#and we’re about to come across the episode where rick and michonne get a little busyyy | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

twdmusicboxmystery · 3 years

Text

TWD 11x06: On the Inside - Details

Okay, let's talk details.

***As always, spoilers abound below for 11x06. Don’t read until you’ve watched!***

Connie and Virgil:

The first thing it shows is a spider. I seem to remember seeing one of these around Alpha, and we've seen them other times, too. I wasn't sure what they meant, but remember how I talked yesterday about how Virgil and Connie were led into a trap here, and that points to the same thing being true of the Daryl and Beth in Alone? I think the spider represents someone being caught in a web or trap. And that actually creates really interesting implications for episodes in 4B, such as Inmates.

Speaking of Inmates, we see Connie and Virgil running through tall grass, very similar to how Beth and Daryl did in Inmates. Yet another example of why they (Connie and Virgil) will probably end up being romantic.

Inside this house there are quite a few stuffed animals. Not the toys, but the taxidermy type. See a fish on the wall, a bear, and plenty of deer. All of those are important Beth symbols.

When Connie goes to search the house, she sees a whole bunch of paintings with the eyes scratched out. If that's not a “see no evil” reference, I don't know what is. A.K/ had a convenient explanation for it, but if this is the Beth template, then in the template, it represents something else entirely than in the reality of the episode.

So, what does it represent? Well, obviously we don't know for sure. But I had the thought that they certainly did focus a lot on Connie's deafness here. We’ve never had much indication that Beth will have hearing problems. That’s something unique Connie's character. But maybe the equivalent of that in Beth’s arc is that she’ll have vision problems. So, paintings with no eyes here are meant to represent that Beth will be similar to Connie, except in her case will be vision problems rather than hearing problems. Just a theory, though.

So, they did this thing where when it was shown from Connie's point of view, we couldn't hear any sound. I thought that was really great. It definitely put us into Connie's experience and makes it creepier. Angela Kang talked about how they did that purposefully to show when it was from Connie's point of view. So, one to recognize is that this is proof that what we’ve said about different episodes being from different characters’ points of view is a thing. We don’t have obvious indications of it like this all the time because no other characters are deaf or blind. But this means the writers consider this and do tell various stories or parts of the stories from specific character perspectives. I’m just saying.

In the bathroom, Connie seems sees mushrooms growing beside the bathtub. That's more of the mushroom/hallucination theme.

When she sees the eye on the other side of the wall, she runs down to Virgil and tries to tell him what's going on. She gets so flustered that she can't write it and ends up carving “not alone" into a painting. Obviously, this is another way we can relate this to Alone and suspect it is a Beth and Daryl template.

But also pay attention to this painting. It is a real painting that @galadrieljones was able to find. It’s called “Wolf and Fox Hunt” by Peter Paul Reubens. I’m going to talk about this in a theory later in the week. It’s SUPER important. For now, notice that there are foxes, wolves, and dogs in it. Someone sent me an Ask about something Norman posted and I believe it's related to this. Norman's dropping hints about the duality theme. So, like I said, it's too much for this post but I will be talking about it very soon. Also notice that the painting is framed with deer antlers, which means the deer symbol is thrown into the mix as well.

Also note that the lighting inside this house in general is a lot like Grady, with it being darker inside and having brighter, white light streaming in through the the windows.

We see a door slide across the hallway and separates Connie and Virgil. This is what I mean when I say there are representations of Beth and Daryl being split up and needing to find each other again.

I wasn't entirely sure what was going on with Connie putting her hands on the walls at first. But if you listen to the sound, she can basically hear or feel the vibration of the guy running toward her. It's a little like putting your ear on the ground to hear horse hooves. She can hear his footfalls getting closer and closer. Super creepy.

We do have this one interesting sequence where Kelly is trying to pull her horse forward but the horse doesn't like the mud and is pulling back. Kelly ends up falling in the mud just before Carol's group finds her. It was kind of random sequence and didn't seem to go anywhere in the episode. But if Kelly is a foreshadow of Maggie searching for Beth, it's probably a foreshadow of something else we don't understand yet.

@wdway pointed out that in 10x19, we saw Father Gabriel fall into the mud when he was with Aaron. So, chances are, these are both foreshadows of the same thing, but we don’t know what yet.

We see Connie finding bones in the basement. The walls shake and she climbs into the vent, moving into the passages between walls. This is where she sees Virgil in the outer room, running from the same people she is. This part really creeped me out because my first thought was that he wouldn't know that this was her rather than one of the creatures. I totally didn't see it coming that one of the creatures would walk up behind him. Seriously creepy.

This is another representation of no exit, as I said yesterday, and of Beth trying to warn Daryl of something but not being able to.

I also noticed at this part, the guy Virgil was fighting with said, "hungry." That's in keeping with the idea that these people were cannibals, but it also occurred to me that in the broader, CRM situation, this might indicate something to do with famine and resources.

But here's the other thing. Maybe this goes to the heart of it. I said in the Matrix theory that we don't really know what the CRM is doing, resource-wise, and that’s true. Isobel told Al it had something to do with purifying water, but I’m sure it’s more complicated than that.

The thing is, we've seen several indications of cannibalism now, which all seem to point forward, toward some bigger arc we haven’t seen yet. I mean, it's sort of started in 4x01 with Clara trying to feed Rick to her walker husband. Of course there was Terminus, which was a thing (sort of) in the comic books, but everything about Terminus foreshadowed things we haven't seen yet. This season we have that story Maggie told, and now this Virgil/Connie arc. I just can't help but think maybe one of the things the CRM is doing is using people as a resource in a literal way by eating them. Conjecture on my part, but it does make sense given the symbolism we've seen.

After Connie manages to let Virgil know it's her and not one of the monsters, he pulls her out of the wall, and they hug. This is one of the reasons people are feeling like this might be a romance. It is kind of reminiscent of the Bethyl hug and had a certain intimacy to it.

Later that night, we see Kelly arrive at the same place that Connie and Virgil were at the very beginning. In this case, she goes the wrong way. The opposite direction to the one Connie and Virgil took. The interesting thing is, we see the mailbox has fallen over.

I will post about all the mailboxes later in the week. I do think it attests to the Matrix theory and points to the CRM. I'll explain how I think it was used in this episode when I get to that post. But even showing Kelly go the wrong way is kind of interesting. In the episode, it just means that at some point her group must have doubled back to the house. We’re never told why. Maybe they went that way and didn't find anything, and so decided to come back. Or maybe they heard screaming coming from the house and that brought them back. Either way, I'm sure it's foreshadowing something in the future.

I’m also thinking that the storm we see here is probably important. It doesn’t play a very big part in this episode, but I don’t think it can be unimportant that there’s a storm going on (think Them) while Kelly is searching so close to Connie.

We also see Virgil and Connie talking inside. He says he's never seen people this far gone. "To herd us like prey." That's a “too far gone” reference, which we've seen since S4 and Rick's speech at the prison. And I talked about the fact that this they were herded into this trap yesterday. This is where we get a lot of Beth and Daryl dialogue.

Virgil talks about how he wants to get her HOME, how he wants to get her back to her family. This is also where he talks about losing himself for a long time and Michonne giving him a second chance. Basically, he's willing to die, willing to sacrifice himself to get her back to her sister. But Connie says no, we do this together. *coughs* Bethyl *coughs*

Right after that, they hear the monsters in the house start grunting and Virgil says, “time’s up” and they jump up and run. I just couldn’t help but think of the “time escapes” reference from the clock in Still.

I talked about how I think Virgil being hurt represents Daryl getting hurt and Beth saving him, but also want to point out that we've got a getting-stabbed-in-the-back theme going on this season. We also saw it with Bossi, who Pope threw into the fire. Maggie nailed him in the back with one of her knives and Pope made a big deal about how his wounds were on his back. At it’s core, it’s probably a betrayal theme (another connotation for stabbing someone in the back) and given that Daryl is already planning to betray Leah, that makes sense, and may be the reason for it. We’ll have to see where it goes.

Connie covers herself and guts and lets walkers in. That's how she saves herself and Virgil. I'm assuming that will correlate to something with Beth and Daryl that’s similar.

Daryl and Leah:

In the torture scene with Frost, I just wanted to point out that they're torturing him using fingernail methods, and then Daryl cut off one of his fingers. They specifically did not waterboard him. Waterboarding wouldn’t be the only form of torture the Reapers are familiar with, but the point is, it's a purposeful choice on the part of the writers. Daryl was tortured by water, but Frost wasn't.

(Love how the light is shining down on Daryl’s wings in this picture.)

At one point, Frost says something to Daryl about how are they going to just keep staring dreamily at one another. Kind of an odd reference, no? On the one hand, I think it's a reference to Bethyl, because while the two of them stared dreamily at each other over dinner, there was Frosty Cola on the table. But on the other hand, it could also be a reference to the hallucination theme.

When Daryl and Leah and the rest of them go to check out the town, Daryl stops next to a van that has its hatchback open. It just another way of showing a trunk being open. He uses power lines to alert Maggie to their presence. Could be part of the power/battery/lamp theory.

At this point, Daryl also puts his hand on a mailbox. Once again, I’ll go over the mailboxes later in the week, but this seemed very purposeful to me.

Incidentally, we learn more of the Reapers’ names. Powell, Washington, Fish, and of course Carver. Washington could be a reference to the revolution theme (George Washington). I also thought of George Washington Carver. He was a famous scientist who worked on agricultural methods for eradicating famine. 👀

And of course there's Fish. It sounds like their names that are purposely chosen for their symbolism.

I’ve already said I get heavy Claimer vibes from the Reapers. That was definitely reinforced here. When Carver and Daryl were arguing, Carver kept saying that he was chirping. He said, “Chirp, chirp” to Daryl several times. Which is clearly a bird reference.

But then he also says, “if this dirt bag wants to play, I’ll teach him the rules.” Which is almost a direct call back to Lenny saying that they had to, "teach Daryl." And this extends even to what happens in this episode. Maggie and her group getting out of the house while the Reapers are still inside was very reminiscent of Rick getting out of the Claimer house without them realizing it. I’ve pointed out before how much the situation is like that one. The Claimers were hunting Rick, and Daryl ends up joining them. Here, the Reapers are hunting Maggie for some as yet unknown reason, and Daryl has joined them.

I want to point out a cryptic conversation that Carver, Leah, and Daryl have here.

Carver, talking about Daryl: We both know who he is, deep down.

Leah: What?

Carver: I was there, remember? After? Do you really think this is going to end any different?

Leah: So this is what? You looking out for me?

Carver: Always.

Then she basically calls bullsh*t on that because he allowed Pope to lock her in a room that was set on fire.

But what are they talking about here? In a generic way, it sounds like Leah tends to trust people that she shouldn't, and it always ends badly. Carver is telling her that she shouldn't trust Daryl or it's gonna happen again.

But we’re also kind of thinking that he's actually talking about Daryl here. When he says “after,” maybe he means after Daryl left Leah the first time, in Find Me. So what does he mean about what happened after? It sounds like Leah didn't handle it so well. Did she try to commit suicide? Did she do something else? We don't know. It was just a really cryptic conversation and it's hinting at something we haven't seen yet.

But after that conversation, Carver also says, "You’re not seriously gonna —" but he gets cut off. Sirius reference.

Finally, let’s talk about the title. On the Inside. One thing we’ve learned is that when there are multiple story lines going on in an episode, the title must refer to all of them in one way or another. And often, it will be literal for one story but symbolic for another.

The most obvious meaning of the title is from Daryl’s story line. He’s the “inside man” in the Reapers organization, and is spying on behalf of Maggie and the rest of his people.

But what about Connie and Virgil? Inside of what? The house? Maybe, but that’s pretty cheesy. This is another reason I think this foreshadows Beth and Daryl being inside the CRM. On the “inside” of that organization and trying to get out.

TTD:

A quick note on The Talking Dead for this episode. There weren’t any massive TD smoking guns or anything, but I wanted to point out how they react to the idea of romance between Connie and Virgil.

I’ve said this about a million times, but they only let the actors tease romance partners for Daryl when they AREN’T going to happen. So, I often point to when Lauren Ridloff was first on TTD in S9. People asked about a Connie/Daryl relationship and she made a Daryl/Connie shower joke. Most of the fandom took that to mean they would go canon, but the opposite is actually true. Every time they’ve made that joke, it hasn’t happened.

Meanwhile, with Beth, who was the only one he had really obvious romantic chemistry with, and for whom Daryl’s feelings have now been confirmed, they’re constantly directing us away from it. Saying things like, they were brother and sister, or we didn’t miss out on any great romance, Daryl felt about her like he felt about Sophia, etc. And that, to me, says that Bethyl is the one that will happen. The other things are just teases, but they’re directing us away from the truth so that it’s more of a surprise when it happens. (Not that it will be for TD, but for most of the fandom it will be.)

Anyway, they kind of did the same thing with Connie and Virgil. Again, remember that when they asked LR about Daryl, she teasingly suggested it would happen and made a sex joke. But here, when asked about Connie and Virgil, she acted like it was absurd and she never would have thought of that. And if you ask me, there was WAY more going on in this episode between Connie and Virgil than there ever was between Connie and Daryl.

That, coupled with all the Alone references, and I’m relatively sure Connie and Virgil will be a thing. Because they aren’t canon yet, I can’t prove it. But if/when they do, we can point at this as more evidence of what won’t go canon, and what will. I’m just mentioning. 😉

I think that's all the details I have for now. This is definitely a super interesting episode and I'll be talking more about it over the next few days. Thoughts?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

11 notes · View notes

follyoliver · 4 years

Text

Things I like in the walking dead:

Daryl’s dog

the abundance and variety of post-apocalyptic mini-civilizations. First we had small roving bands, then a couple tiny villages/communes, then city-states! Then a loose association of city-states, with complex diplomatic relationships, war, and trade! There’s little dystopias (terminus, Grady memorial hospital, the saviors) and little experimental utopias (Alexandria, the kingdom) and ones that are kinda both (Woodbury) and ones that are kinda neither (the weirdly cyberpunk landfill) and they’re all distinct and different! And they usually have some meta commentary on real world societies. Which one would you want to end up in, in the apocalypse? I’d say the kingdom. Stable, peaceful, enough food, good morale. The war changed some things, and it seems like it’s been absorbed by hilltop now, but it was doing so good for so long. And the kingdom had king Ezekiel and his tiger and his LARPing! But let’s be real I wouldn’t make it very far in the apocalypse. As soon as I’m in a deadly situation I can’t get out of without killing someone I’m dead - so like, the first time somebody tries to kill me

the creature effects (new kinds of zombies every episode! I think they write the script for each episode and then send it to their creature department to figure out where to put the featured zombie/gross death effect, and what kind it should be, etc etc. It’s so reliably good and interesting and new and disgusting! The zombie from the well at the Greene farm in season 2 still haunts my dreams)

villain costumes (Shane shaving his head to signal his Heel Turn, the governors eyepatch, negans leather daddy look, alphas weird, bald-headed, tank-top-over-long-sleeve-shirt look)

costumes in general. Daryl’s vest, the sheriffs hat rick gives to Carl, every outfit Michonne or Rosita ever wear, Michonne’s studded belt in particular, EZEKIEL’S COSTUMES!!!!!, Jesus’s little hipster bandit outfit with his beanie and his long leather coat and his fingerless gloves - he’s so cute, he looks like he’s about to explain to me what “hifi” really means and why vinyl is the only way to listen to recorded music, Aaron’s cute wholesome normcore look that slowly evolves into sweaty bearded mountain man with a metal arm and a tragic backstory, LIL MAYOR JUDITH, Maggie’s tomboy chic, all of Daryl’s ponchos, Enid’s indie coming of age movie style, dwights plot significant costume theft, Kelly’s earring! Kelly’s hair!, tyreeses sexy unbuttoned henleys, everyone’s hair journeys, PRINCESS, the zombie costumes, taras occasional novelty sunglasses

all the actors have a lot of chemistry with each other! Some more than others, but it’s a real strength of the show! The core group is always exchanging intense searing glances with each other and having whole conversations with just their eyes, and it’s just - I just find that really sexy, like not even as the characters necessarily, though that’s part of it, but as actors, having that kind of skill and rapport built up so they can do that, it’s just really sexy. I’m so into nonverbal communication, which is funny because I’m bad at it irl

Music By Bear McCreary (the soundtrack is excellent. One episode had a song by the mountain goats! It was “up the wolves” and it played when Beth and Daryl burned that moonshine still house down. Somebody on one of my Facebook mountain goat fan groups said they thought it should’ve been “the house that dripped blood” if it was gonna be a mountain goats song on that scene, and I have never stopped thinking about that. I think they’re right. But it’s not a well known song - neither is “up the wolves” but it’s def one of the better known tmg songs, if that makes sense when tmg is a relatively obscure band. Also while we’re talking about the mountain goats can I just add that several times each season the lyric “it will be too late by the time we learn / what these cryptic symbols mean” floats through my head, as rick squints at one of Morgan’s spray-painted messages, or everyone examines the Terminus maps, or whatever)

Georgia is gorgeous. Also, apparently it’s all filmed on 16mm? Like, entirely? That’s nuts. They have a real deep commitment to their aesthetic and it comes across in a multitude of ways. The production design is also great. Apparently their head production designer worked on the mad max movies among other things - his name is Grace Walker and I think that’s wild for 2 reasons: I’ve never met a man named Grace, and I can’t believe anyone who works on this show is named Walker

rapists and abusers always get their comeuppance .....in the first 5 or 6 seasons. When did Negan come along?

the writing of child characters. They have actual depth. Carl in particular was well-written. He really evolved over time and was so cute and brave and practical and really a product of his environment but also not just that. Lizzie and Mika were less fleshed out but still interesting. Beth felt like a real person, and got less frustrating over time. She was starting to be really compelling and competent right when she died, which was frustrating. The most frustrating thing about child characters is that they all die. Crossing my fingers for Judith.

the cgi tiger

DARYLS DOG, WHOSE NAME IS DOG. Did you know that Norman Reedus had been requesting that Daryl get a dog? That’s so cute, of course he did. And of course Daryl would get a dog, out in the woods by himself for 6 years. Of course he would refuse to name it because he can’t get emotionally attached. Of course he would be deeply in denial about how much he loves that dog. Carol asks him when was the last time he ate and he grouchily replies that “the dog ate yesterday” and doesn’t answer when she asks him “but when did you eat?” Daryl calls out “Dog!” and eventually the dog appears. Daryl says to the dog “Stay!” and the dog kind of glances at him and stands there for a moment, indecisive, then follows him. Daryl holds up a piece of fabric to the dog’s nose and the dog immediately and psychically understands that Daryl wants the dog to find the human who smells like that. Dog is a stroke of genius. Remember that time that Daryl went to his apartment, took off his shirt, and snuggled with Dog on the couch? I remember.

