Alex Garland retire bitch!!!!!

Jamie Prompt: Nightmares during an overnight trip so one of the teammates or multiple hear and help him. OR they find old bruises/scars from his dad's abuse. Just want to see the effects of the abuse and the team seeing those effects/helping him.

Hahahaha angst my favourite.

Gonna be honest not sure I nailed this.

Enjoy!

They just won a match against Nottingham Forest. It was a brutal match. City Ground was filled with jeers and cheers from both sides. Probably inspired by the horrific loss at Wembley. Richard nearly got taken out by one of the Nottingham players, Dani had received a dubious yellow, Sam was covered in more scrapes and bruises than should be possible, and Jamie had gone full prick without even waiting for a signal. It was a shit match. Roy grumbled the whole way back to the hotel how they were probably going to have to flee in the dead of night. Jamie just feels like shit. They should be happy. They won. Jamie thinks it’s because maybe some of the insults got a bit too personal. Maybe because at half time after one of the players had shoved Jamie and called him a pussy, the whole team had shot him looks of concern. Jamie had ignored the looks, the pounding of his heart and tried to listen to Ted. Maybe because it was just a shit match. The point is Jamie feels like shit.

“Movie night?” Ted asks, lightly, like he wouldn’t mind if they said no. There were nods, murmurs of agreement, because none of them wanted to go out really. They all cram into a big room and settle in for a movie. The choice is given to Ted, who always seems to nail the film choice. He puts on My Neighbour Totoro, probably because it’s all cute and shit. Jamie’s got to admit, it’s pretty hard to stay angry watching some fluffy thing be stupidly cuddly and friendly. It’s just a nice movie. He’s a bit apart from everyone else, half curled onto a pillow he nabbed from his room. He’s dead sleepy. If he closes his eyes just a little, it’ll be fine.

It fucking isn’t.

Jamie’s had nightmares for years. They’re pretty fucking consistent actually. His fears haven’t really changed from childhood. The same man appears. The same insults. Injuries. Pain and memories swirl into one.

Years of experience have ingrained it in his mind and body to not be loud. The vulnerability that comes with sleep keeps his mind in a state of stress. He’s never been a heavy sleeper. Too wary of footsteps in the night. If he wakes the sleeping horror in his house he knows he’s in for worse. Apparently though, he moves, a lot. And whimpers. It’s pathetic really. He’s an adult. He shouldn’t be fucking like this. He’s always in motion anyway, so it occurring in his sleep doesn’t seem like a big deal. The odd twitch is probably ignored. The violent twisting, whimpers, and arms raised in defence are not.

He’s not sure how long he’s out but there’s hands on his shoulders as he almost bolts upright. He nearly takes Isaac out. Jamie’s breathing heavily. He wrenches himself from Isaac’s grip, hands on him too much to bare.

“You alright bruv?” Isaac asks, almost gentle. Jamie just nods, not trusting his voice to come out strong.

“The fuck you are.” Roy growls. Jamie can’t help the way his body tenses. Can’t stop the way his eyes flit around in panic.

“Jamie.” Someone says hesitantly. It’s Sam, crouching down next to him. “Are you sure you are alright?” Jamie’s eyes slowly make their way to Sam.

“Yeah, fine mate.” Jamie manages, glad he sounds tired rather than scared. “Just tired yeah.” That’s enough for some of the team who drift away slightly. But Sam stays crouching next to him. Isaac barely moves from his spot almost directly above Jamie. Roy slumps in a chair slightly away, most likely because of his knee. Dani has a frown marring his face, Zoreaux appears to be debating the benefits of crowding Jamie with the others, Richard cocking his head at him almost thoughtfully. Jan is fixing Jamie with a look reminiscent of an x-ray, while Bumbercatch is chewing on his lip in apprehension. Colin is sitting right behind Jamie, face almost carefully blank.

“You were making strange noises.” Jan says bluntly. There’s lots of way Jamie could reply. He could crack a sex joke, ease the awful tension. Brush it off as not important. Instead he shrugs.

“So?” He asks. He’s not a fan of the looks exchanged between his teammates.

“You sounded like you were… having a nightmare.” Sam says cautiously. Jamie scoffs like that’s complete bullshit. Like he didn’t just have exactly that. It’s stupid to act like this. But that childhood fear of pissing someone off remains forever present.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Colin asks softly. Jamie hates it. They’re treating him like one wrong word will make him shatter. He’s not fucking soft.

“I’m fine.” He insists. He’s getting really tired of the looks.

“It’s okay to have nightmares man.” Bumbercatch interjects. “It’s not like embarrassing.” Fuck no it is. It’s shitty, embarrassing, frustrating, and probably many other words.

“Talking about these things usually helps.” Sam offers quietly.

“Don’t worry amigo, we won’t judge you.” Dani says, Jamie just wishes he’d smile. Dani not smiling feels like a sign of the apocalypse.

“We’re here bruv.” Isaac adds.

“Was it the dickbag?” Roy asks with a low growl. It doesn’t exactly narrow it down. The Nottingham fans? The Nottingham players? His dad? Jamie shrugs again.

“I’m just gonna go to bed yeah.” He tells them, twisting away slightly. He almost trips getting to his feet, Zoreaux reaches to steady him. He flinches, hating himself slightly. He grabs his pillow and tries to leave again. Roy stands up to block him.

“Was it James?” He asks, voice lowering. Like it’s just him and Jamie in the room. “Look Jamie if you need to talk about what that dick did to you-.”

“I don’t.” Jamie says quickly. “I don’t need to talk about him.” There’s a tension in the room that you could cut with a knife.

“We didn’t talk after Wembley.” Roy says, clearly remembering how Jamie had just shut everyone off when anyone asked. “Let us fucking help you.”

“Is your father always terrible to you?” Jan asks bluntly. Jamie’s eyes shoot daggers at him.

“None of your fucking business.” He snarls. Internally he cringes, thinking it sounds too much like James. Jan merely raises an eyebrow.

“Jamie if he hurt you when you were younger then maybe you should talk about it.” Sam offers. Like bringing up the past is going to make things better. Like talking ever fucking helps. Jamie wants to scream.

“So he beat the shit out of me when I was a kid. So he was a useless fucking parent. ” Jamie snaps, tears prickling at his eyes. The open looks of horror on some of his teammates faces makes him cringe. He can’t stop though, can’t just leave it as is. “He’s my fucking problem.”

“Fucking hell Jamie, he shouldn’t have done that.” Roy growls. Richard grumbles something in French that Zoreaux nods in agreement with. It’s sounds angry and Jamie’s pretty sure he hears the name James muttered.

“It doesn’t matter.” Jamie insists.

“Of course it matters.” Sam replies. “You matter.” He probably shouldn’t scoff but Jamie can’t help it.

“Jamie, do we need to talk?” Roy asks, voice low. Jamie drops his pillow and flings his arms up.

“Fuck sake can’t we just drop it yeah? My dads a dick. We all know that.” He snaps. If the conversation continues he knows he’s going to cry. He’s going to sob like a little kid, fucking embarrassing. Roy steps closer, making Jamie shrink back. He wants to disappear into the ground. There’s nervous eyes all around.

“Let us help you amigo.” Dani says. “We are a team yes?” He offers Jamie a small smile. Jamie wishes he was yelling. Or that someone was angry, mad. Any fucking negative emotion. He knows how to deal with those. Instead everyone insists on huddling round him, offering support, caring about him.

His dad isn’t here but he can hear him calling him soft.

“It’s not… I don’t…” Jamie struggles to find the words. The ones that won’t make him cry and get everyone to leave him alone. “I just want to go to bed.”

“No way bruv.” Isaac shakes his head. “Not until you talk to us.”

“It’ll just be quicker if you do.” Colin says with a shrug, his face soft as he looks at Jamie. Jamie shoves his hands into his hoodie and blinks hard. “Otherwise we’ll just hound you til you break and tell us anyway.” Jamie stares at his team, that are standing round him like they’re worried he’s going to break if they get too far away.

“We won’t judge you.” Zoreaux says. “We just want to help.” Jamie is weak. He’s weak to them caring, with sad eyes, horrid glances. He doesn’t deserve a team ready to catch him when he falls but he’s lucky. He takes a deep breath.

“I’ve had nightmares for years.” He mumbles. “Bout him. I don’t… I’m not gonna talk about what they’re like about.” The team is nodding in understanding. “I just get so scared. And it’s stupid. I fucking hate it. I hate it so much.” Jamie sniffles, Sam and Dani move closer, both offering comfort. Jamie moves slightly out of reach, dropping onto his pillow and pulling his legs to his chest. “I don’t wanna talk about him.” It’s said into his legs but he knows they hear him. He hears a horrible cracking sound as Roy sits next to him. An arm snakes it’s way around his shoulders, he can’t help but tense. He feels someone else sit on his other side.

“Puppy pile.” He hears Bumbercatch say and suddenly there’s nine grown men leaning on him as he’s pushed close to the floor. Jamie’s pretty sure Isaac is behind him playing pillow, Colin’s on his left shoulder. Sam is on his left leg and so is Dani. Bumbercatch is somehow across both legs. Roy is looming by his right shoulder. Zoreaux is half resting on Jamie, half on Roy. Richard has managed to curl up practically on Jamie’s stomach. Jan is somewhere around his knee.

“Fuck Richard, ease up a bit.” Jamie grumbles. “I can’t breathe.”

“No.” Richard says sweetly even as he adjusts a bit so that Jamie’s lungs can actually work.

“Bro you have really bony ankles.” Bumbercatch says.

“Fuck off.” Jamie mumbles. He twists slightly, leaning into the collar of Roy’s jacket. He feels safe in the pile of people. Jan complains that he is too much person to be forced into such a cramped position. Colin cracks a joke about being too much person to handle. They’re giggling a little, letting Jamie feel at ease.

The nightmares stay away for once.

( brittany o’grady / demi woman ) WESLEY McCARRICK is 23 years old and is a SENIOR at thales university. SHE is majoring in FILM and is known for being THE MAVERICK as THEY can be HUMOROUS and OPEN-MINDED as well as DITZY and IMPULSIVE. every time i see HER/THEM, THEY remind me of PURPLE SKY IN THE DESERT, SKATING AS FAST AS YOU CAN TO FEEL THE WIND ON YOU, A JOKE TOLD WITH A TOOTHY GRIN.

hero’s back w character no. 2 and yet......

full name: wesley ‘wes’ elaine mccarrick

birthdate: february 2, 1997

age: 23

gender: demi woman

pronouns: she/her/they/them

zodiac: aquarius

nationality: american

ethnicity: black (louisiana creole) and white (irish)

hometown: santa fe, nm

languages: english, intermediate spanish

family:

theodore mccarrick, father

elaine barlow, mother

ruby mccarrick, older brother

delphine mccarrick, older sister

sherri barlow, maternal grandmother

many cousins

orientation: bisexual biromantic, pref. towards women/nb people but will date men

religion: agnostic

height: 5 ft 4 in

distinguishing features: eyebrows, hair, lips

character inspo: ilana wexler (broad city), harley quinn (dc comics), phoebe buffay (friends), prob more

𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊𝐆𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃

TRIGGERS: divorce, mentions of crime, drug and alcohol use

the youngest child of ted and elaine mccarrick, wes was a kid who is full of life. she’s the kind of kid who did things to make you smile, and it usually worked. she was warm and inviting, a little naive, but she had a strong support system.

her parents divorce when she’s six, she doesn’t quite understand it but her dad moves out, and her grandma and multiple cousins move in. it’s a lively household, between her mom, who works as a nurse, and her siblings, and her cousins, it was never really quiet and there was never a lot of room.

despite the split, her parents maintain that their children have a relationship with both of them, and truthfully, wes is a daddy’s girl. she and her dad were cut from the same cloth, happy go lucky, fun loving, a bit silly, he’s the one who introduces her to movies. it’s their thing, watching and critiquing them together, and it’s not whatever is in theatres either. they went for all times of filmmaking, new wave, surrealist, and more.

it really stuck with wes, who herself had begun making movies, mostly horror/fantasy/scifi stuff with her friends-- she writes and directs and occasionally, she’ll don a costume and star in them. they’re silly little things, but her family always sat down for her “premieres.”

her formative years are marked with plenty of things, sports, deaths of distant family members, a cousin or two who gets caught in the wrong crowd and ends up in jail, and throughout this, wes remains a rock for her family.

she’s in high school, and she gets into the eclectic crowd, the outcasts, the weirdos, the ones who smoked under the bridge, and partied out in an abandoned trailer near the desert. these freaks were her freaks. they accepted her with open arms, as she them.  

she chooses thales because she always wants to see the east coast, and frankly, as much as she loves her family, she wants to be free of them. and they have a fantastic film program. so!

she meets steven in their first film class together, and they’re fast friends, despite her usual weariness of YET another film bro, steven proves to be a good egg. so she thinks. she finds out through him talking that he might not be the most faithful to his girlfriend, and as much as she doesn’t like meddling, she thinks it’s only right to let clarissa, who she doesn’t really know well, know. however, before there’s a chance, everything happens-- now she’s stuck wondering if she should reveal the truth, or let sleeping dogs lie.

nana is different, nana and her dated her sophomore year, nana’s freshman year. it wasn’t serious. but they were fond of each other. they eventually break up, but they stay friendly, waving to each other in the halls, chatting at parties.

both the disappearance and the murder is weird for wes, who by all accounts, isn’t great at dealing with bad shit. she prefers to laugh about things. laugh about everything. because if she doesn’t laugh, she’ll cry.

𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐘

wes is a mess, a free-spirit, a walking contradiction. she’s very independent minded, the kind of person who does things without thinking so much about the consequences, this leads her into trouble sometimes. like nicking something from a convenience store, or stealing a stop sign as a prank. she’s definitely the kind to goof off and not exactly dedicate her full attention to something. and while she’s in genuinely good spirits on most occasions, she has a staunch ‘no asshole’ policy. the type to defend the underdogs, and go after bullies. she’ll punch you with a smile on her face, and yet it ends up being more unnerving than you realize. she’s a bit of a ditz, as well, never the best at school, but can talk your ear off about the going ons of the world. she’s a lovable dumbass, for sure, and loyal to a tee once you get her as a friend.

𝐓𝐈𝐃𝐁𝐈𝐓𝐒

horror movie fan! her favorites are some of the oldies, like dracula and  the bride of frankenstein! and some new ones! big fan of jordan peele’s work, as well as ari aster’s! but mostly really advocates for women directors and directors of color!

also does roller derby! she picked this up her first year at thales and fell in love with it, i can’t think of a name for her yet, but she’s a blocker, won’t hesitate to elbow some dick at the bar

kinda a tomboy? she’s always been! she’s rough and tumble and not afraid to get down and dirty with someone, i.e. will join those football games on the quad or crawl through the mud for a scene to shoot

doesn’t know if she wants to be a director/writer or a cinematographer honestly.... she loves the technical aspects of film as much as the making the stories

definition of a bruh girl, says it a whole lot, but also just if you tell her you love her, she’ll just roll her eyes and be like you’re an idiot (which means she loves you too) she’ll be affectionate if she’s close to you

kinda a wh*re oops....... texts multiple girls at a time and doesn’t want to hurt any of their feelings she doesn’t know how she keeps ending up in these situations... also a bisexual disaster

a stoner as well..... always has a massive jar of weed

unclear whether she lives on campus or off campus but if she does live off campus she has a pet turtle named elsa lanchester after the bride of frankenstein actress

a drummer! she’s in a band (name tbd) she started drumming at a young age and found it was a good way to manage her aggression

doesn’t really do well with emotions, so she’ll either be like there, there, or try to make jokes.... she really said kids can you lighten up

walking meme... such a walking meme... doesn’t know so many things she’s like a cute puppy with no thoughts head empty but she’s so fun to be around

life of the party.... nana she came fr ur spot and she took it and she’s not sorry but she does miss u a lot

doesn’t rly feel like she’s allowed to be upset anyways bc some people have it...... way worse.... can u say Imposter syndrome

kind of an enabler...... will be that person to push u to try things but not in a peer pressurey way, more like if u are unsure abt sending a text she says do it

wears fun earrings and socks! think lollipops or gummy bears or found objects like she collects that shit it’s her lifeline

boxes! she’s been boxing since she was abt 12, courtesy of her older brother (who is now a doctor thx ruby) and it’s a good way to exercise and release stress

𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒

best friend -- two of a feather, cut from the same cloth, or complete opposites it doesnt matter to her (the abbi to her ilana)

roller derby friends -- she’s p close to the team, margs on her

makeup artist pal -- i think it would be neat fr someone to try and teach her makeup whether its normal or sfx bc she wants to look like a monster or smthn

she’s gullible, u take advantage of that -- u just tell her lies p much and she’s like yeah ok that sounds right

party friends

classmates

fwbs (f/m/nb) -- tbh she might have one or two of these but they literally are the def of pals who bone sometimes... like v good abt being like you good? u dont want more? cool me too

exes (f/m/nb) -- mostly dated women or nb people but def cld have had a guy

she smokes you out -- p much the only reason u hang out w her is bc she has good weed

someone she’s fought -- like fully decked in the face, prob said something that rubbed her the wrong way and it just devolved from there

people who dislike her -- she could definitely be seen as annoying bc shes loud and dorky and funny so ??

breaks someone out of their shell -- p self explanatory, pushes them to have fun, w everything happening shes rly like lifes too short to not take the opportunities around u

cousins! probably on her dad’s side! i figure she has some east coast fam 

anything? truly?

27-29 for the get to know my favorites game

Hello, lovely! Thank you for these. :) Trios turned out to be a surprising challenge (I apparently have more favorite groups of four than three), but I’m pretty happy with the ones I remembered after giving it some thought. The final picks are under the cut! <3

Top 5 BROTPs

1. Paula Proctor & Rebecca Bunch (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) - Naturally, this was the immediate choice that sprang to mind. It’s the first relationship on the show I really fell in love with, and it’s the one friendship in the series that consistently tugs on my heartstrings. It’s flawed, complicated, and messy but the genuine connection underneath it all is strong enough that I’m hopeful they can work through their problems. I would’ve preferred to see more emphasis on that effort in the fourth season (and a lot more work on Rebecca’s friendships with Heather and Valencia as well), but I want to believe things improved between them after the finale. 

2. Steve Harrington & Robin Buckley (Stranger Things) - The general public opinion of Steve Harrington has been on such a journey since Season 1, bringing him now to a status of common fan favorite. As such, I think a delicate balance needed to be struck in finding a suitable match to team up with him on adventures. This person needed to:

A) Have good chemistry in their interactions with Steve

B) Bring a new dynamic to the table that he didn’t already have with an existing connection 

and most importantly 

C) Be a unique and engaging character that the audience would care about individually, so they didn’t get lost in simply being an offshoot of Steve’s story. They couldn’t be relegated to perpetual sidekick with little else to define them.

