redfiona99

2. Will you participate in any fandom exchanges or fic challenges, etc?

I'm working my way through 3 Sentence Ficathon, but that's the only one I really do regularly. Most of the exchanges and challenges I did have stopped.

( The rest of the days )

Sprint races: I'm listening to sprint qualifying and the sprint race on replay because I have the time. I still don't get what they're meant to add to the season. I understand people like seeing more racing, but if it's the same sort of racing as the longer race, what's the sporting aim? I understand the financial gain, more people attending on Saturday but for its sporting aim, I don't understand.

It also adds financial risks for the smaller teams. I know Audi aren't a smaller team but I dread to think how much putting Perez's car back together cost. Now imagine if that was Haas or Williams.

By the way, do we think engine vibrations are why Perez's car fell apart?

Discussing Williams, I love Sainz jnr so much. He understands that engineers respond better to gentle encouragement than shouting.

Main race:

Concerning McLaren - has there been a worse start to a constructor's title defence? There being two different problems leading to the cars being out might actually be worse than there just being a single problem hitting both because that's two problems they need to understand, fix and prevent from reoccurring.

Audi have a better excuse for cars that don't start given they are new to this F1 engine making business, and at least they now have a 50% average start rate, rather than McLaren's 25%.

For once, it's not Ferrari whose strategy is ruined by the timing of the safety car. It had to happen one day. I suspect Vasseur would prefer it if they didn't keep racing each other but it's definitely adding to the glory of Ferrari as a concept. And I <3 Leclerc's radio message saying how much he enjoyed the racing. Fun still has a place in F1.

Not saying they have form but when I saw a Haas and an Alpine hitting each other, I presumed Ocon and Gasly. I was wrong, but only partly ;)

That Red Bull is a problem that even Verstappen cannot overcome. BBC Radio said that he only had 4 DNFs in 4 years before this, which underscores the importance of having a solid car if you want to win the driver's World title.

Truly, nothing says F1 like those moments where they have to use "normal" tech on advanced technology, like gaffer tape, or this time, clippers to tidy up Ocon's bodywork.

The Shanghai circuit really is hard on tyres. My Mum, not an F1 fan and watching under sufferance, even she was going "look at that tire wear!"

I am very happy for Colapinto - my occasional snarky comments about his performance in last year's Alpine was never directed at him personally, just at how badly Alpine handled swapping him in for Jack Doohan, so I'm happy for him to finally get some points.

Kimi Antonelli, he's so cute!!

via GIPHY

(GIF is Clawhauser, a leopard from Zootropolis, going 'so cuuuuuute'. It is an accurate visual representation of my reaction to Kimi Antonelli.)

I, and Toto and Bono, could all have done without the lock up towards the end. There's nothing like a little mistake to liven things up.

(I am sharing the following links so that everyone can see them (and for cheering up purposes if I ever need them)

https://www.tumblr.com/ef-1/811141285720326144/kimi-antonelli-i-am-about-to-cry-to-be-honest

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/they-helped-me-to-achieve-this-dream-emotional-antonelli-hails-mercedes-as.6uMgvW0qCCkUdPKQJzkuyh )

He's so adorable.

New regulations - 2 and a bit races in:

It is too soon to decide whether the new regs are good or bad.

So why am I talking about it? Mostly because this is the first break the F1 season has had.

The reason these regs were introduced was to improve racing. It was necessary. The last set of cars were too broad and the tracks were too narrow to allow over taking. The circuits can't be broadened, so the cars had to narrow.

Similarly, there was no way to defend from DRS overtakes (the DRS button killed joy). The new system at least allows some way of defending.

As a viewer/listener, the first two races this year have been more interesting than most races last year.

When the drivers and team owners are interviewed, the ones whose cars were not so good with the last set of regulations but are good now like it, the ones whose cars were good and now they're not hate it. What a surprise!

I'm more interested in the views of say Haas who were middling before and are middling now. Their views are less likely to be tainted by the effect of relative results.

The week before the first race is always the best time of the Formula 1 year for fans, because it's the last time that all the fans have hope that their teams do well (whatever well means for each team).

That is even more true when there is a change in engine regulations because there is the potential that this time, your team will get it right and the new regulations will lead to an era of glory.

Why we still believe this every year, I do not know, when every year the following apply:

1) At least two teams, normally Red Bull and Mercedes, are sand-bagging and not showing how fast they can actually go.

2) Ferrari flatter to deceive by doing well in testing, and the car will then underperform in the actual season.

3) At least one team turn up with a carn't not a car - so far this seems to have happened with Williams and Aston Martin, neither of which were the teams I was expecting that to happen to.

