ladybug_archive | Entries tagged with star wars

So I finished the 1987 Turtles disc about a week ago and greatly enjoyed the rest of it, although I think I like the earlier episodes the best (1-4-ish). The season 7 episode on the disc, where they have to fight a whole rogues’ gallery of past villains, seemed really familiar to me, so I think that must have been one I watched when it first aired on TV. I liked it, but I prefer the utter nonsense of earlier seasons. I went and read through an episode guide and decided that I want the season 3 discs first. Season 4 sounded kind of “eh” except for a few episodes and season 2 is filled with tropes I detest (shrinking, humans mutating, etc.). Season 1 was just a five-part mini-series/pilot-type thing, which I want, but not ahead of some other stuff. Seasons 5 and 6 sounded fun and I might plan to get Wal-Mart’s combined set of those. Also, season 7 sounded like a blast, especially with the Europe vacation arc that took place around seasons 3-4. Seasons 8-10 don’t sound as fun; I don’t think I’d like all the changes to the show. I know I watched some of those episodes on TV, though, but the only one I remember involved a biker gang and Donatello nearly getting hurt by one of the members as he speeds past. I couldn’t find it in the episode guide, but I know I saw it mentioned before. It seemed like any time I was actually awake and able to watch the Turtles, I always caught that episode. Heh. I saw it at least three times.

This week has been the saga of the Donatello plushie. I find it very sad that I don't have a Donny plushie yet, considering he was my second-favorite all through childhood and on into the 2003 series, until I somehow became super-fond of Raph. Without rehashing all the details, I basically decided I wanted the Donatello plushie the most that’s from the same line as my Leo. Only problem is, there’s suddenly a run on that plushie. Amazon is sold out and keeps changing the price and the date it will be back in stock, the only decently-priced one there right now is from a seller with 90% positive feedback and I don’t like to dip lower than 97% positive, Wal-Mart sold out (probably because people were mad about Amazon selling out; they were charging the same price), and Target has only three left. WTH…. Then I got mad and started thinking maybe I wanted the one styled like the 1987 series again, just to be able to get Donatello without waiting for ages. I do like it, but it’s just not stuffed as full and it’s not as soft. The other one has pros all around except for having the same expression as Leo, and I think I’d prefer that over one with a different expression but so many cons.

This year, the Scottish Festival was actually a lot of fun. I enjoyed it much better than some recent years and I actually found something I liked enough to buy that was decently priced. It’s a beautiful turquoise necklace that I thought had Celtic designs on some of the beads, but now I’m not sure and think it’s Native American designs instead. But either way, I love it. We also got to see a favorite band, The Fire, finally return after a three-year absence, and we got one of their CDs. We stayed on Friday until they closed up shop around ten, which was so awesome. I wanted to go back on Saturday and look around some more, even though I’d probably seen everything. But we weren’t able to make it until the very end, when The Fire went on again. That was when we got the CD. It was sad seeing all the booths close up while the concert was going on. I thought they might stay open until after the concert for one last hurrah, but no. After we got home, I took pictures of Christopher Cary as a Scot from Batman.

After the festival on Friday, I bought the second Turtles movie, which I shouldn’t have done. But I’d wanted it for at least seven years and was exasperated at never being able to spare a few dollars to get it. I’d never seen it in full and it was a blast. I still like the first one best, but the second one has lots of cute and funny moments and the nightclub scene and the ending scene are still priceless.

Also, Build-a-Bear sent me an email about a Boba Fett-themed bear. That is … kind of awesome. I have to say that if the character hadn’t intrigued me as a six-year-old child, he probably wouldn’t interest me now. But that six-year-old child never stopped being fascinated by him and there's nothing I can do about it. Dad would probably go through the ceiling if I bought that plushie, and I can’t get any there anyway without some coupons (which they hardly send anymore, waaah), but I am definitely considering it. First priority is looking at their Turtles up close and personal, though, and deciding whether to get the Mikey from their line. But there’s still that problem of not liking their second run Mikey's expression. He looks so cheeky instead of just cute like the first one.

Current Mood: tired

This past week I saw the junior novelization of The Force Awakens while grocery shopping. I didn't buy it, but I decided to see how they wrote the critical climatic part. To my surprise, it's different from both the adult novelization and the movie itself....

( Spoilers! )

Current Mood: hopeful

Turns out my script was already here when I was typing yesterday's post. I didn't learn all I'd hoped to, but it provided enough interesting tidbits that I made a new blog post out of it: http://thepathofthestars.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-script-of-riptides-pirate-and.html

I also watched two of Don Knight's Bonanza episodes. He played good guys in both and it was quite delightful. The first episode reminded me of The Big Valley's episode Earthquake!, and I had to suspend disbelief over why anyone would build a courthouse over a MINE, but the plot of Ben and four other people being trapped in the basement of a collapsing building was so intense. And everybody got out of there alive! I was really afraid someone would die, probably Don's character. But he didn't. And he was exonerated for a crime he didn't commit!

I wondered how I'd feel about the second episode I watched, since it was from the final season and Dan Blocker and Hoss were both dead. Gah. Hoss is my favorite Cartwright, so that was definitely a dread. But I liked Jamie, so it was okay viewing. It kind of felt like a cross between Bonanza and Little House, though. I wonder if that's how the final season was in general. But there were cute dogs, which is always a plus even though I don't agree with hunting for sport by any stretch of the imagination.

I hear Don plays the bad guy in the other Bonanza episode. I couldn't catch it on MeTV today and wasn't sure I'd go out of my way to do so anyway, but maybe I'll try looking it up now too.

I also saw the first of his Charlie's Angels episodes. He was a bad guy in that, although he didn't reveal just how bad he was until he discovered Kelly was a private eye. Then he pulled a gun on her, threatened to kill her, and made her drive away in his van. Kelly deliberately pulled a dangerous traffic stunt to get a nearby policeman to come after them, whereupon Don's character threw his gun out the window. Bosley, who was following, picked it up and brought it over to the van after the officer stopped them. Don's character's expression when Bosley said, "Excuse me, Sir, you dropped your gun out the window," was priceless. LOL. He started to sink down in the seat.

(Bosley, by the way, is still awesome. I love him and I love all the girls. I think there's two basic ways to look at a show like Charlie's Angels. One is that it's filled with threadbare plots, beautiful women, and exists pretty much only so that men can ogle said women. The other way is that it's about strong female characters fighting crime, and in spite of the sometimes silly plots, that's the way I look at it. Every one of the girls seems to be a good role model (except I definitely wouldn't recommend dressing the way Kris sometimes does ... yikes). They're all good people determined to not let the bad guys win, resourceful, intelligent, and very human. I have trouble picking a favorite. Usually it's either Sabrina or Kelly, but I love them all. Interesting that when I first saw the show, I wasn't sure what to make of Sabrina or whether she was as smart as the others; in the episodes I saw at first, I got the impression more of her maybe not being as all there. But as I watched more, I realized I must have just been seeing some of her undercover personas. She is very smart and on top of things, and her actress Kate Jackson seems to be generally hailed as the best actress of the bunch. Out of all the girls, Sabrina also seems the most like she really wants a romantic relationship, so I was happy for her that when Kate left, they wrote in the show that Sabrina was going to get married and have a baby.)

Before any of that, several days ago I saw Don Knight's first Big Valley episode. It was the really creepy one where Adam West was a psycho. Don's character was a twisted mix of selfishness, greed, and some genuine remaining goodness. Even though he had agreed to keep quiet about the first murder in exchange for sharing in Adam's character's high living, he didn't want any other murders to happen and tried to prevent them. Adam's character eventually killed him, which I figured would probably happen. I got plunnied and wrote a fic, but it keeps feeling like it's not complete and I'm not sure what to do with it.

(I actually feel a little like I've been in a fanfiction slump the last couple of weeks. It's just been crazy here and there hasn't been much time for writing, and it seems like when I do, I can't advance very much on the stories. I don't know whether this Big Valley one is holding things up and I feel I can't concentrate until it's done or if it's a slump in general. I feel more like I want to write Ginger and Lou fics for a while instead of continuing the fics I've been actively working on at FF.net. But I feel like I can't fully devote myself to Ginger and Lou fics when people are waiting on those others, or at least on the WWW one. I really wish I could get some input from Riptide fans on the Riptide one; the only person even reviewing it isn't even a fan of the show, so I'm pretty honored that he likes my writing enough to read it. I certainly didn't ask him to. But while I'm thrilled that he's reading, he of course can't provide much advice on the characters and such. There are silent readers, but the only Riptide person who actually said something only commented on the first chapter and expressed her dissatisfaction with the thought of there being real ghosts. I don't know if she even read on enough to see that things are still up in the air regarding the ghost angle, which is just like the season 2 episode that dealt with ghosts was like. I don't think they fully eliminated the idea of ghosts until towards the end. But so yeah. It seems like lately, my only real writing interests have been work, Ginger and Lou fics, The Big Valley fic, and non-fiction blog posts. I don't imagine it will last long, but it is frustrating when I gravitate to the non-fiction rambling posts here instead of working on stories.)

