I have so many (totes serious) (first world) problems...
Very good talk with Magpie this afternoon that makes me feel somewhat less concerned about my reactions to certain things in these shows, and I got some lovely steroids (as well as something that is apparently usually used for mood and anxiety disorders, but also combats severe allergies?) that are majorly helping with the rash problem. Now I'm just all dried out and feeling a bit like I was in the Hyperion during "The Price."
I also finally looked up what the heck a sea breeze is, decided it sounded like something I might like, and have been guzzling a non-alcoholic version for days. I eventually ran out of my preferred 100% cranberry juice and had to start using the mostly-sugar-water stuff, and now I understand why Lorne's are always bright pink instead of the brownish purplish colour you get with real juice. There's your interesting tidbit for the day; you're welcome.
Anyway, three more episodes, and then I get my AS5 reward!
Image from nekito gallery
Well, at least I've gotten through most of the absolute worst of it. ::siiiiiigh::
OKAY. Time for "Home."
ETA: The first 17 seconds of "Habeas Corpses" may be the most amusingly cathartic Angel cold open, but the first 34 seconds of "End of Days" are the most amusingly cathartic cold open of anything I can currently think of. Bonus points for being so simple and understated, too. I love it I love it I love it.
EOATA: Awww, the Jaffa Cakes! You have good taste, my good man, and I've already started crying and flailing a little at that simple, poignant little moment of bliss in the middle of unspeakable awful.
(I want a Jaffa Cake so bad right now.) (And about four petals off an onion blossom, what with that discussion a couple of episodes ago.)
EFEoDTA: My eyeballs hurt so much, y'all. Mostly from the kitchen scene - which, HOW DID I FORGET ABOUT THAT?!?! - but also because of the hospital scene and the Slayer tension conversation and the EVERYTHING. MY WHOLE BRAIN IS CRYING.
Also, PTB dammit, they SO need to cut out all this forcibly removing people from situations without discussion. Props to Dawnie for not having any of it this go round.
Okay, one last time. I'm gonna go get some ice cream, because Blue Bell makes everything a little less awful.
No, you know what, I've not brought this up to this point, but the whole thing with Chao-Ahn has really been bugging me this time. I have to hope that, by her third or fourth episode, they had found her a translator, and I can understand that there were a hell of a lot more pressing concerns than learning Cantonese right then, but can we make an effort? One that doesn't involve inadvertently making her physically uncomfortable and joking about her behind her back? It's so incredibly more frustrating too, because they finally get some freakin' diversity in the Whitest Show on the Planet, and they still manage to pull out that good old cultural insensitivity we haven't seen too much of since they left high school and the Freak of the Week episodes.
...And I am totally just stalling, aren't I? Yup. That's exactly what I'm doing.
Edited Following "End of Days" To Add
EAFMICTA: Allow me to once again give a standing ovation to the cookie dough speech. Buffy, I effing love you.
(Also, weird and totally unexpected sidebar, I have always kind of, when it came right down to it, wanted Buffy and Angel to wind up together sometime far FAR down the road and after a lot of things have changed so that they are both in a place where that can happen. But, this time around, I found myself pulling really hard for Angel and Cordy, and I have given a lot more credence to the idea that Buffy genuinely does love Spike in some manner that might have, had things been a little different there at the end, grown into a healthy relationship...which, okay, feels a little gross to say, but I could actually see it this time. Dunno if that's from the different perspectives on the characters offered by reading the comics or because I'm in a very different place in my own life than I was last time*, but there you go. Weird.)
Edited A Few Minutes Into "Chosen" To Add
EP-CTA: Yeah, that was definitely not the best thing I could have done for myself, recovery-wise. Good thing I'm on all of these anti-inflamatories and mood stabilizers and everything, and that I had already seen it before. There's a lot of really rough stuff in this ending, but I think it's the final pre-battle conversation with the core cast that had me the most emotional. Bravo, Mr. Whedon. Bravo.
Now, "Conviction," and then bed. Well, no, first the contacts have to come out. That should have happened hours ago, what with the one med giving me blurred vision and the other med drying out my everything (although not, as I just proved, enough that I wasn't still able to cry a bucket, if not multiple ones). Deffo time now, though. And then I think another fake sea breeze is also in order. Along with "Conviction."
Edited Post-"Chosen" To Add
* Not that the relationship I was in the first time I watched didn't combine all of the very best qualities of a guy who doesn't understand the word "no" and stalks you for years AND the sort of "love" hopeless romantics close to the source seem to think was destined from time immemorial, so it's not like either of Buffy's suitors were directly benefited by the comparison. Especially since, when it came down to comparing the AFKAGFP to a Whedon character, he was pretty much a Riley all the way (just absent much of Mr. Finn's competence) (or charm) (or a lot of other things).
