I started watching Old Guard and need to talk about immortality representation in media. Charlize Theron’s character watches the news and is super bummed at the state of the world...

I buy this because immortal beings lack media literacy, it’s new for them, but as we move on we see her angst continue. This makes me think there were no immortal beings on the writing staff of this film...

Immortal culture knows that violence is in decline worldwide. All forms. War, genocide, domestic violence, death penalty, violence against children, pets. The reach of violence. Distance.

Yet we need to believe this immortal charicater, in a gun violence film, would gaze out the window. Hope lost.

Such a mortal thing to do.

I’m only 15 minutes into the film

I’ll finish watching. Maybe I’m cynical and the arc is going to be that immortals confronted with new media are just as susceptible to echo chambers of horrors as mortals and while she can recognize the tastes of food worldwide - she has lost a global perspective

Or maybe the trauma she has endured in tackling issues with violence has given her primitive emotional defense mechanism of black and white thinking and she has to cross the threshold into healting and stop projecting her trauma into the word...

Only then can she gain the perspective of world progress and recognize less punitive forms of justice that have been been shaped over the last 100 years and are are being worked on constantly by smart peoples

I’ll be back in a hour. I am full of hope for this character’s development!

They reiterated! More strongly. This is surely the thessis. At 13 min this will be the call to adventure!

She can regain her immortal perspective. How long has he been living in this lapse. It breaks my heart.

I can see the writers are trying, this movie is full of immortal culture. A lot of it is immortality 101.

Tropes around outliving family and children, hordes of ancient treasure (not all immortals are nostalgic), and desire for death.

They’re doing some immortal to mortal transition and mortal to immortal transition. The grass is always greener — no side is really listening to each other.

Endless immortal grief. COME ON. The physical wounds heal and but the emotional wounds don’t? Only mortals can get therapy?! This paints immortals as cold and detached.

Directly responsible for why vampires hide so much

None of these characters have arcs. If we want real immortal pathos I guess we’re stuck rewatching Groundhog’s Day again and again and again and again

It took a long time but they finally addressed Charlize’s compartmentalization — “she can’t see what she’s done.” [positive ripple effects on the world]

Yas! I think about this a lot. My friend Aime’s murder. She was a healer. Killing her ended a cycle of healing.

It has come full circle. She is against a window again. She remembers that “some people are worth saving”

How cynical. The media representation of immortals viewing mortal goodness as anomalous leads to harm.

But the punishment of “til then you’re alone” really shows how painful it is to be without culture. I mean, he can make friends — but there is a big difference between 70 year friends and 2000 year friends. Mortal friendships are pretty seasonal.

I liked this movie more than I thought but it could have really been served by an immortal writer. I know I know “but there are no immortal writers.”

Movies like this make people think that all immortals are warriors. It’s such a mortal perspective they they have “one job.”

Immortals are more than warriors and blood thirty sex pervs. Why don’t we see movies about immortal mathematicians, teachers, fruit farmers, or artists.

Like think about a woman who could work on a painting for 1000 years. What would they painting look like?

Immortal movies are all like “I fucked a renaissance artist” but why can’t it be ABOUT the Renaissance Artist. Michaelangelold, Leonardo Invinci, Lucas Cranach the Younger Forever.

Those are stories we need to see if they aren’t “marketable” The math doesn’t have to be there.

Mortals are always like “Picassao said ‘took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.’”

“So in ten lifetimes he can paint like ten children. Who wants to watch a movie about that?!?!”

Come on.

You don’t know what Picasso’s immortality arc is because there is no arc in immortality. It’s a squiggly worm. Picasso isn’t gonna make like a even bigger Guernica because he has more time. Guernica was a reflection of a time, now he’s into rollerskates.