Giant May Catch-Up Post

[damkianna]

I realize that April must actually have happened, but I feel like I blinked at the end of March and now it's summer. D:

The most interesting thing first, so you do not have to scroll through the beast this post is going to become:

Home Stretch (2499 words) by BeccaStareyes
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Kanna/Pakku (Avatar)
Characters: Kanna (Avatar), Hama (Avatar)
Additional Tags: Female Friendship, Pre-Canon, Feminism, canonical sexism, Culture Shock, Mistaken Identity, Internalized Misogyny
Summary: Kanna has almost reached her destination. Now she actually has to face starting a new life at the South Pole.

I enjoyed the details in this one, and the conversation between Hama and Kanna was good; I found Kanna's reaction to the things that are different in the South nicely believable, and of course she would see Hama bending and think she was a man.


there came a wind like a bugle (3445 words) by dropsofviolet
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Pema/Tenzin (Avatar)
Characters: Pema (Avatar), Tenzin (Avatar), Ikki (Avatar), Jinora (Avatar), Meelo (Avatar), Rohan (Avatar)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Canon, Motherhood, Family
Summary: Five people Pema might have been, and the one she turned out to be. Pema was only doing semi-pro-bending, which meant a ridiculous amount of practice and virtually no spectators at their matches, which were often scheduled for off-peak hours in the mid-afternoon.

I'm a sucker for five-thingses, and I very much enjoyed this one; all the variations are still recognizably Pema, I think, and all of them put together provide a context for the last variant, the canonical one, that makes it more than just a sweet moment.


Keep Calm And Carry On (2074 words) by tielan
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Avengers (2012), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Maria Hill & Phil Coulson, Maria Hill & Natasha Romanoff, background Natasha Romanoff/Clint Barton - Relationship, Maria Hill & Peggy Carter, Peggy Carter & Steve Rogers, Maria Hill & Clint Barton, Maria Hill & Jane Foster, Maria Hill & Pepper Potts
Characters: Maria Hill, Pepper Potts, Jane Foster, Natasha Romanoff, Peggy Carter, Steve Rogers
Additional Tags: Women Being Awesome, Community: rarewomen, Post-Movie(s), Character Study, Loyalty, Maria is a BAMF, duty, Responsibility, Spies & Secret Agents
Summary: The Avengers will come back when the world needs them to; in the meantime, Maria will do the jobs that need doing.

Maria Hill. That is all.


Lessons (1193 words) by ollipop
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Burn Notice
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Madeline Westen, Fiona Glenanne
Additional Tags: Families of Choice, Bechdel Test Pass, cigarette smoking is bad for you
Summary: "You clean the weapon, I’ll fix us some tea."

I am so so behind on this show, but this is a lovely little moment with Madeline and Fi that can fit nearly anywhere you want to put it - somewhere in the middle to early seasons is probably the best spot. Love the Madeline narration, love this as one of her points of connection to Fi, love the whole thing.


More composition and fierce quality (6108 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Borgias
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Sancia & Vannozza, Sancia & Rodrigo Borgia, Sancia/Juan Borgia, Sancia & Alfonso, Sancia & Lucrezia Borgia, Rodrigo Borgia/Vannozza dei Cattanei, Sancia & Ferrante of Naples, Sancia/Gioffre Borgia
Characters: Sancia (Borgias), Rodrigo Borgia, Vannozza dei Cattanei, Juan Borgia, Lucrezia Borgia, Alfonso (Borgias), Alfonso of Aragon, Cesare Borgia, Gioffre Borgia
Summary: Sancia and the art of survival among the Borgias.

I really enjoyed this one - Sancia kind of slips sideways out of the show and doesn't come back onscreen again, but of course that doesn't mean she isn't still there, and I loved this look inside her head, the things she thinks and feels and how she covers them up or uses them.


When we've made many thousands (3927 words) by scintilla10
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Mummy Series
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Evelyn "Evie" Carnahan/Richard "Rick" O'Connell
Characters: Evelyn "Evy" Carnahan, Richard "Rick" O'Connell, Jonathan Carnahan
Additional Tags: Post-First Movie, Adventures!, Five Times, Libraries & Librarians, Magical Artifacts, Community: rarewomen, POV Female Character
Summary: Five times a Carnahan made a decision that could, in retrospect, be considered a mistake.

