#i do not interact with new fandoms and especially not any sherlock holmes related fandoms
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where am i.
#m0thz art#artists on tumblr#sherlock hound#do people even go here#i dont know#i do not interact with new fandoms and especially not any sherlock holmes related fandoms#because of The Bad One#anyway idk i found sherlock hound and its stupid silly fun cartoon#i got fucking got by the furry sherlock anime dude. help.
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HELLO.
I just wanted to say that I love, love, love your tags on that character/tool post a lot! Some of my favorite shows/books involve characters that can't keep it together and just barely make it to the end of the story or make it there in an "inconvenient way" and tbh I find that usually the narratives that follow these characters don't really work away from them either--the narrative is just usually more questioning instead of fully formed.
Like, 'what if/how would', y'know? There's less of a clear meaning and more just 'what if they hadn't done that. what if they had done that. what if all that meant nothing. what if that struggle was all there was'.
But oh boy, when they DO work away from the narrative. *chefs kiss*
I mean, most of my favorite Bleach characters are narrative nightmares who either hinder or cut off lines of theme in the story entirely. And, in general, I think there are A LOT of characters in shonen--a genre known for very long narratives that can't possibly complete every thought but also can't just abandon all those characters introduced ESPECIALLY the fan favorites or personal favorites--work in the way you described.
Tbh i think your tags really highlight why so many ppl get drawn to these characters/why they're so fun to play with in fanfiction.
If you have more to add or more thoughts about this you want to lay down I am here, eagerly awaiting and ready to pick them up.
Also, who do you think in Bleach is the most fun characters who sort of drop kicked the story, in your opinion? Who's the one you like the most? And who's the one you dislike the most?
[For posterity the referenced post is this one.]
Aww, thank you! That’s really lovely to hear. I was anxious about even putting it in tags because I don’t think I presently have the capacity to explain it well—and even if I did might still sound bananas to many. Or at least the bit about negotiating with characters and how *they* feel about being subjects in stories. Because as much as that really is my practice saying it out loud takes me back to like… FFN in 2003 where every store was prefaced by extensive chat-form back-and-forths between the fic author and their character "musies" and that is not something I think fandom would benefit from bringing back in force, hahaha. But anyway.
Here’s the part where I disappoint because I don’t think I actually know Bleach well enough to speak to it in this context. WHICH SOUNDS DUMB EVEN AS I TYPE IT BECAUSE LOL WTF IS THE NAME OF THIS BLOG WE ARE CHARLATANS AND POSERS FOR CLAIMING AS OUR NAMESAKE NOT ONE BLEACH BUT THREE BLEACHES but truly, my experience of Bleach has a shallow depth of field. I feel like I have weirdly intimate knowledge of some severe rabbit holes but a non-existent to uneasy sense of the gestalt.
Like idek man, in my "slow re-read where I am actually paying attention" Ichigo hasn’t even met Byakuya and Renji yet. ToT
I'm gonna put this behind a cut because it spidered all over the place, but in summary:
characters and their capacity to produce narrative failure
the charm of longform serialized series and their invitations to imagine stuff
me attempting to talk about Hitsugaya and feeling a fool, as usual
I guess in general terms, I’m really interested in characters and their capacity to produce narrative failure. Not failure as in 'bad' but failure as in things that break form or are circuitous or are actively detrimental to a narrative arc. All my strongest examples of what I’m thinking of are from a different fandom and therefore not relevant to this blog, alas. By comparison I think anyone in Bleach can keep it together better than the characters that are immediately coming to mind, lol. But I think this idea dovetails often with trauma narratives, or depression narratives, because these things are often… non-narrative? Like, there’s no fourth or fifth for minor fall or major lift. Sometimes it’s the same thing over and over again, or maybe nothing. Maybe it’s the exact same self-sabotage narrative dictates could have been avoided. Maybe it’s some act that emanates forth but cannot be explained because it cannot be explained and will never be explained. That’s a version of what I’m talking about, in any case, though not the only version.
Your note about longform shounen definitely resonates with me, too. In my mind I don’t like long things and I prefer series that are more self-contained but whenever I have ever landed in a long-term fandom, with a piece of media I felt obliged to carve out chunks of my life for, and to interact with at that level of creative fannishness, it’s always been something stupid long and serialized by the seat of its pants. I know plot holes or dropped threads bother a lot of people (makes total sense, don’t get me wrong) but I find these things incredibly attractive. I see them as invitations to join in the fun. Especially when it’s so much a part of the form and genre to have this, as you said, lack of real expectation that every thread will be followed to its conclusion (or that it would be worthwhile to do so) and every thought completed.
There’s this piece by David Grann that was published in The New Yorker in 2004 that I really love that speaks to part of this idea, albeit in terms of fictional universes versus fictional characters. But Grann is talking about Sherlock Holmes (Doyle original) and the ways that Sherlockians would like, approach apparent lapses in narrative and then solve them according to the established rules of the universe. I just love that. There’s also the line, "Never had so much been written by so many for so few," which LOL if that ain’t fandom I don’t know what is!!
I feel like I’m actually talking about three distinct but related facets of these thoughts in this post, except all at once and without clear transition, uhhhhh.
Gah, I am broken and now can ONLY think of examples from my not-Bleach fandom, but to try a different tack and add yet another facet to this already funhouse-mirror post, my various attempts to write Hitsugaya often feel like they come up against a version of this. I think Hitsugaya has aggressive side character energy, and I find it difficult to make him the center of a story and have it feel right to me. He feels different to me than writing other minor characters, where they can be the center of their own stories even if their story is not the main story. Like, two of my fave characters in my other fandom have literally like… three lines in 350+ episodes and it feels easier to imagine THEM at the center of their story and I think what it comes down to is that Hitsugaya probably prefers what he not be written. And when he does become more narrative I think he’d prefer that none of it was happening in the fist place. But at the same time he always seems to be…around??? whether there is really a good reason for him to be present or not. XD So while, say, he and Bartleby "would prefer not to" (because THAT'S what this post needs, a Melville reference), Bartleby actually opts out and Hitsugaya out here volunteering.
He also often feels non-narrative to me because he feels very declarative, if that makes sense? Like, the coming-to-decisions or coming-to-realizations parts of existence happen pretty quick, or are approached perfunctorily. I feel like I find narrative in the "coming" part of that equation and instead Hitsugaya will be like, well, I’ve already done that part without you, and/or plan to do that part in the future and it will still be without you, the audience. Anyway, here’s the determination I’ve made, here’s what I’m going to do, and here begins the long and probably tedious process of my doing that thing (off 2 go train in a cave for a bit). I don’t think he actually believes the world is that simple, Tab A into Slot B, but I do think he’s already made that assessment and can see coming to terms with that as a horizon, if that makes sense. So even if he doesn’t know the answer to something, or is completely at a loss of what to do (what to say to Hinamori? how to productively address the number Aizen’s done on him) there’s still not necessarily a story there. Maybe the answer is you grind, and it is repetitive and boring. Maybe you just hold things. There’s not even the act of learning how to hold things, necessarily, just the practice of doing so.
Wow, that probably doesn’t sound good! I feel like I need to suffix this with the assurance that Hitsugaya is my absolute runaway character in the whole series and this was true 15 years ago and it is still true now (truer, even) and everything I just said are reasons why I love him.
#i feel like this is one of those 'well.... that sure was a Post' situations#and i will have to try to articulate this better in the future#probably multiple times#ideally with concrete explicated examples for the sake of clarity lol#but please take this as an invitation to talk about YOUR read of Bleach/Bleach characters and/or elaborate on your also excellent tags
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Every episode of Camp Camp ranked: A very (non)objective list
It's well past the time of year when Season 5 of Camp Camp would've dropped. I fully understand and support it not coming out; the crew's health and safety are much more important than a comfort show.
However . . . man, would it be nice to have some comfort right now.
So I'm reliving the entire series! I've been known to share with the world a whole bunch of Spicy Hot Takes, but I've never really sat down and talked about my feelings about the show as a whole.
And what's the best way to do that? Well, just ask Jenny Nicholson: a numbered list! That is, here's the series ranked from worst episode to best, because I want to get the negativity out of the way early and focus on everything I love (and because people enjoy complaining, so let’s frontload all that).
The takes will be hot. The feelings will be intense. The post, I'm assuming, will be largely unread.
Let's do it!
Oh and duh, there are spoilers. I tried to keep it pretty chill, but you’ll want to have watched the whole show or just not care about spoilers before going forward.
Also slashes in the middle of “naughty words” are meant to prevent this from being kept out of the main tags. Who knows if it’ll work? I don’t.
60. Who Peed the Lake? (Season 4, epis/sode 3)
Ah, good ol' Pi/ss Lake (or as @hopefullypessimistic84 calls it because she's funnier than any of us will ever be, “Pis/s Fe/tish Dot Com”). Terrible, one of the few I’d consider nigh unwatchable. I actually kind of love this episode for being such great shorthand for "the absolute worst one."
Who signed off on an entire episode centered around Sherlock Holmes meets a bad om/o joke? Give me names and addresses: I just want to talk.
59. Reigny Day (Season 1, episode 6)
And nobody was surprised.
I'll admit I'm more willing to defend this episode than many people, but it's not . . . like, good. It seemed okay when there were only 11 other episodes to compare it to, but now that there have been so many bangers, this comes across as extremely weak.
And let’s just say the Na/zi jokes hit a lot differently in 2020 than they did in the summer of 2016.
I’m overall happy with the direction the showrunners have moved Dolph’s character in, and I can’t totally blame them for using a kind of humor that was fairly common in the pre-Trump era, but yikes, this has aged like milk. And it wasn’t even very funny at the time, so it aged like milk that was already pretty bad to begin with.
58. Squirrel Camp (Season 4, episode 10)
This is a dumb one.
Not much else to say; it’s just kinda stupid and lame.
57. Fashion Victims (Season 4, episode 13)
I love Sasha, but this is filler. Which isn’t in itself a bad thing -- I have a couple episodes near the top that could reasonably be called filler, and a valid argument could easily be made that “filler episodes” don’t actually exist in a show with no plot -- but as much as I adore the Flower Scouts and enjoy the handful of good moments we get in this episode . . . who cares? Does anyone really give a sh/it about anything that happens here? Does anyone get their life from this one?
I didn’t think so.
56. Foreign Exchange Campers (Season 3, episode 3)
I know, I know, your Russian waifu came from this episode. Why do you think it’s so low on this list?
Okay, for real: this is . . . fine. It’s fine. It’s fine? I’m not mad at it, it just feels tonally incongruous and not very memorable beyond the fact that the fandom got really weird and kinda gross about Vera. But the episode itself? There’s some cute stuff with Neil and Nikki being jealous, but for the most part it’s a big hunk of white bread with some super mild white cheese that’s kinda soggy from sitting in a bag for too long and getting all condensation-y.
