#pivotal and important this arc was for buck's character

[tevanbegins]

This is a long rant to shoot down mad BoB theories insisting that Tommy is a villain / secret spy in cahoots with Gerrard / plot device / temporary LI. The show's writers are mature adults who surely wouldn't go so out of the way to villainize a queer character? To the extent that he'd fool all the main characters into thinking he was a good guy and great for Buck for an entire season, and then start revealing his true colors in the next season? To make a beautiful storyline about queer joy blow up into flames with such a major negative plot twist? All so that Eddie can suddenly realise he is gay and he and Buck can get together? I seriously don't think a 60 year old showrunner would allow such childish nonsense to happen on his show.

I'm not saying queer characters can't play dark / negative roles — Eva's character is an example from this very show itself. But the writers always told us that she is a bad influence on Hen's life right from the start, never got us attached to her by depicting her as a great person in the beginning and then revealing later that she is bad. If Tommy was meant to be horrible for Buck, the narrative would clearly tell us that from the start the way they did with Eva and Hen. The writers cannot be so insensitive as to give the LGBTQ+ community such significant mlm representation with Buck and Tommy, first making us fall in love with their romance and then humiliating us (as well as Buck) by completely destroying Tommy's character — all to serve the end purpose of making a fanon ship go canon? That might happen in B*ddie fanfics written by teenagers, but it can't happen on a show being written for a sensible, mature audience by grown-ass career TV writers!!!

B*ddie would have happened a long time ago if the writers wanted to make it canon. They are not going to do it now, definitely not by making Tommy the scapegoat in that awful mess, just so the toxic portion of the fandom can be appeased over the rest of the audiences who appreciate the show for its thoughtful and sensitive storytelling.

Why is maligning Tommy even necessary to make B*ddie canon? Like Eddie and Buck have seen each other dating one woman after another through the seasons but only Tommy being the bad guy will suddenly lead to a feelings realisation arc? Why didn't it happen before, or why couldn't it happen without reintroducing Tommy if B*ddie canon was always the end plan? Probably because the writers aren't interested in going there at all, and Tommy is genuinely being written as a long-term LI for Buck?

Backing this argument is the fact that most of the conversations had by the other characters after Buck's coming out have not been explicitly about him now identifying as bisexual, but more about him being involved with Tommy. If Tommy was being written as a plot device or a short-term LI, I don't think the other characters (including Eddie, mind you) would be hyping him up during these conversations. The writers would have probably framed the conversations on the lines of, "Oh wow Buck you realised you're bisexual? Congratulations!" instead of "OMG you and Tommy? Tell us more / We love him for you and approve of you two together!" They wouldn't take the efforts they've been taking to make Tommy a pivotal subject of these conversations if he was just a plot device as the BoBs believe. And if he was supposed to be a villain, the other characters would have told Buck to find someone better if they thought Tommy's vibes were off. Not all of them can be foolish to not see through Tommy if he was truly as bad as BoBs say he is (especially not Bobby.) Yes, Buck's bisexuality is valid regardless of who he dates or even if he doesn't, but the fact the characters talk so positively about both him + Tommy during these convos clearly implies this is an important love story blended into the coming out arc.

If B*ddie canon was in the works, JLH and Kenny Choi wouldn't have said on their IG lives that it's not going to happen, Ryan Guzman wouldn't be referring to Eddie as heterosexual, etc. So, we cannot let the BoB comments get into our heads because they are not the ones writing the show. I think we can expect a lot better from Tim & Co. than them giving in to the delusional fantasies BoBs want to see being manifested. Wanted to say this piece because I am fed up of seeing the BoB conspiracy theories all over and don't want to give them the power to steal our joy. That's all for now!

___

[leandra-winchester]

On Oliver's social media behavior regarding Bucktommy vs. Buddie

Kind of in line with many of the good points raised by @bbbuckaroo in this ask response, but I wanted to make my own post about it.

I, too, have seen posts that prompted this ask - from more well-meaning people remarking that Oliver could/should maybe say something against the toxic Buddie shippers and promote Bucktommy more, to more critical voices saying he's essentially ship-baiting with Buddie because he keeps posting about them.

As the referenced post says, Oliver "knows how important and pivotal the Buddie FRIENDSHIP is".

So let's look at that from Oliver's (and in connection also Ryan's) point of view for a moment here.

You're an actor who's been playing one half of what is one of the most integral relationships on a very successful show. That relationship has textually always been a friendship, but with elements that make it richer and deeper than most regular friendships; it's a sort of family dynamic.

It could be read as having a potential for romance, and you're open to that, should the writers ever decide that's the direction they want to take it. You have said so multiple times, not just to appease a large group of fans, but because you genuinely mean it. You're open to it, but you don't know if it's ever going to happen, nor do you have any power over it.

You do love the way fans are celebrating this relationship though - whether they highlight the canonical platonic aspects or take it a step further. You "love the love" (as Ryan has put it). It's great, it's heartwarming, it's moving because the potential of that romance and your character figuring out he's bisexual means so much to queer fans who are looking for good queer representation (which your show already has, but there could always be a bit more, right?). You see and want to acknowledge all the creativity people pour into it.

But you're careful after a while, because, so far, that relationship has only textually been platonic, and some fans are accusing both the writers and you of queerbaiting.

So you take a step back, do less social media for a while. You don't want them to think you're confirming anything just because you see value in certain fictional interpretations of the text.

But then you are told that your character is supposed to come out as bisexual; he'll have a romance with a background character they're bringing back for a couple of episodes. While that's not exactly the relationship many of the fans hoped to get, it's still amazing. It's the right representation of bisexual characters that is very rarely done right, and it'll confirm that they always read your character correctly as bisexual. It'll be so validating to the fans to know they didn't misinterpret that, and you're very happy about that.

But you still love the family-like, platonic relationship you've built with the other character for 5 whole seasons before this. And you love the relationship your character has with his son, too. (In a way, Buck is to Christopher what Bobby is to Buck - a father figure).

You want to keep celebrating that because your new romantic relationship doesn't replace the year-long friendship with Eddie. You want to show fans that 'hey, even though this isn't exactly what you hoped for, it's still great; it's important. Eddie and Chris are still and always will be a huge part of Buck's life. Don't worry. Buck will not abandon them. I still see you and acknowledge you, but let's focus on the textual friendship and platonic love here. Which is also very, very important, and very dear to me personally."

And there isn't that much to share about a romantic relationship that's just begun yet anyway, especially with the season being so short and packed with multiple story arcs around the main characters. It's all still at the start, and while it's great, exciting and has the potential to become something lasting, nothing's set in stone yet. You probably also don't want to have people get their hopes up that Bucktommy is 'confirmed' as endgame; and you don't want to put a main character who has his own, very complex story arc going on this season on the backburner.

You've obviously 'done it wrong'. But no matter how else you could have done it, it would have been wrong as well. You probably know this by now, because no matter what you did in the past, there were always people who interpreted your actions and words in bad faith to confirm their own agenda.

So what the hell are you supposed to do other than what feels good to you while applying a little bit of caution?

