Tron, Falling Skies, Merlin BB, and the Pope
Thanks to my vacation, I've managed to get some of my brain back, though it did take a week and a half to get back to a point where I felt I could write for fun again. I was just overloaded and overstressed, I guess. Anyway, I'm happily tapping out the last of my Merlin Big Bang, which is going to land somewhere between 45,000 and 47,000 words, it appears. The worst part is, there's barely any plot to justify the bloat. Unless you consider Merlin and Arthur falling in love + magic reveal + overhaul of the ending of season 4 + Arthur almost going to war over Merlin a plot. I think of it as sort of a merry romp through my romantic id. The word count will likely shrink after the betas start ripping at it. I need to murder quite a few of my darlings.
I don't usually link to articles about Things out there in the World, because I really am not fond of religion/politics in my fannish spaces. But I read a fascinating article in Der Spiegel (translated from the German) about Pope Benedict and his failure as a leader within the church, and why the Vatican curia is more or less imploding. I'm not Catholic, and not a fan of Benedict, but the article is interesting from a political standpoint.
Moving on to fannish stuff...Is anyone else watching Tron: Uprising?
So, this version of Tron is a half-hour animated series on Disney XD, and it falls between the original movie and Tron: Legacy. It preserves the visuals of Tron: Legacy, and also uses some of the Daft Punk soundtrack (WHICH I LOVE) and well-crafted original music. Visually, it's gorgeous, and it cleaves to the internal mythology established by Tron: Legacy as well - Clu has taken over the Grid, and holds all programs in thrall. The Games are a way of disciplining disorderly programs.
Tron was in fact damaged by Clu, and so of course became Rinzler. He shows his damaged code bits, ahaha. When I wrote about the repairs to Tron's program in Start of Line, this is sort of what I was imagining, and I LOVE the idea that he is training another program (Beck, voiced by Elijah Wood) to become him, to take over the resistance. Tron is voiced by Bruce Boxleitner. Of course. :D The villain General Tesler is voiced by Lance Henriksen. There's also an awesome female program (Paige) who kicks quite a bit of ass, even if she does work for Clu. And more cool things: The Grid itself is voiced by Tricia Helfer (SIX!).
I like it. It's a fun diversion.
Last but not least, Falling Skies is back, and this season looks like it has the potential to be much better than last season. Potential is the key word, 'cause it's still sort of slow.
I watch this show for the family dynamics with Tom and his sons. Anytime Hal and Tom are interacting, I am just completely heartseyes over it, and in the premiere this week, when Tom slogs out of the river and Hal is all, "What took you so long?" and was hugging the shit out of him, THAT WAS IT FOR ME, I will stick with this show forever just for their relationship. But when you add in Ben (my, how Ben has grown up!) and his tense relationship with Hal, it forms an interesting triangle of dynamics. (Oh, oh, when Hal went to punch him and Ben used his super-strength to hold Hal there, that was quite a moment, yes.)
My heart was totally breaking when Ben was telling Tom to hold on to hate, that this is what makes going on bearable for him -- for him to show his father his back, and try to teach him that lesson, while Tom is telling him love is all that really makes life worth living -- ugh, they were killing me. KILLING ME.
The rest of it was sort of eh. I did like the conversation between Tom and the head alien in the ship, and the use of the device to show how he made his way back. The question is, why did they let him live? I'm intrigued enough to stick around and see, especially after the parasite eyeball thing, ewwww. Still hate Pope. Still love Weaver and Anne and Margaret and Dai (who was drastically underused in this ep). castalianspring had some thoughts about the show's ongoing issues with plot-induced stupidity, and I mostly agree, except that I think the show still does a good job of showing how ordinary people sometimes fail to adapt to extraordinary circumstances. Sometimes they're just stupid. Sometimes they're just clinging to their humanity by their fingernails, and that MAKES them act stupidly. Anyway. Falling Skies still has its boring moments, but I really love the things I love about it.
I don't usually link to articles about Things out there in the World, because I really am not fond of religion/politics in my fannish spaces. But I read a fascinating article in Der Spiegel (translated from the German) about Pope Benedict and his failure as a leader within the church, and why the Vatican curia is more or less imploding. I'm not Catholic, and not a fan of Benedict, but the article is interesting from a political standpoint.
Moving on to fannish stuff...Is anyone else watching Tron: Uprising?
So, this version of Tron is a half-hour animated series on Disney XD, and it falls between the original movie and Tron: Legacy. It preserves the visuals of Tron: Legacy, and also uses some of the Daft Punk soundtrack (WHICH I LOVE) and well-crafted original music. Visually, it's gorgeous, and it cleaves to the internal mythology established by Tron: Legacy as well - Clu has taken over the Grid, and holds all programs in thrall. The Games are a way of disciplining disorderly programs.
Tron was in fact damaged by Clu, and so of course became Rinzler. He shows his damaged code bits, ahaha. When I wrote about the repairs to Tron's program in Start of Line, this is sort of what I was imagining, and I LOVE the idea that he is training another program (Beck, voiced by Elijah Wood) to become him, to take over the resistance. Tron is voiced by Bruce Boxleitner. Of course. :D The villain General Tesler is voiced by Lance Henriksen. There's also an awesome female program (Paige) who kicks quite a bit of ass, even if she does work for Clu. And more cool things: The Grid itself is voiced by Tricia Helfer (SIX!).
I like it. It's a fun diversion.
Last but not least, Falling Skies is back, and this season looks like it has the potential to be much better than last season. Potential is the key word, 'cause it's still sort of slow.
I watch this show for the family dynamics with Tom and his sons. Anytime Hal and Tom are interacting, I am just completely heartseyes over it, and in the premiere this week, when Tom slogs out of the river and Hal is all, "What took you so long?" and was hugging the shit out of him, THAT WAS IT FOR ME, I will stick with this show forever just for their relationship. But when you add in Ben (my, how Ben has grown up!) and his tense relationship with Hal, it forms an interesting triangle of dynamics. (Oh, oh, when Hal went to punch him and Ben used his super-strength to hold Hal there, that was quite a moment, yes.)
My heart was totally breaking when Ben was telling Tom to hold on to hate, that this is what makes going on bearable for him -- for him to show his father his back, and try to teach him that lesson, while Tom is telling him love is all that really makes life worth living -- ugh, they were killing me. KILLING ME.
The rest of it was sort of eh. I did like the conversation between Tom and the head alien in the ship, and the use of the device to show how he made his way back. The question is, why did they let him live? I'm intrigued enough to stick around and see, especially after the parasite eyeball thing, ewwww. Still hate Pope. Still love Weaver and Anne and Margaret and Dai (who was drastically underused in this ep). castalianspring had some thoughts about the show's ongoing issues with plot-induced stupidity, and I mostly agree, except that I think the show still does a good job of showing how ordinary people sometimes fail to adapt to extraordinary circumstances. Sometimes they're just stupid. Sometimes they're just clinging to their humanity by their fingernails, and that MAKES them act stupidly. Anyway. Falling Skies still has its boring moments, but I really love the things I love about it.