#finally finished the fbs. and HONESTLY ONE PART JUMPED OUT AT ME and i KNOW i'm interpreting it funky BUT

[moe-broey]

Sometimes. Not even the vyvanse can save you.

[jjkfire]

I really really enjoy reading your writing and I’ve just finished reading Sweet Saccharine, where did u get the idea to write a story like that? In all my reading years I’ve never come across something as great as this story is

omg wait this is one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me!!! I’m actually sobbing 😭 I’m really glad you like the fic! and ahh your question! that’s like my favourite question ever haha.

regarding how I got the idea hahaha well get ready to dive into the depths of my chaotic mind!!!

so it all started with that sugar baby conference article I talked about in the first chapter. I saw it on my fb timeline and read it and was like that’s just so crazy cool. then I went through sugar baby threads online just to see what it was like to be one and a few of them were talking about platonic sugar relationships and I was like huh that’s really interesting! I had always wanted to write something in the sugar daddy au sort of realm so I thought it was a nice little way to go about it. (also i watched a short video about the guy who started the sugar daddy website seekingarrangement and i find it funny cos he’s singaporean ahhaha anyway that’s probably why the sugar baby conference article was on my timeline).

so next, the jungkook in the au needed a job lol. i thought about going the businessman or maybe a tech company route but truthfully I’ve always found the logistics industry very fascinating… i even used it in my other fic escape and so i was kinda apprehensive about using the concept again but i didn’t really get to delve into the logistics world in that fic so i wanted to do it in this one. i think the idea stems from that one time i watched a very cool documentary like I don’t know 5+ years ago on national geographic about perhaps the suez or panama canal so that’s where most of the logistics part of the fic stems from… plus I watched other documentaries after having started the fic just because i find it really cool hahaha. anyway, the transportation of drugs/other illegal materials and just a lot of smuggling in general happens at ports and etc. which i thought was quite fitting because that meant i could probably fit a gang aspect into the fic.

I had been itching to write something that’s like a gang au so this was the perfect chance. though sweet saccharine isn’t entirely a gang au fic but it plays a pretty big role. and so for the gangs I had watched a documentary about the cali cartel and Escobar… actually it all started from watching a Vox video about escobar’s hippos lol. also, my father had told me stories of when gangs were thriving in my city back in the old days. also, the topic of corruption within the government and how it goes both ways is always a fun one. so i wanted a piece of that in the fic too.

and about the whole social class system I had watched another video or documentary or maybe it was an article but it was about gentrification also anyway the whole urban/rural divide prevalent in a lot of countries has always fascinated me. then shortly afterwards I had to take a class on the divide of information between races and social classes. so yeah very timely hahaha. i just think the fact that discrimination still exists between different races and also urban/rural population is just really shitty so i wanted to feature a part of that in the fic.

anyway, this answer is probably a lot longer than you wanted it to be but haha that’s just how my mind jumps from one topic to another lol. and i know the fic at the moment seems to have so many random facts sprinkled all over the place but i swear it’ll all make sense in the end haha. not to toot my own horn but i think it’ll be really fun from chapter 4 onwards. it’ll all fall into place. from the event that occurred with jungkook’s father, to the whole insurance debacle at the hospital, to oc’s uncle and mum to jungkook’s grandfather’s past. like it’ll make sense soon ahhahaha. i’m very excited to tie it all together in the next few chapters and honestly it pains me that i don’t currently have the time to write as much as i want BUT i play the whole storyline in my head in my free time like a movie ahahhaha. anyway thanks for asking this question i love it when i get to talk about my thought process lol. again, you’re really so sweet and this ask seriously made my day!!! i hope you’re having a great day anon :3

also since you asked me my absolute fave question, here’s a little preview! (also if you guys made it this far into my answer you totally deserve a preview lmao) heavily, heavily unedited and it’ll probably look diff in the final draft but very important scene haha.

////

Years Ago

“Mr. Jeon! Mr. Jeon! Please, god, you haveto wake up!” The man begs from the front seat, looking at the CEO that’sslumped in the back. The car is now tilted precariously as water begins to seepin fast. He smashes down on the window buttons a few more times, as if it couldhave a different outcome if he tried one more time. There’s a whir and a click,but like all the times before, the window doesn’t move an inch.

He undoes his seatbelt to reach for MrJeon’s phone, climbing onto the centre console, pants soaked as the water nowcomes up to his knees. Like his very own phone, it showed that there was nosignal in the area. He shouldn’t call for help, he’s been instructed not to, buthe was also promised that he would be pulled out of the car within the firsttwo minutes yet, it’s been perhaps close to 8 minutes and they were nowhere insight. From the way the water was rising close to his chest now, he thinks he’llonly have 5 more minutes to figure something out. He quickly undoes his belt,using the metal piece to strike at the window, hitting at the corners whereit’s the weakest, but this is bulletproof glass and he knows his effort is futile,but he has to do something. He grumbles to himself, trying the windscreen butif anything, the glass is thicker there. He does everything he can think of,punching the glass, kicking it even with as much force as he can muster.

“Mr. Jeon!” The man shouts one more time,this time climbing into the backseat to shake him. Mr. Jeon doesn’t move, hischest rising and falling at a set rhythm, unaware of the precocious situationhe was in. The man sighs, sinking into the backseat as he gives Mr. Jeon onelast, weak shove, almost all of his energy now expended. He wondered ifanything would be different if he had managed to wake him up. Unless he was amiracle worker, probably not because see, the Triple Axes never left any roomfor mistakes. That meant that if this was what they had wanted from the start,then it’s what they will get. He should’ve known he was going to be ascapegoat. Why else would they assign a mission like this to him?

An area with absolutely no coverage, a carwith bulletproof windows, one meant to withstand force, no walkie talkie, noplan B. It was clear now that he wasn’t meant to get out of here alive, neitherwas Mr. Jeon. The man remains emotionless as the water reaches his chin. Helaughs, almost bitterly as he turns to look at Mr. Jeon.

“I’m sorry,” He manages to say. It’s notlike the logistics tycoon could hear him, but it didn’t matter. God, all hewanted was some extra cash so he could help you and your mother. Your fathermust have sniffed out his plan. Otherwise, this was too much of a coincidence.He only hopes your mother figures all of this out fast enough.

[sidekickjoey]

My (Very) Spoiler Filled Review of Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindlewald

That movie was so much better than I was expecting considering all the reviews I’ve seen knocking it hard for the past week. Here’s my recap of my experience with it character-by-character, as well as some of my responses to reviews/criticism I read beforehand-- let me know what you think! 

Read at your own risk, there’s a lot of spoilers here. Scroll REALLY fast until you see the gif I put at the end, mobile users! I’m sorry read mores don’t work for you! 

1. Newt Scamander, never change. I found myself going ‘awwww’ way too much over this man in this movie. He’s so quirky and so true to himself the whole way through, and I absolutely am in awe of it. He’s seriously a dream of a man. The gentleness he gives toward his creatures and his utter playfulness with the ZouWu (look me in the eye and tell me that didn’t make you feel all warm inside) was breathtaking. Eddie Redmayne once again outdid himself with his portrayal of Newt. His expressions this movie too were phenomenal, especially since we didn’t always hear Newt speaking. A+ to him all across the board.

2. Let’s talk about Queenie. I see a lot of people upset at what Queenie became in this movie, but in all reality, I don’t think it’s as out of character as everyone is saying. Think about it: Queenie experienced something traumatic. She found the one man she loves more than anything, and then suddenly he’s ripped away from her because of a rule the main four all acknowledged in some way was super ancient and not right. She gets him back, but yet again, she is hounded with society being like “Hey, we see your love, but it’s not right and we will send you to prison if you try marrying each other.” That stuff gets to you. It makes you think irrationally. Someone mentioned “But Queenie was so smart last time and now she’s acting like an idiot.” Well, yeah. That’s kind of what Jacob was saying. It’s because she feels threatened, and that pressure has gotten to her so much that she is desperate to find a fix for it. Was it a lot to use a love potion on Jacob? Yes. Was it a lot to jump the gun and follow Grindlewald? Yes. But she felt she had no choice. She was backed into a corner, and Grindlewald held out his hand and said he can make all her dreams come true. When you are desperate, you’re going to take whatever chances you can get. 

3. By the way, let’s talk about Grindlewald. I walked into this expecting Hitler 2.0 to be honest, but what we got is kind of scarier in a way. Grindlewald is, as we saw in the first movie with his “Won’t we die just a little” comment to Newt, not exactly wrong. He’s fighting for things that should be fixed. He wants freedom and he wants truth. He wants wizards to have to not live in shame, and he wants them to be able to marry muggles and even interact with them without shame. However, he’s a bad guy fighting behind these causes. His methods and means of going about things are all wrong. With the WWII vision he saw, he pandered to fear to gain support. He took the message and said “Hey, this is the future if we don’t act” without informing them that, sorry to break it to you, that’s the future regardless. And that my friends is dangerous. He’s so sly and he’s so manipulative, and he gets away with what he does with his supporters because he’s not fighting for a bad cause. It sends chills up and down my spine thinking of it. Also, I’m not too fond of Depp, but his delivery of Grindlewald, especially during the speech, was fantastic. If anything, his role of the villain offers you a chance to hate him all you want. I really enjoyed his portrayal this time around.

