in which I enthuse
FIRST there is a fic you must read if any of the following sentences appeal to you: "Doctor Who / Hunger Games fusion", "epic Rose-Martha friendship action gen", "cross-District mythology being made flesh", "Panem Dalek backstory", "Amy Pond and Finnick Odair kissing for the Greater Good". It's the best crossover I've possibly ever read; it, I don't know, makes both the canons glow. Or, at least, it fully reflects the awesome of Doctor Who and, to me, far surpasses the awesome of Hunger Games. (or, at least, it gives me a Hunger Games I can care about)
The Wolf and the Mockingjay by honorh who, I hear, is working on a sequel.
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SECONDLY I did a meme! Got it fromarsenicjade .
1. Leave a comment to this post, specifically saying that you would like a letter.
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Post the names of five fictional characters whose names begin with that letter, and your thoughts on each. The characters can be from books, movies, or TV shows.
I got the letter A.
Amal Chakravarthy, from The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal. Oh my god he's so hot, in a working-to-be-as-kind-as-possible damn-my-life-sucks-but-yours-sucks-more-can-I-help-at-all future doctor way. He's also kind of a hipster, he loves his sisters but he hasn't read Harry Potter, he's an attentive lover and a horrible shopping partner, and you just want to latch onto him and watch him forever, because he keeps growing into a really, really good man, despite his moments of sullen brathood*. Also, his love story is shaping up to be amazing.
*(The comic starts with him calling off his arranged marriage to his BFF, and also coming out to his family and possibly getting disinherited, so, I mean, most of the sullenness is justified? But he repents it anyway.)
Anya Lame-Ass Made-Up Last Name, from BtVS. Oh my god she's so great. I think pretty much everyone loves her, right? (Please don't shatter my illusions with links.) There's so many different reasons to love her - her extreme hilarity, her cheerful sexualness, her squiggly redemption arc and struggle for identity. I think my favourite thing about her is the way she can be totally logically consistent and yet totally emotion-lead at the same time, without ever coming to contradictions.
[Also, I was just thinking about how killing her off WAS my least favourite thing the show ever did. I mean, it sort of made sense? It was narratively tidy. Death means insta-redemption, after all, without having to go into the specifics of her crimes or the complicatedness of revenge-vs-justice-vs-"what if they really deserve it". Also, we had Our Heroes beginning anew, all of them once again partnerless, all of them finally equal in grief. But it was such a waste of so many different futures for her. And of symbolism, because here she was fighting the fight, not quite human and yet. (I understand the need for senseless, unexpected death in battle scenes. But I also really prefer for the the survivors to be demographically diverse and in conclusion, fuck you, Hunger Games.) ]
Aral Vorkosigan from the Vorkosigan Saga. Oh my god, so lovely. Like Bujold took all Heyer's alpha heroes - the rakes, the tortured, the sour - and took away their hubris and inserted ~duty~ instead. Which, let me just say, duty should not be this hot and yet. The great thing about Aral, I think, is we get all these views of him - the dictator, the paragon of masculinity, the father his sons can never live up to - but we know the truth, and the truth is full of tenderness and sea metaphors. (At least, it's Cordelia's truth, and it took her like two days to find it. BEST. LOVE STORY. It took Miles decades to see the real Aral (how old is he in ACC?) and he saw something a bit different than Cordelia did, something about identity and perseverance and building oneself up from scratch. Mark saw a killer, because that's what he needed to see to be able to be loved. So, I mean, there's more than one truth about him, anyway.)
Asha Greyjoy from Song of Ice and Fire. Oh my god, so hot. So, I mean, in the tv series they're doing new things with her entirely - smirky, daddy's-girl type things, which makes sense because of the new things they're doing with Theon. I don't disapprove. But my dear original Asha is - probably the best ruler in the books, though only of her own kingdom. Like Ned, she's willing to go to war but also eager to achieve peace - like Ned, she knows her people. Unlike Ned, she also enjoys the huge crushing responsibility. She understands it, and she loves it. She loves her nasty culture, the literal pissing contests and the heedless fighting. She's awesome, because - she's still a good person. Raised in a culture of excessive cruelty, which she doesn't even reject - she still isn't unnecessarily cruel.
(also, I think, among all the warrior women (actually, all the women, probably (always excepting Ygritte)), she seems the happiest with her gender. I mean, there's no body denial. She does have ready-made jokes/insults for all the time people taunt her about it, but she just... doesn't seem bothered. Also she has good, kinky, frequent, honest, safewording sex!)
Augustus Waters from The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, which you might want to read, but you also might not, because, you know, cancer kid book. (Spoilery review here.) So, okay, Augustus, oh my GOD. He's the kind of glorious pretentious metaphor-chasing teenager who just breaks your soul, because, oh, kid. I mean, he's not naive, he knows life sucks, quite obviously - he's a cancer survivor, he's friends/in love with cancer survivors who might not survive. But he's still passionately determined to be happy. Partly because he falls for the cancer kid book trope (a lot of this novel is about novels and what to do when your life mimicks them) that survivors are wiser and need to help others love life. Partly because he really, really wants to be a hero. But mostly because he just is like that, abstraction-prone and joyful and HIS LIFE IS A ROLLER COASTER THAT'S ONLY GOING UP, OKAY and he's a magnificent bastard (“Ma’am,” Augustus said, nodding toward her, “your daughter’s car has just been deservedly egged by a blind man. Please close the door and go back inside or we’ll be forced to call the police.”) But apart from being Augustus, he's also Gus, a scared, loving, lovely, innocent, hilarious kid, who really, really likes Natalie Portman. I love the construct of his personality, and I love everything about his personality, and most of all I love his total goodness. He pretty much does EVERYTHING for his friends and family, gives himself over to helping them any way he can. He's like Peeta should have been - you know, immaculate good in a place full of death.