I feel the urge to watch Julie London's Big Valley episode again sometime soon. Her character was also a curious mixture of selfishness, greed, and some remaining goodness. She was a traitor to the North during the Civil War, but not because of changing ideologies; she wanted higher living and she was promised that if she turned. At least that's how I remember it. She showed up after the war and was understandably shunned by the town, but as I also recall, they took it way too far and actually tried to harm her and her old friend in the Barkley family tried to help her. I can't remember now whether it was Jarrod or Nick. He couldn't come to terms with what she'd done either, and it seems like even though she was sadder and wiser, she wasn't terribly apologetic or sorry for her actions, which only made things worse. I remember it ended with her leaving town. I wonder what kinds of interesting interaction might happen between her and Don's character were they to ever meet. I revived his character in my fic, naturally. Hmm, future plunnie.

I often think of The Big Valley as the poor man's Bonanza and/or an inversion of Bonanza, since The Big Valley has a woman at the head of the wealthiest family in town and some of the concepts and set-ups seem similar to Bonanza (and since the show only lasted four seasons as opposed to Bonanza's fourteen). But one interesting difference is that while the Cartwrights seem to be respected and well-liked, the Barkleys seem to be looked down on because of their wealth. Usually shows do the cliche of arrogant rich people so much that it's really a drag. The Big Valley has the flip-side of arrogant poor people, which isn't seen as often but is just as hurtful and damaging. And while I enjoy both shows, sometimes I feel like The Big Valley has a lot more heart than Bonanza. Maybe that's at least partially because there are women in the main cast and they bring something to the show that Bonanza lacks. On the other hand, I'm not saying I think Bonanza should have had a female lead. Each show is what it is and is enjoyed for what it is. I think a female lead probably would have ruined Bonanza, because that was not the angle it was going for. On the other hand, remove the women from The Big Valley and something is very missing.

I find it intriguing how quickly Don Knight proved himself a capable and awesome character actor. He just showed up to start acting in 1965, and it was only like three-ish years later when they were starting to bill him as "Special Guest Star" and/or list him at the top of the guest cast list. It's like what happened with Luke Andreas and Christopher Cary. With all of them, they were sometimes given small parts, but the show's crews quickly realized their talents and that having them around was a feather in the cap. They'd then be given meatier parts sometimes, or else even if they didn't appear much, they were still credited very high on the list. And as frustrating as it is when they're not in something much, like Christopher in that 1970s Captain America movie, it's still extremely exciting when they're given such high billing.

And I'm sure there was something else I wanted to talk about, but I don't remember what it was.

Oh, I just remembered. Star Wars: The Force Awakens came out on DVD today. I'm still undecided whether I'll buy it. I just can't bring myself to consider it absolute canon, even though yes, I know that as far as Disney is concerned, it is. And I can't see myself re-watching it much. But I love Rey and Finn and BB-8, so I figured I'd probably buy it for them, at least. I can't get it this week, though, since my account is cleaned until the weekend. And then I need to think about still getting to Build-a-Bear to get an article of clothing for the Lalaloopsy plush, since I wasn't able to include that in the order. I also need to think about getting the big Rey figure, because Wal-Mart finally got a huge shipment in (probably in anticipation of today). I just hope they'll still have some when I have money....

( Some spoilers, just in case someone still hasn't seen the film but wants to )

Current Mood: accomplished

And so after a month we come full-circle. I went to F.Y.E. at the end of January looking for some type of James Bond figure in Roger's image. That wasn't the only reason I was there, and I would have likely gone anyway even if it hadn't been a reason at all, but I was still very upset when I got sick after that excursion and got everybody else in the house sick. I can't prove it came from there, but it must have been either there or Wal-Mart, since I got sick before anybody else and therefore most likely did not pick it up at my aunt's. It had to be a place where I was the only one going around and coming into contact with people. But it was highly aggravating and upsetting that it happened, especially when the shopping was fruitless.

I was upset for weeks feeling like I should have gone to Build-a-Bear instead and got the other doll I wanted. Then I probably wouldn't have got sick/got everybody sick. And I was frustrated that I didn't get to go last week because of the lingering cough problems. Now, however, I'm grateful I didn't make it. Hopefully I'll get another chance for the doll, but meanwhile ...

I finally found a figure online for a decent price. Not one of the 12-inch figures, sadly, but about half that size. I spent days debating whether to get it and trying to see if it really looked enough like Roger to make a purchase worth it. There were four people watching it besides me; it was a Buy It Now listing. I felt a little bad to suddenly pull it out from underneath them, but any of them could have bought it at any time if they had felt so inclined, and apparently they didn't by the time I made up my mind, so no regrets. These figures usually seem to go for much more than I got mine for, so I'm doubly thrilled.

I did immediately feel guilty to purchase something James Bond, since neither Dad nor Mom like that franchise (and I'd be all over it if it wasn't for the bed times; I loved Moonraker except for what amounted to two minutes or less of bed times/implications of bed times ... and I still kind of want to see more films, too ...), but of course it was more for the actor than the character, and my idea was that it could be whatever character I wanted it to be at any given time. I stayed in that more excited mindset and didn't feel any more guilt.

Ohmygoshsquee, it shipped Monday and came this past day! And, as I determined before taking the plunge and purchasing, it does look sufficiently like Roger to be worth it! And it's so nice with fabric clothing.... I adore fabric clothing! It shows real thought and attention went into the crafting, instead of just putting molded clothes on. (Not that some molded clothing can't be amazingly detailed too, of course. But it upsets me that fabric clothing is not really a thing like it used to be.) The card is also very nice, with many pictures of Roger all over it. I have it sitting next to the card from my Oscar Goldman figure so I can see the pictures. The figures themselves are on my desk.

So I have what I set out to find a month ago and I am very pleased.

I've also been reading that Saint book I got with my last Amazon order. I've got to say, I like this one way more than that short story collection I tried a couple of years ago. Even though that was written after this novel, I like Simon's characterization in the novel far more. It's one of the books written around the WWII era, The Saint Sees It Through, and Simon is serious like his television counterpart. I haven't seen one aggravating, dirty-minded crack in here like there was in the short story collection. I also haven't seen any instances of Simon taking the law into his hands more than I find comfortable (no burying bodies in gardens to keep the people involved from going to jail, oy vey). I may want to try some other books from this time period. And if I like them too, I will be highly amused, as of course the WWII era books are largely hated among the book purists. They usually prefer their Saint much more playful and mischievous and naughty, as he is in the earlier books. I prefer him more like the character in the TV show. Which of course immediately makes me a bizarre wild card in the fandom, as I am almost everywhere. Can't break with tradition, after all.

I'm also writing a sci-fi Maverick fic, as of course the fic where Snakes reveals himself to be alive has to include some sci-fi elements. And with encouragement, I'm continuing it to show Snakes taking Beau through the portal to visit the present-day. It's mostly a character study, though, as both Snakes and Beau have issues to work through at this point. It probably won't be more than a two-shot, but who knows.

I am vaguely considering that maybe Beau could be visiting in the Count Manzeppi fic I wanted to write, and that might give me a little more motivation to go ahead with it, but I'm not sure. I was just burned so seriously with The Deadly Codename that I'm honestly afraid to start a new WWW fic. I don't want to be involved in any more drama in that fandom. Beau around would just be one more thing for that person to complain about, should he decide to complain again. I might actually have more luck writing that fic for the Maverick fandom instead. **headdesk.**

In any case, there is the problem that by playing so much in Snakes' past, it kind of turned a few things in my original timeline for him on their heads, as I knew would happen if I kept playing. But I really liked the things I was coming up with and didn't want to let them go. Now I do have to wonder how to re-align things again, since Snakes wasn't supposed to have any friends before going to the present-day and now with the Maverick branch of the timeline he has Beau. I'm trying to rationalize it by him saying that Pinto broke him so much over three years of torture that he wasn't sure Beau really would still care and want to be his friend, since they didn't even really know each other that well. But I'm not sure that's a good enough fix.

There's also the issue that in Airship it's a plot point that Snakes hasn't been back to the past before and goes back only to find Jim and Arte. After I brought in the idea of Snakes and Beau, I knew Snakes wouldn't want to leave Beau hanging, so in the Maverick timeline, the first time he goes back is to find Beau and let him know he's okay. I don't know whether to leave things as they are, apparently two similar but different timelines, to try to reconnect them by explanations from Snakes, or to reconnect them by tweaking some things in the older stories.

