#mostly because i feel bad about having so many tardy posts in the last couple months
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Essential Avengers: Avengers #153: “Home is the Hero!”
November, 1976
Since I’m typing this while sick, I can’t really figure out if that title makes no sense or what. I know all the words but in that order its like whaaaaat.
There’s actually a number of things going on here that don’t really mesh well with ill loopiness.
But first, the cover.
The Avengers sure are getting their asses kicked by an elderly man with heart troubles.
Earth’s Mightiest Heroes!
Actually its kind of weird how easy it is to solo the Avengers if the plot says so. Grim Reaper managed it. The Whizzer is managing it. Orka, the man dressed as the whale that isn’t a whale managed it. Ant-Man will manage it soon. They’re kind of a paper tiger sometimes. Just crumbling before the right single individual.
But its hard to come out with a fresh new story every month, probably.
Also, Jack Kirby cover! And tiny judgemental Vision has changed his pose! It truly is a brand new day!
Anyway.
We start off with Scarlet Witch flying towards the ruins of the Brand Corporation.
Right off the bat, something is amiss.
Scarlet Witch cannot usually fly.
Apparently, this was later retconned as Wanda using an experimental “flying belt” which I guess she was wearing under her leotard. Not a strong early showing for the new creative team, I’ll tell you that.
I think the bare minimum for writing on a comic should be knowing the characters you’re going to be writing.
Although, y’know, its weird that the Avengers didn’t invest in experimental flying belts or flight rings or whatever for their non-flying members. It would save a heap of trouble and they have Tony Stark, right there.
Wonder Man gets a flight belt of sorts later but since its rocket powered and he can only use it because he has an invincible hiney, its not really suitable for the rest of the team.
So okay, Scarlet Witch has returned to the remains of the Brand Corporation which isn’t a crime scene or cordoned off or anything. Ffs, Marvel law enforcement.
When suddenly, a laser ZAMM!s her, causing her to plummet to the ground, her flight belt that she totally has shorted out or something.
Thinking quick, she turns the ground to water to soften her fall but she still gets the wind knocked out of her.
She also happens to land right next to the Serpent Crown, which she is apparently here for. Maybe she’s still subconsciously manipulating probabilities because that’s dang lucky.
Or perhaps darn unlucky. She landed next to the thing but someone shot her out of the sky and after that fall, she’s in no shape to fight whoever is the laser wielding person.
Unsurprise, its the Living Laser.
He’s the worst.
Anyway, he takes his time to gloat about how cool he is. Y’know, just villain things.
But he’s here to take the Serpent Crown. A gaudy hat like that will go wonders with his garish outfit.
How the hell did the Avengers just forget the artifact of doom that they stole from another world?!
Anyway, Living Laser is not like those other villains. Instead of leaving while the hero is helpless, he’s just going to kill her now on the off chance she might become a problem.
So something has to get in the way if his own stupidity won’t.
The Brand private army charges forward to attack Scarlet Witch, recognizing her as one of the Avengers that busted up the place.
Living Laser blasts some of them and then decides to completely forget about Scarlet Witch and laser teleport away. Thanks, laser inattentiveness!
Meanwhile, the rest of the Avengers return from New Orleans in the Quinjet, raising so many questions. Did Scarlet Witch fly all the way to New York with the experimental flying belt that she somehow got between issues? Why not just catch a ride most of the way with the Avengers since they were headed the same way?
This Is Something I Have To Do Myself is a cursed trope, constantly vexing me.
Anyway. The Avengers return. And have to go into their mansion through the back door because there’s still a big mob of lookie-loos and newspeeps at the front door. Even though Jarvis kicked them off the property last issue.
You need to work on your follow-through, Jarvis.
But here’s a thing: over the past several hours, Wonder Man’s heartbeat has been getting stronger. He’s coming back to life, maybe!
Oh and Jarvis shows up and implies why he didn’t finish tossing out the nosy mob. The Avengers had a guest show up while they were out and Jarvis deposited him in the sitting room to await their return.
Its Bob Frank, the Whizzer (But not the Squadron Sinisterpreme one. The All-Winners Squad and Liberty Legion one). And he specifically wants to see Vision.
Apparently the Whizzer disappeared after Quicksilver and Crystal’s wedding and Wanda and Vision worried after him. They even thought him dead. Not enough to ever bring it up or go searching for him on panel. But they were worried, on the inside.
But Whizzer didn’t come to wallow in self-pity or explain what he’s been up to. He’s come to check on Wanda, because of that broadcast that implied she might leave the Avengers. Remember? From #151?
Vision confides that Wanda temporarily left him and the Avengers the previous night on a journey of self-understanding and wishes to be alone.
And then someone shines a laser in Bob Frank’s eye and instead of going blind, all hell breaks loose.
The Whizzer goes wild and BOM!s Vision. He also forgot who Vision was and what they were talking about.
Wouldn’t it be terrifying for someone with superpowers to get dementia?
That’s not going on here and frankly I’ll express my doubts at the ability of the Avengers book to handle the subject with the tact and respect required. But the thought occurred to me.
Thank god for sliding time scales, I guess.
Anyway, Vision was BOM!’d unconscious and Whizzer whizzes off as if searching for something.
But finds Captain America, Beast, and Iron Man, who came to investigate that BOM!.
Cap throws his mighty shield but Whizzer, he does not yield. I’m calling into question his patriotism.
Whizzer calls Cap Isbisa, accuses him of wanting to take over the world and then WHAM!s Iron Man hard while Beast cannonballs out of the way, spouting witticisms.
Cap tries to talk Whizzer down but Whizzer spins him right round until he corkscrews up and into the ceiling. Like. INTO the ceiling. As in, its a surprise Cap has any skull left.
And then we reach a short impasse of sorts. Whizzer is moving too fast for Beast to do much to. The guy is freaked out and apparently hypnotized to boot. But Beast is acrobatic enough that Whizzer is maybe too fast to catch him? If that makes sense?
So instead he uses brains. He runs at and bounces off the wall so hard that part of the ceiling collapses, burying Beast.
Quicksilver could learn a lot from this guy, as far as purposefully running into walls goes.
And with no one left to fight, Whizzer’s head clears a little. Its not the forties at all. And then he hears a buzzing and suddenly his head feels like its splitting apart from pain.
And then he passes out.
Because apparently Yellowjacket and the Wasp had flown inside his ear and shot his ear drums.
Clever of them to not just join the fight and instead wait until everyone else got punched.
Eighteen minutes of off-screen action and the two size-changing heroes manage to scrape together the other three. Beast is conscripted to carry Whizzer to the lab.
Beast: “Since when was I elected donkey for this troop?”
Vision: “In many ways, you are our strongest member, Hank McCoy -- and thus, you may sometimes be unduly burdened.”
I call shenanigans on that. You’re just hazing the new guy, aren’t you?
But while everyone was either getting beaten up by the Whizzer or flying inside his ears, Wonder Man vanished. And not only that, someone wrecked up the lab where they left him.
It almost feels as if the whole thing with the Whizzer was some kind of distraction?
Anyway, Wonder Man stumbles out the side exit of the mansion because its a mansion and can have more than two exists. And some of the lookie-loos spot him and recognize him as Wonder Man.
They immediately get right up in his personal space, grabbing at him and begging for souvenirs.
And Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man, is not really up to speed yet. He’s running in safe mode, as it were. Because he acts on instinct to being mobbed and smacks away the crowd and then absconds.
And the narration notes that at this point he’s almost moving like a normal living person, with none of the stiffness of a zuvembie. Also, gone is the blank expressionless stare ALTHOUGH HOW YOU COULD TELL THAT THROUGH THE VISOR IS BEYOND ME, CREATIVE TEAM.
So, yeah. Remember how we left Scarlet Witch at Brand?
Yeah, she’s still there. And still being accosted by the Brand private army that doesn’t know that their bosses have all been arrested and they are probably unemployed.
She doesn’t even bother telling them either. Just dismisses them as frozen in blind obedience and immediately starts scarlet witching at them.
And then becomes frightened of the violence that her powers can cause, which seems like a step back for her, possibly. Not the sort of way her character was going under Englehart, is the feeling I get. Where she ripped a meteor from heaven and exulted in it. And now she gets frightened because she made the ground shake a little.
Oh, and then she gets shot.
One of the Brand punks she knocked down was playing possum, grabbed a gun and managed to get her in the shoulder.
Scarlet Witch decides to leave this pointless fight and warn the Avengers about the Living Laser and the Serpent Crown.
Now back to Wonder Man, already in progress.
The resurrected or whatever Wonder Man has been wandering the streets of Yorktown but finds himself drawn to a bright light down a particular street.
And a figure appears in that bright light.
AHHHHHH WONDER MAN IS BEING ABDUCTED BY ALIENS!
Oh. Oh. No, its Living Laser.
Anyway, he says he mentally commanded Wonder Man to come here to become his slave. And he also shot the Whizzer to hallucinate that the Avengers were enemies by shooting him in the eye with a laser. Which presumably was a distraction so that he could mentally command Wonder Man to wreck the lab and leave the mansion.
It’s all coming together.
Living Laser now has improved laser powers (possibly even laser willpower), the Serpent Crown, and Wonder Man as muscle.
Oh and Living Laser wasn’t the one who resurrected Wonder Man either. He considers it an unimportant mystery that might amuse him to solve one day.
We getting a lot of red herrings on our way through this mystery.
So while Living Laser proceeds with another brilliant part of his master plan of awesomeness, he commands Wonder Man to seek out and destroy the Avengers!
If they’re fighting and being killed by Wonder Man, they can’t interfere. Its genius.
And Wonder Man agrees.
“THE AVENGERS MUST BE DESTROYED!”
Geez. Think for yourself you holly jolly idiot.
We have a letters column again this time. Do people care about the letters column from decades ago? I kind of find it interesting in a pinhole snapshot kind of way.
Someone complains about the amount of reprinted material in #150, which I’m right there for. Another person complains about taking Thor out of the Avengers saying they wouldn’t be the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes without him (the Kooky Quartet weeps), instead suggesting that a character who hasn’t been in the line-up so long be removed. Which would be... probably only Beast? Everyone else has been around a long time, even during times when Thor was off the team.
Whoever answers these letters invites readers to send in their opinions for a Thor vs No Thor poll. Might be interesting, if its included in the Marvel Unlimited version.
Next time: this story concludes in a Giant-Size Avengers. Give all your money to Marvel. Consume. Obey. Obey the Serpent Crown.
Follow @essential-avengers. It exists.
#Avengers#Living Laser#Wonder Man#Scarlet Witch#the Vision#the Whizzer#Iron Man#Captain America#the Wasp#Yellowjacket#Beast#some Brand goons#a bunch of people with nothing better to do#Essential Avengers#Essential marvel liveblogging#Obey#neither rain nor snow nor illness nor glom of nit will keep me from liveblogging#mostly because i feel bad about having so many tardy posts in the last couple months
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Bottled Up
pairing: C.H. x fem!reader
category: angst, fluff
warnings: yelling, crying, insecurities
word count: 2.2k
notes: apologies for the tardy post, i wrote and rewrote and re-rewrote the whole angsty scene because i didn’t know if it was written well enough, i wanted to make sure you guys could feel the emotions that i vividly visualised and tried my best to put into words :( i did send it to a friend to check and she seemed to like it, so let me know how it goes for you, my loves. the angst for this one was inspired by 2 different songs - hold me while you wait by lewis capaldi and i will run from you by cemeteries. it’s not necessarily about the lyrics, but more about the melody and the mood you get into listening to them (they go in order). give those a listen :) also, beware of the upcoming philosophy references, i did study philosophy last year, hopefully no one gets triggered lmao
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Is a person’s scent something a normal human being picks up on before taking into account the rest of their features? Would a normal human being remember said scent and be able to recognise it in a crowd full of strangers? Corpse wasn’t too sure about the answer, but one thing he did know, is that she smelled delicately sweet, like cherry blossoms, and that ever since he had noticed it during their game night a few weeks ago, he simply couldn’t let it go. It was intoxicating, but in a calming way.
━
Corpse and (Y/N) each lay on their beds in their own homes, going into the third hour of their call. He couldn’t exactly fall asleep, so he had decided to see what his dear friend was up to, and even though she was this close to succumbing to sleep, she said nothing and stayed up to keep his busy mind company.
“Okay, hot topic: what do you think about soulmates? More specifically the romantic type?” the girl asked, not knowing how much of a risqué question it was. How was he supposed to answer?
“I don’t really have an opinion on it. Why?”
“I read Symposium by Plato the other day and it presented an interesting concept about human beings. Basically-” Of course she fucking read philosophical books. How were they even having a conversation with each other? Why were they even friends? She was on a whole other level of smart. “-so this guy says that humans were like androgynous blobs, so they’d come in two sets of everything a normal person has. But those humans were so powerful, the gods were literally shaking in their robes, so Zeus decided to cut everyone into two to weaken them. But then humans became so miserable, they spent their entire lives searching for their other halves. In the end, Zeus kinda felt bad and said fuck it, I’ll give y’all dicks and vaginas for every time you wanna hug each other. And that’s the oldest explanation there is about the idea of soulmates.” she sighed, finished with her rant.
“That was...not at all the story I expected to hear.” she heard him mumble on the other side of the call. “Yeah, Greek philosophers were up to some reeal freaky things, you would have loved them,” he laughed at her joke, “I honestly think it’s cute. Not the whole cutting people into two thing, but like, longing for someone and then finding them because you finally feel complete. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a strong independent woman who doesn’t need a prince in shining whatever to sweep me off my feet. But it does sound nice, that ideal comfort, a person you’re just...meant to be with, I guess.”
There was a moment of silence that neither of them really minded, before it was Corpse’s turn to ask the second bold question of the night. “Have you found that person yet? Your soulmate?”
She’s never thought about it before, but she hasn’t really thought about soulmates that much either, it was a spontaneous thought she had said out loud. “I’m not sure, actually. (B/F/N) could be one, I guess.” (Y/N) shrugged in return. Wasn’t she going to ask him about it? She probably didn’t care that much. Understandable.
“My favourite quote about love is «You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.». It’s by Sam Keen, the American philosopher. It maay be the hopeless romantic in me shining through, but I do very much agree with his statement.” Did this mean anyone could have a chance with her despite their fuckups? So if he were to try, would she-?
“Obviously, there are some things that just can’t be ignored or avoided, but at that point it’s preferences and personal tolerance. Depends on the person, ya know?” she swiftly added, unaware of the effect it had on him. Sick. Some people were just meant to rot alone.
The final question was posed by (Y/N). She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t at all curious. This little crush of hers had been steadily growing with every hang out, every laugh, every hug and every glance. There are rarely ever moments where one could casually discuss a topic this personal with friends, at least there weren’t with friends one had feelings for. This was the perfect opportunity.
“Corpse?”
“Hmm?”
“Have you ever been in love?” her voice was soft, her approach gentle.
