when i was drowning, that's when i could finally breathe
I enjoyed both the Mets' and the Sharks' shutouts last night. Those results were most pleasing to me.
***
The Flash: Invincible
There was a lot to enjoy in this episode:
- every time Cisco and Barry were like 'The Speed Force is with us' because you know that is exactly what those two nerds would say
- Cisco and Harry being hilarious
- Cisco and Caitlin as their Earth-2 doppelgangers! I don't know why Cisco would have had the blue wig and bustier hanging around (I don't judge!), but I guess I'm glad he did.
- ♥CISCO♥ getting his offensive power on! CURSE YOUR DOPENESS, VIBE!
- I thought Danielle Panabaker, who doesn't often get a lot to do, did great as Caitlin pretending to be Killer Frost. Fake it till you make, honey, just like that.
- Evil!Laurel was great! Katie Cassidy is so much more entertaining when she's allowed to be fun and snarky than when she's a dour drag as she was for the first two seasons of Arrow.
- Wally! I wasn't sure at first, but he has definitely grown on me a lot since he arrived and he was so cute last night! And he's finally in on the secret identity too! (I am so here for Wally/Jesse speedster dating, with Harry Wells being extremely cranky about the whole thing.)
- Iris! Iris continues to be most improved since she joined Team Flash. ♥
- Barry! I love that he got his optimism back, and while I get Iris's point that yes, some fear is wise to have (just the right amount - too little and you get yourself killed, too much and you can't do anything at all), but I also think that having a positive attitude is something Barry had previously and lost and he's much more appealing with it than without it, so shut up with your anti-pep talks, guys!
Things I didn't love:
- Barry standing around while Zoom monologued about killing Henry. YOU'RE THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE, BARRY. DON'T JUST STAND THERE.
- Zoom's tired old "You and I, we're not so different." YES. YES YOU ARE. BARRY IS NOT TECHNICALLY A SERIAL MURDERER WHO DID IT ALL FOR THE LULZ. (There was some straight-up killing of metahumans earlier this season that was...questionable, but it's not like Barry's doing it for shits and giggles.) Ugh.
***
What I'm reading Wednesday:
What I've just finished
Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray, which I enjoyed immensely. It's set a few years before The Force Awakens (I'm not really sure how that timeline works, given some of the things presented in the movie) and it's Leia-centric, so I was predisposed to be generous towards it anyway. I didn't realize - as I mentioned right after I finished reading it - that it was going to engage with her relationship to being Vader's daughter as a main plot point, but it does and it's pretty satisfying, considering nothing else in the canon ever really deals with it. Mostly because it never forgets that Vader ruins everything, and even after ~20-odd years in the grave, he's still doing it! It's great! I mean, not so much for Leia, but as a reader. I was honestly surprised they kept it a secret for so long, but glad to see the reveal in canon.
Also, I enjoyed the politicking and the newer characters and the fact that in certain parts of the galaxy's underworld she's canonically known as "The Huttslayer" GIVES ME LIFE, because yes! I didn't love that there's no contact with Luke at all, but Han does come sweeping in at the end, as is his wont, and that's lovely, as are the brief scenes from their marriage.
Alpha by Greg Rucka, which is, as advertised, "Die Hard" at faux!Disney World. It's fun, but I didn't love that the establishing scene for the 40yo main character involved him sleeping with a ~20 year old barista. Let's just say it doesn't predispose me to liking him as a person.
Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher, whom you may also know as Ursula Vernon. I enjoyed this a lot, too. It's a very sensible retelling of "Beauty and the Beast." Bryony definitely gave me a Tiffany Aching sort of vibe, which you know I love, and also, the Beast remains a Beast! Which is definitely something I know I'm not alone in wishing had been the case in the Disney BatB. I just wish we'd gotten a little more denouement. I wanted to see how Lostfarthing reacted to the Beast's clockworks.
