#without it revolving around owen somehow

[scattered-winter]

ok. this might be slightly insane but uhh...how do you feel about doing all 4 pevensie kids (or however many of your choosing) for character bingo? i know they're probably not, like, blorbo status but your narnia posting around thanksgiving made me think of them. (if not them, i propose: owen bc your owen rants delight me, and judd bc. judd <333)

AKSJLDFKSHDGISLRIJSKHG UR SOOOO VALID ACTUALLY !!! i'm gonna do them all <333 because i want to <333 i've actually never read the narnia books so these are all the movie kids <3

lucy, edmund, susan, peter <3 you've awakened something in me <33

everything on this is derogatory <3 i have a rich inner world where owen is a genuinely interesting character with a genuinely interesting narrative but i also don't give a fuck about him so i'm probably never gonna talk about it <3

judd <333333333 my beloved <33333333333333 the only wrong thing he's ever done is support owen in any way shape or form and that's just down to the writing constantly propping owen up and so i choose to ignore it all <3

[softieskywalker]

To this day, I still think that the way George Lucas wrote Vader is SO cool

There’s something so darkly heartwarming and awesome about making Darth Vader, who morally speaking is an absolute monster that remorselessly hurts millions of innocent people and who is perhaps THE most feared person in the entire galaxy due to his visibility and feats, love his son Luke, the picture perfect definition of a pure hero who decides to operate on the power of love and optimism, so much

About making a huge chunk of his story in the OT revolve around him desperately trying to capture Luke because he just wants his son again

There is something so sweetly awful/awfully sweet about Darth Vader having 0 issues with brutally murdering other people’s sons but still having the audacity to go into an apoplectic rage if anyone dares do something as ~evil~ as even slightly harm HIS son

Terrifying villain dads loving their genuinely heroic protagonist sons is a trope that’s so awesome and yet so weirdly rare, and I LOVE how galaxy brained George Lucas was for making the Vader-Luke relationship like this

You know what this makes me remember in a real life example? In the Holocaust museum I saw a letter from a Nazi officer who was writing to his wife about how much he missed her and his children, how much he loved them, how he was going to bring them gifts when he went home. And he also described some of the horrendous atrocities he was doing, and it even said "killing so many (jews) is hard but you get used to it, you stop seeing them as people." I won't ever forget that phrase. Because it really struck me, how human it was. And how it's useless to see people who commit such crimes as monsters, because they are human, and humans are capable of these things.

Back to your point about Vader, he's such a force of evil for so long, he kills and tortures and destroys and yet he's still capable of loving his son and missing his late wife because fundamentally he's human, he never stopped being human. Humans are capable of horrendous things and it doesn't take away the capacity to love. It sounds so contradictory and yet it's true! And it's also an indicator of how selfish love can be. Because how can someone love so fiercely and also be a murderer, a torturer, a tyrant? Because love is not an inherently pure or absolute good thing, love can be selfish and destructive. That's Anakin's entire central conflict, how he loves so selfishly. And it's also amazing how Luke, someone who has so much selfless love to give, who never went without love, because Owen and Beru loved him, and Obi-Wan loved him, and Leia loved him, and Han, and everyone around him in some way loved him, he has love to spare. And he could somehow show Vader that he also could love in a way that wouldn't destroy him, but that it could heal him. And how, at the same time, Luke always craved that fatherly love, and Vader being so selfishly obsessed with him probably contributed to Luke forgiving his father for what he'd done to him and how much he had hurt him. Knowing Vader wasn't indifferent to him but rather wanted him, had wanted that child he thought he'd lost, that his existence in the universe wasn't unwanted, that probably meant so much to Luke. And it also proved to him, someone who never went without love, that he could be selfish about it too, and choose to forgive and try to redeem someone who did not deserve forgiveness nor redemption. In the eyes of the Galaxy Vader will always be a monster and a tyrant but for Luke, who allowed himself to love his father selfishly, he could be someone who in the end chose to save and protect him.

[messymindofmine]

I've been rewatching s2 and I can honestly say it is the messiest season in the entire show. I suppose it's kind of understandable since a) the show was still kind of finding it's footing with expanding on characters and plotlines and b) the pandemic really changed a lot of plans. The messiest thing they did though was the entire storyline revolving around Gwyn and Owen.

As much as I liked Gwyn, I never got the feeling even when the season first aired that she was meant to stick around for good and rewatching has reinforced that for me. Considering we barely even got a mention of her on s1, it seems very strange that they would suddenly have her moving in with Owen in s2. I suspect that the real reason she was even brought in is bc both the actress who played Zoe and Liv Tyler decided to leave and bc heaven forbid Owen have one season without a love interest or at least some female character that he has sexual tension with, they decided to bring Gwyn in. I do like that they chose Lisa Edelstein bc her and Rob Lowe obviously have great chemistry and it's a really cool nod to their time on the West Wing. It's actually really cool bc if you watch their scenes in the West Wing, you can kind of imagine them as a young Owen and Gwyn when they first got together. But then they introduced the whole baby thing. And the whole surprise baby storyline has always been my most despised trope in any show bc it is so narratively lazy and 99% of the time adds absolutely nothing to the show. It certainly didn't add anything to this one. There was literally no reason to bring that in especially considering that the plan was pretty obviously to always have Gwn and Owen break up again.

All this storyline did was make both Gwyn and Owen look pretty bad as parents. I usually defend Owen quite a bit (and will continue to do so bc the hate this man gets is truly ridiculous) but I do understand why people were so upset with him in s2. The Owen we saw in s2 was almost unrecognizable than the one we saw in s1. The version we got in s3 was better than what we got in early s2. It's like he literally forgot that he had a son during that time. And the same goes for Gwyn too. Not once did either Gwyn or Owen think about how they were hurting their son with the way they were behaving. The storyline also made no sense from a realistic perspective. Gwyn would've been in her 50s in s2 and at the very least pre-menopausal yet somehow she gets accidentally pregnant? And then the same Gwyn who is shown to be very pragmatic and reasonable doesn't once consider the very large risk factors involved with pregnancy at such an advanced age? Not to mention how that would affect her career at that point in her life? Instead Owen is shown to be the one who's struggling with the idea. Tbh as much as I commend the show for usually dealing with sensitive topics really well, this whole storyline gave me some real "written by men who have no idea how women even work" vibes. It made zero sense to have the storyline at all considering they have Owen and Gwyn break up anyway.

It made even less sense after they decided to kill Gwyn off. And tbh I wasn't even surprised that they decided to do that bc like I said, it was pretty obvious that Gwyn was never meant to be brought into the show to begin with. Even when they brought her back in s3, it was obviously done to fuel Owen's s3 mid-life crisis. In fact, this point is literally stated by Mateo. As sad as her death was bc I did like Gwyn, at least it contributed something to the show itself as well as allow a deeper look into TK's character. The same can not be said for the baby storyline at all.

I know some people have been upset that we don't see or hear any mention of Jonah or Enzo and I do understand why. It does seem really weird. But at the same time, I'm actually not upset bc I never liked that whole storyline to begin with and I'm glad to just forget about it lol. Besides, I feel that the baby storyline is similar to the Iris storyline but in the opposite direction. As in, with Iris they may well have planned something for her in s2 but bc Liv Tyler left they decided to scrap those plans. That's understandable but then by bringing her back in s4, they ended up creating all these plotholes for the previous seasons. But ok, at least Iris's storyline contributed something and we got introduced to an interesting new character. As I said before, I would be down for seeing Iris again. But with the baby thing, it was created pretty obviously for the sole purpose of drama, it clearly wasn't all that popular even at the time and I think the writers probably regretted creating it to begin with. Not that they'd ever admit it since they couldn't even admit that the Iris storyline was not something that they'd been planning the whole time even though it's super obvious. It genuinely feels like they started regretting it very early on but bc it's a procedural show on cable TV didn't feel comfortable really taking the plunge to maybe find a way to get rid of the storyline in a realistic way (eg miscarriage or abortion) and so just ended up going along with it in the messiest way possible. Any mention we got of the baby pretty much from the beginning felt so forced. As if the writers kept thinking "oh shoot we brought this in and now we have to follow it through." But now they have no reason to do so and I suspect that they're perfectly happy to effectively retcon the whole thing and act like it never happened. And you know what? I'm not even upset about it. All things considered, retconning it actually makes more sense that having had it in the first place. At least, they're still including Gwyn and remembering her. To me, that matters more. I'm not gonna tell anybody else what to do but I feel like it might just be better to go with the flow and erase the baby thing from our minds for our own sanity. It's not like the show makes it hard.

Anyway, I just needed to get these thoughts out bc rewatching the first couple of seasons with the hindsight that we have now is truly an experience

[morganaspendragonss]

I wanted to ask your opinion about the wedding scene from the promo is a dream. Like it looks really weird because of the lighting so maybe? Maybe, hopefully TK, is hurt and he dreams of it? I am desperate for the whump hahah. But what's more realistic... since they love making everything about Owen, he is the one hurt and dreaming about his son wedding? Like there are those theories that rl will leave the show since he don't spend more that four season on one show and he dies? Like I still can not stop thinking about that weird line from Gabriel about becoming family and seeing each other at the wedding. So maybe it's not Gabriel who misses it. And like it would be weird to kill a parent before the wedding, but unlike Carlos TK has his business resolved with his father so I can imagine them going with the wedding because Owen would like them to is more plausible. Adding to that the weird situation with his brother it somehow can lead to this. Or simply still it's his dream but he lives and they make the wedding about Owen like they always do. Sorry for the half bitter rant, I just can't stop coming up with new theories and generally thinking about the tragedy that's coming

hi anon, sorry it took me a minute to get to answering this.

i'm not fully subscribed to the theory that the wedding clips we have seen are a dream. i don't know why, i just can't see it, but i am usually very wrong about these things.

as for owen/rl, i want to clarify that, believe it or not, i have never seen anything rob lowe has been in other than lone star so i don't know first-hand about his history wrt leaving shows. i have heard the same theories from other fans that he always leaves after four/five seasons - honestly, i think we'd know about it if he was leaving lone star this season.

do i think the show could survive without rob lowe? yes, but it would take some careful handling. do i think the writers are going to be willing to take that chance? i doubt it. when rob lowe decides time is up, i think that'll be it.

so i don't think owen is dying. as for him getting injured, it's possible of course, but i personally don't see it. i should say here that i don't necessarily share the exact opinions you have about owen and i honestly believe that the wedding, and any plotlines which revolve around it, will ultimately be about tarlos. gunning for owen in the finale would be the easy way and trust me, i know the writers often do take the easy route, but i think it's much, much more likely that it's going to be gabriel who gets injured, if one of them does. narratively it makes more sense and it makes more sense with what we've seen in the promo, though of course the promo is about 15 seconds of a two hour long episode and i don't trust anything about it.

i hope that answers your question. sorry it got so rambly there

[charlenasaxen]

And Then There Were None Favorite Quotes

“One little soldier boy left all alone;

He went and hanged himself

And then there were None.”

“she had proceeded to Syria where she proposed to bask in a yet stronger sun”

“He’d have a gin and ginger beer. Fizzing hot day!”

“young women looked at him admiringly—his six feet of well-proportioned body and intensely blue eyes”

“Watch and pray,” he said. “Watch and pray. The day of judgment is at hand.”

“a car was coming. A car so fantastically powerful, so superlatively beautiful”

“a great roar of sound echoed from the rocks of the bay”

“a correct butler was awaiting them, and something about his gravity reassured them”

“there was no land to be seen anywhere—just a vast expanse of blue water rippling in the evening sun”

“something magical about an island—the mere word suggested fantasy”

“lost touch with the world—an island was a world of its own”

“Anthony Marston was in his bath. He luxuriated in the steaming water.”

“Emily Brent, dressed in black silk ready for dinner, was reading her Bible”

Into that silence came The Voice. Without warning, inhuman, penetrating….

“Ladies and gentlemen! Silence please!”

“Prisoners at the bar, have you anything to say in your defence?”

“somewhere outside the room there came a scream and the sound of a thud”

“Quite right, sir. It was entitled Swan Song.…”

“hoped I’d excuse informal invitation. Haven’t kept the letter, I’m afraid.”

“U. N. Owen. Or by a slight stretch of fancy, UNKNOWN!”

“And his mother—she was so kind. If even she didn’t blame me.”

“I left them to die.”

His amused eyes looked into her horrified ones.

“Beastly bad luck.”

“For them, or for you?”

“I killed her all right. Poor devil—elderly woman—simple job if I’d been sober.”

“He gasped for breath—then slid down off his chair, the glass falling from his hand”

“Dead? Dead? That young Norse God in the prime of his health and strength.”

“He was so alive. He was—oh—enjoying himself!”

“When he came down the hill in his car this evening he looked—he looked—oh I can’t explain!”

“Anthony Marston, in the height of his youth and manhood, had seemed like a being who was immortal. And now, crumpled and broken, he lay on the floor.”

“I shouldn’t have said Mr. Marston was a suicidal type of gentleman.”

“as though they clung to each other’s company for reassurance”

“Somehow, that was the most frightening thing of all….

They exchanged good-nights.”

“His fair hair, his blue eyes, his habit of looking you straight in the face with a pleasant air”

He was staring at the china figures in the centre of the table.

“That’s a rum go! I could have sworn there were ten of them.”

“But not the day that the lesson was read about David putting Uriah in the forefront of the battle”

“That charming girl—the voice had accused her of drowning a child! Idiotic!”

“He knew, suddenly, that he didn’t want to leave the island”

“Death was for—the other people….”

“Providence leaves the work of conviction and chastisement to us.”

“Notice how her husband hung over her as she was coming round. Not all husbandly solicitude!”

“There’s only eight, sir! Only eight! It doesn’t make sense, does it? Only eight.…”

“Vera did not answer. She was fighting down a rising feeling of panic.”

“My dear fellow, I’ve no medical knowledge.”

“No, no, I mean as to the general situation.”

“Oh, that’s different.”

“Why make me say it? When it’s on the tip of your own tongue. Anthony Marston was murdered, of course.”

“The Unknown Soldier! X! Mr. Owen! U. N. Owen! One Unknown Lunatic at Large!”

“Fact is, it must have been done! Now then, gentlemen, let’s make a start. Nobody’s got a revolver, by any chance?”

“Many homicidal lunatics are very quiet unassuming people. Delightful fellows.”

“If we had a boat, we’d all be halfway to the mainland by now!”

“It’s only in books people carry revolvers around as a matter of course.”

“That chap moves damned quietly. A minute or two ago we saw him in the garden.”

“What’s the sense of making yourself offensive?”

“Oh yes, Mr. Owen’s hand is plainly seen—but where the devil is Mr. Owen himself?”

Downstairs the gong pealed a solemn call to lunch.

“They knew—knew without being told….

As by common accord, they all rose to their feet.”

“Seven people looked at each other and could find no words to say”

“It is perfectly clear. Mr. Owen is one of us.…”

“If I may so express myself, a bogus little soldier boy.”

Lombard murmured to Vera Claythorne: “The summing up will now take place!”

