• hydrate it by drinking lots of water

• eat dark chocolate and blueberries and walnuts and salmon and other foods high in antioxidants!!

• play little brain games on your phone; I like wordconenct! anything that makes you think!

• read books. It’s simple but necessary. Even better - join a book club, or read with a friend, so you can have discussions after. This will improve your reading comprehension.

• do puzzles - it doesnt have to be sudoku, I love playing Beat Saber on the Oculus Rift because it makes my brain have to match colorful patterns to physical movements very quickly!

• learn a new dance - even a tik tok trendy dance. Learning new dance moves are proven to strengthen synapses!!

• go bird watching, or foraging, or anything outdoors that requires you to explore pattern recognition and visual searching

• watch a movie with the intent of analysis - this is best done with a cinephile friend!! talk about tropes and symbolism and character growth

• cross stitch, or sew, or do anything that requires matching nimble hand movements to patterns

• play or learn an instrument!

• develop a consistent sleep schedule (or as close to consistent as you can get!)

• when eating, try to identify the ingredients and flavors you’re perceiving!

Pretty good movie. 7/10

Had surprisingly heavy subject matter (implications of rape, pedophilia, and sex trafficing), but they were handled decently well, and the perpetrators get what they deserve in the end.

Anyways spoilers under the cut for my overall opinions about this movie

I will not get drawn into Supergirl discourse tomorrow

it cannot be that bad some ppl are acting like gunn climbed out of the seventh circle of hell or smth

The movie is not perfect, but it's a good movie. She deserves at least a trilogy so we can see her character grow even more. Especially since those opportunities are given to male heroes no matter of their movies are good or bad.

When I finished it, I was left with the same hope that I had when I finished Superman. There's not that many superhero movies that leaves you with that feeling in my opinion. I mean, love them, but that doesn't mean that you're able to leave the theater being actually inspired by a superhero story.

She’s messy. She’s vomiting mid fight and taking hits and looking ugly in a way you don’t see in female characters. She’s grieving and isn’t the perfect victim of her grief. She’s rude and angry and disgusting and there’s not a person in sight vying for her romantic attention and I didn’t realize just how much I needed to see ALL of that.

There’s this part of me that I think a lot of us feel—those who’ve been raised as girls or those who’ve been told in general to act or feel or to be seen in a certain way—this form of almost-grief that is constantly put aside or pacified with something that is meant to embody what we find so limiting in this current world. You see moments of articulation, of what’s missing, but it’s gone so fast. I think of Arcane, that first fight Vi has and it slo-mos on her face. The saliva being driven from her mouth, the wrinkle of the nose. We don’t see these things enough and I missed it when I realized there’s little beyond that scene in Arcane in other shows and movies STILL.

I don’t WANT to always have a character looking sexy in their pain. It feels like porn of a different form when women are grieving or agonizing while they look intentionally beautiful with makeup and effects via the director/crew behind the scenes. It HURTS and it’s vindicating and healing to know that the reason I find Kara beautiful and attractive in this movie is because of her character and the side effect of having a gorgeous actress. They’re not perfecting her hair or placing a shit ton of makeup on her. Her skirt is a skort and 3/4s the time she’s wearing baggy vomit covered clothes and her hair looks like it’s been through a blender.

There’s that, and also the message of the film.

You’re not nice, but you’re kind. Just be good. That doesn’t mean you can’t be tough, and that doesn’t mean you have to be nice, but you must be good.

It made me think of the Mary Oliver poem, Wild Geese.

“You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.”

This poem sums up a lot of what I’ve been feeling after watching this. Not just of Kara coping with her grief and coming into herself through the love of a girl and her family, of forgiving herself for surviving but the fact that she could exist on screen looking like a human. A messy, imperfect, human. After watching that one Arcane scene a couple years back. This need to just be. To enjoy what and who I am. To embrace the ugliness and messiness of myself and my gender in general without hesitance or self-ridicule.

