#if she has chemistry with the guy in that movie then shes just repressed and clueless | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

charmixpower · 2 years

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Share your headcanons about each of the Winx couples if you have some! One per couple, for example.

*vibrates out of my seat* Ok, so—

Flora/Helia

Helia will own a sweater for exactly two minutes before Flora decides it's hers now, she likes how cozy they are, Helia just accepts that all of his sweaters are now co-owned

Flora knew what kind of brush Helia was using because Flora is an artist too. Helia mostly does impressionistic art, but Flora being a biology and chemistry nerd only does hyper detailed technical drawings. Helia asks to see her sketch book and it's half chemical diagrams and half super intense botanical illustrations, he's super impressed

Flora definitely braids Helia's hair...it looks so silky...she's obessed

Both Helia and Flora are secretly not as non violent as they seem, Helia being ready and willing to attack when ever sufficiently motivated vs Flora being super passive agressive when ever she gets too annoyed... They think it's funny when people push them too far and they both utterly destroy the fool that stepped to them while still looking like the less violent/agressive party

Helia gets some super fancy glass flowers for Flora as a gift, partly because he was very scared of offending her with picked flowers, Flora loves them and has no clue about Helia's suffering

Tecna/Timmy

In season two/three when Tecna finally starts expressing her emotions instead of repressing them she becomes hyper verbal just talking about everything and anything she likes at Timmy, Timmy loves this

Tecna due to repressing her emotions her whole life tends to get overwhelmed by her feelings and be unable to place them (esp when she first started emoting again), Timmy researches the hell out of emotional stuff to put together a little check list for Tecna for her to figure out how she's feeling

They both use eachother as a rubber ducky, Timmy will ramble for several hours about his English essay to a utterly confused Tecna and vice versa

Tecna hates being cold after the Omega Dimension...Timmy always has something warm on hand when he's with her

Tecna is surprisingly jealous, Timmy thinks this is utterly fucking hilarious

Timmy around s3 gets a lot more confidence with the help of Tecna's encouragement, he's not the most confident guy in the world but he no longer feels ashamed for existing

Timmy will wake up to the fire alarm, grab the fire extinguisher, and put of Tecna's most recent creation in a matter of seconds

She is now banned form the kitchen, unless shes scrambling eggs

Tecna takes great offence because Timmy can't cook well either, he counters this with the fact he's never set the kitchen on fire

Sky/Bloom

I literally refuse to believe that Domino would allow it's one princess to go and marry into another royal family, so Sky is marrying into Bloom's family

Sky is actually on pretty bad terms with his family bc hes always kinda found Disapo uncomfortable and kinda possessive, and he voiced this to his parents multiple times before she mind controlled him—so he straight up just follows Bloom to where ever she's going to avoid dealing with all that

Neither of them have any plans for the future and it shows, Bloom is bad at thinking in the future, and this is the first time Sky has ever had a choice in what he does and he has no clue what to do with it

Sky doesn't really have like?? Life goals or non pre approved hobbies so he's like completely lost in what to do in life..Bloom isn't much better, someone please help them

Both Bloom and Sky hate making decisions so they just kinda look at eachother everytime they need to do something, they play rock paper scissors to determine who has to make the dreaded decision

Both Bloom and Sky love romantic comedies and dramatic movies, they can and will spend a whole day just watching movies

If they bought a house together, Bloom would want to do all the home improvement stuff themselves. Que montage of them learning everything they need to know and doing it together dorkly. At least one paint fight happened

Both of them are utterly terrified that Kiko and Lady won't get along so they keep them separate

Both of them have chronic "I just got out of chollage and I have no fucking clue what I'm going to do with myself" syndrome

They don't actually do real dates, they just hang out and act likes dorks with eachother. They decide if it's a date or just hanging out afterwards

Sky tries really hard to teach Bloom manners for when ever she has to enter high society, unfortunately he also has not that great manners... Brandon got more manners training than him for when he had to pretend to be Sky at Red Fountain... Sky knows enough to teach Bloom the basics, but they end up learning the rest together after rigorous googling and excessive calls/text to Brandon Stella and Aisha

Mike and Vanessa are slowly absorbing Sky into the family, he has not realized yet... Vanessa very much approves of this dork

Sky's parents fucking hate Bloom and always will, Bloom does not mind because she also thinks they should kick rocks

Sky fucking hates glamours but also really wants to go to earth with Bloom and being obviously an alien doesn't help her.... Still complains about it constantly

Bloom some times swings between anger and fear due to her trauma and Sky has gotten really good at removing her from stressful situations

Aisha/Nabu

Aisha free climbed a rocky wall while her energy was being sapped in Darkar's lair, girl is muscular as hell. Nabu closest friends as a child was his security team, guy is muscular as hell. Aisha challenges Nabu to every strength and stamina competition under the sun... He's too chill to be super into competitions but he refuses to make winning easy

Aisha is anxious, agressive, impatient, and hyper emotional, Nabu on the opposite side is like the calmest guy ever. They balance each other out

Aisha has a hard time socializing due to her very isolated upbringing, Nabu is very charismatic and takes control of social interactions for her

Aisha has a hard time finding outfits that both let her move easily and are also super cute, Nabu goes with her to help her shop. He has a good fashion sense but really he's just there to constantly compliment her and make her blush

Nabu eventually gets her an outfit like his purple robe one and she loves it

Nabu is 90% of Aisha's impulse control and this shows when ever she's left alone with Riven for an amount of time

Aisha straight up ran away from her controlling parents, Nabu did the same thing when he found out his parents who barely pay any attention to him were putting him into an arranged marriage, but Nabu is still on speaking terms with his parents despite how they neglected him and tried to make him marry someone who definitely was not ok with it. Aisha is supportive of Nabu trying to repair his relationship with his parents

She secretly desperately wants to do the same but is utterly terrified of the idea that her parents will just not care... Nabu gives her as much support as he can

Aisha hates team sports but with Nabu she finds them tolerable, Nabu thinks this is funny as hell

Aisha has trust issues and co-dependacy issues, Nabu is super emotionally intelligent and can navigate these pretty well but very early on realizes that Ashia had it fucking ROUGH and is trying to get her to feel safe getting help (she's scared of being mocked when taking about her issues)

Nabu is utterly enchanted by Aisha's morphix and askes a million questions, Aisha is so happy to be with someone who wants to listen to her

Aisha doesn't get jealous if someone flirts with Nabu she gets scared, Nabu always turns these instances to talk up Aisha and how much he loves her until she stops getting worried that he'll abandon her

Funnily enough, Aisha does not register when people are flirting with her at all, like she'll think she's having a nice conversation and drop the fact that she has a boyfriend and get really confused when her new friend is all upset... Nabu knows he shouldn't find it that funny but it's so fucking funny to him

Ashia teaches Nabu how to dance, he takes to it like a fish to water. Aisha loves it when he dances with her

Nabu, as the only guy who can do magic, often spars with Aisha bc he's unlikely to be crushed like a bug like the other guys would be

They both are kinda annoyed they like eachother so much bc that means they're technically going though with the arranged marriage—they spend hours trying to find a way to make it clear they're only together because they like each other... Can't stick it to your parents when you actually like the person your getting forcefully engaged to

They hold off any sort of engagement anything on principle

NABU HAS A LONG AND HAPPY LIFE, FUCK YOU CANON, WE ARE NOT FRIENDS

Stella/Brandon

Brandon and Stella are the first to get engaged! They have a lot of talks about what they want in life, and their future

The most stable couple, half because Brandon is chill as fuck and half because Stella makes sure that they talk and spend time together (bc she doesn't wanna end up like her parents)

They constantly have date nights, most of which Stella plans out

I genuinely think that Brandon would of felt deeply uncomfortable dating Stella while lying about his identity, so he told her that he was being required to lie about something by the royal family, this made the reveal a lot less painful for them

Due to neglect, Stella will get genuinely depressed if people aren't paying attention to her (because positive attention from strangers is all she could get as a child) Brandon trys to help her with this by reminding her that she doesn't need to do anything special to deserve love. It's slow going but Brandon is one of the few people she doesn't worry about abandoning her if shes less than perfectly happy and the simple person people assume she is

Stella starts designing men's fashion and Brandon gets to model :)))

Brandon and Stella are a very public couple and Brandon accepts this as part of dating Stella, Stella just really wants the Solaria people to like Brandon so he doesn't have to deal with a near constant smear campaign against him. Stella's plan to make Brandon beloved by the public works like a charm btw

Stella doesn't get jealous. Like she doesn't get worried that Brandon is going to leave her bc she knows she's a catch, however deeply dislikes it when people seriously flirt with Brandon as a matter of disrespect towards her—however she doesn't mind when Brandon flirts with other because she knows it means nothing

Brandon doesn't get jealous, period

Stella thinks than most of the reason people are around her is because she's pretty, funny and simple to be around, so she spends a fuck ton of time being preoccupied with her image and how she presents to people. Brandon has started taking her on super private dates so she can chill for once in her life

Chimera is still around, free from her abusive mother, and the most annoyingly protective litte sister in the world. Brandon finds this highly amusing, but also wishes he didn't have to convince Chimera that he is worth being kept around

Stella is the only other member of the Winx Club that has a good singing voice, Flora has a decent one and Musa ya know, so some times Stella will put on a cheesey love song while they to chores together and sing it to Brandon as best she can

Brandon is one of the most well protected people in the universe. While the other girls tend to get sad when their boyfriend is hurt, Stella mostly gets pissed at who ever had the audacity (after making sure Brandon was ok first)

Both Brandon and Stella thrive in organized chaos, they both always know where everything is despite how everything is thrown every where

Brandon is Stella's impulse control except he never bothers to actually stop her most of the time

Brandon actually really likes fashion and tries to help Stella design clothes. He's not the best in the world at it but Stella is just ecstatic that he's taking interest in her passions

Stella and Brandon definitely have a couples Instagram

Stella asked Brandon out at a gala when Brandon was still pretending to be Sky, at this point Brandon was pretty used to Eraklyon nobles (who are generally kinda the worst) and was afraid of an incident—Stella was drunk when this happened and felt super embarrassed that she put Brandon on the spot like that. Brandon mostly agreed to keep dating her bc she admitted fault without promoting, and as the guy who was required to be around people like Diaspro constantly, he thought that was a very admirable trait

They probably spend the most time together out of all the other couples while everyone is still living separate of course

Stella is always a mile a minute and Brandon loves just kinda watching her do stuff... Local man is enamored

Brandon often drags Stella to comfortable places to chill the fuck out, she falls asleep on him constantly when he does this and he thinks it's adorable

When the lie is revealed, Stella cuts contact with Brandon for a while, then they had a honest conversation™️ they're both very secure in eachother and their relationship after this

Stella often just watches Brandon exercise, one time she brought snacks and a drink like she was watching a movie, Brandon is torn between laughing and being flattered

Stella is actually surprisingly muscular. Half as weight management, half because shes near constantly training her fairy form. Brandon suddenly understands why she brought snacks to watch him train

Stella can pick Brandon up if she wanted to, Brandon doesn't know exactly what emotion this fact inspires in him but he's definitely feeling a lot of it

PDA PDA PDA PDA PDA PDA

Stella probably helps Brandon train as it also helps her train her control, but she's always terrifying of accidentally hurting him bc she's VERY powerful

Stella loves being carried by Brandon, Brandon loves carrying Stella. This makes them both super happy and I love them your honor

Musa/Riven

Musa, seeing Riven sitting down with nothing in his lap: oh?? My seat, a seat for me????

These two are touching eachother constantly. Hands on shoulder, Musa sitting on him even though theirs open chairs, Riven resting his chin and arms on her despite the instant retribution. These two are very touchy

Musa teaches Riven how to play the guitar, this is very cute

Musa writes love songs about Riven, we all know this, but also after Musa teaches Riven how to play the guitar he writes one for her :) it's bad but Musa is so fucking touched by him going out of his way to do this that she loves it anyway

Musa is an easy crier and Riven has like the worst relationship anxiety, what I'm saying is that his song made Musa burst out into sobs (bc she was so happy) and he instantly panicked bc "SHIT THIS WAS NOT HOW IT WAS SUPPOSED TO GO"

During a private emotional vulnerability moment™️ Riven called Musa "baby" in like this super soft gentle affectionate way, and then he just kinda...kept calling her that. It caught Musa utterly off guard the first time he says it in public. She's not sure why Riven settled on that perticualr nickname, but he says is with such pure affection that she melts every time

Both Riven and Musa react very badly to feelings of fear, embarrassment and other trauma things, but they both feel so safe around eachother at this point they don't have these reactions bc they know the other won't pounce on any visible weakness like people did to them in the past

Riven feels absolutely useless to Musa, which sometimes makes him panic and think that Musa is going to leave him for someone thats more useful. With promoting form his therapist, and a lot of effort to put aside his fear of embarrassment, he told Musa this and now anytime he feels like this they have a cuddle session

Musa doesn't have a lot of self confidence I think, she tries to project it but he's hypersensitive and hyper emotional. At first she delt with these feelings by attempting to push people away and seeing if anyone would stick by her, but now she just tells Riven and he tries his best to lavish her with compliments until she feels better

Riven is trying his absolute best to impress Musa's dad... Her dad finds the effort endearingly awkward

Musa asked Riven out very early into s2 and he straight up said "No, I'm a mess right now and don't have the emotional capacity for this." He offered to be friends and she accepted, but the idea of Riven recognizing he's not ready for another relationship in s2 fills me with joy

Musa's first album was written while she was at Alfea about all the earth shattering events going on around her, then she put together an album out of her older songs about her mom and newer more personal songs; her third album is co-written by Riven and it's just a bunch of sappy love songs about how they got to the point their at... It was partly inspired by Riven's attempt at writing a love song for Musa

I think Musa would be utterly obsessed with cute things despite her outwardly standoffishness, I also think that Riven would get/buy her a fuck ton of plushies... She loves them

Musa makes a comment about changing her style to be less tomboy egirl meets depression, and Riven jokingly tells her if she ever wants to grow out her hair that he needs a warning in advance so he gets time to mourn

On that note, Riven constantly plays with Musa's hair. He loves her hair so much

After the Winx Club gets famous, and by proxy their boyfriend, Riven gets a call from the parent that abandoned him. He gives the phone to Musa so she can listen to the voicemail instead of him, and much cuddles were had after wards

Riven likes to use Musa as a pillow, Musa does the exact same thing, this leads to them always ending tangled up when they sleep in the same bed

Musa is fiercely protective over Riven... Dude has gotten fucked up in every season finale (1-3) and Musa is sick of it. The next mother fucker to touch Riven is getting their hand chopped off

Both of them worry that their personalities aren't worth dealing with but they've had so many conversations about how much they care about eachother and wanna make this work that when these feeling do come up they know that they other doesn't feel that way

They're both able to ground the other super quickly when they start getting too emotional and falling into old habits

They both don't really want to make any big plans and are very happy going one step at a time with eachother, they plan for the future sure but they're not like setting anything in stone and this works for them