Adorable and so very, very Evy. Fits excellently with the general tone of the movie, and I found everybody's voices to be pretty much spot-on. Loved it. (I admit the end is sliiiiightly goopy for my taste, but that doesn't make it not a good ending for the fic, because: Evy.)


And! Last but very not least, my amazing awesome wonderful gift fic:

If Not For The Life That Was (1800 words) by Jedi Buttercup
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Push (2009)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Kira Hudson, Elizabeth (Push)
Additional Tags: Choices, Identity Issues, 1000-5000 Words, BAMF Women
Summary: She doubts the truth all the time, now. But there are no more red envelopes in her purse to provide her with convenient answers.

This was EXACTLY what I wanted when I asked for Kira - I didn't even ask for half of this, Elizabeth was nowhere in my request, but I should have because jedibuttercup made it totally awesome. Fantastic look inside Kira's head post-movie, the things she can and cannot trust and what she's going to do about it. YES.

And I wrote i do not ask for any crown (A:tLA, Yangchen backstory) for none other than ambyr, which was the best assignment I could possibly have hoped for; I'm just sorry I couldn't manage more than one fic, because three out of four fandoms were ones I could have written for and all her prompts were beautiful. ♥


Onward to ALL THE TV:

I don't even remember the last time I posted about this show; in case I didn't say it then, I loved Cora and I loved The Miller's Daughter and I loved what was basically the smartest thing Mary Margaret ever said even if it was "evil". And since then, I've pretty much been watching this show through my fingers, making faces. On the one hand, I'm really glad they're willing to make Tamara a semi-regular! She could so easily have been a one-off, and she isn't, which is great. On the other hand: she's evil! She's evil with science. SCIENCE. As I shrieked more than once at idriya after 2.20, YOU CAN'T SCIENCE MAGIC. IT'S MAGIC. WHAT. I just. NOPE. MAGIC. CAN'T BE SCIENCED.

Also, they made Regina act with incredible thoughtlessness in that episode. Regina has MET Henry, you know. The idea that she would ever be foolish enough to think she could say, hey there, let's get out of here and let a lot of people die behind us, to HIM, and have him not object is just - ridiculous. And Lacey! What the everloving fuck. She was still Belle on the inside, even in Storybrooke; the memories she should have of living in Storybrooke are memories where, you know, SHE'S A NICE PERSON. I absolutely buy that she would not be the same person as a Belle who remembered being Belle, but that she would happily watch Rumpelstiltskin beat a man in a parking lot is COMPLETELY nonsensical.

... I'm just going to go sit over here and watch 2.01-2.09. Over and over and over.

If you skip over the totally ridiculous nanite thing, there were like two eps in a row where I actually ... I sort of ... I maybe ... liked? this show? I don't know! It's weird!

Obviously Danny signed his own death warrant during his conversation with Charlie; if he'd agreed to stay off the front lines, that only would have meant a third helicopter would go hit wherever he did go, so. Best that he go out heroically, without risking anybody else's life. The way Miles got dramatically ~knocked back~ so that somebody else would have to shoot the bazooka was SO gimmicky and plot-convenient; but I look on that with a sort of fondness, at this point.

And Mom of Awesome! I really loved her digging the device out of his body, I actually think that was an excellently messed-up thing to do with that otherwise-typical mourning scene. (LADYPAIN. She was mournfully touching his dead body. HAH.) And destroying the pendants! Heading out to give power back to everybody! SO MUCH LOVE.

Charlie has also had a good run of episodes; I sort of love that even her anger and grief manifest themselves through her idealism.

And Rachel leaves to go find an extra brilliant scientist, who is a woman. YES. The president of Georgia - way cooler Georgia, steam-powered tall-shipped trading-with-England Georgia - is a woman. YES.

BUT. There has not been half enough Nora, and this show is doing more and more crappily with its characters of color. Yes, all right, Jason is a good guy now; but I was SO PLEASED to see a black woman (with a line! She spoke a line!) among the rebels! And then that same episode she was shot and died on-camera. Miles's protege was a young black man! Who was angry, and violent, and Miles had to stab him and kill him to keep him from nuking Atlanta. The extra brilliant scientist's wife is black - and, because of Reasons, if Mom of Awesome ever succeeds she will inevitably die. 0 for 3, show, jesus.

