ReturntoFortSalem

Motherland Fort Salem fans have been having a great weekend of online content this weekend (9 – 10^th November ’24).

On Saturday we had All Switches Eve 3, organised by Psycho4MFS and on Sunday we had Beyond The Screen organised by Nevastalgia. 

There were 8 confirmed guests and a worldwide audience. 

We had a few technical issues.  I certainly didn’t make it easy for myself as I was on a laptop and that is not the same functionality as on a mobile phone.  But we got things working well in the end.

I was particularly keen to ask Kandyse a question.  She got married at the end of September.  At Switches Gathering 2 we had wedding cards that fans had signed especially for her, but I needed to know where to send them.   Dawn made sure that my question got asked and Kandyse sent me the address they should be sent to.  Thank you, Dawn.  The card was designed by @MFSarchive.

We did not have all of our guests initially and some joined us after the start.  But we had an extra guest – Ess had joined us.  They were only able to stay for a short while, as they had to leave to go for rehearsal.  But we got to chat and hang out with them for a while before they had to go. 

Based on previous events organised by Psycho4MFS, it was expected that the zoom would last about a couple of hours, with Q&A, a Kahoot trivia quiz and the chance for the cast to talk to us about what they are doing. 

A couple of hours in and we were going strong, when we got our second surprise guest – Ashley joined us.  She apologised for being late, she had slept through her alarm clock.  It was pretty early in the morning where she was.  But when some of the others left, she said she was happy to stay and talk ‘all day’.  So, we had an Ashley zoom.

I won’t go through questions that were asked, because Psycho4MFS will produce a video later.  But one thing that does need to be commented on was that Ashley had been blown away at the convention in Brussels by the amount of love for her and her character.  She had thought that the fans didn’t like her.  But she had never felt surrounded by so much love before.  She can’t wait to do more conventions. 

About an hour later, Demetria finally joined us.  She had been dealing with a gas leak at her son’s place.  She wanted to make sure nobody blew up.  And, she had got it wrong, because she thought it was at 8 pm, not 8 am.  Very few people had had the chance to meet Demetria in person – I haven’t met her.  So, this was a wonderful chance to talk to her for the first time.

Then Cat rejoined us.  It was still going on and she loved being a part of it and wanted to spend time with the fans.  She mentioned again about Petra standing for President.  I was wearing my President Bellweather T-shirt.  Cat took a photo of the shirt.

Then Taylor dropped in – the 11^th guest and the 3^rd surprise.  She said she couldn’t stay long because she was taking her sister somewhere.  But she wanted to be part of it.  She stayed for a good half an hour.  We eventually finished the zoom, after over 5 ¼ hours.   Many, many thanks to Alicia for running the zoom, even though it started at midnight her time. 

This was a very profound, emotional time.  The hours that the cast were willing to put in to come and talk to us, the love they showed for the show and the fans was truly amazing.  I have been around a number of fandoms over the years, but this commitment from them is truly exceptional.  They love meeting us and getting to know us, not just our names, but who we are.  And they all want to come to conventions.  Motherland means as much to them as it does to us.

The next day we had the zoom run by Nevastalgia featuring Jess. 

Jess had not been able to come to the convention in Brussels due to passport problems.  She did tell the organisers that she was already applying for her visa for next year.  They organised this instead. 

She wants to go and visit Lyne in the US, but needs a US visa.  If she applies for a US visa in Canada, it takes about 750 days to get approved.  If she applies in South Africa, it takes 10 days!!!  So, as she is going back to South Africa for 3 months, she is going to get it done out there. 

We had a Q & A with Jess to start the event.  Everyone who wanted to ask a question, got to ask at least one.  This was fairly formal as we were muted and had to put an electronic hand up to get a question.  But in the group chat that was next, we were unmuted and just had a chance to chat with Jess and talk together. 

There were many familiar faces in the sessions, both from the previous day and from conventions.  As the cast are getting to know us, so we are getting to know each other.  We are getting over just knowing each other by social media names, we actually have surnames and time differences. 

We built community this weekend.  It has been a difficult week for many people, but a weekend like this fed the spirit and allowed the positive environment created by this fandom to grow.  We came for a TV show, but stayed for a community, which is becoming a family.

Thank you Motherland.

After lunch we had the games session.  The cast were divided into two teams, Cat and Ashley against Taylor, Amalia and Jess.  But Lyne replaced Jess for this.  Both teams were joined by various members of the audience.  This time it was a game of charades.  This seemed to suit Taylor very well, she was immediately asking about if they were allowed to indicate how many words?  Or how many syllables in each word?  Amalia seemed not to understand the idea of syllables.  Taylor was too hyped up to explain it. 

We were not allowed to take photos or film this part of the con.  So, I just sat back and enjoyed the show.  I do remember the rock, paper, scissors contest to decide who went first!  Taylor and Ashley taking the ‘combat’ very seriously.  And, of course, it ended in a draw, so we had another round of rock, paper, scissors between our generals.  Petra won!

