#where oh where did Jason's autism come from?

[cuthwyn]

The Batkids in the den doing impressions of their biological parents because ... bored.

Jason: *chugging a bottle of beer* There are only two meals that matter in this life. Pasta and cheese, and beer.

Jason: *Folds arms* The only things worth knowing on this planet can be learned from Star Trek.

Jason: *Vaguely gestures at a bookshelf* Here is my display of automobile manuals. I don't own any of these cars. I just want to be prepared in case I own a 69 Chevy and the trailer drops out on it.

Jason: Cat! Today is supposed to be meatloaf day and I see before me spaghetti. Why are we having spaghetti on meatloaf day?

Jason: *slams den door* Cat! They changed the layout at the store, and I'm very upset about it! No, I didn't get the groceries because they changed the layout!

Tim: *blinks* I'm going to tell him.

Dick: Don't you dare!!

[hxspitalforsxuls]

Everything would be alright | E.M

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Autistic! gn! reader

Words: 3k

Summary: Sometimes the world is too much, too bright, too noisy, too difficult for you. Is in that moment that you really need an Eddie in your life, someone who know how to redirect your harm, who knows how to distract you and make your anxiety a little less. Oh god, everyone should have an Eddie in their lives.

Content warnings: autistic!reader, meltdown, the descriptions in this fic could be a little overwhelming (I'm sorry :c), overstimulation swearing, reader hurt themselves (scratching the scalp, and burying nails in the hand), mention of blood, Jason (He need his own warning), reader cries, my bad English and writing (this needs a warning too, clearly), bullying, pet names, Eddie carrying you in his arms. I don't know if something scape me.

Notes: The reader is not physically described, and I tried to make this gender neutral. Let me know if some part I messed with the pronouns or something.

Reminder: Autism is a spectrum, so every experience and characteristics are different, i wrote this based in my own experience. And really this was very self-indulgent of me because the world was too loud these last days, and i really need an Eddie in my life. Thank you for understanding.

★゜・。。・゜☆゜・。。・゜★゜・。。・☆゜・。。・゜

The day has started like any other, the sound of your mothers' screams trying to wake you up fulfilled its purpose, but that didn't matter to you because today will be a good day. You have a math test in the third hour but you studied like a week for that so you feel totally prepared to face it, in the lunch hour you will go to the Hellfire table and eat with them like you always do, and after school Eddie and you will go for a walk while eating your favorite ice cream. You mentally review your day repeatedly preparing you for what is coming, everything was going to be according to plan.

When you were dressed and ready you go to the kitchen where your mom was eating breakfast before going to work, so you sit next her after greeting her and pour yourself some juice to drink while you wait in silence for Eddie to come get you for school. He always was outside your house between 7:15 and 7:30, knowing that with giving you a range of hour it was lest probably to upset you for him arriving late, an after you made this deal with him, he followed it to the letter, calling you before if something happened and he can't go for you.

At 7:20 his van parked outside your house, so you simply say goodbye to your mom with a move of your hand and go to sit to the copilot seat greeting Eddie with a kiss on his cheek.

"Hello sweetheart, how did you sleep today?" He says watching you with his beautiful brown eyes like you were a truly work of art. Every time he glances at you, you feel like you fall more and more deep for him.

"Everything okay, did you sleep well?" He simply nodded while making the car start to drive to the school. The music begins to blast from the speaker making you jump a little from the sudden noise and cover your ears. Usually, you like the same type of music than Eddie, metal, rock, and those genres, but sudden noises and loud music really wasn't something you like.

"Shit shit shit, sorry babe, I forgot to decrease the volume. I am really sorry love. You okay?" You nodded while lowering yours hands now that you know that the music is at a normal volume. He was eyeing you from the corner of his eyes while he drives, making sure that you really were okay.

"Its fine, it only scared me a little, but it's alright Eds" You know that he worried a lot about you, he always tries to make you feel comfy everywhere you go, always carrying fidgets toys for you, and defend you if someone make you upset or says something about you, maybe punching someone in the nose every now and then if is it necessary to make them stop. And on top of all of that, he is one of the only persons that really knows how to treat you if you were overwhelmed or having a meltdown. He knows you like the back of his hand, and with just seeing you he knows clearly what you want or need without you saying it.

Well, maybe he was babying you a little, but you really love him for that, because you feel loved and appreciated like you never feel before.

"We are here love. Are you with me?" You feel a little poke in your cheek, and you realized that you were in the parking lot of the school. Your mind was in another place while Eddie drive to here. "Yes love, I am back sorry, i was thinking of my math test, I am nervous" You give him a side smile while he slowly brushes his thumb for your cheek, watching you with his eyes full of love.

"You are the smartest person I ever met sweetheart and I know that this test will be easy peasy for you. Want me to escort you to your class, darling?" You giggle a little with a blush. Although you and Eddie were a couple for more of a year, and best friends from about seven years, you really can't get used to the pet names and sweet treatment that he gives you.

After he goes with you to the door of your English class and asked you lots of question like if you need something, or if you bring your Walkman with you to lower the noise of the hallway in the recess, he assured you that he will be waiting for you outside your class when its finished, giving you a little peck as he goes to his classroom.

The English class was boring, you sit next to a girl named Susan and you never really talk to her, but she seems a kind person. You don't put a lot of attention in the class as your mind start thinking of the show that you are seeing with Eddie and you loved so much that you can stop thinking about it, or the book that you read last night and had you in the edge of the seat while you read.

As the bell ring, you put the Walkman headphones in your ears because the noise of the students upset you when it's too much. Eddie, like always, was sitting in the floor in front of your class, waiting for you to get out, and smiling to you when he sees you. You really don't understand how he do it, maybe he exits early his classes just to be with you or something like that, but every time you try to ask him, or tell him that is not necessary he simply brush the subject away.

The recess ends without you noticed, and soon you are being escorted for Eddie to your next class, and that repeat again with the second class and recess, soon enough you where in front of your third class, the math class where you have a test right now, and the class that you share with Jason Carver, a person that can be described as an ass. Eddie would wait for you in the cafeteria when the class end, knowing that you would take your time while doing the test.

You walk right to your seat and prepared yourself for the test, mentally reviewing the themes that you studied over and over again for the last week. That's when instead of the teacher entering the classroom, another person enters, a teacher that you don't know, and that clearly isn't the one that has to take the test today. You frown, not understanding what is happening, you prepared for the test for today, so why the teacher wasn't here to take the test?

That's when the new teacher says that Mr. Cornell is sick and couldn't come to work today. You frown more, the test was today, you reviewed your day in the morning and in the third hour you have the math test that you have been preparing for a week. You start to play with your fingers trying to low the anxiety that you were feeling in your body.

"Do you have a problem with this?" That sentence snapped you from your thoughts, the teacher was in front of your desk watching as you frown and mutter something to yourself, that is when all the class turns around to see you, a bundle of nerves. You hear some laughs, and someone whisper "freak" in your right ear making you jump a little, everyone laughs at you, and the teacher don't do anything about it. He simply seats at the desk saying that the class were free to do anything you want as long as you where inside the classroom and don't use electronics items, such as Walkman's.

That was the sign for the noise to begin, everyone in the room talking all at once. You could hear some girls talking about make up, and some other group talking about a party the Friday, you even can hear the noise that the teacher was doing tapping his finger in the desk while he read. Every sound overlapping each other in your head making you dizzy, your hands clutching your ears like your life depends on it. And in this moment its feels like that statement was real.

The test was today, you have it written in with your blue Bic pencil in the calendar next to your bed, you prepared yourself for a week for this, why the teacher wasn't here? why he didn't notify before? You try to tell yourself that emergencies could happened, and that Mr. Cornell couldn't watch the future to know that today he would fall sick. But in this moment your mind can't understand it. The noise of your classmates was too loud, and there is a light above you that flicks and makes you wince every time. You shut your eyes and lean your head in the desk, trying to make you small for a moment.

You try to get your Walkman from your backpack, but the teacher desk was in front of you, so he denies you as soon as he sees you, making another set of laughs directed to you. Everything was too loud, and soon you feel blood dripping out your hands, without realizing it you had been burying your nails deeply. It stings, adding another bad sensation to the list, making tears run down your cheeks.

Suddenly you feel a hand in your shoulder and a girl's voice asking you if you were okay, but the touch made you jump and brush off the hand fast. You don't like the physical touch, only Eddie's, or persons from your groups of friends, but they always ask before touching you.

You stand from your desk with a jump, you're breathing fast and heavy, as your eyes scan the room trying to understand everything that is happening. You watch that the girl that have talked to you was Susan, the girl from first period, but in this moment it doesn't matter. Everything was too much.

You tried to run to the door, but soon the teacher was standing in front of it "Where do you think you are going?" God, you just want to run out of this place, but you can't seem to form the words in your mouth, your thoughts were running too fast for that, and you don't have the energy to make noises. "Oh god, look! The freak is crying!" you hear some of the jock mocking you. You tried again go around the teacher and finally leave this place, but he doesn't give the arm to twist. Everyone or at least most of the class were laughing at you, Jason in the front of everyone. "What happens freak? The mouse got your tongue?" He pushes your shoulder making you trip over your feet, and that is the moment you feel the water boil inside you. Pushing the teacher out of your way, you ran away from that hell.

゜・。。・゜★゜・。。・゜

After like 20 minutes Eddie started to worry, you always take your time when you do a test, checking if you have any errors at least three times before give the test back to the teacher. But never this much.

The members of Hellfire follow him with their eyes as he walks from one side to another in front of the table, fidgeting with his rings. "Damn it, I'm going to their classroom" he says suddenly. "Maybe they went to the bathroom or something Eddie, there is no need to worry" Mike says trying to calm their dudgeon master, but it only seems to make it worse. "No no no Wheeler, you really don't understand" Eddie says without even look at the kid, running his hand over his face anxiously. "Eddie? A girl is walking towards here" warns Dustin, looking confused by the sudden female presence.

"Eh sorry, you are Eddie, right?" she says without even looking at his eyes, looking like she's hiding something or as if she was embarrassed, Eddie only nodded recognizing her from your class, and soon he sees your backpack in her hands, this only makes him more anxious every time, imagining the worst. That is when he heard it, Jason and his jocks laughing about something as it was the best of their lives. Eddie scans the cafeteria, and his eyes lock again in the girl in front of him, trying to understand what is happening. The girl soon speaks, blurting out everything making it difficult for him to understand, despite it he was able to rescue some words "crying" "run away" "blood" and the most important of it, he heard your name. And that its all it matter to him, snaping your backpack of her hands without saying anything and rushing out of the cafeteria with only one thought in his mind. He must find you. The hellfire members were soon next to him saying they would split up to look for you at school. But Eddie doesn't hear them.