#the walking dead #daryl dixon’s dog #good show would recommend #the mountain goats #briefly mentioned #utopia/dystopia

2 notes · View notes

twdeadfanfic · 5 years

Text

Don’t leave

*Summary: Daryl and the reader used to be close, but with him leaving to the woods and her living in Alexandria, they hadn’t seen each other in a long while, until the meet again at Hilltop in 9x09.

*Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Reader

This idea came to my mind watching the episode, I just wanted to write a short thing, but now I don’t know if maybe turning it into a mini-series about the whole season or at least part B...let me know your thoughts.

Link to my masterlist with my other works can be found on the description of this blog. I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but tumblr doesn’t show posts with links in the tags.

------

The atmosphere in Hilltop was dark and mournful, and you were trying to stay away from everyone, isolating yourself. You were a mess of feelings, but you certainly felt out of place. It’d been a long, long while since the last time you had been at Hilltop. Last time Maggie and her little one were still there…you missed her so much, but at least you had the comfort of knowing that she was happy.

After everything that happened that horrible day in which the bridge blew up, taking Rick with it, you had been beyond sad to leave Maggie and little Hershel, but you had felt you needed to be with Michonne in Alexandria, she had not only lost Rick but she was also pregnant. You’d felt she and little Judith needed you more than Maggie.

And so, as things went worse and worse, and as Michonne eventually closed the relationships between Alexandria and the other communities, you had seen some of your friends less and less, no matter you snook out to meet with them sometimes, as Aaron did…Carol, now in the Kingdom, Tara and Maggie at Hilltop, Daryl alone in the woods, Jesus…

You felt a lump in your throat at the thought of Jesus. You had seen him, you’d been told what had happened, but it still didn’t feel real. You didn’t want it to be real. It wasn’t fair. Jesus was a good one, one of those good persons so hard to find now, hell, so hard to find even in the world before. His big heart shone bright, a fighter but also someone who took care of others. He didn’t deserve to end like that.

Part of you wanted to go to the cells where Michonne, Tara, and Daryl were interrogating that girl they had brought, one of the people who had done that to Jesus, and just stabbing the girl a thousand times. But you had seen how young she looked, like a teen. You knew that it was your broken heart talking, and you’d regret doing something like that.

Still, whoever were those people, they better went away, because you were determined to go against them for what they had done, and you knew you weren’t the only one.

After a while of being sitting down there in the middle of nowhere, close to the back fence, you saw Daryl pacing around, keeping himself away from the others too. The interrogatory must have finished. That dog he seemed to have gotten was following him and Daryl began throwing a stick to him. You smiled sadly at the sight.

All these years, the thought of Daryl had broken your heart, knowing he was alone and brokenhearted somewhere in the woods. The very few times you had seen Tara she had told you that he came sometimes to trade with Hilltop, but she couldn’t know when he would, and he never stayed or told her where his camp was, but at least you’d have the comfort of knowing he was alive. You were glad he at least had had that dog to keep him company, to love him.

You wished Daryl hadn’t isolated himself like that, hadn’t let you all help each other through the pain. You wished you could have helped him.

Daryl and you…you both had been close before, really close. Sometimes you had even let yourself daydream a bit too much, thinking that maybe, maybe, once you all had a moment to slow down and focus on something that wasn’t fighting for your life, maybe you could actually have a serious talk with Daryl and try to develop your relationship into something that wasn’t only a friendship.

You thought you were making baby steps on it on Alexandria, but then the saviors and the war had made you all go into survival mode again. Then, you had another chance when you went with him to the Sanctuary, helping him through the nightmares, through his hate for the place, through his stress at having not only to live there but also to lead. You took things slow, and now you thought that maybe you had taken it too slow, considering the world you lived in. You never got to really tell Daryl your feelings, though you were never sure if he knew it or not.

Looking at Daryl now, you felt a stabbing pain in your heart again. You had been so broken hearted when he left without telling you anything, you had missed so him much, you had spent so many nights thinking where he might be, if he was okay or not… You still hadn’t had the chance to talk with him, busy as everyone had been, but you weren’t sure if you knew what to tell him.

He turned around and saw you, stopping on his tracks, lowering the arm he’d raised to throw the stick to the dog. You wondered if maybe he hadn’t known you were at Hilltop. He just stared at you for a couple of seconds and then began walking fast towards you.

You got up but couldn’t get yourself to walk, you were frozen in place and when Daryl reached your side you opened your mouth to speak but couldn’t find words. He didn’t say anything either, but he reached out and wrapped his arms around you, pulling you to him. You melted into him, realizing once again how much you had missed him, how much you had missed his arms around you. You buried your face into his chest, unable to stop your tears.

“You left…you left me, you didn’t tell me where you were going.” You whimpered, all your heartbreak pouring from you. “I was so worried, didn’t know if you were alive or not. I missed you so much.”

“I’m sorry.” You heard him murmur. One of his hands cupped the back of your head, his fingers tangling into your hair, as he held you tight. “I…I had to…it’s just…I…” He didn’t seem able to find the right words, but you didn’t mind it. You understood why he had done it, but it still hurt.

You pulled away ever so slightly to look at him. “I’d have gone with you.”

Daryl didn’t say anything, he looked at you with wet, sad eyes, brushing his knuckles over your cheekbone before pressing a kiss to your forehead. “I missed you too.” He whispered before pulling you into his arms again.

You were afraid of asking him what was he going to do now, if he was going to leave again or if maybe he was staying. You were afraid of the answer. You were pretty sure he’d stay, even if only for a little while, to help with whatever new threat was coming your way, but you didn’t know if he’d disappear again once that was dealt with.

“What did the girl say?” You asked him after a little while.

“A ton of bullshit.” You felt Daryl stiff and you looked up from his chest. “We’ll try again tomorrow. But her people are dangerous, and they were walker’s skin over them, Y/N, blend with them, move with the herds. I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“What the…” You didn’t even know what to say to all that.

“I don’t know either.” Daryl shrugged, seeming thoughtful and worried.

You decided you didn’t care, at least not for that day, you just wanted to enjoy you were reunited with Daryl, even if just for a little bit, even if just until all of you would have to go face whatever new threat you had at your door. Today was another reminder to get the most out of each moment while it lasted, because you didn’t know how long you had. You were going to soak in every moment he was around, and you knew you’d never let him go away without you again, no matter what you had to do to stop it from happening again.

“I don’t want to think about that now.” You reached down to hold his hand. “Come watch the sunset with me?” A sad, soft smile spread across your face when Daryl looked at your hands, lacing his fingers with yours, and nodded.

You spent the next couple of hours sitting down with Daryl and the dog, Daryl’s hand on yours and your head on his shoulder, talking about everything that you both had been doing all these time apart, about your worries, about the people you missed, about your hopes and fears, until everything was dark around you.

“I’m going to find us something for dinner.” You moved away from Daryl reluctantly.

“Alright.”

When you were back, you couldn’t find him anywhere, and you almost panicked but then you heard his voice coming up from the top of the stable.

“Up here.”

You walked up the stairs and saw him and the dog sitting down on top of a blanket over some hay.

“What you doing here?”

“Dog wanted to come up here, think he’s chosen it for the night.” Daryl snuggled the dog to his side, a small smile on his face, and you couldn’t help your own smile looking at them.

“Seriously? There are free bedrooms, you know.”

“Nah, we’re fine here.”

You rolled your eyes but smiled and sat down next to them, placing a plate with some food for the dog next to him on the ground and then you balanced another one for Daryl and you on your thigh.

“Would you mind if I stay here with you for the night?” You asked him quietly after you finished eating, biting your lip as you waited for his answer.

“Okay.” Daryl nodded, looking at you, and you wished you could read what was he thinking.

You placed the plates aside and leaned down on one end of the blanket, tapping the other for Daryl to lie down too. Once he did, letting out a tired sigh, you blew up the candles he had lit and slowly curled onto him. It wasn’t the first time you slept next to each other, curled up together, but so much time had passed since the last time, so many things…it felt familiar but it felt new too.

Still, when you rested your head carefully on his chest and he wrapped a tentative arm around you, you couldn’t help your content sigh, feeling like you were transported to a better time, feeling like at least one of the pieces in which your heart had shattered over time was back in place.

Soon, though, the dog was trying to get between you two, snuggling himself under the arm you had over Daryl and pushing himself in the middle. You snorted, unable to stop your giggle at it.

“Oy, Dog! You’d have him all these nights! Just give me this one!” You stroked the dog’s head and he licked your hand, making himself even more comfortable between Daryl and you.

Daryl chuckled softly. “Dog, come on.” He pulled at the dog until he managed to get him at his other side. It seemed to be good enough for the dog, who was already curling into a ball.

Daryl lied on his side facing the dog and reached back to take your arm and timidly wrapped it around him before throwing his over the dog. You scooted closer and Daryl snuggled back until your chest hit his back. You curled up around him, holding him tight to you and burying your face on his back.

“I missed you so, so much.” You whispered. “You don’t even know.”

“I know. I missed you too.” Daryl whispered back.

“Daryl…please don’t leave again…”You hated how weak and small you sounded, but you couldn’t help it. After being reunited like this with Daryl, you didn’t think your heart would be able to take it if he left you again. “It’s okay if you want to be on the woods or wherever, just…just don’t leave me like that again.”

You felt Daryl’s hand on yours and then his lips on your knuckles before he rested both your hands over the dog.

“I won’t.”

---

I hope you liked this short fluffy thing...still kind of wanting to make a season 9b miniseries out of it.

Thank you all for reading! I hope you liked it! If you have a moment, please let me know your thoughts in the comments, your feedback makes my day!

As always, English is not my first language so sorry if there are mistakes.

If you want to be tagged (or removed from the tags) let me know!

@momc95 @jodiereedus22 @osweetdevilo @sapphire1727 @coffeebooksandfandom @crustyrose @checkintoreality @daddys-little-princess67 @sesshomaru-lover @crossbowking @coltcas @feartheendlesssummer @izumi37 @gruffle1 @cutiepiemimi13 @drina365 @kuolematkorjaavat @daeshaunex2 @twdeadlysins @stressed-lasagna @teenyforestfairy @yenne-yen-illustrations @mychemicalimagines @nikkipea @crazycatladyalustriel @miniprz @wolfkg @paybackbarnes @haleypearce @nikki082489 @dotslabyrinth @mtngirlforever @superflannel @blckbuttler @deanervs @linktheloveabledork @sourwolf-sterek32 @iminlokisarmysofi @traveleraroundsworld @deliciousassafrasssandwich @angelontheinside @friendly-black-cat @firehoopinmama @d0ntfitin @ivars-snowflake @mblaqgi @moraglefay

406 notes · View notes

askdarus · 6 years

Photo

A New Beginning, Episode #001: “Trust” - When a new group of survivors are found by Paul’s group, it’s up for debate on them joining their communities.

Some dialogue taken from Issue 127.

“Do you hear that?”

Paul looked over at his companion who asked him the question. Aside from the occasional casual words exchanged, nothing serious had went on during this patrol.

He was out of the Hilltop for the first time this week with his run companions, Aaron, Enid, and Tara. They were in their newest armor (made by his sister, Violette, from some old biking gear) and on their regular horses from the Hilltop.

“What?” Enid whispered.

Aaron held his hand up, quieting her instantly. He was the lead on this run and he was definitely good at it. Paul always thought that about Aaron...the he was a good leader and a nice guy at the same time.

He heard yelling and cursing loudly, along with the sound of a high number of walkers.

“Another heard,” Tara groaned, already taking out her gun.

“I hear people,” Paul said quietly, taking out his sword, courtesy of their blacksmith, Earl, “Survivors. We need to get them somewhere safe.”

“We’ll see,” Aaron said simply, “C’mon!” he called, already taking off on his horse.

They followed quickly and Paul blinked in show at how many walkers there were. Sure, he’d seen plenty in the past...he’d been in both California and New York since the outbreak and there were tons of people there. But there were so many, surrounding what looked like a group of four or five...he couldn’t tell in the mass amount of bodies that were around.

“Enid, lead them off, make enough noise that you can get them moving but keep your distance! Paul, you assist! Tara, you come with me, we’ll get any stragglers and defend the survivors!” Aaron called over the sounds.

Paul would like to say that he could follow orders...but he was getting sick and tired of Aaron Raleigh treating him like he was made of glass on runs. He knew he was capable of more than him (probably) physically.

Paul also knew Daryl had told Aaron to keep an eye on him during their patrols.

Paul also knew that he couldn’t follow orders well.

Things were going well, the heard was moving in the direction they needed it to…

Until he saw Aaron and Tara were getting overwhelmed. The walkers that weren’t paying attention to Enid were getting too close to the survivors.

Paul practically flipped off of his horse, running over to them and taking out his sword, slicing through the walkers like Michonne had taught him.

“Who are you?!” a woman with brown hair breathed out.

“Time for that later!” Paul said quickly, “On your feet, move!” he yelled, helping her onto his horse.

Enid ran over and did the same with another survivor and Aaron cursed, leading Tara to to the same, one of them having to cram two of them onto their horse.

“Jesus, fucking hell!” Aaron yelled at him as they went, their horses running as fast as they could.

“You were getting overrun!” he defended himself before glancing at the woman behind him on their horse, “Hi, my name’s Jesus, what’s yours?”

“Magna,” the woman breathed out, obviously shocked.

“Alexandria, this is Paul Rovia,” Paul said over the walkie as they got closer, “I’m going to need Rick Grimes at the gate, we have survivors. I-” he stopped when he saw movement in the forest, “Just a moment,” he said over the radio.

“Paul, what are you doing?” Aaron demanded instantly when he started to get off his horse.

“I’ll just be a minute,” Paul said, walking towards the edge of the woods slowly. He got closer to the bush slowly, pushing it back.

“Hi, Jesus!” Judith Grimes chirped at him.

Paul sighed, crossing his arms, “Let’s go, Judy. March,” he pointed to the horse.

“Seriously?” Tara demanded, “Judy, what the fuck?”

“Don’t say fuck to kids, Tara,” Aaron sighed.

“Got a straggler,” Paul said over the radio, “Named Judith Grimes,” he said, helping her onto his horse.

When they arrived at Alexandria, Paul took the radio again from his belt, switching the channels, “Paul Rovia to Hilltop.”

“Paul?” the voice of Maggie Rhee answered, “What’s wrong? How’s the run? Everything okay?”

Paul laughed weakly, “Yes, everything is fine. Calm down. We’re making a stop at Alexandria, we picked up some new survivors. We just wanted to let you know we’ll be late. Can you let Daryl know not to wait up for me?”

“Will do,” Maggie told him, “Be safe.”

“Always am,” Paul said, hanging up.

“I’m Rick Grimes,” the man in front of them said, sitting at a table in their newly constructed meeting hall, “Welcome to Alexandria.”

“Uh…” the woman named Magna said, “Hello, I’m...this is somewhat intimidating. I’m Magna.”

“I promise, Rick doesn’t bite,” Paul laughed weakly, looking over at the other man, “Much.”

“Sorry if I don’t stand up,” Rick said, reaching his hand across the table, “I have some nerve damage, it gave me a bum leg, and I’ve been in meetings most of the day. Standing up isn’t going to really give you the best impression of my physical capabilities,” he laughed, “Who do you have with you here?”

“This is Kelly, speak a little louder to her, she has a little hearing damage,” Magna said.

“Nice to meet you,” Kelly told him, nodding.

“This is Luke.”

