First week of classes and Meme: The Director's Cut

[lunasariel]

So, first week of classes. For reasons I've never fully understood, Cal starts on a Thursday (most classes run either M/W or T/Th, a few with discussion sections on Friday), so I got introduced to my new classes and professors kind of piecemeal. My very first class of the semester was British Literature 1900-1945, which I'm thinking is going to be quite a lot of fun. One of the guys from my Irish Literature class from last semester (Manus or Magnus or something; I feel bad because, not only did he remember my name, but the name of the very small town I come from, but also my major. He also got into that comparative mythology class I've been drooling over, the lucky bastard) is also in the class, so at least I had someone to talk to before class started. I really like the professor, Catherine Flynn. She seems really fun and enthusiastic, and when my name got called, she said that I sound like "[I] should be a character in a novel," which was honestly one of the coolest compliments I've ever got. Also, the girl sitting in front of me bore the extremely unfortunate name of Florence Titterton, which made me laugh, because I am twelve. So although I wasn't looking forward to this class all that much (Modernism is not my favorite movement and jesus christ we have to read all of Ulysses. All of it. On top of eight other novels), now I'm thinking it's going to be pretty enjoyable.

My Thursday schedule is set up so that I have to rush off straight from BritLit to Literature of American Cultures: Repression and Resistance, which fulfills my American Cultures requirement, as well as an elective for my English major. It's not that far a walk, though, and I made it in just under five minutes, which is pretty damn good time. The professor, Marcial Gonzalez, warned us that this was going to be an intense class in every respect, and although I'm not looking forward to a repeat of last semester's 200 pages a day and barely keeping up (worst-case scenario, but still), honestly, what I'm most worried about is just being able to even begin to properly understand what I'm reading. I'm an American-born, (largely) heterosexual, cisgendered, English-speaking, non-disabled, agnostic but Christian-born, upper-middle-class, white woman living in northern California, with two divorced but loving parents, a supportive community and family, and a decently-sized pool of friends, attending a prestigious university that my family can afford and that I love. My biggest problems right now are that my hair looks kind of funny and that they might not offer my favorite seminar next semester. My life, on the whole, has been pretty awesome. This is my first in-depth look at modern institutionalized inequality/discrimination, and it's going to be interesting to study not only these situations themselves, and the power structures that give rise to them, but my reaction to them, coming, as I do, from a position of pretty extreme power and privilege. Like, what right do I have to analyze and comment on something like this? So, food for thought.

My English 45C discussion group meets on Friday mornings, but we haven't had the actual class yet, so I assumed we wouldn't have anything to discuss, and thus no discussion section, which proved correct. So I noodled around the library for a while (I've missed the Morrison reading room, although I still hold out that smoking jackets and carpet slippers should be passed out on entry, as well as plaid flannel lap rugs on cold/rainy days, although smoking would still be banned, as it's terrible for the books) before my pre-1800 American Literature class at 1:00. This looks to be another fun one that I wasn't originally looking forward to. The professor is clearly awesome, as I heard her talking to a few of her students from last semester before class started, and they seemed really excited to see her again, which is an excellent sign. This class is also right in her area of expertise, as early American Lit is kind of her thing, and from some cursory looking-up I've done of her, she knows it backwards and forwards. The class is also structured very interestingly: the reading order is roughly chronological, but each chunk focuses on a different settlement, what happened there, when, and why, how it affected history in general, who lived there, etc. We start out with looks at Plymouth, Jamestown, etc., but eventually move to Philadelphia and a couple of important Revolutionary War locales, and I forget what after. But, yeah, really looking forward to this one, too.

My weekend was nice and quiet. I had gotten my starter earrings taken out (I went to the tattoo/piercing place in Sebastopol, and then ended up having to snip them off with pliers. Those things were in there good) the day I left for Berkeley, and had been wearing the pretty jade studs I got at Comic-Con ever since. I wanted to trade them for the silver hoops Aunt M gave me, but when I took them out on Saturday, there was a lot of bleeding, and even some ominous-looking goop on one of them, and I couldn't get the new ones in. Like, I could find the front hole, but not the back one. It was weird. I ended up not putting anything back in due to ouch, so now they've pretty much closed up. I'm a little bummed out about this, but I'll get them re-done when I'm back up in Sebastopol for Thanksgiving, and I'll leave the starter earrings in longer, which I suspect was the problem, as there was still a little bit of crustiness when I got them taken out in the first place. Aside from that, I spent pretty much all of Saturday lazing around, daydreaming a couple more points of contact for the MMRC, finishing up Hornblower (short write-up: it's clear that they A) ran out of money and B) stopped caring, because it looks pretty silly, especially the I Can't Believe It's CGI! explosions, day-for-night shots, and toy boats. It also suffers from lack of Archie, as Horatio has now gone from "disposed towards seriousness" to "hardass" and is edging into "cold-hearted bastard" territory, although I did like this season's model of the Plucky Middie, Orrock. Wolfe was a good overarching antagonist, and Bush seems well up to the task of stepping into Archie's shoes re: Horatio's voice of reason. Hammond's suicide was over-the-top but heartfelt, if that's the right word, although I would have liked a deeper look into all the times he's screwed with Horatio in the past, and whether that was deliberate sabotage of a promising British officer or just him not liking Horatio, who does have some, er, Miles-like tendencies regarding his superiors), and finally finishing Sense and Sensibility (see below for write-up), but found it odd that nobody seemed trying to get ahold of me via my phone. I mean, I'm not exactly a social butterfly or anything, but I can usually rely on at least a few texts and a call or two a day, but nothing. When I turned my phone on Sunday morning, though, it turned out I had both missed calls and missed texts, which was both gratifying and frustrating. The world hadn't completely forgotten about me, but I have determined that my building has the worst reception I've ever seen aboveground. I can't get calls at all, as far as I can tell, and texting is very hit-or-miss.

The upshot of all this is that M had been trying to get ahold of me to hang out all of Saturday, which made me feel bad, as I was accidentally very tardy in replying to an invitation of hers on Friday, and now the whole Saturday thing might have led to her feeling ignored or slighted. But we met up early Sunday afternoon, and basically spent all of Sunday together. I had been hanging around Shakespeare & Co. and Moe's, looking for a good secondhand copy of Mansfield Park, the only Jane Austen I have yet to read (I couldn't find an annotated secondhand copy like I wanted, as I much prefer annotated editions of period books but I think I made out okay with the non-annotated but forwarded and afterwarded version I got), and we met up on Telegraph to do some wandering. It turned out that there was some sort of big street festival going on there that day, I still don't know why, so it was prime wandering territory. There were a lot of very pretty handmade jewelry/accessory stalls, which I was sorely tempted by but didn't stop at, due to the aforementioned earring thing, a live band (I don't quite know what to call their genre - upbeat country? bluegrass? I'm not an expert), and several food places, where M and I got some not-unexpectedly expensive, but very tasty, teriyaki. The whole street festival was only a couple of blocks long, so it didn't take us long to see all there was to be seen, after which we decamped to my place to finish Starship! a Team Starkid sci-fi musical (which really should tell you all you need to know about it) that we'd started earlier in the week. The Roomie 2.0 came back just as we were at the end of it, and although she's also a big musical fan we didn't want to bug her (no pun intended), so we went back to M's new(-ish, now) place. There, I took off the nail polish we'd put on last weekend, as it was looking pretty ratty by then, and watched a little more Hornblower. The two-parter Mutiny and Retribution, this time, which were just as much fun as I remember them being. I liked Bush a lot more this time around; he's very much the Hermione (level-headed voice of reason, sometimes unpopular for following the rules, tension between him and Big Damn Hero's resident BFF until they all do something insane[ly dangerous] together) to Horatio's Harry (dark-haired Big Damn Hero, tendency to ANGST! ANGST! ANGST! unless jollied out of it, rebellious streak) and Archie's Ron (ginger BFF, emotional rather than logical, angst about living up to the living legends he's surrounded with, not to mention some serious subtext/tension with Big Damn Hero). Seriously, it's kind of scary how well they map, almost the same way Temeraire was. This time around, my viewing was also highly colored by rikibeth's (a.k.a. VelveteenThestral), whose Hornblower fanfic now forms the majority of my headcanon for this 'verse, and is way, way more amazing than anything I'd dared to hope for from such a small and relatively long-ago fandom. So, yeah, now I fully subscribe to her Live Kennedy Universe, and have even developed my own headcanon for it (remember what I said about writing fanfic for fanfic last time?), like how Archie's cousins aren't supposed to know that he's still alive and is now going by Mr. Godwin, but they totally do, and have to be reminded that it now has to be "Cousin Archie" in private and "Mr. Godwin" in public, and how Archie Godwin went into Parliament and became a huge supporter of the Navy (of course) and Stephen recruited him as an occasional intelligence agent and Horatio ferries him around on his missions in the Hotspur, and how Wellard was also saved by Stephen's magical doctor powers and now goes by Mr. Scarlett and is Archie's secretary/aide/Secret-Keeper, and has a little bit of a crush on him but knows that it's futile trying to break up the Indy Husbands, and so on and so forth. So that was Sunday.

