Quill and (Most of) the Gang

9/28/2014

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It's been a few weeks since I last promoted a shirt, something that gradually became integral to this blog. TV and tees: I really don't know how it happened. But most shirts from Ript and TeeFury that debuted when I had time to write about them haven't been all that interesting as of late, as they either weren't "my life depends on buying that" impressive or they didn't align with my interests. Qwertee had some great tees, but I'm not an affiliate, so no reason to bother other than a quick Pin. I hope to see those again on other sites. Yesterday I spent 13 hours cleaning and organizing the house, making somewhat of a dent. I would have missed these adorable Guardians of the Galaxy tees then. Today I am doing as little as any human has ever done, except for this one small detour, because Guardians was outstanding.

I think the Mario-inspired Super Star Lord is the best of the three. For some reason, the Lego-inspired Awesome Mix Vol. 1 leaves out Drax, an important character. But I didn't even realize that was another Chris Pratt character there next to Peter Quill. Made more sense when I read that he was in The Lego Movie, which I wanted to see but have yet to. And I can't believe someone attempted to make the huge-chinned, purple and quite evil Thanos kind of cuddly. They succeeded with Super Villain. All of these shirts are on sale for $10 a piece until the end of the day. They're also available on hoodies, onesies, posters and coasters.



 

 

The Blacklist
DaddyGate vs Lizzington
Season 1 Thoughts

9/22/2014

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The Blacklist returns tonight! You may have seen me mention it if you read Part 1. I'm doing a happy dance, but tinged with a bit of sadness. "DaddyGate" (those of us who believe Red is Liz's father or father figure) versus "Lizzington" (those of us who want to see them together in a more intimate way) turned nasty at some point on Tumblr and I fell out of love with blogging there. I had great fun debating theories last year and spending so much time on Tumblr. People were so active and made such wonderful GIFs and I even started making my own. But then I started seeing (mainly shipper) comments that put others' theories down, and they became less and less polite about it. Some said there was no father-daughter relationship, though there was no proof. Another said that they would stop watching the show if Red and Liz didn't get together or, worse, if they were related. They said that would turn it into a cliche. How is that? I thought it was nonsense. I have never seen the man lost his family to an unknown psychopath or sanctioned hit one Christmas Eve-saved his/a friend's/an enemy's daughter (edit, 10/1/15: or his daughter from an affair, as I'm now thinking a year later, the day of the season 3 premiere) from a burning house-gave her to his best friend to keep her safe-followed her from the shadows for years until she got into the FBI-turned himself in to work with her and get to the bottom of what happened to his family and exact revenge-won't tell her who he is for fear of hurting her or putting her in danger-being targeted by a madman who's thinks he killed the madman's daughter in the most horrible way story before.

If that's a cliche then how is changing the details to kidnapped her from her real father any better? It changes their relationship and possibly the reason he was targeted but not the depth of feeling of the series. It would diminish nothing in the storytelling. I have always found the father angle to be the most poignant one (not necessarily the right one), just ahead of atoning for his sins or being framed and targeted. What you want their relationship to be and what it turns out to be may not be exactly the same. That doesn't change what came before and how it made you feel at the time. It will only serve to shine a light on every action, every word from Red. And it may, no matter the outcome, increase the emotional resonance. Whatever is right for the story, whatever makes the most impact is how it should be.

I'm telling you with no uncertainty, your father is dead. He died in that fire.

What I took away from that moment is that he was talking about himself. I love the reveal at the end, that Red did brave that fire to save Liz. She was too young to remember anything other than that her father saved her. It's possible Liz assumed it was him or, just as easily, maybe she was so certain because of the way it felt to be in his arms and a reassuring voice. Red saving his daughter from the fire then blowing up his own house years later can make sense. The fire could have been confined to a bedroom or the second floor, the floor he looked up at when he entered and put his hand on the banister. The house could have been renovated. Yes, there are a lot of "could haves," but that's what this show is made of. I had a thought once that maybe Red had more than one daughter. That would explain the two different girls he remembered who brought tears to his eyes. That is, if they are supposed to be different people. They could have just wanted to show different moments in her life. It was a feeling more than anything in the way he recounted the night his world crashed down.

