#finally. a gifset with one of my favorite moments in the entire movie:

[elvisqueso]

Love me, love my raccoon [Part 1/3]:

—Biscuits are a love language.

#pocahontas (1995) #pocahontasedit #disneyedit #meeko #finally. a gifset with one of my favorite moments in the entire movie: #meeko handing over a lint-covered piece of hardtack as a farewell present #queso*edit #queso*gif #coloring those last two was a pAin in the ass tho #idk why. i think the natural coloring of the ground behind meeko and percy was fucking me up #love me love my racoon* #love me love my raccoon*

[taiturner]

NEW YEARS CLEAN-UP 🎊

rules: unburden yourself from the abandoned WIPS collecting dust in your folder and share 5 gifs, then tag five people. (tagged by @yenvengerberg, thank you i feel like i can do something useful with these things now 💖)

tagging with no pressure of course: @wyllhalsin, @capinejghafa, @cardvngreenbriar, @seance, @ayoedebiris, @ughmerlin, @craintheodora, @lottiemilfews, @natscatorrcio (yeah miles i'm tagging you to be funny i know what you did with those psds)

these are all from projects that i have in a folder titled "on the bench" that i want to pretend i'll come back to, but.... some of these have been benched for so long and they're no longer fresh in my head so i fear they'll be abandoned forever. should also be mentioned that a lot of projects on the bench are literally just me making all the typography first and then losing inspo when i actually wanted to gif things.... usually by the time i do start, i change my mind about the type anyway. i also have so many abandoned gifs from other gifsets i've already posted but i'm not even sure where to begin searching so... here are some things!

one of the many gifs i already created for a prompt from @yellowjacketsoctober to put the show in a different genre. ironically, a prompt that i came up with for the event specifically to make this gifset but didn't even complete. i spent so many hours and so many days trying to gif this entire arc for these three with the intent to make it a heist drama set but after so long i realized i was just giffing exactly what happened in the show and it started to feel pointless. but at least here's a preview of something that i'll never finish. my trio of all time, can they commit more crimes together please! (should also be said that this folder is 44gb because i already saved all the caps + because these psds are so heavy... new years clean up for real)

i don't know what it is about lydia that makes it so hard for me to finish any set for her, but every time i try i seem to always lose the drive eventually (probably because twd in general just feels really uninteresting for me to blend, for some reason). from a 2022 spotify wrapped meme, i'm pretty sure i restarted this specific gifset so many different times, unhappy with the colors and the blends and the text and everything -- which is why there are two very different examples here. my girl of all time though i will finish something for her eventually (and maybe even this one, because this song is still so good for her).

one of the many gifs that were abandoned by my scream vi set for favorite slasher in october. when tumblr first changed the image upload limit to 30, i promised myself to never take advantage of that too much, but i severely underestimated how many moments i would want to include for this movie and i made so many other gifs for this set but ultimately cut them so i could try to tone it down - 18 gifs in this set still feels like a lot but i spent so much time on this set that it was hard to part with many more. anyway here's sam being the hottest final girl in the world and correct about everything.

i don't know how long this has been on the bench but it was definitely a project i started way before season 2 even aired. i think i just got stuck and wasn't sure where to go with it, but anyway her!

extra spoiler for @wyllhalsin but this was supposed to be a pride edit in june for one of my favorite lgbt characters of all time. this show's camera movements nearly makes it impossible to blend anything so i lost the drive, but i will come back for felix someday (and for coty, obviously this set was for him).

#personal #tumblr2023 #tag game #this is such a good idea kissing the person who started this game #'new years clean up' and then i still dont delete these psds Just In Case -

[depressedstressedlemonzest]

Tagged by @golden28s for these Gallavich questions!

What’s a fic you’ve read more than once? If He's The Moon I'm Eclipsed, The Only Road That I Have Ever Known,

What’s a gifset you always have to reblog? dock sluts, club kiss, and mickey coming out.

What’s a headcanon you can’t stop thinking about? Today it's how Ian would feel after Carl gets into Westpoint. How Ian and Mickey go to therapy, and how Uncle Mickey is the BEST uncle to Franny. How Mickey and Tami are bffs.

What’s a fanart you love looking at? Love Love LOOVE any by @mikhailoisbaby @suzy-queued @darthvaders-wife and @doodlevich

What’s an idea you’d love to create if you had the time/inspiration? a few AUs I've got written down. I'll probably do them eventually.

What’s something you’ve discovered since entering this fandom? A new trope you love? A different analysis of the show? Something else? The character analyses of Debbie, Fiona, and Svetlana from @m4ndysk4nkovich @l0st4l1fe and @svetlanayevgenivna have conglomerated together because they all made me look at the three of them, and their relationships within the show and how the fandom is regarding all three of them vs the men.

Discovered a lot of new friends who I just adore.

New trope I love... nothing I didn't like already, just more intense with Gallavich lol

What’s an underrated trope or concept you’d like to see more of? only one bed, that's one of my favorites because it's so silly but it's also realistic sometimes.

What’s your favourite season? And has this changed after multiple rewatches of the show? I want to say season 4 but I haven't rewatched it entirely recently to see if that's still accurate.

What’s a plot hole you wish had been answered or resolved? Ian being groomed and no one addressing it except Lip that one time.

I'm sure there's more but that's the one that's always at the forefront.

What scene or moment do you feel isn’t discussed enough? Mickey trying to get Mandy to leave Kenyatta. I got into a fight with someone because they were like "Mickey is a hypocrite, he let Kenyatta beat his sister and let his dad rape his sister and he's good to women?"

I don't think Mickey knew about Terry doing that to Mandy, and they shouldn't have deleted that scene where Mickey was grabbing the knife to defend Mandy with when Kenyatta was yelling at her.

What line/dialogue/description from something else (a poem, a book, a tv show, a movie, or something else) do you feel describes Ian and Mickey’s relationship? "I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once."

What do you think is next for Ian and Mickey post-finale?

therapy bitches

pets

kids

weekly gallagher milkovich family game nights once they all get closer together.

Dont know who hasn't done these so @ian-galagher @mikhailoisbaby @creepkinginc @witchboywitchboywitchboy

[maya-matlin]

Hi! I’d love to hear your view on Julian and Brulian? Like other people have pointed out, he had a whole different personality initially before they decided to lean into his dorky side. But even when they wisely tried to make him adorkable, there’s just something about him I don’t fully love and trust—maybe it’s the actor’s line deliveries, or the way even as an adult he’s so fixated with a group of high schoolers from a school he didn’t even attend (a movie and then a documentary in which he inserts himself lol?!), or just how he he seemed less of a real character than just a love interest for Brooke. And honestly I thought he had more chemistry with Alex! I love the idea of Brooke with a sweet but strong dork, but as much as I like some brulian gifsets, when I actually watch their scenes they just don’t click for me. I hope this makes sense!

I like Julian fine. He wasn't one of my favorite characters, but I thought he mostly fit into later seasons OTH. But I have to admit that there were several occasions where I would compare him to Lucas. It wasn't just within his relationship with Brooke. Julian was friends with Nathan, close with Jamie (even making him his best man!), was involved with both of Lucas's main love interests and like Lucas, created media. Even though Clay was technically Lucas's replacement, Julian was the one primarily serving that role. His characterization was kind of all over the place. Like you said, Julian literally changed personalities based on the season. I'm not sure if it was a deliberate shift in the writing or if Julian's personality changed because of Austin Nichols. I have no insight on this. I haven't watched a single interview with Austin and have zero behind the scenes tea other than he dated Sophia for years.

In terms of weak performances, the worst was by far in season 9 when Julian fell into a dark hole after leaving his son in the hot car. I wasn't at all sold on the angst or Julian's pain. Julian was just selfishly throwing himself into danger and inserting himself into Nathan's kidnapping arc just to make himself feel less guilty. It didn't suit him. This is a perfect example of comparing Julian to Lucas. I completely understand that the Lucas/Dan history meant the two teaming up was highly unlikely, but Chad 100% could have pulled off the tough guy stuff in that context. Then at the very end of the series, Julian essentially replaces Lucas when he writes HIMSELF into the story of Lucas's high school life, stealing the moment where he makes the winning shot at the state championship. I mean, it was probably just Mark Schwahn's petty bullshit, but still.

LOL yeah. Looking back, Julian's introduction was kind of sketchy. To a degree, I think that was intentional. Julian showing up as Peyton's jilted ex was a misdirect. We were meant to think he was going to cause trouble for Lucas and Peyton only for him to end up with Brooke instead. So with that knowledge, it turns out Julian decided to read Lucas's book and, like the entire world apparently, realized it was the greatest story ever told and became personally invested.

You're making complete sense! I feel the same way. I'm aware Julian is a good man and was a loving, devoted husband to Brooke, but I just don't feel it. The actors were doing everything right and the writing was solid, but there's just no passion. It's nice, but it's not particularly exciting. I'm happy for Brooke, but my feelings don't go beyond that. When it comes to Julian/Alex, I pretty much agree. I'm mostly glad they never got together because their friendship was so good and genuine that it didn't need to be muddled up with relationship drama. But at the same time, they pulled me in far more than Brooke and Julian ever did.

My stance is pretty much that it should have been Brucas together with Naley in the final episode. Julian was only in Tree Hill for Brooke. Peyton wanted out of her hometown, even attempting to leave multiple times to go to Jake, and really only came back for Lucas. Both Brooke and Lucas had a lot of love and nostalgia for their small town and seemed truly happy returning to it after college. It just makes sense.

#Anonymous #Ignore my cringy pro Brucas paragraph even though I stand by it

[cubedmango]

NAINA I FINALLY WATCHED THE MOVIE WITH MY FRIENDS TODAY AND IM JUST SO. SO. SO. i felt like every emotion at once bc there were moments just so sweet and then moments where i needed to lie down....... I THINK DEFINITELY MY FAVORITE PART WAS JUST TRULY SEEING HOW FAR ADACHI HAS GROWN??? like how hes able to speak his mind... how hes changed because of kurosawa and him changing kurosawa... and just like every affirmation of love they had for each other IM LIKE OK!!! ILL NEVER RECOVER!!! i need to like let the movie marinate so that my brains not just happy mush but there were truly so many good scenes with them and also i loved reading ur reactions immensely i felt them all such an intimate level.......

