#i honestly have so many pics of glenn

[cosmoseinfeld]

I went through my tumblr archive and wanted to share these forgotten gems

[finalgirlrick]

Wicked Game

Pairing: Maggie x Fem!Reader

Word Count: 1.1k

Warnings: ~suggestive~ towards the end

Summary: A slightly enemies to lovers maggie x fem!reader farm era fic. I'm in love w maggie so this came super easy, I know it's not very popular to write about but w/e!! we all saw those dead city pics. shoutout @weretheones & @normanplusdaryl for encouraging my maggie simpery.

When you first met her, you swore she might’ve hated you. No, you were certain. With her narrow green eyes always fixed on you and a scowl on her face whenever you entered a room, it was hard to have any doubts. It was intimidating. She was intimidating. You were around the same age when you met, the only people in your age bracket holed up in her dad’s farmhouse other than Glenn. 

Her bold attitude captivated both you and Glenn, and you often found yourselves talking about whatever new shocking thing you witnessed her doing when you went on runs together. “Did you see the way she just slapped Shane?” Glenn asked completely baffled. “Yeah, she’s just asking for murder,” you joked holding back a grin. Maggie Greene, she was full of surprises -- and honestly, you wouldn’t mind sticking around to see how many more. 

There was no denying it, she was gorgeous. It wasn’t lost on anyone with her soft brown hair and the big smile that always stopped you in your tracks the rare times you were graced with it, usually when you bought her something on a run that you overheard her saying she needed earlier. And her distinct farmgirl fashion, maybe you wouldn’t have worn any of it, but she always pulled it off. She could pull anything off. 

Slowly, you became more friendly with her, it was inevitable when you were living in close quarters for so long. You eventually realized her earlier stubbornness was just due to being protective over her family and the farm, and you couldn’t blame her for that.  Once the initial awkwardness faded away, you, Glenn, and Maggie started having regular game nights to pass the time. They were full of laughter and chaos, and Herschel would sometimes peer in to remind you “rowdy kids” to get to bed, which only made you all laugh harder. A few times, you noticed the old man bite back a smile, in relief that there was still at least some joy in this new world. 

You loved seeing Maggie get competitive, or when she would try to trick Glenn into making the wrong move, which was more frequent than not. He was always visibly nervous and stammering around her, and you could tell she was using it to her advantage. She would tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, lean forward with her chest - god that was distracting, flash her doe eyes and that smile and he was a goner. You couldn’t blame him either, you always got butterflies whenever she pulled that move. But instead of reacting like him, you would chuckle and you would exchange a knowing glance with her, a new inside joke between you two. You couldn’t be happier to be a part of it. 

One game night, Glenn brought a bottle of wine he had scavenged, making sure to hide it from Herschel. The three of you had your usual nightly routine together, but Glenn started going overboard with the drinking and before you could finish the round of the game you were playing, he was passed out on the floor. “He’s a lightweight, huh,” Maggie giggled. You nodded. 

“So, I guess it’s just you and me now,” she pointed out. “Yeah, sorry about that,” you said with a half-smile, feeling those butterflies creep up on you. Her eyes crinkled when she grinned, “You’re funny.” Much to your surprise, she scooted around closer to you, making sure not to disturb Glenn, who was currently splayed out on the floor beside you. 

You felt like you were going to lose it. You didn’t have many moments alone with her, and this felt like completely new territory. Plus, the feelings you had developed for her didn’t make this any easier. There was no chance she would ever feel the same way, you knew it. You were going to make a fool of yourself and you were consumed with dread. 

“What do ya say we ditch this game?” she asked. You barely made eye contact with her as you replied, “Maybe that’s a good idea.” 

“This might be a good chance to get to know each other too.” The remark made you snap upright and you repeated it back to her. She continued, “Yeah, silly. Don’t you think it’s a good idea since we’re spending so much time together?” You gulped unsure of what to say next. “There’s just not much to know about me,” you scoffed. 

“Pffft, that’s a downright lie. You might be the most interestin’ person in this house.” You felt your cheeks turn pink and prayed that she wouldn’t notice. “Glenn’s interesting,” you said with a shrug, trying to distract from it. She looked over at him, “Yeah, real interestin,” and you broke out in laughter together. 

“Seriously, tell me somethin’ about you. What did you do?”

“I don’t know. I guess I was in school, I didn’t do much,” you sighed. “I was in school for a while too,” she replied moving in closer. Your heart was racing so fast you were starting to think it was dangerous.  “I think we might have more in common than I originally thought,” she whispered. She was making those doe eyes and you had to be going crazy. She couldn’t possibly mean…that, right? And why was she leaning in so close to you? In your bewilderment, you questioned her. She chuckled then, but it was different. It wasn’t like when you exchanged knowing glances when she pulled her moves on Glenn. She was looking straight through you. 

She took a deep breath in and tucked a strand of hair behind your ear, and just like that a wave of heat flushed over your body. Her face was mere inches away from yours now. “Do you like me?” she asked softly, almost embarrassed, a look you never saw on her before. Of course you did, you responded. In more ways than one, but she didn’t have to know about that. 

She nodded and smiled, and you just about jumped when she leaned in and brushed her soft lips against yours. It was a quick, shy kiss - waiting to see how you reacted and you were in so much shock that your mind went blank. But she was so beautiful, and right in front of you, and what the hell - she liked you. So you seized the moment and kissed her back, the movements getting more passionate and desperate by the second, both of your hands moving and grabbing in places they probably shouldn’t have when Glenn could’ve woken up at any second. 

“I didn’t think that was what you meant when you were asking if I liked you,” you admitted after the kiss was broken. “Are you complainin’?” she teased. “No. Of course not,” you giggled and her’s soon followed. 

[twdmusicboxmystery]

in relation to the anonymous hate towards Beth, I think it's a whole, Beth was known for her suicide attempt, twd has many strong female characters and is what is considered "normal". So seeing this "weak" character I think annoyed the audience, personally I think Beth was such a human character because we saw her development on screen, unlike Michonne for example who was already rude from her first appearance. I don't know if Hershel was "judged" for going off drinking and leaving his daughters alone and being "weak" (which to me is also a human action, crying and grieving for your lost loved ones). I feel like male characters are "forgiven" for being human but in this case Beth is punished. 🤷‍♂️

Pasando a otro tema, en el cómic Lori muere cuando el gobernador ataca la prisión. ¿Sabes la razón por la que en la tele tomaron la decisión de matarla en el parto? ¿Y convertir a Beth Judith en la cuidadora principal en el proceso? Sinceramente, creo que querían darle tiempo de pantalla.

En cuanto a las filtraciones de Daryl, prefiero creer que en esas fotos en las que aparece la actriz vestida de monja y Daryl delirando, Daryl está viendo a Beth, no tengo pruebas pero tampoco dudas. Daryl es conocido por sus alucinaciones.

Y finalmente, ¿viste las historias de Instagram de Emily? 🤯

Xoxo

For non-Spanish speakers, here's the translation of the Spanish part:

Moving on to another topic, in the comic Lori dies when the governor attacks the prison. Do you know the reason why on TV they made the decision to kill her in childbirth? And make Beth Judith the primary caretaker in the process? I honestly think they wanted to give her screen time.

As for Daryl's leaks, I prefer to believe that in those photos in which the actress appears dressed as a nun and Daryl delirious, Daryl is seeing Beth, I have no proof but no doubt either. Daryl is known for his hallucinations.

And finally, did you see Emily's Instagram stories?

I agree with what you said about her not being a strong character at the first, and since the audience is used to strong characters, they got a little annoyed. I can see that. But I think that was Gimple's point. A lot of people really would be puddles of goo if the zombie apocalypse truly happened. He wanted to show someone who started out weak but then became very strong. It's the ultimate character arc to go from a place of weakness to a place of strength.

In terms of Lori, they were always remixing things in the show as compared to the comics. The only thing they did 100% the same way was Glenn's death. And that's because it was so iconic. But other than that, they almost never did things the same way because they didn't want the show to be too predictable. They wanted to make it their own, and I'm glad that's the case.

As for Beth, I talked about this a few days ago (HERE). About how from the very beginning Gimple didn't simply make her the babysitter because he didn't know what else to do with her. He did it to foreshadow a future arc that had to do with children, especially kidnapped children, and babies. So, I believe he had major plans for Beth's arc, even back then.

I love the idea of Daryl being delirious in those pics and seeing Beth! I could see that, and it would be super interesting, wouldn't it?

I see most of Emily's stories, but you'd have to be more specific about which one. She posts a lot. 😉

Thanks for all your thoughts, Nonny. Xoxo! ☔️💕

[1d-discourseoftheday]

💙 Tues 5 Jan ‘21 💚

Is today's biggest story really a pair of socks I mean WHY NOT am I right, that may as well happen! With impeccable timing, as the fandom and the world went bananas about Ho-livia WildStyle (a drag queen name for the ages right there), the first of the limited edition TPWK socks that people ordered basically on blind faith (you fully couldn't tell what they were going to look like at all on the website, and now we know why lmao) have arrived with a bang: they seemed to come with either blue or pink hearts, but in fact it turns out you get one of two color combos, either pink and white or, uh: BLUE AND GREEN HEARTS. I'm not one to carry on about like jeans and a green shirt or what have you but this is a CHOICE, and if the antis don't have performative burnings of their evil larrie merch honestly WHAT is the POINT; the resale market of the limited edition socks is already booming though so there's always that option, if either side can bear to conduct business across the divide. My question is, did they really time it to play out this precisely on purpose? Unlikely tbh, but if that's a thing they're capable of I have some THOUGHTS about the way other Harry merch takes like 4 months to arrive...

Larrie socks aside however, the real discourse continues to be about you-know-what, with the players out there fanning the flames wildly. There's too much nonsense to bother with it all (the quoted sources in the articles directly contradicting each other's stories also makes it difficult) so let's just... *spins wheel*....okay I landed on 'tabloids say Harry's wedding speech talked about his girlfriend Olivia' here goes. Sjksdfjks WHY would you be talking about your girlfriend of three weeks in a speech for your close friends' wedding, OMG, how uncomfortable and inappropriate is that?? Imagine if any of this were real, that Harry ('I'd take my time and make sure a thing was serious before telling people about it', end quote, I mean that's ALSO a stunt quote (oh the layers) but just pointing out that it's contradictory) starts dating his co-worker who just got out of a huge relationship and is also a famous person with presumably an interest in privacy, and immediately the two of you get to work setting up a big reveal to happen right away (even in a weird fantasy world where any of this is real the possibility that JEFF AZOFF'S WEDDING had the paps present for any other reason than to do EXACTLY what they were told is flat impossible- what pap or celeb outlet can afford to be on Jeff's bad list?!) and then he casually writes her into his speech (a guy who's so anxious and shy about public speaking and what to say that he begs people to write speeches for him and practices endlessly) uh huh, sure Jan. There are so many things about this that are ludicrous, but more to the point, none of the things they're saying hold up to scrutiny any better than this. There just isn't any point in taking them that seriously though; Harry is a closeted artist and, just like the many queer artists that came before him who he repeatedly reminds us are his icons, he both lets us know all day every day in a million ways that he's queer, and also plays the industry game and winkingly gives the press their Straight Guy Harry fodder. You don't have to like it, or indeed anything at all in this world, but people do need to accept that whether they like it or not is neither the point nor anyone (including Harry)'s responsibility to respond to or do anything about.

Like I said I can't cover every detail but! I always have a little space for the absurd: today, our best entrant is the possibility that the whole wedding we saw was a sham– fans ask, was this public spectacle Jeff and Glenne's actual wedding? Listen if anyone would be up for it it would be this crew, and if they did stage it I'm sure they had a good laugh! Suspicion has been cast on Glenne's dress (allegedly an untailored 2018 off the rack number), the small guest list (wouldn't they just wait and have a huge event?), and the fact that they invited paps there at all. It would make the no explanation robe pics EVEN FUNNIER though if you imagine that was for our benefit but left totally unadressed (undressed). ANYWAY Don't Worry Darling filming is back in business and Harry was papped some more today, out for a casual not at all pap walk hike with a work associate and multiple items of his own merch (including an unreleased hoodie design.) On the topic of DWD, sometimes a different perspective can be interesting-- for example considering whether Harry is the point of all this at all? Or is he but a bit player in the real DWD publicity drama, an elaborate and very public dramatic reconciliation between Olivia and her ex husband? Either way, he's neither a clueless dupe, a helpless pawn, or anyone's 'boy toy', so please: can we rein in the hand wringing and pointless Olivia bashing a bit?

