Thought Collections

Beware major spoilers for those who have not seen the series or *gasp* haven’t read the books!

Now on my third watch and second round of reading the books, I have some serious queries for is future. 

Did the showrunners really think we wouldn’t notice the same actress who played the former Duchess of Hastings was present at Sir Henry Granville’s home when Benedict first visited to practice his hand at sketching? I may have been in my cups, but I certainly noticed! Note the lady facing the camera, bottom left as we see into the room with the models.

But, serious kudos to the set designers who included portraits of George and Charlotte’s mixed children into the existing portraits at Buckingham Palace! I don’t know how much more we will see of Queen Charlotte, King George III or even dear “Prinny” next season or beyond, but their inclusion is not unwelcome. 

And, for those of us who have watched The Crown, don’t think we didn’t notice the office the Duke of Hastings was originally using at Clyvedon was in fact the current Queen Elizabeth II office! The lighting is much brighter so you can see how frightfully yellow the walls are, but those horse paintings on that wall are unmistakable! I also couldn’t help but notice that the Bridgerton House in Grovesner Square is interesting. The two round towers are old, but the main body of the house is new, or at least clean since the colors of the bricks do not match. Here’s hoping some more recognizable sets/locations are due in the near future!

It is also interesting how much the costumes play into the hierarchy of the ton. Each ball seems to have a running color scheme(Trowbridge: cream and black, Hastings: blue) as do certain families. The Bridgerton’s wear blue, Hastings and Danbury burgundy and the Featherington’s green. And while it seems the rest of polite society does coordinate their attire to whichever ball they are invited to, there are a select few who eschew this rule. Yes, the poor Featherington girls are the most obvious, even their mother does as well. I suppose she thinks if they stand out in their “happy colors” they will have more success on the marriage mart. Hastings and Lady Danbury wear their burgundy almost exclusively, at least until Hastings gets his Duchess! Daphne also changes, going from blues to differing shades of purples after her marriage, refecting the union between her family and Hastings.Even Cressida Cowper goes outside the prescribed colors to try and get some attention on herself!

SPOILERS FOR NON BOOK READERS AHEAD!!!

Now for the meat and potatoes of this, the identity of Lady Whistledown. The addition of Marina Thompson to the narrative is going to add so many layers of scandal to Colin’s and Eloise’s stories! How will Colin react when he realizes the Penelope revealed what she knew out of jealousy? How will Sir Philip, knowing how much misery Marina suffered at her hand? I can’t believe they will change either of them so much that they will readily forgive Penelope once her secret comes out. At least with Eloise, she won’t know that Penelope is Whistledown until just before her own wedding, but it certainly will not create a bridge of trust between herself, her best friend and her new husband. True, Penelope and Marina never even cross paths in the books, but after the changes...I’m not sure the endings will be quite as happy as the novels intended. Sir Philip is a good and honorable man, and even if he and Marina are not actually in love, he will have something to say or do about such a horrid revelation. 

I am beyond excited for Antony and Kate next season! The pall mall game is going to be beyond epic! I’m looking forward to seeing his character fleshed out, his fears and his actions after being rejected by Siena. I hope they do Kate justice, a woman who knows herself and is not afraid to give Antony the dressing down he so richly deserves. 

And of course Benedict’s will also be interesting. The hints they’ve dropped about him not caring about a person’s social standing, and the addition of his relationship with Genevieve seem to bode well. While we all hope he will be bisexual, I rather think, based on his reactions, he and the rest of the Bridgerton’s are woefully straight.

Knowing that Colin’s Eloise’s and Francesca’s stories all take place at the same time (hell, the same month!) it will be interesting to see how the writer’s decide to handle it. Will each season focus on the one sibling, or will all the stories be interspliced into one?

I do have a question: what happened to the Prince’s necklace! It must be nice to be able to lose a diamond necklace at a party and not care about it being returned! Yes, there were lives in the balance so a necklace is a bit lower in importance, but still! Will it make another appearance? Will we see someone, say Cressida, wearing it or even Lady Trowbridge? An honest person would discreetly return it, a smart person would have the jewels removed from the setting and reworked into a new piece and a scandalmonger would wear it for all the world to see! If it was returned, I doubt Daphne would wear it ever again, maybe she would save it for her own daughter to wear for her season! 

