freshmandarin

[freshmandarin]

"It's a dog!"

"Yeah, he's not even a very good one. But he's out there alone, and probably scared."

[freshmandarin]

what'd you think of superman?

i REALLY enjoyed it! i was talking about this with my brother after we got out of the theatre, and i think what i liked most about the movie was that it didn't take itself too seriously, but it DID take itself sincerely. i feel like a lot of modern superhero movies are practically tripping over themselves trying to apologize to the audience for the fact that they're a superhero movie. almost as though the writers are constantly winking to the audience, like, "yeah, we know it's ridiculous, but bear with us!! we'll give you a funny quip and big cool action scene to make up for all this nonsense!" and that always just. makes me care less? like, if you think it's stupid, and if you're not willing to let the characters experience anything without undercutting everything with a joke, and everything leads to a giant bland cgi battle...why the fuck should i care?

and superman didn't do that. superman was like, this is a comic book movie! there's a flying dog! superman has a barrage of robot butlers to take care of him in his ice castle! there's an army of rabid monkeys spewing hatred online! the green lantern has a stupid haircut! jimmy olson is a fuckboy with girls falling all over themselves at the v sight of his dorky little self! but also, superman CARES about what he's doing, and he CARES about how he's being portrayed, and he CARES about trying to help those around him, even sometimes the people or creatures he's fighting, and it's not EMBARRASSING to care! it's not a bad thing to get heated in a political argument! it's not a bad thing to try! the choices you make MATTER!

it was fun AND it had a good message AND it actually looked good. everyone took the story SINCERELY, and that's what made all the difference.

[freshmandarin]

"You trust everyone, and think everyone you've ever met is beautiful" "Maybe that's the real punkrock"

YESSSS!!!! BEING KIND IS PUNK!!!! WE ARE SO BACK!!

[freshmandarin]

This Superman is such a sweetie. He’s kind to the robots. He makes his girlfriend breakfast for dinner. He pretends he doesn’t care what social media thinks of him but gets genuinely upset over juvenile name calling. He tortured a despot with a cactus but the spines “weren’t that big.” He tries to capture the giant monster alive. He loves people and does his best to help them and he’s not an idiot he knows people are complicated, but he’s genuinely heartbroken when they turn on him. The idea of him having a harem is utterly ridiculous. He loses it over a pain-in-the-ass dog. He makes fun of the despot for pissing his pants. He wept at seeing an innocent man murdered. His open devastation over Mali’s murder is part of what brings Metamorpho to take the risk of helping him. He saves that weird baby. He saves a squirrel. He not only would not fuck his clone, he killed him. He makes that shithead Lex cry. His flirting with Lois is so swagless and unsubtle that her boss immediately clocks that they’re together. He loves his parents. He’s good all the way down, not because he was born that way but because he chooses to be.

[freshmandarin]

and when he was doing all he could to find a way to capture the huge alien alive instead of kill it!!! like the casual world building and character development in that single bit

many times in the new movie, clark says something to the effect of "i want to be a good person, i want to do good" and it's just. god. such a deeply common desire, one that could sound childish or naive if he didn't seem so desperately adamant about it. it's what i've always appreciated about the superman comics (and other superheroes, to be fair), the idea that most people, maybe all people, wake up every day and, despite everything that's out of their control, they try their best to do what they think is right.

clark is honestly flying blind a lot of the time. he fights with lois, he's always in trouble at work, he's a superhuman hero with problems that keep getting harder to fight. and yet he finds time to surprise lois for a 3 month anniversary, he makes friends with his falafel cart guy, he takes the time to save squirrels and, after battles, he always turns to the citizens, the children, before the cameras.

james gunn's (and david corenswet's!) superman could easily feel overly idealistic, but it's clear that his "goodness" is not a thing he is flippant about or takes lightly. he's a superhero reporter, he spends half of his days fighting evil and the other half writing about it, he's not unaware. he is hopeful and kind in the face of really scary shit because he knows that that is what being good is. he's an alien with super strength and laser eyes and yet he feels so relatable and deeply inspirational. bc at the end of the day, what is superman?

as always, he's a friend. :)

[freshmandarin]

My favourite thing about the new Superman movie is how incredibly human Clark is. Even as Superman. Watching him get frustrated at Lois’s questions, unable to use reason to explain his actions even when he knows she’s on his side, him losing it over Krypto (very John Wick) of all things… this is someone who was brought up entirely on planet earth. He’s human. He gets affected by every major and minor aspect of his life. You can see his desperate carefulness with everything he does and you can see the Kansas parents in him very evidently. I found his personality to be a very very verrrrry good choice for this iteration of his character.

[freshmandarin]

everyone please shut up dumai and glorian never met. they were sisters who never met someone please hold me

[freshmandarin]

Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals

[freshmandarin]

I saw a supercorp kiss video floating around a week ago and I just really need to make clear here: fanfiction and fanart may be fair game, but deepfaking the likeness of REAL people (the actresses) without their consent is NOT. Like let’s draw a line.

[freshmandarin]

Weeping Willow, 1919, Claude Monet

[freshmandarin]

They’re so married.

[freshmandarin]

Princess Wand

[freshmandarin]

Dragon Princess 🐉🗡️

[freshmandarin]

from Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, 2022

[freshmandarin]

Marcel and Nana Connie. 

[freshmandarin]

[freshmandarin]

frieren | sousou no frieren 1.23 - “conquering the labyrinth”