The next panel was with Lyne and Cat.  I didn’t take any notes during this panel, I just sat and lived in the moment. 

And what a moment it was.  General Alder and General Bellweather in their army uniforms.  I know Lyne had kept her general uniform, but I don’t know where they got Petra’s uniform from.  But it made a huge impact that they dressed for us.  This panel had an additional surprise for us.  One of the staff came to the front with a mobile phone with Jess on Facetime, ready to join in.

Lyne and Cat also did their Generals photoshoot in their uniforms.  This was really well received.  I hope this would encourage other cast members to bring along things they have for photoshoots. 

Amidst the autograph sessions and photoshoots, there were more group meets.  I went to the Taylor one.

Taylor was telling us about her holiday with her boyfriend and her grandparents.  They had been to Ireland.  She had a long story about Danny and Guiness and all the adventures that they had.  That took up a big part of the meet.  Taylor really does have a gift as a raconteur.  She could easily do a one woman show. 

I did get to ask her a follow up to what I had asked her at Witchbomb about the audition tapes.  Taylor said that she had looked for it, she doesn’t have a copy, but was trying to see if her agent still had a copy.  She wants to see it herself and see how she had played the character differently. 

She did say that the scenes for the audition were the ‘rah-rah’ scene where she meets the unit for the first time and the scene where she meets Scylla for the first time.  I would really like to see both of these, but especially the second one because that was Amalia’s self tape audition scene and it was subtly different from the broadcast version.  Did Taylor do the same one as Amalia or the broadcast version?  When did it change?

Then we had the closing ceremony.  And of course, the blue balloons get everywhere. The end of a packed day.  This was Cat’s farewell to us as she was not coming on Sunday.  There were lots of tears from the cast, who were very affected by the emotion from the audience. 

But there was one more surprise, when Ashley asked two members of the audience to stand up.  They were total surprised, until Ashley revealed they were having their birthdays this weekend. 

Next we had the panel with Taylor, Amalia and Ashley. 

Question.  Tell us a book that has influenced you. 

Taylor had several.  Her go-to answer was The Power of Now [by Eckhart Tolle].  She also mentioned the Twilight series.  She was complaining that she hadn’t brought Eclipse with her because she had already finished reading Twilight and New Moon on this trip.

Amalia mentioned a book she had come across on holiday when she was young – The Secret Life of Bees [by Sue Monk Kidd].  But she hasn’t watched the film made from the book. 

Ashley chose The Bible.  She said she read this on a daily basis.

Amalia told her that it can be a story.  So Ashley mentioned The Giver [by Lois Lowry] and the Percy Jackson series. 

Amalia contributed that Jess would have said Erica Jong’s Witches.  Taylor mentioned that Jess reads a lot of poetry.  She also likes Big Magic [by Elizabeth Gilbert].

Question.  Out of the whole cast, who would you bet on to win in a fight?

Ashley – Me.

Taylor and Amalia were both adamant that Demetria ‘would hand us our ass’.

Question.  If your character was an ice cream, what flavour would they be?

Taylor thought Jess would be rainbow sherbet.

Amalia would be strawberry, dribbled in Vanilla.

Taylor went for Black Tiger.  Cue some confusion, so she had to explain that this was liquorice and orange.  Then concluded that this might be a Canadian flavour.

Amalia thought Scylla would be mint chocolate.

Ashley felt that Abigail might be cookies and cream oreos – like her.  Taylor disagreed and thought Abigail would be black cherry

Question.  What was the most physically difficult / tiring scene they had to film?

Ashley – the Bellweather fight from 1.05.  It took 20 hours to film.  Ashley and Cat had mentioned this in their group meet too.  The bit where Abigail and Petra fight back to back had been their idea.  They thought that there should be a part where they are fighting together against the attackers.

Taylor chose the dungeon scene from S1.  She said it was hard for both of us [Taylor and Amalia].  The body feels the trauma and doesn’t know that it is not real and can’t just stop it at the end of filming.  Amalia agreed that is was difficult, but felt that the crew were super respectful.  Things like, if people are talking you can’t get to the most difficult places.

Taylor mentioned the beach scene.  This had been filmed the day after the Bellweather fight scene.  She had spent so much time in the water that she practically got hyperthermia.  It was hard.

Amalia said that Taylor had been upset for days and asked whether it was crossing a line.

Ashley said that at that point they were ‘anything for the shot’.  She said they were psychotic.  But they were young and didn’t speak up for themselves.

Question.  Did you do any research on witches and did it have any effect on you?

Taylor said she learned about Wiccan and astrology.  This changed her practice of healing and medicine. 

She mentioned that she had originally played Raelle as a weak character, a jaded misfit.  But when she did the fight scene with Abigail she realised that there was something missing.  Nobody knew what it was, so Taylor hired an acting coach, for the first time.  The coach wanted her t0 speak form her diaphragm and have a powerful stance.  When Abigail kicked the sh*t out of her, they saw it – a strong defensive frame.

