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Disney Soundtracks by Candlelight

August 13, 2021 · Discuss on the GT Forum

https://media.blubrry.com/happypod/media.transistor.fm/d18ce496/623ee1da.mp3

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#18: Listening to live music is always magical, but when the music is Disney music, it’s even more enchanting. On this episode, Stef and Ariel share their experience with Candlelight Concerts on the beach, featuring the Orchid Quartet. With a setlist of Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, and more, our hosts and their partners found another way to revel in their love of Disney.

Resources for this episode:

  1. Fever
  2. Orchid Quartet
  3. Candlelight Concerts
  4. The Healing Power of Music: How Music Therapy Improves Mental Health
  5. The Healing Power of Music
  6. Behavioral Effects of Auditory stimulation on Kenneled Dogs

Become a member of Geek Therapy on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/geektherapy

Transcription

Ariel Landrum 0:10
Hello, everyone, welcome to the Happiest Pod on Earth. I’m Ariel.

Stefanie Bautista 0:14
And I’m Stefanie. And we’re Disney fans but really so much more than that. Ariel here is a licensed therapist who uses clients passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental unwellness.

Ariel Landrum 0:24
And Stef is an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help her students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

Stefanie Bautista 0:31
Here at Happiest Pod. It’s a place where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens. Why don’t we do that? Because just like we are more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums we consume. But also we go to a lot of cool Disney events when we can.

Ariel Landrum 0:44
Yes, we do. So what Disney experience are we dissecting and sharing today?

Stefanie Bautista 0:50
Today we had the privilege of going to I guess you could say an unofficial Disney event, which was the Candlelight Concerts with Orchid Quartet on the beach. We have the privilege since we are living in Southern California to have experiences like these open air concerts outside different venues that offer like small settings. I know we’re still in a pandemic, but…

Ariel Landrum 1:14
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:15
We do want to support the musicians when we can because they’ve been out of work for so long. So there is this service called fever and Fever has different events around Los Angeles and one of them was the Open Air Candlelight Concerts, which is what Ariel here got us tickets to…

Ariel Landrum 1:33
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:33
Because she’s awesome.

Ariel Landrum 1:34
Yeah!

Stefanie Bautista 1:34
And it was a really cool intimate setting outside literally next to the beach in Huntington Beach right next to where people are like rollerblading, biking, and skating. It’s like a little …

Ariel Landrum 1:47
Would you call that boardwalk our boardwalk or would you just call that a sidwalk.

Stefanie Bautista 1:51
I would just call it like a side? It’s funny because like the beaches here stretch for so long that the boardwalks are really just the pier right? That juts into the ocean. We don’t really have boardwalks like I’ve seen on the East Coast, like let’s say Coney Island, or other beaches on the East Coast where they actually have a walk. That’s a boardwalk along, that’s running parallel to the water and the beach. Here we have sidewalks that like I said, people can bike they can rollerblade. Walk along, exercise, run; all those things. So it’s kind of like a restaurant right next to the beach. And it has its own little parking area. It’s normally I think a concert venue for very small concerts, but they do have food service, I believe during like regular hours. So…

Ariel Landrum 2:36
Yeah, yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 2:37
They have a stage set up outside and then they had chairs like lounge chairs around fire pits, because up and down Huntington Beach. They have fire pits for people to hang out at. And this one was just an enclosed space ticketed of course because Ariel had to get tickets pretty early. I think right?

Ariel Landrum 2:56
Yes, yes. I bought these tickets 2 months ago I think.

Stefanie Bautista 3:00
Yeah, 2 months ago. And the umm..

Ariel Landrum 3:01
This was the their final event at this venue? Sea Legs?

Stefanie Bautista 3:07
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 3:07
That’s that’s the name of the restaurant venue, Sea Legs.

Stefanie Bautista 3:09
Yeah, I Sea Legs at The Beach. Yeah, if you look it up, it’s called Sea Legs at the beach. And yeah, I mean, it was awesome.

Ariel Landrum 3:16
For anyone who’s wanting to check out any Fever events, you can go to FeverUp.com. And select your your city, your location, and really an app. The they’re more of an app that you would download on Google Play or Apple Store. And the they do have events that are around major cities. So I’ve seen some blank for Chicago. I think I’ve seen some for New York, San Francisco. So it isn’t just an LA based app. It’s less likely to be effective in small places, like shout out to Salina, Kansas. I don’t think you’re going to have this app working for you. But if you’re gonna visit a major city, it’s worth it to download this app to see what small intimate events and gatherings. They do a lot of pop ups and they advertise a lot of pop ups. Some of the ones that I’m seeing that are that I have seen in the past was a Alice in Wonderland themed pop up that all the potions you drink were a bunch of like alcohol concoctions.

Stefanie Bautista 4:24
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 4:25
So yeah, so they aren’t just Disney events.

Stefanie Bautista 4:29
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 4:29
They definitely have outdoor music, they have movies, outdoor movies, and that’s just what’s going on for the summer. Things obviously changed a little bit in the winter, but fun, fun little thing to kind of find some some unique experiences out there.

Stefanie Bautista 4:44
Yeah, definitely. And I think before we get into the content, what we did, how we did it, and also a little bit of background on live music and how it can help us in our practices. I know that being a Disney fan. Sometimes we have no choice but to limit ourselves into, you know what Disney things can I do. And like, of course, the first thing you think of is going to the parks going to Disney. Watching a movie. But unfortunately, those things aren’t always accessible to everybody…

Ariel Landrum 5:12
No.

Stefanie Bautista 5:12
Especially when the price points of the parks are so high…

Ariel Landrum 5:15
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 5:15
You can’t really like stay at a hotel. It’s not like staying at a regular hotel, you got to dish out like, at least $300 per night, make it a whole vacation thing. And also, we don’t have Disney movies just out and about every single month. You know? I know Jungle Cruise is out, we will be talking about that in another episode. But during this time, especially, you know, thinking about pre pandemic, and now, we always ask ourselves, “What Disney things can we do?” You know? And you just got to kind of keep an eye out or maybe just you know keep your ear to the ground for certain events like this. So like I said earlier, this wasn’t a sponsored Disney event.

Ariel Landrum 5:53
No.

Stefanie Bautista 5:53
But just as there are many fans of Disney and a lot of lovers of Disney and Disney music, we can’t always go to the Walt Disney Concert Hall. There’s not always, you know, the LA Philharmonic just readily available to play our favorite things. There are official Disney events just like how they do at the Hollywood Bowl here in Southern California. They’ve done original scores for Star Wars, they’ve done original scores for The Little Mermaid, which I’ve been to before. And those are like official things that you know, there’s photo opportunities, like there’s, you know, like you can pretend to be Ariel and Eric inside the boat. Like I did that during The Little Mermaid One. There was a costume contest. There’s like those official things, but when you can’t do those things, sometimes you just gotta know and I think being a part of Disney Facebook groups, Disney, I think Clubhouses on the app conversations and just kind of you know, following certain accounts on Instagram.

Ariel Landrum 6:56
Yes. Disney influencers, they do have their finger on the beat when it comes to finding out both the official and unofficial events and following in a specific hashtag hashtags like #DisneyEvents, #DisneyLiveMusic, #DisneyLiveConcert. Those things are going to give you options and opportunities to experience really Disney in a very different way. And and specifically for this event, because the restaurant is so close to the water there were people just on the other side of like the the wooden fence, I guess I don’t know, hanging out listening to live music. They didn’t have to pay for a ticket to come see they were further away from the stage. So I mean, they couldn’t really see the Quartet that well, however, they got to hear the music just as well as we did. It was amplified beautifully. So and and definitely there were people there there already picnicked out so they were aware of the event in general.

Stefanie Bautista 7:53
Mm hmm. Exactly. And like I said, if we can give you the lowdown on some of these events beforehand, be sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter and we will try our best. Sometimes we find about these concerts like just as they’re coming out or, you know, like we’re not sponsored by Disney or not sponsored by any of these events. But you know, if you would like to, we are more than welcome to collaborate. But anyway, we can get into our experience with our Candlelight Concerts. For me, live music is always such a big part of my life. I know for you as well. Ariel, right?

Ariel Landrum 8:28
Mm hmm. Yeah, definitely. Cover bands are a huge thing on the military base my friend. I, I always say this, because again, I was a military brat. My very first concert was in Guam and the, like, official concert with a real band. And the band was Sugar Ray.

Stefanie Bautista 8:49
Yes. Well, you know what, at least it wasn’t a cover band. It was actually them.

Ariel Landrum 8:53
Yes. Yeah. That was the first time I saw like a band that wasn’t a cover band. They came all the way to Guam. They played for the troops.

Stefanie Bautista 8:59
That’s amazing.

Ariel Landrum 9:00
For some reason I went with a best friend and her mom thought we were gonna get in a mosh pit? I don’t think she knew the music. So we had to sit down the whole time.

Stefanie Bautista 9:08
It’s pretty chill. They’re very chill. It’s not like that.

Ariel Landrum 9:14
Yeah, fun fact one of our friends who I won’t say his next door neighbors with Mark McGrath. And…

Stefanie Bautista 9:20
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 9:21
If you’ve ever seen the app Cameo my my partner had him Wish me happy birthday and sing to me. So I have a video of Mark McGrather.

Stefanie Bautista 9:27
It came full circle.

Ariel Landrum 9:28
So full circle.

Stefanie Bautista 9:30
I love it. I mean, for me, like Live Music has always been a part of my life. I’ve been going to live concerts for so so long. I probably have gone to I mean, my first concert probably was the Hollywood Bowl like ages ago when I was like such a little kid. My mom and dad loved listening to live music, so whenever there’s a band outside at like a festival or whenever there’s like, any sort of performance, I’m there. My brother’s a musician. He’s amazing. A lot of my family, they’re great musicians. Really musical minds and theater and everything like that. So it’s just a part of my life. I myself have played live music here and there have very casually I guess.

Ariel Landrum 10:10
Oh, she’s the best singer. She will singin at my wedding. If I have one. I’ve already made I’ve already made her promise.

Stefanie Bautista 10:17
If and when. But anyway, if and when.

Ariel Landrum 10:19
I could marry myself.

Stefanie Bautista 10:22
Let’s not go down that path.

Ariel Landrum 10:24
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 10:25
Anywho um, yeah, so I love anything that has to do with live music. I think this past year has been so difficult for me because I haven’t been able to listen to live music. But this was like the first concert that I’ve been to since where everything shut down. And so I mean, for, like I said earlier, it was outside in the open, everybody was socially distance. We were not like enclosed. So for me, my comfort level was really good. Because not only can I take my mask off to eat, because I’m far enough away from everybody else. But because we’re outside, especially near the sea, there’s always a breeze, you don’t feel stifled or anything.

Ariel Landrum 11:06
And definitely the coordinators. If you stood up, you had to wear your mask. They did a good job of like monitoring that reminding people and they had masks there to give out the disposable ones if someone forgot one.

Stefanie Bautista 11:21
Or if it flew away, because it was so windy.

Ariel Landrum 11:25
That sea breeze though.

Stefanie Bautista 11:27
Sea breeze, right? I put my beer on, so it didn’t fly away. Until I finished my beer, and that happened like 5 times. So, you know, listening to live music historically, is something that is therapeutic for many, many people, which is why we gravitate to it so much. A little bit of background on that is in ancient Greece, physicians and musicians were housed in holy healing shrines. In ancient Egypt, healing chants were used on the sick to make them feel better. Ancient Chinese medicine believed that in order to promote healing music was used to correspond with 5 different organ and meridian systems. Buddhist monks have long used Tibetan singing bowls and their meditative practices, which has come back into popularity with sound baths. I had a little singing bowl in my classroom that I used to use. I remember if my first like time using it, I was not the greatest, I’ll used as a gong. It work to get their attention. I used it as a gong, but I don’t think I ever quite mastered doing that like the the circular motion to make the sound come out. I can do it with a wineglass with my finger. But I can’t do it with a singing bowl and it’s little…

Ariel Landrum 12:43
Listen to Miss Congeniality over here.

Stefanie Bautista 12:45
I know, right? It looks like a mortal mortar and pestle. So that’s why I always think of I’m gonna grind stuff in it and not create music with it. But I don’t know, can you do that?

Ariel Landrum 12:55
I can. I do have a Tibetan singing bowl here at the house. If your hands are completely flat, and it’s in the middle palm, and the the more you’re actually looking at it, the more that you can create that reverberating sound, and that pattern. And a lot of people make the mistake where they’re, they’re using this stick on the inside, it’s meant to be on the outside and you’re really just curving your hand and wrist. When you’ve got that down, you can make it get really loud, you can slow it down. That concentration and focus specifically from the singing bowls. Trying to make it more quiet and pulled longer notes. It helps really a lot with mindfulness and meditation. And you’ll notice that the sound goes away as you start to cup your hands. So trying to keep a flat palm is also a really good sort of like exercise in regards to majority of the time our hands are curved in especially…

Stefanie Bautista 13:49
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 13:49
Typing or using the mouse.

Stefanie Bautista 13:53
That’s really great news. I mean, like, that’s good advice to know. I’m going to try that again. I still haven’t it. Because when I tried doing it the first time the kids we’re just like, “What are you doing?” “I don’t know what I’m doing. Do you want to try it?” Let’s just use it as a gong. It’s an attention getter. Here it is. But I will definitely try that. Maybe I’ll try with my baby and see if it works on him. He loves instruments.

Ariel Landrum 14:16
Like way to model, like you know putting yourself out there and learning as you go, right. Like totally unabashed.

Stefanie Bautista 14:22
No. And my classroom we were all learning all the time. If I didn’t figure something out, they would help me. If they hear somebody else I’d help them it was like a very symbiotic relationship with me and my students. I loved it. But listening to live music, like I mentioned is so therapeutic. For me. I try to go to a live concert at least. Man I don’t even think maybe once a month, maybe twice a month if that. If you guys ever get a chance to go to the Walt Disney Concert Hall, because this is a Disney podcast, it is so magical. The architecture is beautiful. plenty of places to take pictures outside. It is designed by Frank Gehry, I think. One of the more iconic buildings in downtown LA, you can’t miss it. And they have great, great events that have to do with Disney. And they also house the LA Philharmonic when they are not at the Hollywood Bowl So…

Ariel Landrum 15:16
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 15:16
Once those events come back, I hope that you all would; can try to go.

Ariel Landrum 15:20
Absolutely. And then just to touch on the, you know, some more live sort of like music history in regards to its therapeutic uses, you know, eventually, eventually the the, we Westerners we catch on, right? Like, it takes a bit, but we catch on. So even after like years of history of music being therapeutic, it really wasn’t until World War 2 when a lot of the service members who were injured in the hospitals would show that they had better treatment adherence and would feel better when music was playing. And that ended up inspiring the National Association of Music Therapy, which was formed in 1950. Which is now called the American Music Therapy Association. So for anyone who is interested in both music and therapy, or its therapeutic uses, you can actually get certified specialize in Music Therapy. When it comes to sort of like the healing powers of music, you know, melody, harmony and rhythm, they stimulate our senses. So so this is definitely a way if you have, particularly for me with youth clients who are not interested in talking to my my old self. Some, some crazy old lady thinks that she can get them to open up. Oftentimes we use music, to be able to open up and share with one another. I have them make playlists in regards to songs that make them feel happy, songs that make them feel sad songs, give them energy songs that make them sleepy. The Music we’re drawn to can bring about feelings of bliss, concentration, motivation, and even euphoria. And those are definitely things I felt when I was watching the live music when we went to the ‘Candlelight Orchestra.’ Like..

Stefanie Bautista 17:07
Yeah…

Ariel Landrum 17:07
Candlelight Concerts.

Stefanie Bautista 17:08
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 17:09
Does that count as one?

Stefanie Bautista 17:12
I guess so. We haven’t counted in a while.

Ariel Landrum 17:16
Some of the other powers of music are that it boosts your energy, it definitely improves your sleep, it can calm stress, particularly, like out here where we have really bad road rage. Oftentimes, if you choose very soothing music, it’ll help you be able to stay focused and motivated. But it’ll also help you not want to, you know, murder everybody in the LA traffic, which I certainly have felt once or twice. It definitely reduces anxiety for medical procedures. So there are some hospitals that will play music while you are having surgery. You can even get to curate your playlist sometimes. They will or they’ll play like classical music. Definitely, when it comes to birthing, there are some hospitals that allow women to sort of choose, or people can give babies, not even just women, but people can give babies, really the birthing process to have that, that soothing music to help, like have our heartbeat sort of match the energy tones, which that’s obviously very stressful and body stress experience. Also, you know, you can play music and it actually affects our pets. I have a playlist for my dog. I definitely have specific songs on YouTube that I will play. She has severe anxiety, she’s actually on Prozac. So she really does have severe anxiety. Sounds of ocean waves, and anything that patterns music wise, like ocean waves, helps helps to calm her.

Stefanie Bautista 18:49
Yeah, definitely. And I mean, even when you’re not in that setting, when you’re getting massage or you know, I got a facial not that long ago. They play soothing music and they play actually, because where I got the massage was out near the Southwest. They played Indigenous music. And it was very soothing. It was different than us like than classical music and you know, European and Western classical music and it was soothing it on a different level. So different music different genres can evoke different emotions and feelings in your mind, especially when you’re in such a almost a meditative state when you’re like zenned out.

Ariel Landrum 19:28
Yes. yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 19:28
It’s great. And it I I’ve seen that it has different effects on you like I slept way better during this one. I mean, I don’t I try not to fall asleep, but I always tell like whoever is performing the service, “I’m a very tired individual. So if I start to snore, sorry, but also it’s a compliment.”

Ariel Landrum 19:46
“I’m a teacher and a mom.”

Stefanie Bautista 19:48
I’m very tired all the time. And I love going to Disneyland. So I mean I’m not doing anything to help out my tiredness by going there all the time. But you know, music has so many therapeutic and healing attributes. I think we take it for granted and we don’t we don’t realize it, especially if like you’re in the car singing. I think that’s therapeutic in itself. I know where, you know, we’ve talked about karaoke before. And that in itself is therapeutic. So this is just another one of those branches.

Ariel Landrum 20:20
And, and even for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, the vibrations from the music, that pattern beats, those rhythms. Those are just as healing. The body wants to match that. The body wants to feel that energy. So really learning to not only just listen to the sound, but see if you can feel that rhythm. Particularly you know, if you’re someone who wants to feel music in your body, maybe even learn you know to dance. That’s that. All parts of music is still still healing for a variety of people.

Stefanie Bautista 20:57
Yep, and when they say dance is healing is one of those things too. I mean, it’s therapeutic in itself because of the way you’re using your body to respond to the music.

Ariel Landrum 21:05
Yes. So, um, responding to the music going back to our Candlelight Concert..

Stefanie Bautista 21:15
It was a journey.

Ariel Landrum 21:16
It was it was a total journey um so I no matter how hard I try or how many times I set a calendar or reminder or a timer I’m late. I’m just a chronically late person. I try not to be. It happens. I started getting… The goal was to pick up stuff at 5 be at the venue by 6 concert starts at 6:30. I started getting ready at 3. That should be enough time.

Stefanie Bautista 21:50
You did? I didn’t even know that.

Ariel Landrum 21:51
I did that. Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 21:52
At 3?

Ariel Landrum 21:53
I started getting ready at 3. I already had the outfit picked out so there was no way. I was like..

Stefanie Bautista 21:56
Yeah you had the outfit picked out like maybe maybe even months before I did, I literally found my outfit that day.

Ariel Landrum 22:04
And yet, still late. So I’ve I’ve come to realize there are a few things that will definitely make me late. I need to put my phone on ‘Do Not Disturb’ if I’m getting ready. Because I will get you know like emails or notifications or messages that I think that I can respond to quickly but even in those few seconds it’s just taking time away. The other thing is.. I in this case, I was trying something new and that’s what that’s what I should not have done.

Stefanie Bautista 22:33
Oh, yes. That’s another thing that I don’t do when I’m getting ready to go somewhere I’ve never been before don’t ever try something new.

Ariel Landrum 22:41
I did not take that advice. And so I I bought this dress on Amazon. And one of the reasons I actually like buying dresses on Amazon despite it being you know, sort of the mega corporate…

Stefanie Bautista 22:56
Conglomerate. The man.

Ariel Landrum 22:57
Conglomerate. The man Yeah. Is that a lot of the people who write their reviews will put how tall they are how much they weigh.

Stefanie Bautista 23:04
Yes. Very helpful.

Ariel Landrum 23:05
And again I am 4’11” there are not many new long dresses that don’t look like I was put in a hand me down from like a big sister.

Stefanie Bautista 23:14
Yeah. Agreed.

Ariel Landrum 23:15
And so to find a dress that was at the right length, it hit my ankles that I can wear sandals because I didn’t want to wear heels on the beach. I’m not that I’m not that kind. I’m not that girl.

Stefanie Bautista 23:26
I don’t think anybody should be that girl, but anyway.

Ariel Landrum 23:30
I don’t think they should but there are some people who are you know, power to you. Not me.

Stefanie Bautista 23:34
Not me.

Ariel Landrum 23:36
And then the other thing was it was really low cut. Very, very low cut. So the new thing that I tried was I got the dreaded chicken cutlets. And so for those who do not know, they are these sticky, rubbery, plasticky. Yeah, rubbery thing that you stick on your breasts.

Stefanie Bautista 23:57
Literally think of a chicken cutlet. I don’t know how much more you could…

Ariel Landrum 24:01
Like chicken cutlet. If you if you open up a package of chicken breasts, just like imagine sticking that to your chest.

Stefanie Bautista 24:08
To your chest.

Ariel Landrum 24:09
And that is that’s it. That’s that. And I wanted to do that because it was so low cut, I couldn’t wear any of my strapless bras. I even considered going braless. But that is something that like for so much cleavage, cleavage I’m uncomfortable with. I don’t want like any of my girls to say hello to anybody.

Stefanie Bautista 24:28
Especially on the beach when you know there’s movement happening.

Ariel Landrum 24:30
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 24:31
Anything could happen. You could fall. Anything could happen.

Ariel Landrum 24:34
So I hadn’t tested these out because I was afraid that the sticky would like be no longer sticky if I kept like reapplying and applying them so I applied them that day and it took forever to figure out exactly where they were supposed to go. Which sounds odd because it’s just on the boob right but no, I had to have a certain under way of doing it so that it wouldn’t be seen in my dress and there’s a front hook and I had to try and like put in angles and both the front hooks would meet. It was disaster. That took forever.

Stefanie Bautista 25:01
My gawd. So if you guys don’t I this is the first time I’m hearing this behind story I jumped in when she picks me up literally when I jumped in the car so… I’m… keep going. I’m enthralled.

Ariel Landrum 25:15
So I don’t know if I’ll use these chicken cutlets again. They definitely had smaller ones that were like pasties. I thought of that too. But I did it. I figured it out. It took like 20, 30 minutes, I swear.

Stefanie Bautista 25:28
Dang.

Ariel Landrum 25:28
To get this thing to stick on me in the right way and be hidden enough that like you didn’t see my bra. So I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll use it again. But I mean, I have to because I bought the dress. I want to use the dress again. Anyways.

Stefanie Bautista 25:40
Dapper Day.

Ariel Landrum 25:40
Dapper Day. So I so that happened. That took a while me like responding notifications. And then the third thing that like kind of kind of got me kind of got me for this round at least was that I kept skipping music because I wanted to listen to the right song to like, get ready. I don’t have like a get ready playlist. If anybody has one that you think is good. Like I will I would love to have one that’s curated because I just need one for listening.

Stefanie Bautista 26:07
I have one. I have one for the mood, which is not really a get ready playlist. It’s more than just the playlist.

Ariel Landrum 26:15
I will take a mood one. I will take anything that isn’t me like skipping songs that I don’t want to listen to.

Stefanie Bautista 26:20
No don’t do that. Do that on the car ride.

Ariel Landrum 26:23
Right?

Stefanie Bautista 26:23
Don’t do that while you’re getting ready.

Ariel Landrum 26:25
So with, I finally get ready, my partner has been ready ages ago, and we get in the car and it we get in the car at 5. So you can tell we’re already late, right? And we’re gonna pick stuff up at 5:20 says the GPS because we of course hit every red light that ever existed.

Stefanie Bautista 26:42
And it’s rush hour. The world is back.

Ariel Landrum 26:46
We should also remind you that this event was on a Thursday.

Stefanie Bautista 26:50
It was on a Thursday afternoon in Huntington Beach. Huntington Beach is not in LA County. It is past Disneyland. So where we live in The Valley, in the San Fernando Valley, it already takes on a good day to get to Disneyland 45 minutes.

Ariel Landrum 27:06
Yup.

Stefanie Bautista 27:06
That’s like if you leave at 8 o’clock on a Saturday morning. This is Thursday.

Ariel Landrum 27:11
Yes. And so the GPS said we would get there at 7:02.

Stefanie Bautista 27:17
The concert. When does the concert start? When did it?

Ariel Landrum 27:19
6:30.

Stefanie Bautista 27:20
6:30.

Ariel Landrum 27:21
So um, I read the info because I wanted to call someone and say like, “Oh, we’re running late. I apologize.” Because I reread the information. This is another tip on what not to do. I didn’t look at all of the rules, like ahead of time this would have made for planning better. But it said 1., it even though you have a specific zone, it’s come as you are seating and 2. even, it starts at 6:30 they will not let anybody in after 6:30. It said no late admission. In a realm of coincidence that always happens with Stef and I her husband just happened to be in Huntington Beach that day.

Stefanie Bautista 28:04
Yes. So he works out there in his base is actually out in near Long Beach but they were holding an event for his work at the beach. They decided to have a barbecue that day. And it happened to be at Huntington Beach, Seal Beach because next to Seal Beach is a Naval Training Facility. And it’s a beach that they’re familiar with it has barbecue pits. And like I said it had a… What do you call it? Fire pits. And he I asked him because now now Ariel’s telling me all of these things through text. Like “Oh crap, like, you know, how are we gonna make it? This and this.” We had the reason why she picked me up is because he was already out there working. And then so when I had told him about where it was, I was on the phone and I was like “Hey, oh, it’s at this place called Sea Legs at the Beach.” And she’s, he’s like, “Sea Legs at the Beach. Is it that building right there?” I’m like, “What do you mean? I’m on the phone with you what building right there.” He’s like, “I can see it here from where I’m barbecuing right now.” “What you’re there?” So he had been there the entire time. He had been running errands, you know, finding things to do. So he had already kind of mapped out the area even though we’ve never been there before, which actually proved to be helpful on our way there.

Ariel Landrum 28:31
Absolutely.

Stefanie Bautista 29:12
Because it helps Ariel’s partner navigate where we were actually supposed to go because the the directions are a little confusing. And if you’ve never been there before, you definitely would have had to allow time to get lost.

Ariel Landrum 29:25
Yes, yes. Because one of the entrance gates was closed and AJ already knew this. He was able to tell us to bypass and turn and go to a specific area. It also helped him that there was a, there was another ‘Sea Something’. Was it ‘Sea Shanti.’ ‘Sea Meals’?

Stefanie Bautista 29:48
Yeah, another another thing that had nothing to do with here we supposed to be.

Ariel Landrum 29:51
There was another restaurant that was 2 named and start with ‘Sea.’

Stefanie Bautista 29:54
Yeah, and we didn’t we didn’t get confused on where we were supposed to go which is great.

Ariel Landrum 30:00
So we are attempting to play beat the GPS.

Stefanie Bautista 30:04
We were literally play ‘Traffic God.’

Ariel Landrum 30:08
Yes, yes. Yes, we thought that we could out outdo it outsmart it, and the… I’m now sweating because it is it is 5, 6 o’clock 6:10. And we are still not there. And there were points where the GPS time would go down and then somehow it would just shoot back up to let’s say frickin number even though we went, we like shaved off 7 minutes, 8 minutes. Somehow in like a span of a second that would come back. And my partner was doing all kinds of questionable driving. That’s all I’m gonna say about that.

Stefanie Bautista 30:45
Questionable. We got there safely.

Ariel Landrum 30:47
We did get there safely. And now it is 6:30. And I’m like, “Okay, I think that AJ,” I was like “Stef, Aj can just enjoy the concert. You me and my partner will go…”

Stefanie Bautista 30:59
She was already thinking about an end game. Like, “We could just have dinner.”

Ariel Landrum 31:02
“We can go to this bar. We can just have dinner and drinks and then meet him later. And he can tell if we can interview him on the podcast.” Like, “We’ll just do that.” So then Stef gets a call from Aj. And he goes “Oh, yeah, they still haven’t they haven’t started yet. What do you want to eat? I’ve already checked us all in.” We had sent him the tickets hoping he could. He’d already checked everyone in had already gotten a table and he was now in the ordering stage.

Stefanie Bautista 31:28
In the ordering stage. He got our table. Everything was good. They were just like, “Oh yeah, just like tell us when your party gets here.” And if you if like any of you have met AJ, he’s like, pretty chill.

Ariel Landrum 31:36
Super chill.

Stefanie Bautista 31:37
And like, it’s funny like with the dichotomy of like, Ariel’s anxiety, sometimes that like, rises and rises and rises and then like, Aj’s always pretty even keel about things. And this has happened at Disneyland to where we’re supposed to like get somewhere we have this plan set out and it just like it’s gonna be fine. Like it’s okay. So, it’s always fun watching the two Ariel’s because Aj is an Ariel too.

Ariel Landrum 32:02
So this I don’t think our podcasters, listeners know this but my name is Ariel and Stef’s husband’s name is Ariel, because Ariel is actually a male’s name in the Filipino culture. And my apparently my dad was watching a French film on the the naval ship and there was a woman named Arielle that was either the actress or the act, or the name of the character he cannot remember. He just knows her name. So that’s that’s how important My name was, he was like, “I saw this this movie and it was a French lady and I liked the name.” So he tell’s my mom..L

Stefanie Bautista 32:36
It’s okay, ours, ours was actually, Ariel’s name. Well, so yeah, like ‘Are-yell’ is how you pronounce it.

Ariel Landrum 32:44
Yeah, ‘Are-yell’.

Stefanie Bautista 32:44
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 32:45
It’s Sebastian.

Stefanie Bautista 32:46
Yeah, like that. But you know, they they pronounce it that way. But anyway, go ahead and finish before I…

Ariel Landrum 32:52
Yeah. So. So the so my my full name is 4 names on the birth certificate and there wasn’t enough room to put Arielle so then they shortened it to Ariel and my mom was to my dad “Are you sure you want to name her Ariel” and he was like, “Yeah, I mean if that’s fine that’s just as pretty.” Come then he like comes to find out that “Oh, that’s a boy’s name.” Because everybody kept saying, “What a cute little boy you have. What a cute little boy you have.” And he had to keep correcting them. Also, both for me and my brother my dad did not meet us until we were 5 days old cuz he was on the naval ship. It happens when you’re a military bear and sometimes you don’t meet your kid when they’re moving born.

Stefanie Bautista 33:32
It’s a miracle that you’re even there together in the birthing room. But with my with AJ Ariel (‘Are-yell’), his dad is Ariel (‘Are-yell’). And now our son is also Ariel (‘Are-yell’), but he is. So he’s the third, AJ is the second and Dad is the first. So I have 4 Ariels in my life all super special and wonderful to me.

Ariel Landrum 33:55
And one with high anxiety like her dog.

Stefanie Bautista 33:57
High anxiety, like her her dog and one that’s super chill, just like his son. So the name doesn’t define you. That’s what we’re trying to say here.

Ariel Landrum 34:10
And also his dog ’cause I think your dog is very chill.

Stefanie Bautista 34:12
Oh, yeah. Chance is pretty chill until like you, you take us food or I don’t know he just…

Ariel Landrum 34:18
Same with Aj.

Stefanie Bautista 34:19
Or just get on his, yeah, if you take his food or get on his property, then he’s like attack mode. But anyway, um, so we finally get there. And I don’t even see AJ at this point because like the sun is setting and like where he is sitting is like where the sun is. So I’m like trying to look for him. And then they’re like, “Oh, can we see your ID and can we you know, see your tickets? And there was like a QR code and I didn’t have them Ariel had them…

Ariel Landrum 34:45
And I’m like, trying to like pull them out of my bag of bags ’cause I just shoved everything. So so my partner literally parked right by the venue.

Stefanie Bautista 34:53
Oh no, we just rolled out.

Ariel Landrum 34:54
Yeah, he was like, “Just get out.” So we duck and rolled and you just kept driving to find a parking space.

Stefanie Bautista 35:00
Yeah. There was plenty of parking.

Ariel Landrum 35:01
So that was what do you miss any any music? We were lucky in that they didn’t start until 7, like.

Stefanie Bautista 35:07
No, they didn’t start till 6:50.

Ariel Landrum 35:09
Till 6:50, and we got in at 7:02. Faithful GPS. So we only missed like what 2 songs? 3 songs.

Stefanie Bautista 35:15
So we missed like three songs and AJ being the great person he is as he was texting me the setlist as they were going so that A. he would tell us you know, for the podcast what they played, and B. give us a little more anxiety because we are missing these certain songs.

Ariel Landrum 35:28
That we actually love.

Stefanie Bautista 35:30
That we loved.

Ariel Landrum 35:32
Um, so yeah, so we do a tuck and roll I’m I’m we’re at the front. I’m digging through my person. I’m like, “Our party’s already here. They’re at a table let me find my phone.” And their like, “Where’s your mask? And I’m like, “It’s under these mouse ears I brought.”

Stefanie Bautista 35:48
And like Ariel here brings like this large tote. And I’m like “What are you doing? Are you picnicking? There’s food here.”

Ariel Landrum 35:54
They had to check the bags because we weren’t allowed to bring food or drinks. So that took like an extra bit and I’m like, “I’m missing everything even though I’m right here and I can hear everything.” Finally, we get in. And Stef’s like, “Oh I found AJ he’s over there.” Trying to follow her.

Stefanie Bautista 36:10
Hobble over.

Ariel Landrum 36:11
Hobble over.

Stefanie Bautista 36:12
Not like disturb the music.

Ariel Landrum 36:15
Not being in anybody’s away or be inconveniencing anybody.

Stefanie Bautista 36:18
Sorry. So sorry. But you know what, this is not a uncommon thing for it to happen to us.

Ariel Landrum 36:26
Not uncommon.

Stefanie Bautista 36:28
I’m sure you will hear in future episodes, especially when it’s not like something we’ve gone to like a million times like the Dapper Day Expo or if it’s like, you know, if we ever go back to like a comic book convention, like we already know how to plan for those things, because we’ve gone to them for so so many times. If you’re going to a movie at you know, AMC or El Capitan, we know the routine.

Ariel Landrum 36:47
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 36:47
This we did not know because like I said earlier, it’s not an official Disney event. So you kind of have to navigate where it is and use your, I guess savviness of the area to determine what you you know what you need to prepare for? I think living in Los Angeles, we have a threshold of how early we need to leave for certain things. However, we are working individuals, we have lives of our own with. If this was probably 10 years ago, we would have maybe made it on time because of the lesser responsibilities that we have. But as 30 somethings with a million things on our mind. I think even though Ariel you are not a mother, you are a pet mom and you are a business owner. So you have just as many things to care about. And we also want it to look cute like…

Ariel Landrum 37:37
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 37:37
I get it was on the beach. Oh, I guess this is a good segue into what to wear. If you’re going to a beach concert. Don’t overdo it. You’re at the beach. Like think of it you are going to the beach. Like if you if you look up the venue it is literally on the beach, so whatever you would wear to the beach, do it. I wish. So both Ariel and I were wearing dresses, with sandals because we knew we were going to be on the sand. Ariel had a beach dress on long gray flowly. You’ll see them on the pictures on our Instagram. And I was wearing a retro dress but it was like a Hawaiian retro dress something you could wear to a luau. This dress in particular and I will I think we can link what we wore to…

Ariel Landrum 38:14
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 38:14
And where we got it.

Ariel Landrum 38:15
Yeah

Stefanie Bautista 38:16
I bought this dress originally for a Spring Dapper Day. And our Spring Dapper Day it didn’t happen this year.

Ariel Landrum 38:22
No.

Stefanie Bautista 38:22
So I didn’t get to wear it. However, it was a perfect way to use it because we were going to be on the beach and I brought a cardigan to go with it. Thank God I did because it was cold.

Ariel Landrum 38:34
I brought a cardigan and a shawl. Trying to decide which one would be better. And I figured it was just going to be cold. The the one thing is that the event didn’t say if we could bring blankets otherwise I would have. And then we saw that people did.

Stefanie Bautista 38:49
Yeah, and towels.

Ariel Landrum 38:50
It’s, and towels. Blankets and towels. Some people already spent the whole day at the beach before ending at the concert. So just being…

Stefanie Bautista 38:58
Yeah we should have done that.

Ariel Landrum 39:00
You know, well I had worked and you had work.

Stefanie Bautista 39:04
I’m talking like I wasn’t working like 5 minutes before she picked me up. I was working. But yeah…

Ariel Landrum 39:11
AJ did that. He did that for us.

Stefanie Bautista 39:17
Um, I wish that I had pulled my hair back because I get crazy beach hair. My hair gets frizzy. And like because I have dyed hair. It just looks like a sort of mess. And if I don’t tame it like it’s kind of everywhere. Ariel has long long hair, and it didn’t affect her as much because the weight of her hair kind of brings everything down.

Ariel Landrum 39:39
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 39:39
It’s beautifully curly.

Ariel Landrum 39:41
I do get frizz I do get the ocean frizz that does happen. But I would say that it wasn’t as bad this time because I did put an I feel like enough product in my hair to be satisfied with it. And it wasn’t straight. So for anybody who has textured hair, do not try to wear to the beach straight.

Stefanie Bautista 40:04
No, no.

Ariel Landrum 40:04
It will not last.

Stefanie Bautista 40:05
It will not last. I think next time if I do wear something retro, I’ll pull it back and do like a roll or something for my bangs. That would be I’ve seen somebody do that at a beach party. So that would be definitely something that I would consider next time. For the guysm, we had two different styles because I forgot Aj’s actual going out clothes. But it was okay because everybody was wearing something different. Some peopler were super casual, like just came from the beach, like Ariel said, and some people were a little bit dressed up for this event, which is also acceptable because it was, you know, quartet on the beach. So Ariel’s partner, James, he was wearing all linen, I think. He was wearing linen pants and linen long sleeve.

Ariel Landrum 40:46
Yes. Yeah, I was going for a linen look. I bought him the shirt. The pants he already own which apparently I’ve gotten a lot of hits on Facebook in regards to because they are salmon.

