#tww season 7

[havepatienceandendure]

Not me yelling at my laptop during a fictional presidential debate

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

[youre-fired-s-seaborn]

Me: Wow I’ve been very stressed out lately, maybe I should watch something nostalgic that’s calming & comforting

Aaron sorkin, holding 7 seasons of a dumb 90s political drama that’s had a chokehold on me since middle school: hiiiii hihihi did you miss me

[onekisstotakewithme]

🔥 TWW

I have many opinions on TWW and some of them are fairly unpopular so uhhhh here goes.

I'll get the biggest one out of the way first: for when it happened, I actually don't find the shuttle leak storyline out of character for Toby, nor do I hate it. If it had happened back in season 4, sure, and I'm mad at the post-Sorkin writing team for their slow destruction of Toby's character, but by end of s6, start of s7, it's not out of character for him. Could it have been better executed? Sure. But where he is as a character, unfortunately, it doesn't feel supremely terrible to me.

Second, the best Donna is season 1 Donna. A bit of an audience surrogate sometimes but in a not-overly-clumsy way, funny and spunky and just a bit quirky... and her dynamic with Josh is SO fun in season 1. I'm almost through s1 in my rewatch and I'd genuinely forgotten how much I enjoyed Donna. I feel like she really got flattened out once they really committed to the will they/won't they with Josh, and then was worse because of the whole season 6/7 disaster (that was a mess!), PLUS they had her make some very dumb decisions to advance the plot that did not feel realistic (the dumb shit with Cliff Calley, the accidentally voting for Ritchie).

(more under the cut because apparently I'm not done!)

I know season 5 was the weakest season overall, BUT season 4 was the weakest Sorkin season. I'm not saying season 4 needed to be all about re-election, but I feel like there was a better balance to strike between the "rush through all the election stuff by episode 8-ish" and "stretch it out into a season and a half long affair" (as in 6-7). It also just, despite everything it took to get to this point, felt INCREDIBLY rushed and unsatisfying. it didn't feel like there were any stakes! I wanted to see the whole debate, I wanted to see a genuine election night with stakes, dammit! And I think, much as I love Will, that dedicating so much time to THAT storyline was part of the problem. This also wasn't helped by the fact that Ritchie was a caricature and a Bush expy which worked when the episodes were airing but just makes him look cartoonish and one-dimensional now. Like Arnie Vinick may be a unicorn of a Republican and impossible to believe in now, but at least he's a person and not a cardboard cutout. Anyway! It feels like for all the build-up to the difficulty of getting re-elected post-MS scandal, it was just. they won, shuffle them offscreen again.

Okay, fuck, this is getting long.

I don't MIND Annabeth but I find the whole Leo-Annabeth flirtation thing REALLY weird and honestly out of left field. That scene in the elevator where she says they shouldn't be spending too much time together 'because of the tension', I was RIGHT THERE with Leo like 'what tension?' Like I'm sorry, I just don't see it!

Okay a few more bullet-point gripes just because

I got used to it eventually but I'm still not a fan that CJ got promoted to COS. Like yeah by the end she did a damn good job and she has one of the best relationships with Jed, but c'mon. she loved being press secretary, and she was a damn good one.

CJ's dark hair in season 7 is not a good look on her, I'm sorry CJ my love, but it doesn't look good. The only non-canon part of the flashfoward is that she definitely does NOT still have that hair.

Amy was fun when she first appeared, but in seasons 6 and 7 her character definitely got worse.

For the most part, I actually wanted less election plot in season 7 and more focus on the west wing (and I say this as loving both Matt and Arnie!)

Gina Toscano/CJ is a great ship also. I rewatched "six meetings before lunch" last night and remembered that I ship them.

Episode specific: the B-plot of Requiem makes absolutely no sense to me and I've watched the episode about 6 or 7 times now (the whole 'meddling in the speaker race' plot).

And finally: Danny should've been in every single season, as a regularly recurring character. I know that Tim Busfield was busy with other commitments but Mr. Busfield, I'm begging you.