“I don’t fancy that there’s anything insane about you, Vera. I’d stake my reputation on your sanity.”

With a slightly wry smile, Vera said: “Thank you.”

“That must go to a man’s head eventually. He gets to see himself as all powerful.”

THE MURDERER’S NAME IS BEATRICE TAYLOR….

“Did I write that? Did I? I must be going mad….”

“Anyway it doesn’t matter. You can’t kill anybody with an oilsilk curtain. Forget about it.”

“Good night, gentlemen. May we all meet safely in the morning!”

“No more china-soldier tricks tonight. I’ve seen to that….”

“Vera Claythorne was dressed. Emily Brent’s room was empty.”

“My dear girl, I’m prepared to think anything of anyone!”

It was Vera who saw it first.

“The soldiers! Look!”

There were only six china figures in the middle of the table.

“It corresponded only too well with the deep wound in the back of Rogers’ head….”

“The girl could have done it easily—she’s an athletic type.”

Shaken with wild bursts of laughter: “Do they keep bees on this island? Tell me that. Where do we go for honey? Ha! ha!”

“She’s not a hysterical type.”

Armstrong agreed.

“Oh no. Good healthy sensible girl. Just the sudden shock.”

“Hadn’t turned a hair! That girl, coming all over hysterical—well, that’s natural.”

“She’d only do that if she knew that she had nothing to fear. That’s to say if she herself is the criminal.”

“All I can say is, if you’re the criminal, you’re a damned fine actor and I take my hat off to you.”

“Miss Claythorne was wonderful—kept her head—started off swimming after Cyril at once.”

“Six people, behaving normally at breakfast….”

“Bees and honey….

She liked honey. Honey in the comb.”

“There was no one else in the house. She was all alone….

She heard footsteps—soft dragging footsteps.”

“The bee was buzzing—buzzing….

And then she felt the prick.

The bee sting on the side of her neck….”

Vera cried: “Look—a bee—a bumble bee. Remember what I said this morning!”

“The contents of the suitcase were turned out on the floor.

The hypodermic syringe was not there.”

“Then he recoiled with an oath.

The drawer of the bed table was empty.”

“Beside it was a smashed china figure—a sixth broken soldier boy”

“without result. The revolver was still missing.”

“One of us … One of us … One of us….”

Three words, endlessly repeated.”

“five enemies linked together by a mutual instinct of self-preservation”

“She looked dazed. She was like a bird that has dashed its head against glass.”

“The depressing sound of the pattering rain nearly drove them mad”

“one person left the room at a time. The other four waited till the fifth returned.”

“Only a quarter past three!… Oh, God, I shall go mad myself”

“Five candles were lit and placed about the room.

The time was a quarter to six.”

“As she opened her door, she suddenly halted and stood stock still”

“Vera screamed. She screamed and screamed—screams of the utmost terror—wild desperate cries for help.”

“What’s happened?” “Good God, what is it?”

“I got it from downstairs.”

Vera cried: “I won’t drink it….”

“Good for you, Vera. You’ve got your wits about you.”

Vera, her wits revived by the brandy, made a diversion by saying: “Where’s the judge?”

“Of course, he’d be bound to go slower than we did. He’s an old man.”

“There was no answer. A deadly silence filled the house.”

“what shocked and startled the onlookers was the fact that he sat there robed in scarlet with a judge’s wig”

her voice shook with horror: “Miss Brent’s missing grey wool….”

“Here’s one more of us who’s been proved innocent—too late!”

Vera said: “I shall never eat tongue again.”

“That’s what he said … and now he’s dead!”

“Everyone dashes up there thinking she’s being murdered. And so—in the confusion—someone—caught the old boy off his guard.”

“Miss Claythorne was screaming, the wind was howling, we were running about and calling out.”

Vera staggered to her feet. She said: “I feel awful. I must go to bed … I’m dead beat.”

“They went up the stairs.

The next move was a little like a scene in a farce.”

“Four frightened people were barricaded in until morning”

“He stood there, staring down at the revolver that was inside it….”

“Oh, good egg, Miss Claythorne! That will be a lark!”

“He hadn’t answered the one letter she had written to him….

Hugo.…”

“She didn’t like that hook on the ceiling. It drew your eyes, fascinated you … a big black hook….”

“Somebody in the house had got that revolver….

Downstairs a clock struck one.”

Vera’s voice, startled, answered him. “Who is it? What’s the matter?”

He rapped sharply on the panel.

“Armstrong—Armstrong.”

There was no answer.

“We’re hunting Armstrong. He’s out of his room. Whatever you do, don’t open your door.”

“Only open your door if both Blore and I speak to you. Got that?”

“Don’t be a damned fool, Blore! I’m not going to shoot you!”

“she, like an idiot, would remain barricaded in her room until it was too late”

Lombard’s voice said: “Vera. You all right?”

“Yes. What happened?”

“The window has been smashed—and there are only three little soldier boys on the table.”

“It might have been thrown into the sea.”

Lombard said sharply: “By whom? You? Me?”

“There’s a slight difference in size, my dear, between a man and a revolver.”

“We’re the Zoo… Last night, we were hardly human anymore. We’re the Zoo.…”

“Why, I could shoot you both this very minute if I liked.”

“And supposing he gets—us?”

Lombard said softly, patting the revolver in his pocket: “I’m going to take very good care he doesn’t.”

“Touching faith in me, haven’t you, Vera? Quite sure I wouldn’t shoot you?”

Vera said desperately: “All right. I’ll come with you.”

“It was shaped like a bear….”

But Vera clung to him. She cried: “Don’t be a fool. It’s us now! We’re next!”

“He’s twice as cunning as any one sane can be.”

Lombard put back the revolver in his pocket. He said: “Come on, then.”

“And if any one comes up toward us, I shall shoot!”

Vera said with a raucous laugh: “Cold? I should be colder if I were dead!”

“The man was wedged between two rocks, flung there by the tide”

“Slowly, very slowly, Vera Claythorne and Philip Lombard lifted their heads and looked into each other’s eyes….”

Lombard laughed. He said: “So that’s it, is it, Vera?”

His voice was a snarl—dangerous—menacing: “This is the end, you understand. We’ve come to the truth.”

“Vera leaned against him, helping him. She pulled and tugged with all her might.”

“Satisfied?”

Vera said: “Quite.”

Her tone warned him.

“Even as he clapped his hand to his pocket he knew that he would find it empty”

“Give that revolver to me.”

Vera laughed.

“Automatically Vera pressed the trigger….

Lombard’s leaping body stayed poised in mid-spring then crashed heavily.”

“There was no more fear—no more steeling of her nerves….

She was alone on the island….”

“She sat there—exquisitely happy—exquisitely at peace …

No more fear….”

“By her own quick-wittedness and adroitness she had turned the tables on her would-be destroyer”

“The sun was setting, the sky to the west was streaked with red and orange. It was beautiful and peaceful….”

“One little soldier boy left all alone.

She smiled to herself.”

“Ordinarily one wouldn’t care to sleep where there’s a dead body in practically every bedroom!”

“There were still three little china figures in the middle of the table.

Vera laughed.”

“You’re behind the times, my dears.”

She picked up two of them and tossed them out.”

“You can come with me. We’ve won, my dear! We’ve won!”

“She did not notice that she had dropped the revolver. She was only conscious of clasping a little china figure.”

“He went and hanged himself and then there were None….”

The little china figure fell from her hand.

“But afterwards you went on remembering….

She climbed up on the chair.”

“Hugo was there to see she did what she had to do.

She kicked away the chair….”

“And what does he say about it all?”

“He can’t say anything, sir, he’s dead.”

“They’d begun to feel that anything to do with Soldier Island would necessarily be incredible.”

“As a matter of fact she behaved very well, swam out to the rescue.”

“But if so, who took away the revolver from him? For that revolver was found up in the house.”

“But that chair wasn’t found kicked over. It was, like all the other chairs, neatly put back. That was done after Vera Claythorne’s death—by someone else.”

“he was not the man that you’d ever accuse of a desire for abstract justice.”

“But in that case,” he said, “who killed them?”

“It thrills me still—and for that reason I have adopted this course—writing my confession”

“deliberate murder—and all quite untouchable by the law”

“the inexorable diminishment—the sense of inevitability”

“their word is perforce believed by virtue of their profession”

He said, “I’ve known a murderess—known her, I tell you. And what’s more I was crazy about her…”

“You see, she did it more or less for me … Not that I ever dreamed …”

“What she didn’t realize was that I loved that kid….”

“No, my death should take place in a blaze of excitement. I would live before I died.”

“now to the actual mechanics of the crime”

“Those whose guilt was the lightest should, I decided, pass out first, and not suffer the prolonged mental strain”

“somehow, you know, it pleased me. I liked adhering as closely as possible to my nursery rhyme.”

“A little plaster of red mud on the forehead—the red curtain and the wool and the stage was set”

“A red herring swallowed one…” He took the red herring all right.

“I saw Vera Claythorne shoot Lombard. A daring and resourceful young woman.”

“state of nervous tension consequent on having just shot a man, be sufficient, together with the hypnotic suggestion of the surroundings”

“I shall be found, laid neatly on my bed, shot through the forehead in accordance”

“Times of death cannot be stated with any accuracy by the time our bodies are examined”

“There will come from the mainland boats and men.

And they will find ten dead bodies and an unsolved problem.”

[thewalkingdead-imagines]

My Take on TLOU 2

Warning: Major spoilers for tlou part 1 and 2 below!

Before I start: None of my criticism is meant as hate against anyone who loved the game. This is just my personal opinion, if you liked it or feel differently than me, that’s completely fine, to each their own!  Also, this is solely about the plot, not the gameplay, the scenery, the graphics etc. because those were unarguably breathtaking and incredibly well done. Either way, here we go:

• Starting off with the elephant in the room: I absolutely hated that they killed Joel. I hated this so so much. 

1. The fact that they killed him at all Killing off a main Character is rarely the right call and it most definitely wasn't the right one for tlou in my opinion. Joel and Ellie’s father-daughter relationship and its growth was what made the first game so special and by killing Joel, they killed a whole lot of the game’s essence already. Plus, and this is a personal thing, I (and I am 100% sure lots of others) loved Joel as character, which makes killing him off even worse. ...which lets me come to my second point

2. How they killed him First, the fact that they did it so very early on in the game. I spoiled myself on accident and knew he was going to die way before I even started the initial game but I can say that I was entirely shocked that it happened at the start. I thought it might be done towards the middle, which would have at least given us some time with him and a possibility to say “goodbye” in a way but instead you get very few moments with him at the start and then his death. That’s it. That alone is a punch in the face for anyone who loved this character and the first game. Then, they make him save Abby only for her to lead them into an ambush. I was also very confused that they made Joel follow her without questioning it, sure this one is debatable, but after years and years of being a hardened survivor, do you really think he would just trust a random stranger? He grew softer, sure, and he also grew to trust people more, but not enough to just follow a random stranger who said they had a whole ass group without questioning it at least for a moment. He didn’t even seem to be just slightly wary and to be honest, that just seemed unnatural to me.  The brutality of his death is another punch in the face. Abby tortured him, for god knows how long. She first shot his kneecap off and then tortured him until he laid paralyzed on the ground, blood overflown and barely conscious. They did that to a character the whole first game lead you to love. Then they make Ellie come in to watch Abby give him the rest with a fucking golf curb while she pleads for his life. Sorry but what the fuck? We’ve seen Joel survive so fucking much, he’s survived being impaled by an iron rod for fuck’s sake and took out whatever people threw at him and he dies like that? Without even giving him the possibility to fight back? There’s so much going on in my head when I think about that moment that I honestly can’t even put all of this into words.

• I get that this all was done to set up the remaining plot and honestly, that was the next problem in my eyes. This whole story revolved around a revenge plot and how much you have to stop this circle of revenge. To me, that’s more of a predicable and overused plot but that might be a personal thing. My problem is even more that they made the whole story about this and that it felt like a severely forced teaching moment / moral of the story type of thing that lasted for 25(?) hours. I’m not against teaching moments per se, that’s not the thing, and I wanna be clear about that but I hate it when its a. forced b. way too obvious and feels unnatural, and to me that was the case in the second part.

• Now about 1/3 through the game, I didn’t want to completely give up on it yet. I thought/hoped there might be a chance for me to even somehow like it in the end. So I wanted to  stay open and for a little I could still see that there was a bit of the essence of the first game left. I loved the cut scenes of Joel and Ellie so so much. I can’t emphasize how much I adore them. They did a great job with them, really. The scenes at the museum are pure perfection and they honestly made me despise the fact that they decided to kill him even more. I will never get over Ellie putting the hats on the dinosaurs and Joel, and I will surely not get over his gift to her. This guy went out and searched his ass off to find her a cassette with the first moon-landing, just to be sure that he has the perfect gift for her. This is beyond adorable. I’ve rewatched these scenes so often already and they honestly get me emotional each time. These scenes felt like the first game again, they gave you that cozy, warm feeling when you got to watch their relationship grow. I also loved the guitar shop (or their way towards it) cut scene, it kind of conveyed what I would’ve wished for for the entire game. A good bunch of action and horror when they have to make their way through but it still has the essence of their relationship and their story when they discuss the teenager’s deaths.

• In short, I really really wanted to see more of these cut scenes and kept on hoping for more until they switched everything up and a cut scene for Abby started. 

• I already expected them to try and make Abby look better or made the thing she did to Joel kind of “understandable”, especially because I’ve seen that there were people who really started to love her character. So I kind of expected something big to happen. To me, it didn’t. So her father was the surgeon that Joel killed. Sure she hated Joel (fair enough, he killed her parent) but is that enough for me to understand, excuse etc. what she did in Jackson? Fuck no and that has several reasons. → Joel didn’t kill (nor fucking tortured!!) her father because of something small, like a few supplies etc. he killed him because he literally was about to kill his adopted daughter for a vaccine that might have not even worked out. He killed him to protect someone. Also:  → Her father moreover visibly seemed to doubt that he would do this procedure if Abby was the immune girl, which is pretty much hypocritical bullshit. → Abby’s father didn’t give a shit about Ellie too, he could have let her wake up and make a conscious decision whether she wanted to do this, he didn’t. He just approved of killing her → He threatened Joel with a surgical knife  → He would have stayed alive if he would have let Joel just go with Ellie / refrained from killing her  So this honestly didn’t make me feel for her, this only made my rage for her grow. She had to know that Joel killed her father (and prevented the vaccine) because he didn’t want this little girl to die for something that might have not even worked. Then, he saves her ass from a sure death and she still decides to torture him to death? There was not one moment of doubt in Abby, not one and what makes it worse is that she doesn’t show any remorse about what she did at any time during the game

• I really hoped that they would stop after this but they really made you play all 3 days as Abby, the same time as Ellie. They really force you to play as character who has killed and brought so much pain over the characters you grew to love (probably as an attempt to force you to like her after seeing her side). So instead of using these hours to give you time to play with these beloved characters, they give it to her. Sorry but that’s bullshit. 