Robin joined the search after Eddie asked her if she had seen you, but there wasn't any clue of where you could be. And suddenly he realizes, the most obvious place you could be. A dark quiet room that reminds you of him. The Hellfire club room. And after telling the others that he knows where you are, and to return to the cafeteria. He run to the room, not wanting you to spend another minute alone in that state.

When he finally reaches the door, he knocks quietly to let you know that he was entering, not wanting to scare you or make everything worse. You were curled as a ball in his throne scratching your head with your nails and sobbing hard. He knows that your skull would probably be bleeding after all the digging of your nails, but he can't run to take yours hand away. It would only startle you more and make everything worse.

"Hello there, love. it's me, Eddie. I'm here sweetheart. You are safe now" he says softly, approaching to you slowly. But you don't react to his voice, everything that happened in the classroom repeating over and over again in your head, still hearing all the noises, and feeling the flick of the light above you.

"I am going to put you some music in you Walkman babe. It's that okay?" You don't really respond to that statement but he knows that the music would help you calm. He warns you verbally every movement he makes, not wanting to scare you. Soon enough you feel your favorite song through the headphones, he doesn't put them in your ears, but he left them in the table in front of you, so you could still hear the music. You soon stop to scratch your head but still have your hand in your scalp, making you feel safe.

"I'm going to take your hands away, love. You are okay with that?" You slowly nodded knowing that with Eddie everything would be fine. He lovingly takes your hands off your scalp, whispering assuring things like "you are okay" "you are safe now", etc. After that, he stays for a moment massaging your head. Waiting for you to gradually get used to his touch. Your crying gradually decreased with his loving touch. Now you feel ready to approach to him, wrapping your arms around his neck so you can hide your face in there. "Is it okay if I carry you so you can sit on my lap?" You nodded again against his neck, not feeling ready to talk right now. "Okay sweetheart. One, two and up" he says while he carries you and soon you are sitting in his lap as he embraces you with his arm around your waist.

You put your head in his chest, feeling his heartbeat in your ear calming you. And he starts whispering your favorite song and rocking you with him side to side, soothing your overwhelming self and feeling like he was singing you a lullaby to slept, as you feel how your body finally relaxes. "You tell me when you are ready to go home darling. Okay?" You mutter a little "'kay" knowing that he would hear you.

He doesn't stop the rocking and the singing until you tell him. But that moment never comes, as you fell asleep in his arms with the soothing sensation. Drained of energy after the meltdown. Eddie feels how your breathing slows down, realizing that you were asleep, but he keeps rocking you for some minutes more, enjoying the feeling of having you close after all the stress of the moment.

He carries you through the hall and to the van, bumping into Robin when he goes to the door. She scans the situation with her eyes and without emitting any word she forms the question with her lips "Everything alright?" Eddie looks down at you for a moment and nodded slowly, smiling to her to calm her concern.

While he was driving down the road, he couldn't stop looking at every minute at you, verifying if you were still asleep, and comfy in the seat next to him. He sees the dried blood in your hands and under your nails, but he wouldn't say something about it because he understands that you don't hurt yourself on purpose, you only tried to drown away the overwhelming feeling that you were having.

゜・。。・゜★゜・。。・゜

You woke up with the feeling of being carried. You look around trying to understand where you are. That's when you see the bands posters and the mess in Eddie's room. "Go back to slept sweetheart. I'm not going anywhere" He left you in his bed, taking off your shoes and then repeating the process with his. After that, you feel a kiss on the forehead as he wraps you in his arms, soothing you to sleep again. If you are with him, everything would be alright.

[maxwell-grant]

Reverse Unpopular Opinion: Aquaman

I don't think I've ever had as much fun watching a big action blockbuster on theaters as I did when watching Aquaman, and I definitely don't think I ever enjoyed watching a live-action superhero film in theaters as much as I did Aquaman. I don't usually watch superhero films unprompted and I've never been very interested in Aquaman in general, and I was going to skip it, but my mom wanted to watch it because Jason Momoa was in it, and I was really curious as to how they were going to handle Black Manta, so we went along and we all had a really, really great time.

It was basically like learning Aquaman existed for the first time and just being sold on the idea of this really cool character with a really rich setting for adventures in a movie that's just, brash and bold and proud of itself and the cool things it wants to show you and so, so goddamn big. I don't think I've ever seen a film in theaters that felt so "BIG" in such an overpowering way, and I watched 2001 in theaters. I loved that the movie was so unabashedly colorful, with all these terrific recreations of the comic outfits. They didn't try to make them more realistic or do that thing movies usually do with superhero costumes, no they just straight up put them 1-to-1 on screen and just, honestly I don't have much interest in superheroes if they aren't allowed to be as colorful and over-the-top as they can get away with.

I think this movie is kinda what was missing from the other Aquaman stuff I had watched up until that point, that sense of unbridled joy and wonder that really should always be there to a character like him. I don't want Atlantean politics and I don't want a story that's desperately trying to be grim and serious to offset a reputation as a joke, I want to enjoy reading Aquaman and I want an Aquaman who enjoys being Aquaman, because being Aquaman is awesome, at least in this film. He's Tarzan-meets-King-Arthur On The Beach, this outcast from both worlds who gets the best of both with zero downsides to become it's greatest hero. He's super strong and tough and flies and he's a great fighter, and he can TALK to fish because the fish are his friends, and he swims with sharks and calls in Cthulhus to help out in a fight, and he rules Atlantis and he hangs out with the Justice League, just, why did it take 50+ decades for someone to take a look at this and decide, wow, this is FUN, let's make a FUN film about this guy and rake A BILLION DOLLARS.

And it was such a kind film too, I loved what a kind character Arthur is and how his biggest victories in the film come from kindness. He takes selfies with the bar thugs even though he doesn't like people and even enjoys himself a little, he addresses people in their language when saving them, he is deemed worthy of becoming Aquaman because he actually talks to the monster instead of fighting it and wants it purely to protect his people and not to prove he's worthy, and he's haunted the entire film by the one time he failed this principle and let Manta's father die, and it's a mistake he doesn't make again even when no one would fault him for doing so. I think this gives the film a lot of heart.

And oh man I fucking LOVED Manta in this film, what a perfect representation of the character. I already had a good idea of what kind of character Manta was as this hilariously petty arch-asshole who killed Aquaman's family and, if I remember, had stories where he faked autism to get close enough to Aquaman, or completely abandoned a regular life the second he heard Aquaman came back to life, and whose sheer obsession with Aquaman became a meme, and before the movie I saw this really great video on Instagram of Abdul-Mateen II at home talking Hulk Hogan/Randy Savage lines into a trash can to create this growly metal voice filter, talking about how he was GONNA GUT AQUAMAN LIKE A FISH TO MAKE AQUA-TUNA BREAKFEST BROTHER and just -

Man, I can't begin to describe the sheer joy it was to watch every second of this guy making filet out of the scenery, and especially the above scene where he gets his own cheesy power-up montage of him building the suit. I think this may be actually one of my favorite scenes in any superhero film and I think villains getting heroic power-up montages is a super great idea that I want to happen much more often.

[lonelier-version-of-you]

Question, has Holby ever properly addressed Hanssen's OCD?

As someone with OCD myself: No. No, they haven’t.

This is a massive source of frustration for me - they throw in patient storylines every now and again reminding us that “OCD isn’t just about being organised!”, but guess what? Looking at how they portray Henrik, you would very much get the impression that OCD is just about being organised. They never properly touch on it. They just shove in a scene of him lining up some pencils occasionally and think that’s good enough.

S20 E20 is probably the best they’ve done with it. They actually go into detail about his intrusive thoughts (in this case, his fear of another tragedy like the shooting happening). His fixation on monitoring everything because he thinks that if he misses something another tragedy will happen - that’s very well-done. The single-mindedness... it’s all very good writing.

(That moment when he’s arguing with Roxanna and he just stops to panickedly rearrange the stuff on the desk? Yeah, that’s really good.)

S19 E03 is the only one that explicitly mentions his OCD, and it focuses on it a fair bit. It’s pretty good. They don’t address his intrusive thoughts as directly as they do in S20 E20, but they are actually mentioned as intrusive thoughts.

There’s a scene where he’s at his desk and he deliberately mis-aligns his pencils, trying to fight back against his compulsions, and you can see how much it’s tearing him up inside and then he finally gives in and straightens them out again, and it’s so fucking good.

It conveys everything so well. The thinking that you're going to change for real, that you're not going to do it this time. The overwhelming panic of trying to defy what your brain is commanding you to do. The embarrassment of not being able to do such a simple thing without anxiety taking over. Finally just giving up, because your mind keeps screaming at you that you've done it wrong and now everything will be ruined and it's too much to bear. The simultaneous shame and relief of giving in. All in about 20 seconds, without a single word. It’s brilliant.

Worthy of a mention: most of the stuff about Henrik’s mental health in S19 E18 focuses on his depression, but there is one short scene where he tries to explain his OCD to Fredrik that I thought was very good. https://lonelier-version-of-you.tumblr.com/post/614127283154927616/i-know-i-always-talk-about-black-dog-being-the

Also, his OCD seems to play into S15 E04 a bit, but I wouldn’t say it’s a big plot point or anything. But it’s the first episode I can think of that addresses Henrik’s obsessions with needing to ‘save’ the hospital and his feelings of guilt/responsibility about his patients’ wellbeing (beyond the rational level of responsibility as a doctor), which are brought up properly in S19E03.

But yes, really, apart from S20E20 and S19E03, they’ve never really addressed it properly. They just treat it as a few quirky habits and liking to line things up. :// Henrik’s OCD is actually treated very similarly to Jason’s autism, when you think about it - in both cases, only the outward ‘behaviours’ are shown, never the inward thought processes.

At times when you’d expect Henrik’s OCD to come up or get worse, it’s completely ignored. OCD usually revolves around feelings of guilt or responsibility in some way - and we know for a fact that Henrik’s does. But when he was blaming himself for what Gaskell did, for example, that would have negatively affected his OCD, but it didn’t get shown at all. Oh, and don’t even get me started on how the impact COVID would have on his OCD has been overlooked, even though he canonically has handwashing/cleanliness compulsions.

It’s really, really lazy “representation”, you can tell none of the writers actually want to bother researching OCD or portraying it properly as the mental illness it is, and it makes me so mad.

[newagesispage]

                                                                        MAY                 2021

The Rib Page

*****

George Takei is sweatin’ with the oldies. He stars in a fitness app for gay seniors, Bar Belles. It was his April Fool’s day joke.

*****

Fox will bring us Crime Scene Kitchen on May 26 with host Joel McHale.

*****

Joel Hodgson has launched a new kick starter to create a new independent season of MTS3K, The goal is $2mil.

*****

Bob Odenkirk will release: Comedy, comedy, comedy, drama: A Memoir on Jan. 18 2022

*****

Leslie Jones will host the 2021 MTV Awards.

