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pluviophile-bookworm · 3 years

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AWAE 3x3 rewatch: thoughts and reactions

So I made a ginormous pause in between these again. I just wasn’t feeling up to the task, I guess. But it’s the anniversary of the premiere of AWAE, so what better day to do the penultimate one of these... Let’s just dive in because it’s been literal years since I first saw this episode and I remember literally nothing from it.

Oh my, Bash is just the best. And those baby chicks... well, I know what is most likely to happen to chickens on a farm when they grow older but... can we just maybe not think of that yet? Plus, seeing Mary keeps reminding me that soon I won’t be seeing her anymore. It’s safe to say I have mixed feelings about this cold open. Let’s move on.

Gosh, now they’re leaving Matthew alone with Delly, who is two types of people he’s uncomfortable around - a baby and a girl. But it’s fine, it will be just ‘a couple of hours’...

It is such a shame to think that Mary might have been saved... if she were white. People can be so awful. A human being is a human being. At least there are people like Dr. Ward and our protagonists who know that and act accordingly.

Oh... there’s that cute scene of Matthew showing Delly around Green Gables that I’ve seen in so many gifs... I can’t comment much on it so I’ll just sit back and enjoy. But before I go - Matthew is the best, most gentle man I’ve ever seen. He might be awkward around women and children, but he knows how to treat them right better than most people who are not awkward around them.

Oh gosh, the nappy! That kind of made me laugh out of place but, well, I just wanted to say - thank gods for Jerry and his many siblings. My boy knows how to change nappies.

Oh, they’ve got the printing press! Now that’s exciting! I feel like excitement is a good word to describe this episode, at least so far. We’ll see how I feel by the end of it. All I know is this is making me smile and I’ve really been needing that.

My, my, Ruby... I keep forgetting when it was that she got over Gilbert. Apparently it was not before mid-season, since she’s still in it way too deep.

Oh wait... is this when things began happening between her and Moody? I mean, the way he gives her his handkerchief, you’d think ever since he stopped trying to make Diana and her ‘very blue’ dress notice him, he’s been sitting back and watching Ruby from afar, hoping he can, somehow, compare to Gilbert. The best part is, in just a bit, he won’t need to. Boy, do I need a fourth season even if just to see these two develop... and for Diana and Jerry to make up, and just in general to see the kids being all grown up... now I feel like crying because we’ll very probably never get it... ok, moving on.

Anne: Sometimes life finds gifts in the darkest of places./ Marilla: Indeed. Wait, was this Marilla’s way of telling Anne she loves her? This is just the best.

The contrast between scenes dealing with Mary and the rest of the episode is just so stark, it’s jarring. It’s like, you never know the darkness someone might be sinking into while everybody else is bathing in the light. You know, everybody involved in making this episode, and the show in its entirety, made it so poetic, and yet it’s not. It’s absolutely devastating. And now Gilbert can’t even tell Mary that she’s got no more than two weeks left. This is the worst.

You know, Anne is right. Caring deeply will always be the right thing. I mean, it’s natural for Gilbert to doubt himself at this time, especially since the tragedy is happening to his own found family. You know, there’s something my mum taught me to do when I’m watching something and I can’t bear the subject matter of it - focus on the acting. And right now I’m just blown away by the superb performance by these incredible young people. But I really can’t bear to focus on the plot right now. And the acting being that good doesn’t particularly help me to detach myself from the story.

You know, tragic as what’s happening to Mary certainly is, it’s somehow lucky she has Anne in her life now that she’s about to leave her own daughter to grow up motherless. Because if only Anne’s parents had an orphan tell them what an orphaned child needs most, Anne’s own experience might have been very different. Mary is a very smart woman for realising that and talking to Anne about it. Because life is not about lamenting what we didn’t have. It’s about making sure we do what is in our power to make it easier for others if we can.

Ah, yes. Racism and ‘White Man’s Burden’ mentality are still very much a thing present here. I guess this here is the first mention of that horrible prison of a school that Ka’kwet would be sent to. This is. The. Worst.

I just can’t bear to listen to this guy. ‘Heathens’ - you mean people with a rich culture and belief system beyond your privileged straight white male comprehension? ‘Teach them all things civilised’ - you mean erase their own, I repeat, rich culture, and replace it with your white man’s ideas of civilisation? What deity fell from the heavens and made you God? And the way Rachel totally agrees with this guy, it just makes me sick. As if that guy would hesitate to discriminate against you on the basis of you being a woman! I just can’t with this. Let’s move on.

‘Be sure you marry for love. Only for love.’ Don’t worry, Mary, he will. Not before a huge, long period of confusion, mind you. But he’ll come to his senses eventually. People do stupid things when they’re young. That’s how they know they’ve lived it to the fullest.

Rachel just baffles me, you know. And Marilla, too, isn’t quite faultless here. How can you be so accepting of one kind of POC, yet so cruel to another? Then I remember their initial reactions to meeting Bash. They were not the most accepting at first. Yet they can see how they’ve now grown to accept and care deeply about Bash and Mary and Delphine. Why can’t they give Ka’kwet’s people a chance like this?

‘You may well have saved some Indians today’... Saved them? From what? Being free to practice their own culture? You know, white people can be so very ignorant... and I say that as a very white person. I’m just ashamed of everything my ethnicity has done to literally every other ethnicity.

‘I don’t wanna die’... You know, sometimes I do, and right now that makes me feel so ashamed. I should really think of Mary and also every real person who had an untimely death whenever I’m having those thoughts again. We should all learn to appreciate life so much more.

