(no subject)

[redbrunja]

Finished my taxes. It is actually embarrassing how long it's taken me to freaking sit down and do them, considering how easy they were and the fact that for the first time ever, I'm actually getting money back. (Seriously, I was at the 'let me reorganize my bathroom drawers to avoid doing taxes stage of procrastination).

I feel like I blinked and today vanished - part of that was because I was up super-late watching The Hunger Games (again, a friend had free IMAX tickets)* and part of that was because I basically woke up, did errands, and then spent TWO FUCKING HOURS with a Century Link technician and my landlady in what was the most awkward, stressful internet repair job of my entire life (short version: my landlady hated the tech, the tech wanted to tell me his entire life story).

I'm now painting my nails to de-stress. (OPI What A Broad on my toes, Edin-Burgundy on my nails - this color isn't really a burgundy, but the best blood-red color I've found).

12_12_12 had a great (and also depressing) meta post about the kind of love stories television shows are choosing to tell these days, which prompted me to ask: flist, can you give me examples of currently airing shows where characters in a romance choose the larger picture or their personal ideals over their loved on, without this being textually seen as Not Loving There S.O. Enough?

*So, on the drive home from my second viewing of THG,

I was got to talking about Johanna, and how she and Haymitch (SO MUCH HAYMITCH) are both fractured mirrors of who Katniss would be if she lost more people earlier in her life. And I have to admit, the changes they made to Haymitch make me kind of sad, because as funny as the line about spilling his drink on his new pants is, it means that movie!Haymitch is an entirely different beast than book!Haymitch, who would never have said that. (Tangent: I lot of really cool Effie/Haymtich prompts have popped up online, which I would kind of love to take a crack at, but I don't feel like I have a good handle on Haymitch a.t.m.)

Comments

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I was trying to explain to someone that Haymitch was great, but he wasn't Haymitch, and they kept looking at me like I was a crazy person.

[abvj.livejournal.com]

I think if I had to pick my biggest complaint about THG movie-adaptation it would be what they did to Haymitch's character. Which isn't to say that it was terrible, it wasn't. Movie!Haymitch was just not how I pictured book!Haymitch and for me that created a huge disconnect. But, movie!Haymitch also brought to light so Effie/Haymitch feelings I've been having, too, which is not totally unwelcome. So, yeah. Not terrible.

Thank you so much for linking to that meta. I might be shopping that around my flist, because the author is super intelligent and draws so much apt references to how love stories should be represented and how they are these days. It's not the same, and it has been something I've been thinking about for a while now, but could never articulate into words. So, yeah, thanks for linking that.

My current & forever OTP - Sophie/Nate from Leverage are a good example of what a relationship should be. The writers did an excellent job of breaking down these characters and deconstructing the relationship they had so they could make certain choices and move towards being the people that could sustain a relationship together. They had to better themselves and choose themselves time and time again to get to that point, and it was just really lovely to watch play out. You don't see a lot of that on TV anymore which is quite sad.

[cynchick.livejournal.com]

I would say TVD has love that is strong and genuine but not all-consuming. Stefan does it, and Caroline/Tyler both put the one they love aside because they have to. Also in Nikita, Nikita/Michael definitely prioritize the greater good.

But this is not new. True Love Conquers All is the oldest trope in the universe and it will never be any less prevalent in the way we look at romance.

Also that meta seems less of a meta and more of a hatefest on the CW and a lauding of Buffy/Angel- while completely ignoring all the problems in other relationships on that series, like Buffy and Spike. I get their point, but I also think the author should broaden their tv-watching scope before assuming what happens on the CW (a network aimed at 16-24yr-olds) happens everywhere. A meta on the problematic perception of romance on tv should be just that.

And at the end she pretty much negates her argument by pointing out that it's today's viewers who look at things in this way. Today's young adults are very different animals than the young adults of ten years ago. I know, I was one. Buffy was the same age as me and I grew up watching it. I grew up during the third wave of feminism. Girls today are living in tail-end of the backlash, and everything they are taught to want out of life is affected by that. Basically, television is only a small part of the problem.

[zombie_boogie.livejournal.com]

I liked a lot of things about Woody Harrelson's Haymitch (one of my favourite added scenes was Haymitch watching the Capitol children play with swords), but I don't think he was nearly as dark as book!Haymitch. I just re-read Catching Fire and I think that's when the really dark, haunted, nasty elements of his personality come to the fore so hopefully we'll see more of that in the second film (I think Woody's capable of it).

ETA: In answer to your question, I guess you could argue that on P&R at the beginning of the season Leslie chose the "larger picture" over her relationship with Ben, and I don't think the show tried to say that it was that she just didn't love him enough... but then they got back together so it's kind of a moot point (which I don't mind, because I'm perfectly fine with Leslie Knope Having It All).

[bitterbird.livejournal.com]

taxes are not fun but yay for getting money back!

really interesting meta discussion post!

[bellonablack.livejournal.com]

I feel like a cheater since I like pairings that are opposed on principles and still flirt. Um. I can't really say, I think there's this pull to displaying unconditional love even when they kill your loved ones and put their heads on spikes. I love pairings where people are comforted and understand their mutual darkness, but that's too far.

I don't mind selfishly chosing your loved over other people's values, but not your own.

[qualapec.livejournal.com]

(Woot for seeing the Hunger Games twice. I'm going again tomorrow for a friend's b-day)

I think your thoughts on the difference between book!Haymitch and movie!Haymitch were really interesting. Since I read the book after the trailers for the movie came out, I always pictured him with Woody Harrolson's mannerisms and voice, so that difference wasn't there for me between the movie and the book.

One big difference that I think the movie had - it was obvious Haymitch was suffering from something on the PTSD spectrum. One scene in particular really stood out to me. When he was watching the two little children in the Capitol chasing each other with fake swords, the look on his face really struck me as a nasty flashback. A lot of the things he did, his jokes, the digs at Effie, the drinking, all very obviously concealed that thin veneer of self-loathing.

Granted, that's all obvious in the book as well, I just felt like the movie emphasized his trauma instead of his rebellion, whereas I think the book emphasized his plot to change the Hunger Games so that two Tributes had a chance of winning, and how he plotted that from the beginning.

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

Well, there's Graceling(a YA book) where the heroine went "I am not marrying or having kids. Ever. Even if my husband gives me every freedom, it'd be something granted to me, rather than something I take for myself."
To which the hero responded "Hey, not gonna push you. You can easily kick my ass in a fight, for one thing. Would sex with birth control be an option?"

With an end result that they had sexyfuntimes while also letting the vital plot-related events take priority over their relationship.