#keenler always

[prentissrollins]

Donald Ressler and Elizabeth Keen

The Blacklist (2013 - 2023) - 7x13 — [+]

↳ requested by @keensressler. thank you!! your idea was awesome!

[resslawx]

I never thought I’d do this, posting keenler in 2024 but here I am.

In my whole fandom life, I’ve experienced some really painful stuff. But Keenler was the biggest heartbreak I’ve ever had to face in this hobby. I know people outside these bubbles can’t understand but we do. The love, the energy, the emotions I poured into this, the pure devotion; I’ve never given as much of myself to something before them. Content creation for this fandom was second nature, loving this ship felt like breathing. Woven into my life in a way only you guys can understand.

In roughly 2 months, it’ll be 3 years since it all broke down. But if we’re honest, we knew it was falling apart in the months leading up to it already – we just didn’t know it’d be *this* bad.

Keenler, you will forever be my once in a lifetime. Thank you for one of the greatest times I’ve got to have so far. Thank you for connecting me to so many people on such a deep level. Thank you for being my greatest comfort during tough times.

You are what fueled my passion for editing and creating. Wherever I go, whatever I create – there will always be a part of you in it.

I will never forget the day it finally came crashing down on us. I’ll never forget June 23. I’ll never forget the pain that made us feel like there was no breathing anymore. How everything we poured into this, for years, was trashed and our unbound loyalty betrayed in the worst way a fandom can imagine. How they acted as if we, the support that made them big, had never existed.

It took me weeks to be able to look at anything fandom hobby related again. It took me months to try to edit again (and failed). Loosing keenler had made me numb in a way that made creating impossible, while before, creating was where I felt the strongest emotions ever. I truly thought I had lost the hobby I loved so dearly. It took me 8 months in total until I could somehow continue it. It was a long process with many ups and downs but today, 3 years later, I am incredibly grateful to not have given up on it. While there were multiple factors at play, I must owe most of it to rollisi.

So thank you, sonnshine and georgia peach. I cannot put into words how thankful I am.

[hmsquared]

I just watched “Between Sleep And Awake”.

As an actor, I loved watching Diego Klattenhoff’s performance. Not only did he hit different emotions with Ressler, but he showed different points in time. I feel like I learned a lot.

As a Keenler shipper, this episode… broke me, but in a good way. I’m glad we got to see just how important Liz was to Ressler. My theory is that he always loved her, but tried to respect her relationship with Tom and their status as coworkers. At the end, when he touched the gravestone and said, “I’d like that,” it was more poignant than just saying “I love you”.

I hope The Blacklist continues diving into emotional moments. They really know how to do them.

[rey-jake-therapist]

The Blacklist rewatch, Samar and Aram my beloved

I'm currently rewatching The Blacklist season 5 and boy and particularly the rescuing scene of Samar by Aram and boy, am I angry at how they did them dirty in the following seasons...

I didn't care about shipping in The Blacklist at all except for Amar and Samar. They HAD IT ALL: love at first sight (for him), grumpy vs sunshine (he's the sunshine), mutual love respect, height difference (she's the tallest and he loves it 😍), slow burn etc. We even had a scene where Aram told his then spy girlfriend he was in love with someone else to explain why he was acting weird (boy had just found out she was with him only to spy on him), and Samar was like, "wow you're good!" and Aram not daring to tell her he was just telling the truth 😭

And then just when they were becoming, in Samar's own words, "boring" and "blissful", they briefly broke up because of Ressler and Liz's stupid advises about a ring, but Samar was kidnapped by a psycho and Amar went absolutely BALLISTIC while he's usually the sweetest guy on earth, like... We knew he would have shot the President of the U.S. himself if it had been what it took to save Samar.

Honestly, the only thing I could criticize about this episode is that it was once again a case of a man saving the women he loves, but it would still be unfair because realistically, it should have been the other way round: Aram's the geek, who barely knows how to use a gun, is the one who's got the profile of a kidnapping victime, not Samar who's a FBI and Mossad agent and spends her life on the field. So Samar saving Amar's life would have been very predictable, unlike what we got so I easily forgive the writers for making Samar a damsel in distress.

