Are you going to pay $29.99 to watch Mulan on DisneyPlus?

 

As many of you know by now Mulan is fianlly coming to DisneyPlus! When we found out this news I'm sure many of us were thrilled and thinking, it's about time! The film was constantly pushed back since the expected March 27th release date due to theaters remaining closed. There were hopes for the film to be released in July, but Disney was yet again forced to push the film release back. They have finally decided to put the live action film on their platform! DisneyPlus has released movies such as Frozen 2 and Onward on their platform recruiting some new subscribers who were delighted to see these films in the comfort of their homes! The price was amazing too because it's only $6.99 for the DisneyPlus subscription and you were able to watch these films despite the whole Covid pandemic. This was an awesome idea and I feel this really brightened up the days during all this chaos. But then when Disney announced this exciting news about Mulan, it got less exciting when you discovered the price $29.99. Now some of you may argue and say the price is valid because it's what you would pay to go to a theater for a family of four. Well, some of us do not have a family of four. Also, ticket prices vary depending on where you live. I live in PA and for the theaters near me depending on when you go to a showing range from $8-$12. Let's not forget the kids prices where they can sometimes go for free or for less! There are also some terms with getting this film on DisneyPlus for that price. Do you get to keep the film? Yes. But it's not that simple! You must be an active DisneyPlus member in order to keep the film. That's ridiculous! We are still in a pandemic where people are losing their jobs, the last thing they're going to keep is a platform subscription! Not only that, but digital copies of movies are less depending on what features you want! I paid for an Aladdin DVD for $30, but it came with extras plus the digital copy! This Mulan film is not going to have any of that. Without special features it would be $19.99 normally. As much as I want to see Mulan all these ifs, ands, and buts are really swaying me away. If I have to wait another year for this film to release on DisneyPlus with a normal subscription I will most likely wait. Another part of me wants to cave and buy it because I'm lucky enough to have the means to do so. Disney, if this is your way to try and get more subscribers and get money for this film I think you are going to be disappointed. There is already talk of theaters opening that have a contract with Disney that will be showing the film. Fans are leaning towards just going to the theater because it will be less for the tickets and they are still getting that theater experience that they have been missing for the past five months. It's also a matter of will the film be worth it? Of course we've paid to see movies that we thought could've been better. But with Mulan being such a high price will it be worth it in the end? With the release date of September 4th being nine days away it's unlikely that Disney will listen to the fans and drop that price. So unfortunately, we must come to terms with that it will be $29.99 and you might be better off waiting until it releases on DVD and digital platforms. With that said, will you take the plunge and by the movie anyway, see it in theaters if they remain open, or just wait? For me personally, I'm leaning more towards waiting, but I may cave in if I hear enough good reviews about the film. 

Books I've read this year!