Monday was insanely busy, but generally fun. My first class, ENGL 45C, of the day is a fair walk away, so it took me a while to get there. Not quite as far as the trek across campus from last semester, but almost. This one is going to be interesting. the professor, Aliteri, says that he's designed the class to be a kind of crucible, to see who's going to be able to hack it as an English major and who isn't. But not in the usual way, where it's all about endurance and managing insane amounts of work, but enjoying the works we read. He said that those who don't enjoy the texts might want to re-consider being an English major, which made me kind of :\. I mean, I've never wanted to be anything but an English major, and my entire academic career has been very happily centered around literature. But the era that this class is going to cover, mostly the Modernists, just aren't my cup of tea. I mean, I respect the hell out of what they did, and sure recognize that they have literary value and merit and are worth studying, but reading, say, James Joyce or Joseph Conrad just plain gives me less pleasure than Jane Austen or, say, Wordsworth. So I'm a little unsure about this class, especially since M was originally going to take it with me, but has since transferred to another professor after hearing some bad things about this one. On the other hand, the other people in the class are interesting. There was a guy with a tie-dyed yalmuke (if I spelled that right), a girl who I could have sworn was a friend of mine from elementary school (she had a very distinctive face: the palest skin I've ever seen, a pointed nose, eyebrows so blonde they're almost nonexistent, very pale blue eyes, long, straight pale blond hair...lots of paleness in general) but apparently wasn't, and the girl sitting next to me said that I had a pretty name when mine was called. Wow, my name got popular this semester! Also, it turns out that a friend of mine from London, DR, is now at Cal as a philosophy major, and has a logic class in the same room as my 45C class, in the time slot directly before, so we had a few minutes to catch up before he had to go in (I'd arrived insanely early to make sure I found the place okay). He's grown a big fluffy blonde beard, but otherwise seems unchanged. In fact, I think he might have been wearing the same tan suit jacket, tan slacks, oxfords, and button-up shirt as the last time I saw him. And I'd been thinking about and missing my London friends just that morning, so that was nice.

That evening was the opening meeting of the Chernin Program, which I wrote a lot about last semester. It looks like Prof. Nolan, my awesome 45A professor, isn't involved in the program any more (I hear she's focusing on the book she's supposed to have coming out next year), but the new head is Prof. Donegan, my 130A professor, which is kind of cool. Also, Lynn, my mentor from last semester, has apparently graduated or something, because she wasn't there anymore and I got a new guy. I didn't really get a chance to do more than introduce myself, but our first small group meeting is tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to that.



As mentioned above, I finally finished Sense and Sensibility, and...hmm. I would probably have to call this my least favorite of the Jane Austen novels so far, although this is quite possibly because S&S is the first one I've read for the first time outside of an academic setting, so my enjoyment of it balanced purely on how engaged I was with the plot and characters, with only a very rudimentary pass at literary analysis. And, to be perfectly honest, the vast majority of the characters were violently annoying at one point or another, so I found them, on the whole, hard to like. This flies directly in the face of the novel's main message, but I didn't really warm to Elinor until the end, although I was facepalming at Marianne for most of the novel. Like, Marianne was clearly being a colossal overindulgent and over-indulged idiot and seriously jeopardizing her reputation by freaking out over every little thing and generally being a huge drama queen, but Elinor constantly telling her to, basically, get over it came off as a little cold. I know that sounds like a little thing, but she seems to feel herself very superior to everybody around her (which, okay, she actually kinda is; more on this in a sec), and is constantly pointedly not saying "I told you so." In addition, her romance with Edward Ferrars is much more subtle than a lot of Austen romances I've seen so far: not the passionate ice-and-fire of Lizzie and Darcy, not the bildungsroman of Catherine and Tilney, not even the "love conquers all, especially when you least suspect it" of Anne and Wentworth, not even the battle of wills of Emma and Knightley. I'm not saying this is bad; far from it, it's just one of those things not immediately apparent on the first read-through. Also, I didn't really like any of the secondary characters. I was very much with Marianne in finding the Steeles, the Middletons, Mrs. Jennings, etc. various degrees of insufferable, Willoughby was clearly sketchy as hell, Colonel Brandon was absent most of the time, and even Edward was kind of dull (again, first read-through; I have a strong feeling I'll like him better on re-reads), although it should be noted that I did like Mrs. Jennings better at the very end, when she surprisingly proved to be a competent and helpful nurse and I liked Brandon's added dose of sanity/calmness when he was around. But I just get the feeling that I would hate all these people: there are the obvious antagonists, like the Ferrars ladies and Lucy Steele, but the rest of them seem universally just kind of dumb. Mrs. Jennings is cataclysmically insensitive (or just unperceptive) and has no idea when to shut up, Anne Steele clearly doesn't have two thoughts to rub together, Sir John is big and loud and annoying and clearly not all that bright, Lady Middleton is one of those annoying people who has no life outside her kids and refuses to acknowledge that they're spoiled brats, not little angels, Margaret hardly exists, and Mrs. Dashwood...is okay, I guess. She didn't really annoy me in any specific instance; a lot of it was reflected "goddammit, mom" from Elinor.

Also, I can definitely see why Jane Austen is more often called a proto-feminist novelist than a feminist one. It was period-appropriate but a little uncomfortable to modern readers that Marianne was basically awarded to Brandon as a prize for having suffered stoically and Done the Right Thing and loved her constantly and all that, especially when it also felt like her settling for Brandon after losing her first choice, Willoughby. In addition all instances of men being dicks in S&S are explained away as the actions of a probably pretty okay man, but a bad woman gone and done him wrong. Men like John Dashwood are portrayed as easily tempted and/or forced to stray by a seductive and/or domineering woman, Sir John has just given up and become a Mace Tyrell without the awesome family to make up for him, and much of the conflict of the final act of the novel was driven by Willoughby's new fiancé's jealousy. That said, though, ultimately, I really liked what the novel did with Willoughby. It examined all of his actions very objectively, which I loved, and came to the conclusion that he still loved Marianne, and these feelings are both deep and genuine, but tough, he's a grown-up and had made his own decisions, and these decisions have led him to lose Marianne's trust and marry a rich woman he dislikes. Basically, he's made his bed, and now he has to lie in it. I really like that the narrative didn't let him off the hook "because he loooooves her!": he treated her like crap, didn't realize he actually loved her until too late, and now has to live the life he's made for himself. TBH, my favorite and the most moving part of S&S, at least for me, was Willoughby's conversation with Elinor: for once she isn't all superior and "I told you so," but still perfectly within her rights to not let him off the hook, and Willoughby himself has clearly matured enormously, to the point where he show up, set things right, and confess his true feelings and the whole misunderstanding, all (and this is the important part) without expecting her to take him back, or even Elinor to completely forgive him. And Marianne doesn't, and Elinor doesn't. And that's kind of awesome. (I was less pleased with Edward fooling around with Elinor while still engaged to Lucy, who, for all he knew, sincerely loved him. To me, the fact that she eventually turned out to be a heartless cheating bitch and Elinor to be a much nicer person doesn't exonerate Edward from not breaking it off when he realized he could no longer love Lucy, because this is a straight use of the "but he loooooves her!" get-out-of-jail-free card, not a subversion, like it is with Willoughby.)



During my last meme, I redacted quite a few mini-essays from the "favorite character" question and used a list of characteristics I generally find in my favorites instead. But it turns out that there are still some people in the world who aren't tired to death of hearing how awesome Renly, Sam Vimes, and Granby are, so I've un-redacted them.

