here is an idea: normalise the idea that adopting kids is a valid option even for parents who could conceive a child themselves, and not just an inferior backup option for parents who can’t
Just coming from an adopted kid, the benefits of adoption: -When your kid asks where they come from you can literally say you pre-ordered them and waited for them to come in. My dad always equated picking me up from the hospital to ordering a sofa at k-mart and it always made me laugh. No need to explain pregnancy till they’re older. -Your child will always know it was wanted and on purpose. My parents waited 5 years for me. They waited. For me to be born. I was wanted, from the moment I came into this world, by the people who raised me. -You don’t have to pay for pregnancy or birth. Just adoption fees. No thirty thousand dollar hospital bill. -You don’t have to give birth, or be pregnant, both of which objectively suck. -The biological parents of that baby will be so happy that there is someone in the world who is willing to watch over their child. The relief that comes with that is overwhelming. -You’re saving a child’s life that would otherwise potentially be stuck in the adoption and foster system for their entire childhood.
I’ve always heard arguments about wanting the baby to be ‘yours’ but really. My parents are my parents. Just because I don’t share their DNA doesn’t mean I’m not theirs. When it comes right down to it, blood of the bond is thicker than water of the womb.
I invite my closest friends and family to a gender reveal party, but when I open the box with maniacal flourish instead of pink or blue balloons, a television screen is revealed.
I dim the lights remotely as we hear Cate Blanchett say, “The world is changed. I feel it in the water.”
Too late, they realise.
The pregnancy? A scam.
The Lord of the Rings editions? Extended.
The doors? Locked.
Is popcorn and pepsi provided?
Bold of you to assume that I would count anyone with a preference for Pepsi amongst my closest friends and family
I’m going to explain why one scene that they chose to remove actually puts the whole movie in perspective and answers a lot of questions fans had about the final cut.
Obviously this is definitely going to spoil you and I can list about 100 different trigger warnings so unless you have seen the movie and are prepared to deal with the same themes, don’t read on.
Cancer World Tour
We see in what makes the final cut of the film that Vanessa is desperate to find a cure for Wade’s cancer and in the edited scene called “Cancer World Tour” she does just as he predicts, drags him around the world trying every cure.
As always Wade narrates the scene so he informs us that they have been all of the world and have already tried everything and now they were at rock bottom, in a very unlikely clinic in Guadalajara Mexico.
Wade has given up long ago but is keeping that to himself, spending the rest of his very short life indulging Vanessa in the fantasy that he can be cured.
He is in a waiting room bitterly observing the other hopeless patients indulging their own love ones, or perhaps even themselves, and he visibly has a hard time keeping his anger and sadness to himself.
Wade listens in as a mother tries to pay for her young son’s treatment and the nurse very coldly insists she won’t take any pesos, everything has to be in American cash. The little boy reaches for a sucker and the nurse says it will cost extra. Wade quickly puts his own cash on the desk, saying it’s on him.
Something is still bothering him. Wade watches the young boy sit as an older gentleman Wade himself was talking to earlier gets up to go in for his own appointment. Wade tells us in a voice over how he is at the end of his rope. He will indulge Vanessa, he will spend all the money that is needed to do so, but he can’t watch more of these innocent people being screwed over.
Wade sneaks into the operating room to observe that what is going on is that this miracle cure is not a miracle nor a cure. I don’t know exactly how much a layperson may understand this particular treatment by what they filmed so I’m going to explain in a bit more detail: this is an actual treatment that is offered for a great amount of money and the practitioner promises that they will remove your cancer without putting you under anesthesia or even cutting you open; they will somehow reach in and pull it out of you. The stomach is pressed upon by the practitioner and with sleight-of-hand they produced a bit of animal organ, presenting it as the removed cancer. There is a bit of blood but no incision, they claim to have healed that as well.
Wade waits secretly as the the older gentleman, relieved to have been cured, leaves the room and then he enters to confront the practitioner. Wade dryly remarks that the bucket of removed tumors smells like chicken, the practitioner reaches for a scalpel to defend himself, Wade has already taken it.
Wade loses it. He viciously beats and stabs the man. No fancy choreography, no clever banter. Wade gruesomely murders this man with his own two hands and blood is everywhere. The staff and waiting room rush in to see what is happened and Vanessa is among them.
Wade, in excruciating emotional pain, realizes what has happened. Vanessa is watching. This wasn’t a job and it wasn’t done efficiently. He isn’t being a mercenary, he’s being a murderer, is becoming what we will call Deadpool.
Fleeing, Wade runs away and leaves Vanessa to desperately scream in search for him to no avail. He is gone.
I don’t know why this scene wouldn’t of been included in the final cut. To me it solves a lot of issues that people have had with the characterization of both Wade and Vanessa.
Many reviewers asked why, despite the fact that Wade obviously was upset and beginning to show signs of mental illness, he couldn’t just go back to Vanessa and let her see his scars. She certainly didn’t come off as the type of character who would judge him for the way he looked but that wasn’t it. Wade is reluctant to show her what he looks like now, of course, but most of the reluctance comes from the fact that she has already seen a little bit of what he has become inside and that’s a completely different story. Vanessa fell in love with a different man, a man who killed people but wasn’t violent, wasn’t unhinged.