Another idea I had was that maybe the time re-set Duke caused in the YGO branch of the timeline screwed a few things up that he hadn't intended on, including Snakes and Beau, and that perhaps when it's said that Snakes didn't have anyone, that's because he doesn't remember Beau with the time re-set. That gets fixed at the end of the story, so if there was any trouble, Snakes remembers the truth now. But that gets sticky too, as it would mean that the original WWW time-travel fics were written with the time re-set in mind and they're Snakes' incorrect memories of how things happened.

Confusion, thy name is time-travel. Confusion, thy name is also retcon.

I've gotta say, I have to sympathize with George Lucas in a situation like this. When you start playing in the past, you find new ways of telling things that you like better than the original way. And then naturally you want to tweak the originals to fit the new ideas. But that's an unpopular thing to do. And I still don't agree with him booting out the original actors for Boba Fett and Anakin Skywalker in the original trilogy DVDs. But still, I can understand why it happened.

What am I gonna do?

Current Mood: contemplative

Star Wars fic is up. http://www.fanfiction.net/s/11732228/1/

Needless to say, there are HUGE Force Awakens spoilers in this. Please don't read if you haven't seen the film and don't want to be spoiled!

For those who do read, I hope you enjoy this ... even if it isn't at all what you expected. Me, I'm loving it. While I'm a little nervous about it perhaps not living up to people's hopes and expectations, it suits me fine.

Current Mood: thirsty

So I got a plunnie involving Beau Maverick and the episode The Rivals. It would involve Beau getting mistaken for Bret's friend Jack Vandergelt III during some chaotic episode where bad guys are after Jack for some reason (maybe wanting his or his father's business assets or something). Bret would likely turn up somewhere along the way. I don't know if I'd bring Bart in too; that could get pretty crowded. Although it would be amusing to have Bart react to Beau and Jack. And Bart and Beau's relationship is the most interesting for me to write, since Beau never interacted with Bret.

I'm debating whether Jack might be up to his old tricks a bit and want him and Beau to deliberately switch places and try to figure out what's going on. Jack (or Van, as he is usually called) is a little bit of a jerk in the episode, but by the end he's pretty adorable. (And there's some very nice hurt/comfort. Purrrr. Although Jack exaggerates the seriousness of his injury, heh.) He might want to try it, but on the other hand, he wouldn't want to deliberately endanger Beau's life.

I'll ponder on exactly how to work it out. Meanwhile, I wanted an extreme hurt/comfort fic with my Persuaders! fic and got it. And the Star Wars fic is almost done, I hope. I got a little distracted by the Persuaders! fic. Hopefully I can easily touch up the Star Wars fic and post it soon.

Current Mood: exhausted

So, I finally saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Somehow I managed to avoid all spoilers except part of Kylo Ren's identity. Now in contrast to this, I'll want to gobble up all spoilers I can for the next film, or at least, certain ones (if such things are talked about at all).

( Needless to say, there are major spoilers under here )

Anyway, in any case, I definitely want some merchandise of the new good guys. I bought a big figure of Finn right after the movie last night. I wished I could have found Rey too, but I didn't see any of her. I don't even know if they've made a big figure of her. They made a small one, but Wal-Mart didn't have any of those last night, either. I could have got the small Finn and waited for the small Rey, but the big one was only two dollars more, so it seemed silly to get the small one. I really want Rey too, though, so I hope they have a big one of her.

It's so frustrating, though; everything is so cheaply made these days. The big figures don't have removable clothes or helmets anymore. I remember when the big Star Wars figures all had removable clothes and even the guys had rooted hair. The Qui-Gon figure was just awesome!

Little Golden Books, too. They used to be illustrated so beautifully and lushly and you could tell a lot of effort had been put into making them amazing. Now they look like they were illustrated by a middle-schooler on his lunch break. It's like they feel kids' books just don't deserve the same time and devotion they used to. That's something that's made me sad for years.

But anyway. So, there were definitely things I liked about The Force Awakens and definitely things I didn't like. And we'll see how that balances out as we near the second movie next year. I'm so glad we don't have to wait three years for it....

Current Mood: determined

So Build-a-Bear sent an email on Saturday about the DJ plushie. Looking at the picture there and the one on their website makes me think I very likely will want her. That feeling will probably only strengthen when I see her in person.

And Wal-Mart is getting in a bunch of their Halloween stuff now. I didn't see a purple wig either there or at Smith's, though. Sigh. If I remember right, last year Wal-Mart only had the more red-violet wig I saw now and Smith's had the dark purple wig that would probably work better for Twilight. But it wasn't exactly what I wanted, either, or I would have gotten it then. Hopefully someone will get a purple wig in eventually. I wonder what I'll do if no one does.

Another thing I saw at Wal-Mart is Boba Fett costumes. My immediate reaction: "AWESOME.... Must see if there's one in my size.... Even though Dad would hit the ceiling if I actually wore one...."

At first I only saw some in the adult mens' section, and those weren't even as good as the ones I later found in the boys' section. The boys' costume has the whole suit, instead of just the top part! And ... I think if I could find the XL boys' size, it actually might fit me. And if it did, well ... I wonder if I could resist buying it? I'm still determined to do a Twilight costume, but it would be kind of epic to have a Boba Fett costume around just in general, not just for Halloween.

Also, another thing definitely different about this round of Carmen/Rockapella fangirling: I think that in spite of my love of Scott with season 1 hair, I may actually be starting to prefer the season 2 look. The reason being: I think I actually rather like the mild scruffiness now. It makes Scott look older, and as much as I love adorable so-young Scott, older and wiser characters intrigue me the most, so naturally I would end up somewhat intrigued by the style that makes Scott look that way the most. (Also, you can't go wrong with fluffy hair....) Hmm, maybe I'll try a drawing or two and see what I think. I've only drawn approximate season 2 Scott once.

Current Mood: thoughtful

[Error: unknown template qotd]Star Wars. I was enchanted by the characters and their adventures from age 5. I grew up with Dad watching Star Trek: The Next Generation, and I liked it okay, but I didn't really get into it like I did Star Wars. And I've honestly never seen any of Star Trek: The Original Series beyond a couple of episodes and the first six movies. I liked some of the movies (you can go through my Star Trek tag to find out what I said about them), but not all. However, my likes and dislikes are not the likes and dislikes of the general Star Trek movie fandom. I.E., I didn't care much for the fan favorite whale movie, for one thing. To me, it just wasn't as deep as some of the others. I don't know; maybe I'd like it more if I'd seen more of the original series. I hear that the whale movie is closest to what the television series was than the other movies were. I didn't really like movie 6, either. I didn't like seeing main characters arrested for stuff they didn't do, and the ending kind of bummed me out.

What I hear is that fans tend to like 2, 4, and 6 and not 1, 3, and 5. I like 2, and I liked 3 when I saw it, but I think I might find it harder to swallow now. I greatly enjoyed 1 and I appreciated the depth of 5.

I'm happy that they didn't let Spock stay dead; of course, me being the queen of reviving dead characters, I would feel that way. However, I didn't particularly like how they brought him back (having to grow up again; why couldn't he have just revived at his current age, but without his memories, etc.?) or that he never really seemed the same in any of the succeeding movies after they brought him back. It seemed like he wasn't really "all there" (he seemed very far-removed/distant in some scenes), he wasn't as serious, and he randomly swore more after that. Sigh.

Current Mood: okay

So this past afternoon I finished the last Legacy of the Force book. I am relieved to not have to worry that I won't get them all finished in time, but I am still very disappointed with how Troy Denning handled the installment. Even more disappointed than before, really.

Naturally the main focus needed to be on the showdown between Han and Leia's kids. But Boba Fett's storyline was important too. Troy didn't do one scene from Boba's or Mirta's or any Mandalorian's POV. He also didn't end things very satisfactorily for them.

Karen had Mirta finally coming to care about her grandfather Boba Fett, even though there were still problems between them. It was stretched out over the three books and was really moving. In Troy's book, Jacen Solo apparently manages to turn Mirta against him again in just a couple of days. And it's just left that way. She's shown speaking derogatorily about him to Jaina Solo and that's it. We don't get to see her talking to him about her new problem with him (thinking he deliberately sent her on a death mission) or how he tries to refute the idea. It definitely isn't true; he's shown throughout Karen's books to come to be genuinely concerned about her safety.

Also, it's just randomly thrown in there that Jacen Solo creates a nano thingie that he sprays into the atmosphere of their planet. It only affects them, as it was made specifically to target their family's DNA, and they won't ever be able to go home because of it. We don't see how they react to this, or what they're going to do, or anything. Just Jaina feeling sad thinking of Mirta not being able to go home.

Honestly, it was really, really lame. In Karen's books, she tried to give every major player some POV scenes. Troy clearly wanted nothing to do with the Mandalorian plotline and only put the barest minimum of stuff concerning it in there because he knew there had to be something.

