![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
1. Beautiful day today, 50 degrees, sky a pristine blue, not a spot of clouds until evening. So took a rather long walk and ended up buying bed linings at Macy's in Downtown Brooklyn, which is a poor cousin to the Manhattan version.
2. Day 04 – Favorite book of your favorite series
The book meme from hell continues. I think this is easy only if you don't read that much or that varied.
Yes, I choose Harry Potter as favorite series but don't really have a favorite book in it. Like the series more as a whole.
So...
* Dorothy Dunnett's Chronicles of Lymond: Checkmate - the last book in the series is my favorite, for many reasons, mainly though the political maneuvering and how the heroine, the hero's wife, Phillippa manages to unravel his past history and discover who his father truly was.
She saves him in the book at great cost to herself, and sacrifice, which I found rather fascinating.
*Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - two favorites Dead Beat about Harry's father issues, and the wonderful Changes - where various plot points and revelations are made and resolved, opening up brand new ones.
* A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin - Storm of Swords - that book has so many twists and turns and really fleshes out several of the characters, while getting rid of several characters that I'd gotten weary of, or changing them in a rather interesting way.
* Rachel Morgan/The Hollows series by Kim Harrison - The Outlaw Demon Wails and Pale Demon - for the exploration of the demon/elf war and the intriguing love/hate friendship between Rachel and Trent, that goes back to their childhood.
( the rest of the days )
3. Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
I like this meme much better.
Least favorite Buffy episode...ah there are so many to choose from. But the only one that really has no redeeming value in my opinion and truly screwed up the arc, is ...As You Were. At the time it aired, way back in 2002, I did my best to fanwank the heck out of it. Because it should have been brilliant, it should have been the counter-part to "Into the Woods". In fact to see how As You Were failed, all you have to do is look at Into the Woods and what was done right.
By no means a perfect episode, Into the Woods looks rather brilliant in comparison to As You Were.
And that's saying something.
I don't dislike As You Were because I'm a fan of Spike or a fan of Spuffy. But rather...for the following reasons:
* The demon egg plot came out of nowhere. Unlike Riley and the vamp whores in Into the Woods - which had been built up to over the course of at least four episodes, the demon egg bit dropped in out of the sky with Riley. There was no build up. Suddenly Spike is smuggling demon eggs in and out of his crypt, while he's having sex with Buffy either in his bed or above ground? Alrighty then. It's not that I don't think Spike would smuggle demon eggs, but this comes out of nowhere.
And it's never really addressed again, except as a joke.
* The monster that the demon eggs turn into is amongst the lamest monsters on the planet. Sam and Riley describe it as a scourge that killed an entire crew, yet it looks like the creature from the black lagoon, except less real. And they defeat it fairly easily. Hardly a dastardly weapon. After half a season with the Trio, who are actually more creepy and frightening than the demons or demon eggs or Spike for that matter, it was hard to take Sam and Riley's mission seriously.
* Sam and Riley act literally like Action Figures. Actually Action Figures have more life and are less stiff then these two. I've seen both actors in other things - this wasn't their fault. It was the writing and direction. Here - they came across as Mary and Marty Stu get married and take on monsters. Proof that writers should never write for characters they have crushes on, at least not without supervision.
* This episode will forever be known for the immortal Spike line: "Slayer, if I knew you were coming I'd have baked a cake". Proof that no one edited or proofed this climatic episode.
That's not all...we also have the chat between Willow and Sam about Dark Magic which is filled with cliches, and makes no sense - because why on earth would Willow confide in Sam or discuss such things with her?
The only good thing about the episode was the Xander/Anya scenes and they are actually the only characters that work in this episode. But even their scenes at this point are somewhat repetitive, more fighting, more listening to Xander's relatives fight, more worrying over the wedding. If you hadn't figured out by now that the wedding was not going to happen, you weren't paying attention.
Fans tried to make this episode work...in meta, in fanfic, etc, but it just doesn't. And it really needed to - for the rest of the season to work. If it had been written better or even directed better...it could have worked. There were ways they could have fixed it. Dropped hints about Spike smuggling the eggs earlier...maybe in Older and Far Away or Doublemeat Palace or even Dead Things?