4. Oh my goodness, Newtina. I’ll admit, I wasn’t the biggest Newtina fan coming into this film. I liked them, but idk, the chemistry wasn’t really there for me and it seemed a bit forced. This film, however, changed my mind. My heart freakin broke hearing Newt call out to Tina in his home. He looked so utterly devastated. And Tina reacting so hurt to him, calling him Mr. Scamander? Rip out my heart and serve it on a plate, will you? Newt is freakin precious around her, and you could actually feel he was crazy about her this time. His cute little fawning over her eyes and her stance was precious. It reminded me of when Harry talks about Ginny having nice skin. Tina’s admiration for Newt also was precious. The way she finished his sentence, the way she understood his methods with the ZouWu? Idk, I could feel she really is starting to understand him and become attached. My heart melts for them this time around, and even though the kiss didn’t come, I think it’ll be there next time and beautiful as ever.

5. Dumbledore. Jude Law can freakin slay. I absolutely was in love with everything about his portrayal of Dumbledore. I literally have no complaints, he was perfection.

6. Credence, or whoever you are. This was a bit of whirlwind. If there was ever a part where I got tripped up, it was probably at this reveal. One moment he’s the son of that nanny of his, then he’s a Lestrange, and the next moment he’s some random? I really feel for his frustration because how do you even comprehend all that. I full out shouted though when his big ending cliffhanger thing happened. A lot of people are tripped up because “in the canon verse Dumbledore only had one brother and one sister, JKR is ruining everything, doom and gloom forever.” However, let’s look at what JKR said: not everything we think we know at the end is true. This could be another one of Grindlewald’s mind games. Remember, Queenie told Grindlewald Credence was unsure of his choice. What if this is a ploy to retain his trust? And, if it is true, what if there is a lot more to the story that we will find out that explains why Credence went absolutely unknown and unspoken of in the original Harry Potter books? We are only two movies in to a five part series, everyone. There’s time to figure things out. Don’t let that stop you from enjoying the movie and ones to come.

7. My dear Leta & Theseus. Theseus was what I thought he would be. The kind of outgoing, stiff, Percy-like character who plays a near opposite of his brother. I liked though the moments when Theseus let his guard down and took care toward Newt. His hug was one of those times, and at the end when Newt hugs him back? Magic, right there. I wish we knew a bit more about how he came to be with Leta, but that’s okay. I loved getting to know her a bit and see her past with Newt. She seemed like someone who would give it all to protect those she felt she wronged or cared about, so I do not see her passing as all that out of the blue. Someone needed to do it, and it did two really important things. One, it gave Theseus something other than his boring ministry job’s orders to fight for. Two, it made Newt finally choose a side. Though our time was short with her, I adored her being around.

8. And then there’s Nagini. I feel like we will get way more time with her toward the end of the series. I loved her being there as Credence’s support and friend. I’m still wildly intrigued as to how she ends up in Voldemort’s company, especially after seeing her so pointedly choose against Grindlewald. 

9. The Troublemakers: Nicolas Flamel and McGonagall. Flamel was honestly really funny here, and I know some people have said he was pointless, but I really enjoyed him being there. He provided a good moment of comic relief, and in the end he helped save the day. Not every character has to be some dark, deep character. As for Minerva, I know the timeline is wrong. I get it. I think that was a bit of fan service so people who are HP fans but aren’t as into FB see a familiar face. Not everyone is reading up on HP lore and timelines. To some people, there is no problem with it. It sucks for those who know about the issue, but I don’t think it’s enough to start a riot against JKR for. There’s loads that doesn’t always make sense in the HP universe, and frankly, this will go down with that. Take a deep breath and move forward, everyone.

10. Lastly, Jacob. My sweet summer child. He’s really put through the ringer with this movie. One second he’s engaged, the next second he’s lost in London, then his girlfriend suddenly isn’t with him and he finds her at some villain rally? One man can only take so much. I feel for him at the end when he’s so incredibly lost and looking ready to die. Bless Tina for keeping an eye on him. I’m really glad he has Newt around. His moments with Newt were adorable, and I love that he, much like Tina, is starting to accept that Newt’s just a quirky guy. He’s starting to read and understand him more, which I loved the expression of when he stops going on about Queenie to talk about Tina for the very depressed Newt. He’s really coming around. I hope there’s a happy ending in the ropes for him. He’s more than just a character used for comic relief. I think he has something destined in the future. I just want it to be good.

Thanks for reading this incredibly long review! As reward, enjoy a Newt.

[nautiscarader]

Okay, so I’ve seen Crimes of Grindelwald (spoilers)

And boy, is this movie disappointing. 

Now, the first instance of Fantastic beasts was already hit-and-miss, but the plot to this movie was just freaking bizarre. And it pulled a few weird moves that even a hardcore Potterhead like myself consider out of place.

Let’s start with the positives: The movie does look amazing, and several scenes were really breath-taking, including the opening chase, and the final battle. Whether they made sense is a different thing, but they looked awesome.

I did like the ultimate reveal of Grindelwald’s plot. He wants wizards to take over muggles’ world because of a prophecy, or rather a vision of the future. Most notably, World War II. 

That scene in the Lestrange’s family vault, where Grindelwald breathed the... uh, skull fumes... which in turn showed the vision of London Blitz, concentration camps and a freaking nuclear bomb was absolutely chilling. And Jacob’s reaction to it was blood-freezing, given he was a veteran of WWI already.

so, that makes Grindelwald’s “greater good” plan actually competent and multi-dimensional. He’s evil, he wants to treat muggles as a cattle and workforce, but you can see the original skewed thinking of the young Gellert there. That, i think was executed really well.

This is something I wanted to see for a long, long time. We know from Pottermore (and first movie, I think) that wizards did participate in WWI, and I wanted to see how that will be integrated into the HP universe. We only got a glimpse of it, but it was a powerful one.

Queenie’s plot was, for the most part, very interesting. She seems on plan with subduing muggles into obedience, though of course, she draws a conclusion that it’s okay, even though she is doing it on a man who already is in love with her. But that shows how twisted her perspective is.

The beasts were kinda cool! Newt has a flat in London, which, again, is bigger on the inside than outside, and he’s still pulling off Matt Smith’s performance as The Doctor. And he keeps a freaking Kelpie in a pool in basement. Which may be a library 

Also he has a maid that is totally in love with him.

Zouwu, a.k.a. not manticore, a.k.a. big magical Chinese lion that could breathe fire and jump a hundred feet but when you jingle some bells he enters his big fluffy cat mode, was freaking amazing.  

Jude Law as Dumbledore is phenomenal. He really encapsulates all the charm, and wisdom, as well as ability to manipulate as his older incarnations.

And now onto the bad stuff.

So, here’s the thing. FB movies seems to be in-canon only with the HP movies. I think. I honestly don’t know. And the problem with that is as follow: Harry Potter movies sucked. Even the best ones had massive cuts, the plot had to be twisted or crammed. I have always wondered how does it feel to watch HP movie without reading HP book.

Well, now I know.

Every freaking second you think that this minute-long scene in the movie would be at least three pages long in the book, and all the magical shit that is pulled off would have been explained previously in tiniest details. EXCEPT THERE IS NO BOOK NOW.

And this is a genuine problem. There is a lot of magic pulled from nowhere. Like, for example, Newt and Jacob arrive in France looking for Queenie and Tina. And then Newt takes off some gold powder thing, scatters it around and ... it just shows the past?! Like, echoes of what happened, and it shows Tina walking, meeting with a black guy, etc. 

Now, we know seeing the past of *spells* is possible - Priori Incantatem can do that, but if we can just rewind the whole scene, then... why don’t Aurors do it all the time?! Where was that powder in Goblet of Fire when Ministry of Magic were investigating who conjured the Dark Mark?!

Secondly, future-seeing. In HP, it is quite heavily established that even wizards think that predicting the future is rubbish and only powerful seers can really do it. 

in CoG, we see two examples: Nicholas Flamel (admittedly, a powerful wizard) uses crystal ball to see what will happen at the graveyard, and Grindelwald himself uses... the skull-thingy. 

Okay, that needs explaining. So, Deppy-Depp here has the skull and it has some sort of pipe attached to it, and he smokes through it, and breathes out smog, and that smog shows the future.

I’d say you need to be high to invent this, but that is exactly what it looks like. 

