#PEDRO PASCAL YOU ARE A GOD AMONG MEN

[katykatyykaty]

are you kidding me.

✨ Pedro Pascal ✨ for Entertainment Weekly

San Diego Comic Con 2024

📸 max montgomery

[galactic-academia]

If You Love Me (Really Love Me)

This is just an idea, but hear me...

Ok guys, I know I’m all over the place, I’m hoping from Fandom to Fandom like a starved butterfly, I’ve got two series going and several asks to fulfil BUT Pedro Pascal hit me right in the heart like a f*cking freight train 🤯 Let’s make a long story short: I started to watch power through watch “Narcos” (read: coo at Javier Peña 🙈😍) and just happened to hear an old song I love dearly and BOOM!

Just imagine Javier working for the American Government, not necessarily DEA or CIA, but something important nonetheless BUT, I don’t know, during the 70′ and not the 90′? 🤔 Need it to make it “vintage”, just follow me 😶

SO, whatever the time set, Javier Peña stays Javier Penã, what can I say? 😅 So, sure, he did whatever he needed to do to get the job done (I’ll find a good backstory, I swear) and the job had, indeed, been done. But he still fucked up badly and the Government needs him to step aside for a time without just dismissing him completely (Yeah, I’m at the beginning of the season 3, does it show? 😶), so Javier gets to be the bodyguard’s of the Ambassador Bullshit’s niece: Reader 😏

Well, maybe my Javier is slightly OOC, because he wouldn’t be thrilled about it AT ALL (while canon!Javier would be pissed AND f*ck the Reader into oblivion during the first 2k words). He resigned himself to follow a dull girl while she goes shopping and prevent her to sneak out at night to get to her lover of the month, but, hey, it could be kinda fun when I think about it... 🙈 However, this is not the plot. Nope. Reader is the sweetest, the nicest being Peña has ever met and it hurts. She does humanitarian work when she’s not smiling through her Ambassador Uncle’s meetings where he uses her as a shield of charisma. And she has a beautiful voice, so Ambassador Bullshits sends her all over Colombia to sing to Americans and Colombians military and police for every “big event”. Javier is smitten 😍😍😍

Alright, I may be in the side of the Angels, but don’t think for one second that I am one of them 😜 I said Reader was so sweet it hurts, remember? Yeah, it hurts, because Peña can’t help but want her. It’s all about the yearning and the guilt for wanting to ruin such an innocent, sweet being (did I hear “innocence kink”? Or was it “virginity kink”? Or both? Someone helps me 😵). Of course, Reader is head over heels for the kinda rough but so kind Agent Peña (age gap, daddy kink, competence kink, go feral, I’m taking notes 😏). We’re talking about hands brushing while walking through a crowd, secret smiles, blushing, stolen kisses and promises. Then about making out somewhere they shouldn’t be while all the staff is searching for her, sneaking in each other bedroom at night, jealousy, irrepressible desire to fly away. We’re talking about slow burn and true love 😍😭😍😭

I think everybody knows where I’m heading now, right to the drama. So, somehow, Ambassador Bullshit discovers his niece is having an affair with her bodyguard and that won’t do. So Peña is sent back to the US and is forbidden to contact Reader. It’s not his fault, he would never have done such a thing to her, but he still feels guilty, because Reader must think he had abandoned her, that he took advantage of her, that he played with her feelings, yadda yadda.

But I’m a sap. Like a HUGE one, so, no. Reader may be innocent and sweet and kinda naive, whatever you want, but she’s not stupid. And she’s stubborn. So, during the next big Government party Javier is forced to attend, who comes to sing on the stage for all the brave men in the attendance? Reader! Javier sees her from where he’s hiding in the shadow, he sees her eyes frantically searching for him among the other officers. He doesn’t dare show himself, God knows what would happen otherwise. He can’t contact her, Ambassador Asshole had been very clear about it.

