#but I think Ezekiel is a badass name

[elfyprincess]

Radfems what do you think of my baby names ?

[venus-haze]

I’ll Keep a Light in My Window (Starlight x Reader)

Summary: After her Believe Expo speech, it feels like everyone’s eyes are on Annie. Among the messages flooding her Instagram DMs is an encouraging one from you, an old friend from her Capes for Christ days. The two of you reconnect, and Annie finds more than friendship with you this time around.

Note: Woman reader, but no other descriptors are used. This is my first Starlight fic! I hope I did her justice since this is mostly from her perspective. Inspired by the song from The Get Down because it’s so Annie. Do not interact if you’re under 18 or post thinspo/ED content.

Word count: 2k

Warnings: This is pretty much fluff with some angst, related to canon events and mentions of homophobia in the context of American Christianity. Obviously playing with the plot of S1 for this fic. Do not interact if you’re under 18.

Despite the crowd’s chaos in response to her speech, Annie felt her smile falter when she got backstage and was met with varying degrees of rage and disgust. Her own mother looked like she’d spent the past five minutes sucking on sour candy. 

‘Hello!’ Annie wanted to shout. ‘Did you see what I did out there? Aren’t you gonna congratulate me?’

Hughie had disappeared after meeting Ezekiel. She tried to pretend that him not even saying goodbye didn’t bother her. If she could get up on stage and bare her soul to thousands of people in person and millions at home, at the very least she could admit to herself that she was hurt. 

The drive back to the tower was tense. Everyone seemed to avoid making eye contact with her. As if she’d done something wrong. The longer she sat with what she said and did, the more she was convinced she made the right choice. Between what The Deep had done to her and how she was treated after saving a girl from suffering the same fate, they were just mad she called them on her complacency. 

As soon as she made it back to her suite, she pulled out her phone to find her Instagram had blown up even more than when she first joined The Seven. Her phone nearly crashed from the amount of notifications she had. Thousands of comments and messages, either rants or support. She scrolled through her clogged DMs, her stomach churning at the glimpses of abuse that piled on from irate strangers. One DM caught her attention, addressing her by her real name rather than Starlight. 

Hesitantly, she tapped the message to see the full contents.

‘Holy shit Annie!! You’re so badass🤩 Our Capes for Christ counselors must be shitting themselves right now lmao way to go!’

There were a lot of people from her Capes for Christ days, a constant rotation of hopeful young superheroes ready to use their powers for the glory of the Lord. Looking back, it was just a self-righteous vanity project for their parents and whatever religious sycophants hovered around. She tapped your photo, bringing her to your profile. Your brief bio gave your first name and that you were living in the city, but your supe name was nowhere to be found. 

She tapped your most recent photo. In a brightly lit hospital hallway, you posed in black scrubs with a handful of balloons. You’d posted it just a week earlier, the caption celebrating working as a nurse for three years. Most of the comments were congratulating you, but one comment finally jogged her memory.

‘might be thinking of someone else but were you red heart?’ someone commented.

You replied with, ‘Yeah I was a million years ago! Lamest name ever😂😂’

Right. Red Heart. Healing powers. Red Cross spokesgirl. White top with a red skirt and sparkly red shoes that reminded her of the Wizard of Oz. You were on the Capes for Christ circuit with her. At one point she considered you a close friend, close enough to invite you to the roller skating party she begged her mom for when she was ten, only allowed to invite three girls because that’s all they could afford. Memories of skating to Britney Spears songs and balancing a paper plate with room temperature pizza on her lap came back to her. You’d bought her one of the special edition birthday Barbies. Her mom never let her take it out of the box, claiming it’d be worth a lot of money some day. It was probably still collecting dust in their attic.

She could remember you going off to college after high school, dropping your superhero identity not long after. With healing powers, it made sense you’d go into nursing. Her mom had expressed a judgemental disbelief at your decision. Annie wished she at least had a choice like you. 

She scrolled through more of your photos. You seemed to be doing well since you got out. Got out. Like it was a cult. Maybe in a way, it was. 

Annie hit the follow button on your profile and messaged you back.

‘Thanks Y/N! I made a lot of people mad, but I’m glad I did it 😊’ she hesitated a moment before typing, ‘We should catch up sometime! You're still in New York right? I’m pretty new to the city.’

Before she could get too in her own head about whether asking you to hang out was weird when the two of you hadn’t spoken in years, you responded with the names of a few coffee shops on the Upper East Side and that you were off work the following day. 

Her mood had tanked before meeting up with you, getting chewed out by Stilwell and feeling some guilt for Ashley losing her job. She had to remind herself it wasn’t her fault. If they hadn’t enabled a sex pest for years, she wouldn’t have had to make her speech. 

Following the directions on her phone and getting a bit turned around in the subway, she walked up to the coffee shop a few minutes after eleven, when the two of you had agreed to meet. She rushed inside when she noticed you were already sitting at a table with your drink. 

Annie sat down across from you with her coffee, playing with the cup sleeve. “I’m so glad you had time to hang out. I still don’t really know anyone here, and it’s nice to see a familiar face.”

“Yeah! I'm not really in touch with a lot of people from back then, but I can totally introduce you to my friends. It’s an adjustment, but the city has a lot to offer if you know where to look.”

“Way more to do than Des Moines at least.”

“I can’t believe I nearly forgot,” you said, lowering your voice to an excited whisper, “congrats on getting into The Seven! Out of everyone in our weird ass group growing up, I always had a feeling it was gonna be you.”

“Thanks.” She gave you a strained smile. “It’s not exactly what I expected, but I’m making the best of it.”

“Sometimes that’s the most you can do,” you said.

“How about you? What part of the hospital do you work in?”

“With my powers, they have me all over the place, but it’s good. I can see I’m really making a difference.”

“That’s what I want. Sometimes I feel like they just parade me around to look nice, but they won’t let me do anything,” she said. “Like that stupid new costume. It’s like they make me wear it just to humiliate me for helping that girl because I didn’t do it their way. I feel like a joke.”

“Not after the Believe Expo. Anyone would be an idiot not to take you seriously now,” you said. “I mean, you said what so many people were thinking but were too afraid to say. It’s bullshit they’re treating you like this.”

“No, it’s—I’ll deal. We’re supposed to be catching up, and I’m like dumping all my problems on you. How have you been? Are you seeing anyone?” she asked. 

She wasn’t sure how she’d answer the question if you’d been the one to ask. Hughie could be so hot and cold, like he was hiding something. 

You were silent for a few moments before answering. “Not really. My girlfriend and I broke up a few weeks ago.”

“That’s great! I mean—not great that you broke up, I’m so sorry,” Annie said frantically. “Just you being—dating women. I’m happy for you.”

“That means a lot, Annie. I kind of parted ways with Vought because of it. I mean, they have this progressive face, but then they let Ezekiel spout his bullshit and put their name on that too?” you ranted. “That’s just me. It’s pretty much impossible to have a career as a supe without Vought, so I don’t judge.”

“Do you think I’m crazy for trying to change things from the inside?”

“It can’t hurt to try. Then at least you know you did what you could.”

She smiled. At least she could vent to someone who understood and actually gave a damn. Hughie was nice, but he didn’t quite get it. There was always some kind of disconnect. Maeve wasn’t nearly the mentor she was hoping for. She got it a little better now. Maeve had been in The Seven for years, Annie could only imagine how much it’d wear her down. 

On her way back from getting coffee, Annie stopped in front of a bookstore with a huge Vought display in the window. Her comics were front and center, a cardboard cut-out of her next to one of Homelander. The Deep’s comics were barely visible with clearance stickers slapped on the covers. Serves him right. She couldn’t believe he’d been her favorite at one point.

Sleepovers with the other Capes for Christ girls almost always led to a “who’s your favorite member of The Seven” discussion. The answers were always a lot of Homelander, some Lamplighter or Marathon Man, but you always answered Queen Maeve. Back then, she thought it was because you admired her strength, her trailblazing as the first woman in The Seven. Maybe it wasn’t that simple.

“That’s her! I swear to god it is!” Annie overheard someone whisper-yell.

“Who?”

“Starlight, over there!”

Annie kept her head down, speed-walking up the street. She ducked into the nearest subway, getting on the first train that stopped even though it was going further uptown. Pulling her hoodie up to obscure her face, she sighed. She had everything she ever dreamed of, but it seemed more and more like it was turning into a nightmare.

The following weeks were busy between her obligations with The Seven and helping Hughie with whatever cryptic stuff he was up to. She still found time to see you. Hanging out with you was the only thing that made her feel normal anymore. You were so confident in who you were, she felt comfortable finding out who she was outside of Starlight. With you, she could just be Annie. 

All of a sudden her association with Hughie had Homelander nearly turning on her. Maeve took up for her in nothing less than a Hail Mary moment. Then, to make matters worse, her entire world came crashing down when she agreed to meet up with Hughie despite his fugitive status. She wasn’t born with her powers, no supe was. Instead her mom signed her life away to Vought and allowed them to basically experiment on her. The cherry on top of the melting ice cream sundae that’d become her life was definitely getting shot immediately after finding out the news.

When she came to in the hospital, she saw you in your scrubs, slouched in the chair next to her bed. She reached out, taking your hand in hers. 

“Y/N?” she croaked out.

“Annie!” you exclaimed, jumping up from the chair. “Holy shit, how are you feeling? I did what I could when you got here. You heal fast, so you should be—“

“It’s all a lie! Our whole lives, Y/N! They fucking lied about everything!” she raged, her vision blurred by tears. “At least you got out. I feel so stupid.”

