thenightling

[thenightling]

So Jack Skellington is problematic Now...

In my re-embracing of my childhood favorite (Nightmare before Christmas) which turns thirty years old this year, I have had the displeasure of encountering "New" interpretations of the characters.

I kind of hate that the Tumblr generation has discovered Nightmare before Christmas.

I'm stumbling across hot take after hot take about what an awful person Jack is and people "Cleverly" pointing out that Jack didn't listen to Sally, that he talked over her, that he does a lot of harm... Yeah, that's kind of the point. He's a f--k up. And he is oblivious. But he's not evil. And he's not abusive.

I even came across one tonight that said he's mentally unstable. No, his emotions are conveyed in a musical with song numbers by a very expressive and eccentric man who likes to play with his own vocal range and emotional expression in song. That's not "emotional instability." That's passion. All of Jack's emotions and reactions are warranted in the story.

One of the earliest hot takes I came across called the movie a "Dumpster Fire." And the person essentially said that Jack needs to be punished and that the mayor should strip him of his Pumpkin King Title.

I think they don't realize a king out ranks a mayor, usually, and Jack isn't some beauty pageant winner. He is the king of Halloween.

I think this new backlash against the character stems from interpretations that the movie is about cultural appropriation. People thinking Sally is too passive because they're used to "Strong women" actually fighting and kicking ass. But Sally is a strong character. She just doesn't do physical combat. I think we need to veer away from this shallow interpretation of "strong" requiring brute force. Sally is defiant. She questions things. She poisons her creator to escape him on a regular basis. And she even almost got away with freeing Santa Claus (almost at the cost of her own leg).

That and a cultural stance of being anti-monarchy.

It's kind of depressing seeing this sort of hate toward Jack. I know it's a children's film but it says a lot when people can't forgive the protagonist of a children's film for being oblivious (toward Sally and about taking over Christmas).

There are actually people who think Jack will eventually get bored and lose interest in Sally because she's just "another high" for him and think he's a narcissist. If Jack was a true narcissist he would not have rushed to their rescue the way he did. Also The soundtrack album and novelization both tell you that Jack and Sally had "Four or five" children together. Jack never gets bored with her. The thing that Jack was missing the whole time was love- an emotional connection to another on a personal level. That's why he became obsessed with Christmas. He sensed the pure love attached to the holiday. He just didn't realize how close that potential connection- that love actually was.

To think Sally is just another high for him is to miss the entire point of Jack's Lament, what the emptiness and longing was inside of Jack, and also ruins the intended sweetness of the ending. Despite what a lot of sequels do today with romances, these two were meant to be a Happily Ever After- without question.

The idea was that Jack's obsession with Christmas came from a high, yes, but that high came from sensing the love innate in the holiday itself. That's the longing and emptiness he felt in the song Jack's Lament, the lack of deep interpersonal connection- love. He had fans but he didn't really have someone actually care about him as a person and get to know him or try to.

Jack would probably have other adventures and screw ups. But I don't think he'd get bored with Sally, she is a connection he has with no one else. And that's very important to someone who has experienced profound loneliness.

In regard to Jack's behavior in the movie...

"Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity." Jack isn't stupid. But he IS very naive. And he makes horrible mistakes. Once he realizes he has made these mistakes he sets out to make things right.

A more adult version of this issue came up when I first got into Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. Someone sent me an anonymous ask on Tumblr that read "Do you acknowledge all the terrible things Morpheus has done or do you ignore them because he's your fave?" He's my favorite partly BECAUSE he's a screw up. I like characters that make terrible mistakes and then attempt to set things right. I like redemption stories. I like character growth.

Has our culture reached some very unsympathetic and rather cruel point that protagonists can't make bad mistakes, can't have faults and failings? They need to be perfect and always do the right thing at all times lest forever be condemned as problematic?!

For God's sake, I'm reading rants on why the King of Halloween wanting to do Christmas and not listening to the girl who has a crush on him should result in a beheading. Kids... Calm down. Not everything needs righteous rage.

[thenightling]

Disney and Tim Burton fans will be pleased to know that Jack Skellington in the parks has been updated from his old (and dubious) "Alien" look and now actually resembles the round headed character.

