slf

I'll be honest, I'm more than a little annoyed that when they chose to make a #MeToo movie (which is essentially what this is) they chose to make it about these women. Also, "Bombshell"? 🤢

I've always thought Phoebe's most overrated personality trait was her quirkiness. Most of it was not funny or cute. I thought her best quality - at least during the first few seasons - was her kindness. There were times when she was so sweet and supportive of her friends. Chandler's most overrated trait is his intellect. I just didn't feel like he was so much smarter than everyone except Joey and Phoebe. He was always positioned as the Smart One, alongside Ross, but he always seemed average for his background.

Just because celibacy wasn't a rule doesn't mean it wasn't a common practice. People often end up developing feelings for someone they have a sexual relationship with and that's something a Jedi would have to contend with. As is getting pregnant; obviously the Jedi would have to give up their child, and if said child was themself force-sensitive there's no way their parent could be their Master. So I can see most Jedi choosing to abstain from sex altogether, or it being very uncommon except for the highly emotionally controlled/repressed ones. And it's always a possibility that Obi-Wan could have fathered a child without being aware of it. To me, that makes a lot more sense than Rey somehow being Leia and Han's child or Luke's child without any of them being aware of it (or being aware but pretending otherwise for some reason) and Rey not remembering because her memories were wiped away with the Force. And I just like it better, narrative-wise, than her being a Palpatine and everything having been Palpatine pulling strings behind the scenes. But to each their own.

The Jedi are not a celibate order. AFAIK that is not stated in any of the films. They were never meant to be seen as such, either; George Lucas has weighed in on this before, the Jedi can fuck but not marry. Catching feelings is a no-no. As to whether Obi-Wan would ever, that's a matter of opinion. I think he would, under the right circumstances. And in at least one of the shows he did have a love interest who he considered giving up the order to be with.

There really did seem to be plenty of parallells between Rey/Obi-wan and Kylo/Anakin. Hell, they could have still done Palpatine!Lives with Rey being a Kenobi (tho I still think having a traditional Big Bad was unnecessary, that Kylo Ren, Rey's own pull to the Dark, and the First Order were enough obstacles to overcome in the finale). It would have made more sense.

For all that Abrams didn't like TLJ he should be grateful to Rian Johnson because at no point since TFA came out have I seen so many people say such nice things about it. When that movie was released people lost it. "He killed Han Solo. Why is the lead character a fucking girl?! And why is she so strong? Luke had to train for 55 years and 19 movies until he became powerful enough to fight another force user, this dumb bitch was able to take on a Luke Sywalker-trained Sith about 48 hours after getting her hands on a lightsaber?! And Kylo Ren is an emo bitch baby, this is really the big bad? And Han and Leia's son? Why does that gross girl get the Falcon? This black guy being here is just pandering, this whole movie is just PC pandering! Snoke looks really stupid, just really truly stupid. And also? You know what? Fuck Abrams for baiting us then not giving us Luke until the very end! That's so disrespectful to us and Luke and Mark Hamill and baby Jesus." All of a sudden, TFA was an extremely well-received movie and Abrams probably left some map behind Johnson most definitely should have followed because then ROS would make sense. On a different note, TFA made me think that if they were going to make Rey descended from someone known then they were going to do Rey Kenobi not Rey Palpatine.

I don't agree that Rian not expanding on every story point from TFA is the same as trying to retcon the whole movie which is what Abrams was transparently trying to do with this movie. Considering the sheer amount of material Abrams stuffed into the first film (Luke disappearing, the destruction of the Jedi temple, Kylo Ren being Han and Leia's son, Rey's mysterious parentage, Rey's inexplicable force abilities, Han's death, Finn defecting from the First Order, Poe representing the Resistance but ultimately in an undefined way (it's not clear at the end of TFA what his role will be going forward other than 'hotshot pilot') what the fuck's a Snoke, Kylo Ren wanting Rey to join him, Han and Leia's destroyed marriage, etc.) it's hardly surprising Johnson didn't expand on every single thing. Or couldn't, honestly, considering how mnay important story lines needed to be advanced in the second film (literally everything with Luke, Kylo Ren increasingly pulling back from Snoke before turning on him, etc.). And some things couldn't be expanded on in a satisfactory way, like Luke leaving a piece of the map when he supposedly didn't want to be found. The only reason that's even there is because Abrams sometimes falls back on a (boring and time consuming) video game-like 'collect the objects' quest whenever he wants to push the narrative forward but doesn't know how. That was one of the dumbest parts of TFA and there's a similar quest narrative in the first half of TROS that kind of weighs it down. Johnson resolved that 'plot point' as well as anyone could, imo: Luke was very conflicted, even moreso when faced with someone with such a strong force ability and reminded him a little too much of his nephew. I didn't walk away from TLJ with the sense that Johnson hated TFA and was trying to retcon as much as possible. I think he was trying to open up the story in a way that didn't rely on so many tropes or just nostalgia. Watching TROS was a very different experience. Honestly, if there had been a title card that read, And Oh Yeah, Fuck You Rian Johnson I would not have been surprised. Now, that clearly worked for some fans but it just seems really childish and, imo, lead to the film being hugely overstuffed and clunky in the first hour or so.