Amalia said that was a harsh reality for you [Taylor].  She didn’t research, she took it for granted.  Witch trials are part of Swedish history.  Instead, she worked on Scylla’s terrorism.

Ashley hadn’t done any research, she just learned from Taylor.  They wanted Abigail to be more of a bitch, when she auditioned for the first time.  When she auditioned the second time, she brought an attitude of ‘don’t give a f*ck’, which gave her a queen bee attitude.  But she did care.  She wanted to make sure Abigail was not just one note, she dived deeper.

Amalia said she did ask Eliot about the Mycelium.  Taylor said that idea wasn’t introduced until later.

Question.  What scene took the most takes to get right?

Taylor said ‘anything you are filming until 2 am’.

Ashley mentioned the 20 hour day and they didn’t finish.  ‘We were losing it’.  She also mentioned filming on her 21^st birthday, but didn’t elaborate.

Amalia didn’t recall anything particular.  But she was proud of completing 8 minutes of screen time in one day for 2 episodes – the dungeon scene.  ‘You guys work in a different way’.

Taylor mentioned being so tired she would sleep in the car.

Ashley mentioned being so tired that she was memorising her lines while they were doing hair and make up.

Taylor said she would work for 6 days and then sleep on Sundays.

Ashley did say that dance rehearsals were on Sunday [for 1.04].

At the end of this panel, Alicia @AliIsBk1 stood up and told us that she and others had arranged for one of the local sandwich shops, which is normally closed on Saturday, to open especially for the convention and that if we went there for lunch we could have free sandwiches.  This was incredibly generous and I am very grateful to Alicia and her colleagues for their continued generosity to the fans.  Last year they bought us literally hundreds of donuts. 

I must admit that I didn’t have time to go and get my sandwiches because I had an envelope of extras cards to sort out and a lot of autograph pictures to get ready for the afternoon.  Some BTS photos of me during the afternoon show me with folders.

I am an early riser and was down to breakfast almost as soon as it opened.  As often happens at these events, there were other Switches there at that early hour so we joined up for breakfast and to share stories from yesterday and our travels. 

Saturday at Switches Gathering 2 started early, with more pass withdrawals.  Despite having booked a slot for yesterday, I hadn’t managed to get mine done.  So, I arrived on the 7^th floor early.  I was the first one there.  I got the welcome desk set up and then booked my place at the front of the (as yet non existent) queue to get my pass – and a large envelope of extras cards and merchandise.  It took a long time.  As all the extras are linked to the pass, I hope that next year it will be possible to just scan the pass.  And hopefully, there will be no last-minute guest problems. 

So we had the opening ceremony, where we finally got all the guests for the day on stage.  Arlen and Olivia had been at the Friday evening events, but were not present on Saturday. 

All comments are my recollection of what was said.  Some recollections may differ. 

Lyne told us how devastated Jess was not to be able to be with us.  She had applied for a European visa and this had been granted, but her passport hadn’t arrived back and appeared to be lost in the Canada post system.

Taylor said that she had never expected this when she started the show, she didn’t expect the chance to get to know us [the fans] and even our pets.  Lauren had brought her dog Sindy for the second year.  So did a couple of the local Belgian fans.  She thanked us for keeping the show alive when ‘the suits won’t’. 

Ashley was clearly very excited to finally be here.  She introduced herself with a dad joke.  ‘How did the barber win the race?’  ‘He knew a short cut’.  Cat told the audience to hold her [Ashley] to a higher standard.  ‘Thanks Mom’ was Ashley’s response and Cat said ‘I raised you better than that’.  They really do have a mother / daughter type relationship and they both played up to that through the weekend. 

Amalia said she was tired but happy, claiming it was nothing to do with alcohol and she did sleep last night.

Cat expressed her awe of the translators who handled long complex translations brilliantly.  She also wanted to give a shout out to those who were not ‘here’ but were still participating.  She was honoured to be part of this, even thought they haven’t shot a frame in years.  She still felt a part of it.  She said that she used to talk about the show in the past tense as something that she had done, but she has to change that to the present tense as the show is still alive and the journey continues.  She thanked people for sharing their stories with her last night.

And so we got to questions.

Question.  Season 3 ended with everyone becoming a witch.  What was their idea about how their character would have developed in season 4.

Taylor said there was an overarching vision.  Jess would become a general. 

Lyne pointed out that she is dead.

Cat ‘But I still have a job’.

Taylor wants to run away and have a duck farm.

Ashley felt that Abigail would be in the resistance.  She wanted her to have a bad streak.

Lyne wanted Sarah to be retired and distilling her own whisky, but living near the duck farm

Cat wanted Petra to stand for election as the first witch president of the United States.  Her platform would be about equal powers and using those powers for the benefit of all.  [This became a recurring topic for the weekend.  And I came home and literally got the T-shirt]. 

