swim through the fires to stay in this world

A year ago I listed my top ten favorite male and female characters, in order.

It was brutal.

And even at the time, I knew that there was no way that list was going to stay static.

So may I present, Redbrunja’s Top 10 Male and Female characters, 2013.

(To save time, I’m only providing commentary for characters who are either new to the list, or have moved up or down it in noteworthy ways.)

( Drumroll, please. )

Coming up, Top Ten Pairings and Top Five Friendships.

Five favorite beta or ambiguously canon* relationships (link goes to TVtropes)

*by "ambiguously canon", I mean a relationship that was never confirmed in canon to be a romantic one, or was only mentioned later through Word of God, whatever...

It is hard for words to express how much I don't want to go into the morass of what an "ambiguously canon" couple would even be; besides being another verse of the oh so dull canon vs fanon argument, I just don't care enough about authorial intent to care.

So have five of my favorite beta couples:

1.) Lily and Marshall, HIMYM.

2.) Marianne and Colonel Brandon, Sense & Sensibility.

3.) Sierra and Victor, Dollhouse.

4.) Tyler and Caroline, TVD

5.) Duke and Julia, Haven. I'm predicting, here, and so the end of the summer may involve returning to this post and laughing at how wrong I was, but I have a feeling that Duke and Julia continue their more antagonistic relationship and then have it skew romantic fast while Audrey and Nathan inch along.

In fandom, we have a tendency to hate the networks (DAMN YOU, FOX! DAMN YOU!) And while it's understandable (RIP TSCC, Wonderfalls, Firefly) there are also some times when I think executive meddling has made a show better.

For example:

–The tone of Firefly - the mix of drama and humor and pathos existed because the network wanted the show to be funnier. That blend was something I adored about the series and I disliked Serenity the movie largely because of the bleak tone that was created when Whedon had his head.

–In the Justified pilot, the scene with Winona and Raylan at the end was added because the network wanted the pilot to be "darker." Now, part of me is rolling my eyes going, 'did you WATCH the pilot? ( Read more... )

–The Dollhouse original pilot. Thank god the network told Whedon to redo it because frankly, the unaired pilot sucks. It's long, it's boring, it doesn't have a good narrative through-line, and it doesn't explain the Dollhouse in any kind of concise way. The actual pilot they went with both explains what the dollhouse is in about eight minutes and then has an awesome profiler vs serial killer story for the rest of the episode, which is a narrative I am on like white on rice.

So what are your examples of time exec meddling made things more awesome instead of less?

I found last week's fannish5  really apropos, given the discussion that The Cape sparked. So before I answer last Friday's question, a word on pilots: I find it perfectly acceptable (and do) judge a show by it's pilot. A pilot is like the first line of a story, the first chapter of a book – it should introduce us to the world, the characters, and show us why we should care and why this show is going to be worth the viewers time. If the writers/showrunners can't do that... well, that's not a great sign for the show as a whole. That is probably why about 90% of the shows in my tag list have decent-to-amazing pilots; that's part of what it takes to get me watching. Some beyond outstanding pilots: Alias' (I've rewatched that episode about six times), Veronica Mars', Wonderfalls, and Soul Eater's (which hooked me and gave me an OTP by the time I'd finished watched the teaser and the opening credits).

Now, on to the fannish5 question:

Five favorite tv series that started with bad pilot episodes.

1.) Legend of the Seeker

2.) Dollhouse

3.) The Vampire Diaries

4.) In Plain Sight

5.) Criminal Minds

I got six and a half hours of miserable, nightmare-filled sleep last night, so instead of answering these two memes, I'm going to throw them at my flist, because I want to hear your answers.

fannish5 : List 5 works (where work could be a series, movie, book, episode, or even a character) that you feel are misunderstood, and why.

What series, movie, book, episode, or character do you think is misunderstood by the fandom? Tell tell.

Personally, Dollhouse (neither as good or as bad as people say) and Snape (for obvious reasons) are on my list.

