girlofprey

( Mad Max stuff )

A happy thing: one of the Let's Players I like talking about how he 'really misses' the other one I ship him with, in a video the other dude wasn't in.

I'm doing really well for fandoms right now.

( Daredevil )

I also went to the cinema and saw Mad Max: Fury Road. ( My thoughts )

And I was feeling a little bad, because they're both media that have tried and succeeded, separately, at doing het relationships and female characters quite well, and I ended up just slashing two white guys. But! I am also playing Infamous: Second Son. I sort of promised myself I wouldn't buy any more of the Infamous series because the first one was kind of sexist, and the second one was kind of racist. But everyone everywhere kept talking about how much fun and how great the third one was, so I figured I'd give it a chance. And it turns out the main character's Native American! Which I didn't know. And he's lovely. And the second-most important character is his brother, who's also lovely, AND THEY HAVE A BEAUTIFUL RELATIONSHIP, OH MY GOD. The game starts with our teenage main character finding out he's a superhuman, and they get locked up in this world, so he started freaking out, and his sheriff brother just CAME AROUND BEHIND HIM AND HELD HIM AND SAID "You're not one of them, alright, you're my brother, you're MY brother!". All he does is worry about the main character, he said recently he should have just locked him in a cupboard all his life so he couldn't get into trouble. Their parents are dead so they only have each other, and the brother obviously feels completely responsible for the main character. Today a woman from the tribe called the main character to say he should stop superheroing, and just come home, she asked if it was the brother who was making them stay and said if it was the main character should just say he wants to go home because "he'd do anything for you, you know that right?". I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. And the villain is a woman who is genuinely frightening and a believable threat. So now I am here for POC incest and evil femdom too. I BET EVERY TEAM IS GLAD TO HAVE ME ON IT.

Also the game is so good. SO GOOD. It's almost like I forgot games could be fun. I was really enjoying Grand Theft Auto 5, but it's quite emotionally gruelling, and a little confusing about how much it wants you to enjoy or criticise power fantasies. And they have a difficulty system that I find quite - well, difficult. Most games, you can set at the beginning whether you want things to be easy, medium or hard (or worse), and the game will change individual sections according. In Grand Theft Auto 5, there is just one difficulty level, but at the end of each section it gives you a score according to how many optional extra things you did. And if you didn't do them you have to do the whole mission again. So instead of getting to the end of a section and thinking 'yay, I did it!', I get to the end of a section and think 'I did it!...Look at all the things I didn't do'. That's not very pleasant with OCD. Infamous: Second Son, though: fun as hell.

And Bethesda finally announced Fallout 4! skflsfjkl

And in fandom news from the past few weeks:

• Allie Brosh's book is apparently available in October. I assumed, what with how ill she's been, that she just wouldn't have been working on it, but no, apparently it's coming soon. Which pleases me. I haven't seen anyone else talking about it, so in case you're interested and hadn't heard, there's the link.



• I'm getting on with the main plot in Fallout 3 again, and you know, the more I think about the storyline, the more annoyed I am about what a wasted opportunity I think Bethesda had. ( Spoilers for Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas )



• I have been listening to this fanmix, and I want to rec it, because it makes me really happy. so maybe it would make you guys happy too. I didn't even know Electro Swing was a thing, but apparently it is. Also, it's a fanmix for Benny/F!Courier from Fallout: New Vegas, so if you ship that, you may love it doubly hard. NB: I cannot be held accountable if you don't love it.

And I was going to talk about some of the animals my cat has been bringing in as 'presents' lately, but I remembered in my last post I said I wasn't going to make another post about animal death for a while. Suffice it to say, I'm half horrified and half impressed.

And in the last few weeks, I saw three films. Three whole films.

The first two weeks ago was The Internship, which I saw mainly because it had Vince Vaughn in it and he looked like he might not be a dick to people in it. Which I was correct about! Although there were some slightly odd things in the film, overall he and Owen Wilson were both quite nice, and quite nice to other people. It was a slightly odd film - a lot of the scenes sort of felt like they were ad-libbed, and maybe they should have done more ad-libbing until they got something better/funnier. And the ending was basically a big ass-kiss to Google. But overall I enjoyed. And I somehow got a fluff pairing out of it. ( Mild spoilers )

Unfortunately, Vince Vaughn has turned out to be the latest actor I liked who disappointed me horribly, mainly by having fairly shady politics. It's nothing that would make me want to stop watching him, but apparently he's agreed to make a conservative TV show about his politics. So the night is young!

Speaking of which, I'd forgotten that the next Mark Wahlberg film I was looking forward to also featured Denzel Washington trying to do a comedy role for once, which I wanted to support. I may go see it. For Denzel.

Anyway. Then last week, I went to see Now You See Me and Pacific Rim.

( Now You See Me, some spoilers )

( Pacific Rim, some probably pretty big spoilers )

I think that's all my fandom news. Also I have started listening to Welcome To Night Vale, but I think I mentioned that in the last post. Also a few other things. But these are the main ones I think.