They both are always ready to go up to bat for another. They both tend to attract shitty people and they protect eachother—people trying to pick fights with Riven triggering him to slide back into agressive ways, people mocking Musa for being over emotional?? No longer, these people are very agressively shut down

I can see them deciding to travel together. Not settling down in one place and just spending time with eachother

They spent a lot of time figuring out what scares the other and what makes them feel safe in s3 to the point where they just have like a list of phrases they constantly say to reaffirm the other

They tease and mock eachother constantly, they have a very cute dynamic going on where they always have to have the last word in their little joke arguments—these usually end in one kissing the other in a attempt to get them to (affectionately) shut up

If Musa things something is really funny she'll laugh super loudly with her whole body and Riven thinks this is the cutest thing in the world and tries to get her to do this constantly

Neither of them feel fear for the future anymore

They probably moved in with eachother the fastest

They're both huge on physical PDA but hate saying overly emotional things in public. It just makes them nervous

Neither of them are keen on getting married super quickly like Sky/Bloom and Stella/Brandon, they probably get married in their 30s—or when they get sick of being condescended for not being married by the media

Musa learned some healing magic just in case, she's not good at it but she's worried

Both of them have the Magix equivalent of Twitter bc after "were always on tv" Stella/Brandon they're the most public relationship of the Winx Club bc of Musa's music. It's mostly them tweeting random compliments at eachother and both of them needing to be reminded by their therapist not to fight with idiots on twitter

Musa is a bit of an adrenaline junkie, no where near as bad as Riven, but she thinks that riding with him on the back of his hover bike is fun as hell

We all know that Stella love Brandon's shoulders but Musa is the same way about Riven's arms. If she's sleeping next to him she WILL cuddle his arm, Riven thinks this is adorable

They both easily slide into being domestic with eachother. Waking up in tangled limbs, groggily making coffee and breakfast???? Yeah that's their dream and their living it

Riven for obvious reasons is pretty uncomfortable around powerful magic being close to him in any capacity, dragon fire empowered Darcy is a thing of his nightmares and being nearly killed by Darkar and—, but he also hates flinching away from Musa so their doing exposure therepy by just vibing with Musa in her Enchantix form. It still freaks Riven out but he's feeling calmer about it by the day

I think they're both super affectionate in private, like when their alone in the quiet moments in the early morning or late at night is when their relationship is at its peek

Riven is very high energy and extroverted when he is not dealing with a fuck ton of personal issues, which is balanced out by Musa's generally introverted tendencies

Riven has no impulse control and much to Nabu's eternal chagrin Musa is a enabler

They're intensely chill in their relationship, yeah they still have issues they need to talk though but they always do the work and the taking

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nitrateglow · 3 years

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Favorite films discovered in 2020

Well, this year sucked. I did see some good movies though. Some even made after I was born!

Perfect Blue (dir. Satoshi Kon, 1997)

I watch a lot of thrillers and horror movies, but precious few actually unsettle me in any lasting way. This cannot be said of Perfect Blue, which gave me one of the most visceral cinematic experiences of my life. Beyond the brief flashes of bloodletting (you will never look at a screwdriver the same way again), the scariest thing about Perfect Blue might be how the protagonist has both her life and her sense of self threatened by the villains. The movie’s prescience regarding public persona is also incredibly eerie, especially in our age of social media. While anime is seen as a very niche interest (albeit one that has become more mainstream in recent years), I would highly recommend this movie to thriller fans, whether they typically watch anime or not. It’s right up there with the best of Hitchcock or De Palma.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (dir. Sergio Leone, 1966)

Nothing is better than when an iconic movie lives up to the hype. Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, and Lee Van Cleef play off of one another perfectly. I was impressed by Wallach as Tuco in particular: his character initially seems like a one-dimensional greedy criminal, but the performance is packed with wonderful moments of humanity. Do I really need to say anything about the direction? Or about the wonderful storyline, which takes on an almost mythic feel in its grandeur? Or that soundtrack?

Die Niebelungen (both movies) (dir. Fritz Lang, 1924)

I did NOT expect to love these movies as much as I did. That they would be dazzlingly gorgeous I never doubted: the medieval world of the story is brought to vivid life through the geometrical mise en scene and detailed costuming. However, the plot itself is so, so riveting, never losing steam over the course of the four hours it takes to watch both movies. The first half is heroic fantasy; the second half involves a revenge plot of almost Shakespearean proportions. This might actually be my favorite silent Fritz Lang movie now.

Muppet Treasure Island (dir. Brian Henson, 1996)

I understand that people have different tastes and all, but how does this movie have such a mixed reception? It’s absolutely hilarious. How could anybody get through the scene with “THA BLACK SPOT AGGHHHHHHH” and not declare this a masterpiece of comedy? And I risk being excommunicated from the Muppet fandom for saying it, but I like this one more than The Great Muppet Caper. It’s probably now my second favorite Muppet movie.

Belle de Jour (dir. Luis Bunuel, 1967)

I confess I’m not terribly fond of “but was it real???” movies. They tend to feel gimmicky more often than not. Belle de Jour is an exception. This is about more than a repressed housewife getting her kicks working as a daytime prostitute. The film delves into victim blaming, trauma, class, and identity-- sure, this sounds academic and dry when I put it that way, but what I’m trying to say is that these are very complicated characters and the blurring of fantasy and reality becomes thought-provoking rather than trite due to that complexity.

Secondhand Lions (dir. Tim McCanlies, 2003)

The term “family movie” is often used as a synonym for “children’s movie.” However, there is an important distinction: children’s movies only appeal to kids, while family movies retain their appeal as one grows up. Secondhand Lions is perhaps a perfect family movie, with a great deal more nuance than one might expect regarding the need for storytelling and its purpose in creating meaning for one’s life. It’s also amazingly cast: Haley Joel Osment is excellent as the juvenile lead, and Michael Caine and Robert Duvall steal the show as Osment’s eccentric uncles.

The Pawnbroker (dir. Sidney Lumet, 1964)

Controversial in its day for depicting frontal nudity, The Pawnbroker shocks today for different reasons. As the top review of the film on IMDB says, we’re used to victims of great atrocities being presented as sympathetic, good people in fiction. Here, Rod Steiger’s Sol Nazerman subverts such a trope: his suffering at the hands of the Nazis has made him a hard, closed-off person, dismissive of his second wife (herself also a survivor of the Holocaust), cold to his friendly assistant, and bitter towards himself. The movie follows Nazerman’s postwar life, vividly presenting his inner pain in a way that is almost too much to bear. Gotta say, Steiger gives one of the best performances I have ever seen in a movie here: he’s so three-dimensional and complex. The emotions on his face are registered with Falconetti-level brilliance.

The Apartment (dir. Billy Wilder, 1960)

While not the most depressing Christmas movie ever, The Apartment certainly puts a good injection of cynicism into the season. I have rarely seen a movie so adept at blending comedy, romance, and satire without feeling tone-deaf. There are a lot of things to praise about The Apartment, but I want to give a special shoutout to the dialogue. “Witty” dialogue that sounds natural is hard to come by-- so often, it just feels smart-assy and strained. Not here.

Anatomy of a Murder (dir. Otto Preminger, 1959)

I’m not big into courtroom dramas, but Anatomy of a Murder is a big exception. Its morally ambiguous characters elevate it from being a mere “whodunit” (or I guess in the case of this movie, “whydunit”), because if there’s something you’re not going to get with this movie, it’s a clear answer as to what happened on the night of the crime. Jimmy Stewart gives one of his least characteristic performances as the cynical lawyer, and is absolutely brilliant.

Oldboy (dir. Park Chan-Wook, 2003)

Oldboy reminded me a great deal of John Webster’s 17th century tragedy The Duchess of Malfi. Both are gruesome, frightening, and heartbreaking works of art, straddling the line between sensationalism and intelligence, proving the two are not mutually exclusive. It’s both entertaining and difficult to watch. The thought of revisiting it terrifies me but I feel there is so much more to appreciate about the sheer craft on display.

Family Plot (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1976)

Family Plot is an enjoyable comedy; you guys are just mean. I know in an ideal world, Hitchcock’s swan song would be a great thriller masterpiece in the vein of Vertigo or Psycho. Family Plot is instead a silly send-up of Hitchcock’s favorite tropes, lampooning everything from the dangerous blonde archetype (with not one but two characters) to complicated MacGuffin plots. You’ll probably demand my film buff card be revoked for my opinion, but to hell with it-- this is my favorite of Hitchcock’s post-Psycho movies.

My Best Girl (dir. Sam Taylor, 1927)

Mary Pickford’s farewell to silent film also happens to be among her best movies. It’s a simple, charming romantic comedy starring her future husband, Charles “Buddy” Rogers. Pickford also gets to play an adult character here, rather than the little girl parts her public demanded she essay even well into her thirties. She and Rogers are sweet together without being diabetes-inducing, and the comedy is often laugh out loud funny. It even mocks a few tropes that anyone who watches enough old movies will recognize and probably dislike-- such as “break his heart to save him!!” (my personal most loathed 1920s/1930s trope).

Parasite (dir. Bong Joon-ho, 2019)

This feels like such a zeitgeist movie. It’s about the gap between the rich and the poor, it’s ironic, it’s depressing, it’s unpredictable as hell. I don’t like terms like “modern classic,” because by its very definition, a classic can only be deemed as such after a long passage of time, but I have a good feeling Parasite will be considered one of the definitive films of the 2010s in the years to come.

Indiscreet (dir. Stanley Donen, 1958)

Indiscreet often gets criticized for not being Notorious more or less, which is a shame. It’s not SUPPOSED to be-- it’s cinematic souffle and both Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant elevate that light material with their perfect chemistry and comedic timing. It’s also refreshing to see a rom-com with characters over 40 as the leads-- and the movie does not try to make them seem younger or less mature, making the zany moments all the more hilarious. It’s worth seeing for Cary Grant’s jig (picture above) alone.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (dir. Joseph Sargent, 1974)

This movie embodies so much of what I love about 70s cinema: it’s gritty, irreverent, and hard-hitting. It’s both hilarious and suspenseful-- I was tense all throughout the run time. I heard there was a remake and it just seems... so, so pointless when you already have this gem perfect as it is.

They All Laughed (dir. Peter Bogdonavich, 1981)

Bogdonavich’s lesser known homage to 1930s screwball comedy is also a weirdly autumnal movie. Among the last gasps of the New Hollywood movement, it is also marks the final time Audrey Hepburn would star in a theatrical release. The gentle comedy, excellent ensemble cast (John Ritter is the standout), and the mature but short-lived romance between Hepburn and Ben Gazarra’s characters make this a memorably bittersweet gem.

The Palm Beach Story (dir. Preston Sturges, 1942)

Absolutely hilarious. I was watching this with my parents in the room. My mom tends to like old movies while my dad doesn’t, but both of them were laughing aloud at this one. Not much else to say about it, other than I love Joel McCrea the more movies I see him in-- though it’s weird seeing him in comedies since I’m so used to him as a back-breaking man on the edge in The Most Dangerous Game!

Nothing Sacred (dir. William Wellman, 1937)

I tend to associate William Wellman with the pre-code era, so I’ve tried delving more into his post-code work. Nothing Sacred is easily my favorite of those films thus far, mainly for Carole Lombard but also because the story still feels pretty fresh due to the jabs it takes at celebrity worship and moral hypocrisy. For a satire, it’s still very warm towards its characters, even when they’re misbehaving or deluding themselves, so it’s oddly a feel-good film too.

Applause (dir. Rouben Mamoulian, 1929)

I love watching early sound movies, but my inner history nerd tends to enjoy them more than the part of me that, well, craves good, well-made movies. Most early sound films are pure awkward, but there’s always an exception and Applause is one of them. While the plot’s backstage melodrama is nothing special, the way the story is told is super sophisticated and expressive for this period of cinema history, and Helen Morgan makes the figure of the discarded burlesque queen seem truly human and tragic rather than merely sentimental.

Topaz (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1969)

Another late Hitchcock everyone but me seems to hate. After suffering through Torn Curtain, I expected Hitchcock’s other cold war thriller was going to be dull as dishwater, but instead I found an understated espionage movie standing in stark contrast to the more popular spy movies of the period. It’ll never be top Hitchcock, of course-- still it was stylish and enjoyable, with some truly haunting moments. I think it deserves more appreciation than it’s been given.

What were your favorite cinematic discoveries in 2020?

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eldritchamy · 3 years

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I watched “Happiest Season” and no it fucking wasn’t.

Here’s a review so you don’t have to suffer like I did: if I wasn’t watching it as the host of a movie night, I would not have made it past 20-30 minutes in.

It was very uncomfortable to watch. I feel like I just spent two hours on a plane with a crying baby. Except the baby was a homophobic rich white Republican that I was forced to campaign for. All of the people I watched it with, including myself, found it stressful, anxiety inducing, and deeply unpleasant. The first thing I did when it was over was warn my best friend not to watch it.

90% of the movie is rich white straight people drama forcing lesbians into the closet. It’s not fun. It’s not happy. It wasn’t enjoyable. At all. Watching this was an uncompromisingly depressing and miserable experience.

It was marketed as a romantic comedy and it was neither of those things. I feel repressed for having seen it.

Every relationship in this movie is toxic and hard to watch, with the sole exception of two other characters who aren’t part of the family both having much better chemistry with Kristen Stewart’s character than her girlfriend.

Aubrey Plaza playing Gay Aubrey Plaza one of two redeeming things in the movie and she’s in it for about ten minutes, and even one of her scenes was hard for me to sit through (the awkward and dubiously written drag bar scene) The other 90 minutes are agonizingly drawn out and unbearable.

If you are determined to support this movie because god knows we need more (and MUCH better) representation and we live in a hellscape where money is the only way to ask for such things, press play on it and then take out your headphones and go read a book instead until it’s over.

For your own sake please do not watch this.

I genuinely can’t tell who it’s even FOR. If anything about this movie resonates with you, I am SORRY to hear that, because you are probably the lesbian daughter of a very rich white man running for office as a Republican, and watching any of the rich housewife reality shows probably gives you PTSD because those are the kind of people you grew up with.

And even IF that is the case, spare yourself the trauma of watching your own life and watch something else instead. This movie will only hurt you.

Nothing about the experience of seeing this was worth it.

Plot spoilers ahead.

The plot is as follows:

Abby (Kristen Stewart) loves her girlfriend Harper (Mackenzie Davis). But she does not love Christmas. After a night out together, Harper asks her to join her when she visits her family for the holidays. Abby says yes, and gets her gay male friend John (that guy from Schitt’s Creek) to cover pet sitting for her. While running a few errands with him, she goes to pick up an engagement ring which looks completely unattainable for a woman who makes a living as a pet sitter.