There is a skull-bong in Harry Potter universe now.

And again, it seems to be working 100% time correctly. So yeah, ditch the seers, use this instead. Whatever it is. 

The movie shows Grindelwald and Dumbledore’s past, to an extent, and we also see some weird blood-pact-amulet thing. Again, very poorly explained. I guess it prevents them from hurting each other, hence they both use others (Dumbledore newt and Grindelwald Credence).

Also, Dumbledore is teaching Defense Against Dark Arts in Hogwarts. In the books, he was a transfiguration professor in his youth. Also, professor McGonnagal seems to be teaching in his years.

in 1927.

EIGHT YEARS BEFORE SHE WAS BORN.

OOPS.

And, honestly, she is only for a brief comedic moment. She could be substituted with a freaking Mickey Mouse, and it would have had no change on the plot whatsoever. 

Ah, well, that leads us to Credence. So, there is whole subplot about him apparently being a lost Lestrange. That coincides with the fact that both Theseus and Newt are in love with Credence’s supposed sister, Leta, so now we have two people looking for him. Oh, wait, we have a third one: a new French-African dude who is supposed to be a third Lestrange. This subplot honestly kinda goes nowhere. Turns out that the third lestrange was killed by Leta by accident, and Credence is...

Dumbledore’s brother.

yeah, this makes no fucking sense. 

I watched a review from a die-hard potter fan, and even she calls that move “like taken from worst fanfic”. And there is a reason for it.

See, when I finished watching FB1, I immediately joined the idea of Obscurus - a powerful, magical parasite that manifests in a particularly powerful wizard or witch, and can ultimately destroy them - with Ariana Dumbledore - Albus’ sister. This was a big, big, big deal in Deathly Hallows. So I was overjoyed when I learned that Dumbledore would be in the movie. Maybe the reason he takes interest in finding Credence was to see if there is a way to bring Ariana back, or whether she suffered in her death, or, hell, if he can help another child.

And, I guess it can still happen. But... where the bloody hell does that brother thing come from?! Now, it’s not confirmed, I think, and it is only told to credence by Grindelwald, but he also reveals that the bird Credence was taking care of is in fact, a phoenix, a bird that is tied to Dumbledore’s family. 

So... is he a Dumbledore? Really? How... How does that work?

And there are a lot of weirder problems in this movie. Like, at some point, Tina and Newt go to French Ministry of Magic to pull Leta’s family tree, and it is stored in the least practical fucking room with revolving pillars or something. 

Also, they go the evil mean librarian, and Tina simply says “I’m Lestrange”, and she is like “okay”.

No wand-checking?! No protective spells?! What?!

And, mind you, they are on the chase; Newt drinks polyjuice potion to look like Theseus, and it only works for maybe five minutes, as opposed to an hour, and there are posters of Newt all over French MoM. So, how the bloody hell didn’t the mean librarian notice him and raise an alarm. Or better - WHY DOESN’T SHE FUCKING STUN HIM?!

Eventually she does bring back her army of CGI multiplying cats, but that happens after Tina and Newt kinda find what they were looking for.

Edit: Oh, yeah, and one wizard can WALK THROUGH FUCKING WALLS.

Like, he has a noclip cheat turned on. WAHT.

Eh, I’m not gonna lie, this film was bad on several different levels. It had lots of good elements in it, but the bad ones do overweight them for me. And with “Cursed Child” and all of that, I really feel bummed to see one of my favourite franchises gets kinda destroyed and distorted.

I guess this is how Star Wars fan felt when the prequels came out...? Except we have three more.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Thoughts on News About AL and LC - What it means for TD

Okay, I know it's been a few weeks since I've written anything new. Until a few days ago, there really wasn't much for me to write about. People want my thoughts on the news that Andrew Lincoln may be leaving TWD. I'm going to talk about a lot of different subjects and possibilities here, so bear with me.

First let me say that I originally wrote this two days ago, but have re-written it several times. A lot has happened and my perspective keeps changing.

Originally I was going to give arguments both for and against it being true. When news of Andrew leaving first broke, a lot of people thought it was a publicity stunt. There are still reasons it might be, but in the past few days, we’ve gotten a lot more confirmations, and it’s looking more and more like it’s probably true. A small part of me will hold out hope that it’s not real up until we actually see S9 play out, but overall, I’m preparing myself to lose Rick as a character, because we probably will.

Ditto with Lauren Cohan leaving. I’ve been pretty unconvinced of her departure up until, well, like yesterday. I feel like people are really jumping to conclusions because of her contract dispute, but I’ve never seen that as good enough evidence that she’s actually leaving. Again, she still may not be. Lauren said this right after they finally worked out her contract: 

“I’m going back. There’s a lot more Maggie story to tell. You know we’re not allowed to tell you anything, but it’s good.” (Source)

 That just doesn't sound like she's leaving after six episodes to me.

However, some of my FB peeps brought up some good points the other day (I’ll get into them below) that are making me think Lauren leaving may be a real thing as well. I’ll get into that in a minute.

Okay so let's assume for a minute that Andrew Lincoln is definitely leaving. How will this go down?

I hope that if he does leave, they won’t actually kill him off. I'm hoping they’ll do more of a Morgan-esque thing where he has to head off on his own for a while, leaving Daryl in charge. Unlike Lennie James, AL will be working on his own projects rather than other TWD spinoffs, but that would allow them to bring him back after a few seasons if they so choose. I just feel like Rick should be in the final season or final episode of the series, whenever that may be.

Yes, I know this is probably wishful thinking. This is TWD, after all, and character arcs never truly closed until they die. You could argue that Rick is kind of an exception, though. He is the main character and always has been, not a side character who only came on for a few seasons. So, while it might not be entirely realistic. I'm still hoping they give him the option to return at some point.

What will it mean for TD?

Honestly, even I really don't want AL to leave the series, this actually bodes very well for TD.

Let’s review what happened during S8. No one on TD really predicted Carl's death, but once it hit the airwaves, I knew right away that it was correct. When the spoiler site reported it 2 weeks into S8, they didn’t confirm it, saying to take it with a grain of salt. At the time, I wrote THIS POST and knew the spoiler about Carl would turn out to be correct. Why? Because of the symbolism in S4.

The biggest clue was the sheriff’s hat falling off Carl's head. We saw the same thing twice in S7 and then again right before his walker bite was revealed. You’ve got to understand that TWD finds creative ways to foreshadow things. Most of us wouldn’t consider a hat falling off someone's head to be death omen, but in this case, it was. If they’d put a skull and cross bones in the background behind Chandler, that would have been way too obvious. Gimple is smarter than that. He finds more creative ways to foreshadow things.

So while we totally didn't pick up on the foreshadow, because the hat falls off Carl's head before Rick picks it up and puts it on Beth, I immediately realized it was always a foreshadow that Carl would die before Beth came back.

So now let’s take that damn flashback in 4x16 bit farther. After putting the hat on Beth, what does Rick say? The famous line we’ve all pointed to for years now: "There's a new sheriff in town."

I never thought that this meant Rick would die. As I said in THIS POST, I thought it meant that he would step down from leadership, just as he did in 4a. I just thought it meant Beth would be in charge rather than Rick, but that Rick would still be around.

But now we get this news that AL might be leaving. Rick leaving reinforces that they're going to need a new leader. And while they are reporting that Daryl will step into Rick shoes, and I'm sure he will be the main character, it just paves the way even more for Beth to return as the new sheriff in town.

It also seems to me that without Rick and the partnership/bromance between Rick and Daryl, Daryl is going to need a partner to balance him out. It doesn't necessarily have to be a romantic partner (Jesus balances Maggie) but we also had Norman teasing that Daryl might finally get a romance after AOW. Again, that doesn't necessarily mean it will be Beth, but it will be someone. And you all know who I think it will be.

So, Andrew leaving the show is actually better for TD than if he didn't. Again, I really don't want him to leave and I hope he doesn't, but just as with the symbolism around Carl's death, it makes a certain kind of sense that perhaps the new sheriff in town won't show up until the current sheriff disappears in some way. (The transition could also happen concurrently, though.)

So now we get to the real crux of what I wanted to say today. I've been thinking last few days about this news all its implications. I've been running over all the dialogue and symbolic evidence we’ve looked at for years now. Here’s the conclusion I've come to:

If it turns out to be true, and both AL and LC are truly leaving the show, I don't believe for one minute that it's a decision they suddenly came to somewhere between S8 and S9. I think it's been planned that way for a very, very long time. Same as with Carl's death. We have evidence (because of the hat) that when Gimple took over as showrunner in S4, he already had Carl's death planned. I simply don't believe that he would have that much planned out (and Beth's arc/eventual return planned out) but then Andrew Lincoln leaving would come out of left field. No freaking way.

