#turntober25

[musicboxmemories]

Turntober - Season (1)

[marquis-icarus]

Okay, so I’m a little basic but in light of the spooky month— I have decided to combine my two favorite Halloween-esque things. Vampires and Sleepy Hollow.

I LOVE Sleepy Hollow and it already has amrev-related monsters; what’s a few more?

Ben, as pictured above, is a vampire because I’m just a sucker for vampires. (Also I feel like it fits him as the head of the Culper ring)

Perhaps instead of the Headless Hessian we can have Washington there instead as the Headless Horseman.

Benedict Arnold might also be a vampire. Someone needs to lead/father Ben because Washington clearly isn’t. (Also the whole thing about loss of humanity and exploitation fits him because he never got any credit for the work he did 🫩).

For Peggy Shippen I was thinking mermaid/siren. Something of the sort. (Or maybe the British are just humans).

Charles Lee might be the ghost goblin near the bridge.

I really really like the idea of André’s spirit appearing at the place he was captured (which is literally the Sleepy Hollow line).

[monetilly]

Turntober! Turntober! Turntober!

Hear ye, Hear ye, to artists and yappers alike!

I'm hosting a bingo-esque event for Turn fans to show some love for the show this October! To give everyone some time to get those creative juices flowing the event will start on Wednesday the 20th!

You can aim for a traditional five prompts in a row or you can wild shot your way through the board as your heart desires! 

Posts can vary from art, mood boards, writing, or good ol’ think pieces. Any way you’d wish to interpret the topics is welcome!

˖°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ Please include the tag : #Turntober25 : when posting so that all the posts are easy to find! I look forward to seeing what everybody comes up with! :)

My DMs and Ask box are open if there are any questions!

[honorhearted]

Turntober25 - Season

[redfish-blu]

This was originally for the #Turntober25 AU prompt but it grew legs and ran away from me. What can I say, I love a good gender swap, sue me.

I have no idea what Abraham’s name should be. I considered Abigail because that seems obvious, but there’s already a character named that so I’m at a loss. I’ve just been calling her Abby in my head but I don’t like that. idk.

This turned out to be a mixture of a role and gender swap because otherwise nothing would really be happening. It actually turned out kind of funny in the end bc this au is basically just Major Andy (Anna) and his spy ring made up of the most insane women he knows. I’m compelled by it, they would get in so much trouble.

[ollieoliveoboelo22]

TURNTOBER

For today's turntober, I really wish we saw more of the ring's logistics and funny stories associated. Some of the dramatic plot points could've been exchanged for these. Because I live for Ben being HR for this ring

Examples include

• The multiple times Ben had to go to Long Island because either Abe or Townsend were threatening to quit, or he had to go calm their nerves. Additionally one time Townsend just ghosted a meeting. Another time Abe took Washington's criticism of the ring's speed (and suggested it be shut down), personally

• The pettiness. I know Austin Roe wasn't in the show... but he and Abe had issues that Ben, of course, had to deal with.

• Tarleton's raid in Connecticut that caused Ben to lose his horse and field baggage (which included sensitive Culper Ring documents and Abe's money). Bonus, literally two days later, Abe sent intelligence saying to be careful, there were raiding parties/British dragoons in Connecticut.

This actually led to the arrest of someone who was listed on the papers as a possible recruit to their intelligence network. This would have been such a good plot to throw in because I don't think the show did a good depiction on Ben's dedication to keep agents safe. He felt A LOT of guilt for this one

• The warning about a British attack on the French fleet in Rhode Island and they couldn't find Ben. So Caleb just sent it straight to headquarters where I believe Hamilton had to decode Abe's chicken scratch (please look up samples of his handwriting. That's a code in itself).

• Townsend using a cousin to deliver intelligence into New Jersey because Washington was complaining about how slow the established route was. Said cousin pulled an Abe and got himself caught by patriots. George had to pull some strings to get him released and wasn't too happy about it

• Caleb's MANY exploits on the sound to cover his Culper work. I'm talking about attacking British privateers and taking ships and supplies.