“Cool place you’ve got here…”

“This is Connie. Kelly translates for her in ASL, but she can also read lips pretty well. Don’t worry if she stares at your mouth when you’re talking.”

Connie signed something and Kelly translated for her.

“She says it’s nice to meet you,” Kelly told Rick.

“Yumiko will kick you in the balls if you ask her if she knows Kung Fu,” Magna said with a fond smile.

“I don’t...and I will,” Yumiko said, crossing her arms, “But otherwise, I’m nice.”

“So, Magna, I take it you’re the leader of this group,” Rick smiled at them.

“Leader?” Magna asked with wide eyes, “Oh, no, we don’t have a-”

“She’s the leader,” Luke interrupted quickly.

“What?” Magna hissed, “We’re a team!”

“A team with a strong leader,” Luke smirked, “You kept us alive, Mags.”

“Sorry, I...never really thought about it,” Magna said, giving Rick an embarrassed smile, “Do you consider yourself the leader here?”

“I was a little uncomfortable with the title for a long time, I understand how you feel. There’s no getting around it after a while. I accept the title and all that comes with it...even the meetings,” Rick chuckled, “I’m the leader here, yes.”

“What happens now?” Magna whispered.

“Well, Jesus and Aaron already cleared you,” Rick told her, “They’re good at their jobs...and find people who should be invited into our communities, “We trust their team, so we trust you,” he explained, “We do take weapons for the first few weeks and put them in safe hands. If you need them before then, you’ll get them...you’ll also get them back in a few weeks after we’re sure we can trust you.”

“So you don’t trust us completely, do you?” Magna asked, narrowing her eyes.

“We can never be too careful. Almost all our communities have children in them, I’m sure you can understand,” Rick explained, “It’s non-negotiable, I’m sorry. If it’s a big problem, you’re free to leave.”

Magna looked to her team, before back to Rick, “We want to stay.”

“Well then,” Rick said, “Right now our community is at capacity and the Kingdom is falling apart right now. If you really like Alexandria, you’re welcome come back after the winter. We’re working on expanding. I’m going to have Jesus take you to the Hilltop, if you want.”

Paul smiled at them, a friendly smile, “Aaron and Enid will be coming back with me. We’re going to have to take a carriage, so you won’t have to carry your things all the way there.”

“That would be nice, thank you,” Magna smiled.

“I’ll get you checked in with everyone before we go,” Paul told them as they started to walk out, “We’ll get ready to leave-”

“Jesus?”

“Yeah?” Paul asked, looking back at Rick.

“Let’s talk, before you leave,” Rick told him, giving him a look, before looking at Judith, who was trying to sneak out of the room, “You two, missy.”

The child rolled her eyes and groaned, sitting at one of the tables.

“Wait outside,” Paul told them, “It’ll be fine, I promise.”

The small group walked out and Paul closed the door, before walking over to Rick, standing beside him.

“Judy…” Rick trailed off.

“I was just doin’ patrol!” Judith said immediately.

“No, you snuck out,” Paul rolled his eyes.

“Jesus, you’re never here, don’t talk about stuff you don’t know about,” Judith pointed at him, sounding way older than she actually was.

Paul raised an eyebrow and looked at Rick.

“Judith, be nice to Paul,” Rick told her, “You’re lucky he found you and not a walker.”

“I coulda taken care of it,” Judith grumbled, crossing her arms.

“Early bedtime tonight,” Rick told her, “And you need to go straight home and do your schoolwork, not playin’ around.”

Judith huffed and walked out, slamming the door behind her.

“Sorry about her,” Rick told him, “She don’t mean nothin’ by it.”

Paul shrugged, “I mean, she’s right. Daryl and I...we don’t come around as much as we should.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Rick stood up, wincing slightly. He put his hand on his shoulder, “Keep an eye on them. They seem trustworthy, but still…”

“I know,” Paul told him with a nod before going to walk out.

“And Jesus?” Rick asked right before he walked out the door.

“Yeah?” Paul asked again.

“Next time you’re on a run with Aaron as lead, try to listen to him. He just worries,” Rick explained with a smile.

Paul rolled his eyes and walked out, “Sure,” he called, closing it behind him.

Paul sat on the steps of one of the building, watching as the workers got the carriage ready on the back of two horses, along with some extra supplies for the Hilltop.

Paul watched the steps down to Negan’s cell, despite knowing nothing was coming out of there.

Paul groaned when he saw Aaron walking towards him, “Yes, dear?” he asked sarcastically.

“Fight, fight, fight,” Paul heard Tara say nearby to Enid, from where they were getting things ready to leave.

Paul glared at her before turning back to Aaron when he got there.

“Don’t yes, dear me,” Aaron told him, “What the hell were you thinking? You could have gotten bit! I told you to lead them away with Enid!”

“Aaron, I’m more than capable of taking care of myself-” Paul started.

“I know that, but you just...need to listen, okay?” Aaron sighed.

“Look,” Paul stood up, “I know when we started to go on runs together, you promised Daryl you’d keep me safe. But if we’re going to be a team, we need to be balanced. I’m not made of glass, I’m a trained professional in self-defense,” he crossed his arms, “You watch my back and I’ll watch yours, okay?”

Aaron swallowed before nodding, “Okay...but you’re bringing it up to him, I’m not.”

“Isn’t bringing things up with him my job?” Paul smirked.

They were on the way back now and the sun was just setting. Paul knew they would get back before it was too late. He hoped he’d have time to put the kids in bed.

Aaron was up front with Enid, still pouting a little about not being listened to as much as he should have been on the run and Paul sat in the back with the newest possible additions to Hilltop.

Connie was signing to Kelly, something that caused her to giggle.

“Definitely gay.”

Paul smirked and signed back at her, “You got that right.”

Both Kelly and Connie looked at him in shock.

“Do you trust him?” Connie signed.

“Rick?” Paul mouthed before signing, “Yes. I understand being suspicious of it all, but I’d trust him with my life and my family’s.”

“You have a family?” Connie signed, smiling a little.

Paul nodded, still signing, “Yes, a husband and two children,” he looked at them, “Are you together?”

Kelly nodded and Connie smiled, bumping her shoulder a little, “Yes, we are. We met each other after.”

“Same with me and my husband,” Paul said, still signing, “I never would have met him if the end of the world didn’t happen.”

“Magna is with Yumiko too,” Kelly added.

“Kelly!” Magna snapped at her, shocked.

“What? You are,” Kelly shrugged.

“Don’t give information like that to people, you don’t know what they’ll think-” Magna started.

“He’s gay and married to a man, Mags,” Kelly laughed.

Magna stared at him in shock.

“This is the next world, not the old one,” Paul told her, “If someone still cares about someone being gay, especially at the Hilltop, they’re the problem,” he smirked slightly, “And trust me, our leader would put them in their place really fast.”

“Your leader? Are they nice?” Yumiko asked.

“She’s the best,” Paul said confidently, staring at the road ahead.

The gates of the Hilltop opened, immediately revealing Daryl Dixon standing there, his hands in his pockets as he awkwardly lurked there.

Paul immediately jumped out of the carriage, even before it stopped and wrapped his arms around his neck, “Hello, love,” he said happily, putting his hand on the side of his face.

Daryl just kissed him on the lips briefly before looking at the survivors, “That what made you late for dinner?”

“Mhmm,” Paul said but smiled, “But they have the Aaron and Jesus Stamp of Approval. We’re to watch their weapons for the time being and return them in a few weeks. They’re going to stay until the expansion happens in Alexandria and repairs are made at the Kingdom, then they’ll decide where they want to stay, if all goes well.”

“That from Rick?” Daryl asked.

“Yes,” Paul said, “The kids asleep?”

“Mer is. Richie stayed up for you,” he chuckled.

“Of course he did,” Paul laughed.

“Grace demanded a sleepover since ya weren’t home. She’s asleep on her mattress in the kids’ room,” Daryl called to Aaron.

“Thanks for watching her,” Aaron said, a smile on his face, “I’ll go say goodnight to her,” he said, giving Paul a nod as he headed to their shared home.

“What’s goin’ on?” Maggie Rhee called as she walked down from the Barrington House. It looked like she’d made Hershel wait on the porch, as he watched curiously.

“Survivors,” Paul told him, “All clear from Rick, but they need somewhere to stay until winter passes and construction is done.”

Maggie nodded and held out her hand, “I’m Maggie Rhee, I’m the leader of this place.”

“I’m Magna,” she said, shaking her hand in return, “This is Luke, Yumiko, Connie, and Kelly. Thank you so much for-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Maggie cut her off, “We’re happy to put you up in our guest trailer...just know we’ll be keepin’ an eye on you just to be safe.”

“We understand,” Magna nodded, “Thank you, really.”

“Alden will get you all set up and then our doctors or one of our nurses will stop by and bother you to see if you have any injuries,” Paul said, walking over and giving Maggie a brief hug and a kiss on her cheek.

“Welcome home,” Maggie murmured, “Get some rest.”

“You too,” Paul said quietly before turning back to the group, “They mean well, they just care too much sometimes.”

“Watch out for the blond nurse, he’s a pain,” Daryl grumbled before starting to walk back to their home.

“He’s friendly too, I promise,” Paul told them before jogging after his husband and taking his hand, “You know, you could be a little nicer to them.”

“Don’t trust no one no more, ‘specially from the outside,” Daryl grunted as they walked inside to their rickety, old, eye-sore of a trailer. It was a mess, really, scattered with toys and built on rooms in a trailer that was never meant to be altered as much as it had been.

“You trust me...and our family,” Paul told him as they walked through their home. He glanced down at the papers scattered around, “Plans for the fair?”

“Yeah,” Daryl said simply, “Been workin’ on some stuff,” he said as he pulled Paul to their room, “Quit fussin’, tell the kid goodnight so you can go to bed,” he laughed.

Paul leaned into the kids room, knocking quietly, “Knock, knock,” he smiled when he saw Richie writing in his notebook. His blond hair was drooped into his face and he looked up with excited green eyes.

“Hi, dad,” Richie grinned.

“Hey there,” Paul said, sitting on the edge of the bed. He looked over and saw Gracie asleep on her mattress on the floor that had been drug down from upstairs, and Meredith was snoring in her own bed.

“Was patrol okay?” Richie asked.

“It was,” Paul told him, “What are you working on?”

“Mer wants to start a club, so I’m doin’ all the work,” Richie rolled his eyes.

“The Hilltop Kids,” Paul laughed, looking down at it, “Is it exclusive?”

“Yeah,” Richie said, “For us only...and Hershel of course...maybe Henry, if they wanna join,” he said awkwardly before looking up at his dad.

Paul took his notebook and closed it, marking it with the pencil he was using and putting it on the bedside table, “You can work more tomorrow...it’s time for bed now,” he told him, helping him get under the blankets and turning off the lamp.

“Night, dad,” Richie said tiredly.

Paul kissed his forehead and smiled, “Goodnight, Richie,” he said. He stepped over Gracie, ruffling her hair a little as he did and fixing her blankets before going over to Meredith, pulling up the blanket that she’d kicked off and kissing her forehead, “Goodnight, sweetheart,” he said quietly, so he didn’t wake her up.

He walked out of the room, turning the hallway light on for them and leaving the door cracked before smiling at Daryl, “All clear,” he joked.

Daryl rolled his eyes and grabbed his hand, leading him into the room, “C’mon, you.”

Paul laughed, flopping on the bed and pulling his husband on top of him, kissing him a few times.

Daryl deepened the kiss before pulling back, “Tomorrow,” he breathed out, “You need rest.”

Paul rolled his eyes, “I think we’ve perfected the art of quickies over the years, Dare.”

“Rest now, sex later,” Daryl said, sitting up. He pulled the knives out of Paul’s boots and put them on the table before untying them and tossing them across the room before he moved up to his trench coat, then his vest, taking them off as well, until he was just left in the white t-shirt underneath. Daryl pulled off his baggy pants with a smile.

“For someone who is saying sex later, you sure seem to be enjoying undressing me,” Paul breathed out, running his hand under shirt.

“Just like you,” Daryl grumbled, “And like it when you ain’t half asleep when we’re havin’ sex,” he said, running his hand through his hair, “So quit tryin’, tomorrow’s date night.”

Paul laughed weakly and moved so he was lying on his side of the bed, by the wall. They’d been married for years, but Daryl still slept in the spot closest to the door.

Dary leaned over and kissed his head before taking off his own shoes and clothes, getting in with him, “You trust these guys?”

“They seem nice,” Paul said quietly, already half asleep, “I trust them and so does Aaron.”

Daryl just hummed, obviously thinking about it.

A stomp came from over their head.

Aaron, obviously.

“It’s late, I’m tired, keep it down!” their upstairs neighbor called, causing them to laugh.

CAST

Tom Payne as Paul “Jesus” Dixon-Rovia Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon-Rovia Ross Marquand as Aaron Raleigh

Elodie Yung as Violette Rovia Tessa Thompson as Lily Marie Teller

Samuel Joslin as Richie Dixon-Rovia Zendaya Coleman as Meredith Dixon-Rovia Anabelle Holloway as Gracie Raleigh

Lauren Cohan as Maggie Rhee Katelyn Nacon as Enid Rhee

GUEST CAST

Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes Danai Gurira as Michonne Grimes Cailey Fleming as Judith Grimes

Alanna Masterson as Tara Chambler

Nadia Hilker as Magda Eleanor Matsuura as Yumiko Angel Theory as Kelly Lauren Ridloff as Connie Dan Fogler as Luke

#anb;#desus #darus #daryl x jesus #jesus x daryl #cutscenes #cutscene

9 notes · View notes

whateverisbeautiful · 7 years

Text

Reveling in Richonne

#79: The Great Plan (7x12)

So there’s something that has been consistently said in these posts and it’s only because it’s a thing that’s also been consistent for years on this show, and it’s especially true in this scene right here and, y’all, that is that; Michonne is the baddest chick in the game.👌🏽

In a continuation of the great “Eight” scene, Michonne gets these walkers to make their way over to her and then she does her thing like it ain't no thing. Cuz 👸🏾.

Meanwhile, Rick runs into more trouble than he was expecting lol. Admittedly it was a pretty funny moment to see Michonne just taking care of business, taking out multiple walkers at a time, while Rick pulled apart one walker. 😋

Like we’ve been seeing R&M be all giddy and in love this episode but this moment served as a reminder that this is still the Michonne we’re dealing with. 👏🏽

So Michonne's done her part and, because she’s not an idle chick, she goes to help Rick out. She starts pushing the car along and Rick looks back, clearly taking in the fact that his woman can do it all lol. And he casually tells her, "You got your eight walkers. I can push." And it's just so wonderfully husband like. 😋 And then Michonne confidently tells him, "So can I."

And can we just stop and take a moment to appreciate this. Like, y'all, sometimes I feel like people try to overcomplicate feminism to make it seem like a bad thing when it’s not. And part of what feminism is, is illustrated in what we saw in this moment; The man can push but so can I. Equality. 🙌🏾

I love that Michonne says this cuz it's true and it just again illustrates that she is completely his equal. And then she says "You just worry about steering us in that gap". And I love this cuz I adore that they can tease each other.

I also like the line cuz it really feels like they trade off being leader so seamlessly. Like she’s letting him now “take the wheel” literally and figuratively to lead both of them.

And then an unforeseen obstacle comes when the brakes don't work and that walker’s gun starts firing off. Y'all, you may recall me saying I had been worried that something was going to come and ruin their fun? And when I heard those bullets for the first time this was me…

I thought R&M were about to come across some enemy and my heart sank for a second. I was ready to post up whoever was coming to cut this honeymoon short. 😂

Luckily it ended up just being the walker and a fairly minor situation. It does however force Michonne to have to jump in the trunk due to her quick thinking. And then they're both stuck in the car. I love the way Rick says "Michonne, you good?" lol. I think its cuz as much as I love when they talk like they’re in love; I also really enjoy moments like this one where they also talk just casually like best friends.

And she tells him yeah and checks if he's okay and he says yeah in a tone that says he's technically okay but they're also in a predicament lol. And then he tells her "I think we overshot it."

This line makes me crack up cuz I always think of when my mom first heard this line and she was like "We!? Uh-uh that was you, Rick. You have Michonne falling through roofs and locked in trunks." 😂😂

And I mean you gotta love Rick Grimes but also...where's the lie? Lol it's technically true, but R&M are one so everything is in “we’ terms for them. And I’m here for it. 😋

And then Michonne has a very wife response of "You think or you know?" I love this cuz it's adorable and cuz you can't cut corners with Michonne lol. Cuz she always knows what’s up so you have to just come right out with the truth.

And then I love Rick's husband response of knowing he's just going to have to come out with the direct truth and tell her, "I know."

But he's not about to just leave it at that and so he tells her "It was a good plan though." Which was sweet and hilarious and just felt like such a guy thing to say lol. And then Michonne says with the perfect mix of sarcasm and encouragement "It was a great plan."

It’s perfect. 😊 How are they going to be locked up in separate parts of a car, surrounded by walkers, and still manage to have such a cute exchange? How Sway? Y’all, this just proves this couple is everything and then some. 🙌🏾 (And that cars never fail us 😋)

Homegirl is now in a trunk surrounded by walkers but she's still choosing to see the humor in the situation and I love it. Like you just sense the genuine camaraderie between them through the little teasing banter they have.