There were so many times Red's concern for Liz seemed parental. Even if they are not related, he may feel that way and he at least knew her as a child (but how well?), which ruled out the romantic angle for me. He had an attachment to her before she even met him. He has protected her without hesitation and has let her know he always would. He killed Sam to keep the truth from her, so lying when she asked if he was her father wouldn't be a stretch. In that scene, he took a few beats to think about how much he should say. He takes it hard when she is angry with him. He casually threw out a comment in "Berlin" about them not being on speaking terms as reminiscent of elementary school. And the biggest moment for me was that music box he knew would trigger a memory of her father humming its song to her when she couldn't sleep. It would seem only a relative or close friend would know something like that and he didn't just guess. He was so still and apprehensive, as Red always is in those moments - wanting to tell her everything but unable to.

 

Someone pointed out a long time ago, when I gave all my reasons for not seeing Red and Liz in a relationship, that a DNA test would have immediately ruled him out and that's why they could not be related. I admitted that it never crossed my mind. I had just assumed it had mentioned it before and I forgot or missed it since my family makes comments while watching TV. I realized on a rewatch that they were right. That seems more of an oversight on the writer's part or it got cut for time. Hopefully, they'll eventually say something either way. If it turns out he is related then I have to assume he would have had an ally get to the results before anyone saw them. Whatever the truth is, it always felt like Red at least thought of Liz as a daughter. Answers are few and far between and the emotional impact will be huge once the full picture is revealed. Taking so long to get there has been beautifully agonizing; all of those little Red and Liz moments allowing us to fall in love with them.

Sadly, the time it has taken to get this far also divided us. I was heavily into Tumblr for months. I still visit occasionally, because I miss the interaction and seeing how others interpret the same moments, but I've found it's much more pleasant to be alone with my thoughts or with other, less judgmental, more joyful fandoms, like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nearing the end of season one, I felt more and more unwelcome with the people I followed and it was starting to affect my love for the show. I was frustrated with the incessant I'm right-you're wrong posts, all caps yelling and snide "Daddygater" remarks. I should have shrugged it off since I was open to any direction the show wanted to go in, but it became relentless. The fandom suddenly made me angry or brought me to the verge of tears nearly every day, though the vitriol was usually not directed at me personally, and I found myself wanting to write and write and write back against it all. But my opinions weren't valid even though no one had concrete answers, and I was tired of spending too much time writing about and GIFing The Blacklist (which takes so long) and then being completely ignored or told not too gently that I was wrong.

One day it became too much and I decided to stay out of it for a while. I thought we were all trying to have a good time, but fans had been pointlessly sniping at each other while I sat in the middle, leaning toward the father-daughter theory for good reason and just as easily leaning the other way when I heard an argument that held water. I understand that shippers got fed up with anti-shippers ranting at them, which I had been completely unaware of, but the behavior from both sides saying that others are ignoring facts to suit their whims or that they are only casual fans clinging to stupid theories because they haven't paid attention is just not acceptable. The problem stemmed from people interpreting interactions differently. We only had speculation about their relationship, but I was considered a fool that I saw it another way even after the finale, which seemed to say more than words. If the shippers turn out to be right, there will be no hard feelings from me, because they are actually good people and we're all only looking for the truth. For now I'll continue to keep my mouth relatively shut on the subject of The Blacklist over there, while still reblogging all the interesting, soul-shattering moments. But for conversation, I find far fewer people make me feel bad on Twitter.

Update: Spoilers for the first two episodes of season 2. I can now definitively say, even with many questions unanswered, that the father-daughter theory has been put to rest. Red's wife and daughter are alive, though the way he spoke about them in "Madeline Pratt" made it seem like there was more than one child. Anyway, that's okay with me, because trying to get to the bottom of Red and Liz's relationship is still intriguing. And I still don't see them as a couple. It always felt like either Liz was related or she was an emotional substitute for Red's daughter, not a potential girlfriend. Now maybe everyone has calmed down on Tumblr...or more likely there are a lot of I-told-you-so's going around.