• Besides this, it also absolutely threw off the pace of the plot. You just wanted to know what happens to Ellie now that Abby on top of it all also killed Jesse (!!!) and instead you get thrown back to square one. • I’m not interested in her weird love triangle with Owen and Mel, I don’t care how she got from Salt lake city to Seattle and I don’t care about her work out program. All these plots just frustrated me more tbh.

• Now, I wanna add that I tried to ask myself if I would’ve liked her if she hadn’t killed Joel and honestly, I’m 100% sure I wouldn’t. I just really don’t like her personality. All this time she just seemed bitter and boring, moreover she repeatedly said that she helped those others for herself and to top it off, she also fucked a guy with a pregnant girlfriend (fuck Owen too btw). So again, how do you expect me to like her?

• I did like Lev and Yara. Honestly, if naughtydog wanted to do something so very new, they could’ve just made a whole story about Lev’s struggles within this post apocalyptic community. That would have at least been interesting and wouldn’t have fucked your favorite characters over, just saying.

• Now flash-forward to the scene back at the theater. Abby’s just killed Jesse, she’s got Tommy hurt on the floor and then you’re forced to play as her and hurt Ellie? Fuck that  (Also, the way they had Ellie walk around in that scene? C’mon that’s not how she’d walk around a room while she’s searching for her enemy)

• This thing kind of leads to one thing that wraps up a lot of the end well, Ellie was panicked and broke down when she realized that Mel was pregnant, Abby said “good” when Ellie plead for Dina’s life and said that she was pregnant. I’m not saying that there’s a general difference between Ellie killing people and Abby killing people, it’s obviously shit either way but there’s a clear difference in how they handle it. Ellie is clearly distraught while Abby stays cold, and after everything (also everything else I’ve mentioned) they still wanna make you sympathize with Abby and be angry with Ellie for doing all this. A lot of the game is set up to this (at least that’s what i felt like). Just one example: Abby plays fetch with dog, Ellie is forced to kill dog (also, weird how you’re just forced to kill dogs when you play as Ellie and not Abby, huh?)

• While naughtydog tried to make YOU (as well as Ellie, honestly) see all the different points of views they make Abby entirely ignorant to it, without any remorse and still try to make you have sympathy for her. She does not try to be insightful regarding what she’s done to Joel and see Ellie/Joel’s side just once. She actually mentions that Joel deserved much worse and suggests she did everything right in Jackson. This ignorance and complete lack of remorse...I think this is one of by biggest problems with this plot. Also, that very last attempt to make you feel for Abby when she’s lost her bulk and stand at those pillars? Really? Kinda cheap 

• Again, I get where they wanted to go with the story. I get that they wanted to show that you lose everything when you just seek for revenge and that the circle needs to be broken, but it was so one-sided in the end. Both, Abby and Ellie lost a lot, but Ellie loses absolutely everyone and Abby still has Lev. Ellie loses even two fingers, which doesn’t even allow her to play guitar, which is another fucking punch in the face. It was more about letting Ellie face the consequences instead of Abby and to me, that’s just the wrong call to make after the entire first game lead you to love her and Joel. So, it felt dissatisfying to let Abby go in the end. I get why they did that but it felt like this whole journey was for absolutely nothing. Especially after they ripped her from a life with Dina and JJ to go back to hunting Abby down. She lost everything and didn’t even get to end it. 

• Generally, what this game did...I don’t think that this is something you do with beloved characters. You just don’t do them completely dirty and they did so with Ellie and Joel. People loved this game majorly because of Joel and Ellie’s story and relationship and were excited to see more of it in the next part and they screwed those people, their viewers and players, completely over. You don’t have to be a complete viewer pleaser, don’t get me wrong, but you also don’t need to completely shit all over them. After all, these are the people who buy and support your game, it’s just not fair to them.

• This might be a personal thing but I’ve seen so many creators ruin good stories just because they wanted to do something super creative, edgy and entirely new with it. 99% of the time that goes horribly wrong. Don’t get me wrong, you have to do new things to keep it fresh but at the same time you cannot lose what made a story special in the first place. You have to make sure to keep the essence of the story alive and at the same time do something new with it. Unfortunately, i feel like the creators of this game didn’t even want to keep this essence alive, they just wanted to do something entirely new and they belong to the 99% who managed to ruin it.

• You know what I would have loved as plot for the second game? If they would have let Ellie explore that her life can mean something and matter even without a vaccine. The first game even perfectly set the second one up for this. Resolving Joel and Ellie’s conflict + making Ellie realize that she’s more than just her immunity + a new adventure...that would have perfectly continued the story. It would have kept the essence of the game going and mixed it with something new. Now, they pretty much ignored how Ellie felt about this part (except for two cut scenes and a tiny bit here and there) which was pretty much her main issue since she got bit. The last cut scene with Joel and her outside...it just made we wish so much that they got the chance to properly talk everything out. And by now, I kinda just pretend that everything after this night didn’t happen.

• So honestly, I’m just very disappointed and upset. It felt like they were mostly just trying to prove that they had the balls to pull a plot like this off, to show that they had the balls to kill a beloved main character and have you play with their killer.  Sure, that might be ballsy and bold, but to me, that’s not what good story telling is about. Good story telling is not a game of “my dick is bigger than yours”. But maybe that’s just my opinion.

And there’s one more thing: Happy endings aren’t always bad, lazy and unrealistic And depressing endings aren’t automatically creative, deep and good I feel like that’s something a lot of creators don’t realize

[dream-a-little-bigger-x]

Chapter 23 -- Perfect Harmony | Charlie Gillespie

Summary: Emily Fox is a talented 17-year-old with a passion for all things music. Her dream is to become a successful singer-songwriter one day. But to achieve that dream, she needs to get into one of the most prestigious music schools in her district – it’s all been part of her plan since she was six. Sadly enough, those schools cost a ton of money that her parents don’t want to invest. They don’t even want her to pursue her dream. So, now Emily’s hustling, working at the music store to save up to get into college. That’s until she meets Charlie, an annoying seventeen-year-old boy with the same dream as her. The only difference is, he’s just doing it. He doesn’t need a fancy college to pursue his dream to become famous with his band. He just writes his songs and books small gigs here, there and everywhere. Will meeting Charlie defer her from her dream college, or will he actually help her achieve the dream?

Pairing: Charlie Gillespie x OC (Emily Fox)

Warnings: mentions of death, sexual assault

Important note: the characters of Charlie, Owen, Jeremy and Madison are based on the characters they play on the show and i do not own their names, only OC are mine. The songs aren’t mine either, they’re all from the show except for one.

~|Charlie Gillespie|~

“Since when do we go shopping?” I ask them as we enter a clothing store. “We’re not, I just need to pick up a sweatshirt I saw online,” Owen replies and goes straight to a clothing rack, picking out a light pink sweater. He holds it up for us to see. “Nice, huh?” “Pink really is your color,” Jeremy compliments with a smile, then turns to me, “Don’t you think, Char?” I’m aware they’re only trying to keep me busy and happy, but it’s not really working. It somehow feels like I see Emily everywhere I go. “Yeah, it’s a cool sweater, Oh.” Owen offers me a sympathetic smile before heading to the cash register to pay for it. While I look around, shoving clothes back and forth on the rail, pretending to be interested in any of it, Jeremy looks at me. I can feel his eyes burning on the side of my neck. “You okay, buddy?” My question startles him a little. “Uhm, yeah… Just really unsure of what to talk about with you…” I raise my eyebrows at him, fully focusing on my best friend now. He draws in a deep breath. “All I can think about is Emily and how we can get her back, but I don’t know if I can even mention her to you or talk about her because you get all sad and teary-eyed,” he points at me, “Like that! But I miss her so much, bro. Like, I get she was your girlfriend, but she’s become my best friend and I really do miss her.” I manage a smile and pat him on the shoulder. “We all miss her, man,” I wrap my arm around him and start leading him towards the exit, knowing Owen has wrapped up and is in tow. “I swear, if I knew a way that could get her back, I would. But I went over there Saturday, and Mitch said she really wasn’t up for any visitors. I even texted Madi and she told me to leave Emily alone for a little while. I’m sure that, once we come up with a good idea to get her audition back, she’ll talk to us again.” I take a deep breath. “And if we don’t, I guess I’ll just be sad forever.” “And if we don’t,” Owen chimes in, “We’ll take the time to heal. You’ll take the time to heal. Even if that means no band rehearsals for a while until you find your love for music again.” I take in a deep breath. He’s not wrong, and I know he isn’t, but it’s still hard to believe. “I think I left my love for music with Emily,” I say, which earns me a pained expression from the boys. “Where to next? Anything else we need to pick up?” “We could head into the Music Shack?” Jeremy points at the music store at the mall. Everything revolving music reminds me of Emily, but I nod anyway and follow the boys to the store. All three of us walk around separately for a while, and I find myself at the pianos without even noticing. I press a couple of the keys, a soft melody bellowing out until my fingers subconsciously start playing Emily’s song Wake Up. “So get up, get out, relight that spark You know the rest by heart,” I sing out the lyrics I know by heart now. Her voice even resounds in my brain. I wish she were here to sing it for me but instead I’m faced with the reality again that Emily is angry at me and hasn’t talked to me in almost a week. I don’t know how I’m supposed to go on without her. The fire in my heart has been snuffed out. “Hey, bro, ready to go?” Jeremy asks, suddenly seemingly nervous. He fiddles with his flannel again, not even daring to look at me. They probably heard me and are now sad Emily wasn’t the one singing the song. Even though it was just one line. “Uhm… Yeah, let’s go!” I step out of the shop and want to go left, but the boys grab my arm and pull me into the other direction. “We came from there, guys,” I tell them as they push me further. “Yeah! I uh… I forgot something!” Owen says, and I can tell he’s hiding something. “Coffee! We forgot coffee!” Jeremy chimes in, pointing to the coffee shop a few feet further. “Let’s go get some coffee, Char!” He grabs me by the hand and pulls me with him into the coffee shop. I look at Owen, who’s looking at something behind him for a moment before following suit. We stand in line for coffee, my two best friends fidgety and nervous. It makes me wonder what’s gotten into them. I want to ask when Owen’s eyes grow wide. “I-I forgot my wallet at the music store,” he says, “How stupid!” And rushes out of the store. I glance at Jeremy, hoping he’d give off some explanation, but instead, he’s looking at the menu, trying to figure out what to pick. “What are you going to drink?” he asks, “I think I might go for a Frappuccino,” he blabs nervously, and I find him still fidgeting with his flannel. “I think I might go for a black coffee,” I reply, suspicion rising within me. “Are you guys okay?” “What?!” Jeremy suddenly sounds offensive. “Of course we’re okay! Just a lack of coffee, is all.” I blink a couple of times. Both of them had coffee this morning. I turn my head to find Owen walking back this way and another guy walking the opposite direction. With his ginger hair and small posture, he looks exactly like Uncle Mitch. “Hey, was that Mitch?” I ask when Owen joins us again. “What? No! I wasn’t—I wasn’t talking to anyone.” He immediately breaks eye contact with me and looks up at the menu now too. “I’m going to go for a cappuccino. What are you guys going for?” Jeremy and Owen have always been weird, but this is topping everything. They’re hiding something from me, and I want to know what. “You’re hiding something from me,” I blurt out. Owen and Jeremy look up at me, both looking like deer in headlight. I busted them and now I’m waiting for a response. “What’s going on?” “Next,” the barista says, and Jeremy steps up to order, dropping the conversation. I will find out what they’re hiding from me, even if it’s the last thing I’ll do.

“What are we going to do about this audition thing?” I ask the boys when we’re walking away from the coffee shop. The conversation in there has been stilted, neither of us knowing what to say. I did ask for an explanation for their weird behavior, but neither of them ever answered. “I don’t know, man…” Jeremy replies, “I mean, I would do anything to get Emily in that school, but they’re pretty strict. Guidelines are guidelines…” “Yeah, they’re guidelines. Not actual rules,” I mumble, fidgeting with the bracelet around my wrist, not even looking where I’m going. “It just frustrates me we can’t do anything.” Owen’s hand comes up to my chest, stopping me. When I look up at him, his eyes are wide, staring at something ahead of him. I turn my head slowly, and when I find what they’re looking at, everything instantly makes sense. Emily’s sitting at a table, eating ice cream with her uncle and Madison. She’s the only one with her back to us. “We’re sorry, Charlie, we tried to keep you away from her when we saw her earlier,” Jeremy apologizes, but I barely hear him. All I can see and hear is Emily. She’s talking about something to Madison. None of the words seem coherent. Then a soft laugh erupts from her body, warming the fire in my heart just slightly. Madison’s eyes meet mine, and they grow in shock. “I think we’ve done enough shopping for the day!” I hear Mitch say and the three of them get up. Mitch grabs their shopping bags while Madison wraps an arm around Emily and guides her away. The girl turns around, mouthing a ‘sorry’ my way. I didn’t think seeing Emily would hurt me so much. Maybe it’s the not being able to talk to her or sing with her. Or maybe it’s the not being able to touch her or tuck a strand behind her ear. It kills me to see her. Because all it reminds me of is the fight we had in the parking lot. “Can we go now?” I ask, my eyes pooling with tears. Both Owen and Jeremy offer me a sympathetic smile before putting their arm around my shoulders and guiding me out of the mall. There’s no way I’m ever going to get over Emily. We need to figure something out.

Taglist: @parkeret​ @lukeys-giggle @gingerxarmy @lovesanimals @hannahhistorian92 @marinettepotterandplagg @thequirkybookaholic @ashleyleblancx @calamitykaty @lolychu @bookdealer5 @tenaciousperfectionunknown @hemmingsness @siennanoelle01 @iainttakingshitfromnobody @ifilwtmfc @luckylouiebug @kiss-themoongoodbye @camiladelrio98 @myfriendscallmebeans

[a-shakespearean-in-paris]

Thoughts on The Last of Us Part 2

This critique is spoiler heavy, so tread with caution. I also talk about more than the game. However, non-spoiler opinions: (and again, I want to stress this is my opinion)

This game does not have the same DNA as the first last of us. That’s not a total strike against LOUP2. Yet the first game succeeded so well in creating a relatively simple road trip narrative that was rooted around character growth, with the provoking questions it raised comknf naturally. TLOUP2 revolves so heavily on the message it’s trying to send, that the character and narrative writings suffers to mold around the parable...which doesn’t fully even succeed in that regard. Environments and game play however are pretty solid, and if you liked those aspects of the first game, they outdid themselves here, so you’ll probably like this game’s go around. Does it make it worthwhile to play? That’s a case by case basis, but I have to say that exploring the world made me want to continue the game. And if anything, I’d say this game is a relatively easy platinum trophy to collect. And despite this very long critique where I really dive in, (because that is what I do, it’s in my nature.) I’m glad I played, because I had an enjoyable experience.

anyway, on with the nitty gritty. Please keep in mind that even as I seem harsh, I did not hate this game. Aspects of it pissed me off , and I think it’s broken in a lot of respects, but certainly not a failure of design, game build, and acting.

