(no subject)
Sunny and warm, beautiful day, slightly tainted by the faint melancholy of Sundays. Did this breakfast & movie thing with some people from work, we saw Fatih Akin's Crossing the Bridge, which is a truly amazing, wonderful film about the music of Istanbul and the power and impact of music, regardless of genre - everything from rap to the music of the Roma, Kurdish music, traditional Turkish music... Very powerful; beautiful shots, too.
I think I'll have to check out Gegen die Wand now. And buy the soundtrack, although I really should re-reconsider buying not really necessary stuff in view of the possible computer situation... ::le sigh::
)o(
Trying to unclutter notepad. Still. Again. Never ending story rambling. The 10? 12? 20? (can't quite remember) favourite emotional tv moments meme, picked up a long time ago somewhere in the wastes of lj-land.
Jossverse-centric, because that's what I've been watching recently, and while I would love to give a comprehensive and conclusive review of solitary_summer's most favourite tv moments evar, re-watching five season of B5 (or any other tv show I was ever fond of) just isn't happening at the moment. And really, I don't want to consider what it says about my psychic make-up that I even consider this an issue and would this be a good place to confess that I shuffled my interests around quite a bit for the 10 interests meme?
Sorted chronologically and by fandom, not squee factor.
# AtS S2, The Trial: The last scene: Angel stunned and bound on his knees, Lindsey walking in, grabbing him by the hair, "How did you think this would end?", Drusilla gliding in, draining Darla and then forcing her to drink while Lindsey and Angel are watching, the one triumphant, the other devastated. The power-game between Lindsey and Angel is always intense in and of itself, but the tragedy of this moment is that, clicheed as it may sound, they're both doing it for love. Both of them love Darla and want to save her.
[# AtS S3 Forgiveness, Angel trying to kill Wesley. In parenthesis, because I'm not even sure whether to include this here; 'favourite' doesn't really apply, but as for sheer emotional impact this certainly is one of the top moments. The first time I saw it I was genuinely shocked, and when I re-watched it not so long ago it still left me kind of shaken. I don't even know why this has such a strong impact - perhaps because Angel's rage is so entirely human and unlike Angelus's cold sadism.]
# AtS S4, Deep Down: Wesley, cutting his arm and feeding Angel with his blood, like it's redemption, a privilege and the most normal thing all at once, while Justine, disgusted, turns her face away. What makes it so... intimate, although not really in a sexual way, is that Angel's face remains human throughout. I love this episode so much - I watched it pretty much unspoiled and I still remember the feeling of relief when it became clear that Wesley was looking for Angel. Things were going to be all right. The universe re-aligning itself again after the mess that was S3...
# AtS S4, Salvage: Wesley decapitating Lilah's body. Utterly heartbreaking. The dialogue/inner monologue with dead Lilah, the quiet sob in the end. Because this is the closest the new and improved, much harder Wesley comes to breaking (until S5, that is).
# AtS S4, Inside Out: Angel: "Wes, Lilah and I weren't exactly friends -" Wesley: "You were mortal enemies. Why should you care what happened to her?" Angel: "Because you did."
No. Words. I already found Angel's public recognition of Wesley's relationship with Lilah and his grief for her death in Players very gracious, considering that everyone hated Lilah and didn't exactly trust or like Wesley. Still didn't expect this. After everything that happened between these two in S3, this is such a poignant moment.
# AtS S5, Damage: the last scene, Angel and Spike in the hospital room. Spike: "[...]She's...one of us now. She's a monster." Angel: “She's an innocent victim." Spike: "So were we... once upon a time." Angel (beyond sadness, beyond resignation, with barely any regret ot bitterness, very quietly): "Once upon a time." It's the sadness, the loss of innocence, but it's also the startling contrast to the earlier part of the scene when they talk about how they'd enjoyed what they'd done, which is chilling in its matter-of-factness. There are a few scenes with Spike and Angel in S5 that have this brand of honesty, two people who don't even like each other but know each other inside out; when there are no masks, no pretences, and no humans who have to be coddled and shielded fromt he ugliest truths.
