So, D&D feels here but you know, paladins aren’t rare in the way most people seem to think of them. It is not inborn talent, so much, sometimes, especially in the case of the paladin. With the new 5th edition especially, it’s made even more explicit that they do not always dedicate themselves to gods, but rather to ideals. And maybe it means nothing to cynics, but, hey.
There are two ways to right a wrong. Punish the evildoer, or do kindness for the unfortunate in equal measure. First option’s easier, probably should be taken before moving on to the second one, but the second option’s worth doing.
A paladin isn’t always clad in shining white armor on an impressive, majestic steed, lance in hand as he races towards a descending dragon.
Sometimes a paladin is a dark, skinny-armed girl who grew up in the slums who should know nothing but survival, clawing for every piece of bread she can see, standing defiantly over the body of a fallen beggar, between him and the disdainful guardsman who was ready to beat him to death over a few allegedly stolen bread.
Sometimes a paladin is a grizzled old man whose knees are going on bad on him, who walks everyday to the unmarked graves of prostitutes and the nobodies who die in droves and water the flowers he’s planted on them, telling them stories like they are old friends.
Sometimes a paladin is a cook in the temple’s kitchen, who watches the priests feast on good food while others starve. Who purses her lips and shoves every scrap of food leftover for the day into baskets, which she then passes out in the slums with staunch faith that one day things will change. She might lack the power and the authority to turn the corrupt temple on its head, but someone else will, and until that day she knows she’s in the position to ease some pain from the despondent and she will fucking keep doing that until they kill her for it. Because she believes. Because she makes a choice to stay, to risk her living. Because she says, “This is not right” and takes action to remedy it, no matter how temporary or how small.
i just cant get over the lobster scene. like his friends are actively begging him, do not get into the lobster tank. please eddie. tom hardy you were in mad max fury road dont do this. and tom hardy looks at his friend like “i know i shouldnt do this. i shouldnt be getting into this lobster tank but i’m going to anyway. i’m already mostly inside. cant stop now. i’m sorry i dont want to be doing this either there’s just no other choice for me.” and then he takes a bg bite out of a live lobster that’s still in the shell and everything.
tom hardy doesn’t actually know he’s being possessed by an alien yet in the story. he’s just resigned himself to whatever fucking meltdown he seems to be having. he doesn’t even seem particularly surprised that things have gone this way for him. like ten minutes later he finds out his heart stopped working and hes just like “you asshole” and he throws his alien parasite against the wall like a water balloon. and then he just leaves and is immediately kidnapped. what a fucking wild ride tom hardy is on.
tom hardy’s actual superpower is being the exact same level of dysfunctional no matter what is happening in his life. so when everything’s going ok for him he self-destructs spectacularly, but when literally everything that can happen to a human being happens to him, he does, like, unrealistically well. climbing into a lobster tank and eating a live animal with large claws just like… “well, this is what’s happening to me today. i’m so sorry you have to watch this, man. anyway here goes, i’m going to bite into a living creature with my human mouth and then LOSE CONSCIOUSNESS”
this movie’s fucking killing me from the inside.
IT WASNT EVEN IN THE SCRIPT TOM HARDY IS JUST A FUCKING GENUINE MADMAN
Civil rights violations in the US today doesn’t look like the bad cops on TV, it more often looks like the good cops on TV
How many times in your favorote cop show have they kicked in a door and searched a home without a warrant?
How many times in your favorite cop show have they questioned a suspect without their lawyer present and after the suspect has clearly stated they don’t want to talk?
Special question to fans of Criminal Minds: how many times have the BAU purposefully taunted the unsub in a standoff to the point that they become agressive and the agents then shoot the unsub?
By the way, to be clear on the door kicking thing, I am very specifically talking about the following line I’ve seen countless times:
”Hey, did you hear screams/smell drugs inside?”
And like it’s always shown as a flimsy excuse, yet, still the right and good thing to do
The one where they make the suspect talk without a lawyer is so common it’s actually ridiculous.
Or the one where they get mad at a perp for having a shitty attitude/mocking them and end up losing their temper and using unnecessary force is always framed like the police had no other choice. Because the perp insulted their wife or dead colleague so obviously they deserve some brutality
also when the cops maybe don’t do anything wrong, but the show frames it as “if only we could violate human rights a LITTLE, then we could solve the case!” or even that the law is preventing them from doing their job. e.g. the stodgy old judge won’t give them a search warrant, the arrogant psychiatrist won’t hand over their patient’s information, the team has to do things by the book this time(!) because the FBI/internal affairs/the media are watching them.
the number of times the police stalk someone because they’re “sure” they’re the culprit, even when they have no evidence and their captain tells them not to, but it’s justified in the end because they wee right of course, looking at you SVU.