What I'm reading now
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh, which is inspired by (a retelling of?) A Thousand and One Nights for a YA audience. (No, seriously, I am definitely thinking about that The Iliad-as-YA-dystopia idea again now.) I picked it up on the strength of the title, which is GREAT. I mean, I wish I had come up with a title that evocative, but it's also gotten some stellar reviews. I'm enjoying it so far, though I'm already kind of dreading the idea of it being a trilogy. I guess it has to cover all 1,001 nights? I don't know. I'm only about a quarter of the way in.
What I'm reading next
I have The Nameless City by Faith Erin Hicks, and actually planned to start it this morning, but for some reason, it will only show up in the Kindle app in horizontal mode (even though I have mine forever locked in vertical mode), and that makes it really hard to read (it's a graphic novel). I wish it had been available via Comixology, because their app for reading comics is so much better than the Kindle app is. I guess I will suck it up and try again when I'm done with The Wrath and the Dawn.
***
In other news, I posted a story yesterday, huzzah!
A Thousand Words for Water (at AO3)
Star Wars; Rey, Finn, Poe, Luke, Leia, Jessika, Chewbacca, Artoo; g; 2,925 words
Chewie howls something that translates to, "Just throw her in and hope she floats," and Artoo trills in disapproval of that strategy. "She's a Jedi," Chewie replies. "She'll be fine."
I'm not sure it gets across everything I was thinking about re: water/love/the Force in relation to Rey, but I do like how it turned out, even if it didn't end up being as OT3-shippy as I'd hoped. I wanted there to be kissing at the end, but alas, I seem to be firmly entrenched in gen territory in this fandom, at least at the moment. *hands* I did get to put in a dick joke I've had in my back pocket for a while, reworked slightly for a more appropriate use than originally intended.
It was kind of weird walking a line between hinting but never having anyone come out and say anything in the story about whether or not Rey is a Skywalker, because I obviously want her to be! But there are reasons nobody brings it up in the story! But there are also hints that she is, or I meant there to be anyway. I think it's obvious I think that in everything I write about her, but it's interesting to have Luke play it coy for a variety of reasons that probably only make sense in my head. I dunno.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/842930.html.
people have commented there.
***
The Flash: Invincible
There was a lot to enjoy in this episode:
- every time Cisco and Barry were like 'The Speed Force is with us' because you know that is exactly what those two nerds would say
- Cisco and Harry being hilarious
- Cisco and Caitlin as their Earth-2 doppelgangers! I don't know why Cisco would have had the blue wig and bustier hanging around (I don't judge!), but I guess I'm glad he did.
- ♥CISCO♥ getting his offensive power on! CURSE YOUR DOPENESS, VIBE!
- I thought Danielle Panabaker, who doesn't often get a lot to do, did great as Caitlin pretending to be Killer Frost. Fake it till you make, honey, just like that.
- Evil!Laurel was great! Katie Cassidy is so much more entertaining when she's allowed to be fun and snarky than when she's a dour drag as she was for the first two seasons of Arrow.
- Wally! I wasn't sure at first, but he has definitely grown on me a lot since he arrived and he was so cute last night! And he's finally in on the secret identity too! (I am so here for Wally/Jesse speedster dating, with Harry Wells being extremely cranky about the whole thing.)
- Iris! Iris continues to be most improved since she joined Team Flash. ♥
- Barry! I love that he got his optimism back, and while I get Iris's point that yes, some fear is wise to have (just the right amount - too little and you get yourself killed, too much and you can't do anything at all), but I also think that having a positive attitude is something Barry had previously and lost and he's much more appealing with it than without it, so shut up with your anti-pep talks, guys!
Things I didn't love:
- Barry standing around while Zoom monologued about killing Henry. YOU'RE THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE, BARRY. DON'T JUST STAND THERE.
- Zoom's tired old "You and I, we're not so different." YES. YES YOU ARE. BARRY IS NOT TECHNICALLY A SERIAL MURDERER WHO DID IT ALL FOR THE LULZ. (There was some straight-up killing of metahumans earlier this season that was...questionable, but it's not like Barry's doing it for shits and giggles.) Ugh.