Yeah, Palpatine realized that Rey and Ben were strong enough that if he drained them both he could "come back" rather than live through Rey, basically.

Damn, Abrams. Didn't have the balls to just cut out Rose entirely but clearly had no interest in actually utilizing the character either. Rey Palpatine makes zero sense and I despise that Abrams walked back the reveal about Rey's parentage. Dynastic bloodlines will forever rule in SW, apparently. Rey killed Ben! No, she healed him with the force! Palpatine killed Rey! No, Ben healed her with the force! Yikes. What a hack move. I was waiting for Rey to rerevive Ben at the end, is how ridiculous it was. Abrams needed to put on his big boy pants and work with what he inherited, just like Johnson did. Instead he tried to turn this into a fix it movie and it didn't work. The big lightsaber duel was exactly as good as people are saying, tho, that has to be said. And the actors really did give it their all. I know some people had issues with Leia's lines being so generic but there was nothing that could be done. Fisher is gone and recasting Leia was out of the question. I didn't have any problems with her scenes.

If there's one thing I hated when I watched this show it was when classically trained dancers were struggling with other styles but would be praised more than, say, hip hop or self-trained dancers who also struggled with other styles but not moreso. And sometimes there would be comments about how the classically trained dancers must be so uncomfortable in this different style, wow, how impressive of them to try so hard! But then, again, dancers from less respected styles weren't given the same props. Nigel really is such a snotty little shit.

Thank you! For me now, it's less about the loss of that friendship and more about the expectation others have that I will reach out and fix things that bothers me. I've watched people in my family, immediate and extended, endure very crappy dynamics and suffer a lot of insults and offenses only to keep engaging because that's family, you're supposed to keep contact no matter what. And I have never gotten that mindset, at all. If A is going to keep being that kind of person then I'm happy to keep doing my own thing, tbh.

Ian Somerhalder is terrible. He can't ham it up like he did on TVD so, absent his very limited bag of tricks, he just stares blankly and occassionally quirks his eyebrows in a subdued way. It's like watching Boone all over again. They really should have cast someone else. Adrian Holmes was more engaging. Overall, possibly the most boring show about vampires I've seen since Blood Ties.

