Twilight high five! I agree: the books do have issues, but they're popular because they have this compulsively page-turning quality, and I did end up getting very invested in a lot of the characters. Alice! Jasper! Leah Clearwater! (POOR LEAH.) Jacob's chapter titles were things of beauty.
I also remain convinced that people would be all over imprinting if it had been in a different book with a different author. Sure, it's kind of weird and squicky, but... soulmates, you guys, the whole idea leads to some dodgy places in the first place.
Yeah, I just found them really devourable. Which isn't always a sign of high quality but it's nice to have something that's easy to read.
Alice! Alice is the BEST, I adore her. And LEAH. I live in firm belief that Leah was FINE. It's only her theory that she's infertile and won't imprint - there's all sorts of other things that could happen instead and they will. So there. :)
I loooove the weird and squicky side of soulmates. Love it, love it, love it. I am quite happy to read the nicer ideas too but I find the creepier bits even better. There are so many interesting tihngs you can do with it and there's so many interesting things that it can say about the nature of relatiionships ... it's just fab and I'm quite glad that it is actually brought up in really quite quickly when they started talking about it in Eclipse.
Clearly Leah just hasn't met her soulmate yet! But he must be out there somewhere, and when they meet they will fall instantly in soulmate love and Leah will have as many babies as her heart desires.
I think one of the most horrifying soulmate idea I have ever read is the one where you have your soulmate's final words to you emblazoned on your wrist. So you don't know for sure that your soulmate is your soulmate...until they're dead. WHYYYYYY.
Exactly! Don't worry Leah, you'll find him! (or her, as the case may be, who knows? The idea that imprinting is about babies was is only a theory after all!)
Oh wow, that's horrifying! Brilliant but horrifying! Oh wow, I want to write the Blake's 7 one for that, it would be the best ...
For me, yeah, imprinting seems like it could be a good idea, but I just don't think it's handled well at all, and just feels creepy - especially the whole "I was in love with you, but only because I was destined to be with your infant daughter' thing. I've never read the books, but I do own all the movies. I think they're the only things that I own "ironically." I only own them so I can listen to the Rifftrax for each movie. I am grateful those movies exist, just because they are some of the funniest things I've ever heard.
I don't think the love story of Jack and Rose is distracting or unpleasant. The chemistry between Leo and Kate is wonderful. I just found it incredibly cliched and one of the reasons I don't find it best picture material.
I think House's characterization in later seasons got worse and it became harder to enjoy him. I think the first few seasons are definitely the best, but I enjoyed parts of the later seasons. I definitely don't dislike those seasons as much later seasons of other shows (yes, Buffy is one of
( ... )
I do think it's meant to be rather creepy in the books though - I feel that we're given the positive side and the negative. In the end, it comes down to postive, probably but I love it because it's got those creepy bits attached - for me, my favourite soulmate narratives will always also touch on the "Hey, this is invasive and potentially warped and terrible." It's just coolly creepy on a good level for me!
(mind you, as a fan of the Nightworld books, I can't say that I don't enjoy it when it's a tad fluffier too. It would be wrong not to acknowledge that!)
I think House's characterization does get worse - but I also can see why he's worse as a person, most of the time. I feel his awful behaviour makes so much sense when I watch him originally - Wilson even predicts it really early on, they just aren't able to stop it happening. And the last episode was sooooo good. *goes dreamy-eyed at the memory*
Yeah, the last episode was pretty good. Even though I didn't have too many huge problems with the final season, I think the last episode redeems a lot of the later mistakes, or at least let's you go out on a good memory.
Oh, now most of these I wouldn't have guessed! This is really interesting ^^
The only one I have really any thoughts on is #3, where I think ... I think it is a particular type of Grand Sweeping Romance and it's quite soppy, but it's Grand Sweeping Romance done pretty well. It's got a lot of iconic moments in it that I still remember, the leads are both really good in the parts, and I agree with you that I think they could've made it as a couple if he'd survived, which is always nice! I think that realistically, if one is making a film/story about the Titanic, you need people to have drama and emotion and conflict BEFORE they hit the iceberg, and Grand Sweeping Romance kind of complements the devastating disaster scenes you see later on. I definitely don't hate it although I don't like it enough to want to rewatch the film and go through all the death and misery again ;)
I am glad to have entertained. :) *poses interestingly*
Having seen quite a lot of Titanic films, they usually attempt to make you engage with some sort of character drama, even in the propaganda version (less said about that the better though, really!) Titanic's attempt, as you say, has a certain degree of soppiness attached but it's a good soppiness and it makes things worse.
