Watching Prey with a Mother’s Lens

ABOUT THE EPISODE

I watched a movie during the break of the podcast that made me change my whole production schedule because I think it’s so worth talking about – Hulu’s original “Prey” that was released in July and has become its top performing original. I’m going to share a scene particularly that highlights the relationship between the main character and her mother that demonstrates the impact a mother has. The film also inspired me to think about writing. Specifically, all the ways that we can take stories that we are familiar with, and make them new or appropriate and entertaining for a new audience. I’m going to leave you with some “homework” to dig deeper too. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed the movie itself! 

TOPICS DISCUSSED

• The guilt that comes with doing too many things at the same time, especially as a mom 

• Telling a story from the point of view of someone who is not your own ethnicity, gender, etc.

• The relationship between the main character, Naru, and her mother and how her mother was the gateway for Naru’s journey as a warrior

• The power of the music throughout Prey 

• The experience of watching Prey in the Comanche dubbed version and why you should watch it, too

• How Prey, has inspired me to think about my writing in a new way

• My own upcoming project on translation and adaptation 

• Maternal symbolism seen throughout the movie, even though the main character is not a mother herself

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Jhane Myers (IMDB)

• How Accurate Prey Is To Real Life Comanche Culture & History (Screen Rant)

• ‘Prey’ Composer Sarah Schachner on Balancing Gory Action With an Emotional Storyline (Variety)

• Prey's Amber Midthunder Is the Action Star We've Been Waiting For (InStyle)

• The Historic Power of Prey Is in Your Ear (Vulture)

WRITING PROMPT

Write an adaptation: think of a story that you know really well and adapt it in a different language, point of view or form.

• CLICK HERE TO READ A RAW, UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT OF THIS EPISODE

  Jackie Leonard 00:00

  I'm back. Did you miss me? The mother's go podcast is back after my month long summer break. And in true fashion because of my break, I actually wash something. That's I decided I wanted to do a podcast episode on. So I sort of shifted my plan schedule for the next few episodes and wanted to make room for this week's focus, which is on the Hulu original film pray. For those who don't know, pray is a new installment of the predator franchise. Yes, the predator the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film that is the one I'm talking about. But this movie prey is in a whole special category of its own. If you're wondering, why would a mom of two young children watch and encourage you to watch a film inspired by the hyper masculine macho, violent, gory action film of the 80s that spanned a number of not so great sequels? I will answer that question and you will be pleasantly surprised after the jump. So once again, this week, I am covering the film prey released exclusively on Hulu, on July 21, of this year 2020. I'll talk all about that and more in just a bit. But I did want to start off. In honor of our theme for this second season of the mother's go podcast, mom guilt and guilty pleasures. I will say that what I'm feeling a bit guilty about today, probably for most of this week, honestly, is about taking so long to get this recorded. But the bigger guilt that has to do with that is something I've always struggled with, which is doing too many things at the same time. It's it's something that I'm definitely in the middle of right now. But also just something I've done my whole life. And I'm trying not to be as ashamed of it as I used to and just accept and love that part of myself. I'm learning that's a lot of my mid 30s. Lately, it's my experiences, it's just leaning into the parts of us that are different or feel different, and not trying to change them as long as they're not hurting anyone or ourselves myself. And this is one of those things, I've obviously had to kind of correct the behaviors, I can't do everything I want to do at the same time, especially in the season of mothering that I am in. But I do know about myself that I have a relatively short attention span, I like to be managing multiple projects at the same time. And I were once I've seen that as like a flaw. I see that as a strength as long as I am careful with it. And so I think having a few projects going on at the same time helps keep me motivated and holds my interest. But the key for me has been to stagger some of those things, so I'm not getting overwhelmed. So