Amalia said that the people in the writers room had stayed in touch.  She wanted a future with no more pain for Raelle.  Scylla could take it.  She wanted Scylla to do an internship with the new President Bellweather, while Raelle was on maternity leave.

Question.  Eliot and the writers had a lot of material.  So you know what was planned and didn’t make the cut?

Taylor said that by the end of season 2 they knew they were looking at a shorter story arc.  They had been hoping for 5 (?) seasons.  There was an overarching idea, with opposing ideas growing each season.  Season 1, the opposition was in the military.  Season 2 it was political opposition and classism.  Season 3 it has spread worldly.  So we saw the ideas, but they were condensed.  Olivia’s character was introduced as a result of Taylor’s accident.

Lyne explained that this is the beauty of making TV – it changes.  Initially Alder was called a ‘frictional character’, but they saw opportunities for growth.  Eliot had the idea to make her more than the original.

Ashley told us that Abigail was supposed to have a baby in season 3.  Taylor asked her if she was supposed to have 3 dads?  Ashley told her ‘No, just Tony’.  Then told Cat, ‘Mom, give me the 3 dudes’.  It was a union of Earth and Sky thing.

After each section there was the French translation.  At one point Lyne interrupted the translation to clarify a point.  It was really a joy to hear her in fluent French.

After that panel, there was plenty going on, with lots of photographs in the morning as well as group meets.  My next event was the group meet with Cat and Ashley.  We were delighted to have them at Switches Gathering 2 and made a point of telling them so.  They were both very happy to be there.

Cat told us that this was not her first convention.  She had been in Once Upon a Time and she had done a con for that in London.  She had really enjoyed the experience and meeting the fans, so she had been really happy to be invited to come here.  Ashley spoke again about that fact that she had never been invited to a con before.  Those who had not been at the cocktail party last night were hearing that for the first time.

I asked a question about the final scene in the helicopter.  We knew that, especially in the final 2 episodes, material was filmed that didn’t make the final screen version.  In the helicopter scene Abigail has no dialogue and Raelle only has two words.  I asked if this was the way it had been filmed or if some had been cut out?  Ashley said that was how it was written and that was what they filmed.  I voiced my opinion that this was wrong, the leader of the Bellweather Unit should have had some dialogue in that scene. 

So, I had to ask her opinion on the question about whether she thought that Scylla should have been on the helicopter.  Ashley said she saw it as coming full circle, it started with the 3 of them and ended with the 3 of them.  She didn’t actually say ‘no’ but that was clear from the idea of going full circle back to the start.  For the record, Amalia was asked this at Witchbomb and she felt that Scylla should have been on the helicopter. 

The Switches Gathering 2 convention took place on October 18^th to 20^th in Brussels.  This was the second convention run for Motherland Fort Salem fans by Nevastalgia.  Last year’s convention had been one day in Paris.  This year was bigger, longer and had more guests. 

Several fans, including me, arrived on the Thursday.  This was partly to avoid travel problems – like the storms in the US before Witchbomb – but also to allow some time to explore Brussels itself.  I have to say that the journey from the Eurostar to the hotel was easier than the journey from Gare du Nord to the hotel in Paris last year. One local train, 5 stops and an 8 minute walk. 

As I was arriving, I met one of the Belgian fans who told me the news about Jessica Sutton not being able to come due to passport problems.  At the time the announcement was that she would definitely not make Friday or Saturday and the chances of her making Sunday were very low.  Not the start we wanted.

The Van Der Valk Brussels hotel was lovely.  My only complaint was that it was too warm.  Even with air con, I couldn’t get my room cool enough.  But others liked the fact they were warm. 

The convention room and all the activities took place on the 7^th floor.  So, it was lovely when we finally got the signs put up by the hotel.  It really was time to get the party started. 

Before the con events, there was the pass withdrawl.  This was really complicated by Jess not being there because people had extras to swop or get credit notes for  and with the scanning, it made things take longer than expected.

This was a perfect opportunity for people to engage with the Switch Welcome Desk.  There was a desk on the 7^th floor labelled Welcome and that seemed the ideal place.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take a photo of it.  But there were pens and book marks to give away, including a pen especially for the occasion. 

There were also wedding cards to sign as Kandyse and Amalia had both got married during September. 

The card for Kandyse and Claureinne was designed by @mfsarchive.  Many thinks to her for doing this at short notice. 

There were some additional cards for Amalia that had been saved from Witchbomb, so that those who were not at Witchbomb had the opportunity to add their congratulations. The cards for Amalia were given to her during the convention, the cards for Kandyse will be posted to her. 

Friday evening had two activities, the Cocktail Party and the Selfie Lounge.  For the cocktail party, there were standing tables and people were grouped around them while the guests visited each table in turn.  There were drinks served and hors d’oeuvre, which the guests were happy to partake in too.

Of course, as soon as Amalia arrived at our table, we all wanted to get a good look at the wedding rings.   We weren’t allowed to take photos at that event, so although we got a good look, we couldn’t share it. 

