Monday Morning
Hi y'all! It's finally the SPRING! And it's like 30* today. Lovely.
This weekend, rozearkana and I drove out to visit zubeneschamali. We did some sight seeing around her area, ate some amazingly tasty food, and wrote a lot of porn for spn_masquerade. Like, rozearkana and I were up until 4am or so for Saturday's sweatshop with riyku, cherie_morte, morrezela, kelleigh, and some others. Sounds like the whole round closed with about 140 fills, which is pretty amazing given the slowing state of fandom. Everyone needs to run over there and check out the fabulous writing so many folks across different corners of fandom helped fill.
After only a few hours of sleep (and a lot of alcohol to keep the porn flowing) I spent most of yesterday completely worn out, but still made it out to my friends' house to watch The Walking Dead. It was an interesting episode with some emotional punches, a bit of action, and a whole lot of questions and side eyeing.
Here be spoilers for The Walking Dead and The 100 because
Last week, I read a long article about how the people behind The 100 had really flubbed a major character death and their management of the fanbase because it was a beloved character. Apparently the woman had just had sex with her new partner and then uselessly died by a stray hit. There was a lot of drama and more details that led to how the fanbase felt tricked by The People That Be because they'd been promised this well-loved character was going to be a big piece of the entire season and beyond ...
Now, in The Walking Dead last night, Denise died by what was supposedly a stray arrow (Dwight said he was aiming for Daryl, but that the crossbow has a rough kickback). Her death come literally right in the middle of her emotional monologue about why she wanted to step out of the comfort zone of their little village and look for more medicine, that she is weak but wants to stop being afraid, how she should have told her girlfriend Tara that she loved her, but she is just far too scared to do that. Her death immediately bothered me, for so many reasons. I think I was first disappointed because I liked Denise, even just as a small side character.
I feel like she represented the more average people in this world (perhaps like me) who has some use and is smart and funny, and wants to be part of the bigger purpose. She's not a super hero badass like the main characters, but she still has a place in their group. I joked later with my friends that I would probably be a lot like her ... I would have some skills to help in certain areas, but would also want to just assist wherever else I could. That if I were in a situation like that, likely the leaders would not insist "let's get Amy!" but would be happy to accept my help if I offered, even just to hold a ladder to dig out a garden.
I was then bothered by the even when considering 'of course she has to die just after admitting she loves Tara and should have said so when Tara said it first ...' Which then walked me down the road of the issues with The 100. The article I read highlighted the trend and dangers in killing off LGBTQ characters, especially after they finally get a romantic interest. To be honest, I had not considered or recognized this trend before, but having just read the long article, it's fresh on my mind. So I immediately connected The 100's mistake with this one.
Another issue I had was once the group returned to camp ... there was a moment with Daryl and Carol regarding the group that killed Denise, a scene where we find out Eugene was only grazed by a bullet (*eyeroll*), a long note read by Carol's voiceover, her supposed love interest (which felt so wedged in, it was awkward from the start) reading the note, then lastly a long close-up on Morgan's face. But we never, ever, ever, ever, ever saw anything with Tara's reaction to her girlfriend's death. Not even just a quick pan over her being told/crying/frozen/whatever. It felt extra disrespectful to make Tara/Denise a general part of the group by smoothly showing the progression of the relationship without making it a huge to-do, making us feel comfortable and happy that either of them could find comfort together, but then not respecting/acknowledging what the loss of THE DOCTOR who tied everyday people into this group.
I'm interested to know anyone else's thoughts on this ...
This weekend, rozearkana and I drove out to visit zubeneschamali. We did some sight seeing around her area, ate some amazingly tasty food, and wrote a lot of porn for spn_masquerade. Like, rozearkana and I were up until 4am or so for Saturday's sweatshop with riyku, cherie_morte, morrezela, kelleigh, and some others. Sounds like the whole round closed with about 140 fills, which is pretty amazing given the slowing state of fandom. Everyone needs to run over there and check out the fabulous writing so many folks across different corners of fandom helped fill.
After only a few hours of sleep (and a lot of alcohol to keep the porn flowing) I spent most of yesterday completely worn out, but still made it out to my friends' house to watch The Walking Dead. It was an interesting episode with some emotional punches, a bit of action, and a whole lot of questions and side eyeing.
Here be spoilers for The Walking Dead and The 100 because
Last week, I read a long article about how the people behind The 100 had really flubbed a major character death and their management of the fanbase because it was a beloved character. Apparently the woman had just had sex with her new partner and then uselessly died by a stray hit. There was a lot of drama and more details that led to how the fanbase felt tricked by The People That Be because they'd been promised this well-loved character was going to be a big piece of the entire season and beyond ...
Now, in The Walking Dead last night, Denise died by what was supposedly a stray arrow (Dwight said he was aiming for Daryl, but that the crossbow has a rough kickback). Her death come literally right in the middle of her emotional monologue about why she wanted to step out of the comfort zone of their little village and look for more medicine, that she is weak but wants to stop being afraid, how she should have told her girlfriend Tara that she loved her, but she is just far too scared to do that. Her death immediately bothered me, for so many reasons. I think I was first disappointed because I liked Denise, even just as a small side character.
I feel like she represented the more average people in this world (perhaps like me) who has some use and is smart and funny, and wants to be part of the bigger purpose. She's not a super hero badass like the main characters, but she still has a place in their group. I joked later with my friends that I would probably be a lot like her ... I would have some skills to help in certain areas, but would also want to just assist wherever else I could. That if I were in a situation like that, likely the leaders would not insist "let's get Amy!" but would be happy to accept my help if I offered, even just to hold a ladder to dig out a garden.
I was then bothered by the even when considering 'of course she has to die just after admitting she loves Tara and should have said so when Tara said it first ...' Which then walked me down the road of the issues with The 100. The article I read highlighted the trend and dangers in killing off LGBTQ characters, especially after they finally get a romantic interest. To be honest, I had not considered or recognized this trend before, but having just read the long article, it's fresh on my mind. So I immediately connected The 100's mistake with this one.
Another issue I had was once the group returned to camp ... there was a moment with Daryl and Carol regarding the group that killed Denise, a scene where we find out Eugene was only grazed by a bullet (*eyeroll*), a long note read by Carol's voiceover, her supposed love interest (which felt so wedged in, it was awkward from the start) reading the note, then lastly a long close-up on Morgan's face. But we never, ever, ever, ever, ever saw anything with Tara's reaction to her girlfriend's death. Not even just a quick pan over her being told/crying/frozen/whatever. It felt extra disrespectful to make Tara/Denise a general part of the group by smoothly showing the progression of the relationship without making it a huge to-do, making us feel comfortable and happy that either of them could find comfort together, but then not respecting/acknowledging what the loss of THE DOCTOR who tied everyday people into this group.
I'm interested to know anyone else's thoughts on this ...