Hello everyone, I know I've been away for a bit, but I am back now for however long I decide to be. I know I haven't talked too much about books lately which is part of the reason for having this blog. Well, I'm going to fix that right now. I'm going to do a recap on some books I've read this year. This post will be about books that I loved and some that just didn't make the mark for me. I'll start off with books from Jennifer L Amrentrout! I discovered this fantastic author this year and she has just really blown me away with her books. I have 11 on my favorites shelf that's just books by her. Thanks to JLA I haven't been in a reading slump and I've been thoroughly enjoying her books. I don't have them all yet, but I'm working on it! She even recently announced the sequel to From Blood and Ash is coming out 09/01/2020 THIS YEAR! It's called A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire and I am so stoked! We'll start with this one since it became my favorite book!
From Blood and Ash by: Jennifer L. Armentrout is about a girl named Poppy who secretly goes out and helps defend her kingdom from invaders. She is expected to be the next ascended maiden, but she discovers more and more that she doesn't want this life. Especially, when she meets Hawke who sees Poppy through the person she tries to be and who she actually wants to be. But there's so much that Poppy doesn't know and that she might not be ready for! 
A trilogy I read by this incredibly talented author was The Dark Elements series and oh my goodness I loved everything about it! Layla is a half Warden and half Demon, but she fights with the Wardens against the Demons because she wants to be thought of as a good being. Layla is pretty much taught to hate her Demon side by the Wardens even Abbot who is like a father to her and her best friend Zayne Abbot's son and her crush. When Layla meets the Demon Prince Roth he makes her question everything. Not only that, but he helps her to love and accept herself. Zayne even realizes he made a mistake and makes his true feelings known to Layla which sets up a love triangle. This trilogy was so good! The world building, the characters, the romance, etc. I highly recommend it if you're into paranormal romance and good love triangles!
Another trilogy by Jennifer L Armentrout that I really liked was the Wicked series. I didn't like it as much as Dark Elements, but it was still a great trilogy. You'll love it if you love kickass heroines like Merida from Brave! And of course if you're a fan of stories with fae like I am. As the series goes on it does get darker so fair warning. 
I've also been reading JLA's romance standalone series. You can honestly read the books in any order and it won't be confusing. I have yet to read the last one, but I'm sure I'll do that in the near future! The books are basically New Adult romances where the couples have certain situations in their past that they need to face and overcome. Some topics may not be for you so another fair warning. My favorites from the series were Wait For You and Stay With Me! Fall With Me and Forever With You were also really good, but not my favorites. Be With Me was okay I really didn't care for it as much as the other books in the series, but regardless I feel that some people really will enjoy it as much as the others. But it does come after Wait For You which a lot of readers including myself said is very hard to top. 
I also read Frigid and Scorched which are part of a romance standalone duology. The character's from these books are featured briefly in the series I just talked about. I didn't care for these books all that much though. I didn't like the love interests for Sydney and Andrea. I felt that these two could've done better in the romance department. But JLA's writing is really good so I did finish the first book, but I stopped reading Scorched after almost 100 pages. But if you are looking for dominant males and hot sex scenes pick these up! 
I also tried JLA's Lux series which I've heard raving reviews about and saw the high ratings on Goodreads. I even tried to the spin off to the series. Unfortunately, I didn't care for either one. I read the first book in the Lux series and read over 100 pages into the second one and then just dropped it. I read 80 pages in the first spinoff book and then dropped that one. Both male leads Dameon and Luc were pretty much the same cocky, arrogant, and just down right rude. I couldn't stand them and even though Katy and Evie seemed like strong girls they still fell for these losers. I expected better for them really. 
I also read a few crazy standalones! Dead List and If There's No Tomorrow! Dead List is a thriller mystery and you will not guess who the murderer is I swear it! If There's No Tomorrow deals with teens drinking and driving and paying for the consequences of their actions. It shows how they all deal with the incident in different ways and it was so emotional and heartbreaking. It really opens up your eyes. I also read Don't Look Back which is another YA thriller about the main character's (Sam) best friend being mysteriously murdered. Sam has a slight case of amnesia and it gives her a chance to kind of start over. I didn't enjoy it as much as the other two books because I didn't feel much of a character connection, but it was still good and the murderer will also surprise you! 
Anyway, I think that's it for what I've read by JLA this year and I'm still not done! I'm going to leave my blog at this. I know it's just books by JLA, but once I got going I couldn't stop. I'll be back with another post most likey next week on more books that I've read this year and give you my honest thoughts and opinions on them! 

New information regarding Bob Morley

New information has come out in regards to the Bob Morley and Arryn Zech story. I feel that it is very important that I speak on this being a victim of domestic abuse myself. The cast and crew are starting to come forward on Instagram saying that it is Arryn herself who actually abused Bob. Eliza Taylor who is the wife of Bob Morley even released her own story on how she and Bob got together. Eliza and Bob started dating one month after he and Zech had separated. Zech made claims that Bob had taken the house they had bought together which is also not true. After Bob and Eliza married after two months into their relationship they bought their own house and farm. Zech had also stated that Bob had discouraged her from making music so she hasn't for quite some time. Bob actually had bought her a humengous keyboard for her birthday while they were together. How is that discouraging her from her music? Zech is still playing the victim on Twitter acting like Bob's fans bullying and or questioning her is completely his fault! How does he have any control whatsoever on what they decide to do with their free time? Every single thing Zech is doing is proving more and more that she is not a victim, she is the abuser. Cast and crew have even stated that she and Eliza were friends. But Zech had tried kissing Eliza and had gotten physical with her and Bob. Everyone is so quick to believe Zech because she's a woman and not only that, but people just want to automatically believe the "victim". Listen closely, men are victims too. Men can get abused as well. If you want any kind of confirmation on this head to Instagram on Eliza Taylor's profile. She has a recent black and white picture where she is wearing sunglasses and she tells the real story as you go through the photos. Also, if you follow her or Bob on Instagram it should show up in your searches. Zech is a lying cunt who just wanted more followers plain and simple.

