let him be the king of ashes
Random excessively long media post! Probably should have actually posted all the other things i've written this year but my reactions are so stale by the time i form them into words so WHO CARES!
Hannibal
Season 2 made me realize how much i enjoy this show -- i liked s1 but it never quite crossed the fannish involvement threshold. It still hasn't, really, and it's not something i've remained interested in during the off-season, but this year i found myself looking forward to it every week and really getting into it while i was watching. It's just so beautiful and gross, and has its own very specific tone that makes it feel extremely cinematic. I also really like its ridiculous AU setting where serial killing is so frequent and intricately artistic -- people on The AV Club tend to comment that it's like a post-Cthulhu hellscape where nightmare fuel is the norm, and i get a kick out of that interpretation. It's like absurdist horror.
And i finally mostly crossed the being-attracted-to-Hugh-Dancy threshold, so that helps. It's weird, i wouldn't have thought it would take this long because he's so pretty (and i saw Blood and Chocolate! he's so dreamy in that!!) but i realize it's because most of the time i'm too preoccupied with how messed up Will is so i can't really pay attention to how he looks, because how he looks is just "YOU NEED HELP."
Beverly's death was a while ago now so the wound isn't as fresh, but i'm still pretty pissed about it. WILL/BEVERLY 4EVER >:(
As much as i love bloodbaths, that finale was pretty upsetting to watch. At various points during the season i kept thinking Abigail was alive (particularly when they found Miriam) so i was pleased that she really was, and Hannibal's whole "i was saving our murderfamily and now look what you made me do!!!" was good and tragic, but at the same time FUCKING HANNIBAL. Like, boo hoo, so emotional, i just wanted my friends to be murderers like me, except all of this could have been prevented if i hadn't framed Will for murder and then maybe let him know at some point that BTW ABIGAIL IS ALIVE. THAT IS NOT THE KIND OF THING THAT YOU SAVE UP AS A SURPRISE. And also you're not a very good friend if you just murder the shit out of everyone for not being as into murder as you are. I don't force my friends to watch the same tv shows as i do if they're not into it, jeez.
I really enjoy how nightmarish it is that around 75% of the main cast ended the season laying in pools of their own blood. That's a pretty apropos scenario to accompany everyone finding out about Hannibal. Who would have thought that the unbelievable Jack/Hannibal fight at the beginning of the season was only the tip of the horrorshow iceberg in terms of how all this played out! Will trying to hold in his own guts while at the same time trying to slow Abigail bleeding out was terribly sad. :( This fishing trip did not go as planned. :(
Also i'm a sicko who really loves characters covered in blood. It's seriously like one of my number one favorite fictional things. The later acts of horror movies when the surviving characters are drenched in gore and irrevocably altered by the things they've witnessed. :) :) :) :)
I was suuuuuuuuuuper excited about Michael Pitt being in this season (!!!!!!!!!Michael Pitt on a beautiful tv show again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO IMPORTANT TO ME) but man Mason was so weird. He really made me laugh, especially in how annoyed Hannibal got with him. I knew what was coming with the whole... face thing, but HOLY SHIT that was completely disgusting. Like they didn't even show a whole lot, it was all in shadow and just kind of a pulpy blob, and i was still freaking out. I can't believe this show is on network tv. And it just got so bizarre as the season went on. I mean, it's always been bizarre, but it's continued to escalate into a menagerie of hallucinatory animal people and cacophonous sounds and nightmare feasts and dream logic editing and people who speak exclusively in metaphors. It's just so WEIRD.
I don't really get the duMaurier reveal at the end. Like i guess since it turns out she's the one who killed that patient of hers that she and Hannibal can be murderfriends after all? But... she was legitimately scared of him... and he was going to kill her... and this makes it seem like they were in cahoots all along???? CONFUSED
Tangentially related via dudes who've been on Boardwalk Empire: I'm so shocked and excited about Charlie Cox getting cast as Daredevil but at the same time i'm like UGH NOW I HAVE TO CARE ABOUT THIS NEW DAREDEVIL SERIES?!?!??!? Like oh great now i gotta be responsible for this water bottle. It's exactly like when Jennifer Garner played Elektra (in the first Daredevil movie -- i didn't give a shit by the time the Elektra movie rolled around), which was so terrible but i loved her SO MUCH because of Alias and so i got into Daredevil for a while all because of that. All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again. Except maybe this Daredevil won't be awful??? One can only hope. But goddddd American accent and perpetual sunglasses and a dumb red suit, this is my nightmare. But i'm praying for Stardust-swordfight-level action scenes. And omg Rosario Dawson and Deborah Ann Woll omgfdhflg I'M GONNA DIE
Game of Thrones
I just finished reading A Storm of Swords after starting it partway through the season -- pretty late because i didn't want to accidentally overtake where we were at in the show -- and reading always gets me 5000% more excited because of extra details and differences and character depth so SUFFICE IT TO SAY i really enjoyed this season, despite how poorly they translated some stuff to the screen (or DIDN'T translate, AHEM). I'm so glad they split the book into two seasons -- normally i worry about story pacing with a split like that, but with the sheer amount of stuff that's happened there's just no way they would've been able to cram it into ten episodes. It seems like a lot of people have started to get really critical of the story sprawl and the increasing series-of-vignettes structure, but i dunno, none of that has bothered me.
The finale finally caught up to everything i'd been spoiled for, so i had a good eight hours of relief before i got spoiled about Lady Stoneheart. (maybe if they'd just INCLUDED THAT IN THE SHOW WHERE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE IN THE FIRST PLACE?!??) What i knew prior to the finale: I read "Tyrion kills Tywin" in some random untagged post a long, long time ago, and then at a Memorial Day party i overheard a very loudly spoilery conversation (RUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!) so that was when i heard that Tyrion kills Shae (i tried to drink the knowledge away, to no avail). And last season i was trying to look up a translation for "valar dohaeris" and ended up finding out that at the end of book 3 Arya finally shows her coin to somebody and gets on a ship to Braavos.
While it was obvious based on the Tyrion spoilers that he would not be executed, i didn’t know anything else, so Shae sleeping with Tywin was like WHAT. NO!!!!!!!! WHAT!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOO. THAT’S AWFUL!!! TYRION KILLING SHAE IS AWFUL!!!!!!!! And then the differences between the book and show really change things, but both ways are like... equally awful. I thought the show made their relationship seem a lot more meaningful, so Tyrion betraying Shae and Shae betraying him in turn was much more tragic, but having Shae pick up the knife before Tyrion attacked her made it almost seem like she had been plotting against him all along? Or just a shitty attempt to make it seem like a fair fight, like, oh, she ~deserves~ to be murdered. The fact that Tyrion never yelled at her to get her to leave in the book makes her testifying against him more of an out-of-nowhere betrayal, but at the same time it's also more clear that she's been manipulated by Cersei and Tywin and obviously isn't in a societal position to be able to refuse. IDK, either way Shae didn't deserve to die. I've always liked Tyrion despite many of his shittier qualities (Peter Dinklage is just so charming!!!), but this is... not great. At least the repetitive tedium of Tyrion warning Shae about how dangerous everything is and Shae ignoring him is finally over. :/
And as much as he deserved it, i’m SUPER BUMMED to lose Tywin. Charles Dance is so excellent, and Tywin is so smart and cool and intimidating and dickish and calculating and the worst dad but the best villain. And he’s been running the show, so who the fuck is in charge now?!?! Tommen is gonna run this place into the ground with balloon parties and tickle fights!!!!!!!! My guess is that Mace Tyrell will be the new Hand (taking Margaery's influence into account, you know), which is a totally unexciting prospect. CLEARLY Jaime should be the Hand just for the puns.
As shocking as Tyrion’s murder spree was (even knowing those deaths were coming, it was still majorly... yikes) i’m especially shocked that Varys left King’s Landing. Man i hope this leads to lots more disguises. :D VARYS!
I figured Jojen probably wasn’t long for this world with how sickly he’d become, but quietly getting stabbed repeatedly by an animate skeleton was super creepy. :( The way it played out, with nobody noticing it happening until it was too late, really unsettled me. The whole skeleton battle was ridiculous -- it’s such a tonal shift when stuff gets totally fantastical like that it verges on being too cheesy (i've tended to feel that way when there've been big scenes with the white walkers, like in the s2 finale.) like man, they're really going full-on Harryhausen/Skyrim with this, huh? I enjoyed it/was stressed out by it, but it’s jarring before you have time to adjust to it.
When i saw that the episode was titled "The Children" i was like "O...MG?!??!?! THE CHILDREN OF THE FOREST?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!??" and i'm pretty much still saying that. WHAT THE BALLS
Dany chaining up the dragons was the worst. ;__________; Such good(/TRAGIC) music, though. That scene and the Brienne/Hound fight had some noticeably different themes that i really liked. Even the variation on the theme song when Tyrion was being loaded onto the ship was way different than any other time they've incorporated it. Really good. Usually i don't notice a lot of the music except to get The Rains of Castamere stuck in my head. That's def my fav piece of music from the show, because it's so pretty and catchy and has such horrific associations. I love shit that haunts you like that.