TL;DR:

[shortson]

rewatching noël and i just 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

[solar-settings]

every time I decide to watch something new of aaron sorkin's I discover previously unimaginable heights of hatred for that man!! my most complex and toxic relationship is with him...how can I lovehate his creations so much

[ivaalo]

Introduction

This is a fan analysis about the results of 24 polls posted on Tumblr by the user @zeldatourney. Huge thanks to them to have organized this tourney.

(Keep in mind my first language isn't English, so I might make some minor mistakes)

This is a long post with multiple graphs, so I'm putting a "Read more" button here!

For each game, the question asked was "How high does [game] rank?" with 7 answers possible to choose:

S tier (One of the greatest)

A tier (A favorite)

B tier (I like it)

C tier (Meh)

D tier (I'd rather play something else)

F tier (AWFUL)

I haven't played this game

The poll started on the 2nd of December 2024 and ended the 9th of December 2024.

Disclaimer: This is not a representation of the Zelda community as a whole, but a result of people who saw and voted for the polls between those previously quoted dates.

For the rest of this post, I will simplify each game's name by its abbreviations. For example, "A Link To The Past" will be named "ALTTP". The polls didn't specify if it contains the original games or both the original games and the remakes. They will be named as such:

[TLOZ] The Legend of Zelda

[AOL] Adventure of Link

[ALTTP] A Link to the Past

[LA] Link's Awakening (DX) (+ the unnamed 2019 remake)

[OOT] Ocarina of Time (3D)

[MM] Majora's Mask (3D)

[OOS] Oracle of Seasons

[OOA] Oracle of Ages

[FS] Four Swords (Anniversary Edition)

[TWW] The Wind Waker (HD)

[FSA] Four Swords Adventures

[TMC] The Minish Cap

[TP] Twilight Princess (HD)

[PH] Phantom Hourglass

[ST] Spirit Tracks

[SS] Skyward Sword (HD)

[ALBW] A Link Between Worlds

[HW] Hyrule Warriors (Legend / Definitive Edition)

[TFH] Tri Force Heroes

[BOTW] Breath of the Wild

[COH] Cadence of Hyrule

[AOC] Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

[TOTK] Tears of the Kingdom

[EOW] Echoes of Wisdom

Collected data

Each poll being independent from each other, the number of votes varies from one poll to another.

For each games, I added the percentage (as picked up from the HTML for a better precision). The result is either 99.999, 100 or 100.001, so I sometimes cheated to add or remove 0.001 somewhere. Tumblr doesn't give you access to the exact numbers of vote per option.

So before ranking the games, I have to show you first what games are the most played. Adding all answers and doing:

Played (%) = 100 - "I haven't played this game" (%)

I'll use colours to differentiate 2D games (in terms of gameplay) to 3D games. I'll also highlight spin-off games and multiplayer games.

Here are the games played by more than 75% of players:

We can already see a huge pattern. All the 3D games are there. And the only 2D Zelda game to be played by 75% of players is ALBW. BOTW and OOT are the most played games of the sample, as those were huge turning points and both cultural and commercial success.

We can also notice the difference of 5% between the least played 3D game (MM) and the most played 2D game (ALBW).

Let's continue to look at the other played games:

EOW is most likely low as it's the most recent game, at this time, but also because it's not a 3D game. And the hype train was low compared to TOTK. (3 months of anticipation compared to 4 years)

And finally, the multiplayer games are the least played games, excluding COH. Also worth noting that all the spin-off games cited can also be played with another player, but it wasn't the main focus of the communication. COH being a musical tactical rogue-lite only appealed to a specific part of Zelda fans.

If these polls contained the CD-i Zelda games, Link's Crossbow Training and Tingle games, the score would probably be under COH, but we never know!

I'll keep these colours as labels, to recognize them better in the next images.

Alright. Time to share the ranking. Here is the global result, sorted by release date in North America:

It's kind of a lot to see! Overall, the games are pretty liked. So first, let's take a look at the disliked games:

Please note that the X-axis was zoomed, so we can see the result better.

We can already notice that AOL makes a huge contrast. As this game is considered as the black sheep of the franchise because of how different it is, its reputation mostly came from the difficulty of that game.

Almost a factor of 0.5 divides the first disliked game to the second. TFH the second disliked and the original TLOZ follows.

ALBW is the least disliked, with under 1%, counting D tier and F tier.

