#tww season 7

[havepatienceandendure]

Not me yelling at my laptop during a fictional presidential debate

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

[interesting-conversational-style]

Everyone’s all “the later seasons of The West Wing suck” but that completely dismisses that “you’re a smart, savvy woman who could easily consider world domination as a next career move” COMES FROM SEASON 7

[ginandweas]

#campaignmanagerjosh Season 6 Episode 22

[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:

[screamingilyso]

Danny Concannon:

[to C.J] I want you to do what you want to do - take the job at the White House. I just want you to talk to me about it. I want us to talk about what it will mean and how we'll make it work. I want us to talk like we're gonna figure it out together. I want us to talk... because I like the sound of your voice. I just want to talk.

[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

[wannaliveattheholidayinn]

*records the entirety of the gaza arc*

[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.

[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.