we were meant to be sparks of light

Syn, 22. ao3. 18+ only.

[fuckyeahisawthat]

Andy is a tall, lean, broad-shouldered woman who has spent the entire era of industrially-produced clothing living with 3 dudes, working a messy job and occasionally needing to pass as a guy, so what I’m saying is they’re all used to swapping clothes all the time to the point that they don’t remember who bought a particular shirt or jacket originally, with the possible exception that if it’s fashionable it was probably originally Joe’s.

[vrabia]

this fandom has done an excellent job of unpacking the historical context + present legacy of the crusades and how the old guard shows former crusader nicky as a redeemed villain who had to work for joe’s forgiveness and trust, which is all excellent but nile freeman american marine problematic when

[vrabia]

i’m saying, in different circumstances ‘keep it respectful’/’don’t we always?’ would have generated tons of meta where it’s picked apart for nuance with the same laser-sharp focus fandom uses to examine a minute twitch of joe’s wrist in a gif set, but it has generated hmmm zero meta

[vrabia]

more meta ideas/things to consider:

1. did nile do some soul searching, realize she’s very much a cog in an imperialist machine and it doesn’t sit well with her but she can’t just get up and leave, so what she’ll do from now on is deliberately conduct herself in a way that causes the least possible harm until she’s out of the army? actually without an examination of this all her smiling/handing out candy/keeping it respectful is……little more than a ham-fisted attempt by the movie to establish her as The Goodest Marine at a point in the story when the audience has no idea if her being a marine is going to keep being relevant and that’s. not a great look

2. nile’s relationship with her father and how central the military may or may not have been there. the picture on her phone is of her father in uniform, so it must have been a pretty big deal. and there’s SO MUCH to cover here: is she unquestioningly proud of him? did she ever contend with the fact that he was a good person whom she loved but he might have done some awful things as a us soldier? did he ever talk to her about being in the military, and if so, in what terms? did she, as a kid, notice ways in which it affected him negatively?

3. nile’s decision to enlist. there’s a lot to talk about here beyond the impact of military propaganda. was she driven mainly by her wish to honor her father‘s legacy? was it because her family was struggling financially and this was the best way to support them/get access to higher education? the first one says she hasn’t thought about it very critically. the second one says, essentially, and i’m gonna need you to stay with me here, ‘my family’s well-being/my college degree is worth a few non-american lives’. which also means she hasn’t thought about it very critically because i do absolutely believe nile is a good person and realizing this would have given her pause.

4. the fact that an american audience will look at nile, see a young black woman who is very likely trying to support her family financially, and attach complex meanings and motivations to every one of these things, but to the people she interacts with in afghanistan she is (100% justifiably) a uniform with a gun. all the layers of your personality, history, beliefs, relationship collapse and get folded up into a uniform with a gun and like. at some point you have to contend with that.

5. i seriously cannot emphasize enough how gross and heavy-handed the ‘keep it respectful’ exchange is, so a discussion of that, ideally feeding back into the story framing nile as the good and noble soldier while she leads a squad belonging to an invading force into a civilian home, armed to the teeth.

the point isn’t that if you write meta about nile as a marine you might at some point accidentally imply she’s a bad person. she clearly isn’t - she’s kind, principled and compassionate. but the movie made this stupid fucking choice of putting her in the us military instead of making her, idk, a park ranger or something, and it’s such a loaded narrative decision that fandom just skirting around it is not great. but it’s also a source of inner conflict for nile, which means it’s a source of character development and especially american fans can bring a lot to it by unpacking all of this instead of ignoring it because it’s uncomfortable.

[glockgal]

Nile Freeman - The Old Guard (Marge voice: I just think she’s neat!)

[hawkaye]

Joe + humor

[piratekenway]

Aang: I am only a little boy and I just want a nap please stop trying to kill each other for ten seconds

Korra: Bitch I Will Kick Your Nuts Up Into Your Throat

[kxrxnoid]

Let them rest 🥺

[sketchyarkhive]

The river always finds the sea So helplessly like you find me We are paper boats floating on a stream And it would seem we’ll never be apart

A commission piece I did for @harrynightingales​ - and what an utter delight this was! They asked for Joe and Nicky close dancing and being in love and I am aaaaall here for it. Men in suits are always a damn fine thing, but seeing especially these two dress up for each other (maybe for a special occassion? maybe their anniversay? ;) ) feels just extra special in a way. I loved doing this piece!! <3

extra points for Nicky with poofy, styled haired a la Luca ;)

[richardmaddan]

THE OLD GUARD (2020) dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood

[sheafrotherdon]

“There’s a TV, Joe!” will never not be funny

[asterdeer]

the thing i respect about the old guard most is that it sticks to its mfing Theme. there’s a consistent emotional throughline of “why keep doing good when nothing good comes of it” and the exhaustion just builds and builds, the story keeps making the characters (mostly andy and nile, ig, but still) ask that one question - Why Keep Doing Good - until suddenly it answers the question. the characters pay for the answer but the payment also is the answer: you do good even when you can’t see the good (because you’re In It) because of love. for your family, your friends, humanity, a single stranger whose only redeeming feature to you in that moment is that they’re also human. when was the last time i saw a movie that had like.......a genuine moral theme that wasn’t afraid to get a little sentimental and schmoopy about it?? what was the last movie i saw that HAD a theme?????? god what a good piece of cinema. i LOVE it here

[vrabia]

thinkin about the amount of characterization, backstory and relationship dynamics crammed into ‘the love of my life was of the people i’ve been taught to hate’ and i need a damn minute

[caul-serrikane]

[waynedrake]

i love nicky bc he constantly says stupid profound shit like "everything happens for a reason" "peace be with u" "all things must die" "its destiny" but then hes also like [at booker] "hey brat i bet u 500 quid boss-mom cant guess which part of the world this baklava's from u in??" and [while being boarded on a plane by his kidnappers] "ohh joe theres a tv!!"

[wardo]

Eddie

[gentlesleaze]

Joe + Taking No Shit

[vrabia]

nile freeman, 2 months into her arabic and italian lessons: can’t fucking ask for directions to the supermarket, can 100% romance the cashier

[apfelgranate]

#‘can’t you teach me something more practical than ‘a thousand deaths could not keep me from your side’?’#‘it’s very practical it always gets me what i want’

[nickyusuf]

ɴɪᴄᴏʟᴏ ᴀɴᴅ ʏᴜsᴜғ + ɢʀᴏᴜɴᴅɪɴɢ ᴛᴏᴜᴄʜ

[lukcskywalkcrs]

Action Reveals Character

There are four major action sequences in The Old Guard: the ambush in South Sudan, the plane duel, Goussainville church fight, and the finale showdown. Most of the time, action/fights serve to get you from Point A to Point B in the plot in a badass way. It reveals the character’s physical prowess. Usually, it’s a way to assert dominance over an antagonist.

But what I loved about this movie is how the fights have actual narrative meaning. They serve to reveal the team dynamic, show us what the characters are actually like, and have actual stakes. More importantly, they follow Nile’s development as a co-lead of the film and the audience’s lens into The Old Guard’s lives. When Nile answers the call in Act 3, she pays off the first three fights.

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