---

Oliver CANNOT get it right. It's simply impossible. If he didn't post at all, some fans would be mad that he doesn't say anything. If he only or primarily promoted Bucktommy, they'd be mad that he ignores Eddie and Chris entirely. If he only promoted Buddie (platonic) and Chris, they'd be mad that he's ship baiting. And if he goes for the balance of putting his character's 6-year history with Eddie+Chris and the newly developing romance with Tommy in perspective, i.e. what he's doing right now, they're still mad.

In any potential scenario, the loud and obnoxiously entitled portion of the fandom would find a reason to criticize. It really does not matter what he does.

So, where does that leave us? Personally, I'd say leave the man alone. Let him post and say what he feels is best, and don't try to look at it under any 'bad faith' lens. He's probably given it sufficient thought and does what he thinks is best and feels right.

[haven-of-dusk]

Admittedly, I'm using my babies to segue into a related topic, but ah, HSMTMTS did not have a love triangle. In fact, unless you're willing to canonize headcannons like EJ being gay and down bad for Ricky like I am, it never did in all four seasons. A love triangle implies three sides. Even at its maximum number of points in the shape, HSMTMTS had a love...constellation? I think? Ricky and EJ both had arrows pointing to Nini, who had an arrow pointing to Ricky, and Ricky had an additional arrow of Gina pointing to him. At most, if you wanted to argue EJ also pointing an arrow to Gina, then it would become a love diamond. However...

Once Nini left, it was a love...corner. At least according to what the show told us, Ricky and EJ were both pointed at Gina, and Gina's arrow just pivoted from one to the other by the end of the season. A true love TRIANGLE would be if at least one of the boys was in love with the other, and Gina happened to be in love with that point of the trio.

Is this semantic complaining? Maybe, but especially with teases like the GIF above, can you blame me for being peeved at Tim just expecting the world to see Ricky and EJ as straight men with the one love interest? He dangled a golden opportunity to buck decades of stereotypes and standards in front of his own nose, and then chose to ignore it in favor of a bog standard plotline.

And that's not even getting into the really concerning possibly biphobic elements of him writing the two out bisexual cast members to be the two characters that cheated on their partners, immediately after confirming one of those characters was also bi. Or the way we brush past Maddox the neurodivergent lesbian to focus on her boring as dirt, straight brother. Or the fact that we brush past EJ being HOMELESS AND DISOWNED AND NONE OF HIS FRIENDS SEEM CONCERNED ABOUT GETTING HIM HELP.

But you know, we really needed to focus on the love triangle that was really just a corner. That was much more important.

If HSMTMTS gets a spinoff, I hope they change the showrunner to someone who'll actually appreciate the arcs they've been given rather than putting all the eggs in one boring basket.

[mayy-bby]

Idk if it’s just me, but I find that 911 has a hard time following through with their character arcs and this leads to redundant storytelling (in some cases). We’ve seen buck go through this journey of never feeling enough/wanted/loved time and time again and somehow we always end up right at the start of it? After buck begins is seemed like they’d keep us in the loop of buck’s therapy and do check ins to see where he’s at in terms of his belonging but they sidelined that and brought it back up now in season 6. Which some people see as them not forgetting the important details, but is that what it is? Instead showing his progress from last time, we get a whole episode on buck coming to the same realization he always comes to (that he is loved and wanted and enough/family is not always blood you you build it). And this isn’t to say I didn’t like the episode but we’ve seen this exact thing before, just with a different set up. And the thing is we always see this part but we hardly see what comes after that. The part he follows through with his realizations. The part where the progress is shown. I know some people are gonna “growth is not linear”. Well yeah, but first, it’s not completely stagnant either and two, this is a tv show and you have to move the story forward at a quicker pace and show progress for storytelling. This doesn’t mean the person can’t have the same issues arise again, but let’s not take the person right back to square one to where the lessons from last time become non existent. Now we have Eddie going on another date which most people are saying is going to be some sort of failed attempt at getting back into things and what will lead eddie to the final buddie realization. Ummmmm, what was Ana’s purpose then? That breakup was so pivotal but there was zero follow through/follow up. And I can already feel some people wanting to say, “well maybe the follow up will happen now after his date with marisol.” But no. We shouldn’t have to wait like this insane amount of time to see the the after math of something major. I can’t even recall if Eddie had a proper conversation about the breakup with anyone? Or even a decent passing mention? It’s like it never happened. Maybe if he continued to talk about it after it happened here and there, then him going on this date would make more sense. Like just knowing a little more about Eddie’s mindset when breaking up with Ana/coming to the realization (beyond the whole instant family thing which was sort of vague ngl) that she isn’t the one and why - it would be soo telling. I mean, they could have at least had Eddie mention something along the lines of “I don’t know exactly why, but I knew for sure Ana wasn’t the one for me. I think maybe because Shannon and I got together and then pregnant so young, I didn’t have that much experience with love and dating. I feel like I’m still figuring that part of myself out and dating Ana helped me find my footing even though she isn’t the one.” Blah blah, etc etc. By getting some insight into his mindset after the breakup, him going on a casual date like this one would make so much more sense. It still would be annoying but at least we’d have some insight into why he’s even trying this when things with Ana ended the way they did. But they just left us with a very ambiguous and coded breakup that said a lot but also very little. But anyway. I actually don’t know if this date will be a one time thing, but either they’re going to be redundant with his love life once again or they’re going to settle with her as the final love interest. Kinda annoying either way

[lunarblue21]

For the non-shipping ask meme: Ice Age, of course!

Aww thank you so much for asking! :) <3

M/F BroTP: Ellie and Diego. I really liked how DoTD gave them some scenes and an important moment together with Diego protecting her during her birth with Peaches. Diego fairly glows around the herd's mammoths, especially Manny (like he does with no one else!) and I headcanon that Ellie did try to get Diego to talk about his problems - before he decides to head out in IA3 - before defaulting to Manny since Diego is guarded with her and won't be as open like he is with her mate.

F/F BroTP: Mothers and daughters can count as a friendship, right? In that case, I love Ellie and Peaches' dynamic. Ellie is a good mother, she lets Peaches be herself but she still corrects her if necessary. Peaches as well seems to have a good relationship with her mother and it's sweet to see, becos it's always nice to see comfortable mother/daughter bonds in fiction.

