually die - probably to save O (and/or H). They’ll be a recurring theme of “found family” between D, O and H. Probably in the hope to keep O & Bellamy from sacrificing themselves for each other or something similar.

Bellamy and Clarke will be separated for a third to half of the season.

Bellamy and Echo will be mainly on different plot lines (once she’s rescued him) - they will be apart. They will separate amicably and “always be family” or Echo will let him go (possibly before dying).

Echo will infiltrate the BHM.

Bellamy will be kidnapped and he and Madi will be used as bait for Clarke in different ways by different ennemies.

If any concrete Bellarke happens, it will be in the last two episodes, most likely only the finale. There might be some intense gazing or brushed aside lean-ins beforehand.

If they change the past, they’ll all die. If not, Clarke, Bellamy and possibly Murphy (and/or Raven) will die. Most of the mains really.

The wormhole will connect to Earth in the last allowing for revisits if plot points (perhaps Ton DC with the skeletons).

Raven and Co. will forgive Clarke (and who knows, maybe apologise? Crazy stuff).

Clarke will deal with Russel trying to rebel. She’ll threaten to burn him but as Jordan “cult” or whatnot rises, that will take a backseat. They’ll ally and Gaia will serve as an advisor. Jordan will say that he wants peace. Clarke will answer that “this is not the way” and “sacrifices must be made”. It will get out of hand (and perhaps made worse by Sheidheda interfering) and Jordan will realise the errors of his way. This will serve as a side plot while the Anomaly stretches out along the season and becomes the main plot towards the last third of the season as they search for a way to ensure humanity survives.

Sheidheda will finally be destroyed (by Clarke, with help from Gaia, Murphy and Raven).

Octavia’s death would supposedly unlock some sort of solution for the Anomaly, B will try to swap places. O sees it as her chance for redemption once more. D takes her place or something similar.

Clarke threatens Russel with a gun but doesn’t follow through.

Octavia and Gabriel will sleep together and develop *feelings* but D and H will always come first for O. Gabriel will die and say something along the lines of “as he should have a long time ago”.

Echo will go rogue to save the the day.

Jordan will rebel when Clarke decides to burn Russell.

Possibly, the BHM will come through the wormhole (hence the need for C & Co to go through it too - they’ll take a ship, which is where the scene with Hope flinging herself against the door screaming next to O and C will take place, though that could also be in the torture chamber area).

Echo will get caught and be tortured.

Murphy will get to convince Clarke not to choose violence.

Murphy and Emori will be quickly forgiven, but also reminded of their mistakes in a heated argument. They’ll use their newfound positions to lead in Sanctum.

If it’s not a time fix-up, Maddie will survive, along with Gaia.

Indra will die for Gaia and tell her she’s proud of her.

There will be some sort of human experiment.

One of the revisited part of time will be Finn’s death (perhaps leading to some Lexa archive footage being used).

During her time in the Anomaly, O will have basically raised and protected Hope, along with Dyoza, while never giving up hope to get back to Bellamy in any way possible. They’ll have been hunted by the BHM there too.

The wormhole will also lead to several other planets (which I believe is actually confirmed) - one of them might be a lot of water.

The bloodied guy will be an enemy of sort, possibly coming through the Anomaly, maybe tortured by Clarke and Co or Jordan’s follower though that’s unlikely. Probably by radiation/

While the others are on Nakara, Emori and Murphy deal with Sanctum and Jordan.

Murphy will take Jordan under his way in honour of Monty and Harper.

Echo will cut her hair for her mission as a way to be more incognito, the mission being likely the rescue mission to get Bellamy back, who was kidnapped by BHM.

They’ll explore the other planets, maybe in hopes of finding more human survivors or a safe heaven.

There’ll be parallel between Clarke in S7 and Bellamy in S6.

People will try to go in the Anomaly (Echo/Raven) but not all will be allowed in, or they’ll get split up.

Bellamy will probably be mentally tortured (possibly with a lonely/erased virtual reality).

Murphy will not want to go on the suicide mission (there might be a vote about it) but will go anyway for everybody’s sake in they want him to/need him.

The change of plans for Echo will be due to something linked to Bellamy - realising he’s about to get hurt, tortured, moved, is somewhere close, etc.

O will probably be part of the human experiment thing, probably during in the Anomaly, which is linked to the wormhole (possibly through its code that was on her back).

There will be, of course, some sort of apocalypse.

And a war.

There’ll be tons of S1 callback (maybe that underwater with the jellyfish is used as a callback for O in S1 in the lake?)

I think Jordan’s the person in the water with the jellyfish, and I don’t think he’s chilling because he probably can’t swim. So he fell by accident by using the wormhole or slipped or whatnot.

Octavia will act older as she has lived an extra 17-19 years in the Anomaly (which is part of her argument why she should die instead of Bellamy) and act rather weary as a result.

Possibly some sort of radiation issue? On Sanctum and/or back in past earth or a new planet.

They’re being hunted by the BHM who are coming through the Anomaly.

Russel has followers taking part in the Sanctum war.

The war will have to stop to unify against BHM and/or apocalypse.

There’s six symbols on the screen for the wormhole: 5 for Eligius as someone else very rightly pointed out (let me know if you recognise yourself, I remember reading it somewhere) the sixth one might be the BHM or something to unlock the wormhole?

Is the Anomaly absorbing or killing people and being used as a weapon, most likely by BHM? (Someone else remarked a skull in the green smoke).

Raven will get her red jacket back from a time travel. They’ll probably go back to Allie’s lab from S4 and get it back then.

Clarke is going to go a bit “dark” but will be brought back by her love for the Délinquents.

!Darke Clarke will be triggered by Bellamy’s disappearance.

If Sanctum survives, Russell will not die. He will not be murdered by Clarke.

There you go!

#the 100 #the 100 season 7 #the 100 theories #the 100 spoilers

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thelittlefanpire · 4 years

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My TROPED Masterlist

Chopped 1.0

Riddle Me This

Linctavia | Rated G | 6k words | moodboard

A Modern Linctavia with a Greek Myth twist featuring the tropes of Mythical Creatures + Kiss In The Rain + Teaching Moment + Coffee Shop AU written for Round 1: Fluff!

tlf commentary: We weren’t sure what we were going to get going into the First Round of Chopped, so I really didn’t want to write a Bellarke fic, in case that’s all we got. I decided to try my hand at Linctavia. & I’m insanely proud of how creative this fic was! The idea was to parallel Octavia growing up under the floor and her feeling trapped there and the Blake’s obsession with Mythology, so the Sphinx fic was born! The whole round was like catching lightning in a bottle.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Bellarke | Rated M | 9.6k words | moodboard

A Modern Speakeasy Bellarke AU featuring the tropes of Time Loops + Exes + “Give Me All Your Weapons” + Lets just (kiss/hook up/whatever) to get it out of our system” written for Round 2: Angst!

tlf commentary: and this is when I started using my fic list of infinite ideas. I had this idea of Clarke going on different dates at this modern speakeasy (based on a real life place my husband and I went on a date at and this lady we met who was telling me about all her tinder dates lol) but they never worked out and Bellamy was the bartender so the last date ends and she goes home with him. Cut to the tropes of exes and time loops and angst and weapons and man, oh, man did that idea fit perfectly. Love the AESTHETIC of this fic.

A Ship In The Bottle Arrangement

Braven | Rated T | 2.6k words | moodboard

A Braven AU featuring the tropes of Character Swaps + .“Everyone else thinks you’re an asshole but you’re nice to me” + Trapped in or hiding in an enclosed space + one character cautiously says “i’m going to kiss you now, okay?” written for Round 3: Canonverse!

tlf commentary: I’m a big Braven shipper, and when S4 ended and S5 happened, I really wanted to write a S5 Braven AU. The idea changed a little because of the tropes...Bellamy as Wells...a S1 AU approach. Also I don’t know why but I really love the title and the moodboard for this one.

Killing Me Softly

Bellarke | Rated M | 9.4k WIP | moodboard

The 100’s Bellarke featuring the tropes of mystery + gender swaps + a shared meal + an almost kiss + a surprise free space ending + told in two very biased POVs. Inspired by Richard Connell’s short story, The Most Dangerous Game. Written for the Final Round of Chopped 1.0!

tlf commentary: one of the few fics that I didn’t pull from my idea list. I was really excited to write a genderswapped fic and I knew I had to write a girl!Bellamy. but the fic really didn’t come together until the Mystery trope hit me. I hear Mystery and think Murder Mystery and then immediately think about the Twific I modeled this after (it’s one of those fics that never left me). I also tried and failed miserably to get this out during the original writing period. Then I tried to write as much as I could and post it. Now I’m hoping I can get back into it to write the last two parts and the last two tropes!

