"It's time to play...NUTCRACKAH!"
Jan. 12th, 2011 04:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ninety6tearsI have a visit to the doctor and a job interview in the same 24 hours. Do not want :(
Holy crap, I haven't updated in forever. I have lots of random shit to talk about.
1. I want more fandom for Tron: Legacy. Specifically, lots more Sam Flynn/Ed Dillinger Jr. I'm not usually into the five-minute characters (okay, that might be a big lie), but he's the board member played by Cillian Murphy who seems pretty unconcerned about the software leak, which is made all the more interesting when you realize he's the son of the company antagonist from the first Tron film.
2. Saw True Grit. I really liked it, though it's one of those good movies that in hindsight feels more like a series of awesome scenes than like, an overall masterpiece that moves nicely from beginning to end. Ebert compared it to how Iggy Pop can do a good version of "My Funny Valentine"; it's like the Coen brothers wanted to take a holiday from their thing and do something more for fun. Though I don't agree with him completely because the humor in it felt very Coen brothers.
Jeff Bridges was awesome, but what else is new. Hailee Steinfeld is amazing and would not be over-hyped if they handed her an Oscar. And I enjoyed Matt Damon, and I have weird issues with Matt Damon, so he must have done a pretty good job.
3. Saw Black Swan, holy jaysus.
-First of all, I had this sort of...weirdly protective feeling towards Nina throughout a lot of the film, and I think my reason for this is because a couple reviews/reactions I'd heard were about how from the very beginning of the film you could just tell that "this girl is CUHRAZY" and even though there were definite hints from the beginning of how messed-up her life is I couldn't help having this attitude I often get when people try to ridicule people for having breakdowns over their failures and shit like that. I'm tempted sometimes to just be like, "Well, if you don't know what it's like to want something that bad..." Cause seriously, some of us want things we can work really hard for and eventually get, and some of us want to dance the lead in Swan Lake, and the immense pressure that's put on you when you really only have the years of being young and fit to get what you want seems like it would be enough to drive a lot of people to some crazy shit. That part when Nina thought she'd totally bombed her audition and she went home and just broke down crying in her mom's arms was just so damn sad, and I really felt for her. I was surprised by how accessible a character she was at the beginning of the film, and it just made the end all the more troubling.
-Vincent Cassel totally freaked me out, man. There are scenes in movies with men being handsy and then there's this fucking movie...I was so uncomfortable.
-I thought the use of sound in this movie was amazing. It felt like there was never a moment where you were outside of Nina's head and what she was conscious of. I even liked that you could hear the slippers hitting the floor in the first practice scene, I'm not sure I've ever seen a ballet movie that did that.
-I'd love to read a feminist perspective on this film from someone much smarter on such matters than I am? But I like the whole Madonna-whore representation in the white vs. black swan dichotomy and how it's a huge force in sabotaging Nina's sanity and how it villainizes the hell out of Leroy, at least from where I'm standing. But you have this childlike character who's been very stifled by her mother her entire life and this caricature of seductive qualities she's trying to emulate and somewhere between those is the real Nina, somebody she's never allowed to be. I think what makes Lily an extremely important character is that she is so effortlessly balanced, she's a talented and good person who also knows how to have fun, and her very presence reinforces how tragic it is that Nina is gradually falling apart basically trying to be her.
4. Okay, so I'm caught up on all Supernatural, and I'm still being nudged to do some kind of proper reaction post, so
Season 5 felt somehow wobbly and overwhelmingly good at once. I've pretty much come into every season with the exception of season four with low hopes because this fandom is sooo divided but pretty much no one says it gets better after S4 so I was kind of just crossing my fingers for a decent season.
The apocalypse on a low budget is really too bad. The production value got so gradually lowered that it kind of took me sitting back and remembering stuff like the S2 finale to realize they sure as hell could have done more with the end of the world and were probably planning to way back at the beginning and just couldn't. I mean, the Michael and Lucifer not-battle was so politely rendered it would be laughable to any channel-surfing viewer who doesn't understand the epic trimmings of it from the context of the entire season. And speaking of which, this was definitely not the season for casual fans - They do have the recaps at the beginnings of the episodes, but the really complicated unease about angels and hosts would feel like a really weak conflict when you haven't kept up with all the bits we see throughout the season of the kinds of manipulation the antagonists will throw around. There was occasionally some clever paraphrasing, though, like Gabriel describing it as a Celebrity Deathmatch in "Changing Channels."