This new wrinkle with the Featherington’s! Who will inherit the estate? If it is a cousin, could it be Marina’s father? Is it one of the men who killed him? We know that Lord Featherington offered the deed to his house as collateral for the bet on the fixed match, and he didn’t get it back afterwards! That should have been the first thing to worry about, not the cash. The cash and the deed are both distinctly missing from his desk, which is what really devastates his wife. She and her unmarried daughters have nothing to fall back on except the faint hope that the new Baron will take pity and provide for them. Judging from Portia’s reaction to seeing the name, that seems highly unlikely.

So, having just finished rewatching ATLA and reading The Search, I have a few bones to pick with old man Azulon.

TLDR: He set himself up to be murdered.

So, we know from The Search that Azulon was given some vague prophecy that a royal descendant of Roku would bring great power to his lineage. Now, logically, you would want this union to occur between your heir and Roku’s descendant. However, by this point, we know Iroh has already married/has an heir. And since the Fire Nation already had a war over sucession because of Fire Lord Chaeryu having multiple wives and heirs, doing so again was a conflict easily avoided. So, Ozai is the one who “proposes” to Ursa. 

Ozai has been nothing but a useless spare heir for most of his life. He is significantly younger, anywhere from 10 to 18 years, than Iroh. Ozai has no formal military training and no military title. All he has is his anger, jealousy and resentment towards his brother to fuel his political ambitions. I’m not saying Ozai is stuid, because he’s not. He just chooses a path of cunning to get what he wants rather than more honest means. This of course didn’t mesh well with Iroh’s love of peace, tea, pai sho and playing his sungi horn in his spare time on top of rising to the rank of general on his own merit.

When the royal family received the devastating news about the loss of Lu Ten and Iroh’s “failure” to capture Ba Sing Sei, Azulon should not have been as shocked as he appeared when Ozai literally asked him to name him the heir instead. Yes, logically, Ozai could have just let things pass normally. Iroh would take the throne, Ozai would be the heir presumptive and then his children to follow. However, due to their strained relationship, it would be more safe to assume that Iroh would name Zuko as his heir, which would skip over Ozai once again. Ozai, of course, would not stand for two such failures having more distinction than him. 

While I understand Azulon’s justified rage at his youngest son’s request, his reaction only serves to show Ozai is more like him than Iroh. Instead of, I don’t know, banishing Ozai for his crime, he decides it would be better to have Ozai experience the same devastation and see how he likes it. WTF? Now whether he knew if Ozai hated Zuko or not is not exactly relevant because this decision will only lead to differing paths to the same end: Azulon will die, not his grandchilden. If, and this is a BIG if, Ozai truly loved Zuko, he would obviously do anything to spare him. Now, since we know Ozai was a little too willing to get rid of his “weaker” child, the next logical step would be to name Azula to die instead. This would actually hurt Ozai more, but since, up to this point and from what we know, no female has ever been named Fire Lord, it wouldn’t have the same impact Azulon is looking for. Regardless of which child you choose however, he greatly underestimates Ursa and her role in all of this. Regardless of how she may have seen how much Azula inherited her father’s temperment, she still loved her little girl. Whichever child it was, you should NEVER expect a mother to sit idly by while her children are sent to slaughter and she can do something about it! Her name freaking means BEAR, she’s a literal mamma bear and if you mess with her cubs, you sign your death warrant!

Just binged what has been released so far and...its cool. I like how Minnow is exploring other religions and asking questions without being offensive. I like that the girls are realistic and behave like teenagers. I LOVED the cathartic screaming, I thought that was a perfect way to end that episode. I’m about to go into spoiler territory and speculation, so read at thine own risk.

***SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT***

I understand why Carl ratted her out, but I also love that they took the time to show his reaction. He was clearly thinking that Kevin was going too far, but was not in a position to stop it. That being said, I HATE that Minnow’s dad didn’t take that hatchet right to Kevin’s dome. I understand the confusion, but no god (especially one named Charlie) is worth hurting your own flesh and blood. I don’t know if anyone left the group before the fire, but I’d have booked it after what they did to Rose. I mean, the hot iron shoes was WAY over the top just for reading a book. But, I am glad she survived and might be getting out from the influence of the cult. But Kevin’s lies were pretty obvious. I mean, if Minnow heard him wheezing, so did everyone sitting on the other side of the table. How has NO ONE heard it up until that point? Rose must know since it looks like she’s his “wife”. Olivia...man she’s a piece of work. I’m sure her life was rough before Kevin showed up, hell I’m surprised she didn’t jump Kevin’s bones as soon as they got into the woods. But, Kevin clearly went for Rose because after the shoes, she was easy to control through fear. I’m sure Kevin was sexist as well as racist, hence why Olivia didn’t establish herself as the new prophet after the fire. As far as the girls in juvy, I am kind of mad about how the system screwed Angel over. I mean, clearly she was abused because you don’t wait for 6 HOURS to shoot someone in the face. You have to be pushed far for that to be your way out, but no one seems to believe her. I’m guessing her uncle was some big shot who would NEVER hurt a little girl. The girls in charge of youth group is yandere if I ever saw one. But, boyfriend isn’t exactly normal either after all. I’d like to hear more about some of the other girls, especially the Muslim girl. 

I work as a host at a nice restaurant inside a high-end department store. Our location is dine in: a host is up front (me) to greet your party, appropriately seat you, present menus and pass you off to a server who takes care of everything. The other locations near us (by near I mean over 2 hours drive away) are cafeteria style: you order at the registers up front, pick your table to sit at and a runner drops off your order. While the STORE is the same, the names of the restaurants are DIFFERENT. So, its very annoying when people just walk in, blow right by me and sit where they want. Like, have they never gone out to eat before? That table could be dirty, or reserved, or the section is closed for cleaning, you don't know, you just say "I'm gonna sit here!" Also, I have to make sure the servers are sat in a way that works best. They should,have the same number of tables and number of guests served. If one gets a big party, they may,need to,be skipped so their next table gets the same great service. By sitting yourself, you can throw the whole system off and I have to spend more time and energy trying to fix,

it.If you do this, you deserve to be frustrated that you don't have a menu and no one has asked if you'd like a drink. This has happened 3 times this week and each of those tables have been very problematic.

The first, lets call him Phone Guy. He's on his phone and walks right by me and sits at a table by the window. Timing wise, he didn't mess up rotation, but the server had just started taking an order for a party of 6. I gave him a menu and gave her the heads up. The entire time, he was on his phone and being very loud. Not loud enough for guests to complain, but loud enough to be annoying.

Table 2, the old biddies. We do offer takeout and we were just winding down our lunch rush when two older ladies came in. The takeout station is to the right as you walk in, next to the bar. I was finishing up with a to go order, grabbing his drink and saw the ladies. I greeted them and said I'd seat them in a moment. Well, that wasn't fast enough. They sat down at the first booth which is across from the bar and on a main aisle for servers and guests to walk. I grab them menus and tell the server who was up that she has a table out of her section. She dealt with them well, even with the older of the two sticking her leg well into the aisle. I was terrified one of the servers was gonna trip and break something. Their order was complicated and then the older one complained about her salad being cold. Plus, they stayed over 2 hours just talking and sucking every drop of watered down iced tea after they paid.

Today was the staring lady. Now, today there were 2 hosts working. She waddled right past the stand and sat herself in that first booth. I gave her the menu, told her the soup and the specials and cleared the extra silverware. She asks me what the ingredients are in the soup. I list them off and inform her that a server will be right with her. Our head server is taking care of her and since this booth is closest to the front, I can hear what's going on. Our menu lists the calories, so she wants to know why this crispy chicken sandwich is 1200 calories. Server tells her it is a fried piece of chicken smothered with sauce on a brioche bun, plus it also adds in the calories from the fries and pickle which are included with your order. All of this is spelled out in the menu if you bother to read past the name of the entree, but whatever, maybe she can't see it well. She then proceeds to rework,the sandwich so its healthier. Chicken grilled, not fried but still covered in sauce and sweet potato fries instead of regular. I missed the rest, but I saw the look on the servers face and knew this was getting ridiculous. Once her food comes out, she eats the chicken from between the bun, but doesn't eat the bun. Meanwhile, she is staring at me THE WHOLE TIME. Thank goodness I got a call for a to go order because it was really uncomfortable.