Let's talk about something else shall we? For example! Liam's setlist, just released for the upcoming LP Show Act 4. Look at that song selection! Fireproof! Strong!! Through The Dark!! More exciting 1D faves! Plus Slow and Home With You off his EP, NICE, singles and more, it looks awesome. The Hugo Man fragrance relaunch is less exciting, featuring the dopiest possible articles full of chat about his skin care routine (oh shucks I'm just  manly man, I don't have one at all... *names two products and refers to 'multiple moisturizers'*), trademark accidental candor (“I’m quite tired!”), and of course trying to describe a fragrance, always an entertaining gymnastics (“every time I spray it, it kind of takes me back to being on that rooftop in Berlin”), but also there are manly new pics of Lia.

A new song Niall co-wrote is coming out! The JC Stewart song, Break My Heart, will be out this Fri! Charlie Lightening posted pics from a year ago on the Walls music video set, featuring an intent Louis in the sun (and fashion voter underrated excellent Looks), and Louis commented on Dave Allen's post (“top man!”)-- the famous boxer is offering to help friends through lockdown by facetiming 3or 4 people a day for home workouts, damn, and also aww. That shitty Doncaster secondary school turned out some really sweet dudes, against all odds tbh. With Los Angeles experiencing some of the worst COVID surges we've seen since the beginning of the pandemic, Grammys organizers have elected to postpone the (already limited) ceremony. Originally scheduled for Jan 31 it is now TBA, tentatively for March. Harry's stalker, who menaced him in and near his London home in 2019, is being charged with violating his restraining order by attempting to contact Harry via social media, Global Fund for Women thanked Harry for donating, and HLDaily and other accounts were suspended for posting pap pics, always a risk, but one trick potato Jeff is on the job; HSD is back up and running, cause they can't have a proper stunt season without their most faithful mouthpieces. Niall continues to vote for himself on twitter threads about what to listen to in the New Year.

[ultimatebethylficlist]

Veteran Author of The Month: September 2021

The featured veteran author for September is a well-known and beloved name in the fandom, @rckyfrk !

Rckyfrk can be found on AO3 and FFN under the same penname.

When asked what got her into Bethyl and what the fandom means to her, she said:

I did not start watching TWD until late into Season 3. I don’t do well with horror. My husband would watch and I would just read a book in our bedroom or something. Well, one fateful night, I needed to get some work done on my laptop and didn’t feel like sitting in bed to get it finished, so I just stayed in the living room (our house was teeny tiny - there weren’t a lot of other places to go), and I turned so I wasn’t looking at the TV, plugged in my headphones, and got to work. Well, I glanced over and there was the wonder that is Daryl Dixon gracing my screen. I was instantly intrigued. (I believe my exact words were, “Who is that? What is he...DON’T DO THAT THERE’S ZOMBIES THERE!” and I was instantly hooked. Dammit. I found that as long as I could watch some of the behind the scenes stuff on how they make the walkers, it took some of the horror out of it and I could just focus on the artistry of all the makeup and stuff. Season 4 premiere, we had some friends come over for a “watching party,” (remember those?) and I was actually up getting refills for everyone (being the good hostess that I am) so I completely missed the hug in Beth’s cell and when I came back into the room, NO ONE THOUGHT THAT WAS IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO TELL ME ABOUT. (I thought they were my friends…) So I really didn’t start *shipping* Bethyl until “Alone.” I mean, I saw how close they were getting during “Still,” but I guess I didn’t realize what I was really seeing, you know? (Keep in mind, I was still a relatively new fan and had missed most of Season 3 and THE HUG.) Anyway, I couldn’t stand waiting for the next week to find out what happened to Beth, and thus began the ONLY time I have EVER looked for spoilers. That’s how I happened upon this crazy thing called “fan fiction,” (I honestly had never known such a thing existed before that fateful search.) I got to know some of the Bethyl writers, and someone suggested joining tumblr and writing my own stories, and the rest is history. Bethyl is the only pairing I’ve actually, actively shipped, before or after. The only two characters I’ve invested time in. The only two I’ve cried over (just ask @jbird9...hubs has seen me go through all kinds of emotions over these two). My boys can identify Beth and Daryl (they’ve NEVER seen an episode, not even a commercial for TWD, but recognize them from pics I’ve shown them.) The Bethyl fandom has brought me to meet some wonderful people, who probably know me better than members of my actual family. This fandom has been such a bright spot in my life, and has been so supportive even when the well has been dry for years (at least as far as new content from the show). I love you guys.

For her personal fic rec list, she recommends:

(Ugh. I’m really hesitant to come up with personal lists because I’ve read SO MANY WONDERFUL STORIES and I don’t want to leave any of them out, but I also know my brain and I’m not always the best at recalling names and places when I need to. I do want to give some love to:)

@gneebee [AO3] Love’s Highway and One Cold Night live in my head rent free

@piper1016 (basically anything she’s written) [AO3]

@inkinmytea (Audriss) [AO3] especially By Any Other Name

These ladies have been super supportive of my writing, and I can’t thank them enough.

I also really miss Pussyfoot by SaraiVe

is this how you say hello (in the zombie apocalypse) by the queen conquers (dastardly_dame)

Also, @leftmywingshome [AO3]

and @majicmarker​ [AO3] who not only write amazing Bethyl stories, but have their own original work published, all of which I strongly recommend reading.

There’s about a gazillion other stories that I’d like to recommend, but we’d be here all day if I listed them all. PLEASE don’t feel left out or disheartened if I didn’t pull your name from the deep recesses of my brain. I swear I’m not doing it on purpose. There are so many gifted writers in this fandom - we are SO lucky! - and I truly do appreciate @ultimatebethylficlist​ for recognizing the veterans and newbies equally.

Rckyfrk’s Works & Personal Thoughts:

Lady in Red and Man in Black Summary: It's finally the big day, Maggie and Glenn's wedding day. Beth is maid of honor, Daryl is the best man. - This started as a one-shot/prompt for Bethyl Week on Tumblr, but has evolved into becoming a full-sized story. Thoughts: I miss these babies. I had to take a break to try and get Terms and Conditions going because they are so drastically different from it, but now it’s been so long I almost have to get T & C out of my system before I can get my head back in the syrupy sweetness. Lady in Red started as a prompt (technically two) WAY back in the day. We’re talking back in the summer of 2014. The first two chapters received such a supportive response that it took on a life of its own, but it was solely from Beth’s POV, and I had Daryl in my head basically screaming to be heard, so Man in Black made its way in. The goal is to get MiB caught up with LiR, then write them simultaneously (mainly so no one knows what will be coming next and the reader gets to decide which “side” to read first).

Terms and Conditions Summary: It was Beth's first time in Atlanta by herself when the world decided to end. When she lost her way home, she winds up meeting a crossbow-toting man with steel blue eyes and a smile that gives her chills. This is not your typical Bethyl story - imagine if Daryl were more like Merle. Thoughts: I think this is the darkest thing I’ve written (and really, it’s not even that dark). I had this idea in my head for Daryl to be a lot more like Merle and all these little scenarios kept popping into my head of Beth “taming the beast,” and having them slowly fall in love despite how they met and him being a total jerk - at least in the beginning. I think there’s only going to be a couple more chapters of this one, I just need to buckle down and write them. Maybe that’s why I’m dragging my feet to do it. 

And once upon a time, I was writing a non-Bethyl story called “Summer of Learning,” which is actually kind of misleading. Back to that summer of 2014, where I was going through some fandom drama and was about to give up writing and tumblr all together when this group of Norman fans (we called ourselves his Harem...I miss you @basswipe and @unicorns-and-myblacksoul) came along and included me into their shenanigans. Anyway, they gave me the prompt “Imagine Sean Patrick Flanery is your dad’s best friend and teaches you everything there is to know about sex.” In the story, the main character’s parents are Norman and Emily, so it’s...Bethyl adjacent?

[watchmegetobsessed]

Chemistry - Shawn Mendes

im pretty productive, bringing something new almost every day lol  thanks for the request on this one for the anon! hope this lives up to your expectations!

masterlist

A warning knock makes you jump, snapping your head towards the door.

“Yeah?” you call out holding the robe tighter on your body as an assistant pops her head inside with a warm smile on her round face.

“Can we start in ten?” she kindly asks, but there is some mild instancy in her tone and you can’t blame her. You’ve been really taking your time getting ready, but you still don’t feel like you are able to walk out. It’s unknown why you even agreed to do this in the first place and now you are chickening out.

“Um…” You rush to the door hitting a more confidential tone as you continue. “Ca-Can you please get Shawn for me?”

“Is something wrong?” she asks, genuine concern in her green eyes as she holds her clipboard to her chest.

“No!” you reply in an instant probably sounding crazy. “No, I just… I have to talk to him. Can you please tell him to come here? We can start after I talked to him.” You force a smile to your lips that most likely looks frightening at the moment, but she nods her head before backing out of your dressing room closing the door behind her.

You lean your back against the door as you cross your arms on your chest. It’s not even that cold in there but you have chills and your fingers are so cold you know Shawn will complain about them so you dig them under your arms to warm them up a bit. You start chewing on your lower lip when you realize you shouldn’t make it swollen before the shoot so you quickly stop yourself.

Another knock is heard on the door behind you and you immediately open it, revealing your concerned boyfriend who is wearing a robe matching yours.

“What’s wrong? Is everything alright?” he bombs you with his questions, but you just grab onto him and pull him into the room shutting the door closed.

“I-I don’t think I can do this,” you jabber, a wave of anxiety washing over you and making you sweat.

“What? Why? What happened?” Shawn is out of his mind, not bearing to see you like this. He hasn’t seen this side of you too often, you like to appear as collected and focused as possible, being the supportive person, but right now you are just losing it.

When Shawn first presented you the idea of you and him having a joined shoot for Calvin Klein for their new campaign you were unsure about it, but he easily talked you into it. You knew it would be iconic and that you would be pretty much the first “non-celebrity” face for the brand, posing with your insanely hot boyfriend in nothing else but your underwear. It seemed like a pretty good idea, but right now you want nothing else than to run out of the building, don’t stop until you get home and hide under the safety of your covers. Under the robe you only have your CK panties on and nothing else. You somehow agreed to not wearing anything on the top, covering yourself with props, your arm or Shawn himself. In your mind it looked cool, but in reality going out and pose only in your panties in front of the camera and about twenty people working on the set is just scaring the shit out of you.

“I’m uh… I just don’t feel comfortable. I don’t think I should be doing this.” You shake your head, feeling your throat closing up. Shawn steps closer and cups your face in his warm hands, forcing you to look him in the eyes.

“Baby, calm down. Everything is fine, just breathe.” You sync your breathing with his as you keep eye-contact with him, feeling your body loosening up a bit. “Good, you are doing amazing. Now tell me, what made you panic?”

His thumbs run across your cheeks before his hands drop and take yours, lacing your fingers together.

“I just don’t feel like I’m the best person to appear in such a huge thing. I mean, I’m nobody compared to the people who has worked with this brand.”

“First of all that’s bullshit,” he declares immediately. “No one is more than anyone. Second, you are the best person because they wanted a couple and if you haven’t known already, you are my girlfriend so I wouldn’t be able to do it with anyone else.”

You can’t help the urge to roll your eyes at him. He is twisting your words out.

“But I’m not a celebrity, why would people want to look at me on the posters and stuff?”

“Baby, have you seen your killer body? Anyone would love to look at it all day long, especially me,” he scoffs making you smile and blush.

“You don’t need a photoshoot and a national ad campaign to see it,” you mumble under your breath.

“I know, but this is an amazing way to show everyone what they are missing,” he jokes kissing your cheek shortly. “But seriously. They chose us because they want the pictures to be real and they love the chemistry we have on photos.”