Here's where I devolve into random bullet-point.
-I ship. the HELL. out of the alternate future versions of Dean and Cas in "The End." Just that whole scene of stoner!Cas being all "Your plan really sucks but, whatever, man" and "LOL What? I like past you." And Dean is kind of an asshole in that 'verse, I know, but Cas knows that he's an asshole and just pats him on the knee over it and it's fucking gold.
-ABANDON ALL HOOOPE. First of all, this ep was very Cas-is-friends-with-the-gang, even at the beginning I felt like Dean was being unusually nice to him when he felt bad about not being able to get into Crowley's. And, um, the ENTIRE SCENE AT BOBBY'S with "Oye Como Va" <3 <3 <3!
And Meg was just all kinds of awesome in this episode (2.0 fucking pwns 1.0, I love this actress SFM).
And then, and then, ffuuuck. Okay, I'd been pretty ambivalent about Dean/Jo up until a point, I at least had picked up on it being a very popular ship and just kinda didn't get why, but now, oh. I've noticed that something's a little different about Jo every time we see her but I think there's kind of a weird perception of her growing out of some huge crush she had on Dean? I was always under the impression that she liked him but would never really bite if the opportunity arose; when Sam was possessed he kind of wheedled with it but I think Jo just had general insecurities over not being treated like she could look after herself and this was as big a deal with her mother as it was with Dean, so. I DON'T KNOW, but she was always kind of cool and aloof with him but in a I'm-flirting-with-you-by-refusing-to-flirt-with-you kinda way, and by THIS episode there was something kinda Han/Leia about her and Dean but you also felt like she was kind of extended family to him and well if you make a relationship really complicated like that I'm probably going to like it and when it happened and Dean was saying goodbye I was yelling at him to kiss her and GOD DAMMIT HE KISSED HER ON THE FOREHEAD. ("FOREHEAD KISSES MELT MY SOUL," IT'S A TAG ON MY TUMBLR.) And then he KISSED HER ON THE MOUTH and wrenched himself away and still, that's not when I cried. To date there is only one moment in this whole show that has literally made me cry (and I've watched this more times than any other episode except "Mystery Spot" and it makes me cry every time): When Ellen and Jo are in there alone and she says, "I'll always love you baby" and then Jo's gone and Ellen keeps telling her it's okay. My god.
And the boys can't even get to say goodbye to Ellen. It's horrible.
-I can't remember the name of the episode now, but when Anna's trying to kill Sam and they all have to go back in time and there's weirdness with the entire family. I loved John in this one cause you could totally see the unassuming Marine badass under the surface. I loved his "Why is everybody treating me like a fool? I can draw a damn whatever" and him going angry Daddy on everyone in the car was hilarious.
I really felt like Anna's death was somehow unneeded? At this point I really think the one blatantly sexist thing about the show is the female body count. There's some joke waiting to happen here about a show that begins with three guys and a dead woman and tends to follow the same formula throughout :/
-"Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" was the shiiit. So was "Dark Side of the Moon," though I am irrationally upset by the throwing out of Dean's amulet D: D: D:
-I'm really having a hard time collecting any coherent idea of why I fucking loved "Swan Song." My instinct is that it's probably not a popular episode, I don't know, but I thought it was as brilliant as it had room to be.
So, when I was in first grade, my parents would often have to be at work when I got out of school so my sister and I had to go to the stupid after-school program thing, which you just somehow weren't cool if you had to go to. And this girl I was becoming friends with lived right next to the school and I have this random memory from one of the first days we had to stay after when she came back to the playground to hang out with us and brought a can of Pringles and we sat under this tree and ate them all. This girl is now my oldest and best friend. The other day when I was just going through the aisles at Wal-Mart and I looked at the Pringles and I thought of that time, I realized that every single time I look at a Pringles can I think of that one day. And I had just seen her that week, but thinking about her in that context suddenly made me almost want to get in my car and drive three hours to hang out with her again. My friends tell me all the time they're amazed at how I can always remember things like that, but I think everybody must know what it's like to have some stupid memory about someone suddenly flick on in your head that just makes you get a feeling of "Damn, but I would do just about anything for this person." And I have another weakness for flashback sequences, and just, the Impala, and the wind. This episode emotionally kicked my ass.
