Ramblings and Musings of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

So there's an article linked on the front page about the creators of Sherlock trying again to stress that their Sherlock and Watson are not a couple. They stressed that their Sherlock isn't gay or straight. (Personally, I think almost all incarnations of Holmes are probably asexual.) They're totally cool with fans writing whatever they want in fanfiction, which is pretty awesome, but they just want to make it clear that in canon, it is not their intention whatsoever to have the characters hook up with each other. That is pretty much how I tend to feel when it comes to my own fic verses: I don't care if slash fans want to imagine things going the way they want to, just as long as they realize it wasn't my intention to write the characters as couples. A lot of my stuff probably looks like a slash lover's paradise, LOL. But that stems from the fact that ultimately, aside from any sexual things going on, slash lovers and platonic enthusiasts often want pretty much the same kinds of squeeable things.

Anyway, I was just amused to see that article there. It reminded me of a lot of my YGO adventures and encounters with slash fans. And it also kind of made me think of my Ginger and Lou fics, which probably look more slashy than anything else I've written yet are actually probably the least slashy in actuality. LOL. There's the same set-up there as there seems to be on Sherlock, with Ginger completely asexual and aromantic and Lou straight. The whole point behind the Ginger and Lou stories is to explore the idea of platonic soulmates and what if two people can have a completely platonic relationship that is every bit as fulfilling and enduring as a true romantic relationship and never, ever goes on to anything besides platonic. And I'm feeling squeeful just thinking about it, heh. I have the same kinds of warm fuzzies and thrills and excitement over a good platonic relationship as slash fans (or any romance fans, really) have over romantic relationships.

Speaking of romantic relationships, though, I finally decided on my own what I might do about that 31_days themeset. I may try writing it for Snakes and the Chita character he was involved with in my backstory. Now, normally I do not create OCs to hook them up with canon characters. I think the only times I ever do that is if the relationship has ended for one reason or other and therefore there is no OC hanging around and horning in on canon character time in the present-day. The idea for these two was based largely on the song Fliptop Twister by Rockapella, just reversing the end idea that it was the guy who was unfaithful and making it the girl instead, since Snakes is usually a protagonist character in my stories and I didn't want him being the unfaithful one. It also wouldn't have agreed with how his character developed, since I have it that he longed for someone to genuinely love him. Anyway, I've always meant to tell their story more fully, and maybe the themeset would make it an easier thing to write. I'll have to see what happens.

Also, there's apparently another new Six Million Dollar Man comic arc being put out by Dynamite. I'm wondering whether to even bother with it. I didn't really like their previous one because it was so dark in many ways and not what I wanted to see from a Six Mil story. It sounds like this one continues in the same vein. And it's a plotline that I don't even like, where Steve ends up finding out information that makes him distrust the OSI agency and he runs off to try to find more answers. Meanwhile, the OSI thinks Steve is a traitor and is out to get him. One of them wants to shoot him on sight to keep the secrets of bionic technology safe. I assume that is either an OC for the story or Oliver Spencer; I can't imagine it would be Oscar. But Oliver was in a coma at the end of the last arc, and in it because he did something heroic, so I would be kind of irritated if they made him an out-and-out antagonist in this arc.

It actually sounds rather OOC for Steve. If he got super mad at the OSI (again), he would likely go to Oscar and Rudy, bully them by throwing them around and threatening to do worse, and demand to know the truth. That's pretty much what happened in The Return of the Bionic Woman episodes. I'd hate to think that he now doesn't trust them after so many years together. But he has some bizarre voice in his head that could be partially responsible for his weird behavior in this new arc, and if that's the case, that could be an interesting angle to explore. But overall I'm not very impressed by the sound of things. And I'm wondering if they'll try to hook this arc up with the events of the first reunion movie, which had it that Steve quit the OSI and Oscar has to go to him for help again several years later. Honestly, it would seem really stupid and lame to me for Dynamite to go to all the trouble of bringing the series back in comic form only to have Steve permanently leave the OSI in its second arc, so I really hope they aren't going to try to connect their comics with the reunion movies. I hope that the voice Steve is hearing will be a large part of what's wrong here and things will end with Steve back at the OSI. But considering the information that upset Steve so much (that apparently they tried to give other people bionics in the past and it went wrong and they died), I don't know if there will be any way around this hurdle for him.