1. ASOIAF: Renly Baratheon. IMHO, the best of all the contestants in the War of Five Kings. Yes, even better than Robb (although my ideal endgame would include Robb becoming King in the North while Renly and Margaery Olenna ruled the South, or at least having a similar political relationship to Renly that Ned did to Robert). I actually did a fair-sized write-up on him here, and the tl;dr version is that Renly's faults are what make him interesting, and the show's attempts to make him into Ser Woobie are misguided. The one genuinely good thing about his personality, his sincere love for Loras, was carried over well, though. Also, the Tyrells are awesome and make him awesome by association. I'm fairly sure I would like him an awful lot less without Olenna to kick him into shape as needed, but as things stand, he's definitely my King That Should Have Been. He had, as Aziraphale once said, a spark of goodness in him, but was also, as Crowley once said, enough of a bastard to be worth liking. My headcanon is that, while he didn't love Margaery romantically, he respected the hell out of her, as she clearly isn't stupid or weak, and neither is he, and they would have been pretty awesome co-rulers, since of course she would have had a hand in everything. Also, due to a recent conversation with hamsterwoman, I now really, really want fic, possibly of the five times variety, where Renly gets The Boyfriend Talk from the Tyrells (say, Olenna, Margaery, Willas, Garlan, and Mace, not necessarily in that order), and is kind of wrong-footed by them not only having known about Loras not being much of a one for the maidens pretty much all his life, but also accepting and loving him all the same, since unconditional love would be something that Renly would not have experience with (until Loras, that is, which is an aspect of their relationship I wish got more attention), his brothers being who they are. I especially want to see Willas bequeath the stash of gay porn that Oberyn Martell keeps sending him to Renly "for inspiration," and Garlan being all "I'm so happy for the both of you! If you ever cheat on him with anyone besides my sister I will break every bone in your body! But still, congratulations! :D" (which came out of the original conversation, but is now my ironclad headcanon).
2. LOTR: Now that's a tough one. My first LOTR love was Legolas, and not just because I was a preteen when I really got into the whole 'verse. I mean, I did my fair share of squeeing over him (although I still maintain that the shield skateboarding was stupid), but I liked that he was one of the few genuinely snarky, sarcastic characters in the books. Like Renly, he was just a little bit of an ass, especially during the Caradhras mess, when most of his dialogue boiled down to "I can walk on snow and don't feel the cold, in case y'all forgot! Wow, it must suck to be you guys, crawling around down there and freezing your butts off. Sure glad I'm an elf." And then there was his snarkfest at the edge of Fangorn on the Amazing Disappearing Hobbits, which is still one of my favorite moments of the book. But then again, Sam is my favorite protagonist, which is the best way I can find to say it. I get more of a thrill from the Three Hunters/Merry & Pippin/Fangorn/Helm's Deep/Gondor/Rohan plotline(s), but when asked to point to my favorite lines and moments, Sam turns up. Like, the thing about him wanting to re-plant Mordor with flowers and grow fruit on the slopes of Mount Doom was genuinely beautiful, and the image of him planting his hands on his hips and lectured Faramir and all his Rangers "as if he was addressing a young hobbit who had offered him what he called 'sauce' when questioned about visits to the orchard." Also, he reminds me strongly of my little-but-doughty dog in his courage despite his size and preference for peace but readiness to defend those he loves to the death, and a lot more that I really can't find the right words for. But ultimately, LOTR is an ensemble piece, and I can't really pick a favorite character, since my favorite thing is the interactions they all have with each other.
3. The Silmarillion: Fingon. He strikes a perfect balance between the crazy-but-fascinating Fëanoreans and the too-good-for-this-sinful-world Finarfineans, was High King during arguably the worst period in Elven history (and really history in general). There's a lot of mystery around him, but what we do know is fascinating. As in, how does one gain the epithet "the Valiant" in a place where things like death, disease, evil, and war are unknown? And why would he go off alone, literally into the valley of death, to rescue his cousin who had been missing for years, when even said cousin's own brothers wouldn't go? For that matter, why was Maedhros so insistent that Fingon in particular being first on the next voyage over the Sundering Sea? I mean, I have my own interpretations, but these are certainly different from the Professor's, and I'd love to see his own. I have all this headcanon about him being a balance between the supreme Nice Guy and a consummate badass and basically being the only one who can rein in some of the Sons of Fëanor once they start to go bad, and basically becoming an ambassador for the High King, riding around and generally keeping people in line.
4. Temeraire: Granby. As you may have noticed, I tend to like Lancer types. I like characters who don't let the bad stuff get them down. I like good friends. I like consummate badasses. I like people who look good in green. And, of course, I always like a good Battle Couple. Given all this, it's kind of inevitable that Granby would be my favorite. I like his snark and his meta-tastic "FML"s and his loyalty, which engenders loyalty in others. I like that he's competent, but Certain Others Who Shall Not Be Named *cough*Iskierka*cough* *hack*Laurencebyaccident*hack* keep getting him into fixes. I love his relationship with Iskierka, after CoG more than ever, since he genuinely loves her, but she also genuinely drives him nuts. (Actually, the same could be said for Laurence.) I love the way he and Laurence are foils for each other: Granby will get indignant on Laurence's behalf when Laurence is sure that he deserves his various stupid punishments meted out by stupid people, Laurence provides reality checks for Granby's covert-bred egalitarianism, and they're both just generally outsiders in each other's worlds (hope for the next book: getting to see aviators in the kind of society Laurence used to move in, since the bit we got in EoI was great and Fish Out of Water humor never gets old). It was literally his job to keep Laurence out of trouble for several years, and now it's become kind of a habit, although thanks to a certain Kazilik, he now needs a certain amount of getting out of trouble himself, and I'm an unabashed sucker for a little h/c. Integrating him into the MMRC has been a lot of fun, since the aviators keep getting invited out into society, and all the mamas looking for rich husbands for their girls have to weight the fact that Iskierka's piratical tendencies have made him obscenely wealthy against the whole aviator thing. Finally, of course, Cataclysmically Danger-Prone Granby never gets old, even aside from the Scooby-Doo "Danger-Prone Daphne" thing, which is also hilarious. This and subsequently this are pretty much a perfect summary of the universe's attitude towards him, and I'm with the characters themselves in taking the fact that he's survived being shot, stabbed, blown up, knocked off a dragon midair, kidnapped (twice if you count Iskierka's, er, surprise trip to Australia), almost married off to the Sapa Inca, etc. with only the loss of a hand and a coat he hated anyway as a mark of his all-consuming badassery.
5. Discworld: Sam Vimes. I know it's a pretty popular answer, but c'mon. It's Sam Vimes, in-universe memetic badass. He's arrested a dragon. He's arrested the Patrician. He's arrested two competing armies, at the same time. For disturbance of the peace and malicious loitering. He defeated a quasi-demonic force of pure rage and hatred through sheer force of will. And he still gets home precisely at six o'clock to read Where's My Cow? to his son every night. Like his distaff counterpart Granny Weatherwax, he struggles with the fact that sometimes he really, really wants to be bad, and yet he manages to keep himself from going over, although not without an effort. I love him when he's being funny (the red tights thing comes to mind, as well as the procession) and when he's being kind of terrifying (there's been a lot of interesting discussion on the duality of him and Carcer, and, hell, I'd run away too if I saw him coming up out of the ground, swinging an axe, staring straight ahead, and yelling "THAT. IS. NOT. MY. COW."). I also love his interactions with the other characters - how he's the gruffly and very secretly affectionate father to the first generation of coppers and the fabled badass grandpa to the younger ones, his friendship-in-the-face-of-all-reason with Colon and Nobby, his genuine respect for people like Detritus and A.E. Pessimal, and his whole dynamic with Carrot (Vimes doesn't hate him for being the true king or feel threatened by how good a copper he is, and Carrot probably likes and respects Vimes best out of anyone in the world [with the possible exception of Angua]). One of my favorite moments in Thud! (yes, I liked Thud!) was seeing the aftermath of the dwarf assassin attack. After he'd gotten done kicking ass and taking names, he took Sibyl and Young Sam to Pseudopolis Yard, and then there were funny moments, like "You cleaned out the tea urn?!" and people not quite knowing how to react to the boss' wife and kid hanging around, but also there were some genuinely sweet moments, like Vimes trusting the coppers he's trained to protect his family, and four gigantic trolls standing watch over Young Sam. And finally, this isn't always immediately obvious, but Sam actually is even Vetinari's equal in Batman Gambits and similar ruses. Like in Jingo, I think, or possibly Feet of Clay, when the Council of Concerned Citizens or whatever try to get him to relapse into alcoholism to destroy his credibility, and he makes them (and the reader) think that they succeeded, only to reveal at the last moment that he staged the whole thing, and that he knew what was going on the whole time. You know, as he is so often wont to do. I always love to see him pop up in other works, of course (I'd love to see more of his and Moist's interactions, for example), but I've always liked him best when he's on his home turf, with his nakama around him and a crime to solve.
6. Doctor Who: ...I really, honestly don't know. This is one of my biggest fandoms, so I feel bad about saying this, but I really can't pick. I usually end up choosing the current Companion(s), but that's just because they're the freshest in my mind. I admit I'm badly remiss on my Classic Who knowledge, what with the wonky formatting and some of the older ones just plain being gone, and then of course all the 60s/70s weirdness, but out of NuWho, I love them all! Rose Tyler was my first Companion and, of course, shared my name, which automatically makes her awesome. Then came Martha, who I love sort of defensively because all the show could do was wail that Martha wasn't the reincarnation of Rose, but Martha was smart and tough and kindhearted and had, y'know, actual medical training and other useful skills. And then there was Donna, who I hated so much at first, and ended up loving so much. Out of all of the Companions, I think she changed the most, and it was awesome to see that transformation happen (also, she and the Doctor made the best bros). And through it all, there was Captain Jack (who still needs to have a meet-up with 11, btw, if whoever's in charge of Torchwood now will let them borrow him), who I liked significantly better in DW than TW, but, whatever, he's still Captain Jack. But then along came Amy and Rory. I heartily dislike the pregnancy storyline, and I'm not entirely pleased with River/Doctor, either, but Amy is a great blend of Classic Who Companions (long legs, short skirts, dislike of doing what she's told) and NuWho Companions (willingness to thwack the Doctor upside the head to stop him being an idiot, more badassery than fanservice), and Rory's transformation from a quiet, gormless geek into The Deathless Centurion, one who is mentioned in legends and prophecies as someone not to mess with rivals Donna's.
7. Torchwood: Ianto Jones. He's just a Smart Cookie, pure and simple. He taught himself 57th century advanced cybernetics in six weeks, while suffering from acute PTSD, and managed to keep Jack Harkness off his scent. He's one of those people you never really notice puttering around in the background, keeping a covert team of alien-hunting weirdos both running and, er, covert. He's quiet, polite, self-effacing, probably would have been somebody's butler a hundred years ago, doesn't carry a gun (the only member of Torchwood to do so; the Doctor would approve!), dresses snappy, and broke your security system, tasered your guards in the forehead (hey, just because he doesn't carry a gun doesn't mean he isn't dangerous), freed your hostages, stole your jealously-guarded alien artifact, and left a snippy note about what a mess your place is while you were reading this.
