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It’s difficult to fully articulate the hold that Patrick Stewart had on audiences when TNG was airing. Between the hundreds of magazine covers, the talk show circuits, and the paparazzi nonsense, the amount of baldness puns editors were compelled to create was astounding.

It was like the media fixated on this man because he had catastrophic levels of charisma and audiences were losing their minds over him (TNG was regularly beating network shows in ratings), yet he was so far removed from the narrow Hollywood standards of beauty that it vexed and haunted these people for years.

Baldness was a joke in Hollywood. 75% of George Costanza's identity revolved around bald jokes. If you were a bald actor, you were cast as a villain or a buffoon, never the hero. And if you were losing your hair, you had to slap a wig on or risk losing your career. Yul Brynner was somewhat of an exception but he was from a much different generation of Hollywood and even Bruce Willis didn't fully shave his head until 1994 (post TNG success incidentally).

In Patrick Stewart's case, there was often an undercurrent of snide putdowns with many interviewers, drawing focus to his baldness over and over and over again with low hanging jokes. It was like you could see their vanity-based paradigms cracking in real time and it was strange to witness. Imagine how bizarre it would be if talk show hosts today could only ask The Rock, Vin Diesel, or Jason Statham about their bald heads.

But karma swooped in to the rescue. In 1992 Stewart was voted TV Guide's "Sexiest Man on Television" with a whopping 54% of votes. He beat out the likes of Luke Perry, John Corbett, A. Martinez, and even Burt Reynolds (with a total of 20 contenders).

The middle-aged bald guy in the syndicated sci-fi show beat out the hottest of the Hot Guys™️ and it wasn't even remotely close.

^ Bald joke

So yeah, today he's an old, revered thespian who is occasionally Charles Xavier, but not only did Patrick Stewart pave the way for other bald actors to be considered leading men, he discombobulated Hollywood with his unconventional attractiveness and it was amazing.

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Things will never work out the way you expect you can’t stay in paralysis waiting for the right moment forever or you will experience nothing. Keep it moving and remember not knowing how things will go is part of the excitement of living

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CONCLAVE (2024) dir. Edward Berger

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funny thing, the senator danced with a jedi all night during the senate ball.... they must be really good friends.

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"you can use ai to improve spelling and grammar"

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after seeing a great post by @abathroomwallfreshlypaintedover about why nicky and joe feel different in the old guard 2 i haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, especially as it relates to nicky (because he’s my favourite guy ever actually)

i’ve gone into detail (in this post) about how the contrast of nicky’s softness with his deadliness and insane skill is what makes him such a fucking incredible character, and after their post about how the sequel hardened nicky and joe’s edges a bit, leaning more into the traditional masculinity they (especially nicky) never really displayed in the first movie, it just stands out so starkly to me.

yes, queer men can be traditionally masculine! the issue is not that the movie shows queer men who like cars and act like bros and face danger while laughing. it’s that the first movie established that nicky and joe are not those queer men.

in the first movie nicky is consistently soft spoken, and the traits at the forefront of his portrayal are his kindness, compassion and gentleness. that is what the first movie felt most important in establishing who this man was. and while it isn’t an issue to see a sillier, louder side to him, that being the forefront of what we see of him in the sequel feels odd in comparison. the nicky in the first movie wouldn’t laugh at joe’s severed thumb without at least a moment of concern. the nicky and joe of the first movie wouldn’t give two shits about the car they drove (do you seriously think these grandpas are up to speed - pun intended - with all that?). and while I think the argument IS in character, the movie could’ve better emphasised the root of nicky’s upset being joe’s lie rather than booker’s betrayal, and show joe going to great lengths to make nicky see how sorry he is, just as he’d gone to great lengths to let the world know how he loved him. that extra layer of deep compassion and care that characterises everything about them last time felt stripped away.

on my second watch when it got to their little moment and nicky says ‘parla’ i realised that this was the moment it clicked that he felt different during the first half of the film. because i watched this moment and saw the smile he gave nile at the original family dinner. the smile he gave joe when he said meeting him was destiny. i watched nicky ask joe to talk to him and thought ‘there he is. that’s the nicky i knew.’ that’s what made me realise he was missing in the first place (well not missing, more like filtered)

nicolò di genova is not a typical action hero. he’s thoughtful and compassionate and he likes to cook and read. he isn’t hench or unemotional or an asshole. he’s kinda weird and awkward, he doesn’t fill silences or speak without reason and he stares at anything and everything with those big round eyes. he is not a masculine hero in a traditional sense, and this does not compromise his skill and awesomeness.

his softness is his strength. the fact that after so long he can still find the will to be gentle and loving is what makes him so special. that is a choice, that is something that defines him as a person. and while it was still there in pieces, the sequel shifted him more towards a traditional masculinity he has never been shown to align with.

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The Old Guard (2020) // The Old Guard 2 (2025)

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first couple ever + textposts

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i find it funny (in a loving way) that joe and nicky had their first fight in like a century or two and nicky is already in tears before they even start

both of them actually acting like they’re legally required to get a divorce now or something

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the single most unrealistic thing about the old guard 2 is that nile freeman didn't look tuah right in the eye with the most unimpressed look mankind has ever seen and said "like the fucking app?" when he told them the villain's name is discord

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Veronica Ngô as Quỳnh in THE OLD GUARD 2 (2025)

In Vietnamese, while the speaker is talking/arguing with their partner and suddenly switches to pronouns pair: tao (first person, gender neutral) and mày (third person, gender neutral), this often signals as an unofficial breakup, or the relationship is now on thin ice at best.

TLDR: Category-7749-divorce-incoming pronouns

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guys who invented love + textposts pt2

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plants that look like they're dying immediately after you forget to water them one (1) time but also recover immediately after you do are my best friends actually. very clear signals, hold no grudges, that's a relationship that works for me

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gift for @anchovy-attack-survivor <3

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I just realised that Viktor’s herald staff is the same shape as Jayce’s crystal rune. How do I even begin to quantify the levels of faggotry here without mentioning the blue blanket that Viktor wears as his shawl, which also comes from Jayce bedroom, and was what Jayce wore in the drawing he made of himself as a child where he was a hero. Can anyone hear me.

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I think what a lot of white people who follow this blog do not understand is that existing as black in a public sphere automatically comes with the knowledge that people will be horrifically, overtly racist to you with very little if any consequence, and that no one will even think about it until you point it out or unless you put your pain on display in a satisfactory enough manner that they choose to allow you your tears.

I was talking to boyf about how simply existing as black on tumblr, when I am active I get at minimum 3 racist rants and/or "nigger" messages to my askbox every single day, and I have been on tumblr since 2012. You learn to block and move on because posting them with a witty retort usually nets you like 5 more, but because I usually just block and move on... it doesn't get shown in public on here.

I've seen my black followers and mutuals mention this same problem- nonblack and especially white people who follow along, did you know? Did you know that all of your favorite black creators and social media presences are also most likely dealing with the same thing? A constant barrage of racism every day they choose to sign in?

Or was that something that only registered to you as a risk, and not as a reality?