When I think of the perfect sequel, (and please, bare with me) Shrek 2 comes to mind. It expands the world in a meaningful way, introduces new characters that seamlessly fit in with the dynamic, lets the established characters have more growth without cheapening what happened in the first part, and stays true to the core DNA of the first film. I’m not saying that all sequels need to follow this formula, (I love Silent Hill 2) but The Last of Us 2 was not a fulfilling sequel in any of these regards. Joel and Ellie in the first game, as well as the other characters, felt like real people who made decisions that made sense for their characters. In this game, we have a clumsily patched together narrative that is simultaneously simple and yet far too much for it to handle. This is not a narrative-driven story, but a parable about the dangers of revenge. And while not a bad parable to tell, I could easily pick up Moby Dick or a myriad of other works that detail the “revenge is all consuming and unhealthy” narrative. Now, was LOU particularly new with it’s story? No. But the characters made it worthwhile and fresh. Additionally, the narrative of this game is so riddled with hypocrisy that the parable it’s trying to tell almost misses the mark.

Before further diving in, I also want to talk about one more detour as a preface: Game of Thrones season 8 (and please, bare with me again.) My biggest issue with season eight was how unearned everything was. Most egregiously and infamously, Dany and Jaime’s fates was not rooted in her past actions, therefore making their fates make sense, but rooted in the final outline Benioff and Weiss had. The writers had a plan, and they made the characters fit that plan no matter what, no matter that the characters had grown and changed and had arcs that didn’t make sense with the final plan, leaving a lot of people, including me, note how unearned everything was. LOU2 feels similar. Druckman had a plan, and he made the characters fit that plan, no matter how many gaps in logic there was, no matter how unearned it was. Joel dying the way he did was not very Joel-like as established in LOU. That man noticed an ambush right on sight as he was driving with Ellie into Pittsburgh, while this Joel walks right into an ambush and let’s himself be cornered by a group of unknown people. Maybe you can say that he got softer living in Jackson, or the storm gave no alternatives, but it reads to me as more as Druckman needed Joel to die to set off his plot.  

And with that, now’s a good time to talk about Abby, because rather than being an organic character that fits seamlessly into the narrative, she feels inelegantly shoved into the game to fit the message and parable. In the prologue we learn little about Abby and are forced to run away and learn about the game mechanics with her, and most players are here to continue Joel and Ellie’s story, so cutting away to this new character away from Ellie is intrusive. You as a player may have also have heard Druckmann say Ellie was the only playable character and purposely avoided the leaks, so you’re bamboozled as well. It gets worse after we shift to Abby for a good ten hours after Ellie kills Owen and Mel. We’re supposed to feel compelled to play as Abby for a ten hour needlessly complicated side quest when the game jarringly cuts to her...even though she mercilessly beat Joel with a golf club and just shot Jesse, who, IMO, is one of the most likable new characters (and also one of the many minority characters in the LOU franchise that serve as props to the main characters and ultimately meets a sad end, but that aspect of the game is worthy of a whole other post.) 

Playing as Abby for as long as you do at the halfway point is a tough and unearned pill to swallow, not helped by the fact that we know how this long extended flashback is going to end, so the stakes are never high. No matter what happens, Owen, Mel, Nora and Alice are going to die, and Abby is going to find Ellie. Furthermore, you’ve spent a long time as a player buffing Ellie with supplements, upgrading weapons, and using her arsenal. Suddenly, you have to rewire you’re playstyle and get used to new weapons. They’re not totally different, but I can see how going back to square one when you’re halfway through the game can put a player off really quickly. I read the leaks so I knew this was coming, but I had no clue how bloated this section would be with the meandering plot and WLF/ Seraphite conflicts that still somehow aren’t explained well enough. In Abby’s section, plot things and character development things go at such a hyper speed, with relationships developing mega quickly, that I had a hard time believing it, especially compared to the first game when relationships took time and were earned. I think the sex scene is a good metaphor for this section of the game as a whole. they talk, talk, talk about unrelated things, Abby pushes Owen, and then they randomly have sex. which by the way, was done pretty tastelessly in my opinion. ND could have just cut away when they started making out, or if you absolutely had to hold the frame, if you really had the actors to do that in mocap suits, maybe make the situation more morally grey...because it is morally grey. Owen has a baby on the way with another woman. What a way to endear these two characters. I’m not one who gets squeamish with sex in media, and I understand the game’s M rating has a warning. But when you cut away a love scene between two women before things get too heated, but have no problem with showing that, I’m going to raise some eyebrows. 

Abby’s section is like an overly complicated side quest in the larger narrative, with missions that have little to nothing to do with Ellie, so watching Abby’s story play out doesn’t feel like a meaningful look into the character and world we don’t get as Ellie, but an overtly complicated way ND created to get us to like Abby and invest us in her found family. But it took a whole game and about a full year for Ellie and Joel to be father and daughter, and by the end of Abby’s section we’re expected to believe she and Lev have that same bond. It’s so glaringly apparent that they were trying to mirror Ellie and Joel with Abby and Lev, but they banked so hard on us as the player assuming and understanding that aspect, that the development wasn’t cultivated well enough for me. I think more time was needed--especially since you don’t even meet Lev and Yara until you’re an hour or so into her story. Abby’s section feels like a whole other game was tacked on, and not a piece of the puzzle that neatly fits into the larger narrative.  In fact, both Lev and Yara feel like tacked on props to make Abby more likable. 

However, ND is inconsistent with this likability factor, because there are key elements to Abby’s writing that don’t make her endearing to the player. Unlike Ellie, who is visibly shaken with each kill, Abby displays no regrets whatsoever. She doesn’t have any qualms killing her fellow WLF soldiers later in the game, but more infuriating for players, she has no regrets about killing Joel. She does it, and she moves on. The game even seems to celebrate her, with some of her friends saying he deserved worse, despite the fact that  Ellie was on the floor crying and begging for her to stop. (BTW Mel is pretty hypocritical to me. At one point she says she regrets taking part in Joel’s murder, but during it, she wanted Ellie killed. Then later says Joel’s death was too brutal...even if he deserved worse? It’s just another thread of inconsistency in this game.) 

Abby not thinking things through when Ellie is crying on the floor before Joel’s murder is another example of characters making strange, if not outright bad decisions because Neil needs his plot. Abby could have put the pieces together, realized Joel wanted to save Ellie because clearly they care about each other, and yes he did a bad thing and killed her father, but if there’s a crying girl on the floor, maybe he did it because of love. (Or she could have just killed Tommy and Ellie because what’s stopping her from thinking they won’t want revenge like she does? But again, Druckmann needs his plot.) 

But no, Abby is merciless, and then suddenly in her POV chapters she’s pretty cool to Yara and Lev and wants to help them out. And yes, they saved her from death...but Joel saved her from death too. It could have been so interesting if Abby and Joel were forced to work together longer, maybe she meets Ellie, and then she’s conflicted about extracting revenge. But okay, fine. She takes her revenge and the game moves on. Okay. But Ellie, who I remind, is vilified and punished by losing Dina and the baby in the game, has regrets and is shaken up by her revengeful deeds, while Abby, who is also pretty bad, gets rewarded. If Druckmann wanted to really write a revenge parable, it needed to be clearer that revenge didn’t make Abby happy or fulfill her. If that would have happened, and if time was taken to develop the Lev and Yara subplot, it could have been interesting to see Abby’s story.

Ellie’s characterization in this game is a point of contention for me as well. Some reviewers have said she makes decisions that are so outlandish it’s akin to Dany in GOT season eight, and I don’t disagree. Now, the game implies Ellie continuously puts herself at risk, leaves her friends, and sets off on a near suicide mission because she has PTSD from what happened to Joel, along with a lot of guilt for not patching things up to him. Druckmann and Halley Gross even confirmed in an Indie Wire interview that Ellie has PTSD. Now, there are so many negative stereotypes against people with PTSD as outlined by Psychology Today and other sources. There’s misconceptions that they’re violent and dangerous, and it can’t be treated. I don’t think Druckmann was outright suggesting Ellie went on her rampage of revenge specifically because of this, in fact I think the truth of the matter is he wanted to say something deep and artsy with this game, and Ellie and Abby are props to the message. (Supported by pre release statements of ND saying they wouldn’t call this game fun--it’s art.) That being said, this equation doesn’t sit right with me. More broadly I don’t like the fact that Ellie has been a prop in this game so Druckmann can say something deep (tm) especially when the last game did such a good job molding her character and honoring her in an organic way as the plot moved forward. The way they used her here just didn’t feel right.

Also, like to mention Ellie didn’t go to Santa Barbara to meet Abby again until Tommy’s major guilt trip at the farm, which was a wildly out of character moment in itself. But again, in this game, there’s a script, and we needed a way to trigger Ellie’s journey to Santa Barbara. But looking at the first game, Tommy berates Joel for the lengths he went to to ensure their survival, even saying at one point “it wasn’t worth it.” Now Tommy is all of a sudden going to not take the high road and demand Ellie extract revenge when he can’t? Heck, when Abby had Tommy pinned to the ground in the theatre he told her to go and save herself. When tommy came to her after Joel’s death he actively tried to talk her out of going to Seattle. Now maybe you can say that “oh Abby shot Tommy and now he’s relationship with Maria is in shambles...” but it didn’t compute with me. (And damn, can anyone be in a happy romantic relationship in these games?) But again, Druckmann wants a final fight, where the biggest waste of opportunity is squandered. We could have had a moment where Ellie and Abby talk it out, maybe Ellie telling Abby that she cared for Joel despite what he did (though ho boy, more on that later.) and Abby realizing hmm, maybe what I did was kind of morally grey and we’re not so different at the least. If this parable was going to work, Abby had to have an epiphany about her own deeds in addition to Ellie, and Ellie can’t be vilified while Abby isn’t. 

This game also cheapens the last game’s ending. Joel’s morally grey choice at the end part one is rendered into an indisputably bad choice, because he took away Ellie’s choice. Are we forgetting the fireflies, and Jerry, Abby’s dad that we’re supposed to like, (based on the flashback, which, BTW didn’t work for me, I think Jerry’s an ass) weren’t giving Ellie a choice either? The ending of TLOU asked some fantastic questions about the nature of love without forcing it, and this game completely does away with that ending via telling us how bad Joel is and how he wronged Ellie. I can’t really replay the first game now without thinking of how the sequel cheapens that ending. Overall, the message and thought-provoking questions in LOU came naturally with Joel and Ellie’s development. It was elegantly done and expertly crafted. However, this game is so focused on it’s message and so focused on being an art house drama, that not only do the characters bend to fit the message, but it’s rudely it’s beaten over your head with the final shots of a lone guitar. However, playing through the game for me, seeing the cracks, the message fell flat. Want to tell a parable like this? Go ahead, but make sure it’s delivered well , paced well, and crafted well. I don’t think this game succeeded in any of those regards.

As others have stated, the game is needlessly dark, and though there are moments of calm and light, they are not as frequent as the first game, and all but dissolve toward the end of the story. Obviously ND couldn’t help the current situation of the world the game was released into, but I am tired of this trend of dark narratives and SuBerTing ExpECtatIons that Thrones also pulled, and the easiest, laziest tactic media has used lately to get people talking about their stories: doing things for shock value. Expectations were maybe subverted and there was definite shock value by having Joel die at the beginning, but the events that follow are so bizarre and unearned with Ellie’s vilification and Abby’s “redemption,” that I’m not mad that he died, I’m mad he was fridged to make way for this sloppy mess of a story.  And I have to point out that so many of us had a feeling Joel was going to die in this game, that frankly my expectations would have been subverted if he lived. 

Now with this segue, I think now I should probably mention the elephant in the room: the pre-release footage. Images were altered to make players believe Joel meets Ellie in Seattle, but we know now that it was Jesse. Sony was banking on the fact that fans of the first game love Ellie and Joel so much, that they used their relationship to sell the game and pretty much deceive the player. The fact that the game is very much not about Ellie and Joel’s further development is not only deceptive, but kind of cruel. Games are expensive. People pre-ordered this game expecting one thing and got another. Doesn’t sit right with me. If Sony/ ND had faith in Abby’s story the secrecy wouldn’t have been necessary, but keeping her out of the marketing save for one time, with Druckmann out right lying at one point by saying you only play as Ellie, it just proves that someone in the marketing department had no faith in Abby. Now, I think this is all rooted in anti-spoiler culture, and no doubt that had a big impact on this game and the marketing behind it. Though this is another, albeit related rant, I am tired of the current climate of “keeping the secrets and remaining spoiler free.” Sure, spoilers can ruin some surprise, and it’s not cool to needlessly spoil something for someone, but spoilers should not ruin the experience of seeing a story unfold. We all know the damn ship is going to sink in Titanic, and a lot of people love that movie. Heck. I played the first LOU completely spoiled. I wanted to see what the fuss was about and read the Wiki page. I still cried, I still fell in love. I get maybe wanting the player to be surprised that Abby has such a big section, or even that’s she’s playable, but when Abby’s story can make or break how you feel about this game, I raise some eyebrows at the marketing.  

As I said, I did read the leaks when they came out. Why? Well, I’m not averse to being spoiled and GOT kind of burned me before. I am glad I read the leaks because knowing what to expect certainly eased things for me, and got me used to playing as Abby in a way that going in blind wouldn’t have. It was easier for me to bunker down and accept playing as her, but her story is so needlessly bloated and has nothing to do with Ellie’s up until the end. Her section solely exists just to get the player to like her. As I outlined however, the fragments in her story are broken and don’t come together to form a flattering picture. Sure in her sections you get some, albeit, minimal context to the goings on of Ellie’s chapters and the whole WLF/ Seraphite conflict, but not much to make it interesting or illuminate things further. A lot of it was there just to make you feel like crap for the things you were forced to do as Ellie. Alice was a good girl wasn’t she? Shame on Ellie for killing her in self-defense! And I understand the flashbacks were supposed to mirror Ellie’s flashbacks, but part of me rolled my eyes as I realized I was enduring a damn flashback within a flashback. What kind of a meta world, and an uncool one at that, is the game in? (Heck at one point Abby said “fucking video games” so IDK) I think the game could have been better if you played both sections concurrently--some of Abby’s, some of Ellie’s instead of having an entire flashback to play through as Abby. But I can only guess the game did it this way because of good old spoiler culture and they only wanted early reviewers to talk about certain things. (Heck early reviews pre release had an embargo. Reviewers were forbidden from mentioning anything in the last half of the game.)And truth to be told I think Abby’s sections needed a huge overhaul. Actually I think the whole story of the game needed a huge overhaul, but that’s probably apparent from this long diatribe. However, I maintain that this was the Last of us sequel ND wanted to tell, the crafting needed to be improved.