That is to say: it’s fine.
ETA: Space Kid does say “fu/ck.” I can’t decide if that’s a point in the episode’s favor or against it.
This is the last of what I’d call the “bad” episodes. Everything after this ranges from mediocre to mind-blowingly amazing. But whatever our failing tier of Camp Camp episodes is, it stops right about here.
Onto the good stuff!
55. Night of the Living Ill (Season 2 Halloween episode)
I keep switching this with “Eggs Benefits,” which probably means they should be tied. But whatever, this is my list and I am in charge and I’ve finally decided, after like 5 changes, that I like this one a little bit less.
It’s a fun Romero parody with nothing I’d call bad. Really this one’s only so low on the list because I think it’s kinda icky, and looking at those green snotty faces makes me queasy. If you think this is a bad reason to put it near the bottom of the list, then make your own post.
54. Cameron Campbell Can't Handle the Truth Serum (Season 4, episode 11)
I . . . don’t remember this at all. I initially had it a bit higher because I tend to love things with Campbell in them, but then I realized that nothing about this episode stuck in my brain even a little bit.
Oh, this is the “Dolph has autism” episode that made everyone either extremely happy or really mad? Okay. I guess that’s the most remarkable thing about it. Neato.
Cam, I love you, but this was just not the best use of your sleazy charm.
53. Eggs Benefits (Season 2, episode 9)
This is one of those episodes with enough cute moments and good ideas to save it from being totally unmemorable, and I mostly enjoy rewatching. Platypus being a mom is a fabulous idea, and pairing the campers the way they did was mostly really interesting and fun.
The Preston-Nurf stuff takes it down several pretty significant notches, though. It’s what the kids would call problematic, and while I normally enjoy how the show doesn’t skew away from darker themes and jokes, it didn’t really fit either of their characters and just . . . isn’t fun to watch. It’s not especially funny, it’s not especially tragic, it’s just uncomfortable.
52. Camp Campbell Wants YOU! (Season 1, episode 0)
Honestly, this would be a lot higher if it was a full-length episode. It’s funny.
The next 5 or so episodes fall under the “cute but not very memorable” umbrella:
51. Nikki's Last Day on Earth (Season 3, episode 4)
I love the ensemble episodes, so this was always going to score higher than any of the single-character “meh” eps. I didn’t see the twist coming, though I know a lot of other fans did. Textbook example of “cute but not very memorable” -- the Platonic ideal of that concept.
50. The Candy Kingpin (Season 3, episode 9)
A clever idea that plays on Max’s worst characteristics and then calls him out for them, while also giving Dolph some much-needed character development. Unfortunately, I don’t feel like it really picks up until the last third of the episode, leaving the rest just kind of sitting there.
49. Campfire Tales (Season 4, episode 13)
Who doesn’t love campfire stories?
That’s all I got. They’re campfire stories.
ETA: OH SH/IT THIS ONE HAS THAT REALLY SCARY STORY! Where David’s all like . . . Slenderman’d. Fu/ck, I didn’t remember that until I was writing out my thoughts for #35 or so. That definitely elevates it, but I’m too tired to try and re-decide where this should go, so just tie it with “New Adventure!”
48. New Adventure! (Season 4, episode 4)
New trio! Focusing on these 3 was a definite risk, and I think it really paid off. While the “plot” itself isn’t anything special, there are a handful of really great side gags (hi, Dirty Kevin!!!!) and it’s fun to see these three interact. They all get some nice character beats. It’s a good time.
47. Something Fishy (Season 3, episode 8)
This might’ve hit me harder if I’d actually seen The Shape of Water, but the send-up works fine without having more than the seen-the-trailer level of understanding. Gwen dresses pretty, which I love; Max sucks, which I also love. What drags this one down is mostly feeling like the surreal aspects of the comedy go a bit too far into the “what the fu/ck am I looking at?” territory without really . . . making an actual joke beyond “look! Wacky!"
Why is David at the opera with a bird? Why??
46. City Survival (Season 3, episode 11)
Literally do not remember a single thing about this episode except David getting mugged and being called a “homeless twi/nk.” That should probably rank it lower on the list, but David being a fluttery mother hen saves it for me -- as does the fact that it leads directly into one of my favorite episodes, and the single best story arc of the series.
Next set of episodes is what I’m going to arbitrarily call “okay! but like the good kind of okay, not the bad kind.”
45. Bonjour Bonquisha (Season 2, episode 7)
Max and Sasha masterminding a scheme is really fun; their dynamic is great (though it won’t be fully realized until Season 4), and heartbroken David is so tragically cute it actually makes my heart explode out of my chest.
Also I can’t resist a good “3 kids in a trench coat” gag.
44. Anti-Social Network (Season 2, episode 2)
Neil is very relatable and I don’t have much else to say about this one. It’s fun to see an episode that more heavily focuses on our nerdy science boy, and Max and Neil teaming up to save Nikki was really charming and sweet and set my Makkiel ship out to sea.
43. A Camp Camp Christmas, or Whatever (Season 2 holiday episode)
Why does this episode have a musical number? It’s not good.
Okay, that was mean. This is fun and cute and Gwen wears a pretty purple sweatshirt and Space Kid gives her a present and it’s really sweet. But that musical number is an instant fast-forward for me, sorry.
42. Preston Goodplay's Good Play (Season 4, episode 7)
We get some Preston character development! Awesome!
It’s done in a really trippy and surreal way that totally fits his character and heightens the drama of the episode! Awesome!
David has an apparently-tragic history of being a French mime! Not a good call!
Next tier: Some good sh/it! (Tbh, these could all be put in just about any order; they might as well be one massive tie.)
41. Cookin' Cookies (Season 2, episode 11)
I love the Flower Scouts. I love Dirty Kevin. I love the idea of accidentally starting a dru/g empire. Another weird, borderline experimental one focusing on side characters, and I think it works better than “New Adventure!” because the scale of the melodrama is just so over-the-top.
The fact that this is in the bottom 20 but I have nothing but good things to say about it illustrates how dang good this show is. It’s only getting better from here, folks!
40. Romeo & Juliet II: Love Resurrected (Season 1, episode 7)
Preston is a terrible playwright. This makes sense, because he’s like 11, but he’s the kind of hilariously bad I wish I’d been as a preteen, because his play is absolutely bonkers. Max fucking with David is great, Tabii vs. Bonquisha is great, Bonquisha in general is a giant amazonian goddess and I want to be swept up into her giant arms. Neil is . . . a robot, for some reason?
So much fun!
39. Camp Cool Kidz (Season 1, episode 4)
I don’t love Ered’s characterization in this one, but there are a lot of wacky hijinks in this episode that I think make it really enjoyable. Max’s wide-eyed revolutionary naïveté is a fun change from his usual dour pessimism, and Nikki’s loyalty to Ered is both very gay and very charming. Plus we get to learn a bit more about how the camp operates (and fails to operate), and it’s a nice way to better establish the campsite as its own setting.
(Definitely think “Cool” should’ve been spelled with a K though. But whatever, I don’t write for the show.)
38. Scout's Dishonor (Season 1, episode 3)
The birth of Neeancy! The introduction of the Flower and Wood Scouts! Neil saying “cu/nt” -- one of the first and only truly shocking uses of profanity in the entire show! ZUKO!
I don’t know if my fondness for this one is rooted mostly in nostalgia or if it was actually really fun, but I enjoyed the he/ll out of it. Not as highly-rated as some other episodes mostly because it doesn’t really do anything, character or story-wise, but not every episode needs to be a massive game-changer that drowns us in feels. Sometimes it’s enough to have a fun romp, and this is very that.
37. Ered Gets Her Cool Back (Season 3, episode 2)
Awww, Ered. I have a soft spot for her, because I love the archetype of a spoiled bit/ch clearly still figuring out how to be a person and have friends. You really get the sense of her as a teenager trying to sort her shi/t out in this episode, which I would love to see more of. Her interactions with Nerris are top-tier, and I like that it’s a continuation of how her character’s been softening since Season 1 into this kind of big-sister figure.
Also, all the female campers in this show are lesbians. I do not make the rules.
36. Attack of the Nurfs (Season 4, episode 2)
I feel like this is a pretty underrated episode. But then again, I feel like Nurf is a pretty underrated character, so maybe that’s just my own personal bias.
I really enjoyed all the different iterations of Nurf, and I think Blaine did a killer job giving each one its own personality and life. It’s a fun episode that plays hard with cartoon physics (a 3D printer printing people! I love it!) and has a surprisingly moving ending.
At least, that’s what I think. Most other people seem to find this one pretty forgettable. Again: make your own da/mn list. I liked it.
35. Mascot (Season 1, episode 2)
This entire episode is memorable for so many things, but a few of my favorites:
David is established as kind of a di/ck.
Platypus arrives and kicks all the as/s.
Quartermaster is the best.
Nerris, Harrison, and Space Kid all get little moments to show off how cute they are.
Neil and Nikki bonding.
This:
34. Quest to Sleepy Peak Peak (Season 2, episode 3)
I love watching Nerris and Harrison bicker, and Neil and Nikki fit really well into their group. It reminds me of being a kid, and of playing Dungeons & Dragons (as an adult, because I’m so cool), and of summer . . . which is a really good thing for this show. There are a lot of funny one-liners, and it’s just a good dang time.
33. Quartermaster Appreciation Day (Season 2, episode 6)
I don’t think this one is all that well-loved, but I thought it was funny. There are literally zero important plot or character moments, but it made me laugh a lot, and that’s all I need a Camp Camp episode to do.
I love QM, and the more we learn about him, the more confused and disturbed we end up being. What a fu/cking champion.
32. Arrival of the Torso Takers (Season 3 Halloween episode)
I lowkey hated this one when it came out, because I knew the Daniel stans were going to be exhausting. And they kind of were? But looking back, it’s a great way to reintroduce this motherfu/cker. He’s a lot scarier than he was the last time around -- but also less competent, which is a great way to kick him in the proverbial ba/lls -- and while I wish it had a lot more Gwen in it, it’s a clever and creative Halloween episode.
31. Operation: Charlie Tango Foxtrot (Season 3, episode 10)
Charlie . . . Tango . . . Foxtrot . . . CTF . . . OH! Capture the Flag! I never got that before. Oh, that’s neat. I love this show.
Listen, every time the writers decide to take a risk and do something bizarre and creative, I’m going to be here for it at least a little bit. An entire episode told from the POV of the Woodscouts, explaining how hard they failed in all directions? A great gag where everyone in Petrol’s story talks in grunts? The return of Jermy Fartz?! Fantastic.
30. Panicked Room (Season 4, episode 16)
Listen. I’m a sucker for my trash grandpa; anything Campbell-centric is probably going to be pretty good (except #54), because he’s just one of the most consistently funny and engaging characters. Good times are had whenever this terrible man is on the screen, and giving him a romantic backstory? A tragic romantic backstory full of mistakes and emotional damage?? One where he waited 17 YEARS for the love of his life???
