Once a Stranger

and it was the closest thing to meta I wrote in years so I thought I might as well repost it here:

cleromancy asked: this isn't an assumption so much as something you've explicitly stated, but you're really into fucked up/self destructive relationship dynamics, romantically and otherwise; i'm actually pretty interested in your thoughts on why that appeals to you in fiction, also your thoughts on jealousy/possessiveness of the self-destructive type? :D

Why it appeals to me… oh boy, you’re in for a novel.

I think there are three big axis that make me mainly intrigued by fucked up relationships: power, self-destruction & deconstruction/liminality.

( Read more... )

Pick a number and I'll answer the question. Crossed-out questions have been asked by someone already.

1 - Your current OTP
2 - A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind
3 - A pairing you have never liked and probably never will
4 - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t
5 - Have you added anything stupid/cracky/hilarious to your fandom, if so, what
6 - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom
7 - Do you remember your first OTP, if so who was in it
8 - Do you prefer characters from real action series or anime series
9 - Has the internet caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why
10 - Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over tumblr/LJ/DW
11 - How do you feel about the other people in your current fandom
12 - Your favorite fanartist/author gives you one request, what do you ask for
13 - Your favorite fanart or fanartist
14 - Your favorite fanfiction or fanauthor
15 - Choose a song at random, which OTP does it remind you of
16 - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas)
17 - A ship you’ve abandoned and why
18 - A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else ships
19 - Show us an example of your personal headcanon
20 - Do you remember what your first fanwork was?
21 - Self-rec: What's your favorite fanwork you've created?
22 - Are you one of those fans who can’t watch anything without shipping
23 - 5 favorite characters from 5 different fandoms
24 - 3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms
25 - A fandom you’re in but have no ships from
26 - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go

Let's try to get it under order.

I don't think I ended up saying what I thought of Community S2 & S3. Basically S2 was brilliant and even had glimmers of characterizations here and there that made me think those were real people, but then S3 was a let down.

Then I watched Downton Abbey, which wasn't exactly what I expected it to be. Given the glowing terms in which I had heard spoke of it, I was thinking it would something quite sharper and deeper - Gosford Park or Mad Men it ain't. It was pure sentimental soap and sometimes of a quite conservative bent. However it was ridiculously and additcively entertaining, with solid storytelling, and lots of fun dialogues; so there was that.

Finally wrapped up Mouretsu Pirates. It is definitely solid, fun, and sometimes even refreshingly clever, despite the too leisurely for my liking pacing and sometimes overplayed cuteness. I probably wouln'd mind reading some Marika/Chiaki fanfics.

X-Men Evolution S3 finally gets some more proper plotting on board. And yet still completely miss the beat in term of how it addresses X-Men themes. However some of the stories aren't bad. Definitely liked X-23 showing up. I still hate how they do some of the characters.

Otherwise I've started watching Damages, I gobbled down both first seasons at a ridiculous fast space - that was some delicious mindfuckery and intriguing storytelling. Grounded down to a crawl for the third season however, it just starts feeling too depressing for me, I think. But it is a brilliant show.

Started watching Sinbad. So far I am not very convinced. There are a few things I like in the premise - historical fantasy adventures, lots of PoCs in the cast, rag tag band of misfit - but the storytelling is really not up to par. Still, I'd like to give it a chance. Besides, I watch it for the pretties.


Anyway, I failed to check on any anime series this season. Did I end up missing anything good?

I don't think i'd posted yet on Black Widow (2010)

So, the Black Widow run by Liu was, like, really, really good. Hmm, why was it so ridiculously short? Great art too, and a great balance of atmosphere and badassness.

Then Swierczynski did a story too, which was okay, I guess.

Then I tried reading Widowmaker but I got bored so I gave up.

And I've finally concluded my reading of the Claremont era of X-Men.

The whole Outback - Siege Perilous era was mostly very weak, messy and aimless, with some highlights like the introduction of Jubilee and Gambit and it does get better by the ending though, when the team start gathering again. (although to my disappointment they never really acknowledge how douchy it was to play dead for such a long time)

Louise Simonson's X-Factor is overall mostly very solid, with a few weaker issues here and there, but I found myself surprisingly interested in those characters (given that I'm hardly a fan of the O5 as a team), also great art

Wish I could say the same of her New Mutants, but she's obviously more interested in her own characters (the X-Terminators one) than any of the previous ones. I do love Boom Boom and Rictor, though, so there's that. And the return to Asgard arc at least was okay.

Excalibur, I kind of love the character dynamics and characters period (well except for Brian), but I usually found it pretty hard following the plots and as a result caring for the stories. Lots of great art though.

Days of Future Present was very good.

I also read Vision Quest and Darker than Scarlet while I was at it, which were okay as stories if... wince worthy at times.


