Reading and watching roundup, Hugo nominees edition

[hamsterwoman]

As I mentioned in my previous post, all it took to get my reading mojo back (temporarily, no doubt) was going on an extended vacation. So I continued to do work the first week, and didn't do any reading, and then the week in Bretagne I also didn't do much reading because I was busy hanging out with cafemassolit in person, but in the ~1.5 weeks outside of that

Comments

[aletheiafelinea]

What a fascinating read that was! (I do need more rants for that thing, apparently. If not for anything else, then because it would be so helpful to crystalize a nebulous (heh) feeling into specified thoughts, pinning it down with words.)

or at least never called out, and this is a show where if the author wants you to know something, it will be called out one million times.
Oh yes, that very much rings that fic of mine bell. Someone who was seriously wronged in my view gets sidelined by the narration for the sake of someone the author thinks needs to be effusively and repeatedly validated and coddled, because oh! the inspeakable hurt and harm and injustice of... not being let by a third part into the sidelined character's privacy.
(If it's too theoretical, the actual context: Bucky slowly gets back a life and when he finally feels ready, cautiously approaches Steve, who keeps that beetwen them two; then after months of everyone being puzzled about sudden change in Steve's mood he brings Sam and Clint to his kind-of-date with a very much not warned Bucky; Bucky stifles down a freakout under an easygoing mask and soonest as possible runs in the most polite way he can to shake apart in some safe hidey-hole, which Clint explains the others, too oblivious to notice. Except the shaking apart part which they don't witness. Who gets apologised? Sam. "How could you not tell me for so long, man! I thought we were friends! *much of sighing, dramatic posing, silent pain, turning head and crossing arms* Okay, I'm still mad and you have a mark in your ledger, but since you're so devastated and recognizing your ugly sin, we're good for now, look how heroically I'm getting over it." And all of this, as it turns out later, was for Bucky's benefit, because Steve needed a psychological evaluation for Law Reasons and it was the only way he could make it work! If not the unforgivable price of Sam's hurt feelings, of course. Sam who actually got warned on the way about who are they meeting, so the whole butthurt was only about 'why not immediately you knew'.)