Random ramblings about TV shows

[dorothydeath]

I haven't updated my journal for some time now and anyway I thought maybe I should write about something other than my RL problems so...

Ranting about True Blood (spoilerish of the season finale) and ranting and musings about Game of Thrones (spoilerish of the later books, Shae-related). Also flailing over Once Upon a Time.

Comments

[meridian_rose]

The latest True Blood is just about to air here, while a new season is about to air in the USA so I'm behind and can't comment. The last season I saw was the Witch wars which I thought was relatively well handled in terms of evil/good/shades of grey representations of witchcraft, though I was sad to see Jesus die, because I liked him, and because it's another example of the Dead Gay Character trope rearing its ugly head (and he was also a character of colour, and in a loving non-hetero relationship)

I loved second season GoT - I wish Jon had something to do other than wander about lost in the wild, but Tyrion kicked all sorts of ass and the battle scene was awesome. I wish there'd been money left for more CGI direwolves. Also I wish we'd had more Dany - and I wanted her to get her dragons back so badly, and was so glad when she did. I still despise Joffrey (which yes, Gleason does a great job of making me hate him!). Sansa's storyline still bores me, while I loved Jaqen (spelling?) and how Arya bargained with him. Also Cersei's hypocrisy pisses me off. I liked Jamie's interactions with Brienne, and Brienne herself. (I rec'd this vid a while back that suggests a romcom where Brienne loves Jaime:http://youtu.be/f-w98pNAi9A)

I have mixed feelings about OUAT. I don't really like Emma much and I can't stand the Epic Love of Charming/Snow (nearly made me quit early on). I like Snow when she's a kickass rebel in fairytale land before her Happy Ending.
I really love watching Regina and Gold because they're the most interesting to me. (Other feelings about Carlisle aside he does an amazing job as Rumpel! That laugh is perfect!)
Also I liked Graham and was sad he was killed (hoped his story might tie in with Red's), but I rather liked August later and didn't mind Jefferson's story. Also Red is awesome, especially in fairy tale land.
I do think the show privileges birth mothers and it sucks ass. I think GoT has similar issues and I've come close to writing a post about it half a dozen times. Emma (who is factually a criminal who has known Henry a couple of months, the longest she's ever settled anywhere) was about to take Henry from his mother who raised him, it would have been kidnapping and I was glad MM pointed that out.
I was open to the RumpBell pairing until he literally threw her into a dungeon and now I think it's too toxic to be healthy. I may change my mind if season two handles it more sensitively.
I've got the last episode to watch although I've seen spoilers so I know mostly what's coming. /random observation/
Surprisingly I rather like Henry too, though the initial Henry's mother and biological mother and grandmother and ugh, fricking everyone is related to this kid, did get on my nerves in the early episodes.
That said, I have made fanworks for it, so I'm interested in certain aspects, and in 'fixing' or exploring the flaws, so I have some investment in it. Feelings, I have lots of them.

Great to see a post from you! Sorry for all the ramblings!

[dorothydeath]

Re: True Blood. I liked the witches' season. If anything it made sense. Now though I don't understand half of the things that are going on. Starting with characters' motivation. They seem to do what the writers force them to do rather than being themselves and doing what they would like to do. O_o I've lost count how many times I facepalmed during this season.

Re: GoT. Yeah, Tyrion kicked ass. And Bronn. I liked Bronn both in the books and on the show. I agree about Jon, Dany, Arya, and the direwolves. Though I feel I have to defend Sansa. She doesn't get enough time to have even a slight chance to be interesting on the show. Because apparently Ros the whore (who isn't even in the books) is much more important than a key POV character. Which really gets to me. D:
LOLOLOLOL the video. :D I love Jaime/Brienne in the books but I'm not sure how I feel about show!Brienne. I guess I need one more season to figure it out. O_o

Re: OUaT.
I think Snow/Charming boring too. But I've found if I skip all the Charming scenes the show gets much more awesome. :D
And I do find some perverse pleasure in watching David fail over and over and over again.