As far as I’m concerned, Robin Buckley fits the bill on every account. She’s artistic, resilient, loyal, and - especially endearing to me - a movie buff. She has a quick wit, a sharp mind, and a big heart. Being friends with Robin helps Steve take the specter of his high school self less seriously so he can put it behind him, and she helps him more fully embrace the person he’s becoming in the wake of that lost status. Having Steve for a friend helps Robin resolve some lingering emotional scars from school as well. It gives her an opportunity to share her authentic self with a peer and - to her relief and ours - find acceptance after revealing a pretty important secret. I can’t wait to watch the two of them be adorably nerdy and goofy bros at Family Video in Season 4, presumably with some daring fights against dark forces when they’re off the clock. Does saying I hope Kali comes to Hawkins somehow and bonds with one or both of them mean I can speak that into existence? I’m doing that now. It’s worth a try. If it happens in some capacity when the time comes, know that I will throw a One Blogger Party of epic proportions. 

3. Wynonna Earp & Nicole Haught (Wynonna Earp) - I had to use this specific screencap because it perfectly encapsulates the chaotic energy that makes me loves these two together so much. Their separate approaches to their shared work environment are at pretty much polar opposite ends of the spectrum, but they make a pretty solid team when they play to each other’s strengths and communicate. They also both love Waverly most of all, so it feels like they were bound to work out their differences eventually since neither would want to make her feel torn between her sister and her girlfriend. The hijinks they get up to in each other’s company are just top shelf. I look forward to at least a little bit of fun like that from every season. If I wind up having a lasting partner later on down the road, it’d be cool if their personality balanced well with my sister’s on this level. I’d also be really happy if I ultimately gelled with her person in a way that sounded unlikely at first but worked. Fingers crossed for both outcomes, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

4. Emily Thorne [Amanda Clarke] & Nolan Ross (Revenge) - I have two things to quickly clarify for those who are unfamiliar with this show.

#1 She has two listed names because she was born Amanda Clarke but goes by Emily Thorne for most of the series to hide her true identity. 

#2 Despite the impression this picture may give, Nolan is not marrying Emily; he is simply walking her down the aisle. 

These two are there for each other through so much - the looming threat of discovery, jail time, capture, near death experiences, heartbreak, the passing of loved ones, etc. - and they make it to the other side with a deep bond the likes of which they’ll never experience with another person. It is at times heavily one-sided because of how much drama Emily deliberately dives into, but it’s something that she tries to make up for during her more self-aware and less self-involved times. There’s genuine love and mutual respect there by the finale and it’s really gratifying to witness the journey they’ve taken together. 

[~Slightly spoiler-y closing statement after these brackets~] I was pretty sure I knew where the show was going with romantic ships by the end. I knew for certain it wasn’t my personal OTP for her because they’d already killed that person off quite some time ago. There was a part of me that could’ve found some contentment in leaving the story with these two as a couple. After all, one of my favorite ship dynamics is Reluctant Acquaintances to Best Friends to Lovers, but it was not to be. That being said, the platonic friendship they shared was a big part of the heart of the show and I cherish it for that. Nolan was a rare exception for Emily, a genuine bond formed in the years when she was tried to operate like her heart was made of stone. I also think working with Emily gave Nolan a sense of purpose and let him flourish in his area of expertise. I’m not sure how either of them would feel about the musical reference but, to slightly paraphrase from Wicked: because they knew each other, they have been changed for good.

5. Penelope Stamp & Bang Bang (The Brothers Bloom) - I have seen Rachel Weisz and Rinko Kikuchi in more roles since this movie than I had prior to watching it for the first time so, if anything, my fangirling over this friendship has gotten worse rather than more manageable. x) This post classified the film under the subgenre whimsical noir. It turns out that’s a style I instantly adore every time I stumble upon it. One of the titular brothers, Stephen, lives so deeply immersed in the variations of the world he writes for their heists that even those closest to him are essentially characters he can interact with on a daily basis. His feelings for them as people can get very muddled with his feelings for them as interesting OCs to move through narratives. A big trouble with this is that his living archetypes can often get reduced to clichés. He’s not always mindful of their nuances or allowing for the full range of their autonomy. Penelope is selected by Stephen to serve as the “manic pixie dream girl” who will be his brother Bloom’s forever love and Bang Bang is essentially presented as a “dragon lady” stereotype. I haven’t done a rewatch in years so I may be giving the movie too much credit here, but I remember this choice feeling at least semi-deliberate. It could be interpreted as a way to illustrate how Stephen warps real life to fit his vision. At least, I can definitely remember scenes that felt like they debunked the one-note assessments of these two. What I genuinely love, though, are the little moments when Penelope and Bang Bang are able to just spend time together with little to no interference from Stephen or Bloom. They share their hobbies and teach each other new skills. It feels like they truly perceive one another as whole human beings on a level that neither guy is capable of doing since they’re both so immersed in the drama of the plot. When the women are with each other, they get to be more than an extension of the men who maneuver them; they get to be themselves. Penelope is the only one Bang Bang clearly wants to maintain contact with once the heist is finished. I think that says a lot. Honestly, this is another BROTP that could slide to OTP. If someone wrote fic of them completely severing ties with the brothers and going off on their own - romantically or platonically - I wouldn’t be upset at all. 

Top 5 Trios

1. Luke, Leia, & Han (Star Wars Episodes IV - VI) - Oh dear, I’m overwhelmed just looking at a picture of them together. Star Wars has been a part of my life since childhood. Getting to watch the original trilogy felt like a rite of passage (when I was really little, Mom used to find things for us to do outside the room while Dad watched because she was afraid some of it might scare me). Princess Leia resounded with me on a level that almost no other fictional royalty has ever quite matched. Han’s wardrobe is still some serious #aestheticgoals and I would 100% wear replicas of his jackets and vests if I had them. I also remember thinking that Luke’s new look in Return of the Jedi was SO COOL with the all-black wardrobe and green lightsaber. Wow, imagine that, an edgy costume change that shared vibes with the common Disney villain color palette called to me as a baby fan of antagonists and antiheroes! Who ever could have foreseen that sudden spike in appreciation? :P Anyway, one of my lingering sorrows about the more recent trilogy is that we never got to see all three of them as aged adults in each other’s company. I still wanted our new cast to get their time to shine, of course, but I do lament the absence of at least one little trio reunion.

2. Luna, Neville, & Ginny (Harry Potter series) - The Silver Trio, pictured here with the first set of three that comes to mind when thinking about the books and movies. I do still love Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but I’ve found a growing appreciation for this other team-up over the years. They’ve been through a lot too, even if they are not always present where the main action is. Bullying, loss of parents, manipulation of the mind and body, abuse at the hands of authority figures - they’re all left with internal (and probably external) scars to bear. There’s also something to be said for how strong they all were in the school year set during Deathly Hallows, when the Golden Trio wasn’t around to inspire and unite those who wanted to stand up to ever-increasing tyranny. It can be easy, unfortunately, for them to get written off based on the oversimplified stereotypes that have gotten associated with them. People remember Luna as being weird and spacey, Neville as awkward and hapless, and Ginny as bland and lovestruck. They’re all far more nuanced than that, and they accomplish great things while fighting for and beside their friends. I’m planning on doing a re-read of the books at some point, and I really look forward to revisiting these brave kids.

3. Irma, Marion, & Miranda (Picnic at Hanging Rock) - Ah, yes, my very recently discovered darlings. I have many thoughts about them all. I’ll try to keep this as condensed as I can while still making sense. Some spoilers will follow, although those won’t answer every question the story poses. There are audience members who ship the above characters as a throuple, which I totally get, but for me it’s like soulmates of a different kind. These three have met at a point in their lives when they all burn with compatible intensity. They long for the same dream version of youth, for a way to begin life free from the confines of a world that won’t accept all their hearts contain. While the people that surround them may not be willing to bend the rules, nature itself appears to show them mercy. How often do we see a story of girls who just... love other women so much that a sacred location goes, “Y’know what? I’m gonna help you escape your restrictive society. Permanently.” This miniseries definitely depicts the setting as being involved in messing with the investigation, as a mystical place that befuddles unwanted intruders. I love the way these three fortify each other in times of pain and fear, and there’s something deeply moving about how standing side-by-side helps them defy the odds.

4. Sarah, Alison, & Cosima (Orphan Black) - Okay so, technically, when I picture our core team in this show, the net is a little wider. My mind tends to also include Felix, Mrs. S., Kira, Helena, Donnie, Delphine, and Scott. However, I think you could kinda argue that those characters have a stronger connection to one of the above three than they do to the other two. Thus, this ends up being the central triangle. They’re all such solid performances and the fact they’re all played by the same person is incredibly impressive (not to mention the, like, twelve other clones Tatiana brings to life throughout the series). Watching them go from tense strangers to sestras was wonderful. I’m glad they had each other through the increasingly complicated web of lies and schemes they had to unravel and survive. 

5. Galavant, Sid, & Isabella (Galavant) - Remember how James Marsden was in Enchanted? If you dialed down the deliberately cartoonish quality of that performance and allowed for more not-so-G-rated humor, I feel like you’d have a general sense of what Galavant is like as a character. Sid is his squire and Isabella is a princess whose mission happens to combine with Galavant’s, albeit fueled by different driving motivations. They find themselves involved in a lot of shenanigans because of Galavant - even in his own universe, he’s into the whole dashing knight thing more than is strictly necessary - but they make a fun little team to follow through the world of this musical television series. I’ve gotten fuzzy on the details since I watched it air live four years ago, but I remember the series being enough of a summer feel-good time that I’d be game to revisit the show again someday.

Top 5 Family Relationships

1. Stevie Budd & The Roses (Schitt’s Creek) - The whole fish-out-of-water setup for this series was already pretty fun in and of itself, especially given how outlandish their lifestyles evidently were before the show begins. The thing that makes it special, though, is how the absence of all their expensive distractions finally helps them prioritize being a family. The Roses do a lot of work to reconcile who they were with who they find themselves becoming in the present. It’s sweet to see them collectively conclude that growing closer to each other is one of the few things they do not regret in the slightest. They also silently agree to adopt Stevie along the way and, boy, does that give me a lot of Big Feelings, particularly in the later seasons.

2. River Song & The Ponds (Doctor Who) - I think it’s been like seven years or so, give or take, since I watched Doctor Who with any regularity. These three have resurfaced in my mind many times since then. They all love with such fierce and unwavering devotion, spanning lifetimes. It’s fascinating - and often heartbreaking - to learn about the things they’ve experienced and endured. Oh gosh, and once the show reveals how River’s story overlaps with theirs, and you pay attention to how she looks at them, IT HURTS but it’s so engaging to watch. The emotions are all flooding back just remembering them now. Argh, what great characters... </3

3. The Tico Sisters (Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi) - Rose appears in two installments of the third trilogy, but this is the episode that has both Tico daughters. We never get to see them interact onscreen in the film, but I still feel the bond between these sisters so intensely. I found out later that Kelly was present for the filming of Paige’s death scene (which happens so early in the movie that it doesn’t feel like a big spoiler - please forgive me if it is). I’m glad that was something they decided to do behind-the-scenes, because it definitely informs Rose’s grief. She’s sitting in the dark, picturing her big sister’s final moments with such horribly vivid detail that it feels like she was there, and yet she can’t do anything to change how it ends. The shape of the sisters’ necklaces immediately establishes that they were a unit even when acting independently, that they felt like two halves of a whole - all they had left of their family. Now there is only one, and that fact is a weight around Rose’s neck both figuratively and literally. It serves as a visual reminder of how she carries Paige’s absence always, trying to discover and embrace who she is on her own while still honoring the memory of a relative she loved so deeply. I think she reaches the end of Episode VIII feeling like she’s someone of whom her sister would be quite proud. I’m very proud of her, too. 

4. The Tyler Siblings (Wonderfalls) - Jaye is comically different than the rest of her family, and the show establishes that right out the gate when we learn that she’s the only one whose name doesn’t rhyme with the rest (left to right, the others are Karen, Sharon, Darrin, and Aaron, respectively). Her relationships with her parents could certainly lead me off on some analytical tangents but, predictably, it’s the sibling stuff that interests me more. I think it could be said that all three do more living inside their heads than they do out in the world, and that they’ve all grown up to be borderline loners (Ironically Jaye, who is considered the most troubled, is the only one I remember being shown to have formed and maintained a friendship). Aaron’s a very philosophical and analytical person, so you get the sense he talks to himself more than to others, although he still manages to resurface from those deep contemplations so he can goad and tease his sisters from time to time. Sharon is high-strung, competitive, and brings that “disaster lesbian” energy to basically every social interaction she has. Jaye’s standoffishness seems to stem from both the difficulty of fitting in with people and the fear that connections will fall apart once they manage to form at all. They’re all just messes trying to make the best out of the situations they face, and I appreciate that. I also enjoy how prominently the Jaye and Sharon sister bond features throughout the show’s only season. It starts out on pretty rocky ground, but they grow a lot in regard to how willing they are to communicate and express their love for one another. 

5. The Brothers Proctor (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) - The family dynamics in their house are in need of some serious work, without a doubt. I’m just really touched by how close these two have become without Paula’s notice. It’s possible they always were, in that we-fight-but-we-care way that siblings can often be, but the supportive side of that really moves to the forefront as they get older in the series and it warms my heart. There’s such a glaring difference between The Household As Paula Views It and Things That Are Happening While She’s Not Paying Attention. I can’t help using fic as a way to explore that. I happily find excuses for her sons to make pop-in appearances, just to check up on them. I'm so pleased that, as of Season 4, they seem to have become fairly well-adjusted in spite of everything. Oh, and I am still not over the revelation that they attend renaissance festivals together, in character, for fun. What precious cuties who would no doubt dislike me referring to them as such! Paula, please give them an extra hug from me! 

Really Long Character Survey

( @yascaret edited/removed some of the questions to make this more FFXIV-friendly )

RULES.  Repost,  don’t  reblog  ! Tag  10  !  Good  luck!

TAGGED BY. @yascaret and @violet-warder

TAGGING. EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BASICS.

FULL  NAME :  Pjel Qoet

NICKNAME :  NO.

AGE :  It’s a mystery!

BIRTHDAY :  Summer

ETHNIC  GROUP :  Viera (Rava)

NATIONALITY :  Ivalician (?)

LANGUAGE / S :  Common

SEXUAL  ORIENTATION :  Homosexual

ROMANTIC  ORIENTATION :  Homoromantic

RELATIONSHIP  STATUS :  Much to her own surprise, she’s [re]entered into a relationship with Lofn Yascaret and Aja Hyskaris

HOME  TOWN / AREA :  Qoet, Golmore

CURRENT  HOME :  A little house in Shirogane, maybe?

PROFESSION :  Dark Knight, monster hunter, adventurer

PHYSICAL.

HAIR :  White with peach undertones, long and thick. Generally straight and kept neatly brushed and parted. On rare occasions, she’ll tie the bulk of it up into an enormous ponytail.

EYES :  Bright copper.

FACE :  Heavy lidded eyes, gently sloped cheeks, and a firm jaw that ends in a rounded point of a chin. Strong expressions are a rare sight as she seems to emote largely with her brows.

LIPS : Full.

COMPLEXION :  Dark, brown-grey. A smudge of a paler shade rings her nostrils and beneath the tip of her nose. Dappled with freckles most prominently across the apples of her cheeks.

BLEMISHES :  None that are visible at least.

SCARS :  Typically hidden. There are a few cuts, gashes, and worse that have left their marks.

TATTOOS :  A small marking on the bridge of her nose, the meaning of which is a mystery.

HEIGHT :   *Tall*.

WEIGHT :  On the heavier side, for Viera, on account of being RIPPED.

BUILD :  Marginally wider set than average for Viera. RIPPED, most notably in her core and upper body.

FEATURES :   Pjel considers herself fairly plain for Viera. A strong nose and thick brows, combined with her general impassiveness, lends herself to looking fairly severe and unfriendly in most instances. Thankfully, she’s fond of wearing a black face plate which cranks that up a few notches further!

ALLERGIES :  None that she’s aware of yet.

USUAL  HAIR  STYLE :  Worn down, long and parted down the middle. More of a mane than a defined style.

USUAL  FACE  LOOK :  Aloof, indifferent, perhaps even bored. In the company of friends, she’s more prone to soft grins that are barely even there.

USUAL  CLOTHING :   Heavy plate and mail in golds, black, and crimson. Loose shirts, preferably with high collars and low necklines. Trousers and heeled boots. Hyur fashions fascinate her but her sense leans towards crisp, utilitarian lines.

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEAR / S :  Nothing. (Except for Garlean war machina, losing herself to Mist frenzy, and failure in general.)

ASPIRATION / S :  To live an honorable life, even if she will not be remembered by her home.

POSITIVE  TRAITS :  Fearless, stalwart, honest.

NEGATIVE  TRAITS :  Reckless, distant, too quick to trust, might have a bit of a martyr complex.

MBTI : ESTJ-A (Executive)

ZODIAC : Virgo

TEMPERAMENT :  Phlegmatic

SOUL  TYPE / S :   Server

ANIMALS :   Lion

VICE HABIT / S :   Brooding, gambling, distancing herself from loved ones (whoops!)

FAITH :  After a fashion, though not in Eorzea’s gods at least

GHOSTS ? :  Yes

AFTERLIFE ? :  Sure

REINCARNATION ? :  One can only hope

ALIENS ? :   ????

POLITICAL ALIGNMENT :  Garlemald bad

EDUCATION  LEVEL :  Enough to get by: basic reading/writing, basic arithmetic.

FAMILY.

FATHER :  Somewhere

MOTHERS :  Pjel has moved past resentment and settled into indifference. She thinks about them still, but not with any fondness.

SIBLINGS :  Many, none of whom she has spoken to in decades.

EXTENDED  FAMILY :  Certainly. When she knew them, she had little involvement in their lives. Now, she has none.

NAME MEANING / S :  Pjel of Qoet. If there is a deeper meaning to her name, it was not shared with her.

HISTORICAL  CONNECTION ? :  She was born there.

FAVORITES.

BOOK :  NO.

DEITY :  She respects the reverence of spirits as they do in Doma, but she is not inclined to worship them.

HOLIDAY :  ????

MONTH :  Summer

SEASON :  Summer

PLACE :  On the road between places, the interludes between one challenge and the next. A busy marketplace. Gardens and woods.

WEATHER :  Bright sunny days. Light summer rains, the kind that get humid and sticky.

SOUND / S:  Rustling grass and leaves. Birdsong. The steady drip or babble of water.