I think we see many times that Sam is not the type of person who often sees his relationships with others in the big picture of everything they mean to him. He knows and says and proves that he would do anything for Dean, we see in a couple moments with John that he really really loves his father, but he's able to leave both of them for years to go after a life he wants. We see in "Dark Side of the Moon" that he's the most nostalgic for times when he was able to break free of his family. He just sees his relationships through more of a narrow focus that makes him able to be quietly angry at people for a long time, to go off and do his own thing because he isn't so fixated on the people he cares about. And this is good, this is a great thing about his character, but I loved that the most crucial moment in the finale was him seeing something that made him remember and just get whacked in the face with the big picture to the point that he's suddenly able to make Lucifer his bitch. And then there's Dean, whose big weakness is that he can't get away from the big picture and grew up being loyal to a fault, and he suddenly has to figure out how to let it go, because Sam is gone.
I've seen some criticism of how the episode ends on this idea that they "chose family," because it would be preferable for them to be heroically fighting for the whole of the population of the world rather than just for each other, but allow me to suggest that this is missing the point, because remember at the end of season four when Dean is pissed about the apocalypse and yelling at Cas, he says, "People matter. Families matter"? Everybody matters because they matter so fucking much to each other, and in "Swan Song" they both actually have to prove how much they love each other by letting each other go. It's like one of the huge painful concepts of dealing with grief actually given a very huge reason to be so important.
-I was glad that Lisa came back. I really loved her in "The Kids Are Alright" cause she was so protective and smart with her kid that she almost didn't throw Dean a bone to show she still kinda dug him, but then she did, and it was sweet as hell. And it's amazing of her that she takes him in, I don't care what anybody says.
People seem to be resigned to the fact that she isn't going to come back; I sort of feel like the type of happy ending that would involve her and Dean getting back together would be too weird, but I'm still kind of disappointed it ended the way it did?
-Dean with children, man. I am so embarrassingly weak for this, and like, defensive about how much crap he gets from the other hunters about suddenly being a family man (Why are the Campbells a bunch of dicks anyway?) It never exactly floored me that he was good at that stuff; I always thought of him as actually wanting the more abstract idea of a family more than Sam did, while Sam had to fall in love with someone and want her to want to settle down (Basically I think Sam wants Jess back sooner than he generally wants a family).
-"DEAN AND I DO SHARE A MORE PROFOUND BOND. I MEAN, I WASN'T GONNA SAY ANYTHING, BUT..." (Yeah, I'm just gonna leave that here.)
-I kind of...love...Robo-Sam. Like, he entertains me enough to distract me from how horrible it is that Sam is still gone. And from a psychological perspective I'm really intrigued by the fact that he is behaving 100% sociopath down to his bad attempts to fit in at first, etc.
I'm just so irritated with how everybody is talking about this problem because, okay, SAM IS STILL IN HELL, guys. That is BAD to the nth degree, so why are we talking like Robosam being soulless is the main problem? Sam has a soul, it's in hell, it's in HELL, worry about that shit, plz. Even Cas has a moment of stupid when he wonders if it's even a good idea to bring Sam's soul back. Who cares if he goes batshit, alright, he can then die and go to heaven and his soul won't be in hell anymore. Not that Castiel is not often irrational when it comes to his Winchesters, though.
I was totally just uneasily waiting for Sam to decide he didn't need a soul after all, and when it did happen I was reminded of that really bad ST: Voyager episode when Tuvok and Neelix get smushed into one person and the whole ethical hand-wave they gave it when they had to "kill" the amalgamation to get the others back. LOL
-I fucking love Bobby. He's the kind of character you can get away with not giving that many flaws because he's been through a lot of shit and he's wiser than you. He knows Japanese. He seems to know about half the hunters in the world, and he cleans up messes for a lot of them. He has complicated, at times vitriolic histories with most of his friends but they are still sort of his friends. He made a panic room on his day off. He likes pedicures. He has a favorite, and it's Dean. BOBBY.
-Oh, and can we have a moment of devastation over Gabriel. I think the only good thing about Gabe dying is that had he actually become a pal of the Winchesters he just might have stolen Castiel's best friend, cause you KNOW him and Dean would have partied all night together once Dean got over that time he killed him a hundred times and...all the other shit he's done. Um.
-The lycanthropes in "All Dogs Go To Heaven" felt like they were taken right out of Sharp Teeth, and now I want a crossover.