When they are almost to Harper’s family’s home, she awkwardly brings up that she lied about coming out to them earlier in the year. They still don’t know she’s gay and they have to make sure the family is perfect and scandal free because her dad is running for mayor or something and one of his donors? campaign manager? is going to be there. So they have to pretend Abby is her straight roommmate. They fight about it before Abby very reluctantly agrees. This is a pattern that repeats until Abby can’t take any more.

The family is like upper-class-Republican terrible. They are AWFUL people. The parents treat their children like trophies in a display case, and the children all feel forced into brutal competition with each other to see who the parents will actually be proud of. One of Harper’s sisters (Jane) is actually an okay person who does nothing wrong, but she’s an aspiring writer who has spent 10 years not finishing her book and she’s played like she belongs in a different movie, and it feels like she’s meant to be seen as the useless layabout sibling, in a cruelly funny way.

The other sister is a nightmare of a woman (Sloane? I think?) played by a completely unrecognizable Allison Brie. She’s a lawful evil cutthroat monster who is straight up VICIOUS to the other two, and is especially terrible to Harper, because neither of them even see Jane as competition. Her own family is the thing she uses to try to be worthy of her parents’ pride and affection.

The dad is focused entirely on his campaign and is more or less indifferent to all of them unless they aren’t “presentable” and “scandal free” enough to keep his potential donor/campaign manager satisfied, in which case he “expects better of them” until they behave. The children are like 30.

The mom is maybe the worst of all of them. She’s invasive, ignorant in that forceful way where she doesn’t give a shit about anything except her own bubble of reality that she thinks she’s living in and blows past any contradiction to it like it’s not even there, nitpicky about what everyone’s doing, is willfully out of touch with everything she’s told (Abby’s parents died when she was 19, and she spends the movie acting like she thinks Abby grew up in an orphanage made of dirt and never had a Christmas before). And she will not leave the two of them alone. She insists it’s ridiculous for two grown women to share a bedroom and gives Abby a room without a lock in a basement that’s bigger than my whole house, while Harper’s room is upstairs. Everyone is constantly barging into Abby’s room with less than two seconds of notice, which leads to the kind of tension and awkwardness you’d expect. The first morning, Abby wakes up to Sloane’s children staring at her.

Abby is clearly MISERABLE. And so are you, because you’re watching this movie. Abby and Harper are constantly pushed apart by the family, and Harper pushes Abby away while pretending to be perfect and straight for her family.

Her family invited Harper’s ex boyfriend, who thinks they should rekindle things. Super fun thing that I always love to see in my lesbian media.

While out at dinner, Abby and Harper have another mini fight in the bathroom. Harper promises she had no idea Connor(?) was going to be there and that there won’t be any more surprises. They walk out of the bathroom, right into Harper’s OTHER ex, her first girlfriend Riley (Aubrey Plaza, who literally just plays herself and is the only good thing about the movie).

This is the first 20 minutes.

There’s a party that leaves Abby feeling isolated and pushed away. She goes outside to make a phone call. She makes regular texts and phone calls to John for support and advice throughout the movie. He’s terrible at taking care of fish, but he’s genuinely a good friend to her and it’s clear he cares about her a lot. It’s probably unfair not to say his friendship is the second redeeming thing in the movie. After Abby gets off the phone with him the first time, Riley comes out from around the corner and tries to be nice, saying she could relate to what she’s going through. Abby kind of closes off from her and she takes the hint without any fuss and leaves her alone.

The movie slogs on with compounding stress and anxiety and a moment when Abby is LITERALLY forced to hide in a closet and pretend she was sleepwalking on her way to Harper’s bedroom at night. It MIGHT have been an attempt at a joke? I’m genuinely not sure because I did not come close to laughing once in the entire 100 minutes of this nightmare. Harper instead sneaks into Abby’s room while she’s awkwardly trying to get away from Harper’s mom. That’s where the gifs of the sneak-snuggle from behind the door come from. Enjoy the gifs because everything that wasn’t giffed is not worth seeing. Harper spends the night there.

Bright and early, Harper’s mom comes knocking on the door, trying to open it and barge in again but Abby blocked the door with something heavy claiming it was to “keep her from sleepwalking again” (her excuse for being in the closet) while Harper frantically gets almost-dressed and hides behind the door as BOTH parents come to bother them, and the evil sister’s children see her partially dressed through the crack in the door.

Later that day Abby has to go shopping for a present for the “White Elephant” Harper didn’t warn her about. She bumps into Sloane at the mall, who dumps her kids off on her before quickly leaving. The kids very intentionally frame Abby for shoplifting by putting a necklace in her bag, and there’s a really awkward and uncomfortable scene with her being interrogated by overly forceful mall cops who are yelling at her. When she finally gets back to the house, Harper’s entire family now thinks she’s a criminal.

Abby spends the night alone during another (campaign?) party that Harper told her she’d probably be happier getting left out of, and she bumps into Riley on the street and gets to talking with her, still more frustrated by Harper and her family. She says she needs some alcohol, Riley takes her to a drag bar which gave me really bad vibes and bonds with her there, telling her a bit about her relationship with Harper. They dated secretly (obviously) in their first year of high school (which implies she knew she was gay before she dated Connor, and used him as a cover). They would sneak each other romantic notes. When someone found one in Harper’s locker, she threw Riley under the bus completely, outed her, and said she was obsessed with her so she could go on pretending to be straight. They bond a bit and seem like they could be friends, at a minimum. They have a few more scenes together over the next hour (yeah there’s still that much movie left, and if you’re wondering how it could be that bad, you’re welcome for the warning, because I was wondering that too) and they have better chemistry than Abby and Harper by miles.

Eventually Abby becomes so miserable she checks the movie-specific version of Uber to try to go home by herself, but it’s running at holiday rates so it would cost over $1000 for her to leave. She’s still tempted to do it, and calls John again for advice and says she feels awful, completely alone, and with no way out of this horrible situation. He gives her some more friendly support.

Abby still needs a White Elephant gift, but has no way to go by herself because Harper drove them there. So she calls Riley to go with her. They spend a day hanging out together while Harper is doing some other thing with her dad’s campaign, and Abby makes text excuses to Harper, who then immediately sees Riley and Abby walking by on the street together. Before she gets a chance to run out and say something, she gets interrupted by something I thankfully don’t remember (I long for the moment this is true of the rest of it).

Riley and Abby bond some more but nothing romantic happens. The plot only wants them to be good friends, even though their chemistry is really good.

At the end of the day Abby comes in and Harper immediately almost starts a fight with her but they get interrupted again somehow.

I have willed most of the next 20 minutes out of my mind, apparently.

There’s yet another party at this gigantic house because I hate the rich, Abby and Riley talk more. This is the one with the really gay outfit. Abby admits to Riley that she was planning on proposing to Harper, but at this point it’s like she’s a completely different person and she can’t tell who the real Harper is. Riley says it’s probably both of them.

SURPRISE JOHN IS HERE. He comes in the front door and calls for Abby. After Abby’s last phone call he arranged for his therapist to do the pet sitting and he drove all the way here just so he could take her home. Seriously, John has incredible Good Friend Energy. Yet more awkwardness ensues, while John mixes some awkward flirting with Connor into his poor attempt to come off as straight. Abby then walks right up to Harper, says “we’re done” and goes to grab some things to leave. Harper follows her into the room and tries to get her to stay, Abby says she can’t take the hiding and the general misery, the whole experience has been terrible and she’s not sure if Harper is the person she thought she was. Harper argues for her to stay and says she’s caught between being afraid of losing her family if she comes out and knowing she’ll lose Abby if she doesn’t. She promises to come out to them as soon as the holidays are over because Abby is more important to her. They kiss briefly and realize Sloane is in the doorway.

Sloane tries to run to tell the rest of the family because burning Harper’s reputation forever means she’ll be the one their parents love most. They fight in the many hallways of this stupidly enormous rich people house (this is when “Stay out of it, Sappho” happens) and on the way to ruin her sister’s life Sloane finds her husband making out with another ....campaign person? in the pantry and or closet which is big enough to fit two people inside. Now Harper has something to use against Sloane. This family is fucking horrible. Sloane gets to where everyone else is first, and outs Harper.

Harper tries to swear she’s not gay, and sees Abby watching her. She silently turns and walks out the door with John. Harper then grabs a giant painting that Jane spent 100 hours on for the white elephant and smashes it over Sloane’s head and yells at her before falling apart.

Abby and John have another heartfelt conversation where John asks how she came out to her parents, and she said they loved and supported her. Then he said his dad kicked him out on the street and didn’t talk to him for thirteen years. He says everyone’s story is different, and Harper was still going through hers, and it was a hard one. I THINK he acknowledges that if Abby doesn’t feel like she belongs in that story, she shouldn’t force herself to? But that might have been wishful hindsight. Abby comes back into the house to grab her things and leave, Harper comes out to her family right in front of her, Abby says it was too late and leaves anyway. Harper is crushed and the rest of the family starts to see how fucked up they all are.

And then in the span of 7 fucking minutes the parents realize they were shitty to Sloane and Harper and the only reason Jane turned out okay is because they gave up on her, they give a minimal apology to their children, who also realize they were shitty to each other, and then it’s the next day and Abby is there with them, Harper has the ring on her finger, and everyone is magically happy now because the dad turned down his campaign advisor who said she could still work with him if he kept Harper’s “problem” a secret.

Jane’s book becomes a best seller and she’s friends with John now, because he was the only person who seemed genuinely interested in her passion. He sits next to her at her book signing. The end.

No, I’m not kidding.

As soon as it was over, I thought, wow that felt like a rushed happy ending that got slapped onto the end with nothing building up to or deserving it.

After further consideration, that gives it too much credit.

Because honestly? after the first hour and thirty five minutes of this hell, Abby and Harper being together at the end is not even something I would consider a happy ending. I wasn’t satisfied at all. It DEFINITELY felt like Abby ending up with Riley would have been a better movie.

If I had been told beforehand that a lesbian romcom starring Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis, and featuring Aubrey Plaza as Gay Aubrey Plaza would have been an absolutely miserable experience that was hard to sit through and nothing but unpleasant to watch, I would probably have been shocked and disappointed.

But at least I would have not seen this movie. That is my gift to you. Please do NOT watch this.

It was marketed as a romantic comedy and it lived up to neither of those claims. Absolutely terrible movie. The happiest season of all is one where you don’t watch this stressful, uncomfortable disaster.

#eldritchreviews

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mrs-nate-humphrey · 3 years

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here’s a thought: if the show had been less cowardly and went forward with incorporating dan’s bisexuality from the novels into the show’s canon, how and when do you think it should have been done? what kind of storyline would you ideally want for him?

hi!! as you can imagine, i was delighted to receive an ask of this nature, and i started writing an answer for this, and then tumblr randomly shut its tab and ate it (biphobia!) so i’m trying again. uhh the short answer is that there was ample opportunity in canon – this post i made about dan dating everyone in the njbc, while sadly a joke, is based entirely on canon situations & dynamics.

[ more under the cut ]

that post i linked is quite a bit even as is but there are more things in canon that lend themselves to dan being bi which i didn’t think of while making that post, such as:

the thing with chuck, when he was trying to get that story in season 2. it was very fade to black, which means anything could have happened.

dan making nate’s character in inside gay!! like, this was played off as a ‘haha funny’ by everyone, but characters in inside are…. recognisable. blair realised dan loves her for her through an extract from the book. everyone in dan’s life was pissed off with him because they could recognise themselves in the book. why would dan even make nate gay? what purpose does that serve? is it heterosexual to look at your dude best friend and go “damn, i wish he was gay”? nope! (here's a little more on why i choose to interpret it this way, despite the whole nate & eric being one character fusion thing.)

remember that bit in s2 that all of us dairs keep yelling about, where dan gives blair advice on how to seduce chuck? why was blair taking dan’s help on how to get the guy?? what made dan a suitable candidate for this sort of seduction? what made serena – dan’s literal ex gf – suggest dan for this job? this makes so much more sense if he were bi, seriously.

him thinking of nate & serena having sex at the shepard wedding in graphic detail. i made this meme because, lmao, dan, what are you doing! but seriously – that didn’t feel very heterosexual to me, at all. i know the vibe was supposed to be ‘dan comparing himself to nate’ but the vibe was… not that, lmao.

things i would do beyond this / the direction i would get canon to take:

i think dan would know he liked boys as young as like, 13 or 14, but i think he would repress it and keep it to himself and not talk about it. vanessa would have her suspicions, possibly, but she would never bring it up.

i’ve written this in a fic or two before, but i headcanon dan’s first crush on someone in school to be on nate and not on serena. he meets serena at that party in ninth grade, but i’m assuming that he has classes with nate all the time at school, more than with serena simply because of the way constance/ st. jude is divided.

i think dan would have a lot of internalized biphobia to work through. i don’t think he would initially be happy or comfortable with knowing he likes boys, and he would try to ignore it. dan’s already very much a loner, ostracized by his peers, made to feel different and weird, and to him this would be one more thing that sets him apart from his classmates and makes him different from them.

so, given this, i think dan would be afraid of / highly uncomfortable with the possibility of becoming a stereotype. like “of course dan likes men, he likes to read poetry and watch romantic movies” or “of course dan likes men, he’s so well-informed on fashion” – i think dan would find that sort of thing uncomfortable and reductive, but in true dan humphrey fashion, i think he would be judging himself more than anybody else is.

this sounds so cliché, but i think dan having a gay arc in college would be best for him. esp given his popularity at NYU, i think that’d do wonders for his self-confidence in general – knowing that he’s found ‘his people’ and that people like his writing and like him, just for who he is.

he would kiss a boy at some party, and the world wouldn’t end, and the boy would give dan his number, and dan… would still be too shy to call but it’d be a life-changing moment of… oh. i can have relationships with boys and still be dan humphrey. this doesn’t change anything about me. okay.

once he’s had that revelation, of course, it gets a lot easier. i’d want dan to have his first serious boyfriend in college. probably not anybody he knows from high school, someone new – an olivia type of person, basically, but a man.

he could still end up with blair, or get to raise milo with nate – i like both nate & blair as potential romantic endgames for dan. blair gets him in a way that nobody else really does, which is fun to watch on the show and very sweet to envision for dan. at the same time, there’s an easiness to the way he is with nate, like, their friendship is so low-pressure and solid and i think that’d translate nicely into a relationship, despite lack of similar interests.

i would like dan to make queer friends at college! i would love that for him. i’d like him to have friends who drag him into gay bars, i’d like for vanessa to realise she’s bi in college (vanlivia always had better chemistry than danlivia, this is the hill i will die on), i’d like dan to finally get to a point where he’s comfortable enough with his sexuality that even if randoms go “of course he likes men, he likes poetry and he likes fashion” he’d just be like, “fuck off, i like men because i like men, not because of the other things,” and he would… not care what people said, basically.

there’s probably more, but this is all i have for now! bonus: here’s a margottenenbaum S3 au fic where instead of serena who has the affair with tripp, it’s dan who does that? it’s a really interesting fic – the dynamic is so different, and it’s in tripp pov, which is kind of a rarity, at least, from what i’ve seen.

if for some reason you want more thoughts from me on bisexual dan beyond this, here’s an iconic conversation @blairwaldorfisgay & i had which started out with nate x dan & somehow ended up at chuck x dan. to this day, i have No idea how that happened, lmao.