SCENT / S :  Approaching rainfall. Grasses, leaves, and earth. Flowers. Incense.

TASTE / S :  Fresh fish. Grilled meats. Creamy stews full of vegetables and mushrooms. Girlfriends.

FEEL / S :  Polished metal. Hard woods. Tree bark. Fur.

ANIMAL / S :  Cats. Chocobos, to a lesser extent.

NUMBER : What kind of nerd picks favorite numbers (it’s 3)

COLORS :  Greens, browns, blues

EXTRA.

TALENTS :  Cutting things the fuck up, teamwork, assessing threats quickly

BAD  AT :  Thinking things through, seeing the bigger picture, maintaining calm once she’s started to lose her temper, understanding and managing money, seeing through lies

TURN  ONS :  Women, especially the ones who can beat her up. Meaningful stares. Brief touches of skin.

TURN  OFFS :  Flirtatious men, chaotic or evil people, cowards, Garleans

HOBBIES :  Fishing, mending armor and blades, gambling

TROPES :  Lady and the Knight, Blood Knight, Combat Stilettos, Cool Mask, BFS, Emotion Suppression, Rage Breaking Point, Dark-skinned Blonde, Statuesque Stunner, Big Ol’ Eyebrows, You Can’t Go Home Again, The Stoic, Held Gaze...

QUOTES : “Let me make it up to you” is a thing she’s been saying to too many people recently

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1 :  If you could write your character your way in their own movie,  what would it be called,  what style would it be filmed in, and what would it be about?          

A1 :  Some cheesy fantasy/action romp where Pjel not only becomes a renowned knight but also the champion of a beautiful sorceress and the rival/bro of another equally renowned knight. It would be called Final Fantasy 8 and everyone in it is gay.

Q2 :  What would their soundtrack/score sound like?          

A2 :  A lot of ambient sounds with light melodies that ramp up into cool battle themes. Basically a Soulsborne soundtrack.

Q3 :  Why did you start writing this character?          

A3 :   I’ve been dying for a viera character since they were teased at Fanfest 2014, and I have a deep love for the whole [dark] knight aesthetic. It’s helped tremendously that I have some really cool friends to bounce ideas and dumb headcanons off of.

Q4 :   What first attracted you to this character?          

A4 :   Viera + DRK = GOOD SHIT, but I am currently living for the Buny Death Squad

Q5 :  Describe the biggest thing you dislike about your muse.

A5 :  She’s very short sighted and has a pretty black and white view of the world which can lead her to being dismissive towards people or ideas. Writing her has presented its own set of challenges because I try to rely more on body language and things like that. Sometimes I get the message across, sometimes not!

Q6 :  What do you have in common with your muse?          

A6 :  I have no connection to my family and I don’t know how to talk to girls.

Q7 :  How does your muse feel about  you?          

A7 :  I don’t think Pjel would think of me at all because I am a soft, weak human who has nothing to offer to the world.

Q8 :  What characters does your muse have interesting interactions with ?        

A8 :  Lofn and Aja have been wonderful foils and the chemistry they’ve been trying to rediscover has been so interesting to see. Meeting Anchor got off on such an odd foot (I’M SORRY) but I’ve enjoyed the dynamic there and I’m eager to see where their relationship goes. Likewise with Batuhan and Arasen but yall know I’m a sucker for Stoic Cool Warriors and Bastards, respectively. Nabi and Ghoa have been so delightful in their own ways, and I’m curious to see Pjel learn of Ghoa’s more manipulative tendencies... if she does at all, being the big idiot she is.

Q9 :  What gives  you inspiration  to write  your muse ?        

A9 :  Various battle themes, a lot of stuff from like FF8 and FF9. Soulsborne stuff because I’m weak for it. Also reading anything and everything from RP friends!! Cause yall are inspiring!!!!!!!!

Q10 :  How long did this take you to complete ?          

A10 :  The better part of a day off and on! I saved the tropes bit for last cause I knew that was going to take the longest.

Rage-kitten Jon time

*this meta includes graphic depictions of violence. Redear discretion is advised

A while back, during a conversation with @kitten1618x, she asked me to talk about the rage-kitten Jon scenes. I’ve been pretty busy the past few weeks so I didn’t manage to get to it earlier but … a tumblr always pays her debts.

Here is the original message:

I would love to hear your take on the rage-kitten jon scenes: especially the one in the crypts, as it really did nothing to further the narrative if Jon is just a “protective big bro” (the audience already knows this) and the beach scene with Theon.

I’ve already discussed the Theon scene in my “Why the romance between Jon/D*ny doesn’t work” series so this time around we will be talking about the crypt scene between Jon and Littlefinger.

However, in addition to that, we will also be taking a trip down memory lane to that most satisfying and heartwarming of moments in season 6 when Jon beat the living crap out of Ramsay Beelzebub Bolton.

That is because these two scenes are inextricably linked in my mind and together set up and support the romantic undertone that permeates all of the Jon/Sansa scenes.

Bear with me … I have receipts.

After the season finale, when I re-watched both season 6 and 7, I came back to these two scenes time and time again. The way Jon walks over to Ramsay, stone faced, murderous anger bubbling beneath the surface, the way his face twitches when LF says he loves Sansa as he loved Catelyn ... I was struck every time by just how certain I was that I had seen this before somewhere and how romantic motivation popped into my head every single time I watched them.

And then, one fine day, it finally dawned on me. I HAD seen this before, hundreds of times. Twice a year, in fact, from the time I was about 12.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you the one … the only … possibly my favorite film of all times …

Now, if you have not seen Goodfellas, what the hell have you been doing with your life? I mean it! Got watch it right now!

For those of you who have seen it … it’s brilliant, right? Now that I’ve mentioned it, don’t you want to go back and watch it again? I know I do. I just looooove watching Joe Pesci violently murder people. What can I say? I’m a romantic, like that …

That being said, I see you all scratching your heads thinking what the hell Goodfellas has to do with rage-kitten Jon. So please indulge me in an experiment and look at the scene where Henry finds out that his girlfriend, Karen, was sexually assaulted by one of her neighbors:

I think you can see the basic gist of what I am talking about but let’s analyze the similarities more in detail. I’ll probably only ever going to get one chance to talk about Goodfellas and Game of thrones in the same meta. You can bet your last dollar I’m going to milk it for what it’s worth!  

The “Jon makes all of our dreams come true” scene:

The first beat that is eerily similar is the slow walk both Henry and Jon do towards their opponent. Even their expression is about the same which is … they have no expression. Their entire focus is on what’s in front of them:

The stone face in cinema is always a telltale of someone going in for the kill. Both Bruce and Ramsay are goners. They just don’t know it yet.

Then there’s the actual fight … I mean, it’s not really a fight … it’s quite frankly a down and dirty whooping that both Jon and Henry dish out, complete with the both of them throwing their opponent to the ground:

This has nothing to do with the meta, but every time I watch this beat I laugh thinking of people saying how shockingly revolutionary violence in GOT is. Scorsese was doing long before them and, quite frankly, doing it better. There’s not one cut in that whole beat. You’re essentially a prisoner of the camera.

The other thing these two scenes have in common is a bit more subtle and requires a larger view of both these characters. Because leaving aside the different time periods, dragons and wardrobes, what both these scenes show us is the violence that these men are capable of.

In Goodfellas, up until this point, the audience has seen Henry as the hero, the good guy. We’ve been lulled into liking him because of his charm, good looks and intelligence and also because he’s always surrounded by psychopaths that kill and hurt people on a whim while he’s stuck being the voice of reason.

So just when we’ve become comfortable with this interpretation of the character, Scorsese gives us 10 veeery loooong and veeery painful seconds of Henry’s unhinged brutality. We can’t hide away from the truth anymore: he’s a thug just like the rest of his “associates”.

The GOT scene is less elegant in its message and perhaps a bit less effective but it essentially tells us the same thing. Jon has been dabbling with violence ever since he left home but we have never seen him be so brutal or so out of control with anyone. Now we know that if you push him hard enough, you’ll find the monster hidden beneath. The fact that it’s Sansa that sparks this revelation, just as Karen does for Henry, is just icing on the cake, really.

The other intriguing thing is that both these scenes end with a relationship set-up between Henry and Karen, as well as Jon and Sansa.

In Goodfellas, this is a patently negative and foreboding event. Henry and Karen have been established as the young, attractive and in love couple, strolling around town and going to the Copacabana for drinks, wearing the latest fashions. But in this scene Henry hands her the gun he’s just used to bash a man’s face in and asks her to hide it. When she accepts, she becomes his accomplice. And that dynamic pays off throughout the rest of the film, as we see Karen smuggle illegal drugs for Henry in prison, accompany him to meet Colombian cartels and flush drugs down toilets as the police descends on their house.

In GOT, the implications of this scene are far more positive. Because Jon does the exact opposite to what Henry does. Far from making Sansa an accomplice to his violent tendencies, he stops himself when she shows up because he doesn’t want her to see him as a monster.

As other Jonsa fans have already mentioned, the creators here employ the “calm to his storm” trope and that’s a very potent storytelling device. Because love is a powerful emotion that can make us behave in extreme ways, both good and bad. But at its best, love compels us to be better, not worse. And that’s what Sansa does for Jon in this scene. She reminds him of his inherent humanity. And that’s pretty damn beautiful.

However, I don’t think we’ve really gotten a proper pay off of this trope and the dynamic that it establishes between these two characters. I suppose you could argue that the battlement scene does that by having Sansa apologize for keeping Jon in the dark about the Knights of the Vale and they end up resolving their trust issues.

Except that season 7 shows us a Jon and Sansa that are still struggling with their relationship, the two of them still sending each other mixed signals and we never get a proper explanation as to what makes them clash as they do.

Add to that the Theon scene where once again the “calm to his storm” trope is brought to the fore and this whole confusing dynamic between them feels like a dangling plot thread that needs to be addressed in season 8.

The “Non-platonic thoughts about Sansa are not allowed in Jon’s presence” scene:

The obvious thing that this scene and the Goodfellas scene have in common is the dialogue. So let’s talk about that. You all know how attached I am to my dialogue:

Henry: I swear on my fucking mother, if you touch her again, you’re dead!

Jon: Touch my sister and I’ll kill you myself.

Now, Henry is a little more verbose and he does take his own mother’s name in vain but you know … he’s half Irish and half Italian. It sort of comes with the territory. But the message is clear: Touch Karen/Sansa and Henry/Jon will kill you.

This phrase of: touch … and I’ll kill you is used a great deal in dialogue for both visual and written storytelling but the important common thread here is the sexual context in which they are both used.

Bruce, Karen’s neighbor, is beaten up by Henry because he tried to rape Karen. So “touch” in that context is unquestioningly sexual in nature.

The Jon/LF is even more loaded because Littlefinger hasn’t actually done anything as terrible to Sansa. Sure, his longing stares, double-entendres and creepy kisses are more than a little problematic, but they’re not in the same league as what Bruce did to Karen. And yet, just the thought that Littlefinger might approach Sansa in that way and that he might touch her in a sexual manner, drives Jon mad.

Also, as others have mentioned, Littlefinger prods and twists Jon for quite some time until he snaps. He talks about his father’s bones, his love for his father’s wife and even brings up Catelyn’s dislike for him, something that probably bothers Jon even more than being called a bastard. And yet, even though it’s clear that Jon doesn’t like LF, he still manages to keep his emotions in check.

The moment he starts losing it this:

Littlefinger: If it weren’t for me, you would have been slaughtered on that battlefield.

Now, people simply take it for granted that Jon dislikes Littlefinger because of what LF has done to his family. But Jon doesn’t know most of what LF has done. He actually doesn’t know much of anything about him. Except this:

Jon: You told me he sold you to the Boltons.

Sansa: He did.

Jon: Do you trust him?

Sansa: Only a fool would trust Littlefinger.

So his sole reason for disliking this man is because of what he did to Sansa. I would suggest that LF bringing up the Battle of the Bastards is yet another reminder for Jon that she had to bring this man there in order to save him.

But then LF, in his desire to find what moves his enemy, ups the ante and boy, does he find out what moves Jon Snow:

And this where that feeling of familiarity strikes me again. I don’t know if Kit Harrington went to the Liotta school of seething rage, but these two facial expressions look very similar to me:

Kit should totally take, at least, the expression class at the Liotta school by the way. No one does crazy, out of my mind psychopathy quite like good ol’ Ray.

The last thing we need to address is the reason why this scene is even included. Unlike the mirror scene in season 1 where Ned chocked LF, where the resolution was LF’s betrayal, there is no direct pay-off to this scene and there never will be. LF is dead and his downfall has nothing to do with Jon.

As @kitten1618x pointed out in her message, it can’t be to show us that Jon is protective of Sansa. That was already established in season 6. We’ve seen him beat Ramsay to a pulp and we’ve also been given this gem:

Jon: I will never let him touch you again. I’ll protect you. I promise!

We’re also going to be given a fresh dose of that in his scene with Tyrion.

There’s just so much of the “Jon is an overprotective older brother who protects his totally platonic but in need of protection sister” shtick we can watch before we start questioning exactly why Jon is so invested in who “touches” Sansa.

I would argue that, considering basic scriptwriting structure as well as the pattern that is established between Jon and the men in Sansa’s life, the pay-off to the Jon/LF scene will come in season 8 and it will have nothing to do with LF and everything to do with the Jon/Sansa dynamic.

PS: I call dibs on red for the wedding. It’s my favorite color, you guys! You have to give me that!

 * none of the GOT gifs belong to me.

For my entertainment: 15 Roland/Adil relationship Q&A (original post and questions courtesy of the-moon-dust-writings). 

NOTE: Questions are answered in accordance to the assumption of a neutral circumstantial placement where neither’s wellbeing are compromised unless stated otherwise. All answers are Safe For Work, however there is one answer-addition that is considered mild physical intimacy given the context.

1. Who laughs at their own joke and who deadpans at the joke?

The More Likelihood: Adil is more bound to laugh at his own jokes, and Roland is the one who deadpans.

But, the dynamic is more: their sense of humor doesn’t quite match up, and because of this, both are accused of laughing at their own jokes and deadpanning the other’s jokes early on in the relationship. After they become acclimated with each other, they both make the effort and/or genuinely laugh at each other’s jokes. Eventually, both of them get familiarized enough with each other’s sense of humor that sometimes they will say something to cater to each other’s personal taste.

Bonus: Roland likes jokes that involve (quick) wit (like puns and improvisation), Adil likes observational comedy, and both of them have a soft spot for absurdism/surreal humor.

2. If they had a secret handshake, how would it go?

Typical 80s Action Movie Forearm Grab Between Bros Looking at Each Other Straight In the Eyes Going “You Son of a Bitch.”

An actual answer: not available. I’m unsure about this one.

Not really a handshake, but I could see Adil as the type to approach Roland and, casually and smoothly, grab Roland’s butt as a greeting like “hey, what’s up.” Adil would have the decency to only do that when they are alone though, and it would never fail to startle Roland, mostly because he never considers/remembers the option, so he is not prepared for it.

3. It’s movie night, what movies are they gonna watch together?

Adil would offer foreign films, independent films, and sometimes B movies; Roland suggests award nominees that he meant to see but never got the chance to. Both of them alternate each date/ movie night with the other’s suggestions.

4. It’s time to name their pet they adopted together, who gets to name it? How do they come to this decision?

Roland names their pet because everything Adil suggests falls under the category of naming pets after inanimate objects or overly excessive titles, and Roland is not a fan of that type of naming scheme. However, he does allow Adil to use his suggestions as nicknames.

5. Who would they love to go on a double date with?

Greg and Annette.

6. Who wakes the other up in the morning? How do they wake them up?

Roland wakes Adil up in the morning, but it’s not done on purpose. If it is during the late night and/or excessively early in the morning, Adil is woken up by Roland’s restlessness. This could either be from him tossing-and-turning or from him getting out of bed and shuffling around because he can not go back to sleep. If it’s more in accordance with a “average” waking time, then Roland waking Adil comes more from starting his day, and Adil noticing Roland is no longer in the bed.

Typically, Adil is the one known for staying in bed later, however when Roland is worse for wear, his opposition with waking up or staying in bed or not goes through a flux.in this case Adil will “wake up” (be more active) before Roland, to either comfort him and/or help with his mood.

7. How do they celebrate Halloween?

Left to their own devices: neither of them go out of their way with festive prep, like decorating or party hosting. But, Adil would indulge in the pumpkin flavored everything (mostly coffee, cookies, and cake/bread), and Roland would still have a bowl of candy to give out to trick-or-treaters the day of Halloween.

Fred is a hinge for this answer on Roland’s side. If he was excessively close with Fred before becoming his guardian, in turn helped raise him, Roland would involve himself with the festivities (decoration, pumpkin picking and carving, trick-or-treating, etc). After moving underground, Greg would have made suggestions about keeping the spirit of the season for the children, and Roland would have put in his organizational input after Greg convinced/persuaded other adults and/or families of Old Portland to also participate. However, after Greg’s death, Roland did not continue on with this tradition.

8. Who is more likely to call their partner ‘dude’?

Neither. If anything, the “dude” in question would more likely be in reference to something external (like an inanimate object) rather than reference to each other, but even then, neither say/use “dude.”

9. During a thunderstorm how do they react? Is one scared? Do they both love it? Do they take pictures? ECT.

Roland enjoys thunderstorms and finds the ambient noise of rain soothing, especially to rest/sleep to. Adil is very neutral about thunderstorms, thinking  “it’s weather.” The closest thing to abnormalities would be Roland being a little more mindful about the electronics and appliances, but other than that, they wouldn’t do anything out of the ordinary and carry on with their day.

(I like to think if Roland ever helped Greg take care of Fred, he would calm a very young Fred down during thunderstorms by telling adlib stories. So, Roland would also have this nostalgic and creative association with the weather.)

10. Who would looking lovingly at their partner and call them ‘idiot’?

Adil.

11. It’s time to get groceries, who likes to look at everything and who just wants to power through and get everything done so they can go back home?

Both of them are very task orientated, neither getting sidetracked, but Adil is more likely to do it for the sake of “[getting] back home” more than Roland.

On Date Night, both of them would go together because they think making a decision would be easier and/or get inspiration on what to eat while they were at the grocers. In this instance, both of them spend the time looking at everything together, contemplating over which type of fish to get, or what cut of meat would be good, or what to do for side dishes and spices.

12. Who is more likely to make a mess in the kitchen?

Both of them would be prone to doing this, but not in the sense of “terrible cooking skills.” Although Adil is the one with less culinary capabilities—and somewhat relies on Roland for aid—they would dirty the kitchen in the sense that the recipes he tries to cook sometimes require relatively a lot of utensils/pots and pans/et cetra, leaving a lot of cleaning to do afterward. This is definitely in the instances of when they put their minds to it, because for the most part they are simple men, making basic and/or condensed dishes.

