Like We All Love The “I Lied About Being Your Spouse To Visit You In The Hospital” Thing But Consider:

on brothers

[ jewish literacy, rabbi joseph telushkin / the bear 2x06 + 2x10 / east of eden, john steinbeck / succession 3x09 / “brothers,” kevin atwater / the west wing 6x16 / prison break 5x04 / greywaren, maggie stiefvater / boy (2010) / “he ain’t heavy, he’s my brother,” the hollies ]

Fall From Grace

Summary: Otherwise known as the tragedy of Beryl Grace. The scandalous, drama-filled life of the 80s "fluffy starlet" who managed to snag two forms of the same god, producing two great heroes, and battling the consequences of her hankering for fame and beauty, at any and every cost.

1959. Somewhere in a hospital in Dallas, a woman screams and bears down as she labours, sweat dripping from her forehead. The child is her first, her husband’s fourth. She thinks little of their age gap, or of what will become of his other children, her own child - she thinks only of the pain, begging for it to end, praying this will have all been worth it. For this kind of pain, the child must be extra special. She grips the side of the bed, wishing there was a hand to hold, and wonders if tonight will be the night she dies. Nurses tut at her shrieks - silly girl. Don’t these women know childbirth is painful? Don’t they realise that pain is normal, and they’re hardly going to die from it? In the end, the child - her first, her husband’s fourth - is a girl. She screeches just like her mother; midwives declare her healthy. The happy couple, happy now the torment is over, decide to name her Beryl Darlene Grace. Two nights later, the doting husband loudly berates the loving, ailing wife, for her unwillingness to stand and cook so soon after ripping herself open. He brings her to tears, and the baby keeps crying, and the door slams louder than either of them combined as his temper bubbles over. He will not lay a hand on a woman or a child, but he does not need to. Thus, Beryl's tragedy begins.

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the liberty annabeth has been given to be deeply unserious and true to her character in the new “pjo” books while being deprived of that aspect of her character elsewhere is so personal to me because what do you mean she wants to duet with percy on shallow, cheerfully bon voyages her boyfriend off a cliff, carries around a backpack of mystery mouskatools including herbal tea and snake treats just in case, instructs percy “don’t stop skipping, skippy” when he has the rainbow staff for absolutely no other reason aside from shits and giggles, breaks into his bedroom for no reason besides the fact that she simply likes the challenge, apparently regularly signs autographs and is fawned over up on olympus, and keeps suggesting cute and dumb shit to get magically scribed into percy’s diy college rec letter. and now she’s giggling with her architecture friends about glass and marshmallows and wants to throw a haunted house party in a scary goddess’s mansion (a goddess scary enough to make her boyfriend literally piss his boxers) because she’s too self-assured to believe they can’t evade the consequences and too excited to experience something she’s never gotten to throughout her childhood and adolescence…oh annabeth chase, the woman that you are. like yes let her be impulsive and unserious and excited and batshit and a troll because she’s just a girl trying to have fun in a miserable fucking world godammit!! rick riordan, they could never make me like you, but i’ll give you this one thing—the whimsy has been restored and its name is annabeth chase

Okay, but hear me out - In the movie, the sequence of the scenes where Elphaba learns about the horrific treatment of Animals and then meets Fiyero is soooo important. This transition between the two scenes highlights an emotional turning point for Elphaba. Dr. Dillamond's revelations intensify her awareness of injustice, leaving her searching for a way to act. Enter Fiyero, who not only contrasts the bleakness of the previous scene with his carefree presence but also will ultimately influence Elphaba's growth. As we know, eventually Fiyero is a foil to encourage Elphaba to transform her ideals into action, giving her the courage to make her voice heard. The scene order underscores how pivotal Fiyero's presence is in shaping Elphaba's journey from bystander to the unlimited badass she becomes later on. And Jonathan Bailey's version of Fiyero is much softer and is given a lot more space to be kind than stage!Fiyero, and I just really love how that, in contrast to the cruelty described in the previous scene just highlights the differences but also ties them together for Elphaba's story.

it really frustrates me to think about how people are inevitably going to take Remmick’s one (1) singular statement about how much he resents the way the Irish were colonized and forcibly converted to Christianity and use it as fuel for “actually he had a point” and “he was right actually” and “he’s not really the villain here” posts, when the whole point is that Remmick is, through the vampiric hive mind he’s creating, forcibly assimilating people into yet another manipulative and parasitical system. he doesn't value the cultures of the people he assimilates—notice how all the vampires he turns dance to his culture's music using his culture's dances, and how he only uses the languages or knowledge other vampires have to offer when he needs to manipulate someone. Remmick is extremely transparent about the way he sees the people he turns as resources to exploit.

he’s perpetuating a cycle that he claims to hate and resent, and I think the movie is pretty damn clear about the fact that he doesn’t see anybody as valuable or useful to him except as prey and as pawns—otherwise he would just, you know, focus solely on people who actually consent to being turned. but he looked sad in that one scene and he’s an apparently attractive white cis man so people are gonna bend over backwards justifying all the harm he did.

Okay so like I had a thought of like professional and platonic connection that really lends itself to devotion, both couples sort of have this thing where they match each other on a frequency that no one else in the world does. And there's the power dynamics of it all. Within sydcarmy, though they are technically partners, Carmy is still her boss and is at this point classified as a famous chef, while she's sort of an up-and-coming ingenue. And he continually says over and over that he'll listen to her and then he doesn't. But he still needs her desperately. It's the same thing with joshdonna, Josh has always been donnas boss, despite how much their professional relationship is more like a partnership than anything, she is still his assistant. And Josh is the deputy fucking chief of staff, he's a political mastermind, and again she's an aspiring political operative with half a college degree. And she asks for progression in her career and doesn't get it. But Josh still needs her deeply and desperately. And then there's the parallels between the industries they work in. Both of which are time consuming and mentally taxing and are all about "serving the people" And narratively there's a similarity, as there's a point of breaking for both guys, and then there's a point where both girls get fed up and then there's a divorce era. Also both boys have dead siblings and a found Family.

joshdonna and sydcarmy are incredibly similar and parallel and I would like to talk more about it but idk if anyone cares

The Muppets Christmas Carol dir. Brian Henson (1992) for @awibee

having feelings about Josh and CJ both having tunnel vision during the transition stage between administrations, and both Danny and Donna use the same talking points on them.

(made this for @hamletthedane)

Cynthia and Jonathan singing as long as you're mine will simultaneously fix me and make me so much worse