People Be Likeandrey/goncharov Are Literal Soulmates! A Greek Tragedy! Theyre Star-crossed,goncharov

people be like “andrey/goncharov are literal soulmates! a greek tragedy! they’re star-crossed, goncharov killing andrey was how they were meant to end up, but they loved each other throughout every betrayal and every gunshot!!” when katya and sofia and “the world wants you dead” “do you want me dead? “never” “then the world doesn’t want me dead” iS RGHT THERE

I know most of the fandom is enthralled by how the relationship between Andrey and Goncharov develops (and I am too! it's a beautiful film, with a compelling power dynamic!), but I really think we need to talk more about Ice Pick Joe.

and more specifically, we've gotta talk about his ice pick, and how he uses it.

it's implied that he's killed a lot of people with that ice pick, but only one of those deaths is shown in the film. it's a hard scene to watch, and some people might want to skip over it, but I think the brutality is part of the point. there's a reason that it's played out with such excruciating detail.

see, ice picks are used as weapons all the time in movies, usually with a stab to the throat or ear, leading to a quick but bloody death. but in Goncharov, the scene is played out slowly, with Joe tying Amarro to a chair before almost carefully putting the pick through his eye socket.

sound familiar to anyone? it should. for a lot of reasons.

Amarro Fiamberti was the name of the first psychiatrist to ever perform a transorbital lobotomy. it was only due to his research that Walter Freeman was able to come up with his own lobotomy technique: one involving an ice pick.

Walter Freeman died in 1972, just months before Goncharov went into production.

and then there's the fact that Joe's ice pick is stolen (where did you steal it from, Joe? from whose operating table?) and the implications that he has his own struggles with mental health (the mention of his sister's murder, the humor he uses as a coping mechanism, the camera angles that give a sense of unreality to any scenes that are from his perspective).

I don't think any of that is an accident or a coincidence.

in my opinion, Ice Pick Joe's story is a tale of revenge - not against someone who wronged him, but against a medical procedure that wronged thousands of people.

and murderer though he may be, he's still my favorite character.

I know, I know, everyone talks about Goncharov's themes of overcoming your past, the cycle of violence, the Gay, etc. but I feel like the theme of seeking home needs to be talked about more too! I love how all the main characters are trying to find a new or an old home in different ways.

Let's start with Goncharov: he obviously wants to be the Big Tough Mafia Man (tm) and does his best to burn all his links to his past. And in the present, his home/marriage with Katya is falling apart, and he starts to find happiness with Andry. Regardless of whether you read Goncharov and Andry's love as romantic or platonoic, Goncharov accidently finds a home in his relationship with Andry yet still clings to his life with the Mafia and his "perfect" marriage to Katya. He rejects both his past and present homes.

And of course Andrey's whole thing throughout the film is running from his past. He's ashamed of what he's done and is afraid that he'll never be accepted or find a home anywhere. He has no one. Until he meets Goncharov. Then he slowly realizes throughout the movie that it might be possible to find love and a home. But of course he has to deal with the period-typical/internalized homophobia and the inherent tragedy in that Andrey knows nothing but to betray and destroy relationships and protect himself so that of course leads to an ending where he loses his home only after he had it within reach.

Next, Katya. I love the parallels between her and Andrey- both have regrets in their past that they are trying to escape from, both feel that they are unworthy of love or having a home, neither are sure they even know what home is. Katya obviously didn't have a happy childhood with her rich family that only cared about connections and politics and marriage. Katya doesn't want to return to her past. She's never had a home, and has no home to return to, and no idea of what home feels like.

Katya's arc is tied to Sophia's. Unlike other characters, Sophia does have a home that she loves, but she cannot return to. After the death of her parents, Sophia grew up in an orphanage and then when that burned to the ground it's implied she lived on the streets for a while. Her home has constantly been uprooted and destroyed, so her arc is figuring out where and with whom to make her new home. Sophia is afraid she'll find home and won't belong. She's afraid she'll never find a home where she'll feel true belonging and love, so she runs from love and home. This is what makes Sophia's offer to Katya to run away together so important. This is the moment where both Katya and Sophia realize that they can create "home" together, that it is possible to find home.

And I love how Sophia's home theme parallels Ice Pick Joe's! We never see Joe's parents- it's implied that his parents died when he was young and he was raised by his brother Giorno. Giorno was his entire family, his home. After Giorno's death and Joe's breakdown resulting in him being institutionalized, Joe loses his only home. Both Joe and Sophia lost homes that they long so, so much to return to, but never can. The difference is in how their stories end and it is so tragic to see how things could've been different.

Just... how these people come from such different homes or lack of homes and try to find new homes in such different ways and learning that home can be such different things arghahga I live for that sort of thing

belos is such a fascinating character to me because his whole narrative is just not an idea i expected any story to explore at all. like objectively “a witch hunter who infiltrates the witch realm to take out his enemy from the source” is a strong concept, but what immediately comes to mind is a more contemporary witch hunter who has thorough experience with witches and witch hunting, not some sixteenth century guy who comes from a culture with an ideology concerning witches that is FAMOUSLY wrong and inaccurate, who only by absolute chance ended up in the one alternate universe which could prove his scientifically deluded worldview right. and then by exercising the audience’s own established modern world experience they go on to examine the situation he’s in where, completely convinced of his own ideology and oblivious to any of humanity’s recent scientific and cultural developments, has No Idea nor reason to believe that the whole concept of witches and witch hunters was debunked centuries ago and that his status as a witch hunter, the thing he’s dedicated his Entire life to, ONLY has any value in the realm of his enemy, not the one he calls home. kind of insane.

For people who live in the U.S., November can bring to mind a lot of things, and one of them is Thanksgiving. This can be a complicated holiday because while most people just see it as an excuse to get together with friends and family and pig out, we all know that the story of the "First Thanksgiving" is bullshit.

This November, and for as long as it takes, I'm asking you to keep Native American and Alaska Native rights in mind and to fight for them. ICWA, the Indian Child Welfare Act, is at risk.

This act was created to stop cultural genocide. Until the late 1900s, Native American and Alaska Native children were routinely kidnapped and placed in residential schools and white families, where they faced abuse, forced assimilation, and sometimes murder. ICWA was passed in 1978 to stop this by allowing tribes to control the foster and adoption placement of Native American and Alaska Native children.

However, today, the SCOTUS started hearing arguments in a case that could overturn ICWA. This would not only endanger children and allow cultural genocide, but it would endanger tribal sovereignty since it would deny sovereign tribes the rights over the placement of their own children.

This November, this Thanksgiving, and until ICWA has been upheld, I ask you to stand up for the rights of Native Americans and Alaska Natives.

Spread the word about what is happening. Don't let this get swept under the rug. Post about it. Tell your friends and family.

Sign petitions.

Write to representatives.

Reach out to local tribes to see what you can do to help.

Protest.

And if you can afford to do so, donate to Native American and Alaska Native organizations.

Change.org

Sign the Petition

Protect the Indian Child Welfare Act

action.lakotalaw.org

Protect ICWA and Tribal Sovereignty!

Native children and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland are under legal attack in Brackeen v. Haaland. The powerful people behind the