#ben reviews

[bengiyo]

Ben’s Queer Cinema Reviews #1

I often spend a lot of my writing time on BL reactions and reviews. However, I came to BL through queer cinema, and so I want to devote more space on my blog this year to the queer films I also watch along the way. Like the BL Blurbs, I’ll post these probably once a month as a round up of what I’ve watched recently. Today I’ll react to Queer, High Tide, and Paradise of Thorns. Spoilers ahead.

Queer:  A Disturbingly Charming Look at Addiction

When I first learned of this film, I was really excited to see Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey cast as the leads. Both are well-trained and extremely talented actors, and I knew they would give earnest, committed experiences. We got far more than I expected from these two in what evolves into a mesmerizing display of addiction. Yet what lingers with me the most is how singularly I understood the emotional gap between the characters and its commentary on queer existence. 

Craig uses his quintessential charm in what might be his most unlikeable character to date, and I was compelled by how much I couldn’t look away from the mess that was William Lee, an American expat living in 1950s Mexico to sate his desire for drugs and flesh. His pathetic attempts to cajole and entice men to his bed consistently land as weak and a bit sad rather than aggressive or perverse. The consistent layer of polite disdain most characters express for Lee stands out alongside Lee’s clear decision to ignore it. 

Starkey plays the hot twink in a way that comes across as effortless. His character remains completely unknowable throughout the film, and yet the ravenous way he plays Eugene Allerton’s food and sexual habits makes him so alluring. Eugene constantly surprises William and viewers with his willingness to partake in Lee’s escapades, and even care for him when Lee gets sick. Yet, every time he goes cold on Lee it’s completely reasonable and expected. I sympathized with Lee’s desperation to know and understand Eugene, even as I understood that there was no way that Eugene could ever give Lee all the things he needed. 

As we get deeper into the film, we learn that Lee is addicted to narcotics, and he cites it as the primary reason he couldn’t remain in America with his “condition.” He takes Eugene with him on a mission to meet someone who can give him access to ayahuasca, and the two go on a psychedelic journey that unlocks a deeper connection within them than I think either was ready to experience. The two separate in a way that leaves Lee forever incomplete in a way that I think properly honors the unfinished source material from a controversial writer. Still, I found myself attuned to Lee’s desperate loneliness and self destructive tendencies, as well as the affection and loyalty his friend Joe (Jason Schwartzman) showed him. 

Final Verdict: 8.5, Recommended With Reservations. This is a beautiful, if difficult, film in quite a few ways, what with its surprisingly lurid depictions of sex, frank presentation of drug use, and gross behaviors Lee exhibits. However, for the types of queer cinephiles who still yearn for the complex depictions of queer men before the AIDS crisis, and for those who love to see charmingly messy gay men, I do recommend the film. The painful emotional gap keeping all of the gay men in this film from full connection and community with each other. It lingers like a bad taste on the mouth as a reminder that most of these men are playing around in what would be exotic settings for them to take advantage of what they can’t get back home, and that many of their peers back home will end up selling out their own community when things turn rough.

High Tide: A Melancholic Look at Moving On

In High Tide, Lourenço (Marco Pigossi), a 30-something year-old Brazilian man finds himself floundering in Provincetown at the end of the big tourist season struggling to move on from an unexpected breakup. He traveled to the US to be with his boyfriend, but is abandoned and left in the wind with nothing but a tourist visa. Cared for by the kindly Scott (Bill Irwin), Lourenço makes ends meet by working under the table cleaning short term rentals. One day while swimming, he meets Maurice (James Bland) and a spark grows between them. 

I enjoyed the complex intersectional nature of this film and its look at the cruising culture of places like Provincetown. We get to explore the effects of an HIV exposure and how quickly that can happen alongside the ways wealth and race intersect in queer spaces. Maurice, a tall, beautiful Black man, feels isolated and alone in such a white environment, and yet his wealth and citizenship in some ways makes him more secure than Lourenço. Maurice also offers us the opportunity to examine our presumptions about Black queer masculinity and what pleasure looks like between two men. A difficult moment between Maurice and Scott lingers with me. 

This film had a lot of complex feelings about queer friendship, family and faith, how drugs fit into party culture, and how generational gaps inform queer interactions. The spiral of this film was tense and gripping. My friends and I commented as we went along how expected each new crushing moment felt as things fell apart around Lourenço, and how the film made sure to not paint anyone as unbelievably perfect. The recognizable humanity in every character underscores the emotional conflicts and connections across the entire film. 

Final Verdict: 9: Highly Recommended. This is definitely my favorite of the three films. I found myself revisiting many of the emotions I felt in the untimeliness of the connection in Weekend (2011), and the pain of trying to move on as you age up in the closet in Pit Stop (2013). The bittersweet ending of this film left a memorable impression on me, and I know I’ll be returning to it as a meditation many times in the future. Lourenço’s grief may be one of my favorite experiences I’ve had with queer angst in recent years, alongside All of Us Strangers (2023). Also, Marisa Tomei is a producer and actor in the film!

The Paradise of Thorns: A Violent Glimpse Into Greed and Avarice in a Declining World

The Paradise of Thorns sets us in the fallout of a succession battle after the partner of a gay man dies unexpectedly, and the durian orchard they spent five years building together passes to the partner’s mom instead. While I went into this film with a lot of excited about Jeff Satur playing the lead role of Thongkram, along with Engfa, in a story directed and produced by Boss Kuno, this was not my favorite outing for everyone involved.

