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timestamp roulette + 7k celebration ↳ companion (2025) for @compnion

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– JOE & NICKY in THE OLD GUARD (2020-) –

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One day I woke up and everybody knew what a labubu was

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you know, the king is affected by monarchy too, imagine having to grow up being told you're God's special little boy and how much that would destroy your heart and mind. we should spend all our time talking about this and not the latest crushed peasant revolt

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every time a fandom dumbs down a very interesting nurodivergent character to “stupid dumb dumb child infant who’s smol and innocent and needs protection bc he’s just a baby” an angel fucking dies btw

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@non-un-topo we manifested this

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"How did the person who wrote that text know about the birthmark prophecy before Nile was even born?" < The writing is bad.

"Why didn't Discord and Tuah retrieve Quynh right away if they were there when she was locked in the iron maiden?" < The writing is bad.

"Why didn't The Guard dream about Discord? Why didn't Joe, Nicky, Booker and Nile dream about Tuah?" < The writing is bad.

"Why did Discord and Lykon lose their immortality if Nile didn't cut them?" < The writing is bad.

"Why did the stab wound Nile gave Andy in the first film heal right away, when the cut Nile gave Booker didn't?" < The writing is bad.

"Why didn't Tuah just tell Nile what Booker was trying to do?" < The writing is bad.

"Why didn't Discord just take Booker's immortality from him since he was willing? Why is she trying to take everyone's immortality as if she can have extra immortality somehow?" < The writing is bad.

"Why -"

Listen. The answer to every single question about this film's nonsensical plot is:

The. Writing. Is. BAD.

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me:

my brain: I have. The one and only. 24 carat gold LABËW BËW

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debated reblogging one of the many booker posts but nah I'm gonna do my own that isn't a joke for once

is the exile morally justified?

does it have to be? from the perspective of the people who were hurt, andy, nicky and joe, this guy betrayed their most important secret to someone with the intent of getting them forever killed, presuming for all of them that they wanted that. they aren't coming at it from a moral point of view and they're not trying to heal booker, they're coming at it from a "we can't be around you right now" point of view. And based on how many people in this fandom have blocked each other over pettier shit than being sold out to an evil pharmaceutical corporation, I know most of you get that feeling. which isn't even getting into all three of them having lived through centuries in which crime & punishment had nothing to do with rehabilitation. since they all chose to use their immortality to be mercenaries, I have my doubts they read foucault.

is booker in character

yes

what's the---

okay, fine. so the big problem with movie 2 in my opinion is that movie 1 ends with both protagonists, nile and andy, having completed opposing character arcs. andy has learned to have faith in her mission despite losing immortality; nile has learned to let go of the things she used to have faith in and join the mission after becoming immortal. They're foils for each other. it's neat. even if it does accidentally have nile end up going from "I don't want to kill people" to "I will kill a whole bunch of people to save three guys who can't die".

the problem this leaves for movie 2 is that nile and andy have experienced their growth. they don't get new arcs. the person who does get an arc is quynh, but she isn't situated as a protagonist, she's like a secondary antagonist? which, her being the one to get an arc could work as a plot if she were the one holding the reins, but since we have discord running things, quynh doesn't really have enough screen time to be the main character. andy does, but she doesn't really grow or change in this movie. nile has neither, which sucks.

my theory is that at some point back when this script originated, the idea was to follow quynh and booker way more closely and give them the dueling character arcs (or maybe that is just what I wish the original script had been). bc quynh starts from a place of hope (did andy talk about me, why didn't she search for me) and goes to a place of despair (humanity is worthless) back to hope (reconciling with andy), while booker goes from a place of despair (6-month bender in paris) to a brief flutter of hope when he tells quynh about andy to...nothing?

we left booker in part 1 being punished for betraying the team to meet his own selfish ends (depression is a selfish creature). he seems accepting of this punishment , but clearly doesn't deal with it well from there on in. the movie briefly implies he respects andy and her mission while he's talking to quynh, but when he's reunited with the group, he treats them with the same disrespect he did before by alienating them and using nile to commit suicide.

this is incredibly jarring not because it's out of character but because we the audience do not expect characters to remain static when they are sympathetic characters doing bad things. the reason booker's behavior strikes us as ooc is not because it's not inkeeping with his established traits and desires, it's because it's not how we're used to scripts being written.

what's the problem with the booker plot then?

it doesn't go anywhere. it's a screenwriting dead end with the worst possible implications. if quynh and booker had been given full arcs in this movie and they did duel like andy and nile's did, booker could still have done what he did, but we would have gotten much more of booker tentatively reuniting with the team, indicating progress in his mental health, having them hash out whether exile really was the right call for him (even if it was the necessary call for them). then tuah revealing nile's super secret immortality destroying power and him taking advantage of it would be an epic betrayal meant to split the team apart. seeing andy and the others' reaction to it would cause quynh to abandon her search for revenge bc she might not care about humanity but she cares about these people. tbh this would be incredibly devastating BECAUSE of how realistic it is for people who are suicidal to seem improved, happy even, shortly before killing themselves. It would also set tuah up for a heel turn and him and discord as the villains of a hypothetical third movie.

that would make sense on a narrative level and wouldn't leave us with a story that implies receiving no help for suicidal ideation is fine actually because you can die a hero's death saving no one and also your friends won't mind you used them to kill yourself.

unfortunately it is not the script they wrote. they wrote an entirely senseless death scene (both on a narrative level because if you just gave andy back her immortality why die for her and on a moral level because you just implied suicide is good, actually) and used the cinematography of a heroic sacrifice. that in turn makes everything that came before it that could have been poignant and meaningful vanish.

is it okay to cut people from your life who need help when they hurt and endanger you?

can you help someone who is so far in their own misery all they do is hurt and endanger you?

is it your moral duty to offer that help even when you are the one being wronged?

how do you live with being used as a tool for someone else's wish to die?

what does family mean when family treats you this way?

all good questions this movie could have addressed but chose not to.

tl;dr: booker's characterization is consistent but that doesn't make it good; booker's punishment in movie one isn't about him and a script not focused on shoehorning in the three days of filming uma thurman gave them would have delved into the ramifications of that

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It is easier to stay in this abusive relationship than fix the problems it has created. — Kait Rokowski

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i love the 😌 and 😔 emojis so much because they convey such specific emotions, but also those emotions are absolutely not "relieved" and "pensive"

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The mind suffers, and the body cries out…

ANDOR S02E08 | Who Are You?

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I AM NOT INTERESTED IN LIVING A LIFE WHERE I COWER AWAY FROM BEAUTY OR GOODNESS BECAUSE OF THE POTENTIAL TO BE HURT. I AM BARRELING TOWARD IT. LIFE IS GOING TO CRACK ME OPEN LIKE A PIÑATA AND I AM GOING TO LET IT.

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The more I think about it what’s so hard for Joe is that last time one of them was exiled it wasn’t by choice. Quynh was taken from them, and it wrecked them. They’ve all had to struggle and come to terms with that—imagining her horror and torture while living in near constant guilt and grief.

They cast out Booker by choice, and once the anger burned off, he started to really think about what that meant for them and for Booker. And it wasn’t good. As a depressed alcoholic, the last thing he needed was to be alone. Joe was providing that support as best he could, and I love that about him.