Chopped 2.0

a civil twilight

Bellarke/Jobriel | Rated T | 3.9k words | moodboard

A 6x10 Bellarke/Jobriel Poly AU featuring the tropes of someone living/dying that didn’t in canon + protectiveness + sunsets + dichotomy written for Round 1: Canon Divergence!

tlf commentary: the theme made it pretty easy to pick an idea from my list. I had this Bellarke/Josephine/Gabriel poly idea as soon as I finished watching S6! I couldn’t stop thinking of Sense8 with this one. I also thought there was going to be so many more S6 AUs in this fandom, but don’t worry I’ve got plenty more planned out.

the hundred

Bellarke + Delinquents | Rated T | 8k words | moodboard

A S7 Spec Fic featuring the tropes of a character as a ghost + joke kiss turn real kiss + a character is eavesdropping, and their presence is revealed + character struggles to talk because they are either laughing or crying written for Round 2: Canon Speculation!

tlf commentary: I knew I wanted to write S7 Spec before this thing even started. Another one not on the list though. It came together when I realized I loved the mind space in S6 and I wished we had seen more dead characters...so I made it happen. this fic felt like a hot mess the majority of writing and I googled way too much trying to rationalize the Anomaly. but it turned out to be amazing!

pulled by the tide (and falling for you)

Bellarke | Rated M | 9k words | moodboard

A Modern 1x08 Bellarke Day Trip featuring the tropes of Magic + “You expect me to do X?!” and then it immediately hard cuts to them doing exactly X + Secret Places + Sex Pollen written for Round 3: Modernized Canon!

tlf commentary: A Modern Day Trip idea is what inspired this whole Chopped 2.0! No lie. But I had no idea what that would actually look like until the tropes! I did have an idea for a fic set in my Space Force Recruits Universe and I had a moodboard already made up so that heavily inspired the direction I took this one.

reaching for the light

Octavia Blake | coming soon | moodboard

A Character Study featuring the tropes of Reincarnations + Soulmates + Forehead Touches + Free Space written for the Final Round of Chopped 2.0!

tlf commentary: *spoiler* my exact words to Bailey - how cool would it be to reincarnate into fics you’ve already written?!

Chopped Holidy Trope Exchange 2019

Taste of Arkadia

Bellarke | Rated G | 3k words | moodboard

A Bellarke Christmas AU featuring the tropes of Rivals to Lovers + Character A catches Character B crying + Modern AU + Competing businesses (author’s choice) written for the Holiday Trope Exchange!

tlf commentary: another one from my fic idea list with all these businesses hosting this little event. I waited way last minute to write this fic and it shows. but these were really great tropes!

Chopped: Choose Your Own Adventure

and then the earth spun

Linctavia | Rated M | 6.5k words | moodboard

A Linctavia Post-Apocalyptic AU featuring the tropes of Magic + Zombies + Trapped in or hiding in an enclosed space with a Mardi Gras Holiday Theme written for Chopped Choice 1.0.

tlf commentary: I’ve had a Mardi Gras fic idea since 2011 when I worked at a Cajun restaurant, Papa Mojo’s, and met a boy. Love the food and culture and people there. So I had to spin the wheel a few times to get all my tropes to work but it was a really fun fic to write!

Chopped Madness

The Storyteller

Bellarke | Rated T | 3k words | moodboard

A Bellarke Canonverse 1001 Nights AU featuring a Character Focus on Bellamy Blake, a Theme of Canonverse, and the Tropes of Fairy Tale AU + Good Guy/Villain Switch written for the Qualifying Round of Chopped Madness.

tlf commentary: I’m a little obsessed with fairy tale retellings and love to see this fandom write them in Canonverse. I was expecting a lot of Bellarke Cinderella and Tangled, but the Chopped Crowd really out did themselves with creativity. My initial idea was Becho Snow Queen but I couldn’t pin down a plot. Then I wanted Braven with ALIE but couldn’t pick a fairy tale and still wanted ALIE as the villain. And Blake Siblings Snow White with Bell as Snow and O as the Evil Queen (I’ll probably try to make that work eventually). But the story I wrote was influenced by a Chopped Choice fic I have planned with a modern take on djinns and Scheherazade. I’m pretty happy with what I wrote, but just wish I had gone into more detail.

Chopped Choice 2.0: Smut

in the heat of two suns

Bellarke | Rated E | 3k words | moodboard

A Bellarke S6 Canon Divergence AU featuring the tropes of 5+1 things + choking + dry humping + character swap written for the Chopped: After the Kitchens Close Smut Event.

tlf commentary: I had about 5 different ideas for this round and one of them was a fic all about the Choking Kink™. I wanted it to be more about Clarke and Bellamy finally having sex in canon with like a look back at all the choking and how that turned them on...but like tropes and time, you know? I got really into the character swap with Bellamy and Gabriel and the whole mind space for them was my favorite part. I tried really hard with a different writing voice that I think I pulled off. But there was not enough smut for a smut challenge and that kinda sucked.

if we met at morning (in the dropship)

Bellarke | Rated E | 1.5k | moodboard

A Bellarke Dropship Days Canonverse AU featuring the tropes of secret relationship + wake up sex + orgasm denial + wet dream/sex dream written for the Chopped: After the Kitchens Close Smut Event.

tlf commentary: I had planned out the smut earlier and struggled with creating a universe for it during the event. It was a Modern AU, and then I wanted the S1 Dropship Vibes, but I couldn’t wrap my head around the relationship. I played around with the tropes and decided to go for the suprise ending. If I had more time it was going to be a Blue Lagoon AU and Bellarke was going to be the only survivors from the Dropship and the scene was going to be real.

Chopped: Holiday Trope Exchange 2020

what a tangled string of Christmas lights we weave

Linctavia | Rated T | 7.4k | moodboard

A Linctavia Modern Monarchy AU featuring the tropes of Royalty AU + Cyrano AU + Characters fall and end up landing on top of each other and have a “moment” + hair brushing/braiding written for the Holiday Trope Exchange!

tlf commentary: I really love Secret Santa in general, and it’s even more fun translated over into ficgivng. I’ve only done it myself the last few years and last year I struggled a lot. So I don't know what I was thinking this time with hosting and writing again! But the Tropes were so good!!! I’ve been thinking about the TV Show, The Royals on E!, and how it would make a really good AU with the 100 characters. This fic was a way into that universe and I had a really good time writing it.

TROPED Choice 4.0: Western

Kissin’ ‘Tav Blake

Linctavia | Rated T | 4k | moodboard

A Linctavia Western AU featuring the tropes of Based on a Movie + a dichotomy + bandits + riding off into the sunset written for the TROPED Choice: Western Event!

tlf commentary: Bailey started talking about a Holes AU forever ago and I wanted to write it for her. Linctavia was soooooo perfect for it. I also incorporated some inspiration from The Man From Snowy River for a Marper background + Jordan Green narrating and planned a sequel/continuation of the universe with Bellarke in a Quigley Down Under AU. All my favorite Westerns! If I started this fic earlier I would have added Back to the Future III with some ‘time travel by way of Western’ with Raven & Becca or Hope & Callie but alas I did not start writing until the last minute! ...and I didn’t want to redo my moodboard for Kissin’ ‘Tav Blake! lol It was a really fun fic to write!

TROPED Madness 2.0

hands not fit for holding (but I’ll hold you all the same)

Becho | Rated M | 4k | moodboard

A The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Inspired Becho AU featuring a Character Focus on Echo, a Theme of Romance, and the Tropes of Amnesia AU + Tattoos written for the Qualifying Round of TROPED Madness 2.0.

tlf commentary: So I woke up at 3am to a bedwetter and couldn’t fall back to sleep and this somehow fell into my brain around that time. It’s a really unique take on the Amnesia Trope. And ROMANCE! But tragic. Also like read the BOOK it’s based on ASAP. It’s MAGICAL. I know nothing of New York, tattoo shops, Greece, and constellations aside from what I googled for this fic. So I really wanted everyone to just appreciate the *vibes*....I think I pulled it off!! My best fic of the Madness batch for sure!

petals fall to ruin

Lostia | Rated T | 3k | moodboard

A Sci-Fi Lostia AU featuring a Character Focus on Lexa kom Trikru, a Theme of Tragedy, and the Tropes of Florist AU + Mindlink written for Round Two of TROPED Madness 2.0.

tlf commentary: no plot, all vibes should be my motto. I got this really specific vision of a sci-fi for this and just simply refused to write a Tragedy. It was my first time writing Lexa and I wish it had more Lostia romance, but whatever...no plot, all vibes...so vibe with me!

