Yo, trash here.

I really appreciate this question, because I see so often the accusation that Violentine shippers only like the ship because it’s gay. Obviously, for many of us, there are shades of truth to this - we crave visible and loving representations of wlw love, especially because we don’t see nearly as much of it in the video game industry compared to m/f pairings. And Violentine is one of the most “realistic” depictions of a young wlw relationship that I have seen, and I am defining “realistic” in terms of my own experiences of young romance. Like a lot of other wlw, I couldn’t just openly flirt with or express blatant attraction to my crush - I had to rely on signals and just the pure hope that my feelings were reciprocated, and that meant feeling SO nervous and so afraid when I confessed my romantic feelings. But that lack of confidence just made those reciprocated feelings EVEN MORE worthwhile and beautiful - knowing that despite being a pretty small minority in the general population, I managed to find a girl who liked me back and finally could get to experience what comes so much easier to heterosexual people. 

One of the main “justifications” I’ve seen for preferring to ship Clem with Louis is that he brings her joy she hasn’t been able to experience much of before since the apocalypse began and teaches her that survival does not always have to be the number 1 priority. And I would definitely agree with the second analysis, but I think people miss or at least diminish the mutual joy and sense of being ALIVE, not just SURVIVING, that Clem and Violet bring into each other’s lives. 

Choosing Violet certainly does entail considering survival more often than you do with Louis; just the dichotomy of the Violet vs Louis choices (go check the defenses vs tune the piano, fishing vs playing walker piñata) makes this point clear. But I dislike how the Violet vs Louis decision is often pitted as choosing survival (Violet) versus being alive and in the moment (Louis). I don’t consider it that simple, for multiple reasons, but the most important being that Violet’s coping mechanism of soft romantic gestures and making survival as entertaining as possible is *just* as helpful to Clementine as Louis’ coping mechanism of humor, light-heartedness, and having fun regardless of the situation. 

Violet and Clem have both survived unimaginable traumas, pretty much incomparable to the rest of the group (as far as we know). Violet witnessed her grandmother commit suicide right in front of her before the apocalypse even started and death became a “normal” phenomenon for the other kids, and closed herself off from others. She presumably allowed Minnie and Sophie to get close to her, and then (allegedly) lost them both to walkers. When she first meets Clem, she’s closed off on purpose; but the speed by which she opens up to Clem reveals what she’s like when she isn’t occupied by the trauma of losing so many people she let herself grow close to. 

And we don’t even have to get into all of Clem’s traumatic experiences. Both of these girls have gone through so much, but make each other SO happy regardless. In particular, I love how understated but thoughtful Violet’s romantic gestures are for Clem. Violet isn’t really the type to engage in PDA or openly flirt - which I relate to A LOT as a lesbian because sometimes it just isn’t safe to do that - but there’s no denying that she’s a closeted romantic who is more than capable of making Clem equally as happy as she is with Louis. 

And getting back to my point about Violet and Louis being pitted against each other as either emphasizing “staying alive” or “living/being alive”. Obviously, Violet is extremely protective of the people she cares about and the most physically capable boarding school student (aside from Marlon), so it makes sense for people to want her and Clem together romantically on that basis alone. But I think it’s important to recognize how Violet isn’t just some walker-killing strategy machine whose number 1 priority is safety and survival. She genuinely tries to make survival as light-hearted as she believes to be possible and under the constant circumstances of threat to her, Clem, and the school’s survival. 

Overall, Violet and Louis both provide different but equally as “useful”/cherished things for Clementine. Louis offers to Clem something similar to what Omid offered Christa - temporary escapes from the post-apocalyptic world, light-hearted humor, more open affection. Violet offers to Clem kind of what Christa offered Omid, actually - a sense of security, but coupled with more subtle yet equally as loving moments of shared humor, joy, and romance. If Clem’s in trouble, Violet’s gonna be in front of her with her cleaver out ready to kick ass without a second of hesitation. But Violet and Clem are also both learning together how to have fun while also surviving. 

Small settlements in the Canadian Wasteland that arent loosely connected to a larger one are less likely to survive, though not including the Inuit (an actual faction, according to the wiki)

The Inuit, obviously descendants of the actual Inuit, live like their ancestors did before colonization- except with guns and stuff. They’ve domesticated the mutated moose, and even ride them, and have a truce with the major Canadian settlements where the Inuit trade food and act as transport between settlements that are far apart in exchange for occasional shelter and other things they dont usually have access to (I’m actually drawing a blank at this one)

I’ve actually seen some very thoughtful write ups that explain this well, but the gist here is, you need to imagine all this from Violet’s perspective. 

When you meet Violet in 401 she’s very closed off and bitter. She opens up to Clementine since she sees something in her, which for Violet no doubt felt like a big risk. She hasn’t been truly close to anyone since Minnie, and probably spends more time thinking about leaving than she does being close with the other kids. 

