#i just think a lot of people miss out on how tragically pathetic alex is

[silvexus]

Thinking about how fandom tends to forget that powerful characters can be... gentle, yes, but also they can be a little pathetic. Specifically, Alex Mercer from Prototype. Yeah, he’s absurdly strong physically, but emotionally he’s a mess. He has no sense of internal purpose other than Find Information and Do Whatever Someone (Usually a Woman; Usually Dana) Tells Him To Do. The only thing he really has his own initiative for is hunting down Karen Parker after her betrayal and taking the FIREBREAK nuke out over the Atlantic. There’s really a solid chance that the more people and information he collects, he’ll eventually end up like WOPR’s series of tic-tac-toe games and just become paralysed because every move he could potentially make could bring Blackwatch back down on him and his sister. He’s the most power individual on the planet except maybe PARIAH and that means nothing because power means nothing when you are physically outnumbered. Maybe he has nothing to fear personally, but everyone around him? Vulnerable. And no one is strong enough for that. Not even ZEUS. Really. What could be worse than that? What could be better?

[thelatelockdownlist]

A Series on Series 04: Deborah Harkness’ All Souls Trilogy: A Discovery of Witches/Season 1

Hi! I’m Alex, a YouTube Newbie and this is The Late Lockdown List where I talk about the list of things I’ve got on my mind since the lockdown started. 

Today, on the fourth episode of A Series on Series, I’ll be talking about Deborah Harkness’ All Souls Trilogy, starting with the first book,  A Discovery of Witches

and the basis of the season 1 of the TV series. 

Let’s dive a little bit into it. 

Why is it called the ‘All Souls Trilogy’?

I could do research, but having read the entire series, I think it’s because the male lead, Matthew Clairmont or Matthew de Clermont, in the book belongs to the All Souls College at Oxford University.  

A bit of trivia: All Souls College does not have undergraduate members, and it’s unique in the sense that all members automatically become fellows -- full members of the college’s governing body. The examination for the fellowship has once been described as ‘the hardest exam in the world.” 

If you’re not familiar with the book or the TV series, just know that there are going to be a lot of spoilers. With that out of the way, first a primer:

The two main characters here are Diana Bishop 

-- a Yale historian, visiting scholar at Oxford (where she also got her PhD) and reluctant witch. 

She’s the daughter of two very powerful witches, 

but due to the tragic death of her parents she’s shied away from witchcraft and very seldom uses her power, if at all. After her parents’ death, she was raised by her maternal aunt Sarah and her partner Emily who are both witches. 

They tried to teach her, but Diana’s grief at her parents’ death caused her to all but reject magic. 

Then we have Matthew Clairmont (aka Matthew de Clermont of the powerful vampire de Clermont family, aka Matthew Roydon), a geneticist, All Souls College fellow and 1,500-year-old vampire.

There are creatures in this series: daemons, vampires and witches. They’re not HUMAN. That’s why they call themselves ‘creatures’ -- to differentiate themselves from us. Daemons 

are blessed with creativity and cursed with madness. 

Vampires

are -- well, the usual kind that we’re familiar with. Here, though, they mate for life, like wolves. 

Witches

have magic -- different kinds like time walking, precognition, flight, transmogrification, telekinesis, witchwind, witchfire, witchwater, and manipulation of the elements.

Basically, if you’re familiar with Harry Potter and Twilight, then you know what witches and vampires are. Speaking of the whole Harry Potter and Twilight thing, The New York Times calls this the ‘Harry Potter for grownups’ 

and NPR calls it ‘Twilight for the intellectually restless.’ 

Make of that what you will.

For me, I don’t compare this with the other two. I think it stands very separately from those. Since this is written by an historian, the approach is markedly different. It’s well-researched -- as are most historical romance novels -- because it does deal with a certain time period.  

What I love about this -- and you’ll be hearing this from me a lot -- is the world building. I judge a book by the world it creates for me. I have to be able to LIVE in that world. And in most cases, I have to WANT to live in that world.

