#the second her heritage is revealed she's left by the narrative in a closed room until she can then later be kidnapped

[bigboobshaunt]

It's like, not Not A Problem that they keep giving Zelda the role of Damsel In Distress but I think trying to single out Fujibayashi as a director as responsible for this is a bit... farcical considering the games he didn't direct... also do that, tracing back to the very first one.

[wunderlass]

I’m feeling so deflated to be writing this post. S1 had its flaws but those could be placed at the feet of a freshman showrunner who could learn from her mistakes going into S2 and up her game. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and S2 was a mess.

S1 had a clear central plotline: the mystery of Rosa’s death, leading to justice in the form of Noah’s death and Rosa’s resurrection. S2’s central plotline was…um. The kidnappings? Leading into the plot to blow up Crashcon? I think? But there was so much other stuff gong on it’s hard to tell.

Carina – if you happen to come stumbling into the tags for reactions – you’ve already acknowledged that you struggle to edit your scripts down for length. And it does show in the finished product. But you also struggle to edit your ideas down to fit into the episode count you have. There were too many extraneous plot threads this season, too many guest characters, and the ideas you had were shoddily and sloppily executed.

There were shining moments scattered here and there and the occasional good episode, but for the most part this season lurched from badly paced episode to badly paced episode. Stuff was crammed into each episode and yet somehow the plot also treaded water until 2x11 when it all kicked off – and this was because so much of what happened in the earlier episodes didn’t feed into the main plot. Even Max’s death, the overarching motivation for many characters at the beginning, was shoved to the side for other ideas.

And the payoffs for each of these storylines was too often underwhelming. Max can’t come back because he’ll be full of dark energy and a destructive force! Resolved in 30 seconds by him blowing up a pile of stuff. Max can’t remember Liz! Fixed in the same episode. That pattern continued with the finale feeling like it was trying to wrap up all these storylines without really having a story of its own. The various cliffhangers from Crashcon were tied up before the title card and then let’s spend the next 40 minutes treading water again.

There were good moments in the finale. Max and Isobel’s discussion, the Maneforrest kiss, Rosa and Helena’s reunion. But as for the rest? Hear me whine:

-          Jesse’s death was anticlimactic. His line about “no more Manes men” makes no sense given as far as he knew Flint (and maybe Clay?) is still alive. His death should have been poetic because one of his son’s killed him but it didn’t hold the weight it should have, possibly because it came so early in the episode.

-          It would have been far better if Jesse had discovered that Harlan killed Tripp and buried him beneath the shed. How awful would it have been for his entire worldview to be shaken by that revelation? How perfect would it have been if he discovered that Tripp loved Nora? If he died after learning all of that, becoming desperate and sloppy in whatever scheme he was trying to pull off (self-immolation via the bomb?), it would have been a fitting ending.

-          So many characters this season were badly served. Alex, Michael, and to a lesser extent Max, had real arcs and progression. Alex especially you can see them setting up his growth for a payoff in the finale. 

-          Kyle was shafted, shoved to the side for the Steph storyline that didn’t feel like it was going anywhere, and I suspect we got a lot of that cut away to make room for other stories.

-          Rosa’s story started off strong and then mostly got tied into rehab or helping Isobel. Them having her out and about in public in Roswell is complete nonsense.

-          Max had a line for Isobel about her becoming her “entire self” this season, and that rang false to me. We’ve only seen Isobel develop her powers. Her personality has shifted each episode, fractured and inconsistent, dependant on what the writers needed her to do. She didn’t get much of a storyline of her own – the abortion was redundant, serving as a political soapbox for Carina rather than anything that served the character – and while she’s found out more about her heritage, that’s never been as important as Michael or Max finding out about theirs. She said she wanted to become more like her mother and that never went anywhere.

-          I was so hopeful that Carina had listened and understood the criticisms with Maria’s handling in S1 and worked to improve it. She certainly gave her increased screentime. Except, so much of that screentime was tied into Michael, and latterly Isobel. She lacked interactions with Liz or Rosa. She was in two whole scenes in the finale and after she broke up with Michael, she disappeared from the story, and if that doesn’t say it all…

-          And that break-up was contrived bullshit. I’m not saying this as a shipper. It felt like they’d planned to have them break-up in the finale and wrote it even though the motivations hadn’t been properly established. Seeds were sown but they were communicating well as a couple and resolving their issues as they went along. Suddenly those issues got un-resolved and were enough to break them up.