I'm going to Leeds tomorrow with my mother, because we are going on holiday with my two oldest nephews in less than two weeks. I need some holiday clothes. But I don't know exactly what I need or want. So tomorrow will probably be interesting, to say the least.

Hello! I haven't been around for a bit. I got really into Fallout 3 after it got suddenly emotionally harrowing. Also I broke into the kink meme because I needed some hurt/comfort and tales of companionship like, badly. But now I've finished the main quest! And got a new friend. And have a new weird pairing to keep me warm at night. And a slightly less weird pairing! It's all very good.

I want to say that I really love Bethesda games. I have no idea how much input into storylines and stuff they have, or whether or not they suck in many many others ways, but I like the fact that in their games, they make a point of not really having anyone be The Good Guys or The Bad Guys. In Fallout 3, the bad guys/enemies had a few moments of goodness, or moral ambiguity at least. And there were quite a few times when the supposed good guys acted like jerks. And I really love them for doing so. Hurrah.

I did not watch the Olympics opening ceremony. Or any of the Olympics really so far. Mum asked me if I wanted to watch the ceremony with her, and I kind of did, especially after all the good things people said about China last time. But then I noticed that it was three hours long. And then I decided I'd rather be playing computer games. But I've seen bits and pieces of the good bits. And I read my Twitter feed afterwards. It was kind of hilarious how often my flists' comments matched up with Ryan Sampson's. I think it gave a good impression of what it was probably like to watch.

I am still watching Poltergeist: The Legacy. It got so much better when I learned to just ignore the bits with Derek and Philip in them. Recently, they've decided that rather than keep Derek 'mysterious', they will give him characterisation in the form of relationships/UST with a number of women-of-the-week who are considerably younger than him. I can't believe I didn't realise how shit he was when I was younger. Also I can't believe I didn't remember how bizarre their mansion is. They have servants. Actual servants like, wandering in with tea every now and then. Multiple servants. And peacocks! And yet their Secret Society is a secret, I say! Except probably to all the servants, who are around all the time.

In other news, my home life gotten a bit topsy turvy. My sister and her partner and kids have moved into the new house, finally, and it's the summer holidays, and the kids are acting up and apparently my sister can't really cope. So my mum has basically sort of decided to have them every weekday, when their dad's at work. She has list with things to do on for every day of the summer holidays I think, minus the week when she and dad are taking ON and MN to the lake district for a week. I have no idea if she actually planning to carry this out, or if things will settle down, but she was pretty much at my sister's house most of the day every day last week, until some sort of fight happened, I think. And this week we've had at least one kid over every day so far. So yeah. It seems to be the plan for the moment. And I wouldn't mind, but when she makes these plans she always asks me and drops hints about whether I want to come, I think because she'd like an extra hand with them. But none of it's my fault, and I've already told her I don't feel able to hang out with the kids every day, and it's not like she asks me before she makes all these plans. So whatever. But it's what's happening so far.

Anyway. I'm going away this weekend, so chances are I probably won't be around again for another few days. Oh! Also, Vexed is coming back, which is a series I thought was cancelled forever, and asked a friend to help me get the first three episodes on DVD, because the company went bankrupt and I figured they'd never officially come out. But no, they've released a DVD of series 1, and they're about to broadcast a new series. But without Lucy Punch. WHAT IS THE POINT WITHOUT LUCY PUNCH? She was like the best thing in it, and the main draw for me. Probably there were scheduling conflicts or something. But still. WHAT IS THE POINT WITHOUT LUCY PUNCH? Man.

I went to Wakefield and Leeds today, and I bought some earrings and some nail polish. And I tried on some perfume from Lush. It's very nice, but it turns out for a proper bottle of Lush perfume it costs about £32. And even the atomiser costs £15. Also, Jon Burgerman has designed a new tin for Lush which has bath bombs in it. This also costs about £30. Hhrrrghksjdfkdsj.

Anyway. Other things I have done as well as watch Harry Potter:

• Watched the last episodes of Case Histories. Sniff. ( Vague character spoilers that no-one will probably care about )



• Watched the first two episodes of Single-Handed. Sometimes when I am busy loving Jack Driscoll, I forget how genuinely really bleak Single-Handed is. It reminded me in these episodes. And now they have another evil ex-Garda come in to make the community more awful and make Jack Driscoll's life hell. And this one doesn't even love him, like his father. Jack's life is truly awful.

I've been thinking a bit about my fandoms lately. Especially with Connotations coming up and everything. At the moment, they mostly seem to be soaps, webcomics, and weird British/UK detective shows. And films, sometimes. I don't know what the detective shows thing is at the moment, possibly just the fact I've been watching a lot this spring. Most of them don't even have an obvious pairing. At the moment, my head is like a weird little detective agency. Filled with very competent people, who will get the job done, but might just fuck everything up and fuck their own lives up while doing it. Still, at least they have EACH OTHER. Which is often more than they have on their own shows.

