and all shall know the wonder

Fanmix: "This Town and I" (Jellicoe Road)

redsilverchains — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:41:34 GMT

You could call this my ~serenade to Melina Marchetta's novel, On the Jellicoe Road. It started out as a character-by-character playlist, but then I thought, hey: why not let their whole entwined story play out in all the songs?

Cue me wasting a whole afternoon on a giant five-parter fanmix.

(...I think I may like the cover best of all.)

THIS TOWN AND I : a Jellicoe Road fanmix in five parts

( click song title to listen/download )

I. DREAMING

flame trees . cold chisel | the boy in the tree

II. PRAYER TREE

edge of seventeen . stevie nicks | taylor

hometown glory. adele | hannah

the prayer . bloc party | jonah

don't you forget about me . simple minds | chaz

brooklyn is burning . head automatica | ben

i am not a robot . marina and the diamonds | raffaela

your ex-lover is dead . stars | markham and griggs

young blood (white sea remix) . the naked and famous | at the prayer tree

III. POPPIES

brighter than sunshine . aqualung | jude

boats and birds . gregory and the hawk | narnie

beautiful ones . suede | fitz

calendar girl . stars | “jem and mrs. dubose”

we are golden (acoustic) . mika | the fucked-up five

there once was a pirate . duncan sheik | and their souls stood still.

tiny vessels . death cab for cutie | ~~jude~~

IV. THE ROAD

one more night (your ex-lover remains dead) . stars | taylor and jonah

lightning crashes . live | the brigadier

creep . ingrid michaelson | jessa

welcome home, son . radical face | the boy and the hermit

flame trees . sarah blasko | mom

V. WONDER

rivers . kankouran | belong. long to be.

edge of the ocean . ivy | a revelation

cold winds

redsilverchains — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 10:53:28 GMT

A few quick thoughts on Game of Thrones S2

(spoilers for all aired episodes)

-that lady they got to play Melisandre is sinuous and feline and silky-voiced and fantastic. While I was reading, Melisandre was not a character in whom I was particularly invested, but I can already tell I’m going to enjoy watching her.

…also from what I remember, Stannis/Melisandre wasn’t THAT explicit in the book. 0_0
ETA: I mean, I know they're doing it. I'm just tired of the show using everything for "SEXPOSITION, YAY!"

-First time I saw Davos and Stannis, I thought the actors should have swapped roles. Davos is quite steely, and I pictured him more…onion-y? ; ) More decent family man than war savvy strategist, anyway. That’s how he first appeared to me. But I guess we don’t have the advantage of the Onion Knight flashbacks here. Well. We’ll see.

-Lena Headey continues to be magnificent. I gasped aloud at her ‘power is power’ bit. I already thought Cersei was a great character, but Lena makes me CARE.

-It seems they are making Robb more politically wise than his mother, and that does not please me. Fewer things irritate me more than when one character is given another character’s virtues, at the detriment of the latter (see also: Edmund in the VoDT
movie. *protective claws*) They had better shape up on Cat.

-Damn! Did they honestly kill off Rakharo?? I’d been looking forward to staring at his guyliner all season! : /

-Not much of Sansa yet? But Sophie Turner is so good. There’s heat and sorrow in her stare. Sansa’s speech while the Blackwater battle is raging…I can’t wait.

-Arya and Gendry! FEELINGS ALL OVER THE PLACE. After I was done with the eps, I basically stayed up until the wee hours reading Arya/Gendry futurefic. I don’t even care; there is no way that anything involving Joe Dempsie’s face can be “creepy”! The way he was sprawled on the ground and laughing fondly at her! <3

-I had my first WHOA moment when they did the murder of the bastards sequence and then cut to Gendry and Arya escaping from King’s Landing. That was a perfect first-episode ender.

So the series is rolling along, though shit hasn’t gotten real quite yet. But we are almost at that turning point!

Gender!Swap: Stand by Me

redsilverchains — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:41:22 GMT

Whew, so my recent frenzied film rewatches have finally brought this into being! It’s been burning a hole in my mind for awhile.

I LOVE Stand by Me. I sorta wish I could send flowers to my childhood’s VHS rental store, just for having it in their collection. It’s really almost as though they had this film just for me and my friends to grow up on. Some years ago, I also found the Stephen King novella it was based on (The Body), and I soaked up everything else that I didn’t know about my favorite characters. They’re almost real to me, I can’t even tell you.

The thing is: this isn't only a ‘critics-approved’ film. Nope. It’s totally beloved, and no wonder. Anybody could see a bit of themselves in it. It’s all about childhood and goldenness and losing innocence when you didn’t know you still had it; it’s about being yanked into harsher waters and trying to stay afloat, when you're still not quite ready to "grow up". And it is about friendship. Oh, is it about friendship!

It also revolves all around four boys, and that was always fine by me. After all, their journey in the movie quite isolates them from (almost!) everyone else in the world.

But like anyone who eats up the character-study goodness of a gender!swap, I’ve been having a blast re-imagining Stand by Me. Let’s say the golden summer and the sweet melancholy strain and everything else in this story stay intact…but let’s say that these familiar characters were all young girls! Girls living in the shadows of their mothers and their sisters; four girls who go questing down the railroad tracks…

Well, why ever not? Other than the character-study aspect of it, fantasy casting is always hella FUN. : )

If you’re not familiar with the film (it goes without saying that I recommend it with all my heart!), here is its DVD cover summary, as seen through regender.com:

In a small woodsy Oregon town, a group of friends--sensitive Gordie, tough gal Chris, flamboyant Thea, and scaredy-cat Verne--are in search of a missing girl's body. Wanting to be heroines in each other's and their hometown's eyes, they set out on an unforgettable two-day trek that turns into an odyssey of self-discovery. They sneak smokes, tell tall tales, cuss 'cause it's cool, and band together when the going gets tough. When they encounter the town's knife-wielding hoods who are also after the body, the girls discover a strength they never knew they had. Stand by Me is a rare and special film about friendship and the indelible experiences of growing up.

“It was almost noon as we set out to find the body of a dead kid named Rachel Brower…”

ELLE FANNING as Gordie Lachance

.Wil Wheaton as Gordie Lachance

I was twelve going on thirteen the first time I saw a dead human being. It happened in the summer of 1959-a long time ago, but only if you measure in terms of years. I was living in a small town in Oregon called Castle Rock. There were only twelve hundred and eighty-one people, but to me, it was the whole world.

“I’m not sure it should be a good time…going to see a dead kid. Maybe it shouldn’t be a party.”

“…It seems to me now, it was more, and we all knew it. Everything was there and around us. We knew exactly who we were and exactly where we were going: it was grand.”

~*~

Elle Fanning played the sensitive Alice on Super 8, and many took notice. She has the right quality of fragility and dreaminess for Gordie, don’t you think? One of the ways Wil Wheaton worked so well as Gordie was how delicate he looked next to the other boys: him walking next to Chris was… oh, a fawn next to a baby wildcat? : ) Similarly, Elle has more fairytale-esque looks compared to the others, and same as Wil, she’s rather coltishly built. And you would easily believe her as someone who is clammed up and broken, sometimes off in her own world, and very reliant on the friends she’s got around her.

Okay then, got ourselves a protagonist!

HAILEE STEINFELD as Chris Chambers

.River Phoenix as Chris Chambers

Chris Chambers was the leader of our gang and my best friend. She came from a bad family and everyone just knew she'd turn out bad. Including Chris.

“I just wish… that I could go someplace…where nobody knows me.”

“It's like God gave you something, man, all those stories you can make up? And He said, ‘This is what we got for ya, kid. Try not to lose it.’ Kids lose everything, unless there's someone there to look out for them. And if your parents are too fucked up to do it, then maybe I should!”

~*~

Yep, River Phoenix (*sob*) was genius in this role. Chris was always my favorite and for the longest time, I thought about what girl!Chris would be like. The “older, oldest, ageless” soul covering up her scars with the hardass act, the cigarettes and the swearing, the ‘unladylike’ temperament…still the trickiest character to get just right, in my opinion.

Hailee Steinfeld showed heaps of promise in True Grit, bleeding toughness and war stories from her character simply by how she spoke and carried herself. And this? Was always something that made River so very magnetic as Chris. I think you’d have little trouble seeing Hailee as the one in the gang ‘always making the best peace’; the leader who takes her girls on a quest down the tracks and stands sentinel over her much-gentler best friend. I still don’t know if she could be as affecting as River was in baring all of Chris’s inner hurt and compassion. But if I was a director (hah), I’d so trust her to go for it.

~

CHLOË MORETZ as Thea Duchamp
.Corey Feldman as Teddy Duchamp

Thea Duchamp was the craziest girl we hung around with. She didn't have much of a chance in life. Her mom was given to fits of rage. One time she held Thea's ear to a stove and almost burned it off.

“No sign of the enemy. The fort is secure. The dogfaces rested easy. In the knowledge that Corporal Thea Duchamp was protecting all that was dear to them…”

“This is my age! I'm in the prime of my youth! And I'll only be young once!”

~*~

When I got to Teddy, I didn’t only ask who could play him, but who could get away with it. Who could get away with being as zany and audacious and purposely annoying as Teddy, while also letting us feel for all the hell he goes through at home? It had to be somebody convincing in their extremeness, the way Corey Feldman was.

Chloë Moretz, in Kickass, proved she could play up cockiness and go off the rails like this. Can’t you just see her itching for that train dodge or going ballistic on Milo Pressman or pestering Vern endlessly? And judging from her other movie characters, you’d still believe it sincere when she happily declares that she 'cherishes these moments' all around the campfire.

