i lay traps for troubadors

[pocochina]

I'm feeling kind of stuck, you guys. I mean, I'm enjoying posting what I'm posting and reading what I've been reading. I just feel like I have a lot more thoughts than usual getting whipped up in the brain-fog and I can't catch any of them enough to think something through the way I like to do.

Part of the problem, I think, is that I feel like I

Comments

[pocochina]

I love that site. It's more addictive than Wikipedia.

It really is! All the worse because there's just enough genuinely smart conversation on there that it's worth going back again and again.

it's no wonder the other vampires were so grossed out by it. I mean, it's basically sustenance by vampire sexual assault.

EW, YES. That, and he got that way so he could bring himself to prey on his kids.

[obsessive_a101]

Hee - but your spit out (somewhat) full thoughts are interesting to read! :D

That said, hmm... tv-tropes is so easy to lose yourself in. I usually end up there because of anime/manga actually because I find the twists and turns in narrative choices in those cases always so jarring (and in many cases, something where my younger self would never question, but my older self can't HELP but question).

BUT! Did you know there's a tv-trope page just dedicated to MM? Not particularly long, but LOL when I first noticed it because I didn't know they made pages for real people... :3

[pocochina]

Did you know there's a tv-trope page just dedicated to MM?

I DID NOT but I am unsurprised by the glowing review I'm seeing now. <3

[obsessive_a101]

Well, she is "PureAwesome". :D

That said, yes. ♥

[pocochina]

Well, she is "PureAwesome"

RECOGNIZE.

[local_max]

So, it took me a few paragraphs into reading the Alpha/Lucifer stuff (I skipped most of the Lucipher in order to focus on the Alphay goodness and to be underspoiled) to realize that you possibly were not drawing an explicit connection (you may have been! I'm slightly unclear) between "I feel like I have to say EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD about topic X before posting and that stresses me the fuck out" and "man I love characters who can just say truths without having any agenda or being held accountable to an exaggerated degree for whatever they happen to point out," because duuuuude, yes. I mean, Spike or Alpha or Zarek actually get to waltz on stage, say about three sentences that reveal *a* truth, but an incomplete one, without the narrative having to actually either validate or explicitly reject it -- which is a problem to an extent, I think, when fandom assumes that their truth telling is unproblematized and takes these characters always at their word, but is advantageous when you want to have an idea be expressed but it's not

[pocochina]

you possibly were not drawing an explicit connection (you may have been! I'm slightly unclear) between "I feel like I have to say EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD about topic X before posting and that stresses me the fuck out" and "man I love characters who can just say truths without having any agenda or being held accountable to an exaggerated degree for whatever they happen to point out,"

I really wasn't, but that...is uncomfortably astute, lol. I am eternally in love with the massive temper tantrums I can't bring myself to throw.

Yes and YES to all of your thoughts about Alpha, Echo, and the Dollhouse as Eden. It's as close as I've seen to a modern feminist re-interpretation of the mythology, and it has a special place in my heart for that.

"The apples were monitored!" still cracks me up, because: TRUTH. It doesn't mince around pretending that an arguably benevolent jailer is anything other than your average megalomaniac, and it comes from a character who's got too clear of an agenda to be particularly admirable for it. And that's how

[local_max]

I really wasn't, but that...is uncomfortably astute, lol. I am eternally in love with the massive temper tantrums I can't bring myself to throw.

There is a reason for my Dark Willow obsession, and it's not the hotness, though it's not _not_ the hotness.

Yes and YES to all of your thoughts about Alpha, Echo, and the Dollhouse as Eden. It's as close as I've seen to a modern feminist re-interpretation of the mythology, and it has a special place in my heart for that.Yessss. There is some of that in BtVS actually -- the demons came first and the world did not start with a paradise, and I've read season four as being an interpretation of the Garden of Eden story with Adam "naming" the world (lots of filing, giving things names) and ComboBuffy removing the separation implicit in The Word, which is thrilling and I also don't entirely understand it

[pocochina]

There is a reason for my Dark Willow obsession, and it's not the hotness, though it's not _not_ the hotness.

Also she's fabulous.

oooh, thanks for the rec! and hahaha, it would drive Adam crazy that he was basically the beta-test for another character. But Alpha, I think, was the far more mature take on the themes brought forth by the Initiative and Adam.

[pocochina]

ooooh, Dollhouse is fantastic and highly relevant to your interests.

People liking my favorites WRONG can get me as irritated as people disliking them. Or more irritated, depending on the reasoning. I have a reasonable handful of f-listers who can't stand Klaus, but I doubt I have any who woobify him.

(Does this comment imply that you have started BSG & met Zarek?!)

it's entirely possible for a writer to create a character type for a woman that might not be very common in real life but could serve a purpose in fiction (if only to illustrate its comparative rarity, among other things), but I think you'd have a hell of a time getting an audience to accept it.

Yeah, I think that's really true, unfortunately.

[pocochina]

ANDERSON IS ONE OF US! But yeah, I'm kind of looking forward to your thoughts on the whole thing.

There is far less...organic acceptance of truly hardcore flaws as an intrinsic part of a female character, let alone enjoying those hardcore flaws, I think. Especially ones that are ego-based.

Right. And to some extent I actually understand even the less sexist mechanisms at play there? Because I think it makes a lot of sense to feel like we have to pick around the landmines of the more willfully negative takes on the better-developed female characters, and do that by playing up the positive. But it still ends up implying that being a woman with a story that's worth our attention necessitates being a Nice Girl. Which - speaking as someone who revels in truly complex storytelling and fails at being a Nice Girl myself - is still kind of a downer.

[rosaxx50]

I was going to say something but then I realised I know nothing about SPN's Lucifer, haven't watched Dollhouse, and have nothing but agreement for what you said about Bela (and Ruby 1.0 because I haven't seen 2.0 in action.)

anyone want to help a focus-challenged lady out and point me toward something to chew on for a while?

You mean another fandom / canon? If so, I always recommend Lucifer by Mike Carey.

[pocochina]

oooh, I recommend Dollhouse to everyone. It's two short seasons which are totally worth every moment.

[rosaxx50]

I want to, actually (after I watch Buffy and Angel, though), but it seems like the one show that my local library system doesn't have on DVD. Why world why.