#Same Synopsis

[msclaritea]

Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy of Flanagan Film, I hope you, artist Michael Whelan and Stephen King don't think that I've forgotten about all of this. That painting, Deschain, was created right at the beginning of the sham. And the thing about Dark Tower, which no matter how it's adapted, it's never been very successful, is that it has a very similar theme to The Power of The Dog; "...a gunslinger in a world which has moved on" is quite similar to a cowboy, whose time has moved on. Benedict Cumberbatch, and his likeness has been fraudulently used by King and his cohorts, to try and boost this series. Interesting synopsis of a man alone, who lost his friends and headed towards "...the end of the line". Sounds too, too fucking familiar.

[dollypopup]

I think it's interesting to look at the 'Mr. Bridgerton' scene as a backdrop for the eventual mirror scene. Firstly, in the fact that I think we've kind of misinterpreted it.

So many people are of the mind that scene's purpose to 'drag' Colin, but really, that scene has 3 primary functions. The first is to inform Colin that Penelope is aware of what he said of her, thus opening the door to clearing the air between them and providing an avenue for which Colin can apologize. The second is to establish the ground that they are currently on: Penelope has given up on the dream of Colin Bridgerton, in particular the perfect prince that can do no wrong, and has made it clear to him. It also creates distance between them that they will bridge.

But the third, and to me the most wrapped up in the mirror and the inner workings of their relationship is that it reveals how Penelope feels about *herself*. It's not necessarily an echo of what the ton considers her as, after all, we have a lot of evidence indicating that, for all intents and purpose, people aren't *unkind* about her, but rather that they ignore her. Audience members recognize this as Penelope's own shyness being the cause, she is often sitting off on the sidelines or not really talking to much of anyone, in the books she's referred to as the 'one who doesn't speak', and her LW business takes her away from being a character in the action of the ton to a bystander, kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts that perpetuates itself. Pen felt unseen so she became LW to have some power, but then LW herself must remain unseen and Penelope continues to be by design of her own making.

No, I think what it really reveals is that Penelope has incredibly low personal self esteem. We as a fandom has lauded that scene as her dragging Colin, saying that he's cruel and calling him Mr. Bridgerton is absolutely meant to create distance between them, but I don't think she's dragging him.

Because the person she is *actually* dragging here. . .is herself. And it is a general theme in her life. In Whistledown. Aloud. Even with Marina, when she complimented her, she assumes that she's lying. When Edwina says she's wearing a pretty dress, Penelope puts herself down and doesn't believe her, even when the compliment is genuine. In truth, Portia is not seen as being particularly unkind to Penelope. At least, speaking as someone who's mum was *awful* about my size and weight and outfits, Portia is. . .overall rather mild. She's not KIND and loving, not by a long shot, but she's also not targeting Penelope only. She's plenty mean and critical to Prudence, too, even to the point where she foists her off to her own cousin as a pawn piece. Penelope has low self esteem because of a lot of reasons, she's bullied by Cressida (I think a lot of girls are, she was pretty mean even to Daphne in S1) and her family isn't very tender to her, and she's not being pursued at every turn, but part of it is also her own perpetuation.

Listen to what she says "Of course you would never court me" "I embarrass you" "I am the laughingstock of the the ton". She sees *herself* as an embarrassment. She puts *herself* down. Arguably, more so than the ton does. She's meaner to herself than anyone else is, aside from Cressida. And honestly? Looking at Colin's face there. . .he is HURT that she considers herself this way. That she's projecting that onto him. Yes, he's hurt that he hurt her, of course he is, he never wants to hurt her. And yes, he's ashamed that he said he wouldn't court her the way he did and that in doing so, he validated her fears that she is unloved and unwanted, but also because. . .she already feels that way about herself. She's felt that way for years. And it's painful to care about someone, to see them as wonderful, and realize. . .they don't feel the same about themselves at all. I don't think Colin is out here feeling so wounded over the fact that she called him cruel and won't refer to him by first name anymore, but that he's most hurt by what she says about herself.

Because he *doesn't* see her the way she accuses. She says she never expected him of all people to be so cruel, but he feels the same way. He never expected her to be so cruel to *herself*. He wants to go somewhere private, not because she is an embarrassment, but because he wants to have a private conversation with her. Maybe assure her. Maybe explain himself. Maybe hash it out. But god Luke Newton's acting. . .he is *aching* for her. And it feels like he's going to do those lessons not in atonement for what he said (thank god) but to genuinely help his friend who thinks badly of herself. To lift her up. It's not about him at all, not about earning forgiveness, but about elevating Penelope. And that's. . .fuck, I just find that's just so heart stoppingly beautiful.