~

EMMA KENNEY as Verne Tessio
.Jerry O' Connell as Vern Tessio

…at the beginning of the schoolyear, she had buried a quart-jar of pennies underneath her house. She drew a treasure map, so she could find them again. A week later her dad cleaned out her room and threw away the map. Verne had been trying to find those pennies for nine months. Nine months, man. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

“Oh man, you guys are not gonna believe this. This is so boss. Oh man, wait'll you hear this, wait'll you hear this. You won't believe it. It's unbelievable. Let me catch my breath. I ran all the way from my house—”

“What am I supposed to do, think of everything? I brought the comb!”

~*~

This is goofy but I felt a bit of Rob Reiner lucking out on little Jerry O’Connell here: casting Vern wasn’t even a question. If you’ve seen Emma Kenney on Showtime’s Shameless, you know she already has the perfectly exasperated, oh-dear-universe-WHY-ALWAYS-ME mannerisms down to a tee. She’s so wise and officious as Debbie Gallagher that I’m sure she’d have a blast playing an indignant underdog like Vern Tessio.

Also: unlike Jerry, Emma has lots and lots of hair, so for once poor Verno would be justified in bringing that silly comb. ; )

~

KATIE CASSIDY as Ace Merrill
.Kiefer Sutherland as Ace Merrill

About this time, Charlie and Billy were playing mailbox baseball with Ace and Eyeball…

“Okay. Okay. You stated your position clearly. Now I'm gonna state mine. Get in the fucking car. Now!”

“You girls have two choices. Either leave quietly. We take the body. Or you stay. We'll beat the shit outta you. We take the body.”

~*~

HEH. Another no-brainer. Now I’m quite fond of Katie, and I feel almost guilty re-imagining her as a thug who bullies her (equally horrible) gang, knocks down mailboxes for kicks, and pulls knives on twelve-year-olds. But DANG, how much scariness would this lady bring to the role?? The eventual Katie-Hailee standoff could be as electric as the Kiefer-River one, I’ll bet. Ace calls for an actor who’s unafraid to go soulless if need be, and who better to do that than somebody who’s already played a demon?

~

CANDICE ACCOLA as Denny Lachance
.John Cusack as Denny Lachance

That summer at home, I had become the invisible girl.

In April, my older sister, Denise, had been killed in a Jeep accident. Four months had passed but my parents still hadn't been able to put the pieces back together again.

“Hey don’t start with me, porcupine, c’mere. C’mere. Give me a hug.”

“Mom, did you read the story that Gordie wrote? Gordie wrote a story. It was really good. Gordie…I really liked it. I thought it was great.”

~*~

John Cusack in the flashback scenes totally embodied the popular golden-boy, but he was also beautiful at being the down-to-earth, loving person whom Gordie had on a pedestal. And Candice is someone who’s fanTAStic at carrying this kind of inner light for all of two scenes—heck, girlfriend had my heart from the first second she appeared on The Vampire Diaries. The moment Gordie gives the one-two punch that 1) she has just lost her sister and 2) who was sunshine made into a person, it is going to hurt like all hell. Just like it has to.

~

MARTHA PLIMPTON as The Writer
.Richard Dreyfuss as The Writer

“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?”

~*~

So, I was originally planning to end the casting at Denny. Then out of the blue, while in the deeps of childhood movie nostalgia (Stand by Me has that effect on me), I remembered how I was in stitches throughout the (price.less.) Goonies DVD commentary. Particularly at Martha Plimpton, who snarked and chortled her way through the whole thing. I remembered thinking: wouldn’t she make a fantastic narrator? She should do an audio book or something!