This is going to be long, is more of a release rather than advice seeking but I'm open to people's opinions. It's about to be the third year anniversary of when I stopped speaking to my sibling, A. My mother would prefer I have some sort of contact with them but, while I find myself occassionally missing who I thought they were, I'm not willing to reach out. There were several big blowups during the last two years of our friendship. One was because when A came over with their family to pick up our mother I left the living room halfway through the five minute visit. (This was not some once-in-a-blue-moon visit; we saw each other all the time and spoke on the phone almost every day.) I did so because my elderly cat was becoming very anxious around the children and had begun puffing up and shedding like crazy (their very high-pitched voices and yelling were frightening him) so I took him to another room and settled him. A came into the room, visibly annoyed, to tell me they were leaving. The next day I called A and they didn't answer. No big deal. So I called the next day and still didn't get a reply. This went on for a week. The cold shoulder, then. Finally I got an email from A which was extremely odd because we only emailed each other maybe two dozen times over the course of a decade- we always communicated by phone or face to face. The email was some high-strung "HOW DARE YOU disrespect me and my spouse by being so rude" mess that they walked back after I unloaded on them and within a few weeks everything was relatively back to normal. (And no I'm not kidding about their reason for ghosting me, it was over me leaving my own living room for maybe two and a half minutes.) The next and final big blowup was...something else. Just a few days before A had been calling me asking for help with course work, chatting, everything was fine. Then my mom lets me know she was sent an email (her being dragged six ways to Sunday) and cc'd on an email to me from A. Uh oh. A fucking email. It was eleven (11) paragraphs about everything in my life they had decided I was doing wrong, neatly contrasted with how they had done these same things right. The email was sent on a Friday night when A would be unavailable (truly) all weekend, ensuring A would have a three day grace period before having to deal with any response from me. I sent back an email disputing much of what they had written (which A tried to walk back without actually admitting that's what they were doing) and then said I wanted to take a few days to gather my thoughts and decide how I wanted to proceed (our family has a history of saying things we don't mean and that only make things worse and that's an impluse I was fighting hard against). This set them off and they responded, "I guess we can't be friends anymore." Less than two weeks later our mother was hit by a car and we ended up at the bospital together. It was tense all around; our mother has high blood pressure, had already had a stroke, and there was concern that she might have a heart attack so she was being monitored closely. Thankfully she walked away with no major wounds tho she was banged up, had a boot on one foot, had to walk with crutches, and basically one side of her body was just bruises. Conversation was, all around, at the bare minimum. Whenever mom requested something I got it for her, A mostly sat in the corner on their phone texting. I don't say that to imply they didn't care, they were at one point researching guide dogs and this was briefly discussed. But within thirty minutes of me getting mom settled at her home, bam: texts and emails. They had been ignored again, how rude. I'll admit I lost it and told them to go fuck themself. I was completely stressed out and not into making conversation that night. Mom was doped up. Any time mom asked for something they just sat there while I got it. Later in the evening, when mom was feeling better she and A discussed all kinds of things (the changes to the town we lived in, them trying to remember the name of the movie Strays, etc). A was not ignored. In my opinion, what it came down to is A expected mom to throw open her arms and declare alls forgiven because of how close she'd come to losing her life like this was a Hallmark movie or a Very Special Episode. Like mom getting hit by a car somehow made my sibling less of an asshole. When A realized they were still gonna have to deal with the consequences of those emails they got pissed. A month later A sent me, you guessed it, another email. One line, I miss you. I'll admit, I was annoyed. A could come up with 11 paragraphs when they wanted to come at me but when it comes to acknowledging that they ended a 13 year friendship (I should clarify we were not close when we lived at home together and became friends as adults) because I said I wanted to take a day or two to reflect I get one little sentence. But, that friendship meant something to me so I responded back in kind. Nothing. No response email, no phone call. I was, apparently, supposed to be the one to mend what I hadn't broken. And without an apology from them. I never sent them another email. There were other things over the years (some of which I struggled with even at our closest) but those two incidents were the straws that broke the camel's back. Maybe some time down the line we could be friends again but I just don't see it and when I imagine the life I want A isn't there. I'm not willing to be a punching bag for someone who clearly thinks they are more deserving of basic decency and respect than I am. Sometimes family is just the assholes you grew up with.

I would have preferred Rory becoming more assertive and learning what she needed to be to become a reporter. I think that would have been more interesting than Rory staying in her shell and becoming a teacher. Such a huge part of Rory's relationships with her mom and grandparents was how passive she was, always going along with what they wanted. Something a lot of posters have said here over the years is that that part of Rory's personality is why she and Lorelai were so close and it would have been interesting, and telling, to see Lorelai have to parent a child as strong-willed as she was. And I agree. I think Rory evolving into someone a more assertive and confident - not extroverted and hyper like Lorelai, because plenty of reporters are personally more reserved and introverted - could have thrown a wrench into her relationship with the others. I would have rather watched that than what we got.

I don't believe that ASP ended up writing what she meant the show to be at the start. I know that there are people who think it was all intended but I agree with people who have pointed out that how she wrote Rory contradicts how she had virtually every character respond to her. I personally think she meant to write a twinkly-lit show about a hard-working single mom and her intelligent, high-achieving daughter who, while of course suffering setbacks, was ultimately supposed to be successful. But I think some issues snowballed and we ended up with what we got. ASP as a writer has a few blind spots. For one, she's willing to have characters act incredibly stupid for the sake of creating conflict because she believes that conflict drives drama. Examples include the one that starts the show off: Lorelai somehow being taken by surprise by Chilton costing an arm and a leg and having no idea how she's gonna pay for it. Like...maybe she should have thought about that before trying to get Rory in? Saved up some money? But if Lorelai had behaved remotely rationally or exhibited any common sense, no drama. Same with Rory having no idea that good grades aren't enough to get into Harvard. That makes no sense if she's been obsessed with getting in since she was a kid. Another blind spot is that ASP does not seem to think actions reflect on the characters the way fans do because their actions were just a plot device. This, imo, is the one that really snowballed and worked against the characters.