I do consider the climatic fight between Jaina and Jacen to be part of my storyline canon, but I just don't think I can accept that book as a whole into my canon for that storyline. It doesn't fit Karen's books at all and is very unsatisfying for anyone who was following the Mandalorian plotline.

Current Mood: okay

So, it happened.

After a little over a week working on these

31_days prompts, not to mention several weeks before that of fiddling with other assorted, related U.N.C.L.E. fics ...

... I dreamed about those two rascals.

It was a convoluted dream of watching The Odd Man Affair episode, only somehow it had gained a lot more content than it had in actuality and there seemed to be a whole subplot with Ecks and Wye and some assignment they were on. I can't even fully put together what was happening well enough to recount the plot while awake, except I was thinking "... Chrissy has a lot more screentime than I remember," and something about Wye having a daughter and mentioning her to Ecks. And I believe somebody got punched. And they were driving old cars, like, 1940s-ish.

And I was dreaming in black-and-white.

The themes have been interesting to work with. I was having the hardest struggle figuring out what to do with Monday's, "want to pet every monster." It would be fine in a fantasy setting, but how on earth to adapt something like that to reality? And then at last, the plot slowly started coming to me. I wrote a piece where Wye is terrified of the vicious dogs, since he doesn't like being around something with a mind of its own that could turn on him, and Ecks is just calmly sitting with one of them.

That was a day when I went out shopping a bit. I was looking for Pony stuff, mainly, the Octavia doll and any clean G1 Ponies. I went all through both warehouses of the big antique mall, but couldn't find any Ponies except a dirty G3. I would have bought her had she been clean. Sigh. I'm just not up to cleaning dirty toys that I have no idea where they've been or what they've gotten into. More power to people who deal with that sort of thing with ease.

I wish the other branch of that antique mall still existed. There were a lot more 1980s toys in it. Clean ones, too.

So I was pretty exasperated by that shopping trip, all in all, but at least I was pleased with the prompt that day.

Also, I finally got through the three Star Wars: Legacy of the Force books written by Karen Traviss and I went on to the fourth one I had out. I was only doing the Boba Fett ones. And I knew I'd miss Karen as the writer, but I didn't realize just how much. Troy Denning not only clearly didn't like Boba Fett, he apparently disliked him so much that he wasn't willing to make his book fit in with Karen's previous one! Continuity got completely unhinged.

In Karen's third book, Han and Leia's daughter went to Boba Fett for help and he was training her to go against her brother, who'd gone to the dark side. In the process, it was canon within the story that she found that Boba Fett wasn't as horrible as she had always thought he was. And she also found out that the reason why his marriage broke up was a lot different than what she'd thought. But then in Troy's book, Jaina Solo seems to still have as bad an opinion of Boba Fett as she did to begin with. And Boba Fett is very far removed from the reader; there aren't any scenes from his POV so far, like there was with Karen's books. I was surprised when Troy included a paragraph about how being a stormtrooper didn't mean the person was flat-out evil and that they were likely fighting for what they believed was right. He seemed to see in black and white so much, not even following previous book continuity, that it was a real surprise to see him include a shade of gray like that. He also didn't capture Mirta, Boba Fett's granddaughter, with as much fire and personality as she has in the other books. I don't think I'll have too much trouble getting that book finished up by Monday evening, when they all have to go back.

Honestly, I fell so hard in love with Karen's books and how she brought the characters to life that I definitely want to purchase all three of her books from that series, as well as every other Star Wars book she wrote. She did some that I believe take place during the Clone Wars and are about the clones. She brings them to life and gives them personality, instead of just being robotically programmed to obey every order given. You can tell she really got into what she was writing about and she loved the verse she created.

And Venus came, a day before the estimated arrival dates started! She is the right size, thankfully, albeit the right size is slightly smaller than what I remembered from F.Y.E. I remembered the correct size when I first got home, but then I started visualizing her as bigger than that.

I'm a little puzzled as to why I wanted her, because I do not and never have liked chibi-deformed style. But she is really cute and most Sailor Moon plushies are in that style, so unless I want to shell out a lot of money for a Japanese plush with the right proportions, I pretty much have to consent to getting chibi-style. They seem a lot more huggable than those Japanese plushies, so that's always a plus, and Great Eastern plushies' eyes are just gorgeous and so full of life. And the hair is so soooooft....

I still want the giant Sailor Moon plush, too. She would be pretty well aligned with my small Chibiusa plush, which was my original reason for wanting her instead of the small size Sailor Moon. And if GE ever gets around to making Mercury in the large size, I'll definitely have to get her. Jupiter I might get, but I'm not crazy about getting Mars. Still, if I actually ended up getting all the rest, I'd probably feel bad not to get Mars.

There's a small size Pluto out now, too. I wish F.Y.E. would get her, because they would hopefully be a little cheaper than Amazon. I must have Pluto, and I don't know if or when they'll make a big one of her, so I have to get the small one. I just hope I won't have to resort to Amazon, unless their price comes down a bit.

Current Mood: tired

So that adult men's Boba Fett shirt I was trying to find in a smaller size since October eluded me completely and I couldn't find any size. I ended up wanting it so bad that I was willing to get the big size I'd seen, if I could just find it again.

Tuesday evening, I did. At the one Wal-Mart I'd seen it at in October. And in a completely random place, up by the cash registers instead of in a logical place, like with the shirts. **headdesk.**

But I refused to lose it again. So I bought it, huge size and all. I was just so completely thrilled to see it again, I actually wanted to hug it. I've been using it for a nightshirt. Part of me wants to just use it as a regular shirt, despite the size.

I really don't think it looks that bad, actually; it hangs down to my thighs and the sleeves go to my elbows, but the collar isn't wacky loose. And I'll do whatever I please with it, no matter what anyone thinks.

However, out of curiosity, what do you think of wearing something around in public that is definitely too big/long/etc.? Too goofy? Rad fashion statement? Or are you completely indifferent to the whole thing?

Current Mood: curious

So after my extreme disappointment with Gotham the last couple of episodes, I actually haven't watched this week's episode yet. I finally got around to looking at the detailed summary, and there's definitely some things I'd like to see in it. But Fish Mooney's current predicament horrifies me, and then Barbara Kean is in the episode and she always makes me rage. From the summary, it sounds like she'll probably make me do it some more. Ugh, she gets upset when Jim kisses Leslie Thompkins? She walked out on him, wouldn't return his calls, and was fooling around with Renee Montoya for weeks! I wouldn't be surprised if she forgets about that and tries to present herself as being the wronged one. **rolls eyes.** I just can't stand her. I found out that in most comic verses except the most recent one, she doesn't die as I've always thought, but she and Jim get divorced. If she acts like this in the comics, it totally makes sense.

Anyway, if it was easier to skip scenes on Hulu, I would probably try watching it. But it's very difficult to do that there, since it loads and plays badly to begin with. So I'm conflicted with whether to watch or not. **sighs.**

Also, I learned that some of the classic Star Wars characters do appear in the Rebels series. That pleases me. But it seems like they only appear for an episode at a time; none are steady cast members. And I do question the idea of Ezra becoming a Jedi, etc. I mean, what happened to him by the time of the classic trilogy? It certainly seemed that there, the only Jedi at all was Luke, and his and Leia's Force sensitivity was why they were the only hopes. So if that was true, it seems Ezra must have died by then, as well as the unorthodox Jedi who introduced him to the Force, which is depressing.

And I was reading the Star Wars Insider again and saw a very nice picture of Lando. I think I actually went Purrrr in my mind. I knew I always liked Lando a lot, but I don't think I was aware that I'm attracted to him. Now that I realize, though, it makes perfect sense, like I knew it but just didn't know I knew it. And I'm excited and want Lando merchandise, like a figure.

I'm still kind of interested in that trilogy of Lando adventures, too, but I think I'd like it a lot more if it was Lando and Han having adventures together. I'm very intrigued by their friendship. The only book I know with them having an adventure together (that doesn't take place years after the classic trilogy and be really steeped in Expanded Universe stuff) is a newer book that has Han trying to get the money to pay Jabba after he somehow loses it following the first movie. I might get that book sometime, but I don't quite agree with the picture it presents. I had the impression that Han still had all the money by the second film; he had just gotten sidetracked by helping the Rebellion and hadn't left for Jabba's place yet because of that. And I find that angle a lot more moving than him staying because he didn't have the money anymore.

Current Mood: exhausted

If you can believe it, I still haven't managed to capture any further sleep. I'm still running on 40 minutes of sleep and whatever is keeping me awake in the first place.

I like to read my stories for five minutes or so before attempting sleep, as somehow that can induce sleepiness better than immediately hopping into bed. And reading my stories is better than reading someone else's, since I already know what happens and I won't get hyped up wanting to know what happens next.

