#you know i'm fury road posting some still. rotating things in my mind. like when you rotate media a zillion times like hey...themes in here.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

a part of experiencing a media for the 79th time is going “ah...i see” sometimes abt things you could theoretically have picked up on the first time &/or going “hmm” abt those little elements like themes, threads, arcs, parallels, vibes, & etc. thinking cap things. going analysis mode. having thoughts

just throwing such remarks around like, only n viewings ago was i going like well sucks the valkyrie like turns around & dies so fast, but. then i properly noticed like, hey, wait, in her committing to the rest of the bit that she’s able to do before Knowing she’s going to die here probably, she’s taking out guys on the back of the truck who, later, furiosa Doesn’t have to take out, since there’s only the one imperator left to deal with thanks in part to the valkyrie in that moment. the alignments like this. i was thinking even < n viewings ago like hey also it’s cool how the green place is gone but that even one of the dead trees there lets them unmire the rig. i am a big fan of how during that effort you’ve got max trying to pull the tree back / hold it up as furiosa starts pushing against the wheelhouse. first of all, it’s funny, second of all it’s [parallels] / juxtaposition which owns, third of all it owns, when it’s like, does furiosa’s added two horsepower or max shifting the uprooting dead tree’s center of gravity back two centimeters make all the difference? well, maybe yes or maybe no, but it’s also like, what are they gonna do, nothing? how can they know it won’t make any difference, and it can’t hurt.

which is like the valkyrie knowing she’s probably about to die any second here but it can’t hurt to try taking out a few mfs, and it really didn’t. i also think of the [Knowing you’re going to die] thing and even just now occurred to me like, well that’s nux the entire time, and it’s something how he gets a moment registering furiosa’s gotten a serious stab wound. i also wonder what the specific action of nux specifically resheathing that knife after he takes over driving for her is all about, too. i would think it’s not a wild hypothesis to just look at it as Anything With Which You Can Kill Someone kind of embodied, it’s sure got this like bone handle, and a musical leitmotif, and it’s how furiosa could’ve killed nux earlier, but even she had some initial restraint about it and then let herself be talked out of it immediately, which is probably as surprising as anything, given that he’s the [doesn’t know anything else] person around here. trying to segue this into this one specific “hmm” i was turning over just the other day, wherein like, it’s also like. idk, looking at that one knife as [the ability to kill someone] kind of exemplified, you could easily go like well furiosa being stabbed with her own (parking brake?? not sure what that lever its kept in is for lmao exactly lol) knife that embodies violence and that that guy who stabs her with it even has b/c she threw it into him first is Narrative Punishment for engaging in violence so much. but i think it’s just Tragedy / bad luck, and that furiosa nor anyone else aligned with her (in the post apocalypse killing people action movie...) is in fact narratively punished for using violence, necessarily. like what was she gonna do, Not knife that guy who just shot a mini arrow at her? or, at any time, Not be killing people to defend herself or anyone in her party. clearly if anyone was trying to be like, no, no killing no biting no violence, they wouldn’t have gotten very far here & there’s the fact that furiosa is in a position to do [inciting action] through her position as a physical fighter in the first place

what i’m trying to segue into also still is i was going “hmm it’s so neat how you know the girls clearly consider Not Killing Anyone to be this theoretical ideal / care about & argue for no Unnecessary killing, but also you’ve got toast whose arc involves being the one who takes on handling guns / ammo, which are contrasted with the theme out here of creating &/or nurturing life, obviously” and how the way that’s handled is clearly not like, some “corruption” or Worse Choice for her than any of the other girls’ arcs, she’s not narratively punished....but then also i was wondering like hmm when do i think maximum Payoff is happening for toast, what is her arc exactly, and then was kinda puzzling like huh, does being the one who takes on the Guns / Ammo role play into her being captured in the climactic battle there, she sure didn’t have a gun or anything in that and that seemed to just be bad luck again based on where she happened to be sitting....but i think another not wild hypothesis i came up with there is just how like, in being the one who becomes the one who counted the ammo / kept track of it / loaded a gun or two, that’s just also most Furiosa Adjacent / makes them most similar/parallel, pick an adjective lol....also interesting how seemingly angharad was maybe the one Most knowledgable abt reloading weapons but toast took that over, when also at the start maybe it’d be like well angharad as the “leader” or at least sort of core member among the girls could make her seem like the Most similar/parallel to furiosa there, until whoops she dies from tragedy and from the narrative punishment / bad luck payoff of how shooting towards her, not necessarily meaning to hit her at all, still kind of kills her. and so did bringing her along in the first place, so that max & furiosa can have some parallels out here in feeling blame / guilt about things. although she also chose to take these risks obviously, in wanting to go and in stepping outside the cab to cut a chain. but i’m on a tangent here i believe