Thongkram (Jeff Satur) loses his partner, Sek (Pongsakorn Mettarikanon), to an accidental head injury on their farm. He rushes Sek to the hospital, but he doesn’t possess the legal authority to authorize treatment on Sek’s behalf. Meanwhile, Sek’s mother Saeng (Srida Puapimol) and caretaker Mo (Engfa Waraha) struggle to make the three hour journey to reach the hospital (Saeng no longer has use of her legs, and Mo is on a borrowed motorcycle). Despite humiliating himself, doctors cannot authorize treatment on Sek and he passes away before they arrive.

After they bury Sek, Saeng and Mo move onto the farm and steadily push Thongkram out of his own home. Thongkram tries to fight this in court, but loses badly. Meanwhile, Saeng and Mo bring another young man, Jingna (Harit Buayoi), onto the farm to learn from Thongkram so they can get rid of him. A series of mind games plays out across the film as Mo and Thongkram vie for the trust of Saeng in the hopes of gaining control of the farm after she dies, culminating in a brutal showdown at night.

Final Verdict: 7.5, Recommended With Reservations. For this film, I think many of the ideas rushed ahead without grounding them in accessible character motivation. I think, in particular, Thongkram’s romance with Jingna didn’t track very well for me, nor did the wavering relationship he had with Mo. I think there are probably two or three scenes missing that would have given us the belief that the two of them and Jingna could have made it as a trio before things went to shit, but the film didn’t seem to know how to accomplish that with Saeng holding all the power in the dynamics here. Moreover, I think this film undercut its own messages about queer rights by complicating Sek’s relationship and role in all of the drama here. This film feels strongest as a commentary on poverty and greed as people fight over a durian orchard planted as a monoculture on degraded land more than as a queer film with strong themes and ideas there. Still, it is a beautiful film with compelling performances from Jeff and Engfa. The final showdown is extremely brutal, and I’d advise viewers sensitive to all kinds of violence to watch with caution.

[midnight1nk]

So, this week's episode...

[spoilers below cut]

Man I tell you, another heavy day in my production job. And on top of that, pollen season. There goes my allergies smh. Well, at least I get bit of a break, have some food with me, and I can finally watch today's episode. Let's see what we got! *sees thumbnail* 😶 .....I haven't even pressed on the video and my theorist senses are tingling already

"wait what?"

Alright, so I'm going to need you to follow along with me here, cool? Now, doesn't 4's pose seem familiar to you? Well, it should because that's exactly the same pose as the ringmaster 4 render from the early version of the WOTFI website. We all know it was really Mr Puzzles behind it all.

And now look at the ads! It certainly feels very similar to what happened in the "Mario PC Virus" episode, and y'know how I already pointed out how it could connect to the goop!4 theory. BUT y'know what other video had ads?

That's suspicious. That's sus. 💅 /ref

"Don't you think it's Ben trolling again? Or just taking creative liberties?"

No bc the thing is, it's the thumbnail and it's the Team who gave him the prompt in the first place. Ofc Ben can take creative liberties, but essentially it has to follow the prompt. How have I not started the episode yet?! *turns to the Team* I'm watching you.... /silly

(the following is my live reaction:)

and there's our beloved intro *claps like an excited lil kid*

A convention? oooooh

LOOK AT THEM AAAAA

ofc 3 talking about his villain self 😌↕️

Clench being a VTuber was not on my bingo card but honestly, good for him (and I do love Tari sticking out from the table hehe)

and MELONY! you got what Axol's been working on, Two Piece. Gotta love the continuity, dude. The cover looks great!

Melony: "At least, I hope so..." 🥺 Oh honey, Axol would've been so proud of you and what you've done. I can already imagine him singing praises to it and say "look at what my girlfriend and I have done! :D"

YES, let's spread the word!! ofc Mario and 4 would help, they care so much about their friends

ngl Mario's got a good tactic.

and there goes 3's eye lol (don't think about goop!4 don't think about goop!4 don't think about goop!4)

*wii sports theme plays*

YES YES YES oh I'm so here for it

look at them go :D

nahnahnah, Team. You think you can do a speed-up moment and for me not to pause it frame by frame? smh /silly

luckily for the rest of yall, I got you:

and yes, it did have some repeats that I think they're very interesting: "turns you muscular SUPER chad", "makes you rich", "become SWAG", "get your a bunch of friends", "become a member of society", "become a SIGMA", get a romantic partner ("girlfriend" (the one with Mario) or "boyfriend", "you WON'T NEED SLEEP", "become AWESOME"/"RESPECTED"

Ofc it could just be how much 4 wants to emphasize the benefits of getting the manga. But it certainly feels strange, doesn't it? *writing notes down like a madman*

also a win for the skittle squad

and ay, it's got 4's stamp of approval!! (curious that the Team used the old model instead of current one 🤔)

hehe look at 4 pouting while he sits 💙

SMG4: "This is how it works!" 4, bud, are you ok?

ok first off, WE GOT THE OG 4 MODEL BACK?! WHAT? and two, Mario has a point. 4 is taking things too far and really needs a wake-up call. I have a feeling as to why 4 may be acting this way....

oh. oh okay.

So they decided to bring parallels to show how much 4 and Mario's fighting is affecting her/reminding her of her family separating. Hmm. Alright, Team, which one of you decided to strike that dagger into my heart? 😭 /lh

And Mario walked away just like Melony's mom did *head in hands*

and that's 4 alright. He would say that "everything's fine" when it's clearly not smh

4, buddy no :(

SMG3: "The real villain is society..." Well you ain't wrong, 3

Wait a second. Enhance..... enhance.....