Stefanie Bautista 40:57
It’s a great color.

Ariel Landrum 40:58
And some people feel some type of way about dudes wearing salmon, but he loved it and I loved it. So you know haters.

Stefanie Bautista 41:03
Salmon is great. He owns a pair of salmon colored swimming shorts. And they are either swimming short, ah swim shorts and regular shorts. So no guys guys can do that. Tell the haters to go away.

Ariel Landrum 41:16
But the the linen shirt I also bought from Amazon, I will I will link that as well. He was a little unsure of it. The color and the length and the tunic type of style made him think like cult.

Stefanie Bautista 41:27
Yoga guru?

Ariel Landrum 41:29
Or yoga guru.

Stefanie Bautista 41:31
Definitely, if you saw him, especially barefooted, just like cross legged on the beach. You could ask him for advice or like, you know, to see into your future.

Ariel Landrum 41:39
He’s Guru Kid.

Stefanie Bautista 41:40
He’s The Guru Kid. Like all grown up. But um, yeah, AJ was wearing just his regular tank top you’d wear at the beach in swimming shorts, and he looked totally appropriate. It did get cold for him looking at her cardigan. Her oversized cardigan that he wore later on. But yeah, for concerts like this and I don’t think and remind me if they did was there a dress code noted anywhere?

Ariel Landrum 42:05
There didn’t seem to be a dress code noted anywhere. It did it didn’t even say dress warm or dress cool. That I remember. Most of the information was in regards to, “Don’t bring food or drink.”

Stefanie Bautista 42:18
Yeah, yeah, they wanted to make money off of this which is fine. I get that. And that’s what we’re going there for so we’re there we finally listen or we’re there enjoying the music. Everything is good. I I think… I don’t know Ariel, do you want to kind of give a little bit of backstory on the performers? Our quartet that was so talented.

Ariel Landrum 42:41
Yes. So quartet meaning 4 and it was a string quartet. So 4 women playing different stringed instruments. There was a Molly Rogers she plays the violin and she’s featured in a Kelly green in one of the photos and in in actual in person they were wearing similar color scheme to this promo photo. Desiree Hazley or Hazley apologies if I’m saying this wrong, anybody please correct us. She was featured in a mustard yellow and she plays the violin. Kiara Ana Perico. She was featured in a glacier blue and plays the viola. Viola slightly bigger than a violin. And so that’s how you’d be able to visually tell the difference. And then, Leah Metzler she was featured in the lemonade pink and she plays the cello. I was very specific in explaining these colors because I think that specificity in colors is important. So Kelly green, mustard yellow, glacier blue, lemonade pink.

Stefanie Bautista 43:41
Yeah. And visually, they looked wonderful. They were bright colors, but very muted. So it like totally was Disney feel, but calming at the same time. They were so talented and sweet. I remind me who was the one who was speaking a lot during the concert?

Ariel Landrum 44:00
So that was a thing was we, because it was come as common as the tables are available.

Stefanie Bautista 44:06
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 44:06
I was under the assumption we were in a specific area in our zone. And when we weren’t, I was confused. I really looked at the map and it was like spread out. So the way the map makes it look like you get to sit up front. But in reality, you get to sit up front if you get there sooner, otherwise, you’re at this other area of the zone. So I believe it was Molly talking but…

Stefanie Bautista 44:26
Correct us if we’re wrong. But she was fantastic in kind of guiding everybody and actually crowd participation. If you’ve ever gone to a arc, an orchestral performance or Philharmonic performance, there’s no crowd participation at all.

Ariel Landrum 44:41
None.

Stefanie Bautista 44:41
Like you just sit there Listen, wait for intermission. You can’t and that’s why I was actually thinking the, ‘No In and Out Policy,’ or ‘No Late Policy’ was like a hard ‘No Late Policy,’ because that is how it is in classical performances because you don’t want to disturb the performers. So that’s why we have such a high anxiety. But because it’s at the beach, we have to remember that it’s a little bit more relaxed. And yeah, she was great in you know, setting up the songs, putting in little Disney tidbits during those certain songs. You could tell that they are Disney fans too, which I loved because you not only heard it in their music, but you also heard it in their commentary and when they were talking about themselves. It was great.

Yeah and and even really curating some of the songs and specific sets. And even talking about like an ‘Oscars Awards Section.’ Sometimes we forget because we think of really Disney songs in regards to the songs we sing. We forget that a lot of the movie has like an orchestra it has the the sound scores are just so lovely. And…

Award winning.

Ariel Landrum 45:50
Award winning.

Stefanie Bautista 45:51
Iconic.

Ariel Landrum 45:52
Iconic. So having her like mentioned that they were curating even to that level was was so there was not only some very beautiful but just showed that their their precision and the way that they had made a decision. Now the thing about the event was again because it’s unofficial the advertising mentioned really just movie music scores. It listed some Disney movies some Star Wars movies, some like even Pirates of the Caribbean. But it listed LA LA Land, Harry Potter, and and just many movies.

Stefanie Bautista 46:25
We did not know.

Ariel Landrum 46:27
Did not know. We thought we would hear a few Disney songs talk about those little did we know it was an entire Disney franchise focused set.

Stefanie Bautista 46:35
We lucked out so much. As they kept playing, I was like, “Wait, this is all Disney. Oh my gosh!” Like I was ready because even though we are both movie lovers, we watch plenty of movies. And you know, it was just icing on the cake for it all to be Disney and to be so nicely curated. It was it was so great. I loved it so much.

Ariel Landrum 46:57
Yeah, the interesting thing about the these specific performers, LA based freelance musicians, and they actually became essentially besties after a tour with a Japanese metal band, a specific rockstar from a Japanese metal band which Stef and AJ’s eyes, just like sparkled and shined when they heard this. So yeah

Stefanie Bautista 47:20
Like they, they were on tour because of X Japan which is like an iconic Visual Kei metal band from Japan. Visual Kei, it refers to the style of clothes that they wear, it’s very comparable to glam rock in the 80’s. But because in Japan metal is a whole movement out there that has to do with your style, the way you do your hair. The romanticism of the music. It’s very different when you’re comparing it to American metal. Which is why they probably worked with these ladies is because their music incorporates so many symphonic elements to it, that it it was just perfect for them to go on tour with. So they…

Ariel Landrum 48:09
So they went on tour with specifically the I guess the one of the lead singers?

Stefanie Bautista 48:14
Yeah, his name is Yoshiki he is the pretty much the leader of the band. There is a whole story about this band. It is fascinating. There’s a movie called We Are X. I think I saw it on Netflix. But I remember it coming out at the Sundance Festival like in 2015 which is when you know watching anime a lot you already are familiar with bands like X Japan because of certain enemies just like call for a big epic like metals, symphonic score, and that’s what it did like animes such as Attack on Titan is one of the ones that they have done music for. And that is a huge, huge anime and manga. So if you want to do a little bit more research on that X Japan is who they were introduced to and that’s how they got together. And I think because of the way that they perform together, they kind of just decided after the tour to stay together and tour right?

Ariel Landrum 49:09
Yeah, yeah. And that allowed them to be able to tour with a variety of bands they they’ve toured with the Chainsmokers, Alien Ant Farm, Frank Ocean, Stevie Nicks, Alicia Keys, Kendrick Lamar. Yeah, they and that isn’t even all the people but like that’s such a variety of music genres. And then they themselves actually went on a 15 concert hall tour in China and spent essentially a month long there and have even now been featured on Motion Picture soundtracks. They were on Bad Boys II. And then to live action Disney’s: The Jungle Book in the Lion King. So the Orchid Quartet they are some some bomb ass ladies.

Stefanie Bautista 49:58
Yes. And they play such a beautiful, beautiful music. You could tell as seasoned as they are. I loved the fact that we could, we’re able to see them in such an intimate setting, playing our favorite music, and we were able to curate a list for you. Maybe you know what I might make a playlist on Spotify with these songs specifically. And because not only are they songs that we are familiar with, because they have words to them, but a lot of them are soundtrack songs, and you don’t see that quite often on Spotify playlists. So they started off…

Ariel Landrum 50:36
Maybe this could be my getting ready msic?

Stefanie Bautista 50:38
Maybe this could be returning ready music and you could be reminded of the anxiety that you had. So maybe it’s not so much getting ready? So they open up their set with First Start on the Fight from Peter Pan, which is so dreamy, like every time I hear that song, I mean, even when I go to the Peter Pan, right? It’s just so magical and lovely. And you feel like you’re floating. Like it gives you such a feeling of like movement because you’re like flying with Peter Pan. And then they go on to play a Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes from Cinderella. And then when we got there, that’s a when they were playing How Far I’ll Go from Moana I was so so excited that I did not miss that I would have cried. All of these. I mean, I did cry a little bit inside that we missed the first 2 but we can do? And then they did, Colors of the wWnd for Pocahontas. A Whole New World from Aladdin. A Spoonful of Sugar from Mary Poppins. Can You Feel the Love Tonight from The Lion King. Let It Go from Frozen, which they asked everybody to sing. And literally it was just me and Ariel singing.

Ariel Landrum 51:44
Yeah, yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 51:45
Really loudly and I was like, “Maybe we should.” Nobody complained.

Ariel Landrum 51:50
Nobody complained.

Stefanie Bautista 51:51
Nobody complained. And then they did a Pixar Medley and I love this Pixar Medley so much. They started off with Inside Out. And if you guys have ever stopped to listen to the soundtrack of Inside Out, it is beautiful. Like, because it goes through all of the emotions.

Ariel Landrum 52:06
So lovely.

Stefanie Bautista 52:06
Yeah, like it the way that they play with the tempo and the way that they play with the tone is so amazing. And you don’t really realize it until you isolate the music like it’s really it’s really cool. And then they did, You Got A Friend In Me from Toy Story. Then they did Up and everyone’s shed a tear.

Ariel Landrum 52:23
Everybody cried.

Stefanie Bautista 52:23
I shed a tear.

Ariel Landrum 52:23
I cried. You cried.

Stefanie Bautista 52:27
And then they move into Monsters, Inc. and then they did The Incredibles which was amazing to see.

Ariel Landrum 52:32
Oh, that was a I was not expecting that one at all. And it was it was so lovely to hear it like..

Stefanie Bautista 52:39
Yeah…

Ariel Landrum 52:39
Played in with these 4 strings and stuff.

Stefanie Bautista 52:42
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 52:42
I don’t I don’t know. I was not expecting the beat to sound like that.

Stefanie Bautista 52:46
That was beauty. Especially because the incredible soundtrack is very horns heavy.

Ariel Landrum 52:50
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 52:51
It’s very wind instrument heavy because it is like a superhero movie. So it’s a lot more than that. But the way that they played with the tempo with their string instruments and tapping on their instruments really, like drove that beat, which was great. And then they ended the Pixar Medley with Coco, which was of course lovely. All the music in Coco was great.

Ariel Landrum 53:10
And everyone cried again.

Stefanie Bautista 53:11
Everyone cried again. Like we always do. And then after that they did Under the Sea. And then the Ariels freaked out. It was great.

Ariel Landrum 53:19
I got a really close for that.

Stefanie Bautista 53:21
Yes. And then I cried again, because they played the Black Panther score. The Black Patnerh score was one of my friends.

Ariel Landrum 53:28
Oh that was amazing. I…

Stefanie Bautista 53:29
Oh my gosh…

Ariel Landrum 53:30
I again, something I wasn’t expecting. But that that score is so iconic of even the Marvel scores.

Stefanie Bautista 53:37
Yeah, of the Marvel scores.

Ariel Landrum 53:38
Like that one comes to mind for me.

Stefanie Bautista 53:42
Especially because it was so influenced by African sounds and like they really use a lot of the instruments that they also use in African music. It was just so great. The oh, I can’t wait. If they ever do this at the Hollywood Bowl, I would love to go and just cry my eyes out again. Because you know, that’s just what I like to do for myself. It’s a release. And then they did the Mandalorian which was out of nowhere. I think it was super left field for me. And I love it.

Ariel Landrum 54:11
Yeah I, they did Mandalorian and I was that that iconic recorder sound that like 1. who knew a recorder could be so cool. Because I remember playing Hot Cross Buns and driving everybody nuts with that. It was not cool. But I think it was like Leah was was doing a tapping on her cello. That was sort of replicating that wah-wah-wah sound. It was an it sounded just like I was like when I turn on the show and listen to the intro. The way that they were able to mimic that sound with their instruments I again just ingenious and shows the the level that they’re playing at. The amount of music compensation and understanding

Stefanie Bautista 55:00
And you forget that the Mandalorian is based on a lot of Westerns. So the style of the music that they were playing is very reminiscent of that clopping that you would hear of the hooves because of Westerns and the driving beat of you know, being on a horse and traveling somewhere.

Ariel Landrum 55:14
Yeah

Stefanie Bautista 55:15
That was a major influence for the soundtrack of the Mandalorian. And that’s what makes it so unique. And to hear that isolated was just fantastic to me. I loved it.

Ariel Landrum 55:24
So beatiful.

Stefanie Bautista 55:25
And then and then they did Star Wars, which is, you know, iconic John Williams.

Ariel Landrum 55:28
sings Star Wars theme song

Stefanie Bautista 55:30
And the swelling of you know, because the Mandalorian is such a driving beat it like really introduce to the Star Wars soundtrack very beautifully. And then…

Ariel Landrum 55:41
They melded it together wonderfully, which, you know, what, franchise wise, it’s it, that’s all part of the same universe. So the fact that it bled into each other just so lovely listening to it, it felt good. It felt like an honoring of that franchise.

Stefanie Bautista 55:56
Yeah, definitely. And then the surprise of the night was, of course they did Pirates of the Caribbean, which is, again, iconic. And Hans Zimmer is one of my favorite composers, and he did Pirates of the Caribbean. And being as we were at the beach, it was, we thought, “Oh okay, this makes sense.” And then as we’re sitting there, who pops up from the back with an umbrella? Jack Sparrow?

Ariel Landrum 56:22
Captain Jack Sparrow.

Stefanie Bautista 56:23
Captain Jack Sparrow.

Ariel Landrum 56:25
Which by then, this was the end of the night.

Stefanie Bautista 56:28
Yeah, this is the end of the night.

Ariel Landrum 56:29
And Stef and I were like, “Well, let’s see if we can sort of take a selfie with the girls playing in the background.” The women. “The women playing back in the background.” And we look up and there’s there’s there’s Capin Jack, and we’re now really close because we were allowed to move because it was the final, you know, score for the night.

Stefanie Bautista 56:47
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 56:47
And he saw us looking at him and posed. He posed for us. He was a poser.

Stefanie Bautista 56:52
He’s a poser. Yes, and he was like, okay, we living in LA, we see a lot of impersonators. This guy was pretty legit. He was pretty legit. And a lot of my friends who saw it on my stories on Instagram were like, “Dang, that guy’s legit. He’s super looks like him.” And I’m like, “I know, it’s like crazy?” And yeah, like he was prancing around the stage with his umbrella, his lace umbrella.

Ariel Landrum 57:18
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 57:19
And you know, vibing to the music, and everybody pulls their phones out, starts taking pictures, it was it was such a funny and wonderful way to end the event and very, so very Disney.

Ariel Landrum 57:30
Very Disney.

Stefanie Bautista 57:31
And duh you’re in Orange County.

Ariel Landrum 57:33
And like to have like, again, like a character come out. Like I would expect that I would hope for that. I didn’t expect that for this non sanctioned Disney event, which may or may not play with Disney music.

Stefanie Bautista 57:45
It was a toss up.

Ariel Landrum 57:46
And the fact that the whole night that we had this character was such the icing on the cake. And for, for me specifically, the reason I wanted to do this event is that my partner was going to be working away for out of town and then out of state for a while on a few different projects, industry projects. And our anniversary is coming up and I wanted to have some sort of anniversary event and I definitely wanted to do it with Stef AJ the couple to identify…

Stefanie Bautista 58:16
I told her not to, I was like “No we’re you gonna leave.”

Ariel Landrum 58:20
No. Yes. No. No.

Stefanie Bautista 58:21
And I was like, “This is your thing, you need it.” And then she would refused.

Ariel Landrum 58:25
I refused.

Stefanie Bautista 58:26
I conceded.

Ariel Landrum 58:26
They had to come simply because if you if you want couples goals, that’s who you look up too. And I needed that in my anniversary.

Stefanie Bautista 58:34
Thank you.

Ariel Landrum 58:35
And it was so it was fun, in that sense, is fun to share with my bestie. It was fun to share it with my name counterpart. I loved it.

Stefanie Bautista 58:44
Yeah, it was so fun, despite all of the obstacles we had to overcome to get there. It was worth it. Um, I think because of the level of musicality just presented by the quartet. The fact that I mean even if it wasn’t all Disney, we would have found that it was just as entertaining because they were so great as musicians.

Ariel Landrum 59:07
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 59:07
Just being out there the feel of being on the beach listening to music. Now it says candlelight, but guys we’re on the beach so any candle would have died in two seconds in that wind so they were fake candles.

Ariel Landrum 59:20
They were candles and there was we went to the first show not the second one. sSo the 9 o’clock showing definitely had candle light. We had the sun setting which is very gorgeous on the beach but isn’t candlelight. And, and I knew that going in. But I also knew that this was a Thursday and everyone had to work the next day. So I don’t think the 9 o’clock being out that late listening to all of the music and then yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 59:48
If you want to do this, um, depending on your comfort level. If you’re like me, you have kids and you have things to do at night. Also, we were leaving for a trip the next day so it would have been better for us to do the earlier showing. It was still like Ariel said very, very lovely and beautiful with the sunset. I liked it. It wasn’t as cold as it could have been. If we did do the second show, I definitely would have brought a blanket and something warm. The great thing about it was that because we had gotten there kind of the first show early enough, we were able to eat dinner. I think if we did the 9 o’clock it would have been a little too late. And also we the 3 of us, not Ariel just pounded all of this alcohol AJ bought because AJ is you know, he loves to cater, even though he’s not doing food. And he was doing it already the whole entire day. So he bought all the food for us. And AJ wanted to actually commend you, Ariel for scarfing down all that food because apparently you were hungry due to all that stress.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:50
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:51
He was like “Tee hee.” Later, he was like, “Did she not eat?”

Ariel Landrum 1:00:55
I thought I ate. Apparently…

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:58
Nope. All that anxiety just ate up everything that was in her stomach.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:02
It ate it all up. It was all gone.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:03
Luckily they had a burger there that she… The food was actually quite good. The only thing that I didn’t expect were tortilla chips to get so stale right away because of the humidity.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:14
Yeah, do not buy tortilla chips in regards to this weather, because yeah, they were crunchy. Then Stef and I went to take pictures of Captain Jack Sparrow. And then we came back and they were not crunchy anymore.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:31
They were soggy.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:31
In the span of one pirate song the ocean had taken over.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:37
Yeah, and I guess like to kind of wind it down. Also like at the end of the show. If you didn’t finish your drinks, you can go to the side and finish them before the next show starts. You could take we were able to take pictures with Captain Jack Sparrow. He was very funny and lovely. And I liked that because it wasn’t an official Disney setting, he didn’t have to be in character the whole time. Like they had at the parks. So we got to talk to him a little bit and got to know him which is really hilarious. Talking to a Jack Sparrow that is not Johnny Depp, but is a human being that has known places in and around Los Ang.. It was just weird. It was very like a mind. A mind F.

Ariel Landrum 1:02:15
Surreal for sure.

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:15
If you really took yourself out of it. But we got to meet the ladies in the or in the quartet. They were so nice.

Ariel Landrum 1:02:22
Yes, the Orchid Wuartet and their logo…

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:24
Shout out.

Ariel Landrum 1:02:25
It’s the most beautiful, simplified logo I’ve ever seen. It’s a Q and O inside with a little orchid and I bought a sweater. And then the best thing about me buying that sweater is it made it easier for me to give the cardigan away. I was not cold.

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:40
Exactly. And also, if you go to small events like this, make sure to buy some merge, like whether it be a sticker or anything. It really helps to musicians. And it helps them keep their music alive. So please support any sort of you know, small events that you can. They are going to be performing, I think next in Koreatown, which is so much closer than Huntington Beach.

Ariel Landrum 1:03:03
Anaheim Marriott then Korea Trown.

Stefanie Bautista 1:03:05
Oh, Anaheim Marriott.

Ariel Landrum 1:03:06
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:03:07
Thank you. yes. Which is a little bit closer, so they’re going to inch their way back to Los Angeles. So I think by the time this podcast is published, they might have already had these tickets on Fever for the Anaheim concert. But if you missed that one, please go watch them in Koreatown.

Ariel Landrum 1:03:22
Yeah K-Town.

Stefanie Bautista 1:03:22
I think I know the venue that they’re gonna be in. It’s gonna it’s an old church, right in the heart of on Wilshire, and it’ll be really nice if you can go and support them.

Ariel Landrum 1:03:32
Yeah. And you can also go on Twitter and Instagram and support us @happiestpodGT. Thank you.

Stefanie Bautista 1:03:41
Yes, you will see the pictures. We will link all of the things that, all of the people and things it took us to get ready for…

Ariel Landrum 1:03:50
Yes, yes, we’ll link this style, we’ll link food, we’ll link the event. We’ll even link Captain Jack Sparrowed.

Stefanie Bautista 1:03:57
Yes. If you have any questions, feel free to comment or shoot us a DM on Twitter, Instagram, and we are more than happy to help you navigate and maybe even find some other Disney events, whether it be official or not official for you to partake in safely with your loved ones. As we all know that things are a little sticky now when it comes to going out. So we want to make sure that everybody’s still stays safe throughout all of this.

Ariel Landrum 1:04:24
Yeah, everybody. Thank you for joining us and we hope you support some live music.

Stefanie Bautista 1:04:29
Yep, we’ll see you next time.

Ariel Landrum 1:04:31
Bye.

Stefanie Bautista 1:04:32
Bye.

Media/Characters Mentioned
  • Peter Pan
  • Cinderella
  • Moana
  • Pocahontas
  • Mary Poppins
  • The Lion King
  • Frozen
  • Inside Out
  • Toy Story
  • Monsters, Inc.
  • The Incredibles
  • Coco
  • The Little Mermaid
  • Black Panther
  • Mandilorian
  • Star Wars
  • The Pirates of the Carribbean
  • Captain Jack Sparrow
  • Music
  • Soundtracks
  • Soundscores
  • Sing-A-Longs
Topics/Themes Mentioned
  • Music Therapy
  • Healing powers of music
  • Self-care through enviornment
  • Self-care throught lifestyle
  • Time management
  • Style
  • Events
  • Live music

Questions? Comments? Discuss this episode on the GT Forum.

—

 Website: happy.geektherapy.com
 | Instagram: @HappiestPodGT | Twitter: @HappiestPodGT | Facebook: @HappiestPodGT |
 | Stef on Twitter: @stefa_kneee | Ariel on Instagram: @airyell3000 |

Geek Therapy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit with the mission of advocating for the effective and meaningful use of popular media in therapeutic, educational, and community practice.
| GT Facebook: @GeekTherapy | GT Twitter: @GeekTherapy |
| GT Forum: forum.geektherapy.com  | GT Discord: geektherapy.com/discord |

Back to School? More Like Back To Recess!

August 5, 2021 · Discuss on the GT Forum

https://media.blubrry.com/happypod/media.transistor.fm/67bc830a/190981a0.mp3

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#17: Recess is a show about six brave 4th graders who take on the social dynamics of the playground. Stef and Ariel discuss this beloved 90’s animated series, and how studies find that recess is an important part of a child’s social-emotional learning.

Resources for this episode:
1. Verywell Mind: Quality Recess Gives a Boost to Children’s Mental Health, Study Says
2. Journal of School Health: Recess Quality and Social and Behavioral Health in Elementary School Students
3. Photos of School Lunches From Around the World Will Make American Kids Want to Study Abroad

Become a member of Geek Therapy on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/geektherapy

Transcription

Ariel Landrum 0:11
Hello, everyone, welcome to the happiest pod on Earth. I’m Ariel.

Stefanie Bautista 0:14
And I’m Stef, and we’re Disney fans. But we’re really so much more than that. Ariel here is a licensed therapist who uses clients’ passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental unwellness.

Ariel Landrum 0:24
And the lovely Stef is an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help her students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

Stefanie Bautista 0:32
And here at Happiest Pod. It’s a place where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens. Why do we do that? Because just like we are more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums we consume. And so today, what Disney the media or experience are we dissecting and sharing on this episode?

Ariel Landrum 0:49
I think this is one that you are highly familiar with as an educator.

Stefanie Bautista 0:53
Yep. Yes, it totally is. And I’m really, really excited to talk about this. And we are talking today about recess.

Ariel Landrum 1:03
Recess!

Stefanie Bautista 1:05
And I’m sure all of you are like listening to that theme song from Recess in your head, because I loved it so much. I wish we could have it here on the podcast, but we probably need to license that. And there’s the gardener in my house. Low and behold gardeners are not part of recess, but we’re going to be talking about Recess the show, and also recess as it plays into how it works in our kids lives, lives of kids who we know if you don’t have any, and also the impact that it has in our lives growing up.

Ariel Landrum 1:39
Absolutely. So recently, I got to respond to some research in an article that talked about the importance of recess for students and their mental wellness. And some of the things that they identified was that recess offers an opportunity to support just the healthy development of children. So that they became come well, whole humans and entire experience of themselves. And that the biggest factor was quality recess; factors such as a safe play environment, sufficient play equipment, and even supportive adult engagement, along with student autonomy and minimal disruptive conflict. Would you agree with some of these findings?

Stefanie Bautista 2:24
Absolutely. I think recess as it has evolved over time, I know that us playing recess in the early 90’s looked a lot different than how recess is conducted today while I’m working at a school. But I remember recess being the time that you are your whole self. In the classroom, you’re in front of an adult, there’s expectations, academic expectations, mannerisms, that you kind of get used to as you’re going into school. But when you’re on the yard, you are really who you are outside, just without your family. And this is where interactions with your peers, interactions with different ages of kids, interactions with other adults who aren’t your teacher, those connections and those opportunities only happen on the recess play yard. And that’s why I think A. I love the show Recess, because it was such a fun way to describe that, obviously in a way more fantastical setting. I did not have a king Bob at my recess yard. But the sixth graders were hecka scary.

Ariel Landrum 3:24
They were.

Stefanie Bautista 3:24
Like I did not want to interact with them at all. But absolutely, recess is so integral in, you know, a child’s development socially. And I think this past year, having not had recess really had an impact. But I know we’ll talk a little bit about that later. I know for my school in particular, we do more of a structured recess where we have TAs leading different games, only because we do have limited space on my campus. But at the same time we realize that kids loved structured play. Recess doesn’t have to be a free for all, maybe in kindergarten, as we saw that there, you know, little unruly human beings in the beginning, not really knowing how to socialize yet. But definitely, as you see in the older upper grades, third, fourth and fifth grades, they’re longing for that structure, and they want to use those structured structures to learn more about play and evolve the way they play.

Ariel Landrum 4:18
Absolutely, absolutely. And research that was published in the Journal of School Health, titled Recess Quality and Social and Behavioral Health in Elementary School Students. And the article that featured my comments was in VerywellMind.com, and the title of the article is Quality Recess Gives a Boost to Children’s Mental Health Study Says. I’ll be sure to link both in the show notes. I agreed with some of the findings in regards to and and again, I think this might be something that you can talk to you because I believe this is maybe similar to your educational environment. But something new that when I came out here had not experienced; in the show Recess, they have a fixed building. And they have a fixed play yard. And there are a lot of schools here that the buildings are not fixed they’re not permanent fixtures.

Stefanie Bautista 5:11
Yup.

Ariel Landrum 5:11
Play yard is just asphalt there aren’t there is an equipment, there isn’t toys, there’s maybe just a chain Link fence that separates them from just the street. And it that disparity and access to just play is really disruptive to just the the mental wellness of youth and causes disengagement from adults. Though they’re finding that I definitely agreed with was when the anyone supervising the yard actually wanted to play with the youth and was very attentive, versus, you know, now, maybe on their phone when they shouldn’t be or talking to the other adults and not really paying attention, that that attentiveness created positive memories for for youth in regards to engaging with adults. That play is something important; its the way that they communicate and that it was a thing that was encouraged.

Stefanie Bautista 6:01
Absolutely, I think that there’s two really important things that you touched upon. The first part is that growing up here in the San Fernando Valley, and also other parts in LA, you have really old schools, and then you have schools within schools. That’s something that’s common here. Because we do have things like charter schools, private schools, and depending on which school you attend, sometimes they have a play apparatus. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes, because they’re located on a school, there’s an apparatus there, but they can’t necessarily play with it. So you have to kind of be creative. And depending on the resources of your school, you can, you know, do structured play, like I mentioned before at my school, but other times I remember being probably in middle school where you don’t really see like a play apparatus, it was more so like you were participating participating in organized sport like soccer, or you know, basketball. And otherwise, you were just hanging out on the yard. And that’s where you see, like you mentioned ‘The Yard Ladies,’ which is like our favorite ‘Yard Lady’ on Recess being her grumpy self. And I remember that was so much more prevalent in public schools. We always called them the ‘LAUSD Yard Ladies,’ they were always frowning. They were super upset everything, they just wanted to, you know, share the gossip with their, you know, your their coworkers and they weren’t really paying attention. And when you went to them, ask them for help or something, they were just like, whatever, figure it out on your own. And that was definitely something that I experienced in public school, as opposed to now working for a charter school. And also knowing other kids, other friends of mine who went to private school, those yard ladies actually played with them on the yard, they were leading games, they were helping do arts and crafts on the side, they had those materials. And unfortunately, that’s just the reality of funding when it comes to public, private, and charter schools in the United States across you know, from coast to coast. But it really does affect the way that kids view play. And it’s no surprise that by the time High School rolls around, they don’t want to play outside anymore.

Ariel Landrum 8:06
Aboslutely.

Stefanie Bautista 8:07
Because they never really had those, like positive opportunities when they were younger.

Ariel Landrum 8:11
And you definitely talked about school funding, right? And one of the I think in the very first episode of the series, we see The Swinger; not not to be taken as a related to Austin Powers. The Swinger is a little girl dressed very much like Amelia Earhart…

Stefanie Bautista 8:29
Amelia Earhart yup.

Ariel Landrum 8:29
On a swing, who is wanting to soar to new heights, and getting essentially injured. And one of the characters says, “Oh, we’ll have to talk to her when she comes back to the school from the school nurse.” And I do know that a lot of American schools’, maybe the school nurse shows up two days, maybe there’s no one at all.

Stefanie Bautista 8:45
We don’t have one at all. And you know what, I was just watching that episode again. And now that I’ve been educated, I haven’t seen it since I was, you know, way younger. And I was like, “Wow, we would just give them an ice pack. But who knows where she flew to. She could have flown in a bush, she could have flown out a bunch of kids. She got a foam flat face on the asphalt. We don’t know that. But we could only give her an ice pack.” And, you know, that goes into the limitations of what you can do as a staff member. That’s a whole nother list of do’s and don’ts. What because we’re not medical professionals. We study education, not you know, minor, or at least, you know, a little bit more than first aid on the yard. But you know, like, I think the nature of play is getting hurt. And it’s just a part of it. But unfortunately, because of funding like we mentioned, kids experienced that in different levels. Could be in extremes also.

Ariel Landrum 9:44
I think the other thing in regarding to like funding in schools and disparity. Again, in that sort of first episode we see a discussion in regards to American school cafeteria food, which is not good.

Stefanie Bautista 9:59
Nope.

Ariel Landrum 10:00
And a joke about the good food being hidden and locked up and essentially for the adults. And sure, I can remember a couple of things that I enjoyed eating. But I mean, I’ve seen artwork of cafeteria food in schools around the world, right?

Stefanie Bautista 10:17
And it makes you feel so sad to be in America.

Ariel Landrum 10:19
So sad to the things that we feed our students. And these are disparities that are still happening today. Right?

Stefanie Bautista 10:26
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 10:26
And so the fact that there was kind of a nod to that in this show that was created in the 90’s…

Stefanie Bautista 10:31
In the 90’s, and you know what I think so our at our school for a little insight we, we don’t serve the same LAUSD food, even though we’re technically you know, under the LAUSD umbrella, so we’re not exactly serving like that coffee cake, and you know, those like weird calzones that tastes like rubber and feel like rubber. However, because I was so scarred from those things. The coffee cake was good, but the calzones I don’t know. Chalupas I guess I was trying to say. But it took me all the way up until this year to actually say, “You know what, I’m okay with eating a school lunch, because there’s extras I don’t want it to waste.” And that’s me thinking as an adult, however, “It’s not so bad.” But I think it’s because we have like a private vendor that we go to.

Ariel Landrum 11:17
Oh okay.

Stefanie Bautista 11:18
You know, that was it’s way different. Like it has vegetables it has, you know, like chicken nuggets that actually look like chicken. But I it took me you know, how many decades to be okay with even like thinking about touching that food. And consuming it just because we have, you know, these images especially perpetuated in media. Like shows like Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide on Nickelodeon, and, you know….

Ariel Landrum 11:43
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 11:43
Other school shows that it’s just basically slop. And it’s very reminiscent of the way prison cafeterias are. So many parallels there. And also…

Ariel Landrum 11:53
Yes

Stefanie Bautista 11:54
And mentioning that first episode, where essentially, TJ is kind of shamed for wanting to go inside ‘The Good Food Refrigerator,’ that like platform that they’re on totally looks like a jail type of platform.

Ariel Landrum 12:09
Yeah. Like this bars above in the cafeteria, where the adults can essentially literally look down at the youth. Yeah, definitely looked institutionalized.

Stefanie Bautista 12:22
Absolutely. Um, but yeah, I mean, like, the school lunches, and I must say, yes, there is always a fridge in the school that has the better food.

Ariel Landrum 12:31
This is true? Not urban legend.

Stefanie Bautista 12:33
But, but they’re brought by teachers, so you probably couldn’t eat it anyway. And even sometimes, the teachers don’t want to put their food in there ’cause they don’t want it touching other teachers food. And I’ve yes, I’ve had somebody eat my lunch and not tell me.

Ariel Landrum 12:43
Disrespect. Disrespect.

Stefanie Bautista 12:51
Super rude. But I anyway.

Ariel Landrum 12:55
So some of the other findings was that when children had quality recess, and so again, they used the factors of safe play, adult engagement, sufficient play equipment, student autonomy, and minimal disruptive conflict; when they had those criterias met, the students always returned to class with a better ability to have executive functioning, better emotional self control, and adaptive classroom abilities. Which all of these things were impacted if they didn’t have recess or if they did. And these things were vastly improved if they did have recess, and it was quality recess. And I think…

Stefanie Bautista 13:36
Absolutely.

Ariel Landrum 13:37
That when we go back to the show, we kind of see this, right?

Stefanie Bautista 13:41
Yeah, definitely. I think the kids first and foremost long for recess in the second part of that first episode, they change the clock so that the recess bell rings earlier than normal. And it’s a real thing, because you know what, wiggle brakes, just that outside, just getting up and moving. That is such an important thing to staying focused. I mean, even as adults, we need to get up at least once an hour, if you’re sitting at a desk, just so that you can get your mind right, like take a break from the screen. Even if you’re writing something you just got to take like that mental break, get your body moving, because your body isn’t going to, you know, the blood isn’t gonna go to your brain if your blood isn’t, you know, moving because you’re not using your limbs, you know?

Ariel Landrum 14:21
Yeah yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 14:21
And I, we incorporate so many wiggle breaks in the younger, in the younger grades for kids to get up and dance a little bit before they sit down and do some really tough math. All the way up until fifth grade. I mean, they’re not called wiggle breaks anymore, but we want to go just so that they don’t feel like little kids. If we want to go outside and you know, play a really quick game of, you know, foursquare or something. We’ll do that. Just because we know that if those kids get antsy in their seats, now you’re all of a sudden trying to play whack a mole. Like, as a teacher. You’re trying to keep one kid down and then you’re trying to keep another down and another kid down, and then you’re trying to keep another kid down. But if you just have them all do that mental break, take a walk, it helps so, so much. And you can essentially get more done out of the day and the week. And the kids feel like they have a well rounded experience not just being locked inside a classroom.

Ariel Landrum 15:18
Yeah, yeah. So getting into the show.

Stefanie Bautista 15:21
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 15:22
It is a 30 minute cartoon format is animated series, made in 1997, I believe. And it’s the format of 2 15 minute segments. So you’re actually watching two episodes in one. And if you go on Disney+, there’s actually more than just the original Recess.

Stefanie Bautista 15:45
Yes spin offs. And a like a movie.

Ariel Landrum 15:46
Yeah. Which I have no idea exists, right?

Stefanie Bautista 15:49
Yeah. Those were made like the early 2000’s, I believe. Right?

Ariel Landrum 15:54
So we’ve got Recess, Recess: School’s Out, Recess: All Grown Down, so this is them as kindergarteners, and Recess: Taking The Fifth grade. So that’s them growing up into the fifth grade.

Stefanie Bautista 16:07
Yeah, you know, what, and Recess to me was so like, I loved it so much, because it was very reminiscent of Rugrats. But they were just a different age, it was 2 15 minute segments, easily digestible. They had a problem, they were going to rally their friends to solve it, they solved the problem, and then we go on to the next day in their lives, or the next recess in their lives. And on top of that, as the show progressed, you see them getting older, but then they also toyed with “What happens if they were younger?” And Rugrats, we would, you know, they had a whole nother spin off of Rugrats All Growed Up where they grown up.

Ariel Landrum 16:40
Yeah. Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 16:41
And I love that show, too. It was so successful. And I feel like recess probably took a lot of cues from Rugrats, because it was such a groundbreaking animated feature that, you know, we could grow with these kids and look into Child Development really in a different way. And see things through the eyes of a child, because I think also watching these shows as adults, we then think about, “How did I see things as a child?” And I think so many of us resonate with that, because we see these images, and we see like, the playground essentially is not a big place. But when you were in fourth, third grade, it seemed so huge and vast, like to the point where you had two kids digging on the side trying to get to China.

Ariel Landrum 17:21
Yeah, yes.

Stefanie Bautista 17:22
You know, these these worlds within that playground.

Ariel Landrum 17:27
Yeah, that’s what made the playground so big. And even in the show, the playground is a character itself.

Stefanie Bautista 17:33
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 17:33
It has accepted laws and was lived through like a social hierarchy in regards to the the youth that were engaging with it, and had even its own moments of commentary. And when it comes to the actual core group core characters, and even with all the students, it was that anticipation for recess. I remember antas, like looking at the clock and counting it down for when this, like, I could just bolt out of here and go and just let myself loose on the playground. And when I think of my like moments at recess, I remember that having that autonomy, and I remember there being social rules and norms. And that, really, that my lived experience of socializing was on the playground, it wasn’t in the classroom.

