Fangs For The Fantasy

Revolution and Race

Mon, 13 May 2013 10:18:41 -0400

When Revolution began, I can’t say we had a particularly high hopes in terms of racial inclusion. We hoped to be surprised, but we’ve watched and read a few dystopians now and they don’t have a great record when it comes to the representation of POC. Almost inevitably, these stories revolve around the great and glorious straight, cisgender, able bodied White man and how he is going to save us all. POC are usually in very secondary roles and they die in vastly disproportionate numbers.

Revolution alas, didn’t change things, even with Charlie being the main character, we quickly lined up behind Miles Matheson, the great white hope to save us all. And the POC?

Well, firstly we had that classic dystopian problem - death. So much death. Of course, it’s a war, it’s a post-apocalyptic world, people are going to die. People are going to die in large numbers and from all demographics, people are going to have to be sacrificed and they certainly are on Revolution - in hefty numbers. But Black people, already making up a relatively small number of the cast, don’t live long or develop well before they die. The rebels had Nicholas, a preacher and a war leader, a complicated character I hoped would be developed well until… death. Then there was Alec, Miles’s former protegé (he seems to have a couple of random Black protegés) who was sold to Texas for punishment for a botched assassination. He serves Monroe faithfully despite how he was treated - he’s willing to sacrifice his life to plant a nuclear bomb in Atlanta - and, of course, is shot before he can.

Then there’s the bit parts who barely warrant a name but are there fore emotional impact - Rosie dying to emphasise the losses the rebels took, and Beth, who has to be sacrificed so we can see what the nanites do to stop her cancer.

Da Vinci's Demons Season 1, Episode 5: The Tower

Sun, 12 May 2013 20:51:00 -0400

Leo starts off in a dream of his childhood, again in the cave with the lost sheep seeing bodies and dangling people and strange carvings. While apparently disturbing, it’s not nearly so much as waking up in the prison, where he has been locked up for sodomy with lots of other prisoners making gay jokes. Leo notices the solitary confinement cell where the bat’s nest so presumably that will be relevant later or he wouldn’t draw such excessive attention to it (they could do what they do on computer games and make the clues sparkle)

Lorenzo is hosting some important guests – King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain (well, we can simplify it down to “Spain” since she is Queen of Castile and he is King of Aragon, Navarre and several others) who are looking for someone to be their bankers. Lorenzo gives Ferdinand a tour of the business who notes that Rome doesn’t bank with them any more and makes a snarky references to Leonardo, but Lorenzo focuses on business –and how much the Pope has defaulted on what they owe the Medicis.

And Clarice gives Isabella a tour of all the holy artwork that Florence supports – which Father Torquemada and Isabella do not approve of since the statues are NAKED! The lewdness!

Back in the prison Leo picks a fight and gets himself locked in solitary, the naughty boy – with the bats and their crap. Literally. And daddy dearest and his advocate, Pierro pays a visit. He pushes Leo to plead guilty and hopefully escape castration, Leo yells (no surprise) and refuses any pleas or bargains. He is accused of sodomising Jacobo Salterelli and Leo says the man is no victim. Pierro tries to dig up several defences which Leo rejects or ignores and rants that he hasn’t be brought the specific plant for dinner he asked for – until he finds it. His instability seems more apparent. When pushed about the plants by the jailor he begins a lecture on bat’s echolocation and how these plants rely on bats for pollenating and echo more than the average leaf – with some added CGI for funsies. He uses the leaf to attract the bat and Pierro hits on insanity as a defence in light of Leo’s ramblings

Clarice and Lorenzo discuss their visitors, Lorenzo disparaging Isabella’s tastes but reflecting that without the Rome’s accounts, they need Spain. Clarice considers the difficulties the Spanish are having at home with their wars and suggests entertainment, a distraction – and to set Guiliano on it, a grand theatrical performance. Oh that doesn’t sound like a great idea. Lorenzo has as little faith in his brother as I do.

The court session begins and the plotting Pazzi is the prosecutor, much to Pierro’s annoyance. But he causes a stir by telling the court he will contest all the charges. Leo makes an opening statement about his study of nature, having nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to defend and he condemns the political motives behind the accusation. It’s a defence that doesn’t expressly deny the charges. In the audience Vanessa snarks to Zoroaster that she can vouch for him though he

See what they did there? Leo makes a statement that doesn’t expressly refute the fact he’s gay, so the writers have Vanessa speak up to remind us he likes women – just in case all the explicit straight sex scenes so far left you in any doubt.

Next up with have Father Torquemada preaching against sodomy and how evil and sinful it is and how the leaders of Florence encourage it by not burning all sodomites. More hellfire and brimstone before recess. Leo tells his father he’s heard of Guiliano’s play (and Pierro, rightly, is annoyed at how distracted Leo is) and asks him to give a page of gibberish to Zoroaster. Leo insists it’s in cypher and has a recommendation for the play for Guiliano. Pierro is convinced prison is affecting Leo’s mind.

Guiliano hangs around Verrocchio’s office discussing what play to put on (and not because there are naked female models being sketched). They’re somewhat at a loss. Pierro arrives to deliver the message to Zoroaster and, in his eternal quest to endear himself to the Medicis, passes on Leo’s suggestion. It’s funny, it’s written by someone from Florence – but it has a lot of sex in it (but it’s between a man and woman so no problem. Kind of like Da Vinci’s Demons then).

Back to court and Salterelli, the “victim” is now on the dock. He claims he was hired to pose nude and paid very handsomely for it – and for his silence; the secret that Leo forced himself on Salterelli. Pierro responds by pointing out Salterelli went out celebrating after his rape and then asks some graphic questions about what actually happened. Pazzi objects to the public humiliation of the questioning. Pierro is dragged up before the Magistrate in a private council and threatened to drop his questioning – the Magistrate adds that Leo is already guilty, the trial is a performance, it’s already been decided and he has to play his part or suffer the consequences. Yes, the Magistrate is plotting against the Medicis as well.

Pierro’s back us up and he doesn’t back down and accuses Salterelli of being a prostitute and asks how much he’s being paid for his performance in court. The court is quickly adjourned and Leo praises his father; Pierro makes it clear he didn’t do it for Leo (inspired by loyalty to the Medicis it seems). He tells Leo that Leo disgusts him because some part of Salterelli’s story is true – he accuses Leo of treating life like a game and that Rome has plotted against them.

The Magistrate has his own worries which he shares with Pazzi, how the “hustler” is going to hurt their case. He’s worried he’ll look corrupt if he finds Leo guilty – and Pazzi tells him he’ll do what he’s told. The Magistrate clarifies, as an elected official, he’ll do what he’s paid to do. Ah, democracy in action! Pazzi assures the Magistrate that he will be paid, Riario is willing to put lots of money into it – and a delay in the case may help further embarrass Lorenzo and unhinge Leo.

In the market, Zoroaster and Nicco are following Leo’s cryptic note – which is a shopping list. Nicco is surprised that Leo is being tried for Sodomy since, in Florence, the law isn’t usually enforced.

Captain Dragonetti and his men ransack Leo’s workshop – this is almost a weekly occurrence by now- much to Varracchio’s outrage. They find anatomical sketches and take them as evidence. They’re presented in court, showing the detail Leo put into drawing penises. Even Pierro scoffs at such evidence – but worse they find a notebook Leo kept hidden. Depicting pagan gods or so they think – sketches of the statue he obsessed over, dozens of them. Pazzi adds “sorcery” to the charges.

After the courtroom clears, Lucrezia confronts Pazzi – Riario has plans for Leo, he wants Leo arrested not dead. Lucrezia drags up rumours about Pazzi’s family – his wife dallying with a “mannish maidservant”. She attacks him as reckless and lost to hate of the Medicis and he responds with a not very subtle rape threat.

