from a distance, much happier.
Nov. 13th, 2014 09:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
damkiannaMaybe I'll just try to work my way up to posting twice a month, and see how that works out. /o\
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femslashex happened! I wrote a Sinbad (Nala/Rina) treat for muccamukk, which is to say I've had an idea sitting half-written in my head since last femslashex, having watched Sinbad at all solely after reading muccamukk's letter that year, and then she asked for it again and this time I was able to write the story down fast enough to meet the deadline. \o/ One of these days I'm going to have to get around to a set of Sinbad posts - it's such an adorably terrible show! Things I enjoyed large parts of but really want to tweak are always the ones I get most fannish about. I'd do a recs post except I still haven't read everything I have open in tabs, but basically if you haven't checked the collection for anything in your fandoms, you totally should.
And since the last time I posted, there's been:
Sleepy Hollow! I've been rolling around in every time Katrina and Abbie talk to each other and fingers-in-ears la-la-laing through this whole awful demon pregnancy/Katrina's ~fickle heart~ thing. :P More Jenny, less of that blond guy, more Katrina and her witchy powers, and please for the love of all that is good no more demon pregnancies, show. (After that minor blowup in the comments of thegalentinesday rules post the other week, idriya and I were discussing potential definitions of women in sff, and we ended up joking about the answer being that you get an involuntary pregnancy storyline. And then we watched that ep of Sleepy Hollow. FACEPALM.) I did love Katrina and Abbie clutching hands, and their conversation about what they'd do if Ichabod didn't bring back the aurora prism (THIS SHOW) in time - all the Abbie fiercely telling other women she'll find a way to save them, please. I really just want everyone on this show to be friends.
Except Henry! I like redemption stories, but I've discovered that the key for me is the person involved wanting to be redeemed, even/especially when they aren't sure it's possible. Going on about having faith and saving Henry doesn't do anything for me when Henry's such a remorseless creep. Blah.
Korra! Oh, Korra. /o\ There are so many pieces of this show that I like SO MUCH, and yet overall I just am not happy with it. I'm not going to pretend I'll stop watching it, I care too much about Korra and there's only another half-season left, and possibly in my secret heart of hearts I'm still hoping this will wrap up in a way I'll find satisfying. But so far I've been yelling at the TV a bunch and having hour-long post-watch discussions with idriya about everything we want to be different.
Seeing Toph again was WONDERFUL, and this season has avoided falling to S2's low in women: Opal's back, we got that glorious chunk of Toph, there's Su and Lin and Ikki and Jinora all back and doing things, Asami is around if not part of the A-plot yet, and Zhu Li actually has some dialogue! And, of course, Kuvira, who's driving all the action and doing all the things. The Earth Kingdom's a mess, and she just needs to rule it!
BUT the actual storyline isn't working for me at all. I'm finding it less than coherent both morally and politically, and I realize that sounds totally pretentious but I can't figure out how else to summarize it. It's possible that the show is in fact trying to make some kind of meta-statement by making it so ridiculously difficult to figure out who's right about what, but if that's what's happening, I'm not finding it effective.
The show's telling me there are work camps and re-education centers, but it's showing me Su sneaking into the camp of a person with whom she has a truce so she can kill someone she's known since they were a little girl. Anarchy is bad, so it was best for everybody to stand by and let Kuvira clean it up for three years; but autocracy is bad, so Kuvira should now step down and let a boneheaded teenage boy rule the largest country in the world as its sole authority. (Frankly, the way 4.03 was put together had me thinking: Wu would probably listen to Tenzin, to Raiko, and could probably be talked into doing what they thought best; but they know they can't control Kuvira, and that's why they don't want her in charge. YOU ARE MAKING ME CYNICAL, SHOW.)
Apparently autocracies are only bad when women are running them; the power had gone to Hou-Ting's head, has gone to Kuvira's, but I'm supposed to believe that Wu would eventually become competent? Or I'm not supposed to believe that and he really is a knucklehead, but in that case how exactly does the show think the Earth Kingdom should be governed? It's already argued that democracy is ineffective (and the only counterargument that was mustered was "maybe it is, but you still can't just kill all world leaders!", so if the show actually thinks otherwise, I can't tell), and Kuvira seems to have plentiful popular support, at least in some areas, so that's not the answer. Democracy was the replacement for the ineffective rule of an appointed council, so that's not the answer either. What's left? An elected council? A parliamentary system with a prime minister? (What is Zuko's daughter doing that's working so much better, and why is the only apparently-competent non-evil woman ruler in this show also the only one we haven't seen, who still hasn't been named?) Maybe the show's answer is: there's no single right answer, governance is complex! But in that case I'd like to see somebody learn that while endeavoring to govern decently anyway, rather than have it outlined by all this negative space where decent government isn't.