So what did I like? Well, I liked exploring the world and I liked the ease of the beginning of the game, and...the boat section was kind of cool? now initially I thought Ellie’s romance with Dina seemed pretty rushed, but as you play the game, you realize they’ve known each other for a long time at this point, and it makes more sense. The two have a lot of chemistry that makes the relationship feel more authentic, especially as you roam Downtown Seattle. Playing as Ellie and exploring Seattle was my favorite parts of the game. I really liked the semi-open world section at the beginning, though it didn’t mesh well with the rest of the linear narrative. I hope in future games ND does do something similar and makes the whole game have pockets of open-world esque exploration throughout, and not just one part

I tore Abby’s section apart a lot, but there was also good stuff going on there too. I did Yara and Lev a lot, just wish there would have been more time to develop them. The hospital chapter was wild and fun...the most effective horror chapter in the game, with a big ass monster straight out of Resident Evil. Even if it was gross. And of course, the environments were downright breathtaking, and exploring Seattle made me want to continue. The Aquarium was my favorite location overall, as I found it beautifully rendered and a good focal point for the game. I also find it super fitting Abby and Ellie have their first fight in a theatre. It’s almost like Druckmann’s trying to make a point about how violence is a commodity...kind of like us playing this really violent game and they’re using violence to sell it to you, even though the game punishes you for doing actions you have no say in.

I may have been a tiny bit sarcastic there, but I did enjoy the Ellie/Abby fight, and even if I knew the outcome, it did a great job of putting me on edge. I really didn’t want to hurt Ellie, but seeing how Ellie fights from the other angle was pretty interesting. After that fight however it was pretty draggy to have to do it again in Santa Barbara as Ellie. On a related note, there were too many brawls like that in the game. You have no weapons, just fist brawls twice with cult randos as Abby and then two with Ellie and Abby in the game. Could have trimmed those down, because they kind of wore out their welcome. And while we’re at it, good grief the ending DRAGGED. Maybe that was done on purpose to prove the lengths Ellie will go, but I wasn’t a fan.

Look, a part of me can kind of appreciate what ND was trying to do with this game, I just think that the execution was poor, and a lot of small specifics of things that happened in the game were done in poor taste. Pieces of the puzzle didn’t fit a cohesive whole, and the message is pretty grim and broken because of hypocrisies in the narratives. A lot of people are saying its an apocalypse game, of course it’s going to be dark and nihilistic, but the first game wasn’t nihilistic. It was hopeful, and benefited from the simple story it told. Druckmann always said Part 2 would be a hate story, and that’s fine, but I think it was just so committed to that idea the game suffered and became manipulative. I think now we’re now entering a debate about “can video games be art and have messages?” or “should video games just be fun?” and I really think video games can be art. However, there has to be something in the game that makes you want to continue, and that something is usually “fun.” Video games aren’t like movies. We’re not voyeurs that watch. We’re actually in control of the characters. That has an impact. 

if you read all of this, I commend you. thanks! Really needed to pound out all my thoughts and now I can (hopefully) move on with my life.

[queerchoicesblog]

Embarassangly Long Post About The Haunting of Bly Manor

So, since @ladiesofchoices14​ suggested it...here are my thoughts on The Haunting of Bly Manor. Beware: it’s a long post as it became somehow more personal than I first intended so I will put it under the cut so that you can proceed reading at your own peril: you have been warned, darlings!

I loved The Haunting of Bly Manor because even a scaredy cat like me can watch it. I loved The Haunting of Bly Manor because I watched it thinking it was inspired just by the Turn of the Screw but I discovered that actually the authors created a patchwork of many ghost stories by Henry James (basically each episode bears the title of a story: The Pupil, The Altar of the Dead, The Romance of Certain Old Clothes, The Beast In The Jungle...). They clearly adapted them, made changes and blended them together to craft a coherent universe, a setting for this haunting. It is quite remarkable, to be honest, and it makes my bookworm self oddly excited. I went to the local library and got myself a copy of a ghost story anthology by Henry James to read the original ones. The librarian joked that it's quite the reading for the Day of the Dead.

[Yes, here in Italy today is a day dedicated to the remembrance of those who passed away: usually around this time of the year we visit our dear ones at the cemetery and bring fresh flowers to them. Sometimes, we bring flowers to old forgotten tombs, no longer visited by relatives. I used to do so: you see, I might be a scaredy cat but I actually like visiting graveyards (NEVER after dark though), the quiet, reading the lines on old tombs. Weirdo stuff, I know. In the graveyard where my grandparents rest, I had picked a 'favourite forgotten' to bring flowers to: it belongs to a professor passed away at the beginning of the century, an affable smile in the cracked black and white picture. I have no idea of who he was and if he still has relatives in this world; I still stop by his tombstone engraved in a wall when I go there. There is a gorgeous line on it, I have never checked if it is a famous quotation I am not aware of because I like to think it came straight from the mourning heart of someone who loved him. It recites: "to be parted is our destiny, to be reunited again our hope". Every time I stand there, I hope they met again in whatever comes next, whoever they were. ...I read back and yeah, it sounds straight out of a doleful Gothic story. I reassure you: his spirit never visited me nor haunted me as far as I know. If he ever did, I like to think he's a gentle spirit, maybe guarding over the stranger bringing him flowers.] Anyway, this loooong personal digression brings me back to Bly Manor. I loved The Haunting of Bly Manor because it's not just a ghost story but a love story as stated in the last episode. The reason why I prefer ghost stories in the realm of the horror literature universe (yes, I do read spooky classics from time to time) is that the whole ghost archetype is so intertwined with psychology and themes like denial, stages of grief, love and loss or they can go darker but I find them a metaphor of the maze the human mind can be when dealing with pain and trauma. Ghosts have unfinished business, most spirits are tormented, their rage although supernatural is inherently human. They are in here human. Ghosts are projections of the mind and tells us a lot about the haunted living, see poor Dani devoured by her sense of guilt for something she has nothing to blame her for but provoked her such suffering to cause her panic attacks. Ghosts deal a lot with memory and memory is a weird little thing. A b*tch at times. I loved The Haunting of Bly Manor because the way the story revolves around the concept of memory and more specifically the loss of memory. We are told that memories make us who we are, they are the foundation of our ego, our truest self but Bly Manor shows that "we cannot count on the past". The past slips away so easily like Owen('s mother) and pretty much everyone at Bly soon discover. Past can haunt you and torment you - Dani and Henry could say a sing or two about it - and memory might not be a reassuring place to be. They might be a trap you keep slipping into, in a never ending journey that brings no join, only grief as you become aware of it. I had tears in my eyes when Flora tells to her mom "I'm not five now, this is a memory" and Hannah finally agrees to go to Paris with Owen but he cannot hear her, the memory goes on and he keeps walking away. Memories vanish and characters feel themselves slipping away. I have always thought that spirits would never forget anything, I imagined them as the epitome of remembrance for good or worse and I found interesting, almost endearing, heartbreaking to see the ghosts inexorably losing their memory and fading away, spiralling down into oblivion, forced into a grim repetition of actions without little meaning, all memories of their loved ones gone. Speaking of loved ones, I loved The Haunting of Bly Manor even if the romantic plot tore my heart apart. But ghost stories hardly ever have happy love stories: generally even romance is tainted with sorrow and grieving. The ones in Bly are no exception. I speak in plural terms because as much as I am so incredibly soft for Dani & Jamie, there are plenty of love stories and many kind of love in Bly: nefarious toxic live between Peter Quint and Miss Jennell, adulterous romance, motherly love of Viola blinded by rage and betrayal, the love of two sisters for their manor...and the most heartbreaking of all, the Gardner and the Au-Pair & the Housekeeper and the Cook. Yes, I cried for the latter one too. And lastly, I loved The Haunting of Bly Manor because it shows mental illness: Dani's possession and decline remind depressive suicidal disorder. An exhausting excruciating forced coexistence with an inner invisible demon dragging life, memory and joy out of you. And there is so much even a tragic ordinary heroine like the au-pair in pastel colours can take. The vicious circle of harming the loved ones stubborn vengeful Viola started must come to an end. I cannot help but wonder if Dani ever visit Jamie or Jamie is right and the new Lady of the Lake lost all memories of them year after year at the bottom of her watery grave. Thoughts on the ending or literally anything about this series?

[claudia1829things]

"LITTLE DORRIT" (2008) Review

"LITTLE DORRIT" (2008) Review In my review of the 1998 miniseries, "OUR MUTUAL FRIEND", I had stated that I was never a real fan of Victorian author, Charles Dickens. But I was willing to give the author another chance with a second viewing of the miniseries. However, I have yet to watch "OUR MUTUAL FRIEND" for a second time. Instead, I turned my attention to another miniseries based on a Dickens novel - the 2008 production of "LITTLE DORRIT".

Based upon Dickens's 1855-1857 serialized novel, "LITTLE DORRIT" is basically the story of a young late Georgian Englishwoman named Amy Dorrit, who spends her days earning money for the Dorrit family and looking after her proud father William, who is a long term inmate of Marshalsea Prison for Debt in London. When her employer's son, Arthur Clennam returns from overseas to solve his family's mysterious legacy, Amy and her family's world is transformed for the better. And she discovers that her family's lives and those of the Clennan family are interlinked. Considering that "LITTLE DORRIT" is a Dickens tale, one is bound to encounter a good deal of subplots. Please bear with me. I might not remember all of them. I do recall the following: *Arthur Clennam is initially rejected by Pet Meagles, the daughter of a former business associate, due to her infatuation for artist Henry Gowan. *John Chivery, the son of the Marshalsea Prison warden, harbors unrequited love for Amy Dorrit. *A mysterious Englishwoman named Miss Wade, had been jilted by Henry Gowan in the past; and has now extended her hatred and resentment towards his wife, Pet Meagles and her family. She also notices their patronizing attitude toward their maid/ward, Harriet Beadle aka Tattycoram. *Amy's older sister, Fanny, becomes romantically involved with the step-son of wealthy businessman Mr. Merdle. *Mr. Merdle becomes the force behind a fraudulent speculation scheme that impacts the London financial world. *French criminal Rigaud/Blandois not only stumbles across the Clennam family secret regarding the Dorrit family, but is also recruited by Miss Wade to accompany Henry and Pet Gowran on their Italian honeymoon. If there is one thing I can say about "LITTLE DORRIT", it is a beautiful looking production. Four of the Emmy Awards that the miniseries won were in the technical categories. Production designer James Merifield, art director Paul Ghirardani, and set decorator Deborah Wilson all shared the Emmy Award for Outstanding Art Direction in a Miniseries or Movie (they shared the award with the art direction team for HBO's "GREY GARDENS"). And honestly? They deserved that award, thanks to their outstanding re-creation of both London and Italy in the 1820s. Owen McPolin, Alan Almond and Lukas Strebel, who won the Outstanding Cinematography Emmy; contributed to that re-creation of 1820s Europe with their sharp, colorful and beautiful photography. Costume designer Barbara Kidd and costume supervisor also won Emmy awards for the beautiful, gorgeous costumes created for this production. Not only did I find the costumes beautiful, but also a perfection re-creation of the mid-1820s fashions, as depicted in the images below:

I could go on and on about the many subplots featured in "LITTLE DORRIT". But honestly . . . I am too exhausted to do so. The only plots that interested me were the fortunes of both the Dorrit family and Arthur Clennam, Mrs. Clennam's secret about her husband's past, and Mr. Merdle's financial schemes. I thought that Emmy winning screenwriter Andrew Davies and directors Adam Smith, Dearbhla Walsh (also an Emmy winner for her direction of Episode One), and Diarmuid Lawrence did a very good job in handling these plot lines. Or tried his best. His adaptation of the rise and fall of the Dorrit family's fortunes was probably the best thing about "LITTLE DORRIT". This was especially effective in plot lines that revolved around Amy Dorrit's inability to adjust to her new status as the daughter of a wealthy man and especially, William Dorrit's inabilities to move past his memories of the Marshalsea Prison. The subplot regarding the Dorrit family's ties to the Merdle family also struck me as very effective. Fanny Dorrit's relationship with Merdle's stepson, Edmund Sparkler proved to be one of the funniest and more satisfying subplots in "LITTLE DORRIT". And the subplot regarding Mr. Merdle's financial schemes not only effected both the Dorrit family and Arthur Clennam's fortunes in an effective way, it also strongly reminded me of the circumstances that led to the international community's current economic situation. However, there were subplots that did not strike me as that effective. I wish I could solely blame Charles Dickens. But I cannot. Davies and the three directors have to take some of the blame for not making some improvements to these subplots, when they had the chance to do so. The subplot regarding the Meagles family, their servant "Tattycoram" and Miss Wade struck me as a disaster. I found it poorly handled, especially the narrative regarding the fate of "Tattycoram". In the end, nothing really came from Miss Wade's resentment of Henry Cowan, the Meagles and especially her relationship with "Tattycoram". I am also a little confused at the financial connection between the Clennam and Dorrit families. Could someone explain why an affair between Arthur's father and some dancer would lead to a possible inheritance for Amy Dorrit? Many critics have tried to explain Dickens' creation of the French villain Monsieur Rigaud. No explanation can erase my dislike of the character or its addition to the subplots involving the Clennam/Dorrit connection and the Gowans' honeymoon. I realize that Rigaud was Charles Dickens' creation. But it seemed a pity that Davies and the three directors did nothing to improve the use of Rigaud . . . or eliminate the character altogether. Aside from killing Jeremiah Flintwinch's twin brother, intimidating other characters and blackmailing Mrs. Clennam, he really did nothing as a villain. If there is one thing I have no complaints regarding "LITTLE DORRIT", it is the excellent performances found in the production. I honestly have no complaints about the performances in the miniseries. I can even say this about those characters, whose portrayals by the writers that I found troubling. And yes, I am referring to Andy Serkis and Freema Agyeman's performances as Rigoud and "Tattycoram". Both gave excellent performances, even if I did not care how Dickens, Davies or the directors handled their characters. Emma Pierson, an actress I have never heard of, gave a superb and very entertaining peformance as Fanny Dorrit, Amy's ambitious and rather blunt older sister. I would have say that Pierson's performance struck me as the funniest in the miniseries. I was amazed at how intimidating Eddie Marsan looked at the rent collector, Mr. Pancks. Yet, Marsan went beyond his superficial appearance to portray one of the most compassionate, yet energetic characters in the production. I was also impressed by Russell Tovey's portrayal of the love-sick John Chivery, who harbored unrequited love for Amy Dorrit. Tovey managed to give a very intense performance, without going over-the-top. And I found that quite an accomplishment. However, there are a handful of performances that really impressed me. Two of them came from the leads Claire Foy and Matthew McFadyen. On paper, the characters of Amy Dorrit and Arthur Clennam struck me as boring and one-dimensional. They were simply too goody two-shoes. But somehow, both Foy and McFadyen managed to inject a great deal of fire into their roles, making them not only interesting, but allowing me to care for them a great deal. Another outstanding performance came from Judy Parfitt, who portrayed Arthur's guilt-ridden and cold mother, Mrs. Clennam. But instead of portraying the character as a one-note monstrous mother, Parfitt conveyed a good deal of Mrs. Clennam's guilt regarding her husband's will and inner emotional struggles over the memories of her marriage and what Arthur really meant to her. Another outstanding performance came from Tom Courtenay, who portrayed the vain and insecure William Dorrit. In fact, I would have to say that he gave the most complex and probably the best performance in the entire production. Courtenay managed to create contempt I felt toward his character with skillful acting, yet at the same time, he made William Dorrit so pathetic and sympathetic. I am amazed that he did not receive a nomination or acting award for his performance. I now come back to that earlier question. Did "LITTLE DORRIT" improve my opinion of Charles Dickens as a writer? Not really. Although I cannot deny that it is a beautiful looking production. Some of the subplots not only struck me as interesting, but also relevant to today's economic situation. And the miniseries featured some outstanding performances from a cast led by Claire Foy and Matthew McFayden. But some of the other subplots, which originated in Dickens' novel struck me as either troubling or unimpressive. So . . . I am not quite a fan of his. Not yet. But despite its flaws, I am a fan of this 2008 adaptation of his 1855-1857 novel.

