#shes so fanficky if that makes sense

[snail-of-fire]

IT'S MAL'S BDAY!!! So this is my first attempt at drawing female version of them, because I love 'em very much!! 💗💗 (also kind of rushed lmao soz)

creating a new MC for Mal's route that falls victim to the thousand yard stare and the longing looks. will defo be drawing them more (as well as the rest of the characters at some point)

Character belongs to @lacunafiction (happy bday to one of the scariest but hottest characters 🥳)

[nightqueendany]

The Original Final Season 7 - Preface

Okay guys. I’m still polishing up some of the later episodes, but this whole thing is almost done. And as motivation to make me finish the later episodes and publish them, I’m going to give you Episode 1 today, in a post directly following this one. If you do not see the link just yet, simply refresh this post and I should have put it in place, pending no issues with my Internet connection.

I’ve talked about this A LOT. What follows below and in subsequent weeks (I’m going to make you guys suffer, I’m going to put each episode out weekly) is 1) my explanation for WHY specifically I believe there was an “Original Final Season 7” and also, 2) WHAT I believe that Final Season contained.

NOTE: I will refer to the actual show events of Seasons 7 and 8 as “show canon” and will refer to my speculation as “Original Final Season 7.”

*Disclaimer because I have this weird feeling I’m going to get bombarded with anons asking me for links to “the original scripts” or interviews where this is all mentioned or something:

THIS IS ALL MY OWN SPECULATION. NONE OF THIS HAS BEEN PROVEN TRUE. THERE ARE NO “ORIGINAL SCRIPTS” FOR A FINAL SEASON 7...THAT I KNOW OF.

Alright, now that that’s taken care of, I’m gonna lay this out here for you guys. (Parts of this may get fanficky but whatever, this is what makes the most sense in my mind based on what we’ve got on the table).

(Also note, this series will be really really fucking long because it includes what I *think* the original Season was, and evidence from aired episodes as to why I think that, along with long-winded, detailed descriptions of scenes, etc. Sorry not sorry)

Here is how I went about this speculation to determine what I believe was likely the “Original Final Season 7”:

1) I looked for instances in the series as a whole where plots were never finished OR scenes/lines were either retconned or never paid off  - i.e. Dany’s S2 throne room scene script clearly saying “snow” and in 8x06 it’s now ash - post Emmy script release note: the script may say “snow” but remember, it’s the same day as the attack on the city from 8x05 when it was sunny and super hot outside. Either the script was changed just to make it say “snow” OR it was snow in the 8x06 episode, but D&D literally changed the fucking weather just to make it snowing in Dany’s throne room scene when King’s Landing hasn’t had snow since 7x07. Either way, something was retconned and it’s fucking idiotic and hella obvious.

2) I examined Seasons 7&8 specifically for the same things - scenes/lines never paid off or left unfinished/unexplained, i.e. Yara’s line “somewhere the dead can’t go” when this was never needed because the Night King was defeated in one episode; also all the baby talk between Jon and Dany and Dany never being pregnant in show canon.

3) I looked for instances in the series where a plot was “undone” in a very short span of time. Meaning, something that could have taken seasons upon seasons for buildup but was scrapped or easily deconstructed an episode later or same episode - i.e. Jaime/Brienne finally getting together in 8x04 and Jaime leaving Brienne that same episode; also Theon rescuing Yara from Euron’s ship very easily in 8x01 when she was a captive for most of Season 7.

4) And lastly, I looked for things that have been said/mentioned either in show canon or by cast/staff that ignores something previous that is a contradiction of their words - i.e. Jon pledging to Dany in 7x06 after she already said she would help him and Jon in 8x01 saying he gave up his crown so Dany would come help OR Dan Weiss saying in 7x05 that Dany isn’t mad and isn’t her father and then in S8 naming Dany the “Mad Queen”.

There are many of these instances in the series so it wasn’t hard to map out a rough outline of what I believe the “Original Final Season 7” was.

So, why do I even think there even was an original, final Season 7 outline/possibly even an entire Season of script? Why do I think this a likely possibility rather than me just being a delusional Dany Stan who wanted a different ending for my fave?