“Well, I’ve been in relationships before, so I guess, yeah? It’s been so long, I don’t even know what love feels like anymore.” he let out a breath resembling a chuckle. Lamest fucking answer ever. But it was true. He hadn’t thought about love in that way in quite a while.
“A lot of people describe it as having an intense range of overwhelming feelings. Lightheadedness, slight shakiness, heart palpitations, some people have even reported losing their appetite. Crazy how human bodies work, huh? Oh! Speaking of chemicals-”
She had continued on to ramble about...chemistry? Eyes? Corpse couldn’t really hear what she was saying anymore, let alone concentrate on her words, as he pieced everything that’s been happening for the past few months together. The nauseating feeling. The pounding of his heart so fast it felt like he was about to die. The urge to make as little eye contact with her as possible, because otherwise he’d turn into a furnace. The obsession with her perfume, like he was some fucking creep. The fool was falling in love. And it was at that moment that everything had come crumbling down.
━
(Y/N) and Corpse hadn’t talked for a couple of weeks. Or rather (Y/N) messaged the 23 year old many times, but he’d either claim to be busy or just not answer at all. There were two possible reasons for the sudden lack of contact: he was indeed busy with his musical projects and couldn’t allow himself to be distracted; or something much more serious was going on. It didn’t matter, for she was already in her car, on her way to his apartment.
Arriving at her destination, she used the spare key he gave her months ago, a sign of absolute trust, and allowed herself into his humble abode. Silence reigned in her friend’s residence. She thought maybe he had gone somewhere, and though that was unlikely, it wasn’t unprecedented. The door to his recording room was closed, and while she was tempted to check if he was in there, she refrained from doing so, knowing that specific room was not to be entered unless he was around to give permission.
“Corpse?” she called out just to make sure. There was no response for a few minutes, which made her assume she had the place for herself, until she heard a door open behind her. Turning around, she saw his figure emerge from said recording room in a white t-shirt and black sweatpants, his curly hair disheveled.
“Hey, how are you d-”
“Why are you here?” he spoke flatly, interrupting her. “Well- You weren’t, um, answering your messages or any of my calls, so I thought something had happened.” she replied, suddenly nervous, fiddling with the rings on her fingers. “Nothing happened. I told you I was busy.”
The air around them seemed colder as tensions rose. (Y/N) could tell he was irritated, but she couldn’t exactly figure out why. She had never seen this side of him before. “Okay. Tell you what, I assume you haven’t had dinner yet, so why don’t I go ahead and start cooking something up while you-”
“Get out.”
She blinked a few times, not quite registering the words that had just left his mouth. “Sorry?” Her voice was quiet. She was taken off guard.
“Are you deaf? I said get. the fuck. OUT.”
Corpse shouted the last word, making her flinch in what appeared to be fear. Good. Run away while you still can. Heart pounding, (Y/N) took a second to remind herself whom she was speaking to. “I see that you’re angry, but at least give me a reason why-”
“You want a reason? I just don’t fucking WANT you here!” Anger grew inside of him like a tumor, but it wasn’t intended for her. She had simply been caught in a storm that had been building up for years. “Do you understand that?! I can’t fucking be around you without feeling like I’m going to EXPLODE.”
His words hit her like paintballs. They were only words, plain and simple, but they dug deeper and deeper into her skin with each hit, until, eventually, it broke. Eyes burning, she felt the tears slowly welling up in them.
“Why are you doing this to me?!” her own voice grew louder with frustration, but mostly, confusion.
“Maybe because I can? Because I’m a goddamn asshole?”
“Don’t say that.”
“How?! How can I not say it when it’s the truth!” He wanted to stop. His mind told him to cease whatever it was that he was doing. However, blinded with resentment towards himself, he only spilled words he would regret after it was too late.
“I can’t function like a normal fucking human being. I can’t be a good friend, son, or whatever the fuck else, and I sure as hell can’t love you.”
The paintballs had turned into a singular sword. A very long, very sharp sword that had found itself plunged deep inside her chest. How did he found out? When? Had she been too obvious? Had she been pushy? Clingy? Way out of line? The woman before him was unable to conceal her shock, as tears came rushing down her hot cheeks. Her voice brittle, she tried defending herself. She couldn’t leave it at that. She had to try. Try to have him see reason. “You don’t love me, that’s fine. But you didn’t have to deliver it this way-”
“But I did.” breathless with fury, Corpse clenched his fists so tight they had turned cold, yet they were still trembling. “You can get so naïve and dumb, you won’t understand things unless they’re spelled out nice and fucking bold for you.”
He closed with (Y/N) until their noses nearly touched. He noticed the way she silently shook, her eyes which shed endless tears never leaving his gaze. Unable to make a single sound, she felt the man’s hot breath on her face, his aura domineering.
“Now get. out.”
Her body wouldn’t cooperate as she just stood there. Staring back at him, her inner brows raised. Corpse wanted to hug her. Envelop her trembling figure with his and tell her he was sorry, that he meant none of it, that he had lost his mind. But he couldn’t bring himself to do anything. And with his own tears threatening to spill, he created a distance between them. He needed her gone.
“Leave! GO!”
His yelling was enough to jolt (Y/N) out of her trance, and, in a hurry, she sprinted towards the entrance. The door closed behind her, she felt a sudden urge to fill her lungs with much needed air. She jumped at the resounding scream that emanated from deep within his soul, letting out all of his pent-up rage.
Feet carrying her all the way to her car parked outside of the building, the young woman managed to climb in, and this was the queue for her body to break down. The night was young. The street empty. No one around to hear her long-lasting wailing. She clutched the steering wheel for support, fingers wrapping around the leather in a tight grip. A headache was creeping up from the back of her skull. Her ears pulsated in response to the heavy pounding of her heart. Clumsily, (Y/N) inserted the key into the ignition, felt around for the gear stick, and drove away. She didn’t know where she was going or how long it was going to take to get there. She needed to get out.
What went wrong? When did it go wrong? She couldn’t help but feel guilty, feel at fault. She had never seen that side of him before. He had never treated her that way before.
It was the hugs, wasn’t it? He had to have noticed the way she held on for a second too long to enjoy the smell of his cologne. Her vision blurred as she resumed softly weeping, her salty tears staining her top. Or it might have been the touchiness, she would practically glue herself to him during their movie nights. Unaware of both her actions and surroundings, (Y/N)’s breathing quickened, becoming ragged. Maybe he didn’t like the way she called him three times a week. Her hands were slowly losing control over the wheel, over the vehicle she was driving. She invaded his privacy. That was definitely it. Fuck. How could she have been so damn blind, selfish, ignorant, FUCKING STUPID.
Lights. Something was moving towards her- MOVE.
With a sharp turn, she dodged the approaching car just by a hair’s breadth, but as she had avoided one accident, another came just as quickly.
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Gallifrey Relisten: Lies
In the chaos of.....all of November....totally forgot I meant to relisten to this episode sooner! Which is odd because Series 2 is definitely one of the high points of Gallifrey for me (apparently listening to everything slowly collapse into the civil war is super engaging and interesting? idk Series 2 just does a lot of solid character work and storytelling and good narrative progression to the “ahhh everything is very bad” finale...and I’m not sure how to feel about this, given *gestures at the world these days*). But anyways, now for some thoughts on the series opener:
Fun fact: From the TV show alone, Romana I was my favorite. (This had something to do with her having more character growth in season 16 than season 17, since her early days on the TARDIS involve the “wait my academic success does not necessarily translate to the real world” realization and learning about worlds and people different from her own and growing from High-Achieving Student to Adventurer in her own right. Also I loved the grudgingly-working-together to actual-friends arc with her and the Doctor. I was a bit less interested in her character when she was just going around being a capable adventurer, although I did become invested in Romana II in her last episodes, as she quietly grapples with the issue of what she wants to do next in life and eventually chooses to go off on her own. Also to be fair, I appreciate the fun times of Season 17 a lot more now because Romana being happy and having a good time traveling around the universe? What a concept.)
All this to say: me on my first listen of Gallifrey was very excited about Romana I being in this episode. And even though it’s not quite as much of a !!!!! thing for me these days (the Gallifrey audios have long since solidified Romana II as my favorite), I do love the (sort of) multi-Romana interaction that happens in this one.
Brax essentially going “yeah the education system is supposed to be shitty and take an emotional toll on you” sir.
“I am not xenophobic” — Oh yeah, this scene is Narvin at his most unlikeable. “I’m not being bigoted, I’m just trying to protect Gallifrey, the fact that I assume that people who aren’t from here inherently can’t be trusted, and also go on about how they’re too loud and disruptive and don’t belong is definitely not a bigoted worldview nope.” Yikes. Very glad he’s going to see the error of his ways.
The Narvin and Darkel rant session does actually do a good job at explaining what’s been happening and establishing the primary conflict of the series while not feeling like it exists solely to be an info dump to catch up the listener. Like, it’s definitely a setup scene, but it is an interesting setup scene.
“But she is my President, and it’s my job to ensure that she gets what she wants and needs, efficiently and without question. Well, too many questions anyway.” Okay this moment and Darkel and Wynter’s conversation later about Narvin’s weakness (“Loyalty. An unswerving loyalty to his office and his precious CIA. And above all, loyalty to his president.” “He despises President Romana!” “Oh yes, of course. But it’s the position, not the person, he places that trust in.”) are really setting up some key Narvin Character Theses that we’re going to see play out this series (and also that the narrative is going to push in really interesting ways later on..... “position not the person”.....just you wait....)
Darkel and Narvin being indignant that Romana changed the law is just....hilarious in a kind of horrifying way? Oh no, the President worked with the legislative body to actually get a law passed. The horror.
“She has a temper. And a very long memory.” This is definitely about the CIA trying to overthrow her in Neverland but uhhh also it’s about Etra Prime and the Powers That Be on Gallifrey never making a serious effort to save her (at least from her perspective).
Yeah Darkel as antagonist is a bit abrupt (not that I particularly mind, she’s a good enough “love to hate” character that her not being set up as an antagonist from Series 1 doesn’t really bother me). But yeah, not sure what was going on behind the scenes, but it doesn’t seem like in Series 1 the plan was for her to be the primary Series 2-3 antagonist.
Darkel to Narvin: “You will let me know when you’ve decided.” Ooh yeah, this moment is quite a good setup of Narvin’s arc throughout this series — he has to decide where his loyalties truly lie.
Wynter is really interesting as far as character dynamics go, because he breaks the whole “Romana and Leela are the youngest people in the room” vibe — and it is just really interesting to see Romana interacting with this quite young Time Lord and specifically compare/contrasting it to how she interacts with young Time Lords in the later series when she’s older and a bit more emotionally mature and has more of the “mentor figure” vibes. (There isn’t really a conclusion to this thought, it’s more of a “huh, I’m thinking about this now” thing.)
“It’s been seven weeks, Andred. It’s hardly a lifetime.” Romana: please you have not been in a cell for that long, calm down.
“I thought you two were friends.” “A president of the High Council of Gallifrey cannot allow herself the luxury of friends.” Ahhhh, where it begins!! I’m extremely weak for the arc of Romana opening herself up to friendship and love, what of it.
Honestly, Andred’s politics have always been very confusing to me? And it probably doesn’t help that the show is all “he’s fully Andred now” but also “he lived as Torvald a long time and that’s still influencing him.” Like both of those things can be true, but it’s a bit unclear what Andred’s true priorities and motivations really are right then — and honestly, it just comes off like his primarily desire is to be useful to someone, and be granted some form of autonomy/power/respect in return (aka he doesn’t have any real clear principles that are motivating him). Also complaining about Romana opening Gallifrey up to aliens is such a bad look dude.
Romana to Andred: “I control your future. I control whether you have one.” Umm???? The foreshadowing?????
Andred, no. Andred, the free time pun was too much.
“I wish I had databanks. With a flick of a switch I could turn myself off, become unaware of all that has happened.” Leela ahhhhhhhhhh. (The desire to give Leela all the hugs and emotional support is very very high throughout these next couple seasons especially.....her mental health is in such a rough place ahhhh.)
Andred regenerated “nearly six months ago” and it’s been six and a half (or seven, depending on which character is speaking) weeks since A Blind Eye, which took place an unspecified amount of time after The Inquiry, which took place two weeks after Square One...(don’t mind me, just taking some notes on the timeline math...)
I believe a couple times in the Gallifrey audios, they reference the position of “Vice President,” which is very weird because that doesn’t seem to be a position that exists?? Chancellor is definitely seen as the #2 spot?? Idk what’s going on here.
“You are appreciated, highly regarded, and were I to lose you I would be...disappointed.” Romana, you started strong and then you got a bit emotionally repressed there.
“Torvald was a fool, but he was my fool.” .....I am not saying anything.....I will not be commenting on the Narvin and Andred scene......I just.......you know. There are some fics you cannot unread.
Romana does really trust Brax here, doesn’t she. And she really doesn’t trust easily post-Etra Prime, so this is a big deal — making it all the rougher when she (in the short term) finds out he meddled with her memories and (in the long term) has to deal with him doing things like temporarily betraying her for the greater good of protecting her while not explaining at all what’s really going on.
Okay, yes the whole pearl-clutching about Romana changing the laws is kinda silly and horrifying in a “how dysfunctional is your society if passing one (1) law is drastic change??” way, but also the flip side of this, aka “we thought these things were entrenched as norms in our society and would not change and then here comes along one president who’s trying to undo all of these things and threaten the whole system”.....y’all that hits differently now in the month November in the year 2020. In the Gallifrey audios the context is different — they are for sure overreacting to Romana’s very mild idea of “perhaps....we could change some things about society” but the way they talk about her political changes in the episode — feels a bit too close to home!
Romana’s voice right when she sees Leela....she missed her.....
Pandora being the “first female president” is a very weird and very unnecessary bit of misogyny? Ah yes, we must specify that this ancient president of Gallifrey who was wildly power-hungry and cruel and went too far and almost ruined everything Gallifrey had built was a woman?? Why was that bit of dialogue needed?? Tbh early Gallifrey does have a problem in general with characters played by women tending to be power-hungry....which is partly down to the fact that they have so so few women in the cast in general, it’s Romana, Leela, and Villains, mostly. (The lack of women in the supporting cast in early Gallifrey is going to be an ongoing complaint.)
“You should not be afraid of your feelings, K9.” / “Yes, thank you, if we can move on from the emotional support group session.” Pffffff
I do choose to ignore the implication that Romana returned to Gallifrey and became President because of the subconscious influence of Pandora/the Imperiatrix Imprimatur nudging her towards power. Tbh it’s simply not interesting to me to have such a pivotal character choice reduced to genetic/subconscious manipulation. Yes, Romana ended her TV run insisting she didn’t want to go back to Gallifrey (and even staying in another universe to avoid it), and yes, it creates this initial emotional dissonance suddenly jumping to stories where she’s President of Gallifrey. But I already did the headcanon work before I jumped into Big Finish to make it work for me, I didn’t need this weirdness.