***
What I'm reading Wednesday:
What I've just finished
Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray, which I enjoyed immensely. It's set a few years before The Force Awakens (I'm not really sure how that timeline works, given some of the things presented in the movie) and it's Leia-centric, so I was predisposed to be generous towards it anyway. I didn't realize - as I mentioned right after I finished reading it - that it was going to engage with her relationship to being Vader's daughter as a main plot point, but it does and it's pretty satisfying, considering nothing else in the canon ever really deals with it. Mostly because it never forgets that Vader ruins everything, and even after ~20-odd years in the grave, he's still doing it! It's great! I mean, not so much for Leia, but as a reader. I was honestly surprised they kept it a secret for so long, but glad to see the reveal in canon.
Also, I enjoyed the politicking and the newer characters and the fact that in certain parts of the galaxy's underworld she's canonically known as "The Huttslayer" GIVES ME LIFE, because yes! I didn't love that there's no contact with Luke at all, but Han does come sweeping in at the end, as is his wont, and that's lovely, as are the brief scenes from their marriage.
Alpha by Greg Rucka, which is, as advertised, "Die Hard" at faux!Disney World. It's fun, but I didn't love that the establishing scene for the 40yo main character involved him sleeping with a ~20 year old barista. Let's just say it doesn't predispose me to liking him as a person.
Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher, whom you may also know as Ursula Vernon. I enjoyed this a lot, too. It's a very sensible retelling of "Beauty and the Beast." Bryony definitely gave me a Tiffany Aching sort of vibe, which you know I love, and also, the Beast remains a Beast! Which is definitely something I know I'm not alone in wishing had been the case in the Disney BatB. I just wish we'd gotten a little more denouement. I wanted to see how Lostfarthing reacted to the Beast's clockworks.
What I'm reading now
The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh, which is inspired by (a retelling of?) A Thousand and One Nights for a YA audience. (No, seriously, I am definitely thinking about that The Iliad-as-YA-dystopia idea again now.) I picked it up on the strength of the title, which is GREAT. I mean, I wish I had come up with a title that evocative, but it's also gotten some stellar reviews. I'm enjoying it so far, though I'm already kind of dreading the idea of it being a trilogy. I guess it has to cover all 1,001 nights? I don't know. I'm only about a quarter of the way in.
What I'm reading next
I have The Nameless City by Faith Erin Hicks, and actually planned to start it this morning, but for some reason, it will only show up in the Kindle app in horizontal mode (even though I have mine forever locked in vertical mode), and that makes it really hard to read (it's a graphic novel). I wish it had been available via Comixology, because their app for reading comics is so much better than the Kindle app is. I guess I will suck it up and try again when I'm done with The Wrath and the Dawn.
***
In other news, I posted a story yesterday, huzzah!
A Thousand Words for Water (at AO3)
Star Wars; Rey, Finn, Poe, Luke, Leia, Jessika, Chewbacca, Artoo; g; 2,925 words
Chewie howls something that translates to, "Just throw her in and hope she floats," and Artoo trills in disapproval of that strategy. "She's a Jedi," Chewie replies. "She'll be fine."
I'm not sure it gets across everything I was thinking about re: water/love/the Force in relation to Rey, but I do like how it turned out, even if it didn't end up being as OT3-shippy as I'd hoped. I wanted there to be kissing at the end, but alas, I seem to be firmly entrenched in gen territory in this fandom, at least at the moment. *hands* I did get to put in a dick joke I've had in my back pocket for a while, reworked slightly for a more appropriate use than originally intended.
It was kind of weird walking a line between hinting but never having anyone come out and say anything in the story about whether or not Rey is a Skywalker, because I obviously want her to be! But there are reasons nobody brings it up in the story! But there are also hints that she is, or I meant there to be anyway. I think it's obvious I think that in everything I write about her, but it's interesting to have Luke play it coy for a variety of reasons that probably only make sense in my head. I dunno.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/842930.html.