8. Firefly: Another tough one. My answer is usually either Simon or Kaylee, but then I have to expand it to include Zoë, and then Wash, and Mal, and Shepherd Book, and Inara, and Jayne, and River, and suddenly I've run out of main characters. So let's just go with Simon, the first one I really noticed. One of the many, many reasons I really wish Firefly had been able to continue is that I want to see where Simon's journey was taking him. He'd started to develop in a veeery interesting direction, especially ever since "Ariel." I mean, he's a genuinely good-hearted person, but he was starting to develop a veneer of, not darkness per se, but a tarnishing of his shiny morals, a developing of a certain greyness, that I just loved. His first impulse is always to heal, and to make the decision to throw one's old life away in exchange for that of a fugitive with a crazy (possibly axe-crazy) sister reveals a certain core selflessness, but he was starting to develop a very Mal-like "as long as I and mine are okay, everyone else can go right to hell" attitude. I would have foreseen a long, slow slide, starting off with a Robin Hood-like crusade to take medicine/resources/etc. away from the Alliance and the core worlds and redistribute them farther out, where they're actually needed, and it would have been really cool if it had ended with him as some sort of kingpin-like criminal mastermind who contracts Serenity and her crew for the most interesting or delicate jobs, since it seems to be Joss' thing to have members of any particular nakama come and go, but remain strong secondary characters when they're no longer main characters. Also, I don't know if Simon/Kaylee would have panned out permanently, but as things stood...d'awww. There needed to be more Kaylee hauling Simon out of trouble and Simon making misguided attempts to be courtly at Kaylee and getting a smack upside the head from Inara. I also like that he seemed genuinely surprised that other people are willing to protect him, and kinda even like him, since I get the feeling he was never a very popular kid. Plus, of course, he's a genius doctor, and thus always good to have around, so I could stand a few more medical-based plots, or at least subplots. Basically, I like how he went from "shock! Horror! This is a Den of Iniquity, but I have to put up with it for River's sake!" to "let's do some crime!"
9. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Rupert Giles. I usually say that he was one of my huge teenage crushes, but it wasn't so much a crush as it was an intense desire to be Willow and basically be his apprentice. I mean, he's an attractive guy (he's British! and he sings! and wears glasses! and is smart!), but he's just an all-around awesome mentor to the Scoobies and father figure to Buffy. He's my definition of the Badass Bookworm - he'd rather just be left alone to study, since marauding vampires and unspeakable abominations from hell dimensions really mess up the stacks, but, y'know, if you threaten his library or "his" kids, then things are about to get interesting. The scene I use to best describe him is the last third or so of "Bad Girls," where he's been captured by the Villain of the Week (so, business as usual), refuses to give him any information, and, when the cavalry comes to the rescue, fights his way out with his hands literally tied behind his back. I love the mentor role he plays to the Scoobies, miraculously escaping the usual Mentor Occupational Hazard (LA LA LA I HAVEN'T READ THE COMICS LA LA LA), but I also like the complexity that his darker side gives him. Like, he's willing to take a human life to spare Buffy the pain of having to do so, and he's willing to make some really tough choices, even if they make her, the most important person in his life, hate him. But overall it's just adorable that he's clearly spent so much of his time alone, and it becomes clearer and clearer that he needs his nakama just as much as they need him. Oh, and he's several different kinds of genius, which is always nice to see. ;)
10. Sherlock (BBC version): Moriarty. Wait, wait, I'm not crazy! I have a good reason for this, I promise. Basically, I went in looking for someone to sneer and smirk a lot, trade some cryptic barbs with Sherlock, and disappear into the night with a swirl of his big black cape, and I was floored by what we got. He was genuinely scary, which was something I really wasn't expecting to see. I know the campiness annoys some people, but I like it because it's not just the actor's and the director's choice, but the character's. You can see him struggle to stay "in-character" for much of the time, but sometimes there was a crack in the mask, and that was when I went from "wow, this is a really interesting take on a fairly stock villain" to "...ooookay, think I'm gonna be re-watching this from behind the couch from now on, and there is going to be a *lot* of re-watching!" There's just something so eerie about the way he uses his quirky little jokes and over-the-top mugging to restrain whatever is trying to claw its way out of him. There's something in there that wants to set the world on fire just to watch it burn, and sometimes it's terrifyingly clear that he's having to play these games to give himself a reason not to reach for the matches just yet. He gives the greatest expressions, especially that teeth-bearing grin, and there really does seem to be something else behind those pretty brown eyes, no matter what his face is doing. Basically, he gives great dead eyes/creepy grin, and he's one of the few actors that can make it look terrifying, not stupid. I'm pulling for a Live Moriarty 'verse next season, since A) eating his gun like that should have blown the back of his head straight off, leading me to think that the gun was loaded with blanks, which would probably be painful, but not lethal, and I don't think Sherlock ever checks for a pulse, and B) MOAR MORIARTY (and also hopefully Sebastian Moran, if there's any justice in the world)!
11. Babylon 5: Michael Garibaldi. (Honorable mention to Lennier, a founding member of the Woobie Club.) This is mostly just rehashing what I've said before, but he's a perfect mishmash of a buddy whose idea of a good time is watching old cartoons and cooking Italian food, and the Chief of Security who's always got your back and whose idea of a good time is tackling something big and mean and teaching it some respect. He's a genuinely nice person, and one who I would actually really like to know, but that in no way means that he's weak or soft. He goes out of his way to make sure that everybody is happy and getting along, and isn't afraid to make himself the butt of jokes to do so, but I also like the "brother warriors" thing he occasionally has going on with people like G'Kar and Sinclair. I especially liked his conversation with G'Kar (towards the end of s2, I think?) where he officially said that he can't have a bunch of Narn refugees running around...but he won't be looking to closely at any shipments to and from Narn, and those Centauri bastards sure could use being taught a lesson. But my favorite moment of his is probably is bromance with Lennier, which I wish had gotten more development, as it allowed Garibaldi to display his inner dork and big brother instincts, and Lennier to be a smart cookie and "I iz helping! :D I get cookie now?" If I haven't hammered in this point yet, I'm a sucker for nakamas and bromances in conjunction with kicking ass and taking names, and Garibaldi is wonderful at facilitating all of the above.
12. Young Avengers: Billy Kaplan. D'awwww. Just, d'awwww. He's the resident awkward geek of the group, and thus kind of an audience stand-in, what with him fanboying over "Captain America just yelled at me! Squeeeee!" and dealing with bullies, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. I like that he's a character who happens to be gay, not a gay character, if that makes any sense. From what I can tell, the key to successfully writing minorities is to not make their minority status their only defining characteristic. So yes, he is gay, but the focus is much more on his potentially unstable magic, and the only people who bring up the "omg ur gay lol fag n00b" thing are one particular group of white supremacists they fight once (in Kate's words: "Wow, we must be their favorite superhero team ever," which, considering they consist of a black guy, two girls [one of which is their leader], a robot, a gay alien, a mutant, and a gay Jewish mutant, heh), so it's really a non-issue. But he's also just all-around my kind of guy: he has a "Speak Friend and Enter" sign on his door, is an awesome boyfriend, and, okay, sometimes he can be a little scary with how powerful his magic can be, but his reactions to people basically wanting to clip his wings are at least accurate. Oh, and one final piece of evidence: when going incognito in the Marvel expy of, like, the Alps or something, his solution is to give his team the costumes of The Sound of Music as disguises. Magneto is Captain Von Trapp and their robot is a nun. I leave you with that image.
13. Dresden Files: Thomas Raith. Aside from the fact that he's purdy, he's one of the two vampires that I can think of who pull off the angsty "vampire with a soul" trope without looking and/or sounding stupid. He also has a lot of other traits that the careful reader might have come across previously on this list: a snarky, badass, Woobie Lancer. He gets a fair number of CMoAs, too, which helps a great deal. He also is good at thwacking people upside the head when they need it, and he's an interesting take on the Tyrell Raith schema, where he's aware of, and isn't afraid to use his prettiness to his advantage, but he's actually not all that concerned with personal gain/power once he's at a certain level of self-sufficiency. In fact, he's basically the Dresdenverse Loras: a recent tragedy has turned him from a snarky, cocky, pretty show-off who loves being really, really good at kicking ass into Angsty McBroodington and separated him from his One True Love, although he still receives support and affection from his family.
14. Harry Potter: the Weasley family en masse (and, yes, this includes eventual Weasleys Hermione and Fleur, and also honorary Weasley Harry). This is another one that changes a lot. Sirius (along with Legolas and Roiben) was my Huge Teenage Fictional Crush, and he's still my favorites of the Marauders Era by far, and Hermione on her own was kind of my role model for a long time, but ultimately, I just love all the Weasleys. I don't know if I would want Arthur for a *dad* necessarily, but a cool uncle I go to visit over the summer, definitely. And Molly proves that just because she sees herself primarily as a wife, mother, and homemaker doesn't mean she won't straight-up hand you your ass on a silver platter, possibly garnished with parsley or whatever the usual, tasteful garnish for an ass is. I've always been in the vast minority for really liking poor Percy, who was always surrounded by all these wacky hijinx and grand adventures, but he just wanted to live a safe life where nobody yelled at him, which I can really empathize with. Bill/Fleur has become one of my few Potterverse OTPs, and I really wish we got to see more of them doing their thing, because I would pay good money for a Mr. & Mrs. Smith-esque or Spy Kids parents-esuqe series about them travelling around the Wizarding world, kicking ass and taking names.
15. Tortall: Keladry of Mindelan. Now *this* is how to write a feminist young adult novel heroine! I actually didn't care much for her predecessor, Alanna, who was a little too much of a Mary-Sue. I wouldn't call her a Mary-Sue proper, of course, but she had enough tendencies (purple eyes, red hair, automatically awesome at everything she did, magic crystal sword, talking cat familiar, a Chosen One, everybody is in love with her, etc.) to make me less enamored of her than I otherwise would be. Kel feels a lot more realistic, like someone I would actually like to be friends with. Her sword isn't magic, it's just sharp and she's really good at using it. She doesn't have a purple-eyed, talking, black cat that's secretly a god, she's got a scarred dog and a handful of sparrows (who, btw, kick an unexpected amount of ass). Her best friend isn't the king, but a mouthy minor nobleman and healer (Neal is a very, very close second for my favorite Tortall character, btw. Who says healers can't be badasses?). Maybe it's because Protector of the Small was accidentally the first Tortall series I read, but I've always liked Kel the best. She keeps her head in a crisis, is generally a pretty nice person, has a great nakama (another thing I'm always a sucker for), is good with animals, and overall feels very real. Like, she gets weepy when she gets PMS, has boy troubles (but doesn't let them take over her life), and just generally is sensible. OK, and she has some pretty cool adventures, too. If there's ever a Tortall/Discworld crossover, I'd really like to see her talk to Granny Weatherwax or Tiffany or somebody, just to get their takes on each other. Also, a Protector of the Small movie series is actually pretty near the top of my list, because I've got a fanvid to "I'll Make A Man Out of You" all worked out.