#anon #meta #thanks for the ask!!!! this got sooo long #gossip girl #dan humphrey #long post #gg rewrite

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idgaf-what-you-call-me · 3 years

Text

This is the first time, outside of therapy, that I am opening up fully my past, I ask that you remain respectful.

Trigger warnings: Suicide, torture, neglect, alcoholism, … a lot listen you’ve got to be well resourced before you read this.

I know Dean, because I was Dean. I was raised to be “perfect”, I am so much like my dad, I didn’t have a childhood, I was tortured, I have lost time (dissociation not possession by an arc angel), I am fairly closeted, and I’m finally starting to get better.

Ever since a very young child, I was raised to be perfect. To look at a 99 and learn what I got wrong before I brought the grade home, otherwise, I was sent to study. I was raised to not be heard and taught to stay in my room. I was raised to not show emotion because anything more than stoic meant that I was an inconvenience. I had “fend for yourself nights” where I had to sort out what I would eat for dinner, and at inexcusably young ages, 5-6 years old. I learned to shoot at 8, and was taken fishing anytime my dad went. I was brought to the construction sites, learned how to use power tools, and eventually had my own set at home. While I wasn’t trained to hunt demons or other things that go bump in the night, I was molded to be just like my dad. My mom wasn’t around much when I was a kid, so I idolized my father. He was like a god to me. As I got older (legal), I even would drink things that my dad approved of like scotch and I smoked cigars. Often praised, “that’s my girl! Look guys, my daughter drinking scotch and smoking a cigar! Where are your kids?” The validation was like a high to me. I was desperate for his approval. Just like Dean. Talked like his dad, walked like his dad, drank like his dad, I get it.

I was blatantly ignored including being told that I was invisible by siblings. They would hold up a remote to me and say, “you’re invisible” and ignore me. I could leave the house and they would not come look for me. With my mom and dad often gone (usually working or partying we were quite poor), I didn’t have anyone looking after me since I was 4 so when my dad was around, much like Dean, all I wanted to do was make him happy and proud of me.

I was a closeted bisexual, who made so many gay jokes towards my cishet brother that I feel quite a bit of shame as an adult. I repressed every facet of desire I had for the opposite gender because being bisexual really meant that I must be gay. At least that is what Will and Grace told me, and I did not want to be gay. Things were bad enough, I didn’t need to add to my shit pile. By the time I was 12, I had no idea how to feel emotions and I had no idea how to love myself. Most days, now at 29, I still don’t know how to love myself. I am not out to everyone in my family. I don’t feel safe with everyone. All the gay jokes between the brothers, all the Dean is bi subtext, I lived a lot of it.

Torture can take the shape of many different forms but they fall under two umbrellas: physical and psychological. I was subjected to sound torture and sleep deprivation forms of physical torture that have lasting psychological effects. When you live through something like that, you don’t “rebound” in the traditional sense, and I would dissociate. My consciousness would retreat back into itself until it was safe enough to come back.

I dreaded Thursday nights as that is when it would begin. My father would bring home several cases of Michelob Ultra, from the store, and then he would start drinking. My dad didn’t measure his consumption in beers, instead he measured by the case. A form of extreme binge drinking that to this day I still don’t completely understand. While he would drink, his music would get progressively louder and louder until the whole house vibrated with noise.

There are some songs and artists that I cannot listen to anymore. They’re not songs by Metallica or Black Sabbath, instead they’re by Credence Clearwater Revival, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and the like. Songs that people dance to at their weddings, sing at funerals, and enjoy on a road trip with the entire family. They are generally described as lively yet not heavy, yet this music was the conduit of 5 years of actual torture for me. I used to say that these were my favorite songs, but it was a way to cope with hearing them at home, and then hearing them play in the car on the way to school the next morning. In my house, the music was played so loudly that walls and floors shook and overwhelmed my senses and ability to sleep, think, do anything but have a heartbeat and breathe. It would last all night. I never learned to “fall asleep” I would pass out. To this day, I can be desperately tired, and able to drive for several hours without being a dangerous driver. Like my body learned to ignore fatigue. “I just need like 4 hours every couple of days,” yeah Deano, I’ve been there.

I would freeze mentally. Almost like a zone out but on steroids. Then I’d look around and things wouldn’t feel real to me. I would look in the mirror and see a stranger. Now I understand that I had developed dpdr as a way to cope. I don’t wish it on anyone.

My mother? She would leave the house and go clubbing. My siblings were 8 years older than me and lived on their own a great distance from where I lived. Besides, I had school to go to on Fridays. So I cooked, I monitored myself, I had to become an adult. I didn’t get to be a kid. My catharsis was angsty and fluffy Harry Potter fan fiction. You can find it on FF.net, RandHrFan I no longer post with that handle. Dean’s were movies, movies that my dad, and I’d wager his dad watched. I also love westerns just like my dad and my grandfather, there is something about them.

When Dean cries and opens up to Sam about his hell experiences, I get it. I’m so proud of him for telling Sam. To some it seems like he’s closed off but he’s not. He’s opening up as much as he mentally can. And Sam listens. Just like my sister eventually did. When Dean gets mad and yells at John and Mary, I’m proud of him, because he is fighting for himself. He knew he deserved better and he didn’t let it go. Just like I have done in my not so distant past.

All the while my parent’s marriage was fracturing and I was mentally declining. My mom began sleeping in my room and in my bed, and I was basically left to sleep on the couch. On days when my dad would drink, and my mom would go out, I could get to be in my room again. I could be on the computer (laptops weren’t a thing yet) which lived in my room. I could connect with the two other friends on AIM, but the reality of my situation I couldn’t escape. I was isolated, didn’t trust my family and I didn’t know how to ask for help.

One day I attempted to take my life. I saw no value in it. What was I doing with my life. I was a broken human who didn’t deserve love, who didn’t deserve safety, who didn’t deserve well anything. So I downed a bottle of pills. I had an iron clad stomach, I wasn’t too worried about not being successful. Except, I sent a goodbye message to a friend, and that friend saved my life. He got a hold of my sister who got to me in enough time to make me throw up. (She was a champ at that, having suffered from bulimia and taught to throw up from no other than my dad.)

I didn’t receive help afterwards. I signed a paper saying that I wouldn’t attempt again and was taken home. (I hope this isn’t how hospitals roll anymore.) I left my house, I went to school out of state and found stability, created stability for myself. But my past still haunted me whenever I went home. So when Dean has a death wish, and gets discharged from hospitals before he’s stable, I get it.

My parents eventually divorced, and I came home to a place where I couldn’t live anymore for a solid couple of months, I couch surfed, and again my mental health took a nosedive, but nevertheless, I persisted. I got my head back in the game, and finished my degree. Chemistry. I couldn’t go back home, because if I did I’d be working for my dad. I couldn’t do that, it was too painful. So I went to grad school. I got my Ph.D. I began to chart my own path. But there was a rage in me that I couldn’t escape. I lashed out at anyone and everyone to hide the pain that I felt all the time. People were afraid of me. I was great at what I did but I couldn’t make lasting connections with others.

When I was 27 suicidal ideations became dangerous, and I got about as dark. I tried to harm myself, and wanted my world to burn. It didn’t matter that I was married, with pets, and owned a home. Nothing mattered. I finally had to decide between life and death, I couldn’t continue in that state. I can say confidently that I would be dead if I didn’t get help that day. I wish Dean had this chance. He gets close to this in moments with Cas when he is honest about his feelings and experiences, he cries, he gets angry, lashes out, but Cas is there for him. From someone like Dean, I’ll tell you Cas being present holds more weight than gold for Dean.

I have been in intense therapy for a year. By intense I do mean more than once a week, regular check ins with her, and the occasional group session. She sends me articles to read, homework, and we do EMDR work, emotional integration therapy, mindfulness, etc.

It was then that I began to learn that all the rage that I had built inside me was hiding intense fear, loss, and disappointment. The rage gave way to tears, and the tears gave way to a new anger that I could make peace with. That anger comes from the person I am today. The person who fights for herself. Who doesn’t take shit from anyone. The person who says, humans don’t break, vases break, and I am a human. I see a lot of that in late season Dean. He is a fighter.

But I am still the person who receives a compliment and shuts down, there is still a side of me that doesn’t believe that I deserve nice things, good things to happen to me, but that person is getting smaller. My therapist likes to hit me with compliments when I am vulnerable as I am more likely to believe them. I still react like a dead fish when she says them, and then after the session sob for hours over it. One day my head and my heart will believe the same things about myself. I would have reacted the same way as Dean to that confession.

When the cards fall, I still know that I can depend on myself before anyone else because I had to. My life as an impoverished, unstable, depressed, neglected, and abused kid says I should be dead or amounting to nothing, but hear I am. I’ve now closely mentored about 20 undergraduate students, a handful of graduate students, and have helped them find their paths in life. I have taught nearly 1000 students. I made a difference with the life that I tried to throw away.

I have come to a place where I can love my dad. He is sober again, and yes, my love for him does depend on his sobriety. When he is drinking he is not the same person. I wouldn’t call him an A+ dad by a long shot, and hell I am so much like him that at times it makes me sick, but I do love him. I have been able to forgive him. Forgive in the sense that I can make peace with what happened. It doesn’t change what happened or how much it affected me, and I certainly don’t forget, but that isn’t what forgiveness is. I don’t hold the rage anymore. The fact that Dean is able to is personal for Dean, as it is for me, and it isn’t some “family that is what you do” type reason.

I do experience flashbacks when there are fireworks, I can’t go to a movie theatre because of the volume, when people play really loud music in their cars I typically have to peel off into a parking lot and meditate for 20 minutes to be able to drive again. There are some stores that I don’t shop at because their music triggers me. So when Dean experiences those flashbacks, I get it.

There is a belief in the psychology that monster shows help us become comfortable with our dark sides. My dark side saved me over and over again. My dark side told me to be better than them. My dark side told me to fight for me, to adopt a survivor mindset. (If you can’t tell I am a green veined Slytherin and have never been sorted into any other house even by random house generators.) The things I delight in are a bit off color. I cultivate a poison garden, consume way too much true crime, to gore I say give me s’more and so on. Dean gets to experience his dark side, and he has to make peace with it. He makes inappropriate jokes, laughs at it, but he also does talk about it.

This is the hard part: Just like Dean, I am also light. I love people (vomit), seriously though, they are more precious to me than any earthly possession. Plants bring me serenity. Animals are a comfort and companion in the worst of times. There isn’t much I wouldn’t do to protect living things. My motivations come from a place of love and a need to protect others from what I have been through. I know I can survive, but I don’t know if that is true for everyone else.

I know Dean. I was Dean. I see that every episode. Moments when he yells and screams for himself, I cheer him on. Moments where he tries to waste his life away, I understand, and am crying right with him. The purgatory apology guts me, I’ve had to make that apology more than once. The dead fish reaction, hell that is me at the end of a therapy session. I am here to say: Dean is not broken. Dean is strong. Dean is resilient. Dean doesn’t just fight for himself, he fights for the whole of creation. Dean is not a vase. He is a human.

Oh and John’s taste in beer, much like my fathers, is crap. Don’t drink shitty beer. Also, I don’t drink scotch anymore. I'm a gin girl and I drink *okay* beer.

I’m the same blogger who does drunk blogging regarding Supernatural on Saturdays. It is a lovely bit of comfort and joy for me and I won’t be stopping any time soon. We will get back to the lovely and light “Dean is Bi he he” commentary this weekend.

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miss-mishka · 4 years

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I just watched Matthias et Maxime (2019) directed, produced, written by & starring Xavier Dolan. I am in love with this “drama focusing on a group of friends in their late 20s.” Here are some screengrabs of my favorite lines with a brief rundown of the central characters.

Matthias (aka Matt, played by Gabriel D'Almeida Freitas) - Clearly trying to be the ‘grown up’ of the group. He’s gorgeous, but a total type A personality, severely repressed sexuality issues & is so emotionally constipated that it hurts to witness. I’ve watched the movie through 3 times already & still can’t decide if I like him or not, but he’s top billed in the title, so he gets the first slot on this post.

Maxime (aka Max play by Xavier Dolan) - The boy everyone loves & I adore him. Maybe he’s an underdog, maybe he’s comedic relief, maybe he’s just that buddy they could always rely on. Whatever it is, he’s the heart of the group. This whole movie is about his moving to Australia for a bit & the gang just wants to enjoy the time that they have left together because they know it’s time for growing up & probably all of them moving on. This particular line wasn’t his funniest or best, but I chose it because it’s the most important line of the whole movie & when Matt just left him there like that? It’s what adds the most weight to the “Don’t” side of the scale of whether I like Matt.

Rivette (aka Marc-Antoine according to his mother or Marco per his sister, played by Pier-Luc Funk) - My absolute FAVORITE! Picking just one line for him for this post was physically painful & I’m working on screengrabs just dedicated to him. He’s a psych major at Cambridge, mostly grown up, bossy af, funny af, gay? (according to his sister), dating a professor? (implied by the guys) & the cool rich kid whose parents always let him throw parties for his friends. He is, I think, the glue that’s kept them all together beyond high school & college.

Frank (aka Frankie played by Samuel Gauthier) - The protector & my precious. This line doesn’t do much to capture his character, but I still loved it. Frankie has a temper, but, I sense that, he’s the guy in the group that would be the first to protect & defend his friends. We see that when he refuses to let Matt’s bs ruin Max’s going away party, even though his fight with Matt totally ruins things for Max.

Brass (played by Antoine Pilon) - he’s the stoner dude-bro of the group. He’s not a standout character, for me, but he’s very included in the group & I love how they all are together so I, by default, love him.

Shariff (aka Benjamin Shariff per Matt's mom, played by Adib Alkhalidey) - This is not an image for him from this movie & he has some good lines in the movie that I could have grabbed, but I don’t care. When I saw that this was his IMDB profile picture, it immediately erased any other image I have for him. His character in this movie, though, is the “hipster rocker” that Matt is referring to in his picture above. Shariff is the cool, sexy one. Even Matt’s mom is crushing on him. (I also love Matt's mom in this movie.)

Required Inclusion:

Erika (played by Camille Felton) - Rivette’s little sister. She’s probably supposed to annoy everyone as much as she does Matt, but I love her. More than that, I love the insults that her brother has for her. “$24,000 a year to talk like a bimbo & Instagram her breakfast burrito” said Rivette on Erika & her efforts in film school. Here, she’s calling Matt & Max another generation when she can’t possibly be more than a few years younger than them. She is so pretentious & condescending with these guys. Most importantly, she’s the catalyst for the events in this movie. If you don’t know what it’s about, here we finally go.

