redfiona99 | Entries tagged with meta

I have just finished writing nearly 2000 words of somewhat fluffy Solly/Gloria It Ain't Half Hot Mum fic.

Solly/Gloria is one of my pairings from before I knew what shipping was. They're pretty much unique in that sense because they're non-canonical. Young me was not a shippy person (okay, so present me isn't a shippy person either but young me even more so). I think part of it is that it took me until I was older to realise it wasn't canonical.

I first saw It Ain't Half Hot Mum when I was somewhere between 8-11. And I just presumed that Solly was Gloria's boyfriend because he always stepped in when the 'orrible Sergeant Major was being horrible to Gloria, more so that he did when the horrible Sergeant Major was being horrible to anyone else.

I caught it again when I was a bit older (14-18), and I realised that I may have misread (miswatched?) the show because I saw things that were not there.

I rewatched the show for the fic and the thing that interested me is that I could see why mini-me had seen what she saw. It's mostly due to the set up of the show.

Because Solly is the ranking member of the Concert Party, he's got to stand at one end of the line when they fall in. For camera work it makes sense that the more one note characters* are at the other end of the line so they can be ignored if they don't have anything to do in that scene. You can't put Gloria next to Gunner Sugden if you want the full effect of Sugden's lack of height (I think that's also why Sugden's placed between Atlas and Parky in the line up, who are the tallest of the regulars), and putting Gloria next to Solly is therefore the sensible thing.

That means Solly has to react when Shut Up shouts at Gloria because he's next door and in camera. The synchronised sour look he and Gloria do is also probably just for giggles, but the fact that he also reacts every time the Sergeant Major says anything about homosexuals might be where tiny-me got confused. It also means that it makes some sort of sense for Solly and Gloria to get teamed together whenever the gang have to split into twos.

It's really clear where tiny-me got confused and why and how much of it is down to the constraints of the medium (TV sitcom), which are "rules" that you don't know at that age.

*sorry Nobby, Nasher and Atlas

Crossposts: http://redfiona99.livejournal.com/1111101.html

Firstly, a bit of a rant about Sherlock fandom.

Yes, the *only* reason why anyone would not be interested in romantic relationships would be because their in denial about the sexuality. And certainly, if you're going to update a character who is described as follows by his dear biographer - "It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer--excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his." - then it only makes sense to make him gay, because *obviously* it's only women he doesn't want to romance.

Now, admittedly, this cheeses me off because I mostly abstain from romantic chaos because it disagrees with me, not because I am in any denial about my sexuality (I like sex, I like sex with men and women) or because I am a century out of date. It also annoys me because it reminds me a lot of various family members assuring me that I would grow out of this. I am now 25, I am not likely to be growing out of anything right now. If fandom would be so kind as to not join in with my now ex-Auntie, I'd be obliged.