We have no choice but to stan.
29. Party Pooper (Season 4, episode 15)
I’m so predictable. If you put Gwen in something, I will be happy. If you make an entire episode about how Gwen is under-appreciated and overworked and just trying to do her best despite the circumstances, I will dedicate my firstborn child to you.
Anyway, this episode is really sweet, and I liked the unexpected direction the writers took her relationship with her dad. He seems like a nice guy, they seem like they have a nice relationship, and . . . well, an episode about how hard it is to be an adult millennial hit pretty hard. Plus this was just a really pretty episode -- and not just because Gwen was in so much of it! Seriously, that night sky was a thing of beauty.
Also if you say a fuc/king word about Max and that godda/mn dog I will choke you out with your own intestines. Few things are more hilariously, annoyingly ironic than the fact that the entire fandom ignored and failed to appreciate Gwen . . . in the episode all about how everyone ignores and fails to appreciate Gwen.
28. Culture Day (Season 3 holiday episode)
Now, would it be arrogant to point out that I had the idea for a Culture/Heritage Day back in September 2018? Yes, especially since I don’t think the writers ever read fanfiction and it has literally nothing to do with this episode. Will that stop me? He/ll no it will not! I am a creature of ego! Read my stuff!
Anyway, this is a really fun look at Neil’s background, personality, and relationships. Max looking out for him is just . . . oh my god, I cannot, I’ve written like 30 of these and my brain is starting to melt, but these two are so cute. I love arrogant Neil, and I love protective Max, and I love QM and Gwen fuc/king over the Flower Scouts to save the day. Everything about this episode is lovely.
27. Cameron Campbell the Camp Campbell Camper (Season 3, episode 7)
This should not be ranked so high (even if these are all essentially tied). This is a dumb episode based on a really, really dumb premise.
But . . . I don’t know what to tell you. “Samboy Kidwell,” Max realizing he and Campbell are disturbingly similar and not liking what his future could look like, David’s “I’m not mad, I’m disappointed” face . . . this episode happens to hit all of my favorite things. It had a really good balance of heavy-handed moralizing and goofs, it was part of the most graceful lead-up into a finale the show has ever had, and I’m just all about it.
Excellent job, Samboy. Count Olaf would be proud of your disguise.
There ends the “some good sh/it” tier. We’re starting to get into the really excellent stuff now!
26. Parents' Day (Season 2, episode 12)
I know. You want this to be higher. I hear you.
Honestly I’m kind of shocked it’s this high; it’s my least favorite of the season finales so far, and I had to push past a lot of prejudice to actually rank this where I think it deserves to be, as opposed to somewhere in the like mid-40s. Mostly because it gave fuel to the raging inferno of “Max has terrible parents and David should adopt him” headcanons, which I’ve detailed my problems with extensively in the past (in a post that, statistically speaking, none of you have read).
But, trying to be objective: is this episode actually any good?
Well . . . yeah, it really is.
So much work was put into giving each of the campers families that make sense with their characters and bounce absurdly well off of them, ranging from wholesome and adorable (Nerris’s family) to quietly tragic (Harrison’s parents), and they’re all designed so well; they’re fun to look at and fun to watch interact with the kids and each other. (The only exception is Dolph’s dad, who is both kinda lame and misattributes the cause of the weird Na/zi thing because it did not come from Germany, I assure you. But things with Dolph are always a little off, and I don’t really know how you would give him a backstory that actually works with the character, so they were caught between a rock and a hard place there.)
The drama of David having to choose between the man he considers his father and the camp he considers his home is really touching, and him and Gwen choosing to take a sad camper out to get pizza instead of covering for their boss’s a/ss is such a beautiful moment for both of them that I can’t really blame the fandom for losing their mind over it. Campbell’s arrest leading into the arcs of the next two seasons was great as well, and the finale left us all with this weird sense of foreboding because we didn’t know what was going to happen next; it was the only finale that actually ended on something close to a cliffhanger, while still being satisfying enough to keep us all from melting down.
Plus, it’s funny. Carl and Candy are really funny and the idea of Neil and Nikki’s parents boning is funny in a horrible way. The joke about Quartersister is funny. It’s a good episode.
Should this be higher? Maybe, but I can’t bring myself to put it above the rest of these episodes. Again: make your own list.
25. Mind Freakers (Season 1, episode 10)
The episode that launched a thousand ships. Assuming those ships are all Harrison/Neil, anyway.
It’s hard to talk about these Season 1 episodes because they feel so classic. Like, what is there to say? You’ve all seen it a couple dozen times; I’ve seen it a couple dozen times. Harrison is a di/ck, Neil is possibly an even bigger di/ck, and magic may or may not be real. (Though spoilers for literally every season: yes, magic is definitely real.) It’s so much fun watching these two smug as/sholes snipe at each other in an almost literal playground hair-pulling way that could very easily be read as flirtation.
And the fandom did most certainly read it that way, at least for a little while.
24. Gwen Gets a Job (Season 2, episode 8)
It’s Gwen. What, was I supposed to not put it this high?
This was the first Gwen-centric episode, and it absolutely slaps. She’s pushed to the breaking point and responds by being a cold-hearted BAMF, and it got her some pretty significant hate from fans but I don’t give a fu/ck, I loved it. We got to see her all dolled up, and then we got to see her all disheveled, and both of those looks were gorgeous. David gives her a tiny fragment of the love and validation she deserves (I don’t know if this is when gwenvid started taking off -- I think it wasn’t really until “Parents’ Day,” or even Season 3 -- but I ate that s/hit up).
Also, again: job hunting post-2008. It’s a bad time, y’all. Camp Camp gets it.
23. Follow the Leader (Season 4, episode 6)
Yeah, I was kind of surprised at how high this landed, too. I guess I’m just a sucker for unlikely companionships, and these three have a great chemistry. The combination of competitiveness, sass, and reluctant admiration make their interactions a lot of fun. Their motivation of doing petty errands for Campbell for the sake of getting at the Box of Illegal Contraband is a great framework too, with high enough stakes to justify all sorts of wacky shenanigans without causing actual anxiety.
I want to see these characters forced to spend more time together. Please, RT, make that happen.
22. Escape from Camp Campbell (Season 1, episode 1)
In terms of numbers, this feels so low, but considering everything from about #45 on is ranked as at least decent, this is actually a pretty high rating. There are 21 episodes I’d call better than this, but these decisions were all pretty painful.
This introduces us to everyone! The main trio, the counselors, Mr. Campbell; we get a snapshot of the major personalities running around the camp, the major points of conflict (Max vs. David, primarily), the major building blocks of future episodes, setting, and relationships . . .
Again, I don’t know how much of my love for this episode is nostalgia -- there’s a lot of squeeing at familiar faces and gags; this is the first time David gets hit by a bus!!! -- but it was a fun and funny introduction to a series that’s ended up being so important to me, and I’m so grateful this wonderful, quirky little show with its wonderful and quirky little premiere.
Of all the episodes, I really can’t look at this one objectively. It’s too important.
21. The Fun-Raiser (Season 3, episode 1)
David and Gwen scheming is my ki/nk. They very rarely scheme together, but every single time their teamwork makes the dream work (or, more frequently, makes the dream fail horribly and have disastrous consequences) my soul flies out of my body and takes to the stars, where I write another 500 first chapters to gwenvid fanfics I’ll probably never finish.
This is a great follow-up to “Parents’ Day,” where we immediately see the consequences of the previous season finale and what happens when the one adult in the camp disappears. Mr. Campbell was a terrible adult, true, but at least he was smart enough not to steal QM’s hook. Like . . . whose plan was this? It was so bad. These two are hilariously incompetent sometimes -- often when their bad ideas are feeding off of each other, actually, a la this and “Space Camp Was a Hoax” -- and watching them frantically try and keep all their balls in the air is so great.
The ending is satisfying, too; a bit graphic, in keeping with a show that tends to keep the violence limited to periodic spurts of bloodshed 1-2 times a season and mostly pretty mild the rest of the time, but between Max stepping up and fixing everything while still being his shi/tty self to our dear dumba/ss counselors getting their dumb as/ses handed to them (deservedly so, if we’re being honest) . . . it’s such a great note to begin a new season on.
20. Journey to Spooky Island (Season 1, episode 5)
A classic.
We get to meet our spooky boy Jasper, we get to watch the comedy trio play off each other and continue to sketch out the general contours of their friendship, and we get to see the Quartermaster with a big purple dil/do for a hand. What’s not to love?
19. The Butterfinger Effect (Season 4, episode 17)
CONTROVERSIAL HOT TAKES! GET YOUR CONTROVERSIAL HOT TAKES HERE!
I’ve already gone into some pretty intense detail about why I think this one is actually really good and carries the theme of embracing change that everything about Season 4 was centered around, but none of y’all read that so here it is in short: this episode is super funny, almost all of the campers’ transformations work really well as extensions of their characters while still being strange and surprising, and the fact that Nurf creates all of these problems by trying to solve them is deliciously fun to watch in a karmic sort of way.
Or maybe it’s just because any Nurf-centric episode is going to rank pretty highly for me. That is also possible.
18. Space Camp Was a Hoax (Season 2, episode 10)
Our camp counselors being bad people: it’s my drug of choice.
We get Space Kid tripping balls in what might be one of the funniest sequences in the show, the entire camp coming together to try and pull off the stupidest, most impossible task (and kinda maybe almost nailing it???), and once again the fun of watching Gwen and David scramble to keep from getting caught in their boss’s shit/ty lies is so great. And Lindsay’s voice acting is absolutely killer, even more so than usual.
17. Jermy Fartz (Season 2, episode 4)
I get the sense this might be a somewhat controversial one.
I’ve written before about why I think this episode is a lot of fun, but it mostly boils down to two things: watching the campers try (and fail) to be nice to the most bully-able person on the entire planet, and the essential likeableness of Jermy.
No, really.
I think a lot of people were put off by Jermy’s general grossness, because . . . my god is he disgusting, but he’s also polite and good-natured, and seems totally self aware of how difficult he is to be around, without letting it make him depressed. He’s cheerful in a weirdly downbeat way that’s impossible to understand until you see him in action. He’s so matter-of-fact about his own awfulness in a way that I found entirely endearing. I don’t think I’d want him at my camp, either, but get that kid to a good dermatologist and gastroenterologist, teach him some basic hygiene and social skills, and you’ll have quite a little gentleman there.
I do however find it hilarious that apparently David got the type of tree wrong when making fun of Jermy. Not only is that a great moment for reveling in David being an as/shole, but he didn’t even have the right wood. F/ucking idiot. I love him so much.