So this is the one with Mary’s Easter... this is beautiful. I might have to rescind my ‘excitement’ statement from earlier, but there is still a theme of beauty, love and family throughout this. Well, technically throughout the entire series, but especially here. I love this.

Delphine with a flower crown is the cutest thing ever...

Minnie May: She looks like a chocolate candy. I just... took notice of how the background music abruptly stopped. You know, coming from an older person, this would sound... not at all ok. But this 7-year-old didn’t mean any harm, and they realise it after a brief moment of panic in their eyes. Still... black people don’t call us, idk, butter or something. We should not compare their skin colour to chocolate.

Their singing is absolutely beautiful. But let’s be real - in a real-life situation, most of the people would be way off-key and those harmonies would be impossible to arrange. Still, for this beauty, I am willing to suspend my disbelief for miles. Also, that prayer at the end... well, I’m not Christian, but I am religious, and I know the power of a prayer as poetic as this one. However hard it must have been for Mary to know she wouldn’t live, it must have been a great consolation to know she would go in such a way, surrounded by so much beauty and love, and light. Well, that ending was bittersweet! But I absolutely loved this episode. Except for the racist parts that made me absolutely livid. It’s so frustrating to know there is still so much hate in the world based just on minor superficial differences between people. Yet it would have been even more frustrating if we didn’t have people in the world like our protagonists (and especially the protagonist, Anne). It is such an absolute shame that this show, and others like it, got cancelled over some trivial issues and wasn’t given the proper chance to develop its positive messages even further. But still, even with just the 27 episodes it was given, it was able to cover so much ground. I don’t know what to say. AWAE is just supreme.

Let’s sum up: the final weeks of Mary’s life; racial prejudice might have just cost this lovely woman, a wife and a mother, her life; Matthew showing Delly around Green Gables is the sweetest thing; the first press-printed issue of The Avonlea Gazette, with a significant typo; and thus, a ship was born; subtle ways of saying those three little words; ‘Caring deeply will always be the right thing.’; the legacy of a mother; ‘White Man’s Burden’ mentality is alive and dangerous; double standards regarding the acceptance of POC; Mary’s Easter; going surrounded by a loving community.

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letterboxd · 4 years

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Most Picture 2020.

In which we award the Most Picture Oscar to the most-rewatched of the 2020 Best Picture nominees, and track down the Letterboxd member who most obsessively rewatched the Most Obsessively Rewatched Film in our 2019 Year in Review—Avengers: Endgame—to ask “Why?”.

Once again, we dive into the data on the Oscar Best Picture nominees to name not the Best Picture (respect to Parasite!), but what is the Most Picture, as in, which of the nine 2020 finalists was rewatched the most by Letterboxd members?

And the 2020 “Most” Picture Award goes to… Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Letterboxd member Movie15 has the distinction of having logged Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood the most—a whopping 26 times since its August release, and though he hasn’t reviewed it on Letterboxd, we’ve enjoyed his quest to see Tarantino’s latest in as many Los Angeles movie theaters as possible, on 35mm as often as he can.

Bong Joon-ho’s multi-Academy-Award-winning masterpiece, Parasite, comes next, just 859 views behind—Khoi is the Letterboxd member who has most obsessively rewatched the film to date, with eleven recorded watches. Third place (and almost 14,000 views behind the two leaders) goes to Joker, watched the most (seventeen times) by Kenai Fleck, a hard-core Batman fan.

In fourth place, Little Women. Micah Simmons has logged the film fourteen times (but may in fact be pushing 20 views). On the thirteenth view, “I have nothing to add, except for mentioning a shot right before the scene where Amy does *the thing* to Jo, and there’s a crazy shot that foreshadows *the thing* so well and fuck this movie is smart.” Then come Marriage Story, The Irishman, 1917, Jojo Rabbit and Ford v. Ferrari in that order.

The official Letterboxd Most Picture list reveals the combined number of watches for all members with two or more entries for these films.

The Rewatches We Logged Along the Way

Avengers: Endgame was the Most Obsessively Rewatched Film of 2019 in our Year in Review, which means it had the highest number of Letterboxd members logging it five or more times in their diaries.

Member Max Joseph has the distinction of having logged Avengers: Endgame more times than any other. When we told him we needed to know why, he replied: “I’d be honored to talk about my love for Avengers Endgame!” Spoilers follow in this Q&A with Max (though at this point if you haven’t seen Avengers: Endgame it’s probably only because Max has watched it for you). This interview was conducted prior to the 2020 Academy Awards.

How many times do you think you have seen Avengers: Endgame? Max Joseph: Well, I’ve logged it 26 times as of today. But I also think there are a good three or four watches I didn’t log because I occasionally put it on before bed, and just never logged it. So I’d say my final answer is 29, but that honestly may be lowballing it. I have a feeling that by the time the Oscars roll around, it’ll probably be at 30. I always watch every single film, documentary and short nominated for the Oscars, and thankfully, Endgame was nominated!

What’s your reaction to the news that you are the member who has logged it the most? Kind of shocked! I really didn’t even realize how many times I watched it until you told me! I watch Avengers: Endgame because it brings me happiness, and I love the adventure! When it finally came out on Blu-ray and digital, there were a few times I would watch it multiple times in one day. Then I’d throw something else on, then get upset that I wasn’t watching Avengers. So maybe it isn’t as shocking as I had thought!

What keeps you coming back to it? I love all genres of film. Take this season for example. I love the more meaty and dramatic films like Parasite, 1917, Waves, Queen & Slim. I love comedies like Jojo Rabbit and Booksmart. Animation like Toy Story 4, Frozen II and Klaus.

