Fandoms vary, but big ones include Avatar: The Last Airbender, Carmen Sandiego, DuckTales, Loki, Once Upon a Time, Star Wars, Tangled, and Voltron: Legendary Defender. Read my stories on FanFiction.Net and Archive Of Our Own.
This is also very much the case with Hadestown, which begins and ends with the endeavor to tell the same story of struggling for change and healing, holding on to hope in spite of failure.
Despite all appearances, both Keith and Lance were pretty up there in terms of grades. Neither of them hold a candle to Hunk or Pidge, but they were good enough to easily stay in the Garrison— which is absolutely not an easy thing to do.
Keith was ahead of Lance, which was why he was in the fighter program while Lance was in cargo. The gap between them wasn't enormous, so when Keith dropped out/got kicked out, Lance was pushed through to fill his spot.
Pidge doesn't just sneak up to the roof, they study there a lot. If caught, she'd say it's because there's nobody to bother her, but really it reminds her of spending time with Matt.
Hunk used to be Lance's body double/accountabilibuddy because there wasn't shit getting done if nobody helped him keep his brain accountable.
On the above note, Lance gives strong ADHD vibes— actually very smart, but with self-worth in the negatives and god help him if he failed at something he was usually good at.
Keith's competitiveness was usually enough to motivate him to study (that and not wanting to waste the opportunity that Shiro had given him), but Shiro also used to sign off on extra flight sim time for him when he did particularly well.
I also like to think about the sorts of electives that the Garrison had; they were probably suited to the kids who might not make the space program but who maybe had the skills to become military or commercial pilots. So things like meteorology, air law, general aircraft knowledge...those sorts of things.
The beast doesn’t need to transform to be loved. He doesn’t have to turn into a boring fucking prince to be loved. Or renounce to the essence of who it is. To me love is not transformation, love is acceptance and understanding.
I get that there are a lot of monsterfuckers who insist that the Beast in these stories doesn’t need to become a Prince in order for there to be a happy ending. But that is not true. It’s important to remember that in most versions of the story the monster is not who the Beast really is. He’s under a curse; one that prevents him from expressing his true self and from interacting with others. Beauty’s love for him is what breaks the spell because by piercing through the false form and seeing him for who he really is the curse loses it’s power. It’s a story of love triumphing over ugliness and loneliness, of how anyone can become beautiful and worth knowing if they are given love and are seen for who they are on the inside.
The Beast was never really a Beast. He is a Prince. The only thing that love really does in the end is turn him back into who he always really was, and I find it ironic that a lot of the people who insist that they love the prince for “who he really is” can’t accept his true self. They couldn’t have missed the whole point of this fairy tale any further if they were doing it on purpose.
If you think about it, Belle saying, “I want you to stay in this cursed form that you clearly hate because I personally find it hot” would actually be kind of awful. Like, imagine if you were horribly ill or something and your partner kept discouraging you from trying to get better because they had a fetish for whatever was wrong with you.
Or, from an entirely different point of view, the people saying that the beast isn’t the Prince’s true self are only half right. The beast *is* who he is, not as in he just happens to look like that, which is the angle that the “Belle should accept the Beast claws and all” idea is going off of; his beastly form is the externalization of his character flaws. So within the context of the story’s themes, if Belle were to love the Beast *for* his beastliness rather than in spite of, it would be symbolic of enabling his worst tendencies rather than encouraging him to better himself.
Actually that might be an interesting story idea. Say that the Beast meets a girl who accepts him *exactly* as he is and loves his beastly traits, and the story starts out looking like it’s going to be your typical fairy tale deconstruction where the thing that was bad in the story is *good* now, actually. Then it turns out that the Beast giving in to his Beastly nature is not a good thing for anyone, and the whole thing could be a metaphor for how accepting someone doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be on board with anything they do, and that calling them out when appropriate does not mean you don’t love them, and in fact can be an expression of love when done kindly, since you want the person you love to be the best person they can.
If JJ & Co. had Rey and Ben sharing more intimate moments throughout TROS, instead of having them constantly fighting each other every time they connected through their bond, then maybe this sweet moment:
wouldn’t have been so surprising for those in the audience who chose to forget that The Last Jedi happened (the movie where their bond was explored–and used a better way– and we were able to see that they care for each other…”you’re not alone”/ “neither are you”/ “you’re nothing..but not to me”/ “you’ll turn…I’ll help you”).