Having had to leave the outfit I had intended to wear for the cocktail party at home because there was a limit to how heavy a suitcase I could manage, I was in my male witch army bomber jacket and one of the army belts.  These have red tabs.  But I couldn’t work out exactly how to wear them, so I asked.

Ashley’s answer boiled down to ‘It’s complicated’ but seemed to indicate that it involved a lot of effort to ‘get it right’.  Amalia told me I was wearing it wrong because the red tags weren’t visible – I knew that.  But did move the tags through belt carriers, not easy, so they were at the side, but now covered up by the jacket.  I continued to fiddle with it and asked Taylor, who said that the production people kept changing their minds.  The tags were originally intended to hang things from.  She seemed to think I was now wearing it OK.  I thought that if anyone had the answer, it would be the people who actually wore them.  But this is Motherland, not simple!

We also discovered that Cat is a hugger, she was hugging everyone.  Ashley followed Cat around the tables, so she got a hug from her ‘mom’ as well.  I should say that Ashley had brought her real mother to the convention too.

However the big surprise was talking to Ashley about this being her first convention and finding out that she had never been asked to a convention before!  Talking about it afterwards, so many of us had independently believed that she didn’t want to do conventions.  But that was totally wrong.  She does want to do conventions and was very excited about coming and meeting the fans and doing the con.  None of us could pinpoint how we ‘knew’ that she didn’t want to do them, but serious misinformation had been going around.  So, hoping that Ashley gets invited to Witchbomb next August. 

And, of course, when there are a lot of Switches in one place, that place is usually the hotel bar.  And, this being Belgium, there was Belgian beer to drink.  You just have to sample the local produce.    

To be continued.

I thought I was finished with postings about Witchbomb, but this is the con that keeps on giving.  As I was going through my notes and photos and trying to get some sort of order, things triggered a few more memories, so here they are.  As always, these are my recollections.

From the Amalia solo fan meet.  She was asked about the final scene in the helicopter.  She agreed with many of us that Scylla should have been on that helicopter.  She felt that Scylla had earned her place there.  She believed that she had earned Abigail’s trust and that she was part of the unit.  She did admit that she didn’t know who chose the people on the helicopter and did concede that Scylla hadn’t earned Alder’s trust.  It was very clear that those of us at that fan meet also agreed that Scylla should have been on that helicopter. 

From the Taylor and Amalia panel.  When they were asked about the song their character would sing to the other, I gave Amalia’s answer – Lunch by Billie Eilish – but didn’t give Taylor’s.  She wanted that song from Frozen, because there were some things that Raelle needed to ‘Let It Go’.

Taylor was also asked about jealousy.  In one of the S3 After The Storms, Amalia had said that she had told Taylor that she would be jealous of Taylor’s next on screen love interest.  So was Taylor jealous of Amalia getting married twice on screen?  Taylor answered that she didn’t watch much TV, she prefers to read.  She didn’t have any idea that Amalia’s characters had got married, so Amalia caught her up.  Taylor’s view was that this was ‘another world’ that she didn’t know anything about. 

Amalia seemed to have expected that Taylor would have watched it.  She told Taylor she could watch Midsummer Night, except the last episode and Vikings Valhalla, except the first episode.  Then things would be fine.

At the Jess, Amalia and Taylor panel, there was a question about how they would go about assembling flat pack furniture. 

For Amalia, she would follow the instructions exactly.  If someone tried to help and deviated from the instructions, she would get very territorial.

Taylor said she would SKIM the instructions and sort of intuit how to put it together and so she would probably end up with three legs going in one direction and one going the wrong way.  She demonstrated.

Jess would NOT read the instructions.  She would go out and buy a ready assembled table.  She would go into a shop and it would be ‘I want that one’ and she would walk out with a completed table.

I liked this question, it showed their very different personality types.  Personally, I agree with Amalia, follow the instructions and if anyone tries to help my response is often something along the lines of ‘Would you make me a cup of tea, please.’  It may be a coincidence but IKEA, one of the leading manufacturers of flat pack furniture, is a Swedish company. 

This should be the final part of my Witchbomb memories.  This is from the panels.  I didn’t get to all the panels this year, because of clashes with the fan meets.  And, as Her Majesty, the late Queen Elizabeth II famously once said ‘recollections may differ’.  This is what I took away from the panels.  These memories are not in  chronological order.

Lyne and Jess were asked, ‘if they could start a cult, what would it be a cult of?’ Lyne’s answer was ‘kindness’.  That was clearly something very important to her.  Jess thought about it and said ‘cheese’.  She loves cheese.  Someone in the audience then came and gave her a Babybel cheese, which Jess proceeded to eat.

And so the cult of cheese was born.  On the Sunday, Jess did a panel with Taylor and Amalia.  When they arrived on stage, there was a Babybel cheese on their chairs.  This is Taylor holding hers up to show the audience. 

