the bones of the earth are strong like mine

she/her, 22+

[jediorderdefender]

shoutout to wake the devil and hellboy (2019) for showing that when told he could get more in touch with his biology and do powerful things, hellboy would rather not think about that. working for his adopted dad is enough; the supernatural is the backdrop, the profound thing is living in the present

[jediorderdefender]

the ending of a movie can make or break its own messaging. the end of fight club, for example: two mentally ill people holding hands as buildings burn around them. one of them is literally at fault for this. they don't make one another better, they aren't even really in love, don't have those hopes for one another's futures or even wellbeing that you get when you love someone. but them holding hands is the image we're left with, sending the message that the chaos you cause brings you romantically closer to others. and take ex machina: we're meant to believe that the robots we see in this movie deserve the same rights as people, particularly as female robots, and i certainly think that that's true. but they aren't given the complexity, particularly the moral complexity, of a human—and that's not the characters' fault, but the movie's. i believe that the movie is about a full person, who is treated as nothing more than an object of affection (as real women often are), and that it's about taking a second look at our real society and how likely it is that this is exactly how it would play out for us. so, if the ending is about leaving a man who is aiding you (not for all the right reasons) to die, what am i supposed to take from that as far as the movie's stance on this real phenomenon goes? what are this movie’s thoughts on how this situation can be managed? even if a movie wants to leave something ambiguous, its inability or unwillingness to provide commentary may also be sending a message.

[jediorderdefender]

rorschach is the best watchmen character and that’s true even if you ignore the fact that i like redheads and men whose moms abused them. he’s the best because it’s his strong opinions on the world that make him incompatible with the world. caring about the world is what makes him hate it—and it hate him. he doesn’t want innocents to suffer (like he did). he doesn’t think publicly behaving in a sexual manner (like his mom did) is morally okay. and he doesn’t know how to get anyone to stop doing any of the things he doesn’t like, because how could anyone know how to do something like that. violence is all he has and violence is not enough to effect change and violence will never allow him to be free from his pain. “no. not even in the face of armageddon. never compromise” is so profound because even survival isn’t more important to him than his beliefs, and watchmen shows that then he won’t survive at all.

[jediorderdefender]

when i say i love marvel characters i mean every professor x, miles teller reed richards, stephen dorff deacon frost, mcu mobius, mcu zemo, every namor, and evan peters quicksilver and NO ONE else btw

[bravelittlescrib]

We NEED Drow tradhusbands. House Patron from down the street making TikTok videos about how torturing underlings is a woman’s job and men need to stay in the kitchen where they belong

[jediorderdefender]

no show could ever top clone wars and yj in my life, but zeta gundam and house of the dragon deserve their spot right after for having the most complex and realistic to life characters i've ever seen. zeta gundam's protagonist is kamille bidan, an autistic boy. at the start of his arc, he will punch anyone who says he has a girl's name. but when he falls for a troubled girl (on the opposing side of the war, no less) named four, he climbs into her mobile suit to tell her that she doesn't need to oppose him, to do anything she doesn't actually want to do, and the best way he can communicate this is to be vulnerable himself. he tells her that he no longer hates his name.

gradually, kamille becomes more composed, more accepting of the way that things have to be, and a role model for other young people. and he's not the only character that goes through a gradual yet profound change. a personal favorite of mine, reccoa londe, is in love with kamille's superior (perhaps the most prominent gundam character of all time, char aznable). and not only does he not reciprocate, he is largely ignorant to anything she's going through. the show depicts numerous instances of her risk-seeking behaviors, and when things get really bad, no one on her side of the war expects it or understands—particularly the male characters. she switches sides specifically because of this, because she wants men to treat her like a woman, to acknowledge that wartime affects her differently because she is a woman. she's not saying she's less capable—she's just saying she's not the same. kamille yells at her when they cross paths in space.