WELCOME TO THE CLUB !!! the movie has destroyed me as predicted and now i have just been sitting here . thinking about it for like the last 40 hours or something. i dont know how im supposed to move on after they did That [gestures at the entire movie]

oh my godddd dont get me started on adachis chara development it is So . ive been rewatching some bits of the drama for gif-ing purposes and seeing how different he is in the movie is Insane?????? massive fan of the way they role-reversed adachi being the insecure one originally to him being the stronger one in the movie (and vice versa w kurosawa) like that rlly drove just how much theyve both changed and become secure and comfortable enough to want to be open w what theyre thinking/feeling (in kurosawa's case) and to protect their relationship no matter what obstacle (in adachi's case) which is just so different from how they used to be.... like just try watching ep 1+ep 2 and then the nagasaki scene+kurosawa's parents scene in succession and this will make sense . i think

fkdjsdkfj most of my reactions were just . nonsense but i am thinking abt writing some proper Words about it ...... tho first i will make all of those gifsets bc theyve been driving me nuts sitting in my head since like may and i Need to make them real

#cherry magic spoilers #my answer #tldr: adachi the blorbo of all time ever the end

[amindamazed]

Tagged by @quipxotic & @littlepichon

nicknames: none for my RL name; a or ama for amindamazed

zodiac: Sagittarius

height: 5′6″ (and a little bit more if I make special effort with posture. which I suppose I should do in general)

last movie: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, which I thought I’d seen way back when it first came out? But either I was wrong about that or I just forgot 90% of the story in the intervening years. I also finally binged We Are Lady Parts entirely due to everyone here who posted gifsets. Very annoyed that there aren’t already 5 more seasons.

last thing i googled: no idea, though I generally use Duck Duck Goose first, which doesn’t quite roll off the tongue as a verb.

fave musicians: I don’t really have favorite musicians the way I have favorite authors, but the two names that first came to mind were Zoe Keating and Max Richter. I have a lot of Joan Armatrading from the 1980s-1990s too. Haven’t kept up with her work since then.

song stuck in my head: none at the moment or in recent memory. Last serious earworm I had was the Hamilton musical cast album, from which random snippets would pop up. That went on for months in 2015-2016.

other blogs: I started out on LJ and moved to Dreamwidth but haven’t posted to either in a loooong time. My side-tumblr is @namedabee.

blogs following: 168 but at least 50 of those haven’t updated in months or years

amount of sleep: Up until my mid-40s, I slept very well, but perimenopause tossed that out the window. Thanks to hormone therapy I’m back to about 7 hours, *IF* I can make myself go to bed before 11pm. It’s unusual for me to sleep later than 7am.

lucky number: don’t really have one, but I do have a fondness for 3/multiples of 3, as well as primes generally.

what I’m wearing: umber tank top and navy shorts; ankle socks and no shoes

dream job: being job-free by choice. see also: #capitalism ruins everything

dream trip: I’ll copy Quipxotic here: a week-long train trip. One with my own sleeping cabin, and a big observation car with giant windows, and afternoon tea service. Preferably no murder aboard. A more modest option I’m looking at is the 30-hr route from Toronto to Halifax. Another travel dream is to find someone who likes long car rides as much as I do to take cross-country trips with, in part so I can spend time taking photos as a passenger rather than taking risks (& bad photos) while operating a moving vehicle.

play an instrument: learned flute as a kid (back when public schools in the US still had music in the regular curriculum); started cello a few years ago but haven’t played recently. would like to start that again.

fave food: chocolate is a daily requirement. black tea with milk. pizza (mmm cheese). apricots.

languages: English plus random bits not (yet) forgotten in French and Welsh

fave songs: I tend to listen to sad, somber movie soundtracks, though I use Natalie Merchant’s “Kind and Generous” and Jimmy Cliff’s “I Can See Clearly Now” as alarm sounds on my phone.

random fact about me: I became a Canadian citizen today. 🇨🇦

describe yourself using aesthetic things:  comfy stretchy cotton pants with pockets. lots of greys: light greys, green greys, blue greys, charcoal greys, almost black greys. fountain pens with purple, green, and rich brown inks. light rain. just after sunset or before dawn when the sky is multicolored and trees and buildings are a black silhouette. warm soft chocolate chip cookies. sound of the ocean through the window. random flash of bright orange. long meandering (but entirely logical) sentences scaffolded with ample em-dashes, parenthetical asides, and semi-colons.

tagging: @fearlessdiva930, @weneedtotalkaboutfic, @shirleycarlton, @grrlpup, @totallysilvergirl, @blogstandbygo and everyone else who hasn’t done it yet and wants to.

#meme

[buffysummers]

You know my favorite Cordelia/Buffy interaction that I remember comes from that gifset when they both aspire to be prom queens or something and they have a shit day that day and in the end neither of them win lmao

I love that episode! I think it’s important for their dynamic. Cordelia finally started to understand Buffy on a deeper level. I love this interaction:

Cordy: “I don't even get why you care about Homecoming when you're doing stuff like this.” [slaying, beheading, saving the world, etc is what she’s referring to.]

Buffy: “Because this is all I do. This is what my life is. You couldn't understand. I just thought... Homecoming Queen. I could pick up a yearbook someday and say, I was there. I went to high school, I had friends, and... for one moment, I got to live in the world. And there'd be proof. Proof that I was chosen for something other than this.”

It is very uncharacteristic of Cordelia to just sit there and listen to Buffy. But I like that she lets her explain and get her feelings out because like... Buffy had done nothing but struggle with her identity and dual life since she had been chosen to be the slayer. And often, she worries that the slayer IS her entire identity, that she also isn’t a girl who has dreams and wants to go to the movies and fall in love, etc. And a lot of the other characters, including Cordelia, just saw her as the slayer most of the time, I think. Not a person. Also, the episode is just so much fun lol.

#anonymous #answered

[synecdochereads]

Six of Crows – review

Someone said, “heist movie but it’s a fantasy setting,” and I’ve been on the lookout for this book ever since. I finally found it in the clearance section of Half Price Books, and then—couldn’t read it. I got through the first chapter, I started the second, I put it down, and I didn’t pick it up again. Not sure why, but frankly this has less to do with the book than with me. I’ve been erratic about reading for, oh, years now – either I can’t focus for more than a few pages at a time, or I spend every waking moment with my nose in the book. There’s no middle ground. There’s no telling which way the cards will fall.

All of this to say, it’s not the book’s fault that it took me so long. But then the show came out, I watched it gleefully with my mom, and somehow having seen the characters onscreen made it easier to slip into their heads on the page. Two days later, I’ve inhaled the entire book as fast as I could get away with, and I’m in love.

This isn’t a regular book review – I’m terrible at ranking things, and the five-star system gives me anxiety. It’s mostly just some Thoughts™ neatly sorted for clarity, and hopefully reading over them will help you decide if you should pick this book up and fall in love with it like I did.

Mind the cut!

Characters

I am in love with them.

It probably helps that I’ve been looking forward to this book for ages, I’ve seen lots of gifsets and the occasional meta post, and of course I did watch three out of six crows swan about being fantastic for an entire season of a show that’s not even about them. But it’s not just that. There are a lot of technical literary ways you can analyze characters – arcs, themes, etc – but quite apart from all of that there’s just…are they compelling? They don’t have to be, for a book to be good, but it sure does help. And these six characters are so compelling.

(Also really likeable, which is even less necessary for a good story but which I do personally value. And I like these kids, I really do. Even Kaz “I commit atrocities without shame or remorse” Brekker. Wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alley, or even a well-lit avenue! But I care about him and want him to succeed.)

It’s hard to devote equal time to six character arcs while also running a fantasy heist. Bardugo doesn’t try, but even the crows who get less screen time have complexity and depth. They’re all well fleshed-out, with full and distinct personalities and all that – on a technical level, these are really well-crafted characters. Top notch. Plus everyone struggles with different traumas and goals, and handles them in different ways, which gives us wonderfully varied arcs as they each move toward a deeper understanding of themselves, for better or for worse.

It also gives us really varied dynamics – some of them hate each other, some of them love each other, some manage to do both at once, some are just along for the ride. It’s as they pull at each other’s ragged edges that the story forms, in their different desperate needs and in what they can and cannot be for each other.

The show smoothed over a lot of the sharp edges and grey morality, most notably in Kaz. Kaz Brekker is a bad person. He does bad things for selfish reasons. His arc isn’t Learning To Be Good, it’s an ongoing question of whether he might, for the sake of the first person he has (quite accidentally) let himself love, consider maybe perhaps being slightly less of an amoral monster. I’ve seen this book described as “fantasy Leverage episode” but it’s really more Ocean’s Eleven, if Danny Ocean was a vicious bastard and everyone was seventeen.

And that’s great. I love that so much! Especially because the other crows run the gamut from shining idealism to casual self-interest (with a fun detour into “shining idealism but the ideal is violent bigotry”), so we really do get a morally complex story, without any easy black-and-white answers. One of the most kind-hearted people in the whole story has committed multiple murders and dreams of becoming a pirate. Kaz Brekker may do bad things for selfish reasons, but a lot of those selfish reasons boil down to “survive.” It’s complicated! It’s compelling!

Plot

It’s a fantasy heist, what more do you need?

Plots and counter-plots, double-crosses and last-minute improvisations. Magic, though it’s used as just another tool, as impressive and as prosaic as the gunslinger’s pistols. Dramatic climbs, elaborate disguises, cunning grifts, and some good old-fashioned sleight-of-hand. Six wildly competent teenagers, one impossible job, and four million fantasy dollars waiting for them if they can pull it off.

Well, okay, that’s just half of the story – maybe two thirds. The rest is flashbacks, showing us how these characters met and how they came to be the people they are; and stolen moments in between the action beats, where we see how they’re changing each other. It’s woven in really deftly. Our knowledge of the characters expands in time with the forward momentum of the plot, so that both parts of the story – the sorrows of the past and the edge-of-your-seat excitement of the present – get their hooks in you in tandem.

Worldbuilding

There are two settings in this book: Ketterdam, where we begin, and the Ice Court, where the bulk of the action takes place. The wider world outside these two cities is sketched in, alluded to in offhand comments and minor details of backstory. In theory, reading the Grisha trilogy would fill in those sketches, but I suspect it doesn’t matter. This is a heist story, after all: one entrance, one exit, and all the traps laid firmly between the two.

You know that thing authors do sometimes where they use the aesthetic of a real time and place, in the names and the architecture and so on, as a sort of worldbuilding shorthand? I’m a big fan of that. Ketterdam is clearly based on post-medieval Holland, perhaps in the late 17th century or so – a city of canals and commerce, with a ruling merchant class and a thriving criminal underworld, and a stock exchange at the heart of the wealthier district. The similarities feel like they’re just skin-deep – I don’t know that much about post-medieval Holland, but I’m pretty sure Bardugo has her own plans for the political situation in the wider world, which I assume is relevant in the Grisha trilogy. Here it’s not, and we have just enough detail to get a quick feel for the city, with extra importance granted to the politics of the various criminal gangs Kaz needs to worry about.

