Downton Abbey s1, Game of Thrones s2, and the ever-present meme

[lunasariel]

Well, I'm back at Cal now, and things are in full swing. Papers to the left of me, midterms to the right, you know the drill. Nothing terribly exciting to report on the home front, so I'll skip straight to the flailing about imaginary people.


While I was Oop North, I got into a new show (as if I need more fandoms XD). My mom, aunt, and grandmother have been going on about how much they all love Downton Abbey, and since they all recommended it to me as in the same vein as Sherlock, I gave it a try. It's exactly the introspective, character-driven, low-violence, Anglophiliac thing that drives my brother absolutely nuts, so of course my mom and I had great fun having loud, long squeefests over it.

I'll admit that I didn't have high hopes going in. Straight-up period dramas aren't my favorite thing in the world; I like a bit of action to leaven the long scenes of significant pauses and cryptic remarks. This was made worse by the Edwardian era not being one of my favorite: I didn't know an awful lot about it going in, except that it all comes crashing down with the start of World War I, and I'd like to actually get attached to the male characters between the ages of 16 and 50, given that it's almost a statistical certainty that they're going to die in the Great War. However, Downton Abbey ended up being much more than I thought it would be, and I'm planning on hunting down the next season as soon as I get a spare hour (which, given my courseload, upcoming English Department events, signing up for next semester's classes, and the plethora of serieses I already have to finish, isn't looking likely, but a girl can dream). As my mom and I kept squeeing about remarking on, the costumes are gorgeous. It's clear that a lot, and I mean *a lot* of work was put into all the dresses and hats and waistcoats and riding habits and *drool*.

But most importantly, the interpersonal relationships manage to constitute a plot in and of themselves, so a lot of action isn't really necessary. Pretty much the closest thing to an action moment is when a visiting Turkish ambassador or something dies a sudden and mysterious death (my Crazy Fan Theory for this fandom is that Thomas poisoned him to keep him from revealing his [Thomas'] secret, btw) in Mary's bed after having unmarried, unprotected sex with her, and Mary, Cora, and Anna have to carry the body across the house back to his room. But even this is appropriately treated as a Big Event; the more common event addresses things like Mary being angry that her father refuses to find a loophole in the inheritance law to allow her to inherit his money and estate instead of a distant cousin, even though doing so would probably mean the loss of said estate, or the love triangle between the adorkable and shy second footman William, the sweet-but-hapless scullery maid Daisy, and the cruel and secretly gay first footman Thomas.

Speaking of Thomas, it seems that the most common character flaw to be found at Downton is really, really bad luck/judgment in love. Mary and Matthew are always dancing around each other, Mary and Edith are constantly backstabbing and sabotaging each other's relationships, Sibyl has apparently fallen in love with Branson the Irish Socialist chauffeur, Bates the valet refuses to admit his attraction to Anna the head housemaid due to his lame leg and Starkiness-induced criminal past, Thomas is constantly cockblocking William in his attempts to ask Daisy out, Daisy is hopelessly in love with Thomas, who seems intent on corrupting her until she's as mean as he is and/or breaking her heart, Mrs. Hughes has to give up on a second chance with her girlhood sweetheart in order to secure her position as housekeeper, and it's even hinted that vile Thomas is only vile because the asshole Earl he was in love with treated him like crap. Whew! The only characters *not* involved in some sort of romantic entanglement are Mrs. Patmore the cook, Carson the butler, Mrs. Crawley, and the Dowager Countess Violet, who are all too old to care, and the Earl and Countess Robert and Cora, who are happily married with three children. Oh, and then there's Mrs. O'Brien the lady's maid and Gwen the housemaid, but theirs angst seems to come mostly from professional insecurity, not romance.