Elaborating on this a bit more: There is something interesting to me about a person who left home and slowly ended up rejecting the narrow worldview she grew up with, cutting herself free from the place she was born — and then eventually choosing to return because she genuinely wanted to make that messed-up world better and believed she could. And it also creates a really interesting contrast with the Doctor: two Time Lords who came to realize that Gallifrey was pretty terrible actually, and one of them kept running away from it and rejecting Time Lord society, and the other came back and said maybe I can change things. Because both are understandable and complicated reactions to have to a messed-up home world, and there are different ways of trying to do good. And regardless of how her choices turned out, I always liked the idea that it was Romana’s own choice that brought her to Gallifrey again, and I don’t think Pandora needed to be shoehorned in to explain her actions.
Okay, I want to hear the follow up where Leela insists Romana tell the whole Key to Time story after hearing all of these random out of context bits and pieces.
Why does Brax admit to breaking the Laws of Time? The fact that he’s in contact with his past/future selves isn’t actually relevant to what he needs to tell Narvin? He literally could have just said that he hypnotized Romana, without mentioning that it was his future self who did it? (Also, it’s implied in this one that he pushes for Romana to use the mind wipe on Narvin because he wants the memory of that reveal erased, but somehow that’s the one thing that Narvin keeps because he uses that information against Brax later? Aka: how did Narvin remember that Brax told him this?)
And final thought: general internal monologue during this episode is just: Pandora arc Pandora arc Pandora arc here we go!! Because the Lies through Warfare run is really one of the more interesting bits of Gallifrey for me (Imperiatrix specifically ranks very high on my favorite episodes list), and I’m excited to be re-listening to/thinking about/hearing other people talk about these episodes!
Next Episode Reaction: Spirit
Previous Episode Reaction: A Blind Eye
#gallifrey audios#romana#leela#narvin#irving braxiatel#going to listen to the pod of rassilon episode on a long car ride tomorrow (well. today at this point) so very excited for that!#ramblings#emily listens to big finish#the relisten of rassilon
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It took three and a half months, but I’ve finished my Doctor Who Rewatch.
It’s time to talk about seasons 10, 11, overall wrapup thoughts and some best/worst lists. Very long post below.
I started doing this back at the end of August as more of a joke when I was going back and cleaning the terrible cringe stuff off the first few months of my blog, then ended up taking that project from when I started the blog in May, 2011 until late 2016. I realized that I had too much going on IRL right now to revisit my life at the end of 2016 when things took a sharp turn the wrong way, so I haven’t picked that back up again. I still might at some point.
After the start of the nostalgia tour I:
Cried about Doomsday
Still hated the Manhattan episodes but renewed my love for one of my favorite characters of all time.
Reflected about Martha Jones and being an overly-zealous defender of a fictional character
Cried a lot over meeting and losing River Song in the span of an hour and a half.
Made my way through Season 4 and found myself still mostly loving the show.
Finished Season 4 and was starting to tire of Ten but knew I had more content to get through.
Didn’t post again til I was done with Amy and Rory. Loved Amy, Rory and River even more, especially Rory.
Watched an episode I remembered I didn’t like just because of the guest actors. Only marginally helped the episode.
Disliked the second half of season 7 even more than I used to. Felt meh about Clara.
Warmed to Clara more in seasons 8 and 9. Still, was ready to see her go. Loved Twelve, though the first half of season 8 continued to be rough. Adored the Husbands of River Song for the 6th+ time.
Took a brief moment to love Bill.
Full disclosure on the rewatch: I skipped most of Fear Her except the first and last few minutes, and actually haven’t gotten back to Waters of Mars or the one 11 Christmas Special with the kids who’s father dies. I may or may not pick those up in the next week or two.
So tonight I finished rewatching all of Thirteen’s episodes and wanted to talk a bit more about Bill, and then a lot about Thirteen, and some general thoughts about the whole rewatch.
Bill Potts is too good for this world. I remembered loving her during her season but was blown away on the rewatch with how much I loved her, and almost all of her season. Her energy, her story, her smile, it’s infectious. It’s infuriating that so many people didn’t watch Bill because wow she deserved a lot more attention that I feel like she got, and also I feel like the show itself turned a real corner that season. Season 9, yes, definitely better than 8 and 7.5. But It’s like Moffat or the writers in general kinda grocked into several important things and made the show more progressive and less cringe?
There wasn’t an episode I thought was bad, even the more filler episodes like the one in space with the air being a commodity was tense and fun. I’m not sure I’d skip a single episode.
And then Bill, I think, ends up getting an even shittier deal than Martha in her season. Left alone for ten years in a shithole mopping up floors, only to be turned into a cyberman and get left extremely traumatized, and sacrifice herself. A very good story. A very sad and frustrating ending. Except that she does get to “transform” and travel the universe with Heather.
Maybe she did eventually go back home and finish living her life from not long after she left in the TARDIS the last time -- it’s entirely possible. The Memory-Bill in Twice Upon a Time (the Twelve & One crossover) remembered traveling with Heather, which means her memory was taken from some point AFTER. So maybe she got to be an ethereal being for a long time, and then eventually went home to Earth. Or maybe she’s still out there traveling the stars with Heather. Either way, she deserves a good life, and a good ending, even if we never know the true ending.
Twelve -- I love him. Again, he had a really rough start but Capaldi is an amazing actor and he owned the role. I don’t think it’s actually possible to rank my favorite doctors from the new Who era, they’re all different, all great. And Missy -- such an amazing villain. Paired with Simms-Master was so, extremely fun, but even on her own, I think she’s now my favorite incarnation of The Master. (I’ve only seen a few episodes of Old-Who with Delgado, and I really love Delgado’s Master as well.)
Nardole was also a fun addition to the season. I know technically he was considered a full companion and enjoyed him when he was there, but tbh, to me it was all about Bill.
But hey, when Twelve left, it was a good time for him to go -- I really think three seasons is the sweet spot for length of a Doctor. I was so ready for Thirteen and The Fam.
I remembered loving Thirteen when her episodes were airing and, I was right to. Jodie Whittaker is so good -- I never doubt for a second that she’s The Doctor. The show one again feels very different with a new doctor / companions / showrunner. I honestly loved the lack of Doctor-Angst in the season. Thirteen is so much more brightness and sunshine and I think it was a good way to swing the Doctor after Twelve. I also liked that there were a few comments about changing genders, a little bit of frustration from noticing how people treated her differently, but it was neither an earthshattering thing that made EVERYTHING DIFFERENT nor was it a non-event. I really think they handled it well.
I will say that I think some of the critics were right, that the season itself could have used a bit more of an arc. Not a heavy arc, like seasons five and six had, but a bit more than Tim Shaw showing up in the first and last episodes of the season. It looks like next season is going to have that.
The arc that was there though really came from Graham and Ryan’s grief about Grace and their relationship growing. Honestly, I remember when we learned that one of the new companions was going to be a 60-ish year old dude I wasn’t looking forward to that at all, but honestly, I love Graham. He’s an actual good guy, he loves deeply, he’s allowed to show his emotions, he handles things WELL. He’s not perfect but also I felt like they wrote his character so well, he wasn’t an arrogant guy expecting everyone to follow his orders, he cares deeply for Ryan and even had some great scenes with Yaz.
Ryan and Yaz are both also just so fantastic. I loved getting to spend time with Yaz’s family both current and past. I actually learned a little history in the episode that took place in Pakistan (and loved having a benevolent alien storyline there, love that episode so much). I also loved that they allowed Ryan to show grief and sadness, and vulnerability too.
I was definitely feeling the 13/Yaz vibes on the rewatch, and although I wouldn’t say I’d be upset if they did end up doing a Ryan/Yaz storyline, I also wouldn’t be upset if they didn’t do any romance storylines at all. I didn’t miss it this season, and 13/Yaz seemed more likely than anything.
I also loved that they took on racism in a couple of big ways this series. I felt like the only big swing-and-miss episode was Ker-Blam! where they were so close to really hammering down a good message in the episode and then it felt like Jeff Bezos himself came in and rewrote the last 10 minutes.
TBH there were a couple of episodes that I had COMPLETELY forgotten about, especially the one with Chris North and the big spiders. Like while I was watching it I had a vague memory of seeing it before, but not up until then. I’d also forgotten about the New Year’s episode last year with Ryan’s dad. I only remembered to watch it because after the final episode I was like “Wait, wasn’t Ryan’s dad supposed to be in this season?” and so I went to hunt for the episode.
SO... that’s it. I was actually a little shocked last night when I finished up the New Year’s episode and realized... I was DONE. I made it back through eleven seasons and... it was worth it.
Some final thoughts... and I’m just picking a few things out here off the top of my head, I wasn’t keeping a list all the way through so I’m sure I’m going to think of other things after hitting Post, but here we go.
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COMPANION RANKINGS:
God Tier: Martha Jones
Faves: Bill Potts, Rory Williams, River Song
I love you so much: Donna Noble, Amy Pond, The Fam (All together!), Jack Harkness, Mickey Smith, Wilfred Mott
Very very Good: Rose Tyler, Nardole
I Still Like You: Clara Oswald
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FAVE SEASON:
I mean, it’s still gonna be Martha’s season with an honorable mention of the second half of 4.
If you take Martha Jones out of the equation, it’d probably be either 6 through 7.0, or Bill’s season.
LEAST FAVORITE:
The second half of 7, for sure, and the first half of 8 is kinda rough. It’d be easy to say season 1, as well, but I don’t think that’s entirely fair, as I think the age of the show really shows there and there was a lot of getting-on-their feet they had to do. There’s still a lot of good there, you just have to look for it harder.
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Favorite Specials:
The Husbands of River Song, #1 favorite no question
The Day of the Doctor a close second.
Honorable mention to the Night of The Doctor for the canonical return of Eight. Seriously, the first time I saw that it may have been the single most joyous moment of New Who for me.
Least Favorite:
I mean, I haven’t rewatched two of them yet since I remember not liking them.
Also Voyage of the Damned was just even worse than I remembered it.
I Cried The Hardest:
Amy and Rory’s leaving in The Angels Take Manhattan
River’s death in the Library
The end of Doomsday
Danny’s death
The end of Vincent and the Doctor
Prem’s death in Demons of the Punjab, maybe the only single-episode character death that hit me that hard.
Happiest Tears:
Martha leaves the Doctor
The group in the TARDIS towing Earth home in Journey’s End
Twelve and River get 24 years together
Ryan calls Graham “Grandad”
Jackie and Alt-Pete meet/”reunite”
Heather shows up and... “saves” Bill, they go off on adventures.
Best Twists:
John Simms Return at the end of season ten.
YANA is the Master
Oswin is actually a Dalek
Heaven is run by Missy, and the Cybermen. (Damn I really love twists concerning the Master don’t I?)
Bill discovers she IS a Cyberman
Loudest cheers:
Mickey showing up in Doomsday
Martha laughs at the Master
Rory’s speech at the beginning of A Good Man Goes to War
The Doctor punches a racist who insulted Bill
Best dramatic moments:
Jack and the Doctor talk about Rose in Utopia
Twelve takes several billion years to punch through a wall
Just This Once, Everybody Lives!
Turn Left
The Doctor says goodbye Idris in The Doctor’s Wife
Missy and the Master’s mutually assured destruction.
Biggest Laughs for a good reason:
The entire poison scene in the Unicorn and the Wasp
Basically everything about the Doctor attempting to be normal in The Lodger.
Right, putting Hitler in the Cupboard.
Doctor, when I’m on a date, do not put the Pope in my bedroom.
Biggest Cringe:
Penis-head half-human Dalek
Concrete blowjobs
Anytime a lady slapped/hit a guy not in self-defense
Old goblin Ten / Jesus Ten in Last of the Time Lords
Most of The End of Time part 1
Eleven forces a kiss on Jenny in The Crimson Horror (THAT deserved the slap.)
There’s a lot of things I could point out in season 1 but I’m grading season 1 on a curve.
Favorite non-companion recurring characters:
Danny Pink
Brian Williams
Jackie Tyler
Worst Villians:
“Love And Monsters”
“Fear Her”
The eye-crud sleep monster with Twelve
I kinda wanna say the Daleks are so overdone it’s hard to get excited about them anymore, though I did kinda like what they did in “Resolution” (13′s New Years episode last year.)
OK I honestly don’t know if I want to put “A sentient universe who is in the form of a large frog and just wants a BFF” in best or worst but I feel it belongs SOMEWHERE.
Best Villians:
Missy
Whatever the fuck that thing is in Midnight
House
Got a Raw Deal award:
Adam (Seriously, he was told nothing and did nothing wrong via what he’d been told?!
Donna
Bill (Seriously, TEN YEARS SCRUBBING FLOORS? only to not be saved by 2 hours and then turned into a cyberman and killed again?)
Most Bothersome Lack of Continuity:
The rules for meeting yourself / interfering in the past.
Uh so who was the Not-Danny astronaut in “Listen” anyway?
Most Improved on a Rewatch:
The Fires of Pompeii because... ten and twelve? It used to be one of my least favorite eps of season 4.
the Daleks in Manahattan episodes I guess just because I liked them more this time though they’re still not great.
Seeing all of River’s timeline in such a short period of time
Gotta say I enjoyed Planet of the Dead a normal amount when before I used to really dislike it.
Best Premiere of a Doctor: The Eleventh Hour
Roughest Premiere of a Doctor: Deep Breath, since I’m grading season 1 on a curve.
Best Exit of a Doctor:
Honestly? I’m gonna give this one to Nine. He sacrificed himself to save Rose, and he died too soon. It seemed a fitting end, if too quick.
Roughest Exit of a Doctor:
I’m going to go with Eleven here. It came at the end of what I felt was the worst period of New Who. The episode itself was... I kind of felt like it was overwraught and didn’t pack quite the same punch as the other three. Say what you will about the “I Don’t Wanna Go” line with Ten and Twelve needing to be convinced to regenerate at all. Matt Smith did the best with what he was given, but he wasn’t given much in the entire last run of his episodes after having some of the BEST episodes the previous two and a half seasons.
Best Premiere of a Major Companion: Honestly? Still gotta go with The Eleventh Hour, for both Amy and Rory and the great way they were both set up and the mysteries of the season.
Worst Premiere of a Major Companion: If you don’t count Asylum of the Daleks (which I thought was great) as Clara’s premiere, then it was definitely Clara’s “The Bells of Saint John”. No contest. I don’t think ANY of the rest of them were done poorly, TBH. I guess I’d have to go with “Rose”, because the Autons themselves are pretty meh and the plastic wasn’t great.
Best (Main) Exit of a Major Companion:
This one is more difficult. Doomsday deserves a nod. Martha Jones walked the world and ended on her own terms. Journey’s End saw the end of an entire era of companions we loved. River showed up and died on the same day, but her final appearance is one of my favorite episodes ever. The Angles Take Manhattan was SO GOOD. But The Doctor Falls was exciting and tense and tragic. Hell, even Clara’s final episodes were great.
Honestly, this shouldn’t even be a question. I can’t choose. I can’t think of a single one I didn’t love.