M/M BroTP: Manny and Diego, of course! :) <3 For so many years now they have been my longest-adored friendship. Part of the reasons why I LOVE Manny and Diego goes back to IA1 and how they save each other virtually back-to-back in the story, and more so, are willing to risk their lives to the point of being willing to die for each other, and that just creates deep bonds and a strong friendship; this is even supported by science! I also love how pivotal Manny is to Diego's redemption arc and how he helps him grow as a character in IA1, which goes back to the whole "self-sacrifice" thing he teaches Diego as IA1's story plays out. And this is another reason why the sequels were such a disappointment to me, I was so hoping to see IA1 callbacks or inverses of IA1's ending scene with the Battle at Half Peak with Manny protecting Diego - since a tiger alone has it rough! - and that never happened, nor was their beautiful friendship explored/fleshed out as it deserved, imo … Anyway, their friendship is my favourite in many many ways I could go on and on about it tbh...

crack BroTP: Uh, I guess I would say Buck and Diego (most of these are Diego or Manny-based lol I noticed. Diego has many "circles" within the herd's dynamics because he is the glue not Sid! ;)) but it's not even really cracky becos Buck and Diego have good chemistry. Buck & Diego is also a good dynamic becos I learnt recently from the IA3 BTS - Buck is Diego's foil. He foils Diego, since he's wild and carefree, whilst Diego's heart has always belonged to the herd, even though he tries to leave it and so they have a good push and pull to their dynamic/bond with each other.

dynamic I didn’t expect to like: Hmmm... I think I am go ahead and say... Diego & Peaches! Sure, for me, it's mostly headcanons, but I remember when I heard about IA3 I didn't expect Diego's connection and chemistry with the mammoths he lives with to be explored like it was, and the fact that he was present at Peaches' birth gave me so many feels, oh my gosh, and I just fell in love with an uncle/niece dynamic btwn Diego & Peaches and it's become my second most treasured Ice Age herd family bond becos I love the idea of them being close and Peaches admiring Diego and thinking of him as something of a "second father" :) whilst he adores her wholeheartedly. It disappoints me so much still that officially we didn't get many scenes btwn them in the movies/specials to flesh out that dynamic but Peaches' relationships with her adopted uncles were so shafted and I'm still not over that ngl. :((((

dynamic I didn’t like: In all honesty, Sid and Diego.... their dynamic doesn't have the same vibe and earnestness that Manny and Diego have and Diego imo kinda always looks annoyed or bored in scenes he shares with Sid, especially in the sequels. The fact that the Sid/Diego "ship" is so popular is another reason, tbh, why I don't like this dynamic - they're suited more as brothers than a romantic ship imo. 🤷‍♀️ Heck, their entire dynamic is "little bro annoys middle bro constantly" let's be honest! Also I am aware this opinion is sure to be unpopular. 🤷‍♀️

[kitkatpancakestack]

Hey! Wanted to pick your brilliant brain about something: We're all pretty sure Eddie is going to be the one pining in season 5 (I mean all signs point to that), so what do you think they'll do with Buck this season regarding his feelings for Eddie? Eddie realizing things first changes things, so I wonder how they will write the trajectory of Buck realizing his own feelings and reciprocating Eddie's, especially since he'll be with Taylor. What do you think? How do you want to see it play out?

@ktinaj well hello there friend! I am honored a galaxy brain like yours would deign to pick my brain. Thank you for this excellent ask, it's something I most definitely think about and I do have some thoughts on the matter, predictably :3

Also, this might get long because I love delving into character psyches and motivations, so I apologize upfront but here we go:

I'll just say that I know the popular fandom treatment of Buck is him being the one who is in touch with his feelings and his emotions, the one who wears his heart on his sleeve, the one who is an open book. To be honest, I lean in the opposite direction. Buck, to me, is one of those people who is pseudo-open. You know the people who share so much superficial information (e.g. their sex life, their hobbies, their workout routine) that you just default them as being this super open person, when in reality it's just a defense mechanism to control the way others perceive them (hello not-totally-worthless psychology degree!)

This is all to say that I think Buck is going to Struggle with how to fit this revelation into the context of his engrained preconceptions toward himself. Not that he is actively trying to self-sabotage, or that he is ungrateful toward Eddie, but that he is literally facing a wall built of 20+ years worth of the damage caused by his parents, toxicity he perpetuated with one-night stands and meaningless flings and self-disparagement.

Buck's character arc is just such a realistic and important subject that I have not seen this beautiful crafted in any other show/movie. It was so well-rounded out through season 4, and I think they will continue to nurture it through the context of Eddie's (likely) burgeoning feelings toward Buck. While I'm not a fan by any means of Buck and Taylor together (he so obviously regresses when he's with her) I think it would be a pivotal way to show Buck grappling with how he feels about Eddie. I think since season 2, Taylor has been Buck's kind of "what if," which morphed into this weird idealistic version of her, which morphed into this thinking of, "If I can't make it work with her, then I won't be able to make it work with anybody, and I'm screwed." Obviously this isn't the case. But I think he needs to move through the motions of this thing with Taylor, given the knowledge of how Eddie feels about him and his place in his and Christopher's lives, to be able to draw the parallels and realize, Wait a minute, this isn't what I imagined, this isn't what I thought, maybe we really shouldn't be together, or for him to realize that nobody can give him what he needs in the way Eddie can.

Buck and Eddie both have some deep-seates abandonment issues, but Buck's is just astronomically tragic. I think once the fallout of Eddie's guardianship reveal settles, Buck will have to work through what that does to his place in the Diaz's lives. Honestly, I don't think we're done with Eddie's grand verbal gestures @ Buck, because while Buck would die for Christopher, I think the gravity of Eddie's conviction will only truly hit home when Eddie says to Buck, verbatim, "I need you here, too. We aren't a family without you."

Exquisite ask. I'll be thinking about this for awhile for sure.

[dexi-green]

Okay so wrap up thoughts for ep. 4:

Where is Zemo? Do not let this man loose. Also bless marvel for releasing the longer cut of Zemo dancing earlier 🙏🏽

We love the Dora. However I wonder if the arm thing was a gag or if it’s going to come back. I could definitely see Buck having some questions and beginning to wonder whether they actually freed them or just put him under Wakanda’s control with a longer leash. He obviously has reason to be skeptical about people’s intention with him (see; how Zemo used him) I can definitely imagine them explaining that it was impossible to wipe out the WS controls but rather they just changed them and just never intended to use them, making him a sort of unintentional sleeper agent White Wolf for Wakanda. He is clearly very thankful and grateful to them, and is very close to the Dora, especially Ayo, so I could see that distrust being a good future character arc. But I stand by that with T’Challa in charge they would never seek to take advantage of Buck in that way. Also I was never a HUGE fan of Stan’s acting, I felt he got too hyped up for just brooding, like he was good but not Oscar worthy as some on here tried to say (you can just say you think he’s hot, you don’t have to lie about his acting to justify your adoration of him and watching his whole filmography, it’s okay I promise), but that scene at the beginning was actually amazing. I love the change between fear to relief and realization. Chef’s kiss.