But, you give me someone flying, turning invisible, super speed… that’s where I live. Superhero movies are just my favorites, and I think the reason I keep coming back to Avengers: Endgame is because besides being a superhero movie—which I just naturally gravitate towards—in Endgame, I get a little bit of every genre and mood. I also like that it’s split up into three acts, and each act gives me what I want in a superhero movie:

Act one is the slow burn, which we never really got in the MCU up to this point. It’s the aftermath of Avengers: Infinity War, and them dealing with the implications and the new normal of the universe. And this gives a chance for the story to build, and our actors to show off, especially Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson. It gives something new to the fans of the franchise and is one of the biggest reasons I keep coming back for more.

Act two is the “time heist” and it is a pure love letter to the fans of the franchise. They revisit some of the best parts of our MCU journey over the last eleven years and mess with it. Is it fan service? Absolutely! But I think they did it right.

Act three is the final battle at the now-destroyed Avengers headquarters. And this was where the slow burn pays off. It is what we’ve all been waiting for since 2008. The grand finale. The culmination of eleven years and 22 films. We are gifted my favorite battle I’ve ever seen, bone-chilling and heartbreaking moments, as well as the most cathartic endings to the most epic story I’ve ever had the privilege to watch, nearly 30 times over.

What have you noticed with each rewatch? Two things: firstly, how unbelievable the visual effects are. I may be alone in this, but I think Marvel has the best visual effects on the planet. By miles. And rewatching this makes me appreciate how much time and dedication was put into making this. So much happened behind the scenes, that I personally don’t really think about while watching it. But after 26 views, I start to think about green screens, the motion capturing, all of those elements, it’s insane! Go on YouTube and just check out all of that work they did visually. It’s beautiful.

Secondly, how brilliant Robert Downey Jr. is. I’ve been saying it for years, but RDJ was born to play Tony Stark. Has he had many other brilliant performances throughout his career? Absolutely. But I think that if he was not cast as Iron Man, this franchise wouldn’t have turned out the way it did. He is the heart of the MCU. And he has so many brilliant moments throughout the film, meets his dad during the “time heist”, the realization of “the one”, even the way he interacts with his daughter, Morgan. It’s truly exceptional work. I think it’s his best performance as Stark.

What is the single greatest scene in the film? Oy, well that’s near impossible. A few standouts are Cap wielding Mjölnir, the scene with Tony and his dad, the reveal of Professor Hulk, thicc Thor, Cap vs. Cap, “the snap”. There are so many! But I think the popular answer is also the greatest, and that is when our Avengers return.

As soon as I heard Sam Wilson’s (Falcon) voice, I lost my mind. And they brilliantly added “On your left” right before all the portals open up. “On your left” is a callback to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. That’s the first line of the movie, and is repeated again at the end. Both times are between Sam and Steve, and it was the same in Endgame. And then you add Alan Silvestri’s score (the song is titled ‘Portals’) which is building and building with emotion, which leads into Cap finally saying…

“Avengers (music cuts) Assemble”… (enter Avengers theme song)

It. Is. Perfection. I have chills as I type this. It was probably the greatest theater experience I’ve had in my life. I was sobbing. Imagine how I was by the end…

What has the overall Avengers cinematic adventure meant to you? I remember seeing the first Iron Man in theaters with some friends in 2008. We all dressed up in suits, because we were at a high school awards show kind of thing, and just went straight to the theater, and we had the best time. From the first moment ’til the end, when Tony says, “I am Iron Man”, then Black Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’ starts playing, my jaw was on the floor. I gave a standing ovation. In a suit. From that moment on, I knew that this was made for me.

It has given me the greatest moments in a movie theater, incredible discussions with friends and strangers, and although it may seem cheesy, some much-needed happiness in some of the most difficult times in my life. I watch these stories because I love them. They mean something to me. They are an important part of who I am.

What would you say to people who say that blockbusters like these aren't ‘real’ cinema? Hahaha! This is a hilarious question, and I’m thrilled that you asked it. I’ve actually had a good 20 people ask me this, and I always said that I’d write something or make a video about it, so here we go…

Let me start off by saying that Martin Scorsese is arguably one of the greatest directors of all time. I love his work, I respect it, and I encourage everyone to watch his full repertoire, ’cause it’s beautiful.

That being said… ‘real cinema’ is a matter of opinions. To me, Avengers: Endgame is just as much real cinema, as The Irishman, Goodfellas, The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, anything. I don’t care who you are, you can be Martin Scorsese, Kevin Feige, one of my friends, a stranger, I don’t think you have the right to tell me what is ‘real cinema’. You can say something isn’t good, or only being made to earn a profit, but you don’t get to say that movies like this aren’t worthy of being ‘real cinema’. To me, they are. You’re more than entitled to that opinion! I just happen to disagree with you, but you’re not wrong by any means. I’m entitled to my opinion, you’re entitled to yours. And that’s what it comes down to. Opinions.

Thicc Thor—keep or send back to the gym? I totally don’t care. Taika Waititi figured out how to write that character in Thor: Ragnarok, and thankfully they continued writing him this way in Endgame. So as long as the writers continue on the path that Waititi sent him on, I’m good. Make him thicc, give him an eight-pack, as long as the character has purpose and the lines flow naturally, I’m more than satisfied with whatever he looks like.