I'm not saying they always knew exactly what episode they’d leave in or even that the writers decided to write them out of the show. I just think everybody planned this in advance and has known about it for a while.

Let me explain:

Let’s return to S3. At the end of the season, showrunner Frank Mazzuri was fired for killing characters off without direction. Basically, it came down to a lack of planning, which was pissing everyone off. Especially AMC. So, he was fired and Gimple was promoted to showrunner.

I always refer back to the trailer from S4, which talks about “a whole new chapter” being in place. That was the start of Gimple's reign. (Full Trailer HERE.)

We’ve also seen a lot of things pointing to S4-S8. TD has always thought it meant Beth will show up in S8. That wasn't the case, but we still think she’ll show up after S8. Like S4-S8 was when ginormous arc, and only after that will the new sheriff return. The post I wrote HERE about the structure of Them foreshadowing this has all the details.

So, I’m envisioning a scenario where, when Gimple took over prior to S4, he already had many years of the show planned out. (He’s told us before that he has through season 15 planned out.) Logistically, he would've needed to check with Andrew Lincoln to make sure that was okay.

The show was finishing up his 3rd season going into the 4th. There are plenty of shows that only go 3 to 4 seasons before being canceled. A lot of actors might not have wanted to participate in the show much longer. Most actors want to do multiple projects, rather than be tied to one. (Norman is the obvious exception to this.) Another good example of this is just recently when Frank Dillane left FTWD. He said he’d played the character for 3 seasons and wanted to move on to other things.

So, with Rick being the main character in TWD, the writers had to have known that maybe he wouldn't want to stick around that long. So I’m wondering if Gimple sat down with Andrew after S3 and explained that he very well could do another 12+ seasons of TWD and asking Andrew what he thought. I'm thinking Andrew said he wasn't ready to leave the show yet (because he didn’t) but he probably wasn't going want to hang around for 12 more seasons. So, he told Gimple to keep him on for another 5-6 years and then write him out. Based on that, Gimple created his story, always planning to write Rick out after AOW.

S4-S8, as we’ve all said many times, was all about Rick. @thegloriouscollectorlady even pointed out that even Coda was really all about Rick. The ending was from his point of view. It was about how he handled the situation badly and that led to Beth being shot. But this huge, 4-season arc was all based around Rick.

Meanwhile, as I explained HERE, Gimple set Beth up as a strange, minor arc so he could always bring her back once Andrew left the show. Even though we didn't know that, and have been predicting every season that she’ll return, and certainly never predicted Andrew Lincoln leaving anymore than we predicted Carl's death, I do think that it was probably always planned this way.

Many lines of dialogue and such can be seen in a different light, given the information that Andrew is leaving.

Of course there’s all the obvious stuff about Beth being new sheriff in town and Bethyl being a thing. The needed to play out this other arc, needed to see Daryl suffer and learn and grow before he could sustain that relationship. No doubt Beth will have learned and grown a lot too, and she will come back not only as a leader and a badass, but as someone who's even more suited to Daryl that she was in S4 and S5.

I’m even thinking about the interview Andrew gave after Coda. I talked about it in detail HERE. He said he thought Emily “deserved this death” because she was so kind and sweet and such a great actor, etc. That never made any sense because why would anyone deserve a senseless death? But he sounded like he was being kind when he said it, not cruel.

So it's always been TD's theory that he knew Beth will return, and while he couldn't actually say it in the interview because it would've been a spoiler, he was really referring to an arc where she goes away for a time, but then returns.

It’ll be the biggest plot twist ever, and quite frankly it might be the only thing that can save the show's ratings. As long as Daryl’s around, I think a good many people will continue to tune into the show. And as with Carl's death, there are plenty of people saying that they won’t watch the show anymore. I'm sure that's true of some of them, but most will at least return to see how Rick goes out and to see how the show fares without him. If they suddenly plunked Beth's return down into the middle of all that, that's going keep a lot of viewers and maybe even bring some back to see how Beth and Daryl's arc continues.

As to my earlier discussion about whether they'll kill Rick off or not, there is one line that makes me think that they will. Beth’s line to Daryl in Still: "You're gonna be the last man standing." 

We've attributed that to many things, including the fact that Daryl wouldn't kneel to Negan, but it definitely does sound like he might outlive Rick. 😥

I’m also thinking about a lot of the things that Norman has said over the past few seasons. He’s talked many times about how Daryl hasn't had much to say. He’s gotten a few cool arcs, blowing shit up and such, but he hasn't had a whole lot of character development since Beth's death. (Even non-TDers recognize this.) You’d think Norman would have more of a problem with that, but he always says that he trusts the show's writers, and that he will play Daryl until he's 80, if they let him. It’s always endearing that he has that kind of loyalty to the show, but now I'm wondering if there’s more to it than that. Maybe one reason he’s said things like that is to hint that at some point, Daryl is going to come front and center and be a leader, just as he was in 4a. Him leading at the prison probably foreshadowed his leadership once Rick, the current sheriff, wasn't there anymore.

Finally, let’s turn to the crux of my debate over whether is Lauren is leaving. The first line that comes to mind and suggests she might be leaving/dying is when Daryl said to Beth in Still, “You ain’t never gonna see Maggie again.” I actually worried that Maggie might get the bat in 6x16 because of that line, but there were plenty of reasons to think she wouldn’t as well.

Now, if she’s really leaving the show, and so is the current sheriff (Rick), and it’s looking more and more like Beth will show up in S9, Beth really may never see Maggie again. (Which totally sucks! 😥 )

But another line from Still sort of clashes with this. A line I’m constantly going back to: “I’m not Michonne, I’m not Carol, I’m not Maggie, but I made it!” We keep saying that at some point Michonne will have to lead instead of Rick. I’ve just always thought that he would step down, as I’ve said above. But once again, AL leaving the show just paves the way for Beth’s line to be fulfilled, as it would leave Michonne leading Alexandria. Something we’ve been waiting for, for a long time. But I also feel like this suggests Maggie needs to be alive and leading. So I’m not sure which way it will go.

Then my FB peeps, including M-Nonny and @frangipanilove came up with even more examples I hadn’t considered. 

In 8x01, Maggie says to Rick, “One more battle. And I’m gonna be there, at least for the first part.” Then Rick says to Maggie, “After this, I’m following you.” So the theory is that “this” was All Out War, and if Maggie leaves or dies, Rick will follow her. It may have been a very blatant foreshadowing of that.

And back to Daryl’s line about not seeing Maggie again? Right before he says that, he mentions Rick. “You ain’t never gonna see them again. Rick…You ain’t never gonna see Maggie again.” Mentioning Rick always made sense in context for the most part, because Rick and Daryl were close and of all the people at the prison, Daryl was feeling the loss of his brother. But think about that. He specifically mentions Rick and Maggie that Beth will never see again. Not Carol or Michonne or Judith. Now AL and LC may be leaving the show at the same time. Can that possibly be a coincidence?

It’s this symbolism and dialogue foreshadowing that are convincing me, much more than anything outside the world of the show, that AL and LC really may be leaving. Like I said, as much as it sucks and I don’t want them to leave, it’s actually a good thing for TD.

Does it mean they’ll both die? Not necessarily. Rick could “follow” Maggie in some other way that doesn’t mean death, but I wouldn’t necessarily get my hopes up about that either. I’ve thought more than once that, although I hope Rick doesn’t die and he just leaves the group for a while like Morgan has, it would also be a bit of a disservice to his character. Because Rick would really never leave Judith and Michonne. But it’s something maybe we could accept as a trade-off for not killing his character since the actor wants to leave for a time, even if it’s unrealistic.

But…Rick AND Maggie leaving their children. Just cuz? Yeah, that’s really pushing the limits of reality and I doubt the writers would even attempt something that absurd. And then there’s Daryl’s line about Beth never seeing them again.

If I'm right, and all this was planned when Gimple first took the helm, then chances are most of the main characters have known about it since then. Maybe not exact details or when it would play out specifically, but I believe that most of the main ones have known about Beth’s eventual return since S5 or earlier. If they knew that, then they also probably knew Andrew would be leaving at some point.

Just one more thing I want to throw out there that I thought of this morning. Well, two things, but they go hand in hand. Everyone is saying AL and LC will only be in 6 episodes this season, right? Well, chances are episode 6 will air either at the very end of November or the beginning of December, depending on when the premiere is. Remember this walker:

There’s a November calendar behind her, which is what has made us hope to see Beth in November each season since she disappeared. There’s also all the Christmas/Santa Clause symbolism that could suggest December. Now, we could hope for that this season, and it will be no different than when we hoped for it in previous seasons. I’m just saying that AL and LC leaving the show right around that same time may not be a coincidence. We certainly didn’t have that happening in previous seasons.

