Heartwarming / Lindsay Ellis

• From her Loose Canon episode on The Wicked Witch of the West:
  • Lindsay takes a brief digression while discussing The Wizard of Oz (the famed 1939 film adaptation) to gush "Can we just agree that this is one of the best movies ever made?"
    Lindsay: Like, it's just timeless! And when you consider what a shitshow this was behind the scenes, the sheer number of directors that came and went during production, this movie is kind of a miracle, and 75 years on, Margaret Hamilton's Wicked Witch of the West is still one of the most iconic movie villains in film history.
  • After negatively judging Zooey Deschanel's and Ashanti's performances as Dorothy (in Tin Man and The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, respectively), Lindsay briefly even asks if The Wiz's Diana Ross really deserves the title of the worst Dorothy Gale.
• In the comment section of her video on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, already an emotional video talking about why she personally connected with it, is a comment left by none other than James Gunn leaving a simple ":)"
• The video "Dear Stephenie Meyer", a re-evaluation of the Twilight franchise and its place in pop culture, has a lot of these.
  • The completely sincere apology to Stephenie Meyer for the way she was turned into a scapegoat for writing something that — while indeed problematic — didn't justify the inanely toxic and accusatory backlash it built up (something Lindsay herself admits at a few points to having taken part of), and was really more of a symptom rather than the problem itself.
    "The backlash to Twilight just wasn't in proportion to what it or its author had done wrong, and I think by now, a lot of us have forgotten just how bad it got. Stephenie Meyer just kind of dared to live her bliss, in that Tommy Wiseau kind of way that's just a little too personal, a little too revealing... She couldn't just be a normal Mormon mom who made it big. There had to be a narrative about Stephenie Meyer, bad person who wrote a deeply problematic book and her fans are too stupid to realize what a bad person she is."
  • The acknowledgement and additional apology to the treatment the Fangirls got.
    "Like, being a teenager is hard enough, but there's something damaging about being made to feel shamed because you relate more to Bella than some other feminist-approved strong female character who don't need no man to rescue her. And I'm not saying that trope doesn't have toxic elements or warrant discussion, but I also don't think it speaks to some character deficit if your fantasy is being rescued by a sparkly vampire prince. Yes, being saved from implied gang rape is lazy and clichéd writing, but it's also popular for a reason, and you're not stupid if that's your fantasy."
  • Also, her calling out the way how society treats preteen/teenage girls as targets of mockery in addition to writing off entertainment aimed at the demographic as "lesser", how that treatment leads to some girls feeling like they have to distance themselves from their own gender in order to be taken seriously and she herself fell into that line of thinking when she was younger.
    "I may get some blowback for stating what is kind of the obvious to everyone of all stripes, but we, and by we, I mean our culture, we kind of hate teenage girls. We hate their music, we hate their insipid backstabbing, we hate their vanity, we hate their selfie sticks, we hate their makeup, we hate their stupid books and the stupid sexy actors they made famous and their stupid sparkly vampires. And then we wonder why so many girls are eager to distance themselves from being the objects of societal contempt. (plays the scene of Arya Stark saying "most girls are idiots" to Tywin Lannister) Hell, there's a reason why in 1999, I went hard on the nu metal while openly broadcasting my disdain for the boy bands that other lesser more womany girls voted for on TRL."
  • She also points out that Stephenie Meyer really took the high road when it came to Fifty Shades of Grey, which many (Lindsay included) felt that she would've been 100% justified in being pissed off about. Lindsay then comments that, had Meyer chosen to take action against E.L. James, it probably would've resulted in the legality of fanfiction itself being dragged into court — which nobody in any fandom wants, so we should be very glad Meyer handled it the way she did.
• At the end of part 1 of "The Hobbit: A Long-Expected Autopsy", Lindsay, deciding to re-evaluate her passion and love for the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, heads to an airport alone... and then Nella shows up.
  Lindsay: Go back, Nella! I'm going to New Zealand alone!
  Nella: Of course you are! And I'm coming with you!
  • The adorable sincerity of Nella, dressed as Bilbo Baggins, yelling "I'm going on an adventure!" while running in to Hobbiton.
• The whole story as to why Lindsay is holding her bottle of "writer's tears" so unnaturally in the Death of the Author video, as recounted on twitter.
• In "The Death of the Hollywood Musical" she takes the time to label Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again as a good film that was made for an audience that wanted to see it rather than trend-based focus groups.
• "How Aladdin Changed Animation (by Screwing Over Robin Williams)", despite being mostly critical in its main topic, is ultimately a tribute to Robin Williams and his love of the art he chose to participate in, as well as an acknowledgement of how his original casting and creation of The Genie we all know and love, as well as his eventual reconciliation with Disney were reached not with corporate cynicism, but sincere, mutual heart.
• In the conclusion of "The Last of the Game of Thrones Hot Takes", after vivisecting the writing of the show near its end for well over an hour, Lindsay points out how the enormous backlash it received was not as misguided as fan backlashes usually tend to be, as much of the cast and crew that tended to be scapegoats for the sort of thing not only got out pretty unscathed, but continued to be loved and supported by the fans, with Lindsay mentioning a fan-run fundraiser for Emilia Clarke's charity after the finale aired.
  Lindsay: I hope that if we take a lesson from this, it's that if there is negativity and it becomes organized in the way that it has, take inspiration from the fact that organized anger can be turned into a good thing, because at the end of the day, you have to love something a lot to be this disappointed.
• Throughout "Why is Cats?", while Lindsay describes the film version as a complete and total mess — albeit one she greatly enjoys — and pointing out seemingly every major issue from the casting to its award-pandering mission statement, she does share genuine appreciation for Jason Derulo as "actually a pretty good Rum Tum Tugger" and Jennifer Hudson's performance of "Memory".
  "Jennifer Hudson is such a good singer that like, I've never not watched this scene and gotten chills. The arrangement and mixing are so good that even in the two rowdy screenings I've gone to, the audience reverently listens to this bit."
• At the end of "The Revisionist History of Saving Mr. Banks", after discussing the troubled production of Mary Poppins, she takes the time to make it clear in spite of everything, she still enjoys the movie like many, many other people.
  "I think you can have that discussion over who owns ideas once they are out in the public conciseness, while still admitting, Mary Poppins, the movie, even if it doesn't adhere to the books as much as Travers wanted, is a net positive for the world, and I'm glad it exist. It's a great movie, and it holds up."
  • She also shows a clip of an ill girl from the Make a Wish Foundation getting to meet Mary Poppins at Disneyland, with her parents explaining that she watched the movie constantly in the hospital - as an example of the value the Disney version of Mary Poppins has to people as a whole.
• Is Titanic Good Actually? - a 40-minute video of Lindsay talking about why she unashamedly loves Titanic (1997) and how it didn't deserve its Hype Backlash. She even takes the time to call Kate Winslet's performance "iconic" (and let it be said that the lady herself is embarrassed by her work in Titanic; comparing it to watching a bad home movie of herself). She even admits that she's being quite vulnerable in taking that stance - pointing out that it's easier to be a Caustic Critic and Accentuate the Negative rather than come at things from a positive point of view.
• In "Mask Off", we have Lindsay's emotional defense of her friends when some of the more zealous Twitter users are discussing how they all should all be "cancelled" after Lindsay.
  Lindsay: Jenny is one of the smartest, most insightful people I know. Sarah always floors me with how much research and sensitivity she brings to her topics, and she's only 22. Natalie... well, she's a whore, but she's my whore.
• In the Musicalsplaining episode on Descendants, Kaveh actually has a good time watching the second movie because he watches it with his niece, who is a huge fan and was excited to share it with him.

---