Another instance for a messy kitchen would be on the account of Roland’s forgetfulness or preoccupation, sometimes leading to burning things or overcooking.

Bonus: Roland is one to follow recipes by exact amounts (and is why he prefers baking over cooking, but he uses cooking more), especially if it’s his first time making the dish. When they collaboratively try to recreate recipesk, he will ask Adil how much of something to put in, but Adil will only give vague, inexact ways of measurements (“eyeballing it”), so it rubs against Roland’s grain a little (but not in an aggravated way; more like a nervous way).

13. Who likes to try to prank their partner?

Neither.

14. When scrolling on their phone, who is more likely to show their partner a cute picture/video of an animal?

Roland, and Adil keeps a “secret stash” on his phone of his favorite cute animal pictures/videos that he sends him to look at later.

15. Who causes the tomfoolery and who has to try and stop the tomfoolery?

The more of the Lokapala that come together, the dumber they collectively get in terms of “boys will be boys” shenanigans. Alone they are not much of a threat, levelheaded and no-nonsense, but even as a pair, both are at fault for comprising silly antics or foolish thoughts while the other acts as the voice of reason. Typically nothing comes of it, but if it’s no harm, no foul the mischief is playful entertainment.

These qualities become null and void when dealing with Lokapala operations and management. The above was strictly commentary for leisure/personal time.

Hope I’ve Got Something To Lose - MCU AU fanfic - C7

Story overview: Peter has an accident, and Tony makes a drastic decision. In the midst of everything, a face from the past reappears - but Peter isn’t too sure about reconnecting after everything that’s happened.

Previous chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Part of my irondad and spiderson series.

Warnings/themes: injury, hospital stuff, hurt/comfort, mental health stuff, family stuff

Disclaimer: I have no idea how to write suspense/do mood setting so you’ll have to use your imaginations I’m sorry

You can also find me on AO3

Chapter 7 - Hitting The Ditches

-

“What are you doing?”

“What do you think I’m doing?”

“I know what you’re doing” Peter said. “But why?”

“Because you looked like you needed one”

Peter merely rested his cheek against her shoulder. She made him feel so small. He could smell her sweet perfume and feel the warmth of her arms round him. Slowly, he returned the hug.

“I never wanted to upset you” Liz said. “I’m sorry for what you’ve been through. I’m glad you’re ok again now”

“Sorry for rambling at you like that”

“Don’t be”

She let go of him slowly, and moved back. They looked at each other.

“You look good” Liz said. “Navy suits you. And I like your shoes”

“Oh. Thanks” Peter said, looking down at his feet. “They always remind me of the main character from Flushed Away”

Liz looked at him blankly.

“You know. The film? The one about the rats?”

Liz shook her head. “I haven’t seen it”

“Never mind then..”

“I’ll put it on my list of stuff to watch”

“Yeah...”

Peter looked away, and saw the pool. He started over to it, and Liz followed him, sitting down cross-legged at the side when they reached it.

“Did you see the host? He doesn’t strike me as a swimmer” Peter said, touching the surface of the water with his fingertips. “What a waste”

“He looks like one of those men who spends most days sat in an armchair smoking a pipe, doesn’t he?” Liz said. “...You said you’re on the swim team at your school”

Peter nodded. “I didn’t really want to join, but they wrote to my parents asking me, and dad was pretty stern about it. I was still gonna say no, but I ended up joining anyway”

“Is it fun?”

“Well, the before and after bits of training can be fun, and sometimes when we’re competing we all go on a mini-bus together, and that can be fun too”

“Don’t you like it?”

“Not really. It’s just so repetitive. I’ve always kinda liked swimming, but there’s such a big difference between messing-about-in-a-pool swimming and competitive swimming. There’s nothing fun about swimming up and down, up and down, and relays are even worse. And medley relays are the worst thing ever”

“I’ve never really done swimming that wasn’t messing about. if you don’t like it, why don’t you quit?”

Peter looked down at the water. “I’ve been meaning to for a while now, but it’s not that easy. The coach likes me cos I win a lot, and dad’ll get real upset with me if I quit”

“It’s not his life, Peter”

“I know that. But I don’t wanna upset him, and I don’t know if I could deal with one of those; ‘you’re giving up something you’re really good at’ talks where they start saying you’re throwing your life away or whatever. He keeps trying to get me to apply for some national competitions and stuff like that. And he’s always getting at me to practice”

“Have you got a pool at home then?”

Peter nodded. “I used to love it, but I don’t anymore. I can’t just go and mess about, cos dad’ll start asking how my practice is going and then try and act coach and it does my head in, so I don’t go down there much anymore. But then he gets angry at that too. But not so much recently. Because of my ribs...”

“What happened to you?”

“It doesn’t matter”

“You lied to me”

Peter looked up at her. “What do you mean?”

“You said your life was better now, but you sound miserable”

“I-I think you’ve got the wrong end of the stick. I’m not enjoying the swim team stuff, but that’s not really a big thing right now, anyway”

“It’s not just because of the swimming”

“I’m fine. I just didn’t really want to come tonight. I hate these kinda parties. It’s the worst part about having celebrities as parents. Especially when they’re as famous as dad”

“Can I ask you something about that? How do you differentiate between them when they’re both... dads?”

“Oh? Oh! Oh. Well, I just call them both dad, mostly, especially when we’re at home. But I call Loki ‘daddy Loki’ sometimes” Peter said, and suddenly felt a bit stupid. “I don’t really think about it, to be honest. But Loki is daddy more often than Mr Stark is”

“Do you like it?”

“What? Yeah, yeah, of course I do. We get on really well. We’re friends. We were friends before, basically family. We still are”

Liz opened her mouth to respond, but before she could, there was a shout.

“Little Brother!”

Peter looked round, and his face lit up when he saw Alison. She had a friend with her. Alison ran over, knelt down, and hugged Peter tight.

“I didn’t know you were going to be here, Little Brother!” she grinned, squeezing him and kissing his cheek. “How are you doing? I heard you had a bit of an accident and ended up in hospital”

Peter just hugged her back.

“Oh, Peter, this is Evangeline. Our parents have been friends for years”

“Most people call me Gilly” Evangeline said, smiling at him.

“Sorry” Liz said. “But, Little Brother?”

“Ah, it’s just a school thing” Alison said. “So, you know Peter, and I’ve introduced Evangeline. I’m Ali. And you’re..?”

“Liz” Liz said. “We used to go to school together. A long time ago”

“Oh cool. Nice to meet you” Ali smiled.

“Nice to meet you. So, this Little Brother thing?”

Oh” Ali gave Peter a squeeze. “Well, Peter started in the middle of the term. We’ve got a scheme at St Hendricks where they give one of us older ones the role of taking care of the kids like Peter, showing them around and checking up on them and all that kind of thing. So I’m his Big Sister, and he’s my Little Brother. He’s such a sweetie, isn’t he?”

Liz smiled and nodded. 

“So, Little Bro, this place seems a bit of a mystery, don’t you think? Old guy in the middle of nowhere, Victorian looking, living in what basically looks like a Victorian mansion, and the party is only in about three rooms, right at the front. There’s a huge building here to explore”

“I heard that this place is haunted” Gilly said. “I heard, that the ghost of an old woman wanders the corridors but never goes downstairs. And apparently all of the paintings on the wall change every time you look at them”

“Oh, you can’t really believe that” Ali said, shaking her head and rolling her eyes.

“Well, there’s definitely something funny about this place” Liz said. 

Peter looked at Ali. Ali searched his face, and nodded.

“Ok, let’s do it” she said, standing up. 

The other three stood up as well.

“What are we doing?” Gilly asked. 

“We’re going to explore, of course!” Ali said. “We’ve just got to slip through that door at the back. It’ll be fine”

Peter looked at Liz. She seemed a little unsure. He took a breath, and held a hand out to her. She took it.

-

Undetected, the four managed to slip through the heavy white doors at the end of the entrance hall. The atmosphere was immediately different once the door was closed behind them. They could still dimly hear the party sounds, but they sounded much further away than they really were. Where they were now was dark, and everything felt a little wobbly and strange. Where they stood in the huge hallway, they were faced with an enormous staircase. It led up to a platform by a large window, and the banisters continued round on either side, up several more steps to another landing stage and staircase. The moonlight was the main source of light, and it bathed everything in a milky, ethereal light.

“It looks like something from Beauty And The Beast” Gilly said.

“Oooh, does that mean we’ll find a magic rose if we find our way to one of the turrets?” Ali said. “Come on, then”

They started up the staircase. It creaked ominously, and they all froze and quickly checked behind them.

“No one’s going to hear: it’s too loud in there” Liz said quietly.

“Then why are you whispering?” Ali said, but she grinned. “Maybe we should try to stay quiet anyway”

They stopped at the top of the staircase, backs to the window, looking left and right.

“Which way should we go?” Gilly asked.

“Are you sure we should be doing this?” Liz said.

“We’re not doing any harm” Ali said. She pointed to the staircase to her right. “Let’s go up this one”

So they did. As they set foot on the top step, a loud clunk sounded, and a clock sounding the half hour echoed round the hallway, making them all jump.

“This is scarier than I thought it was going to be” Liz whispered, slowly letting go of Peter’s arm. “Are you ok?”

Peter nodded and gave her the thumbs-up sign. They went over to the grandfather clock which had caused the alarm. It was big, and terribly old, with faded plates in the clock face. It seemed to tick almost excessively loudly.

“It sounds like it’s coming from behind us as well” Ali said, shuddering. “I bet there’s a whole load more of them in this place”

“I’ll bet!” Gilly nodded. “I bet we’ll stumble across some kind of disused nursery full of creepy old Victorian toys at some point”

“Oh, don’t start telling stories, please” Liz begged. “This place is creepy enough without thinking about that kind of thing. I think you’ve already scared Peter: he’s gone so quiet”

Ali giggled at the look on Gilly’s face. “Don’t look so worried! Peter doesn’t ever speak: it’s nothing to do with you”

Liz looked at Ali, and then back at Peter for clarification. Peter merely shrugged. He looked around them. There was only one door they could go through. He went over and tried the handle. It turned easily, but squeaked horribly as he eased the door open. The other three joined behind him, peering into the dark corridor behind the door. There were no windows, so it was pitch black. Gilly shuddered.

“This place is giving me the creeps” she said.

“It’s only because it’s dark” Ali said, taking her phone out and turning the torch on. “There. We can see where we’re going now. Go on, Little Brother”

Peter stepped into the corridor, and the others followed. The door clicked shut behind them. 

“Umm...”

“It’s fine” Ali said. “It wasn’t locked. Come on! I bet there’s a whole load of stuff to discover here” 

Her phone torch wasn’t bright enough to illuminate the whole corridor. She moved it around, so they could see the carpet, the bottom part of the wall, and the paintings higher up. 

“This is so weird”

“It’s like being in a time warp” Liz said. “There’s not even any plug sockets or light switches”

“I told you this place was haunted” Gilly hissed. 

“Of course it’s not haunted” Ali rolled her eyes. “It’s just an old house. There’s no such thing as-”

Liz suddenly squeaked and grabbed at Peter.

“Something moved..!”

They all looked at her, and Ali lifted her phone, shining the torch across the hallway. They saw nothing. Ali held her phone still - and a huge shadow ran across the beam of light. Liz and Ali gave a little shriek.

“What was that?!”

They looked at each other. It didn’t make any sense. There wasn’t any windows - so how could anything make a shadow like that? Ali spotted the door at the other end of the corridor.

“Come on, quick!”

They ran, and Ali grabbed the door handle. It wouldn’t open.

“It’s locked!” she looked up, and tried the door on the left. “Oh, thank god”

They slammed the door behind them once they were free of the hallway. They all shivered. This was different, all great stone bricks, and it was cold. They found they were stood at the bottom of a spiralling stone staircase. 

“I don’t know about this” Liz said, holding tight to Peter’s arm. 

“There’s no going back now” Ali said determinedly. 

She took hold of the rope serving as a hand rail, and bravely started her ascent. The others had no choice but to follow.

-

The room the four teens found themselves in was well enough lit by the moon for Ali to turn off her phone torch. They stood looking at the strange round room. It was uncarpeted, with a stone floor. 

“What is this place?” Gilly said, looking at the wooden boxes scattered about. “Some kind of storage room?”

Peter knelt down and tried to prize the lid off one of the boxes, but it was nailed shut.

“There’s another staircase here”

Liz had opened a door on the other side of the room, discovering another spiralling staircase. The other three came over.

“Well, it’s gotta be better than staying up here” Ali said, taking the lead and starting downwards. 

Gilly went next. Liz stopped, looking at Peter.

“Are you sure you’re ok?”

Peter nodded, and gestured for her to go before him.

-

Ali stopped at a window. Through it, she could see across and down to one of the rooms where the party was happening. It was so bright in comparison to everything else that it looked almost orange. 

“Wait, this doesn’t make any sense. Guys, look”

They did. 

“We went up stairs on the same side of the building as the party rooms. How can we be looking at it from the other side?”

No one had an answer, so they didn’t say anything. Ali watched for a moment longer, and then turned her attention back to the dark room she was in. 

“Ok, so what we know-”

They heard a door opening a few rooms away, and footsteps approaching.

“Hide!”

They thanked their lucky stars that they were in a well furnished room. Peter grabbed Liz and ducked down behind the grand piano, while Ali hid under the coffee table, and Gilly behind the heavy curtains. She only just made it before the door opened. They all stayed as still as possible, their hands over their mouths to stop themselves being heard. Peter couldn’t see anything from behind the piano, but he could hear the footsteps. He closed his eyes and started counting in his head. 

It wasn’t long before the door closed again. They waited a while longer, until they were certain the coast was clear, and then emerged from their hiding places.

“Do you think people have noticed we’re gone?” Liz whispered.

Ali slipped her hand into Peter’s pocket, checking his phone.

“No, we’re clear: Peter’s dads would’ve texted if they’d realised” She said.

Peter put his phone back, and looked towards the other door, not the one The Person had entered through. The girls looked too.

“May as well continue on” Gilly said. “We’ve got nothing to lose”

-

Gilly looked at everyone with a kind of anxious pride when they pushed the door open. 

“I told you we’d find something like this!”

The air felt heavy, and Peter rather felt like he was being watched. He tried hard to ignore it. This room was definitely a nursery, and a big one at that. There was a huge rocking horse by the fire place, with horrible staring glazed over glass eyes and half-open mouth with bared teeth. Peter touched its mane cautiously. 

“I bet that’s real hair” Ali said, touching its tail with similar caution. “That’s what they used to do, use real horse hair”

“It’s spooky” Gilly said. “Why is everything in here old? How old is the host?”

“God knows”

“I don’t like this” Liz whispered. “Isn’t that shelf creeping you out?”

There was a shelf absolutely full of old china dolls, clad in Victorian style dresses, their tiny china hands reaching out towards them. They all looked, their hearts thumping. There was a huge doll sat in a chair by the shelf, and as they looked at her, her arm dropped to her side. Liz squeaked and grabbed Peter.

“Did you see that?!” she gasped. “We need to get out of here!”

“It’s just an old doll: it’s nothing” Ali said, trying to convince herself as well as the others. 

They all became aware of the ticking of a clock, just as loud as the grandfather clock that had scared them earlier. Peter squeezed Liz’s hand tight, looking round the room. He could hear his pulse thumping in his ears. He looked at the dolls, at the rocking horse, the huge dolls house, the shelf full of toys that looked as old as the war. There was a little dresser over by the door. Peter took a deep breath and went over to it. Liz kept hold of his hand and went too, dreading seeing something other than herself reflected in the mirror. They looked at the little mirror, at the old style hand mirror and matching brush, and the big music box. It was pretty, glass, with a little ballerina on top. Peter went to touch it, and as he did, the ballerina started turning, and with it, music started playing. Peter could only stare, his eyes wide.

“Peter, we need to leave!” Liz hissed, her voice shaking. 

She turned round, making Peter follow. The four of them looked at each other.

“Liz is right: there’s something wrong here” Gilly nodded. “Let’s go”

They all nodded - and then froze. There was a loud creaking sound. They looked at each other and then looked towards the window where the sound appeared to be coming from. There they noticed a rocking chair, creaking on its rockers - and a woman shrouded in white sat in it.

*

Coco thoughts lately

This is (mostly) in response to @anotherweepingwoman and This Post but also some other things in general I’ve been reading (and you will probably recognize it if you’ve read the same things). It’s separate here because I didn’t want to hijack other people or Great Wall of Text so badly again. XD I’ve tried to be coherent but this will likely drift around a lot! It’s a lot of thoughts all muddled into one space.

(Disclaimer: I only got to see Coco in theater once. For the rest I must resort to vid clips that may or may not decide to load on my slow internet, until I can buy the disc. It's a good exercise in my memory skills.)

Héctor is a liar, but oftentimes he's apologizing for his lies. When I go into my headcanon-framework for his background, these fibs that come out may be old habit from an orphaned childhood. If he was raised, say, in an orphanage by strict caretakers, it would have been to his advantage to know how to put on a good-little-boy face and say whatever was needed to divert attention or stay out of trouble. If he was more of a rangy little street rat type, then white lies would have been a stock part of his survival kit. I think this habit of evading the truth would have worn down a bit once he had a stable home with Imelda (and she would insist on teaching their daughter honesty), but after decades of desperation in the bottom of the afterlife he's definitely back to street rat mode.

Ernesto lies too, and we've seen where that went.  I don't think Héctor has ever lied in such a way that was meant to harm anyone. Little fibs to his advantage, a disguise here or a sparkly promise there; never damaging gossip or deliberately hurtful untruths or a promise that could get someone killed. But he is a liar, and anyone who's known him long would know that. (This might also explain why Imelda seems so eager to believe he'd run off and never come home, whether or not Ernesto told her anything. Héctor is slippery and she knows it, but she'd dared to hope he would not be dishonest to her.)

Héctor acts his age, largely, I think because you are sort of frozen the moment you die: You get a skeletal representation of your body at the moment of death, with some decorative additions to give you individuality and mark who you are. Skeletal children don't grow, the old are forever elderly. While the visual/physical form of the body is bones, there has to be some kind of force to animate them, to process what goes on around them. Invisibly, I think, a sort of ghostly/energy echo of the body remains, and part of that is the echo of a brain (how else could they think and remember things?) which for Héctor is an imprint of a 21-year-old brain with its not-quite-complete neurological maturity. While he can learn and gain experiences, the structure of that brain is still going to process things in a 21-year-old way. Experience can shape his thinking and grant him wisdom, but at his root he's still young in personality. (Young people can be tired, cynical, and hopeless too.)