-Speaking of crossovers, I was glad we got to see more of that female reaper, but every time reapers show up I'm dying to read a crossover that throws Dean into a situation with Death from Sandman. Just, I don't know, pit Dean with a version of Death who knows what it's like to have pain-in-the-ass brothers, and I feel like it would be gold. And I'd totally ship it.
-Castiel is gettin his id on.
-And Meg is just a walking PWP, I swear, she sees something pretty and just goes for it. She has now macked on all three of the boys at some point, LOL.
Holy crap, I haven't updated in forever. I have lots of random shit to talk about.
1. I want more fandom for Tron: Legacy. Specifically, lots more Sam Flynn/Ed Dillinger Jr. I'm not usually into the five-minute characters (okay, that might be a big lie), but he's the board member played by Cillian Murphy who seems pretty unconcerned about the software leak, which is made all the more interesting when you realize he's the son of the company antagonist from the first Tron film.
2. Saw True Grit. I really liked it, though it's one of those good movies that in hindsight feels more like a series of awesome scenes than like, an overall masterpiece that moves nicely from beginning to end. Ebert compared it to how Iggy Pop can do a good version of "My Funny Valentine"; it's like the Coen brothers wanted to take a holiday from their thing and do something more for fun. Though I don't agree with him completely because the humor in it felt very Coen brothers.
Jeff Bridges was awesome, but what else is new. Hailee Steinfeld is amazing and would not be over-hyped if they handed her an Oscar. And I enjoyed Matt Damon, and I have weird issues with Matt Damon, so he must have done a pretty good job.
3. Saw Black Swan, holy jaysus.
-First of all, I had this sort of...weirdly protective feeling towards Nina throughout a lot of the film, and I think my reason for this is because a couple reviews/reactions I'd heard were about how from the very beginning of the film you could just tell that "this girl is CUHRAZY" and even though there were definite hints from the beginning of how messed-up her life is I couldn't help having this attitude I often get when people try to ridicule people for having breakdowns over their failures and shit like that. I'm tempted sometimes to just be like, "Well, if you don't know what it's like to want something that bad..." Cause seriously, some of us want things we can work really hard for and eventually get, and some of us want to dance the lead in Swan Lake, and the immense pressure that's put on you when you really only have the years of being young and fit to get what you want seems like it would be enough to drive a lot of people to some crazy shit. That part when Nina thought she'd totally bombed her audition and she went home and just broke down crying in her mom's arms was just so damn sad, and I really felt for her. I was surprised by how accessible a character she was at the beginning of the film, and it just made the end all the more troubling.
-Vincent Cassel totally freaked me out, man. There are scenes in movies with men being handsy and then there's this fucking movie...I was so uncomfortable.
-I thought the use of sound in this movie was amazing. It felt like there was never a moment where you were outside of Nina's head and what she was conscious of. I even liked that you could hear the slippers hitting the floor in the first practice scene, I'm not sure I've ever seen a ballet movie that did that.
-I'd love to read a feminist perspective on this film from someone much smarter on such matters than I am? But I like the whole Madonna-whore representation in the white vs. black swan dichotomy and how it's a huge force in sabotaging Nina's sanity and how it villainizes the hell out of Leroy, at least from where I'm standing. But you have this childlike character who's been very stifled by her mother her entire life and this caricature of seductive qualities she's trying to emulate and somewhere between those is the real Nina, somebody she's never allowed to be. I think what makes Lily an extremely important character is that she is so effortlessly balanced, she's a talented and good person who also knows how to have fun, and her very presence reinforces how tragic it is that Nina is gradually falling apart basically trying to be her.
4. Okay, so I'm caught up on all Supernatural, and I'm still being nudged to do some kind of proper reaction post, so
Season 5 felt somehow wobbly and overwhelmingly good at once. I've pretty much come into every season with the exception of season four with low hopes because this fandom is sooo divided but pretty much no one says it gets better after S4 so I was kind of just crossing my fingers for a decent season.
The apocalypse on a low budget is really too bad. The production value got so gradually lowered that it kind of took me sitting back and remembering stuff like the S2 finale to realize they sure as hell could have done more with the end of the world and were probably planning to way back at the beginning and just couldn't. I mean, the Michael and Lucifer not-battle was so politely rendered it would be laughable to any channel-surfing viewer who doesn't understand the epic trimmings of it from the context of the entire season. And speaking of which, this was definitely not the season for casual fans - They do have the recaps at the beginnings of the episodes, but the really complicated unease about angels and hosts would feel like a really weak conflict when you haven't kept up with all the bits we see throughout the season of the kinds of manipulation the antagonists will throw around. There was occasionally some clever paraphrasing, though, like Gabriel describing it as a Celebrity Deathmatch in "Changing Channels."