This is probably just the new season of Game of Thrones (more on this in a mo') talking, but for some reason I found myself automatically sorting all the characters into their Houses. Most notably, Bates is, like, *the* Stark. He out-Starks Laurence, if that's even imaginable, and even approaches the level of Ned himself! Thomas is the worst kind of Lannister, viciously defensive and more than willing to chew up and spit out the poor, dumb, honorable Stark. Mary is definitely a Martell, all passionate and contradictory; I get the feeling that she would love to declare herself "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken" as often and as loudly as possible. Poor little Daisy (who reminds me VERY strongly of Molly Hooper from Sherlock, btw) is a Tully, or even a Tarth: sweet, loyal, and helpful to a fault, but not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Violet *is* Olenna Tyrell. Seriously. She just is. Finally, Anna is the most Tyrell-ish of the lot, always covering for her fellow servants and sticking up for them against the dastardly Thomas and O'Brien when they (Thomas and O'Brien, that is) stir up trouble, but enough of a "the dog bites back" type to do her not-inconsiderable best to try to turn Thomas' scheme to get poor Bates fired back against him.




The other big TV news is that Game of Thrones is back on! I finally got a chance to watch the preview, and while it was marred, IMO, by Dany only getting, like, three minutes of screentime, and a complete absence of both the Greyjoys (minus Theon, of course) and Team Sparkly. The focus was definitely on the Lannister-Stark conflict, although the introduction of Stannis, Melisandre, Davos, etc. was handled very well. Stannis especially was fantastic. I expect that Mel will grow on me (the actress, anyway), and Davos didn't get a whole lot of screentime, but from what I can tell, they nailed Stannis dead on. I kinda wish they included the quote about iron, copper, and true steel by having Maester Cressen (who puts in an appearance, albeit a predictably brief one) or someone say it, because "cold iron" is such a perfect way to describe Stannis as he's portrayed here. It's not that he doesn't smile, it's that you can't imagine him smiling. At all. Ever. Or even thinking about smiling, or having an emotion that can't be expressed by scowling and/or glaring.

But it was the Lannisters who really stole the show this time around. A bit of scruff and mud has only increased Jaime's hotness quotient, Joffrey gets slapped by Cersei, Tommen and Myrcella actually have lines (presumably to remind us that they exist before Myrcella gets shipped off to Dorne), Tyrion exhibits more than one magnificent example of that endearing swagger that we all love, and Cersei has one of her few remaining HBIC/Chessmaster moments before her upcoming slide into madness. The groundwork was also laid for the upcoming riots as they basically became the Evil Empire. They've started killing Robert's bastards pretty much openly, which is a bit more of an...obvious move than in the books, where I recall the deaths being staged as accidents/random acts of violence, whereas now the City Watch is pretty much just stomping around and killing people, babies included, seemingly at random. But the Lannisters do seem to have the lion's share, if you'll pardon the pun, of good actors for this show, and they all really get a chance to shine. Peter Dinklage especially deserves that Golden Globe. Now that I've read ADWD, I can really do a "then and now" comparison. Here, it was actually rather sad: his open and very "cool uncle"y affection for Tommen and Myrcella, his subtle kindness to the grieving Sansa (with the added bonus of making Joffrey look like an idiot, again), and the absolutely heartbreaking look that he gives Shae. It's so clear now that he's finally, finally decided to forgive himself for Tysha and allow himself to love someone else. He already loves Shae with all his heart and is willing to give her the world. The way he plays it, it's so painfully obvious how hard he's fallen for her, that he trusts her completely and without reserve, and we all know that this is going to turn around and bite him so hard and I'm going to move on before I depress myself any more.

We also checked in with the Night's Watch (still sadly lacking in the Dolorous Edd department) at Craster's house, where Jon gets kind of hilariously uncomfortably hit on by Craster (Jon *does* look a little girly, ya gotta admit), which I'm sure spawned a thousand dubcon fanfics, as the guy they got to pay Craster isn't entirely repulsive. Even though Sam was another criminally underrepresented character, his one line made me smile; I'm anticipating fun things to come with him, especially when he really comes into his own as, basically, Jon's manager/handler in ADWD. For now, though, he's mostly just endearing. The Lord Commander was front and center, of course, but was unexpectedly...shouty? Violent? It was like that time in the Goblet of Fire movie where Dumbledore starts yelling at Harry for no reason. They've gone to such great lengths to characterize Mormont as the tough-but-fair father-figure, but now they seem to be going for a more politically conscious, unforgiving direction. I liked him better when he was giving Jon Longclaw and being all understanding about him trying to run away than hauling him up by the collar and yelling at him for basically existing.