So I cast her! I think Martha resembles Elle enough to pass as an older Gordie (though let’s honest: Richard Dreyfuss totally did not resemble an older Wil Wheaton, right? :p ). And she has a really lovely, husky voice: same as Dreyfuss, she can sound warmly amused, nostalgic, funny and affectionate, all in one storytelling sitting.

~~~

and!

(this one is for anybody who's on Tumblr, or who, like Gordie, is simply enchanted by woodland creatures...)

*straight face*

BONUS CAMEO: ANDREW GARFIELD as The Deer

Because Andrew’s rising star is a boon upon every film and fancasting and come on, look at that. For the few seconds that he prances onscreen, you, like our protagonist sitting on the railroad tracks, would be enthralled. They might even create an Academy Award category for Best Cameo. Just for him. Sincerely!

Darling, everything's on fire

redsilverchains — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 07:22:16 GMT

Mmmmm, so during the Hunger Games movie, I was filled to the brim with bread.

I do mean actual bread from BreadTalk. My brother and I are regular haunts at that place, but we didn’t become conscious of the rightness of our chosen movie snack until we were standing in line.

Me: *starts laughing and gesturing at her bread*

Him: What? What?? Oh. *pretends to toss the bread*

He is now out cold after reading Catching Fire into the wee hours of the morning, and I’m collecting my scattered movie thoughts. All in all? The movie was as good as I expected it to be, and it failed in some ways where it should’ve known better

Bullet points...

*Jennifer Lawrence: she was good. On the acting front, I don’t think the casting director was mistaken at all. I don’t mean a broad and sweeping “she was good, I suppose”, and I don’t mean “oh, good enough”. I mean, she really is a good actress. She could express AND she could bottle up, and that second ability is so key for Katniss. In the Reaping Scene? After she volunteers and is led mechanically to the stage? She looks as if she’s been shot through the heart and is trying not to keel over from it. And all the choked emotions with Prim and the anger that comes seeping out when she talks to her mom. Kudos on that, JLaw! No idea if it was a conscious choice, but I like the mild rasp to her voice also.

(Also, how is she so beautiful?? I’m a straight girl, and I found her sooo distracting, from her pretty lips and cheeks to all my thought-bursts of ‘omg I wish I had a body like that!’. How do these two not get distracted by each other's gorgeous all the time?)

*Josh Hutcherson! More about him later, but: I knew he would measure up to expectations after one scene. When they’re in the cab and Effie is blathering about the funfunfun Games? And Peeta has this expression that screams, “We all know we’re lambs to the slaughter, but I will sit back and take this bullshit for now.” As if he was trying not to roll his eyes. When someone can send messages with their face that way, I know a character’s in good hands.

*District 12 was grey and drab. It was gritty, it was forbidding, it was not ‘cinematographized’. And that? Was exactly the right lens for it. I don’t remember if that presentation of Panem’s past was in the book. But gah: the look on all those kids’ faces.

*Prim tucking in her ducktail before walking forward? Or the white-knuckle grip when Peeta and Katniss shake hands? And Effie mouthing the words to the Capitol presentation? Liked those. I really enjoy looking out for these little pop-out details in movies.

*I thought Liam Hemsworth was blah at first—Jennifer was out-acting him in all the hunting parts. But then came the goodbyes and there was that spark in Gale’s eye. That all-important spark. I hope he delivers when we get to the next movies ~~and that he and Johanna get a bonus kissing scene~~.

*I totally bought Katniss as a person who is not great with the socializing thing: she looked SO uncomfortable and cinched up in her interviews. Even her smile was tight and fake. Also, based solely on his interviews, I knew that Josh Hutcherson would KILL Peeta pouring on charm for the crowd. And he was still so childishly adorable and puppyish, all goggle-eyed at the Capitol and waving like a beauty queen!

(Basically: when I am thinking of Peeta in those words, you know the actor did his job! I never had many Peeta!feelings when I was reading.)

*Hmmm, Haymitch. I imagined him more dickish-acting, but he had a likeable core from the start. They did right by him in almost every book scene (bit disappointed that there weren’t any staggering, puking parts to show wrecked he is), but I must say, my favorite Haymitch parts are when he’s watching the Games. When he’s glaring at the Capitol kids who are play-killing? When he’s chatting up the sponsors? Oh: and when he sobers up to see Katniss off, and you can see this sudden unexpected faith in his face? Loved that.

*Cinna was quite older than I imagined, but Lenny Kravitz was so soothing that it didn’t matter. That voice of his! I only wish there were more conversations between him and Katniss. The force of his caring practically hits you when he talks to her before the Cornucopia, and that was a lovely scene, but I wanted more bonding Tribute-Stylist talk between them.

*UM HELLO, when Katniss and Peeta both caught fire? When they linked hands and raised hands? Shivers down my spine and all the way back

*I could really feel how the movie was framing the Games into reality TV with a rictus grin. Especially with Flickerman simpering, all blue-haired Ryan Seacrest-ish, and all that glamorous phoniness in the interviews, and that damned adoring crowd. Makes me excited for the Victors interviews in Catching Fire, what a contrast that’ll be!

*The Countdown part. Heart in my throat.

*Something that was perfect: how the movie used silence. At the Cornucopia, I half-expected some pounding music, but there was just…a hush. Children being slaughtered, all the cacophony that you should be hearing is not there, and it’s horrible. I also liked how…non-stylized it was. The kills weren’t filmed in a way that was all: “Look! Cool shit happening! Shiny weapons!” This wasn’t “300” or anything, this was kids killing kids and that is pure horror, that mustn’t be dressed up. The movie got that right.

There also wasn’t anything movie-polished about the arena—so ordinary, it could’ve been the woods behind our old backyard— or about anybody’s gaping, possibly fatal injuries (oh my gosh, the tracker jacks and Glimmer). I liked that.

*Okay, so I have this feeling that there are a few minutes of Katniss-Rue interaction cut out of the movie. And that it will only show up in the DVD. Seriously, they couldn’t give these two ONE bonding conversation? The actress playing Rue was a sweetie and huggable, and I wanted to hear her talk about her family back home! I wanted to feel the loss as personally as Katniss did (although the hush when she was breaking down was, again, perfect)! As it was, I didn’t feel the dread of foreknowledge as much as I should have. I only got really teary when Rue’s vision was fading, and Katniss was covering her with flowers. Heck, I was just as teary about Rue as I was with Cato, and that was weird. I’m supposed to care more about Rue!

*Katniss’s salute and Rue’s dad (oh my heart!) starting the rebellion in District 11, that was brilliant.

*Didn’t like how they wrote the Katniss-Thresh conversation. Katniss should’ve tearfully asked Thresh to kill her fast; Thresh should’ve been gruff with emotion when he learned about Katniss singing to “that little girl”. They took away most of the emotion from the scene.

But I loved Rue and Thresh earlier in the training area, when she steals Cato’s knife and hides in the rafters, and he beams like a proud big brother? My heart!

*Ahhhh yes, let’s get to the heart of this one: I loved every bit of Katniss/Peeta in this movie, though I have never been their most fervent shipper (I like them, I do! I’m not OTP-ish about them, that’s all). Woo-hoo score! Another moment of the movie doing for me what the books didn’t quite accomplish! I really loved that it wasn’t Twilight-style lingering, in-my-face. I really, really loved that they had just as much spark when they first hold hands as they did when Katniss slams him into the wall (am I the only freak who thought that was hot? Bwahaha). And the cave! Some people—including my brother—got nitpicky over what was said there and what was left out. And I understand that, I totally understand wanting the cherished bookmoments to emerge intact. But all that humanity and physicality between them in the cave! I always got Katniss/Peeta the most when I was at the life/death moments of the books, whenever they were desperate for the other to stay alive. How did Philip Pullman put it His Dark Materials? Something like "they were the only two breathing creatures in the Land of the Dead".

The movie honored that every time Katniss and Peeta huddled together, or touched each other’s wounds, or embraced in pure relief at this breathing, living human still in their arms. Loved it so much.

*BWAHAHAHA, I’m sorry, but those mutts look as though Hagrid got high and accidentally cloned his boarhound. Maybe I just played too much Silent Hill as a kid and expected utter horrors. I didn’t recoil one bit at the sight of them.

*Then we got to a bloodied Cato holding Peeta hostage. That line about how all his life has been is killing. Oh man. Unexpected reaction. Tears, and I said aloud, “Oh, kid...”. Movie, did you wanna humanize the Careers? Success: you did it! I always felt a twinge of sorrow for the Careers in the books because what kind of lives are those. But I never cried, you know? I’d also never had any interest in Careers fic before, and now I’m eagerly looking.

*Did the nightlock part feel off to anyone else? Maybe it was because the moment between it and battling with Cato went by so fast, but I feel as though it should’ve been a heavier moment. Instead it was just…there.

-But I liked how they tied it up with Katniss and Peeta playing Romeo and Juliet to the hilt, and Snow turning his back. Also: Seneca Crane and the nightlock. Whoa. That’s the way to set the stage for a second movie!

Icon used because misery loves company, and OMG WINTER IS COMING.

Love the stories

redsilverchains — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:09:08 GMT

This is the most beautiful post in the world.

Fuck appreciating literature, people. Love stories. Love wordplay. Love a deliciously delivered anecdote, a razor-sharp joke, a ripping yarn, a swashbuckling hero who fights for justice or a lost intellectual who takes bloody vengeance into his own hands; love tales of kings and queens and wizards and goosegirls; love space-faring smugglers and penniless governesses; love confused adolescents and bitter old men; love fallen angels and irritable monsters, mad scientists and grumpy sidekicks, cabbage sellers and long-anticipated saviours…

I am still reading the other commentaries. There’s more. There’s more and more and more.

And good gods, do I love the stories that have made me me.

Writer's Block: Bookmarks

redsilverchains — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:34:14 GMT

How ‘bout two?

--The Fault in our Stars by John Green. I read this book in one emotional gulp, one sick afternoon ago. It was one of those hazy, omg-does-the-world-still-actually-exist? reading experiences. I remember thinking things like: I am going to crack and I have to lock that door or they’ll all catch me losing it , then next thing I knew: huh, it is locked already, did I do that? Whatevs. Hazeeeel! Augustuuuus!

Also: whoops, that’s a scarf, not a tissue (lucky for that poor scarf).

And yet! I was tearing up*, but I also laughed so hard that I choked on my lozenges. Sometimes did both at the same time. To quote another book that I love: “they were the kind of tears that came when she was just too full."