I think I love Supergirl too because it feels like a film that would’ve been so widely accepted because its format if the character wasn’t female because, the characterization, is a familiar one. Who doesn’t love that alcoholic, messy, snarky dude who rolls up on screen. Who’s competent but dealing with some inner demons. But this characterization is limited and kept from female characters, and seeing this film only make me want to see more of this. Give me your bastards, your snarky messy women. Give me women who don’t shy from being feminine, or embrace their masculinity without putting other women down or feeling like a man + boobs. Give me trans women that remind us of the pure joy of being a woman in the first place, and who are happy and healthy in films, who are human beings like the rest of us. Give me asexual women, aromantic women, women who adore other women, romantic or platonic. Give me women who suck but are still human. Just give me humans. Not caricatures of humans.

I want this film to serve as another starting point, an example, and a catalyst for more female characters looking like this or at least being represented in more ways that feel thoughtful and like they matter.

Thanks Kara. You are my supergirl.

Dick: Hi 😊

Barry: So that's a... kid

Bruce: He's my protege.

Clark, floating over: Hi 😊

Dick: Oh my god, it's Superman 😭😭😭 Batman, it's Superman

Clark, tears brimming in his eyes as he hugs Dick: A baby

Hal: Jeez, what the hell? did you knock up some one nightstand, Bats? The hell is that thing? Where's it's mom?

Dick: She fell-

Hal: I bet that's what she said.

Dick: -from a trapeze... She died

Hal:

Clark: *hugging Dick tighter, eyes glowing at Hal*

Diana, squishing Jason's face: This one has the squishiest face.

Jason, almost in tears: I love you Wonder Woman

Diana, whispering: I would die for you.

Clark: *scuffing his shoes because this Robin hasn't even looked over at him*

Tim: Hi I'm... Robin?

Oliver: You don't sound sure.

Tim, deepening his voice: I'm Robin.

Oliver, who knows his friend lost a kid and this kid is helping him through it: Yes you are. Do you want an Oreo, dear?

Stephanie, hands on hips: I am Robin.

Hal: But you're a girl?

Diana:

Dinah:

Shiera:

Kara:

Carol:

Tatsu:

Zatanna:

The Entire Nation of Themyscira: so you have chosen death.

Damian: I am Robin, son of the Bat.

Hal: That's cute but -

Damian: Silence, worm.

Barry: *chuckling*

Damian: You too.

Clark: Now, wait a minute, Robin-

Damian: *opening his pocket where there is an eerie green glow*

Clark:

Arthur, arriving with a jar: Sorry I'm late, I just-

Damian: is that... Is that a seahorse?

Arthur: um, yes, buddy. He's just feeling under the weather.

Damian: Is it environmental? Perhaps he has a virus? Can I help?

Arthur: Environmental, poor guy got some oil on him. He will he fine. I'm taking him home later. Do you want to hold the jar while I sit in on this meeting?

Damian: *grabby hands*

Arthur: He's a nice boy.

JLA:

Damian, whispering to the jar: I will avenge you, Bucephelus.

Bruce, holding Cass's hand: This is my daughter. Yes, she was an assassin and yes, she is rehabilitated. You will treat her with respect.

Cass: *tugging Bruce's hand*

Bruce: *leaning down*

Cass:

Bruce: She loves your hairslide, Dinah.

Dinah: Thanks.

Cass: 😊

Barbara, seated at the JLA meeting table: I'm covering for Batman. He's busy with Gotham business. He would like to-

Guy Gardener: Sorry but who the fuck gives you the right to-

Babs, not even looking up: You're talking a lot of shit for somebody who doesn't know where Iowa was.

Guy: How did you-?

Babs: I'm Oracle. Now, unless you have something worthy to contribute I would exercise that willpower and shut the fuck up.

Wally: Get his ass, Babs.

Babs: Wally, I know what you searched on your phone last night. You're in no position to laugh. Or judge. Frankly, I was disturbed.

Wally:

Babs: Now, as I was saying-

Barry: You're not a Robin?

Duke: No, I'm The Signal.

Clark: He's a meta. He glows.

Arthur:

Barry:

Dinah:

J'onn:

Zatanna:

Victor:

Billy:

Diana:

JLA: ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US