*****

$3 mil was raised for Next for Autism with help from Conan, Kimmel, Charlize, Chris Rock, Jack Black and Sarah Silverman.

*****

Have ya noticed that Gayle King looks great in yellow.

*****

Some people are not too happy that Elon Musk will host SNL on May 8. Miley Cyrus is the musical guest.** Musk tweeted: Let’s find out just how live SNL really is. Cast member Bowen Yang tweeted back, : What the Fuck does this even mean?

*****

Oh Seth Meyers: Every time I see the sea captain on your show, I miss him so much!!

*****

There is a spotlight on Foxconn which made a big splash for Trump at the start of his presidency. The company has done a lot of nothing but still gets tax cuts. Homes were demolished, roads were widened to nowhere and money was spent. Wisconsinites are upset that this big business is just folly and a big glass orb.

*****

Mike Lindell is a kook but he did try to appear to be a good sport on Kimmel.

*****

When will weed be legal on a federal level? When will drug testing for employment be illegal? We hear so much about personal rights with the gun laws and vaccines and masks. What about the right to do what we want with our bodies when we are not at work. Think of the administrative costs that could be saved if we just removed drug testing. Our experience and work ethic should mean more that what we do with our free time. This is not a problem at all companies. There are places in this country where it is near impossible anywhere in your area to get hired without a drug screening. One joint on a random Saturday night could keep someone from a great opportunity. A person in pain who reaches for an edible might miss out on the job that saves their lives.

*****

NASA sent the first flight to another planet. The Mars flight made history with the 30 sec feat.

*****

What? The Menendez brothers are popular again? From the Ramsey case to the Manson murders or Bundy, it all comes back around again.

*****

The Lizzie Borden house just sold for $2mil to Lance Zaal of U. S. Ghost Adventures.

*****

Quarantine and so much television et al proves one thing, the pharmaceutical and insurance companies have way too much $.

*****

Trump told everyone to boycott Coke and is later seen drinking diet Coke.** Trump sent out a statement about how bad the Oscars are. They threw it right back in his face. ** Federal agents have searched Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment. It stems from the 2 year investigation into activities in Ukraine.

*****

X-VP Pence is said to have pressured the Navy to reinstate former Mo. Gov. Eric Greitens. Greitens was accused of tying up, blindfolding, taking explicit photos of and blackmailing a woman.

*****

There is a crisis in schools with the lack of civics and history being taught.

*****

Hulk Hogan was hit with a chorus of Boo’s at his latest event.

*****

The latest sexual harassment news: Matt Gaetz  is being looked into for sex with a minor and sex trafficking.  Bill Barr opened the investigation.** Tom Reed has been accused of sexual misconduct by former lobbyist, Nicolette Davis.** Marilyn Manson has been sued by Game of Thrones, Esme Bianco for sexual abuse.

*****

What is going on with Bank of America? I am hearing from multiple people that often they do not get their statement in the mail. Is this a bad Postal service? Is this bad business practice? How many late fees had to be paid because of this? Not everybody wants to pay their bills online.

*****

Jack Hanna has revealed that he has dementia.

*****

Tiny Tim : King for a day is a new doc I must see. The film contains footage shot from Warhol’s Factory. There are excerpts from Tim’s diary read by Weird Al Yankovic and the story of how Tiny’s friend, Bob Dylan wanted to make a film with him.

*****

Lindsay Lohan’s Father, Michael has been charged with 5 counts patient brokering and 1 count of attempted patient brokering. This is an apparent scam of steering addicts into rehab for cash.

*****

Aaron Sorkin and Paulina Porizkova are dating. Pete Davidson and Phoebe Dynevor are dating.

*****

JB Smoove has a new podcast brought to you by TeamCoco.

*****

Hey.. People working on the new Law and Order: Organized Crime….. TOO MUCH MELONI!!

*****

*****

Zach Avery, actor, was arrested for his participation in a $690 mil Ponzi scheme.

*****

President Biden has restored aid to the Palestinians.

*****

MLB put up a wall in Georgia but the Masters stayed.

*****

Hank Azaria has brought Brockmire to a new podcast.

*****

Tommy Chong isn’t allowed on FB because of his weed posts but they allow an imposter to use his name to sell weed.

Pennsylvania is trying to push thru 14 voter suppression bills.

*****

Joe Manchin. Ugh!!** Marjorie Taylor- Greene has let go of her America First caucus.** Ted Cruz has allegedly used $154, 000 of his campaign funds to buy up copies of his book to boost sales. This is an old trick but still illegal.

*****

For the first time, The Carter Center became involved in a U.S. election. They published videos and live webcasts as well as deploying observers across Georgia.

*****

Most health programs in Uganda, Nigeria and Ethiopia have resumed after Covid.** Tom Vilsack from the Dept. of Agriculture has announced the USDA will provide assistance to 30 million kids.** It is sad to me that we have to entice people to vaccinate. Football games, Church’s and shot for shot in bars?? Really? Saving the lives of others should be enough. WTF?

*****

Alec Baldwin, Alec Mapa and Kelsey Grammer are shopping around a new comedy that ABC decided to pass on.

*****

Chauvin was found guilty.

*****

Days alert: C’mon Ben, calm the fuck down! Don’t prove how out of control you are like everybody thinks. ** Xander is so funny right now.** How many people will Kristen be and how many times can one person melt down?? **Bring Carrie back!! **Jackee’ seemed a bit nervous in the beginning but she is fitting right in. More!

*****

The SAG awards came and went. With the Trial of the Chicago 7 winning best ensemble, Michael Keaton is the first person to be in 3 best casts for SAG’s.** Other winners include Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Daniel Kaluuta, Youn Yuh-Jung, Mark Ruffalo, Anya Taylor- Joy, Jason Bateman, Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek and The Crown.

*****

The Oscars were held on April 25. It was a bit of a yawner and why would a show set themselves up for an awkward end?? There was a commercial from P&G right before the broadcast that stated, “ Widen the screen so we can widen our view.” Nice sentiment.  Mank had so many noms and only 2 wins. People looking their best to me were Leslie Odom Jr., Glenn Close, Riz Ahmed, LaKeith Stanfield, Colman Domingo, John Batiste, Mia Neal, Questlove (gold crocs and a mask!), Desmond Roe, Travon Free, Trish Summerville, Marlee Matlin, The Lucas Brothers, Andra Day, Carey Mulligan, Amanda Seyfried, Nicolette Robinson, Regina King and Margot Robbie. Laura Dern looked like Big Bird, there were just too many feathers. Tiara Thomas had feathers but they looked great.  Angela Bassett had some power sleeves and Tyer Perry looked like a little boy.  Hooray for Emerald Fennell for her win for original screenplay but not sure about the dress. And Viola Davis?? Dana Murray?? Ashley Fox?? Hmm?? Winners seemed to have trouble getting to the stage. They often refused the steps or the walkway and sort of climbed up the side. I did love the intimate setting and it did remind me of the old clips of years before. Sound of metal and Ma Rainey both won. Tyler Perry and for the first time, an organization, the motion picture and television fund, took home the humanitarian award. I was thrilled to see My Octopus Teacher win for Doc. I loved Crip Camp too, that was a hard category.  The acting winners went in all directions.  Many critics complained that the films were real downers . Nomadland won best picture. Michael Moore put it best I think. Of the films this year, he said, “They force you to look backward with 2021 eyes.”

*****

Why the Fuck do we need a militarized police force?

*****

R.I.P. victims of the multiple mass shootings, victims of police shootings, the crush in Israel, Cosette Brown, Midwin Charles, DMX, Paul Ritter, Ethel Gabriel, G. Gordon Liddy, Buddy Peppenschmidt,  Prince Philip, Anne Beatts, Diane Adler, Vartan Gregorian, Monte Hellman, Jim Steinman, Michael Collins, Michael wolf Snyder, Johnny Crawford, Eli Broad and Walter Mondale.

[bluepulsebluepulse]

For the "Give me a character and I will answer" thing. Bart Allen/Impulse/Kid Flash!

PLEASE NOTE: Everything said below is purely of my opinion. Please do not take offence to any of it. Don’t waste your time commenting on this to tell me that you disagree and think I should change my mind about x, y or z (it won’t work). Again, this is just my opinion, it shouldn’t have any affect on yours. I’m not asking or trying to change you opinions or perceptions of the character in question! You continue seeing/ perceiving this character however you like! After all, if we all see the character the same way (that is kind of boring). And you know what, I’ll just say it now. If the character in question is one you care about deeply, don’t read below the line! Simple as that! I don’t want any hate for my honesty.

CHARACTER: Bart Allen

Why I like them

LITERALLY EVERYTHING! BART ALLEN IS JUST AMAZING! HE IS SO COOL! Gosh I just, I could honestly write over a million good things about this amazing speedster.

Why I don’t

THERE AIN’T A SINGLE REASON I DON’T LIKE BART ALLEN. The closest thing I have ever come to feel that represented any unpleasant feelings in relation to Bart Allen, is the way some of the comic book artist’s draw him. He is a straight up babe and some of the artists get it so wrong. But that literally has NOTHING to do with Bart himself. Actually I thought of one more thing, but again, this has nothing to do with Bart. I kinda think Meloni should have just named him Bart, not Bartholomew. Speaking of crappy naming conventions, I hate that YJ gave him the title Kid Flash, he is Impulse! It takes away from his identity! Sorry, but he deserves to continue building on his Impulse identity.

Favourite episode

That’s a tough one since he is just the pure essence of all things good in this world… Probably the one where Bart and Jaime are in the El Paso desert. They are blowing up rocks and having the best of times. I’m terribly ashamed I can’t remember the name of the episode. I can literally remember every line of Bart Allen’s dialogue but I couldn’t tell you which episode any of it belonged to?

Favourite season

DEFINITELY Season 2 (not even a contest) - I hate Season 3 of Young Justice *sobs*. I’m legit worried Season 4 will also be a disappointment. I’m such an optimist y’all.

Favourite line

“Stick with me Blue, I’ll keep you from feeling the mode.” - Picking one physically hurt me, but this one…

Favourite outfit

I actually love both YJ versions. I feel like his Season 2 costume is MORE iconic though. It is much closer to the comic versions of Bart I have seen and loved. There are a few comic versions though which make me cringe.

OTP

LOL - just in case my blog doesn’t SCREAM it, BluePulse…

Brotp

I mean… Can Jaime be my answer for this too? Can’t they be bros and lovers (once they are both of age)? I mean look… If I have to pick one (that isn’t Jaime), it would likely be Cassie. I headcanon Bart being Cassie’s gbf tbh.

Headcanon

He is gay and I’m pretty sure this is basically canon in all our hearts anyway (the only time I’ve seen people say otherwise was in this BRUTAL reddit chat which I think she should be wiped from the internet personally). And YJ appears to be delivering on making Bart gay canonically anyway… just with the wrong people. GRANDON… OH HOW YOU HURT ME. I should stop watching the show lol, but I won’t, I need Bart Allen content in my life.