(There will also be a rant about how no, just because Mark Gattis is gay, it doesn't oblige him to write only saintly gay characters, and that given that supervillains lie, Moriarty lying about his sexuality would not be that unexpected. But it gets long and swear-filled.)

~~~~

After that, on to happier things. TV meme time.

Day 13 - Favorite childhood show

Once again I'm going to cheat.

For those who don't know, from when I was about 5 till I was 18 (and okay, in a very basic sense, still now) I was brought up by my grandmother.

Every Friday, in order that their parents might get one evening's peace, my two cousins came over. That my grandmother could put up with three sugar-cranked 6-9 year olds is a sign of her awesome.

Along with having my beloved cousins with me, one of the other fantastic things was Friday night TV.

It would start with a Supermarionation show, Thunderbirds for preference but Captain Scarlet or Stingray are reasonably adequate replacements. I am very much the Blue Peter Tracy Island generation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U6eY3ZA5XQ

This was followed by an episode of Doctor Who. This was how I started my Whovian-ness.

(Absolute glee - someone has linked together all the continuity announcements for Doctor Who and the Daemons - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70QEdmtioUs so you can see what I mean by the collection of awesome.)

Following that, there'd be something in the 60s spy family. Man From UNCLE was always the favourite, and Ilya Kuryakin was, and still is, my favourite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXoSTox8IB4

Then we'd play games until bed time.

Saturday mornings started with the kids shows, either Going Live or Planet 9 or whatever the ITV one was called.

Then, and this was important, if we weren't already on ITV, we'd switch over for what is still my favourite cartoon ever, Batman: The Animated Series. Above and beyond anything else, I loved the art style, all art deco lines and sharp edges. The scripts and plot and everything else was equally awesome, but the art, dudes, the art.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEx9r5enZsk

If we were very lucky, that would be followed by Zorro. See, I've always needed an RDA of sword-fighting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9z3pLJc7RY&feature=related

(Reasonably sure that's the right one, it's a lot better than it looks.)

( The Other Days )

Twig commented on this post - http://redfiona99.livejournal.com/524124.html - which was originally a spin off from her post about motivation, and that bit of my post was about how I thought the motivation, or lack thereof, was one of the major problems with Hustle. In her reply, she said that other people had said that Leverage was too similar to Hustle. Entirely seperately to this, I decided to give Leverage a try (okay, so if you give me Christian Kane kicking people, I will watch your show. I am easy to please.). Having watched both, I really don't get why people say Leverage is ripping off Hustle. There are some similarities, yes, but also a whole huge tonne of differences.

( The Dramatis Personae )

So, mostly different ways of doing things, and slightly different speeds of the con.

There are some equivalent characters, Sophie and Stacey are both tall, dark and pretty, and are mostly there because they're attractive, female con artists. Ash and Hardison are both tech guys, although that's about the only similarity between the characters. Noticably there is no Parker or Eliot equivalent. Possibly that's because of the way UK TV works, as the last time I can remember a choreographed fight scene on UK TV was Captain Jack and John Hart in Torchwood, and they're not really a feature of UK programmes as much as they are in the US, certainly not since things like The Sweeney and the Professionals finished. The above also goes, possibly even more, for falling/hanging stunts and the rest of Parker's main tasks.

Hustle is supposed to be set in a semi-realistic milleu, which is part of the reason why there are no guns or fights, while Leverage seems to inhabit the hyper-realistic world peculiar to US TV, where all the flowers bloom brighter than they ever should but no one mentions a thing.

Differences also include the ethos behind the teams. Nate's team are good guys who do bad things, while Mickey's team are bad guys who do bad things. And aren't given good enough scripts to pull that off successfully, IMO.

While both have a theme of "family" going on, they do it in different ways. If Leverage is Mummy, Daddy and 3 kids, then Hustle is a more extended family with Albert being the twinkly grandfather figure, Ash being the cool uncle and the other three being the kids.

Hustle pushes the "family" things less, there's more of a passing on of traditions, with Albert, an old school crook, being worried that his kind of caper, the long con, is about to become extinct. Mickey is his protege and Danny wants to be his protege.

Stylistically is where I think the suggestion of similarities comes in. Both use background music that's late 50s, early 60s lounge, with big brass and brush drums, particularly during the "action" scenes and the "power walk to camera" scenes.

Both shows also make use of 'broken time', where a character stops the flow of time to think or plan. Hustle does this more inventively, using the device to flashback/flashforward/tell the story/tell the mark's background and to teach, normally direct to Danny, the history of this kind of con. Leverage is more conservative, it uses most of its time stops as flashbacks to either give us backstory on the characters or to fill us in on what one group of the characters has been doing while we've been concentrating another group.

Some of the similarities; the description of the mark, the explanation of the plan, the sequence that goes - putting the plan into action, oops a hitch, resolution of the story using on of plans B through to Z - are down to the genre. As such, it's difficult to see how Leverage could have done it differently and kept to the rules of the game.

They certainly feel like different shows to me, Leverage being more emotionally driven, being as it is a drama comedy. It's horrific moments are certainly more horrific. Hustle is a comedy-drama, so several of the characters are more caricatures that characters and any terribleness beyond being rude/abrasive or conning someone else tends to take place off screen.

So, while they share a genre and have some similarities, I don't think the two are that closely related.

When I was little "yoof" tv was the television directed at 18-24 year olds, totally incomprehensible to anyone outside of that age group, in order to attract that age group. Now, while the topic I'm going to talk about isn't directly that, I think it's related. Because, the "yoof" tv today is not directed at them, it's directed at 16-20 year olds, and as I'm only 24 I refuse to be too old for Saturday night television.

I haven't watched Merlin, so the comments I am about to make are not a diss to it, it's merely being used as an example of the phenomenon.

So TV wanted to do an Arthurian legend show, but wanted to concentrate on Merlin, figuring, quite sensibly, that he's a far more interesting character. They want to concentrate on his youth, again, while I have no fondness of 'growing pains' fiction, I can see why other people might. But you wanted the traditional Arthurian trappings, so knights and so on and so forth. Therefore they warp and spindle mythology to their needs when they really don't need to. Any one of the 500 million mythological Merlin growing up tales contains plenty of intrigue and rumour, and while they may lack sword fighting, you can right that in easily enough.

Or, and this would be how I'd do it, I'd have Arthur growing up and a mysterious boy who appears and gets left in his general vicinity by Merlin who goes off on one of his jaunts that he's quite famous for. Boy can be brought up by Gaius still, there'd have to be some changes to Uther's story re: magic, or maybe there's a crackdown after Merlin leaves because he's run out on Pendragon, again, or whatever. Mysterious boy gets exactly the same story as Merlin has now, complete with a name like Myrddin or Emrys or Ambrosius so that the twist is obvious and hidden. Because Merlin, grown up, can time travel or something similar, in some of the myths, so they can have their obscure urge for having no active characters over the age of 30 and they don't have to break the myths I enjoy.

Some time ago, Opera (I think) posted a thing on how parents or pseudo-parents in wrestling fan-fic seem to have no function other than to be sexless and not partake in the plot. There job is to act as Greek chorus and nanny for the lead characters who have all the fun, they have no motivation of their own, etc. And we're heading towards that in modern tv, and well it annoys me. When Donna Noble at 35-ish gets called old, we have a problem, probably with society as a whole. But then I start ranting and raving so I shall stop.