Anyway, thanks for reading this, if you got this far! Know what? Doctor Who is still a great show, even if it’s not an obsession anymore. I can see myself doing this rewatch again in a few years, and I’m super looking forward to the next season starting in a couple of weeks!
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The Daleks - Doctor Who blog
(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this serial yet, you may want to before reading this review)
When Doctor Who was first conceived back in 1963, it was originally intended to be an educational show. Stories set in the past would be used to teach kids about history and stories set in the future or on other worlds would be used to teach children about science. The one thing creator Sydney Newman specified was that there was to be no ‘bug eyed monsters.’ This stance soon changed when comedy writer Terry Nation pitched a script and producer Verity Lambert pushed for its inclusion in the show. At the time it had the working title of The Survivors. Today we know it as The Daleks. Doctor Who would never be the same again...
The TARDIS lands in the middle of a petrified jungle on an alien world. The trees have turned to stone, the soil is barren and there are no signs of life. The only trace of civilisation is a large metal city, which hides a great menace inside.
The Daleks is a seven part serial and its opening is probably one of the best in Doctor Who history. Terry Nation does an excellent job building up intrigue and suspense. The Doctor and Susan’s curiosity toward this alien planet coupled with Ian and Barbara’s shock and fear is extremely engaging.I love the look and feel of Skaro. It’s bleak, haunting, mysterious and truly nothing like our own world. Same goes for the metal city. The production design team clearly put a lot of effort into creating the architecture and technology of the Daleks, using them to give us a unique insight into their culture. It’s cold, oppressive and clinical, much like the Daleks themselves. The scene where Barbara is running through the corridors of the city as doors quietly slide shut behind her, trapping her inside, is legitimately terrifying. And then it all culminates in the first big reveal of the Daleks in the second episode. Truly one of the most iconic Who moments.
The overwhelming success of the Daleks comes down to three things. The first is obviously Raymond Cusick’s now iconic design. The way they silently glide across the room is eery and there is nothing warm or comforting about the machines. They’re designed for a specific purpose, to house and transport the Dalek creature inside, and that is all. Everything else is an irrelevance to them. The second is the voice. The Daleks were originally voiced by Peter Hawkins, using a ring modulator to give them their memorable, staccato voice and he does an amazing job. The way they coldly bark orders is really disconcerting, but it’s not just that. We often associate the Daleks with hatred, but that’s not what we see here in these early Dalek serials. What Hawkins does especially well is conveying an almost claustrophobic panic in the Daleks. As cold and as logical as they are, they always seem to be teetering on the brink of hysteria, which helps give a further insight into the Daleks’ personalities. They’re not in these machines by choice. They’re trapped in them and they hate it. The third is Terry Nation’s writing. As alien as the Daleks are, they come from a very real place and are inspired by legitimate fears Nation had growing up and I believe that is what allowed the Daleks to connect with so many people and endure for as long as they have.
Terry Nation grew up during World War II and developed a profound fear of the Nazis as well as atomic weapons like the kind that were used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s these fears that Nation taps into with his script. The Daleks are his post-WWII nightmare made reality. Two races, the Dals and the Thals, fighting a global war for years that ultimately wiped out their entire planet. Of course it’s no secret that the Daleks were based on the Nazis, but it’s in this story where, in my opinion, the allegory is best handled and most effective. Watching The Daleks, it’s amazing how much is left to subtext. It’s not like in New Who where the Doctor or some other character has to sit everyone down like tiny children and explain everything. Through the different bits of lore as well as visual clues, we’re able to make the connections for ourselves. Just as the Nazis used the Jews as a convenient scapegoat for their own problems, the Daleks use the Thals. It would seem rather than being genetically engineered to hate, the Daleks prime motivation is jealousy toward the Thals and their development. The nuclear fallout of the neutron bomb that destroyed Skaro caused both the races to mutate, but whereas the Dals turned into the hideous, amoeboid Daleks, the Thals’ mutation came full circle. Now they’re beautiful, Aryan farmers who can move about freely and adapt their new surroundings. The Daleks cannot. They can’t move without their machines, they can’t survive without radiation and they can’t even move out of the confines of their city because the Dalek machines draw their power from the static electricity in the metallic floors. They’re completely trapped and so take their aggression and frustration out on the Thals.
By far the most telling example of this is when the Daleks test the Thals’ anti radiation drugs on themselves and discover they cannot survive without radiation, Underneath the menace and coldness of the Daleks is something tragic and slightly pathetic about them. Rather than find a way to adapt to the new environment, they instead try to bombard Skaro’s atmosphere with radiation and kill off the last Thals. As malicious and heartless as they are, there is also an element of childishness about them. It’s a spiteful “if I can’t have what I want, no one can” kind of attitude and turns the Daleks from being ranting pepper pots to three dimensional villains.
It’s not just the Daleks that get all the depth and complexity. The Thals too are explored really well, mostly through the character of Alydon, played by John Lee. Originally warriors, the Thals are now stark pacifists who shy away from all forms of conflict because they fear of what another war could do to the planet and their livelihood. See this is why I had such a bee in my bonnet about New Who’s insistence that pacifism is always good because Classic Who and this story in particular says the complete opposite. The Thals are nice people who want nothing more than to build bridges with the Daleks and help restore the planet, but the Daleks don’t want that. So what do they do? Live and let live isn’t an option here. As Ian says, “pacifism only works if everybody feels the same.” As I’ve said in previous reviews, no sane person wants to resort to violence, but sometimes in times of crisis or war there’s simply no other choice. If the Thals don’t stand and fight, they’ll be wiped out. Just like how if us Brits didn’t stand and fight, the Nazis would have just walked all over us in WWII. Sometimes violence is necessary and that’s precisely what the Thals have to contend with.
Alydon, a stoic but compassionate man, has take on the burden of looking after his tribe when their leader is killed by the Daleks in a trap. John Lee does an excellent job conveying the character’s internal struggle. Which is better? To follow the teachings of his leader and die with honour or to break with tradition in order to survive? Could there be a risk of the Thals becoming just as bad as the Daleks if they choose aggressive tactics? Of course this is a false equivalency. With the rise of the alt-right in modern times, people incorrectly assume that those who take an aggressive stance against oppressors are just as bad as the oppressors themselves when in reality there’s a big difference between those who choose violence for self serving purposes and self aggrandisement and those who choose violence to protect themselves or others from dangerous acts. And it’s this that’s ultimately spelt out in the last episode. Yes the Thals resort to the same violent tactics as the Daleks, but there is no moral equivalence between the two due to their motivations. Both races desire survival, but the Daleks pursue violence for the sake of malice and spite whereas the Thals ultimately resorted to violence purely for self defence. If there had been another way, they would have took it, as Alydon expresses when the Daleks finally die, That’s what makes them better than the Daleks. They take no pleasure from the violence or the killing, but they know if they don’t fight, they will die.
Another Thal character I really liked was Ganatus, played by Phillip Bond. He’s much more anxious and out spoken than Alydon and when his more cowardly brother dies, he briefly loses all hope, but it’s his relationship with Barbara that pulls him through. Both share a brief flirtation over the course of the story and it’s fun to watch because we get to see both make a transformation. Barbara initially starts off incredibly fearful of this alien world, but grows more confident as the story goes along. The two essentially help each other throughout the narrative until by the end they’ve become better, more stronger versions of themselves. It’s good character development and definitely a highlight of the latter episodes of the serial for me.
I haven’t spoken much about the main cast, have I? Truth be told there isn’t much to say other than they were great. The story is much more about the Daleks and the Thals than about the Doctor and co, but there are still great moments with them. While the four are initially at odds when the Doctor tricks everyone into exploring the city by pretending the TARDIS’ fluid link was broken, we start to see them slowly come together as a unit for the first time. The scene where they work together to kill the Dalek in order to escape from their cell was a particular highlight for me because it allowed each character to work together and play a crucial part. Same goes for the two pronged attack with the Doctor, Susan and Alydon attacking the city from the front and Ian, Barbara and Ganatus sneaking in from the back. Ensemble casts rarely work in Doctor Who, in my opinion, but this is a great example of each character having a significant part to play and receiving crucial development.
Any weak links? Well... the cheapness of the sets can be a bit off-putting. Clearly the BBC only had the budget for three Daleks because there are scenes where there is supposed to be lots of them and they had to make do with cardboard cutouts propped up awkwardly against the wall. Also they do attempt to make the corridors of the city look longer than they actually are by putting up painted backdrops that don’t look very convincing. And if I’m being honest, I thought the episodes with Ian, Barbara and Ganatus and everyone mountain climbing to the Dalek city was a bit pointless. Well written for the most part, don’t get me wrong, but it did feel like the plot had screeched to a halt.
The Daleks is easily one of the best stories in all of Doctor Who, serving as a brilliant sci-fi parable and a cautionary tale about the dangers of right wing extremism and unchecked nuclear armament. The simple fact of the matter is Doctor Who wouldn’t be where it is today without this story. Viewing figures doubled over the course of the story and public and critical response was overwhelmingly positive. The British public loved the Daleks and there was already talks of a sequel not long after. The BBC had a smash hit on their hands and it was all thanks to a ‘bug eyed monster.’ If you haven’t already, you should definitely check this one out. It’s a classic for a reason :D
#the daleks#terry nation#doctor who#first doctor#william hartnell#susan foreman#carole ann ford#barbara wright#jacqueline hill#ian chesterton#william russell#daleks#bbc#review#spoilers
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It’s been one of those weekends; I have been to Amsterdam Comic Con again.
Because my hair is still blue I went as Ladybug this whole weekend (Miraculous Ladybug). I figured that rocking Mimi’s pink dress with blue hair would be a bit odd, so there’s that. Perhaps I should get into wigs after all. Oh well!
Day one!
Saturday I went with two of my friends. I ended up spending more money on food than merchandise, but I kept a low budget for this con anyway as I am usually less amazed with the Comic Con events in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. I’ve had some delicious melon & lychee bubble tea though!
We strolled the event and as usual I took some photos with cosplay. I actually found a really tall dude dressing up as Spider-man in the homemade suit!
Oh yeah, also new: I have bangs now. Either way, he was the first one I wanted to take a photo with, and I took a photo with one other person on Saturday, namely a Chat Noir cosplay. As Ladybug I could never skip over those!
She was very kind actually, and apparently we were searching for each other. We had a Popeye cosplay keep telling me that a Chat Noir was looking for me, so I went on the lookout as well. It really did take a little while.
Cropping out my feet in every photo because I was not wearing the right shoes.
Other than that I visited the Q&A of Aimee Garcia. She plays Ella in Lucifer, which is my favourite female character in that show. She has shared some interesting information, and some emotional information. She was excited about her requests for next season though (I recall she wanted to dance next season and apparently make out with someone; didn’t matter if it were a male or female). I took multiple photos but my phone of course only saved one.
Worst of all is that in the one photo my phone managed to save, she has her eyes closed. Oh well, what matters is that I know I’ve seen her!
I’ve also seen some Game of Thrones actors, but I did not visit their Q&A. I am sure the actor of Joffrey is nice and all, but he wears the face of a brat. Poor dude. What was fun was seeing him randomly roam around on what we call a ‘step’ (google translate says it’s a scooter but it’s not electronical nor requires oil/gas so that’s kinda weird).
The saddest part was that I was afraid I was going to leave without any merchandise at all, but then I met this lovely lass who had several magnets and offered commissions; I commissioned her and could pick it up the next day. These were the magnets:
I’m not into actually owning Pokemon merchandise, but this Vulpix was too cute (I love foxes anyway). Those who know me should not be surprised I also went for a Spidey.
They were made by rizzlemonster, you can find her on Instagram! I’ve chatted her ears off already, haha. Oh, when I approached her stand there was actually a guy flirting with her and I thought it was just a super random guy that told her that if he’d roll a D20 high enough they’d go for a drink, but the next day she cleared up they had seen each other more often already. It was amusing though, and I couldn’t help but eavesdrop. I guess those are some life goals, having someone roll a D20 to see if they can grab a drink with you, haha.
That sums up the first day I think. At the Tardis I saw a couple of 13th Doctor cosplay but I was too anxious to approach them, which I fixed the next day anyway.
Oh gosh, no, I remember I pissed some people off even though I meant to joke. There was a stand with Overwatch buttons and I turned to my friend joking about how there was no Lucio and calling it Lucio-erasure, but I really meant it as a joke and not to offend them. My friends told me they seemed rather annoyed when I said it and now I feel bad I’ve hurt their feelings, but have no way of apologising to them. It still bothers me.
To end on a good note, I did have a fair amount of people tell me they liked my outfit and that made me feel rather happy! The way some people asked if it was ‘my version of Ladybug’ gave me the idea to start seeing it apart from Marinette and more of a separate incarnation of Ladybug overall (if you know the lore it makes sense). I’m probably going to make this into an OC.
Day two!
Sunday I went with another friend of mine whom I mostly know from con visiting, ha.
Before I found him at the con I wandered past a Captain Hook (Once Upon A Time) cosplay. I let him walk past me at first. I started to think and consider if I wanted to take a photo, and ran back to him and his group of friends to get one anyway. I must say I am rather glad I did!
So that was a great start of the day! But maybe I should not awkwardly run after people and call them by their cosplay name, haha. His friends noticed sooner than he did himself.
I also found several more homemade suit Spider-man cosplays, which was great! But the downside was that seeing how common that particular cosplay was, I got demotivated to get it myself (this was the cosplay I had planned next time but did not want to tell anyone yet; I just feel so demotivated to continue now I might as well reveal it). Don’t get me wrong, I loved seeing so many!!! I am just not sure if I want to myself anymore. They did say that they also struggled with finding the right colour hoodies etcetera, and one told me how he did the hat part.
At this point my friend (who took the photos) noticed I like Spider-man, haha. The one in the first pic showed me how he did the hat part, so if I do want to continue doing this cosplay, I can probably do it. I do already own a red ski mask, after all, and I do like the idea of a fully anonymous cosplay.
I also took a photo with a Chat Noir I’ve had a photo with before (I noticed this as I scrolled over my most recent DCC post), but hey, I don’t mind taking multiple pics with one person. My hair is different this time, which is a good excuse.
She told me there was a child dressed up as Ladybug somewhere, but I believe the both of us never found her. Too bad.
Lastly, there’s the big reveal of the 13th Doctor’s new companion!
Sorry, that’s the lame joke I told my friend at least. It was just perfect as we were at the Tardis. She said she had yet to werk on doing poses and all I could tell her was ‘same’ as I suck at poses as well.
I also picked up the commission from rizzlemonster, but because it is not scanned I am not uploading it here (maybe at a later time). A photo of it did not do it justice.
Instead, here’s a pic of a child who was hardcore into a video game, and because of what they were wearing it looked absolutely hilarious and I had a freaking blast just looking at them (I asked their dad for permission of the photo).
I sincerely hope they have no idea what they’re wearing, haha. I just walked past this and saw a kid dressed up as It staring intensely at a video game mashing some buttons. What an inspiration. This was definitely a highlight.