And yet, it is such an exciting time because there is the potential that this time, this time Ferrari might not have screwed up. I don't know why I keep hoping Ferrari will not screw it up in the face of so much evidence.

A summary of my review: Well that didn't work

Spoilers for all of the Star Wars films dotted throughout

You will notice that that summary is very similar to what I said about Rise of Skywalker.

Many of my complaints are very similar.

The main problem is lack of coherence. There's no one artistic vision bringing everything together.

I'll give an example:

The prequel trilogy is "the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker"

The original trilogy is "farm boy uncovers the mystery of his family, meets a scoundrel and a princess, and saves the galaxy"

The sequel trilogy might be "man escapes servitude, joins the Resistance, and ?", or "woman runs into resistance plan, turns out to be a Force user, trains as a Jedi, turns out to be the Emperor's granddaughter and ?" or "..." Actually no, Poe has no character arc.

(I remain convinced that Poe was supposed to be killed off in the first film but everyone was so in love with Oscar Isaac that they kept the character alive. The reason for my belief is that, after the first film, there are no Poe-specific character parts. Everything he does could have been done by another character.)

There is no overarching theme to the series. I think that's because there was no one visionary in charge. George Lucas; far, far away from perfect, but he definitely had a plan. I'm not even sure who the Lucas-equivalent would have been for this because Disney were there for money and none of JJ Abrams's films have ever been anything but derivative schlock.

The lack of one clear vision is most apparent in the way there were so many interesting things that they lightly touched on and then just dropped. Not in a "we chose to drop it" way but in a "we have no idea where the other person who wrote that bit was going with it" way.

Like Phasma, who could have been interesting (on behalf of L, who really wanted them to do something with her), or Finn, and what it is to choose freedom (which they keep touching on and then doing nothing with), or DJ, who chooses neutrality and what that means in this sort of situation.

Because they made these films a direct follow on from the original trilogy and JJ Abrams's endless daddy issues, the sequel trilogy suffered from the same thing a raft of follow on films to films made in the late 70s and 80s suffered from - destroying the legacy of those original characters by making them terrible fathers. The other big example is Indiana Jones, where Indy, having had a terrible father, turns into a worse one. Now I get the whole, generational trauma spreads downwards thing, but I don't need my heroes getting dragged into that.

While I can maybe believe it for Indiana Jones, who even in Raiders of the Lost Ark is "man who makes really poor decisions in his personal life", I don't believe it of Luke. Or rather, I can imagine him being terrible at leading the Jedi, or training other Jedi, but I can't see him being useless in this way.

Because they didn't seem to know where half the characters were going, you have to rely on people liking the way the characters interact. The Force Awakens gave them a good start in this. I liked all three of the new lead characters. The problem is that after The Force Awakens there were very few scenes with our leading trio together, or indeed combinations of them together, so we don't get to have that feeling either.

On the other side, while Phasma gets nothing to do, Adam Driver and Domhnall Gleeson ring every bit of character out of what they get given.

I was legitimately surprised to find out Adam Driver was 32 when The Force Awakens was filmed because he is so good at whiny teenage boy. We have all known boys like that so it's easy for the audience to fill in the gaps - and really hard for us to believe he'll suddenly convert to the side of good like the trilogy obviously wants us to believe he can, and hope that he will.

Hux is such a gloriously cowardly space spiv. If you ask me to name my favourite part of the sequel trilogy, it would be the Rey and Kylo vs the Imperial guards fight scene towards the end of The Last Jedi. Partly it's the staging, but really it's the bit at the end where Hux could have killed Ren and is too scared to do it. It's a marvellous bit of business.

I'd still love to know where Rian Johnson was going to take it next because while The Last Jedi wasn't necessarily good, it was the most interesting of the films. Possibly because although it does have moments of being weighed down by being a Star Wars film, it is the one that comes closest to wearing it well.

I think that's the problem - JJ Abrams is a huge Star Wars fan and it shows. He wants to have a redemption arc because the original did. He also wants characters with Daddy Issues because ... (waving at every other piece of media he has ever had anything to do with). He's built these half-characters made from bits of existing characters to carry out his story, but then given them away for one film. In that film, they change, and they no longer fit the shape of the intended story, and rather than change the story, he's squished the characters to try and fit and it doesn't work.

Part of L’s attempts to introduce the mad scientist to culture.

Spoilers throughout.

The details of the production can be found here - The Duchess of Malfi | Almeida Theatre

It was a modern dress production featuring a stark set design with tiling, heavy use of black and white, and a video screen to highlight key messages. I really liked the set design - it was clean and effective without overwhelming the acting. L was less kind, wanting to know “if the 90s had called, and asked for their Avant Guarde ideas back”.

