A Helga Sinclair blog.... probably

[wolverwidowsinclair]

​My Celebrity Worship, or: How I Learned to Stop Stanning and See the Human

In 1994, Kurt busiek wrote a miniseries called Marvels which centered on a journalist by the name of Phill Sheldon. He grew to admire all these heroes around him until the night that gwen Stacy died. This is where he grew frustrated and decided to call it quits. Like Sheldon, i too grew frustated and started to see the flaws of people i considered heroes like a few years ago when I got tired of worshipping Scarlett Johansson and saw that the celebrity world was nothing but filth.

One day however, i found myself falling for another celebrity after watching ready or not 2, but this time she was different. Samara Weaving, famous scream queen and multi talented actor who was just lauded for her performance in Carolina Caroline. When I first got into her I obviously didnt want to make the same mistakes as I did with scarjo where I kept on defending her really really bad shit, but the thing was I was consuming her wrong this whole time and not in a healthy way. Recently ive been watching a lot of samaras interviews and honestly ive become smitten. She not only has that charismatic energy, but she also has that brutal honesty that I dont see much from celebs. We're used to seeing manufactured and safe reactions from them. And when trying to be quirky, they just end up insufferable. But Samara on the other hand manages to pull off being a flawed person while still being able to dodge controversies, being kind to people, and be honest about herself. I feel safer when I connect to an actress who has nothing to hide. Theres no smoke and mirrors. And when she does something thats problematic shes able to come to her senses instead of doubling down. Shes someone you can actually relate to and I feel like shes the perfect example of how we should look at celebrities.

We shouldn't see them as gods or superheroes. We should see them as humans. I think its good to call them out on problematic stuff, but if I remember that one scarlett interview once she made a point about not being a role model. Even though I am still not happy about the choices she made, she is correct. Its okay to love and relate to celebrities. Its okay to connect with them as long as you know that they are not perfect. They're a lot like the greek deities of old. Powerful, but deeply flawed. A lot of those gos were vengeful, unfaithful, and always getting into public feuds and I feel like celebrities perfectly mirror this except this time theyre real.

I love Samara and I hope i continue consume to celebrities in a healthy non cult like manner. Like i said its okay to get attached to a celebrity and you do not to agree with everything they say. I was like that with scarlett. Even though I was somewhat still a teenager, I still feel remorse about brushing off all those problematic things and defending her instead of looking at it as wrong.

[wolverwidowsinclair]

A tale of 2 celebrities (The Valet and Borderline)

This is a bit different from what i usually post. So recently ive been getting into the work of Samara Weaving and I must say shes really fantastic. If only she was in better movies. However thst doesnt stop her from giving it her all. As I continue forward into her filmography I see someone whos able to blend in and not play herself. She looks completely different in a lot her projects. Even though theres characters look similar I can tell apart Olivia Allen from The Valet and Nix in Gun akimbo.

Today I want to talk about Olivia Allen and Sofia Minor from the movie borderline and how they each parallel each other. Lets start off with Sofia minor from Borderline although a big celebrity shes very down to earth as you can tell by watching that one dance sequence. This whole sequence is acted phenomenally by Weaving as she gives the character the much needed gravitas and warmth that Jimmy Warden forgot to give her. No offense to him, but he didnt really flesh out any of these characters enough. So thats where his wife comes in and once again shes fantastic. You don't see samara weaving, you see Sofia Minor and she just acts naturally. You cna tell that sofia has connections and other friends which isnt surprising for a celebrity, but something about her feels so relatable and down to earth. She maybe on every billboard in town, bur shes not your average pop star. Unfortunately we arent really given a lot of Sofia outside life. Instead we see her being intruded by a maniac. So she doesnt really change much.

Now compare her to Olivia Allen at the beginning of The Valet, who starts off very detached from the world and in a relationship with a criminal politician no less, but as the movie progresses, She meets a valet who will change her life and that is what leads to her becoming less over the top and more like a real person. The over the top pretentious personality makes it feel as if Olivias just acting out her life instead of being a real person. Its not until she meets Antonio, a civilian whom humbles her into someone better.

So I think these 2 roles pretty much showcase how brilliant of an actress Samara is and how much energy she brings to the table. She disappears into every single role she plays and I dont think of her as samara instead I think of them as these characters which she brought to life. Eenie meanie would've been even more boring if it weren't for her performance. Overall, I love how shes her own beast instead of being "Uncle Hugo's offering to hollywood".