--I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. I just finished it this morning, after reading it various states of dreaminess for the past days. How to describe it? Blurb-y words like ‘sensory’ and ‘dreamlike’ won’t suffice. Cassandra Mortmain’s diary entries are like listening to pieces of music composed by Yasunori Mitsuda . There, that’s high praise from me.

Yep, I’d seen the TV movie before. Flawless cast that I couldn’t get out of my head-canon (I Capture the Castle = that time when Riley Finn from Buffy gave me feels!). Well except for that unremarkable dude who played Simon (mentally replaced him with Joshua Jackson).

Here’s a quote that I wrote down towards the end (but there are SO many quotable quotes, this is just the one I ‘caught’): I only want to write. And there’s no college for that except life.

"No college except life"—don’t you just love that?

*some people sob over books. I tear up and implode.

Just as long as you stand, stand by me

redsilverchains — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 04:07:51 GMT

Augh. My heart actually physically hurt reading this, you guys:
Though I hadn't seen him in over twenty years...

It just. Makes me think of time. Memory and losing touch and reconnection, how surreal it all is sometimes. And loss. The way that stories can tell the truth so much, sometimes, that it aches.

And this part:

It’s easy to forget how satisfying it is to create a character, to discover something magnificent in a script or a scene, and then bring those things to life with other actors in front of an audience.

Yeah. Yeah. I so rarely ever think about how it is from the "other side", you know? Bless you, Wil Wheaton.

ETA: Big spoilers for the film in the comments.

hair, monsters, and a swordsman

redsilverchains — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 17:58:02 GMT

+ *Luke Skywalker voice* NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Well, damn! Here I was believing all these years that my hair was just too thick to stay put in those braid loopies. And wondering where the hell Leia hid the tufty ends of her braids.

+I found that article in the first place because I am convinced that there is a pic out there with Jessica Sula wearing Leia hairbuns. I saw it once, I swear. Still no luck in finding it, if it exists… but I now am thisclose to making a Star Wars!Skins Tumblr photoset with Grace as Leia, Rich as Han, and Alo as Luke (Farmboy, geddit?).

shhhh, this is how I deal.

+That Naboo underwater chase in The Phantom Menace is ten times funnier if you imagine that Qui-Gonn and Obi Wan were trolling Jar Jar Binks through the whole scene. THINK ABOUT IT. They are both perfectly straight-faced when those things come at them out of nowhere, and come on, it’s kind of hard to believe that they never Force-sensed those gargantuan underwater disturbances.

Further proof of this: Jar Jar squawks and passes out, and then Obi Wan tells Qui Gonn: “I think you overdid it.”

(lol, so George Lucas probably didn’t intend the line to mean “Epic trolling, Master”. But it’s way more fun that way, and he Rick-Rolled us with Jar Jar, SO.)

+ I have only now processed that this is going to be an actual movie on actual movie screens.

GOOD GRAVY, that is actually going to be in my eyeballs.

I haven’t seen Rurouni Kenshin in years and years, and oh my gosh, this takes me back. WAY back. Watching it religiously on primetime AXN…and, if the episode reached awesome level, rushing home from school at noon to catch the rerun. The epicness that was the Shishio Makoto episode arc (brrrrr: he is honestly one of the most terrifying animated villains EVER). Getting the Trust and Betrayal prequel and marathoning it many, many times with my friends and little bro. And thinking it was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen put to animation. I still think that.

:boggles at trailer: OOH. That Kaoru? Is that Megumi or Tomoe? THAT is definitely Sanosuke because the rooster-y hair and the white outfit and the BIGASS sword and wow Sano, I had a monster fictional crush on you.

And ahhh, Saito! I pictured him more roach-like, but that’s okay. Crossing my fingers that he’ll be the fabulous bastard I know.

Wait, where’s Yahiko?

oh help

what is air

I hope this is released everywhere, with a subtitled theatrical version. Because tons of grown-ass fans WILL be slavering to see this!

(Amusingly, the little bro’s reaction when he heard about this was something like shitshitshit, please don’t tell me it stars Tom Cruise.)

"The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been."

redsilverchains — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 23:02:34 GMT

^Madeleine L'Engle

+ I just heard that Judy Blume’s Tiger Eyes is going to be made into a movie, as is Madeleine L’Engle’s Camilla. I wonder if this is going to be a new trend: classic slice-of-life YA books getting turned into movies. I mean: the movie studios are still snatching up the rights to Paranormal Romance novels, aren’t they? And I think the dystopian YA books will follow suit.

Tiger Eyes was a favorite of mine back in high school. I reread it a few weeks ago and was surprised at how much it held up. It’s just a good book, period. Funny thing about rereading and rereading a YA book that you’ve loved through the years: you become acutely aware of how freakin’ young the characters are, you kind of want to reach through the pages and tell them it’s okay, it’s okay to be weak sometimes, it’s fine to turn into a sobbing wreck because of what happened, it’s fine to rage out loud and it’s also fine to hold it in. And, oh my gosh, you’re just a kid. And also, wtf, what are your parental figures thinking?*

Heh. It’s funny because when you’re reading it as a ‘grown-up’, you are now half-in and half-out of the character’s shoes: you are still seeing things through their eyes, but you also want to step in and tell them things.

Judy Blume seems to be personally involved in the making of the film, and that makes me really happy. This sounds sappy, but I’m happy for her, that she gets to have the joy of this. I basically grew up on Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret; Deenie; Then Again, Maybe I Won’t and everything else she wrote. There are a lot of, ah, shits and giggles about the way she got right down to the nitty-gritty stuff, down to memetic mutations –who doesn’t know about we must increase our bust? But you know, no one else was saying those things, and then Judy Blume did. And she did it warmly, personally, she made her readers feel better about this horrid and wonder-filled growing up business. I really loved (love!) that about her.

+ It’s just too bad that Madeleine L’Engle never lived to see any great adaptation of her books. I know she hated the Wrinkle in Time TV movie, and from what I’ve heard, the Ring of Endless Light one does not even begin to touch the absolute amazing-ness of the book (also: whyyy would you cast Jared ‘Puppyface’ Padalecki as the bad boy anti-hero? Really??).

I am really happy that publishing companies seem intent on reprinting Madeleine’s entire body of work. Bought a whole new set of them over the holidays. Finally I got to read her rare standalones and got around to the rest of the Austin books that I never read (or: only read once) in my adolescence. See, I loved Meg Murry a whole lot (still do!), but I was Vicky Austin. **

I recently reread my lovely, by-now-falling-apart Time Quartet collection, the books about the Murry family.

It has to be said: sometimes I resent that her Kairos and Chronos books are now all numbered according to ‘reading order’, complete with a family tree and everything. Ohhh, I know it makes sense and causes less confusion and is probably essential if they want good marketing, blah blah…but I have this feeling that when they are packaged as a ‘saga’, people start expecting one to be exactly like the other. And that’s not so! I think Madeleine L’Engle is terrific because all her books can be loved on their own. Back when I was younger, half the fun of collecting, of being a fan, was seeing a new title with MADELEINE L’ENGLE on the book cover, flipping it over to look at the blurb, and then flailing because, yessss, another book starring a character I’ve hung out with in her other books?! Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? ***

I think that A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door are the true companions to each other. From the macrocosm to the microcosm; it’s all about how every living things are connected; it’s allll about stroppy, impatient, wonderful Meg who is both part of the pattern and defying it. Meg! Only now can I really appreciate what a classic and groundbreaking character she was: by all accounts, not many people were writing geeky, short-fused female heroines before she came along. Meg struck a blow for girls like that everywhere, which is pretty awesome.

I also love her relationships with Charles Wallace (yay for siblings that are thisclose to telepathic!), and with Calvin (geek!OTP, oh yesss).

Um and speaking of Charles… I found that A Swiftly Tilting Planet didn’t quite hold up to a reread. Weird, weird feeling. I still vividly remember the first time I read it. It was a dark and stormy night (hah!) and I was up reading very late, spellbound by the last chapters with Charles Wallace fighting for the identity of Madoc/Maddox, and with the tragic end of Beezie’s story. Man, I was a thrilled, shaky, weepy mess the end of the book.

Well… The book still kicked me in the gut with the emotions and the characters; I’ll give it that (forever and ever crying for poor, doomed Chuck Maddox). But I found myself getting really uneasy at the premise of Charles Wallace going back in time and changing the what-might-have-beens. I mean, the book basically says: “It is not bad choices that make someone into an evil person. It’s bad heritage.” I mean…really now, Madeleine L’Engle??? This doesn’t jive with everything I know about your beliefs at ALL! The way some kind of evil gene seemed to be passed along the line of this evil long-ago prince’s ancestors, and Charles had to change history regardless of other people’s choices…bleh. Fond as I am of Charles Wallace, that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

But, fine. It’s still a solid book. And I still have…

…Many Waters, the ‘anomalous’ book of the Quartet. Ohhhhh, this book. I don’t care that it’s the oddball one; it never loses its magic over me. Sandy and Dennys Murry are my boys the way Vicky Austin is my girl. It is hard for me to even begin to articulate how much I love this one!

For one thing, I love how the twins are not there on a quest or a purpose: there is no one that they’re sent to save; there is no history that they have to change; they don’t know if they’re there for anything. They are just blasted into the time of Noah’s Ark by one of their father’s experiments. Before the flood. Just a few months before the rains come. Seven hells, what do they DO?

I really love how the book keep right on asking this: what do they do, were they sent here for anything? I mean: it’s SO not like in the previous books where there are Mrs. Whatsits and Teachers and unicorns who guide the protagonists and “know the pattern”. The seraphim in Many Waters are there to listen, but they’re not exactly guardians: even they wonder what on earth the twins are doing in the desert. If it’s an accident, if it’ll cause a paradox

And the boys eventually decide to just wait, “with their eyes and ears open”. Dennys learns to be more independent of his twin and to listen to the ‘song of the stars’ (the stars had already involved him. I shiver along with him when I get to that part ). Sandy starts to seriously consider human kindness and corruption and the kind of man he’ll grow up to be. And they both start questioning the story they are in and the way it was told – “It’s a chauvinist story. Only the males have names.” Interesting that Madeleine L’Engle chose two teenage boy characters to say that (well, they also quote their older sister saying it first, which: go Meg!). I don’t remember that this comes up in any of her other novels.