Stefanie Bautista 18:26
No, not at all, especially when you were confined to your own desk. I mean, as you get into the upper grades, you don’t share a desk really anymore with other students. I mean, definitely now you would not share a desk.

Ariel Landrum 18:37
No definitely not now.

Stefanie Bautista 18:38
Not during the current COVID climate. But I mean, you didn’t have circle time anymore. You didn’t have rug time, as you know, an older student. So I mean, all the interactions you had were outside. And then you learned who hung out with who what type of kids hung out in a certain place. What type of kids hung out in the cafeteria? Where did eat? Did they even get school lunch? Did they bring their lunch from home? All of those social hierarchies and, you know, social challenges that kids need to navigate around, start at recess on the playground.

Ariel Landrum 19:08
So in talking about Recess, I know that you and I both watched it again to to get an idea. And I feel like for just to remind ourselves and I feel like for this show, it’s one of Disney’s most well rounded social commentaries.

Stefanie Bautista 19:23
Oh, yeah.

Ariel Landrum 19:24
I find that the the social dynamics that they sort of displayed on the playground and the the stereotypes really of different kids. I could think back in my mind to someone that was similar to that. So you mentioned The Diggers digging to China. They had Upside Down Girl. I remember plenty of kids that always hung upside down. They really liked that that kinesthetic feeling of like feeling the world being the other way. Right? If we’re thinking of even just like now with a Black Widow.

Stefanie Bautista 19:55
Oh, yeah.

Ariel Landrum 19:55
“Oh we’re both upside down.”

Stefanie Bautista 19:56
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 19:59
I’m thinking of King Bob totally made sense. He was he was someone of an older great.

Stefanie Bautista 20:05
He was a jock.

Ariel Landrum 20:06
He was a jock. There was the Ashley’s…

Stefanie Bautista 20:11
Oh my gosh…

Ariel Landrum 20:12
They were Valley girls, which you’re from The Valley. Does anybody talk that way?

Stefanie Bautista 20:18
You know, it’s funny because I feel like once the media started perpetuating how we, how they talk, I guess how I I don’t even know if I talk like this. I was hyper aware of how many times I say ‘like’ in a sentence at one point of my life. But like that, I there’s a word for it. It’s like that. The roadie like way of like elongating your syllables very much like how Kim Kardashian talks like, “Oh my god.” Like…

Ariel Landrum 20:48
Yeah very pulled.

Stefanie Bautista 20:50
Definitely know people who did talk like that, who totally bought into you know, “I’m like, Mandy Moore. I’m Britney Spears.” Or because it was the late 90’s you had these icons to look up to and The Valley, there were those girls who, probably richer than me, richer than most people about that hustle, you know, highest rung of the social hierarchy that only hung out together and probably didn’t talk like that. And the Ashley’s totally reminded me of another show, Daria, which had The Fashion Club also 4 girls who talked like they were from The Valley led by Daria’s sister and they were exactly like I was like “Oh the Ashley’s just grew up to be the fashion club. Cool. Cool. Cool.”

Ariel Landrum 21:36
Yeah. Yes. a clicker for wearing skirts. Right?

Stefanie Bautista 21:40
Yeah. Skirts.

Ariel Landrum 21:41
They were very, very Clueless.

Stefanie Bautista 21:42
Yes, very Clueless, very Clueless.

Ariel Landrum 21:46
And then, like, there were in the even in the first episode, we meet The Guru Kid, and I can distinctly remember in my mind, there was one kid that just seemed so like…

Stefanie Bautista 21:55
Zenned out.

Ariel Landrum 21:56
Yeah, like smarter. I was like, on another plane, and we will regularly seek out advice from this kid was a really good mediator. So…

Stefanie Bautista 22:04
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 22:05
But I have that I have that in my memory as like someone that to me, I like immediately when I heard guru kid because they they’re like, “We have a problem we need. We talk to Guru Kid,” it’s like, “Yeah, you do.”

Stefanie Bautista 22:18
Yeah. And it’s so funny how he literally gives the same advice to somebody who wants to make a great higher. And it was the same analogy, but like, so it wasn’t really The Guru Kid that was giving advice. It was just the interpretation of the person asking for advice ends up giving their own advice to themselves.

Ariel Landrum 22:33
Oh, very similar to how it happens in therapy, but thats a different podcasts

Stefanie Bautista 22:37
Interesting. We will definitely have to catch up on that one day. But yeah, I think those different characters that’s what I loved a lot about the show because like you said, you could identify other people but also you could identify yourself as one of the main characters because they were so diverse. And they were so different, but yet they all hung out together and all work together as a team. So Ariel, who did you identify with in the Recess crew?

Ariel Landrum 23:05
Okay, so in the recess crew, there are 1,2,3,4,5,6. There are 6, 6 people in the crew in the gang or posse, I don’t know whatever you want to call them. For the girls, there was Ashley and Gretchen. Ashley was more of a tomboy Gretchen is would be considered the smart kid I guess.

Stefanie Bautista 23:27
You mean Spinelli.

Ariel Landrum 23:28
Yeah, yeah. Ashely Spinelli. I apologize. Spoiler alert.

Stefanie Bautista 23:33
Spoiler alert.

Ariel Landrum 23:34
Her name is Ashley. But they call her Spinelli. My bad.

Stefanie Bautista 23:36
It was like, one of the best reveals I think of a show. I loved that. But anyway, go ahead.

Ariel Landrum 23:45
Yes, Spinelli tomboy. Gretchen smart kid. Then we have Mikey whose sort of like a big teddy bear. We have TJ who’s the leader. And I would say like, plan guy. I don’t know. Yep. We have Gus who’s coming along for the ride. Seems to just kind of absorbing everything. And it is it was the new kid. And then we have Vince who is the the sports guy or jock, right?

Stefanie Bautista 24:14
Yeah. Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 24:15
So I think for me, I really gravitated towards Gus.

Stefanie Bautista 24:21
Yeah, I knew you’d say that.

Ariel Landrum 24:24
And the reason why is we get introduced to guest because he’s a new kid, and he’s a military brat. And he says, like, I think he says, “I’ve been to like 12 schools in 6 years,” or something like that. And I remember the distinct difference of going to school off base and on base. And on base, it was a way more healing experience because we all knew we were the new kids. And we all knew that we were going to move. Like it was it was actually easier for me to make friends with kids on base because we we were always trying to develop ourselves and create a unit and we knew that the unit was going to get disrupted. When I went to school off base, it was really those clicks. It was really people who had known each other since diapers. And I was the new kid. I was othered. I, in the episode, they talk about a rule where you can’t talk to the new kid for 48 hours, a new kid doesn’t get a name. And I remember a lot of people having trouble remembering my name. And I was like, “But it’s a Disney Princess, like, how do you not know who Ariel is?” And that like being not having anybody to sit with not having anybody to talk to you. And remembering the few times where someone reached out and someone talked to me and someone tried to be a friend. I know, it took, I would say months before I actually had a friend group and some of my off base schools versus going to school on base. And I knew that experience of like, consistently being uprooted. The other thing was the the trope of his military dad, introducing him is like a cadet. And like if you go to their house, he’s got barbed wire and a Humvee like that, that stereotype that is exactly what the off base off base kids thought my life was like. And thought my dad was like, and if any of you, and I know Stef has met my dad, he is far from trope.

Stefanie Bautista 26:20
No he’s more of like of The Guru kid.

Ariel Landrum 26:22
Definitely more like The Guru Kid. So yeah, I really resonated with with Gus and how much he just like he cried. So that to me was also important because we see a male figure crying, and being open about his emotions. And he cried, saying, “No one’s been so nice to me. Thank you guys.” And I remember that. So yeah, I’m wondering who you identify with?

Stefanie Bautista 26:46
Oh, my gosh, well, I love that Gus gave you a little bit of visibility in a cartoon. And I think that’s so important, especially for you know, all of our kiddos who are military brats, they are so special and you know, they go through just as much as their, you know, their parents do. And you guys do deserve that visibility, because it’s a real lived experience that a lot of people have. But for me, so I know straight out, I probably identified with Spinelli, Ashley Spinelli.

Ariel Landrum 27:14
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 27:14
Just because that’s how I look like when I was in elementary school, I was…

Ariel Landrum 27:18
No no no. Not just elementary school. I’ve seen that exact outfit on Stef with the combat boots…

Stefanie Bautista 27:24
Regularly.

Ariel Landrum 27:24
And the leather jacket and a dress and some sort of beanie and or hat, or coverage.

Stefanie Bautista 27:29
Literally throughout my life.

Ariel Landrum 27:31
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 27:31
Yes, I lived Spinelli’s outfit. I should have royalties for that. However, I actually identified a lot with each and every character because each and every character was a bit of me. So if we’re going down the list, I was Spinelli because I dressed like her. And sometimes I just didn’t care about stuff. And I was just like, “You know, whatever. I’m grumpy.” I was Gretchen a little bit because I really loved science. And I really loved figuring out things and that was one of my favorite subjects in school. I was a little bit of Mikey because I was like the mediator and also I was not the skinniest girl. I was very like, I guess athletic, you could say in my body type. So I didn’t really I didn’t wear like tank tops or anything like that during school just because I was so self conscious about my body, not being super super skinny as a girl. And leading into that I was a little bit of Vince because I really loved sports. I did dress like a tomboy.

Ariel Landrum 28:28
You do love sports.

Stefanie Bautista 28:30
I love sports so much. And then I think I identified the least with TJ just because he was just the troublemaker.

Ariel Landrum 28:37
Yeah scheming.

Stefanie Bautista 28:39
Without without Vince he was literally Zack Morris just causing just wrecking havoc on everything and…

Ariel Landrum 28:45
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 28:45
You know, Vince was like his, his his foil I guess you could say and…

Ariel Landrum 28:50
Moral compass like a Jiminy Cricket.

Stefanie Bautista 28:51
Moral compass, for sure for sure.

Ariel Landrum 28:53
Now, you could say that Vince is a essentially a stereotype and that he is a Black athlete. And that was a common stereotype especially in the 90’s. But then you miss a really some important part of regarding his depth of character. And that he was kind and calm. And then he had a lot of integrity and he was the reason that the group was grounded. So it makes sense that he was TJ’s is Jiminy Cricket. His conscience. I also want to just mark that one of my favorite episodes is where he is essentially teaching Spinelli what to do in regards to an upcoming beauty pageant. He spent all night watching some pageant videos and he learned how to sashay, how to walk and step. And I would say that was very forward representation of a Black male walking in heels and modeling with no embarrassment in regards to what he was doing. He just knew that this is a competition and this is how you win the competition. I’m going to dive in it headfirst and fully engage. Essentially, what could have been made fun of for walking around these heels, so shout outs Vince.

Stefanie Bautista 30:07
Gus I identified with not because I was a military brat I didn’t, you know, I was not introduced into being a military family till I was older. But I moved schools a lot in LA. So in elementary school, I think I attended 5 different elementary schools. So I was also the new kid, but in a different way. Like I was a local but also I wasn’t a local because I never had a peer group that I knew from diapers like you Ariel.

Ariel Landrum 30:34
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 30:34
And so I always had to find my way into these specific bs actual circles very much like Recess where it was just an amalgam of different people who were outcasts in their own I guess social ways coming together and just hanging out together. I remember my group of friends in late elementary just being you know, kids who back then guys, anime was not cool. You were lame for loving anime and, and cartoons, so I hung out with like five other kids, and none of us looked like we would ever be friends. But we all like the enemies. So we ended up hanging out together. But I think that was also the beauty of recess is that you… Just because you’re a jock, you didn’t have to hang out with just jocks. Just because you were a nerd didn’t have to hang out with just nerds. If you were, you know, Mikey, you didn’t just have to hang out with other kids who looked like you. You could be friends with different people. And it was okay. And you did great things together.

Ariel Landrum 31:30
And I think that you’re you’re also noting the difference between us following the narrative of like one character and sort of like our Disney media and a core group. Because you’re saying, like, “I identify with components of each and that’s okay.” And sometimes it’s one of the things that turns us off in regards to media is, “I just don’t like this main character. I could not be them. I can’t, I can’t find I can’t find relatability.” And in this case, you had options. And you could switch in episodes like, “I totally agree with Gretchen in this moment, or I totally agree with Mikey in this moment.” And that you that narrative change allows you to again, see more of a holistic kid, because there was definitely in this group, moments of infighting because of disagreements. And I think the really, again, beautiful thing about this group is that they were so diverse. What we did see was literally clicks on in the Recess playground. People only playing with people that were of similar interests. And this group accepted each other just because they were fun to hang out with. And then that was it. They didn’t have to have completely similar or same interests. And then they never seem to poke or make fun of each other for having differences. It was just we were automatically introduced to Gretchen being smart. And she was saying things that were smart, and no one questioned it. No one made fun of it. And no one tried to have her like, explain in a different way. If they said they were confused, she would and it was never seen as her talking down on them. And it was never seen as them telling her she was a dweeb, right?

Stefanie Bautista 33:07
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 33:07
It was like there was just like, “Oh, she just likes to be smart. And we like her. So let’s like learn a thing or two.”

Stefanie Bautista 33:12
Exactly, exactly. And, you know, like, seeing them as a group. It was it was so nice that I don’t know if you remember this, were they all in the same class? Were they all in Miss Grotke’s class?

Ariel Landrum 33:25
They were shout out to the best teacher.

Stefanie Bautista 33:28
Best teacher.

Ariel Landrum 33:29
More woke than I even I am today.

Stefanie Bautista 33:32
More woke in the 90’s, too. And I remember I think I had tried on a pair of like Harry Potter style glasses, and I had just cut my hair really short. And my husband was like, “You look like Miss Grotke.”

Ariel Landrum 33:43
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 33:45
And I was like, “Oh my gosh.” But then I was like, “That’s not like, that’s a compliment. She was the coolest teacher.” I wish. I wish that I had, you know, like a ‘woke teacher’ like that when I was growing up. Now I know teachers that are woke just like her, but I can’t be their students anymore. They’re my counterparts. But she was so compassionate and so loving. And I think with the chaos of the playground, it was such a nice way for them to come back and be grounded. Whenever they did come back in the class, even though they still wanted to be outside. They appreciated her and she always had their back.

Ariel Landrum 34:16
Yeah, and I remember having really good teachers, formative teachers and I remember teachers that did not like their job. Did not want to be there did not want to engage with kids like a like our Yard Ladies. And I feel like Miss Grotke was she was the maybe like the epitome of like what a teacher should be or how I imagined or hoped that they would be if I had kids that were being taught.

Yeah. Let’s I you know, it’s funny because when as we’re talking about adults in the school setting that you know, had their had their roles to play in our lives. Like you know, Miss Grotkewas the ideal teacher. What is the name of The Yard Lady? I literally just saw it like a couple minutes ago. What is her name Ariel?

Oh, her name is Miss Finster.

Stefanie Bautista 35:04
Miss Fist… Yeah, Miss Finster. Miss Finster was the grumpiest oldest lady that you could ever have on a yard. But for some reason, she was like built like a linebacker, and she could chase a kid down.

Ariel Landrum 35:15
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 35:17
there, lunch lady was just as miserable. Their principal was just as you know, they always paint the principal is so oblivious to what’s going on. And just always concerned about like, the administration of everything and not the actual happiness of the kids.

Ariel Landrum 35:33
Is that a trope? Or is that real from your knowledge as an educator.

Stefanie Bautista 35:37
Not in my school, however, more traditional schools that I have worked that there is definitely a gap between up and coming teachers who are my age who have just graduated, and also the tenured teachers who have been there when through you know, multiple generations of students.

Ariel Landrum 35:55
So bright eyed and bushy tailed or seen shit.

Stefanie Bautista 35:58
Seen some shit and you have the ones in the middle who have seen some shit but are still, you know, trying to bridge the gap between like the non technological and technological I think that’s the best way that I can describe it. And sometimes the principles just don’t follow that. Thankfully, for me, I have a boss that is way in tune with like a lot of things that are going on and she’s great. But I remembered student teaching on like other sites and the principal just kind of being aloof, or just being that figurehead and not much more else. And I want to know if you think this but I always thought that Randall Miss…

Ariel Landrum 36:38
Miss Finster.

Stefanie Bautista 36:38
Er, yeah, her her little pet. Miss Finster’s pet? Yeah, I always knew Randall. And I was like, “This kid always screwing up everything.” And the she treats him like a little dog because she gives him a treat like a puppy.

Ariel Landrum 36:53
Yeah she throw a cookie at him.

Stefanie Bautista 36:54
Yeah she throw a cookie at him. And I was like, oh, it was always just like, weaselly looking kid that just like, never really fit in anywhere. But I guess found safety and being next to an adult.

Yeah, I feel like the one of the things that this show does well is it gives you a way to simplify social challenges in regards to having characters identified in your mind on how to tackle these social challenges. So it’s like you think of Randall, he thrives at being used as a pawn to carry another person’s favor in order to maintain really social hierarchy, relevance, importance. He’s like a literally aligning himself with power. And if you look at that, you can look at it in a strength based way. And that is probably a kid who survives as a kid who can align himself with power.

Ariel Landrum 37:46
And if it means not having friends that are your age, and just align yourself with adults, then so be it.

I think like even in some of the other sort of character tropes, you can see like, are you struggling with someone who kind of, in your mind seems to match that of a sixth grader. They just want to maintain dominance, they just want to maintain control. And that’s their motivation. That’s the reason you’re having a social impasse with them is because somehow in this moment, they feel like you’ve removed control and you have asserted your own dominance, and they don’t know how to respond except to push back and be aggressive. And then even mentioning like The Swinger Girl, are you working with someone who has such daring desire and drive that they are doing so much, despite potential danger. That they don’t even see the risk or the potential harm that they’ve put themselves in? I feel like in watching the show, it gives you these snippets of the simple characterization that you can then use to tackle complex social engagements.

Stefanie Bautista 38:52
Yeah, definitely. And also the performativeness of Swinger Girl. Maybe she was doing it to be popular because you know what she maybe she just ended I want to know, the backstory of Swinger Girl now. Because you know, it’s wishing doing it for attention, like, did she not have anybody to go to and that’s why she was like, “You know what swinging is going to be my thing.” Just like Upside Down Girl, that’s going to be my thing. The 2 Diggers I’m pretty sure they’re brothers. Right? So they’re twins, I believe.

Ariel Landrum 39:19
I think they are. Someone correct us if we’re wrong, we haven’t actually like fully rewatched all of the episodes.

Stefanie Bautista 39:27
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 39:27
I was very young when I seented them. So my memory is but wasted.

Stefanie Bautista 39:32
Yes. Same here. But yeah, they I mean, they look exactly the same. They’re both digging and they argue like they’re siblings. So I’m assuming that they are siblings, and you know, maybe they just didn’t have anywhere else that they could fit into. So they were just like, “You know, we’re just gonna dig our way out of this.” And for some reason, no staff member decided, “Hey, there’s a hole in the ground. Next to a fence.

Ariel Landrum 39:55
This isn’t safe.

Stefanie Bautista 39:56
This is safe.

Ariel Landrum 39:58
Why do these kids have shovels in the first place?

Stefanie Bautista 40:00
Who gave them tools? Also, I mean, blathering safe. They have a hardhat. But, I mean, why are they in this hole? This is this is not okay, guys. Another one of my…

Very primitive ways of doing it. Not like an actual, like construction site with a sign that they made that says “China or Bust.” That was well thought out.

Ariel Landrum 40:21
Well thought out.

Again, it’s elementary, right? So I do remember in elementary school kids just randomly digging holes. Like that was that was like with objects with sticks, just like making digging sound effect

Stefanie Bautista 40:23
Very primiative ways of doing it. Not like an actual like construction site with a sign that they made that says, ‘China or Bust.’ That was well thought out. And without any notice, for whatever reason. But yeah, I mean, it’s so funny that you, you mentioned, just the ways that we perceive things now, as opposed to the way we perceive them before as kids. And I think that’s the fun part about looking back on shows like this, like Recess, especially one that kind of stands the test of time. And I think that there’s a there’s many things that we already said that, you know, hasn’t stand the test of time, because this is really how kids navigate their way socially in the world, right? But there are some things that don’t test, you know, stand the test of time, right? I think watching it, I was just like, “I don’t know about this.”

Ariel Landrum 41:13
So for me, that was the kindergarteners was that for you? So the kindergartners are, they’re described as being sort of wild and unpredictable, but they’re shown using really what’s called like an Indigenous Savage trope. So the this trope is in media, it’s used to show how Indigenous people are beneath Western white society by showing us that we need to fear them, that we need to fight them, and essentially convert them to our ways. And we see this by the kindergarteners having tribes having painted faces, having…

Stefanie Bautista 41:54
Feathers.

Ariel Landrum 41:55
Feathers…

Stefanie Bautista 41:56
Face paint.

Ariel Landrum 41:57
Face paint. Having rituals that involve tying kids up, and like saying they’re going to eat kids, like all of this is to portray that they’re primitive. And even Gretchen says in the first episode that these ‘primitive grades’ really saying like lower grades, and when when they go to visit, they say like, “We are from Big Kid land.” And “Here is shiny tinfoil we give you a few help us.” Like really just feeding into that trope. Now looking. I know, I know, seeing it as a kid when I was watching, I didn’t get that. I was not woke. I was not a woke ass kid. I was dead asleep. I did. I saw that as like, “Yeah, kindergarteners, like they don’t have… Their lawless. Like they just want to see the world burn.” But I didn’t see that they were portraying it using this trope. Now that I do see that, I know that that could easily be removed, and it would still be a good show. And I do know there’s an episode where TJ like goes and visits the kindergarteners and has a whole day there and enjoys a nap time. And so essentially realizes that they are not lawless, and they do have their own social norms and that they’re different. So maybe that was a little undoing of that.

Stefanie Bautista 43:08
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 43:08
But I would say that anybody who wants to pick this show up now that hasn’t seen it from childhood; that doesn’t have like maybe some nostalgia connection, those are going to be those, like points of disruption for you.

Stefanie Bautista 43:21
Yeah, I agree. Definitely the kindergarteners and working with kindergarteners, yes, there is an amount of lawlessness to them. They do like to bite each other. They do spit on each other. They are just learning and because they’re babies still like a lot, especially these ones coming from preschool. They’re coming from like daycare and they don’t have… They don’t know how to stand in a line. They don’t know how to hold their crayons correctly. They don’t know how to sit in a chair. So yes, there is a element of them not knowing but the way that they portrayed them as savages not knowing was you know, kind of probably the wrong direction. And like we said, it’s the 90’s it was a different time, we had different ways of perceiving other other norms, I guess you could say in other lands. However, I think now if you were to look at it, you would really have to look at it from a developmental standpoint, saying, you know, like, take away the, you know, feathers, we use feathers in arts and crafts, we use, you know, paint in arts and crafts, like kids are going to be messy. They literally look like that all the time. If you’re looking at it from an arts and crafts standpoint, and not an Indigenous people standpoint. You could always make that argument that you know, when TJ did go over there and was just like, “Oh my gosh, I love kindergarten like they got to take a nap. They get to do fun stuff like everyday seems like recess.” But also you know what, someone might bite you and like that’s okay, it’s normal.

Ariel Landrum 44:50
It’s normal.

Stefanie Bautista 44:51
It’s super normal. I think when I first was a teacher in kindergarten I literally thought of Recess. And I’m like, it’s scary, because you don’t know what these kids are gonna do. It is like being in a foreign country because you can’t really speak their language you, they don’t understand you. You have to learn the lingo of “Let’s all come together. Let’s clap, clap clap to pay attention.” Or, “If you can hear me match me. If you can hear me match me. Let’s shh.” And like you get this whole nother vocabulary and whole nother like way of talking to them. And sometimes when you don’t talk to an adult after being in kindergarten, for so long, you forget to form sentences. It is like being a foreigner in their land until you get used to being around them. So there are parallels to that. But I think as we are moving away from looking at Indigenous people, as people who are just never gonna get it, we can definitely form this in a way where it’s more true to child development, and not so much looking at foreigners in that way. Another thing that really, that I noticed watching it again, was the fact that a lot of the grades didn’t really interact with each other. The grade levels always stayed with their grade level. Like, if you’re in elementary school, now you have opportunities to talk to fifth graders, you have opportunities to talk to fourth graders as a first grader. And we actually encourage those connections, because then you can see where you want to be in the next couple years, like “Do you want to, you know, maybe you can identify with this person.” Like, or say, “You know, what, being a sixth grader is not so scary.” I think…

Ariel Landrum 46:34
Like do you guys assign like peer mentors or?

Stefanie Bautista 46:37
Yeah, we’re very much. And we also have a lot of fifth graders sometimes go into the younger classes, be a mystery reader, and say, “Oh, we’re going to actually hear from a fifth grader.” And they get to ask them questions like, “How does it feel to be in fifth grade?” Like, “How does it feel to be going into middle school soon.” Like, “Are you scared?” And you really get to establish those connections, and then now the younger kids have a wider, a wider vision of who they can be in the next couple years, as opposed to them just sticking with their grade. And because by the end of the year, you want them to grow.

Ariel Landrum 47:08
And removing some of that fear, right? Because there was definitely a lot of fear of the the older grades, because there was uncertainty, it seemed that they, they because they were bigger, they were stronger, they can bully you they can push you around. And that sounds more developmentally appropriate and that you are encouraging children to engage with diverse people. Including age as diversity.

Stefanie Bautista 47:33
Absolutely. And I think that’s the beauty of having different grades intermingle with each other is that you get those different levels of understanding that a teacher just can’t give them. They see each other as peers and not necessarily as enemies you don’t pit them against each other because I feel like that’s how it felt like being in elementary school. The the the scariness, the fear, it’s just it’s gone, essentially. And you don’t get those opportunities until you go to like a summer camp, or if you go to any extracurricular activities, so why not use the recess yard as one of those places?

Ariel Landrum 48:11
Absolutely. And I would say something else that was, again, just problematic, still very heteronormative. Again, it was the 90’s. There was a episode that involves kissing. First of all, TJ and Spinelli were like, forced to kiss each other out of peer pressure. And it was guise to science. And I think that sort of cohesion. And now I will say that, that on the playground, I remember levels of affection being performative. Like everybody gawking and watching.

Stefanie Bautista 48:46
So awkward.

Ariel Landrum 48:47
This case, it was we were accepting that they were doing this because because their peers are pressuring them. I think that that already is problematic. And then the reason that it all started was because a another youth was telling them that their future was girls were gonna like kissing boys and boys were gonna like kissing girls. So that just just that narrative, very heteronormative and then really wanting to explore if that was true, and what would happen, and “No, we’ll never kiss you.” I think that again, that’s another probably narrative that that doesn’t need to stay could be thrown out. I think talking about essentially kissing is a form of sex, sexual attraction, finding a way to show these elementary kids really uncovering that in a different, more safer way, I think would have been better social commentary.

Stefanie Bautista 49:40
Absolutely. And I think that knowledge just wasn’t there yet in that day. So I would love to see how people decide to portray that now if, you know they decide to do a remake or if they decide to do a show, similar to Recess. I think will be impactful to kids nowadays.

Ariel Landrum 49:57
Or even what these new episodes are like, right?

Stefanie Bautista 50:00
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 50:01
Because I think they were made in the 2000’s.

Stefanie Bautista 50:04
Mm hmm. Yeah. Maybe it’ll be interesting for us to revisit this topic again after you know, a Recess Part 2, or instead of just recess, it’s lunch recess now, which is always Recess Part 2. Because, you know, like, you know, we mentioned like we I was only watching the original Recess series. And like, when you look it up on Disney+, I did the same thing where I typed in Recess, and I’m like, “What are all these other things?”

Ariel Landrum 50:29
“What is this?”

Stefanie Bautista 50:29
“What is this? Feeling like an old lady here? What is all this new stuff these newfangled contraptions.” But I’m really interested to see if they did evolve from these tropes and stereotypes, because the knowledge of students and parents now are evolving so fast. And with recent events, were restructuring the way we look at play. The way we look at child development, the way we look at social interactions, not just with how we learned it in the past, but also how we’re teaching our kids how to do it. So yeah, maybe we’ll come back to this.

Ariel Landrum 51:04
I’m curious. What do you think recess is for adults?

Stefanie Bautista 51:09
Oh, recess for adults?

Ariel Landrum 51:12
Yeah. What do you think that looks like?

Stefanie Bautista 51:13
Happy Hour! You know, recess to me, as adults is like when you and I go, “Let’s get coffee.” That’s recess. Yes. Yeah, that’s like us just chillin, getting, you know, some snacks, nice cup of coffee sitting down, forgetting all of the things that we have to do for the day, just reserving that hour. And it doesn’t have to be 15 minutes, y’all. I don’t recess back then was just like 20 minutes of get out and get your body moving. But it can also be going to the gym. It can also be you know, having a picnic. It could also be engaging yourself in maybe some sports or with a league or something. I think that’s also considered recess. What do you think recess is?

Ariel Landrum 51:58
Well, I know if you’re thinking larger organizations and companies they’ve sort of embraced play, right? They, they have playing fields, I know lots of people who are on like a softball team at their job. And and take breaks for to practice or to prep for the next game. I think of when you’re talking about company and employee development, we have like here in the state of California mandated breaks, right?

Stefanie Bautista 52:26
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 52:27
You’re supposed to take every like your 2 15 minute breaks on your lunch. It and I feel like the the part that’s missing is the equipment and quality engagement. Like here’s a break for you. But I know that a lot of people will work. They’re not supposed to you into their lunch hour, they will check their email, they will respond to….

Stefanie Bautista 52:50
Me included. That’s so me.

Ariel Landrum 52:54
Yeah, yup. And so I feel like recess is that respite that we need. But we have to have some sort of equipment. I know. Definitely games, mobile, mobile phone games have become a way to create that, that respite and that release. I just I think that for that intentional break, just like when when you’re at school, like you had that intentional break, there needs to be intention to release to get out of your office, if you can…

Stefanie Bautista 53:24
Take a walk.

Ariel Landrum 53:26
Take a walk, walk your dog, if you’re working from home, you know, anything that you can do to remind yourself of your whole body. To remind yourself of the environment around you. I think that is what recess should be for adults. I definitely think that many of us have forgotten that we need recess that we need to play.

Stefanie Bautista 53:46
Or even translate recess into a vacation. I know sometimes we…

Ariel Landrum 53:50
Bing long recess…

Stefanie Bautista 53:52
A big long recess.

Ariel Landrum 53:53
Snow day.

Stefanie Bautista 53:55
I mean, whether it just be like a drive up the coast, if you live in California or drive, you know, to the park or National Park, if you’re near one or like just taking that day you actually use your weekend not to be productive. But to like we mentioned in self care, just do you is really important, because as you see, I mean, in other countries they have mandated vacations that you get paid for. An integral requirement. I know that you so…

Ariel Landrum 54:21
America do better.

Stefanie Bautista 54:23
We are sucky at that. The worst of. It is the worst. So I mean, as Americans, sometimes you have to equate having your recess as a vacation, and to intentionally be like, “You know what I’m going to unplug. I’m going to unwind. Don’t talk to me.” Put on that out of office message on your email, and really…

Ariel Landrum 54:42
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 54:43
It’s just it’s a little sad to say that we have to work so hard to create these little recesses for ourselves, but the frequently that you do that I feel like the more productive you’ll be. For myself, I totally look forward to planning all my vacations, whether it be like a drive away. I’m going to be driving pretty far in tomorrow. I’m going out to, yeah, I’m going on my reassess to a National Park just to get some air. So definitely those instances of play, of doing things that give you pleasure, are super important to maintain that quality of life and to maintain sanity.

Ariel Landrum 55:24
I’m curious for you, what have you noticed with students when they don’t get recess?

Stefanie Bautista 55:28
Oh, it’s the worst. It’s actually literally so hard to get A. kid focused if they don’t have recess. That’s why we never ever use no recess as a punishment at my school. Just because if you take away that play, you were actually adding work to yourself. You only don’t get a break, but the kid doesn’t get a break. And if you’re going to go through that 8 day, 8 hour day together, you’re kind of setting yourself up for failure. So definitely changing the way that you give consequences. Logical consequences is different. And I’ve seen back then, and other schools that I’ve worked at play being taken away, having them take a break from socializing, it isolates themselves so much more. And now they think you’re the enemy. And now they think that you are taking away their socialization, their play things that they love. And that really breaks that connection that you’re trying to make with your student, whether you’re the TA whether you’re the teacher, whether you’re the administrator, you’re not connecting with them in that way. You are severing the connection, essentially. So it’s something that I feel that all schools should be moving away from. Just because it’s it doesn’t do anyone good.

Ariel Landrum 56:44
Yeah, I think when I see it in adults, right, I get as a therapist, I’m seeing general mental unwellness. I’m seeing actual clinically diagnosed depression and anxiety. But I’m also seeing chronic stress. And people forget that the things that happen when we have chronic stress is we get irritable bowel syndrome, we get GERD, we get acid reflux, because it shuts down your digestive system. You’re not if you’re activating fight, flight or freeze, you’re not supposed to be digesting your food you’re supposed to be running away from like a tiger. In this case, you are feeling that sitting in your office, one on your break when you’re checking your email. Many of the things that I see are, you know thoughts of self harm, inability to engage with people, not wanting to socialize. Forgetting. Lots of memory loss, short term memory loss and inability recall, these are some of the things that we start to notice when we don’t give ourselves a break. And it starts off small we think we can sort of shake off these these sort of frustrations and I think once we we start to ignore them that much. We start to forget to you know, harken back to our previous episode, our self care. And recess is definitely part of lifestyle, it’s part of self care. Shout out to Simone Biles for her ability to recognize that she needed some self care that she needed to to ground herself literally.

Stefanie Bautista 58:17
Definitely. And for her because now that her form of play became her profession.

Ariel Landrum 58:23
Yeah…

Stefanie Bautista 58:24
I’m pretty sure as a young girl and hearing so many stories and learning about her story. Gymnastics is a way for kids to let loose and you know, just be in tune with your body and because she was so good at…

Ariel Landrum 58:35
Your whole body.

Stefanie Bautista 58:36
Your whole body and like push it to its limitations and like go above and beyond what you think is is possible for you know your sport. Now that this is her livelihood. And this is you know what the world sees her as her taking a break from it is actually normal come competitions are so stressful.

Ariel Landrum 58:56
So stressful.

Stefanie Bautista 58:57
I remember being in swim meets just like wanting to throw up in the pool, so that I could be disqualified. And you know, you never, ever really get used to that. And like I think as an athlete, her taking that time to ground herself and and still win two medals is still so impressive. She is still The GOAT. She is still amazing. She’s setting herself as like such a good role model for so many kids in sports, Kids of Color in sports, women in sports, there’s so much burden on her and you know what? Like I say to all these naysayers, you try doing all the things that they do. And do it in front of the whole world on a time difference. Being The GOAT and upholding that at her age.

Ariel Landrum 59:48
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 59:48
She’s a legend. She’s amazing. And I’m glad that you know, she did that for herself the ultimate form of self care and the ultimate recess for her brain.

Ariel Landrum 59:58
Yes. Yes. And harking back to recess and another Woman of Color who is The GOAT Miss Grotke.

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:07
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:08
I want to read some of these quotes to end us with?

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:11
Nice.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:12
“I look forward to reading your thoughts on how the male authors of the Constitution helped shape our gender based society.” snaps Okay. “The founding fathers didn’t think twice about excluding an entire gender from their rants. I mean, where were the founding mothers?”

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:29
Where were the founding mothers? I want to know this. She’s asking the questions.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:33
She really is asking the questions. snaps “So the noble Native Americans share their bountiful food supplies with the undeserving European savages.” snaps “And then our hero Beowulf, ripped Grendel’s arm off and beat him with it. A metaphor for man’s cruelty towards endangered species.” Thank you, thank you. snaps Woke. Woke. Woke.

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:55
Woke. Woke. Woke. Love Miss Grotke. She is The GOAT of for not only Third Street Elementary, but to all of us, you know, living as students and now adults. I strive to be like her as a teacher. And just you know, her calm presence. I love it.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:14
Yay.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:15
Yay. I really like I hope that you all like our talk on Recess. It is, if you are our age, and maybe you are, you know how much this little show really shaped our outlook on being at school, interacting with our peers, maybe even outside of school too. Let us know who your favorite recess character is either on Twitter @happiestpodGT, or on our Instagram when we post about this, to remind you that the episode is out very, very soon. Let us know who your favorite character, whether it be part of the crew or whether it be part of the staff or maybe even just the one off child that was you know, in the background. Because all those kids on the Recess field made Recess, whether or not the remain character. They were all important. And I loved this talk. I really enjoyed it.

Ariel Landrum 1:02:07
Me too. Me too. Thank you everybody for joining us and we will see you next time. Bye everybody.

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:12
Buh bye!

Media / Characters Mentioned
  • Recess
  • Spinelli
  • Gretchen
  • Mickey
  • TJ
  • Gus
  • Vince
  • The Swinger
  • The Diggers
  • Upside Down Girl
  • 90’s Cartoons
  • Mrs. Grotke
Topics/Themes Mentioned
  • Social-Emotional Learning
  • Play
  • Playground
  • American school lunches
  • Punishment
  • Stereotypes
  • Tropes
  • School funding
  • Developmental
  • Excutive funcitoning
  • Emotional self-control
  • Student autonomy

Questions? Comments? Discuss this episode on the GT Forum.

—

 Website: happy.geektherapy.com
 | Instagram: @HappiestPodGT | Twitter: @HappiestPodGT | Facebook: @HappiestPodGT |
 | Stef on Twitter: @stefa_kneee | Ariel on Instagram: @airyell3000 |

Geek Therapy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit with the mission of advocating for the effective and meaningful use of popular media in therapeutic, educational, and community practice.
| GT Facebook: @GeekTherapy | GT Twitter: @GeekTherapy |
| GT Forum: forum.geektherapy.com  | GT Discord: geektherapy.com/discord |

That Wandavision Style

July 30, 2021 · Discuss on the GT Forum

https://media.blubrry.com/happypod/media.transistor.fm/fd9da402/17c60181.mp3

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#16: Stef and Ariel are avid retro and vintage fans, and in this episode, they share these passions through the medium of Wandavision, the first Disney+ Marvel show to kick off the fourth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They dive into the clothing, the music, the special effects, and other nodes to the vintage and retro eras explored in the show.

