#this doesn't pass the bechdel test and i'm lowkey annoyed about it but also i don't see a version of them being able to be friends

[marley-manson]

God the tattoo plotline in Images reads like a Full House episode, it's so painful lol. Like I get that I'm coming at this from a 2023 perspective but regardless of times a-changin it's a fundamentally annoying and conservative message, and we don't need a weirdly moralizing anti tattoo psa episode at all. I wish Radar actually had gotten a teddy bear on his ass lol.

Also I'd misremembered Hawk as only being concerned about dirty needles in an effort to keep him ic, but they did give him lines about how it's permanent and he'll hate it in a few years so boo

The nurse subplot I have more mixed feelings on. It's better written and it passes the bechdel test lol which is something, and to be fair to the episode the pro-crying in the OR side isn't like 'it's fine to fuck up during surgery' but more like 'some people take longer to adjust including other nurses here who are fine now, and Margaret's just being a hardass in this case bc she's repressed.' Plus Margaret's crying scene was very well done and very touching <3

But ultimately Margaret's points rang very true, the nurse was endangering people, and it's aggravating to see Potter undermine Margaret's authority to make a point. I'm still #Team Margaret here.

random notable details:

-- BJ is initially anti crying in the OR and thinks the nurse should be transferred, but changes his tune and follows Hawkeye's lead when Hawkeye takes the opposite stance. I think it's just a result of the nurse running out on him specifically and the show wanting someone to express the opposite viewpoint in the scene with the nurses, and he just doesn't have strong feelings one way or the other, but yk, it feeds the vibe of BJ being a follower who lowkey resents it lol.

-- Hawkeye eats a single piece of bread for lunch here after sniffing the food and deeming it all inedible apparently

-- Hawkeye being the one who encourages Margaret to express her feelings at the end went a long way towards avoiding the potentially misogynistic message of 'girls are emotional and need to cry a lot.' Thank you for being you, Hawkeye <3

-- Also Margaret yells at him for "Always trying to get into my head when there's nothing there" when he tells her to spill her feelings to him, which is a nice indication that this is a pattern for Hawkeye, encouraging repressed idiots to talk about their feelings to him, even Margaret before they're officially friends.

-- Charles had weird Frank vibes in his defense of MacArthur and yelling at Radar for coming into the Swamp.

-- The nurses being the only ones to call Margaret Hotlips in what seems like forever feels almost defensive lol, kinda like 'it's not misogynist if the women do it.' I kinda dig it though honestly, I'm very into the contentious relationship between Margaret and the rest of the nurses.

[whatyourusherthinks]

Alien: Romulus Review

I got off on the wrong foot with this movie, because the first time I heard about it was from the 45 Anniversary rerelease of Alien in May. Before the movie there was an interview with Ridley Scott and the director of this movie. and between every question they reminded us that Alien: Romulus was coming to theaters this August. Bad start for what ended up being the best horror movie I've ever seen. And then the trailer came out.

And it was glorious.

What's The Movie About?

A group of young miners attempt to scavenge cryopods from a abandoned space station and must contend with the Xenomorphs frozen away on the station.

What I Like.

This movie is fucking awesome! The story is a lot of fun. It's set up to be the original Alien for a modern audience, but when they get to the space station the scenario shifts and it becomes it's own story. I like that because it gives us a lot of insight into the world of Alien itself. Most of the time the movies are set of uncolonized worlds and isolated ships, so it was cool to see how the average person lives on an isolated planet. I wasn't sure if I liked the ending or not at first, but after talking with someone who knew more about the Alien franchise, I think it is a cool payoff for a long standing question. Admittedly it does callback to Prometheus and Resurrection, and I can see long time fans getting annoyed by that if they hate those movies, but I thought the connection was the best they could've done. I also like Rain and Andy. They're adopted siblings that are basically our leads for the movie, and they're dynamic was cool. Rain is the typical Alien's protagonist, but she really cool fight scene. It's nice to see Cailee Spaeny in a movie that doesn't suck ass. And I really like Andy. He's an android that was programmed to do what's best for Rain by their parents, and is stuttering and prone to robot seizures, but tells terrible dad jokes. I wasn't sure if I like the autistic-coding on him at first, I mean he's literally that way because of physical damage to his mechanics. But his plot in the movie revolves around getting an extra chip implanted inside of him which less stutter-y and turns him evil, so the happiest outcome for him to to revert back to the way he was. (And besides, getting the chip didn't fix his seizures, so it's not like becoming neurotypical fixed all of his problems.) The acting in the movie is pretty good, so is the effects. I love that I hate seeing the face-huggers gigantic proboscises that get shoved down humans throat.

