#stephs stuff

[thewanderingace]

All right yeah fuck it. I'm gonna make some gifs. And I've seen posts about people not wanting the book series tag to be used in posts about the show and I get that, I do (I too have hated when a new thing takes over a tag and it becomes impossible to find the original content for the tag. Looking at you Jughead Jones and Lucifer) but... what if I used both tags? Cause I want my gifs of the show to be organized all under one tag on my personal blog so I can find everything easily under one tag. But I can also add the murderbot tv show tag so people can block that tag which will prevent the gifs from showing. If I could have separate tags for my personal blog organization that'd be ideal but that doesn't exist. I want my gifs on my blog under the murderbot diaries tag cause I like things organized so I think I will add that tag but I'll also add the show tag murderbot tv show so people who block that tag won't see it. Hopefully that's an okay compromise.

I really want to make gifs of the Murderbot Diaries tv show trailer cause there's basically none to reblog and I loved the trailer and am excited for the show but I also really don't want to deal with jerks coming onto my post and complaining about the show that hasn't even aired yet or yelling in the tags.

To gif, or not to gif....

[musingsofahistorymajor]

Okay I watched the Six Triple Eight movie and I've been sitting with it for the last couple of days just sorting my thoughts and reflecting on how I feel about it. So here are all of my thoughts. What I liked, loved, hated, disliked but begrudgingly accepted. All of it.

Overall I LOVED IT!! AAHHHH!!!! It was a great movie and the history was pretty damn on point and I'm still so thrilled to have this movie in existence!!!!!! WE HAVE A MOVIE ABOUT THE WACS!! ABOUT THE 6888!!! THAT THE PUBLIC IS WATCHING AND ENJOYING AND WANTING TO LEARN MORE!!!! THAT'S SO IMPORTANT TO ME!!! It was so amazing to see so many women on screen during a WWII/war movie. I cried many many times. I'm so happy you guys. So happy.

Were there mistakes? Absolutely. Did those mistakes piss me off? Of course. I always get pissed at historical mistakes and the WACs are my historical specialty. Heck I know the historical consultant personally. But I knew going in that this is a Tyler Perry movie on a Netflix budget so of course there were going to be mistakes and things that are embellished for entertainment purposes. I prepared myself for it. So yes, overall I'm very happy with the film.

But lets go deep into it shall we!

Putting in a read more because I am detailed and long winded lol

Let's start with what I feel like was the good.

First of all, and what I feel like is one of the MOST important things about this movie: We have a movie about WOMEN in WWII. About Women of COLOR in WWII. About the WOMEN'S ARMY CORPS itself. We have a movie where the WAC are at the forefront of a war movie instead of being blurry background images with no names faces or lines OR just nurses acting as a romantic plot device to lift a man's story before disappearing never to be heard from again. Now we have a full movie just about THEM. And I fucking love it!! I want MORE!!!! And this film is getting people interested in history and wanting to learn more about not only the WACs but the 6888 themselves which will lead to more interest in women's history and women's history during WWII which makes me so fucking happy I could SCREAM!!!!! That's so amazing and so important and if anyone wants some more resources to learn more hit me up! I'm happy to share things!

In terms of the plot/story I'm fairly pleased with it too. Knowing it's a lower budget Tyler Perry Netflix movie, I fully expected them to sensationalize, exaggerate and change a lot of the real history. And yes they did do this a few times but the meat of the story is accurate. A lot of the story was accurate. More accurate than I expected.

The processing of new WACs, the gas mask drill, the voyage over, the marching through the streets upon arrival in England, the state of the King Edward School, the process of sorting the mail, all of the extra steps they all took to locate the men, the church scene, the loss of several women, the scene of Adams saying "over my dead body", etc. were all TRUE. That happened!! And I loved how it was all shown. I really really do.

However, I don't like that they changed the reason Lena joined the WACs to go from fighting for her country to be a romantic/for a dude story. I'm so tired of amatanormativity jeezus christ. Why does everything have to have romance in it. I mean I get why they shoehorned that plot in there. It's for the public who expect and apparently need a romance plot or whatever. But yeah I didn't like that. Was it a good story? Sure I guess. If you don't know the truth and like romance plots. I mean, Lena and Hugh were already married when she decided to join the WACs.