We also checked in at Winterfell, where it looks like they're going to be bringing Bran's warging abilities to the fore, which promises to be interesting. The special effects are more than up to the task, I'm happy to say, as the melding of real animals and CGI for the direwolves (of which we've seen Summer and Grey Wind as adults so far) looks great, even if it is still a bit awkwardly edited, with quite a few obvious cuts to avoid having the dog and the human actors having to physically be in the same shot together. I could still be a lot happier about the guy they got to play Maester Luwin, who I really liked in the books, but I've gotten used to him by now, due in no small part to his interactions with Bran, which are genuinely sweet.

Finally, we looked in on Robb and the aforementioned scruffily delicious Jaime, and I was once again struck by how much better everything would have worked out for everyone if they had just listened to Cat. She wanted to go back to Winterfell to get, or at least see, Bran and Rickon, and didn't want Theon going back to the Greyjoys, but Robb overruled her, and look how that turned out. I guess I can see why Cat is a lot of people's least favorite character: she's not an Action Girl or delightfully crazy or a Broken Bird like a lot of the other ASOIAF ladies, but I respect the hell out of her. She's sensible, competent, a good wife and mother, and does the best she can with the hand she's been dealt.



In related news, I had a major geek moment on my last day in Sebastopol. Prompted by the GoT premiere, I decided to go ahead and buy myself some Westeros-inspired swag. I got a Hand of the King pin for my increasingly encumbered bag (still looking for that lilac pin in time for May), and decided that I was going to get a Stark or Tyrell t-shirt, but I couldn't for the life of me decide which. I really do feel like a Stark, but Tyrell is legitimately my favorite house, so I had a major geek identity crisis while talking to my mom about it. Basically, our conversation went like this:
Me: I can't decide! I'm such a Stark, but the Tyrells are so awesome!
Mom: If you get the Stark shirt, you're going to look really silly in a couple of years when they get their asses kicked by the Freys.
Me: Good point. OK, I'll get the Tyrell shirt.
Mom: But if you get the Tyrell shirt, you'll be denying your House allegiance! Blood traitor!
Me: I guess I'll get the Stark shirt, then.
Mom: Tsk, tsk. What would the Queen of Thorns say about you parading around Highgarden in all that dreary white and grey? She wouldn't have it!
Me: So Tyrell...?
Mom: Tyrell?! What would Ned say about you wearing another House's colors? There's no room for soft Southern flowers in the Northlands!
Me: *whimper* *whimper* *head asplode*
Mom: I love being a Lannister! >:) *trollface*
In the end, I got both shirts. I guess I'm a Stark who was fostered out to the Tyrells as a child or something. Either way, they should be here soonish, and then I can revel in my inter-House glory! (BTW, I'm still not wild about the HBO design for the Stark direwolf, but I can live with it.)


For this post's meme, have the A-Z of fandom*!

* Not actually alphabetized

A - Your current OTP
Renly/Loras, ASOIAF. You can blame my re-watch of s1 and the advent of s2 for this one.
I’ve also been really into a variety of Marvel ships, primarily Professor X/Magneto and Wiccan/Hulkling lately, but that’s pretty much standard.

B - A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind
With ASOIAF in mind, Jaime/Loras. I honestly hadn’t considered it until hamsterwoman started pointing out things like how they’re broken in similar ways, how a disillusioned Loras would be able to understand a disillusioned Jaime, how they’re going through similar life crises, how devastatingly, fandom-breakingly, snarkily hot it would be… R/L is still my OTP for our Knight of Flowers, but after R’s death, L still needs something to do, and getting it on with the now-crippled Kingslayer seems like the kind of thing he would do. They’ve both just lost the loves of their lives (one way or another), and are now looking for a no-strings-attached, frenemies-with-benefits kind of thing, which could actually be really healthy for both of them, since they’ve both basically only ever loved one person, and now they need to realize that losing the love of their life isn’t the end of the world, but even if it is, that’s no reason to stop being a knight.