Which brings me to omgwtfnanites. The answer I have been waiting for only brings me more questions. How do they "absorb" electricity??? How do they replicate? What do they make more of themselves out of? And why, for the love of god, will whatever Mom of Awesome does get rid of all of them? The nanites that were in Danny, or are in Beth, are presumably not the same variety; they are serving a medical purpose, and clearly have a different function than the others. If Mom of Awesome is taking them out with something indiscriminate like an EMP, okay; but if it's a programmed kill code, how is no programming distinction made between medinanites and electrinanites? There are multiple layers where this makes no sense to me.

And while I appreciate the awesomeness of Georgia, all the things that are in Georgia and not the Monroe Republic only make Monroe look more and more foolish. I now find it even harder to believe that he's never put any effort into steam power or using rivers or gearing down in any way. If there was so much chaos and violence that nobody had been able to bother with it, that would be one thing, but this just makes him look like he's been sitting around with his thumb up his ass. (Which is fine with me in a general sense, because it makes Teri Bauer, President of Georgia, look even more awesome; but it makes it harder to buy Monroe as a really tremendous antagonist.)

Vannozza! Lucrezia! I missed you so much! I am so happy about Vannozza's excellence in 3.01 that I can almost forgive that weirdly perfunctory scene with Giulia - I can absolutely buy that Giulia would be that practical, but that was like - did Lotte Verbeek have somewhere else she needed to be? Because that seemed very "btw this is why you maybe won't see Giulia anymore, fyi". *hands*

But Vannozza! And Lucrezia! 3.02 and 3.03 were pretty much The Lucrezia and Cesare Show, but I'm all right with that. (At least for two or three eps; if the rest of the season is like 80% Lucrezia-and-Cesare, I'll be less pleased.) After 3.03, I know she and Cesare can only be ruined, because no one can stay happy for long - that is not dramatic. But I will say that I love the way she was smiling at the very very end of the ep. LUCREZIA. I WANT YOU HAPPY.

And Caterina Sforza! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay. Ugh, I love her so much; every single second she was on screen was basically perfect. Yaaaaaaaay.

Other than that, all I have is omg costume porn. I didn't actually lose track of anyone's lines because I was staring at the dresses, but it was a close thing.

I am also watching Vikings, but don't have much to add except that I find the pacing really, really odd, which I assume is a function of the History Channel writing it like - well, like a historical overview instead of like a TV show. I understand it, but it's still weird.

Also, I have watched the first two episodes of Defiance and I have no idea what I think. On the one hand, I would say that Nolan is the most boring "protagonist" I have ever seen except that I've watched three episodes of Grimm - Stephanie Leonidas is the real protagonist, if there is one, and the show kind of knows that about a third of the time. Her character is amazing, and Julie Benz and Jaime Murray are both really excellent - Stahma is a character I already super duper love, somewhere between Vannozza dei Cattanei and Teresa di'Marano, except this is Syfy and surely they'll ruin it? *crosses fingers*

I thought the pilot was reasonable - not unbelievably excellent, but not bad, and there are five women! They even talked to each other a couple times! \o/ Plus the deputy is great. It was pretty predictable, but I don't mind that very much.

But 1.02 was - I don't know. I think every sci-fi show I've ever watched has had a "weird/violent alien tradition: evil/bad/wrong or cultural difference???" episode, and I am not sure how I feel about this one. In the most basic sense, I tend to think people can decide to consent to getting hurt and it shouldn't be anybody else's business - there was obviously a lot of social pressure in play in this situation, which renders the consent part questionable, but Nolan's attitude really got my back up. Irisa's reaction seemed like it came out of her as-yet-unexplained backstory trauma, which is way more understandable to me, but ... *hands* I don't know. I'm pretty sure B5 did it better.

Comments

[ambyr]

And you were the best author I could have hoped for, so ♥♥♥ back at you!

[damkianna]

:D Haha, I'm so glad you feel that way! (At first, I have to admit, I didn't know whether to cheer or gape at my assignment: yay, I get to write ambyr a story she'll like! ... Oh my god, I have to write ambyr a story she'll like!)

[ambyr]

But I like ALL your stories, so that should not be a source for concern!

(and now I feel guilty, because I got an awesome story after defaulting out, heh.)