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creaturesfromelsewhere · 3 years

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The Swamp

Truly, one cannot entertain any serious discussion of Florida’s dark side without inevitably circling back around to our finest resident, The Swamp. The Swamp is as much a living, breathing entity as you or I, thus she should always be capitalized out of respect, and as she is an independent entity, she is never our swamp. We tried for decades to own The Swamp, but that didn’t work out so well. You can visit her, you can work with her, you can make a living from her, but she cannot be owned and she cannot be controlled and at all times she demands respect. Those who disrespect The Swamp do so at their peril - every year, folks simply disappear into The Swamp. Occasionally, they are found. Often, they are not. An entire US Army fort is lost somewhere in there. The Swamp likes to keep her secrets, but you can sometimes catch a whisper or two from her if you listen carefully.

But she’s not all bad. There is, to quote Swamp Thing, much beauty in The Swamp and she is perfectly safe if you have a bit of swamp-sense. Just have a bit of care and you can behold colorful carnivorous plants, golden orb spiders, and black vultures which paint a portrait no human artist could ever properly replicate on canvas.

Some safety tips: if you’re hiking, stay on the trail. If you’re boating, stay out of the water. And unless you have a massive amount of experience with her, never go into The Swamp alone.

But the warning you’ll usually hear most often is to be sure you’re out of The Swamp before darkness, because that’s when most folks go missing. Ah, but I know my readers, and my readers absolutely love the night. And a night in The Swamp? Yes, please!

Well then, get ready for a darkly inclined excursion you’ll never forget. Believe it or not, there are numerous air boat excursions offered at night almost as if with goths specifically in mind. Just google ‘Florida swamp tour night’ and you’ll have a score or more to choose from. With the unforgiving Florida sun setting behind the bald cypress and filtered through the Spanish moss, you’ll gingerly board your specialty craft powered by a gigantic propeller and skippered by a guide who I can assure you is thoroughly gifted in swamp-sense.

Once everyone is comfy, off you go. Oh, one word about ‘off’. Mosquitoes will be an issue most times of the year, so even if it’s warm, wear clothes that will cover your arms and legs. The remaining exposed skin should be slathered with mosquito repellent, unless you enjoy being eaten alive by tiny vampires.

An night in The Swamp you profoundly get the sensation of being watched. Hard not to, since the eyes of The Swamp reflect light extremely well. As your guide shines the boat’s spotlight across the inky water, you’ll see dual reflecting orbs as far as the distant horizon. Yes, there are that many gators out there. And they get big, too. 12 to 14 feet and half a ton is common for the larger ones near populated areas. However, if you go way, way out into The Swamp, into those places rarely if ever visited by homo-stupid, you might just come across those swamp giants the old timers tell you about in hushed tones after they’ve had a few too many. “17 footer, maybe 18 - swear to God, it must have been 80 years old!” you might hear them say. Scary thing is, it might not be just the rum talking - it is possible for them to get that big, although extremely rare. Might want to scoot a bit more towards the center of the boat.

As the sun’s last rays fades to memory, you might catch a glimpse of a murder of crows settled down for the night in a tree or a groggy possum who is just waking up. And you’ll hear a cacophony of sounds - frogs croaking, crickets chirping, perhaps a gator bellowing, and if you’re really lucky, the distant scream of a Florida panther. And if you happen to be near a large, communal roost - a delightful cauldron of bats might pass overhead. (Yes, a flock of bats is called a ‘cauldron’ how cool is that?)

You might also hear the soothing call of a great horned owl - don’t worry, your guild likely knows all the favorite haunts of the creatures in his area, the spot light will dance about and then, presto - great horned owl.

Now if you’re insanely lucky, you might catch a glimpse of one of the creepiest denizens of The Swamp, the Shoebill stork. Few creatures have mastered the look of malevolent intelligence as well as this bird. And standing at 5 feet in height, you don’t want to test it to see if it’s true.

If you like, you can make requests of your guide. Ask about ghosts and swamp witches from this particular part of The Swamp. Disappearances and unknown creatures. Most guides are more than happy to give their audience what they want and will often deviate from the usual tour to show off a peculiar location. Perhaps there’s a spot with a famous ghost light or a half collapsed shack where some miscreants were hiding out until they just, disappeared? Maybe the famous swamp ape has been seen thereabouts or a chupacabra has been sucking the blood of local fauna?

Perhaps UFO’s are sometimes seen rising and descending into secret bases nearby? You won’t know if you don’t ask. Your guide will be happy to share much with you, but even the best guide won’t have all the answers. Few folks do. The Swamp likes to keep her secrets.

-CreaturesFromElsewhere 2/7/2021

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twdmusicboxmystery · 7 years

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Daryl = Fire, Beth = Water

Morning Everybody! So with only a couple of days to go before the S8 Premiere (I'm totally staying cool over here.)

