152 insights into my soul

Since all the network TV I watch has had their season finales, and the summer cable season hasn't fully started yet, there's nothing on tonight. And apparently since its Memorial Day weekend, a few of the shows that are still on are taking a break this weekend.

So, I finally got to watch Imagine Me and You. Its a cute romantic movie starring Piper Perabo and Lena Headey, that I first heard about reading Faberry fanfic, given Piper Perabo's character is named Rachel and Lena Headey's is Luce. (With Quinn's full name being Lucy Quinn, the Faberry fandom latched onto this movie because its a lesbian romance between two girls with the same names as them) Is it weird I'm more into a romantic story between two lesbians rather than hot lesbo action? Anyways, I enjoyed it, it was nice and sweet.

Watching Deathly Hallows Part 2 right now as I type this up. You know, for some reason I was thinking Luna and Neville ended up together a few months ago, but then I remembered in an interview JK Rowling did she had said what had happened to all the characters, and they had married different people. And watching this movie again, I realized I was thinking they were together because they had Neville and Luna share a moment in the movie.

As I prolly said in my entry when I saw this movie in the theaters, while I did enjoy the movies, there were little things from the books I wish they left in. Like Neville also fitting the prophecy, and Voldemort basically choosing which boy would actually be the one the prophecy was referring to by going after Harry rather than Neville. (And Dumbledore later telling Harry its rather telling that Voldemort, himself a half-blood, fixated on Harry, who was also mixed blood, rather than Neville, who was a pure-blood. Given his talk of the superiority of the pure bloods, its interesting he was more threatened by a mixed blood child) Or elaborated on the Lily/Severus stuff when they were kids more. Like the movie has Petunia calling Lily a freak when she first finds out she has magic, but in the books, I thought it was a nice touch to have Petunia write to Hogwarts when she was a kid, not knowing she wouldn't make it in at the time because she was a muggle. I kinda liked it that her distaste for the magical world wasn't fear of the weirdness of it all but rather a deep seated sense of rejection that she wasn't special like her sister.

Anyhoo, I digress. Didn't that come out around the same time as Transformers 3? I wonder if that's coming to HBO soon then? (or did it already?) Because its not on friggin Netflix, nor is it available to rent on Amazon video. Yeah, I heard the third movie sucks, but I'd like to see it for completeness sake!

TV Commentary:

Glee- The first 45 minutes were total bullshit. But then the Rachel and Quinn scene in the hallway made up for all that. Honestly, I enjoy the music, and will tolerate the ridiculousness as long as they don't ruin the friendship they've developed between Rachel and Quinn. (I mean, while I do think they would make a totally cute couple, all I've ever wanted was for those two characters to become the best of friends.)

I mean, they just make each other better- I'm sure a lot of people were annoyed with both of their antics and attitudes this ep. Which, FYI, it was sucky of Quinn to hide how much she's improved, but being able to stand up and take a step or two is a far cry from actually being able to walk, so Finn screaming at Quinn and trying to grab her out of her chair and make her walk was hugely a-holish on his part. But yeah, one conversation in the hall snaps Quinn out of the backslide back into crazytown. Of course, the shippers were going crazy about how Rachel was telling Quinn how much she meant to her, and the highlight of her high school experience was becoming Quinn's friend.

And seriously, they writers continue to troll it, by having Santana nonchalantly stroll by in the background all, "Stop making out with Berry!" So even she thinks their relationship is kinda gay.

But yeah, the Faberry in this was ridiculous! Rachel's vote being the one that took Quinn over the top to win. But then she and Santana rig it so Rachel is the winner. So let's get this straight, at last year's prom, Quinn was unaware Rachel was the one who suggested Finn give Quinn the gardenias because they matched her eyes, which went over really well. Now this year's prom, Rachel is unaware that Quinn is responsible for Rachel winning, which seems to be the motivation Rachel needs to get out of her funk and think anything is possible. Like still being able to achieve her Broadway dreams!

And let me get this straight, before the hiatus, we saw that Quinn was more important to Rachel than her own wedding. Now, Quinn winning prom queen, which they've established as Lucy Caboose-y's childhood dream forever, once she's achieved it, its not all its cracked up to be, and Rachel's happiness is more important to her? How can you not ship this?

Ha, and was there really a subplot about Blaine freaking out about not being able to use hair gel?!