As I mentioned several times, I love that this show is carefully exploring warring ideals, and actually saying them pretty plainly. It’s giving me what Civil War could’ve been. In Civil War there was just too many blatant misunderstandings and things that could’ve been cleared up if the Avenger’s didn’t share one (1) brain cell and it somehow ended up with Peter Parker who had homework to do. In this show, the ideals come from very understandable different perspectives, different lives lived. I know I want a conversation, but that alone won’t truly solve this like it would’ve in Civil War. It comes from very real criticism of our very real govt and society which I thinks helps cement this so much more in reality in a way that isn’t boring to watch like some other comic things that try to be gritty and realistic. The only part that has taken me out so far was the so very subtle cop scene in the second episode, which leads me into my next point

ISAIAH BRADLEY! Loop his story back in, let’s get some backstory and information and all that good stuff. Obviously Isaiah has made it pretty dang clear he wants nothing to do with any of this but obviously that’s not gonna happen, and it’ll be a tremendous waste of an absolute amazing and groundbreaking story to just bring Eli in at the end in some shoehorned way or something. Isaiah needs to be a part of whatever solution this story/season comes to. I’ve seen a theory floating around about either Isaiah being Wakandan (either like killmonger with one or both of his parents being from Wakanda, or more distantly) or perhaps Erskine’s secret ingredient for his serum was derived from the heart shaped herb (which would’ve made Cap White Panther 😬) which I think would be an interesting way to completely tie in Wakanda but perhaps a little unnecessary, specifically the first theory, we don’t need every future black person in the MCU to be secretly Wakandan. I just need his story to be more prominent then it has so far. It’s very important and not something that should just be a basically D grade side plot at this point.

I feel like we have shifted away from much focus on Sam. But I feel like the focus has pulled more on Zemo, Karli, Walker and Buck. Like Sam is doing what he needs but we aren’t getting as much insight into him as we did in the first episode. Which is why I think I liked his talk so much with Karli. We went back to his history of counseling and got to see how it uses it, how he calms down a situation, and his own insight into Karli’s ideals, he agrees but wants to go about it in a different way. We have constantly seen him offering help to others, but hasn’t really received much in return. I feel like now every time the shield comes up it’s just Bucky being all pissy that Sam gave it away which really turns me off his character. Sam already explained that maybe he made a mistake, but also Buck is so set in his way and his ideation of Steve that he can’t for a second consider Sam’s side. Like at this point it’s getting kind of annoying how Buck is being with Sam about it. I want more insight into Sam’s feelings about Steve, and Cap, and all that. Hopefully these last couple episodes with shift the focus back. At this point I feel I know more about Karli and John as people than I do Sam and that’s not great considering the title of the show. This was one of my earliest concerns for the series when it was announced, that it was going to focus too much on Bucky who has had his story almost front and center for almost all of the Cap films, they almost all in some part revolve around Bucky. Perhaps I need to rewatch and there has been some bits of Sam’s I haven’t appreciated enough, but it feels unbalanced, not in favor of him.

Sharon is being sketchy I fear. I do kind of like the idea that she is the power broker, but it’s hard to wrap my head around her threatening Karli like she has been. I mean she obviously has changed a lot, but if she is the power broker her motives have to be something different than what she is trying to lead people to believe. I think what’s more possible is her working for the power broker or perhaps working for/as the power broker as a cover for Fury or some other person/organization. She’s worked undercover for Fury before, she is obviously loyal to him, which might’ve changed since she talks to much about being abandoned by everyone, but I don’t know. It’s obvious something else is going on with her character, and while I love if she had just pivoted to this crime lord role, I just think of her speech at Peggy’s funeral and her loyalty to Cap and Fury in TWS. It’s possible she flipped on a dime like that because everything done to her and what she’s been through, and it may be too predictable for her to have the exact same storyline as TWS but who knows... that or she’s a skrull, always a possibility, can’t be too careful.

John Walker is clearly becoming the actual Anti-Cap. They are getting storybeats to line up. A ‘good’ soldier, turned propaganda tool, turned govt lap dog, serumed up, best friend dies, then what? Switched on by society? I love the moment with him and the flag smasher. It brought me back to when I was in the theater watching Civil War and I swore Steve was going to chop Tony’s head off with the shield. Steve just smashes the arc reactor of course, but John straight up murders this guy. And people are watching, the world is, people were recording. Definitely some purposeful similarities to our very real recording of police brutality irl. Which makes me think what will the govt response be? Will they spin it and try to get him out of this (which will feel really...weird? With the trial going on rn) or maybe will they abandon him completely and leave him high and dry? Hopefully we will see whoever the current MCU president is (prolly maybe Thaddeus Ross??) speak on it as well as the flag smashers and GRC. Walker is obviously not a good person at heart. I theorized before that he had already been given the serum, which clearly isn’t true so he has just taken it but there is something about his background that needs to be revealed. It has to be more than just “‘we did bad stuff while we were deployed” like... yeah it has a profound and damaging effect on people, but I feel like when he was talking to Hoskins it felt like they were remembering what went down slightly differently. I don’t know why, I’ll have to rewatch the scene. Either way, I think there is some stuff we still don’t know about Walker, something so terrible about him that made the serum change him like that. He was already clearly on edge, feeling insecure about people not giving him the respect he thought he deserved just from putting on the suit and carrying the shield, feeling that same imposter syndrome Sam did/does, and his pride was clearly DECIMATED by the Dora. He has this seeming obsession with super soldiers... he’s just giving weirdo vibes.

One thing I noted is that I think this series is taking apart Steve/Cap and spreading him out over several different people, and having them all pick at and dissect what makes/made Captain America the symbol he was, and what happens when you dig a little deeper. Karli seems to be the embodiment of the kindness/concern for others. She is fighting for the people, to protect them, as Cap was. But she is not holding back and is willing to put everything on the line, but where Cap was putting himself in the line of fire to protect people, Karli is putting others. Buck may be the classic idealism and Steve himself, I’m not 100 sure, but he seems to embody the kind of idea that people need something to put hope in, something to lean on, the idea of true good. He always brings up what the shield means and represents, doesn’t ever actually get specific though which is interesting. This may be because Bucky has a hard time separating Steve from Cap, since he saw the two grow up, when he talks about the shield and Cap he IS talking about Steve, there is no symbol or hidden meaning, just the Steve he knew. He conflates it all together. So I guess he represents whether or not the classic ideals can survive, the idea of hope, and Young Steve. Sam I think could be change. Where change is unwavering, like Cap’s fight for freedom never changed, but also where it is inevitable, in Steve and Cap’s place in a time that isn’t their own. How the idea of Captain America needs to be updated for modern times, or whether it should be thrown out altogether. I don’t know this is all ramblings. I though I had something but it’s almost 5am 😩

I believe we have 2 more episodes left so it’ll being interesting to see what they do with it. Fingers crossed 🤞

[poptimus-prime]

Here is what the kids call my highly disorganized, half-baked list of stuff that could have been done with Jack to make him a better character.

@yeetmetothehell I am sorry if you are disappointed by my ideas.

“Optimus was more like...Jack.” OK…so show us that.

In my opinion...Jack seems like he was intended to be written to be almost a parallel to Orion’s journey to becoming Optimus Prime, at least how he is used in the plot. Jack is described as “smart and responsible”, which can also be read as “hardworking and responsible” and really this can be achieved in narratively using a few points, IMO:

Long hours in his room/the library studying outside of work and school. 