These last ones are my favorites! (Well, duh, that’s how this whole ranking thing works.) Maybe not perfect, but just really good and with limitless rewatch value.
16. St. Campbell's Day (Season 4 holiday episode)
They Grinch’d Camp Camp. Those brilliant bast/ards, they really pulled it off.
Ignoring the fact that David is truly frightening-looking for most of the episode, this is a great bookend to Season 4, following up on the theme established in the first episode about how David is a flawed and selfish human being despite trying his best not to be.
This is another one I was surprised to find so high on the list, but the more I thought about it the more I realizes how good it is. David being a jerk is always one of my favorite storylines, and the fact that the trouble comes from him trusting Mr. Campbell too little instead of too much is a nice twist on the usual formula. Gwen coming to help him out despite a blistering hangover gave me aggressive shipping feels, yes, obviously.
Between a lot of really funny little gags like QM’s failed satanic ritual and the genuinely touching moral about the importance of spending time with the people you love, it’s just a really lovely episode that gets just the right amount of maudlin for the holiday season.
15. Jasper Dies at the End (Season 2, episode 5)
I kept switching this and “Dial M for Jasper”; it was a really difficult decision to make, figuring out where these two belonged. I think in the end, while the John Dies at the End reference was very, very good, this one loses me a little bit by being told from David’s perspective. Now, normally the more David is in an episode the more I’ll be likely to love it (see my #1 for proof of that), but his blinders when it comes to the camp and Mr. Campbell result in a really funny story, but one without the same emotional heft as hearing about what happened from Jasper’s point of view.
That doesn’t mean it’s not perfect for what it needs to be: each Jasper episode builds on the previous ones, and having the same intensity of “Dial M for Jasper,” where we learn how he died and how his relationship with David fell apart, would be weird and heavy at this point. In Season 1 we just found out he’s a ghost (and eagle-eyed viewers realized he’d been a camper with David); in Season 2 we find out how David views their friendship and time at camp; and in Season 3 we get Jasper’s perspective. It’s an absolutely wonderful raising of the stakes (for lack of a better term), but the one that packs more of an emotional punch is going to rank a bit higher than the one that’s mostly just for laughs.
That being said: there are plenty of laughs in this one. Everyone -- Griffin, Miles, Travis, the animators -- nailed this one, and it gets funnier every time I watch it.
14. Camporee (Season 1, episode 11)
AKA the episode where Forest realized she was in love with Gwen.
What a great idea for an episode, seriously. Every coming-of-age story has a talent show or a competition or a big game -- something where the kiddos can show off their improved skills and teamwork to beat their bullies or whatever. And this show has both kinds of bullies: the popular girly girls and the violent muscleheads. What a great moment to pull everyone together and show how friendship can help us accomplish anything!
Except . . . of course that’s not what happens. Of course they’re absolute garbage, and of course teamwork isn’t the answer. Gwen is the perfect foil for David here, being the anti-teamwork, anti-Camp-Campbell adult who can perfectly and effortlessly undermine David’s relentless optimism. David wants so badly for his campers to live in the same coming-of-age summer movie he did as a child, and their staunch refusal to do that leads to a really heartbreaking closer to the episode, as well as lead into the next one. Everything about this, from the challenges to the setup to Gwen shouting “we are winning this FUC/KING trophy!” is just gold.
13. David Gets Hard (Season 1, episode 9)
We have David. We have Nurf. We have Gwen. We have Max trying to be helpful in the shi/ttiest way possible.
We have all the makings of a da/mn good episode. And they deliver. Not a very emotionally intense or moving one, but so, so funny.
12. Dial M for Jasper (Season 3, episode 5)
This isn’t the fate any of us expected for Jasper, and it’s not the fate of a lot of people wanted. But godda/mn it, it worked. The constant bait-and-switch the episode keeps playing with, where you keep waiting for something really dramatic and tragic to happen . . . and then the reality is that Jasper died because Mr. Campbell was stupid and careless, and it was all just a horribly sad accident.
It’s anticlimactic, but in a way that suits the series, both as a comedic counterpoint to all the hype throughout the episode and as a way to establish that Cameron Campbell is a bad man first and foremost through selfishness and laziness, not Daniel-esque sinister evil. Jasper’s death was totally avoidable and totally Campbell’s fault, and while that’s sad, it also adds a weird sort of lightness to the episode. David didn’t do something terrible to kill his best friend, Jasper didn’t kill himself, and without having actively chosen to murder a child (well, not this time), the door remains open for fans accepting Campbell’s later pseudo-redemption. It was just an accident, and Jasper was “haunting” David to tell him that he was sorry for how their friendship ended. That’s really sweet, actually.
I think it’s the best way this reveal could’ve gone, and I’m so impressed with how they pulled it all off.
11. Into Town (Season 1, episode 8)
This might actually be the only flawless episode in the entire show. I mean, I call a lot of them flawless, and I mean that on an emotional level -- “I love this so much I cannot see anything wrong with it” -- but this one is a masterpiece of storytelling. All the technical jumbo I’m bad at, like planting and payoff and tension and all of that, is just perfect.
I feel like this is the kind of claim that needs to be backed up with a long-as/s essay full of citations and video clips and references to, like, Joseph Campbell or something, but this is my 49th entry in the list so I am not going to be doing that. Besides, I don’t think my English degree qualifies me to critique film/animation; I don’t even entirely know half the terms I’ve used to compliment this episode. Someone else please explain why this is such a good one.
10. The Quarter-Moon Convergence (Season 4, episode 5)
I’ve mentioned in other entries that the weird, surreal humor sometimes doesn’t work; it feels too much like being odd for its own sake, and sometimes gets so distracted in being surreal that it forgets to include anything funny or meaningful.
This . . . is not one of those.
Putting Harrison and QM together is a stroke of genius; the two of them are literally the most magical beings in the entire show, and using them as the conveyance for this great Lovecraftian horror-comedy was such a good idea. I don’t know if we’ll ever see these two interact in another episode -- honestly, this felt a bit like lightning in a bottle, and I have a hard time imagining what could possibly bring them together again -- but if this is the only episode we get, it is such a fantastic one.
Harrison makes a really good everyman, despite his powers; he’s just the right amount of confident and insecure to pull off that wide-eyed apprentice to QM’s grizzled wise mentor. (The fact that QM is objectively a terrible mentor is beside the point.) I still don’t entirely know what the two of them accomplished, but it feels baffling and momentous, with the perfect amount of gravity to make things extremely tense all the way through to the end.
Also, I guess God is an octopus? That’s kinda cool. I like octopuses.
9. Camp Corp. (Season 3, episode 12)
Another unpopular opinion? Oh ho ho, I am so contrary! I am Not Like Other Fans! I am the Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way, refusing to have the same opinions of all you prepz.
I know this wasn’t the most well-loved episode, but I think it did a really great job tying together story threads woven throughout Season 3: Max’s selfishness leading to him hurting other people, his growing realization that he cares about his friends and the camp itself, the parallels between him and Mr. Campbell (and the fact that they both get this redemption moment in the finale).
This is the most Max-centric season, focusing on his flaws and character growth, and they pulled it off in a really organic way that felt faithful to his character, touching without being too maudlin. The fact that his feelings about the camp are echoed in Gwen, Neil and Nikki, the other campers, and even Mr. Campbell drives home how important the camp -- and David -- are to this strange little family.
Each season, Max reluctantly becomes a better person, without changing the fundamental core of who he is. That’s a really hard putt for the writers and Michael, and I’m blown away every finale by how they so consistently nail it.
8. Time Crapsules (Season 4, episode 18)
Gwen-centric? Check.
Max learning how to be a better person while still being the bratty kid we know and love? Check.
Looks at one of the most under-appreciated character dynamics in the entire show (i.e., Max and Gwen)? Checkity check-check-check.
I don’t really have much to say about this one, which I should: it was considered a pretty serious letdown to a lot of fans, and I’m not sure how to explain why I loved it so much.
Comparing Max from “The Order of the Sparrow” to Max from this episode is wild. It’s not like 2 different characters: they’re still very obviously the same cynical, self-absorbed 10-year-old trying to survive summer camp. But he’s become a more considerate friend and decent version of that kid, and it’s great to watch. The moment where he and Gwen go too far and immediately regret snapping at each other is still painful (on my god, the VAs in this show, they’re so talented), Nikki and Neil both get nice subplots about how they’re also growing up, and the ending is fuc/king hilarious, perfectly breaking the tension from Campbell’s speech, which is both beautifully done and important to hear, especially if you’re in a period of uncomfortable transition (like, say, in your late 20s, or living through about 5 different national and global catastrophes).
And okay, I found that speech on the wiki for this episode and it made me deeply emotional, so here:
Here's the thing: you've got to take your failures and make something out of them. Take Camp Campbell for instance: a lot of poor decisions went into making this place what it is today. Sure, somewhere along the line it maybe strayed from its path, not living up to the camp it wanted to be. At some point, the camp realized that the camp would never reach the end of its path until it was ready or until it gave up. So, if the camp wanted to keep embezzling money and dealing with foreign powers, so be it! But, at some point, it didn't anymore. I never saw this coming, but I'm starting to think this camp is the best it's ever been.
If this is the last episode of Camp Camp we ever get -- and for at least a little while, it looks like it’s going to be -- I can’t think of a sweeter, funnier, and more lovely bittersweet note for this show to go out on.
7. The Lake Lilac Summer Social (Season 3, episode 6)
And again: No one was surprised.
This is the longest non-finale episode of the show, and it uses that time perfectly. Rather than having some big emotional moments and character arcs -- which are great, don’t get me wrong -- the writers use the extended time to build a series of shenanigans as complicated as Gwen’s matchmaking web, and watching her try to set up a series of dominos (with David, for once, being the responsible, level-headed one) is almost as satisfying as the catastrophic results.
Neil and Snake steal this episode, even from someone as in love with Gwen as I am, and for an episode that’s largely about making fun of shippers, there hasn’t been one that launched nearly as many ships as this. Neil/Snake? Tabii/Erin? Max/Nikki? GWENVID?! It’s all here, and I am here for it.
It was also fun to get a traditional episode setup in a very non-traditional show. I assume this means the beach and/or hot springs episode is forthcoming. (No, Pis/s Lake doesn’t count. Obviously it doesn’t count.)
6. Keep the Change (Season 4, episode 1)
Again, this is an episode I’ve said a lot about in the past -- and I was pretty uncharitable toward Season 3, which in retrospect was very unse/xy of me -- but I stand by a lot of my opinions then: this is a fu/cking great episode.
David is an as/shole, Max is an as/shole, Campbell is an as/shole. No one escapes the as/sholery. David schemes, Max catches him in the scheme, Campbell gets drunk and kind of gay . . . I’m 54 entries into this list and I don’t have much to say anymore: it’s just really good and fun and I love it.