Read the blog post for this episode for additional references and resources.

Become a member of Geek Therapy on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/geektherapy

Transcription

Ariel Landrum 0:10
Hello, everybody, welcome to The Happiest Pod on Earth. I’m Ariel.

Stefanie Bautista 0:15
And I’m Stef. And we’re Disney fans. But we’re really so much more than that.

Ariel Landrum 0:19
Like I’m a licensed therapist, and I use my clients passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and mental unwellness.

Stefanie Bautista 0:26
And I’m an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

Ariel Landrum 0:32
Happiest Pod is a place where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens. Why? Because just like we are more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums we consume.

Stefanie Bautista 0:42
And so today Ariel what Disney media or experience are we dissecting and sharing on this episode?

Ariel Landrum 0:49
So we’re gonna take it back a similar to what we’re dissecting we are going to dissect Wandavision

Stefanie Bautista 0:58
Wandavision lately got so many Emmy nominations, did you know that?

Ariel Landrum 1:04
Hey yes. Worth it.

Stefanie Bautista 1:06
Worth it. I don’t know exactly how many maybe we can get that number by the end of the episode. But I think it’s super awesome that these, The Academy or whoever is recognizing the work of Disney, not just Disney, but the work of comic book material, because I’ve always felt that comic books themselves as readable mediums have; their storytelling is so much more advanced than people take them for face value.

Ariel Landrum 1:36
Absolutely. Absolutely. And the appreciation that it’s becoming more than I think, I think we consider comic books and comic mediums very childlike or immature. There, there seems to be a stigma about the culture of people who consume comics and and even Disney media. Right?

Stefanie Bautista 2:02
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 2:03
So I think that now it’s, we’re gaining more recognition, it shows that it’s become very mainstream. It’s becoming a part of the general populace’s palette, but also that were given the way that Wandavision is created in regards to both honoring the comics and old sitcoms. It’s showing that that that projection and growth and evolution in regards to how we consume medium, but also the things that are still classic and timeless, and how that molding together is, I would say worthy of praise and are worthy of an award. But just something that we’ve known all along as as the audience; the consumers.

Stefanie Bautista 2:50
Yeah, absolutely. And I think in the time where I guess not a lot of people are so focused on getting those awards. I know, there’s so much controversy around like Emmys and the Oscars and the Grammys, I just think the recognition from a wider audience not just you know, our geeky audience and people who consume that media, it means a little bit and I think it just shows that the people running these shows are true professionals and the people who are producing the episodes and who are writing these scripts, they’re really taking the time to elevate the storytelling that we’re we’re used to seeing in our previous Marvel movies. So I do have the statistics, Wandavision earned 23 nominations, including outstanding limited series at the next Emmy Awards. They also get a nomination for “Agatha All Along,” the song…

Ariel Landrum 3:48
Heyyy!

Stefanie Bautista 3:48
For outstanding music and lyrics because you know that was an earworm for everybody who listened to it. It was like everwhere.

Ariel Landrum 3:55
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 3:57
And Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany have Outstanding Lead Actor and Actress nods as well. So I think everybody from I think also the, the cinematography maybe. There’s definitely directing, Outstanding Supporting lead actress in Kathryn Hahn as Agatha because she was crazy good in the show. Outstanding production design outstanding period and our character hairstyling which they fully deserve. I hope he wins. I do say here they have outstanding sound editing and sound mixing. Yes. That was the even got the the crackling of the old timey TV down. Yeah. And the visual effects. I’m talking about that were fantastic. They really got that old bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie style animation in the beginning of the episodes so perfect. But yeah, that just leads into what we’re going to talk about. And like we mentioned whenever we talk about a TV or movie. It’s full spoilers. So if you haven’t seen one division, pause and listen to any of our other podcasts or any other Geek Therapy podcasts and come back to us because we are going to be diving into the very nitty gritty details of wandavision and pulling all of our pop reference cultures and knowledge to make connections and how we can use that to further our practices.

Ariel Landrum 5:25
And if you have already seen one division after listening to this episode, I would encourage you to go to GT Radio and listen to their review on Wandavision and its notes to grief and loss.

Stefanie Bautista 5:38
Yes, yes. So where are we going to start with this Ariel? It’s a lot.

Ariel Landrum 5:43
So there are so many ways we could have taken really talking about and dissecting this medium and something that Stef and I have an affinity for is definitely retro vintage and and things that are stylistic. We, we like we like to have a nice aesthetic. Even with our straws like you know, no more, you can get your paper straw, but if you use a reusable straw, obviously way better. So for us, we were thinking very much artistic visual design, the sound of really much of the consumption of this medium, a little bit in the story arc of Wanda, but really more in its nods to other other shows other mediums and sitcoms, and very how it was so retro, but now it’s considered very avant garde. So I think umm starting off with obviously, the classic episode one, which if you remember watching it the first time was like “What is going on? Why is black and white? Why? This? I don’t I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel. Is this where it’s gonna be at?”

Stefanie Bautista 7:00
Normally when we watch any sort of Marvel beginning, it’s like a flashback, there’s a child, things are happening. We’re going to follow this child and they’re gonna discover something or, you know, Peter Parker’s gonna get bit by spider. I know that didn’t happen that way. But that’s just what we’re expecting. So we’re expecting to follow a character and a journey, but it totally threw a wrench in our expectations where it started off exactly like how the not Dick Van Dyke we’re going way, way way further. We’re going like, I Love Lucy, black and white opening sitcom like animation…

Ariel Landrum 7:37
And they definitely did in the first episode.

Stefanie Bautista 7:39
Yeah…

Ariel Landrum 7:40
Some Dick Van Dyke Show. Yeah, tropes. Yeah, so definitely, but but even had, you know, some a little bit of Bewitched in there. Yeah. Especially in the the special effects.

Stefanie Bautista 7:52
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 7:53
And I was, we were used to fast pace.

Stefanie Bautista 7:58
Yeah. And we were used to like, not just, I don’t even know how to explain it. Like, I know, we mentioned Michael Bay, and like, the whole Transformers trope I like blows everything up. But we’re so used to action Marvel movies that were just like, okay, there’s gonna be some sort of Chase, or we’re gonna just like follows a movie, some crazy cinematography. And it completely grounded us and took us back to an era of TV viewing that we don’t see anymore. Where it is, you see credits first. You see an animation, you see something silly. And then you see a hard opening of a show where they open the door, and you see a set. And even in modern sitcoms, you don’t see that anymore. It’s it’s a totally different way of storytelling. So you find it’s more of a linear, I guess….

Ariel Landrum 8:50
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 8:51
Way of viewing it, especially because it’s, it’s an open set in clearly what looks like a stage, you know, homes that look like that. And yeah, it was, it was like what is happening. And I do want to mention, before we go on that not only are we lovers of retro style, and going to Dapper Day and everything, but Ariel here knows a lot more about art than I do, because she is an art therapist. And so she definitely engages in this medium and this visual medium so much more than I do. So it’s gonna be really fun to see your take on just visually consuming what they put on the screen in this very different way.

Ariel Landrum 9:32
Yeah, not so much in one division. But I never saw Knives Out when it came out. And I watched it on streaming with my roommate. And in the opening scene pne of the main characters is holding a mug that says, “My house my rules,” and I was like, “Oh, I wonder if this person’s like very controlling.” And I read it out loud. And I was like, I was like “That’s probably an important mug,” and the mug makes it in the end and has a very specific meaning in regards to |My house, my rules.” And it and he was like, “How do you just notice something like that?” But I’m like, “How do you not notice something like that?” Again? props, the props. I’m very into zooming in on props.

Stefanie Bautista 10:10
Yeah. And it’s great to to have that perspective. And this is one of those mediums or this is one of those shows that because everything was so retro, we didn’t use we weren’t used to finding Easter Eggs in small props like that. Back in the day.

Ariel Landrum 10:27
Yeah, like the commercials they had, right like, the very first like, it was it was a toaster commercial. I was like, “Oh, look, that’s Vision.” Like it’s like there’s it has a red dot says it says it says a Stark on there somewhere. And everyone’s like, “What are you talking about?” But if you freeze frame it like it’s a robot toaster, like made by Stark Industries and as a red dot in it’s head.

Stefanie Bautista 10:50
And we’re used to trying to find these Easter Eggs at this point, because we have seen so many different Marvel movies that inject these either just like playful props or playful visuals, but also some of them are foreshadowing. So they did a little bit of both in Wandavision and using those commercials, as vehicles to to show how scary the world she was, you know, weaving together was because in the later commercials, they were featuring the same people. And you know, those people were actually townspeople of Westview. And they were trapped. Because this was all just her orchestration, spoiler alert. Super spoiler alert. But yeah, we’re now seeing a 30 minute format write of a Marvel show. And we had feelings around that.

Ariel Landrum 11:46
Yes, so something we’re not used to, right? We I mean, not only before the pandemic, we were used to just seeing Marvel movies, and obviously, a movie format is a lot longer than a TV format. But additionally, because of the pandemic, we’ve been given more and more movies that are even longer because they can stream longer. And even with TV shows, we’re given the entire series. Like you can binge it all up front. But with these series, I mean, we didn’t see this until the Mandalorian. And now I think is going to be more common on Disney+ where it’s just like watching TV back in our day where you had to wait, you had to wait a week for the next episode. And it it’s not as easy to find those continuity errors what like now is with bingeing. And so it it force it, you mentioned being grounded, it forces us to have to really consider what we were consuming, it forces us to have to pause, and it gave a lot of opportunity to try and predict, right? Like “What who do we what do we think this Easter Egg means or what do we think is going to come in next?” And if you weren’t going on IMDb, then you were doing a lot of just your own guesswork and your own fact finding and weaving things together. And I think that builds excitement and anticipation that we don’t have to necessarily feel when we can consume an entire series in essentially a weekend.

Stefanie Bautista 13:16
Yeah, absolutely. And I think it keeps the the mysterious things that Marvel likes to keep under wraps, because you know, all of their cast all of their crew is tight lipped on anything that they’re doing. And I’m feeling that if I was a Marvel Disney executive, they were already doing that in the larger sense with their movies, they had to wait months on end for Avengers Age of Ultron Avengers Endgame so why not do that in a smaller scale format? And in not releasing everything all at once? They know the fans are going to wait for them. I’m gonna wait for them. And I’m gonna wait and maybe not all the time. But I know some of you will wait till midnight 12 pm or 12 am on the dot to, press play and see it over everybody else’s so that the next day when you’re at work or at school, or wherever you are, you can talk about oh my gosh, did you watch this? Like I watched that this morning and so many of our friends and in our group chat said “Oh my gosh, I just watched it,” it’s like freaking three in the morning.

Ariel Landrum 14:16
Like what you guys doing?

Stefanie Bautista 14:18
But that’s that’s the hype that they that they’re really good at, at projecting and, and coming up with because they know that we’re going to wait for it. So might as well keep keep people guessing, keep articles coming keep the buzz, like at the top of everybody’s feeds, because even when we were talking about Loki, we were guessing every single week what was going on because we didn’t know how it was going to end. So I think with Wandavision it being so far out of what we’re used to seeing. I think people were just either stumped; mad that they didn’t know what was going on…

Ariel Landrum 14:56
Straight up upset.

Stefanie Bautista 14:58
Totally like turned off to the series because it’s not what they were expecting. Definitely a lot of the action heads in our communities were just like, “What the is this? Like? I didn’t tune in to like see some old timey whatever blah blah.”

Ariel Landrum 15:15
Black and white what?

Stefanie Bautista 15:16
Yeah, if you weren’t invested in the storytelling of Wandavision, you probably were totally turned off by it and didn’t tune in again until the Malcolm in the Middle episode maybe where the cosplay happens.

Ariel Landrum 15:30
Yeah, I think that like you mentioned you know, some execs they took a risk with this they took a huge risks because you know, in watching Falcon and The Winter Soldier and in watching Loki those felt like, quote unquote, traditional Marvel media that we’ve been consuming. This was very unique and different. And I think you know, because of its uniqueness stands out in regards to to these other series. Give it to the girls.

Stefanie Bautista 16:05
Give it to the girls to make it stylistic, classic and also smart. I think Wandavision was very smart. You really had to think about what was going on and like, detach yourself because they didn’t detach themselves from the Wandavision world until Episode Two right where we see Monica.

Ariel Landrum 16:26
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. until until then we’re, we’re not really sure what’s going on. And I think that that eeriness, that confusion… I really liked it I liked not being able to to predict and guess what was going on it made it more exciting and I think is pretty much the ambivalence we feel about Wanda or the because it’s… Is she a good guy or she a bad guy? That is how she’s been introduced in the series very back and forth, and her journey in regards to that, that decision, we need to decide at some point whether this character is going to be villainous or not. And I think I think this series answered that and it answered it in the in very much the way that we felt her which was, we would see, we would see her against the Avengers. We’d see her with the Avengers, we’d see her split up with the Avengers like it, we’d see her alone it that that common theme is represented in all these episodes in regards to her story arc.

Stefanie Bautista 17:31
Yeah, absolutely. And I think what you mentioned about it being creepy. I think that’s a sentiment that you can feel for a lot of retro TV and a lot of retro movies. Because you see this world portrayed so perfectly, and so well thought out, everybody has hair is coifed clothes are totally iron, like all the way everyone’s dressed to the nines all the time. In our reality that’s just not true. We wake up out of bed not looking cute, no makeup on, like, “I woke up like this,” is like a real thing. You know, there’s something creepy about everything being so perfect like The Stepford Wives and that trope of being the perfect wife and being the perfect mother and being the perfect house, house woman caregiver to everybody. Having it all together just waiting for your husband to come home and have everything perfect than laid out there’s something creepy about that. And I think that was definitely translated in the way that Wanda wanted to make everything so perfect. So she can shield herself from the world around her and shield the sadness and the loss and the pain that she’s still actively going through. Because it was the only way that she could cope.

Ariel Landrum 18:49
And and very dreamlike, right like when we’re talking about using it as as a coping mechanism living sort of in a fantasy a full on fantasy that she was able to create with her powers. Those beginning episodes are dreamlike because everything is perfect. And then we find out that the mishaps that do happen they’re from Agatha not from her. So

Stefanie Bautista 19:09
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 19:10
Agatha had not noticed her powers and not inserted herself in Wanda’s world. I’m I would think that it would be even eerier than like looking back at old sitcoms because there probably would be no plot and there probably would be no quote unquote struggles. I don’t even know if we would have moved past you know, like the 1950s….

Stefanie Bautista 19:33
Oh probaly note.

Ariel Landrum 19:33
In her in her timeline, I think that she would have still been very curled hair coifed and even the costuming they had it forced her to sit up right. They they talked about in assembled if you watch that series on Disney Plus, the costumes definitely had a course that type feel to force everybody to sit up straight and just that very like 90 degrees. You’re sort of like her correct angle kind of gives you the sense that this world isn’t supposed to be off balance. And how is that possible? And then it isn’t until near the end of the episode, when we get very much they use the Twilight Zone effect of tilting the camera zooming and changing the music that we were like, no, yeah, this this world’s off.

Stefanie Bautista 20:22
Yeah. Let’s talk a little bit about what it takes to recreate something so accurate, right? In order for them to really capture the feel of these sitcoms in their respective areas. They had to do the same things that those exact shows did. And a couple of those things is that episode one was taped in front of a live studio audience. And that is something that is very rarely done nowadays, especially COVID, because you don’t have live studio audiences anymore. And you won’t have a laugh track, right? And can we explain a little bit about what a laugh track is, and like using that in, in TV shows? I think I can definitely speak to that, because I’ve seen a lot of old old old sitcoms, and the laugh track was used as a break for the script, basically.

Ariel Landrum 21:13
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 21:13
And they use that for the people who are acting to play off of and use that to kind of project and move their emotions forward. So they would pause, they would know when the audience was going to laugh because it was put in the script. And there was a little light in the audience that turned on that says “laugh” or “audience.” And then the audience was then laugh because they are part of the experience, and they are part of the taping. So in order to create that field, they did that in the first episode. And I would have loved to have been one of those people.

Ariel Landrum 21:48
Yes, I wish I’d known there was a call for that to be part of this live studio audience taping. I think even when you’re thinking of the the laugh tracks, the other thing is it’s training the audience to know what’s funny.

Stefanie Bautista 22:01
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 22:01
And the and for me in regards to thinking of the the Marvel Universe, like we’ve seen them shifting more and more towards jokes and humor. But it’s hard to tell when something’s supposed to be funny. Given that, you know, like, everybody has very different humor styles and kind of laugh at different things. That the again, these these beginning episodes are telling you, “You are only allowed to react this way. Or you’re only supposed to.” That again…

Stefanie Bautista 22:29
It’s so limiting.

Ariel Landrum 22:30
Yes. So limiting. It shows you not only how limiting those errors were in regards to just emotional depth and the ability to be expressive. It also, again, gets that eerie vibe of like, “Wait, why is this funny? Why is that funny? And why is everything funny?”

Stefanie Bautista 22:49
Yeah. And even when vision is like, I’m going to work doing the computer things…

Ariel Landrum 22:54
Oh hello kitty.

Stefanie Bautista 22:55
Hello kitty. When he’s typing and doing the computer thing, he’s not even 100% sure of what he is doing. So I mean, he and I think that that’s really interesting that we’re going through this world through Vision’s mind? Vision himself is kind of like the audience in where he’s not sure what’s going on. So the only person that we can relate to his Vision because he’s been dropped into this place. Without knowing what happened to him previously, or what is going to happen to him in the future. Everybody else seems to know what’s going on. Especially his um, his desk mate at work is just like, “Oh, you know, we’re doing these things and computing the stuff,| and he’s just like, Oh computers. What is what is this?” And you’re just like, “Wait, what the heck is going on?” Even he doesn’t know what’s like happening. And then he doesn’t know if it’s their anniversary, or if they’re celebrating something. And then when, like, that is scary in itself. Imagine waking up and not knowing what day it was what your agenda was for the day. We’re so used to planning things out digitally and in our minds and months, weeks in advance, that being present, which is a very common thing in retro TV and also just in the world of our past being present and just going through your day. And letting it unfold like that is something so foreign to us and scary.

Ariel Landrum 24:20
So foreign.

Stefanie Bautista 24:22
But yeah, I think seeing the world through Vision’s eyes really made at least me feel a little bit comfortable because it was starting to get really creepy and not exactly knowing what was real and what was not. And in a world where everything was so obviously fake. It was kind of like a mind trip to go on because the lobster that pure old and clearly fake. They could have made that really really

Ariel Landrum 24:46
Clearly fake. Yeah, I think that was the other thing is they decided to not only shoot in the frame that TVs were back in those days. So that so they had to they had to find very specific type camera framing and cameras to shoot at that format. They use special effects until it was an era where visual effects were created. So they match that era. And the special effects and props artists were, some of them had worked on Bewitched, so they were able to recreate, you know, those those recipe cards floating on a string. But looking at it from our perspective, we clearly know this, this is fake. Like “I can tell that this is not she’s not really using her magic.” So what exactly is going on that they are, you know, really stepping back in the way that they’re visually creating things? And it was because they were replicating that experience of sitcom. The, I mean, and even being acknowledging some of the, I guess, tropes of those sitcoms and like Agatha coming in and she was like, “You know what modern life nowadays wouldn’t have a full like dinner ready on hand?” That was an expectation back then that that women, very again, Stepford Wives that you have a specific role and your role is to feed the familym you roll is to keep this house clean, your role is to look cute. Somehow, make that lobster in your heels.

Stefanie Bautista 26:18
Yeah. And you know that Wanda is sort of a foreigner still. And we know that Wanda herself. Her character is a foreigner. She’s from a Sokovia, Eastern European made up nation. And you see that there’s an element of if you’re an immigrant, or migrant, or child of an immigrant, you know that these things are familiar, but still foreign. So the idea of having dinner on the table having like a spread and all of those fixings together for this dinner with the boss is still sort of a not so familiar concept. And she’s just like, “Wait, I need help with this. Because I don’t exactly know how I’m supposed to do this.” And you you then see, “Oh, my gosh, Wanda is still trying to figure out what this exactly looks like.” Because as real as it seems. And as like onpoint as we see it to be, there’s still something quite off about it. And as you were talking Ariel, I was thinking there was definitely some Disney Magic involved in this show.

Ariel Landrum 27:21
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 27:21
Because we know going to the parks and we know with very old, old, old Disney movies, animated and live action, there’s a certain style that comes with it. There’s a certain like Disney Magic that I don’t know, can’t really explain. But when you’re watching old movies like the old Parent Trap, and you’re watching old movies, like I think the one that they shot at Disneyland, I don’t know if the Disney movie, but they shot it at Disneyland. I forget the name. But I know a lot of you Disney fans know about it. It’s there’s just this feel to it. That is a little bit magical. And I think they really captured that in one division. Because they got it so right. But like a little too, right?

Ariel Landrum 28:04
Yeah, yeah, they did just they turned it all the way up. So that’s how you knew something was wrong. But it I mean, if I hadn’t known this was Wandavision, and someone had just shown me like some 1950 shows and then that I again, I would have assumed.

Stefanie Bautista 28:20
Wouldn’t have known.

Ariel Landrum 28:20
And even the rest of the areas; when we got to the 70s. And when we got to the 90’s. Like if you had shown me some sitcoms there and then this they matched. And they match not just in special effects not just in wardrobe, not just the set and propping but they matched in music. The two writers of all the songs they picked a specific melody to input in all every episodes’ theme song, but they only use instruments that were very common in those areas. And they only used a sort of songwriting and beats that you would expect in those areas. So it was a completely immersive experience.

Stefanie Bautista 29:01
You’re not hearing no trap beats 808 music in these early episodes and you totally see that and it became really evident to me during the Malcolm in the Middle Halloween spectacular episode because it felt super 90’s to me. The graphics that they were using in the beginning, the iconic like stretching of the background behind the the text title was so iconic of Malcolm in the Middle. Like the the fisheye lens where everybody’s just kind of getting in the camera. It was very early 90’s. Such a such a big step, I think from the previous episode, which was still kind of Brady Bunch inspired. I feel like it was like a…

Ariel Landrum 29:47
Definietly Full House and I’m trying to think… Umm.. Ah was it there’s one more? I’ve gone blank, but that happens. But yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 30:05
Are you thinking like of another?

Ariel Landrum 30:07
Oh, Good Times good times.

Stefanie Bautista 30:08
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 30:08
Yeah. Good. Yeah. It was very Good Times and Full House and a little bit of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Stefanie Bautista 30:15
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 30:16
But…

Stefanie Bautista 30:17
I think there was just over that period. And…

Ariel Landrum 30:19
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 30:19
I was surprised. I was really surprised because when we think of 90’s sitcoms, yes, of course, I do think Malcolm in the Middle, but that’s why I’m like 99 almost like borderline millenia area millenia era. Because I think a Full House, I think of Family Matters, I think of Step By Step. I think of all of the TGIF; Sister, Sister. Like…

Ariel Landrum 30:39
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 30:40
Those are the things that I remember, from 90’s sitcoms, and I’m wondering, and I don’t have the answer to this, why they decided to kind of skip that, like, stylistically.

Ariel Landrum 30:52
Yeah. I feel like maybe because it’s not as stylistic as like, like, iconic. Like we’re shifting from vintage to retro, right.

Stefanie Bautista 31:01
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 31:01
And now we’re, we’re, when it comes to sort of like 90’s, that has become at least some of the 90’s styles has become more present and modern now. It’s being sort of reclaimed. And not the the shirts over jeans. No, it’s like the crop tops. So like, the glowing part of the 90’s.

Stefanie Bautista 31:21
Seriously, I know.

Ariel Landrum 31:23
Y2K era.

Stefanie Bautista 31:25
We’re gonna we’re gonna digress a little bit because I know we’ve been having conversations of as women. I struggled in the 90’s to find any sort of, well, I mean, I was like, what, 11 right? So that kind of shows our age a little bit, but I was not feeling cute in the 90’s. I was so frumpy, like, I think I could barely afford going to Limited Too at the time. End like you would shop from a catalog remember Delia’s?

Ariel Landrum 31:52
Yes, yes.

Stefanie Bautista 31:52
Yeah, everything was like, but then everything then was harkening back to the 60s, because everything was like very flowery and tie dye and like block colorings.

Ariel Landrum 32:02
And they did have bell bottoms.

Stefanie Bautista 32:04
Yeah, bell bottoms. So it’s like, do I stick with my cargo baggy jeans, cargo baggy khakis with the super crop top that like I A. feel comfortable in and B. would probably get a dress code violation at school for. Or do I just stay looking like a tomboy, and I just stayed looking like a tomboy. Because that was just easier for me.

Ariel Landrum 32:26
Not only was it easier, but I for me, I was raised by a single dad and I had a brother. So at a certain point, we were all going to kind of dress the same.

Stefanie Bautista 32:36
And I mean, I come from… Excuse me, from a migrant household. So I didn’t really have the money to keep up with trends. And I thought about that, actually. Before we filmed this episode, I knew so many of these sitcoms, because I didn’t have cable. I don’t know if you didn’t grow up without cable. But I was…

Ariel Landrum 32:59
Oh there was no cable on the military base.

Stefanie Bautista 33:02
Really, they don’t pamper you for you know serving our country and laying your life on the line for the goodness of our borders?

Ariel Landrum 33:11
Nah fam. I had like six channels. Disney Channel was one of them thank goodness.

Stefanie Bautista 33:15
See and I didn’t even have Disney Channel, so I was living in 13 channels. For those of you in LA know, 2 a CBS, 4 was NBC. 5 was KTLA but then they always showed reruns, so if you were sick at home, you would watch things like The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The Brady Bunch. I loved and I think that’s why I have such an affinity for retro TV. And vintage TV is because I, that was the only thing that I watched. Being, you know, working class and not being able to afford cable not to like way way at like later on in life. I could only consume media that was limited in what they showed in the mornings and in the evenings. And I think tying back to the way Wanda was viewing American culture in another country and that is a… That’s a journey that a lot of immigrants and migrants and foreigners consume American media. Some is going on in my voice. But they only see what VHS shows them. They only see what their family in America sends to them. And they only see what is pirated and sold for pennies on the street. So many of my cousin’s in the Philippines only know American culture through the Brady Bunch and through I Love Lucy. I Love Lucy is so popular in other countries because of the way that it’s connected different people in different countries to what the American dream was.

Ariel Landrum 34:54
Yes. Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 34:54
And if your journey is to get out of your country and go to America, that is the ideal. You want to be in a nuclear household with a loving, you know, male and female relationship. And that is what’s portrayed. And that is what you you aim for. And anything outside of that is considered out of the norm. And so I think that’s really, I really like the episode where we see Wanda and her DVDs, and her holding onto her DVDs for dear life because that is what her hobby is. That is what her love is. And that is what she connects to. Because she’s so, so so wants to get out of her situation. And you see that is it’s not a good situation.

Ariel Landrum 35:38
Yeah, and in regards to like talking about that medium we consume like that, that was what she was consuming in regards to an ideal life. So of course, if she has the actual powers and ability to recreate that she’s going to recreate that. There was there were levels of safety. I think the the other thing in regards to just how her experience was growing up with with this, this imagery in these films, I was… I noticed that a good chunk of them had, you know what she was emulating really like male leads. And it wasn’t until she sort of created literally, her own episode that we then became the Scarlet Witch that we saw her actually claim her show, right? Like, like, actually claimed this world as her own. She was letting things even unfold for herself, despite the fact having the control. And I think that that very much shows her her shift of how control and chaos are a fine line. People think that they are binary in that they are worlds apart from each other. And their next door neighbors.

Stefanie Bautista 37:02
Yep, they’re so close. They could be sharing a wall.

Ariel Landrum 37:05
Sharing a wall. I, I always relate it to you when I’m talking to clients about like integration, like integrating different parts of ourselves. My dad has OCD. And he has OCD where he has to check things. And so you can say that’s very controlled, he has to you know, check the locks at least 20 times. That’s it’s a high number, right? And that’s very chaotic to have to go back and check something 20 times and not trust or what your what you saw what you touched what you felt. Your mind telling you, you know, essentially gaslighting you and saying like, “No, you need to check it again.” So that’s that, that fine line. And I feel like because she’s essentially she has chaos magic, like we’ve already identified it cah…, as actual chaos. It really shows how controlled she’s actually been this whole time.

Stefanie Bautista 37:59
Yeah. The whole time, in not in just what we see her in Westview. But also, when you’re looking back at that scene with like her parents, she only had a limited amount of DVDs that she could take and only a limited amount of choices that she had. And also she had to be told when and where to watch it. They had to you know, she wanted to wait for her family, obviously. But they were so limited in what they could see when they could watch it, that every single step was calculated for her. And you see that already in the beginning. And then when everything gets blown out of the water, and they’re left to just her and Pietro, she then becomes the decision maker. But she doesn’t quite know how to do that. So she somehow and we don’t see this part. But I know in the comic books, she finds herself in her brother in certain situations where she has to kind of attach herself to larger male figures in order to go on and survive in her life. And also in the comic booksm she’s seen as Magneto’s daughter. So that way is a little bit and very much different from the way that they decided to portray her in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also it it draws parallels from there is a higher purpose and she is just kind of like a pawn in that. And that is how she is used in the original story. But you also see that when she’s introduced in the MCU, as somebody who’s just used to following directions.

Ariel Landrum 39:32
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 39:32
And really looking out for her younger brother, and that’s a very older sister, sort of sentiment that I can relate to. I’m an older sister, and I see a lot of that.

Ariel Landrum 39:46
And common even in twins. People forget that there’s still an older and a younger and they vehemently know it. And so for her like she and then to lose her younger sibling… So so the amount of grief and loss she can tell us experience right we’ve got we’ve lost parents we’ve lost an entire country so so no no actual home to sort of go back to. And you know now is essentially losing her life partner… It it’s it’s very much understandable why she would want to escape to these mediums and even going back into her childhood. There was war going on and Sokovia and that the people were having to try and like ignore what’s going on in their outside walls to keep themselves safe and essentially emotionally safe. Right? We we fully divulge or digest our mediums. We we fully immerse ourselves because that’s the only way that you can ignore sort of like these bombs going off. I know. For me, I lived in the safety of a military base. But, you know, depending on how close you are to the armory, like you, you heard those things all the time, you sort of started to get jaded and and not not be able to tell the difference between what was considered unsafe and what was considered safe. Or even like, when my dad retired in Kansas, you know, we had an alarm that went off at noon to tell us, it was our tornado watch alarm, and it’s just just the test it. But after a while he got so used to it that when there was actual tornado coming, it was hard to tell the difference. And when we should go underground, which anyone can tell you in Kansas, they still don’t go under the ground. Everybody wants to see it. But that’s neither here nor there. In talking in regards to just knowing what’s considered safe, detaching ourselves from the moment is, is a is a level of safety. It’s a coping skill that we that we need when when things are out of our control. And for Wanda, her grief was literally out of her control, there was there was no way that she was going to be able to summon up enough magic to even recreate Vision that that was Vision because he was very autonomous. And her Vision was not. It took them a while to get there.

Stefanie Bautista 42:06
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 42:09
But I think, yeah…

Stefanie Bautista 42:10
it took them a while to get there. But we, we still see him as vision, the amalgam of Tony Stark’s AI, you know, just him being frankly, a robot. And I mean, for me, I always wonder like, “Wow, like she found love in somebody who isn’t fully human.” Like it really takes a special person to find a life and a heart in, in something that we see as just a creation of technology. Right? So we already know that there’s something special there that something that we don’t see in quite understand, but we still see it as very beautiful. But Vision himself he as he’s discovering himself through this series, he’s stuck in the middle of “Am I supposed to act like a human? Or am I supposed to act like what I’m feeling, which is more of Vision, as you know, AI Vision fully, you know, realized.” But I do want to go a little bit backwards in what you were saying when you were in Kansas and living on a military base. I feel like being a teacher in pretty much downtown Los Angeles, like we’re downtown Los Angeles adjacent. We’re always hearing sirens, helicopters, we’re always going into lockdown. That is just like a normal thing for us. We’re we’re, you know, used to hearing people on the street kind of yelling. Transients. We’re used to seeing, you know, people who are displaced, just like not knowing where they are. We’re used to that sort of chaos in and around our schools. And so our kids are jaded to some extent into just focusing on school. Us as teachers, we put on media, we do all sorts of things in the classroom to distract ourselves from letting them know, Hey, we’re in a lockdown based police activity just right across the street, probably either a domestic dispute, somebody has like a gun. Those things are normal to us. And I think that is very relatable in the way that Wanda as a child decides to cover herself and shield herself from all the chaos around her. Because that’s what children are really good at doing; their imaginations are so large, and they’re so eager to find comfort in anything. Whether it be in storytime and closing the blinds and putting on a short film or closing the blinds, listening to storytime just like totally detaching yourself because you just want to feel safe.

Ariel Landrum 44:33
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 44:33
And in some ways, I feel like switching gears we did that during the pandemic.

Ariel Landrum 44:38
Yeah we did.

Stefanie Bautista 44:38
I remember during the protests and during civil unrest here in an I’m in the valley, so I was far away from where I work downtown, but Van Nuys was like one of the places that was really hit with the looting and a lot of protests and just people just like fed up and upset and just like going through all of the businesses and destroying them. So at one point, I was just hearing explosions, maybe like, every 30 minutes. I didn’t know what they were.

Ariel Landrum 45:09
Yeah. Yup.

Stefanie Bautista 45:09
And at that time, my son was about four months old. So I was trying to shield him as a parent as well, from hearing all of these sounds. He doesn’t know yet if they’re scary, or real, or whatever, but I didn’t want him to feel my fear. So we would distract ourselves. We would put on Disney+, we would watch things and try to just make sure that they felt safe in any way, shape, or form. So we I definitely can relate to what you were saying. But I know that we talked a lot about not just grief, but creating this world that is your safe space, right? Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 45:55
Yeah, I think in therapy, we ask clients to create comfort corners, either like in the real world or in their mind. Safety corners, safe spaces that you can go to in your mind’s eye when you are feeling anxious. And for for Wanda, she was able to do that with these sitcoms. And again, because I think sitcoms were a smart choice. They’re formulaic, they’re predictable.

Stefanie Bautista 46:21
They so comforting.

Ariel Landrum 46:22
They’re so comforting. And then even thinking about the way the comedy is, it’s very slapstick. Right, like if we think of Queen of Slapstick, I Love Lucy. Like we saw some of that in Wandavision in the the way that she was, you know, moving the ingredients around. Yeah, it was very Nick at Night.

Stefanie Bautista 46:43
Very Bewitched.

Ariel Landrum 46:44
Very Bewitched.

Stefanie Bautista 46:45
And I Dream of Jeannie so cute.

Ariel Landrum 46:48
It was a good respite. Because a lot of the humor is often very sarcastic, snarky, right?

Stefanie Bautista 46:57
Dry.

Ariel Landrum 46:57
We don’t get that…. Dry. We don’t get that until we get to like the 90’s. Yeah, the the Malcolm in the Middle sort of inspired episode. And we we start to see her, let her guard down there. And that’s why the humor changes. And I think that that’s also when we start to see her world unravel.

Stefanie Bautista 47:24
Yeah, in the classroom as well. We have a piece corner in every classroom for kids to just take a break because sometimes learning is really stressful. And you know, you you can feel some emotions that you just need to learn how to self regulate. And Wanda was the Queen of Self Regulation because she was creating all this magic to create her piece corner. But yeah, definitely the the humor and the comfort that we find in just the sitcom structure where we know it was every Friday, at 7 pm. We knew that there was gonna be one story that we followed, and that we are going to laugh and we’re going to find a little twist at the end. We’re going to end the episode resolving whatever problem that was presented in the beginning of the episode. And then we get to rest and then look forward to the next one. There wasn’t too much of an underlying like, larger story arc in many of these sitcoms. It was just very… Problem. Resolve. Happiness. Let’s have dinner. You know? Not Not until we see the interweaving of storylines in Modern Family, which they touch upon in the later episodes. And I have to shout out Elizabeth Olsen for her Claire Dunphy impression, I am such a huge Modern Family fan and the way she looks at the camera and does that like mom stare? Like, “Are you freaking kidding me?” I love that. That was like the best and I was just like, “She freaking nailed it.” Like, I love it. So we didn’t see those interlocking story lines until then. And there was there was no, there was no comfort there anymore, because now you have the kids who are grown. And they’re kind of thinking of their mom. And we’re not quite sure if they’re figments of her imagination yet at that point when they’re introduced, because the weird way that they aged, and that kind of creeped me out. Did it creep you out? It creeped me out.

Ariel Landrum 49:31
Which it also made me think of sitcoms when they were like replace younger kids and siblings and all of a sudden they’re just older but everybody else isn’t as older because they’re not like kids aging. That rapid aging thing is something we’ve seen usually doesn’t happen in that episode.

Stefanie Bautista 49:46
No. It happens over seasons.

Ariel Landrum 49:48
Next season, they’ve replaced this person with someone who’s like way older that somehow supposed to play younger. I think that also the like the knowingness that they knew that they were aging like I’m going to make a decision to be 10. Because I want a dog.

Stefanie Bautista 50:03
That self-awareness so weird. But speaking of kids, the way she gave birth, let me just say, if I could give birth that easily, I’d have a ton of kids at this. Because I was like, how are they going to show this and then I, as a mother, who had just given birth, was like, I’ve seen so many different ways that sitcoms portray this. Mainly, the one that sticks out to me is the one in The Office or a Pam is. She, her water breaks, and then she she gets, you know, sent to the hospital with Jim and it’s just like total chaos, because like, Michael’s tried to record it, but then when she’s in the delivery room, you hear her screaming, and you hear her just like in pain. And then Michael steps in and he’s just like, “Oh, God, that baby’s gonna have a lot of hair.” And that is the first time that that kind of grossness of of childbirth in a sitcom was, you know, portrayed to me. But back then we didn’t we never saw Lucy give birth to Little Ricky we never…

Ariel Landrum 51:04
Well so in The Mary Tyler Moore Show…

Stefanie Bautista 51:07
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 51:08
Georgette gives birth at Mary’s apartment. So yeah, that’s sort of what they were harking to.

Stefanie Bautista 51:13
I think so too…

Ariel Landrum 51:13
Because it is the 1970s.

Stefanie Bautista 51:15
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 51:16
And just as a as hilariously goofy as that.

Stefanie Bautista 51:20
Yes just as hilariously goofy, and anyone knows any woman any real like 21st century being knows that, childbirth is not like that. It is not cute. It’s very messy. And that’s all I gotta say about that. And to keep this prestene world it would not have happened.

