#I forgot how dearly I loved the Khans for a second

[agathas-megacoven]

The Khan’s are just PHENOMENAL. They’re so warm and vibrant and hysterical in all the best ways. The MCU is absent/shitty/dead/evil-parent-and-complicated-family central, theres too much familial feuding at times, whether that family is blood or adopted or found, so I am LIVING for and LOVING how the Khan’s are just so normal and ordinary and wonderful. It’s no wonder Kamala has such a can-do, confident, positive attitude. It’s no wonder she’s such a dreamer and proudly herself and so damn funny when she’s surrounded by so much love and encouragement. Kamala Khan and the fam need to be in more Marvel movies, their dynamic is just joyous and healing and I will NOT tolerate another Aunt May incident. I WILL NOT. I swear if anything happens to ANY of them-

[s-wave-entertainment]

Okay temporarily released from university's iron jaws, let me explain these screenshots now with a little bit of editing:

My friends, what you're looking at here are at LEAST 13 crucifixes all in a pile, which Nori is adding to as she realizes the one in her hand (claw??) isn't the one in the footage, which she is clearly looking for.

See what I'm getting at? Maybe not yet. Perhaps a little more evidence:

What I am now directing your attention to is the very same desk from the previous two shots as Uzi inspects them much later in the episode. You may need to zoom in to see them, but what I have circled for you, dear reader, are two photos. One of Khan, and one of a baby swaddled in a purple blanket - more than likely Uzi as a baby. See what I'm going for now?

No???

May I remind the jury that this desk is down in Cabin Fever labs, somewhere that Nori was contained and tortured for what could have been years so that humans could force her to be something that terrified her for a POSSIBLE benefit of humanity, which they only realized was dangerous and needed to be shut down after it massacred an entire human population for the not first, not second, but THIRD TIME (if we assume Nori's first "incident" occurred after or close to Earth's complete human extinction). And for anyone who tries to say "Myrah, hang on, why are you so sure she was afraid of the Solver?"

Not that I think any of you, my wonderful audience, would say or think such a thing, but just to freshen the memory of the jury:

Respectfully, I don't think someone who looks like THIS isn't terrified of themself.

Anyway, back to the point. The main question at this point may be "Alright Myrah, get to the point, what's your argument?"

Your honor, Nori Doorman loved her family and spent years upon years in a place she likely despised just for the CHANCE of finding the patch for her infected daughter.

I know, "bUT shE aDAnDoneD thEm-"

SHUT. SHUT UP.

Allow me to propose a theory for ya:

We know that Nori was stabbed and left to die by one of the disassembly drones, then murdered by Khan as an act of mercy. I'm not gonna get into whodunit or anything like that, no, I'm here to propose the reason why she, Nori Doorman, the one who knew how dangerous the disassembly drones are and was probably the most knowledgeable about their fighting style, was in the position to be killed by one of them in the first place. If I may, I'd like to propose that something must have happened to make her know that Uzi was in fact exposed and prone to Solver possession. If I may - perhaps she was heading out with full intention to find the patch (or at least SOME KIND OF TEMPRARY FIX) for her child. Attacked for being out in the open, when Khan finished her off he must have assumed that she was, in fact, dead. Therefore, he didn't stick around to see that she survived. Nori could have gone back to tell him that she's there - she's alive, and he doesn't have to be so guilty for destroying her body because it DID save her. But she didn't.

But not because she wanted to run.

Nori knew what she was going back into. She knew damn well that to find something, ANYTHING that would save herself, her child, she would have to walk right back into the jaws of the beast. Now, let me ask you this - if your partner whom you love dearly had to kill you in their eyes, but you somehow survived and had to go do something really dangerous to make sure that partner remains safe for Forever and you knew there was a CHANCE you may die trying to do that thing... would you have have gone back to tell them you were alive?

Nori thought it better to leave Khan with the assumption that she IS dead and gone so that if she did in fact meet her end while looking for the patch, he wouldn't have to then deal with the guilt that he couldn't save her TWO TIMES OVER. But she never, EVER forgot about them. Not once.

She left their pictures up, probably looked at them almost every night before she got any rest - if she ever did. Constant reminders to keep going, to keep looking for that one thing that will save them so that her nightmare can FINALLY be over - once and for all.

And what's more, she didn't even TRY to deny Uzi as her kid. Y'all recall the conversation her and N had when they first interacted?

N: "Uzi's dad? Wha-"

Nori: "...How do you know my daughter?"

SHE CLAIMED UZI IMMEDIATELY. SHE DIDN'T EVEN TRY TO PLAY DUMB.

Nori loved her family. Loved her husband, loved her daughter. Every single day she spent down in that accursed pit, every action she took to try to find that patch, she did it for them. And basically all this to say that if they game end her officially in ep. 8 I think I will have to perish I think I just have to-

Y'all are lucky I gotta go to work at 11am. Tomorrow you're not escaping my rant about how good a mother Nori is and I will not elaborate until the whole rant is out. But I will say this:

Just gonna leave these here for now. I'll elaborate tomorrow.

[widonotts]

Thanks For Ten ❤️

Starkid has been such a constant fixture in my life that it’s strange to think it’s only been around for ten years. At the same time, I remember the first time I watched A Very Potter Musical, a couple months after it went viral. I was in third grade and had read about it on some Harry Potter fansite, so I pulled up Act 1, Part 1. But I was an eight-year-old nerd who hadn’t yet realized I could be both the Smart Kid and the Theatre Kid—I didn’t see High School Musical until I was in high school myself and thus never learned from Gabriella’s arc—so I was actively suppressing my love for musicals. There’s also the fact I didn’t understand some of the jokes, which I’ll attribute to my youth and purity and also my lack of High School Musical knowledge. I decided the show wasn’t for me and promptly forgot about it.