5. Camp Loser Says What? (Season 4, episode 9)
This is another one I kind of hated when it came out, and again for fandom-related and personal-grudge reasons.
Fu/cking Daniel. That motherfu/cker. He shows up for 12 minutes and Tumblr bursts into flames. Every single time.
However, it’s really hard not to love this one. Daniel-as-Trump is a clever but subtle -- I mean, for this show’s definition of subtle -- allegory, and it’s amazing how much this slimy freak and the Woodscouts slot into it. David is a bise/xual disaster with the absolute worst taste in men, Dirty Kevin and Daniel are onscreen together for all of 2.5 seconds and the kevdan shippers lost their minds, and Xemug looks like Megamind for some weird reason.
My only minor complaint is that the ending is a bit anticlimactic, but it plays on Daniel’s stupidity and the value of teamwork, so it’s a very small nitpick in an episode that mostly works like gangbusters.
4. Cult Camp (Season 2, episode 1)
Duh. There’s a really good song and we’re introduced to a charismatic, sinister, and totally dumba/ss villain. What’s not to like?
I don’t think I even need to say anything about this episode. Season 2 started off the summer by throwing a lit firecracker directly at the viewer’s face, and ignoring the fact that we as a fandom proceeded to eat each other, it’s impossible not to get caught up in the episode’s wild energy.
And dude, that song. Fabulous. Fu/ck Daniel, but thank god he’s around to be such a prickly little pri/ck.
Now for the top 3: Literally perfect, wouldn’t change a single solitary thing.
3. After Hours (Season 4, episode 8)
I’m not sure anyone loved this episode as much as me. But this is my list, and I will put this up at the top if I want to and you cannot stop me.
It’s much easier in a lot of ways to talk about the episodes I hated than the ones I love this much. What do I say besides “literally everything about this fills me with joy and my life is better because it exists”? I don’t know. The counselors are my favorite characters, and between Gwen and QM having the weirdest bonding experience, Gwen getting to meet up with people who care about her silly fanfiction, Mr. Campbell being the trash grandpa of my dreams, David getting in way over his head . . . it’s the episode I always wanted, and they made it work so well.
Also, I just discovered that “Gwen Isn’t Your Mother So Stop Asking Her to Rinse Your Dishes” is an actual song and I am overwhelmed with delight. Here, I’m embedding it as well as linking because it’s so good:
youtube
God. This show. What the fu/ck even is up with this amazing, weird-as/s show.
2. The Order of the Sparrow (Season 1, episode 12)
Duh.
The entire first season is a great time (except “Reigny Day”), but it’s a pretty low-stakes kind of great time. There isn’t much in terms of emotional depth until the very end of “Camporee,” despite some hints at darker themes in one-off jokes and quick asides, so this episode comes a bit out of left field, tonally speaking.
But that’s not a bug, it’s a feature; if the show had been this overtly emotional from the outset, this finale wouldn’t hit as hard, and the rest of the season wouldn’t be as funny.
This manages to serve as a capstone to the conflict of the first season, building on episodes like “Into Town” and “Escape from Camp Campbell” in a way that feels totally natural for both David and Max’s characters while revealing new sides of them. It works because it’s so unexpected, but it doesn’t come across as incongruous with their personalities. It’s the first and only time David swears in all 4 seasons, and that line -- I don’t even need to say it, you know exactly what I’m talking about -- still gives me chills.
Also, Gwen sings the camp theme song. Impossible not to cherish.
1. The Forest (Season 4, episode 12)
I’m not sure if this one is a surprise or not. It might be the obvious first place, or it might be a bit of an oddball for some people.
I had a really hard time choosing between this and “The Order of the Sparrow”; I switched their places half a dozen times, and the difference in quality between the two is razor-thin. I think part of that is because it accomplishes a lot of what “Order of the Sparrow” does: puts David in a situation where he’s pushed to his absolute emotional and physical capacity, crushes every shred of hope he has left, and sees what he’s actually made of when you strip everything away. It’s much more dramatic this time around, but it’s the same basic concept.
And just like in the Season 1 finale, what we see is a man who’s determined to do good even when he isn’t rewarded for it, even when he’s actively punished for it. Who wants to love nature, and life, and make the world a better place -- despite his faults, his selfishness and thoughtlessness and anger, David proves that he is fundamentally kind. He’s not nearly as deludedly optimistic as he seems; he just refuses to stop trying.
Because somebody fuc/king has to.
I’ll admit, some of what puts this one in first place is that I’m a sucker for whump, and David really goes through the ringer. However, I also think it’s important to acknowledge the risk Joe Nicolosi took with writing this episode: it’s all centered around a single character, it’s darker and more viscerally bloody than any other episode in the show’s history, the art is focused on these grand sweeping backgrounds that must’ve taken forever to paint, and there’s very little talking in a show that runs 99% on clever dialogue. This could have so easily backfired -- and for some fans it did -- but it was brave and beautiful and breathtaking.
I’ve actually only watched this in full once. It’s really hard to get through; it’s just so intense and even disturbing. But if there’s one episode I'll remember for the rest of my life, even when I’m 80 years old and haven’t seen the show in years, it’ll be “The Forest.”
It’s funny how such a sharp departure from the format and style of the rest of the show somehow manages to perfectly capture the heart of it. Talk about a fuc/king achievement.
So what have we learned?
I don’t entirely know what the purpose of this whole exercise was. I think it was mostly to get myself a nice Camp Camp fix that came from something other than slogging through 20 different fanfic WIPs, and to remind myself of what a strange and fun ride the last 4 summers have been.
I also wanted to take a moment to acknowledge what Camp Camp means to me. This show has been hugely important to me on a personal level: I met two of my best friends through this fandom, and I’ve never been more connected to a community or readers than I have with CC. I know I bi/tch about this fandom a lot, but it’s a big extended internet family, and I’m so happy to be a part of it. Going through all these episodes, getting the chance to ramble about the things I liked and the things I didn’t, was a great way to reconnect with a series and community that I love.
So . . . what have we learned?
1. Season 4 was all over the place.
Some of this has to be due to the sheer volume of episodes, but when I sat down and organized everything into tiers:
There isn’t a single category Season 4 doesn’t have at least one episode in. I was surprised to see how high a lot of them ended up; it really was the best and worst of the show so far.
For the fun of it, I decided to give a number to each placement -- 60 points for the #1 episode, 59 for #2, etc. -- and see how each season broke down. Because that’s that kind of thing I think is worthwhile, apparently. And . . .
2. Seasons 1 and 4 are really good, actually.
Well, I don’t think anyone’s surprised to see how well Season 1 stacked up; it was amazing. But I was surprised to see how much I ended up enjoying Seasons 3 and 4, when if you’d asked me before this little project, I would’ve said they were the most underwhelming. Maybe I messed up the numbers a bit -- I’m no mathmagician -- but not only are they all really close, but Season 4 was one of my favorites.
3. This entire show is really good, actually.
One thing that really struck me when I put it all together visually is how most of the episodes sit in the “good,” “really good,” or “amazing” categories. The amount of episodes that are memorable, fun, and/or emotionally resonant is crazy. I don’t now how many other tiny cult-hit web series can say the same, honestly, and all of the writers, animators, directors/producers/other people whose jobs I don’t really understand, and voice actors should be commended for their outstanding talent and hard work.
4. Thank you, Camp Camp.
It was a real pleasure to relive all of these episodes again and think about what they meant to me. It won’t be the last time I sit down and watch this show -- and it certainly won’t be the end of my being a shrieking fangirl over it -- but with this break, where we have to get through a blazing, extremely difficult summer without a new season to fawn over, it’s nice to stop and appreciate what a precious gem of a show this is.
I hope everyone involved with Rooster Teeth is taking a much-deserved rest and prioritizing their health and well-being. Thank you for creating something truly special, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
#campcamp#camp camp roosterteeth#thank you RT Animation for giving me my life these past 4 years#cc david#cc max#cc gwen#i'm not tagging all the characters#campcamp masterpost#i really hope this doesn't get hidden from the tags but#guys this was a super intense labor of love please check it out#but also reading it is also a super intense labor so i get it if you don't XD
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Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary
Sherlockians, I want to talk about Mary. Or not about Mary the character, because enough words have been spent on that topic and I’m nowhere near brave enough to wade into that one on a snowy Sunday afternoon, but rather on the way we as readers can (perhaps should) relate to her. At some level what follows is about this Tumblr post, where an anonymous commenter asked for “any fics where Mary’s not the bad guy” and noticed that a lot of the evil-Mary fanworks “gets a bit misogynistic in my opinion”; but I’m also using that as something of a springboard, and don’t mean this as a direct reply to that post. (Which is why I’m not replying in a reblog; please everyone go check out that post and comment on it as well.)
Anyway, let me start with two basic points that I hope are pretty noncontroversial.
Mary is an antagonist, at least some of the time.
Mary has at least some aspects of her character that are bad-making (more on what I mean by “bad-making” in a moment), or at least would be if she were a real person.
The devil’s in the details here, as it is with most things worth talking about, so let’s unpack that a bit.
(Long post is long, and so continued under the cut.)
When I say someone’s an antagonist, I’m not really making a value-judgment. I’m purposefully avoiding that word, “villain,” which calls to mind “villainous” as a description of their personality and character. An antagonist is just someone who plot-wise stands in opposition to the character. They’re wrapped up in the conflict our hero has to overcome.
Let’s take a pretty straightforward (and unrelated to our fandom, so hopefully less emotionally charged for a lot of us) example: the first “Hunger Games” book. Katniss is thrown into a gladiatorial fight to the death with twenty-three other teenagers. With the exception of Rue and (later in the games) Peeta, everyone else is an antagonist in relation to Katniss. She has to hope for their death and be prepared to kill them because their continued existence stands in the way of her surviving the games. Most are reduced to numbers with s knowing precious little about them – certainly not enough to think they deserve death. But they’re still antagonists because they’re obstacles the hero has to work past if she hopes to succeed.
Or take Draco Malfoy, in the early Harry Potter books. He’s a thoroughly unpleasant boy, spoiled and sniveling certainly, but I’d be hard-pressed to call him bad. His biggest defining characteristic is he stands up and tries to fight Harry; but often as not this comes down to inter-house squabbling and the only reason he and Harry are on opposite sides is how they were sorted. As we learn, given the way he was raised and the political situation he was raised in, it’s actually pretty admirable how on the periphery of the Death Eaters he stays. But he’s still the antagonist, he’s the one Harry has to outsmart or outperform or otherwise get around.
It's only natural we cheer when the antagonists fail. We’re primed to identify with the protagonist, after all, and their failure means the protagonist gets to win. Even if objectively know the antagonist doesn’t actually deserve to fail, well. That’s just kind of how stories work.
