Ramblings and Musings of the Insane, Philosophical Ladybug

So I finally admitted in the U.N.C.L.E. comm that I don’t see Napoleon as a chronic bed-hopper even though he certainly loves a pretty face and is a serial dater. What I didn’t say was that if I really thought he was a bed-hopper like James Bond, I doubt I would be attracted to him or find him appealing at all. Part of the reason why Napoleon appeals to me is because I’ve always had the impression that he’s a more moral person than James Bond. I don’t like James Bond because he’s a chronic bed-hopper. I do like Roger Moore, and yet when it comes to Bond, there’s just an automatic turn-off. No attraction.

(Years ago, when I was experimenting with walking more on the wild side, probably because I liked how impressed someone seemed to be when I did it, I had a character who was kind of a bed-hopper and that continued even after he became seriously involved with one particular person. That was gross. We never wrote out any bedroom scenes or anything like that, but it was always known what he was doing. I couldn't do that now, especially the continuing with playing the field even after starting a serious relationship. I would be totally uncomfortable, especially if the character was very important to the story as he was in those role-plays. I would also be uncomfortable with the character having a big role since he was a big-time crime boss and very unrepentant. If I ever get my novel off the ground, he will either have a very reduced role, not be a bed-hopper, or possibly both.)

Speaking of Roger Moore, though, it’s interesting how I can be totally obsessed with him for a while and then it fades and while I still like the characters, there doesn’t seem to be much, if any, crushing. That’s happened more than once. I wonder if that means he’s more on the fringes of my darlings instead of smack-dab with them. With all the rest, there is constant crushing on the characters when I see them even if there isn’t a constant, serious obsession with them/the actors.

I think a lot of why it faded this time was because of Simon Templar, actually. I like the character, but I am one of the few who prefers the color episodes to the B&Ws. There were a lot of B&W episodes I hadn’t seen before and then they finally released the DVD sets of those seasons and I snapped them up. In the B&W episodes, Simon seems rather sexist sometimes. And I know that was likely largely a product of the times and has to be looked at in that way, but Simon by his very nature is an anachronistic person. I think that even in the present-day, Simon would probably have some sexist ideas and feel that women are silly worrying things that need to keep out of the men’s worlds and stick to their own place. The book Simon is a lot more that way, I think, but the TV version has some of it too. I hadn’t seen some of the worst offending episodes of that sort before and when I did, they were kind of a turn-off. The most sickening episode of all was the more humorous Luella. Everyone was unlikable there, from Simon to his friend to his friend's wife. I think those views aren't expressed as much in the color episodes. Or maybe possibly Simon matured beyond such views. I should have been watching the color episodes on MeTV once they came around to them again. I keep longing for a new DVD release of all the color episodes, but I’m not sure they’re going to release separately from the boxset. I'd better watch my scant few color episodes again; maybe that will cool things a bit and I'll like Simon more again.

I still love Beau Maverick and was thrilled to see a couple of his episodes I’ve never seen before when Cozi showed them. The Town That Wasn’t There was sooo good and establishes why Beau is my favorite Maverick. It starts out seeming that he’s being a selfish prick, but throughout the episode he grows to honestly be fond of the people he’s with and sincerely wants to help them. He even turns down $10,000 when accepting it would have hurt one of those people. He then comments to himself something like that his uncle would send him back to England if he knew.

(Honestly, I really don’t like Beau’s uncle. He treats Beau like crap and most of the sayings he gives sound really selfish. And yet when he actually appeared on-screen, he acted more like Bret and the others in that he seemed to try to help people, so I ended up torn on what to think of him. Although it also seemed like he mostly helped because he liked giving the finger to the bad guys rather than because he wanted to help the people who were being hurt. When I write about him in stories I try to be kind, since even when I don't like certain characters I try to examine them from all angles within the contexts of the stories unless they're meant to be out-and-out villains and don't need to be examined more closely. Part of me seriously wants him to just flat-out not care about Beau since he treats him so rotten, but I always try to instead stress that he's just worried about Beau doing something that will get him hurt or killed. Although the $10,000 thing makes me question that idea.)