Finally, assuming Beth shows up in S9, we certainly don’t know when it will be. As we’ve said before, she could show up for the audience in episode 1, as Morgan did in S5, but not actually arrive at wherever TF is until much later in the season. You would hope that she would show up concurrently with AL and LC leaving, just so it’s less sad (trading some hope for some tragedy) but with Daryl’s line about her not seeing them again, chances are she won’t show up until after they’re gone.

So I was just thinking about how we’ve always said that Daryl will have to be in a very dark, hopeless place before Beth returns. We’ve thought he’d reached that place several times throughout the seasons: after Beth, in Them, after Denise, when he was Negan’s prisoner in The Cell. But if he loses both Rick and Maggie, chances are that will be worse than anything we’ve seen thus far.

Oh, and one more thing. (Sorry.) Remember all the child and baby symbolism around Beth? (Details HERE.) If we do lose both Maggie and Rick, there will be two small children (Judith and Baby Hershel), both with very strong ties to Beth and Daryl, who will need parenting. Just saying.  

So these have been my swirling thoughts over the past few days since this news broke. No matter what happens, I for one am still very interested to see what direction the show takes. I’ll be sticking around to find out.

Sorry this to so long. If you're still reading, many thanks and go you!

[blschaos3000-blog]

Its 7:37 pm

Welcome 8 Questions with…….

A few months ago I interviewed actor Mike Ferguson for the blog. He in turn sent me a short film he had completed called “Nowhere To Run” which I found to be top notch. One of Mike’s co-stars was Josh Gilmer and as I watched Josh turn in a strong performance,I thought that Josh had a bright future. Soon I got a friend request from Josh on FB and then I noticed something else,Josh is quite a guy off camera as well. I noticed how he is always supporting his friends and peers in their projects. While on paper that doesn’t sound all that grand but in the very competive world of Hollywood,believe me,this is a trait you don’t see all that often. When I asked Josh for this interview,he said “Yes,I would like that” and when he finished,he said it was harder then he thought as he wasn’t used to talking about himself. Well thats alright because I have a feeling pretty soon Josh is going to have to start doing that more often as his star grows brighter through his talent and hard work. We’re just glad we’re one of the first to sit down and ask this talented young actor some questions while we still can. So come and meet one of the nicest persons to answer our 8 Questions…Josh Gilmer.

 Please introduce yourself and tell us about your current project.

Hey hey, I’m Josh Gilmer.  I’m an actor originally from Bartonville, IL, currently living just outside LA.  I just wrapped on a pilot we did in partnership with a network, so hopefully they’ll like what they see and it will go to series.  I can’t say much about it, but I got the chance to play an outlaw in the Wild West, every guy’s dream!  Riding horses, shooting guns, and everything else that comes with that time period.  It was an absolute blast!  I have to say though, as fun and exciting as it was for me, it didn’t compare to my dad’s excitement *LOL*.  He’s a HUGE western fan. 

 What was growing up in Illinois like? What are some of your favorite experiences and memories growing up?

I had a pretty typical Mid-Western childhood.  Playing sports, hanging with friends, and working.  I started working for my dad when I was 7, as I chose that over summer camp.  My dad was a Teacher and Coach who also had a lawn business that kept us pretty busy in the Spring, Summer, and Fall.  Favorite experiences and memories would have to include being an All-Star at Michael Jordan’s basketball camp in Junior High, playing football my Senior year of High School under the lights every Friday night, and family trips to Florida for Spring Break.  Amazing times!

 What led you into becoming a actor? Was there a moment that you just knew this is what you wanted to do?

I’ve always had a love for TV, Film, Theater, Commercials, etc…  With that said, being from a small town in Central Illinois, a working actor wasn’t something that seemed realistic.  It wasn’t until after I had worked in the corporate world for many years after college that I finally decided to make the jump.  I had done well professionally, but just wasn’t happy.  I resigned from my gig as a sales rep in Florida and made the cross-country trip with my dad to beautiful Southern California.  That was just over two years ago and I’ve been grinding ever since.   

 What surprised you the most about learning to act? What were the three best pieces of advice that you took to heart?

 First off, let me just say I still have A LOT to learn.  It’s definitely an on-going process.  I can always get better, and need to get better.  When I first started taking classes, because I didn’t have a drama school background, I had this idea in my head that I needed to do more.  That I needed to “perform” or “act”.  Studying Meisner for me was great, as it really simplified things.  Be in the moment, listen, and respond/react.  There’s obviously much more to it than just that, but it’s such a great base for somebody like me with little to no experience.  In terms of advice I took to heart, one of my instructors said, “If you believe it, the audience will.”  That really stuck with me.  Less is more was another nugget a working actor once said to me, which I loved because that’s something I live by in general.  Lastly, I love a quote by another one of my instructors, “The number one rule of acting…don’t get caught doing it.”  

 What was it like moving from a small town in Illinois to Los Angeles?  What was your first impression of LA?

 I had been out here a few times for work previously, so I was familiar, but it’s definitely a different world.  Where I’m from, there’s really no such thing as ‘”traffic”.  Out here, it’s a way of life.  You can either accept that it is what it is and use that time to catch up with friends and family like I do, or succumb to it and want to gauge your eyeballs out on a daily basis.  Obviously the weather is amazing compared to the Mid-West.  Not having to deal with the -15 degree winters anymore makes everything worth it.  I don’t think I’ll ever move back.  Also, there’s nothing you can’t do out here.  Anything you want is within a couple of hours.

  Your first role was playing Ted Bundy for a docuseries? How did you get the role and    how was the experience? Did you have a hard time after playing Bundy?

It wasn’t my first role, but it was the first role I had on Network Television that wasn’t background.  In terms of how I landed the role, I just got lucky haha.  It was a timely submission on my part and I happened to slightly resemble him, so I got it.  It was such a great experience and the crew was awesome to work with.  I did all of my due diligence and studied him, but let’s be honest, it was recreation, so it wasn’t as if I had a hard time “getting out of character.”    

What three parts are the hardest to play for you emotionally and how do you adjust in order to play them?

They’re all a challenge for me, especially at this stage of my career haha, and honestly, I hope that never goes away. 

 What project has been your personal favorite so far and why?

That would have to be the western pilot I just wrapped.  The entire shoot I felt like I was 8 years old again.  It was as absolute blast.  And on top of all the fun stuff that comes with playing an outlaw in the Wild West, my character is extremely layered, being my most challenging role yet.  I hope people like it.  

 What is your approach to writing? What led you to try your hand at screenwriting? Is this something you want to pursue?

Haha, this is interesting, because I’m not much of a writer.  It really just came from necessity in terms of self-creating content for my acting reel.  It usually starts with an idea, and then just word vomit on a page.  From there I just re-work it over and over until it kind of makes sense.  I don’t think I have the discipline, nor the talent to really pursue it.  At least not at the moment, but down road?  You never know.   

 How important has networking been to your career and have you gotten any jobs that way?

Networking is something that I know I need to improve on and do more of.  While I do plenty of it on set, which has led to other opportunities (work begets work), I need to do a lot more away from set.

The cheetah and I are flying over to watch your latest film but we are a day early and now you are playing tour guide,what are we doing? 

Well, we’d be in LA, so we can do whatever you two want!!

    I like to thank Josh for taking the time to chat with us and answering some questions. We wish him the very best in his career and really hope that Western pilot is picked up so we can come back and ask him some more questions!!!

You can follow Josh on his various SM platforms of which we’ll list here:

You can see what is next for Josh by following his IMDb page. You can also follow Josh on his InstaGram page.

The review of “Nowhere To Run“. 8 Questions interview with Mike Ferguson.

Thank you for your continued support. If you have a story to share,drop me a email through the Contact page above and let’s talk about it.

8 Questions with…………actor Josh Gilmer Its 7:37 pm Welcome 8 Questions with....... A few months ago I interviewed actor Mike Ferguson for the blog.

[silentmight]

BTS LIVE Trilogy Episode III the WINGS TOUR in Bangkok 2017

Sometimes, all it takes is a little faith and the wings you never knew you had will fly.

About a week and a half ago I YOLO’ed to Bangkok for BTS’ Wings Tour, and it’s a decision I absolutely have no regrets on. Just gonna keep this here as a diary post and concert impression of sorts!

The BTS Wings Tour in Bangkok holds special meaning for me in many ways, but I'll get to that later.

I haven't been to a concert this massive, no not even the local rock bands and gigs I attended while in Singapore can rival this full house of screaming fangirls. Queuing was intense and really stuffy, as Bangkok's weather can really fry you but thankfully I met up with Fonnoi (the girl I bought my ticket from; I randomly saw her post on FB) and then joined her for the concert!

I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO REGRETS PAYING FOR THE STANDING TICKET. We positioned ourselves to the back and could learn against the guard rails, which makes for good viewing cause everyone crammed to the front and I'm glad my height's at an advantage here lol :3 Also I guess I must be old because I was on energy saving mode until the lights went off; the younger fans were all screaming when their bias appeared on screen when they played the MVs to pass time.