You can’t argue with that. Since your first appearance together out at a restaurant a year ago you managed to have quite a lot cute paparazzi photos taken of you. It’s not like you’ve been trying hard to look so in love and happy, it’s the way life has been with Shawn and they just captured those little moments. If you were responsible for finding a couple that would give real emotions away in a shoot you’d choose you and Shawn too.

“If you don’t want to do it we can still cancel. But I think you can do it, let’s just go out, be ourselves and let them capture whatever they want. Just try to imagine that I’m the only one there, okay?”

“If we’d be alone that would turn into something else,” you comment with a knowing look, earning an amused laugh from him.

“Keep your dirty thoughts to yourself for a few hours, okay?” Leaning down he kisses your lips shortly before looking into your eyes once again. “So, are we okay? Can you do it?”

“I guess,” you answer unsurely, but a lot more calmly now.

The set is pretty minimalistic, a king sized bed with crispy white sheets and a white backdrop that has a slight grey tone to it setting a nice difference between the sheets and itself. Shawn doesn’t let go of your hand as you walk out and adjust to the setting. The photographer, Glen introduces himself kindly and you feel relieved he is all about making you as comfortable as possible.

“I know this is pretty new and strange for you, I want to make it as pleasant for you as possible,” he tells you in a confidential voice. “If you don’t feel comfortable with anything please just let us know.”

“Thank you,” you breathe out thankfully.

You have a short session on the bed, just Glen showing around what he had in mind, showing the angles and settings he imagined and what makes you feel secure is that he actually wants input from you and Shawn. You do a couple of shots with the robe on to figure out the best ways to cover your nudity in different poses and it assures you it won’t turn into something too erotic.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let the world see what I see in the bedroom,” Shawn murmurs into your ear as he takes his robe off leaving him in a pair of white boxers.

“Shut up,” you chuckle as you untie yours and with the help of an assistant you take it off while covering yourself at the same time. You won’t just go around and be totally topless with a bunch of strangers around you, that’s just not happening.

“Okay, let’s start with what we talked about, but honestly, do whatever feels right and I’ll work with it.” Glen shuffles to the left and right a bit while you make yourself comfortable on the bed holding the sheets to your chest. Your fingers hold onto the fabric a bit too tight and Shawn notices as he shifts behind you, putting an arm around your waist.

“It’s okay, baby. You look incredibly hot.” His breath is tickling your neck and when he presses a soft kiss behind your ear you can’t help but giggle at the feeling.

“That’s perfect!” Glen beams and you realize he has already started shooting without you even noticing.

“See, we are doing just fine,” Shawn smiles at you and you finally give in and do what was told. Just be you.

It doesn’t take too long before you completely forget about your surrounding and put all your focus on Shawn. It’s really not too different from a typical morning when you are lazily messing around in the bed, you just have your hair and makeup perfectly done and a guy shooting pics of you relentlessly. Basically all possible poses appear on the photos. Shawn hugging you from behind, his arms covering your chest, then you pressing yourself against him, looking over your shoulder, his hands on your bare back. The same pose just the two of you kissing passionately. Right after this Shawn throws himself down pulling you with him, making you laugh as his arms curl around your body. Glen is running around the bed, snapping photos from different angles as you rest your head on his chest, curled up by his side.

It goes like this for about an entire hour. The number of kisses is uncountable, while the number of photos taken is probably around a million. Luckily you and Shawn managed to move in sync and keep yourself covered enough the whole time, but you can tell some pictures are still quite steamy, but you just couldn’t help yourself.

“Amazing, you guys did such a great job!” Glen cheers as you finally put your robe on. “I knew it would turn out wonderful, your chemistry really is the best.”

“It’s easy if you have the right woman with you,” Shawn grins down at you making your blush immediately as you hug his waist with one arm.

You check out the raw photos together and you totally see why Glenn is so happy about the outcome. They look amazing, he managed to capture so many intimate moment that are just so real and honest, it’s quite the aesthetic.

“So, are you ready to see these back on billboards?” Shawn teases you as Glen shows you his personal favorites from the shoot that will most likely be featured in the final campaign photos. One is from when he was hugging you behind, you are the only one looking at the camera as Shawn’s eyes are glued to your face, his strong arms covering your chest while your hands are on his arms. Another one is one of the steamier ones, you are lying on top of him and it was captured right before your lips met for a kiss, eyes already closed, lust all over your faces. You love them. All of them.

Turning to Shawn you gift him with a wide smile.

“I’m more than ready,” you happily state making him smile down at you proudly.

“That’s my girl.”

[faerune]

daryl/tess let’s go chop chop

General:

Rate the Ship -   Awful | Ew | No pics pls | I’m not comfortable | Alright | I like it! | Got Pics? | Let’s do it! | Why is this not getting more attention?! | The OTP to rule all other OTPs How long will they last? - The rest of their lives~ How quickly did/will they fall in love? - It takes a long time and an even longer time to admit to it but it’s worth it in the end.  How was their first kiss? - Tentative. Needy. Breathless. Held back.

Wedding:

Who proposed? - Daryl! Tess is pretty cool and happy living together and being Official but Daryl wants to put a ring on it.  Who is the best man/men? - Well. RIck or Glenn if they were still around :/ But really Daryl doesn’t want anyone at the “wedding”. Carol if he had to pick <3 Who is the braid’s maid(s)? - Maggie! Who did the most planning? - The extent of the planning is Daryl finding rings for them out on a run and the two of them being like....okay so we’re not having a wedding right? Because Daryl WILL hand out earplugs and tell people to mind their business. Who stressed the most? - Daryl. HE’S SO nervous to propose. It takes him some time to work up to it. How fancy was the ceremony? - It’s literally just them in bed exchanging rings and being like okay! we’re married! | Back of a pickup truck | 2 | 3 | 4 | Normal Church Wedding | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Kate and William wish they were this big Who was specifically not invited to the wedding? - EVERYONE lmao. Carol is McFuckin Pissed.

Sex:

Who is on top? - Most of the time Tess takes the lead! They also love cowgirl sooo... Who is the one to instigate things? - Tess is usually the one to outwardly initiate it but she’s good at reading his subtle clues that he wants to hop to it. It takes Daryl feeling really comfortable like in their home usually for him to initiate things. How healthy is their sex life? - Barely touch themselves let alone each other | 2 | 3 | 4 | Once a couple weeks, nothing overboard | 6 | 7 | 8 (They’re Needy but they can control themselves.) | 9 | They are humping each other on the couch right now How kinky are they? - Straight missionary with the lights off | 2 | 3 | 4 | Might try some butt stuff and toys | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Don’t go into the sex dungeon without a horse’s head How long do they normally last? - At first, Daryl is pretty Quick much to his irritation but then he camps out with his head between Tess’ thighs for like an hour. Over time, he’s about to last longer they’re both just touch-starved and haven’t been with anyone else in a long time. Do they make sure each person gets an equal amount of orgasms? - Daryl usually gets 2 because he gets going again when he eats Tess out after the first time. Tess is usually clocking in around 3 as well. Daryl’s annoying about making her come. How rough are they in bed? - Softer than a butterfly on the back of a bunny | 2 | 3 (They can get a little desperate rough but it’s always tender and their dirty talk is sweet nothings and praise.) | 4 | The bed’s shaking and squeaking every time | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Their dirty talk is so vulgar it’d make Dwayne Johnson blush. Also, the wall’s so weak it could collapse the next time they do it. How much cuddling/snuggling do they do? - No touching after sex | 2 | 3  4 | A little spooning at night, or on the couch, but not in public | 6 | 7 | 8 (very affectionate but 99% never in public) | 9 | They snuggle and kiss more often than a teen couple on their fifth date to a pillow factory 

Children:

How many children will they have naturally? - One for right now. How many children will they adopt? - One if we’re going with canon Lydia! Who gets stuck with the most diapers? - Daryl Who is the stricter parent? - Tess Who stops the kid(s) from doing dangerous stunts after school? - Tess Who remembers to pack the lunch(es)? - Tess Who is the more loved parent? - Daryl Who is more likely to attend the PTA meetings? - Tess (but Daryl sometimes) Who cried the most at graduation? - Tess Who is more likely to bail the child(ren) out of trouble with the law? - Daryl

Cooking:

Who does the most cooking? - Tess Who is the most picky in their food choice? - Tess. Please, Daryl stop trying to make her eat weird things. Who does the grocery shopping? - Tess! Since she cooks and knows what she needs for recipes. Occasionally she’ll send Daryl with a list. How often do they bake desserts? - Not very often! They both like hearty meals. Are they more of a meat lover or a salad eater? - Daryl is obviously more of the meat eater but Tess is pretty balanced! She’s happy with a salad or meat depending on her mood. Daryl calls it rabbit food. Who is more likely to surprise the other(s) with an anniversary dinner? - Daryl! He makes her favorite food and sets up a nice candle lit dinner in their dining room. He just wants to be Good to her and it seems like something Rick or Glenn would do so. Honestly, Tess just loves it because he thought of her. Who is more likely to suggest going out? - Tess! Who is more likely to burn the house down accidently while cooking? - Daryl lmao

Chores:

Who cleans the room? - Tess! Daryl is messy and it drives her nuts. Who is really against chores? - Neither of them. They both pull their weight. Who cleans up after the pets? - Daryl. Who is more likely to sweep everything under the rug? - Daryl klgskdgj. Who stresses the most when guests are coming over? - Tess! Daryl just doesn’t want people over if it’s not their close friends. Who found a dollar between the couch cushions while cleaning? - Daryl. He just puts it back it’s not like they need it anymore.

Misc:

Who takes the longer showers/baths? - Tess....she loooooves showers. They’re her happy place. A lot of the time she gets Daryl to join her~ Even just nonsexually that’s her favorite time. Who takes the dog out for a walk? - Daryl! How often do they decorate the room/house for the holidays? - They start when they have kids! Both of them don’t have very good memories of the holidays but they make some great memories with their family. What are their goals for the relationship? - Be happy, be safe, raise a family.  Who is most likely to sleep till noon? - Tess but Daryl’s kinda reluctant to get up in the mornings too. Who plays the most pranks? - Neither tbh. Maybe Tess but super mild ones that won’t spook him because everyone has PTSD at this point no sense in being a dick.

[neverkissandblog]

Getting rid of it all. Or at least most of it.

I bet you thought I’d write once and then you wouldn’t see anything for a couple years, right? Yeah, me too, honestly. Sitting down to actually do this is hard. It’s silly that doing something that makes me feel better, helps me organize my thoughts, is just hard to DO. 

That’s true with a lot of things. I’ve been thinking lately that the reason that I bought a small house was because I wanted to keep my life simple. I don’t want to accumulate a bunch of junk. Yet, when I moved, I moved with the same boxes that I hadn’t opened in the last four moves and that I don’t even really know what lurks inside some of them. 

Letting it go

I’ve decided I’m going to start going through the stuff I don’t use and selling what I can, donating what I can’t sell, and then throwing out what’s left. Last night I pulled up the first box from the basement. 

It’s no joke when I say this thing weighed 50 pounds. I opened the top and I knew the basics of what I’d find: yearbooks, photo albums, school mementos. Yep, it was all there. I knew that this box would be two basic piles, “toss” or “keep.” And I knew that I wanted the “keep” pile to be small. 

I picked up those yearbooks and immediately set them aside. There were nine hardbound yearbooks: 2 from college, 4 from high school, 3 from the K-12 school we attended in Oklahoma during my junior high years, and one saddle stitched little one from eighth grade, when we moved to Kansas. Those things probably made up 2/3 of the weight in the box and I’ve looked at them, I would guess five times in more than twenty years. I put them in a stack and said, “I will deal with you last.” (And then I promptly asked on Facebook what people have done with theirs.) Even in letting go of all of this, I still felt like I needed permission to let it go. To make sure it made sense. In the end, they went in the trash, as I knew they would. 