At the theatre, Lorenzo storms in and kicks everyone out so he can shout at Guiliano about how the extremely devoutly Catholic Isabella will react to a play that’s wall to wall “nun sluts and horny priests!” He orders Guiliano to censor all bawdiness from the play and calls him a dead weight – to which Guiliano replies he should mark him a traitor and have him killed (another snark about Bacchi). Lorenzo punches him and Guiliano punches him back – the brothers brawl with everyone watching on from the wings. Guiliano wins – the one thing he’s better at than Lorenzo.

Written-By-Numbers Drinking Game: Paranormal Romance

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:41:00 -0400

With yet more deja-vu assaulting us, it’s time for another Written-by-Numbers drinking game!

And this week, it’s for Paranormal Romance. Grab your bottles, folks and prepare the stomach pumps (we are not responsible for any alcohol poisoning that may develop - in extreme cases you may want to drink non-alcoholic beverages or American beer))

The Protagonist +1 drink if

    Protagonist is sexually inexperienced
        +1 drink if actually a virgin
        +1 drink if previous romantic interests were terrible

    Protagonist is conventionally attractive but considers herself ugly
        +1 drink if she considers herself “fat” which actually means “has curves and big breasts”
        +1 drink for every conventionally attractive feature she finds hideous
        +1 drink if she feels the need to describe herself at length

    Protagonist believes she will die an old maid surrounded by cats
        +1 drink if she’s under 40
        empty the glass if she’s under 30
        empty the bottle if she’s under 25

    Protagonist has a pointless/unfulfilled life
        +1 drink for miserable relationships
        +1 drink for lonely
        +1 drink for dead end job
        +1 drink for no job

The Love Interest +1 drink if

    Even if thousands of year old, he will adhere to modern beauty standards and have perfect teeth

    Has a ridiculously huge penis
        +1 drink if the actual measurements are described
        finish the damn glass for a hyperbolic description (“size of a baby’s arm” “couldn’t wrap fist around it”)
        finish the damn glass if virginal heroine has no problem with this

    Is a supernatural creature that mystically “bonds” with their mate
        +1 drink if said bond makes him obsessive
        +1 drink if said bond makes him jealous
        Finish the damn glass if said bond makes him violent

    Is a supernatural creature that could hurt or kill his lover
        +1 drink if she doesn’t even pause to think about it
        finish the damn glass if he’s ESPECIALLY dangerous to her

    Has a terrible tragic, horrendous past
        +1 drink murdered family
        +1 drink betrayed
        +1 drink enslaved
        +1 drink tortured
        +1 drink raped
        All of the above: Finish the bottle.
        Finish the glass if tragic past means he can’t trust or love ever again
        Refill the glass and empty again if tragic past means he tries to drive the Protagonist away and treats her like shit
        Empty bottle if the magical healing vagina cures centuries of torture.

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Beauty and the Beast, Season 1, Episode 18: Heart of Darkness

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 10:02:57 -0400

So, after another random hiatus that American television loves so much (why do these keep happening? Do they think the shows are so awesome that only the worthy may watch? You have to prove your mettle in a little scavenger hunt to find out when they’re actually showing in order to watch?) Beauty and the Beast has returned.

If you remember, last week after deciding they need to be cautious not one episode before since their carelessness had almost ruined their lives and got Vincent killed, Vincent decided to jump down from the 6^th story because he couldn’t be bothered to take the stares, and was seen by Evan.

I have to say, I was tempted to just throw up my hands and walk away from the whole damn show at that point. Rarely, if ever, have I seen such awful writing and convolutedly forced conflict. The writer should be ashamed. The actor should be ashamed for agreeing to do it. The other actors should be ashamed for not throwing rotten fruit. The director should be ashamed. The producer ashamed. The cameraman should have been shamed! The architect who designed that building ashamed! SHAME ON ALL OF YOU!!

*ahem*

Ok, I’m done, I’m done. To the recap

So what does Evan do with this shameful revelation? He gets drunk and calls Muirfield, of course. I’m willing to withdraw a tiny bit of the shame because Evan looks surprisingly good drunk. He also gets a panic button from Muirfield and becomes aware of the totally-subtle guys stalking him. Uh-huh, you’re working for an evil organisation, what did you expect? And you totally threw away your chance to be free of them. Shame on you. He also punches someone else in the bar because… well I assume reasons will be apparent later.

Vincent and Catherine are being all domestic now Vincent’s house got blown up and he has to use her washing machine and shower (but is still dodging Heather). It was a huge sacrifice to make but at least they now are safe so long as they don’t do ridiculous things like JUMP OFF TALL BUILDINGS! But Catherine’s planned day with Vincent is interrupted by Tess arriving for some girl time (which, being Tess would probably involve talking about guys anyway) and the awkward tension between Tess and Vincent and hoping it won’t be weird between them after the whole shooting, holding prisoner, life saving thing. Hey, bet Ms. Manners never had a column for THAT!

Hemlock Grove, Season 1, Episode 1: Flying Jellyfish

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 09:59:47 -0400

Roman is sitting in what looks to be an ice cream parlor staring out the window when Brooke approaches the door, but does not enter the parlor

Roman and Brooke are having sex in a car and he grabs a razor, cuts his fingers and smears the blood on Brooke. When they are done, Roman hands Brooke some money and she tells him that its too much but Roman says that this is the part where she leaves. Brooke hops out of the car as he sucks blood off his fingers.

The scene then shifts to a football field where Brooke is teaching little girls how to cheerlead and looks up to find a strange young man staring at her. We next see the Brooke in science class. When the class ends, Brooke approaches the science to teacher to complain that the text which she was given to read was not accessible. Brooke tells the teacher that she loved the text anyway and that there is some much more happening than what you think you see. The teacher tells Brooke to keep the book and writes a note in it before handing it back. When Brooke opens the book, there is a note saying tonight Bansky’s at 8 pm.

Later that evening, Brooke is stopped at a train crossing and a text message appears on phone saying to call when she is near Banskys. The train goes by as Brooke continues with her phone and something suddenly attacks her. Brooke takes off running through the woods until she finds a shed and attempts to hide. Brooke tries to hold on as her body is dragged out of the shed. Brook grabs her phone and it rings her science teacher, who listens in horror as Brooke is being murdered.

Earlier this summer two people at what looks to be a rundown trailer park. Apparently, the trailer belongs to someone named Vince who is now dead. The woman comes across a box containing some form of liquid. What neither of them realize is that they are being watched.

Peter makes his way into Hemlock Grove and when he returns he is wearing a stolen jacket and his mother has straightened up the trailer. They sit down and she says that she cooked pork chops and pours a drink and they have a toast to their new home. Peter then takes a nap on a hammock and dreams of snakes. When Peter wakes, he finds a girl staring at him. She tells Peter that she has seen him swimming in her grandparents pond and he points out that she has seen him naked then. She calls him a gypsy and asks why he is swimming in the pond instead of the lake. Peter tells her that the lake is polluted and that he is only a half breed because his grandfather was pure Roma. Peter then offers the girl a beer and she says no because beer kills brain cells. The girl asks what happened to the guy who used to live there and Peter tells her that Vince, his uncle, died of alcohol poisoning. She asks if he worships the devil„ when she sees a pentagram but he scoffs and replies that each point represents an element with the top most being soul. Suddenly, she asks if he is a werewolf and Peter replies that he now knows who her literary heroes are and asks if she is going to find him a vampire to have a sexless three way with. The girl points out that two of his fingers are the same length and suggests that this makes him a werewolf. Peter cavalierly says “sure are you a retard?” She tells him that she does not think that he is supposed to use that world. Peter replies that werewolf is pretty racist and that he prefers sexy manbeast

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Written-By-Numbers Drinking Game: Paranormal YA

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:15:00 -0400

Sometimes, when we read a book we get a dreadful sense of deja vu, almost like we’ve read the book before. After a brief desperate hope that we’ve developed some kind of psychic powers or perhaps have discovered Time Travel, we succumb to disappointment (and check that the Doctor isn’t in the next room. Just in case) and realise nothing supernatural is afoot - what we’ve got is another book that has been Written-by-Numbers.

