kingdon is truly a generational ship, regardless if it goes canon or not, the story is right there and the fics write themselves atp. i really hope the writers don't fumble this one
I like The Odyssey well enough, but I love movies. And it's zero percent surprising that Tumblr would love Emily Wilson's LBR piece, because it's just premiere posting. Her prose fucking crushes, so many lines are absolutely killer. But I do just need to mention that it's really not film criticism. It's hardly speaking to or about the movie at all, and when it is, it's predominantly her positing that because she is not interested in what it's saying, then it's not saying anything.
I mean if you just want to take, "There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible." This line makes me laugh every time I see it, it rules. And it has nothing to do with Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey (2026).
Presumably it's coming from the same complaint well as the majority of Wilson's piece: that while the Homeric poem is a celebration of fucking around and feasting, this movie is not. But in just saying, "it's not this" and nothing more, she's not discussing or even acknowledging how sex and food are actually used in this retelling. Both are tied together in what has been widely praised among audiences as one of the most indelible sequences: Samantha Morton's scene as the witch Circe. In it, the threat of sexual violence and act of eating are linked in a commentary on warmongering rapaciousness writ large, as a part of Nolan's intently laid out thesis of the Trojan horse as a kind of atomic bomb xenia violation whose nuclear winter the whole Mediterranean is now living under. And yes the food does look horrible, because it's horror food! It's difficult to describe in words, but it's like the stew Odysseus's men are eating is turning into gristly tentacles in their mouths, the sounds of their eating ghastly and so disgusting, while Morton transforms them through....something I will not even try to describe, I've just never seen anything quite like it onscreen. Largely practical effects too, astonishing.
Not a bit of that is in that line, of course. Great line, but isn't about the movie, it's about the author.
And honestly, the author is a bit out on a limb with much of how she has actually interpreted The Odyssey (film) itself, must also be said! And not just by me, or by film critics naturally, but also other classics scholars:
Emily Wilson used baffling arguments to flay Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s poem.
I mean when early on she summarily defined the work of cinema as "light and noise" and moved on, it was pretty clear that Wilson just doesn't have a ton of respect or feeling for epic scale movies in general. Which is fine! Everyone has types of art that they don't jibe with. But you don't go to the person who's not keen on dance for a good assessment of the new ballet, negative or positive.
And if one of the things someone claims about a movie is that casting actors of color flattened all of those roles into the stereotypical "Black best friend," but not by anything that can be seen in the script or their performances, so seemingly suggesting 'we', to use her skeptical punctuation motif, should read them that way merely because they aren't white, worth a pause to consider that while haterism can be a rush to read (or write), it can also mask any number of deeply iffy assertions that could definitely stand to be questioned!
it's been three years since my editor quit and i was left unmoored to edit a project during the worst moments of my life, one that had been on hold for years because of the editor and that feels intimately connected to a big bad horror in my childhood.
i'm finally breaking the edit back open in the hopes of finishing it. i'm so tired of it not being done that i think pushing through how bad it probably is won't be as big an issue as it's felt for all this time.
i just want it done so i can move on to something else and get my shit together
i'm sorry the demonization of robby (esp on pittok) is actually starting to get both decently concerning and annoying. it's literally all i'm seeing with discussions in regards to his character. saw someone refer to him on here as "the devil himself" in a post that had 20k notes. commentary like this was funny at first, when it felt silly and unserious, but a lot of you are not joking. and that is weird. because why is this how you guys treat the mentally ill representation all of tumblr is constantly complaining they want? you finally have it. too real? too unsavory? that's literally the whole point of his character. to give a nuanced and unflinching portrayal of depression, suicidal ideation, unresolved trauma, and work related burnout that many healthcare workers experience. robby might not be real, but these vitriolic and insensitive things you say about him will impact real people who see themselves in him. not to be too extra but maybe this is why male suicide rates are so high. because this is how you guys treat and speak about men who are actively struggling.