But notice the F-tier (red) line. It varies a lot, so let's take a look at the most hated games:

Yep, TOTK is third, this time. As I don't personally think it's awful, it definitively disappointed many by being too close to BOTW and having a lot of issues BOTW didn't have.

Nobody voted "F tier" for ALTTP nor OOT. Same for OOS but keep in mind this game was the least voted one too!

Alright, enough for the hate! Let's look at the most appreciated Zelda games.

Yep, the majority of Zelda fans like 22.5 out of 24 of the games! (TFH being exactly 50, I half-counted it!)

TWW is being almost unanimously appreciated, with almost 97%, and the second one to get this score is TMC, a 2D game, with more than 96%!

You can notice some gaps, like between ST and COH, and then between the Oracle games and TOTK.

Now let's look at the most loved games:

5 3D games are in the top 5, except for SS and TOTK. TMC is very close to beat BOTW and remains the most loved 2D Zelda game. Notice how SS and TOTK make a huge gap between the game before and the game after, like voters use them as references. The two Hyrule Warriors games are, in a funny way, between the Oracle ones.

Let's add a step forward and look at the S tier only:

Nothing changes for the top 9 games. However, EOW seems more nuanced and is less considered as best than TOTK.

Final results

And finally, let's rank them using the Majority Judgment:

The Majority Judgment was created to propose a more democratic way to vote. Each candidate has multiple mentions, and you (the elector) must attribute one mention to each candidate. Since this poll uses this exact method of vote, I decided to rank them all using the Majority Judgment. To count using the Majority Judgment, you must focus on the 50% axis, and look at the category that crosses it (more than 50%). That gives you the tier, and the best tier wins.

When two or more candidates get the same tier, there are multiple ways to rank:

The first way is to put a line at the middle and see which line has the higher percentage. (Less precise but more simple)

The second way is to divide it into multiple tiers by doing the first method again and again until each candidates has a unique tier. (More precise but less simple)

But since I didn't want to compare B++++ to B+++-, I used the first method. It's my democracy and I do whatever I want!

Just keep in mind that depending on the way to count these games may be swapped:

ALTTP and LA

OOA and PH

AOC and HW

SO, for the data. Top 5 is TWW, MM, TP, OOT and BOTW. To be honest, I imagined MM to be a more nuanced game, or at least more controversial, since it has a unique concept.

The A tier only contains 2D games, except SS. TMC, ST and ALBW are the favourite 2D games. ALTTP and LA are always very close. The last one of the tier is EOW.

Only mainline games are in the S and A tier.

The first game of the B tier is a spin-off game, followed by TOTK.

TFH was one vote away from being in the B tier. And no surprise, AOL is the last one.

To sum up, according to the participants who voted for these polls:

S tier

🥇 The Wind Waker

🥈 Majora's Mask

🥉 Twilight Princess

⭐ Ocarina of Time

⭐ Breath of the Wild

A+ tier

The Minish Cap

Spirit Tracks

A- tier

A Link Between Worlds

Skyward Sword

A Link to the Past

Link's Awakening

Echoes of Wisdom

B+ tier

Cadence of Hyrule

Tears of the Kingdom

Oracle of Seasons

Oracle of Ages

Phantom Hourglass

B- tier

Age of Calamity

Hyrule Warriors

Four Swords Adventures

Four Swords

The Legend of Zelda

C+ tier

Tri Force Heroes

C- tier

Adventure of Link

Thank you for reading! ~

[wannaliveattheholidayinn]

"... we had an odd moment today. just another in a long series of odd moments meant to be ignored."

*i fall to my knees in the middle of my living room*

silly little political show thinks it can hurt me?!?!

[bartletslesbians]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to five other writers! 💗

Ahh thank you! (I was also tagged for this by @onekisstotakewithme so I'm gonna do both at once, thank you both!)

So I only started writing TWW fic in July of 2024 and I feel like I'm slowly starting to get the hang of writing these characters, so as much as I enjoy the earliest fics I wrote they're not really my favourites anymore cause (I like to think) I've improved character-wise?