The Brienne/Hound fight was AWESOME/BRUTAL/ANXIETY-INDUCING even though i know Brienne's not clocking out yet. (and then it turns out that wasn’t even a real scene!) I was grimacing the whole time, but it was great. That whole sequence was so tense, because it was so exciting that OMG BRIENNE FOUND ARYA OMG and then it turned sour so quickly (even Brienne introducing Pod made me wince, since he’s a Payne and Ilyn is on Arya’s list. THIS ALL SOUNDS REALLY BAD!). As exciting as it is to have previously unacquainted main characters cross paths (!!!!!!!!!!!SO EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), it also succcckkkkksssss when their motivations don't line up and they can't get along. :(
SPEAKING OF WHICH: DRAGONSTONE CREW AT THE WALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stannis's army descending on the wildlings was A+++++++ SO GREAT. IT'S JUST SO EXCITING WHEN STORYLINES COLLIDE!!!!!!!!!!!! Shireen, Davos, and Sam are gonna start a book club. And tbh i kind of love Stannis. He's such a turd but at the same time he has a healthy sense of respect for those who've earned it, and his relationship with Davos is so endearing. ;_____; And he's got a good face. ;______;
Arya is so hardened now and it's so great but it's so sad. She still has so much more darkness left to go. :( :( :( GO ROLL AROUND WITH GENDRY AND PUNCH HIM WHILE HE TEASES YOU!!!! (man there is so much great minor stuff in the books. MAN. Acorn Hall.) Godddd though that brief bonding with Brienne. ;________; And how completely scary Arya is. Maisie is so unbelievably good. And she's gotten so beautiful, even as Arya has gotten more and more grim.
I CAN'T! FUCKING! BELIEVE! THE MOUNTAIN! IS STILL! ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! CERSEI'S TURNING HIM INTO FUCKING BANE OR SOME SHIT MEANWHILE A THOUSAND OTHER INTERESTING CHARACTERS ARE ROTTING CORPSES. FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OBERYN MARTELL DIED FOR YOUR SINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Speaking of Oberyn: hahahahahaaaaaaa I'M STILL UPSET. As we got further along i ended up totally enamored with him because WOW WOW WOW WHAT A GOOD DUDE, WHAT A GOOD FUN-LOVING VENGEANCE-FUELED BISEXUAL PRINCE. :) :) :) :) His scene volunteering to be Tyrion's champion was wonderful, it made me so happy. "That's not a monster, that's just a baby." :*) :*) :*) So i figured with all the character development he'd gotten that surely he'd beat the Mountain, since the Mountain is just some amorphous, distantly looming boogeyman and not a real character. WHAT A FUN SURPRISE WHEN I LEARNED THAT I WAS WRONG! WHAT A GRUESOME, INTENSELY GRAPHIC DEATH FOR AN ATTRACTIVE AND SYMPATHETIC CHARACTER! That seriously trumped all in how nightmarish it was. Back in the good old days when Ned died i felt so relieved that at least they didn't show him being decapitated. Then the Red Wedding came along and we got to watch Cat get her throat slit, and i thought i'd never sleep again. And now Oberyn's head is a pile of chunks. So i'm really looking forward to watching everybody else get disemboweled, flayed, drawn, and quartered in increasingly vivid detail in the coming seasons!
Joffrey's imminent death seemed pretty obvious to me last season despite being totally unspoiled about it, so i wasn't shocked, but it's definitely super weird that he's finally gone. And after that episode there was some really enjoyable show-only fandom discussion treating it like a game of Clue, which i got a kick out of because genrebending a fantasy show into a murder mystery!!! Agatha Christie's Game of Thrones!!! SO NEAT. Of course tumblr ruined the mystery for me instantaneously, but it was still fun while i tried to trick myself into believing that i didn't know anything. :/
The revelation that Lysa and Littlefinger were behind Jon Arryn's murder was like WHAT. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did literally say that out loud when it happened. Not only was i 100% unspoiled about that (probably because it's such old news?) but it's something i couldn't have even begun to guess. And it forces you to go back to day 1 and shift your perception of everything that followed! It just seemed so much like they made it clear that Cersei was behind Jon Arryn's murder, and then you realize, well, no, they never actually indisputably gave that answer... she just never said that she didn't do it. This also got me thinking about other cold cases, and how i've always been acutely aware of the fact that they never figured out who sent the assassin to take out Bran… and then the book finally solved that one too! It was kind of anticlimactic though, considering it was just Tyrion randomly thinking of it, and then Joffrey died anyway.
Man, i still remember when Cat was headed to see Lysa for the first time and i was so excited about meeting Cat's sister because Cat was so cool so obviously she would have a cool sister!!! And then..................... Lysa................................... At least she made for a satisfying death. Littlefinger is such a puke but i really like his [creepy, obsessive] devotion to Cat (and the line he was supposed to say from the book!!!! "Only Cat." SO GOOD.) It's been so obvious (AND UNCOMFORTABLE) for so long that he would move in on Sansa, but i still NEVER WANTED TO SEE IT ACTUALLY HAPPEN. Especially after he talks about how she could have been his daughter?!?!??!?!? ..................... Petyr........................... no......................... But Sansa taking control of it is so good. SANSA!!!!!!!! I love the parallels of Sansa and Arya gradually learning what they need to do to survive from the various people who've held them captive. Their training is so similar, just in very different fields.
BRAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN. KIDDO. Getting into some troubling issues of consent via warging. :(
Speaking of troubling issues of consent: the Jaime/Cersei garbage really put a damper on my enjoyment of subsequent Jaime/Brienne scenes. And now there are NO MORE JAIME/BRIENNE SCENES EVER as i'm pretty sure that they'll never see each other again, since that's just how this shit works. BUDDY SYSTEM. STAY TOGETHER AT ALL TIMES OTHERWISE YOU WILL NEVER BE TOGETHER AGAIN.
Oathkeeper :) :) :) :) :)
All the geometric interior architecture of the pyramid in Meereen is so cool. Some people online mentioned that it's very reminiscent of Blade Runner and Frank Lloyd Wright, and now that i see that i love it even mooooooooore.
BRAAVOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Asha's failed Theon rescue was a major disappointment, especially considering how exciting it was when she set out on the mission, and how much it seemed like a sure thing until they... got scared off by some dogs. ??!??!?!?! WEAK. I'm so anxious to see Ramsay die a horrible death. He's not a fun villain to hate, he's just unpleasant. All the Theon stuff: JUST UNPLEASANT. I think part of what makes that so much worse than how despicable Joffrey was is that at least Joffrey was always surrounded by interesting characters, so as much as you hated him there was always plot stuff happening to keep the hatred from being totally oppressive. But with the Bolton stuff it's JUST horrible Ramsay and traumatized Theon without anything else to provide relief within that storyline.
I'm conflicted about Jorah getting kicked to the curb, because on the one hand: he's such a creeper toward Dany and he deserves it (he's so much more skeevy in the books! and uglier, obvs :/), but on the other hand: they've had such a successful partnership and it sucks to see that dissolved. I'm not really broken up about it, but it's weird to see them split up after all this time. I wonder if he'll end up at the Wall, since the Old Bear's last words to Sam in the book were about summoning him there. I guess with his official pardon he wouldn't need to take the black, but... he does deserve it. Although if Varys is headed to the Free Cities, and he was Jorah's spying contact, maybe they'll meet up. WHO KNOWS? (Book readers. Book readers probably know.)
I really loved the Grey Worm/Missandei stuff. The river bathing scene was so beautiful and ahhhh they're so nice together aaahhhhhhh MORE PLZ
I don't think i was as sad about Ygritte as i would have been if she'd been in this season more, and if they hadn't made it incredibly obvious that that kid was gonna take her down in a big old poetic justice cliche, but it was still sad. I had always figured she was going to wind up dead, and i didn't like her overly sappy stuff with Jon, but i liked HER a lot. :(
The body count has gotten completely out of control lately though, i'm hoping it eases up at least a LITTLE bit because it really loses impact when literally every episode has significant characters dying. Yeeeeeeeeesh.
One of my favorite parts of ASOS was the Reeds' story of the Knight of the Laughing Tree. Jojen's repeated "You're SURE your dad never told you this? Really? You're SURE?" and Bran's obliviousness was great, and then the way later chapters expanded on what happened at that tourney. Between that and Harwin telling Arya that she's like her aunt, and uh, That One Theory, my interest in Lyanna has really been piqued. With all the little piecemeal tidbits we've gotten of past events, i always want to recap what we've learned so far, but i can't go look it up online for fear of spoilers, and those little passages are really hard to go back and find just by flipping through pages. Even though it's stuff that happened in the past, there are always new bits of information coming down the road (as particularly evidenced by the Lysa/Littlefinger/Jon Arryn reveal), so it's like... even past stuff isn't safe from being spoiled! Even though it already happened! I really like how that works, though. The little details that add up over time -- you get mentions from various characters and different perspectives about how stuff went down, and you can cobble it together but you only ever have a loose picture, so it lends a really mysterious quality to everything that happened prior to the series beginning. I LIKE THAT. The vague internal history and mythologized people, or stories about things that people only half know, rumors that become legend. I LIKE IT A LOT. The Bran chapter at the Nightfort was another favorite for the stories. Bran's love of scary stories is my favorite. Modern AU where Bran loves horror movies, stays up late on weekends watching them, constantly freaks himself out. :) :) :) :)
I also really liked getting better acquainted with the Brotherhood Without Banners, and particularly the old dwarf woman who told them her prophetic dreams (and knowing what's coming made it very fun to go "I KNOW WHAT ALL OF THIS MEANS!!"). And OH MAN JAIME'S DREAM JAIME'S DREAM JAIME'S DREEEEEEEEEEAM. THE BEST. It sucks so bad that they entirely left that out of the show, like goddddd NBD JUST DREAMING ABOUT NAKED BRIENNE WHO I OBVIOUSLY HATE OF COURSE, HAHA GROSS, RIGHT?