And the current writer's block:

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Tell me flist, what do you think my code name should be?

Right now, I have too fantastic (and extensive) comment memes in open windows. So to keep track of the fics that I want to be able to easily re-read, I'm going to be compiling links for my favorites. Which means that my lucky flist gets quick access to some of the best. (FYI, if you visit this post in a week, there will be more fics than there are now.)

Animorphs:

There Is No Such Thing As Neutral (Rachel)
We Happy Few (Rachel)

Anne Of Green Gables:

Fairy Princess

Atonement:

My Hand Is Growing Weak (Briony)

Avatar:

As To Matters Of Dress (Sokka/Suki)

Batman:

Lick Your Eyes & Then Mine (Catwoman/Batman)

Beauty & The Beast:

Hold Me Down (Belle/Beast)
Learning Humanity (Belle/Beast)

Being Human:

You Said Your Soul Would Linger On (Annie)

Bones

One Year Later (Brennan)
Turn Around Again (Angela)
Bones Break (Brennan)
Trust Not The Coyote (Caroline)
Conceptual Art Is Bullshit (Angela)
A Reasonable Explanation (Brennan)
Spent So Long Waiting Here (Booth/Brennan)

Buffyverse:

American Girls (Buffy)
Plans (Faith)
Tired Of Being Cautious (Fred)
Travel It All (Faith)
Razor's Edge (Buffy)
But You've Got The Headstone All Ready (Buffy)
There Is No Prince (Buffy/Giles)

Casino Royale:

Juggernaut Heart (Vesper)

Castle:

Takedown (Beckett/Demming)

Carmen Sandiego:

The Catch Is You Stay & See What Becomes Of Us (Carmen/Waldo)

Castle:

Fatherhood (Alexis)
The Magnificent Seven (Martha)

Community:

Do Not Go Gentle (Annie)
It's My Heart, Not Me, Who Cannot Drive (Britta, Jaye)
Take The Wheel (Britta)
On Hiatus (Britta)
My Smile Can Distract You (Annie)
Like A Child (Annie)
With The Lights Out It's Less Dangerous (Annie/Jeff)
Come A Little Bit Closer (Jeff/Annie)
Hey, Hey, You, You (Annie/Jeff)
TV Marathon (Jeff, Abed, Jeff/Annie)
In Limbo Part One and Part Two (Britta)
Sawdust (Britta/Abed)
This Could Be A Brand New Start (Britta)
Temporary (Jeff/Annie)

Criminal Minds:

Close To Home (JJ)
They Are My Own (Haley)
My Heart Has Lost It's Wind Now (Emily)
When It Doesn't Rain It Pours (Emily)
Self-Esteem Is Good For You (Garcia)
I'll Sing You All The Lullabies (They Never Sung For Me) (Elle)
Wrong Number (Garcia/Morgan)
Friday Night Goddess (Garcia, Reid)

Dark Angel:

The Tenderest Touch Leaves The Darkest Marks (Max)
Songs For Fighters (Max/Alec)

Dexter:

A Lion-Hearted Fucking Woman (Deb)
After The Deluge (Deb)

Doctor Who

I Think To Die Would Be An Awfully Big Adventure (Amy)
Climbing Back (Rose)
These Accidents of Faith and Nature (Amy)
Too Much Like A Fairy Tale (Amy)
The Good Wife (Martha)
We'll Be Their Storybook Heroes (Sally Sparrow)
Got A Sky Full of Stars (And Nothing Else) (Amelia Pond)
No Hero In Her Sky (Amelia)
First Run (River Song)
Lionesses (River Son/Liz X)

Dollhouse:

Painting The World You Want To See (Priya)

Dracula:

Phantom (Mina/Dracula)
Firefly:

Your Absence Has Gone Through Me (Inara/Nandi)
Meta (River)
Wolves (Zoe, Kaylee, River)

Fullmetal Alchemist:

Steadily (Riza)
There Goes My Gun (Riza & Rebecca)

Gilmore Girls:

A Perfect Haircut Every Day (Lane)

Glee:

Waegukin (Tina)
Inscrutable (Tina/Mike)
As If You'd Just Woke Up (Rachel/Jesse)
Fathers and Mothers (Rachel)
Linear Progression (Shelby)
Sweep The Room With A Glance (Emma)

The Good Wife

I Lost My Teeth On The Edge Of A Glass (Kalinda)
Something To Think About (Kalinda)

Gossip Girl:

Wants (Blair)
Snapshot of the Artist (Vanessa)
You Know You Love Me (Gossip Girl)
Everything Marissa Cooper Could Have Been (Serena, Summer)

Harry Potter:

On the Nature Of Hatred & It's Uses (Hermione)
Human Behavior (Bellatrix)
When Choice Means Leaving Everything Behind (Hermione)
No Take-Backs (Narcissa)
You Counting On My Failure Make Me Live (Lily/James)
It's Not A Joke (Tonks)
Blow Me Blue-Bell Bubbles (Alice)

Hercules:

Heart & Heaven (Meg)

How I Met Your Mother:

That Girl (Robin/Ted)

The Hunger Games:

REBELLION (KATNISS)

Trust (Rue)
Rise & Fall (Prim)

In Plain Sight

The Art Of Ninja Origami (Mary/Marshall)
Hard Hats (Mary & Eleanor)
Ice Cream (Mary/Marshall)

Iron Man:

The Sea Makes Your Eyes Strange (Natasha Romanova)
Dust Out The Demons (Tony/Pepper)
Fast, Thorough, & Sharp As A Tack (Pepper/Tony)
Brutality (Tony, Emma Frost, Pepper)

Labyrinth:

Missed You All Along (Sarah)
Dreams (Sarah)

Legally Blonde:

Sugar, We're Going Down (Elle)

Legend of the Seeker:

Immune To Pathos (Cara)
It Feels Like Being Broken (Cara/Kahlan)
Dress Code (Kahlan/Cara)
Contrast (Cara/Kahlan)
Life Comes With A Rush (Cara/Kahlan)
Been A Long Road To Get Here (Kahlan)
Where Goodness Used To Be (Cara)
A Friendly Assist (Cara/Kahlan)

Leverage:

I've Looked At Love (Sophie)
Kisses (Parker)
A Lie Will-Told Is Immortal (Sophie)
Translations For Broken & Breaking Out (Parker, Nate)

Life:

Pretty As A Diagram (Reese)

Merlin:

Under The Greenwood Tree (Morgana/Merlin)
Pennies In A Jar (Morgana)

Mulan:

My Story Is Not Like Yours (Mulan)

Mythology:

We Laugh Indoors (Lilith)
She Doesn't Wanna Be (Just A Little Light Turning The Key) (Lilith)

Narnia:

One of those Mink-Coated Ladies (Susan)
The Story Of An Umbrella (Susan)
Just Like The Edge Of The World (Lucy)

The OC:

Houses Out Of Cardboard Boxes (Julie)

Pirates Of The Caribean:

O The Blood And The Treasure And Losing It All (Elizabeth/Will)

Practical Magic:

Fine As A Bridesmaid (Gillian)

Push:

Drove Like Bandits On The Freeway (Nick/Cassie)
Seeing (Cassie/Nick)

Sunshine:

Story (Constance/Sunshine)

SG-1:
What I've Found (Vala)
Conflicting Mission Reports (Vala & Teyla)
5 Times Vala Threw Daniel A Birthday Party When It Wasn't His Birthday (Vala/Daniel)

Sherlock Holmes:

Play The Cards With Spades To Start (Irene)
"Damnation!" (Mary)

Star Trek:

Many Worlds (Naomi, Seven of Nine)
Lethal Poison Through The System (Uhura)
Maybe You Could've Been Something I'd Be Good At (Uhura/Gaila)