If I’m honest, I would have enjoyed a bit more detail in the worldbuilding. Ketterdam is vibrant and crowded, but it feels shallow; the only information we get is what relates directly to the characters’ actions. We’re told that it’s a big and complex city, but I don’t really have any idea what goes on there beyond, vaguely, “trade, gambling, and tourism.” But that’s probably just me. I’m unreasonably invested in worldbuilding. And anyway, we do get everything we need to understand the actual story.

The same is true in the Ice Court, the frozen capital of the Fjerdans. It’s a beautiful place, white and gleaming, and the parts that we see are incredibly vivid. We get scant glimpses of history and religion, the faintest suggestion of politics, and exactly enough of the city layout to understand the heist. We do, however, get a much deeper understanding of Fjerdan culture than we did of Ketterdam’s, because one of the crows defines himself utterly by the Fjerdan worldview, and his arc is largely about the difficulty of losing his place in that world and not knowing if or how he can ever get it back.

So yeah, we really do get everything we need to appreciate the story and the characters. I would have liked more, because I like worldbuilding, but what we do get is varied and satisfying.

Themes

I can’t really go in depth here without spoilers, so this’ll be a pretty vague section. I haven’t gone full lit-major on this book and I don’t especially plan to, but at a glance, the central theme is the tension between, in short, love and vengeance.

In long, several of the crows have the choice to embrace love as a force for healing and joy, or instead hold onto the (often violent) goals that have driven and defined them for so long. If they embrace love, it’ll mean letting go of the driving purpose that has kept them alive, and risking their whole identity (and possibly their lives) on a new purpose. It’s scary! It might ruin them! And it’s really not as easy as “love conquers all.”

(Big advantage of an ensemble cast: you can explore the same theme in different ways, with different outcomes, without having to settle for a single “answer” to the question posed by the theme. I really love it when that happens, honestly.)

It’s also not just romantic love! I mean it mostly is, but one of the crows has an arc that’s really about self-love, about learning to trust and prioritize not just your survival, but your happiness, your goals, and your ideals. About putting yourself first, not in a selfish way, but in a healthy, loving way. It’s really lovely, and although it has no bearing on the plot (it’s an internal moment of revelation), it’s one of my favorite things about the whole story.

#six of crows #grishaverse #book review #book ramble #booklr #book blog #booklover #book reviews #bookish #book blogger #reading #bookworm #book ramblings #books #there that's all the tags I can think of #I want people to find my blog but folks I am BAD at marketing #literally all aspects of it #and one of those aspects is definitely 'how do I tag things so they get in front of the right audience?' #akk I hope it gets there #if you're reading this: hi I love you #I hope you're interested in long and perhaps overenthusiastic book reviews! #that's what this blog is going to be #I don't think this one got overenthusiastic but the next one is going to be queen's thief #and I love those books to death #there's no way I'll be able to contain my glee

[barisifictionarchive]

Author: sarahcakes613

Preferred Name: sarah

Have any events in your personal life ever influenced the things that you've written? 

Oh 100% - I often write little moments and experiences from my life into my characters lives. It's usually the silly stuff, I try not to let my traumas influence my writing because that's depressing af and I don't like writing angst!

That being said, my only chapfic to date is a Game of Thrones story about sobriety and recovery, and the idea came to me while I was sitting in a church basement watching someone I love receive a multiyear sobriety medallion. That story pulled a lot of it's core dialogue and traits from this person in my life and was largely inspired by the pride and love I feel for addicts in recovery.

Do you have a favorite movie? 

I love visually strong storytelling, so the Lord of the Rings trilogy is up there. I also love Mel Brooks comedies, especially Blazing Saddles and Robin Hood Men in Tights.

Who is your favorite author? 

Leonard Cohen only wrote two novels in his life but they're both perfect examples of their genres. In recent years, I've become a huge fan of Cat Sebastian, her queer regency romances are absolutely charming feel-good bites of chocolate.

How did you start getting involved in fanfiction?

I've been reading it since high school, but never felt like I had a fandom story of my own to tell. In 2015, I was heavily involved in the Game of Thrones fandom on Tumblr, particularly for the ship Sansan (Sandor Clegane/Sansa Stark) and began participating in the occasional drabble/prompt challenge just for fun. In 2016, a bunch of us decided to collaborate on a supremely cracky circus AU. I'd already written a handful of things but that was when my interest in writing fic took off. And the ladies I met writing that are still some of my absolute best friends!

How did you get involved with Barisi?

It was VERY roundabout. I watched SVU on occasion back when I had cable and I do remember watching both Barba and Sonny, but nothing about them stuck out to me in terms of shipping, probably because SVU was always a pretty casual watch for me so I never looked at it with fandom goggles. I got really into Raul Esparza's voice over this past winter (I have no idea what triggered that interest, probably a random Youtube find) so occasionally in searching I would see SVU gifsets on Tumblr and was like ah yes, I remember them, but again, never really stuck in my mind.

Meanwhile, sometimes when I'm looking for a new read, I'll choose a tag at random and just scroll for something that looks interesting. This past February I somehow wound up in the tag for Konmari/Marie Kondo, and found the fic Tidying Up by Robin Hood (kjack89). I thought it was absolutely the sweetest dang thing and started adding more Barisi fic to my marked-for-later page. Then in March, I actually started going through them and in one month I read about 200 stories.

What inspires you to write? 

The Barisi fandom is easily the most inspiring group of people I've ever talked to, with all the back and forth on Twitter with ideas and music and gifsets and headcanons, it all sparks ideas! Music especially, I'll see a whole story play out in my head over the course of a four minute song. I'm also often inspired by an aesthetic image, I'll see a pretty photo and want to write an entire story based around it.

What is your favorite fic that you have written? 

Oh my god Karen you can't just ask someone what their favourite fic they've written is. There are definitely multiple answers.

The fic I'm proudest of is Gods Grant Me the Serenity, the Game of Thrones chapfic I mentioned - it's "only" 20k but it took me 3 years to write because it was sometimes so painful to explore that relationship.

I also really love a gen/non-ship fic I wrote called The Holy or the Broken, which is a series of vignettes that explores each of the Avengers and their relationship to their own Jewish faith. Because all the Avengers are Jewish. I said so, and therefore it's true. I loved exploring aspects of my faith through fic, and the response was extremely gratifying.

My favourite Barisi fic that I have written is "I'll use you as a focal point (so I don't lose sight of what I want)" because it's the first one I wrote. When I first started exploring Barisi, I found the Archive on Tumblr and had a look at the prompt page. I saw one that really spoke to me but I was reluctant to do anything with it, because I was like, do I really want to start writing for a totally new fandom that I'm only just barely in? But then I went for it, and I haven't looked back!

What is your favorite quote from a fic of yours?

Oh man, you expect me to remember what I wrote?? The cheesy answer is all of it is my favourite, because I'm actually quite proud of my writing.

This may not be my #1 favourite, but it's definitely one that stands out, from my Barisi story Perfect situations must go wrong:

"Don’t you get it, Rafi?” Sonny asks, his voice so low it’s almost a whisper. “A life bond like ours, it’s a living thing. The beginning of our story is just that, a beginning. We chose the steps that came after. How can you say none of that was real?"

What is your personal favorite fanfic? (Can be any fandom)

OOF. In Barisi, well, I did just post two whole full rec bingo cards on Twitter, so I have a LOT of faves, but A Healing Year by anni_scovill is one of my favourite fics of all time, Barisi or otherwise. Throwing it back to other fandoms, the story Kiss the Girl by Jillypups is the definitive Game of Thrones modern AU Sansan. It's also the origin of the tag you've almost definitely seen floating around, "tale as old as time, burn as slow as fuck". I'm not a big fan of kidfic but Jillypups wrote a really engaging and realistic original child character who steals the show in every scene she is in.I have a few other favourites in other fandoms, some a little spicier than others. I can rec fic all day long, to be honest! If anyone ever wants recs outside Barisi in Supernatural, Teen Wolf, Game of Thrones, or Marvel, my DMs are always open!!

Anything else you would like to add? 

I'm extraordinarily honoured to have been asked to do this. I've been a published Barisi author for just under three months and in that time I've already written 50k words over 27 stories. I have 32 stories in the Game of Thrones tag and that is after six YEARS in the fandom. When I say you all are the most inspiring and motivational bunch, oh boy do I mean it!

A question you’d like to ask another author?

When I finally finished Gods Grant Me the Serenity, I swore I'd never write another chapfic, or at least never begin posting one until the entire thing was done. How do you keep yourself motivated to keep updating ongoing fics? How far in advance do you plot/plan? Tell me all your secrets for being a successful chapfic writer!!

#barisi #Author of the month #sarahcakes613 #Author recommendation

[angrycowboy]

A couple weeks ago, I decided that for my birthday, I was going to attempt to put together some of my favorite things this fandom has created. I say *some* because this is an incomplete list. There are so many wonderful and talented creators in this fandom that this list would go on forever otherwise. If I have I ever reblogged something of yours, flailed in the tags, reached out to via DM or sent you a message, talked on discord or even Twitter, know that I love and adore not only the things you’ve created, but you yourself as part of this fandom.

And now, without further ado…

FIC

memento by @nielrian

I was obsessed with the idea of coming up with the backstory to the photo we see Michael look at in 1x02. When was it taken? Does Alex have a copy? Did Alex bring his with him to the other side of the world? How often do you think Michael looked at his own copy? And Nicki took a little prompt of mine, and wrote an achingly gorgeous piece about one photograph, and it’s significance to Malex in less than 700 words.

a little something to make me sweeter by @partsofthesamecosmicbeing

Camluca + D.E.B.S. is like a recipe for the perfect fic. I freaking love the movie, and when I saw this fic pop up on tumblr one day? I couldn’t even contain my excitement (seriously, the tags on my reblog were just me flailing wildly because it felt like Ly had reached into my brain and written something I wanted to read before I even knew it myself). Casting Alex as Scud and including Malex in the mix just made me love this fic even more.