How amped are you to learn more about Natasha’s background in this year’s Black Widow? Finally! We’ve been waiting since Iron Man 2, and it is finally time for the Black Widow movie she deserves! I’m fascinated by the Red Room, which was where she started her training as a Russian spy. They showed us glimpses of her beginnings in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, and I’ve always been hungry for more information because it looked really interesting.

I also think that we may finally find out what happened in Budapest. It was first mentioned in The Avengers back in 2012, as a bit of banter between Black Widow and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), and has kind of been a mystery ever since. It was actually mentioned again in Endgame. I’m basing this on the San Diego Comic-Con Hall H panel. There was a title card that said “Budapest”, so it would make sense that we’re gonna get what we’ve been asking for!

I’m also thrilled because the cast is awesome. Obviously double Oscar-nominated actor this season, Scarlett Johansson, Rachel Weisz, David Harbour and one of my favorite actors, Florence Pugh, who had an unbelievable 2019, with Fighting With My Family, Midsommar (one of my favorite performances of the decade), and she topped it off with an Oscar-nominated performance in Little Women!

What do you think should win best picture at this year’s Oscars? Parasite. And it’s not even close. I think Parasite is one of the greatest films I’ve seen in my life. I think it deserves that number one slot on your Top 250 Narrative Features list.

It features the best performance from an ensemble, Song Kang-ho should have been nominated for supporting actor (he should be winning). The production design is fabulous. They literally built the Park family’s house for the film! Hong Kyung-pyo’s photography is worthy of being framed. He created a few shots that are permanently engraved in my head (in a good way). And of course, Bong Joon-ho’s direction flows with emotion and his script is original, gripping and electric. He is the definition of a visionary, at the top of his game.

Parasite is the crowning achievement of the decade and should be awarded as such. It would be the perfect way to end the decade with the first foreign-language film (now titled “International Feature Film”) winning Best Picture at the Oscars. #BONGHIVE all the way!

What do you think will win? My heart says Parasite, but I think it may end up going to something like Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood, The Irishman or 1917 (which is in my top ten this year). The easy answer is probably Hollywood because it won the Globe, but that doesn’t always translate into an Oscar.

But if it’s not Parasite, I think it should be 1917. It is a technical work of art from Oscar, Golden Globe and Tony Award-winning director Sam Mendes. Roger Deakins outdid himself and is pretty much guaranteed to earn his second Oscar [update: he did!]. Thomas Newman’s score is probably my favorite of the year (possibly of his career), followed closely by Emile Mosseri’s for The Last Black Man in San Francisco and Hildur Guðnadóttir’s for Joker. And George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman should be on everyone’s radar. They’re phenomenal. It’s shaping up to be quite a race this year!

What’s your favorite thing about Letterboxd? I think the reason I love it so much is because it feels like a family. I’ve had such a passion for the cinema for my whole life, and I like to share it wherever I can. But other social platforms (as wonderful as they are), aren’t always the best place to post about every single movie I’ve watched, or a top ten that I make. Letterboxd is the only place where I can let out all of my opinions, all of my thoughts, without feeling embarrassed or like I’m bothering anyone when I say how perfect Avengers: Endgame is. Or if I watch it and spot something new, I can post about it, and have great conversations about what I’ve discovered. It is the place for movie lovers, and it actually helped me love movies more, and to learn more about the crews, studios, and everything behind the film.

#AVENGERS #AVENGERS ENDGAME #letterboxd #most rewatched #most rewatched film #best picture #oscar #oscars #oscar2020 #oscars2020

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mcrmadness · 4 years

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I’ve been tagged a lot lately, which is awesome and I want to thank you all for that! :) To this one I was tagged by @charlotte-lancer.

Play time: List your five favourite movies and why, then tag some more players.

This is actually extremely hard question as I’m a massive movie freak. I watch so many movies and I pretty much watch anything that is not a) romantic movie b) romantic comedy or c) a horror movie. Thrillers are okay, but I don’t like movies that build up a certain tension. I have anxiety disorder of my own so I don’t need anything to add more fuel into it.

I also own so many dvds and blurays that I had to go and see my collection to remember what I even like and I still feel like there’s tens of movies that should make to the list but I don’t want to remove any of the existing ones because they should be on the list as well! But I will mention here 5 movies that mean something to me or that I have attached to for whatever reason, but I’d say only the first one in the list is actually the favouriteFAVOURITE movie, the rest are in just a random order. I’ll put this under the read more link as this is gonna be a veeeery long post!

Beetlejuice (1988) I am a fan of Tim Burton. I have seen his movies so many times and I love Danny Elfman’s scores especially in his movies. In fact, when I was a kid, Burton’s movies were always my fave ones but I was probably a teenager when I finally started to connect the dots and realized my favorites were always from the same man. And so were the scores too! This is also one of those movies from my childhood that I have seen so, so many times and I have called different Burton movies as my favourite movies but somehow I just always go back to Beetlejuice and then one day I just realized that hey, why do I even try to choose the one as this apparently IS the favourite one! So, this is my fave from Burton AND from all the movies I have seen.

And why? The humour is just perfect here, I live from dark humour and there’s so much of that in the movie! And I have also always been so fascinated by the idea of death not being permanent, makes my fear of death a lot easier. As you might know already, this movie is about a couple who die and become ghosts and try to survive with the family moving into their old house, trying to make them move out but failing. And I just LOVE how Burton has imagined what death is like! There is so much to see and I feel like I see something new every time I watch that movie and I just love it when movies or any media has so much details in it. And I have always been saying that if death is like the one in Beetlejuice (I said it for the third time now, whooooops), I’m really happy to die one day.

