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Woman Goes With High School Sweetheart on a Date - Finds Out He'd Been Working on a Secret for Months
Uplifting News

Woman Goes With High School Sweetheart on a Date - Finds Out He'd Been Working on a Secret for Months

One animator found the perfect way to pop the question to his longtime girlfriend — and it is setting the bar pretty high for any couple who loves a grand gesture!When animator Lee Loechler bought movie tickets for a relaxed night out, his then girlfriend Stuthi David thought it was just a simple date night.As far as David knew, Loechler had scored tickets to a throwback screening of her favorite Disney flick, Sleeping Beauty — little did she know this was no coincidence. The Timeless Magic of DisneyMassachusetts couple Lee Loechler and Stuthi David were high school sweethearts who fatefully split up after going their separate ways for college; then they found their way back to each other a decade later."My girlfriend and I were high school sweethearts. We split up when we moved away for college, but, through freak happenstance, reconnected ten years later and got back together.”Lee LoechlerLoechler knew that Sleeping Beauty was one of his girlfriend's favorite comfort movies and no matter how tired she was from work, she wouldn't be able to resist.Thankfully she said "yes"...or at least...she was about to!No matter how many times David had re-watched Sleeping Beauty as a kid, there was a big twist ending she never saw coming! And thankfully, Loechler made sure to record the whole thing!He Spent a Year Planning His ProposalWith the help of illustrator, Kayla Coombs (@kaylacoombs) Loechler found the best way to put a modern twist on this 1959 classic film.Together, the creatives came up with a clever scheme to make the big moment as awesome as possible.Yes, "Aurora" and "Prince Philip" were redesigned to look just like Loechler and David!Over a grueling 6 months, Coombs and Loechler re-animated the film's most iconic scene: when Sleeping Beauty is woken up from her slumber with a kiss from the prince.Then, they switched out the original scene for Coombs' version and the result may be even better than the original!"I thought there was something wrong with the movie!"Stuthi DavidAt first David can tell something is off when the Prince goes to wakeup Aurora. She knows something is going on but she doesn't know what, and when she finally figures it out...her reaction is priceless.Watch Lee Loechler's Video:The animated Loechler playfully "tosses" a box off screen — which the real-life Loechler "catches." It's then that he pops the most important question of all and after saying "yes," the next thing David said may be even better. The cardiologist quickly realized a bunch of strangers were sitting in on her big special moment...or were they?When She Turned Around She Saw All Their Friends and FamilyLoechler knew he'd have to be sneaky if he was going to try and get a fast one on David. So he posted a Reddit thread and asked a bunch of random strangers to fill a few seats around David and himself to act as a "buffer." Loechler had reserved over half the seats for their friends and family but wanted them to be hidden in the crowd."Oh my God, these poor people!" David exclaims in the video referring to the audience members. A second later, she turns around to see all the audience members are actually not strangers at all, but her friends and family!“The only thing better than seeing the smartest person I know completely dumbfounded was knowing we’d get to live happily ever after together.”Lee LoechlerJust when she thought the moment couldn't get any better, it did.Everyone’s “Knight in Shining Armor” Looks Different It's safe to say, while this fairytale proposal was perfect for this couple, not everyone wants such a grand gesture and that's perfectly OK.“She loves this sort of thing. She knows a proposal is coming, it’s the ‘how’ that’s the real surprise.”Lee Loechler, RedditBig moments come in all shapes and sizes. Every love story is romantic in its own way — the most important thing is that we celebrate our loved ones the way they want to be celebrated.For high school sweethearts Lee Loechler and Stuthi David, this nostalgic proposal was perfect for them.So as long as you know what's right for you, you can't miss.More from Goalcast:Man Mocked For Modest Proposal To Girlfriend At KFC Restaurant Ends Up Having The Last LaughBoyfriend Shocks Woman On Flight With A Surprise ProposalLawyer Invites His Girlfriend to Court for an Important Trial – But the Jurors Shock Her

Marvel Finally Revealed a Superhero as Queer in Thor: Love and Thunder - And That's Crucial
Pop Culture

Marvel Finally Revealed a Superhero as Queer in Thor: Love and Thunder - And That's Crucial

