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So The Good Wife is finally coming to an end? Two seasons too late for me to care, but it was once an amazing show.
New Civil War trailer: so I was hoping that movie would resolve my Bucky problem, to whit, that I'm indifferent to the character beyond a mild "gosh, what an awful brainwashed life", and indeed I'm starting to have Bucky feelings, but unfortunately, they're all negative ones. I'm completely invested in the wrong sidekick in this movie, because when I watched the trailer and they showed that close up on unconscious/dead Rhodey again, my instinctive feeling was "feel free to tear anyone apart who did this, Tony, especially if it's bloody Bucky; die, Bucky, die die die!". I still cling to the hope they won't kill off Rhodey in a non-Iron Man movie, of course, but my emotional investment here is solidly on Team Iron Man so far. Unless Natasha is a double again, which I really hope she won't be, because Natasha faking being on the registration side of things as a mole for Steve would be predictable and not emotionally interesting at all, whereas Natasha fighting on Tony's side because, much as she cares about him, she truly believes Steve is wrong in this matter is exactly the kind of angst and character progress I'm looking for. Natasha, post Red Room, has gone from just out for yourself to fighting for specific people she's loyal to, to caring about the right and wrong of causes beyond "are they represented by people I care about?", and ironically I think the friendship with Steve helped her with that. Ditto her relationship with Clint - who is on Steve's side - and all this makes me majorly invested in Natasha NOT being a mole but having made the monumental decision of going against her best friends because she truly believes they are doing the wrong thing. To use an Harry Potter comparison: what Neville does in the first novel and which Dumbledore later calls an example of the highest courage, the thing Remus Lupin never could do back in Marauders versus Snape time. Standing up for your principles against bad tyrants takes courage, yes, but standing up for your principles against your dearest friends? The hardest thing of all.
(It helps that I do think superheroes should be accountable to someone who aren't other superheroes. Not insane military generals, obviously, but definitely some institution.)
Black Sails not having much of a fandom on lj or dw, I'm driven to check outthe dark side tumblr now and then, and predictably, this irritates me into the need to vent:
1.) Boo, hiss, on anyone complaining about Flint's grief for Miranda being "Thomas erasure" or "heteronormative retconning" or what not. Because canon does so much better with this OT3 than a good deal of fanfiction, which had Flint caring for Miranda only as a living reminder of Thomas. Thus falling into the classic fanfic m/m/f pattern where the woman only gets to be an encouraging Yenta and at best gets to get off at the sight of the guys making out with each other. Whereas Black Sails provided me with my canonical threesome in every sense, where all three truly deeply cared about each other in every direction, not a triangle with two only invested in a third, not each other. Of course Thomas - and losing Thomas - was a big, big element in the relationship between James and Miranda. But they lived together for a decade after losing Thomas. We don't know how long Thomas and Miranda had been married before encountering James McGraw, but that's certainly far longer than James ever knew Thomas (which was at best a year or so). And Thomas never "met" Flint, never saw James' dark side, whereas Miranda was present for its birth (and partially responsible because she wanted revenge for Thomas, too, which was why she insisted on coming to South Carolina as well to be judged, remember). She was the only character on Black Sails so far who knew both James McGraw and James Flint, who saw the best and worst of him in equal. Just, btw, as he knew both Lady Hamilton and Miranda Barlow. That was what their mutual "I recognize you" in the last but one episode of the previous season had been about, remember? So Flint grieving for Miranda as Miranda, not just as "my last living link to Thomas", is earned.
2.) Billy/Flint shippers seem to be pretty confident their ship will become canon this season. Which isn't impossible, because this is the show which does on screen m/m, but I wish people wouldn't resort to the "if it doesn't, TPTB are selling out gay rights because the only blow for m/m to be struck is this ship becoming canon". Just say that you want Billy/Flint because you like both characters, not because it's important for social justice, or else you beg for the follow up question "so if Flint/another male character" gets to be canon instead, you'd be fine with it as well?
3.) Anyone condemning Eleanor for working with Rodgers: feel free to volunteer for hanging in a similar situation. As for her getting him to single out Charles Vane as the one who doesn't get a pardon but gets a bounty on his head instead: methinks Eleanor got the message last season when Vane killed her father and said they would meet again loud and clear. She never was a nice person and always favoured the "strike first" approach.