Update on life and reading goals

Hey everyone, just wanted to give you an update on everything since I haven't been posting too often. I just really haven't had the energy for one thing. I don't want force myself to post if I'm not into it because the posts will not be as good as I want them to be. But I did find something I wanted to talk about right now.
So my reading goal this year was 80 books. I'm already at 65 and I told myself if I ended up with 20 books ahead of schedule then to raise the goal. I have done this and I raised my goal to 105 books! I am very confident that I'll achieve that goal seeing as I'm 10 books ahead of schedule right now. I've been reading a lot of Jennifer L. Armentrout who has become my favorite author this year. 12 of her books such as From Ash and Blood, Dead List, Wait For You, Dark Elements series, etc. have been put on my favorites shelf. So this author has helped immensely with keeping me engaged in reading books. They are just so amazing that I finish them within a day or two depending on how busy I am. A great thing is I still have a ton of her books on my shelves to read and I can't wait for more. I still don't have all of her books, but that will have to wait, kinda unfortunately which leads me to my next topic, my life!
I don't think I've talked about myself too much on here as far as my personal life goes. But I'm married to a wonderful man and have 4 cats. We've been living in an apartment because it fit our budget, but now I'm starting to save up for a house! Hence why I must wait to get the other books by my favorite author. I'm very excited about this because I could potentially be moving back to an area where my bestest friends are! So, I'll be busy in the meantime selling some items off that we won't need to take with us. It'll definitely help get extra money that we can save and of course don't need to worry about lugging so many things with us. So, if I don't blog for awhile I apologize, but between working, family time, getting ready to move, and of course reading and reviewing books I won't have as much time and will likely be pretty tired. Thank you ahead of time for understanding and I will continue to post content when I am able!

My Thoughts on Bob Morley and Arryn Zech Allegations

So, I'm not gonna lie. This blog post is quite hard for me to write. But I feel that I need to since I am a fan of Bob Morley (aka Bellamy Blake from The 100). Recently, Bob's ex-girlfriend Arryn released a post on Twitter, Instagram, and I think Twich. She has basically accused Bob Morley of emotionally and verbally abusing her. Also, Arryn claims that Bob cheated on her with Eliza Taylor six months before their relationship ended which it did on Valentine's Day. That's even worse, but like they say sometimes there's never really a right time for shitty situations to turn up. As a survivor myself of domestic abuse, I feel the need to believe her. But at the same time, I just don't. Some of the things Arryn said haven't added up to me. If she is right, I apologize ahead of time. But also look at the Depp and Heard situation! A lot of people believed Depp and turns out he was the actual victim. Now obviously that's not part of her story. But Arryn said that Eliza and Bob got together six months before she and Bob parted ways. Apparently, she even caught them on a video camera meant to watch her dogs while she was away. Ok, if you knew this was happening and you saw it, why didn't you leave? Arryn confronted them numerous times and had evidence yet she just stayed and put up with it? Not that simple maybe. But also, after Arryn and Bob broke up, Arryn continued to be friends with Eliza and would like/comment on her Instagram photos! If you knew they were cheating behind your back why would you stay friends? This is why this is so hard for me to believe. If Arryn is not telling the truth she is the reason also why victims don't come forward! Some girls out there do lie and play the victim and she may be one of them. I don't know any of these people personally so of course I could be wrong or right. But I feel strongly that I'm not wrong. Bob has mental health issues and people like that usually put themselves down and don't think they're deserving of good outcomes. I know that Bob Morley and Eliza Taylor have not spoken out on this issue yet, but here's the thing. If Bob does speak out and say it's not true, he'll be called a liar. If he does and say it is true and apologizes he'll be called an abuser and face some pretty nasty comments his way! Also, fans of Zech are commenting on Bob and Eliza's pictures saying nasty things like Eliza deserved to lose her baby and such! That is not ok! Whether or not Eliza was involved in this scandal is no reason to say such nasty and cruel comments. Another fact I wanna add to this is that Eliza and Bob have been best friends since they were teenagers. They both have dated other people over the years, but of course finally got together. Arryn says in her statements that Bob claimed to hate Eliza. Um, what? That doesn't make sense to me either! These two have been in so many pictures together hugging, holding hands, etc. I know it could be a face for the camera, but even their own friends said they've been best friends for years. They even have natural on screen chemistry, I highly doubt that these two hated each other. Again, being an abuse survivor myself I don't wanna call her a liar, but this story just doesn't add up right. I hope that I am right and that it is false. But these are my thoughts and currently I'm not posting any episode of the reviews of The 100. Not because of this story, I just haven't felt up to doing it these past few weeks. I will continue to love The 100 because these are fictional worlds and people that I've grown to love. I'll be posting screenshot below so you can see for yourself what I mean and of course you are free to judge for yourself. 

