she's literally a nun. she's repulsed by mirrors. she carries around teeth and other small bones in her pockets on the daily. she wears her religiously mandated coverings far more often than is strictly necessary. she wears a human ribcage like a corset. she's definitely 100% anemic. she's got a nasty sense of humor. she cannot stand the sweetness and sourness of lemon water. she will push herself to the point of dehydration, bleeding, and fainting even when it's definitely not necessary to do so. she's like 5'2". she's the embodiment of her entire society's hope for a better future, but also their angel of death—the physical manifestation of their grief, which of course very few of them are aware of. she takes out that grief on the only other child she's ever known by torturing her in a bunker for over a decade. one time she thought her favorite chew toy was leaving her so she spent all night digging to stop her. like all night nonstop. without like a shovel or magic or anything just her bare fucking hands in the frozen ground. completely wrecked her shit but she did it. when that girl dies she finds herself someone freak enough to open up her brain on the down-low and help her carve out the part of herself capable of grieving. she stole god's ex. god's ex is the angry ghost of a primordial goddess stuffed into a mannequin whose dead body she's been in love with since she was 10. that goddess falls instantly in love with her. the back alley brain surgeon is also in love with her. so is the girl she tortured in a bunker for 17 years. actually there are like 3-5 beautiful women who would eat each other for her hand in marriage at any given moment. she finds this mainly obnoxious and confusing.
harrowhark nonagesimus, ladies and gentlemen. THE protagonist of all time.
Point-outs and some little details I love about Del Toro's Frankenstein
The color grading of characters and their emotions. Leopold was black, Claire was red, Victor was black and white, an innocent version of his father. After Claire dies, she literally marks him with her blood, and from this point on, Victor wears some red item of clothing throughout. A cravat worn close to his heart. A scarf to keep the chill away. Gloves to tarnish his actions.
But after Victor loses his leg, and subsequently is perpetually injured, the only red he wears is that of his blood, and that of his son's.
Many more under the cut.
"Father despised us. Our raven hair, dark eyes, and at times... quiet, nervous dispositions." Victor says all these traits about himself that his father loathed... when those were the same traits he ended up giving to the creature, either knowingly or not.
Victor being beaten with a cane as a child, only to end up needing a cane to walk after the ordeals of his life, physically becoming reliant on the cycle of his abuse as a literal crutch to go on. The cane is short-lived though, as he loses it permanently after the creature returns to smite him after he denies him a bride. Whether he likes it or not, his son was the breaking of the generational cycle.
Elaborating on that, the manner in which he lost his leg, running back to save his baby that he selfishly condemned in a fit of jealous rage. This was the turning point for me where I understood this version of Victor Frankenstein. And the fact that the creature never finds out Victor ran to save him, and Victor doesn't tell him; What good is it now to make excuses, after he's already acknowledged he was in the wrong. As unsatisfying as it is for the audience, it's a narratively mature thing to do. But the point being, Victor couldn't break the cycle of abuse at the moment, because he hadn't fully accepted his part in it, and wouldn't until the end, where he bridges the gap between the creature and himself.
The sides of the face and their meanings. There’s also the facial reading theory, that indicates we have two different personalty halves represented by each side of the face. The right side is the business side, the part you show to the world, diligent, hardworking, laborious. The left side is the thought representing one’s inner thoughts and feelings, more personal.
Continuing... Victor’s father marks his right cheek in a fit of disappointment, his mother marks his left just before death. This checks out with this theory of the facial symmetry. The first time Victor cradles the creature’s face, he touches the right side, as his father did for him as a child, only this was gentle, loving. The creature leaned into his touch. The right is the beginning.
Continuing the last point... the eye of Ra vs the eye of Horus in Frankenstein. The Eye of Ra (the right side of the face) is associated with the sun. The eye was used to invoke vengeance and strength, force, power, and passion. The Eye of Horus, (the left side of the face) represented the moon, protection, healing, wholeness. The divine feminine vs the divine masculine, even if both gods being represented were male. The beginning and the end. The creature’s left eye is always dilated and pale, sometimes glowing when shone upon, like a full moon. Like Horus' eye is often depicted. Bro…
Victor's trauma with the right side of his face is shown again when the creature tries to touch him, and he freaks out and yells at him, reverting, in a moment of exhaustion and fear, to his childhood self. A trauma response that angered and confused the creature, as well, not knowing his father's past and pains. And then, in the end, the final touch from the creature's hand is given on the right side of Victor's face. The same he did for Elizabeth. Marking the end of the day and an era.