I don’t know about anyone else’s experience in the theater watching this for the first time, but for me, at both of my screenings of TROS the audience started laughing awkwardly when they kissed. And it made me so mad! But at the same time, why shouldn’t they have felt like it was out of place when JJ had them fighting literally throughout the entire movie and gave them only one moment where they weren’t:
but even then we only got the force healing moment and Rey admitting that she wanted to take Ben’s hand, directly after another epic fight between these two.
Sorry JJ, but apparently some people needed more than that one moment to remember these characters actually really do care for each other deeply. It really didn’t help advance the romantic element of their story to have them constantly fighting up until their last scene together. I FEEL LIKE WE REALLY NEEDED TO SEE THAT MISSING “BUT I DO” SCENE! Maybe then people wouldn’t be saying that the kiss was merely just a “thank you.”
For sure, the lack of those intimate moments in The Rise of Skywalker (and the fact that they killed Ben) is one of the reasons why I didn’t care for TROS too much and felt the movie was just OKAY… these two characters really regressed from where they were in TLJ–making them feel OOC, and I definitely didn’t come out of the theater feeling satisfied with that ending!
Not only that, but it seems like we still need to defend ourselves–that Reylo was ROMANTIC–even though we got Reylo being canon in the film after all these years! Had they taken more care with their storyline, I feel like it would have been a much better film and maybe would have prevented a lot of the laughter I heard during that scene and maybe could have convinced those who didn’t think so before, that Reylo was actually a thing in this trilogy.
One of favorite things about Reylo is their intimate understanding of each other throughout TLJ.
Rey's loneliness and desperation for belonging isn't resolved by finding Luke. Instead, it only gets worse after she meets Luke. She quickly becomes disillusioned with Luke but finds belonging in the least likely person, Ben Solo.
She goes from shooting him on sight to becoming angry on his behalf to wishing she could take his hand and be with him. That's ALOT of relationship development, and it's handled brilliantly.
I'll always love TLJ especially Rey in this movie. She's equally soft & feral which is amazing. She wants to fight both Snoke & Luke BECAUSE OF HER LOVE FOR BEN & HER DESIRE TO HELP HIM. IT'S PURE STAR WARS GREATNESS!
I'll never get over TLJ or BVS lol they're both underappreciated masterpieces.
This is not an “I can make him worse” book. It’s a “we can make each other better in the face of tremendous pressure to do otherwise” book. I promise.Â
I’ve already written extensively about my love for Charlotte Brontë’s Villette and while I love lots of other Brontë books with all my heart, what I really want to do tonight is try to make you fall in love with Emily’s Wuthering Heights (generally the most divisive Brontë novel among modern readers) the way that I did.
The thing that a lot of people don’t know which I really think ought to be printed on all the dust jackets is that the BrontĂ« sisters were the daughters of a revered. They were PKs and it totally shows. Â
So Wuthering Heights is not a romance; it’s a family tragedy. Specifically, it’s an astonishingly hopeful book about generational trauma.Â
This is SO helpful! I read Wuthering Heights for the first time about a year ago, and did not know what to make of a lot of it, though I was glad that it ended on a hopeful note. Thanks for sharing these insights!
I fell in love with Les Mis right before the 2012 movie came out. I've read the book, seen the stage musical, and watched the anime. But I hadn't watched the 2018-2019 miniseries until this week. It was interesting to revisit the story and see a new take on it, with some parts I appreciated and others I thoroughly disliked. Spoilers ahead!
General thoughts:
~ The cinematography is excellent! There are some truly beautiful shots, especially in the countryside.
~ The casting was a mixed bag. They did a great job finding child actors to play the younger characters at different ages; they really looked alike. Ellie Bamber and Erin Kellyman were excellent, though it was funny for me watching this after seeing them together in Willow. Maybe I’ve just seen him play too many distasteful characters, but I find it hard to buy Josh O’Connor as Marius. Enjorlas’ actor did not impress me; he looked nondescript and unassuming.
~ It was fun, for me, to see how many actors I could recognize from British movies and TV shows! Did the showrunners for The Crown recommend a bunch of their actors? I doubt the actors recommended each other, since most of them didn’t actually interact with each other on the show.