And the Sun Rose Red by @michaels-blackhat

A Miluca Kissing Kate Barlow AU? SIGN. ME. UP. I adore Christi, and I adore her writing. One day she was like, “miluca kissing kate barlow au?” and the only appropriate answer to that is HECK YES. Michael/Maria is also a dynamic that just works for this AU, given their canon relationship, and Michael’s penchant for fixing things and Maria’s desire to have someone just be there for her. *runs off to re-read fic*

something broken in this town by @irolltwenties

Okay so, Meagn is one of my favorite people in this fandom. We kinda ramble at each other, and one day this happened where she started talking about the parents. About the relationship Jesse, Jim, and Mimi had as kids, as teenagers, as young adults. How they got sucked into aliens and government conspiracies. How they became the people we see and hear about in S1. If you’ve ever had the privilege of talking with Meagn, you know how amazing her mind is, how she takes these characters and the mere scraps we’ve been given in canon with some of them, and creates entire lives for them, and it’s beautiful.

open up my eager eyes by @haloud

It took me a while to get into Mylex, but apparently it was just because I hadn’t read Hal’s series yet. I’m usually terrible about multi-shipping, but once I find a writer that nails the characters down, I could probably read anything they write. And Hal writes all three of them perfectly. (I mean, Hal is just a phenomenal writer in general, but I digress.)

META

Michael’s bisexuality by @chasingshhadows

There’s been a lot said in the fandom about Michael’s bisexuality and how it’s been portrayed. While the show was airing, I was having trouble finding people who felt the same way I did about how it was being shown - that it wasn’t problematic, but that it was good and accurate. Not to mention that it made me feel seen. I tried writing out what I was feeling but nothing sounded right - until Chasing wrote this piece. It was everything I’d been trying to find the words to express, and it remains one of my absolutely favorite pieces of her writing.

Semiotics of Roswell by @hannah-writes

Hannah did this amazing thing where she took the camera work of RNM and analyzed the shit out of it. And in some moments of doubt, where I was still worried about Malex because of the direction the show had been taking, Hannah’s semiotics (or better known as “Why Malex is Endgame”) pointed out how the camerawork for Malex and Echo is very similar, not to mention deliberate as fuck.

Maria Can’t Catch a Break by @ober-affen-geil

I adore Maria Deluca. She has gotten such a bad rap in the fandom because of the “love triangle” business. But fandom in general has done her dirty in that without removing the shipper goggles it is very hard to see that the show has established Maria as a character in her own right, just as much as it has with Kyle and Alex. And that’s why I love Riley’s meta about everything that Maria is dealing with, what she’s going through, and what it’s been like for her to be the one left behind 10 years ago.

GIFSETS/EDITS

i would know him in death, at the end of the world by @vlamito

I don’t even remember now who told me I had to read The Song of Achilles - it was pre-RNM hyperfixation, but I absolutely loved it (I definitely cried while reading it). And then I saw this gifset, oh mah gawd. Mich just has this ability to find quotes from other media and fit them seemlessly into Malex. And the moments she chooses for her gifsets are utter perfection. I think everyone has probably seen this now, but it’s a gifset I just keep going back to over and over again.

Are you okay? by @maxortecho

So I adore Echo. There is something about their softness, the way they look at each other, the way they act around each other that is just beautiful. Mo made this set, and pointed out in the tags that Liz pushes her arms underneath Max like she’s going to hug him, and it broke me. Like, I thought that scene in the finale was heartbreaking enough, but pointing that out? It hurts and I loved it.

Leading Ladies Appreciation by @lsobelevans

Lucie does some amazing things with color that truly make her edits stand out, and stick out in your mind. And it’s one of the things I love about her gif sets especially - it makes them uniquely hers, her own signature if you will. And this edit is no different - the splashes of color, the texture used for the background, the highlighting of the leading ladies is stunning work. 

Same page/Different book by @bisexualalienblast

Let’s just say that picking ONE gifset of Amanda’s is an impossibility for me, okay? Amanda’s sets are the reason I wanted to learn how to gif - her gifs are beautifully colored, they’re crisp, she always picks the best fonts, they’re smooth, and her ideas are stellar. Anyway, she more recently made this set, which just so perfectly illustrates Malex’s issue IN TWO GIFS. That’s it. Their entire problem in S1, right there. Beautiful.

VIDEO

Juice | Women of Roswell by @isakvaltersnake

Katie is a wizard with the video editing. She’s going to be a force when we’ve got more than one season of footage to play around with. And this video is fun and hot and LOOK AT THE WOMEN. They are smart, they are kind, they are flirty, they have agency, and they’re all hella sexy.

Weird Science | Liz & Michael - Science Bros by @soberqueerinthewild

Hands down, this is one of my favorite videos from the fandom, and definitely one of my favorite things Christina has made (though I basically love everything she does). It’s silly and ridiculous and 100% fun. She found every bit of footage in S1 and matched it to the song perfectly. It’s impossible to watch this video and not smile and laugh - it will instantly brighten your day.

MISC

RNM Texts From Last Night by @audreyblanche

I am slightly biased here, because while Irena came up with the idea, I encouraged her to actually go through with it, promising her that the fandom would enjoy it. So because of that it’s next to impossible for me to pick a favorite out of all the ones she’s done for this series (though the one where we settled on the Camluca ship name, as well as one I specifically requested for Malex come close), and I’m hoping that with the new season (and when she returns from hiatus), she can pick this up again.

#roswell new mexico #roswell nm rec list #also every single person here is a joy to talk to and follow #notso celebrates a birthday #fandom love

[sophieakatz]

Thursday Thoughts: I Am Proud Of My Fanfiction

The other day, I met with an aspiring creative who wanted to pick my brain about my experiences as a writer. I told her about the plays I worked on in school, the shows I helped bring to life in the Disney Parks, and my novel-in-progress, Tali’s Flowers.

“I haven’t worked on it in a while,” I said. “I love that story, but I keep working on other things instead.”

“Do you not love the other things you’re working on?” she asked me.

The question caught me by surprise, and I laughed a bit – partly because I laugh when I’m surprised, but mostly because the “other things” I keep working on instead of my novel are fanfiction.

You are currently reading this post on my professional writing blog. If you’ve been following me for a while, then you know that I often post links to my fanfiction here. When I first created this blog, I was hesitant to do so. Fanfiction has a reputation of being unprofessional. It’s considered a “lesser” art form to original fiction. I have another Tumblr account for reblogging gifsets and videos and other nerdy, less-than-professional social media things. I considered keeping my fanfiction over there, if I posted it at all.

Ultimately, I decided that this blog is for my writing – all of my writing that I love, that I am proud of, and that I want to share with the world. And that writing includes fanfiction.

Why?

I could say that writing and posting fanfiction is a vital part of my professional development. I spent five incredible months as the Disney Parks Live Entertainment Show Writer Intern, and all the shows I helped bring to life as a part of that internship were, arguably, “official” fanfiction. I was not only assigned but also paid to write new adventures for characters from movies I fell in love with as a child. I put words into the mouths of the Toy Story gang and explored the fan club culture of the world of The Incredibles. Being able to do that again, to make a living writing new stories for characters the world already loves, is one of my career goals.

But that isn’t the whole story. Not everyone who writes fanfiction will ever do so for money, or even wants to. And even if I knew without a doubt that I would never have the chance to write for Disney or any entertainment company ever again, I would still write and post fanfiction.

Because not only do I love writing fanfiction, but I am also proud of my fanfiction.

I am proud of the quality of my fanfiction.

I’m afflicted by the same curse that many writers have: once a story of mine is out in the world, I usually can’t read it again without cringing.

It is a rare delight to write something, return to it a month later, and still like it. This is a natural consequence of improving my craft as a writer, combined with dubiously-healthy doses of anxiety and imposter syndrome.

But there are times, blessed times, when I enjoy rereading my own writing, when I know without a doubt that what I penned was good. I’ve had a lot of those moments while writing fanfiction. Sure, humility is a virtue and putting yourself down is “cool” these days, but I’ve spent years working and learning and improving my craft – I have a Bachelor’s Degree in this, for crying out loud – and it shows!

Lena closed her fingers around the keys, and she put the closed fist to her chest. And all at once it hit her that she was here to stay, and she began to cry. And then Webby was back in front of her, kissing her first on the forehead and then on the beak, and then she threw her arms around Lena’s neck, and Scrooge had a hand on each of their shoulders, and their limbs were good, strong roots that reached so deep into the earth that nothing could ever pull them away, and Lena knew that she was home at last.

The previous paragraph is the final lines of The Sunchaser Grill, a crossover fanfic of Disney’s DuckTales TV show, the 1996 film The Spitfire Grill, and the 2001 Off-Broadway musical adaptation of the same name. And yes, I know how bizarre that sounds. Bizarre stuff happens in this story. But that paragraph is one of my favorite things that I’ve ever written. I am proud to say that whenever I reread it, it makes me smile.

I am proud that my fanfiction comes from a spirit of joy and fun.

There’s a place in the world for sad stories. Sometimes I even write them. But overwhelmingly, my writing steers towards the positive. I write the fics that I write because I know I’ll have a good time writing them.

I wrote Sunchaser Grill because it delighted me how well the characters from one work fit the character roles of the other. I wrote Hang In There because I wanted to imagine the Thirteenth Doctor going back to give a young River Song a bit of hope, in a moment that Doctor Who canon might never give us. I wrote so, so many fics for this last Weblena Month because that little lesbian couple makes me so, so happy. And once, way back in high school, I wrote a 600-word fic about Shere Khan from The Jungle Book meeting Tigger from Winnie the Pooh, just because I thought it would be funny.

I’m proud of the spirit of joy that powers my writing, and I’m proud of the stories that have grown from that joy.

It’s not just about me, though.

I am proud that my fanfiction brings joy to and has meaning for other people.

During my internship with Disney Parks Live Entertainment, I saw children laugh, dance, and play along with the shows I wrote. As that internship neared its end, I naturally felt sad at the thought of not making children laugh with my stories anymore.

Almost on cue, I received an email notification from one of my old accounts. Someone had just left a comment on that “Shere Khan meets Tigger” story I mentioned before. This was in 2018. I wrote that story in 2011.

This is such a perfect crossover! And both tigers are completely in character. Shere Khan is trying to hunt, but gets interrupted by an excited, bouncy Tigger. As a result, Shere Khan is annoyed and Tigger doesn’t let anything bother him.

P.S. My eight-year-old daughter liked it, too.

It hit me then that I had already been creating stories that made children laugh even before Disney hired me, and there was no reason why I had to stop.

I want to tell stories that mean something to other people. Fanfiction has given me the opportunity for that desire to be not just a dream for someday, but something that I can do right here, right now. It’s allowed me to see the impact my writing can have, the impact that I want it to have, on other people’s lives.