This is a world inhabited by creatures I’ve been fascinated with my entire life -- except for daemons. I did my first thesis on vampires -- let’s not talk about why it didn’t get accepted. It’s still a sore point for me even after so many years later. And as for witches, well… family tradition has it that my maternal great grandmother was a witch. In fact, growing up, I’d heard

whispers of her supplementing her income by being a ‘healer.’ I’m not sure how much of that is true but I like to believe that it is.

So vampires and witches, I’m sold. I can tolerate the daemons.

Another thing I love about this are the well-written characters. While I can’t actually relate to Diana Bishop, I don’t have to for me to like her. She just needs to be alive for me in the book. And she is very much so. I envy her graduate degrees -- I wish I had the discipline to obtain a PhD. And spending time at the Bodleian. *sigh*

Anyway, I can understand her rejection of magic. After all, in a way it’s what took her parents away from her. But I like how she was able to adjust when she realizes that she’s got this power -- which is far stronger than anyone thought it would be. 

As for Matthew -- *sigh* -- I’m a sucker for vampires. Yes, I went there. I love him. He’s a scientist and he’s good with his hands. By that, I mean he used to be a stone mason so he can build things. What? I like a guy who’s handy.

I also like the love story. Matthew and Diana are equals -- in the sense that they are partners in the relationship. Of course, with Matthew having been alive for more than a millennia -- plus vampire, plus a guy, he has a tendency to be domineering, convinced that he’s doing all things to protect Diana. However, Diana is a POWERFUL witch. She’s a scholar, too. She can take care of herself. Matthew may be physically stronger, but Diana is a POWER. And as she grows into that, Matthew struggles to keep up as well curb his tendency to be overprotective. For the most part, they do keep this balance. 

On to the differences of the book from the show:

Overall, the TV series was faithful to the book. Most of the scenes in TV series are in the book. The show is gorgeous. I love the architecture and just the overall mood. I think Teresa Palmer makes a good Diana, but I love Matthew Goode. Period. But he is very, very good as Matthew Clairmont. 

I know Teresa Palmer is Australian and Diana Bishop is American so I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I do hear Teresa’s native accent here and there. It’s not distracting, but since I know that the one she uses for her character is not her original accent, I can’t help but hear the Australian one. Matthew Goode, on the other hand, is British, and Matthew Clairmont is as well. Well, for the last couple of centuries he is, but he’s originally French. But overall, I have no problem believing they’re really Diana and Matthew. 

As for Gillian Chamberlain,

the other witch at Oxford who in the TV series is sort of Diana’s friend… in the book, they’re merely acquaintances. She’s played by Louise Brealey aka Molly Hooper in Sherlock. 

I love the actress and I love that I found Gillian both slightly annoying and a bit pathetic. Because in the book, she is. So I love that that’s how she’s also played in the series.

Then we have Aunt Sarah. When I saw Alex Kingston, my first thought was, “River!” If you don’t know, Alex Kingston played ‘River Song’ in Doctor Who. 

And I loved her in that. So I knew I’d love her here, too. I do have the same ‘thing’ with her as with Teresa. Alex Kingston is British and here she plays an American. I can hear the accent. It’s not distracting, but it’s there.

And then there’s Peter Knox. 

In the book, I found him arrogant, condescending and just a generally irritating person. In the series, he is more so. And the actor who plays him played Ser Alliser Thorne in ‘Game of Thrones.’ 

He was one of the Night’s Watch who tormented and had a hand, literally, in killing Jon Snow. But he got his comeuppance when he was hanged with the rest of the traitors. He was very convincing as a conniving SOB in GOT. And he is here, as well. In fact, he’s equal parts menacing and irritating. Which is a terrifying combination because if he’s just irritating, you can swat him away like a gnat. But because he’s menacing, you know you have to watch your back.

Satu Jarvinen 

in the show is exactly how I thought she would look like when I read her in the book. In fact, the actress Malin Buska, infuses her with a somewhat edgy, emo attitude that really works. You can see why Satu and Peter work well because they seem to have something missing inside them that they think the other one has. It’s not a romantic connection -- more that of villains who don’t think they’re bad people.

And Ysabeau de Clermont. 

Lindsay Duncan plays her, who also played Lady Smallwood in Sherlock. 