[intro drum music] (Kel & other pages arriving at the palace, looking very squeaky)
Spoken: "We've got a long way to go." (intro shot of Wyldon)
Let's get down to business, (first day- Wyldon passing out staves) 
To defeat the Huns. (wide-angle panorama of Scanran armies) 
Did they send me daughters, (Kel and Baron Piers sit in Lord Wyldon's office) 
When I asked for sons? (panning shot of page lineup on first day, Kel notably the only girl) 
You're the saddest bunch I ever met, (first-year pages spar up in training yard, drop staves, miss each other, etc.) 
But you can bet before we're through, (Joffrey Joren shoves Kel against the wall, speaking angrily) 
Mister I'll make a man out of you! (Wyldon glares at Kel over dinner) 

Tranquil as a forest, (close-up of Kel's calm face, eyes closed)
But on fire within (con. last scene: Kel's eyes open, pan out to her fighting Joren and Co.) 
Once you find your center, (Kel meditating, Yamani-like) 
You are sure to win. (Kel using glaive tricks to beat Joren) 
You're a spineless, pale, pathetic lot, (flash shots of pages screwing up) 
And you haven't got a clue, (Joren, grinning, passes a weighted lance to Kel, who, also grinning, accepts) 
Somehow I'll make a man out of you! (Kel, in a gown, arrives at dinner late. Lord Wyldon scowls) 

I'm never gonna catch my breath! (pages running along the wall, talking and/or panting) 
Say goodbye to those who knew me! (Neal gasps dramatically after practice, a hand to his forehead. Falls in a fake swoon) 
Boy, was I a fool in school for cutting gym! (Five-year-old Kel, training with the Emperor's ladies) 
This guy's got 'em scared to death! (Raoul, talking to other watching knights, observes Kel falling off Peachblossom) 
Hope he doesn't see right through me! (Kel facing Wyldon, hands in fists) 
Now I really wish that I knew how to swim! (Spidren comes up out of the river) 

(CHORUS:) 
(Be a man! (Kel in a gown))
We must be swift as a coursing river, (Peachblossom charges) 
(Be a man! (Kel fighting with staff))
With all the force of a great typhoon, (Kel, Neal, Cleon, Owen, et all charge Joren and cronies) 
(Be a man (Older Kel tilting on Peachblossom, in full armor including helmet))
With all the strength of a raging fire, (Squire!Kel stares at burned village, eyes smoldering) 
Mysterious as the dark side of the moon! (Kel using Yamani training on Hakuin, using staff like glaive; boys whispering behind raised hands, glaring) 

Time is racing toward us, (speeded-up montage of Kel at the beginning of each year as a page, squire, and knight) 
Till the Huns arrive. (Scanrans charge Haven) 
Heed my every order, (Raoul and Wyldon giving orders just before spidren hunt) 
And you might survive. (Kel and other first-years fight spidrens) 
You're unsuited for the rage of war, (Wyldon overseeing page training, watching Kel) 
So pack up, go home, you're through. (Kel surveys her trashed room, complete with hate messages on the wall, the first day) 
How could I make a man out of you? (Kel receiving her shield) 

I know there are a couple more repetitions of the chorus, and I'm sure a hypothetical movie series would provide enough footage to fill them up with thematically-appropriate shots of Kel & Co. being awesome. It should still end with her getting her shield, though.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

I was wondering if "Joyce" would include Ulysses, but figured that, in a survey class, it wouldn't. Guess I was wrong :P I will be eagerly awaiting news of your experience with it. Ulysses is like *the* book I want to read at some point but have been too chicken to start.

although I still hold out that smoking jackets and carpet slippers should be passed out on entry, as well as plaid flannel lap rugs on cold/rainy days

Haha, that would make it both cozier and classier, so, good idea all around :)

He said that those who don't enjoy the texts might want to re-consider being an English major, which made me kind of :\.

Huh... That seems kind of... pretentious to me? Like, there are many ways to be an English major, I would think? And not all of them involve modern writing to any degree greater than what 45C forces you to experience? That said, I backed off the English major idea primarily because I'd hang out across the hall from the English department office and read the Junior/Senior seminar summaries, and they all felt really dreary to me, because my interestes were all in, like, pre-1800 lit, so who am I to say, you know?

Also, it turns out that a friend of mine from London, DR, is now at Cal as a philosophy major, and has a logic class in the same room as my 45C class, in the time slot directly before, so we had a few minutes to catch

Wow, that is really cool! I love when stuff like that happens.

Yay for the un-redacted character essays! :)

while Renly and Margaery Olenna ruled the South

I like the way you think! lol XD

I completely agree that Renly must have respected Margaery fully (I don't think Loras, however much he loved him, would be down with him marrying his sister otherwise, and Olenna and Marg's other brothers certianly wouldn't have been). And I totally want to read that "five talks" fic; it should exist.

I especially want to see Willas bequeath the stash of gay porn that Oberyn Martell keeps sending him to Renly "for inspiration,"

*giggling helplessly* And, yeah, that Garlan conversation is part of my headcanon, too.

"I can walk on snow and don't feel the cold, in case y'all forgot! Wow, it must suck to be you guys, crawling around down there and freezing your butts off. Sure glad I'm an elf."

I love that scene! It's basically when I really started liking Legolas XD I also remember when I was reading FotR to L, who was like five at the time, I paused meaningfully at that scene and asked her some questions or something, and she asked why Legolas was walking on snow, and I was like, "...He's showing off, I guess?" (I mean, like, there's no rational explanation for his actions). Legolas: even a five-year-old can see he's kind of an ass :P

I knew, of course, that one of those links went to the "when is my hair not on fire" cartoon, but the other one was new to me, and hilarious, so thank you for sharing that!

On the subject of Sams, both Gamgee and Vimes, only this: ♥ (Also true for Garibaldi and Lennier)

Very interesting thoughts on Simon! I never thought about what he could pan out into, on board Serenity, especially with River gradually regaining her sanity post-movie (one hopes), or at least being less of a handful. But, yeah, as Book points out in "Ariel", Simon has some serious potential there.