  Jackie Leonard 03:25

  even though I might be managing different projects at the same time, one of them is closer to being done while the other one is more in the idea phase and the other one is kind of like in the middle. But when I'm not navigating that well it can end up making me feel scattered and stretched, then and then ultimately I feel guilty for like dropping the ball or starting something and not finishing it. So I'm in on a little bit of a season of that. I don't always have to have like a nicely wrapped up positive spin on what I feel guilty for. But in this case, I will say I took advantage of a quiet moment when my daughter is now taking her nap. And my son is out with my husband to record this Anthro threw together some notes really quickly and said okay, I just need to do it and stop thinking about it. And that's sometimes the hardest part when we're feeling overwhelmed, so I will celebrate this win. So to wrap that up, if you are somebody who also enjoys managing different projects, considers yourself kind of a multi hyphenate person with what you do for work or in your career. I just want to say solidarity that is that is who I am and I think I wouldn't want it any difference. I'm just learning how to carry that and live that well. So that's I'm not driving myself crazy or other people around me crazy. So if you're new to the podcast and are listening for the first time or just as a refresher, what I like to do when I cover a specific show or movie. In the season, I like to give a little bit of an overview of what it's about who helped create it. I like to get into key scenes or characters that I want to discuss, along with my observations as a viewer. And specifically, as a viewer who is a mother. Everything I talk about on this podcast is really meant to highlight the ways in which I, as a mother, perceive the world and see things differently, then another viewer might, and the ways that motherhood I'm noticing is represented in entertainment, and in the media. So I am going to do that with this episode. But I'm going to do that in a little bit of a modified way. Because I also want to highlight some extended reading that you can do to learn more about the film and the subject matter of the film more deeply. The film also inspired me to think about writing and all the ways that we can take stories that we are familiar with, and make them new or appropriate and entertaining for a new audience. So I'll get into that. And then at the end, I want to leave you with a little bit of a homework assignment, if you will, just as a way to do something cool, read about something interesting, or challenge yourself to experience the subject matter in a different way. So I'll get to that toward the end. And then lastly, I end every podcast with a writing prompt as a way for you to either process what was discussed during the episode or apply it to your own story through writing.

  Jackie Leonard 06:58

  So diving into the movie prey, I'll first share a little bit about my my background in the predator franchise. I don't know that this movie would have been on my radar. Ordinarily, and even with all the hype that came after the movie was released, I'm not sure I would have been as motivated if it were not for my husband. And my experience with the movie Predator before the summer, my husband's probably top three favorite movies is predator and I have watched it a number of times. And I will say it is a movie that has grown on me. I mean, it's it's a fun movie to watch in that late 80s action film kind of way. But even more than that there are some just interesting elements in the filmmaking and also in the storytelling as like a writer as somebody who appreciates good storytelling. There is something about that movie that really does a great job at slowly upping the suspense and just revealing a little bit at a time and really having a lot of payoff at the end, which I can appreciate as a storyteller and as a movie watcher. But obviously, we are not talking about the movie Predator. We are talking about prey, and I'm gonna read the description of the movie and it's synopsis. Prey is a 2022 American that science fiction action horror film based on the predator franchise. It is the fifth installment and is a prequel to the first four films being set in the northern Great Plains in North America in 1719. The film is directed by Dan Trachtenberg, he's most well known for directing 10 Cloverfield Lane, and the film was written by Patrick is son. The film synopsis is praised the story of a young woman Naru, a fierce and highly skilled warrior who has been raised in the shadow of some of the most legendary hunters who roamed the Great Plains. So when danger threatens her camp, she sets out to protect her people. The prey she stalks and ultimately confronts turns out to be a highly evolved alien predator, with a technically advanced arsenal, resulting in a vicious and terrifying showdown between the two adversaries. As I shared earlier, the film was released exclusively as a streamer for Hulu on July 21 2020, and it has gone on to become Hulu's all time number one premiere. So aside from that, I'm gonna try my best not to really give a lot of spoilers and in my notes, I do talk about a key scene in the movie, but it's not a scene that really is going to take away from the film if That makes sense. It's a really quiet moment in the film that I want to highlight. And the rest I'll be vague about. So if you have not watched the film yet, I really do want to make sure I don't reveal too much sometimes. I'm more indifferent about that. But I do. I mean, I will say that this off the top, I really enjoyed this movie, I have enjoyed it more in my subsequent rewatches of it, it is a just a brilliantly done film. And one that I just want to highlight has been made, I can, from what I've read, was so much intention that it does, in a lot of ways feel like a gold standard, in in many ways, for what can be done in the future moving forward. When making films. I always like to keep my ears open for criticism, because nothing is perfect. And maybe that will come later. But what I will say I was reminded of an earlier conversation I had this season on the podcast when we were talking about the show, this is us and Jill Yancey was the guest that week. And I asked her and we talked about this a bit, you know, what is required of a showrunner or director or a writer to tell a story about somebody that they do not identify as. So for example, in the case of this is us it was a story written by a man assists hetero white man, specifically, who was telling the story of a family. So there were male characters, but there were also and as the show progressed more more closely followed the stories of a matriarch and mothers and women who are well rendered in a lot of ways. But at times there felt like there was a lack. And so we discussed this, we kind of talked about what it takes for somebody to be able to tell those stories, when they themselves do not identify as the key character. I often still struggle with that question. And I'm getting to a point. Maybe in my elder millennial age, I'm losing a little bit of patience for it. To be honest, I am wondering like, Why do I keep seeing stories about mothers often that is what my biggest gripe is stories about mothers that are written by men. Why, like there is not a shortage of writers who are women, there's not a shortage of writers who are mothers, why can't we give these voices, the power to tell those stories across the board, right. So I'm going a little bit off on a different different Lane than my notes suggest. But I did want to point out that, that is where I'm coming from when I talk about, you know, who has a right to tell certain stories. As a writer, I when I write a story, of course, I'm gonna have other characters who I don't identify as I mean, it would be very boring to only write a story with only mothers. And it's I mean, I even if I write a story about a mother and child and the child is a, you know, a boy, I don't ever know what it has been like to live as a boy. So how could I write that. But to tell a story that is from the narration from the point of view, that is the main character, I do feel more on the side that it requires somebody who has lived in those shoes in some way. And I think for a long time, the excuse of being a great writer, or a creative genius, has been given to these wealthy sis white hetero men in the past, and women to a degree, which in my opinion, has allowed them to tell stories that they and we have not had the right to tell. So to be honest, I was a little disappointed to see that Dan Trachtenberg was the director of the film. But from what I've, I've perceived about what went on behind the scenes and the work in pre production to make this film feel so accurately rendered, and also intentional in the way it represents the Comanches and its central character Naru. And I think as a writer, what's important to remember and I know a director is not a writer, but the writer is also a white man. I think as a writer, and when we approach are the stories that we tell, it's important to think about what we bring to the table. Like why am I the one to tell the story and so often when I'm writing a story, I my central character is often a mother or a teenage girl and all these things and so what I bring to the table I I feel is the lived experience of that person that character even if it is not a story about my own personal life with the movie prey what I have, I have read that both the director and writers seem to be big fans of the original predator. And I think that that base understanding and love for the original movie did really help strengthen this prequel or installment of the original. But furthermore, I will say what I did love learning and my research on the movie prey is that the producer who I have heard often say as the most important person in in the making of a film is a woman and she is Comanche, somewhere on the producer. Her name is Jane Meyers. She's a Comanche and Blackfeet American Indian, known for her dedication to production, native film and fine arts, native language and native cultural advising. Jane is a Sundance Time Warner storyteller fellow from 2018, and a producer fellow from 2017. So she was one of three producers on the film. And with her direction, you can see potentially why so much of the movie was accurate Lee rendered for a film that was set in the 1700s in the great plains of North America.

