#witcher I'm talking about you | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

crispyliza · 4 days

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It's a real struggle

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gwentbleidd · 10 months

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still my favorite thing about all this is that joey batey really woke up one day, said 'hell yeah queer jaskier' and made thousands of people SO mad

#i'm polish and lemme tell you something #polish str8s are so angry rn it's so funny #imagine u get mad at random points during the day and can't sleep at night bc a fictional man kissed another man lmao???#'it wasn't in the books' boi do u wanna talk about what wasn't in the books but was in the netflix series i'll go first #they just make stuff up from the very beginning #anyway stan jaskier bi agenda #jaskier #dandelion #wiedźmin #the witcher #season 3 #geralt of rivia #geralt z rivii #geraskier #radskier #radovid #joey batey #hugh skinner

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thunderboltfire · 2 months

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I have a lot of complicated feelings when it comes to what Neflix has done with the Witcher, but my probably least favourite is the line of argumentation that originated during shitstorms related to the first and second season that I was unlucky to witness.

It boils down to "Netflix's reinterpretation and vision is valid, because the Witcher books are not written to be slavic. The overwhelming Slavic aestetic is CDPR's interpretation, and the setting in the original books is universally European, as there are references to Arthurian mythos and celtic languages" And I'm not sure where this argument originated and whether it's parroting Sapkowski's own words or a common stance of people who haven't considered the underlying themes of the books series. Because while it's true that there are a lot of western european influences in the Witcher, it's still Central/Eastern European to the bone, and at its core, the lack of understanding of this topic is what makes the Netflix series inauthentic in my eyes.

The slavicness of the Witcher goes deeper than the aestetics, mannerisms, vodka and sour cucumbers. Deeper than Zoltan wrapping his sword with leopard pelt, like he was a hussar. Deeper than the Redanian queen Hedvig and her white eagle on the red field.

What Witcher is actually about? It's a story about destiny, sure. It's a sword-and-sorcery style, antiheroic deconstruction of a fairy tale, too, and it's a weird mix of many culture's influences.

But it's also a story about mundane evil and mundane good. If You think about most dark, gritty problems the world of Witcher faces, it's xenophobia and discrimination, insularism and superstition. Deep-seated fear of the unknown, the powerlessness of common people in the face of danger, war, poverty and hunger. It's what makes people spit over their left shoulder when they see a witcher, it's what makes them distrust their neighbor, clinging to anything they deem safe and known. It's their misfortune and pent-up anger that make them seek scapegoats and be mindlessly, mundanely cruel to the ones weaker than themselves.

There are of course evil wizards, complicated conspiracies and crowned heads, yes. But much of the destruction and depravity is rooted in everyday mundane cycle of violence and misery. The worst monsters in the series are not those killed with a silver sword, but with steel. it's hard to explain but it's the same sort of motiveless, mundane evil that still persist in our poorer regions, born out of generations-long poverty and misery. The behaviour of peasants in Witcher, and the distrust towards authority including kings and monarchs didn't come from nowhere.

On the other hand, among those same, desperately poor people, there is always someone who will share their meal with a traveller, who will risk their safety pulling a wounded stranger off the road into safety. Inconditional kindness among inconditional hate. Most of Geralt's friends try to be decent people in the horrible world. This sort of contrasting mentalities in the recently war-ridden world is intimately familiar to Eastern and Cetral Europe.

But it doesn't end here. Nilfgaard is also a uniquely Central/Eastern European threat. It's a combination of the Third Reich in its aestetics and its sense of superiority and the Stalinist USSR with its personality cult, vast territory and huge army, and as such it's instantly recognisable by anybody whose country was unlucky enough to be caught in-between those two forces. Nilfgaard implements total war and looks upon the northerners with contempt, conscripts the conquered people forcibly, denying them the right of their own identity. It may seem familiar and relevant to many opressed people, but it's in its essence the processing of the trauma of the WW2 and subsequent occupation.

My favourite case are the nonhumans, because their treatment is in a sense a reminder of our worst traits and the worst sins in our history - the regional antisemitism and/or xenophobia, violence, local pogroms. But at the very same time, the dilemma of Scoia'Tael, their impossible choice between maintaining their identity, a small semblance of freedom and their survival, them hiding in the forests, even the fact that they are generally deemed bandits, it all touches the very traumatic parts of specifically Polish history, such as January Uprising, Warsaw Uprising, Ghetto Uprising, the underground resistance in WW2 and the subsequent complicated problem of the Cursed Soldiers all at once. They are the 'other' to the general population, but their underlying struggle is also intimately known to us.