But that didn't work today. I must have read bits and pieces of two dozen or more of my Ginger and Lou fics without getting sufficiently sleepy (except when those @!&^%#^% sounds roused me as soon as I dozed, AUUUURGH!). Finally I gave up and read some of one of the Star Wars books I brought back from the library in order to read Boba Fett's storyline. Still wide awake, I got back on the computer for the third time during this disaster. I checked mail again, wrote some, removed a bad plot twist from a ficlet, and watched three Mike Hammer episodes (sooo much adorable Darren). Still nothing.

I really don't know what I'm ever going to do. When the insomnia is this bad, I wish sleep would just hold off until it's time to sleep again. Occasionally it will. But I'm afraid that this time it's going to hit me like a ton of bricks right when I most want to be awake: first, to see a Perry Mason episode with H.M. Wynant, and then to see The Lawyers episode (and oh, I hope it's one with Joseph. He's absent from about five episodes).

Current Mood: exhausted

So I had mega insomnia AGAIN and it was a very long day. This time, however, I finally got exhausted later and dropped into a nap. I burrowed under my soft Batman pajama top (which I use as a shawl since it's too hot to be used as a pajama top of mine) and also had my Boba Fett figure on the bed with me, under the top/shawl.

First I dream of some bizarre trip into town, and it was snowing, and nighttime, and we were in some place of business looking out the foyer door at the snow. I cannot bring to mind exactly what we were even doing there.

Then the dream changed and I had a Boba Fett figure collection, about four assorted figures of varying sizes. And I was having trouble getting them to stand up where I was trying to display them, which seemed to be on the jutting edges of the sides of bookcase shelves. Creepily, at least some of them were suspected to be haunted, as to why I couldn't get them to stand up no matter what I did with them. The dream ended when I was going to try new positions.

... If that's what happens when I sleep with my figure on the bed, maybe I'd better not do that again. **headdesk.**

It would be fun to have some of the other figures, though. There's a new small figure out, in a double-pack with a stormtrooper. It's really good and detailed. And there's the six-inch figure in the new Star Wars Black series. I cringe at the prices of those, though. But oddly enough, The Disney Store has them cheaper than anywhere else! $14.99 instead of $19.99. I don't remember if they have the Boba Fett one, though. It kind of seems like it's a Walgreens exclusive?

The Disney Store also has a talking Boba Fett. I need to try that sometime and see which voice it seems to have: something closer to the original voice or something closer to Jango's voice.

Since I grew up with the original Kenner figure, I kind of wish I could have one of those again, too. Very nostalgic, even though not as accurately detailed as recent ones. I have a little home movie my brother helped me make involving Kit and Molly from Talespin being kidnapped and Boba Fett coming to rescue them. LOL. So I can see my figure on that, at least. And my brother has that figure again, so I know it's in good hands. But I still kind of miss it sometimes.

And I'm so close to completing my Ginger and Lou

100songs challenge! There's only 15 left. 13, really, since I have two more short stories in the finishing stages. I'm still wondering what I'm going to do when I finish all 100, since I will undoubtedly want to keep writing about them. I'll need to scout through the theme comms again, or else choose another of the 100 Songs tables. The great thing about 100 Songs was that the mod had officially opened it to everyone posting whatever they wanted, instead of needing to have a claim approved. Most comms are not that way, so even if they're dead, I feel a little worried to rush in and start posting without being able to claim. I took some of the songs from the other 100 Songs tables to use on mine, though, since I wanted to replace a few prompts and I used four others for the Writer's Choice ones. So it might be difficult choosing one of the other tables for a second round. And I might like to have a new challenge with a lesser number of prompts than 100. But 100Songs appealed to me the most when I was looking for one. Another annoying complication is that many of the prompt comms are for pairings only. Some I really liked the themes on and then was disappointed to see it was only for pairings. Bah. And as much as I always wanted to support the comm

platonicism, the prompts just never inspired me and I was never able to do anything with them.

It seems like I wanted to talk some about Ginger specifically, but I'm not even sure what I wanted to say. I'll probably sort it out as soon as I post this.

I know I've been musing some on how I portray him in most of the fics, rather calm and mellow. But his general mood in canon does seem to be complete calm, and part of the scary thing about him is not knowing when he'll snap. I know a couple of times I wince a bit when I see one thing or another I've written him doing, like collapsing into Lou's arms hugging him after an experience where he flipped out because of a head injury and tried to attack everyone until Lou calmed him down. If he'd just collapsed, that would have been alright, but I don't think he would have hugged in that situation. But in general, whenever I have doubts, I go back and watch his and Lou's scenes again and end up feeling like I'm not straying from his characterization and he would probably behave very similarly in the situations I put them in. He and Lou are more affectionate with each other/Ginger allows affection more than in the episode, but the fics are after they spent time in prison and I have Ginger open up more to Lou because of that time. He's still very dangerous to enemies and will snap if something tips him over the edge (usually Lou being harmed). Usually the stories take place during peaceful times; many are slice-of-life with Ginger and Lou just talking or doing household things like decorating or searching for missing objects. Ginger might still wish they were stealing jewels, but he's accepted going straight and prefers a life where they're not in danger of going to prison again. But he is fierce and vicious whenever a danger to their existence comes along. He is still a dark soul in some ways and likely always will be.

I really adore writing for him and Lou, and Snakes, and other oneshot episode characters. When they have so little official screentime, I kind of feel like they're half "mine" because of all the love and thought and fleshing out I put into them (and the fact that it's very unlikely that anyone else loves them as much as I do). Yet at the same time, they're not all mine because they also belong to the writers and actors who created them. It's nice to have a basic template to work with, instead of just creating from scratch. Creating characters and worlds from scratch is infinitely HARD. And a great thing about writing for others' characters, even oneshot characters, is that you can see them on the screen and not just in your mind. It's so fun to actually watch the actors bring them to life! Of course, many (or most) times, it's the actors' portrayals that inspire me to love them and want to write more about them. It's definitely the case with Ginger and Lou, where the actors have such amazing chemistry and the characters seem close even though they don't speak of it.

Current Mood: nostalgic

So I've been thinking on some of the currently popular cartoons and my various experiences with them. I don't watch a lot of current cartoons; I'll pretty much only give one a go after it's been recommended to me (and sometimes not then, either, depending on the show, my interest level, and my free time).

That one person who kept wanting me to listen to them talk about their assorted OCs tried to get me into Gravity Falls by showing me the Halloween special. That was one of the strangest things I have ever seen in my life. LOL. Amusing on some level, but not really my cup of tea. She told me the series proper was not like the special, and I've meant to give it another try, but it's hard to steer myself in that direction when I didn't find the Halloween special or the characters in it particularly endearing.

On the other end of the spectrum, Ladyamberjo introduced me to the awesomeness that is Steven Universe. Ohmygosh, that show is adorable! The characters are very likable and personable. The plots are sometimes a little strange, but sometimes that's tongue-in-cheek and the characters observe how strange things are (like Steven wondering why on Earth there's a secret dimension inside his lion's mane, LOL). And the series pretty much runs on familial and friendship squee.

Ladyamberjo has also talked favorably about many things in Adventure Time. I'd like to give that one a try at some point, too, but I think Steven Universe is much more my type of show. Post-apocalyptic settings are not my favorite things, so I think that and some other things on Adventure Time would make me sad (like the Ice King's backstory, oh gosh). But Steven Universe is set on present-day Earth, and even though sad things happen there at times too, it seems like they like to end things on feel-good notes. The show is just so adorable and such a big squeefest! It always makes me happy to watch it.

I think Adventure Time is the more popular of the two; I can't seem to find much merchandise for Steven Universe beyond DVDs. That's a shame. I would totally buy Steven Universe figures, if they made them. I definitely hope that show will increase in popularity and get renewed!

Another recent cartoon I would like to watch is Star Wars Clone Wars. I saw some of the little three-minute ones of the first Clone Wars series years ago, but I've never seen any of the thirty-minute CGI Clone Wars series. That time period fascinates me and I would definitely be interested in seeing some of the adventures the characters have. There's new Jar Jar and Boba Fett adventures and that would certainly be fun.

Then there's Star Wars Rebels. I skimmed through a kid's book of the plot, and it sounds fun and very Star Wars-ish, but I think I'd be a lot more interested in it if some characters were around that I already know and like. It seems like it's entirely about new characters instead. One of the fun things about Episode I was how it dealt with characters we already knew, such as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Yoda, and the droids, in addition to bringing new characters into the fold. It really helped to ease viewers into things. I just don't know what to make of Rebels seeming to focus only on new characters.

And of course, Phineas and Ferb. LOL. That show is very cracky and silly. The constant formulaic repetition of the basic plot structure gets a little monotonous sometimes and I wish something would happen that isn't the norm. Some people actually like the repetition, but I usually don't care for that in any show and usually will try to ignore it if it's in a show I really like (such as Perry Mason, which I watch for the characters more than the plots). But perhaps there is a bit of development later on? I hear that the boys finally learn their platypus is a secret agent, for one thing. **snerk.** Perry the Platypus is totally the best thing about the show. And the mad scientist, naturally.

