five more top fives! actually, six. and a half. i'm still bored.
This is excluding work by my f-list because you are all so lovely and talented that I clearly cannot go into your journals just to pick a couple, I will be there all day.
1. Battlestar Redactica, clearly. Oh my goodness. It is a massive labor of love from someone who apparently had all the same issues I did with 4.5, but is talented enough to do something about it besides yell a lot.
2. The Prankster's Guide (prankstersguide ) is years old and JK'd to hell and back but I love it so.
3. inlovewithnight 's Fred essay is an inspiration to AtS character rabid overanalyzers everywhere. Not that we'd know any of those freaks.
4. So What - women of the Whedonverse vid.
5. I'm actually not entirely sold on this essay as a whole, but prozacpark 's post on MAN PAIN is well worth a read and has been influential though not decisive on my views of the subject. I don't recommend the comments like I normally do, because some threads start to feel like conversations about tagging "MAN PAIN!!!" onto dislike of characters and not caring about their problems, which I think is an inappropriate use of feminism as justification for fandom opinions. I think you can just dislike a character, it's okay. But the pattern the author pulls out is handy.
narrowing down to US politics
5. NY State Senator Diane Savino, because fabulous snark put toward the cause of equality is an inspiration to us all.
4. Rep. Gwen Moore
2&3. Reps. Loretta and Linda Sanchez, the first pair of sisters in Congress.
1. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON <3 <3 <3
Um, I'm not sure I can pick five OF ALL TIME EVAR but these are five that mean a lot to me off the top of my head:
5. I had difficulty picking an AtS season, between 2 and 4, but I think I'm going to go with 2. The S4 problems are consistent, where any issue with S2 is a dud episode here and there. And also Darla.
4. Season 2.0 of BSG. For my purposes, "purposes" being "I feel like it," this includes the bookending cliffhangers, so KLG-RS. Oh, my GOD. KLG is where Laura became my favorite EVER, and in hindsight I think Lee's depressive spiral became where I got interested enough in him to eventually relate to and love him like I do now which is a lot because I clearly have gross emotional problems. Whatever, THIS JUST IN.
3. S1 of Veronica Mars. It's a shame the show never quite lived up to its promise again, though I found a lot of S2 excellent and parts of S3 very compelling. That first season, though, is stunning.
2. S2 of The West Wing, though S3 is something very special and comes close I have to say.
1. BtVS S2, HOW DO I LOVE YOU, LET ME COUNT THE WAYS. Actually, what the hell, let's count some of the ways. Top five reasons BtVS S2 is my favorite:
Going chronologically, and I am going to resist the urge to repeat my list of favorite Laura scenes.
(you all know the way to my heart: TALKING ABOUT ME)
1. Battlestar Redactica, clearly. Oh my goodness. It is a massive labor of love from someone who apparently had all the same issues I did with 4.5, but is talented enough to do something about it besides yell a lot.
2. The Prankster's Guide (prankstersguide ) is years old and JK'd to hell and back but I love it so.
3. inlovewithnight 's Fred essay is an inspiration to AtS character rabid overanalyzers everywhere. Not that we'd know any of those freaks.
4. So What - women of the Whedonverse vid.
5. I'm actually not entirely sold on this essay as a whole, but prozacpark 's post on MAN PAIN is well worth a read and has been influential though not decisive on my views of the subject. I don't recommend the comments like I normally do, because some threads start to feel like conversations about tagging "MAN PAIN!!!" onto dislike of characters and not caring about their problems, which I think is an inappropriate use of feminism as justification for fandom opinions. I think you can just dislike a character, it's okay. But the pattern the author pulls out is handy.
Click to viewnarrowing down to US politics
5. NY State Senator Diane Savino, because fabulous snark put toward the cause of equality is an inspiration to us all.
4. Rep. Gwen Moore
2&3. Reps. Loretta and Linda Sanchez, the first pair of sisters in Congress.
1. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON <3 <3 <3
Um, I'm not sure I can pick five OF ALL TIME EVAR but these are five that mean a lot to me off the top of my head:
- The Blind Assassin is probably the most engaging pure fiction read of hers, but The Handmaid's Tale is Atwood's most important work for sure.
- I think Order of the Phoenix is my favorite of the Potter books, overall. I was so fascinated by the backstory and grownups and world beyond the school, and this was the book where we got the most of that.
- Predictable, but Pride & Prejudice.
- I remember reading and really loving Macbeth way younger than I probably should have been so appreciative of something so dark. I am pretty sure I talked my sister into naming a hamster Macduff. PROBLEMS. Though obviously it makes sense, because politics, madness, rules/prophecies with loopholes, and fierce lady villains by the handful, SIGN ME UP.
5. I had difficulty picking an AtS season, between 2 and 4, but I think I'm going to go with 2. The S4 problems are consistent, where any issue with S2 is a dud episode here and there. And also Darla.