Erika has tagged along with Rivette to their parent’s “cabin” to work on her film project, much to the dismay of her big bro’s friends who are there for a weekend party. She has a few of her own friends with her & was supposed to have a pair of actresses there to be in her film project for school, but they bail at the last minute so she asks for two of the guys to stand in. Max agrees to help her out because he's "the chillest" according to Erika. Matt loses a bet & has to do it. The roles they’re to play? Just a couple of guys making out for the camera. We don’t get to see what her camera captured & I demand a DVD or BluRay release of this film ASAP with that unedited footage. (Please, I beg whoever may hear me & have the power, tell me that this will happen!)

Whatever happens between Matt & Max during that filming session sends Matt into a bit of a tailspin. He obviously wants Max, but it’s clear that he feels he shouldn’t. Whether it’s self-imposed or something impressed upon him by a father we never meet in the movie, Matt has an obvious idea of what it means to be a grown man & loving Max isn’t part of that. His friend group is not part of it. His childhood dream of owning/running a farm with Max is most definitely not a part of it. But Max’s going away & that stupid film are threatening to derail his perfectly planned future where he’ll advance quickly through the ranks of his stuffy corporate(lawyer?) job & likely marry his very nice girlfriend Sarah.

How does it end? Ambiguously, I fear, for the romance. But I still love it because this group of characters outlined here? They work. Their story, as a whole, is very good, even if Matt & Max are the focal points. The cast chemistry is very believable & I hope some, if not all, of the cast are friends in real life.

#matthias et maxime #lgbtq movies #movie review/thoughts #I stan Rivette!#mad love for Xavier Dolan #matthias & maxime

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deputy-ajay-ghale · 4 years

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My bi!Nadine post keeps getting notes and I’m tired of reading and binge watching TheRadBrad videos, so LGI, baby, let’s get it, let’s go!

Okay, so basically my whole thing is that Nadine is bi and just doesn’t know it because of Heteronormativity. Maybe repressed isn’t the right word, but I liked the way it sounded when I made my previous post.

Anyways, Nadine/Krista had the potential to be Childhood Friends to Lovers, and, had Nadine realize her attraction to girls/her best friend, would’ve A) come out and confessed her love to Krista presuming she’d feel the same way because this is Nadine’s mentality with her (that if Nadine thinks so, it’s law, if Nadine is in love with Krista then obviously Krista must love her too) or B) Nadine would be too scared to come out and ruin the only bond she has.

WHICH is how I feel The Edge Of Seventeen went. There’s just so much vitriol behind Nadine’s hate towards Darian/Krista that it transcends just “my annoying brother stole my best friend from me.” Because there’s nothing to say Krista can’t maintain a friendship and a relationship with the Franklin siblings. Think of Nadine’s WORDING. “It’s him or me, Krista. You can’t have us both.” Something like that. I distinctly remember that first bit. A bi!Nadine attracted to Krista but unwilling to come out begging, forcing Krista to choose between a Girl and a Boy.

Onto Nadine and Erwin, I actually adore them. Saying Nadine latched onto Erwin is in no way me trying to invalidate their mutual attraction or Hailee and Hayden��s chemistry. What I mean is good ol’ Heteronormativity and Loneliness and Abandonment Issues pushing Nadine to cling to Erwin, a cute boy who was giving her the attention that Krista and Nick weren’t. And in being a cis female attracted to a male comes the easiness in which she can connect with him. Hell, I think if this movie was about Nadine being canonically bi, she’d probably come out to Erwin instead of Krista because he was ultimately one of the only people there for her when she was having a terrible week.

I actually kind of got lost in what I’m trying to say, but the big takeaway is that Nadine hated Darian/Krista because she unconsciously had romantic feelings for her best friend, Krista being attracted to her brother was a throat punch, Nadine sought to remedy her loneliness by going to guys for it (Erwin, Nick, and Woody Harrelson), and in the end Nadine is still an unaware Baby Bi who will probably come out to her teacher or Erwin before her previous support system, ie Krista and the Franklins.

Next time, we can talk about how Nadine is an imperfect, complex character who’s still worth loving because she’s incredibly human and young and trying to be herself.

#the edge of seventeen #nadine franklin #erwin kim #krista #original post

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fireflake-art · 3 years

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this is just a dump don’t worry about it

And i’ll break their ass down

Felicity Smoak

How I feel about this character

I’m love her. Felicity is the main reason why I kept on my Arrow binge, and now it’s one of my favorite shows.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Oliver, of course! Let’s go down the list, in order of which I shipped them; Sara, Alena, Nyssa, Black Siren. Probably more but i haven’t rewatched the earlier seasons in a while

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Curtis, bffs

My unpopular opinion about this character

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

More badass moments. Felicity is an amazing hacker, but I truly believe she would have advanced in the field as well if trained. Sure, I love Morally Gray! Felicity, but this part of her was quickly demonized by her friend group and I dunno that’s just uncomfortable for me. Felicity ain’t allowed to carry a gun so she can feel safe? She’s been kidnapped how many fucking times and Oliver’s throwing a shitfit now that she has the means to protect herself? It just doesn’t make sense. I feel like Oliver would object to Felicity killing, but also, she’s already commited mass murder? That’s the entire reason Ragboy left? Like she’s already killed people, Oliver, she’s been to the dark side before, dude, you can’t “save” her. I think he would’ve been more likely to train Felicity so she can defend herself properly so the gun wasn’t her only source of defense just in case it was used against her. Honestly all the teams need to train their more brainy members how to fight in general, you cannot have a person involved in something that could get them killed and not do that guys

Killer Frost (The Flash)

How I feel about this character

TSUNDERE BABE

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Caitlin, OTP. I’ve never created so much art for a pairing before, whether it be fanfics or drawings. Silver Banshee and Livewire is my favorite crack ot3 for her. Probably makes passes at all her boys’ girls, like Iris and Kamilla and Sue

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Ralphie! They’re bros

My unpopular opinion about this character

Gagagagagagagaagay, socially awkward tsundere, just wants to be loved, will punch you in the face if you find out, panic attacks 24/7, so much anger issues

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

More soft moments with the team. I think she and Iris would work really well as passive-aggressive friends, y’know the type whose love language is insulting each other constantly

Cisco Ramon (The Flash)

How I feel about this character

I wuv him. Third favorite in the Flash, behind Frost and Cait respectively. Long hair, don’t care, nerd boy, i have a big gay crush on him, I really connect to his whole ‘i-was-emotionally-neglected-by-my- parents-and-fictional-characters-raised-me’ vibe. Also hair. pwetty. run hair??? run fingers through hair? ples

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Alright I’m poly and a multishipper so this is gonna be a long one. Keep in mind that I personally headcanon Cisco as bisexual aromantic, but as a subset identity called cupioromantic; my basic understanding of it is that though this label has no romantic feelings, they desire relations that are romantic-esque. Let’s go down the list! Ralph Dibny, Sue, and Kamilla as an ot4 absolutely melts me, Iris and Cisco are so good but Barco is neat too! Them as an ot3 could be so cute. Ronnie x Cisco is a gem. OH and he and Hartley used to date but broke up

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Caitlin of course! They’re best bros! The nerdy scientist and the professional doctor, both emotionally stunted idiots. I like to think they bonded over a shared love for horror movies, and that’s how they became friends. Also a bit of Killer Frost! Of course Cisco would have some relationship with his best friend’s alter. They’re not best friends (Frost considers Ralph her best friend), but they’re close. He introduced her to Game of Thrones. Frost calls him “Cissy,” “Transco” and “Vibeboy.” Cisco overuses “White Walker” way too much when talking with her.

My unpopular opinion about this character

A good boy?? I dunno, I can never find any content for Aro Cisco. I like to think that he’s emotionally stunted because his parents weren’t affectionate, and he developed a broad fixation on escapist fantasies for comfort and stimulation, like tv shows and comics. This could just be a projection ha

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I wish Cisco would just get confirmed as trans already! And he should talk about the fact he has a dead brother more often, that sting doesn’t just go away after a few episodes. Also give him and Iris more of a relationship. Also make him talk to Ralph more. Also there needs to be more chemistry with Kamilla, like comeon guys let’s see some banter over here rn he has more canonical chemistry with Ralph’s girlfriend

Caitlin Snow (The Flash)

How I feel about this character

My socially awkward darling.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Killer Frost. Just,, Frostie. Killersnow is my jam, I still chug out content for it to this day. Also Patty x Cait is a fun crackship, maybe throw Iris in it, too. Probably has a small crush on Kara and Kate. Way bigger crush on Lena and Alex. Buff smarties are her bread and butter, probably why she was so into Ronnie. Otherwise I generally see her as asexual

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Cisco, Barry, Ralphie. Cisco especially, they’re besties, everyday, inside jokes, binge-watch together, dumb idiots with wildly different coping mechanisms, I think that;s why I like their friendship so much? Cait sort of just shuts down, ignores it, pushes herself into something she views as more productive than her thoughts and feelings. Cisco de-constructs his emotions by putting them in ways he can easily understand, into comics and characters, because tv was his only escape from the emotional neglect his family offered. Caitlin focused solely on getting out and being someone Thomas could be proud of, y’know?

My unpopular opinion about this character

Ace, bi, poly. Neutral, polite, aloof, superiority complex, inferiority complex, definite imposter syndrome-- idunno i fell in love with s1 Cait and I wish her canonically life-long tendency to repress and deny would show up more. Definitely the smartest in any given group (and she knows it), but is nice about it. Remember in season one when she called a brain freeze the long-ass scientific name? Instant love, I’m love her, I wish she did that more, clearly she loves science and medicine and biology so so much and I really hope they show more of her being a fuckin dork for it, it makes her feel so much more human, she’s just. great

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Just went on a rant about it in the above text. Let Caitlin be a dork! Let her be repressive and emotional and I-can-do-it-on-my-own-y! Let her be all this and more, a human whose conditioned herself a robot, I love that concept so much. Let Caitlin be herself!

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templarhalo · 4 years

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Templarhalo reviews Birds of Prey. (It’s pretty fantabulous)

HERE BE SPOILERS YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Ok without this movie, I would have not been a Cassandra Cain fan. I would have not four, yes four ongoing fics with her as the main character. I would not be emotionally and financially invested in the DC cinematic universe or the comics side of things.

Which baffles me because this movie is perfect in almost every aspect,... Except how they treated Cassandra Cain. Which is a fucking shame because her actress is perfect, her chemistry and relationship with Harley is perfect, and the idea of Cass growing up as this pickpocket foster kid, taken in by Harley is unconventional, but I fucking love it.

Here’s a brief summary. After breaking up with the Joker Harley Quinn has to make her own way as the strong, badass, indepent woman we all know she is, while dealing with the fact that without Mistah J’s fell reputation as his significant other to shield her, a lot of people want her raped, tortured, killed and left for the crows… Not necessarily in that order.

To get these people off her back and save her own skin, from one of them, the infamous Black Mask. Harley agrees to recover the Bertinelli Diamond, a diamond encoded with the info for a source of 30 million dollars, Black Mask needs to fiance his take over of Gotham. Which was pickpocketed from one of his associates by our Lady and savior Cass.

The problem is, Cass kind of ate it( (I shit you not) and Black Mask’s guys would rather cut it out of her than wait for the poor kid to take a dump Not to mention Detective tReene Montoya (played by her Gotham Actress, which would have been a nice bit of world building if Gotham was actually in the movie continuity) building a case against Black Mask, with the aid of Black Canary Plus Huntress is indirectly gunning for him and Harley in her own quest for revenge. All these plot points converge into a very satisfying climax and fight scene with a somewhat emotionally satisfying ending.

From a technical standpoint this film is a spectacle. Gotham in the day is colorful but rundown, with markets, suave evil bad guy clubs, dilapidated Chinese restaurants and abandoned amusement parks. The fight scenes are AMAZING with a wonderful tension and energy that makes them incredibly visualising satisfying. Everything flows, the ladies move with an enthralling grace that makes them breaking bones, crushing legs,and tearing through people visceral and heartstopping. (And arousing. Like goddamn Jurnee Smollett-Bell could kill me with her legs and I’d thank her)

The problem, is none of this applies to Cass, and this is the films major flaw besides how short it is. (One hour and forty five minutes). If you had problems with how Harley was handled in Suicide Squad, the movie fixes it. Black Canary gets a short but satisfying emotional arc that feels natural. She goes from a cynical, lethargic woman, content to be Black Masks “Little Bird”; A singer at his club, driver and symbol of his power/dominance over other women until her own conscience kicks in at Harley and Cass’ predicament. Huntress also has a short but satisfying arc in which she gets her vengeance on the people who murdered her family and clearly finds a new one to fill the hole in her life, in the form of the Birds. Reene and her portrayal is a love letter to the 80s cop/hard boiled detectives, a pure, simultaneously complicated/uncomplicated woman seeking to do good for Gotham.

But Cass… Doesn’t feel like Cass and is criminally underutilized except as a walking mcguffin by dint of eating the Mcguffin. She’s introduced to us a snarky tween, stuck in a cycle of shitty foster homes and a pickpocket to get by. And that’s it. T

here are moments where you think she'll get a cool fight scene. Moments where you think she’ll have an emotional heart to heart with Harley, moments where you think…she’ll do something besides run from the bad guys and get saved by the Birds of Prey/Her four moms.

In the end she drives into the sunset with Harley and Bruce the Hyena, but it doesn’t feel earned, satisfying as the scene is. There is nothing implying or hinting she’s the daughter of two of the deadliest assassins in the DC universe, nothing about her running away from David Cain, nothing on her learning disabilities/selective mutism and NOTHING, setting her up to be adopted by Batman and become Batgirl

And this is a fucking shame, because Ella Jay Basco has a real chemistry with Margert and the rest of the cast. She’s adorable, funny, snarky and wonderful as Cass. She brings energy and spunk and I would cut off my left hand, to see her act as Cassandra Cain, not this generic punk kid with the name.

And I feel like this is a HUGE problem because the movie sets up this Mother/daughter relationship, with Cass being Harley’s motivation to be a better person. She goes from willing to hand her over to Black Mask to taking the kid under her wing. Cass is the glue that bands the Birds of Prey together. These lovely, dangerous, women coming together to keep a little girl safe, doesn’t feel as emotionally satisfying as it should because Cass isn’t Cass.

While I will praise the movie for Harley’s arc of seeking her own emancipation and agency outside her abusive relationships and life of crime, I feel like Harley’s arc should have been a question of redemption. Cassandra’s motivation to become Batgirl was her refusal to kill again. (Hey WB remember how in Batman Begins Bruce refused to kill a man because “I will not be an executioner.”)

Here Cass is fine with killing. She chucks a bomb at some goons chasing her and she kills Black Mask with a grenade in the end.

Yeah… Cass “I refuse to kill because my dad made me kill an innocent man at eight years old and killing is wrong” kills people.

*head meet desk*

Sucide Squad, set up Harley and the squad, for an unconventional redemption arc, spite motivated it may be, yet Harley despite her line to Cass “You make me want to be a less terrible person” isn’t seeking to make amends for what she did as the Joker’s henchman. (Like being an accomplice to Jason Todd’s murder).