Here are a few of the comments that people have left on my fanfiction over the years:

thank you. Just - thank you. And good night; I will finally go to bed, now. – on a Hunger Games fanfic in 2011

An adorable ending to a magical story. I got tears in my eyes, you know, and I almost never cry. :) – on one of my Alice in Wonderland fanfics in 2012

Thank you for giving more depth to an already-amazing character. – on one of my Rune Factory 3 fanfics in 2016

I've been wanting to comment since Chapter One but I couldn't think of something to say. Seeing this story updated just makes my day better and it's so well written and I'm invested in the plot. Just...good job <3. – on that Spitfire Grill fic in 2018

I really love this, it's amazing how you showed the piano and music as something that makes sense in the middle of all confusion and it's amazing to see it as something that can help so much. To me personally piano has been incredibly important so reading this fic just... I have tears in my eyes right now and I don't know how to express how amazing this fic is for me to read. – on one of my Ducktales fics in 2018

This part hit me tbh, this is something I’ve said nearly verbatim when talking about my own fear that no one would ever want to be in a relationship with me… I just want to say how much I love this entire series. – on one of my 2019 Weblena Week fics

People read fanfiction because they want to spend more time with the characters they love, because they want to laugh or cry, because they want to see themselves and their experiences reflected in media. I am proud to create those experiences for other people.

Of course I love the “other things” I keep working on. Of course I love my fanfiction. Someday I’ll finish Tali’s Flowers, or a different novel, or a movie, or a play, and people will call it my “debut” and ask me how it feels to have finally “made it.” And I’ll be proud, of course I’ll be proud. But I’m already proud. I have every reason to be.

#writing #fanfiction #writblr #writer problems #writers of tumblr #thursday thoughts #introspective #nonfiction

[elanorjane]

Fanfic Masterlist: Rumbelle, Fosterson, L&O:CI, Spuffy

Thanks @jackabelle73 for declaring this masterlist day! 

Rumbelle

California Soulmates - Pop princess Belle wants to write her own music and get out from under her father’s thumb. Single father Gold wants to put his failed music career behind him and get the hell out of L.A. When inspiration strikes, there’s only one problem…the songs they’re writing aren’t their own. They’re each other’s. “Telepathic soulmates” RCIJ for @beastlycheese

Picture of Beauty - Fashion house Jefferson-Mills needs inspiration. Photographer Gold believes a librarian he photographed by accident has what it takes. Now it’s up to Gold to turn Belle into a model worthy of Paris Fashion Week. Based on the movie Funny Face.

Teacup Redux - Rumpelstiltskin trains half-sisters Regina and Zelena in order to cast the curse that will reunite him with his son. In the meantime, he gains a young maid. When he and Belle fall in love and have a son, Rumple calls off the curse. But the two sisters, feeling betrayed, cast the curse anyway, separating true love and raising Gideon themselves. In Storybrooke, a ten-year-old Gideon gets a book from a pretty librarian and he begins to suspect there’s something magical about his town.

Alias Series:

*WInner of the 2018 Rumbelle Prompt Showdown* Written under the pen name Deshelved. Story entries for Rounds 1-5, plus sequels.

His Favorite Criminal - Weaver is killing time at the station on a rainy night when his favorite criminal saunters in. 

His Favorite Woman - Weaver juggles the many women in his life.

Minor Charges - Weaver takes a young punk into custody. 

Community Stakeholders -  Lacey knew that most people thought she was a screw up. Despite people’s doubts, she could give every single one of them the finger with confidence. 

We Could Be Heroes -  Weaver breaks up a fight. 

Love on Ice series:

Belle is an up and coming pairs figure skater. Gold is a disgraced ex-pairs Olympic medalist coerced out of hiding to coach her and her partner, Gaston, to Olympic gold. They go roughly in chronological order from Not Right For Anybody Else on.

Love on Ice - Figure skater Belle and coach Gold. At the Olympics. Over Valentine’s Day. For the February @a-monthly-rumbelling prompt: Love Letter, Candy Hearts, Chocolate, Roses, Blind Date

Not Right For Anybody Else - How Gold became Belle’s skating coach.

First Positions - The first few months of Gold being Belle’s skating coach.

What Was the Last Book You Read? - Written in the final hours of March for A Monthly Rumbelleing’s March Smut Prompt: Having a wet dream and calling the other’s name during it.

Silver Buttons All Down Her Back - Belle had secured Gold’s attendance her 21st birthday party. She’d made the request under the guise of improving their skater-coach relationship. But what she really wants to do is test the boundaries. Written for the @a-monthly-rumbelling prompt: “You’re the most annoying person I know but I think I’m in love with you anyway.”

A Little Flip -  Gold tries to transfer Belle's feelings for him to Gaston. Let's all take a guess on how that's going to go.

Naked Male Insecurity -  Belle and Gaston grow closer. Gold has a reasonable and mature reaction. Ha! Not.

Foreplay - Gold puts his skates back on for the first time in over a decade. Will Belle be there to help him get his groove back?

Fosterson (Thor/Jane Foster)

Thrown -  Mafia AU. The story of two sisters who chose each other ... and two brothers that didn't. Jane Foster is a doctor on the straight and narrow. Thor Odinson doesn't know right from wrong. Darcy Lewis has always lived her life on the fringe. Expelled from his own family, Loki Odinson has never needed an ally more. *Based on philyra-dreamhouse's gifset and prompt: http://philyra-dreamhouse.tumblr.com/post/79058549231

About Time -  “Heimdall witnessed a disturbance, beings appearing from seemingly nowhere, altered in some way.” “An Einstein-Rosen Bridge?” Thor shook his head, “He’s unsure.” “But it could be an Einstein-Rosen Bridge,” Jane suggested brightly. “Jane, I thought we agreed,” Thor began, glancing over to where Leika played on the floor. She threw up her hands, “I know, I know, whoever’s race discovers it gets to go check it out first.” She continued throwing items into her bag, now with a little more force than necessary. “But Asgardians seems to find all the good stuff,” she lamented.

The North Star -  Jane and Thor’s first Christmas/Hanukkah together. Holiday fluff. Post-TDW

Law & Order: Criminal Intent 

Take Me Anywhere - Alexandra Eames never wanted to be a princess. She wanted to play and climb and jump and throw with the boys and for thirty-two years she had. Now a country which she had never really identified with as her own, have risen up to demand her as their figurehead.    

A Woman Scorned - Best read after a viewing of Untethered.

Out of It - Begins with Eames and Ross busting Bobby out of the Psych Ward. Post-Untethered

Moments -  Various Moments in the lives of Bobby, Alex, Emma, and co.

Telling the Fam' -  “Isn’t he the crazy guy that throws himself off of buildings and slices his hand open in interrogation rooms?”

A Labor Story or Hard Labor Emma Jane Goren-Eames enters the world. Alex gets annoyed. Bobby panics.

Overprotected - Future Fic. Emma Jane Goren-Eames recounts how everyone found out about her, with a little help from her parents’ favorite psychopath

Bullpen or Playpen?  - Circumstances out of her control force Alex to bring her and Bobby’s daughter, Emma, to the precinct. “Let’s go play ‘terr’gation!”

zoion logia - Future Fic. A series of shorts I have planned – snippets of Emma Jane GorenEames’ life so far.

Spuffy

Back Together- At sixteen they got pregnant and hitched. They regretted it two years later and split, separating their twin babies. Now, thirteen years later the siblings are bringing their parents back together. *Based on The Parent Trap*

Before Today - AU Buffy and Spike are assassins hired by their bosses, Angel and Cordelia, to kill each other. What happens when their passion for killing turns into a passion for each other? (Think rebel Buffy in “The Wish”)

Comedown -AU Buffy Summers has been asked to move in with her boyfriend Angel Giles, heir to the law firm of Wolfram and Hart. But when Angel’s rebel younger brother, Spike, returns to claim what is rightfully his, Buffy sees Angel in a new light as sparks fly between Spike and herself. Angel continues to plow ahead in the relationship, and Spike brings her to question her choices in life. Will she follow her current path or follow her heart?

Dark City - The future of Sunnydale is dark. Buffy Summers is one of the few left to fight the good fight. When she has to make a deal with one of the darkest there is, will she be able to keep to the calling she was assigned so long ago, or will she submerge herself in his Dark City?

Game of Love - Buffy, Xander, Willow, Anya, and Spike are friends from college. After the graduation The Gang, except Spike, opens a now famous wedding boutique Fairytale. While Spike is happy and getting great projects working for a very popular bridal magazine as a photographer. Now, Spike's boss Liliah wants the famous Buffy in her magazine. Who'll take the great, big project? Spike of course. But Buffy refuses to do the spread, so Spike makes a proposition: he'll find her a guy in exchange for the project. What happens when Spike realizes he is The Guy and falls for her big time? Buffy's already found a man -- a guy that Spike set her up with! Much Spuffiness ensues.

Havilon - S6 Glory is still out in search of the key. A gold poison arrow now in her possession. It hits someone. But who? How is the poison cured? This is a story I started back in 2002 on fanfiction.net under the penname bondgirl0018. I’m revising and continuing the entire thing. This is my first go at a long non-AU Spuffy. Spuffy eventually, Spike/Dawn friendship.

It's the Great Slayer, Buffy Summers - Spike and Buffy are together celebrating Halloween. No angst, just happy Halloween-ing with a little homage It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

Out of the Rubble - Buffy Summers is living out every parent’s worst nightmare and it’s up to Special Agent William “Spike” Giles to find the person who kidnapped her daughter and bring her back (hopefully) alive. But as these two will learn, the closer they get to the truth, the closer tragedy will bring them together.

Return To You - Years after leaving Sunnydale, he comes back to claim his childhood love. But she’s not so easily convinced. Can he come to terms with the boy he once was and get back the girl he left behind?

Someday, Much More - Spike Giles’s brother, Angel, skips town, leaving him with a little girl and a big responsibility. Forced to give up his big-city L.A. life, he meets a small-town girl who could be his saving grace.

What You're Waiting For - Buffy Summers is a jaded writer. Spike Giles is her editor. When Buffy is summoned home for a family affair in the midst of her latest novel, she drags New York back home with her to little ol’ Sunnydale. Her two worlds are going to collide. And nothing will ever be the same.

