Me at 8 years old watching queer-coded Terry Silver physically and psychologically torture Daniel LaRusso to the point of making him self harm before betraying him: Dad, I love this movie!! The bad guy is so mean!!! It's so funny!
Me fifteen years later realizing what my favorite AO3 tags are:
16 notes
·
View notes
i can't stop listening to the 'purpose is glorious' track from this season's ost and thinking about how lovely the title and its meaning are. it's just such an amazing underlying theme in this show, and - while i do have criticisms about some of the choices made for the series finale - i really do feel the writers wholeheartedly delivered in sending that message home. for me personally, loki's ending is so gratifying and a large part of that is solely from viewing their arc's conclusion with the perspective of this theme in mind. to have spent years watching this character i hold very dear to my heart struggle to find belonging, to feel as though they matter and there is reason in their existence, finally get a chance to show - and recognize - their worth was so, so rewarding. and honestly, i think the message behind the phrasing of 'purpose is glorious' is all the more meaningful because of how loki's arc finished. yes, the outcome was bittersweet; yes, we're left knowing loki didn't get the happiness they undeniably earned after everything they'd gone through. it smarts something fierce to know their journey up until they deviated from their timeline and became a variant, as well as seen their eventual intended fate. the ache is only worsened after witnessing everything that happens within the TVA and the entirety of loki's character growth leading up to a redefining moment where they willingly choose to undergo a nightmarish amount of time in the endeavor to do the right thing. of course we want them to emerge victorious when they've struggled for so long, but that's not the point. loki's final moments are them forfeiting their right to a happy ending to preserve the stories of others because all stories matter and should inherently reserve the free will to be written; as sylvie says, loki makes their choice so their loved ones and life across the multiverse still have a chance to belong somewhere and embrace their place in the world. the take away is that even burden can be glorious. even with all the hardships of life - all the inevitable heartache, disappointment, and grief we encounter just by being alive - we have meaning in our existence. there is meaning in the trials we face, and the suffering we endure in order to overcome them. our pain gives us purpose; it gives us the ability to love, to grow from and for each other, and choose to sacrifice our happiness for the benefit of another. loki's purpose was forged in the bonds of those they met in their time at the TVA and the sense of value they gained from their companionship. their sacrifice perfectly conveys how the human capacity to love is one of cosmic greatness, which can ultimately surpass our instinctual desire to preserve one's self. we can move immovable mountains and challenge insurmountable adversity in behalf of the ones we love and their welfare. if that isn't an act deserving of glory, I don't know what is.
tldr; loki's purpose is the friends they made along the way = as the saying goes, 'tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all'. or: our own lives have purpose because of the connections we share with others, even when we are met with great loss.
38 notes
·
View notes
“No.” He could hear the defeat in her voice. “Sorry to be of trouble, m’lord. I only … they said the king keeps people safe, and I thought …”
[…]
Jon watched her go, his joy in the morning’s brittle beauty gone. Damn her, he thought resentfully, and damn Sam twice for sending her to me. What did he think I could do for her?
Jon III, ACOK
This is one of my favorite ‘Jon is the king’ passages because it’s less about him being king by birth and more about him displaying one of the core qualities of kingship - that a king’s key role is to protect his people.
Because its adorable that Gilly heard that Jon is a bastard but upon meeting him, immediately bent the knee (as one would to a king) and then entreated him to help her by appealing to the idea that a king protects people. And with a severe lack of kings north of the Wall, Jon Snow is her best shot; yes there’s Mance Rayder but he’s quite far from Gilly.
And how ironic that Gilly appeals to Jon, a mere bastard boy who is sworn to an order that requires him not to hold any lands or wear any crowns. Jon’s closest relation to kingship at that moment is that his brother, Robb Stark, is king (as Gilly is told that he’s a brother to kings). But Gilly doesn’t say, “in the name of your brother who’s the king help me”. She doesnt say, “King Robb should help me”. She asks Jon to help her; she kneels to Jon. She recognizes that he may stand in for her but is probably seeing Jon, the mere boy, as the embodiment of the king’s duty. Really, it’s an interesting study of kingship as a quality outside of any official titles.
But I do think that Sam had something to do with it. Jon went out of his way to protect Sam in AGOT, so Sam probably used personal experience when speaking to Gilly. He understood that Jon is someone who protects people so he went and told Gilly about it; how ironic that Jon questions what Sam was thinking, because did he forget what he did for Sam?
But Gilly upon hearing Sam’s story asked for Jon’s help not in a “please help me like you helped your best buddy” type of way but in a “please help me like a king would” type of way. I wonder what stories Gilly grew up learning of kingship and if she decided that Jon was a king, despite wearing no crown, once she heard Sam’s story. I’m inclined to think that while Sam told her that Jon would help her, she is the one who then connected that promise of protection to kingship.
But there is also a larger theme that kingship isn’t easy, and Jon is just started on his character development here. He may want to help Gilly, but he hasn’t yet began to understand the wildlings as people in the way that he will later on. What Jon fails to do for Gilly here, he does for thousands of wildlings two books later (and will presumably continue to do so into Winds). While he didn’t challenge Night’s Watch tradition to save Gilly and remove her from a terrible situation here, he later challenged this tradition to remove thousands of others from a terrible situation later on; and even paid for it in some way. Thus, he does eventually live up to the ideal that a king protects the people; though how ironic that he protects the wildlings while still being crownless. And there’s also Alys Karstark who will later kneel to Jon and ask him to perform the king’s duty in regards to marriage and inheritance. What a curious display of Varys’ “power resides where the people think it resides”.