Unpopular opinion

OOF gonna receive some ALOT of hate for this one… I don’t believe Bart has ADHD or autism tbh. I don’t think ANY of the speedsters do. Of course it would SEEM that way to non-speedsters, and I totally get why people stan for it. I just think that the trait of being impulsive or having a seemingly infinite amount of energy to burn, doesn’t mean he has it. I do see why it makes him a candidate for representation though. I do think Bart however has PTSD from his time with the Reach and suffers nightmares because of it (sorry Bart). And I know in my heart he is gay lol. And I defs stan for him being VERY extra, and talking too much and loving to be loud (and he’s just so adorable like that). So I’m not saying I don’t think any representation should be attached to him, but there are certain ones I prefer for him and my perception of his character (based on the materials I have consumed). Another thing that bothers me - and you will see this across ALL characters I ever talk about; is when people try to attach too many representations to a single character. I think it’s kind of derivative and takes away from the individual elements when you cluster a character with ten different kinds of representation. But that’s just me. I don’t have a problem with representation (I belong to several different communities myself), and am fortunate enough to have a lot of unique and AMAZING friends who belong to some of the same categories as me, AS WELL AS different ones too. I hate shows that refuse to acknowledge anything other than the “standards”. I think the world is more colorful place because of these communities, no that was not an pride pun. And I will reiterate, this is just my opinion, it shouldn’t have any affect on yours. You continue seeing perceiving Bart however you like!

A wish

BLUEPULSE NEEDS TO BE MADE CANON! SOMEWHERE! I DON’T CARE IF IT’S IN YOUNG JUSTICE (ALTHO SH!T I’D STRAIGHT UP DIE IF JASON MARSDEN VOICED BART CONFESSING HIS LOVE TO JAIME IN HIS DREAMY VOICE AND ERIC LOPEZ RECIPROCATED IN HIS YUMMY VOICE) (oops did I just say that out aloud? should probs delete this later). I DON’T CARE IF IT’S IN THE COMICS. IT JUST NEEDS TO BE CANON SOMEWHERE. I AM FLEXIBLE DC.

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen

Please do not harm Bart in anyway DC (i.e. getting shot in the kneecap by Deadshot or dying early from hyper-accelerated metabolism!!! LIKE WTF DC LEAVE HIM ALONE!). Also don’t make him straight, ugh! But most of all, DON’T LET HIM BE WITH ANYONE OTHER THAN JAIME REYES. NOT EDUARDO DORADO JR, NOT VALERIE PEREZ, NOT ROSE WILSON, NOT CASSIE SANDSMARK AND NOT ANYONE ELSE. All of those options make me so very sad.

5 words to best describe them

Impulsive, fast, funny, caring, Jaime-obsessed.

My nickname for them

I mean I don’t really have one and that gives me actual depression… Should I make one? Idk. I love Bart too much to risk picking something lame. I defs know Jaime would have some super cute nickname for him in Spanish. I really want to know what it is.

That is all folks! Thanks for the ask! :)

[strengthrequireskindness]

OC shitpost

So, I notice a lot of u on here are into PJO/HOO/anything Rick Riordan writes.

@storm-broken-wings

@blackjacktheboss

@cindersart

@ananbeth

And that’s who I can think of off the top of my head. If you don’t read him you should, but I’m warning you that the second series (HOO) is slightly iffy.

While the man and his writing has some flaws, I’ll admit he made a damn good storyboard to work with. I have made several Riordanverse OCs, and would like to share them with you all.

First up, my anxious fire boy, Cal Kowalski! Note: I tried to do my research on Judaism and autism, but if I have offended anyone with this character, please let me know and I will change it!

Name: Caleb David “Cal” Kowalski

Hair: brown

Eyes: brown

Age-17

Height: six foot one, someone stop this boy from growing

Mother: Deborah Kowalski, fire chief for the Cleveland fire department. A force to be reckoned with and extremely inventive-once used a nearby lake to fuel the fire hose when there were no hydrants nearby

Godly Parent-Vulcan. A lot of people forget he’s also the god of fire, so when he saw Deborah risking her life to fight it, he was smitten. Completely fell for her when he admitted that he watched her work as a fire chief. Her response? “You’re a god, right? Stop watching people and buildings burn and start fucking helping.”

Sexuality: bi. Let’s be real, he’s admired Ichor and Jason more than once. Is completely devoted to his also bisexual girlfriend. More on her later.

Camp: Jupiter, Fifth Cohort. Has considered moving to Half-Blood, but dropped it after Octavian...oh right, there are people who haven’t read the books. Let’s leave it at that.

Nationality: Polish.

Religion: proudly (though not supremely devoutly) Jewish. Will make all the jokes about his religion. Was very confused when his mother told him his father was a god

Weapon: Roman infantry axe, or dolabra. Has heard all the woodcutter or lumberjack jokes. Has come up with a few of them

Personality: actual golden retriever, loyal, kind, hardworking, patient, and generous. Won’t fight unless it’s in self-defense, for training, or against monsters. Even then, does so reluctantly. Shy, clumsy, awkward introvert. Not great with public speaking, social interaction, or crowds, though he tries. Ride-or-die friend once you get to know him. Happiest when working at the forges or with his close friends. Autistic. Stims by lacing his fingers together or through card tricks, often says inappropriate things at the wrong time, tends to compartmentalize negative emotions, can talk about forging, metalworking, and firefighters for hours on end, needs systems and routines to function, thinks in very black and white terms. Goes nonverbal when angry, sad, or frustrated.

Powers/Abilities-

Geothermokinesis-can manipulate molten earth, phase change earth into lava and vice versa, cause magma to rise from deep within the earth, forming miniature volcanoes, turn nearby rock molten, and telekinetically project blasts of lava, magma, or molten earth at targets

Weaknesses-socially awkward, gullible, black and white thinking, tends to think badly of himself, survivors guilt, lava he creates can spread and cause more damage if left unattended, can be harmed by his own powers, powers are linked to emotional state so he has to keep his temper or things start to melt

History

-Fire chief mom with large extended family

-mom met Vulcan one night while firefighting, it was rocky at first but after some talking things through and some kissing they made it work

-cal was born that August

-when Cal was three, tragedy struck

-his mother was diagnosed with mesothelioma

-they suspected it was from a fire in a chemical factory shed fought

-the firefighters she was chief of helped raise Cal while his mother underwent treatment,as did his extended family

-He grew up shy and quiet, the opposite of his mother but very much like his father, had difficulty reading, and could never pay attention that well if he didn’t like something

-It took a few years, several theories (some well meaning, some extremely inappropriate, some both) and an official diagnosis at the age of seven before the people taking care of him realized he was autistic, dyslexic, and had ADHD, and that they had to respect that instead of treating him like a normal kid

-some of his extended family thought that meant he wasn’t normal

-he doesn’t talk to them anymore

-the firemen and ninety percent of his family were totally fine with it, even when other things started to happen

-they found him in the courtyard at age ten, a miniature volcano spouting lava into the air and him frantically trying to turn it off

-the Mist shielded them from seeing the entire thing, but they still sat him down and had a Talk about playing with fire

-but Cal knew what happened

-At age twelve, his mother took a sudden turn for the worse. When he went to see her with Hector and Brandon, two firefighters, he was turned away by a doctor that did not look at all like a doctor to him

-The Doctor insults him, only to be challenged by Hector, who can see through the Mist

-He tells Cal to run and see his mom before punching the doctor square in the face

-Cal makes it to his moms room, only to find her struggling and squirming as a monster in a lab coat shoves a pillow onto her face

-Terrified but furious, he scares off the monster with a blast of lava from the ground, which also sets the room on fire

-Making it out of the room, he turns to his mom, only for her to tell him that he’s the son of a god

-He predictably freaks the fuck out, running with her to where he last saw the firefighters

-Only to find that Darnell is dead and Hector is losing the fight against something that looks way too much like the estrie he’s read about once in the Sefer Hasidim

-Seeing Cal, Hector grins with bloody teeth before driving a fire extinguisher into the things head

-it collapses, but before it can get up again the building groans as the fire spreads

-They flee the hospital, forced to leave Darnell behind as the alukah pursues them

-When they get back to the house, everyone is in an uproar. Why is Deborah back, why is Hector’s mouth bleeding, where the hell is Darnell

-While everyone is arguing and taking care of Deborah, Hector and Cal’s aunt Aviva take him into Cal’s room

-He and Aviva confirm what Cal’s mom said, also telling him about the existence of Camp Jupiter. It turns out he is a former legionnaire, having come to Cleveland two years before Cal was born to look after him at Deborah’s request. Aviva can just see through the mist, though Deborah confided in her in case she died before she could do so herself.

-They don’t have much time. After what Cal did at the hospital, his aura is going to attract every monster from here to Columbus.

-He gives him a weird-looking axe, explaining that this dolabra was once his when he was a legionary but now he wants Cal to have it

-They all share a hug, with Hector telling him that everyone in the house has his back

-There’s a knock on the door, revealing the monster from earlier, now disguised as a human social worker via the Mist

-Uses a bunch of ableist language to explain why they should give Cal to him

-No one in the house buys his bullshit, even when he appears human

-The firefighters don’t like the government in general because they offered no workers comp for the cancer their chief got from the factory, and they’ve watched her fight against something that the government was supposed to help her with, the government draining her money all the while. But now this jackass is insulting their kid.

-The extended family are unwilling to give him up, and especially not to a man who insults and belittles him

-monster gets fed up, says that if cal stays here he’ll keep coming for him until he gets what he wants

-cue the entire family telling him to get bent

-Aviva tells Hector to take Cal and go, that she’ll explain to them why and that they all love him

-Roadtrip to California with monsters on their tail

-the estrie catches up to them in Oakland, flanked by its monster buddy, which Cal now knows is a telekhine

-it’s pissed at cal because he’s a demigod and because his father took over their forges

-they fight, and Cal uses the dolabra and kills the telekhine, burnt from his earlier encounter with it

-he’s extremely grossed out by this

-Hector intercepts the estrie before it can get to Cal and fights the estrie, but he’s out of practice and is fatally injured

-Cal watches him die and is furious, pleading to know why the estrie did it

-the estrie just wants to kill a Jewish human, it doesn’t particularly care that he’s a demigod. Hector was in the way.

-Using his powers intentionally for the first time, Cal opens up a volcanic fissure under the estrie and sends her down into the magma

-He then takes Hector to the camp tunnel before passing out

-He’s found there by Gwen, who stands for him

-Some time after, she pulls him aside and tells him that she read in the local paper (all praetors and centurions read the outside paper to get the news for the camp, fight me) that there was a suspected terrorist attack in Ohio around the time Cal came in

-He breaks down and tells her it’s his house, there are no confirmed survivors except for three firemen and his mother

-Alex comes along a month later, and they dance around each other for a while before making it official

Trivia

-he writes letters to his mother whenever he can

-Darnell taught him how to play cards and do card tricks, both for fun and as a stim if needed, he burns a card every year on the day he died

-he definitely had a thing for Jason before he started dating Alex. It never went anywhere though.