On May 12th Disney revealed the new costume the in-park actors will be wearing, with a brand new round head... that he probably should have had from the start but at least they're fixing it now.

[thenightling]

I am so sick of coming across obviously AI generated "Know your owls" charts on bird lover and owl pages and groups.

Often they are missing a few owls like the Saw whet owl. And the most recent AI generated chart has a Barn owl illustration listed as barred owl.

And they keep sharing this inaccurate AI generated crap!

[thenightling]

I know it's The Summer Solstice / Midsummer but I feel like correcting this before I have to deal with it in autumn... again... I had to explain this to someone just last year who was confidently wrong in how THEY were explaining "All Hallow's Eve." All Hallow's Eve is NOT the night before Halloween! It IS Halloween. "Hallow" is an archaic word for blessed or Saint / Saintly. All Hallows Day is an old term for All Saints Day (November 1st). Halloween is not All Hallow's Day. It's the Eve of All Saints / All Hallow's Day. It's not "Like how Christmas Eve is the Eve before Christmas. So it's the Eve before Halloween." No. Halloween literally IS the EVE. The DAY is November 1st. Christian / Catholic = All Hallow's Eve = October 31st. November 1st = All Hallow's Day / All Saints Day. November 2nd = All Souls Day. Ancient / Pagan / Wiccan = Samhain (Pronounced Sow-en or Sow-in) Latin America = Dia de los muertos (Day of the Dead) Halloween / Hallowe'en = Modern American spooky hodgepodge created from the blending of many cultures having a sacred, spooky, seasonal event at the same time where fears and death are confronted as a means to appreciate life and respect those who have passed. A time for rekindling belief in wonder and magick. Note on Halloween / Hallowe'en. Both spellings are considered correct. America started to drop the ' in Hallowe'en in the 1940s and 50s, partly to save on ink when making Halloween cards and decorations and it just stuck. Personally I prefer Hallowe'en because it feels more old fashioned.

[thenightling]

Happy Summer Solstice / Midsummer!

Trivia: The reason it's called Midsummer is because the early Ancient Greeks only had two seasons. Winter and Summer. They didn't yet divide it into fourths. So winter was from what we call the autumn equinox until the spring equinox. And summer was from the Spring equinox until the autumn equinox. The summer Solstice (Modern start of summer / end of spring) was the half-way point through the warm season of the ancient two season calandar.

That's why the other name for The Summer Solstice is also called Midsummer, because it's a name dating back to before the concepts of spring and autumn existed. The modern first day of summer used to be the half-way point through summer.

Shakespeare's a Midsummer Night's Dream is set in Ancient Greece so that night was the summer solstice- modern first day of summer.

(Image from Brian Froud's Good Faeries / Bad Faeries from the "Bad" cover of the book / back cover.

[thenightling]

Happy Pride month!

My own queer status.

I'm a cis gender (non-trans) woman but I'm gender nonconforming. I won't wear makeup or nail polish and I despise bras.

I'm demi (asexual) panromantic. I love the idea of romance. It doesn't matter with which gender but I have never (contrary to the beliefs and hurtful gossip of certain "family") had any interest in the actual act of sexual intercourse of any kind. I only recently came to terms with this fact and I'm forty-three-years-old.

I'm also a role play "King." A woman who prefers to play male characters in role playing game settings. (Non-sexual. Dungeons and dragons style role play). I started doing that at age seventeen in 1999 when I realized there was no real reason I couldn't play male roles. Now I almost never play women characters.

[thenightling]

I have come to an epiphany (-Really it's common sense but I was thinking about it recently.-) that people who say things like "Act your age." and "I can't get over how immature you are." based on aspects of personality like hobbies, interests, or clothing tastes- these people making the judgements are actually the immature ones.

Their behavior is rooted in their own insecurity and fear of social rejection so rather than be true to themselves they conform to what they think is expected of them based on age, gender, or social status. And so they are unhappy and subconsciously want others to be as discontent as they are.