I think Lord Sinclair may be my favorite Roger character. Part of me would like to say that my Roger Bond figure is Lord Sinclair, as I think he’s the one I want the figure to be the most, but I feel I can’t since I don’t have a Tony Curtis figure to be Danny. Sacrilege! If I had a Tony Curtis figure that’s around 6 inches, my Roger figure would totally be Lord Sinclair. I don’t suppose there is such a thing as a Tony Curtis figure? Sigh.

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?

So our dryer has been acting up for a while and Dad finally decided that so many things needed fixing, it would be better to get a new dryer. K-Mart had a Kenmore on sale for $299, so on Friday we went and looked at it and decided to get it. Dad then had to return the dryer parts he'd bought, so that took us up near Build-a-Bear and I got the Lalaloopsy doll/plush I wanted, Mittens Fluff N Stuff. I think I will get the other Honey Girls plushies sometime, but I figured they'd be around longer since they're the house brand and not one of the licensed brands that floats in and out. I saw all four Lalaloopsy dolls they've made, and I kind of want Crumbs Sugar Cookie too, so we'll see how that goes in the future.

I also managed to snag both Saint DVD sets and The Persuaders! online. I lost two auctions trying to get the seasons 3 and 4 set and then finally went to a Buy It Now listing that was still cheaper than the going retail price. I've been watching the Saint episodes I missed on MeTV's website and then plan to re-watch the others. And I've been gobbling up The Persuaders!. Oh my gosh, it is seriously adorable, gah. This show is just overflowing with friendship squee! It is paradise. Words cannot fully describe how much I am in love with this series.

I wrote that Saint fic that I had the idea for a year and a half ago. It absolutely flowed and ended up clocking in at 11,400+ words. And I posted it on AO3 in one chunk without checking word count first. Ooops. But some people have looked at it anyway. I hope they liked it. As usual, no one comments on AO3. I've posted 42 things there, and I think only five or less have comments. Part of me doesn't know why I bother. But at least I see people are reading, and sometimes I get Kudos, so that's nice. And there's no Saint category at FF.net. I requested one, but nothing's happened. I also wrote another Persuaders! fic, a follow-up to the angsty Angie ... Angie episode. I want to write a follow-up to Read and Destroy too, and then I want to move on to an amnesia fic. I originally figured Brett as the victim again, but then I decided it should be Danny and we'll see how poor Brett with all his British resolve reacts to that. (I think I'll have some Brett hurt/comfort in the climax, though. And poor Danny will feel horrible about not remembering Brett. Amnesia fics are cliche, but they're so interesting for exploring character reactions. Anyway, The Persuaders! takes some cliches and puts their own spins on them, making them all seem new.)

The Scott plushie I ordered came too, and he is also adorable! Very well-made, as they generally are, and he fits well with Elliott's size. I finally gave up on having the hair I really wanted for Barry and rushed to get him semi-presentable once I knew Scott had shipped. I wanted Barry to be part of the welcoming committee. I got brown fleece at Wal-Mart to do the hair and it doesn't look too bad. Making a ponytail out of that looks a bit odd, but I just decided Screw it, I can't find hair extensions anywhere and they probably wouldn't match the fleece anyway, so I'll just totally wing it. I think when I finish Barry, I want to make a Snakes plushie. I need to make Barry's shirt, tie, suspenders, and hat. I may just stop for a while after the shirt or tie, though.

And then I got around to finding out if I could find any Ivanhoe episodes. I could, and watched one. My reaction during it was basically, "... Oh my gosh. Soft, thick, fluffy hair. I didn't know he grew it that thick back then. Help." Mixed in with, "... Such a lovely voice to listen to. Help." And, "This character is awesome! Help." Also mixed in with amused/embarrassed giggling due to my shameless fangirling and thinking, "Oh brother, I am acting ridiculous. I shouldn't be fangirling over him." And, "Oh dear, wouldn't it be amusing if I end up saying offline what I'm watching and why I've got the giggles." And the American distributor was Screen Gems. I'm trying to remember if Antenna TV has ever aired this series. If they haven't, I wonder if they'd consider it. It would make a nice addition to their oldies block for children on weekends. (If they still do that....)

If I watch a few more episodes, I think I'll be ready to brave Mom's copy of Ivanhoe the book, which she gave to me. I want to read it (I loved the 1952 movie), but I'm worried the old language will go over my head. I don't read many classics because the language often confuses me. But now I have an indelible image of Ivanhoe looking like Roger Moore. I already got out the book and skimmed around in it today.

