#thinking about all the shots in this movie of the lead character alone in her apartment surrounded by negative space
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Ok but like I'm still thinking of the Hawthorne staff. I can't say I remember their last lines but omigods they were amazing showstoppers
Jeremy Louden & "The Mess" where the meal serves as a reflection but also Jeremy had the time to reflect on the greatness he was aiming towards but didn't want and he made a mess of himself and for what?
Katherine Keller & "Man's Folly" where the meal serves to bring the women together to feast before death and practice honesty as the men are being hunted; is this too not a perverse reflection of our society?
But also I think I'm just obsessed with Katherine in general because when they're walking back into the restaurant without the men there's this amazing wide shot where you can see how all the women are wearing heels and they're kind of shaking and Katherine's solid black vans' are gliding on the floor. + when she says "killing you was my idea, I pitched that" and I immediately became obsessed with her because here she is gorging herself on her own folly as she welcomes the diners to dine with her and the staff to witness her
Elsa & the barrel: I remember her last lines because holy fuck the implications in that sentence alone!!!! "I didn't forget the barrel. He never told me about the barrel." Because even in death she's still worrying about work and about living up to exacting unrealistic standards. But she's also amazing because her power dynamics with the customers were amazing because she was supposed to the server in a place of subservience but she was in control the entire time and it was amazing
But once again that last fucking line. It's like being slapped and then spit upon because she was perfect and it wasn't enough. But also as a reflection of Slowik because he pit Margo|Erin & Elsa against each other, but did he really mean to, or is it just another careless action that leads to harm that does not concern him.
Elsa is amazing because she proves that Slowik is just like his customers even when he doesn't care to realize or confront it
The sommelier & "The S'more" I know that the s'more was Slowik's dish/masterpiece but there's this shot where the sommelier is gleefully pouring the wine that will aid the fire and that scene is so dynamic to me because the entire movie he's been this contained character who's poured the wine while extolling it's background making it worth the price tag but then in that shot there's this sort of mad joy on his face because he's going to die, but at least these customers are about to get their comeuppance too. It's the face of someone who has already dug the two graves and is snuggling into the 2nd grave because the 1st has been filled the way he planned
I don't really know the name of the other servers but holy shit they were great at building and maintaining the atmosphere too!
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The Boogeyman
Summary: You’re Joseph Quinn’s girlfriend and the lead in the new Duffer Brothers horror movie. He comes to surprise you on set after months of video calls.
Pairing: Joseph Quinn x Actress/GF!Reader
Words: 1443
Warnings: RPF, Duffer level gore, Fluff, The Boogeyman
A/N: This story has nothing to do with the new movie that is coming out. This is one of two one shots that I wrote for Joe. Please let me know what you think!
You can find more of my stories on my Stranger Things Masterlist!
Or read this story on AO3!
Joe smiled as he watched you on the monitors from the directors tent as you laughed with your young co-star, Grace, who played your daughter. He was hiding from you since this was a technical scene and he didn't want you to be distracted by his presence. He had flown in yesterday, with permission from the Duffers, to the south of France so he could surprise you on set of their new horror movie.
The movie was about a young mother named Bliss who inherited an old château after the death of a great aunt she never knew. Your character was adopted by a loving family in America after her parents died and she grew up knowing nothing of her biological family. Bliss, her daughter, Hailey, and Bliss' older adopted brother Marcus all came to the south of France to clean and sell the house, not realizing the house holds a creature known only as the Boogeyman until he starts to terrorize them.
It's been a long couple of months but from the video calls you've done he can see that you've been having a blast filming. He was glad he had convinced you to audition for the role, and had even helped you film your tapes. So when your agent called on behalf of the Duffers for the main character he pushed you to take the role, after seeing how much fun he had on the set of Stranger Things you were biting for the chance to work with the brothers. He remembered when he had to calm you one night before filming had even started.
You were excited and nervous as the time for filming drew closer. "Is this a good idea babe?" You asked as you packed your bags a week before the filming began.
"Why wouldn't it be?" Joe asked, folding a shirt for you as he sat on the bed you shared in your London flat, watching you as you paced from the closet to the bed with a few more shirts.
"It's just I'll be gone for months. You'll be all alone here and I'm going to miss you." You said with a pout as you dropped the clothes on the bed when he pulled you between his legs with his hands on your waist giving you a gentle shake.
"I know love. I'll miss you too, but this is a big opportunity for you and I would hate for you to pass on this and regret it later in your career." Joe smiled up at you, his chin on your stomach. "Besides it's not like we'll never see each other, we'll FaceTime just like we did when I was in Atlanta."
"That's true. We'll be okay. Won't we?"
"We'll be okay." Joe said with a nod. Letting your waist go he reached up, placing a hand on the back of your neck pulling you into a kiss. "Everything will be fine my love."
And he was right. You had made so many great friends and memories on this set, calling Joe every night when you got in bed to tell him all about it. The Duffers didn't disappoint with this film and you were even more excited for when the world got to see it.
"Joe! You made it!" Matt Duffer said as he walked into the tent clapping Joe on the shoulder while they shook hands.
"I did! How've you been, mate?"
"Just great! Your girl is a dream to work with! Thank you for convincing her to do this!"
"I knew she'd be perfect for it!" Joe smiled as he crossed his arms over his chest as pride swelled in him as he turned back to look at you on the monitors. Even when you were covered in fake blood and bruises you were the most beautiful thing he's ever seen.
"Alright," Matt said as he took his seat and put on his headphones, grabbing the microphone and getting ready for filming to start. "Can we clear the set please? Everyone to their places."
Joe sat in the available chair as he watched you jog down the opulent hallway away from the little girl and grabbed the prop gas can that sat on the floor. It was a large pyrotechnic scene so everything had to be perfect. Giving a thumbs up to the camera you smiled as you got into character.
"Cameras rolling and action!"
Bliss moved quickly as she poured the gas from the can down the hallway towards her daughter, tossing it to the side when it was empty and ran to the little girl grabbing her in her arms and pulling her up so she sat in her left hip while she shoved her hand into her right pocket to grab the zippo lighter.
"Mommy!" Hailey screamed pointing down the hallway as the Boogeyman appeared where Bliss had just been.
"He can't hurt you." Her mother said as she flicked the lighter open expertly on her thigh watching as the flame burst to life. Holding it out in front of her she breathed heavily as she glared at the monster in front of her.
The inhuman wail that sounded from the beast made her flinch as she gripped the lighter tightly.
"What do we say to the Boogeyman baby?"
"I'm not afraid of you!" Hailey yelled as her mother dropped the zippo, turning away clutching the girl for dear life and running out of the house as the gas caught flame and the hallway went up in an inferno.
The Boogeyman wailed again rushing down the hallway towards them as it caught fire.
"Cut! That was perfect!" Matt yelled as he watched the stuntman in the Boogeyman costume be put out with fire extinguishers by his fellow stuntmen. Getting the thumbs up he was waiting for, confirming the stuntman was okay he looked over at the others in the tent. "Check the gate."
They waited a few more minutes before it was declared a successful shot and the day was called a wrap.
Joe clapped with everyone else as he watched you high fived Grace, gave her a hug, and a wave as she walked away with her mother for a good night's rest. Grabbing the water bottle you usually use he said a quick goodbye to Matt and made his way towards you as you searched for the wayward bottle by your chair. He convinced your assistant to give it to him before filming that last shot so he could surprise you.
"Where the hell did it go?" You muttered as you searched your chair and bag for it. You just wanted to get to the apartment you were renting and shower before you called Joe.
"Looking for something, my love?" He asked as he got close enough to you holding it up for you to see when you looked at him.
"My water bottle.." You said still searching your bag for a moment before his voice registered. Your head snapped up looking at him with wide eyes as you let out a shocked gasp. "Joey!!"
He quickly placed your bottle on your chair and grabbed your waist with a laugh as you launched yourself at him. Hugging you to him tightly as he felt you start to cry. "Shh, it's okay love. Why are you crying?"
Holding on to him like a koala you buried your makeup caked face into the side of his neck as you cried. "I'm ju-just s-so happy to s-see you."
"I've missed you," Joe said, kissing the crown of your head.
"I've missed you so much." You said pulling back so you could look him in the eye. Wiping under your eyes you blinked at the makeup on your hands. "Oh shit I'm all gross and I got you all gross. This fake blood will ruin your shirt."
"I'll buy a new shirt, love." He smiled, running a hand up and down your spine. Bending down a bit he brought his lips to yours giving you the first kiss you've shared in months. Breaking away he moved his hands to cup your face and rubbed his thumbs over your cheeks. "What do you say to a hot shower and some dinner?"
"Yes, please." You nod as you move away to grab your bag and the no longer missing water bottle before you grab his hand leading him towards the hair and makeup trailer to remove the wig you had on. "I'm starving. Oh! I can't wait for you to see the apartment!"
"I can't wait to get you into that bed." He laughed following you with a squeeze to your hand.
"Oh my god!"
#stranger things#stranger things 4#joseph quinn#joseph quinn x reader#joe quinn#chocolate button eyes
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Park Chan Wook + Jeong Seo-kyeong when making The Handmaiden (2016): juxtaposes objectification with genuine representation of sex, in a way Sarah Waters said is true to her novel Fingersmith that the film took inspiration from. Male entitlement is rejected as violent and unwanted a contrast to love between women being embraced as a means for liberation. Films sex between two women as actual sex - the full-bodied, passionate union between two people, without objectifying the women by keeping a distant, neutral frame that has the body parts men want to leer at out of focus. Shows women having active desire for each other, with love and sex being two sides of the same coin for those characters, as a contrast to men's cold view of women as objects. Uses abundant POV shots and spends a multitude of scenes building up the sexual tension and emotional intimacy before going explicit. Fills the scenes with narrative motifs and symbolism, emphasizing Hideko and Sookhee as equals despite their class disparity, as well as creating the imagery that two women can fulfill each other without a man. Focuses on the women's faces, includes dialogue and lots of humor. The scenes sex are literally so emotionally charged and revolutionary for the characters they are ready to change their entire life course after - it's the only time they can be completely honest with each other, and that emotional journey is conveyed. Writes Sookhee reclaiming the Count's fake fuckboy line of "spellbindingly beautiful" with literally the most genuine emotion after seeing Hideko's *****. Films cunnilingus as equivalent, or even superior, to penetration as a sex act. Asked an actual lesbian what sex would make sense to include in the movie, and from her request includes scissoring while making the point is it's an advanced sex move. Addresses the complexity that while men can objectify sex between women, the concept can at the same time be appealing to women and it's possible to reclaim it for yourself. Visually spells out that men thinking something is for them doesn't mean it is (their entitlement leads to the men literally dying). Explicitly dismantles pretty much all lesbian tragedy tropes with intent, such as suicide/death/torture/mental institution, lesbian relationships as inconsequential or ending in betrayal, lesbians having sex with or being objectified by men. Literally makes the whole movie about lesbians reclaiming narrative tropes used against them, and has them Win Everything with the most happy ending ever.
People with gender and film studies degrees who make a living out of writing intelligently about these topics: two women naked so for men :) only men like lesbian sex, please cut to black next time bc my brain cannot comprehend anything important happened, as I associate women having sex with p*rn and nothing else :) it's "performing" for men when it looks pretty! (in a movie something is Real and not performing when it looks Ugly). we as a society can only move on from the dichotomy of lesbian dehumanization as either desexualized or hypersexualized by diving all wlw media into the pure a-touch-of-your-hand-made-me-cry-alone-in-my-room-for-10-years with endlessly obsession about chaste Gazing from a distance versus the icky icky sex stuff that only men want to see!
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tuesday again 12/19/2022
shambling along towards the new year
listening
cotton heads by caravan palace. i think this has been on every spotify wrapped playlist ive ever had. soft and comforting in a way that’s hard for me to describe. this has been part of the background music in some of the softest times of my life, winter-warm and safe and solitary noodling around on some project that involves a lot of fiddling with tiny pieces on a desk. spotify
youtube
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reading
houston thrift stores are, predictably, awash with cowboy western novels. mostly it’s every louis l’amour or zane grey possible (no thanks)
jake logan’s SLOCUM AND THE YELLOWBACK TRAIL is number three hundred and seventy nine in the series, which is quite impressive. i am fascinated when a book attempts to transplant a cowboy into an urban environment so we’ll stick with it for a bit, despite a truly horrible sex scene describing a “rigid pole”. there were no onomatopoeia sex sounds which is both blessing and curse bc the intel SLOCUM gathered during this sex scene seemed like a completely different conversation totally unrelated to the sex he was having. she simply happened to come three times in three pages while telling him everything he needed for Next Location.