Your paragraph on Giles made me think of something: You haven't read Demon's Lexicon yet, right? I think you might enjoy it. (After you're done with Vorkosiverse and Vlad and NotW and all the other stuff :P)

[hamsterwoman]

Sherlock (BBC version): Moriarty.

Whoa, I totally didn't expect that! I can see everything you're saying about him, but he was a bit too grating for me to really like BBC's interpretation of the character, even though I do think they made some very neat choices. Hadn't heard of the Live Moriarty theory (and kind of hoping for a new villain next season), but interesting point about the gun! I hadn't thought of that, but yeah... Huh.

BTW, B finished watching season 2 of Sherlock the other night and thanked me for getting him to watch it, so I'm passing on the thanks to the true source :) Both he and I enjoyed it more than we've enjoyed any TV show in quite a while! I can't speak for him, but for me it was probably since Firefly, which is saying quite a bit :)

In fact, he's basically the Dresdenverse Loras: a recent tragedy has turned him from a snarky, cocky, pretty show-off who loves being really, really good at kicking ass into Angsty McBroodington and separated him from his One True Love, although he still receives support and affection from his family.

Mind. Blown. It's scary how well those two map onto each other! (Though Thomas has more darkness than Loras does, of course.)

In fact, he's basically the Dresdenverse Loras: a recent tragedy has turned him from a snarky, cocky, pretty show-off who loves being really, really good at kicking ass into Angsty McBroodington and separated him from his One True Love, although he still receives support and affection from his family.

Mine too. And those are both great futurefic ideas for them!

Totally, totally agreed on Kel, who is my favorite Tortall heroine. And Kel and Tiffany Aching would get along so great, in that mutual-respect-and-let-the-other-do-their-thing way that Discworld witches extend to each other.

There totally needs to be a Protector of the Small movie/miniseries/cartoon, because the fanvid to the Mulan song would be just amazingly perfect.

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if "Joyce" would include Ulysses, but figured that, in a survey class, it wouldn't.
That was my assumption, too. We're going to be spending a month on it, but when I look at it, that still doesn't seem like long enough. I really thought she would choose something a little less, er, brick-like, like Dubliners or something.

That seems kind of... pretentious to me? Like, there are many ways to be an English major, I would think? And not all of them involve modern writing to any degree greater than what 45C forces you to experience?
Yup. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I could interpret his statement as referring to the 45 series in general, which is quite a bit broader, but still. English is a huge major and covers a pretty wide area, and that's kind of the great thing about it. If you don't want to read a particular era/topic/genre/whatever, then nobody's making you read it, go and read what you want to. I have discovered a lot of elitism in the English department, though. Like, there's a few pieces of Great Literature that everybody has to like otherwise you're a plebian with no taste whatsoever, and then there are all these other things, SFF among them, that are kind of on the fringe where they're grudgingly granted some academic attention by specialists, but they're not widely accepted as Great Literature. It's not all like this, of course, but, just, ugh, literary snobbery like this bothers me.

(I don't think Loras, however much he loved him, would be down with him marrying his sister otherwise, and Olenna and Marg's other brothers certianly wouldn't have been).
True dat. The whole Joffrey business aside, I've always seen Olenna (who, of course, would have final say in anything like this) as a very discerning matchmaker for her grandchildren. I could see her thought process re: Renly going something like "Hmm...well, Loras has very kindly road-tested him for us, so we know that he's loyal, he's not cruel, he respects cleverness where he finds it, and he's not completely useless. Margaery could do an awful lot worse than a man who just needs a little prodding to get on with the heir-makin'."

I love that scene! It's basically when I really started liking Legolas XD
This is always the scene I use when people scoff at me for liking him. See, people, there's more too him than Orlando Bloom! Also, lol at 5-year-old L's perspicacity.

the other one was new to me, and hilarious, so thank you for sharing that!
It was only drawn recently, but it strikes me as a fine continuation of the "when is my hair not on fire?" thing. Like, I love Granby and Laurence dearly, but nobody can claim that they aren't trouble magnets, and as pretty much all of VoE (and, to a lesser extent, ToS) proved, they kinda do need Tharkay around to be the sane one and haul them out of the various scrapes they get into. I actually do want a conversation like this when Tharkay shows back up in canon, where Laurence and Granby try to explain everything and Tharkay just facepalms. XD

You haven't read Demon's Lexicon yet, right?
Hmm...no, I don't think so. *adds to To Be Read pile*

but he was a bit too grating for me to really like BBC's interpretation of the character,
Yeah, he's a very "love him or hate him" kind of character, and I can see how he would strike some people as really annoying. From what I can tell, it all boils down to how much camp one can stand before a character goes from "endearing" to "omg stfu," and Moriarty doesn't tip that balance for me, but I know he does in a lot of other people. I actually had a hard time deciding on a favorite Sherlock character - it came down to a deadlock between John and Moriarty, and Moriarty won due to the fact that I honestly didn't expect his characterization to go beyond "smart and evil," whereas John was pretty much guaranteed to be awesome, which he was, so I guess it was a case of surpassing low expectations vs. living up to high ones.

I'm glad B enjoyed season 2! And, wow, enjoyed it as much as Firefly? High praise indeed! :) (In related news, are you going to be watching Elementary when it comes out?)

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

But, yeah, as Book points out in "Ariel", Simon has some serious potential there.
That's one of the reasons "Ariel" is one of my favorites: it points out that, while Simon is at least kind of an upstanding citizen, he might not always be in the future. I've seen some speculation on dark!Simon where he takes over Niska's empire or sets up one of his own, but I don't see him going that dark unless something seriously bad happens.

It's scary how well those two map onto each other!
I know, right? I didn't see it until I started trying to rationalize my reasons for liking Thomas beyond "hot and snarky," but then I kind of blew my own mind, too. XD It even goes right down to how they were both cynical before, but kind of hopefully cynical, if that makes any sense, but now they're just pissed at everyone and determined to use their not-inconsiderable talents and prettiness for the good of themselves and their families, and everything else is for children.

I do agree that he's quite a bit darker than Loras, but the Raiths have traditionally been a lot more like Lannisters than Tyrells (Papa Raith especially fostered a very Lannister environment, whereas Lara is a pretty dark Tyrell, but still a Tyrell), so it's interesting to see how Loras would have turned out if he were a Lannister instead.

Totally, totally agreed on Kel, who is my favorite Tortall heroine.
*fandom fistbump* Kel FTW! Tamora Pierce's strength really lies in no-nonsense heroines like this, everyday people (ok, aristocratic people, but still people) who do extraordinary things, which I have an inkling makes me like her omsuperduperspecial heroines like Alanna and Daine a little less.

in that mutual-respect-and-let-the-other-do-their-thing way that Discworld witches extend to each other.
Hmm, interesting! You know, this makes me think that Kel would be a better Discworld witch than Alanna would. Kel certainly is bossy and knows what's best for everyone, but she's also practical, sensible, and goes for the mundane solution before the flashy pyrotechnical magic one. And, yes, Kel and Tiffany would really get each other, and make a powerful team when called upon to do so, but would also be okay with letting each other get on with it and not get in each other's way.

There totally needs to be a Protector of the Small movie/miniseries/cartoon, because the fanvid to the Mulan song would be just amazingly perfect.
Thanks! ^.^ And, yes, there totally does. Animated, live-action, movie, series, whatever, we wants it, precious!

[hamsterwoman]

Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I could interpret his statement as referring to the 45 series in general, which is quite a bit broader, but still

OK, that I could sort of see, although even then it's still a rather sweeping statement (especially given the way the 45 series classes are often tweaked to the particular professor's interests/ideas).

I actually do want a conversation like this when Tharkay shows back up in canon, where Laurence and Granby try to explain everything and Tharkay just facepalms.

Haha, I totally hope we see that in the next book!

Moriarty won due to the fact that I honestly didn't expect his characterization to go beyond "smart and evil," [...] so I guess it was a case of surpassing low expectations vs. living up to high ones.

Ah, that makes perfect sense, actually! I definitely did find this Moriarty surprising, and an interesting take on the canon. But, yeah, too campy for my personal taste, so John was definitely my favorite.

I haven't really thought about watching Elementary. I've seen the trailer and it doesn't really do anything for me -- I'm not feeling much chemistry between the two leads, and can't say I was instantly won over by either of them either -- but it was only a trailer, so. I guess I'll do what I usually do and see what my flist thinks :)

I've seen some speculation on dark!Simon where he takes over Niska's empire or sets up one of his own, but I don't see him going that dark unless something seriously bad happens

I could see a slide into darkness precipitated by doing things he feels he has to do for River's benefit (as in "Ariel", too). I'm not sure what River could need that would require a criminal empire under Simon's control, but if someone could set up that situation, I'd read the hell out of it.

so it's interesting to see how Loras would have turned out if he were a Lannister instead.