Update 2 (10/1/15): Or is that theory revived? I now feel like Red could have had an affair. It's not far-fetched. He's spent a lot of time away from home, and maybe decades ago he was not being faithful to his wife while abroad. I'm not sure if this was a theory I thought of at the beginning of the series (I'd have to read back through), but I like it. Red didn't didn't raise her, so he doesn't feel he has any claim to being Liz's father, but it explains how he's got this parental longing towards her at times, that desire to tell her the truth and the desire to keep her safe from it. I felt that from the beginning and it only got stronger with every emotional beat. Of course, as I've said before, he could also just bear a responsibility for her and became obsessively attached to her after he lost his own little girl. Liz hardly notices his concern and pain because she's usually mad at him and he tries so hard to hide it, but we all see it.

Get The Blacklist on Blu-ray, DVD or Amazon Instant Video where the Pilot episode is currently free.

Image is copyright of NBC.

The Blacklist
Is Red the Monster Berlin Believes Him to Be?
Season 1 Thoughts

9/22/2014

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After everything that happened during this thrilling first season - Red confronting the Stewmaker with seething rage and seeming self-loathing, torture at the hands of Anslo Garrick, Grey's betrayal and so much more - two huge pieces of the puzzle were saved for last. In the final episodes we learn that Berlin's reasons for going after Red have nothing to do with business but an unrelenting personal hatred. The story he told the authorities, in the guise of a guard, about a Russian colonel who was sent parts of his daughter while he was imprisoned, may have been embellished, but Berlin clearly blames Red for her death. I loved the Keyser Soze nod, but some manner-deficient know-it-all was ranting about it and a lot more, apparently not understanding it was an homage and proving only that he had no real understanding of the series. Anyone who has seen the Usual Suspects immediately recognized the way the story was being told. The similarities ended there since Berlin wasn't made up by another character and had nothing to do with killing his own daughter, who was revealed to be the girl from Stanley Cornish's album when he was shown holding a pocket watch with the same photo inside, the same photo Red looked upon with such sadness. Was that loss or guilt, I always wondered?

Watching "The Stewmaker," I first thought that it might be Liz, but she was far younger when she was given to Sam and faking her death years later would make no sense. Then I thought she could be Red's daughter or someone he had failed. Quite a few episodes later, along came the ballerina, who seemed to be of similar age and features, so I thought, yes, the girl in the photo had been Red's child. Now it seems she and the ballerina are different people. There is no doubt now that she is Berlin's daughter rather than Red's. I think I came across a theory many months ago that she could have been Red's wife, but that doesn't seem like a possibility. She would've had to have had a 3-year-old, at least, as seen in "Frederick Barnes," but she looked like a child herself. And both her death and Red's personal tragedy were in December of 1990. Red wouldn't have been bringing home a car full of presents to a family that had just lost their mother, thinking about how they would laugh at his misfortune when he got there.

So why would Red take the picture if she was not someone he lost? Maybe as a reminder of what he had become? Who is she, one of the biggest motivators of the story, to Red? Did he really do to her what Berlin claims? I can't see it with the way he cares about children, at least not intentionally; maybe in a compartmentalized operation where he didn't know the full scope or under extreme duress. But Berlin finding out about Red and enacting revenge within the month would be unnaturally swift action, unless he was tipped off by someone who had Red's worst interests at heart. If I remember correctly, Berlin was tortured with pieces of his daughter over weeks, which would considerably shrink the timeline. Also, if Berlin had gotten revenge before, why would he be after Red again? And if Red had done something so monstrous, or had disguised a kidnapping as a murder and used that to drive Berlin to a depthless rage, he would not be wondering who was systematically trying to take him down. Instead, Berlin would be first on Red's list of enemies to keep an eye out for, but Red had no idea who laid waste to his life or who Berlin is and what he could possibly want now. Maybe Red's family had been the target of someone else, and had he not broken down he probably would have been home and met the same fate.