And, in a much more general sense, I'm getting so tired of what this show is doing to Korra. The idea of rewatching the S1 pilot almost makes me want to cry; Korra's so strong and so brave, such a skilled bender, so eager and curious, and this show is just beating her into the ground over and over and over. I've seen people commentating on this, saying it's wonderful, what a great parallel, Aang's arc was all about him learning self-confidence and Korra's is all about her losing it - and regaining it, they say! Which, I'm really looking forward to that part, because so far I've watched this woman get systematically cracked open and told repeatedly that she's useless and irrelevant, and the show so far hasn't managed to refute that in a way I find meaningful. I'm assuming that's where this season is leading - I'm hoping it is, I'm praying it is - but it hasn't gotten there yet and I'm so. tired.
Basically my feelings are complex, and right now it seems to me like the show is asking a lot of interesting and complicated questions and then totally refusing to answer them or actually engage with any of the issues involved, and I'm finding that incredibly frustrating. NEW EP TOMORROW \o? NOT SURE IF EXCITED
Elementary! I am delighted by Kitty, by Kitty and Joan, by Kitty and Joan and Sherlock. I will forever love this show for its willingness to portray Sherlock's crime-solving techniques as precisely that: techniques, learnable, trainable, facilitated by but in no way dependent on some kind of Sherlock-specific unique genius. I also really enjoyed how Kitty and Joan dealt with everything - I think it's completely understandable that there were shades of jealousy, and that was acknowledged and then THEY GOT PAST IT and everybody's contributing and Kitty appreciates the awesomeness of Joan and it's not a contest. Why am I incapable of watching anything without wanting everyone to be friends? WHATEVER, THEY TOTALLY WILL BE AND I'LL LOVE IT.
Not caught up yet on SHIELD; I'm also watching Forever and portions of Flash mostly for the hell of it, no real commentary to offer there.
I'm doing NaNoWriMo, but not precisely by the rules, because I'm counting words I write for Yuletide; so far this is working out well, and I may even wholly avoid bears this year. (My recipient and I could not have more divergent approaches to Yuletide if we were trying! This has proven exciting but wholly manageable, and as a bonus I should have plenty of time to edit my assignment/work on treats. \o/)
femslashex happened! I wrote a Sinbad (Nala/Rina) treat for muccamukk, which is to say I've had an idea sitting half-written in my head since last femslashex, having watched Sinbad at all solely after reading muccamukk's letter that year, and then she asked for it again and this time I was able to write the story down fast enough to meet the deadline. \o/ One of these days I'm going to have to get around to a set of Sinbad posts - it's such an adorably terrible show! Things I enjoyed large parts of but really want to tweak are always the ones I get most fannish about. I'd do a recs post except I still haven't read everything I have open in tabs, but basically if you haven't checked the collection for anything in your fandoms, you totally should.And since the last time I posted, there's been:
Sleepy Hollow! I've been rolling around in every time Katrina and Abbie talk to each other and fingers-in-ears la-la-laing through this whole awful demon pregnancy/Katrina's ~fickle heart~ thing. :P More Jenny, less of that blond guy, more Katrina and her witchy powers, and please for the love of all that is good no more demon pregnancies, show. (After that minor blowup in the comments of the
galentinesday rules post the other week, idriya and I were discussing potential definitions of women in sff, and we ended up joking about the answer being that you get an involuntary pregnancy storyline. And then we watched that ep of Sleepy Hollow. FACEPALM.) I did love Katrina and Abbie clutching hands, and their conversation about what they'd do if Ichabod didn't bring back the aurora prism (THIS SHOW) in time - all the Abbie fiercely telling other women she'll find a way to save them, please. I really just want everyone on this show to be friends.Except Henry! I like redemption stories, but I've discovered that the key for me is the person involved wanting to be redeemed, even/especially when they aren't sure it's possible. Going on about having faith and saving Henry doesn't do anything for me when Henry's such a remorseless creep. Blah.
Korra! Oh, Korra. /o\ There are so many pieces of this show that I like SO MUCH, and yet overall I just am not happy with it. I'm not going to pretend I'll stop watching it, I care too much about Korra and there's only another half-season left, and possibly in my secret heart of hearts I'm still hoping this will wrap up in a way I'll find satisfying. But so far I've been yelling at the TV a bunch and having hour-long post-watch discussions with idriya about everything we want to be different.
