#explains why I wasn’t showing in the reposting info of some thing recently | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mcwriting · 5 years

Text

starstruck (1)

Before anyone says ANYTHING, this is absolutely 100% no doubt about it inspired by @insane-less “Not a fan” because I absolutely loved the chapters that were written and Starstruck is one my favorite standalone DCOMs. Standalone, of course, meaning a film with no sequels and not based off a TV show.

There will obviously be some similarities to not a fan just because they’re based off of the same film, but I’m trying to keep it pretty original. I haven’t read not a fan in a while and did not while I was writing this to keep it authentic, though I did read over the starstruck plot a little bit.

Going to be multi part. I realized about halfway through writing that it was almost 4k words and I hate reading things that long in one sitting, plus I still have to finish it lol. As of now, it is half-written so this should be a quick release story. AND I’ll actually try to finish it (unlike a flight to remember rip)

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10

Important info:

Fandom: Tommo Holland

Ship: Tom Holland x Reader

Setting: LA in general

Word Count: 2185 (oof)

Warnings: some “bad” words. Very mild. Mention of an injury.

Rating: K+ now, maybe T later. Haven’t decided.

Background: um well it’s based on Starstruck (2010) and it's a Tom holland fic so yeah.

B/f/n: your best friend’s name

__________________________________

“I’m not going with you to see Tom Holland, and that’s final!” You exclaim to your annoyingly persistent best friend.

“Come on, y/n! I mean, what can you even have against him?” She pleads.

“Well for starters he looks like he’s 12, he’s not that good at acting, and he just rubs me the wrong way. I don’t know how to explain it,” you state.

“Uh first, he’s 22 and absolutely gorgeous, second, when have you even seen one of his movies, and third, he’s a great guy! Not to mention he’s a trained dancer like you!”

“Just because he happens to dance doesn’t mean I’m gonna suddenly fall in love with him. Plus, how do you know I’m not going out tomorrow?”

“Y/n, there’s literally no way you’re going out because I’m the only person you go to parties with,” b/f/n said.

“Okay fine, but give me one good, solid reason I should even consider going to this Spider-Man premiere,” you say, arms folded.

“Well it’s not like Tom’s the only star that’ll be there,” she explained, “Zendaya will be walking, too.”

You perked up a little bit and b/f/n waggled her eyebrows at you.

“Fine, I’ll go. But only for Zendaya.”

__________________________________

“B/f/n it’s like a million degrees out here!” you complained. Even though you wore the shortest shorts you owned and pulled back your hair, the LA heat on top of the millions of teenage girls squished up around you was making you uncomfortable.

The two of you had been able to get there early enough to be right in the front at the barriers, giving you a clear view of the action.

ugh.

While your friend rambled on about Tom and the movie and her excitement, you pulled out your phone and mumbled, “Tell me when Zendaya comes out here.”

You had tons of DM’s on instagram, solely from the fact that b/f/n had posted a video on her story (where you tastefully lowered your sunglasses at the camera before flipping it off) and people couldn’t help but comment how “lucky” you were and how you should be “excited.”

Finally, the time came where the cast and crew began walking, and you stood apathetically, only cheering and taking pictures when Zendaya came out. You even put your sunglasses on top of your head to see her in the plain light.

After her colleagues came to the theatre, a gorgeous Audi E-tron concept convertible came down the road slowly, cheers picking up as you realized that Tom Holland was riding in the back with a blonde guy you indicated to be named Harrison from b/f/n’s screaming.

Seeing his features in person, you were still… underwhelmed. Sure you could see why people thought he was attractive, but he was just another guy. You didn’t cheer as he came up, waving to the crowd.

He turned to your side to wave when his eyes met yours. Undoubtedly, his smile faltered for a second before picking back up again, brighter than before. You leaned into your best friend and asked,

“Did you see that?” in an almost offended tone. Who was he to look at you like that? The only reply you received was more screaming and “HE LOOKED OVER HERE CAN YOU BELIEVE!!?!” to which you rolled your eyes.

He eyes met yours again and you looked away, annoyed that he seemed to be singling you out of all the people there.

After exiting the car, he ran down the line shaking hands and taking a few pictures. Next thing you knew, he was taking b/f/n’s phone to have a selfie. She threw an arm around your shoulder and exclaimed,

“Get in, y/n!”

You subconsciously smiled and with that he headed towards his cast, saying,

“Make sure to tag me in that!” as he left.

“I swear if you even think about posting that…” you threatened, earning a smug smile from the friend you were now prepared to disown.