The 100 Planets and Symbols: What Could They Mean?

This blog post is gonna be just a little different. We have character posters for The 100 which I don't think we really had before. These posters apparently contain some clues of what is to come and may be in store for the characters. I decided to do some digging because as a big fan I was really curious to what these symbols may mean. Please note that I may be wrong so don't take everything I say as factual. I'm just taking some guesses here as to what these symbols might mean based on what I have found. A few I found easily and others not so much. I spent maybe four hours trying to figure it out which made me feel like Gabriel who's been studying the anomaly for years! 

Let's start with the planets! Raven, Murphy, and Jordan all share Sanctum on their posters, but they all have a different symbol. Hope, Gabriel, and Echo all share Skyring and they also all have a different symbol. Bellamy and Shaheida share a blue planet which I think may be Nakara which would make sense. That is the planet Clarke, Raven, Jordan, Miller, and Niylah ended up on in episode 5 which is covered in snow. I'm not sure why Bellamy and Shaheida share it since they have had little to no contact of each other so this is certainly interesting. Clarke and Octavia share a golden planet and I think that one is Bardo since Bardo does mean death or rebirth. It also makes sense because of the symbol Octavia and Clarke have which I'll be getting into. But these two have had their fair share in playing God. They also have grown and changed a lot from their experiences so it just feels fitting to me. There is another planet Etherea which I'm pretty certain is just leaving the l out of ethereal which means too good to be true. So, the planet might play an important part later. I don't think any of the character posters have this planet since it doesn't play a role, yet, but I could be wrong. 

Onto the symbols! Some characters are sharing a symbol and others possess one of their own. I'll start with ones that share a symbol and again, I may not be right. Bellamy and Murphy share a symbol that is two triangles together as you can see. All I got for this one is "fire in fire". This makes sense to me for Murphy since he has experienced what death may be like in the previous season. Also, he was nearly set on fire in episode 5 of this season. For Bellamy, I'm not so sure what it could mean. This one did stump me and I'm not certain if I'm even correct. 

Clarke and Echo share a symbol which I'm pretty sure is a celtic knot unraveled. If that's the case, it means "afterlife" and the knot itself means "knot of the slain". Echo and Clarke have slain others to protect their own people. All the pieces except that knot is unraveling and if Clarke's planet is Bardo it makes even more sense for her meaning! Perhaps these two will have some kind of afterlife experience, but in different ways. Maybe Clarke will be rebirthed somehow, Clarke has lived through a lot of shit that should've killed her. Don't forget she does still have nightblood too which could possess other qualities we're not aware of. And maybe this is the end of the road for Echo. The unraveling also means separate which also leads me to think these two will experience this in different ways. Character's who are dead have always somehow reappaeared in the show, but never came back to life. I still don't think they will be brought back because the show has never really been about that. Most of the time if you're dead, that's it with the exception of Clarke and Murphy being known as the cockeroaches of the show. 

Raven and Hope share the infinity symbol which means "limitless" or "eternity". This one stumps me a bit, but again we don't know everything and only have symbols and planets as clues. We know Hope is the only one who grew up in Skyring. It seems like no one else has really aged there except for her since time moves differently. Maybe because Hope was born in Skyring, she only ages there, but in other planets her aging is slower or she just doesn't? For Raven as we know is usually limited by her leg due to the gunshot in the first season. But regardless, her mind has been very helpful and is practically unlimited with knowledge. Maybe she'll finally start to feel like she's not limited by finally doing something bigger than herself, than what she thought she could do. Raven sacrificed some lives this season which is not something she would normally do. I feel like she'll want to do something big to make up for it. Maybe she is the one who finds out more about that planet Etherea and gets everyone there where they can actually finally have the peace they have been craving. 

Gabriel and Jordan share a symbol that looks kind of like an hour glass on it's side. This means "does not stop the passage of time" and it's a reminder of how fleeting and delicate our lives are. This makes a lot sense since Gabriel has lived many lives and has been around for centuries! Jordan is young, but in reality has lived almost as long as Clarke and the others. Jordan is also a pretty innocent character and since he's the son of Monty and Harper (RIP) the others make it their duty to protect him. They see him as a delicate being. Even though they have both lived for many years it doesn't mean time has stopped passing them by. Perhaps Gabriel's time is finally coming to an end though. Maybe he'll sacrifice himself so Jordan's time won't stop yet? 