Getting back to Sherlock, I said it’s pretty noncontroversial that Mary’s an antagonist. So when I say that I don’t mean she’s evil, or even that she’s only an antagonist. But the woman shoots our star character in the chest. It’s her secrets and her very presence that drive Sherlock into exile (and drive Sherlock and John apart) for a second time, undoing whatever victory Sherlock achieved when he defeated Moriarty’s web. She’s certainly a problem to be addressed and worked past in HLV. In terms of canon and parallels with the Doyle stories, there’s quite a lot about her actions (particular in Leinster Gardens) that all but screams “Sebastian Moran.” Ergo: antagonist.
There’s also a quieter, more ordinary sense that I suspect will be more controversial but is worth talking about anyway. Like a lot of Sherlockians and Johnlockers, I’m a big fan of making space for John/Mary/Sherlock in happy OT3 land. I think Sherlock and John at least want some version of that in canon; maybe not romantically, but they like to imagine their being room in their lives for these different relationships to not be in conflict. But in BBC-canon that hope’s not really borne out. This deserves a full meta on its own, but briefly: when Mary observes that neither she nor Sherlock were “the first” (talking about Sholto), she situates them in competition for the same position in John’s life, rather than in distinct, complementary ones (which an OT3 seems to require); and when Sherlock notes at the end of TSOT episode that “we can’t all three dance,” he seems to come to a similar conclusion. I do love me some good Johnlockary fic, but I don’t think this is where the show was heading
At a more basic level, I’d actually argue it almost has to be this way with these three- at least if we’re to hold on to John and Sherlock being “the two of us against the world.” In the 1800s men and women had such different roles in society, a man would do very different things and relate in very different ways to his close (male) friends than he would to his (female) wife. So Watson could run off with Holmes and have adventure, then return home to Mary for the peaceful, even loving family life, without one really being in tension with the other. But by the twenty-first century those spheres aren’t nearly so different. Even if you don’t imagine them as lovers, it’s hard not to imagine a self-respecting woman today saying as Mary did in TAB, “I don’t mind you going; I mind you leaving me behind.” One of the biggest challenges for a modern Holmes adaptation (or indeed, for a modern consumer of the original Doyle stories) is how to balance Holmes’ and Watson’s private “intimate partnership” – however we understand that term – against (John) Watson’s marriage to Mary with all we moderns expect of that relationship in terms of emotional fidelity, equal partnership, shared future, etc.
Put more simply: Mary should throw a monkey-wrench in the mix; she should be something that must be accounted for and whose presence should affect how Holmes and Watson can interact. Not to mean her presence is incompatible with Holmes and Watson’s close and exclusive relationship, but at a minimum she’s a factor in need of an explanation. She can’t help but be antagonistic, at least to some interpretations of Holmes’s and (John) Watson’s relationship.
As I said, with antagonists, it’s only natural to cheer for the protagonists, which almost inevitably means rooting for the protagonists’ failure. At least we root for them being de-antagonized, converted into some other relationship to the main character. But if you’ve spent any time on AO3, you’ve probably come across fanfic focusing on the antagonists (*cough* Loki *cough**cough* Drary *hacks up a longue* Silm-fandom-this-one’s-for-you *cough*’s). We can be a thirsty bunch when it comes to our antagonists, for characters we by all rights should be primed to hate. And even at the level of primary-canon, one of the biggest ways the primary creator shows their emotional growth is by realizing their antagonists aren’t truly their enemy. Like most readers I had a tear in my eye as Cato suffered through the night, begging for death; and certainly I would have been outraged if Harry hadn’t saved Draco from the Room of Requirements in “Deathly Hallows.” Gollum’s treachery is explained and he is given his own completion; Darth Vader is spared by Luke and allowed to look on his son with his own eyes; and the Klingons, Cardassians, and Borg are given their own sort of redemption in Worf, Garak, and Seven of Nine.
All of which is to say: it’s understandable, even natural, why people would have a hard time rooting for the antagonist, but there’s a long history of fandom peoples steering into the curve on this one. So it’s also understandable, even natural, that people want to hear stories with them at the center, both new stories about them and also versions of the original canon narrative that don’t need them to wear the black hat all the time. Some folks want Mary, Sherlock, and John to all go crime-solving together. I personally think there’s sometimes a danger of turning an antagonist – especially one who is at least morally gray (and I promise we’re getting there) like Mary is – into a protagonist without wrestling with what turned them into an antagonist in the first place; so if you want to bring Mary back to the side of John and Sherlock you need to grapple with what pushed them into opposing roles in the first place, or else risk your plot feeling “cheap” and unearned. (In fairness, this warning could as easily be directed to Mofftiss as anyone in fandom!)
But at an absolute minimum, I think it’s pretty obvious that lots of fans want to imagine the antagonists as at the heart of their own stories, and lots of fan-creators have done a really good job of providing those stories. Just as a lot of fans will almost instinctively be drawn to hate them, well, if you want to go a different path you’re in good company.
Enough about protagonist/antagonist, which as I said is more about the role the character fills in the story than about their morality or character. This, for me at least, is where it really gets interesting.
Before we get started, though, I know a lot of people struggle against this idea of morality when it applies to fictional characters and fictional stories. They’ll point out (rightly) that just because they enjoy a non-con PWP doesn’t mean they approve of rape in real life; that their reading preferences come from a different place entirely than their moral judgments. But at the same time, a lot of people (equally rightly) struggle to enjoy stories that glorify things we don’t consider worth glorifying. It’s one thing to enjoy a story about Draco rejecting the Death Eaters, returning to mainstream wizarding society and joining the Aurors; quite another to imagine him dating Harry while he’s still walking around calling Hermione a mudblood.
Or getting back to the Sherlock fandom, a lot of people are most comfortable with stories with Mary’s the antagonist because she’s got a character history and just personality traits where, if we met someone like her in real-life, we’d consider her morally bad. Or on the flip slide, those fans who want a not-evil!Mary in their stories often like to imagine her as the kind of person we’d describe as good or redeemed or some such thing, if she were an actual person. Mary’s morality, at least the morality of a similar person operating in the real world (because --speaking as a former philosophy Ph.D. student who taught philosophical ethics for years-- let me tell you: talking about the morality of fictional constructs gets very messy, very quickly), seems to matter to a great number of fans. So let’s talk about that.
I said above I thought most people would agree, Mary had parts o her character that were bad-making. What I mean is there are aspects about her that tend to make a person bad, unless they’re explained by some other factor. I’ve got in mind something vaguely similar to W.D. Ross’s theories of prima facie duties (if any of you studied this in your Ethics 101 courses- you would have in mine). Basically, the idea is we have all these duties that apply to us, but they can seem to conflict, and we may decide (rightly) in any given situation that one or the other is the more important one for us to follow. The classic example is the duty to keep our promises and prevent suffering when we can. You can imagine situations where you can’t do both- for instance, if I promised to meet you for lunch and on my way to the restaurant came across a man who fell into a ditch and twisted his ankle along a deserted road, where it’s unlikely someone else would come upon him. If I stop to help him I’ll miss our lunch date and break my promise; and while I still have a duty to keep that promise, I think most people would agree it’s more important to stop and help the person. We’d all be hard-pressed to say if I helped the stranger, I’d failed at my duty to keep a promise; at least not in the same way as if I could have kept that promise and just chose not to. That’s Ross’s idea of prima facie duties: that we have all these general obligations on us, but which actually should govern our choices in any particular instance comes down to the details of that situation.
I think there’s something similar going on with Mary’s character. This is actually a good way to evaluate most of us morally, in my opinion, but it’s doubly useful when it comes to Mary because she’s simultaneously got so many troubling aspects about her that just demand some sort of justification, but at the same time, because Mofftiss really screwed the pooch here, we don’t really have the information we need to give a definitive answer. So it’s useful to say: here’s something about Mary that needs accounting for, even if we don’t have enough information to evaluate her definitively.
Let’s take Magnussen’s biggest accusation against her: “All those wet jobs.” Mary killed people on her own prerogative, and she left behind a lot of grieving relatives who would love their revenge – both a testament to the suffering she caused, and a real risk for John, the baby that will become Rosie, and everyone else in their orbit. But if that’s all there is to it, it’s not wholly dissimilar to John’s decision to shoot the cabbie. It may have been different, but we don’t have the information to know that; it feels different, but most because John was saving Sherlock (who we know), whereas if Mary was saving anyone, it’s not someone we the viewer have an emotional connection to. Still, to borrow a phrase from Ricky Ricardo, Mary, you’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do.
Or to take an even more serious charge, Mary shot Sherlock, was prepared to make John watch him die all over again and force him to go through that grief that so nearly destroyed him the first time around. Unforgiveable, yeah? The best shot at justification here is that Mary had somehow got herself cornered, so that shooting Sherlock was somehow an attempt to escape an even worse sitation. This really demands a full meta to dive in to, but very briefly, I think Mary never intended to kill Magnussen and was instead trying to intimidate him; meaning she couldn’t let Sherlock undercut her power, but equally she couldn’t leave Magnussen with the impression that John and Sherlock were somehow her partners; so shooting Sherlock was the best way to keep him from becoming a full target of Magnussen’s. If that’s the case, the whole showdown in Magnussen’s office becomes markedly similar to Sherlock’s decision to “kill” himself on the roof of St. Bart’s. Mary is willing to cause a lot of pain to avoid even greater destruction, but at the same time, the whole situation that compels this choice was fed by her limiting her options when she decided to intimidate Magnussen. Similar to how Sherlock, once he’s on the roof of St. Bart’s, has no better option than to fake his own death and leave John to grieve; but how he does have some degree of culpability for engaging Moriarty in the first place and egging on Moriarty’s destructive obsession with Sherlock.
My point isn’t that any of these parallels really hold up to scrutiny. Sherlock risked his own life in TRF (and John’s pain) while Mary was prepared to kill another. John was ready to kill “a bad man” to save our hero while whatever murders Mary committed were against unnamed people in undetermined circumstances, and narratively certainly don’t pull at or heart strings in the same way John’s heroic killing of Jefferson Hope does. But the point is, with Mary, so much of what a lot of fans object to involve these vaguely-told stories where whatever factors would excuse her actions just are left untold. What we can say definitively is “all those wet jobs” require justification. Mary’s willingness to shoot Sherlock require justification. These things are prima facie wrong (or bad-making, the kind of things that tend to make something bad in the absence of other explanations) and demand an accounting for.
I’m focusing on Mary’s violence more than what a lot of fans have identified as her abuse toward John. Partly, this is personal: I have my own experience with abusive relationships and don’t entirely trust my ability to parse similar dynamics in fiction; certainly I don’t want to tie that part of my past to public debate, and I’ve not worked out how to talk about Mary and John without over-personalizing it. But I will say, there’s a lot to be considered on that front as well, and people interested in thinking through Mary’s im/morality shouldn’t ignore it. As a starting point, inevity-johnlocked pointed to several of her old posts making the case that Mary was an emotional abuser. silentauroriamthereal’s fic “Rebuilding Rome” looks at a lot of these issues in a really powerful way if you’re looking for an exploration in fic form. I’ll just add, even if I thought Mary was justified and so “good” in some sense (and my internal compass is so screwed up, I’m not really qualified to tell at this point), the way she chose or had to lie about her past to John seems a particularly bad match for a man like him with his trust issues. So even if you think Mary is good, there’s a lot of justification for saying she’s still not good for him.
