Thoughts On Season Three of Buffy The Vampire Slayer

 

As I mentioned earlier, for the purposes of a project that I am working on, I have been compelled to watch all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  I didn’t watch Buffy when it was on the air, so my impressions are completely fresh.

I had hoped by season three that Whedon would have given up on the teen angst however, he intensified it.  I don’t understand how people could find the whole Buffy and Angel love each other, but can never be together theme in the least bit compelling. When Angel finally walked away at the end of the season, I was filled with a huge sense of relief. Even Spike the so-called bad calculating vampire returned to whine because Drusilla left him. For a show that seems highly dependent on relationships, there is little growth and a triple helping of angst.

The good girl/bad girl binary that was a theme for much of the season and it was highly anti-woman.  Though both Buffy and Faith are both White women, Buffy the blonde (the typical manifestation of the girl next door) was cast as good to Faith’s darker bad. We also had two different Willows.  The Willow from the second dimension was a power hungry, sadistic vampire, who was brimming with self confidence. It would seem that to be respected, liked or even loved, a woman dare not step out of the sickeningly sweet good girl paradigm. When Oz and Cassandra found Xander and Willow kissing, Willow’s solution was to offer Oz her virginity. This of course was to prove her true love for him for daring to sexually experiment. 

An Important Message From True Blood’s Joe Manganiello

I suppose this is the point where I publicly declare my True Blood addiction.

Witchling (Otherworld Series #1) by Yasmine Galenorn

Our reading list is long and legendary, and one series that has been on our to read list for a long time is the “Sisters of the Moon “ series by Yasmine Galenorn. So I have finally got round to reading “Witchling”

Witchling introduces us to 3 sisters, Camille a faerie witch, Delilah, a werecat and Menolly, a vampire. Agents for the OIC (a kind of faerie combo police/diplomat/secret agent corps) they are on Earth (Seattle to be exact) doing their job to the best of their slightly clumsy, half-human abilities. They work closely with the local police to help solve supernatural crime and navigate the world as alien, magical beings.

There job becomes several times harder when the Demons of the Subterranean world are stirred up, a threat to both the Otherworld (from where the fae come from) and Earth. And worse, the forces of Otherworld seem to be descending into chaos, just when they need to be at their strongest – leaving the sisters very much alone to face the threat.

Let’s start with some good points. And yes, you know this review is going to end up trashing it by the fact I’m making myself start with good points, sorry guys it’s not going to be a lovey review.

Charlaine Harris Talks About the Difference Between True Blood and Sookie Stackhouse the Southern Vampire Series

<object id="wsj_fp" width="512" height="363"><param name="movie" value="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/main.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><param name="flashvars" value="videoGUID={F624CF99-4C6A-45E1-A898-A7C01415DE2B}&playerid=1000&plyMediaEnabled=1&configURL=http://wsj.vo.llnwd.net/o28/players/&autoStart=false" base="rtmpt://wsj.fcod.llnwd.net/a1318/o28/video"name="main"></param><embed src="http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/main.swf" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"flashVars="videoGUID={F624CF99-4C6A-45E1-A898-A7C01415DE2B}&playerid=1000&plyMediaEnabled=1&configURL=http://wsj.vo.llnwd.net/o28/players/&autoStart=false" base="rtmpt://wsj.fcod.llnwd.net/a1318/o28/video" name="main" width="512" height="363" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object>

