and sundry

[meganbmoore]

1. Thanks to the wonders of kindle and the internet, I've acquired a decent selection of wuxia novels to try out (a couple of these aren't actually wuxia, but I'm including them anyway):

View poll: #13717

(My personal inclinations are Legend of the White-Haired Demoness and Legend of the Condor Heroes, but I bow to the advice of people who have

Comments

[shiegra]

For a second there I thought you were talking about the movie the Fall and I was like 'wait, bwhuh, serial killer?'

[meganbmoore]

Understandable.

[linfer]

That was my reaction, too. *lol*

[sakuracorr]

Tell me what you think about Kalinda Sharma!

Having watched The Fall, I will say that he was reaching with most of the attitudes about men and women that it had. Yeah there were a lot of male character portrayed not so well, but I would argue there were a lot of women who seemed easily manipulated. Yes, it showed violence against women, and while maybe it didn't go out of its way to glorify it, I don't think you can ignore that the show is about violence against women, it shows violence against women which normalizes it, and in a way the murders were shown stylistically, so it didn't seem to point out how awful it was anymore than any other show about women being murdered does. (Dexter, btw, focuses on a serial killer whose targets are mostly men, which in a way, I appreciate, though I'm not saying the show is unproblematic

[meganbmoore]

Shockingly*, I love Kalinda a lot! And I like that her relationship with Alicia is so central, but also wish she had more scenes with Diane, and I like that she's bisexual but the show doesn't feel the need to make her "mostly" one of the other, and instead make her like both about equally. Right now they seem to want me to ship her with Carey, which...ok? I prefer them as friends, and am still bugged by how he was ignoring her "we are not doing this" when he was pretty much prying in the first season, but as their relationship is show in season 2, I guess it's ok. Where I am now, Carey has found out that Kalinda slept with Peter but Alicia doesn't know, and I'm a bit worried about how that'll turn out

[lyssie]

3. EEeeee!! ! =D ahem.

4. But Megan, Toby is totally ~amazing and woobie-like. Or something.

(sometimes, I think the writers forget about him and Ezra, and then they're like, "OH RIGHT. We have to have more of those dudes. um..."

[meganbmoore]

I think PLL's writers are prone to forgetting ALL the guys at various times. But Toby...I think they have no idea what to do with him, and that's why the plotlines involving him make even less logical sense than the rest of the series. I think he's one of those characters who wasn't going to be around for long who got popular and they kept him but don't know what to do now.

[tigerpetals]

4. I like hearing negative things. :) It would raise my opinion of Toby if he were treated the way Mona is treated. Trivia: I binged on the series and caught up on Saturday, so it was fresh on my mind yesterday when voting on a forums' show awards. I put in Toby/Spencer for Worst Romance, remembered Belle and Rumplestiltskin, and then found it was too late to edit my comment.

Also, I love the evolution of Paige and Emily's relationship! I really hope Paige doesn't die or otherwise leave forever.

[meganbmoore]

It wouldn't raise my opinion of Toby and I think the writers like Mona a lot more than they do Toby, but I get what you mean. (I actually think Toby/Melissa would be a better comparison.) Like, both Toby as a character and Toby/Spencer as a pairing make NO SENSE to me? It's like...Toby is there...and then he isn't...and then he is so he and Spencer can make out to make the shippers happy, and then he's gone and then they're separated for some drama or another and he's maybe betraying them except whoops, nope, it was to "protect" her, EVEN THOUGH THAT MAKES NO SENSE AND WE DON'T KNOW HOW THAT DID ANYTHING TO PROTECT HER OR ANYTHING. Like, I dislike Ezra/Aria and can't like Ezra because of the dating a minor/his student thing, and while he does sometimes try to do the right thing (and I do appreciate that Aria is always the pursuer here) he almost always wimps out on that and unlike Ian, Wren and Garret, I think Aria is very much the exception for him, as opposed to his always inappropriately going after young girls. But, dude,

[tigerpetals]

Basically yes. Give me the negative energy! I AM QUEEN BERYL OF THE NEGAFORCE - I mean. I do think the writers like Mona; my opinion wouldn't be as negative because I get annoyed when a male character is forgiven more easily, and because Toby and the way characters react to him make so little sense. Which is what you said. But Toby and Melissa is better. Melissa only seems to get sympathetic portrayals when she's really sad, and they're restricted to whatever specific event she's sad about. I can't understand either of those characters very well, because they both just seem to be there as drama devices or just...there. And the lack of basis for Toby/Emily after the first six or so episodes of season one with Emily still caring about and defending him. My shallowness is there too. I just don't think he's goodlooking, especially in the face

[prozacpark]

What bothers me especially about Emily and Toby is that Toby's initial interest in her about romantic/sexual, and once he moved on from that on to Spencer (I think there are, like, five episodes between him getting turned down for a date with Emily and confessing his love for Spencer, I KID YOU NOT.), he seems to have no use for Emily?

Caleb is the exact opposite. He seems to genuinely care about all the girls, as an extension of his relationship with Hanna. He gets scenes with all of them, where we get a sense of bonding, while Toby runs out on Hanna to go rage at Spencer when he suspects lying. And Caleb gets fed up with them once in a while, but I think there's a reason that the girls have collectively trusted Caleb with more things than they have Toby.

And gah, Toby. I think I might hate him less if ANYTHING with him ever made any sense, gah.

Also, YAY FOR YOU BEING CAUGHT UP, OMG. <3

AND NOW WE CAN ALL WATCH AND DISCUSS THE NEW SEASON TOGETHER. Which I am terribly excited about. ;)

[prozacpark]

YOU DID NOT TELL ME YOU WERE DONE WITH COMMUNITY! You're supposed to, so I can squee.

Also, let me know if you, um, want season four.

[meganbmoore]

Uhm, we discussed the last episodes at the time...

[prozacpark]

Did we, really? This is a sign that I am possibly rewatching/discussing with too many people. Or maybe I was sleepy and don't remember. IDK!

But! Catch up, so I may share my season four rage.