So, as many of us know, the live-action remake of Mulan is underway. The few tidbits we are getting seem promising and, hopefully, interesting. I’m going to give my thoughts on what we know so far, then add my ideas for the rest of the story.

The casting so far I am excited about, especially Donnie Yen. I enjoyed the Ip Man films, so I am looking forward to seeing more of him in action. Jet Li as the Emperor sounds fun, hopefully they flesh out the character more so we can see him doing some action scenes. The idea of con-artists sounds fun, it’ll be interesting to see how they are utilized as part of the story. I like the idea of Mulan having a sibling, but no word yet on her parents. Obviously, those roles are very important to the story so they need to be perfect. 

However, there are some things I’m not excited about. The main villain being a witch seems...odd to me. Mulan had very little fantasy to it, every obstacle Mulan overcame on her own, using her own strength. No magic, no fairy godmother, no true love’s kiss, no BS. So the idea of the bad guy being a witch and not a powerful, scary warlord seems like an odd choice. Yes, there is a character that sounds similar to Shan Yu, but he isn’t the main antagonist. I understand they want to make it a female led kung-fu fantasy, and fit in Mushu and the ancestors better, but...I’m not sure if thats an improvement over the original.

I truly hope they get the parents down and fit in with the girls because they are, to me, the most important parts of the Fa family. There needs to be this great dynamic with Mulan and her father to propel her story into motion. Also, since I am THRILLED about the NO MUSICAL aspect, I think Honor To Us All can easily be replaced with scenes of Mulan getting ready for the matchmaker with her mom while listening to the other women talk about their experiences with the matchmaker. Maybe talk about how the parents met, how nervous they both were, if she made any mistakes. Get grandma in on this too, really focus on the female bonding here.

As far as Reflection, maybe keep the verses or chorus as some kind of dialogue between Mulan, her parents and some kind of apology to her ancestors while expressing her confusion about how she is going to fit in. Speaking of ancestors, I was kind of hoping for no fantasy elements, or if there was, to skip them and Mushu all together. Once Grandma sends up that prayer, make it like a wind going through the shrine, blowing some leaves or setting off a chime. Then it bursts out of there and “follows” Mulan on her adventure. The breeze makes small things happen to help and protect her, but ultimately it is her own strength and will that drives the events of the story.

While I am sad that the BEST song, Make a Man Out of You, won’t be in the film, this is an easy fix. Focus on Mulan through her training, bonding with the other soldiers and overcoming all the obstacles in front of her. I am glad to see that Ling and Po are back, not sure yet about Yao but as long as she uses this opportunity to do well and make friends that is the most important part. My dream would be to keep the chorus as some kind of marching/running cadence, just because the lyrics and the beat of the song gets me so pumped to break stuff. Girl Worth Fighting For is easy to replace as dialogue and bonding between Mulan and the other soldiers, so that won’t be missed at all. And also, a small tear for no shirtless Li Shang, heck no Li Shang. But, hopefully they skip the romance and focus on this being about a warrior finding her place in the world. But, I doubt THAT would ever happen.

Recently, my sister texted me asking about my excitement for the upcoming Mulan remake. I told her I wasn’t going to set my hopes too high after what they did to Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast.

My mom jumped in because we had gone to the theater together to see Beauty and the Beast and she thought I liked it. Being the right age to have seen the original in theaters, I honestly didn’t have the same feelings leaving as I did after the remake. Plus, of course, the performance from Emma Watson was, and I quote, “encompassing all the range of a wooden teaspoon.” My mom has now declared me “too grown-up” for Disney movies.

I’m sorry, no! No one is too grown up for Disney. Disney just needs to grow up with their current audience. Yes, it needs to be kid-friendly and filled with child-like wonder and magic. That does NOT mean it gets to be bad! No one, no matter their age, should be subjected to bad movies, bad writing and bad singing.