[wolverwidowsinclair]

Am I cooking with this?

Id argue samara has all it takes to play this character if they were to ever remake this movie in live action, which I hope they dont since they'd probably ruin it, but Ive recently fell in love with samara as an actress and I really do enjoy her work. She has the dry wit and charisma to pull helga off.

Shes even got the helga vibes. Also it helps that she wants to play a soldier

[wolverwidowsinclair]

So hasbro announced a new Laura Croft figure from their gi joe classified series and it makes me wonder

I wish they would make a helga sinclair figure too, but sadly that may never happen

[sinclair-enterprises]

Currently thinking about what Helga thought about Thaddeus Thatch’s death. Thaddeus died after being ridiculed by his academic peers and never seeing his life’s work come to fruition. Helga must have known at least a little about this. She and Rourke worked with him well enough during the mission to retrieve the Shepherd’s Journal, and in the comic depicting those events she appears reasonably amused by his antics (in a way that she seems to mirror with Milo in Atlantis: The Lost Empire). Both Thaddeus and Preston Whitmore obviously offered an opportunity for great wealth, but it’s still interesting to ponder whether there was any degree of sentimentality beyond her employment under them. We know that her most significant attachment outside of her family was Lyle Rourke, but it’s a difficult to say something similar about virtually anyone else. I think it’s possible that Helga viewed every other attachment in her life largely as a means to an end. She might have a degree of fondness for people like Thaddeus, but ultimately if they are not useful to her, or worse—if they go against her, her relationship with them can be easily severed. Ultimately I see Helga exhibiting some emotion over Thaddeus and potentially Mr. Whitmore’s deaths, but a significant part of this would be attached to their ability to make her rich.

[sinclair-enterprises]

Got some decent feedback on this and I do think that the last part of this post could do with some slight elaboration. Helga definitely exhibits sadness at the death of people under her command, and I do think that her responsibility to them goes a long way in making that genuine connection happen. Still, though, she wouldn’t hesitate to take them out if they ever went against her or Rourke’s designs. She also probably has decent working relationships and potentially even friendships with people, but I’d hesitate to call her extremely close to anyone other than her family and Rourke.

[wolverwidowsinclair]

Yeah. She definitely has other friends id imaigne despite being the lone wolf type of person. You ever wonder who her friend who isnt rourke apart of the ulyesses crew. Something tells me its vinny or packard

[wolverwidowsinclair]

Its been a long time since ive done an essay about helga and Atlantis so here goes nothing.

Today a thought came to mind: I dont think Helga was that mean to Milo even after the twist of her being a mercenary. When we are first introduced to her, she is very calm with him. Not aggressive until she takes him into whitmores house and she bosses him around, but this is just her being her. A professional soldier and leader no less. Id argue this scene is what foreshadows her being second in command.

Other than those commands she tells milo, she's otherwise very calm and decent towards milo in terms of not giving orders like when she meets him again shes eager to help him out before cookie interrupts her. There are however some instances where she does look at him as annoying and pokes fun at him.

This moment specifically. Many people have different interpretations of this line, to me it feels like she is teasing him in a playful manner. Helgas not a malicious woman. Shes just poking fun at him for fun. As for being annoyed part, that occurs when kida is guiding the remaining travelers to the city of Atlantis. She makes a little face of annoyance before talking with rourke saying "someone's having a good time." It seems sarcastic, but she isnt wrong. I see it more as helga making light of her annoyance.

Other than that shes pretty cool towards milo. Not malicious. She does think of him as naive, but intelligent. She even admits to him that they have no idea what that power is capable of. She too is intelligent so ofc she is able to express regret as he glares at her. Shes not proud of what she is assisting.

[wolverwidowsinclair]

Its been a long time since ive done an essay about helga and Atlantis so here goes nothing.

Today a thought came to mind: I dont think Helga was that mean to Milo even after the twist of her being a mercenary. When we are first introduced to her, she is very calm with him. Not aggressive until she takes him into whitmores house and she bosses him around, but this is just her being her. A professional soldier and leader no less. Id argue this scene is what foreshadows her being second in command.

Other than those commands she tells milo, she's otherwise very calm and decent towards milo in terms of not giving orders like when she meets him again shes eager to help him out before cookie interrupts her. There are however some instances where she does look at him as annoying and pokes fun at him.