My personal favourite is also the longest and currently the only WIP I have up: a feeling so peculiar. It's very angsty, though it'll have a happier ending, and it's a canon-ish AU? Where everything's the same except it starts with CJ surviving a suicide attempt somewhere at the start of season 4. It's a lot of recovery angst and Leo & CJ having an intense father & daughter relationship connecting over trauma. It's one of my favourites cause I'm proud of myself for having written 74K for it already, and I've really enjoyed exploring the different character dynamics and CJ's mental state through it all!

something they can't take away is kinda similar in that regard, in the sense that it's Leo and CJ being able to connect a little over shared mental health experiences. It's based on Leo's quote about addiction and eating disorders, and it has CJ developing an eating disorder in the aftermath of the shuttle leak. It's set on Christmas eve, almost 5K words. There's a hopeful ending. It's one of my favourites because I love exploring CJ's whole well-being during season 6 and 7, and just because I love her relationship with Leo and how well they can really get each other through different experiences.

grilled cheese & princess dresses total gear-shift from the last two bc this is pure fluff. It's a post-administration CJ/Andy fic set on Christmas eve. They're making dinner, Molly and Huck are there, it's a year since Santos took office. CJ's officially a stepmother and the whole thing really is just a happy cozy family having a nice evening and CJ thinking about how damn happy she is with them. It's one of my favourites because it's fun to indulge in fluff, and I'm just a sucker for some happy femslash. It's simply cute.

might just get away with it is also femslash, but it's smut, just 3500 words of PWP for CJ and Carol. I can never decide whether I like CJ/Andy or CJ/Carol better as a femslash ship, and I'm glad I don't have to choose. It's a post-episode of 100,000 airplanes, the ep in which CJ tells Carol "get on the couch, I'm gonna do you right now". In this fic she, well, does that, but feels guilty about it too bc of the whole assistant (and Catholic) thing. It's one of my favourites both because it's the first TWW smut I ever posted, because I love this ship so much, and cause I just really enjoy taking small bits from episodes and just going with them lmao

and finally all they keep asking me is tagged CJ & Andy bc those are the characters interacting, but really the fic is all about Andy/Toby; it's a few weeks after the twins are born, and CJ asks Andy what actually happened at the house. Andy gives her perspective. For this one, it's among my favourites because it was difficult to write and I'm kinda proud at how it turned out? I really tried walking the line between letting the character be as angry and upset as I imagine she would be after the house proposal, while continuing to show that love that there is between Andy and Toby, and not making it feel like character bashing of either of them. It was a bunch of complicated actions and emotions and I think I did a good job keeping it that way?

This was fun to think about!

If you want to, I'm tagging @thebartlets @sp3mily @hawkp and @atearsarahjane for this!

[unseenacademic]

20 questions for fic writers

I was tagged by my dear, talented friend @mihrsuri Thanks, friend! 💜💜💜💜 1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 13 at the moment 😅

2. What's your total Ao3 word count? 28,823

3. What fandoms do you write for? The West Wing.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos? The First Lady - my ongoing fic where I answer the most important question in the world: what was Abbey Bartlet doing during the episodes she didn't appear in?

Josh and the Jackass - what happened right before Governor Bartlet decided to follow Josh to the airport in In the Shadow of Two Gunmen.

Breathe - a post-ep for Dead Irish Writers. Her birthday party is over, and Abbey Bartlet must face the New Hampshire Medical Board.

A Bit Desperate - part three of a series of three-sentence fics about Abbey and Jed in the aftermath of Zoey's kidnapping.

Anything Else I Need to Know - Five times the staff of Bartlet for America interrupted a barbecuing session and one time CJ interrupted a different kind of session. Takes place during the First Bartlet Campaign.