When Marlon dies and 402 happens, Violet through sheer force of “fuck it I’ll do it” becomes a leader and stresses the fuck out for weeks trying to keep everyone alive (because deep down she cares about them all) and if Clementine wasn’t around, she never would have had the strength to even try to fight back against the raiders. 

Even if she doesn’t romance/friend date Clementine, she puts a lot of faith in her, faith she clearly didn’t have in Marlon. She risks it all on Clementine being someone worth believing in. (if you do go to the roof, you can see Violet has issues about being left behind by many people she’d cared for, they all leave, but Clementine came back)

Then she SEES Clementine save Louis instead of her. She’s cracked across the head and throw into a cage and taken on what must have been a terrifying ride through the dark woods. She’s brought aboard the ship like an animal, thrown in a different cage, threatened, scared. This is a teenage girl, recall. 

And then MINNIE. Alive, and in her now vulnerable state, a face she loved telling her it will all be okay as long as NO ONE fights back. In extreme situations people cling to whatever comfort they know. Who hasn’t looked at your ex’s facebook page when you felt down? Or felt how easy it would be to fall back into their arms and forget all your problems? She became leader, trusted Clementine, and it all blew up in her face. A horrible mixture of shame, regret, fear, exhaustion, and a desire to just make it all go away lead Violet to cooperate. 

Violet extended herself farther than she has in years to believe in Clementine, and in her experience it was all a huge mistake. She got that same speech Minnie gives Clementine in the woods, and in her compromised state, she believed it. Her attacking Clem is a desperate desire to stop anyone else from getting hurt. She’s at the beginning stages of the total brainwash we see Minnie suffering from. (especially in the captured Louis side when Minnie is screaming “we just lay down, fall in line, and we get to live! And if you don’t, people die! The people you LOVE, die!”) 

Don’t be Afraid violin solo from TWDG S4 ep 3- Broken Toys. Played by ear :)

I’ve only been playing for a year and 7 months please be gentle :3 I really think it’s a beautiful song so I wanted to share this. This is my very first solo cover ever 😳😳

I wanted to add a piano backtrack so it can be a Clem and Lou duet but I don’t wanna get a copyright strike, so I just played in a lower octave for the background. I hope you guys like this!! 🍒

At an aquarium?

At an art museum?

At a coffee shop?

At a book shop?

In a hat shop?

At the movies during a good movie?

At the movies during a bad movie?

At a drive-thru movie?

At a local park?

At a zoo?

At home with parents?

At home alone?

At a school dance?

In a forest?

In a cave full of crystals?

At the beach at night?

At the beach during the day?

At the boardwalk?

During an after-school club?

At an amusement park?

At an orchestra concert?

At a popular band concert?

At a pizza parlor?

At a soda fountain?

At a magic show?

hell yesssss here ya go!

“Bet ya can’t bring back 2 squirrels today.”

Louis scoffed, turning to face Marlon. “Is that a challenge?”

“A bet.”

“Oh really?” Louis smirked. “What’s the prize?”

Marlon shrugged. “An extra bowl at dinner?”

Louis smirked, rubbing his hands together and shooting his friend a finger gun. “You’re so on.”

A few hours later, while Marlon was outside playing fetch with Rosie, the front gates swung open.

In walked Louis with a beaming grin.

Marlon smirked. “How’d ya do?”

With a chuckle, he held up his hand. “Do two raccoons count?” They dangled as he held both by the tail.

Raccoons were worth a lot more food.

Marlon smirked. “Technically, the bet was for squirrels.”

Louis’ grin vanished and his arm dropped in defeat.

“You suck, Marlon.”

Marlon just laughed.

He knew Louis didn’t mean it.

I mean James is hot too.

And Vi.

And Clem.

And Aasim.

Everyone has a different weakness. I have no doubts that the delta threatened his and the ericson kids’ lives like they did with Violet: the difference between them is that got violet to shut up and fall in line, while they resorted to violence to keep Louis’s mouth shut.

Y'all realize that Violet has dealt with abandonment and loved ones leaving/dying oractically all her life right… i mean first, her dad was an alcoholic and she barely sawandr mom, then she watched her grandmother kill herself when she was too young to understand what was going on. then her parents abandoned her at Ericson, then Ericson, the people who were supposed to help her, up and left her and thirty-something other kids to fend for themselves in the literal apocalypse. THEN Marlon traded away Sophie and Minnie; her best friend and her girlfriend, gone like that. Then she loses Brody, another good friend, and then she watches two of her other best friends (as well as herself) get brutalized and kidnapped while she couldnt do anything. All in the span of eight years.

Violet is done losing people. She doesn’t want to be saved if it means that everone else is okay. She’s terrified of everyone else she knows dying and she will try to stop anyone from doing so.