I used to think healing meant becoming unbothered.

Now I think it means noticing when I’m bothered and treating myself with less cruelty about it.

People I met for a few moments that live in my head forever.

Babe are you okay? You reblogged crystallizedtwilight’s Strangers that live with me forever. again

One thing I haven’t seen talked about a lot is one of the most symbolic twists of the new knives out movie being that Monsignor Wicks was the “harlot whore” everyone had been fearing all along.

This is according to Wick’s own standards for why his mother was a “harlot whore”: he A) had a child out of wedlock who grows up with at least one absent parent and B) had a love of power and material possessions that lead him to scheming to get his grandfather’s jewel back so he could be rich. He also removes all symbols of Christ from the church because he claims it's more important to remember the "harlot whore" he had for a mother, and Father Jud even tells Blanc in frustration that none of Wicks' homilies are about Christ at all, but about Wicks himself.

And the key telling point is that it was never the removal or death of Wicks' mother that brought Christ back to the church: it was Wicks’ own removal. He was the "harlot whore" that was keeping everyone from Christ. Not just in the literal sense, but spiritual as well. Though the literal is beautiful too: Father Jud brought back the symbols of Christ and renamed the church “Our Lady of Perpetual Grace” (meaning mercy and love), and literally named it after her. There is only one member of the Wicks family whose name is on the church it’s not Prentice, or Monsignor Wicks, or Cy. Because the church was never about what any of them wanted. It's about the grace that Christ offers.

WE DONT USE CHATGPT

We stare at the ceiling like REAL MEN

So you're telling me that in Wake Up Dead Man, this Catholic Church:

ALL KNIVES OUT MOVIES ARE ABOUT CHOOSING KINDNESS.

ALL KNIVES OUT MOVIES ARE ABOUT DRINKING THE RESPECT WOMEN JUICE.

ALL KNIVES OUT MOVIES ARE ABOUT FUCKING AROUND AND FINDING OUT.

*I am forcibly pulled away from the microphone*

Spoilers for Wake Up Dead Man!

One of my favorite details about Wake Up Dead Man is that Grace was never narratively “redeemed.” Yes, the tone of her scenes changes as her story was told differently, but we are never told why, never given a factual change in the story. And that stands out, not due to this movie, but because of how it defies the usual script.

We aren’t told that she had a kindhearted or desperate need for the money. (There is no surgery, no starving child)

We aren’t told that her romantic relationship was horribly abusive or ended with a tragic death, we aren’t told whether or not she was sleeping around

We aren’t even told that her living at the church, with her father, was horrible or abusive

These are all things we can fill in the blanks for, with varying results, but we’ll never actually know because that isn’t the point. The point isn’t that she deserved it through piety or need or as recompense for tradegy.

The point is probably many things and far more complex than this, but she was promised something in return for years of her life and lied to. That’s all the movie thought we needed to know.

She doesn't have to be a perfect victim to be deserving of sympathy. That poor girl deserved empathy and (her namesake) grace the whole time.

Okay but as an ambulatory wheelchair user I loved how Rian Johnson portrayed Simone. He didn't have her be miraculously healed, but had her learn to live and deal with her chronic pain.

Abled people really don't understand how big that is. Like just having an ambulatory wheelchair user is big!!! (I cackled at the scene where she gets out of her chair and someone says it's a miracle and she just goes "I can walk, it just hurts.") But also having her angry that she's in constant pain and trying anything to feel better is so realistic. A lot of disabled people, especially newly disabled people, fall into the idea that they need to be "cured" and that they need to get back to "normal".

Having her accept her disability and making her learn how to still do the thing she loves while still having chronic pain is amazing! Like, the idea that you can continue living after becoming disabled is so rarely shown! Like believe it or not, disabled people can lead fulfilling and happy lives doing things we love!

It isn't just that Knives Out protagonists win by being kind and steadfast. They win by sticking to what it is they're good at. What they've been called to do, as thankless and as demeaning as those jobs can sometimes make them feel. They didn't play the "game" like Benoit did. They just did what they knew they were good at.

Marta wins because she was a nurse and a caregiver before anything else. She wins the inheritance because she gave Harlan companionship, not just medical care. She gets the truth out of Ransom because she acted as a nurse, trying to save Fran even though she still dies in the end. Had Harlan just fucking listened to the actual medical expert in the room instead of himself, he would have lived.

Helen wins because she's a third-grade teacher—her job is literally educating, caring for, and looking out for kids. Glass Onion isn't just the working class vs the wealthy, it's an actual functioning adult woman vs a bunch of adult-sized toddlers, whining and throwing temper tantrums and thinking only of themselves. She plays games with her third graders, and in the end she wins by making a game of destroying everything Miles ever held dear, even getting the others to side with her.

Jud wins because he's an actual fucking priest, who actually embodies everything his god taught. He doesn't try to poach Wick's "flock" or anything, nor does he allow himself to surrender to anger and vindictiveness in the way Wick did. Jud is absolved of all his crimes because he just wants to do good by his church, in the name of his god.

Just as Blanc is an excellent detective, so too are these three spectacular at their jobs.

Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig just keep reiterating the same points in every film and I do love them for it.

• Respect the working class

• Fucking respect women.

• Listen to the local queer person who is excellent at their jobs and you will go far.

• Be kind in a cynical world.

Don’t need to tell me twice. They threatened my birther, and that makes them wonderful in my book.

Birther, that's a fun term! I'm totes yoinkin' that!

She may have been the one to birth and raise me, but she still abandoned, kidnapped, and brainwashed me.

Oh, Jeez... That's rough, kiddo.

Let auntie Harl give ya some huggin'.

*hugs back* Thank you

Don’t need to tell me twice. They threatened my birther, and that makes them wonderful in my book.

Birther, that's a fun term! I'm totes yoinkin' that!

She may have been the one to birth and raise me, but she still abandoned, kidnapped, and brainwashed me.

Don’t need to tell me twice. They threatened my birther, and that makes them wonderful in my book.

You two go cringe together then lol

Are you trapped on tumblr right now?

Is there something you planned to do before you got trapped in the endless tumblr scroll?

Are you yelling at yourself to get up and do the thing, but you can’t, because you’re trapped in the endless tumblr scroll?

Consider this your save point.

Put tumblr down, stand up, stretch, and go do the thing you planned to do. Future you will be incredibly grateful.

Things people in the notes have been able to do thanks to this post:

I need y’all to know that you’re doing amazing, and I’m so glad that I was able to help you break out of a procrastination loop you did not want to be stuck in.

Helpful post I’ve added to my queue in case it helps someone else at the random point when it’s posted.

THANK YOU FOR THIS GONNA SHOWER NOW

type prevs url with your eyes closed in the tags

CRYING AND BAWLING AND LOSING IT

Smolveansfovidnemr

Could be better, could be worse