What I Don't Like.

Only two complaints. One, one of the characters is a major douche bag. He's super racist to my sweet android boy and is literally the catalyst for everything going wrong in this movie. There's a part where his brother and Rain are talking about it's all their fault that things are going wrong and I'm like, "No no no, it was that fucking idiot's fault." The other thing is that it... uh... how do I explain this? So the first Alien was lowkey a feminism masterpiece. I mean, the whole Bechdel Test joke is that Alien is the only movie that passes. I heard the original script was written with all the characters being gender-neutral and they just changed them depending on who wanted to play which part, which I think is how any movie where gender or relationships isn't a focus of the story should do it. I've heard Aliens leans into it more, but I haven't seen that yet. Anyway, my point is Alien: Romulus backs away from that legacy and I found that disappointing. It's not sexist or anything, but there's just little things. When the crew goes into the space station, all the female characters stay behind. And yet the female pilot is somehow the first one to die! And Rain has to be taught to do anything by all the guy characters. The only thing she knows how to do on her own is reboot Andy. Again, it's not offensive, but it's definitely noticeable comparing it to the original.

Final Summation.

This movie is just as good as I hoped it would be! Definitely check it out if you like Alien, but maybe start else where if you don't have any knowledge of the franchise. Oh really Roan? Don't watch the seventh movie first? I'm shocked. Okay fair point Buggnutz, but the best sequels stand on their own somewhat. Alien: Romulus does achieve that, but the ending is easier to appreciate if you have more knowledge of the franchise.

[mego42]

Hey! Just seen you accept prompts, well it's not really a prompt but I need a fic of friends Beth and Rhea, like they done her so wrong and I need ff to help heal my broken heart 😭

Hope this helps, anon and thank you for the prompt! 💖

--

Beth doesn’t know why she does it. The whole thing is just...insane. It’s insane, there’s no way around it. Especially now that all the cards are on the table. 

But she still can’t stop herself from showing up on Rhea’s door, a bottle of bourbon in one hand and a bold red in the other. 

The look Rhea gives her when she opens the door could curdle milk, but she opened the door, so Beth’s counting it as a win. 

“You’re not even pretending anymore, huh?” She asks, nodding at the alcohol. 

“No, I came clean.”

Rhea’s eyebrows shoot up. “And you’re still breathing? Damn.”

Beth shrugs a little, not really sure what to say to that. She’s surprised too, but at the same time, there’s a part of her that’s not? It’s not that she doubted Rio would kill her, but when he’d told her he needed her alive, she’d realized a part of her had been waiting for them to get there. 

And that’s dangerous, she knows. She can’t- she can’t rely on that. 

“Can I come in?” She finally asks, shifting her weight a bit in the face of Rhea’s scathing stare. “I know I have no right to ask, I know it’s insane that I’m here, I just...I wanted- I wanted to say thank you.”

Rhea keeps staring, unimpressed. 

Beth sighs. “I also wanted to talk to you. You’re- you’re the only person I know who might...get it.”

At that, Rhea rolls her eyes and pushes open the door. “Yeah, I figured it was some shit like that.”

“Good thing you brought the hard stuff,” she says, heading back into the house, not waiting to see if Beth follows. “This is definitely a drinking conversation.”

Beth follows her into the house, surreptitiously looking around as they head into the kitchen, trying to absorb as many details as she can. In the two months they’d been friends, Rhea had been over to Beth’s house a few times but had never invited Beth over. 

It’s a beautiful house, cozy and cluttered with stuff but in a clean, organized way that reminds Beth of Rio’s loft, and it gives Beth a pang to think about the ways the two of them align. Beth’s house is always a mess, she can’t imagine maintaining any kind of coherent, intentional interior design aesthetic, not with her kids. Or her husband. Her life in general. 

Rhea pulls out some Ball jars while Beth sets the bottles on the kitchen island and slides onto a stool. Rhea eyes the wine but reaches for the bourbon. 

“So, what do you want to know?”

Beth blinks, after Rhea’s hesitance at the playground, she hadn’t expected her to open up that quickly.

“The faster I tell you what you want to know, the faster you’ll get out of here and leave me alone,” Rhea says, reading Beth’s surprise. “I’ll tell you the same thing I told him: I don’t want my kid or me anywhere near whatever mess the two of you are making.”

She slides a jar to Beth and takes a deep drink from her own. “That said, you shoot the father of my kid again? I’ll kill you myself.”