Jaime

But, yeah, the Raiths are more Lannister-like than Tyrell-like. Papa Raith definitely, and I'm not sure that I would sort Lara Tyrell above Lannister... I think she's like a version of Cersei who managed to keep her sanity intact and channel her rage against the system/family/whatever a lot more constructively. Except that she does seem to care more about her siblings than Cersei does, and I guess that could be a sign of Tyrellishness.

makes me like her omsuperduperspecial heroines like Alanna and Daine a little less.

Yeah, for me, too Kel >>> Alanna, Daine, and Aly (whom I'd probably rank in that order), because everything she's achieved she's done by hard work and being a decent person, and I respect that a lot more than divine gifts and mystical animal helpers.

(Have you read the Beka Cooper / Terrier books yet? Despite some mystical animal helpers, I feel like Beka is actually closest to Kel in the "real person who has to work hard for her accomplishments" department.)

Also, Alanna would make a terribly Discworld witch XD I mean, she's brave and resourceful and everything, but the greatest superpowers of the Discworld witches seem to be common sense and dealing with the common folks. So, yeah, if Kel had magic, she'd be a pretty much perfect DW witch.

Also, oops. This:

"Mine too. And those are both great futurefic ideas for them!"

Was supposed to be in regard to your Bill and Fleur paragraph. C&P fail XD

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

I guess I'll do what I usually do and see what my flist thinks :)
Haha, I was thinking of doing the same thing, only substituting "internet" (sussing out the inevitable wank, of course) for "flist," but now that you've given me a reason, I just might have to watch it!

Jaime
Lol, definitely! I don't know whether it was in one of your random character memes or mine, but I recall Thomas and Jaime showing up together in one and, like, going to a bar and fighting monsters together while Thomas fed off of the lust generated by people watching them. And it was awesome.

I'm not sure that I would sort Lara Tyrell above Lannister
Yeah, I'm starting to question my inital sorting of her, too. She's a lot more ruthless (a definite Lannister trait) than I generally take Tyrells to be, and Papa Raith messed her up but good, but the sibling thing you mention seems very Tyrell, and she's willing to share power/take a backseat role now in return for a greater gain later on, whereas the Lannisters seem to need to be in charge of everything, all the time. I'm starting to think that Marcone would make a hell of a Lannister, though.

Have you read the Beka Cooper / Terrier books yet?
I've read the first one, but none of the others. I liked Beka as a person, and Watch-type stories are always fun, but a lot about it just seemed...weird. Like the growling thing they all do (which sounds incredibly silly when I try to imagine it), and for some reason I found the diary format really hard to buy. Like, writing takes time, and she was always complaining about being tired, having no time to do anything, etc. Also, it meant that Tammy had to do some pretty complicated acrobatics to keep up the tension, like when Beka "tries to describe [events] like I don't know what's going to happen" or whatever the quote was, instead of just saying what happened like a normal person would, since, supposedly, she's not writing for an audience, nobody but her is going to be reading her diary, and it's not like she's going to forget one of her friends getting killed or something.

Also, Alanna would make a terribly Discworld witch XD I mean, she's brave and resourceful and everything, but the greatest superpowers of the Discworld witches seem to be common sense and dealing with the common folks.
Hmm, she might make a good Discworld wizard, then. It would fit into her whole "I can do anything men can do!" schtick, and Disc wizardry certainly seems a lot more in tune with the way she usually uses magic.

Was supposed to be in regard to your Bill and Fleur paragraph.
Aha, I guessed as much. It happens! *shakes fist at C&P demons*

[hamsterwoman]

but now that you've given me a reason, I just might have to watch it!

Heh, well, I would be more than happy to have you test-drive it for me ;)

but I recall Thomas and Jaime showing up together in one and, like, going to a bar and fighting monsters together while Thomas fed off of the lust generated by people watching them.


Hee, I do remember that now that you mention it! I think it was on one of your memes, and you're right, it was awesome!

She's a lot more ruthless (a definite Lannister trait) than I generally take Tyrells to be, and Papa Raith messed her up but good, but the sibling thing you mention seems very Tyrell, and she's willing to share power/take a backseat role now in return for a greater gain later on, whereas the Lannisters seem to need to be in charge of everything, all the time

Yeah, it really seems like a pretty even split. The ruthlessness + daddy issues seem very Lannister, but I totally agree about the backseat role and sibling thing being a lot more Tyrell. She still feels more Lannister to me, probably because she seems to favor the brute force approach although she's able to employ other tactics when she has to...

I'm starting to think that Marcone would make a hell of a Lannister, though

Goodness, yes! (He's even got green eyes! :) I think Marcone and Tywin would get along splendidly... until it came to the subject of children as collateral damage, and there they would definitely not be seeing eye to eye.

Like the growling thing they all do (which sounds incredibly silly when I try to imagine it),

Ahaha, yes, the Howl XD (or whatever it's called) -- that was definitely highly WTF.

The diary format seemed really forced to me, too -- and, frankly, unnecessary, except for the tie to George Cooper, which I really don't think was that necessary in the first place, and could've been managed in some other fashion even if it was. I thought the acrobatics were clever (like the conceit that keeping a diary and writing like that is part of a dog's training in observation), but they certainly weren't seamless. That said, I found the diary format less disruptive in the second book (still haven't read Mastiff, even though I know it's out).

she might make a good Discworld wizard, then. It would fit into her whole "I can do anything men can do!" schtick

Oooh, good call! XD And now I have a hilarious image of crossdressed!Alanna showing up at Unseen University and wreaking havoc. (If the times worked out, she'd probably end up with Moist ;P)

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

She still feels more Lannister to me, probably because she seems to favor the brute force approach although she's able to employ other tactics when she has to...
Hmm, good point! I was going to add that using her sexuality/femininity as a weapon is both a Lannister and Tyrell thing to do, but the way she does it, being all aggressive and "you know you want me" does seem more Cersei-like than Margaery or Olenna, who both take the "oh, don't mind me, I'm just a silly young girl/old lady and don't bother my pretty little head with any of this stuff" approach, which Lara definitely doesn't.

until it came to the subject of children as collateral damage, and there they would definitely not be seeing eye to eye.
Yup, totally. And Marcone would be quick to point out that Tywin's treatment of his children has really come back to bite him in the butt, given the way all three of them turned out, especially Tyrion.

The diary format seemed really forced to me, too -- and, frankly, unnecessary
Me, too. I could see what she was doing, trying out new things and whatnot, and some of it did indeed work (such as the detective-in-training thing you point out), but overall, I didn't care for it. If it gets a little better in the second one, though, then I might give it a shot once I've worked through the current backlog.

LOL, Alanna wearing spangly robes and a pointy hat with "wizzard" on it and terrifying all the professors! And, yeah, Moist would be totally smitten by her (possibly literally)! The gold suit and running around yelling all the time (for some reason, Moist and Miles' "forward momentum!" are inextricably linked in my mind) might put her off at first, but she and he would make a hell of a team, it has to be said.

[hamsterwoman]

I was going to add that using her sexuality/femininity as a weapon is both a Lannister and Tyrell thing to do, but the way she does it, being all aggressive and "you know you want me" does seem more Cersei-like

Yes, I would definitely say that's more like Cersei. The Tyrells are happy enough to be underestimated and dismissed as silly pretty things, but it's the Lannisters (or Cersei, anyway) who vamp (heh).

If it gets a little better in the second one, though, then I might give it a shot once I've worked through the current backlog.

I liked book 2 better than book 1, in this respect and in general. And I heard really good things about Mastiff, the last.

Moist and Miles' "forward momentum!" are inextricably linked in my mind

Heh, funny you should say that, because Moist reminded me of Miles a fair bit when I read Going Postal -- not in personality or morals, but exactly in the FOWARD MOMENTUM! approach (and also in the way they're smart enough to know they're riding the knife's edge of disaster with their various plans, and therefore spend a lot of their time properly terrified :P

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

The Tyrells are happy enough to be underestimated and dismissed as silly pretty things, but it's the Lannisters (or Cersei, anyway) who vamp (heh).
*ba-DUM-tish* So I guess Lara is, like, a Tyrell fostered out to the Lannisters.

in the FOWARD MOMENTUM! approach (and also in the way they're smart enough to know they're riding the knife's edge of disaster with their various plans, and therefore spend a lot of their time properly terrified :P
Aha! I was trying to put my finger on why Miles reminds me so much of Moist (aside from FOREWARD MOMENTUM! and them both being trickster archetypes, of course), and here it is! They both basically make it up as they go along, and thus are almost constantly in an internal state of "ohcrapwhatamIdoingquickmakesomethingupgogogo" and an external state of "of course I know what I'm doing!...Oh, look, a distracting thing!"

[hamsterwoman]

So I guess Lara is, like, a Tyrell fostered out to the Lannisters

Or maybe a Lannister fostered out to the Tyrells, where she learns to bide her time and be nicer to her siblings. Some kind of mix of the two, at any rate!

constantly in an internal state of "ohcrapwhatamIdoingquickmakesomethingupgogogo" and an external state of "of course I know what I'm doing!...Oh, look, a distracting thing!"