back to toast & her getting into guns, the anti seed, yeah think just clearly one of the girls embracing that is going to make her more parallel to furiosa’s experiences, and to make her someone furiosa would in fact see her own experience mirrored in a bonus degree in this way. since you know, the only plausible implication / extrapolation based on all info is to presume furiosa was once in their position, or was intended to be, but most likely did in fact share some of that experience, and naturally nothing that tells us how she then got out of that position and on track to becoming an imperator, the vastness of speculation there but it’s like, well what matters is that she did. and yet this isn’t about like, that either protagonist is like “i love killing. i wish i was killing right now” but that it is about Survival for the both of them, and for furiosa, even more so the protagonist, being an imperator is a means to her end of getting back to where she came from / getting back to Something Else and being a person rather than valued as one form or another of someone’s property / a tool to bolster their personal power. the one specific guy, you know, not just a hypothetical person lol. who, also, doesn’t just kill for survival, and sees specific lives, and life in general, as a tool, property, or bolster for his individual power. wherein he’s got like, specific weapons with arcs too, unfortunately and uncoincidentally being like let me just bust out my shiny de facto jockstrap groin guns, every time in an effort to murder this woman he presumably previously raped. it’s so bad eugh in like a fitting / deliberate way not a "media criticism: think this should be different” like. thank god she’s also not punished for [she specifically wants revenge on this guy] though that is transformed somewhat, and she still gets revenge, furthermore to now specifically kill him herself which wasn’t in the original plan, and to absolutely devastatingly own him right before doing so, though the effort does also almost kill her. would’ve been a sacrifice rather than a punishment really, another tragedy at most, and that, of course, it’s not just Luck or a serendipitous turn of fate that max is able to and chooses to save her, she had an active role in him being there to do so and being able to choose to do so too. anyways and furiosa Has also just been out here surviving and using the avenues and tools at her disposal and this is being at the end of a long paragraph like it’s a conclusive sentence for this paragraph, but it’s how like. back to “hmm” / “i think it’s neat” well i think it’s neat how like. arguably / imo we’re not really focusing on Moral Arcs / a Learning to be Better Specifically Because You Were Morally Failing Before Or You Just Weren’t Individually Being Strong Enough Already type of situation here for either protagonist. or any other character really. who is aligned with them lol

i am thinking about how. like okay clearly maternity is A Theme, or kind of a core manifestation of / centerpiece to a more general theme wherein like. yes sometimes this is literal like, people with babies. but also again like the broader Creating or Nurturing Life, broader ways of doing that / being metaphorically parental, like e.g. it can be this [maternity theme] situation for max to revive furiosa with his own willingly desperately given blood....the means of providing / sustaining life extending to various things like literally babies, water, plants, milk, but then somewhat more complex layers to it, beyond “is there life here at all, y/n” or these like elemental Necessities as an angle, though that’s more stark in post apocalyptic territory....like, it can be Life Sustaining here to kill a mf, which is pretty unambiguously the case throughout, and again is like, not narratively punished, it’s not like oh it’s Wrong for max & furiosa at the beginning to be these fighters out here who are focused on what it takes to Survive. but then truly lol dipping into Thriving, as this layer even Above that, when really like this strongest theme out here is that it’s the connecting / engaging / trusting / operating alongside other people towards a shared goal that creates / enhances possibilities, leads to success, and leads to humanity. it’s not like, that furiosa or max Need to stop operating as fairly self reliant survivors, b/c it’s been immoral or weak of them or something. it’s that their situations change and this is about like, self actualizing lol. it’s about Growth, but everyone’s Growth isn’t happening b/c of their mere Individual Choices or like internally morally switching gears or anything like oh i loved murder for its own sake but now i’m like, what if i should murder less? when the protagonists are already operating in self defense, though they both are like yeah grimacing emoji i have regrets abt my past....thinking about how the keeper of the seeds hasn’t been able to grow anything, but not b/c she’s like, making the wrong choices or has some weakness, it’s just b/c she hasn’t been in a situation where she could plant a seed somewhere hospitable enough, and clearly it’s not just her passing those along to a girl who’s going to be able to plant them somewhere they Can grow and be something that’s alive yes/no, but also the metaphorical Seed As Potential For Life hope being passed along with them, as importantly....furiosa & max [survive] their way towards having to work Alongside each other at first, then quickly are like okay warrior’s respect / trusting each other, but of course with a ways to go in this arc even once that’s happening, since the trust is still kind of out of necessity too / about recognizing that this person who knows how to keep themself alive can effectively help you in your shared/aligned goal rn of keeping alive, too. that every step of this Situation is needed to give them what’s needed for this dynamic / this arc to Grow, like, how a plant doesn’t grow b/c it chooses to be strong enough about it or makes the moral choice to grow, it’s what it’ll do and what it’ll be able to do if it’s in a situation it Can grow, get into this metaphor with like, sun, water, soil, maybe being planted, maybe being nurtured, maybe some symbiosis, etc....they weren’t in this kind of situation before, things are aligning, but also yeah of course they’re like still putting active efforts into things too / making choices Towards trust/connection, even as parts of calculated risks, of necessary survival, of strats, etc. sure is easy to go “hmm. kind of, scream” when max is doing the emotional arc completion of Giving One’s Name. i also go hmm. scream. about the fact i don’t think he asks or hears her name before that scene either, think it’s not before the valkyrie that anyone uses her name in front of him and “in front” is technical there when he’s far away enough he may not be supposed to be picking up on that dialogue, don’t think that he is, it’s capable leaning in / reaching over saying “furiosa” to try to help keep her alive as instructed by max which is also like, yeah. that shot is how i feel. i am reaching out like “Furiosa ;m;”

