day 10: 00Q recs, and some thoughts about Skyfall
13 days of happy things, day 10! Today, a list of 00Q recs, and a couple of thoughts about Skyfall.
1. Use of color. Long ago, I remember sockkpuppett edumacating me on the uses of color in scenes, and I have never failed to notice it since. The color scheme is so illustrative of mood in this movie. It's all deliberate, and it's amazing.
2. Set design and symmetry. For instance, Bond traps a white scorpion under a glass early in the movie; that symbolism is later echoed when Bond stands outside Silva's clear cage, guarding him. Early in the movie, Bond and Q trade quips about The Fighting Temeraire being hauled off for scrap; when Bond returns to full duty with a clear head and full heart at the end of the movie, there is a gorgeous painting of ships at full sail behind him in Mallory's office. And so on. There are a ton of these little moments.
3. Everything you need to know about James Bond, and about Q, and their relationship, is revealed in the scene where Q is trying to get into Silva's computer. People sometimes forget that in a previous movie, Bond hacked into M's computer. He wasn't especially subtle or clever about using her password and whatnot when he went into MI6's mainframe, but then he wasn't trying to be. That's always been one of my favorite tidbits about Bond: he may be a blunt instrument, but he's fucking smart. So when Q is looking at the code, and Bond tells him to stop -- he stops immediately. In the background, Q is giving him an annoyed, incredulous look - an amazingly subtle bit of acting - but he stopped, and that speaks to his respect for this field agent and what he can do, and what he might see there. I LOVE THAT MOMENT.
4. Similarly, I love the moments where Bond gives others his respect with a tiny smile - when Mallory shoots a bad guy dead, when Moneypenny knocks the mirrors off the jeep, when Q points out that he invented the safeguards and protocols Silva is using. LOVE.
5. My favorite Q moment is when he and Tanner get busted by Mallory helping Bond, and Q is flustered and hilariously un-smooth about it. Again, acting choices that say a great deal about a character who didn't have much screen time. I think I fell in love with Ben Whishaw during this movie. Considering that I had no idea who he was before I saw Skyfall, that was a pretty big achievement on his part.
Now some recs. I don't actually have time to write out descriptions of the stories, or why I like them (except in a few cases). So I'm just going to leave you with these, and hope they will be of use to folks who are looking for good stories. I like these to varying degrees, but I specifically saved all of these in my AO3 bookmarks to rec after reading them.
some other beginning's end by thimble (my notes on this one say, 'rec it! amazing!')
In Name Only by BootsnBlossoms and Kryptaria. Disclaimer: I don't like all of their stories. Some of them don't work for me AT ALL. But this one, and Bound really, really do, because there's a lot of careful characterization, and they are well-written. That being said, due to the subject matter, they will not be everyone's cuppa. (Also, they are super-long stories, which is rare in this fandom.)
Damage(d) by imadra_blue
Towers by couldbeaspaceraider
It's alarming truly how disarming you could be by sirona
Fear of Falling (for you) by flitterflutterfly
five years isn't so long by scioscribe - so sad, but unbelievably beautiful. Excerpt: “I used to understand,” Bond says, and his voice is so soft it’s like it isn’t there at all. He isn’t talking to Q. He’s remembering a dream he had once, one that he wrote down somewhere, but the paper has been folded so long the creases have worn it into cloth and the rain has streaked the ink and set the letters crooked and elongated past their marks, and it’s Bond’s dream of himself, Bond’s old life with its edges and lights and clearheaded painlessness. (My notes say: "to rec, wow")
horizon line by scioscribe - another sad one
a sudden chill by aestheticized (Notes say: "amazing")
a pox on all your machines by scioscribe - loved the ending
I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today by Perpetual Motion
Synchronicity by Stereobone
A mountain that has been moved by melfice
Entire by threegifproblem
Not Your Usual by Cedes
These Violent Delights Have Violent Ends by im_not_a_lizard
...Would Smell As Sweet by im_not_a_lizard
another thing coming undone by harlequindreaming
sunshine on the other side (I promise, I promise) by sawuh
dawn by kiyala (part of a cute series; all the parts are on the same page on AO3)
Static Electricity by epistolic
Clockwork Soldiers by manic_intent
a cigarette you thought was gonna be your last by calciseptine
if the spirit moves you by thimble
Straightforwardly (without complexities or pride) by proserpine
Decompression by desdemon
slow hands killer by paxlux
Million Dollar Question by skylights
it was dark when i found you by whimsicalimages
And a gen Q-centric rec:
so you were never a saint by paperclipbitch
(Previous 00Q recs can be found here, here, and a few art recs here.)
