Not just for teenage girls

Sometimes, the extent to which this world is still horribly, unashamedly sexist pisses me off. We are constantly confronted with the sexism of this world, and I have been becoming more and more aware of it. Usually, I can wish that it wasn’t so, and know that sometime, things will change. But sometimes - when I hear Taylor Swift’s “Love Story,” read certain interviews with Steven Moffat, or read about radical Christian groups, just as examples - I realize that it is still happening, still going on, still rampant in this world, this time, in my world. And I am really angry.

Times like that, I turn to Tamora Pierce. For those of you unfamiliar with her work, she is most famous for her five series of books set in the fantasy realm of Tortall. It all began with Alanna, the gutsy short redheaded twin who wanted to become a knight, not a lady. So she switched places with her brother to start her page training, disguised as a boy. She eventually becomes the King’s Champion and a legend by the name of the Lioness. There’s Daine, the outcast of a rural village who has a special ability to communicate with animals, an ability that makes her the kingdom’s greatest gift when immortals descend out of legend to the real world. There’s Kel, the first girl to try for the knighthood undisguised, who faces her own set of challenges. There’s Aly, Alanna’s daughter, who is hampered by her sheltered life and wants to become a spy, and is suddenly thrust into the role of mastermind of an island nation’s rebellion. And there’s Beka, a young policewoman determined to uphold the rule of the law and help the people survive in the worst-off areas of the kingdom.

All her stories, needless to say, are amazing. They’re the kind of fantasy I always hunger for. They’re the books that I’ve re-read more than any other - yes, perhaps even more than Harry Potter - and that I will continue to re-read, because they never get old. They’re the books that are comforting late at night, and inspiring when I’m down. They have great plots, novel ideas, and lovable characters. And I would love them for that alone.

Our "Deathly Hallows: Pt 2" Review

As we have previously stated on this blog, of all the geeky things we adore in this life, Harry Potter will always and forever be our first love. Yet, as both of us have had endless problems and quibbles with the film adaptations of the books, neither of us were very emotionally invested in the release of the final movie. "It All Ends" came for us four years ago, when the seventh book was released. So I think it took us both by surprise when--as the release date drew near--we both became rather nostalgic, emotional, and filled with a tad bit of regret that circumstances prevented us from attending the midnight premiere.

Circumstances also prevented us from seeing it together, but as we are clones, it came as no surprise that once we exchanged phone calls and emails we had essentially the same thoughts.

First and foremost: After seven movies, seven tries, they finally finally FINALLY got it right. Our major problem with the previous seven movies has been less with what they leave in and leave out (though it is always a disappointment to see what gets cut), and more with the fact that they have never felt like true adaptations. An adaptation is supposed to capture the spirit of the original work, and with a couple of exceptions, the movies never felt quite right, never felt like they captured that spirit. Characters always seemed really out of sync with their literary counterparts, and choices of setting and pace always brought something down. But this time...they captured that spirit perfectly. The beauty of this movie was in the little details, and for once they got those little details down pat. There were parts that were line for line, word for word from the book, like the section with Ollivander and Griphook...especially the part when Ollivander said "the wand chooses the wizard" in exactly the same way he did ten years ago. Brilliant.

Gandalf: From Staff-Elf to Maia

How the evolution of Gandalf’s character mirrors
the development of Tolkien’s story



“Gandalf! If you had heard only a quarter of what I have heard about him, and I have only heard very little of all there is to hear, you would be prepared for any sort of remarkable tale.” [1]

Though J.R.R. Tolkien is often accused of creating characters that lack depth, upon further consideration, it is difficult to pick out a major character in The Lord of the Rings trilogy that qualifies as “shallow.” If such a character were to be selected, however, Gandalf would be perhaps last on that list. From the moment he is introduced in the opening pages of The Hobbit, he is a complex and mysterious figure – he comes and goes on mysterious business, never reveals all that he knows, and says barely anything about himself. In the course of The Lord of the Rings and the Unfinished Tales that follow, his role grows and changes exponentially. Yet despite the changes and development his character undergoes throughout the course of the series, despite the new information that is revealed about him, he remains very similar to his first appearance; he is still a character shrouded in mystery. The vast expansion of his personality as a Maiar demonstrates just how little the reader knows about the figure who was named Mithrandir.

In Belated Praise of the Doctor's Wife

“Does he still stroke bits of the TARDIS?”
“Yea! I’m like, do you two want to be alone?”

Neil Gaiman is a fantastic, prolific writer. Together, we haven’t read as much of him as we should (neither of us have read the Sandman graphic novels. We’re working on it). But that didn’t stop us from being ridiculously excited when we heard he was writing an episode of Who. Perhaps one of Gaiman’s greatest strengths as a writer is that he cannot be pinned down into one genre as critics like to do. And writing this episode was another brilliant example of this. Yet though he may not have a genre, he definitely has a style. And though I can’t define it in words, this episode had Gaiman written all over it.

Needless to say, he did not disappoint. In one episode, he took an idea that had been circulating in the backwaters of the fandom since the very beginning and make it canon. Not only did he make it canon, he made it brilliant, funny, inspiring, and heartbreaking canon. The Doctor’s Wife was certainly the best episode so far this season. The concept of the TARDIS as the thing that the Doctor has and always will love best, through all his companions, is awesome. But to take that concept and pull it off, while making it seem real, requires genius. And Neil Gaiman has it.