__________________________________

Your instagram was blowing up as you headed to the dance studio. Unfortunately for you, the person you still chose to call best friend had posted the photo after all, tagging you and Tom in the selfie. It had been seen and reposted by fan accounts, and many of those fans were following and commenting and messaging you about it.

In your opinion, the picture sucked. Not because it was a bad picture or that you looked terrible.

The problem was that you looked great.

It was somehow one of the most flattering pictures anyone had ever taken of you and it angered you to think it gave an impression that you even cared in the slightest about Tom Holland.

As you stared at it longer, you wished you had either covered your face or gone without smiling. SOMETHING to show how little you cared.

You finally arrived and went to a private studio, deciding to let dance drown out the thoughts and help you channel your frustration.

You warmed up and then decided to practice an emotional piece you previously choreographed for an upcoming show. As you danced, stress flowed out in the form of tears as raw emotion emitted from your movements.

You finished the dance exhausted yet glad that you had been able to channel everything into it, until you heard a male voice quietly say,

“Wow.”

Your head whipped around and a flash of anger hit when your eyes once again met those of Tom Holland’s as he stood in the doorway.

“What are you doing here?” you asked coldly, mad that the seeming bane of your existence had just watched you pour out your heart on the dance floor, crying and sweaty and vulnerable.

“I, uh, well… I was invited to tour the studio and happened to see you in here, and you were incredible, breathtaking, really. You’re the girl from the premiere, y/n?”

“Thanks but this was private. And why do you care who I am? I was only at the premiere because my friend forced me to go.”

He stepped forward.

“I’m sorry if I’ve caused you any problems. I figured you were a fan but I guess I misjudged…”

“Look man,” you began walking backwards towards your bag, “I was there for Zendaya and my friend. Nothing against you, but I'm just not one of your little teenage girl obsessors. Now if you’ll excuse m-”

And that's when you slipped and hit the floor. The wind was knocked out of you and your head had banged onto the ground, pain pulsing around the area.

“Woah, darling, are you alright?” Tom asked, rushing to kneel by your side.

“Don’t call me darling, and help me get to a doctors office.”

__________________________________

“Well, Ms. y/l/n, looks like you don’t have a concussion, but make sure to rest up for a couple days and take some painkillers and you’ll be in ship-shape,” the ER doctor informed you.

You went to the check-out desk and walked around to waiting area, where a few people were pointing and whispering at Tom, who was nervously bouncing his knee. He stood up when he saw you.

“Y/n! What did they sa-”

“Just come with me spider boy. I’ll tell you while you drive me home,” you said, grabbing him by the wrist and dragging him out the door.

__________________________________

“Shit,” Tom exclaimed under his breath after a few moments of awkward silence.

“Get down, now,” he commanded.

“Excuse me?”

“Get. Down. We’re being followed”

You ducked down before whisper-yelling a “what are you talking about? Are you insane?”

He asked what to do since it was obvious that whoever was behind you wasn’t planning on going away any time soon. An idea popped into your head.

“Do you trust me?” You pleaded, almost kind and soft for the first time to him, “I might have an idea.”

“Anything to get us out of this.”

You and Tom threw some sunglasses on and you made a makeshift headscarf with a ballet skirt for yourself. You had him drive near your neighborhood in circles for a bit when the car finally passed you, trying to get pictures to sell.

You ducked and Tom sped off onto a side street towards your house. Thankfully, your parents had recently installed garage doors that connected to your phone, and your car was in the shop, so Tom was able to pull into your spot and you shut the door behind him.

“That was close,” he breathed, putting a hand on his heart, and you too felt your pulse racing.

“Now, we wait,” you said.

“Alright, do you want to go in so you can rest? You look exhausted.”

“NO. I mean, uh, we can’t. My best friend is supposed to be coming over today and she’s the one who’s like, obsessed with you.”

“Can’t you cancel? You almost got a concussion after all.”

“I guess, but my parents might not be happy knowing a random guy is in their house. How about I check the security cameras and see if the coast is clear?”

It wasn’t. Sitting across the street was the same car from earlier, one that definitely did not belong to your street, either.

After sitting uncomfortably in the car for a half hour, you couldn’t take it anymore.

“Let’s just go inside, but don’t make a big deal out of it.”

__________________________________

You yelled to your parents that a friend was staying the night as you snuck Tom up the stairs to your room.

“Staying the night?” he asked in his stupidly attractive accent as soon as you shut the door.

