Ruiz 1

Lucia Ruiz Amador

Jenine Ikeda

ENG 131

11 October 2020

Writing Prompt:

Think about some you know, what they like/hate, their tastes in humor, etc. One day

they come to you crying- they’re really, really upset, nose running, they’re kicking, bawling. Af-

ter you’ve asked what’s wrong and they’ve calmed down, you suggest a movie or TV show for

the two of you to watch together.

Tears and snot dripped down the angry face, my brother isn’t one to cry easily. It is easy

to get under his skin and make him angry but I have never seen him cry. Even if though he is

younger, he does not like to show any emotions like other kids his age. Perhaps it is the fact that

he is now “officially a teenager,” as he claims, I say it is because he finds it embarrassing. It is

one of the many reasons why he hates school-related drama, always distancing himself from

friends that got into problems. He is clearly frustrated, but he will not tell me why until he has

calmed down. He sets his backpack down and goes to his room, it is Friday, and he will probably

play video games with his friend after he cleans his face.

I go into his room, click the Netflix icon on his Playstation, and scroll past the differ-

ent selection of movies and shows. It would have to be a comedy/action movie, anything that

isn’t cheesy or has romantic themes. He walks in, I’ll ask what happened at school, he wouldn’t

respond, instead, he would sit next to me and ask what I was gonna put on. I’ll joke that I’m
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picking The Bee Movie, he’d shake his head and would reluctantly agree. Though it is an animat-

ed film, and there’s no romance in it, it is still a cheesy movie. Who would want to watch a

movie about a bee that sues the humans for taking their honey, causing a chain reaction that al-

most all plant life to die, and in the end that bee becomes a lawyer? I definitely would, but there

are not enough explosions to distract my brother. I’ll say that I was kidding and then ask what he

wants to watch. He’ll say “pick whatever, I don’t care.” He would care. His favorite genre of

movie is action-comedy. He watches it all the time, you’ll never catch him watching anything

else. Whether it’s cartoons, Anime, or live-action, it always has some comedy in it. There’s

someone about the witty banter between two characters in the middle of a fight that always

makes him laugh that other genres just can’t do.

The type of genre he watches is filled with funny moments between the characters

that’ll leave you thinking about it weeks later. Such a moment can be found in Thor: Ragnarok

when Thor suggests to Loki that they’ll do “get help,” so that they can fight the enemies. Loki’s

initial refusal cuts to him being thrown to the enemies by his brother Thor, who laughs as he

throws his brother. It never fails to make my brother laugh, after watching the memes spring up,

my brother would constantly send them to me. I’d scroll over to the Marvel section and select

either Thor: Ragnarok or Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 and ask which one he would prefer.

Both these movies are action-comedies, that have a sibling dynamic that hits close to home, and

just so happen to be superhero films as well. This content usually involves the hero, and their

friends, traveling the world while getting into some trouble and saving it as well. There might be

some “mushy mushy” moments as my brother would call it, but it isn’t Hallmark Christmas type

of “mushy mushy.”
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These action comedies help distract my brother by making him laugh, after all, it is

said that laughter is the best medicine for whenever you feel sad. This type of genre avoids using

emotional scenes as climaxes or as a way to reveal important information, instead, it opts for

fights and high-stakes missions filled with tension and terror to reveal those key details. We’d

end up choosing Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 to watch first and then if he’s still upset we’d

watch Thor: Ragnarok. The key moment that would make my brother laugh would be the open-

ing of Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2, where baby Groot is dancing while there is a fight in the

background, and if he is caught dancing stops. In Thor: Ragnarok, it would be any time the sib-

ling duo of Thor and Loki would interact, even in the moments where they’re arguing, they have

the most realistic sibling dynamic compared to any other siblings in this genre. The exception of

course being Shuri and T'Challa, though their sibling dynamic is a bit different than that of Thor

and Loki’s.

Anything cheesy or with too many emotional scenes, my brother dislikes. However,

any Drama, especially any sub-genre of drama, he absolutely hates. The one he hates the most is

Historical Drama. He claims that only older people, above 50 watches that because they “read

the books, and those books are boring and old.” Typical teenager response, but to be fair, he was

forced to read countless old English novels in middle school to the point where he stopped enjoy-

ing reading. This type of genre usually deals with family conflict, is slow to build up to its cli-

max, and is slow-paced. It avoids any external fighting, it almost always is an internal struggle

the character has and it presents itself in the conversations held with the family or through soci-

etal expectations the character rebels against, such as not using the proper table manners or wear-

ing the correct evening coat. Other features of Historical Drama, is they have old customs, so it
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makes it unbearable to my brother who doesn’t understand why people act the way they do in the

movie if a woman rejects a man’s proposal. It is also filled with historically accurate clothing,

technology, and jargon. I once sat down to watch Pride & Prejudice, one of my favorite books,

and later became one of my favorite movies (the 2005 version that is). My brother tried to watch

it with me, keyword tried. “Why doesn’t she just confess?” “Why can’t she reject everyone?”

“Why is it such a big deal that she’s 22 and not married yet? She’s not even that old yet.” To say

that he disliked it would be an understatement. I tried to explain to him that Mr. Darcy is a com-

plex character and that there’s a lot of misunderstandings between him and Elizabeth but all my

brother got out of that was the Mr. Darcy has long sideburns. By the time we’ve finished watch-

ing both action-comedy films, my brother would reveal that it was a school-related drama that

upset him. Where he was stuck having to choose between two of his closest friends, who had

been in a big argument over a girl, and be the one the decides who was right, all while the girl

confesses to him. It’s funny how he hates drama yet he lives that genre.

Writer’s Memo:
Not going to lie, I feel like I did not do the assignment correctly. I definitely over-
thought everything. The last time I wrote an academic paper was in May for AP Exams. I tried to
think about how realistic I could get whatever made my brother upset and by the end, I chose
something that was semi-true. Some strengths in my paper are the specific movies and moments
within each movie that highlight why my brother likes that movie genre. Without them, the re-
sponse would seem vague and unclear as to why he likes it. Some weaknesses that I’m sure are
there, my tenses. I’m sure that there is a mixture of future and past, I’d like to be able to improve
on having the correct and consistent usage of tenses. Also, anything else you might that is wrong,
please let me know, even if it’s small.