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watching
saw several very beautiful movies in the last two weeks, one of which i liked very much.
youtube
Experiment in Terror (1962, dir. Edwards) has one of my favorite Mancini-composed pieces of music but i had never seen the movie it was from. a neo-noir man with an asthmatic rasp puts pressure on a bank teller and her teen sister to rob the bank by terrorizing them through various means. however, despite successfully playing on a lot of Womanly Fears (unexpected phone calls, driving at night, being alone) the fbi. this is perhaps a bit snide since it is extremely good at keeping the tension up through most of the runtime, the leads all did a good job imo— a letterboxed reviewer pointed out the villain played by Ross Martin has a certain chameleon-like quality from scene to scene and it is really arresting, he pops up in some unexpected places to great effect. a well-shot movie, just a hair longer than i wanted it to be, i don’t think any movie could survive the hype i built up in my head after loving than mancini piece so much, and was not quite the vibe i was looking for on the afternoon i finished it.
dailymotion
in a different noir with an important scene during a baseball game, Stray Dog (1949, dir. Kurosawa). everything you could possibly say about this movie has already been said. mifune is such a fucking joy to watch as a somewhat hapless young cop with a bad case of the scruples. gets his fully loaded pistol pickpocketed on the tram, sending him hither and yon during a brutally hot summer tracking down every bullet. widely available for free. fucking beautiful work of art. deeply annoying when widely acclaimed movies are actually really good
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playing
nothing new to report, nothing i want to play has been a free epic game lately. very excited that a character ive been waiting for is dropping in genshin on…uhhhhh…tomorrow? she has sunglasses. she has a gunbrella. she can call in heavy cannon bombardment. she’s just so cute
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making
one of the purposes of the tuesdaypost is to remind myself to expand the selection of things i do and my brain partially feels like sludge bc of the time of year and partially bc i haven’t fucking done anything more complicated than scrambled eggs or cleaning things in like two weeks
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Epilepticon Movie Marathon Anniversary
This is technically the 5th Anniversary of me going through and reviewing epilepsy media and, having accumulated 35 different films, I wanted to highlight 5 favorite films that I've covered. Cheers and here's to more marathons and for better rep overall!
The Sacred Disease (2016)
[Image ID: Angie from The Sacred Disease. She is a young woman with short blonde hair. She has several electrodes attached to her head and is staring off with a vacant expression. /end ID]
A phenomenal short film detailing a young woman going off her epilepsy meds and the horrors that she witnesses. The final shot still gives me chills.
The film is also free to watch on Vimeo here.
2. Silas Marner (1985)
[Image ID: Silas Marner as played by Ben Kingsley in Silas Marner (1985). He has dark hair down to his shoulders and is wearing a brown-grey suit and jacket with a grey neckerchief. /end ID]
A solid retelling of George Eliot's classic novel, this film follows Silas Marner, a cataleptic weaver, after he is banished from his church. Catalepsy, a potential symptom of epilepsy, is so rarely discussed and Kingsley sells the heck out of the scenes where he has seizures (without indulging in over-the-top dramatics) and the scenes where he's just a guy trying to survive after being abandoned by his religion.
3. One Day at a Time (1975) (Episode: Ann's Secretary)
[Image ID: Leslie, a young red-haired woman, sits at a secretarial desk, answering the phone. /end ID]
An episode from the show One Day at a Time (1975) where main character Ann needs to hire a secretary but fears that her new employee may have a drug abuse problem.
I loved this episode because it ended up subverting several of the clichés of "Very Special Episodes". Leslie is plucky and has a good amount of positive self-worth but also she would rather people think of her as a "pill popper" rather than as someone with epilepsy due to the negative stigma of being epileptic. Ann has to confront her unconscious ableism towards people with epilepsy and ultimately concedes that she can't get past it without a lot of effort on her part.
The episode felt more honest about how things really are, that a lot of people with epilepsy will struggle with and even deny being associated with the label of "epileptic" and that even people who are allies will similarly struggle with their own ableism.
4. Control (2007)
[Image ID: A silhouette of Ian Curtis (as played by Sam Riley) on stage. He's holding a microphone. /end ID]
A biopic on the life and death of Ian Curtis, lead singer for Joy Division. This film shows up on a lot of epilepsy media recommendations lists and rightfully so. Of all the epilepsy-related biopics I've seen so far, this film had the most mature handling of the subject matter, tackling difficult issues such as drug resistant epilepsy and how people can be negatively impacted by the side effects of medication.
5. Fast Color (2018)
[Image ID: Ruth as played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Fast Color. She has short brown hair and is wearing heavily worn clothes, with several tears in her blue jeans. She's walking alone down a dirt farm road while carrying a canister. /end ID]
Following Ruth, a woman with an unspecified seizure disorder that is negatively impacting her super powers, I just love that there's a superhero film out there with a main character that has seizures. That's not even representation you can find in actual superhero comic books!
Also: shout out to Electricity (2014). I've rambled about that film in the past but it always deserves more attention. A truly amazing film.
#actually epileptic#epilepsy#epilepticon#epilepticon movie marathon#stargazer rambles#the sacred disease#silas marner#odaat 1975#control#fast color#long post
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and since i know exactly zero people asked, here's an entire post on how stick season belongs to my district 7 kids and my district 7 kids alone.
starting off strong with joanna mason who frankly could have been noah kahan's sole muse in writing this shit. who will never not be the first person i think of when listenting to "orange juice," if not soley for the lyric "it made you a stranger/ it filled you with anger." the song, to its credit is largely about sobriety, but also so much so about the manner in which a person is changed by the consequences of their own actions, which here is the car crash. still, i can't help but think of the way it mirrors her situation entirely, having contributed to the deaths of anyone she held dear through speaking out and refusing the captiol's wishes. on top of that, we are left with this character who has likely grown to resent the place from which she came for what it has come to represent.
i truly feel that i probably don't even need to connect the dots between joanna and "northern attitude," but for shits and giggles, "if i get too close/ and i'm not how you hoped/ forgive my northern attitude/ oh, i was raised out in the cold." nothing, in my mind, truly captures the division we feel between katniss and joanna in catching fire like these lyrics here. and sure, joanna was never the biggest fan of the other girl, but we do eventually see a friendship of sorts, both clouded and grounded in the two womens' mutual respect for one anothers' detatched aspects, far less warm than say peeta, or finnick.
finally, "the view between villages," which, as one of the only victors we see from 7, is such a gut-wrenching song when thought of with joanna in mind. "a minute from home, but i feel so far from it." this for the woman taken from her family to play in the games, only to return, likely traumatized, with her perspective on her district ultimatley changed and forever altered by the death of cede family at the hands of the capitol. "it's all washin' over me, i'm angry again/ the things that i lost here, the people i knew." again, this sentiment of frustration at returning home and the memories it brings about. and then of course, the obvious allusion made by the literal view between villages, a perfect means of capturing joanna's new life as a victor, pulled between the capitol and her home that no longer feels like it once did.
moving on to treech (or at least the version we see in the movie) who i think is probably best represented by "halloween." i find that i can often etch out meaning in every lyric of this song when it comes to him and specifically his relationship with lamina and the way it seems to haunt him after her death and even before. early in the song we get the lyric "i worry for you, you worry for me," which i feel really digs into their initial and even lingering dynamic: the way treech moves to protect her when shots are fired at the zoo and the obvious attachment she feels for him in return. then we have "the wreckage of you i no longer reside in/ the bridges have long since been burnt." here i have to imagine the wreckage as a sort of symbolic stand in for the state lamina is in throughout the lead up to the games, with the burned bridges obviously being when he turns his back on her. "it's not halloween, but the ghost you dressed up as/ sure knows how to haunt." i have to imagine treech spends the remainder of the games, and his life sort of haunted by what took place the day coral and mizzen killed lamina, we can see it on his face, this sort of all consuming guilt, but then that lyric is followed with "it's an ode to the hole that i/ found myself stuck in/ a song for the grave that i dug," and this is really the nail in the coffin for me, as suddenly this feels like the perfect song to capture the sort of complex grief he may have felt, mourning her loss, regretting the betrayal, and ultimately laying some of the blame on himself.
now this one i feel hinges a bit more on my own personal headcannons, but i see so much of "paul revere" in treech as well. we have this kid here who does his best to sort of distance himself from the one thing tying him to his home, likely for better odds of survival, but it still feels a bit like a betrayal of his district. i think symbolically, the home represented by the song here has to be taken as representing lamina, because i cannot imagine treech would fight so hard to win the games, even leaving his own district partner if it wasn't out of sheer desperation to return. still, a lot of the imagery here certainly conjures the 7 i see when i picture the district, sort of rural and cold, with mentions of the mountains we know 7 would have (being around the washington area). but in this case i'm looking specifically at the lyrics "and when they ask me who i am/ i'll say, "i'm not from around here"," which for me conjures the moment treech abandons lamina during the arena tour and the way it represents a sort of abandonment of his previous identity in favor of survival. there's also "it's typical, i fear/ folks just disappear," which i think can be read both as the way people would likely disappear from 7 over the years due to the games, but also the way that even if they returned, it was changed.
finally, my beautiful girl, lamina, who, more than any other song on the album, captures the essence of "come over". this connection also moves a bit into my own personal headcannons for lamina and specifically her relationship with treech, but even outside of that, the song's very first lyrics resonant so deeply with her situation: "i'm in the business of losing your interest/ and i turn a profit each time that we speak," mirroring the way treech pulls away, leaving her before the games have even begun. also, we have the lyric "so when they mention the sad/ kid in the sad house on balch street/ you won't have to guess who they're speaking about," which for this girl who i think we can assume has always been a sort of gentle force makes so much sense. now we kind of get into opinions of mine, but i've always imagined treech and lamina as maybe childhood friends or cousins, with lamina being a bit better off, and therefore treech spending a good deal of time at her house when they were young (in my mind it also sort of contributes to the way the betrayal went down with lamina, who lead a somewhat easier life growing up having a lower inclination towards survival and treech having a bit of stored up resentment for the conditions he was raised in in contrast with hers). that's why for me the idea of this song is so strongly tied to lamina, beckoning him to come over, to stay the night, to take comfort in the safety of her home (tbh i might write a oneshot about this). also, the lyrics "i know that it ain't much/ i know that it ain't cool/ oh, you don't have to tell/ the other kids at school." i can totally see treech as a kid being a bit embarrased of this companion who can barely stand her own ground and lamina who knows this giving him what she can anyways because that is the kind of person she is.
also, last one i promise, but "you're gonna go far," which for me also conjures pre-games treech and lamina and the way that he likely had this idea that she would make something of her life before everything went to hell. and even outside of that, lamina to me, will always represent the lyric "you're the greatest thing we've lost," with her unabashed kindness and bravery and the way district 7 probably mourned for the quiet girl with the red hair who always had the power to do more.
#treech#treech tbosas#treech thg#lamina#lamina tbosas#lamina thg#joanna mason#joanna thg#the ballad of songbirds and snakes#tbosas#the hunger games#thg#hunger games#district 7
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Attempted listening to another podcast episode about Phantom ‘43, and once again, I could not make it all the way through.
To be fair, I made it farther than I had other podcast’s take on this movie...but yeah...
First of all, I’ll give them props for the fact that they were trying to be nice, complimenting the art direction, the talented actors, etc. But once again, this was a case of people just not fully paying attention to what is happening onscreen...and having some weird takes, if I’m honest.
I’ll start with the moment that finally made me stop listening. They are talking about the scene where Christine plays the lullaby for Anatole...and they say: “Christine is playing the same lullaby that Claudin plays, so this is why he wrote the concerto around the lullaby, because he heard Christine play it.”
And I literally stopped what I was doing and yelled “what?!” to these people I don’t know (thankfully I was alone, or this would have been awkward).
Guys.
Did you not hear Claudin say that the lullaby was from Provence, where he was born?
And Christine saying that she’s from Provence, and she’s known the song her entire life?
And Anatole saying that both Claudin and Christine were from the same district and “everyone there must have known that old folk song”?
This is kind of a huge plot point.