and this is really zeta gundam's thing. it is overflowing with troubled female characters, who are consistently misunderstood and/or underestimated by the male characters. and kamille pulls this all together with his unrelenting empathy towards all women and girls, his difficulties seeing their struggles through their eyes rather than his, and his inability to give up on them even when it could lead to physical harm for him—and his allies. he is a beautiful person, and many of the girls are harmful people, and yet he is ignorant. i cannot overstate how obsessed the show is with this and i cannot overstate how validating it is for me.

house of the dragon does a lot of amazing things, but i think the two things it does best are a. explicitly depict the female experience and b. have incredibly complex and sympathetic male characters, who the narrative at times critiques for how they deal with the women in their lives. major spoilers incoming.

this show intentionally has so many birthing scenes—to show the mortality risk, to show that women are expected to immediately bounce back into politics after giving birth, and to show how different men approach the risks. this show depicts the complex relationships between women who share many of the same hardships—some of whom respond to it differently, some of whom are given different opportunities, and one of whom isn’t privileged like the others and is in my opinion the best female character in the show: mysaria. she’s a former prostitute, and her arc is about giving up on even trying to make money in a different way that men will respect more—they will never respect her any more. she says “i might as well have remained a whore” and it carries so much weight in the context of her life and in the context of every woman in this show’s aspirations.

the first man i want to speak about is daemon. he is fundamentally a man who loves his brother, the king, and loves his heritage and the traditions that come with it. he marries his niece, the future queen, because of this. he is also a man who cannot be controlled. he is ambitious and cruel in his attempts to help his family rule, sometimes to their great detriment. even his wife isn’t sure if he’s doing it for her or for his own claim to the throne. but he IS doing it for her. he was married twice before. the first woman wasn’t of his blood, and he killed her. when he realized that the second woman, more of his blood, wouldn’t survive the birth of their next child, he allowed her to die at the hands of her dragon as she willed. for daemon, it’s not about women, it’s about heritage.

but i also want to speak about criston cole—for him, it IS about women. when daemon initially pursues his niece, rhaenyra, she reciprocates only for him to end their hookup early. rhaenyra loves daemon, more than she will be able to express for many years to come. she is jarred, and she has a friend standing guard outside her room when she returns home—ser criston, who she picked out to promote, giving him the highest rank anyone of his family has ever had. she initiates sex and he is never the same. when he proposes they run away together, she says she has to marry for politics, but that she would love to still be with him and has no interest in her future husband. and the idea of being her whore is so damn hurtful that he ends up beating her future husband's boyfriend to death, in the middle of a crowded dance floor, then later preparing to quietly kill himself outside. alicent, rhaenyra's childhood best friend and now her stepmother, stops criston. his tendency towards righteous loyalty is used on alicent, now, and when the king dies, he begins hooking up with her. he's a terrible knight and he knows it. he's a man who hears what he wants to. one of my favorite quotes of all time is his: "or perhaps all men are corrupt, and true honor is a mist that melts in the morning."

what's so great about zeta gundam and house of the dragon's male and female characters is that the narrative never hides their corruption from us.

[jediorderdefender]

my dream superhero movie would be the klarion the witch boy movie, of course. set it in space. have it be absolutely absurd and visually stunning. don't put any earth heroes in it. i don't want to see even one. have teekl die; play "the light behind your eyes" by mcr

[jediorderdefender]

the loki show and eternals are the best things the mcu has ever done and wonder woman 1984 is the best thing the dceu did. the loki selfcest was necessary for this version of him to contend with his narcisissim, eternals being completely separate from the larger storyline of the other movies was necessary for it to be grander in a more introspective way, and everything that max lord brought was necessary for the movie's love of the truth to shine. one only need look at things for what they themselves are actually trying to do

[jediorderdefender]

i have an issue with pretty much every comedy movie that doesn't have owen wilson or please don't destroy in it. i enjoy comedy; seeing demetri martin live was a highlight of my life. but i don't enjoy when the funny thing is that the deadbeat white man is redeemable because he has a good heart, even if he literally never gets called out the whole movie, so how could he have gotten a chance to change. i don't enjoy when the funny thing is that things are being thrown and cars are running into each other and when the biggest revelation is that people are stupid. i don’t enjoy ryan gosling being in sci-fi movies, bringing his trending 21st century humor to space with him

[jediorderdefender]

what makes a good ship

A second tier list on another big topic! I have mostly left behind participating in fandoms, but I will always be a shipper and I will always think romance is one of the most fascinating things to write about.

