I Love Seeing All Of Those Pictures Of Jodie During The Premiere Screening Of DW When She’s Standing

people who don't wear glasses who are writing characters who wear glasses;

they get fogged up when we drink hot beverages. they get smudged for no reason. we will push them up using anything in our area (i.e shoulder, whatever is in my hand, scrunching my nose up so they get pushed up, etc.). they get knocked off our faces all. the. fucking. time. when we change clothes we either take them off or they fall off when we pull our shirts off. we have to clean them after being in the rain. we own multiple pairs of them, not just one lone pair for our whole lives. most people don’t wear them in the pool, but some have extra old pairs for the pool (like me). some people take them off during sex, that’s fine! but some people keep them on. they don’t get squished into your face when you kiss (most of the time. at least from what i’ve experienced and i’ve got some mf big glasses). if we look down and look back up while you talk/to peek up at something, we will just peek blindly over the top of them. we clean them on whatever item of clothing is closest. some of us have prescription sunglasses and some of us wear contacts when we need to wear sunglasses. please keep some of these in mind when you write characters with glasses cause y'all who have 20/20 vision keep telling me all characters sleep in their glasses and own the same singular pair from age 6-25 and they never clean them.

Being an adult means first reading Sam's "Well, I'm back." quote at the end of LOTR as a ten year old and thinking it's a weird stupid ending, and then reading it again as a 24 year old and crying because it's the most beautiful perfect ending ever written in the history of literature.

TobyMac. He was my first foray into modern music and he remains my favorite artist to date. If I need a way to solidify my faith or simply find inspiration I can always find it with him.

Everybody likes to poke fun at Midwesterners and our strange slang, but seriously I think it’s hilarious that it never leaves our vocabulary. My aunt has lived in Florida for the past thirty years and she still catches herself saying, “Ope!” when startled, and calling soda “pop”.

My favorite ladies: Fandom edition

1) Mara Jade Skywalker. I will admit it: I LOVE Star Wars, and I’ve loved it since I was four. As an eleven year old I got into the Expanded Universe, and I immediately loved Mara. She’s brave, intelligent, independent, she kicks ass like no other, and she’s more than just a pretty face. Raised as a child by Emperor Palpatine to be one of his Hands (top assassins), she was entirely obedient to him to the point of trying to kill Luke Skywalker when he commanded her to; until, of course, she started to realize that Palpatine was nothing but a manipulative bastard, and then she ended up marrying said Skywalker later on down the road. (Luke and Mara are absolutely amazing together, and they’ve been one of my OTPs for over a decade now.)

2) Martha Jones. Seriously, though, I think the question to ask is what is there not to love about Doctor Martha Jones? She’s treated less-than-stellar by the Tenth Doctor, yes, but she adapts to this crazy life of time-travel so well (too well maybe), not to mention that she helps him out of the fire several times throughout her run. Have people really already forgotten the fact that Martha is the Woman Who Walked the Earth, stayed alive an entire year avoiding the Master’s efforts to capture her, and was the entire reason why the Doctor’s plan to end the Year That Never Was worked? (Also, she’s the only modern-day companion to have voluntarily left the Doctor, which I admire A LOT.)

3) Mary Watson. I seem to have a thing for the lesser-liked ladies in fandoms. Granted, I’m not normally a Johnlock shipper by any means, so I never had to feel like my favorite pairing was being threatened; but Mary was so much more than what she appeared on the surface. She’s multifaceted, she’s secretive, and I wouldn’t even necessarily label her as a Good Person-- but she is Good where it counts, she’s genuinely kind and caring to others, she tries her best to protect John and Rosie, and she and Sherlock have this amazing understanding of each other which I find absolutely brilliant.

4) Peggy Carter. Her name alone conveys how much of a BAMF Peggy is. ‘Nuff said.

(Seriously, though, I’ll have to do a full-depth analysis on Peggy at a later date, because usually all I can do when I think of her is incoherently flail, and I’ll need more than a paragraph to explain why I love her so much.)

5) Ellie Miller. I had a hard time deciding who I was going to put down on this list, Ellie or Beth Latimer. I decided on Ellie because I’ve made it no secret Beth is my absolute favorite character in Broadchurch, and I’ve talked about her a lot on previous posts. So here’s Ellie, the Detective Sergeant of Broadchurch who is the one who helped close three major cases, loves her sons more than chocolate, builds her life back up after it comes to pieces around her, and gives some truly amazing tellings-off when she needs to. And she threatens to piss in a cup and throw it at Hardy when he’s being particularly difficult, and if that isn’t legendary I don’t know what is. She’s all-around brilliant, and honestly one of the main reasons why the tv show works as well as it does.

These are just a few of my favorites, but this list is already a bit long, so part 2 is going to have to come later.