Episode 1
~ The opening scene does visually what Victor Hugo’s section on Waterloo does with words: it is massive in scope and detail, but only a very small portion is relevant to the story being told!
~ The idea of Marius’ mother bumping into Cosette’s mother on the street is so tantalizing!
~ Nicolette is the unsung hero of the story!
~ Javert’s “interrogation” of Valjean feels kind of pointless. All it does is establish a bit of Javert’s backstory, and I find it hard to believe that he would share that with Valjean.
~ I like that this adaptation shows how beautiful and lively Fantine is before Felix leaves her. It manages to make him even more hatable, because Fantine voices her doubts about Felix’s intentions, and it’s clear that he knows about Cosette but does not care about leaving them.
Episode 2
~ I don’t think two colleagues/work acquaintances would start debating nature versus nurture on their first meeting!
~ Watching Gillenormand dress Marius up like someone two generations older and teach him to badmouth his own father is heartbreaking!
~ Having Valjean personally fire Fantine is devastating! It makes sense that he is stressed about his own situation and mistrustful of Fantine now that he knows she lied to him, and it is kind of him to give her some extra money; but his telling her “Find some other employment” shows that he has no idea how hard that would be for a woman in her situation, after having her reputation smeared.
~ I can’t imagine Javert would hold that conversation with the chief inspector while so many other people were around.
~ I’m glad Fantine’s coworkers recognized her and went to Madeleine for help!
~ The show’s writers seem to have Javert’s motives and order of actions mixed up. Here, he seems to suspect that Madeleine is Valjean from the very beginning, and that that was why he chose to come to Montreuil. In the book, his suspicion only begins with the cart incident, and he does not make his accusation until the incident with Fantine tips him over the edge. His decision to resign doesn’t make as much sense with the order of events changed. And it seems like he is telling Valjean about the trial as a test, but that does not make sense unless he has some belief in Valjean’s integrity and desire to save another man from the fate intended for him.
~ Valjean, don’t be stupid! You can’t trust the supervisor to do what’s in Fantine and Cosette’s interest!
Episode 3
~ I like that Valjean and Champmathieu have a moment, giving each other looks of thanks and acknowledgement!
~ Javert taking Valjean back to Montreuil just to rub his defeat in his face … that’s just petty.
~ Having the hair and teeth dealer also be the doll vendor is kind of sick. Is it implying that Cosette gets the doll made from her own mother’s hair?
~ What kind of clientele are the Thenardiers attracting, that laugh when they see her beating a child?
~ I wonder if the writers have seen the Les Miserables anime series: they’ve shown Cosette with Gavroche a couple times, and that dog Gavroche is with looks like Chou Chou!
~ Is Thenardier trying to pimp out Cosette?! As a CHILD?! I hate him even more now.
~ I can’t believe I never realized that Cosette’s nickname “the lark” is “alouette” in French! That makes more sense, since they rhyme, and in a sense Cosette is plucked like the bird in the song!
~ The Thenardiers’ scene after Valjean and Cosette leave is hilarious! As awful as they are to each other, you can’t deny that their values and ways of thinking are aligned.
~ I hope Cosette got some satisfaction seeing Valjean take down Thenardier! That seems to be what makes her trust Valjean, as she takes his hand and smiles fully at him after that! He not only takes her out of her miserable life, but overpowers her abuser. He is truly her hero.
~ I like the scene of Cosette asking Valjean if he is her papa now. That’s one well-done conversation.
~ Cosette probably picked up swears from the Thenardiers and their clients! That’s a trait I’ve never seen in other portrayals of her, but it makes sense! She has some sass in her, and for the first time in her life, she can show it without fear of being punished.
~ That skull on Javert’s desk looks like the kind of model used in phrenology, which fits with his statements about human nature in the previous episode.
~ There is a particular irony in Gavroche serving coffee to Javert, considering their later encounter!
~ I was NOT expecting Sister Simplice to appear again and vouch for Valjean! That is some good closure, for her to care for Cosette after caring for Fantine—in fact, those scenes bookend the episode. I guess they didn’t want to devote much to Fauchelevent, and it gives the sisters of the Petit-Picpus convent a bigger, more deliberate role in giving Valjean sanctuary.
Episode 4
~ Really, Javert? You get no satisfaction in your job at all, and obsess over “the one that got away”? That seems like overkill, even for him.