The slavic monsters are an aestetic choice, yes, but I think they are also a reflection of our local, private sins. These are our own, insular boogeymen, fears made flesh. They reproduce due to horrors of the war or they are an unprovoked misfortune that descends from nowhere and whose appearance amplifies the local injustices.

I'm not talking about many, many tiny references that exist in the books, these are just the most blatant examples that come to mind. Anyway, the thing is, whether Sapkowski has intended it or not, Witcher is slavic and it's Polish because it contains social commentary. Many aspects of its worldbuilding reflect our traumas and our national sins. It's not exclusively Polish in its influences and philosophical motifs of course, but it's obvious it doesn't exist in a vacuum.

And it seems to me that the inherently Eastern European aspects of Witcher are what was immediately rewritten in the series. It seems to me that the subtler underlying conflicts were reshaped to be centered around servitude, class and gender disparity, and Nilfgaard is more of a fanatic terrorist state than an imposing, totalitarian empire. A lot of complexity seems to be abandoned in lieu of usual high-fantasy wordbuilding. It's especially weird to me because it was completely unnecessary. The Witcher books didn't need to be adjusted to speak about relevant problems - they already did it! The problem of acceptance and discrimination is a very prevalent theme throughout the story! They are many strong female characters too, and they are well written. Honestly I don't know if I should find it insulting towards their viewers that they thought it won't be understood as it was and has to be somehow reshaped to fit the american perpective, because the current problems are very much discussed in there and Sapkowski is not subtle in showing that genocide and discrimination is evil. Heck, anyone who has read the ending knows how tragic it makes the whole story.

It also seems quite disrespectful, because they've basically taken a well-established piece of our domestic literature and popular culture and decided that the social commentary in it is not relevant. It is as if all it referenced was just not important enough and they decided to use it as an opportunity to talk about the problems they consider important. And don't get me wrong, I'm not forcing anyone to write about Central European problems and traumas, I'm just confused that they've taken the piece of art already containing such a perspective on the popular and relevant problem and they just... disregarded it, because it wasn't their exact perspective on said problem.

And I think this homogenisation, maybe even from a certain point of view you could say it's worldview sanitisation is a problem, because it's really ironic, isn't it? To talk about inclusivity in a story which among other problems is about being different, and in the same time to get rid of motifs, themes and references because they are foreign? Because if something presents a different perspective it suddenly is less desirable?

There was a lot of talking about the showrunners travelling to Poland to understand the Witcher's slavic spirit and how to convey it. I don't think they really meant it beyond the most superficial, paper-thin facade.

#The witcher #Sorry if its convoluted I just got reminded of something and it made me a little angry #and as I had this conversation a lot of times I've decided to put it into written text #sorry about being bitter #but these are some of my favourite books and I'm still upset when I get reminded how badly they were treated in the recent adaptation #I'm not saying you should never change anything #But it's good to have enough background to understand why some things are the way they are in the original #and to understand what the source material is about #we don't talk about particular character's looks or something (altough I feel they could care more about it too)#but central themes tropes and motifs #long post #it may seem like I'm talking from a high horse here #people are welcome to interpret literature however they want #Nobody has a monopol on themes #I just think that in this particular case the cultural context influences the worldbuilding #and if changed it doesn't have the same impact anymore #meta

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antique-traveler · 2 years

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ok i need to go on a quick rant about x reader fics

so i like x reader. i've written a few x reader fics. i think it's fun and creative and a worthwhile artistic endeavor. but y'all have got to start properly labeling your x reader work.

i've read far too many fics that label themselves as "gender neutral reader", only to have the reader be called girlfriend/wife/wear a dress etc., or fics where the author doesn't mention the reader's gender at all in the description, only for the second paragraph to hit me with more she's and her's than i can count.*

if you want to write x f!reader, cool, all the more power to you, but tell the audience that it's going to be f!reader.

i am not even the littlest bit a woman, so if i start a fic that defaults to she/her pronouns and feminine titles without letting me know, that automatically excludes me (and a lot of other people) from the fic (not to mention makes me wildly dysphoric).

again, write all the x f!reader fic you want, write enough f!reader to fill libraries, but label it correctly.

*i know that none of these things are strictly "female" or "for women", and that neither clothes nor pronouns need to strictly adhere to someone's gender (hell, i'm a nonbinary person that exclusively uses he/him irl and dresses fairly masc), but to automatically choose descriptions that are most commonly associated with femininity and label them as "gender neutral" is, i think, transphobic. nonbinary people aren't "women lite". if you insist that these descriptions/terms are gender neutral, then i should be seeing just as many supposed gn!reader fics that default to having the reader wear suits and cologne.

