on love & hate & tears

[xparrot]

The love: Doctor Who 6x04

This ep reminded me of why I love Doctor Who. It touched my heart and made me feel in a way the show hasn't in years, not since s4 with Donna. (And it's not that I haven't liked a lot of the eps with 11, it's just - I don't know what it is exactly, but sometimes the show is great and entertaining, and then sometimes it's that little bit more...)

Last week's PotC ep was just ridiculous (I liked the idea - I'm a sucker for the-enemy-just-turns-out-to-be-a-massive-misunderstanding stories - but jumping Jehoshaphat, the plot-holes! The premiere eps were pretty holey but it was the kind of fridge logic stuff that you didn't notice until after the ride was over and you were climbing out. 6x03 was a whole lotta WHUUUH even while watching. Putting aside how the Doctor seemed to figure out the "siren" wasn't evil based entirely on the logic that Rory couldn't die, since he was a main character - how did the "siren" know to take female human form based on samples from a male population?)

But "The Doctor's Wife" was just gorgeous and creepy and fun and amazing. And it had the one Doctor OTP that I believe in, and I love how that was done. I love the excuse of the possessed body, so there wasn't any question about "is this what she really looks like" or anything, and I love that she stayed unstuck in time and never did quite work out her tenses, and I love that she calls the Doctor "my thief" and that she stole him because she wanted to go adventuring; and I love that Rory is the pretty one (which he so is, look how he cried for her at the end, such a pretty soul) and I love that she opens her mouth and the TARDIS noise comes out and I love that she goes by "Sexy" because it's what he calls her when they're alone and I love that he also calls her "old girl", and I love that they got to talk, even if only once, because really it doesn't need to be said, but it's good that they got the chance all the same.

bagheera_san pointed out that Amy & Rory's adventures in the House-possessed TARDIS (and we finally got to see some of the TARDIS besides the control room, and it looked all old-school and awww!) could be read as Amy's worst nightmare, which I love because I didn't really see it that way watching (I was thinking it was just Bad Things) but preying on their fears makes so much classic sense, and if that's what it was meant to be I love that Amy's worst fear is that she doesn't make it back to Rory when he's waiting for her.

I love that the Doctor wants to be forgiven (because doesn't everyone) (though it's not as driving a need for him - I think one of the things that makes Eleven so scary is that he doesn't quite feel guilt, at least not anywhere near as keenly as Ten - he might experience it, but he doesn't let it stop him. Actually that's what makes Eleven scary is that he doesn't let anything stop him; Ten was entirely subject to the intensity of his feelings, while as when Eleven lets them sway him it's a deliberate choice. He chooses to let himself be carried away, even when he knows it's probably the wrong thing to do, when it's what he wants.) And the "another Ood I failed to save" because I always feel so sorry for the Ood; they're so susceptible...

And I love the cloister bell sounding and the old control room and petrichor and Amy visualizing the password and the Doctor making an impossible TARDIS control out of scraps and Rory's "Oh great, thanks!" after Sexy tells him they're coming through and to get out of the way but she doesn't know where the way is. (so much love for Rory's practical and yet hysterically understated reactions to disaster).

This is why I watch this show. Thank you, Neil Gaiman, for reminding me. <333333



The hate: Smallville show finale

Okay, haven't actually watched any SV for a couple of years, not since Lex left, and I only know of happenings in the show thanks to haphazard mentions on the flist, so I missed a lot - and am happy I did. It's almost comforting to know that even after three years, the show can still give me that old familiar feeling of OMGWTFBLAAAAAAAARGH!

Way back in s1 I realized that the only way SV could fit with standard canon was if Lex got his memory wiped (see this), but I didn't expect them to actually have the thought to do it, and I also didn't expect it would be his WHOLE ENTIRE MEMORY. Ummm...so what are we supposed to take from this, that Lex is destined to go evil and be Superman's nemesis no matter what, and their previous history and Lionel's parenting has nothing to do with it? Why would this Lex have any particular grudge against Clark?

Or is Lex really evil at all - we see him becoming President, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's evil (ymmv, politically speaking) - maybe in this 'verse he's really just a poor amnesiac billionaire (very impressive that he can go from total amnesia to presidency in 7 years - maybe the memory wipe took out his stupid, too?)(America's youngest president, no less, if it's 17 years after the show's premiere he's gotta be under 40!)

Or maybe the Frankenclone isn't the real Lex, and he's still alive (living in a secluded farmhouse and planning the revolution against his crazy evil clone with Clark - zomg Identical is canon after all! ...for more than just me, I mean!)