LOL, love the monologues, as they are absolutely spot on! But yeah, exactly. I like Moist more as a character than I do Miles -- he is not nearly so overbearing, and I find him more easy to empathize with, cons and all -- but I love them both as protagonists/POV characters because that duality is just so much FUN, the inner freaking out and flying by the seat of their pants as contrasted with the outward poise and daring accomplishments.

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

Or maybe a Lannister fostered out to the Tyrells, where she learns to bide her time and be nicer to her siblings.
Or that, too! Clearly she's got strong elements of both, so it can definitely go either way, as long as Lannister and Tyrell are both in there somewhere.

I love them both as protagonists/POV characters because that duality is just so much FUN, the inner freaking out and flying by the seat of their pants as contrasted with the outward poise and daring accomplishments.
Totally agreed! I also tend to like characters that are legends in their own lifetimes, especially if they're perplexed by the admiration and/or gained their legendariness sort of by accident, so that feeds into the whole thing too, but you're right, it's enormous amounts of fun to watch them inwardly flail around while outwardly coming up with a series of increasingly audacious zany schemes and pull them off via bravado, FOREWARD MOMENTUM!, and luck.

[hamsterwoman]

it's enormous amounts of fun to watch them inwardly flail around while outwardly coming up with a series of increasingly audacious zany schemes and pull them off via bravado

Yep! And after Miles, I can never think of this as anything other than FORWARD MOMENTUM! (not necessarily in all caps, but always with the exclamation mark)

Also, I'm really glad we started talking about Lara, because I'm not sure I would have remembered otherwise, but it reminded me of the glory that is Tony Stark/Lara Raith (via the sorting Avengers into ASOIAF houses conversation) in time to stick it as one of my favorite crossover ships in that shippy meme I posted the other day :)

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

the glory that is Tony Stark/Lara Raith (via the sorting Avengers into ASOIAF houses conversation)
Wow, these two would be kind of terrifyingly awesome together! I can totally see it, too: they're both gorgeous (and aware of their gorgeousness), rich, powerful, and ruthless, and Tonly would be absolutely okay with Lara literally living off of sex. Neither of them would underestimate the other because of the "rich idiot with no day job" public persona they put on, and would make a hell of a power couple business-wise...or maybe I should just go read that meme! XD

[hamsterwoman]

they're both gorgeous (and aware of their gorgeousness), rich, powerful, and ruthless, and Tonly would be absolutely okay with Lara literally living off of sex

All of this, basically, as well as the fact you point out that they wouldn't underestimate each other based on public persona.

Now I really want fic, or art, or something. You know it would be both fascinating and hot!

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

I have to warn you, if you go to the Hornblower books, that Hardass/Cold-Hearted Bastard with extra Angst Sauce is original canon, and in fact the Forester estate insisted that ITV write Archie out because he was making Horatio too human. Bush is the canon Patient Sidekick.

I'm sorry I can't oblige you by saving Wellard, but I adore his heroic-last-stand death, and canon shows him bleeding out within a minute, not having a lingering thing like Archie that was TOTALLY AMENABLE TO SURGERY. I wish I could 'cause he's so sweet and pretty, and Archie is so kind to him.

I agree with you very strongly about the characters in Sense & Sensibility; when I read the book, I was pretty much annoyed with everyone. I highly recommend the 2008 BBC adaptation with Dan Stevens as Edward Ferrars: it suddenly becomes much easier to understand Marianne's drama-queen behaviors when she legit looks barely 17, and Elinor's patience and Edward's conflict come through much better. Plus I am in love with the move to the poky little cottage, and some of the architecture porn is of My House -- Ham House in Richmond belongs to me, don't you know, and I'm just letting the National Trust take care of the maintenance and all that. ;-)

I should be writing. But I can never resist talking about my fandom!

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

if you go to the Hornblower books, that Hardass/Cold-Hearted Bastard with extra Angst Sauce is original canon
This is why I don't feel as bad as I otherwise might about skipping book!Horatio and sticking with miniseries!Horatio. I've read snippets that people post here and there, and aside from the glory that is "Fic or Forester?", I'm not to keen on reading a couple hundred pages of "ANGST ANGST ANGST ANGST ANGST FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT ANGST ANGST ANGST ANGST ANGST."

I'd heard about Archie getting written out on the Forester estate's orders, and I've also heard that the show's writers stole a march in order to be able to have him die a heroic, important death. It sure explains why nobody mentions him in Loyalty or Duty, though.

I'm sorry I can't oblige you by saving Wellard
Heh, no worries! I actually really liked his death ("He said I was brave." *sniff*), and his survial would mean re-writing of canon to an implausible degree, as opposed to Archie. Hey, as long as they're not literally dead (and even when they are, as long as it's inside of, like, 15 minutes), Dr. Maturin can fix them! Archie/Wellard is totally my brotp (outside of anything involving the Big Three, of course), though. Once Archie graduated to lieutenant, Wellard is right up at the top of my Plucky Middies Who Need A Good Cuddle Hug list.

I highly recommend the 2008 BBC adaptation
Thanks for the rec! How did you know I've been hankering after a good non-tragic period piece lately? ;) And I feel bad for not liking S&S as much as I ought to, so anything to make me like it better is much appreciated.

I should be writing. But I can never resist talking about my fandom!
Bwa-ha-ha! >:D

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

I got about halfway through the books and I had to ditch them. Not only was book!Horatio REALLY TEDIOUS, it was starting to hit me in places I don't like to be poked.

Yes. I'd heard as well that the writers said "okay, but can we keep him through the end of the mutiny story line?" (basically it took both Mutiny and Retribution to cover "Lieutenant Hornblower") and, when the estate said "yes," they sent him out like a Big Damn Hero, ensuring his place in the hearts of fangirls FOREVER.

I have seen a script for Loyalty that has a brief exchange of dialogue between Bush and Horatio where Bush acknowledges "it should have been Archie" and Horatio kind of agrees but shuts him down quick. BROKEN HEART OMG ALL MY FEELS. If it got filmed, it got cut.

Stephen Maturin has canonically declared his uselessness in the face of severed major arteries. And he wasn't THERE. He was in Kingston because the Charwell was (though, on a close reading, I think actually the Charwell picked him and Jack up at Gibraltar, but shhh), but he certainly wasn't on board the Renown. FUCK Dr. Clive.

Wellard is so totally a Plucky Middie Who Needs A Cuddle. I am all in favor of him having Muchas Smooches. How about we write an OT3 with him and Charles Orrock and Jack Hammond and Wellard teaches Jack a few things about what it means to be brave? AUGH I AM ON DEADLINE I DO NOT NEED THIS SMUT I MEAN PLOTBUNNY

I liked the 2008 S&S enough to buy myself a nice cheap used copy on Amazon. I highly recommend it.

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

Not only was book!Horatio REALLY TEDIOUS
Yup. I have a feeling that I could only listen to him monologue to himself about the futility and emptiness of life and be undeservedly nasty to Bush for so long.

Bush acknowledges "it should have been Archie" and Horatio kind of agrees but shuts him down quick. BROKEN HEART OMG ALL MY FEELS.
OMG, I've never heard this! All my feels, indeed. T.T That's such a totally Bush thing to say, and such a totally Horatio (well, post-Archie Horatio, anyway) way to respond. See, this is why I subscribe to a LKU!

Stephen Maturin has canonically declared his uselessness in the face of severed major arteries. And he wasn't THERE.
Exactly. The contortions of canon to bring him onto the Renown when it was at sea would be just kind of painful to watch, while bringing him into a military hospital in Jamaica, as you've proven, is relatively easy. And, yes, fuck Dr. Clive sideways. For someone used to naval surgeons being consummate badasses like Stephen, or at the worst cranky-but-comptetent like Dr. Heppelwhite or Keynes from Temeraire, Dr. Clive was one big facepalm.

How about we write an OT3 with him and Charles Orrock and Jack Hammond and Wellard teaches Jack a few things about what it means to be brave? AUGH I AM ON DEADLINE I DO NOT NEED THIS SMUT I MEAN PLOTBUNNY
GIVE IN TO THE SMUT PLOTBUNNY! Or, rather, be virtuous and meet your deadline, and then WRITE ALL THE SMUT PLOTBUNNIES!

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

It's not so much the futility and emptiness of life so much as it's How Much Do I Suck? That much self-loathing is no fun.

That bunny is looking a lot like a PWP, with only the barest plot markings on it to establish the characters. And, damn. Two LUMINOUSLY pretty pale brunettes and one charming fellow with an accent to die for? *fans self* And Orrock/Wellard would have to be an established relationship, and Wellard would be the one saying "let's invite Jack, he reminds me of myself and he could use a bit of comfort, it'd give him courage."

[lunasariel.livejournal.com]

That much self-loathing is no fun.
Indeed no. XP

Two LUMINOUSLY pretty pale brunettes and one charming fellow with an accent to die for?
*gaaaah* There is no part of this sentence I don't love. And I could totally go for established Orrock/Wellard, which would be ADORABLE (and sexy); the addition of Jack would just make things exponentially better.