There are some clear types of relationships in my top tier: Sasuke x Karin from Naruto and Rico x Dizzy from Starship Troopers both feature an aggressive but loyal woman whose man needs her, but doesn’t pursue her. This dynamic is great because it’s all about the woman. It’s her love and abilities that are making this work, and it calls attention to the very real phenomenon of a man not giving a shit even in the presence of someone who is making sacrifices for him. And I mean, he doesn’t have to. But the story is about her willingness to do it, and his decision to respect her skills and keep her company while still not giving her anything of himself.

Another type includes Valerian x Laureline, John Carter x Dejah Thoris, and Jerid x Lila from Zeta Gundam. These are space opera couples who work better together, and where the woman convinces and motivates the man to be better, and truer to himself. (This is my shit 🤭)

Some other sci-fi favorites of mine include Isaac x Claire from The Orville (who I’ve written about in this post: https://www.tumblr.com/jediorderdefender/804479881124741120/as-a-shojo-manga-fan-and-a-rom-com-fan-the-best), Syril x Dedra from Andor (who are an evil, socially awkward, kinky, and alone-in-the-world pair that are given the weight of representing the minds of fascists), and Ender x Novinha from Speaker for the Dead (he hears about what she goes through when she’s young, and he loves her before he even arrives to help her—when he reaches her she’s no longer receptive to help, but he does so expertly anyway). These three ships are so special in part because the unique qualities of the individuals directly add to how good the romance is. Isaac being an artificial life form, Syril being a loyal failure and Dedra being obsessed with order, Ender being cruel in a kind way and kind in a cruel way and Novinha being a stubborn, outcasted woman who’s protective over a dead man she couldn’t marry—these traits are WHY their partner loves them and they affect the dynamic between the two, in a way that’s strangely enjoyable for them.

I have some Star Wars comics pairs in my first tier and some in my second tier: Cade Skywalker and his two main love interests respectively are in the top tier, because the way he approaches love and/or sex is so unbelievably messy—but written in a way that never makes anyone’s emotions seem unjustified. Tholme x T’ra Saa (my beloveds <3) are also top tier because they are THE BEST example in all of Star Wars of a Jedi romance—they explicitly discuss their differing lifespans, and they approach that and their romantic bond in an open, measured, and understanding way. In the second tier is Quinlan Vos x Khaleen Hentz, who are similar to Sasuke x Karin and Rico x Dizzy, only Quinlan knows a good thing when he sees it. And Kit Fisto x Aayla Secura is another great romantic bond between Jedi, and an interesting exploration of how two different species who both have lekku might connect, they’re just less relevant to Jedi lore than Tholme and T’ra Saa.

My favorite shojo manga dynamics, in my top tier, are Ayumi Shimura x Misaki Takaya from Hatsu*Haru and Ayane Yano x Kazuichi Arai from Kimi ni Todoke. Ayumi Shimura is a bit of a deep cut, but she is actually the best shojo manga character of all time. She is a curious girl who likes knowing the reasons for things, with a bright and bubbly demeanor, and with both a lack of understanding for other people and a more overarching understanding of humanity than others have. (She is literally me.) She is the strongest character in the manga and the most untraditional shojo girl I've ever seen. She doesn't even know if she's capable of love. In the end, she falls for a popular but quiet man who has only ever been interested in his step-sister, who loves her for the things that other people find hard to deal with. It's a gradual fall. In the end, she realizes that love isn't something she is able to make sense of or quantify. She simply feels love for him that she cannot deny.