Ariel Landrum 51:39
And the only mess they sorta had was her magic sort of like being in and out, right? But yeah, babies were came out clean.

Stefanie Bautista 51:48
Like fully grown almost like?

Ariel Landrum 51:50
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 51:51
They look like they had lived a couple weeks at least. Because we all know in creating a perfect sitcom, babies are not going to follow your stage directions. They’re not going to know their cues. So whenever we saw babies in sitcoms, they were fully grown.

Ariel Landrum 52:07
They are fully grown. Or they’re plastic.

Stefanie Bautista 52:10
Yes. Or they’re plastic. Oh my gosh, the plastic baby. It’s always fun to see and point out “Oh my god that baby’s fake!”

Ariel Landrum 52:15
“Fake baby!”

Stefanie Bautista 52:16
Fake baby. But we touch there’s so many things I think in one division to to tackle stylistically. Emotionally with Wanda’s female, female, I guess gaze, you can say in somebody as an outsider looking in. But at the same time creating her world she’s kind of laying out the tracks that she goes. And how I feel like many women do that in their everyday lives, especially as mothers and as wives and just caregivers, we’re kind of laying out the tracks as we go. Because if we don’t know what’s going to happen, chaos can ensue. I feel like every mother and wife has a little bit of or any head of household, that’s a woman really, you don’t have to be a wife or a mother to know that. If you’re keeping the house together, there’s little chaos magic that has to happen in order for it to make it to the next day.

Ariel Landrum 53:10
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 53:10
So I think there’s there’s a lot of things to be said about that, that we can, you know, tackle in a whole other episode. But I guess with every medium, maybe we can talk about what we loved and what we didn’t love, I guess because we really loved Wandavision.

Ariel Landrum 53:27
Yeah, I did. I really loved Wandavision in regards to the evolution of her hair.

Stefanie Bautista 53:37
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 53:39
So we know that it represents different areas of television, but it’s also very symbolic of her mental state throughout the series and that be wanting to control her identity and forcing a very specific presentation of self, and the unraveling of it. And literally the unraveling of her hair showing that. Because in the 1950s episode, again, we mentioned it was curled and coifed and had, you know, Stepford Wives vibes shorter pressed towards her head. And if I think of, you know, The Hex it was smaller at the time, it was still sort of being crafted. It was pressed close to her. There wasn’t other narrative being that we were aware of. But still, there wasn’t other narrative being brought in at least on Vision’s part, right? Eventually we see him sort of go off on his own. And then her hair continues to lengthen as her powers in The Hex grows.

Stefanie Bautista 54:35
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 54:36
And once sort of the town mirage comes undone her hair is shaggy, it’s loose, it’s messy, it’s uncapped.

Stefanie Bautista 54:45
It look like I’m done braids. Like when youdo your braids.

Ariel Landrum 54:49
Undone braids? Yes. Like I I need to let this out. I need to breathe. Yes, until it became a main once she was fully Scarlet Witch, it was red. It was. It was wavy, it was…

Stefanie Bautista 55:01
Big.

Ariel Landrum 55:01
Eluding fire was huge. It was a huge main. It was her chaos magic coming off of her. And a part of it was her embracing her full self. If we think of tight like coifed curls, you’re you’re not embracing really your full self, what you’re doing is you’re creating a presentation of self you want others to digest. In this case, it was like “To hell what you think,” right? ” Will literally sennd you there.”

Stefanie Bautista 55:28
“I’mma be me.”

Ariel Landrum 55:28
“I’mma be me.”

Stefanie Bautista 55:29
And it takes time to do hair like that. So you already know that there’s, oh my gosh, if anybody’s done pin curls, it takes for ever in a day to get them right.

Ariel Landrum 55:38
For-ev-ver.

Stefanie Bautista 55:38
And it takes practice, you got to do it every single day until you get them right. And I think that is something that it’s a very vintage personality trait of women back in the day to get themselves ready in order to be presentable for the males and for everybody else in the world that they’re going to go out and see when they go to the grocery store. So I mean, her being her full self just shows that you know what, “I don’t care what anybody else thinks I’m not living for anybody else. I’m living for me and what makes me happy.” Which she’s still trying to figure out.

Ariel Landrum 56:10
Yeah. Yeah, I I know that this is probably a moving towards her being a villain. So I’m wondering how her hair will change in that sense because there’s no way it’s going to stay even with with this because this embracing yourself that’s her embracing her power and and that it may actually also be just naturally an innate to her, not just given to her by the mind stone, but I also think that as she starts to become more villainous, it’ll probably become like those tendrils like we saw in Agatha, right? Like, these sort of like, has has its own arms and legs even. Could reach out and grab you. The other thing I really liked, obviously, I loved the music choices. And in the in the 90’s episode for the what was like the Malcolm in the Middle, the singer of that theme song is Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill. From the Riot Grrl music era. For those who don’t know, the Riot Grrl music era happened in 1990’s, and it was an underground feminist punk movement. In this subculture had music that was for feminism and politics. And at the concerts, what Riot Grrl bands like Bikini Kill would do is they would tell the women, “Come to the front. Men you go to the back. We’re going to make space a safe space for women, they’re going to be able to mosh they’re going to be able to be themselves and you’re going to cheer them on, you’re not going to make noise at them, you’re going to make noise for them, you’re going to lift them up.” And it was interesting because in this episode, we see her at the end like really assert herself in regards to Pietro her her fake Pietro.

Stefanie Bautista 57:55
Her fake Pietro. Which we could talk so much more about fake Pietro and… I was like “That’s not Aaron Taylor Rogers.”

Ariel Landrum 58:03
“The goofy uncle err.” Yeah. I think that that was that was really reminiscent of her saying like, “I am not just a mom. I am not just the wife.” This is an even in her costuming. right this is this is symbolizing that, “I am going to be the Scarlet Witch.”

Stefanie Bautista 58:19
Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I totally got that right girl vibes. I grew up in music discovery, listening to Sleater-Kinney and Le Tigre and like thinking, “Oh, I can totally be a tomboy still, but I could be a girl while doing that. And, and it’s okay to be a girl and be a badass.” And that was totally something in the 90s that a lot of girls went through where they were just kind of tired of being pop princess. And the dichotomy of seeing Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at the time, but also knowing that there were these girls who could rock out and be punk rock badass. Totally his maybe it shows a dichotomy of what Wanda wanted to be and who she was before. I feel like every girl has a bit of a transformation when they grow up. When they go through those formative years. I know I had many stylistic choices that were very, very different and still are changing to this day. But I think that that was really fun to see. And also really touching to see that she was going through these real life emotions, even though she is somebody that has a lot of power to control her own universe. She’s still going through these things. And that really made her way, way more human and way more relatable, especially to women.

Ariel Landrum 59:38
Yeah, so I would say that those were some of the things that I really loved. And then certainly the episode where the beds get combined for like a foreshadowing of them having kids.

Stefanie Bautista 59:48
Babies yeah.

Ariel Landrum 59:49
I thought that was that was very clever and again that moving of the eras because we did only see couples sleep in separate beds. And then apparently, Mary Kay and Johnny was the first show to feature a couple in a bed together and be pregnant.

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:04
I never saw that.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:06
I’ve never seen it either. But there you go. There’s some history for ya’ll to put in your trivia night. Yeah, I think the thing that bothered me, which I don’t know if it quite bothers anybody else the same is that Scarlet Witch is, is that character is inspired off of the Romani people. But it does not really show the honoring of them. In fact, Romani people are presented as being chaotic, as being emotional, as being uncontrolled. And even in her having her classic Scarlet Witch costume in the Halloween episode, even though she is saying that this is, you know, Sokovia fortune teller, they didn’t have to sort of insert that sort of type of language. She could have just said that she was a made up comic book character. But the more that they kept hinting towards her Romani pass, or or at least what is inspired by the Romani people, the more it was the stereotype of, of these individuals and not so much their their actual heritage.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:15
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:16
And so I wished that we hadn’t gotten that close to it, I felt like we could have pushed the narrative slightly different in in regards to her past, especially because she’s already not Magneto’s kid.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:27
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:28
And now, I would say that was the only thing that bothered me because even her sort of exploding and her grief, Romani people have experienced a lot of grief because they, they’ve been removed from their lands, they, they have had a lot of harm and trauma to their people. But that’s being made fun of as, like, “You just don’t know how to control yourself, you just don’t know how to be controlled.” So that’s where the history of the like the chaos magic comes from inspiration wise. And I feel like if we kept it in with the mind stone, and I feel like if we had not inserted that line about a fortune teller, I think I would have liked that liked it even more, it would have been a full nine. It’s like an 8.7 for me.

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:11
Yeah, I totally, I totally understand that. And like they portray them as such outlandish, kind of almost comical type of people, but it really is part of their culture and something to, you know, be respected and honored. So I totally see that. For myself. I love Wandavision. I love the mystery of it. I love the unknowingness and kind of like, “How are they going to? How are they going to immerse me in classic television, but also make it creepy and mysterious, like the Twilight Zone.” And I love the Twilight Zone. I actually probably watch more retro TV than I would like to just because I was so used to it. And it’s comforting to me. So I I really liked the way that just the the style choices and the way that they were so they were so true to the era. They like took things from the Brady Bunch like you saw staircases that look like the one in the Brady Bunch house. You saw, like you said, I mean like the the set for the first episode was almost exactly like I Love Lucy set where the kitchen was on the right, the dining room and the dining room and the living room are in the middle. And then they had their bed somewhere else. I think that that was really smart of them to present it in that way that was familiar, but also foreign. And I think whenever they played with that all throughout the series was really fun to kind of just like go back and forth. Because I like watching something but also having a hidden agenda of like, like, “How is the production thinking about this every single time?” And that’s why watching Assembled really, really helped because I saw like what they were thinking of and I was like, “If I were to recreate a whole scene,” kind of like how sometimes we do theater in the classroom, like “how would I wow can I make this real?” Like what do I tell like my students, the actors, what mindset do they have to be to make this feel tangible and make this feel like how it’s supposed to? I love the breaks the commercial breaks as creepy as they were. I love that they brought back Randall Park as Jimmy Woo because I love Jimmy Woo in Ant Man and The Wasp. I think he’s hilarious. I love Randall Park. He himself was on a sitcom Fresh Off the Boat, which was based off of Eddie Wong’s life who is a chef and entrepreneur and that sitcom was so important to me because it was the first time since I think Margaret Cho’s sitcom where you saw an Asian family going through their life in America. So I really love Fresh Off the Boat. So I’m pretty sure that Randall Park was really excited to be part of Wandavision being that he was also in a sitcom himself. even talking about a Darcy who is from the Thor movies. She…What is her anem?

Ariel Landrum 1:05:06
The ultimate Sass Queen.

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:07
The ultimate Sass Queen.

Ariel Landrum 1:05:08
Kat Dennings.

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:09
Kat Dennings is also in a sitcom Two Broke Girls on CBS.

Ariel Landrum 1:05:14
And..

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:14
She.. Yeah, and she’s also

Ariel Landrum 1:05:16
The dolls one?

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:18
Yes. Dollface.

Ariel Landrum 1:05:20
Yes. Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:20
It was yeah fun show on Hulu and has a fantastic set of girls that are just so weird. Quirky. And is part of everybody’s girl group I guess girl group of friends of anyway watch Dollface it’s hilarious.

Ariel Landrum 1:05:36
It’s hilarious. Particularly the brunch episode.

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:41
That whole series is just so funny. So she brings a little bit of her snarkiness and sassiness from Two Broke Girls and Dollface into the MCU as Darcy and she did Darcy before she did those sitcoms. And and being in Thor and seeing the comedic style in Thor change from the first Thor to Ragnarok. I think she brought a little bit of that too. So that was really cool to see because it’s familiar. Seeing those two characters pulled from a Marvel Universe into now Wanda’s world and introducing Monica Rambeau who is from the Captain Marvel movies, who is played by Teyonah Paris who is beautiful by the way. She…

Ariel Landrum 1:06:25
Grog. Gorgeous.

Stefanie Bautista 1:06:26
A gorgeous human being. Everything looked fantastic on her. And…

Ariel Landrum 1:06:31
Yes, it was it didn’t matter what outfit home girl was wearing grog.

Stefanie Bautista 1:06:35
I mean, everybody looked amazing. But she so gorgeous Teyonah Paris, shout out to you. Did an amazing job becoming Photon. Who will we will probably see in the later movies. But yeah, there’s just like, overall the feel the vibe, the the tone of Wandavision and the unknowing and mystery of it I loved. What I would have liked to see was more episodes because I feel like they were so honed into the Bewitched and the I Love Lucy and the I Dream of Jeannie eras, that they didn’t give that due diligence to other eras. And I think it could have maybe she could have used those 80’s 90’s sitcoms to interact with the townspeople more.

Ariel Landrum 1:07:25
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:25
And I would have liked to see what their perspective was because as they were sort of becoming self realized that they were in a world that wasn’t theirs. And they were you know, trapped essentially, I think those instances would have really made it difficult for Wanda to want to continue, because she was juggling, “Do I do this for my family? Do I save these people because they also have families that they are missing. And you know, I’m changing their world in order to make my world better.” I think that would have given a lot more depth to her dilemma. And not just throwing Agatha in there right away. But also I wanted to see more Agatha and Wanda interactions.

Ariel Landrum 1:08:05
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:08:05
It was so electric seeing them on screen. And Kathryn Hahn, who has been in so many different sitcoms, the first time I saw her was on Parks and Recreation as the no nonsense lawyer that is funily on enough representing Bobby Newport who is Paul Rudd, who is Ant Man. So all of these all of these fun connections that I was making, in my mind, being an avid consumer of pop culture.

Ariel Landrum 1:08:31
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:08:32
Seeing her step into Agatha and being really scary and just like controlling and that that ultimate portrayal of a witch who is just out there to just destroy. She played that really well. And I think that witch versus witch. “Who is good who is bad are they both bad? Are they both just gonna destroy this earth?” I wanted to see more depth in that so more episodes would have been greatly appreciated. I hear that they’re not doing as season 2 is that correct?

Ariel Landrum 1:09:01
That’s what I hear as well. Hopefully that’s just a rumor and that there or or that it’s gonna be titled something different right? Like Falcon and Winter Soldier who is no longer the Falcon is Cap.

Stefanie Bautista 1:09:14
Captain America.

Ariel Landrum 1:09:15
Uhh I don’t know.

Stefanie Bautista 1:09:16
Scarlet Witch Vision?

Ariel Landrum 1:09:18
Scarlet Vision.

Stefanie Bautista 1:09:21
Hey, you know what? That could be a play on her seeing red, and that symbolism of her’s. She’s just now we see her in her remote village somewhere is it probably there’s the Sokovia I don’t know where it is…

Ariel Landrum 1:09:33
Some kind of Eastern Europe area yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:09:35
She’s in the Himalaya somewhere. She has red eyes. She’s controlling her projecting of herself in front of the house and she’s trying to get her babies back. So you can see that she is fully seeing scarlet because she is just laser focused on getting her family back. So Disney if you’re listening… Marvel if you’re listening… We have an idea for you, which is probably an idea that you probably thought of already.

Ariel Landrum 1:10:04
Yes. Probably an idea. We will we will only take 2%.

Yes we will only take 2%. Hey, but that’s a big chunk though. I’ll take it. take what I can get.

Stefanie Bautista 1:10:16
But yeah, is there anything else you want to say about one division? Oh, I didn’t get my rating, right?

Ariel Landrum 1:10:21
Yeah, what’s your rating?

Stefanie Bautista 1:10:23
Man. I think just this is my favorite. Did I did I say Loki was my favorites. I love Loki so much. But Wandavision. It just speaks to my vintage retro heart and all of the things that I love about pop culture growing up. So if I gave Loki… Did I give it an 8.5?

Ariel Landrum 1:10:47
I think you were in the middle between Rachel and I.

Stefanie Bautista 1:10:51
Yeah, I was in the middle. I put it at an 8.5 to maybe even an 8.6. Just because the styles were just so true in the beginning, and they really got the costume down. And it really pissed a lot of people off, which I loved. I love that I got the the Neck Beards shaking. It’s always fun to see that and it’s always fun to see the fandom shock because if the fandom shock, then you know you did a good job, because you really. You are really onto something, and it’s usually a hit with Marvel. Sometimes it’s a miss, but we haven’t seen a mess since I think the Incredible Hulk?

Ariel Landrum 1:11:37
What? There was no Incredible Hulk movie that doesn’t exist.

Stefanie Bautista 1:11:40
Edward Norton that wasn’t Oh, that was Fight Club. That’s right. It was all it was all a figment of his imagination.

Ariel Landrum 1:11:46
Yes, yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:11:47
That’s right. That was part of Fight Club. Yeah, it was really good to see that.

Ariel Landrum 1:11:54
I think for me, the only thing is, again, in regards to the music, and I really loved the scene where they had “elped Me Rhonda playing to then all of a sudden Help Me Wanda.

Stefanie Bautista 1:12:06
Yeah. So good.

Ariel Landrum 1:12:07
I think that was a good sort of like narrative shift.

Stefanie Bautista 1:12:12
So good. Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:12:14
But yeah, I think that I don’t know if we’ll get something similar to this again. In regards to any of the the Marvel movies or shows. I think we’re gonna get very traditional back to the Marvel Marvel formula. And so I I’m okay with that. I’m okay with this being it’s it’s you it’s unique thing, I think that there’s no way to recreate this and have it just be as magical.

Stefanie Bautista 1:12:43
The timing was so right, we were coming out of the pandemic, sort of, right, we weren’t out of it, we’re kind of back in it. But everybody was still at home. We were still consuming media, mainly through our television screens and our computer screens. And I think the timing was just right to reintroduce the Marvel Cinematic Universe in this way, because we haven’t seen anything since everything shut down. So, it was a perfect way to launch Disney+ Marvel media.

Ariel Landrum 1:13:12
Yeah, yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:13:14
Because they saw how successful like you said the Mandalorian was. And because they knew it was successful for Star Wars, they’re like, “Hey, we have a whole new phase to introduce. And it’s gonna take a lot of details.” So now knowing that they’re using this in tandem with the movies, it really kind of conditioned us to consume this sort of media in this grand world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And get ready to dive in and analyze alongside each other with movies and TV.

Ariel Landrum 1:13:49
So Stef, the Happiest Pod on Earth universe. What will be up on our docket next? What do we have coming up?

Stefanie Bautista 1:13:58
What do we have on our docket next? I know that we are done with Well, we’re not done with talking about all the shows. Right? We still have to talk about Falcon and Winter Soldier which I loved so many things about.

Ariel Landrum 1:14:11
Yeah

Stefanie Bautista 1:14:12
I love Sam. I love Sam and I love Bucky and they’re they’re like, they’re like the boyband that exists in my Marvel heart.

Ariel Landrum 1:14:26
The bromance.

Stefanie Bautista 1:14:27
The bromance, and you guys will come to see how much I love buddy cop comedies.

Ariel Landrum 1:14:33
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:14:34
I have so many favorites, but I’ll talk about that later. So we are going to be talking about Falcon and Winter Soldier pretty soon. But I know that we’re gonna have some special guests, right?

Ariel Landrum 1:14:44
Yeah. So yeah, yeah, we’re gonna have a guest tell us their experience on webslinger. We we have a friend who got in.

Stefanie Bautista 1:14:53
He did it.

Ariel Landrum 1:14:53
He did it. I also know that we’re going to talk about AIA combining our music passion with our passion Disney karaoke.

Stefanie Bautista 1:15:04
Yes. Disney karaoke which is the thing, guys. So don’t don’t believe the memes.

Ariel Landrum 1:15:09
Don’t believe the memes. It’s real. It’s real.

Stefanie Bautista 1:15:10
Yeah, we’re gonna talk about karaoke. And the ways that we use karaoke to connect and the ways that we’re going to use karaoke and music, especially Disney music, to, to relate to other people, other fans and the way that the uniqueness of Disney music connects us and our kids too. Yep, so a lot of things to look forward to. I will be going to the parks hopefully soon.

Ariel Landrum 1:15:38
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:15:39
So you’ll see that in an episode. Hopefully, I have a good experience. Fingers crossed.

Ariel Landrum 1:15:44
Fingers crossed.

Stefanie Bautista 1:15:44
Because I want to have at least experience that you had Ariel because you had a really good experience.

Ariel Landrum 1:15:50
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:15:51
Yeah, okay. But once again, thank you for listening to the Happiest Pod on Earth. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter at happiest, @happiestpodGT, and on Instagram @hoppiestpodGT, where we will be updating you on all things happening in the Disney Marvel Star Wars universe.

Ariel Landrum 1:16:11
Absolutely. Bye, everybody.

Stefanie Bautista 1:16:13
Bye.

Media / Characters Mentioned
  • Wandavision
  • Wanda Maximoff
  • Vision
  • Pietro Maximoff
  • Monica Rambeau
  • I Love Lucy
  • I Dream of Jeannie
  • The Mary Tyler Moore Show
  • Malcolm in the Middle
  • Bikini Kill
  • Riot Grrl

Topics/Themes Mentioned
  • Style
  • Identity
  • Grief
  • Trauma
  • Safety
  • Safety corner
  • Presentation
  • Caregiver
  • Chaos
  • Control

Questions? Comments? Discuss this episode on the GT Forum.

—

 Website: happy.geektherapy.com
 | Instagram: @HappiestPodGT | Twitter: @HappiestPodGT | Facebook: @HappiestPodGT |
 | Stef on Twitter: @stefa_kneee | Ariel on Instagram: @airyell3000 |

Geek Therapy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit with the mission of advocating for the effective and meaningful use of popular media in therapeutic, educational, and community practice.
| GT Facebook: @GeekTherapy | GT Twitter: @GeekTherapy |
| GT Forum: forum.geektherapy.com  | GT Discord: geektherapy.com/discord |

Braving the Theater for Black Widow

July 23, 2021 · Discuss on the GT Forum

https://media.blubrry.com/happypod/media.transistor.fm/89b1cfc0/d748e00f.mp3

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#15: In this episode, Ariel and Stef go back to the movie theaters and watch the long-awaited Black Widow film, starring Scarlett Johansson. They dive into their very different theater experiences, analyze how feminism is explored in the newest Marvel cinematic entry, and the new era for The Avengers.

Read the blog post for this episode for additional references and resources.

Become a member of Geek Therapy on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/geektherapy

Transcription

Stefanie Bautista 0:11
Hello, everybody, welcome to the Happiest Pod On Earth. I’m Stefanie.

Ariel Landrum 0:15
And I’m Ariel. And we’re Disney fans. But we’re really so much more than that.

Stefanie Bautista 0:19
Yep. I’m an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn about themselves and the world around them.

Ariel Landrum 0:25
And as for myself, I’m a licensed therapist who uses clients passions and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and obtain mental wellness.

Stefanie Bautista 0:33
Happiest Pod is a place where we dissect Disney mediums with a critical lens. Why do we do this? Because just like you we are more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums that we consume every day.

Ariel Landrum 0:43
So Stef… What Disney medium or experience are we dissecting today?

Stefanie Bautista 0:51
Today we are talking about Black Widow.

Ariel Landrum 0:54
What!?

Stefanie Bautista 0:54
The movie that we have been waiting for for so so long.

I feel like…

Ariel Landrum 1:00
So long.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01
Not only because the pandemic made it longer, I feel like we’ve been waiting for this for what is it more than a decade now? Marvel celebrated its 10 year when again? Like a year ago?

Ariel Landrum 1:12
Yeah…

Two years ago?

At least that that long.

Stefanie Bautista 1:16
Yeah. I mean, when they took that picture, Scarlett Johansson had brown hair.

Ariel Landrum 1:22
Yes. Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 1:23
She had long brown hair. So definitely not Endgame. She didn’t have the short blonde bob right?

Ariel Landrum 1:31
No.

Stefanie Bautista 1:31
She had. I mean, she changes her hair all the time. But I don’t remember seeing that after or before I saw the 10 year anniversary. But Black Widow back to the movies, Marvel really stated that this was their big return to the movies. And how did you feel about that?

Ariel Landrum 1:50
Yeah, I was actually really excited. I genuinely miss our theater experiences. Well, in the before times…

Stefanie Bautista 2:00
Yeah. Yes.

Ariel Landrum 2:01
We used to get those midnight showings, we would we would stay up late, we would stay all the way to the end credits to make sure we got every scene that they put in there and every Easter Egg and I often I would rent an entire row. And so it was it was a gang of us. Like we had we had the squad 20, 30 seats.

Stefanie Bautista 2:21
Deep.

Ariel Landrum 2:22
It was great.

Stefanie Bautista 2:23
We would hang out beforehand, have dinner and drinks. Pregame. Kind of like we were tailgating for a game or you know, pre gaming before a concert, we treated it exactly like that. So I’m sure many of you guys did the same thing. Preparing for all of these movie releases these Marvel releases that were so important to us. Are so important to us.

Ariel Landrum 2:43
Yeah, yeah. So it’s so it was, it was nice to sort of have that back, but not really. And since since I lost I last saw this movie versus like what’s happening now. The LA has mask orders again.

Stefanie Bautista 2:59
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 3:00
And wearing them inside. We were that delta variant is no joke.

Stefanie Bautista 3:05
Yep. It’s no joke.

Ariel Landrum 3:05
So this was a pause in the pandemic that I got to embrace.

Stefanie Bautista 3:10
It was a hard pause. A positive that was gonna be a longer pause. But you know, we we had a little too much hope for that. But I know both Ariel and I saw Black the Black Widow in theaters, but we sought separately due to our schedules and everything else that’s going on in our lives. So we would like to share with you guys are 2 very different experiences, apparently, of going back to the movies, because, I mean, this was not my first movie back in the theaters. Although this is my first large movie back without there being many restrictions. Was it the same for you, Ariel?

Ariel Landrum 3:48
So this is my This was my first movie back during the pandemic. I did go see the Trolls movie? I hadn’t even seen the first one. But it was playing at an outdoor movie theater. So I saw it in my car.

Stefanie Bautista 4:02
Oh, right. Yeah, yes.

Ariel Landrum 4:03
Um, other than that, I had not stepped foot in a movie theater the entire shutdown.

Stefanie Bautista 4:09
Yeah, I went to see a drive-thru movie too. I saw. I’m forgetting the name of it. It’s the one with Shia Labeouf and he’s like a cholo?

Ariel Landrum 4:18
Oh, yeah. I don’t remember the name of that.

Stefanie Bautista 4:21
No, it’s not the negotiator. It’s something like that.

Ariel Landrum 4:26
Help us Dr. Google.

Stefanie Bautista 4:27
Yeah, help us doctor… And I saw it at Mission Tiki just like you did.

Ariel Landrum 4:31
Yeah MIssion Tiki.

Stefanie Bautista 4:31
You went to Mission Tiki. Yeah, pretty far away. And it was technically the first ever movie my son went to as like a 6 month old. Which is really funny. It was not very memorable. Shia Labeouf was cool. And I’m glad that he had a lot of dedication to this movie, but it was it was not it y’all. Definitely not my first movie back. My first movie back was Demon Slayer. And for all you anime fans out there, that was a fantastic movie to see in theaters especially for it being an empty theater at the time. But Black Widow was definitely my first big Marvel movie release full capacity theater. Back to the movies and yeah, I saw it at Burbank 16 which is a very popular place in LA to watch movies. It’s a huge cineplex. Very central to a lot of people who live in LA Valley area, and plenty of parking and we would normally see our Avengers movies all of our Iron Man’s, Captain America’s, Batman vs. Superman, all of our real big comic book theaters. If we couldn’t dish out the money to go see it at Arclight and the Cinerama, we would go to Burbank because a little bit more affordable and it was part of the AMC A List that many of us were a part of.

Ariel Landrum 5:45
And they had Dolby so…

Stefanie Bautista 5:47
They have Dolby

Ariel Landrum 5:47
You’re not missing out too much.

Stefanie Bautista 5:48
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 5:49
And and now everywhere you choose seats, so…

Stefanie Bautista 5:53
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 5:53
That was that was we… We used to go see it at the AMC that was the one in Winnetka maybe?

Stefanie Bautista 5:59
Oh my gosh, yes. Ariel would drag us all the way over there way out yonder in the deep Valley.

Ariel Landrum 6:05
Because of the prizes and the fact that I could get tickets.

Stefanie Bautista 6:08
Yes, but we could have done the same thing at Burbank, which we started to do. So

Ariel Landrum 6:12
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 6:13
We we live in we learn. And more people showed up because you started choosing Burbank, which is great. So yeah, Burbank normally is a solid theater, because it accommodates so many people and it’s usually always busy. They’re pretty on top of things. However, that was not my experience this time. This is not a theater review by any means necessary. But you know, for it not being my first experience back, but it was for many other people. I mean, there was just things that were kind of amiss. The great thing about Burbank is you don’t have to pay for parking. And I think that’s why a lot of people choose it. So parking wasn’t so bad. I watched on a Sunday night. And it was a 7:50 showing so not super late not super early, pretty prime time to watch a movie.

Ariel Landrum 7:01
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 7:02
We were able to purchase our tickets early. So we were able to reserve. I was in the Dolby Theatre, which was great. Been in that theater so many times. But my friend decided to get us our popcorn and drinks before we got there because I was running a tad bit late. And so I’m getting these texts from my friend and he’s like “Ah Stef, they ran out of Coke on all the machines and every single machine be routed with Coca Cola.” And they also did not have Ginger Ale, which is like my second choice. And so he had to get Diet Coke and I am not a fan of Diet Coke. It has that taste that I’m just like bleh afterwards. I don’t know what it is I do they sweetened with Stevia or something?

Ariel Landrum 7:48
No I that Coke Zero isn’t it doesn’t have sugar right is a thing? I don’t know.

Stefanie Bautista 7:52
Coke Zero doesn’t have sugar. But anyway, it has this taste and I’m sure you diet drinkers. I’m sorry. If you like diet, I’m just not a fan. So I knew I was gonna go in having to drink that. And it was like a large. The popcorn was like it wasn’t popped.

Ariel Landrum 8:09
What?

Stefanie Bautista 8:09
We sat down and it was a huge bucket of popcorn. And we usually do that to share. Me and my husband normally do. And my friend got his own bucket of popcorn and the minute we sat down, he leans over and he’s like, “This is the worst popcorn I’ve ever had in my life.”

Ariel Landrum 8:26
So I mean, was it was it mushy? Or was it not all popped? Or was it cold?

Stefanie Bautista 8:31
They were tiny, uncooked kernels, like crumbs. And so the top layer because I had the fresh batch because my friend had been eating has already. The top layer was like maybe an inch of freshly popped popcorn. And then under that was all the not popped popcorn.

Ariel Landrum 8:49
No.

Stefanie Bautista 8:49
Like maybe I would say six inches down. So here we are, like trying to like not choke.

Ariel Landrum 8:59
Hm hmm.

Stefanie Bautista 9:00
Eating the popcorn. And you know, I was like, all right, well, this is gonna be more work than I thought. And so we’re trying to get through the bottom of popcorn. But I think that was one of the things I was looking forward to the most about being back into theaters; theater popped popcorn. I love the smell of freshly popped buttered popcorn. It’s like my last treat that I like to eat before I leave the parks. Like I mentioned in our last episode.

Ariel Landrum 9:24
Yup. Hm hmm.

Stefanie Bautista 9:25
And I don’t know like I really love popcorn. So this is kind of disappointing.

Ariel Landrum 9:30
Oh, man. Okay, so one of the things that we talked about in a previous episode in regards to my experience going back to the parks, like we really highlighted expectations.

Stefanie Bautista 9:42
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 9:43
How they can sometimes be a detriment to happiness. So it sounds like you were you were expecting what you considered even a traditional movie going experience not not even very, like you know, like you weren’t asking for the extra.

Stefanie Bautista 9:57
Nope. I just wanted my drink and my popcorn. Literally it I knew I knew the theater was going to be fine. I had a plan already to just eat my popcorn and drink as fast as I could, so that I can put my mask back on knowing that there was full capacity. So that’s really my plan going into the movie theater. And it kind of got jacked, because I was trying to navigate this popcorn situation, and in the dark. You’re not really trying to look inside of your popcorn bucket and trying to find things that won’t kill you. So I mean, at that point, I was like, “You know what, I’m just gonna use my my sense of touch, to find the ones that were popped, and enjoy the movie away.”

Ariel Landrum 10:41
Way to evolve and adapt.

Stefanie Bautista 10:43
Yeah, way to evolve and adapt. Just like, you know, how we do. The pandemic taught me a lot y’all. So I mean, it could have been worse. There could have been no popcorn, we could have been, you know, I couldn’t have I, I maybe could have had a friend who couldn’t get me popped, you know, so many other things. That you know, we we think about walking in and you know, there are certain privileges that I’ve had going into here, but it was just a little disappointing.

Ariel Landrum 11:08
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 11:08
The beginning of the movie, and it didn’t really set the tone for the movie just because the movie in in in itself, and we will talk about this in a little bit. It just pulls you from like, minute 1. So, you know, aside from that… It was okay theatre experience.

Ariel Landrum 11:28
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 11:28
I will try it again maybe not on a weekend. I’m you know, at that point in my life where I don’t have to see a midnight showing. I don’t have to watch things on the weekend, even though it’s very convenient for me. I will be A-Okay with watching on a Monday night so.

Ariel Landrum 11:45
Well I think part of it is like we have gotten older so maybe that’s not something that we need. You you definitely have family, a little one that you have to go home to and accommodate. But I also think like with the evolution of media, it’s a lot easier to avoid spoilers now. Umm even that term, I think in the beginning of my Marvel watching career wasn’t really even a thing. And it was like “How do I how do I read a movie review without somebody telling me like who the bad guy was and how they got destroyed?”

Stefanie Bautista 12:16
I mean, like a wise person once said, “Ain’t nobody got time for that.” So…

“No buddy go time.”

“Ain’t nobody got time for that.” But I know you had a very different experience.

Ariel Landrum 12:26
Yes, yes, I did a very different experience. Um, so this was the first time that I went back to the theaters and like you said, I also wore my mask unless I was going to be eating popcorn or drinking Coke. Again with weird ticket buying situations, my partner and I tried to buy tickets to the El Capitan Theatre. The El Capitan Theatre used to be a playhouse theatre; is built in 1926. And it was actually balt, bought by Walt Disney Studios in 1989. And they did like a two year restoration with Pacific theatres. And so gorgeous. It has a Wurlitzer Organ, it has a street level walk up Box Office, and it’s actually marked as LA Historic Cultural Monument.

Stefanie Bautista 13:16
Yeah, it’s definitely a very touristy area to watch a movie.

Ariel Landrum 13:22
Right on Hollywood and Highland.

Stefanie Bautista 13:25
Right front of the Dolby theater, where they host the Oscars.

Ariel Landrum 13:28
Walk of Fame. Stars.

Stefanie Bautista 13:30
All of that. So Ariel, you really went for the Hollywood experience for this one?

Ariel Landrum 13:35
Yeah. So I told my partner I’d never been to the El Capitan Theatre. Never.

Stefanie Bautista 13:40
“Dun dun dunn!” Can’t believe that.

Ariel Landrum 13:42
And there’s like a list of LA things that all ‘LA-ers’ do and then there’s a list of LA things that all tourists do, right?

Stefanie Bautista 13:50
Angelenos.

Ariel Landrum 13:51
Now ‘LA-ers.’

Stefanie Bautista 13:53
No one ever calls us that.

Ariel Landrum 13:55
Does that, does that count as one?

Stefanie Bautista 13:57
No, I’ll let that slide just because you’re a transplant.

Ariel Landrum 14:01
Thank you. But I and so one of those things is going to the El Capitan Theatre. I had never gone because I didn’t have a partner that wanted to go that far. Which…

Stefanie Bautista 14:14
It’s not that far.

Ariel Landrum 14:15
It’s not that far but in LA traffic, it’s like far enough, right?

Stefanie Bautista 14:18
I work farther guys. Much farther.

Ariel Landrum 14:23
But so he said, “Okay, well, then, you know, we’re gonna go back to the movies. We’re gonna go see Black Widow. Let’s see it at this theater.”

Stefanie Bautista 14:29
Love it. Yes.

Ariel Landrum 14:30
So we tried to buy tickets online. And they they make it so that you have to reserve there, there can’t be a seat on either side of you that’s filled as part of spacing.

Stefanie Bautista 14:41
Okay.

Ariel Landrum 14:42
For social distancing, and the system would not let us do it. Like it would not let even if we had like three seats on either side, like it was not letting us buy it. So then we called the Box Office, and they were telling us to just use the app. And then we’re like, “We tried the app. We tried the websites, it’s not working.” And then they finally let us buy tickets. And we were supposed to go in the at like 3:30, where it was supposed to be a matinee. And we ended up going at 10:30. We had to switch the tickets twice to 2 different times

Stefanie Bautista 15:16
Oh my gosh.

Ariel Landrum 15:18
Because my partner’s job and a shoot came up

Stefanie Bautista 15:22
Oh okay.

Ariel Landrum 15:22
And all that nonsense. This will be a common theme and a lot of these episodes where I will have plans that change because my partner’s job schedule is not consistent as he works in the industry. So there you go.

Stefanie Bautista 15:34
And like you said, area we are learning to adapt and, and learn about our expectations and our realities.

Ariel Landrum 15:43
Pivotting.

Stefanie Bautista 15:44
Pivotting. It’s just part of our it’s part of our MO now.

Ariel Landrum 15:47
Yes, yes. So um, my first time so if anybody has not been there. Totally worth it to go.

Stefanie Bautista 15:56
Yup.

Ariel Landrum 15:58
The there’s an intro show before your previews before your movie. So the the intro show was just just some lights and music but it’s Disney Magic lights and music. So there’s a stage in front and the music turns on. And there’s sparkly lights that are glowing all over throughout the theater. And the stage has a curtain and the curtain lifts. And then there’s a beautiful scenery of animals with a peacock in the middle. That’s just glittering and sparkly. And then that turns out to be a curtain and it lifts. And there’s a crystal beaded curtain that’s just sparkling with a cityscape behind it. And it turns out that beaded curtain and the cityscape are also a currtain and they lift. And then there’s a tensile shimmery curtain that gives you like a cool holographic effect. And that’s a curtain and it’s the final curtain. So that that was that made my freaking night. I did not expect it. I know that in one of our episodes, we talked about a Disney short that involves jobs. And I did get to see the guy who plays a Wurlitzer. I didn’t see him in person here, but I saw it on that.. In in that show. So I just thought that was the only performance and if he wasn’t on stage, then I wouldn’t get anything. But it was the lovely theater. No no lifting of the curtain.

