Fannish Five
This week's Fannish5: What are the five most depressing episodes/chapters/scenes? (I'm limiting myself to depressing things I actually liked, because otherwise this whole post would be me ranting about The Bridge of San Luis Rey.)
1. Trigun, “Paradise”
You get the sense practically from the second Wolfwood’s introduced that he’s doomed, but even though I had practically all season to prepare myself his death still gutted me. Even though "Paradise" is probably the best episode of the anime, I haven't been able to bring myself to watch it again.
2. Babylon 5, “Interludes and Examinations”
This is one long sneak attack of an episode. The innocuous title makes it seem like almost like a filler episode but not only is it myth-arc, but frakking important myth-arc. Londo losing Adira was bad enough; intensely sad, but almost expected because, like Zathras, Londo can't have nice things.
I didn't see Kosh's death coming. I'm a big sucker for mentor characters, especially reluctant, ambiguous mentors (Claude might as well have been written specifically for me) so I'm a big Kosh fangirl. When you see John's dream you don't realize what's happening at first, because John goes on about his dad all the time, but once you do that sense of dread grabs you and doesn't let go. Kosh admitting to John "I was afraid" still feels like a punch to the gut no matter how many times I watch it.
3. Chicago Hope, “Leave of Absence”
One of the things I really liked about Chicago Hope was that they had the hospital lawyer be a major character (some day I'd really like to see the lawyer who has to make House's messes go away). Alan Birch was a sneaky weasel of a lawyer who nevertheless was a pretty good guy. Unfortunately, David Kelly has the attention span of a goldfish and when he started to be less hands on Peter McNichol realized the writing for the legal side of things was starting to go downhill and decided to leave. The writers decided to write out Alan by having him get fatally shot in a mugging. Cue tearful bedside goodbyes. Geiger promising to adopt Alan's baby daughter had be in tears, and I don't cry easily.
4. Doctor Who, "Doomsday"
Hush, all of you.:) I loved Rose. It was bad enough when she was crying to go back, but the look on his face when he ran out of time ripped my heart out. I can't take the Doctor crying. And after everything he'd been through, it just wasn't fair.
5. Grave of the Fireflies
If you're capable of watching his movie without crying, you have no soul. That is all.
1. Trigun, “Paradise”
You get the sense practically from the second Wolfwood’s introduced that he’s doomed, but even though I had practically all season to prepare myself his death still gutted me. Even though "Paradise" is probably the best episode of the anime, I haven't been able to bring myself to watch it again.
2. Babylon 5, “Interludes and Examinations”
This is one long sneak attack of an episode. The innocuous title makes it seem like almost like a filler episode but not only is it myth-arc, but frakking important myth-arc. Londo losing Adira was bad enough; intensely sad, but almost expected because, like Zathras, Londo can't have nice things.
I didn't see Kosh's death coming. I'm a big sucker for mentor characters, especially reluctant, ambiguous mentors (Claude might as well have been written specifically for me) so I'm a big Kosh fangirl. When you see John's dream you don't realize what's happening at first, because John goes on about his dad all the time, but once you do that sense of dread grabs you and doesn't let go. Kosh admitting to John "I was afraid" still feels like a punch to the gut no matter how many times I watch it.
3. Chicago Hope, “Leave of Absence”
One of the things I really liked about Chicago Hope was that they had the hospital lawyer be a major character (some day I'd really like to see the lawyer who has to make House's messes go away). Alan Birch was a sneaky weasel of a lawyer who nevertheless was a pretty good guy. Unfortunately, David Kelly has the attention span of a goldfish and when he started to be less hands on Peter McNichol realized the writing for the legal side of things was starting to go downhill and decided to leave. The writers decided to write out Alan by having him get fatally shot in a mugging. Cue tearful bedside goodbyes. Geiger promising to adopt Alan's baby daughter had be in tears, and I don't cry easily.
4. Doctor Who, "Doomsday"
Hush, all of you.:) I loved Rose. It was bad enough when she was crying to go back, but the look on his face when he ran out of time ripped my heart out. I can't take the Doctor crying. And after everything he'd been through, it just wasn't fair.
5. Grave of the Fireflies
If you're capable of watching his movie without crying, you have no soul. That is all.