But it’s just too tempting. And since when does Javier Peña follow the orders, anyway?! 😅 He can’t let her go, not when she’s just there, in the same room, breathing the same air as him. He’s in love, for God’s sake! So he sneaks in the backstage where he spots a conversation between Reader and her old (but funny and wise) nursemaid and it breaks his heart, because Reader is getting crazy searching for him, exhausting herself singing everywhere he could be, refusing to get some rest or to give up because she can’t live without him (I warned you, biggest sap ever, right here, that’s me 🙈).

So Javier just comes out of the shadow, Reader almost faints seeing him, they throw themselves in each other’s arms and well... Either they run away with the nursemaid’s benediction, or they just decide to face the music and confront the Ambassador, anyway: a happy ending 😁

There, that’s the idea. Now, you can scream at me 😎

[doctordeathlymittens]

Some thoughts about Wonder Woman 1984

I know I’m super late to the party here. This movie hasn’t casted the barest shadow of its mediocrity on my mind since it came out, but I’ve tumbled ass over teakettle down a youtube depression hole and I’ve climbed out with some thoughts and opinions about what I think would’ve been better ideas. Anyway, here’s my very loose, vague, and messy WW84 rewrite. 

First things first: There wasn’t nearly enough decade-appropriate needle drops in this whole damn movie. Where’s Heart? Lita Ford?? Joan Jett??? Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Holding out for a Hero’ was released in ‘84, y’all had so many iconic options by female performers and chose one song from Duran Duran and Frankie goes to Hollywood. This movie was too damn long to just have those two songs.

Diana’s internal conflict is her loneliness and self-isolation. She still mourns not only the loss of Steve Trevor, but the loss of her friends from her time in WWI (alongside the pictures of Steve in her apartment are newspaper clippings from the obituaries of Sameer, Napi, and Charlie and the letters they exchanged over the years) and her family on Themyscira (Diana spends most of her free time among ancient Geek relics and artifacts because while they didn’t belong to her people, they’re the only things that remind her of home). Diana has not healed from her grief and has built up walls around her heart because she doesn’t want to be hurt when she has to watch the connections and relationships she makes with people wither and die.

Diana and Barbara should become genuine friends, Barbara should not become the Cheetah in this film. I would kill and die for a meet-cute where Diana (not Wonder Woman) saves Barbara from a minor accident, Diana brushes off her gratitude and goes to work at the museum and lo and behold Dr. Barbara Ann Minerva shows up as her new coworker. Barbara again expresses her gratitude and tries to get to know her as her peer, but Diana responds coldly and ultimately lashes out at her on the anniversary of Steve’s death. Barbara stands up to Diana and calls her out for being a dick to her. Diana apologizes (because she’s allowed to be wrong and emotionally messy in this fantasy movie) and offers to buy her lunch to make up for it. While together Barbara tells Diana that she’s been having trouble making friends and connecting to people since she moved, even at work as her academic interests are niche and rather intense. So niche, that even Diana, the immortal Amazon, isn’t familiar. Diana again apologizes and opens up about why she had lashed out and acknowledges her own loneliness. Barbara tells Diana that she can tell her about Steve or her family if it makes her feel better and Diana asks Barbara about her research. Subsequent scenes at the museum show Barbara and Diana spending a lot of time with each other. Diana starts showing a little jealousy when Barbara gains romantic attention from a male peer.

Maxwell Lord shouldn’t be the main antagonist (but should remain in the film as an antagonist because Pedro Pascal), the immortal witch Circe should definitely be the villain. Circe’s inclusion could work better as she is another immortal, powerful woman who has tangled with the gods, but came out of the years of conflict hardened and self-serving. She exemplifies the mentality of ‘nothing else matters as long as I get mine’, which would work well in tandem with Maxwell Lord as long as it’s clear that she considers herself second to none. Circe and Lord would function as a toxic relationship where they played each other to gain economic and political power where Circe would ultimately come out on top because Lord’s humiliation was icing on the cake of her actual goals: the destruction of Themyscira and killing Queen Hippolyta. Why? Because Circe is the pettiest mf to ever walk the earth. Circe uses Lord to make her plays because she knows that men will only listen to other men. She sets him up to fail and be taken down by Wonder Woman, cleanly passing the blame from her to WW (setting up a better written future conflict between the two). Circe would watch his downfall over caviar and champagne on a private jet on her way to meet up with the multinational naval force she’s acquired.