I also finally looked up what the heck a sea breeze is, decided it sounded like something I might like, and have been guzzling a non-alcoholic version for days. I eventually ran out of my preferred 100% cranberry juice and had to start using the mostly-sugar-water stuff, and now I understand why Lorne's are always bright pink instead of the brownish purplish colour you get with real juice. There's your interesting tidbit for the day; you're welcome.
Anyway, three more episodes, and then I get my AS5 reward!
Image from nekito gallery
Well, at least I've gotten through most of the absolute worst of it. ::siiiiiigh::
OKAY. Time for "Home."
ETA: The first 17 seconds of "Habeas Corpses" may be the most amusingly cathartic Angel cold open, but the first 34 seconds of "End of Days" are the most amusingly cathartic cold open of anything I can currently think of. Bonus points for being so simple and understated, too. I love it I love it I love it.
EOATA: Awww, the Jaffa Cakes! You have good taste, my good man, and I've already started crying and flailing a little at that simple, poignant little moment of bliss in the middle of unspeakable awful.
(I want a Jaffa Cake so bad right now.) (And about four petals off an onion blossom, what with that discussion a couple of episodes ago.)
EFEoDTA: My eyeballs hurt so much, y'all. Mostly from the kitchen scene - which, HOW DID I FORGET ABOUT THAT?!?! - but also because of the hospital scene and the Slayer tension conversation and the EVERYTHING. MY WHOLE BRAIN IS CRYING.
Also, PTB dammit, they SO need to cut out all this forcibly removing people from situations without discussion. Props to Dawnie for not having any of it this go round.
Okay, one last time. I'm gonna go get some ice cream, because Blue Bell makes everything a little less awful.
No, you know what, I've not brought this up to this point, but the whole thing with Chao-Ahn has really been bugging me this time. I have to hope that, by her third or fourth episode, they had found her a translator, and I can understand that there were a hell of a lot more pressing concerns than learning Cantonese right then, but can we make an effort? One that doesn't involve inadvertently making her physically uncomfortable and joking about her behind her back? It's so incredibly more frustrating too, because they finally get some freakin' diversity in the Whitest Show on the Planet, and they still manage to pull out that good old cultural insensitivity we haven't seen too much of since they left high school and the Freak of the Week episodes.
...And I am totally just stalling, aren't I? Yup. That's exactly what I'm doing.
Edited Following "End of Days" To Add
EAFMICTA: Allow me to once again give a standing ovation to the cookie dough speech. Buffy, I effing love you.
(Also, weird and totally unexpected sidebar, I have always kind of, when it came right down to it, wanted Buffy and Angel to wind up together sometime far FAR down the road and after a lot of things have changed so that they are both in a place where that can happen. But, this time around, I found myself pulling really hard for Angel and Cordy, and I have given a lot more credence to the idea that Buffy genuinely does love Spike in some manner that might have, had things been a little different there at the end, grown into a healthy relationship...which, okay, feels a little gross to say, but I could actually see it this time. Dunno if that's from the different perspectives on the characters offered by reading the comics or because I'm in a very different place in my own life than I was last time*, but there you go. Weird.)
Edited A Few Minutes Into "Chosen" To Add
EP-CTA: Yeah, that was definitely not the best thing I could have done for myself, recovery-wise. Good thing I'm on all of these anti-inflamatories and mood stabilizers and everything, and that I had already seen it before. There's a lot of really rough stuff in this ending, but I think it's the final pre-battle conversation with the core cast that had me the most emotional. Bravo, Mr. Whedon. Bravo.
Now, "Conviction," and then bed. Well, no, first the contacts have to come out. That should have happened hours ago, what with the one med giving me blurred vision and the other med drying out my everything (although not, as I just proved, enough that I wasn't still able to cry a bucket, if not multiple ones). Deffo time now, though. And then I think another fake sea breeze is also in order. Along with "Conviction."
Edited Post-"Chosen" To Add
* Not that the relationship I was in the first time I watched didn't combine all of the very best qualities of a guy who doesn't understand the word "no" and stalks you for years AND the sort of "love" hopeless romantics close to the source seem to think was destined from time immemorial, so it's not like either of Buffy's suitors were directly benefited by the comparison. Especially since, when it came down to comparing the AFKAGFP to a Whedon character, he was pretty much a Riley all the way (just absent much of Mr. Finn's competence) (or charm) (or a lot of other things).