sort of losing the thread, but i also knew from the start i don’t have a thread entirely here lmao i’m just kind of addressing half a dozen Hmms at once, shaken up in a jar with glitter here. thinking how toast does kind of get the Gun / Ammo payoff quickly, wherein it’s thanks to her doing that inventory with the ammo that she can say max has two shots left with the rifle, in response to which furiosa trades off With Toast and gives her the handgun / entrusts her with what she was taking responsibility of herself, kind of significant. also a fun like easy to miss / bg little trust & teamwork moment just prior when furiosa trains the handgun on nux in the first place, wherein she walks over like Leave Him To Me and she and max wordlessly swap guns there, him getting the rifle & her the handgun to potentially handle nux, though that trustworthiness is proven quickly / is a necessary risk they all have to take anyways, furiosa not like, necessarily Wanting to hand over [keep a gun on this guy] to toast, but feeling like she both has to, but also can. even the teamwork with the rifle, the wordless “give it to me” gesture behind him, him providing this extra stability, this being the second time he’s had that like whoops furiosa puts a gun up to my head and you get the gunfire ear ringing moment....in addition to how she only didn’t blow him away within that first minute & a half b/c he was bluffing with a misfired shotgun, serendipitously....okay where’s that thread. so that That’s really enough of like, yep toast just handled the guns/ammo situation, now she’s even handling a loaded gun courtesy of furiosa passing that off to her and toast unhesitatingly taking it up, though she’s also of course not itching to actually have to use it, b/c again it’s like. not inherently like the wrong direction or this corruption, she doesn’t love to kill now, it’s got the potential necessary purpose for survival. then who knows if it kinnnda counts that toast is able to grab the “i’ll just shoot furiosa as she drags herself along the side of this car to kill me” dick gun so that he can’t, in fact, shoot her, giving her the opening to rip his face off, which is certainly not narratively punished though again, yknow, she Does then need max to be there to help pull her back up & figuratively give birth by bringing her back from the brink of death including via his own spontaneous blood donation there, and sharing Just Actualization Moments....she’s entrusting / passing off her entire goal here to him in her would be dying moments, he’s sharing his life & giving his name, does it matter? not for Survival, but for [hey...my more complete humanity / self, recovered With others] like. relationships develop over the course of things, people are less on their own, even as alliances that may be more necessitated / begrudging at first become truly more aligned and complex beyond what’s required for moment to moment survival. the relationships themselves are what like. allows for further Growth, like, we need two protagonists for a start, this is a story about their not going it alone (although again like okay someone’s the More So protagonist & that’s furiosa “inciting action” / “gets the emotional low point (although max gets like, the mini one afterwards? ish. his rejecting “hope” / would’ve been choosing to separate from the group. less an emotional dip though, and more just him not quite being There in terms of being ready to take action and change the story’s course atm, although give him like literally twenty seconds here)”) like, that these relationships themselves are Needed before anyone’s then in a situation where they can choose to stay on this course of trusting & connecting & maintaining alignment / choosing to more actively lean into a connection / build understanding, like risking it all for the shared goals / to protect another*, making halting, sparse conversation....*also thinking about how it’s not like oh furiosa being the violent warrior is Bad, being stabbed with her own rig’s secret knife is Narrative Punishment. when like for one thing, in that very first fight she could’ve been killed with her rig’s own secret gun that she was gonna use to kill max here, but he’s deigning not to shoot anyone immediately, though he Will also just leave them in the middle of the desert here. deserted....anyways. it’s Already been [live by the gun die by the gun] Potential that she has to already know is a risk...but she’s also not Just stabbed b/c of that, it’s b/c she’s made herself more vulnerable to keep max alive (i.e. is leaning out the window, keeping him from having completely fallen off the rig) & doesn’t even like. let go to kill the guy who just stabbed her herself. or to do anything else now that she’s been stabbed. it’s Tragic, b/c like, all this talk of [narrative punishment] but while survival violence isn’t punished, the times people Do refrain from unnecessary killing (like a clear example in nobody killing nux), or even simply are prevented from killing a future ally thanks to serendipity, that Is rewarded....the obvious way these arcs work again being like, it is Good that people are taking more risks for each other & developing relationships & not killing for fun & wanting more life....the Rewards coming through in like, More Is Possible through these things, more life does exist, more options become seen as feasible and are pursued. and that again it can just be like....it’s Practical, it’s Concomitant, like, that it’s not all about Individual Choices b/c this isn’t about people being individual, it’s about connections, it’s about two whole protagonists, it’s about only once a relationship is poised to exist do some of the possibilities afforded by it exist, you need a seed to have adequate soil & light & water & space & etc, like, it’s not about the journey of Morals needed here, it isn’t necessarily posited as Individual Failings that people don’t start this story in the situation in which they feel they can relate to the people around them in the way they do on the other side of their emotional / character arcs. and it’s like, it’s nice that these people who have been abused don’t need to necessarily be understood through this lens of like hmm okay what are those Personal Failings of theirs & how they’ve done what they can in this particular situation. nobody has to be like confronted and fought to change their mind on anything, angharad & the girls have to be like wait don’t kill this rando just some guy, we can easily kick his ass nonfatally & he’s also clueless, maybe we can clue him in while we do it....that’s not enough to convince nux of anything just quite yet fully, but furiosa a) doesn’t immediately actually kill nux anyways though she could’ve, and b) takes so little convincing Not to like ugh fiiine lol. and her character is never really asked to Kill Less / have even More restraint than she already has at the start, and again doesn’t have to like, pay for this, her nigh fatal wounding wasn’t some brand new risk, it’s part of the broad risk that is [the entire final battle] that none of them Had to take / everyone who dies during that isn’t like, oh that’s what they had coming, and that she was vulnerable in that moment b/c she was saving max, who had just risked diving around on the hood of the truck to help save her, and that you know, that risked vulnerability that did result in grave injury being to protect max & easily possibly preventing Him from dying, being paid off by him being able to & choosing to intervene to save her from this injury in the end. 

