Listen, as someone who wears a big hat (aka a ‘cowboy’ hat) as part of the unofficial uniform of country people everywhere, the fact that Jake who nearly went back into a bar full of people who wanted to kill him for his hat, is suddenly no longer wearing a hat at all makes me extremely uncomfortable. If I’m not wearing boots, hat, jeans and a belt, I have the constant nagging suspicion that I’m forgetting something. Because I’m staying with my family in town, I don’t usually wear my Akubra, but I always have a cap on. Or a beanie.

It’s a habit! it’s weird if I’m not, it feels weird, I’m constantly squinting to shade my eyes, I just all around don’t feel right. I headcanon that Jake is the same, which is why if I ever get around to publishing the ot3 Librarians fic, you will notice that Jake is always. Wearing. A. Hat. 

The next motherfucker who tells me that fiction doesn’t have the social impact of real people and events is gunna get smacked.

Obviously, this rant does not negate the effect that living, breathing role models and disasters, riots or revolutions have on people.

But don’t you dare tell me that characters in pop culture don’t have just as much fucking influence. Don’t you dare negate the fact that reading about Alanna, Lady Knight of Tortall, had a profound effect on me as a little girl. Don’t you refer to Hermione Granger as anything less than a major fucking role model for bookworms and ‘Teacher’s Pets’ everywhere. Don’t you tell me that there isn’t a generation who gets goosebumps when they hear Rue’s whistle or Hedwig’s theme: because they’re the kids holding signs in protests, holding their chins high and thinking to themselves; “Katniss Everdeen/Harry Potter/Black Widow/Allison Argent/Jack Harkniss/Buffy Summers/Lady Alanna wouldn’t stand for this bullshit and neither will I”

Don’t you DARE dismiss characters in fiction until you understand that they MEAN something. And you can call me whatever you want for thinking that. Someday I’ll be reading the Redwall books to my nephews, coz the underdog vanquishing a powerful foe without ever selling out their honor or integrity, they’re stories that should be told…so what if the characters present as an assortment of woodland animals and vermin? DILIGAF.

And I won’t stop looking up to characters like Beth Greene and Allison Argent and Buffy Summers. Because I’m a woman who has a chosen a male-dominated industry to dedicate my life to and that doesn’t mean I should sacrifice my goddamn femininity. I’ll look up to them the same way I admire Amelia Earhart, Nancy Wake and Joan of Arc.

I will encourage my nephews and my brothers to read fiction. My 11 year old brother can tell you everything there is to know about the Greek pantheon and their Roman equivalents. And that’s not from some dull educational video, that’s coz he’s hooked on the Percy Jackson series. One day he might be a historian and a social justice revolutionary and the world will have Rick Riorden to thank for that.

What the hell is it with TV shows and ignoring the potential of some of their minor characters? 

Because seriously, the trend of introducing a bunch of new characters rather than exploring the narrative of existing characters fully needs to shhhtaap. 

Yeah, I'm talking about Danny Mahealani, but I'm sure y'all could think of a katrillion other examples.  

Openly gay POC connected with one of the shows main characters, WHOSE NAME LITERALLY TRANSLATES TO THE THEME OF THE WHOLE FREAKING CIRCUS (Mahealani refers to the night of the full moon) Ignored. More or less written out and put on a back-burner as a love interest and extra; but, by the way, he knows about werewolves and all the other crap in Beacon Hills, which is a fact thrown in at the end of Season Three and to my knowledge hasn't actually been otherwise addressed. 

So it's gunna be just like the first time Beth hugged him; stiff and unyielding and full of flinching. He might touch her arm to steady her coz she's hit him at a sprint, rock back on his heels. Maybe he'll brush a hand over her hair, maybe he sucks in a deep breath that could be just replacing the wind she knocked out of him, except it comes with a rush of her smelling like sweat and earth and motor oil. 

Then he'll push her away, shrug off her hurt expression, mutter something about being glad she's okay. He'll palm her off to Rick and Michonne and Carl, or Maggie and Glenn, or if he's still with the Claimers it'll be time to go and if any one of them think of laying a finger on her, then they've got a bolt with their name on it sitting in his crossbow. 

But there'll be a hundred tiny things over weeks and weeks and weeks while they're dealing with whatever the fallout from Terminus is, surviving each day as it steamrolls over them. These little things Daryl does when she's not looking that speak volumes for how much he's missed her, for how much he craves her sunlight. Like saving the choicest bits of game for her, or covering her with his jacket and not talking about it, like fixing a busted shoelace or grumpily encouraging her to sing. Beth'll figure out that they don't talk about it, and that's okay, because all she really needs is Daryl to have her back, Daryl's gruff voice by the campfire, Daryl's steadying hands teaching her to survive, to be stronger and faster. And this goes on for ages. I mean for like a whole season. I don't want anything beyond that breathless 'oh' for so long that all the Bethylers are slavering, sobbing messes. (I know, I'm a masochist) Because that is the only way to keep Daryl in character. 

And their first kiss is gunna be a flashback to the first time Daryl loses her. He'll be hoarse and wild and every inch of him will be trembling because they got separated by Walkers or something, except Beth tracks him while he's tracking her and when he sees her he just grabs her, drops his crossbow, and holds her so tightly it leaves bruises. So she squeaks and tells him he's hurting her and he lets her go so fast, like she's burned him, and then he yells at her, screams at her, till she tells him he's gunna bring every Walker down on them, terrified not because of that but because Daryl doesn't get emotional like this and she's worried she's really, really messed up and she's almost in tears, but she's angry too, because it's not her fault!  And there is absolutely no way too tell who kisses first, but it's chaste and wet and sudden and turns into one of those hugs where they just cling to one another. 

Cue another episode of Daryl not talking about it and Beth getting angry at him for leading her on and being a little heartbroken but mostly just patiently trying to help him and putting her own wants to the back of her mind because Daryl is basically her right arm now.