“Hey, don’t call my best friend stupid.”

She laughed weakly, sniffling a bit. “Thanks Y/N, for everything. All this time I was thinking I was doing what I wanted, but it was what everyone else wanted for me. It always has been.”

“Then start living for you, whatever that looks like. It’s never too late,” you said.

Her hand still intertwined with yours, she pulled you closer to her, your faces inches apart. Taking in your features, she admired how pretty you were. She’d always thought so, but didn’t know how to place it before. Since you’d reconnected, however, it was different. Butterflies in her stomach when you'd smile at her. Texts from you brightening her day. Hanging out with you being the highlight of her week. She didn’t have to try when it came to you. 

“I think I’ll start now,” she whispered.

In a moment of nerve-wracking bravery, Annie pressed her lips to yours. Relief swept over her when you kissed her back, smiling against her lips. Whatever happened next, she knew she could get through it with you by her side.

[lilgoblinbitch]

honestly i have got to say, i fucking loved carol's character arc. in the comics her character offed herself and we never got to see the potential she could've had that she ended up having in the show. i used to think she was so wrong for killing karen and david in s4 but honestly, it was justified. even rick said later on that he would have done the same and that it was the best move.

carol has saved the group several times. everyone would have died at terminus if it weren't for her, and if she hadn't gathered the kingdom together and motivated ezekiel to fight the saviors everyone would have probably died then as well.

and oh my god, there is no friendship like carol and daryl's. like everytime i saw them on screen together i would have to prepare myself to either cry, laugh, or squeal from happiness. and they are SO BADASS together. i'm excited to see them on screen again soon, ready to see them kick some ass and take names.

[grntaire]

Yoooo I really love the choral music you’ve recently shared. I’m not really that familiar with it as a genre of music and don’t normally seek it out? but occasionally a piece will find its way to me (like at a funeral or now your blog), and I find it arrestingly beautiful. maybe partly because it’s a strange and unfamiliar medium to me. Do you have any favorites you would recommend for further exploration? 🩷

hi this is maybe the most hyped i've been for an ask ever bc i go fucking crazy for choral music so YES i do have recs for you. i will try to limit my little thoughts however i am very annoying so it will not go well

gibbons' hosanna to the son of david goes insanely hard. so jovial and fun and i had a blast singing this in undergrad! i love renaissance polyphony and this is a prime example of it!

poulenc's o magnum mysterium is truthfully wacky in the best most french way ever. and imo poulenc's queerness is so clear and present in his music so anything by him i love. my beautiful fruity catholic with a disorder <3

chesnokov's spaseniye sodelal is russian orthodox perfection fr. when my choir in undergrad read thru this i was stood between two low basses and at THAT part (1:32) i felt like i was being punched from the inside out. also the text means "salvation is created in the midst of the earth" and i think that's like. so fucking sick

stacey gibbs' arrangement of ezekiel is THE american spiritual arrangement to me. i once sang this in an italian church under a mexican conductor and then later we all sang it drunkenly for the owner at the hotel we were all staying at it was wild and so so so fun. such a beautiful and massive example of a joyful american spiritual also it's straight up a banger honestly. could talk ad nauseum abt how badass black choral scholars are and how grateful i am for all of the work that they've done and for inviting ppl to learn abt and experience it <3

holst's i love my love is one of my favs of all time. unfortunately england fucking devours when it comes to their choral tradition and this piece does one of my fav things where the way the composer sets the text changes its meaning! it's abt a woman named nancy who is in bedlam bc her love died at sea and it effectively broke her. while there, he comes to her, alive, breaks her out and they get married. while the poem itself shows a happy ending, the way holst plays w tempo and texture makes me go hmmm. 90% sure he did not show up and she's experiencing a delusion of sorts to cope w her grief (the i love my love's in the sopranos & altos at 1:24 kind of emulate a rocking motif, almost as if she's rocking herself back and forth in a soothing gesture, or the rocking of the ship he died on) and that tenor entrance in the melody after almost emulates her love coming to rescue her. god this whole piece makes me feel like my skin is on fire and i think it's a devastating portrayal of mental illness and you can rip it from my cold dead hands

stanford's beati quorum via is literally just gorgeous front to back. again unfortunately the english stay slaying

jake runestad's a silence haunts me literally does fucking haunt me and it changed the way i think about choral music. it's a setting of an unsent letter of beethoven's where he talks about losing his hearing and how afraid he is of losing it. this one you def have to watch bc there's a visual element to it! no spoilers but holy shit it shuts my brain down it's brutal and beautiful. i saw its premiere in 2019 and the entire hall was sobbing. like i have the words "be well" tattooed on me bc of it. the way the piano quotes moonlight sonata and his 9th symphony and the tensions emulating his tinnitus. OUGH

[thewickedbohemian]

Watched the So Help Me Todd S2 premiere and I Have Thoughts

Nice to see Todd taking things to the next level and feeling even more like Shawn Spencer (even down to the helipad thing feeling totally a Shawn reaction, or maybe an Ezekiel Jones one)

Speaking of which, it seems Todd's trickster luck's still in full force (as since early on S1 SHMT I've grouped Shawn, Ezekiel and Todd together in my mind as similar tricksters who feel like they all have the same pseudo-magical freaky luck/Bugs Bunny bullshit (Shawn has been Word-Of-God said to work by Bugs Bunny rules as much as one could in a live-action setting) going on hmm maybe crossover fic potential esp. since Bugs Bunny takes a lot of Doylist influence from the mythological Loki do with that what you will )

Alison's blonde hair leading to (esp. as she might be an INFP like me) even more "self-recognition through the blorbo" (as if she'd had bangs it would look a lot like mine) and between that and how much I already am in the weird state of both relating to and crushing on Todd, if we get more depth on Lawrence and there's something other than gayness there for me to connect to (like people have said if anyone in the ensemble could be neurodivergent autistic!Lawrence is a possibility) it's going to be (albeit without the crush for the example with minors) The Middle all over again with me vibing with all three siblings and a mom a lot like mine

Speaking of dyed hair is it just me or does Margaret's look as if she dyed it black I mean seriously she looked a bit like an older Regina Mills at some points

OK so how many permissions did they had to get for how much they expied about CBS news (I mean to the degree of having a J. Giannola as an anchor and I think the weatherman's name was also similar to one of our local (Oregonian here) guys)

Even if it was only briefly Lyle singing was not on my bingo card (that and the announcement of Heather Morris joining the recurring cast makes me wonder if musical episode in our future?)

Love the Margaret/Harry and Todd/Susan moving on parallels

Between those and all that stuff with the station full of gays including the actual-news-interns thinking Todd's cute and even down to them pointing out his "gay" look at dinner, potential tease for Todd rebounding with a guy?

Love the whole Phantom Of The Opera motif with not just the lighting "chandelier" drops and the music but the culprit being the lovestruck guy with the facial disfigurement who right before the final drop said something about "love never dies" (aka the title of the POTO sequel)

Major ?! about the whole scene with Beverly and Susan and the partner track, I know firms can have more than three partners but if you'll pardon throwing a blorbo from another show briefly under the bus what is it with badass beautiful bitches named Beverly and butting their butt into everyone's business (and yes the alliteration was accidental until about halfway through)

Just going to bring this petition back around so people keep fighting to make sure this isn't the end (it being Elsbeth's lead-in (albeit two weeks later than I originally thought) indicates the network has some degree of faith but I want to make sure especially because online acquaintances in the industry have told me IF it gets a third season (but that's the operative part here) a fourth is almost a guarantee)

[xoteajays]

Rami Malek in Supernatural?? 🖤🖤🖤

the boyyyy

you know he’s a dean ship.

i wanna name him ezekiel, i don't care if it was briefly used by gadreel. f*ck it.

quiet boy with a badass streak. looks unassuming but then he takes off his jacket or shirt and he’s got plenty of hunting scars.

i think he’s got a werewolf/vampire hunting specialty.

he and the brothers meet on one of these hunts, probably a town with a strangely large amount of vampire nests that start fighting for dominance and humans are getting killed in the middle.

he and sam get on like a house on fire. they share notes from old hunts and actually enjoy doing research. sweet nerd besties.

subtly flirts with dean who misses it at first and then it smacks him in the face later. when dean does catch the initial flirting, he’s all awkward and flattered about it in a way that zee thinks is cute.

sam is like 'please dont bang my brother please'.

cas and zee as friends but also romantic rivals because they're both crushing on a mostly-oblivious dean.

he's a top.

send me an fc + fandom for me to make an oc on the spot.

