alethianightsong

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Like girl, I don't care if it's healthy. The baby's dad has a habit of ripping off heads. Nope, nope nope nope

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this on a deep level

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HEREDITARY is on TUBI and I watched it. My two cents are...

Steve had the most agency in the movie in my opinion. If he had just taken Peter and driven out of the movie, then maybe he and Peter would be fine. Or if Annie had completed the murder of her own kids years ago. Of course, Steve loves his wife and would never abandon her while Annie loves her kids and would never consciously hurt them. Ellen COUNTED on that underlying love to keep everyone in place for the possession ritual. If Peter feared his mother just a little more than he loved her, then he might've run away the night his mother had her outburst at dinner and fucked up his grandma's plans. If there was a little less love going around, then there'd be less grief holding everyone in their predestined roles.

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I saw 28 Years Later. Light spoilers (sprinkle of spoilers really)

If I had a nickel every time Aaron Taylor Johnson had to care for a sick wife in a role, I'd have 2 nickels.

Jack O'Connell appears for 10 seconds at the very end so go home, fangirls.

Edvin Ryding plays a dick for 5 minutes then gets killed offscreen.

I thought Ralph Fiennes would be evil like all his previous roles but he's chill and very nice as a doctor. If tea was still around, he'd probably offer some to Spike and Isla.

I totally forgot that the placenta serves a real purpose in pregnancy cuz I flush mine out every month. It kept the baby from getting infected with the rage virus in utero.

The true horror of the rage virus is that the surviving Brits on the mainland will never taste fresh tea again lol

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I had a good time at the protest. Talked to lots of interesting people.

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Do I love him or do I love to bully him?

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I'm 5 episodes into Alfred J. Kwak and so far, this poor duck has had his home destroyed by greedy capitalists, had his family murdered by the same capitalists, and now kid Hitler is bullying him for being adopted. There is so much going on but somehow it doesn't feel cramped or rushed. I'm 25 and am way too invested in this Dutch duck.

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"shenaniganery" is my new favorite word and I need everyone to know it

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Someone pointed out that Hawaii has some of the best marine biology courses so making Nani go to the mainland for college now makes extra zero sense. Just -10 sense

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"I will cast abominable filth upon you, make you vile, and make you a spectacle." -random Bible verse

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Assuming 28 Weeks Later's ending is still considered canon...

How the heck did the mainland push back the virus? The virus got to Paris, a city of 2 million with a metropolitan area of 12million+. The French government would have to carpet-bomb the main city and surrounding areas for hours on end. The Parisian catacombs would be havens for the infected to hide out in. Lots of innocents would get caught up in the bombing of course but considering that the virus needs just 5 seconds to turn a host, that collateral would be justified. I'm not familiar with France's geography or military but I need a spinoff comic or 20-minute short film about that. Give me an ordinary French citizen with 12 hours to evacuate Paris before shit hits the fan.

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What if Remmick was once like Sammi? We know he can sing, dance, and play instruments so maybe he could commune with his people's ancestors and descendants too until a Christian vampire invaded and turned him, suppressing his Irish identity until his sire was killed or he killed him? It's heavily implied in the film that only the living can commune with ancestors and descendants via music, but maybe Remmick was a novice when he was turned so he never got the memo. Maybe in an AU he does turn Sammi only to realize that you have to ALIVE to be the link to the past, so while Sammi can still sing and play guitar, his performances are just like Remmick's where they're still good but lack the spiritual power to summon ancestors. That would be such a sweet irony. Remmick's been alive so long that he forgot what it's like to have your identity and ancestral connection forcibly taken from you and just repeats that trauma on the Juke Joint patrons without thinking. Sammi's playing and playing every night, trying to capture that feeling like what he had at Club Juke, but he can never transcend time again, never feel the echoes of those who came before and come after.

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My prediction for the season 5 finale

The Yellowjackets have spent the past 4 seasons trying to keep what they did in the wilderness a secret. Society knows they committed cannibalism to survive (suburban girls with no wilderness training would've definitely ate a person or 2 to survive two Canadian winters) but not the revelry, ritual, and rites that went along with their cannibalism. They weren't patiently waiting for one of their own to die to eat them; they were hunting each other, killing each other, enjoying the taste of human flesh and attaching spiritual significance to it.

Somehow, someway, the real story gets out to the media (Melissa chooses mutually assured destruction). The whole thing from the eating of Jackie to the death of Javi to the captivity, torture, and killing of a grown man made crippled by one of the girls he taught. The willful murder of innocent researchers out of shame and fear of their cannibalism getting discovered. The "game" they made out of picking and choosing who got hunted and killed next.