Lastly, trying to find good Clone Wars inspired stories reminds me how many badly spelled and/or badly written fanfiction is out there. Good lord. Thankfully, there are a few bright lights.
New Civil War trailer: so I was hoping that movie would resolve my Bucky problem, to whit, that I'm indifferent to the character beyond a mild "gosh, what an awful brainwashed life", and indeed I'm starting to have Bucky feelings, but unfortunately, they're all negative ones. I'm completely invested in the wrong sidekick in this movie, because when I watched the trailer and they showed that close up on unconscious/dead Rhodey again, my instinctive feeling was "feel free to tear anyone apart who did this, Tony, especially if it's bloody Bucky; die, Bucky, die die die!". I still cling to the hope they won't kill off Rhodey in a non-Iron Man movie, of course, but my emotional investment here is solidly on Team Iron Man so far. Unless Natasha is a double again, which I really hope she won't be, because Natasha faking being on the registration side of things as a mole for Steve would be predictable and not emotionally interesting at all, whereas Natasha fighting on Tony's side because, much as she cares about him, she truly believes Steve is wrong in this matter is exactly the kind of angst and character progress I'm looking for. Natasha, post Red Room, has gone from just out for yourself to fighting for specific people she's loyal to, to caring about the right and wrong of causes beyond "are they represented by people I care about?", and ironically I think the friendship with Steve helped her with that. Ditto her relationship with Clint - who is on Steve's side - and all this makes me majorly invested in Natasha NOT being a mole but having made the monumental decision of going against her best friends because she truly believes they are doing the wrong thing. To use an Harry Potter comparison: what Neville does in the first novel and which Dumbledore later calls an example of the highest courage, the thing Remus Lupin never could do back in Marauders versus Snape time. Standing up for your principles against bad tyrants takes courage, yes, but standing up for your principles against your dearest friends? The hardest thing of all.
(It helps that I do think superheroes should be accountable to someone who aren't other superheroes. Not insane military generals, obviously, but definitely some institution.)
Black Sails not having much of a fandom on lj or dw, I'm driven to check out
1.) Boo, hiss, on anyone complaining about Flint's grief for Miranda being "Thomas erasure" or "heteronormative retconning" or what not. Because canon does so much better with this OT3 than a good deal of fanfiction, which had Flint caring for Miranda only as a living reminder of Thomas. Thus falling into the classic fanfic m/m/f pattern where the woman only gets to be an encouraging Yenta and at best gets to get off at the sight of the guys making out with each other. Whereas Black Sails provided me with my canonical threesome in every sense, where all three truly deeply cared about each other in every direction, not a triangle with two only invested in a third, not each other. Of course Thomas - and losing Thomas - was a big, big element in the relationship between James and Miranda. But they lived together for a decade after losing Thomas. We don't know how long Thomas and Miranda had been married before encountering James McGraw, but that's certainly far longer than James ever knew Thomas (which was at best a year or so). And Thomas never "met" Flint, never saw James' dark side, whereas Miranda was present for its birth (and partially responsible because she wanted revenge for Thomas, too, which was why she insisted on coming to South Carolina as well to be judged, remember). She was the only character on Black Sails so far who knew both James McGraw and James Flint, who saw the best and worst of him in equal. Just, btw, as he knew both Lady Hamilton and Miranda Barlow. That was what their mutual "I recognize you" in the last but one episode of the previous season had been about, remember? So Flint grieving for Miranda as Miranda, not just as "my last living link to Thomas", is earned.
2.) Billy/Flint shippers seem to be pretty confident their ship will become canon this season. Which isn't impossible, because this is the show which does on screen m/m, but I wish people wouldn't resort to the "if it doesn't, TPTB are selling out gay rights because the only blow for m/m to be struck is this ship becoming canon". Just say that you want Billy/Flint because you like both characters, not because it's important for social justice, or else you beg for the follow up question "so if Flint/another male character" gets to be canon instead, you'd be fine with it as well?
3.) Anyone condemning Eleanor for working with Rodgers: feel free to volunteer for hanging in a similar situation. As for her getting him to single out Charles Vane as the one who doesn't get a pardon but gets a bounty on his head instead: methinks Eleanor got the message last season when Vane killed her father and said they would meet again loud and clear. She never was a nice person and always favoured the "strike first" approach.
Lastly, trying to find good Clone Wars inspired stories reminds me how many badly spelled and/or badly written fanfiction is out there. Good lord. Thankfully, there are a few bright lights.
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