“Look, I hate this as much as you, but that pap or whoever he is probably won’t be leaving any time today. Since I’m being nice, I figured you could sleep on the floor or something. Don’t worry, I’ll find you blankets later.”

You sat on the foot of your bed and texted b/f/n, explaining that something had come up with dance and there was no way you could hang out. After a few minutes, you noticed that Tom hadn’t moved from standing by your door, and was quietly scanning the room.

“Are you gonna, like, sit down? You’re kinda making me nervous,” you stated awkwardly, glancing to the side.

“Oh, well, I didn’t want to be in the way and I know you don’t really want me here so I thought I’d stay over here. I’m fine, really.”

You rolled your eyes and patted the mattress next to you.

“Take a seat, bro. It’s gonna be a long night.”

__________________________________

You carefully carried some cokes and two plates of pizza into the room, where Tom was now seated comfortably on your bed. You had had the time to shower and change into clean clothes in the hour between coming home and dinner. He pocketed his phone and smiled upon seeing you.

“Here, let me help,” he offered, grabbing a plate and helping you set down the drinks.

“My parents were asking who was up here with me. I just told them you were a friend from dance and very shy.”

He chuckled and took a bite.

“Can I ask something?” You nodded. “Why exactly were you at the premiere the other day?”

You sighed and set down your pizza, explaining how b/f/n had coaxed you into coming.

“In all honesty, I probably would have said yes no matter what, I mean she’s my best friend after all, but I may have reconsidered if I knew this would be the outcome,” you laughed.

“Oh come on, you know you love me,” he joked back, prompting a look of slight disgust, another of many eye rolls, and a slight shove on the arm.

You continued talking well into the night, him explaining his story and you telling of your own life and aspirations. At some point you both lied back on the bed to continue talking and finally succumbed to exhaustion well into the early morning.

__________________________________

Sunlight streamed into your open curtains, blinding you as you awoke. You were confused as to why you weren’t underneath the covers and rolled over to find a famous person asleep on your bed.

Your eyes widened and you moved to scoot out of the bed when he rolled over and inadvertently threw an arm over your side. Stuck under his muscular limb, you stayed still and closed your eyes, hoping he would eventually let go or wake up.

The faint remains of his cologne wafted to your nose and you couldn’t help but breathe it in. You relaxed further into his grip and stayed comfortable until you heard a buzz on the table next to you.

You decided to ignore it until it happened two more times. Finally, you decided to wiggle out of Tom’s grip and succeeded without waking him. You picked up the cell and noticed it was 10 a.m. and all three texts were from b/f/n.

__________________________________

Edited A/N: Omg I posted this once before then tried to edit my tags on mobile and it deleted EVERYTHING! Thank the Lord because I have the whole fic saved in my google drive (something I’ve never done until this fic) and I’m so glad it is.

Anyways, there’s a part 2 linked at the top and part 3 is coming soon. Message me or ask to be in my tag list for this fic

#tom holland #tom holland x reader #tom holland imagine #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland headcanon #starstruck #tom holland x you #tom holland x y/n #marvel #spider-man #spider man #Spider Man: Homecoming #SPIDER MAN FAR FROM HOME #SPIDER MAN: FAR FROM HOME #100 notes

195 notes · View notes

yukipri · 7 years

Note

I never experienced art theft until one of my works became unexpectedly popular- since then, I've found my work reposted, redrawn, and used as reference for cosplays. It's been exhausting, both seeing it, and not knowing WHERE I should stand on the issue. I've let redraws slide (with credit), but I plan on not allowing future ones from occurring. How do you deal with art theft? How do you continue drawing without thinking about the disrespect thrown at you during bad/failed confrontations?

I am so, so incredibly sorry this happened to you, and empathize very strongly with you. Art theft SUCKS, few things can be quite as demotivating as a creator than having something you’ve worked your ass off on swiped by someone else. And unfortunately, given the current internet culture, if you continue as an online artist it’s inevitable that it’ll happen at one point or another.

Because sure, of course part of the reason why we create is because we want to, but a large part of the motivation for sharing it is to hopefully get some response that people like it, whether it be in the form of likes, reblogs, comments, asks, tags, or anything else. That is the tangible PROOF that our work touched someone, and for someone who put in zero effort and has no idea how we felt while creating to receive all of that instead of us…sucks.

I think where you stand on the issue is up to you, and it’s okay for it to change. YOU always have the right to decide how you’re comfortable with people sharing your art, and your feelings are valid regardless of how they change.