-          The most galling part is that so much of what follows comes from Tripp’s diary, and Maria is excluded. This is her story too! Louise was her great-grandmother! Rather than sitting around her in the hospital room reading this stuff, they do it in the Crashdown.

-          Which fits the pattern of what’s happened all season. Maria found out she was part alien and it was about her powers, rather than her legacy, rather than what happened to her great-grandparents.

-          And it became clear that it was done so they could do the Nora/Tripp and Malex parallel.

-          Which completely solidifies for me where Carina’s priorities lie. She’s been clear that Malex is her favourite ship on the show and Michael is her favourite character. But this season has shown that she’s incapable of ensuring her favouritism doesn’t screw over other characters.

-          The sad thing is this really does show up in marketing. Carina always pushes and praises Vlamis and barely ever mentions Jeanine on her SM. Media outlets write about Malex as the centre of the show and they aren’t supposed to be. We have a sci-fi show with a Latina leading lady and nobody cares – not the showrunner, not the media (outside of Latinx-centric publications), not the fandom. I’m not Latina and it frustrates me so I can’t imagine how actual Latinx people feel about that.

-          Maria was dragged into a love triangle that Carina never had any intention of doing justice to. Maria and Michael were always only ever meant to be a pit-stop on the way to a big Malex reunion. Sadly it’s clear the same goes for Maneforrest. Why write something if you’re only going to do it half-arsed? And it clearly was. That’s why the Maria and Michael break-up was so perfunctory and illogical.

-          While I’m on the subject of Maria – last season Mimi was clearly deteriorating and didn’t recognise adult Maria anyway. Now that seems to have shifted to Mimi’s mind moving through time. It’s still unclear if this is the alien DNA or what was done to Patricia Deluca in Caulfield. I don’t understand why they introduced both elements – apart from being able to give Maria a line about unethical science which OH BOY what a contrast with Liz.

-          Speaking of Liz.

-          Wow.

-          If the central storyline was the kidnappings and Crashcon shenanigans, she really had no involvement with that all season apart from the very end. All the investigation went to other characters. Her mother was involved, but not Liz.

-          Let me repeat that.

-          Our lead character was not involved the central storyline of the season.

-          Alternatively, if you think Max learning about his history, and all of the reveals about 1948, and Maria’s heritage etc etc were supposed to be the main storyline…

-          Doesn’t matter because Liz wasn’t involved in any of that either!

-          Liz was a subplot in her own show after they brought Max back. Hell, she was a subplot even when she was working on that.

-          The narrative focus really has centred on Michael, Alex, and later Max.

-          I wonder what they have in common with each other.

-          If you don’t believe me, check out the screentime figures for this season. Liz had the fourth largest amount of screentime in the finale, and she’s only had majority screentime in a handful of episodes all season (2x01, 2x07, 2x11).

-          And then realise that the plot kept moving after Liz left Roswell. She’s just not part of it anymore.

-          I watched the finale and kept asking myself where Liz was because she kept disappearing for whole chunks of time.

-          She was in her own subplot about science for the back half of this season, and honestly, I’m going to have to write an entirely separate post about Liz and ethics in science because NOPE.

-          Max was right. Liz deserved to follow her calling but she had options that didn’t involve risking the aliens.

-          As such the Echo break-up was stupid but whatever, based on this season I guess it needed to happen.

-          Did Max even care that Liz left? He loved her for twenty years and then when he had her, it didn’t matter anymore? What the fuck? Are we ever going to get answers as to why he fell so hard and loved her for so long, or is the “Malex is cosmic” story more important?

-          Also the whole thing about the Genericorp lady not being interested in Liz based on meeting her at the Crashdown was stupid. You hire scientists based on the previous work they’ve done and their credentials. Diego’s word should have been enough to convince her, and then maybe an actual proper job interview to make sure she was a good fit. Not “let’s sneak into her secret lab to look at what she’s working on”.

-          When Liz does leave, she only says goodbye to Rosa and Kyle. Arturo is mentioned but not seen. Which means the whole ICE sequence this season, which should have been a solid motivation for Liz to take the Genericorp job on its own, has been resolved without a proper payoff. All that stress – scenes that I know felt genuinely stressful to some viewers because of how close to home it hit – and we don’t even get to see Arturo seeing his “genius daughter” leave with his future secured.