The next thing I picked up was the album from my sorority years. I don’t talk much about being in a sorority because there are a lot of preconceived notions and judgements that people will make about that. I’ll write about that another time. The album spanned the years from when I pledged the sorority at 18 to when I graduated at 22, already engaged to be married. I allowed myself to look at things, but not dwell. The album was decorated with floral fabric and honestly, it was pretty tacky, in an endearing sort of way. I’d kept every door decoration from every themed party I’d ever attended in college, and added party pics from every party. There were letters from secret gift-givers, pressed flowers and cards with heart-felt wishes. There were letters, notes and pictures of me with a person who I grew to despise by my senior year, but who outwardly, I was supposed to like. (Yeah, I know...weird.) Mostly, I just wanted a few photos and I knew which ones when I saw them. I kept the ones that meant something and without a second thought put the rest of it in the “toss” pile. If I hesitated, I put it in the “keep” pile because I knew I’d go through it again at the end. And in the end, I tossed a few more.

The thing about junk

It all looked so silly now, but so much of it was important to me. But that’s the thing about stuff, or junk, really. It may be important in the moment, but that importance is fleeting. There’s a feeling there, but keeping the thing, doesn’t mean you keep the feeling. 

After that, I started picking out random junk that was just stacked inside. My ID badge from working at The Anthony Downs. (Toss.) A school project with a typed paper and cassette tape, where the assignment was to interview someone who had lived through the Great Depression. (Keep) I interviewed my best friends’ grandpa, so I set aside the paper and the cassette tape for them. I had to laugh at the parallel of my niece calling me a few days ago because she needed to interview someone who’d been alive during 9/11. She chose me because her mom had only been a kid. I couldn’t interview Glenn, my stepdad, for mine because he’d been a little kid during the Depression. It all comes full circle, I guess. 

There were also the photos I’d saved from photography class. (Mostly tossed.) My senior memory project from my senior year of high school. (Toss.) My senior project from a college class. (Toss.) All of my feature writing assignments, a lot of my assignments from my news writing classes. (Toss.) I laughed that I’d kept all of this stuff for a career I didn’t end up going into, journalism, which ended up being for the better. That crushed me at the time. 

Why do we keep all of this stuff that weighs us down? I suppose I kept it all because I knew it would be painful to go through. (It wasn’t as bad as I thought.) And I did find a gem in there, something that helps me with something I’m going through now. 

The Prize

Lying at the bottom of the box, in that spiky cursive I would recognize anywhere, was a letter from my mom. She sent it to me at a really low point in my life when I thought I was going to have to stop going to college, because we were flat broke and I had lost all of my grants, amounting to $3000 for each of the next two school years. Here’s what her letter said, 

“Dear Babydoll, I just thought of something, if you can’t get the Pell Grant for school, not to worry. I figured the $3000 is only $250 a month and Glenny and I can do that standing on our heads. [This was a convenient lie. They couldn’t.] We’ll put off buying some disposable junk for a little while longer, that’s all.

“We have a nice home and our furniture is good enough. I can’t think of a thing we really need. So don’t worry about money. Me and Glenn want you to finish school FIRST. Then maybe we’ll buy ‘junk’. Everything, Love, is temporary in life. Especially junk. So don’t be upset about money. You’ll work hard too and we’ll all come up with it. And we’ll love doing it. When you have your education and you are doing well, help your sisters’ children, that’s all. And stop worrying for now. We’ll do it. You’ll feel better when you get a job. Then you’ll feel like you are doing something too. In the meantime, keep your long term goal, your degree, in mind and don’t worry about the money. That’s our responsibility.” 

I finished college. I got the job. Today in many ways, I’m doing better than she was back then. (She was only a few years older than I am now when she wrote that letter.) Along the way, having long forgotten about the letter, I helped out. In as many ways as I could. I hope it’s been enough. 

My mom and I today have a difficult relationship. Years have passed. She’s not the same woman she was then and I’m no longer looking at her through the eyes of a child or a young woman. Reading that letter reminds me of who she was and that once she sacrificed so that my life could improve.

Digging out that box was an exercise in getting rid of the junk. The junk that mom reminded me was never the important part. 

[superleeleehipster]

Why do I ship Caryl?

So this wasn’t something I was planning to write, but after seeing this question come up time and time again, I finally decided to entertain it and meditate over it. Because honestly, this question is more relevant now more than ever:

Why do I ship Caryl?

This person’s comment that I saw on another post asked what I think is a genuine question nowadays, and that is “why does Caryl need to be in love? Everyone knows they have a special bond and they would kill for each other. Why does it need to be romantic?” They weren’t hateful, or spiteful, or saying that this other ship makes more sense. They were just curious. 

It’s an even more relevant question now because of Melissa’s recent interview and what she said about Carzekiel and Caryl. She basically stated that Caryl is more important than romance, and they are arguably the person they’re closest with, but it is what it is. And she went on to point out that it’s been proven that she and Ezekiel are happy, and Daryl is happy for her. 

Side note: I’m not bothered by what she said about the two b/c I can understand her point of view. She’s tired of being asked the same damn Caryl question over and over again, it’s been going on since season 2 and only vamped up at the start of season 5. She knows about the shipping wars, she knows fans can get riled up over her’s and Norman’s responses over this question, and she’s tired of answering it b/c there’s nothing left to answer (and I’m sure she’s tired of the hate that happens within the fandom, as well as what’s directed at her and norman). Plus, as an actor, I’m sure it bothers her that some people are disregarding/diminishing the Carzekiel bond b/c she’s put her heart into that role. She can’t control the writing, and her job is to follow the script and play her part, which she has, and I’m sure she is proud of what she’s done this filming season. So I’m sure it hurts her to know that ppl are writing off Carzekiel as more of a one sided relationship b/c that’s her hard work. She wants ppl to support her work, no matter how shitty it is, and I get that. 

So the question remains, why do I ship Caryl?

I decided to really think on this question and give it a meaningful answer instead of what I usually talk about. So pushing aside all the superficial reasons or reasons that are just on the surface, why do I want them to be together? For one thing, it’s only natural for us humans to categorize things into groups. We do it all the time, even if we’re not thinking about it. Like for me, I put all the shirts and pants and sports bras I use for working out in one drawer, while I’ll put my pajama pants and shirts in a separate drawer. Then I’ll put my underwear, normal bras, and socks in another, etc. We also categorize people, so clicks for example, or how I work in this department while these people work in this department. It’s just human nature to categorize things. Personally, I think that is also the driving reason as to why people start to ship characters on shows, or at the very least debate if “these two will get together” because we like to put things into groups. Now I do understand that there are people who don’t ship at all, and that’s fine. In fact, that commenter was probably one of those people who didn’t understand shipping, and that’s okay. They’re just there for the story and entertainment. 

But aside from the natural urge to think “will they/won’t they”, for me I officially began my shipping in season 3 after Carol flirted with Daryl on the bus, though I know many folks began during season 2, and rightfully so. To me, I think part of it was the natural chemistry between Daryl and Carol. It was one of those magical moments you only see once in a blue moon, when not even the writers expected it, but it came to light because of two great actors who caught each other’s wavelength immediately. That kind of chemistry you couldn’t help but want romance to happen because you know it would be explosive, a rarity when it comes to shows nowadays because things have become so predictable. And most actors/tv couples don’t have the amount of chemistry that Melissa and Norman do. The only other characters I can think of who have that chemistry is Jaime and Claire from Outlander, and Mulder and Scully from The X Files... so there's really not that many couples with that kind of electricity between them on tv.

I also wanted Caryl to happen because, to me, it’s the ultimate romantic trope. You have two people who had been abused and beaten for most of their lives, only to find someone who genuinely understands that because it happened to them too. They leaned on each other, whether purposefully or not, and were able to positively influence one another to become better, more confident people. And it was amazing, especially looking at Daryl’s evolution, to see these two people open up and allow themselves to receive comfort, understanding, and love from someone else. Daryl did not like being touched, it was obvious in season 2 when he flinched away from Carol. Now, he on the regular puts an arm around her, and is more than happy to receive her hugs as well as reciprocate them. To me, that’s incredibly beautiful to see two people with similar backgrounds come together like that. And I think it would be the ultimate ‘fuck you’ to everyone who had hurt them to have them fall in love and be happy with each other. 

Why is it not enough for them to have a special bond? Because being in love is the closest you can be to someone. It’s something that I think they both deserve to have, and I think it would be extremely powerful if it were Carol and Daryl because they already have such an amazing bond to begin with. Having them become romantic would almost feel like a completion of their bond. It would be like Vegeta and Goku fusing together to become Vegeto, like the ultimate power (geek moment, sorry). Daryl has likely never been “in love” with someone before given his background, so it would be especially beautiful to see it happen for him, and to me, the only person I think he’d trust enough to open himself up for is Carol.

Having said all that, obviously that’s not where the writing is going in the show, which is very disappointing. I have no issues with Zeke, or Khary for that matter. It’s just disappointing that they had Carol get together with someone she hardly knew when she’s known Daryl since the beginning of the Turn. It’s true that there’s a possibility that Caryl is endgame, and it wouldn’t happen till the very end of the series. And maybe they’re those types of couples who really didn’t know they wanted to be together until it just clicks one day (I know two friends like that, where everyone thought they would be together eventually because they were such good friends. But it wasn’t until it just randomly clicked for them one day that they decided to give it a chance. She described it as them hanging out at her house and a lightbulb kind of went off and she just said ‘huh, I really like this guy’, and he wound up having the same thoughts... they’re still together :D). 

But for the people who are genuinely curious as to why we ship it and why we’re so disappointed... more than anything, it’s because of a few factors: 

1) Our passion for our ship has only grown b/c of the hatred we’ve gotten, and how often we’ve had to defend it. The more often we’ve defended it, the more emotional we become for our ship because we want to protect it. Those emotions we feel any time we have been attacked, or anytime we were disappointed sticks with you, and creates more and more stress for your fandom.

2) We have been trolled hard up until this filming season, and it feels like a slap in the face. Season 5 was amazing for Caryl the most part, but there were problems with the writing for Carol especially after that, and we didn’t have much Caryl screen time since. But the times we did, they were amazing scenes, and they were also the scenes that AMC would give sneak peaks with b/c they know they bring in viewers. That whole situation with Daryl finding Carol in the house was completely useless to the storyline, yet they put the money and the effort to create it. Carol even said that “she couldn’t lose him”, and Daryl made that selfless decision to not tell her about Glenn and Abraham. Then there was last year where amc’s first promotion photo was Caryl, and they published multiple pics of them two after. They had that photoshoot of the longest running cast members and it felt like a freaking prom shoot, with all of them posing together, one of which had the “couples” together. They even published a valentine’s day card with Daryl and Carol on it with a caption that says “true love”. Lennie James had even said that he didn’t think Morgan would have any relationship with Carol, not if Daryl had anything to say about it. Other shows have referenced Caryl before...

Long story short, we did not imagine this. We didn’t see something that wasn’t there. Even now, with AMC using Mcreedus to promote the new season, it just comes to show that they know Caryl brings in viewers. So to have Carzekiel happen is truly painful because they have dangled a piece of meat in front of us for years, only to give it to another ship. And maybe we have it wrong when it comes to Angela Kang. Maybe she didn’t write this and is actually doing us a favor by leaving no room to imagine that anything is going on with Caryl right now b/c she knows that we’ve been trolled a lot. Maybe she’s actually stopping the whole teasing thing, and if that’s the case then I do respect that. I’m not saying that is what’s going on but that’s always a possibility. But it’s really painful for us because we were teased, and we’re still ‘being used’ to this day for promotional reasons yet they’re doing the exact opposite. 

It’s like when you’ve fallen in love with someone but they wound up saying they don’t feel the same, but at the end they go “but don’t worry, we can still be friends”... BITCH WHY WOULD I WANT TO BE FRIENDS WHEN I OBVIOUSLY WANTED SOMETHING MORE WITH YOU??!!

... I promise I’m calm.

I actually have a friend who’s a Bethyl shipper, and obviously we don’t see eye to eye with some things but we never talk about it with each other (it’s like politics and family). So when I found out about Carzekiel, I confided in her about it and she related with me. She said they teased Bethyl a bit in season 4, and they technically did. With the hand holding, Daryl carrying Beth around the house they stayed in, and even saying that he’s hopeful now because of her. As a caryl shipper, of course I would’ve argued that was more of a father/daughter bond, but now I can see it from her perspective, and how she felt when Beth died. I might not agree with her ship at all, but she understands what it is like to be trolled by amc only to have her heart ripped out, and she was a nice enough friend to not call me out and actually sympathized with me. And I’m grateful for that because she’s helped me more than she knows to cope with this mess.