I also tried out mead and decided I did not like it overall, though the blueberry taste is alright (I tried regular, melon and blueberry). All my friends are rather fond of mead and my friend wanted me to try it, so he was satisfied I did find a flavour I can get into.
I do think my weekend is summarized now, and I’m gonna get to gaming right away. I think that, because of the commission and all the food I had, I did spend as much as I usually do at Comic Con events anyway, except I came home with only two magnets. Oh well! I had a fun weekend regardless.
ACC 2018 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug)
DCC 2018 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug)
RCC 2018 - Mimi (Digimon)
WDCC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon)
ACC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon)
DCC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon)
RCC 2017 - Mimi (Digimon)
ACC 2016 - Hook (Once Upon A Time)
DCC 2016 - Ladybug (Miraculous Ladybug)
DCC 2015 - Sunday - Hobbit (Lord of the Rings)
DCC 2015 - Saturday - Ellie (The Last of Us)
I have been to Elfia in 2015, but I cannot find this post. I was Donna Noble and I actually had a really bad day, which is why I have never returned to Elfia.
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What was the deal with the Skam Italia director not liking to do focus groups? I think some people are attributing very altruistic motives to all these remakes, that there's a public-service element to them, and that might be true but ... they're also trying to profit from the original show's popularity. They're using the Skam brand name. It doesn't mean they're inherently bad but it's fair to question certain creative choices or the production's motives, it's not unreasonable to be skeptical.
Oh man, the director (?) of Skam Italia seems like… something. I only heard about it a couple days ago and take it with a grain of salt but apparently someone translated a post he made on Facebook about the production last fall. Although he does make a nice observation about teenagers not being as estranged and reliant on social media as he thought and emphasizes adapting it to his own country, there’s also this edge where it seems like he’s looking down his nose at not only the original show but both Norwegians and teenagers in general, ahjsdfjgg
Here’s the text, I don’t have a link to the original or know its accuracy, I’m just trusting the translator on this pls keep that in mind:
A hundred interviews with kids in order to write better (about them). Basically just hoping to confirm what you’ve already written. That (the weather) is hot. That nobody feels like studying. And that after all we have the original show. The Norwegian one. The one about which they say “we’ve written the best teen show ever”. Shame that as I can see Norwegians live on their own at 16 and at 19 they talk about love with a surety that I will never have.
Willian taught me things about women. How to kiss a girl on the forehead for example. I’m not joking.
And mostly, their school is totally obsessed with organizing a weird and goliardic graduation party called Russ. Three days of complete mayhem in which you go around Oslo on a rented bus filling yourself with pure alcohol and of which the most important aspect is having toilet paper. Tons of toilet paper.
I still don’t know why. But 3 years before Russ these people start putting together toilet paper and ask for money so to not end up as the one with less toilet paper. It seems like it’s a huge shame being without toilet paper. Stuff that the whole university should be censored.
Basically: we have to adapt (*as in make changes, adjust). Seriously.
And so you end up in schools. Because Norwegians, such perfectionists, don’t give you the rights unless you do focus groups. “We even forced the Americans.”
So we meet them (*the kids in school.) In the afternoons in June. With that tired curiosity that you experience at an art gallery and you want to love a painting after only looking at it for 5 minutes. And the kids are there, happy to tell you stuff. And you find out the ones who live in central have all you can eat sushi every Saturday night (fuck, all of them), and then they go to the main square (*place where people meet) because the Bangladeshi (vendors) don’t give a fuck if you’re 16 and they sell you Tennent’s (*beer?). They talk. And they seem so boring to me. So unaware. Many of them have never been beyond the Tevere (*river in Rome). They don’t know what’s the Monti or San Lorenzo neighborhood. Some do know this.
And anyway, you don’t use Facebook anymore, “only to see events.” Because after all at 16 you don’t need to find and spy on your friends. You see them every day in school. “And if you hit on a girl in a chat you’re a loser.” How do you hit on girls? “You like her Instagram pic. Not the first you see. The third and fourth. So she sees that you spied on her profile. But not the 20th. Otherwise you look like a stalker. And if she does the same, the next day you go and talk to her at recess. Not in a chat. Face to face. How can you start a relationship if you don’t have the guts to look each other in the eye straight away?”
Real life love lessons by someone from the online generation. Who knew.
So I kinda understand that the social digitalization is an adult thing. Made up by adults. Bought by adults and used by adults to fill the gap left by the ending of high school. And yet we pretend we are the ones who have real life thoughts. Romantic thoughts. Accusing the new generations of something they don’t do. Or which at least they don’t do until the social denuclearization after school.
Oh yes. But now report cards are online. And parents can check grades on an app. As well as absences and tardiness. And so they do fuck all. You can’t lie about grades. Or you can. “Apps don’t really work well and teachers can’t use them. So you can always tell your mother that it’s a glitch in the website, because 50% of times it’s true.”
We are in Italy and not in Norway. And this weekend, we need to adapt (*again, as in adjust, change). A lot.
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pretty long post coming up! thanks to @flcwerstudies for tagging me! love ya, babe
1. when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk?
i try and make it even, but somehow there always ends up being milk left behind. it annoys me so much
2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day?
it depends. some days, i’m elsa (the cold never bother me anyway!); some days all i ever want from life is warmth and cuddles and a cat
3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books?
business cards, paper towels, my phone, pens, a necklace once. i nearly lost it, then
4: how do you take your coffee/tea?
tea: two spoons of sugar and milk, but i don’t take it that much.
coffee: creamer or two spoons of sugar.
5: are you self-conscious of your smile?
yes, it’s ridiculous
6: do you keep plants?
not yet!
7: do you name your plants?
i’m planning on naming them sherlock and finn, and then name some of them after bts
8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings?
journaling, writing, drawing (if what i do can be considered drawing), and lots and lots of singing
9: do you like singing/humming to yourself?
yes, because i like the fact that i can hit power notes (like when i’m singing burn from hamilton)
10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach?
stomach and side, but mostly on my tummy.
11: what’s an inner joke you have with your friends?
so far, there’s “i could be a stripper” and “goshdarn oprah”
12: what’s your favorite planet?
i like pluto because it’s a smol bean, and saturn because of the rings
13: what’s something that made you smile today?
i watched america’s funniest videos with my mom
14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like?
there would be books EVERYWHERE, and two cats lounging around, and a coffee maker, and blankets EVERYWHERE. also, high speed wifi
15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is!
scientists have traced unusually regular radio signals being emitted from an unknown object in the galaxy m82.
ALIENS PEOPLE!
16: what’s your favorite pasta dish?
i haven’t really had that many pasta dishes, but i’ll eat it any day
17: what color do you really want to dye your hair?
a dark blue, with streaks of tardis blue
18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up.
i don’t really have anything right now
19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it?
i do keep a journal. i try to write reflections and things like that, but i’m always just ranting about how stupid and cowardly i am. and there are some to-do lists.
20: what’s your favorite eye color?
i’m probably just saying this because i have a crush on someone with this color eyes, but blue-grey eyes make me weak at the knees.
21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that’s been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces.
my favorite bag is my school bag, to be honest, because that’s where all the books are.
22: are you a morning person?
nope, i’m a night person, but i also force myself to sleep early.
23: what’s your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations?
sleep, watch netflix, watch dan and phil, read
24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets?
there is one person that i’m slowly getting there with, and another person i really want to get there with, but none so far
25: what’s the weirdest place you’ve ever broken into?
nowhere, yet
26: what are the shoes you’ve had for forever and wear with every single outfit?
i wear my white sneakers quite a bit, but i haven’t had them for forever. i also wear my snow boots a lot, but that’s because they’re warm and i am weak.
27: what’s your favorite bubblegum flavor?
i don’t have gum that much, but i like strawberry.
28: sunrise or sunset?
sunset.
29: what’s something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing?
omigod, there’s so many; i find almost everyone cute. one of my friends does this thing when she’s proud of herself when she looks so smug and adorable. my other friend doesn’t laugh that much, so when i make him laugh, it’s like i’ve just discovered the secrets of life. and when my friend/crush laughs, he goes pink and he scrunches his nose and i die a little bit inside.
30: think of it: have you ever been truly scared?
i get really scared about emotions, but i don’t think i’ve been blood-curdling scared yet.
31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks.
i love socks! i love weird socks and fuzzy socks and any socks. i try to sleep with my socks, but i remove them in the middle of the night and i don’t remember.
32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends.
my cousins and i had just watched markiplier and danandphil play five nights at freddies, and we were spooked, so we started watching spongebob in the middle of the night.
33: what’s your fave pastry?
the first time i ever had a crosant with chocolate inside, i died and went to food heaven.
34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it?
i had an eeyore stuffed doll that i called doofy for some reason and i always slept with it. i had to leave it in kenya when we moved, but i’m on the hunt for another stuffed friend.
35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often?
YES YES YES. it annoys my mom sometimes
36: which band’s sound would fit your mood right now?
all time low’s theraphy would be my mood right now, i think.
37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean?
clean, but sometimes, the messiness is apealing.
38: tell us about your pet peeves!
people asking me if i’m mad when i’m just being quiet. people who are mean to teachers, complaining about them not getting grades in (70 kids, more than 100 assignments to grade, and they have a life, please just stuff it). people who gossip about other people. dramatic people. racists, mysogonists, albiests, general asses.
39: what color do you wear the most?
black and blue, mainly black
40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what’s it’s story? does it have any meaning to you?
i have a necklace that my aunt gave me a few years ago. i always wore it to feel close to her.
41: what’s the last book you remember really, really loving?
the rosie project by graeme simsion. i got it at goodwill, and even my dad liked it. my dad very rarely likes the books i pick.
42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it!
none yet, but there is a starbucks in our town that i’ve been to a couple of times. not only was it my first starbucks visit, but i’ve had some very good memories there.
43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with?
i don’t even think i ever gazed at the stars with someone. i want to, though
44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything?
when we were moving and the place was quiet, and the tv was off and i’d just woken up. i sat on the couch and read and i was so calm and happy.
45: do you trust your instincts a lot?
kinda?? i do sometimes, but i do tend to overreact and overthink, so other times i don’t.
46: tell us the worst pun you can think of.
never apollogize for your bad puns about greek gods
47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe?
PICKLES. my god, i hate pickles so much.
48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today?
i was and still am scared of the dark
49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought?
i really like that idea, but i don’t have anything to play them on currently, so i don’t do that.
50: what’s an odd thing you collect?
i collect clothing tags for bookmarks, but i don’t really collect things.
51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them?
my dad. any bon jovi/rock song made in the 80s.
52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far?
salt bae and spongebob being a chicken.
53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them?
no, not yet. i keep meaning to, but i never get round to it.
54: who’s the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face?
my baby sister a few days ago. we usually leave for school at the same time, and she had to stay home because she was sick. she looked so sad when i was leaving that i could actually feel my heart break.
55: what’s the most dramatic thing you’ve ever done to prove a point?
i don’t think i’ve ever done anything dramatic.
56: what are some things you find endearing in people?
when people laugh and it’s a full-on laugh and they very rarely do that, dimples, when people engage my stupid questions (”dragons or dinosaurs?”) and go with it, people who are okay with just sitting in the quiet but they can also stay stupid funny thins, dimples, using hands to explain things, DIMPLES
57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics?
really happy. i kept reancting lyrics and playing air guitar when it called for it. that song is fun.
58: who’s the wine mom and who’s the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why?
i don’t really have a group of friends but i think i’d be the vodka aunt and my friend charise would be the wine mom. (sometimes it’s switched)
59: what’s your favorite myth?
icarus and persephone and hades
60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves?
i like it but i very rarely read it. i feel like you have to be really smart to understand poetry, and i’m not smart enough.
61: what’s the stupidest gift you’ve ever given? the stupidest one you’ve ever received?
i gave a few of my friend nail polish, and i don’t think i’ve ever gotten a stupid gift
62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind?
orange juice most of the time, grape juice when i have it
63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be?
i leave them be most of the time. as long as they’re not getting hurt, i’m good.
64: what color is the sky where you are right now?
dark blue almost black
65: is there anyone you haven’t seen in a long time who you’d love to hang out with?
i saw my cousin for the first time in MONTHS before we moved, and he’s really tall now, and he lets me cuddle him and he gives me back hugs and i miss him so much (but i’m not telling him that because he’d rub it in my face)
66: what would your ideal flower crown look like?
small roses! peach blossoms and cherry blossoms too. one huge ass hibiscus or lotus flower as a statement piece
67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel?
cozy and sheltered, sometimes. really melancholy and silent most of the time
68: what’s winter like where you live?
not too bad (i’ve only had one so far)
69: what are your favorite board games?
monopoly and game of life and clue
70: have you ever used a ouija board?
no, but i knida want to??
71: what’s your favorite kind of tea?
i don’t really have one
72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you’ll forget it?
depends. if its something i care about, no. otherwise, yep
73: what are some of your worst habits?
running away from my emotions and other people’s emotions, expecting the best out of people when i know i’m gonna get the worst
74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns.
not too loud, but very passionate. listens to a lot more rap music even though they look like a punk rock person. doesn’t look people in the eye, but looks me in the eye sometimes and makes me wanna cry. i really like him
75: tell us about your pets!
i don't have pets!! (thanks mom)
76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren’t?
sleeping BUT I WILL FINISH THIS IF IT KILLS ME
77: pink or yellow lemonade?
pink
78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub?
fanclub they’re adorable
79: what’s one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you?
making me a grilled cheese for my birthday (was my first grilled cheese)
80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why?
white and no. i wanna paint them tardis blue
81: describe one of your friend’s eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of.
the ice floating in the open sea, the color of the sky right after it’s rained
82: are/were you good in school?
yes! i find it fun so it’s easy for me
83: what’s some of your favorite album art?
an airplane carried me to bed by sky sailing looks really preety
84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones?
i want to get slytherin in fancy font on my ankle and a semicolon on the inside of my wrist
85: do you read comics? what are your faves?
no, but i want to
86: do you like concept albums? which ones?
i don’t know if i’ve heard any
87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives?
the fundamentals of caring, dead poet’s society
88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy?
i don’t really know any
89: are you close to your parents?
yeah
90: talk about your one of you favorite cities.
london when i was eight - warm summer days and walking to the park in the afternoon, popsicle slipping down my hand. watching cartoons with my cousins and reading in a blanket fort. merry-go-rounds and playing with sprinklers even if i’m fully dressed. going to the beach, and the day is cold and windy, the sky is grey, and it’s so beautiful my chest hurts
91: where do you plan on traveling this year?
i wanna go to new york at some point but my parents are grade-a procrastinators and i can’t go without them
92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch?
half-and-half, but more towards the barely side.
93: what’s the hairstyle you wear the most?
braids with a right part.
94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday?
my little cousin turned 7 a few days ago
95: what are your plans for this weekend?
sleep and read and sleep
96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot?
procrastination is always my situation
97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house?
infp-t, scorpio, slytherin
98: when’s the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it?
almost a year ago, not my best hiking experience. that was more about the people than the hike
99: list some songs that resonate with your soul whenever you hear them.
for some reason, mess is mine by vance joy really makes me feel things. also, almost every single bts song i’ve ever heard
100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why?