~ The changes made in previous episodes take away the things that cause these changes in Cosette and Marius’ lives: without Fauchelevent at the convent, there is less of a clear reason for Cosette and Valjean to leave; and by moving Baron Pontmercy’s death earlier in the timeline, Mabeuf’s revelation to Marius seems to come out of the blue.
~ I like the atmosphere they created for the Cafe Musain!
~ I’m so glad they included the “What could be greater?” / “To be free” moment!
~ What is my girl Eponine doing?! Why is she being so creepy?! Was that scene just to establish the existence of the “peephole,” which isn’t really what it is since it’s not in his door?
~ I’m surprised, and kind of impressed, that they included a scene of Cosette asking about her mother, and Valjean actually telling most of the story, even if he omits the worst parts. But the question seems to come out of nowhere. In the book there was a time when Cosette said she had a dream about her mother; that would have been a good prompt.
~ The writers don’t seem to fully grasp the rule to “show, don’t tell.” Cosette just saying “I’m lonely” is telling, not showing.
~ That is one patient man, taking his daughter clothes shopping and letting her model all those outfits. Valjean could have—and perhaps should have—let Toussaint assist Cosette, so she could have some real enthusiasm and advice from another woman!
~ Are they trying to push the angle that Valjean is actually in love with Cosette? If so, I don’t like it.
~ They have Cosette and Marius introduce themselves casually like normal people?! No slow burn or seeking out with them not even knowing each other’s name? Is this even Les Miserables without that?!
~ This adaptation subtly reframes Valjean’s desire to protect Cosette, especially from a potential suitor: he does not want her to be taken advantage of the way Fantine was. I had never thought of that until now.
~ Nooo, Marius, don’t give in to peer pressure!
~ Eponine wouldn’t just walk past Marius and plop herself down with someone else! She’d take advantage of finding him in such a place!
~ Ugh, I do not like this series’ approach to the love triangle. Marius dreaming about both girls, one turning into the other … that’s just too weird, and out of character. He’s too chaste and idealistic to think that way about Cosette (or probably any girl), and too dense to pick up on Eponine’s feelings for him.
~ I can’t wrap my head around the idea of Valjean showing Cosette the chain gang on purpose. And how can he point to the wretchedness of the convicts instead of the cruelty of their guards?
~ Eponine CANNOT kiss Marius this early! That takes away from the significance of her most famous scene! But her unabashedly asking for Marius’ scraps is in character.
~ I would expect Eponine to be able to figure out a better hiding place for her coin than just holding on to it. She could have slipped it away before showing her hand to her father.
~ I like that Cosette and Valjean recognize the Thenardiers in this adaptation, triggering Cosette’s memories of her childhood trauma. She covers her cheek as though expecting to be slapped like when she was a child.
~ Why would it be necessary for Valjean to return, in order to get the Thenardiers out of their lives?
~ Cosette would probably pray the rosary in Latin; but if not, they could have used that as a moment to include some French.
~ Does Javert actually suspect that the man is Valjean? He has no reason to; the fact that the place is the Gorbeau house is pure coincidence.
Episode 5
~ Javert is not that single-minded! He would absolutely recognize the importance of quelling revolt.
~ Did the writers/directors deliberately try to recreate the Beauty and the Beast scene of tending wounds?
~ Josh O’Connor channels Romeo (a part he played a couple years after this was made) by climbing the garden wall!
~ Gavroche being a mentor to younger urchins (even if they’re not his unknown brothers in this adaptation) warms my heart!
~ Gillenormand putting on a stern face to hide his glee!
~ Cosette yelling “I hate you” to Valjean is out-of-character for her, and a dagger in the heart for him!
~ They have Eponine’s intentions all mixed up! Her only reason for telling him his friends are waiting for him at the barricade is to lure him to his death, hoping they will both die. Why would she tell him where they are if she doesn’t want him to go and get himself killed?
Episode 6
~ Cosette looks like Juliet or some other tragic hero, lying on her bed in that pose in a red dress.
~ Gavroche wouldn’t say “It’s all over”! He’s the personification of the spirit of revolution!
~ Enjolras’ “I command you” followed by Marius’ “I entreat you” is a great bit of writing!