Not to mention, Lex's last act of evil, killing Tess, seemed to be more batshit than wicked; it wasn't part of any grand scheme, but hearkening back to his mad mother's murder of Julian to "save" him. Smallville's conflation of insanity with evil continues to be disturbing right to the end.

(Also science being Evil - when making a Frankenclone of course you can't make a heart. Replicating a perfect face and brain complete with memories, that was easy, but cloning a heart, that's beyond the reach of Science!)

...Okay, there was other stuff happening in the ep but gnine and I were talking through most of it. It generally involved Lois & Clark getting married (they didn't.)(Lois is still too cool for school and deserves way better than Clark, pretty as he is. Pity Chloe's her cousin.)

Also was very confused by the end. Why did the supposed planet Apokalips appear to be the approximate diameter of Metropolis? You fail at scale forever, show. Why did Clark finally supermanning it up and saving the planet instantly cure everyone of Darkseid's brainwashing, when only a handful of people even saw him doing it, and the rest of the world one would think would believe the president's military plan had succeeded? Why was Lex Luthor taking a break to off his sister when the world was ending, rather than, y'know, trying to save it? Why is Chloe reading to her a kid a comic retelling of Superman's origin story, if he's still maintaining his Clark Kent secret identity?

Most importantly - why am I still trying to think through Smallville's "plots", even after I watched almost 7 years of the dang show?

No, most importantly - Michael Rosenbaum still looks gorgeous bald, even if it was a cap. And really, do I need another reason?



And the DAMMIT ODACCHI HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO ME: up to Water 7 in OP. Not even to Eneas Lobby yet, but the fate of the Merry still makes me cry. WHYYYYYYYYY~~~ ;____;

Comments

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Another Whoish Friend (http://whyaduck.livejournal.com/1463928.html?#cutid1) posted about the whole "hanging things" motif that I, of course, have totally missed through four episodes:

Elsewhere on LJ, someone noticed the mobile motif this year. Every episode has some dangly bit of junk in at least one scene (baby's mobile, dreamcatcher-ish thing on the pirate ship, a random junkyard things-on-string windchime collection last night). Is it a metaphor for something (everything's connected, everything is influenced by everything else)? Or is this some future relevant plot point being seeded early?

My own wacko theory? In Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching books, the witches use shambles. Bit of pocket fluff and random found objects tangled together that can detect magic and/or malevolence. What if the mobiles in this series are meant to be an indicator of something being present? If they move then something wicked this way comes. A Silence detector?



(He's not the one for crediting for the icon, btw; that's kouredios)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, intriguing! I wouldn't be surprised if the dangling things did play a role, but then they might just be visual resonance - will see!

[bagheera-san.livejournal.com]

YES to everything you said about SV and Doctor Who.

Also I just went back and watched Arctic (I never made it to the end of S7 before) and then I was massively confused because I always thought Lex died in Arctic, but no, it turns out he died much later, and never very definitely, because then he cloned himself or something. I suspect that plot made so little sense that even wikipedia cannot explain it. What a mess.

I wish there was a way to write "Clark and Lex team up to fight Darkseid instead" fic, but the problem is that there's no real way to defeat Darkseid in that scenario. The way they did it was a complete cop-out because a) hello, this is Darkseid, why doesn't he just omega-beam Clark? and b) why doesn't apokolips just come back? As you said, only a tiny handful of people actually saw Clark do this, so it's not all Hope Saves The Day!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Wait what Lex didn't die in Arctic?? So how did he die???

I wish there was a way to write "Clark and Lex team up to fight Darkseid instead" fic, but the problem is that there's no real way to defeat Darkseid in that scenario.

I do not believe you should let that stop you! Since the scenario made no sense anyway! (It might have helped if I'd actually listened to most of the dialogue...why did no one see Apokalips bearing down? I mean, okay, satellites turned off, sure, but a lot of amateurs have telescopes and when a PLANET gets within a few hundred thousand miles away, people are going to notice even with their naked eyes??)

...But then Lex & Clark vs Darkseid of course makes me think JLU finale and that just makes me sad for being a million times better (and for Dwayne McDuffie having just died...)