So the amazing @wdway has done it again. She came up with such an amazing insight this last week. In many ways, it's super-obvious and I don't know why no one has realized it before. But she's just a genius that way.

So we were talking about some of the S8 promo pics. They're the ones that have many of the characters in side profile and there are embers blowing around them.

I'm sure many people have tried to relate these to Beth both because we saw fire around her and Daryl in Still and because of Norman's famous analogy about her being Daryl's flame that burnt out.

I thought the same. Then @wdway said something really profound. She said, "I think Beth's symbol is actually more water than fire."

That makes so much sense! We've always equated Beth with fire because of Still. I think it was a fairly good assumption given…everything. But it was also kind of wrong.

Think of it this way. While both Beth and Daryl were working through emotional issues at the moonshine shack, and it WAS her idea to burn it down (another reason we equated her with the fire), the burning down of the shack was more about Daryl than it was about Beth. HE was the one who grew up in a place like that, not her. And they started the fire right after they talked about him staying who he is, not who he was. Getting away from his horrible past.

Since then, we've seen Daryl equated with fire a lot. And I think each time, it represents the same thing it represented in Still: him burning down his problems and leaving them behind so he can move forward.

Examples of Why Daryl = Fire:

He blew up the saviors in 6x09

He set the lake afire in Alexandria to get rid of the walker horde. Both of those were physical obstacles rather than emotional, but still. Daryl burnt them down.

We can even trace this to his childhood. As he told Carl in season 3 (just before finding Carol who was presumed dead, I might add) his mother died in a house fire in which she kinda burned herself down. She was consumed in it when Daryl was a small child.

Even the matches Sherry left him to escape the Sanctuary make more sense in light of this. Obviously tptb didn't want him to burn down the Sanctuary at that point in the story. They have other plans for it. But they still symbolically showed him using fire to move forward and work through his problems. (The imprisonment of the Sanctuary, in that case.)

Then there's the ashes. Ashes are what's left after the fire has burnt. Ashes are one of the most pure substances on earth because they've just been purified with fire. They're also the substance the phoenix rises from. Remember Daryl's, "we ain't ashes." That was before he lost Beth. Before he endured his trial-by-fire, as it were.

Now, understand I’m not saying that Beth won't use fire to…you know…escape places. I totally think she will. But thus far, we've seen Daryl equated with fire far more than her.

Let's talk examples of why Beth = water.

We saw water bottles around her in Still.

All the water/boat/Oceanside symbols we've equated with her. I don’t want to list them all. There’s been like a billion. Each time I've seen or pointed one out, I've simply thought it was a foreshadow of Oceanside. And I'm sure they all are. But it's deeper than that. Her SYMBOL is actually water, which is why Oceanside happens to be so fitting.

And it also works REALLY well with Beth and Daryl because they complement each other so well. Beth's water can douse his fire and make him more civil. (Like when he wanted to cover Len’s body with a tarp, for example.) Daryl's fire (him teaching her to survive and his determination to keep people alive, like Judith in S3) stokes her determination to survive.

It's all about balance. Beth is the water that balances Daryl. Without her, he could be consumed (*Consumed*) by his flames. We see him going off the rails without her. Such as when he decided to get revenge for Denise in 6b, which just led to more trouble and heartache. Glenn, Michonne and Rosita couldn't talk him out of that. Beth would have been able to, which is tragic in itself.

Norman has said that Daryl will go rogue in S8. We don't know what that means exactly, but it doesn't sound good. I think Daryl will be in the darkest place we've ever seen in him in S8, close to being consumed by his flames. Which will also mean that Carol's line to him in Consumed about how "everything now just consumes you," was a foreshadow for Daryl's future arc, after losing Beth.

So once @wdway and I started talking about this, we both totally geeked out and couldn't stop coming up with examples. I mean, once you realize this, the evidence just starts coming out of your ears. Check it out:

Christian symbolism has its roots in water. There's baptism, which is symbolic of death and resurrection by water. Several of Christ's miracles included water, such as turning water into wine (*coughs moonshine*), walking on the ocean, and calming the stormy sea.

With that last one, I can't help but think of this from S4:

In this scene, Hershel holds up a mug that says, "Java saves," which is also a (funny) Jesus reference.

@wdway also pointed out that after this, Hershel goes out into the woods to gather berries to make tea for those sick with the virus. Granted, he makes tea, not wine, but still. Berries and grapes are used to make wine. And Beth gathered grapes in Inmates. I've always wondered about the grapes because we really don't see them again. They're not a recurring symbol like strawberries for Beth, or pomegranates for Carol. We just saw them the one time. But grapes were used to make wine, so you can see how that might tie in. A couple episodes after gathering grapes, she and Daryl were drinking moonshine.