I’m telling you there is no such thing as a “bad thing” when R&M are together cuz they both make the most of every situation.

Also considering this whole scene is like their first moment since the proposal, it’s cool to see how they still operate the same cuz they’ve been married long before that candlelit dinner. So now it’s like their original dynamic is just more magnified and visible to them but it’s not like things are crazy different now cuz this is just the husband & wife stuff they’ve been doing for the longest.

This whole sequence of moments was so good and you got to really see what it looks like when Richonne just gets to be Richonne. 👌🏽😊

This whole scene, from the start with Rick handing her that gun for her to put in his backpack all the way to Michonne’s final line from the trunk, was so fun to watch and it really cemented that they're perfect together and truly nothing was going to ruin their fun, so far.

So yeah it might not have ended up being a literally great plan but it definitely gave us a literally great scene. 👏🏽😊

#twd #twdfamily #the walking dead #richonne #richonne family #richonne fandom #michonne #michonne grimes #rick grimes #revelinginrichonne #s7 #7.12

86 notes · View notes

nellie-elizabeth · 6 years

Text

The Walking Dead: The Lost and the Plunderers (8x10)

I'm just not feeling it, you guys.

Cons:

As annoyed as I am that Carl is dead, and as ham-fisted as last week's goodbye was, I was expecting a bit more grief from this episode. Michonne and Rick are just kind of... subdued about the whole thing. Shouldn't there be a bit more of a manic energy to them, especially Rick, in the face of such a loss? We spend a great deal of the episode on these little side quests with Enid and Aaron, with Simon, with Jadis... and it's like Carl never even existed.

Enid and Aaron's side adventure was annoying and pointless. Enid kills the matriarch of that secluded group of women, but then the granddaughter decides to let them go, but refuses to help in the fight against Negan. Aaron decides he'll stay and keep trying to convince them, while Enid needs to go back and tell Maggie what's going on. Snore. Killing the leader lady was completely pointless, Enid's reaction to it was entirely tepid, nothing is actually changing, and we're now staring down the barrel at yet more pointless scenes of people debating whether standing up to the Saviors is the right thing to do. I'm sick of it.

This episode contained the best Jadis scene that we've had to date, but the problem is... that's not exactly saying much. The annoying speech patterns have never once made sense to me or added anything to the character or the tone. Her insolence in the face of the Saviors doesn't come across as brave, just stupid, and the slaughtering of her group was interesting only in what it showed us about Simon's character, not Jadis'. Even Rick's decision to leave Jadis behind had me shrugging. I just don't care about her or anything that's going on here.

Pros:

Simon has gone off the rails, and it's more interesting than anything has been on this show in a while. Gunning down Jadis' group was... well... it was obviously cruel and terrible, but it's also so intriguing to me. He defied Negan's orders, and then lied to his face about it. Obviously he'll be killed if and when Negan learns the truth. But the fact that Simon would dare to do such a thing is indicative of his mental state. Or maybe it's indicative of Negan's failing hold on his people. Or maybe both. I was shocked at his audacity, and I'm actually interested to see how it plays out.

Jadis' survival strategy after Rick and Michonne leave her to deal with the reanimated corpses of her people was absolutely stomach-churning. She barricades herself behind a fortified position, then makes noise to lure the Walkers towards her, then turns on a trash compactor thing and the Walkers just walk into it, one by one, grinding themselves into paste. Which we then see. It's disgusting. Even though the Walkers are not a threat very often on this show anymore, I'm constantly amazed by the new creative ways they find to make them uniquely disgusting and unsettling.

Carl wrote notes to everybody before he died. There's one for Rick, which he says he's not ready to read, but there's also one for Negan. Rick does read this, and then uses one of the stolen walkie-talkies to talk to Negan. He breaks the news that Carl is dead, and then says that despite Carl's wish for peace, he will kill Negan, no matter the cost. This scene is a testament to Jeffrey Dean Morgan. I don't think I've made a secret of the fact that I'm getting really sick of Negan, but his reaction to Carl's death was a real punch in the gut. While Rick is outraged and railing against Negan, Negan is quiet, and seemingly devastated. He ignores Rick's threats and quietly asks how Carl died - was it the Saviors? Was he responsible for this tragedy? He's feeling the grief of this, and he uses that grief to make something of an impassioned plea to Rick. This is Rick's fault. Carl's dead because he wouldn't leave well enough alone. Rick should give up. He's already lost.

This show would be over a lot sooner if Rick really did throw in the towel, and I know it won't happen like Negan wants it to. But I'm also not sure it's going to happen like Rick wants it to. I don't think there's a satisfying ending to this show while Negan is still breathing, but I suppose it remains to be seen what happens with the rest of the season. After all, Negan is a complete monster, but Rick isn't exactly an honorable good soul either. Moments like this, where we see the hints of Negan's humanity, where we see his genuine grief over Carl's death... these are the moments that used to make this show great, back in the day.

So there you have it. I'm a bit miffed about the treatment of Carl's death, and I'm still uncertain on what this means for Rick's character moving forward. I'm also anxious to check in with the rest of the ensemble. However, for all the weak elements, I did enjoy diving a bit deeper into Simon's characterization, and the moment between Rick and Negan at the end was great.

7/10

#review #walking dead #walking dead review #the walking dead #the walking dead review #twd

1 note · View note

imagines-for-the-fangirls-soul · 7 years

Text

As You Wish - Part Four

Tags: @lfsbitencourt, @ridingmoxley, @dollycrybaby (Let me know if you wanna get tagged) A/N: I hope you like it! Sorry, it took so long, school is just a lot. I used some lyrics from Kesha’s Praying, and the episode is Hearts Still Beating. I didn’t link the rest of the parts, but I will try to tomorrow. I’ve been writing for about 2-3 hours now.

“Lead on.”

“Well, you’ve seen the entire living room, now. How about the kitchen?” you said, glancing up at him. He smiled and walked into the kitchen. He started to open all of the cabinets, and search through every pot and pan he found.

You could feel Carl glaring at your back the entire time. Negan turned around, looked at you with a grin, and you rolled your eyes. You wished you could get away from both of these boys, but knew it wouldn’t be safe for anyone if you did.

“I think we covered that the water works,” you snapped after Negan turned the sink on and off about thirty times. He looked up at you and bit his lip.

“Yes we did,” he said, standing up straight. “So let’s see what else we can cover.” He looked over at Carl, who sighed.

“You, uh, haven’t seen the laundry room.”

“The laundry room? What the fuck do I care about your laundry room? Show me something cool! Show me your room!” Carl nodded and walked towards the stairs. You went first, at Negan’s behest, with him following close behind you.

“What one’s yours, Carl?”

“The one on the right,” he said. You looked back at him, and you exchanged a look that meant you were both worried about Negan finding Judith. Negan motioned for you to open the door, and you did, before walking into the room.

“What?” Carl asked as Negan stood in the hallway.

“This is nice carpeting,” he said with a smile. “Y/N, you mind holding this for me?” You took Lucille from him as he kicked off his shoes and socks.

“You’re kidding,” you said. He smiled at you and walked into Carl’s bedroom, letting the carpet move between his toes.

“This is swanky living,” he said, his voice getting deeper before he laughed. He held his hand out, and you handed the bat back to him. He swung it over his back, before looking through all of Carl’s things. He threw open the closet door and pushed Carl’s things aside.

“You know, nothing is going to be as cool as that hat,” he said with a grin. You sat down on the edge of Carl’s bed, miserably watching Negan. He grinned at you and sat down next to you. “What? Are you not enjoying yourself?”

“No, not really. Why don’t you just give us whatever punishment you see fit, and go?”

“Punishment?” Negan asked, beaming.

“Yeah. Bash in someone else’s head, and we can all go back to normal.”

“Normal,” Carl said, scoffing. Negan looked over at him with a wicked grin, and you put your hand out, to stop him from standing up.

“Ya know, that is one of the first times you have actually touched me? I don’t bite,” he said, leaning in close. You rolled your eyes but didn’t move away. “And, I don’t always punish.”

“Promise?” you asked.

“I don’t make promises.” You stared at him, thinking over any promise he ever made you, and then realized you were looking too long. You looked back at Carl, who looked even more pissed than he did before. “How about a game?”

“What?” Carl asked.

“You might wanna take the edge out of your voice, young man. I am doing everything in my power to make Y/N like me some more, and killing someone today would not be a good way of doing that.”

“Negan.” He looked back at you and held out the bat. You took it from him again and watched as he plucked the darts from Carl’s board.

“Let’s play, kid.” Negan took aim and hit nearly every target. He pulled the darts back out and gave them to Carl. “I’d tell you it’s better to aim with both eyes open, but-”

“Son of a bitch,” you said.

“My apologies, that was a tad insensitive.” He looked back at you, holding his hands together as if to beg for your forgiveness. Carl took aim, and to Negan’s surprise, hit nearly just as many targets as he did.

“Shit, kid.” Carl looked over at you and held out the darts, but you shook your head.

“I’m good.”

“Aw, come on,” Negan said, spinning to look at you. You looked up at him as he smiled. “We’re all playing.”

“I’m not.” You looked at Carl once more and saw how nervous he looked. If playing Negan’s foolish games would help him relax, you would do so. You groaned and sat up, taking the darts from his hands. “Call it.”

“Top left,” Negan said. “Twelve.” You hit your mark. “Two.” And again.

“Bulls-eye,” Carl said. After throwing, you looked back at Negan, who was beaming. He bit his lip and wiggled his body.

“Damn. I forgot how good you are.”

“At darts?” you asked. “I don’t think we ever even played.”

“Just at everything,” he said, standing a little closer to you. You scoffed and rolled your eyes. You picked Lucille up off of the floor and handed it back to Negan.

“Let’s get back to the tour.”

“As you wish.” You led the way out the door, and Negan followed. The doors in the hallway were all closed, and you were grateful for it. Hopefully, you could keep Judith’s door shut.

“What’s in there?” Negan asked, pointing with his bat. You looked back at Carl and shrugged.

“My dad’s room.” Negan beamed.

“We’ll let’s go,” he said, opening the door first and walking in. He laughed and dropped down on the already made bed. “Have you felt this shit, Y/N? This is a good bed. I thought we took all the mattresses.”

“We just found that one,” Carl said.

“And Rick took it for himself?” Negan said, frowning.

“Why should you care? You took literally everybody’s for yourself.” Negan shot you a look and tried to shake off what you said. It seemed that he wanted your approval, and when he didn’t have it, he grew uncomfortable.

“So this is where your dad and Michonne screw?” he asked, laying back down. You rolled your eyes and looked at Carl. His fists were clenched. Negan sat up and looked at you. “Alright. I get that I can be a lot to handle. Let’s wrap this tour up.”

He jumped up and opened the door. You and Carl followed, hoping to take him downstairs. Negan stopped at the third door and you took in a sharp breath.

“What about this one?” he asked.

“Oh it’s just a water heater,” Carl said as casually as possible.

“You serious, kid? Come on.” Negan pushed open the door as you and Carl both tried to make up new excuses to get him away. “Oh ho, my. Look at this little angel.” Judith sat up in her bed and watched Negan as he picked her up. “Just a water heater,” he said with a scoff. He brought Judith close to his face and grinned up at her.

“Don’t-”

“Excuse me?” Negan asked, looking at Carl. “You don’t tell me what to do. I am just trying to get to know your beautiful little sister-”

“Negan,” you said, walking up next to him. Judith was starting to look fussy, so you gave her arm a squeeze and smiled at her.

“And you said there weren’t going to be babies anymore.” You shook your head and looked up at him.

“No. I said I wasn’t ever going to have kids.” Negan sighed and situated Judith in his arms. You were both painfully aware that Carl was just three feet away from you. “Here.” You took Judith and put her in Carl’s arms for the time being.

“Now you’ve seen the whole upstairs,” Carl said. “Are we done?”

“I have not seen the whole upstairs,” he said, smiling at you both. You and Carl exchanged another uncomfortable look and followed Negan back into Rick’s room. He walked past the bed and swung open the door to the bathroom. “Y'all can wait here for this unless Y/N wants to join me in the shower.”

“No.”

“Alright,” he said, smiling as he shut the door. You heard the shower turn on, and looked at Carl.

“What the hell were you thinking? You think he’s just gonna torture us in here, and then leave?”

“Yeah, you seem really tortured.”

“I’m not the one who got us into this mess. Did you really think you were gonna kill him?” Carl shook his head.

“You don’t understand.”

“You’re right. I don’t understand how you were stupid enough to think that even if you did kill him, that any of this would be over.”

“It could all be over for you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” you asked, looking at him.

“You could go and live with him. I’ve seen his place. It’s a hell of a lot nicer than here.”

“Now you don’t understand. I love everyone here. I’m not going anywhere.” The shower turned off, and Carl sighed. After a minute, the door swung back open, and Negan stood shirtless in front of you. This time, you sighed.

“Damn. I like this place. Hot water.” He ran the towel through his hair, very aware of the way you were looking at him. “Come into the bathroom, both of you.”

“Why?” Carl asked.

“I’m gonna teach you something. Although Y/N may not like this.”

“Why?” you asked.

“Come on in.” You rolled your eyes and followed Carl in. Negan pulled on his white t-shirt and wet his face. “Now since your dad is such a prick, he’s probably not teaching you how to be a proper man. So I’m gonna show you. Step one is shaving.”

He grabbed a razor and rubbed some soap on his face. You distinctively remember the first time you and Negan discussed how he maintained his beard. Although you did prefer his beard, at this point in your life you didn’t really care.

“Get a good look at it, darling,” he said, before making the first cut. “Against the grain kid, always against the grain.” You, Carl, and Judith sat on the edge of the bathtub, watching Negan shave his face. He didn’t stop smiling, and you were sick of seeing him like this.

“Smiling isn’t gonna help you get every part.” He smirked and looked over at you.

“Why don’t you help me, then.”

“What?” you asked, folding your arms.

“Help me,” he said, handing you the razor. The tone of his voice told you he wasn’t asking. You groaned and took it from his hand. Standing, you had to reach up to shave his face. You shaved across his chin, and he didn’t stop smiling.

“I’m going to cut your face if you don’t stop.”

“Is that a threat?” he asked, tilting his head. You shot him a look and he stopped smiling. “Continue.” You shaved the rest of his face, while Carl stared at you angrily.

“There, you’re done.” Negan turned around and looked at himself in the mirror. He rubbed his hand over his smooth skin and grinned. He chuckled deep in his chest before spinning back to you.

“Thank you, Y/N. This is what I like. Teamwork! Maybe we could all learn a lesson from Y/N’s can-do attitude.” Carl gave you the nastiest look he could muster and you groaned.

“Are we done now?”

“Well,” Negan said, opening the door, “Rick isn’t back yet. So, no.” He started downstairs, and you tried to stop Carl to talk to him, but he ignored you.

“We have to follow him.” Downstairs, Olivia walked in.

“Did you get the lemonade?” Negan asked. She handed him the yellow container and he shook his whole body. “Why don’t you make this, why I make dinner.”

“Dinner?” you asked, walking into the kitchen.

“Yes,” he said with a smile. “Do you wanna help?”

“No,” you said simply. “But I bet I’m gonna have to.”

After dinner, Negan sat on the porch with Carl and Judith and you. He held Judith in his arms and waved neighborly at everyone who walked by. It wasn’t too long out there that Judith got fussy, and Carl took her inside to be with Olivia.

“I do like it here. Maybe I should get a vacation home.” You looked at him and rolled your eyes. “You know, I distinctively remember you doing that less before.”

“Well, time does change things,” you said.

“I’m still the same.” You laughed uncomfortably.

“No, you’re not.”

“What’s changed? Have you taken a good look at me?” He watched you breath through your nose and really didn’t think you’d face him. When you did, though, you were about three inches from his face.

“I have been. And the man I knew is not there anymore.”

“Maybe I’ve just got barbed wire around me like you said.”

“When we were together, you wouldn’t have killed my friends, you wouldn’t have tortured an entire group, and you wouldn’t have offered to screw someone’s brains out.” He cocked an eyebrow at you, not knowing what you were talking about. “Olivia.”

“Oh,” he said, not finding a better way to answer that. “Well, I didn’t do any of that because when we were together, we were together. I didn’t need anything else.”

“So you’re saying if I left with you right now, went with you to the Sanctuary, you’d leave all of my friends alone, leave all of your wives behind, and we’d live happily ever after?” He smiled and looked into your eyes. Although he knew you weren’t serious, he could read that you really did want to know.

“Hell yes.” You snorted and sat back in your chair, looking out on Alexandria.

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Negan smirked and sat back, thinking about how exactly he could make that happen. When he started creating the Saviors, he made it thinking that he would find you someday and you would lead together. What they had become now didn’t seem to fit you.

“Mind if I interrupt?” Negan snapped his head towards the porch steps and saw a tall man walk up, a bottle of whiskey in his hands.

“Spencer,” you said, looking at him curiously. “What are you doing?”

“I thought I’d just welcome Negan and the Saviors to Alexandria,” he said, lifting the bottle casually. Negan smiled and looked over at you, biting his lip.