Anyways, to put a huge explanation into a small summary: I began shipping Caryl (and I still do) because to me they are an amazing duo with intense chemistry, and they seem to be in perfect sync with each other. Soulmates is the perfect adjective to use to describe them because they just get each other, and they’re so close, it’s amazing to watch it on screen. They’re two puzzle pieces that fit perfectly with each other. Having them become romantic would just be an amazing experience to watch, to see two abused people come together like that and discover what it’s like to be deeply in love with someone. Maybe I have romanticized it when I shouldn’t have, but to have two people so close like that, it’s only natural for me to want them to be together romantically because I know they’d be very happy together. 

Am I wrong to be so human?

Anyways, I’d like to hear from other caryl shippers as well. What made you decide to start shipping them. No debates, no hatred for other ships, just a gentle discussion of why we chose this fandom, and how much we loved (and still do) our ship.

[locke-writes]

2019 Oscars Thoughts/Predictions

Tagging: @ghostofachancewithyou

Note: These are just my thoughts on each of the nominees as someone who loves films but also as a filmmaker. This is broken down by category and by nominee

Best Picture:

“Black Panther”: This was a great film but I don’t see it winning. If I’m being honest I wasn’t even sure it was going to be nominated. My thoughts on Black Panther winning are pretty much the same as my thoughts on Get Out last year. I enjoyed the film and if it wins I’ll be surprised but fine with it. If it wins I’ll be anticipating uproar but if it loses I’m anticipating uproar as well. “BlacKkKlansman”: I wasn’t able to see this so I don't have very many thoughts on this nomination. I enjoy Spike Lee’s films and I’m sure this follows as one of his best but I can’t say too much about something I haven’t seen. “Bohemian Rhapsody”: I see this more as the underdog film. While it was good I just really don't see it pulling off the win. Even the nomination was surprising if the Academy was picking based solely on critic reception. But I found the performances well done and I did enjoy the experience so if it wins it won’t be all bad. “The Favourite”: What can I say. It’s certainly a Yorgos film, no doubt about it. I enjoyed the story and the way that it was set up. I’m not anticipating this to win best picture but I was anticipating it to get a best pic nom. It was well put together and it’d be a surprise win. “Green Book”: Based on what happened during the Golden Globes I’m really unaware of what to expect. I doubt it will win Best Picture due to the films it’s up against but if it follows in reception then it is very possible. I’ll be surprised if it wins since I found the story lacking. I understand that it was more a family story since most of the writers/producers are related to Viggo Mortenson’s character (I know he was a real guy but I can’t remember his name). I just feel with the way it was marketed as a story about racism and friendship in American as well as a focus on the actual Green Book with it’s use. But the film itself felt lacking in this area and I believe it honestly should have focused more on Mahershala Ali “Roma”: This is my winner. I have a feeling that it’s going to take the top. It was a beautiful personal story for Alfonso and that came across in everything. Every shot, every line, was gorgeous and moving. I’d be shocked if it didn’t win. The performances are amazing, especially from Yalitza as a non-actor. Yeah, I’ve got high hopes for this one. “A Star Is Born”: Eh. The film was fine. It wasn’t spectacular, I wasn’t blown away by it, but it was well done. I found the shot choices and the lighting tied it all together. The performances weren’t terrible but I’m not sure that they gave it enough to put it as the top nominee. “Vice”: I’ve heard that it was a great film but I haven’t seen it. Anyway based solely on the other films in this category that it’s got a high chance of winning but I’m doubtful that it’s going to be the winning film.

Lead Actor:

Christian Bale, “Vice”: If he doesn’t win based on his performance as Cheney, then I’ll be thoroughly surprised. Bale always throws himself into his roles and while I haven’t yet seen the film, from the clips that I have seen, he’s done another great role. Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born”: His character has never been too difficult to portray based on the past versions they’ve had of this film. I think Bradley made his version only a bit unique by having it set in modern day but I mean, it didn’t thrill me. If he wins, ok, but it wasn’t something jaw-dropping Willem Dafoe, “At Eternity’s Gate”: I love Willem Defoe and I wasn’t able to see this film but if he wins then that’s fine with me. Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody”: Rami may possibly win this. The fact that unlike the Golden Globes he isn’t in a separate category than Bale does make it a neck-and-neck race. As Freddie he was immensely convincing and the fact the Freddie is such a music icon as well as an LGBT+ icon does make the role difficult. Not because he’s a real person but because a lot of people are going to make judgements about every move you make as Freddie. Rami pulled it off tremendously and if he wins it will be worth it. Viggo Mortensen, “Green Book”: Viggo could potentially win the race. Again I wasn’t that much a fan of Green Book but voters sure do seem to be.

Lead Actress:

Yalitza Aparicio, “Roma”: Just give it to her now. I mean her performance was beautiful and the fact that she’d never acted before is somewhat a benefit to that. Alfonso wrote her character to be personal, to basically be his mother and it worked. Her line delivery was beautiful and there are scenes I won’t mention (because of spoilers), that were breathtaking Glenn Close, “The Wife”: I love Glenn Close and if she wins it I won’t be mad. They haven’t been playing “The Wife” anywhere near me so I don’t have anything much to say since I haven’t seen it. Olivia Colman, “The Favourite”: The fact that quite a bit of her scenes relied on the use of facial expressions alone is insane. The fact that she was so convincing in her role with just the use of her facial expressions is a testament to Colman’s acting. I’m not certain that she will win but I have a feeling that there’s a large chance she will. Lady Gaga, “A Star Is Born”: She was good, no doubt about that. I think that her connection to Ally was obvious. She knew the experience of trying to become a musician but maybe not in the same way as Ally did with sudden fame. That being said I know a lot of people want her to win but I personally am fine with her only taking the nomination. Melissa McCarthy, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”: This is the nomination I’m most surprised by. Honestly I didn't think anyone was paying attention to the film. I enjoyed it and Melissa’s performance, it was nice to see her in a dramatic role for once. I doubt that she’s going to win but it’s nice that she was recognized for this performance

Supporting Actor:

I don’t have many thoughts on this category since I’ve only seen two of the films in this. I have a feeling it’ll go to Rockwell whom I love as an actor and will be happy if he wins but I also feel they could hand it to Mahershala. Just like with Melissa McCarthy I’m surprised that Richard E Grant received recognition for Can You Ever Forgive Me?, I enjoyed the film but it wasn’t really talked about much as an award contender. As for Sam Elliott. Sorry Sam, I know you’re a family friend and all but I don’t think you’ll win and I’m surprised you’re even nominated because you were barely in the film at all.

Mahershala Ali, “Green Book” Adam Driver, “BlacKkKlansman” Sam Elliott, “A Star Is Born” Richard E. Grant, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” Sam Rockwell, “Vice”

Supporting Actress:

I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. Really in this category everyone was brilliant and everyone deserves it and I don’t care who wins because I’ll be happy either way.

Amy Adams, “Vice” Marina de Tavira, “Roma” Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk” Emma Stone, “The Favourite” Rachel Weisz, “The Favourite”

Director:

I’ve loved all these directors for years. Spike is so deserving as a first time nominee and I’d love to see him take it. I’d also love to see either Alfonso or Pawel take it because both of them created beautiful films that I’m happy they reached out of their country of origin and spanned the world. I truly would be happy for anyone to take it and my prediction is Alfonso.

Spike Lee, “BlacKkKlansman” Pawel Pawlikowski, “Cold War” Yorgos Lanthimos, “The Favourite” Alfonso Cuarón, “Roma” Adam McKay, “Vice”

Animated Feature:

“Incredibles 2,” Brad Bird: Maybe it was because it came out years after the first when I got over the hype. I’m not seeing this as the winner. It didn’t blow me away, it was fine and I don't think it’ll win. “Isle of Dogs,” Wes Anderson: This was hilarious and if it takes Pixar down than I’ll be excited. I’m doubtful that it will win but I would love it if they did.

I haven’t seen these other three but I’ve heard good things about each. Whoever wins will be great I’m sure but I don’t have a full prediction

“Mirai,” Mamoru Hosoda “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” Rich Moore, Phil Johnston “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman

Animated Short:

Bao is the only short in this category I’ve seen which means that I don't have anything to say. If it wins great, but I'm sure the other films have as much of a chance.

“Animal Behaviour,” Alison Snowden, David Fine “Bao,” Domee Shi “Late Afternoon,” Louise Bagnall “One Small Step,” Andrew Chesworth, Bobby Pontillas “Weekends,” Trevor Jimenez

Adapted Screenplay:

I don’t really know about this category. I have a feeling that it will go to A Star Is Born but there’s a possibility of it going to If Beale Street Could Talk.

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” Joel Coen , Ethan Coen “BlacKkKlansman,” Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty “If Beale Street Could Talk,” Barry Jenkins “A Star Is Born,” Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters

Original Screenplay:

I enjoyed all of these films. First Reformed was wonderful and I’m glad it received the nom. I’m favoring Roma but again it could really go anywhere in this category.

“The Favourite,” Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara “First Reformed,” Paul Schrader “Green Book,” Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón “Vice,” Adam McKay

Cinematography:

Ahhhhhh. The Favorite, Roma, and Cold War are the three top contenders in my opinion. I’m not certain which I want to win more. The cinematography for each was gorgeous and made the films what they were. I’m sure it’s going to be one of those three however.

“Cold War,” Lukasz Zal “The Favourite,” Robbie Ryan “Never Look Away,” Caleb Deschanel “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón “A Star Is Born,” Matthew Libatique

Best Documentary Feature:

I’ve not seen any of these, I’m just surprised the Mr Rogers doc wasn’t nominated.

“Free Solo,” Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” RaMell Ross “Minding the Gap,” Bing Liu “Of Fathers and Sons,” Talal Derki “RBG,” Betsy West, Julie Cohen

Best Documentary Short Subject:

I’ve not seen any of these this year so I’m not certain who should win.

“Black Sheep,” Ed Perkins “End Game,” Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman “Lifeboat,” Skye Fitzgerald “A Night at the Garden,” Marshall Curry “Period. End of Sentence.,” Rayka Zehtabchi

Best Live Action Short Film: 

Again I haven’t seen any of these so I can’t make a comment.

“Detainment,” Vincent Lambe “Fauve,” Jeremy Comte “Marguerite,” Marianne Farley “Mother,” Rodrigo Sorogoyen “Skin,” Guy Nattiv

Best Foreign Language Film:

I have a feeling that Roma will win but I’d prefer it to be Cold War. Cold War was a beautiful film and since Roma is nominated for Best Picture while Cold War is not I would truly love it if Cold War won Best Foreign Language film.

“Capernaum” (Lebanon) “Cold War” (Poland) “Never Look Away” (Germany) “Roma” (Mexico) “Shoplifters” (Japan)

Film Editing:

I’ve only seen two of these and while The Favourite had beautiful editing I can't really compare it to any films I haven’t seen.

“BlacKkKlansman,” Barry Alexander Brown “Bohemian Rhapsody,” John Ottman “Green Book,” Patrick J. Don Vito “The Favourite,” Yorgos Mavropsaridis “Vice,” Hank Corwin

Sound Editing:

I’m not saying too much about this category except that if they don’t give it to A Quiet Place I will be pissed. It’s the most deserving in terms of Sound Editing and you can fight me if you disagree.

“Black Panther,” Benjamin A. Burtt, Steve Boeddeker “Bohemian Rhapsody,” John Warhurst “First Man,” Ai-Ling Lee, Mildred Iatrou Morgan “A Quiet Place,” Ethan Van der Ryn, Erik Aadahl “Roma,” Sergio Diaz, Skip Lievsay

Sound Mixing:

Give it to Bohemian Rhapsody but uhhh. A Quiet Place was fucking robbed.