And this scene of Samar... expressing her feelings the moment she thought she would die in this car?! OMG it was so beautiful...

"yes..."

"yes what?"

"I would have said yes if you had asked me to marry you, my love"

While earlier she was coldly offering to bring him his stuff back 😭

And then there was..

No really I loved them SO MUCH.

Aram and Samar was the only romance in this show that ever mattered to me, and that they just... teared them apart and made Samar another female victim of the show, just because the actress left?? I was so fucking ANGRY. There was no reason to make Samar sick, and there was no reasons to separate her from Aram. She was Mossad for God's sake! they could just have Samar marry Amar, then decide to leave the FBI because she was tired of Reddington, and that would have explained her absence from the show!

But no, one thing that the Blacklist writers love is to make female characters suffer or die, and bonus points if they can do both. They love it because their male characters can have their moments, we can see them lamenting on their lover's (or daughter's, for Reddington) fate and it's ohh so saaaaaad and so beautiful, poor baby boy he needs a hug, yada yada.

N.B: I never shipped Lizzington because it didn't make sense to that a woman who thought a man was his father would also want to fuck said man, or that this man who always felt paternal towards her would suddenly lust for her for that matter. Also I just never saw what shippers saw; never shipped Keenler either except for a few episodes because 1) sorry but Ressler's boring, couldn't have fun even if his life depended on it 2) Liz was.... she loved Tom that's all. There was never any room for Keenler (even less Lizzington) in Liz's heart, at least from the moment it was decided that Tom would stay in the show for longer than a season. And I think that making Keenler happen in season 8 only to take it away from shippers one or two episodes later was VERY cruel as well as very bad storytelling... I always saw that as unrequited love more than anything else, as Ressler was obviously smitten with Liz, but that's it.

[matan4il]

You had an anon mention slow burns and also Luke and Lorelie. Firstly I agree with the messiness of S5a and S6a. I wrote to you a few weeks ago its just messy timelines and I hope if they get S7 they stop this pacing. I don't know alot about the other ships but I believe in Luke and Lorelie supremacy. However..... no joke it was torture watching it real time pre-tumblr.

Listen, it took them 5 seasons to get together. Really only one season of drama free being together. They spent more time married to other people then spent together. We got the pay off in the last 5 minutes of the finale. We won, so yeah. But that shit was torture every week. Tumblr posts would have been a mess back then if it was the same now.

And I bring all this up to get to my point. I sustained it all because I was relatively certain that this straight couple would make it, I was supposed to root for them. They were at the basis each other's rocks. Buck and Eddie still are straight or the very least believe the other is. That's not just angst to get over, that's a sexual identity crisis to get over.

And hopefully like Gilmore Girls they will. One day I can rewatch the same way I do now. Spoiler alert, wanted to cry when she married Chris in Paris, now I can throw popcorn at it and laugh. Just kidding, I still FF that part.

But again, I'm like you I can't promise it will go Canon. If it doesn't its because they are cowards. However in alot of ways there is a stronger case for Buck and Eddie being soul mates rather then Luke and Lorelie. Again I love L&L but still they were messy and heartbreaking to watch.

Hi lovely Nonnie! Thank you so much for the ask. As well for keeping up with my blog and repeatedly writing to me. I appreciate the vote of confidence! ;)

As for Gilmore Girls, I have to confess that while I’ve seen an ep here or there (I never got to see them in sequence, as you’re meant to, so I never got into the swing of things. I’ve seen enough to know some basic stuff, but not much more than that). So I can’t comment on Luke and Lorelai’s love story beyond the fact that they were OBVIOUS. I could see them coming from the first sec I saw them in a scene together. They were ALWAYS going to happen. The show couldn’t have been clearer about it. And yeah, this is what a slow burn means, if we’re being honest. A lot of torture along the way, because it’s meant to make the pay off at the end that much sweeter. Does it actually manage to do it? The answer varies between ships, and probably between fans of the same ship, too. But that’s the principal, the road is usually bumpy, some parts of it are delicious angst and pining, and screaming about how these bozos still don’t get it, but yeah, some parts of it are not that fun to travel.