She does have the whole ‘lady of the manor’ aura -- both regal and frightening. I really liked how she snobbishly said how modern day witches are so uneducated -- all because Diana even with her post graduate degrees didn’t speak Occitan.

FAVORITE SCENES:

The rowing scenes: 

This is very self-serving because I like rowing. I haven’t had a lot of chances to row in the water. I bought a rowing machine at the start of the pandemic and actually did a few months of rowing for 20 minutes three times a week. Then I stopped. I can’t remember why. But I love the scenes of Diana rowing -- which she does to rid herself of excess energy caused by her power -- because I imagine rowing along the Thames myself. 

Any time they’re in the Bodleian: I love libraries. I’ve loved them since I was a child. I loved them when I was in college. I was actually really excited that my university decided to extend the library hours on Fridays just so I could stay there and read to my heart’s content. Also, whenever I go to a foreign country, I always go to the national library.

This isn’t in the show, but in the book, but I love how everyone at the Bodleian scrambled to cater to Matthew when he went to the library. I liked how irritated Diana was that this guy took her spot… that they gave it to him solely on the basis of his being an All Souls fellow. In the TV series, they don’t really emphasize how much of a big shot Matthew is at Oxford. 

I like how Matthew, when he was talking to his daemon friend, Hamish Osborne, was self-aware enough not to immediately think that Diana had the same feelings for him as he did for her. Since he’s a 1,500-year-old vampire who knew Charles Darwin, of course he’s a great resource for a history of science researcher. 

I love that part when Diana was trying to guess how old Matthew was and she asked, “Survived the fall of Carthage?” and he says, “Which fall of Carthage?” It was a playful exchange, and you can see that he was showing off a bit.

Sept-Tours: 

literally ‘Seven Towers’ and is the current family home of the de Clermonts. It must be hell to heat, but as most of the residents are vampires, it shouldn’t be a problem. It’s beautiful and like Matthew, I would probably claim my own tower as well. 

While it’s not my favorite scene, I think they did the part of Satu torturing Diana 

-- in the pretext of trying to ‘open her up’ to see what her power is -- was done well. When I read that scene, I was wondering how much of it they were going to put in the book. So it was heartening to see that ‘horrifying’ scene there.

I’m not sure how I feel about the ‘instalove.’ You know that thing that sometimes happens where the leads just fall in love at first sight? In the series, it feels like it’s instalove. Diana and Matthew first meet at the Bodleian -- the day after Diana experiences the magic in Ashmole 782. It’s a book all creatures have been trying to find. Matthew, in particular, has been searching for it for more than a century. It’s thought to explain the origins of all creatures. Matthew is initially drawn to Diana because she is able to “call” the book. 

Anyway, going back to the idea of ‘instalove,’ I mean, sure there was chemistry… but...  In the books, their connection was fostered both by the time they spent with each other and their curiosity about Ashmole 782. I was more convinced in the book about that part than in the TV series. Or maybe it’s my deep-seated and sometimes difficult to conceal bias FOR the book versus its live action adaptation.

~

The Congregation: Secret island! 

It’s actually on an island in Venice, concealed from humans. It has nine members, 3 from each supernatural race. And since the de Clermont patriarch established it, one of the rules is to always have a de Clermont on the Congregation. It was created during the Crusades as a self-regulating body for the creatures. Because most of the creatures abused their powers and abilities to influence outcomes during the Crusades, they attracted unwanted attention from humans. Ostensibly to keep the creatures safe from humans, the congregation agreed to several covenants: the main ones being that they must not interfere in human politics and religion and for creatures not to mix together, especially in terms of romantic relationships. 

This is the covenant Diana and Matthew break. In fairness to Diana, she had no idea. She didn’t even know about the existence of The Congregation, much less the covenant. And so Matthew does this whole ‘noble idiot’ thing where he denies his feelings for her… but of course, in the end, they end up together.

Moving on, the first book ends with Diana and Matthew going back to New York to Aunt Sarah’s and Aunt Em’s house. The original plan was for Diana to learn more about her magic from her witch aunts. The problem is that Diana’s magic isn’t the same as theirs. And they need someone to teach her so she can call the book again -- this time intentionally.