As an introduction, they played Spring Day’s MV and when the first verse kicked in I started tearing… IN FACT I WAS SILENTLY CRYING THROUGHOUT MANY SONGS, PLEASE DON'T JUDGE ME idk man this is the first time I've cried multiple times during a concert because you can feel the atmosphere and I just have too many FEELINGS.

The boys came on stage and kicked off with Not Today- great way to get the crowd pumping and it's also my fav (hell all of it is). The playlist is pretty much faithful to the one listed on the wiki, you can go check it out there… Hearing Bapsae and DOPE live is such a treat. Anyway I'm, so very glad to be able to watch the BTS boys perform their solo songs from the Wings album, coupled with visuals and stage props that are reflective of their personality and song.

Jungkook’s ‘Begin’ displayed his smooth dancing, which felt like a silent sort of strength. Right after was Jimin's ‘Lie’, which holy shit I've been waiting to watch in person ever since this kid became my no.2… I cannot explain in words how 色っぽい sexy it is, goddamnit! Stop attacking my heart! I cannot fathom how Jimin can look like a marshmallow one minute and then like a wolf!! *tears hair out* My favourite part of the dance was when he was blindfolded onwards /COUGH and when he was lifted into the air by the backup dancers too.

And then… my angel Min Yoongi, aka SUGA’s solo. I usually am unable to listen to 'First Love’ because he outputs a ton of intense emotions when he raps, so when I'm stressed I skip it. Hearing it live is no shortage of his raw feelings, and just listening to him rap it live is truly amazing.

The singer line then performed Lost and Save Me, in which during Lost they started to walk all over stage and I'm glad I… am just less than 10 feet away from them… just seeing Jimin sing live, I can die happy. OH and after this was 'I NEED U', aka the one song that I love to butcher with @hweiro and @wataksampingan in the car. Their pronunciation of “I need you gurrrr” hasn't changed IRL either lol.

Rapmon’s solo really did it for me. The introduction was of him looking at a whale, and this is just my assumption: Was he looking at the loneliest whale in the world? Which he wrote Whalien 52 in the previous album? Is it an allusion to himself, because we all know his song 'Reflection’ is melancholic by nature? As the song progressed, it felt like some deep acid trip going through the ocean and the universe and finally Rapmon ends it by walking into an elevated phone booth… however hearing him repeat, “I wish I could love myself” with the concert visuals truly struck a deep chord within. I don't have a deep soul like him but I can resonate with the feeling of looking at life pass you by, you want to love yourself but it's hard as fuck.

V's “Stigma” was next, sorry my attention here died a bit so I don't remember much lol. The last two solos had me in a silent tearing mess though- J-Hope and Jin. J-Hope is SUCH a good performer, his stage charisma is great and we're treated to his childhood photos as he sang ’MAMA’. He had a long pause before finishing off the song, but in that last verse, he sang it with the intensity of his gratitude and love for his mother I just.. my eyelids were like a leaky tap okay. You can totally see the look of admiration and adoration when he looked up after the song ended. J-HOPE!!! ;____;

Jin… oh Jin. It took me so long to appreciate 'Awake’, but after watching him perform live, I see this song in a new light. He and the violinists/cellists were on individual raised platforms, while the backdrop is pretty simple. It felt like a dreamy sky, and on the front of the platforms were projected feathers. Tbh, from what I know of Jin is that he was mainly the visual, who can't really sing or dance so people were like, why is he even there? And perhaps Jin himself feels it too, being the oldest in the group. The line “Maybe I can, can never fly… I Can't fly like the flower petals over there” just struck me of that train of thought.

But to me, Jin, at that very moment you're flying- flying so high and you could touch the sky.

Feelings of inadequacy and yet wanting to keep on keeping on resonates too much within. This song really punched me in the gut and I was trying to not sniffle (and guess what my eyeliner didn't run lmao)

'Cypher 4’ was the rapper line just doing their thing and going wild, then next was FIRE. OMG I've waited so long to also see this dance in person and also sing along T_Tbbb The next couple of songs had them singing yet running all over stage and I took the opportunity to sneak some photos lol but I'm sad that Suga didn't really come to our side of the stage 🙁 Speaking of Suga, this fella is really funny... as for most of his rap lines he just held his mic up and let the audience fill it in woi wwwwww

I managed to sneak some photos of Jimin as he came over to our side of the pen during ‘LOST’- when the singer line started walking around.

Anyway, I have also been looking forward to the main dances of the night: J-Hope’s insane solo for ‘Boy Meets Evil’ and finally, ‘Blood Sweat and Tears’ in the FLESH. I love BST a lot so getting to see it live is just too much for my heart to take.. even with Wings Outro right after. Tbh I wanted to jump up and down like at a rave party with this song (and Dope/Fire) but.. no one else was doing so.. guess no one jumps at a kpop concert lmfao

I got to see everyone up close though, in particular Jimin, J-Hope, V, Jungkook and Rapmon. Damn, Rapmon gave a flying kiss to the small area of 4-5 i was squashed in and the girl in the front went BERSERK. lol Jimin also high 5’ed a very lucky person!

After a short intermission, they returned with ”There Will Be Better Days” and I was already expecting to bawl at this song because of how easy you can sing along to the lyrics (and their meaning), and fucking bawl I did! Before performing this song Rapmon was like, don't be sad, we'll walk together always in our hearts and towards better days always and damn, I'm moved. I could mainly understand whatever RM was saying cause he's the only one speaking in English haha…

Last song of the night was 'Spring Day,’ which was a fitting end to the entire concert. And with that, the Wings Tour has come to an end.

If I didn't take leap of faith in messaging a total random stranger, who is now a concert goer and new found friend, I would never experience this. People precaution one against randomly asking and buying something from online strangers but if I never spotted Fonnoi’s post on the IME thread, I would never have this experience. I've been shown so much hospitality and warmth throughout, and I'm glad we could establish that trust. I'm really thankful to her for selling the ticket at an ok price!

I guess this concert and trip alone fulfills one of my small dreams; to YOLO to another country solely for a concert and to also solo travel before I'm 30. Honestly I thought I'd never be able to do it but just slog away and slave at work- growing old and letting all my youthful dreams die as I leave behind the vestiges of youth. It might have not been to Japan for sakanaction (still a dream), but I'm infinitely grateful that I was able to watch another one of my favourite groups perform live… not to mention seeing Suga, my ultimate BTS crush and also Jimin in person.

Here’s some sneak shots I took:

Rapmon!!! He’s so charismatic.

[callistawolf]

Hi, I am so glad you are sorta back. Don't follow much blogs in here but you are the only one who ships TenRose like me! This is about the 5×20 spoiler. How do you see the fb sex scene playing out (as in what's going on in their head, the reaction at the sudden memory) and what do you think will be the result. I had a hunch maybe it will be in present day so it's kinda surprisingly it's not and I am really curious what will happen next. Thoughts?

Thank you so much for the welcome! There’s a few others here who ship Ten/Rose too... @lunarsilverwolfstar is one! 

It’s hard to talk about the 5x20 spoilers because we both know quite a bit and at the same time, nothing at all! There’s a lot of Olicity in the episode (and OTA and Dyla), because of the picture Stephen shared of the s4 Green Arrow suit, I think the flashbacks are sometime in season 4 or the summer between 4 and 5, there’s a love scene that takes place not in the present (I think the safe assumption here is the flashbacks)... That’s a lot to know! But we don’t know what’s going on. We don’t know what brings these flashbacks on. What is happening in the present to bring up these memories??

Honestly, there’s about a million ways this could play out. And my brain likes all the ways 😂. Is it like Stephen teased at SDCC that there’s a little too much vodka in the lair one night? Does she see him doing the salmon ladder and jump him? So many delicious possibilities. 

As for the result, I think the only reason to really show a flashback love scene is because it comes up in the present day, somehow. I want to believe this is where Oliver and Felicity finally have the talk they’ve been needing to have, oh... all year. Maybe what they talk about is mirrored in that flashback. I’ll have to be honest, I’m trying not to think too much about it because we have a long wait until 5x20 airs and I’ll drive myself nuts in the meantime! 😂

As for the whole present vs flashback thing... I had mixed reactions when I first heard that spoiler. Like a lot of people, I was hoping this was it, the reunion we’ve been waiting for. But then I thought about it... I’ve enjoyed the Olicity rebuild this year. 5a was hard but I think it’s just part of the process (and hopefully this flashback sheds some light on why it was so hard). The last thing I want is for Olicity be just thrown back together. After all this time, I kind of want to see a little more effort put into it. 

So my hope is that this is that. I want these two to get together and be together for good and taking their time will only help with that, I think. I think 5x20 will be the start of the reunion... and we’ll finish the year with them back together. My fingers are crossed! 

