Dragon Age, Breaking Bad and Once
I made a big push to try and finish Dragon Age yesterday, because while I'm having so much awesome fun trying to save a land with an adorkable knight, a swamp witch with no social skills and my pet war hound - I want my damn life back. Didn't manage it, since apparently not only is the storyline wonderfully similar to Game of Thrones (in 'isn't an appending apocalypse by othersdarkspawn a good time to have a succession crisis'), but the fact it doesn't end is also quite similar to Game of Thrones. Good value for money though.
Anyway, still addicted.
However, I have also managed to watch the second season of Breaking Bad over the past few weeks, and this show is quite fantastic. I have to say, I did not predict the second series finale, but then if anybody claims did predict that before the episode aired, they must be lying. I was sitting there wondering to myself it it was the world's biggest cop out or a completely genius statement on the unpredictable consequences that can emerge from every decision a person can make. I've decided its the latter.
I find Walter White morally repugnant and loathe him even though I find him compellingly watchable (Bryan Cranston's amazing), but conversely, I want to wrap Jesse Pinkman in cotton wool and hug him all day.
Also, I'm enjoying Hank and Gus a lot, and I'm particularly thankful Gus showed up, because while watching Walter and Jesse attempt creating a drug empire with very little clue is entertaining (and clearly, neither of those two have watched the Wire, because they wouldn't have lasted five seconds in Baltimore), those two lasting any longer without a Stringer Bell figure showing up would be unbelievable.
I also have thoughts on Once Upon A Time
Firstly: I love the fictional multiverse thing that the show has going on - that all fiction and fictional characters exists in parallel universes/'lands' and you can travel between the magic ones (by means of magic hats, magic wardrobes, magic beans, enchanted looking glasses and magic slippers) - particularly since the show is determined to have so much fun with the concept (Victor Frankenstein's world being black and white and as such massive nod toward the Universal monster movies is particularly perfect). Also, given that Star Wars is now under Disney, I'd imagine that one 'land' is a galaxy far, far way.
Secondly: I hate the magic-is-addictive storyline that the show has chosen to go with as part of Regina's redemption.
Thing is, it makes Regina's slide into evil too neat and completely undermines everything else she has going on in her backstory. Regina was abused and controlled by her mother and forced into a marriage she didn't want where she was again controlled (possibly, her marriage to Leopold is currently one big plot hole at the moment), and while that was all happening, she was being manipulated and again controlled by Rumpel (but more subtly - we've had no indication Regina even knows how thoroughly she's been manipulated and used by Rumpel her whole damn life - seriously, what he's done to her is so very wrong).
That's the thing about Regina, she's desperate for control. The curse itself, while an act or revenge on an epic scale by a woman obsessed with it, is also an act of a woman who is so desperate to be in control she destroys everything and remakes with herself in an untouchable position of power so she can never again be controlled.
Power for Regina is addictive not by its nature, but by what it gives her: the freedom from control she most desperately wants and needs. The thing is, Regina only associates freedom from control with controlling others, in that she thinks that the only way to be free, is to control others, for which one needs power - which is understandable because that's what both her mother and Rumpel taught her to think (I say 'taught' but actually, it comes across in scenes, especially the ones with her mother, as more like brainwashing).
What Regina really needs to learn is that she can have freedom without it coming at the expense of others. That's the grand revelation and mental shift she needs to have in order to stop being the Evil Queen. (Also, Rumpel would benefit quite a bit from figuring this out as well)
Instead the writers have gone down the track that her power itself is what has corrupted her, which as I said, makes things too easy. But for a start, cold turkey is doomed to fail since her mother - who is currently single handedly laying waste to whole villages - is out to get both Regina and her son. What's Regina going to do without magic? Sure she can throw a punch, but that ain't going to do her much good. Regina's magic started off as self defence. Her first use was to break free of the mother. It just feels that she's going back to square one - completely powerless to do anything about her evil mother.
And just, on a level, I'm super uncomfortable with storylines which say that power is what has corrupted a woman and that in order to be good she has to give it up. As a feminist, that just makes me feel icky. And she is the damn Evil Queen, one of the oldest and most famous powerful women in fiction, which makes it a bit worse.
