#when I say I am an Indy NERD sometimes I don't think ppl really know how much of a nerd I mean lol

[imwritesometimes]

What do you mean, it's an Indy line?! 🤩 (you know I love that blorbo too, I forever will, but don’t answer this if you don’t want to of course!)

my Indy nerd ass opening this ask like

Put most of it under a cut cause, well, it got stupid long and if no one actually reads this I won't blame them lol - My blog tittle is 'fortune & glory' which is a line from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I think it's maybe one of my favorite lines in the series because it, to me, displays how Indy wants to be seen, and shows the growth he goes through.

I think a lot of people forget/don't know that Temple of Doom is actually a prequel to Raiders. So when they watch it they go, "Oh wow this scoundrel never learned a thing opening God's Most Special Box and watching all those Nazi faces melt and he just left Marion again! What a cad!" But that's not true at all cause, in terms of story time-line, none of that has happened to him yet! So when Temple of Doom starts he is a brash, cocky, over-confident man.

He tells Short-Round at one point early in the film that everything they're doing, everything he's about, is for 'fortune & glory'. I think even his relationship with Short-Round early on is a great plot device demonstrating how much he changes as a result of the things that happen in the film. At first he seems kinda nonchalant, 'idk I picked this kid up, it's whatever, he's sorta useful' to literally risking his life to save him because he realizes they are important to one another.

But that's very much how he wants to be perceived. A swashbuckling, bravado machine, unburdened by the frivolity of emotional baggage. Which becomes even more poignant when we learn that his Mom left him at an early age and his Dad was largely uninterested in having a child. You could also argue that he is in search of his 'fortune & glory' to get the attention of his Dad.

But, by the end of the film, after he's gone through unimaginable horrors, he is changed. He has learned that there is far more to life, and to the field in which he has decided to dedicate his life, than his precious 'fortune & glory', and ultimately becomes a better person and I think establishes more of the growth we see from Indy in the other films. We still see him put on his mask of 'fortune & glory' but ultimately we know more and more that it's a mask and one he isn't so good at hiding behind anymore.

I feel like they did a very good job carrying that narrative through all the films, even DoD, which sees Indy again shifting into the swashbuckling, bravado machine but we know he is processing the loss of his son and ultimately still Loves Marion deeply and it hurts him to be separated from her.

just to add: There are, of course, criticisms to made about Temple of Doom, both culturally and thematically. A lot of people are put off by how 'dark' the subject matter is, and it ultimately did help usher in the PG-13 rating. I would not ever try to defend some the cultural aspects of the film, but thematically it's also interesting to know Spielberg went into making ToD after an accident on the set of Twilight Zone killed two people, including a child. (I have not listed their names here as I do not wish to have this come up if people serarch for them on this site as it would be disrespectful imo because this post in general is not about them) The themes we see in ToD about children being endangered and then, ultimately rescued, becomes a little clearer I think when viewed through that lens.