long weekend!

[cranberrysheep]

Three day weekends are the BEST. I went back to my parents' house for my little vacation and had an all around good time. There was car-washing and waxing, house cleaning (of the outside variety), shopping (and not finding anything remotely like the duvet cover I'm looking for), grilling, and drinking.

I also saw Prince of Persia with sailorgaia and it

Comments

[mishane]

OH GOD I remember Smiling Pasta!

. . .it was just too sugary sweet for me! Like Romantic Princess.

The one scene I do remember was the turtle race and how it was SO DRAMATIC and omg I'm laughing as I remember now!

[cranberrysheep]

It all depends on my mood, but something about Smiling Pasta just clicked with me immediately. As long as it doesn't veer towards stupid I think I'm really going to enjoy it.

[darkeyedwolf]

OH GOD I HATE GRRM. Everyone is always "but the worldbuilding is so great!" and I'm thinking, yeah, but that's if you can get past the male characters killing whores, raping whores on piles of corpses, and threatening to tie down whores so horses can rape them.

[cranberrysheep]

Pretty much whore was synonymous with woman. I think I would be more OK with the way women were treated if SOMEONE in the book was speaking out against it. I guess Dany did try and save some women while they were being raped (though the men deserved it after having beaten their enemy), but then one of the women ends up cursing her and killing her unborn child... because women can't be trusted.

The amount of raping was almost comical because it was constant.

Now, I'm not above enjoying a little smut in my books, but I'd just as soon not hear about it in these even if they aren't graphic scenes. I think there was one instance of an actual romantic couple having sex. The rest was men with whores. Blah blah blah, whatever. It's boring and offensive.

Apparently GRRM saved up all the graphic stuff for the violence, because damn. How many times is someone's head going to get split in two?

I can type.

[darkeyedwolf]

I think I would be more OK with the way women were treated if SOMEONE in the book was speaking out against it.

This, so much. You can have a sexist world without being creepy and sexist yourself. I remember throwing up my hands at the Dany scene where she was like "STOP RAPING THOSE WOMEN! Jeez, if you want them so bad, marry them instead." So the women and their rapists lived happily ever after...

The whore obsession was insane. I lost count.

You know the really frustrating part? On Amazon there are reviews talking about his three-dimensional world and how realistic his female characters are.

[ladysaotome]

I LOVE Smiling Pasta - it's one of my top faves for light, silly but sweet dramas.

And the director is very fond of the 3-zooms for dramatic moments. It always makes me laugh, too.

[cranberrysheep]

It's super fun and Cyndi Wang is adorable

SERIOUSLY. Everything Ah Zhe does is accompanied with a speedy zoom. Ah Zhe walks into a room? ZOOMZOOMZOOM. Ah Zhe get out of a car? ZOOMZOOMZOOM.

It's so dramatic~~~

[ladysaotome]

And everytime he & his brother cross paths - zoomzoomzoom! lol! He Qun gets his share, too - like when he gets in his car in the first episode. zoomzoomzoom!

My favorite part of all, though, is the romance as it develops. I love when things go slowly and there's physical tension between the OTP. Cyndi's character is a little dense in that department, though.

Have you seen Full House? It's interesting to compare how different Smiling Pasta feels compared to it when they are basically the same story. But I wanted to slap Rain for most of Full House while He Qun was a much more mature character.

[cranberrysheep]

Physical tension? Sweeeeet, that's my favorite.

No, I've steered clear of Full House. The synopsis sounds like something I'd like, but I know too much else about it from reading my flist.

[cranberrysheep]

I'm still pretty excited about the show. They'll have the option of focusing on the good stuff (of which there is a lot) and getting rid of the crap.

Really? The brother and the girlfriend are pissing me off from the get-go. She breaks up with the pop star and then organizes a rally to get Cyndi's character to leave the school because she thinks she's his fiancee.

[alexandral]

Anyway, there was a lot about A Game of Thrones that I enjoyed. It was fun to get so immersed in that world and I'm really interested in how things are going to play out. I'm trying to remain spoiler-free for the series, so be careful if you comment.

OMPH! These are my favourite fantasy series!!!! I love these books - love love love.

What I didn't like about the book is how misogynistic it was. It's one thing for the world it takes place in to be sexist, it's quite another for every single female character to be either evil, crazy, useless, or a slut. I don't know how any of the households manage since all the noble men are off to war and all of the women are employed in whorehouses.Hmm. I am not sure we are talking about the same books. ASOIF has my most favourite female character of ever, Brienne (female knight), but she appears later, in the 3rd book I think. But besides her, even in the book 1 there is an abundance of strong female characters that are neither evil, crazy, useless, or a slut for me - Arya, Catelyn, DANY, just

[cranberrysheep]

I agree: Arya, Catelyn, and Dany are all strong, intelligent women. But they really do seem to be the exception to the rule when it comes to female characters in general. And two of them are effectively children.

It's just that the book looks down on women so consistently it's hard for me to look past. Like I said to darkeyedwolf in a comment above, it would be another matter if there was at least one voice saying, hey, maybe women aren't complete trash. But there isn't.

Catelyn is pretty unreasonable about Job (considering he's spent the last 13 years growing up in her home), Arya is more like a boy than a girl and can't win anyone's approval either way, and Dany only finally got her servants to vow their support when she walked into a blazing inferno and emerged with three baby dragons.

I just feel like what have been traditionally considered "female faults" like emotions, or physical weakness, are constantly berated. I did enjoy the book, I just found it to be far more forgiving when it came to the male characters.

[alexandral]

I am still officially puzzled - I know everyone's POV is different but I am really really surprised.

I don't think anyone is 100% good in AOSIF (well, Brienne is, but I doubt you will be able to get there :D), , but this goes for men, women and children. I don't remember one single male character that is 100% good neither and there are more than 70% weak and evil ones, in fact I don't like any one them 100%. This is a really something I like, actually, about the series, that no-one is black of white.

The amounts of violence are shocking, but then again - this goes for men, women and children, rapes, killing, etc. This is something I find quite interesting as well, in a "cruel world" perspective.

Arya is more like a boy than a girl and can't win anyone's approval either way, and Dany only finally got her servants to vow their support when she walked into a blazing inferno and emerged with three baby dragons.Hmm, everyone's approval is not indication of the character's strength, is it

[cranberrysheep]

Hmm, everyone's approval is not indication of the character's strength, is it?

I think this is the point where we disagree. Because, while people's approval is not indication of a character's strength, I was getting frustrated with the books views of women. They may be strong, but they will never be so in the eyes of the world they live in.

There is still a lot I really liked in the books and I'm going to continue reading them (if the next volume EVER gets to my library branch). I'm hoping my views will change. Maybe as the story progresses I'll feel differently.