I see what you did there, Shadow 😌↕️

love that Toad's like right here too

OMG was that 4's "date" from the "Find Luigi" episode? IT IS.

I'm tell yall, 4 has a secret art account and is selling his work as merch/prints. I mean, c'mon

NO 4, people were waiting for Silksong for decades naurrrr

oh Melony, my girl :(

*pauses episode* ........they did not just do that. I'm rewinding that moment 2/3 times now, what do you mean I was right about my suspicions? WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY JUST BROUGHT BACK IGBP?!

I need to walk away. I need to leave the room, do a cartwheel and dive into a lake, bc HUH?!

okok, let's breathe. goop!4 is gonna happen, and this is not just a "haha Ink is a crazy lil theorist wishing for this to happen". The fact that he said "nowadays" means that the situation is affecting him too. Ofc it would, that's his livelihood, his WHOLE PURPOSE as a meme guardian. But, other than that, it makes sense why he's doing this (I'll talk about it soon)

Mario: "SMG4, you're better than this! You've done enough damage." 😨 holy shit. it's like I got shot through the heart WTF. I might just cry in this episode

who keeps punching me in the FEELSSSSS 😭 poor Melony, those guys were absolute jerks smh (desperate times do call for desperate measures *ready to make swiss cheese*)

*head in hands* :(

at least they can apologise

*points at screen* hehe that's me :) I'm just a reporter

did I hear the peanut gallery audio from ace attorney? 👀 (<- ace attorney fan, don't mind Ink)

The Crew came? 🥹

EVEN SHROOMY?

OUGH that got to me, dude. They all came to support her and enjoyed the manga. I'm tearing up, dude.....

what did I say? Melony may have not had both parents as they were separating, lost Axol to the events of the Genesis/Revelations arc, was betrayed by who she thought was a friend who understood her, and despite it all, she's been so strong. Having friends, her found family...

man, this hit me hard and it's not even from the allergies, I tell you that

the truest supporters are the ones who care

this episode wants me dead /very pos

what's the lesson, Mario?

SMG4: "Is that we shouldn't care so much about fame and profit and instead be proud of our friend's work? No matter how successful it is?" yeah pretty much... "No"? wdym "no"?

....nahnahnah, you can't end the episode there, what the hell do you mean by that?

You can't close it off like that! What about my suspicions!? You can't just move on like that in front of my theorist self, c'mon!!

sitcom laugh track and everything, smh /silly

Congrats to SteveAlexAri12 for your art being featured in the end credits for this episode 🎉 cool art of WPNZ

um. Team, any particular why? just asking /j

.・-: ✧ :--: ✧ :-・.

Wow, this. This was absolutely fantastic omg. The writing in this was so good and I loved the tidbits of animation we got, like when Mario and 4 were picking up the pages to clean! This was somehow brilliant, and this is coming from a long-time viewer.

It' crazy's awesome that they brought Wolfychu back to do some lines this episode, and I was right about the Waggy cameo from Shadow (YES!). Also, EVAN! You make the cover of the manga? It looks SO GOOD, dude!! As always, great work with the writing on your end 👏

I've already mentioned Melony but we have to talk about the boys. Both Mario and 4 had good intentions to help their friend out. "I would do anything to not lose my friends" and that's exactly what 4 did. The algorithm has been affecting him so much that he didn't want Melony to go through it either. So, he went overboard with the crazy advertising and such, but he still cared for his friend. And a touch of self-doubt and insecurity from IGBP is back because he thought he wasn't doing enough. What good of a friend is he if he can't help out? The savior complex in him would say that he isn't good enough to help Melony, to "save" her from the low viewer retention. That he isn't enough, so he went desperate to have anyone take a copy of the manga. This isn't just about selling a book, it's that he's worth the friendships he has and they can always come to him if they need anything.

He doesn't want to lose them.

Ofc Mario cares so much about 4, they've known each other for years. Best of friends. If anything, Mario would know everything's not fine with 4's actions and thoughts in general. It's why the line, "SMG4, you're better than this! You've done enough damage" from Mario to 4 hits so hard. 4 was back to the "None of you understand the work I do" moment from Mar10, relapsing, and Mario needed to remind 4 of his true self, the one that cared for his friends without perfections. That instead of helping as 4 sees it, 4 was hurting Melony unintentionally, and he has to open his eyes to see that. Two sides, indeed.

Curious that the episode ended with the not "go cuckoo crazy" lesson instead of what 4 said. Goop!4 would eventually happen, bc at this point, yes. But what Mario said is exactly what 4's mindset is rn. 4 is bottling up his emotions and trauma and as long as he doesn't think about it for too long, everything's fine. As long as he doesn't reach that breakpoint, he's fine. In some way, he learned his lesson after IGBP but not quite. For one, he still doubts himself with the guilt of IGBP on top of it. And two, nothing is letting him move on from his trauma. His in-universe audience isn't letting him, Puzzles during WOTFI wasn't letting him, the memories he's been suppressing wasn't enough.

Why does he go through the extreme? Bc he thinks that it would solve everything for him. Like how he locked Puzzles in prison, thinking that Puzzles would remain there when we all know a prison escape is bound to happen. Like the Meme Factory itself was an elaborate trap. Whatever it takes to protect himself emotionally, as he's under the line from having a meltdown, he's fine. But what is that line? What is his breaking point? The thing is he wouldn't known, as shown in this episode, thinking he would still fix it. Everything's fine, he's fine.