Ayane Yano and her teacher, nicknamed Pin, do not end up together, for the exact reason that he is her teacher and too old for her. But her falling for him is a major part of her story and it impacts other interesting aspects of her personality and plot. She is a girl who is seen by her classmates as more mature than she is. They know she has boyfriends, but they don't know that she doesn't love them—she's just letting life happen to her. Pin is the first person to understand that she's a child, too. They bicker constantly. She doesn't have to pretend to be anything for him. Ultimately, Pin is the first person to fight for her, to tell her that she doesn't have to settle in life—when it comes to her academics and future goals especially. She loves him without telling anyone, but it becomes obvious. Through loving him, she learns to speak up for herself, and that her connections to other people and being able to be proud of herself are the most important things to her.

I put the other two main Kimi ni Todoke ships in the second tier, because this manga does the best job at showing complex, real-feeling, and sugar sweet characters falling in love and growing closer over longer periods of time, with every step along the way being incredibly important. I also put in Manabu Miyoshi x Ritsuko from a bonus chapter at the end of Strobe Edge by Io Sakisaka. Manabu is a side character in the manga, and I mean really a side character. But in this chapter we see that his endless positivity and energy isn't because he's one-dimensional—he's actually almost forcing himself to act and feel that way. He falls for an older girl who everyone thinks is mean, and he's the only one who knows that she's deeper than she gets credit for, too. She's exactly his type and he is very much not hers. But he wins her over, and when she gives him a goodbye kiss (their first kiss) because she's planning on going abroad, she whispers "Thank you for hanging in there" into his ear. He cries. No one ever knows but them.

More sci-fi now! Lux Bonteri x Ahsoka Tano is like a first love to me. The amount of times I've seen "A Friend in Need" and the Onderon arc should be studied. I think my soul would become whole again if they were ever together. Ahsoka having a crush on a Separatist senator's son, a dweeb, who makes her life harder and also respects her, is SO in-character. She likes to be challenged, she likes to take action, she likes being the one who is good at things. And he likes a strong woman he can admire! They're so cutesy. I'd want him, too, that's for sure. (They definitely fit the second type I mentioned.)

John Sheppard x Elizabeth Weir from Stargate Atlantis also get my heart fluttering. First off, they look amazing together. Second, they're both in positions of power (she helped put him in his). Third, her ex-fiancé didn't want the life she wants, wasn't up for doing this work. But John and her share many a quiet moment between missions and conflicts. There's such solidarity between them and they can truly share their time and goals.

Amos Burton x Clarissa Mao from The Expanse are so great because each of them are so great and their support of one another allows that to continue. Amos is the best character on the main crew; his journey is about realizing his inability to feel empathy, which is also a "flaw" that he uses to help those who are in the right. Clarissa's journey is about struggling to move forward after committing murder out of love for her evil father. They are two intense people who are both made better by working with others and having community.

For more on Sasukarin and other Naruto ships you can go to this post: https://www.tumblr.com/jediorderdefender/805913572209295360/theres-hardly-anything-i-know-more-about-than :)

I'll explain the Farnese ships from Berserk here. She is a rich woman who is introduced as having a man named Serpico in a servant-like role. It's clear they have a mutual devotion to one another, and that he accompanies her on her ventures to religiously persecute people for sexual pleasure, and probably all other ventures too. It is later revealed that she has pursued him before and been shot down, and that he is her half-brother, and that she does not know that. Her love for him and the often cruel way she grew up treating him cannot be separated from her character, but I don't think he's her best option. Guts, who she is inspired enough by to join him on his journey, along the way growing into a much kinder and more selfless woman, and who she's attracted to, is also not her best option—mostly because Guts and Casca are perfect for one another. Her having unrequited feelings for him while also caring for Casca is also a crucial part of her story, though. So, her endgame should be...

Roderick of Schtauffen, the Sailing Prince of Ys! Deservedly in my top tier. He is technically already her fiancé, but that’s just an arrangement her family made. What he is actively doing, though, is respecting her for her abnormalities, supporting the people she supports, and cheering her on as she progresses in her magical abilities. He is the man who will best be able to be present for all of the parts of her life and of her.