It's not, actually, considering that those are the two most widely made and known criticisms made of the show over the better part of a decade. Perhaps you should consider doing some reading on the subject, these opinions aren't uncommon. For example, just a few posts above you there's a link to an article where Emilia Clarke discusses issues she had. There's the fact that the overwhelming majority of people in the Mhysa scene were poc when in the book many are white, resulting in a scene where poc lift a white woman over their heads and devotedly call her "mother". The way the Martell story line was gutted and that house was reduced to a being a bunch of kinslaying traitors. Much of the show was set in a part of the world where a huge chunk of the population was poc and yet there was only one woc and one moc with a major role (both of whom ended up subservient to a white person). Compare that to the Westerosi characters. This wouldn't have been an issue if they hadn't done the Martells quite so dirty. The rampant nudity and pointless sex scenes they added in that put the actresses on display but didn't do the same with the men (while there were some sex scenes with the men, they weren't props; the men drove the scenes they were in, they were centered, self-actualized). Several actresses on the show have spoken out about having issues, such as Emilia Clarke and Esme Bianco. The writers' obsession with humanizing the male characters, to the point of waving off some of the worst shit they did and giving them the chance to redeem themselves and flat out omitting some of the other hideous things they did in the books (Tyrion wanted to rape Cersei in revenge) but they rarely afforded the female characters the same. The awful way they twisted the story lines for the women, such as making so much of Brienne's story about redeeming Jaimie, or making Sansa's story about learning to not be such a stupid little girl (her arc in the books is about her strength in remaining kind and compassionate to others; despite what Sasa thinks, the books take the pisition that she is quite brave, intelligent, and strong); they literally had her say she wouldn't have been able to become strong without all the awful things that happened to her. That's sick and dehumanizing.

There's a difference between arguing that something is popular and arguing that it is good. Fans are pissed because they believe, rightly in my opinion, that the quality of the show began to decline greatly once they no longer had the books to lean on for character development, dialogue, detailed plot points, etc., and that the final few seasons were bad. There are also valid complaints that they added a great deal of racism and misogyny to the show. Meritocracy has nothing to do with this.

I got super excited by this headline and the possibility of Natalie Dormer being on Killing Eve. But Gemma Whelan is always welcome so I'm not too disappointed to be wrong.

The only movie deaths that ever affected me where ones I watched as a child. Beth in Little Women (1994); I saw the movie before I read the book and had not expected a death to occur in a movie about the bond between four plucky sisters. When she's dying and says to Jo, "I'm not afraid. I can be brave like you. But I know I shall be homesick for you, even in heaven" 😭 Alice and Uncas in Last of the Mohicans; I thought the good guys were going to win, lol. Didn't expect Uncas to basically get gutted like a fish. That moment when Uncas has two awful gashes under his arms, he's bleeding heavily, and he looks at Alice and he knows he isn't going to win, that he's going to die, but he has to try anyway? Then Alice's death which is filmed incredibly well. The music in this scene is one of my favorite instrumentals from any film. Alice has such a haunting, piercing look on her face as she steps to the edge of the cliff. 8 year old me thought this was very tragic and romantic. Sarah in Rosewood; so this was traumatizing 😒 We had been learning about racial segregation and race riots in America after the Civil War and and my teacher decided to spotlight the Rosewood Massacre because the film had just come out. So going into the movie I had an idea of what would happen, even though they changed quite a bit. But still, when she opened the door, saw the mob of angry white men, and stepped out onto the porch to try to placate them all by herself I started ugly crying. She was telling the truth! She was just trying to protect her son and all the little kids inside! Then that shot, and Sylvester's "mama?" 😭😭😭I only just recently rewatched it and it turns out I knew that scene pretty much shot for shot, line for line, it's seared into my memory.

It's funny, while I'm sure there are places in Texas that are well-represented by Dallas or Friday Night Lights - our state is big af and pretty diverse, after all - I'd have to pick a show set outside Texas to represent the area I grew up in: Roseanne.

I came across a video on YT that was the former Chief of Disguise at the CIA reviewing spy disguise scenes from movies and tv shows. She was shown a scene from Alias, from I think the first episode, of Sydney disguising herself in the airport in the vibrant red wig. She said the whole scene was fantastic and that they could actually use it as a training video for agents.

Love Sophia's, "Jean is a nice person. She happens to like girls instead of guys. Some people like cats instead of dogs. Frankly, I'd rather live with a lesbian than a cat. Unless the lesbian sheds, then I don't know." Cracks me up every time.

I can see why she'd strike you as manic, tho. She's hyper a lot of the time and can be quite brash and impulsive (with a tendency to assign things greater importance than they actually have).

Lorelai doean't strike me as having bipolar disorder. She loves attention and more often than not tries to be the center of everyone's, and as @peacheslatour pointed out Lorelai has no filter, is bad with boundaries, and is insecure so she tends to overcompensate. If ASP reveals that Lorelai is neuroatypical then I'd expect something like ADHD.

I haaaate when a character repeats the same word 20 times in a sentence. It's supposed to be funny/quirky and a lot of popular tv writers and producers (like Joss Whedon) do that; I recall several such lines in BtVS that were big hits but for me it's painful to listen to. "He gave me the potato but I didn't want the potato so I tried to give him back the potato but he wouldn't take the potato and Sarah said she wanted the potato but he didn't want her to have the potato, it was a whole big potato thing." (I kinda wish there was a thread for dialogue because there are a few of these I'd love to bitch about.)