where’s the thread, who knows. also thinking how toast is similar to furiosa b/c she’s the one who’s cut her hair short. good several reasons furiosa might have also, though a simple explanation could also be just like, that everyone’s doing it, she’s unique for being a woman among the warboys / imperators but naturally there’s no like, differentiation. she gets the gird your loins accessory in the bioessentialist patriarchal society regardless. which is a sick element of her outfti lmao. also it took me so many viewings to even notice like oh the costuming with her sick as fuck arm also gives her like a practical(tm) would be corset / cinched waist (although her top’s also fitted when she has it off, so also it can be attributed to like. just adding visual detail lol, belts look neat) like oh wasn’t really striking b/c this is all so cinematographically normal, like beyond that that obviously this group of other women around for the whole thing have like two piece bikiniesque outfits and it isn’t like constant obtrusive horny moments, because like forget “constant,” there just isn’t That at all lol, visual language of cinematography employed in such a way like they’re people in a story about how they’re being treated as objects and property but are in fact people....also knowing that productionwise, things went the other way, warboys & co all having cropped hair came from furiosa having a buzzcut. where would we be if she just had long hair or something too. it would be. probably okay i guess but god nowhere near where we are today. society. okay it’s ten to 8am here lmao, how to wrap this up

ummm idk i love furiosa so much she’s so everything. that she can be killing her way out of her situation and that’s fine. she doesn’t like it, she doesn’t necessarily think it’s good either, she can have regrets and want redemption, and yet it’s still not about how Never Kill To Survive / do what you gotta do to escape a fundamentally abusive situation wherein b/c it is abusive everyone has very limited options, really clearly only the appearance of options “ideally” if joe is having things his way....that again it’s like. about Growth b/c seeds were planted in earth where those seeds could take, not b/c it was like, okay, have an arc about overcoming your individual failings okay? for god’s sake? rather, it’s also about how it’s inherently limiting, but not a personal failure per se, to have to Be operating as an individual in the first place, b/c you’re not in a situation that’s allowing for / fostering anything else; then Possibilities / further options grow when people are forming connections and in these situations where suddenly one thing allows for another, even when they didn’t always just Freely Choose their way into what would lead to further success / increased possibilities, some serendipitous alignments, some begrudgingly necessitated alliances before more fundamentally embraced / pursued ones. and other stuff, conclusion paragraph? umm just read it again? idk tl;dr obv have Been like hmm So Neat what’s going on here. i love furiosa like you could say plenty you could [gesture at entire film] like she’s so good. she’s so neat. good for her