In no way brought on by the 11th Doctor being only 2 years older than I am, and my general viewpoint that younger actors don't have the range of older actors. That, my friends, is a rant for another day, which will feature Michael Caine as the example. There's also a secondary rant related to Merlin about the removal of any sex from stories that is not mainstream heterosexual sex, but that's also a rant for another day, which also drags in my review of the American Italian Job.

Twig recently posted about certain changes made to the story of 'Prince Caspian' by the recent film, and how it undermines not just the story, but also the characters, which when we're talking about King Peter the Magnificent, is not something to be done lightly. And that's why I'm worried about the new Star Trek film, because I think they're going to wreck my favourite crew.

First, a point to make - none of this is intended as a diss to Zachary Quinto, who I have no doubt can probably act, and is undoubtedly not a brain-eating cannibal in real life. Also, I don't care if Heroes has ret-conned the brain eating, I have fun wailing "brains" at Sylar's every appearance. And I'm aware that Leonard Nimoy mostly played bad guys before Spock, of the not-randomly whitewashed variety, and that I shouldn't judge ZQ's ability to play a good guy just on Sylar, or the fact that I've never seen him play a good guy (or at the very least someone who wasn't a creepy obsessive compulsive).

Only, well... He won't be Spock. He won't be my favourite loyal, clever, sneaky, witty, precise, brave, "emotionless" person. And I'm sorry, this lonely little half-foreigner in a very strange land developed a deep and undying affection for Spock at a very early age.

And they won't get the chemistry right, because, as with all things, I think TOS was a one shot deal.

But the thing I'm really worried about is how they're going to treat Captain Pike. Because Christopher Pike is, to quote a certain other space opera, a big goddamn hero. There's a reason the Starfleet Medal of Honour is named after him. Why the jump between characters? Because Spock is Pike's friend, long before he's Kirk's friend, and risks everything, including the Enterprise to try and give Pike something that resembles a decent life post the accident. So if they screw up Pike, they're screwing up Spock. And their own past, but I'm not expecting them to get that right.

:(

For the tropes meta/fic thing

penknife is running.

So I had the choice of three tropes, Chained to the Bed (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChainedToABed) which I have no real interest in, Vichy Earth (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VichyEarth) which I have a real and extreme interest in but my view points are possibly obnoxious, terribly long-winded, and require references and actual research so I have settled for the third option - ultimate job security (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UltimateJobSecurity).

Why is it a trope? Because TV drama has two needs, it needs drama, often caused by inter-personal problems, and it needs continuity, because you can't keep hiring and firing actors, you end up with a bad reputation. Also, a lot of drama hinges on personal, shall we say abrasiveness, that you don't get in real life. If we take my work as an example, it's a pit of vipers, several layers of nested vipers at that, but we're terribly polite about it and always do it behind each others backs, and that just doesn't work for TV drama.

Drama also needs a setting and since the two most common settings are work and home, and home tends to be the setting for comedies, while work tends to be for dramas. So you have a situation where people do things that should get them sacked and they don't for reasons that have nothing to do with the story and more with backstage reasons. Cue trope.

Another thing that tickled me was that two of the shows named in the tropes are things I'm into, and two others I know well enough to understand that their rationalizations work. The latter two are House and MASH, and yes, doctors are nigh on impossible to sack.

Onto the two I'm fannish about which are Torchwood and Wrestling. Torchwood first:

You can almost forgive them for this one because there is an in-canon reason not to replace them, because it would be damned difficult, given that it appears that it took Jack a fair few years to get a team post the thing that happens in Fragments (why the hell Torchwood fandom doesn't go 'Oh Jack' like Supernatural does is beyond me. Possibly because we're too busy doing it about the whole lot of them). Except, especially in season one, they were that bad it might have been worth it. So why was no one making them behave - well the whole unpleasant thing at Canary Wharf went down, but I refuse to believe someone, like say UNIT, didn't come and smack them down and hard. So yeah, there's something totally bizarre in canon (except I think they enjoy pretending UNIT doesn't exist unless they need to use it). House at least explains why the lead character cannot be sacked. Torchwood never does. It's not like they're running low on ret-con.

Wrestling: First a quick definition for the non-wrestling fans who read this - kayfabe is the story we see on screen. I'm going to use that world as the real one, mostly because what goes on backstage is even more convoluted.

TV tropes chose Austin as the example of someone who never gets sacked no matter what. This makes me believe that whoever it was really didn't watch that hard because he was forever getting sacked and just ignoring that fact. The person I'd put up there is Vince McMahon, the chairman himself, because really, if a real executive behaved like that, he'd be kicked off the board and possibly thrown in jail. Admittedly he does get shoved out of the way at various time by the rest of his brood but much like the Maxwell family, I'm reasonably sure all the members of the McMahon family cluster should have been up before one magistrate or another a long time ago.

This is also one of those tropes that people notice a lot, possibly because very few people in the real world are lucky enough to have this. I've noticed that people spot and object to its existence more when the person is incompetent (see Torchwood, series one especially) than when they're good at their job, but obnoxious (see House). It really grates a lot of people because it's so different to how the world works, but is found a lot more often in real-world based programmes than in absolutely and resolutely non-reality related ones.

It's a very silly trope, but due to confines of television, one that will be with us 'til doomsday.

1 - The soundtrack is ever so slightly good. As are the SFX.

2 - ( Spoilers - Another time when this was a movie that had ideas )

Apologies for any typing errors, I'm having to type left-handed. Damn tendonitis.

Finally got to see Iron Man (the finally is a long story all of its own).

But first the trailers. Prince Caspian is filled with do not want. Seriously, there's only one scene from the trailers that I remember from the book. And I fear what they will do to Reepacheep. Do not mess with my favourite mouse.

Dark Knight Returns (or whatever it's called) yup, so totally going to be scared out of my wits.

The whole Summer 2008 trailer bit, Penzy and I both now totally know we're not going to be leaving the cinema that much this summer.

( On to Iron Man itself )

( Still spoilery but more about the superhero mythos, particularly in US comic books )

Of course, taking about people who are just men in suits (and about ( Spoiler ) I am always brought back to my beloved Bat. Mostly, because as me and Penzy were leaving we were talking about it being a majorly cool suit, and Batman doesn't have a metal suit, it's just kevlar, and given that the fencing kit has kevlar weaved in, so I know it doesn't stop everything and that's why I loved that scene in Batman Begins where his ribs hurt. And, of course, why I spend half my time wanting to hug Batman.

Because I am tangent-ridden once more.

- No, a boy who has been raised to be tough and manly in the traditional American sense of it is not going to shy away from using various interesting derogatory names for female characters.

- John Carpenter's Vampires is on now and I am reminded of several reviews when it came out about how utterly lacking in female characters it is (and they're all vampires or whores) and how all the insults used by the main characters are all either of the slut/tramp/bitch whore end or of the fag end. Oddly enough, they're characters in a very similar situation so yeah, the Winchester boys really are practically angels in comparison.

- This, in turn, reminds me of a really interesting article on bbc.co.uk back during the last go round of how do we solve a problem like prostitution. It featured interviews with three men who frequented prostitutes, and mostly they were saying how they liked that they didn't have to go through the usual societal/female faff to have sex. Sound like other people we have been talking about.

