So, halfway thru #TerminatorDarkFate, & it has the T-800 living in an asexual long term relationship, w/a stepson & dog & drapery business, along w/a cute cabin in the woods. Watching football.

I mean, it's not a bad life.

I'm not-okay w/the T-800 getting to live the sweet, simple, domestic, life that he took from Sarah. I AM okay w/him developing a type of data-driven empathy, the kind that mirrors how those of us w/executive function disorders have to learn.

There's something rather beautiful about the movies that have come out recently, w/protagonists we loved as kids, yet who did NOT have the life we/they expected.
Han & Leia
Bill & Ted
Sarah & John Connor.
They all felt like spectacular failures, but kept going.

I enjoy this unifying theme for what it is: the current generation of movie producers in Hollywood, living out their own fantasies, dealing w/their own demons, pursuing their own healing. But it's validating AF, & it makes one feel a hell of a lot better for being *normal*.

"Congratulations," they say. "You were NOT the one to save the universe! But, even w/all your failures, the knowledge that you pass on to your kids just might."

I'm okay with that.