Littlest Pet Shop has also been recced to me. I've tried more than once to watch it and I just can't seem to get past the super-deformed style of the pets. One of these days, I'm going to give it a go and see if I like it. I think it seems a little young for me, but maybe if I actually watched it, I wouldn't think it was any more that way than My Little Pony.

Curiously, as popular as it is, I don't think Monster High has ever been recced to me by anyone. Which is fine; I don't think I'd care for it.

I've also fallen way behind on Winx Club. Is that even still a current series? I know they're finishing (or have finished) season 6. I don't know if there will be a season 7. I stopped watching when KidsWB dropped it and I have never seen anything from season 4 and beyond. It sounds like it has characterization issues sometimes, and I can believe it, as I had characterization issues with what I did watch. That show was always a guilty pleasure more than anything else. I still don't know if I'll ever get around to trying the other seasons.

Then there's The Legend of Korra, which I believe just finished up? I'm curious about it since I heard it takes place in what looks like the 1920s (?) and that's a favorite time period of mine, but I don't think I'd want to watch it unless I ever get around to seeing Avatar, and I don't know if that will ever happen. That's a long show, so a big commitment. And it would need to be watched in order too. I have difficulty gearing myself towards watching things that need to be seen in order, since I don't have much watching time and I usually like to stick with my current interests since I don't even have much time for them.

I also want to try the CGI Hello Kitty series. I've experimented with a couple of the older series and I thought they were adorable, especially Hello Kitty and Friends. The older series were anime, but I'm not sure what to call a Japanese-made CGI show. CGI I usually think of as a cartoon rather than anime.

My favorite current cartoon is My Little Pony, and I love the two Equestria Girls movies, too. I am often exasperated by the directions the show takes, however, especially how they're not consistent in writing for the characters or their supposed development. I kind of wish Equestria Girls would become a series, if they would focus on Sunset Shimmer's journey to learn about friendship. I just love and adore Sunset Shimmer so much and would want her to be the central figure in any Equestria Girls TV series.

I think if I continue to be exasperated by the writing choices once season 5 of My Little Pony starts, Steven Universe will usurp it as the favorite current cartoon.

Current Mood: cheerful

Ugggh. I had absolute killer insomnia yesterday. I was so eager for a shopping trip that I kept not being able to sleep and I'm not even sure I ever did. If I did, it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 minutes. I definitely crashed when we got home. But I was only trying to have a nap at that point and I slept too long and now I can't seem to get any more sleep. **headdesk.**

The trip was a lot of fun, even though I couldn't find everything I wanted. But I found a surprise when I popped in at the comic book store: for once they actually had something I wanted! I got the sixth issue of the recent Six Million Dollar Man comic. That leaves #5 to get. I'm a little disappointed, though, as from #6 I can tell that there probably isn't any Oscar hurt/comfort in #5, and the alarming cover of #5, with him clutching a chest wound, made me think that there would be some really intense Oscar hurt/comfort going on. It seems like the covers of comic books often don't match the stories inside, intensity-wise.

I still don't like the utter bizarreness of the people being infected by an alien substance and turning into monsters. That is too weird even for that cheesy (but awesome) show. But at least it looked like Steve and Jaime have been able to help them recover.

Oliver Spencer's fate is now up in the air, though, as he tried to use his mind to lock into the rampaging robot's mind and force it to stop, and instead he was electrocuted and is unconscious and they're not sure if his consciousness is still linked to that blasted robot, which is still loose and will apparently play into a new arc, if there is one. Gah.

I love how the comic took a basically disliked character and really fleshed him out. Oliver still acts like a jerk sometimes, but we know at least part of his reason for his intensity (wanting to find a way to help his crippled daughter). And he has a heart for other people's suffering too and is horrified by the things the monster does when it goes out of control. Upset over his part in creating the beast, he risks his safety to try to stop it. Steve wants to help find a way to wake Oliver up and reunite the little family, even though he doesn't like Oliver.

I think Oliver is really unfairly demonized by a lot of the fanbase. I ranted about that recently on Tumblr. http://lucky-ladybugs-lovelies.tumblr.com One of my main annoyances is how everyone gets up in arms over his most infamous comment, that it's too bad Steve can't be put into hibernation and only wake up for missions, but they don't get that he really didn't even sound completely serious when he said it. It was a nasty comment and shouldn't have even been made in jest, but even in the comics they make it sound like it wasn't just an idle crack and was instead something he actually tried to enforce. In the movie, I don't recall any such thing. It was just a remark that I doubt he had any real intention of following up on.

Barney Hiller was operated on by a doctor and now has robotic parts. It looks like a whole exo-skeleton, really. And whatever happened in #5 apparently resulted in Steve's bionics being so damaged that they were forced to operate on him and give him the bionic limbs that the rampaging robot tore off of Barney. Steve doesn't know, and boy, is he going to be furious when he finds out. They really didn't have a choice, when they desperately need Steve to help with these problems and Barney is too mentally unstable to be an agent, but it's still unsettling. Rudy commented on that, and Oscar agreed, but he didn't see that they could have done anything else under the circumstances. It's not like they have spare bionic limbs and millions of dollars for expensive operations lying around. And I'm assuming Steve had to be operated on right then or he might have died.

I'm glad to finally know how the arc wrapped up, but they left so many things open-ended and the bionic program is still down, because apparently the Secretary of State has been replaced by a robot and won't green-light it going operational again. Uh oh. Oscar got to be awesome and yell at him about how they need Steve and Jaime as agents. It won't be pretty when he finds out the truth.

At Barnes and Noble, they didn't have the anthology book that I decided I wanted the most. And since I was saving money for Sailor Moon (which I found, squeee), I decided that since I'd bought the surprise comic, maybe I wouldn't buy a book too. After all, I want to save some money for next month.

I did look at the Legacy of the Force series, and while I take issue with the storyline of Han and Leia's son going bad and killing Luke's wife (!!!!), I am dying to read Boba Fett's storyline. After comparing some earlier stories written before episode II came out with some stories that came out after episode II, like Legacy, I determined that with Boba's backstory revealed, the writers more often than not portray him as a more human character instead of so completely cold. There are some earlier stories that depict him as showing kindnesses sometimes, including the awesome one in Tales From the New Republic, but overall, most of the stories like that came out after episode II. I already know how his storyline plays out in Legacy, and that he eventually gets a happy ending, but after peeking in some of the books, I'm more intrigued than ever and absolutely must read. In particular, I love that we learn about his family (he tried to get married and settle down once, although that didn't work out as he had hoped) and that Han and Leia's daughter goes to him for help when she wants to train in order to defeat her corrupted brother. Also, he talks to Jango a lot in his thoughts. This Boba Fett is very open to the readers, unlike the mysterious character of earlier novels that even the readers couldn't always figure out.

Since I don't like some of the plot of Legacy, I wasn't sure I wanted to actually spend money on any of that series. The library has three of them, including the first one, so I'm hoping to try at least that one from there and if I decide that I adore it in spite of the plot elements I detest, I'll probably go ahead and buy the others that Boba Fett plays a part in. I'll have to buy some of them, since the library only has those three. Oh, if only there was a county system....

And I've seen three Sailor Moon episodes on my set so far. It feels so good to see the classic anime again. The pace is really much better than in the manga/Crystal. I prefer it to not be so frenetic, especially since character-developing stuff often happens in the filler episodes.

(Also, after peeking in some of the manga, I don't quite understand why people complain about Minako's ditziness in the anime. She really seems pretty ditzy in the manga, too. It's only in Crystal and the live-action where she's more serious. And the first season of the classic anime.)

I'm happy to say that the frame-ghosting isn't really an issue when watching, as I hoped. It probably only becomes a problem if you're taking screengrabs. However, I am irritated that it can't be full-screened. It's a picture in the center of giant, thick black lines on all four sides. But it's a big enough size that I don't have to be right up by the computer to read the subs, so that's okay. It's about the size of the screen on Hulu.com.

I'm just so happy to have more Sailor Moon that's all my own. Aside from this set, I only have two dub DVDs and four subbed: two S and two SuperS. I'll probably never be able to afford the older, better season sets, so these new ones will have to do in spite of the flaws. I'm very excited for the next release in February! I hope they'll keep being steady like this and there won't be big gaps between releases.

Current Mood: thirsty

I've gotta say, as much as I love the squee when Leia finally acknowledges she loves Han, I feel sad to think of all that wonderful banter ceasing. They have so many classic exchanges in the first two films. I was laughing and laughing when seeing those films again this past week. One of my favorite lines, when the Millennium Falcon just won't start:

Leia: Would it help if I got out and pushed?