Back as early as 2013, after season 3 ended, the number 7 was being thrown around. Seven seasons to finish the series.

[Producer Frank] Doelger said: “[The number of series (seasons)] is being discussed as we speak. The third season was the first half of book three, season four will be the second part of book three. George RR Martin has written books four and five; six and seven are pending....I would hope that, if we all survive, and if the audience stays with us we’ll probably get through to seven seasons.”

Keep in mind, at this same time, D&D had also JUST had their meeting with George about the series endpoints.

“Last year we went out to Santa Fe for a week to sit down with him [Martin] and just talk through where things are going, because we don’t know if we are going to catch up and where exactly that would be. If you know the ending, then you can lay the groundwork for it. And so we want to know how everything ends. We want to be able to set things up. So we just sat down with him and literally went through every character.”

Vanity Fair, March 24th, 2014 (LAST year being spring 2013)

So this meeting on the series conclusion took place right when D&D were just polishing up the scripts for Season 4, before filming began that summer). A year after their meeting with George, (the same 2014 Vanity Fair article), D&D apparently played with the idea of an eighth season, but that could have just been the reporter’s speculation.

In other interviews, they were fairly adamant about 7 being the “magic number.” And back in the very beginning when Dave and Dan first started Thrones, they always said they imagined the series taking 70-75 hours to tell the story - so again, the equivalent of 70 episodes or a normal full 7 Seasons of 10 episodes each).

With the major complaint from both last season and season 8 being that it felt “rushed” however, people may wonder how the hell the series was supposed to conclude after Season 6. However, when you think about it, Season 7 being the final season doesn’t seem that odd if it were originally going to be a regular 10 episode arc. The final two seasons only totaled 13 episodes anyway, so really, it’s just three fewer episodes than in the version that we got. And if some episodes in the final Season 7 were over an hour long, the series as a whole would easily reach that 70-75 hours D&D always talked about.

So, what was the original 10 episode final Season 7 supposed to look like?

Season 7 Episode 1: ?

Season 7 Episode 2: ?

Season 7 Episode 3: ?

Season 7 Episode 4: ?

Season 7 Episode 5: ?

Season 7 Episode 6: ?

Season 7 Episode 7: ?

Season 7 Episode 8: ?

Season 7 Episode 9: ?

Season 7 Episode 10: ?

To figure out the outline of the 10 Episode Final Season, let’s start near the end.

ONE FINAL BATTLE

Author George R.R. Martin, whose series of novels forms the basis for Thrones, had revealed to the duo the broad strokes of how his Song of Ice and Fire saga secretly ends, including a description of an epic FINAL BATTLE that’s been teased from the show’s VERY FIRST SCENE. But this climactic confrontation was miles out of reach for a series that cost about $5 million per episode. “We have a very generous budget from HBO, but we know what’s coming down the line and, ultimately, it’s not generous enough,” Benioff said.

EW

When Entertainment Weekly interviewed D&D back during the filming of Season 3, D&D made it sound like George had planned only ONE final battle - the battle between the living and the dead. Not two battles, one with the living against the dead and another later battle with the living against the living. Just ONE.

(Also should note, this says the FINAL BATTLE was teased from the show’s FIRST scene, which contained the White Walkers but not Daenerys. Daenerys didn’t even appear in the episode until sometime much later meaning the “epic final battle” was about the White Walkers, not Dany burning down King’s Landing as we got in show canon).

Both the books and the show begin by showing the audience the threat beyond the Wall. This is the main threat. This is the main event. The Game of Thrones doesn’t matter and is a distraction for both the audience and the characters. In GRRM’s original outline, he explicitly says that the greatest threat to the realm of Westeros is the Others and that there will be one final battle.

So this was our original “Episode 9”. Literally and figuratively. Episode 9 is always supposed to be the episode where the craziest thing happens in the entire season - Ned’s death, Battle of Blackwater, Red Wedding, Battle at Castle Black, Dany flying away on Drogon from the fighting pits of Meereen, Battle of the Bastards.