some people are purposely witholding empathy for his character and being so critical of his actions specifically because he's a man, and that shit is really weird. and can i say it? he's not a misogynist. i'm not gonna talk too much about that even though i could write a whole thinkpiece if sufficiently prompted. just know arguing with a woman and being a little mean to them does not at all translate to misogynoir. that's just him being off-kilter and in a shitty mood (you know, because he's actively suicidal? but yeah let's just all ignore that part). in fact, if i can participate in the woke olympics for a second i think people who are labeling robby as as misognyist fit that bill much more themselves. so many people i see making this argument boil down characters like al-hashimi and mohan to the fact that they are just women instead of grown ass adults who are strong and capable of bumping heads with robby (and this is coming from someone who strongly disliked his treatment of mohan in s2).
robby is not the big bad wolf. you give him too much credit. these women are not weak-willed flowers who will crumble at the slightest bit of conflict. funnily enough, that trend of thought is super contrarian because it makes gender their sole defining trait in the discussion of their character. it also paints them as weak victims. did we watch the same show? because i saw 2 adults. who had an argument. there's no need to cry hatecrime. and i say this as someone who is so avidly feminist. we gotta stop throwing that term around. the way you guys talk about him makes him sound so cartoonishly evil you'd think he was running around the ER shaking kids down for candy or something. it'd be funny if it wasn't so disapointing.
you don't have to like him personally to watch the show (though i do think it's a bit odd not to, given he's the main character) but refusing to acknowledge the percieved complexities of his character in the "everybody is complex" show is weird. my opinion? robby is not a bad person. hell, he's not even morally complex. i see someone who has made mistakes, just like everyone else on planet earth. he's a good, genuine guy who has been ravaged by mental illness. he is just very, very lost. that's the point. that is what mental illness can do to you. he is not a perfect person, in fact, at many points during my viewing of s2 i sort of hated him. but i will always defend him, because he is not this malicious figure the narrative online is painting him as. the pitt fandom only has this attitude for him and quite literally nobody else.
also, i heard noah wyle is getting hate for the FICTIONAL CHARACTER he plays on a FICTIONAL SHOW and all i have to say is, you guys are so fucking weird and parasocial. please touch some grass. micheal robinavitch is not a real person. he cannot hurt you.
Thank you @pittangel and @club-medical for addressing how the Pitt fandom uses WOC as pawns in their little woke Olympics for clicks. As a WOC myself, it's fucking infuriating to watch mostly white girls act like these characters and real life actresses have zero agency and everything that happens is only happening TO them, and happening solely because of their gender and race. I certainly don't look at the events of my own life that way, good or bad.
It's so refreshing to watch a show populated with complex WOC who feel like real people, and to see more than one token asian woman as a series regular, to have a WOC executive producer, WOC writers, female DP, female directors, female casting team, female camera operator, female production designer, female medical consultant, etc. It's really fucking disappointing to then go online and see all the fandom discourse reduce the characters to nothing but their most superficial identities, and completely ignore all the contributions and the very existence of the female creatives working their asses off to make this show happen.
In conclusion, this fandom thinks it's holier than thou but it's actually really fucking racist and sexist.
so funny how every time a woman isn’t considered “conventionally” attractive and a bit weird or whatever people instantly put the sibling stamp on her main relationship with a man
mel and langdon from the pitt, patricia and tom from widow’s bay, garcia and morgan from criminal minds etc etc
anyway penelope is literally stupid song AND cigarette smoke
odysseus is the cure (calypso), purple (penelope), my way (circe, re: getting his men back), and what's wrong with me (this one is just because of his whole deal)
i understand him i understand christopher nolan. i too am concerned with the limitations of story and how narrativizing our lives allows us to hide from the horror of the bare unvarnished unpalatable truth and shame that we are going to have to face, since we carry it with us all the same
stormborns
ellievsbear
pixelskylines
turnnoffyourmind
dailybridgerton
areudirty