Such classic sarcasm.

That's a great example right there of why I generally don't like when unresolved romantic tension gets resolved. It changes the whole dynamic of things.

That said, I do support the pairing and find it very squeeable and I just adore Leia's daring part in the plan to rescue Han in Return of the Jedi. Leia is awesome.

And while The Empire Strikes Back is my favorite of the original trilogy, I do love that in Return of the Jedi we get to see a scene of Boba Fett in action. As a kid, I was always heartbroken by him falling into the Sarlaac pit and I wanted so much to believe he got out. When I was old enough to read the stories and I discovered that it is very much a thing in the Expanded Universe that he gets out, I was absolutely overjoyed.

Even though episode VII will not follow the Expanded Universe canon (and I am mostly glad about that), I really hope that they will at least accept the idea that Boba Fett survived and have him make a cameo appearance or something. That would be so awesome. Even though George Lucas really had intended for him to die, he finally resigned himself to the fact that the fans did not want that. He even said once that he considered inserting a scene in the movie showing Boba Fett getting out, but he thought it would break the flow of the film (which it would have), so he didn't. That's as close to an official sanction of the idea that he gets out in movie-verse as we'll get, if he doesn't appear in episode VII. (Of course, I will insist on believing he did, even if he doesn't appear in episode VII.)

Also, I just keep marveling that I actually have the 20-inch Boba Fett figure. They came out in September, a Wal-Mart exclusive. In all that time, I have only ever seen one, at any Wal-Mart. That Wal-Mart is ours.

The first time I saw him, I didn't have the money to spare to buy him on the spot or I would have. I thought sure I wouldn't have another chance. But then he was there the next time I looked, and stayed there all the way up to when I actually could get him several weeks later. I know it's silly and wouldn't really be true, but it's nice to geek out and think that he was there just for me. I'm sure there's other Boba Fett fans in this area and they just weren't lucky enough to be aware of the figure's existence in Wal-Mart right then. But to a starry-eyed girl who's loved him for 23 years, it just seems squeeably amazing that things all fell into place for her/me to be able to have him.

I'm hoping to soon go to Barnes and Noble and a Wal-Mart or two other than ours. I want to see if Wal-Mart still carries the first half of Sailor Moon season 1 and I'll probably buy it if they do. Ours has one more copy, but the case was actually dented in on the corner and I worried wondering if the discs would be alright inside, since it would take some serious crushing to dent a DVD case's corner, so I decided I did not want that copy and I'd try to find another, or buy it on Amazon if I couldn't. And I'm debating whether to get it if I see it or to save my money for February 10th and then debate between the second half of the season and Batman season 2 (part 1). I want all badly, but I can't have them all at once. It would make more sense to get Sailor Moon right now, I think, but gaaah, I learned that the Batman set will include the Chrissy episode and even though I recorded it, that's not as good as having a DVD. And there's King Tut and Penguin and so much fun. I'm sure I'll love those episodes, even though season 2 does get sillier than season 1.

And at Barnes and Noble, it is terribly tempting to splurge a bit and get two or three Star Wars books. Which I doubt I'd really do, but I want to go look at them anyway. I still have Star Wars books here I need to read (or want to re-read), in addition to all the other unread books I have stacked around, so getting more books is not sensible at all. But ... when I have money that I could, it's awfully tempting. I want some more of those pre-movie Han Solo adventure books I've seen around, maybe the Lando ones too, and I always wanted the one where Han and Leia go to Tatooine to learn about Anakin, and then there's the anthology set with the story of Boba Fett in the Sarlaac apparently talking to either it or someone else who fell in some time ago, and that new book that's out taking place after episode IV.... (I adore midquels!) The wanted list goes on and on. And the thought of all those wonderful books and more makes me inwardly wiggle happily all over.

Current Mood: tired

So last week Dad saw me looking in the Star Wars Insider magazine while doing groceries. Somehow that led to discussing the movies and he decided he wanted to watch some. We convinced him to start at the beginning even though he wanted to watch The Empire Strikes Back first. We're hoping to go through all six films. We've currently done A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.

I never saw A New Hope until I was about ten or eleven. For some reason, we only had episodes V and VI recorded. And I was captivated by them from the time I was about 5.

I was also captivated by the figures my brother let me have. I was curious and intrigued about the Boba Fett figure, wondered who he was, and Mom said she thought he was a bounty hunter and suggested we watch the films and see. We did, and I was instantly intrigued by this mysterious character. Who was he? Was he all bad? Was there good in him? (Apparently even at that young age, I was demonstrating my fascination for characters who don't have a lot of screentime.) When I was older and discovered the books and short stories written about him, I found that many explored those questions and depicted him as still having good in him. My love for the character grew and continues growing the more I hear about new stories.

(I don't like, however, that some of the newer stories have decided to depict him as having a vendetta against all the Jedi. Um, no. I'm sure he had a vendetta against Mace Windu, but not everybody. To me, that just doesn't fit the character. I can see him feeling like the Jedi and the Sith aren't that different in some ways, but not him having a vendetta against either group.)

While I enjoyed seeing episode IV again, seeing episode V brought on all this amazing, immense nostalgia and I was overwhelmed by it. I remembered my episode II trading card game, and my Monopoly Star Wars computer game, and dug around to find both. I had thought something had corrupted the game disc because the Gateway wouldn't play it. I was so sad about that; I loved that game! Apparently it was the Gateway's problem; I installed the game on the laptop and have been playing it a little bit this week. It was so exciting to play it again, even though it wasn't quite as enchanting as it was years ago. I started a game with me playing Boba Fett and the computer AI playing Han Solo, and I keep having to save it and pick it up later, because it is going on and on. I remember one time playing Monopoly Jr. with Mom and it lasted two hours. This Star Wars game has, I believe, been going on for over two hours when I add up all the gaming time.

The voices, of course, are not from the movies (except for C-3PO, who is hosting the game) and some don't even sound like the movie voices. But something very curious happened instead.... Boba Fett's voice is deep and has an accent similar to Jango Fett's in episode II. This game was made five years before episode II was released. Certainly they hadn't arranged the episode II cast yet (I don't think, since episode I hadn't even been released). So it's very curious that the voice would be anything reminiscent of episode II!

I hope we are going to get to see all the movies.... I have to admit, as much as I adore the original trilogy, I still think I like the prequel trilogy even more. I love prequels in general, because they set up things in the other films and it's exciting knowing the other things are still coming, whereas in sequels it's sad because those things are all over. I always feel bittersweet watching Return of the Jedi, since that's the last adventure (until episode VII in December, and while I'm hopeful and excited for it, I'm sad that we'll be seeing the characters so old. It's awesome they're all coming back for it, though! I just hope none of them die in it. Or in episodes VIII and IX, if those happen).

I also wonder a bit if I prefer the prequels because they have a different kind of nostalgia.... They were released in my generation and I got to excitedly look forward to them the way older fans looked forward to the first trilogy. There is something very bonding in anticipating films. Episode II was probably the most highly anticipated for me. I was just ecstatic beyond belief that Boba Fett would be in it and we would learn his backstory! Jango Fett was great, too.

Also last week, I discovered the very awkward truth that Dad forgot I love Boba Fett. I thought he would never forget that, since he remembered all through my childhood and surprised me in 2005 by acknowledging that he remembered that. We had several discussions on the character at that time, with me trying to tell of the good in him as depicted in some of the stories and Dad remaining unmoved. But anyway, so I made the mistake of mentioning I liked The Empire Strikes Back the best of the original trilogy and episode II the best of the prequels because of character development, intensity, and ... well, I liked that Boba Fett had screentime. And ooops. I rather wish I hadn't mentioned it, since Dad really had forgotten. I wonder if he remembers at all by now? He briefly brought it up while watching The Empire Strikes Back but let it drop again. I wonder if he would actually not go through the ceiling if I let him see my wonderful big Boba Fett figure?

Current Mood: nostalgic

Bleh. Saturday was spent mostly in pain. I hate when that happens, especially when it's so bad I can barely think straight. The only good thing about it is that when it's that harsh, it's usually gone sometime the next day. I'm definitely grateful for that, but I feel bad that I really couldn't converse with people when I was trying to.

This past week I've been amused thinking back to when I first became interested in Boba Fett. I had the figure of my brother's, as mentioned, and I wondered who he was. Mom and I looked on the figure chart and found his name. Then I wanted to see him in action, so we watched the Star Wars films again (or rather, the latter two, since we didn't have a copy of A New Hope back then) and ... well, it was pretty much instant intrigue.

