fear is the brightest of signs
So I had this really nice riesling* at our annual Christmas Eve dinner and since then, I've been to every liquor store within a five block radius of my apartment (which might not sound very thorough, but that's, like, SEVEN liquor stores) and none of them have had it, nor have any of them been helpful enough to recommend something similar (what is it about trying to buy wine that makes people treat you like you're an idiot? [I mean, I know what it is to some degree, but ugh, so annoying]), so I ended up on wine.com last night, ordering a couple of bottles to be shipped to me.
I feel like that might be the adultiest thing I've ever done. What a time to be alive. Now I just have to wait for FedEx to email me that it's been delivered and I can go pick it up.
*I'm not much of a wine connoisseur, I just know what I like. It was a Willamette Valley riesling. Super delicious.
***
Arrow: Beacon of Hope
I spent a good portion of this episode in the bathroom, so I missed a lot, but it seemed fun. Bees. My god. I mean, bee puns + Curtis Holt = entertaining. That stinger, tho. (pun totally intended.)
Star Wars Rebels: Twilight of the Apprentice
I feel like I have a lot to say about this one, so buckle up, cats and kittens.
= On the one hand, I realize that Rebels is not a show about Ahsoka Tano, so having her appear sporadically and almost never on her own makes sense, but on the other hand, the show wants to leverage the attachment people have to the character from The Clone Wars into high emotional stakes - the emotional climax of this episode is based on it and counting on it - so I feel like the show didn't give us enough of her over the course of the season. I don't even mean backstory about what she's been up to/how she joined the Rebellion etc. (Can we get a movie about that? Or at least a comics miniseries?) I mean, like, more interaction between her and Kanan and Ezra, and her and Rex. (I still want to know what Rex knows! Part of me doesn't want him to know Anakin is Vader, because it's heartbreaking enough as it is, but on the other hand, for maximum heartbreak, he kind of has to know, right?)
There were some nice bits: she gets that fantastic fight against the two inquisitors in the episode with the kidnappings (I also feel like they could have done more with her and the inquisitors - even if they didn't bring back Barriss [and I can't imagine Barriss not just noping out of that by falling on her sword, if Vader even let her live], surely some of them were people Ahsoka - or even Kanan - once knew?), and just recently there was the bit where she talks about Anakin to Ezra and has that vision of him (and finally gets some closure with Yoda), but I feel like the show skipped a couple beats, and then compounded it by barely having her and Vader talk to each other while they were fighting! I mean, the duel was fantastic (THAT MUSIC), but, like, how do we reconcile "I'm no Jedi" and "This time, I'm not leaving you." I thought both sentiments were in character (I totally teared up), but I wanted more. Ugh.
I mean, obviously, she's not the one who reaches him/saves him, and that's fine, but I just love their relationship so much, so of course I wanted more. (and just from a narrative/storytelling point of view, I feel like it could have been fleshed out a little more in this show - what about the people who haven't watched TCW?)
I guess it says a lot about me that I immediately assumed she was dead and am already plotting, like, five different AUs where she isn't, since no body, no death (and if they can keep bringing freaking Maul back and he was cut in half), but apparently it's meant to be read ambiguously (here's an interview with Dave Filoni where he discusses that ambiguity and the idea that while there are more Ahsoka stories to be told, they probably aren't going to show up on Rebels, which I guess makes sense.) and some people say that brief glimpse of her was her moving into the temple.
I'll have to rewatch it to figure out what I think. Obviously, I want her to not be dead! But it looks like the characters at least think she is. (Oh, Rex.) And I'm guessing Vader does as well, but he looked pretty damaged himself when he staggered out of that explosion, so I'd also guess that he's probably not going to look too closely into it. (I was surprised, though, that he didn't bring up Obi-Wan, especially when questioning her about other Jedi. I mean, MAUL is there! Come on! Somebody say something! We all know that's what he was really asking.)
= Speaking of Maul, man, that guy is like a cockroach, isn't he? He just doesn't die! I enjoyed him here, though, and his interaction with Ezra, and the way his doddery old guy mask hiding real power mirrored/paralleled both Palpatine with Anakin and Yoda with Luke.