Which brings me to the larger point of: I don't like that the show neglects everyone's dreams. Even though Bran is the only character for whom dreams and warging are the main thrust of the story, and Jon hasn't really done anything with it yet, it's still kiiiiiind of a big deal that STARKS ARE MAGIC, descendants of the First Men, terrifying wolf children, etc. Jon was supposed to find out he's a warg like two and a half seasons ago! Arya has tons of wolf dreams! I realize it doesn't have much bearing on the big plot points, subconscious stuff is hard to include in a meaningful way outside of prose, and symbolic nonsense can easily be cut out in favor of more concrete developments, but from a character perspective it's IMPORTANT INFORMATION! Obviously in any adaptation you have to economize the storytelling, i'm just sayin', you can maybe economize in other ways. Anyway i love symbolic nonsense and it seems like they miss out on some nice artistic opportunities by not including dreams. :/ Although it's not like Bran's visions of the tree were that great this season. MEH.
Robb legitimizing Jon! I liked book Robb quite a bit better than show Robb, because his screw-up with Jeyne made more sense (he was weak with injuries and grief for Bran and Rickon!), and i really had to agree with his reasoning about Jon. Godddddd the lead-up to the Red Wedding had me hyperventilating; even having already seen it i just did not want to go through that again. Cat's madness at the end was BRUTAL. And the end of the Arya scene was SO MUCH MORE MISLEADING than in the show. "His axe took her in the back of the head."?!?!?!?!?!?!?? Practically the only way you can read that is "ARYA'S DEAD NOW." GRRM IS A MONSTER
I was upset that i got spoiled about Cat, but i was also SO CONFUSED when everyone was complaining after the finale. At first it was all mentions of Lady Stoneheart, but then there were pictures of Cat and people talking about Cat and i was like "...but... Cat's dea-- Cat's NOT DEAD!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?" as i proceeded to smile uncontrollably while still sitting there dumbfounded because wait... but... how... i don't... what... Like i felt like i got spoiled but at the same time i didn't understand it at all. It's funny because i've seen people mention Lady Stoneheart for a long time now, but at first i thought it was an identity that Arya takes on, and then later when it became apparent that it was Red Wedding-related i thought it was just something that happened in Cat's head before she died.
So anyway by the time Arya had her wolf dream and pulled Cat's body from the river (which: !!!!!!!!!!!!) it all came together that OHHH RIGHT i forgot that Thoros can bring people back from the dead and is also conveniently located in the riverlands. So when i got to the epilogue i knew what was coming, and then IT WAS SO MUCH WORSE THAN I IMAGINED. SHE LOOKS LIKE A CORPSE AND SHE CAN'T SPEAK OH GOD OH GOD OH GODDDDDDDDD. I knew it wouldn't really be a good, happy thing that she's alive, considering what's happened to her, and given how Beric feels about being brought back to life, but at the same time YESSSS, SWEET, SWEET VENGEANCE. AND NOW SHE KNOWS ARYA IS ALIVE. :D :D :D But she'll never find her. :( :( :( What a fucking kick in the teeth that if Arya had stayed with the Brotherhood she would've been able to be with Cat. :( :( :( Except not in the way she had hoped. :( :( :(
And because i'm me, i started thinking about Catwoman in Batman Returns, who gets brought back to life to take revenge but in the process gets really messed up in the head. CATS!!!!!!!!!!
My excitement is tempered by the fact that oh btw we're not going to include this on the show?!?!?!? THE FACT THAT A MAJOR CHARACTER THOUGHT TO BE DEAD AND GONE IS ACTUALLY ALIVE?!?!??!?!!??!?!? So what, is all the Lady Stoneheart stuff totally inconsequential if it can be completely eliminated from the story? Or have they really fucked up that bad? I mean i can see how it would probably be a waste of Michelle Fairley if she can't speak, but... but... CAT. ;______;
I wasn't expecting Lysa's death to be so late in the book, i had started to assume it was actually from a later book the way the Dany and Bran stuff apparently was. The revelation that she'd been pregnant with Petyr's child but Hoster forced a miscarriage on her was a big shock and goes such a long way toward explaining why Lysa is the way she is. Not to mention Petyr thinking he took Cat's maidenhead when in reality he was with Lysa! Although it's like… clearly he knew by now? Considering how much Lysa touts that they'd been in love the whole time and she gave him her maidenhead and they were going to have a baby together. But Petyr was constantly telling anyone who would listen that he and Cat had slept together! (...what a good guy.) So had he been so drunk that he still believed that, or was he lying to himself as well as everyone else?
p.s. i really enjoy the term "maidenhead" a billion times more than "virginity." It makes me think of, like, the prow of a ship. Girls as ships! Sailing for the first time! So cute!
Sansa building the snow castle was a lot prettier in the book. The dreamy quality of the flurries surrounding her and her memories of Winterfell. ;_____;
Constant refrain from the latter half of the book: WHO THE FUCK IS COLDHANDS. I kept thinking "yes, finally, we've found Benjen Stark!!!!" except i'm pretty sure Sam would have recognized Benjen, so i was like "okay, give me a Bran chapter to tell me for sure if that's Benjen or not" and then another Bran chapter never came. SON OF A!!! No wonder there was so little Bran stuff/so much padding this season, if the last thing that happened with them was passing through the Nightfort.
LORD COMMANDER JON SNOW :) :) :) As much as i prefer watching the show first so i'm not distracted/disappointed/enraged by all the things they've changed or left out, it's really exciting to get to stuff in the book that hasn't happened on the show yet. NEW THINGS!!! Sam and Maester Aemon, so delightful. :) It sucks that the Sam and Gilly stuff got so incredibly tedious on the show, because Sam is still so good in the book. I'm really mad that they killed off Pyp and Grenn when THEY WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO DIE?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Like okay you've gotta give the Donal Noye giant killing to somebody the audience will recognize, but uhhhhhhhh. Character death is such a big deal i don't understand why you would fuck with that. And it's like... there's plenty of death as it is. You really need to add MORE? GOD. At least let Jon keep the few friends he has, he's enough of a sadsack as it is!
I hate that they left out almost everything re: Jaime as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, especially the stuff with Loras. Recognizing Loras as a younger version of himself and getting him to accept Brienne's innocence in Renly's death is all waaaayyyyy more compelling than a brief scene of dick-swinging over who gets to be with Cersei. C'mon guys. C'mon. The scenes they choose to invent versus book stuff that gets left out baffles me more and more as i continue to read. They just really fucked up the Jaime stuff once he got back to King's Landing. He has such a clear arc in the book, but the changes with Cersei especially are like... what.
Stuff i liked better on the show: Ygritte shooting Jon (so much more dramatic and sad!), Shireen teaching Davos to read, a lot more investment in Oberyn (btw the fact that he only has daughters and like a TON of them only makes him more likable to me. OBERYN), Sansa and Tyrion actually having a few nice moments vs. the book's incessantly painful awkwardness, JAIME AND TYRION. WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU HAVE JAIME AND TYRION HAPPILY REUNITED ONLY TO DEVELOP A POINTLESS, STUPID RIFT INSTANTANEOUSLY. TOTAL BULLSHIT. Tyrion acted so dumb about that, like yeah, that was an upsetting revelation, but a) don't blame Jaime, blame Tywin, wtf are you doing, and b) DON'T FUCKING LIE THAT YOU KILLED JOFFREY WHEN YOU DIDN'T! YOU IDIOT! Tyrion and Jaime love each other, it doesn't have to be like this. ;_____;
Star Wars
I recently rewatched all of Star Wars starting with the prequels, which was motivated by a few things: summer; Star Wars Weekends at Disney; and hearing "American Pie" on the radio which i literally always replace with Weird Al's "The Saga Begins" (it's still one of the best things to come out of the prequels! and now i've been listening to it repeatedly all over again. i was always weirdly emotionally affected by "he's probably gonna marry her someday" and "the jedi i admire most/met up with Darth Maul and now he's toast/i'm still here and he's a ghost." WEIRD AL IS SO GOOD. A reminder which coincided perfectly with the Weird Al resurgence going on now. SO GOOD!!!!!!!)
Anyway, so i hadn't seen any of the prequels in something like seven or eight years probably, and wow, even though i still know every scene and line of Episode I and II by heart, they are so much worse than i remembered. Of course i was a lot less critical and discerning back when they came out, even though i knew the bad parts were bad. I was so much younger! I just really liked lightsabers!!!!! I remember defending the stupidity of Anakin/Padme (they're young! they make bad choices!) and i thought Hayden's acting was fine (i actually think he's okay in Ep3, but notttttt Ep2), and now it's just... so bad. And it's a shame, because there are times when you can see Padme being a pretty decent character (i like when she talks about politics!), but it's all shot to hell by the fact that she falls in love with Anakin purely because it's supposed to happen. He's such an asshole! It's like they were trying to make him aggressively charming like Han but instead he just comes across as an overbearing creeper. The only scenes where i really like them together are the picnic in the field where they're talking about politics and "I'd be much too frightened to tease a senator" (so cute! the dialogue in that scene doesn't sound like actual physical torture!) and the part where Padme forces him to come with her to Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan.