Ironically enough, I just had another art theft on Instagram (my Anniversary post) super recently, so I was like HAH when I got this orz

This rant got a bit long, so the rest beneath cut but here’s a rundown about how my feelings towards art theft have evolved over the years.

For example, over the years I’ve gotten much, MUCH stricter. My earliest online art, I just put it up, no url, oftentimes no signature, no warnings in the comments or my blog bio. Admittedly I was starting out and didn’t have much viewers anyway, but the point was I still had Trust at the time.

Then the art thefts began. I started adding my url to all my illustrations, even if it was just small in the corner, as this’d let people at least find my website. Most people are too lazy to type out a url though, and I’ve seen people asking “Who drew this??” on art theft comments EVEN WHEN THE URL IS LITERALLY RIGHT THERE…

And then people started cropping my watermarks. I made my url bigger, and started adding an additional “DO NOT REPOST” to the image itself. I used to allow reposts with credits on platforms I’m not on, like fb, until I realized that people were then reposting from THOSE communities without credit and putting them into their videos and fics and I just…decided it wasn’t worth it.

I switched to no reposts PERIOD. I have lengthy disclaimers on all of my art that leads to an even lengthier FAQ post that, should people wish to look, leads to even an even more detailed post about WHY art theft sucks, as I’m explaining now.

(EDIT: ALSO, reduce the quality of the images you upload, and NEVER upload the full resolution, and try to keep you unmerged original files. This is for several reasons: no matter how much an art thief reposts your work, they’ll never have access to the higher resolution, and if they ever decide to try to print to sell for profit it’ll be shitty quality compared to anything you make with the original. ALSO, you having the maximum resolution with no watermarking with additional unmerged psd files will be proof that you are the true creator should you need to prove it, which I’ve heard is sometimes necessary to show when your art is stolen at say, an artist alley)

I also used to bother trying to talk to art reposters. I’d comment on the post, try to send messages, etc. It’s fucking exhausting, and while there are some exceptions, the VAST majority of art thiefs will feel attacked and immediately get rude and defensive. (the failed confrontations and disrespect you mentioned orz) If it’s a large community, they may even try to gang up on you. I’ve unfortunately experienced this most frequently in communities centered around other languages (mainly Spanish) because of different mainstream attitudes towards art reposting etiquette combined with a language barrier.

You will, and no doubt already have, encountered people who will argue with you, like the people I describe above. “You should be grateful for the bigger audience!” “We just want to appreciate your art, how can you be so horrible?” “We’re all fans together!” “This is fanart and doesn’t belong to you anyway!” Etc. etc. etc. It’s exhausting, it’s repetitive, it’s neverending, and you already felt awful before it even began and the stress just continues to build.

So I personally have just begun reporting people, if the service allows it. Use DMCA takedown request forms (and YES, even if it’s fanart it’s still yours if you drew it). This is stressful too because it sends your real name + info to the reposter (and wow I clearly can’t trust these people to begin with, why would I want them to have that???) but most sites (facebook, instagram, certainly tumblr, twitter) are very efficient and responsive, and in the end the relief of receiving that email that the art has been taken down is worth it. Especially with facebook, they also send a scary official warning email to the reposters which I sincerely hope will help educate them and discourage future art thefts.

I try to avoid posting public urls because yes I’m aware how mob mentality Tumblr can get, but sometimes it’s just too much. There’s no convenient form of getting my content removed (perhaps bc it’s in a compilation with a ton of other content), or for some reason my attempts to communicate have failed. In those times I have occasionally asked my followers to help, with a reminder to PLEASE always be polite and respectful, regardless of the offense. Y’all have been amazing, and this has saved me many nights of crying in the past.

I will sometimes also write lengthy posts (like this one!) to help educate. Because I do feel that art theft will continue so long as people don’t understand what it does to artists, and it’s up to the community as a whole to make that change, which also depends heavily on the consumers not just creators. A lot of art theft really isn’t intentionally meant to harm, but IS super ignorant.

But in the end, all I’ve ranted about so far is how I’ve dealt with actually removing/dealing with the shit. But the emotional pain, it builds. Sometimes, when it’s too frequent and the stolen art gets way more attention than my original that I worked my ass off on that basically flunked on my own platforms, I feel a bit of me break.

And in the end, it’s up to you what that threshold is, where posting art and feeling good about it is overwhelmed by the pain, fear, and anxiety of art theft. I’ve crossed my own threshold too many times, and once had to take an art hiatus because of it (fandom was BH6). This lead to a break in my productivity and motivation and my eventual complete departure form the fandom. I’ve seen many other artists just stop posting art entirely or moving everything to private. It’s terrible, but my feelings are with these artists, and I feel so, so sorry that they were hurt so much to the extent they had to do this.