"There is no after." Harlander's fear of what will come after death. Elizabeth is explicitly Christian, and so does not fear it. She welcomes death as an old friend, able to finally experience the purity she could never find on earth, except in the creature. But Harlander, we don't know. He's an arms merchant, responsible for thousands of deaths. He may not believe in God, anymore. And if he did, what fate would he imagine for himself, if not damnation? Life, in his eyes, is the only way out of punishment.
Milk as a reference for mommy issues. Like Elizabeth, Victor too desires something pure and innocent. To go back to being the child he was forced to abandon. This is why it's so painful when the creature mimics Victor and calls himself by that name, and Victor says "Of course you are! Of course you are." As if he was literally taking the newly born creature to be an almost re-animation of his own childhood self.
Victor always soothing the creature with a touch on the chest, as he had when he'd first listened to his heartbeat and received the embrace. When Victor hugged his mother, he heard the frantic beating of her frightened heart with his left ear. The end. Then he listened to the creature's heart with his right ear, the beginning.
Claire touches Victor's left cheek before her death. De Lacey touches the creature's left cheek before his death.
The telescoping lightning rod resembling both the phallic and the syringe, a procreation and an in-vitro fertilization.
The noises the creature makes, animalistic and feral. I had HOPED beyond hope that he'd sound like an animal sometimes in this movie, and I was NOT disappointed! Growling like a wolf, roaring like a bear, whimpering like a dog, purring like a cat. Like when Victor pets his head at the end, and he leans into it and purrs. Don't tell me you didn't weep. And the fact he canonically likes being petted and hugged. Wonderful boy.
Ozymandias poem mentioned, and how it ties into the themes of time going on. "Time will pass us by." Quote by Harlander earlier on. You can't really separate time from death. Except... for the creature, he can't bring them together. All things fade with time. Flesh rots, plants wither, mountains erode, and rivers change. But he remains, untouched. In Ozymandias, we see the remains of a statue depicting a once great Pharaoh, the stone broken and the body mangled. The plaque reads "Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair." But by the time the traveler reached the statue, there were no works left to look on. The lone and level sands stretched far away, swallowing everything that once stood, except for the plaque. "I am still here."
The father (Victor), the son (Creature), and the Holy Spirit (Elizabeth)
The significance of 9 in the window panes, symbolizing coming full circle, the firmament, and eternity. The 9 paned window in the lab was broken, incomplete, but the 9 paned window on the Horisont was complete. Indicated also by when Victor says "Having reached the end of the world, there was no horizon left." But he later finds just that. The Horisont at the end of the world.
Elizabeth keeping the creatures leaf in her Bible, denoting him as something holy. Something sacred.
Elizabeth's dresses rotating through the color-wheel from blue (William and Harlander's color), to green (her favorite beetles), to yellow (the butterflies), to red (Victor) as she grows closer to the Baron, and then subsequently apart, again. Though she never returns to the blue of her past.
The creature's negative theme being a reference to the score of John Carpenter's "The Thing", with the lone ship in the arctic wasteland reminiscent of outpost 31. Same with the sled dogs, and the wolves, and the incredible violence that befalls the wolves.
Victor closing the ivory woman model as a child, as his ideas gestate. Then opening the model after the construction of he creature, his "pregnancy" fulfilled.
Victor calling out "Sun! Sun!" Upon showing the creature the sunlight for the first time, but the way he's addressing him makes it seem like he's referring to the creature as "son."
Victor referring to himself as the storm cloud as a child, but then taking solace in the sunlight with his baby, extending his arms to show him the glory of the light. The creature attempts to mimic him and bask in the radiance.