I also don't like that they changed the story of the women who lost their lives. In fact this is the one plot point that infuriates me the most. The rest I could overlook and accept as film nonsense that was always gonna happen for dramatic effect. But this? What was the point. First of all it was 3 women who lost their lives. In a jeep accident. They were not blown up because they went off the prescribed course. They didn't even give them the names of the real women who died. Which were Dolores Browne, Mary Barlow, and Mary Barkston. The emotional impact was lovely and I may have cried a little watching it but that doesn't mean I'm not so mad that it was changed. At least that WAS included in the movie that women died. And the part about raising money for the caskets is true as well. Charity Adams wrote about it in her memoirs. They took up a collection to purchase caskets and sent 3 women who matched the deceased women's measurements to buy them. Then they gave them a Protestant (for 2 of them) and a Catholic (for 1 of them) ceremony. The 3 women are now buried in the Colleville-Sur-Mer Normandy American Cemetery. That was true. And I'm glad all of this was included because the regular movie watcher should know this happened even if the facts weren't quite right.

I loved the ending. A lot. I sobbed when they returned home and were saluted by the men who benefited from the work of the 6888th. I SOBBED when they started playing the real footage of the battalion and the interviews with the members. SOBBED. I was a fucking mess after that segment and I'm BEYOND glad that it was included. That was the most important part of the whole damn movie. This story is REAL and about REAL women and you should go learn about them!

I literally clapped and cheered during the marching segment. I'm such a nerd for proper WAC drill. That dress right dress and cover down was SO GOOD!! Anyone who's been at my mercy when trying to learn drill should know that it's not easy to do. But these ladies were SHARP and SNAPPY and BEAUTIFUL! Ugh I loved it! That's what I am my unit to look like one day! The marching itself was a little weird though. They were picking up their feet way too much. It's like they were stomping down the street when it should have been a smooth roll step. And some of the ladies didn't have the arm swing down either. But the eyes right and salute moment!?! Aaaaahhhh!!! I screamed!!! In a good way!!! That movement was so smooth!!! So good!! And it felt, emotionally, so good to watch this giant group of women march down the street. Ugh I loved that.

This one is unique to me but The Phantom!!! I may have waved at the Phantom like it's my friend lol. Shoutout to my friends who own that vehicle!! The Phantom is a star!! I've ridden in that vehicle many times!! And my other friends car is in the movie too!! So fun!!!

I like the montage of the work WACs did post graduation. That had the feeling of a WAC recruitment video and I enjoyed it a lot. That was cool AND ACCURATE!!!!!!!!

Kerry Washington and Milauna Jackson had great chemistry together and every time they were on screen together I was having a blast.

THE WAC BAND!! WAC BAND!! WAC MUSICIANS! THERE WERE WAC MUSICIANS!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! If you know me at all you know how OBSESSED with the WAC musicians I am. And the dance music for the movie was provided by the black WACs and I loved that. So. Much. Was it accurate to have a full WAC band stationed in England? Fuck no. Not at all. The 404th WAC band never left the US. Do I care? Not at all. I was too excited to see those women playing to care. Sorry not sorry.

Okay now the bad. Hoo boy.

Obviously what I've already stated above about the factual errors. The incorrect facts regarding Lena, the women who died, the made up General Halt (you couldn't pick an actual general to use? why did you make one up?), the conclusion of the inspection and the "over my dead body" situation, etc.

The uniforms. Oh my god the uniforms. What the hell happened!? Now I will say, IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE!!! So much worse!! We've seen worse!! At least they were all wearing correct uniform pieces. Every uniform they wore was correct. I saw correct service uniforms, correct HBTs, correct officer uniforms, mostly correct M43s (where the fuck were their leggings?!). So thank god for that. The problem is that the uniforms were so sloppy!! Throughout the movie I kept shaking my head over the sloppy uniforms. Hats that are not on people's head properly. Shirt collars that are popped or crooked. Ill fitting jackets. Garrison caps ok wrong. Crushed Hobby Hats. Leggings not worn or worn backwards. The purses on the WRONG shoulder!