But now to the main thing that bugged me about this particular podcast episode. It was clear that one host was in charge of behind-the-scenes research, but he left out a pretty...significant...fact about the making of this movie. The fact that Claudin was written to be Christine’s father, but censors thought it seemed incestuous and cut it out. And them leaving that out wouldn’t bother me too much, if they hadn’t mentioned so many other things about this movie: how they originally wanted it to star Deanna Durbin, Nelson Eddy not wanting to dye his hair, designing the makeup to be sensitive for returning vets*...pretty much all the trivia you can get off of IMDb and the DVD special features...so how the hell did they miss this??
Also, because one of their main complaints was about the script...how they could have used an extra 10 minutes to flesh out the characters more...and I’m standing there thinking...they had that...they shot it...and it was cut.
And one of them had a weird complaint about the music...he didn’t like the fact that the operatic sequences were so long (which almost made me turn the episode off), that they slowed down the movie, and were pointless because the operas they were performing in didn’t comment on the story...But then he also says that there should have been more music, to again, comment on the story. I think he wanted it more like the ALW Phantom and didn’t understand that the operas aren’t supposed to tie into the story being told...we’re just watching these people do their jobs and what’s important is what’s happening around them. And that opening sequence has so much character development, how could someone say that it’s not tied into the story...just because the story of the opera isn’t the same as the story of the movie? It was such a weird contradictory statement, that was hard for me to follow (and I’m sure is tough to read, too...sorry, lol).
*And a tiny thing they mentioned about the makeup...apparently, they found a source that Claude Rains didn’t want to have a full face of makeup because he thought it would wreck his chances of getting good leading roles. And that lessening the makeup out of sensitivity to combat vet was someone else’s idea, not Claude Rains’. Now, obviously, I don’t know the full truth, because I wasn’t there (dammit), but this seems like bullshit. Everything I’ve read points towards Rains being the one who was aware of combat vets and that was the reason why he didn’t want the makeup to go too over the top. Which makes sense, considering what happened to him in WWI. And Claude Rains being vain about not getting lead roles? I mean...maybe there was a little vanity, but he was pretty much always a character/supporting actor for his entire career...and in his late forties, I can’t see him campaigning for the “romantic leading man” roles.
And they kept comparing the movie to a soap opera...mostly because there’s a love triangle.
‘Kay.
There was only one thing about the entire episode that actually brought me a tiny bit of joy...and it was the fact that Claude Rains actually studied piano and violin in preparation for playing the role.
Which I’m not sure we can take as 100% fact, as there were other questionable facts in this podcast...and he obviously wasn’t playing live...but it’s a nice thought and I’m grasping for anything positive.
One of these days, I am going to make either a massive podcast or YouTube video series about this movie. It will probably end up being 14 hours long, because I have so much to say....and I’ll be so busy correcting every single podcaster I’ve heard, that will probably take up at least an hour.
@hobbitmajora
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An old blog from 5 September 2008 which describes the writer meeting Jonathan at a performance of ‘Hair’ after he had left the show to film ‘Taking Woodstock’, including:
The show I usher for was originally set to close mid-August but it has already been extended twice. Which works out well for me and the hazard of unemployment. It also means that the lead (now that I no longer work there I can tell you I’m talking about Jonathan Groff**) had to leave the show to go film an Ang Lee movie and his replacement isn’t quite as charming.
He had the day off from filming yesterday. How do I know this, you ask? Because he came to see the show and of course he sat in my section, because awesome/famous people always sit in my section (I really lucked out with that assignment at the beginning of the summer). I didn’t notice him until intermission when I saw him sitting all by himself and realized he had been the annoying guy sitting next to the show’s costume designer whispering and laughing uproariously at everything the whole first act. Wow, good thing I hadn’t shot him a nasty “shut up!” look!
Well there he was, in all his adorable splendor, sitting alone as the costume designer had left to attend to things…
But he’s not heading for the exit. No, no. Johnathan Groff is walking straight towards me.
“Hi! How are you? It’s so good to see you,” he says and then gives me a hug. Like we bonded during the show. Like we’re old friends. Like he’s at least talked to me once before in our lives.
Planning my line? Fuck that! Not even my imagination considered this!
From where I stood there were two choices: play along or let the truth- that I’ve never talked to him before ever and think he’s very talented, not to mention the fact he’s already achieved most of my life goals- take over. No contest.
For the entirety of intermission me and this Tony-nominated, the next hot thing, golden boy of Broadway are bffs. We talk about the show, how it’s been since he left, how filming’s been, laugh when some guy comes over to talk to him and ends his “I saw you in this show, you were so great” spiel with: “My friend sitting up over there. It’s her birthday. She wants your dong.” The guy quickly leaves and my new bff laughs and confides in me, “That’s one I’ve never heard before- ‘She wants your dong.’ And did you see how fast he went back to his seat? I bet that was a dare.” …
It’s a good thing I’m 97% sure he’s gay. (It’s a vibe, a chemistry maybe… But in this show it made his character much stronger. His connection to Will Swenson’s Berger is awesome. Which I didn’t appreciate fully until he left. Sigh. If he is not gay, he is a truly brilliant actor for creating that. His replacement doesn’t have the same vibe and it makes the whole show a little weaker, in my opinion.) [He actually came out a year after I wrote this.**] Otherwise I would be head over heals in love. Such a sweet, modest, respectful, awesome person.
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What are your thoughts on Eugene becoming Captain of the Guard? I personally have mixed feelings about it. I understand that they wanted to give Eugene something to do since Rapunzel is going to become Queen. But he’s going to become Prince Consort. Even if he wouldn’t be ruling, he would still get to have input, and give advice to Rapunzel. And it just seemed weird that the Captain would choose Eugene over a bunch of trained soldiers.
I too have mixed feelings about it, for the reasons you state, and because ultimately becoming a part of the guard just doesn't seem like something he'd gel with, let alone captain. It's strange to me that he gave it a shot early in S1, and they discovered he wasn't good at it, but then made him Captain in S3. Yes, he's grown and matured throughout the series, but it's not like he's gotten better at listening to authorities since then.
And yeah, I understand, it's meant to be character growth. Eugene used to not belong there, and now he's in charge. But one would think that the job of Captain would be given to someone who was vying for it, not someone who, until that time, had shown some level of disdain for it and didn't even want it. And I get it, the Corona guard is incompetent and Eugene has been besting them at every turn for the better part of a decade, but honestly, him training them not as Captain seemed to be working out okay (in as much as he kind of left for a year and we have no indication that the training continued when he got back). Besides, the end of the movie (aka the ultimate canon that everything else must be measured against when it comes to this franchise) says that it's Max who whips the Guard into shape, not Eugene.
In my headcanon, Eugene doesn't stay Captain for very long. He gets the kingdom rebuilt, establishes a new way to be a guard, which vastly increases the competence of the troops in general, but then hands over the reins (so to speak) to Max and steps down to help Rapunzel. I see him in an advisory role, based largely upon my headcanon that Rapunzel forms a council of representatives from all the villages in the kingdom. Before laws are passed or big decisions are made, she turns them over to the council to get their input, and she relies heavily on people who are from lower income brackets and overlooked corners of the citizenship. She is determined to improve Corona starting in the gutter and working up. The upper class and nobility don't need as much help as the orphans and criminals do. And Eugene is her most trusted advisor in this department. He was an orphan. He was a criminal. He's intelligent, strategic, and thoughtful. He knows what life is like for the people in that tax bracket, and he gives the best advice on how to help them out.
Thanks to Eugene's advice, free education is implemented, available to every child, and apprenticeships are given to orphans close to aging out of the system so that they have better prospects then becoming criminals or dying. Rapunzel is already an advocate for criminal reformation, but Eugene's advice helps to steer her in what types of reformation work best with what types of mindsets.
Because Rapunzel focuses on helping those who actually need help the most, the overall emotional and economical health of Corona improves, and it becomes truly prosperous, rather than a veneer of prosperity that hides the criminal underbelly. And because she asks for the advice of the council, she also lays the foundations of democracy in Corona. I don't believe it would become truly and fully democratic in her lifetime, but that's at least in part because her changes make the citizens want her to continue leading them.
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*read horrorshow the nth time*
do you have any fav horror movies to recommend?
I've probably recommended all of these before but here we go again with the bad takes! Wahoo! OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD
The Exorcist - my most favorite horror movie ever. I don't think a lot of people find the actual spooky ghosty stuff scary (unsettling for sure) but the characters are next level and the production and acting are unmatched. Ellen Burstyn's performance as a mother losing her mind trying, and failing, to save her daughter is haunting. It also lead to me doing my best Greek grandmother impression whenever I say Dimi, so there is that.
Jacob's Ladder - an inspiration for the first Silent Hill, this movie portrays unreality as well as Perfect Blue. It's super disorienting and impactful, I watched it coming out of a project focusing on the Vietnam War and... yeah, it's pretty miserable. Although there is a lot of horrific imagery, t's a genuinely heart-breaking film in some places. The core of horror is trauma, right?
Hereditary - the ending is pretty scary, but the thing that stands out in this movie is how miserable it is. Like with the previous two I wouldn't recommend it on the fear factor, it's more of a character deconstruction through the lens of a horrifying situation. Alex Wolff's character is masterfully written and executed. Obviously I've never dealt with such severe trauma, but his response and mental decline is very relatable.
Midsommar - It's the cult movie. People say it's boring, I disagree, but it's not really scary either. More... uncomfortable. I love that the protagonist is already in such a vulnerable and destructive state. Like she's just not doing well. It's been a huge inspiration in my own writing, and Florence Pugh is lovely. Like with Anya Taylor-Joy, it was interesting to see her get so popular after being a contentiously reviewed horror movie.
Blair Witch Project - who hasn't seen this? It remains at the very top of the found footage genre for a reason, the entire thing is amazing. People say it's lost its luster with the oversaturation, but I disagree, the acting and style of the OG sets it apart.
The Witch - the first thing I ever saw Anya Taylor-Joy in before she was everywhere. Solid movie, it uses all period accurate dialogue. It's not my favorite from a horror standpoint, but the scenario alone is sickening enough to be a selling point. The dad character's actor has a nice voice, don't @ me.
Perfect Blue - there is nothing I could say about Perfect Blue that hasn't been said before, but it is a masterpiece. Watch it. If you like animation, if you like psychological studies, if you like feeling real icky, watch it. Just do it.
Se7en - more of a thriller I suppose, but it definitely works as a horror. It's up there with my faves and is another movie that's been an inspiration in my writing.
It Follows - I mention this because I was listening to the soundtrack, but its a beautifully shot film with a very strong aesthetic vision. It's the "demon STD" movie, which is dumb and imo pushes some really harmful narratives about STD's and I'd say that the far more impactful reading is sexual trauma.
Suspiria (2018) - I'm not one for body horror but there's a scene in this that just... woah. I've never seen the original but I know the new one is very different, and it's amazing. I might be alone in this but it's a shame Dakota Johnson is in such trash movies because I think she's so cute.
The Shining - another classic that must go on this list because it is, unironically, just that good. Shelley Duvall deserved better, that's a fact. That her performance was so fantastic is astounding to me. It's funny that people say that her reaction is unrealistic when that was her genuine reaction to being put in a traumatic situation. Amazing film, she is a star.
I'm definitely missing some movies but such is the way my brain doesn't work. Thank you for your time <3
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So I saw Halloween ends a couple days ago, but I wanted to wait until others saw it to make an option...
Spoilers under cut.
Honestly... Such a disappointment. I almost left the theater.
I was expecting us to get answers to questions left in Halloween kills; Why does he kill? Why is he so obsessed with standing in his sister's window? Why is he so powerful and unstoppable?
Halloween Kills is the reason Ends is so disappointing. Kills set so much up and put Michael on such a pedestal. He was an unstoppable force of evil, able to kill a whole mob by himself while taking a lot of attacks with no problem.
In Ends? Hell, not even to talk about his death scene yet, (which I will), but Michael is barely IN this movie. He's got maybe 10 minutes of screen time in this movie.
Instead, Corey takes the screen time. I'm not mad about this, Corey is an interesting character, and seeing him turned into a killer by the town was an interesting concept.
But it's not what Ends was supposed to be. It was supposed to be Michael and Laurie's final show down. Their last brawl, to settle it once and for all. It's not that, though. It's only included in the last 20 minutes because the writers remembered that was supposed to be here in the film. Such an anticlimatic end to thia 40 year long rivalry.
I also don't understand why they gave Corey and Michael some sort of teacher and student relationship. Michael has never done this before, sparing someone, let alone keeping them around ans showing them how to kill. It makes absolutely no sense. It feels like someone put their OC in the Halloween Universe to run around with Michael Myers.