For now I think I'll keep monitoring what's happening in the issues as much as I can, but not make a move to buy any yet. I still need #5 of the previous arc, too.

For Mother's Day Dad and I gave Mom this set of the Ronald Howard Sherlock Holmes TV series and four random Holmes movies, one Rathbone and three with some Arthur guy playing him. Since then, we've watched episodes off and on. Now that we're coming to the end of all of those (sadly; the original mysteries were so much fun), we started on the movies.

We tried the earliest one first, The Sign of Four from 1932. I ... wasn't that impressed with it. There was little to no chemistry between Holmes and Watson, and I just didn't get the vibe that they were close friends at all. It seemed to emphasize the negative and Watson acted like he wanted to show up Holmes. He also wasn't too bright at times, taking the girl right into danger. The writers tried to set up a romance between him and the girl, and while I'm aware he married a Mary in the books, I don't recall if she was the girl from this adventure (who was named Mary).

This past morning we watched Murder at the Baskervilles, which was not a retelling of The Hound of the Baskervilles, but a sequel! That was kind of a cool way to do it, honestly. I like seeing new adventures with old oneshot characters. It was based on a non-Holmes story of Doyle's called Silver Blaze. A different guy played Watson in it (Ian Fleming, actually), and the chemistry was there! It was lovely. That escapade felt much more like a legitimate Holmes venture and I was thrilled. I don't believe that you have to just adapt the canon stories for it to be good. As long as everyone is in character it should be just fine.

I didn't like that in order to get Lestrade into that film they had him get transferred to the Baskerville area. If it had just been on special assignment it would have been fine, but they sounded like it was permanent. And Holmes in London without Lestrade just isn't done. I did love their interaction in the film, though. They definitely came off as friends, and Lestrade wasn't made into a bumbling idiot.

(One thing I don't like about the Ronald Howard TV series is that they seem to take that approach with Lestrade sometimes. But they did seem to try to be kind to him at other times. I dunno; it annoys me in any series when they try to undermine the police by making them look stupid so they can elevate their star.)

One thing I like about both movies is that they very casually and unobtrusively slide things into the present day of their time (the 1930s). It really doesn't interfere at all; there's just an occasional car and the women's clothes and hairstyles, mainly. The atmosphere is the same. I say it takes great talent to adjust the time period and keep the right feeling. Of course, I first got interested in Holmes through some of the Rathbone movies, and most of those take place in the 1940s. I think for Holmes, time period isn't really important, as long as that nice, foggy, mysterious, London-ish feeling is there, and again, if everyone is in character.

One cliche of many movies, including that Baskerville sequel, is having Moriarty and Holmes clash repeatedly as arch-enemies. I have to say, I love that too. I think every arch-hero needs an arch-nemesis. I was kind of disappointed to find that they only clashed once in the books and Moriarty appeared/was mentioned in only two.

Also, I was sad when I read the books and saw that Watson really didn't live with Holmes for very long before he married and moved away. I've always had that iconic image in my mind of the two bachelors living in the flat, and me being someone who far prefers friendships to romantic endeavors, I just loved that.

Sometimes I feel like I'm committing sacrilege by usually preferring the movies and TV series to the books. I have the books all in one very nice, inexpensive collection and read them from time to time, but the truth is, I generally find them too lacking in action for my tastes. Some are very exciting; I absolutely loved the first part of The Valley of Fear. (But I wasn't that happy with the second half mainly just being a flashback, and I thought the present ending was depressing and disappointing.) Some I was disappointed by after all the hype surrounding them, such as The Hound of the Baskervilles. I didn't like that Holmes was in disguise for a lot of it and therefore, he and Watson didn't interact with Watson knowing it was him as much as they've interacted in some of the adaptions. And some I felt were much too short, such as The Final Problem. (And I never was fully satisfied with the manner in which Doyle revived Holmes in The Adventure of the Empty House.... I wish that one had been longer, too.) And yes, I realize most Holmes stories were short stories serialized in The Strand; don't anyone preach to me about that. I still say they were too short. ;)

Holmes seems to be somewhat of a jerk in some of the books, too. Most adaptions seem to tone that down a bit. I'm torn on what I think of that matter. On the one hand, you could argue that it's part of his character and shouldn't be gone. On the other hand, you could compare it to Gardner and his writing of Hamilton Burger, and how the TV series greatly improved on and remedied his cruel stereotype, and say that the Holmes adaptions are improving things by making him less of an arrogant jerk.