Maybe more importantly it gives the ending an entirely different tone. It’s not the happy ending it appears. Vanessa forgives Wade and despite his warning she is in Deadpool’s arms, not really understanding that Wade is gone. Deadpool very canonically gives into the bit of hope that it might be okay, someone might actually love him.
But what happens next? Vanessa is now going to meet Deadpool and realize that she has to again mourn the loss of Wade who she believes has come back from the dead. Will she love this new man? Should she? Is she safe to be with him?
Your feelings for Deadpool aside, try to imagine what Vanessa is walking into. Wade would never hurt her but Deadpool is not Wade and sometimes Deadpool is not even Deadpool. Sometimes this body is overtaken with pain and hallucinations. If Wade can viciously beat and stab a man to death when he disassociates, what does Deadpool do when he disassociates?
Deadpool doesn’t know.
Man.. I really wish they wouldn’t have cut this scene and the way OP explains/describes basically the ‘birth’ of Deadpool is perfect. Deleted scene here for those interested.
so here’s a quick lesson about having patience with kids.
I have a 6th grade student who isn’t really interested in doing her homework (big surprise). from my experience, kids who aren’t trying to do their homework usually fall into two general categories – “this is too easy and therefore boring” and “this is too hard and therefore i’m not even going to attempt”. it became clear by October that she fell into the latter group, but most of the staff chalked it up to “she doesn’t understand it”. I didn’t really believe it because she was a very smart, emotionally aware girl and it didn’t seem like she didn’t always want to try, just that she would rather do other things than struggle with her work.
yesterday, she got sent to my office, just so that she would have a space away from her friends to focus on her work, and she asked me to help her with two questions. I looked at them and they were fairly straightforward, simple questions about the results of using various amounts of force on an object. I did what I always do – I read the question out loud first, and then tried to help her use recall to figure it out. she did in a snap. I did the same with the second question, and before I even finished it, she went “OH!” and started writing her answer.
that’s when it hit me – she doesn’t have trouble with the material, she just has trouble reading and processing what she’s reading at the same time. big difference! I asked her and she confirmed that it was easier to hear a question and understand it than to read it and understand it. so I got her phone out, pulled up her voice recorder, and told her to try reading the question aloud and then playing it back to herself so she could process it and she looked like i had handed her the holy grail.
the moral of the story is that sometimes you have to set aside what you think is a problem with a kid and just watch for what’s easier for them. will she be able to do that during a test? maybe not, BUT now that she knows that the issue is processing reading and that she’s an auditory learner, she’s in a better position to ask for resources to help her work better in school.
so i’m off to the school counselor to let her know so she can possible get more tools for auditory learners.
People like this are amazing, seriously. I really admire their patience and their will of wanting understand kids, in this case, and trying to solve the problems. Great lesson here
Mandy Patinkin is a fucking treasure and a model ally. He walked away from the extremely lucrative lead role on Criminal Minds after three seasons (Joe Mantegna took over the position) because, and I’m paraphrasing, every week it was another script with a raped woman, or a murdered woman, or a raped and murdered woman, and wanted no part of making that into entertainment.
so a traveling shakespeare troupe came to my school today and performed romeo and juliet and it was just so good and
-the actor playing romeo was hella short and the actor playing benvolio was hella tall. at several points he just picked romeo up and moved him around the stage/out of his way.
-when the nurse delivered juliet’s letter they played it up like she was flirting with mercutio but mercutio just looked at her, wrapped his arm around benvolio, and more or less gave her an expression that said “i’m gay”
-when mercutio and benvolio were making fun of romeo for being Heterosexual™ (aka for loving juliet), benvolio picked him up and mercutio gave him a purple nurple
-juliet wore no shoes throughout the entire show except during the wedding when she wore these giant sparkly pink pumps with platform heels
-when mercutio gave the queen mab speech they had benvolio stand behind him and click castanets and go “ooooooooh” every time he dropped a dramatic line
-they had friar lawerance and the nurse say the prologue and the end lines and like…..that changed the impact of the lines and their character significantly. i’ve made a post or two about this before but i personally interpret romeo and juliet as a story about two kids too afraid to come to their parents with a problem because they’re afraid of repercussions. but what about the adults in their life that DID try to help with them with their problems, but still ended up failing them? let’s just say it hit hard and was very telling when the friar and the nurse choked out the last lines of the play while sobbing.
-whenever there was a fight scene, mercutio and benvolio were constantly trying to keep romeo away from the action, as if he was their younger brother who they didn’t want to get hurt in a brawl. during mercutio’s fight with tybalt, benvolio was shielding romeo with his body and physically picked him up and held him back at times. that really changed the dynamic of the three of them and made it even funnier when ben and merc were teasing romeo about his crush on juliet.
-romeo killed paris by hitting him on the head with a flashlight
-the apothecary that sold romeo poison was dressed up as your typical TV drug dealer and he acted like one as well
-while benvolio more or less disappears from the written play after romeo is banished, they kept him around this time and he followed romeo around to make sure he was okay but didn’t say anything. it was implied he didn’t talk because he was still grieving mercutio. (he also wasn’t there when romeo killed himself)
-i was watching it with a bunch of freshmen who hadn’t read the play before but when juliet killed herself nearly half the room started screaming because they were so shocked
honestly this cast was just so good. i’ve also seen them perform julius caesar set in a modern politician’s world and m*cbeth in a post-apocalyptic setting. i absolutely loved this production and i hope i can see more of their work soon