I didn’t like the climactic fight scene. I understand the message they were trying to convey, ‘blood begets blood’ and so on, but there is a fine line between “over the top” and “silly” and the end fight fell over that line. My main thought after a tragic finale shouldn’t be “how on Earth do the costume department handle matinees?”

Which is unfortunate, because the acting was good. My favourite bit of business was Antonio telling Delio about one of the later children, and Delio said “congratulations” and his body language said “you do it to yourself, you do.”

L did think the villainous brothers were a bit underdone, and we both noticed the play lost steam after the Duchess was murdered. However, that might be a structural flaw in Webster’s script rather than this specific production; as this is the only version I’ve seen, I have no point of comparison. [L here, it is the play, Act 5 is famously a mess]

If you want to see what actual theatre critics thought, there are links here -
What's On Stage
The Guardian
Time Out London
Londonist
City AM

The Londonist article has the best pictures of the set and cast, even if it’s the least positive review.

It was a good way to dip my toes into theatre that isn’t Shakespeare.

A summary of my review: Well that film didn't work

Spoilers for all of the Star Wars films dotted throughout

I have some sympathy for the people who had to try to pull this together, because The Force Awakens was a pallid retread of A New Hope, then Rian Johnson pulled The Last Jedi in a completely different direction (don't get me wrong, I think the Last Jedi is the best of the sequel trilogy but it's a terrible Star Wars film) and they then had to make a film to try to wrap up the story.

Unfortunately, it felt like none of the different parts of the film fitted together.

I'll use the title as an example. The Rise of Skywalker - excellent strong title.

Utterly meaningless within the context of the film.

Name me one Skywalker who rises in this film? By the end of it, they're all dead. (Yes, I know my genre conventions, if there is no body, they're coming back, if there is a body, they might still come back, if there's a body and they're the Master, check behind the door, but for the purposes of the film, they're dead.) Fine, Rey calls herself Skywalker (and Luke and Leia would support her in that) but there is no rise, there's just her giving things up in the desert.

Killing Kylo Ren is the easy narrative option. It feels cheap. The harder, more interesting option, would feature good guys trying to figure out where he fits in a better new world, surrounded by people he tried to kill and whose friends and relatives he succeeded in killing.

There's a few other parts like that, where you can feel them choosing the easy way out rather than trying something and I think that's the weight of being Star Wars. See also, mysteriously reappearing Palpatine.

There's also the lengths Hollywood will go to, to not show Finn and Rey kissing. I see you and what you're up to, Disney.

From a purely stylistic point of view, I'd re-cut the cavalry charge scene. I think I know what they're trying to do, but the way it intercuts with the rest of the space battle takes away from them both.

There's a serious emotional disconnect between what's going on on the screen and me in this film.

An example, they blow up Kijimi and no one cares (this isn't hyperbole. The planet blowing up doesn't even make it into the summary of the film - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Rise_of_Skywalker). It's not lack of time spent with the planet and its people; we never see Alderaan in A New Hope, but we feel when it is destroyed. That connection is completely missing here.

Because of that lack of connection, which I blame on them setting up three main characters then never letting them interact with each other much after the first film (I have a theory about the why of that in my sequel trilogy summary post that I am in the middle of writing), all the emotional weight of the film has to be carried by Chewbacca and C3PO. Despite my love for the characters, this is not a good sign.

(I am a fully paid up member of the "Chewie should have got a medal at the end of A New Hope" campaign and the bad thing that happens to him is why I stopped reading the Star Wars EU novels, while nothing in the new trilogy got to me as well as that moment where C3PO, knowing the risks, decides that the Rebellion needs him to find out what that text means.)

It's not that there aren't bits that I love.

Evil once again sounding British and sudden unexpected Richard E. Grant.

I like both the Hux reveal and his reasoning. I know people complained that it was a bit thin but he is completely the sort of person who would betray a cause just so someone he hated didn't win. Also, a non-Sith who can hide his feelings from a Sith through hate alone. That's going some!

I love Lando.

Adam Driver's mega-watt smile. There's reams to be written about the sequel trilogy being unbalanced by Kylo Ren, but oh the five-to-ten minutes of Ben Solo that we did get ... (I am a simple creature and I like a good pseudo-sword fight).

And there's these occasional hints of a much darker version of the film underneath, and that's a much more intriguing film. It fits in with DJ in The Last Jedi. Examples include Poe being a Spice runner.