Going off this scene, the finale of the film; We hear the "sun" motif play again, for the fourth and final time, as the creature alone basks in the sun, acceptance and his father's blessing writ on his brow.
Deer and mice and animals loving the creature and sensing his gentleness, accepting him despite his size and deformity.
The creature cowering from De Lacey after dropping the brandy bottle, fearful to be struck for such a mistake, despite his knowledge that the blind man was kind and gentle. Much like how Victor reacted when the creature reached for his cheek, a deep-seated trauma response.
The creature touching his old bullet wound as he sees the wolves shot. He feared them, but he also didn't want to see them killed. He's a gentle thing.
Claire and Elizabeth both wearing crucifixes around their neck, marking themselves as explicitly Christian, hence why Victor's disdain for the Lord came about. He saw both of his fathers as failures. Leopold's perpetual disappointment in Victor, and Victor's disappointment in God for allowing his saint of a mother to die. If such devotion could not save her, what good would it do, him?
The almost identical flower relief carving on both Claire's casket, as well as the base of the water tower.
"Aqua Est Vita" Water is life. Water being a recurring motif in the film, filling the Voltaic batteries, running through the creature's cell, the old watermill and river running through the peasants' cottage, the ocean itself that carries the creature to safety, and Victor to the afterlife.
Greek myth, found in Medusa, Venus, Mercury, and the ferry that ushers away the spirits of the dead. The creature pushes Victor on a ship out across the water, acting as the ferryman, yet again. He's the reaper, doomed to forever guide other people to a fate he cannot attain, death's respite. He longs for a companion like himself, not for the novel reasons where he needed someone who wouldn't be afraid of him, but here he needs someone who will persist alongside him through eternity. He deliberately does not ask for Elizabeth, or any human, because he knows that sooner or later, he will see them wither and fade, and as he puts it, he cannot live alone.
Victor beginning his story by saying his father named him Victor, and the name meant nothing because he perpetually lost. But by the end of the story, he realizes it was never meant to indicate a win on his behalf. It was simply a name. To Leopold, Victor meant a disappointment, never the winner, failing to live up to expectations. But to the creature, it meant everything. He had no concept of what the word meant, only that it was the world.
"I will not be punished, nor absolved." The creature realizes he won't receive the tender mercy of Heaven, nor the damnation of hell. He won't get the judgement call. His actions have no greater meaning in his eyes, because he will never receive an absolution. This is why his creator, his "god", Victor, has to assure him that he sees him. That his actions will not go unheeded. That he will be there with him, if only in spirit.
"The tide that brought me here, now comes to take you. Leaving me stranded." Aqua Est Vita, again. Callback to in Victor's lecture when he conflates life and death as two separate processes, guided by different forces. When in reality, it is all the same. A single lifespan, guided by the omnipotent hands of fate and Creator.
Once Victor hears the creature's story, and realizes how he has condemned him, and all that he's suffered through, and will suffer through... he finally realizes that he's not just some animal. He is his baby. He always has been. It took Victor too, extending the olive branch, for the creature to accept it. He had to be the first one to make the move, because he was the first to cause the problem. And the creature accepts it. The softening of some of the rougher aspects of the story, as well as early indications of regret and a desire to mend what was broken, allows the forgiveness narrative to hit home. They never truly hated one another. They were just unable to understand. But once that level ground was established, and accountability was taken, the break was bonded.
Yet by the end of the film, he has come to accept his fate as a lone wanderer, facing the rising sun as he walks toward a new chapter of his life, free from the anger he'd pent up all this time. He is able to live on, with his father's love and blessing in his heart. "Thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live on."
do not forget the patron saint of these weeks that we celebrate ourselves proudly and openly in the streets
her name was Marsha P Johnson, and we have her to thank for so much.
remember, the first Pride was a riot, and she was one of the brave souls who endured it to help carve the path which so many of us walk today. she helped found several activist groups regarding LGBT safety and wellbeing. and she was absolutely radiant, too.
happy juneteenth but dont forget that prisoners are legally allowed to be subject to slave labor and also black people are disproportionately arrested and subjected to that legality. happy juneteenth but slavery still lives in america. america is still dependant on slave labor.