# AtS S5, Origins: The last scene between Angel and Connor, from the moment Connor says "I'm not too worried about him. Nothing he can show me I haven't already seen.", when it becomes clear that he does remember, but has been weighing his options and made his decision, until his last look back to Angel before he steps in the elevator. It's melancholy, but it's also a happy moment, because Connor is one of the very few people in Angel-verse for whom things do work out in the end, and in a way it makes worth what Angel did to save him.
# AtS S5, Not Fade Away: Not going with the obvious for once. Not Wesley's, but Lindsey's death. Incredulous, protesting with his last breath that Angel should have killed him, not a mere side-kick. The sadness of the whole scene, Lorne being forced to do something he hates, Lindsey, the only one of them who didn't go into this with a death wish, betrayed like this, dying with Angel's name his last word... For me this scene captures the essence of everything that went wrong in S5 and the finale, the despair, the disillusionment, the lacklustre, semi-suicidal quality of this last stand. The ambiguity of the whole series, because there's nothing clear-cut or noble about this.
# BtVS S6, After Life: Buffy telling Spike that she'd been in heaven. There are a lot of great emotional moments in this episode (Spike realising that Buffy's hands got injured by her clawing her way out of her grave; Spike and Xander's confrontation), but I love the way this is shot, the use of shadow and light and the way Buffy moves between both, while Spike is standing in his patch of shadow surrounded by the bright sunlight.
# BtVS S6, Once More With Feeling: Spike stopping Buffy from incinerating herself, "Life's not a song / Life isn't bliss / Life is just this / It's living."
# BtVS S6 Normal Again: Buffy's struggle, until the final "You're right. Thank you. Good-bye.". What makes the moment so powerful is its ambiguity, reinforced by the final scene. And I believe right there and then she doesn't make this choice because she's convinced this reality rather than the other is real, but because it has more meaning for her, and she can't kill this part of herself.
# B5 S2, Confessions and Lamentations: Delenn asking Sheridan to be allowed in the quarantine zone. The moment when they realise how much they mean to each other, but even this knowledge, even if they confessed their love right there and then, wouldn't change anything, she'd still be going in there, and he'd still be allowing it, because this is who they are and why they love each other, because this is what will define their whole relationship.
[Also in lieu of another half dozen or so favourite Sheridan/Delenn moments I won't bore everyone with...]
# B5 S3, Z'ha'dum: Sheridan standing on the balcony, the woman that had been Anna slowly coming towards him, the White Star hurtling down, then cut to Delenn playing the recording of Sheridan telling her he loves her. And then back to Sheridan, and Kosh telling him to jump, and the Shadows advancing behind 'Anna', and the explosion... Perhaps I'm still so fond of this moment because I vividly remember watching it the first time on tv, not knowing how this would go on.
# B5 S5, Sleeping In Light: Hm... Perhaps the moment when Delenn steps into the corridor, dressed in white, because that's where I started to cry the last time. The only episode of any tv show ever to make me cry. So i guess we have a winner, after all...
# Smallville S3, Asylum: Lex's "I knew you'd come.". And Clark, secrets be dammed, without even trying to disguise his powers, tearing off that cage thing and tossing it away, and then kneeling down beside Lex to remove the restraints, and their eyes meet, and Clark gives him this tiny smile that is slightly embarrassed and slightly apprehensive, scared and relieved at once. The one and only moment of pure honesty between them. The one last moment where things still could have gone right.
# Smallville S3, Truth: Chloe-on-kryptonite and Lex. "Why do you keep doing this to yourself? Why can't you just walk away from your father?" "Because he won't give me the only thing I've ever wanted from him." "And that would be?" "I want him to love me." It isn't actually unexpected, and Smallville will probably never win any prices for its dialogues, but Michael Rosenbaum has a way of pulling off these moments, showing the cracks in Lex's armour, the pain and vulnerability at being forced to reveal something he'd rather not say. Perhaps it's the sheer amount of lying constantly happening in this show that makes the few moments of truth so poignant.
# Andromeda S3, Shadows Cast by a Final Salute: The confrontation between Dylan and Tyr. One of those times when a tv show actually manages to surprise you, when instead of shouting and firing of weapons you get a very quiet, very emotional and incredibly well acted five minute long clash of egos, pride and different ideals, you see a three year old intensely complex, symbiotic relationship crumble, because it has come to a point where they are who they are and there is a chasm neither can cross, however much each of them would like the other to come over to his side. And yet, at the end, despite everything, despite the fact that they each fall short of each other's ideal, there are still two men who value each other too much to even declare themselves enemies.