Charlaine Harris the author of the Southern Vampire series sits down with an interviewer from the Wall Street Journal to talk about the differences between the books and the series.
Below you will find a transcript for those unable to view the video.
Interviewer: Over the past few years, pop culture has seen a resurgence in the super natural, Vampires, werewolves fairies, witches, audiences can’t get enough of anything that has a touch of the paranormal. I’m here with a definitive contributor to that revival, Charlaine Harris, author of the best selling Sookie Stackhouse novels which formed the basis of the HBO hit show True Blood. Ms. Harris just had her most recent book in the Sookie series come out this May. Charlaine, that you so much for being here.
Charlaine Harris: Oh well thank you for inviting me
Interviewer: So congratulations on the publication of the most recent book.  Tell us a little bit about it. We see that Sookie is drawn further into vampire politics, werewolf politics, what can you tell us?
Charlaine Harris: Poor Sookie, I’m so mean to her.  Well of course it’s really more of the same adventures she’s been on though in this books she reaches kind of a moral nadir when she has to decide whether or not to act on her practical conviction that is necessary to dispose of someone who is trying to kill her and her vampire lover Eric. Whether that is the right thing to do or not, she feels compelled to do it.
Interviewer: What number book is this?
Charlaine Harris: This is eleven.
Interviewer: This is eleven, so there are multiple characters who Alan Ball simply does not have time to put into his.
Charlaine Harris: Right
Interviewer: Are there any you wish had made it onto the tv series?
Charlaine Harris: Well, I uh yes. Well saying that, I don’t know what season four will bring for Allan. I had always hoped to see Sookie’s great grandfather Niall on the screen and we may yet. We may yet.
Interviewer: Yeah, the show has been flirting with the fairy world.
Charlaine Harris: Yeah
Interviewer: So will see if that comes to pass. Now especially in the book the relationship between … so back when I started reading the books, I immediately said that Sookie and Eric need to be together. I have no patience for Bill
Charlaine Harris: (laughs)
Interviewer: And then seeing it on screen, I think a lot of readers have transferred those hopes to the screen and we haven’t really seen a relationship bloom between them yet.  Are you anxious for the series to catch up with the books in that regard?
Charlaine Harris: No I’m not, because I have no idea what Allan’s goal is. I’m sure he has one. He’s taking things at a different pace and he is introducing certain elements earlier than I did, so I’m gonna wait and see what he does.  He’s a great storyteller. He may not be telling the same story I am, so we’re just going to wait and see.
Interviewer: Let’s talk a little bit about - I mean the natural disaster that just occurred in Joplin for example. I know the book makes very good use of incorporating Katrina and its after effects and I was fascinated because New Orleans has this wonderful magical lore and I wanted to know, the intersection of modernity and folklore for you and how are you going about doing that with Katrina and also with other elements like Bill or Eric using a cell phone for example? I mean the collision of modernity is just really fun.
Charlaine Harris: You know, I thought that was the most interesting part of writing these books, ancient creatures having to constantly adapt because heretofore they’ve had to remain invisible to the human world. So that means that they have to constantly adapt. They have to change their language, they have to change their clothes, they have to change their technological knowledge to keep up with the world so that they can blend in. Now that’s so necessary in some ways and yet it is more urgent in others. If they want to be citizens of the modern world they have to compete successfully with humans for business and other things. They have to adapt human tactics.
Interviewer: Right, especially in an instance of a natural disaster. That seems to effect queens
Charlaine Harris: that’s right
Interviewer: and vampire servants equally.
Charlaine Harris: Equally it causes disaster to the vampire structure of Louisiana as well. I didn’t really feel that I could write a book about Louisiana without mentioning Katrina. That would have been a terrible disservice to the people of Louisiana even though it pegged the series down in time.
Interviewer: Right
Charlaine Harris: Which I had been trying not to do.

Breaking Dawn Trailer Reaction

When you reach this point, I think it is fair to say that you have taken your love of the Twilight franchise too far, and you need to step away slowly.

Cassandra Clare Owes Me Money For Clockwork Angel

Having read all of the Mortal Instruments series, I decided to pick up Clockwork Angel.  Though some feel that Clare writes like a drunken monkey, with the exception of the last book City of Angels, I thought that she had an interesting world and story.  Yes, yes, I know that Clary is irritating, but is she really any worse than Bella Swan, Rose Hathaway, Elena Gilbert, Sookie Stackhouse or Merit?  I have come to expect the desire to see a house fall on female protagonists in this genre.

From the very beginning I did not like Tessa Grey.  How is it that you can know someone for five minutes and then decide that they should tell you why they are an orphan and their personal painful life history?

In this book for the first time, Clare decided to introduce a disabled character.  The disableism throughout the story was disgusting.  Jem was actively told that no one blamed him for his disability.  Really?  No, I mean Really? Basically, he was forced into the role of super crip and still was not accepted by his community. Outside of Will, the paternalism with which he is treated is ignored, and the reader is expected to pity him as a tragic hero.This of course proves my theory that unless you have an ism, or are intimately connected with someone who does, research is vital.  I think that Clare was so committed to printing quotes from Dickens and the like that she could not be bothered to read anything else.

Ryan Kwanten and You're Welcome

I will be perfectly honest and say that his character gets on my last nerve, but this photo proves that a little silence is golden.

Sherrilyn Kenyon - Fantasy Lover: Book 1 of the Dark Hunter World

Oh dear gods this BOOK. I have no idea what was being smoked when it was recommended to me but it should have been shared with me!

The plot is similar to Marjorie Liu’s first book with her enslaved weretiger. We have an ancient Greek (from Sparta and Macedon) demi-god who has been bound into a book for all eternity to be summoned out every few decades to be used for a month by a new master - only this case it’s as a sex slave (and ‘master’ is always ‘mistress’)

Ok, Julian the Fuckmuppet (the two main characters in this book aren’t characters. They need characterisations to be actual characters. Instead they have 1 tragic back story each, some angst from said backstory, then an eternal desire to hump. They are, therefore, not characters and I dub them Fuckmuppets) has been summoned from the book by Grace Alexander, because her friend gave her the book and cast a spell (her friend is a gypsie. So has woo-woo of course). Julian is summoned, the Greek god (the blond, blue eyed Greek god. So he’s Greek god by way of Norway or something) because Gypsy Selena thinks Grace needs a booty call (get ye to a bar, get a pitcher or 2. Seriously, much easier).

Fangs for the Fantasy Podcast - Episode 18

New episode of Fangs for the Fantasy. This week we discuss Kevin Hearne's awesome Iron Druid Chronicles and the amazing glory that is Hounded (which we fanpoodle together). We also touched on Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mysteries and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angel and Mortal Instruments series and Anya Bast's Elemental Witches, Laurell K Hamilton's Anita Blake series as well as bad sex in paranormal romance

We also discuss erasure vs dubious portrayals, and what it takes to write a decent portrayal