For the record, Amalia and Taylor got asked the cult question too.  Amalia’s answer was a cult of chocolate.  Taylor wanted a moon cult.

One question was ‘if you could dispense any liquid out of your fingers, what would it be?’  Taylor was straight in there with ‘Mayo’.  Jess thought about it and then decided, she would have ‘water’.  Amalia decided that she would also have water come out of her fingers, but added  ‘Still water, and if you shake it…’ – she demonstrated enthusiastically – ‘you would get fizzy water’.   

They were all asked ‘what actions would your character regret / what would you like to go back and not do?’  Amalia immediately answered ‘Not killing people because murdering is wrong.’  She did expand on that and add ‘not murdering innocent people’. 

Jess then went into a long speech about how mistakes are part of growing and we learn from our mistakes.  Yes, Tally made a lot of mistakes, but she wouldn’t want to change any of them because they made her who she was.  Amalia wasn’t having any of this and when Jess came to an end, or at least a pause, Amalia was straight in with ‘Ratting Out Scylla’.  She folded her arms and gave Jess THE LOOK.  Jess was momentarily speechless.  But that didn’t matter because Taylor followed Amalia’s lead with ‘Lying to Raelle about ratting out Scylla’.  Then she folded her arms too and gave Jess another strong LOOK. 

This was clearly not what Jess had expected, so she thought about it and decided that Tally was just telling her superiors what she saw with Scylla and the balloon, so she wouldn’t change that.  But she did accept Taylor’s point that she shouldn’t have lied to Raelle.  So yes, she would change that.

A question for Taylor and Amalia – ‘What would happen if Raelle and Scylla didn’t meet?’  Amalia’s answer was very direct, that Scylla would have stayed in the Spree and she would be dead.  The audience laughed.  Amalia turned to Taylor and asked what was funny.  The words weren’t funny in themselves, but it was the delivery, that very emphatic ‘She Would Be Dead’, that got a response.

Jess talked about using a dialogue coach for the pilot to get the accent right.  Amalia said that she used a dialogue coach too.  She also said that she had trouble saying the short version of Raelle (presumably getting the accent right) so whenever that appeared in the script, she always asked if she could use the full name. 

Kandyse was asked about travel advice for visiting Africa.  She was very enthusiastic about visiting Botswana and was recommending it as a place she really liked. 

Taylor said she would be visiting the UK later in the year for a holiday and asked people to let her know places she should visit on her holiday.  There was a whole thread on Twitter (Yes, I still call it that) tagging @taylorhickson, recommending places in the UK to visit.

Amalia and Taylor were asked ‘If there was a musical episode, what song would your character sing to the other one?’  Amalia was straight in there with ‘Lunch by Billie Eilish’.  Taylor and much of the audience just fell about laughing.  This time Amalia didn’t need to ask why it was funny.

If anyone is not familiar with that song, you can watch it on You Tube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB3VkzPdgLA

Billie Eilish – LUNCH (Official Music Video) (youtube.com)

Question, ‘what would be your weapon in a food fight?’  Amalia’s first answer was ‘chocolate’, then she thought about it a bit more and wanted something messy, so she chose ‘chocolate pudding’.  Taylor eventually chose ‘tuna salad’. 

There will be a remake of Twilight and Taylor wants a part in it.

Question, ‘What classic Disney movie would Raelle and Scylla watch together?’  Taylor’s first answer was Lady and the Tramp.  Then Amalia suggested Beauty and the Beast because it was all dramatic and Scylla would like that.  Taylor came back with Bug’s Life and Amalia’s reaction was an enthusiastic ‘Oh, yes’.  So that seemed to settle it – Raelle and Scylla would watch Bug’s Life.

Of course someone asked them about the wedding vows, but neither Taylor nor Amalia could remember them, so a fan rushed up with her phone, which had the vows on it.  So, they read the vows together.  One of the things about Starfury is that their no videoing policy is cast iron, so although we got to see it, nobody was able to film it.  But Amalia and Taylor did take a selfie of themselves on that phone as their thank you. 

At the closing ceremony, Jess read a poem on friendship by David Whyte.  The text of the poem together with some photos from the reading, can be read at:

https://x.com/AliIsBk1/status/1824491025274114350

Jess shared a poem on friendship by David Whyte at #WB2 closing ceremony.

Here it is w a collage of photos of beautiful Jess reciting the poem. The awesome photo was taken by @RLine_13 mine are the 2 blurry ones 😕

@jessicalaurasutton we’re your witches & will be, always ❤️ pic.twitter.com/QqDf5Xzq5d

— AliciaCtheWorld (@AliIsBk1) August 16, 2024

These are my personal memories of Starfury’s Witchbomb 2.  I didn’t get to see as much of Lyne and Kandyse as I did last year, when I was at their every panel and fan meet.  So that skews what I experienced.  But these are stories from the fan meets and the panels I did get to. 

