#hard promises

[make-friends-with-the-rats]

it's honestly heartbreaking how Jack only ever directly references his father - the only family member he has (that we know of) who is still alive.

he never mentions his mother - she's dead.

he never mentions his baby brother - Jack watched him die.

but words make things more real. And it's easier to pretend that they're still out there somewhere in Santa Fe, just waiting for him to come home, when you don't have to voice their names aloud and suffer under the weight of the memories that come rushing back. Easier to avoid reality when you refuse to give it a voice.

[fangirlhehe]

okay don’t think about jack kelly sleeping with his red bandana under his pillow every night to try and protect what little he has left of micheal. don’t think about all of the newsies giving him pitying glances when they watch him tie the bandana around his neck every morning. don’t think about the name “micheal” being banned in the lodging house because every time jack hears it, he spaces out and stops talking for hours. don’t think about jack waking up from nightmares every night just to get his old family photo and cry in the lodging house bathroom. don’t think about jack and mikey, or more so, francis and micheal sullivan .

this one’s for you @ey-theys-was-coronas 🥰🥰

[starlightandmusings]

at the risk of sounding cynical, i really don’t think that post-canon, everything in newsies is great and happy and, well, disneyfied.

i’ve never seen crutchie as surviving past, like, 20. sometimes in polio patients, post-polio syndrome occurs, worsening muscle paralysis and possibly affecting breathing up to the point of death. not to mention polio itself affects the immune system. even if he did survive, his quality of life would be pretty poor — he would almost certainly live in poverty, if he avoided the poorhouse.

i’ve never believed that katherine and jack could end up getting married or being together long term. there were historical exceptions for wealthy people marrying below their own status, but they were rare; katherine would’ve faced extreme social pressure. and also, they’re like, 17 or 18 when they get together. katherine is utterly naive, privileged, and impulsive; jack has anger issues and unresolved PTSD. i mean it when i say they’re not really good for each other, no matter how sweet i think they are. and i don’t think it worked out for them.

on that front, i don’t think jack is a very healthy person, or at least not for a long time. his trauma is deep and severe, and he flinches at little touches, raises his voice at the littles (despite hating himself for it), has horrific dreams of michael almost nightly. tears became strongly feminized in the 19th century along with showing strong emotion, and jack — with his hypermasculine western fixation and predisposition to posturing— would’ve fallen especially prey to these ideas. he internalizes his trauma, covers his scars under layers of fabric, and shoves his feelings down ever deeper.

if race kept up with the gambling and skirting with the law, he could’ve gotten involved in bigger, sketchier stuff, like working with the five points gang (irish) or the eastman gang (jewish). (race is canonically italian/jewish/irish depending on your sources.) we know race has bad impulse control and is hotheaded; if he got into sketchier territory, he could have easily gotten himself into trouble, sent upstate to sing sing or rikers. that’s some major extrapolation, but i could see it happening.

all that to say, i resent disney for covering the show in this kid-friendly gloss when that’s just not the bleak reality. maybe that’s why i love hard promises. it’s hard, and dark, but it makes the glimpses of joy that much brighter. don’t do these kids a disservice by pretending their lives were all easy and happy, because they’re fighters for a reason.

[jackmkelly]

“me and this kid, like Les, but younger, we busted out.”

[ya-what--ya-erster]

not me crying at school because I was reading hard promises script at the part where Jack and les are fighting ish and les hits his head on the wagon and Jack just kinda freaks out because he’s seen that before and both times it was his fault.

[noxexistant]

JACK SEES a BOY [...] The clothes are David's. [...] "THE BOY" IS SARAH in David's cap and jacket. JACK: What are you doing here?  (He rips the hat off her head.) JACK: Take that off. You're a target, looking like your brother. 

forever thinking about sarah dressing in davey's clothes in hard promises

[newsiesautismfrfr]

Don’t think about Micheal Kelly.

Don’t think about 5 year old Michael Kelly who follows around this big brother Jack wishing he could be a cowboy too.

Don’t think about 5 year old Michael Kelly, nicknamed Mikey, getting a red bandana to match his brothers red bandana.

Don’t think about 5 year old Mikey Kelly, walking with his brother across the street.

It was an accident

It was just an accident

Don’t think about 5 year old Mikey Kelly’s mangled body in the streets after a wagon ran him over without a second thought.

Don’t think about Jack screaming and wailing and holding his brother.

Don’t think about Jack holding Mikey so delicately despite almost all his bones being broken.

Don’t think about Jack begging for Mikey to wake up.

Begging Mikey to look at him.

Begging Mikey to say something.

“Look at me Baby, Baby Look at me it’s okay you’re okay”

“Oh god my baby please god my baby”

“Please please Mikey please wake up wake up”

“I’ll buy you whatever you want I’ll get you whatever you want please look at me”

“Ice cream, a new toy I don’t care it’s yours please baby please”

He’s dead.

[highfalutin-son-of-a-gun]

i wish we could’ve seen more of badass sarah jacobs.

like, don’t get me wrong, she’s a sweetheart and i adore her endlessly, but she wasn’t written with much. the only really badass girlboss sarah moment we get is when she punches morris in the face. in the hard promises draft, she wears daveys clothes when she goes out at night to protect herself. that’s the kind of sarah i want. i love the sweet, quiet, nice side of her, but i also want the smart, sharp, witty, badass, not-afraid-to-throw-a-punch sarah.

give me more badass sarah jacobs.

[brian-in-finance]

Droughtlander: the season of our discontent ☹️

*Leap Year - 29th of February included in total

**Leap Year - 29th of February not applicable

(1) Episodes on 10 consecutive Fridays

(2) Allowance for one skipped Friday

Let's vote! 🗳️ Predict the Length of the Next Droughtlander

Remember… the waiting is the hardest part. — Tom Petty

[watchingwhathappens]

I FINALLY READ HARD PROMISES. JACK AND DAVEY LOOKING AT THE STARS AND DRINKING TOGETHER???

these two interactions near the end were also really fucking gay

[foxglove-teaa]

throwback to when I almost got a virus trying to read the hard promises script 💔 oppositions hate to see a girl hyperfixate

stay safe guys 🤞

[make-friends-with-the-rats]

I'm sick

[fangirlhehe]

Rip Micheal Sullivan, you would have loved driving safety laws

(I’m so sorry)

[starlightandmusings]

a streetcar named desire, tennessee williams // hard promises, bob tzudiker & noni white // newsies, 1992 film

[jackmkelly]

congrats hard promises jack u finally got ur drink in pulitzers office

[jason-falsettos]

hard promises 💔