C - A pairing you have never liked and probably never will
In terms of fandoms I actually like (because it would be too easy to rant about Bella/anyone), I’ve already gone on long enough about Chane/Wynn and Harry/Murphy, so let’s go with Sandor/Sansa. Certainly by the end of ADWD, if not by the very beginning of the series, Sandor at least is too profoundly broken to have any kind of healthy sexual relationship, especially with all the wonky power dynamics between him and Sansa. Basically, he needs a stronger, more confident woman who can provide him with a relationship focused on something other than violence or the potential therefore. Sansa needs…an anti-relationship, at this point. She’s been the object of fantasies (especially rape fantasies) for pretty much every male that she’s come into contact with, so she really, really needs a relationship free from the potential of A) sex, B) violence, or ideally, C) both.

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t
Ron/Hermione. I know, I know, sacrilege! But I just never got that “zing” of attraction between them. To me, the Power Trio is just that: a trio, and while I know that Ron and Hermione being in a relationship doesn’t negate their friendship with Harry, I’ve truly never been able to think of any of the three as other than friends.

E - Have you added anything stupid/cracky/hilarious to your fandom, if so, what
I’ll be able to answer this a little better when Godzilla is in a form fit to be seen, but I think it’s a good sign that I still find “dragons read trashy Regency-era romance novels and play matchmaker for their captains” to be suitably cracktastic.

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom
I guess that depends on what you mean by “fandom.” If you mean how long have I consciously enjoyed and/or been involved with fanworks for a particular work, 17 years. I was a HUGE Robin Hood fangirl, and would tell stories about them to anybody who would listen.
But if you mean how long have I been interacting with other fans of a particular work, then 11 years. We’d just gotten a computer when Fellowship of the Ring came out in theaters, and I remember being flat-out astounded that other people wrote fanfic (even though I didn’t know it was called fanfic).

G - Do you remember your first OTP, if so who was in it
Raoul/Christine from Phantom of the Opera. This was my first experience with shipwars, fandom wank, and all the other lovely side effects of a contentious fandom, so I got rather…vehement in their defense, but this was the first time I can remember actively rooting for a couple to get together and stay together.

H - Do you prefer characters from real action series or anime series
Live action (and books, of course), generally. The generic anime look just isn’t one that’s aesthetically pleasing to me, and while I do like the works of some individual manga-ka, on the whole, I’ve developed a preference for real people.

I - Has LiveJournal caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why
Aside from the aforementioned Phantom of the Opera thing, not really. I’ve kind of fallen out of love with anime/manga in general due to a lot of the fans, but that’s not specifically a LJ thing. It’s kind of sad, but I couldn’t take the vast numbers of immature, wanky fans only in it for porny fanart of catgirls and catboys, even with the payoff of meeting a few awesome people along the way.

J - Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over LiveJournal
A Song of Ice and Fire. I got into it when trailers for the show started coming out, and all of a sudden all of my multi-fandom comms were flooded with ASOIAF/GOT fanmixes, fanart, icons, what have you. Part of the reason I started reading it was just to see what the big fuss was about.

K - How do you feel about the other people in your current fandom
The three fandoms I’m most active in now are ASOIAF, Temeraire, and X-Men First Class.
The ASOIAF people are, on the whole, wonderful. No fandom is perfect, of course, but I really like the sense of community, of inclusiveness. Maybe’s it’s just westerosorting and the House system, but I love how organized and creative the fandom is, how active, how willing to examine anything and everything. And these are some smart people, too. I’ve found that this fandom’s standard for fanfic is unusually high (another good thing), so researching everything from armor to cooking to metalworking comes in handy one way or another.
Temeraire is a much smaller fandom, and sadly inactive. CoG has caused something of a stir, of course, but it’s got some very talented people in it. Basically, it’s what the ASOIAF fandom would be if the ASOIAF fandom was much, much smaller and quieter.
XMFC is probably my least favorite fandom out of the three, in terms of the people in it. It includes a lot of touchy subjects, so instances of wank are much, much higher than in AOSIAF and Temeraire, and the popular kinks in ASOIAF (alpha/omega, d/s, mpreg, etc.) are kind of anti-kinks for me, but I don't feel like I can say so without invoking a storm of hate and accusations of “kink-shaming.” So I love a lot of the work that comes out of the XMFC fandom, but the line between “I am not sexually aroused by what sexually arouses you” and “I hate you and everything you stand for and you deserve to die a horrible death” seem to have become somewhat blurred.