5. Do you respond to comments? Yes, I do. I do my best to respond to every comment I get, as fast as I can. It's a two-way street, we, as fic authors, often complain (and rightly so) about the lack of feedback, the lack of comments and kudos, but we don't respond to comments. As a reader, I am more likely to comment on a fic from an author who's replied to my comments earlier. But I guess I get so few comments that I can easily respond to all of them 🤷‍♀️ and since there are like 7 people who care about what I write, the least I can do is respond to their very kind comments 💜💜

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I guess it's Anything Else I Need to Know. The ending isn't too angsty by itself, but if you put it into context and you know the overarching plot of first few seasons of TWW, it's definitely angsty. Honorable mentions: With Pomp and Parade & And the Silence Haunts our Bedchamber - they both deal with the aftermath of Zoey's kidnapping.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? White Christmas. And Something for Us to Remember too also qualifies. You have to read them to know why 😊😉

8. Do you get hate on fics? Luckily, I'm not popular or interesting enough for that 😅

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yes! Oh, all kinds! The worst thing I've ever written came before I started my fanfic writing career (I used to be involved in forum RP, I'm less active there now) and... nope, I'm not going to write about it here. Too cursed. 🙈🙈 If you want to see some sane smut I've written, check out Game On, Boyfriend! I hope I'll write another barbecuing fic soon, so stay tuned.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? I don't. But I'd love to see a TWW/NCIS crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? I hope not.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? No, but if anyone's interested, go ahead.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? No, I haven't. The closest thing to co-writing fics was RP-ing which is sort of similar, but not really lol. It might be fun, so if anyone's interested in writing with me, let me know.

14. What's your all time favorite ship? Abbey/Jed! There are many ships I love, but I have to go with my horny nerds.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? There was a WIP I started last year, the first fic I posted, but I ended up deleting it, so it's not very likely that I'll ever finish it.

16. What are your writing strengths? I'm really, really good at research lol! If I'm writing a fic set in the 1960s, I'll make sure that they're eating food, wearing clothes, listening to music etc. that was popular in that period. You won't catch any of my characters wearing historically inaccurate shoes. I'm also really good at digging up random canon details and writing thousands of words around them.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Plot lmao. I write fics about nothing, it's just banter and nerdiness, with the characters and/or the author showing off 🤣🤣

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? Hmmm... I don't know, don't think I've ever needed to do it, but I guess it depends on what I want to achieve, I might write it in English and add a dialogue tag like "she said in French" or something.

19. First fandom you wrote for? The first fandom I published a fic for was The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, but the first fandom I wrote for was Harry Potter.

20. Favorite fic you've written? Can't choose only one, so have a few of them:

Breathe: Once again, Abbey is reminded how cruel the world can be towards women. 

No one asked Jed what he was wearing when he took the censure. 

Anything Else I Need to Know: Josh finally opens the door to his room and slumps on his unmade bed.

Next time, he’s going to pay attention. He’s going to pay attention to Mrs. Landingham’s notes on the Governor's schedule. And he’s going to pay attention to Mrs. Landingham’s instructions, so he’ll know what her notes on the Governor’s schedule actually mean. Next time, he’s going to pay attention.

Had Josh been paying attention, he would’ve noticed when the Governor dashed across the hall and up the stairs right after lunch. Had he been paying attention, he would’ve noticed Leo’s smirk that followed the Governor’s departure. Had he been paying attention, perhaps he would’ve noticed the soft, rhythmic squeaking of the bed and muffled gasps and groans coming from the Bartlets’ suite right before he opened the door.

Well, too bad that Josh wasn’t paying attention.

And Something for Us to Remember too: “I take it your conversation with Doug didn’t go well?”

“I spoke slowly and I didn’t use big words, but I couldn’t talk him out of marrying Liz. Maybe I should’ve taken him on a hike. A six-hour hike through Vermont wilderness in the dead of winter would’ve changed his mind.”

“It wasn’t a six-hour anything! I was there, Jed, you were only gone for two hours.”

“You weren’t there, Abigail, you were baking with your mother, while I was fighting for dear life, braving the cold and wolves and bears.” He sighs and adds, “Guess it’s too late to take Doug hiking now and leave him for the bears.”

White Christmas: “’She – New Hampshire – is one of the two best states in the Union.��Vermont’s the other’, said Robert Frost, your favorite poet, who also happened to be the poet laureate of Vermont.” Abbey made a dramatic pause and gave Jed a pointed look.

“She’s one of the two best states in the Union. Vermont’s the other.” She continued her performance. “And the two… the two lie like wedges, thick end to thin end and thin end to thick end.”

Jed chuckled.

