HP fic recs, Daredevil, Kingsman, POI, etc.
Thursday, June 11th, 2015 04:16 pmLife itself is not pleasant these days, which is why stumbling on a fic that surprises and delights me is especially grand.
"fizzing whizzbees and a cunning plan" from the HDS Beltane Fest is such a fic.(HDS Beltane is a Harry Potter Fest featuring fic and art involving Harry Potter and/or Draco Malfoy and/or Severus Snape.) Here's the story on Livejournal; it also can be found on Dreamwidth.
I looked at the word count (around 4,500) and the title and figured it probably wouldn't be my sort of thing because I usually prefer long fics to short ones and stuff that's a bit more plotty than fluffy (if that makes sense), but looks can be oh-so-deceiving. There's an awful lot of world-building and story in this short fic, especially if you read between the lines. And I love that it surprised me in a number of ways by not following the usual way of things-- I mean, if Harry & Draco are going to be teaching at Hogwarts, I have certain expectations having read lots of fic of that sort; what a cool thing to for once have Harry not enjoy teaching! All in all, it manages to be funny and plotty and interesting. Yay!
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perverse_idyll mentioned that mia_ugly has a new WIP (OMG OMG OMG!) and has put older fic up on Archive of Our Own. Woot! This prompted me to reread "Rapture" and the sequel "Blood, but also roses" and fall in love with them all over again. I think "Rapture" is one of those fics that pairs Severus Snape & Harry Potter which makes it believable even for those who don't think they can buy that at all. You gotta just go with the time travel. I love how it plays with and works with canon in interesting ways and the multiple timelines, but mostly I love the language.
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We watched the first (only, so far) season of Daredevil and . . . eh. I want to like it more than I did. So much violence of the sort that I suppose people may be used to on premium cable on certain shows, but no-- I really don't need to see or hear that (and in fact did hide behind my laptop during some scenes).
I liked the actors on the show and some of the character stuff and world building, but it's dark and there's torture and I hope this doesn't mean Vincent D'Onofrio is going on another run of playing villains as I find it terribly boring.
Can't really recommend it unless you're a big fan of certain actors or the character or something, I also advise that if you're squeamish you may want to pass (or be willing to not watch some parts of it).
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Speaking of "violence I have to look away from," we watched Kingsman and well. I'm glad I was warned about certain sequences so I (once again) had a laptop handy I could hide behind because I didn't need to see some of the violence in it. I suspect after hearing good things about it, I was hoping for better . . . I mean, it was okay, but yet again I don't think the good necessarily outweighs the bad for me.
As with Daredevil, I'm not familiar with the source material (the comics) so can't speak to that, just what was on screen.
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It's a bit weird to say "too much violence" given how many seemingly violent movies and TV shows I do like, but there are degrees of this stuff as far as how much is shown and how necessary sequences are for character and story purposes and whether there's enough goodness to balance the dark.
* * *
Still mad for Person of Interest by the way. Those of you that tuned out after a certain development have missed some really good stuff. There were a couple of small missteps this season IMHO (as well as a tricky bit of real life to work around), but it was still ultimately made of win and I think it may still all fit together in the end. I do hope they sort out whether next season is the last or not in advance because this is a show that's gonna need serious plotting to conclude it well. I think a shortened season of 13 episodes (that's the order for next year, with the show starting at mid-season) could be a good thing for concluding the show or for going forward with shorter seasons from now on.
"fizzing whizzbees and a cunning plan" from the HDS Beltane Fest is such a fic.(HDS Beltane is a Harry Potter Fest featuring fic and art involving Harry Potter and/or Draco Malfoy and/or Severus Snape.) Here's the story on Livejournal; it also can be found on Dreamwidth.
I looked at the word count (around 4,500) and the title and figured it probably wouldn't be my sort of thing because I usually prefer long fics to short ones and stuff that's a bit more plotty than fluffy (if that makes sense), but looks can be oh-so-deceiving. There's an awful lot of world-building and story in this short fic, especially if you read between the lines. And I love that it surprised me in a number of ways by not following the usual way of things-- I mean, if Harry & Draco are going to be teaching at Hogwarts, I have certain expectations having read lots of fic of that sort; what a cool thing to for once have Harry not enjoy teaching! All in all, it manages to be funny and plotty and interesting. Yay!
* * *
perverse_idyll mentioned that mia_ugly has a new WIP (OMG OMG OMG!) and has put older fic up on Archive of Our Own. Woot! This prompted me to reread "Rapture" and the sequel "Blood, but also roses" and fall in love with them all over again. I think "Rapture" is one of those fics that pairs Severus Snape & Harry Potter which makes it believable even for those who don't think they can buy that at all. You gotta just go with the time travel. I love how it plays with and works with canon in interesting ways and the multiple timelines, but mostly I love the language.* * *
We watched the first (only, so far) season of Daredevil and . . . eh. I want to like it more than I did. So much violence of the sort that I suppose people may be used to on premium cable on certain shows, but no-- I really don't need to see or hear that (and in fact did hide behind my laptop during some scenes).
I liked the actors on the show and some of the character stuff and world building, but it's dark and there's torture and I hope this doesn't mean Vincent D'Onofrio is going on another run of playing villains as I find it terribly boring.
Can't really recommend it unless you're a big fan of certain actors or the character or something, I also advise that if you're squeamish you may want to pass (or be willing to not watch some parts of it).
* * *
Speaking of "violence I have to look away from," we watched Kingsman and well. I'm glad I was warned about certain sequences so I (once again) had a laptop handy I could hide behind because I didn't need to see some of the violence in it. I suspect after hearing good things about it, I was hoping for better . . . I mean, it was okay, but yet again I don't think the good necessarily outweighs the bad for me.
As with Daredevil, I'm not familiar with the source material (the comics) so can't speak to that, just what was on screen.
* * *
It's a bit weird to say "too much violence" given how many seemingly violent movies and TV shows I do like, but there are degrees of this stuff as far as how much is shown and how necessary sequences are for character and story purposes and whether there's enough goodness to balance the dark.
* * *
Still mad for Person of Interest by the way. Those of you that tuned out after a certain development have missed some really good stuff. There were a couple of small missteps this season IMHO (as well as a tricky bit of real life to work around), but it was still ultimately made of win and I think it may still all fit together in the end. I do hope they sort out whether next season is the last or not in advance because this is a show that's gonna need serious plotting to conclude it well. I think a shortened season of 13 episodes (that's the order for next year, with the show starting at mid-season) could be a good thing for concluding the show or for going forward with shorter seasons from now on.