Why Harry Potter Will Always Be Our First Love

There are so many things to love about this world. So much fantasy, so much science fiction, and everything else in between. Yet every time we discuss one fandom, we find ourselves somehow returning to Harry Potter. That most popular of fandoms, with a billion dollar franchise. Why? Well, partly because it was the first fandom that completely consumed us both. And in becoming part of that fandom, we became part of what has been lovingly termed The Potter Generation.

If you think of Harry Potter as something binding our generation together--and really, what else has?--that’s something really special. We all wanted to get letters to Hogwarts - who didn’t? - and may have been slightly crestfallen when we started 6th grade in a Muggle middle school. To us, it was not just a series of books. It was real. The characters were real. Everyone I knew had at least one kid who they could identify with, whether it was Neville, Hermione, Fred, George, Luna, or Harry himself.

Day of the Moon review

Apologies, dear readers, for the lateness and slight incoherent-ness of this post—it’s finals crunch time for your dear bloggers, and even the Doctor must wait for papers to be written. But anyway…

Laura and I both came away from this episode with mixed feelings. The things that they are setting up have the potential to be brilliant, and the episode ensured that this season is going to be a hell of a ride. But there are some things we are skeptical of, and critical of. Still, let’s start with the brilliancy:

Rory. Oh my GOD how much do I love Rory. His brilliance and awkwardness and just... everything. He is so in love with Amy, and it is so clear with every single breath he takes. I love that they brought up his 2000 years as a Centurion, it is just so essential to proving how wonderful and special he is. And that moment when he is trying to pretend to be an American secret service made me laugh forever more.

My love for River grows exponentially with each passing episode. Superficially: somehow that dress was even hotter than that jean jacket. Non-superficially: I love everything about her. I love the ridiculous flirting that is going on between her and the Doctor, I love the relationship she has fostered with both Amy and Rory. And having just finished a paper about gun-slinging females with empty personalities, I love that she is a strong female character with depth, conflict, and emotion. The kiss between her and the Doctor was both brilliantly funny (Smith looked like he had a Jelly-Arms Jinx on him or something) and heartbreakingly poignant. I’m sad that we’re already leaving her so early in the season, and I hope her return in the fall is just as brilliant.

To Lis Sladen - My Sarah Jane

Lis Sladen, my Sarah Jane, has died. Well, she’s been dead for over a week now. I’ve been wanting to do a post in her honor since I heard the news, but I’ve hesitated. Why? Well, because I don’t feel that she is my Sarah Jane.

I am primarily a fan of New Who. Slowly I’m getting around to watching the Classics, and have mostly seen episodes with Four. But only a few, and only three of those have featured Sarah Jane: Seeds of Doom, Pyramids of Mars, and The Five Doctors. Many of the tributes to Sarah Jane talk about her character, how important she was to the series, to the fans, what it meant to have a Doctor Who girl who wasn’t going to conform to sexist stereotypes. And it’s all true.

And yet, I feel that I’m preaching to the choir - a more experienced choir - when I say those things. After all, I only met Sarah Jane in School Reunion. We saw her again in The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End. But by then she had her own show, yet the only episode of the Sarah Jane Adventures that I’ve ever seen is The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, primarily because Ten was in it. So even in New Who, how can I claim to know Sarah Jane?

The Impossible Astronaut review

First of all, wow. That was no calm, fun series opener. I’m not going to spend too much of this talking about plot, because I want to see what Moffat does with the second part of this story. Here, he threw an incredible amount of information at us, and while I want to criticize him for that, I think I’ll wait until it’s wrapped up to pass judgement. I also have some huge issues pending with Amy's final statement before the cliffhanger, but I will also leave that till next time.

That said, I have to give him points for sheer nerve. Who kills off the Doctor and ensures that he doesn’t regenerate in the first ten minutes of a season? Yes, this road had been sort of paved by RTD in Turn Left and The Stolen Earth. Yes, in some ways every viewer knows he won’t be dead in the end. But that didn’t stop it from being an incredibly powerful and arresting moment. I sort of cried. The scene where they meet his past self in the diner almost hurts. And the scene in the TARDIS, the companions trying to get the Doctor to trust them instead of the other way around, had incredible acting from all of them. You could almost taste the tension. For once, the audience is in the know, and the Doctor was out, and the reversal of that normal situation is so striking.

Finally Filming the Red Book

It seems fitting, somehow, that our first post on this blog is going “There and back again”--back to Tolkien, Jackson, and Middle-Earth. It’s a place we never really left--but with the production of the Hobbit, suddenly everyone is going back.

Though we didn’t know each other back then, both of us were lucky enough to have been bitten by the Tolkien bug as Peter Jackson’s films were being released--films that proved to be the highlights of our misbegotten middle-school years. I, for one, can remember obsessively watching Two Towers and Return of the King trailers in horrible quality with my slow, dial-up Internet--the process for watching a 2 ½ minute length trailer took about fifteen minutes. And yet, we did it. Every day. We checked forums, read fansites, learned Elvish, and made more pilgrimages to the theater than we care to admit.

Time has proven that stories such as Tolkien’s have a power over us far, far after the movies are over and their initial popularity fades away. Even as particular chatrooms died out and the trickle of fanfiction slowed, our love for Middle-Earth’s sagas never diminished. But it was a different kind of love. It was the love of discovering the Silmarillion, re-reading the trilogy, and--in Laura’s case--writing college papers about Gandalf. Of course, this has happened with all the stories we truly love--Harry Potter, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica have all had their finales, even as they have never faded from our hearts. Still, the days of active excitement and anticipation were done.