TROPED Choice 6.0: Horror 2.0

Welcome to Arkadia High, where you are all going to die!

Wells + the Delinquents | Rated T | 4k | moodboard

A Boy Meets World AU based on the the Horror Inspired Episode, ‘And Then There Was Shawn’ (5x17) featuring the tropes of based on a tv show + Horror Movie AU + Murder Mystery + Exes written for TROPED Choice: Horror 2.0.

tlf commentary: I tried to get kinetic-elaboration to write this the previous year and then saved a general bmw au in my ideas list. I had about 3 ideas for this event and then made a moodboard for this one. It was too good and after I shared it as a preview on TROPED…well, it had to happen, right? Fairly easy to write, it took me about 13 hours, and I felt like I gave it a solid effort. The ending was a little sketch, but I really liked the creepy hints at possession and the world was just super awesome to write in.

More info on TROPED can be found here!

#masterlist #chopped: the 100 fanfic challenge #thelittlefanpirefics #chopped 1.0 #chopped 2.0 #chte2019 #chopped choice 1.0 #tlfchoppedmaster #chopped madness #tlfchopped1 #tlfchopped2 #tlfchoppedchoice1 #tlfchoppedmadness #tlfchoppedchoice2 #chte2020 #to be updated #writing thoughts

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zayadriancas · 4 years

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Zoe Rivas, Fiona Coyne, Sean Cameron, Drew Torres, Yael Baron, Alli Bhandari, Lola Pacini, Spinner Mason, Anya MacPherson & Hunter Hollingsworth

Thank you!!! :)

Zoe Rivas:

favorite thing about them: Her character development and her storyline from NC s2-s4 plus her assault storyline

least favorite thing about them: her attitude during the whole Degrassi Nudes thing and all the times she did something related to sex/racy photos without someone’s consent but it’s just brushed off like it was nothing

favorite line: “I’m a mess but you already know that, I’ve spent the last day listening to people say terrible things about me, I don’t blame them. I’ve made a lot of bad choices and am probably going to make a lot more. I did not choose to be sexually assaulted. If you don’t convict Luke Baker and Neil Martin today, you’re saying I deserved it, and you’re saying other girls and boys will deserve it too, but they don’t. And I don’t. I’m not sure I wanna live in a world where that’s true.”

brOTP: Zoe/Miles

OTP: Gracevas

nOTP: Zoemund

random headcanon: Her and Grace become roommates after college and Grace eventually comes to terms with her sexuality and they get together

unpopular opinion: Zoemund was overrated and I never liked them or saw their appeal

song i associate with them: idk lol

favorite picture of them:

Fiona Coyne:

favorite thing about them: All of her season 10 storylines, her style, and her character development

least favorite thing about them: The way she acted towards Imogen in Underneath It All

favorite line: “You look at me like in this perfect princess, but I’m not. And once you realize that you’ll get sick of me, everyone does.”

brOTP: Fiona/Holly J

OTP: Fimogen

nOTP: Fiona/Bobby

random headcanon: She moved back to NY after she was done with her internship and she and Holly J became roommates

unpopular opinion: I’m not sure

song i associate with them: 7 Rings-Ariana Grande(idk I’m bad at these lol)

favorite picture of them:

Sean Cameron:

favorite thing about them: I liked that he was realistic and his story arc was great from s1-4

least favorite thing about them: everything about his storyline in season 6

favorite line: “Shakespeares just some old dead white guy from 500 years ago. What does he know about my life?”

brOTP: Sean/Jay

OTP: Semma

nOTP: Sean/Amy

random headcanon: Sigh I’m bad at these idk lol

unpopular opinion: His return in season 6 was unnecessary considering what they did to his character

song i associate with them: Idk lol

favorite picture of them: N/A

Drew Torres:

favorite thing about them: How he was a good guy with a good heart that always tried to do the right thing

least favorite thing about them: Thar sometimes in trying to protect people from getting hurt he handled things badly.

favorite line: “My only solution is a time machine and a big box of condoms.”

brOTP: Drew/Dallas

OTP: Drianca

nOTP: Drecky

random headcanon: Him and Bianca got back together after his graduation and are now married with one son named Adam :)

unpopular opinion: He wasn’t a terrible person or stupid

song i associate with them: Can’t Help Falling In Love With You

favorite picture of them:

Alli Bhandari:

* favorite thing about them: She was a good friend for the most part

* least favorite thing about them: She could be annoying sometimes mainly in the early seasons

* favorite line: “She sounds like a total B with a side order of itch.”

* brOTP: Alli/Jenna

* OTP: Bhandallas

* nOTP: Alleo

* random headcanon: Idk

* unpopular opinion: Idk

* song i associate with them

* favorite picture of them:

Yael:

* favorite thing about them: Their non-binary storyline

* least favorite thing about them: What they did to Maya in NC season 1

* favorite line: “I’m not going back, not for him not for anyone.”

* brOTP: Yael/Lola

* OTP: Yola

* nOTP: Yael/Hunter

* random headcanon: None

* unpopular opinion: Yunter was never cute

* song i associate with them

* favorite picture of them

Lola:

* favorite thing about them: Her storyline in NC season 3 and she was a great friend to Yael and Saad and she was just a really intriguing character in general

* least favorite thing about them: That we never got to see her graduate 😞

* favorite line: “Its like we’re hurting and we’re not allowed to talk about our pain because it makes them uncomfortable.”

* brOTP: Lola/Yael & Lola/Frankie

* OTP: Torn between Laad and Mola

* nOTP: Tola

* random headcanon: She eventually realized she is bi or pan

* unpopular opinion: Idk

* song i associate with them

* favorite picture of them:

Spinner:

* favorite thing about them: His character development

* least favorite thing about them: His behavior in the early seasons mainly s4

* favorite line: “One hot dog, beer stays in the car, your mouth stays shut and something else stays in your pants. Clear?”

* brOTP: Spinner/Jay

* OTP: Sparcy

* nOTP: Spemma

* random headcanon: Him and Darcy reunited after him and Emma got a divorce

* unpopular opinion: He wasn’t to blame for the shooting

* song i associate with them

* favorite picture of them:

Anya:

* favorite thing about them: She was really sweet and relatable and a likable character to watch

* least favorite thing about them: even though I liked them together a lot her relationship with Sav brought out the worst in her TBH

* favorite line: “Why is there only two options for girls, either she likes you or she’s a bitch?”

* brOTP: Anya/Chantay

* OTP: s7-10 Sanya & s11 Ownya

* nOTP: Anya/Dr.Chris

* random headcanon: When she got back from the army she started a LARping club for kids/teens

* unpopular opinion: None

* song i associate with them

* favorite picture of them:

Hunter:

* favorite thing about them: Nothing

* least favorite thing about them: What he did to Maya and the fact that he felt no remorse and the way he treated Yael when they came out as NB.

* favorite line: “Real world people always disappoint, online I’m a hero. You wanna live IRL, go ahead noob. And if you ever tell anyone what we did in the Meadow of Zorrath I’ll find you and turn you into a troll.” (This storyline was hillarious as much as I hate Hunter now I’ll always enjoy that storyline).

* brOTP: Hunter/a garbage can

* OTP: Hunter/a dumpster

* nOTP: Hunter/Yael

* random headcanon: All his friends stopped talking to him cause he sucks

* unpopular opinion: He should have apologized to Maya. He never had any kind of redemption and his MI storyline while it could have been interesting was just used to excuse his actions and nothing will convince me otherwise because they completely dropped it after 1 episode

* song i associate with them

* favorite picture of them

#maya-matlin #answered

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sol1056 · 5 years

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multipart ask on Keith

I would honestly love your thoughts on Keith’s character development, specifically him leaving for the Blades in S4. Personally I’ve always been on a fence with how they wrote Keith’s character after that. For one, he started as a lone wolf and I always thought they would subvert that along the way with more character interactions and team building episodes like in S1, but apparently S4 throws all of that away. I thought him forcibly being the leader of voltron would be a great opportunity for development but Shiro takes his place in the black lion and Keith just leaves.