Stefanie Bautista 17:26
Yeah, he’s not always there. And I think I’ve seen quite a good amount of movies there at the El Capitan. I probably only have seen him once or twice over the years. And I don’t even know if that’s the same guy who is on One Day at Disney. It might even be like a long time ago, because the first movie I ever remember watching there was Mulan in like, ’94.

Ariel Landrum 17:47
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 17:47
So who knows who was playing at that time?

Ariel Landrum 17:51
So not the remake? Not the live action one.

Stefanie Bautista 17:53
No, no, no, no, no, this was this was Ming-na Wen. Mulan, like not live action, animated.

Ariel Landrum 18:01
Yeah. So um, I think something that I think probably was at your theater because and so I know it was mine. And I think is a very Los Angeles thing, because we are so close to the film industry was they had a lot of the props and costumes that were actually in the film. And for us it was in 2, like, opera boxes?

Stefanie Bautista 18:23
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 18:23
And then throughout the theater. Were there any for you?

Stefanie Bautista 18:26
Yes, it wasn’t for Black Widow. But they did have the costumes from Jungle Cruise at Burbank. I know, when you watch movies at the Arclight, either in Hollywood well, as they’re preparing to open it up, whoever’s taking it over. Any Arclights will have a bunch of costumes from many different movies. And it is a very LA thing, just because you know what to do with all of these beautiful costumes after they’re done doing their job? I mean, they’re just gonna sit in storage in all of these places in the Valley that store them. So what they do is that they do put them on display for long periods of time at theaters all throughout the Valley. So I hope they continue to do that.

Ariel Landrum 19:06
Yeah. And and then it’s something else that I and this is where I don’t know if… So, so again, I was I’m a military brat, and I moved around a lot. A lot of the theaters I went to where the free theaters on the military base. They are by far not snazzy or glamorous.

Stefanie Bautista 19:23
No.

Ariel Landrum 19:24
But they they never had trailers. It was just you saw the movie at the time that you were going to go so. And then and then my dad retired in Kansas. And that’s not really a big film industry area. There was I even remember there only being one theater and one in the city that I went to. So this is something that you’ll have, you’ll have to Tweet us if it’s changed in the Midwest. But I know one of the things that I loved when I started going into theaters out here in LA was was my swag. Had no idea that gave out swag and so at this theater, I got a tin popcorn bucket. It was tin and it has the El Capitan on it. My my drink cup, I could get a topper that also just stands on its own so I can put it on top of the drink or I can. It’s a figurine. So I got Taskmaster.

Stefanie Bautista 20:14
Nice.

Ariel Landrum 20:16
And I also got a poster at the end.

Stefanie Bautista 20:18
Yeah, I know that, from all the, you know, experiences that I’ve had at the El Capitan, because you’re paying slightly higher price for your movies, you are always going to get some sort of souvenir; a pin, a popcorn bucket, a little poster, what have you. It’s just all part of the experience of going to the El Capitan. I can’t say the same for a lot of AMCs, Pacific Theaters around LA. Sometimes they do, but they normally have that as a disclaimer before you buy your tickets.

Ariel Landrum 20:45
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 20:45
So if you do want to get some swag, there are plenty of opportunities to get that swag, you just kind of have to read the guidelines on the specific showing that you’re going to. But yeah, I think that is like an LA thing that we do have those opportunities. I don’t even know in, in New York or other major cities if they do this sort of thing. Maybe now with the rise of, you know, the popularity of Comic-Con and you know, comic book movies, especially, you know, incorporating Disney movies into this sort of category. Swag is a really big part of the experience of going to see a movie.

Ariel Landrum 21:21
It’s definitely part of the culture. Like you expect swag when you go to the cons.

Stefanie Bautista 21:25
Absolutely. So I think they’re really starting to incorporate that with the movies. But I know, for the El Capitan specifically, it is something that is included, as well as sometimes I don’t know, Ariel, did you get to go to the basement of El Capitan?

Ariel Landrum 21:37
No, we didn’t go to the basement.

Stefanie Bautista 21:39
Okay.

Ariel Landrum 21:39
And again, we saw the movie at 10:30 at night, and it was showing and when we got our popcorn, they gave us our refill right away because they’re like, “After, after this we gone.”

Stefanie Bautista 21:49
Yup. It’s closing time.

Ariel Landrum 21:52
But I’m, I’m curious for you. I know that some of our friends, when they went to AMC, they were able to get a comic book.

Stefanie Bautista 21:58
Yes. I think that was for some showings. It wasn’t part of my showing, unfortunately. But I think it was a part of the IMAX showings. I only went to a Dolby showing. So I know IMAX also does a promo because you know, they, they want people to spend that extra money. And I know that there’s an IMAX at City Walk next to Universal Studios. However, you do have to pay for parking there. And that’s why, although it is fun, and I suggest going for like a really special movie that you want to see. It is going to cost you a pretty penny, knowing that movies are not cheap nowadays. But yeah, I asked if you went to the basement because I remember watching Finding Dory there and a lot of other Pixar Disney movies, and they always have a really special exhibit downstairs. For Finding Dory they had an aquarium. And they had yeah, like they had Dory. And you know, all of they had an octopus for Hank. And they had like the different characters. And I know they’d done it for Frozen as well. They had like a whole behind the scenes of how they made Frozen downstairs. I don’t know because of COVID if they’re trying to limit the amount of people that are in an enclosed space, but I know pre-COVID they always utilize that basement for some really special thing. And then they would actually have people exit out from that bottom entry. So that..

Ariel Landrum 23:18
Nope. went out to the main lobby.

Stefanie Bautista 23:20
Got it. Got it. Yeah, so I’m sure things have changed since the pandemic and I’m sure that they’ll adapt moving forward, but I’m glad to see that they’re using at least the opera boxes.

Ariel Landrum 23:30
Yes, they’re using the opera boxes, we got to go upstairs and there was a Jungle Cruise like backdrop but no actual items. And so again, because the tickets got changed 3 times so did our seats. And it was because it was so late at night. Even though it was a Saturday, we had the entire right side of the theater to ourselves. Like talking about social distancing. I don’t I’m a I’m a bad aim, but I don’t think I could have thrown popcorn at the next person. ‘Cause they were so far away.

Stefanie Bautista 24:07
I’m sure you wouldn’t want to throw it because your popcorn is probably really good.

Ariel Landrum 24:10
Oh my popcorn is amazing. So fulfilling.

Stefanie Bautista 24:12
Their popcorn is always amazing. That’s I was thinking about I was like “Oh man Ariel probably really good popcorn. She’s at the El Capitan.”

Ariel Landrum 24:19
However, we did have a Mickey pretzel; again owned by Disney. So there was a Mickey pretzel and it was just okay. It was not Disney park good. I could tell a difference and so I don’t know if that’s common for that, that theater or if it is…

Stefanie Bautista 24:34
They use that hard LA water. I’m sorry. There’s nothing we can do to mask that I’m sorry.

Ariel Landrum 24:42
And then the other really crazy thing about the experience was they raffled off 3 gifts and it was like a bag full of Black Widow swag. I did not win, or I would have said that. But er ahh. Yeah I’m mad that I didn’t win because there was only like, what 5 other people? It was like, there was nobody there. And there was 3 in my aile, and there was 2 of us, I thought our chances were, were high, but they were not. But it was just really cool. They they, they did the raffle. And they actually handed the items to the guests, the guests and a half to get up. And again, owned by Disney. So their cast members, and the they they started the intro with, “Ladies and gentlemen,” and I don’t know if you guys have been following some of the Disney news. But a lot of the parks have changed the intro to their firework show to, “Welcome all dreamers,” to be more inclusive of individuals who are nonbinary. And so we were wondering if that’s going to change there too. I’m just gonna take note and keep an eye on that.

Stefanie Bautista 25:50
Yeah, I’ll definitely take a look at that too. Because now, I want to make up for this theater experience of mine. And the next movie, I’m gonna watch it, I’m gonna dish up the extra books to get me my fresh popcorn. But I’m glad that you had such a fantastic first time at the El Capitan. That’s really great to hear, especially, you know, coming from an Angeleno, myself, I always want people to have the best experiences when they go to touristy places like this. I know it’s always a hit or miss when you go to Hollywood, because it’s just, it’s a wild place out there, also, but the El Capitan does have that Disney magic. So they will go the extra mile to make sure you and your little ones have a really good time. Because, you know, we’re always bringing kids to the El Capitan because they’re always showing Disney movies. So so many things can go wrong with watching a movie with kids. So I’m glad that you had that fantastic experience.

Ariel Landrum 26:46
I’m not glad that you didn’t.

Stefanie Bautista 26:48
No. It’s all right. I mean, it be like that sometimes.

Ariel Landrum 26:53
It be like that sometimes.

Stefanie Bautista 26:54
It be like that sometimes. But let’s dive in to the movie itself.

Ariel Landrum 27:00
Okay, um… You go first.

Stefanie Bautista 27:04
Yeah, again, this is not a review podcast…

Ariel Landrum 27:07
But there will be spoilers there. Will you want a spoiler free pod review in a podcast We do have a friend named Billy he’s not part of the GT Network. But he is The Movie Grater. That says podcast, he grades movies, and none of them have spoilers.

Stefanie Bautista 27:23
Yes, none of them are spoilers. They have really great conversations about different perspectives on the movies. And you’ll laugh a lot. Because Billy is a very, very fun person and a good friend of ours. So check his podcast out if you want spoiler-less review or commentary. So if you haven’t seen Black Widow, put a pause on this. Listen to any of our other episodes. And we will see you back after you watch Black Widow. Go see it ’cause we liked it.

Ariel Landrum 27:54
We liked it a lot.

Stefanie Bautista 27:57
Yes. Um, I don’t know, Ariel. Maybe we can just kind of riff off of each other of this one? Just because I know that we can take this movie in a lot of different angles. Now, Black Widow was supposed to be released. And not this year.

Ariel Landrum 28:12
Oh, no.

Stefanie Bautista 28:13
Not last year. But way before we really went forward with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, right?

Ariel Landrum 28:21
Yeah, believe 2019 or 2020? Yeah, that was. Okay. So other experience in talking about Comic-Con earlier, Stef and I went to Comic-Con in 2019. And she was able to attend the Marvel Hall H, ah, and she got some swag. And she gifted it to me because she’s the most loveliest friend ever. And it was a Black Widow ballcap um, it has her silhouette. And it says Marvel 2020 on the back.

Stefanie Bautista 28:55
Yes, Marvel 2020 because it was the big reveal of all the things that were happening in 2020. They hype this up. I was in tears. Everybody in Hall H was just like losing their minds. You can see Scarlett Johansen comes out and then you see Florence Pugh come out and then you see Hopper I’m forgetting his name David Harbour come out.

Ariel Landrum 29:17
Yes. Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 29:18
And then you just see all these you see Simu Liu. I mean, it was just like, all of the YouTube videos that you see of Comic-Con.

Ariel Landrum 29:26
Hm hmm.

Stefanie Bautista 29:26
It was just it was major. And as they all were like, introducing the movie they put on these hats facing facing the stage and not facing the audience and they turned around to reveal Black Widow’s silhouette and her, her monogram, and it was it blew everybody’s mind and then as they turned around all of the all of the Hall H workers started giving hats out. And we again hats. Oh my gosh.

Ariel Landrum 29:56
And you get a hat and you get a hat!

Stefanie Bautista 29:59
I think correct me if I’m wrong, Ariel the popularity of the Marvel panel at Hall H has gotten so large that they don’t give away too much swag recently. Right?

Ariel Landrum 30:11
Yeah, they’ve Yeah, they’ve cut the variety of swag. So the final Game of Thrones panel Hall H, I got to see it and that that was a bag full of swag.

Stefanie Bautista 30:25
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 30:25
There was a poster. There was a pen.

Stefanie Bautista 30:27
There was a tote bag.

Ariel Landrum 30:28
There was a water bottle there was I think of a…

Stefanie Bautista 30:31
A shirt.

Ariel Landrum 30:32
A shirt. Yes, yeah, sure.

Stefanie Bautista 30:33
I still wear that shirt.

Ariel Landrum 30:36
And the the Marvel ones have slowly started not giving as many things I think not just because of the popularity, but also because they are not wanting to reveal anything. Everything. Is Marvel’s all locked down tight lipped. I mean, unless you’re Spider-Man.

Stefanie Bautista 30:53
Yep. Yeah. So we’ve been waiting for this movie for a really long time. And so I if we’re talking again, about expectations, and what we as women wanted to see out of Black Widow, I feel like over the years, it has changed for me, how about you?

Ariel Landrum 31:12
I, I think it definitely has changed. I if you look at her evolution, she certainly changed. I am looking at an image right now at me and I will I will link in the show notes of the evolution of her wardrobe. And this is what caught me when I when I was watching this movie. And and now even more so as I’m looking at the evolution of her wardrobe. So like black latex Iron Man 2 Black Widow. Very low cleavage. I think at some, I learned that apparently they they do a lot of special effects even on the clothes when things bend a certain way. So so certainly the special effects on this clothes like there’s just tightness. So just really hyper-sexualized, and going into the outfit she’s wearing here, the zippers hire so there isn’t as much cleavage and there’s actual padding. Like you see it on our elbows and her knees and on her shoulders. And even on her gloves. She looks like a fighter to me. And her hair isn’t like in these ring like curls. And she is wearing a vast amount of makeup. She actually looks. Now we know everybody’s wearing makeup on set even the men. But her makeup is toned down it is more natural, and even her hair is sort of more free flowing. Like she has some braids in a few different areas. But they aren’t tight knit they aren’t curly. She doesn’t look like she’s meant to be sexually digested. It looks like she’s meant to, you know, whoop some ass. Yeah, exactly. And I know that that’s always a point of contingency when it comes to looking at female fighters and female characters in action movies. As a woman, you’re always thinking to yourself, “How in the heck are you fighting with just the latex suit on, hair all up in your face? Makeup, you know, full, full face makeup all the way done? How are you not realistically sweating and uncomfortable in that? And not everybody is Catwoman because Catwoman is, you know, otherworldly. She has you know, cat like reflexes. Not everybody’s Michelle Pfeiffer

Different franchise has different magic. Quote unquote.

Stefanie Bautista 33:28
Yes. Different franchise. And, you know, I always thought about that whenever I played Mortal Kombat. Whenever I played Street Fighter. I mean, clearly, these are video games. They’re not supposed to represent real life. However, you got to have a little bit of realism when it comes to it. And especially if you’re doing a movie like Black Widow, which is more of you know, she doesn’t necessarily have superpowers per se. She’s not a mutant. She’s hasn’t been injected with any sort of super serum.

Ariel Landrum 33:57
Isn’t a sorcerer

Stefanie Bautista 33:58
Isn’t a sorcerer. So she has no abilities, aside from the fact that she’s highly trained and skilled in what she does. So, I mean, I think realistically, she looks a lot more suited to the work that she’s doing.

Ariel Landrum 34:13
Yeah, and, and even in talking about her being highly trained, like we’ve known that throughout all of these movies, but I feel like this is the first time where I was able to really appreciate her training, even when she was fighting Taskmaster. Like, like in the comics, and even in this iteration, Taskmaster, Taskmaster learns your moves and mimics you, essentially mirrors you. You’re you’re like fighting yourself. And she kind of picked that up right away and was able to adapt her fighting style instead of going to like her common go-tos. That’s just difficult. That’s that’s not an easy thing to do. As as a therapist, I work with a variety of people and I have a large caseload of people who are MMA fighters. And we talk about how it can be easy to default to a fighting style, but that makes you more predictable to your partner, or I mean the person that you’re attempting to fight. Your opponent. And in this case, Black Widow is always learning and always growing. We do see her sort of couple of her same signature moves. But she in this movie has shown even more wider variety in her stance and her fighting style. So I, I think, like, again, she’s not she. So so when we meet her an Iron Man 2, she’s a spy who attempts to infiltrate Tony Stark’s operation, but she’s a femme fatale. She uses her sexuality to get men to drop their guard and trust her. Now, we’re a decade a little over a decade later, and she is no longer a spy, she actually gets to be her full self. I think that’s, that’s a very different approach. Like we we actually accept her as a hero, and not sort of like having ulterior motives. And she she isn’t a sexual object, and she doesn’t use her sexuality as a weapon. And then even Scarlett Johansson has said in many interviews that she no longer comfortable playing with this character as someone who’s objectified.

Stefanie Bautista 36:14
Yeah, absolutely. Um, I think the first time when I saw her in Iron Man, she was like a Bond girl to me. She could have been somebody that I knew was working for somebody else, not somebody who was working out of their own volition, but somebody with an ulterior motive that was working for the man behind the chair. And ultimately, that is who trained her however, like you said, the evolution of her character started to become more and more independent over the films.

Ariel Landrum 36:45
More autonomy.

Stefanie Bautista 36:46
Yeah, more autonomy. Exactly. Every time we saw her in all the other various movies, she was attached to Hawkeye. They were working as a team more of like a duo where, I don’t know and I can’t really say that I saw one leading the other, but I kind of knew that one worked in tandem with the other and they always talked about, you know, their, their previous jobs. And you know, how…

Ariel Landrum 37:10
‘Buda-pesh.’

Stefanie Bautista 37:11
Budapest. Buda-Budape-sht. And that was such a wild thing in the movie, but anyway. But yeah, she was always working with Hawkeye. And they were always paired up together. So I was just like, “Okay, well, we haven’t really seen Hawkeye by himself. But we also haven’t seen Black Widow by herself. And then when everybody split their separate ways during Civil War, she was now Cap’s right-hand woman.

Ariel Landrum 37:32
Yup.

Stefanie Bautista 37:32
And so we didn’t really see her as her full hero self she was more of, you know, Cap’s confidant, which was great, because, you know, he was so nice to her and, you know, always respectful to her, but still, she kind of took a backseat. Definitely the second tier of the Avengers.

Ariel Landrum 37:50
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 37:50
So it was really nice to see her, you know, act on her own volition and also find about find out more about herself because us as an audience, we want to find out more about her and where she’s coming from.

Ariel Landrum 38:06
And in and that she has, she has leadership qualities. She took a leadership stance in this movie, and when we remember her RIP in End Game, she out after the 5 year Blip, she was the one running the Avengers. She was the one giving people orders. She was the one who really tried to keep it all together. And that seems even more believable now after seeing this film.

Stefanie Bautista 38:31
Yeah. And not just motherly, where we’re expecting her as the woman to be like, “Okay, everybody, let’s get it together.” Like “We got to save the world,” kind of thing, where it teetered on that I don’t think it was fully realized. And this movie definitely shows that her empathy as herself as Natasha was shown more above anything that we’re expecting out of her as a female superhero.

Ariel Landrum 38:56
Absolutely, absolutely. So I think like really highlighting those those big changes in differences. I mean, I I’m trying to imagine how I would feel if this was how I was introduced to Black Widow versus the previous versions. I remember trying to buy those those costumes and outfits and, and I’m a I’m a well-endowed woman, I have rather large breasts, so I could fill that part of the costume if I wanted to. However, I wasn’t always comfortable. That that costume is not easy to wear a Comic-Con. It apparently, it gives permission for people to to grope you. And as someone who cosplays fairly regularly, it’s one of those things of, “How do I like make sure to set that boundary?” And why I tend to, quote unquote, have a ‘Comic-Con guard’ with me so that people won’t,. This costume I could see being respected. I can see people seeing me as the fighter of Black Widow and not so much as this hot thing I can take a picture with. Like a like really much like, “I’m taking a picture of Black Widow like this is the character and the hero that I love.”

Stefanie Bautista 40:10
And on top of that you’re carrying weapons on your back. You are carrying weapons on your back. So I really hope that if they are looking at your backside, they’re looking at your weapons and how you will use them on them. But absolutely, I think the the playing field for cosplay has gotten larger, especially with having her sister having Iron Maiden there. I mean, even having a Red Guardian, Red Gaurdian right?

Ariel Landrum 40:42
Yes. Right.

Stefanie Bautista 40:43
His portrayal of kind of this fallen male icon, especially Soviet icon where us as Americans, we view you know, Cold War era 1980s Soviet Russia as this big, you know, iron curtain. Everybody’s you know, stoic, of course, like with the Tocky films like you think of I know, Drago and you know, you have this, like very macho sense of all men, all Russian men. But then you meet Alexi. And he is definitely fallen from grace since he was kind of pushed aside after his undercover mission in Ohio with the girls and you see him struggling to fit into his his suit. And I thought that that was a really great moment for men. Really.

Ariel Landrum 41:31
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 41:32
Dad bods everywhere. And I think that David Harbour played that role just so nicely, because he’s so loveable.

Ariel Landrum 41:40
And that scene of him trying to fit in that suit is that scene of me trying to fit into the Black Widow costume. It ain’t happening in the same way that I think is.

Stefanie Bautista 41:50
Yeah, I mean, for me, I I’m not as well endowed as Ariel. However, I don’t have the typical Asian slender body. I am much more Moana and Nani than Raya.

Ariel Landrum 42:03
Thicc.

Stefanie Bautista 42:04
So you know, I can’t really find a one size fits all costume. I have the make er actually adopt many male costumes to my suiting and I normally go that route just because it’s a little easier and more comfortable for me to attend cons that way. So I think, yeah, it was it was really great to see the differences in body types and the realism of getting into a suit that is meant for fighting and meant to you know, get hurt in. Because there was a lot of getting hurt In this movie and I

Ariel Landrum 42:38
Oh, the hits look hard. The you know those…

Stefanie Bautista 42:41
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 42:41
Who the stunt actors I applaud to them because it looked..

Stefanie Bautista 42:45
They deserve an award.

Ariel Landrum 42:47
I was cringing all the times that any of the characters got, you know, hit up because it It didn’t look just like a big explosion or that Star Wars kick that never quite hit.

Stefanie Bautista 43:01
Yeah, it wasn’t. it wasn’t Michael Bay blowing up everything. Like Natasha was getting thrown off a building. Yelena was like, you know, falling and rolling all over the place. All of the Widows that were doing their stunts. They were so fantastic. It reminded me a lot of Justice League and seeing all the Amazons on Themyscira, but harder. Way harder because they were falling. They’re getting stabbed. They were you know, she’s you Yelena stabs herself in the leg to get out her little transmitter. And it looked real.

Ariel Landrum 43:34
Looked so real. So real. She barely flinched too.

Stefanie Bautista 43:38
Barly flinched. And you could hear it squelching. Like, you could hear the bones like I don’t know I mean, I heard an Dolby, obviously so I heard everything. But I liked how they didn’t go soft on the women. And because they were doing such big scenes and also car chases that involved women.

Ariel Landrum 43:56
The best car chase scene I have ever seen and I have seen except for the the new one, which I haven’t seen yet I’ve seen every Fast and Furious. And you know, they start to get the same where we’re trying to get away and we’re coming up with some stuff. I have never seen what Yelena did in regards to the car chase scene and I was thoroughly impressed with the ingenuity and literally, like Black Widow was saying like “I’m trying to get away and escape.” Like she acknowledged that that was her plan.

Stefanie Bautista 44:31
I love the banter, too. That was that same I think just the overall banter between sisters is something that we don’t see. And the only other way that we’ve seen it is Frozen.

Ariel Landrum 44:41
Well I guess Lilo and Stitch?

Stefanie Bautista 44:43
Lilo and Stitch, which is more of a motherly approach because you know Nani is her caretaker. But yeah, I think between sisters who are working and sisters who haven’t seen each other for a really long time. I don’t have a sister myself, but I do have cousins who have sisters and I know, and I see the struggle between you know, I’m just we’re trying to one up each other I guess you could say. And if you’re a trained assassin trying to one up an Avenger who is your sister figure. I mean, hilarity ensues. And I think that was a really great move to insert humor into there. I died in a half when Yelena was trying to be like, “How do you how do you do that pose when you go down, and you.” Wow.

Ariel Landrum 45:29
“Such a poser.”

Stefanie Bautista 45:30
“You’re such a poser.” And I didn’t know that she was going to use that word poser, but I love that she did use that word poser, because she is just essentially taking down this Avenger who we have seen do so many great things for the universe. Work alongside Captain America, Iron Man. You know, calm down the Hulk. And now you’re reducing her to a poser there just because she looks at the camera.

Ariel Landrum 45:53
And really humbling her right when it comes to siblings. So not just sisters, your siblings can humble you in a way that nobody else can.

Stefanie Bautista 46:01
Like nobody else can. Nobody.

Ariel Landrum 46:04
‘Cause you are an older sister.

Stefanie Bautista 46:06
Yeah, I am an older sister. And my younger brother can humble me in ways that, you know, I do humble him too, because he is my younger brother. But I mean, there’s just this dynamic when when you’re an older sibling, you always try to keep it together. And I felt that with especially Natasha because she’s trying to keep it together for her family. She’s trying to just get the job done. By any means necessary, because this is just what she does. And she’s just gonna go at it however she can. And you know, even even in her laser focus of a job doing this. You get your Yelena who is the youngest. She is you know, blonde, and she’s more sprightly I guess you would say?

Ariel Landrum 46:47
Yeah. Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 46:48
She has a spark. She has this fire in her. And she she’s got a mouth on her too. It’s just awesome.

Ariel Landrum 46:55
She feels like the new generation of Avengers. Like like a completely different take with different experiences that is is even just it’s just fresh and and really wonderful. I fell in love with her honestly.

Stefanie Bautista 47:10
Oh the best.

Ariel Landrum 47:11
Just amazing. Actress of Florence. Is it ‘pew’ or ‘few’?

Stefanie Bautista 47:17
I think it’s ‘pew’. But correct me if I’m wrong. I haven’t really this is what I’ve heard on interviews, but I might be wrong. Uhh I think she’s British.

Ariel Landrum 47:25
Yeah, I feel like I’ve heard ‘pew’ of the most.

Stefanie Bautista 47:27
Yeah, I know she’s British. So if if that helps, I’m not familiar, but she is a fantastic actress. If you look up her IMDb, she has done it all y’all. And now she is the future Black Widow as we are going to see in the future. So I think they picked the fantastic person to play her and…

Ariel Landrum 47:48
And I think that when we’re talking about banter, the funniest scene, which I didn’t think I would ever see in a Disney movie, I never thought I would hear the words. ‘hysterectomy’. I never thought I would hear the words ‘fallopian tubes.’

Stefanie Bautista 48:04
Yes. They went there.

Ariel Landrum 48:07
The word ‘uterus’ and and the great thing about that she adlibbed that scene.

Stefanie Bautista 48:12
I love that.

Ariel Landrum 48:13
She ad loved it. It was just hilarious. Again, I felt very seen. Because again, if we’re talking about girls, young girls who have been taken from their families or or taken off of the streets, this is this is a real life issue issue when it comes to trafficking and sex trafficking. Women and girls statistically are the majority who are trafficked. And those are things that do happen to them so that they can still be considered a marketable object. You know, “If you don’t get pregnant, it’s easier for me to market you and that.. can be see have it put it plainly on on a in a Disney movie, though, was a joke. Like it made the characters more real, because I’m sure that there’s been fandom questions in regards to how come Black Widow doesn’t have any kids? And it’s like, well, this is why this is part of the horrors of of her of her trauma and her past experiences before an Avenger.

Stefanie Bautista 49:10
Yeah, and as a clap back to, “Is it your time of the month?” Which is every woman’s just who loves to hear that? Absolutely no one. No one loves to hear that.

Ariel Landrum 49:22
Every every woman and every person with a uterus.

Stefanie Bautista 49:25
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 49:25
Just like really?

Stefanie Bautista 49:26
Yeah. And as a clap back to that I applaud that whole entire scene, because you know what, it’s not just a matter of us being on our time of the month, and nor does it have to do with any of your concern if you’re asking. So maybe you should walk that all the way back and he walked it all the way back. So…

Ariel Landrum 49:46
All the way.

Stefanie Bautista 49:48
All the way and it was liberating without burning a bra and it was liberating without using any of those, “this is a feminist movie trope,” which you know, has been played out over the last couple of years. So…

Ariel Landrum 49:59
Yeah, yeah, again, a different way of looking at feminism and older way. And I think this, this is very much how this current generation and I think our generation is, is accepting the openness around feminism, which is that these aren’t things we’re going to be afraid to talk about. But we’re not. I mean, we’re bringing them up in a moment. It is, it’s a shutdown to you, but it isn’t a weapon. It’s the truth.

Stefanie Bautista 50:22
Yeah, and I really want to highlight the fact that you mentioned Yelena being more of the new generation representative of the Avengers. I think that really worked well parallel to Rachel Weisz’ character as the Iron Maiden, because she lived her entire life being cycled through the Red Room 4 times, as she said, and she is the classic example of conditioning. And she is an example of having been used as an object as a woman under under the spell of.. Why am I forgetting his name right now?

Ariel Landrum 50:55
Oh, Dreykov?

Stefanie Bautista 50:56
Dreykov. Yes, Dreykov. I didn’t want to come Alexi that’s not him. Yeah, under Dreykov rule. And I think by her breaking away from that, to open doors to the younger generation is just, I think symbolic of Marvel’s way of opening that door from female superheroes that we’ve seen in the past and female superheroes like Black Widow, who this story is about and how she was portrayed in the past and how we are going to introduce her and every other female character after her now. Because although that, you know, it might not have been the best way to portray female superheroes. It still exists in the past, and we’re going to acknowledge it, but we’re going to take that and learn from it.

Ariel Landrum 51:39
Yeah, we’re not we’re not going to hide from it and we’re not going to minimize it. So it’s going to be presented as as factual and truthful, but it’s not going to be presented as the always in will be.

Stefanie Bautista 51:50
Yeah, and in fact, we need that perspective to move forward. Which is exactly how we needed Iron Maiden to help you know, kind of orchestrate that one explosion that ended up taking the entire island down?

Ariel Landrum 52:07
Floating Red Room.

Stefanie Bautista 52:09
Yeah, I don’t know what…

Ariel Landrum 52:11
Flying ship thing that somehow Iron Man miss every time I… Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 52:17
Okay, so now that we’ve talked a lot about what we loved, I’m sure there’s things that we could have improved on, right?

Ariel Landrum 52:26
Okay, this is my first and biggest gripe that I as soon as I found out after that’s Stef had finished finished watching the movie. I texted, did you notice that thing? Okay, I think you guys can hear my cat. I apologize.

Stefanie Bautista 52:43
Hello.

Ariel Landrum 52:43
She says, “Hi, feed me for the fourth time,” and I won’t because you’re on a diet. But anyways, as soon as I found out she’d watched it. I texted her immediately. And I was like, “Did you find the mistake? The continuity mistake in the beginning when they were in Cuba?” And she was like, “What are you talking about?” And now I am a huge Disney fan. But I will also say that I am a My Little Pony fan. Yes. I love my ponies.

Stefanie Bautista 53:18
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 53:19
And so when they land in Cuba, Yelena is holding a stuffed animal. And this stuffed animal gets passed around at least 4 times. So I got lots of views of this stuffed animal. And it is a My Little Pony. And it is an Alicorn Twilight Sparkle. So that’s the name of the character. However, Twilight Sparkle did not become an alicorn until February 16, 2013.

Stefanie Bautista 53:47
Oh, no. Way after.

Ariel Landrum 53:49
An this animal was was featured in time where it’s supposed to be 1995. So I don’t know. If Loki and Wanda had done some kind of multiverse thing and somehow Twilight Sparkle was put in this 1995 because that’s what got messed up in this universe. I’m thinking not but I was upset for the rest of the movie about this. I was… I don’t know what prop person done messed up that. And I and I had I went online I had to confirm that I was not I was not crazy. And I found all kinds of Reddit threads from other My Little Pony and Brony fans.

Stefanie Bautista 54:24
Yup.

Ariel Landrum 54:25
Yes. Yes, this was the Twilight Sparkle that did not exist in 1995.

Stefanie Bautista 54:31
Yes, I am not a big My Little Pony fan. I do love My Little Pony. However, I’m not that big of a fan. I, so now that you said that, what if there was a Nexus event that had to do with Sylvie? ‘Cause we know how old she is. And. No. I know there’s nothing nothing, somebody messed up.

Ariel Landrum 54:50
Somebody messed up.

Stefanie Bautista 54:51
in that in the opening credits. Me and in my attempt to connect the multiversus of all the fandoms that I love. I was like, okay, so David Harbour is in this movie. I’m a huge Stranger Things fan. And I’m like, “Are they in Indiana? Why are they always in Indiana? Oh, no, they’re in Ohio, which is next to Indiana. Why do they always have to pick? Is that Hopper’s house? Is that?” And I was just trying to find all of these Stranger Things Easter Eggs for whatever reason.

Ariel Landrum 55:19
Evemnthe name ‘Alexi?’

Stefanie Bautista 55:20
Even the name ‘Alexi’. I’m like, “Oh my gosh, Alexi, just like Alexi. Poor Alexi.” And so, you know, if you’ve watched Stranger Things, every 80s reference, I think, because Stranger Things has done it so so so well, I always think of Stranger Things whenever I see something 80s now because I think they kind of hit the benchmark of what it is to portray the 80s in, you know, the 2020s. So I don’t know why my brain went to that. But I was trying to connect those things, which is probably why I did not notice that My Little Pony stuffed animal. And, you know, I think everybody goes through that when they sit down to watch a movie. Especially when it’s in a multiverse like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We are so trained to find Easter Eggs now. And

Ariel Landrum 56:04
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 56:04
I talk about this all the time with my students, especially when Endgame came out. I remember, and my coworkers can attest to this. I remember watching Endgame, midnight showing, and I had to work the next day because it was Thursday. And of course, you know, Friday, we still have school. So I came into the classroom and the first thing I said to my students was, things just be dropping everywhere today. It’s okay, this is real life, guys. I walk into a classroom and I said, “If you guys don’t behave today, I will spoil Endgame for you. And I am not joking.”

Ariel Landrum 56:39
Ohhhh. So you put down there, hammer. You put down’s Thor’s hammer.

“Your Have a Good Friday. Today, you are going to get your play time you’re gonna get your free time. But if somebody slips up, I am spoiling Endgame for you.” And we had the most fantastic day in my class. So and they always love talking about Easter Eggs. And we always try to one up each other like , “Oh Miss Stefanie, did you remember this? Or do you know if you saw that?” So I think we all go through that as Marvel fans and Disney fans now. We always try to find the Pizza Planet Truck. But I think…

Yeah, that really shows you how much like when we’re talking about dissecting medium like that gives you such a good critical lens and also being observant, right? Like that’s probably I know, for my clients, and I’m assuming for your students, like being more observant of the moment is a critical skill to obtain.

Stefanie Bautista 57:27
And it’s a really, it’s pretty high level skill when you’re thinking about it because you’re accessing memories that you’ve had from previous experiences in previous movies, and you’re making those connections. And I love it when you know, kids make those connections and what stands out for certain students and what doesn’t stand out for certain students. For you, for example, the My Little Pony thing totally stood out for you.

Ariel Landrum 57:47
Instant rapid processing. Executive functioning boom, there it is.

Stefanie Bautista 57:53
For me, it was the time period and I love time period, everything I love how Marvel and really any sort of medium decides to portray any sort of time travel, any sort of retro imagery, because I feel like as technology is evolving, we’re getting so much better at it. And our understanding of prior eras has gotten so much more clear. So I mean, I think that was good, but we’re talking about things that you know, we could have fixed, right.

Ariel Landrum 58:19
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 58:20
So I think for myself really quickly, Taskmaster could have been done a little bit better.

Ariel Landrum 58:28
Okay.

Stefanie Bautista 58:28
I think it was kind of Oh, I know it was kind of like a guise for who the real villain was. And we all know that. The real villain of course is the red the Red Room and I’m gonna keep forgetting and Dreykov.

Ariel Landrum 58:44
Forst time I’m saying things right.

Stefanie Bautista 58:45
Yeah. I think it’s because they don’t want to mess up the pronunciation. Dreykov.

Ariel Landrum 58:49
Yeah. Ohh.

Stefanie Bautista 58:52
Dreykov. So I know he’s, you know, kind of a Wizard of Oz thing again, where he is the man behind the curtain. He’s the person who we really need to take down. However, with the original Taskmaster, I knew that it had more of like a skull face. This one had more of a Daft Punk robot looking face.

Ariel Landrum 59:10
Yeah, yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 59:11
It was like, “Are we gonna see him behind the DJ booth?” Like it looked really Daft Punk. And Deadmau5 to me. And the hood didn’t quite make so much sense because she was already wearing like a skin tight, like, cap.

Ariel Landrum 59:27
Yeah, it was just kind of some extra.

Stefanie Bautista 59:31
Yeah. And I don’t know like, it was fun to see the different fighting styles like clearly claws came out Black Panther. Shield came out Captain America. It didn’t get large like the Hulk? That didn’t happen. But I think even even when you’re tying who that character was and their relationship to Natasha, it wasn’t fully fleshed out and I know that wasn’t the goal of the movie. And that was kind of like part of the journey for her. But I think that was a little bit wasted.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:05
Well, they, they, I mean, if you if you remember Black Widow was always talking about wanting to, she’s got read on her ledger and she’s wanting to wipe it clean. Like, that’s just some of the common quotes that that she has. And this was one of those reds. And unfortunately, it didn’t it didn’t quite meet expectations. Now, I really liked that they did change the gender and they connected it in the story. This wasn’t just a random person who teamed up with Dreykov like that seems to be a common thing like weird superhero team ups that don’t make sense or supervillain team ups.

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:39
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:00:40
But it didn’t seem like this was something that she regretted as much as she probably should have. And it was too easy of a of a forgiving, I think, because it was so instant. All that I don’t remember that Taskmasters daughter’s name is Valentina?

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:04
No, no Valentina is

Ariel Landrum 1:01:05
No that’s who came out at the end. But a task, it was really that Taskmaster asked, “Is he gone?” She she wanted to get away from from her abuser. So that totally made sense. How, however, given the amount of trauma, given friggin jumping out of falling ship, and then and then being unprogrammed, I just I feel like it would have made more sense if if she was just disoriented and it wasn’t really quite speaking or or engaging and wasn’t there. I don’t I know that I would want Black Widow to have redemption. But I don’t think in this case that she should have had it. Not that easily.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:48
Exactly. Umm her name is Antonia.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:51
Gah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:51
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:53
We were close.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:54
We were not very close. But yeah, I think with her especially being one of the actors who’s truly of Russian descent, she is, you know, Olga Kurylenko, who is she’s an action actress. And she’s been in other films. It was it was kind of a miss to see her not highlighted in that way. But also, I’m sure it was hard to do that because Taskmaster already has such a reputation in the Marvel Universe in the comic books. So I know they were trying to just pull in characters probably where they could. I could be wrong. I don’t know. But yeah, I think it could have been fleshed out a little bit more. However, I know, we were teetering on what a 2 and a half hour movie at this point.