But awesome, so during tonight's New Girl, they previewed one of the performances from next week's ep, Tina and Rachel doing the Flashdance theme:



Cougar Town- What are they talking about, Harrison Ford should not have a mustache! He would look totes weird with one. And ha, this episode was awesome. I mean, I don't necessarily ship Laurie and Travis (although I don't not ship it), but how deliciously angsty was this ep? Travis trying to get with Laurie, but ending up helping her with Wade? Just my kinda ep!

So, there's a rumor going around about one of the upcoming eps of Glee, where the actors/actresses play different characters than they usually do. Perhaps as a weird Glee club assignment, or the show is just going out there and having a Freaky Friday thing going on. There are some filming pics already out there where Puck is dressed as Blaine (complete with sweater vest, bow tie, and shoes sans socks) and Tina with the head bands a la Rachel, and supposedly Finn dressed as Kurt. Anyways supposedly these is a list of who's playing who. Of course, the Faberry fans are freaking the geek out over the fact that Rachel is playing Santana and Quinn is playing Brittany. They're like hoping against hope that its true, because we'll have Rachel and Quinn being all flirty/lovey-dovey, kinda of like getting Faberry without actually getting Faberry because they're technically Brittana at the time.

TV commentary:

Legend of Korra- So I finally checked out the new Avatar series. Its pretty cool and interesting so far. Given this is I think 70 years in the future, the world has moved from kinda Ancient China (albeit with steam-power ships, tanks, and zeppelins) to kinda a early 20th century look and feel. Indeed, Republic City looks like a modern city, the streets filled with 1920s looking cars, and zeppelins floating in the sky. Metal bending has also become much more common, and indeed, the city is policed by metal benders, led by Toph's daughter, Lin.

Speaking of, we actually see Katara, she's an old maid now, though Aang has passed, and aKtara mentions Sokka is gone too. We don't hear about the others though. Heh, she's had a couple of kids with Aang, and I'll admit, when I saw this I was like "Ew!", as it the whole her being with Aang isntead of Zuko still stings me. But her son Tenzin is to be Korra's air bending teacher, as air bending is the last element she has to master.

In the first ep, he goes to see her, only to say he has no time to teach her as there's pressing matters in Republic City that prevent him from staying at the South Pole to teach her. Heh, its during this visit that we meet Tenzin's kids, who are all cute- there's the studious Jinora, his eldest daughter. His middle child is another daughter, the talkative Ikki, and his youngest son is Meelo, who is creepily the spitting image of Aang. I mean, it makes sense, since Aang is his grandfather, but I guess they purposely made him look just like a like 5-7 year old version of Aang.

Anyways, to no surprise, when Tenzin goes back, Korra (with Katara's blessing) secretly follows him to the city, where she makes a mess of things. She learns there's a brewing anti-bender movement. Which isn't too surprising, because I figured there'd be a lot of mundanes dissatisfied by this other set of people who have cool powers and are in positions of power. Triads are also rampant, which is how Korra first butts heads with Lin, when the metal benders go to arrest her after she beats up a few gangers trying to collect protection money.

Lin doesn't like Korra's vigilante justice (though its not like she went looking for trouble, she just stumbled into things), and Tenzin at first promises to send her back to the South pole, but has a changed of heart and takes her in, introducing her to the city as the new Avatar.

In the second ep, her airbending doesn't seem to be going well. The calm ways of airbending don't seem to mesh with her impulsive hot-headedness. Indeed, she wants to check out pro-bending, another new development in the Avatar world, a sport where teams of benders (one each of fire, earth, and water) try to knock each other off a platform. While sneaking off to see a match, she meets Bolin, the earth bender of the up and coming team, the fire ferrets, and his brother Mako, a fire bender. Weird, can a family have different bender kids? I mean, I guess that's possible if different benders got together and had kids. Though I'm trying to think if we saw any examples of that in Last Airbender.

Bolin does flirt with Korra a bit, but its obvious they're going to have her and Mako be screwing around in no time. Anyways, circumstances occur that have her join the team, and when its exposed she's the Avatar, that's fine. Even though that seems like allowing Jesus to play on some football or baseball team. I mean, yeah, she's only limited to doing water bending, but it always seemed like the Avatar not only could bend all 4 elements, but had the potential to bend each to a powerful degree.