Horrifying. But this stuff wasn't the most egregious error of the film! This is the WORST thing in it. The upside down officers cap badge on Milauna was the WORST. That is unforgivable. How does that even happen!?! How did no one see it and go "oh wait we gotta fix that?" Especially when Kerry Washington was in the same scene wearing the same uniform! How! Does! This! Happen!?! Utterly ridiculous.

I will say that I did chuckle for a bit because I kept thinking about my experience with the shit repro uniforms we have as reenactors and how I've dealt with a lot of the problems the movie had. I don't fit in original pieces so I have to rely on repros. I've dealt with my collars bunching weirdly, my hobby hat getting bent/crushed and not getting back into shape properly. I laughed out loud at the whole "my titties won't fit in my shirt" moment because SAME GIRL!! Big breasted girls know that pain. They make my shirt look so weird sometimes. Did I like the way it was said? Fuck no. I hated Johnnie's character so much. Why did she phrase it like that. Felt way too modern. Even if I could relate to trying to fit my big boobs into my wool shirt. And when I first started reenacting I definitely wore insignia wrong once or twice and once I put my garrison cap on backwards and didn't realize it and no one told me it was backwards so whoops. So I can accept some of the sloppiness because I've been there.

But just because I can relate to this all doesn't make it acceptable for a film! This is not something that should have shitty looking uniforms like this!! You have the time and the money and the resources!! The uniforms should fit and be worn CORRECTLY!! There is no excuse for the mistakes made. None. Not when you have all the references and access to veterans of the 6888 and a freaking historical advisor that I KNOW would have told you THIS IS WRONG! And so much of it is so easily fixable! Pull that hat down so it's on your head. Roll the hair up more. Curl her hair. Twist the insignia so it's the other way. Get her a bigger jacket and her a smaller one. EASY TO FIX.

I like a lot of the hair but the ones that were wrong were SO wrong it was PAINFUL! Johnnie's straight hair made me scream. It looked horrible all the time. Why did so many of them have their hair down below their collars at the dance!?!!!!! WHY!?!?! Sure it's pretty, but IT'S BELOW YOUR COLLAR!!!! STOP!!! Why was that one white WAC in a BUN!?! Why!!!??

And the salutes!!! HORRIBLE!! Salutes aren't that hard!! Why did they all either salute like a Brit with the palm facing front or with the most crooked hand ever.

Also plot wise, what was the point of introducing us to the supporting characters of all they were going to do was be a prop for Lena. We should have been given more about them. They needed more plots, more story, more characterization, more depth. I wanted more from them.

Overall I really really enjoyed the movie and the things that I disliked are not enough for me to say this was a bad movie. It wasn't. I do highly encourage everyone who watched the movie to check out some of the following resources to learn more about these incredible women:

One Woman's Army by Charity Adams Earley

Women of the 6888th website

The United States Army in World War II: Special Studies: The Women’s Army Corps by Mattie E. Treadwell

LTC Charity Adams, Oral History, 1990

Anna Mae Robertson, The “Six Triple Eight” A interview with PFC Anna Mae Wilson and her daughter Janice Banyard on the history of the 6888th

This page of the Women of 6888th website

To Serve My Country, to Serve My Race by Brenda L. Moore

“African American Women and the Women’s Army Corps during World War II.” by Morgan Carlton

Oral Histories of African American women during wwii

[broadwaybohemians]

Just got back from seeing Wicked and ahhh it was SO GOOD!!! 10/10 NO NOTES! I cried 4 times. As soon as the first notes of No One Mourns the Wicked hit? Tears. The Wizard and I? Tears. The Oz Dust Ballroom part? Tears. Defying Gravity? TEARS. I loved the whole thing. I need to go see it again and again. Also part 2 is gonna DESTROY me! Gonna go listen to the soundtrack on repeat now.

[thebat-musicman]

9 year old Dick: If you’re a friendless loser and you know it, clap your hands!

Bruce:

Dick: Clap. Your. Hands.

Bruce: *clap clap*

———

12 year old Jason: HEY YOU!

Jason: HEEEEEY YOU!

Jason: HEY! YOU!

Bruce: It’s not polite to not call people by their names, Robin.

Jason: Nice try, Hey You. I know my mentor’s name.