Héctor is a father, but he has never been a parent to a child older than 3-4. (Young parents grow with their first kids and learn things!)  "Rubbing shoulders" with Miguel may just be the only way he knows how to interact with young boys older than his daughter was. He does seem to be comfortable around kids and isn't flustered by dealing with them, which makes me think he was around a lot of them growing up (orphanage?) or ended up being That Kid in their small town who is all the children's favorite bro. He is the fun, gentle sort of person that children flock to, so it's likely he would sing and play with the neighborhood kids even up into his marriage. He seems pretty active and playful himself (when not desperate or on the clock, but you still see flashes of it), despite the crippling of being Forgotten.

Miguel wasn't mimicking Héctor to mock him, but because he wanted to walk "like a skeleton" and his nearest, dearest example happened to have the Forgotten condition of loose bones and an awkward limp. Miguel will imitate his new cool big bro! But in this case, Héctor is so used to being mercilessly ridiculed for everything that he takes it poorly on reflex, without realizing (perhaps not until he stops and thinks about it later) that Miguel meant nothing bad by it. The shove in response isn't really that severe for the horseplay that young boys can get up to. (It wasn't a punch or a slap or a kick or a grab, which angry men are certainly capable of.) But it is reactive in a somewhat immature way, same as his snappish responses to the musicians later on.

He let out that grouchy "how come he didn't invite you?" comeback to Miguel in the rehearsal area, but Miguel wasn't hurt or upset by it.  Kid didn't even blink.  (It was a pretty legitimate question from Miguel, even!) But I think the subconscious drift into familial familiarity made it more like the kind of snark Miguel gets at home all the time and he doesn't even pause.  It's Rivera snark, it just happens, nobody's really injured by it, on to the next subject.  They may use it to cover up their soft spots, and they all know how to take it as well as dish it out. Miguel had the proper Rivera response as well: Let it go.  He didn't keep digging in or teasing on this.  He might react with disbelief to some of Héctor's statements about knowing a famous guy like De la Cruz, but that's because he's already recognized Héctor as a consummate embellisher and knows better than to believe every word from his mouth. He never uses the lack of party invitation as a weapon or even brings it up again.

Héctor's poor actions as an "adult and disciplinarian" after Poco Loco can be attributed to, yes, his mental youth, and also I think to those edges of desperation that crop up many, many times all night long. That desperation, knowing that tonight is probably his last, is a poor help to an already-impulsive young man's mind. It makes his Ready-Fire-Aim even worse. It short circuits a century's worth of wisdom and (after)life experience in favor of urgent, sometimes thoughtless rushing. Yes, he is very deeply concerned with himself and his photo right now; he can't help it. He's dying and he's desperate and he needs to do this now, and however much he likes Miguel this dumb kid is on a clock too and doesn't even know what's important here!  Despite that he's usually a nice guy I definitely don't think Héctor is a total pushover in personality.  That whole night prior to the cenote we're probably looking at the shortest his fuse has ever been. And he still manages to be in general kind and supportive to Miguel (who has been alternately delighting him and giving him hell all evening).

I have a somewhat different headcanon about Héctor watching Miguel's slow fading to bone over the course of the night. I think Miguel did discuss his time limit with Héctor during or just before the face painting early on, but initially Héctor is understandably more concerned with his own deadline. As he comes to know Miguel better, he cares more. But he also may forget now and then, in his own urgent situation, until a look over the kid's shoulder reminds him that two hourglasses are trickling down, not one.  And he does care, potentially a great deal: "Your life literally depends on you winning!" He didn't even mention the photo until after, when the family thing came up.

Genuine Héctor...definitely makes numerous appearances through the night. Most of his performance-art is for guards and gatekeepers, wheedling to people he needs to get past who might cut him some slack. Héctor being all super extra nice to Miguel during the face paint and explanation is definitely performance. He does a lot of performance with the Shantytown Crew, putting on a happy-go-lucky face. His Frida impersonations are absolutely performance, quite deliberately so!

However, Genuine Héctor comes out surprisingly fast around Miguel. The kid worms his way into a position of camaraderie pretty darn quick. Perhaps this is due to Héctor's loneliness making him open to someone who could be a real friend, or maybe it's genetic similarity gently drawing them to trust more easily. Most of the Genuine Héctor moments are in Miguel's proximity, possibly not only because the kid is the other leading character of the film; a lot of his genuine moments aren't just in proximity to Miguel, but in response to him.

Genuine Héctor generally doesn't come with the overbearing grins, theatrical body actions, or higher, wheedly tone of voice.  Genuine Héctor is in the casual questions, exasperated eye-rolls, short-tempered grumps, dramatic sighs, epic grouchface, snappy comebacks, freely teasing, warm encouragement, playful dance teaching, melancholy stillness, angry desperation, grieving rage, tearful hopelessness, clear relief. Those moments when Héctor is not keenly watching the people around him as targets he needs to con. (There's a difference in his gaze; keep your eye on it!)

Not all of his performance is negative or self-serving, either; sometimes it's just because a nervous kid needs a pick-me-up and Héctor can put on a smile for that.

Face painting scene—lots of performance, but some real warmth. Walking with Miguel, the shove—no performance, pure grumpy. Talking to Ceci—plenty of performance for deference, Ceci is a gatekeeper. Rehearsal studio—mostly genuine; no point in faking the musicians, they treat him like crap no matter what he does. Going down to Shantytown—performance, especially off the ledge! With Chicharron—started as performance, became genuine real fast. Trolley to the plaza—performance to get around truthtelling, but also to act encouraging. Waiting for a turn onstage—no performance until okayokayokay and he goes into another encouraging spiel.

Some of Héctor's best genuine moments are on the Poco Loco stage. Sure, he's performing, but that's genuine Héctor, not a performance. Not during the song. He's not watching the audience—he's watching Miguel. And then he's playing with him. There's no con in that music. That was all Héctor and Miguel having fun with each other.

Afterward, the argument...no performance. None. It's all very real exasperation and anger fueled by the same old desperation. The argument hurts both of them because it tastes like betrayal. ("I told you I needed to cross tonight!" "Well I told you it has to be De la Cruz!") They both pulled lies on each other (taste of your own medicine!) and ran face-first into a mirror.  Shortsighted demands and lack of explanation, and the whole thing goes down the drain.

As a kind person, we never see Héctor use force to get across the bridge.  He did not grab or physically coerce Miguel in any way to take his picture there; he used only words. Even when things came to a head and he was angrily trying to drag the kid back to his family, it was half-hearted at best (and no more than we've seen anyone in the Rivera family do with recalcitrant children) and Miguel slipped out of his grip in a heartbeat.  (Maybe he's getting too weak to hold on; maybe Miguel is too heavy for him to drag without lifting.) I'd bet money that Héctor has never threatened physical injury or actively harmed anyone in his pursuit of crossing; that he's never used a weapon or taken anyone hostage to try to force his way across. I doubt such things would even occur to him!  His entanglements with the crossing guards have all likely been evasions and brief tangles where he's trying to disengage. I'd wager that night that Ernesto is the first person he's actually attacked with intent to harm in a very, very long time—if ever.

One of the saddest things is how Héctor has been denied musical joy for so long.  "Stupid musical fantasy" is mainly because his turned out to be.  He's also lost perspective on this: To a child, these things are huge. Like, music is everything. Miguel has his family, but they're...in a way, background, they've always been there, and in his mind always will be.  He doesn't want to leave them for music, he wants to find a way back to them with music on his own terms.  Family should support you, but Riveras have made music into an all or nothing deal. (What would they have done, if the LoD journey hadn’t happened, if truth hadn't come out and Miguel refused to give up music? Would they have disowned him or otherwise banished him?)

Héctor likely had little or no family before the one he made for himself, and going back to them would not have meant giving up music altogether.  I think at the point of their argument, Héctor failed to realize (or had not been informed of) the position Miguel is in.  Héctor was giving up a fond dream of musical fame to go back to his small town family and find a local job he could do while continuing to play music for recreation and additional income.  It's really not the same as Miguel going back to (or being forced by curse conditions) an existence centered around a shoemaking family defined by its enforced silencing of music.  In that sense, Héctor was giving up fame and money (Ernesto's priorities), not music; Miguel would be losing music entirely, for the fame and money afforded by the Rivera shoe reputation.

It puts a different spin on their respective stories to think of it that way.  They both love their families and giving them up permanently isn't even part of the equation.  The real culprits/sacrifices here are wealth/reputation and music.  And before we get into "But Héctor left his family!" let's just pause: Héctor did not abandon his family, he went on a business trip!  He fully intended to return, and the fact that he didn't—sooner or later—is entirely due to Ernesto's choices.  It's incredibly sad that Ernesto decided to kill him, and equally as sad that Imelda was so eager/willing to believe that he would abandon them.  Poor guy just can't catch a break at any point in his life (or afterlife).

As a somewhat related postscript: I think it's a bit funny that people like to bring this up, since "Go for your dreams!" is a big motif in modern (especially American) society. We're pretty much expected to leave our families behind to achieve what we want. Big education, big job, big house, the spouse we desire, the city we want to live in, the generation gap we can't abide...basically the whole point (so far as I was told) is to grow up, move out, leave the old folks behind (call a few times a year, and visit on some holidays), and achieve our dreams no matter what.

What Héctor was doing—going on a business trip for a job or potential job—is absolutely nothing unusual to what goes on every day: People with spouses and children temporarily leave them to go on business trips, they go on military tour, they go on band/performance tours, they commute or move to another city for half the year for work...and this is considered normal. Not ideal, but pretty normal.  (Even when Héctor was alive, people would at times have to go far away to make money to send to their families.)  Maybe it wasn't favored in Héctor's time either, but I find it rather ironic that people give him hell over it now!

Review: Staci Griesbach Takes Up The Challenge To Jazz Up the Songs of Shania Twain

I should preface this review with a caveat; I don't like the music of Shania Twain. This isn't the kind of dislike I feel for “Random Bro Country Person.” This is a level of dislike reserved for few. I consider she and Toby Keith to be the Exhibits A and B for the downfall of country music into pop schlock. Twain and producer Mutt Lange, who had long since abandoned the grit of Back in Black for the lite rock croons of Bryan Adams, Michael Bolton, and Def Leppard created one of the best-selling country albums of all time by not creating a country album by any reasonable definition of the word. The result was a twangy Canadian Michael Bolton. It made a lot of money. Like a LOT of money. But it wasn't for me.

I say all that to both color my commentary to come and to stress just how much Staci Griesbach impressed me with 2019's My Patsy Cline Songbook, featuring jazzy reworkings of one of the queens of country music. The album worked really well and Griesbach's vocals and arrangements were stellar. On the 25th Anniversary of Twain's 1995 breakthrough, Griesbach is taking on a much more daunting challenge with My Shania Twain Songbook. Could her sublime vocals and cast of top notch players actually make Shania Twain listenable? The answer is “kind of.”

Where My Shania Twain Songbook works, it works on a level approaching her Patsy Cline covers. Unsurprisingly, these come with some of the less-known songs from Twain's catalog. The album's unrivaled highlight is album opener “No One Needs to Know Right Now.” Griesbach transforms the song into a Western swing toe tapper in the vein of Hot Club of Cowtown or Asleep at the Wheel. I'm not as familiar with this song as some of Twain's other played to death singles, so I was able to take it at face value more easily. But I think, save one, any of Twain's songs could have been at least somewhat salvaged by the arrangement. For a singer most comfortable in jazz, Griesbach handles Western swing well and, if she decided to dedicate her next Songbook to Rose Maddox or Hot Club of Cowtown, I wouldn't complain.

On more familiar footing for Griesbach is the ballad “Is There Life After Love?” What was a hollow romantic bit of candy floss in the hands of Twain becomes a mournful smoky jazz number that one could imagine being sung by the femme fatale in a Humphrey Bogart film. “God Bless The Child” also finds a total makeover, finding a Billie Holiday groove that actually fits the song better than its original arrangement.

That's not to say there aren't misses on My Shania Twain Songbook. For there not to be would provide Griesbach enough miracles to warrant canonization in the church of country music. As expected, the misses are Twain's biggest hits, the songs that are seared, for better or worse, in everyone's brain. “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under” gets an upbeat '20s flapper jazz skin. It's not bad. You can more or less remove yourself from the source material and enjoy Griesbach's vocals. It just isn't as memorable as other songs.

Then there's the undeniable miss, the song I find myself skipping on each listen after the first couple. It was a cover that had to happen when Griesbach decided to take on Shania Twain, but it was almost always certainly going to be the sinkhole that no one climb out of; “Any Man of Mine.” The faux “girl-power” teeny bopper that somehow managed to reinforce every negative stereotype men have of women (not a surprise since it was primarily written by the decidedly not-female Lange), and was so thoroughly surpassed the next year by The Spice Girls' true girl-power anthem “Wanna Be”, contains no discernible redeeming value. Griesbach gives it her all. She really does. As good as her vocals are and a strong as the horn section behind her is, it just doesn't work. In the end, the entire storage warehouse at Avon doesn't have enough lipstick to put on that musical pig.

While My Shania Twain Songbook contains some misses and is a pretty significant step backward from her collection of Cline songs, there's still enough good here to recommend a buy. Griesbach's “all-in” attitude and a cast of players that include fiddle god Stuart Duncan and Wrecking Crew upright bassist Chuck Berghofer gives it a charm that's hard not to enjoy, if only for the sheer audacity of the thing.

My Shania Twain Songbook is out now and can be ordered from Amazon and other online outlets (though not yet on Bandcamp so keep an eye out for it when it hits that platform if you want to maximize the artist's cut).

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Coming out is able to building in a year Warner Bro is all in I mean they are all inand they’re going to be goingand buzzing on top of all that stuff Harry Potter movies were announced we knew about the Lego movies coming outand then this can be all the great dramatic stuff that Warner Bro puts out as well so I mean there’s a whole should appear as I know to start except I know let’s start with this is pulling out of thin airand humility to be the flash now this puts the final year we keep telling peopleand your people keep asking me sitting across green arrow into the movie universallyand now when you bring the flashing TV show an empty calendar not if said forever there to keep their televisionand their universe a separate which listen is the one thing they have gotten far more right than marble has this whole crossing TVand movies I’ve almost wore a movie stupidity is just stupidand heand I met Jaime magna why thing keeping them separate is far more creative freedom to the movie universe far more creative

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On the masses they are the same as the same yes now the so called Iris didn’t bonding America day ago people this is okay gonna do it is divide and conquer as his finest the oldest trick in the book Anatolia America is all about that that’s what they about that you don’t have to ask when you see the callout of flags what’s wrong to be fair is what works for tourism is not here we go with our service is a Assuming I'm Just An Old Lady Was Your First Mistake Reader Vintage T Shirt look at these people and they gonna bring that all your people you never get it to Seth Scholl daft to bring the so called black people to talk about it because a so called Iris is black and these people is fighting for black people you believe it on TV fake that if you take them as black people are fighting for you dumbass tall steel is like she was born American dream is born in Oakland California and how stainless work bloodstream MRI to the bloodstream and pay attention people remember the election is so called November watch out for the drama that gonna come with it under divide and conquer what. I want them to kill someone I don’t want to die at that at this point it’s just THIERRYand iSCSI has been clever there was talk out is the onlyand John is a fucking idiot how many times in the same mistakesand is all of the last episode I will fucking med start to wake the fuck upand One of the most horrible dream elsewhere for God’s on both out on the government’s utilities like still talking to Robert raffia in which phone is that’s what I can’t go to Kingsland authorities wild imagination is going not goingand that was actually the point where I was like my view is really good is really good when Rob Stark went offand I was my son this is probably the best of those see if you’re like me you spent another is one or two years investing emotionally in Rob Stark is good to make this right I hated him all I did on opportunities status is spinal I warning you all okay okay no I was he was I put all my soon hated signs the current stance on this amazing I still hate her now here now even 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pregnant you have down like a blonde Johnny in his auto about the bedroomand you will it was a like he was pretty established that after the battle of winter felt that Danny’s army had been demolished like the unsullied had been slaughtered in the top Iraqi tens of thousandsand thousands of them wiped outand then now even in like the the teaser for the next episode after this episode like she’s got a huge army it’s notice will be beyond that she had a huge army what you said but I felt like at the end of the battle of winter fell we didn’t know what they had like we didn’t think they would beat Searcy that was a real questionand I was even the characters relate to his old other thing now Circe’s plan of wiping us outand not being able to beat her is a problemand are doing the strategy the strategizingand they acted like it was even like it could go either way by two episodes ago suddenly there like looking should really just quit we all know how this ends we are so OP compared to 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done a book adaptation perhaps in the history of cinema describing also I literally wiped throughand perhaps that was also very good in the paramilitary don’t do is original workand as best what they did with the last couple seasons so read anything that Michael learned from Hollywood movie watching use D D for book adaptationsand not for like grass field open projects yet all I’ll say what I hope happens next upset I hope periods in big fucking trouble for letting Jamie goand there is a trial by combatand and she chooses gray worm as her championand John Snow steps up for Syrianand andand John Snow fucking kills gray worm and then theand thenand then he kills Dannyand then he takes the blackand the that the kingdom ends up being ruled by like some sort of fucking tribunal or some shit like Sam well Charlie light like like fucking if it Sam ran to get put in charge especially by example Samsung you put in charge because he doesn’t even like you enough for some family apparently like 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The vast difference in your story sound from my home state of Texas mission you are a school nurse and mother in El Paso are you in a new school year over the returning to start when we went farm which is their home and career are doing okay there were scores for committed students and school do whatever it takes and said they did a perfect score for to move forward went for everyone to watch the bank to Michelle I think there’s nothing like difficult grasses burns to be our children suffer and tell I think they do a great job in guiding interdisciplinary difficult training think if you want to do is nurse truly heroic and really enjoy talking to all of you I think I question you believe that change is coming to you believe that better days are yes thank you for two to speak with us and sharing your thoughts you either we and we the people and you I guess convention is about we only through to be so made the and you are we the we are festivals walking with fear of course we were able to do will be in several out with leaders throughout See Other related products: unicorn shirts and shirt

Examining Youth Culture

     Hello Media & Society class! On this post we are going to be examining youth culture in in film. Over the past month we watched great film references on this topic such as “The Breakfast Club” by John Hughes, “KIDS” by Larry Clark and “Mid90’s” by Jonah Hill. Another masterpiece in reference to youth culture is the 2019 HBO original series “Euphoria”. Starring Zendaya as “Rue”, the teen series amazes the audience from beginning to end with crucial topics of the generation Z. The show dives deep into discussions that mostly all teenagers can relate with on their high school and young adult years. One of the topics of the show is incredibly exposed by the strong character Kat Hernandez.