And that scene in the sewer, with Michael losing his mask? I have massive problems with that.
How is it Michael can kill a whole unit of firefighters, a mob of people with weapons, but lost a wrestle with Corey? I get they're trying to show that Michael is a lot frailer and weaker after these 4 years, but he certainly looked fine killing that woman in the doctor's house, and he was just fine beating Laurie around. No, it's just a horrible scene, and completely destroys what Kills made.
That brings me to his death. Michael Myers is an infamous character known for taking 6 shots and living, surving being burnt alive, taking a whole mob of gun fire and surving, he took 5 shots and countless beatings in the mob scene... It's obvious he's hard to kill.
So why the hell did they think the solution was just to cut his arteries? That's not fun, nor is it a satisfying end to this infamous slasher. It's borderline disrespectful. Such a terrible way to kill him off. Letting him just bleed out? No, I wanted to see him and Laurie go out in a blaze of glory. But no, we didn't get that. It honestly felt like Michael just wanted to die and escape this movie. (Don't blame you, dude.)
I would have liked to see a more Freddy vs Jason approach to this final fight. Obviously not to the same degree of violence, but make these characters fight. Let them stab each other. Let Laurie go for the eyes. Let Michael put her hand in the garbage disposal. (Wasted potential) Not just a lot of throwing around and hitting heads against things. That's not fun, it's boring. It's not what this final battle needed.
The only praise I can give this movie is that scene with Corey. When Alison arrived home, and he stabs himself in the throat because he wants Laurie to look like the killer. That was great, and could've lead to something good. If it wasn't immediately forgotten about five minutes later.
Also, this movie tries to develop a relationship with Corey and Alison. It might have worked, if this movie wasn't horribly written. The script jumps around the entire movie, and I can't tell if it's been a day or if a few days have passed. I think only three days have passed, and Alison is already having sex with Corey and saying she'll run away with him.
What?
Also, every single person in Haddonfield is just insufferable. From people on the street blaming Laurie for Michael's attacks, Corey being harrased by high-school kids, snobby co workers who practically slut shame you... Haddonfield is a horrible place to live. I get why Michael stabs everyone here.
These problems, along with the previously stated just makes this movie miserable to watch. Watching this movie is like getting a sandwich that's just two pieces of bread. It's got nothing. Not even good kills. There's only one I'd point out, the one where the guy gets his tongue cut off. But that's it.
This whole movie was just disappointing. Such a horrible end to a decent pair of movies. I loved 2018 and Kills, I thought they were great despite their flaws. A breath of fresh air for the Halloween series it desperately needed. Ends just ruins it for me.
So yeah, those are my thoughts on this film. Sorry to anyone who enjoyed the film, you're free to have your opinion on it, and I'm glad you did enjoy it if tou did! I did not though, so I will not be acknowledging this movie much aside from this. It's going in my top five worst Halloween films.
#movie review#Halloween Ends#I'm so disappointed#I'm just gonna watch 2018 and Kills#I don't think I'd even want to buy this movie when it comes out on DVD#even if it has extended scenes or some shit#no deleted scene bonus would do it justice#Halloween Ends already feels like a movie consisting of only deleted scenes#so disappointing#peepaw deserved better#James Jude Courtney deserved better he didn't get paid enough for this
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that makes sense about the production value, i think what probably made me associate the two shows in my head is that they're both about supernatural creatures even though its in different ways. but more than that, when i was watching wednesday i was reminded of first kill because both shows had an atmosphere that was so.. childish? like at the same time these are shows that you're not supposed to take seriously but also they do want to seem dark and smart (and fail badly on that front) so the tone is just.. confusing and aggravating. ive told people irl about this and they also don't get it, so it is probably just a weird me thing lol
Yeah tbh it does sound like the similarities you're seeing are superficial. Definitely, both shows take themselve seriously, and you are, as a viewer, meant to take these shows seriously. It's filmed that way. A show that doesn't take itself too seriously, but also trusts its audience to understand that, and find the humour in that, does things like this:
or even an earlier iteration of the Addams family. It was charming because it wasn't at ALL serious:
What makes Wednesday so JOYLESS, is it tries to recreate the Addams Family charm in dialogue alone and not in delivery (slight raise of the eyebrows, half smirk etc), set up, tone, acting choices, and even camera, lighting (how does Morticia have a permanent light casting across her eyes? So fun!). So we just get...
It's dry, deadpan, unfunny, and she has...like zero timing or delivery skills. No emotional range (within Wednesday's character, and she CAN be played that way). Ex:
This ridiculous dance sequence could've been a fun, quirkly moment, where you're like, lol Wednesday is SO weird, but because of how it's shot, it's meant for you to say "wow, Wednesday is SO cool." But...she's not. That's supposed to be the point.
The show takes itself so seriously it won't even let you laugh at/with/for the main character. Which makes it a lot less fun, because there's literally nothing else to laugh at.
The OG Addams family is genuinely just funny, because it wasn’t taking itself seriously, but it also was just making accurate observations absent the “after school special” moment.
THAT, is how you handle the fucking weird Pilgrim stuff!
Anyway, from what little I watched of First Kill, it doesn't have any atmosphere to speak of. Like half of the gifs I see from First Kill are during the day, and it's just shot like...yep, it's day time. That's it.
Elena meeting Stefan in a misty graveyard, with the spindly trees, directional lighting, in the middle of the day...is atmosphere.
But you're right, First Kill would've benefited from leaning into how terrible it was, how mismatched the leads were, etc and being FUNNY. It's like writers have forgotten self awareness can be funny! And people LIKE funny shows! This movies is TERRIBLE, but shit like this makes it SO clear that it doesn't take itself seriously AT ALL, and it's the saving grace in hindsight.
If First Kill had at least made me laugh, I might not have hated it as much. But that's the problem with most TV these days. It all takes itself SO seriously, it's joyless, humourless, chemistry-less chaff that just makes it horrible to sit through. A higher budget just...lessens the terrible. Sometimes.
So yeah, I agree, FK and Wednesday both take themselves seriously, and are both supernatural shows, but that's really just...more coincidence, and a sign of the times of current television, and not anything that actually makes them similar to each other in any meaningful way. :)
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Lingering Snowblood: The Saga of Oyuki
Alright class, who’s ready for a fun bonus post? Waaay back in the start of this journey, we talked a little about Okiku potentially being inspired by a figure it the story that is likely an inspiration for Kin & Momo. Lone Wolf & Cub, it’s one of the most famous series of classic samurai movies. What Hawk & Chick are based on for any Bob’s Burgers fans and the TV adaptation had the actor Oda’s said their names come from in the lead role.
In that franchise, there’s a woman named Oyuki who pops up a few times. Dancer background, unassuming lady who’s absolutely deadly when pressed, tattoo used a lot like the mask, and has a calling card of taking topknots from her fallen foes. Sounds a lot like Kiku, yeah? And if you didn’t know, “yuki” means snow so we do have that shared motif. Feels like in both cases, and the ones we’ll get to, the archetype is leaning a bit on the mythological Yuki-Onna. I was wrong though, that was just the tip of the iceberg.
So...this character transcends franchises. Wano has made me really interested in jidaigeki, I’ve actually grown quite fond of them and have a buddy who’s into old Westerns so we love talking how they play off of each other. As an aside, any RPG game masters out there...go binge an old Western TV show like Tales of Wells Fargo and you will find a gold mine of session ideas! Turns out Oyuki has a pretty cool history, and yeah it includes Kill Bill.
The funny thing is...if we’re talking Eiichiro Oda’s influences, it actually calls into question what was really pushing him to dust off Snowblood. See, she is a figure in jidaigeki, but a little before his time. That’s not a huge deal, Smokey and the Bandit came out over a decade before I was born and I still thought it was a cool Sunday afternoon movie that’s stuck with me from that single viewing fifteen years ago. Kill Bill was directly inspired by Lady Snowblood, coming straight from Quentin Tarantino himself. Oda loves Hollywood and American movies, so which one really piqued his interest for Okiku?
Because y’all...the deeper we go the more obvious this was part of the inspo for Okiku. Wano’s just a big kid giddy to show his young readers all the shit he thought was cool growing up.
Yeah, I bet you know this woman’s entire deal looking at this. Proper lady right up until that short sword comes out of the parasol...though she’ll probably whoop a wave of mooks with the umbrella alone. At the end it’s her standing in the middle of a dozen dead bodies without a drop of blood on that pretty kimono. The dancer or acrobat background is really common, vengeful motivation driving her as well as lowborn origins. Gotta have some reason she’s not content to start a family and all, right?
So this 1973 movie based on a 1972 manga’s it right? Lone Wolf was a little later and Oyuki there was mostly just a one-shot appearance that they reused for a movie. Well...see, we can go deeper.
Finding stuff like this is what makes digging so worth it. See, if we’re talking beloved Okiku...the Kill Bill/Lady Snowblood inspo is missing the mark on one big thing. Kiku’s not cold-blooded or vengeful. Let’s go back to the late 60s though, the same era that gave us a pretty feminist wave of Japanese media like Attack no.1. This was a TV drama that ran for a season, Red Swallow Oyuki. Starring the lovely Junko Miyazono who’d go on to have a nice run of movies playing the same type of kickass lady. One of those by the way was Hannya no Ohyaku. Fun bonus tie. This aired in 1968, so likely influencing Lady Snowblood, and you can find the first two episodes on Toei’s official Youtube page. With subs! It’s awesome, imagine Samurai Champloo if Fuu was the badass in charge...so Bakura Town.
Where I really think this initial iteration of Oyuki shines through in Kiku is the personality. This version, she’s really cutely naive. Raised in isolation and trained to pass on her father’s sword style, but he balked at the end. Sent Oyuki away to “become an ordinary woman.” Only use the sword to protect yourself. But of course, when push comes to shove she’ll use it to protect the innocent. Yes, it does end up feeling a lot like Himura Kenshin which is it’s own obvious part of Kiku’s DNA.
I also love this idea of Oyuki sorta taking on a life of her own. It’s very Kabuki, it was a cool character concept so why not lift and repurpose. Not quite the same, but reminds me of the thing about the name Kikunojo. How it has a history as a stage name for many famous Onnagata. But seriously...watch one episode of Red Swallow and tell me that isn’t what a story with Kiku in the lead role would feel like.
#one piece#eiichiro oda#okiku#inspirations and influences#kill bill#lady snowblood#red swallow oyuki
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OUAT Rewatch: Season 2
Possible spoilers for future seasons are noted in parentheses.
Episode 2x01 “Broken”
~ The first time I saw this episode, I had not realized that the opening scene was part of it, because it starts in such an ordinary, mundane setting outside of Storybrooke or the Enchanted Forest. It is only when the bird shows up with the Storybrooke postcard that it becomes clear that this is that story.
~ I’m quite confused about the timeline of Maleficent and Aurora’s relationship, given what they say about each other and what is shown in later seasons.
~ Although a tearful reunion might have been expected, Emma’s reaction to her parents makes complete sense. It’s weird and awkward because she has been carrying mixed feelings about her parents her whole life, and they’ve turned out to people she has already spent time with, and even considered friends/family.
~ Snow/Mary Margaret is right that they have lot to talk about, but she could have at least waited until they were alone before trying to initiate that catching-up conversation.
~ Dr. Frankenstein being the one to lead an angry mob is quite ironic!
~ Why/how does Gold have a selection of women’s clothing in his shop? Does he sell secondhand clothes too? That’s a funny scenario to imagine, if people come to his shop like it’s a boutique!
~ Mary Margaret improvising a blowtorch = badass!
~ Why does Regina play ignorant when Jefferson is mentioned?
~ How/when did Gold learn that the wraith was gone and Regina survived? Did anyone tell him?
~ Mary Margaret did the opposite of Gold when her child was being sucked into a portal to another world. He clung to the world he was comfortable in, whereas she leapt in to follow her daughter into the unknown.
~ While it is sad to see them separated from Emma and Snow/Mary Margaret, it is really nice to see David and Henry finally spend time together during this half of the season.
~ This episode is pretty confusing as far as the flashbacks/flashforwards go. Did the Land Without Magic storyline happen before the Enchanted Forest storyline?
Episode 2x02 “We Are Both”
~ Considering Emma and Snow/Mary Margaret have been kind of the main protagonists of the first season, it’s interesting to see an episode where they are absent for the most part.
~ Flashback Regina has a tree-shaped pendant, probably an homage to her apple trees!
~ Gold says that portals are outside his purview, but he knew how to get his hands on the looking-glass in this episode.