(And btw, the scene where Hershel gathers the buries includes a female walker with her leg caught in a bear trap. Just saying.)

We also talked about how this relates to the title of Still. Most people think Still is so named because of the moonshine still, and they're right. But it's more than that. There are three possible uses of the word "still."

It can be a noun, as in, the moonshine still.

It can mean, "continuing." As in, "we're still here." And even though neither Beth or Daryl say that in Still, it's a very heavy theme afterwards. Carol says it to Daryl. Beth says it to Carol (a variation) at Grady. Carol says a variation of it to Mary at Terminus. And Michonne has said it to Rick several times in S7.

The final definition of still is the opposite of motion. In other words, calm, or peace. I know this doesn't sound like it has anything to with water, but we were talking about Christ calming the sea. ("Peace, be still.") And I sincerely believe part of the reason for that title is that Beth brought Daryl peace. In a lifetime of fire, she calmed his flames.

And, now that I'm thinking about it… This is kinda twisted, but Creepy Wolf Dude said, "be still," to his victims before killing them. It always jumped out at me because of the title of 4x12. Leave it to TWD to give a Christian reference to a murderous villain, but they're still using biblical references. So the wolves are using Christian dialogue that has to do with water. And Beth's symbol = water. See why I think Beth and the wolves are still a thing?

In the show, we see fire extinguishers around Beth in Still especially. Apparently we also see a lot of hydrants around Daryl. (Not something I've ever paid attention to, but if others have seen them, it's definitely a thing.) To see the water around Daryl suggests Beth is always with him.

Then there's the fire truck. I've always known the fire truck was a purposeful symbol. I mean, that's a very conscious choice for the writers. I always figured it was because it's red, and I've related the water in it to Oceanside before. But what do you know? It's more than that. Fire trucks are specifically called to put out fires, aren't they?

It's also interesting that the fire truck ties Maggie, Rosita, and especially EUGENE, who's now at the Sanctuary, to Beth's story. (Remember, it disappeared along with Beth after Coda.)

Let's see, what else? Oh, we talked about the miracles of the bread and fishes, which happened by the sea. Christ blessed the fish and fed the multitude with very little. Tara ate fish by the Ocean.

Some other examples of Bethyl = Fire and Water.

I especially love this in light of Daryl starting the lake on fire at Alexandria. It was fire and water working together to defeat walkers and save TF and their home.

@wdway even points to the trailer for S8. We see a lot of fire and explosions around Daryl in the trailer. And what does he do before starting those fires? Drinks water. Kinda like he needs a little bit of Beth/water protection before he blows shit up.

And this is interesting because of discussion I had after the trailer came out. I can't remember who it was with (probably someone in my FB group) but it was suggested that maybe he's not drinking water. It kind of looks like a flask, so they wondered if he was drinking moonshine.

Even back then, I didn't think that was likely. We saw both Beth and Daryl refuse alcohol from other people when they were apart. I think it's kind of a theme that they only drink together.

So symbolically, I doubt he'd be drinking moonshine here. Plus, Daryl is really responsible about his drinking, as we saw in Still. ("Someone's gotta stand watch.") So I doubt he'd get drunk before getting on a motorcycle and having aim at stuff with a gun to start fires.

But it's just kind of interesting because obviously things are seeing Beth symbols in the trailer.

Another thing that's super interesting in light of this is Arsonist's Lullaby. I love that song. It's so haunting! And it's interesting because when it's played in 6b, we don't see much of Daryl. It focuses on Morgan, Michonne, and Rick. But we do also see Tara and Heath, which is also interesting.

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Anyway, the song says things like, "All you have is your fire." And "Don't you ever tame your demons, but always keep them on a leash." It also talks about the flames of childhood. It personifies Daryl more than just about anyone. Beth helps him keep his demons on a leash. Without her, they kinda run wild.

I could probably go on for hours, but I won't. The last thing I want to mention is Them. Pivotal Beth episode, when the music box woke up, yeah?

Notice how that whole episode was all about TF not having water. We even saw a dry river bed, and Abraham drinking booze rather than water. No water = no Beth. Then, when the storm came (also felling trees, btw), the music box woke up.

@wdway asked me about Aaron. He also brought TF water. The thing is, he's a big proxy for Beth in 5b. He talks about there being "good people," he deals with Daryl's surliness, where others won't. He spends a lot of time one on one with Daryl in the woods. He's the friend Daryl needed after losing Beth. And he brings TF water.

Okay, I'm gonna stop now. I know this is very sprawling. I actually do have more to say, but I’m going to give one other thing we talked about its own post. This is long enough as it is.

As I said, me and @wdway kind went wild with it. We couldn’t help ourselves. Not sorry, tho. ;D

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

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