Then I started doing very strange things. I had Kit and Molly from Talespin become Boba Fett's wards. I don't know what happened to Rebecca. I do remember at that time I was on the rocks with Baloo, which was totally unfair to him. I think it started because I didn't like the way he acted in the episode Stormy Weather, which was childish of me since he was only worried about Kit getting in with a creep and doing dangerous things. But so anyway ... Kit and Molly were Boba Fett's wards. And I made up silly posters on some pink paper one of my aunts gave me that said "The Kit and Molly Show! With Boba Fett Too!"

Mom thought it would be nice to give her one of the posters, so she could see I was enjoying the paper. So I did, and she read it aloud and Dad was there and went, "... Hey, isn't that the guy from Star Wars?" and I wanted to sink into the floor.

I also remember that one of my first hurt/comfort adventures involved Kit bringing Boba Fett ... somewhere, and saying he wouldn't wake up, or something (I was six; I don't think I knew a big word like "unconscious" yet). And then after a while I was embarrassed by the whole thing and when I had him wake up, I wasn't sure how to have Kit react and it was all very weird.

I used to occasionally draw Boba Fett, but all that armor was confusing to figure out, so I didn't do it very often. I did draw Kit and Molly a lot, badly. Mom drew better, and I'd have her draw paper dolls of all the characters we used in our stories. So there were the paper doll storylines and the action figure storylines. Later on, since later we mostly played with figures and there weren't existing figures for everyone I wanted in the stories, we developed a verbal-only storyline that we still have ongoing today.

I remember other oddball adventures back in the day like Kit being a brat and pretending he had amnesia and saying his name was Guacamole, because I thought that was a hilarious word. LOL. Poor Kit. I did such weird, weird things when I was a kid. And I had no concept of OOCness.

Leonardo Turtle owned a restaurant with his brothers. Probably a pizza parlor. LOL. Later on he sold it to Rebecca.

Don Karnage and Mad Dog hung out together. I wasn't crazy about Dumptruck or Gibber, so they weren't there. Over time, Karnage and Mad Dog pretty much became OCs rather than the Talespin characters. Eventually they really only shared the names and a couple of key personality traits (Karnage's conceit, Mad Dog's whining). I even redesigned them as other animals (Karnage as an Alaskan Malamute, Mad Dog as a Siberian Husky). The OC versions became the central characters in the stories I used to write and sell in the old neighborhood to get money. I also created a skunk character, Jackly the Pew, who was originally based on the Tiny Toon Adventures character Jonny Pew. (Jonny ended up being Jackly's brother.)

I created a whole bunch of skunk characters actually. I loved Fifi on Tiny Toons and she entered the storyline, as did Miss Skunky (an orange skunk who cameos with Jonny Pew in the episode), Red-and-White (a blundered version of Miss Skunky when I couldn't remember what she looked like), and a collection of girls either inspired by Fifi or who were early attempts at drawing Fifi when I didn't have a picture to be looked at: Viva, Vivi, Vifa.... Vifa, who started out as a sweet girl, eventually showed her true colors as a femme fatale and became one of my primary antagonists even today (albeit as a human version, not a skunk). I first tried that in my sixth YGO mystery and it continued from there.

Later, Vifa developed a twin sister named Flo. Flo was originally just Vifa in disguise, but then I wanted her to be another actual character. For the longest time, I had trouble giving her a separate personality from Vifa, but recently I differentiated them by having Vifa interested in money and jewels and Florence interested in power. Vifa could be pettily bent on revenge, while Florence didn't usually bother with that. Lately, however, she has gotten so frustrated with Ginger and Lou overturning her plans against them that she has made it a personal goal to defeat them someday.

Meanwhile, Jackly (or Pew, as we started mostly calling him) started out as an antagonist, frustrated by Karnage doing stupid conceited things and Mad Dog being embarrassed and whining and bawling about it. It was only after Karnage enlisted in the Army that Pew started becoming friends with Mad Dog. Eventually, they actually became closer friends than Mad Dog and Karnage had been.

Karnage drove General Stilton (from The Cat From Outer Space movie) utterly mad with his nonsense of wanting to look in mirrors and shiny hubcaps and anything else that resembled a mirror. Karnage eventually made friends with Corporal Klinger from M*A*S*H. Yes, we said "Screw time periods!" and pretty much added anyone we wanted. The setting was the present day, but anyone could wander in from other eras, at the same age they were in the other eras. And characters like Karnage remained anthropomorphic animals, while human characters stayed human. They co-exist together very easily.

Karnage was in the Army for many years, and then left to marry a mirror. LOL. It was a gag based on something from years earlier, when he'd talked about it and Mad Dog talked him out of it because he wouldn't be able to go on dates with anyone and back then, Karnage was a Casanova and loved dates. But this other time, Mad Dog couldn't talk Karnage out of it and Karnage said he regretted listening to Mad Dog that first time. There was a big wedding in New York City, with Lieutenant Schrank from West Side Story very unhappily running security and Ron Updyke from Kolchak: The Night Stalker being abducted by a bunch of rabid Karnage fans that demanded that Karnage be allowed to marry the mirror or they would keep Ron hostage in a hot-air balloon.

Ah, good times.

Currently the main characters are in Los Angeles, where they've mostly been for three years, since Karnage married the mirror and went to L.A., where he burst into court and got on the witness stand and said, "I solemnly swear that I'm glorious." Hamilton Burger's expression was priceless. LOL.

There was a sanity hearing, which dragged on and on because the judge and Karnage's lawyer were crooked (something Karnage was oblivious to), and Mad Dog and Pew and company came out from their main residence to participate in the hearing. Eventually Karnage was put under the observation of some doctors, who are fascinated by him and aren't much help, except for keeping him from doing dangerous stunts like getting on bridges and screaming about being wonderful.

Both Vifa/Vivalene and Florence pretended to be nice girls and talked with Pew, who wanted to give them a chance to start over despite thinking they were both awful in the past. He learned their true colors later and felt deeply betrayed. Then he met Virginia, a mysterious girl who likes to steal things and then pretend she didn't, and generally is a mercenary out for a buck. Her full origins are still unknown, but she causes trouble for the characters every now and then, including Ginger and Lou.

Fifi worked for a private-eye character called The Tester, who used to test Pew with mystery scenarios to train him to be a detective. The Tester is the English Cat from Scat Cat's Aristocats band in disguise, albeit I've never conclusively revealed that. Fifi eventually disappeared and they're still not sure what happened to her, but a girl resembling her has surfaced in London. She has amnesia and was found wandering by Simon Templar, who took her in as his secretary. She has adopted the name Patricia Holm, the name of Simon's girlfriend in the books. This is the TV Simon, so there is no real Patricia. And since Fifi is an anthro skunk, there is no romance going on between them. If she has any feelings for Simon, she will keep them to herself.

And as if all this nostalgia isn't enough, today I woke up with an urge to finally write my sequel to my fic for the much-hated TV show The Batman. I honestly really enjoyed the overhaul and found the series very fun and fascinating. About six years ago, I wrote a oneshot examining their version of The Riddler and then did a multi-chapter involving him that ended in a mysterious way. I never abandoned my idea and desire for a sequel, but I've just never got around to it. Now, suddenly, I really want to do it.

I re-read the oneshot tonight and will probably re-read the multi-chapter tomorrow. Maybe I'll re-read the three Riddler comics from The Batman Strikes! tie-in comic series, too. I really only liked the first one of those, though. And I especially detested the last one and felt The Riddler was OOC and the issue didn't live up to the awesomeness of its cover. I remember I planned that my sequel would tell the story that I thought that comic issue would, based on the cover.

I also want to bring in the idea from the main comics where The Riddler eventually at least semi-reformed and became a private detective. The first multi-chapter I did ended with him supposedly dead, but his body missing and a paper left in the freezer chamber that had the first riddle he gave Batman on it. I'm not sure I ever will reveal how he got out of the morgue, since there should always be some mysteries surrounding him, but I'm thinking the sequel involves him turning up as a private detective under his real name and staying in the shadows for a while, only revealing his identity to Batman and Yin later on.

I really hated that they dropped the Yin character from the show after season 2. She was awesome! And she certainly should have at least been in the episode where Ethan comes back to himself, since they were partners.

I don't know when I'll actually get a chance to start writing any sequel, though, or if I really will at all despite the abrupt burst of interest. I've got all the October Writing stuff to work with, and an idea to write a book about season 1 of Mannix, and I've been seriously neglecting my Perry blog lately.

Current Mood: nostalgic

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Ramblings and Musings of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

We were so carefree then, our hearts were on a cloud....

Entries tagged with star wars

Turtles and Scottish Festivals.

Oh, I forgot to mention ...

Heh.

The figure saga

And here we go....

Maverick plunnie

Star Wars: The Force Awakens thoughts

Hmmm....

Answer for question 4318.

Bah.

...

Omygoshsquee!

To watch or not to watch....

AUUUURGH!

Weird.

Current cartoons

Hmm.

More Star Wars

Nostalgic Star Wars post

Hmm. Well, that's different.