   Kat is the character that I could relate a lot due to her struggles with body image and fat shaming. Such as her I was, and still am, a fat young person. Through out the episodes we learn more about her history dealing with her body and how it influenced on her self-image. From a very young age Kat learns how society sees and expects different from her because of her weigh. At first, we see Kat as a self-conscious, shy and modest looking girl. But on the following episodes Kat begin to change her personality due to understanding the power that she has in her hand (online) and body. On episode 5 she stated, “There is nothing more powerful than a fat girl who does not give a fuck”. Kat began to show off a stronger, empowered, confident girl changing the stigma of a quiet and modest fat girl in high school. Her outfit changed along with her attitude. She created a careless attitude for herself.       However, the truth is that she cares. Deep inside and under all that make up and strong image that she created just like in her novels, Kat begins to realize that she does not need to be mean to her friends to be more confident and well-resolved with her sexuality, image and reputation. Excluding Kat’s choice of being an online sex worker, I can relate to her issues on building her own personality and acceptance. As a fat woman I struggled with the same problems and took me years to find the beauty and confidence in myself. Many people felt disappointed with the character once she began to have a mean attitude and how she mistreated her friends. But I can see how this is relatable to her own journey on finding herself as a plus size woman and taking up the space that society sometimes rather either mute or shame it.     The character is brought to life by the awesome female actor and plus size model Barbie Ferreira. When talking about body positivism and all issues on accepting yourself, it is all about representation. Barbie Ferreira in this show and in her model, career helps individuals who are often unseen by society to have a voice and work in their own journey of acceptance. Personally, this character really touched me, but on more extensive researches about the female actor I also found out she is half Brazilian! It was a big “A HA!”. It made sense why I was relating so much to her, even on the looks. The thick eyebrows tell it all!

    In addition, according to PubMed “any type of fat shaming causes overweight people to become stressed, eat more calories, and gain more weight.”. To learn more about the “harmful effects of fat shaming” click on the link below to read the article.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/fat-shaming-makes-things-worse

    To conclude this matter, I will share with you a great 2016 interview of Barbie Ferreira for “Glamour” about body shaming and her path as a plus size model.

      Adding up with the tittles mentioned before, we have “Mean Girls” and “Saved by the Bell” to enrich our references on youth culture. These films bring an important discussion on the issues and life of a teenage in their high school years. Drug abuse, sexuality and “bro culture” along with a seek of belonging to a social group are common topics presented in these stories. As any other adolescent we all need to fit in a social group. Either the popular in school, the nerds or the skateboarders of the neighborhood. The movies are spot on in representing the initiation in these groups and the aspirations of an adolescent to become someone like them. Sex will always be the crucial part of its times. Either the initiation, the doubts, speculations, fantasies and finally the experience. From the first kiss to sex. Also extending to gender identification. The films show the adolescents sharing their experiences and curiosity with their friends on this topic. Does not matter what generation it is, drugs will appear in front of them at some point. As shown in the films and I believe everyone have experienced or seeing their friends trying a cigarette, weed, beer or whatever for the first time and how you are almost obligated to try to otherwise you will be picked on.

   The times may have changed, but all kids will encounter these topics in their path. Most of these movies are portrayed in a time before internet and all the information about these topics would come from their friends, from the streets and their social interactions. What your friend did and said how it happens would be your guide when your time comes.

    The films/series selected open this discussion about youth culture and all portrays the youth of its time. All of them, even being filmed in different generation, shows young adults dealing with issues such as sexuality, acceptance, drugs and personal relations. The young men in these films mostly have masculinity issues, struggle with anger management and social interactions in society. “Bro culture” is a topic in all the movies and is very well dramatized on the character Nate Jacobs from “Euphoria”. Nate is a popular student, a football player, with good looks and status. Nate deals with anger and a fragile masculinity which results in toxic interactions within his relations. These traits are used to cover up his emotions as a result to his confusing upbringing and sexual insecurities. Jacobs discovers in a very young age videos of this father having sex or interest in young men and transwomen. For this reason, he becomes someone aggressive and has a bent perception of sex. He ends up having a controversial attitude towards the female figure. Bender from “The Breakfast Club” has a lot of similarities with Nate. Also, in result of a dysfunctional family upbringing. Such as Nate, Bender has anger management issues, a controversial personality and the need of constantly reaffirm himself in front of the others. All the main male characters in these films are a result of how society build them. How we raise our boys to be this alpha type of men. The one who will solve their problems by fighting, being aggressive and being toxic in his personal relations. The dramatization of these men can be stereotyped but reflects our society. And shows the even with the change of generations certain aspects and traits never goes away. Masculinity will always be negatively dramatized if society keeps allowing this type of conduct. The “Bro Culture” can be summarized as guys in groups interacting with each other suppressing their fragile masculinity by being tough, insensible and degrading women to better their self-image. It is the fraternity culture in and out of college. These young age men have their “frat” attitude extended to their workspace. An example of bro culture in a workspace was revealed by the author of the book “Brotopia” Emily Chang.

Here you can read and find reviews about the book.  https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/36288143-brotopia

The author uncovers the reality inside big tech companies in Silicon Valley and how unfair and sexist is its environment. After over 300 interviews of employees in those companies, the author breaks the boys club and tells us about how women are asked to be in a bikini in a jacuzzi for a meeting. Or how a Trans woman who for years worked as an engineer for Uber, once she started to present herself as a woman people started to interrupt her in meetings. This exemplifies what most woman goes through in a workspace and in society. Bro culture is simply a sexism social norm. I do not even believe that there is a need to create another expression as “bro culture”. The word is sexism.If you are a “bro” and is wondering if you are part of this “culture”; or if you just want to check if you are in a “bro culture free workspace” I suggest you to read this:

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/300514

 The soundtrack of these films could not be put on a side for this discussion. Have you ever watched a film in mute sound? Well, if you did you noticed that the narrative fully depends on the sound to keep their meaning. What would be a horror movie without a spooky soundtrack? The soundtrack of a movie creates the mood, gives emotion, emphasizes a crucial moment and acts as a big factor on continuity.    If you ever watched “Euphoria” I am pretty sure you noticed its amazing soundtrack. Their music choices are already impeccable, but I took the challenge and recreated their soundtrack. I choose to add representativity and a bit of my culture to it. By representativity I mean giving voices to transgender, women, fat and black artists. However, the soundtrack is diverse. For the character Kat I used music’s such as “Boys” and “scuse me” by Lizzo, “Tombei” by Karol Comka, “Sugar Daddy” by Qveen Herby, “Bola Rebola” by Anitta and “Bury a friend” by Billie Eilish. These songs would match her scenes and add to the narrative. Rue has moments that goes from emotional dramatic scenes to hyped times in parties over substances. For her I would like to use songs such as “Put a spell on you” by Iza, “Howling for you” by The Black Keys, “The dope show” and “I don’t like the drugs” by Marilyn Mason. Jules can be very well represented by songs such as “The ocean” by the transwoman lead singer from Against Me and “That’s not my name” from The Ting Tings. For continuity and momentum frames I would use “Crybaby” by Lizzo, “You will never find me” by Korn, “Parasite Eve” by Bring me the horizon and “The art of losing” by American Hi-Fi. The beginning of “Baba O’Riley”- The Who, could be a good alternative intro for the show.     My new soundtrack for this show became extensive and you are welcome to check it out on my Spotify playlist named “Euphoria Soundtrack”. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0ztvGt1Geg1p2zvrXycroH?si=0m7z8pnyTWWKugwoFBPL4Q

   I doubt you don’t know about these series/film, but to continue this youth culture discussion I suggest you watch the UK version of “Skins, “13 reasons why” and “Elephant”. I found “13 reasons why” very similar to “Euphoria” from the topics debated and even the way the directors chose to portray the characters. Both series also have an explanation of the characters and topics followed by the episodes. I would recommend caution on watching this series if you suffer from depression and anxiety.  

This way I close this chapter of “Youth Culture” and I can’t wait for our next topic.

You 2.3: “What Are Friends For?” – A User’s Manual

Our favorite male feminist opens with Nora Ephron’s notorious When Harry Met Sally line about men and women and their incompatibility as friends, and I wanted to slap her name right out of his mouth. You know what never happens in a Nora Ephron movie, Joe? Murder. You are no Harry, and Love, high-maintenance as she may be, is no Sally. The episode’s title made me realize that Joe has no friends. We’ve never seen him hang out with anyone besides a victim, her inner circle, or coworkers. The nearest he’s gotten to friendship is his relationship with each child he’s grooming, and that is definitely not friendship. Throughout the opening montage, Joe deludes himself into thinking he’s such a great guy for holding Love at arm’s length in order to protect her when we all know good and goddamned well that he’s doing it so he can stalk her, because the stalking tickles his pickle, not the relationship.

Oh, Love. Crazy, stupid Love. She is simply too cute to be chasing someone who won’t fuck her. She lives in LA where dudes plentiful! There is no excuse for this. Unless, as I suspect, there’s something not quite right about her. Here she is again, boundary-free and waving her own red flag, baking for a boy who doesn’t deserve it and demanding to make her friends’ wedding cake. Girl. Don’t use emotional blackmail to foist your services upon your dear friends’ wedding. Maybe they don’t like your cakes. Maybe they don’t want to feel like they owe you something. Maybe they don’t want to mix business with pleasure. No means no. I got to thinking about Love’s last name: Quinn. Is this an allusion to Harley Quinn, a woman so hell-bent on loving the wrong guy that she makes a literal fool of herself? At some point Love finally summons enough shame to stop leaving treats in Lonely Boy’s locker. And when Joe invites her over for a mixed-message meal, she quickly puts the kibosh on his wishy-washy nonsense.

Poor Will. Playing hangman with his own real-life hangman. There’s no way he makes it out of this alive. Who knows? Maybe he’s smarter than I think. He has the sense to humanize himself to his captor, and later on he successfully gets a laptop with Wi-Fi into his chamber, even if it is under Joe’s supervision. Hopefully that little misstep will bite Joe in the ass. Once again, Will nails it with a spot-on observation; Joe doesn’t understand how friendship works. Lest we think Will’s got all the answers, he gives us a little glimpse into his life outside this box. Will has a Filipino catfish of his very own, who he insists is his fiancé even though they’ve never met. All of these characters are so good at observing the patterns of others, but totally unable to clearly see themselves.

Guinevere Beck claimed her parents were assholes with the names, but Love and Forty’s parents are so much worse. Is Forty short for anything, or is that just it? Maybe his middle name is Ounce, because he sure gets himself in a mess of trouble. He starts a dubious friendship with Joe by dragging him into an evening of my least favorite comedy genre, improv. I hate it when Joe and I agree. Surprise! Hendy drops in with a secret set. Forty attempts to get back into Hendy’s good graces but is, in the words of another clueless fictional character, brutally rebuffed. Forty may be a dumb-dumb, but he’s a sweet dumb-dumb. When he asks “who bakes for the baker,” he reminds Joe that Love is a human being with actual needs. After Joe scams his way into Hendy’s party, Forty scams his way in too, albeit in a much more benign fashion, then he relapses hard. When Hendy shit-cans his party in order to send Forty home safely, Joe can’t help but feel a little bit of respect for his new would-be rival.  

And just what is Ellie doing hanging around with Hendy? White Knight Joe tries to butt in again, but Ellie is too smart for him. She calls a spade a spade, loudly exclaiming that everybody wants to fuck the fifteen-year old. When Delilah calls Joe out for withholding this information from her, she reveals her plan to pull a Ronan Farrow on Hendy. Once again, Delilah warns Joe to stay away from her sister. Prediction: Delilah’s not going to make it to the end of this season. Any time someone gets in the way of Joe’s desires, they tend to get got. Back to Ellie. Did anyone think that phone was a simple gift? Because of course it wasn’t. Joe loaded her cellie with spyware so he can watch her every move. So far, he sees nothing to fear in her texts with Hendy. The texts might be squeaky clean, but Ellie turns up visibly inebriated on the front patio. Did she accidentally eat an edible, or did Hendy feed it to her on purpose? I think we know the answer to that question even if the show has left it in a grey area.

Man, these writers really nail the granular details of Joe’s personality. They give him the most snide and self-congratulatory dialogue, clearly culled from the internet’s most sapiosexual corners. “Ouroboros?” “Kill it with fire?” No matter how many times I see or hear these terms, the person delivering them manages to slap on a sense of ownership that is so obviously unearned. Of course Joe regurgitates these quasi bon mots in what passes for wit in his own mind. And his sense of humor is… terrible. That chef’s hat? Just so, so unfunny. If I were Love I would have died of secondary embarrassment on the spot. That actually might be the ultimate revenge, because what a case of blue balls for Joe if he doesn’t get to kill her himself.

Everything’s coming up Joeses at the end of this episode. Joe and Love finally bang it out, and she unfurls the “crazy chicks are kinky chicks” trope. Joe’s gambit for Ellie’s trust is panning out – now that he has some dirt on her, she’s eating right out of his hand, gifting him the first film on the list she’s made for him. Joe’s friendship with Forty is also proving to be fruitful, because Forty finally has a deliverable even if he doesn’t realize it; Hendy has a secret sex dungeon. I’m really torn on Hendy’s fate. Clearly Joe wants to take him out, but he can’t help but like the guy. Hendy is able to hide his kinks in plain sight, which has got to be very attractive to Joe. But Joe’s savior complex might trump his desire for true friendship. Then again, we might get to see the bro code in action. Any brush with Joe is a brush with death, so we’ll just have to wait. See You next time!

Random Things You Should Know About the Brotherhood in the Comics

Fun fact, there’s been more than one Brotherhood of Mutants, and not all of them were led by Magneto. He wasn't even in all of them! There's a lengthy list of members, some more widely-known than others, these are just some fun facts about a few of the more well-known members.

- Toad has one of the worst backgrounds in the Brotherhood. He was abandoned as a baby by his parents, probably due to his appearance, and grew up in an orphanage where he was bullied and tormented by the other children for the same reason. Toad is actually very intelligent in the comics (he's an expert with machinery!) but due to his shyness and learning disabilities as a child, he was considered to be mentally disabled. I'm not sure what specific learning disabilities he's stated to have had though. I'd really like to know though, so tell me if you do! Between this and the bullying, he dropped out of school at an early age.

He was later recruited by Magneto, and they developed an abusive relationship. Not romantic, mind you, but besides that the dynamics were the same. Toad believed that Magneto cared for him and became dependent on him, while Magneto physically battered him and verbally belittled him. Read more about it HERE

I like Magneto, but people who think Magneto is a good man aside from his villainy need to take a good look at how he treats his followers. He abuses all of them, including Wanda and Pietro, but Toad got it the absolute worst and actually has a form of Battered Spousal Syndrome as a result.

- Pyro and Avalanche are super duper best bro-friends in the comics and I love it so much. Also, while they may or may not actually be lovers, depending on how you want to interpret it (I generally see them as friends), they were used to metaphorically represent gay lovers in THIS issue.

- Pyro is not an aggressive fire-obsessed nutjob like in Evolution or the movies. He's not angry, he's not insane, he's not a pyromaniac. He's a very nice, normal dude who just also happens to be a fire-controlling super-villain. Besides terrorism, he's also an author who writes Gothic romance novels. I'm not making this up, it's canon and it's terrific and I love it so much.

- Pyro's first name in the comics is St. John, not just John like the movies. It's pronounced Sinjin, I think. He's Australian, maybe it's a more normal name there? Also, speaking of him being Australian, his buddy Avalanche is an immigrant from the Greek island of Crete, and Toad is from England, specifically York.

- Pyro once saved a group of children from a T-rex

- Daredevil once tricked the Blob into getting jealous that Pyro always got the girls on their Freedom Force missions so that the two of them would fight with each other, suggesting Pyro is probably a ladies man ;D

- Once, when Pyro thought he was going to die, he held Mystique's hand and said "Worse ways to go, than with friends" ;A;

- But Pyro did NOT in fact die then. His death would come later. He contracted the Legacy Virus, and his last act alive was saving the life of Senator Kelly, a man he'd once tried to assassinate. The strain of this good deed was too much on Pyro's weakened body, and he passed away with a plea to Senator Kelly to change things for the better. Kelly promised that he would, and he kept his word, changing his anti-mutant stance and working towards improving mutant/human relations instead. Sadly, this led to Kelly being assassinated by a human who felt he'd turned traitor.

- Just as Pyro was made American in the movies, Avalanche and Toad were made American in the cartoons.

- Toad's real name is Mortimer Toynbee in the comics, and Avalanche is Dominikos Ioannis Petrakis. In X-Men: Evolution, they were re-named Todd Tolansky and Lance Alvers, probably to make them easier for children to pronounce. Alias that the comics Avalanche has used include Dominic Janos Petros, Jon Bloom, Dominic Szilard, and Nick.

- Avalanche enjoys gardening and establishes a bar under the name "Nick" to get away from his life of crime.

- One of the Red Skull's S-Men claims to be Avalanche's daughter. Her name is Dancing Water and she's basically a woman made of water who has squid tentacles for legs. She can reshape her body at all, spray blasts of water from her hands, control any nearby water, and teleport via water. As far as I know, it's unknown if her claims of being his daughter are true, who her mother is, what her history is, and why she wants to help the Red Skull destroy mutants.

- Fred "Blob" Dukes is fat because of his mutation, and the X-Men make fun of his weight ALL THE TIME. Making fun of someone for being fat is pretty bad, but there are some X-Men for whom I can still see it as in-character, they're not all the nicest people. But making fun of someone for how their physical mutation effects them? I'd think they'd ALL know better than that. If it's not okay to do to Nightcrawler, it's not ok to do to Blob!

- Blob eating a lot is frequently a gag too and haha I get it, fat people are gluttons, real nice Marvel. Besides that being a cruel stereotype in a series supposed to be a statement AGAINST bigotry, let's go back to the fact that THIS IS BLOB'S MUTATION. He is going to be this size no matter what. And a bigger person or animal needs MORE CALORIES. That's why a bear eats more than a chihuahua! He is eating a lot because guess what, he would probably DIE if he did not, it's basic biology, but it's made into a joke at his expense by the narrative itself. It's so messed up.

- Blob has a super duper best friendship with Unus the Untouchable, they are mega bros and it is so sweet and it is made even sweeter by the fact that Blob is frankly a HUGE JERK (no pun intended) to everyone else. But Unus is his BFF!! Read more about their Brotp HERE!

- Lesser known female Brotherhood members: Lorelei, Phantazia, Mastermind (Martinique Jason), and Astra. When Magneto abandoned his second Brotherhood and they became the Resistants instead, a woman named Mist Mistress joined them, and Spiral joined Mystique's Brotherhood when they became Freedom Force. The more well-known female Brotherhood members are, of course, Mystique, Destiny, Rogue, and the Scarlet Witch. See a post on Lorelei HERE and on Phantazia’s tag HERE for more about these ladies!