You can see, in that scene, how much he cares about her. How deeply and genuinely he adores her as a person. And just how painful it is for him to know he has validated, whether on purpose or otherwise, how poorly she feels about herself. How low her self-confidence really is. She is giving him a glimpse into the cracks of her heart, and when he sees them, he wants to reach out with both hands and make it feel better. Make her feel better.

After she says 'even when I change my entire wardrobe', he looks so fucking crushed. So 'don't say that'. So 'you really believe that?'. So 'God, I hate that you think that way'.

Because regardless of it all, he does love her. It's not romantic yet. It's not sexual yet. But he genuinely, truly, from the bottom of his heart, thinks she's wonderful. That was evident even in the 'purpose' scene. Every time Penelope opens up and reveals a facet of herself, he likes it. He likes her barbs and her dreams, he likes talking to her. He likes her. And he feels awful that he hurt her. And he feels awful that she's hurting herself. He loves her. He wants her to love herself.

And that's where the mirror scene comes in. Because the mirror scene isn't about sex, not really. Not entirely, at least. The mirror scene is about *intimacy*. The mirror scene is about being seen. Not just her seeing him, or him seeing her, but for Penelope to see *herself*. In a way, through his eyes. Because hers are biased rather negatively toward herself, which is evidenced in the 'Goodnight Mr. Bridgerton' scene, and in so many little moments we've already gotten where she's literally looking down on herself, feeling down. She doesn't necessarily *like* what's in the mirror, but he does. Because he likes *her*. And he wants to show her that he does. Show her that he finds her beautiful and have her recognize that in herself.

The 'Goodnight Mr. Bridgerton' scene is about Penelope revealing how she sees herself. The mirror scene is about Colin showing her how *he* sees her. The Goodnight scene is about Penelope thinking she means nothing to him, that he thinks of her the way she thinks of herself, that this is how everyone thinks of her, and the mirror scene is a direct response to that: No, he doesn't. No, he doesn't think she's embarrassing. No, he doesn't think she's a laughingstock. No, he doesn't think she's unappealing. And he doesn't think she should, either.

And he's going to show her that. Not just tell her, but show her. The mirror scene is so often a focus on Penelope, so much of Polin is in Penelope's focus, but approaching it from Colin's perspective and his motivations is so fulfilling, too. It's a glimpse into them in conversation, and a demonstrate of how Colin loves her. How Colin loves in general, openly and earnestly and altruistically. How he encourages her to be braver and more confident in herself, bolstering her because he just likes her *that much*. How he finds the most fulfillment and satisfaction in caring aloud. The mirror scene is a demonstration of his heart in reflection.

When Luke Newton said the first word that came to mind with the word 'Mirror' was 'Exposed', he doesn't just mean physically. He means emotionally, too.

God this couple is so fucking good.

[mollysunder]

The way Ambessa talks about the Guile is interesting. She speaks of it with such suspicion, dislike, and literal resentment. At first you'd assume that her attitude is driven by her fued with the Black Rose, but we don't know how long that's been going on, or if this was her own bias prior to it. Under the lens that these are Ambessa's own preconcieved biases before she got involved with the BR then it immediately becomes a critique on her own family. You just can't divorce her comments from how the show depicts her children, from Mel.

Almost every word Ambessa used to describe the Guile describes Mel, except "absent honor" of course. And when you understand that, it becomes clear just how doomed Ambessa and Mel are as mother and daughter. Ambessa indirectly, without the intention to imply Mel, states that her distaste for the fundamental aspects of Mel's personality. Ambessa loves her daughter, but she doesn't LIKE her.

[robotpussy]

Ngozi Onwurah's White Men Are Cracking Up uses a murder mystery to explore the legacies of British colonialism and the exoticization of Black women [x]

White Men Are Cracking Up (1994) dir. Ngozi Onwurah

[lovscb97]

Your nerd!Chan story is awfully similar to @/p4ranormaluv story bed chem 🤨

gasp! no way!! the concept of nerds x cheerleader being done before? not just in popular media but also fanfiction?? how could it ever be!!!