With my current fandom and followers, I feel that regardless of how niche an audience my content tends to be geared for, I have a community that is really satisfying for me to create for, one that is responsive to me and gives me tons of feedback. This is the number one reason why i continue to feel motivated to post a ton of online content despite the risks.

The takeaway form this long meandering post: Posting online is a hobby, it’s for fun, and I don’t make any money off my public audience (unless they come to Patreon! LOL!), so I’m a firm believer that once the anxiety + misery starts outweighing anything positive you personally may get from sharing online, which for me heavily depends on my audience and their responsiveness, there’s no reason to subject yourself to that anymore and you are in no way obligated to stay. There are various methods to more efficiently get rid of art thefts without dealing with them in person which is stressful AF, and also ways of marking up your content in ways that may look less aesthetically pleasing, but will hopefully discourage art thefts, and at the very least give them very little leg to stand on should they do it anyway. How forgiving you are in art thefts also depends on you, but the more forgiving you are, the more it can get away from you. And in the end, YOU as a human are more important than any complaints about art looking less pleasing or the feelings of art thefts who don’t get to do what they want with YOUR hard work.

Sorry this was so disjointed and literally just me spewing at you, but I hope some of it was helpful ^ ^; Please let me know if I can give you any other advice, and I’m sorry again that you have to deal with this ;_;

(and to respond to your second ask, I do try to respond to most of my asks, but sometimes it takes a while (sometimes even months orz), especially if it’s one that requires a lengthy detailed answer like this one ^ ^; thank you for your patience!)

#YukiPri replies #Anonymous #art theft #I hope this was helpful ^ ^;#started getting really distressed myself writing this haha #in general i'm okay with my art getting little to no attention #i just asked that i don't get hurt for the trouble of posting which i feel should be fair #and sometime yeah it does get to be too much #hopefully won't happen in the near future for this fandom but #we'll see sigh #another reason i like drawing niche hyper specific content LOL #fewer people tend to want to reblog/share it #but fewer reposters are also interested in it haha #long post #longpost

41 notes · View notes

warriorfortamaran · 5 years

Text

Moonshot’s RP PLOTTING CHEAT-SHEET

Want new-and-exciting plots for your character? Long to reach out to more of your followers, but don’t know where to start? Fear not! Fill out this form and give your RP partners both present and future all the of juicy jumping off points they need to help you get your characters acquainted.

Be sure to tag the players whose characters YOU want more cues to interact with, and repost, don’t reblog! Feel free to add or remove sections as you see fit. Template here.

Mun name: I go by Star or Starfire online. If we’re close, I might give you my real name upon asking - but if I do, please don’t ‘openly’ call me by it for others to see on this site. I’m very hesistant about RL things like that. OOC Contact: IMs and Asks are always open (and IMs are always OOC, I don’t do IC IMs), I also have Discord. I’m not giving out my Discord to everyone though, so please forgive me if I decline when you ask for it. Again I don’t do IC on Discord. As for plotting purposes or things like that, I think IMs would work the best.

Who the heck is my muse anyway:

Warrior and tamaranean through and through, Moonshot was born into the tamaranean military. His father was the head of the troops, and Moonshot - Ggringo, if you want his tamaranean name - always wanted to follow in his steps. And he did well, too, quickly climbing the ranks of the warriors and soon having the chance to fight at his father’s side. Only that that fight was a trap, all tamaranean warriors were eliminated - or at least that’s what was assumed. Moonshot survived, though, and was in captivity for many years. He wasn’t treated nicely, he suffered a lot, and the chances of him ever getting out, or sustaining long enough to get out, where slim to start off with and decreasing each day. But he made it. After a very long time, the warrior returned to his home planet, only to learn that the royal family had left during these years. Soon, he headed to Earth too, both because he wanted it and also for another reason that he doesn’t really elaborate on. He doesn’t enjoy Earth much, and he doesn’t hesitate to show or say that, but he still stays.

Points of interest:

His armor is definitely very unusual for earthen standards. Even compared to Starfire’s tamaranean clothing, his armor has much more spikes and looks ‘heavier’. One thing that differentiates his armor even more from the general tamaranean one, is the broken gem on his right glove. He has the same features as many tamaraneans have: Orange skin, green eyes in both sclera and pupil, and bright red hair. Moonshot tends to just stare (or glare) at people often, he’s not too talkative, rather gruffly and direct with what he wants to say.

