What was the source of the strongest whump flutter you've ever gotten? For me, it was in RDJ's Sherlock Holmes, where he gets hung by some sort of meat hook through the shoulder. I was in the theater with my mom and I thought for sure I must be giving off electricity or something! She didn't seem to notice, though...
Sorry it’s taken me a few days to answer this, Nonny, but I wanted to mull it over a bit before answering, because nothing specific came to mind!
To be honest, my strongest whumperflies tend to come from my own fanfic writings or role-playing privately with my bestie @gyhldeptis. There’s just no comparison when it comes to creating your own whump that’s perfectly tailored to your needs and desires - or playing out some great scenes with someone whose interests align closely enough with your own that you just ping each other’s buttons effortlessly. It’s like magic! :D
But, of course, movies and TV offer up some great scenes with sights and sounds that just don’t come with written words. I mean, I think I have an exceptional imagination, but actually seeing and hearing a scene does make it all feel much more real. On the other hand, I think writing and role-playing can feel much more personal, because you tend to imagine it all with yourself in one of the roles - whereas a media scene is more like watching a scene play out as merely a spectator.
So, in short, my best and strongest whump flutters are from my own writing and role-playing experiences and just my own imagination. But I do still LOVE media whump of all kinds, of course ;)
As for that… It feels cliche or predictable to say it yet again, but it really is impossible for me to overstate just how much episodes 5x13 and 5x14 of OUAT flung me into the stratosphere. I was already crushing on Hook badly, and already wanted and craved whump of him - so the whumpee was perfect. The scenario was also perfect for me. I LOVE captivity scenarios, where the whumpee is kept imprisoned or held captive by the villain for an extended period of time and mistreated throughout that time. It also culminated in a Slow Dipping Mechanism trope, which is my second favorite trope of all time, and a dashing rescue, which is my absolute favorite fucking trope EVER.
And that’s just the major components. The smaller ones all came together perfectly for me, too. The amount of blood and visible wounds was just enough to imply major roughing up, but not enough to be gory or take away from the prettiness of the whumpee. The whumpee’s demeanor was strong, stoic and sassy, but with glimmers of fear and helplessness peeking through at just the right moments. The sounds were… UNF. Hook’s grunts and groans and yelps… and that fucking whimper that stole my soul away entirely. GODS. And the acting in general. Colin’s performance hit ALL my whump buttons and just made me want to climb into the screen and hold him to my bosom for-fucking-ever.
I’ll be honest. Most whump scenes are great for me on first watching, but lose their sparkle the more I watch them, leaving me constantly seeking out NEW whump… but those scenes just never get old for me. I’m surprised Netflix hasn’t made a new warning tag just for me that says, “You do realize there are more than 2 episodes of this show, don’t you?”
…so that’s probably gotta be the one, if I had to choose one! And now I gotta go, Nonny, cos there’s a whump scene in Sherlock I gotta watch ;)