[naomi-l-tiessen-blog]

Things You Should Know Before Becoming a Writer

 Hellllllloooo everybody ~

Happy Thursday Blogday!

I had a rude awakening the other day. After wasting a great many hour on The Vlog That Never Was (see post, “The Adventure Continues...”), it occurred to me that 1) life is unfair, 2) it turns out that yes, I am indeed technologically challenged, and 3) there was so much to the writing world that I didn’t know and OH LORD was I unprepared. And as I sat slumped in front of my computer, arms clenched across my chest, my mouth twisted into a perma-frown, I felt cheated...how come no one told me about these things or, at the very least, gave me a heads up? What was I getting myself into? In my defense, it’s not like writing comes with some sort of warning/disclaimer label, but still...I was way over my head. 

Sound familiar?

Well, have no fear! I’ve got your back! Today’s blog is about 9 things you should probably take into account before diving head first into the Writer Pool. I imagine that there are many more out there, but these were the heavier-duty ones that you’ll, more often than not, encounter.  

1) You need to whore yourself to the social media world. For reals. And at first it’s going to be scary, but just do baby steps, and you’ll be fine. I started out with Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr, and I’m still alive. Really, it shouldn’t even be scary! It’s not like the world is asking you to leave your house and socialize with real people. On the internet, the worst thing that can happen is an invasion of trolls. 

But honestly, the social media world is horribly important for a writer. How else will we get our name out there, market our book, promote ourselves, and seduce people with our awkwardness? I don’t know about you, but I had this really weird delusion that 1) I wouldn’t have to market myself until the publication day of my book, and 2) even if I didn’t market myself, people would still be interested in my book. Well, true, people MIGHT be interested, but chances of people even finding your book in the first place will be a hell of a lot slimmer if you don’t promote your stuff. I LITERALLY HAD NO IDEA that I had to put in promotional work before my book was even done. God, was I naive, and dumb, but mostly naive. 

And on that note….

2) Hashtags are your friends. Seriously. Use the shit out of them. They are a great way of connecting with other people with similar interests, or finding fellow writers, or potential beta readers and critique partners. I used to hate jumping on my Facebook and seeing people posting a single picture with, no joke, about 30-40 hashtags after it. But now that I’m actively on social media, I totally get it. Granted, the chicks that drowned my FB feed were using really dumb hashtags like “hair,” .... yes...yes you do have hair...good observation. Having said that, there are some really great hashtags out there: #WritingCommunity, #WritersofInstagram, #AmWriting, #NewWriter, to name a few. Don’t be afraid to test these waters and try some out. 

3) You need to be technologically savvy. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. THIS. Honestly, I need a lesson on computers. I have no idea how to create a website, or purchase a domain name. I don’t know the first thing about creating a vlog and posting it on my YouTube channel. I haven’t a clue how to edit videos, and how to format my word documents. And HOW the FUCK do I market my book when IT’S NOT EVEN DONE!? 

Word, Robb Stark, word.

4) You [sometimes] can’t just publish a book and immediately quit your day job. This might not be a shocker to some, but I was really delusional when I first started writing. I figured that as soon as I published my first novel, I could immediately resign from my position at the hospital and become a full-time writer. Well, as nice as that would be, it’s not really realistic, especially when you are relying on your day job for financial stability. The first authors convention I went to, every single author on the panel still had a day job, and to be honest, it blew my mind. I was like, “are...are they doing that on purpose?” Unfortunately, I never got a chance to have a 1-on-1 chat with any of them, but I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that none of them seemed really driven to become a full-time writer. I mean....isn’t that the point for some? It is for me! The idea of being a nurse longer than I need to be is freaking torture, and I want to jump off that ship as soon as possible. But it’s going to take time. I need to remind myself that every day. Unless you are the next Tolkien, chances are it might take some time getting your feet off the ground. And that’s ok! It’s not a race, after all. Primarily, you need to look out for you, even if that means staying with your dead-end job in order to pay the bills. Don’t fret, just keep working by day, writing by night, and conniving during your sleep. Mind you, some people HAVE managed to accomplish the act of quitting their day job, so its not altogether impossible. And really, who doesn’t love a good challenge? 

5) It’s a long ass process. The writing itself can take years. YEARS. I started HBE back in April of 2014, and it’s STILL not done. And when I finally get around to finishing it, I’ll have the joys of editing, re-writes (and re-writes, and re-writes), and recruiting beta readers and critique partners. Depending on how many rounds of betas I want to do, not to mention how long they take to read my work, this can add on several more months to my writing timeline. Then there’s the professional editing. Not only are professional editors sometimes hard to hire in a timely manner, their process of going through your work can take large chunks of time. For this reason, it’s best to look into hiring one about 3-4 months before you are actually ready for them to cover your manuscript in red ink. And depending on which route you take for publishing, you’re going to have to deal with query letters (and waiting), submissions (and waiting), and contracts (and potentially more waiting). Bottom line: it’s not exactly an overnight sort of ordeal. 

6) It can be a bit pricey. Now, this might not apply to everyone (lucky buggers), but it definitely applies to moi, and I know that, for the most part, writers aren’t rich bastards. There are the typical expenses: hiring a professional editor, a book cover artist, and self-publishing. Granted, these are things that TECHNICALLY don’t have to be pricey, but in the long run, you might suffer because you weren’t willing to shill out another dollar. It’s sort of like a tattoo...if you pay for a $50 lion, you’re going to get a $50 lion. Trust me...that shit ain’t pretty.

If you are cheap when it comes to things like the cover and the editing, you’re going to end up with a book that doesn’t sell as well as you’d like. Talk about a bummer. 

Then there are the hidden expenses. These include things like: equipment to vlog (camera, microphone, not to mention an editing program), throwing giveaways for your followers, purchasing a domain name for a website, and *obviously* a computer to write on (unless you like doing long-hand...weirdo...). And while some of these aren’t exactly essential, they are still fairly noteworthy to take into consideration, lest you get the surprise of your life when it’s time to front the writing bill. 

7) Nothing is going to happen overnight. You can’t post your first blog before bedtime and expect to wake up the next morning a brand new internet sensation. You’re setting yourself up for failure and disappointment if you do this. It can take months before you scrounge up even the littlest following, and even if that following is your proud mother, sister, and loyal friend, that’s ok! Use this time to find your writing voice, what you want your theme to be (if you want one at all), and how you want to portray yourself on the internet (whether it’s through blogs, or vlogs, or Twitter, or Instagram, etc). Figure out who your target audience is, and work towards reaching out to them. 

One thing that will help your cause that you should definitely consider is the art of consistency. Post often, whether it’s little writer updates, excerpts from your WIP, or pictures of your work station. Have a playlist for one of your characters? Share it with the world! Have a character inspiration aesthetic? Post that shit! The things you post don’t always have to be writer-oriented, as well. Post things about your fur babies, or what you had for dinner, or about the epic dance battle you just held in your living room. And if you choose to jump into the blogging realm, make sure to pick a day to post, and stick with it. Obviously if that day stops working out for you (especially if you have shift work and don’t have much control over your schedule), let your readers know. But if you skip blogging for weeks at a time, sporadically posting here and there...well...no one likes a flaky blogger. That shit ain’t cool, and leaves everyone disappointed.       

8) Research will be needed. A lot of it. *Eye twitch*. Ok, if you’re a writer, you’re going to know that saying, “write what you know.” I’m going to call bull shit on that one. If we merely wrote what we knew, most of us would be writing about high school, and going to work, and completely mundane things. Uh, hello!? Writing is meant to be an escape from all that, right? I already have to go through the torture of 12 hour shifts being a nurse...what makes you think I want to write about it too? So, unless you live a wicked double life or something, chances are your life and what you know isn’t exactly writing material (no offence). If we simply wrote what we knew, how would we discover the elves of Rivendell, or the witches and wizards of Hogwarts? How would we write about mermaids, and dragons, and zombies, and vampires? Does that mean that I, a female, never get to write about men? Ever? Ok, ok, that’s a fierce exaggeration, but you get the point. 

However, on the flip-side, if you wake up one morning and are suddenly itching to write about a gay vampire during the American Civil War, or about a neurosurgeon that’s also a zombie, or about a police officer suspected of the murder of well-known celebrity, you might want to consider doing some research. If you don’t, chances are, you might come across as ignorant, not to mention offend some people. However, research isn’t simply for the writing process. What genre are you writing in? Do you know a lot about it? What about POV’s? Past vs Present Tense? If you aren’t well-educated on even these types of things, people are going to notice. Joy.

9) Writing isn’t the only *hard* part…and screw anyone that says “writing is fun! And easy!!” ….cue hardcore eye roll.