~ Gold uses “love” as a term of endearment before Hook ever does!
~ It looks like Henry has been prepared for a quick getaway for a while; or maybe he used the same method to sneak out on past occasions.
~ The cycle of a child becoming like the parent they hate is on full display in this episode. Regina stops Henry from running away the same way Cora stopped her from running away.
~ It’s amusing to see Sebastian Stan and Josh Dallas in scenes together, knowing they are very different types of characters in their respective Marvel movies!
~ I wonder what David would have done if he knew what Jefferson did to Mary Margaret and Emma last season.
~ I hope Ruby or some other townsperson eventually told Snow/Mary Margaret’s about David’s speech. She would have been so proud!
~ Where did Emma leave David’s sword after fighting Maleficent, and how did he get it back?
~ David and Henry sipping their drinks in unison is adorable, and the shot of them sitting together at the counter looks like a Norman Rockwell painting!
~ Introducing present-day Cora at the end after seeing all the flashbacks is excellent. The audience spends the episode thinking that the flashback storyline was simply illustrating Regina’s past, but it was actually setting up for the future.
~ This is the first of three episodes that shows one of the main characters fighting a villain in the past, and then revealing that villain as a present contender at the end of the episode. First it’s Cora, then King George, then Hook.
Episode 2x03 “Lady of the Lake”
~ Parent-child relationships are a focal point of this show, but this episode really zones in on mothers: Snow most of all, as she gets to act as a mother to Emma for the first time; Ruth, as she meets her daughter-in-law and sacrifices for her family’s future; and Cora as she plots to reunite with her daughter.
~ Cora uses an apple idiom to describe Regina! It’s such an ordinary phrase, it’s easy to miss, but with Regina’s connection to apples, it is kind of hilarious!
~ King George using a potion to sterilize an enemy is really horrendous.
~ It’s beautiful to see that Ruth and Snow had a meaningful and positive relationship despite only having a short time to be together. Unlike in many other meet-the-parents stories, they love each other right away. That really only makes sense given that one of them raised Charming and the other fell in love with him.
~ It’s amusing to see Snow White and Princess Aurora, two classic Disney princesses, fighting hand to hand.
~ Did the group camp for the night as they originally said they would, or did they press on to reach the castle that night?
~ Henry is kind of like Emma in this episode: he has been so used to operating alone that he continues to do so when he wants to check out Regina’s vault.
~ This is the first time Henry reveals the more selfish desire underlying his original goal of getting Emma to believe: he wants to be part of the fairy-tale world and be a hero.
~ A possible clue to my question about the other worlds’ religions: most of the Enchanted Forest characters say “gods” as an interjection, but Lancelot refers to “God in His mercy.” Of course, it would make sense for Camelot to be a Christian land, since the Knights of the Round Table famously seek the Holy Grail, which Lancelot alludes to during the wedding ceremony.
~ I hope Snow tells Emma at some point about how she’s indebted to Ruth and Lancelot for her life.
~ Snow and Charming’s music motif sounds so sad as Snow leaves the nursery!
~ Cora does what Rumplestiltskin does, bottling magic.
~ The final scene uses the same cinematography device twice, having a character watch other characters interact from a distance while sitting in a car.
~ Henry moves as though he has already done some sword-fighting!
Episode 2x04 “The Crocodile”
~ This may be the first episode in which Emma, Snow, and/or Regina are completely absent.
~ Evidence of Milah’s drawing ability can be seen throughout. When Rumplestiltskin enters his family’s home, a drawing of a desert island can be seen pinned on a wooden beam. When they return, a sheaf of them can be seen on a table. Looks like Milah had been daydreaming about her getaway for a while. (I initially wondered if she drew them, or if her pirate friends drew them for her.) Finally, near the end, a portrait of Baelfire is shown.
~ Killian Jones (not yet Hook)’s first scene is wonderfully understated. If you’re not actively looking for and watching him, he could be overlooked as an ordinary crowd extra; he only has a couple lines and doesn’t get any closeups.
~ Is Rumple trying to nurse Milah’s hangover when they talk at home? That would explain why she’s in bed and he’s making her a warm drink; but she seems lucid at that point.
~ The way Milah talks, it sounds like she was thinking she, Rumple, and Baelfire could travel with the pirates, or at least get passage to another place to make their home. I wonder if Killian would have let Rumple and Baelfire come with her if she’d asked?
~ Prince Charming mining with the dwarves seems oddly fitting, like a rite of passage for him to be part of Snow’s adoptive family. And Ruby/Red Riding Hood bringing them meals is just perfect!
~ Rumple does the same thing in both storylines of this episode: he is looking for his love interest, who he thinks is in danger from another man, not knowing whether she left voluntarily or was kidnapped and held captive.
~ “A man unwilling to fight for what he wants deserves what he gets.” That’s almost like Killian’s thesis statement, a motto that he lives by. He fights hard for what he wants, whether it’s revenge or love. (Spoiler:) I wonder if his thoughts on this change over the course of the series, as he ends up being a recipient of grace, receiving much better than he deserves.
~ Killian’s devil-may-care attitude vanishes when he recognizes Rumple. He becomes dead serious when he realizes the danger he is in, and he tries to protect Milah by saying she died.
~ David and Gold’s conversation doesn’t make much sense, because David and Mary Margaret’s relationship didn’t work in Storybrooke. Rumple should have asked how Charming and Snow made it work.
~ Rumple foreshadows what he’ll later do to Milah when he says he wants Killian to feel as helpless as he did when Killian took Milah.
~ Rumple seems to project his own regrets onto Milah: they both abandoned Baelfire in a sense.
~ Milah and Belle are very different in that Milah puts her own desires first and Belle puts others’ needs first. But they have one thing in common: they both want to see the world and have adventures. It seems odd, but could be a sign of learning, that Rumple does something to grant this wish for Belle by giving her the library.
~ Killian is shown to be a true scoundrel, given the way he treats Rumple; but his defining moments in the final scenes, as he becomes Captain Hook, are just awesome!
Episode 2x05 “The Doctor”
~ Although the present-day Enchanted Forest storyline doesn’t relate much to the rest of the episode, the first scene helps to establish the horror-genre tone.
~ Emma is the one who finds Hook! I guess finding people is still what she does, but it’s also fun foreshadowing if you know how things go for them later in the show!
~ Rumple really is like Palpatine and Snoke, urging his “apprentice” Regina to go further down the path of darkness on the pretense of training.
~ “So long as you live in your past, you’ll never find your future.” Not the most original line, but significant in a show that’s all about time and the relationship between past and future.
~ (Spoiler:) It’s not surprising that it takes Emma such a long time to trust Hook, considering their first-ever conversation was full of him lying, and even lying about not lying. Also, he talks about survival from the very beginning!
~ I’m surprised that Cora amassed so many hearts even before she became a queen. What reputation did she have before Regina sent her to Wonderland? Did people outside her family know about her and her abilities? I’m guessing those hearts were of people still living, since they were still pulsing, which would mean that she had a lot of people under her control.
~ If Jefferson had seen Cora’s heart collection, did he know, when he ended up in Wonderland, that she was the Queen of Hearts?
~ Rumplestiltskin, Dr. Frankenstein, and the Mad Hatter: three different varieties of insanity. They only share the screen for one scene, but I would have loved to see more!
Episode 2x06 “Tallahassee”
~ This is the first episode with flashbacks taking place in the Land Without Magic, and the first to show part of Emma’s past.
~ (Spoiler:) The way Neal first speaks to and looks at Emma kind of sounds and looks the way Hook would. I wonder how much of Hook’s personality or mannerisms might have rubbed off on Neal during their time together.
~ Emma basically does the same thing in both past and present timelines: trying to steal something with her love interest. Given how things went with Neal, it’s no wonder she doesn’t want to give Hook the chance to betray her.
~ Emma and Hook have to dress/equip each other before climbing up the beanstalk! He gives her jewelry/armor, and she gives him his prosthetic/weapon. Kind of intimate if you think about it.
~ The name “Henry” is visible among the keychains when Neal is talking to the cashier!
~ Neal likes the Apollo candy bars, just like Henry!
~ Bad dreams are discussed in both timelines: Emma teaches Neal about dreamcatchers, and Snow tells Aurora about David lighting a candle.
~ “You’d make a hell of a pirate.” Hook is more right than he knows: Emma kind of was a pirate in her old life.
~ Emma’s jacket in the flashbacks looks sort of like Snow’s old outfits.
~ It’s interesting to see Snow acting as a mother to Aurora since Emma is reluctant to let her fill that role for her.
~ How can August say that Neal was just “caught in the crossfire”? Does he think it mere coincidence that he and Emma met?
~ When August came to Storybrooke and found out Emma had a son, he must have known that it was Neal’s. So August knew, before anyone else did, that Baelfire, son of Rumplestiltskin, was Henry’s father.
~ The giants’ home couldn’t be very well-constructed if one giant could make the stones from the roof fall just by running.
Episode 2x07 “Child of the Moon”
~ “Once one controls something, one no longer need fear it.” A fitting quote for this episode, and very in-character for Gold.
~ It’s interesting that Gold does a favor for Henry, as if he has a special care or interest for him. Does he already suspect, at this point, that Henry is the boy prophesied to lead him to his son, and then be his undoing?
~ David says that it’s been “a few months” since Mary Margaret was framed for murder. That seems longer than what’s been shown or suggested: the last few episodes of Season 1 and the first few episodes of Season 2 only looked like a few days or weeks each.
~ Interesting stuff going on psychologically with Red/Ruby in this episode, and the werewolves in general. Not sure how much I agree with the way they describe it, but it sounds similar to the concept of “eating your shadow,” confronting and integrating the parts of yourself you don’t like.
~ (Spoiler:) Belle saying “I’m sort of an expert when it comes to rehabilitation” is funny, but not really true in terms of her overall relationship with Rumple, since he has ups and downs and she is still capable of being manipulated by him.
~ I don’t like Ruby’s emotionally-driven decisions. The last one especially, deciding to put herself in the mob’s way, doesn’t make sense because she could end up hurting them in wolf form.
~ This is a really emotional episode for David, and reveals a lot about his character—his bravery, his loyalty, his faith—but I feel like it didn’t go deep into his point of view.
~ As much as I love Red/Ruby’s friendship with Snow and Charming, I wonder if another character could have played David’s role in calling her back. That showed the kind of brave, selfless love that spouses, parents, or siblings show.
~ I wish the series showed Red and Granny reconciling after she finds out the truth about her mother.
Episode 2x08 “Into the Deep”
~ I think this is the first episode that does not have any flashbacks. I’m glad, because they aren’t really needed, since the action cuts between multiple parties in both realms in the present day.
~ I had forgotten about Cora controlling the dead with the hearts she’s taken. I’m surprised that wasn’t used more.
~ Looks like there are some autumnal decorations in Granny’s diner, suggesting that it could be sometime in the fall.
~ Do Belle and Gold ever have a proper, uninterrupted date? They didn’t even get a bite of their hamburgers before Regina showed up with a crisis!
~ Henry gets a scene with three of his grandparents: his two biological grandfathers, and his step-grandmother Regina.
~ “I was born to do this.” = a nod to Joan of Arc?
~ “Sometimes being a hero means knowing when not to run into the fire.” Sounds like a bit of Mufasa wisdom.
~ Aurora finally shows some backbone and integrity in this episode. Her scene with Cora is interesting; I hadn’t realized that she was thinking about starting a new life in Storybrooke.
~ The music during Hook’s scene with Aurora sounds noble, like he’s doing a good thing and genuinely hopeful of renewing his alliance with Emma. What I’m wondering is, had he already taken Aurora’s heart by that point?
~ I like Emma and Mary Margaret’s conversation about who is to blame for everything that has happened.
~ Cora’s bird companion and Regina’s laboratory setup both look like nods to Disney’s Snow White
~ Regina and Henry’s scene may be the first time we’ve seen them have an honest and positive conversation. It’s not exactly a bonding moment, but it’s a nice change!
~ Henry and David’s moment is lovely, and feels earned now that they’ve spent time together.
~ David’s journey to find the burning room could be symbolic of the journey to the subconscious.
~ It’s nice how Emma and Mary Margaret take turns encouraging each other.
~ (Spoiler:) “You must have a death wish” is a funny line to have addressed to Hook, considering how many times he’s going to die in the show!
~ Hook really is sleazy and slippery, kind of like Rumple—or, for a Marvel comparison, Loki. You’re never quite sure when he’s sincere and when he’s manipulative, or both at once.