It's okay, I won't try to make you rewatch it. :) I'm a good friend! ;)
Yes, I seemed to vaguely recall from things you've said that this is not uncommon - in this and other disaster films really!
I mean if you hate Grand Sweeping Romance and soppiness it will really bug you, but if you can tolerate some, it's quite good. And it's not half as glurgy as some we've come across!
Good, 'cause that would be a hill we both end up dying on in that case! ;) And there are other things we can watch if you want to see me cry :p
She and House started dating which was quite interesting but eventually, they realised it just wasn't going to work and broke up. For a while, they handled this semi-competantly but House finally snapped and drove his car into her house, which had him put in prison and Cuddy move away so she's not in the final series at all. It's pretty well done and leads to really interesting plots and character dynamics in the last season but I really miss her being there, particularly as there's at least one bit where she really should be.
Oh, sorry, totally misunderstood that! Apparently (and this was a while ago when I read this) Lisa Edelstein's contract was up at the end of Season 7. Rather than renewing it on the same terms, they wanted her to take a pay cut and she wasn't really happy with it (there was talk that she was getting paid less than other memebers of the cast anyway so I'm not surprised she might have been annoyed) Hugh Laurie and David Shore were both really disappointed apparently.
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I also remain convinced that people would be all over imprinting if it had been in a different book with a different author. Sure, it's kind of weird and squicky, but... soulmates, you guys, the whole idea leads to some dodgy places in the first place.
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Alice! Alice is the BEST, I adore her. And LEAH. I live in firm belief that Leah was FINE. It's only her theory that she's infertile and won't imprint - there's all sorts of other things that could happen instead and they will. So there. :)
I loooove the weird and squicky side of soulmates. Love it, love it, love it. I am quite happy to read the nicer ideas too but I find the creepier bits even better. There are so many interesting tihngs you can do with it and there's so many interesting things that it can say about the nature of relatiionships ... it's just fab and I'm quite glad that it is actually brought up in really quite quickly when they started talking about it in Eclipse.
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I think one of the most horrifying soulmate idea I have ever read is the one where you have your soulmate's final words to you emblazoned on your wrist. So you don't know for sure that your soulmate is your soulmate...until they're dead. WHYYYYYY.
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Oh wow, that's horrifying! Brilliant but horrifying! Oh wow, I want to write the Blake's 7 one for that, it would be the best ...
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I don't think the love story of Jack and Rose is distracting or unpleasant. The chemistry between Leo and Kate is wonderful. I just found it incredibly cliched and one of the reasons I don't find it best picture material.
I think House's characterization in later seasons got worse and it became harder to enjoy him. I think the first few seasons are definitely the best, but I enjoyed parts of the later seasons. I definitely don't dislike those seasons as much later seasons of other shows (yes, Buffy is one of ( ... )
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(mind you, as a fan of the Nightworld books, I can't say that I don't enjoy it when it's a tad fluffier too. It would be wrong not to acknowledge that!)
I think House's characterization does get worse - but I also can see why he's worse as a person, most of the time. I feel his awful behaviour makes so much sense when I watch him originally - Wilson even predicts it really early on, they just aren't able to stop it happening. And the last episode was sooooo good. *goes dreamy-eyed at the memory*
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Stacey
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The only one I have really any thoughts on is #3, where I think ... I think it is a particular type of Grand Sweeping Romance and it's quite soppy, but it's Grand Sweeping Romance done pretty well. It's got a lot of iconic moments in it that I still remember, the leads are both really good in the parts, and I agree with you that I think they could've made it as a couple if he'd survived, which is always nice! I think that realistically, if one is making a film/story about the Titanic, you need people to have drama and emotion and conflict BEFORE they hit the iceberg, and Grand Sweeping Romance kind of complements the devastating disaster scenes you see later on. I definitely don't hate it although I don't like it enough to want to rewatch the film and go through all the death and misery again ;)
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Having seen quite a lot of Titanic films, they usually attempt to make you engage with some sort of character drama, even in the propaganda version (less said about that the better though, really!) Titanic's attempt, as you say, has a certain degree of soppiness attached but it's a good soppiness and it makes things worse.
It's okay, I won't try to make you rewatch it. :) I'm a good friend! ;)
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I mean if you hate Grand Sweeping Romance and soppiness it will really bug you, but if you can tolerate some, it's quite good. And it's not half as glurgy as some we've come across!
Good, 'cause that would be a hill we both end up dying on in that case! ;) And there are other things we can watch if you want to see me cry :p
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It's okay. I don't talk about too many of these things too often. Opposites attract after all!
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