I loved you, show.
I have never felt closer to a character than to Abbie Mills.
The color of our skin was different, but I felt her in my soul. She was beautiful. She was strong. She was weak. She was kind. She was closed. She was everything I hoped to be and feared to be.
There is no show without her.
I wish Nicole nothing but the best. I pray this was her decision and she moves on to other things.
I am grateful for what the show gave me. A chance to write things I think are lovely. That I am proud of. A chance to meet people I know are wonderful.
I’m crying over a TV show. I wish I were not.
I believed in this show. And I can never be bitter for what it gave me.
But I can and will be angry about the racist, awful, pointless, casual way it tossed aside a character who will never die for me.
Abbie Mills is alive. She is happy. And she is with the person her soul was made for.
What happens to Sleepy Hollow is immaterial. I will not watch.
I hopelessly hoped. I believed. I rooted.
And this.
Good luck, Nicole. You do deserve better.
But Abbie Mills also deserved better.
show writers: who are you?
fanfic writers: i'm you but stronger
*slams fists on table* where’s my obligatory beach/pool filler episode!! what the fuck!!!
-tla
*not pictured here: crane drowning face-first by the shore after passing out
Or millions of roaches???? Ick...
All animals go to heaven is just illogical planning. You’re telling me every crocodile that ever lived is in heaven? Heaven must be swarming crocodiles. Does that sound like heaven to you? Thousands of millions of crocodiles?
To the Fandoms Helping Out:
We want to keep this event Abbie Mills specific. We are joining together to combat systemic discrimination in the media. However due to Abbie Mills’ unique place in television we want to make sure to keep this event focused on Abbie herself.
Please remember when speaking of the discrimination that Abbie faces, speak directly to her blackness, while Abbie is woman of color she faced discrimination specific to that blackness. In 3 seasons of television:
Abbie Mills was not kissed and had no onscreen romance
Abbie sacrificed herself thrice for the world, her partner Ichabod never did
she was repeatedly sidelined and displaced while white women were pushed into her place (said women were then horribly written besides)
Sleepy Hollow itself was originally promoted as diverse show making their treatment of the black actors and characters on this show that much more egregious
the “don’t need no man trope” which is specific to black women was applied to her by the writers room: “Abbie loved Ichabod, but Ichabod was in love with Abbie.”
Abbie also faced colorism from her own fandom as some viewers repeatedly called for her to be replaced by her light-skinned, acceptably curly haired sister
originally Abbie was supposed to die mid-season, that’s right as far as the writer’s of Sleepy Hollow were concerned this co-lead, only black woman leading a genre show, arguably fan favorite’s death didn’t even warrant a season finale
her final words to her partner were that “her purpose was to carry him forward and she had nothing more to do”, in an interview with one of the writers they said: “she had served her purpose”
she existed solely for the benefit of a man
while she started strong Abbie was diminished in every way as her S1 love interests were written out apropos of nothing to make room for story line’s that centered the conflict around her white male partner (now I like Ichabod, but their storylines needed to be equally important)
all POC supporting cast were either killed off or slowly disappeared from the show: John Cho, Orlando Jones, Jill-Marie Jones, Amandla Stenberg,Nicholas Gonzalez.
Nicole Beharie herself was not invited to the season 2 DVD commentary, she recently had to ask the Sleepy Hollow fox twitter account to follow her, she was told that no one wanted to see her at conventions without Tom Mison
Essentially they hired an amazing Julliard trained actress and diminished her and the character she played in every conceivable way. The simple human wastage is disgusting, the constant slights are an outrage, and the blend of racism and sexism she endured us beyond the pale. And all of it is specific to her blackness so remember that when we work this trending event.
She is not simply a WOC, but a black woman. The strong woman who doesn’t need a man trope is specific to her blackness, being a pack mule whose feelings are not considered is specific to her blackness, being considered disposable is specific to her blackness and being only considered for her usefulness to her white co-workers is specific to her blackness.
“So I’ve been trying to get it made since then.”
Even an absentee parent knows.
Sleepy Hollow 3x17 Truth Bomb We cannot hide who we truly are, Lieutenant.
You know, I had the most bizarre dream last night. It involved me dying. I won’t bore you with the details–at least, the ones I can remember–but it was something about Pandora and Betsy Ross, and I don’t even know what. And I even went out with some bullshit line, which I can’t quite remember, but kind of implied that my entire existence was about Crane, which, like, I love the guy and all, but I have my own life. WTF, subconscious??
But I woke up, and Crane was in the kitchen complaining about “Why is the recommended serving size upon the package of this frozen pizza a fifth of the pizza when the pizza is a rectangular shape and will obviously not be cut into an odd number of segments?!” and I knew everything was fine.
Dreams, amirite?
–Abbie
“I beat this, didn’t I?”
Abbie’s return to the catacombs with Crane | Ichabbie | Sleepy Hollow 3.17