Sean🏹

(Insert shitty manip here)

Blake Dixon: Reading/English class. Blake loves to read. She's more of a comic girl these days, but when she was in school she was at the top of her class when it came to literature. In 1st grade, she was already reading at a 5th or 6th grade level.

Charlie Allen: Lunch. Charlie would hate school. She'd always find a way to skip class or ditch school, and lunch would be perfect time to slip away.

Elliot Brown: Recess. Elliot's favorite thing to do in school would be to play tag or kickball with his friends at recess time. He would always be too distracted or antsy in class.

Leo Diaz: science class. Leo wouldn't have the best grades in school, but he'd always find an interest in science. It gave him an excuse to mix shit together and play with fire without consequences. It would be almost calming or distracting for him.

Renny Jones: none, she would be homeschooled because her family would move around too often.

Isha Miller: History and Music class. Isha would love playing the keyboard in music class, and she would love learning about the Wild West Era in history class. Of course, she'd also be interested in studying what life was like before the outbreak.

Dylan Callahan: Gym. Dylan would love playing soccer or dodgeball during gym. It would give her an excuse to "accidentally" throw a ball at one of her classmates' faces or kick them in the shin.

Read part 1 first here:

K let's get back into it🤸🏾

Later in the story, in season 5, something traumatizing happens to Blake, and it changes the way she views killing. She used to think killing any person was bad, and everyone deserved a 2nd chance, but when she saw firsthand just how much bad a person could do, it flipped a switch in her brain. She became cold for a time, where even the thought of getting her hands on the person that hurt her made her feel a type of joy or satisfaction. To explain a bit more, here's a short snippet from a chapter:

Maggie had helped Blake clean herself up. It wasn't a good look walking around covered in blood. Rick had talked to Blake more about what'd happened- how she'd killed that man. He made it clear to her that the man was bad, and he deserved to die, but to also be smart about it next time. It wasn't safe what she did- storming outside of the office like that. Blake understood, but she also didn't feel very bad about what she'd done.

In fact, she didn't feel bad about it at all. Part of her liked what she did. That man would never hurt anyone again, and she was glad for that.

Again, the same sort of thing happened with AJ: He was hurt or traumatized by lilly in a way, and when he killed her if felt good. He didn't care anymore that what he'd done was murder; that he'd stopped a beating heart. He liked it.

On the topic of Clementine and Daryl in this regard, I think both of them are trying to hold on innocence of the kid they're taking care of- but it's almost impossible to do that in the world they live in. Killing is almost a necessity, whether it be an animal, or a walker, or a human being; staying soft will certainly get you killed in a world like their's. Take Sarah or Sam for example.

To summarize all my points- Blake and AJ are both troubled kids with troubled mindsets. They both harness a lot of anger in which they are forced to hold onto for the sake of survival. They are being raised by parental figures who, although try their best, aren't much different. They all have trauma and they aren't very good at talking about it.

Tiny bit of context: Blake is my main TWD OC. The top left corner is her S1-S3 face claim and the bottom right is her S4-S9A face claim. Okay, I'm gonna rant now😛

So this idea started when I was rewriting season 5 of Little Heart of Iron (my twd fic; spoilers ahead). When writing this season I kept thinking to myself, "huh, I'm writing this character but for some reason she feels so familiar, like theres another character just like her," and one week i decided to replay twdg season 4, and throughout the game i kept thinking the exact same thing every time AJ did something rash or questionable.

This led me to realize that clem and aj are almost a mirror of Daryl and Blake, and it took me so long to realize.

Throughout seasons 1, 2, and most of 3, Blake couldn't bear the thought of taking the life of a human being or even an animal. The first time she killed someone was in Woodbury, and she questions whether that made her a monster or not. Blake tries to redeem herself by helping the family trapped on the highway when she's off with Daryl and Merle for some time after Woodbury. Here's a short snippet from a chapter to give more context:

"I killed someone," Blake suddenly said, getting that burden of a thought off of her chest. Daryl slowed his walking for a second, glancing down at Blake with...dread? Or worry? His eleven year old kid had to kill someone.

Merle, on the other hand, seemed to be in his own bubble for once. Maybe this was one of the most convenient times for him to just keep his mouth shut.

"At Woodbury," Blake continued, her gaze still on the ground. "He was gonna hurt one of us, so I..." she trailed off. She had to do it, but that didn't change the fact that she felt like a monster.

The same sort of thing happened to AJ- he killed Marlon, and afterwards he compared himself to a monster. Eventually, he tried to atone for killing Marlon.