5 years in the past, with the knowledge i have know, so i can fix mistakes my over-dramatic, 10-year-old self made.
this took fifty years i swear. i tag @studiousmochi @studytherin @pinetreestudies @athenus @eintsein @educatier @elkstudies and @studylustre , and whoever wants to do this. xoxo
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One Way in Ongpin
by Jean Andrew T. Bongcayao
“Binondo”, said my teacher. Binondo Manila will be the subject of our travelogue. At first, I was a bit skeptical, especially since I’ve never really been a person fond of Manila and its many districts. Not to mention, most of my experiencing travelling in Manila was limited to my adventures around Taft and Divisoria Market. Aside from those two, I haven’t really been many other places.
Because of safety concerns most of my classmates decided it would be for the best if we all went and experienced Binondo as a group, since there was only ever really one person who knew how to get there among us. So there, it was planned that on Wednesday March 6 we’d be heading out before lunch.
The day of the Binondo trip came and it was as an ordinary of a day as it could possibly be. So ordinary, that like my typical self, I had overslept again, and I was rushing to get out of the house and onto the bus. I avoided checking my watch so that I wouldn’t overthink the predicament I had put myself in. I pretended like it was any other commute to school, but it was only this time that I’d have a party of angry classmates ready to greet me before the trip could even begin. After a full listen through of an Arctic Monkeys album, it was around 12 noon when I finally stepped foot into Taft Avenue.
At the Henry Sy gate right across Zark’s burgers, there was the travelling party headed for Binondo. Well maybe half the party. it turns out it would mostly be boys joining us for the trip. While there would be around four of our female blockmates who would apparently only tag along for the trip since they just wanted to tag along with the person who actually knew how to get there. After apologizing, like that was going to change my tardiness, we all crossed the street to get on one of the jeepneys passing along. Luckily, we were able to find a jeep that had Divisoria in capital letters written on the signboard that was able to fit all nine of us. For the first few minutes it was a matter of us figuring out how much we were supposed to pay. It was hilarious because we all kept looking at each other with obviously confused faces. When all of a sudden, Adrian, the person we’d appointed as our tour guide, approached the driver with twelve pesos in hand. The next thing I knew we were all rummaging our purses and pockets for the same amount.
The jeep ride to Binondo wasn’t a pleasant one, it was scorching hot even with the jeepney’s roof above our heads, and rush hour was at its peak. If only I had arrived an hour earlier, we wouldn’t be in such a hot mess. I remember looking outside and seeing Manila for what it really was, tight streets, busy sidewalks, and a lot of corners that honestly look like they’ve been under construction for the last decade. I started questioning how Binondo could possibly be different than any other place in Manila. Then I remembered how it was a place often associated with Chinese history. Knowledge exclusive from movies and stories that would often always have some reference to Binondo. Aside from those presumptions, there was also the bad mouth my family would always se when referring to places like Binondo, or really any place in Manila for that matter. “Wag ka magcellphone pati wag ka poporma.” They would always say. It made me think that the moment I stepped out of the jeep everything, including my dignity, would be snatched away.
As we moved past the National Post Office, we were crossing a bridge that went over the waters of the Pasig River. I was half expecting to arrive in a completely different environment, like when reaching a new level in a game. I was hoping that something would be different on the other side of the riverbank we had just left, but to nobody’s surprise it was the same old dirty overpopulated streets there too.
A couple stoplights afterwards, the jeepney came to a halt and the driver yelled “Binondo!”. We all went down and cowered to the nearest bit of shade, because it was an extremely sunny day. With the street full and busy with cars we were trying to determine where we were while using our hands like brims for caps to protect our watering eyes. Then I saw it, beside a towering church that swathed in earthy colors was a street glowing in red and gold. Ongpin St looked like it had never belonged there in the first place. While the way going to the square was full of smoke and traffic, Ongpin St itself had far less cars and a more vibrant feel with all the different stores and banners that flocked your attention.
The view was like looking through a movie screen. Like an entire culture had just been left behind in the most random ‘eskenita’ of Metro Manila. While the street leading to Ongpin was searing hot with the blazing wrath of the sun, Ongpin itself was cool and welcoming. It was probably because of the blessed shade from the tall buildings that surrounded the street. You could feel an unfamiliar breeze that made you forget that you were in the heart of Metro Manila.
We had no itinerary for the trip, but before anything could be planned out, the girls in our travelling party apparently had other plans, so they decided to ditch us. Since we were a party of men, as the saying goes the rest of the trip would follow a “bahala na” mindset.
Once we passed the church, we were greeted by the flock of Chinese bystanders that typically linger in the area. I remember paying mindless attention to the tall buildings when all of a sudden, I accidentally bumped into two Chinese women walking in the opposite direction. I immediately apologized, but one of them just said “watch where you’re going” and they walked off. I was scratching my head at the incident because I was nowhere near the middle of the sidewalk and it seemed impossible for them to have hit me with all the space between us.
As a group we eventually decided to just walk the entire street of Ongpin, and see what it had to offer. We had no plans, no objectives, we just wanted to see what it was all about. But hilariously enough our first stop was at a 7-eleven because one person in our group needed to buy a drink.
Right after that we headed straight across another bridge that want over some dirty canal. Something I realized while walking deeper into Ongpin was how the road was getting denser and denser. There were more vendors surrounding each side and the foot traffic along the sidewalk was getting worse. But what seemed to never disappear was the array of various shops that lined the street. An abundance of those shops were jewelry and charm boutiques that glittered with red and gold signboards and displays. I vividly remember one shop making me stop in my tracks because of how busy the store clerks were as they attended to people buying gold. I thought that maybe one day I would have the pockets to enter such establishments. Meanwhile, there were other stores that gave off a bad vibe, one of these was an old looking building that had “Special drugs and items” written across the front. It looked empty but it was open for business, but my curiosity wasn’t enough to entice me to imagine what was inside.
After a few more meters of walking we remembered that a certain blockmate of ours always bragged about a restaurant they had here in Ongpin, and after a quick chat and search on google maps we continued down the winding road. It didn’t seem to have an end.
After a good ten minutes of walking we arrived at our destination. To be blunt, none of us were actually hungry, but after seeing the bold “KIM HIONG” at the front of an old grim looking building, withering away next to ruins of other buildings, we completely lost our will to even enter.
Again, with the “bahala na” mentality, we decided to walk back since we were a good 2 kilometers away from the church we came from. On the way back I finally decided to approach one of the street vendors, who was selling rings and charms. I really wanted another ring for my collection, but unfortunately nothing the vendor had fit my fat fingers. Now that it was peak afternoon the sun had found a way to shine, even more obnoxiously, down on the streets of Chinatown and we were all starting to sweat and feel our clothes stick to our skins. We decided it was for the best to find somewhere cool to relax. Our tour guide friend decided it’d be best to go to Chinatown Mall. Since all I really cared about was getting out of the heat, I agreed. Fast forward to another fifteen minutes of walking we were back to where we started. After crossing the road to the other side of the busy square we found ourselves in the front of Chinatown Mall. Like little kids we ran up the steps to the entrance and gave satisfied sighs of relief once the cold breeze hit our faces, like a welcoming breeze that told us we were in society.
It was safe to say that we brought ourselves back to the culture we were used to. Ongpin St was great at first, but eventually it did start to feel like Metro Manila. In the end, we all decided to eat at Mang Inasal, the best place we knew for barbeque chicken and unli rice.
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For the character meme, can I ask for the Master? Thanks!
http://natalunasans.tumblr.com/post/159785754806/character-writing-meme-bc
modernwizard:
For character writing meme…Ten as partnered with Simm Master post-EoT, I guess.
so, as @chromalogue mentioned being mostly familiar with S!M, i might as well do these together…
sorry this got long and possibly departed from the original question, so it’s under the cut
i guess i always write D&M, whether ten/simm or shalkas, as desperately hanging on to what they see as their identities, perhaps even more so once they are truly partners.
the doctor is intent on being The Good ‘Guy’, often tries harder than is healthy for them (or anyone else), and hates to admit when they have actually done something abusive or taken advantage of power imbalance. they are, however, driven by guilt, whether it’s about the havoc wreaked on reality by the time war(s) or how they managed to get the master to stay with them, or other canon/etc stuff they’ve done along the way.
the master has invested lifetimes in his identity as The Villain and particularly the doctor’s Special Nemesis, and is very resistant to the idea of being a decent person. he often has no problem forming a lasting alliance with the doctor and taking care of each other and mostly avoiding evil in order not to upset them… but just try getting him to admit it!
free will (for him! not necessarily for others) is extremely important to the Master, which is why i reject some parts of canon where some of his villainy is explained away as somehow not being his fault. one of the ways he preserves the illusion of still being evil, while not actually doing much evil stuff anymore, is making sure he still could choose to do those things if he really wanted to. so he always considers doing it, lets himself be tempted to kill the doctor or upset their plans or destroy the local civilization or whatever… and knowing he could is usually enough.
the master is driven by fear and even admits it sometimes. fear is why he always seeks control. he pretends that he stays with the doctor as a means of self-preservation, but in the two AUs i deal with, this conveniently does not take a lot of pretending, as he’s at least partly dependent on them for his survival. this way, taking care of the doctor can be excused as looking out for his own self-interests and he doesn’t have to admit he actually, you know, loves them. he has no problem with the two of them being seen as a couple, btw, or queer (if that’s even a thing to consider in gallifreyan culture, which i kind of doubt), so PDA, especially of a possessive nature, is totally fine with him… but to be caught actually caring about another sentient being would be to show weakness, and he can’t afford to show any more weakness.
for S!M (my post-EoT version), the other constants are pain and frustration. he’s stuck living with that noise still beating in the back of his mind, chronic pain of all sorts due to basically electrocuting himself from the inside out plus whatever the hell else happened during the botched resurrection, a body and mind that just shut down at random moments… and the insufferable doctor.
he’s always trying different mad schemes to fix himself or at least to gain control over his circumstances, but slowly he’s adapting to this new reality and settling into life with Ten… slowly he’s relaxing, learning to trust anyone at all, as the doctor learns to trust him. it takes a long time, but time is something they have, for now.
ten’s particular guilt involves their timelord victorious phase, the timewar as we imagined it before tDotD, repeatedly abandoning their more reasonable friends and their vocation of galactic helper just to take care of the master, basically kidnapping the master, and all the non-consensual medical & telepsychiatric stuff they tried on him before they understood that it was not ok to do that without the ‘patient’ okaying it first. they especially feel like a bad hero (and a bad friend) for not being able to stop loving the villain who has undeniably hurt so many of the others they supposedly care about.
so they’re very intent on the master’s redemption arc. remember that clip of DT when he was a guest on QI and he was saying he still likes Coldplay and started singing “i will tryyyyyy to fix you”? that’s your soundtrack right there.ten (remember also TLV) wants control as much as the master does, because the doctor thinks that if they gain control of the situation they can save the day, the universe, their partner, etc. (see also, the gryffindors are scarier than slytherins theory) this does not always work out as expected; the day usually gets saved more by cooperation (sometimes including the TARDIS’ careful intervention) than by doctor-knows-best.
eventually they relax enough to leave the master alone in the TARDIS sometimes while they go off ‘helping’, sort of part time, as necessary… they still haven’t told anybody he’s still alive, much less staying with them. they work themself too hard trying to keep up both lives, and can’t sleep without nightmares unless the master does dream-leading.
the master’s challenge is learning to be a person, and finding out how hard that is, no matter how much practice you get. he’ll also eventually need to admit that this whole process is happening.
ten’s challenge is to learn to live with their decisions and take the consequences of having chosen the master… it’s not going to be the unmitigated disaster it would’ve been if the master hadn’t also adjusted his behaviour, but they do lose friends over it.
#chromalogue#modernwizard#doctor/master#ten/simm#best enemies#wonder what i'd be without you#fellow adventurers with different approaches#keeping up appearances#character explanation#character analysis
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A Year In Books: The 2016 Bookworm Awards
I’d like to blame the lateness of this post on something dramatic, like aliens or politics or a terrible computer virus. But the truth is that I’ve had this written since the turn of the year and haven’t had the motivation to type it up. Despite the tardiness of this post, I’d still like to share with you my final round-up on the books I read last year. There were quite a few, and I have a lot of opinions, so stick with me!
2016 was a pretty good year for me. I participated in my first 10k, I successfully defended my PhD dissertation proposal, and I found out I was going to become an aunt- to twins! Aside from those things, though, my year was pretty uneventful, which was a blessing in disguise as it gave me plenty of time to read.
I keep track of my yearly reading on Goodreads (jbfinch89; let’s be friends!), and based on my number there, I spent a large portion of this year with my nose stuck in a book. I guess I really am a funny girl and all that.
In 2015, I read 132 books. My goal for this past year started at 100, which I surpassed, so I upped it to 150. I passed that goal, too, but I wasn’t sure just how ambitious I wanted to be after that, so that's where my goal stayed.
When all was said and done, I had read 178 books (Goodreads says 174, but that’s because I still haven't managed to find a good way to record rereads on Goodreads). These 178 books came from a number of different genres, ranging from classics to sci-fi to Christian fiction to memoirs for a total of over 63,000 pages.
I should probably be glad I didn't end up with more paper cuts.
Here's a more detailed breakdown of my reading this year:
Books Read: 178
New Series Started: 14
Old Series Finished: 5
Series Binge Read: 4
Fiction vs. Nonfiction: 156 (88%) vs. 22 (12%)
Authors Read: 133
Rereads: 9
So probably no one but me that cares about these stats, but I like the numbers.
It looks like I started a lot of new series that are going to require more space on my bookshelves in the future, but I also made the executive decision to let myself not finish a series. I hate leaving things unfinished, so I normally would have kept up with a series as long as I didn’t completely hate the first book, but this year, I realized that I have neither the time nor the room to keep that up forever. There are too many books out there that I want to read to stick with ones that I don’t like. I even let myself sell the first books in these series, mostly because I needed the space, but also to avoid the temptation to keep reading the series out of guilt. Like I said, too many books to feel bad.
And there really are a tone of books out there to read; just look at my Goodreads ‘To-Read’ shelf. But I put a pretty good dent in my eternal TBR pile last year, and through the good and the bad, I found myself laughing, frowning, crying, and cringing. Some books were okay, some were disappointing, and some definitely knocked my socks off. Or they would have if I didn’t hate wearing socks so much.
But I digress. My reading last year had its ups and downs, but some books had way more ups and others more downs. Which are which? It took some work to decide, but I finally managed to narrow down the best of the best, the cream of the crop, and the ones at the tippy top. And so, I present to you the 2016 Bookworm Awards, brought to you once again by the brains behind the Literary Laboratory.