It's almost as if the writers hadn't really plotted out the season ahead of time, they just knew the gist of it.
( rest of the days )
2. Day 04 – Favorite book of your favorite series
The book meme from hell continues. I think this is easy only if you don't read that much or that varied.
Yes, I choose Harry Potter as favorite series but don't really have a favorite book in it. Like the series more as a whole.
So...
* Dorothy Dunnett's Chronicles of Lymond: Checkmate - the last book in the series is my favorite, for many reasons, mainly though the political maneuvering and how the heroine, the hero's wife, Phillippa manages to unravel his past history and discover who his father truly was.
She saves him in the book at great cost to herself, and sacrifice, which I found rather fascinating.
*Jim Butcher's Dresden Files - two favorites Dead Beat about Harry's father issues, and the wonderful Changes - where various plot points and revelations are made and resolved, opening up brand new ones.
* A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin - Storm of Swords - that book has so many twists and turns and really fleshes out several of the characters, while getting rid of several characters that I'd gotten weary of, or changing them in a rather interesting way.
* Rachel Morgan/The Hollows series by Kim Harrison - The Outlaw Demon Wails and Pale Demon - for the exploration of the demon/elf war and the intriguing love/hate friendship between Rachel and Trent, that goes back to their childhood.
( the rest of the days )
3. Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
I like this meme much better.
Least favorite Buffy episode...ah there are so many to choose from. But the only one that really has no redeeming value in my opinion and truly screwed up the arc, is ...As You Were. At the time it aired, way back in 2002, I did my best to fanwank the heck out of it. Because it should have been brilliant, it should have been the counter-part to "Into the Woods". In fact to see how As You Were failed, all you have to do is look at Into the Woods and what was done right.
By no means a perfect episode, Into the Woods looks rather brilliant in comparison to As You Were.
And that's saying something.
I don't dislike As You Were because I'm a fan of Spike or a fan of Spuffy. But rather...for the following reasons:
* The demon egg plot came out of nowhere. Unlike Riley and the vamp whores in Into the Woods - which had been built up to over the course of at least four episodes, the demon egg bit dropped in out of the sky with Riley. There was no build up. Suddenly Spike is smuggling demon eggs in and out of his crypt, while he's having sex with Buffy either in his bed or above ground? Alrighty then. It's not that I don't think Spike would smuggle demon eggs, but this comes out of nowhere.
And it's never really addressed again, except as a joke.
* The monster that the demon eggs turn into is amongst the lamest monsters on the planet. Sam and Riley describe it as a scourge that killed an entire crew, yet it looks like the creature from the black lagoon, except less real. And they defeat it fairly easily. Hardly a dastardly weapon. After half a season with the Trio, who are actually more creepy and frightening than the demons or demon eggs or Spike for that matter, it was hard to take Sam and Riley's mission seriously.
* Sam and Riley act literally like Action Figures. Actually Action Figures have more life and are less stiff then these two. I've seen both actors in other things - this wasn't their fault. It was the writing and direction. Here - they came across as Mary and Marty Stu get married and take on monsters. Proof that writers should never write for characters they have crushes on, at least not without supervision.
* This episode will forever be known for the immortal Spike line: "Slayer, if I knew you were coming I'd have baked a cake". Proof that no one edited or proofed this climatic episode.
That's not all...we also have the chat between Willow and Sam about Dark Magic which is filled with cliches, and makes no sense - because why on earth would Willow confide in Sam or discuss such things with her?
The only good thing about the episode was the Xander/Anya scenes and they are actually the only characters that work in this episode. But even their scenes at this point are somewhat repetitive, more fighting, more listening to Xander's relatives fight, more worrying over the wedding. If you hadn't figured out by now that the wedding was not going to happen, you weren't paying attention.
Fans tried to make this episode work...in meta, in fanfic, etc, but it just doesn't. And it really needed to - for the rest of the season to work. If it had been written better or even directed better...it could have worked. There were ways they could have fixed it. Dropped hints about Spike smuggling the eggs earlier...maybe in Older and Far Away or Doublemeat Palace or even Dead Things?
It's almost as if the writers hadn't really plotted out the season ahead of time, they just knew the gist of it.
( rest of the days )