Rest in peace PJ Ransone
It makes me so sad to hear about his death. He played one of my favorite characters in IT Chapter 2 (Eddie Kaspbrak) and he was also in other horror movies I loved like Sinister 1 and 2, The Black Phone, Family Blood, and Prom Night.
I know his mental health took a dive years ago, but he seemed to have been getting better. I feel for his family, losing a loved one to suicide is so painful.
I hope PJ finds peace. I hope his wife and child can find peace as well.
Also please be respectful when talking about him online. If not for him, but for his family who are deeply hurting. They deserve at least a day without people bringing up what happened when he had his psychotic break. The man was mentally ill and mental illness isn't pretty. There are ugly symptoms and sometimes we hurt people when lashing out. Sometimes we say horrible shit we don't even mean. It doesn't make the behavior ok, but he was human, a human who had been hurting for a very long time. Hurt people hurt people.
Rest In Peace James, you will ALWAYS be my Eddie.
I wish we could have done more for you. I wish others had believed you when you reached out for help. We need to actually DO better when it comes to Male victims of SA.
I'm rewatching The Walking Dead season one for the very first time. It's been, like, 10 years or something. Number one, I'm so glad my instincts were right about Lori and Rick's marriage. In my Richonne WIP I wrote they got married young and now I've just watched Lori say this, so it's canon! But the thing that gets me, is the conversation she has with her friend as she waits to pick Carl up from school (before discovering Rick has been shot pre ZA). What type of toxic communication was she hankering for?
You want your husband to blow up on you and call you a bitch? You're pissed off that he's actively trying to be reasonable and talk to you with respect?
While I respect Lori backing Rick that one time in the woods when Carol was blaming him for Sophia going missing, I can see why their marriage was so unhealthy.
Lori says Rick doesn't communicate, as he discusses with Shane in the cop car. But then Rick elaborates that when he tries it pisses her off and she becomes impatient.
This is why Richonne as a ship, and specifically Michonne as a partner, as Rick's wife, as his friend, is elite, because not once did you see her handle disagreements by disrespecting him or provoking him on purpose.
My theory is they were way too young to get married and not mature enough, Lori specifically. Because Rick was still trying. Also saying I don't think you care about *us* (Lori and Carl) to Rick in front of Carl is gross and would have confused the heck out of Carl.
In my AU, they were high school sweethearts but I would love to explore when Lori started talking to Rick crazy and why she was questioning if she still loved him.
I also think that brief conversation at the school, indicates why Lori was attracted to Shane. Shane is rough AF and less likely to put up with her BS. And of course there's the your-best-friend-my-husband-is-apparently-dead-factor- let's-get-it-on.
Thank God Michonne came into Rick's life with that baby formula. Imagine your first wife and mother of your kid being mad at you for not being aggressive or talking abusively to her. That's so toxic.
1 MILLION PERCENT TRUE.
How would you interpret the look on Rick's face when Michonne says the only time she feels safe is when she's with him?
before that they were arguing and he says he would do anything for her, like cutting off his hand or risking his life so going back to some military and trying to reform it is not that far off if it meant keeping her safe.
that’s such a bold statement i’ll never be over it. we know who michonne is and how she can handle whatever is thrown at her. she’s been living in the community they built up with walls. it’s supposed to provide stability and security. but the only time she really feels safe is when she is with RICK GRIMES.
he’s speechless for a moment. he doesn’t bother arguing. he has no reply because he didn’t expect her to confess something like that. tensions were already running high between them. he thinks pushing her away is the right thing to do to keep her safe because that’s all he’s focused on. they’re not on the same page at all. and in the middle of this argument she reveals she only feels safe with him??? i don’t think he realized (until that moment) just how much she needs him still despite all these years. maybe he thought she would’ve gotten used to him not being there. he was “dead” for awhile after all, in his mind she and judith were fine back home living their lives without him. i think it just really caught him off guard after everything.