I have to write about cat hair, which seemed to be a feature of my Saturday.  I had brought jackets that I wanted Taylor and Amalia to wear for the photo op Saturday morning.  I have two black and white tuxedo cats and so cat hair is a fact of life.  I used over half a roll of lint roller in making sure these jackets were cat hair free and had them in suit covers, everything.  But, as any cat owner knows, cat hair gets everywhere! 

As soon as I walked into the photo room and saw that Amalia was dressed all in black, and my first thought on seeing her was ‘cat hair’!  Black is the absolute worst when your cats have white fur.  I did check with the stewards if Taylor and Amalia were OK with putting on jackets and were either of them allergic to cats.  Luckily they were fine with it.  Amalia did take her black jacket off for the photo, there was no way that dress blues jacket would fit over the top. 

So far, so good until we got to the Raylla fan meet.  Amalia was no longer wearing the black jacket, but was in a T-shirt.  First thought, ‘cat hair’.  Despite my efforts, had she got cat hair on her black clothing, had she been forced to put on a T-shirt to cover up cat hair on her black top.  So, of course, I asked her.  She assured me that she had simply put on a T-shirt to be more relaxed. 

My follow up was ‘how do you cope with those sleeves?’  They are very tight, they feel like wearing a blood pressure cuff.  Taylor’s response was that their jackets were made specially for them, and they were made so that they looked good in them.  I responded that they certainly looked hot in them.  Taylor’s mind clearly works differently from mine because she took it that I meant sweaty.  Which, of course, I didn’t!

I had clearly been far too memorable with the cats, because when it got to the autograph session later in the day, Amalia wrote ‘meaw’ on the photo.  Then she checked that I could read it. 

When you go to a fan meet, the tables are arranged in a square and there are a lot of sweets on the table.  Before Taylor and Amalia arrived, we were discussing the sweets.  Particularly parma violets, which are a sweet that many of the Brits there remembered as childhood sweets. 

We were still discussing this as Taylor and Amalia arrived.  And they each grabbed a pack to try them.  Taylor clearly didn’t like them, immediately making an unhappy face and taking it out of her mouth and putting it back in the packet.  Amalia liked them.  Taylor couldn’t believe that they were popular kids sweets here.  Then she reminisced about sweets she ate as a kid, particularly something called ‘soapy chews’ IIRC.

In the Taylor fan meet, I asked Taylor about audition tapes.  Amalia and Jess have put their original audition tapes online.  Did Taylor still have her original audition tape and would she put it online?  She didn’t know other people had put theirs online.  She also didn’t know if she still had hers.  She said she would look.  Knowing Taylor’s memory, she might need reminding.

Watch Amalia’s audition tape at:

Jess, and Arlen’s auditions are at:

(Start watching from about 19.30, first is Arlen’s audition, then Jess’s.  The very first performance of ‘Is It Shiny?’) 

In the Amalia fan meet, she was asked ‘if there was a Bollywood version / continuation of Motherland, would she be up for being part of it.  She definitely would be. 

The matter of the kiss in 2.10 came up.  Amalia said that she had decided to put her tongue in Taylor’s mouth, but she hadn’t asked Taylor’s consent in advance and afterwards she wondered if she had crossed a line.  Had she done something that Taylor wasn’t comfortable with.  (This kiss did come up again in the panels).  She was unsure what Taylor thought about it.  Two of us had been at the Survival 5 convention in 2002 when Taylor first did a Starfury convention.  She was asked about it then, so we both assured Amalia that Taylor was absolutely fine with it. 

That was also the convention when I decided that I needed a phone with a better camera. 

I asked about the pilot episode and wanted to know if there was any particular back story to the animosity between Scylla and Anacostia.  Had she been given a reason for Anacostia being so determined to keep her away from Raelle?  Amalia hadn’t been given a specific reason, but she felt that Anacostia was more aware than other drill sergeants and felt that she knew there was something off about Scylla.  So she wanted to keep Scylla away from her recruits.

It is interesting that in the original audition tape, Scylla is described as a ‘reprobate’.  Clearly there was some early character development in her character. 

I was expecting to do this in one post, but there is so much that I have split it.  There will be part 4 coming soon.

Saturday at Witchbomb ended with the cos play and after party.  Unlike the opening ceremony, there were no tables reserved for gold ticket holders.  It was just a case of sit anywhere you could find a seat.  And some people ended up standing through it.  So, I was sat fairly near the back and couldn’t get many decent photos.  This was about the best I could do, but I know many fans have shared better shots.

The cast guests presented the prizes.  This was Lyne giving the prize to Beltane Alder.  Lyne said that the Beltane outfit was one of the costumes that she regretted not buying. 

Kandyse gave the prize out to the Biddies. 

Amalia is hugging The Witchbomb.  I do have to say that this was a spectacular costume, every mushroom was hand made.  Sunshine, who was inside the costume, had a hilarious story that she was telling some of us in the lobby the next morning about this moment.  I can’t do the story justice, as it really needs the live re-enactment.  Amalia said she was going to hug her, but Sunshine couldn’t actually see Amalia because of the head of the costume and she was holding her trophy and couldn’t get her arm out through the costume liner and the mushroom ‘platform’ at the top meant she couldn’t get too close to anyone anyway.  Moment of panic.  But Amalia improvised brilliantly.