The final conflict is a cat and mouse game between Circe and WW across the naval ships with Circe putting as many enchanted soldiers between her and WW as she possibly can while keeping the ships on track for the island. In the climax of the film and nearing Themyscira, Circe tries trapping Diana in an illusion with Steve and her mother and Antiope living happily, but Diana has grown emotionally. She’s no longer weighed down by her grief and loss, but is filled with bittersweet happiness at seeing her loved ones again. She gets to say goodbye. With that she’s able to break free of the illusion and confront Circe one final time. It’s a massive struggle between Circe wrathfully throwing everything she has against Diana and Diana just trying to talk her down and survive while saving who she can from the sinking ships, deflecting Circe’s spells with her gauntlets (because why not?). In the conflict, Diana realizes that Circe isn’t just a sorceress, but another Amazonian as well, the first to be banished, the first to be abandoned. Diana reflects Circe’s last attempt at illusion back at her. While she’s momentarily lost in her own spell, Diana immobilizes her with her lasso. Circe breaks down under the weight of what her illusion showed and her loss. Diana, in an act of compassion and recognition of who she almost allowed herself to be, embraces Circe as the ship sinks (fuck it, its raining too).

Diana and Circe wash ashore Themyscira along with the debris of their battle. Diana wakes to blinding sunlight blocked by a crowned figure, her mother standing over her, backed by a dozen armed Amazonians (”I remember something like this from a different angle.”). Hippolyta helps her daughter up, both overjoyed and furious to see her (”You have brought strangers to my shores again, daughter...and an outcast.” Diana is just happy to hear her call her ‘daughter’ again). Queen Hippolyta orders her soldiers to take Circe away as ‘she clearly can’t be handled by the world of men’ and sits on the shoreline with her daughter. She asks Diana if she’s been living happily out there in the world. Diana responds “No, but I think I’m starting to.” Diana acknowledges that she knows she cannot stay, but asks to see Antiope’s grave before she goes. Her mother nods with a smile and says “My love, I don’t believe you wish to stay.” In the quiet solitude of Antiope’s gravesite, Diana hugs her mother one last time. Fade to black, roll credits.

Mid-credit scene: Diana is being sent off more officially by her mother and the people of Themyscira. As she and Hippolyta walk. back down to the beach, Diana notices there’s no boat. Hippolyta says that with all the advances of man, she thought there was a better option than a small boat among those metal moving islands. The wind blows on queue, highlighting the shape of an invisible jet. “It washed ashore shortly after you did. We made some improvements.”

After-credit scene: Barbara is working in Diana’s office. Diana is still on vacation (in the middle of the ocean) and it’s obvious Barbara misses her. A parcel delivery serviceman knocks on the open door. He asks for Dr. Prince. Barbara says she isn’t in, but she’ll sign for it for her. He hands her a small wooden crate. Barbara pries it open, plucking an elegantly inked letter from the packing straw. ‘Big fan of your work, thought this would look lovely among your personal collection.’ Barbara digs through the box, finding a dark stone carved head of a cheetah with shining yellow-gem eyes. Barbara stares at the artifact for an uncomfortably long beat. She blinks and shakes herself from the trance. She leaves the note and the head on Diana’s desk and leaves with the empty box. The camera lingers on the artifact. It crumbles to dust.

[theliterateape]

Wonder Woman 1984 Couldn’t Save the Story

By David Himmel

I’ve been looking forward to the sequel to 2017’s Wonder Woman since the film ended with Wonder Woman herself leaping from the top of a building and soaring into the credits. So when it was announced that Wonder Woman 1984 was going to be available on HBO Max Christmas Day, I went to bed each night with visions of indestructible bracelets dancing in my head.

Then it finally arrived. Christmas. WW84. 