-he makes the menorah for the camp-wide Hanukkah celebration (cmon you’re telling me everyone at CJ is Christian or atheist or agnostic? Cmon man)

-he imagines his dolabra is a fire axe when he’s fighting monsters

-his aunt taught him to cook Polish cuisine, among other things, and his kotlet schabowy is to die for, but he’s recently branched out into Chinese food due to his girlfriend’s complaints about how the restaurant chains near them only serve shitty Chinese food

-can jump rope like a boss due to many hours with his younger cousins

-terrified of heights

-that’s all I’ve got so far! If you guys have any other questions about him, send me an ask!

[barbie-verse]

what’s your favorite thing about each of the rangers (2017) and what thing did you want to see each of them work on/towards? (example of what i mean: trini becoming more comfortable w people loving her for her or jason bettering his relationship w his dad)

ooooh this is a Nice Question!

Jason: I like how loyal he is and i wanted it to be explored more. I wanted to see him find his family with the rangers. We kinda saw this in the movie but it still kinda felt like a team (with the exception of Billy and to an extent Kim). The movie starts out with him being cast out as the golden boy of Angel Grove, he’s pushed out of his football team, he’s isolated by his dad, etc. and i really wanted to see him beginning to bond with the rangers and finding his place among them

Billy: I honestly just want Billy to be happy. He’s so full of love and trust throughout the whole movie, despite losing his dad and also being bullied, and i wanted to see that built on, I wanted to see all the positivity he sends out into the world come back to him because he deserves it. RJ played him so well, especially in terms of portraying an autistic character accurately but who’s sole characteristic wasn’t autism and it was just so refreshing to see i’m mad we didn’t get more

Kim: I love Kim cause she had the most potential for growth. Kinda similar to Jason I guess, I wanted her to find her place and come to terms with her past. It’s obvious that she had done something terrible and she felt terrible for it, but the movie didn’t really address it as well as they could have so I don’t think she’d properly be able to heal and move on until she did. She talks about how bad her mental state got because of it (“I wanted to die”) and honestly, it would be so refreshing to see her actually confront it further than in that talk with Jason

Zack: Oh Zack,, his character honestly intrigued me so much, I know those clips of him train surfing to get money for his mom were cut from the movie but they just show his character in such a clear way. He’s impulsive and he can be reckless but his heart is always in the right place. I wanted him to reach his potential, the movie tries to paint him as kind of an outsider archetype and it’s true! but he has so much more to his character and I wanted that to be explored more

Trini: Triniiiiiiiii I feel like she was such a contemporary character that a lot of people could relate to, she didn’t feel like she even had a place in the world, where Jason and Kim had been removed from their places because of mistakes, Trini never felt like she belonged anywhere, until she met the rangers. I wanted that to be explored more. I also felt like in the movie her character wasn’t explored as much as it could have been, the fandom is amazing in filling in the gaps by using deleted scenes and stuff but I just wanted her to be explored more cause she’s such an interesting character

[lonelier-version-of-you]

Good post OP, but I have a few points I want to add if that’s OK? (Bolding some paragraphs/sentences so I can read my own post, I have concentration issues. Don’t take it personally.)

- On top of everything else with Jac (I haven’t seen the latest ep so IDK how to feel about the “going nuts”/“nuthouse” remarks - I think it’s perfectly okay to have Jac herself and the bloke from the psych ward say that, though I might be biased as someone who self-identifies as crazy, but if it was other characters then yeah that’s really out of line), they refused to actually do their research for her breakdown storyline. Fans with actual experience of adjustment disorder (what Jac was apparently diagnosed with) spoke out about how the diagnosis didn’t fit Jac at all.

The storyline deliberately shoved all Jac’s past trauma, and the fact that she has ALWAYS been mentally ill, under the rug in favour of a temporary diagnosis they didn’t have to bring up later. She clearly has CPTSD or some kind of personality disorder but the show won’t acknowledge it because those are too “scary”.

And if you didn’t know, Rosie Marcel herself has mental health issues, and Jac’s storyline was based off Rosie’s own breakdown. Rosie never wanted to do that storyline but was basically pressured into it anyway, it ended up being very triggering for her and she had to go back to therapy - she actually broke down in tears during an interview at one point while discussing the storyline - and all this time the writers/producers didn’t give a damn. They could care about the mental health of one of their characters, but apparently when it came to actual real life people it just didn’t matter. I’m still horrified by that to this day.

- I like the handling of Sacha’s depression; it feels realistic for something such as that to fade and come back. Also we do have another character (Hanssen) who’s shown as having pretty consistent depression.

I suspect the point of the current storyline is going to be that Sacha isn’t fine, he’s just pretending he is. Which is very different than actually erasing his depression.

- Hanssen’s OCD is hardly ever bothered with. It’s just treated as something that makes him like lining up objects. Speaking as someone with OCD, I find the way Holby treat it as a quirk and not a serious mental illness very bothersome.

- Suicide is only treated as a serious topic if a sympathetic character does it. When Sacha was up on the roof about to commit suicide a couple of years ago, it was this tragic, heart-wrenching episode. When we found out Hanssen had once tried to kill himself, it was a sad reveal. But when Guy Self attempted suicide, it was really just an inconvenience to Zosia and Ollie. When Gaskell killed himself we were just supposed to be glad he was dead.

- Speaking of Gaskell... that storyline was INCREDIBLY offensive to mentally ill people. They literally had Gaskell’s reason for killing people just turn out to be “oh well he’s crazy and he was abused so of course he became a serial killer”. (It was especially disappointing after the wonderful work they did with the Fredrik storyline, where they actively made the point over and over again that Fredrik wasn’t mentally ill, he was just evil.) Scenes with Gaskell just... literally being mentally ill and showing traits of mental illness were treated as just as creepy as scenes of him literally murdering people. As someone who was just recovering from a psychotic breakdown of my own that same year, I found the handling of Gaskell’s psychosis really upsetting.

(Also, I know it’s a developmental disorder rather than a mental health condition, but their handling of autism also drives me mad. Jason is a one-dimensional token who is clearly based off autistic CHILDREN despite being a fully-grown adult. Meanwhile they have a brilliant portrayal of an autistic person in Hanssen BUT THEY REFUSE TO ACTUALLY NAME IT. Sighhh. Also one of the writers, Martin Jameson, has openly harrassed autistic people on Twitter and faced NO consequences for it.)

Sorry this is gonna be a bit ranty about holby city (ur welcome to skip lol) disclaimer - I’m not a professional for mental health or anything, and tw, it’s a rant about how holby has been dealing with mental health.

I’ve watched holby since series 14 and been part of the fandom for literally YEARS.And while I love the fandom with all my heart and I’ve made some awesome internet friends, I’m falling out of love with the show. I’m really mad lately about how the show is handling mental health. Yes we love the representation etc but it’s SO inconsistent. Sacha only has depression when it’s convenient. Chloe’s sh, panic attacks and anxiety were so under developed and it was so brief and swept under the carpet. Jac’s storyline was, yes well developed and still referenced, but described (especially in the most recent episode) as “going nuts” being “sent to the nuthouse”. From a show which made such a massive deal about not being alone and Jac’s struggles with this, it’s really not the kind of language you want a mental health unit to be depicted as, it certainly makes me feel isolated being referred to as a “nutcase” even in jokey way. The development of Jac’s character is a whole other conversation, but they keep building on her and then stripping her back to this “ice queen” figure. I’m especially irritated with the lack of Chloe’s storyline. As unfortunate as her struggles are, they are not uncommon. So many people related to Chloe, myself included, and it was comforting to see a young adult being represented in this way. But it was just suddenly never mentioned again. It’s so inconsistent and I don’t doubt that holby will bring it back as another two-episode moment. It’s just so disappointing to see this happen to such prominent storylines. Especially because these stories are never resolved (not that they particularly can be), but it seems like it’s just Sacha has depression. Now he’s fine. Chloe sh. Now she’s fine. This isn’t realistic and I know it’s a drama but for a show which puts this much emphasis on the mental health storylines it’s so annoying to not see it being developed. It hasn’t always been like this, we saw through Zosia’s bipolar storyline that the writers can carry it through and make the character consistent. It’s like they’re just doing these storylines to make holby more relevant in mainstream tv. Quick heartache storylines to relateable to its watchers and to other shows which are covering it much better and more sensitively. I suffer with anxiety and depression and I for one cannot relate to Sacha’s storyline whatsoever. I find no comfort in watching a 50 odd year old man be “depressed” one moment and sleep with some lady and then be fine the next episode. They hit so well with Chloe and it was beyond disappointing they didn’t explore it deeper.

[sugarsculls]

What things draw you to like Power Rangers so much? I'm about to watch the movie, and I'm really excited, but the commercials make me hesitant for some reason? Like I'm worried the writing won't be good or something :(

Oh man where do I start with Power Rangers? I’ll be honest here, I only have vague memories of watching random episodes of the original show whenever I’d visit my family in Mexico, so going in to Power Rangers was an entirely new thing for me. Initially, I only wanted to see it because I thought it would be just a nice time passer, but it caught me off guard by how good and wholesome it was. Even my sister who is a PR enthusiast fell in love with the movie. I’m keeping this as spoiler free as possible.

The thing people took notice to first when seeing the new Power Rangers was how diverse it was. 4/5 of the rangers are people of color (Trini is Latina (Mexican), Kim is Indian, Zack is Asian (Chinese), and Billy is Black). Even the token white guy (Jason) was actually a well rounded character who had repercussions for his actions and wasn’t made out to be the only hero. The entire team was given spotlights and each had their own problems that they had to deal with in the movie. No character was favored for another, even though Billy himself was the heart of the movie. 

Billy is Black and autistic and he actually said “I’m on the spectrum” and his autism is never played off for disrespectful and nasty jokes. Trini is Latina and wlw. We do not, unfortunately, know if she’s a lesbian, bi, pan, etc. but she is lgbt. I hope if we get that sequel we get to see her come out and say exactly how she identifies. Zack is so sweet and has such a depth to him you can’t help but fall in love with him. Kim’s own story line, while I won’t say much, is just so good. And the way Jason helped her through it was beautiful too. “You did a bad thing. That doesn’t mean you’re a bad person.” was really important to hear being said.

Also, let’s be real they cut out an m/w kiss scene between Kim and Jason because the producers and director realized it did a disservice to Kim’s character like holy shit when will your faves ever (and trust me, that kiss scene did not need to happen and frankly if it was included in the movie would not have sat well with me at all.)