So what does this mean for reading fics involving a kinder, gentler Mary? First, I’d emphasize there’s no shame or judgment in reading what you want. Much as writers may choose to write about all kinds of things they’d disapprove of in real life, readers have that same freedom to scratch whatever readerly itch they like, with no need to defend that to anyone else. Kinktomato and all that. On the other hand, I know I personally enjoy stories more when I can lose myself in them, and – again, for me personally – it helps me do that if my values are at least compatible with what’s presented as praiseworthy. I don’t have to guard myself as I enter the story. So it’s definitely worth thinking about how comfortable you are with fiction that vilifies Mary or pardons her or something in between, because it may make it easier or harder to really immerse yourself in a fic.
Then again, maybe that’s just me. I am a rather persnickety chickadee with things like this.
I do know that many fandoms have an unfortunate history of coming down hard on the female competition to a popular slash ship. While I’m reluctant to apply “should”s to our consumption of fiction, I think there are genuine feminist concerns here. Not with thinking Mary’s bad/evil or even hating her, but hating her for the wrong. For me, it helps to imagine another character doing something similar, and think about why I would react differently if it was someone other than Mary doing the deed. Also to be aware of the details canon doesn’t answer decisively or answers different ways in different episodes.
(More than most characters, Mary does suffer from a really inconsistent characterization. I’ve often wondered if everything since HLV was Sherlock or whomever trying on different frameworks for her personality/psychology/what-have-you, to see which could account for what she did to him. First she’s a badass villain, then a Mycroftian operative, then a martyr, then a worldclass manipulator, and finally a sanctifier whose own personality was irrelevant, giving her imprimatur from beyond the grave. And that’s without throwing veteran/maths genius and happy homemaker into the bunch. Maybe the showrunners simply weren’t sure what they wanted to do with her. Whatever the situation, I do think we need to be careful about taking any one canon detail at face-value, especially with her.)
I’m also a little discomfited by this trend I’ve seen among Johnlockers, to write Mary as a monster as a way to lessen John’s pain at her… betrayal, I guess? Or just the loss at her death? I remember when a lot of fanfic authors back between S3 & S4 wrote about the baby being fake; or even after S4, as part of John’s “alibi” rather than a true detail. Or even just deciding the baby was David’s or some such. By itself, that could have been really interesting, but what I saw so often happening was people used that as a way to remove the complication of the baby. Or to let John skip the grief he’d feel if the baby wasn’t born healthy- for instance, if it didn’t exist, or died, or if Mary was killed or ran while she was still pregnant. The basic theme was if Mary didn’t deserve John’s pain, John didn’t have to hurt for so long or as deeply.
Complicated grief is a thing, though, and for a lot of people, grieving the loss of someone who hurt them and aren’t “worth” their pain seem to suffer worse and for longer, particularly if they also have to grieve the lost opportunity to make their peace with the person while they were alive. This doesn’t mean fanfic writers or readers have to give us some kind of sanitized Mary; certainly she has the potential to be a true east wind of a character. But I do think there’s a tendency to prefer a more evil Mary because this lets the story move past her or spares John some suffering often won’t feel true. It also runs the risk of disrespecting the suffering of people impacted by these kinds of losses. So while I think this kind of characterization can be really interesting and compelling, it also takes a lot of skill and thoughtfulness to do it well. Here be dragons.
For me, though, the point isn’t to be proscriptive, to say Sherlock fic writers and readers need to limit themselves to a particular read of Mary. Her character has such potential to give birth to such a wide range of fic. As a viewer of the show I wish the writers and other creators had given us more of a sense of who she was because I think it really contributes to my frustration with not understanding the story they were trying to tell. But as a (kinda-sorta-someday-once-again) fic writer, it’s a true embarrassment of riches. The trick, for those of us concerned about Mary’s ethics were she a real person, is to be aware of the dangers of reading her character certain ways and to be cautious around them if we want to play with those interpretations.
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Dear Chocolate Box Creator Letter 2020
Hi! Thank you for creating something for me! I’m excited to see what you create! :D
General info
I adore tropes, the more ridiculous the better, and really what I love about ridiculous tropes is how it gives the creator an opportunity to explore the characters and their dynamics and motivations. Fun plots are great, but the characters and what the plot reveals about them is what I really love.
I also really love AUs (especially modern/historical AUs) or crossover fusions, and love how much changes and how much doesn’t. But straight up canon stuff is really good too. Really, character focused stuff is what I love most. I do also think canon divergence AUs can be really great, so feel free to play around with canon as well.
Please no smut. Romance is great, but nothing more than kissing/fade to black for the physical stuff.
While I’m a big fan of romantic ships, I also love relationships in general, romantic or not. Just characters being there for each other is great. I love fluff, but more serious/angsty/dramatic stuff is just as good too. :D And unless specifically stated otherwise, I have no problem with characters other than I requested in the story, but I want the requested characters to be a main focus.
None of the relationships I requested in any particular fandom are ones that I wouldn’t want combined with any other in that fandom, so feel free to use or not use any of the relationships requested.
Aside from the no smut request, my other DNWs (also listed on my sign up) are:
explicit gore
violence and injury are fine, but nothing super graphic, generally I would say canon typical violence/gore or less is a good way to go
permanent character death of requested characters
angst without a happy (or at least hopeful) ending
I do tend to like fluffier stuff, but angst is great too, as long as there’s some hope or happiness there by the end.
I hope this helps! I’m including my general prompts below, but feel free to go where the inspiration takes you. Happy writing! :D (Length of prompts is not an indication of my feelings for a fandom. I steal prompts from my previous letters because I’m lazy and those tend to be shorter than newer prompts as I get better at these letters. :D)
Request 1
Fandom: DC Extended Universe
Relationships: Diana Prince/Steve Trevor, Lois Lane & The Justice League, Clark Kent/Lois Lane
Prompts: I’ve split these up by relationship, since they feel a little more separate than the relationships in the other fandoms, but feel free to combine as you want. :)
Diana/Steve Trevor:
I love them so much, and I love how much Steve treats her as an equal. I am here for a full on AU, whether set within the canonverse or something totally different, just so they can have their happy ending. I have seen WW84, and while I had some problems with the ramifications of some of the writing choices (I’m looking at you, mechanic of Steve’s return), I did really like their scenes together. If sticking with a more canonverse setting, I’d be happy with a story set during the first movie, or even 1984, or even bring him forward to the current day movies. (I would love seeing Steve meet Lois and Clark and the League.)
Lois Lane & The Justice League
I would love to see Lois working with the Justice League and using her skills as a reporter to help with their missions. I’d also love to see her dynamic with Alfred, as well as the other members of the League. I think this would be especially interesting set between BvS and Justice League, but also after Clark comes back.
Clark Kent/Lois Lane
I love this ship so much, and especially this version of them. I love how much trust and respect they have for each other from the word go. This version of them is a little quieter and more serious than other iterations and I’m happy with keeping a similar tone to Man of Steel/Batman V Superman, but lighter fare would be great too. We see Clark and Lois investigating stories separately as reporters, but not really together as a team, whether for the Planet or the League or both, and I’d love to see that. I would also love to see them dealing with the aftermath of Justice League and how they come back together after being apart for so long. I have seen all the current movies (although I’m less familiar with Justice League as it wasn’t my favorite, but I remember the big stuff), and am happy to see other characters show up as well if you would like.
Request 2
Fandom: Austenland (2013)
Relationships: Henry Nobley/Jane Hayes
Prompts: I love how this movie is both this beautiful (and hilarious) homage to Jane Austen and those period stories, while being a modern romcom in it’s own right. I love the ways that both Henry and Jane fit the Austen “archetypes”, while also being their own people in our modern world. I absolutely love their chemistry, and would be happy with something set during the movie, such as a missing scene or more character reflection (perhaps on catching feelings for each other?), or something set after the movie. (Like what was her friend’s reaction to walking in and finding them kissing? :D)
Request 3
Fandom: Enola Holmes (2020)
Relationships: Enola Holmes/Viscount “Tewky” Tewksbury, Enola Holmes & Sherlock Holmes
Prompts: I absolutely loved this movie and thought it was so much fun. I don’t typically read first person fanfics, but loved the fourth wall breaking in the movie and would love to see how that translated to a fic. I also really like 3rd person if you don’t want to take on the fourth wall breaking element. I would love to see more of what you think happens after the movie ends, with Enola finding her way, and exploring her friendship and blossoming romance with the Viscount. I would also love to see her interacting more with Sherlock and how their relationship grows and I loved their take on Sherlock. But I’m also just excited to see what you create!
Request 4
Fandom: Knives Out
Relationships: Benoit Blanc/Marta Cabrera, Harlan Thrombey & Marta Cabrera
Prompts: If you look at my posted stories, you know I’m a fan of Marta/Benoit. It kind of snuck up on me, and I was obsessed earlier this year. There’s just something about them that works so well. I love AUs where Harlan lives or the murder attempt never happened and the three of them met some other way. I also like anything post movie where they work through the aftermath of the movie together. I love Marta and Harlan’s dynamic and would love something exploring their friendship. I love Marta/Benoit being partners, romantically, but also professionally if you want to go that direction. I don’t mind having the Thrombey’s involved, but don’t want them to be the focus. (This goes especially for Ransom. I really don’t want any hint of Marta/Ransom.) I do love both Lieutenant Elliott and Trooper Wagner if you go the more case fic route. I have no problem with vomiting if you want to include Marta’s “condition”, although I would request avoiding any really graphic description of vomit/vomiting.
Request 5
Fandom: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015)
Relationships: Gaby Teller/Illya Kuryakin, Gaby Teller & Illya Kuryakin & Napoleon Solo
Prompts: Team shenanigans is my favorite. They’re all such interesting characters and I love their dynamic together. I would love something set in the future where they’ve settled more into a routine, or something where they’re still figuring out how to work together as a permanent team. I also love modern AUs, or anytime Napoleon plays matchmaker. I also love how tender Illya is with Gaby and would love to see them finally get to kiss if you want to include that. I would also love to see something post movie where Gaby and Illya are getting to know each other once it’s known that Gaby is also an agent.
Request 6
Fandom: The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982)
Relationships: Marguerite Blakeney/Percy Blakeney
Prompts: I would love anything where Marguerite is helping Percy and the League with their stuff and being all around awesome, but domestic, peaceful fluff is good too. I just love them being partners, whether in their marriage or in other aspects. I haven’t read many full on AUs (not just canon divergence) for this ship, but that could be really interesting too. I have read the book, if you want to include details from that, but of course, that is not necessary.