If anyone's still reading and has suggestion for 90's X-Men stuff that are worth bothering with, I'm all ears. Obviously, i'll try PAD's original X-Factor run, I'll continue Alan Davies' Excalibur and will try the Warren Ellis one, there's Lobdell's Generation X and the whole Age of Apocalypse I'll check out. And someone on tumblr persuaded me to try Nicieza's X-Force (I think they have psychic power). Beyond that...




Oh, and for something completely different, I've started reading Starman, which is very good.

Legend of Korra was for me, in the end, largely a disappointment. ( no real spoilers but i'll cut anyway since the finale is so recent )

:D

Lessee...

The Good Wife has been very, very good. Not a perfect season still, but I think one of those I enjoyed most. Easily my favorite show currently.

The second season of Game of Thrones I have found disappointing, mostly. It was badly paced (may have been a problem with the books already), and the adaption really focused on stuff I was less interested with in the things they changed. Theon's story is the only part I felt was done really well. Tyrion was okay, mostly, but I'm really not sure about what they're doing with Shae (some of the changes have been interesting in making her more easily sympathetic, but I'm afraid that sets up a worse turn in the end); Sansa's story (one of my favourite in Clash of Kings) was shamelessly dropped; I hate the changes with Cat and Robb - they are insulting; Arya was good thanks to her actress being great and the chemistry with Tywin's actor but still rather weakened her character. Cersei was also very much weakened. Can't say I'm crazy with the changes in Jaime either (kinslayer, lol); and while Stannis is pretty great, I don't think Davos comes across with enough charisma. The changes with Daenarys are probably the worst - while they needed to buff up her storyline, the way they did it was incredibly weak and boring and barely coherent. Her scenes in the finale had a nice atmosphere to them at least, even if they came very short of the power of the visions in the book.

Overall I find that this post sums up a lot of my feelings.

Mad Men was very good this season; although I feel it is a bit aimless, like the main story's already done, and now we're just going on, and it's still interesting to watch, but I'm not sure it's been adding anything of note. I'm not sure I'll be able to watch the show if we don't have Peggy as core cast either, so I'm a little bit dubious about what they're going to do next.

Miss Fisher Mysteries was overall a very nice and very fun series. As I got more attached to the cast (and they are very charming) I found myself enjoying it much more. The plots weren't great, and sometimes felt too "issue of the week", but otherwise lots of fun. Dot was my absolute favourite, she is totally adorable and such a fierce one when called on to. I rather feel like she's totally wasted on Hughes, though, who does nothing but irritate me with his bumbling sidekick act. I'd ship her with Phryne if I didn't love Phryne's interaction with Jack so much (he's so cute when he gets flustered and long suffering). Anyway, I look forward to a second season (we do get one, right?).

Anime wise, I'm currently watching Sakamichi no Apollon and Lupin the Third - Mine Fujiko to I Onna, which are both very good. Mine Fujiko is a little bit on the trashy/exploitation-y side with how not coy it is with the main character's use of sex & sex appeal to do things - but I don't really mind that - Sakamichi no Apollon is just, very well done. Often I felt I wasn't in the mood for a love triangle / high school romance kind of deal, but it works anyway because the characterizations and storytelling and of course the soundtrack is just that well done. And the OT3 is strong in this one ♥ Also I think I'm going to give Mouretsu Pirates a second chance (I had initially dropped it after the 3rd episode because I found it too slow/boring) since it continues to get a lot of enthusiasm. And, apparently, canon lesbians.

Otherwise, I've been trying to watch the kdrama Emperor of the Sea, but I have had troubles getting into it. Not because it's bad or anything, but I don't seem to manage to invest myself in the storyline. I think the problem is I find the main character to be utterly blah. There's an awesome female villain, and the female love interest is also pretty cool, but I'm not sure it's enough to keep me hooked, and i'm afraid I'm going to end up dropping it out of lack of motivation.

I've finished watching the X-Men series from the 90's, which, yeah, does get a big drop in quality by the last seasons. Although it continues having a few great episodes and I very much don't regret watching it - it really goes to the heart of the characters and the themes most of the time, I really dig that. And of course all the Magneto episodes are awesome ♥ (I found it hilarious the 4th letter did a blog post mentioning:

I always found it weird how despite being the X-Men’s #1 bad guy and leading the villain army in the intro, Magneto did shockingly little in the villainy department on that show. He fought them in the third episode (where Xavier defeated him by MAKING HIM RELIVE THE HOLOCAUST, which is extremely fucked for a kid show), but all his subsequent appearances had him fighting alongside the X-Men in some fashion. Granted, there was a lot of reluctance from both sides, but he was there.

Because I was thinking the same thing XD And he still works great as a foil to the X-Men!