And y'know what the cherry on top is? That, other than 4 and Mario enjoying the manga, Boopkins and Luigi were the first to be interested in Melony's creation, regardless of popularity. Very representative of Kevin irl and the deeper significance of IGBP.

....whoops sorry, I went on rambling for too long. I mean, c'mon, you should know the drill by now *points at bio*. If anything, this episode is the biggest piece of evidence for the goop!4 theory, I'm sure our local co-CEO of the theory Funkii (hey moot!) and other goop!4 enthusiasts would agree, YESSIR. Overall, this was such a sweet episode and I can't wait for more. That's all from me, and remember: numbers always go first!

*taps mic* ...well chat, how do we feel knowing that the star trio all canonically wore maid outfits? (well technically Madoka outfits from 4 & Mario but still)

[pinkbirddiaries]

SOMEONE LEFT THIS REVIEW ON THE SORREL WEED HOUSE!!!

I’m dead

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Palantir’s NHS-stealing Big Lie

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TUCSON (Mar 9-10), then SAN FRANCISCO (Mar 13), Anaheim, and more!

Capitalism's Big Lie in four words: "There is no alternative." Looters use this lie for cover, insisting that they're hard-nosed grownups living in the reality of human nature, incentives, and facts (which don't care about your feelings).

The point of "there is no alternative" is to extinguish the innovative imagination. "There is no alternative" is really "stop trying to think of alternatives, dammit." But there are always alternatives, and the only reason to demand that they be excluded from consideration is that these alternatives are manifestly superior to the looter's supposed inevitability.

Right now, there's an attempt underway to loot the NHS, the UK's single most beloved institution. The NHS has been under sustained assault for decades – budget cuts, overt and stealth privatisation, etc. But one of its crown jewels has been stubbournly resistant to being auctioned off: patient data. Not that HMG hasn't repeatedly tried to flog patient data – it's just that the public won't stand for it:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/21/nhs-data-platform-may-be-undermined-by-lack-of-public-trust-warn-campaigners

Patients – quite reasonably – do not trust the private sector to handle their sensitive medical records.

Now, this presents a real conundrum, because NHS patient data, taken as a whole, holds untold medical insights. The UK is a large and diverse country and those records in aggregate can help researchers understand the efficacy of various medicines and other interventions. Leaving that data inert and unanalysed will cost lives: in the UK, and all over the world.

For years, the stock answer to "how do we do science on NHS records without violating patient privacy?" has been "just anonymise the data." The claim is that if you replace patient names with random numbers, you can release the data to research partners without compromising patient privacy, because no one will be able to turn those numbers back into names.

It would be great if this were true, but it isn't. In theory and in practice, it is surprisingly easy to "re-identify" individuals in anonymous data-sets. To take an obvious example: we know which two dates former PM Tony Blair was given a specific treatment for a cardiac emergency, because this happened while he was in office. We also know Blair's date of birth. Check any trove of NHS data that records a person who matches those three facts and you've found Tony Blair – and all the private data contained alongside those public facts is now in the public domain, forever.

Not everyone has Tony Blair's reidentification hooks, but everyone has data in some kind of database, and those databases are continually being breached, leaked or intentionally released. A breach from a taxi service like Addison-Lee or Uber, or from Transport for London, will reveal the journeys that immediately preceded each prescription at each clinic or hospital in an "anonymous" NHS dataset, which can then be cross-referenced to databases of home addresses and workplaces. In an eyeblink, millions of Britons' records of receiving treatment for STIs or cancer can be connected with named individuals – again, forever.

Re-identification attacks are now considered inevitable; security researchers have made a sport out of seeing how little additional information they need to re-identify individuals in anonymised data-sets. A surprising number of people in any large data-set can be re-identified based on a single characteristic in the data-set.

Given all this, anonymous NHS data releases should have been ruled out years ago. Instead, NHS records are to be handed over to the US military surveillance company Palantir, a notorious human-rights abuser and supplier to the world's most disgusting authoritarian regimes. Palantir – founded by the far-right Trump bagman Peter Thiel – takes its name from the evil wizard Sauron's all-seeing orb in Lord of the Rings ("Sauron, are we the baddies?"):

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/01/the-palantir-will-see-you-now/#public-private-partnership

The argument for turning over Britons' most sensitive personal data to an offshore war-crimes company is "there is no alternative." The UK needs the medical insights in those NHS records, and this is the only way to get at them.

As with every instance of "there is no alternative," this turns out to be a lie. What's more, the alternative is vastly superior to this chumocratic sell-out, was Made in Britain, and is the envy of medical researchers the world 'round. That alternative is "trusted research environments." In a new article for the Good Law Project, I describe these nigh-miraculous tools for privacy-preserving, best-of-breed medical research:

https://goodlawproject.org/cory-doctorow-health-data-it-isnt-just-palantir-or-bust/

At the outset of the covid pandemic Oxford's Ben Goldacre and his colleagues set out to perform realtime analysis of the data flooding into NHS trusts up and down the country, in order to learn more about this new disease. To do so, they created Opensafely, an open-source database that was tied into each NHS trust's own patient record systems:

https://timharford.com/2022/07/how-to-save-more-lives-and-avoid-a-privacy-apocalypse/

Opensafely has its own database query language, built on SQL, but tailored to medical research. Researchers write programs in this language to extract aggregate data from each NHS trust's servers, posing medical questions of the data without ever directly touching it. These programs are published in advance on a git server, and are preflighted on synthetic NHS data on a test server. Once the program is approved, it is sent to the main Opensafely server, which then farms out parts of the query to each NHS trust, packages up the results, and publishes them to a public repository.