This moment specifically. Many people have different interpretations of this line, to me it feels like she is teasing him in a playful manner. Helgas not a malicious woman. Shes just poking fun at him for fun. As for being annoyed part, that occurs when kida is guiding the remaining travelers to the city of Atlantis. She makes a little face of annoyance before talking with rourke saying "someone's having a good time." It seems sarcastic, but she isnt wrong. I see it more as helga making light of her annoyance.

Other than that shes pretty cool towards milo. Not malicious. She does think of him as naive, but intelligent. She even admits to him that they have no idea what that power is capable of. She too is intelligent so ofc she is able to express regret as he glares at her. Shes not proud of what she is assisting.

[wolverwidowsinclair]

Haven't posted here in a while but it's almost atlantis' 25th anniversary so

[yuyotrix]

This took EONS but it was too perfect not to do it

[mrssantinni]

I'm crying for two reasons:

1. Tab replied me

2. He confirmed one of the fandom's headcanons about Milo's neurodivergence. Yes, he's a Level 1 ASD person

[wolverwidowsinclair]

One thing Im bothered by is how people love to categorize Helga as a nazi even though Atlantis: the Lost empire takes place 1914 and thats before the third Reich was even found. The Elsa Schneider comparisons don't do her justice either.

Now both Helga and Elsa are both greedy blonde german bad gals who are considered to be complex, but that's where the similarities end. Having studied and paid attention to Sinclair, I've never viewed Helga as someone who was evil. I believe she at least had a moral compass to go against whereas Elsa did not. Both have moments of humanity, but Helga obviously shines as someone who had the capacity to do good. Someone who had a little bit of empathy notwithstanding the fact that she chose profit over a whole civilization. While Elsa claimed to not believe in the nazi goals, she still participated in book burnings and explicitly worked for them.

Helga on the other hand is loyal to rourke and money, which isn’t exaclty good either given how he was the whole mastermind behind the heinous plot to steal the Heart of Atlantis, but let's make one thing clear: he's not a nazi despite trying to justify genocide. He just like Helga is a greedy mercenary.

She was wary of causing any harm to the Atlanteans once they discovered there were people there and while she did go against her conscience by participating. she never exhibited any malice towards the people of atlantis. Instead Sinclair displayed that same stoic professionalism she embodied nearly throughout the movie. The mercenary's really just doing her job even though she's following terrible orders.

I feel like these accusations stem from the fact thats shes a blonde villain with German heritage. People seem to forget thst she's also American/Scottish. She's got standards too like in the aforementioned scene where she questions Rourke.

So yeah it pains me when people just say "oh shes disney Elsa Schneider." Well I prefer the term mercenary Jessica Rabbit. That suits her better, so she's thankfully not a nazi.

Another thing that bothers me is the colonizer accusations. Don't get me wrong. Atlantis itself is a critique on colonization, but I personally think most of this allegory fits into Rourke's characterization through his interactions with the natives when he first sees them like his whole talk with the king gives me colonizer vibes. Not saying that's his whole characterization, but its apart of it. Helga is more of a looter in that regard rather than a colonizer. Im not sugarcoating her role in the plot, but this makes sense.

I feel like even though Sinclair knew better than to let a bunch of people die, she accepted it as an unfortunate consequence. The moment she snags the missing page from her commander, I see her thinking "I dont want to make these people suffer, but we didn't come all the way here for nothing. So fuck it lets get that crystal!" Is her high risk loving self really gonna give up this major opportunity because a linguist wants them to stop for people they barely interacted with? Hell no. This big paycheck could be her road to financial security or living the high life.  The film does not exactly tell you what her specific goal for the money is. However, it is up to interpretation not that it makes her any less greedy.

I get that some people are just reading/watching media for a good time rather than also analyze. A lot of Helga's softer moments are rather subtle which makes it easy for one to simply miss. Pair that with a small screen time of 6 minutes and fast pacing and it's easy to see why one wouldn't find her complex. Nevertheless, there's a good reason why out of all the villains in this movie helga is the most popular. She is a very 3 dimensional and complex character. Not that Rourke doesn't lack any humane qualties, but Helga feels more fleshed out. Shes pretty sympathetic if you ask me.