- While Mystique has consistently been portrayed as Magneto's subordinate in the movies, this has NEVER been the case in the comics. In fact, they have never even worked together until VERY recently. In the comics, they both led different Brotherhoods, and Mystique was the LEADER of hers, not anyone's second-in-command. In fact, up until recently, she and Magneto barely even crossed paths; the only time I'm aware of them even meeting was in the 1980s when she arrested him at a Holocaust memorial (this was when she and her Brotherhood were working for the government as "Freedom Force" in return for being pardoned for their crimes) So, needless to say, they do NOT have the same relationship depicted in the movies! Currently, they're both X-men and serving on the same team. Yeah, weird.

-Sabretooth is on the same X-Men team that Mystique and Magneto are, but contrary to the first X-Men film, I don't think he's ever been a Brotherhood member. I could be wrong though. But considering Sabes led the massacre of the Morlocks, I have a hunch not...by the way, Riptide was part of that too, he's sure as hell not a Brotherhood guy in the comics. Magneto HATES the Marauders!

- Ah, ok, I checked TV tropes on Sabes: "Something of an associate to Mystique's Brotherhood, as he was never affiliated with the team's present-day incarnation, but was shown in a flashback as joining up with an earlier iteration, even declaring himself their leader before being betrayed and handed over to the authorities by Mystique the next morning. He also worked for Exodus's Brotherhood, and is usually affiliated with the Brotherhood in adaptations."

-As mentioned, Mystique was NEVER  subordinate to Magneto, she led her own independent Brotherhood as LEADER...and at her side was Destiny, aka Irene Adler. Implied to be the woman who inspired the Sherlock Holmes character of the same name (with the equal implication Mystique inspired Sherlock himself...hey, she's Raven DarkHOLME) Destiny was a blind mutant who could see visions of the future. She was also Mystique's lover. Yup. They could not be explicitly referred to as such during the 1980s due to the Comics Code, but Claremont did everything he could to convey to the readers they were couple. They lived together, were affectionate with each other, and even raised a child together...none other than Rogue of the X-Men! In fact, his original plan was that Destiny would be Nightcrawler's mother and Mystique would be his FATHER, having impregnated Destiny in male form, but of course Marvel wouldn't let him get away with that. He also managed to sneakily slide in characters referring to Destiny as "Mystique's leman"---an antiquated word for "lover" obscure enough to slip by editors.

It used to be a common trope in media to use same-sex desires and relationships for villains as a way to emphasize their wickedness. For instance, a movie would never allow a hero to do such a thing, but it could be suggested with villains because it cast homosexuality in a negative light, as something bad people do to show how bad they are, like showing them kicking puppies. Claremont, however, went the opposite route. He used Mystique's tenderness with Destiny to humanize her instead, using their relationship to show a capacity for goodness in Mystique rather than play up how evil she was. They were depicted as loving and normal together, not depraved and decadent and bizarre. They were downright domestic.

While Claremont did have a notable fascination with lesbians, as shown by his use of sexy evil women who would pursue young heroines with a thinly-veiled subtext of sexual creepiness, he didn't fetishize Mystique and Destiny at all. He could have made Destiny a hot leather-clad young dominatrix like Selene or Emma Frost, but she's actually an elderly woman. Neither she nor her relationship with Mystique are ever sexualized. There are some f/f scenes in the X-Men series where you can imagine Claremont wrote it with one hand, but there's never anything like that between these two. Speaking of Destiny being old, she and Mystique were together FOR LIFE. They met during the 1800s when Destiny was much younger, and while they do seem to have had sexual relationships with men during their time together (as evident by both of them having children and grandchildren) their true loves were always each other. Destiny aged slower than an average person, but she did get old, and yet Mystique still stayed with her even though she remained young and I just love them so much. Destiny eventually met her end not by old age, but at the hands of Legion, Xavier's son.

Also, sorry to turn this into a personal soapbox but I have to here: Tumblr is all about "uwu LGBT representation uwuuu" but don't actually give a fuck about an actual canon woman/woman couple, even though tumblr's X-fandom collectively threw a fucking SHITFIT over Cherik not being made canon in DOFP and each of them having a girlfriend/wife and it being the worst most homophobic thing ever and the women in question getting bashed despite them being involved with these same women in canon...but Azazel gets to totally replace Destiny, who is nowhere to be seen in the movies, and fandom doesn't make a PEEP. Fandom is cool with that. In fact, they love Azazel and love drawing him in a happy heteronormative family with Mystique. Tumblr likes to be “uwu support LGBT representation uwuuu” but they give absolutely no fucks about Mystique's bisexuality and Destiny's very existence being erased. I've seen so much fucking Azazel/Mystique/Kurt fanart, but I don't even see much of Destiny even in COMICS fanart.

I get that it's an AU, it's not the comics, but it just leaves such a bad taste of hypocrisy in my mouth considering how tumblr X-fandom AS A WHOLE flipped out about Erik and Charles having relationships with Magda and Moira instead of each other in DOFP , even though they had relationships with those women in canon and, despite all subtext, have never been confirmed as a canon same-sex couple like Mystique and Destiny have. But people were ready to go to WAR for them. But two women who are a CONFIRMED CANON QUEER COUPLE? Who cares, right? Seriously, if it's not hot young cis white men, NO ONE CARES, even when it's a case of a REAL CONFIRMED CANON queer character (two, in fact!) being erased in the films. They had a lifelong relationship together, they raised a child together, they have all these affectionate moments...there is so much Mystique and Destiny stuff in canon, and Claremont WANTED to put in more and wasn't allowed.

And now that we're in a time period where that could be allowed, I think it's a fucking TRAVESTY that this wasn't put in the movies to make up for what wasn't let into the comics, to finally let them be “out” while Destiny was still alive. But it's even bigger travesty to me that tumblr not only ignores this, it endorses the heterosexual ship that replaces it, and then pats itself on the back for being “progressive” when it comes to shipping two DUDES (especially if they can shit on women in the process---there was a LOT of bashing Moira and Magda both in fandom when DOFP came out). Seriously, I swear the reason some people are into slash is just because there's not any EW GROSS GIRLS in it.

Sorry I had to get salty but this really bothers me. Mystique's bisexual and had a lifelong relationship with another woman in which they raised a child together and the movies not only erase that, movie fandom just accepts it while patting themselves on the back about being progressive because they have fanon m/m ships.

As anyone who’s seen me previously speak on the subject already knows, I wasn’t really looking forward to the new Power Rangers movie. Ever since the first image of Elizabeth Banks’ Rita Repulsa was released, I “knew” the movie was doomed. Previous film adaptations that had redesigned its characters to such an extreme degree were The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Godzilla (1998), and X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Movies that were universally agreed to be horrible and insultingly unfaithful to their source material. It only got worse from there. Alpha 5 went from a cutesy robot to a terrifying little monkey-lizard. Goldar went from a main character to a silent, gold Godzilla. The Dino Zords somehow managed to look worse than the Michael Bay Dinobots.

To put it mildly, I was not looking forward to this.

But then the movie actually came out. Despite my initial concerns, I was hearing… good things about the movie? Literally everywhere I went, I heard how this was the movie Power Rangers fans had been waiting for, how it really did justice to the characters despite their redesigns, it was the best thing to come out of the franchise in years, and how it was just a good movie all around. In spite of myself, I started to get hopeful. Excited, even. After all, I didn’t want to dislike the movie. I didn’t want it to be bad. Maybe once I got past the awful redesigns, the movie actually was good. Yeah, Rita looked like some generic Syfy Channel villainess, but maybe she acted like Rita. I’d heard Elizabeth Banks was really hamming it up, and if anything describes Rita Repulsa, it’s hammy. So I put my opinions of the new designs aside. I already knew about them. They were no longer a surprise. I decided they were not going to ruin my enjoyment of the film. This wasn’t the same Power Rangers that I’d grown up with. This was new. I accepted that. I sat in the theater and soon Saban’s Power Rangers (2017) began.

I was stunned.

Out of all the complaints I could’ve had about this movie, I in no way expected it to be BORING.

CAST:

First off, let me say that the characters are well written and that the cast acts them very well. However, that being said, NONE of these characters - except for Billy and, to a slightly lesser degree, Trini - ARE LIKEABLE. Jason is an unhappy, rebellious teen… for some reason? His father wants him to do well in life, but he doesn’t seem to ever really venture into “overachieving asshole parent” territory, so I’m not entirely sure what Jason is rebelling unhappily against. Kimberly is legitimately a HORRIBLE person, spreading a classmate’s nude picture around school. Like, it’s nice that she feels bad about it later, but she’s still nevertheless a HORRIBLE person. And then she says “Serves you right!” when the girl almost gets killed by molten Goldar blood later in the movie because… Kimberly said she was sorry so I guess that makes the other girl a bitch now. Zack is literally just a loudmouth asshole, but I guess we’re supposed to like him/feel sorry for him because he has a sick mother? Billy, as I said before, is the most likeable member of the team, a kind soul who just wants the group to come together and be superheroes. I don’t know why he had to be on the spectrum, exactly. I’m not badmouthing it, or even saying I disliked it, really. It’s done really tastefully and never presented as a bad thing, which is great, it just kinda feels like “This ain’t the ‘90s anymore, yay relevance!” Like, why couldn’t he just be smart and unpopular? Is that not a thing anymore? Trini literally shows up well after everyone else has been fully established and her introduction totally reeks of afterthought, as if the screenwriters suddenly remembered “Oh, wait, there are five teenagers, aren’t there?” That said, once introduced, Trini does become a really interesting character with some actual motivation behind her “teenager with attitude"ness.

To sum up, despite some serious missteps, the Rangers are nevertheless fleshed out and acted well, turning them from the cardboard cutouts of the TV show to some well-rounded, flawed characters. So what was my problem with this story of angsty teenage drama, exactly? It never stopped. This movie was SO busy fleshing out the Rangers that it forgot to do anything Power Rangers-related until roughly the LAST TWENTY MINUTES OF THE MOVIE.

PLOT/PACING/EDITING:

The cliff-jumping scene lasts way too long. As do the “Wait, we all have powers!” scenes as they wake up the next morning after finding the Coins. There are at least three, possibly up to five, different instances of the Rangers standing in a circle, staring sadly at each other, saying “We don’t know each other very well, but we all have shitty lives, so maybe we should come together and be Power Rangers so we can finally have a family.” ALL IN COMPLETELY SEPARATE SCENES. And then we have what feels like twenty minutes of Zordon and Alpha training the Rangers, which is essentially just “Ow, being hit by rocks hurts” over and over. And then one of the Rangers finally succeeds in morphing, so Zordon gets pissed off and tells them all to GTFO…? Now don’t get me wrong, I understand why he gets angry - How can Billy have morphed without knowing how? Time is of the essence. But they should have worked up to Zordon getting to that point. Jason: “Billy just morphed!” Zordon: “What? That’s excellent! Finally, you Rangers are showing some progress! Billy, why don’t you go ahead and tell the others how you did it?” Billy: “…I don’t know how I did it.” Zordon: “…What?” Billy: “I don’t know how I morphed.” Zordon: “What do you mean, you don’t know how you morphed? How is that even possible?!” Billy: “I don’t know, it just happened!” Zordon: “That does it! We don’t have time for this!” This way, the movie shows him becoming understandably frustrated, instead of just blowing up like a temperamental asshole.

This movie drags its feet to an unbelievable level. The scene where the Rangers fight Rita on the docks? That should have happened 30 - 40 minutes into the movie, not right before the final fight of a 2+ hour film. And the fight is shrouded in darkness, reducing Rita and the Rangers to silhouettes, like this is some no-budget direct-to-video movie using darkness to hide its lack of budget. But hey, at least there’s that awesome rematch later where the Rangers fight Rita again after they get their powers, showing how strong they are as a fully powered team… What’s that? That never happens? ARE YOU SERIOUS? This is one of the most basic rules of superhero movies - the hero(es) and the villain(s) have to fight at some point! But hey, at least there’s the really awesome fight scene where the Rangers… fight the Putties. For about ninety seconds.

Let me repeat that: The Power Rangers appear for the first time with roughly twenty minutes of movie left, fight the Redshirts for about a minute and a half, and then the entire rest of the film is Zord action. If you’ve seen the trailers, you’ve pretty much seen all of the Rangers’ non-Zord screen time.

This is even worse than Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, which featured no fight between the Rangers and Ivan Ooze, but at least had that one good, long fight against the Oozemen at the construction site. Can you imagine if they made a Batman or Avengers movie where the costumed hero appeared for that short a time and only at the very end and never fought the main villain? People would flip their shit.

Also… We get the prologue with Zordon and Rita, then Jason’s introduction with the cow… And then the title? Shouldn’t that have been prologue, title, Jason? That’s such a weird choice.

TONE:

I get it. This isn’t the same kiddie TV show as before. This ain’t your Daddy’s Power Rangers. This is a big budget blockbuster with big boy special effects and biting teen angst!

But holy shit, this whole movie is just so grim and ugly and dark and depressing. There is no beacon of hope, visually or metaphorically. The teens are all awful people aside from Billy, Zordon is an asshole, Alpha is hideous, the Zords look just as ugly as the monsters they fight, the Power Rangers themselves are all dark and overly complicated and bio organic looking (like some sort of deformed love child of Iron Man and the Xenomorphs). The lesson the Rangers need to learn in order to unlock their suits is literally “Stop being assholes, both to each other and in general.” There are no friendly faces in a situation (and franchise) that badly calls out for one. Trini’s mother is psychotic in a scene that was presented as comedic in the trailer - She apparently had a urine sample cup ready and waiting at the dinner table, though thankfully, unlike Dawn of Justice, at least this one goes unfilled. Rita Repulsa, intergalactic sorceress and former Green Ranger, starts causing havoc, but instead of creating monsters and blowing up buildings and demanding that the people of Earth bow to her whim, SHE SPENDS THE FIRST THIRD OF THE FILM MURDERING HOBOS AND POLICEMEN.

THERE IS LITERALLY A NEWS REPORT ABOUT THE “GOLDEN SERIAL KILLER” PLAGUING ANGEL GROVE.

JESUS CHRIST, IS THIS STILL A FAMILY FILM?

This is one of the film’s biggest problems. There are some nice scenes, a few funny lines, and some cool special effects, but at no point does the film really feel fun.

“POWER RANGERS” STUFF:

Oddly, every time an actual name or term from the show was spoken, it brought me out of the movie in a similar fashion as when one of the original cast members cameoed in Ghostbusters (2016). “Putties.” “Alpha 5.” “Rita Repulsa.” “Angel Grove.” “Zeo Crystal.” Oh, right, I’m watching a movie about Power Rangers. I forgot.

And why are the Putties called “Putties?” In the show they’re called Putties because they’re made out of putty. Clay. Here, they’re dirt, rocks, and occasionally concrete. And why are the Putties such a big threat? They range from human sized to fifteen feet tall with six arms and shit. If they wanted some big monster-y things for the Rangers to beat up on why not throw in Eye Guy or King Sphinx or Pumpkin Rapper or something?

I feel like Zordon and Alpha’s voices should’ve been altered a bit. Zordon is a giant computer head whose voice fills the entire ship, so to hear Bryan Cranston’s normal voice come out of him was just weird. Similarly, Bill Hader’s untouched voice didn’t quite fit a tiny “cute” character like Alpha. I’m not saying make them quite as deep/high pitched as in the show, but a slight adjustment would have been nice.

The Power Coins are never shown up close, meaning we never see the dinosaur symbols on them, and so they literally just look like rocks with colored gel bits in the middle. They’re more Power Medallions than Coins.

“I’ll be back for the Crystal! Others will come for the Crystal!” Oh, God, please don’t tell me that every villain’s motivation now is just gonna be “I want the Zeo Crystal.”

I like how they got rid of Bulk and Skull, only to give Billy a bully anyway. Apparently having two bullies would’ve been confusing.

ZORDON, RITA, AND ALPHA:

I like how they go and give Zordon and Rita this big intertwined history - He was the Red Ranger, she was the Green. She betrayed their team and everything went to shit. A big deal was made about this leading up to the film. - and then absolutely none of it matters beyond the opening scene. There’s no “Anakin vs. Obi-Wan” dynamic at all. Zordon doesn’t seem sad about going up against his former teammate, Rita doesn’t have a moment of hesitation at any point, there’s no scene of Rita breaking into the Command Center and the two of them having bitter words with one another. Rita used to be the Green Ranger and… that’s it we’re done with that now.

Speaking of Rita being the Green Ranger (as opposed to simply her history with Zordon), that never really goes anywhere, either. Yeah, she uses the Dragon Coin to charge her wand, but that could’ve just been Rita doing her usual magic spell stuff. She didn’t need to be the Green Ranger for anything she does in the film. At no point does she do anything Green Ranger-y. She doesn’t attempt to summon the Dragonzord. She doesn’t fire an energy blast from her wand that has some cool dragon head effect at the tip of it. There’s no “Only a Power Ranger can access the Zeo Crystal,” which would be bad because Rita is one. This, combined with the lack of any actual interaction between her and Zordon as mentioned above, results in there being literally no reason for her to be the Green Ranger.

I mean, why does Rita not morph? There is never anything said at any point in the movie like she’s too weak to morph, or the Dragon Coin is damaged, or she lost her Morpher in the meteor blast (does this universe even have Morphers?), or she’s evolved past the need for Zordon’s silly Ranger suits, or anything like that. So why doesn’t she actually morph into the full Green Ranger at any point to fight the Rangers? “You’re so silly!” you may be thinking. “Not everything has to be packed into this one movie alone. That’s what the sequels are for!” Except, no, it’s not. If there was a film to actually explore and properly utilize the “Rita is the Green Ranger” plot, it was this one. In future movies, villain-wise, we’re gonna be introducing and dealing with Lord Zedd or King Mondo or whoever. Sure, Rita will probably still be around and team up with Zedd or something, but by then Tommy is going to be the Green Ranger (or Tammy, if the cast has their way). The time for “Green Ranger Rita” has passed.

I feel like Zordon and Alpha desperately needed a scene of their own. Every scene they’re in, they’re either instructing or yelling at or reacting to the Rangers, but they needed a moment to just be characters by themselves. Especially after Zordon loses his shit and the Rangers have their little campfire chat. Alpha: “Zordon, they… They’re trying, y'know? This is a huge thing we’re asking of them. They’re just kids.” Zordon: *sigh* “I know they are. I shouldn’t have yelled at them. I just… I don’t want what happened to my team to happen to them.”