[waynedunlaptheorgandonor]

watched s11ep1

i will provide you with a quick review before i disappear back into the ether of twd avoidance

lots of spoilers under the cut. also i wrote way too much and i worked all night and haven’t slept so i didn’t bother to reread literally any of it, so it might be completely nonsensical, tho if you don’t expect that from me by this point idk whose blog you’ve been reading

enjoy:

hokay, first off, i’ll start by saying that i enjoyed it more than i expected to. i’ve been avoiding any sort of discussion about stuff, but my google algorithm is so fucked at this point that i still get recommended articles and stuff every now and then, so i was already pretty aware of what i was walking into, and was expecting it to be eh, but actually i prob enjoyed it more than i enjoyed the finale

(don’t get too excited tho, the finale was rly boring lmfao)

anyway

episode starts off with a tense scouting mission

it takes .005 seconds into the episode for caryl to exchange a look of longing, establishing that they are still having weird conflict and are both too fucking stubborn to do anything about it even tho they hate it desperately

i imagine that will continue for a while

rosita, kelly, carol, maggie, what’s her face with the bad hair, and lydia (i think that’s everyone?) lower down to some army bunker or something, where a bunch of walkers are taking a snooze, and the girls are very respectful of walker naptime, and do their best not to wake them up

obviously they eventually wake up, but i’ll get to that in a sec

as they’re tiptoeing through the walker tulips, there’s this split second where carol spots a machine gun, and looks at maggie with a face like, “can i plzzzz, i am mad horny for that machine gun,” but maggie tells her no. (i 110% expected her to defy orders and accidentally wake up all the walkers, but she actually behaved herself for once. well. mostly)

never fear, tho, after the girl gang collects a bunch of MREs they go back to wait for the dudes waiting up top to pull them up, and bc men ruin everything, one of the ropes break, and daryl catches it before it falls, but then a slow motion drop of blood falls on a walker’s face, and just like that, walker naptime is over, and carol uses her bow and arrow for two seconds before she is like “fuck this” and whips out the machine gun

yes, she is super hot using it

yes, daryl watches her do it

anyway, all the other girls get rescued, and carol is about to be pulled up, but bc she is a #girlboss, she first makes a beeline for one more crate full of MREs. daryl covers her while she gets the loot, and when she gets back up top they have another charged moment as carol hands him back his knife

just fuck already, jfc

titles!

cut to alexandria where everything is still not smilestimes

BUT, we do get to see uncle daryl run and hug rj and judith (and dog), and FUCKING HERSHEL JR, LIGHT OF MY LIFE is also there

istg, they could not have casted a better child, i a d o r e him

oh, and some friends of maggie’s show up too, idk

cut to a staff meeting where everyone is like, whomp whomp, we’re all gonna starve to death unless we figure out something quick

cue maggie going, “oh, i know where food is, but it requires me to tell you my tragic backstory, in case anyone didn’t watch my bottle episode”

she tells her dramatic backstory about all her friends getting slaughtered by the reapers for no apparent reason, and then she’s like “anyway, let’s go back there!”

no one thinks it’s a great idea, but a group of people decide to go anyway, including daryl and gabriel. rosita is super pissed that gabriel is going, and carol doesn’t go, probably partly bc it’s a shitty fucking idea, and also bc they have to keep caryl apart bc otherwise they’ll fix their problems ahead of schedule and they won’t be able to drag out the needless angst

daryl looks kind of annoyed that carol doesn’t volunteer to go 

bitch, i thought you wanted her to stop putting herself in the line of fire! make up your damn mind!

moving on

cut to a thunderstorm, where, if you look closely, you’ll notice daryl is wearing the STUPIDEST hat i’ve ever seen. just get an umbrella, jfc

for some reason negan is with them, bc ig he knows his way around washington dc, and no one in six years has bothered to figure out how to get around the city and/or get a map, and he is like “hey guys, maybe we shouldn’t try to walk in this fucking hurricane,” and everyone is like “FUCK YOU NEGAN, YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF US!!!” 

this will be a common occurrence 

but eventually daryl is even like “actually, it’s rly unpleasant out here, and my hat is mad stupid, can we go inside plz?”

so they go inside an old metro station, which is actually a rly cool cinematic choice. i rly like the idea, and they executed it rly well

speaking of executions

there are some fucking RULL CREEPY walkers. idk why they bothered me so badly, but they were what they at first assumed were corpses wrapped up in tarps, but turns out none of them had been properly put down, so they go through killing these rotted bodies that had supposedly been there since The Fall, and it’s very gross and cool

this entire time, btw, negan is like “hey, i know i’m a shitty person, but i have some rational arguments about why we shouldn’t be doing this right now,” and everyone is like, “FUCK YOU NEGAN, YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF US!!!” and he’s just like “god fucking damnit”

(i forgot to mention that at one point, when they’re headed into the metro station, negan is trying to warn ppl of the potential danger, and everyone is ignoring him, and he tries to talk to daryl, and daryl is like “fuck you, you think we’re BUDDIES?” and negan is like “oh, ok, so you’re gonna be like that too? fanfreakingtastic” and it’s very funny)

anyway. a fat monster zombie escapes its tarp at one point, and tries to eat some npc, and negan saves him, again is like “hey, anyone else realize that this is a FUCKING BAD PLAN?”, and everyone is like “we don’t care, you’re still shitty and we’re not listening to you, and you don’t actually care about random npc i would literally not be able to pick out in a lineup bc his face is so generic, you’re not the boss of us!!!”

it’s at this point that negan finally is like, “why am i even here? bc i know how to get around washington dc? do none of you have a map?” and i was like, “right?! that’s what i said!” 

it’s then revealed that maggie only brought negan along to murder him under the guise of “oops, he got hurt in the line of duty, it wasn’t my fault,” and daryl has this look on his face that says, “i seriously need to stop hanging out with lethal women bent on revenge bc it’s gonna give me high blood pressure,” and maggie has a badass moment where she points a gun she has for some reason at negan and is like “i have like, one shred of human compassion left inside of me, and if you keep pushing me i will fucking kill you without a second thought, so shut the hell up”

(in her defense, negan had just dropped glenn’s name to purposely antagonize her, which was rude as hell)

(for the record, i’m completely on maggie’s side here, but negan still is right that trapping themselves in a metro station is a bad call)

anyway, moving away from that briefly

i think this jump cut happens sooner, i don’t actually remember, but whatever who cares, point is, we get to the part of the show that actually matters, and that’s anything involving my love, juanita “princess” sanchez

and also eugene, yumiko, and ezekiel

they are being asked increasingly invasive questions by commonwealth ppl, some of which i wish they actually would of answered (what do they use to wipe their asses with?? surely toilet paper has long since become extinct)

zeke, who is so much more tolerable as a character now that he’s not larping as a king, has this incredibly weird and sort of sexually charged moment with a dude in an orange stormtrooper costume, where he’s like, “i bet you were an asshole cop back before The Fall, you stupid fascist, #fuckthepolice, mb literally? idk, this moment has a lot of pent up aggression that could easily translate to hate sex, it might just be the intense eye contact, but w/e, let’s just move along,” and then he has a coughing fit to remind the audience that he’s currently dying of cancer, and orange stormtrooper is like “lolz, loser, drink some water you dumb piece of shit”

cut to the wholesome foursome sitting at a picnic table in a guarded courtyard eating gruel, and yumkio, who finally has a personality, and princess are like “hey, this place fucking sucks, can we leave?” and zeke is like, “yeah, i met this orange stormtrooper who i think might be dtf and/or murder, so we should probably bounce”

but eugene is like, “but i want some hot stephanie ass, and also some bullshit excuse about how mb commonewealth will save alexandria” which, they left before things went super downhill, right? idr. it was after hilltop fell, but they don’t know alexandria got fucked either, if i recall? w/e, not important

two seconds after he says this, they talk to some people who are like “we’ve been here for four months, or maybe it’s been nine, i don’t actually remember, i’ve stopped processing the passage of time,” and the wholesome foursome takes this as a bad sign, tho that’s just the life i’ve lived as a night worker during a pandemic, so i was like #mood

but then they watch some guy get dragged away screaming to get “reprocessed” and eugene is like “ok, nvm, let’s bounce”

(my theory on what “reprocessing” is, is that they’re stuck in a room and have to watch hours and hours of customer service training videos on vhs from the 90s)

i definitely got my jump cut scenes mixed up bc i think the negan accusing maggie of a murder plot thing happened in between this scene and then the next commonwealth scene, but w/e, i’ll just finish what happens in the commonwealth arch

the wholesome foursome are trying to hatch a plan to escape, except princess, my love, is distracted watching some stormtroopers flirt, and the other three are like “wtf, dude, how can you even tell any of them apart?” and princess then tells them every stormtroopers backstory bc she is brilliant and pays rly close attention to shit, and the other three are like, “this is useful information, thank you for being an insane person”

their plan involves yumiko and eugene dressing up as stormtroopers and leading princess and zeke out of the place, which works fine actually, except on their way out they come across the Depressing Wall of Probably Mostly Dead Missing Loved Ones

they’re about to leave, when princess is like, “wait, yumiko, you’re on here, that’s weird huh?”

sure enough, yumiko  is on the wall, with a note from ig her sister 

the scene ends with yumiko going, “guys...i can’t leave...i have tragic backstory to unveil”

tragic backstory to be continued ig

back in murder metro town, npc and some other npc have stolen all the supplies, there’s a train blocking the track, and a horde of walkers are coming towards them, so things are not going fantastic

they horde is too big to take down, so they start to climb on top of the train car to get away

but dog runs away!

and daryl, being every pet owner ever, is like “gotta go get my dog, guys, try not to get killed while i’m gone, c u soon!” and he ducks under the train and disappears

#priorities

the episode ends with maggie climbing up the train car but getting grabbed by a walker and dangling off the edge, and negan is there and they have a lion king moment where maggie is like, “scar! help me!” and negan is like “long live the king, bitch” and walks away into the shadows, leaving maggie to a potential death

which, while i know isn’t actually going to happen, would be a really fucking funny move on the writers’ part

like, “look, lauren’s back! and now she’s dead, bet you didn’t expect that!”

anyway

my assumption is negan will actually end up helping her up or something, continuing his ambiguous morality bullshit that actually isn’t ambiguous bc he BEAT GLENN TO DEATH WITH A FUCKING BAT WRAPPED IN BARBED WIRE IN FRONT OF HIS PREGNANT WIFE

the maggie/negan arch is kind of dumb, but whatevs, i’ll tolerate it, as long as my boy glenn gets justice in the end

anyway, cue credits!

final assessment: good episode. i’m much more interested in commonwealth than the reapers, tho i am hoping that daryl’s personality-less ex turns out to be a monster killing machine with no conscience, that’ll be fun. princess is a gift from god. hershel jr needs his own tv show. needs more carol (and caryl)

the end! going back into my walking dead free chamber! see you next episode!