.Cass pickpots and steals to survive, because she’s a kid with no family passed from foster home to foster home, Harley steals because she can, steal a truck to blow up a chemical plant because she can. Kills because she can. (granted she does use an M79 grenade launcher with bean bag shells for one scene but besides that.)

I like the idea of Harley taking Cass under her wing, its an unconventional but fresh idea, but it doesn’t feel entirely satisfying, and Cass not being Cass, not having an arc beyond “Go along with Harley as her apprentice” really undermines the excellent themes and message the movie is trying to convey.

Now maybe in the Suicide Squad reboot with James Gunn or a future DC film , Cass is going to leave Harley because that life of crime and killing doesn’t suit her and she realizes she’s trying to be something she’s not and I’m just being overly critical, but I still feel like “Harley and Cass seeking redemption and moving past their abusers together” should have been where this movie left off, and it baffles me that it doesn’t from a narrative perspective.

Anway the overall themes and message of Birds of Prey are represented in Evan Mcregor’s Black Mask, a walking talking example of repressive toxic masculinity and misogyny. A flamboyant, all but stated to be a repressed Bi, crime lord seeking to take control of Gotham, Black Mask moves with confidence in his loud suits, and charming quirkiness, He’s cruel, sadistic and repulsive His mannerisms ooz terror,and insanity. He moves like a love child between Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix’s take on the Joker, Gaston from Beauty and the Beast and Joffery Baratheon from Game of Thrones. He’s a control freak, trying to be a badass.

One minute he’s the Godfather, the next he’s a brat. He views Harley as nothing without the Joker, telling her that she needs him to protect her. He enjoys asserting his dominance over Harley during her brief capture by having his men beat her while he eats popcorn. He objectifies Black Canary for her singing voice and beauty..

Black Mask asserts his power and authority over the underworld by his control over women. In one frightening scene, he believes one of the women at his club is laughing at him for his failure to capture Cass, so he orders her to stand on a table, then for her boyfriend to rip open her dress with a knife because he finds it ugly.

In summary he represents the patriarchy. He represents sexist, abusive men. He’s a representation of social norms and ideals that are repressive and disgusting, and rob women of their agency, and self-worth. He represents the use of violence, not for noble reasons, but as a means to control women and lash out at those that defy him and supposedly wronged him .

Furthering this line of thought are the costumes. Black Canary’s costumes represent the amount of control, Black Mask has in her life. When we first see her, Dinah is wearing a long black netted evening gown that accents her legs as she sings “It’s a Man’s Man’s World”. Later she wears a blue tank top and gold, tightfitting pants clearly meant to draw our gaze to her ass and thighs. When she’s Black Mask’s driver, she’s wearing a Bra/crop top that bares her midriff under a short blue blaze, but when she decides she’s going to defy him, she wears a yellow tank top and jeans with a gold belt.

Harley’s costumes are as eclectic as she is, with her DIY caution tape shawl, stamped tops and cut up shorts. Huntress’s outfits are all black leather and punkish athletic wear, utilitarian and elegant in their simplicity while Reene wears a “I shave my balls for this” t-shirt reflecting her uncouth, blunt demeanor, as well as button down dress shirts and slacks for the climactic asskicking montage .

Cass is a kid,who clearly doesn’t have the funds for super nice clothes. She;s running around in ratty shorts and a worn out hoody with a red windbreaker, with an orange bandanna askew on her head. At the end, when she rides off with Harley, she copying Harley’s style.

Speaking of costumes, one thing I appreciate is that instead of the male gaze and sexualisation, we get what I like to call “passive fan service” What I mean is that instead of tracking shots on Harley’s ass or boob shoots, like in Suicide Squad the camera just lets these women’s beauty do the talking.

Huntress is wearing a sports bra and tactical pants for the climax, but the camera doesn’t linger on her boobs. A primary example of this is a lot of Padme’s scenes in Episodes II and III of Star Wars. Lucas knows Natalie Portman is a gorgeous woman and he doesn’t need to remind us by deliberate camera shots. He lets Natalie herself and Trisha Biggar’s excellent costumes do it for us.

Also one thing I really… really liked was how in the big penultimate fight, Harley actually passes Dinah a hair tie so she can get her hair out of the way. So for like a minute, she’s beating the ever loving fuck out of goons with her legs as she ties up her hair. A very nice case of reality ensures.

In conclusion Birds of Prey is another notch in the belt for the DC cinematic universe, a solid, fun film with an excellent cast with clear chemistry, hampered by character derailment that undermines its sorely needed themes and message it's trying to convey. The plot is fast paced, but doesn't feel rushed even though it’s only a little over an hour long. It’s uncompromisingly bold, bloody and hilarious. The lack of a proper post credits scene is somewhat annoying and I'm very disappointed how Cass was handled , but this is by no means a terrible film.

Overall I give it a 8.9 out of 10. Highly recommend you go see it. Drag your friends, smuggle in as much candy and drinks as you can. Buy it when it comes out on DVD. If you’re a Cass fan, reread the Puckett run or pick up her new graphic novel Shadow of the Batgirl to wash out the bittersweet taste this will give you. Speaking of Kelley Puckett, he was actually listed in the “Special thanks to…” in the credits, which i’m sure many will appreciate.

These following posts and thoughts on the film I recommend.

https://dcwomenofcolor.tumblr.com/post/190693985900/how-would-you-fix-bop-cass

https://wits-writing.tumblr.com/post/190718974642/birds-of-prey-movie-review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YeFJjoQoec

#birds of prey #cassandra cain #templarhalo rambles #Templarhalo reviews books

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chipmunkfanno1love · 4 years

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Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure Speculation: Varian and Vex Shipping

Though Varian has often been shipped with Cassandra, lately it has been a mixed bag of very strong opinions regarding the ship, especially some negative ones about Varian being too young for Cassandra who is in her 20’s while he’s in his teens. Personally I don’t have a problem with them becoming a couple, so long as they wait until Varian is legally an adult (such as it was with Ferb and Vanessa in “Phineas and Ferb”). I could see them as a couple if the creators of the show flashfoward to the future with an older Rapunzel and Eugene are telling their story and the fates of their friends to their children.

Personally I want to keep out of the arguments, and talk about this from a purely fictional opinion. While I do think Cassandra and Varian had great chemistry together in “Great Expositions”, so far Varian’s feelings for Cass are just an innocent crush (I even heard a rumour that Chris Sonneberg said it wouldn’t go any further than this) which Cass doesn’t requite. So I think the chances of these two becoming a couple, even when Varian’s older is pretty slim. Still, I do hope these two become friends again.

Anyway, the point of my topic is to bring up a potential new love-interest for Varian, and while I am pretty open about his love life and who his future girlfriend could be, I’m pretty keen on this ship I’m about to suggest.

The ship is between:

Varian

and

Vex

I imagine this ship is going to have a lot of mixed feedback. Some may not like it because they’re strong for the ship between Cassandra and Varian, while others won't like the ship because they simply don’t like Vex. Hear me out though, here are some good reasons why I think Varian and Vex could make a good couple.

1. The two appear to be close in age to each other. I imagine they’d be some cute teenage romantic tension between these two. It would be adorable to see the growing puppy love (which may eventually blossom into true love) between them.

2. Vex seems to me like a younger counterpart to Varian’s old crush, Cassandra, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Varian becomes attracted to her. Plus the fact that they both look up to her could give them something to bond over (though it might also cause some jealousy too if Vex develops a crush on Varian).

3. I get the feeling that Varian is attracted to tough women. While his crush on Cass was partly to do with her saving his life, I also think it could be that he admired her for her strength and courage. I reckon if he got to know Vex he would come to admire her own strong qualities. Perhaps like Cassandra before her, Vex could also learn to admire Varian’s compassion and smarts (though she may find his optimism annoying at first). I reckon in time these two opposites could attract.

4. Both are former juvenile delinquents of sorts, what with Varian taking over and almost destroying an entire kingdom, stealing a precious ancient relic, not to mention kidnapping Queen Arianna and later attempting to murder her and Cassandra. While Vex as far as I know hasn’t done that, she had her fair share of crimes including bribery and playing part of a kidnapping. Plus who knows what else (her selling weapons suggests a few possibilities). Over time I can see these two learning to empathise with each over their past crimes and connect over their desires to redeem themselves in their current roles, e.g. Varian in helping Princess Rapunzel and Vex in being Deputy to Captain Quaid the Sheriff of Vardaros.

Fun Fact: I reckon their ship name could be V.V (Varian and Vex). Unless of course Vex isn’t Vex’s real name. I believe she could have changed her name, much like two other former criminals we know (Eugene and Lance).

Here are several movie and TV couples that I think could be good examples of how these two could interact as a couple and/or even friends:

Zuko and Mai from “Avatar: The Last Airbender

The one thing I have noticed is that Varian and Zuko’s falls from grace and eventual redemption stories have a lot of similarities to each other, especially since they both had something to do with their estranged relationships with their fathers’ (though I am no way saying that Quirin is cruel and abusive like Lord Ozai was). Both are also rebellious risk-takers who want to do the right thing but often take misguided actions which have terrible consequences to them, though both are eager to make up for their past mistakes and help their respective main character (Rapunzel/Aang) in their destiny. Of course, nerdy alchemist Varian is much more friendly, optimistic and clumsy compared to the hot-tempered, moody and athletically-inclined Fire Prince turned Fire Lord, Zuko. Still, he certainly has his angsty moments which are very similar to Zuko’s.

I think it makes sense that Varian gets a girlfriend with a lot of similarities to Zuko’s girlfriend, Mai. Mai and Vex are certainly similar in the sense that both are moody, cynical action girls who both seem to have trouble expressing their feelings. Maybe Vex’s cynicism is the result of growing up in her rough town. She had to be tough in order to survive, plus there is a hint that maybe she’s an orphan, so there’s potential that she could be carrying a lot of emotional baggage and even fears of abandonment. She probably pretends not to care about anything because she’s scared if she does she’ll get hurt, similar to how Mai pretends not to care because she was taught to repress her feelings from a young age by her controlling mother.

Either way, like Zuko and Mai, I think both Varian and Vex could bring the best out in each other. Varian could help Vex to open up more, while Vex could help Varian recover from his past wounds (in her own Vex way). I’m sure she can empathise with Varian’s dark past as she wasn’t always on the right side of law herself, or at least her neutral siding didn’t exactly make her stand out as a good guy, until she made the decision to become Captain Quaid’s deputy and therefore firmly planted herself on the good side.

I can definitely see Varian and Vex having a fight similar to Zuko and Mai’s during the party scene of “The Beach”. Also I can also see Vex wearing the pants in the relationship like Mai does (Mai’s warning to Zuko in the series finale never to break up with her again sounds like something I imagine Vex saying to Varian). I believe they will show affection to each other in the same way Zuko and Mai do. This confession of love from Mai sounds like something that Vex would definitely say herself: “I don’t hate you.”

Wednesday Addams and Joel Glicker from “The Addams Family Values”

A lot of people have compared Vex’s looks and personality to Wednesday Addams from The Addams Family franchise:

While I certainly won’t deny the similarities, I believe that Vex was inspired by Mattie Ross from the 2010 version of the film True Grit:

Nonetheless, I can’t deny there are similarities between Vex and Wednesday. I just hope Vex isn’t quite as morbid, lol. Still, I do wonder if the writers do bring in more of the similarities into later episodes (if Vex does make future apperances).

Personally I don’t find that Joel Glicker was the most well-developed character ever. He was more the overprotected nerdy boy who fell for the dark gothic girl. Still, I guess that Varian has similarities to Joel in the sense they are both nerdy characters who are a little insecure and intense (though I do hope Varian has better self-esteem than Joel). I think it would be funny if Varian had a reaction to seeing Vex for the first time similar to Joel’s when he met Wednesday. Somehow I doubt it will happen, but it’s still funny and kind of cute at the same time

Wednesday meets Joel. See 1:59 to 2:17:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us3JQh-m2FM&list=PLlXqHikVVQDQerwZg0GuBzJPXel5MIPHi&index=6&t=142s

I wouldn’t call Wednesday and Joel’s relationship the best, and I certainly wouldn’t want the ending of their relationship to happen between Varian and Vex, but underneath all the morbidity and insecurity, I think there’s a lot of cute moments between these two. They are definitely an interesting example of opposites attract, plus there is some adorable awkwardness between them that I think could be brought to Varian and Vex’s relationship. I personally see Wednesday and Joel’s relationship being an example of how Varian and Vex’s friendship and eventually relationship starts out, perhaps even hinted at as spoof material within the show.

Some examples could be Varian attempting the “yawn and stretch move” on Vex, but she holds up a knife and says “Touch me with that arm, and you’ll lose it.” or simply “Don’t even think about it.” causing Varian to fearfully back away from her on the seat. Though perhaps Varian does something that really impresses Vex, whether it’s showing his braver, angsty side (which I believe that Vex would find attractive) and/or he uses one of his inventions to help the town of Vardaros. Because Vex is a little reluctant to show she’s impressed, she simply says thank you and a half-hearted comment to Varian for his good work. Though Varian can tell that how moved Vex is from a small smile she shares with him and a sign that she’s warming up to the possibility of being affectionate with him, as shown by Wednesday here:

Even Wednesday and Joel’s farewell and first kiss I could see Varian and Vex spoofing, though in their own individual way.

Wednesday and Joel’s first kiss

https://youtu.be/ZibUVA54BWY

So while I hope they’re not exactly like this couple, it would be cute if we saw some spoof references like this. :)

Arnold Shortman and Helga Pataki from “Hey Arnold!”

I’ll be honest with you guys, I’m probably one of the few people who hasn’t seen the most of the Hey Arnold! TV series and movies. I’ve only seen a few episodes. Still, from what I’ve seen of these two, they seem to have similar personalities to Varian and Vex, plus I imagine their relationship being similar too.

Like Arnold, Varian is friendly, optimistic and always there to help out his friends. While Helga and Vex are similar in that they are both tough, aggressive girls who don’t like to open up about their feelings.

I could definitely see Vex being rather mean to Varian at first, calling him “dork” or “nerd”, but overtime maybe she’ll start to lessen up on the insults and starts to respect Varian for his smarts and the positive affect his inventions could possibly have on Vardaros, though she still keeps him at an emotional distance due to trust issues, and it will probably take a bit of time but perhaps Varian’s mixture of kindness and tough love towards Vex could eventually be the thing that slowly breaks down her emotional walls.

I could probably see Vex developing a crush on Varian (though perhaps not as obsessively as Helga though) but has a hard time showing it. She’ll probably show him affection by punching him in the arm, which is meant to be friendly but hurts because Vex is stronger than she looks.