~~~~

Other points:

- I was saying that I don't like myth-arcs and Twig drew a really important distinction between spooky, supernatural, conspiracy minded ones, and normal story arcs. I like the latter, and the one on Chuck at present has got me hooked.

- That being said, of the new TV shows this year, Chuck is the one I like the most, because despite being silly and unrealistic as all get out, it's the most fun, it does things brilliantly well, and I'm in love with half the characters. No, make that 3/4s of them. They're so fun.

- Also, why do I not have at least twenty different PWPs feature the two actual agents, and at least a similar number of ( Spoilers ).

My review of Northern Lights

First as a book ( Assume spoilers from here on in )

Now on it as a phenomenon.

( Some likely unpopular opinions beneath )

As for it as a film, it wasn't a book where I got a lot of vivid mental pictures (which is probably why I didn't like it, that and that Pullman writes so flatly) so whoever they've cast and whatever the pretty pictures are, it's not like I'm going to mind what it looks like. However, the one character that I had a ridiculously strong mental picture of was Lord Asriel, and it's not Daniel Craig. So of course, I look it up on imdb, and when I read the trivia section, who should have played Lord Asriel but Timothy Dalton, who is much closer to what I imagined. That's two of Daniel Craig's roles he's ruined for me now ;)

All that being said, there's one scene that I feel fully confident in assuming Daniel Craig is going to knock straight out of the park.

Something interesting about the development of children's literature

nhw, on my f-list recently read 'The Happy Prince and Other Tales' by Oscar Wilde (his reactions and some discussion here - http://nhw.livejournal.com/962081.html , Project Guttenberg link to the stories here - http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/902 )

And comparing that to 'Northern Lights' and the Potter books, and also Grimm's fairy tales is interesting. First of all, Grimm's fairy tales are more folk stories than children's stories but almost universally they have the children or the heroes succeeding by either guile or sympathy/empathy or a mixture of the two. Quite often the child heroes are orphans.