“Well, will you look at that. I do not mind if you interrupt. Y/N, will you get us a couple of glasses.” You raised your eyebrow at him incredulously, but his face didn’t falter.

“Jesus,” you said, standing up, and slamming the door as you walked back into Rick’s house. Negan laughed softly and motioned for Spencer to sit down next to him. You were back in a minute and didn’t seem to mind that Spencer had taken your seat, and instead took to leaning up against the porch.

“You know, Y/N, I have a perfectly good place for you to sit,” he said, motioning to his lap. You shook your head and turned your back to him. Spencer poured the drinks as Negan bit his lip.

“That is good,” he said, after taking his first drink. “Running water, air conditioning, housewarming gift, this place is something else,” he said. “Beautiful women, too.” Negan watched you, hoping you would look at him, and when you did, he beamed.

“Cheers to that,” Spencer said, clinking his glass against Negan’s.

“The only thing missing is a pool table,” Negan said, testing the waters. Of course, he knew that there was a pool table here, having seen it the first time that the Saviors came to collect from Alexandria.

“The house across the street has one in the garage.”

“Oh, Spencer, you just might be my new best friend.” Negan heard you mutter ‘oh my god’, before walking off the porch, heading towards the house with the pool table. Spencer laughed.

“Hmm. Seems like you’ve got her well trained.” Negan took a sip again and eyed the man curiously.

“You don’t train women, Spencer. Certainly not Y/N. Let’s get this game set up before you say something that will truly piss me off.” Tongue in cheek, Negan looked at Spencer, who nervously nodded.

A few minutes later, with you supervising, Negan’s men got the pool tabled set up. Handing him the chalk, you looked up at him with a frown.

“You’ll take winner,” he said. He watched as the corners of your mouth upturned and you nodded.

“Fine. Good luck.” Negan smiled, proud that he actually got you to smile, even just a little, without a trace of sarcasm.

“I could never do this with Rick,” Negan said. “He’d just be standing there, scowling, giving me that annoying side-eye of his.”

“That’s actually what I came to see you about,” Spencer said, as the members of Alexandria started to gather around. “I want to talk to you about Rick.” Negan smiled and looked over at you. You had your arms crossed and met his gaze. You shook your head softly as he turned back to the game.

“Alright, talk to me, Spencer. Talk to me about Rick.”

“I get what you’re trying to do here, what you’re trying to build. I’m not saying I agree with your methods, but I get it.” Negan took aim and knocked one of the balls in as he listened to Spencer’s bullshit. “You’re building a network, make people contribute for the great good. Makes sense.

“But you should know, that Rick has a history of not working well with others.”

“Shut up, Spencer,” you muttered, as Negan walked across the table. He looked up at you, his eyes sparkling.

“Let him finish, doll.” He missed his next shot, and let Spencer move across the table before replying. “Is that so?”

“Rick wasn’t the original leader here. My mom was. She was doing a really good job of it. She died, not long after Rick showed up. Same with my brother, same with my dad.” You scoffed, and Negan turned to you.

“What?”

“They didn’t die because of Rick. Rick saved this place.”

“But he couldn’t save everyone,” Spencer said, looking at you. “He didn’t save Aiden.” Negan looked at Spencer and you and could read that there was more behind the name than what was said.

“Who was Aiden?” Negan asked. You glanced over at him nervously, something you hadn’t done all day. Each time you had looked at him before, it was nervous that he might do something, not nervous about something you had done.

“His brother.”

“Her boyfriend,” Spencer said. You inhaled and turned away from Negan. He didn’t push you further and instead turned his attention back to Spencer.

“So things were just peachy, for what, years? And then Rick shows up, and suddenly you’re an orphan. That is the saddest story I’ve ever heard. Good thing for you, he’s not in charge anymore.”

“It doesn’t matter. His ego’s out of control. He’ll find a way to screw things up, try and do things his way to take over. That’s what he did with my mom, that’s what he’ll do again.” Negan nodded, and looked at the board, taking in everything that Spencer just threw up.

“What exactly are you proposing be done about that?” he asked, looking up at him with a confident grin.

“I am my mother’s son. I can be the leader she was. That’s what this place needs, that’s what you need.” Negan didn’t tell Spencer that he didn’t need to tell him what he needs, because the list starts and ends with you, and instead played along with Spencer’s stupid wishes.

“So I should put you in charge. That’s what you’re saying.”

“We’d be much better off.” Negan took another drink, eyeing you quickly to see if your face matched the distaste he was feeling for Spencer.

“What do you think?” he asked, looking at you. You didn’t answer but gave him a disgusted look that meant you couldn’t even believe he was asking.

“You know what I’m thinking? I’m thinking about how Rick threatened to kill me, how he clearly hates my guts, but he is out there right now, gathering shit for me to make sure that I don’t hurt any of the fine people who live here. He is swallowing his hate, and getting shit done. That takes guts.” He reached across the table, and took another shot, sinking the ball.

“Then there’s you, the guy who waited for Rick to be gone, so he could sneak over and talk to me, get me to do his dirty work, so he could take Rick’s place. So I gotta ask, if you wanna take over, why not just kill Rick yourself and just take over?”

“What- no- I didn’t-”

“I didn’t let Y/N interrupt you, so please don’t interrupt me. You know what I’m thinking, cause I have a guess.” Negan leaned in close and whispered ever so slightly. “It’s because you’ve got no guts.”

In a blink of an eye, Negan stuck his knife into Spencer’s chest. He heard the gasps from the crowd, but what he focused on was the tiny ‘no’ you uttered. In another swift motion, Negan sliced Spencer open, and his insides began to spill out.

“How embarrassing,” he said, as Spencer fell to the ground, his innards in his hands. “There they are. They were inside you the whole time. You did have guts! I’ve never been so wrong in my whole life!” he yelled, turning to the group with a smile that showed it didn’t faze him at all.

You couldn’t speak, and couldn’t move. You watched as Negan, with blood now staining his shirt and face, spun to face the crowd, proud of what he just did. He put the knife back in his pocket and walked over to get Lucille. If he tried to make eye contact with you, you didn’t notice, because all you could do was stare at Spencer.

“Someone get up here and clean this mess up.” Even though you didn’t care for Spencer much, you felt tears forming in your eyes. You shook your head and a small sound came out. “Oh, don’t cry too much, darling, this wasn’t the one you were fucking anyways.” Your jaw fell open, and you pulled your face away from his gaze.

The next time you looked up, was to the sound of a gunshot. You snapped your head up and saw Rosita on the ground, and Negan bent over.

“Shit! What the shit! You just tried to kill me!?” Negan paced quickly in front of Rosita, as she was pinned down on the ground. You wanted to step in, but your feet wouldn’t move, and you didn’t know if there was anything you could do at this point to make sure he’d stop.

“What is this?” he asked, picking up the bullet shell off the ground. “This little bad boy made from scratch?” You remembered a conversation you had with Eugene and Abraham about making your own bullets for Alexandria and the Hilltop and knew exactly where Rosita got it from. “This was homemade. You may be stupid, darling, but you showed some real ingenuity here. Arat, hold that knife up, up on that girl’s face.”

“Stop,” you said, walking closer to him. “Negan, you don’t have to do this.” He looked at you briefly but ignored you.

“Lucille’s beautiful smooth surface is never gonna look the same, so why should yours?! Unless, unless you tell me who made this.”

“It was me, I made it,” she lied.

“You see, now I just think you’re lying,” he said, pointing Lucille her way. “And you lying to me now,” he yelled, making you flinch. “Is such a shame, Arat’s gonna have to cut up that pretty face. One more try.”

“It was me,” Rosita said, leaning up so the knife cut her face bravely.

“Oh, you are such a badass!” He stopped smiling for a minute and looked back at you briefly. His eyes softened as if he was trying to tell you he was sorry for something. “Have it your way,” he said, looking back at Rosita. “Arat, kill somebody.”

“No, it was me!” Rosita screamed. But too late, Arat raised her gun and shot Olivia in the head.

“No!” you yelled, trying to run towards her. Negan stopped you, wrapping his arm around your waist, making you look at where Rosita lay. No matter how hard you tried to fight, he wouldn’t loosen his grip on you.

“Rick!” Negan rasped, as the other man walked up. With that distraction, you pushed yourself from Negan’s arms, who didn’t fight too much. “Look, everybody, it’s Rick! Your people are making me lose my voice doing all this yelling.

“Rick, how about a thank you? I mean, look, I know we started this relationship with me beating the holy shit out of your friends, and because of that we’re never gonna sit around and braid each other’s hair, or share our deepest, darkest, secrets, but how about a little credit? I just bent over backward to show you how reasonable I am.

“Your kid? He hid in one of my trucks and machined gun a bunch of my men down, and I brought him home, safe and sound. And, I fed him spaghetti. Another one of your people, well he wanted me to kill you and put him in charge. I took him out for you. Another one, here,” he said, pointing to Rosita. “She shot Lucille, trying to kill me just now. So I gave you one less mouth to feed, and by looking at her, that mouth did some major damage.”

“You’re a piece of shit,” you muttered, the tears not stopping their stream down your face. He turned to you with a smile, for the first time in your life, pointing Lucille your way.

“We’ll get to that later.” He turned back to Rick. “Now, personally, I wouldn’t have picked her to be the one to go, but Arat- pssh, I don’t know, didn’t trust her.” Rick stared at him, and took a cautious step forward like he was trying to hold himself back.

“Your shit is waiting at the front. Just take it, and go.” Negan backed up.

“Sure thing, Rick. Right after I find the guy or gal who made this bullet. Arat.” The woman turned her gun again, and Tara shouted, taking claim for the bullet. You dropped your head in your hand, as Eugene finally spoke up.

“No it wasn’t,” he said, as he cried into his hands. “It was me, it was only me.”

“You?” Negan asked, walking closer to get a better look at the man. He began to explain how he made the bullet, but Negan cut him off. “Shut up. I believe you.” Negan grimaced, and walked away from Eugene, carefully bringing Lucille up. “Lucille, give me strength!”

After a pause, Negan informed Rick that he would be taking Eugene and that whatever he managed to get, it would not be enough to fill in the hole that today caused. Rosita screamed some more as Negan’s men took Eugene away, begging them to take her instead.

“Rick, I ain’t gonna lie, your kitchen is a god damn mess.” He giggled and swung Lucille over his shoulder. “Well, I’ll see you next time. Y/N,” he said, turning towards you, “Walk with me?”

“What?” you asked, falling into step with him.

“I hope this little incident didn’t shatter what fraction of my image I tried to build up for you today.” You laughed cynically and looked at him.

“You didn’t rebuild anything for me. In fact, you destroyed what little respect and love I had for you.”

“Love?” he asked, tilting his head.

“Just go,” you said, stopping. “I don’t care anymore. I can make it on my own, and I don’t need you.”

“Y/N-”

“No!” you said, shaking your head, and backing away from him. “What did Olivia do to you? Spencer was an asshole, but he didn’t deserve that!”

“What?” he asked, leaning back. “So you were sleeping with him, too?” You slapped him so quickly, you didn’t even think about it.

“Where the hell do you get off, thinking you can tell me anything? I can sleep with whoever I want, and you wanna know why? Because you left me! You got us in that shit! You’re the reason the motel blew up!”

“Oh, it’s my fault that he followed us?” he yelled, stepping closer to you. “Because if I remember correctly, he was there for you.” You shook your head, your face strained, and venom pumping through your veins.

“Go. Please.” You started to walk away and were a few feet away from him when he finally spoke again.

“I meant what I said earlier. I could give it all up.” You turned back to him, tears forming in your eyes again.

“No, you couldn’t.”

“We could get past all of this.”

“There are some things only God can forgive.”

#i'm sorry this took so long #but it's almost 5k so #as you wish #negan #negan imagine #negan x reader #negan fanfic #negan fanfiction #twd #twd imagine #twd fanfic #twd fanfiction #the walking dead #the walking dead imagine #the walking dead fanfiction #the walking dead fanfic

68 notes · View notes

weapon13whitefang · 6 years

Text

Liz Rambles TWD 8x05

So I didn’t really live-blog too hard this episode like I have been and that’s kinda gonna become a theme. I think I’ll only tap on the stuff that comes to the forefront of my mind and post it now. I feel like I get distracted when I live-blog and miss a lot. I mean I can rewind but I don’t like to unless I can’t hear something lol.

That said, here’s a few thoughts from the brain hole! Expect them to be all over the place. Cause it’s me and that’s how I roll.

The flash at the beginning of the opening title was more obvious, super clearer, and definitely longer. I’m not imagining that either (I hope not). I literally wasn’t trying to look for it this time and it was like BAM across the screen. It’s also becoming the brightest thing of the credits too.

I feel so bad for Gabriel being trapped with Negan and is obnoxious ass. Honey, Im sorry! I know you’re trying to be better! The last thing you need is to be dealing with a guy who keeps talking about his dick and king/god complex going on!

I’ll be honest that most of the meeting mouth off fights I wasn’t really into. I did like Dwight coming down and standing with what Eugene was saying. Like the two aren’t alone in this. Eugene is a coward but he’s smart and he’s going to gather enough information to take shit down. But he can’t do all of it alone. He can stand for himself when he needs to. He proved that to Abraham… But he still needs help. Now he’s got a slight showing that he has Dwight. And with Gabriel there, he can have another influence to help… I just hope Gabriel is gonna be okay.

The Daryl and Rick fight – while great – wasn’t as rough as I thought it was gonna be. I was kinda expecting a bigger push and pull to happen… That said, I was still bouncing in my seat going “CHILDREN WHAT THE FUCK” and chuckling just a little at the S1 reference back to when Daryl and Rick first meet. Another reference to S1 that was said backwards. Daryl is the one who told Rick that. This time it was Rick who tells Daryl that. Looking glass I see your ass, okay!

THAT WAS A FUCKING HELICOPTER OH MY GOD WHERE-WHY-HOW?!

Now that I screamed that, lets look at the last dealings with helicopters on this show.

S1E1 Rick sees a military helicopter after he stumbles out of the hospital. Later, Rick catches the reflection of a helicopter in the window of a skyscraper.

S2E13 we see walkers in Atlanta being drawn to the sound of the helicopter we saw in s1 by the same building Rick saw it reflected in. This draws Walkers to stumble down a dirt road and start a heard of them that eventually merges with another heard before they’re drawn by gunshots – Carl and Rick’s gunshots. This is the episode we learn that everyone has the virus that turns them into a walker so it doesn’t matter if you’re bit or scratched.

S3E3 starts with three soldiers – Franklin, Welles and Sean – in a military helicopter as ut begins to malfunction from mechanical problems before it crashes. Welles is the only one to survive the crash. The crash draws The Governor to inspect it. The helicopter crash also draws in Michonne and Andrea, who are found by none other than a Dixon – Merle Dixon! Who had been missing since S1 at that point and had only been seen in S2 as a hallucination by Daryl.

S4E1 There’s a crashed Helicopter on top of the food bank that Daryl was gathering from and that falls on top of them and causes Zack to die. The episode that had Daryl and Beth’s first “romantic like” scene. The “damn romance novel” scene.

So basically MORE PAST REFERENCES?!??!

Father Gabriel talking about how he survived as long as he did and Negan talking about the real Lucille was great! I know some people find the whole thing about Negan’s backstory to be boring, but it’s actually one of the things I liked about him; the story behind the bat and Lucille. It’s pretty great to me. And FG showing that he’s still fighting his past and that he is searching for his purpose of being in whatever place he ends up.

The talk of Daryl and Tara teaming up to go take down the saviors has me shooketh and very concerned for those two… They’re gonna get themselves killed. I mean, fuck, I’m happy to see them talking and having scenes together more and more but they are both in wayyy to dark a head space to be thinking how they are and doing what they’re doing… It’s gonna get them hurt and it’s gonna get innocent people hurt. People just on the wrong side but trying to survive, not fight.

JADIS! We’re going back to the Junkyard Kids and their funky ass Kingdom! Just like I was waiting for… But now I wonder what’s gonna have Rick be put into that containment car… Oh brother.

Overall – while not my favorite episode and one I got kinda bored of in places – I like what I did like and I’m telling you, something big is gonna be happening and something from the past is gonna crash into TF pretty fucking hard!

#the walking dead #twd spoilers #team delusional #team whatever happens will happen #team acceptance #team I don't care I'm having fun

8 notes · View notes

siancore · 7 years

Photo

A/N: Sorry that I’ve not updated this one in a while. Here is Part 8 and it is an early birthday present for my good mate and fellow Richonne fic writer, @codename-me.

“It’s so great to finally meet you,” said Michonne as she stood in front of Rick and smiled. He was actually left speechless for an instant; stunned by the beauty of her face and the utter warmth in her eyes.

“It is,” he finally said, while extending his hand to her; she took it and shook gently as their fingers lingered a moment.

Rick gestured towards the entrance of the Vortex Bar and Grill and asked, “Should we head on in?”

“Sure,” replied Michonne as she stepped inside while Rick held the door open; he followed behind her soon after.

“Have you been here before?” asked Michonne as they approached the hostess.

“No ma’am,” said Rick. “I don’t get to go out that often.”