~ That last scene with the princesses is intense! There’s a moment when it really seems like Snow is going to kill Mulan, and Emma is already shocked. How would things have played out if Aurora hadn’t arrived?
Episode 2x09 “Queen of Hearts”
~ It’s interesting to see Hook and Evil Queen Regina meet. They’re both characters who play up their attractiveness and try to use it to their advantage when they want to entice or intimidate.
~ Good on Regina for trying to continue her upward redemption arc! And boo to Rumple for trying to twist her motivation.
~ Apparently this is when Emma finds out that Rumple/Gold knew she was the Savior all along. Did she not get that when she talked with Regina and Gold about the creation of the Dark Curse in the Season 1 finale?
~ The scroll with Emma’s name fits with both Rumple’s descent into madness and his penchant for names.
~ Henry reads the storybook to David, just as Mary Margaret did for each of them when they were in comas!
~ Rumple has said that fairy magic doesn’t mix well with him, yet he harnesses the power of the fairy dust here.
~ Why would someone as smart and ruthless as Cora leave the princesses alive in the cell? They had no further usefulness to her. It’s the same thing that happens in superhero stories when the villain leaves the hero detained or on their way to death while they go off to complete their evil plot. The only possible explanation I can think of is that Hook may have requested that she let them live, and they would probably have died of starvation in the cell.
~ The way Regina’s theme plays, so light and gentle, over Henry’s lines twice in this episode is so sad.
~ If Regina didn’t want to have any weakness, why didn’t she just rip out her own heart, like Cora did?
~ Hook did a random act of kindness! And in the middle of a battle! Repairing the wrong that he did to Aurora! In spite of all his selfishness and switching sides, he still has a shred of compassion. Also, the way he saves the satchel from falling is like Flynn Rider in Tangled.
~ Not very subtle sexual imagery when Hook pins Emma down—not only in his words, but in the way he moves his weapons down over hers.
~ All the dwarves watch over David under the sleeping curse, the way they watched over Snow!
~ Gold says that Emma needed to find the scroll so everything could occur; but he didn’t seem to know she would be able to use it to get back to Storybrooke.
~ “Maybe one day, they’ll even invite you to dinner.” Emma does, in fact, invite Regina in the next episode; and (spoiler!) Season 6 ends with everyone having dinner together!
~ How did the Jolly Roger get through the portal? In fact, where has it been all this time? Was it inside Cora’s protective bubble, shielded against the curse? Did they restore the bean’s magic at Lake Nostos and then bring it to the ship to make the portal?
~ What happened to the enchanted compass? Do they ever use it again? (Spoiler: My headcanon is that Hook later got it and used it to find Emma in New York.)
Episode 2x10 “The Cricket Game”
~ The opening shots of Hook are just him acting fabulous and slightly Byronic.
~ There are swans near the docks when Hook and Cora disembark!
~ It’s odd to cut from a Charming family scene to a flashback of the Evil Queen. Usually at least the first flashback is related in some way to the present scene—either the same character is in them, or a common item or similar situation. It would have made more sense to cut between Mary Margaret in bed and Snow White running through the forest.
~ They reused the “Welcome home Mary Margaret” banner from Episode 1x19, and added “and Emma”! I’d like to know who among their friends was so practical.
~ Emma and Regina’s conversation feels very real, like divorced parents trying to get along for their child’s sake. Regina’s music theme sounds so sad and wistful at the end.
~ This is a question I had from the pilot episode: who are the nameless soldiers who sit with Snow, Charming, and their more iconic friends at the round table?
~ When she’s looking out her tower window, Regina’s theme sounds a little more like usual, but still sadder.
~ The door between the interrogation room and the mirror room remains ajar when David and Emma go through.
~ What did Rumplestiltskin receive in exchange for giving Snow a way to test Regina?
Episode 2x11 “The Outsider”
~ Why is this episode called “The Outsider”? To whom does that refer? Greg Mendel seems the most likely candidate, but he only shows up in the last seconds.
~ It’s pretty messed up that no one notices the death of the person Cora actually killed. When the local conscience/therapist dies, everyone takes notice, but when some random guy without a famous story dies, no one comments? Do they take him out of Archie’s grave after learning it was someone else?
~ Belle is present at Archie’s funeral, even though she didn’t know him as long as the others. She really must have gotten to know everyone in the short time she’s been out of the asylum.
~ Marco/Geppetto must feel so alone thinking that both Pinocchio and Jiminy are gone!
~ Belle wears brown, for the first time, in both storylines of this episode. Her outfit in Storybrooke is my favorite of them all.
~ I love the concepts behind Belle’s flashback adventure, but they’re not super well executed in terms of dialogue.
~ Belle reminds me a little of Desdemona in Othello: she has so much love and faith, she doesn’t seem capable of imagining what horrible things the man she loves might do.
~ Smee must have gone to Hook and told him about the way to cross the town line; but Hook must have been spying on Gold if he was able to find out about the shawl and where it was hidden.
~ It’s brief and only visible through the window, but Gold’s reaction to realizing the shawl is gone is to cover his mouth, just devastated.
~ The first thing Gold smashes is a model ship! Clever.
~ Belle carries the gun so casually as she searches for the Jolly Roger.
~ Belle is extremely book-smart, but not very street-smart, and she’s rather reckless when she tries to do things on her own. The safe, smart thing would have been to tell Gold her hunch, or at the latest, when she had found the ship. But I wonder if she kept it from him because she did not want him to confront Hook himself.
~ Did Hook see Archie leaving? Did he simply let him escape?
~ Emma finally shows a desire to be with her parents!
~ It’s strange that Belle isn’t more disturbed by Hook’s revelation that Rumple killed Milah.
~ “Why do you think anyone who’s gotten close to him has either run away or been killed?” It sounds as though Hook believes Baelfire ran away from Rumple.
~ “Your [heart] is rotten.” / “You’ve no idea.” Does that mean Hook believes his heart is more rotten than she thinks, or not as much?
~ Does Hook have an actual death wish? Twice, he tries to goad Gold into attacking him, knowing that he can’t defend himself against magic.
~ How did Hook get to the town line so quickly, if he was walking and Gold was driving?
Episode 2x12 “In the Name of the Brother”
~ Who called Emma and her parents to the scene of the accident? Are all three of them on night patrol?
~ Emma is very sensitive to Hook’s circumstances: she notices him after the accident, diagnoses his injury, and has the presence of mind to tell the hospital staff to hide him so Gold can’t get to him. When she sums up the situation to him, there’s a note of genuine concern in her voice.
~ “If I had to pick dead guy of the year, I’d pick you.” Foreshadowing on multiple fronts!
~ Emma and Hook give each other such nasty smirks!
~ Greg Mendel’s ringtone is Star Wars music! I guess that was allowed after Disney purchased Lucasfilm.
~ “We don’t let go of people.” Interesting line, especially for Frankenstein!
~ Cora snooping around Regina’s house is actually such a mom thing to do! Did she need to see a picture of Henry so she could impersonate him?
~ I did not notice until now that Henry’s bedroom is full of clocks!
~ Cora knows exactly what Regina has always wanted to hear from her. But she stops short of an apology for killing Daniel, and she doesn’t exactly apologize for forcing Regina into a loveless marriage, just says she shouldn’t have done it.
~ I laughed at Regina referring to “Emma and Henry and the two idiots”
~ Cora says they see Regina as a snake, but Cora is really the one acting like Satan, sowing doubt and convincing her that she can’t make things right with the others.
~ What became of Gerhardt Frankenstein? Did he die at some point before the Dark Curse?
~ That high tinkling music sounds eerily like “Rock-a-Bye Baby”
~ Even in hospital, Belle still wears yellow and blue!
~ Belle smashing the cup is heartbreaking! You can see how much that crushes Gold, like shattering his hope.
~ It’s odd that Ruby and Belle both have several scenes but don’t interact with each other in this episode. Ruby is later shown to be aware of Belle’s situation. Did she not try to check on her when she arrived?
~ Gold seems to be looking at Henry when he threatens to kill the whole family!
Episode 2x13 “Tiny”
~ Hook seems to be done being a “gentleman,” as he said he always is. Is it because he’s no longer with just women, as he was in the Enchanted Forest for a while? Does he start making innuendoes about Mary Margaret just to irritate David and Grumpy? Is that his way of making himself feel powerful?
~ How was Cora able to abduct Anton? Did he come down the beanstalk, or did she go up?
~ Hook seems to slip away when Anton attacks David. Did the others simply forget about him? Shouldn’t he be in either the hospital or the jail?
~ Ruby continues to play the role of delivery girl for the sick!
~ James is dressed like an attractive villain, similar to Hook: black clothes, low V neckline, necklace.
~ The Jack introduced in this episode seems to be a different character than the one Hook described to Emma when they went up the beanstalk.
~ Jack slayed the Jabberwock!
~ Emma really does act like a daughter, or daughter-in-law, toward Gold during the airport security scene. In that moment, he’s not a wizard or the local miser, he’s just an old man who needs reassurance.
~ Cora must have had the mushrooms to make Tiny small, and then big again, because she brought some from her time in Wonderland.
~ The way Emma and Henry look at each other after Gold leaves clearly says, “What are we going to do with him?”
~ Why is Tiny’s small size the one he now reverts to? Does it not wear off the way the growing mushroom does?
~ How did David manage to hold Anton’s weight? And how does Anton come up before him?
~ The dwarves seem to accept Tiny as one of them, with an axe and everything. So why didn’t he accompany them for the rest of the series? Did the actor lose interest, or did the writers not know how to include him?
~ The sound of the plane taking off is an effective way to show Gold’s increasing anxiety!
Episode 2x14 “Manhattan”
~ Milah is sewing Baelfire’s shawl in the first scene, and later he’s wrapped in it as a baby!
~ I appreciate that Hook is still moving like a man who was injured in a car accident.
~ Gold seems to think that Henry has already fulfilled his role as the boy who would lead him to his son, since Henry brought Emma to Storybrooke.
~ The Seer could have overheard the soldiers call the saddles “cows,” so it’s not much of a confirmation of her clairvoyance.
~ Neal and Snow both have lines, addressed to their significant others, about never having to see each other’s face again.
~ If Emma thought she could still bring Neal to Gold, how did she think she could keep him from meeting Henry? Did she think they could be introduced without them realizing the truth?
~ Why does Gold think who his son loves is pertinent information? Would he have used that against him?
~ Does Gold really think he could beat Emma in a physical fight? He’s shown that he can be brutal even without magic, but he still has a bad leg, and she’s much younger than him.
~ The fact that Neal came back to defend Emma, after spending his life hiding from his father, speaks to how much he cares about her.
~ Having the scene where Rumple meets his son right before the scene where Neal meets his son is brilliant.
~ The Greg Mendel scene should have been at the end. It feels like a random interruption in the midst of so much drama.
Episode 2x15 “The Queen is Dead”
~ How are they not suspicious of the package arriving on Snow’s birthday? Cora is one of the few people who would know that date.
~ Having Hook emerge from hiding and reclaim his hook is a great way to end the teaser!
~ Why couldn’t Regina and Cora just use magic to dig, instead of a shovel? And that conversation was way too convenient—were they trying to be overheard, so Snow would look for the dagger?
~ Emma, Henry, and Gold must have stayed somewhere in New York overnight and met up with Neal again the next day or two.
~ I’d forgotten how violent Hook and Emma are to each other: he pushes her aside to attack Gold, and she hits him in the head with a fire extinguisher. And she locks him up again, this time in a storage closet.
~ Why did Cora impersonate the Blue Fairy to talk to Snow White? Why did she want to give her that candle? What did she expect Snow to do? Did she want to darken Snow’s heart, or cause a particular person’s death?
~ Snow losing her mother as a child is even more tragic knowing that she was the one with her mother when she died.
~ King Leopold’s absence in this episode feels off—not that it mattered to the story, but that it’s out of character for him not to be present and involved at his wife’s death and funeral.
~ There might be an inconsistency about how much time passed between Queen Eva’s death and Snow’s first meeting with Regina. It wouldn’t make much sense for Cora to wait long to arrange the meeting after the queen’s death, but in Episode 1x18 King Leopold says it’s been years and that he’s searched the land for a new wife.
Episode 2x16 “The Miller’s Daughter”
~ Mary Margaret is holding an apple during her first scene. Why is that, when their family, in general, does not like apples, and she has a negative association with them due to Regina?