Gold/Regina interactions are fascinating! And I liked Graham too. I thought he and Red could have been a great couple.

About the adoption thing. I still believe that the shows slowly builds up to prove that adoptive parents are equally important. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Re: RumBelle.
I admit I have a rather twisted definition of healthy (I ship Darken/Kahlan like there's no tomorrow and it says a lot).
But in Rum's defense I have to point out that at that moment for him Belle was the enemy who tried to stand in the way of him finding his son. She almost ruined everything he had worked on for two or three hundred of years. Everything! Any chance would have been lost forever. I think it's understandable he freaked out.
I don't approve of his actions in any way but I can see why he acted like he did. (Also knowing Rum his outburst might have ended much worse, but no, he just shoves her out of the way of his anger, wreaks some havoc, and then lets her go again. She's the enemy and he lets her go. That's huge.) So yes, Rum messed up. But I do believe in forgiveness. It's very, very important to me.
Also I think that now that Belle's back "from the dead" Rum's gonna worship her and grovel at her feet. He'll never do anything to hurt her ever again. So yeah, I will go down with this ship.

The OUaT season finale was the most EPIC season finale I could have hoped for!
It's so epic I've watched it three times in a row after it had aired and then three or four times again during summer.

I'm glad we agree on Henry. :D
And I find I rather like that everyone's related. :D All I need is for Bae to be Henry's dad and all of them would make a perfect dysfunctional family! :D Family dinners would be most hilarious! :D

I've seen your Gold-in-a-comma fic but I couldn't read it because it triggered me for some reason. I just can't stand him being helpless and vulnerable (I NEVER rewatch the FTL's parts of Desperate Souls, I just can't). It hurts me almost physically and I just couldn't go through with it. I'm sorry!
If you have anything else though, could you please give me links? :D I'd be glad to read it! :D

BB, I'm always happy to read your ramblings! :D Ramblings are good! :D
*HUGS*

And thanks for replying to my post, sweetie! :D I love discussing things with you! :D

[meridian_rose]

Oh dear. I guess I shall be mostly looking at Eric and Alcide rather than worrying about plot this season then! I love Jessica and Pam too, so maybe it won't be too bad.

I just watched the OUAT finale - it was suitably Epic :D - and again Gold says Emma is Henry's real mother. We do get sad!Regina but I still don't think we the audience are supposed to root for her because Emma gave birth so blah blah blah. And Jefferson (rightfully in his case) wants his daughter back. Biological parents are the only good ones in the show - probably Emma's a criminal because she was adopted or some crap (and we need to know more of Emma's backstory really!)

Rumpbel: If the ship is to be healthy he needs to acknowledge and apologise for what he did.
I think I know why it feels different to me; Belle is different from Kahlan, who gives as good as she gets and has done plenty of questionable things herself. D/K seem more like equals like R/B. The finale was very promising in how overwhelmed he was to have her back, but look what Rumpel did next; he brought magic back because he still values power over everything else. I'm not sure he'd chose her over magic yet. (Though of course without his devious plans, it wouldn't be much of a season :D)

Hmm. I only tend to hurt the characters I like! Usually male characters though because it's unusual to see them 'weak' while females go through enough; I like my female characters largely unscathed.
I wrote the fic because Cinderella pissed me off, and it would have been easy for her assault to end badly. It was an angst fic so there was no happy ending. In a h/c fic or sequel I'd have had Emma (at Henry's urging) try to find Gold's true love to save him, and thereby help Ashley.

I have ideas for a couple more fic AUs which I may never write such as What If August Didn't Abandon baby!Emma.
I think the only fanwork I made previously was a fusion where Kahlan was Emma (both able to tell when someone is lying) - I also put it on Tumblr
(There was also a fic I read via legendland where Cara was the saviour instead of Emma. She'd probably have got things sorted out much quicker!)