Michonne nodded as they were shown to a table; Rick held the chair out for her and she flashed him another bright smile before offering her thanks.

“You like a good burger?” she asked.

“I sure do,” Rick replied.

“I’m glad you do because the burgers here are amazing,” said Michonne before she looked at the menu.

Rick took a moment to take in their surroundings; the décor of the bar was a mixture of retro motorcycle paraphernalia, vintage Americana, skulls, and items one might find in someone’s garage or yard sale.

“Have you ever seen that show Man versus Food?” she asked as she looked up from the list of decadence meals.

“Yeah,” Rick replied. “The kids love it.”

“I do too,” she offered. “I could plan a trip around the country based on the places they visit. It’s great.”

Rick smiled at how her face lit up while she continued.

“So, anyway,” said Michonne. “This place was featured on an episode. How cool is that?”

“That’s very cool,” Rick replied. “What was the challenge?”

“The Triple By-Pass Burger,” said Michonne while nodding her head and wearing a grin; Rick laughed.

“I’m steering clear of that one,” he said in earnest.

“Me too,” Michonne agreed.

After their orders were placed, Rick and Michonne sipped their drinks and made light conversation.

“Excuse me a sec,” said Michonne, after a moment. “I’m just going to use the bathroom.”

“Of course,” said Rick; he stood when she did and watched her walk across the bar.

Michonne used the time spent waiting in line to send a message to Andrea to let her know that her date had started off well. She also updated her Facebook status, leaving it vague and open to interpretation:

As Michonne made her way back to where she and Rick were seated, she noticed how he beamed brightly when their eyes met.

“Sorry about that,” said Michonne as she took up a seat. “There was a line-up.”

“That’s okay,” said Rick. “It’s pretty busy in here.”

“I hope that’s alright,” said Michonne. “I wasn’t sure if you’d want to come to a bar and keep it casual or do the restaurant thing…it’s okay, isn’t it?”

Rick reached over and patted her hand reassuringly; her skin was warm where his touch landed and she missed the feeling as soon as he drew his hand away.

“Michonne, it’s fine,” he stated. “Anywhere is fine so long as it’s with you.”

She felt her face flush and gifted Rick with a coy smile.

“Gosh, you really are sweet,” she said in earnest; Rick tilted his head and his lips turned up at the corners.

“I think that’s you bringin’ out the best in me,” he offered. “I feel like I’ve known you all of my life.”

“Yeah,” Michonne replied. “That’s how I feel too. Maybe we both have old souls.”

“You could be on to somethin’ there,” said Rick “Or maybe it’s something else. All I know is, I feel comfortable around you. This here, what we’re doin’, I never imagined I’d meet someone like this.”

“Me too,” Michonne interjected.

“But with you, it’s been easy,” Rick explained. “I don’t know how to put it all into words...”

“You don’t have to,” said Michonne. “I know exactly what you’re trying to say because I was thinkin’ the same thing.”

Rick offered her a smile before saying, “I’m really glad we did this.”

“Yeah,” said Michonne as she beamed sweetly at Rick. “So am I.”

They searched each other’s eyes until their food arrived; after thanking their waiter, they glanced at the meals before them.

“So that’s a Reverse Cowgirl?” Rick asked as he gestured to the burger on Michonne’s plate.

“It is,” she said.

“I don’t know what I was expecting with a name like that,” Rick said nonchalantly.

“Oh, it’s really good,” Michonne offered with a smirk.

“I believe you,” said Rick. “Now mine looks a mess.”

Michonne chortled.

“It does,” she said. “What’s it called again?”

“A Zombie Apocalypse,” Rick replied. “I guess this is what a zombie’s face is meant to look like.”

They both laughed before Rick continued. “Carl would get a kick outta this.”

“You should take a picture and share it on Facebook so he can see it,” Michonne advised.

“Yeah, I will,” said Rick as he positioned the plate and then got out his phone. “I hope it tastes better than it looks.”

There was a bustling crowd after the comedy performance was over as Rick and Michonne made their way out of the small theater. Bodies were close together as faint whiffs of alcohol wafted in the air. Rick, in the lead, looked back to make sure Michonne was still behind him as the bar was now teeming with more patrons. He stopped, reached back and took hold of her hand and then proceeded to lead her through the crowd. Once they ended up outside of the venue on the street, they did not let go; Michonne looked at Rick and he noticed that her beautiful face was awash with happiness. He felt the same.

“So,” said Michonne as she stepped closer to Rick, placing her free hand to his chest. “I guess we should agree we like one another get this out of the way.”

She then brought her hand up to his face and leaned in; their lips met in a gentle, languid kiss that Rick soon deepened. When they finally drew apart, they held each other’s gaze; Rick smiled warmly and Michonne let out a little giggle. Hand-in-hand, they made their way to where Rick had parked his car.

Later that evening, after their date was finished and each had returned home, Rick was still on a high as he anticipated their second date. Michonne was still on his mind when he posted yet another Facebook status:

#Richonne fanfiction #One Click Away Fic Part 8

76 notes · View notes

dingoes8myrp · 7 years

Text

The Walking Dead: All Out

I’ve been watching this season of The Walking Dead, but it’s taken me some time to put together my thoughts about it. I’m enjoying this season a lot so far, but it’s raising some disturbing questions about the morality of our heroes. Spoilers ahead!

If last season trudged along at an agonizing crawl, this season is barreling forward so fast that it’s a little like running alongside a train looking for a safe place to jump on. However, we’ve narrowed our focus significantly as far as the story and characters go, which is super helpful. When they spread everyone out across all corners and also try to single out newer characters for development episodes, it gets hard to keep track of who’s doing what where and why. It also slows momentum of a story because instead of moving chronologically we’re moving laterally a lot of the time. I honestly can’t remember what happened in what episode, exactly, so I’m going to talk about the highlights.

Aaron and Eric

It was so great to see Eric and Aaron working together like a well-oiled machine, much like we’ve seen Rick and Michonne do. My only complaint about Aaron and Eric is we didn’t get to see them enough. I wish we got more time with them last season! But, we had a lot going on, didn’t we? Ugh, that scene under the tree. Such great performances from Ross Marquand and Jordan Woods-Robinson. That exchange, that kiss! Ugh, heartbreaking.

Jesus and Morgan

Okay, I did not see this coming. Here we have two drastically opposing philosophies regarding death during the zombie apocalypse: “Kill everything” and “Don’t kill anyone with a pulse.” More on that later. Ironically, Jesus has adopted a version of Morgan’s previous philosophy of “All life is precious” while Morgan’s started killing… well, everything that moves. Of course, these two were going to clash, but a one-on-one all-out battle was not where I thought this was going. I also didn’t expect Jesus to be so chill about it all (a little too chill, if I’m honest - I’m starting to worry for Jesus here).

Tara

Tara is polarizing me this season. One minute I love her, the next minute I kind of want to smack her. It took me a while to figure out why. Here’s the thing about Tara. She’s going through what we’ve seen everyone go through in one way or another, sometimes multiple times: the grief of losing a loved one. People die quite often during the zombie apocalypse, and there’s not a lot of time for their loved ones to properly grieve. So, when our heroes do grieve, it comes out in unexpected (and annoying) ways. Tara just wants to shoot someone. Anyone. Everyone. I do agree that guy they found in the closet was a risky one to save, but Jesus has a point: they can’t just shoot everyone. I think the thing that bothers me is that Tara often comes off as the go-to wrench in the works, all the way back to when she kept rolling her ankle just when running was very important for the group she was with. That’s not her fault, but it’s making it hard to keep my TeamTara hashtag going without qualifiers.

Ezekiel

I had to remind myself that Ezekiel is playing a part. He’s acting like a medieval king all the time. That “Fake it ‘til you make it, baby” line had me cracking up. These past few episodes he’s really gotten a chance to shine instead of being the guy everyone made fun of while shooting him funny looks. Maybe there’s something to his LARP style of survival.

Rick

Yes! The return of Rick - the badass, take-no-prisoners, once-tore-a-man’s-throat-out-with-his-teeth Rick. I think we’ve all been waiting for this moment, and Mr. Grimes did not disappoint. He’s cool, calculated, and just a little rash. Okay, he did strangle a man trying to save his infant daughter. That hurt his case a little, but that baby daddy did come in a little aggressive, right? Right? Okay, the point is, Rick grew a spine and found his big brass ones. Whether this is a good thing or not, I think we can all agree it’s necessary if he has any hope of defeating Negan. Rick is kicking ass and taking names, and it’s refreshing.

Gregory

I’d actually forgotten all about Gregory until Negan dragged him out. I was annoyed at him, but not at all surprised. What did surprise me was that no one left Maggie! That was awesome. But, Maggie’s going to regret letting Gregory back into the Hilltop.

Morality

Jesus has a point when he says killing’s “not what we do.” That’s not just because, like, 80% of these people are in the same boat as our heroes, stuck under the heavy boot of Negan trying not to get their heads bashed in for their trouble. Keep in mind everyone has a very tenuous grasp on humanity at this point in our timeline. The more someone can kill without regret, the less human they become. Look at Negan and Garret, even the Governor. The disturbing thing about Negan, though, is that he’s Rick a few steps ahead on the lack-of-humanity train. That’s scary. We don’t want to look at Rick and believe in a few seasons he could be Negan.

There’s obviously a lot more to talk about, but that’s all I have the capacity for at the moment. Loving the new season so far!

#The Walking Dead #twd

0 notes

twdmusicboxmystery · 3 years

Text

10x17: Home Sweet Home - Details

Alright, let’s talk details!

***As always, spoilers abound below for 10x17. Don’t read until you’ve watched!***

As many have already pointed out, Maggie and Judith talking about the stars and how “she” is looking up at those same stars is interesting. Sirius symbolism, and of course they’re talking about Michonne, but when they use the pronoun, it could be adapted to anyone. Beth, obviously. But even Rick or anyone else who is missing.

I did notice something of a “rule of threes” theme in this episode. Right at the beginning, when loading the wagon, Lydia counts, “one, two, three.” That wouldn’t be very noteworthy on its own, but later in the episode, exactly three of Maggie’s people fall to the snipers. So again, a bit of a theme.

Also, Lydia is wearing a bright pink shirt at the beginning when she counts to three. I noticed it mostly because the color is so bright and it might be the cleanest thing Lydia has ever worn, lol. Not sure what it points to. This is such a minor scene, it’s hard to draw any conclusions. But it caught my attention.

When they go to see the ruins of Hilltop, it’s interesting that the only thing really left standing is the water tower. Water = Beth, so we always make note of things like water towers. It almost feels like a “standing amidst the ruins” sort of thing.

As they walk to get Maggie’s people, we do hear some interesting dialogue. Cole says there’s shelter 10 miles to the East. Just having 10 (think roman numeral X) and East in the same sentence catches my ear. At one point, one of them says “if we’re lucky.” So, Luck Theory. And we see lots of shots of sunlight filtering through the trees. We’ve always seen that as a Beth symbol.

Okay, let’s talk a little more about the cut on Maggie’s arm. It’s a rather large cut across her left forearm, right? And I mentioned yesterday that it isn’t the same as Beth’s because it’s on the wrong arm. Although, it IS in the same place as Beth’s cast, just the opposite.

So, here’s why I noticed it at all. There are two other times when we saw a big cut like this. Since the Leah rumors broke, I’ve rewatched the episode Scars several times. In that episode, Judith gets a cut in the exact same place: her left forearm. It looks exactly like Maggie’s does in this episode. That can’t be a coincidence.

The only other time I remember seeing this exact cut was on Tyreese in 4b. Now, I don’t want to freak anyone out, but Ty’s cut definitely foreshadowed his death. When he was bitten in 5x09, the bite came in exact same place he was cut.

Now, I don’t at all think this suggests both Maggie and Judith getting bitten and dying. I’m sure the symbolism is more complex than that. I just don’t understand exactly how they’re using it, yet.

What I can say for now is that all three of the episodes I’ve seen it in (and there may be more; these are just the ones that spring to mind) are Beth-heavy episodes, at least when it comes to symbolism. So there’s 5x09 (she’s actually in Ty’s death hallucination), this episode, where she’s mentioned twice after 6 years of silence, and then Scars. I still haven’t posted my Scars post, yet. I just have a lot of stuff to post right now, but I’ll get it posted eventually. Just trust me when I say that episode has TONS of Beth symbolism in it. So, we’ll just leave it at that for now.

Maggie and Daryl’s convo:

So, I’m getting a lot of messages about how people are disappointed that we didn’t get more of a reaction from Daryl when Maggie said Beth’s name. And I get it, but let me answer this two ways.

1. It’s not all that surprising. We saw Daryl’s huge reaction to losing Beth in Coda, in Them, and then in pretty much every episode for the next 3+ seasons. Eight years have passed since he lost her, and, while of course her death still affects him and of course he’s not over it, it’s not unrealistic that he has his reaction to it more controlled now.

2. Having said that, I actually disagree that we didn’t get huge reactions here. They looked subtle onscreen, but again, they were never going to have him burst into tears in this scene. That wouldn’t have really worked for the scene, or been terribly realistic. So let me lay out what we did see.

First off, when Maggie first says Beth’s name (“Bethie”), we don’t see Daryl’s face, but we can kind of see the side of his head in the foreground. When she says the name—like, the INSTANT she says it—he sort of tosses his head. Almost like a nervous horse. There’s definitely a reaction there guys, even if we can’t see it directly.

But pay attention to him when it DOES show his face again a few seconds later. He keeps shifting his eyes to Maggie’s face and away. He does it at least half a dozen times over several seconds. Again, it strikes me as him being nervous about something. And you know it has to be the mention of Beth.

So why is he nervous? Is it merely the mention of her name that makes him nervous? Is he afraid he might get emotional, and is trying not to? Because we don’t have a window into Daryl’s thoughts, there’s no way to know for certain. But the reaction is there. You just have to watch closely for it.

And to confirm it even more, I watched him closely a minute or two later when she starts talking about Glenn and Negan. If anything, you’d think that would be the subject that would make him more uncomfortable. Both because he dealt with so much guilt over Glenn’s death, and because one might see Maggie returning to Negan as a free man would feel like something of a betrayal. I could see Daryl feeling guilt over that.

But when she starts talking about Glenn and Negan, his eyes don’t do the shifty thing. At all. He just watches her steadily with no hint of discomfort. It’s ONLY when she mentions Beth that his eyes shift.

And before I move on, I want to mention one more things you can all go look for. (Yes, I’m giving you permission to go watch that scene over and over again. :D)

Just before Maggie says Beth’s name, she has a peculiar reaction, too. Now, she’s talking about Glenn and Beth sort of simultaneously, so it’s hard to say whether this reaction is for her talk of Glenn or Beth. What I mean is, it’s right before she says that after Bethie died, she and Glenn talked about going to the ocean. She feels the need to throw in that it would have only been for a little while, not forever. So maybe that’s what she was feeling discomfort over saying: that she and Glenn contemplated leaving the group for a time.

But if you watch, right before she says the line, “after Bethie died,” her eyes get wide and she shrugs as though she’s about to says something she doesn’t want to.

So it may be about Glenn, but I can’t help but wonder if it’s because she realized she had to mention Beth as part of her explanation, and she knew that would be triggering for Daryl. Go watch that again and tell me what you think.

I don’t think I have to go over the importance of the ocean symbolism, right? Beth = water, and we’ve seen tons of ocean/boat symbolism around her. She also mentions the waves and the sunrise here.

In the morning, Cory calls the containers they sleep in “rust coffins.” Kind of an interesting label, suggesting death. But of course the thing that came to mind is the coffin Daryl lay in at the funeral home.

Kelly checking the truck, as I talked about yesterday, brought a lot of callbacks to mind, including Bob, and the notebook is something we could link to Beth through her journal/notes, as well as to the note left as part of the wolf trap in 5x16. This truck was even a little reminiscent of the “How the Harvest Gets Home” trucks.

One thing I couldn’t help but notice was Daryl’s line about how he’s gone looking for Connie “so many times.” That doesn’t actually make much logical sense. From what they show us, this episode picks up directly after 10x16. It would be different if weeks had passed and this was there way of telling us that Daryl has been looking for Connie in the interim. But this is literally the next day. How could he have gone looking for her “so many times?” Sure, we saw him searching a little bit early in S10, but the Whisperer War always got in the way, and honestly, I don’t think we saw him search more than two or three times.

So my point is, this is kind of a discontinuity. But I think it’s purposely placed to emphasize how often Daryl looks for people and maybe be another way of reminding us both of Rick and of Beth.

Maggie says, “We don’t know that.” Pretty much exact Beth dialogue and it’s about whether any of her people survived the fire and might still be alive in the woods. That’s exactly what Beth said this line about in 4b after the prison. Just saying.

Another line that jumped out at me was Cory saying that The Reapers had followed them. He didn’t know how. He’d been so careful. But somehow, they did.

Now, maybe this guy was just an awesome tracker. But I feel like this line had meaning. Like maybe they truly shouldn’t have been able to track Maggie’s group, but somehow still found them. Kind of makes me wonder if we should be linking this group to the CRM or not.

There’s been some discussion about whether Kelly and Elijah might become love interests. I’d be okay with that. And I can see that the way they connected and became all simpatico in this episode might be leading to romance.