So yeah, as I think has become clear, I love when people get understood and accepted for their hardest-to-accept parts! And I love when people, even inadvertently, encourage one another to live more fulfilling lives. Young Justice is very much a show that’s about this—when it comes to romance, and when it comes to everything else. So its two main ships are of course second tier from the top. I also think Hector x Lenore from Castlevania are an example of this, though they are controversial. But maybe controversial dynamics and plots are part of the charm of media—part of the reason media benefits the world. While Lenore turns Hector down in the end, deathly afraid of starting a new life, their story is about him forgiving her for her transgressions and focusing on what he wanted: a quiet, writer’s life, with her protected and by his side (I’ll take that if she won’t, Hector).

The last thing I want to talk about in this post is House of the Dragon. In a future post I’ll go more into how amazingly realistic these characters are, but here I just want to say that this show does an amazing job at showing relationships between people that absolutely should not end up together, but that are incredibly important to the characters’ stories and personalities. It also does an amazing job showing couples for whom getting together and being together is complicated, but worth it in specific ways.

A good ship should be between people who make sense of who they are together.

[moved-please-leave-me-alone]

Alright your Discord avatar and tumblr avatar are locked in a closet for 7 minutes ala 7 Minutes In Heaven. What happens

[jediorderdefender]

a friend of mine and i were thinking, the ideal show would be zeta gundam politics and character arcs and gurren lagann hype, evocative imagery, and character arcs. it would redeem humanity i think

[jediorderdefender]

the main reason i think the great gatsby is a boring book is that everyone is crazy and then they're just allowed to seem way more important than they are. it's so insular and quiet and you get so sick of the fact that these are the people you're stuck with. the baz luhrmann movie adaptation solves all of these problems. the showy visuals, the kanye soundtrack, the soundtrack and sound effects in general (the freaking car is so powerful and so fast that it blows past everything like it’s speed racer; it literally makes the dishes in nick’s house rattle), nick being a canon voyeur, nick being literally within and without, the emphasis on other people in the world and on the world at large, the peak casting!

truly gatsby comes across as insane and unwell in a way that is in my opinion best conveyed through how loud, both sound-wise and visually, this movie is. the dripping wet suit! the way he pauses for a moment before kissing daisy for the first time, because he knows his whole life is being changed and his goals are being sacrificed. the way the movie says explicitly that his mind will no longer be free to roam like the mind of god—that line is put on screen as a shooting star flashes across the sky.

and the only time nick successfully writes is when he writes his voyeur story, because that’s his one thing he likes doing. PEAK!

[jediorderdefender]

what makes a good protagonist

A protagonist should help to convey the themes of the story or help to convey an interesting aspect of what it means to be alive in the world. A protagonist should not be a cliché.

Naruto Uzumaki's type of character is a cliché, but he is a collection of traits not always seen together (he's Jesus, who also acts out for attention, and who's also really horny), and his emotions are challenged when they deserve to be. Guts is silent and traumatized, but his trauma is extremely relevant to the plot and to the world, and it's never used to make him seem cool (him fighting with his sword is cool; him sleeping with his sword is emotional). Kamille Bidan is angry, but he doesn't stop at punching people who piss him off, he also applies his anger towards begging every single woman he knows not to hurt themselves. These are animanga protagonists who deserve our attention. And Farnese is only a protagonist later on in the Berserk manga, and she shares that role, but as I've mentioned on here before: she is a horny female character who, instead of being there to be hot, is there to be deep-feeling, abnormal, and self-discovering. She's a character that women deserve.

In terms of English-language sci-fi, fantasy, and superhero protagonists, we under-appreciate characters like Ender Wiggin and Cade Skywalker. Both of their stories are about the truth. In Ender's case, he brings to everyone the truth of other people's emotions and of other species. He does hard things by choice after having been forced into them originally, but he's naturally soft and just wants someone to quietly care about. In Cade's case, the truth of his own faults is thrown at him throughout the story by other characters, and these characters are people that love him and want the best for him. Rhaenyra, from House of the Dragon, is loved by many people in her life and truly supported by almost none, and the show is so special to me because it's explicitly about this.