This continues into Victorian children's literature, only now children's books have to be Bildungsromane, there has to be a moral. We still get a fair few orphans but parents start to appear (if only to die of consumption later on). The bad die badly, the good die sadly and the reward for being good is entry into the Pearly Gates.

Then we get good stuff like R.L. Stevenson and E. Nesbit and hundreds of other authors who write fun, swashbuckling stories that have plot and no morals. I am very fond of these (in case you hadn't guessed). You get someone like C.S. Lewis who takes some of the earlier themes and twists them and manages to hide his morals well enough that I at least didn't spot them. And trust me, as a small child I was on the watch for moral stories as I distrusted them and found them deathly dull.

You get fun like Roald Dahl, where we had real children again and mischeviousness and magic. I do wonder if it was something in the air in Scandanavia, because you get the same features in Astrid Lingren's stuff and in Mrs. Pepperpot.

But now we seem to have taken a step back into the hideous world of Victorian morality tales because we get orphans, death being a reward and morals. Oh god, we have moralising again, and I like it about as much as I did first time round. The only thing being, of course, that if you asked the author's they'd insist these weren't morality tales (JKR, Philip Pullman, Jacqueline Wilson, I'm looking at you *). At least the Victorians were honest about it.

* I abhor Jacqueline Wilson the most of these because if there's things I'm not interested in it's tales set in the modern day about how hard life is and how the hell do you expect me to emphasise with a cow like Tracey Beaker anyway. I may have been forced to read one of her books in Year 6 of primary school, and it might, just might, have left me with an undying loathing of her and her works. I will however admit that children seem to like her.