1. Use of color. Long ago, I remember sockkpuppett edumacating me on the uses of color in scenes, and I have never failed to notice it since. The color scheme is so illustrative of mood in this movie. It's all deliberate, and it's amazing.
2. Set design and symmetry. For instance, Bond traps a white scorpion under a glass early in the movie; that symbolism is later echoed when Bond stands outside Silva's clear cage, guarding him. Early in the movie, Bond and Q trade quips about The Fighting Temeraire being hauled off for scrap; when Bond returns to full duty with a clear head and full heart at the end of the movie, there is a gorgeous painting of ships at full sail behind him in Mallory's office. And so on. There are a ton of these little moments.
3. Everything you need to know about James Bond, and about Q, and their relationship, is revealed in the scene where Q is trying to get into Silva's computer. People sometimes forget that in a previous movie, Bond hacked into M's computer. He wasn't especially subtle or clever about using her password and whatnot when he went into MI6's mainframe, but then he wasn't trying to be. That's always been one of my favorite tidbits about Bond: he may be a blunt instrument, but he's fucking smart. So when Q is looking at the code, and Bond tells him to stop -- he stops immediately. In the background, Q is giving him an annoyed, incredulous look - an amazingly subtle bit of acting - but he stopped, and that speaks to his respect for this field agent and what he can do, and what he might see there. I LOVE THAT MOMENT.
4. Similarly, I love the moments where Bond gives others his respect with a tiny smile - when Mallory shoots a bad guy dead, when Moneypenny knocks the mirrors off the jeep, when Q points out that he invented the safeguards and protocols Silva is using. LOVE.
5. My favorite Q moment is when he and Tanner get busted by Mallory helping Bond, and Q is flustered and hilariously un-smooth about it. Again, acting choices that say a great deal about a character who didn't have much screen time. I think I fell in love with Ben Whishaw during this movie. Considering that I had no idea who he was before I saw Skyfall, that was a pretty big achievement on his part.
Now some recs. I don't actually have time to write out descriptions of the stories, or why I like them (except in a few cases). So I'm just going to leave you with these, and hope they will be of use to folks who are looking for good stories. I like these to varying degrees, but I specifically saved all of these in my AO3 bookmarks to rec after reading them.
some other beginning's end by thimble (my notes on this one say, 'rec it! amazing!')
In Name Only by BootsnBlossoms and Kryptaria. Disclaimer: I don't like all of their stories. Some of them don't work for me AT ALL. But this one, and Bound really, really do, because there's a lot of careful characterization, and they are well-written. That being said, due to the subject matter, they will not be everyone's cuppa. (Also, they are super-long stories, which is rare in this fandom.)
Damage(d) by imadra_blue
Towers by couldbeaspaceraider
It's alarming truly how disarming you could be by sirona
Fear of Falling (for you) by flitterflutterfly
five years isn't so long by scioscribe - so sad, but unbelievably beautiful. Excerpt: “I used to understand,” Bond says, and his voice is so soft it’s like it isn’t there at all. He isn’t talking to Q. He’s remembering a dream he had once, one that he wrote down somewhere, but the paper has been folded so long the creases have worn it into cloth and the rain has streaked the ink and set the letters crooked and elongated past their marks, and it’s Bond’s dream of himself, Bond’s old life with its edges and lights and clearheaded painlessness. (My notes say: "to rec, wow")
horizon line by scioscribe - another sad one
a sudden chill by aestheticized (Notes say: "amazing")
a pox on all your machines by scioscribe - loved the ending
I'm Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today by Perpetual Motion
Synchronicity by Stereobone
A mountain that has been moved by melfice
Entire by threegifproblem
Not Your Usual by Cedes
These Violent Delights Have Violent Ends by im_not_a_lizard
...Would Smell As Sweet by im_not_a_lizard
another thing coming undone by harlequindreaming
sunshine on the other side (I promise, I promise) by sawuh
dawn by kiyala (part of a cute series; all the parts are on the same page on AO3)
Static Electricity by epistolic
Clockwork Soldiers by manic_intent
a cigarette you thought was gonna be your last by calciseptine
if the spirit moves you by thimble
Straightforwardly (without complexities or pride) by proserpine
Decompression by desdemon
slow hands killer by paxlux
Million Dollar Question by skylights
it was dark when i found you by whimsicalimages
And a gen Q-centric rec:
so you were never a saint by paperclipbitch
(Previous 00Q recs can be found here, here, and a few art recs here.)