Aside from the rep and the characters, the graphics were really good and the story was just cheesy and wholesome??? It felt like you were a kid. It took itself seriously but also you can tell it was a Big Meme. What movie other than Power Rangers would center around Krispy Kreme honestly the entire movie could be summed up by the back at it again at Krispy Kreme vine. It was, in my opinion, a really good example of how rebooted kid’s series should be if they want to target it towards an older audience. Not to make it dark and edgy and sad and dramatic, to make it diverse and funny and still retain the things that made the original show so good anyway while managing to make a lighthearted series a little more serious and taking a rather serious plot and making it silly. Also lots of references to the original series and even had the og Tommy and Kimberly actors making cameos.

The jokes? Legitimately some of the funniest things I’ve ever heard. Zack yelling “I’m black!” and Billy looking at him like “No you’re not” and “pee in that cup” are forever ingrained in my brain.

Also Jason slaps, not punches he fucking slaps, a bully for Billy if that isn’t friendship idk what is.

tl;dr the representation is really good and the movie is really diverse and the jokes are legit funny and the story itself is silly enough to be smiling the entire time but also good enough that it takes itself seriously when it needs to. These five characters love each other so much and you really get to see how they go from strangers in an unlikely situation to a family it’s beautiful. Honestly if you like VLD you’re gonna like the new Power Rangers.

[himitsusentaiblog]

My Opinion on a Recent Film

Let me preface this by saying I am NOT a fan of Power Rangers. Yes, it was the show that lead me to Super Sentai but in my opinion the two franchises are separate things. One is a Japanese Tokusatsu franchise with a venerable history descended from the work of Shotaro Ishinomori and other pioneers of the medium.

The other is an American property that takes footage from a Japanese franchise to create its own story designed and aimed at an American audience. It has radically different sensibilities and storytelling techniques than the Japanese show is borrows footage from and has to conform to American broadcast standards and what is considered ‘acceptable’ for a TV show arimed at children.

While not a fan of the Power Rangers, I can respect what they are attempting to do and what they have done (with varying degrees of success) for the past 23 (almost 24) years. 

So, why did I go see the new Power Ranger movie?  Well, I wanted to see what an entirely American production with very, very little derived from the Japanese series would look like and I knew I would eventually be asked about it and I didn’t want to just dismiss it without having seen it for myself.

I went in with pretty low expectations to be honest.  I expected a huge, overblown, Hollywood movie with lots of flashy effects, desaturated colors and a drawn out origin story.  Yep, I got ALL of that but I also got a surprisingly engaging cast of heroes. This movie is FAR from ideal and I will get into my problems with it later but for now, let me focus on the positives.

The opening scene set 65 Million years in the past is well done.  It gives us some backstory and establishes that Zordon was once the Red Ranger and Rita was the Green Ranger (which explains why she would have the Green Power Coin for sequel reasons). Rita betrayed her teammates and killed them but was defeated and sealed away.  

That’s a pretty good backstory and gives us some action right away.  Nice set up!

Another good part were the characters.  All of them were fairly interesting, had their reasons for being on the team and personality quirks and histories that made them enjoyable.  The real stand out was Billy Crams Ton Cranston played by R J Cyler.

Billy is on the Autism Spectrum and doesn’t understand a lot of humor or sarcasm.  He struggles to relate to other people and hyper focuses on things. He’s also the heart of the team and the most humorous (though not at his expense) character. He really is the driving force behind the characters becoming Rangers.  I REALLY liked him.

Jason was kind of interesting as well for a totally different reason. There was something about him that seemed REALLY familiar through the entire movie and then it hit me, he acts and moves a LOT like Chris Pine as Captain Kirk in the reboot Star Trek movies.  Somehow, that worked for his character as the leader and I liked it.

The rest of the characters were also pretty cool and had their own reasons for being there and their own issues to work through before they could trust each other enough to be part of the team.  The setup was pretty good (even if it seemed to last too long).  

Ok, now I’ll get a bit negative. Everything after the heroes finally transform bugged me A LOT!  Let me tell you why.

We spend SO MUCH time getting to the point where the heroes transform.  They have a ton of training montages of them fighting hand to hand and then, when they finally do get into their suits... the hand to hand fighting lasts maybe, MAYBE 3 1/2 minutes before they go straight to the giant robots.  I didn’t come to see a Transformers movie, I came to see people kicking butt and then having to go to a giant robot.  There is not even a single scene where they confront Rita, in costume, without their robots.

About those robots.  Those were terrible designs.  I couldn’t even tell what the Black Ranger’s robot was supposed to be.  Yes, I know it’s a Mammoth/Mastodon but it sure as heck didn’t look like one. The only clearly identifiable robots were the red T-Rex and the Pink Pterodactyl, everything else was so overly complicated in design that it hid was animal it was supposed to be based on. Seriously, how is this thing below a Mammoth?

My other huge issue with the giant robots is where is the combination sequence?  EVERY SINGLE POWER RANGERS/SUPER SENTAI SERIES HAS A COMBINATION SEQUENCE.  We need to see how the robots combine together to form the gestalt giant robot.

 We don’t get that in this movie.  The robots fall into a pit and come out combined.  We have no idea which one goes where or forms what except in the most vague manner and it doesn’t make any sense.

I hated the design of the combined form but that’s just a personal aesthetic taste.  

However, I will say the final fight was not very good.  Way too many close up shots. Give us some idea of what is going on in a fight scene, I don't need close ups, give us some mid-distance shots, some pull back shots to show the environment. Something! There were a few but it was zoomed too close most of the time.

So yeah, about 80 minutes of setup for some sub-par action scenes and most of those involved the robots, which are my least favorite part of this franchise. Even the robot action was handled rather poorly.  

Oh and one more thing, I spent 80 minutes waiting for them to get into costume.  I know who these people are by now.  Why do they have to have their masks open through most of the action scenes?  Why do they have to have their faces exposed while piloting their robots?  I came to see people in costumes and masks kicking butt, not actors with their faces exposed bantering during a fight.

Sorry, this movie really didn’t do it for me on the action front.  They got good characters but it seemed like two different movies once the action started.  Not a good feeling though maybe it does capture how once the action started in the original TV Show it also felt like a different show, considering all the action scenes WERE from a different show.

Anyway, that’s my opinion and that’s all I intend to say on this topic. Thanks for listening to my rant.

[myautisticpov]

Have you been wondering how good the new power rangers movie is?

Are you worried about the portrayal of an autistic ranger?

Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered!

TL;DR - It’s great, go see it!

As always, the script is under the cut.

So, you guys know that I’m a giant nerd, right?

-Intro-

Okay, so, it’s up for debate whether Power Rangers was my first special interest, or Yu-Gi-Oh, but what is not up for debate is that I have seen every episode multiple times and it’s cheesy and I love it.

Apart from Turbo. Fuck Turbo.

So, the film!

I loved it. It was exactly what I expected going in and it didn’t suck!

I mean, Kimberly’s arc was a little - meh. Like, I’m going to have to spoil things for the review, but I’ll try to keep any big reveals from the last third of the film or so to myself. So, yeah, Kimberly has a whole thing where she’s being bullied, and then you find out that she did something pretty awful and isn’t entirely undeserving of the hate. And Kimberly accepts this and grows… But the film sometimes forgets that the “bullies”, while not being mature about it, are actually reacting to a pretty horrible - and, like, probably illegal? I feel like it’s super illegal, depending on the age of the characters - thing that Kimberly did, and so it can undermine her attempts to be a better person by having her make /really/ unwarranted potshots. Like, not because she’s just been hurt by them and is reacting to an immediate thing. I mean, - minor spoiler - her smugly laughing at them running in terror while she’s safely in her armour and zord during the final battle.

But it was really good other than that and I’m just really annoyed by that one flaw because the rest was so good. Bryan Cranston kills it as Zordon - and Zordon actually has his own flaws and arc and stuff. Alpha Five didn’t piss me off, which would have been easy to do. All of the rangers had, like, personality and complex motivations and were actually diverse.

I loved it. Except for the Kimberly thing.

And also the titty armour.

WHY did the armour have tits?

Anyway, it’s 4.5 stars as a film on its own, and that’s not why you come to me for these reviews.

Soooo. They made the blue ranger autistic.

*Squee*

I was very excited about this, but also super cautious. Like, I wanted it to be good, but I knew that if it wasn’t, it could RUIN the film for me.

So, was it any good? Let’s find out.

Clarity of autism

5 Stars

Yup. It’s stated in the film. Billy is talking to Jason and tells him that he’s “on the spectrum”. So, yup! Five stars for that!

Stereotype or person

5 Stars

Guys, guys, guys, guys, guys.

He’s also black.

Black autistic ranger.

And, yes, he does fulfill the autistic genius stereotype, but one of his defining characteristics in the film is that he cares about his mother and his friends, and he also doesn’t appear to be from a middle class family? Though, no one does, because Angel Grove appears to be a dying pit/fishing town, but whatever. He certainly isn’t Sheldon Cooper, so five stars.

Accurate autism

4.5 Stars

Okay, I’ve taken half a star off because the opening is a little…

Alright, so, when you’re writing something - especially with an ensemble cast - you’ve got to relay their personality to the reader/viewer asap. Which usually means that their first couple of scenes will be there to deliberately show parts of their personality.

A character is a good person, so they save a cat.

With autistic characters, this can mean scenes where they display as many autistic traits as possible, as quickly as possible.

And in Billy’s case, this was made worse by one of his most defining characteristics beyond his autism being his loyalty to his friends, since he isn’t friends with the others at the start of the film.

So, Billy’s first few scenes are pretty much him going through an autism checklist. (Get out autism bat and hit on each beat.)

Is he fussy about keeping his things organised? Check.

Does he info-dump? Check.

Does he misread humour? Check.

This mellows once the plot starts actually happening and we get introduced to the other rangers. The film is now sure that we get that Billy is AUTISTIC and it stops beating you over the head with it.

Also, the numbers thing. Billy does that Hollywood shorthand for autism where he recites numbers super precisely. In this case, the number of days/minutes since his father died.

Though, when specifically talking about the amount of time since someone has left, that’s also Hollywood shorthand for someone really being affected by someone leaving and I just can’t make up my mind as to which one they were going for.

Anyway, it’s only worth knocking off half a star, because Billy is super accurate otherwise. Once the film mellows out on the autism bat, it was all super believable and it didn’t fall into any of the usual pitfalls. Billy obviously cares about his mother and the other rangers.

In fact, he cares so much that he’s the first one to activate his armour. They do the whole “the armour is tied to friendship” thing.

Billy feels like a complete character, with motivations and wants beyond “being autistic”.

Storylines

5 stars.

Billy’s storyline is the same as the rest of the rangers’. Stopping Rita.

There’s no cure storyline, there’s no special autism-related storyline for Billy…

His storylines are influenced by his autism, sure, and they should be, but it’s not the be all and end all of his character or plot.