#all the fanfic #masterlist #rumbelle fic #fosterson fic #law and order: criminal intent #spuffy

[starryevermore]

Hi :) ... please continue with gifs of colin shea ..... there are more scenes of colin missing for example the basketball scene and when he almost sleeps with ally ... and more😍💙🔥 ... it was definitely one of my favorite movies 🥰

I will continue.. when I have the time. I have 6 scenes screen recorded that I'm going to gif, so that's ~6 more gifsets, depending on how I decide to divide those scenes, which can take anywhere from ten minutes to an hour per gifset. And then I have to decide if I want to add text or not to the gifs, which can add another half hour onto making them if I choose to add text. And then add another 10 minutes onto actually converting them into a gif format. So we're looking at, at minimum 120 minutes or 2 hours and up to 600 minutes or 10 hours (assuming I only stick to 6 gifsets).

Contrary to how it may seem sometimes, I do have shit going on outside of Tumblr and making gifs and writing fics. I'm literally in class from 9 to 5 most days of the week, and I have about 2-3 hours of studying on top of that. And that studying is just preparing for the next day's set of classes. Not to mention I have midterms starting next week that run through until about mid-October. Then I have to start studying for my finals, which might as well be the entire month of December. So, I've got a lot going on in terms of school. Then factor in the fact that I just don't have the energy to make gifs when I do have the time to make them, or that my creative energy drives me elsewhere. Plus I have to actually take care of myself and get decent sleep, which is becoming more and more of a fantasy than a reality. At the end of the day, my battery's totally dead and it takes a lot to not just fall over.

I'll get to making gifs when I get to making them. Could be today. Could be December, when I finish finals and want to sleep for a thousand years. Could be summer when I don't have any more studying to do. I don't know. Besides, my requests are technically closed, and at the moment, I'm only doing things that spark joy. If making the gifs isn't making me happy, then it just gets put further off.

And, I understand that you're not doing this with any sort of malice or ill intent, but asks like this just make me not want to do this even more. Yes, I like making gifs. But, seeing this after an already long day just makes me feel like nothing I'm doing is good enough. And, again, I know you don't mean that. But, sometimes you have to remember how the person on the other end of the conversation is going to receive what you say.

I really do appreciate people coming in and asking me to make gifs or talking to me about things I'm working on. But saying "there are more scenes of colin missing" just makes me feel unappreciated and, honestly, makes me just want to delete the gifsets I have posted.

TL;DR: I'll get to it. Eventually. We'll see.

#signed sealed delivered #angst city™ visitors

[officialthiamlibrary]

Welcome to another profile on Behind the Screens, giving you personal insight on who your favorite creators are and what they do when they aren’t wowing you with their creative ability.

This week, I’m excited to bring to you our first artist, Dalyane, or Da-Smiley99. Although, in her case, a more appropriate title would be jack-of-all-trades. As our resident fic writer, song-inspired pic spam creator, and incorrect quote aficionado, she shares her inspiration behind incorrect quotes, her writing persona, her meta-author plans to dictate Thiam’s relationship, and much more! Take a look :)

So, Dalyane, let’s ease our way into things. Tell us about yourself. The catch: the word count should be equal to or less than the number of letters in your two favorite Teen Wolf characters’ name. 

Stiles Stilinski + Theodore Raeken = 25 : My name’s Dalyane, I’m a ray of sunshine in human form. What I want the most is to make people happy with what I do.

And, how did you find the Thiam pack? What about Theo x Liam drew you in?

To be honest, I don’t have the slightest idea. It just came smoothly to me. When I saw Theo and Liam interacting, I was just drawn into it. I was drawn by the silent conversations in their eyes, every word that came out of their mouths that sometimes meant something else or something they haven’t said, their mutual violence towards each other. (I absolutely hate violence, but I don’t know why I’m deeply hypnotized by their banter and their complicated Like/Hate relationship). 

I’m like the most oblivious person ever, I wouldn’t even know if somebody is hitting on me, but there’s something romance-worthy (Is that even a word?) about their complicated relationship that drew me in the Thiam fandom. 

Not mentioning Theo’s past, Liam eventually learned to trust him at some point even if he was still a little hostile towards Theo. A little part of himself learned to forgive him, so he could fight alongside him. In the entire sixth season, I felt like they developed a whole new relationship based on building trust. Apart, Liam and Theo are quite strong alone, but together they cooperate, fight and act like they were a “whole”. Liam may not trust Theo yet, but I felt like his body, his own being told the opposite. I was extremely glad to see their relationship grow with their characters. So long story short, I just basically just dived into it. And it’s without a damn shame that I can say that I don’t even regret liking them together. And it’s also not because of the amazing, beautiful and breathtaking gifsets on Tumblr...Not at all.

Yes!! That sums up their relationship perfectly and worded so well. Let’s keep that going for a moment. Say this was a ‘Stranger Than Fiction’ situation and you could alter their relationship, their lives with your writing. How would they live through the following scenarios:

a. Their First Date: 

Oh, they would know for sure they’re on a date, even if it’s not a date. Theo and Liam would hear my annoying voice every five minutes. Like Liam would ask Theo to hang out at his place, it’s just two dudes hanging out, nothing extraordinary really. But I would still break the nice atmosphere by saying random things that comes from their heads. Like -Wow, Theo’s ass looks great in those Jeans, Liam thought- or -Had Liam’s lips always been that pink?- and God, they would be as red as tomatoes. Awkward much.

b. Their child’s first boyfriend/girlfriend

Theo would absolutely refuse to admit or say out loud that he doesn’t like his child’s significant other. It would hurt his pride, but he doesn’t want to hurt his small bean and his husband, Liam. Of course it’s my job! Theo would be outraged, but it would be so worth it.

c. Their first conflict as an official couple

Because of me, their fight would last for 5 minutes maximum. They would be in a situation where Theo would get jealous because he thought some random guy was flirting with Liam, when in fact he was just being super friendly. So Theo was being an asshole out of jealousy. Liam would start getting angry at him, asking what was his problem but Theo wouldn’t respond. I would just whisper in the air: “Hey, he was jealous you dummy.“ Then they would apologize to each other, followed quickly by a make out session. Yeah, you’re welcome Thiam. 

Haha, honestly, they’d be lucky to have you running the show! Piggy-backing off the craziness you’d put them through, sometimes, characters  find themselves in situations they aren’t sure they can get out of. In your life, is there a time you found yourself in a situation like that and what did you do?

Oh god. Almost nothing happened to me in my life. But I will share this particularly embarrassing moment of me. So one day I was going to my high school, I was inside the school bus. But suddenly the bus stopped at my old middle school, then our chauffeur turned to us saying our high school was closed because of the snow. 

So we went inside the middle school to call our parents so they can pick us up. But that day my mom was working, so she wasn’t available. My grandma didn’t pick up the phone either. So I was like “I can’t stay here anyway, what should I do?” Then my stupid old self just got out of the school, walking all the way to my home. Yeah, I was pretty stupid back then.

 I was freezing and couldn’t see a damn thing in front of me because I was in the middle of a snowstorm. A random guy slowed his car close to me and asked me if I want to get in. Then I remembered what my mom said about getting in a car with a stranger, Oh hell no. I lied saying I was close to home, so he would leave me alone. It worked. 

30 minutes later I think, another car stopped close to me and a woman speaks to me, “Get in, I won’t let you freeze on the road.” I hesitated, obviously. Until I saw my friend in the passenger seat. Finally, I got home safely! I was incredibly embarrassed and horrified; I felt like an idiot. I never thought that I would get home. Holy molly, that was terrifying. When my mom asked why I was home early, I lied to her saying that the chauffeur brought all the students home in the morning. Well, I’ll never ever do that again.

Oh my goodness! Girl, I’m glad you got home ok and didn’t freeze to death! Before we jump into your work, who would be on your ultimate paintball/laser tag team. Any five characters from Teen Wolf. Also, Why?

I would have Stiles on my team, because he’s extremely smart and no doubt he would make up an excellent strategy on the field. I would have Theo, he’s also smart, but he’s a bit reckless and surely takes risks a lot so it can come in handy. I would have Malia, she’s a badass and would dominate the field with some girl power! (You go girl!) I would have Corey, he’s very subtle, doesn’t make a sound and he definitely would blend in the background and that is definitely handy for sure. What a great sneaky sniper. 

For the last member of my team, I would take Mason, he will probably use his charm and his charisma to lure the opposite team’s members. Or just make jokes and references to his favorite Tv shows. That kinda does the job too.

Perfect! And now your work! *Rubbing my hands together in anticipation*

You do a little bit of it all when it comes to creating for Thiam: fanfiction, fanart, edits, incorrect quotes. Which would you say is your favorite art form? And how do you balance creating them all? 

I guess my favorite form of art is writing. I had a talent for writing since I was a kid. I could express myself better on paper than with my voice. Many people had a hard time to believe that everything I wrote came from my mind, because I can’t express myself properly when I talk. For me, writing is an art and fanfics are masterpieces. Writing has been a way for me to escape the real world, my problems and my worries. Writing is a way for me to talk indirectly to readers and expressing my feelings to them through my writing. 

It’s kinda hard to balance my creativity in my posts, because I always do something different. If I see something I like on Tumblr, Instagram or Twitter, I tried to include it in them. I always try to get better. I’m trying to find my own style and keep it. I’m saying it again, I want to make people happy with what I do and when I get positive comments on my works, that makes me want to get  better. A part of me does all of this for my followers, to put a smile on their faces or make them laugh. Seeing them happy makes me happy too.

And, if your process was a person, describe them. What do they do? Wear? Listen to?

Well, she’s pretty thoughtful. She always paces back and forth in her room, trying to find a title to her work. She bases her work mostly on the title, that is most of the time based on a song. She’s always in PJ’s and some good old crocs. She just sit on her bed, listening to her favorite songs, TV shows, movies or her favorite YouTubers. She’s a little lazy girl, I guess. I can’t really blame her, it’s how she is. :)

What would you say is both your (and her) Writing Kryptonite, haha? How do you fight it?

It’s really strange, but I can’t write anything if I don’t listen to some music. Music always has been the source of my imagination, I just didn’t realize it until a few months ago. If I don’t have my phone and headphones on me, I can’t do anything. I need music to write. Depending to the meaning, the lyrics and the beat of the songs I listen to, my works change. If I write something sad, I listen to songs about heartbreak, death, breakups, etc. If I write something fluffy and happy, I will listen to songs about happy endings, falling in love, weddings,etc. 

When I know exactly what to write (theme, feeling expressed in it and other minimal things), I know instantly what song to listen to. Every time there’s music in my ears, I get in my own writing world and my hands just start tapping on my keyboard on their own. This is pretty unique, huh? Music gets me really emotional and I can’t do anything about it. It’s very strange. Since Music is the source of my creativity and imagination, it’s very rare that I have writer’s block.                  