-diz

[ourmondobongo]

The origin of Hange's name (a little analysis)

So...!

Here I'm - back with my wild imagination analysis about my beloved AOT  characters. This time is about our badass scientist Hange Zoë! 

I don't know how many of you've noticed, but a lot of AOT official merchandising has their name spelled Hans. So while I was looking into the possible meanings of their name, I found a few things really nice about it.

I first looked up their name's meaning in German because in the AOT Character Encyclopedia (2018) Yams was quite vague about Hange's creation. Sadly. But he mentioned most of his characters had German names (what is not new as we all know how much he loves German names).

So while I searched for a "Hange" German name origin, I actually found "Hans", and I got this:

So "Hans" is a German name originally short for "Johannes" or "John". And interestingly,  this name has its origin in Hebrew, meaning "YHWH has been gracious"  or "Yahweh is gracious", or also "Graced by Yahweh".

Curiously, John is the name of the apostle who wrote the Book of Revelation while he lived imprisoned on an island until he died there. And the Book of Revelation is full of prophecies about the humanity's future - the end of our world, righteous and manipulative religious and political powers, humanity's struggles, death, God's judgment, heavenly and earthly battles, the Devil arrested for 1000 years, immortal beings- and mostly about people choosing their path in whether they do the right thing even though they know it will cost their lives (and they will suffer A LOT) or they side with the Devil in his quest to ruin humanity...

(Pic just for illustration, but we all know which side Hange chose!)

Now, I take a moment to reflect a bit about the meaning of "Hange/Hanji'' name. 

I searched up a lot on the internet, and it didn't help much to settle in a clear origin for this name like others. Also, while lot of people see Greek as the name's root, still the origin is kind of unknown or has no technical reference whatsoever. Which is pretty odd for a name rooted in such ancient language.

So I believe that, like Yams hinted in the Character Encyclopedia, Hange's name really came from German language. Especially because one of the German variations of the name is Hänschen, which sounds A LOT like Hanji (listen to it on Google!).

YET, as we just saw in the beginning of this post, Hange's name (or at least their nickname Hans) seems to have a more ancient origin - Hebrew. Which reminds me that this is pretty common for AOT characters!

Like, Zeke's name comes from the Hebrew, Ezekiel, (God's strength) who was also an important prophet of Yahweh in the Old Testament. He saw the valley of dry human bones turn back to life with the bones suddenly being covered with tendons, flesh and then skin. This reminds me a lot about the Paths, the WH titan transformation.

Other important Hebrew names in AOT include Levi ( to "join/unite/escort"), and Dinah ("vindicated/judged/"God will judge"). In the Bible, Levi and Dinah were siblings, and he took vengeance for Dinah after she was raped and given in marriage to the rapist. Years later, Levi's bloodline was then cursed to be scattered around the world for his violent and gruesome behavior (Genesis 49: 5-7), but later God gave the Tribe of Levi the mission to be completely dedicated to His work as His priests in the Sanctuary. Did anyone think of the Ackerman's cla and the Fritz?!

There is a whole lot to add here, and one day I might write about them all together… But for now, let's go back to Hange's character!

Taking into consideration their name did come from Hebrew, another curious thing is that the apostle John had a brother, James, and they were both called "sons of thunder". It's said that Yams planned Mike Zacharias to supposedly be Hange's brother. And his name has TWO Hebrew roots: Mike (Who is like God?), and Zacharias ( "God remembers", and also spelled as Zechariah). Mike resembles Michael, the almighty Archangel; Zacharias is a prophet of the Old Testament and a priest in the New Testament.

Interestingly, Hange and Mike were the most eccentric characters of AOT - Hans created to give "mad scientist" vibes and Mike with his Sniff-Sniff odd behavior (lmao).

Lastly (for now), there is also this:

"The name "Hansel" (German: Hänsel) is a variant, meaning "little Hans". Another variant with the same meaning is Hänschen, found in the German proverb "Was Hänschen nicht lernt, lernt Hans nimmermehr", which translates roughly as: "What [little] Hansel doesn't learn, [adult] Hans will never learn". 

Source: Wikipedia.

In terms of knowledge, curiosity, unyielding interest in learning things, who else could fit this (nick)name Hans better than our Hange?!

[bennifits]

fuck it.

imma talk about millie im so sorry

- Millie was homeless before the apocalypse. kicked out of her house at 17 for trying weed once. Her mother being more into the idea since she’s more traditional than her father. Her father was military, and used to take her on hunting trips, which is why she knows her way around a gun a bit. She had a younger brother as well who was 6 at the time of her getting kicked out. 

- to earn whatever little money she had, she busked on the streets with her guitar, writing a few songs in her time as well. She made a few friends on the road, but eventually had to move on. With train hopping being her main mode of transport. 

- at time of the end of the world (s1) she was 24-25

- good friends with Jesus, since those two like to bounce around a lot they tend to bump into each other. 

- she uses sound to herd walkers away, she’s read books on how clocks work and made ‘time bombs’ where she winds them up and throws them to draw them away n shit

- more often than not, if she’s out in the wild she’s got a big ass cloak on that’s covered in walker guts. She’s quiet, knows how manipulate sound n shit like that. 

- she wears a bandage or a long sleeve bc aha angst winky face (heavy angst if you know what i mean, hides the scar.)

story:

- first appearance would be in the prison era. (yes i will be talking like she’s part of the show im cringe stfu). Be one of those one off episodes, Daryl goes on a small run, just to case out an area and runs into her. He’s apprehensive of her, seeing how she deals with walkers, but he puts that aside bc a herd comes from nowhere and traps them overnight and tadaaa they bond.

- he offers her a place to stay, after seeing that she’s some what capable with a weapon and knows her way around. She declines, she was never the type to find a group and stick with it, she’d always leave in the middle of the night and strangely, felt like she couldn’t bare to hurt his feelings if they got closer than just strangers to friends. 

- she was in the surrounding area for a little while longer, actually bumping into Glenn, Daryl, Michonne and Rick a handful due to runs. every time they asked Millie to come with them and every time she declined. 

- in the sick arc of the prison era. a mysterious sack of medicine ends up at the front gate in the middle of the night. with a note saying “stay safe D” - Mills. 

- she leaves and heads towards the kingdom after that. on her own right up until...

- until she meets Ezekiel.

- They met as she was walking the road, going through buildings to look for food when he and a group got trapped in a building. So with nothing really to live for, she started playing a song to lure them away to give them a chance to escape. 

- she rounded back to check on them. Ez promised her a place to stay in exchange for her services. (Jerry was very into her using sound and calling it badass)

- it’s not a good first impression really. She’s covered in head to toe in blood and guts from covering her smell from walkers, she’s smelly and just horrible looking. 

- the kingdom took her under his wing, showed her how to trust someone. 

- she was dubbed the court’s bard / king’s bard / whatever

- she hones her skills, becoming an incredible shot with a bow and honing her skills with her bat with melee. She turns into a type of scout, keeping tabs on alexandria and helping make relations with other communities

- shiva took a particular liking to her music. 

- for some reason she ended up saving ezekiel’s life more than once. he can’t really find a way to return the favour, every time he brings something up she just tells him

-”being able to stand by your side and have a roof over my head with a hot meal at any hour of the day is all that i need your majesty”

- she helped him negotiate terms with the saviors. the one they have with the once a week drop off thing

- she went out on recon, looking for places to hit with supplies when she gets injured in some debris under a collapsed part of a building. Lucky for her, she doesn’t die, hearing voices.

- and she wakes up in Alexandria. 

- she has wounds and cannot return to her group, she doesn’t tell them about the kingdom because she simply doesn’t feel like it would be useful info.

- eyyyy then the gang shows uuuup

- reunited with the walking gamers. 

- she assures them it’s somewhat safe, they’re all stupid and don’t know how to fight walkers. She’s happy to see everyone beyond comprehension, like they’re long lost family or something.

- she finally and formally meets everyone, actually introducing herself as a travelling bard

- bonding with everyone ensues. Deanna thought she’d be a permanent resident, but after she’s all healed up she immediately bounces. (right before rick goes coo coo and and bloody and michonne bonks him on da head)

- leaves a note and present for daryl, a basket of flowers with a smiley face. she also kinda left bc she realised she might have caught feelings,,, and she’s afraid of that shit

- goes back to kingdom people are like ‘sick she’s alive that’s epic’

- time passesssssssssss

- She’d have been there for a while. Meeting Carol for the first time. Feeling drawn to her even after she left, she would often visit her while in that little cottage. She remembered the name, so she asked about the group, saying they were okay. Millie felt relieved, wanted to go out and look for them to reconnect but didn’t wanna do anything to jeopardise the kingdom.

- then the group came for help. Strumming away at her guitar when they wander in. 

- “holy shit is that you D? Oh hey Jesus”

- was like a small mind blown, two worlds colliding. 

- When daryl had to stay behind she followed him around everywhere, thinking it was a sign or something like damn 3 times she’s run into this group that’s gotta mean something. She even showed him where Carol was, and escorted him back to Hilltop

- “Don’t gotta babysit me”

- “Can’t have you being found by the saviors. that would suck”

- sticks with him right up before the big fight at the season finale where she goes back to the kingdom to relay the message and helps keep alexandria safe in the fight.