Can I just speak for a second about how much of an absolute crazy BAMF Stonewall Jackson was?

I mean, this was a guy who was raised in the mountains of Virginia (later West Virginia) who pulled through West Point because of his skills in math and sheer tenaciousness. But he LIKED the army, and even after the Mexican American War he was teaching students what it meant to be a soldier.

When the South seceded from the Union, Jackson followed his State and was recruited into the Confederacy.

“Always mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy, if possible; and when you strike and overcome him, never let up in the pursuit so long as your men have strength to follow; for an army routed, if hotly pursued, becomes panic-stricken and can then be destroyed by half their number.” 

He earned his nickname of “Stonewall” in the Battle of First Manassas (First Bull Run as it was known in the North) when he stood in the midst of battle without retreating and thus inspired his men and the surrounding Rebels to stand their ground and chase the Union off. He became one of General Robert E. Lee’s most trusted soldiers and friends, so much so that when Jackson died Lee reportedly said, “He has lost his left arm. I have lost my right.” Jackson and Lee together won so many battles due to their combined tactical genius and tenaciousness that if Jackson hadn’t died then it’s possible that the Confederacy may have won the war.

Aside from his (near) brilliance on the field, Stonewall was well known for being eccentric. A list of habits and beliefs he had baffled contemporaries and still fascinates people today:

1) He believed that one of his arms was longer than the other and so would frequently held up the “longer” one to aide in better circulation.

2) Although debatable today, it was also said that Jackson loved chewing on whole lemons and was rarely seen without one even in the midst of battle.

3) He believed that if he had pepper in his food that it would make his left leg ache.

4) He was known by contemporaries as a “champion sleeper”, able to sleep anywhere-- even falling asleep with food in his mouth.

And that was only a few things.

And of course Jackson was a religious zealot, believing that he belonged to the “army of the Living God.” His religious views made it so that he was unafraid even in battle, believing that the Lord was utterly in control and would call him home only when it was time. He wouldn’t even mail a letter on Saturday in fear that it would be in transit on a Sunday.

But of course his respect of the Sabbath didn’t stop him from participating in battle. 

He was also oddly bloodthirsty. He was known for his need for pursuit of the enemy, and there was even once when asked how the Confederacy could stop the Union from pursuing them, Jackson replied, “Kill them! Kill them all!” 

Jackson has got to be one of the most fascinating figures of the American Civil War. I can’t say that this man was as great a hero as history will sometimes paint him but he was still someone who even today is hotly debated among historians. Some say he was a religious nut. Still others say that he was a hero of the South. 

I think he was just a man, but he was someone who history will never quite figure out. Stonewall Jackson observed the Sabbath but was unafraid to kill the enemy. He was a borderline hypochondriac but he was unafraid of death. He’s simply a contradiction to himself in a lot of ways, and I think that is what makes Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson still such a figurehead of the Civil War and, I daresay, one its most fascinating.

It’s been almost twenty years, but I still tear up every time I hear the Hobbits’ theme played any time during the LotR and Hobbit soundtracks. 

Absolute. Perfection. 

The Last Jedi Sin #12

I was hesitant to name this post this title because I know how easily it turns people off to reading the post, but honestly, that is what this is and honestly, this one is really worth the read.

It is The Last Jedi Sin #12.

12. Plot-Driven Characters

Up until yesterday night, I didn’t know how to describe what was bothering me so much about TLJ in the respect I will be talking about in a few. It was just “wrong” and “unconvincing” because honestly, what Rian chose to do to these characters is rarely done.

Why? you ask

because this isn’t how you write, Rian!

When I was a Senior in HS, I had skipped a grade, but was taking college classes nonetheless. One of the classes I was taking was English 101 from a local college for dual high school and college credit. At the same time, I was taking English 102 from another local college. One of the first things I learned in my college classes, after y’know…being told them for years, was that good stories are driven by strong characters. This was reinforced when I elected to take Screenwriting 101 when I was a Sophomore in college. The plot is something that happens as a result of what a character does or fails to do. Of course, sometimes you have to push a character to push forward the plot…that’s a necessity of character development, but it has to feel natural and the plot has to feel like it was meant to happen. It has to make sense. The build-up to the climax has to feel as seamless as possible and plot is really to bend around the characters…

Not the other way around.

Did Rian not get that memo? Did like…no one tell him?

What bothers me so much, and is, in fact, The Last Jedi Sin #12 is that the whole movie of The Last Jedi is the plot driving the characters and not the characters driving the plot. It’s hard to describe, but I’m going to do my very best.