I have such intensely vivid memories of all my favorite parts, all of which i do still enjoy: Obi-Wan Kenobi: Space Detective is by far the best part of AOTC, and i really love Kamino and the Jango Fett battle in the rain, and SONIC BOMBS; the Coruscant chase is so fun, and Zam's speeder is my favorite vehicle from the prequels, along with Padme's multitudes of chrome ships; Shmi's death is still really, really sad to me, partly because Pernilla August is one of the very few actors in the movies who i find to be convincingly emotional; the drums at the beginning of the arena execution scene, and "Good job." :D :D :D; LIGHTSABERS IN THE DARK is so painfully brief but it's the most artistic moment in all of the prequels and so the music and the visuals made that the part i was always most excited about (i'm pretty sure i used to just constantly exclaim "LIGHTSABERS IN THE DARK!" as my favorite part of the movie.) Oh god i fucking hate Count Dooku's curved lightsaber hilt, ugggghhhhh. And it's a real shame that most of the good Obi-Wan stuff in Ep2 is ruined visually because his hair is FUCKING AWFUL. At least they fixed it in the next movie but, man, what a waste.
And then there's Episode III, which i'm fairly certain i hadn't seen since the year it came out. I saw it just as many times as the others in the theater, but then didn't rewatch it on dvd at all, i don't think. So rewatching it brought back a loooooooot of memories, but i was surprised by how many little things i didn't remember versus how i remember every single detail of the other movies. I think it definitely holds up as the best of the prequels, but i'm also not entirely sure if that's because i didn't remember it as well, or because it's the most relevant to the original trilogy and it's when all the important stuff happens. I also think part of why i haven't seen it as many times is because it's SO FUCKING SAD AND TRAUMATIC AND MAKES ME CRY A FUCKING MILLION TEARS. It's been a while since i really immersed myself in Star Wars, so i wasn't expecting to be hit by such a wall of emotions, but then I was sobbing while saying "it's so dumb! why am i crying?!? IT'S SO DUMB!!!" Order 66 is really sad, but it would be so much sadder if all the Jedi didn't go out like TOTAL FUCKING PUNKS. (goddd the chick who plays Aayla Secura: WHY) Padme's death: "medically, she's perfectly healthy. for reasons we can't explain, we're losing her." THE WORST!!!!!!!! Frankenstein's Vader and the "NOOOOO!!!!" laughed at 'round the world: TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!! AND YET I'M STILL CRYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But there's still so much that i really like and maybe justifies how emotional it makes me. :( Palpatine goading Anakin into killing Count Dooku; The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise; the scene of Anakin and Padme silently communicating or whatever across the city right before Anakin's fall (the music is so creepy and weird, it's all so pretty but so ominous, and there's no shitty dialogue to ruin the feeling of an actual deep connection between Anakin and Padme. I had actually totally forgotten that scene and it's one of my favorite parts of the movie.); Bail Organa's "And so it is."; Anakin trying to convince Padme to rule the galaxy with him OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDD IT'S SO GOOD AND JUST LIKE WITH LUKE AND AJHAGDKJSFHGSKHFSGF ANAKIN IS SO TRAGIC ...and then they totally kill the mood with "Anakin, you're breaking my heart!" Every great moment gets undercut by a shitty moment almost immediately. But i really want the AU where Anakin and Padme take over the galaxy. :( And of course Obi-Wan defeating Anakin, because "You were my brother, Anakin! I loved you!" will never not be a soul-destroyer. They're both so good in that scene, because Anakin's "I hate you!" is fucking agonizing too, and maybe don't think too hard about how ridiculously awful it is for Obi-Wan to turn around and walk away while Anakin is BURNING TO DEATH AFTER HAVING ALL HIS REMAINING LIMBS CUT OFF, YOU SICK FUCK!!!!! I love the duel on Mustafar, though. It's so intense and operatic, and the music is so, so good. If only there were a special edition that deleted shit like "From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!" Whatta script!
A lot of what i like about Episode III is that everything just gets so fucked up and awful, sooooooooo much more than in any of the other movies. It had a huge impact on me when i first saw it, and that feeling has stuck with me even after all this time. As poorly executed as so much of it is, it completes all the horrible things that had to happen to set the stage for the OT, and in doing so you have the emotional impact of not only the things that happen but the things that are GOING to happen, and i guess that's what makes it such a gutpunch. It's the point of convergence for ALL STAR WARS EMOTIONS. Even though the entire story of the prequels should have been done completely differently, and despite the lead-in to the OT there's still a huge disconnect in feeling like the PT exists in the same universe. SCIENCE CAN'T EXPLAIN MY FEELINGS!!!! SHE DIED OF A BROKEN HEART!!!!!
The giant stone frieze in Palpatine's office is so cool. I know it just depicts a battle with Jedi and creatures and stuff, but i was kind of imagining it as like, ancient Jedi learning the ways of the Force from animals? Like benders in Avatar? Basically i gave myself Avatar/Star Wars feelings, just like old times. Luke Skywalker: The Last Airbender. ;_____;
Been thinking about the AU where Leia was sent to Tatooine and Luke was sent to Alderaan, Leia becomes the Jedi and Luke becomes the diplomat. (i mean, since Leia was basically Yoda and Obi-Wan's backup in case things didn't work out with Luke. She's a little bit like Neville Longbottom. THE CHOSEN ONE THAT COULD HAVE BEEN. Who ends up becoming a hero in an entirely different way! Rebellion leaders :D) Oh and at the end of Ep3, the scene of Palpatine finding Anakin on Mustafar, where Palpatine is crouched down touching Anakin's forehead and all you see is a robed figure, you can't see his face, and it got me imagining if Palpatine were a woman, and instead of filling in for Anakin's lack of a father she appeals to the loss of his mother. So instead of being torn between father figures, he's torn between Obi-Wan as the father/brother he never had and Palpatine as the mother he desperately wishes he could get back. Although technically it doesn't really work as well, since the loss of Shmi is what fosters all of Anakin's fear and anger and begets his fear of losing Padme, so the whole chain of events is thrown off if he just manages to find a replacement mom. I JUST THOUGHT A LADY EMPEROR WAS INTERESTING IS ALL. Genderswappin' male-dominated franchises 4ever
ALDERAAN *SOBS FOREVER*
LEIA'S THEME *SOBS FOREVER*
BINARY SUNSET *SOBS FOREVER*
EXILED OBI-WAN *SOBS FOREVER*
Listen i know the standalone movie rumors are all about a fucking Boba Fett movie (barf) and a young Han movie (barf) and maybe a Rogue Squadron movie (...okay, not barf, that sounds great), but ALL I WANT IS DESERT NOMAD OBI-WAN, GODDAAMMMIITTSFGFGHFSGHFGAGLHGDKASDC BEN KENOBI OF TATOOINE
It never ceases to amaze me how different ANH and ESB are from each other. ANH is such a straighforward adventure story and then Empire comes along and takes everything to a whole other level, AAAAAAHHHHHHH IT'S SO GOOD. I get so giddy about Han using Luke's lightsaber to cut open the tauntaun because AAHHHH HAN USING A LIGHTSABER, my feelings for which are mirrored in Ep3 and AAAHHHH OBI-WAN USING A BLASTER (which i kind of wish they hadn't hammered home with the "so uncivilized." line because WE GET IT, WE ALREADY GOT THE JOKE, THANKS).
Boy i sure hope the new trilogy doesn't suck. Like, i doubt you can get any worse than the prequels, but... the prospect of Luke and Leia and Han as old people really freaks me out. BUT then again, omgggggggg older wiser Luke omggggggggg Luke and Leia with an established sibling relationship omggnsnfhgsdfakdjlgasjfjkfhl LUKE AND HAN AS BROTHERS-IN-LAW, HAN AND LEIA AS PARENTS, LEIA USING THE FORCE AKDGLJFHGLSHJFGLSJHGFLJSHGF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT ALL SOUNDS SO GOOD I JUST HOPE THE REALITY ISN'T TOTALLY WEIRD. I still can't even wrap my brain around the fact that we're getting more new Star Wars movies at all. I'll probably just feel like i'm hallucinating the entire thing.
Anyway now i'm finally watching the Clone Wars tv series after hearing for years how it's actually good. So far i'm about a third of the way into s2 and i like it a lot! Apart from the character design. I'm so mad about how it really makes you care about the clones, because it just makes it a million times more painful that they're ultimately the ones who murder the Jedi. NOOOOOOOO. And how all these nice neutral, peaceful planets getting drawn into the war are won over by the good guys of the Republic, which becomes the Empire. And how the Jedi all get so much more characterization, but they all die. Ahsoka's existence doesn't mesh with the movies, but now you made me care about her SO WHAT ENDS UP HAPPENING TO HER? EVERYTHING GOOD IS JUST GOING TO END IN DEATH AND MISERY.
I'm also finally reading The Making of Star Wars (that thing where you own books for years and years and never get around to reading them! anyway it's so beautiful but omg it's like a million pages long, see you next century) and i think i'm gonna start on the Thrawn trilogy soon. I remember borrowing Heir to the Empire from my mom on a vacation when i was about 10, but i only read like the first chapter before i lost interest. Apart from a few comics and a few video games i've just never paid any attention to the EU. :/ But now the SPACE MADNESS has gripped me again and i guess that's as good a motivator as any.