It really didn't help with all the signs pointing as him as the true leader of voltron when he barely even interacted with the team personally (except for shiro) after that point. To top it all off his “maturation” was a two year time skip montage with his mom and he suddenly became level headed and ready to fly Black. So when he finally returns and become the leader of voltron it felt a bit underwhelming and hollow. To be honest I also find his interaction with the team afterwards kinda out of character [...]

I just wanted to hear from a writers perspective if Keith leaving was a good idea for his character in general. He had some really good scenes in his time with the Blades but i personally think in exchange it took way too much [away from] his development with the others. I also wonder if it's even possible [to execute well] leaving for the Blades and then becoming the leader of Voltron.

Here’s a general rule: avoid leaving any of your protagonists at a bus stop.

A few chapters is already pushing it; the equivalent of 1.5 seasons is out of the question for all but the most superlative of writers. I’ve met superlative, and believe me, no one on the VLD staff qualifies. If they did, they wouldn’t have been writing for VLD in the first place.

The start of S4 will forever baffle me. Had S3/S4 been broadcast as a complete season, I might’ve assumed there was a technical error, and would’ve tweeted at Netflix and not returned to watch until I got word this really was the midpoint episode. No warning, no foreshadowing, not even a peep out of Keith, and suddenly he’s working with the Blades.

In an ensemble cast, the point is that it’s an ensemble; you don’t forget one of your core cast at the bus stop while the story-bus trundles on. If Keith were meant as a protagonist, then sidelining him for 1.5 seasons is an even worse crime. If the intent of the story, thematically, is 'stronger together’, shoving one of them out of the picture is pretty much the antithesis.

This is not to say you can’t do it; in hindsight, I think the clone should’ve been shelved and the real Shiro returned at the end of S3/S4. But that comes with the assumption that a) the team would struggle a great deal more in his absence, b) prompting development that would create a new dynamic once Shiro returned, and c) that Shiro himself would change in some degree, from/during his absence: one that, by definition, that would need to be complete.

In other words, if you’re going to remove a protagonist, two things must happen. One, they must be removed, which Keith wasn’t. The story checks in on him irregularly, and each time, he's treading water while the story moves on. Two, the absence must become a driver: in a sense, the absence is a presence of what’s missing, and regaining the character must be paramount.

VLD put minor effort into recognizing the impact of Shiro’s absence, limited mostly to the torture-porn of watching Keith isolated in (and by) grief. It couldn’t even be bothered to do that much, when it was Keith’s turn to fall off the team. No one missed him, no one needed him. The result was a clear message there was nothing Keith brought to the team that couldn’t be done by someone else. There was no presence in his absence.

Consider the few scenes in S4-S6 with anything of Keith. His storyline did nothing to push the main story forward. In S4, the Blades are focused on tracking a new quintessence, a subplot that discovers nothing, provides no twists, and goes nowhere. In S5, despite Keith being with the Blades, the two groups have dropped communication to such degree that neither is aware of the other’s participation in the Kral Zera.

If you’re determined to leave a protagonist in another castle, for heaven’s sake, use that distance to allow them to continue to impact the main storyline. Make their absence into a working presence that can link the two groups; the complete radio silence just underlines how meaningless the story considers Keith, in the overall plot.

In that light, Kolivan’s left-field decision for Keith to extract Krolia feels like VLD was grasping at straws, trying to find something to occupy Keith. Worse, that mission contradicts S4: the quintessence is no longer blue, no longer notable for its energy levels, and no longer transported to secret bases in massive quantities by major warships. It’s back to the usual maroon, carried on small cargo ships in limited quantities, and now a dangerous substance with questionable side-effects.

In a nutshell, VLD left Keith mired in pointless actions with no bearing on the rest of the characters (hello, suicide attempt never mentioned again). Late S5, VLD realized it needed to get a move on, if Keith was to get an upgrade. So it took the easy way out: an overload of exposition flashbacks that neatly evaded any emotional beats between Keith and Krolia. VLD had no idea how to get Keith from point A to around point K, so it settled for just telling us Keith had grown up. On a space whale.

Had we been given a better reason (or any reason) for Keith joining the Blades, had we been given a hefty sub-plot for Keith that led him back to the team in an organic fashion (or at least dovetailed with the main throughline), had the story used those seasons to show us Keith learning with the Blades in a way he couldn’t or wouldn’t with the team... well, for one thing, it’d still contradict the ‘found family’ and ‘stronger together’ themes, since it’d be even more clear that Keith was stronger elsewhere.

But setting that aside, at the very least, Keith wouldn’t have returned feeling he’d gotten a personality transplant. We would’ve seen his progression, such that any given point along the way would’ve been recognizably Keith, even if the starting and ending points were almost a one-eighty. It’s called character development; most stories do it as a matter of course.

I’m left concluding that the creators genuinely don’t grasp that characters will change per their experiences. It’s a crucial element in storytelling, because characters are the core of any story. If you can’t figure out what would make a character choose A this time and B next time, you’re failing on one of the most fundamental aspects of characterization. In fact, you’re missing the entire point of a story: character choices are the plot.

I do have to take exception to ‘signs pointing to [Keith] as the true leader.’ I’ve posted before about the mentor trope, and how Shiro’s S1/S2 arc contradicts Keith as Black Paladin. I suggest you read those before coming at me with the assumption VLD did any of the work required to establish Keith's leadership as inevitable.

It’s possible to have someone strike out on their own, learn valuable lessons, and return grown-up and able to handle the situation they’d originally fled. It’d be a very different story, though, one that isn’t focused on a titular robot, but on a single protagonist’s journey. It’d also be a story that has nothing to do with ‘stronger together,’ as the movement away (to learn) and back (to reclaim) means the protagonist only became stronger when they weren’t with the rest.

Keith taking command of Black in S6 should feel like a victory in terms of his arc: where once he’d recoiled, now he steps forward. But since we never saw how or why his perspective changed about leadership, all it would’ve taken is a subtle shift in Yeun’s delivery and we could be talking instead about how Keith returned and was still in his ‘you want me to lead, this is how I lead’ pique.

Shiro’s return creates another turning point where the question would be logically raised, and it’s almost as though (once again) there’s an episode or two we didn’t get. It’d be reasonable for someone to raise the question of whether the team now swaps again. Yet no one does, and we’re supposed to expect Keith --- who waved the little ‘Shiro is Black’ banner far more and for far longer than any other character --- is now content to command Black, with no need to even broach the topic.

That’s a radically different perspective Keith shows in S7 onward, and it’s a problem created by the lack of development for Keith, in S4-S6. In the course of a single episode, we literally went from Keith being his slightly out-of-his-emotional-depth awkward self, to someone clear-eyed and commanding almost to the point of arrogance. It’s not helped when his original characterization returns for the duration of his fight with Shiro --- only to blip out again as soon as Keith returns to the team.

And forcing that abrupt shift on Keith’s part meant the rest of the story (and the characters) got shoved around into their respective places and out of shape, as well. Stories are made of characters, and characters are dominos. You knock one over, and it has a cascade effect. Changing Keith from the character we knew to someone else wearing his face could not happen in isolation, and every character around him suffered as well.

Like Shiro and Lance, Keith had major potential to be a groundbreaking character. He was introduced as the kind of independent, socially awkward, spitfire character usually pushed to the forefront in American media, yet S1/S2 gave him a solid place as Shiro’s greatest supporter. Keith had all the makings of a hero we rarely see: someone who truly believes the title of leader is beside the point, that the team is what matters.

I’m used to Gundam, which almost always strives for a resting place of five (or four) protagonists standing shoulder-to-shoulder. There might be one among their ranks who gets the central position, but the narrative is firmly consistent that should the team lose any one person, it would fall apart. There’s no need to ever tell us the team is ‘stronger together,’ we can see that lesson play out, over and over, whenever the team is divided, split up, or loses someone.

AtLA followed a similar pattern; by the end, it’s obvious the strengths each person brings to the final battle. There’s no question that every single one is crucial for victory; there’s no point where someone leaves and there’s not immediate and significant impact on the remaining characters’ successes. Sure, Sokka may not be able to bend like the rest of them, but without his brains, they’d be sunk. Katara, Toph, and Zuko might not be able to bend every element, but if any one of them isn’t there, the team is going down. Aang may command the central position, but he can’t do it all on his own.