To get rid of my writer’s block, I simply sit back on my couch and close my eyes, listening to some soft music. I take a break, because I can’t write something for a whole day, I would get a huge migraine. I would just relax and let everything come to me.

Your love for writing with music. Is that what inspires your song edits, like this one? What makes a song shout Thiam to you? How do you choose images that embody both the song, their relationship, and your writing for it?

I always choose a song that reflects their complicated relationship and what they’ve been through. I choose songs that are very specific for them, that express their banter, their problems and their backstories. Depending on the songs I choose for my edits, the colors, the pictures and themes are different with each one. For example, for a sad song, the colors and pictures of my edits will be darker, the theme of the edit will likely be sadness, sorrow, breakups,etc. For a more happy-go-lucky song, the colors and pictures will be clearer and brighter, and the theme of the edit will be happiness, calmness, comfort, etc. 

Everything I do in my edits will change with the song I choose. I chose pictures very carefully, they have to call to me (my creative style, I mean). When I find something perfect for my edits, I just know it. It’s hard to explain it, but I can feel it in my gut when I got something good. I’m a weird phenomenon.

And, incorrect quotes. How do those come to you too? Are they inspired by things you see of hear in everyday life? 

Most of them are inspired by my favorite YouTubers: Game Grumps. It’s a gaming channel, where two grown men play some video games while sassing each other, telling semi-bad jokes, swearing 95% of the time and saying perfect incorrect quotes material. Most of them came from the mouth of these awesome guys. Is it the time when I say you should check their channel out? Yeah, go check it, please. :)

Oh wow, one of my roommates watches their channel religiously!! I’ll have to join her sometimes, when I hear them blaring from her room haha. You’ve recently started a new multi-chapter fic, Catch & Release. Can you give us a quick summary, for anyone unfamiliar. 

The story happens one year after the events of season 6. A mysterious girl come knocking on Liam and Theo’s door, seeking their help. Her name is Skye Andrews.She’s a true Alpha who’s fighting against an hostile pack that plans to take Canada. When they saw that she wasn’t a threat and saying the truth, Liam and Theo accepted to help her, also accepting coming to Canada.

And did something inspire the concept?

I don’t even know. It just weirdly came to me just like that, while I was listening to the song “Catch & Release” by Matt Simons.The story made itself when I listened to the lyrics of the song. Now you know where the title came from.

Finally, you know I have to ask. Are there any spoilers you can slip us? 

Eventually you’ll get to know all of my original characters I included in the story. I can’t give any spoilers, because I still don’t know where this story is going. But here’s something I know for sure: Nolan/Alec and Thiam will be canon at some point in the story, I just don’t know when exactly. But if you want some precise informations, my ask box is always open.

Hahaha, fair enough. I guess we’ll have to read along and see. Ooh--perfect question segway. Bonus Question-if you could read only one author/fanfic writer for a whole year, who would you read? And what story of theirs would you horde?

Without hesitation, I say Captainmintyfresh (@Thiamfresh on Tumblr). I just adore her writing so much. It calls to me and her writing style absolutely hypnotized me. She’s incredibly talented and I just can’t stop reading her works. “Airplanes” is by far her best work. I think everyone should read it; it’s a piece of art, a masterpiece. I’m not even exaggerating. Her writing is truly amazing; it gives me the chills. I really wish I could write like that. She can capture the personality and the dynamic of the characters in the Teen Wolf universe. The way she writes their interactions is truly a treat. Seriously, If I could read her works forever, I would. She’s incredibly talented.

I share that sentiment, wholeheartedly. You’re not alone! Before we wrap, I want to ask about advice because I think it’s amazing when we’re given the opportunity to learn from one another. What’s the best writing/drawing/edit-creating advice you’ve ever gotten? Is there any wisdom you could gift us?

I didn’t get any advice in writing, but I would like to give some. If you are struggling with your writing, just take a breath and lean back to look at your work. If nothing comes out, it’s useless to work endlessly and working your brains out. Just take a break and work on it later. There’s no need to be rushed, take the time you need. Writing can be hard and demands a lot of concentration and creativity. Just take the time you need, take breaks and write everything you like. You are the creator of your story.

What’s next for you? Both in life and the creation world?

Well, I’m taking a year off of college. It was becoming too much for my brain to handle so much anxiety every day. In this year, I will eventually think about where I want to go and what I want to do. Maybe it will shorten my time for writing, but I want to do the most I can. I guess there’s nothing next in the creating segment, I’m just going to continue writing and drawing. But there’s nothing huge specifically.  

Any creating is always a perfect amount, so I’m sending you all the luck and inspiration juice in the world! Anything else you’d like to share, in general. The floor is all yours! :)

This concerns anybody reading this. I’m saying this for the third time now, but I’m writing fanfictions, doing edits, drawing fanarts and writing some incorrect quotes for you (all of you). I’m doing this to bring a smile on your faces, make you laugh and make you feel so many different emotions with my work. Seeing you guys happy, makes me incredibly happy. On everything that I do, don’t be shy and comment on my works. If you like my writing style, if you like how I make aesthetics, if you like my incorrect quotes or just quotes in general and if you like my fanarts, go ahead and tell me about those things. I probably won’t respond, because I have a social life outside of Tumblr and I’m actually pretty busy.I want to get better not just for myself, but for all of you. I don’t want to let anybody down and I don’t want to disappoint anybody. I really hope that I meet your expectations. I love each one of you (I’m definitely not crying right now).

Awww! And so with that, BTS presents Dalyane, Da-Smiley99! As always, you can keep the conversation going; respond to any of her thoughts, ask more questions, send a prompt, or simply swing by for a chat with Dalyane anytime. To quote her, she would be “absolutely thrilled” to receive your thoughts! If you’d like to dive into her works, check out both her AO3 and Tumblr.

Tumblr: Da-smiley99

AO3: Dasmiley99

Ask Box: Da-Smiley ask

A huge thank you to her for being so excited about our chat and sharing us piece of her life with us! 

Have a Thiam Creator you fan over, from any platform (AO3, Tumblr, Wattpad, Instagram, FFN, etc). Definitely drop us their names. Bonus points if you include any questions you’re dying to ask them. 

Likewise, if you as the creator, would like to be a part of the Behind the Screens series, give us a shout too! We’d love to get to know you, as well.

Mic drop!

#thiam #behind the screens #teen wolf #da-smiley99 #officialthiamlibrary

[kyloreyorgana]

My thoughts on The Last Jedi

Beware : this post contains spoilers. If you haven’t seen the movie, scroll down or read at your own risk.

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OHMYGOD GUYS WE WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG.

Before my very eyes there was it, everything we predicted in metas, wrote in fanfics, theorized about from scratch from the get-go. Force bond. Rey Nobody, Grey Jedi, check. 

I can’t help but have a thought for the antis who were so adamant until the very end, despite all odds, and even to my friends back then who told me Rey was obviously Luke’s daughter and that she would date Finn (or even Finn and Poe). I mean, to anyone their ship. One ship doesn’t need to be cannon to be valid, fortunately so.

What I’m saying is : we were right, motherfuckers for two and a half hours, not only was my ship validated but also Rey & Kylo’s arc was exactly as we predicted it to be. And seriously, shout out to the Reylos who analyzed every detail in TFA and in bonus materials nobody but us cared about, who brought up elements only real Star Wars nerds knew about (and certainly not the antis), and who wrote fucking essays about it. You made me (and every Reylo shipper) dream, think, and you were right.

I was so overwhelmed. At times, I had the direct impression that I was reading yet another fanfic because there was so much stuff the writers had came up with already. Kylo pestering Rey through the Force bond (preferably shirtless, because he knows she won’t be indifferent to him and because shirtless Adam Driver, amiright), Rey calling him a monster, them touching hands and saying they saw their future in each other’s mind, Kylo going solo (hoho) and inviting Rey to rule the galaxy with him, and so on... The little things, like Luke telling her “You need a teacher”... I’d dreamt about so much that I almost couldn’t believe I wasn’t daydreaming yet again.

Seriously I was surprised at how quick their arc was unraveling. I’ve read a lot of fics in which it takes soooo much more time for Rey to get around Kylo and stop trying to kill him. It was even a tad too quick for me. Even though I ship those two with the white heat of a thousand suns, I’m a slow-burn kind of person. And if that isn’t a validation, I don’t know what is.

Seriously, if I was one of the writers who almost saw a replica of their fanfic on the big screen, I would have fainted. To those writers, who wrote fucking novels with the talent of professional storytellers and no remuneration other from kudos and the gratitude of us fans, who saved my ass from depression two years ago, who made so many of us dream... You were right. To every one of you, those who wrote metas and theories, those who created gifsets and amazing art, I just want to say thank you so much, and congratulations : we were right. :D

I could go on for hours about this movie.

I remember two years ago when I went to see it a month after its release because I was clinically depressed and uninterested in everything and so sure it would be another shitty movie with lots of money but could not miss the occasion of seeing a new Star Wars movie in a theater because it is fucking Star Wars, and I was crushed by the power of the movie and of Reylo. And it was the first time for three years that I was able to dream again. Those who have lived through depression know how horrible it is when your favorite music sounds like annoying noise and your favorite food tastes like dust. 

I was living again. I spent weeks and months drinking in everything I could. (Months later, I was cured from depression. I’m not saying Reylo cured me, but it was definitely an important part of my recovery to be able to dream again and feel so many emotions, and this movie helped me, and you Reylo shippers helped me so much) 

Now it came to life. I’m at a loss for words. I am so glad for the new material we have now. The metas, gifsets, pictures and fanfics are going to be wild. I could almost not deal with how beautiful those two were together. I cannot wait to see the gifsets and everything you guys have in store.

I feel like we are at the half of those two’s arc, when they have finally come to terms with their bond and the potential they share as well as their unavoidable attraction to each other, and they’ve teamed up to destroy Snoke (who I did not think would go down so easily though, I didn’t hate it nonetheless because it meant he underestimated Kylo like everyone else and it only reinforced how powerful Rey and Kylo are), but now it’s obvious that they are both from different sides and they want two entirely different things and from what I’ve read in all those fanfics, the rest is how they come to terms with the fact they both have lightness and darkness inside them, and learn to balance each other.

Also, even though I’ve tried to keep this post reylo-only because I would jabber on for hours otherwise, I cannot not talk about Leia. Because Leia. Weary, devastated, who lost everything but still clung to hope. Just. Leia Organa. And Luke. Poor, sad and flawed Luke. Good old friends. I’d missed you.