Filling out the background of the garage more with sketches/print outs of motorcycle blueprints (to keep the idea that Jack really wants a motorcycle and show hints of extreme dedication, but they’re kept in the garage rather than his room to metaphorically show that distance he’s put between himself and what he wants)

“Man of the House”/”Grew up too fast” (This will be discussed more later but TL;DR “I’ll handle the electric bill this month, Mom”)

Somewhat fragile work/school/life balance that Jack somehow perfectly maintained before meeting the team

Orion was very physically passive. Jack seems to be intended to be written as passive but it comes off as an apathetic reluctance that Orion doesn’t possess (Orion may not believe in violence but he clearly wasn’t unwilling to communicate his thoughts; it’s how he got the title of Prime in the first place.) However, Orion had to learn to become more outspoken over time probably, so we can keep him as being aloof/reluctant at the start of the series.

“Man of the House”/”Grew up too Fast”

It’s no secret Jack came from a nonconventional home; June is very explicitly portrayed as a single mother with a dad nowhere in the picture. However the situation surrounding Mr. Darby is unknown. The way June talks about it makes me personally feel like Jack’s dad either ran out or divorced June and doesn’t bother with his kid. Dysfunction in the family really just goddamn changes you TBH. (can confirm bc hi, I come from a dysfunctional home) Sometimes you just grow up super fast. Jack probably spent his childhood missing his mom as she worked shifts at the hospital and seeing how lonely and hurt she was. He maybe went out and got a job the first day he could and helps with smaller bills (“I’ll handle the electric bill this month.”), or maybe other expenses like groceries and his own phone bill. June probably makes enough to comfortably support her and her son, especially given her job and the cost of living in rural ass desert Nevada. But Jack still does this anyways--it’s how he copes with his issues after what happened with his dad. Doubling down and trying to be what he thinks is the bigger man because his dad couldn’t be fucked. 

This would make the disruption him letting the bots into his life creates more staggering; June doesn’t expect her son to pay bills, but the sudden change in behavior (skipping out on work) would be a cause for concern because sudden shifts like that are Usually Signs that Something is Very Wrong. Especially because Jack is usually responsible and open with his mom; he would have told her if he was gonna cut hours at work, theoretically.

Jack feels like he has to constantly put his own wants aside to contribute to his household. Even if June doesn’t force this expectation upon him, it’s a feeling that he will have, especially if he watched his dad just abandon him and June. Maybe he has resentment towards his dad for this and that is causing some anger he’s keeping tightly under wraps? And maybe the bots give him an excuse to do something he actually wants to do for once or some excitement in his life and that’s why he goes along with it? Lots of options, people!

Clothing Choices: The Hoodie™

You are going to have to deal with me being a whore for costuming choices and what they can mean. The show has a problem with the humans wearing the same shit every time they’re on screen and I’d love to rant about all of them (yeah yeah I get it saving money) but I’m focusing on Jack right now. Give Jack a hoodie 2020. A grey one or some other dull and drab color. And make him actually always wear the hood (except like in scenes where he is working bc workplace dress codes obviously) As time progresses, the drab hoodie is changed to a more vibrant color, but he still always has the hood over his head. And then, at a pivotal moment, the boy takes the hood off. (You could even throw in Miko cracking a joke about Jack actually having hair if you really wanted TBH.) Why this? The narrative is that Jack is constantly holding himself under wraps because of his self-imposed responsibilities. As he starts to become more into his own, he decides to express himself more with brighter colors, but still has some reservations. When he takes the hoodie off, that’s when he’s fully realized himself in this process and thus completes the parallel.

Actually make him interact with Optimus in a meaningful manner.

Arcee can still be his guardian in the field and I think working on strengthening their relationship is vital. But also, if you’re gonna make Jack the confidante holding the key to Vector Sigma, there actually has to be...meaningful interaction. Optimus asking Jack what he’s so engrossed in reading and Jack explaining the book he’s got with passion before shutting himself up and saying “it’s kinda dumb though” or something. And Optimus just responds “I don’t think it’s dumb, tell me more.” Coaxing him towards more self-discovery and expression. Optimus maybe sees more of his old self in Jack and starts attempting to be a quasi-paternal figure without really thinking about it because he is, after all, Dadimus. Jack maybe lashes out about how he doesn’t need Optimus to be his dad and that makes the space between them tense for a while. Eventually Jack comes to apologize and maybe there’s an important Talk.. Just a few ideas I will expand on later. I feel like forgiveness and lack thereof is a good theme--I know I was held back for a long time because of how convoluted the concept of forgiveness is with family.

The Character Arc

 So, what would Jack’s character development throughout the events of season 1 be? My basic idea for a Jack arc that mirrors Orion’s self-realization and coming into Prime-hood without being a carbon copy is essentially: 

Jack is portrayed as a responsible, hardworking, studious teenager who constantly turns down chances for fun and excitement to handle his responsibilities. Has clear dreams for after high school and for his own personal life; but he’s constantly contemplating and changing his mind about whether he will or not because he’s extremely dedicated to helping his mom and all that. However, he still gets super curious about Arcee and gets swept up by her in the Vehicon chase, and he still has whispers of courage and protects Raf during the altercation. He first tries to ditch Team Prime because he’s concerned about his responsibilities, but eventually returns because he’s drawn to the opportunity to finally go buck wild for once in his life (even if he spends his time being hesitant about everything.) His hesitancy and dedication to severe self-imposed responsibility is a result of his inability to move on from what his dad did to him and his mom; he’s under the impression that he 1) Has to forgive someone to move on, and thus 2) He cannot move on because his dad isn’t there to bother to say sorry and take on his position as Dad. In essence, he becomes less the character telling Miko to stop and more the character being pushed by Miko to be more adventurous. In lulls in action, Optimus starts to take interest in him when he notices his constant hesitance to express himself and is just being dragged along rather than going willingly. Has a conversation with him about a book Jack’s reading, which Jack attempts to shut down because it’s “dumb and childish,” but Optimus urges him to continue. The idea that June knows about Arcee as a bike and Jack explaining that he bought a motorcycle as a fixer-upper for dirt cheap can stay. (He probably still is saving up for his motorcycle.)

The longest portion, after Optimus starts interacting with Jack on a level of bonding and gently coaxing him to be himself— Jack becomes more outspoken and he’s shown as curious, analytical, quick witted, and has a deep sense of justice. Being young and craving a childhood lost to his trauma and self-imposed obligations to help his mom with running the household, he suddenly starts spending more time at the base pursuing hobbies and going on missions rather than studying and work, which concerns June. She tries to press Jack, and is met with what can be described as typical teenage headbutting that gets progressively worse. She grounds Jack after the fight, MECH takes her, the rescue happens. (That makes sense to stay in this narrative IMO.) Around this time, Optimus has effectively started becoming Jack’s own Alpha Trion—teaching him things that he’s picked up that he may feel apply to Jack. Jack interprets one of these lessons as Optimus trying to be “dad” and he’s not having it. Makes it VERY clear that he does not need a dad (“didn’t need one before and sure as fuck don’t need one now”) and definitely snaps at Optimus, which then pushes his progress in the arc closer to the end. He eventually comes back to apologize, and Optimus forgives him. He and Optimus have a heart-to-heart about one of the hardest lessons Optimus has had to learn—how to let go of the past without forgiving those who have hurt you and refuse to make amends, so that you may determine your own future. It’s very clear he’s talking about Megatron, even though he never says his name. Jack takes this lesson to heart.