This is better than "the best of both worlds." This public scientific process, with peer review and disclosure built in, allows for frequent, complex analysis of NHS data without giving a single third party access to a a single patient record, ever. Opensafely was wildly successful: in just months, Opensafely collaborators published sixty blockbuster papers in Nature – science that shaped the world's response to the pandemic.

Opensafely was so successful that the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care commissioned a review of the programme with an eye to expanding it to serve as the nation's default way of conducting research on medical data:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/better-broader-safer-using-health-data-for-research-and-analysis/better-broader-safer-using-health-data-for-research-and-analysis

This approach is cheaper, safer, and more effective than handing hundreds of millions of pounds to Palantir and hoping they will manage the impossible: anonymising data well enough that it is never re-identified. Trusted Research Environments have been endorsed by national associations of doctors and researchers as the superior alternative to giving the NHS's data to Peter Thiel or any other sharp operator seeking a public contract.

As a lifelong privacy campaigner, I find this approach nothing short of inspiring. I would love for there to be a way for publishers and researchers to glean privacy-preserving insights from public library checkouts (such a system would prove an important counter to Amazon's proprietary god's-eye view of reading habits); or BBC podcasts or streaming video viewership.

You see, there is an alternative. We don't have to choose between science and privacy, or the public interest and private gain. There's always an alternative – if there wasn't, the other side wouldn't have to continuously repeat the lie that no alternative is possible.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/08/the-fire-of-orodruin/#are-we-the-baddies

Image: Gage Skidmore (modified) https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_Thiel_(51876933345).jpg

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

[fantastic-nonsense]

finally read the 70s Richard Dragon series tonight. verdict: Lady Shiva is the standout character by a landslide. Even if I didn't already love her, I would have walked away loving her. She's just plain fun to read about. I need a 12 issue solo of Shiva getting herself into situations because she's a reckless danger junkie and getting herself out of them by sheer force of will

[doyoubuyallyourmurderweaponsathd]

The Significance of the Cult of Cybele (and Greek Mythology) to Yellowjackets

(tw for discussion of castration)

I'm not sure if anybody's made a similar post already but this was something I was thinking a lot about in the context of the mythological themes we've seen so far in the show and I'm really curious to see if anyone else has thought the same!!

So for those of you who don't know, Cybele (or Agdistis) was a Phrygian goddess that was later adopted by the Greeks and Romans and associated with the worship of the harvest, the earth, disorder in the vein of Dionysian worship, and particularly the mountains, especially in the context of a more "wild" land compared to civilization. She's often pictured with lions as well.

(Statue of Cybele, from Wikipedia)

What makes Cybele particularly interesting as a goddess figure is that she originally had both male and female genitals, which was a no-no for the other gods, so they cut off Cybele's male genitalia which grew a tree and through that tree Cybele fathered a male child named Attis. Attis was then raised by... a goat. Already a little interesting with the amount of goat imagery we've had, right?

(Akilah with her baby goat)

Attis is also commonly depicted with a shepherd's crook and youthful beauty, emphasizing innocence. As Attis grew, Cybele took him as a secret lover (standard mythology ick), but then the king (commonly depicted as King Midas, although the Midas inclusion was a later thing, but I think he's a relevant figure to this analysis) learned of their relationship and decided to give Attis his daughter's hand in marriage as a way out. However, this ends up making Cybele crazy jealous, so she crashes the wedding and makes everyone go mad. This madness leads both Attis and King Midas to castrate themselves and die as a result. Since Cybele became distraught over the death of Attis, she reached a deal with Zeus to keep Attis in a kind of zombified immortal state as her eunuch.

Now to get into more of the parallels! The castration of Attis occurred under a pine tree, and depictions of Attis are often with pine trees or pinecones.

(relief of Attis collecting pinecones)

We've seen this imagery in Yellowjackets before during Doomcoming, when Lottie places the pinecone in Travis's mouth. I've also thought that this action is really interesting in the larger context of Travis's character, because we see early in the season him being derogatory to Nat and saying she's only good for sucking dick, and later we find out that that was mostly projection from the true meaning of the Flex nickname. Now we have Lottie as the one inserting the phallic object, a subversion of gender roles.

(Lottie places the pinecone in Travis's mouth)

I believe that we mainly see the parallels here as Cybele/Lottie and Attis/Travis. The introduction of Akilah as a shepherd figure and another prophet this season kind of split the Attis role up between Travis and Akilah, but I believe that Travis fits the role better than her with what we've seen so far. The Yellowjackets interpretation of their relationship seems to be less explicitly romantic but following the themes of motherhood and familial bond more closely, as we see largely in season 2 when Lottie comforts Travis and Travis hallucinates Lottie in a nurturing role.

(Lottie calming Travis down)

There are still some vestiges of their relationship being more romantic or sexual in nature though, since Travis has the... reaction to Lottie comforting him and hallucinates Lottie while having sex with Nat. Within the theme of castration, we don't see one literally happening, but this appears to be what is metaphorically happening to Travis, or at least a sort of transition in his perception of his gender. After Doomcoming occurs, Travis doesn't bother with trying to be masculine anymore, instead blending in with the girls. I view Travis's character in the second season and onward as the beginning of a shift further into the cult of Lottie, which gets me into my next point: Ben and Nat's roles in this analysis.

