The Phoenix

Starting from pople tending to turn every story about siblings who are not besties into this huge tragedy instead of awknowledging that maybe, sometimes, people are not close with their siblings. Or that people are so weird about mothers.

But what irks me even more is the tendency to decide that two people who are close in canon have a "sibling coded relationship" which suddenly also means that shipping them together is wrong. Or if a character has an older person in their life whom they look up to - well that is their parent now!!!! They can't fuck their parent!!!!

There is this underlying idea that elevating characters into a familial bond is above such concepts as romantic love or sex. Which sucks because that is not what the concept found family means - it was meant to describe the queer experience of finding your people and community from outside of your blood relatives, and it was never meant to say that there can't also be romantic relationships within that community.

And it is not even always about the fact that I want to ship my blorbo with everyone who comes near him (although I absolutely do), but I think that sometimes there can be meaningful dynamics that are not about family. I want my blorbo to have friends, lovers, partners, mentors, neighbours, a trusted older person who they can call to but is not their parent.

This user is anti-censorship

This user believes in “don’t like, don’t read”

This user believes in “ship and let ship”

2- It Follows: Really interesting approach to horror and sexual assault

3- Anything Jordan Peele. Whether its his last 3 movies or his version of The Twilight Zone. This man tackles literally every bad horror trope and is my favorite director in this genre.

4- The Lighthouse, The VVitch, The Ritual, Men, Annihilation and so many more movies in the past 5ish yrs have all given us content that is so far removed from “classic horror” 5- Watch horror movies from other countries. I don’t even wanna get into how much you’re missing out by defining horror in a very “western” sense.

One of the absolute best moments in Turning Red (a film full of incredible moments) is that part during the climax where Mei, her grandmother and aunties are pulling Ming into the chalk circle and chanting but Mr. Gao and Jin know that it’s not loud enough- presumably, the volume of the chanting is proportional to the size of the spirit being contained? And Mei once again looks so small and helpless next to her family, because we know from her own failed ritual that she can’t understand or speak Cantonese. She can’t participate, and remains unable to help her mother when the clock is ticking fast and they may soon run out of time. Mei is desperate.

And then we hear that familiar beatboxing. Miriam is ever quick to pick up on what’s going on and she, Priya, Abby and even Tyler are singing into a stolen mic near the destroyed stage. It’s not old school Cantonese chanting, but the time signature is the same, and at the very least, the four of them know all the lyrics. What really matters is that they sing from the heart. It could be anything, even Tony Bennet, and the Panda Gang are going to do whatever they can to help their friend save her mother. They’re not exactly perfect singers, and Tyler is keeping beat with a pair of drumsticks and very unsure of whatever the hell is going on, but Mei knows the gauntlet like the back of her paw.

And then we hear 4*Town join in. Because just a minute ago they nearly died because an enormous giant red panda monster destroyed the entire SkyDome in a fit of maternal rage and ruined their concert, but them some gang of thirteen-year-old children told them that their #1 biggest fan has an ancestral curse and that they need to perform an ancient ritual in order to seal the angry panda spirit and turn the monster back into a regular human woman, and they absolutely do it. Because they may be international pop star sensations but they’re genuinely good guys too. We know that because the ritual only works if you sing from the heart and all five guys absolutely gave it their all. Their harmony is angelic and pitch-perfect. (Robaire even sheds a single tear!!)

And because Mei knows that she has her friends (her emotional rock) and her favorite boy band supporting her, and because the song is now one that she knows, she is able to join in even while crying and gasping for breath. Finally she is given the power to actually play her part.

It’s Robaire’s extreme high note that makes the chalk circle go Full Panda Shape!! It unifies and globalizes every discrete part!! The aunties chanting, the teenagers beatboxing, the boy band harmonizing, even the remaining crowd singing along as they realize what’s happening, the orchestral climax swelling!! The drums and violins!! The howling sound of the magic coursing through the air and the beam of light shooting into the darkened sky, opening the gateway through to the spirit realm!! It all turns into one song!!

And each part represents disparate and initially incompatible parts of Mei that caused her to experience the emotional turmoil that started this whole mess!!!! Her ethnic culture and heritage, which she was never given total privy to, and alienated from in a well-meaning but misguided attempt to protect her, a reflection of generational trauma!! The passion that she shares with her friends and allies, her chosen family, an active symbol of her growth and change, a secret that in keeping was threatening to destabilize an unhealthy norm that Mei was trying to cling to!! And her home, a place full of people that you could not separate from Mei’s personal sense of identity no matter what!! The kids of Toronto that reacted in all myriad ways to the panda- with excitement, adoration, objectification, alienation, fear, revulsion, and ultimately acceptance and support!!!!

All of those parts can absolutely exist in harmony even if the life of a child of any Eastern diaspora in the West may be rocky and filled with challenges and rejection!! Mei is made of her roots, her interests, her own decisions, her own burdens, and the people around her. Even if it might not feel like these parts can be compatible, within oneself and within one life, and even if one feels pulled in several directions at once because of the many intersectional identities that make up who you are, you can absolutely find a balance in between it all. No part of Mei has to be sacrificed or set aside in the end. The Cantonese chanting that she does not understand, the English pop song she does, her friends and family and idols and peers, they can all fit into one life. It can all harmonize, even if you don’t think it can at first. It can all be one song.