Octavia has an upside down cross with a circle at the bottom. The upside down cross represents death, but add the circle and it creates a handle on the cross. I'm pretty confident in this one more than any of the others! Octavia has killed many people these past few seasons. Since season 3 she has slowly worked her way up into killing more and more people. But now she's not so much about that. Octavia has been hating herself for what she has done, but has come to terms with it. I believe she will have a handle on her own death. She will want to do this and it will be her ultimate redemption. Also, Marie who plays as Octavia has stated that the ending for Octavia is going to be biitersweet. Octavia and Bellamy have already somewhat made ammends, but I don't think either of them have said they love each other in such a long time which is sad. We know and they know they do, but I hope they get a chance to express those feelings before Octavia goes. I do have a prediction that she is going to die and I think this symbol is practically that nail in the coffin for this character. 

Shaheida also has his own symbol as well which is an O with a slash through it. I found out that this means to remove uncertainty. I'm sure Shaheida will be removed at some point, but this symbol is a little tricky. Perhaps it means that by everyone coming together and removing Shaheida they'll finally not be so uncertain about some of the events taking place? Or they were uncertain about following Shaheida (who they believe to still be Russell with the exception of a few smart ones) and it'll become clear on if they should follow this leader or not. Also, since Octavia and Shaheida have their own symbols maybe it mean something will go down between them. Their symbols are similar, but I feel like Octavia's also in a way represents a lever. Perhaps it's for her and Shaheida and she will save everyone by pulling her own death lever and eliminating him!

So, as you can see there is a lot going on and much to think about. Everyone is linked in different ways and there are some that are the odd ones out. It'll be so interesting to see if any of this actually happens. A lot of these character's though who share a symbol haven't really interacted with one another aside from Murphy and Bellamy which makes it even more interesting to try and uncover what they could possibly mean for our beloved character's. We just know that they play an important role. Other character's that are important such as Madi, Indra, Emori, Miller, Jackson, and Niylah don't have any planets or symbols which is also interesting. But that just may mean that their roles this final season aren't as important as the rest of these character's. I may be reading too much into the show, but apparently these planets and symbols are hints so I hope I'm not. I can't wait to find out how this all unfolds in the weeks leading to the end of the beloved show!

The 100 episode 5: Welcome to Bardo REVIEW!

This episode of the 100 more pieces of the puzzle are being brought together. We focus back on Hope, Gabriel, and Echo who have made it Bardo. Hope wants to find her mother and Echo is in search of Bellamy. 
Octavia is held captive in Bardo. Anders wants her memories and she only cooperates when a memory of Hope is discovered. Levitt who is assigned to take Octavia's memories is in awe of her. This has made some of us believe that more may happen between Levitt and Octavia, but I remain doubtful. I still believe Octavia is set to die, but more on that in another post. Hope tries to rescue Octavia, but they agree on another plan where Octavia will have to go back through the anomaly. The plan is to hopefully also rescue Hope's mother Diyoza. We still have not seen Diyoza and it's unknown whether or not she's even alive. I think she is, but there has to be something planned for her since we haven't seen her yet. Octavia also sees Bellamy again and in Bardo. Bellamy wants to save her, but she refuses to let him, she fears he will die if he attempts to. The last we see of him Octavia tells him to go back through the anomaly. But it's too late, an explosion happens, but not before Octavia tells Bellamy to get down. We do not see what has become of Bellamy. This leads me to believe that he is ok and most likely got knocked back through the anomaly by the blast that had occurred. While rescuing Octavia, Echo sees this moment played in Octavia's memories and she reacts in a furious manner. Echo kills the person who could've helped Hope find her mother. Echo has been sensely killing people which was never part of the plans. Now that she believes that Bellamy is dead, Echo is just going to keep doing it and put this reason behind it. Echo is basically turning into Finn now. Echo used to be a killer and is going back down that path. But this time it seems like she's going to be heading down a dark path. Also, I don't believe that such an important character from The 100 would get killed off in such a dishonorable way. Could Echo face the same date as Finn and will she continue to kill the people in Bardo? 

Back in Sanctum the people who follow Russell start to set themselves on fire for Russell to be freed. They even resort to using children until Murphy jumps in to save the day. When Murphy gets captured to be the next sacrifice "Russell" interferes along side Emori and Indra so Murphy is thankfully spared. Indra figures out that Russell is now actually Shaheida! We are left at a cliffhanger where Jackson cuts open Russell's neck to take out Shaheida, but I don't think it's going to be that easy. Shaheida is like a virus and I feel like he's going to be even harder to get rid of. Jackson was still digging in Russell's neck when we left off and that's a bit concerning! There's so much going on this season, lot's of questions answered, but also were being left with more questions as back stories continue to be revealed!