L - Your favorite fanartist/author gives you one request, what do you ask for
I have trouble coming up with favorites, but I actually already got my FAKE request (Berkeley behaving badly and Dianna being a badass) from brit_columbia!

M - Your favorite fanart or fanartist
I can’t really answer this, because I have two or three favorites per fandom (especially if I’m including both fanfic and fanart), and at least a dozen fandoms, and I’m sure to leave someone fantastic out and feel bad about it so…I love the world!

N - Your favorite fanfiction or fanauthor
Ditto N.

O - Choose a song at random, which OTP does it remind you of
*puts iTunes on shuffle* “Blink,” Chameleon Circuit. Doctor/TARDIS, obviously. interestingly, the episode this song was based on is a “Doctor-lite” episode, so the TARDIS actually shows up more often than the Doctor does, as he’s stuck in the past.

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas)
I’ve actually been playing around with the idea of throwing all my urban fantasy fandoms into one big meta-AU and seeing what comes out of it. Don’t deny it, the combination of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, the Dresden Files, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter (before it went to hell in a handbasket), Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Sherlock, and Modern Tales of Faerie would be pretty awesome.

Q - A ship you’ve abandoned and why
I usually put ships on the backburner, rather than flat-out abandon them, but I admit that I’m no longer as active an Eleven/River Song shipper as I once was. The revelation that he’s basically her godfather, and actually had a hand in her conception, as well as the whole “personification of the TARDIS” thing, has led me to see their relationship as more uncle/niece or mentor/student than anything else. Basically, my attitude towards them is now basically the same as it is to Laurence/Emily.

R - A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else ships
James/Sirius, from Harry Potter. I know Remus/Sirius is supposed to be the big thing in fandom, but I honestly can’t see it. J/S, on the other hand, isn’t that far a stretch at all. Sirius was certainly fanatically devoted to James, to the point that he’s pretty much mentally frozen at the point of James’ death. James also seemed unusually willing to make friends with his ancestral enemy, and was shown to be a hell of a lot more concerned with Sirius’ happiness than anyone else. Also, and this might just be my other fandoms talking, that glimpse we got of him in the Pensieve where he was ostensibly trying to impress Lily by bullying Snape, but still seemed to be mainly interested in Sirius and his reactions reminded me strongly of the scene in ACoK where Renly is playing the adoring husband and feeding Margaery little bits of sweetmeats and whatever, while still focusing on flirting joking with Loras.

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon
The Authority: Jenny Quantum’s middle name is Anne, because both her parents are huge BtVS fans. (They call her Jennifer Anne when they're especially exasperated with her, although Apollo's usual pet name for her is "pumpkin" or "pumpkin pie" and Midnighter's, oddly enough, is "princess" or "girlie girl.") She calls Apollo “Daddy” and the Midnighter “Dad,” while everyone else is “Uncle Jack” or “Auntie Angie” or whatever. She grows up as a vehement gay rights activist, for obvious reasons. Her parents introduced her to a variety of fantastically geeky books and TV shows early on, and Mids sometimes lets her sneak peeks at “grownup” stuff like Torchwood and Buffy, even though Apollo doesn’t want her watching anything too violent until she’s older.
Young Avengers: Jeff and Rebecca Kaplan slowly but surely basically adopted the team. Rebecca especially is a huge Mama Bear when it comes to their welfare, and has contingency plans in place if any of them should ever get captured again. The whole “finding the Scarlet Witch” thing happened close on the heels of the Civil War, so she worries that her urging for Billy to join the Initiative for safety’s sake would drive him to abandon her for his “real” mother, but he still considers her his mom, while the Scarlet Witch is more of a mentor figure.
The Silmarillion: Fingon is basically the only one who can reign in all the Sons of Fëanor, so Fingolfin sends him out on a circuit to visit them all and make sure they’re not up to anything once every couple of years. He (Fingon, that is) is basically inseparable from Maedhros (the two of them were and are very protective of one another) and also very close to Maglor (both much to Fingolfin’s and Turgon’s disgust, as they hate all the Sons equally and endlessly), but is wary of and/or perpetually angry at the rest of the Sons, and feels that the Kinslaying stains him too deeply to be comfortable around squeaky-clean Galadriel and Finrod.
Wow, this turned into quite a ramble! XD