I also want to see the film The King's Thief. It's part of the Warner Archive collection. I'm trying to remember if my sister might have given us a VHS copy among some stuff she recorded, but I kind of think I'd remember a swashbuckler. Most of what she gave us is musicals, which I'm not so into. I think I remember everything she gave that was something else. It sounds like Roger has some good screentime and that he survives the film, so I'd probably be willing to spring for the DVD. It sounds like a pretty fun movie in general. And of course, everything is always better with a darling or two.

It also occurred to me that there is probably a figure of him as James Bond and I should have it, since so few darlings have figures of them. I thought maybe there'd be a little four-inch figure or something. Instead I only find listings for 12-inch figures, and there's one I particularly like that could perhaps double as a Simon Templar figure, but I can't seem to find it for less than $60. Oyyyy.... I cannot spend that much on a figure!

Sometimes I still want to bash my head against the desk for including him among my darlings. But I have accepted that that's the way it's going to be. He certainly has his faults, but there are lots of good things about him too, and I try to focus on that.

I try not to let silly things irk me as much as in the past, when after reading a magazine article that showed the writer clearly didn't understand the Marik Ishtar character, I wrote a long letter to the magazine pointing out a bunch of things the writer either didn't understand or didn't know. I doubt I'll write a letter to the publishing company Little and Brown now. But ... I can't help feeling annoyed that on the case for a set of Equestria Girls novels, they made some actual errors about Sunset Shimmer when describing the book plots. You'd think that a case of the books would make an effort to get things right. Instead they make it sound like Sunset is still a problem for the characters following the first movie. They have the idiocy to say that the Dazzlings is her band, when in reality she had nothing to do with being in the band and instead wanted to stop them. And they call her "always rebellious."

...

Completely aside from the fact that she had a complete change of heart at the end of the first movie and wanted to be good and not rebellious, the books actually portray her as even more insecure in the succeeding adventures than the movies do. Even in the most recent book, the Friendship Games adaption, this is done. In the movie, a key scene has Applejack making a remark that could be taken as guilting Sunset about her past. But Applejack means it as a joke; they are close enough friends now that such jokes can be made. Sunset half-smirks in response; she knows it's a joke. But in the book, Sunset takes it as a way to guilt her and show they'll never forget what she did in the first movie.

Apparently the publishing company will certainly never forget, or forgive, since they want to portray her so unflatteringly on the box and even accuse her of things she didn't do. **headdesk.**

Saturday was an extremely long day. Where to even begin? I feel terrible everything took so long, especially since Mom wasn't feeling well enough to go and we had to leave her home and call in every little while or so. But things can't fully be explained on the phone, so she was still plenty worried and I felt plenty horrible at the time it took. Even moreso since some of the time didn't have to have been taken.

So let's see. We made good time getting to the church and made it for the viewing/wake, as we were aiming for. The following funeral service was lovely and all the kids spoke, but gah, it was so sad. They were all so sad and some of them kept breaking down. These were grown men. It was moving to see how much they loved their mother (and for most of them, she was a stepmother, but they still considered her a mom just like their other mom). But man, it was heartbreaking. I don't often cry at funerals, but it was a struggle not to cry at this one.

The luncheon for the family and close friends was pretty amazing. I've never been to a funeral luncheon like that before. It was Mexican food. There were giant tortillas to fill with beans, chicken, cheeeeese, salsa, avocado spread.... It was so awesome. And there was ice water and several kinds of cake.

We hadn't actually planned to go to the cemetery part of the service, since it was even farther away and Dad just didn't see how he could afford the gas. But then my sister offered that we could go with her and her youngest daughter. We had to make a spur of the moment decision because everyone was leaving right then. I was worried to go with someone else, since then we'd be captive to their whims, but I could tell Dad really wanted to go to the cemetery, and I did too, really, if we could manage it. And I hoped it wouldn't take too long afterwards to come back to the car. So I figured we'd better try it. He left the decision up to me and I didn't want to be responsible for Dad not getting to go.

She didn't seem to know her way around too well for some reason, but her daughter set up the Google Maps app on the phone and used that to guide her up to the city where the burial would be. This was where we all used to live, and the cemetery is one of my favorites ever. It's so huge and old and mysterious.