I was channel surfing after the end of the Hungarian GP and came across Smallville. And lo and behold who was on it but James Marsters. And while I normally squeak about his timing or his ability to enunciate, this time I wish to squeak about his body language. Because I'd never seen this character before, but I knew there was something not quite right about him from the set of his shoulders. And that takes some doing.

~~~~

About open and closed canon

Thoughts mostly brought about by the publication of HP and the Deathly Hallows but no spoilers involved. Basically, the end of a story means that we know what happens to all the characters, and therefore limits our options with what to do with them. While it opened more vistas, explaining the motivations of various characters closed some too. And that's one of the dangers of writing for something that's continuing, it might all change and things you thought happened for one reason, really happened for another.

But, and here's the rub, it's the open fandoms that have the widest possible sets of fic because the characters still have so many avenues to explore, and with closed ones its difficult to write some paths without going madly against the character's core.

This is were wrestle-fic comes in. Because of the nature of wrestling, it's both a perpetually closed and a perpetually open canon. A character's motivation might change, but it doesn't change what happened 5 years before, so you can go and write fic about him/her and the 5 years ago opponent with the new motivation, or fic for the new opponent with the old motivation, or you can write about the change. It makes so many more things possible.

Many moons ago, Joanne_c and I were talking about the difference between fix-it fics and what ifs, and I decided that the difference is that while a what-if takes what's happened and twists it a little, fix-its take a central part of what makes a canon tick and changes it to try and keep the characters happy. That's partly why I find them quite unsatisfying, because quite often the thing being fixed is so central to who the characters are and what they do. To use the example I used at the time - if Lex and Clark don't fall out in Smallville, what's the point of the series, because its main thrust is how do we go from point a, them being friends, to point b, them being nemesis. Now I say feel free to fix it all you want post them falling out, but for it never to have happened almost takes out the fun.

All that being said, this is a Spiderman 3 fix-it ( And now the why, in all its Spiderman 3 spoilery glory )

And now, that you know that for certain characters happiness I will quite happily shed any kind of credibility, on to the fic.

Title: Of All Possible Worlds
Author: Red Fiona
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, Marvel and 20th Century Fox (I think) do. All praise to Stan Lee. All money to him too, because I'm not making a bean out of this.

Characters: Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson, Harry Osborn
Rating: PG-12
Summary: One possibility out of thousands.

( Peter woke up with a start )

With spoiler warnings for what's happened to AMW and for John Cena's present storyline.

Because to me, there's three mind-sets I have for consuming wrestling - mark mind, smark mind and my rational mind. Since I might not be using these in the proper, traditional sense, what I mean is that my mark-mind is those moments where I can ignore the other two and think its real, my smark-mind is called upon in those moments where wrestling is being stupid, not for sensible reasons, but for wrestling industry reasons and my rational mind is those moments where I'm neither of the above, I'm watching it as fictional entertainment.

And, personally, I prefer it when wrestling by-passes the other two and takes me to the marky state of mind. It's those moments I watch it for. Which is why I'm so pleased and intrigued with how TNA are handling the AMW split.

Because, normally, when a tag team split up in acrimony, there's the good guy and the bad guy, and the bad guy justifies himself, and the good guy tells him to shove it and there's anger and violence and a fight. But there hasn't been this time, there's been Storm justifying himself and making an ever bigger ass out of himself, which fits the pattern (and seriously, could someone hit him with something, and hard, soon) but the good guy isn't telling him to shove it. Harris's interview was pretty much 'Dude, I have no idea what to say, I'm still in shock'.

That was probably their masterstroke, because, much as I love him something chronic, Harris can't do big and dramatic, so they gave him shocked and low-key instead, and it worked. The visuals also helped, with wee baby AMW being all cute and together, contrasted with a repeat of the incident and Harris in an eye-patch.

The other thing that really helped is that they've kept Harris out of action, which makes everything seem more serious, to the point where I start to worry if there's something wrong with Harris in RL not just storyline, because dude, he's been gone a long time. (Dear TNA, please don't screw this up and have him return with something worse than the Empire Saint gimmick, because if you do I shall be very annoyed.)

Now contrast this to Cena and his ruptured spleen, which I object to, not with my smark-mindset, but with my rational one because there's no way that he could be wrestling with a ruptured spleen. This has nothing to do with pain, because I'd let them get away with that, and it has nothing to do with the spleen being damaged, because people can live long and happy lives without spleens because, as far as I know, their main function is to do with the maturation of immune system cells which can be done elsewhere in the body instead. My objection is with the rupture, because right now, without treatment, Cena should be in hospital with septicemia at the very least. Because a rupture means a tear or whole in the spleen so stuff should be leaking out of it, causing goodness knows what shock in his body and septicemia to set in. Also, there's a good chance that the immune system would go into over-drive and make him even more ill.

How much easier would it have been to give him a "sensible" injury, like a broken rib or brusied ribs or a bruised sternum or a torn muscle in the area because all of those hurt like bejasus and cause you to be held back in what you can do and all of them are infinitely more plausible.

It's not that I don't like cartoony and silly, because I love King Booker and Queen Sharmell and JBL, who are the King, Queen and Clown Prince of cartoonia, but I love them because they're exaggerations of something real and possible.

Mostly riffing off what Opera and Twig have said about POV characters and the beloved as an object.

Basically when I write, there's a lead character whose eyes we see things through, and normally they're a reliable narrator. And if I'm writing a fic with a romantic relationship in there's always a character who is doing the loving. The other character might or might not love them back but the lead character is the one doing the 'beautiful emerald orbs that I would willingly get lost in forever' bit.