What they’ve been up to recently:

I don’t really do much in likes of story lines on this blog, so nothing. He’s on Earth and often watching Starfire and/or her friends from afar.

Where to find them:

Somewhere close, but not directly with, Starfire or the Titans. Occasionally somewhere around Wildfire too. Rarely, he’s also away from the two and watching something of Earth. So I guess basically he can be found anywhere on Earth.

Current plans:

I don’t really do big story lines or such. I had an AU thing once that I had running basically as a sort-of ‘event’ (Blackfire’s Final Trial was how I called it, searching for it will probably show you more info - or you need to ask me), and while similar might happen again if I ever get that spark of an idea again, nothing is really planned at the moment.

Desired interactions:

Him meeting the other Titans. Him attacking someone, immediately threatening to hurt them. I’d like to have a situation where he comes in to save Starfire (and her friends maybe, though he definitely did it for Starfire) out of some situation. Maybe actually a situation where they brought themselves into on purpose, or one they were about to get out by themselves anyway, but yeah. Someone pointing out his feelings on Star.

Mm, naming specific characters doesn’t really work here - the only one I can think of to directly name is Robin, as Moonshot will very much not like him and clearly show (maybe even say) it too, though he won’t explain why he’s feeling that way (which is probably obvious for others and maybe for Robin to though).

Offered interactions:

He might jump your muse if he doesn’t recognize them and see them follow Starfire - he’d assume your muse is a threat, even when it might as well just be a friend wanting to surprise her. He might attack without any logical reason if he understood something wrong, or considers something to be an action that could bring danger to Starfire or Wildfire. Your muse could also see him attack a civilian and step in. Explain to him something that’s going on ‘over there’, like earthen games or festivities or whatever.

Current open post/s:

Open Starters here and Memes here! Both are always open, regardless of already-existing replies to it or “age” of the thing, and you’re free to answer or send in something older too! There’s no expiration date on my things!

Anything else?:

This is a Sideblog of Starfirechan. I live in germany which sadly causes me to miss out many great things when they happen on the dash. I tend to read all that is on my dash once I’m awake again, but I don’t feel brave enough for reacting to anything that might have happened hours ago. Oh, I’m also as shy as can be, or maybe even shy-er than that. I do try to change this and everyday tell myself to go and approach someone or send in things to others, but that’s hard and quite often it doesn’t happen. I do have Wire-accounts for my muses, and you can either search for them on my blog or ask me about them, but I don’t know if I could/will ever do any good on those.

Tagging: Anyone that took the time to read this!

#🌕 On break 🌕 | OOC #🌕 Just a warrior 🌕 | About Moonshot

0 notes

twdmusicboxmystery · 7 years

Text

Red Object Symbolism

Good morning All and Happy Saturday! How's everyone's week going? I feel like I've been really absent this week, despite getting quite a few theories posted/reposted. I've especially been neglecting my inbox, and I apologize for that. I'm going to try hard to get to a few Asks tomorrow.

For today, I wanted to do a post on the red objects. It's by no means a definitive or master post. I just wanted to list most of the red objects we've seen and say a word or two about them. I may very well be missing some of them, so if you see something in your re-watch, be sure to let me know and I'll add it. I tried to do these in chronological order. (And sorry, I know the numbering on the pictures is a little wonky.) Here's what I have so far:

1. Glenn's car from S1, which he drove out of Atlanta. No idea if this was part of the same thing back then, but it could have been built on. (1x02) And, you know, Grady is in Atlanta, so Beth may be driving away from the city at some point.

2. The red cloak or robe-like coat in Beth's cell. (X) I've talked about this tons recently. (4x01)

3. Judith's cups. This one honestly doesn't fit the pattern quite as well as the others imo (I'll explain in a minute) but we've seen it more than once and I do think it has a lot to do with Beth. Especially given she was in this first scene with it. So I've included it. (4x02)

4. This is a scene from when Carl goes through the pudding house. He opens a bedroom door and sees a bird cage (which was also visible in Beth's cell) and a dead bird outside the open door. I've always thought it foreshadowed that Beth (songbird) would die when she tried to leave her prison (Grady). And no, there is no resurrection symbolism in this particular image, but it comes directly after. Carl closes the door and then is attacked by a walker which he shoots in the head, exactly where Beth is shot, and then the walker jumps back up again. Plus there are yellow scissors, shots of Carl's foot, he loses a shoe, and even marine/Oceanside symbols. Just saying. I included this shot because the bedspread is a deep shade of red. (4x09)