They’re joined by married daemons, Sophie and Nathaniel; two vampires: Marcus, Matthew’s vampire son, and Miriam, an ally of the de Clermonts and Matthew’s  colleague at the lab, and Hamish. As there are now 3 witches (Sarah, Em and Diana), 3 vampires (including Matthew) and 3 demons, this is in effect a ‘coventicle’ -- this will be important later in the books.

They’re all gathered there for different reasons: Sophie, because she’s meant to give Diana something that has been passed down in her family for generations (and one that’s needed for the timewalk, the vampires to update Matthew regarding their research (and I guess for moral support as well), and Hamish both because he’s Matthew’s best friend and lawyer (real world legalities must be observed before one undertakes a timewalk). 

They leave for Sept Tour, which Matthew volunteered as their HQ of sorts, on Halloween. That night, Matthew and Diana are going to timewalk. And seconds before they could do so, Gerbert de Aurillac, Peter Knox and Satu Jarvinen arrive to stop them. 

Of course, they don’t and we see our couple land somewhat shakily in 1590 London…

And the season ends there, setting us up for the next one and The Book of Shadows.

FINAL NOTE:

I LOVE IT!

Like I said earlier, it’s faithful to the book in the sense that I didn’t find anything that was off.

If you loved the books, I’m sure you’ll love the TV adaptation as well.

I was a little nervous that I wouldn’t love it as much. I’d been burned before, you see. (I’m looking at you, American Gods. Even Ian McShane and Orlando Jones’ Mr. Nancy couldn’t keep me hooked.)

However, I wasn’t disappointed in this one. There’s a lot to love here and I’m glad that there’s a second season -- and now they’re even done filming the third.

So that’s it for the first book and Season 1. Catch you in the next episode for The Book of Shadows and Season 2. Bye!

[tinnefoil]

Feelings about Supergirl Season 1 versus Season 2

Since there is some interesting (albeit again non-rebloggable) discussion going on about season 1 versus season 2 of Supergirl, I thought I would collect my own thoughts on it. 

I’m a very erratic tv watcher. I check out most superhero shows (well particular the DC comics ones) at least a bit, because I have a bit of a background in the comic fandom. I also drop in and out of it. I used to watch the first few seasons of Smallville faithfully and then became a very irregular watcher, like, I usually tuned in whenever there was something very special happening (for example, Lois first episode, Clark as reporter first episode, Aquaman episode, Green Arrow first episode, that weird Lex dreams of an alternate life episode), I almost exclusively watch the Captain Cold episodes of Flash. I tried watching Arrow when it started, but it was just too much of a departure from the comic book characters, especially since I always followed Arrow/Canary in the comics. 

In that context, I watched most of season 1 of Supergirl (I actually only recently at a rewatch discovered that I had somehow missed episode 3 when it originally aired). IMO there were things about season 1 that were boring and that I didn’t like or were childish. But there were a lot of things I really liked. I liked the big focus on female villains. I think the strongest aspect of season 1 by far were that Max and Astra were really, really, really good villains. And to me the biggest flaw of season 2 is actually by far that Cadmus is weird and erratic and has stupid plans and that Rhea was introduced too late into the season (and for all we know, her final masterplan might still suck). 

I think the main reason why I bothered to stick with season 1 was J’onn since I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Martian Manhunter in the comics and I was floored that a live action tv show was doing him. And that I really enjoyed Cat for the entertainment value. 

To me both season 1 and season 2 have their upsides and downsides. Both have some brain breakingly terrible episodes. My liking of Karamel came mostly by default. I watched season 2. I examined which episodes entertained me the most (Mon-El falsely accused to have attacked the president, Mon-El at CatCo, Kara and Mon-El captured by Cadmus, the Medusa virus episode) and it turns out, most of them it was because of the Karamel storyline. 

