Fiction and Media

[chocolatepot]

I am kind of meh on Downton Abbey this season. I think it's a combination of it seeming more All About the Romance, and the lack of single-episode plots (so far, anyway). I didn't like that the first season jumped around so much, time-wise, and I like it even less now - the focus on romance is strong enough that I can't speculate that anything is going on in the months between episodes except more pining.

Also, there's this sense that Fellowes is just too happy at pulling the rug out from under my feet. Sybil/Branson? Nope, just friends! Anna/Bates UST? Nope, he's disappearing from the show for an unspecified period of time! William/Daisy? Nope, she's not that into him.

The skipping ahead means that either you miss development that does happen (Thomas, I think, and Daisy both seem to have had character growth during the gap) or the characters move at the same pace as characters on shows with more normal pacing and therefore seem stagnant. To me, anyway. I felt like they got around that in S1, but the war and the relationships seem to be pushing it aside. And it sucks, because I would have really loved seeing Sybil in training and I feel like Edith should have had more growth by now. Especially with Mary bad-assedly ruining her marriage chances, what has she been doing besides learning to drive? She kind of seems like a perfect candidate for signing up with the VAD, since she needs to gtf away from Mary and do her own thing.

The costumes are gorgeous but seem to be lagging - by 1916, skirts were much fuller and a bit higher. I can accept Violet being old-fashioned and Cora and Isobel just being slower, but Edith should be way more up-to-date. Edith's dinner dress that whatshisname spilled stuff on - that was a 1912 bodice. Mary's day clothes are pretty good, they'd be perfect if the skirts were just a teeny bit shorter and had some more fullness to them, but her evening clothes are, like, 1923.

Mourning dress, note the frilly layers on the skirt to the left and the lowered waistline of the dress on the right.
Clothing advertisements, note the blouse's low waistline and the full, standing-out skirt on the suit.
Ridiculously awesome eveningwear, all with giant skirts and froofiness.
Wedding gowns, all with big skirts.

There's less curviness, definitely, and you can see where the 1920s are coming in, but it's not the '20s yet.



I never really did a predictions post at the end of CoK, oops. But I don't really have any.

There's definitely good stuff going on with Sansa! I love the Tyrell women. I think I'm on the brink of her being married off to Tyrion - I know it happens and I assume that's what her ~special dress~ is for. It's too bad she's so young or I could ship them. :( I have no trust at all in Dontos, I halfway suspect that he's as caught up in knightly chivalry as Sansa and isn't at all in any position to help her get home.

The trouble is, though, that I'm overall interested in what's going on but not that interested in the actual text. Maybe it's his writing style, maybe it's the pacing. But I constantly want everyone else's chapter to hurry up and do something, while I'm happy to read about nothing happening with Tyrion and Sansa.

I did like Sam stabbing the Other with his dagger though. You go, Sam Tarly!


I need to rewatch all of the second half of this season of Doctor Who. I think I haven't been paying enough attention and have been missing important things.


I was reminded of Empowered the other day and decided to look it up, and you know? I'm hooked. It turns out that I much prefer unapologetic cheesecake that has a female lead and female friends (well, only one in this case) who are well-rounded, 3-dimensional characters and ass-kickers (well, Emp is only an ass-kicker sometimes, but she's doing it more and more) to stories that are intended to be about the plot but involve plentiful tight clothes and ass shots and flat female side characters who don't tend to affect the plot as much as the male hero.

Hopefully this doesn't make me a bad feminist, but yeah. Also, the demon trapped in the belt was pretty funny in the first couple of books.


Cracked recently introduced me to Zooniverse, a site where you can help out in sciencey endeavors, like transliterating Oxyrhynchus fragments and finding planets and things.

Comments

[julianrain.livejournal.com]

I think you're either going to love Books 4 & 5 or find them utterly boring.

Another Doctor Who actor has been cast in Game of Thrones. That makes three I think. He's also the fourth Harry Potter actor in the series.

How important do you think the situation north of the Wall is in relation to the wars and politicking going on in Westeros?

[chocolatepot.livejournal.com]

Awesome, who's been cast?

Hmm ... well, since you're asking it probably is very important, but it doesn't look like it right now (except in the sense that the wildings would like to come south, obvs). I'm actually pretty interested in Mance Rayder himself, though, and it'd be awesome if this starts being an issue with the rest of Westeros - it's just ... Jon fitting in, I'm tired of reading about Jon fitting in with new people again.

[julianrain.livejournal.com]

Simon Fisher-Becker as the High Septon. He played Dorium Maldovar (the blue guy)in 'A Good Man Goes to War' as well as the Fat Friar.

[epea-pteroenta.livejournal.com]

Interesting about the DA costumes. I know nothing about costumes but I did sort of vaguely feel that Mary looked a bit too 1920s in her spidery, no-sleeves evening dress but that Edith's red dress was very early. What about Edith's trousers? There was a big deal about Sybil's harem pants in the first season - would Edith just happen to have some breaches lying around for farm work?

I do agree with you about the first episode being quite choppy. And definitely about the character development. Basically, I agree with you! I do completely love it though, but it's not perfect at all, and I do think there are a few signs of complacency in the writing.

[chocolatepot.livejournal.com]

I was really surprised, because the costumes in S1 seemed so perfect! And I was willing to buy them as just wearing old clothes at first - I think that was definitely the intention when Mary was out walking with her parents and Carlisle in a very Edwardian coat - but then Mary's dress was so 1920s. That's another reason not to move at this pace - you've got to buy too many new costumes.

No, I don't think Edith would have had trousers lying around. One of the reasons for the bigger skirts during WWI was because the female ambulance drivers needed to be able to move their legs more freely - they were still in dresses. I would buy it for a different character, but Edith's too uptight and eager to please her family. Speaking of Edith, can't she ever catch a break? I didn't particularly care about the farmer, he was a bit too old and one-off for me to be enthusiastic about the ship (which also made its inclusion contribute to my meh), but jeez. I hope she eventually finds someone.