4. Season 2.0 of BSG. For my purposes, "purposes" being "I feel like it," this includes the bookending cliffhangers, so KLG-RS. Oh, my GOD. KLG is where Laura became my favorite EVER, and in hindsight I think Lee's depressive spiral became where I got interested enough in him to eventually relate to and love him like I do now which is a lot because I clearly have gross emotional problems. Whatever, THIS JUST IN.
3. S1 of Veronica Mars. It's a shame the show never quite lived up to its promise again, though I found a lot of S2 excellent and parts of S3 very compelling. That first season, though, is stunning.
2. S2 of The West Wing, though S3 is something very special and comes close I have to say.
1. BtVS S2, HOW DO I LOVE YOU, LET ME COUNT THE WAYS. Actually, what the hell, let's count some of the ways. Top five reasons BtVS S2 is my favorite:
- Characters, characters, characters. Jenny Calendar. My girl Kendra. Spike and Dru were such a brilliant idea, not ideas but an idea because they're a set even when they're apart, even before there was a thought of taking Spike where he eventually went.
- Though that's another reason I love it, that on rewatch, it just gets more layered and powerful, because those characters are rich and engaging enough to go on for however long the franchise did.
- I love, I love, I love how the S2 story wrapped in on itself and was just told over, and over, and over in that brutal, chaotic way. I stand by that, I think it was brilliant and beautiful and purposeful, and yes it easily fit into common themes, because the show was wise enough to choose a powerful, multifaceted story. There was no episode of that season that wasn't forcefully about the long-term arc, either because it was part of the arc or told it by allegory and reference and MotWs.
- It has so many of my favorite episodes. S/I. Lie to Me. Passion. Becoming is a phenomenal season finale. AND WHATEVER BAD EGGS IS HILARIOUS.
- I rarely like him as a....well, he's not any more of a hero to me (I STATEMENT!) than Dexter is of his show (JULIE GIRL WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT YOUR DUDE ISSUES) (OH LOLOL NVM), but Angel is my favorite Big Bad. I love what the show did with him, honestly, I think he's much stronger as a psychological threat than a physical one. Because, that's the thing, isn't it, how abusive relationships get dangerous? When her partner goes apeshit with no warning, someone with outside resources will likely dust the relationship. But when it starts out with charm, and then isolation, making someone doubt their sanity and sense of self...that's the danger. On some level, having Drusilla there and already fucked beyond repair was the easy way out, because we could see the threat Angel posed without seeing the actual violence, but she was so lyrical and frightening all at once, I think it worked beautifully.
Going chronologically, and I am going to resist the urge to repeat my list of favorite Laura scenes.
- Laura stepping up in all the chaos, before she even knows she's the president, she is. BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH DEAD.
- The dinner party in Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down. <3ELLEN<3
- Oh man, I love the throwdown with the Pegasus in 2.10. I love seeing Bill get told. HAHAHA.
- THAT FUCKING SCENE in the brig in Taking a Break. I almost passed out.
- Obviously! The scene between Laura and Lee in No Exit. MY HEART. Because how many times have I said I want to give Lee a giant sympathy hug, and then shake some goddamn sense into him? I don't have a more concise way to summarize my reaction to the character. AND WHAT UP, MY GIRL BASICALLY DOES JUST THAT. Their dynamic is this whole Jungian experience to me, I think like Laura but I always understand how Lee is feeling. So when they get along, it makes my heart sing. (Obviously I would have to have massive Freudian issues to ship them. So I don't. Mostly.) And also, "I'll try to be smarter. And wronger." Because of how I almost died laughing, but also because it's all I wanted from him at that point. BB WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT? HOW DID YOU FORGET IT IN LIKE A WEEK? YOU COULDN'T WRITE THAT SHIT DOWN? But it was a beautiful scene.
(you all know the way to my heart: TALKING ABOUT ME)
- Do you trust me?: Dollhouse and the problematized protector
- I have a soft spot for the post on masculinity in BSG because it helped me a lot with Lee. Which, OVERIDENTIFICATION, GROSS EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS, SO ON SO FORTH, but I'm really glad it did.
- The Wessay is more PAGES AND PAGES of word vomit than "meta" in any real sense, but I think my favorite piece of it is the one looking at Wesley and Spike, because I love it when the text gives me such a recognizable but flexible metaphor to start with. Otherwise I just yell about my feelings a lot.
- I am still quite happy with my Sorkinitis post. It was incredibly cathartic to identify and look at this pattern that has been bothering me forever and I shamelessly use it in analysis since I put it out there. IT'S TOTALLY A THING. WE'RE GONNA MAKE FETCH HAPPEN.
- My Laura Roslin post is my favorite, even if it can really be summed up like so:
