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selenakA few days late, but Yuletide will do that to you.
1) The Fanged Four Plus One - i.e. Darla, Angel, Spike, Drusilla and Connor from Buffy and Angel. I so love the flashback episodes - and insist Fool for Love and Darla should always be watched back to back, the way it was broadcast, the s2 Darla arc of AtS makes me happy, Angel's relationship with Connor is my favourite in the show from Brave New World onwards. The Jossverse scribes were far from the first to go for the vampire family concept, and they were far from the last, but this lot is my absolutely favourite take on the concept.
2) The Fishers in Six Feet Under. If SFU had just relied on the "hey, a family of undertakers" concept, it would never have survived its first season, but it was like Alan Ball created a believable dysfunctional family who were interesting, each of them. There wasn't just one important relationship, either, all of them were. The brothers, Nate and David, Claire both in relation to her mother and her brothers - and arguably ultimately the pov person of the show - , the dead but very present Nathaniel Senior, Ruth Fisher whose life as a woman with adult children was NOT over - I followed them for five seasons and cried my heart out when the show ended. In a good way.
3) Morgans and Bennets from Dexter. Two Michael C. Hall characters on this list, though I love David Fisher and I'm only compelled by Dexter Morgan (having fallen severely out of sympathy, even, in season 2, and having regained it ca. mid season 3, but it's still tender). But I do love Dexter and Deb, best adopted siblings ever, Deb herself in her impulsive, think-skinned glory, Rita in her determined optimism despite the past, and Dexter's way of relating to Cody and Aster, even at his worst.
4) The Skywalkers (Star Wars). Because I love Leia but only midly care for Han, and Luke-Vader scenes were the heart of the original trilogy for me. Because Anakin Skywalker is my favourite character in the overall story. Because Shmi, despite having only a few scenes, managed to come across as warm and gracious, and made me wish there had been more about her life. Because Owen and Beru did a great job with raising Luke, and Owen was entirely right to be sceptical about the Jedi. Because Padme's every effort to make things better - the vote of no confidence, keeping Anakin's confession secret - ended up making them worse, but she tried anyway. Because that final image of Leia drawing Luke back in the circle of the living, leaving the past behind, not in a dismissive but in a reconciled way really was the best way to end the story for me.
5) The Endless (Sandman). One of my favourite things about Neil Gaiman's opus magnum is that the entities embodying various aspects of the the 'verse are credible as that but also are a bunch of bickering siblings. Not for nothing does he say, and readers agree, that issue #8 (aka the last chapter of the first trade collection of Sandman, Preludes and Nocturnes), where Death shows up for the first time to tell her brother Dream what's what, is where he found his voice as a writer. Desire and Despair show up in the next collection, A Doll's House. Not until the fourth arc, Seasons of Mist, do we see Delirium and Destiny, and the absent Endless, Destruction, makes his appearance later still, but those scenes when they are present are so memorable that they're among the first that come to mind when I think back to Sandman. And oh, the whole tragedy of Dream and his son Orpheus. The fittingness of The Wake (the story, not the volume, which ends with the Shakespeare tale) ending with Daniel meeting the family for the first time. The Endless: offering everything in sibling relationships from closeness to alienation to vicious rivalry to protective tenderness. I love them.
...and yes, there is a family missing that would have been there had I done this meme last year. Don't talk to me about it. I'm still in fannish grief.
1) The Fanged Four Plus One - i.e. Darla, Angel, Spike, Drusilla and Connor from Buffy and Angel. I so love the flashback episodes - and insist Fool for Love and Darla should always be watched back to back, the way it was broadcast, the s2 Darla arc of AtS makes me happy, Angel's relationship with Connor is my favourite in the show from Brave New World onwards. The Jossverse scribes were far from the first to go for the vampire family concept, and they were far from the last, but this lot is my absolutely favourite take on the concept.
2) The Fishers in Six Feet Under. If SFU had just relied on the "hey, a family of undertakers" concept, it would never have survived its first season, but it was like Alan Ball created a believable dysfunctional family who were interesting, each of them. There wasn't just one important relationship, either, all of them were. The brothers, Nate and David, Claire both in relation to her mother and her brothers - and arguably ultimately the pov person of the show - , the dead but very present Nathaniel Senior, Ruth Fisher whose life as a woman with adult children was NOT over - I followed them for five seasons and cried my heart out when the show ended. In a good way.
3) Morgans and Bennets from Dexter. Two Michael C. Hall characters on this list, though I love David Fisher and I'm only compelled by Dexter Morgan (having fallen severely out of sympathy, even, in season 2, and having regained it ca. mid season 3, but it's still tender). But I do love Dexter and Deb, best adopted siblings ever, Deb herself in her impulsive, think-skinned glory, Rita in her determined optimism despite the past, and Dexter's way of relating to Cody and Aster, even at his worst.
4) The Skywalkers (Star Wars). Because I love Leia but only midly care for Han, and Luke-Vader scenes were the heart of the original trilogy for me. Because Anakin Skywalker is my favourite character in the overall story. Because Shmi, despite having only a few scenes, managed to come across as warm and gracious, and made me wish there had been more about her life. Because Owen and Beru did a great job with raising Luke, and Owen was entirely right to be sceptical about the Jedi. Because Padme's every effort to make things better - the vote of no confidence, keeping Anakin's confession secret - ended up making them worse, but she tried anyway. Because that final image of Leia drawing Luke back in the circle of the living, leaving the past behind, not in a dismissive but in a reconciled way really was the best way to end the story for me.
5) The Endless (Sandman). One of my favourite things about Neil Gaiman's opus magnum is that the entities embodying various aspects of the the 'verse are credible as that but also are a bunch of bickering siblings. Not for nothing does he say, and readers agree, that issue #8 (aka the last chapter of the first trade collection of Sandman, Preludes and Nocturnes), where Death shows up for the first time to tell her brother Dream what's what, is where he found his voice as a writer. Desire and Despair show up in the next collection, A Doll's House. Not until the fourth arc, Seasons of Mist, do we see Delirium and Destiny, and the absent Endless, Destruction, makes his appearance later still, but those scenes when they are present are so memorable that they're among the first that come to mind when I think back to Sandman. And oh, the whole tragedy of Dream and his son Orpheus. The fittingness of The Wake (the story, not the volume, which ends with the Shakespeare tale) ending with Daniel meeting the family for the first time. The Endless: offering everything in sibling relationships from closeness to alienation to vicious rivalry to protective tenderness. I love them.
...and yes, there is a family missing that would have been there had I done this meme last year. Don't talk to me about it. I'm still in fannish grief.
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no subject
Date: 2008-12-29 10:39 am (UTC)Okay, I can understand that you don't want to talk about it but I just realized that you probably don't know the latest turn of events concerning the actual number of family members. Highlight if you want to know: Turns out Sylar is actually not a Petrelli, they were just using him. Not that this makes this volume any better but perhaps you are glad to know that your least favorite character is not a member of the Petrelli family.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-30 12:05 pm (UTC)You know, that makes this plot even worse, for several reasons. Alas, bygones. :)
no subject
Date: 2008-12-29 11:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-29 12:20 pm (UTC)Guest List
"Who are all these people?" asked Dexter Morgan, staring at the list.
"Paul's family," said Rita. "His uncle and aunt and their children. They're the kids' closest kin on their father's side."
"Don't you think it might be a little awkward?"
"It's okay... they're nothing like Paul. Just a good hard-working Texas family, and they love Aster and Cody."
"Then we ought to get on well. What are they like?"
"The Bennets? Sandra's mostly a housewife, Lyle and Claire are adopted."
Dexter remembers his own adoption and asks "What about the father?"
"Noah? He runs a big paper company. Primatech."
no subject
Date: 2008-12-29 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-29 02:46 pm (UTC)Because that final image of Leia drawing Luke back in the circle of the living, leaving the past behind, not in a dismissive but in a reconciled way really was the best way to end the story for me.
That, and the image of a redeemed/restored Anakin proudly watching his children the way he never got to in life, watching the two of them step forward into a galaxy they're helping heal from the wounds he inflicted on it... there really is such a wonderful symmetry to it all. (If only there were a sensible way for Padme to be there as well!)
no subject
Date: 2008-12-29 03:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-29 03:03 pm (UTC)The Wake is one of my favorite books ever, hands down.
And I'll let you know if the next Volume on in the Fandom that goes Unnamed improves the series in 2009.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-29 03:33 pm (UTC)...
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Date: 2008-12-29 06:32 pm (UTC)I would also like to mention the Siskos as another great family.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-29 08:50 pm (UTC)The Siskos: absolutely. Lo and behold, three generations that all get along with each other and love each other. Though I admit I prefered Jake and Joseph over Benjamin. He was a wonderful father, though. (Benjamin Sisko, I mean.)