darkness and light
Aug. 7th, 2006 10:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivendellroseRight now, I deserve some kind of prize for not burning through to the end of at least the current disaster on B5.
Stupid cut-tag doesn't like italics, apparently. :/
First off, let me say that I was spoiled on this arc before I even started watching the show. Purely my own fault - I should really know better than to say "don't worry, I probably won't ever get 'round to watching it," when the subject is a sci-fi series. Because inevitably, I will. And once I meet the characters and remember the spoiler, I'll be kicking myself because it's just not the same if you know. You prepare yourself, you coach yourself, you play the scene out in your head... and then, when it comes, you realize that yeah, it's actually worse than you'd imagined.
This is another case of "I grew up watching Star Trek." On Star Trek, when people are dying, it's really not very messy. The worst you might have is... oh, let's say afruit roll-up slick of something on their cheek. (Oh Tasha Yar, how cruelly they fucked up your death.) There's a little wheezing, a dramatic speech, and then - done. Please, someone, correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't remember anyone on Star Trek being hooked into the kinds of disturbing and demoralizing apparatuses that we use in modern medecine. I don't remember any neck-braces, or those really frigging scary things with the pins in that hold your head still so you don't damage your own spinal cord.
Yup. This one struck a nerve or two. I'm pretty sure I had other things I was going to say, things about Garibaldi, and how I can never decide whether or not I like Lyta, or how I was really expecting Delenn to play a more important part in all of this rather than just sort of showing up at the last minute. About how happy I was to see Londo make a move for something good for a change, with G'Kar agreeing with him all the way, or maybe how surreal it is to see that one blue eye peeking out of G'Kar's makeup. Whatever it was, it got lost in being a lot more affected than I ever anticipated by what happened to Susan, and by what I know Marcus is going to to next. I like both of them, damn it. And I'm angry that Susan is never going to be the same after this. None of them are.
I really respect a writer who's willing to play with real consequences and changes in his/her characters. I don't think I'd have the heart to do it. It definitely upsets me as an audience member. When this is all over, I want to go back and watch Season 1 and 2, just so I can see everybody happy again. Maybe that's the best thing about Firefly - it's easy to ignore the movie. There's a clear break: series = mostly happy, nice things that don't really screw anybody over too badly. Yeah, there was the whole thing with Niska, and the end of Heart of Gold, but you recover from that kind of stuff. There wasn't anything that the characters couldn't bounce back from. And then the movie came 'round, and it's easy to just sort of... stay in the period before the movie. Nothing's come since, so it's easy to just ignore it. We don't have to live there. We don't have to see the fall-out. Thinking of that, maybe I'm glad the series didn't get its run - I don't think I could've stood to see this kind of thing happen over there, and I know it would've, because that's what a really good writer would do. Change everything, and take the characters to the point where they can't go back, where nothing is really a win. There's always hope, but sometimes it's a pretty damned cold hope.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go stare blankly at my fic.
Stupid cut-tag doesn't like italics, apparently. :/
First off, let me say that I was spoiled on this arc before I even started watching the show. Purely my own fault - I should really know better than to say "don't worry, I probably won't ever get 'round to watching it," when the subject is a sci-fi series. Because inevitably, I will. And once I meet the characters and remember the spoiler, I'll be kicking myself because it's just not the same if you know. You prepare yourself, you coach yourself, you play the scene out in your head... and then, when it comes, you realize that yeah, it's actually worse than you'd imagined.
This is another case of "I grew up watching Star Trek." On Star Trek, when people are dying, it's really not very messy. The worst you might have is... oh, let's say a
Yup. This one struck a nerve or two. I'm pretty sure I had other things I was going to say, things about Garibaldi, and how I can never decide whether or not I like Lyta, or how I was really expecting Delenn to play a more important part in all of this rather than just sort of showing up at the last minute. About how happy I was to see Londo make a move for something good for a change, with G'Kar agreeing with him all the way, or maybe how surreal it is to see that one blue eye peeking out of G'Kar's makeup. Whatever it was, it got lost in being a lot more affected than I ever anticipated by what happened to Susan, and by what I know Marcus is going to to next. I like both of them, damn it. And I'm angry that Susan is never going to be the same after this. None of them are.
I really respect a writer who's willing to play with real consequences and changes in his/her characters. I don't think I'd have the heart to do it. It definitely upsets me as an audience member. When this is all over, I want to go back and watch Season 1 and 2, just so I can see everybody happy again. Maybe that's the best thing about Firefly - it's easy to ignore the movie. There's a clear break: series = mostly happy, nice things that don't really screw anybody over too badly. Yeah, there was the whole thing with Niska, and the end of Heart of Gold, but you recover from that kind of stuff. There wasn't anything that the characters couldn't bounce back from. And then the movie came 'round, and it's easy to just sort of... stay in the period before the movie. Nothing's come since, so it's easy to just ignore it. We don't have to live there. We don't have to see the fall-out. Thinking of that, maybe I'm glad the series didn't get its run - I don't think I could've stood to see this kind of thing happen over there, and I know it would've, because that's what a really good writer would do. Change everything, and take the characters to the point where they can't go back, where nothing is really a win. There's always hope, but sometimes it's a pretty damned cold hope.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go stare blankly at my fic.