The only exception to this could be argued to be Season 5 as Jon Snow is killed in Episode 10, not episode 9. However, the change in structure of the season was probably the biggest clue to the audience that Jon wasn’t going to stay dead, as they had never ended a season on a cliffhanger of the death of a major character. We’ve always been given one more episode afterward to process said character’s death.

If Jon were going to die and stay dead, he would have died in Season 5 Episode 9, because of this pattern: Season 1 Episode 9 - Stark death (Ned). Season 2 Episode 9 - Battle (Blackwater). Season 3 Episode 9 - Stark death (Robb). Season 4 Episode 9 - Battle (Castle Black). Season 5 Episode 9 - no Stark death (where there should have been - and a Battle was in Episode 8 - Hardhome). Season 6 Episode 9 makes up for the flaw in the pattern where we get a Battle and a Stark death (Rickon).

Ergo, based on George’s original outline, D&D’s previous statements about George’s plan, and the pattern, 7x09 was the original Battle for the Dawn. So that’s what I’ll call this episode.

Season 7 Episode 1: ?

Season 7 Episode 2: ?

Season 7 Episode 3: ?

Season 7 Episode 4: ?

Season 7 Episode 5: ?

Season 7 Episode 6: ?

Season 7 Episode 7: ?

Season 7 Episode 8: ?

Season 7 Episode 9: The Battle For The Dawn

Season 7 Episode 10: ?

I don’t want to give the entire season away just yet, as I’ll be posting each episode in full detail, but I will fill in one more “event” from the outline above.

In the 7x06 Inside the Episode, David Benioff said something that I’ve always found very interesting.

“The whole path of the show, in some way, had been trying to map out all the episode endpoints and with this one, it was the dragon opening its blue eye. And realizing that the Night King has finally gotten his own weapon of mass destruction.”

This statement really made me think because a) it tells us how D&D planned the series - mapping everything out by episode endpoints. And b) Benioff doesn’t say “the ending of the penultimate episode of Season 7.” He just says, “this one.” So this tells me, if anything, D&D had always planned to kill Viserion and have the Night King raise him as his mount. BUT it also tells me this was always meant to happen in 7x06, regardless of when Season 7 ended….either at an Episode 7 or an Episode 10.

Season 7 Episode 1: ?

Season 7 Episode 2: ?

Season 7 Episode 3: ?

Season 7 Episode 4: ?

Season 7 Episode 5: ?

Season 7 Episode 6: ends with Wight!Viserion opening his blue eye

Season 7 Episode 7: ?

Season 7 Episode 8: ?

Season 7 Episode 9: The Battle For The Dawn

Season 7 Episode 10: ?

So what does each episode of the “Original Final Season 7″ look like? The following posts will be my rendering of a final, ten-episode Season 7 with explanations as to why certain events happen and why they’re likely based on the show canon, Seasons 7 and 8.

Without further adieu, here is what I believe to be the Original Final Season 7:

(Links to come weekly as I post each Episode, if link does not work immediately, just refresh a few times until it does. Two episodes today as Episode 1 is very short and familiar, Episode 3 next Tuesday!)

Original Final Season 7: Preface Post (Current Episode)

Season 7 Episode 1: Family, Duty, Honor

Season 7 Episode 2: Greywater Watch

Season 7 Episode 3: The Last of the Dragons

Season 7 Episode 4: Dragonglass

Season 7 Episode 5: The Storm

Season 7 Episode 6: Summerhall 

Season 7 Episode 7: A City Fit For A King

Season 7 Episode 8: Protectors of the Realm

Season 7 Episode 9: The Battle For The Dawn

Season 7 Episode 10: ?

[fannyatrollop]

Big Fat Fic Review: Galactica

Hello, my name is Nya and I have something to say. I love to talk and have been wanting to do fic reviews, like my friend and inspiration @lulufeca. Seriously, this girl is a saint among us, she reads and reviews almost everything. She’s even done some of my work!