~ How and when did Regina and Cora tap Mary Margaret and David’s phones? Must have been after Emma gave Mary Margaret the news about Gold’s son, since they don’t know about that.
~ Regina says Henry would never forgive Cora; does she mean for killing Gold? But Regina doesn’t yet know that Gold is Henry’s grandfather.
~ Cora speaking to Regina about never bowing is first time she actually comes across somewhat sympathetic.
~ Past Cora adds a rose to her hair—a nice nod to her future as the Queen of Hearts!
~ This episode kind of ruins the timeline that was described in Episode 2x02. Prince Henry said that Cora knew Rumplestiltskin long before he met her, and it sounds as though Cora’s relationship with Rumplestiltskin lasted a fairly long time for him to teach her magic, to the point of her calling him “master,” and eventually meeting newborn Regina.
~ “You’re selling off your own flesh and blood” is a strange line to give Cora, who basically sold Regina into a loveless marriage for status and revenge (and did more, as season 3 reveals).
~ I like how the ridiculous boast about turning straw to gold comes about, starting as a jest in their verbal sparring.
~ The look that David gives Neal after being introduced!
~ I don’t like the way David talks to Mary Margaret, saying she has to “stay” pure of heart, as if she doesn’t get to choose for herself.
~ It’s nice to see that Henry is still optimistic and encouraging toward Emma, despite being angry and distant with her after finding out she lied to him.
~ Cutting from “You won’t let her get away” to Cora being trapped in the tower is pretty effective.
~ (Spoiler:) Cora questioning the “firstborn child” clause is more significant knowing that she had already given birth to her first child by now. Did she think Rumple would want Zelena?
~ Gold and Emma have a mentor-student moment, probably their first real one—and it ends with him praising her!
~ It’s cool to see Regina and Cora using magic in sync. But what did Emma, Neal, and David expect to accomplish against them with just swords?
~ Rumple encouraging Cora to use her bloodlust to fuel her magic explains a lot about her.
~ When he shows his face, you can see they did a good job of casting young Prince Henry; he does look very similar to the old man.
~ Cora and Rumple’s relationship is so twisted and toxic … and yet, it rings true because of their similar motivations. It’s completely based on their tendency toward darkness, a sharp contrast against his relationships with Milah and Belle.
~ How was Mary Margaret able to get into Regina’s vault? Does she not have any locks or protection, even after living in hiding there?
~ Emma’s theme music is played twice over Mary Margaret’s scenes; it sounds so eerie and ominous when she takes out Cora’s heart!
~ Interesting that Cora took to heart (no pun intended) the advice of the king she hated.
~ Rumple’s three greatest loves are on display in this episode to compare and contrast: his destructive love with Cora, his wounded relationship with Baelfire/Neal, and his pure love for Belle.
~ Emma and Neal both struggle—particularly in this season—with forgiving their long-lost parents for giving them up.
~ Neal and Rumple’s scene after the phone call is wonderfully realistic: there is still anger, but also love on both sides, and it’s as close to a reconciliation as they can expect to have at that point.
~ The worst thing Mary Margaret does in this episode isn’t using the candle; it’s tricking Regina into being the instrument of Cora’s death. That whole conversation in the vault, Mary Margaret manipulates Regina, weaponizing her desire for her mother’s love.
~ How powerful can protection spells be if Cora and Regina are able to break through them so easily?
~ Cora actually seems regretful when she says that any baby she has will not be Rumple’s.
~ Did no one in the royal court have any issue with Cora, a princess by marriage far down the line of succession, declaring that her daughter would one day be a queen?
~ Cora’s last moments are so tragic, because all at once she feels the love that she should have had all along for Regina, and she realizes that love “would have been enough.”
Episode 2x17 “Welcome to Storybrooke”
~ The orange car is such an appropriately vivid contrast against the dark title card!
~ This episode is a fascinating exploration of Regina’s psychology in both the past and present.
~ Did Mary Margaret give her students the exact same lesson about birds every day for 28 years?
~ Is Gold being genuine when he talks to Regina, asking her to give up her feud? Does he really care about her happiness or Mary Margaret’s life?
~ Regina’s reaction to Owen is so sweet—it’s probably the first time anyone has shown her unsolicited kindness.
~ When did Regina get Kurt’s phone number?
~ Regina tearing her mother’s clothes is powerful.
~ Gold and David, too, can apparently just walk right into the vault. But Gold makes more sense because his magic is so powerful.
~ Gold’s take on Cora and Regina’s different reasons for being dangerous is interesting. Which is more dangerous, being too led by your heart, or not letting your heart lead you at all?
~ Henry is acting in the role of a prophet again, calling everyone out and reminding them who they are (supposed to be).
~ Neal can understand exactly how Henry feels about his evil magic-wielding parent. Henry’s idea to get rid of magic is strikingly similar to Baelfire’s original goal to rid his father of his power.
~ “He’s your son!” In that moment, Neal realizes exactly what that means: Henry can be just as deceptive and conniving as he.
~ Greg Mendel crossing paths with Henry is more ironic when you know that Greg’s goal is to destroy magic, which is exactly what Henry is trying to do in that moment.
~ You can hear Greg’s phone camera go off as he picks up Henry’s bag. That must have been when he figured out Henry was Regina’s son.
~ Regina actually let Owen go in the end, rather than trying to use his father as leverage or have Graham restrain him. Maybe, on some level, she did care about him. At the very least, she realized she could not force him to love her—and she has the same realization about Henry in the present day.
~ Why was Storybrooke visible to Kurt and Owen at the beginning, but not later? Did Regina do something to change that, like a cloaking spell?
~ I know Regina had a lot on her mind in both episodes, but she must have wondered who Neal was and why he was so protective of Gold and Henry.
~ Mary Margaret’s bookcase has clocks lined up across it, like in Henry’s bedroom!
~ Gold’s advice to Mary Margaret is phrased in such a way that it sounds as though it hasn’t worked yet for him.
~ They did a good job of casting two actors for Greg/Owen. They have very similar faces.
Episode 2x18 “Selfless, Brave and True”
~ Neal wears his coat and scarf like Henry!
~ One minute Emma is bemoaning the fact that outsiders are coming to Storybrooke, as though Tamara is a threat; the next, she urges Neal to tell Tamara the truth about where he comes from.
~ Snow White listening to “Reputation” while doing archery … is one form of self-care.
~ Where did the abandoned trailer come from? Was it always there as part of the curse?
~ Neal and the Blue Fairy/Mother Superior don’t interact, but their scene with August/Pinocchio may have been the first time they saw each other since she gave him the magic bean.
~ The scenes that connect this episode with ones before and after don’t have much setup/payoff within the episode. For instance, Henry hasn’t been shown pulling away from Emma the last few episodes, but she decides to talk to him after seeing Geppetto/Marco and Pinocchio/August reconcile. And we don’t see any of Regina’s thought process prior to her conversations with Greg Mendel.
~ Greg and Tamara are each separately shown using their phones a lot—and there is one time Neal looks at his caller ID and says “It’s her,” like she’s labeled on Greg’s phone!
Episode 2x19 “Lacey”
~ Neal is so into his swordfight with Henry! He may not have much practice, but he really throws himself into being a dad when he finds out he is one.
~ At first, Gold seems to respond the same way everyone else does to Belle’s claim that she saw magic, like he’s gaslighting her; but he’s not. He acknowledges that she’s been through a lot and been under the influence of drugs, but he doesn’t say that what she saw wasn’t real, he just assures her that it will become clear when she remembers.
~ The flashbacks of this episode show just how horrible Rumplestiltskin was to Belle when she lived with him. That period of time was mostly glossed over in “Skin Deep.”
~ I don’t know what’s funnier: David making a pun of Dark One and Don Juan, or Gold’s claim that “Don Juan was nothing before he made his deal with me.”
~ It makes sense that the first thing Emma does after learning about the beans is to read Henry’s book. (Spoiler:) The sentiments she expresses in this episode are fleshed out more fully in the second half of Season 3, particularly in the season finale.
~ Gold wears a blue pocket hanky on his date! And while it’s painful to watch Lacey’s behavior, he is so adorably happy when she acts like the Belle he knew!
~ Rumple takes the Sheriff’s tongue so effortlessly. Was that a nod to the BBC Robin Hood episode, “Sheriff Got Your Tongue”? Can Rumple do that with any part of a person’s body? That’s terrifying.
~ I’m surprised Rumplestiltskin didn’t already know Robin Hood’s name.
~ Belle basically plays the angel on Rumplestiltskin’s shoulder. It’s heartbreaking to see Lacey become the devil on his shoulder.
~ “You are not the kind of man to leave a child fatherless.” Ooh!!! He has probably wanted to hear that for centuries.
~ David driving all the dwarves in the back of his truck is so familial!
~ Emma and Neal seem to do pretty well with co-parenting.
~ I wish we got to see Henry becoming friends with young August/Pinocchio!
~ Neal says one of Emma’s characteristics is, “You don’t stop till you find what you’re looking for.” What Emma is really looking for—now and throughout the series—is a happy ending, only she doesn’t know what that would look like. (Spoiler:) Perhaps it's intentional that the next scene brings back Hook!
Episode 3x20 “The Evil Queen”
~ Why are David and Mary Margaret talking about something so sensitive in a public place?
~ I knew that fisherman was … well, fishy, given the way the camera focused on him.
~ Funny that Emma bumps into Tamara, kind of like Tamara did Neal. Did Emma do it on purpose?
~ Regina seems to have such a warped perception of herself and her capacity for good or evil. Does she truly not recognize how she has earned the name “Evil Queen”? Does she really believe all her actions are justified? Does she truly think Snow is evil, after living with her for at least a decade?
~ Rumple was the one who caused King George’s kingdom to go bankrupt!?
~ I’m not a fan of when shows wipe characters’ memories so they can have interactions without any consequences. In this episode, it happens in a single scene!
~ Is Hook being sincere when he talks to Regina about Cora? Does he actually feel bad for her and want to help her win?
~ It’s interesting that Hook shows an understanding that revenge is an end, not a beginning, and that he’ll be empty without the pursuit of that goal. In that sense, he may be more mature than Regina, who has always put her revenge first and was angry that it did not satisfy her.
~ Did Hook ever meet Maleficent, or did he just piece together what Regina had said?
~ Did Regina saving Snow really have such a profound impact on her faith in people’s goodness? That’s rather ironic, and if true, Regina’s descent into evil should have shaken some of Snow’s faith, because it would have been an upending of her understanding of people in general and Regina in particular.
~ Emma and Henry doing a stakeout together is great to see, harkening back to Season 1. But she’s not setting a very good example for him by breaking into hotel rooms and teaching him how to give a warning signal.
~ This is the first time Henry has seen his parents argue, and you can see how awkward it is for him, but it’s also kind of sweet that he finally gets to experience that.
~ It’s significant for Henry to tell Emma that he believes her. For one thing, no one believed him about his fairy tale theory, so he knows the feeling. For another, he now trusts her not to lie to him again. (Spoiler:) Sharing that ice cream is the last peaceful, happy moment they have together for a long time.
~ Giving a stranger a weapon and the instruction to stay behind her isn’t really smart of Snow.
~ Such a strange interaction between Regina and Snow at the end … Regina leaves her alive, which is good, but how can she insist upon her own goodness when they’re standing in front of the village she slaughtered?
~ (Spoiler:) “The one thing I excel at is surviving.” Hook saw this as a characteristic of his all along!
~ Hook takes no pleasure in the way Greg and Tamara taunt Regina, and he actually looks kind of concerned at the end.
Episode 3x21 “Second Star to the Right”
~ Pulling in the story of the Darling family is a great way to transition to Neverland, which so far has been mentioned but not explored.
~ This show chooses odd moments to use title cards to establish time and/or place. There’s no need for “London, England” when they just showed Kensington Gardens and Big Ben.
~ It seems Baelfire/Neal began his thieving career at the Darlings’ house!
~ Wendy is one to talk about “unusual” names: there were hardly any Wendys before the publication of Peter Pan.
~ Odd to have Hook, the one-handed guy, be the one to restrain Regina. She may not be able to use magic, but she’s not afraid to use physical violence, as seen the time she hit Emma. Did he threaten her with his hook to make her comply?
~ Mrs. Darling deciding to take Baelfire in without even knowing his name … is fast, but fits with how the Darlings adopt the Lost Boys at the end of Peter Pan.
~ “Never underestimate the power of a guilty conscience.” Interesting words coming from Gold!
~ Mary Margaret’s emotional state must be really bad if she can summon a tear so easily.