Hannibal
Season 2 made me realize how much i enjoy this show -- i liked s1 but it never quite crossed the fannish involvement threshold. It still hasn't, really, and it's not something i've remained interested in during the off-season, but this year i found myself looking forward to it every week and really getting into it while i was watching. It's just so beautiful and gross, and has its own very specific tone that makes it feel extremely cinematic. I also really like its ridiculous AU setting where serial killing is so frequent and intricately artistic -- people on The AV Club tend to comment that it's like a post-Cthulhu hellscape where nightmare fuel is the norm, and i get a kick out of that interpretation. It's like absurdist horror.
And i finally mostly crossed the being-attracted-to-Hugh-Dancy threshold, so that helps. It's weird, i wouldn't have thought it would take this long because he's so pretty (and i saw Blood and Chocolate! he's so dreamy in that!!) but i realize it's because most of the time i'm too preoccupied with how messed up Will is so i can't really pay attention to how he looks, because how he looks is just "YOU NEED HELP."
Beverly's death was a while ago now so the wound isn't as fresh, but i'm still pretty pissed about it. WILL/BEVERLY 4EVER >:(
As much as i love bloodbaths, that finale was pretty upsetting to watch. At various points during the season i kept thinking Abigail was alive (particularly when they found Miriam) so i was pleased that she really was, and Hannibal's whole "i was saving our murderfamily and now look what you made me do!!!" was good and tragic, but at the same time FUCKING HANNIBAL. Like, boo hoo, so emotional, i just wanted my friends to be murderers like me, except all of this could have been prevented if i hadn't framed Will for murder and then maybe let him know at some point that BTW ABIGAIL IS ALIVE. THAT IS NOT THE KIND OF THING THAT YOU SAVE UP AS A SURPRISE. And also you're not a very good friend if you just murder the shit out of everyone for not being as into murder as you are. I don't force my friends to watch the same tv shows as i do if they're not into it, jeez.
I really enjoy how nightmarish it is that around 75% of the main cast ended the season laying in pools of their own blood. That's a pretty apropos scenario to accompany everyone finding out about Hannibal. Who would have thought that the unbelievable Jack/Hannibal fight at the beginning of the season was only the tip of the horrorshow iceberg in terms of how all this played out! Will trying to hold in his own guts while at the same time trying to slow Abigail bleeding out was terribly sad. :( This fishing trip did not go as planned. :(
Also i'm a sicko who really loves characters covered in blood. It's seriously like one of my number one favorite fictional things. The later acts of horror movies when the surviving characters are drenched in gore and irrevocably altered by the things they've witnessed. :) :) :) :)
I was suuuuuuuuuuper excited about Michael Pitt being in this season (!!!!!!!!!Michael Pitt on a beautiful tv show again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO IMPORTANT TO ME) but man Mason was so weird. He really made me laugh, especially in how annoyed Hannibal got with him. I knew what was coming with the whole... face thing, but HOLY SHIT that was completely disgusting. Like they didn't even show a whole lot, it was all in shadow and just kind of a pulpy blob, and i was still freaking out. I can't believe this show is on network tv. And it just got so bizarre as the season went on. I mean, it's always been bizarre, but it's continued to escalate into a menagerie of hallucinatory animal people and cacophonous sounds and nightmare feasts and dream logic editing and people who speak exclusively in metaphors. It's just so WEIRD.
I don't really get the duMaurier reveal at the end. Like i guess since it turns out she's the one who killed that patient of hers that she and Hannibal can be murderfriends after all? But... she was legitimately scared of him... and he was going to kill her... and this makes it seem like they were in cahoots all along???? CONFUSED
Tangentially related via dudes who've been on Boardwalk Empire: I'm so shocked and excited about Charlie Cox getting cast as Daredevil but at the same time i'm like UGH NOW I HAVE TO CARE ABOUT THIS NEW DAREDEVIL SERIES?!?!??!? Like oh great now i gotta be responsible for this water bottle. It's exactly like when Jennifer Garner played Elektra (in the first Daredevil movie -- i didn't give a shit by the time the Elektra movie rolled around), which was so terrible but i loved her SO MUCH because of Alias and so i got into Daredevil for a while all because of that. All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again. Except maybe this Daredevil won't be awful??? One can only hope. But goddddd American accent and perpetual sunglasses and a dumb red suit, this is my nightmare. But i'm praying for Stardust-swordfight-level action scenes. And omg Rosario Dawson and Deborah Ann Woll omgfdhflg I'M GONNA DIE
Game of Thrones
I just finished reading A Storm of Swords after starting it partway through the season -- pretty late because i didn't want to accidentally overtake where we were at in the show -- and reading always gets me 5000% more excited because of extra details and differences and character depth so SUFFICE IT TO SAY i really enjoyed this season, despite how poorly they translated some stuff to the screen (or DIDN'T translate, AHEM). I'm so glad they split the book into two seasons -- normally i worry about story pacing with a split like that, but with the sheer amount of stuff that's happened there's just no way they would've been able to cram it into ten episodes. It seems like a lot of people have started to get really critical of the story sprawl and the increasing series-of-vignettes structure, but i dunno, none of that has bothered me.
The finale finally caught up to everything i'd been spoiled for, so i had a good eight hours of relief before i got spoiled about Lady Stoneheart. (maybe if they'd just INCLUDED THAT IN THE SHOW WHERE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE IN THE FIRST PLACE?!??) What i knew prior to the finale: I read "Tyrion kills Tywin" in some random untagged post a long, long time ago, and then at a Memorial Day party i overheard a very loudly spoilery conversation (RUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!) so that was when i heard that Tyrion kills Shae (i tried to drink the knowledge away, to no avail). And last season i was trying to look up a translation for "valar dohaeris" and ended up finding out that at the end of book 3 Arya finally shows her coin to somebody and gets on a ship to Braavos.
While it was obvious based on the Tyrion spoilers that he would not be executed, i didn’t know anything else, so Shae sleeping with Tywin was like WHAT. NO!!!!!!!! WHAT!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOO. THAT’S AWFUL!!! TYRION KILLING SHAE IS AWFUL!!!!!!!! And then the differences between the book and show really change things, but both ways are like... equally awful. I thought the show made their relationship seem a lot more meaningful, so Tyrion betraying Shae and Shae betraying him in turn was much more tragic, but having Shae pick up the knife before Tyrion attacked her made it almost seem like she had been plotting against him all along? Or just a shitty attempt to make it seem like a fair fight, like, oh, she ~deserves~ to be murdered. The fact that Tyrion never yelled at her to get her to leave in the book makes her testifying against him more of an out-of-nowhere betrayal, but at the same time it's also more clear that she's been manipulated by Cersei and Tywin and obviously isn't in a societal position to be able to refuse. IDK, either way Shae didn't deserve to die. I've always liked Tyrion despite many of his shittier qualities (Peter Dinklage is just so charming!!!), but this is... not great. At least the repetitive tedium of Tyrion warning Shae about how dangerous everything is and Shae ignoring him is finally over. :/
And as much as he deserved it, i’m SUPER BUMMED to lose Tywin. Charles Dance is so excellent, and Tywin is so smart and cool and intimidating and dickish and calculating and the worst dad but the best villain. And he’s been running the show, so who the fuck is in charge now?!?! Tommen is gonna run this place into the ground with balloon parties and tickle fights!!!!!!!! My guess is that Mace Tyrell will be the new Hand (taking Margaery's influence into account, you know), which is a totally unexciting prospect. CLEARLY Jaime should be the Hand just for the puns.
As shocking as Tyrion’s murder spree was (even knowing those deaths were coming, it was still majorly... yikes) i’m especially shocked that Varys left King’s Landing. Man i hope this leads to lots more disguises. :D VARYS!
I figured Jojen probably wasn’t long for this world with how sickly he’d become, but quietly getting stabbed repeatedly by an animate skeleton was super creepy. :( The way it played out, with nobody noticing it happening until it was too late, really unsettled me. The whole skeleton battle was ridiculous -- it’s such a tonal shift when stuff gets totally fantastical like that it verges on being too cheesy (i've tended to feel that way when there've been big scenes with the white walkers, like in the s2 finale.) like man, they're really going full-on Harryhausen/Skyrim with this, huh? I enjoyed it/was stressed out by it, but it’s jarring before you have time to adjust to it.
When i saw that the episode was titled "The Children" i was like "O...MG?!??!?! THE CHILDREN OF THE FOREST?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!??" and i'm pretty much still saying that. WHAT THE BALLS
Dany chaining up the dragons was the worst. ;__________; Such good(/TRAGIC) music, though. That scene and the Brienne/Hound fight had some noticeably different themes that i really liked. Even the variation on the theme song when Tyrion was being loaded onto the ship was way different than any other time they've incorporated it. Really good. Usually i don't notice a lot of the music except to get The Rains of Castamere stuck in my head. That's def my fav piece of music from the show, because it's so pretty and catchy and has such horrific associations. I love shit that haunts you like that.