A couple years later, though, I was raving about Harry Potter to a Girl Scout camp counselor who asked if I’d seen AVPM, and when I told her no, she acknowledged I was probably too young for it. I didn’t take it as a challenge immediately, but that conversation sat in the back of my mind for a while before I revisited it. The second time I watched it, I fell in love, and I fell hard.

So many of my memories of early adolescence involve Starkid, and I look back on those memories with so much fondness. I remember my friend and I unabashedly singing “Granger Danger” during science class; I remember another eleven-year-old friend approaching me at the lunch table, shell-shocked, and when I asked what was wrong, he told me he’d tried to watch Me and My Dick. I remember when the 2014 Summer Season was announced, and somehow (that is, through nonstop chores and yard work), I got to go. I went on GIMP and made my very own T-shirt design by dragging the Brush tool to spell out “Meet me at my place, the Fortress of Friendship!” in block letters inside a crude Superman logo, printing it out on that iron-on transfer paper and carefully applying it to a craft store white t-shirt. I wore it to Ani, where I asked Brian Holden to sign it, and it became my pride and joy.

Everything about the Summer Season was, for lack of a better word, totally awesome. Waiting in line for Ani, a group of older girls were kind enough to talk to me and my mom. She acknowledged that she’d worked in theatre herself, and therefore had seen a lot of risqué performances, and asked them “if there would be anything she’d blush at”; for some reason, those girls and I insisted there would be nothing of the sort. I can’t believe she didn’t drag me out at the first mention of Death Star boobs. But I loved the show, and I adored Trail to Oregon the next day. The Dikrats may have their official canonized names now, but to me, that family will always be Bitch Tits, Little Shit, Rico, Genghis Khan, and Jeff Blim Bacon.

Meeting the Starkids after the shows, though, was by far the best part of the experience, and I don’t know if I really have all the words to describe it. It was beyond inspiring. They all treated me with such humility and kindness; it still stirs me every time I think of it. A couple of them even seemed surprised that I asked for a picture. To know that each person in this group I adored so dearly was so grounded and kind… It was amazing, and looking back on those photos makes me smile despite myself; I was an awkward, gangly, anxious, overeager kid, but in every photo, my eyes are shining with happiness and my lopsided grin is wider than ever.

After a while, I fell out of complete hyperfixation, but Starkid’s shows stayed present with me. I sang the songs, referenced the jokes, dreamed of playing the characters, and watched AVPM every year on July 31st, but it wasn’t the degree of obsession I had in my early teens. I watched Firebringer the moment it was released, and I raved many times about how incredible it would be if they released the rights—and here we are!

Even though a couple years went by without hyperfixating on Starkid, my love for it stuck with me through years of difficulty with mental illness, and that means everything to me. I remember a very hard day when I didn’t know what to do or how to go on. I listened to “Not Alone,” and I cried, and even though I felt isolated and small, I felt at the same time that I was loved and that there was hope for my life and my future. That one moment has stuck with me, but it is not the only time Starkid truly helped me save my life.

Even with all the impact it had on me, it wasn’t until I watched The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals that my hyperfixation returned in full force. I had been anticipating its release for a while; when it was announced, I was about to leave my home city to go to college in Chicago, and I was so pumped to see that I would finally be living in good old Chi-Town when a Starkid show was released… only to learn that it would be playing in Los Angeles. But I guess I forgive them for not catering to me specifically, because seeing TGWDLM for the first time (and the ten times since) was extraordinary, and I was immediately in deep.

I’m The Starkid Girl again, and this time, I’m not self-conscious about it. When I was younger, I usually hid my passions, fearful of judgement, and my love for Starkid was no exception (except, of course, for that wonderful impromptu “Granger Danger” karaoke session in the middle of science class). I was a nerd; I knew what it was like to have people make fun of me for the things I found awe-inspiring, so I kept myself hidden, singing “The Coolest Girl” day and night but never quite having the courage to put myself out there in real life. Now, though, I’m going back to Starkid, and I’m not afraid to show it.

It’s wild to be in Chicago now, to live in the same city where so much of Starkid’s work was created. The first time I went to a counselor whom I now visit weekly, I took the L, got off at Belmont, and was amazed to see that my new counselor’s office was one single block away from Stage 773, where I had been so struck with awe at Trail to Oregon and Ani five years before. Every week, I walk past the giant “773” with reverence, and before I get back on the L to go home, I walk past the station to get a coffee at the Starbucks right past the Annoyance, where so many Starkids have performed. Typing it out, it seems silly, but it truly instills me with so much joy and inspiration to know I live in the same world as these people who have done such amazing things, people for whom I hold so much respect and admiration.

Because I myself am now a year into college, I’m even more struck at the ingenuity, dedication, and talent of the college kids who produced a hilarious Harry Potter musical ten years ago, and even more grateful that they took that success and continued to create and perform and inspire people with their productions. Whether it’s with Starkid, associated companies like the Tin Can Bros, or unrelated groups, the work all of these people has done never ceases to embolden me not only as an aspiring actress and creator of art, but also, most importantly, as a person. Starkid is a group of wonderful people who have done wonderful things, inspiring so many people along the way, and I cannot thank them enough for it. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

This has been far too long a note, so I guess I’ll wrap it up before it gets too late. I just have one more episode left in my rewatch of Choose Our Destiny.

— Lelah