My deepest sympathies for going through all of that for Luke and Lorelai! I hear you, and I hope you still got to enjoy at least some of the pay off at the end of it all. I know how you feel. I went through 8 seasons for Keenler (BEWARE! SPOILERS for The Blacklist), and I can count the moments they were actually together on... let’s be generous and say two hands. But stupidly, it works. I treasure the moments that I did get all the more ‘coz I love how long and patiently and without demand Ressler waited for Liz. They had their messiness as well, but God, he loved her so profoundly. To see her realizing that and reciprocating his feelings was beautiful and worth it, even though I will forever wish they had more time together. But to tell you it was fun along the whole way? No. The parts of the story where Liz got back together with Tom were hell, seeing her re-committing herself to him was awful because HE was awful, in general and to Liz (so it wasn’t just as a Keenler shipper that I couldn’t stand that part of the show), and even when he was gone, there were almost two seasons where I survived on essentially one scene of comforting (but seemingly casual and platonic) touch. Slow burn is NOT for the faint of heart.

And you know what I love the most, Nonnie? Is that bit you threw in about Luke and Lorelai still having less in the way of ‘soulmate material’ than Buddie. Because I can actually make a LONG list of CANON couples that I absolutely ADORE that this is true for. And that’s exactly why we keep saying that if Buck or Eddie were a woman, they’d be inevitable, right?

Thank you again, have a great day! As always, here’s my ask tag. xoxox

[kiss-my-freckle]

Episode 10x10 Rewatch

The Postman, his girlfriend, Carrie Baker, and the Maryland AG.

Tom, Liz, Eugene Ames, and Connolly.

"I believe that if she is given a fair trial by a jury of her peers, there aren’t 12 people in America who wouldn’t agree with me.” - Ressler

Cooper and The Postman show otherwise. 

Juror: Cash stolen from her wallet... and Nelson's DNA on the purse.

Interrogator: But your partial prints were on the device. Liz: That’s not possible.

“What the hell?”

Between Sleep And Awake

Ressler is sponsoring Jonathon the way Lauren sponsored him.

Jonathan: Ah, it just makes me realize how busted I was before. Ressler: Hey, I was a wreck at your point in recovery, I hadn't even shaved yet.

Broken and dead. 

Jonathan: But right now, I'm just really happy to be back in the world of the living.

Barber: You all right, son? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.

The point of the car.

Ressler: I didn’t know it at the time, but that car wasn’t the only thing I was fixing. I mean, when I started, it was - it was broken. Nothing about it worked. It was - It was dead to the world.

Red velvet cake pops, Son Phillip to Father Phillip...

Herbie: Rosaries. Ressler: Rosaries? As in Catholicism? Herbie: Yeah, brought me right back to Father Phillip telling me I was going straight to hell for not using a hall pass. That's a heavy load to put on a kid with a small bladder, especially right before his bar mitzvah.

Hitchin: Hand to God, how amazing was Saturday? I know I’m his mom, but Phillip’s Bar Mitzvah - cutest thing ever. Wright: It was incredible. Hitchin: Although my idiot husband did order 500 extra swag bags, so one for you, one for you -

Greatest dialogue of the episode, Keenler Baby...

Agnes: Except one of us is secretly an imposter.

Between Sleep And Awake. The shooting death of Tom Connolly.

Tom, 2x21: All right, dream scenario. We finish our coffee...

Ressler, 2x22: Damn it, Liz, wake up...

Aram: You’re right. That’s a - That’s a different boat. Ressler: It’s a different ocean.

The Harbormaster Investigation

Cooper: It's just that someone from my past has suddenly popped out of the woodwork. Red: Ghosts like to do that, don't they? Pop out of the woodwork.