Ariel Landrum 1:02:42
Were you surprised that she was Taskmaster? Or did you figure it out?

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:47
Um, I knew Taskmaster was gonna appear at some point. Like you said, spoilers are kind of unavoidable at this point in time, so I knew I knew that character was gonna come out and the only way it could have been her. So and like, there was major foreshadowing when Yelena was talking to her and said, “Did you I did you recover the body?” And when she said, “Well, there was nobody to recover.” It was kind of like “Well, clearly she is MIA. So she’s gonna pop up somewhere.”

Ariel Landrum 1:03:14
Yeah, I I knew instantly that that moment one of 2 things and that I leaned towards it was gonna be Taskmaster or that she took over the Widows. I thought that was that could have been a take or twist. But at once I actually saw a Taskmaster fight. I was like, “Okay, yeah, this this has to be Dreykov’s daughter.” If we’re talking about him dabbling in bioengineering him dabbling in you know, conditioning mind control. Yeah, I don’t see him having any qualms doing that to his daughter. So it was it was somewhat predictable. But I thought I was going to appreciate the predictability. I didn’t as much in this case.

Stefanie Bautista 1:04:01
Yeah. Fun random fact, the woman who played Taskmaster, Olga Kurylenko, was a Bond girl. Or she was in a James Bond movie. So she was in Quantum of Solace. And that is the last time I saw her. And she, yeah, was a Bond girl named Camille Montez, for all your Bond fans out there. So yeah, I think that is just one of the things that I, you know, kind of had an issue with. But other than that, I think the linear progression of Natasha finding her roots using that to kind of wipe her ledger clean and in the process, liberate the Widows, was fulfilled pretty straightforwardly. Um, yeah. And I think the end just because of when it was released, you really had to reach back. I’ve heard from a lot of my friends who have watched it who do follow the Marvel Cinematic Universe, maybe not as closely as you and I do. Or if you know our listeners do, they just said “I wish maybe I could have been prepared in watching some of the prior movies again, just to kind of freshen up.” like watch civil war again to see you know, “Why is she on the run? You know, why is you know she living out in a trailer with her version of M or Q in the Bond movies, who supplies her with all of her necessities to live. Which I like that character. I like…

Ariel Landrum 1:05:32
Mason is the character and the actor. His name is OT Fagbenly and he is also British, and he went to the same elementary school as Florence Pugh but just like 10 years earlier

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:45
That’s wild. He reminds me of Craig David.

Ariel Landrum 1:05:49
UK be small.

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:51
Oh, yeah. I kept looking. I was like, “That can’t be Craig David. He’s not an actor. He sings. He sings ‘7 Days.’

Ariel Landrum 1:05:59
I guess he plays Luke in The Handmaid’s Tale, but I’ve never saw that show.

Stefanie Bautista 1:06:01
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:06:02
The Handmaid’s Tale.

Stefanie Bautista 1:06:03
That’s one of the ones I’ve yet to see. I know it’s on my list of things on Hulu that I have to watch. And I don’t watch Hulu very often anymore.

Ariel Landrum 1:06:11
So some of the other sort of small nitpicky things, because I think we’ve gotten to the point where, at least I have, I can be nitpicky in regards to Marvel movies.

Stefanie Bautista 1:06:21
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:06:22
Okay, so the the scene where you Yelena is calling Natasha poser. They’re doing that a convenience store. They they didn’t confirm what are the convenience store person spoke English or not. Understood what they were doing or saying. They’re talking about people they’ve killed. And now she’s on the ground like whipping her head back forth. Wipe her hair back and forth. And that and he had no reaction. That extra if his his line or direction was do nothing, say nothing. They could have put a mannequin in there. And I wouldn’t have known because literally no, no response to…

Stefanie Bautista 1:06:55
None.

Ariel Landrum 1:06:56
This woman on the ground whipping her hair back and forth. Umm.

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:00
And just taking things from the shelf. I don’t know if they have any intention of paying for them.

Ariel Landrum 1:07:06
But I didn’t see them stealing them in their outfits. So..

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:09
No. Also just them hanging out in that gas stations front or in clearly it’s a family owned gas station. Yeah. And they’re in like the boonies of this country. Are they in Budapest? Their in um…

Ariel Landrum 1:07:23
I don’t remember.

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:23
I don’t remember, but very in like a very remote town and in remote towns everybody tends to know each other.

Ariel Landrum 1:07:30
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:30
Quite well.

Ariel Landrum 1:07:31
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:31
Look at these 2 Russian slash white women talking.

Ariel Landrum 1:07:36
Yeah just sitting here talking to each other.

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:37
Super cas’

Ariel Landrum 1:07:38
Enjoying some beers with no like, no other party, no chaperone like just, you know, I, it was odd, right?

Stefanie Bautista 1:07:47
Yeah a little odd.

Ariel Landrum 1:07:47
Like there would be there would be a response. Like, I don’t think the kids would be out playing. Yeah, if these strangers in this random town are chilling. Yeah. And then the other thing was at the very end, the not not the end credit, but the very end Black Widow, rolls up in a motorcycle, and then jumps out, and then kicks Mason, and he wakes up. And I’m like, “He didn’t wake up from the sound of the motorcycle? But he wakes up because she nudges him.” I don’t buy this, I get that this trope is that he sleeps because he’s worked on a bunch of time zones, but but they should have done that better. She should have been driving a Prius and like rolled up on him sneakily.

Stefanie Bautista 1:08:25
Also why wasn’t his sleeping in the quinjet?

Ariel Landrum 1:08:28
I’ve no idea.

Stefanie Bautista 1:08:29
Isn’t it comfortable in there. And I mean, we’ve seen the inside of that thing. It’s pretty state of the art.

Ariel Landrum 1:08:34
And how did she not notice it? Like why was it “Oh, thanks for this jet.

Stefanie Bautista 1:08:39
“This gigantic quinjet that all the Avengers are gonna fly in one day. To save the quantum universe.” Yeah, you know, those? Yeah, I think we can nitpick on those things. And I, I’m right there with you on that. So I think in the grand scheme of things, I mean, even and I this is probably the last thing I’m going to, like contribute to this part of the conversation, but the whole subway part of them just like going in. Have you guys been in a subway station? Anything goes down. I’ve been in many subway stations in many different countries, and the smallest thing goes down. Everybody turns and no one is just watching to see what goes on. You will see them scatter like roaches.

Ariel Landrum 1:09:27
Scatter. And there’s a shutdown, like it reported to them the metro authority.

Stefanie Bautista 1:09:35
Yeah. Especially in Europe, because it’s such a small enclosed space like. Do not tell me.

Ariel Landrum 1:09:40
And there have been plenty of, you know, in reality, terrorist attacks that have happened in those areas. So the response time is instant.

Stefanie Bautista 1:09:47
Yeah, I even think that was a better response time in the Italian Job way back in the day with Mark Wahlberg. And Charlize Theron because I love that movie. It’s one of my favorites. And when they shut down Hollywood and Highland right across the street from where you watch Black Widow, shit goes down it goes.

Ariel Landrum 1:10:04
It goes down.

Stefanie Bautista 1:10:05
So yeah, that’s the last thing I’m gonna say about that. But oh, I enjoyed it.

Ariel Landrum 1:10:11
I think like a couple of things before we end. I think The Cap would disapprove of the language. I counted I counted. So a bitch was said in English once. Shit was said in Russian once. And in English three times. Bullshit was said twice in English and ass was said three times in English. So watch your language. Language. Watch your mouth. Cap would disapprove. And I think really the only other thing that I would want to touch on is I there was some foreshadowing in the beginning with the fireflies, right in regards to like bioluminescence, and that sort of like illuminating darkness. And if we think a Dreykov off, he’s operating in the shadows. He’s hiding. I think. And then when we talk about the serum, it used light, right? Like it seemed a sparkle. Very much similar to the fireflies. I thought that was really lovely. But I feel like in the writing to the completion, something was missed in like connecting that.

Stefanie Bautista 1:11:10
Yes, yeah, it didn’t come into full fruition. And yeah, I they spent so much time on that scene with Rachel Weisz explaining it to her that I thought it was going to come up again, maybe even in the scene where Yelena visits her grave afterwards. I would have liked it to be at night maybe where they would revisit that. And then we could see, you know, fireflies, but again, it did not happen. It was more symbolic, I guess.

Ariel Landrum 1:11:11
Yeah, definitely foreshadowing for the, the the way the story is supposed to go, which is like illuminating this, this person operating in the dark and in the shadows, but I, I think it should, it seemed more like it was going to be talking about their sisterly connection. And I agree with you. Like if we saw the fireflies in regards to like at her grave that would have felt like very healing as part of just grief and loss. We do tend to look for the ones that we’ve lost in the symbols around us. So I think there was a hidden amiss there.

Stefanie Bautista 1:12:13
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I definitely agree. And I think that, you know, minus those little snafus, I think Marvel did a pretty good job considering that this is a release, not just in theaters, but also Disney+ as premiere access. Again, as a big theatrical release, it’s pretty hard. But I know that they’ve done quite well. Making I’m not sure hundreds of millions at this point 5, 7 or whatever.

Ariel Landrum 1:12:44
Yeah, yeah, domestically and internationally, this is broken, broken the records. And I think I think what we expected and even broken records in regards to premiere access and new subscriptions. Totally worth it overdue for this character.

Stefanie Bautista 1:13:01
Definietly.

Ariel Landrum 1:13:03
And really just makes me sad that we aren’t going to see her again. I’m hoping maybe flashbacks? Or like a variant?

Stefanie Bautista 1:13:10
Who knows like it like we’ve said before, the multiverse will probably surprise us in ways that we can’t even figure out yet.

Ariel Landrum 1:13:18
Can’t even figure out.

Stefanie Bautista 1:13:19
Yep.

Ariel Landrum 1:13:21
Well, if you want to hear more about Black Widow, go ahead and check out GT Radio’s episode where they talk about more of the family dynamics.

Yeah, definitely.

Stefanie Bautista 1:13:31
I know that there’s much to explore with that with the dynamic of what is considered a family and what they define as a family and what Natasha, all of those people go through because of their experience as this undercover family. And yeah, it’s a must listen to.

Ariel Landrum 1:13:51
Yeah. So thank you, everybody for listening to Happiest Pod On Earth. I’m Ariel.

Stefanie Bautista 1:13:58
And I’m Stefanie.

Ariel Landrum 1:14:00
And we are Disney fans. But we’re so much more let us know how much more you are than just the Disney fan by tweeting us @happiestpodgt or dming us on our Instagram @happiestpodgt.

Stefanie Bautista 1:14:12
Yep. And let us know how you like the movie and maybe some of the things that you noticed or had gripes with also. We would love to hear there is no judgment here. Okay, bye. See you next time.

Media / Characters Mentioned
  • Black Widow
  • Captain America
  • Thor
  • Iron Man
  • Iron Madien
  • Loki
  • Sylvie
  • Red Gaurdian
  • Yelena
  • Stranger Things
  • My Little Pony
Topics/Themes Mentioned
  • Trauma
  • Objectification
  • Human trafficking
  • Sex trafficking
  • Childhood trauma
  • 80s themes
  • Anatomy
  • Continuity error
  • Leadership skills
  • MMA fighting
  • Cosplay
  • Costumes
  • Body image
  • Body types

Questions? Comments? Discuss this episode on the GT Forum.

—

 Website: happy.geektherapy.com
 | Instagram: @HappiestPodGT | Twitter: @HappiestPodGT | Facebook: @HappiestPodGT |
 | Stef on Twitter: @stefa_kneee | Ariel on Instagram: @airyell3000 |

Geek Therapy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit with the mission of advocating for the effective and meaningful use of popular media in therapeutic, educational, and community practice.
| GT Facebook: @GeekTherapy | GT Twitter: @GeekTherapy |
| GT Forum: forum.geektherapy.com  | GT Discord: geektherapy.com/discord |

Leaning Into Loki’s Journey

July 17, 2021 · Discuss on the GT Forum

https://media.blubrry.com/happypod/media.transistor.fm/2036b564/c8e28130.mp3

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#14: With Special Guest Rachel Wethers, MSW, Happiest Pod dives into both the character and show Loki on Disney+. Stef, Ariel, and Rachel talk about themes of trauma, adoption, lying, acceptance, and belonging.

Read the blog post for this episode for additional references and resources.

Become a member of Geek Therapy on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/geektherapy

Transcription

Ariel Landrum 0:11
Hello, everyone, welcome to The Happiest Pod on Earth.

Stefanie Bautista 0:14
I’m Stefanie.

Ariel Landrum 0:16
And I’m Ariel.

Rachel Wethers 0:17
And I’m Rachel.

Ariel Landrum 0:19
And we’re all Disney fans. But we’re really so much more than that.

Stefanie Bautista 0:23
And I’m an educator who uses passions and fandoms to help my students grow and learn about themselves and the wide world around them.

Ariel Landrum 0:31
And I’m a licensed therapist who uses my clients passion and fandoms to help them grow and heal from trauma and really achieve mental wellness.

Rachel Wethers 0:40
And I’m a licensed clinical social worker who uses passions and fandoms to help process and integrate trauma, and empower each of us in our different individual uniqueness.

Ariel Landrum 0:51
And a Happiest Pod is a the place where we dissect is new mediums with a critical lens. Why? Because just like we are more than just fans, we expect more from the mediums we consume.

Stefanie Bautista 1:02
Happiest Pod is the as part of the Geek Therapy Network of podcasts where we all believe that the best way to understand ourselves and the world around us is through the mediums we have an affinity with.

Ariel Landrum 1:13
And because we have an affinity well for Disney, we will use it as a tool to share with others how to heal and learn, grow and understand. So what Disney the medium or experience are we dissecting and sharing today everybody?

Stefanie Bautista 1:26
Yes, we will be talking about the Disney+ series as well as the character Loki. One of my favorites and many of yours, I’m sure. And as you heard, we have a special guest on the podcast today, Rachel Wether. Now Rachel is a virtual therapist, meaning that she sees her clients online as in and is licensed in Illinois, Michigan, and Missouri.

Ariel Landrum 1:50
Rachel specializes in working with individuals who’ve survived trauma have grown up in the foster system, and even those who are Neurodivergent. She also has a personal history as a foster youth herself.

Stefanie Bautista 2:02
So Rachel, can you share a little bit about your experience as a foster youth?

Rachel Wethers 2:07
Sure, sure. So I entered the state system around the age of 14. And eventually I aged out of foster care at 18. But prior to that I’d been connected through being shifted around between family members and, and friends of the family for quite a few years before 14. I grew up in the Detroit Metro area, but eventually what I was actually placed in a religious children’s home in Mississippi. So big culture shock.

Stefanie Bautista 2:34
Wow.

Rachel Wethers 2:34
Right? I did have the opportunity to travel a lot though, with the children’s home during my high school years to help support the children’s home. And fun fact, our travel group was sent to both Disneyland and Disney World during those years

Ariel Landrum 2:49
What?

Rachel Wethers 2:49
Right?

Stefanie Bautista 2:49
Magical.

Rachel Wethers 2:50
While traveling, I probably wouldn’t have been able to visit that if it hadn’t been for being there.

Stefanie Bautista 2:58
Okay.

Rachel Wethers 2:58
Anyways, my childhood has given me a lot of lived experience regarding trauma, childhood attachment needs, and especially aging out of the system without much support because that was like 25 years ago. So there’s a lot more support nowadays.

Stefanie Bautista 3:12
For sure.

Ariel Landrum 3:13
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 3:13
And I know we’re going to be diving a little bit more into that probably later. But thank you so much for sharing…

Rachel Wethers 3:18
Sure.

Stefanie Bautista 3:18
Your history with us and our listeners and for agreeing to join this podcast. We’re so excited to have you today.

Rachel Wethers 3:24
Thank you.

Ariel Landrum 3:25
Yes, thank you, thank you, we need to be the perfect guest to help us uncover Loki and get to know this character and show the themes of adoption and belonging acceptance. I think it should be noted that we’re recording this episode on July 14, which is the final episode of this series. So let’s dive in. I know for you, Rachel, you’ve you actually pulled up a lot of Loki history and lore, going back to two comics and a little bit of Norse mythology. So way back.

Rachel Wethers 3:55
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 3:55
What are some things that you want to highlight in regards to the differences from the Loki we see in this this variant? Versus like the intro we get in the MCU? And the intro we get in the comics?

Rachel Wethers 4:09
Sure, sure. Well, I think so I have a wonderful partner and he’s been collecting comic books for like forever. We have like boxes and boxes and closets.

Ariel Landrum 4:18
Lovely.

Rachel Wethers 4:19
But he just really pointed out that the difference in writers because you know, Loki was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby drew him wonderfully back in the day. But over time, as the authors have changed, the story has shifted some right? And so I think Stan drew from the original Norse mythology a little bit more, which had…

Ariel Landrum 4:42
Like being true to to the origin of the inspiration.

Rachel Wethers 4:46
Which really focused on more villainous approach, right. Really focusing on the trickster from a very harsh and negative perspective. Loki really wanted power, right at that time, and while some of that passes into the more modern comic days, and especially then the MCU I think that Tom Hiddleston, especially in the MCU, has really brought a lot of humor. And he has this charisma, right, that draws people. And so he becomes much more likeable.

Ariel Landrum 5:19
Yes.

Rachel Wethers 5:19
And he really inspires, you know, compassion and empathy as we pick up on some of the storylines that have affected him through the years.

Stefanie Bautista 5:28
Yeah, I think in casting Tom Hiddleston they really wanted to put us all in a pickle.

Ariel Landrum 5:34
Right?!

Rachel Wethers 5:34
It was fantastic casting.

Stefanie Bautista 5:37
Yeah, I really, I love Loki, as you know, a hero, I have to hear whatever you have him. He is just so unpredictable. And I think that’s refreshing when you know, you’re thinking about the Avengers. And you know the plight of the hero’s journey. So it’s really nice to see how they flesh them out.

Rachel Wethers 5:54
Sure.

Ariel Landrum 5:55
And I think it’s also interesting like talking about that idea of trickster because if I just hear that word, like my association of it is like being mischievious and tricky, but not being evil.

Rachel Wethers 6:07
Yeah right.

Ariel Landrum 6:08
And so I feel like if I were to dive into the older comics, I may not like that Loki.

Rachel Wethers 6:14
I would agree, I would probably feel the same way

Ariel Landrum 6:17
That that variant Loki would would not be my one that I would wanna assocation with.

Rachel Wethers 6:24
Right?

Ariel Landrum 6:25
Prune!

Rachel Wethers 6:25
Right. I think it’s interesting, though, because you know, the, when we look at the development of storylines, and we look at the trickster figure, right, he’s designed to kind of show the opposite or to highlight the hero. Right? And so I think Stan’s view was the more evil he could be, the more heroic.

Ariel Landrum 6:45
Okay.

Rachel Wethers 6:46
Thor could be right?

Stefanie Bautista 6:47
Yeah.

Rachel Wethers 6:47
Or whoever he was facing at the time. But I think we’ve got this different dynamic today, where we can recognize that you know, some of for individuals who’ve been through hard things, learning to survive can lead to sometimes what we consider manipulative behaviors or or difficult behaviors. And so while they use that to still highlight Thor, man, I think, especially in this series, we’re seeing some transition.

Ariel Landrum 7:14
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 7:14
Yeah.

Rachel Wethers 7:14
Into some very heroic perspectives for him.

Ariel Landrum 7:18
Well, and you even…

Rachel Wethers 7:19
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 7:19
You even use the term “survive” right and that’s, that’s been a common theme and that Lokis survive. That was that was pretty much consistent in like, essentially all the variants.

Rachel Wethers 7:30
Sure.

Ariel Landrum 7:30
In this is sort of a rally cry? Motto?

Rachel Wethers 7:34
Right.

Ariel Landrum 7:35
Like family crest. I don’t know.

Stefanie Bautista 7:37
Glorious purpose?

Ariel Landrum 7:38
Yes.

Rachel Wethers 7:40
Hmm.

Stefanie Bautista 7:40
Definitely. And I don’t know if we mentioned this earlier, but if you are listening and you haven’t finished the series, beware major spoilers.

Ariel Landrum 7:48
All the spoilers.

Stefanie Bautista 7:50
All the spoilers. So take a moment if you have not seen it, take a pause, listen to our other episodes, or any of the other Geek Therapy Network podcasts. And come back to us when you have finished.

Ariel Landrum 8:01
Yes, yes. So so then speaking of spoilers, I’m curious in meeting the other variants other versions of Loki. Like what was what was everyone’s perspective on that? Or take? Like, like, well, I mean, how’d you feel?

Rachel Wethers 8:25
I think that I hadn’t known a whole lot about some of the other variants, even though they’ve been, it’s my udnerstanding they’ve been pretty portrayed in the comics the last few years. I hear Kid Loki has a whole comic, you know, outline and then of course, you’ve got President Loki, you know, is pretty popular. And so I’ve learned so much more about Kid Loki through diving in. He needs his own show. Just saying Disney. He needs his own show.

Stefanie Bautista 8:53
Yeah, I can definitely write on that, Rachel. I mean, I had, I knew that he had other variants. And now that we’re just thinking about the multiverse as we’re going forward and all of the Marvel stories that are coming out. I mean, just seeing all of them in that last episode was just like, “Now I need to know more of all of these.” Especially I think ‘Old Loki’ really like touched upon the journey of Loki and like hearing him give his sort of battle stories and his you know, his war stories. What have you. About his journey of being alone. I think because we’ve seen Loki slip through timelines slipped through the Avengers hands and you know, just kind of do his own thing in his masterful plan. What have you. To get powe. I mean, you you got to think and pause and ask yourself “What.. At what point do you lose yourself?”

Ariel Landrum 9:50
Yup.

Stefanie Bautista 9:50
And I think when he he told his story, you’re like, “Man, like, being alone is the most scariest thing.”

Ariel Landrum 9:56
Yeah.

Rachel Wethers 9:57
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 9:57
I think that really touches in on, the the fact that there was a… This desire the reason he got caught right or or like the the branch broke off and the and the TVA captured him was because he wanted to reconnect. He wanted to find family again. And it’s it’s really interesting thinking again in the stance of his experience as someone who has been adopted that that… That desire for belonging but also that the polar opposite of like, “I don’t want to be around anyone I don’t feel loved. I don’t want to be loved.”

Stefanie Bautista 10:39
Mm hmm.

Rachel Wethers 10:39
Sure.

Stefanie Bautista 10:41
Yeah. And the whole notion of Loki just existing for other people’s purposes and not his own. I think that was really something to tackle and think about because not every story is like that. You don’t tell a protagonist “Your only purpose is to really make everybody,”

Ariel Landrum 10:59
“To die.”

Stefanie Bautista 10:59
Yeah, “to die and make everyone look better.” What a crappy purpose. You know? Not glorious at all whatsoever. So I think playing with those notions of glorious purpose, what is your purpose and, being told you have no purpose. Was was really compelling.

Rachel Wethers 11:15
Yeah. Yeah. Well, and especially if you kind of look at the I started to view the story of his purpose, especially through watching this as being as paralleling the adoptees journey, right? Because, adoptees go through a journey where they, you know, have to process the next explore through the traumas of their birth. Right? And the changes that they experienced leading to adoption, but then as adults, they tend to go back and learn more about their families and their births of origin as well. And find their own origin stories, right. And there’s a there’s a journey there that happens where we’re seeking our purpose. We’re seeking “Why do we exist on this earth?” You know, “What, what is my purpose here?” And I think Loki has that and even just looking at the intensity in which he shares you know about “his glorious purpose,” feels almost like he’s searching for something in that. Right? There’s an intensity to it that’s powerful.

Stefanie Bautista 12:12
Yeah

Rachel Wethers 12:13
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 12:13
I think it also you know, in focusing on the on the different variants if you’re looking at like, ‘Old Man Loki?’ I don’t know what else to call him. ‘Grown?’ ‘Elder?’ ‘Elder Loki.’

Stefanie Bautista 12:23
‘Old Loki.’ I think they just call him ‘Old Loki,’ right?

Rachel Wethers 12:26
I think they might call him Classic Loki.

Ariel Landrum 12:29
That’s that’s way more respectful, I like that.

Stefanie Bautista 12:32
‘Vintage Loki.’

Ariel Landrum 12:32
‘Vintage.’ ‘Retro.’

Rachel Wethers 12:33
He’s the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Loki.

Stefanie Bautista 12:37
Yeah.

Rachel Wethers 12:38
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 12:38
Okay, so Classic Loki like we saw he had such immense power, right, that was something that was really sort of shocking how great his ability to to project and create realism. And and that reminds me of my clients who have experienced trauma, sometimes their daydream world is more real, more in an place of more comfort and strength for them.

Stefanie Bautista 13:01
Sure.

Ariel Landrum 13:01
Simply because the world that they’re living in now doesn’t create doesn’t center them in a positive light.

Rachel Wethers 13:09
Sure.

Ariel Landrum 13:09
And if we’re talking about like that, that trickster that being evil, the whether he’s actually a bad guy or villain, you don’t like being put in your narrative where you’re not in a positive light, and then being told that like your only purpose is to uplift others and die? Like, why wouldn’t I…

Rachel Wethers 13:25
Sure.

Ariel Landrum 13:25
Lean in on my strength of creating fantasy to reality?

Rachel Wethers 13:28
Sure.

Stefanie Bautista 13:29
Right.

Rachel Wethers 13:29
Absolutely. And I’ll throw in there too that children who have experienced trauma, and I often see it and both children who are adopted a young at a young age, but also children in the foster care system, often feel very disempowered, because all the choices are being made for them. They have no voice and choice in life, right? And so what happens is when they get into the more angsty years, for most kids, that teenager years, right, they begin to fight back. They want their power back. And unless their community can rally around them and be that village that they need to support them through that journey. Then sometimes that starts to get even, you know, harmful to self and others as they’re trying to fight to get what power they can back over their life in their world.

Stefanie Bautista 14:13
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 14:15
I’m curious what everyone’s thoughts are specifically on Sylvie because she disclosed that she knew she was adopted, whereas Loki had no idea.

Stefanie Bautista 14:25
Hm hmm.

Rachel Wethers 14:25
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 14:25
And I think…

Rachel Wethers 14:26
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 14:26
I think even I mean, we’re not really we don’t really know, the other narratives for the other low keys but specific like that, that creates a very different trajectory in knowledge of self. Right? And self-identity creation.

Stefanie Bautista 14:40
Yeah.

Rachel Wethers 14:40
Yeah, well, and Odin had some trickery there too, for Loki where he used magic to, you know, take care of the blue skin so that Loki looked like he fit in the family and he made he kept it a secret. And it wasn’t, it’s something that was very harmful to Loki when he learned about it. And they’re interaction when he learned about it too, and what I think it was the second Thor movie was just emotionally explosive, right? As as Loki lost the sense of trust and belief in his father, because it seemed to have, you know, just discredited everything. In looking up to him. Right? Whereas, you know, Sylvie, she always knew. I’m not quite sure that that means she had less trauma, but I think there are different types of trauma, right? When we look at attachment styles. Sylvie has a has a bit of just an avoidant attachment style, where she just kind of gave up and expects that things are going to be the way that they were. Right? Whereas Loki has this mixed dynamic of, you know, both emotions and fighting and avoidance. Where he goes back and forth, because he’s experienced both sides of the picture of attachment. Right? He thought things were good, you know, when he was young, or as good as they could be. But then everything fell apart.

Stefanie Bautista 16:06
Yeah.

Rachel Wethers 16:06
Right.

Stefanie Bautista 16:07
It’s definitely the difference between a kid through his journey and through their journey.

Rachel Wethers 16:11
Sure.

Stefanie Bautista 16:12
And a kid who has gone through those things and says, “I know all about this.” Like, “I’ve been there, I’ve done that I’m kind of callous to it.” And I see that sometimes with you know, kids, in my class prior and, you know, kids in different classes. I mean, there are some kids who are just learning the world around them and they have this like wide eyed, you know, bushy tailed disposition to the world. And then you have those kids who have been exposed to you know, other things have different journeys clearly and, and they seem kind of standoffish, very much like Sylvie was. Kind of like just letting them know, “Hey, you know, I have a different purpose now. I’ve matured a little bit more. We may be the same grade, we may be almost the same age. But you and I are very different when it comes to how we see things.” And yeah, like I see micro aggressions sometimes between kids, when it comes to you know, just doing certain tasks or learning about certain things in history. You’ll you’ll see that they they navigate things differently, and I definitely saw Loki and Sylvie.

Rachel Wethers 17:16
Sure.

Ariel Landrum 17:17
Yeah I think in this final episode, like the I dunno want to stand off between Loki and Sylvie? Yeah. And the end essentially the qoute of acknowledgement of “You don’t trust and I can’t be trusted.”

Stefanie Bautista 17:29
Yes.

Rachel Wethers 17:29
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 17:30
I love that line.

Rachel Wethers 17:31
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 17:32
Love that line.

Ariel Landrum 17:33
And it was it was causing me to really think about like, okay, you know, even like, what trust is? I and and how do we sort of build it and form it? And so, you know, there’s sort of like three based ways we can develop trust. And in comparing the two of whether they can even trust each other or learn to trust. The first one is deterrence-based I can is the most fundamental, and it’s essentially saying that there are rules in place that I’m going to follow, which means that I will not take advantage or harm someone else. And that base level of trust, we already know, they didn’t even establish with each other because they kind of… The, the whole theme of like, like, “We’re Lokis, we we, you know, we do things for us. We we,” and this specific Loki backstabs. Like, like takes advantage of manipulates right? So that base level of trust was already difficult. And then, and then you’ve got these other degrees, where there’s the knowledge-based trust. We’ve experienced each other, and we have knowledge of each other’s behaviors and how we react and behave. And so I know that I can trust that you’re going to react and behave a certain appropriate way. In this case, they had knowledge that they weren’t going to do those things. And they had,

Rachel Wethers 18:46
Hm hmm.

Ariel Landrum 18:46
Like shared moments, small moments, but they were too small in the history to be able to truly develop a relationship with each other. Oh, hello kitty. And then the final one is identity-based trust, where it involves us sharing our hopes and dreams, our goals and our ambitions. It’s the most transparent and vulnerable form of trust. And they were both transparent and vulnerable of their desires. But not so much. I think, I think Loki now he was he was willing to to be more vulnerable. He was willing to go there. But for Sylvie, it was it was still a hard “No.”

Stefanie Bautista 19:25
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 19:25
It was it was it? I don’t think that that they would have made the I don’t think they would have changed their decision in regards to how they were going to handle sort of like Kang the Conqueror’s offer. Because they hadn’t built any of those levels of trust.

Stefanie Bautista 19:40
Yeah, it totally remind me of conflict resolution between two kids that have just met. They probably have only played with each other like for a day or a week, I guess a week if you count, you know each episode as a day. But they were trying to figure out how to basically change the trajectory of time as we know it. But like you said they only had such small instances of connecting that. There, you, you couldn’t have a good outcome. There was no real resolution to this conflict, without it being a winner and a loser. And unfortunately, Loki got duped in the end. And it it hit him like a dagger.

Ariel Landrum 20:22
Like a dagger.

Stefanie Bautista 20:23
What is a dagger?

Ariel Landrum 20:27
Love.

Stefanie Bautista 20:27
Love is a dagger. I was like, dang, she got him real good. Oops.

Rachel Wethers 20:32
Opps. Well, I think that, you know, it’s important to look a little bit at how trust affects those who experienced early attachment trauma, you know, because so much of the foundation of the ability to trust is created in that early mirroring that happens between the parent and the infant, right? And when you’re when you’re holding your infant, and you’re the the affect reflection that happens from the parent to the child when they meet the need, right creates a lot of the foundation of trust. Especially every time that the parent consistently meets the need. Right. And so both of them experienced first off adoption. Right. So they were abandoned prior to the adoption at birth. And so from the very beginning, their need was abandoned and not met. Right. And then, but Loki had years of relationship with his adopted mother that did have a sense of trust there. She was his teacher, right? She taught him his sorcery and his magic, and he was good. So they really worked well together. Right? And he could count on her. Even if he couldn’t count on so many other people in his life. He could count on her. Right? To love him. We don’t know what Sylvie had. Right. But we do know that, you know, when Renslayer captured her at such a young age, I was guessing like maybe around 7?

Ariel Landrum 21:54
Yeah.

Rachel Wethers 21:54
Right? She’s been surviving ever since jumping from point to point in the timeline to escape.

Ariel Landrum 22:02
And and trauma points! Right?

Stefanie Bautista 22:04
Oh yeah.

Rachel Wethers 22:03
Right. Yeah, but with no caregiver.

Stefanie Bautista 22:07
Yep.

Ariel Landrum 22:07
None.

Rachel Wethers 22:08
No nurturance.

Stefanie Bautista 22:09
None.

Rachel Wethers 22:09
No trust. No love. No support. No protection. Right? And so she has long since given up on the ability to trust I think in others. Whereas Loki had some ability to trust in people in his life. Right.

Ariel Landrum 22:25
I think that’s really interesting. Um, this was my own sort of like critical gripe with the the day that they chose Loki to be released on.

Rachel Wethers 22:36
I saw.

Ariel Landrum 22:36
So Loki is released on Wednesdays and in Norse mythology, Wednesday is Odin’s day. So “Odin” in Norse, Norse mythology is a pronounced “Wotan,” so that’s where we get “Wotan’s Day” or Wednesday. And he was not close to his father at all.

Stefanie Bautista 22:56
Nope.

Ariel Landrum 22:57
Like not one friggin bit.

Stefanie Bautista 23:01
Not until he changed into him and pretended to be him.

Ariel Landrum 23:04
Yes, yeah. And so I feel like they did a disservice because Friday is actually a “Freia’s Day” or “Frigga’s Day,” Friday. That the bears his adopted mother’s name, I feel like they they would have done the character a real good service if they’d have done that. I get why they didn’t do it. Okay. Like, we got to think of this as a corporation. And they had Bad Batch coming out on Fridays, and they had Black Widow coming out. They did not want to compete ratings.

Stefanie Bautista 23:29
Yup.

Ariel Landrum 23:30
But I find like acknowledging like this, the importance of this character’s relationship with their mother, like, bro, ya done wrong.

Rachel Wethers 23:38
Definitely.

Stefanie Bautista 23:39
Unless, I mean, now that you’re saying it, what if we are they wanted to highlight the fact that he’s always wanted to have his dad’s power

Rachel Wethers 23:48
Approval?

Ariel Landrum 23:49
Approval.

Stefanie Bautista 23:49
And could never have it? And this is just another one of those instances where he’s compared to his brother and his father, but yet always fall short. So…

Ariel Landrum 23:59
Oh.

Stefanie Bautista 23:59
That could be me reaching, but…

Rachel Wethers 24:01
Always. That was good.

Ariel Landrum 24:05
That’s the savagery I think you are right on there.

Rachel Wethers 24:08
Hm hmm.

Ariel Landrum 24:08
Like, even the fact that his name is Laufeyson. Yeah, right. As apposed to Odinson.

Stefanie Bautista 24:15
Odinson

Rachel Wethers 24:15
Odinson.

Ariel Landrum 24:15
How are you going to do that TVA? Okay. Disney got some underlying mischievoury themselves.

Stefanie Bautista 24:22
I mean, Kevin Feige at this point is like the ultimate trickster in my book, because he’d be pulling all these things. And I’m like, “Man, how did you did you take like, did you have a Nexus event of your own to try to plan this entire Marvel Cinematic Universe? Because it seems like you had that time.” But I think I’m going back to what you were saying about, I think, Rachel and you were talking about Sylvie having to go through childhood without any sort of guidance. It makes me think about how she had to do that as a woman. And Loki here has had that guidance, but he is a man so what if we, what if we change the two? Would the trajectories be similar? Different? I mean, Sylvie’s heart is clearly hardened, because of all the things that she’s had to go through. And we see that with a lot of women who have, you know, either left their partners, left their families to pursue their own careers, dreams, hopes. And, you know, she could embody, you know, the working woman who’s doing it for herself, but has had sacrifice, having that sort of sort of sense of community to be able to do those things. And, and should she even have to do those things? Whereas, you know, Loki here is discovering all of this first, you know, of all newly, but at the same time having those supports already? You know, did that put them either of them at a disadvantage?

Ariel Landrum 25:50
Well, and I think you’re even acknowledging not just like, the working woman, but a pulled woman, right? Like how many women are pulled from their family of origin? Like, like for you Stef like you’re a military wife, and you’ve had a slightly different experience, but how many military wives you know, where it’s like, “I’ve never left my state, and now I’m living in Germany. And the only person I know is this, this man that I’ve married.” Right. Like it that that feeling of isolation and, and confusion that that occurs… I think, and and being a woman walking in the world, right?

Stefanie Bautista 26:25
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 26:26
I agree. That would probably be very different experience in comparison to Loki being a male walking in the world, but just those four talking about levels of privilege.

Rachel Wethers 26:36
Sure. Sure. And then we could even consider some of the uphill battles that women fight in today’s world. Especially professional world, right? The traumas that are experienced that women are just expected to kind of back up and be strong.

Stefanie Bautista 26:51
Yeah.

Rachel Wethers 26:51
Right.

Stefanie Bautista 26:52
Just deal with it. The world is throwing all these things at you. And your job is to navigate around that and survive.

Ariel Landrum 26:59
Well, and really, we’re talking about you know, Sylvie was homeless, right? Like she represented a transitional age youth where we often see lots of homelessness, and we do know that that you know, given the MCU has said it and essentially in Disney+ both Loki and Sylvie are Queer. They\re they’re both bisexual pansexual, depending on you know, what you’re looking at. And those are often the youth that are removed from the homes or kicked out of homes. So like for me, I know that in working with with that, that youth the hardest thing is like sanitary right napkins? Like getting feminine hygiene products. And it’s like she’s probably getting them at that store during the apocalypse.

Stefanie Bautista 27:43
Yeah, for sure.

Rachel Wethers 27:44
So true, so true.

Ariel Landrum 27:47
Like that, that’s a struggle that is way too real. I cannot.

Rachel Wethers 27:51
I agree. And even you know, I like to focus in the stream that I do on aging out foster youth since I experienced that. And we could in some ways even compare some of their stories with those that aged out of the foster care system. And just a small random fact but teen foster youth are a huge percentage that funnel into child trafficking. Between their trauma experiences and just not feeling accepted in their foster home or their adoptive home. They are a high funneling source into child trafficking because they’re looking for love. And they’re survivors. They are built in survivors just like the Lokis. You know and so there’s just there’s a very real world there of those that learn to survive.