He needs to get his ranger powers working so that he and the others can protect the Zeo crystal from Rita and Goldar.

So, 5 stars, Power Rangers.

Respect

5 stars.

Billy is treated with the same respect as any of the other rangers, both by the narrative and by the other characters. The only person who makes any issue over his autistic traits is clearly painted as a bully.

Whenever the film goes for autism-related humour, it’s usually making fun of others for underestimating Billy, or misreading him, not the other way around. Or it’s Billy doing something that would be humourous regardless, but in a slightly autistic way, which is more than fine by me.

So, that’s all of the review categories which brings Power Rangers to a 5 star rating overall.

Umm…

-Blue screen-

Holy shit. We’ve got another hall of famer, and this time it’s not a YA book written by an autistic author.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love YA books, but holy shit.

This is an actual blockbuster movie.

An actual blockbuster movie that did well at the box office and it probably going to get sequels.

Guys, there’s an autistic power ranger in a blockbuster movie and he’s awesome.

That’s it, we’re done, I don’t need to review anything else ever again. We’ve reaching peak awesome. Let’s wrap it up.

-Title card: Lucy will be back next review with a two-part episode where her faith in humanity will have been utterly destroyed-

[lonelier-version-of-you]

Headcanons about how Henrik gets diagnosed / diagnoses himself? :)

*stares into the distance like Mabel in that one episode of Gravity Falls* My time has come.

Ok so tbh I can see a few ways Henrik getting diagnosed might go, but I think the most likely one is it happening through Oskar getting diagnosed.  Especially as Henrik and Oskar share a lot of the same traits and Henrik has at least briefly considered this as something running in the family, and that’s established canon. So let’s go with that. Also I’m gonna bold new sections of this post because otherwise it would make even my own eyes glaze over, nevermind other people’s.

- One of Oskar’s schoolteachers or whoever notices autistic traits in him and brings it up with Sara first.

Sara then mentions it to Henrik later over a phone call/video chat, goes into the teacher’s reasoning (Oskar doesn’t talk when he’s upset, he’s hyper-fixated on a certain subject - in his case science/biology, he has sensory issues with food*, etc.), Henrik’s like “oh yeah I was like that as a kid too”... and then there’s the Awkward Moment of Silence™ where they both realise there’s probably a reason for that.

(Actually I wouldn’t be surprised if Sara brings it up to him because she wonders if Henrik’s on the spectrum too. She’s pulled the “you don’t have feelings” card before, after all, which I generally interpret as a sign the character doing it has noticed Henrik isn’t Emoting ‘Properly’ in a way that makes them uncomfortable but doesn’t quite know why. So I could see her connecting the dots quickly.)

[* - I know the show only briefly toyed with this and then backtracked and implied Oskar just wasn’t eating because he was upset and missed his mother but fuck, let me have my headcanons.]

- Henrik proceeds to stay up late into the following night, reading everything he can find about autism because he knows about it in a medical context but how it actually affects day-to-day life is a whole other ballgame. Definitely has a lot of “oh, fuck, that’s what [symptom] is called?? there’s a word for this?? I’m not just a freak??” moments.

- Being the type of person he is, I think he’d be too shy to bring it up to his colleagues right away, but he probably does ask someone if they can see it just to test the waters.

And by ‘someone’, I mean probably Jac. I say this partially because I like their friendship but also we’ve had previous instances of him going to her about things because he sees her as the person Most Like Him.

I like to think that conversation basically goes like this:

Henrik: So Sara told me that one of Oskar’s schoolteachers has suggested having him assessed for Autism Spectrum Disorder--

Jac: Because you have it too, yeah, I know.

Henrik: *¿?!¿?!¿?!*

Jac: You didn’t know??

😂

He’d tell more people as time goes by. Jason would definitely know; I like to think their friendship, while pretty much dropped by canon, actually is a thing and we just don’t see much of it. So Henrik would tell him and tbh I think he’d be another one to be like “oh, I thought so”.

Other friends/colleagues get told after a while and I can see some of them not having guessed, e.g. Dom. If we’re assuming John/Rox/David are all alive and well in this ‘verse, he’d tell them early on too I think.

I don’t imagine him ever being fully open about it, because again, he’s such a private person - but not necessarily ashamed either, just... if it comes up, it comes up: if it doesn’t, they don’t need to know.

- I go back and forth on whether he’d actually seek a professional assessment or not. I find it interesting that you suggest he might self-DX for this reason, actually! I could see it: he did canonically self-DX his depression (he says so to Mr. Clarke in Black Dog: “I’ve never been diagnosed, but it’s always been there”). On the other hand autism is a much more... complex disorder and I could see him wanting professional confirmation on it. So. 🤷

- Either way, he’s now opened the gateway to finding autism-specific resources, and even if it was just self-help style stuff I honestly think that would help him a lot. I think he’d find it a relief to finally have an understanding of why he’s different and why certain things don’t come naturally to him. And he’d be able to look into ways to actually learn the skills he failed to pick up earlier in life, instead of just... trying to copy other people and hoping he gets it right.

- For that reason, I can see him really caring about making sure Oskar knows he’s autistic and that there’s nothing wrong with him, because Henrik knows what it’s like to grow up different from the other kids and blame yourself for it and he doesn’t want Oskar to have to know that pain. He’d definitely try to be as involved in Oskar’s life as he could from overseas (though lbr he’s doing this anyway). I like to think Sara asks Henrik for advice when Oskar’s struggling with stuff, too, because she’s a good person who wants to learn from Henrik’s experience and make sure Oskar doesn’t grow up feeling othered.

...And that’s about it. 😅 Sorry, I’m sure you weren’t expecting that wall of text. I just have a lot of feelings about this!

[mamazrd-blog]

What drew you into rping Billy?

         MORPHENOMENAL!  actually, i was drawn to billy because i’m a poc autistic girl! when my friends originally dragged me into a livestream to watch it, i was already pretty set on going to see either b.atb or power rangers, aka the show i grew up with. ( mystic force was arguably my favorite as a kid! ) growing up autistic, i never really got good representation! i grew up with stereotypical characters like s.heldon c.ooper, in which he’s portrayed as an insensitive asshole with little to no empathy, and his autism (which i’m not sure if he’s officially diagnosed in the show ) was always used for comedic effect, or jokes.            over and over again, i kept seeing these…. inaccurate stereotypes, all played by white men. nothing against white men, but as a poc i was…… it sucked. it sucked major ass. literally none of my autistic friends were the stereotypical sh.eldon co.oper, and i was also growing up with a.utism s.peaks preaching their stereotypical hate-mongering nonsense that autism ruined lives, families, and generally needed a cure. ( i’ll have an a.utism s.peaks rant at some point, i did several college reports on it. )

          anyways, fast forward to the livestream. i’m not going to lie, i immediately latched onto billy, but i had no information about the movie beforehand. so i was over here like “is he???? he is!!! he must be!!! oh, but it’s not going to be canon….” and i must preface this with the fact that my friends who had seen the movie were like “okay, but u should play billy” and i kept asking why and they replied with “watch the movie, shelly!” 

          so, when the scene with jason came where he said “i’m on the spectrum” i… i cried. i actually cried. and THEN he EXPLAINED IT to jason in the way that i’ve explained my autism to… so many people throughout my life. and i started bawling like a baby because it felt so real!!! also, mad props to rj cyler aka my Fave because i…. actually thought he was autistic. he was that good.  i found out later that he actually referenced one of his autistic friends from high school for his role as billy, which made me cry all over again!

          and just…. the way billy’s autism isn’t a running joke. the special interests. the info dumping. his compassion. how much he loves his friends and being a ranger. the little quirks like the pacing at the cliff scene, and talking to his dad in the cave. and the “happy claps” that i keep missing but i wouldn’t be terribly surprised if they were canon! just…. how billy was handled, how he was the heart of the team. it all floored me! i was bawling my eyes out at 12 am, not caring if i got a noise complaint because  was just…. i was so happy that i finally had representation, you know? also, jason and billy definitely reminded me of my own best friend and i! even the team in general, the special moments like how he was the first one to morph because of the genuine love and compassion for his friends! how the team says, out loud, that they would die for billy. how they carry him to the ship, how they mourn and cry and hold him and treasure him as much as they did when he was alive. 

          and even after billy comes back ( i love u wall dad for saving mi son ) they’re so… they’re good friends. actually, scratch that— they’re a family! 

          this movie means so much to me. billy cranston means the universe to me. and that’s why i decided to rp him. after being in discourse-filled fandoms like st.ar wa.rs and mar.vel, the power rangers reboot was something i adored. i love everything about the reboot, but i also love the message that everyone can be a superhero, you know? that power rangers is for everyone, esp since i got bullied as a kid for carrying around my mystic force cellphone toy and wasn’t allowed to play power rangers because i was a girl. 

          just…… there’s so many reasons i wanted to rp billy, but this was The Big One. i just…. couldn’t sit here and NOT do it! i mean, come on! autistic poc superhero, my dude! 

          anyways, sorry for the infodump™ but i’m crying in the club right now over billy cranston and how amazing it feels to be represented oop.

[reaganwarren]

The Power Rangers Movie, Death, and Resurrection: Post-First Viewing Thoughts + Real-World Context

Okay, I am not Linkara. Or any of those other Internet reviewers who grew up loving Power Rangers. I did not obsessively watch Mighty Morphin’, and the series I remember the best are Time Force, Wild Force, and Ninja Storm. I am familiar with Tommy and Kimberly and their relationship, mostly Green Ranger specific episodes and a few that focused on the Pink Ranger. I might also have seen Power Rangers SPD at some point. I remember “villain turns out to be a ranger’s sister” and some other stuff. I watch Linkara’s Power Rangers retrospective for fun, despite not growing up with a lot of those series, because I like Linkara and like his reviewing style, much like how I enjoy watching Brows Held High for Kyle Kalgren and Brad Jones/the Cinema Snob. (They’re really the only ones from Channel Awesome I watch anymore these days, though I’m still fairly up-to-date with Nostalgia Critic.) 

But I did see the Power Rangers movie this weekend with my dad and my friend. I am an autistic adult who does keep up with articles about murdered autistic children and autistic adults. The friend I went to see the movie with is black. Ever since the beginning of my college career, the media and internet has had an onslaught of stories about murdered black teenagers and adults. Be it police brutality or hate crimes or . . . whatever else there is. 

Spoilers under the cut. 

Now, I had heard that the Blue Ranger was going to be a black autistic guy in the movie. Which, cool! Yay! Everyone was really celebrating that, and these people had seen the movie. Then I saw the movie and was pretty happy with his depiction as an autistic character. He was one of the crew and just happened to be autistic. Him being autistic wasn’t plot-relevant, but it was an important aspect of who he was as a person and (I like to think) gave him an advantage when it came to morphing. 