His final bit of development before the hood removal thing probably happens during the events of “Rock Bottom” and reinforces that hard lesson, right when he’s faced with the option to off Megatron. Maybe there’s some taunting about how Optimus preaches softness and forgiveness too much when Jack refuses to kill him. Jack gets angry, and he’s about to fucking do it. But then he stops, takes a breath, and says “Optimus doesn’t preach forgiveness, he preaches moving on from those who refuse to move on themselves. He will never forgive you, but he’s learned to live on despite what you’ve done.” Soon after this, when Megatron comes to the base, Jack takes off his hood, stares Megatron right in the face, and says “This is not forgiveness, Megatron. Don’t you forget that.” Later, when Optimus gives him the key, he tells him something along the lines of “you have grown since we’ve met, Jack, and even though there is still a long way for you to go...” he hands Jack the key. “...Remember that even I am a work in progress.”

Anyways this is again, half-baked. And needs lots of polishing. But it’s something.

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Episode 94: Greg the Babysitter

“We all gotta grow up sometime, right?”

Right off the bat, this episode’s greatest weakness is that we don’t see Baby Buck and the Baby Pizza Twins as we do in Lamar Abrams’s promo art. How dare we not have more baby teens?

Lack of infant variety notwithstanding, this is a great episode, if not a subtle one. Greg is no stranger to hammering out the lesson of a story, but here it’s made so explicit so often that it threatens to weaken the actual plot. Fortunately the plot does a good enough job of showing that it makes up for all the telling, but still, it’s so on the nose that Vidalia calls Greg out when he belatedly repeats the moral it in response to an unrelated statement. 

(But to be clear, this is a story about growing up. Growing up is what this episode about. Gaining maturity is valuable. Emotional development is important. Taking responsibility as you age: good. Staying a kid forever: bad!)

As with Annoying Steven early in the series, this lesson is achieved by presenting us with Douchebag Greg. Douchebag Greg slums around and mooches off a single working mother, depriving her of her own food and taunting her for working to feed her child. When tasked with babysitting, he does what he wants instead of focusing on what a baby might need, and when the kid goes missing, his search includes a pit stop to the arcade to play video games.

This is the second episode where Greg is awful for the bulk of the runtime, and the first, House Guest, was so bad that it earned my inaugural “No Thanks!” rating (a brutal assessment, I know). By that metric you might think I’d dislike Greg the Babysitter as well, because boy oh boy is Douchebag Greg unlikable. But the key difference is the level of intent: even looking past the age and maturity gap between these two Gregs, the Greg of House Guest chooses to lie to his son despite seeing how hard Steven takes it, while Douchebag Greg’s actions stem from sincere cluelessness. Neither is great, and younger Greg is still old enough to know better, but ignorance is far more digestible than purposeful shadiness from this character.

Both House Guest and Greg the Babysitter stay somewhat true to Regular Greg by making him driven by love, whether it’s paternal or romantic. The problem of House Guest is that this emotional core is tainted by him wronging Steven in a way we’ve never seen before or since (compare his feigning of an injury to his negligence in Maximum Capacity, where he instead makes a mistake and is immediately regretful). Nothing in Greg the Babysitter diminishes any sense of authenticity about Greg’s feelings for Rose, because for all his flaws, he doesn’t take advantage of Rose or their relationship.

Moreover, I appreciate that his flaws come from the same character traits that kicked off this relationship, which so far has dominated his flashbacks: Greg is a dreamer and a romantic, which works great in Story for Steven, and he takes the relationship seriously, so he matures on that front in We Need to Talk, but now we see that he’s so focused on Rose that he’s ignoring every other element of life as a functioning adult. 

This episode works because Greg is realistically irresponsible. His head has always been in the clouds, and now he’s in a relationship with someone that’s literally magic, so he has no incentive to reflect on himself barring a dire situation. But this episode excels because Greg’s decision to grow up has nothing to do with Steven. We get the groundwork for Rose wanting a kid, but Greg getting his act together is something he does for himself. It would’ve been so easy for this shift to be prompted by impending fatherhood, but it’s far more satisfying to see a character improve himself because he wants to, rather than out of obligation to others. It allows the moment he takes agency to be triumphant without being mixed up in a sense of begrudging acceptance of his duties.

Finally, while I still think it’s ridiculous that the Crystal Gems treat him like a total flake in Laser Light Cannon given his clear improvement since the Douchebag Greg days, it does make a little sense that beings unaccustomed to change would have a hard time getting past this first impression. If you go back and watch the second season of the series after Greg the Babysitter, it’s not hard to imagine which Greg they’re talking about. It’s a stretch, because they’ve seen plenty of evidence to contradict this impression, but if you’re looking to explain their behavior then it’s the best reason I’ve got.

Greg the Babysitter marks an unspoken milestone in the series: this is the last time we’ll ever see Rose Quartz before her web of duplicity begins to unravel. In just four episodes, we’ll learn that she bubbled Bismuth away and lied about it to everyone. In another three, we’ll hear that she shattered Pink Diamond. The veracity of that second part is irrelevant, because the truth only further proves her capacity for deceit. We’ve seen already that Rose wasn’t perfect, but this is her final appearance before the dominoes begin to fall. One last happy memory that directly leads to the creation of our show’s title character, in an episode that emphasizes how dreaming is nice, but reality will always force people to make a change.

We see way more of Rose in this swan song than we did in Story for Steven or We Need to Talk, and like Greg, her mistakes here can be attributed to cluelessness. She admits how confusing humans can be for her, particularly babies, so it’s hard to blame her for not taking good care of Sour Cream. It’s especially hard to blame her considering how excited she is for him to exhibit independence. And it’s impossible to blame her, at least for me, when she references one of my favorite dumb Simpsons jokes in regards to watching him.

The Pink Diamond revelation adds new layers to her explanation that Gems are made for specific purposes, but the funny thing is, it doesn’t add that many new layers: even before learning just how high up Rose was, we still knew she was rebelling against what she was made to do. I think the more interesting aspect of her speech is how it lines up with Bismuth’s repetition of her insistence that Gems could break away from their intended roles. Seeing Rose talk about it here, less than twenty years ago, is made fascinating by knowing she was saying the same thing thousands of years ago. For a Gem that’s interested in change, she hasn’t really changed that much. It’s one thing for her to know that and talk about it, but it’s another for us to see it in action.

I love how an episode that’s this unsubtle (about being a story about growing up, in case you didn’t catch it) manages to quietly explain why Steven exists. We see a baby, and we see Rose loves babies, and we see Rose admires the human capacity to change, and we’ll soon see that Rose herself stagnated there a little bit, but we leave it at that. Judging by the age difference between Sour Cream and Steven, it’s a few years until she and Greg make an actual decision, so it makes sense to not reference it too explicitly this early, but it’s still a direction the episode could’ve taken and I’m very glad it didn’t.