Quinlan Vos, who like Cade is a character from Star Wars Legends comics, is an example of a Jedi who breaks boundaries without seeing his ultimate purpose as contrary to being a Jedi. This is so important in Star Wars, as the impression most people get from the way that the Skywalker Saga is depicted is that the Jedi restrict people from doing the right thing or from taking care of themselves. Osha's story, as well as those of other Acolyte characters (Vernestra, Sol, and Torbin in particular) also deepen the depiction of the Order. They show a more grounded, less epic version of what it would be like for people with power to go too far, or to prioritize the wrong things.

As far as Young Justice goes, I could have included almost every season one team member, but I chose M'gann M'orzz because she and Artemis Crock are the most complex, and since M'gann is the least relatable to the average person of the two, that makes her thoughtful depiction and how important she is to the plot and the themes even more important to me. One of Young Justice's strengths is putting different kinds of characters together in interesting ways, and making less popular or new versions of pre-existing characters its core cast. They deliberately chose to use characters with lesser-focused-on backstories, motivations, and weaknesses, and so not only do the characters fit the show, the characters enhance everything the show is trying to do.

Some characters that I don't think highlight anything as niche about our real world and lives (or anything as niche within Star Wars lol), but who I think are basically perfect protagonists, include: Hellboy, Ahsoka Tano, Utena Tenjou, Shinji Ikari, Ser Duncan the Tall, and Rodimus Prime. Hellboy is an extremely fun character in a very vibe-y world, who also has a subtle depth and heart to him. He is such an effortless-feeling character who the story completely relies on. Ahsoka is the protagonist of the best canon Star Wars content, the Clone Wars show, and she brings the perspective of someone who wants to be good at being a Jedi, but also is able to have fun during wartime, but also grows up into a more mature and more interesting person as the Jedi Order and her master are growing more arrogant and more fearful. Utena and Shinji, from Revolutionary Girl Utena and Neon Genesis Evangelion respectively, can be discussed together in my opinion. Both of these anime are heartbreaking and surreal, and these characters work well as the person whose eyes we view the worlds through, partially because of their innocence. Dunk and Rodimus, too, are less knowing than people they lead. Most of the characters in this category have the quality of being a person with a lot of heart, trying their best (and/or failing) in a world that is failing, even if they themselves don't always make as interesting mistakes as the side characters.

Now to some characters I think do not work (I’m not going to cover all of these, this IS my “not interesting” category lol): Mark from Invincible has the potential for an interesting arc, but the show moves through it too slowly, and it’s really his arc/what is just the plot of the show that is interesting, not his personality. Edward (and Alphonse) Elric are out of place in their own show; they consistently make the lore less interesting because we have to experience it through their eyes. Luz isn’t really any less interesting than other Owl House characters, but the show as a whole struggles to realistically depict trauma and stakes. Thrawn, as I mentioned in a previous post about realistically depicting trauma, the value of life, and the inner lives of characters, isn’t written about by Timothy Zahn like he’s an actual person. And I used a picture of Siri here, but Brando Sando’s Warbreaker struggles in general to show its characters actually talking, or making surprising/interesting decisions.

One of the worst protagonists possible is definitely Jon Snow. His personality gives stock photo, and he’s weak-willed even for a GOT man, yet he can survive anything and do anything and everyone loves him. It completely reinforces that all someone has to do is be lucky and handsome to deserve the spotlight. Like yeah, he’s kind. But I don’t care because he’s literally nothing else. And I think for a show to actually comment on how fucking lucky he is in an interesting way would require them to not suck him off and to give him a wider range of emotions.

Jinx being in my bottom tier is a hot take, I’m aware, but I actually think of her as the female version of the Fight Club, etc. phenomenon. We have WAY too much media about white men who are bad dads and bad partners and who only care about other white men and who, even as the story tries to critique them, are being made to seem anything other that utterly unremarkable. And I also think we have too much media about a certain type of traumatized woman or girl: the beautiful, out-of-control type. What I’m looking for instead is all the types of protagonists I mentioned in my top tier: weirder, stricter people, with more specific trauma, and who are more critiqued by their own narratives. That’s what makes a real person, and that’s what makes satisfying themes.