Yes, like those paint by numbers kits we all did as children, it’s a book that feels it’s been written following a pre-set pattern. At each stage the same old clichés are faithfully followed more rigidly than any fundamentalist ever adhered to his dogma. The result is often called a rip-off by some critics but I have to disagree - it’s just that so many books are following the same rigid patterns that they feel like they’re copying each other. Not so, they are merely all worshipping at the altar of the same tired clichés and flogging the zombie horse of overused tropes.

So how to get through one of these books that, while not bad enough to DNF, does feel like a reanimated Frankenstein’s monster of old tropes sewn together by an inept hand?

We propose a drinking game! And this week, it’s for Paranormal Young Adult. Grab your bottles, folks and prepare the stomach pumps (we are not responsible for any alcohol poisoning that may develop)

The Protagonist!: 1 drink if:

    Per dead/absent parent
        +1 drink for every tragically deceased sibling
        +1 drink If has abused/tragic childhood (1 drink per element of tragedy)
        +1 drink if the protagonist operates with zero parental/guardian supervision

    Teenager has super powers but just wants to be noooormal and hates her specialness!
        +1 drink if their powers have absolutely zero negative effects.
        Empty Glass if they don’t just have powers but are the the Super Special Chosen One of Amazingly Awesome Power

    Protagonist thinks she’s more hideous than quasimodo after being beaten for 8 years with the ugly stick
        +1 drink if she is obviously conventionally attractive
        +1 drink if love interest has to convince her how beautiful she is
        Empty Glass if she has a swarm of admirers
        Empty Bottle if she considers her conventional beauty markers to be ugly (“oh my terrible straight hair!” “curse my pale, luminous skin!” “woe, my hideously ginormous breasts!”)

    Protagonist is all alone and isolated and complains about what an outsider they are and how alone they are
        +1 drink if they actually do have friends
        +1 drink if many people try to be their friend
        Empty Glass if they have more than 5 friends
        Refill Glass and Empty again if their behaviour should actively drive their friends away

    Protagonist has friends who just exist to serve them with no life of their own (1 drink each)
        +1 drink if they’re minorities
        +1 drink if they’re “sassy”
        +1 drink if they have conveniently useful magic power they only use for the Protagonist

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Defiance Season 1, Episode 1: Pilot

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 06:45:49 -0400

A brand new series, it starts with a voice over describing a dream. A dream that explains what happened – the Votans approach Earth on the Arcs, several large space ships.

33 years later, the Earth is surrounded by wreckage from these Arcs and Earth is now terraformed. This was the world the narrator was born into: After the vessels were destroyed and after the Arcfalls began - we see a large chunk of floating debris descend to Earth. After the terrafromers changed the planet –we see the terrain of Earth is radically different and has alien flora.

As a child the narrator’s father, Nolan says the world has no natives, so it belongs to everyone – and Antarctica will be a paradise; though she’s wary of his claim, too cynical to believe it. We finally see our narrator sat next to Nolan (a human) in a jeep, she’s an alien, one of the Votans, an Irathient and she’s writing her diary in an alien language.

And like many children through since the dawn of time, she’ giving Nolan the silent treatment. It seems he got involved with a married Votan – though he protests he didn’t know. They’re heading to a projected Arcfall, guaranteed payday– and they see the falling rubble pass overhead. He also penetrates her sulk with an impromptu karaoke duet session.

Note to parents everywhere: This is a bad bad bad bad idea and will earn you literally decades of teenaged scorn.

At the wreckage of the Arcfall, they start looking for salvage in the vast corridors and halls of the fallen space ship. Irisa, the Irathient, has a moment of sadness seeing the bodies of Votans who never made it to Earth. Moving in they find some intact Votan tech that they activate – the Earth Republic pays a lot of money for Votan tech. And this pristine sample is going to make them extremely rich – rich enough to pay off Nolan’s debt and move to Antarctica (apparently terraformed into something pleasant).

But as they leave they hear engines – Spirit Riders. And Nolan turns to find several of them – including one holding Irisa captive. They’re all Irathient, like Irisa. They mock Irisa and question her for following a human around. Outside the Spirit Riders are ransacking their Roller and the boss demands Nolan empty his pack. Nolan reaches to empty it – and Irisa stabs the man holding her and throws Nolan a gun – he uses it to shoot a flare, creating a big distraction.

Irisa and Nolan run – leaving their Roller behind. They get clear and start to move to a settlement, but Irisa is struggling and bleeding. She collapses, she’s been shot in the fight. Nolan carries her through the forest through the rest of the night. At day break he buries the sphere they found that’s worth so much money, just before ominous noises of moment in the forest cause him to draw his gun. They’re being stalked by… Sabrewolves apparently. Odd insect legged bear things. Not friendly creatures

Nolan shoots and kills one – but apparently they’re pack hunters. Killing 3 others uses up the rest of his ammo – and there’s still several left. Which are driven off by three humans with guns – after the rescue they help pick up the exhausted Nolan and injured Irisa.

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Da Vinci's Demons Season 1, Episode 1: The Hanged Man

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:19:00 -0400

Da Vinci’s friend shares with him some wacky baccy (which, y’know, at the time period shouldn’t really contain tobacco at all) to help him see visions and demons – which Da Vinci doesn’t believe in; leading to the rather awesome response “then why do you fight so hard to keep both away?” There follows lots of nifty foreshadowing of how Da Vinci will change the world, history is a lie and seeing the future.

Well that was a pretty nifty opener I have to say, almost enough to make me forgive us now going 4 days earlier. I hate flashforwards.

To a man going through his morning routine and kicking a much younger man (who he calls boy) from his bed. After driving him out and throwing money after him he asks his disapproving manservant what day it is. Palm Sunday. His response is “balls” and to complain about his hangover.

Meanwhile several holy looking blokes are being searched for weapons, but the guards forget to check their holy books – from which they take thin pieces of weapon they build a weapon out of when combined with their crosses. It’s like Krypton Factor assassins!

So when our hungover man arrives at church in a grand entry (and bonus points for “artless fuckwit.”) he gets stabbed in the neck – courtesy of the “secret archive.” On a Palm Sunday in a church with a dagger made of a crucifix no less – maximum blasphemy achieved.

While all this excitement is happening, Leonardo is sketching a naked woman out in the countryside and telling a story of his past – when he was 6 months old he was left in a field in a basket and a falcon considered eating him. Well it perched on his basket and looked at him, which I interpret as deciding whether to eat him or not (makes more sense than it passing on wisdom – it’s a falcon!) His mother drove it away before it managed to eat the sweet baby meat and Leonard laments he can’t remember his mother’s face despite his super-duper memory. She amateur psychoanalyses him and they kiss.

At which point Nico, his apprentice arrives saying Leonardo’s late for something that Leo doesn’t care about – especially since Nico’s late for Leo’s experiment. Nico’s a little transfixed by the half clothed model, Vanessa (newly “liberated” from a convent) though Leo points out “they’re called breasts Nico, all women have them”. He’s testing a flying machine and, using the ribbons in Vanessa’s hair as a windsock, he then flies is apprentice like a kite – straps him to a giant kite tied to a cart, the horses run and the apprentice flies. Leo loves it, Nico is not very happy about the situation. Silly boy, apprenticing to a Mad Scientist then protesting about some minor experimentation – just be thankful genetics hasn’t been discovered.

GBLT Characters on Supernatural

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:17:37 -0400

Supernatural is one of the longest running shows we follow; the Winchester brothers have been fighting against demons, vampires, werewolves, angry spirits, angels and anything else you can imagine for an incredible 9 years, 8 seasons (and a 9th season has already been planned) and a massive 168 episodes and counting.

That’s a long time and in that time we’ve had an amazing number of people hang around with the Winchesters. We’ve had monsters galore, victims in spades, people to protect and shelter, the occasional love interest, allies occasionally and, pretty rarely, the odd friend who has joined them in their struggle.

