When the gauntlet is flung, you do not stop to appraise your weapons. - Guy Williams as don Diego and George J. Lewis as don Alejandro de la Vega (Zorro, 1957, 1x07)

thinking about todd and his resolve toward… not quite isolation, but being alone in a room full of people again. he goes along to the study room to sit on his own and do his homework, he sits at the poets table and follows along with what’s being said while keeping quiet, he goes to the meetings at all but doesn’t necessarily contribute (in fact, if you watch him when cameron is telling the story ‘from camp in sixth grade’, you can see that he recognizes it before any of the other poets but doesn’t voice it until they all have). he’s not alone, necessarily, if you want to get technical about it, he’s just lonely, and he’s generally okay with that. he doesn’t have friends and that’s fine, he doesn’t participate in class and that’s fine, he doesn’t have a relationship with his family and that’s fine—he could live without any real connection and he’d have been, more or less, fine.

the thing about when he says “i can take care of myself just fine!” is that he isn’t really wrong, you can infer that he’s been doing it his entire life anyway, it’s that ‘taking care of yourself’ isn’t the same thing as really living or being happy. todd’s an introvert, certainly, and even as he gets closer to the group he defaults to sitting quietly in the background, but he’s also denying himself community out of fear not introversion. todd isn’t friendless because he’s an introvert, although that definitely plays a part, he’s friendless because he pushes anyone that might want his company away. if anyone has every wanted for his attention in the first place. (neil’s unwavering interest in him is unique (even when it comes to the rest of the poets, who are fine with todd coming along and joining the group, but aren’t really hellbent on him being there in the beginning) and his refusal to accept it is a direct result of being so lonely growing up.)

there’s obviously something to be said about the implications of his parents neglect, and the more than likely fact that he grew up friendless, and how those both play a part in in him being so skilled at dodging social interaction/being so avoidant of it, but by the time we see him in the movie he’s all but accepted his fate as being alone his entire life. he’s already accepted being the family disappointment, and he’s already accepted he’ll never amount to anything, and he obviously doesn’t like it, but he’d have managed living with that knowledge without the confirmation that it was all wrong. would he have been miserable? almost certainly. but he’d have managed. he’d done it for that long already, anyhow.

@stupidrant this is the official, SMS approved (hopefully) gif everyone should use whenever they encounter a fandom troll.

I'll never be able to take the theory that Vincent is Sephiroth's real father seriously cuz I cannot stress enough how important I think it is to the plot that Vincent wanted to fuck Lucrecia and did not get to.

The Incredible Hulk (1968) #277

A.J Pollard’s biography on Edward IV was so cringe lol (generic; minor but frustrating inaccuracies; intensely judgmental at times and oddly dismissive at others while never considering the broader context; entirely diminished and trivialized Elizabeth Woodville as both queen and wife of his main subject in the name of "defending" her; created a false dichotomy between Edward and Henry VII’s styles of ruling and lauded the latter at the former’s expense even though Henry literally followed Edward’s example for the very things Pollard was criticizing Edward for; had a downright nonsensical and thoroughly misleading conclusion about Edward’s legacy & Richard’s usurpation that was based entirely on hindsight, Pollard's own assumptions, and the complete downplaying Richard’s agency and actions to emphasize what Pollard wrongly and misleadingly claimed were Edward's so-called 'failings', etc, etc)

I wanted to buy his book on Henry V but after reading this shitshow and the synopsis of that book, im guessing it's going to be 10x worse, so...no thanks

i think cass and duke both have (different) complicated relationships with whether or not they see bruce as their father (or even the bats as their family) but we’re not allowed to talk about that bc people would just use it as another excuse to exclude them

get me OUT OF HERE

Aiden provides a lot of people in his village with meat (as a village’s hunter does) but by far his favorite customer is Greta. Greta is an elderly woman that lives alone and has pretty much declared herself Aiden’s surrogate grandma (since he doesn’t have one).

She always invites him in for tea or dinner, pats his cheek when she thanks him for his delivery and gifts him berries that grow on her garden.

Aiden always gives her the best prey he got that day and stays extra long when he delivers it to her so that she won’t be so lonely. He enjoys her company a lot and loves to listen to her stories of old times and faeries.