Here's where I devolve into random bullet-point.
-I ship. the HELL. out of the alternate future versions of Dean and Cas in "The End." Just that whole scene of stoner!Cas being all "Your plan really sucks but, whatever, man" and "LOL What? I like past you." And Dean is kind of an asshole in that 'verse, I know, but Cas knows that he's an asshole and just pats him on the knee over it and it's fucking gold.
-ABANDON ALL HOOOPE. First of all, this ep was very Cas-is-friends-with-the-gang, even at the beginning I felt like Dean was being unusually nice to him when he felt bad about not being able to get into Crowley's. And, um, the ENTIRE SCENE AT BOBBY'S with "Oye Como Va" <3 <3 <3!
And Meg was just all kinds of awesome in this episode (2.0 fucking pwns 1.0, I love this actress SFM).
And then, and then, ffuuuck. Okay, I'd been pretty ambivalent about Dean/Jo up until a point, I at least had picked up on it being a very popular ship and just kinda didn't get why, but now, oh. I've noticed that something's a little different about Jo every time we see her but I think there's kind of a weird perception of her growing out of some huge crush she had on Dean? I was always under the impression that she liked him but would never really bite if the opportunity arose; when Sam was possessed he kind of wheedled with it but I think Jo just had general insecurities over not being treated like she could look after herself and this was as big a deal with her mother as it was with Dean, so. I DON'T KNOW, but she was always kind of cool and aloof with him but in a I'm-flirting-with-you-by-refusing-to-flirt-with-you kinda way, and by THIS episode there was something kinda Han/Leia about her and Dean but you also felt like she was kind of extended family to him and well if you make a relationship really complicated like that I'm probably going to like it and when it happened and Dean was saying goodbye I was yelling at him to kiss her and GOD DAMMIT HE KISSED HER ON THE FOREHEAD. ("FOREHEAD KISSES MELT MY SOUL," IT'S A TAG ON MY TUMBLR.) And then he KISSED HER ON THE MOUTH and wrenched himself away and still, that's not when I cried. To date there is only one moment in this whole show that has literally made me cry (and I've watched this more times than any other episode except "Mystery Spot" and it makes me cry every time): When Ellen and Jo are in there alone and she says, "I'll always love you baby" and then Jo's gone and Ellen keeps telling her it's okay. My god.
And the boys can't even get to say goodbye to Ellen. It's horrible.
-I can't remember the name of the episode now, but when Anna's trying to kill Sam and they all have to go back in time and there's weirdness with the entire family. I loved John in this one cause you could totally see the unassuming Marine badass under the surface. I loved his "Why is everybody treating me like a fool? I can draw a damn whatever" and him going angry Daddy on everyone in the car was hilarious.
I really felt like Anna's death was somehow unneeded? At this point I really think the one blatantly sexist thing about the show is the female body count. There's some joke waiting to happen here about a show that begins with three guys and a dead woman and tends to follow the same formula throughout :/
-"Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" was the shiiit. So was "Dark Side of the Moon," though I am irrationally upset by the throwing out of Dean's amulet D: D: D:
-I'm really having a hard time collecting any coherent idea of why I fucking loved "Swan Song." My instinct is that it's probably not a popular episode, I don't know, but I thought it was as brilliant as it had room to be.
So, when I was in first grade, my parents would often have to be at work when I got out of school so my sister and I had to go to the stupid after-school program thing, which you just somehow weren't cool if you had to go to. And this girl I was becoming friends with lived right next to the school and I have this random memory from one of the first days we had to stay after when she came back to the playground to hang out with us and brought a can of Pringles and we sat under this tree and ate them all. This girl is now my oldest and best friend. The other day when I was just going through the aisles at Wal-Mart and I looked at the Pringles and I thought of that time, I realized that every single time I look at a Pringles can I think of that one day. And I had just seen her that week, but thinking about her in that context suddenly made me almost want to get in my car and drive three hours to hang out with her again. My friends tell me all the time they're amazed at how I can always remember things like that, but I think everybody must know what it's like to have some stupid memory about someone suddenly flick on in your head that just makes you get a feeling of "Damn, but I would do just about anything for this person." And I have another weakness for flashback sequences, and just, the Impala, and the wind. This episode emotionally kicked my ass.