The Dark Knight (2008) This I just HAVE TO include into this list because of memories. I was 17 when this movie came out. I remember not being interested in the newer Batman movies at all but then one day I watched Batman Begins (2005) from tv and the last frame of that movie caused me to go crazy and I knew that the next movie would be even more interesting. Then it was confirmed that TDK will have the Joker in it and I’ve been a Batman fan since I was 7-8 years old and Joker has always been my fave villain from the Batman universe. I was watching the 60s tv show as a kid and I had seen Burton’s Batman (1989) many times before as well, and that movie also has the Joker in it.

A remember following the news of the movie so closely all the time and I remember the news about hem casting Heath Ledger, who was a new name for me but seemed very interesting for the role, but sadly passed away before the movie even came out. When the movie finally did come out, I was so blown away by Ledger’s work as the Joker that I still cannot decide who has been my favorite Joker of all times. But he’s at the very top of that list, for sure. And that whole movie was just the best thing the 17-years-old me had seen in a while that I actually did go to see it 3 times in the movies. I even drew kind of fan art of the movie and I had 2 TDK Posters on my walls, as well as 2 Joker posters on my walls and I still plan on hanging the Why so serious? poster to somewhere one day.

As a side note, I also like Christopher Nolan’s other movies a lot but TDK is definitely a favorite from them. I have seen almost all of his other movies and they all are really fascinating and interesting and I just love Hans Zimmer’s music and the combination is so perfect. I have to mention that my other favorites are definitely Interstellar (2014), The Prestige (2006) and Inception (2010).

Life of Brian (1979) I’m a Monty Python fan and this movie is yet again a part of my childhood. I have seen this movie millions of times and I never get bored with it and I never get over how funny the jokes are. I will laugh for the same jokes every time, no matter how many times I would watch this movie. My favorite scene is simply the one where Brian jumps into this pit and the man there starts jumping and finally notices the crowd and hides again. I cannot explain why, but I just find things like that way too funny :DDDDDDDDDD And it’s not even close as funny when I try to explain it, so look for yourself. I’m still losing it during that scene XD

And it’s not only funny, but it also has some really smart, hmmmm, perceptions of the world to it. I love that scene where Brian is trying to tell the people not to follow him because they don’t need to follow anyone and they’re individuals and should use their own brains, and these people just don’t understand a thing, they will just praise the ground under Brian’s feet no matter what he would say.

Breakfast on Pluto (2005) With this one I’m not exactly sure what happened with this one. I was just quitting my antidepressants when I saw this movie and I had just got all my emotions and ability to feel back so I don’t know if I fell in love with this movie because of my brain chemicals trying to get their shit together, or if I would have fallen in love with this movie anyway if I saw it some other time. But this one still gives me so strong reactions every time I watch it and especially the starting and ending music causes me so strong wave of happiness that I feel like exploding and I wanna cry from happiness. Oh and I watched that movie 3 times within one week back then. I feel like the antidepressant did have something to do with this.

Amadeus (1984) / Se7en (1995) / Donnie Darko (2001) / A Beautiful Mind (2001) / Joker (2019) The last one is actually impossible to name now. There’s so many good movies out there and I’m already leaving out some of the best ones. Some are classics and some are just movies from my childhood that I grew up with and attached to. TV was pretty much my biggest friend when I was growing up! So here’s a bunch of movies that I wanted to mention as they also tell a little bit of the movie genres as well. Shortly:

Amadeus - Another one from my childhood and it’s a biography film over Mozart. I don’t know why I grew to attached to this film but I feel like ever since I’ve had this need to rewatch this every once in a while. Because of this movie I get chills every time some of the Mozart music pieces used in the movie play somewhere. I don’t know if I like the music or if they just remind me of this movie. And for some reason, after seeing the movie millions of times, at the age of 9 or so I suddenly was so upset after a character’s death.

Se7en - I was bit older when I saw this (thank gods) and this is a good example of the type of thrillers I like to watch. And this movie’s plot is insane and it has one of the best endings to a movie that I know. I won’t say what kind of feelings it wakes up, but some very strong feelings. And this reminds of the fact now that I forgot to mention The Green Mile, which is also one of the best movies I know. Gosh this post is failing so badly already :D

Donnie Darko; A Beautiful Mind - Both have a plot that is wrapped around a mental illness. I actually like to watch movies about mental illness a lot, “Girl, interrupted” is also one of those movies that I like a lot. These movies are nothing like each other but both basically do a portrayal of schizophrenia. Donnie Darko is of course a bit more scifi and A Beautiful Mind is a biographical movie. I actually saw Donnie Darko for the first time several years ago, I was to school and watched it from Netflix and wanted to rewatch it so badly but it got deleted from Netflix and finally I was able to find it on a blueray and now it’s in my shelf and I love that movie.

Joker - This is definitely the best movie of the 2019 imho. Again, pretty much a movie about mental illness. I was bit afraid first that it would make the treatment of mentally ill people take a turn back(?) and would make healthy people be afraid of us instead of make them open their eyes, but I’m happy it didn’t turn out that way. But I feel like the people who got upset after the movie are actually relating to the groups attacked in the movie as maybe they finally (subconsciously?) realized what COULD happen in the world if things keep going like they’ve been going so far. But as a mentally ill person, I just got so attached to this movie. Plus I’m still a Batman fan whose fave villain ever is Joker and this was another great version and even greater portrayal of the character.