T - If you mostly have homoships, do you have any heteroships
I think it’s about 50/50 (ok, maybe 60/40, or 70/30 weighted towards slash at the outside), but my top 3 het pairings (for the moment, at least) are Sam/Sibyl, Amy/Rory, and Faramir/Éowyn.

U - If you mostly have heteroships, do you have any homoships
Ditto T, with my top 3 slash pairings at the moment being Renly/Loras, Billy/Teddy, and Laurence/Granby.

V - Are you one of those fans who can’t watch anything without shipping
Eh, not really. I enjoy a good ship, and the more the merrier, but shipping isn’t absolutely vital to my enjoyment of a series. In fact, I’m more likely to be put off by an excess of shippiness than the opposite.

W - 5 favorite characters from 5 different fandoms
Trying to avoid the drastically obvious ones here.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Giles, because the world can never have enough sexy British librarians who are also trained demon-hunters and excellent parents even though they've never reproduced.
Babylon 5: Garibaldi, because he’s such a perfect mix of “hey, let’s grab a beer and watch cartoons! :D” and “I can literally kill you with my bare hands. >:D”
Sherlock: John, because he’s maybe 5’6”, looks vaguely like a hedgehog, grumbles about Certain People never buying milk, wears stripey jumpers, prefers healing (or just muttering under his breath) to fighting, is a genuinely good, kind man, and is just generally adorable as hell, but is still the quietest, most unassuming badass you will ever meet.
Torchwood: Ianto Jones, because A) every girl (and a certain percentage of guys and aliens) crazy ‘bout a sharp dressed man, B) he refuses to carry a gun in favor of a tazer that can reputedly cook a ham in two minutes, and C) he taught himself 57^th century cybernetics in six weeks, while suffering from acute PTSD, in order to save his girlfriend from a horrible fate as an evil killing machine (which, granted, didn’t exactly pan out, but points for trying).
Discworld: Sam Vimes. I know I said I’d try to avoid the obvious ones, but c’mon, the man is a living legend! He’s arrested a full-sized dragon (and the Patrician), averted not one but two wars, killed a werewolf with his bare hands (well, without conventional weaponry, anyway), defeated a quasi-demonic force of pure evil through sheer willpower, and still makes it home precisely at six o’clock every single day to read to his son. How can you not love him?

X -  3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms
Again, trying to avoid the drastically obvious.
Harry Potter: Bill/Fleur. I don’t really care about the vast majority of HP ships, and Bill/Fleur is just about the only one, canon or not, that I support with any vehemency. Even the big ones, like Harry/Ginny or Ron/Hermione (or even the fabled Harry/Hermione) I’m just sort of “meh” about, but I was legitimately moved when Fleur refused to leave the newly scarred Bill, partially because I fully expected her to, and seeing Mrs. Weasley open up to her after that show of faith was especially endearing.
Jossverse: Zoë/Wash, Buffy/Angel, Willow/Tara. These three deserve to go together because they’re just three iterations of Joss Whedon’s specialty: he creates this wonderful couple that sneaks up on you, so one day you turn around and realize that, despite impossible odds, these two lost, lonely people have found their soulmates and created an ironclad partnership based on trust, love, and asskickery that will last for the rest of their lives. And on that day, one of them gets horribly killed before the other’s eyes, and you know that they will never be as truly, completely happy ever again. Dammit, Joss! </soliloquy>
A Song of Ice and Fire: yeah, I know, R/L 4EVA! and all that, but Ned/Cat deserves one hell of an honorable mention. They’re the only example of good parents we see in pretty much the whole series (with the exception of the Tyrells, in which case I suspect that Mace adopted a hands-off approach except when prodded by Olenna): they protect their children, encourage them, teach them, and make sure that they always know that they are loved. Seriously, how many Westerosi lords would not only make perfectly clear that their bastard son and tomboy daughter are just as valued as the legitimate son and the demure, princessy daughter respectively, but would be okay with said tomboy daughter learning swordplay, even hiring one of the best swordsmen in the world specifically to teach her? A for effort, Ned!