The Brienne/Hound fight was AWESOME/BRUTAL/ANXIETY-INDUCING even though i know Brienne's not clocking out yet. (and then it turns out that wasn’t even a real scene!) I was grimacing the whole time, but it was great. That whole sequence was so tense, because it was so exciting that OMG BRIENNE FOUND ARYA OMG and then it turned sour so quickly (even Brienne introducing Pod made me wince, since he’s a Payne and Ilyn is on Arya’s list. THIS ALL SOUNDS REALLY BAD!). As exciting as it is to have previously unacquainted main characters cross paths (!!!!!!!!!!!SO EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), it also succcckkkkksssss when their motivations don't line up and they can't get along. :(
SPEAKING OF WHICH: DRAGONSTONE CREW AT THE WALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stannis's army descending on the wildlings was A+++++++ SO GREAT. IT'S JUST SO EXCITING WHEN STORYLINES COLLIDE!!!!!!!!!!!! Shireen, Davos, and Sam are gonna start a book club. And tbh i kind of love Stannis. He's such a turd but at the same time he has a healthy sense of respect for those who've earned it, and his relationship with Davos is so endearing. ;_____; And he's got a good face. ;______;
Arya is so hardened now and it's so great but it's so sad. She still has so much more darkness left to go. :( :( :( GO ROLL AROUND WITH GENDRY AND PUNCH HIM WHILE HE TEASES YOU!!!! (man there is so much great minor stuff in the books. MAN. Acorn Hall.) Godddd though that brief bonding with Brienne. ;________; And how completely scary Arya is. Maisie is so unbelievably good. And she's gotten so beautiful, even as Arya has gotten more and more grim.
I CAN'T! FUCKING! BELIEVE! THE MOUNTAIN! IS STILL! ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! CERSEI'S TURNING HIM INTO FUCKING BANE OR SOME SHIT MEANWHILE A THOUSAND OTHER INTERESTING CHARACTERS ARE ROTTING CORPSES. FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OBERYN MARTELL DIED FOR YOUR SINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Speaking of Oberyn: hahahahahaaaaaaa I'M STILL UPSET. As we got further along i ended up totally enamored with him because WOW WOW WOW WHAT A GOOD DUDE, WHAT A GOOD FUN-LOVING VENGEANCE-FUELED BISEXUAL PRINCE. :) :) :) :) His scene volunteering to be Tyrion's champion was wonderful, it made me so happy. "That's not a monster, that's just a baby." :*) :*) :*) So i figured with all the character development he'd gotten that surely he'd beat the Mountain, since the Mountain is just some amorphous, distantly looming boogeyman and not a real character. WHAT A FUN SURPRISE WHEN I LEARNED THAT I WAS WRONG! WHAT A GRUESOME, INTENSELY GRAPHIC DEATH FOR AN ATTRACTIVE AND SYMPATHETIC CHARACTER! That seriously trumped all in how nightmarish it was. Back in the good old days when Ned died i felt so relieved that at least they didn't show him being decapitated. Then the Red Wedding came along and we got to watch Cat get her throat slit, and i thought i'd never sleep again. And now Oberyn's head is a pile of chunks. So i'm really looking forward to watching everybody else get disemboweled, flayed, drawn, and quartered in increasingly vivid detail in the coming seasons!
Joffrey's imminent death seemed pretty obvious to me last season despite being totally unspoiled about it, so i wasn't shocked, but it's definitely super weird that he's finally gone. And after that episode there was some really enjoyable show-only fandom discussion treating it like a game of Clue, which i got a kick out of because genrebending a fantasy show into a murder mystery!!! Agatha Christie's Game of Thrones!!! SO NEAT. Of course tumblr ruined the mystery for me instantaneously, but it was still fun while i tried to trick myself into believing that i didn't know anything. :/
The revelation that Lysa and Littlefinger were behind Jon Arryn's murder was like WHAT. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did literally say that out loud when it happened. Not only was i 100% unspoiled about that (probably because it's such old news?) but it's something i couldn't have even begun to guess. And it forces you to go back to day 1 and shift your perception of everything that followed! It just seemed so much like they made it clear that Cersei was behind Jon Arryn's murder, and then you realize, well, no, they never actually indisputably gave that answer... she just never said that she didn't do it. This also got me thinking about other cold cases, and how i've always been acutely aware of the fact that they never figured out who sent the assassin to take out Bran… and then the book finally solved that one too! It was kind of anticlimactic though, considering it was just Tyrion randomly thinking of it, and then Joffrey died anyway.
Man, i still remember when Cat was headed to see Lysa for the first time and i was so excited about meeting Cat's sister because Cat was so cool so obviously she would have a cool sister!!! And then..................... Lysa................................... At least she made for a satisfying death. Littlefinger is such a puke but i really like his [creepy, obsessive] devotion to Cat (and the line he was supposed to say from the book!!!! "Only Cat." SO GOOD.) It's been so obvious (AND UNCOMFORTABLE) for so long that he would move in on Sansa, but i still NEVER WANTED TO SEE IT ACTUALLY HAPPEN. Especially after he talks about how she could have been his daughter?!?!??!?!? ..................... Petyr........................... no......................... But Sansa taking control of it is so good. SANSA!!!!!!!! I love the parallels of Sansa and Arya gradually learning what they need to do to survive from the various people who've held them captive. Their training is so similar, just in very different fields.
BRAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN. KIDDO. Getting into some troubling issues of consent via warging. :(
Speaking of troubling issues of consent: the Jaime/Cersei garbage really put a damper on my enjoyment of subsequent Jaime/Brienne scenes. And now there are NO MORE JAIME/BRIENNE SCENES EVER as i'm pretty sure that they'll never see each other again, since that's just how this shit works. BUDDY SYSTEM. STAY TOGETHER AT ALL TIMES OTHERWISE YOU WILL NEVER BE TOGETHER AGAIN.
Oathkeeper :) :) :) :) :)
All the geometric interior architecture of the pyramid in Meereen is so cool. Some people online mentioned that it's very reminiscent of Blade Runner and Frank Lloyd Wright, and now that i see that i love it even mooooooooore.
BRAAVOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Asha's failed Theon rescue was a major disappointment, especially considering how exciting it was when she set out on the mission, and how much it seemed like a sure thing until they... got scared off by some dogs. ??!??!?!?! WEAK. I'm so anxious to see Ramsay die a horrible death. He's not a fun villain to hate, he's just unpleasant. All the Theon stuff: JUST UNPLEASANT. I think part of what makes that so much worse than how despicable Joffrey was is that at least Joffrey was always surrounded by interesting characters, so as much as you hated him there was always plot stuff happening to keep the hatred from being totally oppressive. But with the Bolton stuff it's JUST horrible Ramsay and traumatized Theon without anything else to provide relief within that storyline.
I'm conflicted about Jorah getting kicked to the curb, because on the one hand: he's such a creeper toward Dany and he deserves it (he's so much more skeevy in the books! and uglier, obvs :/), but on the other hand: they've had such a successful partnership and it sucks to see that dissolved. I'm not really broken up about it, but it's weird to see them split up after all this time. I wonder if he'll end up at the Wall, since the Old Bear's last words to Sam in the book were about summoning him there. I guess with his official pardon he wouldn't need to take the black, but... he does deserve it. Although if Varys is headed to the Free Cities, and he was Jorah's spying contact, maybe they'll meet up. WHO KNOWS? (Book readers. Book readers probably know.)
I really loved the Grey Worm/Missandei stuff. The river bathing scene was so beautiful and ahhhh they're so nice together aaahhhhhhh MORE PLZ
I don't think i was as sad about Ygritte as i would have been if she'd been in this season more, and if they hadn't made it incredibly obvious that that kid was gonna take her down in a big old poetic justice cliche, but it was still sad. I had always figured she was going to wind up dead, and i didn't like her overly sappy stuff with Jon, but i liked HER a lot. :(
The body count has gotten completely out of control lately though, i'm hoping it eases up at least a LITTLE bit because it really loses impact when literally every episode has significant characters dying. Yeeeeeeeeesh.
One of my favorite parts of ASOS was the Reeds' story of the Knight of the Laughing Tree. Jojen's repeated "You're SURE your dad never told you this? Really? You're SURE?" and Bran's obliviousness was great, and then the way later chapters expanded on what happened at that tourney. Between that and Harwin telling Arya that she's like her aunt, and uh, That One Theory, my interest in Lyanna has really been piqued. With all the little piecemeal tidbits we've gotten of past events, i always want to recap what we've learned so far, but i can't go look it up online for fear of spoilers, and those little passages are really hard to go back and find just by flipping through pages. Even though it's stuff that happened in the past, there are always new bits of information coming down the road (as particularly evidenced by the Lysa/Littlefinger/Jon Arryn reveal), so it's like... even past stuff isn't safe from being spoiled! Even though it already happened! I really like how that works, though. The little details that add up over time -- you get mentions from various characters and different perspectives about how stuff went down, and you can cobble it together but you only ever have a loose picture, so it lends a really mysterious quality to everything that happened prior to the series beginning. I LIKE THAT. The vague internal history and mythologized people, or stories about things that people only half know, rumors that become legend. I LIKE IT A LOT. The Bran chapter at the Nightfort was another favorite for the stories. Bran's love of scary stories is my favorite. Modern AU where Bran loves horror movies, stays up late on weekends watching them, constantly freaks himself out. :) :) :) :)
I also really liked getting better acquainted with the Brotherhood Without Banners, and particularly the old dwarf woman who told them her prophetic dreams (and knowing what's coming made it very fun to go "I KNOW WHAT ALL OF THIS MEANS!!"). And OH MAN JAIME'S DREAM JAIME'S DREAM JAIME'S DREEEEEEEEEEAM. THE BEST. It sucks so bad that they entirely left that out of the show, like goddddd NBD JUST DREAMING ABOUT NAKED BRIENNE WHO I OBVIOUSLY HATE OF COURSE, HAHA GROSS, RIGHT?
Which brings me to the larger point of: I don't like that the show neglects everyone's dreams. Even though Bran is the only character for whom dreams and warging are the main thrust of the story, and Jon hasn't really done anything with it yet, it's still kiiiiiind of a big deal that STARKS ARE MAGIC, descendants of the First Men, terrifying wolf children, etc. Jon was supposed to find out he's a warg like two and a half seasons ago! Arya has tons of wolf dreams! I realize it doesn't have much bearing on the big plot points, subconscious stuff is hard to include in a meaningful way outside of prose, and symbolic nonsense can easily be cut out in favor of more concrete developments, but from a character perspective it's IMPORTANT INFORMATION! Obviously in any adaptation you have to economize the storytelling, i'm just sayin', you can maybe economize in other ways. Anyway i love symbolic nonsense and it seems like they miss out on some nice artistic opportunities by not including dreams. :/ Although it's not like Bran's visions of the tree were that great this season. MEH.
Robb legitimizing Jon! I liked book Robb quite a bit better than show Robb, because his screw-up with Jeyne made more sense (he was weak with injuries and grief for Bran and Rickon!), and i really had to agree with his reasoning about Jon. Godddddd the lead-up to the Red Wedding had me hyperventilating; even having already seen it i just did not want to go through that again. Cat's madness at the end was BRUTAL. And the end of the Arya scene was SO MUCH MORE MISLEADING than in the show. "His axe took her in the back of the head."?!?!?!?!?!?!?? Practically the only way you can read that is "ARYA'S DEAD NOW." GRRM IS A MONSTER
I was upset that i got spoiled about Cat, but i was also SO CONFUSED when everyone was complaining after the finale. At first it was all mentions of Lady Stoneheart, but then there were pictures of Cat and people talking about Cat and i was like "...but... Cat's dea-- Cat's NOT DEAD!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?" as i proceeded to smile uncontrollably while still sitting there dumbfounded because wait... but... how... i don't... what... Like i felt like i got spoiled but at the same time i didn't understand it at all. It's funny because i've seen people mention Lady Stoneheart for a long time now, but at first i thought it was an identity that Arya takes on, and then later when it became apparent that it was Red Wedding-related i thought it was just something that happened in Cat's head before she died.
So anyway by the time Arya had her wolf dream and pulled Cat's body from the river (which: !!!!!!!!!!!!) it all came together that OHHH RIGHT i forgot that Thoros can bring people back from the dead and is also conveniently located in the riverlands. So when i got to the epilogue i knew what was coming, and then IT WAS SO MUCH WORSE THAN I IMAGINED. SHE LOOKS LIKE A CORPSE AND SHE CAN'T SPEAK OH GOD OH GOD OH GODDDDDDDDD. I knew it wouldn't really be a good, happy thing that she's alive, considering what's happened to her, and given how Beric feels about being brought back to life, but at the same time YESSSS, SWEET, SWEET VENGEANCE. AND NOW SHE KNOWS ARYA IS ALIVE. :D :D :D But she'll never find her. :( :( :( What a fucking kick in the teeth that if Arya had stayed with the Brotherhood she would've been able to be with Cat. :( :( :( Except not in the way she had hoped. :( :( :(
And because i'm me, i started thinking about Catwoman in Batman Returns, who gets brought back to life to take revenge but in the process gets really messed up in the head. CATS!!!!!!!!!!
My excitement is tempered by the fact that oh btw we're not going to include this on the show?!?!?!? THE FACT THAT A MAJOR CHARACTER THOUGHT TO BE DEAD AND GONE IS ACTUALLY ALIVE?!?!??!?!!??!?!? So what, is all the Lady Stoneheart stuff totally inconsequential if it can be completely eliminated from the story? Or have they really fucked up that bad? I mean i can see how it would probably be a waste of Michelle Fairley if she can't speak, but... but... CAT. ;______;
I wasn't expecting Lysa's death to be so late in the book, i had started to assume it was actually from a later book the way the Dany and Bran stuff apparently was. The revelation that she'd been pregnant with Petyr's child but Hoster forced a miscarriage on her was a big shock and goes such a long way toward explaining why Lysa is the way she is. Not to mention Petyr thinking he took Cat's maidenhead when in reality he was with Lysa! Although it's like… clearly he knew by now? Considering how much Lysa touts that they'd been in love the whole time and she gave him her maidenhead and they were going to have a baby together. But Petyr was constantly telling anyone who would listen that he and Cat had slept together! (...what a good guy.) So had he been so drunk that he still believed that, or was he lying to himself as well as everyone else?
p.s. i really enjoy the term "maidenhead" a billion times more than "virginity." It makes me think of, like, the prow of a ship. Girls as ships! Sailing for the first time! So cute!
Sansa building the snow castle was a lot prettier in the book. The dreamy quality of the flurries surrounding her and her memories of Winterfell. ;_____;
Constant refrain from the latter half of the book: WHO THE FUCK IS COLDHANDS. I kept thinking "yes, finally, we've found Benjen Stark!!!!" except i'm pretty sure Sam would have recognized Benjen, so i was like "okay, give me a Bran chapter to tell me for sure if that's Benjen or not" and then another Bran chapter never came. SON OF A!!! No wonder there was so little Bran stuff/so much padding this season, if the last thing that happened with them was passing through the Nightfort.
LORD COMMANDER JON SNOW :) :) :) As much as i prefer watching the show first so i'm not distracted/disappointed/enraged by all the things they've changed or left out, it's really exciting to get to stuff in the book that hasn't happened on the show yet. NEW THINGS!!! Sam and Maester Aemon, so delightful. :) It sucks that the Sam and Gilly stuff got so incredibly tedious on the show, because Sam is still so good in the book. I'm really mad that they killed off Pyp and Grenn when THEY WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO DIE?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Like okay you've gotta give the Donal Noye giant killing to somebody the audience will recognize, but uhhhhhhhh. Character death is such a big deal i don't understand why you would fuck with that. And it's like... there's plenty of death as it is. You really need to add MORE? GOD. At least let Jon keep the few friends he has, he's enough of a sadsack as it is!
I hate that they left out almost everything re: Jaime as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, especially the stuff with Loras. Recognizing Loras as a younger version of himself and getting him to accept Brienne's innocence in Renly's death is all waaaayyyyy more compelling than a brief scene of dick-swinging over who gets to be with Cersei. C'mon guys. C'mon. The scenes they choose to invent versus book stuff that gets left out baffles me more and more as i continue to read. They just really fucked up the Jaime stuff once he got back to King's Landing. He has such a clear arc in the book, but the changes with Cersei especially are like... what.
Stuff i liked better on the show: Ygritte shooting Jon (so much more dramatic and sad!), Shireen teaching Davos to read, a lot more investment in Oberyn (btw the fact that he only has daughters and like a TON of them only makes him more likable to me. OBERYN), Sansa and Tyrion actually having a few nice moments vs. the book's incessantly painful awkwardness, JAIME AND TYRION. WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU HAVE JAIME AND TYRION HAPPILY REUNITED ONLY TO DEVELOP A POINTLESS, STUPID RIFT INSTANTANEOUSLY. TOTAL BULLSHIT. Tyrion acted so dumb about that, like yeah, that was an upsetting revelation, but a) don't blame Jaime, blame Tywin, wtf are you doing, and b) DON'T FUCKING LIE THAT YOU KILLED JOFFREY WHEN YOU DIDN'T! YOU IDIOT! Tyrion and Jaime love each other, it doesn't have to be like this. ;_____;
Star Wars
I recently rewatched all of Star Wars starting with the prequels, which was motivated by a few things: summer; Star Wars Weekends at Disney; and hearing "American Pie" on the radio which i literally always replace with Weird Al's "The Saga Begins" (it's still one of the best things to come out of the prequels! and now i've been listening to it repeatedly all over again. i was always weirdly emotionally affected by "he's probably gonna marry her someday" and "the jedi i admire most/met up with Darth Maul and now he's toast/i'm still here and he's a ghost." WEIRD AL IS SO GOOD. A reminder which coincided perfectly with the Weird Al resurgence going on now. SO GOOD!!!!!!!)
Anyway, so i hadn't seen any of the prequels in something like seven or eight years probably, and wow, even though i still know every scene and line of Episode I and II by heart, they are so much worse than i remembered. Of course i was a lot less critical and discerning back when they came out, even though i knew the bad parts were bad. I was so much younger! I just really liked lightsabers!!!!! I remember defending the stupidity of Anakin/Padme (they're young! they make bad choices!) and i thought Hayden's acting was fine (i actually think he's okay in Ep3, but notttttt Ep2), and now it's just... so bad. And it's a shame, because there are times when you can see Padme being a pretty decent character (i like when she talks about politics!), but it's all shot to hell by the fact that she falls in love with Anakin purely because it's supposed to happen. He's such an asshole! It's like they were trying to make him aggressively charming like Han but instead he just comes across as an overbearing creeper. The only scenes where i really like them together are the picnic in the field where they're talking about politics and "I'd be much too frightened to tease a senator" (so cute! the dialogue in that scene doesn't sound like actual physical torture!) and the part where Padme forces him to come with her to Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan.