“Black Panther” “Bohemian Rhapsody” “First Man” “Roma” “A Star Is Born”

Production Design:

Truly I have nothing much to say in regards to this category because all these films had incredible production design and I’d be happy with any win

“Black Panther,” Hannah Beachler “First Man,” Nathan Crowley, Kathy Lucas “The Favourite,” Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton “Mary Poppins Returns,” John Myhre, Gordon Sim “Roma,” Eugenio Caballero, Bárbara Enrı́quez

Original Score:

Desplat is nominated and so he shall win. Doesn't necessarily mean I want him too although his score was wonderful, it just means that he's the big name on this list. All the scores were well orchestrated so I’d be pleased with any outcome

“BlacKkKlansman,” Terence Blanchard “Black Panther,” Ludwig Goransson “If Beale Street Could Talk,” Nicholas Britell “Isle of Dogs,” Alexandre Desplat “Mary Poppins Returns,” Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman

Original Song:

They’re going to give it to Shallow I can feel it. I am surprised that they chose “The Place Where Lost Things Go” as I was certain they’d nominate Trip A Little Light Fantastic or (Underneath the) Lovely London Sky for Mary Poppins Returns. Personally I would have loved is A Conversation was nominated for the live performance alone but either way they did choose a good Mary Poppins song. 

“All The Stars” from “Black Panther” by Kendrick Lamar, SZA “I’ll Fight” from “RBG” by Diane Warren, Jennifer Hudson “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from “Mary Poppins Returns” by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born” by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt and Benjamin Rice “When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings” from “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” by David Rawlings and Gillian Welch

Makeup and Hair:

Oh it’ll go to Vice but I’d prefer if they handed it to Border

“Border” “Mary Queen of Scots” “Vice”

Costume Design:

Black Panther needs the win. I personally think it’ll be the only win for the film but it’ll be a good one. Having to design that many costumes for entire nations in a fictional setting based off real tribal clothing is so intricate and they’ll be robbed if they don’t win. I know the classic choice will be The Favourite but who cares. Black Panther had the better costumes.

“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” Mary Zophres “Black Panther,” Ruth E. Carter “The Favourite,” Sandy Powell “Mary Poppins Returns,” Sandy Powell “Mary Queen of Scots,” Alexandra Byrne

Visual Effects:

My bet is for First Man but they tend to favor superhero films in this category and I’m not certain where the win will go

“Avengers: Infinity War” “Christopher Robin” “First Man” “Ready Player One” “Solo: A Star Wars Story”

[delightfulshrimp]

Shit how could I have forgotten to post these fellas? this is my personal favorite MS Paint pic I've made so far honestly,

the story is called "Seven Deadly Doofuses" and it's pretty much about them all living in a big fancy mansion called The Prideful Estate and getting into wacky hijinks and such, it's also a reality show parody cus I think that'd be funny.

here's each of their names and a quick summary of their personalities, from left to right.

Wyatt Wrathful - Very brash and grouchy, has a soft side tho.

Glenn Glutt - Cheery and innocent, can be quite creepy at times.

Mr Cashmere Greedly - Smug jerk that makes up all sorts of dumb schemes to get money.

Eugene Envious - Spiteful little guy that gets jealous every easily. loves his pet snake a lot.

Sal Slothful - Lazy manchild gamer that's usually holed up in his room and only sometimes comes out.

Prescott Prideful - A jolly fellow that's very rich, brags a lot about his many achievements.

Lucy Lustful - Goofy and pervy lady that likes to make weird sex jokes at the worst times.

[lalka-laski]

1. Would you have sex with the last person you text messaged? There are so many reasons why that’s an absolute NOPE. 

2. You talked to an ex today, correct? Hell nah 

3. Have you taken someone’s virginity? Supposedly 

4. Is trust a big issue for you? If anything I am TOO trusting. So it’s an issue for me, just not in the conventional sense. 

5. Did you hang out with the person you like recently? We live together & spend almost every waking/non-working moment together. And surprisingly never get sick of each other! 

6. What are you excited for? Mexican & margs tonight with my ladies! Also, I’m getting my latest Starbucks addiction when I get out of work: iced oat milk brown sugar shaken espresso. SO GOOD!

7. What happened tonight? Tonight hasn’t happened yet. But see above for my plans^ 

8. Do you think it’s disgusting when girls get really wasted? I’d be the biggest hypocrite of all hypocrites if I thought that...HA 

9. Is confidence cute? Absolutely. But sometimes I find it off-putting just because I’m salty & jealous that *I* can’t feel that way about myself. 

10. What is the last beverage you had? Ginger & turmeric tea

11. How many people of the opposite sex do you fully trust? 2-3ish 

12. Do you own a pair of skinny jeans? It’s what I’m wearing right now 

13. What are you gonna do Saturday night? That’s tonight 

14. What are you going to spend money on next? Food & drinks tonight  15. Are you going out with the last person you kissed? Sure am 

16. Do you think you’ll change in the next 3 months? Yeah

17. Who do you feel most comfortable talking to about anything? Glenn, my sisters, my best friends 

18. The last time you felt broken? I had a really bad depressive episode a month or so ago. It was awful. 

19. Have you had sex today? Nope 

20. Are you starting to realize anything? Uhh...  21. Are you in a good mood? Yeah, all things considered. I don’t have much to complain about! 

22. Would you ever want to swim with sharks? No thank you 

23. Are your eyes the same color as your dad’s? Yes, although his are more blue and mine are more green.

24. What do you want right this second? My Starbucks drink! And maybe a breakfast sammy while I’m at it. 

25. What would you say if the person you love/like kissed another girl/boy? Oh I would LOSE MY ENTIRE MIND. Good thing that’ll never happen. 

26. Is your current hair color your natural hair color? Nah, I dye it significantly lighter. 

27. Would you be able to date someone who doesn’t make you laugh? Nah

28. What was the last thing that made you laugh? A Tiktok that Nat just sent me 

29. Do you really, truly miss someone right now? Yes

30. Does everyone deserve a second chance? Most of the time, yes. 

31. Honestly, do you hate the last boy you were talking to? Considering I live with him & am engaged to him, I’d hope not! 

32. Does the person you have feelings for right now, know you do? Ha see above 

33. Are you one of those people who never drinks soda? Nah, I wish though. I love sugary drinks. 

34. Listening to? Just my desk fan 

35. Do you ever write in pencil anymore? Never 

36. Do you know where the last person you kissed is? He’s home

37. Do you believe in love at first sight? Not really

38. Who did you last call? Kathleen 

39. Who was the last person you danced with? Glenn 

40. Why did you kiss the last person you kissed? 'Cause I was leaving for the morning & saying goodbye

41. When was the last time you ate a cupcake? It’s been a minute. I’m not much of a cupcake person. 

42. Did you hug/kiss one of your parents today? No, I won’t see them 

43. Ever embarrass yourself in front of a crush? I embarrass myself in front of EVERYONE 

44. Do you tan in the nude? I don’t tan, period. 

45. If you could, would you take back your last kiss? No way 

46. Did you talk to someone until you fell asleep last night? No, I went in the bedroom hours earlier than Glenn & just passed out cold. 

47. Who was the last person to call you? Grubhub, lol 

48. Do you sing in the shower? Mhm 

49. Do you dance in the car? Totally 

50. Ever used a bow and arrow? Yes actually 

51. Last time you got a portrait taken by a photographer? It’s been awhile. But HOPEFULLY we will take our engagement pics soon. 

52. Do you think musicals are cheesy? They can be, but it’s part of the fun.

53. Is Christmas stressful? It is but it’s an acceptable kind of stress. For me, anyways. 

54. Ever eat a pierogi? BITCH DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM 

55. Favorite type of fruit pie? Cherry or dutch apple 

56. Occupations you wanted to be when you were a kid? Author & illustrator 

57. Do you believe in ghosts? Mhm 

58. Ever have a Deja-vu feeling? Frequently 

59. Take a vitamin daily? Yep 

60. Wear slippers? Sometimes, but most of the time I prefer to just be barefoot

61. Wear a bath robe? Sometimes. I have a few really cute ones that I should wear more. 

62. What do you wear to bed? Usually just an oversized tee shirt or night-gown. No pants

63. First concert? Teddy Geiger

64. Wal-Mart, Target or Kmart? I guess I’d choose Target but I’m not gonna lie. I love walking around a Walmart. Everyone makes fun of me but I don’t care! Plus, you can get some really great deals.

65. Nike or Adidas? No preference

66. Cheetos Or Fritos? Cheetos ALL DAY 

67. Peanuts or Sunflower seeds? Neither

68. Favorite Taylor Swift song? I really like the song Paper Rings from Lover. 69. Ever take dance lessons? Nope

70. Is there a profession you picture your future spouse doing? He’s an acupuncturist 

71. Can you curl your tongue? Yep 

72. Ever won a spelling bee? I’ve never been in one. I feel like I should’ve been though? So that’s kinda bogus! 

73. Have you ever cried because you were so happy? Oh OFTEN! 

74. What is your favorite book? I couldn’t possibly just choose one.

75. Do you study better with or without music? Without. Or maybe occasionally something instrumental but even that can distract me

76. Regularly burn incense? Nah, I hate the scent & all incense smells the same to me. 

77. Ever been in love? Yep, currently

78. Who would you like to see in concert? The Killers (again)

79. What was the last concert you saw? Mat Kearney 

80. Hot tea or cold tea? Hot

81. Tea or coffee? Both! 

82. Favorite type of cookie? Chocolate chip or oatmeal! (NO raisins, though) 

83. Can you swim well? Decently. I kinda wanna take lessons to learn some actual strokes though 

84. Can you hold your breath without holding your nose? Yep 

85. Are you patient? Quite the opposite  86. DJ or band, at a wedding? We are leaning towards a DJ just for cost’s sake but I’d LOVE a live band. I’d actually love to have Janine’s band play my reception but she will have too many bridesmaid duties that day- dang it! 

87. Ever won a contest? Mhm 

88. Ever have plastic surgery? No but I have a list of work I’d like done if I could ever afford it

89. Which are better black or green olives? I don’t like either 

90. Opinions on sex before marriage? Do you boo! 

91. Best room for a fireplace? The living room.

92. Do you want to get married? We intend to :)

[twdmusicboxmystery]

10x11: Morning Star - Details

Okay, let’s talk details. I’ll go chronologically.

***As always, spoilers abound below for 10x11. Don’t read until you’ve watched!***

The very first thing we see in the episode is Beta collecting tree sap. They dig into the trees and collect the sap into these little…things. They kinda look like animal bladders to me, but I have no idea if that’s what they actually are.

It’s this tree sap that they use to start things on fire during the battle. My first thought on seeing this was of Tyreese. Back in S4, Carol put tree sap on his arm and it helped heal him. I think it’s got anti-fungal properties and that’s why, but still. It’s a healing agent. And I even want to read into the fact that they had Lizzie and Mica find it. Only because of the parallels/anti-parallels between them and Beth. I think we could argue that a Beth proxy found the cure for Tyreese. And I honestly don’t remember another time we’ve seen the tree sap symbol used. It’s not very often that they use it.

So then I googled to see if tree sap is really flammable, and it is. I found this: 

Also, if you’ve read @frangipanilove​’s tree trunk posts (I’ll repost them later in the week) you know how important tree trunks are in general.

But here’s the thing that REALLY jumped out at me. Once it hits—and EVERYONE gets drenched with it—Jerry smells it and literally says the line, “It smells like a Christmas tree.” Cuz, you know, pine sap.

So we have an agent of healing, that BURNS, a Christmas tree reference, and it’s used as a weapon. 

That’s like fourteen rabbit holes all rolled into one.

Okay, let’s switch gears to Eugene. 

There’s a clock behind Eugene that seems to read 1:33. 

So me and @wdway​ and @frangipanilove​ all discussed what this might mean. First of all, this is definitely a Slabtown clock. What I mean is, this simple, white, plain wall clock with regular numbers (vs. roman numerals or no numbers at all) isn’t seen very often. The biggest time it was seen was with Beth, when she woke up at Slabtown. The only other time we could think of where we saw this particular kind of clock was in 7x08 when Daryl escaped the Sanctuary, which was also super important.

My brilliant friends came up with a few possibilities of how we could interpret this. We looked at it point to S1 ep3, S3 ep3, series number 33 and series number 133. For me, I lean toward the 1:00 hour pointing to S1, but I had to figure out the right way to interpret the minutes, because S1 only had 6 episodes. So I think you’d have to divide the hour by only 6 episodes. And assuming that’s the case, the clock is almost exactly half way through the hour, which would suggest ep 3. And what happened in 1x03? Rick reunited with Lori and Carl. So we’re looking at a symbol of reunion. More than that, they believed Rick was dead. He got left behind by them. Um…in Atlanta? So we’re also talking about a resurrection theme.

