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Fall From Grace

Summary: Otherwise known as the tragedy of Beryl Grace. The scandalous, drama-filled life of the 80s "fluffy starlet" who managed to snag two forms of the same god, producing two great heroes, and battling the consequences of her hankering for fame and beauty, at any and every cost.

1959. Somewhere in a hospital in Dallas, a woman screams and bears down as she labours, sweat dripping from her forehead. The child is her first, her husband’s fourth. She thinks little of their age gap, or of what will become of his other children, her own child - she thinks only of the pain, begging for it to end, praying this will have all been worth it. For this kind of pain, the child must be extra special. She grips the side of the bed, wishing there was a hand to hold, and wonders if tonight will be the night she dies. Nurses tut at her shrieks - silly girl. Don’t these women know childbirth is painful? Don’t they realise that pain is normal, and they’re hardly going to die from it? In the end, the child - her first, her husband’s fourth - is a girl. She screeches just like her mother; midwives declare her healthy. The happy couple, happy now the torment is over, decide to name her Beryl Darlene Grace. Two nights later, the doting husband loudly berates the loving, ailing wife, for her unwillingness to stand and cook so soon after ripping herself open. He brings her to tears, and the baby keeps crying, and the door slams louder than either of them combined as his temper bubbles over. He will not lay a hand on a woman or a child, but he does not need to. Thus, Beryl's tragedy begins.

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MY FAMILY IS BACK TOGETHER

If we wanna talk about office sirens we must talk about this diva

An essential part of Percy and Annabeth's dynamic for me is that they need to be in cahoots

I need them to be scheming, plotting, bitching etc.

Pixar did not have to go as hard as they did with the Kronos Unveiled scene in The Incredibles (2004), yet they did anyway and gave us one of the best scenes in modern cinema. Literally cannot stop thinking about how good this scene is, from the animation to the build up to the soundtrack.

I don’t think I truly understood how dark this scene - and this film - was a child: Syndrome is systematically and strategically luring in superheroes and killing them off in order to test and improve his Omnidroid design… these people were not only supers but they also had family and loved ones too, just like Bob, and one day they would have just disappeared because chances are they weren’t telling people where they were going because it was "top secret" and against the law. They thought they were doing something good, like helping the people in the island, while also getting to relive their glory days, perhaps even paving the way for superheroes to make a proper comeback… only for Syndrome to kill them in cold blood.

Most of these people can actually be seen at Bob and Helen’s wedding in the beginning of the film - they weren’t just random supers, they were their friends, people they worked alongside and cared about. It’s even worse when you realise that Bob probably blames himself because, after all, Buddy/Syndrome was his biggest fan and he dismissed him by not letting him help.

The relief on Bob’s face when he realises Syndrome doesn’t know where Helen is - meaning he also doesn’t know where their children are because he didn’t realise they were married at this point - is so realistic and gut wrenching to see. The relief contrasting with the anguish of knowing how much danger they and their entire family could have been in the entire time without even knowing...it's so well-done, you can literally feel it.

It’s also worth noting that originally the next target wasn’t Mr Incredible but Frozone - that was who Mirage was trailing, hence why his location is “known”. Imagine if she/Syndrome hadn’t realised that Mr Incredible was with him and they’d lured Frozone in instead as planned; he would have gone to the island to fight the Omnidroid 8 in a volcano setting. We saw how being in the burning building dehydrated Frozone and made it impossible to use his ice powers - presumably it would have been the same in the middle of a lava filled volcano, and he’d have been slaughtered just like the other superheroes before him.

This scene shows an entire generation of superheroes - Bob, Helen and Lucius’ generation - wiped out all because Syndrome felt slighted by his hero as a child, because he internalised that slight and let it drive him to revenge. And, if we take into account the deleted alternate opening scene, it’s mentioned that superheroes "aren't supposed to breed” - meaning there’s a likelihood that Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack are among the very few supers of the next generation. I know that it's deleted and so not really canon, but it's definitely a concept to consider, I think.

Then there's the fact Syndrome named the project "Kronos" - Kronos was a God who overthrew his own father in order to take over his rule, and then he ate his own children to prevent them doing the same thing to him. It feels like it reflects Syndrome once looking up to Mr Incredible and even saying "I could be your ward!", meaning Mr Incredible adopting or fostering him - the project name is a metaphor for Syndrome destroying the Supers, especially Mr Incredible, who he viewed as a father figure. The Omnidroids he built killed two birds with one stone: not only was he able to acquire the data to upgrade the robot to its final design, but it also eliminated the real super heroes and so left him as the last remaining "superhero", even though his powers are man-made, not something he was born with.

Not only did he want to become the only remaining superhero by killing the real ones in revenge, he also planned to sell his inventions at some point so everyone can be super - because "when everyone is super, nobody is". It's like a final blow to the memory of the superheroes he had killed.

I've talked too much about this scene but God... I love it so much more as an adult because it's just so chilling to think about. I'm sure other people can put it much more articulately than I just tried to, but I just really wanted to appreciate this scene.

Challengers movie: where everything is about tennis, except tennis. Tennis is about sex

Hi everyone! New to tumblr, whats up :)

Okay I'm thinking about Luke Castellan and all the reasons for his betrayal of the gods, and one that I personally have never seen talked about is his own parentification.

Cause he grew up with an unstable mother, meaning for the most part he had to raise himself and THEN he runs away and he meets these two girls, both younger than him and just as lost as he is, and he's found someone to protect in a way he never gets to be protected.

He gets to camp, and from there he's raising a grieving Annabeth BUT as time goes on and he gets older he gains more responsibility, and by the time Percy meets him, he's basically a parent figure to the ENTIRE Hermes cabin, as well as one of if not THE oldest camper in the whole camp.

He's constantly watching these kids beg for the gods'attention, both parental and otherwise, and seeking that attention in him, and of course he curses them. It is because of them the kids he cares about are hurting. And, more selfishly, it is because of them he has an emotional and mental burden of parenthood, when he never wanted nor prepared for it. Of course they're the villains.

No one has manic pixie dream girled in the way that she did