I have such intensely vivid memories of all my favorite parts, all of which i do still enjoy: Obi-Wan Kenobi: Space Detective is by far the best part of AOTC, and i really love Kamino and the Jango Fett battle in the rain, and SONIC BOMBS; the Coruscant chase is so fun, and Zam's speeder is my favorite vehicle from the prequels, along with Padme's multitudes of chrome ships; Shmi's death is still really, really sad to me, partly because Pernilla August is one of the very few actors in the movies who i find to be convincingly emotional; the drums at the beginning of the arena execution scene, and "Good job." :D :D :D; LIGHTSABERS IN THE DARK is so painfully brief but it's the most artistic moment in all of the prequels and so the music and the visuals made that the part i was always most excited about (i'm pretty sure i used to just constantly exclaim "LIGHTSABERS IN THE DARK!" as my favorite part of the movie.) Oh god i fucking hate Count Dooku's curved lightsaber hilt, ugggghhhhh. And it's a real shame that most of the good Obi-Wan stuff in Ep2 is ruined visually because his hair is FUCKING AWFUL. At least they fixed it in the next movie but, man, what a waste.
And then there's Episode III, which i'm fairly certain i hadn't seen since the year it came out. I saw it just as many times as the others in the theater, but then didn't rewatch it on dvd at all, i don't think. So rewatching it brought back a loooooooot of memories, but i was surprised by how many little things i didn't remember versus how i remember every single detail of the other movies. I think it definitely holds up as the best of the prequels, but i'm also not entirely sure if that's because i didn't remember it as well, or because it's the most relevant to the original trilogy and it's when all the important stuff happens. I also think part of why i haven't seen it as many times is because it's SO FUCKING SAD AND TRAUMATIC AND MAKES ME CRY A FUCKING MILLION TEARS. It's been a while since i really immersed myself in Star Wars, so i wasn't expecting to be hit by such a wall of emotions, but then I was sobbing while saying "it's so dumb! why am i crying?!? IT'S SO DUMB!!!" Order 66 is really sad, but it would be so much sadder if all the Jedi didn't go out like TOTAL FUCKING PUNKS. (goddd the chick who plays Aayla Secura: WHY) Padme's death: "medically, she's perfectly healthy. for reasons we can't explain, we're losing her." THE WORST!!!!!!!! Frankenstein's Vader and the "NOOOOO!!!!" laughed at 'round the world: TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!! AND YET I'M STILL CRYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But there's still so much that i really like and maybe justifies how emotional it makes me. :( Palpatine goading Anakin into killing Count Dooku; The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise; the scene of Anakin and Padme silently communicating or whatever across the city right before Anakin's fall (the music is so creepy and weird, it's all so pretty but so ominous, and there's no shitty dialogue to ruin the feeling of an actual deep connection between Anakin and Padme. I had actually totally forgotten that scene and it's one of my favorite parts of the movie.); Bail Organa's "And so it is."; Anakin trying to convince Padme to rule the galaxy with him OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDD IT'S SO GOOD AND JUST LIKE WITH LUKE AND AJHAGDKJSFHGSKHFSGF ANAKIN IS SO TRAGIC ...and then they totally kill the mood with "Anakin, you're breaking my heart!" Every great moment gets undercut by a shitty moment almost immediately. But i really want the AU where Anakin and Padme take over the galaxy. :( And of course Obi-Wan defeating Anakin, because "You were my brother, Anakin! I loved you!" will never not be a soul-destroyer. They're both so good in that scene, because Anakin's "I hate you!" is fucking agonizing too, and maybe don't think too hard about how ridiculously awful it is for Obi-Wan to turn around and walk away while Anakin is BURNING TO DEATH AFTER HAVING ALL HIS REMAINING LIMBS CUT OFF, YOU SICK FUCK!!!!! I love the duel on Mustafar, though. It's so intense and operatic, and the music is so, so good. If only there were a special edition that deleted shit like "From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!" Whatta script!
A lot of what i like about Episode III is that everything just gets so fucked up and awful, sooooooooo much more than in any of the other movies. It had a huge impact on me when i first saw it, and that feeling has stuck with me even after all this time. As poorly executed as so much of it is, it completes all the horrible things that had to happen to set the stage for the OT, and in doing so you have the emotional impact of not only the things that happen but the things that are GOING to happen, and i guess that's what makes it such a gutpunch. It's the point of convergence for ALL STAR WARS EMOTIONS. Even though the entire story of the prequels should have been done completely differently, and despite the lead-in to the OT there's still a huge disconnect in feeling like the PT exists in the same universe. SCIENCE CAN'T EXPLAIN MY FEELINGS!!!! SHE DIED OF A BROKEN HEART!!!!!
The giant stone frieze in Palpatine's office is so cool. I know it just depicts a battle with Jedi and creatures and stuff, but i was kind of imagining it as like, ancient Jedi learning the ways of the Force from animals? Like benders in Avatar? Basically i gave myself Avatar/Star Wars feelings, just like old times. Luke Skywalker: The Last Airbender. ;_____;
Been thinking about the AU where Leia was sent to Tatooine and Luke was sent to Alderaan, Leia becomes the Jedi and Luke becomes the diplomat. (i mean, since Leia was basically Yoda and Obi-Wan's backup in case things didn't work out with Luke. She's a little bit like Neville Longbottom. THE CHOSEN ONE THAT COULD HAVE BEEN. Who ends up becoming a hero in an entirely different way! Rebellion leaders :D) Oh and at the end of Ep3, the scene of Palpatine finding Anakin on Mustafar, where Palpatine is crouched down touching Anakin's forehead and all you see is a robed figure, you can't see his face, and it got me imagining if Palpatine were a woman, and instead of filling in for Anakin's lack of a father she appeals to the loss of his mother. So instead of being torn between father figures, he's torn between Obi-Wan as the father/brother he never had and Palpatine as the mother he desperately wishes he could get back. Although technically it doesn't really work as well, since the loss of Shmi is what fosters all of Anakin's fear and anger and begets his fear of losing Padme, so the whole chain of events is thrown off if he just manages to find a replacement mom. I JUST THOUGHT A LADY EMPEROR WAS INTERESTING IS ALL. Genderswappin' male-dominated franchises 4ever
ALDERAAN *SOBS FOREVER*
LEIA'S THEME *SOBS FOREVER*
BINARY SUNSET *SOBS FOREVER*
EXILED OBI-WAN *SOBS FOREVER*
Listen i know the standalone movie rumors are all about a fucking Boba Fett movie (barf) and a young Han movie (barf) and maybe a Rogue Squadron movie (...okay, not barf, that sounds great), but ALL I WANT IS DESERT NOMAD OBI-WAN, GODDAAMMMIITTSFGFGHFSGHFGAGLHGDKASDC BEN KENOBI OF TATOOINE
It never ceases to amaze me how different ANH and ESB are from each other. ANH is such a straighforward adventure story and then Empire comes along and takes everything to a whole other level, AAAAAAHHHHHHH IT'S SO GOOD. I get so giddy about Han using Luke's lightsaber to cut open the tauntaun because AAHHHH HAN USING A LIGHTSABER, my feelings for which are mirrored in Ep3 and AAAHHHH OBI-WAN USING A BLASTER (which i kind of wish they hadn't hammered home with the "so uncivilized." line because WE GET IT, WE ALREADY GOT THE JOKE, THANKS).
Boy i sure hope the new trilogy doesn't suck. Like, i doubt you can get any worse than the prequels, but... the prospect of Luke and Leia and Han as old people really freaks me out. BUT then again, omgggggggg older wiser Luke omggggggggg Luke and Leia with an established sibling relationship omggnsnfhgsdfakdjlgasjfjkfhl LUKE AND HAN AS BROTHERS-IN-LAW, HAN AND LEIA AS PARENTS, LEIA USING THE FORCE AKDGLJFHGLSHJFGLSJHGFLJSHGF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT ALL SOUNDS SO GOOD I JUST HOPE THE REALITY ISN'T TOTALLY WEIRD. I still can't even wrap my brain around the fact that we're getting more new Star Wars movies at all. I'll probably just feel like i'm hallucinating the entire thing.
Anyway now i'm finally watching the Clone Wars tv series after hearing for years how it's actually good. So far i'm about a third of the way into s2 and i like it a lot! Apart from the character design. I'm so mad about how it really makes you care about the clones, because it just makes it a million times more painful that they're ultimately the ones who murder the Jedi. NOOOOOOOO. And how all these nice neutral, peaceful planets getting drawn into the war are won over by the good guys of the Republic, which becomes the Empire. And how the Jedi all get so much more characterization, but they all die. Ahsoka's existence doesn't mesh with the movies, but now you made me care about her SO WHAT ENDS UP HAPPENING TO HER? EVERYTHING GOOD IS JUST GOING TO END IN DEATH AND MISERY.
I'm also finally reading The Making of Star Wars (that thing where you own books for years and years and never get around to reading them! anyway it's so beautiful but omg it's like a million pages long, see you next century) and i think i'm gonna start on the Thrawn trilogy soon. I remember borrowing Heir to the Empire from my mom on a vacation when i was about 10, but i only read like the first chapter before i lost interest. Apart from a few comics and a few video games i've just never paid any attention to the EU. :/ But now the SPACE MADNESS has gripped me again and i guess that's as good a motivator as any.