#bucky speaks #sorry i had to get that off my chest lol #cause it's fucking annoying #also to all my dear mewchies who only write f!reader:#this isn't about you i love you because you PROPERLY LABEL IT #i'm talking about the bitches who clog up the gn!reader tags with their explicitly f!reader fics #especially during pride month if y'all are saying you support trans people but still doing this shit #i don't trust you any farther than i can throw you #that being said i will always clearly specify my x reader fic's gender and default to gn!reader for requests #and you know i'm MORE than happy to write male reader (cis or transmasc)#daredevil #matt murdock #star trek #mattfoggy #the witcher #x reader #gender neutral reader #daredevil x reader

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jaypentaghast · 3 months

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yennefer and jaskier are so obnoxious jfc

I love them both with all my heart

#i haven't played the games yet so I'm talking about the show #I'm watching season 2 finally #their dynamic is fun #“i hate you / I'm going to rescue you”#“you are one of the worst people alive / i have so much respect for you you bitch”#the witcher #yennefer of vengerberg #jaskier #mine

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smokeygrayrabbits · 10 months

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Vashwood medievalish au where vash is a traveling bard with a tragic past magical creature? fae? dryad? something? and wolfwood is like,,, a monster hunter or a knight from an evil kingdom cough cough knives kingdom which vash is an heir too and could challenge nai for the throne cuz twins but he won't because he doesn't think he can/is worthy/has some bad history or something AND VASH AND WOLFWOOD TRAVEL TOGETHER AND FALL IN LOVE RAHHHH

#vash the stampede #trigun headcanons #trigun #trigun stampede #trigun wolfwood #nicholas d. wolfwood #vashwood #trigun au #I'm totally over my Witcher obsession and it had absolutely nothing to do with this what are you talking about

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confused-beany · 1 year

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When someone talks shit about a character in their native language thinking they'll get away with it but then the character replies back in the same language is just... PEAK

#like YEAH I'm knowledgeable in ways you don't expect #you don't know me #you think you can just get away talking shit about me? think again #i have layers you could not even grasp do not presume you get to talk about me #this post is about all those bilingual or multilingual characters #who rock!#but specifically #black panther okoye #okoye #peter parker #mcu peter parker #and last but not the least #jaskier #I haven't actually watched the witcher but that one scene of him talking back to the elves lives in my head rent free #the witcher #100% sure I've seen more I just can't remember right now

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aroaessidhe · 5 months

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2023 reads / storygraph

The Poisons We Drink

YA urban fantasy

a girl who brews powerful potions is coerced into making potions to interfere with D.C.’s most influential politicians in an attempt to stop a dangerous Witcher Registration Act from passing, and will do anything to protect her sister after their mother is killed

bi MC, nonbinary love interest

arc from netgalley

#The Poisons We Drink #aroaessidhe 2023 reads #this is…….a lot of cool ideas but also so many elements and high stakes that i kinda lost track of them #the pacing is weird. the worldbuilding is random?#why is brewing SO overpowered & risky for her but the other powers seem to have pretty normal low-scale risks?#it’s definitely ambitious and has some cool ideas and also some great characters just. didn’t execute as well as I’d like #as much as we’re told the main threat is the government trying to put through a Registration Act #most of the actual antagonism we see is from other Witchers?#like the systemic discrimination got a bit lost in the witcher family drama and murder politics #important things to say about oppression and police violence but like....idk #she has this ‘deviation’- essentially evil sentient magic inside her head (and you KNOW I love that trope)#but it’s barely explained and very underutilised? other than helping her get out of bad situations you could take it out & would barely #change anything #also it’s explained at the start that she’s an empath but other than the very occasional mention I kept forgetting #will also note that I bumped this up my tbr because I saw the author talking/promoting it as the MCs sister being aroace but no mention #maybe it’ll come up in a sequel (there weren’t really any places where it would have made sense to bring it up here) but idk #(just the way the author was asking for advice on how to write an ace character and stuff you’d assume that they’d….put that in the book?)#not really a critique of the book itself but anyway. I really wanted to like this but the way it was put together just did not vibe with me #edit: I saw the author say on twitter that the version used for ARCs was before ace stuff was added and that there's other signif changes?#so perhaps that will be there! i'm not sure if I want to read it again but might skim just to see what that's about

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hanzajesthanza · 1 year

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"is it a bad time for advice?" "as a matter of fact, it is. it'd be nice if you'd leave me to my thoughts. and apologize for disturbing me." "i apologize. the private conversations with the self are, after all, invaluable and sacred. but i would still like to present you with some humble advice: you're quickly approaching hypothermia."