It's not the adults who watch cartoons, play video games, collect stuffed animals, or decorate their bedrooms with glow-in-the-dark stars, who are immature. It's the ones judging them for it and also too afraid to be themselves and so try to make others be as afraid as themselves.

Being scared to be yourself and trying to shame those who aren't so afraid, is not maturity. Being brave enough to be yourselfm no matter what others may think of you- that's maturity.

[thenightling]

Son of Dracula is on Svengoolie right now. It's a double feature now. Day of the Dead is on after it on House of Svengoolie.

[thenightling]

🎃👻Happy Friday The 13th!👻🎃

[thenightling]

A while ago I stopped putting parapsychology researcher on my social media bios because people (thanks to pop culture and "reality" TV) misunderstand what that means and I got tired of explaining it. As far back as being a thirteen-year-old Ghostbusters fan, I remember telling people I wanted to be a writer or a parapsychologist and then having to explain what a parapsychologist was. So in 2007 / 2008 I took a vocational course in parapsychology offered by SCI (Stratford Career Institute). The course (which, yes, was an early online / correspondence course) entailed six text books and multiple modules including theoretical physics. Now the thing about studying parapsychology in any serious fashion is it doesn't actually turn you into a believer. In fact you learn about how to debunk things like phony psychic cold readings and the rainbow Ruse. To really study parapsychology can make you more jaded and cynical and prone to debunking supernatural claims rather than believing and affirming them. A lot of people with false claims aren't actually lying. Their spiritual beliefs or superstitions mixed with confirmation bias can lead to accidental false claims, like the ideomotor effect with automatic writing, pendulums or the Ouija board. And there are things like photography glitches and "orbs" which are almost always just dust particles floating in front of the camera lens. My point is, for many parapsychologists it's more like Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle investigating claims of psychic phenomena rather than an episode of Ghost Adventures. Don't believe everything you see on TV, and I don't just mean the paranormal claims. I mean in regard to how paranormal investigations are usually conducted. Also, though you don't need a degree to call yourself a cryptozoologist, I would be very skeptical of any monster hunter using that title who doesn't know the seven (debatably eight, if you include "Domain" before Kingdom) ranks of taxonomy.

[thenightling]

Favorite Character Meme

Two/Five Outfits: The Robe in Heart of Darkness

[thenightling]

Re: Conversation about the movie Frailty. Please know that just because I might dislike or even hate a piece of media or the message of that piece of media that does NOT mean I want that media destroyed, censored, or banned. I believe in free speech even if it's speech I do not agree with.

[thenightling]

Someone asked me why I don't like the movie Frailty.

I despise that movie, actually.

1. I hate child abuse and don't think it's scary. It's not the sort of horror I want to see. It's like thinking watching animals get tortured is the same as watching The Mummy. No. Just f--king no! I hate it so much that I am trying not to be angry that you asked. I am actually almost insulted you asked this because I consider it a considerable difference to like Gothic horror and to like torture p0rn or blatant depictions of child abuse. Yes, child abuse can be horror but it's not the sort of horror I want to watch. Cancer is horrible but I wouldn't want to watch a horror movie about someone's battle with cancer except if it was filtered through a metaphor instead of literal.

2. I VERY much dislike the idea of an evil / sadistic / narcissistic God governing the universe and the "surprise twist" that the father was right to TORTURE HIS CHILDREN into helping him fight demons on behalf of God is wrong on an intellectual and spiritual level. If a God is that cruel what is the point of even fighting demons? Where is there any actual goodness to defend?

Frankly I'm sick of movies and shows with amoral or incompetent version of God because how- then- is it even good versus evil? It's just edgy Zack Snyder level bullsh-t. And everyone is terrible and there's no kindness or mercy and kindness and mercy are even treated as weakness. And to me that's disgraceful.

And if you don't take that interpretation it's just a hopeless mess about destroying the minds of children with pious self-righteousness and violence.

3. When the movie wasn't just watching a child get tortured it was boring.

I'm not into sadism, torture p0rn, or disrespecting all the spiritual beliefs tied to the notion of the Abrahamic God. I believe in respecting all spiritual beliefs, not telling someone that their God is actually an evil SOB and no one is good.