While AtLA shone in having characters who visually broke the mold of our usual white-dominated, male-dominated American cartoons, it also broke away from the lead hero + band of intrepid (but far less capable) sidekicks. Like Gundam, it presented a group of characters who grew into a true team. The pictures might show Aang in the middle, but every one else contributes an equal amount, in their own way.

VLD had the makings in its first two seasons to go that route. But its EPs wanted dark and edgy, a perspective too cynical to embrace the optimism inherent in a team-based story. Sure, their deconstruction of VLD’s S1/S2 trope-subversions brought the story to a point where Keith was declared the definitive top guy, the true Black Paladin, head of the paladins.

Thing is, pushing Keith into that position required altering his personality beyond all recognition, destroying the team dynamic, and gutting any chance of recognizing the other characters as equally integral to team success. In effect, making Keith the de facto leader required destroying the team: and what’s the point of leadership, then?

#vld #voltron #characterization #character arcs #analysis #sol thinks about stuff

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twdmusicboxmystery · 5 years

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9x14: Scars - Details and an Epiphany!

As I said yesterday, this episode was loaded with parallels, most of it very subtle. If you haven’t read my post from yesterday, click on the link and read it because I’ll be referencing it a lot here. The other great thing about this episode is that it seems every scene and line of dialogue is packed full of callbacks and parallels. I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of them.

***As always, spoilers abound for TWD 9x14. Don’t read until you’ve watched! You’ve been warned!***

The short of it is that Rick and Michonne’s story is closely mirroring Beth and Daryl’s (one member gone and presumed dead by the other).

We saw some water symbols, such as when Michonne and Daryl searched for Rick's corpse by a body of water. Daryl said he'd followed it all the way to the ocean. We've seen a lot of ocean symbolism around Beth, especially in conjunction with Oceanside. Now, that cannot extend to Rick. So, the two people believed dead by TF but who we know are alive will probably both returned by ocean. So that reinforces that Rick/Michonne are going through the same arc as Beth and Daryl.

In that same conversation, Michonne asks Daryl if he's coming back to Alexandria. He says yes, once he finds something. Michonne says, "Plenty of reasons to come back. Finding something doesn't have to be one of them." I think that's part of the, "we get to come back," theme.

Of course, Daryl says he will never stop looking, and we definitely want to compare that to him looking for breath after she disappeared. Again, because the arcs are the same, this confirms what we’ve always theorized: that Daryl looked for Beth but never found her. Just as he’s never found Rick.

Then there's the sad line where Michonne asks if he's okay being alone. First of all, part of the “it’s okay/not okay” theme. When I saw this scene before the episode aired in a sneak peek, I actually this interaction. I thought Daryl said, “Yes,” but he didn’t. He simply nodded and then asked Michonne, "You?"

So, when Michonne replies, "I'm not." I thought she meant she was not okay being alone. But what she really meant is that she wasn't alone because she had the baby.

This line is actually much sadder for Daryl because he is alone. I think we all know him saying he’s okay being alone is a load of crap, given his reaction to Beth’s statement about him being the last man standing. The most obvious parallel here is to be episode Alone from S4. Obviously Daryl has been alone in the woods for several years after the time jump, and he is surviving, but he's not really okay. (Beth: "it's not okay.")

And I know Michonne didn't mean anything negative, by it, but it's really kind of insensitive thing to say to Daryl. After all, he doesn't have Beth’s baby to remember her bad, does he?

Michonne finds Rick's gun, which is a lot like Daryl getting Beth’s knife. I can't help but wonder what this means for how Carol came to have Beth’s knife. Because, as we’ve established, this is such a close parallel to Beth and Daryl, we can draw conclusions from what they’re showing us here. So did Carol find Beth’s knife in the mud somewhere AFTER her body went missing? The parallel probably won’t be that close, but we really don’t know what went down during that missing 17 days, and I’m willing to be that in a broad way, the parallel to how Michonne found Rick’s gun will be direct.

I noticed when Michonne puts Rick’s gun in Judith’s box, there's a picture behind her with purple flowers in it. That jumped out at me because I remember in S7, when Maggie woke up at Hilltop after Glenn died, there were purple flowers that looked exactly like those ones. Because of the way they showed Maggie wake up, we compared it to Beth waking up to Grady. We also saw similar flowers when Rick woke up in the hospital in S1. I’ll talk more about this at the end, but it could be a tie to Beth at Grady, or simply to Maggie having lost Glenn at that point. Michonne has lost Rick for all intents and purposes right now.

When Daryl and his group arrived at Alexandria, I noticed a couple of random references in the dialogue. Connie holds up a note to Michonne and says she wished she had worn different shoes.

Super random, and kinda funny, but I wonder if it's a reference to the lost shoe/foot theme. I also noticed animal cages hanging in the background. They’re square, not like the rounded birdcage we saw in Beth’s cell, but still similar.

We all agreed that Henry’s scar reminded us of Beth’s. Probably just because you can see the stitching. Henry, with all the Beth parallels he's had this season, now has a scar.

Aaron tells Daryl that he once told him he would be a great dad and it turned out to be true. A couple of things about this. It does show that what Aaron said back then was a foreshadow. (Another thing TD has been written about.) And we did suggest that, while we do think Daryl will eventually have his own children, a part of that could have foreshadowed him being a father figure to Lydia and Henry. This is a confirmation that that was the case.

(Quick aside: those people to swore to high heaven Daryl would have a romance with Lydia? TD was right about that too. Definitely not a romance, and he is definitely a father figure to her. Daryl didn't even bother denying it in this conversation. Just saying.)

You could argue that the father foreshadow ONLY referred to Henry and Lydia, but I don't think so. My evidence for it comes from this same conversation. Aaron specifically says, “you got to skip the exploding diaper part,” to which Daryl replies, “A lot’s changed. Back then, we were still building bridges.” It feels like a contradiction of what Aaron said, which to me says Daryl may have to deal with the diaper situation at some point.

The dialogue itself is also important. “A lot’s changed,” is a callback to Beth’s, “I wish I could just change.” And then there’s the Bridge Theory.

There is a part where RJ asks for more tomatoes. We’ve seen the tomato symbol a lot. In general, they represent peace and prosperity. I'm not sure where they had RJ asked for them. Perhaps to show that RJ is doing well at Alexandria, or perhaps because Michonne thinks there is peace there, which right now there largely is. It's right after that, the Judith goes missing.

When she finds Judith gone, Michonne goes to see Negan. He makes an interesting horse reference. When he realizes Judith is missing, he says, "maybe she's off petting a horse." The way he's using it in context is to say, maybe she’s off doing something idle or little-girlish. But we know she's not. He says she's Michonne's daughter and, like Michonne, she's not taking shit going down.

The first thing petting the horse made me think of was Daryl and Buttons, which happened in S5, right after Beth. We can also point out the Horse Theory in general. So, not sure exactly why they used this line here, but it's interesting. Again, with how closely this whole thing is paralleling Beth and Daryl, the horse reference makes a certain amount of sense.

Judith took Rick’s gun and left a note. Naturally, we always went to compare any written notes to Beth.

We also saw a super-random bicycle in the middle of the woods, maybe meant to be Judith’s? I’m honestly not sure what to make of that yet, but it was obviously a symbol of something, and it was mostly yellow (Beth color). I know a revamp of my bicycle theory is long past due, so I may come back to this.

Overall, I thought the end of this episode was very sweet and very good in showing not only Michonne and Judith bonding, but Michonne’s character development.

I gotta say, I loved the horse drawn minivan.

So, in a more general way, this tells us a lot about Michonne’s new attitude at the beginning of this arc, why she wouldn't let people in, etc. It was a flawed way of thinking, but after seeing what happened, we understand more where she's coming from. It does seem that she's now moving back toward the Michonne she used to be and what Rick and Carl would have wanted.

Quick note: While this does explain a lot of the questions we had about the time jump, it definitely doesn't explain them all. It doesn't explain why Tara, specifically, was so angry at Michonne. Even in the flashback with Carol and Tara and Jesus, Tara’s says Michonne isn’t her favorite person these days. She’s already very angry with her. Maybe it's just because Michonne decided not to let people in, but Tara's anger almost seems a little too heavy for that. So, we don't know specifically why Hilltop is angry at Michonne. We don't know why they all dropped their farming tools and ran inside the gates when they heard riders coming.

We also still don't know how Daryl lost the wing on his vest. When I noticed he had both wings when the flashback started, I thought when he got shot by the arrow by one of the kids, maybe somehow that made the wing fall off his vest. But I did find this shot when they returned Alexandria with the kids, and both wings are still on Daryl's vest. So still not know how that happened either.