By the end of the book, I’m just damn proud of the twins for how they wing it, for how they change. “The thing is, something’s happened. We’re not kids anymore. ” Indeed.

Also, Noah’s family. Cannot forget how much I love Noah and everybody in his tenthold! Noah is not this all-benevolent figure: he can get cranky and stubborn and sometimes selfish, but he’s good at heart. Matred, his wife, who always fills her soup pot for beggars, who takes strays in without hesitation, who’ll throw boiling wine at anyone who hurts her family. Japheth and Oholibamah who are terrific in every way. Yalith and Grandfather Lamech and everybody else—they’re all so human and so flawed. I think Dennys sums it up in the last chapter when he says that he’s glad to be home in the real world…but he’ll always be homesick.

Yeah… I love this book a LOT. It makes me want a miniature mammoth to sleep at my feet.

*(I’m finding myself more and more critical of teenage characters’ authority figures in YA books. In books, period. I’m more lenient of grown-up characters when they screw up in the slice-of-real life books. But when it’s a supernatural or fantasy book, and they allow their charges to go waltzing off into danger? Nooooo.)

**Ahem….without her gaggle of her cultured and intelligent admirers, that is. XD Which was for the better. Adolescent!self was confused enough without the attentions of some hottie blue-eyed prince at my heels. Or <s>Holden Caulfield</s> Zachary Grey.

*** Technically the Chronos and Kairos books are both, but you know what I mean. XD

...One day, I WILL learn to write an organized book!post.

okayokayokay

redsilverchains — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:01:51 GMT

So, universe, I honestly could not care less about Glee and it’s “storylines” anymore. (A few weeks ago, I got curious and read one S3 episode summary...and I backed away wanting to punch the Glee Wikia.)

But but BUT:

holy exploding ovaries, Mike Chang

Hurrrrr. I don’t usually get especially excited over an attractive dude putting on eyeliner, but it’s Harry Shum Jr.. Why they put Finn in the limelight when they could be plastering this guy and his face (and his abs!) all over the TV screen is beyond me.

"Peeta" is just "Peter" with an accent

redsilverchains — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 18:33:17 GMT

I don’t think I’ve mentioned that I read the whole Hunger Games series in between reading A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords. I liked the books okay, though not enough for me to have strong fannish feelings.

I’m still really looking forward to a film version. Something about the books: I always thought there was something cinematic in the way Collins wrote them.

And I’ve just seen the trailer!

-The District scenes are much less gritty than I imagined them to be. And the Capitol scenes aren’t as glitzy as they were in my head.

-Jennifer Lawrence is totally not who I pictured as Katniss, but she does sound the right amount of hardened and self-sacrificing.

-Lenny Kravitz seems too old to be playing Cinna? I imagined Cinna to be in his twenties. (Not to say that he couldn’t pull an Alan Rickman and be great anyway.)

-Rue. Is. Adorable. I took one look at the posters that were released and thought, oh NO, I am going to cry so hard when I have to see her die.

-Josh Hutcherson tore my heart to bitty pieces in Bridge to Terabithia, and so I was happy to hear that he’d been cast as Peeta. Because Peeta (and by extension, his relationship with Katniss) was a very hit-and-miss character for me. Maybe the film can fix that.

-The part that made me stop and think, “oh, cool”: the people and Katniss doing the salute. Ooooh. And the Games countdown, of course.

…Naturally, they cut it off before we can get to the thrilling, terrifying parts. What a tease!

-Silly lulz: the kid who once starred in that horrible Dark is Rising movie is Cato! See what you did there, movie? You turned sweet Will Stanton into a bloodthirsty killer.

Oh also: since reading the books, I’ve had this Narnia fusion AU in my head where Jill and Eustace are Tributes, Puddleglum is their stylist (ahahaha. He dresses them up as dragons), Rilian is the jaded former Victor, the Pevensie siblings are all secretly working for the Rebellion, and Aslan is the mockingjay.

…I may have just thought up that mockingjay one.

.

Gosh

redsilverchains — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:11:31 GMT

Downton Abbey sure wasted no time going for the !drama! in S2. I just watched the second episode, and there were how many romantic entanglements? And I don't know if it's my player or a bad copy of the episode, but I feel like some scenes just...stop. The music swells and then it stops and I feel like something got cut out. Is that just me?

(Oh and is it just me or does Dan Stevens look like a grown-up version of the kid who played Colin Craven in the 1993 Secret Garden movie?)

...Is this legit?

redsilverchains — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:24:25 GMT

The cast for the upcoming film of the Les Miserables musical. I just...what?

Anne Hathaway, really? I've nothing against her, but I feel like she's always getting (mis)cast to star as everyone in everything. And it's gonna take work to make Helena Bonham Carter over into someone as charmless and repulsive as the Thenardiess.

Eddie Redmayne is gorgeous, but I have no idea if he can sing. My Michael Ball candle burns very, very bright, yo.

I don't know. :/ If this weren't an adaptation of the musical, I'd be (slightly) less leery. I actually liked what there was of the cast in the 1998 movie: Valjean, Fantine, ~~Enjolius~~ Marius. They did some justice to their characters with what little movie-time there was, and they didn't have to sing a single note.

But this is the Les Miserables musical, the movie-of-the-musical. And that's personal for me!

(For great justice, at least get Ramin Karimloo and Katie Hall on board! PLEASE OH PLEASE.)

Fan Casting: Leviathan Trilogy

redsilverchains — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:15:02 GMT

It’s another one! So, this idea has been rattling around in my head (‘crawled into my attic’, as Deryn Sharp would say) ever since I finished Goliath on a fictional-world high.

For the record, like many fans of Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan book series, I think that an animated adaptation with Keith Thompson’s stylings would be a dream. It would add a whole new level of fan geekery for the original book illustrations, and it would just be plain beautiful if done right.

But I've also cherished many live-action adaptations of my favorite books, and there’s no wrong (and I’ll happily say, heaps of too-much-fun) in imagining what that would be like for Leviathan! Maybe three films or a miniseries with major input from Scott Westerfeld; epic music*; great film-making; intricate steampunk/biopunk art direction; faithfulness to the story; and living, breathing, acting actors playing the characters? Well, why ever not?

For anyone who hasn't read and might want to check out the series, here’s the first book’s cover blurb:It is the cusp of World War I, and all the European powers are arming up. The Austro-Hungarians and Germans have their Clankers, steam-driven iron machines loaded with guns and ammunition. The British Darwinists employ fabricated animals as their weaponry. Their ‘ Leviathan’ is a whale airship, and the most masterful beast in the British fleet.

Aleksandar Ferdinand, prince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is on the run. His own people have turned on him. His title is worthless. All he has is a battle-torn Stormwalker and a loyal crew of men.

Deryn Sharp is a commoner, a girl disguised as a boy in the British Air Service. She's a brilliant airman. But her secret is in constant danger of being discovered.

With the Great War brewing, Alek's and Deryn's paths cross in the most unexpected way...taking them both aboard the Leviathan on a fantastical, around-the-world adventure. One that will change both their lives forever

~*~*~*~

SAOIRSE RONAN as Midshipman Deryn "Dylan" Sharp

~*~*~

SKANDAR KEYNES as Prince Aleksandar Ferdinand von Hohenberg (or, Alek)

~*~*~*~

CHRISTOPH WALTZ as Wildcount Ernst Volger

~*~*~

OLIVIA WILLIAMS as Dr. Nora Darwin Barlow

~*~*~

MAXIMILIAN SCHELL as Otto Klopp

~*~*~

HAZAL KAYA as Lilit

~*~*~

CEM YILMAZ as Zaven

~*~*~

SUNA SELEN as Nene

~*~*~

WILL MERRICK as Midshipman Newkirk

~*~*~

MISHA COLLINS as Eddie Malone

~*~*~

NORA ZEHETNER as Adela Rogers

~*~*~

and

JAMES CALLIS as Nikola Tesla

~*~*~*~

Crossposted to my Tumblr

Background Credits: + + + + + +

*Sometime ago, mightyinkas was brilliant as ever and created these BSG-themed fake soundtracks: Battlestar Leviathan and Battlestar Behemoth. Both of which I had on at full blast while making this. :D

YA book meme

redsilverchains — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:57:05 GMT

Saw this while poking around on book blogs. Apparently, these are the top YA books/series for 2011. I know I'm just supposed to bold what I’ve read but I added my own touch to it…

Read
Eyeing With Interest
To-Read Pile
~~Have Not Read. Do Not Want~~
and: ♥

1. Alex Finn – Beastly
2. Alice Sebold – The Lovely Bones
3. Ally Carter – Callagher Girls (1, 2, 3, 4)
4. Ally Condie – Matched
5. Alyson Noel – The Immortals (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
6. Anastasia Hopcus – Shadow Hills
7. Angie Sage – Septimus Heap (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
8. Ann Brashares – The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (1, 2, 3, 4) ♥
9. Anna Godbersen – Luxe (1, 2, 3, 4)
10. Anthony Horowitz – Alex Rider (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
11. Aprilynne Pike – Wings (1, 2, 3)
12. ~~Becca Fitzpatrick – Hush, Hush (1, 2)~~
13. Brandon Mull – Fablehaven (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
14. Brian Selznick – The Invention of Hugo Cabret
15. ~~Cassandra Clare – The Mortal Instruments (1, 2, 3, 4)~~
16. Carrie Jones – Need (1, 2, 3)
17. Carrie Ryan – The Forest of Hands and Teeth (1, 2, 3, 4)
18. Christopher Paolini – Inheritance (1, ~~2, 3, 4~~)
19. Cinda Williams Chima – The Heir Chronicles (1, 2, 3)
20. Colleen Houck – Tigers Saga (1, 2)
21. Cornelia Funke – Inkheart (1, 2, 3)
22. Ellen Hopkins – Impulse
23. Eoin Colfer – Artemis Fowl (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) ♥
24. Faraaz Kazi – Truly, Madly, Deeply
25. Frank Beddor – The Looking Glass Wars (1, 2, 3)
26. Gabrielle Zevin – Elsewhere
27. Gail Carson Levine – Fairest
28. Holly Black – Tithe (1, 2, 3)
29. J.K. Rowling – Harry Potter (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) ♥
30. James Dashner – The Maze Runner (1, 2)
31. James Patterson – Maximum Ride (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
32. Jay Asher – Thirteen Reasons Why
33. Jeanne DuPrau – Books of Ember (1, 2, 3, 4)
34. Jeff Kinney – Diary of a Wimpy Kid (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
35. John Boyne – The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
36. John Green – An Abundance of Katherines
37. John Green – Looking for Alaska ♥
38. John Green – Paper Towns ♥
39. Jonathan Stroud – Bartimaeus (1, 2, 3, 4)
40. Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl – Caster Chronicles (1, 2)
41. Kelley Armstrong – Darkest Powers (1, 2, 3)
42. Kristin Cashore – The Seven Kingdoms (1 ♥, 2)
43. Lauren Kate – Fallen (1, 2, 3)
44. Lemony Snicket – Series of Unfortunate Events (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
45. Libba Bray – Gemma Doyle (1, 2, 3) ♥
46. Lisa McMann – Dream Catcher (1, 2, 3)
47. Louise Rennison – Confessions of Georgia Nicolson (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
48. M.T. Anderson – Feed
49. Maggie Stiefvater – The Wolves of Mercy Falls (1, 2, 3)