We also learned from the finale that Red did go into that fire, as we all suspected from those glimpses of a man saving Liz. From the moment he asked about her scar in the first episode, it was clear he knew her. What stranger would be so forward? The show never tried to hide how moved Red is by being close to her. So after a full season of subject changes and sidestepping of the question, once even asked point blank, some jumped at Red's scars as definitive proof that he is Liz's father. On any other show I wouldn't question it. It could be as simple as what many thought from the first moment they met, which is not really simple at all but rather emotionally complex. We only know for sure now that Red saved Liz, and shippers would have an issue if I said otherwise. He was the one who brought her to Sam and asked him to raise her as his own, so we always had an almost certain suspicion. It was wonderful to have it confirmed, to see the evidence he risked his life for a little girl. But we still don't know if that was because of parental instincts or because he set it for some reason before realizing she was inside. Maybe Liz has nothing to do with Berlin's enmity toward Red. Berlin is, after all, not number one on Red's Blacklist. So who is? There are so many questions and so many reasons for thinking he is her father and then also theories that allow for a connection despite not having any relation. I'll savor every episode this year that gets me a step closer to the truth.

NEXT, PART 3 - THE BLACKLIST THEORIES AND TUMBLR SNIPING
PREVIOUSLY, PART 1 - THE BLACKLIST RETURNS TONIGHT

Get The Blacklist on Blu-ray, DVD or Amazon Instant Video where the Pilot episode is currently free.

Image is copyright of NBC.

The Blacklist
Red Returns Tonight
Season 2 Premiere

9/22/2014

Is the second season premiere of The Blacklist really already here? Summer always fools me. It seems long enough that I can get everything done before fall comes around, but there are always so many distractions. I saw some great movies and wrote about a couple of them, got caught up on the breathtakingly intense Game of Thrones again, started the intriguing Orphan Black and restarted the hilarious Red Vs. Blue after a decade break. I spent the rest of the summer never finding the time for rewatches of The Blacklist, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Fringe. I had so much work with my new second job that I had only small free periods where I would choose to blog about shirts or play GTAV. That resulted in not finishing a bunch of posts about this series (or really any other) or all the GIFs I'd been excited about making.

So without the benefit of important episodes fresh in my mind, I have to complete this based on what I had written already, which was actually quite a lot. Always at the forefront are the many emotional moments, moments where the emotion is given time to sink in rather than quickly cutting away like so many other series. James Spader being one of the most gifted actors, I was immediately invested. When Red isn't quipping up a storm or innocently marveling at the skill of an acquaintance, jovial moments the series needs, his facade drops away and we see the damaged, dangerous man underneath who is equally at home holding Liz's hand as he is getting the upper hand with a serial killer. His grief-stricken heart has compassion for the wronged, but he can be cold and callous if you get in his way.

All of these things made this series such a perfect surprise last year. If it had been cancelled after the finale, it would have been one of the true tragedies of the fickle television landscape. I would have felt that way even very early on, after the deep dark of the fourth episode, The Stewmaker; that's how quickly The Blacklist established itself as a series that deserved to be finished the right way. But luckily enough, it was such a juggernaut that it was renewed after only nine weeks. I hope this season keeps that momentum at the very least until we find out what the deal is with Red and Liz, because that is the core that the series still hasn't been fully revealed. We think we know some of it, but we can't be sure of anything other than Liz's past is unknown to her and Red and Berlin are two fathers who lost children and never let go.

NEXT, PART 2 - IS RED THE MONSTER BERLIN BELIEVES HIM TO BE?

Get The Blacklist on Blu-ray, DVD or Amazon Instant Video where the Pilot episode is currently free.

Dead Inside

9/13/2014

Before Shaun of the Dead employed brilliant wit and endearing characters to mock the relentlessness of death in a surprisingly warm homage that my brothers and I will forever quote back and forth to each other, before The Walking Dead created a substantial drama with unforgettably wrenching, tension-filled moments that take all of your strength just to keep watching, I never gave much of a thought to the zombie genre. It could be slightly entertaining if October didn't feel creepy enough, but I never cared about zombies or their fictional survivors at all beyond that. It was just an unnecessarily bloody and pointless joke to me. There was never any substance behind them that I could care for, never any heart...unless one was ripped out. And then a few people with talent decided to take a crack at it and I noticed. Now I look forward to these stories, because any one could have an interesting new idea. I hope they don't wear out their welcome with me the way that many vampire tales have done that are not from the imagination of Justin Cronin, who weaves together pre- and post-apocalyptic lives spanning decades and makes their losses feel significant, or Joss Whedon, who has always shown incredible depth and humor and infuses a sense of reality and humanity in the craziest of situations.