Ok breaking containment for this one because I need everyone who will listen to hear this.
Women who suffer bad cramps are told cramps shouldn't affect school/work/etc, but no one ever investigates further because no one can possibly know if what someone experiences is just typical pain or something much worse.
Well after 15 years of stage 4 treatment-resistant endometriosis that came with pain as bad as, if not worse than, actual labor contractions every month, all the while being told I was 'typical' and 'just had bad cramps', I've finally been healed (another post for another time). I have had what everyone describes as the elusive 'normal period pain' for several months now, and I am begging you to look me in the eyes and listen because I need everyone who can hear this to hear this.
I have been on both sides of this. I have the hard-earned knowledge of what a period 'should' feel like.
If you have to put in any effort to hide your cramps, you need to get help.
Even during of the PEAK OF CRAMPING (i.e., as bad as your cramps possibly get), you should still be able to stand, speak, walk, eat, work, and sleep with no problems. These tasks should require very-little-to-no extra effort beyond what you would normally do when you aren't on your period. When you do these things, you should feel grumpy and a little bit icky and maybe a twinge of nerves and NOTHING MORE.
If you have to sit in the corner and hope no one approaches you because you can't speak or stand without showing pain, even slightly, you need to get help. If your pain is showing on your face, you need to get help. And most importantly, IF YOUR PAIN DOES NOT RESPOND TO 1-2 TYLENOL OR IBUPROFEN, YOU NEED TO GET HELP.
Your period cramps should make you grumpy. Your period cramps should make you feel a little icky and tired. Your period cramps should make you feel your insides existing/moving a bit and a twinge of nerves that makes you groan slightly then the "pain" should stop there, NOTHING MORE.
If your cramps put you on the floor but you make believe you're the captain of a ship who has just been stabbed and has to hide it to fight on, and you force yourself to power through the day, please understand: you are not okay, that does not make you okay. Just because you can power through the pain doesn't mean you aren't sick. If you have to force yourself through any basic task beyond the effort it takes you to do when you aren't on your period, and I am holding your face and looking you in the eye as I say this because I need you to hear me: You aren't normal. You don't 'just have bad cramps'. You are sick and you need to get help.
Now most people will tell you if your cramps are beyond a 3 out of 10 on the pain scale, you should see a doctor. While this is usually true, you have to consider chronic pain CAN AND WILL BREAK YOUR PAIN SCALE. Most people will only compare pain they currently feel to pain they may experience one day but probably never will. "Sure these cramps feel bad now, but if I had a leg amputated with no anesthesia, that would hurt WAY worse, so this pain can't be that bad-" No. Your pain is what it is, objectively, full stop. My cramps were at a 10 out of 10 every. Single. Time. And nobody told me claiming they were a 6-8 because I thought to myself 'what if I lose a limb one day?' was completely wrong. 10 pain is 10 pain. And if there's something that hurts worse than that, guess what. The thing you are experiencing right now is still a 10 out of 10 on the pain scale. Just because you experience it every month doesn't mean it's magically not as bad is it is. And if your pain is worse than a 3 out of 10, you need to get help.
Now when I say get help, I mean find the root cause of your pain. You can't just throw drugs and hormones at it without knowing what it causing your pain. Endometriosis, fibroids, pcos, cancer, adenomyosis, polyps, thyroid issues, there is always a cause. And if you leave it untreated, it will grow and get worse to the point where it resists treatment and the drugs and hormones you've been throwing at it for years don't work anymore. You have to find a doctor that will investigate. If your doctor tells you you 'just have bad cramps' get a new doctor. I know you've been told that but please hear me: no one ever just has bad cramps. A healthy human body doesn't spontaneously cause itself pain so bad you can't stand up; there is ALWAYS a cause.
I was sick for more than 15 years. My entire life was put on hold and now I'm in my late 20s trying desperately to play catch up for everything I missed. I want to pick up 12yo me, spin her around, and tell her she doesn't have to die before she finally stops hurting. I don't want anyone to suffer the same fate I did simply because everyone told them they were normal. A little twinge of pain here and there is normal, suffering is not. I promise you your pain is real, it is not normal, and dear heavenly day I am begging you you need to get help now.