[laylainalaska]

Torchwood 1x01-1x08

Since I’ve been posting Torchwood rewatch episode reactions over on DW, I may as well post them here too!

Cut with a readmore because long and also spoilery. No specific S2 spoilers except set off in its own section.

----

1x01: Everything Changes, aka Torchwood is the worst-kept secret in the greater Cardiff metropolitan area. The episode with the infamous date rape via alien aphrodisiac. I have made the deliberate choice to compartmentalize this/pretend it never happened due to TV writers being notoriously terrible with recognizing the real-world implications of fantasy aphrodisiacs and sex magic (there was just a scene like this in The Witcher in 20-fucking-20), and treat it as what it is clearly supposed to be in context -- unethical but basically harmless misuse of an alien artifact -- instead of what it really is. But I recognize that this is a personal choice and I also hate this writing decision and wish they'd picked literally any other way of making this particular point, for the record. Anyway ... the rest of this episode other than the fucking date rape was a lot of fun, though. Torchwood is the worst secret quasi-governmental agency at being secret. THE ACTUAL WORST. I love the team trying to keep straight faces and then giggling when Gwen enters their secret base, and the entire base set is just so fantastically bonkers; I really really love it a lot. There's literally a fountain in the middle of it and, like, random water everywhere?! And a pterodactyl. And the invisible lift, with Gwen's wry comment about how there's nothing to stop random pedestrians from falling down it. It's possibly the most utterly bonkers secret spy base outside of kids' cartoons and I love it. 1x02: Day One, aka Murder By Orgasm. In which the show classes things up with an alien who kills people (men only!) via orgasm. Choices were definitely made in this episode. Many choices. For sure. Owen continues to be a total sleaze because the writers think it's funny. Also, his survival when the sex alien targets him makes absolutely no sense at all. He's literally the only person she left alive, and she's in the throes of sex-energy withdrawal at the time. In short, this was an episode that happened. There were a few cute team bits but really not enough to redeem it. 1x03: Ghost Machine, aka Burn Gorman Is Very Pretty. Not that I am biased. He is so pretty in this episode. SO PRETTY. Also, for a refreshing change, Owen manages not to be creepy and sexist at all in this episode. He's just prickly and kind of sweet. I like this Owen. I want to keep him. This episode overall was really a lot of fun, aside from (or perhaps also including) the most unintentionally hilarious death of a redshirt ever, in which he goes to hug Gwen and she accidentally stabs him with the knife she's holding. But overall it's so great! The Owen arc was my favorite - I love how affected he is by the memory device (the scene where he's clearly having a panic attack and trying to keep control!) and how determined he is to get justice for the murdered girl, only to be essentially brought down by his basic decent nature and inability to kill an old man in cold blood. Owen trying to save the guy's life when he was holding a knife on him thirty seconds earlier breaks me a little bit. Lots of fun team scenes in this one, too. The Splott conversation! ("Estate agents call it Sploe.") 1x04: Cyberwoman, aka CYBERBIKINI! Here again, Choices Were Made, most of them by the costuming department with a side of deeply uncomfortable racial implications on the part of whoever cast the episode. To be fair, maybe they just couldn't afford enough tinfoil to cover CyberLisa entirely, since the budget for this episode was clearly three shoestrings and a potato. I don't know if my favorite part of the low-budget f/x is the way they're clearly splicing in Doctor Who clips for the cyberization process, or the fall of Torchwood One, a giant battle involving hundreds of participants that is represented by Ianto screaming while surrounded by plastic sheeting. Honestly, I really love this episode. It is not good by any stretch of the imagination, but there is something incredibly charming about its sheer commitment to utter batshittery and OTT sobbing over emotional team betrayals, and parts of it were incredibly tense. It has the general feel of a horror film shot by college theater majors. Also someone getting doused in barbecue sauce and fed to a pterodactyl is literally a plot point, and the team basketball game at the beginning is one of my favorite little team moments; it's so cute. Cyberbikini aside and with expectations properly lowered, this was terrific fun. 1x05: Small Worlds, aka Death By Hanahaki Disease. On the whole this episode was not terrible nor was it memorably unpleasant; it was just kind of there. In going back to write about the episodes, I really had trouble remembering what even happened in this one. The concept is really interesting, but the fairies stopped being nearly so creepy once you actually see them in all their low-budget-CGI glory; I think the episode would actually have been better if they'd stayed invisible. The flower petal deaths were really gross. I hadn't realized that, while Gwen (unlike the rest of his team) knows that Jack can die and come back, she didn't actually know before this episode that he's much older than he looks. 1x06: Countrycide, aka Don't Split The Party. WELSH MURDER VILLAGE. I loved this episode. This is the ridonkulous teamy sci-fi horror shenanigans that I'm here for. I mean, I was there with bells on for TEAM CAMPING TRIP and then it just got better and better. Ianto gets to go out in the field for the first time and nearly gets eaten by cannibals! Poor Ianto. His life is the worst. I sort of vaguely knew because of season two that there was Owen/Gwen in the first season, but what really caught me off guard is how much I enjoyed it. I was expecting meaningless sex with a side of skeeve, and I do really hate that she's cheating on her boyfriend and how pushy about it Owen is at first, not to mention outing their kiss to the whole team. But the crazy thing about it is, by the midpoint of the episode they're actually, genuinely very sweet, and by the end of the episode you can see what they're both getting out of the relationship and get the feeling that it's a positive human connection for both of them. Also, the near-kiss and teamwork in the woods was incredibly hot. I really loved (and was also surprised by) how loyal and protective Owen is toward his teammates. We saw it a little bit in the previous episode with his "Don't you touch her!" re: Gwen, but it's abundantly on display here, from Owen repeatedly insisting that they need to go after Tosh and Ianto, to his fury at the guy threatening Tosh, to his captor having to restrain him when they pull the hood off Ianto's head near the end. Love Jack's big-damn-hero entrance to the Murder House, and everyone running around screaming and getting separated and hurt, which is always a good time. Basically I just loved this episode. It needed more hurt/comforty aftermath, though. I might have to write some. 1x07: Greeks Bearing Gifts, aka Tosh Has An Alien Girlfriend. I really loved this episode, on the whole, but it is Made Of Ouch. As well as Tosh's isolation and hurt, there's also that bit where she hears Ianto's thoughts and it's just endless painpainpainpain. I like to think that after this episode, she started getting together with him for drinks occasionally and talking about things. They both need friends so badly. (I do not love Jack's random transphobic comment near the end. From JACK of all people. WHY.) And seeing Tosh's delight and squee when she gets to just geek out about things is so lovely. Tosh is absolutely a person who leaves her teammates notes with little hearts on them. I love her. ♥ (Also, as much as I love Owen personally, I really wish that so much of Tosh's storyline didn't revolve around her hopeless crush on Owen. Toshiko deserved better, in all ways, than what this show gave her.) It's too bad that Gwen and Owen's affair is, on the whole, a rather destructive thing, because they're really happy! They're like the only happy people in Torchwood at this point. It's not a grand love story or anything, but I felt like the sheer joy of that initial rush of infatuation was well conveyed and sweet. Owen's relationship with Tosh in season one is completely baffling to me. He's not only staggeringly oblivious to Tosh being into him, but she's literally the only woman at Torchwood that he doesn't hit on. And yet, it's not that he doesn't like her! He clearly does like her in a friend kind of way and enjoys hanging out with her. The card that Mary was looking at in Tosh's apartment looked handmade to me, so he literally made her a handmade birthday card! And yet, he is blindingly oblivious to her interest and rejects her every time she makes overtures. ... I mean, the meta-reason is probably just that the writers thought it would be funny if the character who always sleeps around doesn't notice the one person who really wants him. But I can't help wondering if the basic issue is that Owen has somehow, without really intending to, classified his relationship with her as basically a sibling-type one. We know from the flashbacks in season two that they both joined Torchwood at about the same time and were both in a very emotionally fragile place when they did, and Jack also has a very quasi-parental sort of vibe with both of them. It makes me wonder if Owen either tried to initiate something early on and was rebuffed because Tosh wasn't really coping well either, or if he met her at a point in his life when he was really not interested in having relationships with anyone and simply classified her mentally in a sort of little-sister category. This actually does fit very well with the sometimes bullying, sometimes playful and sweet, generally sexless way that he relates to her this season, and the way that he clearly does care about her and in fact is very protective at times; he just doesn't view her as a target of romantic interest. Anyway, Tosh was very beautiful this episode, and her alien girlfriend was also quite hot, and I really enjoyed it. 1x08: They Keep Killing Suzie, aka I don't think anything I could come up with is better than the actual title. The scene in which they've accidentally locked themselves in their secret underground base and have to call the cops to let them out is possibly my favorite scene in this entire show. That was GOLD. I also wish the cop lady from this episode had come back. She was great, and her rapport with Jack was really neat. Part of what I want to say about this episode contains massive season two spoilers, so that's set off in a spoiler section at the end. This was a highly entertaining episode with a plot that was total nonsense that falls apart within 0.2 seconds of actually thinking about it. Good emotional stuff, yes! Plot? BONKERS. I mean, Suzie's plan was something like this: 1. Drive someone insane by feeding them Retcon for two years. 2. Kill yourself. 3. ???? 4. Profit! I am just going to headcanon that the team are actually wrong about Suzie planning all of this, and it's mostly an accidental set of circumstances that she took advantage of. I did love the twist of Suzie wanting a deathbed reunion with her dad not because of love, but because she wanted to watch him die because he's terrible. (However, this does completely undermine what was previously given as part of her motivation for getting addicted to the glove, which was trying to save her dad. See above re: plot nonsense.) But the team stuff was fun! Love everyone scrambling to save Gwen, and Owen holding her at the end -- I'm still seeing them through a lens of mostly-platonic more than romantic. The general vibe with the team pulling together vs. Suzie having basically no one in Torchwood to talk to is really interesting; it's hard to say how much of that is the team having gotten closer over the course of the season, and how much of it is just Suzie not really ever bonding with her co-workers the way they bonded with each other. I mean, I do get more of a co-workery vibe off them early on, as opposed to the chosen-family feeling later on, but the closeness is there under the surface; I'm just not really sure if they've realized it yet. But with Suzie, it's hard to say if the closeness ever really was there. They're all damaged in their various ways, but I feel like Suzie might be damaged in a way that simply precluded her ever really being able to let people in, as the others are learning to. Ianto's visible depression at this point in the show is mostly down to Gareth David-Lloyd's acting, but it's so well done -- his flat affect and thousand-yard stare, especially contrasted against his dry, sarcastic humor when he's not miserable (mostly in season two). The other Ianto-related thing I noticed is that the warmer, more bantery rapport between Ianto and Owen in season two is actually present in this episode to some extent, for perhaps the first time ever. In particular, Owen makes him smile at one point by teasing him (the only time Ianto smiles in the last few episodes, I think, up until he's with Jack at the very end), and offers him the first shot at naming the knife in spite of Ianto's artifact names being genuinely terrible - like, trying to include him a little bit, in a way I haven't seen Owen doing with him before. There's a general feeling throughout this episode that Owen has warmed up to him a bit and is actually reaching out a little. And Ianto and Jack are sleeping together now! I don't know when that happened and I wish we'd seen more of the beginnings of it. It's nice to see Ianto smile, though. Season two 1x08-related spoilers: 

Watching this episode after having seen Owen's resurrection glove arc in season two was FASCINATING, especially for the compare/contrast of the way the team reacted to resurrected!Suzie vs. resurrected!Owen; I mean, the fact that she died in the process of betraying them after becoming a serial killer is obviously a large factor here, and they were somewhat wary of Owen too, but there's just so much more ambivalence in how they deal with Suzie, vs. the way that Owen's death and resurrection actually brought the team closer together, and brought Owen closer to all of them.

But the most interesting contrast to me is how Owen and Suzie, as characters, both reacted to the whole idea of having to survive by killing people, with Jack trying (unsuccessfully) to argue Suzie out of allowing Gwen to die, whereas Owen's immediate reaction to finding out that his survival might be killing people (just random people too, not teammates) was to try to sacrifice himself, not just once but multiple times, starting with a fundamentally horrible euthanasia-type death and continuing on to destroy the resurrection glove himself even though it was likely to re-kill him. Why yes, I can turn any episode discussion into an Owen discussion, even an episode he wasn't especially prominent in.