~ Emma tells Tamara that Regina is missing, as if Tamara knows Regina, but as far as Emma is aware they haven’t met yet. She would only have been a name on Tamara’s list.
~ The music at the end of Emma and Neal’s scene is so pretty and sweet—such a contrast from the usual emotional tone of the show. The music usually evokes wistfulness or suspense.
~ Interesting that Greg and Tamara’s feelings about magic are similar to Baelfire/Neal’s, except that they want to destroy it while he just wants to stay away from it.
~ It��s nice to see that Baelfire/Neal got to be part of a decent family for a while. He’s experienced parental love in the past, but his time with Wendy, John and Michael is his first experience of sibling love, and he proves himself a wonderful big brother.
~ The way the lights go out is like when Tinker Bell arrives in stage productions of Peter Pan.
~ Wendy and Emma both experience losing Baelfire/Neal in this episode. But it’s different than when Rumplestiltskin lost him through a portal, because now Neal is urging them to let him go, sacrificing himself so no more families will be broken. Only he doesn’t see that they will be broken because he won’t be there.
~ Regina wakes up the same way she did in the flashback in the previous episode, startled by Snow/Mary Margaret pressing a compress to her face.
Episode 2x22 “And Straight On ‘til Morning”
~ This is the most Hook-centric episode so far. Up to this point, he’s been seen mostly through the eyes of other characters (Rumple, Belle, and Emma). In this episode, he has multiple people, at multiple points in time, asking him about who he is and what motivates him.
~ “Well aren’t you quite the hero?” Hook doesn’t know how true that will be!
~ Even with Lacey influencing him to do evil, Gold deciding to kill Henry makes no sense with Neal back in his life. Why would he inflict that pain on his son?
~ Hook says, “The things we do for our children,” so knowingly, like a father!
~ I love that Grumpy cares so much about Belle!
~ I wish we got to see Sneezy getting his memories back. His brothers must have missed him over the last several weeks, while they’ve been working in the fairy dust mines and beanfields.
~ There are soooo many layers to Hook and Baelfire’s conversation at the helm! Hook must be thinking and feeling so much—obviously calculating about his revenge, but also thinking about how Rumple and Milah both abandoned Bae in some sense, and how he had a hand in Milah’s actions.
~ Hook has to watch the Charmings’ family discussions twice, and you can tell he’s uncomfortable.
~ The idea of sending the wraith and the failsafe through portals to other dimensions actually isn’t all that selfless. They don’t know where they are sending those dangers. The wraith attacked Philip when they sent it through. They are basically passing their problems on to strangers.
~ Hook’s theme music sounds so sad and reflective when he’s contemplating his choice.
~ (Spoiler:) Was “I’ll track them down in Hell if I have to” foreshadowing the Underworld arc?!
~ Hook looks at Gold so icily when he realizes they’re going to be working together.
~ Once the six of them are on the Jolly Roger, the heroes and villains automatically congregate to opposite sides.
~ Hook’s expression when he says they’re going to Neverland = he knows better than any of the others what kinds of trials they’re in for.
~ Are they actually helping to steer the ship, or just hanging on to parts of it for the ride?
#Once Upon a Time#ABC's Once Upon a Time#OUAT#OUAT analysis#OUAT commentary#OUAT reactions#reactions#Once Upon a Time reactions#analysis#commentary#episode analysis
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If you got a chance to make your dream film with an unlimited budget/resources what would it be?
Oh God what a question, I have so many big ideas for stuff I'd want to make, most of which are not movies/films but TV shows instead, like the crazy complicated high concept sitcom dissection series I've been drafting, or the numerous ideas for reboots or continuations for already existing properties I have like a queer poc lead reboot of Firefly that I've only created character bios for, or the original prequel TV series I have a pilot outlined for Vala Mal Doran from Stargate SG1 about her time before she joins the team but after she's no longer the host of a Goa'uld, or the live action reboot of American Dragon Jake Long that exists purely in my head, and I have an idea for a Joker style stand alone tragic romance movie for Mr. Freeze and Nora, that I've completely outlined and have started writing a screenplay for
But I think if someone were to approach me today with this offer, there's one movie I'd make in a heartbeat. I have finished screenplay about two high school seniors, a second generation Chinese boy named Jin and a darkskin black girl who just moved to the area named Shirley, falling in love in the 1960s in that liminal space where school integration had just started, but interracial marriage was still illegal federally in San Fransisco Chinatown. It's a period piece romance filled with all the tropes of the genre with many lingering shots on their hands with their fingers almost touching but not quite, a scene with their own version of prom and another scene on a ferris wheel where they talk about running away together, a bubbly lesbian best friend character that acts as their wingman, the forbidden/secret romance they develop etc etc.
I love the characters in that script so much, I have such an emotional attachment to them and to their story, it's a bittersweet story that I personally think the phrase "two ships passing in the night" was invented for (do not judge me but the song The One by Taylor Swift was literally such a big inspo for their romance, there were days while I was writing this screenplay that I just put that song on repeat to get me in the zone because that song was literally written for these characters and if I was to make this movie that song would HAVE to be included it is literally their song I'd make it into their theme song).
I wrote the screenplay after being inspired by this tweet
And I even incorporated those pictures into the story, having Shirley and Jin take pictures in a photobooth at a fair and then the end of the movie has a closeup on their pictures that fades into the real life pictures of couples from that time as the last frame of the movie.
Now, I'm going to talk about Jin and Shirley as characters because they are my babies and you should know about them.
Jin is the second son of Chinese immigrant parents who own a laundromat. His older brother is the disowned family disappointment whose failures loom over Jin's every action. Jin's parents want him to become a doctor, but he's the loner character archetypr that always has a book in his hand and he even has a journal always on him that he writes quotes down into that touch him in some emotional kind of way. Jin is Shirley's manic pixie dream girl and he is very happy being so. Shirley tells him he should be a writer one day and he laughs her off thinking it's an absolutely ridiculous idea because he'd always been told by his parents that he was going to be a doctor and that he had to make money and that he could never end up like his brother, but she doubles down basically telling him it's obvious that writing would make him happy and the first thing Jin ever wrote was a sonnet for Shirley. And throughout their relationship he is always writing her poems and notes and little things that he slips in her locker or her books or into her hands at the end of the day after he's walked her home, because he always walks her home, because he always asks her at the end of the day if he can walk her home and at the end of their story he promises that for her, he will never stop writing.
And Shirley, my sweet, soft-spoken Shirley, she's the oldest child and about to be the first in her family to go to college. She's a math genius that I may or may not have taken some inspiration from the West Computers of NASA to write her character. She's the logical left-brained counterpart to Jin's manic pixie dream girl energy, she even tells Jin outright that it would be a bad idea for them to be together, but then she's the one to kiss him first after he saves her from a group of bullies. There are a lot of references to princesses and damsels in distress and princes and knights in shining armor, with Shirley telling Jin he is not her prince or her savior and she absolutely doesn't need him to be and him saying of course he isn't but if there's a time when he can take a punch for her he will every time. Shirley starts the film shutting out her emotions and focusing instead on the logical side of things, but as she slowly starts to fall in love with Jin she opens herself up to her feelings and emotions, and just as she inspired him to become a writer he inspires her to use her mathematical genius to become a programmer, (since at the time it was a relatively new career that seemed to be the career that the female computers were starting to move towards instead). Also Shirley has a very strong relationship with her family, it's a lot more loving and supportive than Jin's, but she still keeps their relationship a secret from them out of fear that this could be the thing that takes all of that away. She has a scene with her little brother when he walks in on her and Jin kissing, that is like the biggest turning point in terms of her journey with her emotions. In the end, she's the one to walk away first, but she's also the one that makes sure the two of them will never let go of each other in some way or another.
Anyways, I've probably rambled on about this movie for long enough and I doubt this film will ever be made and if it is it'll be years before that ever happens. I really wrote this script because I have always wanted to write a movie where an East Asian man is the handsome charming love interest and a darkskin black woman is the soft instantly loved beautiful main character in a romance movie, because these two groups of people almost never see themselves in those roles and they have never both been in those roles in the same movie which I personally think is a crime. This film will probably be my Magnum Opus if one day I have the money and ability to make it, because I love it so much and I would make sure that that love is in every single frame. The genre and the story itself is kind of cliche and played out and it's nothing like EEAAO or the big Blockbuster superhero movies with big effects and high concept sequences and storylines, but it's something soft and sweet and meant for people to see something new and different in a genre so familiar and done to death that is meant to make you feel like you've just been given a tiny glimpse at this one moment in the lives of two people who could have existed in the past with an emotional journey that I ultimately want to leave the audience with a sense of bittersweet longing and maybe one day it will
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Barry: the wizard (4x06)
I was legit terrified that kid was dead on the couch. Yikes.
Cons:
I think Jim, Janice's father, is one of the least rounded-out characters on the show. He kind of exists to be this ultimate threat, constantly hiding in the shadows. And that's... fine, I just always like it better when Barry's own actions directly lead him into danger. And I get that that's happening here, because he murdered Jim's daughter, but I still wish there was a tad more meat to his character and his motivations. A father wanting vengeance for his murdered child makes perfect sense, but what else does he have going on?
Pros:
Everything with Sally and John home alone was... pitch perfect in how insane and scary it was. First the chilling ennui of John's sadness at being left alone with his mother, and Sally's attempts at mothering quickly pivoting into drugging her child into a stupor so as to put them both out of their misery temporarily... God, it was just awful to watch. When Sally was trying to wake him up from the couch and he wasn't moving, I was super scared he was going to die of alcohol poisoning or something. Terrifying.
And then even more terrifying, we've got the figure all in black following Sally around, locking her in her room... I love the way they shot that, because for a split second I thought the figure had slammed the door while inside the room, trapping Sally alone with the mystery person, but then instead it was locking her in. The circumstances of what exactly happened here are completely obscure to me. As John wakes up from his deep stupor on the couch, it's to hear his mother talking on the phone to Barry, leaving a message, asking him where he is. The mysterious assailant could be anything, from a crazy hallucination of Sally's, to vengeance from the guy she choked in the bathroom at the diner, to someone from Barry's past coming to haunt them... it's really not clear, and I love how messy it is. Frankly I was just relieved Sally was unable to figure out how to load a gun properly.
Meanwhile, Barry is listening to religious podcasts about the nature of sin, literally hunting through different talks looking for a justification for committing the sin of murder. This is so twisted, I love it. He's not willing to abandon his new belief system, his new framework of goodness and morality in this world. So he has to find a way that killing Gene Cousineau fits into that framework, and he'll bend and twist and shape it however he can to make that happen. Finally he gets that justification, only to see that Gene's grandson has come home, just as Barry was about to go in and kill him talking to his son, Leo.
But something Barry doesn't know? Gene isn't here to cooperate and tell the story of what happened. He's here to kill the movie project, because he doesn't want Barry immortalized, and he doesn't want Janice's story to be treated with disrespect. He claims he's a different man than he once was, no longer the narcissist who would have loved a project that painted him as a hero. The nature of this show is that it's difficult to know how much to believe him. His apology to Leo for shooting him left something to be desired, just kind of an "aw shucks, glad you didn't die" thing, although he does say he'll be making amends for the rest of his life. It's so difficult to know how much he means what he's saying!
Barry ends the episode trying to creep into the house after Cousineau, but he gets grabbed by Jim, who has him tied down in a secure room. Dun dun dunnnn.
The last subplot is of course Noho Hank's. We see that he's formed a company called "Nohobal", and that Fuches, released from prison, is there to join as security. Hank's business has a legit pedigree to it, but he's clearly still playing dirty with the way he runs things. Fuches makes the mistake of congratulating Hank on getting rid of Cristobal, which makes Hank kill the deal and threaten to kick Fuches and his men out of their nice digs, that Hank offered to them.
This is so true to Hank's behavior over the whole course of the show, that he would keep pushing forward even after tragedy, but he would try to build a narrative in his head about how the business started, paint Cristobal as a tragic hero who was killed by Hank's enemies. Hank gets praise for the sand pit thing, and takes that praise gladly, while mythologizing Cristobal's death and painting this picture of himself as a grieving supportive partner, fulfilling his original vision. It's a lie, but a comfortable one to justify the grand life he now finds himself living.
I can't believe how insanely close to the end of this show we are now. I truly have no idea where all these characters are going to be at the end of the show. What is the ending for Barry that doesn't just continue a cycle of violence, or leave him dead? Does it exist?
8/10
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