-          It’s plausible that Liz said goodbye to other characters – Maria, Isobel, Michael – off screen BUT SHE’S YOUR LEAD CHARACTER AND HER LEAVING TOWN SHOULD CARRY SOME EMOTIONAL WEIGHT FFS

-          Compare Liz leaving and arriving at the ocean to Buffy Summers leaving Sunnydale in Becoming Part 2. There is no contest.

-          It’s clear to me that the audience Carina writes this show for is herself. And that’s fine. Plenty of writers do that. But that means she’s writing a show for the women in fandom who like epic mlm romances with lots of angst. And the problem with that is that this show has a Latina lead who is not being done justice.

-          This is not me railing against Malex. There is space in the show for both things. This is me expressing my frustration at a showrunner and creative team who are not taking care with all characters equally.

-          Carina uses her platform to throw in politics and use characters as mouthpieces without considering their impact. She thinks she’s educating the straight white people in the audience without thinking about how scenes of ICE intimidation, homophobic violence, and racism will affect the people who are impacted by those things in real life.

-          Am I done with the show? Probably not. I’ve got fics I want to write and while I’m not hubristic enough to think I can write better than a team of professional writers, I’m going to at least try and do some of these neglected elements of the show justice.

-          Hubris. Remember when I thought that was going to be a theme of this season? Apparently not. There was no theme, unless “no editing, we die like men” counts..

[longsightmyth]

Myth & Kat read Tiger’s Curse

Kat’s Post Here

So I read this and skimmed the second one years ago. Kat’s memories differ from mine, and put me in the unusual position (for me) of the one who doesn’t expect much. She remembers great setting descriptions. I remember wikipedia infodumps via Mr. Kaddam. We both remember the white savior stuff. Let’s see how this goes.

Prologue

Summary

We start out with The Tiger by William Blake because sure I guess what else were we going to start with?

The prisoner stood with his hands tied in front of him, tired, beaten, and filthy but with a proud back befitting his royal Indian heritage.

Houck, Colleen. Tiger's Curse (Book 1 in the Tiger's Curse Series) (p. 1). Splinter. Kindle Edition.

Oh no

The prisoner spoke first, struggling to keep the betrayal out of his voice, “Why have you—my soon-to-be-father—treated me with such . . . inhospitality?”

Houck, Colleen. Tiger's Curse (Book 1 in the Tiger's Curse Series) (p. 2). Splinter. Kindle Edition.

I will grant that that tickled my funny bone a little bit. Anyway, the prince is standing shackled in front of his fiancee (and Yesubai called as such in the narrative, and look, using common words to make fantasy understandable is fine but betrothed as a word and concept exists, why are you gonna use a french word here), his fiancee’s father (Lokesh, raja of a small kingdom) and the prince’s brother, Kishan. The prince asks why on earth this whole thing was necessary, since he’s about to be married to Yesubai and Lokesh could have just asked. Lokesh asys Kishan offered him a better deal and is in love with Yesubai.

The prince turned his attention to Yesubai, who, with cheeks aflame, assumed a demure, submissive pose with her head bowed. His arranged marriage to Yesubai was supposed to have ushered in an era of peace between the two kingdoms. He had been away for the last four months overseeing military operations on the far side of the empire and had left his brother to watch over the kingdom.

I guess Kishan was watching a little bit more than just the kingdom.

Houck, Colleen. Tiger's Curse (Book 1 in the Tiger's Curse Series) (pp. 2-3). Splinter. Kindle Edition.

Lokesh offers the prince a deal: give him the piece of the Damon amulet and the prince gets to live. Yesubai will be marrying Kishan. Lokesh is going to rule both kingdoms no matter what, somehow.

Kishan argues that that wasn’t the deal.

Lokesh shot out his hand as quickly as a snake and grabbed Kishan’s wrist. “You should have learned by now that I take whatever I want. If you would prefer the view from where your brother is standing, I would be happy to accommodate you.”

Kishan shifted in his chair but kept silent.

Lokesh continued. “No? Very well, I have now amended our former arrangement. Your brother will be killed if he does not comply with my wishes, and you will never marry my daughter unless you hand over your piece of the amulet to me as well. This private arrangement of ours can easily be revoked, and I can have Yesubai married to a different man—a man of my choosing. Perhaps an old sultan would cool her blood. If you want to remain close to Yesubai, you will learn to be submissive.”

Houck, Colleen. Tiger's Curse (Book 1 in the Tiger's Curse Series) (p. 4). Splinter. Kindle Edition.

