Killjoys + Snowflake Challenge, days 2-5

[hamsterwoman]

An assortment of fannish things!

1) fandom_stocking extended its deadline to Wed, 1/11. I am usually impatient to see all the goodies revealed, but this year I'm greatly relieved, because between the stockings going up pretty late, crazy work, holiday, and feeling sick, I haven't actually managed to do anything yet, beyond browse and take notes,

Comments

[egelantier]

s2 is definitely sadder and darker, and there's a couple storylines i could do without or at least wanted done in a different way. but there's a lot of funny/touching/badass/hot/amazing moments there - man, pree alone is worth a price of admission - and i think you will especially appreciate the development and resolution of khlyen storyline.

re: d'avin/dutch and the fallout; i'm actually very much in love with how the show approaches the usual tropes from unusual side. like, normally you'd expect the 'i stabbed you/i beat you/we fear you' angle, but here johnny doesn't give a fuck about the stabbing but is really angry about the fallout of their relationship, and dutch believes that he's innocent but is enraged about how he IS innocent, non-complicit in his dark past, unlike her (as she sees it); it was a wonderful little piece of complexity.

after ep7 ep8 is probably my favorite - with the acid rain, and with this neat little evolution of johnny's arc, where he totally is a person who will try to save everybody until the VERY LAST MOMENT, but then not hesitate to kill a guy with an industrial railgun. and he stood up for himself re: d'avin, and it was wonderful, too (for all that he held out for like 25 minutes).

(the whole industrial gun thing, by the way, is neatly foreshadowed by the hostage extraction episode - he might be a diplomatic sweetheart, but he has nothing against chocking out a shipful of intruders and then killing the last one with a blowtorch).

also, is the soundtrack not to die for? i stole so many songs from it.

[hamsterwoman]

I'm now 2.3 episodes into season 2, and definitely agree about Pree! I always liked his cameos in the first season, and it was so great to see more of him! (and now I wanna know about his criminal/warlord past. I hope there's fic, at least!) And I think I like the way the Khlyen thing is headed, if that's not a misdirection. (Also, Khlyen being a badass and stone-cold ruthless is just kind of nice to watch.)

with how the show approaches the usual tropes from unusual side.

I agree! (Also, I just love the "Sorry for stabbing you. Thanks for not dying." exchanges between the brothers XD)

dutch believes that he's innocent but is enraged about how he IS innocent, non-complicit in his dark past, unlike her (as she sees it); it was a wonderful little piece of complexity

Yes, it is! Mostly Dutch works better for me on the pretty + ass-kicking than deep emotional level, but she really got me in that scene.

I think episode 8 is my favorite overall -- the Rain (for the worldbuilding and the plot tension), and Dutch and D'av teambuilding (speaking of subverted/approached unusually tropes, I also really liked the scene where she stands in front of the target and tells him to shoot... and then backs out -- I definitely hadn't expected that, but it was a lot more realistic than what I *had* been expecting), but ESPECIALLY for Johnny's arc. (I'd forgotten about the blowtorch thing, but ooh, you're right!).

and he stood up for himself re: d'avin, and it was wonderful, too (for all that he held out for like 25 minutes).

Heh, yes. XD

The soundtrack is really, really cool! I normally don't notice things like that in what I'm watching, because I'm not a music person, but I was for sure noticing it here.

But... season 2 got rid of the theme song? And replaced it with "ooh ooh ooh"? WHY.

[egelantier]

oh, and unrelatedly: i've read coldfire trilogy for that one yuletide, and i'm... not a fan. the worldbuilding is really fascinating and it's well-written, but it's chock full of weirdly detached misogyny - i mean, one of the protagonists literally gets off on torturing and killing women, and the narrative is a bit... relaxed about it, and there are all these deaths, and just - and it's very very very very slashy but no-homo in a WEIRD way (apparently the author does not understand, after writing a scene in which one dude literally runs through literal hell with a literal other-dude-inspired boner, where do the fangirls get this weird "slash" thing from her pristine writings), and all combined, i don't regret reading it, but it weird me with a very weird taste.

[hamsterwoman]

a scene in which one dude literally runs through literal hell with a literal other-dude-inspired boner

Whaa.... XD

I am OK with a lot of deaths (especially if I know it's that kind of a book going in), and very dark protagonists (although how well they work for me really depends a lot on the writing style, it seems).

The worldbuilding sounds interesting (although I tend to be picky about how SF/fantasy blends work for me or don't), but IIRC, I was originally sold on Coldfire by people talking about Gerald Tarrant (in I forget what context, but based on what I do recall, I doubt it was "characters who are good people" :P)

Anyway, it's been on my to-read list for, IDK, probably 8 years, so who knows if I'll actually get around to it. But I'm rather heartened by the fact that I have several people on my flist who love the series and several who do not, so I guess regardless of whether I end up enjoying it or not, I'll have someone to talk about it with. XP