I think we see many times that Sam is not the type of person who often sees his relationships with others in the big picture of everything they mean to him. He knows and says and proves that he would do anything for Dean, we see in a couple moments with John that he really really loves his father, but he's able to leave both of them for years to go after a life he wants. We see in "Dark Side of the Moon" that he's the most nostalgic for times when he was able to break free of his family. He just sees his relationships through more of a narrow focus that makes him able to be quietly angry at people for a long time, to go off and do his own thing because he isn't so fixated on the people he cares about. And this is good, this is a great thing about his character, but I loved that the most crucial moment in the finale was him seeing something that made him remember and just get whacked in the face with the big picture to the point that he's suddenly able to make Lucifer his bitch. And then there's Dean, whose big weakness is that he can't get away from the big picture and grew up being loyal to a fault, and he suddenly has to figure out how to let it go, because Sam is gone.
I've seen some criticism of how the episode ends on this idea that they "chose family," because it would be preferable for them to be heroically fighting for the whole of the population of the world rather than just for each other, but allow me to suggest that this is missing the point, because remember at the end of season four when Dean is pissed about the apocalypse and yelling at Cas, he says, "People matter. Families matter"? Everybody matters because they matter so fucking much to each other, and in "Swan Song" they both actually have to prove how much they love each other by letting each other go. It's like one of the huge painful concepts of dealing with grief actually given a very huge reason to be so important.
-I was glad that Lisa came back. I really loved her in "The Kids Are Alright" cause she was so protective and smart with her kid that she almost didn't throw Dean a bone to show she still kinda dug him, but then she did, and it was sweet as hell. And it's amazing of her that she takes him in, I don't care what anybody says.
People seem to be resigned to the fact that she isn't going to come back; I sort of feel like the type of happy ending that would involve her and Dean getting back together would be too weird, but I'm still kind of disappointed it ended the way it did?
-Dean with children, man. I am so embarrassingly weak for this, and like, defensive about how much crap he gets from the other hunters about suddenly being a family man (Why are the Campbells a bunch of dicks anyway?) It never exactly floored me that he was good at that stuff; I always thought of him as actually wanting the more abstract idea of a family more than Sam did, while Sam had to fall in love with someone and want her to want to settle down (Basically I think Sam wants Jess back sooner than he generally wants a family).
-"DEAN AND I DO SHARE A MORE PROFOUND BOND. I MEAN, I WASN'T GONNA SAY ANYTHING, BUT..." (Yeah, I'm just gonna leave that here.)
-I kind of...love...Robo-Sam. Like, he entertains me enough to distract me from how horrible it is that Sam is still gone. And from a psychological perspective I'm really intrigued by the fact that he is behaving 100% sociopath down to his bad attempts to fit in at first, etc.
I'm just so irritated with how everybody is talking about this problem because, okay, SAM IS STILL IN HELL, guys. That is BAD to the nth degree, so why are we talking like Robosam being soulless is the main problem? Sam has a soul, it's in hell, it's in HELL, worry about that shit, plz. Even Cas has a moment of stupid when he wonders if it's even a good idea to bring Sam's soul back. Who cares if he goes batshit, alright, he can then die and go to heaven and his soul won't be in hell anymore. Not that Castiel is not often irrational when it comes to his Winchesters, though.
I was totally just uneasily waiting for Sam to decide he didn't need a soul after all, and when it did happen I was reminded of that really bad ST: Voyager episode when Tuvok and Neelix get smushed into one person and the whole ethical hand-wave they gave it when they had to "kill" the amalgamation to get the others back. LOL
-I fucking love Bobby. He's the kind of character you can get away with not giving that many flaws because he's been through a lot of shit and he's wiser than you. He knows Japanese. He seems to know about half the hunters in the world, and he cleans up messes for a lot of them. He has complicated, at times vitriolic histories with most of his friends but they are still sort of his friends. He made a panic room on his day off. He likes pedicures. He has a favorite, and it's Dean. BOBBY.
-Oh, and can we have a moment of devastation over Gabriel. I think the only good thing about Gabe dying is that had he actually become a pal of the Winchesters he just might have stolen Castiel's best friend, cause you KNOW him and Dean would have partied all night together once Dean got over that time he killed him a hundred times and...all the other shit he's done. Um.
-The lycanthropes in "All Dogs Go To Heaven" felt like they were taken right out of Sharp Teeth, and now I want a crossover.
