Girl in Blue

 My Thoughts on  The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes A chaotic and disorganized review Pass me the posca because it is time to relive the obsession a select number of us experienced between 2012 and 2015 when The Hunger Games movies came out. With the release of The Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which I will be referring to as BOSBAS, and the trailer for its movie adaptation, I, like many other Hunger Games fans, felt the intense desire to get my hands on my nearest copy of the prequel. Lucky for me, a dear friend lent me hers. Shout-out to Moyra. I hunched over that book for hours as it slipped in and out of its black and green dust jacket. I hate dust jackets, but that’s not the point. I read, consumed, and digested each word. The internal monologue that echoed behind the reading voice in my head kept saying, “Brilliant! This is brilliant! Suzanne Collins is so smart! She’s a genius! Am I starting to like President Snow?” Now, I know what you’re th...

 Based on a True Story I was married in the backseat of a Honda CR-V. There were no rings, priests, or paper, but the hash browns we exchanged from Chick-fil-A felt symbolic enough. It was also my 23rd birthday. The sky was mesmerizing: a melted popsicle of pink, orange, and purple that cast a golden hue over everything. I felt like a child. Ridiculously happy. I guess that’s why I remember it so fondly. Like childhood, it was a time of innocence, sparkly lipgloss, and fairytales. “We’re already married,” he said, and that was that. The day we met was almost the same. We split a pizza in the back of his car, and that was all it took to know we would mean something to each other. I drove home along the shore of Daytona Beach and thought, “I am either going to marry this man or he is going to break my heart to pieces.” What a shame it was both.  We planned our future in South Carolina with my head on his chest, smelling his Nautica cologne from the little bottle shaped like a ...

  In Defense of Miguel O’Hara   Why Spider-Man 2099 is an Anti-Hero, Not a Villain Since the release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, viewers have debated whether Miguel O’Hara, also referred to as Spider-Man 2099, is the villain. Although Miguel exhibits bouts of anger and makes questionable choices throughout the film, he is an anti-hero, not a villain, because he displays traits associated with an anti-hero, has good intentions, and fights for humanity’s well-being. According to the article “What is an Antihero? Definition, Types, and Examples” by Alvin Park on YourDictionary.com, antiheroic traits include the following: morally complex, jaded, stubborn to change, and imperfect but well-intentioned. Park adds, “Antiheroes often do good things, but they don’t achieve good in the same way a hero does. An antihero’s backstory is typically revealed slowly to show that they do have a good side” (Park). Simply put, the anti-hero is not totally good, but they are not totall...