Ideally, I would like Regina to have power and have her redemption, she can have both. And the show needs stop emphasising that it was power that made Regina evil. It wasn't power that made Regina evil, it was all the people in her life that made her feel powerless.
Anyway, still addicted.
However, I have also managed to watch the second season of Breaking Bad over the past few weeks, and this show is quite fantastic. I have to say, I did not predict the second series finale, but then if anybody claims did predict that before the episode aired, they must be lying. I was sitting there wondering to myself it it was the world's biggest cop out or a completely genius statement on the unpredictable consequences that can emerge from every decision a person can make. I've decided its the latter.
I find Walter White morally repugnant and loathe him even though I find him compellingly watchable (Bryan Cranston's amazing), but conversely, I want to wrap Jesse Pinkman in cotton wool and hug him all day.
Also, I'm enjoying Hank and Gus a lot, and I'm particularly thankful Gus showed up, because while watching Walter and Jesse attempt creating a drug empire with very little clue is entertaining (and clearly, neither of those two have watched the Wire, because they wouldn't have lasted five seconds in Baltimore), those two lasting any longer without a Stringer Bell figure showing up would be unbelievable.
I also have thoughts on Once Upon A Time
Firstly: I love the fictional multiverse thing that the show has going on - that all fiction and fictional characters exists in parallel universes/'lands' and you can travel between the magic ones (by means of magic hats, magic wardrobes, magic beans, enchanted looking glasses and magic slippers) - particularly since the show is determined to have so much fun with the concept (Victor Frankenstein's world being black and white and as such massive nod toward the Universal monster movies is particularly perfect). Also, given that Star Wars is now under Disney, I'd imagine that one 'land' is a galaxy far, far way.
Secondly: I hate the magic-is-addictive storyline that the show has chosen to go with as part of Regina's redemption.
Thing is, it makes Regina's slide into evil too neat and completely undermines everything else she has going on in her backstory. Regina was abused and controlled by her mother and forced into a marriage she didn't want where she was again controlled (possibly, her marriage to Leopold is currently one big plot hole at the moment), and while that was all happening, she was being manipulated and again controlled by Rumpel (but more subtly - we've had no indication Regina even knows how thoroughly she's been manipulated and used by Rumpel her whole damn life - seriously, what he's done to her is so very wrong).
That's the thing about Regina, she's desperate for control. The curse itself, while an act or revenge on an epic scale by a woman obsessed with it, is also an act of a woman who is so desperate to be in control she destroys everything and remakes with herself in an untouchable position of power so she can never again be controlled.
Power for Regina is addictive not by its nature, but by what it gives her: the freedom from control she most desperately wants and needs. The thing is, Regina only associates freedom from control with controlling others, in that she thinks that the only way to be free, is to control others, for which one needs power - which is understandable because that's what both her mother and Rumpel taught her to think (I say 'taught' but actually, it comes across in scenes, especially the ones with her mother, as more like brainwashing).
What Regina really needs to learn is that she can have freedom without it coming at the expense of others. That's the grand revelation and mental shift she needs to have in order to stop being the Evil Queen. (Also, Rumpel would benefit quite a bit from figuring this out as well)
Instead the writers have gone down the track that her power itself is what has corrupted her, which as I said, makes things too easy. But for a start, cold turkey is doomed to fail since her mother - who is currently single handedly laying waste to whole villages - is out to get both Regina and her son. What's Regina going to do without magic? Sure she can throw a punch, but that ain't going to do her much good. Regina's magic started off as self defence. Her first use was to break free of the mother. It just feels that she's going back to square one - completely powerless to do anything about her evil mother.
And just, on a level, I'm super uncomfortable with storylines which say that power is what has corrupted a woman and that in order to be good she has to give it up. As a feminist, that just makes me feel icky. And she is the damn Evil Queen, one of the oldest and most famous powerful women in fiction, which makes it a bit worse.
Ideally, I would like Regina to have power and have her redemption, she can have both. And the show needs stop emphasising that it was power that made Regina evil. It wasn't power that made Regina evil, it was all the people in her life that made her feel powerless.