“Sweet Knees, we’ll lie like wedges, thick end to thin end and thin end to thick end any time you want,” he leered at her, “on our bed, in front of the fireplace, on the kitchen table…” his smirk grew when Abbey’s lips curved into a little smile and her cheeks flushed, “but Robert Frost named his poetry collection New Hampshire, not Vermont.”

“Well, I’m going to write the words ‘Freedom and Unity’ on the pie and you’re going to eat them!”

The First Lady: “Mrs. Landingham withholds food from me,” he complained.

“Because I asked her to.”

“Yeah, cause you don’t want me eating real food like steaks or hamburgers. She won’t let me have a banana.”

“I’m sure you did something to piss her off.” Abbey shrugged.

“Do you two enjoy torturing me?”

“Yes,” she said innocently.

Tagging (no pressure!): @claudiajcregg @onekisstotakewithme @hondagirll @miabicicletta @librarianmouse @holy-ships-x-red-lips

💜💜💜💜💜💜

[twwpress]

Weekly Press Briefing #70: October 22nd - October 28th

Welcome back to the Weekly Press Briefing, where we bring you highlights from The West Wing fandom each week, including new fics, ongoing challenges, and more! This briefing covers all things posted from October 22 - October 28, 2023! Did we miss something? Let us know; you can find our contact info at the bottom of this briefing! 

Challenges/Prompts:

There are no open challenges/prompts that we know of this week. Do you have a challenge or event you’d like us to promote or know of one we’re missing? Be sure to get in touch with us! Contact info is at the bottom of this briefing.

This Week in Canon:

Welcome back to This Week in Canon, where we revisit moments in The West Wing that occurred on these dates during the show’s run.

Season 2, Episode 4: In This White House aired on October 25, 2000.

Season 3, Episode 3: Ways and Means aired on October 24, 2001.

Season 5, Episode 4: Han aired on October 22, 2003.

Season 6, Episode 2: The Birnam Wood aired on October 27, 2004.

Season 7, Episode 5: Here Today aired on October 23, 2005.

Photos/Videos:

Here’s what was posted from October 22 - October 28:

Amy Landecker posted photos of her and Brad’s new puppy, Angie: 1 | 2

Amy Landecker posted photos of her and husband Bradley Whitford with his The Handmaid’s Tale castmades Ever Carradine and Julie Dretzin at the Hudson Theatre, where Julie is appearing in Sea of Terror. Bradley Whitford posted one of these photos too. 

Amy Landecker posted a graphic promoting an upcoming Stories from the Front Line event in LA on November 2. 

Josh Malina posted a video of himself encouraging his fellow union members to stay SAG-AFTRA strong, as well as a version with captions. 

Josh Malina posted photos from a couple’s memorable wedding in celebration of their anniversary: 1 | 2 

Marlee Matlin posted photos from Family Weekend at UO, where her youngest daughter is a student. 

Marlee Matlin posted a video of Maine Governor Janet Mills hugging the ASL interpreter when speaking on CNN about the tragic mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, in which multiple victims were members of the Deaf community. 

Marlee Matlin posted in memory of Matthew Perry.

Mary McCormack posted a photo of herself walking the SAG-AFTRA picket line with Mac Brandt. 

Peter James Smith posted a photo of himself on the SAG-AFTRA picket line with Greg Daniels. 

Rob Lowe posted a photo of himself and his son Johnny on the pickleball court. 

Donna Moss Daily: October 22 | October 23 | October 24 | October 25 | October 26 | October 27 | October 28

Daily Josh Lyman: October 22 | October 23 | October 24 | October 25 | October 26 | October 27 | October 28

No Context BWhit: October 22 | October 23 | October 24 | October 25 | October 26 | October 27 | October 28

@twwarchive: October 22 | October 23 | October 24 | October 25 | October 26 | October 27 | October 28

Miscellaneous:

On October 28th, beloved actor Matthew Perry passed away. In addition to being known around the world for playing Chandler Bing on Friends, TWW and Sorkinverse fans also know and love him for his roles as Joe Quincy, the Associate White House Counsel who replaces Ainsley Hayes, and Matt Albie on Studio 60. We are deeply saddened by this loss and are sending our love to his family, friends, and fans. 

