This Classic Toast post originally ran on April 23, 2015.

(Costumes notwithstanding)

• That scene where the unpredictable king or mob boss looks really angry at whatever the brash young protagonist has just said and everyone’s super nervous because whatever this guy’s response will be is what will set the tone for the remainder of the scene and he could kill our audacious young protagonist except we’re only like twenty minutes in so instead after a really long beat he smiles and starts laughing unexpectedly, because he’s surrounded by so many desperate yes-men that he’s relieved to hear from someone who’s willing to give him a little shit, and you’re like hell yes this collaboration is going to be awesome, until it goes sour in the penultimate installment/final forty minutes of the movie
• That scene where someone demonstrates a technology or way of doing things that is now totally integral to how we live our lives and a bunch of people wave their arms around and say things like “THIS WILL NEVER CATCH ON, THIS IS THE MOST PASSING OF FADS, LOOK IT HAS ALREADY PASSED” but at least one guy, who is already pretty progressive and has probably said something anachronistically positive about women or gay people (not that NO one said nice things about women or gay people in the past but you know what I mean), gets this look in his eye as if to say my friends in the future will be super into this, whatever it is, and you feel smart for recognizing what they’re talking about even though it doesn’t mean you’re smart at all
• That scene where people are doing a fancy dance, like with steps, and someone swings around and all of a sudden they’re dancing with the main girl and they have to have a conversation that’s totally incongruous with the tone of the party, so things are super whispered and tense but she has to keep smiling and doing the little claps and dips or whatever kind of dance they’re doing because in whatever time this is they can cut your head off for ruining a dance
• Also when people are whispering on boats
• When the protagonist basically invents social mobility and you’re like YEAH and everyone in the past is like THIS IS COMPLETELY AT ODDS WITH ALL OF OUR WORLDVIEWS BUT OKAY YA SCRAPPER
• When there’s a scene in a church that’s mostly just a bunch of old stone and there’s always an invisible choir singing that kind of music that’s just “EEH OOOH AYYY OOOH EEH AAAYY DAYYY TUUU” and they only have EVIL conversations about POWER in the church and then they dip their hands in the holy water to cross themselves or whatever to really highlight how corrupt this era is
• When a lady is playing a piano and someone is just straight-up staring at her like “oh my GOD this woman is playing the PIANO I wish I could use my dick to send her money and treasures but I CAN’T because it’s bound by layers of convention and also BREECHES”
• That’s all I can think of for now