[sinclair-enterprises]

Helga absolutely has more depth to her than the more mainstream villainy represented by Elsa. That isn't to say that she isn't still a villain though, just a more complicated one. She obviously has a huge leg up in this comparison purely because she's not a Nazi, and Atlantis sort of saves itself having to deal with something like that by setting the whole story right at the outbreak of World War One instead of the interwar period or the Second World War itself. Given the ideas for the sequel to Atlantis: The Lost Empire one does wonder whether fascism would have entered the story in some way. Regardless though, you're spot on with the "mercenary Jessica Rabbit comparison," that's a wonderful way to tie down what she is specifically. The movie itself sort of has a passing commentary on colonialism. It does feel more attached to Rourke as a character, what with his speech about museums and being an "adventure capitalist." Everything that he and Helga say and don't say seem to imply that this is the dirtiest job they've done by far; Helga notes that what they're doing is tantamount to genocide. Presumably everything up to this point has been more in the nature of treasure hunting, grave robbing, and the like, and if you wanted to let your headcanons go a bit further-some potential for murder given the right circumstances (which is something I've seen explored somewhat in meta and fic about Rourke and Helga before 1914). Still, there aren't enough concrete details to fully damn them one way or the other. Rourke comes off far, far worse given his role in the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 which immediately puts him in an extremely awful light (a background which is lightly hinted at by him mentioning that he enjoys a good western in the movie). By comparison, we don't have such an explicitly violent colonial event in Helga's past to attach to her. Taking her actions in the film itself, I will say that she is more morally ambiguous than sympathetic, especially after she fully buys into Rourke's plan. She is absolutely looking forward to getting rich off of the money to be made by selling the Atlantean crystal (potentially to Imperial Germany, no less), but she also clearly does enjoy enacting violence against the Atlanteans. She's smiling when Rourke rather brutally interrogates and then attacks Kida's father. The way Helga so easily goes along with this stuff in particular could honestly be taken as decent evidence that they've done this kind of thing before, just without the prospect of genocide. That's reading between the lines a bit more, but it wouldn't surprise me. Going back to her greed, I think part of Helga's drive in that department can be connected to the way that she grew up. She was a girl with only brothers for siblings, and her bio explicitly states that she grew up "fighting with her fists as well as her wits." That in and of itself indicates a fierce sense of competitiveness she cultivated early on not just because of her brothers but because of the Victorian era that she was born into. She had to push herself very, very hard to seize what she wanted. In a world that must have constantly attempted to push her back down into the mold of what a woman of the day should be like, Helga had to struggle to prove her worth in the military career that she ultimately pursued. It's no wonder that when Rourke was introduced to her in Maryland in 1894 he immediately recognized the skills she'd developed to prove herself. He saw someone that he could mold into an excellent soldier loyal to him alone, which was made all the easier when he fully took her under his wing and pushed her into a career serving alongside him. From then on he was in the perfect position to bring out her worst qualities in the name of achieving necessary results on their expeditions together. The movie shows us her capability for being ruthless and cruel, the end result of years spent reinforcing this with her mentor.

You can reasonably infer that with every successive job they did stealing treasures or what have you, they needed each to be bigger than the last until we arrive at the events of Atlantis: The Lost Empire, where Rourke and Helga have been working up to this pivotal job that makes the rest look like child's play by comparison. As you've mentioned, the money they could make from this venture would allow them to live the ultimate high life. You can now fully see how Helga carrying over her hunger for achievement, competition, and potential insecurity mixed with a ruthless superior like Rourke could combine over the years into a ruthless, unflinching need to take what she wanted from the world. For me, these parts of her character, mixed with her clear empathy for others make her an especially dangerous antagonist. She has a morality to her that feels very important, but in an instant she can weaponize it against people unfortunate enough to be caught in her crosshairs. One other thing I'll mention is that Helga's actions are 100% part of a colonialist exploitation of indigenous peoples. Stealing artifacts, objects, and other cultural items important to cultures around the world was a hallmark of global European imperialism during the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as before and after that period. She may be more of a mercenary than someone whose loyalty belongs to a certain country in particular, but the Atlantean crystal would most likely end up in the hands of a western power, one of which would have the money to pay for such a prize in that day and age. Because the market for this sort of artifact was and in many way still is dominated by people and institutions from those countries, it is very much still colonialist in its flavor (not to mention the fact that this archaeological black market pipeline isn't isolated to western countries alone, especially not anymore).