Maybe she might convince Captain Quaid to give Varian a job as the Alchemist of Vardaros, saying that he can help the people of Vardaros with his inventions and alchemy. Though this is possibly true, I believe she would more suggest the idea to Quaid so she can convince Varian to stay in Vardoros. Varian considers the offer, partly because he believes he can be helpful to the people of Vardaros and the other half because he’s starting to fall for Vex and wants to stay with her. I think he turns down the offer at first (which will probably hurt Vex) but promises he’ll return to visit once he’s helped Rapunzel achieve her destiny and reunite her with Cassandra. Though he may even decide to stay in Vardaros as their professional Alchemist after the mission is finished, eventually becoming Vex’s boyfriend.

A bonus unofficial couple I could compare them to is:

Hiro Hamada and Karmi from “Big Hero 6: The Series”

There’s no denying that Hiro and Varian are very alike. Both are intelligent and creative child prodigy inventors who are both adorkable and clumsy. Both have lost and/or almost lost family members, and as a result have almost committed murder in order to avenge their loved one’s, though have tried their best to make up for their past mistakes. They are also the one of youngest in their respective group of friends (though not quite with Varian as Keira/Angry and Catalina/Red have now officially joined the group and are a few years younger than him).

While Karmi is rather different from Vex, they do share anti-social and moody tendencies. Deep down underneath their moody exterior though, both have the drive to do the right thing.

Like Hiro and Karmi, I could imagine Varian and Vex having a rivalry of sorts during their first meeting. Perhaps Varian gets jealous over Catalina (Red) and Kiera (Angry) looking up to Vex over him as an older sibling/mentor figure due to them respecting her “tough as nails woman” exterior. Also maybe Vex could get jealous if Quaid starts paying more attention to Varian and his inventions, e.g. maybe he could invent a special smoker to calm Quaid’s bees, impressing the Captain of Vadaros greatly and gaining Vex’s envious resentment.

Over time though, like Hiro and Karmi, these two could learn to respect each other and their talents, eventually forming a friendship, which over time shows signs of romantic attraction between the two teens.

Even if Varian and Vex don’t become a couple, I would still love it if somehow they did meet on the show and eventually become friends. I’m sure it would be cool to see how they interact with someone in their own age group.

What do you guys think? I’d love to hear your feedback, but please refrain from harsh negativity.

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artemissarrows · 5 years

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SOTUS The Series: Patriarchy & Queerness As Redemption

Okay, it’s been a little bit! But I have certainly been consuming a lot of queer content I need to discuss. First up is SOTUS The Series! It’s a Thai boy love (BL) show about an engineeing college that has a super-intense hazing culture. One of the freshman (Kongpob/Kong for short) stands up to the hazers who make them do endless squats and such….and ends up falling in love with the head hazer (Arthrit). It’s a romcom so you probably know where this is going.

I *hope* this goes without saying, but HAZING IS NOT OK and should not be lifted up as a normal part of a university experience. It is abuse, full-stop. One of the yuckiest things about the show for me is how the administration is totally and completely fine with it. People who are invested in the hazing culture (and, frankly, the showrunners) try to make the case that it teaches teamwork and problem-solving and stuff like that. Not really! More importantly, it’s incredibly damaging to participants and there are a lot less harmful ways to teach those lessons, if they’re really so important.

We could just leave it there--on a surface level, it’s honestly pretty enjoyable. The two leads have pretty solid chemistry and are quite believable (at least until the very end, when they’re equally as awkard three years on. But as my partner Mx. Arrows pointed out, they are painfully awkward engineer nerds on top of everything else, so maybe that’s actually realistic. Anyway.) It’s funny. It’s heartwarming. It’s gayyyyy. The supporting friend characters are also kind of fun and I like them.

But there are some other noteworthy things going on here that I’m interested in teasing apart, and which I’m not entirely sure the show intended. Let’s do that! Lots of spoilers after the cut (but again, it’s a romcom, there’s only so many things that can be spoiled). Note that I have only watched Season 1, I know there’s another season.

It’s about the patriarchy.

The more I thought about it, the more it seems reasonable to see the SOTUS (hazing) system as a useful dramatization of the patriarchy. When I say “the patriarchy,” I mean a system of dominance that gives men power over women; SOTUS also privileges older people over younger, straight people over queer people, etc.etc.. Here are some of the ways that we can see this system of dominance playing out in the structure of the hazing system:

The SOTUS system is run by men, exclusively. There are 6 or 7 head hazers, and they are all men

They belittle, berate, and punish their younger charges for doing things like looking the wrong way, singing slightly out of tune, or questioning their authority to mete out dubious punishments for nothing at all

It’s quasi-military, with uniforms for both the hazers and the freshman, and endless drills and the blind loyalty and authority that comes with military order

Women who are not freshman are present in the second tier of hazers, beyond the men. They are ancillary to the men, and their helpers. In particular they are the medics: they ensure that the hazers can assign their punishments etc. while also ensuring that it doesn’t get too out of hand and that no one gets hurt too badly. Without their assistance, the men could not do what they do, and could not enforce this system.

The head hazer, Arthrit, also uses sexism and homophobia as weapons to enforce control and order. Of course, he’s aware that the structure of SOTUS is headed by men. But he also taunts the freshmen in these ways too. At the beginning of the year, the hazers demand that the freshmen fill books with upperclass students’ signatures. In exchange for his signature, Arthrit demands that May, a female student who asks him, give him her number and take her picture. She’s clearly uncomfortable with the interaction; it happens in the lunchroom and she’s one woman who’s the object of the male gaze of 6 or 7 seniors. In that same scene, Arthrit also harasses Kong in a homophobic way. Again to get his siguature, he forces Kong to shout “I like guys!” three times loudly, and then to ask something like 10 male students if they’ll be his boyfriend. (He then doesn’t give his signature.) Mind you, this is something like day 2 or 3 of school in the show.

Arthrit is one repressed dude. More on that later.

It’s Also About Cycles Of Abuse

We’ve established that the SOTUS is all about dominance and control based on gender and other heirarchies--but that’s just the system in one particular point. What happens to this system over time? That’s where we get into cycles of abuse, and how SOTUS harms not just the freshmen who are on the receiving end of the abuse, but also harms the hazers themselves. Let’s look at Arthrit, the head hazer/one-half of the lead couple.

He’s an extremely homophobic and self-hating gay, at least to start with. Per above, he actively promulgates homophobia. He’s also deeply uncomfortable with expressing affection toward men, and Kongpob in partiuclar--though apparently fine with grabbing Kongpob’s shirt when Kongpob stands up to him during a hazing session. When they share their first kiss after Arthrit finally confesses his feelings, Kong tries to hold his arm and hand and he keeps shoving him off. Then they go on another date, where they meet a fellow student at the movies and Arthrit lies and says it’s not a date. (This is not the first not-not date they’ve been on together...this is not at all relatable. Not at all ^_^) Anyway, it takes him and painful time to do that.

He is a seriously repressed and emotionally stunted person, and being the head hazer is a major part of why. As head hazer, he berates the freshman, he enforces order, he snaps at them, he plays games where he makes them humiliate themselves for his attention and benefit. He is comfortable ordering people around. But when it comes to being in touch with his own feelings, he’s hopeless. It takes him forever to realize he has feelings for Kong. He’s deeply confused about it, up to the very second he kisses him. His friend Knott literally has to tell him to talk through difficulties with Kong and not let them stew. He spends most of the show running away from Kong, hiding from Kong, or otherwise finding ways to not open up to him. It would be funny, if it weren’t deeply sad.

Friends, this is classic toxic masculinity. At least his friend Knott has his head on straight and gives some decent advice.

I honestly get the sense that Arthrit is a quiet, introverted, and smart guy, who felt like he was forced by duty to become the head hazer, the one everyone looks up to. Even when he’s with his hazing friends, he seems aloof, apart, and alone. But guess what: he made that choice himself! When he’s sick--because he ran 54 LAPS IN A DAY for a hazing challenge--we see that he’s into comic books, and action figures. We learn that he also gets good grades, so is obviously smart. And even when he talks to his friend--the former head hazer who recruited him--about his feelings for Kong, his friend tells him, “be tough.” (His friend also implies that he hasn’t dated much...no surprise there.) Sigh.

Are we meant to envy Arthrit, feel sorry for him, or both? He’s at the top of the social structure of the school, but he doesn’t seems particularly contented, and in fact seems disconnected. He’s the person who seems to have it all, but has nothing. I’m somewhat curious if others share this reading of him as a discontented bully who longs for human connection.

We can also think about the succession of the head hazers, and how the head hazer before Arthrit chose him, and how Arthrit chose Kong. The one before Arthrit chose him because when he punished Arthrit for speaking out by telling him to greet a banyan tree for three whole hours, Arthrit did it. Then Arthrit chooses Kong because he speaks out and heckles Arthrit. It’s super interesting to me, but I think the thing is to identify people who have strong enough feelings about the system--and care enough--that speak out and therefore demonstrate leadership skills. They then turn those feelings of rebellion back into the system and coopt them. Toward the end of the show Kong starts to feel more invested in the hazing system and I was hoping that he would try to reform it; he doesn’t seem to that much. Kong says that he likes the teamwork and problem-solving aspects of hazing; he could do those things as head hazer and take the abuse out, but he doesn’t. Cooptation.

It’s Also About The Redemptive Power Of Queerness And Queer Love

This says it all.

They’re at a party, and someone asks Arthrit if he and Kong are dating. He says, “so what?” and throws his arm around Kong’s shoulder--and Kong seems pleasantly surprised that he’s able to do this publicly. This is just ugh, so beautiful, and Krist/Arthrit acts it so incredibly well. It’s truly the first time we see Arthrit truly, hugely, bashfully smile, in the whole show. It’s always been a sardonic smile, or a joke at someone else’s expense. But here, he’s just experiencing happiness and joy, even if he’s still quite shy about it and can’t look people in the eye while he hangs his arm over Kong’s shoulder. Queerness as redemption is a trope I wish would become a thing!!

PS, here are some screenshots of Arthrit making fun of Kong’s food habits. Enjoy the fluff <3

#sotus #sotus the series #krist #singto #krist x singto #lgbtq #gay #queer #kongpob #kongpob x arthrit #arthrit

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virtchandmoir · 5 years

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Exclusive Interview: Sophie Grégoire Trudeau & Tessa Virtue On Their New Project

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau and Tessa Virtue have teamed up to get girls more involved in sports. In this exclusive, they discuss the project as well as creating chemistry — on and off the ice.

January 30, 2019

They’re two of Canada’s most prominent and powerful women, and now Sophie Grégoire Trudeau and Tessa Virtue are teaming up with the Canadian non-profit FitSpirit to promote physical activity for young women. About 50% of girls drop out of sports before they hit puberty, and they’re missing out on a lot more than just skinned knees and trophy ceremonies. In the emotionally fraught teenage years, athletic participation is linked to positive social connections, confidence, and self-esteem.

It’s a fitting cause for Virtue (who put Canada on the top of the podium twice at the 2018 winter Olympics) and Grégoire-Trudeau, (who loves to get outside with her husband, Justin Trudeau, and their three kids whenever she can). Refinery29 met the newly tight twosome for coffee to talk about the FitSpirit initiative, the gods and goddesses within us, and why tomgirls are the new tomboys.

You two are pretty much the ultimate Canadian female #friendshipgoals. How long have you known each other? How did you meet?

Tessa: We have mutual friends, so it felt like we’ve known each other for a long time. Like most Canadians, I have always thought of Sophie as being so relatable and approachable — she’s the best friend we want.

Sophie: Same to you! I loved Tessa before I met her. When we met, it was instant. I think we both come from the same place of curiosity when we meet people. I’m an only child, so I was raised to go up to people and say, “Hello, my name is Sophie. Would you like to play with me?” I still have that. I see the beauty in people. It doesn’t mean I’m naive, but I like to create connections.

Do you think people tend to equate openness and earnestness with naivety?

Sophie: I absolutely believe that. There’s a lot of BS going around. I’m sorry, but that’s what it is. I think when you create distance between yourself and other people it’s because you probably don’t know your true self. As women we’ve got to trust our guts and encourage young women to do the same.

Refinery29 caught up with Sophie Grégoire Trudeau and Tessa Virtue at a downtown Toronto café. PHOTO BY JENNA MARIE WAKANI

Can you talk a little bit about the link between sports and self-confidence?

Tessa: I think it’s so important in today’s landscape for females to feel like they’re equipped to cope with what life is puts at them — to have that confidence and sense of self worth. You watch young girls [when they’re starting out in sport] and they’re uninhibited and free. There’s this sense of being limitless, and then they get to a certain age and they start to be self-conscious. They feel judged, and they start to criticize and critique. I think how we manage that transition is critical, which is where an organization like FitSpirit can make a difference.

Sophie: Girls are struggling. If you look at the stats on anxiety, fear, depression, eating disorders — all types of emotional disorders. We can’t ignore the red flags. Physical activity is a break from the chaos of the mind. I like what you say about young girls feeling limitless. In a culture like ours, there are so many limitations: Limits on the kinds of relationships we entertain, the kinds of marriages, diets, cultural beliefs. I think physical activity is a way to rebel on what’s imposed. I feel free when I move, not just because my body moves freely, but free from the inside out.

Why do you think drop-out rates for girls in sports are so high?

Tessa: One thing you see with girls is they either excel and pursue sport seriously, or they try it recreationally and don’t find a place. There’s not as much middle ground. We want women to connect with physical activity on whatever scale works, whether that’s getting outside for a walk or trying a new dance class or joining a team and surrounding themselves with that network.

It seems like maybe casual athleticism is more baked into boy culture than girl culture.

Sophie: Yes. When I was first playing sports, I was quite intrepid and [that meant] becoming one of the boys — that’s who I had to prove myself to. It wasn’t until high school that I was on the girls’ volleyball team. That was so amazing: the bonding and the camaraderie between young women. I will definitely never use the word tomboy again. Maybe tomgirl? Let’s all be rebels together!

Speaking of gender roles. Sophie, you got a lot of attention when your son dressed as the female Paw Patrol dog a couple of years ago.

Sophie: He wanted to be Sky, who is all pink, and in that moment I thought, "Absolutely, my love. You can wear that." I don’t look at what people say on social media. I’m sure people had something to say. I treat everybody equally, regardless of gender. In a philosophical way, I think gods and goddesses change positions all the time [within us]. They’re in everyone.

Meaning we all have female and male spirits inside of us?

Sophie: Yes. We all carry it. I see it in the woman at the cash register right now, in friends, in colleagues. It’s in everyone.

I’ve gotta say — I wish we had more time to dig into this.

Sophie: I know. And I get emotional talking about this. It’s so important to know and respect our bodies. As women, we are taught to repress sexuality and our creativity as sexual beings. Men are not taught that in the same way. I think a young girl should feel comfortable. When we give sensuous freedom to young people as their bodies change, we allow them to express themselves more freely through sport — all of those things are connected.

Tessa: Women are taught to minimize the amount of space we take up, and through activity and sport you find your place and you take up your space. That is so ridiculously powerful.

Tessa, I read somewhere that you were Canada’s most Googled person this year.

Sophie: More than the prime minister?

Who?