Now, here’s why that might be important from a TD perspective. Did you notice the pear he gave her at the end?

I looked up pear symbolism. As with all things, different cultures treat it differently. But in Chinese symbolism (and there’s a lot of that in the show) it sometimes means ‘separation.’ So there’s a superstition that friends and lovers should not eat pears together or they may be separated.

So when I first looked this up, I wasn’t really thinking of Elijah. As Kelly is definitely a Beth proxy in many ways, and also based on symbolism we’ve seen around her in the past (S9/S10) that I wasn’t sure how to interpret, I was thinking that maybe at some point she’ll be kidnapped or taken and be separated from Maggie. On TTD, Lauren said Maggie and Kelly became surrogate sisters in this scene. So I thought that maybe, on top of all the Beth symbolism, maybe this is also pointing toward another (surrogate) sister separation on the horizon.

But then it occurred to me that Elijah gave her the pear, and that’s probably really important. If (and this is still a big if) they become love interests, her separation will probably be from him. I’m just saying we might have another Bethyl proxy in the making on our hands. ;D

I have to say that I thought the scene where Daryl grabbed Maya and put a knife to her neck before realizing she was one of Maggie’s people is one of my favorites. You heart has to go out to the poor woman. She’s been traumatized like 5x over at this point. But she was looking at Daryl like he was a serial killer. Every time I watch that scene, I laugh. It’s rough being Daryl.

So how about the title? Well, we’ve already established that Daryl said this back in Still, at the moonshine shack. And given that I think Hershel Jr.’s arc here was a small scale replay of Beth’s (missing, searched for, eventually found and brought back to Alexandria) it makes sense that they used this line here.

But I think you can go as simple or as complicated as you want to with this. Because we also had the “coming home” theme in this episode a LOT. And it’s fitting, of course, because this was Maggie’s homecoming (which you could also see as a type of Beth’s arc, of course). But if you apply the “coming home” theme to what Daryl said in Still, all that tells me is that Beth and Daryl are one another’s “home.” And if Daryl is ever going to find his real home again, it will have to be with Beth, wherever she is.

For the record, I think they’ll explore Daryl’s side of this theme a lot with Leah. He was lonely, and searching for a home, and maybe he’ll think he’s found one for a time with her, but she’s not his real home.

Okay, finally, the song played at the end, You Want it Darker, has TONS of biblical symbolism in it. Since this post is already long, I’ll wait until tomorrow to post it.

Anything you can think of that I missed?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

21 notes · View notes

twdmusicboxmystery · 4 years

Text

Suspicious Articles and Andrea’s CB Arc

Hey everyone! So I have two things to post about today. One is just something I found on my own. The other concerns articles that have been circulating heavily around the fandom about Emily’s return to the show.

Andrea’s Comic Book Arc

So, I came across a reference the other day—just reading some article online, I think—about comic book Andrea’s death. It said something about her getting bitten while she was leading a huge walker horde away from the group. Now, given the theories I’ve posted since 10x15, and how focused I’ve been on the Pied Piper theme and such, that definitely piqued my interest. And I’ve never looked extensively into comic Andrea’s death. I knew she’d been bitten, but I wasn’t very interested beyond that fact.

So, I did some research.

Get this: The story we’re on right now in 10x15, where Alpha is dead, but Beta is still alive, and he’s sicked a horde of walkers on TF? That is the exact comic arc in which Andrea dies.

The comic issue where she dies is even called “A Certain Doom,” which is what the name of the finale will be. I didn’t realize that.

The dynamics are a little different of course. In the show, Andrea is obviously dead and in the CB, there’s no Daryl. In the comic, Eugene is actually leading the walkers away with Magna and Yumiko helping him. Things go bad and Andrea, who is a badass in the CBs, jumps in to save the day. She saves the three of them, but gets bitten in the process and dies from the fever shortly thereafter.

One other details? They are leading the walkers out to the sea. Eugene is trying to get them to walk off a cliff and into the ocean.

So, obviously we can’t know how or if this will lead to Beth, but I find it highly suspicious that with all the other evidence we have that Beth could be returning in the finale, and the fact that the last time we saw her, she had Andrea’s scars, now this arc in the show is the one where Andrea died in the CBs. And then of course there’s that ocean detail.

My only worry is that this could possibly end up being really annoying if it informs what Nicotero referenced in the last 5 minutes of the show. I can see that the shocking moment could be them revealing that a major character has been bitten. And that would be annoying, not only because it isn’t Beth, but because it probably wouldn’t be that big a deal for any of us.

My guess is that, if true, it would be Father Gabriel. We know it won’t be Daryl. Carol would shocking, but given how much story I think she still has, I highly doubt that. So that would leave Eugene, Rosita, or FG, and I think Eugene and Rosita still have too much story to tell. So, Father Gabriel. And my fellow theorists and I have discussed before that Gabriel, as the Sirius character, will probably die before Beth returns.

But, I can also see both things happening. FG is bitten in the hospital story line, and then Beth showing up in Eugene’s story line. FG going out as Beth (new Sirius character) comes in. But of course, that’s all just conjecture.

Onto the articles about Emily

So, by now, we all know Emily gave an interview a week or two ago in which she stated that she would be open to returning to the show in some capacity. We would already be side-eyeing just that, but in past weeks, literally dozens of articles have cropped up about it. Most of them are just click-bait articles from different sites, all reporting on that same interview. But it’s the sheer volume of them that has me suspicious.

I think this is VERY good for us. For more than just the obvious reasons. It’s almost a smoking gun. Why? Because this is what tptb do before a huge character announcement or reveal. They always prime the pump. We saw it recently with Danai’s departure, but I think they even did with Andrew Lincoln.

You all probably know by now that I don’t really buy that they decided at the last minute to extend Andrew’s stay from S8 to S9. Even if there’s some truth to it and they originally planned for 8 and switched it, I still think they knew about that change well in advance of him leaving. Like maybe by S5 or S6. There’s too much symbolism for when he was going to head into the helicopter group for it to have as last minute a decision as they would have us believe.

But more to the point, I think they “leaked” his leaving before the season aired, and gave reasons for it as a way to put a positive spin on it. They wouldn’t risk just saying he was leaving, because they would have lost too many fans. So instead, they talk about how he gave us this great boon by staying longer, and then emphasized the Rick Grimes films, so they can claim he’s not really leaving the franchise. And they leaked this long before his actual departure so that the fans were prepared when it happened and didn’t freak out on them.

As I said, we also saw this with Danai. I remember this because the articles came out so close together—like 3 days. (I think someone forgot to put the first article out on time, lol.) So, they released something saying Danai “might” be leaving the show. They talked about how she’s an in-demand actress with Marvel contracts and such, and they just hoped that the actress would stay with them to help finish telling the story.

Then, like 3 days later, the news broke that she would be going to the Rick Grimes films. So again, it’s a way to put a positive spin on it. She’s not leaving the show. She’s staying within the franchise, and we’ll see Michonne again. Meanwhile they frantically put all the focus on Norman carrying the show and such so the viewers don’t dwell on the loss.

See what I mean?

So the fact that we’re seeing this now with Emily is very encouraging to me. This is them priming the pump and getting the audience—those who have no inkling that she’ll be back—ready for her return.

Now, you know I always try to play devil’s advocate. I always ask, what ELSE could this be that the haters and naysayers will bring up.

You could argue that, even if this means she’ll be returning to the show, it doesn’t mean that Beth is necessarily alive. It could be a flashback or dream sequence. *snorts* Yeah, right.

But I can even poke holes in that argument. Remember when, um, Shane/Jon Bernthal returned for 9x05 to be part of Rick’s dream sequence and they leaked pictures of him and Andrew Lincoln on set?

I honestly think part of the rationale there is that, so late in the series, with ratings somewhat down, making things like that news actually helps bring in viewers. People want to tune in and see Shane on the show again, and it might bring in old viewers who have left the show. So they’re not worried about secrecy for that sort of thing, especially because it’s such a small appearance.

But you see what I mean.

I honestly think if Emily were just coming back for a flashback or dream sequence, they’d tell us that to get viewers all hyped up to watch that episode. The fact that they aren’t doing that suggests her return will be much bigger than one scene in one episode.

They aren’t saying she’s going to come back in a guest role. They’re just putting it out there that she’s open to the idea. And the fact that we’re getting this now, before the finale, is encouraging. If she weren’t showing up until S11, I think they would wait and do this closer to when she’s actually going to appear. Because if we aren’t getting 11x01 for another 8 months, people are going to totally forget about it by then.

And of course, it’s a little different for Beth. Unlike Danai, they aren’t actually going to tell us that she’s coming back, because that would ruin the big reveal of her being alive. But they’re hinting at it.

Do you see the pattern before major character reveals that they’ve done with others? You could even lump the fact that they “accidentally” revealed Beth’s death before it aired on the coast to this pattern. They’re both warning people and trying to make it big news.

So yeah, seeing these articles all over the place, to me, is a good indicator that she’ll be in the finale. I think she has to be super close for them to be doing this. Just saying.

Thoughts?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

16 notes · View notes

twdmusicboxmystery · 4 years

Text

TWD 10x13: What We Become -Details

Okay, let's talk details. This won’t be terribly long. Most of these are things we’ve been talking about for years, so I don’t think I need to over explain them. If you have questions about anything I point out here, send me a message or an ask. ;D

***As always, spoilers abound for 10x13 below. Don’t read until you’ve watched!***

There are a lot of small symbols that were very important, but also things we’ve seen a lot before, so I won’t go over absolutely every instance. For example, in Michonne’s hallucination of Andrea, she finds bullets on the ground. I thought that was significant.

We saw a lot of boats, such as the little boat Michonne and Virgil arrived in. She had him locked in handcuffs on the boat, a symbol of the sheriff. We also saw a lot of fives. Virgil said something about how she could've unlocked him five hours ago, his kid was five years old, etc. Of course, we also saw a lot of threes.

The herb garden reminded me of Herschel at the prison, and the fact that Virgil kept talking about making tea was kind of a call back to Herschel making the tea in order to fight the virus in S4. I'm also wondering if the tea theme this episode might be related to the Tibet theme we've seen a lot of lately. When talking about his kids playing, Virgil mentioned sailors and buried treasure. interesting references, no?

Okay, one thing that jumped out at me was the fact that we saw three graves for Virgil's family. It reminded me of 7x04 when Father Gabriel filled in an extra grave so that they could lie to Negan about Maggie having died. In the episode, it only really focuses on the one grave (the fake one) but if you think about it, there were three graves. Glenn, Abraham, and then the fake one for Maggie. Well, TD pounced on that at the time because we're literally talking about an empty grave. About someone Negan thought was dead, but who's really alive and well in a different place.

So, a callback to that, but I'm starting to think the three graves represent the three resurrections from the pickle story. I will talk a little bit more about that either tomorrow or Thursday.

Virgil’s backstory was just a little bit confusing. Apparently, this facility was still functioning, even after the apocalypse hit. But when stragglers would come to the islands in boats, they would take them in. He talked about how people started to run short of food rations and a fight broke out and resulted in a newbie being killed. I kept thinking that that story and wondering how we're supposed to apply it.

Then it hit me. I do believe that this entire thing was sort of a replay of Grady. Think about it this way. Grady didn't really take in stragglers so much as force them in, but they were bringing people in all the time. The newbie who was killed in a scuffle could be Beth.

Plus, you have the fact that Michonne was thrown into a cell, imprisoned, and at one point, she makes a break for it, much like Beth did. She even let people out on her way out, just as Beth let Noah out with her. And, like Beth she wasn't able to escape as she'd hoped, because the boat was on fire. Also, the food try Virgil gives her looks an awful lot like the ones they used at Grady.

When Michonne and Virgil first go into the facility, there's a whole bunch of debris almost blocking the hallway. There's a small space they can squeeze through, but a blonde, female walker is caught in the space. So, Beth walker. After Michonne kills her and lowers her to the ground, you can see a phone cord and receiver wrapped around her. More of the Communication Theme there. It also reminded me a lot of Still, when Beth and Daryl had to go over and under things and right the clock because it was in their way. Just reminded me a lot of the golf club.

They even use a stretcher as a shield – talk about a hospital theme — and there are lots of posters about that talk about not spreading virus. That's a little weird with the pandemic going on right now, but obviously there is a theme here. (And yes, it’s a VD poster. 😊)

As I mentioned yesterday, there are people hanging in the room, just like a golf club.

I also thought the dead rats in cages were interesting. It reminded me of the pet shop in 6x03, which was right before Glenn’s death fake out. This is also the second time we've seen rats the season. The first time was right before Alpha’s horde arrived when a pack of rats ran across the field in front of Yumilo and Kelly. I’m not sure how to interpret the rats, yet, but I’ll keep an eye on them.

There's technically a water theme because of the island, but we also kept seeing water dripping from the faucet. We found out that Virgil accidentally locked his wife and kids inside the right happened. It's a lot like Father Gabriel, only the opposite. He locked inside instead of out, but they still died.

Every time Virgil looked through the door, he reminded me of Rick and the Governor and last season Daryl looking to the door the same way. That theme very much revolves around Coda.

Threes. Virgil told it had that conversation three times and he kept saying, "I want you to see." Part of the speak no evil theme. When Michonne is hallucinating, she says she's cold, and he says, "then picture of the sun." Remember that we saw the sun drawing at the prison and it's always been sort of a symbol of Beth.

Another big thing that jumped out at me is that when Negan gave Michonne his bat in the clearing, he said, "wish them a happy new year from us, will you?" I'm not entirely sure clear on what this means, but we have definitely heard it before. In 4x16, when the Claimers were about to kill Rick, Joe Claimer also talked about New Year's Eve. These are the only two times I can think of that we've heard it, though I might've missed other instances.

The only thing I can think of is that New Year's comes after Christmas. If Christmas represents someone returning from the death fake out, then maybe New Year's Eve makes a weird kind of sense. Nobody really had a death fake out quite like Beth in S4, but it's also true that when everyone scattered from the prison, no one knew if anyone else was alive. Rick and Michonne didn't know if Daryl was alive and Daryl didn't know if they were alive. I don’t know. I’ll have to think on it more.

I will say anything more about Michonne’s hallucination, except that it was really epic. I really enjoyed that part of the show.

When she gets out and realizes the boats been set on fire, she tackles Virgil. He's talking about his wife and says, "she always told me the right thing to do, and then she was gone, and I didn't know what to do." Sounds like something Daryl could say about Beth, right?"

Michonne talks about mercy and letting Virgil live. I thought that was sweet because it was a callback to what she and Rick learned from Carl.

The next day when she talks to him in his cell, he talks about looking up at the stars (constellation = Sirius) and also about heaven, will Michonne talks about hell. So there's a big heaven and hell theme going on here.

After she finds the boots in the storeroom, he takes her to the boat. One thing I noticed was that he talked about the boat washing up in the big storm. I think the characters were talking about a big storm in the very beginning of the season, so I’m assuming it's meant to be that one. There’s something strange about that big storm because they keep referring back to it.

We see red crustaceans and reads near the boat. I’ll talk more about those in my next post. On the boat, we see a yellow life preserver, blue coolers, and a pickle jar (resurrection. Yea!). All important symbols.

The book Michonne finds suggests the boat set out from the New Jersey shipyard. I'm assuming that's where she’s headed.

When Virgil is surprised that they're willing to let him come with them, Michonne says, "sometimes the most injured are also the most forgiving." Just reminded me a lot of Daryl.

I thought it was super cute that RJ chose Little Brave Man for his call signal. I totally didn't get it at first, but remember that earlier in the season, Judith was telling RJ the story of Rick on the bridge and she called him, "the Brave Man." So, using “Little” Brave Man, is just another way of saying Rick Junior. Super cute.

Here are some other quick things my fellow TDers have pointed out:

During Michonne’s hallucination, the camera angles were weird and skewed, much like a Grady.

Andrew had a bone-handled knife, just like Beth did.

When Michonne killed herself in the clearing (hallucination) she said, "welcome to the New World." That was originally Jesus’s line. I'm not sure if we should be reading into that too much, but it could be that they're going for the fact that this kind of the opposite. Jesus’s line was said with hope, where Michonne says it here in a negative, homicidal sort of way.

I thought it was sad that Virgil ended up staying behind. Even though he said he pictured heaven with his family when he hallucinated, the island is actually his personal hell, because they're dead. He's just staying behind to put flowers on their grave every day. So, it's like he’s staying in hell. Also, the flowers are very much a symbol of death and loss in this episode. I'm sure that will segue into the next episode, Look at the Flowers.

Finally, the two people Michonne helped were interesting. It reminded most of us of the two people Morgan helped at the end of Here’s Not Here. In this case, the guy was wearing a sheriff's hat and a poncho, which I find suspicious. But no way to know where that's going yet.

Okay, I think that's all the details I have. I'll probably put up a new TWD video tomorrow. The next day, I have something I'm super excited to show you guys. It's gonna be crazy! Stay tuned.