In The Original Trilogy, the protagonists and antagonists have a certain dynamic. Vader and Sidious have a master-apprentice relationship, but almost like equals. Luke, Han, and Leia have the friendship dynamic. Luke and Vader, however, have a very different dynamic because they are father and son and are the “Functional Skywalkers” of the Trilogy. (This is not meant to sideline Leia…it’s just that her dynamic with her father was not established until late into VI so the dynamic was overshadowed by Luke and Vader’s that was established as early as the end of IV, but formally established in the middle of V.) 

Vader and Sidious wanted to control the whole galaxy and worked their asses off to destroy the Resistance. Luke, Leia, and Han were members of the Resistance and Resistance heroes; Luke was a Jedi and was bestowed a legacy upon him. The dynamic that really pushed forward the entire saga was the relationship of Luke Skywalker to Darth Vader. 

The plot of the entire Star Wars OT was to redeem Anakin Skywalker, establish Luke Skywalker as a hero, and bring balance to the galaxy, all of which was accomplished, but could only have been accomplished through the dynamic that was Luke being the son of Darth Vader, taking the legacy of his father upon himself, believing in the goodness of his father, and being the strong, emotional, loving, faithful character he was. It could only have been accomplished because Darth Vader still had a heart and cared for his son more than he ever could care about power. 

The entirety of the Prequels was the fall of Anakin Skywalker. The PT was, truthfully, so character-driven, it may have been character-driven to a fault because they were so focused on getting Anakin’s descent to the Dark Side satisfying and “right” that other things seemed to be pushed to the background. The main villains in the PT weren’t the most intimidating, except for Palpatine/Sidious, dialogue was clunky and awkward, but for the most part, the Prequels did a decent job at clearly displaying the internal struggle of Anakin Skywalker to remain good in the face of his dark tendencies, intense emotions he couldn’t control, and disdain for the Jedi Council. 

Even TFA was a pretty character-driven story. JJ knew what to do, as much as few have faith in him. 

The Force really Awakened when Finn saved Poe from the clutches of Kylo Ren and chose to finish Poe’s mission by bringing BB-8 back to the Resistance. Along the way, he met Rey, a girl whose emotions were very strong, had a very hard life, and wanted nothing more than a family. TFA repeatedly reminded the audience that Rey needed to return to Jakku because of her family, but because she found a family in the Resistance, she went full speed ahead into helping them and finding the belonging she sought ahead of her. Kylo Ren’s intentions in the movie were clear: to find Luke Skywalker and presumably to kill him. Why? We allegedly find out why in TLJ, but it’s unbelievable at best. He also desired to “finish what his grandfather started”, which was always a very confusing motivation because we all know Anakin Skywalker defected and murdered the Emperor as his last act in his life.

I digress.

How does TLJ differ from the OT, PT, and TFA?

Aside from the fact nothing in the movie should have logically happened, which I keep saying again and again…things just inexplicably happen to these characters and they just respond to it. 

Like, the Resistance is suddenly on its last legs, so now Poe is a trigger-happy fly-boy and causes the death of lots of people.

Rose Tico sees Finn leaving the Resistance cruiser, so she tases him with no questions asked, thus resulting in this stupid side-quest on Canto Bight.

Rey hands Luke his lightsaber and he rejects it (which he never would have done), so she follows him around for days with literally nothing happening for the most part.

Kylo Ren and Rey have an inexplicable Force-Bond.

Like absolutely, a lot of those things happened because of what a character did, but these things just happen to these people. They react to it and we move on from it. It kinda dies as a concept as soon as someone reacts and by the end of the movie, the characterizations of all of the characters are basically unrecognizable, there was no plot, and we’re right back where we started…a return to normalcy.

Like Finn is exactly where he would have been without the trip to Canto Bight. Poe is exactly the same character. Rose Tico had little to no characterization in the first place. Kylo Ren is just as dark, if not a little darker. Luke’s character was assassinated. And Rey’s character regressed. Like…there was no point to this movie. 

I said at the beginning that “strong characters drive a plot”. With what was just said and is true, none of those characters are strong, especially the one that so desperately needs to be- Rey. Rian Johnson altered their characters from TFA and changed them so that it would fit his narrative. That is an astoundingly stupid move. Because not only are these characters now weak, but they are not even themselves anymore! So these characters, who we didn’t come to see, are not experiencing any character development, in a movie with no plot, are doing nothing. I’m literally watching a movie about nothing with nothing happening!

The Last Jedi was boring in every single way but visually because there was no plot. There was no character development. There was no point except super cool visuals. 

What drives a story is character development and a convincing plot based off of the characters, neither of which The Last Jedi had. 

It has tHiNgS happen, but nothing that actually pushed the trilogy-long plot. 