- that’s kinda all im up to atm in the series n shit im currently watching the episode titled ‘Mercy’

[everyhowlmarksthedead]

❛ ABOUT AN OVERPROTECTIVE DAD AND HIS FOUR PITBULLS ❜

with Ezekiel Reyes and the crew.

Request: what about ez reyes daughter imagine that the Mayans you know her uncles find out she has a crush like how would they react guessing there so overprotective and everything.

BY ANON

Warnings: someone, please, tell the guys to chill the f* down.

Word count: about 1k.

Aurora says: this writing hasn't been edited, you may find some grammar mistakes, I'm sorry about that!

Gif credits: @angels-reyes.

Masterlist.

“WHO IS HIM?”

Angel hits the pool table with both palms, making you jump on your feet for a second. It's the first time you see your tío be this angry. Last night, your father caught you in a lie. You told him you were going to Sharon's house to study, but you went to a date. Coco, Gilly and Creeper are by his side, while your EZ is sitting on the table cross-armed.

“Carnal, take it easy… I'm sure you lied to your pop a lot of times”.

“YES, BUT I WAS A PENDEJO, SHE'S A GOOD GIRL”.

“Don't forget she's my daughter, Angel. Calm down”.

“I CAN'T FORGET THAT MAYBE HE'S A PSYCHO!” Angel's eyes are opened to the limits, turning his face to his little brother who doesn't look worried.

“Okay, tío, you're a drama queen”. You mutter rolling your eyes, seeing how your father walks towards you.

“Is your boyfriend…?”

“Dad, I do—”.

“I SWEAR TO GOD, THAT IF YOU DON'T START TO SPEAK, I'M GONNA FUCKING GO TO YOUR SCHOOL AND ASK ALL THESE MADAFAKAS WHO THE FUCK IS DATING MI PEQUEÑO DULCE”.

“Yo, man! You need a fucking linden tea. Calm down…” Gilly says palming his back, making you shake under his shouts.

You're about to cry, with your lower lip beginning to tremble, when your father hugs you hiding your face onto his chest. You told him that you were sorry a thousand times, and that you're not going to do it again. At least, to avoid this kind of interrogatory with your tíos losing their minds. Leaving a kiss on your head, EZ takes you to the closer chair to sit you down there, squatting in front of you and holding your hands.

“Baby, we're just… worried about you. You know what we do, and that… there are many people that want to hurt us. Just tell us who he is. We will ask Frankie to… check if his family is legal, and that they don't want to use you against us”.

“Dad, why are you… why are you al-always thinking about the worse?”

“Because we're fucking Mayans, not hermanitas de la caridad”. (Sisters of charity). Angel speaks then, walking towards you. Letting a heavy snort escape from his lips, he leans forward adopting the same position of his brother. “Mi pequeño dulce, I love you. You know how much, and… yes, maybe I'm a little jealous… But I'm worried about you”.

“Can you imagine my life without you? Because I don't. Neither of us don't. Princesa, talk to us, please. I promise I'll not be one… of this overprotect—”.

“Dad, you already are a super overprotective father. Without keeping in mind these… four pitbulls always following you everywhere”.

“You like dogs, kid, don't lie”. Creeper clicks his tongue, before drawing a soft smile on his lips.

“If something bad happens to you, I die, mi amor”.

You have a look at your tíos, before putting your eyes on your father's. They're right. They're pretty right, and you didn't think about it last night. You just know him from school, he looks like a good guy. But your tíos too, and you know what they do.

“His name is Mateo Ramos, from Santa Madre, but we're together in Math class”.

“Math... class?” Angel asks, somewhat confused.

“Yeah… he's the kind of boy you would like to bully”.

The five men break into laughs, understanding why you didn't tell anything about him or his family. You're not ashamed, but you really like him and you were sure that they would make some fun about a badass girl dating a nerd.

“Looks like you have a new best friend, lil'bro”. Angel teases your father by hitting his left shoulder.

“He… took me to a bar… with… open mic, to… read poems”.

“AWWWW, LOOK AT HIM. TODO UN GALÁN, CARNAL”. (A prince, brother) Coco says exaggeratedly.

And probably, you would punch him on the face if it was another situation, but seeing your father smiling like an idiot melts your heart.

“Mateo told me that… maybe we could go again… tomorrow night”. You say with pursed lips and a shy tone of voice, lowering your gaze to your father's fingers caressing your hands.

“Okay”. EZ just nods.

“‘Okay?’ What does it… means?”

“That you can go, but with a condition”. Raising up your eyes to your father, you wait for it. “I'll pick you up to come back home”.

“C'mon, man! Let the ner—Mateo earn a kiss on the front door”. Angel hits him again, making your father frown at him.

“I want you at home at eleven, okay? That's the condition. And if I text you, you tex—”

“He's not gonna text you, mami, don' worry 'bout'ha”. Coco shakes his head palming the back of the younger Reyes.

“Do you need money?” EZ finally asks, rolling his eyes annoyed because of his brothers.

“I got twenty bucks”.

“Not enough”. He replies, taking off his wallet to give you fifty more.

“Dad, we're ju—”.

“Nah, buy something cool for him to make his nose bleed”. Angel says adding another fifty. “We can pick you up in the hospi—”.

“Tío Angel, if you don't stop of bully him, I'm gonna fucking punch your mouth”.

“I would like to see you trying, mi dulcecito”.

@starrynite7114 ​ @chibsytelford ​ @dazzledamazon ​ @mara-mpou ​ @sammskellington ​ @gemini0410 ​ @1-800-imagines ​ @briana-mishell24 ​@sassymox @whyisgmora @aquamento @sadeyesgf @viviansafizada @samcrobae @jade770 @witchy-wish @rebel-without-cause-x @xx--day-dreamer--xx @spiced-reads @tita127 @ifoundmyhappythought @enamouravecleslivresetlechocolat @angelxshiba @destynelseclipsa @sheeshgivemeabreak @abbiesthings @knowles-morgan @lady-pswrld @minnicelli @marquelapage @bigcreatorwombatdreamer @jadesamhart @mycupoffanfiction @claytoncardenasbabymama

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[shimmershae]

Just watched the episode and I’m going to have a lot of thoughts for you, most of them probably bordering on incoherence (LOL) so this is your last chance to nope on out of this post because I’m going to go ahead and put everything else behind a cut to save the eyes that do not want to see any  spoilers at all.  Unlike mine, that very much wanted to see but in a lot of cases?  Could not see shit, but I digress.

Shae’s stream of consciousness coming at you in 3-2-1.  

First of all, can I saw how good it is to have my show back again?  Like, no.  I don’t quite have Season 5 levels of excitement about the new/last season, but it is definitely nice to have all these characters back.  

So all these thoughts of mine.  Okay.  Bear with me because there be a whole lot of them, lol.  

My immediate impression as the episode opened was WHOA.  Such a cool shot of Daryl with one light wing, one dark wing (representing the two sides to Daryl maybe--the man of honor versus the man he was raised to be, hmm?) looking out over some dark vista of something.  Seriously.  It’s dark.  My room is also dark at the moment and still I was squinting to see.  To make out what I’m “looking” at.  I really, really hope the rest of this season isn’t this hard to make out.  

Is that a tank?  Kinda sorta a callback to Rick’s first episode?  If so, cool.  If not, well.  Us fans have always put way more thought into things.  For real.  Change my mind.  

Holy intense eye contact, Batman!  Daryl Dixon has literally never looked at anyone--not BethusConLeah--in quite the same smoldering way as he looks at Carol.  It’s next level.  I don’t know why people be fooling themselves into thinking different.  

Let’s see.  I can make out--besides Daryl, Maggie, and that face mask dude I already forgot the name of--Kelly, Magna, Jerry (who’s that with him?), and Carol.  Sorry.  My world, like Daryl’s, inevitably narrows to Carol.  She’s loking fierce and fine AF per usual.  

Was that Rosita I noticed rewinding to relive Daryl eye-fucking Carol?  

I’m guessing this is the army base they talked about in 10C.  

That Walker perking up like “I smell food--pancakes and bacon and oohhhh” has me giggling inappropriately right off the bat.  WTF.  

Look at all my fabulous ladies tiptoeing through that Walker minefield.  And Carol spotting that gun that might be useful right away.  Listen, if you don’t think her mind ain’t always ten steps ahead of everybody else’s, you’d be wrong.  

So.  Are these Walkers just so old and feeble not even the call of fresh meat attracts them?  Because just tiptoeing through their midst without the knockoff Lady Gaga meatsuits or skin masks has never really worked before that I can remember.  

I just want to see most of this season.  Is that really too much to ask?  Don’t X-Files and Game of Thrones us, Angela.  Please and thank you very fucking much.  

Okay.  Is the one drop of blood thing making anybody else have 28 Days Later vibes?  Kinda?  Sorta?  No?  Just me?  Okay then.  Carry on.  

Wait a minute, though.  How they be explaining how Daryl keeeps acquiring all these new tats all the time?  Hmm?  It’s like they just quit giving a shit about continuity in these latter seasons.  

I mean.  Do Walkers sleep now?  LMAO.  What is this?  I guess they’re constantly evolving?  

There’s my baby Lydia.  Love my smol bean.  

Alright though.  I love to see the ladies of TWD kick some ass.  It’s very gratifying.  Gimps would never.  Thank you, Angela.  

Clever, resourceful, calm and collected, quick thinking Carol to the rescue!  Seriously.  Her haters must be withering away inside with absolute envy.  