My wife and I settled into the couch with a bucket of Cherry Coke, a cornucopia of candy, and two obnoxious bowls of fresh popped popcorn soaked in butter. It was the movie-going experience I had been missing this year.

I love Wonder Woman. I didn’t grow up on the source material. I grew up on Lynda Carter. Reruns of the campy Wonder Woman TV show, which originally ran from 1975–1979 were a favorite of mine as a little kid. Not only was it an entertaining show for a preschooler in the eighties with the jumping and bullet-blocking and running, but I was also in love with Lynda Carter both as Diana Prince and Wonder Woman. 

You see—sounding all Freudian alarms—my mother is a brunette and, from what I could tell at that young age, she could do anything and everything, so I grew up likening my mom to the Amazonian goddess. I also thought any pretty lady with brown hair was my mom including the woman on the Sun-Maid raisins box. (Despite my mother being a beauty queen and model—just like Lynda Carter—the real Sun-Maid Girl died at age 90 two months before I turned four.) From my vantage point, my mom was completely capable of saving the day and harvesting yummy raisins. A true wonder woman. 

I wasn’t a big reader of the Wonder Woman comics. Blame that on my time as a boy in 1984. Wonder Woman comics didn’t make their way to me and by the time I was old enough to choose my own reads, I was too deep into graphic novels about the Vietnam War, X-Men comics, and other Marvel titles. But I always knew Diana’s story and powers, and recognized her as one of the most powerful characters to grace the pages of comic books.

Settled into the couch, we hit play and HBO Max glowed to life to give me the Christmas gift I’d been waiting months for.

The opening scene set the tone. A thrilling action scene showcasing the abilities of Diana’s people back on Themyscira. It dropped a few hints of what challenges Diana/Wonder Woman might face and the lessons she will learn or be reminded of. Good opening. And then the film fell apart and Christmas was ruined.

Nah, Christmas was fine, but Wonder Woman 1984 was a disappointment. And not as much for me as for Diana and Wonder Woman. And for actor Gal Gadot. She was robbed of an interesting story. There is no character development in WW84 for our hero. Diana is in the exact same place as she was at the end of the first film. She picks up a few new abilities along the way, but one, like flying in an invisible jet felt like director/writer/producer Patty Jenkins was force feeding me a MacGuffin only to throw it away after I agreed to swallow it. Flight is a big thing in this film but Wonder Woman learning to master it seemed wasteful as I was convinced she was learning to fly based on the way the first film ended. That’s on me.

When we left Wonder Woman in the first film, she was heartbroken for Steve Trevor (Chris Pine). When we meet her again in 1984, some seventy years after his death, she still pines for him. (See what I did there?) By the end, she’s the same. Closed off, unwilling or unable to open herself up to people, most notably to people who could love her and she could love in return. This, despite that Steve tells her that’s a stupid thing to do—remain closed off. When he comes back to life through a wish, he is filled with a zest for life, a chance to experience something again. Pine plays Steve with an almost childlike wonder and it’s fun to watch.

They missed an incredible opportunity to build an interesting story tying in time, the struggle and pain of being ageless—timeless. Maybe that’s how Steve comes back. He exists in a tear in time. What is the hardship of a god living among men? Not her challenging duty but her struggle.

And why 1984? For the fashion jokes? The nukes? Missed opportunity there. Especially since the year is in the title.

Kristin Wiig is great. She’s surprising as she anchors her Ghostbusters (2016) character into Barbara Minerva/Cheetah. But I wanted more form her relationship with Diana. When Barbara wishes to be like Diana, “Sexy, cool… special,” there’s a chance for her to also face the backlash of being an ageless goddess. That opportunity was dampened when Barbara cartoonishly chooses to become a full baddy. But you can’t blame Barbara, she was written that way.

Everything was written as a MacGuffin. One little thing to get us to the big moment with the big baddy—a Donald Trump-ish huckster played by Pedro Pascal. Pascal as Max Lord at first is a slimey but sympathetic character. That quickly devolves into him being a super-duper bad guy bent on world domination that overcorrects in heightening the stakes. The manner in which he goes about dominating the world is trite but also is based on a lazy Orwellian approach to what technology would be like in 1984. It gives the sense that the film was written during Lynda Carter’s heyday where 1984 still seemed futuristic.