• Ben's badass moment where he was essentially kidnapped on a boat he was inspecting for illegal trade goods. And he basically intimidated the captain that was going to turn him into the British to turn around.

• Ben rendezvousing with a girl at a tavern outside Philadelphia. When a British patrol approached, he told her to get on his horse and they escaped while being shot at.

Honestly more dragoon stuff. They slept on that too much with keeping him in camp.

• and then something I wish they didn't include. The way Ben is able to talk about Nathan Hale a little too easily. He couldn't say his friend's name without tears in his eyes. Though the conversation in the carriage scene with Andre is actually accurate. We saw too much angry Ben and not enough sad Ben

[culpeppercheckers721]

Turntober Bingo Time!!! AAAAA.

I am so sorry that I’m here only at the last minute! Hate that I’m starting it so late wtf— I didn’t expect to be quite so busy, otherwise I might have started posting earlier in the month. 🥲

Anyways: Can I offer you a very messy & unprofessional Abe character analysis (or; stupid long rant) in these trying times? 🩷💜💙

I’m probably just repeating myself here, but by GOD, I will never get sick of doing character analysis for Abe! Yet again, I’m thinking of one of my favorite episodes— Who By Fire— which is really connected to the holiday of Guy Fawkes Day, but given the murder mystery plot, I’ve formed a habit of rewatching it for Halloween since, out of all the episodes of Turn, it feels most appropriate at least to me. ;D

And as always, when it comes to this episode, Abe being the one to discover the whole affair between Joyce and Robeson is one of the main plot points which makes me not able to shut the fuck up about how bi-coded I think he is as a character. 🥲 And no, it’s not just the fact that he was the one to pick up on Robeson’s reaction and put the pieces together (gaydar… or bi-fi, if you will), but more how he handled things after; he gave John Robeson the right to at least some level of privacy (despite Robert Rogers lurking somewhere nearby LOL), he had pity for Joyce and condemned Robeson for killing someone who had protected him, and, maybe one of the most interesting moments of all, he refused to tell Anna about it?

Seriously his interaction with Anna makes me have SO MANY THOUGHTS LOL. If he loves and trusts her so much, why doesn’t he just. Tell her what actually happened? Why doesn’t he want to discuss Robeson’s sexuality when it’s not in any way an interrogation of his own sexuality, and only John Robeson’s, especially when Robeson is a literal murderer by this point? Why would Abe keep things so quiet and give someone like him the right to privacy? WHY. 🤡 He isn’t completely incapable of talking about queerness— when threatened by Simcoe and pressed to reveal SOME real piece of information, he explains they were “a pair of mollies, and [Abraham was] the one who found out”. He has no problem expressing it with Simcoe, someone he obviously does NOT trust lol, so what makes that exchange with Anna so different? Why is it tense silence over that same simple explanation? I refuse to believe it was actually because he was afraid of Robert Rogers, because that was an excuse he used later, if anything.

The idea I keep coming back to is that I suppose it’s harder to discuss any kind of delicate subject with someone you genuinely care about as opposed to a stranger, because the fear of them not liking the truth is so much worse. Maybe in this particular example, Abe just didn’t want to open that whole can of worms. Maybe he was just too lazy to have an actual conversation? But that seems like a dumbass excuse, even for our beloved dumbass Abe Woodhull.

What he— very cryptically and vaguely— tells her, is, “all I know is that the person who wrote that letter was living two lives. I’ve seen where that double life can lead— it’s straight to hell.”

And then he changes the subject back to their spying endeavors, trying to direct Anna not to get involved and hang petticoats for Caleb anymore because it is too dangerous. When she presses and asks what he’s seen, Abe just says he’s “seen that a signal can be detected, no matter how secret it is.” So I would argue he’s comparing himself to John Robeson in a strange way, even if the illegal thing he and Anna been doing isn’t having gay love affairs, but engaging in espionage for the continental army.