Hey, ya’ll.  Remember when Carol was still mastering her sharpshooting skills at the Prison yard and shot at Rick’s feet?  Her little “sorry, sorry”?  LOL.  If Rick could only see her now.  Wait.  He already knew what so many of his stans refuse to acknowledge--Carol=ultimate survivor and true savior to the group many times over.  

Maggie’s got herself a gun, too.  Go my badass girls.  

Of course, Carol’s got everybody’s back.  Of fucking course, Daryl’s got hers even when everybody else seem frozen in some kind of awe or stupification or something.  Microcosm of the whole damn show right there.  

Carol’s like “here’s your knives, love of my life.”   

Eh.  Maybe that’s just me.  

Nah.  She’s totally thinking it, too.  

YAS!  YAS!  Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride with the top billing.  How very far my babies have come.  

Listen.  I miss all the characters we’ve lost.  Absolutely.  But I love the ones that are still with us, that have been with us for so very long so hard.  Whether I love their stories or decisions or not.  

Is that THE Alexandria sign?  That sign’s been through some shit.  

DOG!  Daryl kneeling to embrace our Grimes babies has me all up in my feels.  And how cute is Dog getting all excited and making sure he’s the first one there to welcome back, Daddy?  

Hershel is literally just as puppy dog cute as Glenn ever was.  Really some Grade A casting.  

What did Maggie call Mr. T?  Ducky?  Dougie?  Sometimes with Maggie?  I really cannot tell.  Anyway.  He’s Mr. T. for me until I find out differently, probably through rewatching with close captioning, lol.  

Maggie’s got more people.  So.  Some new redshirts to sacrifice for plot purposes.  I don’t know if I should bother learning their names or not. 

I seem to remember Meridian being mentioned in one of the episode synopses.  

Sophia’s hair tie around Carol’s neck will never fail to be an emotional throat punch.  My heart.  

“They come at night and by the time you see them, you’re already dead.”  Welp.  Guess that means we ain’t seeing shit for at least this first third of the season, lol.  Very horror-eque though.  

“You’re leaving to fight ghosts.”  Aaron, to Maggie.  So I see Aaron’s the type to get the hell outta Dodge when the Boogeyman comes calling, hahaha.  Least he was.  In the old world.  

Rosita’s pissed off expression at Gabe’s decision to volunteer for the so-called suicide mission gives me life.  

My baby Carol is tired AF of suicide missions.  You can tell.  Also?  Methinks she has something to prove to Daryl here.  Or at least feels like she does.  

Dog with his little tactical vest.  I love it.  

I guess I get why they had Carol and Rosita stay behind.  They had to more evenly split up the badassery to make things more fair and balanced, lol.  

Okay.  So Negan’s definitely earned everybody’s disdain.  But they’re being woefully short-sighted by not at least hearing the dude out.  Isn’t he at least native to the area?  

“That is God telling us to turn around.”  I’m actually on Negan’s side with this one, but Gabe answering him with “I’m pretty sure he would have run that past me first” has me howling with laughter.  Father Gabe has gone straight up savage in these last couple of seasons.  Rosita’s influence, perhaps?  

I see what Angela is doing.  Trying to make Negan the voice of reason.  In this particular case?  It’s kind of working.  I’m still ultimately on Maggie’s side with this though BECAUSE GLENN.  

Imagine showing up to work and unironically dressing like a storm trooper every day.  Excuse me while I LOL.  

Even in the ZA, there’s bullshit paperwork.  

“Pumpkin colored spacesuit.”  Good one, Ezekiel.  

LOL forever.  I love Princess.  

“Michonne.  Our Michonne shut people out of Alexandria for years.”  Timely reminder that choices aren’t always perfect.  Neither are people.  

WTF is reprocessing?  Sounds ominous.  LMAO at Eugene’s “Okay.  We gotta go.”  

What in the actual hell with all those bagged, squirming undead?  Creepy AF in that subway tunnel.  

Should I just go ahead and call that the Easter bunny?  We’ve had some version of it pop up since Season 1.  

Is it stubborn pride with Maggie or what?  Why go through with something when all signs point toward the wisdom of stopping?  You can argue that she’s acting similarly to Carol last season, but there’s a huge difference here folks.  Carol did her damndest to Lone Wolf that shit and minimize the danger to those she loved.  Maggie’s straight up enlisting those she “cares about” to carry out her mission of revenge or vengeance, what have you. Let’s see if she gets near the amount of hate for it.  Personally, I don’t blame her for her feelings one bit.  They are valid.  But her knowingly drawing the others into the game?  That’s my sticking point.  That’s how she and Carol differ, even if some people refuse to see or accept it.  Anyway.  Hopping right on off my soapbox.  

“Why don’t you get up on your little tippy toes and try?”  Omigosh, I’d dying.  When I tell you I about passed out with laughter, I do not exaggerate.  I should hate Negan forever and I do.  Really.  But I adore JDM and he frequently makes me LOL.  He’s made Negan entertaining if not completely redeemable since Angela took over and more layered so I say kudos.  

He has a point about Maggie playing dictator.  Damn you, show, for slanting the writing just that smidgen that makes Negan make sense over his victim.  I guess, though, it’s better this way.  Gives both characters more shades of gray.  

“He’s a dick but he makes sense.”  I feel like this is Angela calling us all out when we dare to harbor any lasting resentment toward Negan for what he did to Glenn.  

Speaking of--Negan.  You deserved Daryl’s punch to the mouth.  You just went a bridge too damn far.  

“Keep pushing me, Negan.  Please.”  Warning shots fired, Asshole.  You better watch yourself around the Widow Rhee.  

Have I mentioned how much I love Princess?  Her shipping the Commonwealth guards is killing me, lol.  I can’t wait ‘til she meets Carol and Daryl.  She’s going to have their number in two seconds flat.  

I like Ezekiel and Princess as a duo.  I’m not saying romantically necessarily.  I just like them in scenes together because they’re fun.  There’s sort of a protective indulgence Ezekiel seems to telegraph whenever they’re in scenes together.  Like he’s like don’t hurt this one.  I don’t know.  For all these words I’ve written, I can’t quite find the ones to adequately describe what I mean.  

The wall of the lost gives me such Battlestar Galactica feels.  What sad thoughts it inspires.  

Eugene in that Commonwealth gear.  Omigosh, lol.  So did they just sneak up and take Princess’s little Commonwealth ship’s gear when they were sneaking off on their own to have a quickie?  

Princess finding that note for Yumiko on the wall actually gave me chills.  Yeah.  I’m easy.  Just the suggestion of someone getting reunited with lost family gets me all up in my feels.  Yumiko saying “I have to stay”?  I felt that.  

Oh no.  Dog ran off!  Somebody protect my favorite fictional puppy.  Of course, Daryl goes after him.  He’s always been the sweet one.  Merle said it.  

Eh.  Negan taking Maggie’s hand at the end there would have smacked too much of Negan Sue and Maggie’s biggest plot of the season would have been prematurely dealt with so I get why they did what they did.  But c’mon.  It’s not really that big of a cliffhanger, is it?  

Okay, so Angela calls those sleeping beauty Walkers “Lurkers” and I get it.  Apparently they’re a bigger deal in the comics, but I really don’t remember seeing them all that much on the actual show.  Somebody jog my memory.  

Of fucking course, you can actually see what’s happening in the inside the episode clips.  I wish we could choose to view the episode with that lighting because some of us be blind.  And this time I mean in the more literal sense.  Not the figurative one.  

Anyway.  I’m going to stop trying to write a novel for ya’ll and move on to better things.  Like maybe a nap.  Maybe some early dinner.  I don’t know.  I’m tired AF and need a little recharge.    

Before I go, though?  Overall impression of the episode?  I liked it.  There were parts that I loved (all the ladies being badass, every second of Carol, Daryl reuniting with the Grimes babies and Dog, all things Princess, some of Negan’s one-liners about had me busting a gut, Rosita serving looks, Kelly and Lydia getting to be badass too) and parts I didn’t love (not being able to see a damn thing, Angela trying to tip the scales in Negan’s favor, not enough Carol or Aaron or Rosita, no reunion between Aunt Carol and the Grimes babies even though that picture floating around suggests it was at least shot, not being able to see a damn thing, all the Alexandria people playing follow the leader for Maggie when she’s been gone 6 years and Daryl’s right there--hell, even Father G deserves the honor over her because it’s obvious they’re not exactly on the same wavelength anymore).  

I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m just glad to have our show back.    

Later, lovelies.  

[destieldisaster]

09x09 - Holy Terror

MotW: bunch of angels, Gadreel & Metatron

Any Cas? Yessss

Woah, angel factions as a church glee club and a bunch of bikers. And of course the church girls murder all the bikers

"Would I lie" wow Dean. Yes, you would

Cas is on the case!!!!!

He's so freaking cute oh my god

Gadreel popping in just to do the Sam bitchface..

"I hope it's okay, me joining you" 🥺

THE WINK. THE FLIRTING. MY HEART.

God, the April talk is TOO MUCH

And Sammy's got no idea what to do with all the flirting :')

Oh shit, Metatron

He doesn't feel good about staying away from Cas 🥺

Lol, Gadreel was supposed to keep the serpent out of the garden of Eden, that's some bad reputation :')

A born again biker gang. Huh. Why not, I guess?

You know, I actually like Metatron as a character, he's kinda fun

Cas praying 😭

She seems good, but god that was risky

Shit shit SHIT

Why does he have to be tortured I hate this

Still defending the innocent angel, of course 💙

Oh shit, Cas learning Ezekiel is dead. Even while he's being tortured and guilt tripped on a ridiculous level, he thinks about what that means for the Winchesters

Asking for a quick death 😭

Thank god for Theo and thank god Cas can roll with this

Daaaaamn, he took his grace and killed him, that's not exactly thankful.. really freaking badass though!