I’ve made no secret about how much I love Brian Posehn voicing Sour Cream with his regular grown man voice, so obviously the best part of this episode is his further use of that voice for Baby Cream. It’s the gift that keeps on giving, and by itself ensures that Greg’s dickishness can’t pull the episode too far down. As with Onion Friend, the strange connection between Sour Cream and Steven is left unspoken, but it’s wild to consider that this side character is a big reason why our protagonist exists. While I’d be fine with this continuing to be a quiet part of the backstory, I can’t say I wouldn’t be interested in seeing Steven and Sour Cream talk about it one day, even as a small gag. 

Onion Friend was also the last time we spent any meaningful amount of time with Vidalia, and it’s neat to fill in some gaps between her debut cameo in Story for Steven and her modern iteration. Marty’s flakiness is further proven by her being a single mother from the start, but she’s clearly risen to the occasion and loves the hell out of her kid. Her patience with Greg is tested by his awfulness (and honestly makes said awfulness hard to watch, given how much is on her plate), but it speaks volumes that she’s so welcoming to the ex-friend of her ex. She’s probably the only human Greg knows in Beach City at this point, and I honestly wish we saw more of their modern relationship when we have such a vivid image of their history.

I Think I Need a Little Change might not reach the rocking heights of Comet or What Can I Do For You, but it’s catchier than either and has that wonderful twist on the double meaning of “change.” The wordplay speaks for itself, but it’s a cool trick to reveal that this musical montage is as diegetic as the other two songs: this is something he’s actually singing to people. We get a hefty break from songs after Mr. Greg, so that might be meddling with my opinions, but I think this is my favorite of the three. Puns beat electric guitar, and the song crystalizes Greg’s similarity to Steven come Change Your Mind.

And so we end Season 3, Act 2. We’ve had the aftermath of the Cluster, and we’ve had a series of slice of life episodes from this particularly magical life, but we’ll soon be back to the high-octane plotting of the Cluster Arc. It’s a bit strange that Greg the Babysitter comes between Alone at Sea and Gem Hunt, considering the Jasper of it all, but it’s nice to have this respite before we barrel towards the pivotal moment of Steven’s series-wide arc, especially when this respite tells us a lesson that’s about to become a lot more obvious in the coming storm:

Steven Universe is a story about growing up.

Future Vision!

Good thing nothing bad happened to Sour Cream, or else Greg would’ve had to pray that his space goddess's magic could bring people back from the dead. That would be a ridiculous power!

If every pork chop were perfect, we wouldn’t have inconsistencies…

Vidalia got this top from the T-Shirt Shop where she works. This top has a collar. T-shirts do not have collars. It’s unresearched nonsense like this that makes Cartoon Network put this show on hiatus so often, come on people.

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

While I do enjoy this episode and stand by it being great, I don’t necessarily love things that I critically find great. Greg the Babysitter doesn’t do quite enough on the emotional level to make me truly love it, considering how much time we have to spend with Douchebag Greg. I appreciate the importance of his douchebaggery, and the importance of this episode as a whole, but this isn’t an something I go out of my way to rewatch. Sorry, Baby Cream. I still like it!

Top Fifteen

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

Keeping It Together

We Need to Talk

Chille Tid

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Catch and Release

When It Rains

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

No Thanks!

     5. Horror Club      4. Fusion Cuisine      3. House Guest      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

[x-mutation]

The stucky feels is going to be 500x worse in Avengers 4 and here’s why

heavy spoilers for IW below

The Russos said that those who did not play a central role in IW will be important in A4, meaning that Steve will probably be pivotal to defeating Thanos and reviving those turned into ash.

Aside from Loki, no central recurring character truly died yet and to make space for phase 4, there will be heavy casualties. Some of the original avengers will be dead for good. e.g. tony stark. RDJ has no reason to continue to be iron man for money or for his career.

And of course Cap is also in the danger zone cause he already have a pretty complete character arc and a trilogy.

But Bucky isn’t because of the whole “White Wolf” thing that’s just set up. Marvel wouldn’t bother uttering White Wolf two times and giving him a whole end credit scene just to kill him off one movie later.

One of the cast members (was it Seb?) said that in a4 there is an epic scene of everyone together. So that means resurrection happens before proper deaths. ie. Steve gets to see Bucky come alive and they get to fight side by side. It would be a sweet reunion.

Sacrifices have to be made in order to defeat Thanos. So imagine Peter begging, “Mr Stark please... don’t go” as Tony’s arc reactor goes out. Or Steve uttering, “I’m sorry Buck, can’t be you till the end of the line this time...” as he does some dumb selfless suicide action and gets blown into a million pieces or fall into a pit like Gamora (would be nice to have a corpse like superman but I can’t see Cap dying from stab wounds). Cue devastated Bucky as the role reverses. This time, Buck is the one watching helplessly as his bff dies in front of him. 

If marvel doesn’t want to kill off million dollar characters they can always pull a DCEU and show Cap breathing in his coffin or something. 

Even if Cap doesn’t die we still get to see his reaction seeing his supposedly dead Bucky come alive for the second time. 

And as long as Bucky is alive there will always be Stucky moments, and Seb still has five more movies in his contract.

[snarkydefense]

Quick Take: The Greatest Showman deftly tells the story of a charming hustler intent on bringing his dreams to vivid (and profitable) life. The character at the center of the action is, Phineas Taylor Barnum (Hugh Jackman) best known as P.T. Barnum.

The Greatest Showman‘s a story told with a deliberately light dramatic touch and bombastic savoir-faire. It’s less traditional musical biopic and more a stylistic “highlight reel.”

But while P.T. Barnum may be the story focus, it’s the people who make up his menagerie that give this film its purpose.

This film entices its audience room to engage and have fun while gleaning its message from the margins. So if you wait around for this tale to told through dialogue, then you’re going to miss most of the important (and interesting) bits and leave feeling like it’s a film with little substance under the glitter and glam.

The Greatest Showman delivers its character backstory through song and dazzling visuals. It entertains and keeps the film’s pace with a delightful syncopated precision.

The cinematography and set design are nothing short of amazing. The period costuming and site location establish time and place perfectly. Everything behind the scenes works together to capture the heartbeat of this period piece and sets a believable image of the times.

I’m pretty sure I could watch the opening sequence of The Greatest Showman once a day. Great staging, fantastic lighting, perfect vocal drop in. It has the rush of an opening night, that moment of great expectation and Hugh Jackman striking a dashing pose.

This scene does more than just set the tone; it sets the pace and The Greatest Showman doesn’t slow down for a single second.

Grade: B- (due entirely to the extraordinary visuals and accidental revelations behind all that dancing)

Hugh Jackman (P.T. Barnum) and Zac Efron (Philip Carlisle) star in Twentieth Century Fox’s THE GREATEST SHOWMAN.

P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman) and Charity Barnum (Michelle Williams) share an enchanting dance on a New York rooftop in Twentieth Century Fox’s THE GREATEST SHOWMAN.