We also don’t know how he got the scar over his eye, as that doesn’t seem to have been a result of this incident either. So again, he answers a lot of the questions we had, but not all. Other stuff must have happened to result in the rest.

Jocelyn:

Jocelyn, who just so happens to know Michonne—Denise Huth confirmed on TTD that it was a mere coincidence that Michonne ran into someone she'd known before the turn—pretends to be hurt and needs help finding the kids she's caring for. Michonne and some others going find them in an abandoned building and bring them back to Alexandria.

They employed a TON of dialogue foreshadow in these flashbacks. Some for what would happen later on (still in the flashbacks) and others for what's happening in the present with Whisperers.

When Michonne went to get the children from that abandoned building, there are diagrams of how to string animals up for gutting. An obvious foreshadow of her and Daryl being strung up in a similar way and branded. The animals in the diagrams were even cows. And what animal is most famously branded? Cattle.

Which, btw, we can relate back to Carol and Mary at Terminus. “You’re either the cattle or the butcher.” In this case, Jocelyn’s group = Terminus and TF had fallen prey to their “mask of evil” as Daryl would have called it. A lot of things in this episode felt like Terminus, actually.

The second chart shows rabbits. Remember that Lizzie also killed rabbits.

When Jocelyn makes off with the Alexandria kids, they disappear through the drain tunnels in the ground. This is really an interesting callback. I think Michonne’s terror comes mostly (other than the fact that Judith is gone) from the fact that she probably associates the tunnels with Carl's death. It was down there, after all, that she found out he'd been bitten. Now Judith, her other child, has disappeared via that same route.

But the other thing I really want to callback to is when we first found out about that the existence of those tunnels, when Maggie went looking for Glenn in S6. She and Aaron went down there, but didn't end up actually leaving to look for Glenn. Why is that important? First off, because that was during Glenn’s death fake out. There was a million parallels between Glenn and Beth during that fake out.

Also, earlier in S5 we learned that Alexandria had exiled three people. The walkers Maggie and Aaron ran into in those tunnels were confirmed to be some of the people who’d been exiled. So just as Jocelyn went down through that drain to escape Alexandria, we saw others doing the same in the midst of Glenn’s death fake out. Which in turn had lots of parallels to Beth. (I promise I’ll tie that all together at the end. Bear with me.)

Okay, Daryl and Michonne at the abandoned playground. As I said yesterday, ots of people picked up on Daryl's line about how some people are evil, but they hide it, as if wearing a mask. That’s a perfect example of how they’re foreshadowing what's going on in the present day with the Whisperers, which is why I think this Jocelyn thing will replay at some point during the Whisperer arc.

Earlier, when Jocelyn and all her kids are at Alexandria, a couple of interesting things. We see them all playing “the quiet game.” I seemed just a little bit random to me. Maybe a foreshadow of Connie and her being deaf, but the quiet game is about not talking, more than it is about not hearing. And given that Jocelyn's group turned out to be evil, I feel like this is a sinister foreshadowing of some kind. Something we haven't seen fulfilled yet. Like maybe someone isn’t able to be quiet and it means their death. We did have the crying baby, which Connie saved, but that doesn’t ring true to me either. I'm not sure, but this was just so random, I think it has to lead to something.

When talking to Jocelyn, Michonne says that when she heard Jocelyn's kids could hunt, she assumed it would be a few squirrels and a slingshot. The slingshot is an obvious foreshadow of Connie. I also noticed that when Jocelyn told the story about Michonne getting signatures for a petition in high school, she showed up at some "fancy ass Regent’s dinner” with double the number of signatures she needed. Regent is another word for ruler or King. Fancy academic dinners often have names like that. But I couldn't help but think that foreshadowed Michonne showing up at the Regent’s (King Ezekiel’s fancy ass fair). See what I mean about how they were using dialogue foreshadows for the present day?

When Michonne and Daryl get free, they split up and I noticed that Michonne grabs a water pipe. (Water =s Beth).

She drops it after fighting the kids I the hallway in favor of her katana (which one of the kids had). Yet another way to show that this arc is being paralleled with Beth in some way. Because Michonne wielded the water pipe as a weapon, I also thought it could be a way to show that Beth is the weapon they will use to defeat this (or some other *coughs Alpha*) evil group.

Michonne kills Jocelyn and then all the kids still try to kill her. I thought alternating between Michonne killing walkers in the present (while looking for Judith) rather than showing her kill the kids was really smart way. Obviously, the alternative would've been a lot darker and probably not allowed on TV.

Everything works out, Judith and all the Alexandrian kids are found, and there's a happy reunion.

Winnie does get away, which is super-interesting. As I said yesterday, I think she’ll resurface, but just a couple of details about her. Since this happened roughly 5 years ago, I think she could be with the Whisperers. Even though she’s evil, I naturally want to read into the fact that she was part of this group who disappeared, and no one knows where she is now. Feels like an anti-Beth thing. Oh, and she's blonde. I mean, I would've read into her as a Beth parallel one way or the other, but they just so happened to make her blonde. Just saying.

I will mention one point of unreality in all of this. No way all the parents from Alexandria wouldn't have been there to help get their kids back. I get that in terms of the story, they needed Michonne and Daryl to bond and go through something together, just the two of them. It has everything to do with the parallels to Beth and Daryl’s arc. But no way those parents would have just twiddled their thumbs in Alexandria while Michonne (pregnant lady) and Daryl went to get the kids. Just doesn't happen my friends. But since I know what the show was trying to accomplish, I'll let it slide. ;D

Okay, in closing, I said there was something I wanted to pull together at the end. This was a small but kind of important epiphany I had while writing this post and thinking about the episode. I’m surprised it didn’t occur to me sooner, but now that I say that, I realize it really couldn’t have until I formulated the “Carzekiel will also get a death fake out” theory. In other words, I couldn’t have put it all together until this season.

Many of my past leadership predictions for Michonne and Carol (and by extension belief that Beth will lead as well) are based on one of her lines during her and Daryl’s fight in Still. “I’m not Michonne, I’m not Carol, I’m not Maggie…but I made it.” Anyone who’s followed me long knows I can really beat this line and it’s symbolism to death.

Many TDers made early predictions about it that didn’t pan out. Or else we had theories…but they had holes in them. The leadership is the one that really seemed to work out for us. Maggie leading at Hilltop, Carol at the Kingdom, and Michonne at Alexandria. So by definition, Beth will have to lead somewhere, sometime too, and we definitely didn’t see that before Coda.

Minor aside: this is yet another reason I do think it will be Ezekiel, rather than Carol who is “just gone.” Because I think Carol will have to lead alone at the Kingdom for a time, just as Michonne is leading without Rick and Maggie led at Hilltop after losing Glenn. By the same token, if Beth woke up alone, then she lost Daryl as much as he lost her, and might have started leading at any time after that. We simply don’t know yet.

Anyway, so the epiphany I had was that three of the four ladies mentioned in Beth’s line in Still—Michonne, Carol, and Beth herself—all had death fake out arcs. So I had the thought that maybe her line foreshadowed that.

The odd one out is Glenn and Maggie. Because, although I obviously believe Beth is alive, we know Rick is, and I think the same will be true of Ezekiel, I do NOT think Glenn is coming back. I doubt anyone does.

Well, it took all of about twenty seconds for it to click for me. Glenn ISN’T coming back, but he already had his death fake out. In season 6.

So this line did foreshadow that these four couples would all have a death fake out. We know they planned from very early on that Negan would indeed kill Glenn, just as in the CBs, so they had to do something a little different with his fake out. The whole point of doing it in S6 was to include him and Maggie in this arc. And it really wasn’t even a matter of him being paralleled with Beth per se (I mean, it WAS, because hers was the only fake out that had happened at that point; Richonne’s and Carzekiel’s wouldn’t come for several more seasons) but rather that the same symbolism has been and will be employed in each case because they’re all following the same arc.

Hence, the Sirius/Serious piggyback images we’ve seen around Carzekiel, the hand-holding, the clocks…

I think the writers figured out the major characters that people loved from the first three seasons—which included Rick and Michonne, Daryl, Carol, Glenn and Maggie—and figured out who their love interests would be in the long term. These are the four main couples of the apocalypse. There have been other awesome couples, sure, but these are the most mainstream and epic. These are the couples who were given death fake outs and resurrection arcs. Glenn’s was simply shorter than the others, spanning only a few episodes where Bethyl’s spanned several seasons. I’m assuming Michonne will figure out about Rick sometime next season, and of course we have no idea what kind of time span Carzekiel will have, but you get the idea.