Billy very clearly was an important character to the screenwriters. He was almost always front and center, he was the most developed, and he was the one the audience clearly cared about the most. Specifically because we got to know him so well. Much more than the other five. (Especially more than the Yellow Ranger, but her character was very closed off for very good reasons. She describes her family as “normal” but her mother was a fucking nightmare. Her family is not normal, even if they’re all straight but her. She avoids labeling herself as lesbian or bisexual specifically because it will put her in danger at home. She’s closeted for good reasons, and she still doesn’t know the Rangers that well as people. She doesn’t owe them anything. BUT ANYWAY this isn’t about her. Well, it is about the Yellow Ranger and Trini, but not THIS Trini.) 

Narratively, it makes sense that the audience would get attached to Billy. He’s the most developed, probably the most popular and well-liked as you’re sitting there in the audience, watching this quirky kid who info-dumps and needs a little guidance from his new best friend (Jason/the Red Ranger) but otherwise can handle himself. 

So to prove they’re dark and gritty now, they decide to introduce actual death to the Power Rangers story. By having Rita kill Billy after she threatens to kill Zack when she’s trying to get the information about the Zeo Crystal out of them. He tells her, she mocks them, she kills him. Billy is actually dead. 

The black, autistic character the audience has grown to love is killed. 

This wasn’t supposed to happen. This was POWER RANGERS. Something adapted from a KIDS SHOW. The threat of death is sometimes there, sure, but it never actually HAPPENS. Certainly in nothing I remember from the various Power Rangers’ series I’ve watched. (I can’t really remember what happened to the dad in Ninja Storm, but wasn’t he turned into a guinea pig or something? Point is, I sure as heck don’t remember people actually dying in these shows.) 

And it felt like a punch to the gut, even if I didn’t quite believe they’d leave him dead, because . . . why’d you have to do that, movie? You’re not DBZ, you’re not Yu-Gi-Oh. You didn’t have to kill anybody, you don’t have to be dark and gritty, you’re POWER RANGERS. It’s fine to do something different, but that isn’t fair. 

It isn’t fair to take something that I rarely see - a non-stereotyped autistic person who isn’t treated like he has to change how he behaves in order to fit in and deserve friendship and love - in anything, let alone something as popular and franchise-y as Power Rangers. Then there’s the fact that Billy isn’t just autistic, he’s also black, and why does the black guy always have to die? Why? Why’d you have to do this, movie? And more importantly, why didn’t anyone tell me????? In everything I read about him being autistic, why didn’t anyone give a heads-up of “he was going to die”? When we live in a world where parents and caregivers of autistic children murder them because . . . the reasons don’t even matter. They die because they’re autistic. Because they’re disabled. And so many black young men have died due to racism. It’s every damn day in real life, why did it have to be in my escapist movie too? 

Then, instead of Zordon resurrecting himself like he had been planning throughout the movie, he resurrects Billy instead. 

Billy is valued by his team and his friends so much that Zordon, who has truly believed that these teenagers were going to doom the Earth, chose to allow Billy to come back to life instead. 

Then the rest of the movie happens, and . . . personally, I still wish they just hadn’t killed Billy at all, but . . . it did mean something. Something significant. 

With absolutely no confusion, they say that Billy has value, that Billy is important to them. That his blackness and his autism does not make him less valuable to the team - or less important a friend. 

And if that was all, I wouldn’t be writing this. But then there are the two car crashes in the beginning of the movie. And the fact that Thuy Trang died in a car accident on September 3, 2001. 

The first car accident in the movie is how Jason/the Red Ranger gets caught for pulling a prank with a bull in the school gym locker room and it . . . is very artistic, but very visceral in that it’s not exactly a POV shot, but that camera is IN the car and you’re experiencing what it’s like to be stuck in a car that is rolling over and crashing and it was chilling. 

The second one has all five of the Rangers in it, and three of them are not wearing seat belts. 

According to Thuy Trang’s wikipedia page, one of the people in the car with her was contradictory in interviews about whether or not Trang was wearing a seat belt when she was in the accident. 

Trang’s death was felt strongly by her original cast members. 

And in the second car crash of the movie, they’ve just gotten their powers. It’s the only reason they don’t all die in the movie. 

I don’t actually know if all this has anything to do with each other as far as creator intention is concerned. Again, I’m not Linkara. I’m bad at research. But.... the theme of resurrection is still in the movie. At first, it feels pointless. Why add this? 

But they survived a car crash that should have killed them. They resurrected Billy after he was murdered by Rita. Thuy Trang died in a car crash at 27 years old. 

It feels connected. I don’t know where to go from here, but it feels connected. 

[cowboy-butch]

power rangers spoilers under the cut

like.. a few major ones. theyre detailed, i tried to list out possible trigger warnings (bolded) but if you need a specific one message me! proceed with caution :)

it was honestly really funny, there was a lot of wit and sarcasm in many of the jokes and i was constantly laughing. and while there was a more serious vibe with the movie than with what i remember of the show, there were quite a few lighthearted, very sweet moments that made the theater ‘aww’ (the scenes of jake and his mom and how he cared for her were some of the sweetest they made my heart hurt)

some of the dialogue wasnt that great, there were some plot holes that i noticed throughout the movie, and some of the acting wasnt as good as it couldve been, but it was a good movie, it was a good adaptation of the show and a good start to what im guessing is a series? there’s a credit scene where they kinda introduce the green ranger (which the girl next to me was freaking out about it was great)  

the evil witch lady was kinda underwhelming? i wasnt really scared of her, i could tell that she would fuck shit up if she wasnt stopped but the portrayal wasnt really what i expected it to be, which is fine things dont have to be perfect all around, but i hope they get some better, more experienced actors to play the villains next time. the witch’s monster that she creates was kinda scary, there were some intense scenes with the monster and the five that racked up my anxiety lol

i wasnt a devout show watcher, ive seen a few episodes here and there as a kid, but some people have been commenting on the tv/movie references and inside jokes that were in this movie. there were some nostalgic scenes that i remember, “its morphin time!” and the “go go power rangers!” song definitely made me feel like a giddy little kid. this was a revamp but they didnt forget their origin story, they didnt forget where they came from lol

billy (blue) fucking stole the show. he was absolutely amazing. im not autistic, but i follow a few people who are and who talk about it concerning themselves and characters they see as being on the spectrum. so i noticed a few aspects of billy’s character which coincided with what ive read like when jason scott (red) touched him with no warning or consent he asks him to stop, he is constantly building things his whole basement/room is covered in tools and equipment and a big work table, which is what came to my mind as his special interest

when he got excited there was continuity of him clapping his hands and sort of bouncing on his feet, and the most blatant aspect of all; billy confessed to jason that he was on the spectrum, jason didnt seem to understand and made a little joke, and billy went on to say that his brain worked differently than jason’s, that he couldnt understand sarcasm or some humor but that he remembered everything, like /everything/. in the movie he was by far the best developed character in my opinion, it felt like RJ Cyler did a lot of research and listening to build his character to be the best representation that he could make him. (i dont know if this has anything to do with autism or if its just a cute thing billy does, but he cant swear. like something surprised him and he yelled ‘motherf- ah just mother is good’ like he couldnt finish the word. idk i just liked that part of his character)

t warning: okay so there is one scene that could be triggering for some people, so major spoiler here. the villain ends up killing billy ¾ through the movie, the rangers take him back to the main ship to ask their mentor person what to do and if theres any way to save him, but eventually the mentor brings him back to life. i felt slightly uncomfortable during that scene because they killed off their only black and autistic character. i still dont know how to feel about it until i hear from actual black/autistic people but i wanted y’all to know, if seeing that could harm you or trigger you. if you want to avoid seeing that happen to billy, it happens when the five are captured at the docks and its drawn out for a few minutes, i cant remember how many. if someone could accompany you, they could stay in the theater and text or come get you when the scene is over.

OH and something i noticed after the emotional scene mentioned above, billy was being hugged and he was hugging back, but jason walked up to him and kept his distance, letting billy initiate the hug if thats what he wanted to do. jason heard billy’s uncomfortableness in being touch and remembered, and let him have his space and freedom to decide on a hug or not. theyre my new brotp and I LOVE THEM

keep in mind that i dont know everything, i dont have autism so some things most likely shot over my head and didnt register, so im sorry if it did and if what ive told you has been incorrect. you are totally free to correct me if i have been, but i felt like billy was (mostly) treated with care and respect.

so admittedly the gay character reveal was kinda small, i wouldve definitely liked if it was bigger but keeping in mind what the director said in one of his interviews is important.

“For Trini, really she’s questioning a lot about who she is. She hasn’t fully figured it out yet. I think what’s great about that scene and what the scene propels for the rest of the movie is, ‘That’s OK.’ The movie is saying, ‘That’s OK,’ and all of the kids have to own who they are and find their tribe.” xxx

The way it’s revealed sounded as if Trini (yellow) was fresh into figuring out who she is, what her sexuality is, where she fits in society. the five were revealing secrets about one another to get to know each other better and she tells them that she and her family are never in town for long, and she likes it like that because its easier to not have to constantly get to know people, to show them your vulnerable side.

zack (black) made a little joke about ‘boyfriend problems’ which her subtle face expressions rejected, to which he asks ‘girlfriend problems?’ and she seemed unsure. (theres no negative reactions from the others, it does seem to portray the idea that ‘Thats OK’, that her potentially having girlfriend problems is totally okay to the other characters) im not positive in what expression she was conveying, maybe the character wasnt totally sure of her answer herself, but i remember being that way too.

i always asked myself if wondering if i was bisexual was actually just me wanting to fit in with my friends, or if i was trying to get attention from some unknown faceless person. i kept quiet about my thoughts for quite some time, i didnt want to blurt it out while still feeling wildly unconfident about my answer, in case i /was/ vying for attention (i wasnt). so maybe this representation isnt what my present day mostly-out self wouldve liked, but to my past questioning and confused “straight” self, i wouldve related to that uncertainty. i wouldve seen myself in Trini and wouldve cried tbh. if the sequels actually happen (theres a plan for five more movies to be made?? i hope it happens) then i really do hope that we see her sexuality expanded upon as she becomes more comfortable with herself.

(and maybe it was just me but did Trini seem like she had the hots for Kimberly (pink)? id have to watch it again bc a lot of information at one time kinda shocks my brain into a stupor and the details get foggy)

t warning: theres a car crash scene in the very beginning of the movie and one sorta 2/4 of the way where theyre escaping the mining area and connect with a train. after the second crash jason throws up but there isnt any visual, only audio. i cant think of anything else in the movie, so if any of you need to avoid or know about those, i hope this helps.

so these are my thoughts and opinions! if you disagree i totally understand but dont be a jerk about it, you respect me I’ll respect you. i hope y’all have enjoyed my long ass post and if you see the movie i hope you enjoy it!