TL;DR: There is no such thing as 'just bad cramps.' If you feel anything more than grumpy, icky, and pain greater than a 3 out of 10, you need to find out what's wrong with you before it gets worse.
Another reason I respect Sinners is how Pearline is treated.
She is a married woman that sleeps with Sammy, when she dances and sings she does it in a seductive/sexy way but she is never treated or viewed as a negative figure. She isn’t a whore, or a slut, and she isn’t viewed as a temptation to Sammy.
In fact, the only part of the movie where you are supposed to disagree or (maybe) dislike Pearline is when she doesn’t want to eat the garlic. The movie makes us grieve her when she is killed.
Any other horror movie would have given her a brutal death, it would have been “deserved”.
Instead, Sinners goes out of its way to show that she is a human being, and despite her sins we love her. Decades after she is killed, Sammy names his bar after her despite knowing her for one day. The movie honors her.
remmick and the vampires present a false dichotomy
Hogwood (the man who sold the twins the mill) and the KKK are very obviously bad, they are outright malicious bigotry, they use the n-word and plan to lynch the moore's and their community, they are so blatantly racist and hateful it's unavoidably obvious
remmick and the vampires however say that they believe in equality, say that they want to create a community, and yet remmick's goal throught the movie is to both metaphorically and literally steal sammie's ability for his own goal of reconnecting with his irish ancestors, a white man wants to harm a young and upcoming black man and use talents for his own goals without giving any regard to said black man's autonomy or agency
when sammie sings 'I lied to you' in the juke joint and calls forth the spirits from the past and future, it's a blend of cultures; west african, east asian, native american, and african american song and dance blend together across time and space to tell the stories of blues; where it takes its inspiration from, the music genres it then inspired, the complex history of black american culture and its intersections with other peoples of colour in the USA
when remmick and the vampires kill and turn the people in the juke joint, and then perform rocky road to dublin, only remmick's irish culture is on display, there is no influence from the black and asian people he has forcibly assimilated into his song, it's juxtaposition with the earlier scene is blatant, remmick is more than happy to assimilate people of colour into his 'community' of 'equals', and yet its only whiteness that is celebrated, that is normative
remmick claims that he's doing people a favour by turning them immortal, conviently ignoring that he literally has to suck the life out of them to do so, trapping their spirits on earth, he claims that he's the good guy, that the KKK were gonna come and lynch everyone at the joint in the morning anyways, conviently ignoring that he's doing the exact same thing; a white man leading a mob to kill a bunch of black people
in the final confrontation with sammie remmick repeatedly dunks him into the river, a forceful baptism. both the celtic irish and enslaved west africans had their religions suppressed and destroyed by colonialsm, had christianity forced upon them by the british empire, and in that scene we see remmick repeating that cycle, using christianity to inflict harm, and sammie reclaiming christianity, despite all the complex emotions he has arround it, as many colonised peoples have and still do, when he recites the lord's prayer
remmick and the vampires are no less racist than hogwood and the KKK, are no less predatory or evil, they're just less blantant about their bigotry, they represent the system, the normalised white supremacy that is seeped into the very foundation of culture in america, the point isnt that remmick would call any of the black characters in the movie the n-word, i dont think he would, the point is that his exploitation and desacration and inserting-himself-into-when-he-wasn't-invited of the juke joint is a microcosm of what white people have done to black american arts and culture since ever since there have been black and white people in america, and even before that
theres a reason vultures are shown early on in this movie
it really frustrates me to think about how people are inevitably going to take Remmick’s one (1) singular statement about how much he resents the way the Irish were colonized and forcibly converted to Christianity and use it as fuel for “actually he had a point” and “he was right actually” and “he’s not really the villain here” posts, when the whole point is that Remmick is, through the vampiric hive mind he’s creating, forcibly assimilating people into yet another manipulative and parasitical system. he doesn't value the cultures of the people he assimilates—notice how all the vampires he turns dance to his culture's music using his culture's dances, and how he only uses the languages or knowledge other vampires have to offer when he needs to manipulate someone. Remmick is extremely transparent about the way he sees the people he turns as resources to exploit.
he’s perpetuating a cycle that he claims to hate and resent, and I think the movie is pretty damn clear about the fact that he doesn’t see anybody as valuable or useful to him except as prey and as pawns—otherwise he would just, you know, focus solely on people who actually consent to being turned. but he looked sad in that one scene and he’s an apparently attractive white cis man so people are gonna bend over backwards justifying all the harm he did.
