favourite uses of parsley? (and some reading reflections)

[pellucid]

So I'm a little addicted to saag paneer these days. I can't quite explain it (though actually, I've been craving all sorts of cooked leafy greens, so spinach + awesome Indian spices and cheese does make sense). In order to keep from ordering take-out too frequently, I've taken it on as a cooking project. My version does not yet taste like what I

Comments

[pellucid]

Part of the reason I don't tend to think of Irene by that name is that I can't decide how to pronounce it in my head. I tend to go with either ih-ren or ih-reen rather than eye-reen, but then it gets a little muddled with Irina (and seriously, what's with naming characters like that for peace, anyway? I kind of love it!), and really, she's just Attolia. But I've been thinking a lot more about Eddis, and somewhere along the way she became Helen in my head. But I completely agree that there isn't this sense of them as being different people according to which name is used. Rather, it's a matter of familiarity and intimacy, and that's all--though that's not nothing for people who live as they do.

As for Attolia vs. Eddis on the favorite character scale, I'd have a hard time choosing between them for exactly the same reason I'd have a hard time choosing between Sarah Connor and James Ellison. Like Sarah, Attolia just blows me away with her awesomeness. She's magnetic, I adore her, I always, always want to read more about her--but she doesn't quite get in my head like some characters do. Whereas both James and Eddis do not blow my mind like their counterparts do, but they do get under my skin, and they're the ones I end up thinking about more, trying to figure out more, etc. They, in short, are the ones I will write fic about, whereas Sarah and Attolia tend to reduce me to incoherent flailing. (I'm not sure that James and Eddis are so very similar as characters--not as similar as Sarah and Attolia, anyway--but perhaps they are a bit. But they certainly seem to be working on me in similar ways.)

But yes, QUEENS!!!!!

[pellucid]

It's not really that characters like Sarah and Attolia don't get in my head and under my skin--sometimes they definitely do (witness Irina Derevko, for instance, and also, obviously, Laura Roslin), and I'd like to think that I will someday write meaty, character study fic about both Sarah and Attolia. But I've always also had a thing for the less central characters and the secondary pairings, and there's often something about the slightly less flashily awesome and powerful characters that gets to me.

But yes, I suspect that overall I don't tend to be as single character-focused as you are, with most sources. Perhaps because I really cut my fandom teeth on SG-1, which is very team-oriented, or perhaps because I got too badly burned with my over-investment in Laura Roslin, or perhaps just because that's the way I roll. I'm usually most fascinated by people in combination, and when that happens, I get invested in all the relevant characters. (Of course, the combination of characters I'm interested in in the Turner books is Attolia and Eddis, rather than in either of the main romantic pairs or in any of the male friendships that have been given more attention in the books. But then again, I'm nothing if not predictable!)