Ressler: Tom Keen came out of the woodwork. Cooper: Keen? Does he know something?

Complicated...

Juror: It's not that complicated. There's either DNA or there's not. Cooper: It's not complicated because you want to go home.

Nik: Whoa. You’re… I didn’t know. And Tom’s… Obviously. It’s just… when I saw you last, it didn’t seem like you were together. Liz: It’s complicated.

Cape May waters and the marina where Tom moored his boat... 

Red: As a man with some criminal experience, I can assure you that sometimes forces much greater than ourselves help to lead us to those waters.

Liz: That’s not how the truth works. You don’t get to pick and choose. Not if you want to learn how to swim.

Tom: We don’t save people, Gina. We watch them drown.

Good vs bad...

Juror: You really want this kid to be innocent. But guess what. Sometimes people do bad things! 

Red: Bad things happen to good people. 

Bad luck... 

Juror: Oh, come on, though. If he didn't do it with evidence as is, he's got to be the unluckiest SOB in Baltimore. Cooper: Unlucky isn't a crime.

Red: What I do know is that – whether it’s chance or karma, DNA or fate, or just bad luck - this is where you are now. This is who you’ve become. A criminal. A fugitive.

The washer necklace... bad luck.  

Liz: I don’t know what happened. I used to consider myself lucky. I had a husband I loved, a job I always wanted. I was the kind of person good things happen to. [...] Red: Sometimes bad luck is the best luck you’ll ever have.

Liz: You want to see what else brings me luck? Agnes: What is that? Liz: Did I ever tell you how your Daddy asked me to marry him?

Tom, Judge Denner, and Connolly... 

Juror: Okay. What about this? Two days ago, his girlfriend swore on a Bible, took the stand, and told us that Lawrence Nelson privately confessed to the murder. How do you explain that? Cooper: He is insistent that conversation never happened with her.

Cooper: I recognize that it's improbable, but maybe there's a reason his girlfriend would've lied about his confession. She was already at the police station for some other reason when she made that accusation. And before we send a man to prison, I think we should know why. Juror: That information was struck from the record by the judge.

The Postman: I'm not signing a confession. Cooper: It's not a confession. It's a 30 -year-old transcript of your old girlfriend's first conversation with the police on the night of Carrie Baker's murder, the same conversation that made her the star witness against you in court. That transcript should've been given to your counsel. It wasn't. The Postman: She doesn't mention me. At all. Cooper: The BPD was investigating her for drug charges. The fact that she gave them a story about you less than 24 hours after the murder and that the prosecution withheld this information at trial suggests that she may have testified against you as part of a quid-pro-quo deal orchestrated by the prosecutor. The Postman: She was scared to go to prison. So she sent me instead.

Like Tom and his private confession to Judge Denner, only for Connolly to walk in. Quid-pro-quo. How Liz went from Eugene Ames to Most Wanted.

Tom: Wait! Listen! I will make a confession. I will give you a full deal. But you have to promise me that you leave Liz out of this. Connolly: THAT deal won’t happen.

Liz: What’s gonna happen to Tom? Connolly: Who? Liz: My ex-husband, Tom Keen? Connolly: I never met him. There’s no Tom Keen in federal custody.

A reason Tom Keen walked out of federal custody and Liz walked in... just like The Postman. And like The Postman... might as well have arrived in a pine box. 

Reminds me of the Drexel painting. 

And with Karakurt vibes. 

Hitchin: And what if he opens the door? Director: Well, we return to the original plan. We take Elizabeth Keen to an undisclosed location for questioning, from which she will try to escape. And then we’ll be forced to shoot her. In any case, you are looking at a ghost.

The difference between season 3 and season 8 Liz...

Cooper: You were so adamant then that you were innocent. We have to hold you accountable for your new crimes. Still, I'm gonna do everything I can to have the original crime expunged from your record.

Agnes make all the difference...

Cooper: And I'm going to try to hold Christopher Jay accountable too. The Postman: What difference does it make now? Cooper: It makes all the difference.