I have a feeling that Miranda Doerfler will make her own mark before too long and it starts with a novella called Dead Inside, the culmination of a first step that includes a number of short stories preceding it. I don't want to give it all away, so I can't say too much. What I can say is I read most of it in one night, went to sleep, woke up, and devoured it before breakfast. That's not just because of the brevity, but due to the author's flowing prose, a style that graces all her work. The natural dialogue and detail developed the scenes like a Polaroid in my mind. In fact, days after reading it I remembered a moment and mistook it for a movie sequence. There is an instant feel for the characters, but I would have liked more time with them. Also better would have been for the concerns of the more level-headed scientist to his casually sociopathic co-worker's "for science" justification for murder to be more forceful, an "I can't believe I never realized you were this evil" objection rather than a "this seems wrong but you're my buddy so I'll go along with it" non-objection. Those are small concerns, though, that soon took a backseat when the pace swept me up into a world being swiftly torn down, overrun before its inhabitants can understand what's happening.

Dead Inside is an interesting take on the zombie genre, treading familiar ground but adding new twists, and I would like to see it explored further. With a small group of people who can bring the dead back to life, there is a supernatural component to this Michael Crichton-esque science-born terror. I like the mix. And these aren't your typical shambling bags of bones, who mindlessly impale themselves or are thwarted by an elevator. A zombie making a conscious choice is a scary beast, indeed. Where normally presented purely as unrelenting eating machines, motivated by hunger even after disintegrating, there is a surprising look into the mind of the undead, memories of who they were competing with what they've become. It reminds me of Warm Bodies in that way, but don't for a second think this is a sweet rom-zom-com. With a rage brought on by a virus that works it's effects in moments, these are monsters in the vein of 28 Days Later. The living are in big trouble, turned in the blink of a eye. This is the kind of book where I'd advise against eating while reading, and if you're plagued by dreams that don't feature kittens snuggling with puppies then it might be a good idea to curl up with Dead Inside in the daylight.

This is an admirable first novel from a promising young author. Give her a shot and you will find yourself anticipating what's next. Then follow the author on Twitter and spend a few more dollars on her other work.

*As of this writing, the Kindle version (the one without a price) is $4.99.

Our Lady of Protection vs. The Gentlemen

9/06/2014

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I haven't posted anything in a little while. There's just been too much to get done around here. But I thought I'd take a little break for a few moments to talk about these tees. For anyone who doesn't know, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a great series. Actually, "great" is not a big enough word to describe it, but nothing else I can think of does it justice either. Just like all the best, it's one of those things that becomes a part of you. I skipped the first couple years, because while I loved the movie for some reason, I had no desire to watch multiple episodes and thought it wouldn't last. I probably just assumed the campiness and bad acting would follow and be a disappointment. Turned out that I was very, very wrong. The characters were endearing and could find humor in the face of the oddest and worst of situations. The emotions often drilled deeper than any standard, non-supernatural drama. Just see the episode "The Body" for proof of that: the most elegantly constructed 44 minutes of what it's like to lose someone close to you. Then Buffy spawned a spin-off, Angel, which matched its wits and heart, and it was the first time I ever took notice of a TV writer/creator, the incredibly talented Joss Whedon; you know, that Avengers guy. It was all brilliantly done. I think it's time for a rewatch of both series.

If you do know what I'm talking about, then you may be happy to see today's shirts. First up is Our Lady of Protection by heymonster, depicting the star of the show. I like it, but what really prompted me to write this was The Gentlemen by cs3ink, the creepy as hell, smiling, voice-stealing, heart-carving enemy from the silent episode "Hush."

These were originally available at TeeFury, a great place to get t-shirts for a low price. But they are now listed at RedBubble.