Beth’s breath gusts out of her, and she reaches for her own glass. “So, you know that part, then?”

“Uh, yeah. I know that part.” Rhea scoffs. “I don’t know the specifics of whatever business you’re in, and I don’t want to know, but the parts that are relevant to me and mine? Chris keeps me in the loop.”

Chris. Beth knocks back about half of her drink in one go. She’s not sure what hits her harder: the name or the idea that Rio is capable of keeping people in any kind of a loop, he just chose not to with her.

“So, you two- You have…” God, this is hard. Beth doesn’t even know what she wants to ask. She never should’ve come here. “You have a pretty good relationship, then?”

Rhea laughs, and it’s not a nice sound. “I’m not your fuckin’ competition if that’s what you’re asking.”

Beth can feel herself flush from the tips of her toes to the roots of her hair. That’s not what she was asking. It’s not.

But that doesn’t mean she isn’t filing the information away.

Oh god, this was the worst idea.

They both sip in silence for a minute, Rhea staring Beth down and Beth getting deeply acquainted with the countertop. She’s pretty sure it’s granite. 

Citrus damage.

“How’s Marcus?” Beth asks, trying to find her way back to safer ground.

“Nope, off the table.” Rhea’s face is stone.

“I’m sorry, okay?” The words burst out of Beth before she can stop them. “I’m sorry for lying to you, I’m sorry for asking you for help. I didn’t- I didn’t mean anything bad by it, I just…”

She struggles to swallow around the lump in her throat.

“And I’m...I’m sorry I- I shot him. That night...it wasn’t supposed to be like that. I didn’t want that. Things were...things went all the way out of control. I would take it back if I could.”

The last part comes out a whisper, and Beth steels herself to look up at Rhea with a fortifying gulp of bourbon. 

Her face is still hard but maybe slightly less than before. Then Rhea sighs, and it’s like she’s a full inch shorter when she’s done.

“Yeah, well, things have a habit of going all the way out of control around Chris.” She takes a sip of her drink. “It’s part of why I took Marcus and left.”

Beth raises her eyebrows, surprised by the personal information freely given.

Rhea points at her with the hand holding the glass. “Don’t get all puppy dog at me, I don’t forgive you for shit. I’m just sayin’ maybe I get how it happened, okay?”

Beth nods, and they sip in silence again, but this time it feels a little less heavy, and Beth’s so grateful to have fixed things even that much, she can feel tears prickling in the corners of her eyes. 

“A word of advice?” Beth’s eyes fly to Rhea’s, and she’s watching her with a complicated expression on her face. There’s definitely still some anger, more than a little pity, but maybe also some sympathy, and that last part is so much a balm to Beth’s mental well-being, it catches her off guard. 

She hadn’t realized how much she needed Rhea to forgive her. Not that Beth thinks she has, but if she can be sympathetic at all, then maybe there’s a way back from this.

It’s not even about Beth needing forgiveness or making it right, though it’s definitely partially the last bit. At the end of the day, she’d really liked Rhea. 

She was fun and funny and a great mom. Beth loved having Marcus around- Well, she would’ve loved having Marcus around if seeing him hadn’t been such a sucker-punch of grief and regret every single time. 

“Be straight with him,” Rhea says. “He’s a fuckin’ asshole, but he’ll never lie to you if you do him the same.”

“He lies to me all-” Indignation has the words out before Beth can really think them through, and she stops as soon as she realizes that’s actually not true at all. He withholds information, sure. He makes things sound like a joke, absolutely. But she can’t think of a single time he’s ever directly lied to her.

“Mmhmm,” Rhea nods as the realization spreads across Beth’s face. “If anything, he’s honest to a fault.”

She takes another sip, finishing off her drink. “That’s another reason I left him.”

Then she reaches across and grabs Beth’s nearly empty drink from her, finishing it and putting the jars in the sink. “Now get the fuck out of my house. My kid’ll be home soon, and he tells Chris everything, I don’t think either of us is ready for the fallout of that, yet.”

She’s not wrong, so Beth gathers up her bag and heads back towards the door, feeling about a hundred pounds lighter than she had on the way in.

Beth pauses on the front porch, turning back to Rhea.

“Thank you,” she says, trying to imbue the words with the weight of everything behind them.

“Yeah, yeah.” Rhea rolls her eyes and starts closing the door before she stops, thinking. Then she sighs. “Maybe I’ll give you a call next week or something, and if you’re still alive, we can start in on that red.”

Beth smiles, “I’d like that.”