Also, I do feel a lot better with him powerful again

"I did what I had to" 😭

This!!!!! This is Dean caring more about how Cas feels about being an angel vs being a human than how useful he can be to them. This is Dean caring about Cas for Cas. And it's so so important

"Everyone always needs a spell, and it's always ASAP" poor guy, he's completely overworked

Okay, Gadreel is with Metatron. So.. is Castiel's name on that piece of paper?

"I always trust you. And I always end up screwed." daaamn Kev! I mean, you're not wrong..

Yeah, Sammy's mad. And obviously right to be. It should't be about Dean thinking he couldn't 'handle it', though, because he was literally dying.

WHAT??? NOOOOO. FUCK FUCK FUCK. NOT KEVIN PLEASE.

Oh my god I did not see that coming right now no no nooo 😭

SHIT, it was Gadreel all along, Sammy still doesn't even know

Fuck, Kevin was who Metatron wanted him to kill. I hate this, I hate this.

Man, Dean, everything's really gone to shit now, hasn't it?

[takeiteasypeasybaby]

Save Me: Chapter 41 - Lead Me

~Hey guys! Chapter 41 is out now! I hope everyone is doing well :)~

Molly and Negan discuss their ideas about leadership and their potential future together and whilst this might spark fury in some others, Molly is finally learning to stand for what she believes in, regardless of what anyone else thinks.

'When do you have to leave?' Rosita asked as she walked up to me whilst I was kneeling down, wiping the sweat from my brow as I worked in the fields.

I looked up in shock as I realised that this was the first time Rosita had really spoken to me since I'd told her about Negan and I.

'I have a couple days, Jesus needs me back soon for the harvest though' I said hesitantly, unsure of how to speak to her anymore.

She nodded seriously and just said 'cool' and turned on her heels to walk back to help with training practice.

I stood up, took off my cap and said 'Rosita, wait'.

She stopped immediately and turned back around with a look of anxiousness, like she didn't know what to say either.

'Do you have a minute? To talk?' I asked softly.

'Yeah, yeah I think we need to' she replied as she walked past me, ushering me to follow her to a bench which was situated under one of the apple trees.

We sat down and both exhaled.

'I'm sorry' I said quietly and looking down at the grass nervously.

She didn't reply so I continued, 'I should have told you about Negan long before I did. Hell I shouldn't have even been involved with him in the first place. I know that I hurt you and that I can never make it right, but I promise, no more lies'.

She also kept her eyes firmly on the ground until I finished speaking.

'I know. I won't say that I didn't hate you when you told us, because I fucking did. But, then I realised that 'love' isn't always something you can control. It was like that for me and Abraham, till I realised that it wasn't love, it was convenience' she said sternly.

I furrowed my brows and asked 'what are you saying?'.

She sighed and added 'maybe you're not in love with him, I mean God I hope that I'm right'.

I stood up and faced her.

'Seriously?! I apologise for my relationship and you have the audacity to tell me that it's not real? I know you don't wanna hear this, but even after almost a decade, our love is stronger than ever' I yelled.

She scoffed as I continued, 'oh and by the way, you and Gabriel? Yeah, I don't see it. But then again, I would never have the audacity to try and tell you that your relationship isn't real'.

I left her speechless as I walked away, furiously putting my cap back on.

I heard her running after me, I was fully aware that Negan would be watching all of this from his window.

'Molly!' she yelled after me as she grabbed my arm and spun me around.

'What?' I said angrily.

'Can we not fight, please? I'm so tired of it. You're like a sister to me and I need you, I want Coco to know her Auntie' she said pleadingly.

I looked into her eyes and saw her genuine sadness.

'I don't want to fight either, but I'm serious, I won't hide my feelings anymore. I love him' I said sternly to which she just nodded.

'Fine, I'll learn to live with it for you' she added almost smiling because of our reunion.

She hugged me and we had finally made up and worked past our differences.

I knew that she would never warm to Negan and I would never ask that of her but I needed her to not hate me for it.

I smiled at her before I returned to my work, walking away happily with a pep in my step as I strolled past the cell.

'That looked heated' Negan said with concern as I just walked past his window.

I stopped dead in my tracks and looked around me to see if anyone was watching before I sat down on the steps and talked to him.

'Yeah, it was. But, we've worked through our disagreements and we're cool' I said seriously.

'Ah and by disagreements you mean me, right?' he asked while smirking.

'Not everything is about you' I said in faux annoyance as I turned my head back around so he wouldn't see me smile.

'Uh huh, sure' he said cockily.

'Look, fine it was about you. But, I told Rosita that our relationship wasn't up for discussion and if she wanted to stay friends then she would have to quit talkin' about it' I said coolly.

Negan chuckled loudly which made me turn back around to glare at him for drawing so much attention to himself.

'Holy shit, look at you!' he said smiling.

'What?' I asked as the corner of my mouth started to curl upwards.

'No wonder Hilltop loves you so fucking much, you're still such a badass!' he shouted.

'Is that a surprise to you?' I asked seriously.

'No, you just never cease to amaze me' he said smiling sweetly.

I nodded and turned back around.

'You're a natural out there, you know that right?' he said now seriously.

'Well, I learnt from you...' I said softly, knowing that if anyone heard that they would think I was insane.

'No, no you're different. Better. People listen to you, now more than ever. A born leader and those are rare as shit to come across. Goddamn how fuckin' lucky am I?!' he said first softly which grew to a yell as he started to sing my praises.

'Keep your voice down!' I whispered.

'Come in here and make me' he answered teasingly as his tongue lazily danced across his teeth.

I scoffed at his obvious thoughts of having another make out session in that cell.

'What makes you think that you deserve that?' I asked sarcastically.

'Oh darlin, it's not a matter of who deserves what. It's all about how far you're willing to go for me?' he replied with a smirk.

I still didn't look at him, trying to hide my obvious grin and excitement.

'There we go again, all about you, huh?' I said smiling.

'Never. After all, you know how giving I can be' he said softly, almost like he was standing right behind me.

I closed my eyes as I imagined all the things he could and would do to me if I went inside that cell.

I practically shook myself back to the land of reason and opened my eyes.

'Not gonna happen' I replied like I was almost trying to convince the both of us.

Negan chuckled again and said seductively, 'just you wait darlin', soon you'll be practically begging me to take you right here'.

My eyes widened as a smirk crossed my lips.

I composed myself and simply turned around to face him and rolled my eyes before I left which made him smirk even more.

I know that I could've just walked straight through those doors and given myself to him once again, but for some reason I felt like even after all this time, what if he just wanted the sex and not us?

I guess I just wanted to keep some control of the situation to avoid being hurt again, because I almost didn't survive the last time.

A couple of days later...

Michonne and I were getting ready to head to the Kingdom, which I planned to visit before I made my way back to Hilltop.

She had told me that while the five communities: Alexandria, Hilltop, Kingdom, Oceanside and the Sanctuary were all united and trading with each other, we needed something more binding.

Ezekiel and Carol had planned out a constitution type of agreement which we would all sign to show the eternal nature of our bond as communities.

I would represent Hilltop, Michonne would represent Alexandria, Ezekiel for the Kingdom, Tara for Oceanside and Laura for the Sanctuary.

We included the Sanctuary because even though it wasn't fully functioning yet, it was in our plan that one day it would be.

We set off in Michonne's homemade carriage which compiled of a car seating strapped to a wooden board on wheels which was pulled by two horses.

Judith of course came with us, as did Daryl because he hadn't seen Carol in a while and wanted to see how she was doing.

It took us almost a day to get there and once we arrived we greeted everyone and just went to bed because we were exhausted.

It was so wonderful seeing Carol, Ezekiel and Henry so happy and so much like a family.

I hadn't really ever met Henry properly so it was nice to talk to him.

He was around the age of fifteen now and his personality was so optimistic like Ezekiel but also had a hint of realism which Carol influenced him with.

Carol had lost so much. So it was so heartwarming to see her finally happy and to see the Kingdom thriving.

They had a cinema being built, new teaching areas, a studio for training and larger canteens to feed their community which was the largest out of all of ours.

In the morning, we all arose early and saw the sun just starting to rise and the sky ablaze with strokes of red and amber.

I walked into the auditorium where Ezekiel usually sat on his throne, his Queen Carol by his side.

This time, there was a large table on the stage which held a large piece of parchment which held the space for five signatures at the very bottom.

Ezekiel said that he would frame it and it would hang here at the Kingdom to be a permanent reminder of our bond as a family.

Tara and I stood side by side and smiled at each other with hope for a better future.

Ezekiel signed first, followed by Michonne, Laura, Tara and then me, each of us representing our corresponding homes.

While the constitution showed the leaders of each community, we were really only one.

Even though I led the Hilltop with Jesus, my home was also at Alexandria, the Sanctuary and wherever Tara was, which was Oceanside.

That was the truth for all of us, so we knew that because of our individual vested interests in the success of all the communities, we stood a real chance of survival.

I couldn't help but wonder about the future, who would sign the constitution when leaders changed?

Would Negan's name ever lie beneath those words which read, Leader of the Sanctuary?

[aibidil]

Aib recs: published fiction I read this year

LGBTQ but not romance, i.e. don’t expect a romance story arc:

-Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor. It’s 1993. Paul is a queer college dropout SHAPESHIFTER who can change his body from male to female at will. This book is super well written, hilarious, outrageously insightful on gender.

-The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. Achilles and Patrocles. My heart. MY HEART. STAY IN THE CAVE! So good. 