Maybe I should focus on Danny Phantom, which has actual fic, and only has ghost, murder and underage issues.

Although I did watch Coronation Street tonight. They made Ken's gay grandson a calculating conman, and then GOT RID OF HIM. I know it's good to have positive gay portrayals on TV, but given that a lot of soaps now have gay and lesbian characters, I'm quite ready to see something outside the general gay and lesbian characters they have. Like villains. Hollyoaks has had a gay gangster for ages, and I know it's Hollyoaks, but they're doing quite well with it. Anyway. But no. He's gone now. Also, Gail got all jealous over people trying to date Nick again (I think they have to stop doing that, at some point. Or make it canon). And Gary is going crazy, and Izzy has to put up with it. Oh well.

Also, I watched a bit of Emmerdale last night and tonight, and I feel like I might be able to start watching it again. Except, as well as pairings which are just sort of starting out and then someone dies, one of the most annoying things for me is watching one half of one of my OTPs just be swanning around without the other one. I think that's half the reason I still go on about Toby De Silva and Toby/Jordan sometimes - because I watch Casualty sometimes nowadays, and Jordan is STILL THERE, being really clipped and brisk and slightly short with his colleagues, and then maybe finding out he was wrong and having to go apologise to them, and running the department on his own no matter what problems arise. And it's so easy to just imagine how much better things would be if he had Toby just quietly standing next to him, watching him, and when he'd had an argument with someone smoothing things over, even if just with his presence. And doing spare paperwork, and being lovely with the patients. And Jordan would have someone supporting him, and someone to take care of, and someone to shout at sometimes eventually leading to a heartfelt apology while Toby didn't look at him. And it just feels very much like it would improve his life. I once had a plotbunny, when all the actors and/or staff were leaving Casualty, about Toby coming back for some reason and finding Jordan running the department literally single-handed, except for maybe the paramedics bringing patients in, and helping to run it with him. That was a lovely plotbunny.

Anyway. My point is that it's weird watching Declan wander around and get on with his life when Nathan isn't there. And how much EASIER his life would be if he had Nathan to mock and argue with, and then jump in to help maybe when Nathan did something TRULY ridiculous. However, Declan's awful wife and not that brilliant daughter are apparently leaving soon. Maybe that will make things easier. Mostly I want Carl to have pushy, not-explaining-the-whole-truth arguments with Aaron about murder, and how at least Aaron had a good reason. But I don't think Emmerdale is going to give me that somehow. Hmph.

I'm sorry if any of this is coming out weird. I didn't get much sleep last night, and now my head and eyes hurt. I am TYPING THROUGH THE PAIN.

Because I am bored and haven't done one in a while, a meme. Stolen from nostalgia_lj.

Name me a character! I will tell you:

* How I FEEEEEL about this character
* All the people I ship romantically with this character
* My non-romantic OTP for this character
* My unpopular opinion about this character
* One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Although I have to point out that I'm not always in fandoms very much, and a lot of the shows I love don't always have much of a fandom, so I reserve the right to not really know which opinions about a character are unpopular. But I can probably give you AN opinion.

Happy Easter, also.

Based partly on my last post - I haven't said much about the latest meta and discussion going around about female characters in fandom. But frankly, if I was writing anything at all, I would probably shy away from het a little bit, because things like Dr Facilier/Tiana are the kinds of heterosexual pairings I have. They're are the kind of pairings I have, most of the time, really, but it feels a bit different to have a female character involved than a male character, if you know what I mean. I'm not saying it's inherently bad or can't be written well, but it would kind of put me off a little bit.

( Further discussion about my het pairings, including some spoilers for the first two episodes of Hana Yori Dango )

( And some thoughts on female characters in fandom )

I don't know. Mostly I'm just taking how I feel about het pairings and female characters and discussing it generally. These are my thoughts anyway. Well, some of them.

There needs to be a 'because' for this? It is verynearlycertainlyyes canon, people! Elphaba made her think! And arranged her dates and then came with her on them! They were room-sharing public schoolgirls, for crying out loud. They had a Moment of 'omg you're actually beautiful' in a dark room while dressing up in hats with a storm beating on the windows outside. G(a)linda was the first one to ever think of her as beautiful, and dropped everything - would have dropped even more - to go with Elphie on her mad, spur-of-the-moment, dead of night quest to see the evil overlord Wizard.

Because G(a)linda fell and Elphie was there to catch her and, omg, the Tragedy of her not being able to do the same. Because Elphaba was hard-headed and stubborn enough to leave, but Glinda certainly had a blast at the wake, to steal coin a phrase. Because they were two of the most powerful people in the land, but they weren't even thinking about each other, nevermind trying to reach each other. Because Glinda turned and said 'oh, Elphie!' - and Elphaba didn't.

Also, because the fics are well pretty ;)