And that’s it, no more text. No idea if anyone found this even slightly interesting but oh well, I don’t care, it was still fun writing all that. And I’m so tired after this now that I don’t really have energy for tagging anyone but I guess I could tag at least someone or some people... let’s see... okay, @hanhan156, I’m gonna tag you! :D I have no idea if you watch movies and how often/many if so, but do this if you want! (And you tagged me so many times today so here’s something back ::D)

#tag games #mcrmadness' random stuff

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orrtala · 7 years

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Keith a.k.a. my favorite Mullet Child

It’s a liveblog! I only finished season two, please no spoilers in the comments/reblogs! (Also I haven’t watched his vlog,but was accidentally spoiled that he’s going to pilot Black in S3. Which is actually not a surprise at all but thought you should know extent of my knowledge while writing this.)

We actually know few things about Keith’s past, though more information about it will clearly be revealed in future. Officially an orphan, but it was hinted that both his parents might be alive, remembers at least one of them, and mum is/was either Galra or part-Galra. He joined the Garrison but was expelled for unknown reasons after Kerberos mission. Before Voltron adventure started he only knew Shiro and kind of sort of vaguely recognized Lance as a cargo pilot.

His introduction is rather… fiery. He sets up explosives (which he? Stole? Made?) barges into Garrison medical tent, and wearing bandanna and frown on his face beats up grown men. Then he gets to Shiro, recognizes him and his face immediately softens and looks like he’s about to cry. And I think it sums up Keith’s character rather nicely - he is quick on his feet, fights well and is ready for action, but also cares deeply about his friends.

Voltron’s right hand (and Shiro’s, and given that Black Paladin’s prosthetic arm is Galran it creates some kind of irony circle) is a good, agile fighter and quick on his feet, usually not having a big problem in combat… provided he’s able/allowed to outrun his enemies. As Marmora’s trial showed once he has no way to dodge the attacks it ends up badly for him. He hits hard and fast, but can forget about his surroundings, as Pidge pointed out.

His bayard is a sword (with a really weird handle. No, really, how is he fighting with that?) and he tends to form shield as well which ties nicely with knight archetype. And it does fit; he is loyal to Shiro, always ready to save him, loyal to his team, and he is fighting for honorable cause (also take a note of how angry he got at Lubos in “Greening the Cube”,) is serious about his duty. And he does put cause above his own needs most of the time (though not always.)

A prodigy pilot and very good with instincts, as it is in his description as a Red Paladin. I don’t think he’s seeing himself as particulary talented - if he’s sure he’s able to do something he does it confidently with a smirk plastered to his face, but he does not flaunt in front of others (whatever Lance might think,) he’s just doing his job.

He spent a year alone in a shack in a middle of a desert with his hover bike (which I’m guessing he stole or received from someone, I reaaaaally don’t think he built it, though might have tweaked it) thanks to the energy he felt coming from a Blue Lion. Which means he is self-reliant and his comment in “Greening the Cube” imply that he liked the calm and quiet. It was also a way to cope with a fact that everyone who cared about him abandoned him.

Also him being able to feel Blue and his reaction to druid magic and then raw quintessence raises some questions. Personally I’m pretty sure he has some kind of magic which could tie with his Galran heritage.

He’s very, very close to Red Lion, being able to create a bond that goes miles and miles, as “The Ark of Taujeer” showed us. Always ready to save her boy, who gets into trouble all the time. Thanks, Red, but I’ll talk about you more in Paladins & Lions analysis.

Saying that Keith has a problem with communicating with others is like saying water is wet. And yes, he does go off on his own sometimes (“Collection and Extraction” is probably the best example,) but he is also happy to work with his teammates and listens to Shiro’s orders (most of the time at least.) Others view him as distant, aloof, cold person, who has a problem with temper. But he does care about his newfound family, a lot, even if he wasn’t sure how much he’d get from it at the beginning thanks to his experiences. Mum? Left. Dad? Left or died, but I think it was the former. Shiro? Left twice, though not by choice. And thanks to that this poor kid not only has massive abadonment issues, but he has a trouble feeling like he belongs somewhere. And although he does affirm he’s Red Paladin of Voltron in “Blade of Marmora” it’s also the episode where he learns he’s part-Galra. Which creates a little more problem with belonging yet again since Allura seems to not accept him, but at the same time he gets to spend some quality time with Hunk and opens up to him. In the end Altean goes to him herself and tells him to come back from a dangerous mission, which is extremly important to him, because this is the point where he finally has a full sense of belonging. Even if it is implied by others that after the fight with Zarkon they’d go on their own merry ways, which is, frankly, unrealistic. So don’t worry, Keith, you’ll get to spend a lot more time with your favorite dorks. Except for Shiro who’ll be back who knows when.

But, going back to caring about his friends - he does try to connect with them, but is also very afraid of these bonds. As I mentioned before he has abandonment issues, forming a closed circle here cause he wants to be friends with the Paladins, in spite of his lacking social skills, on the other hand his line of thinking is probably something like “but can’t feel to much, they’ll leave me too.” The official Voltron quiz states that his biggest fear is ‘feelings’ which is really quiznacking sad, because it’s also what he craves the most. Also if you want to cry some more it’s pretty obvious he’s not used to others’ hugs, but is touch-starved.