[jujuberry136.livejournal.com]

Yes on everything about "The Doctor's Wife"

I don't think I've ever teared up so much at the word "alive" before. Such a wonderful love story to a wonderful show.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

It was so lovely - I don't generally like love stories with the Doctor, but this one, this is the one the show has always been about, really ^^

[joonscribble.livejournal.com]

I agree with you Doctor Who assessment. So much love for this episode! And I hadn't watched ANY Who since halfway through last season. (Sorry, hating the Moffat Dynasty at the moment)

But oh, how I loved the TARDIS and the Doctor saying their farewells but not so because the TARDIS instead said hello. How I adored that we saw the old Eccleston season control room! And mostly, I loved just the idea of how throughout ALL the Doctor Who series, the one constant has always been the TARDIS so of course the TARDIS is the wife.

I liked that Gaiman really highlighted how the Doctor is both so alone and yet so blessed to have that one constant companion. I practically cried with the Doctor when the TARDIS said hello and pretty much cheered with glee when it flipped the switches to take him to the next planet at the end of the episode.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

I have been less than thrilled with Moffat at the reins myself, but this ep was so very much everything I want out of the show, the adventure and excitement and humor and the touches of lonely melancholy, and the love - oh, the love! Ultimately Doctor Who is about the funny traveler and his blue box, first and foremost and for always.

And I almost teared up when that switch flipped at the end myself, because that might be the only time they ever talk face-to-face, but he'll always be talking to her and she'll always answer in her way ^^

[sholio]

Doctor Who was WONDERFUL, the first episode in ages that I've truly loved rather than merely having casual enjoyment for (if that makes any sense - DW entertains me, but it doesn't often make me squee). And this is the first time I've started thinking, "Hey, I ought to go out and get another DW icon so I have one for the current incarnation".

SV ... hahaha, um, yes. *sends condolences* I read a few summaries/reactions after it aired because I was curious, but not actually curious enough to watch it. And now I'm awfully glad I didn't watch it. Admittedly I bailed on the show very quickly (I didn't even make it through two seasons; heck, at the moment I can't remember if I made it through *one* season), but the version of the Superman/Lex Luthor relationship that I fell in love with (the only time I really loved those characters, actually) was the Elliot S Maggin version from the '80s -- amiable enemies shading occasionally into friends, much heavier on the tragic-friendship-gone-wrong than an out-and-out enemy relationship -- and I liked season one SV because it seemed to be replicating that dynamic. So, yeah, this sounds like they ended up going for a version in the end that was, I don't even KNOW, more old-skool or more WTF or just ... yeah, no idea.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Doctor Who was WONDERFUL, the first episode in ages that I've truly loved rather than merely having casual enjoyment for (if that makes any sense - DW entertains me, but it doesn't often make me squee)

Yes, yes, exactly! I squee over Who more than you, but once in a while it goes beyond ordinary squee, touches me in a way that makes me think of Who as one of my all-time favorite series for all I don't actively fan on it. And this ep totally did that for me (and I need an icon myself...ahhh, need more group-hugs...!)

SV, oh, SV - yeah, definitely don't watch the ep, you'll save yourself a couple of hours. Worse than being annoying and nonsensical it was by-and-large boring - and some of that was not having watched the show in a while and not really knowing or being invested in the remaining chars and relationships...but it was also just not very good TV. Oh well...I was always far more about fanon than canon with SV; I never liked the show (it's the only show I've ever fanned on that I actively disliked; but something about the Clark/Lex dynamic hits my buttons so hard I can't let it go. And it produced some of my all-time favorite fic, so..)

the Elliot S Maggin version from the '80s -- amiable enemies shading occasionally into friends, much heavier on the tragic-friendship-gone-wrong than an out-and-out enemy relationship

Yes oh yes!! I haven't actually read much of Maggin's comics, but he wrote a couple Superman novels and a short story that kind fans put online, and I absolutely loved his take on both Clark and Lex. He wrote a Superman I could believe in as a hero (Superman's a very fine line, because if he's perfect he's boring, but if his morality goes even a little gray he becomes terrifying to the point of making one side with Lex, because, uh, yeah, omnipotence is scary...!) And his Lex was hysterical mad-genius awesome and yeah, really like that take.

(Also much love for JLU's completely badass Lex, but he was sociopathically evil enough that the Clex became a little too sadistic to enjoy ^^;)

[sholio]

He wrote a Superman I could believe in as a hero (Superman's a very fine line, because if he's perfect he's boring, but if his morality goes even a little gray he becomes terrifying to the point of making one side with Lex, because, uh, yeah, omnipotence is scary...!) And his Lex was hysterical mad-genius awesome and yeah, really like that take.