= I think Ezra's flirtation with the Dark Side has been pretty well done, and I kept waiting for his eyes to flash yellow. And also for him to lose a hand. IJS. They came so close! He did lose his cool blaster/saber combo. I laughed when he ignited the one with the crossguards. Nice TFA shout-out.
= But instead of Ezra losing a hand, we got Kanan being blinded. It's all fun and games until somebody gets a lightsaber to the eyes! I loved the symbolism of him picking up that Temple guard mask to finish off the fight after his previous vision/knighting.
= But why did the Force want Ezra to go to Malachor? What's in that holocron? (Is it related to Starkiller base or the Death Star? So the old Sith had some planet-sized battle stations? Is that where Palpatine got the idea? Though he would have had to have known about it years and years before this episode in order to get it built.) What was that bird thing doing there, which was the same as the bird thing from the end of the last episode? Is it following Ezra?
= Vader was so great in this. The man knows how to make an entrance. #darth vader: drama queen I also liked Ezra's bravado in confronting him, and his response. James Earl Jones remains a treasure.
= I also like that we basically got all the apprentices here: Maul and Vader, Ahsoka, Ezra and how the title was basically referring all of them (except Vader, though if this is only three years until Yavin, he's getting there; and Kanan, who finally got knighted a couple episodes ago).
= Thing I didn't like - the lightsaber helicopters. That was just dumb looking. I guess it probably sells toys though.
= I wonder how Kanan's going to handle Ezra's slow slide into darkness. He's kind of been ignoring it, and I don't think he's going to be able to do that anymore going forward. I guess we'll see!
Now you'll have to excuse me - I have to think about all the different ways to bring Ahsoka back into the story!
In other tv news, Steven Universe has been renewed for two more seasons (or 52 more episodes, I guess?), though apparently there's no solid date for when it's coming back from hiatus. June, is what I've read, and again with the Steven bombs instead of as a weekly show. Which would be fine if they followed a set schedule! But just randomly having a week of episodes and then nothing for months is super annoying.
***
March 2016 recs update:
unfitforsociety has been updated for March 2016 with 24 recs in 6 fandoms:
* 7 Star Wars
* 5 Avengers and 3 Daredevil
* 5 Check, Please!
* 3 Harry Potter and 1 The Raven Cycle
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/830040.html.
people have commented there.
I feel like that might be the adultiest thing I've ever done. What a time to be alive. Now I just have to wait for FedEx to email me that it's been delivered and I can go pick it up.
*I'm not much of a wine connoisseur, I just know what I like. It was a Willamette Valley riesling. Super delicious.
***
Arrow: Beacon of Hope
I spent a good portion of this episode in the bathroom, so I missed a lot, but it seemed fun. Bees. My god. I mean, bee puns + Curtis Holt = entertaining. That stinger, tho. (pun totally intended.)
Star Wars Rebels: Twilight of the Apprentice
I feel like I have a lot to say about this one, so buckle up, cats and kittens.
= On the one hand, I realize that Rebels is not a show about Ahsoka Tano, so having her appear sporadically and almost never on her own makes sense, but on the other hand, the show wants to leverage the attachment people have to the character from The Clone Wars into high emotional stakes - the emotional climax of this episode is based on it and counting on it - so I feel like the show didn't give us enough of her over the course of the season. I don't even mean backstory about what she's been up to/how she joined the Rebellion etc. (Can we get a movie about that? Or at least a comics miniseries?) I mean, like, more interaction between her and Kanan and Ezra, and her and Rex. (I still want to know what Rex knows! Part of me doesn't want him to know Anakin is Vader, because it's heartbreaking enough as it is, but on the other hand, for maximum heartbreak, he kind of has to know, right?)
There were some nice bits: she gets that fantastic fight against the two inquisitors in the episode with the kidnappings (I also feel like they could have done more with her and the inquisitors - even if they didn't bring back Barriss [and I can't imagine Barriss not just noping out of that by falling on her sword, if Vader even let her live], surely some of them were people Ahsoka - or even Kanan - once knew?), and just recently there was the bit where she talks about Anakin to Ezra and has that vision of him (and finally gets some closure with Yoda), but I feel like the show skipped a couple beats, and then compounded it by barely having her and Vader talk to each other while they were fighting! I mean, the duel was fantastic (THAT MUSIC), but, like, how do we reconcile "I'm no Jedi" and "This time, I'm not leaving you." I thought both sentiments were in character (I totally teared up), but I wanted more. Ugh.