There are also certain characters that I'm more comfortable writing, because they resemble me, because I can understand them, because they're just easier to get into the character of e.g. I'm far happier writing Kane than RVD, Snape than Lupin, Noble than Nidia in the Factory Town stuff.

So I'm trying to write fic for two different fandoms, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles and New Professionals, where I've run into the same problem. I've got ideas I want to run with and a story mostly in places for both and I'm finding great difficulty because my lead character is the one I'm most comfortable writing and, unfortunately and unusually, also the one I find more attractive. Which leads to the problem of my trying to see and explain why character A finds character B attractive when I don't. Any suggestions as to how to get round this?

That's also why the latest 50kinkyways fic is so delayed, I'm writing a fic for a kink that isn't one of mine, where I don't really understand the motivations of one character and where I worry that it's hideously Britglish in parts. Matters are not helped by the fact that one of the props for the scene causes arouses nothing but amusement in me.

Saw the first two episodes of Lost. Basic opionions is that it looks quite good even if the Independent has a point saying that everyone's sense of humour and irony seem to have been seriously misplaced. Sorry but there did appear to be a distinct lack of gallows humour or coping humour or anything else similar. Most of the characters seem to be nice enough. I presume Jack's assholishness becomes apparent later, ditto with Kate, she seems useful although I don't get why she panics sometimes and not others (remembering to get the keys on the plane is seriously not panicking). Jack's panic mantra sounds a lot like Paul Atredies' or rather the Bene Geserit anti-fear mantra. I put down most of the stupid things Charlie did to effects of addiction. May actually love Sayid and Hurley for they are practical people, as long as you don't expect Hurley to deal with blood. Am intrigued by the monster and the polar bear. I think the monster might be a dinosaur, and that we're on the land that time forgot.

Boone seems sweet if useless, his sister is a pain. Locke is strange, am liable to call Vincent 'Bouncer', I like Walt, he's reasonable. Sawyer is an idiot but I was expecting that. My favourite scene had to be the one where Hurley and Sayid are on the beach and Sayid says he was a comms officer in the first Gulf War and Hurley asks what unit, and Sayid says he was with the Republican guard, and there was this perfectly timed awkward pause from Hurley. And the one piece of gallows humour with Sayid's tiny curl of the lip that said he was used to this reaction. Yay for a mainstream TV show with an Iraqi good guy, even if he's played by an Indian actor.

Actually talking about Indian actors, Ashwaria Rai is the new face of Loreal. (Is happily shocked) Because really she is one of the most beautiful women in the world. It's kind of nice that now you don't have to be white to be beautiful. Also then maybe the major cosmetic companies might actually make foundation and concealer for people with not-exactly white skin. (Is a member of the olive skinned)

It's blasted wierd seeing Sark on CSI. David Anders does such a good job on a Brit accident that hearing him talking normally is wierd. However, on a similar tip, Jennifer Garner should never be allowed to speak German on Alias ever, she is that dreadful. Saw her in the episode that also has Robin Sachs in and he was the only person who sounded vaguely German.

Ended up watching the end of 'Celebrity Stars in their Eyes' and the guy who was Morten Haaken was perfect, or nearly, which is pretty difficult.

Sign of brain turning to mush - watching Kaiser Chiefs at Glastonbury. They're playing 'I predict a Riot' and I think 'I really must get hold of this album'. Conveniently forgetting that I already have a copy. I like them a lot more than the Futureheads because at least the Kaiser Chiefs are doing something interesting with their blatently obvious 70s new wave influences, as opposed to the Futureheads. That being said have I mentioned how happy I am that I'm alive for the Brit-Pop revival. Brit-Pop was the first music scene I remember. Ten years ago and I was 10-11 and just starting to get into pop music and I got Pulp, Blur, Oasis, Suede, the Manics and the rest as my introduction. It doesn't get much better. And now there's kids that age getting Franz Ferdinand, the Kaiser Chiefs, the Futureheads, Maximo Park, Bloc Party, et al as theirs. It's wonderful. (Getting strangely misty eyed over this.)

Another reason I love James Blunt (yes I know, hideously obvious lyrics and generally wet drip manner and all) is that music critics hate him. It's normally a good sign. Red hates music critics, hates them. Also for an ex-Army type (a tank officer at that) he's awfully un-macho. And he has a ridiculously whispery, soft, high-pitched speaking voice. It's odd.

Much prefer Martha Wainright to Rufus and their Dad to both of them. I feel so odd because I heard Loudon Wainright before either of his children. Thanks John Peel. That's the worst of this Glasto, no John Peel. You always hear about people when they die and they say that they made such a large contribution to their field and normally it's exaggerated but with him it wasn't. There isn't a alternative band in the world that doesn't owe some debt to him. I've meant to make a huge post about him for so long but it always seems a bit over the top because I never met him. For those that don't know, he was a DJ. No, he was THE DJ. He played stuff he liked. And it ranged from really quiet Chinese folk music to stupidly fast loud extreme death thrash metal. Next to each other if possible. And that was it. For 40 years near enough. He was the only DJ who was with Radio 1 from that start and he was a late night treasure. He was funny and charming and brilliant. And, stupid though it sounds since I never met him and only listened to his radio show for a couple of years, I miss him.

Hearing the reformed Las doing 'There She Goes' is one of the joys of this Glasto, up there with Brian Wilson. Anyone who thinks Sixpence None the Richer's version of this is okay needs to be shot. And then stabbed. And I mean it and I'm not being excessive. (Oh that old Brit-Pop list should include Cast.)

I might not be a huge fan of the Killers but I will admit they're good and dashed if the lead singer isn't hot. Okay so since I like cute little indie boys I'm enjoying the indie re-explosion a lot more than I should.

Hee Kasabian. They're from Leicester, don't you know. Anyone else think they sound like the Stone Roses?