Tessa: He was a close second, I’m sure. In terms of how it feels, there’s a bit of a dichotomy. I feel extremely grateful, and then there is the pressure where you feel like you have to make good. So it’s a privilege, but it is a weight.

Sophie: I totally agree. And if you start believing in the praise and the titles, you’re in trouble.

The entire world was desperate for Tessa and Scott to be a thing. Was that charming or annoying?

Tessa: Ha. It was understandable, and I’ve done that — I watch movies, I want the characters to be together. I think maybe what was missing from the conversation was the follow-up question: How have you built this partnership on respect over the last two decades? Isn’t it more impactful that it’s not romantic?

I see what you’re saying, but there were a lot of sparks flying on the rink. How do you create that kind of heat?

Tessa: We love performing together, getting into character, diving into the nuances and the movement. We worked hard to make people feel something. Those themes are universal: Romance, passion, jealousy, heartbreak…

Sophie: I want that with my husband.

You guys do pretty well in the sex vibes department. That picture in Vogue, for example.

Sophie: That is one picture over 16 years of marriage. My daily life is being the parent of three young kids with a husband in politics who is rarely at home. I’m lucky, I don’t struggle with money at the end of the month. There’s no role-playing here. It’s pretty much real life. I wish people could look behind the curtain and see. It’s probably not what they imagine.

I’m available if that’s an invitation.

Sophie: Ha ha.

This interview has been condensed and edited.

—Refinery29

#tessa #off ice #ambassadorship #fitspirit #interview: refinery29 #swerving that when they met question like pros #old title: Even Sophie Grégoire Trudeau Thinks Tessa & Scott Are RelationshipGoal

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mysticseasons · 5 years

Text

Exclusive Interview: Sophie Grégoire Trudeau & Tessa Virtue On Their New Project

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau and Tessa Virtue have teamed up to get girls more involved in sports. In this exclusive, they discuss the project as well as creating chemistry — on and off the ice.

It’s a fitting cause for Virtue (who put Canada on the top of the podium twice at the 2018 winter Olympics) and Grégoire Trudeau, (who loves to get outside with her husband, Justin Trudeau, and their three kids whenever she can). Refinery29 met the newly tight twosome for coffee to talk about the FitSpirit initiative, the gods and goddesses within us, and why tomgirls are the new tomboys.

You two are pretty much the ultimate Canadian female #friendshipgoals. How long have you known each other? How did you meet?

Do you think people tend to equate openness and earnestness with naivety?

Can you talk a little bit about the link between sports and self-confidence?

Tessa: I think it’s so important in today’s landscape for females to feel like they’re equipped to cope with what life puts at them — to have that confidence and sense of self worth. You watch young girls [when they’re starting out in sport] and they’re uninhibited and free. There’s this sense of being limitless, and then they get to a certain age and they start to be self-conscious. They feel judged, and they start to criticize and critique. I think how we manage that transition is critical, which is where an organization like FitSpirit can make a difference.

Why do you think drop-out rates for girls in sports are so high?

It seems like maybe casual athleticism is more baked into boy culture than girl culture.

Speaking of gender roles. Sophie, you got a lot of attention when your son dressed as the female Paw Patrol dog a couple of years ago.

Meaning we all have female and male spirits inside of us?

Sophie: Yes. We all carry it. I see it in the woman at the cash register right now, in friends, in colleagues. It’s in everyone.

I’ve gotta say — I wish we had more time to dig into this.

Tessa: Women are taught to minimize the amount of space we take up, and through activity and sport you find your place and you take up your space. That is so ridiculously powerful.

Tessa, I read somewhere that you were Canada’s most Googled person this year.

Sophie: More than the prime minister?

Who?

Sophie: I totally agree. And if you start believing in the praise and the titles, you’re in trouble.

The entire world was desperate for Tessa and Scott to be a thing. Was that charming or annoying?

I see what you’re saying, but there were a lot of sparks flying on the rink. How do you create that kind of heat?

Sophie: I want that with my husband.

You guys do pretty well in the sex vibes department. That picture in Vogue, for example.

I’m available if that’s an invitation.

Sophie: Ha ha.

This interview has been condensed and edited. - refinery29.com

#FitSpirit

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ramblingshit · 5 years

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Jane Eyre - 1996 - 2/5

what even is acting. what even is a script.

wasn't gonna do this one but fuck it's aunt petunia and rogue. here we go.

lots of credits fairo. more credits. damn fukin eh - i hear you're a wicked child! lol hi. now we're talking about hell and where bad people go. 'keep well and not die' ahaha m8. fkn reed putting seed in that she's a liar. teach her at her prospects, don't let her come back, she's a lying little shit take her away from here. he's appropriately scary oh shit she's saying this in front of the priest. damn tear that lady a new one. unruly, obstinate, wicked, deceitful, man these people hate kids who act out. walks in and damn she's on teh stool already - IS THAT THE LADY FROM PERSUASION. damn she just got here and he's telling everyone to not trust her, she doesn't get to eat and has to stand - she's just done hours of travelling fuckin assholes. IT IS THE LADY FROM PERSUASION. shes got dark hair and dark eyes and shes like glaring at everyone like shes onna kill him in their sleep. lol enjoy helen while she's alive. eatin bread and cheese in bed like she's not gonna get crumbs. omg telling these kids how to stand properly what why this lady hate her she's gonna cane her for not washing her hands. bish doesn't even flinch go helen. 'cleanliness is next to godliness' alright crazy. this school is a lot more chill than most of the others - they're laughing and doing what they want as well as learning and playing games. making jane out to be a pro artist. oh no ol mate saw her with her hair out. no dont cut it. 'vanity?' shes out here with naturally long, red and curly hair and he's out here calling her vain? because he recognises it as lovely she must be vain about it? what a fkn dickhole get off your high horse sexist moron pig anus head. what. he's saying her naturally iwgh what i don't even understand his shit - it isn't offending him thats the issue its her naturally occuring sin and vanity (because her hair exists?) that is the issue?? what. lol go Jane. NO. oh fuck go Jane go. this guyyyy. don't do it Jane. chin held high she only does it when Helen nods at her to. DAAAAAAAAMN. took of her own bonnet. if Helen's hair goes so does Janes. they stood together looked at each other and flipped their heads over for him to go snip snip, bish looked shock and actually stepped back in horror. What a bae. Helen's fkn dying send help. fuck this lady should not be working with children considering how much she hates children. o shit where's helen. her beds all rolled up. can hear her hacking away in the distance. yikes that sounds bad. jane be creepin. oh fuck she's a terrible actress even as a kid. who honestly thinks its a good idea to hire her. she lying in her dying friend's bed and she's breathing all over her. isn't anna paquin australian? no? ah new zealand fairo. oh fuck Helen's daed. she's trying to squeeze out tears ahah oh no. she can't manage it. anna go back to new zealand you suck at acting who hired you ever. Riparoonies helen. that was actually the greatest jane and helen moment i've seen tbh. oh damn cool transition as she walked from helen's grave - she went from kid to adult. whats this part down the midde all of them got. Miss Temple fam, persuasion lady, fantastic lady, crying as Jane leaves like her mumma. this jane is long-flat-faced with a long protruding jaw, and very tall and skinny. thornfield looks like its already burned down ahaha. straight up castle here. she's got her drawing stuff as well as her bag. nice friendly ol mate meets her and opens the gates - big ass square this is some game of thrones shit yearh this place is like medieval more than victorian. the middle parted hair and the curled twists behind her head they're pretty much exactly the same in most Janes. all chillin and chatting about this together rather than completely separate. adele actually legit sounds french rather than just pretending? noice. dreary, cold, dark halls. her room is bright and airy with a four-poster bed and bay windows and lots of very nice furniture. river runs beside it; enormous tapestries; main gallery with lots of furniture and paintings and sculpures all covered in sheets with windows open to let in light; the doors are very large and heavy. Janes got a very long neck she looks legit like a fkn swan lmao. ooh a rochester backstory. well-travelled, intelliegent, can't tell if he's talking in jest or in earnest, or if he is pleased or irritated, not a happy man. they're just walking about in his rooms. the sun shines bright but cannot reach them through the thick mist. they're very soft-spoken. god her head is so far forward she's like the alien - long ass neck stretching forward and then her chin and jaw stretching wayyyy forward. wack wack anatomy. it's very dark and dreary. she's off for a walk leaving adele to do like 5 sums. oh she's been here five minutes and they're already meeting. the music is like ... not appropriately intense? he just sorta looked at her, the horse tripped over and then he was on the floor and she's like whoops uh you alright bro. he's outright lying and pretending that he's not rochester his hair is grotty he's got like no hair on top they've just tries to scraggle it. this is so stunted and awkward. i hope it gets better. he's very gentle and she's pretty nonexistent to far. my god very gentle man. what. is he even rochester? that's a german shepherd. noice. playin chess by himself by the fire lol. this movie would be made infinitely better by an actual soundtrack. they're all chilling together again it's interesting - adele and fairfax and rochester and jane. wait she's been here 4 months. it literally didn't show anything about her chilling here. she talked back and now he's grumpy lol. what a terrible start compared to like... every other first convo. isn't she supposed to be not great at piano and yet she's teaching adele -- wait now we're at another convo between the duo. this convo is the other half of --- wait now we're talking sketches? jesus she hmm what are they talking about she's being forward and fuck her chin twists forward as she speaks she kinda looks like the wicked witch of the west. he's judging her drawings like he can do better. this is a mess? the best part about this so far is adele. there's no sense of time. adele is gorgeous honestly. she's pale and gaunt with bags beneath her eyes. wait here's the next part of the conversation. blunt and brusque replies from her. god they're so obviously acting its painful. they have no chemistry because the CONVERSATION IS ALL OVER THE PLACE. they've done it on pruspose to try stretch things out a bit but like plz EY why he scrunch up the drawing wtf. 'and remember the shadows are as important as the light'. dudes. these are private conversations? it would be alright to try it more naturally but they're just not the kind of things you casually say. it's impersonal and there's no intimacy. sit there and watch a kid dance to the sound of a music box. he's so grumpy looking. now snapping at the kid. he's annoying. like a violent dude he feels more like a nice guy quick to snap - definitely kinda unhinged. and now drunk. hmm i don't like it. she told him not to be mean to adele and he rages about her mother, 'you've made adele feel unwanted and unloved' damn this Jane goes for the throat. she's too good for him I can see it now m8. he's a psycho run. red flag red flag. don't like it. lol he wake up like huh.... oh look beds on fire... huh... well suppose i should sort it out... huh... fuck they're barely acting huh. do they even want to be here. how much are these guys getting paid. he's literally a drunk. and has she had a drink in her life? she just went for it? omg so impersonal - isn't he supposed to be already half in love with her by this point? camera angle just flicks forward and back as the conversation goes on and when theres action it just pans back to the widest shot ever lol just show the entire scene why give any emphasis or focus to anything who needs reaction shots and feelings of being in it rather than observing it. fkn ey. he's literally just an angry blitering brooding drunk yikes. he's staring at her tits? these conversations man... he definitely just said jade instead of jane. m8 don't tell me he didn't. there's more intimacy between all the servants and jane and feeling more like an actual squad living together than there is any feeling between rochester and jane. adeles got a frog lol cute. 'you're a fool,' jane tells her reflection. this music is so shit it's bringing everything down. rochester, who's been an unfeeling ass the whole time, holds her hand once and now she's got a big crush on him. she's very spirited - to the point where she could too easily be cruel. like it's not just a repressed forcefulness it's like a hidden rage. can see her going mad and chopping someone up with icy rage and poised pleasure. wonder if i'm in a mood and interpreting this wrong? but honestly. dancing rochester now? instead of singing. adele is glaring at Mrs Ingram who just insulted jane lolol go kid she's definitely the best part. the background people actually make this place feel alive and natural, completely unlike their FUCKING AWFUL conversations. jesus what. god could you have two people less interested in each other? i think this fairfax knows about bertha. there's a 'tapestry bedroom'? lol what does that mean. they're dancing, playing cards, piano, the lot. oh the walls are literally covered in tapestries, that's creepy af. theres so much blood my dude would be dead yo. will hurt like doesn't know how to act. wwait theyve skipped my 'fav scene'?? theyre shaking hands again, wtf is this. wait what shes just met stjohn n he;s the one telling her all about the reeds? petunias dying 'love me then or hate me as you will - you have my full and free forgiveness' - i cant forgive any version that misses that out: its so powerful as part of her character. stalking her while he smokes in the dark what a creeper. 'how cuold you be so stupid!' lol fight him Jane i dont even know how we got to kissing likr the movie is almost 2 hours and yet it feels SO rushed. literally took away all the secret courting and his sneaky declarations. shes a modern woman trapped in an old age. she is so skinny. and with entirely stiff expressions. ew he makes me so uncomfortable. theyre not even trying lol. acting ey acting have u heard of it. just left jane at the altar like bye bitch.shes just in a giant empty ugly room. bertha is a very young and frightened girl but also very sick in the typical long white dress and long dark hair. god this guy is a whingebum. bertha understands everything he's saying. oh yikes lol she just whipped a log from the fire and went after Jane and Jane just put her veil back down with like a sigh turned and yeeted slowly away long ass veil over a white bonnet, silk cape thing in a dark hallway walking all miserable. she's outies lol he's just let her walk out? i love u and i love u. bye. bertha's taken another log from the fire and lit the wedding dress on fire along with the house ahaha. wait he let her leave the house then ran after her on horseback but had to stop after bertha lit the place on fire it started burning and we're actually seeing it happen? interesting. the house is burning, pepople are running, bertha's on the battlements and rochester is going up there to --oh fuck grace poole got yeeted over by bertha oh she's flying ahahaha jumped down to where she threw grace poole. rochesters in the fire. jane's off and racing. it's all happened at once. she went to stjohns, didn't even get dumped in teh marshes but down she goes after chilling in a coach for 3 days. shes been there a month. her jaw is so long and forward its creepy. again one fo the few telling her that she's wealthy from inheritance from her uncle. more backstory. she was deeply loved by her parents, now she's wealthy, lifes looking up but she's all upset after than asshole lol move on and be happy. she's hearing his voice on the wind like please chill. damn 6months. what. um. he's very awkwardly trying to propose? but its like the last half of the conversation with the first bit just cut out. so weird. she looks normal face-on. oh she decides after the proposal to go back - none of that chasing after voices nonsense. whoops that shit burned downnn. doggoooo is still alive. what a good boy. fuck me there's like no anticipation, no intensity, no build-up, no chemistry, it's so dry and cold and heartless. christ acting. act. acting. act. please. act. what is happening. act. she has the neck of a swan ol mate. fucking gross. their words are stilted, and not romantic in the slightest and especially not in their delivery. theyre walking with no kids but the dog but they're talking about the kids. oh my god. that was pretty fkn awful. like seriously not good.

#jane eyre #charlotte bronte #1996 #movies #commentary #review #ramble #shit #ramblingshit #charlotte gainsbourg #william hurt #anna paquin

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