The Witchbomb herself gave the prize to the original Sarah Alder, who had given us a great re-enactment of the pageant Sarah from ep 1.02.

Sunday started with more photo ops.  The Motherland shoots went fine, but Lorena was late arriving, which threw the Warrior Nun schedule off significantly.  However the Starfury staff coped superbly.

The good thing about having a professional musical theatre producer / musical director and composer in the fandom is that she was able to negotiate the use of the piano in the lobby.  This is Floz and Lauren rehearsing for the Switches singalong.

There were two Motherland panels in the afternoon.  One with Kandyse and Lyne.  Yet again, because of a clash, I had fan meets which meant that I missed much of the Lyne and Kandyse panel and only saw the beginning.

The other panel was Jess, Amalia and Taylor.

These three were hilarious together.  There were lots of stories which I will save for part 3 of this Witchbomb retrospective, but this panel had some of the funniest and most memorable stories. 

Straight after this talk we massed round the piano in the lobby for an Abba themed singalong.  This was an amazing experience and we were asked not to record it for copyright reasons.  Of course we had to sing Book of Love and I’ll be your mirror too.  This was one of those unique and totally unforgettable experiences and I hope there will be an opportunity to do it again next year.  It certainly gave us something fun to do while they rearranged the hall for the closing ceremony.

And there was the same issue at the closing ceremony with no tables reserved for gold ticket holders, so I was stuck further back than I would have liked and couldn’t get good photos. 

And one of the best parts is that we get to do it again next year.  Tickets for the 2025 Witchbomb went on sale on the Friday at the start of the con.  As far as I can tell, unlike last year, there was no advance warning of the tickets going on sale.  As I was not having the greatest experience with the wifi, I decided to wait till I got home to buy my gold ticket. 

Tickets available from:  https://seanharry.com/home/witchbomb/

So, see you next year at Witchbomb.

Part 3 of this blog will contain some of the stories from the panels and fan meets.

The Witchbomb Party Continues

Witchbomb 2023 was the best convention I had ever been to, and I have been to a lot over the years.  It also had the best single thing I have ever seen at a convention – Amalia Holm singing Redemption to Taylor Hickson.  Video is available at:

Amalia Holm sings Redemption live at Witchbomb (youtube.com)

So, Witchbomb 2, held at the Renaissance Hotel Heathrow on August 9^th to 11^th, had a lot to live up to.  It certainly didn’t disappoint. 

No Motherland Fort Salem event would be complete without blue balloons and we had lots of them. 

This is a generous fandom and there were lots of giveaways, including new pens

And bookmarks.

But there were friendship bracelets, postcards, stickers and a whole bag full of goodies from @Psycho4MFS.  Thank you to everyone who gave so generously.  The cast may have a lot to do with how a fandom develops, but it is the fans themselves who create such joyful spaces to be in. 

Some months ago Amalia Holm announced her engagement and so Switches had the opportunity to sign a wedding card for her and Olof.  This was organised by a fan who hired the designer, wrote the poem, got the cards printed and brought them to Witchbomb. 

And we had a birthday card to sign for Eliot Laurence too.  All this before the con actually started. 

At the opening ceremony we had Kandyse McClure, Lyne Renee, Jessica Sutton, Amalia Holm and Taylor Hickson from Motherland Fort Salem and Kristina Tonteri-Young, Olivia Delcan and Lorena Andrea from Warrior Nun. 

Then it was on to the Meet and Greet for Gold ticket holders, with the guests.

Saturday morning was the first of the photo sessions.  Some of the photos that were taken were amazing, and some of those were shared online by the people buying the photo op.  Some put the complete picture online, but others cropped themselves out of the shot.  The biggest surprise of the morning was when one couple used their photo op to get engaged.  Sadly, I didn’t get to witness this spectacular moment for myself. 

But I will share these two moments from one of my photoshoots.

Starfury had changed the scheduling pattern for this year.  Last year the autograph sessions took place for all guests after the panel talks, gold tickets on one day and regular tickets on another.  This time they were split between sessions for Warrior Nun and sessions for Motherland.  And there was more overlap between the Fan Meets and the panels.  So, last year, I managed to go to Fan Meets, get the autographs and see all the Motherland panels.  This year, I had to choose. 

So, I missed the end of the Kandyse panel and the start of the Jess and Lyne panel. 

Yes, this is Jess unwrapping a Babybel cheese.  The question, was ‘if they could create a cult, what would it be a cult of?’  Lyne’s answer was ‘kindness’.  After much thought, Jess said ‘cheese’.  So, someone from the audience gave her a Babybel cheese, which she proceeded to eat. 

And so to the autograph sessions and the evening cos party.

Continued in part 2, coming soon.