Reality Check:

But this isn’t really the story of P.T. Barnum, showman, impresario and circus master. It’s a tale invented by screenwriters Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon and Director Michael Gracey’s vision of a savvy American nobody who built an empire and fortune out of his wit, hard work, and ingenuity.

And that’s not who P.T. Barnum was at all. In reality, he launched his career as a showman by exploiting former slave and extremely elderly Joice Heath turning her into an exhibit then authorizing her public autopsy after death.

He wasn’t just a “hardworking Joe” turned businessman made good. He was a social climbing, fast-talking, huckster who wasn’t above employing a good gimmick to make a name for himself. He repeatedly and shamelessly exploited others for his own gain.

Barnum’s motto might well have been, “scandal equals sales.”

Phineas Taylor Barnum is not a hero, he wasn’t a trailblazer; but he is very much so the embodiment of a capitalist-minded, win at all costs (as long as the profits wind up in my pocket) American businessman. He should not be lauded as a role model or example of how to get ahead. But this is America, so of course, he’s cast in an admirable light and given the “Hollywood” treatment.

So, how do you build a movie around such an unapologetic shyster?

With music, dancing, to die for costuming and sublime set designs. Naturally.

With a story that wholeheartedly distracts from a few truths: 1) there are plenty of people who believe that realizing their dreams are more important than people’s lives; 2) “American ingenuity” is usually just code for a willingness to lie, cheat, steal and shamelessly use people to get what one wants. Obviously.

By focusing on the dazzling extravaganza of it all and peppering the rest of the cast with people and story arcs that uplift and only hint at the grime behind it all. Of course.

This entire script is a lie. But that doesn’t take away from the fact this ensemble cast led by Hugh Jackman, Zac Effron, and Michelle Williams do a pretty solid job of selling it (jazz hands and all).

P.T. Barnum would be proud.

♦

After the opening credits, time swiftly rewinds to reveal a young Phineas and his father struggling to make ends meet and working for an upper-crust (socially and financially) family. Phineas lives in his head where anything is possible including marrying the daughter of his father’s employer Charity. Almost immediately, talking gives way to singing and the lyrics carry the story arc and character development forward right through to the end.

This part of the story is, for the most part, sweet and intended to have you rooting for Phineas to capture his dream, win his girl and sail into a great future. But while it offers insight into how Charity and Phineas grow closer and remain true..ish to each other and their hopes, it also reveals the beginnings of Phineas’s willingness to do anything to make a buck.

♦

Jackman plays Barnum with enduring wit and a charmingly slick edge. He’s a guy with his eye on the main chance and his head in the clouds. He’s promised himself a grand life and he’ll stop at nothing (and for no one) to make it happen.

It’s clear from the story angle, Gracey wants you to see Barnum as a man unafraid to step outside the norm (exploit), to innovate (cheat), and invent (lie). You’re supposed to be inspired by his ingenuity (sticky fingers) and quickwittedness (con); it’s supposed to showcase the American work-ethic and “bootstrapping” mentality at work, so to speak.

His relationship first with Charity and then with his daughters in the movie humanizes Barnum up to a point and the reworking of the Jenny Lind years serves to underscore that he’s not completely without loyalty (he so is) and integrity (just saying that word would totally give him hives).

I found this more accidentally unvarnished look at a man of his type refreshing. Jackman’s portrayal leans “into the light” but the overt inferences and his onscreen interactions tell the real tale. P.T. Barnum was a selfish, smarmy asshole of a man.

His use of the subversive wasn’t intended to benefit anyone although that was a very real secondary effect (the primary being he made money) for those ordinarily cast-out and shammed. Those “othered” by society found kinship, homes and a greater sense of safety working under his banner. He wasn’t a humanitarian. He didn’t give a damn about the plight of others unless it could make him a dollar.

So kudos to the film’s screenwriters for finding a way to paint Barnum as just a quick-thinking American with a dream and a heart of gold. It only goes to show what good writing and a loose relationship with the truth can really accomplish.

♦

Despite being issues of the day, the secondary storylines are decidedly modern feeling: A tale of star-crossed love (a story I’d much rather watch unfold with greater detail), the combustible public protests against his showcase of Oddities, the hostile environment his cast members navigated daily and the chokehold Barnum had over the players in his exhibits (let’s not pretend he wasn’t running a human circus).

All these story arcs serve to balance the scales (but not nearly enough) and insert a dose of the realistic into The Greatest Showman. Some of the musical numbers didn’t sync with the time period and therefore rang slightly false. They’re great songs but not always put to their best use. This may be due to the aggressively modern niche Ben Pasek and Justin Paul seem content to rest in.

Plus the story angle and direction took gross liberties with what truly would’ve been permitted which undercuts the emotional payoff in the end and makes it all just one more element of Barnum’s showcase.

There are moments where it’s clear Gracey wants you to see them as pivotal for Barnum emotionally. We’re to believe those moments are what shape his willingness to bring those living in the shadows to the main stage. Not that he’s playing to the public’s interest in the macabre and bizarre.

Gracey does a solid job of “show not tell” for the majority of the film but he’s occasionally a bit heavy-handed.

It doesn’t detract from the story or the glorious visuals but it does make everything feel as though it’s trying just a little too hard (because making P. T. Barnum not come across as the trash he is is hard work) and aiming to deliver the overall storyline with an edge that just a little too slick.

But anyone willing to can see P.T. Barnum was a charming flim-flam man who pitched the right scheme at the right time to the right banker to secure funding with a wink, smile and some slick talking and slight of hand. He saw a niche market he could capitalize on and goes for it with no remorse.

I will not be surprised if most critics flat out do not like The Greatest Showman.

The Greatest Showman is a song and dance extravaganza that’s anchored in joy, light, pain, hubris, laughter, and promise.  It’s far more than a simple “boy makes good” story.

Go, have fun but remember this is “theater” at its best; don’t get blinded by the lights.

Overall:  2.75 out of 5 (because truth in advertising damn well matters)

*originally posted on tggeeks.com

Repost: Now Watching: The Greatest Showman | Movie Review Quick Take: The Greatest Showman deftly tells the story of a charming hustler intent on bringing his dreams to vivid (and profitable) life. 

[userautumn]

not to be full speed ahead on the "tommy is staying" train and run the risk of hurting my own feelings if it doesn't happen, but i was thinking about 911 in the shower, as one does, and it's like... if 7x9 was his last episode, i would have been like "ok he's definitely not coming back in s8" because that would be a good way to wrap up his (short-lived) arc. like. he started out expressing his desire to be part of the 118 > he gets awarded for his bravery with helping them / he mentions not having himself figured out under gerrard in 7x5 (paraphrasing) > he has a nice little "fuck you" moment in 7x9 and, like. that would be it. but. but. 👀 we've seen evidence of him filming for 7x10 and those are going to be bobby/eddie centric episodes which means that the time to neatly wrap up his arc/bucktommy arc this season would have passed without being acted upon....👀 so.👀 soooo..... 👀👀👀