Jennifer: So he did this to you. Liz: What difference does it make? We’re so close! Jennifer: The difference that it makes is that I’m worried that he’s gonna do it to me.

Liz makes all the difference... 

Ressler: I’m just saying, if she did reach out to you, if you actually saw her, you might think differently. Aram: Did she reach out to you? Ressler: No, she didn’t. But if she did– I’m just saying it might make a difference.

Ressler: Look, I know what Cooper said– Aram: He didn’t “say,” he ordered. Ressler: Yeah, but I told you, if you saw her you’d think differently.

Aram: You were right. It is different.

Not a Keen, but a Ressler. 

Liz: I am attempting to build a life with the father of my child.

Why Liz is now dead. 

Director: In any case, you are looking at a ghost.

Because of her second memory wipe. It’s all there. Karakurt and the Orea bombing, chemical weapon and the senator, Connolly's shooting.

[fancycaroline]

Fancy’s Fics: Keenler Edition

Excerpt and Intro to my Keenler Fic journey

Cyranoid Redux in a Drabble and a Half

Always: A Keenler AU in 6 parts

Between Sleep and Awake

(-warning: post Liz’s death and major character death)

Under My Umbrella

An additional little excerpt from one of my WIPs:

Excerpt from Blacklister 001: The Marchmaker

[lieutenant--reed]

Liz + Ressler and their last kiss - 8x22.

[takadasaiko]

She’s dealing with it in a way I still haven’t figured out yet.

[alyblacklist]

What was a memorable moment from Season 8 of The Blacklist?

[prentissrollins]

having a keenler breakdown felt just going back to the tbl days also known as the good old days 😭 (well from 1x01 to 8x21 that is); @resslawx you can always count me in for keenler breakdowns.

[meetmeatthecoda]

It's funny to me that people ship Liz

with Tom, who lied to her, manipulated her, held her at gunpoint (on numerous occasions), beat her up (on numerous occasions), said that he pitied her but not loved her, told her their marriage and his desire to adopt a baby was "just a job" for him, took her to the man he knew was going to kill her aka fake Berlin, used her as a shield and generally made it abundantly clear that he would always - and I mean always - put himself first, even and, especially, over her and that he had no qualms about hurting her emotionally and physically for his own benefit ( as opposed to Red, who's never intentionally hurt her or put her in harm's way, who would rather die than hurt her, who would always - and I mean always - put his Lizzy first, even and, especially, over himself, who traded his freedom, his well-being, his life for hers on a number of occasions, who devotedly waited ten months for her to wake up from her coma, barely leaving her side, I imagine, who always forgave and staid by her side no matter how much she hurt and/or betrayed him, who was more worried about Liz's mental and emotional state than his own life when she made her repeated attempts to kill him... should I continue? )

or

with Ressler, who's always been like a brother for Liz more than anything - which shows in the way they supported each other when they had problems with their respective partners, in the way Ressler asked Liz's advice about his relationship with Audrey, in the way Ressler offered to beat Tom up for her, in the way they always looked out for each other in a completely platonical way - ( as opposed to Red, who repeatedly told Liz that he is not her father - and he never lies to her, that much is unquestionable - and who is clearly not her mother for a number of reasons I don't feel like it's necessary to list ).

Yet they call us - Lizzingtons, the fans of the most healthy relationship in the whole show - hurtful words like perverts etc.

Just... isn't it obvious how utterly ridiculous it is?

In other words, anon? It's 1000% obvious... At least to us 😒😒😒 You summed things up really perfectly, I'm not sure what else I can add honestly... T*m was unhealthy & dangerous for Liz, R*ssler is brotherly at best, & we're still the disgusting ones 😐 I know the lines have always been blurred with this show (& that's TPTB's fault btw) but the fact that we receive so much hate for shipping Liz with the ONE male character that loves & protects her with his whole self & NOT the abuser OR the mannequin? K 🙄 Long story short, anon, I agree with you, & thank you for this 🥺 Much love to you, my friend!! ❤️

[aomine-dajki]

#love is when he always notices when you’re upset

[keenlerblacklist]

[kiss-my-freckle]

I’ll begin with the flashback in 8x4. 