[doctorwhonews]

The War Master: Master of Callous (Big Finish)

Latest Review: Written By: James Goss, Guy Adams Directed By: Scott Handcock Cast Derek Jacobi (The Master), Silas Carson (The Ood), Maeve Bluebell Wells (Cassandra King), Samantha Béart (Martine King), Simon Ludders (Elliot King), Pippa Haywood (Teremon), David Menkin (Herschel), Barnaby Edwards (Jaques), Richard Earl (Sassanby), Kai Owen (Porrit), Joe Shire (Calia), Angela Bruce (Mother), Wilf Scolding (First Soldier) and Tom Forrister (Second Soldier). Other parts played by members of the cast. Producer Scott Handcock Script Editor Nicholas Briggs Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs Derek Jacobi returns to the role of the Master for the second set of stories, this time it is four episodes that follow a single storyline, as opposed to the slightly more episodic nature of the first box set.  The story takes place on a colony planet called Callous, in which a small group of artists attempted and sort of failed to make a home. Their livelihood depends upon a mine, and the story revolves around this mine, its contents, the people who give everything to make the mine viable, the planetary governor who wants to take everything she can from the inhabitants, and the Master who has his own secret plans and machinations.  In short...it is an excellent story. I recommend this box set, there will likely be SPOILERS ahead, so reader beware. The opening episode, Call for the Dead follows Elliot King, the frustrated would-be leader of Callous, whose long attempts to make the mine worthwhile have yielded very few positive results, and the Governor bleeds him dry whenever she gets the chance.  He has spent so much time trying to make the mine earn just enough money to keep up with his payments that he has basically lost his family...his wife and daughter moved off-world, and while his wife is very ill, his daughter misses him daily. Meanwhile, he is being stalked by an odd with a ringing telephone, and when he finally answers the call, the Master is on the line.  Without getting too deep into it, Elliot decides to take his own life not long after his chat with the Master, and whatever plans the Master has are clearly set into motion.  Elliot's daughter Cassie and her wife Martine come to Callous to take over where her father left off.  Only Cassie is more adept with the mine than her father ever was.  He was an artist trying to make a living digging in a mine, as she went to school specifically to learn how to mine properly.  But when she too runs into trouble...another Ood phone call comes her way, only this time the Master offers his help. The set continues with The Glittering Prize, and this time the Master is posing as Mr. Orman, a kindly gentleman helping Cassie to get the mine working.  They strike a substance that could make them all rich...but if the Governor finds out they have it, she is sure to come and attempt to skim even more profits off their hard work.  The Master offers his help yet again, helping them plot to sneak the substance off the planet and hide it from the governor until they can safely make their money off of it.  But the substance has a psychic side effect, as it slowly can drive people mad or hallucinate, and it seems to drive the Ood workers completely out of sorts. The Persistence of Dreams focuses solely on Martine as she tries to keep her sanity guarding the substance.  She is accompanied only by an Ood bt finds herself hallucinating about her late mother, Cassie, Mr Orman and more...never knowing what is real and being driven to the brink of sanity by the awful substance. When the Ood seems to go mad as well and attempt to kill her, she launches herself into space, and hopes that hope can reach her in time...but of course, the Master has other plans. The set is closed out by Sins of the Father which sees the Governor arrive on Callous and demand the substance because someone tipped her off that they had found it.  She has captured and is torturing the Master daily for answers, but no mere Governor can really get anything out of the Master! Cassie has been cast out by most of the inhabitants of Callous, who blame her of much of their current woes, particularly the homicidal Governor who intends to kill them all for answers.  But the Governor didn't count on her prisoner actually being someone of influence.  She didn't count on his control of the Ood, or his ability to escape his chains...and the Master's plan finally comes into focus. He just needed the substance. Callous just happened to be his best route of getting the rare stuff, and he has beaten everyone before they even knew he was a threat. The story concludes with the Master meeting a Time Lord to sell off the substance so the Time Lords can build a new weapon against the Daleks.  It seemed almost odd to me that the Master would do all this for such a petty thing as money and helping the Time Lord cause. Just seemed off...but then a smaller item was thrown in for his payment. The Chameleon Arch.  It nicely tied in with the very item he was using when we first met this Doctor on TV (and actually used at the end of the previous box set, putting this one ahead of that timeline wise), and makes all his efforts in this story seem perfectly worth it for his character.  It may have been a mild hassle putting all those pieces into place, but he got what he truly wanted out of it. An eventual escape from the Time War. This is an excellent set, that somehow managed to top the first War Master set. And that was a tall order, as that first set was wonderful. I am already excited for more, as Big Finish have clearly been chomping at the bit for years to tell Time War tales, and they are reveling in it with every chance they get. Whether they focus on the War Doctor, the War Master, or just seeing the seeds of the war in the Eighth Doctor or Gallifrey sets. In all attempts, they have made some exciting stuff. http://reviews.doctorwhonews.net/2019/01/the_war_master_master_of_callous_big_finish.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

[shanie-the-toyaddict]

Ok, since Zaynee said she's be interested...

Here is a listing of chapter titles from unpublished fanfiction I've written/drafted. They're all presented without context but I would be happy to provide context to anyone who was curious.

List under cut.

For @wrestlezaynia

Chapter Titles

Shapeshifting Is NOT Like The Movies 

A Perfect Possible Future (Andromeda reference) 

Slam That Reset Button 

Paradise Lost, Now Arriving In Paradise 

A Leap Of Faith And A Fall From Grace 

And Yet Somehow Still Worthy 

Haunted Hardware 

That ‘2300 AD’ Vibe (Chrono Trigger reference) 

Mutations and Mutilations 

Hello Mother, Goodbye Mother 

Welcome to the Queendom 

The Right Kind of Corruption 

Green Rage Junkie 

Some Assembly Required 

Acapella Judas 

Burners and The Batman Gambit 

Turning Spite into Civil War (Assassins reference) 

The Rusty Knife Girl 

Close Quarters And Fake Steak 

Going Galactic 

The Money Revolves Around The Sun 

A Gamblin’ Man’s Prayer 

The Current Big Thing 

Some Kind of Bliss 

Kill Owens Kill 

The Tinker/Tailor, The Soldier, and The Spy 

Muted Words 

Emergency Meetings (For the record, this chapter was named BEFORE Among Us became a thing!) 

Murders and Acquisitions 

First Night, Last Night, and Every Night 

Seconds To Go and Memories That Last An Eternity 

The Trial of the Spheres (Final Fantasy X reference) 

This is The Story of How I Died 

One Foot In The Abyss 

L'histoire de toujours [The History of Forever] 

Unpublished story titles 

A Revolution In This Century (Enter Me) (Not about Hamilton)

Dr. Slime And The Wondernerds 

Vampires, Wraiths, and Shades, Oh My! 

Stay Alive, Alexandria (Yes about Hamilton) 

Penny & Kicks vs The World

[avaantares]

On Torchwood: Miracle Day

Why this post? Because I’m planning to be lazy in the future. :) I keep seeing this series come up in discussion, and I wanted to get my thoughts down all in one spot for easy reference. So this is simply a text dump containing my thoughts on Miracle Day, both positive and negative. (Spoiler: there are more negatives than positives.)

This will be long, so here’s a dash-saver...

(Disclaimer: It’s been a few years since I watched this series, and I only did so once, so the impressions I’m reporting below are based on what was most salient/most memorable from that viewing. If I failed to notice a detail or have forgotten something, that’s my error – though I would argue that I’m usually a pretty astute viewer, so if something critical is not clear on a first watch, that fault may lie at least in part with the show.)

Okay. Got your popcorn ready? Let’s go.

Things I disliked about Miracle Day:

Genre shift. Instead of a character-driven fantasy like Doctor Who and the first two series of Torchwood, MD is structured more like a political thriller. This is not inherently bad – Children of Earth straddled the line, and was still very effective -- but subjectively, MD didn’t feel like Torchwood at all to me. It felt really… American. (Full disclosure: I dislike a lot of American television writing in general; that’s why I watch more foreign TV than domestic, despite living in the U.S.)

The protagonists. The new characters failed to interest me as a viewer. There was nothing endearing or compelling about Rex, and I personally disliked his character and his attitude. I don’t remember anything particularly dynamic about his character arc, either (he… learns to be a team player, I guess?). Esther, who started out as a fairly generic model of Perky Blonde Sidekick, became more likable as the series progressed; she had stated goals that hinted at future growth, but the most interesting conflicts the series set up for her (i.e. the personal drama over her sister’s kids) were, to my memory, never resolved. (See also Rex’s daddy issues – we take time establishing that he has them, but nothing ever comes of it. What did that scene really add to his overall character growth? Did his father ever even get mentioned again?) Oddly enough, the most compelling character out of the entire new lineup was Bill Pullman’s creeptastic pedophile, and I kind of feel like that shouldn’t be the case with an ensemble cast of this size. (Props to Pullman on that performance, though. 10/10 would set fire to that character.)

Jack’s regression. This is admittedly a minor quibble in the grand scheme of things, but it still bothers me from a characterization standpoint. Jack started in series 1 of Torchwood as… well, a bit of a jerk, actually (which is not inappropriate for his character at that point), but he grows over time (as lead characters should). Between S1 and S2 (Utopia/tSoD/LotTL) he reaches a turning point, choosing to return to Cardiff because he wants to be with his team, and he continues that dynamic process throughout the second series. Then CoE pulls the rug out from under him, and he flees Earth in grief – but when he returns in MD, it’s without the sensitivity or empathy we’d seen him develop through the previous series. At various times he displays behavior that is whiny, bitter, clingy, and caustic. It feels like much of the growth of the previous seasons was negated while he was off-planet, only there’s no clear explanation for what caused it (or, for that matter, why he returned at all; we’d last seen him in a space bar chatting up Alonso Frame, with no apparent intention to come back to Earth). I’d attribute the change to the losses he’s suffered, but I don’t see a clear connection between grief and the petulant attitude he seems to lapse into in MD, and the show itself doesn’t make any attempt to draw a link (Ianto rates a brief mention when Jack drunk-dials Gwen from another man’s bed; I don’t remember if Steven, Owen or Tosh are even spoken of, apart from Jack borrowing Owen’s name once). And we really have no frame of reference for how long he’s been gone. It might have been decades for Jack.

Let’s Talk About Sex(uality). When watching a show, I don’t typically pay any more attention to sexuality/representation than I do to shot framing or dialogue – I’m aware of it, but it’s not something I zero in on to criticize unless they’re doing it badly -- so when I actually pause an episode to complain about the insulting stereotypes, there’s a problem. I know some people were unhappy that Jack was presented more gay than omnisexual, but eh, okay, they’re marketing to a new audience, they have a bunch of new characters to deal with, maybe they don’t want to spend time explaining Jack’s proclivities. But there’s no excuse for that cringeworthy scene with everyone mocking the flight attendant for being gay, even though he denies it – and the punchline is that he experimented with a guy once, so OBVIOUSLY he’s secretly gay, haha, they were right all along! Gay stereotypes are funny! Um. Wow. I remember staring at the screen with my jaw hanging open and saying, “I can’t believe John Barrowman, of all people, was on board with this.” After the casual, understated openness of the previous three series, the change in tone – the calling-out of anyone’s sexuality at all in a series where historically, nearly the entire main cast was (at least) bisexual -- was almost whiplash-inducing. (See above re: it just didn’t feel like Torchwood.)

Continuity? Schmontinuity! ...And this is where the series really lost me. I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a detail nerd, but mistakes like these are worse than sloppy – they’re downright confusing when you’re actually trying to figure out what’s going on in the show. The events of Miracle Day not only break the entire Doctor Who universe, but they aren’t even internally consistent with the rest of Torchwood. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out just when the “Immortal Sins” flashbacks were supposed to have happened and whether or not a time loop was integral to the plot, because all the on-screen evidence in those episodes indicated that Jack was on his fourth tour of the 20th century: Jack explains to Angelo that he’s a fixed point in time – yet Jack himself wouldn’t learn that from the Doctor until 70 years later in his own timeline. Also, Jack is running around in the mid-1930s wearing his WWII-issue RAF greatcoat (and Webley holster, etc.) – but WWII hasn't started yet, so he can't have served in it (as an American volunteer or anything else) to acquire a coat, and he can’t possibly have one from the future as he has been living on Earth in linear time since 1869. (He didn’t have the coat when he was stranded on Satellite Five, and isn’t shown wearing it in other Torchwood flashbacks/photos until the appropriate era.) In short, the ONLY way the MD timeline works is if Jack went back to the 1930s after fleeing the planet in Children of Earth, which makes no sense at all from a story or character standpoint. Furthermore, the “explanation” for the Miracle contradicts everything we’ve been told up to this point about Jack’s immortality. Jack is supposedly a fixed point in time, being kept alive by the time vortex itself – except, apparently, when you set up a morphic field that somehow inverts the power of the time vortex around the entire planet, without affecting the flow of time, or any other fixed points, or anything else? And there’s also a nullification field that re-reverses the morphic field to let Angelo die, except for some reason it doesn’t restore Jack’s immortality when he’s inside it? Are we not even going to hand-wave an explanation for this? (Inconveniently, this also toasts our main character hook: Apparently Jack can die any time he likes by setting up a portable field to neutralize his immortality, like Angelo did. Welp, there goes our tragically-immortal protagonist. On to the next series.) …And let’s not even discuss the nonsense with the Trickster’s Brigade and FDR’s brain, which doesn’t jive with the Trickster’s repeatedly-stated objectives in The Sarah Jane Adventures. I’m all for name-dropping-in-a-non-legally-actionable-way-because-we-don’t-have-full-rights-to-Doctor-Who-properties, but that was just silly.

The $@%^&# ending. This probably belongs with the previous entry, but it made me furious enough to merit its own bullet point. Jack’s blood now makes other people immortal? …the HECK?! Is Rex a fixed point in time now? How does that even work? Does Earth somehow influence the time vortex? Can a planet clone the time stream? NONE OF THIS IS COMPATIBLE WITH THE REST OF THE WHONIVERSE.

The villains. One thing that made Torchwood as a series interesting is that for the most part, the formula for each episode wasn’t “Our Heroes vs. The Generic Bad Guys Bent On World Domination.” Antagonists were usually more complex, and often the conflict left the team in a moral gray area. Team Torchwood faced evil humans (”Countrycide”), betrayal from within (”They Keep Killing Suzie”), unwitting enemy agents (”Sleeper”), opportunistic human capitalists (”Meat”), time itself (”Out of Time;” “To The Last Man”), and even the government (Children of Earth), among others. Sure, there were occasional Generic Bad Guy episodes (”Reset”), but it wasn’t the norm – and in my opinion, the series’ weakest moments were when they fell into that more generic formula. (”End of Days” had some interesting moments, but the giant CGI monster stomping on Cardiff wasn’t one of them.) In MD, though, we have this amazingly complex setup for an intriguing and world-altering scenario, with hints that it stretches across decades if not centuries, revolving around Jack and those he loved, and there’s so much buildup that we know there must be some deep meaning behind it all… And then it’s revealed that the villain behind the curtain is A Group Of Evil Mob Bosses Bent On World Domination™. There’s not even any personal tie to Jack, who should (for the sake of symmetry) be at the center of it all. It’s just some Generic Bad Guys messing around with some stuff they found. Even though it’s his blood, Jack as a character is really just incidental to it all. The reveal would have exactly the same emotional gravitas if one of the Bad Guys had found Jack’s discarded vortex manipulator and used it to take over the world. It was just... unsatisfying.

...There’s more, but I think that’s enough digital ink spilled for the moment. I’m sure you can get an idea of my general opinion.

But, in fairness, now that I’ve griped about everything I didn’t like, let’s look at

Things Miracle Day did well:

The premise. The concept of people suddenly not dying, the fallout of that situation, and the questions it raises about life and death, civil rights. and society as a whole, is a brilliant concept! It would have made a very solid sci-fi film/series on its own; I just wish it hadn’t been crammed into Torchwood, because it didn’t mesh well with the story already in progress. Even so, there were moments where the sociopolitical drama actually played out quite well in spite of the show’s other issues. There were legitimately creepy horror elements – people being burned alive or dissected and not dying during the process – and it was interesting to consider the practical questions of where you put bodies, how you classify them, and so on. The family drama with Gwen’s father showed the more personal dilemma, while Vera’s incineration highlighted the danger of having the decision-making power in the wrong hands.

Gwen vs. Jack. Gwen having to choose between her family and Jack was the logical progression for her character’s story, and while I can’t say I enjoyed watching the trust between them disintegrate, I do think it was a good conflict to set up, and it gave both of them some much-needed character focus amid a very event-driven plot. (And it was a relief not to have any of those unconvincing awkward-sexual-tension scenes shoehorned in… wait, now I’m griping about the earlier series. Sorry.) Gwen had several good character moments during the series, actually; I remember the bit where she talks about killing her father as being particularly powerful, and she had a few fun one-liners as well (”I’m Welsh”). She was also given some good action sequences. Speaking of which…

Helicopter vs. shoulder-fired missile. With baby under one arm. Okay, not gonna lie, that entire sequence was pure candy.