5. Then we move onto Coda. The red flag just before the prisoner exchange… (4x09)

6. And the firetruck, of course. (Remember that we've seen a lot of fire trucks, including several examples of toy ones in S6 (6x07, 6x08; let's just appreciate 6x07 is where Glenn is revealed to be alive). I didn't include them here for the sake of brevity, but I'm not excluding them either. I think they're just multiple examples of the same symbolism. (4x08)

7. Red Poncho Guy in 5x15. Obvious one.

8. Red balloon Rick sees at Alexandria. (5x15)

9. Stop Sign in 6x01. The street signs on top are also important. Redding is a time reference, and Marshall is a synonym for Sherriff.

10. The car Sasha and Abe were in during Operation Lead the Walkers Away. (Remember they were proxies for Bethyl.) 6x01

11. The red mail truck in 6x06. I did an edit about mail truck parallels. It's an important symbol all by itself, and part of the Communication Theme/Theory, I think. But the mail trucks are not always red. In this episode, which we all know oozed Beth symbolism, it was very red. Then there's a blond walker with a similar head wound to Beth's standing in front of it. And if you watch the scene, when Daryl drives by her on his bike, he does this weird shudder thing. I've always thought that was all purposeful.

12. Red Car in the picture here. More Red Car Parallels for Sashraham in 6x06.

13. I put this shot here bc it's the right place chronologically, but this isn't by far the first or only place we've seen it. A lot of us wonder if all these red objects might be connected to the red bandana Daryl always keeps in his back pocket. That might have been built on to connect these things to Daryl and Bethyl.

Yes, I did give you a shot of Daryl's butt. Your welcome. (6x11)

14. Red Taillight Necklace and Red Taillights in general. More on them HERE. (7x14)

15. Dynamite. We specifically saw this throughout S7. Most of the red/green juxtaposition was done with red dynamite and green wires. No way it's a coincidence. (7x15)

16. Red Shoe Laces. Again, I used this shot bc it's the most recent, but we saw these all through S5 and S6 as well. And you know it's a symbol bc what are the chances that various characters in various places (Morgan also had them BEFORE he reunited with TF) would just so happen to find the same random, bright red shoe laces? Just saying.

17. Red Umbrella. The most recent symbol that was all kinds of rancom.

So here's the thing about these objects. I'm not at all satisified that I understand the symbolism behind them. I've always said I thought they represented that something was marked for death, or at least danger. Red could = blood, but blood doesn't always = death. Could just be injury or something.

I do still think the red means that, but I'm equally sure that's not all it means. I think the symbolism is more complex than that. I was thinking that perhaps it meant something that was marked for death, but would ultimately survive. A resurrection symbol of some kind.

And that KIND OF works, but not in all cases.

For Glenn's red car, I suppose you could argue that maybe his faux-death in S6 was built on the car, but that's a bit of a stretch to me. Not that Gimple doesn't plan that carefully, but they're too far apart to be plausible imo. BUT. In S1, the car was part of the group escaping a huge horde of walkers in the city. And while no one was bitten or seriously injured, Glenn and Rick did cover themselves in walker gore. So the blood and the narrow escape are both present. I think that's more plausible--that they built on that symbolism--rather than connecting the car to S6. I"ll come back to this.

Obviously for all things specifically around Beth, a close brush with death followed by resurrection would make sense. So that includes numbers 2, 4, 5, 6, and 11. (I know 11 wasn't around Beth directly but given all the Beth symbolism in 6x06 and the Sasharaham parallels, it's obvious to me that it was still part of Beth's symbolism.) And everything after Coda could be a throwback to that same symbolism, showing it after-the-fact as a way to foreshadow her return.

But let's look at some others: Judith's cups. This doesn't seem to work for Judith at first glance. My best way to explain it for a while was to say that the symbolism in S4 was for Beth, not Judith, and then they repeated it in S6 to, once again, foreshadow Beth's return and as part of the S6 retellings. (I do still think that is mostly true, btw. In S6, when we saw Judith with the cups, they were playing one of Rick's songs about a girl he left behind.)

But for Judith herself, remember something else: she had a death fake out in 4x08. Rick and Carl thought her dead, bc they didn't know Ty had gotten her out. Even the audience believed she was dead and, BONUS, Kirkman confirmed it. But guess what? He lied. Which is why we don't believe anything he says about Beth or Bethyl in general. He's been caught in lies before to throw the audience off. Anyway, remember that Rick and Carl saw blood all over Judith's car seat. So this actually works for her as well.