There’s so much opportunity squandered. Diana/Wonder Woman is an ageless goddess with a lonely heart and incredible powers. How does one live like that? In the first film, Diana is learning what it means to be human. This film could have had her learning what it means to be a god among humans. Instead, the character is a pawn. She’s not driven by anything. And that’s what gets me.

Diana could be relatable. Make her the troubled messiah. She lives among us so long, she longs or struggles to be like us. And maybe losing her power—the unknown risk she takes when Steve comes back—is attractive to her so she can live and love. And if they had to bring back Chris Cline, the could have dipped into the mystique and magic of Diana’s world. Something more than a silly wish. Something more interesting that pushes Diana to face new internal struggles while working to defeat the external forces of evil.

The film sets itself up as movie that’ll deal with time. There’s a date in the title. But why 1984? For the nukes? For the broadcast Max Lord needs to tap into? For the fanny pack jokes? Jenkins and Co. could have given the theme a little more oompf by leaning into their own ideas of time and address the hardships a an ageless, nearly all powerful goddess faces. Instead, we get a joke about modern public art being trash and a WWI watch coming to life because… because the ghost of the man who owned it has come back from the beyond. Two completely unrelated things. But they didn’t have to be.

The film takes its time with the wrong beats. There are many big moments, often in the middle of the action, where Wonder Woman’s face is the focus. The only takeaway from these slowed down moments of intensity are for the sake of empowerment. And, okay, fine. That’s cool. I get it. Wonder Woman is empowering. The movie, however, is not empowering. It’s a vehicle that reduces Wonder Woman to a physically strong woman who does not develop as an individual. She’s the most dimensional inspiring cinematic female character since the offensive Captain Marvel.

Time proves to be a major influencer in the film in the way it’s wasted. When they have to fly to Cairo, they do so by stealing a jet that Diana has access to thanks to her job at the museum, and allegedly will face no consequences for hoarking a fighter jet for personal reasons. Regardless… They have to get from Washington D.C. to Cairo, a trip of just over 5,000 nautical miles. A modern Boeing 747 can fly 8,255 nautical miles on a full tank of gas. A fighter jet with a smaller tank would likely need every last drop and the wind at their backs the entire time to make the tip without refueling or plummeting into the ocean. Instead of being concerned with that, Steve and Diana choose that time to have their romantic scene. Flips and tricks and dawdling through a Fourth of July fireworks show. And why was Steve surprised by the fireworks and it being July 4th? He just arrived in a new body the day before. He certainly checked the date on a newspaper or heard something on the radio or a TV. And the Fourth of July was already a holiday before he was killed in World War I.

These gripes would be nitpicking if they weren’t so easily remedied by giving the main character an actual story arc.

Wonder Woman 1984 was a fine superhero movie. Far from the best (Captain America: Civil War). Better than the worst (Justice League). It had its share of fun action moments, but even in an action film, the action must be secondary to the story.

After watching the film, we turned on the old TV show. There’s not much character development there either. But it’s a 1970s network television procedural. It’s meant to be campy. And it was more than enough.

Following the three-hour Lynda Carter bender, I realized that you could totally edit scenes in WW84 to make a trailer about a woman who takes care of, then falls in love with, a mentally handicapped man. And that would be a great story to tell. Wonder Woman with Hollywood blockbuster money behind her deserves something interesting.

[ironmandeficiency]

I just wanted to say that your work really brightens up my long days at the hospital. Your account has also gotten me really interested in Pedro Pascal LOL. Keep up the amazing work!!!!! 💓💓💓

hospitals can be a pain in the (potentially nonexistent) ass and i’m so so honored to be a source of entertainment after long days

and little old me, getting you interested in pedro pascal??? pedro the literal god among men??? gkshdkfjaalfjav i’m still HELLA new to the “loving pedro pascal” train and this is such a big ass compliment to me you have no idea