On the day before...

[selenak]

Since I have a few new people on my flist, let me repeat last year's pimping of In the Bleak Midwinter as one of my favourite Christmas movies. Directed and written by Kenneth Branagh but not starring him, about a Christmas production of Hamlet in the provinces, featuring the usual Branagh suspects as the ensemble, witty and despite stern

Comments

[elisi]

LOL! Oh that's brilliant. :D

[selenak]

Isn't it just? BTW, since I have you hear, could you help me with my new banner. You're good at changing banners! selenak at gmail.com?

[zahrawithaz]

Now I love Gwen in all the seasons, but this argument clearly comes from an alternate universe.

WORD. I love S1 Gwen, but she's gained so much more strength and has so much more agency now, and her friendship with Merlin got far more screen time and depth in S3 than it ever had.

Sometimes I think there's an alternative fandom definition of "badass" which translates to "shows a lot of skin, wields and weapon, and doesn't get in the way of the men." Which is profoundly weird. Also highly invested in physical strength over strength of character, which I find depressing on several axes.

Thanks much for the adorable Tennant clip, and the link to the picspams, which I missed during my last hiatus! I love quasiextent's stuff. Must catch up!

[heather]

Sometimes I think there's an alternative fandom definition of "badass" which translates to "shows a lot of skin, wields and weapon, and doesn't get in the way of the men." Which is profoundly weird. Also highly invested in physical strength over strength of character, which I find depressing on several axes.Exactly, and it's SO depressing. Any argument that implies there's a right way to be a strong woman depresses me. Not to mention it's really popular in this fandom to discount everything Gwen's done because she's with Arthur and this automatically makes her a weaker character. Even leaving aside the fact that Gwen and Arthur have made each other stronger, this "ew! romance!" attitude in genre fandoms strikes me as another depressingly typical way of dismissing female characters and their narratives

[zahrawithaz]

The more I think about this the more it disturbs me. Because it's not like this fandom isn't obsessed with romance, and that speaks to some weird internalized self-hatred on top of (and as part of) the need to dismiss and belittle female characters-and you're dead right on that too. Seriously disturbing.

Any argument that implies there's a right way to be a strong woman depresses me. Yes. And holding up physical abilities in particular as the only acceptable form of strength is one more way to burden women with impossible standards, and shows how very thoroughly traditional (and narrow) forms of masculinity have been accept as the only standards worth adhering to. (Besides which, I would also argue that in many cases resorting to violence is often a sign of weakness

[selenak]

Sometimes I think there's an alternative fandom definition of "badass" which translates to "shows a lot of skin, wields and weapon, and doesn't get in the way of the men." Which is profoundly weird. Also highly invested in physical strength over strength of character, which I find depressing on several axes.

No kidding. Say what you want about BSG, but something that they did get right was to showcase different types of female strength - there wasn't just Starbuck, Laura Roslin, the President, couldn't fight physically and was soft spoken, but before the first season was over nobody, no matter whether they liked or disliked her, would have denied she was the most hardcore character around.

With Gwen it additionally infuriates me because it's sadly still so rare that we see a female character grow and gain in agency, and to find that denied and ignored - grrrrrr. Argggh.

[heather]

Well-said re: Gwen. The S1!Gwen nostalgia is probably the most deeply annoying thing in Merlin fandom for me. I wish this f!s were the first time I'd read it but it isn't and whenever someone mentions a wish to return to S1!Gwen, all I can hear is that they want to go back to when she was near-invisible, meek, and liked the boy who didn't like her back. Needless to say I have zero patience for that.

[selenak]

Same here. And the hypocrisy is so galling. "She wasn't all about a man then." You know, because having an unrequited crush on Merlin is so much stronger than having a requited romance with Arthur and a friendship on equal terms with Merlin, and having more fleshed out family background.

oh, and this gem: Morgana's "I forgot that you etc." quote is seen as the show admitting they completely forgot about Tom's death, too, because clearly the various references this season pre finale and the time Gwen brought it up in "The Witchfinder" don't count. Rather than being a crucial part of Morgana's characterisation.

[zahrawithaz]

Just jumping in to say ARGH. I too have seen weird denial about Morgana's forgetting comment and it just drives me mad. What show are these people watching? (I know, I know, the one in their heads where Morgana is the idealized champion of the downtrodden and nothing like the complicated, flawed, and fascinating character we see on screen.)

I love that line, too. So very, very Morgana. And the fact that she had forgotten Gwen's good reason(s) to hold a grudge against Uther makes the whole question of why she wanted Gwen to pledge allegiance to her in 3x12 all the more fascinating.

[selenak]

As I said in my review of the finale, that line is probably the best character moment for Morgana-as-a-villain in the entire season, because it comes without malice (let alone smirks (tm)) - and yet it entirely shows what in her character made her actions possible.

[nomadicwriter]

I am constantly amazed by how consistently the writing for female characters "gets worse" in the exact same season/book/episode that it's hinted one of the male characters might regard her as worthy of romantic attention. I think what depresses me most is that it's not the ship getting together that "ruins" female characters, it's the first scene where the male character gives any semi-verbalised hint that if their impossible circumstances were different he might be into her.

One brief suggestion that he might sorta kinda like like her, and wow, it's all gone completely downhill, these guys obviously have no clue how to write women, they ruined a great character, and why is she mooning over him all the time now instead of being awesome like she was in all those early seasons where no one fancied her?

[selenak]

If she's having an unrequited crush: she's a doormat.
If he's having an unrequited crush on her: what a bitch. (Because beloved male characters MUST BE LOVED IN RETURN EVEN IF WE CAN'T STAND THE WOMAN IN QUESTION. *remembers the weird section of Buffy/Spike 'shippers who hated Buffy but wanted the ship to succeed simply because Spike wanted it all too well*)
If she loves him and he loves her: she used to be so much better when she wasn't in the way of ship x. (Can be m/m or more rarely alternate m/f, I've seen both).

Now to be fair and not hypocritical, I'm experienced a few fandoms myself where I did regret when certain ships happened. But as Zahra said above, Gwen GAINED in screentime, agency and relationships (not "just" the romantic one) instead of getting less. There are any number of things you can legitimately accuse Merlin the show of, but not the way they handled Gwen, especially this season.

[wee_warrior]

Gwen - not that I have seen much of Season 3 yet, but if I remember Season 1 correctly, she almost had nothing to do. And the only thing I assume might fit their definition of badass could be that episode where she and Morgana are Sudden Sword Experts, which was obviously extremely realistic (or was that just Morgana?). Either way - nimwits.

Pretty banner! Also, Frohe Weihnachten! *goes to watch video*

[selenak]

Morgana was the one with the big sword fighting prowess in "The Moment of Truth", but Gwen was also fighting in the battle for the village (like the other women), though she wasn't shown as better than the others at it; mind you, I do suspect a lot of people see the ability to fight physically as the only way a female character can be strong and, yes, and it's frustrating to no end.

The best thing about the banner is that this is really a scene, not just a promo arrangement, and that the season leads up to it with all the OT3 implications.