I’m going to talk more about his connections with his team members and how they evolved in relationship analyses, but right now the most important person in his life is Shiro. He is a person that he “desperately wants to see” back in Marmora episode, and “without him Keith’s life would have been a lot different”. Shiro is a person who understands him best and is nice about calling him out on stuff. Lance is a contrast here, he views Keith as someone who sees himself superior to others (false) and is not afraid to call him out (“Return to the Balmera”, “Blade of Marmora”) which leads to the next point - Keith is self-concious. He is self-concious about his temper, though I wouldn’t call that a problem, it’s more of a desire to get to the point/working things out as quickly as possible. Also it doesn’t last long; he gets angry only to deflate a little bit later. The other thing he’s self-concious about is his lack of ability to communicate, which is also something that is brought up by Lance albeit inadvertently (he is being nice about it and actually works on it.) Anyway the point is that Keith is aware of his faults and two people he had most contact with so far awake different emotions in him about them, which I find interesting. Also his relationship with Shiro, while it might had some hiccups, is stable, it’s obvious to everyone how much these two care about each other; while the one with Lance is evolving from point A to B to C, etc.

One little thing I’ve noticed during the rewatches is that Keith tries to keep his temper in check multiple times by closing his eyes and inhaling (when the barrier shut him and Allura out of the Castle, while confronting fake!Shiro, trying to come up with a plan to jump across the chasm, when looking for Red Lion back in a pilot.) So he does try to be better about it. Good on you, kid.

Obviously the story about his heritage is far from over. We’ll probably get to see his mum or both parents at some point later in a story.

Season 3 is going to be hard for him. Shiro disappeared and he’ll have to pilot a Black Lion which he never wanted to do. But he is a person who was giving orders when Black Paladin was indisposed and others listened to him. Sorry, Keith, it had to be you. Team, I’m looking at you, give him hugs and make sure he smiles at least once.

Tl;dr: While he might come off as a cold person and others read him wrong, Keith is a guy who cares a lot about his friends and tries to connect with them despite fearing they’d leave him someday. Has a history with abadonment.

(more character analyses)

#Keith #vld #Voltron #vld character analysis #Voltron Legendary Defender #not liveblogging #orr blogging #non episode #I tried to keep it shorter #but I just love my mullet child so much #there are few other stuff I'd mention but it was long enough already

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afishtrap · 7 years

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I have questions.

These have been bugging me. Maybe I’ll get lucky and someone (koff @caramelcheese koff) has an explanation.

1. Shiro’s in prison for a year. Yet he doesn’t end up with a beard to his chest, and his hair is still neatly cut. The leaked shots from S3 of Matt look like Matt’s hair has grown, though. How could Shiro stay neatly pressed (at least from the shoulders up) while Matt’s the one who can’t find scissors?

2a. Why are none of the paladins ever strapped in? It’s like the animators are thinking the cats are just big cars, and everything’s operating on a linear, horizontal plane. When the five first find the blue lion and it proceeds to scamper in mid-air (including twists), all of them should’ve ended up splattered across the interior. Including Lance. (I’ve been in a van that rolled off the road and over a 30′ drop. Think frog in a mixer and you’re pretty close to the results.)

(okay so yeah I come from the Gundam and Macross worlds for mecha, and I’ve done my time in Yukikaze and Sidonia no Kishi which are more real-world jet-pilot SF influenced than super-mecha, but still, strapping in is pretty much mandatory. If the animators didn’t want belts, they could still have gone with the pilot getting suctioned in, like S2 Gundam 00 or Escaflowne. but really, all five floating out of their seats? and no additional seats/straps for passengers? this isn’t a mini-van, people, it’s a big box that can go in any direction at any time and this bugs the crap out of me)

2b. Clearly none of the animators have actually done anything that requires wearing a helmet. Like, say, riding a motorcycle (or piloting a plane). Shiro’s helmet coming off ‘cause he’s rolling down a hill... that could happen with a bike helmet, but if it happens with a full helmet style like the paladin’s, then something is seriously wrong. I can’t watch that bit w/out wincing. A helmet that style coming off is bad news. Really bad. Like, not possibly not making it out alive and/or brain-crushed bad.

3a. Am I the only one giving the side-eye every time Allura protests (mostly in S1) about how the Alteans were a great and wonderful people, her father was a great man and a great father, etc etc? Zarkon can’t have always been pure evil if Alfor worked with him, which raises the question of whether Alfor was so pristine and perfect, too. Plus, Alfor agreeing that he’d made a mistake (in sending the lions away) squeaks the door open, at least for me, to the chance that Alfor made a few other mistakes, too.

3b. I mean, people just don’t up and go to war for no reason, unless the motivations here are so flat and boring as to be that Zarkon just woke up one morning pure evil. This is fiction: it’s supposed to make sense, so there must be another side to this story we’re not getting told. Something makes me wonder if “the dark history of the Paladins” isn’t just the fact that Zarkon was one of them.

4a. Yes, Zarkon is apparently an imperialist -- expanding his military borders constantly -- and definitely participating in some old-school colonialism (ie the Balmora). But there also seems to be an extended part of his empire that’s going about its business, ie the space mall. If he held supreme power, why go to all the effort to build super-secret galaxy stations that only his military can find? He’d just hand out some reason for that military base, people would shrug, call it the cost of peace, and carry on. The only reason to hide that would be if he has someone to hide it from. Which might just be ‘to make it more difficult for our main characters to find’ plotholey, or it might be a signal of greater powers beyond Zarkon.

4b. Zarkon’s destructive power seems to have escalated exactly as Voltron shows up. From the way Haggar talks, it’s been a long time of R&D and she’s only just achieved robeast technology. The planet-sucking energy thing is also a new development. Granted, the bigger an empire grows (hello, America) the larger its military force must be, to police both its country and its colonies, so the scope of Zarkon’s military force doesn’t surprise me. But it does seem like those forces (other than the few conquering new worlds/colonies) must’ve mostly been in relatively peaceful backwaters, doing little but patrolling.

4c. If Zarkon’s forces are so immensely advanced, why only advance to the edge of Earth’s solar system, to the farthest outside planet, and take three people? Why stop there? From Allura’s comments about Zarkon’s advance across the universe, Earth may be a backwater but there’s nothing indicating a reason Zarkon wouldn’t be as interested in it as he is anywhere else. So why show up only long enough to kidnap three people, and then take off? But I guess that ties into @smolsarcasticraspberry‘s theories about Shiro having Altaen abilities or history, if he’s the real reason the Galra swung through.

5a. That is one seriously massive castle for only three people. No one else ever appears in Allura’s memories. She has no pictures (mental or otherwise) of anyone. She mourns her father, but no one else. No mother or mother-substitute, no friends, no peers, no siblings, no extended family, not even people she must’ve known and seen every day who also lived in the castle. Unless it really was just she, Coran, and her father? Just one big empty castle where three people rattled around in miles of empty halls and rooms. Kinda depressing.

5b. It feels almost like Altea is this vast gap, where no one ever resided. And it makes it really hard for me to sympathize with any loss of Altea, because the only loss Allura mourns is her father, and anything else is kind of abstract. It’s like Altea itself was just a construct, one big empty field with flowers.

5c. Semi-related to that, in S2 Allura says her people were diplomats and travellers, so in hindsight it’s weird that she woke up, learned Altea’s been destroyed, and that’s that. Why assume that all Alteans were on Altea and were killed when the planet was destroyed? She makes no attempt to look for anyone; there’s no mention of Altean communities that might have survived elsewhere. Immigrants tend to cluster together, often for generations, just like you can still find a preponderance of Swedish or Norwegian surnames in parts of the American upper midwest. Yet neither she nor Coran even raise that chance, let alone chase it. Why not?

6a. The Altaen cuisine is unbelievably stupid. Food goo? Raise your hands if you’d eat the equivalent of anything, day in, day out, with no variation, and not find yourself sick of it. (If you do raise your hand, you’re like .01% of the human population because humans do not do well on unchanging diets; it’s why NASA and the military work hard to make a variety of packaged meals.) No matter how much protein a single food substance might provide, it being the only sustenance is just incomprehensible. Cuisine is a huge part of culture, and conveys so much about our history, our people, our beliefs, and our rituals. If in every other significant way the non-human cultures reflect this human value system (even the Balmorans seem to have some variety in their food), how can the Altaens possibly see green food goo (and that single bad-tasting alternate) as adequate?

6b. Okay so maybe the writers were just thinking it’s funny that the only Altaen alcoholic beverage tastes like old athletic socks (or however Lance put it), but it’s that they know it tastes horrible. What kind of people would subject themselves to bland food and foul-tasting drinks when they supposedly have the entire universe at their fingertips? Every diplomatic and military family I’ve known brings back bits and pieces of the cuisines from lands where they’ve been stationed. You sit down at their table, and it’s often an incredible mix of different cultures. So the complete lack of non-Atlean cultural elements in food and drink strikes me as just plain bizarre.

7. At some point, someone’s got to point out to Hunk that it’s time to stop calling everyone else ‘aliens’, right? It’s like being American, travelling to France, and calling every French person a foreigner. Hunk et al are the aliens, now. It just strikes me as a very human-centric view of things, and a rather myopic one, too, given other ways the writers do so well.

8. On that note, once or twice from Lance of flirting with Allura should’ve been enough. And fine, some guys are jerks, unwilling to take a girl’s disinterest for what it is. But not only does he keep doing it, no one else calls him out on it. Kieth, Hunk and Coran seem to ignore it; Shiro reels Lance in once or twice, but that’s not the same as hauling Lance aside and telling him to quit that, full stop. It’s disrespectful, it’s rude, and it’s attention Allura doesn’t like, and treating Lance’s insistent flirtation like a joke is rape culture hallmark, and quietly undermining any of the good done in letting Allura be her own character.

(If you’re thinking to yourself that Lance being pushy is just Lance being Lance, and you’ve found it funny despite Allura’s clearly irritated reactions, that’s 'cause rape culture has taught you that Lance’s behavior is okay. newsflash: it’s not.)

9a. Coming back around to Shiro: rewatching the point where Allura talks about the different lions, and her line about the Black Lion: “a pilot who is in control at all times”. I’ve rewatched a few times now, and every time, that line feels like a kick to the gut. Shiro hears those instructions at a point where he’s only just returned (and is almost immediately whisked away again), and has barely had a chance to process his escape, let alone the entirety of his trauma. And now he’s being told that he must take up a role where the requirement is ‘being in control at all times’?

9b. @i-love-voltron-stuff has a meta about Shiro planning his departure, but my suspicion is that this seemingly throwaway line could be the cause. From Sendak, to Haggar, to the Black Lion, to dealing with Slav, Shiro is cracking at all the seams. If Allura’s words felt like an edict, then it’s possible Shiro is certain that he cannot pilot, nor be the leader, so long as he can’t stay in control, and by the end of S2, he’s got to be aware his headspace is pretty bad. My guess is that while he wasn’t planning on disappearing from the cockpit quite like that, he was probably expecting a short shelf life, mentally. Too many cracks, no more control, and thus no longer fit to be the Black Lion’s pilot.

to be continued (of course)

#voltron meta #voltron legendary defender #analysis is my chocolate cake

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