Y - A fandom you’re in but have no ships from
Either Good Omens or Sherlock Holmes (any incarnation, but mostly ACD originals and Sherlock). These two are similar fandoms for me because I’m open to the idea of the two leads being a couple, but I see them more as heterosexual (or asexual) life partners/soulmates/BFFs.

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go
I honestly have no idea what to put here, since I’ve done nothing but ramble about fan-related stuff for this entire meme, so consider this a fill-in-the-blank, or just a blank. If there's anything about my fannish opinions that keeps you awake at night, ask away! Of course, on the much larger chance that you, my invisible Internet audience, have been given more than enough to chew on in previous questions, feel free to ignore this one.

Comments

[brit-columbia.livejournal.com]

Berkeley behaving badly and Dianna being a badass and I haven't forgotten the part about the side order of Ryo being awesome! I was just thinking guiltily about this story yesterday, while riding to my office where, recently, truly prodigious amounts of work await me. I am waiting for work to go into a slow cycle-- which it will eventually, and then I will pounce on Driven and finish it.

I'm totally with you on Ron/Hermione. Zip for chemistry. I couldn't imagine them actually having sex.

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

I am waiting for work to go into a slow cycle-- which it will eventually, and then I will pounce on Driven and finish it.
Heh, don't worry about it! I owe you a review or two...or three..., and I can completely sympathize with insane levels of business, so no rush!

Zip for chemistry. I couldn't imagine them actually having sex.
*nod* Maybe it's just because I pretty much literally grew up with the Harry Potter characters, but I have a hard time imagining anyone of Harry's age or younger having sex. This applies to Ron and Hermione especially, because I really just don't get that "zing" of attraction from them.

[hamsterwoman]

(I haven't watched the ASOIAF episode yet, so no thoughts from me, but I'm reading ALL the spoilers :)

Mom: I love being a Lannister! >:) *trollface*

Your mother is awesome! :D Evil-ly so, but.

I've been meaning to order myself a Tyrell short (no house loyalty/favorite house conflict here!) but kept delaying on it, but this remind me I should finally do it. (BTW, regarding your increasinbly encumbered bag -- whenever I mention you in the rodents' hearing, they say, "Oh, the girl with all the buttons on her bag" :)

B - A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind
With ASOIAF in mind, Jaime/Loras

:D

I don't get the popularity of SanSan as a fluffy ship. I can see the darkfic and various twisted versions of it, but so much of it seems to imply that Sandor is Sansa's true knight and it's all puppies and rainbows from there on, and, uh, no.

R - A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else ships
James/Sirius,

Dude! Before I pretty totally phased out of Harry Potter fandom, this, along with Harry/Ron, was one of my last remaining ships-I'll-read-most-any-fic-for (also acceptable: Sirius/James/Lily). And I quite like(d) Bill/Fleur, too, from the point of her "I'm beautiful enough for both of us" speech.

Garibaldi, because he’s such a perfect mix of “hey, let’s grab a beer and watch cartoons! :D” and “I can literally kill you with my bare hands. >:D”

Yep, pretty much this! :D

Z - hmmm... ooh! How about a couple of crossover OTPs (shippy or platonic, whatever) -- it's weird to call them favorites since they don't actually exist, but top 3 you'd want to see fic for or something along those lines.

