World War II IN ~*~SPACE~*~ (and brain vomit)
I really need to be fair and find the time to watch the rest of New Who (among other shows I've stalled on, should watch, and/or contemplated watching) so that I can get a better handle on all the major characters from Nine onwards.
A lot of people don't forget their first Doctor or their first Companion. Mine was Ten and the first Companion Donna, although the first episode I ever watched was "Voyage of the Damned" and Astrid Peth, for all intents and purposes, was the Companion. I was up late and watching BBC on a whim, and right after "Voyage" was "Partners in Crime" and my god was I smitten with those two. I've seen one episode each of the previous three seasons, which is why I said I should watch them all before making any real judgments.
But this is going off of what I thought and felt during "Victory of the Daleks", so this isn't deep meta or anything (not that I write deep meta, anyway; I'm no good at it).
I adored "The Eleventh Hour", partially because Eleven was like freaking fireworks all over the screen and partially because the door you could only see out of the corner of your eye was terrifying. I enjoyed Karen's Amy Pond; she was quite feisty and, understandably, indignant and pissed off that the Doctor fulfilled his promise years after the fact. Oops. There were echoes of previous episodes and the slideshow of the first ten faces really did a number on me.
"The Beast Below" was high octane nightmare fuel. DNW THOSE ROBOTIC FACES FOREVER. Queen Elizabeth the Tenth was smokin', though. And then I almost cried over the star whale. I did feel that the Doctor = star whale analogy was really pushing it, and Amy at times seemed a little forced herself. I think I had trouble marrying her rather schoolgirl face to such heavy themes, but it was only the second episode of the new New Who so I let it slide.
I adore
charlieblue's analogy, by the way. The TARDIS would make the most epic treehouse to ever epic.
I rolled my eyes at the Daleks. Even with my limited exposure I can't help but think, "Oh, them again. What else is new?" I think I had a mini heart attack over the "planets in the sky" bit, though, and I really want to know why Amy can't remember That Event That Awesome'd And Then Broke My Heart because the Doctor and Donna are still out there traveling in a blue police box through time and space.
The scenes in the war room felt really static. I felt none of the hustle and bustle that I think would have been happening because hello, we're talking about the fucking London Blitz. Or maybe it's really what happens and I've watched too many war movies. I don't know, it's probably not my place to judge.
I want to take home an Ironside Dalek, by the way. They're so adorable in their army green getups and why yes, I would like some tea, thank you!
You know, I appreciate Eleven's brand of manic energy but I was cringing something terrible while he wailed away at that Ironside Dalek with the wrench. It just felt so off. People talk about Companions existing because they're our viewpoints while the Doctor is this alien presence who traipses around time and space and meddles into others' affairs, but if I were Amy, Bracewell, or Churchill I don't think I'd just stand around and gape at him. He yells about how fucking dangerous they are and nobody's outright challenging him and demanding a better explanation than the "you're the Daleks and I'm the Doctor, and we're always enemies" since Amy doesn't remember them kidnapping the Earth, and Bracewell and Churchill think the Ironsides will save them.
Again, I should watch the previous seasons.
I really have no words for the airplane battle in space. I think the only comparison I can make is to a fic I read earlier today that left me saying, "What? What? What did I just read?" and tweeting "LOLWUT" and "WAIT WHAT" and "WHAT DID I JUST READ" all over other people's Twitter feeds.
Oh my god the shiny new Daleks. I have a hard time taking them seriously despite their new bulk and very modern exterior because they're color-coded. I did D8 when they exterminated the Ironside Daleks (see what I did there) because who's going to offer me some tea? And really, why won't they just die? If they died I wouldn't feel so bad about the Doctor being forced to choose between exterminating them and saving the Earth.
The scene with Bracewell did not impress me. There wasn't enough heart in it. I felt nothing while Eleven and Amy talked him into being human. There's just not enough weight in it for me to empathize with anyone. Such a shame, in my opinion. And that scene where Eleven and Amy talking about deactivating Bracewell after they come back in about fifteen minutes-no wait, it was twenty-I think it was half an hour, I'm sure it was half an hour. Anyway, that scene was fucking confusing.
The crack in the wall intrigues me. The preview is absolutely terrifying. I didn't know we'd be introduced to River so soon but here we go. And the Weeping Angels. Why the Weeping Angels? I'm watching the two-parter in broad daylight.
I'm still reserving judgment on Eleven and Amy. They're a different kind of mad, but it's not that endearing to me. It feels very superficial and forced, like I'm expected to see them as partners in crime from the get-go. Maybe I'm supposed to treat it as Amy being able to handle everything that's thrown at her with aplomb but it's not working.