Seriously, anyone that says this is a freaking liar. Yes, writing is fun, but not ALL the TIME. There are times where it’s hard as fuck, where you have been suffering from Writer’s Block for what seems like an indefinite amount of time, where writing is literally the last thing you want to do. There are times you are going to think you aren’t good enough, or smart enough, or brave enough to write an entire novel, let alone publish it.  You’re going to want to quit a million times, and some days, it’s going to be really hard finding a single reason to keep going. 

And not only that, if you had the expectation that things would get easier after your manuscript is complete...boy, you are in for a rude awakening. After finishing your novel, you’ll have to deal with the repetitive process of editing and drafts till you want to punch yourself in the face. Then there’s the critique partners, beta readers, professional editors, cover designers, agents, contracts, and publishers. Honestly, that’s just to name a few obstacles; I could keep going. You’re going to have to deal with criticism, receiving positive and negative feedback, and not to mention trolls (who have no souls and like making people cry for fun). Depending on which route you take to publish your work, you might lose some control of your novel baby, and won’t get much of a say as you’d like.      

Are we having fun yet??

And there you have it! I hope that these pointers are as enlightening for you as they were for me, and that perhaps I can save you some grief, and hoarse vocal chords (from…you know…screaming with consuming frustration into the abyss). Also, keep in mind that writing is still a great adventure, and honestly, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. But it’s not. It’s hella hard, and takes a special breed of human to be up for the challenge. I applaud you, human! Go you!

And yes, I’m still hoping to throw a vlog out there one of these days :)

With that said, I post new blogs every Thursday, and if there is anything you’d like me to discuss, feel free to message me on here, or tweet me @ScarletteStone

Until next time,

Happy Writing!

[twdmusicboxmystery]

7x12: General Analysis - Rosita, Father Gabriel and Tara

Good morning and Happy Tuesday! So I decided to wait until today to talk about Tara/Rosita/Father Gabriel. Not any particular reason. My post from yesterday was just super long already, and I was exhausted on Sunday night. When I finished with the Richonne stuff, I didn’t want to write anything else. So anyway, I obviously won’t have as much to say about this second story line in the episode, but there are a few things worth mentioning.

People have made the connection more than once about Rosita’s scar being similar to Beth’s. In TTD (which I’ll talk more about tomorrow) they said it’s meant to resemble where Olivia was shot. And I honestly think that makes more sense because Rosita inadvertently got Olivia killed.

That said, this is the first and only time we’ve heard Rosita’s wound referred to as a scar. Tara said it when she tried to give her some ointment to “help her scar.” It’s just interesting to me because lots of the characters have scars but we don’t hear them referred to that way very often. On the other hand, the second Beth was beaten at Grady, before her injuries could even heal enough to be called scars, everyone said she had CB Andrea’s scars. So it felt like they were really drawing attention to it here.

Rosita’s scene with the pus walker at the trailer was, by itself, very useless. She came back later and told Father Gabriel that she’d been out all day looking for guns and not found any. That would have gotten the point across just fine. This scene where she kills a walker and finds only a fake gun was unnecessary. So I’m thinking two things about this. 1) The whole fake gun thing could simply be symbolic of the fact that she failed in her assassination attempt of Negan. 2) I really felt like this was a death omen for Rosita.

The walker she killed was a woman and stature-wise was much larger than Rosita, but she still had dark hair, and stepped on the fake gun. I’m wondering if this was a foreshadowing of Rosita’s death. Plus there’s a glaringly red door here too. 

Rosita yells at Father Gabriel. One thing we talked about in our FB group was, what was Rosita talking about? What she says about Spencer and Olivia dying because she listened to Father Gabriel doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. She still tried to kill Negan, so she didn’t really listen to him. The only thing I can think of is that maybe she had a whole sniper-like thing in mind, and didn’t do that because FG advised her not to. Then, when she pulled the gun on Negan, it was pure instinct, and it all went wrong.

Even that doesn’t make tons of sense, though, because she didn’t even have the bullet until right before Negan showed up and killed Spencer.

So maybe this is something we didn’t see, but I think it’s more likely that Rosita is just angry and looking for someone to blame. (Yet another reason to be annoyed with her.) I think Father Gabriel handles it very well.

This whole conversation between Rosita and FG is probably the most interesting part of this arc. Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

First, let’s notice some scene details:

1) They’re in the church that always reminds us of Beth. 2) There are seven candles lit on the table besides FG. There were seven candles lit around Beth and Daryl in Alone, both in the piano room and at dinner. 3) This scene is a WHOLE lot like the one in 5x16, but I’ll come back to that in a minute.

Rosita: “Eugene would still be here. Olivia would still be alive. Spencer would still be alive. And they’re gone and I’m here because I was stupid enough to listen to you…you don’t know shit about shit.”

FG: “You’re right. I don’t. I said that you weren’t supposed to die, and that you shouldn’t do the thing that you were planning to do because we needed you. Still do. Even a fool like me can see that. It’s easier to be dead. And if it’s my fault you’re alive, well, I’m just gonna have to live with that. I decided to meddle, but I did something I thought was right. And I knew the stakes were VERY high. You can certainly blame me for the fact that you have a life, but after that, what are you going to do with it? How are you going to make what needs to happen, happen? Anything is possible until your heart stops beating. Certainly more than yelling at a fool. (Bold emphasis mine.)

The bolded lines are all lines I feel like could apply to Beth and her situation at Grady. First there’s the "gone” theme. Rosita’s anger does mirror that of Daryl/Maggie/Sasha in Them. Bitterness after losing a loved one. It’s a theme we’ve seen again and again.

The next paragraph could easily apply to Beth returning to stab Dawn with the scissors. She wasn’t supposed to die. She’d obviously done some planning because she hid the scissors in her cast. I didn’t realize before how close a parallel Rosita attempting to assassinate Negan was to Beth stabbing Dawn. The difference, of course, is that Beth was shot, where in this case Olivia died instead of Rosita. And it was on purpose, where Beth’s, somehow, seemed to be an accident.

And that final line was the one that jumped out at me most, about hearts not beating. Of course, even putting Beth aside, it was also present in the name of 7x08: Hearts Still Beating.

I also think it’s interesting that Gabriel keeps referring to himself as the Fool. You could read that as Shakespearean, but there’s also a fool in the Tarot Card deck. I’d have to investigate more to figure out what, if anything, it means, but he refers to himself this way repeatedly, and I think that must be on purpose.

Finally, this scene reminded me a lot of the final scene in 5x16. In that scene, it’s Sasha that yells at Gabriel, and he acts much differently. He’s the one that’s overly emotional and not handling things well. But in that scene he says a lot of things that didn’t make much sense and that we think have to do with Beth being left behind. He and Sasha also fight over a gun and end up shooting and shattering a picture, the subject of which is very Beth-ish. And obviously none of that happened in that scene, but it also took place in a church with candles. So I feel like there were a lot of callbacks here to that scene.

Then Rosita goes to the Hilltop and asks Sasha to help her. Now, while I’m not a huge fan of this plan overall, this was the first time in many episodes that I was somewhat impressed with Rosita. The reason I say that is that she showed here that her motives are pure. She’s not in it for the glory or even for the revenge, at least not for herself. She wants Negan dead for the sake of justice and protecting others. And you can tell that because she’s willing to let Sasha take the shot. She’s not being selfish and wanting to kill him herself. She just wants him dead. That was the first good thought I’ve had about her in a while.

That said, both our ladies here foreshadowed their own deaths, which isn’t good. You’ll remember I thought these two would die in 7x01. Even though I was totally wrong about that, I’ve always said that I don’t think I was wrong about the death omens. If both these ladies die by the end of the season, that will be some not-so-awesome validation for me. I hope not, though. Could be that one will die, both will die, or neither will die. Just no way to tell yet.

I also keep saying that I’m afraid Rosita will get someone else killed. I suppose if it’s just her and Sasha, they’re grown ups and have both accepted that possible outcome. It’s worth it to them to try and take out Negan, and I can respect that. If anyone else dies because of this attempt, that will piss me off. And despite what I just said, if Sasha dies and Rosita doesn’t, I’m gonna be even less impressed with Rosita as a character. But that remains to be seen.

Okay, quick word on Tara. The only major thing that jumped out at me about Tara’s scenes (aside from Judith’s innate cuteness) was that she mentioned Denise. I don’t know if Denise has been mentioned by name since her death (I can’t think of a time she has been, though obviously Eugene told Tara what happened to her; we just didn’t hear it.) Still, it’s another example of a relatively minor character being mentioned by name after her death. Beth? Nada.

In fact, both Denise and Glenn were mentioned by name in this episode. So, as I showed above, were Olivia and Spencer. Beth? Nope. Just saying.

It seems, though, that Tara has confessed to Rick, which means we’ll probably be returning to Oceanside soon. Hopefully that bodes good things for TD.

What did everyone else think of these scenes? Anything I missed?