carinavet reblogs

Chronologically speaking, one of the first instances of this would be RE4R. Krauser, who trained Leon, tries to use insults like Leon being "too soft" or "too weak" to do what needs to be done to get under Leon's skin, and calls him "pretty boy" as well-- a pretty charged and specific phrase. All of these instances seem to poke at Leon's more emotional or sensitive nature in addition to prodding at his physical appearance. Unlike the vast majority of military men, Leon didn't join to patriotically "defend his country" or to prove himself as a man, or any of that other bullshit... he was quite literally forced into this.

But he unwillingly becomes a very talented trained killer-- something that very negatively impacts his mental health, as we've seen in Damnation-- and the government has no problem treating him as such.

Then in Degeneration, we get a somewhat similar story. The government sends Leon out to assist with the shitshow at Havardville and both Angela and Greg are immediately dismissive of his skills. As Greg puts it, Leon doesn't "look military" (are you sensing a pattern?) and seemingly makes it his mission to do everything Leon tells him not to do, like a defiant child. At one point he even gets up in Leon's face, shouting and gesturing at Leon in a way that's reminiscent of how cis men act when their favorite team scores a touchdown. In other words, because Greg is significantly bigger than Leon and has already pointed out how Leon is different from the rest of the military men, he's trying to assert himself to Leon with that stereotypical alpha male, macho man shit.

And this idea comes back again in Infinite Darkness where Jason, Patrick, and Shen Mei openly debate Leon's skills while waiting on his arrival. Patrick points out that he thinks Leon was just "at the wrong place at the right time" which seems to suggest that others probably harbor this sentiment as well. If the other agents know Leon's name, and they're all openly engaging in a debate of his skills, how many other times has this happened? How many other agents, like Patrick, wrongfully assume that Leon is incapable?

It doesn't look like it's limited to just the agents either. When PA Ryan leads Jason, Shen Mei, and Patrick in to talk to Graham, he opens by remarking that one agent is still in route but these three are probably the most qualified-- and then he gets cut off, but the emphasis he puts on Jason, Shen Mei, and Patrick seems to suggest that it was more along the lines of "Leon's not here, but it's ok because these three are the most qualified for this mission." Which is funny when you consider that Patrick didn't even know to shoot them in the head, and don't get me wrong I love Patrick, but why is he here for such a high-stakes mission??... and then he doesn't even go with them.

But, this all begs the question, how would those rumors even start? Shen Mei points out that Leon's handled dozens of critical missions by this point and Patrick knows that Leon was the one who saved Ashley, so it's very interesting how people are fully aware of Leon's accomplishments, yet they often refuse to recognize him for such.

You may need to learn how to set up your paints and such… but this is what people did, live, while the show aired. That’s what the show was for. I had family members create lovely works of art they enjoyed, which I still have on my walls, because William Alexander and Bob Ross both said:

SCREW METICULOUS CLASSICAL ART PRACTICES — JUST GRAB A PALETTE KNIFE AND BIG OLD BRUSH AND PAINT!

They freed a whole generation of people who were taught to paint detail and realism and exact representation of reality — people who largely gave up this kind of thing because it got tedious.

I watched the joy of family members as they rediscovered art as a messy fun spontaneous half hour activity.

Audio: A recording of Leonard Nimoy reading it on Internet Archive.

Text: A PDF version.

Nemoy’s voice is PERFECT in this!

I wanted Alistair to be able to interact with Morrigan and Kieran so badly :(

Bonus:

Sophie is free from Howl’s attentions and therefore safe from harm (a big part of the book is the fact that Sophie believes he eats women’s hearts, and him chasing girls proves this to her).  she takes solace in the fact that she’s old, and finds it freeing.  when she learns more about Howl (notably: that he doesn’t eat hearts and that he’s not evil), she starts to curse her age and resent him chasing girls.  BUT she remains old OF HER OWN VOLITION - Howl notes that she’s perpetuating the spell by wishing to remain “in disguise”.  there are SO many layers to this, and lots to do with gender politics - if she’s still old Sophie can’t get hurt, she likes the freedom, etc.  but of course on a personal level being old is her denying her feelings for Howl, and also a representation of her low self esteem - being old is a defence mechanism and protection, both on a gender level and a personal one.

Also, her belief that being old means she can’t go to her stepmother or her sisters, that they’d fail to recognize her or reject her, is also unfounded. Fanny almost immediately recognizes her at the end of the book, and hugs her and cries over her and asks why Sophie disappeared. Sophie’s belief that the love of her family, friends and even her romantic interests is somehow conditional on her appearance is shown to be completely false at the end, which I think is absolutely beautiful.

Howl is a pissy, dramatic asshole even when he’s at his best. He dissolves into green slime when his hair looks wrong. He deals with his problems by getting falling-over drunk and makes the walls shake every time he sneezes just so everyone will take pity on him. He’s a self-proclaimed coward who has to trick himself into taking responsibility for anything.

Movie Sophie deals with this as well as she can. She learns to look past his drama and sees his tender heart and noble intentions. She becomes the mature one in the castle, fixing everyone’s problems, essentially taking up a motherly role to all the other characters.

Book Sophie does the same… but she does it while dealing out as good as she takes. Howl is chasing after every woman except Sophie? Sophie meticulously cuts up his suit into triangles. Howl floods the room with green slime? Sophie hate-magics weed killer strong enough to melt concrete, and chucks it at Howl’s head. Howl can’t stop avoiding his problems? Meet the queen of avoidance, who clung to her curse to avoid confronting her feelings for Howl. Howl has to basically trick himself into taking action? I would like you to meet Sophie, who was too scared to leave her home her whole life, but the moment she’s under a curse is like “WELP, GUESS I’D BETTER LEAVE HOME RIGHT THIS MOMENT AND NEVER COME BACK.”

Fun fact, in the book, it's explicitly stated that Sophie is a wizard like Howl and has a magical gift for speaking things into existence. Wish they added that into the film bc it explains SO MUCH and adds to the theme that her thoughts were shaping her reality.

Granted, Daniel’s a bit of an odd case since he got run out of academic archaeology first instead of coming up via the CRM track, but still.

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see an annoying ui item you don't like?

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