Edits/Artwork:

#joshdonnamsr (taylor’s version)! by @hvnleia [VIDEO EDIT] #JOSHDONNA: i broke my own heart ‘cause you were too polite to do it by @JessBakesCakes [VIDEO EDIT]

Editors’ Choice: 

Trick or treat! To celebrate spooky season, we rounded up some of our favorite Halloween fics that weren’t in last year’s Halloween round-up. Stay in with these sweet (and mostly not-so scary) treats! 

Dead Man's Creek by LadyReisling for RisalSoran | Rated G | No Pairings Listed (Gen Fic) | Complete | No political operative in their right mind would be here four days before the election. But they all lived by the same credo: Let Bartlet be Bartlet. "Who said this is a good idea?" by msmarycrawley | Rated G | No Pairings Listed (Gen Fic) | Complete | The country’s best and brightest decorate the White House for Halloween. life and love are the same by jazzjo | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss, C. J. Cregg/Andrea Wyatt/Toby Ziegler (implied) | Complete | As far as Josh knows, his baby girl has it all figured out. If things were different... by Khoshekh42 | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Sam Seaborn | Complete | Josh hands out candy on Halloween. He and Sam talk about their relationship. all dressed up by sam_writes_fics | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss, Ainsley Hayes/Sam Seaborn | Complete | Josh and Donna take their kids trick or treating. // Halloween fic set fifteen (ish) years post canon. Stuck in the Middle With You by blueteak for SuburbanSun | Rated G | Josh Lyman/Donna Moss | Complete | fter an hour stuck in the elevator on Halloween, senior staff suspected the reason they were still stuck there had something to do with Leo trying to teach them a lesson. White House elevators couldn't just get stuck like others, could they? tears and fears and feelin’ proud by jeaniecregg | Rated G | C. J. Cregg/Toby Ziegler | Complete | CJ drags Toby to a scary movie.

We will be reblogging this week's fics shortly!

[hotchkissroyale]

You Can't Leave (TWW Fanfic)

You Can't Leave: F/M, Will/Kate. Will and Kate are stuck at a state dinner where they don't know the language. Will tries to leave, Kate convinces him to stay.

Excerpt:

He started to push his chair back. “I’m going to get some air.” Kate’s arm caught him on the wrist before he could move, pinning him like a vice. She shook her head almost imperceptibly, her eyes boring a hole into him that felt bone-deep. “You can’t leave.”

As with my previous post, this was written from @twwpress Wheel of Destiny Drabble Challenge. My prompts were: Season 7, Trapped Together, and a state dinner.

[onekisstotakewithme]

Self-Rec (of a TWW flavour)

Rules: Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to five other writers! 💗

tagged by the lovely @miabicicletta to do this, and it sounded fun! Always appreciate the encouragement to toot my own horn a little.

(These are gonna all be tww, and I'm only replying with completed ones... sorry to my WIPS (Pres!CJ 😭)

Gravitas (3.1k) - CJ and Danny's first meeting, written to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the pilot (and my 25th TWW fic). I LOVE writing campaign stories, and I'm pretty proud of this one.

None of Use are More than Caretakers (66k) - the "missing episode" in season 7 between "Last Hurrah" and "Institutional Memory," focused around Gerald Ford's funeral, and CJ and Danny's relationship. Also my first TWW multi-chapter work (allll the way back in 2023!). This one has been on my mind lately because of Jimmy Carter's funeral... I'm sure looking back, I'd do some things differently/better but I do love it for what it is!

(Born to be) National Treasures (5.8k) - did I mention I love campaign stories? This one is set during Larry Posner's infamous Democratic fundraiser and features some of my favourite things - Josh and Danny friendship, Abbey taking Danny under her wing, and CJ and Danny bickering like they're going to for the rest of their lives!

Wrong Place at the Right Time (26.7k) - CJ and Danny start (secretly) dating after he shows up for the President's re-election campaign kick-off in Manchester. Three chapters. This one is so fun and so silly (and it took me forever to write until i took all the Serious Plot Points out), and that's an energy I'd like to carry forward into my other works. (To mixed results).