The Wolf and the Mockingjay by honorh who, I hear, is working on a sequel.
-
SECONDLY I did a meme! Got it fromarsenicjade .
1. Leave a comment to this post, specifically saying that you would like a letter.
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Post the names of five fictional characters whose names begin with that letter, and your thoughts on each. The characters can be from books, movies, or TV shows.
I got the letter A.
Amal Chakravarthy, from The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal. Oh my god he's so hot, in a working-to-be-as-kind-as-possible damn-my-life-sucks-but-yours-sucks-more-can-I-help-at-all future doctor way. He's also kind of a hipster, he loves his sisters but he hasn't read Harry Potter, he's an attentive lover and a horrible shopping partner, and you just want to latch onto him and watch him forever, because he keeps growing into a really, really good man, despite his moments of sullen brathood*. Also, his love story is shaping up to be amazing.
*(The comic starts with him calling off his arranged marriage to his BFF, and also coming out to his family and possibly getting disinherited, so, I mean, most of the sullenness is justified? But he repents it anyway.)
Anya Lame-Ass Made-Up Last Name, from BtVS. Oh my god she's so great. I think pretty much everyone loves her, right? (Please don't shatter my illusions with links.) There's so many different reasons to love her - her extreme hilarity, her cheerful sexualness, her squiggly redemption arc and struggle for identity. I think my favourite thing about her is the way she can be totally logically consistent and yet totally emotion-lead at the same time, without ever coming to contradictions.
[Also, I was just thinking about how killing her off WAS my least favourite thing the show ever did. I mean, it sort of made sense? It was narratively tidy. Death means insta-redemption, after all, without having to go into the specifics of her crimes or the complicatedness of revenge-vs-justice-vs-"what if they really deserve it". Also, we had Our Heroes beginning anew, all of them once again partnerless, all of them finally equal in grief. But it was such a waste of so many different futures for her. And of symbolism, because here she was fighting the fight, not quite human and yet. (I understand the need for senseless, unexpected death in battle scenes. But I also really prefer for the the survivors to be demographically diverse and in conclusion, fuck you, Hunger Games.) ]
Aral Vorkosigan from the Vorkosigan Saga. Oh my god, so lovely. Like Bujold took all Heyer's alpha heroes - the rakes, the tortured, the sour - and took away their hubris and inserted ~duty~ instead. Which, let me just say, duty should not be this hot and yet. The great thing about Aral, I think, is we get all these views of him - the dictator, the paragon of masculinity, the father his sons can never live up to - but we know the truth, and the truth is full of tenderness and sea metaphors. (At least, it's Cordelia's truth, and it took her like two days to find it. BEST. LOVE STORY. It took Miles decades to see the real Aral (how old is he in ACC?) and he saw something a bit different than Cordelia did, something about identity and perseverance and building oneself up from scratch. Mark saw a killer, because that's what he needed to see to be able to be loved. So, I mean, there's more than one truth about him, anyway.)
Asha Greyjoy from Song of Ice and Fire. Oh my god, so hot. So, I mean, in the tv series they're doing new things with her entirely - smirky, daddy's-girl type things, which makes sense because of the new things they're doing with Theon. I don't disapprove. But my dear original Asha is - probably the best ruler in the books, though only of her own kingdom. Like Ned, she's willing to go to war but also eager to achieve peace - like Ned, she knows her people. Unlike Ned, she also enjoys the huge crushing responsibility. She understands it, and she loves it. She loves her nasty culture, the literal pissing contests and the heedless fighting. She's awesome, because - she's still a good person. Raised in a culture of excessive cruelty, which she doesn't even reject - she still isn't unnecessarily cruel.
(also, I think, among all the warrior women (actually, all the women, probably (always excepting Ygritte)), she seems the happiest with her gender. I mean, there's no body denial. She does have ready-made jokes/insults for all the time people taunt her about it, but she just... doesn't seem bothered. Also she has good, kinky, frequent, honest, safewording sex!)
Augustus Waters from The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, which you might want to read, but you also might not, because, you know, cancer kid book. (Spoilery review here.) So, okay, Augustus, oh my GOD. He's the kind of glorious pretentious metaphor-chasing teenager who just breaks your soul, because, oh, kid. I mean, he's not naive, he knows life sucks, quite obviously - he's a cancer survivor, he's friends/in love with cancer survivors who might not survive. But he's still passionately determined to be happy. Partly because he falls for the cancer kid book trope (a lot of this novel is about novels and what to do when your life mimicks them) that survivors are wiser and need to help others love life. Partly because he really, really wants to be a hero. But mostly because he just is like that, abstraction-prone and joyful and HIS LIFE IS A ROLLER COASTER THAT'S ONLY GOING UP, OKAY and he's a magnificent bastard (“Ma’am,” Augustus said, nodding toward her, “your daughter’s car has just been deservedly egged by a blind man. Please close the door and go back inside or we’ll be forced to call the police.”) But apart from being Augustus, he's also Gus, a scared, loving, lovely, innocent, hilarious kid, who really, really likes Natalie Portman. I love the construct of his personality, and I love everything about his personality, and most of all I love his total goodness. He pretty much does EVERYTHING for his friends and family, gives himself over to helping them any way he can. He's like Peeta should have been - you know, immaculate good in a place full of death.