  Jackie Leonard 16:29

  Featuring the community of a Comanche tribe, I feel like that could have very easily been poorly done in the hands of someone else. But to know as a viewer that there was somebody there were multiple people, not just in the in the production, but also in the cast and crew who are indigenous who are Comanche who were there and seemingly had a voice and a say in the decision making to make sure that this was an accurately rendered film. The movies central character Naro is played by Amber amid thunder, who herself is an indigenous woman of the Navajo Nation. And she talks specifically about how this film is one of the hardest she has done, and that she carried such a heavy responsibility to create this for her indigenous community and also represents her ancestors. And she herself describes having to do a great deal of her own learning to learn more about the Comanche tribe and, and what life was like 300 years ago for them. And we hear all the time about actors doing this. But Amber carries such a lived experience that she can apply to this character that not everybody could write. And so I wanted to highlight all those things about the making of the movie. And I'll get into that a little bit more when I share some things that you can read to learn more about the behind the scenes in making this movie. But I did want to just note those those key details. So with the movie, like I said, I don't plan to share too much about the plots or what happens in the movie. But because I do want to highlight and talk about what stood out to me as a mother watching the movie, I am going to zero in on one specific scene really, that I feel got me excited as a viewer who is a mother, especially when you know the character is a young woman. She is motherhood is not a key component of this story at all. And yet I did see how the mother figure and the act of mothering actually does have a subplot or, or an influence in the hero's journey of Naro. The scene I'm specifically talking about is one between Naru and her mother. It is a quiet scene. It's one that you might not even really remember after you finish watching the movie, it's probably only lasts more than a couple minutes. But like I said, I find it to be one that is is very impactful and as meant more to me with each viewing. I've now watched the movie three total times I'll get to that more at the end. But yeah, the scene seems more and more powerful each time I watch it. The scene takes place fairly early in the movie. It is after Naro has attempted to hunt a deer she tries to catch a deer and she's unsuccessful she returns to her village seemingly pretty frustrated she has officially her that she caught in the river with her dog. The dog sorry is with her throughout the movie and I'll get to that a bit. But so she goes into her living space with her mother. So the scene includes Naro her mother a Ruka. And her dog sorry. And a conversation ensues. With between Naru and her mother. When Nora feeds her dog, some of the fish she cuts it up, and her mother tells her that she trained her dog well Inaros says he is smart. And in that, in that little conversation narrows kind of