Yes, THIS. I think the thing that impressed me most about Maggin's take on the characters is not even his shades-of-gray Lex (not that I wasn't delighted with it, but I also grew up with X-Men and Marvel comics in general, who did a lot with shades-of-gray bad guys in my formative 1980s comic-reading years) so much as the way that he humanized Superman, a character who was little more than a moral paragon, and a virtually omnipotent one to boot, into an actual person. And he had a wonderful, nuanced take on their relationship. I've had both of the novels since I was a teenager and I think I've read the short story you're talking about too. (Actually, AFAIK, Maggin wrote at least a little of what could reasonably be considered fanfic for those characters, because he wanted to continue writing them even after he no longer worked for DC. I think the short story is one of those, if it's the one that's set many years in the future ...) The way he wrote the characters was a wonderfully fannish "I love these characters AND NOW I AM GOING TO FIX EVERYTHING THAT DOESN'T WORK FOR ME" sort of take on them ...

it's the only show I've ever fanned on that I actively disliked; but something about the Clark/Lex dynamic hits my buttons so hard I can't let it go.

... oh dear. ^^;;;; Yeah ... the relationship that we fans have to our fannish love objects is so interesting. I'm not sure if I've ever fanned on something I outright disliked, at least not for very long, but oh, the number of times I've either been hugely disappointed in canon's developments, or had to ignore vast tracts of canon (or pretend it was better than it really was) in order to continue liking the show/book/movie/anime ... yeah.

Actually, Sanctuary is like that in some ways for me, I guess. It's an awful show in so many ways -- I've stopped watching all but the Tesla episodes because it frustrates me so bad. I think if I wasn't latched onto that one character, I'd have stopped watching completely. And yet, I can't resist the shiny allure of NEW TESLA.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

(Actually, AFAIK, Maggin wrote at least a little of what could reasonably be considered fanfic for those characters, because he wanted to continue writing them even after he no longer worked for DC. I think the short story is one of those, if it's the one that's set many years in the future ...)

If it's the one where Lois dies (at like age 100) and Clark & Lex go off together to have another century of adventures IN SPACE - then yeah, that story. Which is beautiful and like you say shows how much he loves the chars. ^_^

I'm not sure if I've ever fanned on something I outright disliked, at least not for very long, but oh, the number of times I've either been hugely disappointed in canon's developments, or had to ignore vast tracts of canon (or pretend it was better than it really was) in order to continue liking the show/book/movie/anime ... yeah.

SV is this strange case for me because one, I got into it through fic first (which used to be a common thing for me, but I think SV was the last fandom I really did that with - nearly 10 years ago now!) so the fanon was always as strong or stronger than the canon in my head; and two, it was just one show on top of an already extant and vast mythology. So it was easy to adopt the details I liked and discard the rest, replacing them with other "canon". The Clark & Lex in my head are not quite like those in any series or movie or comic; they're my own variation. But since there are so many other versions of them existing already, I don't have the mental dissonance that usually comes from trying to read a char "counter" to canon; SV was a derivative work already, so I don't see why fanfic can't be equally as valid an interpretation.

I think if I wasn't latched onto that one character, I'd have stopped watching completely. And yet, I can't resist the shiny allure of NEW TESLA.

XDXDXD yeah, that sounds familiar...!

[lady-karasu.livejournal.com]

And the DAMMIT ODACCHI HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO ME: up to Water 7 in OP. Not even to Eneas Lobby yet, but the fate of the Merry still makes me cry. WHYYYYYYYYY~~~ ;____;

*pats* Still does it to me, too. There was a shirt that had that scene on it, with the text of Merry's last words and I almost teared up in the store. (And then I wondered who's brilliant marketing idea that was...)

(As for a previous comment about certain unfinished fics that may or may not get updated soon - tag, your it! Cold Comfort's up, your turn. *laughs*)

Dr. Who ep4.... I am very interested. Saw some blurbs about it (ok, mostly yours, but there were other mentions) and find 1) ok, title totally works now, and 2) very interested to see how that played out. Sounds kind of awesome.

[lady-karasu.livejournal.com]

By that scene, I mean *that* scene... the entire Merry thing still does it to me, though. That was worded badly.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

There was a shirt that had that scene on it, with the text of Merry's last words and I almost teared up in the store. (And then I wondered who's brilliant marketing idea that was...)

Heeeh, yeah - they're awfully good at picking scenes to put on T-shirts. Uniqlo has had a couple Shounen Jump t-shirt lines and most of the OP ones seem designed to make you cry.

--Waaah, yes, need to write!

And the Who was fantastic (and the title perfect, yes! <3333)