Extremely Late Umbrella Academy Text Posts That Have Definitely Been Done Before (1/?)

Not to be all "Billy actually does care for Stu" (even though he absolutely does and I’ll die on that hill) but after Stu tells him "I think I'm dying here" cuz Billy's stabs were much deeper than the stabs he gave to Billy, Billy gives him the phone and tells him to keep Sid on the line and to "keep talking" and it's a well known fact that if someone is dying in some way, like, say, slowly bleeding out, keeping them distracted by having them keep talking is a good way to keep them awake and therefore keep them alive, so I'm not saying "Billy was just as in love with Stu as Stu was with him" but that's exactly what I'm saying

shelly duvall on set of “Brewster McCloud”

the umbrellas + lila and sparrow ben (yes i put both bens and lila up twice lol)

I think one of the most interesting things about Arcane was that, for an action tv show, it surprisingly managed to go without glorifying that violence.

There's a tendency of action media to lean into the fight scenes, to let us glorify in the violence. Look what they can do, look what they can be. And Arcane had those moments, of course, but it never let us dwell on them. Even in the first episode, every single time a blow was struck it told us that was inherently a tragedy. The first fight takes place and we cheer for our heroes until we take a look from Jinx's eyes and see she's horrified by the violence. That's why all the blood and bruises and broken teeth in the show mean so much, because the camera stops and makes us look.

The only fight that managed to stay calm and smooth all the way through was the Firelight's first attack on the blimp, before Jinx came out with guns blazing. And they were, notably, not there to fight. They came in fast, immobilized the hostiles without trying to harm them, and focused on the Shimmer. That wasn't a fight, it was a prevention. And it was the only one that managed not to carry that taint of tragedy.

The Jinx and Ekko fight was a battle between two champions with amazing abilities and an upbeat soundtrack. We were hyped for it, we adored it. And then it shows us the two of them as children, different shots juxtaposing the man and woman each of them became with the round-faced child that they used to be. When Ekko has Jinx on the ground at his mercy, face bleeding and eyes panicked, we can't glory in it. Because he stops to realize that this used to be his friend, and so do we. There was no triumph in that fight. He won, he faltered, and she blew them both up.

Jayce and Vi's fight was what we'd always been waiting for: the final use of Hextech in a battle. And it broke his heart. He killed a child there. When Vi announced she was keeping the gauntlets any lesser show would have had them fight, just to have the demonstration. Look at them, they're powerful, look at what they can do against each other. Instead Arcane had him walk away.

Even in the final moments of the episode, we never got the Vi vs. Jinx fight. Because that was her sister and there was no violence there, only grief. It was about love and family and being able to heal something that was broken and finding out that no, she couldn't fix it. Violence wasn't what either of them wanted and of course it's not what we got.

For an action series to demonstrate over and over that once it comes to blows, no one wins...it's shocking to me how they managed to do that. But time and time again we saw characters come to blows and our hearts broke every time.

Gay