(Ben and Nat during Doomcoming)

A lot of people view Ben and Nat's relationship as a kind of father and daughter one, which I think makes a lot of sense in this context. Nat was originally a firm non-believer in the wilderness worship and serves as Travis's connection to pragmatism and the real world, very different from the spiritual connection he builds with Lottie. Ben blesses their relationship in a way when he gives Travis The Talk in season one, and this is really the only time we see their characters actually talk. Travis saving Ben in the latest episode seems to have extra importance, as in the Attis myths, King Midas is the one to die while Attis becomes saved and venerated. There is a LOT of contradictory stuff in myths about King Midas, but I think the thing most relevant to Ben is the humiliation of Midas with donkey ears, similar to the humiliation he faces after his leg is cut off. The severing of his Achilles tendon in the latest episode can also be viewed as a metaphorical castration. Nat clearly has a much stronger role in this story than the daughter of Midas, but that pragmatism she displays is a good analogy for the safe and respectable marriage that Attis would have had, as we see in the more normal relationship Nat has with Travis compared to Travis and Lottie in season three.

(Lottie offering the bear's heart to the wilderness)

But how does the group's wilderness worship factor into this? The cult of Cybele's forms of worship also have significant parallels to what we've seen the girls do so far in the show. Particularly significant is the Hilaria, a Roman festival taking place the two weeks after the Ides of March. During Hilaria, worshippers of Cybele are actually primarily reenacting the story of Attis. The Hilaria begins with a fast of sorts, which can easily be compared to the starvation we see the girls go through. A pine tree is cut down as a symbol of the castration of Attis under the pine tree and lamented, and we see both the pinecone and Lottie sacrificing the bear's heart to the tree. Blood sacrifices of the devotees were also given in worship of Attis, which included self-castration in his image, although due to Roman laws on castration, animal sacrifices were made in its place. We see the girls shedding blood for the wilderness time and time again, whether of animals, Shauna's nosebleed onto the symbol, or Travis giving blood for Shauna's baby.

Unrelated to Cybele but relevant to the Doomcoming plot is the tragedy of Iphigenia. In this story, Agamemnon, in preparation for war against Troy, kills a stag that was sacred to Artemis. As punishment, he is made to sacrifice his eldest daughter, Iphigenia, in order to appease her. Iphigenia doesn't know she's to be sacrificed, and travels to Aulis with her mother Clytemnestra believing that she is there to marry Achilles. Different versions of the tragedy show Iphigenia's knowledge and acceptance of her fate in different ways, but in one version (the play Iphigenia in Tauris), Iphigenia is rescued by Artemis and becomes her priestess. Later on Orestes, the younger brother of Iphigenia, is caught by Iphigenia, but she doesn't recognize him and it is her duty to sacrifice any trespassers. To compare this to Yellowjackets, the human sacrifice in place of the stag is the role, also unwillingly, forced upon Travis (terminal case of eldest daughter syndrome). Jackie "took something that didn't belong to her" and unwittingly started the first hunt. Nat's salvation of Travis means that he no longer has a sacrificial (or even gendered) purpose to the girls, which in turn leaves the opening for Lottie to comfort him and eventually use him for her own plans, turning him into her own priestess. The sacrifice of Orestes/Javi also has interesting parallels, but ultimately Yellowjackets has the more tragic ending. (poor Javi :()

(Sacrifice of Iphigenia from a fresco at Pompeii, also check out the similarity between Clytemnestra's pose here...)

(...and Nat's pose here)

One last comparison that a lot of people have already pointed out: the Pentheus story. Pentheus, the new king of Thebes, banned the worship of Dionysus due to his distaste for it. Similarly to the jealousy of Cybele, the wrath of Dionysus caused the women of Thebes to become frenzied, viewing Pentheus as an animal and ripping him apart. The animal comparison is moreso what happens to Travis during Doomcoming, but the role of Pentheus is more similar to Ben's relationship with the Yellowjackets. Travis completely participates in all of the activities that cement the Yellowjackets as a hive (the seance, the Jackie feast, the offerings, the blessing of the sacrifice) while Ben is perpetually an outsider. We even see Ben spying on the girls as Nat is crowned queen, and he appears disgusted with her for finally giving into their formed society. That spying is what leads to his eventual capture, and while he's still alive, his fate remains to be seen.

(fresco of Pentheus being torn apart)

Now that I've gone over these comparisons, I think the biggest question is where the plot will go from here. In order to temporarily escape from Lottie, Travis shifts attention to Akilah, but swiftly realizes he's fucked up when Akilah starts actually having visions similar to the ones that Travis is having. He seems to genuinely like Akilah as well, so he begins to take responsibility for her and protect her to the extent that he can while still doing what Lottie says. Since we still don't know what Akilah's fate is, it's possible that either Lottie or Travis through the direction of Lottie are going to end up harming or killing Akilah through these rituals.