(And I pretty much refuse to accept that His Last Bow is how things ended, and that he and Watson didn't see each other for twenty years. That is too, too depressing. If Holmes wants to be a beekeeper, fine, but Watson should retire with him and they continue to stay together.)

I know most Holmes fans praise the books to high heaven, and certainly not without good and valid reasons. Doyle was a literary genius in many ways. And without the books, there wouldn't have been anything else. But I can't help it; I would usually rather watch a movie or a TV show episode than read the books.

Actually, that's the case for most things. I'm a very strange person who generally prefers the adaptions of anything to the original books. I've only ever found a handful of things where I hated the adaptions and/or loved the books best.

I definitely don't want to rush things with my Monkees fic, and so I've divided it into two parts. I'm just beginning part 2 now, and I've been posting part 1 in pieces at the Monkeemen community here. But since I know a couple of Monkee fans who aren't in the community, I'm going to post links to the segments here. ^^

Part 1 of Part 1 XD;

Part 2 of Part 1

Part 3 of Part 1

This story has been moving along a lot faster than I'd ever hoped, so maybe I'll have part 2 done before too long.

I also have a monologue from Micky's point of view that I'm writing, which is mostly musing on his and the other Monkees' actions in the episode The Monkees Get Out More Dirt. It's not especially a favorite of mine, since I don't like seeing the guys' friendships strained over the girl, but I had a dream with part of a monologue by Micky in it, and when I woke up I decided to write it down. That's proving to be a rather interesting project.

And I also have determined how this Baby Face fic ends and wrote that down. XD; Would you believe Sherlock Holmes helped me with the inspiration? I also have a plotbunny for a fic that will come after it, which incidentally, was not inspired by Holmes. **smiles.**

Well, I've finally heard another Nightwish song besides Sleeping Sun. XD And I love it! **glomps Stacey.** Thank you! It sounds like a Marik song from Battle City and he's crying out to Rishid for help. Awww! Most of Nightwish's songs are so deep I get lost in them, though, and I can't figure out what the heck's being talked about. XD; **has been browsing through their lyrics several times now.**

And I found out who Lullacry is. They come from overseas, like Nightwish apparently does. **finds it amusing that both bands' lead singer is named Tanja.** Is that a common name over there?

We went out on Friday afternoon/evening and got my accounts set up at the bank. (Strangely, they stay open later on Fridays. You'd think that a bank would close early on Friday.) And later I wrote my first check. X3 I bought a Sherlock Holmes PC game at Wal-Mart. It plays out a lot like my Nancy Drew games, only it's meant for a slightly older audience, I'd assume. And what's especially kewl about it is that it involves Egyptian relics! It's called The Mystery of the Mummy. I haven't got very far in it yet, but at once point Holmes sees this mummy through a mirror and it growls at him, waving its arms. XD Holmes' response is completely calm, of course.

I started my fanfic where Mokuba falls into the Ishtars' custody! I haven't got very far yet, though. And I started drawing my pic for the ygo_siblings contest. XD I got the idea after playing with a plastic scythe at Wal-Mart. The initial pencil sketch part is almost done. ^^ Then I just havta ink and color it. I'll probably do that over the weekend.

Right now I'm doing an RP with Stacey that starts out basically like my story, but which will veer off in an entirely different direction! Mokuba will kinda flip out about Seto's apparent death. ;__; So saaaad! And Marik will try to get through to him without succeeding. Of course, Seto's the only one who will be able to break through to Mokuba's now-ice-encased heart.