Also, and I will totally chalk this one up to personal preference, but it felt weird with Alpha calling Zordon “Master.” Nothing wrong with it, necessarily, it just felt off to me.

Also also, the Rangers clearly need a strong emotional bond in order to unlock their suits, which Zordon hopes they achieve by punching hologram Putties…?

ALSO also also, was Rita not imprisoned? Like, in any fashion? Wasn’t there an image released of Rita (in her modern Green not-quite-a-Ranger suit) trapped in crystal or something? Wasn’t she sealed away along with the Power Coins? I thought the Rangers were supposed to free her or something. This leads into another issue…

The Rangers and Rita have nothing to do with each other. What I mean is, the Rangers mess around in the quarry and stumble upon the Power Coins by pure chance. Meanwhile, Rita is accidentally dredged up out of the ocean by some fishermen. The problem is… These are two completely unrelated events. The Rangers aren’t called to the Coins because Rita is nearing. Rita doesn’t wake up because the Power Coins are activated. They are literally just two things that coincidentally happen at the same time. What if the fishermen were fishing in a different area that day and the teens got the Power Coins for no reason? What if the teens decided to not hack into that crystal and pull out the Power Coins, but the fishermen still pulled Rita out of the ocean? These are both legitimately things that could have happened. There’s no predestined “The Coins found you because Rita is coming” or anything. The teens stumble upon the Coins and the fishermen stumble upon Rita.

And finally, the Megazord backhands Rita into outer space (which, I will admit, was hilarious and awesome). But then the Rangers just go about their day. They don’t say anything about her. Zordon and Alpha don’t say anything about her. Do they think she just disintegrated when the Megazord slapped her? They didn’t even recover the Dragon Coin, did they? Do they know where she is? Are they just assuming she’s going to be back at some point? For all they know, she’s somewhere on Earth, alive and active, raising an army of Goldars.

GOLDAR:

I will admit, this entire bit is simply “What I would’ve done instead,” but I feel like this one is worth mentioning.

There is literally no reason for Goldar to be reduced to a voiceless kaiju. They could have told the same story while keeping him much more akin to his television counterpart: Rita creates Goldar much earlier in the film, in the jewelry shop sequence. He’s the one that kills the police officer, not a Putty. Rita: “It’s good to see you again, old friend.” Goldar: “It is an honor to serve you once more, my Empress.” Later, when the Rangers arrive for the final battle, Rita simply makes Goldar grow. He still gets his ass beaten by the Megazord, but instead of dying, he merely shrinks back to human size. When Rita gets smacked into outer space, Goldar panics and follows, flying after her. This keeps Goldar faithful to his character while literally telling the exact same story the movie wanted to tell, and also keeping Goldar (one of the franchise’s main villains) alive for future appearances. They could’ve even used the same “chocolate fountain” design.

THE ZORDS:

But you know, as much as I dislike Rita and Goldar’s redesigns, they at least serve a purpose, story-wise. Rita has the skintight green suit because she used to be the Green Ranger. Goldar is a big messy blob kaiju because Rita hastily creates him out of molten gold. But the Megazord… The Megazord is quite possibly the most ugly, unappealing, least cool/awesome/badass-looking giant robot to ever be conceived in all of cinema history, from either the U.S. or Japan… And there is absolutely no reason for it. The Zords weren’t hastily thrown together by Alpha at the last minute. They weren’t in the middle of altering their appearance into dinosaurs and then got interrupted or lost interest or something. They just look like shit.

As far as the individual Dino Zords go, the Tyrannosaurus doesn’t look too bad. The Triceratops is okay, kind of. I can make out the horns occasionally. The Sabertooth Tiger and the Mastodon are always moving around so quickly that I can never make them out successfully. I can’t even really complain about the Mastodon’s eight spider legs because the damn thing was always jumping around so fast I couldn’t see the legs, I couldn’t see the trunk, I couldn’t see the tusks. For most of the movie it looked like Zack was piloting a big black aspirin. The Pterodactyl was just this big pink… thing in the sky. Did it even have a head?

And I’m sorry, but they’re way too small. Size wise, they’re essentially tanks on legs. They should not be smaller than a noticeable majority of the buildings around them (most of which are of the single story, small town, “mom and pop store” variety) and they should most certainly not be in danger of being overwhelmed by the Putties. Zords are supposed to be gigantic, not “kinda big.”

And then, in the middle of the climactic Zord fight, basically the moment the entire movie has been leading up to, the film suddenly gets massively, inexcusably, infuriatingly lazy. As bad as the Zords look, I was at least looking forward to seeing how they all come together. After all, looking at the Dino Zords, then at the Megazord, I honestly had no idea how they all came together and formed their various Megazord parts. Well, apparently, the filmmakers couldn’t figure it out, either. The Dino Zords fall into a hole, there’s a cloud of smoke and dust, and then the Megazord walks out of the cloud, fully formed. I was absolutely stunned at the complete and utter lack of giving a shit when it came to this sequence. Debatably one of the world’s most iconic combining robots AND IT DOESN’T COMBINE ONSCREEN? Can you imagine if you watched the first Transformers movie and Optimus Prime never transformed?! There’s a single extreme close up of some gears turning or something, but that’s it, and even that is mostly obscured by smoke and fire. Even Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie gave us a Megazord combination sequence and that thing barely had a better budget than an Asylum movie!

Also, this seems to be the first time Rita has ever seen a Megazord. But… it can’t be, right? Surely this can’t be the first time the Megazord has been formed. Surely Rita and Zordon know about Megazords.

“GO GO POWER RANGERS” AND THE SOUNDTRACK:

So, they use “Go Go Power Rangers” in the movie, which is awesome. The same version from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie, even. While it was really cool in a Easter egg sort of way, there are two problems with this.

1) We don’t get anything else. There’s no new “Go Go Power Rangers 2017 Version.” They literally could not bother recording a new version of the franchise’s main theme for their big budget blockbuster feature film adaptation. They literally just used a twenty two year old track for about thirty seconds.

2) Does the movie play “Go Go Power Rangers,” the team’s triumphant, ass-kicking theme song, when the Rangers morph for the first time? When they fight the Putties? When they fight Goldar? When they form the Megazord? When they kill Goldar? When they bitchslap Rita into the stratosphere? No. We get it as the Zords run from Point A to Point B.

Thrilling.

What makes it even worse is that they play a rather awesome sounding orchestral version of the theme during the end credits, after the mid-credit sequence. This rendition would’ve been amazing to hear as the Megazord fights and slays Goldar.

In a slightly unrelated note: Power Rangers, particularly MMPR, is known for having a rockin’, kick ass soundtrack. This movie’s soundtrack is all sad, slow shit. WTF? I’m not saying it should’ve been filled with covers of “I Will Win” and “We Need A Hero,” but SOME rock songs would’ve been nice. Literally every song in the film sounded like its own sad, depressing cover version.

THINGS I DID LIKE:

The cast really does well with their roles. Jason interacting with Billy was done really well, as was Jason and Kimberly’s “Let’s just up and leave this shit hole town” scene.

I don’t know if it was intentional, but when the cow roars at Jason at the start, it’s the same sound effect the TV show used for the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord.

Alpha being Billy’s “training dummy” as he practiced fighting. It was a nice little moment that I could see happening with the original characters.

Trini and Kimberly’s little lunch training session at the diner. I ship it.

Zordon reciting the classic three rules of being Power Rangers to the teens. Honestly, it stuns me that they not only remembered them, but bothered using them.

Rita enjoying a donut as Goldar destroys the city.

The Rangers forming the Megazord for the first time… And then not knowing how to pilot it, so they fall over.

The Megazord bitchslapping Rita into outer space. That was classic stupid goofy MMPR.

THINGS I SHOULD’VE LIKED BUT DIDN’T:

The aforementioned use of “Go Go Power Rangers.” It was nice to hear, but it was way too little and most certainly not the wisest use of the theme if they could apparently only use it once.

“Make my monster grow!” Uhh… he’s already giant when she says that. He’s a permanently giant monster. The line makes no sense. “I’m at the corner of Mariner Bay and Reefside…” Again, I appreciate the Easter egg, but it was just so clunky with its reference-ness. Maybe if it had been said in a news report or something.

The cameos by Amy Jo Johnson and Jason David Frank. Not that they shouldn’t have made cameos, it just felt like it was left over from a different, more fun film. “Hey, look, it’s the original Tommy and Kimberly!” feels severely out of place when shoved into the middle of this grim and gritty teen drama. That’s actually a problem with a lot of the Power Rangers elements in this film - They feel out of place in their own movie.

The mid-credit sequence. Really? They’re planning five sequels to this shit and the best they can do is a green shirt? No hints or tease for Lord Zedd, Master Vile, the Machine Empire, Divatox, Dark Specter, the Dragonzord, the Thunder Zords, the Ninja Zords, Saba, the Alien Rangers, Ninjor, Lt. Stone, nothing? We’re not even really allowed to enjoy the Tommy tease because it’s immediately interrupted by “lol, Billy blew up his locker again.”

OTHER THINGS:

Joseph Kahn, Adi Shankar, and Jil Hardin should look into a plagiarism suit because the opening of this movie is almost verbatim the opening of POWER/RANGERS. It even has the exact same establishing shot of the Red Ranger’s helmet laying on the charred ground, with death and destruction happening in the background.

“Send the meteor to my coordinates!” Wait, what? Zordon and/or Alpha can cast Meteor? What is this meteor? What does it do? It can’t be Zordon’s ship/the Command Center, because he wouldn’t call that “the meteor,” he’d call it “my ship.” Zordon buries the Power Coins on his own, so it doesn’t help with that, either. I guess it just kinda knocks Rita into the sea? And maybe kills the dinosaurs? Good job? I freely admit that this is an oddly specific thing to focus on, but what was up with that slim, “independent film” title, shoved way off into the corner? Where was the big block letter logo with the lightning bolt in the middle, smack dab in the middle of the screen, optionally accompanied by an instrumental “Go Go Power Rangers” riff? The trailers got this right, why change it?

They actually used the idea of the Rangers’ helmets opening up and revealing their faces, a la Iron Man. This was an idea they originally had for Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie back in 1995, but scrapped it because it looked stupid, deciding that their helmets should be, y’know, helmets. I don’t understand why they brought this idea back, as it doesn’t suddenly look better just because it’s 2017. Not to mention it allows the movie to do the “Can’t keep the stars’ faces covered for too long!” thing that always ruins climactic fights in superhero movies. It was so awkward and obvious whenever they’d state the Rangers’ full names. It was like the movie was making a point for everyone in the audience to know what their last names were. This wouldn’t be a problem except the only Ranger they don’t do this with is Trini (who clearly is not a “Kwan”) and it’s really noticeable. “JASON SCOTT!” “KIMBERLY HART!” “BILLY CRANSTON!” “ZACK TAYLOR!” “…and Trini.” The fact that Krispy Kreme was literally a plot point and central location in this film is beyond stupid. It was the level of product placement in a movie you’d expect to see from someone making fun of product placement in movies. Couldn’t the location of the Zeo Crystal have been the Youth Center? The Krispy Kreme could just be a business next door, or Ernie could’ve been doing a little promotional “Come buy Kripsy Kreme fruit smoothie donuts!” It kinda made me regret getting those PR donuts a little bit, truth be told. I thought it was just a fun little promotional thing, I didn’t realize Krispy Kreme had a supporting role in the film.

BOTTOM LINE:

Takes far, far too long for anything Power Rangers-related to happen. Yes, Zordon and Alpha are in the movie a lot, but they alone can’t carry the entire film.

No real sense of fun at any point.

The Power Rangers elements feel out of place in their own film.

The biggest problem with this movie is that the filmmakers had absolutely no sense of proportion, ratio, or balance. The teens and their characterization were great, but they took over the entire movie, while the actual Power Rangers elements were shoved into the corner and all but forgotten about until there was almost no time left to do anything with them. It was 85% teen angst and 15% Power Rangers when it needed to be 60% teen angst, 40% Power Rangers. Or, Heaven forbid, maybe even 50/50. It felt like the filmmakers were all “Shit, there are five more of these things coming. Let’s get all the characterization out of the way now so the sequels can be Power Rangers kung fu fun out the wazoo!” But that’s no way to make a film. What happens if something goes askew and this series goes the way of Divergent? What if the series is suddenly cancelled at some point and they never actually get around to what the hell the entire point of the franchise was? Even the MCU, which has movies planned until roughly 2055, still tells a complete story and gives their titular heroes plenty of time to shine in each individual film. This movie felt like a really good first draft that, while promising, was still in some serious need of going over and editing/rewriting. As it is, it feels like a Power Rangers film that has absolutely no interest in being a Power Rangers film.

Pizza Can Wait - A Peter Maximoff and Lorna Dane Fanfiction

Synopsis: Peter wanted, for a long time, to steal without someone finding out, and tonight he appeared to do it. But, boy, one person knew. And they were threatening him: Or he'd do what they wanted, or they’d call the police.

Warning: Fluff, based on X-Men Days of Future Past film.

A/N:Okay, English isn’t my first language, so... there may be some errors and... Yeah. Also, this is my first english fanfiction too! My brother and I thought about the plot and, well, here it goes. Hope you like it!

Peter ran away, not giving chance to one single person notice he was even there a moment ago. Where was it? The convenience store, of course! He wanted to eat some pizza, but for some reason the owner's pizza always seemed tastier than any other. Of course, he replaced the missing pizza with the other he'd bought, the only difference is the taste (which was worse). You know, it was hard to control the need for “easy food”, he still is a kleptomaniac. One day he would, though. No need to worry.

It was late at night and the moon seemed to expose itself in the sky. Peter almost could hear it asking him to look up. The silver light it emitted made his hair, smooth and silvery, shine in the same tone, perhaps even more beautiful. The teenager was already in his house street and was trying to walk on a normal speed, the cops wouldn’t think he stole again the poor store that way. It was the hardest part of stealing for him: walking the way back. It’s so slow, it seemed to took forever! That’s why he normally run back to his dream room and get caught by the police so often.

But this time, oh boy, he’d do the perfect work! No one would ever imagine he stole that pizza, it’d make his day. He'd never managed to steal without someone noticing, it kinda frustrated the boy. Well, not anymore.

Or it’s what he expected.

When his foot touched the carpet of his house, his cute little sister was already in the way to the basement. She wore one of his shirts as camisole tonight and looked tired, a teddy bear was on her grip while she rubbed her eye and yawned. Her light brown hair was half tied up in a braid and half messed up. “Hey, little one, up until now?” He said while closing the door behind his back. “I wanted you to tell me a story before I go to sleep...” She explained in a low tone. “Sorry, I have some food to eat, not gonna happen now” Peter grinned down to her as walked towards his basement.

The sweet little girl posicioned herself in the way and looked at the tall boy with serious tired green eyes. Her mouth simply let go the words “I'll tell mommy you stole again”. First, Peter didn't react, he was impressed by the look in Lorna's eyes and kinda sad because she knew he'd stolen. But then, he just laugthed lightly and said “She doesn't care!”. The girl, prepared for that answer just replied “Then, I'll call the police.” Silence in the living room. She added: “You know I know the number”.

Already in her room, Peter was laying her on her bed. She was too tired to go upstairs so he had to carry her. Sadly, that meant leave pizza downstairs. “Ok, what you wanna me to read?” He asked unquiet. “This” She said happly, showing a colorful book to the brother. Peter rolled his dark eyes with boredom “You already know this story! And it's boring! You should throw this away” Lorna wided her big eyes at the comment, making him notice the bad words said.

“Sorry, didn't mean this” The boy apologized raising his hands and throwing the book back at the shelf. “I like this story. It's about a princess, she's loved by everyone in the town.” She mumbled while adjusted herself under the confortable blankets. Peter felt a punch in his chest, the meaning behind that comment was just too sad to leave the mouth of such a cutie. He aproached the bed of the girl and caressed her hair. “Are you a princess because of this? You wanna be loved by everyone too?” He asked in a whisper, scared of the answer. Lorna closed her eyes at the caress and make a little 'yes' with her head.

He knew it was hard for her: their mom is always away from their life; Wanda doesn't like her; and there's the concern of the possibility of her being mutant too. Peter wanted to hug her so tigh that she wouldn't be on this stupid cruel world anymore. But he couldn't. All he did was let out a small chuckle and the words “You fool. You're already loved by everyone in this world. They're just too shy to show it”. Lorna laugthed lightly and throwed herself forward to hug his neck “You love me too?” She asked while yawning. Peter hugged her back, swallowing the huge will to run away with her. “You know I do, you silly little one” He teased, making her chuckle.

They remained like this for a while, Peter transmitting all the love for her by the silence. Lorna almost dozed off on his shoulder, that really was one rare pacific moment. “So, will you read to me now?” She suddenly asked. “Oh my… Of course not!” Peter exclamed irritaded, letting go of her. The girl chuckled and leaned back in her bed, examining her brother's face with attention. She knew he tried to be a bad boy, with jokes and sarcasm all the time, but, deep down, he was somewhat gentle and caring. And she loved the inside and outside of him.

“Y'know, I lost my willing to eat with this talk. So, you'll pay for this letting me sleep with you in this cute, colorful and confortable bed you have here.” He said already going over her and laying on her side. The bed wasn't big, so they had to cuddle to fit in. Lorna had her head rested on his chest, and her small arms wrapped around his waist while Peter had one arm under his head and the other caressing her back.

But Lorna still wanted him to tell a story and didn't go to sleep until he started to describe one crazy dream he once had: “Okay, one day, aliens came down to earth an they were calling themselves the fastest criatures of the entire galaxy. And they said this in my face! So I just said 'bro, you're soooo wrong' and they said 'well, let's run and see who wins'. Of course, I wouldn't do this for nothing, so I asked for some space information as reward.” “Did they ask for something too?” Lorna asked softly, almost sleeping. “Yeah, they wanted my life as prize” Peter looked at her, expecting a scared face, but all he sees is she with closed eyes muttering something like “wow...”

“Yeah, but, pffff, I knew I would win anyway, so no problems. So the race begun and, well, they were fast, really fast. Not like me, but fast enough to keep my pace. But, y'know what? I still made them bite the dust!” He exclaimed with a laughter, throwing his head back. He was about to continue, but heard the girl snoring. He smiled at her adorable sleeping face and thanked god for this “story” letting her sleep. The pale boy turned off the lampshade light, and adjusted his body carefully under the blanket.

For some seconds he just kept staring at the direction where he knew were Lorna's face. Peter wanted to distract her little sister from this problem (also know as “living in this world”) while and as he could. If that meant cuddling with her every night, he'd do this. If that meant reading that terrible book to her every night, maybe he could do this. He'd do almost anything to keep her smile illuminating her face.

That's his job as an older brother, and he's glad of being hers.