Then @wdway started talking about the clock in Still. Remember that Beth and Daryl passed the grandfather clock in the golf club. The first time, it said 2:52. When they passed it again, it struck 3, which means 8 minutes had passed. I interpret that as 8 years passing before Beth returns and they “reunite.” But @wdway made the very good point that all the 3s we see around Beth could well be pointing toward reunions, just as Rick had the original reunion with his family in 1x03.

So then I re-watched the episode and I noticed something else.

When Rosita comes upstairs looking for Eugene and ends up answering Stephanie on the radio, it doesn’t focus on the clock like it does on the first, 1:33 clock, but we do see the clock again very briefly in the background and it says 2:00, so roughly half an hour has passed. So that reminded me of the passage of time in Still. And while it’s not a 3:00 clock, it is drawing closer to 3:00, right? But there’s something else I thought of, too.

When I first thought of the 1:33 clock pointing toward 1x03 my first thinking was a little flawed. I didn’t immediately think of Rick’s reunion with Lori. I thought of the fact that that’s when Daryl first came into the show. And I sort of leapt from that to it being a Bethyl thing. Then I had to stand back and go, “wait. That doesn’t hold up because Beth didn’t show up until S2. Okay, never mind.” But of course the Rick/reunion explanation works very well.

But now looky, looky. We have a 1:33 clock (Daryl debuts in 1x03) and a 2:00 clock (Beth debuts in 2x02.) Just saying.

I think those are the biggest things I noticed on re-watching. Here are some more minor ones:

In this pic, Zeke is totally in a crucifixion pose, and then they talk about “dying tonight,” which is at least partly a sex reference, but I won’t get into that. He’s sort of taking a martyr pose here, and I think this is yet another way they’re pointing at his looming death fake out. I have no idea how it will come about, but I think they could be setting it up with this battle. I’ll come back to that.

Zeke gave Henry’s armor to Lydia, which is a lot like Carol giving Daryl Beth’s knife after she did. Something of hers that he fights with.

I also noticed Eugene made a Waterloo reference, which is a famous battle.  I was thinking they might use it as a template for this battle. I looked it up and nothing huge jumped out at me, but I don’t think we got far enough into this battle to know for sure either way, so no sense in getting too excited about it yet. 

I’m going to address a Caryl theory. I really don’t go into the tags myself, but others do and send me things to get my take on them. So, this is a detail I totally missed, and I actually think it’s a stellar observation. In this scene, there are 8 windows behind Daryl and Carol, and the 7th one has a light on in it.  A light in the darkness is definitely a Beth thing, right?

Well, the shippers are actually counting this as 16 windows because there’s a top and bottom pane. Which means the light is on in the 14th “window.” They’re interpreting that as ep 14 being the one in which Daryl and Carol will finally hook up and live happily ever after. (Please give me a minute to control my laughter.)

But as I said, I do think it’s a good observation. Maybe it does point to something happening in ep 14, but it won’t be Daryl and Carol hooking up. If we count the ACTUAL number of windows (8), that’s the number of years it’s been since Coda. And having the light on in the 7th window actually supports biblical Christian symbolism. 7 is the number of perfection and therefore the number of Christ.

And as I said, I don’t mind the “episode 14” possibility. It just won’t be a Daryl/Carol romance thing. I think the only way to save Carol at this point is if Zeke lives, and I think he will. So what does that mean? Maybe in 14, he’ll go to the hospital and discover that he can be saved. Something like that.

But the thing is, I think there’s a good possibility Beth will be involved in that, too. 

Predictions:

So here’s the thing, guys. I now we’ve come up with a million ways in which Beth might return. I know I’ve campaigned for it being through the Michonne/Virgil story line. And it might still be. There’s no way to know for certain. But I have a really good feeling about this Eugene story line as well. I mean, they’ll be going to a hospital. One that filmed at the same location as Grady. And there are other clues I’ve mentioned above and yesterday: the fact that Charleston is at the crossing of two rivers. The fact that there’s water involved at all. The fact that we see a clock representing reunions, and then time passes. The fact that Eugene “loses” Stephanie for a short time after Rosita gets on the radio and then finds her again by singing to her. (Remember Daryl’s “I Never” line about never singing out in public.)

So I could see this playing out like, Zeke, Eugene, and Jerry go to the hospital and Beth is there and Zeke also learns that he either doesn’t have cancer or else that it can be treated fairly easily through their radiation. I also think he (and possibly Jerry with him) will get a death fake out in there somewhere. But Beth’s return would “save” both Daryl and Carol emotionally. Remember my post about the clock in Edwards’ office. Because Beth saved Carol at Grady, I think her arrival will save Carol in some way here as well, though it will probably be emotional/psychological, rather than physical. I’m just saying I can see this story line leading to that. Will it? That remains to be seen.

Also, I mentioned yesterday that this is a replay of 4b, in which everyone will scatter and end up in small groups, right? Well, that’s been pretty much confirmed by one of the sneak peeks, in which Aaron and Luke (who is injured) are out in the woods together and run into Negan, who doesn’t seem to be with the Whisperers right then, either.

And I think this thing with all of them running around in the woods could easily lead to Zeke’s death fake out, or else to Negan saving Judith in some way, which was foreshadowed in 9x16.

I also talked yesterday about the Glenn theme, right? Let me say a few words about that, and then I’ll stop for the day.

I was re-watching the scene in 5x10 where Maggie opens the trunk and sees the Beth walker. I was actually looking for something else entirely, but it struck me in a way it never has before, and in a way it couldn’t have before this season.

Maggie opens the trunk, then gets freaked out and shuts it. But the walker is pounding on the inside so she goes back to kill it, but of course it gets stuck. Glenn comes to help her. He’s the one who opens the trunk and kills the walker and then leaves the trunk open. Kind of like this? 

 But 2 things about that jumped out at me. Maggie left…and then returned. How many times have I said that Lauren’s absence from the show, no matter what they try to infer about her contract, has been long planned? I think this represents that Maggie would leave for a short time and then return before she truly understands what happened to Beth (i.e. that she lived).

But it also strikes me that Glenn being the one to open the trunk for her is important. Now, I’m not saying Glenn is secretly alive and we’ll see him again in the show (unless it’s a flashback) but I think he’ll be important somehow in helping Maggie understand the truth. I don’t know how that would manifest in the show, but I was thinking about that, and then in this episode, the camera focused on Glenn’s portrait, and Daryl starred at Glenn’s grave, and we know Maggie is returning in 10b.

See what I mean? So I don’t know what this all means in terms of events in the show, but I’ll be keeping an eye on it.

Also, if you haven’t, watch THIS deleted scene from 10x11. It has major shades of Still in it. See if you can spot them. ;D

I’ll stop there for today. Thoughts?

[snowysamw-moved]

15 - 25

Thanks for asking!

15. Favorite song?I have so many, tbh, but as of right now…probably There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back by Shawn Mendes or Too Good At Goodbyes by Sam Smith or Bad At Love by Halsey or Fluorescent Adolescent by Arctic Monkeys

16. Favorite movie?Hmm, I haven’t watched many movies lately…but I always love the Harry Potter movies so those ones I guess (there’s no way can you make me choose which one from that series lol)

17. Who would be your ideal partner? Um, I guess this means like describe someone? Alright, here it goes…they’d understand my weird habits that often go along with my creative. That’s another thing, they’d be hella creative, doesn’t matter in what why. Just, creative. And kind. But not like, a pushover. I mean, this is hard because all I can really think of when I think ‘ideal partner’ is that it’s someone who is my best friend and that I could trust with my life

18. Do you want children?Honestly, I’m sorry, but I can’t stand kids. I mean, it might not be obvious, because when I’m around kids I’m as sweet as can be, but that’s only because I’m a decent person. But, God, growing up with and often babysitting four younger siblings can definitely make someone dislike kids.

19. Do you want a church wedding?On one hand, I kind of do, because a lot of churches are really beautiful…but also, my dream wedding would be outside in the very beginnings of fall, or towards the end of summer on a beach. So, if whoever I was marrying wanted to get married in a church, than sure! But if not, no, most likely not happening.

20. Are you religious?See, I’m not really sure how to answer this. I believe in God, for sure. But I can’t really choose a specific religion because my views of God are often different than someone from an established religion (such as Catholicism)

21. Have you ever been to the hospital? Yeah, more than I’d like. It was almost never for me though, it was always more visiting family and stuff. Except the time I had to get stitches and other small accidents lol

22. Have you ever got in trouble with the law?Mm, maybe for stealing some poor person’s heart ;) lol nah, jk, I’m too ugly for that. But on a serious note, no I’ve never been in trouble with the law

23. Have you ever met any celebrities?Ya-huh! I met Emily Kinney (dude I used to love her so much like geezzzzz. I think I had a crush on her and didn’t even realize it…) and also Chad L. Coleman. Both had been on The Walking Dead. I feel like I’m forgetting someone, but I can’t remember, and I probably would if I-oh shit! I met Conner Franta. Yeah, yeah, ok. I went to his book signing and sure, we said hi, hugged, took a pic and then parted ways for life, but uh…still counts/matters to me so. yeah.

24. Baths or showers?Showersssssss. They’re like the only place I can calm down and genuinely think. I think it has something to do with how the water feels like rain (except actually warm and not freezing) and rain always calms me so yeah.

25. What color socks are you wearing?I actually am not wearing socks right now (it’s like quarter to 3 am and I was lying to myself and saying I was bouta go to sleep) but before I took them off I was wearing one grey sock that has a little cartoon Daryl Dixon face on it, as well as the name 'Daryl’ printed just below the face. The other sock was the same general design, except the background was blue and the character was Glenn Rhee (r.i.p. my korean son)

[cotton--dandy]

answer these questions and tag (20) people you want to get to know better!

tagged by: @urlmysunshine , thank u!! :-) ♡

name: kirsten rebecca

nickname: i dont rly have any sadly lol but my mom calls me miss magoo sometimes so thats somethin

zodiac sign: pisces ♓🐠

hogwarts house: i cant rly remember but i think ravenclaw

height: 5 ft 3, maybe like half an inch taller lol

orientation: bi af

ethnicity: white. i could say specifics but who cares, am i right?

favorite fruit: strawberries, and raspberries. also mangos r good

favorite season: autumn of course!!

favorite book series: i dont have one so i’ll just say my fav books: egghead, the perks of being a wallflower, coraline, the miraculous journey of edward tulane, and the catcher in the rye

favorite fictional characters: christ, there r so many but: mac macdonald, charlie kelly, dennis reynolds, zach stone, norman and norma bates, dandy mott, liz taylor, tate langdon, violet harmon, tristan duffy, jesse pinkman, finn the human, marceline the vamp queen, peridot from su, coraline, max from where the wild things are, wirt and greg from otgw, i could go on so im just gonna stop now.

favorite flower: not to be basic but pink roses, and sunflowers r great. also bleeding heart flowers r rly cool! and any small blue ones. v cute. all flowers r good honestly

favorite scent: vanilla, gasoline, sunscreen, campfire, rain

favorite color: honestly it depends on the season. like i loove orange but only during halloween. and dark red but only in the sense of scary movies. id probably never wear yellow but seeing it makes me happy. anyway i guess id say light pink or light blue.

favorite animal: dogs. also foxes, elephants, and otters r cute n’ cool. honestly, i love a lot of animals

favorite artist/bands: never shout never, bo burnham, melanie martinez, matchbox20/rob thomas, fox academy, oh!hello

coffee, tea, or hot cocoa?: tea all day, every day bby! 🍵🍵🍵

average sleep: rly depends. on school nights its like 5-6 hrs. but during summer/weekends, usually at least 10.

number of blankets i sleep with: just one

dream trip: i want to go so many places but rn id like to go to oregon bc it has the beach and forest! id love to just hang out at the beach, look at various shops, go out for dinner, and jump on hotel beds. 😌

last thing you googled: “glenn howerton bird muscles” lmao!!! i just wanted to show my friend that high quality picture of him w/ the painted on abs from “the gang wrestles the troops”. judge me, but the search worked lol

how many blogs i follow: 523

number of followers: 496

what i usually post about: my blog is just a clusterf***k of everything i like but id say its mostly cute animals especially dogs, it’s always sunny, the occasional bo burnham or melanie martinez pic, text posts that make me laugh or that i like, flowers and other pretty things i dig like the sunset or ocean.

do i get asks regularly: haha nope

what is your aesthetic: i was gonna think abt this hard and give a fancy answer but skyla (honeykissedtea) told me im a pumpkin princess so im gonna say thats my aesthetic. and i love it ! 🎃

i’ll tag: @honeykissedtea , @aesthetic-tofu , @vanillecastle , @rebel-dandelion , @lightygami , @bechloyeah , @aikbeahan , @pepperclaws , @wildefl0wer

i just tagged a couple ppl i know and love, and some neato mutuals. do it if u want, anyone n’ everyone, or nobody! most importantly,.. i hope u all have a nice day !

