I Couldn't Decide Between The Teddy Or The Flower I Think Their Both So Cute

That's it. That's the post.

I shall wrap thee in these cinders, Ell

And you shall be as radiant and terrible

As I

Ruairí Ó hUiginn told me about a folktale that involves Cú Chulainn with a gun and now I desperately need to track this down because I didn't believe he could get more lethal and I need to see this with my own eyes.

Spoiler warning for Cinderella's Castle under the cut.

While I will say (even this early in her time with the company) that this show was Bryce's finest hour, we need to draw attention to Ella's death scene.

Every time I watch it, I have such a visceral reaction, but I still pay attention to it because of her acting in this scene.

How Ella cries out to her parents as Putrice and Rancilda restrain her. It brings to mind soldiers fatally wounded in combat, calling out for a loved one that they wish to see one last time.

Her attempt to pray to the Nine Good Gods; even after the Fairy Queen disproved her faith, it's still the only faith that she knows. It was probably one of the only things that she had left after her father's death.

She truly sounds like she's in pain when the Stepmother makes the first cut to her leg, only reduced to sobs because she's in too much agony to speak.

But she still has enough defiance left in her to curse the trolls.

Even if the way the sequence is written and acted out makes it seem as if Ella dies pretty soon after her leg is severed, I can easily imagine her drifting in and out of consciousness as she continues to bleed out onto the table.

Maybe she's ready to give up.

Maybe she's afraid that, if there are no Nine Good Gods, there's no greener field beyond. And that means that she'll never see her parents, or Justine and Lucy again.

So death isn't even a comfort anymore.

If Hadestown has a moral, she says, then it’s “you have to try, you have to have hope, not because success is a given – it’s not. Orpheus fails. We heroicise” – here she breaks off to apologise that jet lag has led to her making up words – “we heroicise Orpheus not because he succeeds but because he tries, and that endeavour alone is worthwhile. How to live, and not merely survive, is to believe things could change.”

Anaïs Mitchell on her musical Hadestown: 'I worked on it so long I was afraid I'd never make another record'

if sinners (2025) taught me anything, it's that it IS actually always about race.

you can be oppressed, and still promote and maintain the very same systems of oppression onto other marginalized people. being oppressed in one dimension doesn't allow you to be exempt from oppressing in other dimensions. the "villain" of the movie, remmick, being from the time period of the english colonization of ireland, all the while wanting to take a piece of sammie's own culture from him, use him for it. and this plot point coming after remmick witnesses the significance of sammie's playing within his culture, for his ancestors and how it would shape Black culture in the future.

even in today's society, ive noticed that people treat Black people like a commodity. our worth is only as much as other people decide it to be, and that's usually dependent on how much the oppressor can take from us. for example, the controversy of"internet slang" and how it is blatantly just AAVE with a bad disguise on

do you listen to Black musicians? do you watch Black movies? do you engage with Black creators? do you defend the racist tendencies you notice in your friends, in your family, or do you stay silent? do you listen when Black people tell you you've said or done something racist? do you actually care about not being racist, or do you just not want to look like you're racist?

i just think people have a very specific take on what racism is, and that if they're not committing KKK-levels of violence on people, then they're not racist. or if you've experienced oppression in one form, you cannot possibly be engaging with oppression in another form. but the ways in which we interact with other people and the world will always be through the lens of race, because that is simply what it means for oppression to be systemic, especially in the US and our current political climate

anyway 10/10 movie. highly recommend

Jane was waaaay too forgiving to Darcy. If I knew he was calling me behind my back a gold digger and was directly responsible for encouraging the love of my life to walk away from me, I would make sure he didn't get to marry my favorite sister or continue to be friends with my husband.

So setting aside if Jane would even be capable of any of what you suggested, dear Anon, what is more important: petty revenge or your beloved sister's happiness?

no but NOT ONLY does the Dracula novel explicitly show that the men's well-intentioned but extremely sexist decision to exclude mina because she is a woman makes her more afraid and unhappy and also puts her at risk BUT ALSO it shows that after they realize their mistake and start including her again she is actually noticeably happier, despite the dire circumstances, less worried AND she is able to meaningfully contribute to their efforts as a valuable member of the group, thus making them all stronger

it's so striking. many of the characters display very typical attitudes for the time that the book was written but the narrative...kinda doesn't. yes it was written in the 1890s so it's still dated by modern standards, but it makes a very conscious effort to question a lot of traditionalist attitudes and views that would have been prevalent at the time. like, the male characters all think that it makes sense that a woman's nerves would be too sensitive to participate in a vampire hunting mission...but the narrative does not validate this and in fact shows them to be wrong. and only when they change their behavior are they able to succeed.

Also notable that Jonathan is the first one to be able to injure the Count, and is ultimately the one who kills him. And he is the least traditionally masculine and most gender nonconforming of the male characters.

tldr lowkey in the books dracula was defeated with the powers of friendship feminism and gender nonconformity and I think we should talk about that more

I just don’t feel like people appreciate book phantom enough. Like sorry but I have a fat crush on that no nosed gaunt looking wimp that literally dies after getting a kiss on the cheek and I feel like more people should too

I've now gotten really into the idea of Jonah hating irish people while being irish and now I imagining him putting the image of food into people's head during he famine as an expression of internalized hatred