———

13 year old Tim: You see this coffee, Bruce?

Bruce: Thank you for making this for m-

Tim: This is my coffee. You are having water. Only people who don’t break mugger’s fingers get coffee.

———

Clark: Batman, your Robins are so polite. They must have been a joy to raise.

Bruce, through clenched teeth: Such a joy.

[ashoss]

pierced jason: a saga

text under cut bc i feel like my handwriting is messy lol

in the batcave medbay

stephanie: i've only pierced ears before so you can't blame me if i fuck up, jason.

jason: its fine - can't be worse than an exploding building

bruce: jason, remember to take your piercings out before you go on patrol.

jason: fuck you, b! i have a helmet for a reason

bruce: what did i tell you jason?

jason: yeah, yeah. whatever.

arrow pointing to bruce: had the same thing happen to him when he was younger

arrows pointing to jason: had an earring ripped out. angry his dad was right

[teleportationmagic]

Inspired by the latest Batgirl issue

[decapod-appreciator]

bruce wayne’s weird scary daughter spotted with second, weirder (but not scarier) teenage girl at gala

[samijey]

THE ENTIRE BLOODLINE ON A YACHT RIDE TOGETHER THIS IS THE CONTENT IM HERE FOR

[theresistanceneverquits]

There’s not enough people talking about how important Stephanie is to Damian’s growth pre-Flashpoint.

Bruce had seen Damian as a beast to be tamed, Tim sees him as a ticking time bomb, and Dick is far better with him but he’s still an authority figure for Damian to combat with. But then he meets Stephanie, a college-aged girl who nobody trusts and he bullies her relentlessly and becomes inseparable from her.

She doesn’t interact with him based on his past, but on what she can see. This 10 year old just threatened to kill her? Wow he doesn’t get outside much. He’s not old enough to have seen Gremlins. What do you MEAN you’ve never been inside a bouncy house before we are fixing that immediately.

They are like cousins to each other. They poke fun at each other for being lame and stupid and Dick has to tell them both to shut up. She doesn’t see him as a project to be molded and redeemed, he’s just a kid with a crappy childhood like her and if he’s nice to her for 5 seconds she’ll do something with him to let him feel like a kid. And he doesn’t look at her and see a liability or a failure or a lost cause, like everyone she’s ever interacted with does. When he’s awful to her, it’s because he’s an obnoxious preteen boy.

And then you get the “there’s room in our line of work for hope, too” scene. Because Damian has gotten to know Steph and he can’t fathom why she’s here. She obviously has had to deal with crap and is still working through being kept on a leash by Nightwing and Oracle, but she isn’t broken like the rest of them are. Damian is surrounded by people who were molded and shaped and torn down and broken to become the monoliths that they are, and then there’s this girl who seems so at peace with herself and is constantly making quips, and it’s so foreign to him.

And she tells him that she’s in his world because she believes people are worth fighting for.

[violent138]

I feel like the Robins probably watched horror movies to really up their game, taking notes on the gestures and body language that would creep you out. "Criminals are a superstitious lot", so yeah the guy in full body armour that could beat you up would suck, but a small child, somewhere in the dark, with an echoing laugh all around you as you fire off a hail of bullets, somehow dodging everything and gleefully messing you up. That's psychological warfare.

[thewanderingace]

Leverage Redemption Season 3 Trailer

[musingsofahistorymajor]

Happy first day of women's history month!

[thatsveryood]

incorrect 911 (but is it actually wrong? 🤔) x

[jimjamjomjum]

Movie night

[superbat-lmao]

A mage who doesn’t like child soldiers targets Batman in Gotham. They know that several vigilantes connected to him are children or were children when they started.

Their vendetta against him basically boils down to, “What the hell were you thinking?” and they cast a spell against him accordingly.

Every day, a new family member will be able to read Bruce’s mind for 24 hours. It’s entirely random and the definition of “family member” is incredibly loose, but everyone knows the Robins are his children because of how berserk he went when Robin II died.

On the one hand, it’s a horrific violation of everyone’s privacy.

On the other, Bruce finally figures out what his kids think of him and don’t say. And his kids are finally able to realize that yes, he cares about them exactly as much as they want him to. He’s literally the absolute worst at showing it or communicating that, but he cares.