So of course I move on to X-Men: Evolution, which, yeaaaaah, doesn't work so much for me. I've just finished the 1st season so for now, besides that I don't like what they do with Magneto, I find it quite a bit too shallow. I don't dislike the high school thing as much as I thought I would (although having both the "good" kids and the "bad" ones in the same school really stretch the suspension of disbelief. What, did they concerted each other for that sake for some... purpose?), their Mystique comes across as wayyy too weak, Kitty feels also like she lost a few levels in badass, Rogue's better than I thought she would be despite how I dislike the goth charadesign; but she still comes very much short from the 90's X-Men series' Rogue, and Storm has yet to really demonstrate a personality (whereas Wolvy has had plenty of focus, grrr). Also Xavier comes hilariously creepy in his methods of recruitment. Scott and Jean are pretty good, and Nightcrawler is absolutely adorable. Oh, and then there's Spyke. He's, errr, there. As for the villain team kids, I reserve judgment; they come across as overly petty in a way that feels hamfisted at times, but they also seem to have potential, so I'll wait and see (at least unless the portrayal of Magneto doesn't make me drop the show before that).

So sad that Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes has been canceled. Although the second season has been weaker and especially uneven, it was still a very entertaining show, and I loved getting Ms Marvel on the team. Depressing that all of Marvel's good cartoons seem to get canceled so easily x_x

I've also watched the Archer cartoon series (for those who don't know, it's a flash animated parody of spy stories with a very dark & sarcastic sense of humour. Think South Park like. Everyone in the cast are assholes.) which is absolutely hilarious and well done. If in a frequently horrible way (and sometimes offensively, though I think they got better on that as they went).

And I've started watching Community, which is also very funny and well written, but in neat contrast with Archer, I don't feel at all anything for the characters. Which is funny considering Community actually tries to do some heartwarming scenes/characterizations and I feel like they all fall patheticaly flat. But still an entertaining show to watch, especially for Abed.

ladyk_d_azrael finally finished writing this epic fic:

With Open Hand (56120 words) by K_dAzrael
Chapters: 10/10
Fandom: Thor (2011), Thor (Comics), Marvel
Rating: Explicit
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Loki/Thrym, Loki/Thor
Characters: Loki (Marvel), Thrym, Laufey, Odin (Marvel), Thor (Marvel), Helblindi, Warriors Three, Býleistr
Summary:

Thrymskviða reimagined with single-gendered Jotnar, cultural relativism, political machinations and bodice ripping.

which I highly recommend. It's heavily inspired from Left Hand of Darkness in term of the depiction of the Jotunn's society, and there is a lot of superb world building and characterization of original characters, awesome plotting; and all in the service of terrific Loki characterization, with a lot of nuances & cleverness. Read it!

I think there's special hell for people who hand code their posts (usually fics) in fancy fonts rather than the viewer's default.

I believe I've reached the point when I'm not even looking forward to Games of Thrones episodes. I feels like a duty, and then I look forward to the discussion; but I actually stopped the last episode twice while watching from boredom and cringing. The OOCness is out of the wazoo. ( spoilery )

someday i really need to learn to go the fuck to sleep. it wouild be easier for me on the morning. *siiiiighs*

The Cloud Road & The Serpent Sea by Martha Wells, the two first volumes of a fantasy series about Moon, a guy shapeshifting in to a flying reptile finally finding out about who the people he's of are, and trying to integrate into their society, while they face great threat.( Read more... )

A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette & Elisabeth Bear, the first novel in a fantasy series about a group of warriors who are a mindlinked to magical wolves who war against trolls in a northern flavoured setting. ( Read more... )

The Silent Tower by Barbara Hambly, an early fantasy novel of Hambly, with a modern earth woman being thrust into a medieval-but-on-the-verge-of-industrial-revolution world in a way related to a mysterious series of death involving magic and wizards. ( Read more... )

The Irregulars by various authors, is an anthology of urban fantasy mystery M/M short stories by various authors all revolving about a secret state organisation having to deal with magical creatures related threats and crimes. It was pretty cool, most of the creatures had a faery vibe which was refreshing and well done, most of the characterizations is decent. Some of the plots were better than others, but overall it was an entertaining read.

Somebody Kill his Editor & All She Wrote by Josh Lanyon, amateur smartass sleuth M/M novels in which the protagonist is a mystery writers himself. Those were pretty cute, mostly light hearted, with decent enough plots and amusing characters.

Oucast Mine by Jamie Craig, a space opera prison M/M novel, which was crap with a barely coherent plot wise asides from having hot sex scenes.

Counterpoint & Crescendo by Rachel Haimowitz - a fantasy slave M/M story about an elve warrior and the human military leader who got him as a captive, the second book has a semi decent plot, and the main characters aren't half bad, although their romance does not convince and its all very cookie cutter. Also the writing overuse cutesy medieval speech patterns in a way that gets annoying very fast.