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

9 notes · View notes

twdmusicboxmystery · 5 years

Text

How Emily’s Song Fits into TD Symbolism

Good morning! Okay, so this is something we’ve been keeping an eye on for a while. It’s something @wdway first picked up on, and we’ve seen it frequently this season. I’ve been hesitant to actually post about it because we knew so little. I usually try to watch something for a while and gather more info before I post about it, and that was definitely true here.

Even now, this theory is going to be very sparse, but it’s something I know you guys will like, especially since they used Emily’s song in the show last week. I have lots of people asking me about symbols in the song and how it’s connected (other than the obvious of promoting Emily, which the show is suddenly doing a LOT of; hint, hint 😉)

I’ll talk about this in three parts: Theme, Embodiment, and Proverb.

Theme:

We’ve started to notice a theme in which hearing, seeing, and speaking are all mentioned together It’s been happening a lot this season. And in truth, I think it’s been happening for many seasons (didn’t just start this season) but because we weren’t looking for it, we never saw it. I’ll explain why I think that in a minute.

We think it’s related to the “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” proverb.

Let me give you an example. In 10x04, Michonne and Judith talked on their journey to Hilltop. Judith said she could be an extra pair of EYES and EARS if Michonne wanted to confide in her. At the end of the convo, she asked another question, which Michonne didn’t answer. Judith said Michonne was thinking on it. So she made the classic motion of zipping her lips shut.

So you see what I mean? Eyes, ears, and then no speaking. And we’ve seen these things randomly mentioned in dialogue or shown in some way a lot lately.

The reason I think they may have been around for a long time is because of these pictures:

One was taken during S3, the other during S4, if I remember correctly, and the actors never explained what they were doing or why the took the pictures in these poses. It comes across as they just goofing around on set.

I’ve always personally believed that, even if they don’t ever talk about it, the actors probably know at least something of the symbolism involved. Maybe they don’t know ever nuance of every single thing they film, but we know they’re very invested in their characters and their character arcs, so I can’t imagine they don’t ask questions about some of the random (symbolic) things that get put into the show. So I think they, at least the main characters, actually probably know more about this than they let on.

A good example would be 6x03. Remember Daryl went back to help Rick and then kind of randomly just went back to Sasha and Abraha. A LOT of people found his behavior kind of odd in that episode, and sometime afterward, a fan asked Norman about it.

He kind of hemmed and hawed and basically said Daryl didn’t go back just for Rick. There was more to it than that and it would make sense later. It never REALLY did. I think that was a foreshadowing sequence and Norman knew that, but wasn’t allowed to talk about it.

And these pictures (above) are good evidence of it as well. The actors knew this theme was present in the show, and they took a picture to illustrate it.

Embodiment:

So, the next thing we’ve considered is that perhaps this theme showing up so strongly last season and this season has everything to do with Connie and Kelly’s characters and the fact that they’re deaf. (Hear no evil.)

In fact, in 10x04, when the male Whisperer was skinning a walker, Alpha told him to be careful, because the ears are the trickiest part. And that was the same episode where we saw Kelly struggling with her hearing loss in a big way.

But let me back up. Before we knew Kelly was losing her hearing, which we only learned in 10x01, we were really just considering Connie. We were thinking that she could represent hear no evil and speak no evil, because she doesn’t do either (hear or speak, I mean). But she definitely doesn’t represent “see no evil,” because her eyesight is actually stellar due to her lack of hearing.

But.

We’ve long wondered if Beth will have vision problems when she returns. Especially given the “daddy always said bad moonshine can make you go blind” line in Still.

But seeing 10x04 with Kelly’s hearing loss opening sequence made me realize something: I think she’s hear no evil. Connie certainly qualifies since she can’t hear either, but we’re actually watching Kelly lose her hearing. Plus, she can’t really be “speak no evil” because we’ve heard her speak a lot. Connie is the only one whose voice (verbally anyway) we’ve never heard.

So I think Connie is speak no evil, Kelly is hear no evil, and Beth will be see no evil. Which is just more evidence that something about Connie and Kelly will either lead to Beth or cross with her arc in some way.

The Proverb:

Now let’s talk about Emily’s song.

The phrase “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” originates from a Chinese proverb that has to do with three monkeys, each of which represents one of the senses. If you trace it back, it shows up more recently in Japan, but probably originated in China. But the common thread is that it’s a Buddhist proverb.

In 10x04, we saw these little colored flags around Kelly during her opening sequence. I merely commented on the colors, but @frangipanilove made the comment that they looked a lot like Tibetan prayer flags. Not knowing much about such things, I googled.

Sure enough, these really do look like (very tattered) Tibetan prayer flags. I guess you often see them strung along paths in the Himalayas. They’re meant to bestow blessings on the countryside and on travelers, and they’re definitely a Buddhist tradition.

So we have the China connection (Tibet), the Buddha connection, and the more general religion/prayer connection.

I would also encourage you to google Buddhism and turtle, because the Buddhist tradition of turtles is very interesting. I don’t think it means any one particular thing, and I did fairly minimal research, but you often see the turtle being wise, surviving by outsmarting those trying to kill it, and sometimes saving others.

Sometimes it’s a symbol of time itself (if there are any Stephen King fans reading this, think about the end of IT—the book—because I’m fairly sure he took that from the Buddhist tradition of turtles).

Check out THIS LINK where it’s also associated with survival, carrying the world on its back, and even home.

So here’s how I’m bringing this all together. When Emily’s song came out, even when I first heard the title, I was a bit reluctant to read into it. Obviously there’s the turtle thing, which has long been a Bethyl symbol, but I wasn’t sure what to do with the monkey, and you guys know I’m always cautious trying to read into things outside the show.

This theory has formed very quickly and didn’t truly come together for me like this until we saw the Tibetan prayer flags and then heard Emily’s song in the show.

Bottom line: We think Beth is part of the “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” theme. Her song is called the turtle and the monkey. She’s the turtle, and the monkey also points to the proverb. And her song was featured in the show last week.

Between that, all the filming they’re doing at the Grady location, all the publicity the show is giving Emily (she’s suddenly the subject of articles, clickbait sites, and is going to be on the TWD podcast soon) and even that Emily is posting interesting poems and lyrics, one of which mentions “the walking dead,”

(Thanks to Angela T.B. on Facebook for that 💖) I’m feeling all tingly. I think she’s VERY close.

Going into episode 6, we think there will be a lot of Consumed parallels, so watch out for those.

I also think the three monkeys could double as another example of the St. Nicholas/pickle story, in which three resurrection take place. (Pretty sure I’ve said this before, but I think the three resurrections will be Beth, Rick, and Zeke. Three people who are presumed dead but will all return, alive.)

So yeah. I’m kind of rambling now, so I’ll stop. But super-exciting stuff going on lately! Makes me happy. 😃

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

30 notes · View notes

twdmusicboxmystery · 6 years

Text

8x09: Analysis

Good morning! How did everyone like the episode last night? Today I'm going to talk about broad plot points. Tomorrow I'll do a post about the details.

I thought it was a beautiful episode. A really good send off for Carl. I cried several times.

***Warning: Spoilers for 8x09 about in this episode. Don’t read until you’ve watched! You’ve been warned!***

Carl

5x09 Parallels. I've said several times I thought there would be parallels between this episode and 5x09, where Tyreese died. There weren't as many as I expected, but they were there. The biggest one was seeing Rick and Michonne dig Carl's grave at the beginning, even though we didn’t actually see him die until the end.

Very similar to Ty’s death. We saw the grave being dug at the beginning of 5x09, but didn't understand whose grave it was until the end. In that case, we had no idea Ty would die (unless we read spoilers) until the end of the episode. The difference here was that we knew Carl would die when his bite was revealed in 8x08.

Carl told Judith that he didn't beat the world, as Lori said he would. I have to say I disagree. He was bitten. Of course he still beat the world in his own way. But he said to everyone, as he was dying, to recognition, especially, showed that almost outgrown the world. It was his own special kind of transcendence. In a way, that’s a parallel to Tyreese too, as Tyreese died thinking about forgiveness and peace.

Huge emphasis on the fact that he got to say goodbye. In the flashbacks, Michonne left him a note saying “I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye” for when she left with Rosita to see the Sanctuary.

Of course, she DID get to say goodbye because she made it back in time. They talked about goodbyes several times throughout the episode. Remember that Beth hated goodbyes, and no one really got to say goodbye to her because her death was so sudden. Major anti-parallels there. Of course, it's all-important that he got to say goodbye and we saw his burial.

It's important that we saw the flashbacks at all. We have major precedence for this. When they don't show us something, they always flash back to it later. It. For example, in S4 we saw Ricky kick Carol out of the prison. In S5, they showed us flashbacks to what happened to her during that missing time. The same thing is true here. And it wasn't just Carl's point of view that we flashback to. We also saw flashbacks how the Saviors escaped the sanctuary. Before, Rick was imprisoned at the junkyard, and when he returned, he didn't know what happened. So it flashed back to Morgan's point of view as well, showing what happened what we missed.

This is important because it shows that everything we missed with Beth will have to be shown eventually. They ALWAYS eventually show us events that are skipped. There's a lot of unexplained things around Beth, the biggest ones being unexplained stuff that happened the Grady, and of course those missing 17 days after Coda.

I also thought it was interesting that he that they juxtaposed Carl’s words with Morgan's brutality. I’ll come back to this, but we could see Carl's goodness and transcendence and then they put it side-by-side with Morgan and his cold, rage-driven killing.

Carl talked about 3x16! Guys, this is huge! We some of the dialogue in the trailer, so I’ve already touched on this when it comes to callbacks to S4, but him talking about 3x16 is pretty much a confirmation everything I wrote in my Beth Greene was Always Gimpel's Sheriff post, and a lot of the stuff both me and @thegloriouscollectorlady have been talking about lately. Carl talked about shooting the Woodbury kid in 3x16.

Not only was Beth present, which we would read into any way, but more importantly, it's what led to Rick becoming a farmer and the entire arc in 4a. I'll talk a lot more about this later this week, but we’re seeing major story arcs from S4 come full circle this season. It’s extremely significant and it makes me super happy.

Carl gives Judith the hat. I don’t think I need to tell everyone how significant that was. The sheriff will live on, specifically in the little one that Beth always took care of. I remember back when 5x10 first aired, I noted that Carl took care of Judith. He even used the sheriff's hat to protect her from the rain.

So Beth took care of Judith most of her life. When she disappeared Carl stepped in that role more fully, taking on Judah's care almost entirely while they were on the road. I feel like they tried to have Carl specifically step into that role, which Beth previous occupied. Now they put the sheriff's hat on Judith, who has only ever been worn by few other characters. (Rick, Carl, Beth)

Now Daryl has assumed the role. We knew he would bc of the trailer, but it’s significant that his attitude wasn’t one of sadness about taking Judith. It wasn't something he had to do, it was something he wanted to do. He was very firm and confident about it. He picked up Judith, sheriff's hat and all, and, wearing his vest, walked out with her. I thought it was really interesting the way the camera focused on his back. We can almost see this is a return to S4 Daryl. He's confident and strong, he's got his best back, and he's caring for the "new sheriff." So we don't know exactly where this will lead, but symbolically it's very significant.

Remember those wings have always marked him as a guardian and protector, which is why, symbolically, he needed to regain the vest before he took over protecting Judith.

Finally, Carl actually died with the sunrise.

So now we’ve gotten through the night, and we have a new day. There were several parallels to Andrea's death. Carl shot himself, rather than waiting to succumb to the fever. The other thing I noticed is that Rick and Michonne stood outside on the porch and heard the shot. That's almost exactly what happened with Andrea's death. Even though Michonne stayed with Andrea, will the viewers didn't see her shoot herself. We saw Daryl and the others outside the door and their devastated reactions to hearing the shot.

So what does this mean for TD? I hope it means that with this new day we’ll see Beth next episode. I also want to point out that Andrea's that happened in 3x16, which was mentioned here a lot. Almost like they’re trying to align this episode with 3x16. In the next episode, 4x01, we got the Bethyl hug. So I’m really, really hoping, that we’ll get at least the beginning of Beth’s return in the next episode.

Siddiq

Siddiq is a freaking doctor! That, we did not see coming. In the comic books, Siddiq is a fisherman and a construction worker, not a doctor. This is something they are doing for the show. We don't see any evidence that he knows how to cure bites, but he did talk about treating one, at least insofar as reducing the fever and making the patient more comfortable. He’s the first person we’ve ever heard talk about treating a bite at all. That’s a big deal. We need to watch this story line closely.

Honoring Carl. Siddiq talked about honoring Carl. He said because Carl saved him, he would honor Carl by doing whatever he could to help TF. We don't know exactly why yet, but from the trailer, he, Daryl and Rosita go on a mission that takes them through the swamp. So whatever Siddiq is up to, he thinks it will help TF in some. I repeat, I really think something about Siddiq will both bring Beth back into the picture, and perhaps help TF win the war. That's why Carl’s sacrifice will be worth it.

The last time we heard a lot of talk about honoring someone was right after Beth's death. To honor Beth, Rick wanted to take Noah home to Virginia. And he did. @thegloriouscollectorlady pointed out that while there's definitely a parallel here, it's kind of an anti-parallel. In S5, TF honored Beth by taking a in stranger (Noah) and doing something for them, because it's what Beth wanted. In S8, the stranger (Siddiq) is going to honor Carl by helping TF. So it's the same thing, but in reverse. With that being the case, let's hope we see the reverse of Coda next. Like this represents 5x09 and perhaps were moving backward toward Coda and the opposite result.

Carol and Henry. I had a major epiphany during this episode. In THIS POST I said that in order for Carol's arc to resolve, she needed to figure out how to love and nurture another child as she did Sophia. Last night, I realized I’m missing one big element. Henry kill Gavin, which was disturbing. Go back and watch that scene. Watch the reaction of all the adults. Ezekiel was merely shocked. Carol was so horrified she turned away for a minute. Morgan looked like he might throw up.

While it’s understandable because he obviously holds Gavin responsible for Benjamin’s death, the way the show portrayed this was as something very dark. It came across as a callback to Lizzie, who also had no problem killing the living. It’s like they’re trying to say Henry is straying onto a dark path. Carol wouldn’t be able to help but think of Lizzie when this happened, which is why she was so angry at him, and Ezekiel couldn’t understand. So, it's not just a matter of her loving the child, but her saving him from becoming like Lizzie. She failed with Lizzie. She should've seen what was wrong and didn't, but perhaps she will with Henry.

I’ll talk about this more later in the week as well, but for now, it’s important that Carol, Ezekiel and Morgan were there. We’ve thought since S7 that Carol and Ezekiel will be parents to Henry, but it’s interesting that Morgan is entangled in this too. He and Carol both lost biological children, specifically because they failed to save them (a theme between Rick and Carl in this episode). Now these three adults all saw Henry kill a man. It doesn’t matter whether or not Gavin deserved it. The point is that Henry did it without hesitation and wasn’t as bothered by it as he should have been. That’s not good. So now these three need to figure out how to save Henry in the same way Rick saved Carl in 4a.

The two, final “shocking” scenes we hoped would be Beth. I'm pretty sure the one the blogger referred to is the one that showed Negan at Alexandria. That's what she meant about the future. It was part of Carl’s vision and shows that he wants Negan to actually become part of the community, integrate with Alexandria and have everyone work together.

Sorry to keep saying this, but I will do a separate post on how significant this is, especially where S4 is concerned. I don't know that Negan will ever actually integrate into TF’s community the way Carl wants, but this will most definitely drive the plot forward for Rick.

The second scene is still very unexplained. Remember that in 8x01, we saw two flashes forward: Rick’s old man coda (which I now have to call Carl's) and then the one where Rick’s eyes are red-rimmed and the plate-glass crosses hang above him. We always figured that might be Carl's funeral. It's not. They buried Carl in this episode, and then showed that scene separately. It’s definitely not the same thing.

Rick sits against a tree, bleeding from a wound on his ribs. He has blood all over his hand. Honestly, it looks like a scene where he could be dying. (I still don't think he actually will; I feel like they’re trying to make us believe that. I could be wrong, of course.)

I had a somewhat disturbing thought while re-watching last night. Perhaps Rick will try and make nice with Negan to fulfill Carl's best wishes, and Negan will betray him by either stabbing or shooting him in the ribs. Maybe that's what we’re seeing in this scene. That would explain why he says, "my mercy prevailed over my wrath." It sounds like he's very resigned to his own death. It's like he's saying, “well, at least I was merciful, as Carl wanted.” This is just me musing over what it might be. We really have no idea.

I've never thought that Rick would die, and still don't. But remember THIS POST about Dawn's back story and how it's going to relate to Beth's future arc. Dawn actually killed Capt. Hanson. I’ve always said Beth won’t do that, because she's a much better person than Dawn. But maybe it's not about Beth killing Rick. Maybe someone else will either kill him or try to. Whether he's dead or just severely incapacitated, someone else will have to step into leadership. Based on the back story and foreshadowing surrounding Beth at Grady, it will be her. Either way, it would be tied to Carl, Carl's death, and Carl's last wishes. But again, this is just conjecture.

Overall, I really loved this episode. I thought it was beautiful. All the symbolism in it, which I'll go over in more detail tomorrow, makes me as hopeful as ever for TD. What did everyone else think?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here

29 notes · View notes