Neither brother is apparently willing to give up their piece of the Damon amulet, so Lokesh cuts the prince’s arm and lets blood drip onto a wooden amulet. I question why he didn’t just take the prince’s necklace? Is there an enchantment? Unclear.

Actually Kat and I were talking while looking at each other’s notes and uh. It’s also unclear where Lokesh got the amulet from. Did he rip it from ‘the prisoner’s’ neck? Did he bring his own home-grown? Was store-bought fine? This joke is getting away from me. See for yourself:

Lokesh tore a wooden talisman from around his neck and placed it beneath the prisoner’s arm. Blood dripped from the knife onto the charm, and the engraved symbol glowed a fiery red before pulsing an unnatural white light.

Houck, Colleen. Tiger's Curse (Book 1 in the Tiger's Curse Series) (p. 5). Splinter. Kindle Edition.

I’m pretty sure Lokesh brought his own but Kat thought he had taken ‘the prisoner’s’ amulet, so I thought I should mention that.

Anyway.

The light shot toward the prince with groping fingers that pierced his chest and clawed its way through his body. Though strong, he wasn’t prepared for the pain. The captive screamed as his body suddenly became inflamed with a prickly heat and he fell to the floor.

Houck, Colleen. Tiger's Curse (Book 1 in the Tiger's Curse Series) (p. 5). Splinter. Kindle Edition.

Yesubai and Kishan attack Lokesh and Yesubai dies by way of falling and hitting her head on the stairs.

The prince was aware that his brother was near, overtaken by grief as the life drained from Yesubai’s limp body. Then he was aware of nothing except the pain.

Houck, Colleen. Tiger's Curse (Book 1 in the Tiger's Curse Series) (p. 6). Splinter. Kindle Edition.

Thus ends the prologue.

Thoughts

The prose is less juvenile than I remembered, but not by much. Maybe I’ll up my assessment to middle-school age, but we’ll see when we get to Kelsey.

Of course A Woman led Kishan astray. Of course. Though admittedly, there is a prequel novella entirely about Yesubai whose summary reads as much more mature than the rest of this, so who knows? Either way: sorry, Yesubai. Your life appears to have sucked and so did your death.

I am still not a fan of prologues (I make exceptions for years/decades/centuries exposition a la Anne McCaffrey’s Pern explanations and The Keltiad’s general ‘this is how we have celts in space’ stuff). This could have been worked into the story later in one of the truly impressive wikipedia infodumps.

And look. People might think I’m being mean for nagging on the language structure stuff here, but it’s a pet peeve. If you are otherwise trying to sound ornate or dramatic, sentence structure and rhythm is more important than word choice.

That doesn’t mean you should bandy around ‘guess’ instead of ‘suppose’ or any number of other relatively modern turns of phrase. “I guess” in your centuries old Indian prince’s head? Really?

Kishan, it seemed, had been watching more than the kingdom.

Fixed it for you. That’s not even the only way it could be fixed!

Oh, Kishan. You watched more than just my kingdom, it seems.

Ornate direct thought!

Also, like. ‘Proud back befitting his noble Indian heritage’? Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Why is he thinking about being Indian in a room full of Indians? Indian is his default. Indian is at this point of the book THE default, or it should be. Maybe mention his country instead or just ‘Proud back befitting his royal heritage.’ It would be a, better worded, and b, not weirdly racist. I get that the author is trying to establish that he IS Indian, but there are better ways.

Kat’s Thoughts

I think, overall, this prologue is a crash course in Houck trying to fit in with writers of olde who have managed this particular kind of narration. She’s trying to infuse it with mystery, magic, and mayhem, and achieving none of the above. For starters, there’s no reason for Ren to not be referring to himself by his own name (just like there’s no reason for him to be admiring his own “proud back befitting his noble Indian heritage,” as Myth mentions above), and if we didn’t want to reveal who he was right away, maybe we should’ve been in Lokesh’s head for this, or maybe even Yesubai. If I recall correctly, Yesubai is one of the biggest catalysts for the rift between Ren and Kishan (especially when they both start to develop feelings for Kelsey), and her death is therefore important, but still. It’s a cheap move that panders to the typical fridged woman for man pain trope people, for some reason, still use.

I’m less opposed to prologues than Myth is, since I do think they can be written well, but this one didn’t tell us anything we couldn’t have learned throughout the book. In fact, I think we even learn more about it when Kelsey learns of what happened between the two brothers, so this will simply be redundant information.