Andy Davidson. Yes. Good. We can always use more Sgt. Andy. (Let him join Torchwood already!) Aside from their roles in the story, the presence of Andy and Rhys did provide a more solid link to the previous series. It’s not Torchwood without a minimum percentage of Welsh accents, after all. :)

The Oswald Danes storyline. It was creepy and disturbing, but the story of a psychotic killer, manipulated by a media expert, who rises to celebrity status and begins influencing public action was quite compelling (and, now that I think of it, may have struck a little too close to home… did I mention I live in the U.S.? *ahem*). Another thing I didn’t enjoy, per se, but it was certainly effective, especially coupled with Pullman’s convincing performance.

So there’s my (incredibly long and verbose) take on Miracle Day. I think it could best be summarized as “Great concept, weak execution.” Congratulations if you actually read this far. :)

[brokehorrorfan]

Best New Horror Movies on Netflix: Spring 2017

I know there's an overwhelming amount of horror movies to sift through on Netflix, so I've decided to take out some of the legwork by compiling a list of the season's best new genre titles on Netflix's instant streaming service.

Please feel free to leave a comment with any I may have missed and share your thoughts on any of the films you watch. You can also peruse past installments of Best New Horror Moves on Netflix for more suggestions.

1. It Follows

I assume most horror fans have already seen It Follows, as it was one of the most-talked-about genre films of 2015, but if you somehow missed it, stop reading this and watch it right now. A horror classic for a new generation, the plot revolves around a curse passed on through sex in which the recipient is followed by... something. Not only does it draw influence from Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street, the film also evokes everything I love about those classics: a strong female lead in Maika Monroe (The Guest), a dreamlike atmosphere, precise direction, stunning cinematography, a memorable synth score, a familiar suburban setting, and an unsettling, mysterious antagonist. Read my full review of the film here.

2. Under the Shadow

The first half of Under the Shadow works well as a compelling war drama, while the last act turns into an edge-of-your-seat supernatural chiller. The Persian-language film takes place in 1980s Iran while the Iraq war rages on. When her husband is drafted, Shideh (Narges Rashidi) is left to raise their young daughter on her own, living in a war zone under the constant threat of an attack. The daughter becomes convinced that evil djinn have taken her beloved doll and soon develops a fever that won't break. The stressed mother dismisses her stories until she experiences the hauntings herself. The film explores similar themes to The Babadook, in addition to sharing an appeal to both genre and arthouse/film festival audiences.

3. The Invitation

As raw as it is calculated, The Invitation is an understated thriller that brings to mind such films as Rosemary’s Baby, The Shining, and Let the Right One In. The captivating plot revolves around a group of friends reuniting at a lavish dinner party, but one man (Logan Marshall-Green, Prometheus) becomes increasingly paranoid of ulterior motives. Director Karyn Kusama (Jennifer's Body, Aeon Flux) strings viewers along with just enough information to maintain engagement without sacrificing ambiguity, anchored by brilliant performances from the ensemble cast. The deliberate, slow pace creates a pervading sense of dread, which culminates in a chilling finale worthy of the build up. Read my full review of the film here.

4. Train to Busan

Think you’re done with zombie movies? Think again. In addition to smashing records in its home country of South Korea, Train to Busian is easily accessible to a global audience. Like Snowpiercer meets 28 Days Later, the plot involves a ferocious zombie outbreak aboard a train. It's on par with a Hollywood blockbuster movie in terms of spectacle, performance, and entertainment value. It's also surprisingly heartfelt, thanks to characters for whom the viewer cares - including a sweet father-daughter relationship and one of the best supporting characters in recent memory. Read my full review of the film here.

5. Cheap Thrills

Cheap Thrills is a few years old now, but if it went under your radar, you need to check it out. A quick glance at the trailer or synopsis may leave you questioning how the plot - in which two desperate men perform increasingly twisted dares for money - could sustain itself for 88 minutes. Against all odds, you'll watch in suspense, wondering what they'll do next and questioning if you'd do the same with money being waved in front of you. Ethan Embry (Can't Hardly Wait) completely reinvents himself in the role of the scumbag, while Pat Healy (Starry Eyes) earns the audience's sympathy despite being just as guilty. David Koechner (Anchorman) plays the wealthy man handing over the money, with Sara Paxton (The Last House on the Left) as his arm candy.

6. Trash Fire

Trash Fire certainly isn't for everyone, but if you've enjoyed writer-director Richard Bates Jr.'s previous output - Excision and Suburban Gothic - you should have a pretty good grasp on what to expect from his latest. In an attempt to mend their toxic relationship, arrogant pick Owen (Adrian Grenier, Entourage) and his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Isabel (Angela Trimbur, The Final Girls), visit his estranged sister (AnnaLynne McCord, 90210), who was horribly burned in a fire that killed his parents. The cast also includes Fionnula Flanagan (The Others), Matthew Gray Gubler (Criminal Minds), Ezra Buzzington (The Hills Have Eyes), and Ray Santiago (Ash vs Evil Dead). The genre bender begins as a quirky, black comedy, then transforms into a dark and disturbing drama with horror undertones. Both halves are uncomfortable in their own way.

7. Evolution

Evolution is definitely tailored for the foreign/arthouse crowd, as French director Lucile Hadzihalilovic explores the horrors of puberty in an esoteric manner. It's immediately striking, from the breathtaking, Planet Earth-esque underwater photography that opens the film, and remains visually interesting even when the plot goes off the deep end. The story centers on a young boy who discovers a dead body in the ocean, after which he's sent to a mysterious hospital where he and other boys are subjected to bizarre experiments. The finale is a memorable one.

8. The Similars

The Similars (known in its native Spanish as Los Parecidos) is an unabashed love letter to The Twilight Zone and similar science fiction thrillers from the 1960s, right down to the Rod Serling-style voiceovers that bookend the story. The film takes place in 1968 Mexico, adopting a period-appropriate aesthetic with desaturated color, nearly to the point of being black and white, stark film noir-esque lighting, and fake film grain. The events occur in a bus station during a heavy rainstorm, where the handful of stranded patrons face a bizarre phenomenon that I won't give away here. It goes a little off the rails toward the end, but the premise is so riveting you won't be able to take your eyes off the screen.

9. Tales of Halloween

Tales of Halloween is a horror anthology made up of 10 segments from directors such as Neil Marshall (The Descent), Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II-IV), Lucky McKee (May), Paul Solet (Grace), and Mike Mendez (Big Ass Spider), among others. The cast is equally impressive; you'll recognize nearly every face as a genre veteran, indie favorite, or master of horror filmmaker, including Barry Bostwick (The Rocky Horror Picture Show), Lin Shaye (Insidious), Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator), and Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog), to name a few. There's really only so much you can do with a Halloween-night setting in 10 minutes, so the film becomes monotonous at times, but there's still a lot of fun to be had. It won't replace Trick 'r Treat as the go-to Halloween anthology, but Tales of Halloween makes for a great addition to your seasonal viewing.

10. Antibirth

Antibirth is further proof (as if we needed it) that Canadians love David Cronenberg's body horror fare. The first half of the film is, frankly, a chore to slog through, but once the prolonged set-up is out of the way, we're rewarded with nightmarish visions of blood, pus, and hideous deformities. It's worth the time commitment for the insane final 10 minutes, which make this movie a fun one to watch with a group of friends. Natasha Lyonne (Orange Is the New Black) stars as an unfortunate girl who shows signs of being pregnant - including a bulbous belly - without having had sex. Whatever is inside her infects both her body and mind. It's a wholly unglamorous role, but Lyonne owns it. Chloë Sevigny (American Horror Story), Meg Tilly (Body Snatchers), and Mark Webber (Green Room) make up the supporting cast.

11. Death Race 2050

It's hard to warrant a purchase for Death Race 2050, when the original Death Race 2000 does the same thing far more successfully, but a Netflix viewing is the perfect way to spend a mindless weekend afternoon. Roger Corman returns to produce a new reboot of the 1975 cult classic. Like many of his productions, it's not a particularly good movie, but it’s an amusing one. It serves as a timely satire under our current administration, with Malcolm McDowell (Halloween) as the Chairman of the United Corporations of America. He hosts a three-day, cross-country race that plays out like NASCAR meets The Hunger Games with a hint of Looney Tunes. Manu Bennett (The Hobbit) assumes the role of half-man/half-machine reigning champion Frankenstein. Read my full review of the film here.

BONUS: American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson

I think Ryan Murphy is brilliant with casting and marketing, but I've always found his storytelling on American Horror Story to be heavily flawed. By basing his latest anthology effort, American Crime Story, on true events, he's able to focus on his strengths without as much concern for sticking the landing. The People v. O.J. Simpson is well worth the 8+ hour commitment; it's engaging even if you lived through the infamous case, doubly so if you don't know all the details. The cast is populated by notable names like John Travolta, Cuba Gooding Jr., David Schwimmer, and Nathan Lane, but it's Sarah Paulson and Sterling K. Brown who steal the show as the defense attorneys.

[hiraeth-doux]

How did Claire deal with Owen when he closed off from her at the beginning when he had terrible nightmares

Thank you for this HC!! Angst is such a delight to work on (although pls don’t let it stop you from sending hot asks ;))

Standing on theupper deck of the ferry that was taking them away from the island and thecarnage that it held, wrapped in a scratchy blanket, her body sore and sodrained she could barely stay awake, Claire was staring straight ahead, trying tomake out the outline of Costa Rica on the horizon, her hands clutching the railingso tight that it was making the burns from the flare on her right palm scream inagony. Not that she noticed it. In that moment, she thought that the worst thingwaiting for them in the States was the investigation and the impending clean-up, ascandal of such enormous magnitude that it could easily wipe them all off theface of the Earth, her exhausted mind already running through a mile-long list of things she knew needed to be done next. In that moment, she couldn’t even begin to imagine how terriblywrong she was.

At first,everything seemed like a big deal – the press conferences were overwhelming,the hungry reporters chasing after them, eager to sink their teeth into anyone they could catch, thegrieving families and the investigation, meant to determine who was responsiblefor the incident and whether or not it could have been prevented. Simon Masrani’s name was on everyone’s lips, hers and Owen’s photographs flashing on the news channels, alongside with a few other survivors’. Day afterday, Claire went through the motions on autopilot, answering the same questionsuntil the words stopped making any sense to her, focusingon ‘here and now’ and trying not to think of what the future was holding for allof them. 

However, it wasn’tuntil the dust started to settle that their lives grew progressively worse. Somehow, thecommotion and everything that used to drive her insane was the boost thatactually kept her going. Once she started to notice the things in hers and Owen’slives, the details that managed to escape her attention until now, the harshreality finally caught up with her, showing her in vivid colour just how notokay they were. Her own struggles were hard to deal with - the anxiety and fearof public places, the flashbacks and nightmares that kept yanking her out ofher sleep, panting and terrified. However, they were nothing compared to Owen’sPTSD that kicked in in full force. Something that she managed to look right through in the first month, simply content that he was there with her. 

The first time shewoke up in an empty bed, she thought he was in the bathroom or getting a drinkof water in the kitchen, but when she slipped from under the covers and padded out of the bedroom, she found out that the house was empty, and by the time Owen came throughthe door twenty minutes laterdressed in his running shorts and a sweat-drenched shirt, clinging tohis body, Claire had worked herself into a frenzy, thinkingthat something happened and trying not to imagine that he would simply leave inthe middle of the night. Surprised to find her up, and guilty over making herworry, Owen explained to her that running was his only way to unwind when he couldn’t sleep, promising her that it was okay.

It turned out that it was anything but okay because as the time went by, it only got worse. He was sleeping less and less, and more often thannot, she would wake up alone, finding him either in the living room, watchingTV on mute, or pounding the pavement in the park two blocks away from their house, often returning closer todawn to sink into a dreamless slumber that left him even more exhausted uponwaking up, the circles under his eyes growing darker, their conversationsshorter. 

They were starting to grow apart, and in just a matter of weeks, shebegan to feel that they were turning into roommates, at best. He brushed offher concerns, saying that it wold go away, that it didn’t matter and he wasgoing to be fine. But half the time, he wouldn’t meet her eyes, and he wouldn’ttouch her, meeting her tentative advances with a halfhearted peck on the crown of her head, until Claire got used to waking up without him by her side, angrytears stinging her eyes, and crying herself to sleep because she felt helplessand useless, feeling that she was losing him. She was scared of doing nothing, and scared even more of pushing Owen into something he wasn’t ready for and thus pushing him away. 

Eventually, shesuggested getting help, maybe talking to someone, but even though Owen agreedthat it wasn’t the worst idea, he was in no hurry to let a shrink climb into hisbrain. The ironic thing was that she totally got it – all Masrani Globalemployees were  sent to a mandatory psychiatric evaluation after the incident,and even though she appreciate the gesture, the sessions were a drag and awaste of time, the man sitting before her and asking her the questions couldn’tunderstand because he wasn’t there, and reliving the worst thing that happenedto her felt like a weak recovery strategy.

She began to dread heavy silence that settle between her and Owen, their conversations stiff,often revolving around household issues, like who was buying the bread and whenwas the gas bill due. She wondered sometimes if he could feel it too, the wallbetween them, if he could feel the same exhaustion that settled deep in her bones, so heavy it waspressing down on her like a cement block, making it hard to breathe. Was this asign that it was only a matter of time before they couldn’t bear being in thesame room with one another? Absently, she realized that she was waiting for himto break it off, move out, leave her.

Until one nightOwen woke up, kicking and screaming, trapped so deep in his nightmare it tookher several minutes to get through to him, her palms on his cheeks, begging himto please come back to her. By the time he stopped trying to push her away andhis breathing evened out, his gaze finally focused and locked with hers, Claire’shands were shaking, tears brimming in her eyes. She was stroking his cheeks,his hair, whispering hushed words of reassurances. It wasonly then that he truly saw the impact of his mental state on her, her panicand fear thick and palpable, terrifying in their own way.

Owen pulled her tohim, his heart hammering somewhere in his throat and Claire’s tears soaking hisshirt that she was bunching in her hands. She asked him then if this was it for them, if they were over, if thiswas something they couldn’t work through, and it struck Owen that she wasn’t jokingor toying with the idea – she sounded so resigned he knew she honestly believedthis was the end. He told her everything then, the things about his time in theNavy he’d never spoken of before, everything that was haunting his mind, driving him crazy, untilthere was nothing left to say, and Claire was so still in his arms he wasafraid to move. He was scared of therapy because he didn’t want to unearth thethings he’d forgotten, but he promised her that if it was the only way to fix whatever was left of them – well, we waswilling to give it another go.

There were manythings Owen Grady could handle without flinching, but he hated himself for makingClaire doubt for one second that he didn’t love her, or that he didn’t want tobe with her, or that their relationship wasn’t worth the effort. They talkedmore, they talked through everything that had built up between them in the timesince he shut her off, however involuntarily it happened. She went to the firstappointment with him, and when his therapist suggested anti-depressants andanxiety mediation - something that he rejected before - he agreed immediately, not sure he would be able to find hisway out of the void if he got sucked into it again.