[jediorderdefender]

my top 10 movies as of 2025 - unmarked spoilers everywhere

Megalopolis (2024)

In this movie, the villains wave Trump flags and flags with swastikas and the hero, who at one point is accused of being the statutory rapist of a girl who made a career off of being a virgin, who it is then revealed was hiding that she's an adult, and who the hero also didn't sleep with in the first place, survives getting shot in the head because of his thing that he created, which also is the key to utopia. The point of all this and much, much more, is that utopia is good. This movie believed it so hard, every beautifully weird choice so earnest and grateful to be alive, that I believe it too!

2. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

In this movie, which is in part one of the most faithful adaptions of a source material (in this case, French sci-fi comics Valérian and Laureline, first published in 1967) of all time, and which is in part more like John Carter (beloved-to-me 2012 movie, based on the 1912 book A Princess of Mars) than the comics, Valerian begs Laureline to marry him and she says yes only when he agrees to help a species whose planet the humans destroyed directly as opposed to through the courts. She doesn't want him to die for her—she wants trust, a man more than a soldier. And her ability to love the way she does is tied to her being a woman. It would be considered feminist if it were still the 60s, and that's what's so good about it. This adaptation's weakness and its greatest strength is that it's about a couple more than anything else.

3. Starship Troopers (1997)

In this movie, tough, fiery, pining Dizzy Flores, who was a male character in the book, wins the heart of teenage fascist war hero Johnny Rico by following him around and then being the reason he succeeds. She dies in his arms. She was his most true friend. At the end, he meets up with his other teenage fascist war hero friends, one of whom is his ex-girlfriend who never loved him, and they celebrate their domination over a species that is more intelligent than humans previously wanted to believe. It is brilliant satire, it is so fucking fun, and Johnny Rico finds his confidence and self-respect. He will use it to send more young people off to kill.

4. Are You Here (2013)

In this movie, I have nothing to lovingly make fun of. It's advertised as a dramedy and acknowledged by many to be more of a drama. It is the best portrayal of bipolar I have ever seen, in fact the only good one I have ever seen. It is explicitly pro-medicine, pro-modernity, pro-the real world, pro-meeting other people where they're at, pro-trusting and respecting the people you love enough to ask them to be better. No one who is said to have bipolar actually has BPD. Not one single scene shies away from letting its characters be weird, have weird ideas, have weird feelings, have regrets. It is perfection and it is needed.

5. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Watching this movie, viewers experience the retro-futuristic, sci-fi trance version of an orgasm, which is actually just what every orgasm should be like if you're doing it right. This movie lets you know from the start, as you watch apes fighting, that it has something grand to say about humanity and won't come down to earth about it. An undeniable movie.

6. Speed Racer (2008)

Believe me, it was hard to pick just one Wachowski sisters movie, but I wanted to limit myself to one movie per director. Their best sci-fi work is Cloud Atlas (2012): six weird, intertwined stories, some centuries apart, with actors playing multiple different characters across time, racial, and gender divides, focused on the gradual progression of society, the choices individuals can make to change their lives and their worlds for the better, and how the large and small connect. But Speed Racer is even better than that. The climax of the movie is a race, of course—and Speed, who has spent the movie up until this point with his loving race car-making family and girlfriend, rejecting and exposing the corruption of corporations and healing together from the tragic loss of his race car driving older brother, falls behind in the race because something in his car needs fixing. With no one but himself, he remembers his brother's advice. He closes his eyes. He feels what the car needs. Deep in the moment, he fixes the car and goes barreling past every other racer, an explosion of color and art and stars, his family's words in his mind, and he wins without ever opening his eyes.