If that is the case, we've seen before that the wilderness loves a sacrifice, so I think this would shift them to a higher position within the community. Them saving Ben (but then mutilating him further through a group decision) keeps him alive longer, but as we proved in the trial, no matter how much love Ben has for the girls, he will always be an outsider. We may still see Ben killed soon as a sacrifice to appease whatever may be angered. Nat is also at a pivotal point in her amount of power. She has so far been a good leader, but the trial also proved that she doesn't have any real power over the girls, and she was uncomfortable with the antler crown. A still of a later episode shows all of the Yellowjackets pissed at Nat for something, so this may be where she's deposed.

I can only see sacrifice becoming even more important to the girls as the show progresses, so depending on their actions, the one who gives the most to the group is likely to become the next Antler Queen. Personally, I think a very dramatic choice would be for Travis to wear the crown, instead of the (mostly) level-headed Tai or the power-hungry Shauna. Shauna and Travis have so far been narrative foils, both of them having lost the most to the wilderness and having the biggest shifts in personality, both of them eschewing gender roles in how they're supposed to process grief and traumatic events. Shauna is volatile and not liked by the rest of the girls, setting up some sort of doomed Macbeth situation with her and Melissa, so I don't see that approach going well for her. However, what better way to endear yourself to the group than to continually sacrifice, to always do what's asked of you, to show grace in every situation and mourn appropriately and quietly? Being reborn free of manhood and worshiped as did Cybele's Attis, Travis could easily find a new role in their society as the puppet queen of Lottie, letting the wilderness speak through him as a sort of demigod, the sacrificial stag that appeases and protects them from harm.

(Akilah and Travis, about to enter the caves) (I love it when found family siblings recreate Plato's allegory of the cave like yes girl the world of the cave is superior to the world outside!!)

[romchat]

Movie Rec: Twilight's Kiss (Suk Suk)

I decided to take a break from my Taiwanese drama kick and check out the Hong Kong queer film Twilight's Kiss (Suk Suk). Based on Travis S. K. Kong's sociological research about the lives of aging gay men, the film offers a poignant and tender look into the challenges of coming out late in life.

At the center of the story are Pak and Hoi, two gay men living in Hong Kong during their "twilight years". Pak, 70, is married and works as a taxi driver while Hoi, 65, is a retired single father. Both men are deeply closeted from their respective families although Hoi has roots within his local gay senior community. After briefly meeting at a cruising spot, their easy rapport turns into mutual desire, causing them to contemplate a future they had never dared to before.

Quiet but affecting, the film captures the bittersweet struggle of finding happiness in a world where one has never been able to live authentically. As dedicated family men, both Pak and Hoi have spent a lifetime sacrificing their personal desires for societal expectations. As one character observes:

"When we were young, we had to hide our orientation for many reasons: our family, parents, careers...Many of us even had to get married so society would see us as "normal". Even when we're old, when our parents and partners have passed away and our children have come of age, we still can't be ourselves."

It's in their stolen moments together, tucked away from the outside world, that Pak and Hoi finally find relief from the constant presence of homophobia and ageism in their lives, and, mostly importantly, experience joy and love. This is beautifully rendered not only through the sensitive performances of veteran actors Tai Bo and Ben Yuen but also the film's soundtrack and cinematography.

(I could write a whole essay about how the film uses shot size, depth of field, and lighting to portray its characters changing desire from privacy to freedom.)

Final Verdict: With an almost ethnographic incisiveness, Twilight's Kiss paints an intimate and powerful portrait of the ways in which older queer folks bravely navigate the private and public version of themselves. It's honest, sympathetic, and just a bit bruising. Many thanks to @dulcedeusex for telling me about it.

[pokemon1oadvanced]

Watching spoiler free reviews for season 3 was a bad idea. Whats worse? Reading comments that the original poster replied to

POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW

New fear unlocked: Yasammy break-up

Like what does tension mean

Also found out baby isn’t named Speckles so💔

[soapdispensersalesman]

After finishing Severance, I wanted to check out The Secret Life of Walter Mitty as it was directed by Ben Stiller and featured the music of Theodore Shapiro as well and damn Ben Stiller really has been this great director all this time, such a beautiful film, relatable story for an avid daydreamer like me and I hadn't realised Adam Scott appeared in it as well playing a character similar yet completely different to his Severance character!

Definitely a great film worth checking out post Severance!

[solemnpancake]

[be-kind-please-review]

THE ACCOUNTANT 2 - 2025

NO SPOILERS but holy hell what a film! This movie has absolutely everything! Action, comedy, romance, more action, all the awkward interactions to make you think "Oh, I do that...", AND even a dance scene! 😆 This is a well executed sequel starring Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal as brothers / hitmen and whether you enjoyed the first Accountant film OR never seen the first film, this movie will take you on a rollercoaster ride that leaves you wondering where the story will take you next! This is a bold statement, but this flick actually may be better than the original! Highly recommended! Get yourself down to the theatre and don't miss out on this one!

MY RATING: 8.9/10 🐈🐈🐈🐈

[chubearr]

jw: chaos theory

just finished s1 of chaos theory... im not gonna go in depth bc i dont have that dawg in me anymore. BUT I JUST WANNA SAY? 10/10. IMPECCABLE. ANIMATION, PACING, TENSION, EMOTION, CHARACTERS, STORY (well.. minus a certain reveal for a certain main character) WAS PERFECT!!

also that ending reveal? i 100% called it. never stopped believing for a moment 😆

i love these kids sm and kenji is my top pride and joy... i soo look foward to the next one.

AHHHHHHHH💙💙💙

[ratleyland]

"Rebellions Are Built on Hope!"

Re-watching this Star Wars Masterpiece feels so different after watching Star Wars: Andor.