I mean, obviously, she's not the one who reaches him/saves him, and that's fine, but I just love their relationship so much, so of course I wanted more. (and just from a narrative/storytelling point of view, I feel like it could have been fleshed out a little more in this show - what about the people who haven't watched TCW?)
I guess it says a lot about me that I immediately assumed she was dead and am already plotting, like, five different AUs where she isn't, since no body, no death (and if they can keep bringing freaking Maul back and he was cut in half), but apparently it's meant to be read ambiguously (here's an interview with Dave Filoni where he discusses that ambiguity and the idea that while there are more Ahsoka stories to be told, they probably aren't going to show up on Rebels, which I guess makes sense.) and some people say that brief glimpse of her was her moving into the temple.
I'll have to rewatch it to figure out what I think. Obviously, I want her to not be dead! But it looks like the characters at least think she is. (Oh, Rex.) And I'm guessing Vader does as well, but he looked pretty damaged himself when he staggered out of that explosion, so I'd also guess that he's probably not going to look too closely into it. (I was surprised, though, that he didn't bring up Obi-Wan, especially when questioning her about other Jedi. I mean, MAUL is there! Come on! Somebody say something! We all know that's what he was really asking.)
= Speaking of Maul, man, that guy is like a cockroach, isn't he? He just doesn't die! I enjoyed him here, though, and his interaction with Ezra, and the way his doddery old guy mask hiding real power mirrored/paralleled both Palpatine with Anakin and Yoda with Luke.
= I think Ezra's flirtation with the Dark Side has been pretty well done, and I kept waiting for his eyes to flash yellow. And also for him to lose a hand. IJS. They came so close! He did lose his cool blaster/saber combo. I laughed when he ignited the one with the crossguards. Nice TFA shout-out.
= But instead of Ezra losing a hand, we got Kanan being blinded. It's all fun and games until somebody gets a lightsaber to the eyes! I loved the symbolism of him picking up that Temple guard mask to finish off the fight after his previous vision/knighting.
= But why did the Force want Ezra to go to Malachor? What's in that holocron? (Is it related to Starkiller base or the Death Star? So the old Sith had some planet-sized battle stations? Is that where Palpatine got the idea? Though he would have had to have known about it years and years before this episode in order to get it built.) What was that bird thing doing there, which was the same as the bird thing from the end of the last episode? Is it following Ezra?
= Vader was so great in this. The man knows how to make an entrance. #darth vader: drama queen I also liked Ezra's bravado in confronting him, and his response. James Earl Jones remains a treasure.
= I also like that we basically got all the apprentices here: Maul and Vader, Ahsoka, Ezra and how the title was basically referring all of them (except Vader, though if this is only three years until Yavin, he's getting there; and Kanan, who finally got knighted a couple episodes ago).
= Thing I didn't like - the lightsaber helicopters. That was just dumb looking. I guess it probably sells toys though.
= I wonder how Kanan's going to handle Ezra's slow slide into darkness. He's kind of been ignoring it, and I don't think he's going to be able to do that anymore going forward. I guess we'll see!
Now you'll have to excuse me - I have to think about all the different ways to bring Ahsoka back into the story!
In other tv news, Steven Universe has been renewed for two more seasons (or 52 more episodes, I guess?), though apparently there's no solid date for when it's coming back from hiatus. June, is what I've read, and again with the Steven bombs instead of as a weekly show. Which would be fine if they followed a set schedule! But just randomly having a week of episodes and then nothing for months is super annoying.
***
March 2016 recs update:
unfitforsociety has been updated for March 2016 with 24 recs in 6 fandoms:
* 7 Star Wars
* 5 Avengers and 3 Daredevil
* 5 Check, Please!
* 3 Harry Potter and 1 The Raven Cycle
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/830040.html.
people have commented there.