Annabelle Nuzlocke

Intro

Instead of going for my usual episodes of Batman Beyond last night, I decided to watch Loving Annabelle. I figured I'd review it for you today, in addition to my Nuzlocke Challenge update. Also, please forgive any rambling, I've had a tough evening babysitting my nephew.

Spoiler Warning

If you have not seen Loving Annabelle, please leave the blog and return later. Though I try to keep my reviews as spoiler free as possible, I mostly fail at this task. Be assured that I won't tell you exactly what happened, but I will more than likely spoil a few bits and bobs here and there.

Loving Annabelle - Review

Loving Annabelle is one of those infamous lesbian movies that gets bandied about whenever one goes to look for a lesbian movie. I personally found out about it approximately six years ago. I refrained from watching it, however, because I'd heard it was also one of those lesbian movies where there's not a happy ending. I'm here to report that Loving Annabelle does not, indeed, have a happy ending. However, since I'm a sucker for these boarding school lesbian romances, I liked it.

Annabelle Tillman is the daughter of a senator who is sent to a Catholic boarding school because she caused too much trouble out on her own and got kicked out of two other schools. Simone Bradley is Annabelle's repressed English teacher and dorm-mother. The pair have a torrid, takes the entire film to actually get anywhere, romance. We are also introduced to Kat, Christen, and Collins, who share a room with Annabelle.

Annabelle is your typical rebel student. She has rather 90's streaked hair, a tattoo, tons of necklaces and bracelets, and a special string of Buddhist prayer beads. It's obvious from the outset that Annabelle has a thing for Ms. Bradley. It's also obvious that Annabelle is persistent and will end up getting what she wants.

Ms. Bradley is one of those boarding school teachers who went to school where they teach and just never left. Except that, it's later revealed, Ms. Bradley did leave the school for a while. She had a partner who was decidedly not male. Also, in the movie, she's attempting to date a male teacher from a different school. Something ended up happening with Ms. Bradley's partner that sent her back to the school. I won't say what, as that would spoil it, but that bit doesn't remain a mystery.

A few random things stood out to me in Loving Annabelle. First, Annabelle's prayer beads. At first glance, they looked to me like a rosary. It's later revealed that they're not and she's punished for wearing them. I didn't really understand why that was. They look exactly like a rosary, in fact, Annabelle is made to wear some giant hideous rosaries as punishment. It bugged me.

The second thing that caught my attention was the ending. I've watched several lesbian boarding school movies and not a one seems to have a happy ending. It's like the writers just can conceive of a lesbian couple having a relationship that lasts out side of the narrative... or something. Like lesbians aren't allowed to have happy endings or something. Mind you, this one is slightly different given the teacher/student relationship, but still.

That's essentially all I have to say about Loving Annabelle. Let me know what you think about it in the comments below.

Nuzlocke Challenge

The Game: Pokemon Fire Red

The Character: Vera

The Pokemon:

Frankie

Ms.Feather

Kors

Rimmer

Tinman

Selene

Day Ten

My team and I finished battling the trainers on Route 11 before finding Route 12 blocked by a mysterious sleeping Pokemon. *cough* Snorlax *cough* Though our way was blocked, we journeyed back up to Cerulean City in order to take the detour along Route 9 and 10 and through the Rock Tunnel.

On Route 9 we added an Ekans named Severus to our team. Due to the way I try to keep my Pokemon at the same level and therefore feel the need to build up the levels of any team Pokemon, Severus was killed by a Rattata during training. I honestly didn't want Severus to die this way, it just happened.

R.I.P. Severus

After Severus's death, my team and I battled out way to Route 10. There we met a Voltorb and added it to our team. I've decided that Tinman is a male, though Voltorb are actually genderless. He will be the first to hopefully benefit from a revised training program.

The Rock Tunnel proved to be filled with more Onix that you could shake a stick at. However, the first Pokemon we ran into was a Zubat. Her name is Selene. I only hope she fares better than Tanya did. We ended today's journey just outside the Rock Tunnel, rather than inside it, due to my propensity for Pokemon Centers.

Housekeeping

Due to the current state of a baby sleeping in my bedroom, Severus will not be getting a tombstone posted until tomorrow.

Love ya, Jessie.