Ninjago movie

Meh. I really liked both the Lego movie and the Lego Batman movie (best Batman movie in ages) but not so much this one. They lampshaded the "only one girl and she's The Girl" thing but I feel ready to move past lampshading this and just stop doing it. I guess they felt constrained by prior canon (we haven't watched/read/played with anything Ninjago, but I have the impression there's a bunch out there) but a movie seems like a good time to shake things up. Even worse was the whole "boys can only learn physical skills from their dads, single moms can't possibly teach their sons to catch or throw or anything" gag. Kinda want to strap everyone involved to a chair and make them watch "Rookie of the Year" a few times, like, how is a 25-year-old movie so much more progressive?

But actually shitty gender politics weren't the thing that bothered me most. So, spoilers, the big resolution is that Lloyd forgives his evil-overlord dad and his dad decides he wants to be in his life and moves back in and they're one big happy family, and... aww, that's heartwarming I guess? Except, I don't know, I felt like it was totally throwing the possibility of having a *genuinely not-okay parent* under the bus. I mean, I don't have personal experience here, and I guess that in a kids' movie everything has to be basically fine and genuinely abusive or neglectful parents are adult topics, but, like, what about actual kids, in abusive family settings, who don't have the luxury of waiting until they're older to confront that topic? Don't they exist? What is it like to go see this movie, watch the dad character be repeatedly violent, break and destroy things, express flat-out that he doesn't care about his kid, steal from him, and then be told that reconciliation will heal all that, if you actually have a dad who has been violent, who has stolen from you, etc? What is it like to take your kids to this movie as a mom, if you had to leave your kid's dad to give your kid a safe and stable life, like the mom in this movie, and see it end with the dad welcomed back to the family? Maybe it's just fine! I don't know! Maybe I'm being a total concern troll here and it's none of my business how survivors of abusive dads feel about anything! But, like, the alienated dad in the first Lego movie was basically a good guy. Batman in Lego Batman has to connect with the Joker, but they still call each other enemies, it's more of a recognition that they're both in this game they've been playing, and the movie ends focused on the Batfamily. I can see where they thought they were just doing the same plot for the third time and it would be fine, but this time it felt over the line, in different emotional territory. Meh.

On the other hand the animation was *fantastic*, like, the textural detail was just gorgeous.

Of Fire and Stars

The worst thing about Audrey Coulthurst's Of Fire and Stars is that it was a 2016 book, so I'm a year late to the party. This is classic YA fantasy, now with 100% more gay: princess trained for an arranged marriage finally travels to her betrothed's kingdom... and falls in love with his sister. Their chemistry was so good, the tension of the slow build was exactly why I love YA romance, and this book did everything right: forbidden-but-unsuppressable magic is a clear metaphor for queerness, but there's also actual queerness; in the crowd of ladies-in-waiting our princess manages to befriend another lesbian (who I totally need the side novella about pls) so it's not the One Lone Gay trope. One does maybe wonder at points how this kingdom has survived this long but I live in the US so I can hardly complain about political stupidity and incompetence being unrealistic. Anyways, recommended; it's a standalone (but I want mooooore...) but her next book, Inkmistress, next spring, is a prequel in the same world, 200 years earlier, also a girl/girl couple. I look forward to it.