But such a lengthy presence on our screens makes it easy to see patterns of representation - and erasure. Any show that lasts this long and, because of that, has a great many characters is going to be more heavily criticised for it’s erasure than a shorter lived on. After all, a single season show with a small cast of 3 characters and less than a dozen extras is going to have less scope for inclusion or developing numerous minority characters - not that it makes the erasure tolerable by any stretch - but when you have 168 episodes and a gazillion people with which to present some decent diversity and you still fail? That’s almost willful.

Supernatural is not diverse on any real front - throughout its run the majority of the regularly recurring characters have, by far, been cis, straight, white men: Sam, Dean, Bobby, Castiel, Crowley - even Garth. We have a few women, but most of them are dead. Kevin has tried to shift some POC into the line-up by reading feverishly in a boat and Bobby was, briefly, disabled before he was magically cured when it became too awkward, but you can hardly say the show has made more than a token attempt at inclusion.

When it comes to GBLT characters, the pickings have been slim; we have a very very few gay characters and no trans characters. The very first was a lesbian who appeared in Season 2, Episode 21 All Hell Breaks Loose, she was one of the demon children, along with Sam and she accidentally used her power to kill her girlfriend (behold, the dangers of gay sexuality!) After that, she is brutally murdered; the first to die to get her out of the way (no, that doesn’t count as a spoiler. It’s Supernatural and, frankly, a gay person dying is hardly a spoiler in fiction anyway).

Then we have Corbett. Never heard of him? Well he’s one of those annoying “Ghostfacers”, a group of amateur ghost hunters who keep getting in Sam and Dean’s way for much comedy (allegedly, anyway, can’t say they ever made me laugh). He only appears once - as an intern for the comic team in Season 3, Episode 13, Ghostfacers. While there he is, along with the rest of the team, comic relief. He also has a pretty blatant crush on uninterested straight guy, Ed. Alas, the Ghostfacer’s bungling gets Corbett killed and he becomes a ghost, a death echo. To save the day, they have Ed reach out to Corbett and use his feelings for Ed to have the ghost sacrifice himself to save them all.

Ok, we’re on dodgy ground already here - the only one of this incompetent band that actually gets killed is the gay one (ah, Westboro Baptist enemies again), we have an unrequited crush on a straight guy - and that crush being used to make the gay guy sacrifice himself for straight people. That’s pretty bad. But it gets worse - because this sacrifice isn’t moving or powerful or even remotely respectful - it’s FUNNY. They make Ed reaching out to the gay guy who had a crush on him a courageous act. “Go be gay for that poor dead intern.” I kid you not, actual quote. They even screw up their attempted obituary with poor attempts at humour.

Which is a problem, because then we get to the next gay characters - Damien and Barnes in Season 5, Episode 9, The Real Ghostbusters. Now these characters are comic relief throughout the whole episode - hilarious in their incompetence and constantly trying to act as horrendously awful copies of Sam and Dean. We learn that they’re a gay couple in the very last minutes of the episode - so Dean can be so uncomfortable for even more laughs. Since they were also dressed up as Dean and Sam for cosplay for the convention, it seems likely this was also another nod towards slash fans and Wincest shippers (which I’ll get back to). But at least they got to live. Which is something. I guess.

Asian Characters in Cassandra Clare's Shadow Hunters World

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:54:00 -0400

Asians are highly underrepresented in the media and speculative fiction is no different. This in part is why I was pleased to see the Asian male characters Magnus Bane and Jem Carstairs in Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series and Infernal Devices Series. The importance of this should not be minimised, though fans of the series have expressed shock that Magnus is Asian and Clare has had to be steadfast about declaring his race. I must give her kudos for her insistence because it certainly would have been easier and perhaps even more expedient to allow the whitewashing to continue unabated.

We have always said that representation isn’t enough and that for a portrayal to really work, the characters must be real and have an active part in the story. One of the things that I really liked was Jem speaking Mandarin throughout Clockwork Princess. This left the reader no ability to deny that Jem is indeed a character of colour and gave him a sense of culture, which worked to separate him from the White characters that surrounded him. Can we really say that this is enough to declare Clare’s representation of Asian men in her story as good inclusion? We already know that Asian women have to be dressed in sarees during battle to merit even a brief mention.

Let’s consider for a moment that both Jem and Magnus are biracial. When it comes to characters of colour in speculative fiction, it has become rare to find one who isn’t biracial (think Anita Blake, Mercy Thompson, Ivy from Kim Harrison’s Hollows Series ) The fact that this happens at such an alarming rate simply cannot be an accident. No, rather I suggest to you that even as it serves as inclusion for many White writers, it represents a historical tendency to uplift those who are seen as closer to Whiteness. This is not to say that biracial people do not constitute people of colour but that speculative fiction has come to use biracial people as representative and in the process purposefully disconnects them from their cultures of colour. At least as far as Jem, this is something Clare has avoided by having a clear connection with Jem’s Chinese culture. The same, however, cannot be said about Magnus. Yes, Clare included obvious references to Magnus’ identity as a biracial man but it only extended to his appearance, and quite honestly, it is highly problematic to make an Asian man’s alien feature his “cat eyes.”

It is rather telling that both Jem and Magnus fit the submissive stereotype that is often associated with Asian males. We keep hearing that Magnus is a super powerful warlock, who doesn’t just give away his services and yet in both series in which he has been featured, he inevitably ends up in a servile position juxtaposed to the White characters.

“Simon rolled his eyes. “It’s a good thing we know the person who’s dating Magnus Bane,” he said. “Otherwise, I get the feeling we’d all just lie around all the time wondering what the hell to do next. Or trying to raise the money to hire him by selling lemonade or something.”
Alec looked merely irritated by this comment. “The only way you could raise enough money to hire Magnus by selling lemonade is if you put meth in it.”

Cassandra Clare, City of Lost Souls

Once Upon a Time Season 2, Episode 18: Selfless, Brave and True

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:29:51 -0400

We open with August (Pinocchio), waking up next to a woman with his leg turning to wood. Given the language, I’m assuming this is a flashback to when August was in Phuket and found himself turning into wood when Emma returned to Storybrooke.

Back in Storybrooke, David is preparing breakfast in bed – complete with little flowers – for Mary Margaret who has, as you recall, Taken to Her Bed. Emma is rather tired of this and wants to stop the softly softly treatment and haul her out of bed and Mary Margaret needs to figure things out herself.

I’m totally Team Emma on this one.

Having overheard Emma, Mary Margaret gets u and packs a bag – she’s heading off to the woods to get her head together. David keeps wallowing in denial land, once the beans are grown and they go to fairyland again they can put it all behind them. Mary Margaret doesn’t think moving is going to change how she feels about tricking Regina into killing her mother.

Emma gets some new from Neal – Tamara, his fiancée, went to his house and grabbed a bag of her things and there was no Hook – so he’s out and about somewhere. And she’s packing a bag because she’s on her way to Storybrooke. Emma thinks this is not an especially good idea, Neal agrees but he needs her. Realising that that’s the kind of thing that’s a little insensitive to say to one’s ex who loved you and you dumped pregnant and in prison he apologises but Emma takes it in stride and points out he doesn’t owe HER an apology, it’s not Emma he’s lying to. She adds that it’ll be a really good idea to come clean with Tamara (yeah I can see that conversation going well. “Hey, know Rumplestiltskin? He’s my dad! And my ex is the daughter of Snow White! And I’m totally not on drugs, honest!”) before she finds out. Like, y’know, maybe finding the angry pirate with rocking eye-liner in his flat? He also wants Emma to meet Tamara; imagine how enthused she is about that.

In the woods, Mary Margaret is trying to remind us all of how bad arse she can be and shooting arrows at a tree; until one misses. She tracks down the arrow and finds it broken. Following the sound of someone running she finds a greenery covered trailer inside which is… August, now entirely turned to wood. With a broken arrow in his leg. Could have been worse, if he were still flesh he’d now need medical attention and Mary Margaret would spend the next 3 months cowering in her bed.