'Love Will Tear Us Apart' - the only love song that tells the truth. Romantic love is an illness we're expected to contract but it only hurts. Then again you know what they say about cynics - disappointed romantics and I'm definitely that ;) . Also see reason 15 why Nuf's Sam is an idiot - not that he doesn't like this song, which I can understand, but he doesn't get why other people like it. Not that heart breaking tune, not the atmosphere, not the despairing lyrics. He's beyond my understanding and beneath my contempt.

Politics I can cope with opposing views, music I can't. Never understood why. And it's not even all the bands. I mean be as mean as you want about the Manics, Razorlight, Franz Ferdinand, the Corries, Gorkys and all but be mean about New Order or Cast and I start foaming at the mouth. It's bizarre.

Ian Brown :) Also :) Willy Mason, hadn't actually heard his stuff before now. I find myself charmed.

Jack White continues to dress like the coolest cat on the block. I once again find myself coveting his outfit.

Razorlight! (insanely huge grin) Oh they're another new Brit-pop band. And oh I love them.

Hayseed Dixie doing Ace of Spades is one of those things that everyone should hear once. Important details - metal done in blue-grass style. Not that bad actually, despite the description.

Dear Jo Whiley - I love you lots, but it is impossible for me to enjoy Coldplay. In much the same way that I can't enjoy Keane. Their music is just too there and bland.

Just for my own references:
Amparanoia
Baaba Maal
Rodrigo y Gabriele
Femi Kuti

Hee I swear that the TV schedulers love me. I got 'The Four Musketeers' this afternoon just at the right time for me to have gone out for my Sunday dinner and come back. Then I got 'The Mask of Zorro' tonight, and next Sunday I get 'The Count of Monte Cristo'. Of course if The Count of Monte Cristo turns out to be a dreadful film you will find out about it. Although I sense I will enjoy it no matter what.

The only Dumas adaptation I've ever seen and disliked was the 1992 Three Musketeers with Keifer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Chris O'Donnell and Oliver Platt, with Tim Curry as Cardinal Richelieu (yes, imagine the look on my face now. I love Tim Curry, but he is not the Cardinal) and Michael Wincott as Rochefort (who is good) and Paul McGann randomly being two different characters for no discernable reason. And they completely changed the plot, so none of the scenes make sense or work. 'Cause the scene where Athos tells D'Artagnan about his 'friend' and his wife that's supposed to make you feel something, pity or sadness, and when Athos faces Milady to get the Carte Blanche, it's supposed to hurt because Athos still loves her, he'll never stop loving her, and he knows she's evil. And Milady's death scene with them acting as her judges, again with the goosebumps and the ouch! but the 1992 version does have that, no impact, and it's not that none of these people can act.

Sorry about that, I feel strongly about these things. Is practically a member of the Dumas Club ;)

( Short spoiler for The Man In the Iron Mask )
Like I said, Dumas Club bound.

Which will be hampered by my having only written in Wrestleslash, X-Men, LOTR, Harry Potter, Star Wars, DBZ and Gundam Wing. I read a lot more, so I might have to use them. I also know it is behind the times, but that is because I am always late. Like with feedback, apologies to various people, but am snookered out of my skull and am good for nothing expect random surveys.

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The one who seduced you and fucked you over and broke your heart in a million pieces and laughed about it: Reading the stories - LOTR, sheer stupidity - GW

The old flame you don't see very often any more but whom you still really enjoy getting together with for a few drinks and maybe a pleasant nostalgic romp in the sheets: The Professionals.

The mysterious dark gothy one whom you used to sit up with talking until 3 a.m. at weird coffeehouses and with whom you were quite smitten until you realized he really was fucking crazy: RPS, daren't deal with it all the time, don't write it, but have no objection to it being written or indeed reading it. Yup, Red = hypocrite

The one you spent a whole weekend in bed with and who drank up all your liquor, and whom you'd still really like to fuck again although you're relieved he doesn't actually live in town: LOTR, because thinking about it makes me very sad. Still say two of the best stories I've ever written are in this. I'll post the URLs somewhere along the line.

The alluring stranger whom you've flirted with at parties but have never gotten really serious with: X-Files

The one you hang out with and have vague fantasies about maybe having a thing with but ultimately you're just good buddies 'cause the friendship is there but the chemistry ain't: Harry Potter, in which I have one story, one half written vaguely incestuous Mary Sue, and two on the go.

The decent guy at work who teaches you and tells you things and if you'd met in a bar instead of in his office, you'd have pounced, but not when you have to tell him good morning every day: RPS

The one who brought a U-Haul to your apartment after your first date, plunked down on the couch, drank all your beer, and just won't leave. And you don't really want him to, either: This would be Wrestleslash, since everything else I write is Gen. You know how the Orcs are corrupted elves, I'm a corrupted Gen writer. And it's all (well mainly) wrestleslash's fault but I love it all the same. Through good times and bad, in much posting and not, till too much Hardy fic do us part.

The one your friends keep introducing you to and who seems like a hell of a cool guy except it's never really gone anywhere: Harry Potter again.

The one who's slept with all your friends, and you keep looking at him and thinking Him? How the hell did he land all these cool babes?: That would be Gundam Wing. Don't get me wrong, I love the series, but a lot of the stories are not what they're cracked up to be.

The one your friend has fallen for like a ton of bricks and whom she keeps babbling to you about on the phone for hours, and you'd be happy for her except you just know it's going to end badly: Harry Potter, or RPS, it's bound to.

The guy who you knew was a loser but you went out with him anyway cause you felt sorry for him, and he's going out with all your friends and you keep shaking your head and wondering *what* they see in him: DBZ, I knew that the fanbase was mainly kiddiewinks, but I still looked (and wrote the one bit) but no. It's bad.

The childhood sweetheart you loved and always said you'd stay in touch with, but then you drifted apart, went your separate ways, and when you think about him now you smile nostalgically, and blush, and wonder what he's up to now: Blake's 7. That's where I started. Must look some of them up.

And then there's the one you look at, that you've always been in love with but you just *know* that you'll fuck it up somehow and it would be better to dream than act on your impulses...because Cinderella was a fairy tale, and baby, you ain't got the fairy godmother in your corner just yet: This would be the X-men, which I loved since kiddiehood, but daren't write since everything I come up with is sort of Mary-Sueish.