Totally stealing this meme, btw! (Though possibly changing the letters to numbers, because the lack of connection with anything actually alphabetical is irritating me vaguely :P)

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

Your mother is awesome! :D Evil-ly so, but.
Yes! She's pure Lannister, I'm Stark with a bit of Tyrell, my brother is *very* Tyrell, and my sister is a weird Lannister/Targaryen hybrid, so you'd think that one of us would have killed the others by know, but it works, in a weird sort of way.

BTW, regarding your increasinbly encumbered bag -- whenever I mention you in the rodents' hearing, they say, "Oh, the girl with all the buttons on her bag" :)
Aww, now I've got the warm fuzzies! ^.^ I've been collecting buttons/pins/doodads for quite a while; it's great to know that people find it interesting, or at least are noticing.

so much of it seems to imply that Sandor is Sansa's true knight and it's all puppies and rainbows from there on, and, uh, no.
Exactly! Given how clear GRRM makes it that all that singer's tale, Florian and Jonquil stuff is pure fantasy and impracticable in real life, the profusion of fluffy SanSan kind of surprised me.

Before I pretty totally phased out of Harry Potter fandom, this, along with Harry/Ron, was one of my last remaining ships-I'll-read-most-any-fic-for
*fandom high five* The whole "BFFs as well as lovers" thing is one of my all-time favorite tropes, so S/J and H/R are right up my alley. Speaking of which, I'm totally with you on Harry/Ron! It's not my OTP, but c'mon, the second trial in Goblet of Fire? One family member, two love interests...and Ron. XD

How about a couple of crossover OTPs (shippy or platonic, whatever)
- Lennier/Maglor, either shippy or platonic. The whole Space Elves thing aside, these two are the quiet, contemplative geeks of their respective groups, and after trying to wrangle people like the Narn and the other Sons of Fëanor all day, I could see them really enjoying the chance to relax in each other's company and...meditate or something.
- Granny Weatherwax/Professor McGonagall, definitely platonic. Both of them had to give up a lot for their duties as protectors and mentors, and I could see McGonagall being one of the few people Granny actually respects, after fighting through two Wizarding Wars and captaining Hogwarts while Dumbledore was away, and all without batting an eyelash. They both also have a secret undercurrent of...bloody-mindedness, maybe? They're both definitely not adverse to a fight once their dander is up, anyway.
- Sherlock/Tharkay; again, either platonic or romantic is okay with me. A general Sherlock/Temeraire crossover would be awesome (time travel FTW!), but these two especially would have enormous amounts of fun snarking at people who don't like them and solving mysteries together. I can see Tharkay being intrigued by Sherlock's method of deduction (hell, by Sherlock in general), and it's canon that Tharkay's job is to run after his friends and stop them from doing anything catastrophically stupid, which Sherlock definitely needs, so I can see a partnership between the two of them, if John was unavailable for whatever reason, working really well.

Though possibly changing the letters to numbers, because the lack of connection with anything actually alphabetical is irritating me vaguely
Ugh, this bothered me, too. What's the point of lettering instead of numbering if the letters don't correspond to anything? I can't wait to see your answers!

[hamsterwoman]

Quite a lot of range in your family! :)

The whole "BFFs as well as lovers" thing is one of my all-time favorite tropes

Yep, mine too, and that's why I like both Harry/Ron and S/J.

One family member, two love interests...and Ron. XD

Exactly! XD

Very interesting crossovers! I could totally see Granny and McGonagall being a platonic power couple, and Sherlock/Tharkay and Maglor/Lennier would be quite interesting dynamic as well (though with both of those I have an easier time seeing it as platinic, too).

And my answers are now posted, along with my reactions to the last two episodes of Sherlock :) (Thank you so much for lending me the disks, and sorry to have waited so long to watch -- I had a blast with the show, as I was sure I would! :D)

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

I could totally see Granny and McGonagall being a platonic power couple
My first choice was actually Granny and Mad-Eye Moody, who would terrify the students and have enormous amounts of fun doing so. But I've already done that one (fun as it was), so McGonagall was a good second choice. XD

I had a blast with the show, as I was sure I would!
*happy flail*