I read some meta not too long ago about the Companions. It was heavily biased towards Donna (because I came upon it while looking for Ten/Donna fic, ha) but it did say that Donna was the only Companion thus far who actively sought out the Doctor after rejecting his offer the first time. And now here's Amy, who was ready to take off as an eight-year-old and is currently having cold feet about her impending wedding and jumping ship to ride the stars with her childhood Spaceman. I think I keep expecting reality to crash down on her and make her realize that childhood perceptions don't transfer very easily into the crueler world of grownups.
I think the reason why I'm having trouble accepting Eleven and Amy after The Eleventh Hour is because they haven't proven to me that they have the capacity for the heavy themes this show likes to carry. But, I have to keep reminding myself, this is Moffat's world now. New Who, new logo, new opening, new rules. I may need just a little more time to settle.
I still want my Doctor Donna.
Oh my god it was not my intention to write a freaking essay. Self, a few thoughts means one or two lines per train of thought, not one or two paragraphs.
So overall I'm very ambivalent about S5.
deancastiel is posting Secret Angels fic. There is a "Cas is a kitten" fic standing at about 30k words. Holy shit. So of course I had to check it out.
Sing And I Will Hear You; Supernatural, Dean/Castiel [PG-13].
Summary: Castiel is cursed to be a kitten every day of his life until he finds his true love....
Coming on the heels of my diabetes-inducing Castiel + kitten drawing I just had to read it. The prompt and the author's notes were also too ridiculous to resist and I needed to distract myself from self-hating for being unable to draw what I really wanted to draw. The prose was okay but could use work, and I didn't like the literal spelling out of colloquialisms and speech patterns. There is nothing wrong about writing "have to", Author. "Hafta" was completely unnecessary.
Anyway, here I am reading all three parts and thinking, "This is pretty cool," and then I reach the end and, just. Holy shit, where did that come from? I was unprepared for the twist at the end although I should've known - the author pointed out that this took place "pre-series". I personally thought it was an AU take on the show - Castiel being a kitten and all - so I was caught completely off guard by the deft twist back into real canon.
I'm still in shock. You should read some of my tweets. It's proof. Enjoy out-of-context upper case tweets, Library of Congress!
And while we're on the subject of Secret Angels, you must read this.
Bone Mother; Supernatural, Dean/Castiel [PG-13].
Summary: When Dean was little, his mother would tell him the little angel figurine would take care of him. (A very Supernatural retelling of Vasilisa the Beautiful)
Just...read it. Please read it. I beg of you. This is pre-series and S1-S2 married to a Russian fairytale (I remember reading it as a child and I felt the echoes as I devoured this fic) and it's just awesome. I might even go for a fifth reread before I hit the hay (and after I watch South Park). Out of all the Secret Angels entries this one remains my favorite. I can't write paragraphs of praise like I did with Sing because I don't need to.
I desperately want a sequel to it.
Can't stop loving a fandom that keeps on giving.
I have not written an actual fic since SPN 5.17. Something about that episode just broke me and in the worst way. I can't stop tearing up whenever I see pics and gifs from 5.16 and 5.18 is too raw for me to handle, but 5.17 was enraging on so many levels. The worst thing about this episode is that it's both filler and mytharc, so you can't just tell people "skip it; it doesn't add to the five year story" because it does. What makes me madder is that events in 5.17 had been hinted in 5.12 but I didn't watch 5.12 because I was driven out of it in the first ten minutes by massive, massive second hand embarrassment and squick. So in short I was completely unprepared for the "Then" sequence and what people called a Harry Potter Epilogue for the last ten minutes. I get what Show was going for, but the execution was rather shitty.
This is not even the biggest problem. 5.17 has so many problems I just-it'll turn people off. It is that infuriating. In my head this never happened. What was addressed that connects to the mytharc happened outside this fucking episode.
And while we're on the subject of head!canon and fic writing...
I have not written The Bookshop's latest chapter and I need to read Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass to continue with the 30 Romances challenge. My NaNoWriMo 2009 novel, however, is on a roll. I decided to go all out and buy note cards to jot down plot points and move around into coherent plot lines. The story that's coming together is both similar and very different from the first two drafts; it's even tighter than the second draft and the subplots/character arcs should be more interesting (to me, at least, so that I don't end up screaming at Word because the plot's sagging and the characters aren't driving the story forward).
Of course, writing the actual novel is a different story, but that's for another post.
Dean: Cas-
Castiel: No.