Flash back to a Hong Kong hospital (August has left Thailand it seems) where August tries to convince a doctor he’s turning to wood when they see a perfectly normal leg. So he stabs himself which doesn’t go down well and he ends up running from the hospital chased by orderlies. He’s pulled into a side corridor by a man who promises to take him to someone who can help – called the Dragon.

Uh-huh. There are very very few ways that can go well.

Back to Storybrooke, Mary Margaret does her soggy best to encourage August to return to society even if he is wooden (he thinks this is a punishment he brought on himself and has nothing to do with the curse). He whines for a bit about redemption and forgiveness and how easy Mary Margaret has it because she’s never ever done anything she needed forgiving for, ever.

Oh please, could you lampshade the moral message a bit more boldly? I think you’re just far too subtle with this. It’s possible that a concussed 3 year old might not get it.

Clockwork Princess (Infernal Devices #3) by Cassandra Clare

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:46:07 -0400

Tess is still agonising over her choice to marry Jem – while deeply in love with him, she cannot forget Will, nor can Will who is torn between his love for Tessa and his great loyalty for his friend, brother and companion.

And Mortmain isn’t going to leave them alone to deal with their angst – his plan to horde all of London’s supply of yin fen the only drug that can keep Jem alive has finally hit them, especially since Jem has been taking extra, shortening his life so he can be more fully around and active for Tessa. His life span is measured in weeks, no longer in years.

And then there’s Mortmain’s attempts to claim Tessa and his final revelation of his grand master plan against the Shadow Hunters once and for all. A plan that is only harder to thwart with the head of the Clave gunning for Charlotte, stooping to any means he can to find sufficient excuse to remove her as head of the London Institute and deny her any help in facing this threat.

The main problem I have with this book is the same problem I have with the whole series – it’s slow. The actual plot of this book doesn’t kick in until we’re 30% in; before that we’re mired in love triangle angst that basically runs round and round in circles as Will, Jem and Tessa circle each other with their angst and love and worry. We have Jem’s shortage of yin fen but no-one really does anything about it accept continue to circle round and round and worry and angst and worry some more.

The story does pick up at 30% but it’s still less of a plot and more of a desperate flail, which always frustrates me, especially since it’s a theme in this series and leaves me having problem rooting for characters that, ultimately, flail their way to a solution. They knew yin fen was being bought up, but only now considered it an issue. Will goes riding off to Wales without any real plan, Charlotte and co follow with no real plan, Tessa hangs around being helpless and desperate with no real plan (which is past annoying now –she’s supposed to be training how to fight so can she actually do that occasionally – and not insist on attending emergencies in her wedding dress!), everyone kind of flails around, hoping their mere presence will somehow fix everything. I know, to a degree we’re looking at people in situations where they have few options, but this turn up and hope approach to a story doesn’t engage me – especially when the situation is resolved almost by Tessa pulling out a new super-power.

There are a number of side plots or tangential plots in this book – and one I really like; Charlotte and the Consul. It’s nicely done, it’s directly connected to the main plot line it adds considerable characterisation, world building and wider explanation of both Shadowhunter society as well as what is actually happening in the plot and support from the wider Shadowhunter forces as well as having an excellent portrayal of both sexism and having it challenged.

There’s the good one. Then we have the Lightwoods because… because… I have no damn clue. Why are these characters even here? Why am I supposed to care? Why did we have a completely unnecessary diversion to kill their wormy father when it added nothing to the book? Why did I have to spend so much time in the head of Gabriel Lightwood a character I managed to care even less about than I do will and Tessa – and I was on the side of the WORM when it had a chance to eat Will and Tessa. Why is this character even here? And Gideon? Oh Gideon, how little I care about your mountains of scones and flailing attempt to court Sophie. Then there’s Cicely. Dear gods, I can’t believe there’s a single person in the entire world who cares about Cicely. Why is she there?! She’s even less pointful than the unnecessarily returning Jessamine who shows up because we simply do not have enough pointlessness in this book! And not only there, but why am I wasting time not only reading about Cecily, but being stuck in her head so we can see fragments of a pointless relationship between 2 pointless side characters? To give us a pointless PSA about choice and autonomy vs having a future chosen for you? And what does that have to do with the price of tea in China? A nice message but pretty irrelevant to the central themes of the book and certainly not needing a passel of pointless characters bloating the cast for the purpose.

The Walking Dead, Season Three, Episode 15: This Sorrowful Life

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 12:07:00 -0400

Rick, Darryl and Hershel are outside of the prison making plans for Michonne. Darryl says that it is not them but Rick responds that if they do this, they avoid a fight so no one else dies. Rick heads into the prison and stops in front of Merle, who is ripping apart a bed in a cell. He tells Merl that they needs his help and he asks if Merle knows why he does the things that he does or the choices he makes when. Rick says that they give the governor Michonne then Woodbury stands down. He adds that the doesn’t like it but it’s what needs to be done. Merle asks who knows and Rick tells him Hershel, Darryl and him. Merle tells him to give Philip Michonne because he won’t kill her but take out one of her eyes. Merle then says, you’re cold as ice officer friendly. Merle advices they use wire not rope so that Michonne cannot chew through it He then add that Rick is right and that he doesn’t know why he does the things he does but says that he knows rick and that he doesn’t have the spine for it. Rick says that they needs to Michonne to the Governor by noon.

Rich rushes outside when he hears noise, but it’s just Maggie banging pots to keep the attention of walkers as Michonne walks in the field slaughtering them and Darryl, Hershel and Glenn drive a truck in. Michonne tells Rick that they don’t have to win, they just have to make them getting to them more trouble than it’s worth. The gang then heads back into the prison as Merle watches from a window. Carol is putting Judith down and Merle asks her for some whiskey. Carol asks him if he is with them and Merle tells her that he is there for his brother. Carol replies that Darryl is with them and that it is not time to take shots but to pick side. Merle answers that she is not like she was in the camps and doesn’t seem scared of anything anymore, Carol says that she is not and Merle calls her a late bloomer.

Darryl and Glenn are working outside and he asks Glenn if Merle said sorry yet and that he is going to make Merle make it right. Darryl suggests that they need a little forgiveness. Glenn says that Merle says that he tied him to a chair, beat him and then tossed a walker in the room. Glenn adds maybe he could call it even, but Merle took Maggie to a man who terrorized her, humiliated her. I care more about her than I do about me. Darryl then walks into the prison to find Merle.

He walks through the generator room until he finds Merle. Darryl asks what he is doing down there and if he has talked to Rick yet. Merle says yes but that Rick doesn’t have the stomach for it. Darryl replies if he does he does. Merle asks if he wants him to and Darryl replies whatever he says goes. Merle asks if Darryl even possess a pair of balls and asks him what happened to him Darryl asks what happened with Merle, Glenn and Maggie. Merle says that he has done worse and that Darryl needs to grow u. Merle points out that they want t do the same thing he did and that people have to do or they die. He suggests that people need someone like him around to do the dirty work. Darryl’s says that he wants his brother back and Merle responds that he is right there. Merle then picks up the phone and puts it in his bag.

Hershel is reading from the bible to Beth and Maggie. Rick is outside the prison collecting what looks to be internet cable wire and when he looks up, he again sees Lori. He says, “you’re not there, she’s not there.” He then drops the wire on the ground and walks away. Inside the prison, Beth asks Hershel if he is okay and he responds, “what I wouldn’t do to keep you two safe.” Rick approaches Hershel and says that he can’t do it and that he won’t.

Merle has brought Michonne downstairs under the guise of dealing with some walkers. He uses his am to knock her unconscious and then drags her off by her feet. Merle puts a bag over her head and then ties up her hands. Merle is walking Michonne down the street and tells her about the Governor’s offer and tells her that he got it down but Rick wouldn’t be able to. Merle adds that Rick was the guy who came back to him but this is all on him and that it’s his job to do the dirty work.