Esi: You gonna tell me about it? The washer. Back at the apartment. We nearly got caught because of it. I think you owe me an explanation. Liz: It’s my engagement ring. Tom used to have this boat he was always tinkering with, you know, repairing. And one day he just pulled this out of his tool box and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

Liz: You want to see what else brings me luck? Agnes: What is that? Liz: Did I ever tell you how your Daddy asked me to marry him?

The comments about boats in 9x12. 

Ressler: Look, I appreciate what you’re doing, but we’re not in the same boat.

Aram: You’re right. That’s a - That’s a different boat. Ressler: It’s a different ocean.

Red’s comment to Ressler in 9x1.

Red: A life with Agnes wasn’t all she wanted. She wanted a life with you.

Liz: I am attempting to build a life with the father of my child.

Not forgetting the fact that Ressler took a pregnancy test on top of a drug test when he used Park’s urine. 

Belinda: Shopping for someone special? Ressler: I am.

Or the conversation Ressler had with the florist in 9x7. If Liz is considered special, then Agnes would be considered very special. 

Liz: Why involve me? I’m nobody. It’s my first day. Nothin’ special about me. Red: Oh, I think you’re very special…

Or how that conversation hit her funeral. 

Cooper: I’ll never forget the day I met her. It was her first day on the job. She had been offered an opportunity that most agents wait a lifetime to get. “Why me?” she asked. “I’m nobody special.” I think we all know different.

The florist continues. 

Ressler: I’m actually looking for carnations. Belinda: Oh. Honey. I think we can do better. If you ask me, carnations are the sad flower of weddings past. Ressler: Well, sad or not, they’re her favorite. She always said that people underestimate their beauty. Belinda: Okay. Understood. Did you have a color in mind? The pink and the red are both so lovely. Ressler: She likes the purple. Belinda: Ah! Is she impulsive? Unpredictable? Ressler: If it’s all the same to you, I’m in a bit of a hurry. Belinda: Of course. This’ll just be a minute. Ressler: She’s impulsive and unpredictable. 

What’s impulsive and unpredictable, but a shotgun wedding. 

Liz: Doesn’t this feel right? To do it now, today, at St. Cecilia’s, where we wanted to do it the first time? Tom: It feels kind of crazy. I mean, there’s other dates available. Liz: April 25th. I’m due on the 22nd.

Tom: Well, you always wanted a shotgun wedding.

The very definition of which centers around a pregnant bride. Back to that comment Liz made to Agnes, and how it feeds into Ressler’s conversation with the florist. 

Liz: You want to see what else brings me luck? Agnes: What is that? Liz: Did I ever tell you how your Daddy asked me to marry him?

Belinda: Well, it sounds like she is about the luckiest woman alive. To have someone give so much thought and attention to a moment like this. You - You really see her. And if she has no more sense than a titmouse, she’s gonna say yes. Ressler: Oh, this isn’t - I’m not gonna, uh - Belinda: Is she expecting it? I hope not. A proposal’s so much better when it’s a surprise.

The addition of Kate in Marvin’s arc is just as important, since that’s the moment Kate chose to betray Red... according to what she believed to be true.

Red: She never should have been at that Godforsaken church. Kaplan: Stop it, Raymond! 

Back to that florist’s comment. 

Belinda: You - You really SEE her.

How many times have I said Ressler knew Liz better than Red? He did. Red had a blind spot because he’s Liz’s mother. 

The Red Wedding leads alone sell my Keenler baby/memory wipe theory. Agnes’ “daddy” NEVER proposed to Liz. He buried her... twice. I’m saying Liz’s flashback of Tom’s proposal was purposefully placed after her sex with Ressler because Ressler is the true father of Agnes. 

Liz: And inside the warehouse was… a fake apartment! Oh, look! It’s your (fake) daddy in your fake living room.