[sam-reid]

guys i'm getting more and more hyped for julien this season. hello??

[wewerealwaysthere]

I noticed “The Critic” (2023) was available on discount at Amazon. It stars Ian McKellen. Anything with McKellen perks my interest, so I decided to buy it (the rental price is only 50 cents less). I didn’t bother to check what the plot was … but I probably should have.

The movie has a strong cast, in particular Mark Strong, who plays a newspaper publisher that employs Jimmy Erskine as his theater critic. Erskine, of course, is played by McKellen.

I’ve enjoyed Strong in such films as “Tinker Tailor”, “Stardust”, and the “Kingsman”films. Sadly, he rarely plays the leading role in a film, but I thought he was quite good here.

McKellen’s Erskine is a bitchy old queen who relishes destroying careers with his acid reviews. The action of the movie is triggered when Strong decides to phase McKellen out of the newspaper. While McKellen is very good playing a jaded old queen, it’s not a performance I enjoyed. Gay characters don’t always need to be positive role models, but the bitter old queen trope is overused.

The rest of the cast is good. Ben Barnes plays Strong’s son-in-law. He’s having an affair with an actress played by Gemma Arterton, who happens to be an object of The Critic’s contempt.

Alfred Enoch plays McKellen’s secretary and kept boy. The movie is set in 1934, and a recurring theme in the movie is the laws against homosexuals in England in that era. McKellen’s character complains about the oppression of homosexuals. Their treatment by the police and street thugs could make a gay man bitter. But that doesn’t excuse Erskine’s own behavior.

McKellen’s Critic reminded me of Clinton Webb in the 1944 film noir “Laura”, which starred Gene Tierney. Webb played a similar jaded critic, and in his first scene, he sits in a luxurious bathtub. The director of The Critic paid homage by including McKellen in his tub for a couple of scenes.

(Note: Although she’s featured in the poster, Lesley Manville plays a very minor role.)

[waywardsou2]

Im listening to Marcus Skeens new album and I'm going to give my thoughts in each song

Strangers

Ok but seriously? It took me a second to pick who's perspective this was. But when I twigged it was Viktor's. Gods ok I almost cried listening to that line

Because it shows how much Viktor really did want Jayce. How clear as day it was and yet he was so sure he couldn't have it. He was so sure it was unconditional. And tbh the way Jayce looked at Mel (talking from the perspective of Infinity End) I can't blame him. Wow that's really sad but it was really beautiful. I liked how clear the guitar was as well. The scratch of the strings was a nice touch

Event Horizon

Oh I'm excited for this one based on title alone

Ok fuck I know a lot of people say things like "I'm literally crying omg" and usually I don't believe them so I get it if you think the same. But the way I tell you I burst into tears when I heard these two lines. Like instantly tears in my eyes and then running down my face...

Again took me a little while to understand who's perspective that was. But I think these are all from Viktor's perspective. Which is really interesting, but I would love to see him make a parallel album answering these songs from Jayce's perspective.

But holy fucking shit. The turn from "I wish you would lie to me and tell me you love me" to "Shit wait you might be serious and now I have no clue what to do because I've been pining for so long"

This honestly hit me like a slap in the face

This has to be my favourite by far. I do still have three others to go thought

Better

Just end me now. That one may be my second favourite but holy fuck.

The way I wanted to scream like Vi did in Jinx's final scene. Because that was fucking brutal

This...this is just Viktor all over. He thinks he's broken, he fully believes it. Jayce doesn't want him to say that he is because Jayce doesn't see him that way.

Him saying he wants to be better deeply parallels Jayce telling Viktor he's perfect the way he is. As well as hinting to the previous song. Now that Jayce's eyes are on him he feels unworthy because he is so broken.

Oh that really fucking hurts.

Changes

Shit omg ok. Not as gut wrenching but still powerful. Not my favourite music but it's the message for me

Viktor is clearly very closed off, very reserved and as far as we know he doesn't have any friend apart from Viktor and we don't know about his family either. The idea that he's been hurt and has to learn to love again is heartbreaking but the fact that he wants to do it for Jayce is so powerful.

He's willing to risk getting hurt again because of how much he loves Jayce

The idea that Viktor feels like he darkens Jayce's shine. That because he is less standing next to Jayce he makes him look like less. As if he is a stain of some kind. That was fucking brutal. Just brutal.

Also calling Jayce lover?! Excuse me?!

Also comparing Jayce to a Renaissance painting? Hello? How gay can you be?

Oh love it

Until Next Time

Top 3. Fuck!

The fucking idea that Viktor had lost sleep, crying over the unrequited feelings he has for Jayce that he realised aren't unrequited...that hurts so much to think about

And and and I think this is from Mage Viktor's peresotivs. This feels very him. Especially with the "timelines" and "possibilities" lines. That has to be him.

It really is just song form of what he said to Jayce. No matter what they will do whatever they can do to pull themselves together. Jayce will always choose Viktor and Viktor can't stand the idea of letting Jayce go. They just can't.

But the fact that he says "you don't need to say it back" makes me think that maybe. Just maybe. Mage Viktor's Jayce never got the chance. Viktor turned him before he realised what he had done and Jayce never got to say it back...

And the emphasis on Viktor saying I love you makes me think he didn't either.

Oh this is so damn tragic. But it's amazing story telling

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please go listen to these songs for yourself. It's Marcus Skeens' Infinity End album on Spotify. I need to go kiss this man and then cry.