[dorothydeath]

Re: adoption.
I see his comment as a part of Gold/Regina power struggle. He shows he sides with Emma. But it's not necessarily what writers really think on the subject.
BTW Regina/EQ is fandom favorite female character so lots of people root for her. The creators are aware of it so I think this all is very far from over. :D

Re: Rum and Power.
Nah. I'm not buying it. I believe that's what the writers want us to think, but if you recall 'The Return' (when Rum thinks August is his son Bae) he gives up his dagger in a heartbeat. So in the finale it's not really about power. It's just the next stage in Rum's operation 'Bae'. That's what he has planned centuries ago. He needs magic to find his son. I'm 100% certain of it!

I'm not sure I agree that D/K seem more like equals... Not from Kahlan's POV in canon at least... Darken and Kahlan make a deal of sexual nature where Darken gets his peace and his heir and Kahlan perceives herself a powerless victim with only hope for Richard's return to keep her going. In fanfic it takes time and effort to make Kahlan see her real power in the relationship as well as all the benefits of it.

Rum and Belle make a deal of non-sexual nature where Rum saves Belle's family and friends and Belle gets to have household duties. Rum tries to show Belle that she's a victim and he's a monster by throwing her in a dungeon that first night but Belle soon learns better. And as time passes we see her making adjustments to Rum's place as she likes without first asking his leave (the curtains) and Rum acquiescing to her decisions despite his obvious discomfort ("I'll get used to it"). They joke and laugh, they have meaningful conversations, they share things, deep things, secret things. Then, the moment Rum realizes he's in love with her, he lets he go. He sets her free.
When Belle comes back to break Rum's curse she doesn't ask him if he wants it broken (which is an understandable mistake, she just does what she thinks is best, but it's a mistake nonetheless; she's making a very important decision about his life without first talking to him about it) and the whole drama happens. Then Rum lets her go again claiming he chooses power (read: the only chance to find Bae) over her, but Belle sees right through him. She knows he'll regret it. And she's not afraid of him when she confronts him about it. She calls the Dark One coward in his face! He can turn her into a snail for this insult! But she knows he won't. She's not afraid of his power because her power over him is so much stronger.
When we see Belle in a tavern in 'Dreamy' she's not angry or bitter, she's just sad because she knows they both love each other and they screwed up. She had time to process things and she has forgiven him already.
When they reunite the first thing she says to him is 'I love you'. And Rum wastes no time to assure her 'I love you too', admitting that she has been right all along.

Now that Rum released magic into the world he has some explaining to do, that's for sure. I imagine they will have a veeeery long talk. I'm very curious how the writers will handle it!

But it's not about power. I have absolutely no doubts about that.

OMG long essay is long. I'm just irrationally overprotective of RumBelle, okay? I'm sorry to dump this all on you!! O_O

Cinderella pissed me off too. Hey, you just killed my fairy godmother, wanna help me? What do you mean I should change my life myself if I don't like it? It's hard! Magic's way better! What do you mean I can't handle it? Sure I can! Boy, this contract is so looooong! Whatever. I don't need to read it.

Also it looked to me like Ella cared more about her new shiny life as a princess than about her beloved prince.

What If August Didn't Abandon baby!Emma would be an awesome story! I might actually like August then. (I don't hate him or anything, he just failed to intrigue me from the start. And I don't like that all Emma's ideas about the murder investigation come from him. I would like it more if the writers let Emma figure out things on her own). So, bb, you should totally write it!! :D *FLAILS*

Ooh!! I love the graphic! :D And it's such a great idea! :D Love the parallels! :D

OMG I want to read this Cara is a savior fic! :D Can you link me please? :D

[meridian_rose]

It took me a moment to find it but here is the link, it's the last fic on the page :D

http://raug-moss.livejournal.com/8940.html

I ought to bookmark it or something!