Favorite New Authors: Carrie Firestone and Sarah Porter
These two ladies couldn’t have written more different stories, but they were alike in that neither of them was like anything I’d read before. Carrie’s book was brutally honest and unexpectedly rude, but it was also heartbreaking and hopeful. Sarah wrote a story full of magic and danger with a plucky heroine who was unafraid of doing what needed to be done. To create such fascinating and unique characters and such strangely wonderful situations takes some writers countless tries, but these ladies managed in some of their earliest novels. Brava to both of them!
Favorite New to Me Authors: Erin Morgenstern and Amie Kaufman/Jay Kristoff
I have no idea why I held off on reading the releases from these three. The Night Circus blew me away; it was whimsical and mysterious and dangerous and romantic, and if I could live in Le Cirque des Reves, I would. The Night Circus has fantastically complex characters, but it’s really the world they create that makes this book so great. It’s easily one of my all-time favorites. And both Illuminae and Gemina kept me glued to the pages long after I should’ve gone to bed, gotten back to work, or headed out to run errands. I couldn’t put either of these books down! The format of these stories is one-of-a-kind, and the stories themselves are heart-stopping and action-packed. There were so many plot twists that I didn’t see coming, and I was rooting so hard for the main characters, who were all flawed but skilled, broken but determined, lost yet relentless. I can’t wait for the next book in this series.
Best Beginning of a Series: Illumine (The Illuminae Files #1) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
As I just mentioned, The Illuminae Files is one of my favorite series of 2016. Illuminae easily surpassed anything I could’ve expected and had me flying through the pages to see what happened next. The story started off with chaos and never let up, and I loved following Kady, Ezra, and the rest of the survivors of Kerenza as they tried to escape the people who had blown up their home. I really liked Kady in particular. She was smart, skilled, and snarky, and her willingness to put herself in harm’s way to save those she cared about was undeniably admirable. There were so many twists and turns in her quest for safety, and every time I thought I had things pegged, I was proven wrong. Illuminae was an explosive—literally—debut for this award-winning duo, and it quickly earned both authors a place on my TBR pile for their individual books.
Best Ending to a Series: The Raven King (The Raven Cycle #4) by Maggie Stiefvater, Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2) by Leigh Bardugo, Ignite Me (Shatter Me #3) by Tahereh Mafi
In every book series, characters change and grow as they face new situations and new challenges. These three series, though, had more character growth than most. The writing in these series allowed the characters to naturally respond to the changes in their lives, both good and bad, and end up somewhere better than I ever could’ve guessed when I began each series. Each story also had plenty of action, danger, and romance to wrap up the adventures, and the endings managed to be foregone yet still surprising, which, to me, is always a sign that the author has really put work into the finale rather than just giving readers what they want. Not everyone got their happy ending, but everyone got a proper ending, with hints of more stories in the future. I can only hope.
Best Short Story Collection: Stars Above (The Lunar Chronicles) by Marissa Meyer
The Lunar Chronicles is one of my all-time favorite series, and this collection of extra stories about the main characters was everything I’d hoped for and more. The stories provided looks at the pasts of some of the characters, helping show how they became the people I came to know and love, while the final story provided a new adventure for the four couples as they started their lives after the war. Something Old, Something New made me smile so much and made my heart swell with happiness for these characters, and I can’t thank Marissa enough for another chance to peek back into the world of The Lunar Chronicles.
Most Disappointing Book: Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
Ugh, I really wanted to like this book. The cover was beautiful, and the premise of a young woman training to become a forensic pathologist and finding herself on the path of an infamous serial killer sounded great. But this book fell prey to the dangers of insta-love, ridiculous decisions by an intelligent character, and a villain reveal that didn’t make sense. There was very little stalking of Bloody Jack as the title had promised, and to make it worse, the characters were pretty flat, largely predictable, and fairly uninteresting. This is one series I won’t be continuing.
Favorite Classic: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
I wrote a whole review on this book last February because it managed to do what few books have done and catch me truly by surprise. The first part of this book makes you think it’s going to be a typical gothic romance with grand, sweeping settings, beautiful but troubled characters, and a dark secret. And this book is that. But then the dark secret is revealed, and it was something I never would’ve guessed. It had me flipping back to reread scenes in a new light and kept me glued to the book until I’d reached the end. This book is a classic for a reason, and I highly recommend it for anyone who’s a fan of a good mystery.
Favorite Non-fiction Read: Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides
This book had my emotions all over the place. The topic—the Bataan death march and the Cabanatuan Camp—is one that isn’t widely discussed, but it really should be, as it’s a true story of the best and worst of mankind. I couldn’t believe the optimism, the hope, and the perseverance of the human spirit in such horrific conditions, and it gave me a new respect for the men who endured such cruelty. Ghost Soldiers is truly a heartbreaking yet inspiring story and certainly one I’ll never forget.
Favorite Reread: The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle #2) by Maggie Stiefvater
The Raven Cycle is one of my favorite series anyway, and while I love the other three books, The Dream Thieves just feels like a beast of a different sort. I’d forgotten how much I loved to hate Kravinsky, not to mention how legitimately crazy that dude was, but I loved how he messed with the Raven boys and how he antagonized Ronan in particular. This book focused more on Ronan and his abilities as the Greywaren, and it felt less like a mystical mystery and more like a reckless, headfirst race into danger and bad decisions than the rest of the quartet. I was quite pleased to hear that the Ronan-centered series Maggie is working on will be more like The Dream Thieves, because goodness knows I need more of this lovable thug of a boy in my life.
Favorite Retelling: Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter
I was only vaguely familiar with the original tale of Vasilisa and her magical doll—thanks, random folklore podcast!—and so I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this book. I ended up being pleasantly surprised! The setting of the story was a mix of the familiar and the absurd, the characters were magical and strange, and the story itself was, well, also strange, but also a bit heartbreaking and a bit inspiring. Vassa was such a strong character, and I loved that she managed to save others by being kind; she didn’t require any special powers, other than what Erg provided, to defeat Baba Yaga, which is unusual for most YA books today. And since I wasn’t really sure how the original tale ended, I couldn’t guess how things were going to turn out for Vassa. This is the way modern retellings should be done.
Favorite Contemporary Read: The Loose Ends List by Carrie Firestone
This book wasn’t anything like I expected, and that was a good thing. I expected an interesting story about a girl whose grandmother was dying. What I got was an open, honest, yet rude, funny, and heartbreaking look at death, letting go, and the love of family. I loved Maddie and her reactions to all the crazy things that happened on the cruise, and I loved getting to see the sweet relationship between her and her grandmother. I also loved getting to meet all the other Wishwellians and their families and seeing how all their views of life and death changed as the cruise went on. The cover of this book, although quite cute, doesn’t really do this book justice as it covers such a heavy topic and really makes you consider what you’re doing that makes life worth living.
Scariest Book: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
Most people know Gillian Flynn through her novel Gone Girl, but I’ve only read her other novels, and Dark Places is easily my favorite. This book was more suspenseful than scary, but it was frightening to uncover the true events of the fateful night that the family of the main character, Libby, was killed. Libby herself was a rather unlikable character, but she’d suffered so much that I still cared about her story. It was interesting to have the POV jumps and the flashbacks to unfold the story and create tension from a number of different angles, and the truth of the murders was actually much more complex and scary than I’d imagined. This book was rather depressing and dark, but it’s worth it to see how Libby changes as she learns more about her family and their deaths.
Funniest Books: Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick, The Only Pirate at the Party by Lindsey Stirling, and You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day
My sense of humor is a bit drier and a bit darker than most, but these three ladies all managed to make me laugh numerous times. Not at them, of course, more at the various situations they’ve found themselves in over the years and the ridiculous ways they reacted to them. (They were laughing, too, so I didn’t feel bad.) It was nice to see that even famous people have awkward moments, whether it’s suffering from foot-in-mouth syndrome or acting like a total fangirl in fronts of someone (else) famous. Aside from being funny, these memoirs showed the dedication and determination of these women to their crafts, and I loved that they were open about both the ups and downs in their lives. It makes me admire them all the more for their willingness to share their mistakes and their hard times and to then remind everyone that it’s okay to ask for help, that there are people out there who love you and want to see you happy. And I feel like these three ladies really show that the bad times don’t last forever and that sometimes laughter really is the best medicine.
Most Unexpected Books: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
I know I’ve already talked about both of these a bit, but I want to reiterate that both of these books threw in a huge twist that I absolutely did not see coming. That happens quite rarely for me, and the fact that it happened twice in one year makes me think I’m either losing my awesome literary foresight or authors are getting better at being surprising. Well, Rebecca is far from new, so maybe I’ve just been reading better books. Regardless, even though I’ve told you there are big twists, you should really read these books to find out what they are. I promise you you won’t be disappointed.
Cover Lust: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, The Raven King (The Raven Cycle #4) by Maggie Stiefvater, and The Love That Split the World by Emily Henry
I will freely admit that I’m guilty of occasionally judging a book by its cover, and these books would’ve definitely piqued my interest even if I’d known nothing about them. The covers of these three books are all very different, but they fit their individuals stories so well, managing to portray all the magic inside with a single picture. A cover picture is worth a thousand words, after all.
These say,
“Aren’t
I
pretty?”
(The answer is yes, yes you are.)
Most Surprising Villain: Tamlin from A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2) by Sarah J. Maas
In A Court of Thorns and Roses, I liked Tamlin. He wasn’t perfect, and his unwillingness to stand up to Amarantha to help Feyre irked me, but overall, I thought he was a good match for Feyre, and I was glad they ended up together. Then I got to A Court of Mist and Fury, and all those happy feelings for Tamlin went right out the window. Part of me initially wanted to forgive his actions—he was finally free after so many years, and he was clearly still recovering—but the moment he locked Feyre in the house was the moment I lost all sympathy for him. It’s one thing to want to protect someone you love, but it’s another thing entirely to force them to do what you want because you think you know what’s best for them. And then that ending! Yeah, Tamlin jumped to the top of my naughty list. I loved that Maas was able to flip the tables on Tamlin’s character and show how people can change for the better or for the worse. I kind of liked Tamlin’s road to villainy, in part because it was so unexpected but also because it made room for Rhysand, which I certainly didn’t mind!
Top Five Couples:
Blue and Gansey from The Raven King (The Raven Cycle #4) by Maggie Stiefvater
Feyre and Rhysand from A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses #2) by Sarah J. Maas
Celia and Marco from The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Kaz and Inej from Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2) by Leigh Bardugo
Juliette and Warner from Ignite Me (Shatter Me #3) by Tahereh Mafi
You know how some couples have problems with lying or trusting one another or disapproving families? These couples make those couples look lame by comparison. These five couples were forced to deal with magic, murder, kidnapping, corrupt rulers and governments, major anxiety issues, their own death—you know, simple stuff—and managed to come out even stronger. These guys and gals are all strong and fierce on their own, but together, they prove they can do absolutely anything they set their minds to. Definitely relationship goals, expect maybe with less bloodshed.
And that’s the end!
This was really a whirlwind year for me in terms of reading; I found a number of books that made it onto my all-time favorites list, and I found some others that convinced me to branch out in regards to what genres and topics I’m willing to explore.
So how did those discoveries work out in relation to my reading goals from last year? Well, I met—and surpassed—my initial goal of 100 books. I did manage to read more classics, although I still have plenty to go. And I read at least one non-fiction book each month, and most months, I read more than one. I rediscovered that real life can be just as dramatic and violent and romantic and mysterious as fiction, something that I tend to forget as I’m off exploring all the fictional worlds I can find. Therefore, one of this year’s reading goals is based on my enjoyment of all the nonfiction stories I read last year; yes, once again, I have my reading goals along with my more general resolutions. This year, my goals are to:
1) Read only nonfiction books for an entire month
2) Read at least 160 books
3) Read more classics…again
I’m quite confident that I can successfully meet all these goals—goodness knows I have enough books on my shelves to do so. I’m also quite confident that I’ll once again find some new favorites and some interesting historical events to study up on. There’s a whole year’s worth of reading to explore, and I can’t to see where these stories take me.
I better go get started…
#2016 books#bookwormawards#favorite books#books read in 2016#awards#celebrate reading#reading goals#sarah porter#vassa in the night#erin morgenstern#the night circus#the illuminate files#illuminae#the raven king#the raven cycle#maggie stiefvater#crooked kingdom#six of crows#leigh Bardugo#ghost soliders#hampton sides#blue x gansey#feyre x rhysand#celia x marco#kaz x inej#juliette x warner#warnette#feysand#a court of thorns and roses#sarah j maas
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Remember when I did Reviews and posted them here?
DOCTOR WHO CHRISTMAS SPECIAL AIRED AND IM POSTING THOUGHTS HERE. LETS GOO
MAJOR SPOILER ALERT, YA HEAR? DONT READ THIS IF YOU HAVENT WATCHED TWICE UPON A TIME YET. DONT BE STUPID. Im serious.
I feel like Moffat wasted this idea. He had this great setup to do an episode about how the show has changed, and questioning if thats a good or a bad thing, but this was ultimately not that.
Sure, there are a few jokes about how the Doctor has changed, and in the end we see the seeds of the older Doctor in the younger one, but ultimately that isn’t the focus. Which is kind of weird because, again, I feel like using this idea on a story that ISNT about that is a waste.
But Im getting ahead of myself.
It starts out by showing us scenes from the episode where Bill Hartnell’s doctor regenerates, and then cuts off, leading into where the previous episode ended. There’s some text narration that I dont like because it is 1- unnecessary and B- weird? When has the show ever done this? Why was it so obviously something done in post? And if it was written in, why’d they make it look like a last minute decision done in post?
Anyways, the two Doctors themselves are both great. Or at least, the Actors are really great. They’re not written very impressively. This is not Moffat at his best. Which is a shame, because I loved the Moffat era and Im sad that it feels like the man himself was phoning it in at the end.
After the theme tune, we’re introduced to Mark Gatiss’s character, who is a WWI soldier, moments before his death. Time is frozen all around him, and then he’s transported to where the two Doctors are.
His character isn’t bad. I didn’t mind him while I was watching, but looking back on the episode he was mostly there to serve the plot, which was ultimately pointless. So he does kinda bug me.
Anyways they all go into the TARDIS. Theres some jokes about the secret alchohol stache we saw a few Christmases ago which is fine. Some humor about the guitar, which I dont like. A Couple of the Doctors have played musical instruments. Having a personality trait thats consistent across Doctors be insulted by the original Doctor makes very little sense in my mind. And Capaldi is embarrassed of it? Capaldi’s Doctor is many things but embarrassed of one of the things that is legitimately cool? Weird conversation imo.
Oh and here we’re reintroduced to the fact that First Doctor was a bit sexist. Which, fine. He kinda was. Its an area where the Doctor has changed with the times. Except that its implied in other Capaldi episodes that Time Lord society just is actually more progressive bc they can change from male to female with a simple regeneration. This is why I feel like this was such a waste of potential. A trait that they implicitly retconned to not have changed over time is one of the main differences between the two that they focus on. Why? Nothing interesting is really learned there. It just lets Moffat virtue signal which is unnecessary.