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has finally confirmed what fans have known for years, King Valkyrie (played by Tessa Thompson) is bisexual. Valkyrie, who first appeared in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok returns to the big screen in Thor: Love and Thunder. The film makes it clear that Valkyrie is queer, a fact established in the comics and confirmed by Thompson (who is bisexual herself) back in a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone. RELATED: Elliot Page’s 6 Most Important Lessons about Authenticity for Trans and Cisgender PeopleWhile Marvel and its parent company Disney are decades behind other film companies when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation, the way Love and Thunder presented Valkyrie's bisexuality was near perfect. From Marvel's awkward portrayal of the gay Grieving Man in Avengers: Endgame to its more well-rounded gay character, Phastos, Valkyrie's bisexuality is perfectly balanced with the rest of her identity, emphasizing her sexuality yet not making it the central point of the character. Marvel's Past Problems with LGBTQ+ RepresentationDisney is notorious for neglecting its queer fans. Its attempts at "allyship" have been disappointing and slow. Disney Parks didn't openly acknowledge Pride until 2019, and only at its Paris location; Pixar animators stated that corporate historically insisted they remove "nearly every moment of overtly gay affection" in their films. Disney has recently come under fire for its resistance to condemn Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill quickly enough. While it's true that Disney and its subsidiaries have included small scenes with gay characters in them — think the moms at the aquarium in Finding Dory or LeFou in the live-action Beauty and the Beast — these are blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments that are sorry excuses for real representation.Marvel is under the Disney umbrella, so it's been slow to include explicitly LGBTQ+ characters. The MCU started with the most subtle introduction of a gay character in Avengers: Endgame, when the Grieving Man, who is gay, attended Steve Rogers' support group. Needless to say, it wasn't as groundbreaking a moment as the creators thought at the time. RELATED: Chris Hemsworth Revealed Why He Almost Quit as Marvel’s Thor – And the One Thing That Stopped HimEternals introduced Phastos, a gay superhero with a husband. This was a better representation, as Phastos was actually a main character. Additionally, Loki and Sylvie are confirmed as bisexual in the Disney+ series, Loki. Other characters are queer in the comics but not yet confirmed to be in the MCU, such as America Chavez, Wiccan, Speed, and Ayo. Some fans believe Bucky Barnes and Captain Marvel are also queer-coded. Valkyrie was brought into the MCU before all of these characters and is lauded as the studio's first major LGBTQ+ character yet her bisexuality was only addressed in the most recent film, Thor: Love and Thunder. Maybe it was worth the wait as Valkyrie's queerness was depicted well for a studio usually lacking in queer representation. Is Valkyrie Bisexual in Thor: Love and Thunder?Even though King Valkyrie's bisexuality wasn't addressed in her first Thor appearance, actress Tessa Thompson pushed for it to be. Initially, she pitched a scene for Ragnarok to director Taika Waititi that would allude to the warrior's queerness with a shot of a woman leaving Valkyrie's bedroom. It would've been a very small bit of representation, not quite Phastos-level but definitely better than Endgame's Grieving Man. Sadly, the scene was cut from the film. RELATED: George Lucas’ Biggest Star Wars Risk Will Destroy Your Fear of FailureWhile that moment didn't make it into the film, Thompson still played Valkyrie as bisexual in Ragnarok. The actress told Rolling Stone (via ScreenCrush) that during the flashback scene where the Goddess of Death kills Valkyrie's warriors, "There's a great shot of me falling back from one of my sisters who's just been slain. In my mind, that was my lover."Love and Thunder finally makes Valkyrie's sexuality crystal-clear. Midway through the movie, a previous girlfriend of hers is mentioned in a conversation with Korg (who is also confirmed gay in the film). There are also subtle signs of her interest in Jane, as Valkyrie seems to be flirting with her, and even tells Thor that she's "Team Jane." The Importance of Valkyrie's Queerness in Thor 4While Valkyrie's sexuality and romantic life aren't heavily explored in Love and Thunder, making her bisexuality apparent is a step in the right direction for the MCU. The film also portrays her sexual identity in a way that is meaningful yet isn't the focal point of her character. In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Thompson says she and director Waititi talked a lot about how to include Valkyrie's sexuality in the most recent film. RELATED: Stranger Things Is Breaking One Dangerous (And Deadly) Hollywood Pattern"It was a big topic of conversation," she said. "Because I think rightfully there’s this real want in audiences to see characters be very clearly queer or LGBTQIA inside these spaces. And I think it’s hugely important to have representation."“And also as humans, I think that we are not defined by our sexuality, and by who we love. And so sometimes I think to hang a narrative completely on that is a way of actually diminishing the humanity of the character. Because you don’t allow them to be anything else.”RELATED: Ms. Marvel’s Iman Vellani ‘Manifested’ Her Disney+ Role – And You Can, Too!Thompson could not be more right. The best queer characters are the ones that are depicted with nuance and balance, who have personality and strengths and weaknesses and things that don't center on their sexuality or gender identity. A vast majority of film and television characters are cisgender and heterosexual, and while those are important parts of their identities, their storylines aren't solely focused on their sexuality and gender. And that's what LGBTQ+ folks are asking for, to see themselves on screen as wholly developed characters who happen to be LGBTQ+.What Tessa Thompson Thinks of Portraying an Openly Queer ValkyrieValkyrie in Thor: Love and Thunder gives Marvel and Disney a little more credit in the area of queer representation. She's a bi character in a central role, not a fleeting 60-second cameo of someone who might be gay, if you watch closely enough; a bi character that is multifaceted, interesting, and admirable, along with having an LGBTQ identity. Marvel and Disney have a long way to go as far as representation, but King Valkyrie is a small movement in a positive direction. RELATED: Elsa Pataky Reveals Why It’s Hard Being Married to ‘Bossy’ Husband Chris HemsworthThompson is satisfied with where Love and Thunder took her character. In the same Yahoo interview, the actress states, "I hope that [Valkyrie's] a character that fans continue to connect to, that we have a lot of time to explore her, in all of her humanity... [She's] still a fabulous queer character that is open to finding love when it makes sense.”KEEP READING: Marvel’s Will Poulter Called One Thing about Superheroes ‘Unhealthy’ – And He’s 100% Right