Of course, her hot headedness leads her to get her ass kicked initially, but then Tenzin visits her, intending to bring her back to the temple. They argue, and when she's back in the match, the opposing team holds Mako and Bolin down while they focus all their attacks on Korra. Now, I don't like how they did this, since it seemed all so sudden, but somehow, that argument with Tenzin caused her to finally "get it", even though it didn't seem like there was anything in their conversation to make her realize the follies of her ways. She's able to do the smooth flowing dodges of the airbenders, and since the opposing team blew their wad trying to take her out and simultaneously pin the brothers down, they're easy pickings for the fresh Bolin and Mako, and the Fire Ferrets get the win.

In the end, Tenzin realizes despite his initial disdain for it, pro-bending seems to be a good thing in regards to her training. Which is good, since she joined the Fire Ferrets permanently and will be competing with them (which still seems like people would be up in arms over that to me!)

TV commentary:

Glee- Concerning the Faberry hug and hand holding scene in last night's Glee, one of the reasons it stands out is because those two were the only ones we got to see genuine emotion between concerning Quinn's accident. Nothing with the rest of the unholy trinity, or Mercedes, or the father of her child, or either of her other ex-boyfriends. Hell, even when Tina was crying all Quinn did was tell her, "I'm fine, so you don't have to cry anymore!" Why did she feel the need to reassure Rach like that? And it was no small gesture, Rachel just broke down and looked like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders when Quinn beckoned her in for a hug. And the hand holding was no accident either- because Quinn actually did let go of Rachel's hand when she was addressing the group, but when they cut to another angle for the next bit of dialogue, they're holding hands again. So it is the something the show wanted to have them do.

Like I've said before, if the show isn't actually having Quinn and Rachel go lesbian, they're doing an incredible job of making it seem like they might. I mean, do you see how those two look at each other all the time? Those aren't "just friends" looks!

NCIS- That was a... jarring end to the ep? I mean, it seemed like it was going to be continued! ( spoiler cut )

A smattering of different things:

-Still can't talk, but I think things are definitely improving at least. Of course, the other thing frustrating about this is I'm drinking so much water and other liquids, that I have to go to the restroom even more than I usually do.

-So my ipod nano was close to filling up, so I switched to the ipod classic, which has 10x the storage. Since it can hold up to 160 gigs, I put some of my TV shows (all of Glee, select eps of various other shows like Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries, Community, and Archer) and those movies I have on itunes (Bandslam, Brick, Enchanted, Garden State, Godspell, Kick-Ass, Lemonade Mouth, Rent, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, the director's cut of Sucker Punch, A Walk To Remember and Zombieland) So I'm down to about 77 gig on the device, which should hopefully last a long time. Weird though, my nano couldn't charge from the dock on my car stereo, but the classic can. I'm not sure why it would work for one and not the other.

-Faberry won yet another poll, Zimbio's 2012 March Madness TV couples competition. The article about their win here is more well written than the E! one when they won that one, because they actually go into the compelling reasons why fans support Rachel and Quinn as an actual romantic couple.

-Speaking of TV couples, here's an article on 5 TV couples that just need to get together already. Obviously, I agree with Jannie and Barney/Robin. Laurie and Travis on Cougar Town would be a little weird. I mean, the age difference is smaller there than with Jeff and Annie, but Travis was under 18 when the show first started. He wasn't exactly a kid, but there was still a generational gap- he had his teen stuff going on, while the adults had there's. And Laurie is like friends with his mom, as opposed to being a fellow college student who just happens to be 10-15 years older. I'm not against it, it would be interesting, just a little jarring.

I'm not sure how I feel about Mary and Marshall on In Plain Sight. They've always had that will-they or won't they thing going on. Well, it seemed Marshall was the one more into it, but they definitely have strong feelings for one another. Its just with only a few episodes left, and where they are in their lives currently, I don't think them getting together can be done well in that time constraint. She just had a baby and is living with her ex-husband, he just proposed!

But I do echo their comment on OUAT. Snow and Charming? Great couple? MM and David? Ugh. He's such an ass in Storybrooke.