Dick gets confirmation that Bruce knows how good he is, how capable he is to lead a team. That Bruce doesn’t secretly think that when he screws up it’s because he isn’t cut out to be a vigilante. When he screws up, Bruce gets scared and lashes out in the only way an emotionally repressed father can, by making it worse. That Bruce doesn’t think Dick is incapable of looking after himself or making the right call. All of Bruce’s attempts to control Dick or his life were because he was scared. Because he wanted Dick to be better than him, and he is, just not in the ways Bruce was first able to see. Having more friends and being connected to people is infinitely more important than college, though it took time for Bruce to see that. Dick is Bruce’s first son and he couldn’t be more proud.

Jason realizes that Bruce loves him. That he tears himself apart over their relationship. That he feels there’s a clear line between Bruce’s opinion of Jason and of Jason’s actions. Because murder is wrong and Bruce’s philosophy is grounded in second chances. Because he just wants Jason to come home and his son’s actions scare him because he’s more isolated from backup than his brothers. Jason can literally feel how Bruce thinks, how he sees murder and how he thinks about himself. Bruce doesn’t think it’s a line he would be able to walk away from, and Jason feels more precarious seeing the world as his father thinks about it than in his own head. There is far less judgement in Bruce’s thoughts. Just pure concern. And self doubt over what to say. Bruce never sought to replace him, would have joined him, and has missed him. Those were always Jason’s major concerns.

Tim sees that Bruce views him as his son. That he wasn’t a substitute for Jason and he doesn’t secretly think Tim shouldn’t have been Robin. Bruce thinks that Tim reminds him a lot of himself and based on all the things people say about him, that makes Bruce nervous. Because he wants Tim to have fun and be a kid, not feel chained to work the way Bruce is. He knows they both have workaholic tendencies and wants better for Tim, wants him to have friends and a life outside of work. But Tim also knew Bruce at his lowest and so he will always feel guilty that it was Tim who pulled him out of his grief spiral, because Bruce wasn’t strong enough to do it himself.

Damian learns that Bruce was so excited for him to be born and devastated when he thought Talia had lost the pregnancy. That he was furious his son had been hidden from him. That he loves Damian and loved Talia and wasn’t sure how to separate out those feelings. That he would have wanted Damian no matter his level of training, if he gave up this lifestyle or anything. That there is nothing Damian, or any of his family could do to make Bruce stop loving them. Damian is wanted. He can also see that Bruce struggles with knowing how to handle him being a kid that acts like an adult. How he knows how capable Damian is, but that no children should go through that. Bruce didn’t have that sort of childhood. And while his own wasn’t exactly happy, he still got to be a kid. And innocence and youth aren’t things to be looked down on, just experienced. And Bruce doesn’t want Damian to not have those experiences, even if he doesn’t value them as others do. He learns that Bruce trusts him and that his father feels emotions acutely and strongly, such that he becomes reactive in a way that feels accusatory or disappointed but is just afraid.

They all realize that Bruce needs them and hates himself for needing them. That they are his children and he loves them and wants them safe. But that those feelings constantly war with how capable they are, how good his children are at what they do. How much they care about the helping and protecting others. That every time he says something they beat themselves up over, it’s because he’s scared they’ll get hurt or make a mistake that they can’t undo and will have to live with. He never wanted them to join him and it’s not because he thought they couldn’t do it, but precisely because he knows they can. And that sometimes, that isn’t enough. Even metas can get hurt and even Superman could die. By comparison his children are so vulnerable and there’s only so much he can do to keep them safe.

Does he verbalize this?

Bruce thinks so.

But all his kids hear is:

You were too reckless.

You disobeyed orders.

You’re off patrol.

And oddly? This solves like half of the current problems his kids have with him. Because they never really believed him before and always felt the conversations were one-sided.

It does create several new problems thought because Bruce just had like a significant invasion of privacy as the most paranoid person on the planet, so it takes a while for him to calm down and actually work things out with his kids in a way that lasts and isn’t just a bandaid over a bullet hole.

[ashoss]

rip stephanie brown and tim drake u would have loved brainrot