~ I don’t fully understand why Marius stays instead of seeking out Cosette. Is it despair that he can’t be with her without permission from his grandfather? Is it his sense of duty or honor compelling him to stay with his friends?
~ Marius seems to earn Valjean’s respect when he goes after Gavroche, tries to save him, and holds him while he dies.
~ Did they steal the idea/image of Valjean carrying Gavroche’s body from the 2012 film?
~ That’s an interesting moment for Valjean to have an attack of guilt. Who is he asking to forgive him? God? Fantine? Cosette?
~ “You’re back, sir” is one heck of a welcome for someone who was held captive for at least 24 hours and barely got out of the barricade alive!
~ What was that carriage scene with Javert and the other officer about?
~ It’s a miracle that Marius’ wounds don’t get infected while going through the sewers!
~ That shot of Javert in the carriage and Valjean’s reflection in the window almost makes them look like mirror images! Not very subtle, but fitting!
~ That is an uncomfortably long shot of Javert being emotional. Great acting, but too long.
~ How does Valjean know to call Marius by his title of baron? Does anyone else?
~ Did Toussaint end up being the one to give Cosette “the talk”? The way she acted earlier in the series, it seemed like no one had explained the facts of life to her. Is she ready to get married?
~ I like that Cosette was part of the final conversation with Thenardier, facing down her abuser and learning the truth about her father. But Thenardier went out too quietly! Marius should have thrown the money at him, or hit him, or mentioned Eponine or Gavroche, who deserved better.
~ I think Valjean should have mentioned Fantine in his final conversation(s) with Cosette.
~ Ending with that shot of the two little boys is unsettling and unsatisfying. The end of Les Mis is supposed to be the end of Jean Valjean’s life, the story of his soul’s salvation. It should be transcendent, full of grace and hope and love, even though the world is still broken and full of suffering.
I just watched the 2018-2019 Les Miserables miniseries, and it made me realize something:
Eponine and Valjean's actions toward Marius are both inversions of Thenardier's actions toward Baron Pontmercy.
~ Thenardier didn't really save the baron, but boasts about it to everyone; whereas Eponine really does save Marius, but her good deed isn't known to anyone else.
~ What Thenardier claims he did for the father, carrying him on his back at Waterloo to save his life, Valjean really does for the son, carrying him through the sewers to save his life.
many people grow up and forget what it feels like to be a child. we must remember this. we have to remember what a joy it is to play. to learn. to build connections. to grow. to experience. we must hold onto the things that awe us. we are changed by what we love
my mom taught me the therapeutic power of cleaning. open all the windows. throw out the old. wipe down the entire house. burn some incense. roast some coffee. then rest. that way the tears from last night don’t feel as heavy.Â
No it’s actually been studied and proven that for people with anxiety and depression that it’s really good for us it gives us a sense of control, setting, and being well grounded. It allows to make a new place out of the old and is really relaxing
It is such a catch-22, that cleaning when you are depressed (and likely less able to gather the executive functioning to do so) also alleviates it. After having a good clean, I always feel more in control and less stressed. It’s the getting started that is the hardest part. The good news is, even a tiny bit of cleaning has a positive effect, so start with what you can manage.
Even if all you can do is put three dishes in the dishwasher, or move the dirty laundry pile to outside the laundry door, or throw out that box of leftovers that have been sitting in the fridge for 2 weeks
My therapy professor always gets his patients to just wipe the bathroom mirror when they’re feeling that way. Just the mirror, nothing more. But then by the time his patients are done with the mirror, most of them report “well, I was already in the bathroom, so I did the sink and tub too.” And before they know it, they’ve cleaned an entire bathroom.
My therapist once told me that, every day, I should try and do at least one thing that I either enjoyed, or gave me a sense of mastery. And honestly, the enjoyment thing can kind of seem overrated, especially when you feel like crap, but the mastery thing? Doing laundry or taking out the trash or whatever else I can bring myself to accomplish?
do what you can, forgive yourself for what you can’t, and challenge yourself to do better tomorrow (and it’s okay to fail at this; just try again the next tomorrow)
The first weekend of the coronavirus lockdown, I used my time indoors to organize my closet and the kitchen drawers. My roommate pointed out this was a good way to cope with all the uncertainty.
It's kind of like the Serenity Prayer: in the midst of circumstances you can't change, cleaning is something you can change.
JackieStarSister @jackiestarsister - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