  Jackie Leonard 20:46

  being a little dismissive of her own abilities. She's dismissing the importance of the teacher or the maternal figure by saying that her dog is well trained because it's smart. Not necessarily because she put a lot of work into training. And her mother Correct sir, and just very simply says Not every smart creature is easy to train. And on its own, even that line feels like something important and becomes more and more important in its meaning later in the movie. But there's also a further moment where this this plants the orange tcea, they call it gets brought up. So they're talking about having to heal somebody who was attacked with this orange Tetsuya. And her mom kind of playfully says Who taught you about orange tcea NRO says you. And so in that scene, we learn that Nora's mother is the person who has taught her how to be a healer, how to be resourceful and use the land, to heal people or to do different things with it. And that information. If you don't forget, it feels really powerful as we see Naru on her journey to become a warrior, and ultimately face off with this alien predator who is threatening her people. The conversation kind of ends with NARAS mother asking her why do you want to hunt? And Nora says because you all think I can't. Before that Nora's mother was kind of talking about how she does one thing very well, her healing that that is what she is. So why does she want to do so many other things. And we see that Nora was defiant. She's a young woman who doesn't want to be told what she can and can't do. But I thought it was kind of beautiful to read that scene, as her mother kind of telling her, you're enough, you already are wonderful just the way you are. Why are you trying to do more. And at the same time, her mother has gifted her with the confidence and the knowledge to want more and to go for what she wants. And so in that scene, my interpretation and what got me excited about this backstory of an arrow, showing us her mother, her mother serves as a guide to tomorrow's ascent to becoming a victorious warrior. She teaches narrow and narrow takes what she's learned and uses it when she needs to for herself and for others and for her survival. The mother is the gateway to knowledge and survival then, and I find that really empowering and exciting. So because I find the filmmaking of the movie prey to be so interesting, because of all the different resources and consultants and intention that they put into making this movie, I'm going to leave you with three recommendations for you to read to just learn more about what went into it because I think it will help you not only respect what went into making the movie, but also think about all the things that we can do as writers and storytellers to to really tell stories that feel well rendered and accurate. So the first that I'm going to link in the show notes is from Screen Rant, and it's written by Brad Caron. And the title of the article is how accurate prey is to real life Comanche culture and history. The byline is prey brings the predator into the 18th century with a young Comanche woman fighting the alien. But how accurately does prey depicts Comanche culture?

  Jackie Leonard 24:55

  So I think that's a good one to read, just to learn more about what went into making it so that it could feel well rendered and accurate to the Comanche culture, and then researching what to pull up and share with you about the movie and becoming kind of a fan of the stories within the stories of filmmaking. Because I think we forget how much work goes into them, and how many people's stories we don't hear. And so this this Variety article I found especially satisfying to read, this is written by jazz tan tan K. The headline is pray composure of Sarah shake dinner, on balancing gory action with an emotional storyline. So first of all, the composer is a woman. And secondly, you know, how often do we read about the story of a composer of a film. And so I loved how she talked about that balancing act of having to create music, the score for a film that is both filled with this gory, fun, kind of I don't know if I would call it fun, but they say it's fun, gory action and suspense with also this emotional story of Nora's journey that she wants to capture as well. So I love this article, and I think it would be a great read in conjunction with watching the movie. Alright, I lied, I have two other articles. The next one that I want, I will recommend you reading is an N Style feature on Ambernath thunder, written by Ali young headline is praise Amber mid Thunder is the action star we've been waiting for. She might be the first Native American actress to front a major studio film, but she's determined not to be the last. So it's an interview with Amber's mid thunder, and I just, I would love for you to get to know more of her story. This is a well written one. And the last, and the one that I was the most gravitated to in my movie watching experience is featured in Vulture, written by Roxana had at the historic power of prey is in your ears. This is featured in their translation section. And it's all about the Comanche dub version of the film prey, which makes it the first film to be released entirely in the Comanche language. So the first words that are spoken in prey are in the Comanche language. And that is in the original release of the film. And Hulu has also released a completely dubbed version of the film, exclusively in Comanche. And what's interesting is when I watched the movie, I think maybe because I heard the Comanche language, in the opening of the movie, I felt it felt out of place like it took me out to then hear the characters speaking English. Obviously, I kind of like switched gears, and I was like, Okay, I'm watching the movie. But once my husband told me that there was a Comanche dubbed version, and we watched it, I was just completely captivated by it, there was something so special about watching the film, spoken in the language and from the point of view of its Comanche characters,