I think I'll have to check out Gegen die Wand now. And buy the soundtrack, although I really should re-reconsider buying not really necessary stuff in view of the possible computer situation... ::le sigh::
)o(
Trying to unclutter notepad. Still. Again. Never ending story rambling. The 10? 12? 20? (can't quite remember) favourite emotional tv moments meme, picked up a long time ago somewhere in the wastes of lj-land.
Jossverse-centric, because that's what I've been watching recently, and while I would love to give a comprehensive and conclusive review of solitary_summer's most favourite tv moments evar, re-watching five season of B5 (or any other tv show I was ever fond of) just isn't happening at the moment. And really, I don't want to consider what it says about my psychic make-up that I even consider this an issue and would this be a good place to confess that I shuffled my interests around quite a bit for the 10 interests meme?
Sorted chronologically and by fandom, not squee factor.
# AtS S2, The Trial: The last scene: Angel stunned and bound on his knees, Lindsey walking in, grabbing him by the hair, "How did you think this would end?", Drusilla gliding in, draining Darla and then forcing her to drink while Lindsey and Angel are watching, the one triumphant, the other devastated. The power-game between Lindsey and Angel is always intense in and of itself, but the tragedy of this moment is that, clicheed as it may sound, they're both doing it for love. Both of them love Darla and want to save her.
[# AtS S3 Forgiveness, Angel trying to kill Wesley. In parenthesis, because I'm not even sure whether to include this here; 'favourite' doesn't really apply, but as for sheer emotional impact this certainly is one of the top moments. The first time I saw it I was genuinely shocked, and when I re-watched it not so long ago it still left me kind of shaken. I don't even know why this has such a strong impact - perhaps because Angel's rage is so entirely human and unlike Angelus's cold sadism.]
# AtS S4, Deep Down: Wesley, cutting his arm and feeding Angel with his blood, like it's redemption, a privilege and the most normal thing all at once, while Justine, disgusted, turns her face away. What makes it so... intimate, although not really in a sexual way, is that Angel's face remains human throughout. I love this episode so much - I watched it pretty much unspoiled and I still remember the feeling of relief when it became clear that Wesley was looking for Angel. Things were going to be all right. The universe re-aligning itself again after the mess that was S3...
# AtS S4, Salvage: Wesley decapitating Lilah's body. Utterly heartbreaking. The dialogue/inner monologue with dead Lilah, the quiet sob in the end. Because this is the closest the new and improved, much harder Wesley comes to breaking (until S5, that is).
# AtS S4, Inside Out: Angel: "Wes, Lilah and I weren't exactly friends -" Wesley: "You were mortal enemies. Why should you care what happened to her?" Angel: "Because you did."
No. Words. I already found Angel's public recognition of Wesley's relationship with Lilah and his grief for her death in Players very gracious, considering that everyone hated Lilah and didn't exactly trust or like Wesley. Still didn't expect this. After everything that happened between these two in S3, this is such a poignant moment.
# AtS S5, Damage: the last scene, Angel and Spike in the hospital room. Spike: "[...]She's...one of us now. She's a monster." Angel: “She's an innocent victim." Spike: "So were we... once upon a time." Angel (beyond sadness, beyond resignation, with barely any regret ot bitterness, very quietly): "Once upon a time." It's the sadness, the loss of innocence, but it's also the startling contrast to the earlier part of the scene when they talk about how they'd enjoyed what they'd done, which is chilling in its matter-of-factness. There are a few scenes with Spike and Angel in S5 that have this brand of honesty, two people who don't even like each other but know each other inside out; when there are no masks, no pretences, and no humans who have to be coddled and shielded fromt he ugliest truths.
# AtS S5, Origins: The last scene between Angel and Connor, from the moment Connor says "I'm not too worried about him. Nothing he can show me I haven't already seen.", when it becomes clear that he does remember, but has been weighing his options and made his decision, until his last look back to Angel before he steps in the elevator. It's melancholy, but it's also a happy moment, because Connor is one of the very few people in Angel-verse for whom things do work out in the end, and in a way it makes worth what Angel did to save him.