Request 7
Fandom: The Librarians
Relationships: Eve Baird/Flynn Carson, Cassandra Cillian & Eve Baird & Ezekiel & Jake Stone & Jenkins
Prompts: I absolutely love Eve/Flynn and how they both started having feelings for each other from the word go. While some of their issues were frustrating (and some of them certainly brought on by Noah Wyle’s schedule), I do like when they work and talk through their problems. I love how they balance each other out, and are both 100% in this ridiculous world of theirs in their own way. With the main show team, I love how they all become a family, and ultimately support and better each other. I also love how they’re all brilliant, but in completely different ways, and how they fill the gaps in each other’s knowledge bases. I also love Jenkins being the Grumpy OneTM, but having a great dynamic with each character. Something case related would be fun, or discovering something cool about the library together, or even just something more low key and domestic in the library after a case or during down time. I would also love to see more after Eve and Flynn are tethered.
Request 8
Fandom: Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Relationships: Clark Kent/Lois Lane
Prompts: I love anything where Lois and Clark are working together as a team at the Planet or elsewhere, especially with the great banter they can get going, or anything adorable or fluffy. I also love them fighting Tempus, because he’s such a ham. My favorite version of their relationship is post reveal/marriage, but earlier versions of their relationship are great too. I’m just excited to see what you create. :D
Request 9
Fandom: Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries
Relationships: Jack Robinson/Phryne Fisher, Elizabeth MacMillan & Phyrne Fisher, Hugh Collins/Dot Williams, Phryne Fisher & Dot Williams, Elizabeth MacMillan & Jack Robinson
Prompts: One of my favorite things about this show is the found family aspect, so whichever relationship you focus on, or end up using, that support and love (romantic, platonic, familial) is what I love about this show and these characters. My favorite ship on the show is Phryne/Jack, which is probably no surprise and I love their chemistry and how they are partners and support each other, even when seemingly at odds. Hugh and Dot are just so adorable, and I love how Dot grows throughout the show and forces Hugh to do his own growing. Phryne’s relationship with Dot is one of my favorites as well, for how she pushes Dot to grow and become so strong and very much her own person. Phryne and Mac is such a great friendship and I love how strong their love for each other is and what they will do to help the other. And Jack and Mac is such a fun friendship as well and I think a really interesting dynamic to explore.
I realize these aren’t really prompts and are just me gushing about the characters, but hopefully that helps with what I like about them. As for something more prompt like, I would love something to do with a case, or Phryne being her glorious self and dragging (but really, they’d all follow her anywhere) someone along with her schemes.
Request 10
Fandom: Pride and Prejudice (1995)
Relationships: Charles Bingley/Jane Bennet & Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy, Charles Bingley, Jane Bennet
Prompts: I love both of these ships, and would love to see something exploring their dynamic. I am also very happy with the idea of just Charles and Jane being the focus. I would love to see more of the time between the successful proposals and the wedding, them learning more about each other and strengthening the feelings they already have. Post movie is great too! How are they adapting to being married and all the changes that brings? My love for modern (and other) AUs applies here, although I am also very happy with straight up canon. I have read the book as well if you want to include any details from there, although that’s of course not necessary.
#chocolate box 2021#dear chocolate box creator#exchange letter#first exchange of the year#I've never done this one before#because I always miss sign ups#so I'm super excited
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Former Muse: Marya Maximoff
MARYA MAXIMOFF (Biological aunt and adoptive mother of twins Wanda and Pietro Maximoff.)
Type of Character & Fandom/Source Material: Canon-divergent character in the Marvel fandom based loosely from concepts in MCU’s Age of Ultron, some 616 influences, and a large amount of my own development and interpretation of this character. Basically, I am trying to create an MCU version of her, and since we know next to nothing about her in Ultron, I will be adding a lot of my own original elements in fleshing her out. So her background will have some core ideas taken from 616, especially about her relation to the twins, but changed to fit the teeny bit we know about her from Ultron. After that it’s just me running amok with the character and fleshing her out in original ways, haha.
FC: Noomi Rapace, specifically in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Race: Human, but a genetic mutant like the twins
Age: Currently mid 40s... exact age would depend on the ages of related muses in threads and details of background
Occupation: Usually as a baker or cook in a bakery or tavern type setting. Fortune teller and tarot card reader on the side.
Potential Triggering Material in Threads: Well... Marya deals with a hefty dose of racism, criticism, and/or mockery on an almost daily basis for her nomadic lifestyle and culture (Romani), her religion (Jewish-Polytheistic), and if she’s in the United States, her thick accent and imperfect grammar when speaking non-native languages like Sokovian or English (her native tongue is a Romani dialect). Also, other potential trigger warnings for things like severe head injuries and amnesia.
Negative Personality Traits: Haughtiness and tending to be overly forgiving of people simply because she knows/likes them or is related to them.
Positive Personality Traits: Tenacity, thick skin, but also kindness, empathy, and strong motherly instincts.
Background: Get ready for me to walk all over the comics here, haha, but as I said I’m creating my own largely movie-compliant version of Marya Maximoff. She is a Romani witch in a family in which mutant genes and the ability to successfully engage in witchcraft are somewhat hereditary, especially among females. She and her sister Natalya both had magical abilities, albeit different ones. Marya has dreams that are premonitions of the future, but they are often vague and she may not fully understand the meaning of them until it is too late. She can also glean images or emotions from touching objects or people, a talent she shares with her niece, Wanda. Although the twins believe that she is their mother, Marya is actually their biological aunt. Her sister Natalya is actually their mother, but not long after giving birth, she gave her children to Marya and her husband Django and went into hiding as Magda Eisenhardt in an attempt to throw off the twins’ dangerous father, known as Magneto. At the time, Marya and Django had lost their own son and daughter, and so they welcomed the twins readily. They officially adopted them, and the twins have never been told that their parents were not actually their parents.
Marya’s husband Django was not a mutant, but he was an accomplished pickpocket and thief. Think of that what you will, but what he did helped to support his family and put food on the table when work was scarce, and he taught his adopted son Pietro his skills. This was something Pietro continued to do well into his teenage years in order to support himself and Wanda while they were living on the streets following the bombing they believed killed both of their parents. He also used his skills to assist the poor, disadvantaged, elderly, and sick citizens of Sokovia, a community he and his sister had come to call home. Marya saw stealing in a different way than most, and there was a code to it. Never steal from those who have less than you have. Never steal from family or trusted friends. And in her mind, the Romani people had been placed at an inherent disadvantage simply by virtue of the fact that they were seen as lesser by many European communities, mostly White or at least believing themselves entitled. Because of that, Marya saw Django’s stealing as efforts towards the balancing of wealth and resources back in their family’s direction.
Marya was a kind and loving mother, but she was not afraid to set boundaries for the twins or discipline them the same as their father. However, she did her best to understand, nurture, and accommodate their individual personalities as they grew older. Wanda was shy, quiet, and often obedient, whereas Pietro misbehaved a lot, had trouble focusing on a single task, and had endless amounts of energy. Because the twins were so different, Marya recognized that they needed to be cared for and encouraged in different ways. They didn’t learn the same way or respond to criticism the same way either. Marya always thought it was very important that the twins be nurtured in ways that best suited their personalities and needs, but also helped them grow and improve as people. She did her best to do that, and to make sure Django did the same.
When the twins were six, little Wanda was assaulted by a boy her own age, and the child had cursed him impulsively in her panic and rage. Unfortunately, the budding witch had no idea her curses carried real power, and the boy had a fatal accident the following morning. The boy’s death, rumors of Wanda’s witchcraft, and rumors of Django being a thief are the main reasons why the Maximoff family had to leave Transia and the village they had been living in. They traveled alone in their vardo for a while, joining up with Roma caravans as times. Settling ultimately in Sokovia, they worked toward having a permanent home and were able to purchase an apartment. Everything seemed to be going well for them, until the wars raging around them caught up to them. When the twins were ten, a shell was dropped on their apartment building. Marya and Django fell through the floor, while Wanda and Pietro hid under a bed, ultimately being trapped for two days. Django was crushed and killed by falling rubble, and Marya suffered a severe head injury among other things. This caused her to have amnesia, not remembering who she was beyond her first name.
The twins were saved after two days, but Marya lingered in the rubble for almost four. By the time she was able to crawl out on her own, she was dazed, malnourished, and badly injured. Not remembering herself in her amnesia, she wandered the streets and was taken in by a family who didn’t know who she was. Meanwhile, the twins were taken as wards of the government and were ultimately placed in foster homes that didn’t work out. Marya, once she was at least physically healed, left Sokovia, not realizing that she had a reason to stay. She returned to the nomadic lifestyle she knew, even if she didn’t remember the people she had spent it with.
From here she can go wherever a thread needs her to. She can remain in Eastern Europe, travel to Western Europe, or even make her way to the U.S. Those are the likely places she would end up. After three years, she began to remember who she was, and did attempt to look for her husband and adopted children. She was told that her husband died in the bombing and that the twins survived, but she was never able to locate them. Not many were willing to help her, either because they couldn’t or because they were prejudiced against her way of life and thought the twins were better off in foster care. If they only knew where the twins actually ended up... It breaks her heart that they were never found, because she loved Wanda and Pietro very much, like her own children. She still holds out hope that she will find them someday.
Potential Starter Ideas:
Well, certainly finding out she was still alive would be an interesting plot for a Wanda or Pietro muse, whether before or after the events of Age of Ultron.
What if she saw video on the news of what happened with Ultron in Sokovia and recognized the twins?
She can also be a stand-alone muse for Marvel or non-Marvel muses to interact with, just in her own life. She’s an enigmatic and adventurous sort.
Fun facts: Marya’s innate mutant powers with regard to premonition and gleaning information about people and objects she touches or is near to help her a great deal with her fortune telling and tarot card reading businesses. Perhaps she misleads people doing this, but she sees it as infinitely more authentic than outright playing them without any knowledge of them whatsoever. Also, she feels that if done via tarot cards, palm readings, or other such avenues, the information she does convey to them is better received than it would be if she revealed herself as a witch. She actually does not know anything herself about being a mutant, what that means, or that her witchcraft is something genetic that she is able to do, she only knows that magic runs in the blood of her family, whether it takes the forms that hers and Wanda’s magic does, or more physical forms like Pietro’s. She believes that “the blood of the Old Gods runs in their veins,” which basically means that their bloodline is believed to be an ancient one blessed with favor by various gods of the natural world, some of the same ones they still worship today within the polytheistic part of their religion.
#muse: marya maximoff#{i expect this muse to be really low activity and that's fine}#{but it would be fun to explore her a bit}
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