Author: Nick Scott

Hello everyone!! Second post and I’m already talking about Brokeback. If you know anything about me, you know it’s my favorite movie. I’ve been collecting memorabilia for about a year now and I’ve been a huge fan for two years. I’ve seen the movie seven times (once in theaters during the 20-year anniversary showing during June), I own four physical copies of Brokeback DVDs, one book, and a movie poster, the ones that advertise they have the movie in theaters, from 2005 that has never been folded or anything. The poster is my most prized possessions because of how important Brokeback is to me. After all this, please trust that I know what I’m talking about on the subject of Brokeback Mountain.

Every time I have invited someone to watch Brokeback with me, I have been met with at least one “well, isn’t that movie just a gay porn movie?” NO. To reduce a part of queer history to “porn” is one of the worst things you could say about it. The movie isn’t focused on what Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar are doing in bed on those fishing trips. What it’s about is two queer men trying to live their lives without getting murdered for who they are. It’s about the people in their lives that end up also getting hurt because of how closed off they have to be because of the time period they live in.

One of the most important parts of Brokeback Mountain to me is the fact that Jack and Ennis are not held on a pedestal for cheating on their wives. Ennis, portrayed by Heath Ledger, marries Alma, a woman he barely knows, at the age of 19. During their time together, Ennis cheats on Alma multiple times with Jack up on Brokeback. Alma finds out and the pair get divorced. Afterwards, Alma feels discomfort around Ennis and during Thanksgiving she tells Ennis she knew the whole time. Ennis lashes out violently really homing in on the fact that he was and will stay the bad person in that situation. Jack isn’t innocent either, he cheats on his wife Laureen with Ennis. They never divorce, but their love falls away into just staying for the tractor selling business they inherited from Laureen’s father.

Jack only wanted love from Ennis. He wanted the pair of them to live together and always be there for one another. Ennis says no because of fears that ended up being correct in the end. Ennis loved Jack a little too late, and Jack loved Ennis way too long. Ennis let his fears hold him back, and that saved his life, but what was the point? After Jack’s death he lives in a trailer alone with no one visiting him other than his eldest daughter. The ending isn’t happy, but it’s not bad either. It’s realistic for someone like him. If the ending was idealistic and let them live on Jack’s farm together, it wouldn’t have been as impactful.

The ending is abrupt and heartbreaking, and that’s such a core point of the story. It’s not meant to be happy, it’s not meant to be something heart-warming. It’s meant to be a hand waving in your face yelling “hey this is what happened, sorry not sorry!” It wouldn’t be as impactful if it just ended with a positive light. It would frame Jack and Ennis as good people and their wives as villains for “holding them back” when that was never the case. Their story is so delicate and the decisions the writers made were the right ones. 

For anyone who hasn’t seen Brokeback Mountain, I didn’t even really scratch the surface of the plot. If you’re interested, please watch it. If you have a DVD player at home, I’ll let you borrow one of my copies! I think that’s enough for now, Bye Bye!!

Hello world!!! To kick off the year I’d like to start off with a quick splurge about my current favorite show, The Walking Dead! I’m on my second watch and have been interacting with the fandom space and let me tell you I am not happy with the direction they’ve taken the show. This blog post will cover over my frustrations with the spin-offs. Spoilers Ahead!

I want to preface this by saying I am not a fan of the direction they chose with the post main show spin-offs. The only one I see as needed is The Ones Who Live which if you don’t know follows up on Rick and Michonne after Rick had left the show in season nine and Michonne left in season ten. It was nice to see them tie the Grimes family back together and address more of Rick’s grief after losing his son Carl. I’ll have a whole other blog post about what happened to Carl and how much a dislike it. 

Now we can get into the spin-offs I don’t like. Starting with the lesser evil, Daryl Dixon. The first season was pretty alright. It was just a southern dude on his own traveling through France with what was thought of to be the second coming of Jesus, but where my problems arise is the fact that Daryl loses his accent nearly fully. Daryl, who was born and raised in the south until what is presumed to be his late 20s early 30s, just loses his accent the moment he touches French soil. The whole reason Daryl went to France in the first place was to find Rick because he never stopped looking for him after the characters in the show thought they watched him die. Then in season two he just refuses to go home. Like he has a dog, is pretty much the guardian of Rick and Michonne’s kids, and an entire life back at home. He has people he’s spent about 12 years with back in America, and he abandons them for a French kid and a nun. It’s ridiculous! If you’ve seen the show, it’s like he’s a completely different character now! He left all the people that loved him and he children he raised. After being abandoned and left behind and neglected throughout his life you’d think he’d stay, but nope. I really hope things get resolved and fans finally get the thing most have wanted since 2018, a reunion between Rick and Daryl. 

Next is Dead City. I don’t know how to start this one off other than with it shouldn’t exist. At the end of season eleven of the main show Maggie is done letting her grief of Glenn, her late husband, run her life, so she sits Negan, the man who murdered her husband, down and tells him that she can work with him, but she’ll have days when she can’t and that he has to understand that. That she doesn’t forgive him, because who would after what he did, but she’s ready to move on. Negan agrees with her logic. Then in Dead City she hates him again. Like season 10 hasn’t seen his character growth hatred. In season two of Dead City Negan, even though he had a very heavy redemption that the writers really tried hard on, becomes who he was in season eight all over again. The most offensive part is that he’s given back Lucille, his bat wrapped in barbed wire, which broke at the end of season ten to show that the grief of his wife and the tyrannical reign he had was behind him and he was changing. I get that they did it for the plot of season two, but season two didn’t have to exist. Dead City didn’t have to exist. It’s set twenty years into the apocalypse, seven years after the main show ended. The Ones Who Live brought back Gabriel, Jadis, Judith, and RJ. Daryl Dixon brings Carol into the story in season two. Dead City keeps Negan, Maggie, and Maggie’s son Hershel. That’s literally it. At least Daryl Dixon has an excuse because it’s set in France. Dead City is in New York! Rick literally came from a huge group of people looking to take over other areas and cities. They could so easily bring back a little Negan and Rick rivalry since it seems like they want an empathetic version of season eight Negan. It does nothing for the story. Nothing. The show has no loose ends without the existence of Dead City. 

I think that’s enough for now. I’m pretty sure I went over my word limit this first time around haha! I didn’t mean to go off like that, and I’ll probably continue a bit more on the specific mischaracterization within the spin-offs, but that’s it for now. Bye Bye! See you next time!!!!