59 notes
·
View notes
i remember doing this for the bad buddy rooftop kiss back in the day and now i need to do it for last twilight bc the combination of p’aof’s direction and jimmy’s performance has launched this scene into the stratosphere just based on the way mohk’s micro facial expressions tell this incredible complete story and give away how he’s feeling and how those feelings mix and change from one second to another and it is just mastery of this art at the finest level
from the moment day asks if there’s anyone out there that doesn’t pity him, you see mohk take this small breath and he is just looking at day for so long, like his insides are screaming me, right here, im that person, and it’s like the extent to which he is desperate to communicate that to day takes him back, it’s that overwhelming. but when we cut back to him again, he seems that slight bit more confident and sure of himself and you sense it more in the way he says day’s name with no doubt or fear. him saying day’s name is trying to get that attention, an attempt at communicating that meaning, that he’s here, like he’s about to say it before the moment kind of takes over and he finds himself acting on it instead of just saying the words, bc the moment demands the surety and conviction only an action can convey. so he starts to move forward, and even in this approach he starts with confidence, almost determination, with the smallest hint of sadness that mixes together to give this sense of him saying I’m mustering all my courage to do this and admit this to you bc I can’t handle the way my heart is breaking bc of the belief you have that all expressions of kindness and love towards you are born of pity. but then he swallows and blinks and in an instant, for the smallest final moment of that close up he softens, and he enters this moment where he is just mesmerized and taken by the moment and he’s inching closer and his eyes keep darting to day’s lips and you can feel that he’s body is moving on its own, bc then there is that gorgeous moments where he shakes and a shiver goes up his spine and he snaps out of it, the reality of the moment falls upon him, like oh my god, i was just going to kiss day. then in a millisecond that determination returns and he says yes i am going to kiss day. and I adore that moment more than i can put into words, that they make the distinction that this kiss isn’t just a hazy, caught up in the moment thing, it’s also mohk gathering up his courage and committing to doing this, its something he is actively choosing to do, he is conscious of it all. he’s had to draw this line and stand with his toes up against it keeping the correct distance from day bc of his duty, but now he is stepping over and he knows it, and all that comes with that. and then he does it, he leans in, and he stutters, the smallest to and fro like in the last moment he’s trying to see what wins out, the need to hold back or the need to give in, before he commits and it is done.
and then when day steps back and asks if mohk is pitying him too, god this moment is gonna stay in my head for a long time. it is two smirks, one that is tight with glassy eyes that betrays how his heart breaks that day would think that, and then he does the tiniest shake of his head that says no, no it’s not, how do i make you understand that it is not, and then he sighs with his whole body as he realises this is what I can do, decides this is what i need to do, this is what I want to do, and then we get that second goddamn smirk that in an instant manages to bring this lightness and joy to whole moment bc at the end of the day mohk is about to kiss the living daylights out of this man in front of him and there is no way he is not gonna be both smug and overjoyed by that, and there is this loveable smugness to that smirk bc mohk knows he is about to go in and shift day’s world on its axis and he’s doing it all bc he needs to know people can do things not bc they pity him, but bc they want to, and in that moment, it’s not a soft, gentle kiss that’s gonna make day realise that, but a kiss that sweeps him off his feet, a kiss that consumes him, bc plain and simple, you don’t kiss like that out of pity. and it has to be something deep and longing and carnal so that day will believe this is from somewhere deep inside mohk, both passionate and heartfelt, and it bursts into this sensory overload where mohk takes him and moves him so that their mouths meet, and that arm around his shoulders consumes him into this world that is just undisputed passion and want mixed with heartfelt romanticism and the tectonic plates shift, the cracks of the earth change and the planet rumbles and we are left on this cliffhanger clamoring to know what is going through day’s head, bc his world just shifted, what now??
and all that just through the microexpressions on mohk’s face. and not to forget day, i think it works perfectly that he is not expressive, or only expressive in the tiniest ways bc the whole point of this kiss was to take day, who was so stuck in his sadness and dejection, and turn his world on its head. and the beauty of this show for all the eps so far is that mohk is so expressive in his face while day can’t see any of that, cant see any of the nervousness or determination or love, he only knows it’s happening when it’s happening, and i wrote before about how the show can only progress once mohk has the bravery to put what his face expresses into words, but now he’s gone that step forward and put it into actions, actions that’s intent cannot be disputed. he’s made himself vulnerable and put himself on an equal level to day who is vulnerable bc of his condition, and left all the power in his hands to decide where this goes.
10 notes
·
View notes
OH ALSO Carol’s lil hop in the air and then her face after Monica falls because of it is sooooo cute. Like you can see the idea hit her and then her face as she makes the lil kick hop and then the wince and hand over mouth as Monica hits the ground ahshdjdkkd she’s so silly
YES PLS SHES SO FUNNY she was so excited to do lil hop and then monica just eats shit and lands on the floor and carol immediately going 🫢🫢🫢 AND MONICA’S FACE WHEN SHE POPS UP SHE LOOKED SO CUTE
8 notes
·
View notes