Back at the prison, Rick tells Darryl that it’s off and that they will take their chances and then ads that he cannot find Merle and Michonne. Darryl takes Rick to the generator room and Darryl says that this is where he took Michonne. Rick says that he is going after him but Darryl says that just he will go and reminds Rick that he can’t track for shit. As Darryl walks out he tells Rick you guys are family too.

Merle tells Michonne that he want his brother back though Darryl wants to be in the prison. Merle believes that if he pulls this off maybe all will be forgiven and they can stay in the prison. Michonne points out that this is a whole lot of maybes but Merle says that you hve to play the hand your given. Merle says that he killed 16 men since all this went down, after Michonne points out that he is not a bad man beause he feels things.

Glenn approaches Hershel and says look at what that bastard has done. Hershel points out that he is one man and says that there will be others like him. Glenn is holding hershel’ watch and admits that he didn’t understand when Hershel gave it to him, but that he knows what it means now and what it takes. Glenn says that he wants to marry Maggie because he wants her to know before who knows. Hershel gives Glenn his blessing and Glenn thanks him.

Werewolves: They Just Can't Help It

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 09:07:00 -0400

The very nature of urban fantasy means an interaction with the supernatural. Regardless of the supernatural creature that the author chooses to focus on, the one thing is certain, unless an author is making up a brand new creature from thin air, there will be a strong lore in existence, which will highly influence how the character is written. The vampire has most certainly taken a lead in terms of representation. The werewolf is far less popular but when it does make an appearance, regardless of who the author is, the characterisation is nearly uniform. In many ways, the werewolf can be understood as a metaphor for hyper masculinity and violence. Over the years, werewolf nature has become commonplace to explain away abusive relationships and a forced submission upon their partners. That this is romanticized is one of the largest issues with how lycanthropy is constructed today.

Perhaps the most common werewolf trope is extreme possessiveness to the point of jealousy. These wolves demand to control and own their women and defend them like an actual wolf would its hunting territory. I still await the story when a werewolf actually cocks his leg against his woman, but I won’t be surprised when it happens.

This overwhelming possessiveness and control is constantly presented as romantic. In the Otherworld Series when Elena returns to Stonehaven, Clay simply will not accept that she won’t be with him and considers them married, despite her objections. Even after she is reconciled to their relationship, he demands near constant attention from her. Other men cannot even look at Mercy from the Mercy Thompson series with Adam growling, roaring and coming close to attacking and he is extremely reluctant to ever let her out of his sight. In the Caedemon Wolves, the fact Devin feels possessive of Tamara and is jealous when she speaks to other men is the very first sign that he actually has feelings for her - before love or affection or kindness, it’s possession. Even in Twilight Jacob forces a kiss on Bella despite her objections - to say nothing of imprinting, including small children and even eggs in the womb; marked from the womb as owned! Taking, controlling and owning their mates is an incredibly common theme.

Dominance issues are nearly synonymous with werewolf stories today. It is based in the false idea that because werewolves literally have an animal nature that they will behave like wolves in a pack. This would be a fine assumption, if this is what actually happened but that is not the case in most stories. In the books that I have read, alphas are almost always male though we know that in real packs there is an Alpha female or male or both.

The constant jockeying for position as Patricia Briggs portrays in the Mercy Thompson series is non existent. In Briggs’ world two wolves can barely stand to be in the same car with each other simply because they haven’t figured out who is the most dominant. Dominance in this way is more of one male testing his masculinity against another through violent means. Because the violence is happening in a werewolf pack, it is never questioned and always rationalised, as though these men don’t spend more of their time in human form.

It’s also telling how so many of these dominance games put women at the bottom of the hierarchy - a major contrast to the lives of actual wolves. In the Mercy Thompson series, women are given the same rank as their mates, no matter if they were far more dominant than the men they were with. In The Protector female werewolves are sheltered and protected and often forced to take mates for their “protection.” In the Anita Blake Series just about all the shapeshifter packs are dominated by men, female heads are remarked upon for their rarity and the main source of influence for female shifters is as mate to a male leader.

The Vampire Diaries Season Four, Episode Sixteen: Bring It On

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:17:17 -0400

Elena is walking in the middle of the street by herself and for some reason, she decides to lie down. In the house, Stefan is worried that they are going to lose her because Elena’s humanity is one of the things that makes her who she is. Damon tells Stefan that it’s only been a couple of days and reminds him that Elena is a vampire and that shutting down is one of the perks. Stefan reminds Damon that Elena burned down her family home with her brother’s dead body still inside but Damon flippantly replies, “it saves us the trouble of having to do it ourselves, I call that a win. Worse case scenario, I’ll invoke the sire bond and tell her to turn it back on.” Stefan is not convinced and says again that Jeremy just died and that if they force all of that grief on her all at once that it is going to overwhelm Elena. Stefan suggests that they need to give Elena a reason to turn it on. Damon says that they will show her a good time and that people like to have fun. Outside a car approaches Elena and a woman comes running assuming that Elena is injured. When she runs back to get a blanket for Elena, Elena attacks her. Damon has to pull Elena off the woman and she explains that this woman is the first person she has seen in days whose body is not laced with vervain and that she is hungry. Damon points out that if she is going to start leaving bodies all over the place that people are going to start asking questions. Elena replies that she does not care and moves to feed again. Damon pulls her away again and says, “I can’t believe you’re making me say this, show a little restraint.” Elena drops the woman on the ground and walks away.

Hayley is at a truck stop and stops when she hears a noise. A vampire begins to attack her and Klaus pulls him off saying, “that’s no way to treat a lady,” before making short work of the vampire. Hayley is happy to see Klaus who comments, “you did say that it was urgent.” He adds that she was foolish enough to make a deal with Katherine and now she is nothing more than a loose end and will be lucky if Katherine lets her live. Hayley reminds Klaus that he promised to protect her and Klaus replies, “I will, just as soon as you tell me everything you know about Katherine.”

Elena is in the shower, while Damon and Stefan discuss plans for her. It seems that Damon wants Elena to go back to school, but Stefan is not keen on the idea of going and playing chaperone and reminds Damon that he has to go and find the cure because Elena needs it now more than ever. Caroline walks into the room and says that she believes taking Elena back to school is a fabulous idea. Damon is surprised to see Caroline, who explains her presence by saying that their house has the only vervain free showers in town, thanks to their fancy water filters. Caroline says that Liz believes things are going to get worse and so Damon agrees to go after Katherine and instructs Caroline to take Elena to school. Stefan and Damon head into the bathroom to tell Elena the plan and she says that she has nothing better to do. Damon then uses his sire bond to tell her to go to school, learn, study hard and not eat anybody.

Elena is now at school and she takes down a flyer announcing a memorial for Jeremy. Caroline is on the phone leaving yet another long message for Tyler. Matt approaches Caroline to ask about Bonnie and Caroline says that Bonnie is fine and that she’s just a little drained from everything. Elena interrupts the conversation to ask about getting her old spot on the cheer leading squad. Caroline replies that she thinks this would make Damon really happy.

Damon is now at Klaus’ and says that he has come up with a list called, “things you suck at: number one, finding Katherine. Number two, covering up your secret conversations with that backstabber Hayley. So where is she and what does she know about Katherine?” Klaus asks why he should help them, since they killed his brother and then imprisoned him in the Gilbert living room. Damon tells Klaus that he needs to prioritize because Katherine has the cure and his guess is that she is going to want to use it on him. Damon suggests that he gets the cure and gives it to Elena so that everyone wins. Klaus replies, “I can’t help you mate, Hayley’s off limits.”

Liz and Stefan are talking and she tells him that the entire blood supply from the hospital is missing. Stefan asks if she is accusing the vampires and Liz replies that this town is at a tipping point and that one more unexplained house fire and things are going to tip over. Liz then apologizes and says that it’s been a rough week. She adds that Miranda Gilbert was one of her best friends in highschool and to see what’s happened to her family. Stefan promises that he will do whatever he needs to, to help. Liz replies that he needs to because whoever stole that blood put a lot of people in danger and risks exposing all of the vampires, including her daughter. Liz asks if Stefan can think of who wants blood that badly.