There is also no way you will ever convince me that the vision of Han that Kylo sees isn't Luke pretending to be Han, not Han himself. Like, it makes no sense for it to be Han, Han is not a Force user and it's hard even for Force users to do that. But Luke, making one final bid to save Rey, that works, and it make him a much more manipulative character than the rest of the film is willing to let him be.

There's so much interesting potential wasted.

Rise of Skywalker doesn't work as itself, it doesn't really work as a Star Wars film, it's a damp squib of an ending to the series and collapses under the weight of being Star Wars.

Last year I only managed to publish 10 fics on AO3, which is less than the 12 I aim for.

But that's okay because I spent most of November and December tidying the fics that had been ported in from WWFSML. (Here's where I say thank you again to bring_me_sugar and Julie from the Open Doors project for all their hard work)

Reviewing fics you wrote 25 years ago is definitely an intriguing torment.

I downloaded and then deleted the ones that couldn't be quickly fixed and fixed the ones that could be fixed.

Things I have noted:

1) I still can't spell occasionally. But I have learnt to use a spellchecker.

2) I have improved.

3) Part of that, I think, is that I'm now more willing to go, "actually, yeah, that's a gen fic."

4) I think I always cared about character voice. I think I'm better at it now.

5) There's one structure of a fic that I am reusing, not deliberately, but because that was always how that fic was going to be structured. That's not changed, I still believe in shape and structure and architecture.

6) I used to be a lot more spontaneous. I think that's partly in ~ 2010 I decided to write the notes for every idea down so I didn't lose ideas anymore. There's several fics that can only be found in notes lost in various house moves. The downside is that I'm now working on fics I had the ideas for in 2013.

7) I used to be obnoxious. Several of you are still around from back in the day - please accept this apology. I didn't notice at the time and I have worked to become less obnoxious over time. If I am still being obnoxious, at any point, please say and I will try to stop it.

Films:

A list of public domain horror films as of 2019 -https://brightnshinythings.tumblr.com/post/188564806629/rigatonidanza-fuckindiva-short-films-by

Miscellaneous:

Why does snow close so many schools? - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-42308301 Everyone in Europe and North America is allowed to laugh at the UK on this topic.

Surviving Congo's massacres: 'I climbed over bodies to flee' - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42327262

Helping women ensure their voices are heard - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42253091

How forced marriage saved a US defector in North Korea - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-42321400

The mystery of the baby in the box - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-42256465

Life as a male sex worker in Britain today - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42265838

'Have a stoma and live or don't have one and die' - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42179173

Music:

The 2010s: 5 Ways Beyoncé Defined The Decade In Music - https://www.npr.org/2019/10/07/767903285/the-2010s-5-ways-beyonc-defined-the-decade-in-music

How vocal problems nearly spelled the end for The Script - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-42311132

Science:

Broadband over 'wet string' tested for fun - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-42338067

Plant detectives: How bramble and co. can help solve crimes - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5q2xGXDZv0S7hg3KQl11vNg/plant-detectives-how-bramble-and-co-can-help-solve-crimes

Nine beetles named after celebrities - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2G3Y81qj14LvlcCTXqqhLCT/nine-beetles-named-after-celebrities

Is England a healthy nation? - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-42329795

The Strange and Gruesome Story of the Greenland Shark, the Longest-Living Vertebrate on Earth - https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-strange-and-gruesome-story-of-the-greenland-shark-the-longest-living-vertebrate-on-earth

Sport:

Phil Taylor: Darts says farewell to sport's unlikely revolutionary - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/darts/42332921

PDC World Championship: Phil Taylor's farewell & Michael van Gerwen on fatherhood - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/darts/42281255

Cricket:

Mane attraction: We get to the root of why we love fast bowlers' hair - https://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/1124341/mane-attraction

Title: The Name of All the Stars
Author: Red Fiona
Fandom: Thor: The Dark World
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, Marvel do (except a couple of OCs). No money is being made from this.
Characters: Heimdall
Rating: PG-13
Notes/Warnings: Spoilers for Thor: The Dark World. Mentions of canonical character death.
Summary: Heimdall sees all, in battle and after.

~~~~

( He longs to close his eyes, just this once. )

Spotify:



Why is it always the Kaiser Chiefs?

Duolingo:



Jefit:



I think they've confused me with someone else :)

Wordpress:

The Data Visualiser's Lament about the size of the 2026 World Cup had the most hits. Apparently short and silly is the way forward.

Tumblr:

For once it's not a music video - 30 Days of Star Trek - Day 19 - Favorite Enterprise Episode -https://brightnshinythings.tumblr.com/post/777488613422268416/30-days-of-star-trek-day-19-favorite Apparently everyone agrees with me about the writing in Enterprise.