I'm all for questioning the behavior of the Catholic Church or Baptist church, you're questioning human interpretation or greed, politics and religious manipulation. It's another thing to say "Hey, guess what? Your God's an a--h-le! And that's the good one!"

[thenightling]

It's weird how many Youtubers and TikTok people seem to think Dracula was killed at the end of Frankenstein Experiment: monsters Unchained (Ride in the new Epic Universe theme park). 1. Dracula isn't always depicted as vulnerable to sunlight. The first 1931 Universal Dracula movie didn't even list it as a weakness, that wasn't until the sequels. He was just nocturnal. 2. Even when Dracula is depicted as vulnerable to sunlight, since when does Dracula ever stay dead? 3. We see a swarm of red-auraed bats attack Ygor at the end of the ride when he tells you to leave good reviews. The bats are either A. Dracula in bat form (very likely considering the red aura). or B. Bats being controlled by Dracula. Now if Dracula was killed by the sunlight how could he be controlling those bats? No matter how you look at it, Dracula gets the final move in the ride and appears to be winning / won despite the blast of concentrated sunlight to the chest a few moments earlier. So why are so many people convinced he was killed or defeated at the end of the ride?

[thenightling]

I think Epic Universe's Frankenstein Experiment: Monsters Unchained Ygor line of "You delightful freaks" may become as iconic as Disney's Haunted Mansion's Ghost Host saying "Welcome, foolish mortals."

[thenightling]

Monster Mash-ups

I love Monster Mash-ups. I don't mean "Versus" movies like Godzilla vs. Kong or Freddy vs. Jason. I mean I love movies, shows, and even songs where the classic monsters co-exist and interact with each other. The earliest "shared universe" cinematic crossovers were in Universal's classic monster movies (now held under the defunct and then revived Dark Universe banner). Universal's first "Versus" movie was Frankenstein meets The Wolfman, which was unfortunately the victim of heavy editing after it "confused" casual audiences who had not followed all the previous monster movies before it and missed the important events of Son of Frankenstein and Ghost of Frankenstein for the continuity. But the first real monster mash-up was House of Frankenstein. There's something about settings where all the classic monsters co-exist that has always delighted me and even as I got older I was very lax about some of the rules of most of the role playing games I DM / GM to allow canon characters from different source material to meet and interact. I also have a particular fondness when they use the literary version of the Frankenstein monster instead of the zeitgeist depiction. The big difference between a "Versus" movie and a Monster mashup is Monster Mashups usually allow three or more monsters to interact instead of just two. Monster Mashup movies include (but are not limited to) The Hotel Transylvania movies and TV shows The monster High movies and TV shows House of Frankenstein House of Dracula Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein Monster Squad Monster Mash (2024) Scooby Doo and the reluctant werewolf Scooby Doo and the Ghoul school Nightmare before Christmas League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Van Helsing _________________ Monster mashup TV shows include (but are not limited to) Penny Dreadful Monster High (TV series) Hotel Transylvania (TV series) Motel Transylvania (TV series) Gravedale High Monster Force Drak Pack __________________________ Monster Mashup songs include (but are not limited to) The Monster Mash by Bobby Boris Pickett Monsters' Holiday (Bobby Boris Pickett Jr. song) A Monster's Holiday (Aurelio Voltaire song, NOT a cover of the Pickett song.) Halloween bash by Irving Fink This is Halloween by Danny Elfman (and several other Nightmare before Christmas songs) Monster by Emma Reinagel (from the 2024 movie Monster Mash) Monster High Fright song (original 2010 first generation Monster High promotional music video and web series theme song.) Coming out of the Dark from Monster High (first live-action movie) Shout the Boo by "Count Crow" (Count Dracula's rock persona for a novelty album). _________________________________________________ The fact that Universal just made a theme park zone in Epic Universe dedicated to the classic monsters (Dark Universe) all year long and the main attraction is a dark ride monster mashup (Frankenstein Experiment: Monsters Unchained) is a source of constant delight for me.

[thenightling]

Universal has placed nearly all the classic monster movies (from Dracula to The Wolfman) up on Youtube, free to watch with ads.