Red Poncho guy is another one that it only kinda works for. Don't get me wrong: everything about him screamed that he was a symbol for Beth. But he really did die. He only "came back" as a walker. There are other things to consider, though. I don't remember who I was talking to about this recently (possibly @wdway?) but Daryl says the guy is using wild leeks to ward off mosquitoes, which is a real thing. Leeks also symbolically represent love and protection. So it was like he put a protection over himself not long before the wolves killed him. Even though he died, you can still see how it might have been meant symbolically. Plus mosquitoes are blood suckers, so they might have been a metaphor for walkers, which could feasibly feed into the bite/cure theory. Just saying.

There are lots of different interpretations of red balloon. I won't go into too much detail here. And I've said most of what there is to say about the stop sign in 6x01. Just also remember that a blond, Beth-walker led the pack of walkers in that episode. There are parts where she's walking directly behind Daryl. (X)

For Sashraham Red Car Parallels, I wanted to say that if this WAS partly built off Glenn's Red Car from S1, we would have multiple layers of symbolism here. If red car = brush with death and close call, and Sashraham is proxy for Bethyl…see how that works?

(Kinda off topic, but something else I thought of. While in the car in 6x01, the camera focuses on Sasha's speedometer, which is at exactly 70 mph. Bc of their proxiness, I was sure that meant we'd see Bethyl in S7. Obviously we didn't. In hindsight, I now think that wasn't a Bethyl thing but was specific to Sasha and Abraham's characters. It was pointing at S7 for something for both of them. So guess what that means? It was a death omen, showing they would both die in S7. Abe in 7x01, Sasha in 7x16.

And in some strange, indirect way, even that points to the red car = death on some level. They were in the red car, which suggests their deaths, and we saw a 7, which perhaps suggested when that would happen. ☹

And granted, in S7 there was no narrow escape for them, which might suggest a hole in my theory. But at the same time, we didn't see red cars around either of them prior to their deaths in S7. We did see it constantly here in S6, and they narrowly escaped both the walker horde and an ambush by the Saviors in this season. Not to mention coming back to save Glenn and help save Alexandria from the walkers as well.)

Um…so I won't say much more about the taillight necklace. Check out THIS post for more info.

For Daryl's red bandanna, the only thing I can think of is more of the red/green juxtaposition. Beth, prior to Still, was constantly wearing green. In fact, I kind of chuckle at episode 4x03, when Judith spits up carrots on her. She changes a dark green tank top for a light green one. Like, is that the only color you own? For symbolic purposes, yeah I think it is. They really wanted to solidify green as a symbol of her, both because of her clothing and her name. She changed into yellow in Still, which is obviously a very important symbol, but with Daryl's red hanky and all the green around her, the red/green juxtaposition always screams Bethyl to me. That works for the dynamite we saw this season, but we've seen it countless other places too. I've also said in the past that if red = death and green = life, it could also be showing a juxtaposition of those two, which could also be construed as a resurrection symbol.

The shoe laces are a bit harder to pin down, tbh. We haven't seen green shoe laces that I'm aware of. Maggie has had plenty of close brushes with death. In fact, we saw one when she climbed the ladder in 6x08 to get away from a walker horde, and in that case there was also a green cord in the shot. We also saw them on Morgan in 6x04, and he definitely came close to self-destruction before Eastman helped him. And there was tons of Beth/resurrection symbolism in that episode (i.e. Tabitha). But even so, there's nothing super compelling to me that ties the shoe laces to this theory. They're sort of a question mark for me.

And finally the red umbrella. TF definitely came close to death in 7x16. Negan came damn close to killing Carl in particular before Carzekiel and Shiva showed up, so the umbrella might have foreshadowed that. But then the Scavengers also used it to lock Alexandria's gates so they could escape. I’m positive there's more symbolism inherent in that, but I'm not sure what it is yet.

(Used in this way, it does suggest an imprisonment theme, which also works for Grady, the Sanctuary, and the show at large, but we haven’t specifically seen imprisonment in all the other cases. A few, but not all.)

So, to reiterate, I'm not sure I entirely understand what this Red Object Symbolism points to. I'm sure it's more complicated than we currently understand. There are probably whole aspects we haven't thought of. So be on the lookout for more of these symbols as you rewatch, and I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts. Any interpretations that fit all these instances better than mind does? I'd love to hear them!

Okay, that’s all my ramblings on this subject for now. ;D Have a great weekend, everyone! ;D

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

13 notes · View notes