So, for what I said earlier: this is why the purple flowers behind Michonne—the same ones we saw Maggie wake up to RIGHT after Glenn died—are important. It’s why the tunnels being part of this Jocelyn story are important. We first saw them in the midst of Glenn’s death fake out. It’s also why the Xs are important. Michonne and Daryl both have them—rather than other characters—because they’re both part of this same arc. See what I mean?

So yeah, that was my other other epiphany. :D And it, you know, makes me happy. *Does creepy TD dance*

#beth green #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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riddledeep · 5 years

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Preening Signals

Preening is a mutual exchange of pheromones between Fairies and/or Pixies, and signals dominance and submission in social settings. These licking rituals are most famously observed between gynes and drones, but can be used in other settings too. Preening also occurs between ambassadors, between CEOs about to sign an important agreement, and between parents and spunky children.

Preening licks are not as common in modern times as they were in previous centuries. They’ve begun to fade out of fashion in Fairy World (though in Pixie World preening is expected and polite). Preening licks are initiated after handshakes or similar greetings. Although this isn’t technically a rule, it’s somewhat expected that anyone performing licks will be practiced enough to keep their eyes closed while the one who receives licks will keep theirs open.

24 standard licking patterns are used in preening rituals. 12 are dominant signals, which are placed on the forehead, and 12 are subordinate signals, which are placed on the neck. Each signal carries a slightly different message about the relationship between the two preening partners. Patterns are woven out of the different signals.

The 24 standard licking patterns are shown and further discussed below.

OVERVIEW

Preening is a crucial aspect of Seelie Court culture, so both Fairies and Pixies treat it as an intimate but non-romantic & non-sexual interaction. Anti-Fairies, who do not have insect behaviors, often have difficulty accepting preening as a non-sexual behavior since they have bat behaviors, and bats lick one another during courtship. Male and female Fairies both participate in social preening.

Traditionally, it’s considered unacceptable for Fairies to preen with Anti-Fairies, mostly because Anti-Fairies are furry and therefore seen as gross to lick. As a result, preening with major Anti-Fairy figureheads (namely the High Count) is a gray area that makes Fairies uncomfortable.

H.P. was the first (and so far only) political leader to extend the offer of preening to Anti-Cosmo. While they may get on one another’s nerves at times, those two are fairly close and make no secret about it.

DISCLAIMER - The eusocial gyne/drone structure is an integral part of Fairy biology. Don’t assume gyne/drone relationships are inherently abusive or dehumanizing. Also, please don’t read my fanfics about the cultures of magical anthropomorphic insect people and interpret them as me promoting slavery or abuse. I’m just a high fantasy author who researches animal behavior in my career, so that’s what my fanfics reflect. What’s healthy for bug people may not be what’s healthy for humans. Please don’t lick your friends.

DOMINANCE SIGNALS

D1 - Forehead Stripe

The D1 signal carries a message along the lines of “I think I should be in charge.” It is performed by placing the tongue just above the nose and slowly drawing upward.

D2 - Forehead Zigzag

The D2 signal carries a message along the lines of “Good job.” It is performed by placing the tongue just above the nose and quickly zigzagging upward.

D3 - Forehead Spiral

The D3 signal carries a message along the lines of “I welcome you.” It is performed by placing the tongue just above the nose and quickly swirling upward to the right.

D4 - Forehead Flower

The D4 signal carries a message along the lines of “I hold power.” It is performed by placing the tongue just above the nose and quickly drawing three upward strokes from left to right.

D5 - Horizon Mark

The D5 signal carries a message along the lines of “You really need to stop.” It is performed by placing the tongue near the ear and slowly drawing a wavy mark from left to right.

D6 - Cheek Stripes

The D6 signal carries a message along the lines of “Check yourself.” It is performed by first placing the tongue just above the chin and slowly drawing upward to the left. The tongue is then removed and placed on the right cheek, followed by quickly drawing downward.

D7 - Forehead Sweep

The D7 signal carries a message along the lines of “I won’t warn again.” It is performed by placing the tongue just above the nose and slowly drawing a large upward sweep to the left.

D8 - Cheek Scoop

The D8 signal carries a message along the lines of “You make me uncertain.” It is performed by placing the tongue just above the nose and slowly drawing a large downward scoop below the eye towards the ear.

D9 - Full Face Stripe

The D9 signal carries a message along the lines of “No, I am in charge.” It is performed by placing the tongue against the chin and slowly drawing upward across the entire face.

This is the most dominant of all the preening signals. It’s usually used out of preening context as a “Shut up and listen to me” mark.

If used in the context of preening, it rarely precedes D10.

D10 - Low Cut

The D10 signal carries a message along the lines of “I’m watching you.” It is performed by placing the tongue against the chin and slowly drawing upward, stopping at the nose.

This is a warning signal; subordinates tend to correct their behavior after receiving this signal. Only someone intentionally being difficult would refuse, in which case the D9 mark may follow.

D11 - Forehead Dot

The D11 signal carries a message along the lines of “We’re mostly equals; this is just a formality.” It is performed by dabbing the tongue above the nose.

This mark is commonly used when political leaders preen, but never used between gynes and drones.

This is a brief, casual mark very common nowadays. Briefly touching your tongue to someone’s forehead like this indicates that you’re willing to show them respect through preening, but life is busy and taking the time for a full preen would be impractical at the moment.

D12 - Forehead Dash

The D12 signal carries a message along the lines of “I appreciate you.” It is performed by placing the tongue above the “left” eye and quickly drawing to the right.

SUBORDINATE SIGNALS

Note: When performing submissive licks with an Anti-Fairy, it’s courteous to avoid licking the left side of their neck, where the karmic pouch is located. Instead, those signals are made on the right side of their neck.

S1 - Sorry Stripes

The S1 signal carries a message along the lines of “I'm sorry.” It is performed by placing the tongue against the “left” side of the neck and performing two quick upward strokes.

In Fairy culture, it’s very common for someone to double-tap two fingers to the right side of their neck to symbolize an apology.

S2 - Throat Zigzag

The S2 signal carries a message along the lines of “You can trust me.” It is performed by placing the tongue against the “left” side of the neck and quickly zigzagging to the “right.”

S3 - Collarbone Curl

The S3 signal carries a message along the lines of “No reason to fear.” It is performed by placing the tongue against the collarbone and quickly swirling upward.

S4 - Granting Mark

The S4 signal carries a message along the lines of “I am yours.” It is performed by placing the tongue just above the nose and slowly drawing upward before removing the tongue and slowly drawing a second, shorter mark downward.

S5 - Throat Bounce

The S5 signal carries a message along the lines of “I am blessed to be here, and I thank you for this opportunity.” It is performed by placing the tongue against the collar and quickly drawing a bouncing zigzag / swirl design to the left.

S6 - Double Throat Slice

The S6 signal carries a message along the lines of “I humbly ask” or “Please, I deeply beg you.” It is performed by placing the tongue just above the nose and drawing the upper stripe from left to right, then the lower stripe from right to left. Finally, the “slice” is made downwards.

A slow sweep indicates importance, but isn’t seen as urgent.

A rapid signal delivered “all in one breath” signals urgency.

S7 - Chin Sweep

The S7 signal carries a message along the lines of “Thank you.” It is performed by placing the tongue against the throat and slowly drawing upward.

Delivering this signal too fast is considered an insult.

S8 - Bramble Mark

The S8 signal carries a message along the lines of “I feel most honored.” It is performed by placing the tongue to the chin and drawing a sweeping downward swirl, then accenting it with two dashes.

Delivering the lower dash on the wrong side of the collarbone is considered a faux pas. It’s meant to go below the throat.

S9 - Chin Crosshatch

The S9 signal carries a message along the lines of “I want your help.” It is performed by slowly drawing a crosshatch on the underside of the chin.

This is Longwood’s signature submissive lick. Sanderson hates using it; H.P. has described Sanderson’s S9′s as “fast, sloppy, and sulking.”

S10 - Collar Cut

The S10 signal carries a message along the lines of “I'm glad you came.” It is performed by placing the tongue against the “right” side of the neck and quickly drawing a single zigzagging sweep.

This is considered a rather intimate signal, as it passes directly across the windpipe.

S11 - Throat Vine

The S11 signal carries a message along the lines of “I wish you well.” It is performed by placing the tongue against the neck and slowly drawing from right to left, then slowly drawing an upward “leaf” on the “stem.”