[wolverwidowsinclair]

this is a great insight on the character. I've always wondered whether they did something as bad prior and given that they are mercs, murder is definitely possible. As the for enjoying violence part, I must admit I do tend to focus more on her humane and empathetic side while acknowledging her complicity in attempted genocide. I've analyzed the expression she makes when Rourke attacks Kasheke and its something I'm conflicted on. From far away it looks like a smile, but when I look closer, I see a sneer. Maybe disapproval of how Rourkes handling this, very sloppy. Like she's definitely not horrified by it like the other crew members are, but idk. It could be her eyebrows.

Again maybe I'm humanizing her more than I should. I just don't view her as sadistic individual unless theres something im missing. If true, I could see it as a trait she inherented from her mentor. Whether its a smile or not is up for debate. Sorry if this comes off as misinterpreting her even though I must say there really is no right or wrong answer as long as you acknowledge her actions. With that being said, I guess morally ambiguous does suit her more than sympathetic. I agree with you on how her greed came to be from her childhood. I think Rourke indeed did bring out her worst qualities like you said. It makes perfect sense to me that he did have a big influence on her even with her not being malicious or sadistic (in my mind at least).

Honestly im a sucker for villains who have relatable and human qualities, but do horrible things like Ramases, Two-Face, and long john silver. These types challenge the viewer and make us question our morality. And that is why Helga reasonates with me so much. Like again ill admit maybe i am downplaying some of her villainous traits. not that i want to. I view her as flexible, but her actions cannot be excused. Like overall I appreciate this analysis and its okay if we dont fully agree. again I view her through a sympathetic lens (not that's shes innocent which she isn't.) I can be a people pleaser sometimes and I must admit it

Also about whether the sequel would've tackled fascism, Im not so sure, but there is this.

[sinclair-enterprises]

For me personally those expressions only serve to signify to the audience the relish that Helga feels in executing her and Rourke's plan in the moment. I just don't think there's much of a reason to give her the benefit of the doubt in these scenes, where unlike other crew members she shows no objections to what's going on—and of course she refuses to turn her back on the entire enterprise when the rest of the core crew does, another severe indictment against her moral character. With everything that we're given I just tend to view her as a fundamentally more ruthless and ignoble individual than what you suggest. I do think there's an argument to be made that perhaps in a potential sequel she may have been able to change slightly (Rourke's death providing a nice jumping off point for seeing how she acts as an individual), but even then I'm skeptical that a "redemption" is something that's in the cards for her. Not trying to flat out discredit your reading of her btw, but I did want to bring in my analysis and perspective here because sometimes it does feel like people are a little lenient with her. Compounding this is the fact that she's white and conventionally attractive, which are factors that do affect the way that Helga's talked about on this platform and elsewhere.

I had forgotten that the sequel was set to take place in the 50s. We probably wouldn't've had too much mention of fascism then, given that there seems to have been pretty solid opposition to having another movie about Nazis and fascists. The mentioning of Indiana Jones does make you wonder how much communism (and the USSR) might have featured in such a story. They did reference the German Empire in the first film, so it's not like that'd be without precedent. Interesting to think about either way.

[wolverwidowsinclair]

Thats a fair take. I mean again her crime is severe, so its very valid. And even though I do have a sympathetic outlook on her, which I do get hesitant to share given the crimes she did (that is why I always have to note her crimes when talking about her empathy), but she was written to have a soft side. They dont make her as bad as Rourke. Also it makes sense to have a nuanced & humane villain to balance out the cast not that Rourke doesnt have humane qualites. I think a redemption could be possible, but it would be a long road for her. Overall i think it be worth it. The thing with Helga is that there are many writing possibilities with this character. I see anti heroine potential. Like she could still be cold, but be pitted towards a new motive.

I choose the empathic side yet I cant deny her ruthlessness. Its apart of who she is. Like shes not sadistically cruel in my eyes, but she shes not afraid to hold someone at gunpoint. Shes not a monster nor is she a saint. So i think it makes sense to place her im the moral gray zone. Like yeah were not gonna celebrate her actions or call her innocent. Acknowledging her actions is key to understanding her. She does however have a layer of humanity like in the vigil and crystal chamber scenes. Unlike Rourke, her reactions to certain things appear more human. To me showcases both the best and the worst of humanity. She does care deep down yet will supress her conscience to help out Rourke. I like to see the best in characters like her and Harvey Dent.