50. Margaret Peterson Haddix – Shadow Children (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
51. Maria V. Snyder – Study (1, 2, 3)
52. Markus Zusak – The Book Thief ♥
53. Markus Zusak – I am the Messenger
54. Mark Haddon – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
55. Mary Ting – Crossroads
56. Maureen Johnson – Little Blue Envelope (1, 2)
57. Meg Cabot – All-American Girl (1, 2)
58. Meg Cabot – The Mediator (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
59. Meg Cabot – The Princess Diaries (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) ♥
60. Meg Rosoff – How I live now
61. Megan McCafferty – Jessica Darling (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
62. Megan Whalen Turner – The Queen’s Thief (1, 2, 3, 4)
63. Melina Marchetta – On the Jellicoe Road
64. Melissa de la Cruz – Blue Bloods (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
65. Melissa Marr – Wicked Lovely (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
66. Michael Grant – Gone (1, 2, 3, 4)
67. Nancy Farmer – The House of the Scorpion
68. Neal Shusterman – Unwind
69. Neil Gaiman – Coraline
70. Neil Gaiman – Stardust
71. Neil Gaiman – The Graveyard Book
72. P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast – House of Night (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 )
73. Philip Pullman – His Dark Materials (1, 2, 3)
74. Rachel Caine – The Morganville Vampires (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
75. Rachel Cohn & David Levithan – Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
76. Richelle Mead – Vampire Academy (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
77. Rick Riordan – Percy Jackson and the Olympians (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
78. Rom LcO’Feer – Somewhere carnal over 40 winks
79. S.L. Naeole – Grace (1, 2, 3, 4)
80. Sabrina Bryan & Julia DeVillers – Princess of Gossip
81. Sarah Dessen – Along for the Ride
82. Sarah Dessen – Lock and Key ♥
83. Sarah Dessen – The Truth about Forever ♥
84. Sara Shepard – Pretty Little Liars (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
85. Scott Westerfeld – Leviathan (1, 2,3) ♥
86. Scott Westerfeld – Uglies (1, 2, 3)
87. Shannon Hale – Book of a Thousand Days
88. Shannon Hale – Princess Academy
89. Shannon Hale – The Books of Bayern (1, 2, 3, 4)
90. Sherman Alexie & Ellen Forney – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
91. Simone Elkeles – Perfect Chemistry (1, 2, 3)
92. Stephenie Meyer – The Host
93. Stephenie Meyer – Twilight Saga (1, ~~2, 3, 4~~)
94. Sue Monk Kidd – The Secret Life of Bees
95. Susan Beth Pfeffer – Last Survivors (1, 2, 3)
96. Suzanne Collins – Hunger Games (1 , 2, 3)
97. Suzanne Collins – Underland Chronicles (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
98. Terry Pratchett – Tiffany Aching (1, 2, 3, 4)
99. Tonya Hurley – Ghost Girl (1, 2, 3)
100. Wendelin Van Draanen – Flipped

Any recs from these? Or anti-recs? Or just feel like talking books? Tell me!

Barking destiny

redsilverchains — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:20:12 GMT

I wrote this ‘bout a week ago after I had just finished reading Goliath. skywanderer</lj>, babe, you can come out of ninja hiding now; here is the flaily post!

Back when I was read the first book and Alek and Deryn first met on the glacier, I thought, “hey it would probably be cute if they started having feelings for each other, because y’know, this is classic boy protagonist meets girl protagonist (or: boy protagonist meets girl-he-thinks-is-boy protagonist). *reads further* And also, she notices his eyes a lot and he basically wants to BE her—possible early ship tease!

…Probably be cute.

…Wouldn’t mind.

…Early ship tease.

ha. Ha. HA.

Fair warning: these may not be the most well-formed thoughts. They are full of OTP FEELINGS.

*The Reveal! I was sooo apprehensive about how it would be executed. I thought, how could Scott Westerfeld possibly top all the fanfics and webcomics and crazy ideas that the fans have come up with? Of course he’s the original author but I have seen so many takes on it, I wonder if he could possibly still blow my mind with it.

But he did: the reveal was SO WELL DONE! Yay for Alek putting it all together piece by piece! My favorite thing about this was confirmation that Alek is not dense—because people got on his case an awful lot for…not noticing that his disguised best friend isn’t a dude. Well, ahem. He DID notice ‘Dylan’ acting dodgy about the past, he DID take note of all the times ‘Dylan’ tried and failed to spill the secret. And I looove how the chapter ends with him lying in bed and Bovril whispering it in his ear. Also, the way he coaxed it out of Deryn? “Listen to every word I say…can I trust you, Deryn?”

And it’s interesting the way she answers him, like, involuntarily. I mean she’s been in disguise for so long, but they’re so close that she doesn’t even notice that he said her real name and she answered to it, until he walks out.

*You go, Deryn! Of course she refused to let him stalk off without a confrontation. And then she hit him! Which Alek deserved for the “you’re not a real soldier” comment, let’s be honest. BUT even when they were at odds, I really like how Alek’s biggest tiff with her was that he felt it was a betrayal of their airtight friendship. Like, even when the world was upside down, he always had ‘Dylan’ for his secrets and his friendship and now (he thinks) that’s going to fall apart. And Deryn’s “I was always your friend” reply was perfect; even when she was plenty pissed (and for good reason) she’s reassuring him of that truth.

*BUT WHOA, he realized all at once that she loved him. I did not see coming so early in the book! Deryn was right after all. Annd Alek broods for two days. All around the Leviathan and mostly in the showers, ahahaha. This amuses me so much, especially because there’s a Shower of Angst pic (sort of), especially when Volger snarks about the future emperor brooding in a bathroom.

Poor Bovril, though, having to deal with mommy and daddy and their joint custody non-arrangement!

*Favorite illustration? The “Draining” one, where Deryn still has a few inches on Alek, even when he’s half-standing on a box. XD

Also:

“It’s just the way things are.” She shrugged. “It’s no one’s fault.”
“Or everyone’s,” Alek said. “Deryn.”

:flail: I don’t know, okay. I just think it’s romantic that he wants to make up for never knowing her name by using it all the time, now that he does know. I love when names are played with like that: blame Ever After for ruining me at an early age!

(Augh, I am filled with happiness just remembering this book’s everything. And this isn’t even the really shippy part yet! )

*EVERYTHING IN JAPAN. I wish we’d stayed there longer! Actually, that applies to all the places the Leviathan visited in this book. But what we got here was so delightful. Alek and Deryn at the tailoring shop, and Alek lying smoothly about her ~skin disease? HEE. I wish Keith Thompson had done a fanart of Deryn’s shit-eating grin while she watches Alek take of his jacket for the tailors (I don’t know if I’m being too gutter-minded about this or if that’s exactly what Westerfeld intended; fandom, you corrupt me.)

Then there was their their sorta-kinda-date and Deryn “unerringly” tracking down the food stall, hee.

And: “Barking destiny.” Oh, KIDS. I LOVE YOU BOTH. SO DOES BOVRIL.

Finally:

Alek: “It was awful being at war with you.”
Deryn: :laughs: “I missed you too, you daft prince.”

One of my favorite exchanges in the whole series, oh yes.

* So kissing works on sleeping princes too. OMIGOSH, YES. Made of win: Alek’s narration zigzagging from Deryn to Dylan to Deryn again. And Alek’s whole concussed I-am-looking-at-your-face-up-close. OMG, you-are-a-girl ramble. XD And the fact that Deryn initiates the kiss, but of course.

*Nothing will ever be more precious than Alek watching The Perils of Pauline and getting ~palpitations from imagining Deryn as a the movie’s action heroine (and probably himself as the starcrossed lover). Nothing.

*SO, everything that happened in Mexico. I…have no words for all that. I think the pic with Alek and Deryn squeezing hands speaks for itself. You’re a cool guy, Pancho Villa, but you’re too late to warn these two ridiculous and ridiculously-in-love people!

Which brings us to…

*I adore that Alek gets to take care of Deryn for once, after she’s injured. In the first place, I already adored the whole gender role switcheroo they’ve got going on, where Deryn is always swooping in and saving Alek and Alek’s the more sensitive one who ~talks about his feelings a lot~. So it’s extra great that they’re put in a position where the guy gets to do the saving and it feels new.

One of the images that just sticks with me is Alek helping her walk all the way to the bathrooms and then guarding the door and then keeping her company all through the boredom and the misery. I just…THESE TWO.

*I think my heart is still dented from the part where Deryn’s cooped up in her cabin and they are both painfully avoiding the elephant in the room that is the commoner/prince rift. And they’re trying not to make it anything more and leaving everything unsaid because they don’t even want to begin feeling that sort of thing for each other. The stilted goodbyes at the ball? Ouch. …Westerfeld wrote the angst incredibly well, I must say. I’m not usually sold on characters in this kind of romantic trope

Even when they were preparing to let go and everything hurt, I was so proud they were both studiously committed to their duties and seeing the war to its end. Young people making the horribly difficult choice because they think it is right. This is what I love in YA literature, you know.

*From here on out, this is the Saving-Each-Other Tango, isn’t it? I seriously did not expect many happy shippy feelings once the Leviathan left New York, but oh they were there. Like when the Leviathan goes back to save Alek from the fire because of that one person who was looking out after him. Like when Alek gives up his last, most dangerous secret so his “mad airgirl” won’t be found out. Like when Deryn gets anxious because Alek is down there without her to protect him (I don’t remember the exact quote, but I remember that it was beautiful). 

*AND THEN THE CLIMAX. I have one bone to pick: it was a bit anticlimactic to go back and forth between an Alek who was coming to blows with Tesla and a Deryn who was watching the battle with the walkers. Yeah, I understand that Deryn was injured (and that was important to the plot); I understand that this was a game-changing battle that had to have the presence of the Leviathan’s highest officers . But a climax where she’s not daredevil-ing around feels so…off.

Alek’s part, though. Holy emotions, Batman. I thought Volger would end up killing Tesla—totally not expecting Alek to do it. For Deryn. For Deryn.

(…And oooh, I just noticed that Alek is in his fencing pose while holding out the walking stick.)

*The ending! Shipping endgame-wise, it is everything I could ever want. It is happy. It is sappy, which delights me (YOU GO AND TOSS THAT SCROLL, BOY).It is beautifully earned and it…has a swearing loris who likes to talk about chests while Deryn laughs and Alek blushes. XD No more secrets and three more makeouts!

…Sure, there’s a dash of bittersweet because Alek and Deryn are leaving the Leviathan. But it ends with a promise of another adventure and of a life together. That’s all I could ever ask for them.

*“You, lucky Austria, shall marry.” Heaaarts in my eyes.

Thoughts on the other characters:

-THE LORISES ARE THE ACTUAL BEST. They know aaall. Also, they are total ~~troll~~ shippers.

(What were their true purposes, though? ~~I mean, besides being unresolved sexual tension sniffers?~~ Why on earth did Dr. Barlow want them to imprint on Alek in the first place?)

-Newkirk leveling up and even getting to do some Deryn-style shizz! Good on you, kid; I was starting to think you’d be the butt monkey up to the very end.