TV commentary:

House- Wow, House has done some crazy things before, but I feel that's over the line. ( spoiler cut )

Hart of Dixie- You know, even though there are a lot of similarities between Lemon and Lauren on MIOBI, I can tolerate the former much more. (Though just barely). They're both rich bitch Daddy's girls with mother abandonment issues. At least with Lemon, I understand her motivation, she's friggin' paranoid. Lauren has some of that, but also, she seems to cause chaos on a whim, or worse, hurts her friends because they're doing better than her at this or that! And Lemon at least shows periods of genuine vulnerability without seeming like a petulant brat, even when Lauren has her moments of sadness, there's always some element stopping you from completely feeling sorry for her.

( spoiler cut )

Do you know what really grinds my gears? People who get the bag person at the grocery to take their bags out to their cars when they don't need help. I mean, if you're elderly, or handicapped, or have a bunch of kids to wrangle, sure. But ooh, picking up a bag from a cart and carrying it a couple of feet to your car trunk, really difficult! Meanwhile, it slows down the line for everyone else, because the cashier has to also do the bagging. I mean, you can do bagging too, but then when its time to pay, you have to find a good stopping point so you can go up to the card reader to slide your card and wot-not and its all very inefficient.

I just don't see why some able-bodied adult person not busy trying to make sure their brats don't run into traffic need to take away an employee from their bagging duties to do something they can easily do themselves! Who do they think they effin are? The friggin Queen of the world?!

Ah, so Miranda's dad in ME3 is indeed voice by Widmore. I mean, I was sure it was him, he has a pretty distinct voice, but I just hadn't gotten confirmation until now.

Favorite song of the moment: Fun.'s "Some Nights". Surprisingly, I did not hear this off of some teen drama I watched (though I'm surprised it has not been used on a show yet, it sounds perfect as the ending song to an ep). In any case, I haven't had feels instantly evoked in me by a song since Mika's "We Are Golden". "We Are Young" is the song that's getting all the airplay and is in commercials and Glee and stuff, but I like "Some Nights" better.

Other recent albums I've bought in the last month: (albums I've bought recently, none of these albums are all that recent)

"Leavetaking", Peter Bradley Adams
"Tug of War", Carly Rae Jespen
"Young Love", Mat Kearney
"Manners", Passion Pit

And just so people don't think my tumblr is all glee/faberry reblogs with a dash of Dair, I have been posting some photosets again, of such hotties as Nina Dobrev, Danielle Panabaker, Minka Kelly, Sara Jean Underwood (and friends), and The girls of Sucker Punch.

So apparently the First Annual tumblr TV awards are going on right now. So in the best ship categories its down to 5 couples: Faberry and Britanna from Glee, Sherlock and Watson on Sherlock, Dean and Cas from Supernatural, and Dair from Gossip Girl. Like this year's E!-online poll, only one of the finalists is a straight couple, but the rest are same-sex. Which is an interesting trend. Is it that people who vote in such polls (or are vocal about "shipping") tend to favor same-sex couplings?

And is it a sign that the world is more accepting of homosexuality, or that those that are accepting have cornered modern media? Of course, another data point is of those 4 same sex couples, only 1 of those (Santana and Brittany) are an actual gay couple. The rest are non-canon. And among those three, only in the Sherlock/Watson case did the show have characters outright ask them, "Are you guys gay for each other?" The other two couplings are just supposed subtext and only in the minds of some viewers.

The finalists in the other categories that are still open: ( under a cut )

It looks like voting has either ended on the other categories (or hasn't entered final voting)

TV commentary:

Degrassi- Wait, so Tristan is Owen's brother?! That makes the stuff with Adam from a couple seasons ago incredibly effed up then. I mean, sure, Owen acts all embarrassed to be seen talking to his brother, so he's definitely not comfortable with it. But its one thing to try and ignore a LGBTQ sibling, but beating up a transgender (particularly a female to male one!)? I guess maybe his family was unaware of that incident (which I'm doubtful, since Mrs. Torres kicked up such a fuss), but if they did know I would think they would be all, WTF?! Because when Owen and Fitz did what they did to Adam, it stands to reason he's fine with such things happening to other LGBTQ people. So you'd think his fam would say, "What if someone did that to your brother?"

But yeah, I guess I was wrong in my last couple of posts, and Tristan actually is gay not metro. Deceptive promos are deceptive. Since they only showed him talking about wanting to break up Tori and Zig in the commercials, I figured it was because he wants Tori for himself. Which I guess he does, but not in the way I was thinking.