Race on The Walking Dead Part II

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 12:12:22 -0400

We have looked at Race in The Walking Dead before, back near the beginning of season two and we covered many of the problems with the show has when it comes to its POC, especially compared to the comics.

Unfortunately, the show hasn’t improved, quite the opposite in many ways, and it has reached a point where our original post now needs a sequel. Insert your own “I can’t believe I still have to complain about this” macro if you got ‘em.

Let’s start with the character who occupied so many of our complaints before - T-Dog. T-Dog the silent. T-Dog the characterless. T-Dog who did nothing but fetch and carry. Well, T-Dog lasted through the whole of season two and if he said more than five lines I’d be astonished; he disappeared for entire episodes, was completely ignored when anyone made any kind of decision and was, quite literally, background colour.

There seemed almost to be a shift in how he was treated in season 3 - he started to talk! He had lines, actual lines! He even… reach for your smelling salts folks… he even expressed an opinion over the prisoners and whether they should be allowed to join the group. He even disagreed with Rick!

Of course, it was too good to be true and shortly afterwards he was plunging into the walkers, sacrificing himself to save a White woman, Carol. Which means all of his sudden participation wasn’t so much an attempt to redeem his broken character as it was a way to desperately humanise him - or even remind us that he actually existed - before he died so we could believe the (very brief) sadness of the group afterwards. Though, maybe not, it’s not like they spent more than two seconds grieving for him. Three episodes later and he was barely mentioned again - I can think of one occasion, when Hershel tells Andrea about the group he tells her of T-Dog’s death. This causes her about 2 seconds of thought and then everyone moved on.

We could probably have predicted T-Dog’s death by Oscar’s appearance. After all, does the show really need two silent token Black men? And Michonne and Glenn as well? Inclusion cookies have been earned! It’s almost like a remake of Highlander - there can only be one silent Black token! Oscar himself should probably have paid attention to that lesson, after several episodes of doing his duty, standing there and being Black, he too was killed off in the fight in Woodbury to rescue Glenn and Maggie. This seemed to happen partly because the fight in Woodbury had to cost the group something - so Rick could later refer to it costing them. It’s hard not to see Oscar as a disposable, throw-away character used to add weight to the feud between the prison and Woodbury.

The other reason he died? Well, Tyrese was introduced - THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE! I feel there should be dramatic music for that.

So far we have not seen a lot of Tyrese, which, as we said before, is already a big deviation from the comics where he was an integral member of the group since before the survivors even reached the prison or Hershel’s farm. This delay means Tyrese didn’t join the group when Rick was still accepting of outsiders, willing to share leadership roles and welcome of help; instead he arrives when Rick is paranoid, suspicious and violently hostile. In a desperate attempt to fit in and be accepted, Tyrese goes beyond accommodating and is positively servile. Whatever they need, whatever they want, he bows, he crawls, he begs - desperate and subservient.

The Lost (Celestial Blues #2) by Vicki Pettersson

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:11:32 -0400

The number one question in Griffin Shaw’s life is who killed both him and his wife Evie fifty years ago. Though he has found new love with rockabilly babe Kit, Evie continues to haunt his dreams. It’s been four months since he saved Kits life and returned to the mudflat (read: earth) but he is no closer to solving this extremely cold case.

Life keeps moving and the pures keep sending him souls to guide into the Everlast. He may be part human now, but his duties as a centurion continue. It is these duties that force him to do a take for Jeap Yang - a drug addict. What he does not know is that this take will be different because not only will Kit involved, she will be introduced to a fallen. This alone would be bad enough, but it will lead them on a trail to investigate a horrible new drug flooding the streets and confront both the Russian and Cuban mafia. Will Griffin and Kit manage to survive unscathed and can their fragile love survive all the forces which seemed aligned against them?

In The Taken, Pettersson included a strong message against violence aimed at women but The Lost, is absent such a message. Instead it seemed to fixate on fighting the subjugation of sexist patriarchal beliefs by showing women in charge of organized crime.   These women were strong but incredibly cold. In Kit she did decide to show a softer kind of strength however but she was one person against two very domineering and angry women. The difference between Kit and the two antagonists is that Kit is never really portrayed as having to battle sexism. It seems to imply a sort of revenge fantasy rather than women being in control because they are powerful, organized and capable.

There was certainly more racial inclusion in The Taken but not only inclusion is good inclusion. Once again, Lil and Fleur made an appearance but their sole purpose was to educate Kit about Latino culture.

    “Shit, girl, he probably ain’t Mexicano.” Screwing up her beautifully painted mouth, Lil drew back to regard Kit with disdain. “You think us Latinas all look alike.”

    “No I don’t,” Kit said defensively, but the two women gave her matching stares, arms folded across their chests, perfectly plucked eyebrows raised in identical doubt. “You two, for example, look better than anyone I’ve ever seen in my entire life.” (pg 89)

This was a salient point for both Lil and Fleur to make. Despite being a good friend to both women, Kit remains clueless about Latino culture.
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Frost Burned (Mercy Thompson #7) By Patricia Briggs

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:10:38 -0400

Mercy is settling into life as Adam’s husband, back from her honeymoon, fully recovered and facing a dread foe – Black Friday midnight shopping with Jesse, her new step-daughter. To add to the fun, she gets in a car wreck as well and has to write off her Rabbit.

If only that was the least of her problems. Almost the entire pack has been kidnapped, she can’t reach anyone over the phone, not even werewolves outside the pack, the one person she can find is injured and drugged – and there are unpleasant people with guns looking for her and targeting her friends on the edge of the pack.

Her small team has to try and find Adam – while Adam must try and escape before he’s blackmailed into doing something that could have all werewolves destroyed. Additional help from the government she doesn’t trust and a werewolf that may lose it at any time doesn’t necessarily help things

Then there’s some fae assassins, mystical weapons and a whole load of vampire politics to add to the mix.

And she’s stolen the vampire queen’s car. And broken it. Oops.

Reading the synopsis and the first few pages I had a lot of hope. Here was Mercy going to charge into battle on her own, her own actions, her own decisions, free from Adam’s often stifling shadow. And she was reconnecting with characters we haven’t seen in a while, like Kyle, while at the same time advancing the political meta plot.

That hope is now dead, tried to rise from the coffin, was staked, beheaded, burned and had its ashes scattered across four different bodies of water.

We start the story – drama drama, action (ish), the pack has been kidnapped. Mercy starts doing stuff without consultation (ish) and generally doing her best (sort of) to save everyone (well, some of them). And then Adam wrangles his own plan (well, no, opportunity falls in his lap) and loo, all is solved.

Sure, there’s a few loose ends to tie up, we’d kind of like to know who is behind it, but with one set of bad guys running and the other dead, it’s not a pressing or especially pertinent concern. And that’s how the book is written. I kind of expected the book to be over – the story was after all – but rather than working in a conclusion I discovered I was only 40% in. Not even half way through but the story was over – so what was happening? We kind of wallowed in limbo. Sure, one of those loose ends ballooned out into a full plot eventually – at about 65%. 20% of this book in the middle was just waffle and empty flailing with no real plot at all. Right in the middle of the book. It was like 2 books pasted together and some kind of mushy glue stuffed between them. There wasn’t so much a speed bump interrupting the story so much as a vast sink hole, sucking in all plot and leaving us directionless, lost and a little confused.

Lost Girl Season 3, episode 8: Fae-ge Against the Machine

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:05:00 -0400

A blindfolded Bo is looking for the mystical cricket of good luck or some such, urged by Stella, because barking your shins on furnishings is ritually important or something. A test Bo fails, leading to more angst and sharing stories about Hale and Dyson’s little rituals (I want to know about Dyson and the fleas). Her next stage is to wait for an invite, giving Bo the day off – and Stella chance to invite Trick for dinner.