Seeing Toph again was WONDERFUL, and this season has avoided falling to S2's low in women: Opal's back, we got that glorious chunk of Toph, there's Su and Lin and Ikki and Jinora all back and doing things, Asami is around if not part of the A-plot yet, and Zhu Li actually has some dialogue! And, of course, Kuvira, who's driving all the action and doing all the things. The Earth Kingdom's a mess, and she just needs to rule it!
BUT the actual storyline isn't working for me at all. I'm finding it less than coherent both morally and politically, and I realize that sounds totally pretentious but I can't figure out how else to summarize it. It's possible that the show is in fact trying to make some kind of meta-statement by making it so ridiculously difficult to figure out who's right about what, but if that's what's happening, I'm not finding it effective.
The show's telling me there are work camps and re-education centers, but it's showing me Su sneaking into the camp of a person with whom she has a truce so she can kill someone she's known since they were a little girl. Anarchy is bad, so it was best for everybody to stand by and let Kuvira clean it up for three years; but autocracy is bad, so Kuvira should now step down and let a boneheaded teenage boy rule the largest country in the world as its sole authority. (Frankly, the way 4.03 was put together had me thinking: Wu would probably listen to Tenzin, to Raiko, and could probably be talked into doing what they thought best; but they know they can't control Kuvira, and that's why they don't want her in charge. YOU ARE MAKING ME CYNICAL, SHOW.)
Apparently autocracies are only bad when women are running them; the power had gone to Hou-Ting's head, has gone to Kuvira's, but I'm supposed to believe that Wu would eventually become competent? Or I'm not supposed to believe that and he really is a knucklehead, but in that case how exactly does the show think the Earth Kingdom should be governed? It's already argued that democracy is ineffective (and the only counterargument that was mustered was "maybe it is, but you still can't just kill all world leaders!", so if the show actually thinks otherwise, I can't tell), and Kuvira seems to have plentiful popular support, at least in some areas, so that's not the answer. Democracy was the replacement for the ineffective rule of an appointed council, so that's not the answer either. What's left? An elected council? A parliamentary system with a prime minister? (What is Zuko's daughter doing that's working so much better, and why is the only apparently-competent non-evil woman ruler in this show also the only one we haven't seen, who still hasn't been named?) Maybe the show's answer is: there's no single right answer, governance is complex! But in that case I'd like to see somebody learn that while endeavoring to govern decently anyway, rather than have it outlined by all this negative space where decent government isn't.
And, in a much more general sense, I'm getting so tired of what this show is doing to Korra. The idea of rewatching the S1 pilot almost makes me want to cry; Korra's so strong and so brave, such a skilled bender, so eager and curious, and this show is just beating her into the ground over and over and over. I've seen people commentating on this, saying it's wonderful, what a great parallel, Aang's arc was all about him learning self-confidence and Korra's is all about her losing it - and regaining it, they say! Which, I'm really looking forward to that part, because so far I've watched this woman get systematically cracked open and told repeatedly that she's useless and irrelevant, and the show so far hasn't managed to refute that in a way I find meaningful. I'm assuming that's where this season is leading - I'm hoping it is, I'm praying it is - but it hasn't gotten there yet and I'm so. tired.
Basically my feelings are complex, and right now it seems to me like the show is asking a lot of interesting and complicated questions and then totally refusing to answer them or actually engage with any of the issues involved, and I'm finding that incredibly frustrating. NEW EP TOMORROW \o? NOT SURE IF EXCITED
Elementary! I am delighted by Kitty, by Kitty and Joan, by Kitty and Joan and Sherlock. I will forever love this show for its willingness to portray Sherlock's crime-solving techniques as precisely that: techniques, learnable, trainable, facilitated by but in no way dependent on some kind of Sherlock-specific unique genius. I also really enjoyed how Kitty and Joan dealt with everything - I think it's completely understandable that there were shades of jealousy, and that was acknowledged and then THEY GOT PAST IT and everybody's contributing and Kitty appreciates the awesomeness of Joan and it's not a contest. Why am I incapable of watching anything without wanting everyone to be friends? WHATEVER, THEY TOTALLY WILL BE AND I'LL LOVE IT.
Not caught up yet on SHIELD; I'm also watching Forever and portions of Flash mostly for the hell of it, no real commentary to offer there.
I'm doing NaNoWriMo, but not precisely by the rules, because I'm counting words I write for Yuletide; so far this is working out well, and I may even wholly avoid bears this year. (My recipient and I could not have more divergent approaches to Yuletide if we were trying! This has proven exciting but wholly manageable, and as a bonus I should have plenty of time to edit my assignment/work on treats. \o/)