Also its understandable why you feel that way. Some people unfortunately do ignore her crimes. Like she doesnt feel evil to me, but her crimes are something you cannot excuse. Even with her moral compass and lack of ill intent, it should still be considered. I do this in all my helga essays. As ive said a million times there is no simple right or wrong answer for her. This is why shes fun to analyze. Theres always a new detail or headcanon that pops up that I may or may not have noticed before. Back to people being lenient, ive seen a lot of people call her out, which is valid, but then you got people glazing the hell out of Vader, Thanos, Gaston, and Doom as if theyre right. Theres a difference between sympathizing a villain and thinking theyre right. Saying every villain is right has become a meme at this point. Rourke was right. Joker was right. Lotso was right. Bill Foster from falling down was right. Walter White was right. Palpatine was right. You get it. I think i have a valid argument for why Helga is relatable and should be redeemed. It really just depends on the character and what points you have otherwise the statements gonna burn to the ground. In the end while I feel sorry for her dying like a lot of people do, at the same time it is karma however they left it open ended so who knows. Shes unpredictable you dont really know what she'll do next.

Also I wanna chime in and say I dont think shes fully comfortable with what theyre doing despite being quick to accept the plan. Like she glares at Rourke over here. I feel like this is her showing doubt and disapproval of the plan.

its her loyalty to Rourke thats holding her back from deflecting me thinks especially given their long history and he did promise her a percentage, but also I feel like she starts to feel even more regret once we get to the crystal chamber, she shows nervousness. She states "I dont like this place". Usually shed be stoic in a place like this, but I feel like its the crystal sensing her. This perfectly ties with how I think the heart of atlantis is able to see the best in people. Shes in awe and fear when watching kida transform. Her face is not one of a greedy person in that scene. I think the idea is to look beyond her crimes (while still acknowledging them), but thats just my 2 cents.

[who-canceled-roger-rabbit]

I think of Helga as a combination of the interesting qualities of Elsa Schneider AND Indiana Jones. Like, she's got Elsa's "overt femme fatale" vibe but Indy's combat prowess and "it belongs in a museum!" colonizer-for-profit vibe.

[wolverwidowsinclair]

Hmmmm. As long as you dont mean the nazi part im okay with it, but yeah tha makes perfect sense. Ive just seen too many people obnoxiously call Helga a nazi without looking into her character. Just because shes a German blonde white woman doesnt mean shes a nazi.

[winterspellsfrozenkit]

Maybe it’s because I’ve been on a One Piece kick, but one thing I wish was discussed more about Atlantis: The Lost Empire was the fact it did tackle the importance of knowledge and how damaging it is when knowledge is lost, ignored, or heavily controlled/misused.

Milo and Kida start at very similar positions, wanting to learn about Atlantis (Milo for academia, adventure, and to feel closer to his grandpa and Kida to save her culture from dying off and her people’s further regression), but they are stopped by those above them in power.

Milo’s bosses want him to stay locked down in the boiler room rather than listening to him because to them Atlantis is a fairytale, not worth looking into, so they view him as a crackpot like they believed his grandfather to be. Never mind the fact Milo caught on there was a mistranslation in the popularly accepted translation, which does prove he knows his stuff; he gets overlooked because his ideas don’t fit with the academic ideals of his society.

Meanwhile, Kida’s father has allowed his people to become illiterate because he wants to protect Kida, but it also helps him hide his shame in the fact that his arrogance and hubris was what lead Atlantis to sink and his wife to die. Kida is constantly warning him that the people are losing their culture and their way of life is dying, but he ignores it because “the people are content”. Never mind, the fact he orchestrated his people’s ignorance and loss of culture over the 8 millennia since Atlantis sank and Kida has a point that their culture is being lost piece by piece as more of the survivors who remember what happened die off; the knowledge has to be hidden in the king’s mind because he believes that his people will fall into his own mistakes.

Yes, we later learn that the king’s fears are valid, but it comes not from his own people, but from new people who don’t understand exactly what the Heart is and only have a singular person’s account to go off of. Had the king owned up to his mistakes and not hidden the Heart of Atlantis and his people’s history from them, they would’ve been better protected when Rourke came to steal the Heart. Had the knowledge of the dangers of misusing the Heart of Atlantis been taught, it likely wouldn’t have lead to the near murder of the entire royal family because the Atlanteans would know that it was dangerous to misuse the power the Heart granted and be much better equipped to protect it from people like Rourke, who see it as easy money because the Shepard’s Journal had a drawing that made it look like a big gem.