Speak:

I Cast My Face Towards The Pavement (Melinda)

Supernatural

And I Don't Owe You A Damn (Bela)
Money (Bela)
An Endangered Species (Ellen, Jo)
Ongoing Arguments (Anna, Castiel)
Fractured (Jo)
Better Find Your Ticket (Bela)
Hurricane (Bela)

Tortall:

Light Is Less (Alanna)
Risk-Taking (Alanna)

True Bood:

Lay Down Your Burden (Jessica)
Language (Jessica)
In The End I Possess My Birthplace (Tara)
Looking For Her Ordinary World (Jessica)
Remember Me When Noses Start To Bleed (Pam/Eric)
I Used To Be A Bad Girl Too (Faith/Jessica)
When Life Gives You Lemons (Tara/Franklin)

The Vampire Diaries:

Roaring Twenties (Anna)
Child Of Mine (Pearl, Anna)
Take The Safety Off (Bonnie)
Old Relations (Bonnie/Elena)
Evolution Is Corruption (Damon/Elena)

Veronica Mars:

Lies, Damned Lies, & Statistics (Veronica)
Leave The Light On (Veronica/Logan)

Wimbleton:

That's How You Know (Lizzie)

White Collar:

Put Another Dime In (Diana)

Normally these shipping memes are kind of 'well, duh' but since I've recently gotten into new fandoms and have not been writing fic... I think my flist will find, if not suprising answers, answers they've haven't heard before.

Six ships you are into right now:

o1. Adelle/Dominic (Dollhouse)
o2. Kahlan/Richard (Legend of the Seeker)
o3. Will/Emma (Glee)
o4. Victor/Sierra (Dollhouse)
o5. Ried/JJ (Criminal Minds
o6. Kantiss/Peeta (The Hunger Games)

three ships you liked but don't like/aren't a rabid fangirl for anymore:

Which totally does not mean I ship these characters with anyone else, ever. I'm just not actively reading them atm.

o7. Kakashi/Sakura (Naruto)
o8. Angela/Hodgins (Bones)
o9. Sarah/Chuck (Chuck)

four ships you never liked

1o. Will/Terri (Glee)
11. Cara/Richard (Legend of the Seeker)
12. Parker/Eliot (Leverage)
13. Kaylee/Mal (Firefly)

two ships you're curious about, but don't actually ship

14. Kahlan/Cara (Legend of the Seeker)
15. Rachel/Puck (Glee)

( Somebody To Love )

I'm not a fan of this song, but I really enjoyed this vid. They say it's an Adelle tribute, but more specifically it's a homage to her fantastic fashion sense and epic facial expressions. Her bitch!face is particularly made of win.

 gacked from yahtzee63 :

( Television Meme )

 Adelle/Topher

How do you people fail to see the epic fucked up maternal dynamic these to have going on? Why must you try to add sexy fun times? IT JUST DOES NOT WORK. 

Eliot/Hardison/Parker

Since I have a complex and detailing understanding of the average slash fangirl's mind (even if sometimes I wish to god I didn't) I utterly understand why Hardison/Eliot is so popular. I am also fully onboard the Parker/Hardison they-are-so-adorable-and-awesome-and-bond-over-their-foster-care-childhoods-and-should-have-milk-chocolate-safe-cracking-geek-babies train.

*deep breath*

However, JUST BECAUSE THER ARE TWO AWESOME HARDISON SHIPS* DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU SHOULD SMUSH THEM TOGETHER, EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU WRITE A LEVERAGE FANFIC.

Seriously, people.

And stop with the freaking stealth Eliot/Hardison/Parker, where it looks like a gen/canon caper fic BUT IN REALITY is a cleverly disguised romance fic about Eliot joining Hardison and Eliot for sexyfuntimes.


*Of course, personally, I think there is ONE awesome Hardison ship and one slash ship I'm not interested in, but go with me for arguments sake.