  Jackie Leonard 28:43

  I was just completely sucked in. And we have there are French fur traders in the movie. So you hear the French, but you don't I believe in the dub version, you don't get the translation in French. And so it's almost as if as a Comanche person would be you would not know what they were saying. So I found that to be very powerfully done, and this, this article talks about what it took to make that happen and the impact of it. And I highly encourage you to read it if you find that interesting. So another thing I wanted to bring up was the idea of prey being a movie that in a way is a translation. And as I noted in the last article that I recommend you reading, it was published in the translation section of vulture the the genre of translation has been heavy on my mind and obviously literally, that article was addressing the the the command sheets version of the film. But when I was watching the movie, pray, I actually saw the work as more than just a prequel of the predator franchise or just another installment of the movie franchise. I saw it as an adaptation, which is a form of translation. I'd be curious to know the intention behind the writers premise of the film. My husband shared with me today that the director was intrigued about writing the the predator story from an indigenous person's perspective, based on a character that appears in the original who is not centered at all, but he has a character Billy who presents as an indigenous person in the movie. There's also a woman who also has a very minor and not centered role, who is presumed to be indigenous to the the jungle or the area that they are in. So that sort of planted the seed for the the genesis of the story. But I would be interested to know, kind of how the writing of the story went about because as I was watching it as a viewer and being so familiar with the Predator movie, so much of it felt like they took the predator plots, and dropped it into a new time and for an audience in the year 2022. As well as changing the point of view censoring characters who normally wouldn't be centered. So I think all of those things lend itself to not necessarily a prequel per se. I mean, it is, it could still be a prequel, but what I see it more as is, like I said, an adaptation of the original film, which is a type of translation, I like looking at translation as more than just one language spoken language to another, I think there's a lot more nuance, and freedom when you look at translation, or I've read a lot of things recently about the distinguish translation and adaptation and also talk about

  Jackie Leonard 32:08

  exact translation, just the act of translating. One text that appears in, for example, Spanish to another text that appears in English as like an exact translation isn't enough that there's more work that needs to be done to consider the cultural impact of a word in the original language. And in the translation, translated language, the the audience that is going to be reading this text versus the original audience, the biases of the translator, all those things, factor into the completed translation. And that's why adaptation really is important because you not only need to translate the language, you also need to adapt it for the present time or for whatever audience or goal that you have in creating this new work. And so it is really a collaboration, even if you're not working with the original writer, you're working with original text as a translator. And so when I, even in the Comanche dub, when I when I watched it, I noticed that some of the words were changed, because it needed to change to suits the Comanche language, versus it was set a different way for the English version. And so I find that all really exciting because I myself undertaking as one of my projects, as I alluded to, in the beginning of this podcast, I'm, I'm going to be beginning a I've already started actually, a translations projects with original text in French and Greek. I'm actually probably going to start with the French text. But I just to give a really quick summary of the project I'm working on. I learned about a woman who was a Greek writer in the 30s, and 40s. She started as a journalist and wrote a number of novels, and French and Greek. And I was really surprised when I first learned about her because of I had to find somebody to translate in a class I took in grad school, I was surprised to learn that her stories hadn't been more widely circulated, circulated that she wasn't a more well known writer, for me as an American, and I didn't know about her and I mean, I've heard a lot about this with regard to translation that there are so many brilliant writers out there that we just never have learned about and will never learn about, because it relies on translation. And so a lot of times in our Western culture, we think that if we don't see it, it doesn't exist. And I you know, I'm victim of that myself. And so when I learned about her, I just felt this need to, to share her with more people. And the only English translation of her work was done in the 40s by a man and in my research, I've actually learned that that translation did not really accurately train translate or, you know, literally translate, but transfer the quality of her writing in the English form. And obviously, if it was written in the 40s, and by a man, certain things might have been missed that, that, that would not be possibly if somebody else were the translator. And so that's my mission I have a lot of work to do, I am going to just kind of start it to, to do it for fun, of course, I've already gotten my hands on some French copies of her work and Greek copies of her work. It's so cool to have like, you know, decades old books that that's haven't been touched in years that are in your hands and to to read them. But, but I do have my work cut out for myself, I have to find out how to get the rights to translate her work and all of that, but I'm very excited. And with that lens watching, pray and sing the way it's been handled, motivated me further into my project, and got me thinking about what I want to consider and be aware of. I myself am half Greek, but I don't know what it is to be a woman who lived and grew up in Greece, in the time period that this writer did. And so there's going to be a lot that I have to think about and learn about and pull from rely on others for information to render these stories as accurately as I want to, while also adapting them for an audience that I expect to be English speaking. So that's, that's my my little two cents on translations and adaptation in relation to pray. And in my own current writing project. I, I did want to note earlier that I didn't read from my notes, that's another thing that I find really fascinating about the movie prey and the character Naru. I know I centered on the scene between Naruto and her mother. But I didn't mention that. What is is kind of powerful is even though Naruto is not a mother,