Dean: Cas, listen-
Castiel: You can't do this to me. Not after everything we went through.
Dean: I'm sorry.
If I pull this off I will be one happy panda.
A lot of people don't forget their first Doctor or their first Companion. Mine was Ten and the first Companion Donna, although the first episode I ever watched was "Voyage of the Damned" and Astrid Peth, for all intents and purposes, was the Companion. I was up late and watching BBC on a whim, and right after "Voyage" was "Partners in Crime" and my god was I smitten with those two. I've seen one episode each of the previous three seasons, which is why I said I should watch them all before making any real judgments.
But this is going off of what I thought and felt during "Victory of the Daleks", so this isn't deep meta or anything (not that I write deep meta, anyway; I'm no good at it).
I adored "The Eleventh Hour", partially because Eleven was like freaking fireworks all over the screen and partially because the door you could only see out of the corner of your eye was terrifying. I enjoyed Karen's Amy Pond; she was quite feisty and, understandably, indignant and pissed off that the Doctor fulfilled his promise years after the fact. Oops. There were echoes of previous episodes and the slideshow of the first ten faces really did a number on me.
"The Beast Below" was high octane nightmare fuel. DNW THOSE ROBOTIC FACES FOREVER. Queen Elizabeth the Tenth was smokin', though. And then I almost cried over the star whale. I did feel that the Doctor = star whale analogy was really pushing it, and Amy at times seemed a little forced herself. I think I had trouble marrying her rather schoolgirl face to such heavy themes, but it was only the second episode of the new New Who so I let it slide.
I adore
charlieblue's analogy, by the way. The TARDIS would make the most epic treehouse to ever epic.
I rolled my eyes at the Daleks. Even with my limited exposure I can't help but think, "Oh, them again. What else is new?" I think I had a mini heart attack over the "planets in the sky" bit, though, and I really want to know why Amy can't remember That Event That Awesome'd And Then Broke My Heart because the Doctor and Donna are still out there traveling in a blue police box through time and space.
The scenes in the war room felt really static. I felt none of the hustle and bustle that I think would have been happening because hello, we're talking about the fucking London Blitz. Or maybe it's really what happens and I've watched too many war movies. I don't know, it's probably not my place to judge.
I want to take home an Ironside Dalek, by the way. They're so adorable in their army green getups and why yes, I would like some tea, thank you!
You know, I appreciate Eleven's brand of manic energy but I was cringing something terrible while he wailed away at that Ironside Dalek with the wrench. It just felt so off. People talk about Companions existing because they're our viewpoints while the Doctor is this alien presence who traipses around time and space and meddles into others' affairs, but if I were Amy, Bracewell, or Churchill I don't think I'd just stand around and gape at him. He yells about how fucking dangerous they are and nobody's outright challenging him and demanding a better explanation than the "you're the Daleks and I'm the Doctor, and we're always enemies" since Amy doesn't remember them kidnapping the Earth, and Bracewell and Churchill think the Ironsides will save them.
Again, I should watch the previous seasons.
I really have no words for the airplane battle in space. I think the only comparison I can make is to a fic I read earlier today that left me saying, "What? What? What did I just read?" and tweeting "LOLWUT" and "WAIT WHAT" and "WHAT DID I JUST READ" all over other people's Twitter feeds.
Oh my god the shiny new Daleks. I have a hard time taking them seriously despite their new bulk and very modern exterior because they're color-coded. I did D8 when they exterminated the Ironside Daleks (see what I did there) because who's going to offer me some tea? And really, why won't they just die? If they died I wouldn't feel so bad about the Doctor being forced to choose between exterminating them and saving the Earth.
The scene with Bracewell did not impress me. There wasn't enough heart in it. I felt nothing while Eleven and Amy talked him into being human. There's just not enough weight in it for me to empathize with anyone. Such a shame, in my opinion. And that scene where Eleven and Amy talking about deactivating Bracewell after they come back in about fifteen minutes-no wait, it was twenty-I think it was half an hour, I'm sure it was half an hour. Anyway, that scene was fucking confusing.
The crack in the wall intrigues me. The preview is absolutely terrifying. I didn't know we'd be introduced to River so soon but here we go. And the Weeping Angels. Why the Weeping Angels? I'm watching the two-parter in broad daylight.
I'm still reserving judgment on Eleven and Amy. They're a different kind of mad, but it's not that endearing to me. It feels very superficial and forced, like I'm expected to see them as partners in crime from the get-go. Maybe I'm supposed to treat it as Amy being able to handle everything that's thrown at her with aplomb but it's not working.