angoulême model by @witcherscreenshotsdump 💖

#angouleme #emiel regis #tw3edit #tw3 #witcher 3 #sbui #the witcher books #f: i'm not your uncle dear child #c: angouleme #c: regis #set: beauclair #my edits #mod #'you want to avoid getting lectured?! not so easy!! this bitch appears from thin air and shit!!' - angouleme #what's that post about gay people will sit on a couch (in this case a bench) any way except the way which you're supposed to #angouleme sitting On The Ground and regis Leaning Against the bench like guys there's a bench right there #i imagine the next scene is them talking it out on the bench and at the end of the convo angouleme tries to #lean on him for warmth and he's like 'yeah i don't have a temperatur-' 'i knew that I REMEMBERED that you don't have to tell me I REMEMBER'#this is a good example i have of 'do you see me as a father figure' 'i see you as a BOTHER figure cause youre always BOTHERING me!'#should be obvious from the post and my tags and my blog and me and the vibe but don't tag as ship and if you do i will hunt you down #i think if you combined geralt and regis you would get episodes of house m.d. and idk if that's a good or bad thing

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sebdoeswords · 7 months

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I can't take posting on ao3 anymore, it makes me feel so uncomfortable. In an ideal scenario I would stop posting fic altogether, but I've made a promise to my readers that I would never abandon a fic partway through. This is something that is intrinsic to my process, something that sets me apart from other writers. My multi-chapter fics are finished before they ever get posted.

So I want to keep that promise. I think what I'll do is finish Thyme on ao3 because there's only one chapter left, and then post the rest of All of His Colours on ko-fi for free without a paywall. I've already posted the first chapter there just now, and I was able to format it in a way I like. I'll share the posts on tumblr whenever I post them just like I used to, and I'll make a masterpost with links to all chapters.

It's not a perfect solution by any means, but it's one I might be able to live with.

#seb talks #my fics #my witcher fics #all of his colours #to pluck wild mountain thyme #i was feeling pretty good about posting yesterday's chapter of thyme #and then i found out that one of my long time readers is a proshipper #seriously y'all 'do not interact' also means 'do not read'#it doesn't matter whether you're a silent reader or not #if you're proship i don't want you to look at my content #these are my boundaries so please respect them #i'm curating my online experience like people always say to

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dadralt · 2 years

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I came here for a reason...

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sergle · 2 years

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rewatching the walking dead for fun and as I go through it I’m remembering... norman reedus. I really do get it.

#he is the kind of guy you might want to call Babygirl #I understand what hideo kojima sees #sergle.txt #I really do #more walking dead thoughts: I've never hated a person more than I hate Andrea The Character #I forgot. until I saw her face and I instantly had a sense memory of DESPISING her #and then I re-remembered why #also I can't believe that Rick's actor is bri ish. his southern accent is top tier #also he does the thing that Geralt Witcher's actor does. the opposite of Cleans Up Nice #he Dirties Up Good #groomed: eh #disgustang: now that's what I'm talking about #anyway I'm having a lot of fun #truly... memories

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aeide-thea · 1 year

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[witcherposting ahead—nb that this is all totally lighthearted and it's fine if you feel differently!]

anyway what i'd started to say before tumblr ate my post was that like. disclaimer that my approach to netflix witcher canon is that i fully reserve the right to cherrypick, because some of the changes they made were good but others were character assassination, and that obviously i get that if one isn't cherrypicking one does have to actually Grapple With Certain Things 🏔

but like. that said—the more 'Geralt Must Grovel for Weeks and Probably Scourge Himself, Look at What He Did to Poor Sad-Eyed Woobie Jaskier' fics i read the more i'm fucking grateful for the tiny handful where jaskier's just been like, yeah, i never bought that bullshit tbh, he was lashing out and he owes me an apology for sure but a single angry outburst does not in fact scupper an extremely well-established relationship of literally twenty years' standing in one fell swoop???

like i just. idk. imagine remembering that jaskier's a cheery irrepressible little shit and not actually as crushably low on self-esteem as all of us are. of course that would probably require *netflix* to have remembered that, so, you know, no actual shade to anyone who's been projecting that onto him! but just like. idk. they're obviously not siblings but they honestly do have that vibe in certain ways and it's just like. did you never say something overdramatic and shitty in the heat of a fight with yr sibling growing up and then after taking a bit of a breather just like. make a rueful face and apologize for yr respective roles in winding each other up and move tf on, without having, like, a whole extended OTT reparations process where you tell them repeatedly how perfect and sinless they are and how you know you're a miserable worm who doesn't remotely deserve their sunshiny presence in your life but would be so grateful if they could, possibly, somehow, see their way to forgiving you despite yr essential unworthiness—

#anyway. i think there are like. MAYBE like three of you reading this blog who give a shit abt this fandom‚ lol #so i'm mostly just talking out loud to myself here‚ which is fine‚ what's a perblog for if not that #but it's just like. yeah on the one hand you don't just get to yell at people without apologizing at all #on the other hand like. some relationships are strong and elastic enough that one (1) snip is not going to cut them #even a vicious one!#also like. jaskier DID handle that convo clumsily lbr. like. obviously geralt was not Justified but.#if i'd just had a vicious breakup and somebody came bumbling in making loud awkward small talk about it? jesus.#anyway. really ultimately this is just a 'have consumed much too much witcher fic and the Patterns are starting 2 irk me' thing #but it's just like. sometimes things are conflict between two imperfect people #and not a Good Woobie and a Sinful Meanie #anyway. time 2 go reread Sekrit Mutual's fic in which they actually keep in mind the fact that jaskier is a selfish gremlin #who despite himself really does love geralt and as a result is like. constantly torn between his nature and his urge to do right by geralt #but like. fundamentally he's a buffoon and a popinjay who yaps aggressively and then runs back behind geralt's legs #and joey batey leaning into his Soulful and Romantic side (that he does also have) doesn't actually erase that about him‚ nor should it!#anyway. this post is careening all over the place but i think it's just like. exactly the same weird terfish moral binary #that ppl have been talking abt with like. gender and kink and a whole range of things #where like. you always have Victims and Perpetrators #and so jaskier has to be like. the femme bottom victim which makes geralt the macho perpetrator totally undeserving of sympathy #and it's like. actually they're both imperfect people and neither one fits very well into their society's idea of what a man is #and what if we actually examined them as individuals rather than tropes and also remembered yennefer was fierce and interesting #and what if ciri weren't‚ like‚ a manhattan private school girl with her brows done while we were at it #getting a little overambitious with my wishlist there though i know

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ghostlylicious · 8 months

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would dandelion be disgusted by children. would he even be a good father.

#this thought was brought to you by bluey fanart i saw on instagram #imagine julian and priscilla as parents: how good would they be #and i'm talking about witcher 3 jaskier #the witcher 3 wild hunt #the witcher #witcher shower thoughts #dandelion witcher #julian alfred pankratz #jaskier

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ettadunham · 1 year

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as much as i found the witcher: blood origin show (more specifically its first episode, since that's all i watched) lacking as a witcher media, and would love to see people dissecting the show for me, i find the vitriol being slung specifically at lauren schmidt kinda... uncomfortable.

it's the kathleen kennedy effect. like, maybe you have issues with the approach these women have and the media they produce, but singling them out for every failure and the nature of the backlash towards them still doesn't pass the vibe check for me.

#it feels disproportionate but i can't actually say if it is #or if i'm just that much more sensitive to how women are treaeted in these positions #...not to mention the 'forced diversity' arguments obviously i'm also dreading those #fucking shut up and stop complaining about black and asian people in the witcherverse #if you cared about slavic authenticity you wouldn't pronounce ciri's name like that checkmate western fascists #the witcher talk

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sandinthepipes · 2 years

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Me, a polyamorous person who quietly appreciates 99% of the ships, often conflicting and/or polycule:

"yeah, I don't like how they wrote this character/ship"

Any living soul:

"OMG ThEsE FUckInG SHiPpErs haVE To sHiT oN EvrYThInG THaT inTErFeRes wHIt TheIR PaIrINg!!!😡🤡!!!🤢!🤡!!🤡🤢!😡!!!!"

#like i agree in the past a portion of the fandoms community were a bit out of control #but chill out dude #we're in 2022 #let me not like a character that is objectively poorly written #or a canon pairing #dear god basically all canon pairings are poorly written #am i talking about yennifer and geralt? who knows #it happens every single time with that pairing i don't think i've ever been able to express even a neutral thought about them #i only accept yennifer and geralt together if there's also jaskier because somebody who stops the abuse is dearly needed #the witcher #the witcher netflix #no I'm not gonna tag the canon pairing i have learned my lesson #fuck you btw #bbc merlin #merlin #because I'm really sorry but gwen is my least favourite #she's cute when she's with lancelot because them at least you see falling in love and be cute #with arthur she wakes up one season and she's suddenly in love with Arthur #I'm not tagging sherlock because mary is an amazing character and i actually love how john and Mary's relationship is written #is it an unhealthy relationship? absolutely. but it makes so much sense. and it's written soo good #next tags aren't the ones i disagree but for the people who relate to the post #geraskier #merthur #hannigram #johnlock #nandermo #idk tag your ship #inthepipes

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