I have a couple of things to clarify before I get to my first victim, which is Galactica by @theartificialdane and @veronicasanders. I very much have it in me to tear things apart wantonly and just be a huge bitch, I’m a very fussy reader and an even fussier writer. That being said, I won’t be indulging in that kind of behaviour here. If I truly hate something, I won’t bother writing multiple paragraphs of it. I think that anyone who can take a fic from beginning to end has, at the very least, a good first draft that can be improved with some extra love and care. And it’s so much easier to pick on others than it is to actually write. Before I started writing my own stuff, I would say that even the shittiest fanfic author is doing something my hoity-toity self can’t manage: sitting down and bringing a vision to life. It wasn’t until very recently that I could say I was doing that much.

Also I must stress that I hold my own ass to a very high standard when it comes to writing. I keep editing even after I post chapters. I recently did a pretty thorough edit of a something I posted several months ago because I lay awake at night thinking it could be better. Not everyone is like this, and we’re all here for fun, but this is the perspective I bring to my critiques.

Now, let’s talk Galactica. Specifically, the main story, I have not really read the follow ups.

(I will add a cut when I get in my laptop.)

My overall impression, and the hill I will die on if I have my way, is that this story ought to get the Fifty Shades treatment so it can become the shlocky TV drama it deserves to be. It would be perfection on the screen, right at home with the likes of Dynasty and Sex and the City. The clothes alone sell it for me. It’s long enough that you can mine a few seasons out of the main story, perfect for American television.

There are many things about the fic that didn’t work for me, but even factoring those in I remained firm in the opinion that if it was possible to make it so, adapting the story into a visual medium would really make it shine. I was very impressed by the knowledge of fashion in this story, the way it read like it was written by someone with a lot of knowledge about the world they’d set it in. Seriously, can you imagine the costumes? And being able to actually see Violet’s painstakingly hand beaded garments after watching her greet dawns working on them? I’d tune the fuck in, that I would.

For me, though, the biggest area of work would be editing. I read it on ao3 and there are parts where I would advise the authors to do a wee read through and look for chapters where they’ve accidentally repeated entire scenes while chopping it up from its original format. (I’m aware that it was longer on Tumblr chapters-wise, and have no idea how it was divided up here exactly.) The million characters and plotlines give us a lot to enjoy in this world, but it’s my personal opinion that the camera had a tendency to linger a bit too long on players that weren’t as compelling. It starts stronger than it ends in this sense; the first chapters were a bit more focused, the line between “lead” and “supporting” more clearly drawn. That being said there’s a scene where characters with bit parts talk about feeling like they’re extras in someone else’s story… clever move.

Also about the ending… I like where it ended, it shows a great narrative instinct, but I feel like it dropped off a cliff a little. It ended, but it raised enough additional drama that I didn’t feel like the story concluded. As a sequel hook, I guess that’s not a terrible way to go about it, but it makes for a weak ending.

Even so, the story had me hooked. I have a lot of respect for the amount of effort and stamina it must have taken to write it. I like the variety of characters that were included, and even though some of the ships weren’t quite to my tastes, I liked the fact that they were there because they were different. I’m always crying out for something different, and Galactica delivered. One of my favourite relationships was the friendship between Betty and Violet. I skipped through a lot of scenes, but if it involved the two of them hanging out I would always read it.

(Victor Hugo saw fit to write at length about the Parisian sewage system and I skipped the fuck outta that, double Dutch.)

Also really loved Trixie and Katya in this. They were the most natural couple for me. I especially loved it when Katya would read textbooks to help Trixie sleep.

I pretty much grew to like… love to hate Raven too. She pissed me off so much at times and could come across as borderline sociopathic but I felt like the narrative knows she cray, which made her a lot of fun. She swung from being a toddler, to a giant bitch, to a saint with such violence that I kept my eyes peeled for what she’d do next.

What kept me hooked, though, was Violet’s professional journey, and all the fashion drama involved. My favourite parts were watching Violet have client meetings for her commissions and just blow them out of the water. I loved the company drama. My favourite part of the later chapters were the little gossip rag; whoever V was gave me everything I needed.

Galactica is one of the most fanficky fanfics I’ve read in recent times. It’s a masterpiece in dedication, and honestly guys, change the names and sell it to the CW. It would be amazing television.

Don’t know where exactly to read it on here, but on ao3 it’s here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9180625/chapters/20837683