Kindness 🐚💐 Patience

like I saw someone say “it was good but I wish we’d seen the fight between their mom and the iron gang” and it just didn’t make any sense to me but I didn’t know why at first.

but after thinking about it for a while, I realized that every fight in the movie was there to tell us something about the characters.

the very first battle scene of the father many years ago established his power. the scene between the father and the mother showed their attraction for each other. the bus scene did a similar job as the first scene of his father, establishing Shang Chi’s fighting skills and intelligence. the fight scene between Shang Chi and Xialing expressed both the regret that he had for abandoning her and the resentment she held against him. the following scaffolding scene reunited the siblings as a fighting force. the scene between Shang Chi and the death dealer showed how Shang Chi had become stronger than the one who’d taught him, but still hadn’t outgrown his anger towards his childhood. the scene between Shang Chi and his aunt showed him how to choose acceptance over force. the initial confrontation between Shang Chi and his father during the battle expressed the shared trauma they had over Shang Chi’s mother’s death but the refusal to allow each other to heal. Finally, the final scene between Shang Chi and his father showed Shang Chi learning to let go when he gave up the power to hurt his father any further, in turn teaching his father to let go leading him to give up the rings willingly.

That was a lot, but my point is that fighting is never wasted or filler time in this movie. It has a purpose every time. It’s kind of like a musical where when you don’t have the ability to speak through your emotions so you sing instead. When words couldn’t capture the emotions that the characters were feeling, the characters used martial arts instead (which, like with the scene between the father and mother or with Shang Chi and his aunt, aren’t always moments of conflict).

Having a scene where we watched the mother fight the iron gang wouldn’t have been necessary in my opinion. What would it express to us? That we should be sad that the mother died? That’s already pretty obvious in the following scene and the love each character speaks with when they talk about her. That she loved her family so much that she would put everything on the line, including her life, to protect them? We already know that too from the words she spoke to her children before she died. Showing her die would take away focus from that love she had for her family and the grief around her loss.

A scene I forgot to mention is the flashback to when Shang Chi’s father came to the club to kill members of the iron gang. This scene showed the anger and the lengths to which he would go to to avenge his wife. It showed his returned commitment to leveraging the rings for power. It showed his neglect for his children, letting his son watch someone else die at his hands. To be fair, some of this, Shang Chi’s father had put into words, but then again, actions speak louder than words.

This a real and official Garfield merchandise from Paws Inc.

It is a pin of Garfield as a DnD Wizard, and he “has a deal for you”.

“The hardest thing I asked her to do was something I never thought she would be able to do. She is like a human Swiss army knife who was able to flip herself backwards do this, watching this scene with her flipping backwards was just beyond incredible and I was so happy that it worked.“ “That was me, I’m very dexterous with with my toes. I could braid someone’s hair with my toes, I reckon. I could pick a lock no problem.”

Marceline and Princess Bubblegum only kiss in the very final episode because Cartoon Network wouldn’t let them do more.  There are a ton of interviews with Pendelton and with the voice actresses where they talk about the CN censorship.

Steven Universe got as far as it did because Rebecca Sugar fought tooth and nail, and risked the show getting cancelled (which it did in many countries, if not heavily censored), because Cartoon Network wouldn’t let her.  Ruby was often dubbed over with a male voice, and Pearl/Rose interactions were completely cut.

She-Ra managed to do it largely because it was specifically on Netflix only, and even then, Noelle has said they had to build 4 seasons of storyline very subtly around it so they had enough ammo to convince the execs that Catradora was the only logical conclusion to this show they had already aired.  She didn’t just go in on Day 1 and make it gay; she had to plan many years in advance for how to set up her argument.  Her argument, y’all.

And now we have The Owl House.  Which is an absolutely wonderful show.  And it’s so amazing that we actually get to see queer characters get the kind of representation that so many straight characters get.  And it’s amazing we get to see the romance build up, instead of just a quick peck in the series finale!

Let’s not forget that in the US, it was illegal for gay people to get married until 2015.  Korra aired in 2012.  In Texas, it was a punishable felony to even be gay until the mid-90s.  No, literally.  Just being gay was an arrestable offense here in Texas until 1993.  We have come a really long way in 20 years!

THANK YOU

You can read any implied text you see in this thing, even the book, that’s how detailed it is. Look at the painting on those letters!

jesus christ you’re just showing off now, Hans!

HANS OH MY GOD

I quit my job! I was shoved into a position I had turned down: but work didn’t care. They assumed I must be a jack of all trades under any condition just because I “looked” capable. I get hired and admired for being one of the best employees because of my attention to detail, organisation, problem solving skills, etc and then regularly pushed over my limits and used as a doormat cos it’s easier for management to ignore my basic needs if it means accessing my strengths and getting their job done “right”. But when you IGNORE my needs, I CAN’T do your job right!!! My work performance goes downhill and they wonder why. And within a year, I’m forced to quit. All because those in charge wanted to force me to be more convenient as they increased workload and hours and got irritated when I told them that was beyond my limits. “UGH! You do so well doing X, why can’t you just do this too??” they seemed to say. Their pushing led to a sharp decline in my physical and mental health. Autistic people deserve better than this. Your “equal employment opportunity” claim is a pathetic lie if you brush the needs of autistic people under your corporate, capitalist rug.