  Jackie Leonard 37:06

  I see elements of her mothering throughout the movie. And there is some maternal symbolism that is inherent in the film. And I don't know if this is because they wanted it to be very explicitly gender that a woman is part of this Comanche tribe and wants to be a warrior like the men I read that they were very intentional. To show how in the Comanche tribe, it was very gendered, the women did the harvesting, and the men did the hunting. And they wanted to depict that in the film. But I do see how they leaned into that by giving Naru her dog who is is like her child in a way you see the dog is always kind of in the periphery, it's around, she's responsible for it, she's feeding it, even when she is you know, actively out hunting or trying to defeat the predator, that dog is always on her mind, you see that in the way that it appears out of nowhere in the way that she later has to rescue the dog, I find that to be a very mothering, you know mother as a verb and that anyone can mother, even when they don't literally have children, but to see NAHRO with her dog and be mothering her dog and caring for it and responsible for it and protecting it all the while having to hunt down the private predator felt very you know, I felt like a nod to the mothers like all the work that that we have to do and then save the world. That was like narrows narrows task. So I won't spoil it but I will say that you know, she, she she has to worry about a lot more than herself and her objective throughout the movie and I found that to be very relatable. What I also loved about her is even though we come to know that she is a very skilled and and smart warrior. She also we see moments of doubt and failure and I found that to be really refreshing in a in a hero character or whatever you want to call her character. Somebody that is trying to to defeat something is having setbacks is struggling is having people that doubt her very hero's journey right but also very relatable. So I'll quickly go through kind of my wrap up. In summary, I highly recommend you watch the movie. I want to challenge you as the you know media literacy components of my my podcast is for you to to watch the film in the Comanche dubbed version. If you have the time or the interest, I would say watch The original with and then the Comanche dub. And if you have not watched predator, I recommend you checking that out too, because I think all of those versions

  Jackie Leonard 40:11

  work off of each other lend themselves well to each other. I will say if you have no interest in the original predator, and have not seen it like you don't have to see it, but it is kind of neat to compare them and also to see how the original was the, you know, the source text. But the new version did things differently, that that serves a more modern audience. As for whether this film is a mom advocate, a guilty pleasure, or guilty of eliciting mom guilt, I would definitely give this the mom advocate stamp, even without the presence of mothers being centered or predominant in the film. As I shared just a few minutes ago, I see mothering playing a role in what strengthens Narcos character, even if sometimes her having to mother her dog is a little bit of a distraction or gets in the way. It just shows all the different things that she can handle. I also, like I said, just really saw a lot of power and the dynamic between Naro and her mother and the fact that her mother is the person who gave her the knowledge that she needed to go toe to toe with this extra terrestrial warrior, the predator. So if you if you take my advice and go watch the movie, I'd love to hear your reaction and anything you may have noticed in your watch, and I'll end with our writing prompts. So my writing prompt this week for you is to, to go write an adaptation, think of a story that you know really well, or a short poem that you know of, and adapt it in a different form that could be a writing a song or a poem into the story, or taking you know, maybe like a fairy tale, or a myth that you read when you were a child that you can use to adapt into a story for the year 2022 Or if you are bilingual or trilingual, no another language, go for it and find something in a different language and and just take some time try to translate it into another language and see, see what that process feels like. I think that act alone will give you a whole new appreciation for for the genre and for the process of giving life to a story for a whole new audience.