Thoughts on Fat Thor (Avengers:Endgame Spoilers!)

I've seen Avengers: Endgame twice now - I loved it, and I'll probably go see it again. But I keep seeing posts about the direction that Endgame took Thor. Thor has never been my favorite Avengers but I had some thoughts I thought I'd share.

Spoilers for Endgame - don't read any further if you don't want to be spoiled!!

I thought Thor was brilliant and not a joke. It was a bit of shock for sure to see him all fat and drunk, but honestly it made a lot of sense for me.

Thor has had it rough. Both of his parents died, his mother died violently. Seemingly Loki is dead for good this time. Heimdall was murdered in front of him by Thanos, right after Asgard was destroyed with more death, including two of his friends from the Warriors Three.

Thor was struggling in Infinity War, but trying to put a brave face on it. After the Snap, he just fell into the depths of some serious PTSD. And instead of seeking out help, he drowned his sorrows in alcohol.

Beyond the first scene in new Asgard, no jokes were really made about him. Yeah, Tony make the Big Lewbowski comment, but that was just Tony being Tony. Rocket was not very gentle with him, but Rocket was hyper focused on the mission because he lost everything too.

The scene with Thor and his mom was brilliant, even the "eat a salad" line, because that isn't a joke - it's such a mom thing to say. She was super concerned about him, both mentally and physically.

And then Thor begging to be the one to snap everyone back, just showed how bad his PTSD was. The guilt he had and his overwhelming need to fix it. It showed what a complex character Thor was, and let's be honest, he was a bit one-dimensional in the beginning.

In the end, Thor is still a bit lost. I think him going with the Guardians will be good for him, though may annoy Peter to no end. His fatness was just a symptom of his overwhelming conflicted mental state.

As someone who is fat and has mental illness, I thought he was well done. His teammates didn't mock him, but I'm sure where concerned. 

Be Considerate With Fireworks!

My fellow Americans love to celebrate our nation's birth by blowing stuff up. I don't mind fireworks at all. I love watching them, especially the ones at Disney World. But most firework displays only last an hour so even if you don't like the bangs it's only a limited time.

At least it is if you don't have neighbors who are dicks. Sad to say, I have some neighbors who were real dicks last year. 

As long time readers of my blog know, I suffer from chronic migraines. Logically big bangs and migraines don't really mix. Some firework noises don't bother me too much, but I have my limits.

Last year, my neighbors shot off fireworks that I'm sure were illegal. It sounded like bombs were going off outside my bedroom window for hours at a time. And they did it on both July 3rd and July 4th. I was in so much pain and really twitchy for probably close to a week afterwards.

My poor Willow cat was really upset too. She hates loud noises a lot so she spent the holiday cowering in fear in our bathroom. It was very unpleasant for us. While I was in pain, I thought about any veterans who might live in our neighborhood. PTSD is a real concern for a lot of people.

I was a little afraid that my neighbors would be shooting off fireworks last night but I'm super thankful that they didn't since I'm working today. I have tomorrow and Monday off so I can hibernate with earbuds if need be.

But if you, kind person, decide to shoot off some fireworks remember that the noise might not be welcome by your neighbors. So try to keep it short and use legal fireworks. I, for one, will be not shooting off fireworks but we are going to do sparklers in our back yard.

Drunken Fireworks

This past weekend, The United States of America celebrated its' independence. Many people enjoyed a long weekend off and had BBQ's and lit sparklers. And some people got really drunk and lit explosives. One man even died after he lit a firework that was on top of his head.

I like fireworks. I like watching them, especially at Disney World. But I did not enjoy any fireworks this weekend at all.

I had spent most of the week in a migraine flare that I really tried to manage by resting. We didn't have any plans for the holiday and Todd volunteered to work overtime on Friday and Saturday. Friday night, I was sitting and relaxing in my bedroom when my neighbors started shooting fireworks off.

The fireworks were super loud and sounded more like cannon fire. From the sound of them, there weren't fireworks you would have bought at Walmart. I'm pretty sure that they were illegal.

Friday night, they set them off for hours and the bangs were louder than the show I was watching. My pain levels rose and I even started having a panic attack. My cats were freaked out too and after every bang I could her a chorus of dogs barking in the distance.

I was super sick on Saturday because of it and spent most of the day in bed. I came up with plan to take my abortive migraine medicine and go to bed as soon as I had gotten Emily into bed. But they had started shooting off fireworks before the sun even went down. I took my meds but it still took me a long time to go to sleep because of the war being waged outside.

Todd came home from work at 11 pm and he said that they were still shooting off fireworks of the distantly illegal kind when he got home.

I don't want to be a party pooper but it was a rough weekend for me. I wish my neighbors would have stuck to just Saturday for their fireworks displays and I really hope we don't have any veterans' who live in our neighborhood. As awful as it was for me, I can't imagine how it would be for someone with PTSD.

Next year, I'll be prepared with noise canceling headphones. Thankfully it didn't wake Emily up either night.

Catching Fire Review

Last night, I went to my local theater to see the Hunger Games double feature. The Hunger Games was one of my favorite movies of last year and I love the books. The double feature was fun – it was great to see The Hunger Games on the big screen again. Plus I got to see the new Hobbit trailer twice. After the first movie, some of the theater staff came in and gave us all lanyards which was cool too.

Finally it was time for Catching Fire. The movie was great and I really enjoyed it. But I have some comments that are spoilers – for both the book and the movie. So if you want to read the spoilers scroll down past the movie poster.

Image: http://catchingfiremovie.org

The casting for this movie was really brilliant. I especially thought that Johanna Mason and Finnick were spot on. I wasn’t very happy that Mags was silent. It’s been a while since I read the book but I could have sworn that Mags did talk. It was just really distracting that she was mute.

The only other thing that didn’t seem to make sense to me was the spinning cornucopia. The spinning was fine but the comment that Plutarch Heavensbee makes about the tributes not being able to tell time now didn’t make any sense. The tributes didn’t seem to have any issues telling the time in the arena because the lightening tree didn’t move. It just felt off to me.

Otherwise, it was great, and very true to the books. I’m still curious on how the 3^rd film will be because Katniss spends most of that book in the throes of PTSD. I’m sure they will focus a lot on the action stuff that happens later in the book.

All in all, Catching Fire was a great movie. I think I liked The Hunger Games a little better, but that’s probably because I liked the first book better than the 2^nd too.