Milo, who is the only one who can read the Shepard’s Journal, doesn’t even understand what the Heart is until he reads the sunken mural in Atlantis that Kida takes him to and he realizes that it is what has kept the people of Atlantis alive. He tries to reason with Rourke, but Rourke has been after the Heart of Atlantis since before Milo’s grandfather died. Milo is trying to reason with someone who has been focusing on his own misconception of what the Heart is for many years and is unwilling to change his viewpoint when new information is presented to him. And it’s what ends up killing Rourke.

Yes, Helga shot the balloon down and Milo cut him with the crystal magic infused piece of glass and knocked him into the fan that killed him, but had Rourke accepted the new knowledge Milo presented him and recognized that this crystal had powers to elongate life well past a human’s natural lifespan? He might have had more sense to not have been wildly wielding a hatchet around it and shattered the glass of the container holding it in the first place.

In fact, Rourke had many signs that the Heart of Atlantis was dangerous, given the Leviathan killed off most of his crew of 200 men and women, the King of Atlantis warned Rourke that they would destroy themselves when asked about the Crystal Chamber rather than playing ignorant, the fact that the Heart turned red just from Rourke kicking a pebble into the water below it (which indicated some form of sentience), he watched the Heart as it controlled Kida and then subsumed her into itself, and Milo told them to not touch Crystal! Kida when she came down. There was a ton of warning signs that ‘Hey, this thing might be a bit dangerous’ that he ignored in favor of his own view of the Heart being a big cash opportunity. He brought about his own ruin.

In the movie, had the knowledge of Atlantis not been lost, hidden, or relegated to mere fantasy, the whole point of what happened would’ve been a warning to not give into hubris and believe you know everything about with a power you don’t fully understand because it could be your own undoing. But because that knowledge was lost, ignored, misunderstood, and suppressed, that lesson had to be retaught and cost multiple people in the movie their lives and nearly wiped out the civilization of Atlantis. (In fact, IRL Plato’s whole story of Atlantis is a warning against letting wealth and power corrupt you because while we don’t have the end of the second dialogue, the whole point was that Atlantis became so corrupted by their luxury to the point that Zeus had Poseidon sink them.)

I just kind of think it’s neat that Atlantis shows the importance of knowledge and history. Plus, the main protagonist gets to be a linguistics nerd.

[wolverwidowsinclair]

Finally someone who gets it. That this movie has great writing.

[mayuko-watson]

Small little Helga Sinclair head turn I will never finish animating

[sephiroth1926]

Helga Sinclair #18

She will beat you with his foot, take away the ice cream from the child, and will not experience a drop of shame.

Optional: will have time to shoot at the airship, falling into the abyss to take revenge on the authorities.

📌 and one hundred and fifty unsuccessful attempts to draw her under the cut:

sketch:

The abandoned fiasco number one:

The abandoned fiasco number two:

⚔️Some of the fragments I relied on while drawing:

[wolverwidowsinclair]

I love how shes got that grace kelly face.

[sephiroth1926]

Helga Sinclair #18

She will beat you with his foot, take away the ice cream from the child, and will not experience a drop of shame.

Optional: will have time to shoot at the airship, falling into the abyss to take revenge on the authorities.

📌 and one hundred and fifty unsuccessful attempts to draw her under the cut:

sketch:

The abandoned fiasco number one:

The abandoned fiasco number two:

⚔️Some of the fragments I relied on while drawing:

[wolverwidowsinclair]

Am I the only one who doesnt care whether disney gets more romance or not?

[thetinyadventurer]

So I zoomed in on this screencap and I can’t quit giggling.

I mean…

THE LOOK ON SWEET’S FACE!!! 🤣🤣🤣 That man doesn’t trust Mole with that weapon one iota and I don’t blame him lmao!

AND LOOK AT MOLE!!! That is one adorable, derpy little borb of a man that should NOT be armed with an automatic gun! Omg I love it!

AND HELGA AND ROURKE! Looking at each other like—

Rourke: “Are you ready for some serious shit to go down, Lieutenant?”

Helga: “Yes sir!”

I wonder how many times they gave each other this look before going into a fight or a mission? They’ve totally got each other’s backs in this moment. No wonder Helga didn’t see the later betrayal coming… Damn…

Two evil badasses over here. I want to Gibs slap them both for being jerks but they’re tall and I’m only 4ft10. 😅😭 Plus they’d kick my butt for even trying. Yet, you could also argue that they’ve sunk low enough for me to reach. Still love them though. 🥰 (Idk I have a headache and I need to go to bed).