The next episode (Of Cabbages and Kings) further proves that all this talk of double lives DOES directly apply to Abe himself, as Anna confides in Caleb that he’s “done with this double life, as he called it.” Meaning Abe himself could have been, perhaps, concerned that his own actions could earn him damnation— the phrase “double life”, at least in the context he used it in, was NOT just about being a spy, however. It was specifically targeted towards Robeson, and his sexuality. And I’m sorry, but whether it was intended to read this way or not, the idea of a “double life” is the most bisexual shit I’ve ever heard— that is some obvious subtext. 🤭

Maybe if season one of Turn had been the only season of the show, all we had to examine of the series, I could brush off Abraham’s display of what I personally read as internalized homophobia. But when seasons 2-4 exist, when fucking Robert Townsend exists, and all of their interactions are dripping with that homoerotic subtext we all know and love… how am I supposed to dismiss these earlier, inexplicably odd character moments for Abe? His inability to communicate with Anna in that one perplexing moment, his empathy and even some allyship for some of the only confirmed queer characters in the entire series, his talk of double lives, his skittishness towards the topic of sexuality in general? How he kept it all quiet? Or most of all, how no amount of hookups with Anna Strong can disguise the general queer tropes that apply to him as a character?

Everyone’s entitled to their own interpretations of the media they enjoy— and ultimately, I think that’s a great thing! But I think in this particular case, the idea that someone could consider Abraham Woodhull being written as bisexual, queer on at least some subtle level, isn’t a valid interpretation at ALL? That’s just some unjustly dismissive condescension, media illiteracy at its finest, one might say.

While no fan can ever know what was going on in the writers’ room— and I’d be surprised if it was something as direct as “yes, let’s make our protagonist a closeted bisexual” lol— we’re still allowed to have our own readings of things. We’re still allowed to say ‘hey, maybe Abe CAN be interpreted as a closeted bisexual, because of the weird grey areas he already inhabits in other ways, and the fact that him being in “the middle” in yet another manner might make perfect sense’!

I am sick of fucking biphobia (which is luckily not an issue I’ve seen in this fandom! I just mean it in regards to the overall societal problem) and people assuming that a character only being in “straight” relationships automatically means that bisexuality isn’t an option, like it’s IMPOSSIBLE— especially annoying in historical fiction when, for pretty obvious reasons, queer people weren’t truly able to openly express their queerness, and in some cases the prejudiced societal attitudes were SO strong that they might not have even realized they were anything other than heterosexual.

It is,, I’m not gonna lie, it’s really exhausting feeling like every time I’m analyzing potential bisexual subtext, some people will think it’s a joke. 🥲 But I am so very grateful for the Turn fandom, and that I’ve never come into contact with any of the aggressive dismissals I’ve seen others in different fandoms be met with whenever they breach the topic of gay subtext. XD

I know I’ll always interpret Abe as bi, and that I’ll always headcanon him as such. <3

Anyways rant over, here’s my bingo card LMAO.

Honestly so many of these prompts get me excited and make me want to yap so I’m not even sure if I’ll get a bingo because I might be all over the map. 🤡 Still gonna attempt it, though! Even if some of them might be late & after October. :p

Thank you SO VERY MUCH to anyone who actually read this monstrosity ahahahah! Sorry it’s such a goddamn mess— I feel so many emotions about Abraham Woodhull (and I say it a lot, because it’s true).

I hope you all have a lovely evening, and that your spooky season’s been wonderful thus far. 💛🎃

[queerquaintrelle]

TURNtober 2025: rewrite

But still my heart is heavy with the hate of some other man's beliefs on ao3.

His thoughts were with you, in the end... on ao3.

Yorktown, 1781 on ao3.

They Build Coffins on ao3.