And is it me, or does Katie's storyline seem like a variation of Holly J's storyline last year, pushing oneself too hard to the point of getting actually physically hurt, and all that jazz. Which I guess was also just a rehash of Paige's storyline.

And wait, are they trying to hint at Jenna and Jake possibly getting together? Because I'm sure Claire would be incredibly thrilled with that, given the whole KC thing.

Glee- You know, I've mentioned that I only started shipping Quinn and Rachel as more than friends only recently, since before I used to just hope the show would make them really good friends. One theory is that they ramped up the Faberry lesbian subtext, but another amusing theory I have is that maybe I started seeing Quinn as more lezzie once she cut her hair. Which is a little ridiculous, because why would a girl cutting her hair (and not even guy short, just like a really cute bob) make her seem more like a lesbian? In any case, the hair cut was the best thing they ever did to Quinn. Well, maybe dying it pink in the beginning of this season in addition to that. But even just blond, she looks wicked mad cute with the shorter hair.

TV commentary:

Glee- As stated earlier, part of the way I've been getting over this Glee hiatus is reading Faberry fic. This one in particular, Undeniable, is just ridiculously amazing. I normally don't go for the ultra long fics, but its so well done and packs such an emotional punch I can't put it down!

Also, some people were excited about Matt Bomer being in the first ep after the break as Blaine's brother, but given how they went into the break, now some people are also pretty annoyed because its like, "Oh, Quinn just got hit by a truck! So logically the next episode should be about BLAINE AND HIS FAMILY!"

Hart of Dixie- Heh, I can't believe Wade was oblivious that Magnolia was crushing on him until Shelley brought it up. Also, of the things Brick got mad about with Magnolia, I can't believe he bypassed her outfits. Because some of those dresses were totally inappropriate for someone her age to be wearing (like that strapless number when she went to see Wade at the bar).

Getting back to Shelley though, I think I've said before that one thing that amuses me about this show is how multicultural Bluebell is. It is the 21st century, but still, for a town thst's supposed to be a "traditional" Southern town, its cool that its practically color blind. White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, everyone has a thick Southern accent, even Catalina from My Name is Earl and Carl Winslow.

Anyways, this show has managed to carve such an intricate love pentagon. Because apparently a simple triangle isn't enough! But its heartbreaking the way everyone is woven together, and the number of parallels that take place are almost ridiculous.

( spoiler cut )

Heh, it wasn't until last night's 30 Rock and Parks and Rec that I remembered this year is a leap year.

The Finder- What the eff was that episode? Not only was it a "let's randomly bring someone from the parent show on to the spinoff to try and increase viewrship" ep, it seemed like one of the joke-y X-Files episodes. I mean alien super soldiers or high orbit spy planes that can send out signals to target people on the ground and knock them out? I mean, the show was weird enough when they brought gypsies into it. But government conspiracies? And what the hell, apparently Finder dude has an opposite in Peta Wilson, who's good at hiding things?!

However, the ep did remind me of something I keep forgetting to post about, seeing a shooting star the other day. Hey, I'd never seen one, so that was cool. I mean, I was driving back from dinner one day, and saw something streak across the sky and disappear. Which I assumed was like a space rock burning up in the atmosphere, not some sort of alien ship.

Glee- Ha, so there are people who ship Faberry, and there are those who ship Achele. As in the actual actresses, which that's the shippers' prerogative. But while I'm fine with wanting to see certain TV characters together, shipping actual real life people (that I don't know) together is a little too weird for my tastes. I mean, I will accept that their behavior towards each other in public can get very... affectionate at times. But that's just speculation on my part, I'm fine with thinking "Hmm, that behavior is odd, I wonder if they're secretly together" but its a little too much to think "they should totally get together!"

In any case, I am amused by the conspiracy theories concerning those two, that not a few days after the two actresses won a big poll voting them the favorite couple on TV, even though they play straight characters who are not a couple, all of a sudden, the entertainment gossip sites are saying Lea Michele and Cory Monteith are dating, and Dianna Agron is back with the gay prince from Kings. Heh, like their handlers are thinking the actresses are coming off as too gay, so they parade them around with dudes to make them look more straight? I mean, I guess its possible, Hollywood is big into appearances.