I don’t like every Karamel episode and I’m not afraid to call out the ones I don’t like. But in general, fairly Karamel centric episodes have fared much better with me that non-Karamel centric ones (for example: to this day I haven’t fully seen Martian Chronicles. I WANT to like it. It has J’onn/M’gann stuff, I has Alex/Kara stuff, both things and relationships I really like. But lord, I just can’t watch this episode. And I have tried several times. It just bleeeeeeeeeeeeeds boredom to me. It feels like the infamous cheap bottle episodes from when the shows ran out of budget.)

I think the less Kara centricity of season 2 has given us J’onn/M’gann and Sanvers, two things I consider very positive changes. The main thing I wish I could have back from season 1 is a character as strong and fleshed out and charismatic as Cat (sorry, Lena is nice, but she isn’t nearly that, and while Mon-El entertains me and even if I overlooked that I would rather have a female character for that, I think the writing for Cat was way more thought out and consistent across the season) and better central villain arcs. 

I also really like that season 2 Kara is not as meek as season 1 Kara. I actually didn’t dislike season 1 Kara, but looking back and comparing her to season 2 Kara, season 1 Kara is just way over the top, it becomes grating. Her simpering over Clark/Superman is the worst. I can kinda see when people complain about season 2 Kara spending more time serving other people’s storylines, but in retrospect, they made season 1 Kara that meek and helpless to justify the strength of other characters, which kinda doesn’t really sit well with me either. 

I’d like to note, I don’t really consider myself a “badboy” fan. In fact, I consider myself somebody who is super, super picky when it comes to “badboy” characters. I hate the majority of fandom’s favorite badboys (such as: Damon, Logan, Chuck, Spike), or at the very least they bore me. As in, I don’t care. Their backstory episodes bore me. I’m a big fan of “cool motive, still murder” (I didn’t really watch much of the Kai storyline of VD, but I have a feeling that he probably would have fallen into this category for me, like, yeah, nice, but I’m not that impressed; I also thought the Klaus/Caroline chemistry was amazing, but I still thought the Klaus storyline was kinda stupid and I could never get into The Originals). 

I keep trying to pinpoint how come Mon-El doesn’t really trigger this response with me. I think a large part of it is that he doesn’t whine as much/doesn’t self-pity as many of the others do. And then there’s the fact that lo and behold, he hasn’t randomly meanspiritedly murdered people (well aside from indirectly the guard on the ship, but hey, Kara too killed Parasite to our knowledge). And, I love SciFi and I love Teri Hatcher, so I’m actually interested in the backstory he brings (I swear Teri Hatcher is like a 50% bonus to why I like Karamel, just like Dean Cain’s Jeremiah was the only thing that had any emotional resonance for me in the Cadmus storyline, even with how stop and go the story has been written). 

Would I watch if Mon-El left/was written off? Hmm, that’s hard to say. I think it depends a lot on whether by then they would have introduced other characters I’d be interested in following. Yes I like the regular cast. But like I said, Astra was a huge part of why I liked season 1. I’m one of those weird people who actually cares about plot and not just about character relationships. I don’t watch “coffee shop shows”. I want a large plot where I’m actually interested in what happens next. So, I could picture myself stop watching even if he was still on the show if I thought the plot was boring/the writing was weak. Just like I could picture myself continue watching if they found something else to entertain me in a similar way. 

I see a whole slew of ways that Karamel could break up or Mon-El be written off that would be really satisfying and tragic and cool to watch. And I could see myself sitting in the first row and praising that writing. If the ending was shitty that would probably bug me, but then again, I think that goes for most instances of bad writing (ie the bad writing for James/Kara really bothered me even though I wasn’t deeply invested in their couple, but I’m invested in some amount writing consistency, which is why I keep hoping that James/Kara will be addressed again eventually, even if it were only to lay it to rest in a more satisfying way). I would be really pissed if they fuck up Sanvers. I’ll be really pissed if they make Rhea a really pathetic villain because it would make me feel like villain-wise the entire season was a total waste of time. I get grumpy over the way they write and don’t write the sort of political/social parallel stories. 

I care about good, interesting, entertaining stories more than I care about couples being together. A think a really epic and emotional separation can be amazing. Of course stable couples can be amazing too. If it’s a good story I will watch. And if a story entertains me, I’m more likely to like the couple that is attached to it.