(no subject)

[labellementeuse]

That was a beautifully shot episode, wow. I really liked this one, although the continuing saga of Morgana being awful is getting me down. I really hope that at some point they reaffirm that she does love Gwen and Arthur really and is just Tragically Misled Or Possibly Enchanted, although I really worry that they feel like they've got Morgana to Morgan le Fay levels of ebil and they don't really need to justify that to the audience? :-/ But that makes me super sad.

Gosh, I got distracted so fast. I do think it's interesting that Arthur blatantly didn't do it by himself and didn't really seem bothered. I was surprised by that - I would have expected Arthur to want to re-do it or something, haha! It was cool to see some of the classic knight/fantasy shit like the vigil and the white outfit (although there were a lot of layers and I have a feeling it's supposed to be undyed/unprocessed, not "bleached blindingly white", but w/e, it's pretty.

Warwick Davis! Oh man. I feel like part of the reason I think this episode was good was that it was SO epic fantasy/all the things I love, so of course Warwick Davis has to be in it. It's like I have a knee-jerk genre fan reaction when I see him on my screen - or, really, when I hear him, because apart from growing old like most people do (did you know he was only 18 when Willow was shot?!) he also wears costumes and makeup and stuff more often than most actors - but his voice is very consistent. So I hear him and I hear Nikabrik and Reepicheep (he was Nikabrik in the recent Caspian, and of course Reepicheep in the old BBC Narnia - which is probably 65% of my positive feelings towards Warwick Davis right there; and he was also Glimfeather, wow those minis were budget), Professor Flitwick and Willow. So yeah. That was fun. I liked his character too although I found him a little bizarre - did he really want the kingdom freed? if so why did he let Arthur go through with the eye of the phoenix, because surely he would want to help Arthur? Was he like the Fisher-King and had a bit of the prophecy & knew the eye would be needed? Was he, in fact, maybe an aspect of the Fisher-King? Wasn't it funny when he turned Gwaine's sword into a lily of the valley? :P

Speaking of the Fisher-King, gosh the actor who played him had a wonderful voice. I did find it interesting that even there they couldn't bring Merlin to directly kill a person - it had to happen indirectly, through Morgana, who is really the bearer of all Merlin's sins, isn't she? Since Morgana (and Nimueh, IIRC) are the only people Merlin has directly tried to kill, and even Morgana he didn't really want to.

I am doing really super well with , I'm really proud. A couple of days ago I wrote a little snip, about 800 words, of Nikita fic; it's one-sided Jaden/Alex and I wondered if anyone out there would beta it? I'm really trying to improve my willingness to be beta'd, so someone in the mood to take a short piece and rip it apart would be nice. Canon familiarity would be cool but I don't mind if you don't.

Anecdote: So Nikita is a pretty small fandom and there aren't many comms. I tried to post a friendly beta-request let's-get-to-know-each-other-and-share-Nikita-writing-tips post in the fic comm, and I got rejected, which! I mean, OK! I get that some fic comms only want posts with actual fic in it. But when you're in a teeny tiny fandom, to my mind the best thing to do is to encourage people who like fic to talk to each other, make friends, beta. When there are only five pieces of fic in your community, so it's clearly not high volume or spammy, and crucially none of those fic posts thank a beta, wouldn't you think it would be in your fandom's INTEREST to at least set up a beta matching/meet & greet post?! Argh. So anyway then I posted to the like main/noticeboard community because it was the only other option and got absolutely no nibbles, which, argh, frustrating! I might try again next month if I've written any more and pitch it in an even more friendly way, but sheesh.

The other stuff I've been learning from being a MiFu: Apparently the best way to get me to write is to convince me I have an obligation to write something. I won't be able to write that thing ... but I'll find it perfectly easy to write something else. So on Tuesday when I wanted to work on one of my YW WiPs I ended up writing Nikita fic, and yesterday when I wanted to write White Collar fic from china_shop's prompt for me I ended up writing YW; not one of my WiPs, admittedly, but the Nita/Joanne college!fic I've kind of always wanted to write. (Turns out the trick was writing from Joanne's POV, not Nita's.) This is a tricky proposition because we really don't have a lot of characterisation of Joanne other than that she's a bully, and I'm kind of hoping she's gotten over that by college; so it's basically writing a Nita/OFC story. So probably no-one will read it, but that's OK! I'm enjoying writing it. I managed 450 words yesterday which is actually really good for me, and then 1300 today, which is EPIC for me. (I used to struggle to make the 1000-word Yuletide minimum.) Who knows how long it will be? I'm hoping not too long so I keep my momentum.

Also today: I baked bread, learned a couple folk tunes, and applied for an overdraft. Very Lady Artist. By the way, I really appreciate everyone's words of support the other day; they came at just the right time.

Comments

[birke]

This is a tricky proposition because we really don't have a lot of characterisation of Joanne other than that she's a bully, and I'm kind of hoping she's gotten over that by college; so it's basically writing a Nita/OFC story. So probably no-one will read it, but that's OK!

I will read everything that is written in the YW fandom. :D But I can see your problem. It's odd how Joanne just drops out of the picture entirely. Odds are against her giving up her bullying ways completely, but I think it's perfectly possible she learns to channel it into something more socially acceptable.

[labellementeuse]

Odds are against her giving up her bullying ways completely, but I think it's perfectly possible she learns to channel it into something more socially acceptable.

Oh gosh, you know I just don't think that's true at all! Bullies who have serious home life problems &c, I can see how this kind of thing is really troubling and, if not permanent, needs a lot of work with counsellors etc to resolve. But I really don't think that if a girl is a bully when she's twelve, she's a bully for the rest of her life. It's a really uncertain period in which everyone's really unhappy, and we take it out on each other in various ways. It's hellish and horrible, but people mostly do come out the other side and are improved. I went from ages 10 to 17 with the same people and people really did change and mature. Obviously not everyone became sweetness and light, but plenty of people did and I don't really see why Joanne shouldn't!

But thanks for telling me you'd read it anyway. :P

[birke]

What I'm thinking is that she's not growing up in an environment conducive to becoming a nice person. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it seems to me that she's dealing with parents who have given her a sense of superiority and a school culture that rewards affluence and breeds aggression. Basically, I don't see how she's gonna stop being a bully unless she gets some sort of positive incentive in that direction.

:shrug: But I admit that I'm seeing this process very much from the outside. I moved a couple of times from 10-17, and the schools I went to cracked down on bullying and rewarded nerdiness.

[the_antichris]

Yeah, I was expecting Arthur to call a do-over too. And the Continuing Saga of How Women Who Use Magic Are Evil Even Though Merlin is Totally Cool depresses me. (Yet strangely, I am really enjoying this series.)