7. District 9 (2009)

This is Neill Blomkamp's best movie and also his best movie set in South Africa, where he was born and a place he's set multiple sci-fi stories in that address real societal issues. In this one, our main character undergoes a gory transformation into a member of the alien race that is stranded in Johannesburg, hated and oppressed by humans, due to his own ignorance when working to force them into a worse internment camp. He ultimately helps the only truly moral person, a member of this alien race, for his own selfish gain. It is a matter-of-fact, deeply impactful movie that pulls no punches. If something would be gory in real life, it will be gory here.

8. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)

In this movie, George Lucas introduces a level of lore and layers to the Star Wars galaxy and the Skywalker saga he had not previously. OF COURSE the Jedi would have a proxy they use to measure the force-sensitivity of children. OF COURSE a federation for trade might end up being important. OF COURSE there would be annoying and stupid people in the galaxy who the Jedi might have to overcome their negative feelings on. No one should EVER edit this man.

9. Paint (2023)

In this movie, Owen Wilson plays a visually Bob Ross-inspired man named Carl Nargle, who struggles with being replaceable and with being unable to put in emotional effort. But in typical Owen Wilson fashion, this also means he has a great capacity for enduring love, overwhelming sadness, and irresistible charisma—all in a quiet, long-suffering man. Set in the quaintest town with the quirkiest people, Carl Nargle is beloved, hated, and remembered.

10. The Green Knight (2021)

In this movie, which like many on this list is visually stunning and evocative, the ending of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is changed for the better. Gawain has a girlfriend back home, who by the time he has gotten to the Green Knight, he has cheated on. The protective girdle has his cum on it. He has spent the story making selfish decision after selfish decision. So the movie shows you the consequences. He's king, he marries the girl back home, they have a child. None of this is a happy time. He isn't capable of love; when they get attacked, he realizes the extent of his solitude, facing danger with others but not truly together in it. All his success can't change the emotional hole. Then, back in the present, with a chance to change his path, he takes the girdle off. The Green Knight calls him what his is, what he's earned: a knight. And then he kills him. The consequence of honor is death, and it's more satisfying than a life lived without it.

[jediorderdefender]

aurra sing has one of the best stories of any star wars character. too violent to be a sex slave, trained by the anzati even as an outsider, trained to be a jedi, ultimately failing to be kind, committing herself to using her skills as a bounty hunter, and underneath her tough exterior, somewhat regretting that she didn't get the life of a jedi, of a person who could be proud of her effect on others. few other characters have as varied experiences as her, or end up living lives as contrary to their emotional needs. and she has no real hope of remedying this, and her stories are exciting anyway. what they are really about is showcasing her very earned know-how.

[jediorderdefender]

the first 3.5 seasons of fmab have drastically less entertainment value than the last 1.5 seasons, which are more emotionally impactful, are more fast paced/have more plot, and finally state the opinions of the show on the plot. my opinion on those themes is this: for a show with over a dozen nonhuman characters, its human characters don’t really interrogate their own feelings on that/their occasional lack of empathy. al is happy to be “normal” again, the chimeras he encouraged to become normal again - so they could see their wives, which they couldn’t already do for some reason - are still wanting to do that and are seeking his help. after becoming close personal friends with and having their lives saved by multiple chimeras, being a chimera is still seen as something to be fixed. as for the homunculi, a couple of them have the intelligence of children, and all are manipulated by/relying on father. they die wanting to be more like humans and/or happier with not having to carry out father’s plans anymore. and father himself - he compares himself to a slave multiple times and just wants to exist in the world which he wants to learn about, and clearly he’s envious of this experience because that emotion is present in the sins he’s purged from himself. ed, al, and the other humans don’t really talk about this together, and they see what happened to nina as the beginning of all this tragedy, which is telling. i think this show gets extremely entertaining, but these messages are not for me. my favorite character is olivier, and my favorite scene is the one of her looking out at the snow, saying she loves it for its black-and-whiteness, and when the briggs solider with her points out the blue of the sky, looking sad. i wanted more stuff like that from her! i wanted MORE from everyone, more interrogating their own biases and limits, not just the “limits” of not being human.