This is considered a rather intimate signal, as it passes directly across the windpipe.

S12 - Double Infinity

The S12 signal carries a message along the lines of “You are my equal.” It is performed by placing the tongue against the collar and slowly drawing two intertwined infinity signs.

This mark is commonly used when political leaders preen, but never used between gynes and drones.

#RD Fairy stuff #RD Pixie stuff #RD worldbuilding #RD cloudland culture

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incarnateirony · 6 years

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Regarding: “Original SPN”

And not a rant re: hypocrisy on "Kripke's vision", but the shift in tone in the show that draws protest from certain wings. In fact, some level of agreement, but not to the threshold they would want.

Once in a while I task myself to a ground-up rewatch; currently I have a review project to bulk out for a new SPN fansite a friend is running, involving that. So again, I booted up 1x1-2-etc.

Kripke favored a strong survival-horror genre. In the timeline we began, the "gamer dudes" of 1x2 had FRONT LINE technology in the form of the first brick of the DS and one of those blackberry looking abominations. Sam and Dean spent 1x1 huddled around a library computer using a search engine that looked like some webcrawler sh*t.

And that's just it. It was 2005. And while that doesn't sound that long ago to many of us - culturally, that's a short eternity.

Kripke chose wisely with David Nutter directing and producing his first two episodes. Nutter excels in taking a few episodes of a show and pitching it into a powerful tone that feels like its own movie. Most of us know him by his work in Game of Thrones, wherein he puts more work in than his normal tenure of 1-3 eps and moving on. And while some of our direction waffled, there's a distinct difference in the level of engagement Sam and Dean have in these seasons. HOWEVER- and most CRITICAL-

When Kripke started SPN, he had an idea: two brothers and the road, surviving in an intensive horror genre. But also, apocalypse was the end game, an issuance to divine and cosmic relevance of the characters. At first, Anna was slated to be Dean's hand and Ruby Sam's, but due to ... /issues/ - we'll put it like that - McNiven and Collins were traded, as were the intentions of their character arcs, within a few episodes.

By 2009 the world had already begun to change around SPN just as this advent kicked off. Social media had been rapidly expanding in a few years. Data-capable, mini-computer cellphones were becoming the commonality in the hands of the population with each passing day; laptops weren't 20 pound dreams for rich folk anymore. And horror was less the drive of the apocalypse story ridge, rather than a fantasy tilt.

This of course bears no relevance to my mention of Sam & Dean's engagement yet, but is instead setting the scene for the transition that happened.

As Kripke's vision began to manifest in its final chapters (S4-5), Supernatural tilted into a higher fantasy genre; and yes, it ran its course. While the show was successful enough to continue on past the original 5 year plan, several things had changed:

Technology threshold of the world, changing the survival scheme If Sam and Dean were going to remain any way competent, they had to upgrade, and suddenly, it's a lot harder to constantly have no phone/connection/way to search; as a result, our baseline tone graduated partially due to this but also,

Power threshold of the world has escalated, Because once you've made bundles of friends in high places, how do you expect to reset the show back to purely monsters of the week and have that be any kind of threat or interest to the GA?

In theory, one might say the moments would stay the same, but many stories ran their course: The struggle with Jess' death, the need to vindicate it by finding John The mystery of the demon, the deals made.

And in result, the moments that /drove/ our initial deepest, most intensive brother moments had gone up in smoke. And yes, we can always brew up new reasons for brother moments, but without the rosy glasses of nostalgia, looking in review, the deep and critical impact seeding under the initial moments drawing remembrance would literally never be there again. Trying to even draw another situation so deeply framed without calling on other bonds drawn through the show is, itself, a wildly critical error as at best we'd have to continue to retroactively patch in giant swaths of childhood history that was already very clearly framed and mapped out by the end of S5.

With the inability to set back to the original power threshold, the inability to realistically reset to the original technology threshold, the inability to reset to the original shared drive and struggle, and the inability to reset thus back to the original survival vein that motivated the characters, those moments would literally never be able to be framed the same way again. And that's not a problem - that's Kripke's vision. Kripke wanted S5 to escalate. And if you didn't want to watch the show after that escalation, and only want to hold to what is deemed the original vision, then it is advised to stop here. Stop trying to go back to S1-3. It is literally impossible.

In result, the only way to continue to build new drives for the brothers was to call on staple characters. While yes, I feel S6-7 handled that poorly in their management of Castiel, pretending we could just zap-back to the initial brotherly struggles and support is a distinct departure from the development and resolutions gained over the course OF Kripke's original journey. Sam's soulless? Cool, let's fix that - but past that, what does that leave? Yeah, crippling depression, we get that; Sam's in the trials? Almost hit the vein. It really tried. But it wasn't the same personal damages that initiated a shared fixation over the same topic. It was always a salve, and always needed another offset. And due to the chaos-ratings-crash that nuked out S7, removing Castiel as the offset - as an attempted solution to focus on brothers - clearly didn't work without the rest. Maybe if we could go back to 2005 where cell phones were bricks and we had to panic for library computers to get information, sure; maybe a few mental gymnastics to write some new traumatic backhistory into Dean to launch similar to how Sam launched early on. But even then, we can't turn back time. We can't erase season 4-5. It is what it is.

Kripke has since, repeatedly supported the show - so he isn't upset about its direction. But the question here is, if one is standing for the value of S1-3 we need to review what WAS the value. SPN modernized with the times and, by nature, survived. By S8, Carver tested permanent cast import and by S12, even Singer - the ultimate bro-stan - had come to acknowledge him as a lead; and that really is the dawning of SPN Part 2. It's almost a different series, as sad as it is to say. S1-3 is its own beast, extending as far as 5; the original vision. S1-5; S6-7 was a lot of chaos and figuring it out. And S8-13 is a high fantasy adventure show for all of the reasons listed above. But it literally can not be reset to the vein of 1-5. It can't. There's zero way to do it without losing the GA.

I can pitch all day into the acquisition of the phantom lead effect, the S8-9 uptick that slid us into position for S9 to be the highest season in industry curve, and talk on and on about the values of this modernization; but in a way, due to everything S4-6, 8-13 outperforming 1-3, it'll sound like I'm devaluing 1-3; and I'm not. 1-3 had a lot of great content, and in a way, I do miss those pure moments. But if I miss those moments, I turn on Netflix, boot up the old seasons, and watch it over again - because the characters, the show's world, and the real world have all changed in such a way that I know we can never realistically get that back - but I can enjoy it in nostalgia.

I just wish there was some way to really enlighten those that are literally violently nostalgic into understanding what caused this transition. That yes, I understand, and I miss those days, but if I want those days back... I just watch those days. If you don't enjoy the show now, that's... fine? Go watch the old show then. But they are literally incapable of producing a show with the base beat that's being demanded, these days. Because despite their best attempts at patching in brother episodes or moments, there's always a bundle of people saying it isn't enough, isn't the right direction - because it's not like how it used to be. But it can't be. It won't be. That is a literal impossible standard to fulfill.

So the question is: Do we continue to watch in bitterness? Can we not just go watch the seasons we love and leave others alone that like the new evolutions, leave the crew alone? If one does not want to adapt and expand, why are we here? This day can never come again; and if what is being given is not enough to fulfill them, then it may be time to consider these points. If every angle they've tried with the brothers ever SINCE the motions of the Silent Majority are not enough (5+ years), then perhaps it's time to just let it go. Since then we've had Sam and the trials, we've had Sam and Gadreel, we've had the Mark of Cain, and Amara - an equal shift of brother to brother centric storyline. S12 is a bit of a clusterfuck IMO for everyone on every side, but S13 has a different angle - and some don't like it. And that's okay, you don't have to like it, but there's absolutely no point in dragging it. Because if this modernization ruins it for you, there's no point in screaming about Kripke's Vision. Kripke's been quite clear about his support lately. This is in fact the direction his vision led. It always escalated, always ramped up, always hit a higher volume than scrubbing for ghosts and wendigos. And if that's where your interest ended... just let it go man. Nobody's putting a gun to your head to tune in or tweet about it.

The show stopped being that show at least 8, if not 10 years ago for all of the reasons above. That's an awfully long time to talk about a show being destroyed. Like... during the course of 2-3 times the amount of resulting content. It may be worth acknowledging that this is the show, period.

Have a good one, ya'll.

#Supernatural #kripke's vision #mine

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