Catharsis

Sleepy Hollow

I don’t care if Sleepy Hollow gets a 4th season. If Nicole Beharie/Abigail Mills isn’t back I won’t be watching.

the reason this one feels different is because abbie had one trait that none of the others had. she was the hero of the story.

even if you don’t think there’s a vile strain of homophobia running through the industry at the moment, whether or not you believe women of color are woefully underrepresented on tv, no matter what your feelings about about misogyny as a motivator for people’s actions, you cannot deny a crap load of women have died on tv lately.

but abbie’s different, because she was the hero of the story and the story ends when the hero dies.

and for a show to kill its hero and go on without her, what they’re really telling people is she was never really the hero. it literally doesn’t matter why they did it. it just does. not. matter. because they’ve told us now that in the story they’re telling, abbie was so unimportant that they could do without her.

fuck you, sleepy hollow.

At age 23, Tina Fey was working at a YMCA. At age 23, Oprah was fired from her first reporting job.  At age 24, Stephen King was working as a janitor and living in a trailer. 

At age 27, Vincent Van Gogh failed as a missionary and decided to go to art school.   At age 28, J.K. Rowling was a suicidal single parent living on welfare.

At age 28, Wayne Coyne ( from The Flaming Lips) was a fry cook. At age 30, Harrison Ford was a carpenter.  At age 30, Martha Stewart was a stockbroker.  At age 37, Ang Lee was a stay-at-home-dad working odd jobs. Julia Child released her first cookbook at age 39, and got her own cooking show at age 51. Vera Wang failed to make the Olympic figure skating team, didn’t get the Editor-in-Chief position at Vogue, and designed her first dress at age 40. Stan Lee didn’t release his first big comic book until he was 40. Alan Rickman gave up his graphic design career to pursue acting at age 42. Samuel L. Jackson didn’t get his first movie role until he was 46.

Morgan Freeman landed his first movie role at age 52. Kathryn Bigelow only reached international success when she made The Hurt Locker at age 57. Grandma Moses didn’t begin her painting career until age 76. Louise Bourgeois didn’t become a famous artist until she was 78. Whatever your dream is, it is not too late to achieve it. You aren’t a failure because you haven’t found fame and fortune by the age of 21. Hell, it’s okay if you don’t even know what your dream is yet. Even if you’re flipping burgers, waiting tables or answering phones today, you never know where you’ll end up tomorrow. Never tell yourself you’re too old to make it. 

Never tell yourself you missed your chance. 

Never tell yourself that you aren’t good enough. 

You can do it. Whatever it is. 

Fuck the Text

I’m probably going to post more about this tomorrow when my brain is functioning and not awash in cortisol, I think (maybe), but:

FUCK THE TEXT.

These stories? They aren’t theirs.

These stories are ours.

Canon matters, of course. What is mainstream and sanctioned and given money and airtime matters. And it deserves criticism. A lot of it.

But it isn’t the story. Canon–the text (of a novel, a TV series, a movie, a play, a comic series, etc.)–is just one version of a story. There are infinite others. There are better and worse versions, but this isn’t church doctrine. There’s no “right” version that’s going to get you into heaven and gain the favor of God, and what we get handed in the text–stories told by other people–has no special value as to its rightness.

Its impact is a different matter. We all, as fans, don’t get to film and broadcast and make money off of our versions of Abbie Mills or Sleepy Hollow. We don’t get to fix shitty, oppressive media representation. We don’t get to broadcast a better, truer, more just, more progressive narrative.

But we don’t have to accept what we’re given in terms of the stories themselves. We don’t have to accept the dry, gray, cold meatloaf we’ve been served for dinner is the best dinner possible. Or the only dinner possible. We don’t have to accept what others tell us–try to force us–to accept about stories.

Including what the “right” or “true” story is.

FUCK THE TEXT.

some random: how long are you going to be bitter about sleepy hollow?

me:

3.16 “Dawn’s Early Light” Crane and Joe. Certified BrOTP.

Reblog if you only acknowledge the One True Bow

Abbie Mills being killed on Sleepy Hollow just goes to show me the writers, producers, and showrunners of Sleepy Hollow were never truly invested or interested in her character. They never expected this amazing black female character, played by a very talented black woman, would resonate with so many people. They never expected Abbie to have the fanbase she had, or to become as popular as she is. 

It says to me all the praise they got in season one for the shows diversity was really all talk. That once Abbie got too popular, they pushed Katrina out to the forefront hoping desperately fans and viewers would latch on to her like they did Abbie. Because they didn’t see Abbie as special, unique, and important. 

I stopped watching the show mid-way through s2, but Abbie was always the reason I wanted to watch. She was the heart of the show in the early seasons. She was the cornerstone of what made the show work. 

I’m not sure if Nicole wanted to leave the show (given that the showrunners seemed clueless as what to do with the character and utterly unwilling to pursue the obvious Ichabbie romance), or if this was a showrunners only decision. Either way, it’s a sad loss for television. I only hope Nicole can find better work and better roles where she can really shine as an actress. She deserved so much better than what she was given on Sleepy Hollow. And fans deserved better from the showrunners. Abbie Mills deserved better. 

❤️💖❤️

i was originally gonna leave this as part of a collection of au concept art, but then i realized im lazy and a shit and a lazy shit so that didn’t happen

-tla