-Oh yesss, Dr. Barlow can kill you with her brain. And she will take zero shit from anybody no matter what part of the world you plonk her on or what crazy Clanker scientist tries to challenge her. Also, hee! at her reaction to Deryn’s revelation. “I had no idea. But I make it a policy never to be surprised.”

…As fun as tht line is, I still don’t believe that she didn’t know about Deryn’s gender. Come. On. I think she had it figured out way back in the first book.

-Volger, Volger, you cranky coot. Even when you’re being a bit of a grouch, you will still protect Alek all the freaking way. I laughed a lot when he used reverse-psychology on Alek when they first discussed assassinating Tesla. It rankled me a bit that he kept trying to dissuade Alek from even being friends with Deryn, but ah, well. He was probably thinking of Franz and Sophie and how that all went pear-shaped with their forbidden romance. Alek’s reaction was awesome, though. (“Get stuffed.” Ahhh, don’t you love how even Deryn’s lingo rubbed off on him?)

I wonder how Volger reacted when he learned Alek tossed the scroll? It was not pretty, I imagine. And then he probably strapped on snowshoes and went off to get the gold bars that Alek tossed into the Alps. (VOLGER: “I shall need the two of you to act professional on this mission. None of that kissing business.” DERYN AND ALEK: *grump* *go make out in a snowdrift the moment Volger’s back is turned*)

-Adela Rogers was fun! Kinda fluttery and still very dedicated to getting the story right. I like what she said about bell captains. ; )

-Ugh, Eddie Malone. That was pretty much my reaction whenever he shows up and pokes his nose all in everyone’s business. Then again, his terribleness makes him a great character, and he does inadvertently give me some of my biggest shipping flails in the series. So you go, Malone, with your purple prose and your ever present trolling!

-Alek’s men are the greatest, all of them rallying to his side in the eleventh hour when everything was going to hell. :D I love how Klopp is all, “No, no, I am too old for this battle, Your Highness…HERE, HAVE A SMOKE BOMB.” So glad they all got fancy new jobs at Ford.

-I loved how Bauer said that the war was over from the moment Volger and Barlow started plotting. HEH. Also: I know it is sooo wrong (she’s married! Apparently.) but I can’t blame the fandom for wildly theorizing they had some sort of fling going on! I mean, there was moment at the end of Behemoth when Volger’s like, “We have been hovering around each other and this Doctor is a most interesting woman,” and Alek reacts with a mental ‘GOD’S WOUNDS, I CANNOT UNSEE, AND YOU ARE BOTH OUR MENTORS, AND GROOOSSS. D:’.

-Lilit! I wish we’d had more of her, particularly her being a badass and also…there was no Alek-Lilit interaction in this book, was there? I wish there was!

I feel really bad for her that she had to leave the Ottoman Empire, but at the same time, I’m very glad she’s in a place where she can better assert her autonomy. And I loved the movie date with Lilit and Deryn exchanging military secrets…and love life advice, heheheh. The gal is gonna get along fantastically with the suffragettes! (Steampunk suffragettes…why does that sound so awesome?)

-Nikola Tesla was…um…interesting. Sometimes uncomfortable. I am not the biggest fan of his “mad scientist” portrayal. I prefer to think he was deluded but still wicked intelligent and capable of the destruction he spoke of. I actually wish Goliath had been a bigger danger instead of the cosmic accident that it turned out to be! Among other things, I was sad that it meant poor Alek indeed got yanked around on a chain, controlled by someone he wanted to use his status. It reminded me of what happened to Katniss in the third Hunger Games book.

Well, anyway…even if Goliath didn’t work, Tesla was willing to kill, to wipe a city off a map. I wish Scott had focused more on his motives and that evil intent of his rather than defaulting to “he was deranged”.

Miscellaneous:

-Deryn seems more world-weary in this book than in the last two, doesn’t she? I can’t really explain it, but she does. It all ties into Deryn and Alek’s polar opposite world views: Alek sees himself as a figurehead destined to stop something; Deryn sees herself as a part of a whole, working for something beyond her power.

Both of their views somewhat met in the middle, which I think is cool.

-Don’t know what to make off Deryn’s gender not being revealed to the rest of the Leviathan. I think most of the crew would have been surprised but they would have
accepted her. I so wanted a Mulan-like moment where they all honored Deryn as a woman after knowing of how hard she’s had to work and realizing how many times she’s saved others! Come on, why does that have to happen only after the war is over?

-Yeah…that. I’m disappointed that we didn’t get to see the war actually end and just got those implications that it would end soon.

-I kind of missed Alek piloting walkers. They’re like an extension of him by now.

-What IS the real nature Zoological Society then? Dr. Barlow made it sound so mysterious—definitely on purpose, on Westerfeld’s part—but I want to know it in detail! Are Deryn and Alek going to be zoo ninjas? Are they going to be spies? ~~Will fake-out make-outs be involved~~?

This is my OOH SHINY! icon

redsilverchains — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:23:02 GMT

This is mostly a happy post but I would just like to get this out of the way: dear world, I can love fictional ladies who are brilliant at what they do just as much as I can love an underdog heroine. Stop with the insta-MARY SUE label already. Just. STOP. *lion claws*

Now!

*In other news: I am now quite mad about Downton Abbey after only watching two
episodes. Upstairs and downstairs, I want to know eeeeveryone’s stories! Even the characters who are on the sulky, skulking side.

-Lord and Lady Grantham and their marriage of convenience that became a marriage of love! Such a narrative kink of mine! Also: I love how they are such a Lord and a Lady, how Downton is in their bones.

-The downstairs people with all of their dedication and even their resentment. Reeaally interested in how this show will explore the class differences. So far, my favorites are Anna and Carson and Daaaisy (hee hee, the grizzly bear dance!).

-I really, really liked how Matthew learns to compromise after Lord Grantham reprimands him for being difficult about his valet.

-Sybil! Okay, this one is possibly preemptive because of fandom osmosis. But I cannot waaait to see her become her own woman!

-The Dowager Countess is fabulous. Well, because. Maggie Smith. Duh.

Now to finish off season 1 so I can catch up to season 2 as it airs! :D

*More people should read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern! I have this love affair with lush magical locations and got happily lost in the visuals and wordplay of this book.
Enchanted circus that appears out of the ether! With endless tents of attractions such as a maze of clouds, an ice garden, paper beasts that come to life, a carousel that goes everywhere, your own childhood memories…

So the book jumps around in time between 1873 and 1902. There are two main plotlines. One is about the rivalry between Marco and Celia, two illusionists who have been turned against each other since childhood in a game of magical showmanship. Every move they play against each other and for each other manifests as another fantastical piece of the circus.

Soon there are other characters who become involved in the game: a contortionist, a fortune teller, the mercurial circus proprietor, a everyman clockmaker…. and the two cold magicians who mentor Marco and Celia and constantly up the game’s stakes. And then somewhere along the way, Marco and Celia (maybe inevitably) fall in love with each other, threatening to send the game – and it’s main stage, the circus – into an uproar

A little ways down the timeline, there’s a secondary plot about Bailey, a quiet teenage boy who becomes enamored of the night circus. He eventually befriends two of the circus travelers, Poppet and Widget, a boy and a girl who are true children of the circus: both born when the clock struck midnight on opening night. This was personally my favorite part of the story: I loooved these three and was very eager to know how they’d play into the game and the circus’s future.

And did I mention how much I love Morgenstern’s words? I want to find the universe’s best caramel corn and a perfume bottle of my childhood memories now!

Anyway, the book is still much, much better than I’m making it sound: here is the review that got me reading it.

Aw yeahhh

redsilverchains — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 10:18:57 GMT

I got my copy of Goliath today! And what do you think Mr. Scott “My Canon Couples Consistently Have Sad-to-Bittersweet Endings” Westerfeld put in the dedication?

To everyone who loves
a long secret romance,
revealed at last

/FLAIL

I just loooove it when authors are even bigger shippers than their readers! I intend to reread Behemoth before I start this third book but MY SHIPPER-GOGGLES ARE READY. Oh, are they ready.

(If you’re just tuning in: the Leviathan Trilogy is a steampunk/biopunk WW1 YA series that I've been enjoying. The protagonists are a runaway prince in disguise and a badass cross-dressing girl, and I ship them like a burning thing. Relevant Anne Shirley icon is relevant!)

Grawrrrr

redsilverchains — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:20:00 GMT

I’ve got exams tomorrow at an unholy hour of the morning. Drop me something to look forward to in my inbox? ; )

If you make up titles for stories I didn't write, I will respond with details of those non-written stories. Just think of the possibilities!

Wow. Lovely.

redsilverchains — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 01:26:48 GMT

Ughhh, infamous fanfic author turned YA author. Just because a character has the same name as you, doesn’t mean you can rip off her lovely quotes . LEAVE MY BELOVED SKINS ALONE, y/y?

World, what is up with you today?

To update from last entry: someone else took the debate over for me --WHY IS IT EVEN A DEBATE??-- and is far more vicious than I was…and the racist person is still being thickheaded. Ugh. Not that I expected they would change (and that’s sad, isn’t it?) but he/she refuses to even listen. Just disgusting. Whatever.

Anyway. There are still good things. Thank you so much to everyone for your sweet words in the last entry. *hugs*

And now to cheer myself up, I’m off to look at people’s works in the Lady Fest! I didn’t officially sign up but I think I’ll unofficially participate anyway: I’ve been dying to dig up book quotes that made me fall in love with Cosette from Les Miserables. Maybe I’ll post them here or on Tumblr tonight.

Ugh, I hate the world today.

redsilverchains — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:08:27 GMT

I shouldn’t have to tell someone online that it is racist to call my native language [insert something that’s too disgusting to type here]. That person shouldn’t tell me “but that IS what it sounds like to me!” and add that I’m the one who’s “making it racist” because I “am secretly ashamed of it myself” and “just want to see myself as a victim”.

I just told that person that a) who the HELL are you to say I’m ‘ashamed’ of my own language, b) NOBODY is born in the world “wanting to see themselves as a victim”, and c) educate yourself on racism, asswipe.

I feel like I should’ve said more but I don’t think that’s my job anymore. The fact that it isn’t and that it shouldn’t have to be makes me feel slightly better.

So far, this person hasn’t replied. And I’m going to bed.

I regret nothing

redsilverchains — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 16:53:30 GMT

+ Things I was supposed to do today:

1)Go to the library
2)Get Things Done

Things I actually did today:

1)Read A Game of Thrones