Ariel Landrum 28:39
Yeah, I think these would be CSEC youth. So that stands for “Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children.” There’s a bunch of information and history on these children and and often when we’re talking about Queer children there’s often like sex-survival. Like this is the only way that I’m able to survive.

Rachel Wethers 28:57
Absolutely.

Ariel Landrum 28:58
Yeah.

Rachel Wethers 28:59
Absolutely.

Ariel Landrum 29:00
I think that I appreciate that they didn’t they with Loki and Sylvie they had like a moment, right? And then they had their sort of like final moment but there there wasn’t a lot of quote unquote sex. And I really appreciated that Sylvie wasn’t turned into a temptress sort of trickster right? Like that sort of common trope.

Rachel Wethers 29:22
Yeah, which is interesting because I’ve still got my side beliefs that she could be the Enchantress but, insteadof a Loki but..

Ariel Landrum 29:29
Oh do tell your theory.

Stefanie Bautista 29:32
I know people in that camp too.

Rachel Wethers 29:34
In the comics there was a Sylvie that was the enchantress that Loki brought to Asgard and and they kind of had their own little relationship or whatever. So and she was blonde and I mean, it fits so well.

Stefanie Bautista 29:48
Busty. She was real busty.

Ariel Landrum 29:50
Ohhh.

Rachel Wethers 29:51
Yeah…

Ariel Landrum 29:51
“Large tracks of land!”

Rachel Wethers 29:52
Even just the name Enchantress, you know,

Stefanie Bautista 29:57
Yeah.

Rachel Wethers 29:57
But so like, I don’t know this whole story. are a line of them having a romantic interlude. However it was? Just bothered me a little bit because I think that, I don’t know, could it have you know pointed a little bit towards the narcissism that you know the Loki storyline tends to point towards? Maybe? Loving oneself. But I could even go down that road from a trauma perspective and say, “but we have to learn to love ourselves and to reparent ourselves right when we’ve experienced childhood trauma in order to be able to then have healthy relationships with others.” Right.

Ariel Landrum 30:34
Yes.

Rachel Wethers 30:34
But it just it seemed like such an out there moment. So I just I don’t know, I’m still in the camp that could be Enchantress, but

Ariel Landrum 30:42
Yeah, I, I, I’m going more the trauma route. I saw it and sort of like parts work, right?

Rachel Wethers 30:48
I love that.

Ariel Landrum 30:48
Like, “This is a part of myself that I could love. And this is a part of myself, like seeing myself of like, what what would I have experienced if I’d known that I was adopted? And now I get to sort of see that.” And, and “What would I have experienced if my, my magic was different? Like so, and really just being vulnerable with that different part of yourself?

Rachel Wethers 31:09
Sure.

Ariel Landrum 31:09
It could be narcissism. Also, you know, the variants do live their own lives. Though they are the same. They’re very, they’re different Lokis. And I think that even the fact that Sylvie even acknowledged that potentially just that subtle hint of whether Loki was Queer. Like that knowingness, and it, I know, for us, we’re always wanting to find people who can empathize and, and share our experiences and have that knowingness where we don’t have to always feel like we have to overshare or to get someone to understand. She sort of got it right away. So I think I think of it that way is that he’s sort of loving a part of himself that he didn’t know he had.

Stefanie Bautista 31:50
Yeah. And then yeah, just then, having that notion of you’re stronger than you think. Not only are you stronger, but you can always have, I guess, different parts to yourself, but they could still be you. And that is a okay. A lot of people think that they have to only be one type of person. And a lot of you know, kids think that to like, if they say “I want to be so and so when I grew up,” they have to see that through. And you know, every adult could tell you that there is no linear way to get where you’re supposed to be in life. And as adults, we’re still figuring it out. So if we’re talking about discovering different parts of yourself and knowing different parts of yourself.

Rachel Wethers 32:34
Sure.

Stefanie Bautista 32:34
But being true to yourself, as well, how many different?

Ariel Landrum 32:37
“Be true to your heart.”

Stefanie Bautista 32:37
Yeah, it was, you know, like, there, there is a sacred timeline that you could try to keep going back to, but in reality, that’s just not going to happen. And it’s okay to navigate that and, you know, explore different parts of yourself, no matter what age you are.

Ariel Landrum 32:53
And then it like, it also makes me think of, you know, particularly my experiences as being a mixed person. Being both Caucasian and Filipina, and having to sort of navigate and learn, “What does that mean to me?” Versus somebody who, who is essentially one or the other. Like, I, I’ve had to really rectify certain parts of myself in regards to that. Because technically, one part of myself, you know, hated another part of myself, and like, actively harmed another part of myself. So it’s like, how do I how do I start to integrate those two pieces and have them come to love each other? And then kiss and, then kill someone? Hahaha.

Rachel Wethers 33:35
Right..

Stefanie Bautista 33:35
Yeah. And also say that version of that is the final version? No one is to say that and no one, no one should be able to dictate that and that’s what I think, really, Loki was trying to fight for. Like, “Who is that person behind the curtain? Who is that Wizard of Oz character to say, this is how it needs to be. And who gives you that right?”

Rachel Wethers 33:57
Sure. Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 34:01
I’m curious would either of you want to meet a variant of yourself?

Rachel Wethers 34:05
Oh, boy.

Stefanie Bautista 34:06
Oh, boy. I love that.

Ariel Landrum 34:07
Gater?

Stefanie Bautista 34:09
Yeah, I want to meet my either my at my spirit animal, I guess ’cause that’s the least threatening maybe? I think if I met another version of myself, then that’s scary. I don’t know if I’d like that. I don’t know if I’d be happy. And, like, I don’t know if I would regret more of my journey.

Rachel Wethers 34:31
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 34:31
And the decisions I’ve made if I met my variant, whoever they may be.

Rachel Wethers 34:37
Oh, that’s good. That’s good. I would I would agree, though, I think meeting that the animal part of myself almost feel safer somehow. Even though…

Stefanie Bautista 34:45
Right.

Rachel Wethers 34:46
Loki’s was a gator, right? So cute. By the way, the Funko Pop is fantastic.

Ariel Landrum 34:51
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 34:51
Oh my gosh I love it.

Rachel Wethers 34:51
So cute. So cute. Right! But no, I think it’s intriguing, to think like, “What, what would the parts of me look like if I hadn’t experienced this? Or if I hadn’t gone through that” Right? “Would I somehow be better or more stable or whatever?” But that’s missing part of the journey. Right?

Stefanie Bautista 35:12
Yeah. For sure.

Ariel Landrum 35:14
I don’t know. I feel like I would want to meet the version of myself. Who’s a pastry chef?

Stefanie Bautista 35:21
What if they don’t exist? That’s the scary part!

Ariel Landrum 35:27
They must it’s a multiverse. Yeah, in the infinite universe. Yeah. Either the part the variant of me who is a pastry chef, or the variant of me who stayed living in Korea and learn to speak Korean. Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 35:46
Another what if what if Ariel?

Ariel Landrum 35:48
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 35:49
Edition.

Rachel Wethers 35:49
Right. Yeah, David’s mentioned this is gonna make a fantastic, “What if,” episode.

Stefanie Bautista 35:55
Oh yeah.

Yeah. For sure.

Rachel Wethers 35:58
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 35:59
Oh, okay. So I’m just looking at our notes. I mean, we talked about trust being a common theme. I’m wondering where where acceptance comes in? And belonging?

Stefanie Bautista 36:12
I wonder if we’re there yet?

Ariel Landrum 36:14
Yeah, I don’t know?

Stefanie Bautista 36:16
I mean, the end credits could say otherwise. So…

Rachel Wethers 36:21
Right?

Stefanie Bautista 36:21
I don’t know.

Ariel Landrum 36:26
They…

Rachel Wethers 36:27
I’m so excited that for there being another season.

Stefanie Bautista 36:29
Me too.

Ariel Landrum 36:29
Yes. Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 36:30
And I think, you know, when, when you’re talking about acceptance, there’s a part of that that’s closure, right? I never felt that there was any closure to much of anything. Because I was always on my toes. I didn’t know who to trust. I didn’t know who was lying who was telling the truth. I didn’t even know what I was gonna see in the next episode. So..

Rachel Wethers 36:49
Right?

Stefanie Bautista 36:49
You know, could could I even take a beat to accept what the reality of the TVA; what the reality of any of the characters were? I feel like I was so on my toes the entire time that I couldn’t really accept anything until the last episode and then it blew everything out of the water.

Rachel Wethers 37:07
Right. I still have things that I second guessed like Sylvie being the Enchantress. Or Renslayer. I still think she knows more.

Ariel Landrum 37:13
Yeah.

Rachel Wethers 37:15
Right.

Ariel Landrum 37:15
Yeah, she went somewhere. She made a decision to go to a specific timeline. How would she know where to go?

Rachel Wethers 37:19
And she was gathering specific files too. So like there’s something was going on there. Speaking of acceptance, though, I was thinking a little bit about the friendship that developed between Mobius and Loki. For me, almost that was more, that was almost more valuable in teen Loki build that relationship than the one he built with Sylvie because there was true acceptance and friendship there at the end when Loki chose to hug him rather than handshake. Right?

Stefanie Bautista 37:46
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 37:47
Yes.

Rachel Wethers 37:47
And, and gave him the key to get out right and in in his selflessness, right and so that was lovely.

Ariel Landrum 37:54
And even sought him out right? After, after shit went down.

Rachel Wethers 38:00
Right. Right.

Ariel Landrum 38:00
After Olympus had fallen. He went and sought him out specifically to say like, “Here are all the things I’ve uncovered we need to like work together.” That was his immediate sort of go-to. And and I can’t think of anybody I mean, aside from Loki’s mother that that he trusts. That and believes in.

Stefanie Bautista 38:21
Yeah

Rachel Wethers 38:22
Yeah. Well and the hard part with Loki’s mom as well most like primarily she accepted and loved him. That moment that happened right before things went downhill for Loki where she made sure Thor was okay. And not Loki. Right? That was a bit of a messy situation for Loki that kind of triggered a whole series of events, right?

Ariel Landrum 38:43
Levels of emotional abandonment.

Rachel Wethers 38:44
Yup. Yeah. And ultimately honestly led to her death, and so he feels like he carries some kind of blame there.

Stefanie Bautista 38:52
Yeah

Rachel Wethers 38:52
Right? And so there’s even a question of “Did she really accept him?” You know, although, I know when Thor and Loki meet with their father right before he passes on, I guess to the next to the next universe. Then he gives them a sense of acceptance in that moment. That he that both as a father he accepts them. And he says something to Loki about his mother would have been so proud of him and the sorcerer he’s become. Right. And so he gave him the sense of acceptance in that moment that I feel was a key turning point for Loki in this grander timeline where he’s begun to transition. Even if it ended up I think, you know, kind of rewinding a little bit for the series. I don’t think he lost all of that. I think he found it again.

Stefanie Bautista 39:41
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 39:41
Yeah, I think he found it again with with your right with Mobius.

Rachel Wethers 39:44
Sure.

Ariel Landrum 39:45
And, and Mobius being somewhat of a father figure.

Rachel Wethers 39:49
Hm hmm.

Ariel Landrum 39:49
Definitely with the dad jokes.

Rachel Wethers 39:50
Right!

Stefanie Bautista 39:53
But also really more of like an Uncle who he could, he could see himself reflected. In the sense that, you know, he’s had a past, but he couldn’t quite access it. And now that he’s, you know, revealed all these things to Loki that he’s valuable in his own timeline, right? I feel like with Loki, even with his parents, he never really saw them as someone that he needed in order to get what he, you know what he wanted, right? It was just, you know, those are my parents, but Mobius is not not really an equal but somebody who I mean. I, how could you even like put that together, he’s from a different time line. He doesn’t know where he is. However, there’s this person who knows so much about his own life and his own timeline, to say, “Hey, maybe you can go toe to toe with me on what, you know, my my purposes and what my timeline is, like, I could get information from you. But also, you know, you kind of scare me because you know, a little bit too much.”

Ariel Landrum 40:54
That’s sort of like ultimate witness. And then even in talking about, you know, adoption, there’s, so when you uncover those records. When you find the person who holds them, they they become this this sort of, like, I don’t know, like saving grace. Like, like you hold you held these keys, right. And in this case Mobius gave them freely. He definitely chose some of like the very again, traumaic moments.

Stefanie Bautista 41:22
Oh yeah.

Ariel Landrum 41:23
But it was even allowing him to go to the records room to just like, read and learn more about his history. Like those are such gifts that I think I think really fostered their friendship. Again, in talking about like levels of trust, he could truly understand these intimate parts of Loki. And accept them.

Stefanie Bautista 41:43
Yeah.

Rachel Wethers 41:43
He saw past those defenses quite often, right? And at first that made Loki really uncomfortable. But in the end, he told him he saw goodness in him that he could be good. Right? And so I think that there was such a lovely repair in that for Loki. Right?

Ariel Landrum 42:01
Yeah. I feel like Mobius was like the therapist-teacher that he needed.

Stefanie Bautista 42:05
Therapist and teacher.

Rachel Wethers 42:06
Right.

Stefanie Bautista 42:06
And I also like how Mobius wasn’t that “I knew your father back when we were young character.” It wasn’t one of those. It was, it was so well crafted to where he was definitely someone completely detached from his personal situation. But you know, could could give insight without giving advice. Because, you know, he he was he was doing his job, obviously, as, you know, part of the TVA. But, you know, he was also giving his personal touch in it as the series was going. He was helping him out because by helping Loki he was also discovering what his purpose in life was. And that, that discovery parallel to each other was was very interesting. And yeah, like I said, refreshing and not just, you know, “I was that person back in the day and blah, blah, blah.”

Rachel Wethers 42:53
Sure, sure.

Ariel Landrum 42:54
Yeah, that’s such an old tired trope. That could have been easily retired, and then reused and retired again. I think the way that they they chose to create Mobius and Loki’s relationships are like a buddy cop. Yeah, that was that was fun. I like that. I’m curious, any thoughts regarding sort of this, uh, I don’t know, torture room where he repeated the most traumatic event? Which was essentially being told that he’d be alone forever?

Rachel Wethers 43:26
Oh…

Stefanie Bautista 43:27
That was tough.

Rachel Wethers 43:30
So randomly, I was just thinking about the fact that, you know, we could kind of look at Mobius as this like developing therapist, if we were looking at young therapists that are learning new skills, right. Because Mobius made some mistakes along the way, but ultimately, in the end, build healthy repairing relationship with with Loki. Right. And so for a second, it just entered my mind that it kind of reminded me some of like, some behaviorism that can be used sometimes, especially with Neurodivergent cultures, right? Where, especially like the ‘safe rooms,’ unfortunately, that are still used sometimes in schools to hold the kids who are throwing fits, or tantrums. You know. And so, and how traumatic that room is for kids versus, you know, watching Loki experience that over and over again. And that while it was Loki’s behaviors that he was experiencing over and over again, that that still was a traumatic environment for him to be held in.

Stefanie Bautista 44:26
Yeah, it really makes me think of doing standards. And we don’t do that at my school. We take a more constructivist approach to conflict resolution and also, you know, for kids who are just going through certain things. And you know, from a social emotional standpoint, that is the last thing that we would do to somebody because it always has the opposite effect. It always ends up being worse than when you put them in there and not only that, you’re going to have to do so much more repairing within themselves and you know, their their group of friends who is, essentially, who they trusted. They feel like they can’t trust anyone. They can’t trust their friends. They can’t trust their teachers. They can’t trust the, you know, the, the construct of adults that are in the school because they just think, |You know, whatever I do, I’m just going to be put in this room and nothing’s gonna come out of it.” I mean, what, then they become, you know, just stone hearted to everything. And, you know, by by seeing Loki go through that, and even when he tried to break through that fourth wall per se, and you know, try to get Sif to see his point of view, it didn’t work at all whatsoever. And when he said, “Please don’t ever put me back in that room,” I felt that. And, you know, it made me think of so many kids who have gone through that in other schools and think that because we call them to the office, they think it’s the end. And you know, the it’s not the end, it’s not the way that we, you know, my school decided to do things. And, you know, we have to break through that in order to really gain their trust, and you see them, you know, kids that are only 5 years old going through these things. And it’s it’s heartbreaking sometimes. But you know, it really calls back to the old ways of discipline. And the old ways of maintaining order.

Ariel Landrum 46:14
Yes.

Rachel Wethers 46:14
Hm hmm.

Stefanie Bautista 46:14
Which could be a recurring theme in the TVA seeing that it was, you know, it looked like they was from the 50s 60s and 70s. Is very old school, rigid, just “Do what you’re told, don’t ask questions, and keep your head down and do your job.”

Ariel Landrum 46:31
Yeah, definitely the way that the TVA was created is almost like a zeitgeist of bureaucracy and like the whole atmosphere, very Umbrella Academy. You know, nods to not a Disney franchise. But it’s so much so like, utilitarian, authoritarian, like authoritarian, like very law and order. There was no room for chaos, which if you’re the God of mischief in chaos, there’s no room for you. But there was no, there was no room for unusualness, uniqueness. There was no room for difference. Which was interesting, given that they had a very diverse cast. But it was like the mood, the tone, the colors, they were all the same.

Stefanie Bautista 47:15
So dull.

Ariel Landrum 47:16
So dull. So just that drudgery. And I think that that, that imagery it solidifies, like the tone and atmosphere of like, “Wow, this is not a forward thinking place.” Righ?. And like, really trying to keep that that sacred timeline and essentially saying, like, “You know, you you think you have freewill, but you’re gonna listen to me.” And, and that is a presentation that we have seen with children and specially Neurodivergent children, where it’s like, “You, you are representing what we consider Neurotypical in the world. And so you need to you need to buck up. You need to change.” It’s so harmful and doesn’t create like that, that growth, that freedom of choice. And even with those rooms, you don’t experience like coregulation. You don’t even understand how to regulate because you’ve just been isolated in your pain.

Rachel Wethers 48:07
Right? Right. Right, right. Yeah. I have to say, though, Stefanie, I love hearing schools that are becoming trauma informed. Right, it’s so important. It’s so important. Because there is no amount of punishment or consequences that heals trauma. Right?

Stefanie Bautista 48:23
Absolutely. And we have such a great team…

Ariel Landrum 48:25
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 48:25
Of people who are so dedicated to special education and just developing social emotional learning through those kids. And, and I see, I have seen, you know, kids who have had so rough in the early grades, like in kindergarten, first, second grade. And then when they reach fifth grade, if they, you know, take a beat and take a chance to work through those traumas, and work through those differences. And, you know, use the community and you know of adults and kids around them. They become such wonderful human beings. So bright and so imaginative. And it’s so great to see all of the other kids around them embracing that. I think that’s, that’s the most I mean, that’s the most rewarding for me at my school. Definitely.

Rachel Wethers 49:12
Sure, sure.

Ariel Landrum 49:14
I’m curious what everyone’s thoughts are in regards to like lies because we have hinted at the it being presented potentially as manipulation or potentially as a survival tactic. And certainly trusts were big themes and lies they they can they can build or hurt trust. So I’m curious what sticks out for you when you think of either Loki in this series or even any of the other variants.

I okay, so I stumped everyone. Because something that sticks out for me was the “You betrayed me but I betrayed you but well then we’re gonna betray through each other.” That that seems so ingrained in the the male identified Lokis, I’m gonna say that they’re that they’re male. And it certainly seemed interesting because with Sylvie, she, she, she believed that everybody would betray her. And that she was honest about that “I, err, I don’t trust you. I’m not going to trust you.” Versus it these these sort of Lokis were like, “Hey, yeah, you can trust me.” “Hey, yeah, I can trust you.” And even that was already a lie.

Stefanie Bautista 50:32
Yeah. Especially with them. Boastful Loki. Yeah.

Rachel Wethers 50:37
Hm hmm.

Stefanie Bautista 50:37
Yeah. Boastful Loki. He was classic, that kid for me. He’s just like, you know, he thinks he has a master plan. But when you are that person with the master plan, and everybody else thinks they have the master plan. It just implodes like crazy. And so you know, I mean, when you see kids, especially with their little white lies, just to get by. I mean, they start to build upon each other. I can’t think of an incident right now. And if I do, I’ll let you know. But I’ve seen so many different ways are… You know what, actually, this just happened. You know, a day ago, were, you know, at school at summer camp right now, clearly, we’re not allowed to share food because of COVID. And normally, we’re not allowed to share food at all because of allergies and everything like that. So I asked, you know, one of my kiddos, “Hey, were you talking about sharing food?” And “He’s like, No, I wasn’t. Um, but you know, I was saying, maybe if I traded his Nutter Butters for my Cheetos, then, you know, I would really like that.” And I asked him “Well, so you were planning to trade food?” And he took a minute? And he’s like, “Yeah.” And then the other kid was like, “Well, so was I. I wanted to trade him to.” “Guys, you know, we’re not supposed to trade food right now. We don’t want anybody getting sick because if you get sick, you can’t be here. And if you’re not here, we don’t have a summer camp.” And they go, “Yeah, okay. All right.” But you know, we sometimes as educators, we, we try to pin the blame so fast on one kid, and we forget that, you know, it might not just be their intuition, it might be everybody’s Mo. To lie.

Ariel Landrum 52:21
Everybody wanted to share.

Stefanie Bautista 52:23
Everybody wanted to share because they wanted something that wasn’t theirs. So really, you see that pile up in the various Lokis because they’re at different levels of lying to themselves in order to survive.

Ariel Landrum 52:36
And literally lying to themselves.

Stefanie Bautista 52:39
Yeah literally lying to themselves and everybody else to survive, not just in you know that the end of time The Void, but we see Loki lying throughout his entire existence, as we’ve seen in the MCU.

Rachel Wethers 52:56
Well, I could talk about trauma all day. And I do think that for attachment trauma lying is a common difficulty that we see for children who struggle with the fear, the underlying fear in relationships of abandonment or rejection, right. And so the fear that “I’ll get in trouble,” is often underlying quite a bit of lies. I think, I think quite often as a survival skill. It’s either an avoidance survival skill, “You know, I want to avoid being rejected, I want to avoid being abandoned.” Or it can get to the point of being a controlling factor, which is still a survival skill, right? Because, “If I can control my environment then I know what will happen. I can protect myself.” Right? And so there’s a wonderful chapter that really formed how I viewed lying and that in trauma work at least with kids out of a book called “Beyond Consequences,” by Heather Forbes, who specializes in attachment trauma. It’s a wonderful chapter. And I often share that with parents of foster and adoptive youth. And just understanding where the fear is coming from even though quite often kiddos who come from attachment trauma often look alike Loki where they’re going to cover up but they’re afraid. Right they mask well. Right. “And you can’t hurt me,” right?

Stefanie Bautista 54:13
Oh yeah.

Ariel Landrum 54:14
Yeah.

Rachel Wethers 54:14
But really it’s because I’m afraid I’m gonna be hurt. Right and so it when we can understand that then we don’t get so caught up in the lie in itself and we recognize and address the the underlying fears that can happen

Stefanie Bautista 54:27
Yeah, right.

Ariel Landrum 54:28
Yeah, I think that that’s that’s a really good sort of resource and ending point because we’re talking about that mask and it’s like, “When when when do we see the true Loki? When do we see the true Loki?” And like, “Is the true Loki this, actually variant.” Right. And I think that if we’re talking about at least this series in this presentation, what we see is that learning to be able to be vulnerable to be able to trust was always actually there. It wasn’t that it wasn’t he wasn’t being true or genuine. It was that he was protecting himself with his mask, right?

Rachel Wethers 55:05
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 55:06
I think that when we saw him, sort of in his TVA guard, right, but you could see that as like him sort of stripping away some of his his specialness to try an assimilate. And it turns out his specialist wasn’t in his costumes. It was very much in his ability to craft a world around him, which then allowed him to do that for others, right. In talking to Mobius about the jetski. He immediately saw that this was, “Why is this important to you? That’s odd.” Right? So I think that that when we’re talking about youth and trauma, sometimes they do have this knowingness. They do they can zero in pretty well. On so many things. I think that we we forget to empower that. Because that’s that’s what’s kept them kept them surviving. Right?

Rachel Wethers 55:55
Right.

Ariel Landrum 55:55
Lokis’ survive.

Rachel Wethers 55:56
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 55:57
So is it now the God of Making Connections or the God of Mischief?

Ariel Landrum 56:00
Mischievously connecting.

Rachel Wethers 56:05
Always gonna be mischievous right, I think that’s one of his strengths, too. And that doesn’t always have to be a bad strength.

Stefanie Bautista 56:10
Yeah.

Rachel Wethers 56:11
Ya know?

Ariel Landrum 56:11
Yeah. I think that going into that trickster, like again, I think is someone who might be a little bit more jovial and have some some fun fun pranks. Not mean, no mean pranks.

Stefanie Bautista 56:22
And you gotta have somebody like in the know to defeat a villain you got to have a little bit of a villain in yourself right?

Ariel Landrum 56:28
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 56:28
Because how are you going to outsmart them without knowing the next step?

Rachel Wethers 56:32
Sure, sure villain or even you know what, we see him as an anti-hero.

Ariel Landrum 56:36
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 56:36
Hm hmm.

Rachel Wethers 56:36
I think and just that the humanity in that I think sometimes is what draws me sometimes more than being drawn to the Thors who are the heroes and always powerful always perfect, you know. Because it just doesn’t feel very real sometimes.

Stefanie Bautista 56:51
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 56:52
Yeah. I think that all of his his traumas and his fallings he’s learned to get up.

Rachel Wethers 56:56
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 56:57
Right. And so it took a while for Thor to get up because that was not something he was used to.

Stefanie Bautista 57:03
Yeah.

Rachel Wethers 57:03
Hm hmm. So true.

Stefanie Bautista 57:04
And he’s down again, where we last saw him so he’s he’s in that rebuilding phase as well. I think we just got really lucky that Loki could also look as good as a hero doing what he does. Yes.

Rachel Wethers 57:19
Awesome.

Stefanie Bautista 57:20
Yeah, overall, did you guys like the series? I mean, I know this is not a review podcast but I think we can give our our rating. Doesn’t have to be out of a scale of 10 but what did you guys think?

Rachel Wethers 57:36
I loved it. I think if I were doing a scale of 10 I would do like a nine out of 10 just because I had issues with the whole Sylvie Loki romance thing. But yeah, but I love I love that I’ve taken something away from that though with the parts work because I think that’s wonderful to be used in this area.

Ariel Landrum 57:54
Yeah, I think I would I’d give it an 8. I don’t think anything can beat Wandavision for me. But I think the this the sitcoming through this the years.

Stefanie Bautista 58:07
Yes.

Ariel Landrum 58:07
Yes.

Stefanie Bautista 58:08
Rachel’s wearing her Vision shirt.

Rachel Wethers 58:12
Right.

Ariel Landrum 58:13
I I just loved that so much and I loved the the quote regarding grief because I work with a lot of grief. That’s you get grief when you have experienced trauma. And so I would give it an 8. I think what would have pushed it for a 9. I would have needed more Alligator Loki. I think I needed one more episode of the Variants, like doing variant type things. And to see if there was, I mean, he asked like “Have any of you ever met a female Loki?” And they said “No.” But like “Why?” Like

Stefanie Bautista 58:51
I wanna know.

Ariel Landrum 58:51
I want to find out more of that. So maybe that maybe Season 2 right? I think there might be to be my number nine.

Rachel Wethers 58:59
Did you see though that they brought the grief line back in on this last episode?

Ariel Landrum 59:04
Yes. an intro scene where we’re going through the timeline. I was like…

Rachel Wethers 59:08
Right?

Stefanie Bautista 59:10
I thought there was something else going on behind me. I didn’t know that. That was my TV.

Ariel Landrum 59:18
“Is someone watching End Game?”

Stefanie Bautista 59:18
I was like, weah, I was like, “T’challa is that you?”

Rachel Wethers 59:23
Right.

Stefanie Bautista 59:24
I think I fall in the middle. I think I would give it an 8.5 simply because I was blown away by the unknowingness of the series. I already. Okay, so Wandavision was like such a close like in in the realm of Falcon Winter Soldier, Wandavision, and Loki. And I know we’ve yet to talk about Falcon and Winter Soldier and Wandavision but so many things to talk about that.

Ariel Landrum 59:49
But on the Geek Therapy Network, they di talk about Wandavision on the Geek Therapy Podcast. So do check that one out.

Stefanie Bautista 59:54
Yes, check that one out. They have such wonderful things to say and dissect about that. But for us on this podcast we haven’t but Wandavision visually was so stunning. And I loved the the stylistics of every episode it was just so fantastic. However, with Loki I did not know what to expect not only because we were dealing with Loki who was an unconventional character, when it comes to zeroing in on their story. The whole notion of there is a Time Variant Authority overseeing all of these stories that I have been watching and investing my time, money, sweat, blood, tears into… It was it was such a breaking of that wall that I loved and and every episode was just different. And you have to pay attention not only to the details and the Easter eggs which is always a cool Marvel thing to do a Disney thing really. I feel like that’s very Disney for them to do..

Ariel Landrum 1:00:55
Very Disney.

Rachel Wethers 1:00:55
Hm hmm.

Stefanie Bautista 1:00:55
But paying attention to what they’re saying and they’re the crafting of the fleshing out of their characters was so skillfully done in this series more than the other ones I think. It was very different their approaches in to who was playing what role and what side is good or evil? Is there even a good and evil in this? Who was the bad guy? We still don’t really know all we know is that there He Who Remains who is Kang The Conqueror now in the unraveling of this new timeline that Loki finds himself in. And I love the mystery of it. It was so mysterious. And it played kind of like a crime drama to me because of the shrouded in mystery of everything that was going on.

Ariel Landrum 1:01:43
Well and even that intro with like Loki and all these like different fonts. I was like “What, am I watching Unsolved Mysteries. Is there about to be some some murder capering? Like are we gonna Clue this up?”

Rachel Wethers 1:01:56
Yeah.

Stefanie Bautista 1:01:57
Yeah. It was true crime in the multiverse. Because there are all these I mean, they’ve both killed so many people.

Rachel Wethers 1:02:04
So many people.

Stefanie Bautista 1:02:04
And there has been so much death and destruction to not only communities, cities, whole planets, entire galaxies now… People are you know, were snapped into non existence. Now how do we how do we tackle that knowing that there are multiple versions of this. It really takes somebody with a little bit of patience but also having having whoever produced this and I think this last episode was produced by Tom Hiddleston himself. That I saw at the end. So that was really exciting to see that he was so invested he is so invested in his character that it’s just come to this. And I’m really really excited with the new movies and Loki Season 2 how everything’s gonna go cause I’m still shrouded in mystery myself.

Rachel Wethers 1:02:55
Well, I’ll just say real quick to about Disney+, you know, from Wandavision to Falcon and the Winter Soldier to now Loki, I’m loving whoever they’re consulting with for mental health because mental health and social justice have just been wonderful themes that we’ve seen in times when we kind of needed them even.

Ariel Landrum 1:03:13
Yeah.

Rachel Wethers 1:03:13
I think as communities you know, and so it’s it’s I hope there’s more to come.

Stefanie Bautista 1:03:18
Yep.

Ariel Landrum 1:03:18
Yeah, I think they’re they’re doing a great job. Some of it is still like drips, right? Like…

Rachel Wethers 1:03:23
Right. Yeah yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:03:24
Like 2 very subtle quotes in regards to Loki being genderfluid. And not so much in Norse mythology, apparently, he was impregnated as a horse so you know he he didn’t just pick humans or or other gods.

Rachel Wethers 1:03:42
Yep, yep, yep.

Ariel Landrum 1:03:43
So I really appreciate that their their willingness to to not only weave in more of what we need in regards to mental health and the world around us. Right it doesn’t feel as as tailored to like a specific palette? I don’t know.

Stefanie Bautista 1:04:00
I do want to know what happened to my man Eugene Cordero in the beginning.

Ariel Landrum 1:04:05
Homeboy just disappeared.

Stefanie Bautista 1:04:08
I want to see him again. Is he still hoarding Infinity Stones in his drawer? I want to know.

Ariel Landrum 1:04:13
Yes the ultimate power! paperweight?

Stefanie Bautista 1:04:17
Yep. Yeah, I think I think it’s really exciting to see what’s to come. I know what is next on the docket for Marvel and Disney? Do you guys I don’t have the timeline in front of me right now.

Rachel Wethers 1:04:33
Well we just got Black Widow.

Stefanie Bautista 1:04:34
Yep. We just got Black Widow.

Rachel Wethers 1:04:36
Right.

Ariel Landrum 1:04:36
I think what is the we have the Ant-Man and the Wasp?

Stefanie Bautista 1:04:43
Yeah, and The Quantum, Quantum Mania…

Ariel Landrum 1:04:46
And then the Multiverse of Maddness.

Stefanie Bautista 1:04:48
Multiverse of Maddness.

Ariel Landrum 1:04:49
With Dr. Strange.

Stefanie Bautista 1:04:51
And then Shang-Chi later on this year.

Ariel Landrum 1:04:53
Shang-Chi. Yeah. So it’s not in that order.

Rachel Wethers 1:04:58
And Spider-Man is in there somewhere too.

Stefanie Bautista 1:04:58
Yeah, Spider-Man is out there somewhere.

Rachel Wethers 1:04:59
In the multiverse.

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:00
Yup.

Ariel Landrum 1:05:00
Yeah, so not not in that order that we just described but those are things that we remembered without using Google at this point.

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:08
Yup. Pure memory guys. All up here.

Ariel Landrum 1:05:09
Yeah that’s how much of fans, we ar, we named the titles.

Stefanie Bautista 1:05:14
But yeah. But let us know. In our Twitter @happiestpodgt what your thoughts are on Loki. If you loved it hated it, let us know. We are open to hearing your thoughts and comments on that. Also catch us on Instagram @happiestpodgt. Ariel, is there anything else that you would like to add before we close out?

Ariel Landrum 1:05:34
Yeah, Rachel, where can we find you? Yes.

Rachel Wethers 1:05:37
Oh, yeah. So my website is www.thehopechest.co So not com, but .co And you can find all my links there.

Ariel Landrum 1:05:47
Okay, the thehopechest.co. Thank you so much for coming and being our first our first guest.

Rachel Wethers 1:05:59
Thank you that’s such a privilege.

Stefanie Bautista 1:06:00
You have set the bar real high, girl.

Rachel Wethers 1:06:01
Yeah.

Ariel Landrum 1:06:03
Real high. Everybody else better listen to this and try and do better.

Rachel Wethers 1:06:08
You guys are awesome and I’m so excited this is coming back around because it’s definitely something that’s needed. So.

Stefanie Bautista 1:06:14
Awesome.

Ariel Landrum 1:06:15
All right. Goodbye, everybody.

Rachel Wethers 1:06:17
Bye.

Stefanie Bautista 1:06:17
We’ll see you next time.

Media / Characters Mentioned
  • Loki
  • Sylvie
  • Kang The Conqueror
  • Frigga
  • Odin
  • Thor
  • Mobius
  • Sif
  • Classic Loki
  • Alligator Loki
  • Boastful Loki
  • Kid Loki
  • President Loki
Topics/Themes Mentioned
  • Trauma
  • Adoption
  • Lying
  • Acceptance
  • Belonging
  • Trust
  • Neurodivergent
  • Genderfluid
  • Queer
  • Pan Sexual
  • Bi Sexual

Questions? Comments? Discuss this episode on the GT Forum.

—

 Website: happy.geektherapy.com
 | Instagram: @HappiestPodGT | Twitter: @HappiestPodGT | Facebook: @HappiestPodGT |
 | Stef on Twitter: @stefa_kneee | Ariel on Instagram: @airyell3000 |

Guest Website: thehopechest.co
 | Twitter Rachel: @rawethe |

Geek Therapy is a 501(c)(3) non-profit with the mission of advocating for the effective and meaningful use of popular media in therapeutic, educational, and community practice.
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Diversifying Your Work Experience

July 12, 2021 · Discuss on the GT Forum

During the global pandemic, organizations around the world had to shift their procedures in order to keep customers and employees safe. Some companies had to quickly learn how to accommodate remote work, others increased the frequency of sanitizing practices, and some just shut down; unable to make any accommodations. All the changes rolled out meant a new environment for the workforce. People, especially in the U.S., have begun to truly appreciate work-life balance. With the traumas of a global pandemic, wasting time at an unsatisfying job is no longer tolerable. The shift in mindset with workers has resulted in many quitting their jobs to seek new fulfilling work.

Workers who are quitting aren’t doing this out of spite. They have learned that their job isn’t meeting specific outcomes which match satisfaction. Workers today are realizing that diversifying their network and finding new employment opportunities can lead to a more fulfilling life. If you’ve had any number of realizations about your work, you may want to consider doing the same:

  • The company you work for doesn’t have morals and values that match your own.
  • You regularly end your day complaining to your family or friends about how mistreated you feel.
  • You’re encouraged not to take a vacation or sick time, and find yourself begging for a day off.
  • No matter how hard you work, your accomplishments are never enough to satisfy your team or boss.
  • You wake up with dread on the days you need to go to work.
  • Being given work that isn’t relevant to large projects, or being bypassed regularly for large projects.
  • Not being able to connect with your coworkers, or even fearing them, as they are maybe toxic or retaliatory.

A consequence of a dissatisfied work-life is chronic stress. It is literally a detriment to all employees. Chronic stress doesn’t equal, “just a bad day.” Studies have shown that it can lead to fatigue, irritability, frequent illness, difficulty with concentration, inability to sustain joy, inability to connect with others, as well as a variety of other mental, physical, and emotional ailments. It can even lead to clinical depression or clinical anxiety. Chronic stress can come from an unsupportive work environment, toxic coworkers, inability to access necessary resources, or even monotonous task completion.

In episode 13 of The Happiest Pod on Earth, Stefanie and Ariel discuss the importance of diversifying both an individual’s work experience and network to prevent chronic stress and increase personal life satisfaction. They use the Disney+ show, One Day At Disney, to discuss the variety of jobs the Disney Corporation offers its workers. As the catapult to dive into the conversation of satisfying work-life balance, they each share their own stories around diversified work and networking.

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Welcome to The Happiest Pod on Earth! On the Geek Therapy Network we believe that the best way to understand each other, and ourselves, is through the media we care about. On this show, we focus exclusively on Disney!

Hosted by Stefanie Bautista and Ariel Landrum!

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