# AtS S5, Not Fade Away: Not going with the obvious for once. Not Wesley's, but Lindsey's death. Incredulous, protesting with his last breath that Angel should have killed him, not a mere side-kick. The sadness of the whole scene, Lorne being forced to do something he hates, Lindsey, the only one of them who didn't go into this with a death wish, betrayed like this, dying with Angel's name his last word... For me this scene captures the essence of everything that went wrong in S5 and the finale, the despair, the disillusionment, the lacklustre, semi-suicidal quality of this last stand. The ambiguity of the whole series, because there's nothing clear-cut or noble about this.
# BtVS S6, After Life: Buffy telling Spike that she'd been in heaven. There are a lot of great emotional moments in this episode (Spike realising that Buffy's hands got injured by her clawing her way out of her grave; Spike and Xander's confrontation), but I love the way this is shot, the use of shadow and light and the way Buffy moves between both, while Spike is standing in his patch of shadow surrounded by the bright sunlight.
# BtVS S6, Once More With Feeling: Spike stopping Buffy from incinerating herself, "Life's not a song / Life isn't bliss / Life is just this / It's living."
# BtVS S6 Normal Again: Buffy's struggle, until the final "You're right. Thank you. Good-bye.". What makes the moment so powerful is its ambiguity, reinforced by the final scene. And I believe right there and then she doesn't make this choice because she's convinced this reality rather than the other is real, but because it has more meaning for her, and she can't kill this part of herself.
# B5 S2, Confessions and Lamentations: Delenn asking Sheridan to be allowed in the quarantine zone. The moment when they realise how much they mean to each other, but even this knowledge, even if they confessed their love right there and then, wouldn't change anything, she'd still be going in there, and he'd still be allowing it, because this is who they are and why they love each other, because this is what will define their whole relationship.
[Also in lieu of another half dozen or so favourite Sheridan/Delenn moments I won't bore everyone with...]
# B5 S3, Z'ha'dum: Sheridan standing on the balcony, the woman that had been Anna slowly coming towards him, the White Star hurtling down, then cut to Delenn playing the recording of Sheridan telling her he loves her. And then back to Sheridan, and Kosh telling him to jump, and the Shadows advancing behind 'Anna', and the explosion... Perhaps I'm still so fond of this moment because I vividly remember watching it the first time on tv, not knowing how this would go on.
# B5 S5, Sleeping In Light: Hm... Perhaps the moment when Delenn steps into the corridor, dressed in white, because that's where I started to cry the last time. The only episode of any tv show ever to make me cry. So i guess we have a winner, after all...
# Smallville S3, Asylum: Lex's "I knew you'd come.". And Clark, secrets be dammed, without even trying to disguise his powers, tearing off that cage thing and tossing it away, and then kneeling down beside Lex to remove the restraints, and their eyes meet, and Clark gives him this tiny smile that is slightly embarrassed and slightly apprehensive, scared and relieved at once. The one and only moment of pure honesty between them. The one last moment where things still could have gone right.
# Smallville S3, Truth: Chloe-on-kryptonite and Lex. "Why do you keep doing this to yourself? Why can't you just walk away from your father?" "Because he won't give me the only thing I've ever wanted from him." "And that would be?" "I want him to love me." It isn't actually unexpected, and Smallville will probably never win any prices for its dialogues, but Michael Rosenbaum has a way of pulling off these moments, showing the cracks in Lex's armour, the pain and vulnerability at being forced to reveal something he'd rather not say. Perhaps it's the sheer amount of lying constantly happening in this show that makes the few moments of truth so poignant.
# Andromeda S3, Shadows Cast by a Final Salute: The confrontation between Dylan and Tyr. One of those times when a tv show actually manages to surprise you, when instead of shouting and firing of weapons you get a very quiet, very emotional and incredibly well acted five minute long clash of egos, pride and different ideals, you see a three year old intensely complex, symbiotic relationship crumble, because it has come to a point where they are who they are and there is a chasm neither can cross, however much each of them would like the other to come over to his side. And yet, at the end, despite everything, despite the fact that they each fall short of each other's ideal, there are still two men who value each other too much to even declare themselves enemies.