2)Drank hot chocolate
3)Read more A Game of Thrones

…and here I was thinking I would finish it in two weeks or something, heh. This book whizzes by.

(I want pre-series Stark sibling fic now. George R. R. Martin, y u no like fanfic? *grumps* Never mind, I don’t want to hear the answer.)

+The Demon’s Surrender! So I finished it around a week ago, but I don't even know where to begin flailing.

Some things (character related, unsurprisingly):

-Sin and Alan, Alan and Cynthia, Bambi and Clive (I see what you did there, ms. SRB). I DIE. I have been an avid shipper of them ever since they trapped Gerald between their knives at the Goblin Market. They shall torture magicians together, it shall be hawt, thought I.

I thought: maybe at best, they’ll be the unlikely partners in crime with mild sexual tension . I thought: maybe at worst – oh no no no please!— Sin would start to thaw towards him and then consider him a friend… only for him to Die Horribly. (Ohhh yeah, Alan was at the top of my “brace yourself because he’s likely to be offed’ list” Can you blame me? Or, indeed, can you blame him, being who he is?)

AND SO. And THEN… These two in Surrender were like Christmas morning in a book.

-Oh, Mae. Oh Mae Mae Mae. She just kicked magician tail all over this book, didn’t she? My rash, quick-tempered, compassionate Lady Errant! And Nick. Oh you bewildered, murderous, well-loved mess of a boy-demon, when did I learn to love you and your homicidal-face?

-Jaaaamie! I understood that he had to be in magician territory for Things to Get Done, and he did Get Things Done (understatement much?) and I swear that steam could rise off every page where he was present (yesss)…but still, I think a Jamie companion novel would fit in quite snugly with this one. I am being greedy now, but I missed him!
Next chance I get, I’m going to reread all these books in one guzzle. This book has made me want to revisit stuff with Anzu and Liannan and the Goblin Market. They all took some unexpected turns in the last book. Especially Anzu, ye gods.

...I have decided that stories where the protagonists rotate are Things That I Like Very Much.

squee!

redsilverchains — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 13:26:45 GMT

Don't mind me, I will just be tearing through The Demon’s Surrender like a woman possessed (heheheh). Oh, isn’t the hardcover US edition a treat for the eyes? Sunset skies and boys with glasses make everything better. (Hi Alan, don’t let me down. You must live and have book-obsessed, knife-wielding babies with a certain someone. Don’t think I didn’t see you flirting, boy.)

*seals lips and zooms off to devour book*

So they DO still make them like that!

redsilverchains — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 16:30:07 GMT

Some of the best memories of my adolescent/childhood years are those of going to the video store to rent VHS films. I was reared on many sorts of films. I like to say that Disney was my childhood baby-sitter. But I also grew up on many “adventurous” kids’ films. The Goonies. Three Ninjas. The Mighty Ducks. The Chipmunks Adventure. Now and Then. Stand by Me. Escape to Witch Mountain. Return to Oz (I liked it better than The Wizard of Oz, sorry.) Explorers. Radio Flyer. Tiny Toons: How I Spent My Summer Vacation. The list goes on.

Obviously this was before the DVD age, so whenever I caught something awesome on cable, I made sure to watch it all the way through. Who knew if I’d ever see it again? Not everything was guaranteed to be on videotape!

This is all a long-winded way to say that I loved the film Super 8, and I’d recommend it to anyone who’s ever wistfully said “They don’t make them like that anymore…”

Super 8 is a film directed by JJ Abrams, and produced by Steven Spielberg. Those were the two names that came zooming out at me when I saw the poster—they’re kind of hard to miss. XD The film, apparently, was kept super-secret up until the showing date, which I think was good for it’s publicity.
The story: A young middle-schooler, Joe, his best friend Charlie, their three school friends, and his crush, Alice, are shooting a zombie movie. A hilariously kitschy zombie movie with fake blood and eggs for eyes and a grainy camera lens, shot in various locations around their small town. Joe's dad is the deputy sheriff who is grieving for his wife, lost four months ago. In the way that kids' adventure movies have of always isolating the parental figures, Joe and his father have grown distant from one another.

So Joe and his best friends are up at an old train station, shooting their zombie movie with Super 8 millimeter film camera. Just having a good old time, being chattery kids on a silent night. And all of a sudden, they hear the sound of an approaching train.

There's a train. There's a speeding train that's rolled right into their zombie movie! Bossy Charlie screams at them to start shooting: this is a golden opportunity for an epic shot ("PRODUCTION VALUE!", ya see). The camera rolls. And Joe watches the as the train speeds forward...and then he watches, horrified, as the freaking. train. crashes. Into a truck that has just zoomed out of nowhere to stand smack in the train's path

Six terrified kids, big damn train crash, fire everywhere. …

Wandering across the wreckage, they spot the wrecked truck. And there’s a person bleeding inside it, a person that turns out to be one of their schoolteachers. The teacher wakes up in a daze...and he warns them that Something has arrived. Something has broken out of the train and is out to get them.

Well, crap.

Soon, the kids are caught up in supernatural happenings around their town. People disappearing, dogs turning up in the next town, car engine parts getting raided...but hey, the kids also gotta shoot their zombie movie! Meanwhile, Joe's father gets caught in a top-secret military operation that seems to know more than it lets on…

I am not a monster movie fan, but I was grinning (and occasionally yelping) all through this one. Because yeah, it does follow the monster-movie formula but its backbone is that trusty feel-good kids’ movie vibe. I think it’s high IMDB rating says a LOT about how much people have missed seeing films that are done like this.

*I have a such a soft spot for kid actors who can really act and are not just there to spout cutesy lines. Joel Courtney (Joe) and Elle Fanning (Alice) were adorable and likeable, and they could act. Great kids.

*Joe reminded me SO much of a young Goonies-era Sean Astin. From the hair to the way he talked to the adorkable personality. And he reminded one of my friends of a Karate-Kid-era Ralph Macchio.

*The KIDS. They were a total hoot. Charlie with his bossiness and insecurity, Cary with his explosives and zombie impressions, Martin who kept bursting into tears…I think my favorite line is Charlie’s “JESUS, MARTIN, I’M NOT DEAD YET!”

*Bahaha, Donny the drug addict. Slept through the whole thing, didn’t he?

*One of my favorite things about their zombie film: it goes on for the whole movie. Whole town in a panic and what do the kids do? Fuss around with zombie makeup and scout around the crash site for shooting locations and ham it up in front of their camera.

*And then of course the silly zombie film is shown during the credits. So much cracky fun! (Plus it was funny seeing Martin act like some cool and composed hero, when he’s been freaking out for the entirety of their monster adventure.)

*I thought for a moment that they’d go the route of making the monster some gentle giant thing. My love for The Iron Giant aside, I wouldn’t have liked that. It’s been done in so, so many kids’ movies and besides, the thing had already killed people. So I was glad they let it remain a monster monster.

Not sure about Joe’s “you can still live” speech to it though. Did the thing even understand him? 0_0

*Kyle Chandler was great as the dad, of course. I like the scene where Alice’s dad finally opens up to him about what happened to his wife, and he just replies, “It was an accident.” He says it so quietly but it’s everything to Alice’s dad.

*Pretty camera shots! Pretty camera angles! I’m no filmmaker but I recognized the Spielberg-y ones for sure. My favorite is the shot of Joe holding on to his mother’s necklace as it drifts away to join the alien ship.

*It was just SO MUCH FUN! I was with a couple of friends and we had a blast. And all the way home from the theater, we couldn’t stop talking about it and about all the other films that we grew up with.

Just what I need: more fandoms

redsilverchains — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:00:28 GMT

+So I have been watching first season of The Vampire Diaries in bits and pieces.

*I think the "appropriate" fan-reaction to the first season of The Vampire Diaries is to come out of it madly shipping Elena/Damon. But.

Elena/Stefan is my ship.

I don’t even feel endgame-y about it. (I actually don’t feel very endgame-y about any Elena/vampire ship. I hope they don’t follow the books’ path and turn her.) I just enjoy them so much together! I feel like they’re a big “THIS is how you do it!” to Bella/Edward and all the other unhealthy YA couples out there (*cough* Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick *cough* *gag*).It’s a healthy supernatural-being-and-teenage-human couple! Color me surprised and very, very pleased.

One thing I noticed is the way they hug. They hug so very sweetly and I am as flaily as I would be if they’d had a Big Damn Kissing Scene. Gahhh, their hugs. I’m a hugs stan, so sue me.

*My next two favorites are Caroline and Jeremy. Caroline! I fell for her character right off the bat. Doesn’t Candice Accola have the most lovable voice and mannerisms ever? And Jeremy. Is such a little brother. Watching your little brother reach that stage where he gets moody and fall for older girls and sketching and getting into fights…yeah Elena, I’ve been there.

(But that doesn’t mean I see Steven R. McQueen as little brother-ish! Is it just me or are the human men on this show way more attractive than the vampires? :p)

*Bonnie is also great! Favorite scene is where she smashes the pillowcase and makes the feathers float. Although I feel like she vanishes just when she starts out on her own story, and then reappears and disappears again just when I want more her. Ah, no problem; there seems to be awesome Bonnie stuff coming my way in the second season.

Also, she seems like a mash-up of the Bonnie and Meredith characters in the book. I’m kind of disappointed that we don’t get a Meredith; she was fierce. Maybe she’ll come in a later season? More awesome female characters are welcome, that’s for sure ~~since stupid Damon kills half of them.~~

Oooh, and: Elena-Bonnie-Caroline friendship is LOVE.

*Matt and Alaric are very, very much like their book counterparts. And since they were my favorite male characters in the books, I am glad. Alaric, especially, is so spot-on, it’s a little scary. And the Matt-Elena bond makes me happy: I really like the scene where he goes to her for comfort after Vickie dies (even if it made me feel bad for poor Caroline). But my favorite has to be the “you’re not a kiddie pool” scene. <3

*And now we come to Damon. I can’t stand him a lot of the time (especially when he kills amazing characters such as Lexi *shakes fist* ). I like him best when he is being brotherly with Stefan and snarking with Elena and Alaric, but I don’t find myself invested in the character-on-his-own. I’ve heard they go all Draco in Leather Pants with him too. Meh.

Ian Somerhalder is entertaining, I’ll give him that. Not as much as, say, Jensen Ackles (who often made me cackle as Dean), but he’s fun.

+Some GOLDEN SOUL on Tumblr has given me access to Doctor Who episodes in a way that isn’t murder on my poor, slow Internet connection. This show shot up on my to-watch list because of Catherine Tate and allll the Amy and Rory graphics on Tumblr. So if you’ve ever reblogged the latter: you’ve convinced me to watch it right away. *g*