Now fugitives on the run, Misty confesses that she was the one who destroyed the black box and accidentally killed Crystal. With nothing to lose and nothing to look forward to but life in prison or a psych war, the Yellowjackets agree to have one final hunt. And Misty's the prey.

Just like how the girls imagined themselves at a sumptuous feast to cope with consuming Jackie, they imagine themselves as wood nymphs playing a harmless game of tag in the summer woods but in reality, they're chasing down Misty and Misty lets herself be caught and killed. The police find the adult Yellowjackets feasting on Misty's raw flesh (or maybe seated around a fire gnawing on her bones) and they all keel over dead cuz Misty had the forethought to poison her flesh with the same syringe she killed Nat with. The final scene is all the Yellowjackets (the dead ones from the plane, the plane survivors, the wilderness survivors) all together again on the plane arriving at Seattle which is really the afterlife.

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The "Yellowjackets" have a lot in common with real life honeybees

Coach Martinez said that Jackie has "influence" but in the wilderness, she's completely useless. In a bee colony, the queen bee only has one job (lay eggs) but her pheromones keep the other bees working and unified. As she nears her death, her pheromones dry up which triggers the worker bees to create special cells to grow new queen bees. If a queen bee hatches first, she will kill her sister bees before they hatch or if two hatch at the same time, they will fight to the death. Now apply all that to Jackie Taylor, Nat, and Shauna.

While alive, Jackie was useless but she still kept her team cohesive from sheer presence alone. As winter draws near, Jackie loses all influence until she freezes to death and her "hive" is left leaderless and two of the "drones" (Javi and Coach Scott) are driven out or left to die. Come spring, two "queens" have emerged (Nat & Shauna) and Shauna is proving to be very homicidal HOWEVER Nat has the influence that Jackie did so she rescues her "hive" while Shauna would've just stung everyone to death (I'm taking this bee metaphor really far I know). Fast forward to present day and Nat is dead while Shauna is very much alive and wants to rekindle that time in her life when she was "queen." Remember what I said about newly emerged queens killing their sister bees?

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The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire! We don't need no water, let the motherfucker burn! But seriously, plantations were just forced labor camps full of casual violence and trauma. The Germans didn't rebrand Auschwitz as "Auschwitz Resort & Venue" but because plantation houses are pretty, I'm supposed to forget the blood and sweat of enslaved people that went into making and maintaining it. The Whitney Plantation is better because it's a nonprofit museum instead of whitewashing all the trauma that went into maintaining the rich lifestyles of Southern belles and gentlemen. As a black woman, it's hella weird to me when white people go "I know this place was the site of a lotta rape, tragedy, and torture but like, the Big House is so pretty so I'm having my wedding there." Sure, bitch. Just stroll around the plantation grounds (which probably contain the unmarked graves of countless enslaved people) and take your wedding photos. I hope your marriage falls through.

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I've been thinking about how ridiculous the Yunkish soldiers are and then it hit me: Yunkai and Astapor haven't been to war in centuries.

It's been a while since I've read ADWD part 2 but I know that the army had a rotating roster of enslavers and they all had a gimmick. Some kept their soldiers chained together, one guy had soldiers on stilts, and one had half-naked soldiers with erotic shields. It's a ridiculous pageant that would quickly fall apart when faced with real combat. I kept wondering if the Yunkai'i and Astapori were that stupid until it hit me that they've been letting the Unsullied do most of their fighting for the past few centuries and probably use enslaved Unsullied generals who went with Dany. Yes, they have a few thousand enslaved soldiers defending their walls but I don't think they've been on the offensive since Valyria conquered them. They have no real experience with how combatants should dress or be equipped and since they're entitled slavers, they're not gonna stoop to asking one of their enslaved soldiers if they're waging war correctly. The sellsword companies they hired to fight for them must be annoyed as hell cuz they're professional killers being dictated to by squabbling rich idiots who are dressing their enslaved soldiers in the Essos equivalent of clown costumes. Which brings me to how I think Barristan Selmy will win the battle outside of Meereen. The slavers' army is a mix of mercenaries and gimmicky slave soldiers that are definitely going to trip up the sellswords, assuming they don't say "Screw it" and start cleaving their way through their own allies so they can fight without fools underfoot. Predictably, the Wise Masters will bemoan their "destroyed property" and demand reparations but the sellswords will all switch to Dany's side once she returns cuz their current employers are fucking ridiculous.