-Luck in the Shadows / Stalking Darkness by Lynn Flewelling. This is an older fantasy series where the two main characters eventually get together but MOSTLY they just romp around being badasses and doing crime AND (I swear to god I would not lie to you) Seregil is Sirius Black to the point where I really wonder if JKR read these books before writing Sirius. At one point he’s described as “a sensualist and a fop.”

Literaryish but actually good:

-The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin. Four siblings find out as kids the supposed dates of their deaths. Do they believe the date or not? Does the date only have power because they think it does? Told in four parts, one each per sibling. My heart belongs to Simon, who runs away as a gay teen to SF in the 1980s, and Klara, who performs illusions, but in the end I became completely captivated by all four sibs. 

-Kindred by Octavia Butler. A black woman without warning starts getting transported back in time to a slave plantation. If her white husband is touching her when it happens, he goes too—and has to pretend to be her owner. THIS BOOK IS Sskldfjslkjfhslkfjhsfksjh so good.

-The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin. A brilliant (bisexual) physicist from an anarchist-communist planet travels to a capitalist planet to work on his theory and pave the way for change. This is not fast reading, it is Big Ideas reading, but I loved how intensely human it is even as it shows the way these political systems affect people’s lives.

-Circe by Madeline Miller. THIS BOOK oh my goodness, I honestly didn’t know how she was going to manage to make this have an actual novel-like story arc but she did and it is a story of Circe learning how to be who she is and learning how to have an independent way and about relationships and what it means to be human and and and 

Fantasy/Sci-fi series: quirky crews and sassy knife girls:

-Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Obviously I was late on this one, but if you are also late please do not miss the gang of kids doing crime with heart FEATURING possibly my fave ship I read this year? Wylan/Jesper AND Nina Zenik, absolute bamf witch whom I love so dearly and knife girl Inej

-Shades of Magic by VE Schwab. There are parallel Londons existing side-by-side. Kell, orphan but adopted by the royal family, is one of the only magicians who can travel between them. He saves the world with a sassy knife girl, his gregarious brother the prince, and a bisexual pirate who wears a sapphire in his eyebrow, against a background of richly imagined magic.

-LIFEL1K3 by Jay Kristoff. A post-apoc Mad-Max-esque dystopia that really took me by surprise how much I liked it. The crew in this one is a mix of humans, robot slaves, and androids: a bestie named Lemon Fresh (not a sassy knife girl exactly, but a sassy electric baseball bat girl), a cyborg dog that was definitely my favorite pet character of the year, an outlawed lifelike android named Ezekiel, and a mysterious yet loving grandpa. Outrageous plot twist. I really need to read the second in this series.

[follyoliver]

Taking a break from writing little bits about Daryl’s time following Merle and his biker gang around the backwoods of Georgia to chime in with my opinions about Carol’s boyfriend options and how they are several, and they are all competent, interesting, complicated characters with a core of goodness, who have a lot of respect and even admiration for Carol - and one boring suburban dad.

The amount I do not give a shit about Tobin is truly staggering. I mean, sure, he’s nice. He’s nice to Carol. He’s a step up from Eddie, that’s for fucking sure. But that is low standards when Carol is this amazing, badass, one-woman army who cannot be stopped, who can take down a whole fortress all on her lonesome, who thinks kids should protected at all costs, including teaching them to be able to defend themselves during secret story time training sessions!

She’s been courted and otherwise followed around desperately by a kung fu master who has mystical visions of the dead, an angel of death, and 1 actual king and you’re telling me she’s into this piece of dry toast, khaki pants wearing, balding, soft, non threatening, bland, elevator music, middle-aged middle-class middle-of-the-road white man???????????? Seriously?

Can we talk about how much Morgan loooves her, and despite her constantly telling him to fuck off he keeps coming back if her life is in danger, and he’s a little patronizing at times but not overbearing, and he just, he loves her so much that he starts killing again, to save her life, and he admits that she’s right about killing for people you love, which is as good as a love confession, and he’s always checking on her during her stupid self-imposed exile, just to make sure she’s alive and maybe bring her some food, like a good boyfriend.

Can we talk about Daryl’s devotion to her? I honestly hate to even read it as romantic because Carol is so maternal with him, and he’s so filial with her. He’s all “don’t be sad mom” from the minute he starts looking for Sophia, and it just keeps going in that vein forever, even after her transformation into Mega-Carol, who doesn’t need his help anymore, not really. But even if we don’t read it as romantic it’s still clear that it could be read that way, and he’s still a better boyfriend than Tobin.

Can we talk about how King Ezekiel is in love with her?????????????? And he’s sexy and he’s a sweet, funny, LARPing nerd and he’s a literal king????? Like it doesn’t matter that he’s a renfaire nerd about it, he still literally reigns over the kingdom as a literal king. And he’s a good king! They have such a big functional peaceful kingdom! With food and crops and a reasonable defense force!

I mean recently they lost the defense force, but this Negan shit is really exceptional circumstances and i don’t think their loss undermines the magnitude of what Ezekiel has built in any way. Obviously Ezekiel feels differently, because he feels responsible, so he’s going thru some Stuff right now, but that takes Nothing away from my point here, which is that he’s Carol’s best and sexiest boyfriend option and they are In Love and the show needs to get on board with that pronto, ok. Carol deserves this! Ezekiel deserves this! The audience deserves this! Plus, unite their kingdoms with their romantic partnership - a good old fashioned political marriage alliance! But with less patriarchal gender role stuff! Carol cannot be tamed!

Ezekiel is sexy and fashionable and had a tiger! Ezekiel goes and confides in Carol privately because she really Sees Him! Ezekiel is fun! Ezekiel cares deeply about the safety of his people! Just like Carol cares deeply about the safety of hers! Ezekiel puts up with Carol's Extra, melodramatic bullshit because he is also Extra and melodramatic! He needs her ruthlessness and clear-eyed, sometimes harsh perspective to balance out his gentleness and forbearance! He needs her intense partisanship to balance his careful neutrality in the name of peace! I love them!!!!!!!

But no, the seduction of some slim facade of normality, represented by her stint in Alexandria and her relationship with Tobin, was too much for Carol to resist. And of course that makes sense. She does really like the idea of herself as a normal sweet boring suburban mom. She wants to be ordinary and non threatening and pretend that she’s never been thru any trauma in her life. She wants a fresh start, and apple pie, and a house with a yard. She wants it desperately. During the majority of this show, it has not been an available option. Once it is, it is clear - to me at least - that this is the part of Carol that most holds her back. Seeming normal and non threatening in order to blend in or avoid suspicion is one thing - actually settling in and settling down and above all, settling for, is another thing entirely.

Carol deserves better! Carol is exceptional and should absolutely hook up with one of the exceptional people who are throwing themselves at her! In some ways I think it should be Morgan just because they’re such good foils for each other - hypercompetent lone wolves with really interestingly contrasting philosophies of killing that shift and evolve and respond to each other - but on the other hand, she’s much better partners with Ezekiel, and it’s just really deeply sexy when he looks deep into her eyes and tells her in his regular person voice, not his king voice, that she “sees” him.

This is all to say that I’m not sorry Tobin is dead now, and it was a pretty exciting death scene, which is all I’d ask from his character, who after all never did anything wrong and was a sweet guy, probably. He deserves an exciting death scene, as opposed to an offscreen death or just kinda being forgotten about.

Hopefully now Carol can mourn him and move on to someone more interesting.

[ourkidswouldbemartians]

As usual here are my thoughts on the latest episode of TWD (9.06): 

- I really liked Michonne’s monologue at the beginning of the episode. I also found interesting that the part that says “try to find where we belong” showed Carol looking at the Kingdom. I still think she’s trying to find herself because she still hasn’t found the balance between the pacifist part of her and the warrior savage motherfucker part.

- I already love Magna’s group, they were very well introduced. I like how their introduction fitted in the way the writers wanted to show us how things work now and how things have changed. Also Yumiko is one of the most beautiful names I’ve ever heard. I also like how similar to Team family they are, they’re just people who represent the world to each other although they wouldn’t be a thing if it weren’t for the apocalypse.

- Judith Grimes is such a little savage lmao I really like her remarks, “Look how great things turned out for you…”  - “And it doesn’t matter that you’re a bad person in the inside the numbers don’t care.” she has zero chill

- Speaking of savage let’s talk about Carol for a minute (yes again cause I would die for her)... That scene with her walking out with the fire behind her... I SCREAMED. Badass is no longer a strong enough word to describe this woman. The women of this show are out of this world I swear

- Henry being rude to Ezekiel. He got that attitude from Carol - no doubt 😂

- There’s a feeling of renewal but at the same time it feels like things have reverted back to what they were at the start. Michonne is withdrawn, distant. Carol is a mother again and she is married (although thank god Zeke has nothing to do w/ Ed) and Daryl is back to being a marginal. And we got a new Carl with Judith.

- Alexandria is very impressive and it’s heartbreaking that Michonne has changed so deeply but I get it. I can’t wait to find out what happened and how she got that X on her back.

- The moment Carol said they’re not going to hilltop yet I knew she was going to see Daryl. Come to think of it I’m glad they didn’t spend six years separated, it’s just too much and tbh it would have been ooc for her or Daryl to keep the other out of their life for so long. They’re so cute I can’t. And the fact that no one seems to know about their encounters says a lot. I’M LOVING THIS.

- Was Eugene going to confess his love for Rosita? It was cute. Also nice character dvp ;)

I can’t wait for the rest of the season. You have no idea how happy I am that I get to enjoy my favourite show again!!!