-Speaking of crossovers, I was glad we got to see more of that female reaper, but every time reapers show up I'm dying to read a crossover that throws Dean into a situation with Death from Sandman. Just, I don't know, pit Dean with a version of Death who knows what it's like to have pain-in-the-ass brothers, and I feel like it would be gold. And I'd totally ship it.
-Castiel is gettin his id on.
-And Meg is just a walking PWP, I swear, she sees something pretty and just goes for it. She has now macked on all three of the boys at some point, LOL.
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no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 01:34 am (UTC)Also, your break down of Supernatural is the best breakdown I have ever read, EVER! I agree with 100% of what you said.
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Date: 2011-01-13 11:20 am (UTC)your break down of Supernatural is the best breakdown I have ever read, EVER! Hee, awesome :) I'm happy I'm not just boring everybody with my belated flailing.
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Date: 2011-01-13 01:04 pm (UTC)Exactly, this is the whole damn point! It's not about the big apocalyptic picture, it's about individuals and what makes human beings individuals and unique and more important than angels who are all generally all perfect and the same. All of the narration about the Impala about what makes the car special is all about what makes it special to Sam and Dean even though there's nothing particularly special about it at all. One of my favorite lines in the whole show is "The devil doesn't care what kind of car the Winchesters drive," because Lucifer hates everything that makes humans human and he doesn't care what makes them their own people with free will and what makes them Sam and Dean. The reason seeing the toy soldier in the car makes Sam able to get control of himself is because it reaffirms his identity of himself and tells him he has a choice to stop killing his brother, but it's only because he's there that he's able to get there and remember why it's so worth it being human at all.
SEE IT'S NOT CHEESY AT ALL THAT LOVE SAVES THE WORLD LOL. Okay maybe a little, but it's okay. The really awesome thing is that the idea that it's not impossible to regain control of yourself while being possessed was introduced way back when John stopped himself from killing Sam in "Devil's Trap." That actually felt a little bit too easy to me that time, but in this instance? It did not seem like an overly simple writing device or too easy or anything like that, even though "The power of love saves the day!" almost always seems a bit anti-climactic that way. Not here.
Lisa is an amazing amazing woman for taking Dean in along with all his baggage when they still didn't even know each other all that well. I'm sure there are a lot of people who don't dig the Dean/Lisa development and it's not like I'm even like...intensely invested in it or anything, but the idea of people hating her makes me so mad.
I also kept feeling like the characters were ignoring the bigger issue when having reservations about bringing Sam's soul back, but I think what we have to keep in mind is that Sam did make Dean promise that he wouldn't try to bring him back. It feels like it changes things a lot that Dean thought he was alive and now he's still dead, and it's seriously not fair to him and a sucky situation, but I think it's still a question he needs to be asking himself whether this is the right thing to do and maybe it shows a lot about how far he's come that he's not just going for it without any consideration.
Personally, I think this season could be working toward Sam and Dean finally having grown up enough to earn their happy ending (or at least...a safe set-up for an eventual happy ending, in the case that there's a S7). Though it's been really hard for him, of course, I think having to go a year without Sam has been good for Dean in a way and helped him find that he's capable of being more than just a hunter and the guy responsible for Sam. And now the way he's bringing back Sam's soul does not actually seem comparable to when he sold his soul for him. I don't think Dean still feels that he can't go on without Sam, and what he might actually be the most concerned about is the wall in Sam's mind failing and all of this just making it harder for him to move on after he has to let go of him again. It doesn't seem to me like an act of desperation this time. And if I sound like I have a very clear idea of where things could be going, I really don't, LOL, but it just amazes me that a show with two main characters still manages to have an interesting, believable story to tell about them and their changing relationship after five seasons that were originally supposed to tell all there is to tell.
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Date: 2011-01-13 04:34 pm (UTC)I don't really know what the supposed "happy ending" would be, though. I don't think the boys will ever be able to settle down and stop hunting, and even if they could, the way things spun out with Lisa makes it hard to imagine Dean would ever feel like he could do that again without somehow endangering whoever he's with. If they keep hunting like in the good old days it wouldn't be a total downer ending but it would still be them accepting that they can never have things we very well know they want. It's awesome that the show has been complicated in developing not only the closeness but the unhealthy extent of how close the brothers are, but it's also been consistent in providing reasons they can't escape the lives they live, and they can't just suddenly drop that.