[amanitacurses]

Hello! You've explained the Vidow Bad End AU before, but do you mind explaining your other AUs to? I definitely want to send in asks about (Lost Woods AU / Messenger of the Goddess AU / “AmaCurses” AU) but because I don't know the context and I'm not sure what to request. ^^;

Sorry for not answering this earlier, I was trying to think of how to answer this, before remembering that I have actually answered this before! So below is just a copy-paste of that:

Vidow Bad End: Bad End for FSA based mostly off the FSA manga; Shadow switches sides, Vio is morally grey, the other characters are dead, Shadow takes this personally and starts trying to hunt down the triforce for Vio post Ganon's defeat "AmaCurses": Terrako steals all of the heroes for a fun little journey through space and time (Ghirahim and Astor are trying to revive Demise, Sky's trying to figure out why Hylia hates him so much) Lost Woods: The wider AU isn't actually known here (like why or how), but the Lost Woods kidnaps everyone and ferries them off from era to era [regardless of where they happen to be - town or desert or wherever] - includes Ravio-V1 (add-on edit: V1 appears to be the only one who can tell when the woods spirit them away; nobody knows who's Lost Woods is even at work)

Messenger of the Goddess: Again, the wider AU isn't really known on this one either, but it's essentially where Sky throws down with all the Links on behalf of the goddess, basically saying "Hey, work with me, or I'll beat you the fuck up as many times as it takes until you cooperate." Some of them (Spirit) are easier to convince into cooperation than others (Wisdom), and then there's Wild

[ofthebrownajah]

"Selene": Sure, we can just be casual I'm fine with that

Lanfear, internally: You are mine, Lews Therin

[scarlettfevor]

Finally got ahold of the audiobook of Penance by Eliza Clark and I have mixed emotions about it. On one hand I love the premise and I feel like it's written well enough to where I feel like the author isn't going to clumsily stumble through her own story and fall on her face at the end like the majority of popular thrillers. But also this story suffers from having someone who hasn't been in school for a long time attempting to write teenagers. The funny thing is that whenever I see a horrible portrayal of teenagers, specifically of zoomers its never like, inaccurate portrayals of slang and trends that most teenagers cringe at, it's extremely unnatural dialogue that I don't understand how even a 30 or 40 year old can't see how awkward and cringe and flat out bad of a portrayal they're doing. You can claim that it's regional differences, even if we were all teenagers once I still don't know what it's like to be a popular mean British girl, but I'm fairly certain that actual popular mean British girls don't go around describing themselves as popular mean girls. The funny thing is that they've mentioned several times that these girls (ok it was actually like one girl but she introduced too many characters and I got confused so I can't even remember the name of the girl who said it) are trying to imitate the mean girls in popular American shows/movies. But I think that it's SO funny how instead of going for the obvious Regina George or maybe the more posh Blair Waldorf, they chose Sharpay Evans....I'm very familiar with the popular mean girl trope because I always love the girls who fall into this category and I can say with 100% certainty that none of these girls act like this either. I don't know what the author is going for but it's very painful to listen to.

[lesbianwithchainsaws]

I love how both the original japanese Ringu and the american remake The Ring are generally considered great movies that define the horror genre, and yet not a single other movie in that franchise is ever seen as anything above average

[wonder-worker]

Thomas Penn writes about 500 year old dead historical figures like they're celebrities in a gossip column

[chargoeson]

i have dodged watching The Godfather for YEARS. years i say. it was all the men i dated wanted to do but i could not fathom sitting for three hours and having them explain it to me.

flash forward to now. i am 24. i am a born again homosexual. i am watching it alone on my couch on a friday at 3pm. nature is healing. and i reeeeally don’t care about the mafia 🫶🏻

[saetoru]

going into the tags and seeing 3 paragraphs tagged with 15 characters from 5 different fandoms and it’s at 17k notes like literally bye 💀

[freakova]

WHADYA MEAN WE COULD HAVE GOT AN USAGI EPISODE IN FAST FORWARD?!

[gothsuguru]

trying something new w the way i introduce my fics :3

[just-about-nothing]

omg buffy shops at ralphs shes just like me fr

[eerna]

Book cover designers these days be like: this is a ya fantasy, what font should we use? Hmm sveva is nice and distinct and not at all overused....

It is YA/NA fantasy's world and we're just living in it