My favorite behind-the-scenes tidbit about Trading Places (1983) remains (per J. Landis' claims) Don Ameche explaining that he just doesn't think he can do that—say the f-word—to which Landis says, No, it is vital that your character says the f-word, it's the character, not you, and if you don't say it I shan't hire you—
(Okay, okay, says Ameche, and then, months later)
—Ameche announces (again, per Landis' recounting), "I have to say a profanity, and I would like everyone's cooperation, so I only have to do this once."
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re-watching the second episode of leverage and wondering, for the first time, how much of a revelation nathan ford's crusade was for eliot spencer.
did he have any plan, before then? any path forward that brought him closer to where he wanted to be? or was he stuck in a holding pattern, figuring that retrieval work for rich people who weren't damien moreau was as close to becoming a better man as he could ever reach?
how much did it mean to him, do you think, to be given the opportunity to do some good in the world again?
obviously he's of the opinion he'll never be redeemed, and he's not wrong, per se. but I'm suddenly curious about the internal journey there, for him, in the early days. do you think it was like a gentle dawn finally breaking? do you think it was a relief? or was it terrifying? realizing that he could actually do better, that what he chose to do next actually mattered?
no wonder eliot never abandoned nathan ford, despite all possible provocation. how could he ever betray or desert the man who gave him a hand up out of the darkness, who showed him there was still a path forward?
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hang on one more Nimona thing i realized. I'm so used to movies where the protagonist is inherently talented with no reason and is able to overpower the antagonists. Like, they're always unexplainably powerful and "oh wow, this person is stronger than these other people that have been training for years."
So, on my first watch, I thought that's what it was for Ballister. He fought a bunch of his fellow knights, overpowered them, disarmed the prodigy, Goldenloin.
THEN i rewatched, paid more attention, and holy shit. He's been like this since the beginning.
And then i started to notice the little things that subtly supported this.
He makes his own arm, that must take intellectual skill. He grabs a can that was about the fall off the shelf and make noise, without even looking at it.
And during the fight scene at the institute!! At first, I was like ok, typical protagonist fight scene where they overpower tons of other people. Because Plot.
But no!! the more i think about it, it's reasonable. It's established early on that Ballister is competent, he's skilled. He's very aware of things going on around him. He's able to knock out knights that around coming up behind him without looking, swiftly disable opponents.
Rewatching it always makes me go back and see these characters in a new light. So my view on Ballister went from "ah, mess of a man that's put in a tough situation. Able to do these crazy things because they're necessary to the plot." to "Oh he's competent!! That's the point!! He's still a mess but :0"
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I hate TikTok because I did not just see someone say Luffy had a great childhood and defending that statement with their life as if the kid wasn't kidnapped and tortured and experienced abandonment and the loss of loved ones over and over again until his teenage years 💀
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you're telling me bbc merlin has an episode called The Secret Sharer where everything revolves around a bunch of characters digging around for merlin's secret identity and gwaine is there for no reason other than to beg merlin to trust him again and proves himself worthy of that trust by turning his back on his knightly duties and doing everything to help merlin even though they might be saving a traitor for all gwaine knows and then merlin literally does magic in front of him and they even kinda acknowledge it by shrugging at each other and this still doesn't count as a magic reveal and they all just go back to their stupid little ignorant lives in camelot after that. do i have that right? ok. so first of all this show is a cheap farce but we knew that. second of all. Gwaine Knows. obviously
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nightmare viewing the murder time three as little toys but more in like a little spoiled kid kinda way. because it would be funny and if you take into the account that he was like 6 before getting corrupted and do some mental loopholes it would be even funnier. like these are his dolls (killer dust and horror) and this is their barbie dreamhouse (his castle). they all have to stay in one room because nightmare needs to keep his toys in a toy box. the toys only ever come out when he wants to play but oh damn it they keep on breaking out!! silly toys,,, and then he locks them into the room again.
nightmare serves them food with plastic tea cups and plastic plates and there is no food. there is no tea. they have to imagine the food because dolls can't literally eat. there are food containers and stuff in the house but its all just a bunch of empty boxes. horror starts tweaking out after he scavenges the kitchen and finds a cereal box and milk carton that have NOTHING in it (why keep empty boxes?????)
they have to go where he wants them to go. nightmare gets to dress them up in whatever he wants because theyre his dolls they can wear anything he wants. it gets incredibly embarrassing when the trio is forced to wear pink pretty dresses and fight like that. or they have to go around the castle doing stupid fucking roleplays and it gets weird because theyre being forced to reenact a bullying scene and nightmare's giving them the death stare if they don't get it right (is this projection. this must be some form of coping mechanism dust theorizes)
and then you know nightmare's not exactly the best toy owner so he loses a few of his dolls here and there. maybe they get destroyed when he was playing a bit too rough with them! (killer dies in battle for like the 29th time) but its okay because he can just go back on down to the store (something new) and buy. wait no. steal another doll and then put it back in his dreamhouse and BOOM he has a full set again!! so sweet so cute. his dolls don't have consciousness what are you talking about theyre begging to be let go?? that's all just your imagination. what do you mean you're asking about the several slowly dying bodies with removed arms or legs in his dungeon. oh that's just where the broken but not yet destroyed toys go dw theyre fine its humane
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i find it an interesting detail that this is where the thumbnail comes from, specifically the frame where he says "demonized" (from the titular song)
now i've only watched npmd once so idk if there's any like. subtext as to if max was a typical bully in how if he bullied others due to his own background or insecurities or if he was just genuinely just a terrible person, but it seems interesting that starkid chose this specific frame to go on the thumbnail (i get it he does look frightening and cool at once and it conveys the vibe of the musical)
i mean it's obvious that he's a completely deranged person (i think especially after coming back from the dead) but yeah, what i thought was interesting, was that by starkid choosing this specific frame, they're also immediately demonizing him to anyone that stumbles upon the musical, even before starting it so!!!
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you know what, I actually will talk about this because it's bothering me. The issue with focussing so heavily on syd and carmy's potential for a romantic relationship isn't that there's something inherently unintellectual about romance or whatever, it's that a lot of people seem incapable of doing that without immediately flattening the story and ignoring or intentionally misreading any and all nuance for the sake of that romance. Every scene suddenly becomes about how it impacts their relationship, every analysis is done through a romantic lens, every frame or line of dialogue becomes about finding some easter egg or hint that "proves" these people should start dating. Their dynamic is absolutely a fundamental part of this show, but if you can only see it as a will-they-won't-they, you miss so much of what the story is actually trying to say with these two.
There are good versions of this story where their relationship is romantic and there are good versions of this story where it isn't, but as soon as you decide them being together is "the point," you lose the ability to actually judge the story for what it is, not what you want it to be.
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