Annie: There are legends of people born with the gift of making music so true, it can pierce the veil between life and death; conjuring spirits from the past...and the future. In ancient Ireland, they were called Filí. In Choctaw land, they called them Fire Keepers. And in West Africa, they were called Griots. This gift can bring healing to their communities. But it also...attracts evil....
Are you 🫵 pissed off about the Lilo and Stitch monstrosity remake? Do you want to know how you can actually make a difference in supporting the people and ecosystems of Hawaii?
Tourism is a big issue in Hawaii (which the remake got rid of the original's commentary on because it makes foreigners look bad). I'm not gonna promote it, BUT I know that realistically, thousands of people arrive here every single day by the airplane-ful. And the majority of them aren't educated on the socio-cultural and economic impacts of tourism. SO, I'm making this post in an effort to educate visitors. If you or someone you know is visiting or moving to Hawaii (whether by circumstances in or out of your control), here are some suggestions on how you can give back!
You can donate to the Hawaii Community Foundation, which has been instrumental in giving aid to the displaced community of Lahaina after the Maui wildfires in 2023. They also provide scholarships to students of under-represented communities.
If you're interested in visiting Kualoa Ranch, you can do their Mālama Experience where you get your hands dirty giving back to the ‘āina (land)!
There are other organizations you can join to volunteer with, too, like Kupu and Mālama Maunalua. Check them out; maybe you can help with a beach cleanup or plant native trees! These are both non-profit organizations that accept monetary donations.
Visit the Bishop Museum to learn about Hawaiian history and culture! They also have events focused on sustainability and conservation.
If you're visiting Hilo on the Big Island, go visit the Laulima Nature Center! They're a non-profit aimed at protecting Hawaii's native species, and they even have an online store that ships to the US mainland and internationally! (After I post this, I'm gonna head on over and get myself a manu o Kū pin ♡)
A few other tips I have:
DO: Respect the locals' homes. Several beaches and hiking trails have access points in residential areas. Please be mindful to keep your voices down when passing by, and park ONLY in designated parking areas.
DO: Wear reef-safe sunscreen! Sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate are banned in Hawaii because they are known to damage coral reefs.
DON'T: Approach wildlife, particularly honu (sea turtles) and 'īlio holo i ka uaua (Hawaiian monk seals). Stay at least 10 feet (3 meters) away from turtles and at least 50 feet (15 meters) away from monk seals. If you see someone harassing animals, report them to the statewide NOAA Marine Wildlife Hotline: (888) 256-9840. You can also contact the Hawaii State Department of Land and Natural Resources.
DON'T: Collect sand, rocks, or other natural items to bring home with you. This is to protect the ecosystems and also out of respect for Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians), who have cultural beliefs regarding lava rocks in particular. Taking lava rocks is extremely disrespectful.
DON'T: Litter! Please throw away your waste in proper trash cans. If you see a bin that says "ʻōpala," that's a trash can!
Many Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) are moving to the US mainland because the cost of living in Hawaii has been driven up so high (because of people moving here), they can't afford to live in their ancestral home. So, if you are going to visit or move to Hawaii, please:
- Make the effort to support local businesses, especially those owned by Native Hawaiians!
- Educate yourself and your loved ones about actual Hawaiian culture!
- Try Hawaiian food, like poi!
- Learn some Hawaiian words and don't be afraid to ask how to pronounce words correctly!
- Donate to a food bank!
- Watch films and read books written by Native Hawaiians!
My hope is that whoever sees this post will use it to educate themselves, their friends, and their families who are considering visiting.
My background is in sustainability and the environment, so that's what I know to suggest off the top of my head. If any Kānaka Maoli read this post and have suggestions to add, please do!
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