His favorite story of hers is that of the wild hunt, a group of fae hunters that once upon a time defeated the dangerous wood demons (and other creatures). Once a year during a festival they allow a couple humans to join their hunt, but they only accept the most skilled of mortals.

Greta always tells him she thinks Aiden is worthy to hunt among them. Aiden blushes every time and tells her that’s not true, but she insists.

oh so 1x22 really is exactly calculated to make me specifically go fucking feral huh

harry reposting that fanart of jace and daemon's little faceoff moment from ep 10, oh the timing is divine fr🤭 fueling my "that's his father even if they disagree a lot" agenda😌

since summer stock's Official like press opening was wednesday, there's a couple reviews i've found (without extra digging) and they don't have a world of relevant information but a tiny bit

nyt made it a critic's pick so that's as a rule helpful for the show, says orville "has a secret — no, not that one" in an unisolated and unsurprising instance of prioritizing the critic's own general savviness over actually giving the reader info. i'm assuming this Quip means to imply "his secret is not being closeted (gay style)" but there's nothing further on this point. also says that gloria's character is "beefed-up" which like, you figure all the roles, plotlines, themes are, but one might especially hope for it for gloria b/c really that's who the film is meanest to, and the review says that she has involvement in like created backstory/explanation for aesthetic elements of the "get happy" number (also present in the film's of course) which is truly great and generally encouraging for the role, who in the film despite being responsible for bringing about the whole premise of "her sister discovers following her passions. which are also gloria's passions btw" really only gets the role in that finale of "staying out of jane's way" so, already knew the musical was handling these things v differently but confirmation is nice. the review also mentions will's performance, among others', is always funny.

and that review and the also positive one from the hartford courant also provide the lore that margaret wingate "wants to own all the land in the region. The Falbury farm is in her way, and forcing a marriage between her son Orville." the sentence, surely erroneously, cuts off there: i'm guessing it's like "and Is forcing a marriage between Jane And her son Orville." explains the mystery of "hmm what's that possible map framed on the wingate house set panel" (and maybe what orville's got rolled up underarm in that next gif) and also does help kind of enhance the film's points where like, it doesn't seem like orville and jane Don't like each other or anything, they Are already engaged (probably not the case in the musical), but also orville's dad is pushing it and getting in the way b/c this is like [the town is implicitly named after both wingait and falbury] but no particular Practical reason given. like how he mentions like "yknow jane your great great great grandfather falbury was the one who made Acting illegal here" (like lmao what?????) and this is not explained further nor reckoned with further b/c nobody actually tries leveraging this lol. and he's also like got this shop and presumed local influence and is well off while jane is in some financial straits and that's relevant but like, all via the tractor that they absolutely did not want to put in this stage show (as everyone agrees with lol) and this would make things more direct. and it also says the show within the show is partly a fundraiser for the farm which also makes everything work better with more cohesion and relevant stakes lol

and also everything (even via reading between the lines of a [not officially published] review where they didn't happen to like it much) saying what was also what i figured (based as well as like, what people involved were just telling via interviews) that like nothing's really trying to "subvert" the movie even as they're being completely flexible with reworking it; "book writer Cheri Steinkellner stuck to the movie’s spirit rather than its letter" as the nyt review says. with the review that didn't like it pointing to that the person did not like that spirit lol like well yeah then that adds up. but that's what i've learned from that press opening so far: Orville's Secret and Margaret's Land Scheme

i didnt want to be specific on insta bc Someone follows me there but the reason why i got so overwhelmed when i was going home from the bus station is seeing all the couples. straight up i have never felt more bitter in my fucking life i hope everyone dies i hope i die im so fucking sick of everything im sick of shit im so sick of it just put me out of my misery for the love of god what is the fucking point

actually yknow what, yeah jgy’s relationship to the Atrocities he committed IS interesting! it’s just that people are so fucking annoying about them,

forced myself to go out to akkala bc i wanted some ancient arrows and i did the ancient oven quest and talked to robbie and jerrin and i just realized that jerrin says upon being asked "who are you?", "heya! i'm jerrin! check it out!" and basically does purah's exact little pose and like...................this fucking game i swear