A lot of stuff happened in the Empire Strikes Back, like Lando in Cloud City with Darth Vader, Luke continues to train with Yoda and learn the ways of the Force, Han and Leia’s relationship happens, Han gets frozen in carbonite and given to Jabba, and whatnot. But what pushes the plot forward was the reveal that the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker’s father, is still alive as Darth Vader. But had Lando not kinda “sold out” his friends to Vader, which led to Han being frozen in carbonite, Luke would have never left Jedi training to save his friends and fight his father, which led to the reveal that he was his father. Most of things that happen in this movie support the advancement of the trilogy-plot.

BUT NOTHING HAPPENED IN THE LAST JEDI. 

The reveal, which could have been the turning point in the movie, making Rey a Skywalker or even a Kenobi, was shot to shit and actually regressed the plot because just when we thought we were getting somewhere, after the shitty central conflict of the Resistance running out of fuel and the slow-motion cat and mouse chase, Finn, Rose, and DJ’s failure and sell-out, we got literally nothing. Nothing supported any kind of plot because there was no plot to begin with. Rian was- objectively- trying to rip off ESB, but failed because he so desperately wanted to subvert fan expectations that he actually sacrificed his plot and characters so that he could be “edgy” and “different”. 

Just when the Kylo-Rey dynamic was beginning to really be grounded and justified, Rian decided “hell fucking no” so whatever plot he was trying to go for, whatever character development he was trying to push forward, whatever he was trying to have happen, literally crumbled in front of the audience’s eyes. 

The whole reason ESB was so good and the dynamic going into ROTJ was high-octane was because of the dynamic between father-son Vader-Luke. There were high stakes in place, there were risks involved, there was faith being tested with the legitimate possibility for validation, and Vader’s possibility of redemption. Luke and Vader’s lives were in jeopardy because of their relationship.

There is no dynamic between Rey and Kylo because they, yeah maybe sorta understand each other a little better, but they still hate each other. They allegedly have no relationship with one another whatsoever, so where are the stakes?!  Kylo betrayed Rey after getting her hopes up. Like I honestly don’t know what to say about this. 

I fear for the franchise because I don’t know how it can be saved at this point.

Rian Johnson wrote not only himself, but JJ Abrams into a corner.  

You can’t write a compelling narrative where nothing happens and the characters simply respond to what happens to them. You can’t write a compelling narrative based on no stakes and no character development. People get bored when nothing happens and nothing progresses. I’ve had children tell me that TLJ “finished the same way the last movie did”. If children, Disney’s target market, can see it, that’s catastrophic. 

This isn’t how writing works, Rian.

i never talk about these things but i can’t remain silent.

i know tumblr doesn’t give a SHIT when things happen in countries outside the “most popular ones” (such as the usa & england). it’s true, don’t lie to me. y’all don’t give A FUCK. not every issue and problem in said countries gets the appropriate exposure but in general shit shows up on the news WORLD FREAKING  WIDE. you set up donations, you help out, your spread the word, you say “pray for x”……

southern europe is burning. 

my country is burning.

people are dying - at home, on the road, trying to run away, in their cars.

yesterday my country had 300 active fires.

people are losing EVERYTHING they own.

i have a friend that is on a train right now passing through places that have been burnt to the ground and she says the smoke is so intense it’s getting inside the train and she can barely breathe.

and yet, even though several people (myself included) have been trying to bring awareness to what has been happening in southern europe… what we get from most of you, those not part of the countries suffering, is silence. we don’t ask for money, we don’t ask for shit other than a reblog to spread awareness… something you can delete in 24/48hrs if you wish. 

i don’t know what to tell you. i’m angry. i’m frustrated. i’m disappointed. i feel like i’m screaming into the void. “a reblog does nothing” - you know that’s a damn lie, you know exposure always helps, you know people start paying attention when posts on social media become popular. my country in particular is a small one, we get ZERO exposure. y’all are only starting to figure out we even fucking exist bc of the shit we’ve been winning lately. 

but hell, if the EU doesn’t give a shit, why should some user on tumblr dot com?

again, i don’t know what to tell you so i’ll let the images speak for themselves: 

An image captured by a Nasa satellite shows a thick plume of smoke blowing southward from the Greek island of Chios over the island of Crete

Torneros de Jamuz, Spain

Duca, Croatia

A helicopter from Italy’s civil protection service drops water on a fire near the railway between Venice and Trieste

Residents take refuge on the beach as a wildfire burns on the mountain next to the village of Lithi, on the Greek island of Chios

Men gather cattle during a forest fire in Vieira de Leiria, Marinha Grande, Portugal.

Charred trees are seen on the hills above the Cloister of Thivaidas on Mount Athos, a World Heritage Site in Greece

Portugal

The thing I'm most grateful about the DW franchise for is that it has taught me how to FINALLY spell 'twelfth' correctly.