I started to cry at the first note of the opening credits, I knew I was fucked. The music started, everyone applauded because we were in a theater, about to see a new Star Wars movie. Even now as I’m writing, my eyes are watering again. Those who didn’t grow up with the first movies will never be able to understand the emotion we all felt at this moment. I don’t think I have ever witnessed such emotion in a movie theater. It was like we were all granted the right to travel back in time to reunite with old friends and legends of our childhood. 

This movie was a farewell, and a new beginning.

This movie gave me life. I am so grateful.

#star wars spoilers #the last jedi spoilers #tlj spoilers #reylo #force bond #lightside ren #darkside rey #gray jedi #revan & bastila

[jonsameta]

let’s play spot the parallels

Welcome to our second @jonsameta roundtable. Last week, our contributors argued that starkbowl was dead and starkcest was on. Stormborn proved them mostly right. Jon left his newly won kingdom in Sansa’s hands. In a show that is liberal with it’s visual and narrative parallels, 7x02 was notably heavy handed. Especially where Jon and Sansa were concerned. This week I asked @jen-snow, @goodqueenalys​, @winterfellchild​ to weigh in on their favorite parallel.

@jen-snow​: you are my weakness

My favourite parallel was that quiet, understated moment when Jon and Sansa awkwardly waved goodbye to each other. I’ll admit, at first I was disappointed that we didn’t even get a proper goodbye scene, but I’ve changed my mind.

There was something subtly yet powerfully romantic about them quietly and cautiously waving goodbye with the snow flurrying down around them, and even more importantly, this was very Jon and Sansa, unlike any overly dramatic, or alternatively, a cringe-inducingly awkward scene an actual conversation could have turned into. An exchange with physical contact would have either appeared extremely stilted or too openly romantic.

I believe we have to see this scene in the context of the entire episode.The only other goodbye scene we get is the overtly romantic one between Missandei and Grey Worm. Both women are concerned for their man’s safety. Both men seem unable to say goodbye to the woman they love and Grey Worm points out how hard this is for him, because he considers Missandei his weakness. If the crypt scene taught us anything, it’s that Sansa is Jon’s weakness. Littlefinger kept trying to push Jon’s buttons, touching all sore spots he’d been able to identify, but it was Sansa that pushed Jon over the edge.

Jon can’t help but look back at Sansa and it’s plainly written on his face that he doesn’t want to leave her, probably because he wants to protect her. But it seems as if there’s something else there. I think it’s significant that Jon’s departure is dealt with in three parts.

The short scene where he receives a letter from Daenerys, summoning him to Dragonstone.

The longer scene where he explains his motivations to treat with Daenerys so they can use her dragonglass and her armies.

The sequence with the crypt scene and the goodbye scene, where the focus is on Sansa.

We’re going into tinfoil territory here, but the way these scenes are structured seems to imply that Sansa is part of the reason why Jon is leaving. Perhaps he believes him leaving is also protecting Sansa in the long run, first of all because making an alliance enables him to defend the North against the White Walkers. But would it be too much to suspect that part of him thinks she’s better off without him, that he’s among the dangers she needs protection from?

@goodqueenalys​: little goodbyes

There were so many Ned/Cat parallels in 7.02 I was LIVING FOR IT! I think the underlying Ned/Cat subtext is something that has been consistently present since Jon and Sansa got back to Winterfell, and how could it not be? Here they are, in their family’s ancestral home, ruling together as a united front, looking like Ned and Cat 2.0 in their matching outfits, and arguing about who should sleep in the master bedroom. So with the intensity of the first two episodes this season, and after watching Jon tell Sansa he trusts her to rule the North in front of everyone and their maester and then threaten to kill Littlefinger with his bare hands if he ever touched anything in proximity to Sansa’s person… The lack of a goodbye scene felt a little… anticlimactic? At least, it did initially.

Unlike many of the other “goodbyes” we have seen in the series, such as Grey Worm and Missandei’s mentioned above, or Jon and Ygrittes’, or even Daenerys and Darioo’s, there were no grand gestures or dramatic declarations. Instead we got a wave and a small head tilt; some wordless communication and reassurance, the type that Jon and Sansa have seemed to be so fond of since their reunion. At first, with Jon riding off to what could be his impending doom, it seemed almost laughably simple and unrealistic. But, there is another farewell scene that followed the exact same pattern: Jaime and Brienne’s in 6.08.

In scenes like these, the beauty is in the simplicity. It’s these soft, subtle farewells that leave us with no feelings of finality. Instead, it seems to say that these two people will see each other again, that they have unfinished business. It’s not the end of their story, just the end of this chapter. It’s not shutting a door, it’s leaving a light on. It’s not “goodbye,” it’s “I’ll see you later.”

[editor’s note: @lyannas-loves​ did a great gifset of this parallel here]

@winterfellchild​: the importance of the crypt scene

I really agree with the previous parallels, especially the Jaime and Brienne’s parallel that @goodqueenalys mentioned. In my opinion, one more interesting facts about that parallel is that both scenes were directed by Mark Mylod.

Jamie and Brienne are a well-established couple/ship on GoT. Everyone knows there is love and undeniable tension between them, so the fact that the same director filmed the same kind of scenes for these two couples goodbyes for me it’s evidence enough that the parallel was no coincidence at all: what we thought we saw (a not-platonic goodbye) it’s what the director wanted us to see (a not-platonic goodbye).

Let me talk a little about the parallel that I think everyone immediately saw since we first saw it in the trailer: Jon choking Littlefinger.

Everyone is talking about that scene because the parallel between Ned throttling Littlefinger in King’s Landing and Jon doing the same thing in the crypt is so clear that even the casual viewers saw it immediately. And as an added cherry on top, Jon’s face when Littlefinger declared his love for Sansa was priceless… just like his words “Touch my sister, and I’ll kill you myself.”

I should like to open a short parenthesis about this quote: the use of the word “touch” is also a powerful parallel with Jon and Sansa scene in ep 6x09, when Jon said the famous line “I won’t ever let him touch you again. I’ll protect you, I promise” after one of their heated arguments. Jon was talking about another man but he felt the same way at the thought of another man touching Sansa: come what may, he won’t let anyone touch her.

But why did D&D write this scene? After I watched the whole episode again I realized that there is no apparent reason why that scene was important enough to show us, why in an episode (we can also say in a season) that it’s not going to show unnecessary scenes they still decided that we needed to see this specific parallel of Jon attacking Littlefinger. Why we needed to see Jon being Ned 2.0 right in front of Ned’s grave?

I truly believe Littlefinger will die this season so maybe there won’t be any more scenes between him and Jon and consequently, for this reason, there was really no need to see Littlefinger spilling the beans about his love for Cat with Jon or telling him about the fact that he was the one that gave Ned bones to Cat. Jon knowing these things is irrelevant to his storyline. The only thing that really captured the public’s attention is the fact that Jon went crazy when Littlefinger said that he loved Sansa.

In view of these considerations, my own personal conclusion is that the reason why D&D wrote that scene is that they wanted us to see one more time Jon furious reaction when Sansa is involved. He may have said “my sister”, but that homicidal rage doesn’t show brotherly love at all, his anger was so intense that I honestly think that, even if Jon is not aware yet, he acted like a furious lover and not like a brother. And for now I’m happy knowing that this fact is so important that D&D decided to include this scene in the episode.

[editor’s note: @ryanranalds​ did a great gifset of this parallel (with bonus brandon/cat) here]

@direwolfpupy: you’re abandoning your people

Ned and Cat are probably the healthiest couple we’ve seen on Game of Thrones. They built their love slowly, from the ground up. Jon is in a similar place Ned was in Winter is Coming. He doesn’t want to go south, he has an obligation to his people and family to remain in the North. As Lyanna said, “winter is here, we need the king of the north in the north.” But there are threats to the greater good which they must go south to face. Ned needed to investigate the death of Jon Arryn and the potential Lannister coup Lyssa worried about. To do that he became Bobby B’s hand, a title he did not want. Though Jon had always dreamed of being Lord of Winterfell, he himself admits that King in the North is not a title that fits him well. Jon must go south to treat with Daenerys to gain access to her mountain of dragonglass and potentially dragonfire.

There’s a reason the North chose Jon as his heir, and a reason the Jon/Ned parallels have become increasingly obvious. As somebody else has already mentioned, Ned’s legacy hangs over the entire Stark narrative:

Ned is every single king whose role in the story is to die before the story really starts, whose presence is mostly felt by its absence. Ned is the gravestone that a shadow falls across in every Disney movie, Ned is the mythical Good King, revered by all, whose heirs must save his kingdom from the wickedness that engulfs it after his death.

One of the things that made Ned great was that he took risks for the common good. GoT is not actually a love letter to machiavellianism, and if you think that you just don’t get it. The story has never been about playing “the game”, for “the game” is merely a euphemism for human suffering. Ned, and Jon, are our true heroes because they do not care for such games. Nor do they have any talent for them. Luckily, both are advised by somebody with a little more savvy. Both Cat and Sansa are more ruthless and realistic, especially when it comes to their family. But Sansa is an improvement on her mother. While Cat became consumed by revenge, Sansa is concerned most of all with the safety of their home, their family and their people. She isn’t just Cat 2.0, she is both Ned and Cat’s daughter, and has learned from her trauma. The fact that Jon, our true hero, trusts Sansa the most is telling on who she has become. 

Sansa has clearly come to rely on Jon. Despite the fact that ~*~*~power hungry Sansa~*~*~ seems to be her popular characterization, she was sad to see Jon go. She didn’t look particularly thrilled that she was suddenly in charge. ldquo;You’re abandoning me,” was never said, but you could see it on Sophie’s face. Sansa once valued family the least among her siblings, but now she may value it the most. Sansa is also the one to remind Jon of their family legacy and history. She has become the Stark matriarch despite not having any children.Their fight about whether he should stay or go was very Ned/Cat and harkened back to the very first episode of the show. Not only do I think this means something romantically for a full circle “endgame”, I like the signals the showrunners are trying to send about who Jon and Sansa are as people and what the message/moral of the show will end up being. And I’m excited to see Jon and Sansa improve on Ned and Cat’s legacy for the next 11 episodes.

[check out  this gifset by @baelerion​]

That’s it for now!

Many thank yous to our contributors for taking their time to analyze the episode! Now, for the next few weeks we will likely not have any Jon and Sansa scenes to write about. But we still plan to put out an article every week, as I know there will be much to discuss in any case!

#jonsa #jonsameta #jonsameta roundtable #got s7e2 #jonsameta original content #jen-snow #goodqueenalys #aryasmeatpies #winterfellchild #many thanks #i'm very hypocritical because my contribution was so long and i told people they shouldn't be long lol #oh well