[suzannebyrne]

When the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Became a Thing With Celebrities

When the event was overrun with Kardashians, that was an indication! Here’s Kim Kardashian with Greta Van Susteren at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2010, the first year the reality star attended. (Photo: AP)

It remains to be seen whether the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, held on Saturday, will draw a celebrity crowd this year under the current conditions (i.e. Donald Trump being president, Donald Trump disliking the media, Donald Trump being the first president in 36 years to skip it), but the “nerd ball” has been a Hollywood favorite for years.

While it’s really a night in which the journalists covering the White House can have fun with the current administration — and in which journalism awards are handed out (this year by icons Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein) and funds are raised for scholarships for journalism students — Hollywood talent has long attended to provide entertainment (this year, comedian Hasan Minhaj, of Daily Show fame, will serve as host) and star power. News outlets started inviting celebrities to sit at their tables in the ’90s and that opened the floodgates — stars from Scarlett Johansson to Ozzy Osbourne have accepted the hot ticket. And, yes, there have been Kardashians aplenty.

This year could be different

The evening’s festivities usually involve the sitting president poking fun at himself (last year, President Obama literally dropped the mic after lampooning himself), but Trump wanted no part in that. He’s not going and neither is his administration as a sign of solidarity. In fact, he’s actually holding one of his rallies on the same day. (See, I have something better to do anyway! Noted.)

While there was talk celebrity attendance would be low anyway (you may have heard, Trump isn’t popular in Hollywood), it seems it will be even lower as some of the typical events that take place before and after the dinner have been canceled. Vanity Fair‘s hot afterparty (think: an Oscars-style bash for the D.C. crowd) was nixed as were bashes typically thrown by the New Yorker and Bloomberg. People magazine, which usually teams up with sister publication Time, pulled the plug on its annual pre-party, which obviously draws a big celebrity crowd considering the typical coverage, and announced that instead of attending the dinner, a donation would be made to the association. (Makes sense. A former People reporter says she was sexually assaulted by Trump while covering a story for the mag.)

Anybody here who isn’t famous? Paul Rudd, Rashida Jones, Amy Poehler, and Bradley Cooper were just a handful of the stars invited to the dinner in 2011. (Photo: Getty Images)

In light of the political climate — and the fact that Trump despises the mainstream media, constantly grumbling about “#FakeNews,” the focus will be less on the pretty famous actors and singers doing the step-and-repeat and more on the First Amendment. This is probably good news as some Washingtonians reportedly had griped about the “celebrity stink” at the event. Actual journalists couldn’t get seats at their own media outlet’s table because the brass wanted to have a big-name celebrity seated at their table, to boost stature, instead.

Another criticism of the dinner has been that it promotes a (too) friendly relationship between the press and administration (the New York Times stopped sending journalists in 2008), so with Trump not in attendance, some view that as a good thing for journalistic integrity.

Let’s be honest: Nobody was upset to see George Clooney at the WHCD in 2012. (Photo: Joshua Roberts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A brief history of the WHCD

Without trying to sound too much like your high school social studies or journalism teacher, the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) was founded in 1914. The first dinner was held in 1921, and it was attended by all men. That didn’t change until pioneer journalist Helen Thomas pushed for a change in 1962. She pressured President John F. Kennedy, who then threatened to boycott the dinner. She scored an invite, and that was the end of the boys’ club.

The first sitting president to attend was Calvin Coolidge in 1924. Every president has since appeared at least once (so the Donald has three more years not to break with the tradition). Over the last several decades, the president has always attended. The last time one skipped was in 1981 when Ronald Reagan was recovering from his assassination attempt. He actually did call in though. (Even he didn’t miss it!)

Bob Hope became one of the first entertainers to host in 1941 — and other big names, from Frank Sinatra to Milton Berle, later did the honors. Comedians are typically on the menu (Jimmy Kimmel, Jay Leno, Stephen Colbert, Joel McHale, and many members of the Saturday Night Live crew), including some odd ones like Paula Poundstone and Sinbad. (Fun fact: SNL alum Al Franken is the only keynote speaker to later become a member of Congress. He performed at the dinner in 1994 and 1996.)

While Donald and Melania Trump won’t be there this year, they have attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner several times, including in 2015. (Photo: Getty Images)

As for Trump, despite refusing to go this year, he’s embraced the event in the past, attending on multiple occasions with his wife, Melania. (His children Ivanka, along with husband Jared Kushner, and Donald Jr. have also attended with and without dad.) While it was reported that Donald was unhappy when Seth Meyers made him the butt of jokes (for all his Obama birther comments) in 2011, he told the New York Times last year, “I loved that dinner.” Not everybody loved having Trump there, though. In 1993, he was seated next to model Vendela Kirsebom at one of the Vanity Fair tables and she said he was so vulgar (making comments about breasts) that she changed seats.

The celebrity boom

Will Smith made sure to get his own pic on the red carpet in 2016. (Photo: Larry Busacca/Getty Images)

The Boston Globe links the rise of celebs attending the event to 1987 when Fawn Hall, the secretary for Oliver North and a player in the Iran-Contra affair, was invited to the dinner by Baltimore Sun writer Michael Kelly. After that, news organizations began to invite high-profile guests. Just a few years later, in the early ’90s, Vanity Fair started hosting its popular party, and that really started to attract the A-list crowd. It didn’t hurt that C-SPAN began televising the dinners in 1993, as celebrities love seeing themselves on television.

Graydon Carter is partially to blame! Vanity Fair started throwing a big party (with Bloomberg) and the shindig, hosted by the editor in chief, always draws a star-studded crowd, including Kate Upton in 2012. There will be no party this year. (Photo: Getty Images)

For those covering celebrities, like us, we can further pinpoint it to a few years later when John F. Kennedy Jr., then the editor in chief of George magazine, attended with his wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, in 1999. That year, the late president’s son made waves inviting Hustler publisher Larry Flynt as a guest (along with Sean Penn), but his canoodling with his wife at the event (kind of a rarity with those two) was an even bigger deal as, at the time, they were the most photographed couple around. Pictures like the one below, taken at the event, were everywhere — as well as a mention of where they spent their night out. We really started hearing about the White House Correspondents’ Dinner after that. (Sadly, it was rerun many times over when they died a few months later.)

John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette Kennedy enjoyed themselves at the event in 2009. As editor in chief of the political magazine George, he invited Sean Penn and Larry Flynt as his guests. (Photo: Getty Images)

Those things sort of opened the floodgates. Models (Gisele Bündchen, Christie Brinkley, Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, Ashley Graham, and Kate Upton) and sports stars (Serena and Venus Williams, Tom Brady, Apolo Ohno) have always been popular guests. Some years, entire casts (the top tier anyway) of shows attended, including the West Wing, American Idol, and Modern Family.

The odd mix of celebrities, newspeople, and politicos became a great breeding ground for funny photo ops. Think: Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne sitting with Greta Van Susteren. Sofia Vergara and Bill O’Reilly. Jenny McCarthy and Colin Powell.

Jenny McCarthy and Colin Powell were quite a pair in 2008. (Photo: Getty Images)

The list of attendees is truly a who’s who list: George Clooney, Barbra Streisand, Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck (with Jennifer Garner in happier times), Forest Whitaker, Kerry Washington, Steven Spielberg, Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler, Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis, Emma Watson, Justin Bieber, George Lucas, Mila Kunis, Katy Perry, Ashton Kutcher, Reese Witherspoon, Kate Hudson, Goldie Hawn, Mariska Hargitay, Chrissy Teigen and John Legend, Jane Fonda, Eva Longoria, Salma Hayek, Demi Moore, Glenn Close, Rob Lowe, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, Jon Bon Jovi, Damien Lewis, Demi Lovato (with all three Jonas Brothers), and Claire Danes, among many, many others. (Honestly, the list of attendees is just so long we had to stop typing.)

On the other side, we can also pinpoint 2012 as the year the event jumped the shark, as they say. That was when the Kardashians attended as guests of Fox News. (Kim previously attended in 2010.) They shared a table with Lindsay Lohan, who was with her lawyer that night — and pretty much around the clock with all her legal woes.

Lindsay Lohan, with her attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, arriving at her table, where Kim Kardashian was parked, in 2012. (Photo: Kristoffer Tripplaar-Pool/Getty Images)

Though in 2008, The Hills stars Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt were there along with celebrity blogger Perez Hilton (real name: Mario Lavandeira), so that it’s hard to tell for sure.

Looking back, there were certainly some random attendees. In addition to Speidi, someone let Gary Busey in one year. Then there was a Bachelor summit another year with Andrew Firestone and Trista and Ryan Sutter.

No, this is not a meet and greet at a mall. This is Heidi Montag at the White House Correspondents’ dinner in 2008. (Photo: Getty Images)

Hot headlines

Of course, some great celebrity news has been born out of the event — and that’s all that really matters isn’t it? (It is to us.)

ScarJo and Sean Penn were in the middle of a hot and heavy fling in 2011 when they attended the dinner together. Us Weekly reported on their “intense” makeout session right at the table as “the main course of the dinner was being put on the table.” An insider said, “Scarlett was pawing at Sean, holding on to his hip while he was smoking. She gave him a short kiss. But then they took a walk some 30 feet away, broke off from the group, and kissed some more.”

Scarlett Johansson and Sean Penn made out at the dinner in 2011. (Photo: Splash News)

Of course, it’s also the place where Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello met in 2014. Well, he checked out her booty there as she hung with the Modern Family cast. She was actually there with her former fiancé (yes, that guy), but when she was single and heard Manganiello was interested, they had a funny moment talking about the photo taken of them that night.

Sofia Vergara said this photo broke the ice when she was getting to know Joe Manganiello. Yes, he’s checking out her rear at the dinner in 2014. (Photo: Getty Images)

One of the best photos we came across in our search back in WHCD time is this shot of Sylvester Stallone and Wheel of Fortune’s Vanna White. Yes, they dated — and they brought their love to Washington in 1988. Check out Sly’s ponytail!

Yes, Sly Stallone and Vanna White dated. They attended the event as a couple in 1988. (Photo: Getty Images)

Then there was Arrested Development‘s David Cross, husband of Amber Tamblyn, who made headlines after the fact for bragging that he did cocaine under the table at the dinner — some 65 feet away from President Obama — in 2009. Though he told Playboy that he didn’t really get high. “The jolt was similar to licking an empty espresso cup,” he quipped. He felt a little bad that his politically active wife could no longer attend. “I was her date, her plus-one, and she got dragged through the mud because of what I did,” he added. “She had nothing to do with it. And because of that she’ll never be invited to the White House again. That’s not cool.”

David Cross with Amber Tamblyn at a WHCD afterparty in 2009. He revealed he did cocaine under the table at the dinner earlier in the night. (Photo by Niche Media/WireImage)

And, this is just sentimental, but Carrie Fisher arrived on the arm of Tom Hiddleston last year, but the Star Wars actress, who died in December, secured an invite for her beloved pup, Gary, too. So they were the most adorable trio of all time at the event.

Carrie Fisher with Tom Hiddleston and her dog, Gary, at the 2016 dinner. (Photo: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

What will happen this year? Will any big stars be in attendance? Will there be more than 100 Trump jokes? We’ll have to stay tuned for that.

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