Quelle Surprise (3.1k) - speaking of fun and silly, how about this one? a Fun little post-canon married fic where CJ accidentlaly blurts out that she thinks she's pregnant... in the middle of sex. (This was so deeply unserious, I was on something else this summer with the fun, silly, spicy stories. Anyone know where I can go to get more of that energy?)

Honourable mentions go to my beloved gen(ish) fics Two for the Road (an exploration of CJ and Toby's friendship across various election nights; 5.3k) and The Day on Which They Shall Give Their Votes (Election Day 1998; 3.3k).

Thank you again, Mia 💜

(Oh, and not me forgetting to tag other authors! *facepalm* uhhh @allatariel @bartletslesbians @malkaleh @sloganeeer @unseenacademic)

[trelkez]

I've had a bunch of comments on Skies Above Are Blue this past week, and I'm not sure where those are coming from, but it did remind me I need to port my assorted Tumblr fic over to AO3! I'll be working on that this week.

On the off chance anyone is still following me here for fic, I haven't posted any lately, but I have several things in the works waiting for my semester to end so I can finish/edit and post them:

• three 40k-each-ish Stranger Things Steve/Eddie fics, all of which are, um, AUs:

- a domestic roommates futurefic story set in the 90s

- a s4 finale AU in which Steve and Eddie are ghosts(?) but they're fine! everything is fine

- a third one I'm excited about but keeping under wraps for now

• OFMD fic from last summer? the new season might beat me there, in which case I will probably sit on it until I've seen how s2 goes, because it is a full AU drawing on a lot of historical pirates the show hasn't gotten into yet

• The West Wing (yes, TWW, in the year 2023) fic which is my current academic stress avoidance hyperfixation project and thus is at 60k and steadily climbing!

- an AU that branches off of canon about a decade before the show starts, and is a reworking of seasons 6 & 7 plus a few years after

- the main pairing is Josh Lyman/Matt Santos, but along the way this turned into a sprawling many-pov fix-it of sorts that won't stop growing? so who knows how long it will ultimately be

so that's me rn, also a bunch of vid wips for Kinnporsche and Thor and TKEM and other things! vids! also probably waiting for summer break, but someday: fic and vids.

[thebreakfastgenie]

in terms of shows I associate you with MASH because you are my MASHtual and I also associate you with West Wing which I have not watched but I do enjoy your posts on it. I also associate you with great takes (both for shows and for irl things)

also because I know you love to talk about em feel free to use this ask as an excuse to talk about a WIP of your choosing because I also associate you with good fics -ypq

omg hi thank you <3

also like you should watch The West Wing but even if you don't want to (which I understand) you should watch the three episode Josh Lyman Trauma Suite because Noël is so good and I want more MASHtuals to see it. also in seasons 6 and 7 Alan Alda is there.

I found this TWW WIP recently called the squash game about using various euphemisms--including, naturally, squash--on the schedule for Josh's therapy sessions. The concept is Amy, Josh's girlfriend, asks if he's around to grab dinner and Donna tells him sorry, he's at his squash game, assuming Amy knows what that means, and Amy says "Josh doesn't play squash" causing Donna to figure out Josh has not told her that he's in therapy or that he was diagnosed with PTSD. Then Donna would talk to Josh about it and encourage him to tell Amy, which he does and it goes okay but not great. I didn't write very much of it but I'm mad because what I did write is really good!

“I mean, we could say you’re doing something else. Something innocuous. Something boring.”  Josh opened his mouth, and she saw all the warning signs of a protest.  “Don’t,” she warned.  “It’s lying,” he said anyway, but meekly.  “To who?” she questioned. She knew he was worried about his schedule leaking or being subpoenaed—they’d had a number of arguments about the probability of either of those outcomes—but she’d reminded him every time that it was a private document, not intended for the eyes of anyone who didn’t work for him.  Josh was quiet.  “It’s good enough for the president, Josh,” and that was what sold him. 

Also in my Trapper-Charles Misunderstandings WIP, Trapper has a work friend who mostly exists to give him gossip about Charles, only now I've started thinking about their friendship and specifically how much he knows about Hawkeye. I'm probably going to leave a lot of that out because I think it's more compelling if you just get a glimpse but once again I'm being derailed by an OC. What else is new.

[youricariancarrion]

now why the fuck isn't donna in the season 7 tww opening credits