#that's it burn the CRM to the ground #michonne feeling unsafe for YEARS #just when I had sympathy for Jadis #gabriel is on that list too
Thoughts on Rick vs Beale - P1
I will eventually write my defence of Episode 5’s honour, but in the meantime I need to yammer on about why Beale was actually perfectly written for the part he was meant to play.
The first thing, and this is something I’ve seen a few people mention in the form of not “enough TOQ! Sadness!” is that (fair enough, but) Beale is not the main antagonist -Jadis is. The person directly responsible for Rick’s predicament from day one, is Jadis. She sells him to the CRM, tries to recruit him to the cause, and then blackmails him into remaining in submission (insert rant about how Okafor is a soft-pedalled villain and we should be happy he died). She’s the broken mirror to Ricks entire journey: a leader in her own right, a survivor who has seen it all, a reliable get-it-done type. We can argue whether Thorne is an A or a B (I have thoughts) but we absolutely cannot deny Jadis’s history, for better or worse. There’s a reason why the show does the cat-and-mouse hero/villain shouting match/standoff with her and Rick, not with him Thorne and certainly not with Beale.
Beale on the other hand — in retrospect, there is so much about Beale that sets him as an outside force, an obstacle not directly in Ricks path (and certainly not on his level). Rick even references it in ep 06: we could go, he tells Michonne in Jadis’s room (and allow me reiterate how much I love that beat). Because what they needed to do for Ricks personal journey, is already done -Jadis is gone. Beale is something they need to deal with for the sake of others (what kind of world…). Taking the CRM down is not a necessity, but it is a reaffirmation of who they are as people and to each other (I’m not afraid and it’s because of you). They’re the ones who live because they’re the ones willing to die protecting others. It’s not about physical longevity, and twd told us that in the heavily referenced “Say Yes”
But Beale. While I’ve said enough about his little speech, there are several beats on that infodump that just need to be heard, to understand both the extent his megalomania and his significance as the embodiment of the institution he presides over.
Taking a couple of steps back, we begin with the chat by the fence and his declaration to that he’s not a citizen (the Romans would like a whole fucking encyclopaedia of words, probably), so right off the bat, that tells us how he feels about civilian authority: he’s above it, above civilian life. And he immediately follows that by anointing himself both supreme and absolute leader of this force: I alone, he says twice bravely bearing the terrible burden that those dumb, weak civilians simply could not (sidenote, that little bit with Beale bravely putting down walkers through the fence was so Putin playing hockey, I had to fucking laugh. It’s the little details).
Then we see them inside and, skipping right past the ritualistic humbling of his underling*, we get into a couple of key points 1. He’s given this speech to every single one of his chosen recruits -this is a loyalty test: “are you with me or against?” It also conveniently means that as far as the audience is concerned, everyone in that assembly is fair game: they took the poison pill long ago, that’s why they’re here. 2. He’s never given the speech to anyone like Rick Grimes. This is super important because as others have noted, every single one of those soldiers was specifically chosen because they would easily follow -they’re all Bs. However, leading a group of people means having to butt heads, mediating disagreements, making compromises. Outside of very structured/high control environments, people generally don’t just do what they’re told; you gotta convince them.
So here’s Beale, having to, for the first time since this all started, sell his vision of the world. Why does he think Rick will go along with this? Because this self-image as Pater Patriae (NuWashington**) he’s forged as head of the CRM has never been challenged before.
[there’s another reason, but I’ll get back to that later on]
Leaving it here for P2, because this is getting long (shocking I know)
———
* I have previously referenced the relevant portion here but as always, may I suggest you read the whole thing, you guys.
** NuJohnson would perhaps be more accurate but that’s not how he sees himself. Washington was also particularly rankled by the idea of him having absolute power, and if y’all unfamiliar with the Newburgh letter, pls allow me to make introductions!
EXACTLY, Jadis WAS the main villain. Idk how ppl ain't getting that.
