u/StopmotionSam

I’m writing this through a waterfall of tears, but I feel like it’s something I have to say. I know this show and this finale wasn’t made for me specifically but….it feels like it was.

Because up until like two years ago, for a period of my life, I was like Jax. Something happened in my life, something I was too young to comprehend, something that changed a major part of my life forever. And I blamed myself. I told myself I was being dramatic, that I was just being a whiny brat, and that I destroyed that relationship by running away.

And because I blamed myself, and because I was raised to not lash out at people, I took that hatred and I internalized it. I shut down, put up barriers, and ran as far away from my problem as I could. No matter what it was everything was my fault, I didn’t allow myself to cry, and whenever the topic was brought up, I deflected in much the same way that Jax did, I “moved on” and constantly tried to soften the blow with humor, albeit mostly targeted towards myself and my insecurities/flaws.

But deep down inside, I had a void. An abyss. A problem that I carried for many years, a problem that convinced me that I was beyond love, that nothing I did mattered and that I should be ashamed of who I am. My daily goal was just to survive, and there were times where I considered….well, abstracting….myself, to put it nicely. No one should care about me, because I certainly didn’t care about myself.

But all that being said, Jax’s journey in the finale hit extremely close to home for me. As now an adult who’s not only figuring out their gender identity, but who has finally confronted that demon and has begun to recover, it sort of served as a warning, of what I could have become had I refused to do so. His fear of vulnerability, and his lines of “you aren’t supposed to care about me” and “you’re making this so much harder” just…….fuck, man. I’ve said those exact things before and it brought me to tears to see that feeling I had felt for so long be visualized and explored in such a beautiful way.

And it sucks to see him be so hated. Yes, he had bad traits and tendencies that hurt those around him, but at the end of the day he’s someone who desperately needed help, but refused to accept it. I have that problem too, I can’t have help because if I can’t do something normally, what’s the point in doing it at all? Why seek help when you don’t want to bother those around you?

But, anyways, that’s just my piece on this whole thing. So overall, even if it has its problems, I will ALWAYS appreciate this show, because it allowed me to see a part of myself I was lucky enough to avoid, and allowed me to appreciate that I did, that my story was just beginning and that despite the hardships, every page is worth writing.

Thanks, Gooseworx. For everything.

- Sam

Interpret that however you wish.

So I just got to see Mortal Kombat II, and one of my biggest curiosities going in is how they would handle Cole Young. Even though I personally like him, I know a lot of people don’t, so I was worried they’d kill him off without much fanfare.

While yes, he did die, I’m actually pleasantly surprised with how they chose to handle it. I fully expected him to get shafted and basically loose automatically, but no, he actually puts up a pretty good fight and even beats Shao Khan. Like legit, if he didn’t cheat and have the Amulet of Shinnok during that fight, he would have died. Plus the fight itself has one of the coolest settings in the film and is a treat to watch.

Ultimately, while I saw his death coming based on the response to his inclusion in the first film and the lack of marketing for him with the new sequel, I’m pleasantly satisfied at how he was actually given a pretty damn good send off either actual thought put into it rather than just splattering his brains right off the bat to appeal to the fan’s hatred of him.