Unfortunately, Bo starts said day off by fiddling with a device she probably shouldn’t which buzzes to life behind her. And we cut to a girl in a chair crying – with some odd tubing that appears to be collecting her tears. See, people will sell ANYTHING on the internet.

On the plus side, Lauren comes to meet Bo at the Dahl buzzing with excitement, to a degree where Bo (and I) worry she may be on drugs. Not drugs – she’s just won a science award for sciency stuff which is impressive and… sciency. Science! Yes, Bo is confused as me. Still Lauren’s excited and there’s a special dinner to go to for the award and Bo is definitely going as Lauren’s +1. Lauren is cute when excited and buzzes out in a cloud of plans and randomness, leaving Bo with the newly arrive Tamsin. Why is she there? She’s taking Bo out to lunch – because everyone’s been lying to her. What?! Lauren hasn’t won the award?! Ok, it’s possible the lies may not be about the award…

“Lunch” in Tamsin’s world comes in a glass and is normally known as Bloody Marys (did I ever mention I quite like Tamsin?) in a Dark Fae bar – with Bo commenting it doesn’t look much different from a Light Fae bar. Tamsin tells Bo that they’re all bullshitting her, the Dawning is the most horrendous ordeal she’ll ever go through and she’ll probably not get through it. At which point the camera pans out to focus on a random bar patron who is, presumably, relevant?

Back at the Dahl, Trick is getting ready for his date with Stella who arrives advising leather – I’d agree except for the orange fuzzy thing she’s wearing. And they notice the thingummy that Bo was fiddling with earlier – she says it’s Bo’s invitation to the Dawning in the form of a game. And Bo has activated it – at which point it buzzes to life. Stella says they’ll have to do it for her – wherever she, whatever she’s doing, the game will affect her. Her closest blood relative has to play.

Oh… I’m cringing now – magical fae game that will make Bo do embarrassing things at Lauren’s fancy science of award of sciency things? Please nooooooo!

While Trick plays, Bo is still at lunch with Tamsin who tells her that everyone’s bullshitting her to protect her. They’re interrupted by a group of fae who want to know how Bo can call herself unaligned when she’s clearly Light (you and me both buddy) and how they don’t appreciate an all-but-Light fae coming into their bar. (He kinda has a point, I’m just saying.) Tamsin distracts them by punching one into the other 2 (if they go down this easy, you could probably take them, I’m just saying) and they run out with helpful bystander fae (the one who attracted the cameraman earlier() showing her the way out. Once out in the ally Bo says “thanks I owe you one” and shakes on it with the man.

Oh my good gods, how has this never come up before?! It’s like fae mythology 101 don’t say thank you, don’t make deals, don’t imply debts! Yes I’m grumbling over mythology, I don’t care.

Yes, the man is a Spriggan which means his debts are binding and he’s calling in the debt Bo just incurred now. At which point Trick makes a choice on the game – seeming to choose a brick wall over a lock and key. Anyway, Bo is being called upon to go to the secret lair of Fang, a Tong boss, to free Cookie.

Supernatural Season 8, Episode 15: Man's Best Friend with Benefits

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 14:43:00 -0500

A woman is walking down a dark alley by herself, wearing revealing clothing (I think she’s being coded as a sex worker – fishnets and high high heels). She gets steadily more nervous until a man stops her – and shows her his badge. She grumbles but submits to being handcuffed and then he strangles her.

And the man wakes up in horror with flashes of the woman dying still playing. He goes back to bed when his dog jumps up and lays next to him. He starts his morning routine – and finds a blood stained shirt in the bin.

Sam and Dean arrive at a motel (aww, no Winchester cave?) with lots of the bickering that works for them, including Dean still pushing Sam to let him get a hellhound for those gates of hell tests. They’re in town because a policeman who save their lives has called in a favour (how pesky).

While Dean is out for supplies, Sam hears a scratching at the door and, when he opens it, a very friendly black dog hurries in and demands belly rubs. When Dean comes back Sam hurries out to explain “she just showed up, she wanted her belly rubbed, I thought she could stay the night and we find her home tomorrow” to which Dean looks inside and sees a beautiful Black woman. He says she can stay the night

Sam draws a knife but she tells him to put away the blade she’s not a shapeshifter – she’s a familiar, a witch’s companion. Her name is Portia and she “belongs” to James Frampton – the guy who called them in. It seems since they worked on a case with him, James started studying the supernatural and became a witch. Portia describes how James has been having headaches and nightmares that have been getting worse. Dean doesn’t want to help a witch and Portia chews him out for bigotry and that James has done nothing but good as a homicide detective and a cop. There’s silence before Dean describes her anger as incredibly hot and Sam agrees.

Pause a moment. I’m going to need a big drink to get through this episode.

Meanwhile James is in an exclusive club where there are at least 2 magic users openly using telekinesis to play chess (now that’s just lazy). He meets someone called Spencer to discuss his nightmares and other problems. Spencer advises giving it a rest – that it’s impossible to reconcile being a witch and being a detective and it’s the cause, which is when James reveals that Portia has disappeared

Portia explains the dreams to Sam and Dean – that they’re violent and that James fears they’re actually happening; this is what she got through her telepathic bond with her “master” before he started blocking her. And that it wasn’t James who called them in, it was Portia.

James has another dream of killing someone else – a blind Black man – before waking up again. Cut to Sam and Dean visiting and James and Portia arguing over Portia bringing them. After she leaves in dog form and Dean has his obligatory “witchcraft you fool?!” moment, James tells them about his dreams and adds that the people in them are actually dead he checked at the precinct and he shows them his blood stained shirt. They agree to help – but Dean pulls out some chains; first step is house arrest

Sam checks up on the 4 dreams – and the 4 victims are exactly as James described. Also, since using magic his solve rate has been almost 100% putting him on the super-duper fast track for promotion. And Dean and Sam have another talk about the demon trials, only this time Dean’s concern is apparent that he doesn’t think Sam will necessarily be able to perform all the trials, as he can. To Sam’s credit, he takes it less as a personal insult and more as an indication that Dean can’t trust ANYONE any more (and I just gave Sam credit. I feel unclean now). Then they discuss the witch killing spell they’re preparing on the assumption another witch is hexing James – except Dean is also keeping it in case there isn’t another witch (i.e. to kill James with). Sam brings up them giving free passes in the past (well, yeah, true – but someone actively killing people, just someone who is a monster). Dean points out that James is killing people and adds that Benny and Kate were forced to become a vampire and a werewolf respectively. James chose to be a witch.

Time for Sam to impersonate a federal agent and go to the police station to learn that the victims were all pretty isolated in their lives. This gives Sam a chance to get fabric from the blood stained shirt tested and hear from the detective in charge, Ed, that a witness had seen a man in a white shirt and suit at the crime scene. Which didn’t appear in the police report – and he refuses to discuss the witness any further

Portia takes Dean to the witch bar where everyone gives him the stink eye for clearly not belonging. And Portia tells him that a familiar finds their master and forges a very close, unbreakable bond – and objects strenuously to being called a “pet”. Hmmm, maybe if she’d stop referring to James as “master” then “pet” wouldn’t be the word that comes to mind. They’re called over by someone in the bar, Phillipe LeChat (yes, he’s a cat. And yes they’re imaginative with these names and no I’m not even going to try and wait until they confirm he’s actually a cat before naming him one). Oh and Dean’s allergic to cats and sneezes despite the complete absence of cat hair (yes, I’m being grumpy but this joke is so old). Seems that the witch community isn’t happy with James for being a cop and a witch. Which is when Spencer arrives and, in answer to Dean’s question, tells him he’s never heard of a spell for one witch to control another (really? Supernatural that’s just lazy! It’s like the third most common use in all the world’s black magic folklore! 1: kill, 2: raise the dead, 3: control people. At least come up with a “no-one I know could/would cast such a spell” or “no he’s too good a witch to be susceptible!”) Spencer leaves and Phillipe turns into a cat and goes with him. I’m shocked. Are you shocked? Because that was totally shocking and unexpected.