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Date: 2011-01-13 05:51 pm (UTC)And it would honestly take me a while to get used to the idea, but I don't think it would be inconsistent if they did just settle down, or at least decide that eventually they will when they want to rather than just waiting until the job kills them. At this point it would get to be unconvincing if the writers just keep making up new reasons that the Winchesters are still so important and still tied to these bigger things so they'll never be able to escape the hunting life. They don't have a destiny or specific responsibility in it anymore, and it would be a satisfying emphasis on the theme of free will in the end if they actually break the cycle and don't follow in their father's footsteps by both giving up the job and aiming to die old. If there's one thing we've seen again and again it's that Sam and Dean don't deal well with losing each other, and even though they get a little better at it each time (lol) I don't think it's something they ever want to go through again, but if they just keep hunting one of them is bound to get killed sooner or later.
Of course them going out fighting together would also sort of be a happy ending in my book, but I'm messed up that way...
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Date: 2011-01-14 04:35 am (UTC)First of all, fuck yes Black Swan! I really really felt for Nina too...I've seen the movie twice now and the first time I spent most of it freaking the shit out because of the insanely awesome sound effects (OH MY GOD SO GOOD) but the second time I could not stop crying. And I totally agree about Vincent Cassel as well; I like the actor a whole lot but his character was so incredibly skeevy.
ANYWAY SUPERNATURAL YAY
EVERY SINGLE THING ABOUT "THE END" MAKES MY WHOLE LIFE. It's my second favourite ep ever (skated right past Mystery Spot! Couldn't topple On the Head of a Pin but at this point I doubt anything can). I ship the hell out of Dean and Cas regularly but hell yeah, the alt-future croatpocalypse versions totally cranked it up to eleven. I so love high!Cas in that part making fun of Dean's plan and he's glowering at him and says "so, what, are you coming?" and Cas siiiiiiighs but then immediately afterward says "of course." He's been following him into deathtraps since the end of s4! ♥
FUCK YEAH ABANDON ALL HOOOOOPE
2.0 fucking pwns 1.0, I love this actress SFM SHIT YES MEG MACH 2. omg practically no one agrees and it just makes me want to punch the world in the larynx (kay not REALLY, but goddamn)
I'd cried over this show before....the season 2 opener hit me right in the gut, but oh my god Ellen and Jo kills me EVERY TIME, it's so not just you.
I think Anna's death was unnecessary too, like she obviously couldn't kill Sam but that doesn't mean she had to DIE. But she didn't actually have that scorched-wings effect on the wall/floor (LOVE that effect, no lie) or the light flashing out of her eyes and mouth whenever angels die, so I'm still clinging to hope that it was just her vessel that got crisped! :D And...I also like to remind myself, whenever I get upset over the female body count, that this show kills the HELL out of its guys too, including characters everyone loves. Sometimes this makes me feel better, sometimes I get all "yeah, but..." and idk. =/
Right on with loving Swan Song! I really liked it but simultaneously couldn't help feeling underwhelmed. Not by the way it ended (LOVE SAVING THE WORLD IS AWESOME!) but by Michael and Lucifer in general I guess. It's a reeeeally divisive episode. But I read a thing somewhere on lj in which someone claimed that episode was basically the same as the Sailor Moon finale, and even though they gave us the play-by-play I can't remember the episode, but no lie, putting forth the comparison with anime made me like it a lot more. :D
I really liked Lisa too. I was also fond of robo!Sam despite the HIS ACTUAL SOUL IS IN HELL GETTING RAPED BY SATAN (is there any other possible conclusion we can make from what Crowley &etc have said about it??) factor. and speaking of Voyager, THE DOCTOR (!!!!♥) IN THE EPISODE WITH THE FAIRIES! EH? EH?!!! ♥ XD Bobby and Gabe are indeed magnificent. What'd you think about Crowley, btw? (Have you read Good Omens? Cause there is pretty much no way Kripke wasn't referencing it with him. :D)
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Date: 2011-01-15 12:18 am (UTC)It's just so unfortunate that there aren't any damn woman angels now, though come to think of it there aren't really any recurring angel characters besides Cas at this point. They're kinda due to introduce some new characters maybe?
And YEAH, Robert Picardo, I was excited :D
I read a little bit of Good Omens quite a long time ago, enough to be reminded of it by Crowley, and Crowley is awesome. "They ate my tailor!" is one of the best lines ever.