Back to the plot, the TARDIS is captured by “The Dead” who dont explain whats going on, which is dumb of them, but offer to trade soldier Gatiss for Bill Potts, who is apparently among the dead. Nice. So glad they brought back a character whose arc ended with her getting a happy ending in order to show that it didn’t last long and that when they brought her back for an episode, it was for a plot related gimmick and she cant stay on the show still. I know they weren’t going to, but it still annoys me. I was ready for more Bill. I love Bill and this felt like a tease. Speaking of which, they let you think it really is Bill. Its not like in Day of the Doctor where you know that isn’t Rose the whole time. No, they let you think it maybe really is Bill. Why?
After some banter, the four of them escape the glass dead people. Or, person. Who looks very fake and not very intimidating. Which makes sense considering SPOILER ALERT the glass dead person isn’t evil. She’s not evil at all. She’s the main antagonist and in the end of the episode the Doctor’s basically just like “Wow OK well thats fine keep doing what you’re doing”. Nothing really even comes of it. Its all just padding and setup for the episode to end in the way that we all know it will.
Getting ahead of myself again. They spend some time on some Dalek controlled planet, where Rusty (The good Dalek that Doctor and Clara went inside back in season 8) sits in a tower and shoots at other Daleks all day. Rusty is old and cranky now. I guess. Actually he’s basically just a regular Dalek actually. But he will help the Doctor bc the Doctor convinces him it’ll hurt other Daleks. But actually all it does is reveal the twist I spoiled for you.
That said the main point was to give the characters a backdrop other than the old TARDIS set while they interact. We get some stuff with not-Bill and the Doctor which is pretty good. Some stuff with not-Bill and Gatiss which is actually really really good. And some stuff with the two Doctors which was... fine? Again, my main problem with the episode was that the two of them could have been used so much better but they simply aren’t. The two actors are phenominal, but I just dont buy Moffat’s writing in this episode. Give them intersting stuff to say, geez. Its all just kind of... what you’d expect.
Then we get the ending, which is again just nothing really unexpected. Doctor Capaldi changed stuff around so that when they unfroze time, it was right before the Christmas Armistice of 1914. Which is weird bc its like simultaneously showing that the world needs the Doctor to save people like Gatiss, but also showing that regular people, even soldiers in the midst of war, can be kind. Its a confusing message that tries to have its cake and eat it too. So see? This isn’t just me being upset that they didn’t focus on the stuff I would have. Its also me being upset with how they handled what they did choose to focus on.
Capaldi’s last scenes, saying goodbye to the Testimony versions of his companions, and his last monologue, are as great as I could have wanted them to be. Both drag on for a bit and had some stuff that could have been left on the cutting room floor and we never would have missed it. Its very obvious that Jenna Coleman wasn’t able to be there on set with the other companions Capaldi says goodbye to. And the Doctor rambles a bit in his monologue about children being allowed to know his name, which isn’t very coherent. I guess that was the point. We’re not supposed to understand. But still. Cut that then.
Then finally, Jodie Whitaker's first scene. Which is fine. Way too similar to Matt Smith’s first scene but with so much less dialogue. All she says is something like “Aw Brilliant!” which is instantly Doctor-ish. She’s great I love her. And then she stumbles around the exploding TARDIS set a bit before falling out of the ship entirely. Which again just makes me think of End of Time / Eleventh Hour. Like, I’ve seen this before but the character was given so much more room to breathe.
As I’ve said before, its not the female Doctor Im worried about, its Chris Chibnall not giving her anything interesting to do. This doesn’t change that at all.
Small notes I didn’t know where else to put:
-I swear Capaldi gets emotional for a brief instant when First Doctor mentions Polly. Could be my imagination though since its not indicated at all by the dialogue he says.
-Gatiss getting sad when he’s told he’s from “World War I” is a nice touch. They really believed that their’s was the war to end all wars, the idea that humanity would do it again was so unthinkable and its depressing.
-I could be wrong but I dont think we’ve seen the date the Testimony was from before in Doctor Who, which is interesting because usually future humans with time travel tech coming back are usually from a specific time period in Moffat episodes. Weird that he didn’t stick to that in his last romp.
-Rusty was kinda broken when the Doctor first found him. Howd he live for, what did the Doctor say? Thousands of years? MOFFAT JUST BC WE DIDNT SEE A CHARACTER DIE DOESNT MEAN THEY LIVE FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS DANGIT. Also why was Rusty never a contender for the fulfillment of the Hybrid Prophecy if he lived that long?
All in all, not the worst Moffat story, but far from his best. The message and point are obscured to the point of meaninglessness, but the emotion and characters are there, just not in as strong a force as they should be. :(
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The SAT Is Not A Test, It's Trickery.
Right now my kid is undergoing the torture otherwise known across America as the SAT. He has been preparing for this day for quite some time now. By the look and heft of his The Official SAT Study Guide, it seems he has been preparing for the last eleven years. I picked a bookmarked page, random to me, right about midway through the College Board-issued behemoth, page 356 to be exact, and glanced at the cryptogram on the left column. I read through it and thought to myself, “this feels like trap of sorts. This is an intellectual contraption setup to promote failure. This...this is trickery!”
I vaguely remember some chapter in the story of my life when I was somehow reluctantly convinced to undergo such torture myself. There were some figureheads, some caricatures of authority, involved. Something about college, and a test, and scores, and being punctual, and timing. And oh, yes, something involving a pencil, a very specific pencil, a No. 2. It had to be sharpened, of course, and I was instructed to "bring a pair." Apparently that's all the ordeal required. The rest, for the most part, is vague. Very vague.
Bubbles. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. The letters A, B, C, and of course the ever-elusive D, which may as well have been a hostage in an All of the above or None of the above scenario or some variation of the sort. The details escape me now, as I am certain they did then, but I do remember, almost vividly, the clock. More specifically, the minute-hand racing past the hour-hand, on the white-faced something-ix clock stuck on the painted cinder block wall, just above the classroom door. The second-hand was red, and sometimes between glances from the test to the clock, I would catch it standing frozen still for a moment too long.
And oh, yes, there is one more thing. I was never on time for school back then. I usually, almost predictably, always "came way too late," as Dean Young would tell me during one of our many confrontations in the hallway discussing my impending suspension for my failure to appear at detentions assigned to me as disciplinary measures designed to curb my tardiness. Also, I was never prepared, constantly "borrowing" loose leaf paper and a pen from well prepared classmates. And, to a fault, I always left way too early. Some would consider that "cutting class" but I didn't, I simply didn't go to the last class of the day because it was directly after my lunch period, which was technically the period I would cut out of school. So, I argued, in my defense, I did not intentionally "cut" that last period class, whatever it was it was simply an unwitting casualty of bad scheduling, or, more correctly, a matter of conflicting timelines.
As I have learned, conflicting timelines is a recurring theme in life, generally, but more specifically so in mine. But for the sake of brevity I will say for that particular place and time, there was no specific, intentional, rationale or reason for my lateness other than I just either always woke up late or left home late, and I rarely made any attempts to make up for it. In my last trip through the wringer, during my senior year, this meant missing first period, almost entirely sometimes. I think it was either Algebra or English, but it may have been Gym, as I don't recall ever breaking a sweat in that school. I spent sixth and seventh period mixing and rolling dough at Pizza Boy in the Roosevelt Mall. Suffice it to say, my SAT score was greatly affected by such behavior, et al. Needless to mention, my academic career, in general, and perpetuity, suffered tragically. Fatally. Yes, that's Fatally, with a capital F.
What I don't remember is anything about workbooks or practice tests or study guides. But Me 2.0 is all up in that. As he very well should be, I mean this kid is an honor roll staple. They could literally use his name as a staple to hold up the Roll of Honor hanging on a hall wall at his school. Like clockwork, if there is an occasional B it is always flanked by a row of A's and often transformed into one by the next marking period. An impeccable attendance record worth boasting about. No tardiness. No absence. Spotless. To a fault. I once told him he could miss a day of school to tag along with me and pick up my new motorcycle in Ohio. I worded it in such a way that it would sound like a really cool thing to do, but used a tone that connoted such concepts as "responsibly" and "thoughtfully". I pitched him something along the lines of making a once in a lifetime, memorable experience of the thing, a one-day father & son road trip. An adventure that would involve bonding, trust, brotherhood and beef jerky; miles and miles of nine-over-the-limit on the clock and lots of cruise control; Rock and Roll - or oldies, depending on which generation you hail from; a case of water for hydration; and some big empty cups for to avoid pulling over during the longer stretches between rest stops. It would have been a party on four wheels, for sixteen hours straight. I even suggested he could snapshot highlight moments of the debacle and post it to his Instagram. I wish I had done something like that with my father as a kid. Now it was my chance to turn the tables on life's mis-dealt hand and break the chain of missed-opportunities. He could tweet about it. #OneDayRoadTrip. That's what the kids do. Right? YOLO. Right?
He turned me down. He did not want to miss school and have to catch up on his work and... Well, I don't remember the rest of it. I lost him after those first few words because of the confounded mess I became once the look in his eyes hypnotized me senseless. First went sound. Then darkness took over, summoning thoughts of despair and pending doom to any nonconformist-on-the-brink-of-turning-conservative. I was in a momentary state of dumbfounding shock, while the horror of it all echoed in my head with eerie notes something to the tune of "is my son a nerd?"
?
His instinctive reluctance to miss out on a legit, parent-sanctioned school absence for the sake of school-related malarkey made absolutely no sense to me, a dropout. None. Not then. Not still. Doubt it ever will. So, I ventured out on my own. I did it old-school. SOLO. Because that's how I roll. Apparently. But to make sure I didn't end up in a scene from Deliverance, I had the route all planned out, and set up my outdated Android to talk me through the plot twists now and then. As rubber wore down, I occasionally lifted my G3 out of the cup holder to check for signs of life and to make sure the car charger thing kept the battery juiced up in case I got stuck somewhere. It was a couple hours of high spirits until the WaWa coffee ran its course and the radio faded to static and I eventually got bored enough to try and picture-text a few location updates to my son, back at school. He would sneak me a very delayed thumbs up (👍) emoticon now and then during school hours, surely he waited until he was in the crowded hallways, inter-class. Then I remembered I shouldn't text and drive. So I kept it to rest stop texting only, mostly. I even tried miserably to capture a few snapshots of such roadside sights as deep valanced valleys nesting rural villages, and cool old rusted-through farmland robots planted like landmarks amidst the alternating chromatic values of green and freshly-plowed dirt. These, I thought, I would rub in his face when I produced them as evidence that he totally missed out. But I ended up with blurry, skewed shots of road signs, and eighteen wheelers, and dashboard. Lots of dashboard. Once, the ever-intrusive fingertip made a cameo, photobombing what would have otherwise been a postcard-esque shot of a tunnel entrance.
Epic.
Fail.
All in all, it ended up being a trip worth taking. For me. For the obvious reasons, the most logical of which was to haul back the coolest thing on two wheels worth taking such a trip for, which is the only logical reason to ever partake in such shenanigans, solo or accompanied. But admittedly, it wasn't something worth missing school for. Those sixteen hours felt like an eternity of dreadfulness at the time, eight of which mostly spent in pitch-black darkness, on the way back, with my bike in tow, strapped down in the hollow cargo cavity directly behind my seat. Eight hours of going eighty, with eight-hundred pounds of steel and rubber and gasoline held in place, just inches from my head, with the cheapest ratcheting straps I could find. It wasn't safe and it wasn't pleasurable. No place for a kid who's gonna use his brains in life. It was forebodingly dark and loud. Road noise, mostly, echoing through the uninsulated van like a rolling tin can, deadened only by only moments of fleeting redemption as I played hide and seek with the dropouts in radio frequency on which Alice Cooper, God bless his soul, hosted late-night radio. Sipping bad coffee to keep my eyes peeled enough to avoid plot twists involving six-pointers and eighty-miles-an-hour rental vans as I made my way through the peaks and valleys of western Pennsylvania.
But I digress. My kid. My boy. The fruit of my loins. The heir to all my fault-derived understanding of this world and most of my mistake-learned wisdom, is taking the SAT. Right about now, he is fully aware that he is being tested on his aptitude, whereas I felt, at his age, in a similar setting, or generally, that I was being tested on my attitude. I still do. But not him. He's every good thing I could never be if I tried. He was up for it. Prepared for it. He's got this. I know it, and more importantly, he knows it. He gladly sharpened three brand-new Dixon Ticonderoga No. 2 pencils, before going bed last night, and told me, with nary a hint of playfulness, "Dad, this is the best pencil in the world."
I concur.
I hope that his No.2 fills in only the right dots. I hope it leaves a trail of lead* that maps out nothing but the right answers, marking only the correct solutions. I hope that whatever fate had in store for him today, it also involves a handful of educated guesses, with some lucky guesses mixed in for good measure, though I doubt he would need that many. I hope he ultimately pencils this in as nothing more than what it is, a minuscule experience in an ever-evolving wheelhouse of much, much greater experiences that a life well lived should undoubtedly grant him. I hope that whatever pattern, whatever master key is used to unscramble this cryptogram of grey bubbles, I hope it mirrors the pattern that his teachers taught my boy. And I hope that my boy decides to duplicate that pattern through the fullest extent his knowledge. I hope that the system utilized to review his choices can also connect the dots of his answers to his propensity for assessing the true value of knowledge. True value. True knowledge. The kind of knowledge necessary to pursue and carry out a fulfilling life.
I hope the appointed surveyor of errors scans both the marked and the unmarked choices and recognizes them only as the result of the invisible act of choosing choices chosen over choices not chosen, and not use the weight of consequence to suppress any choices he has yet to make or coerce anyone to make a choice about him, in the future, based on his choice of an answer today. I hope this examination of his scholarship can sift through his absorption of the mindless regurgitations of expanded sophomoric academics and screen his wondrous, now-limitless potential, ripening and maturing into a future which seems more and more so uncertain to a father like me and yet so promising for a son like him. I hope that whatever computer computes his standardized Scholastic Aptitude is also programmed with the intangible sensitivity necessary to gauge his ability to use his standardized scholastic intellect to enhance his common sense and his uncommon, not-so-standard sensibilities about and towards the world around him.
I hope the College Board can look at his test score, no matter what it may end up to be, and recognize its irrefutable meaninglessness against his all-in effort, his can-do attitude, his willingness to do and be more and better, and his relentless dedication to apply both his critical thinking and the stuff they teach at school to his advantage and to that of others, especially in situations where his natural instincts may prove futile.
I hope, for the sake of our future, 'cause that's what the children are, that these standardized tests, and their score, don't mean that much to them. And by them I mean the kids.
By the way, In the color of full disclosure, due to one of my innumerable battles with my arch-nemesis Time, I missed the greater bulk of my SAT. My final score was 900-something, which, as evidenced in my writing, is largely attributable to the luck fate had in store for me on that day.
Also, Dean Young was a friendly figure in a stern setting. Sometimes we ate together at the Burger King across the street. His treat. Always.
I never, ever mentioned his toupee. Not to him, not to anyone. Until now.
*is it graphite?
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