I read some meta not too long ago about the Companions. It was heavily biased towards Donna (because I came upon it while looking for Ten/Donna fic, ha) but it did say that Donna was the only Companion thus far who actively sought out the Doctor after rejecting his offer the first time. And now here's Amy, who was ready to take off as an eight-year-old and is currently having cold feet about her impending wedding and jumping ship to ride the stars with her childhood Spaceman. I think I keep expecting reality to crash down on her and make her realize that childhood perceptions don't transfer very easily into the crueler world of grownups.
I think the reason why I'm having trouble accepting Eleven and Amy after The Eleventh Hour is because they haven't proven to me that they have the capacity for the heavy themes this show likes to carry. But, I have to keep reminding myself, this is Moffat's world now. New Who, new logo, new opening, new rules. I may need just a little more time to settle.
I still want my Doctor Donna.
Oh my god it was not my intention to write a freaking essay. Self, a few thoughts means one or two lines per train of thought, not one or two paragraphs.
So overall I'm very ambivalent about S5.
deancastiel is posting Secret Angels fic. There is a "Cas is a kitten" fic standing at about 30k words. Holy shit. So of course I had to check it out.
Sing And I Will Hear You; Supernatural, Dean/Castiel [PG-13].
Summary: Castiel is cursed to be a kitten every day of his life until he finds his true love....
Coming on the heels of my diabetes-inducing Castiel + kitten drawing I just had to read it. The prompt and the author's notes were also too ridiculous to resist and I needed to distract myself from self-hating for being unable to draw what I really wanted to draw. The prose was okay but could use work, and I didn't like the literal spelling out of colloquialisms and speech patterns. There is nothing wrong about writing "have to", Author. "Hafta" was completely unnecessary.
Anyway, here I am reading all three parts and thinking, "This is pretty cool," and then I reach the end and, just. Holy shit, where did that come from? I was unprepared for the twist at the end although I should've known - the author pointed out that this took place "pre-series". I personally thought it was an AU take on the show - Castiel being a kitten and all - so I was caught completely off guard by the deft twist back into real canon.
I'm still in shock. You should read some of my tweets. It's proof. Enjoy out-of-context upper case tweets, Library of Congress!
And while we're on the subject of Secret Angels, you must read this.
Bone Mother; Supernatural, Dean/Castiel [PG-13].
Summary: When Dean was little, his mother would tell him the little angel figurine would take care of him. (A very Supernatural retelling of Vasilisa the Beautiful)
Just...read it. Please read it. I beg of you. This is pre-series and S1-S2 married to a Russian fairytale (I remember reading it as a child and I felt the echoes as I devoured this fic) and it's just awesome. I might even go for a fifth reread before I hit the hay (and after I watch South Park). Out of all the Secret Angels entries this one remains my favorite. I can't write paragraphs of praise like I did with Sing because I don't need to.
I desperately want a sequel to it.
Can't stop loving a fandom that keeps on giving.
I have not written an actual fic since SPN 5.17. Something about that episode just broke me and in the worst way. I can't stop tearing up whenever I see pics and gifs from 5.16 and 5.18 is too raw for me to handle, but 5.17 was enraging on so many levels. The worst thing about this episode is that it's both filler and mytharc, so you can't just tell people "skip it; it doesn't add to the five year story" because it does. What makes me madder is that events in 5.17 had been hinted in 5.12 but I didn't watch 5.12 because I was driven out of it in the first ten minutes by massive, massive second hand embarrassment and squick. So in short I was completely unprepared for the "Then" sequence and what people called a Harry Potter Epilogue for the last ten minutes. I get what Show was going for, but the execution was rather shitty.
This is not even the biggest problem. 5.17 has so many problems I just-it'll turn people off. It is that infuriating. In my head this never happened. What was addressed that connects to the mytharc happened outside this fucking episode.
And while we're on the subject of head!canon and fic writing...
I have not written The Bookshop's latest chapter and I need to read Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass to continue with the 30 Romances challenge. My NaNoWriMo 2009 novel, however, is on a roll. I decided to go all out and buy note cards to jot down plot points and move around into coherent plot lines. The story that's coming together is both similar and very different from the first two drafts; it's even tighter than the second draft and the subplots/character arcs should be more interesting (to me, at least, so that I don't end up screaming at Word because the plot's sagging and the characters aren't driving the story forward).
Of course, writing the actual novel is a different story, but that's for another post.
Dean: Cas-
Castiel: No.
Dean: Cas, listen-
Castiel: You can't do this to me. Not after everything we went through.
Dean: I'm sorry.
If I pull this off I will be one happy panda.