The burial plot was in the newer section, so we drove over there, my sister got us to the wrong burial service even though we told her it was by the fence, and we had to try again. That time it went right and we arrived early.

I was surprised not to see the jagged triangular headstone in the area. I had thought it was right near the family plots in that area. Since there was a little extra time, I wandered off to find it. That thing creeped me out so bad as a kid, but it morbidly intrigued me too. It's just so unique. And then it's also creepy to me because from a distance, the only thing you can see written on it is the surname going vertically down the stone. The name is unusual and it's similar to the name of an aunt (just minus one letter), which only adds to the unsettling nature of it. I've tried to put it in every cemetery picture I've drawn (albeit I don't put the name).

I finally found it, over near where some family friends are buried. It still creeps me out, but it was daylight and didn't seem so creepy then. I walked right up to it. It's pretty big in person; it was about as tall as I am. Of course, I'm pretty short (five feet even), but that's still pretty big for a tombstone. I wonder why they used such a jagged piece of rock like that for the marker. That would make for an interesting story, I imagine. It's sad too; the person buried there was only 19.

I walked back and they still hadn't started yet; they were waiting for the hearse. When it finally got there, we did a little graveside service and tried to sing some family hymns, but we didn't know all the words, especially on the final one we tried. I'm glad we made it to the cemetery to participate in that final part of the service. It was after we left that the problems started.

We needed to drop my niece off at a friend's house where she'd arranged to spend the night. My sister detoured a bit to look at my dad's birth house (yeah, he wasn't born in a hospital) and the old shop where he used to work with his grandfather. Along the drive up, I had remembered that I wanted to check Marshalls for the rare Adagio Dazzle doll, as she's been turning up in a lot of them lately. The only Marshalls here are up in that approximate area, and my sister agreed we could try one on the way back down.

After some trouble with rush hour traffic, we finally got to the place and I went in to look around. I was really impressed with the store; it looks really upscale, even though it's a discount place. I wish Mom could see it; I think she'd love it as much as I do now. I couldn't find the doll, but I did find the big Twilight Sparkle figure. I'd just been thinking about her and that she wasn't in stores any more. I had wanted the original unicorn one and had not paid attention to the winged version, but I finally knew I'd never get the unicorn one since she's rare and expensive now and I was willing to get the winged one. When I saw her at Marshalls for $10, I figured I'd better snap her up.

We headed back to where we'd left our car at the church. We got off the freeway too early and started wandering around. Even though I saw street signs that said we were not in the right town, my sister didn't believe it. We wandered around some more as it got dark and ended up in yet another wrong town. Finally we all saw a sign proclaiming the name of the place and my sister believed we were lost. She didn't know how to work the Google Maps app, but the directions were still programmed into it from that morning as to how to get to the church. So she brought that up, followed them, and finally we were able to get back to the car.

I suppose I really should have just said for us to go home then, since we'd been out eight-nine hours at that point. But since we hardly ever get out that far and there were sales I needed to see about right then or they'd be kerplunk, I could hardly bear the thought of just going home then. I really tried to hurry regardless, but it didn't work out that way.

We also tried finding some stuff Mom wanted for Christmas presents, but we didn't have any luck finding stuff for the adults. We did get the stuff she wanted for the kids, so that was good.

I checked T.J. Maxx and Ross for the doll and still didn't find her, so then it was on to Toys R Us. They had a 30% off sale on all Pony stuff, and I thought I'd planned I'd get the archery Applejack and that would be that, but when I actually got in there and everything was on sale, suddenly it wasn't an easy decision. I debated for ages over several things I'd wanted, couldn't decide, and then we had to rush to the mall to see about the Build-a-Bear discounts. I had discounts adding up to $15 off, plus there was a 2 for $35 sale on. Both of my discounts worked with that, which meant I could get two for $20! Naturally I couldn't pass that up. I'd planned to get Zecora and Teegan (the purple cat/tiger) if I could get two, so that was what I did. It was fun and the girls were so friendly and sweet and fun. And since Teegan comes with a tank top (as well as sewn-on underwear), I found some cheap swim trunks for her to wear at least for now. Maybe later I'll have money to get her a nice outfit, but right then I just wanted to clothe her good enough and save more money for other things. But it took a lot longer to get two than I'd planned on; it was about thirty-forty minutes later when I got back to Toys R Us.

During the interim I thought I'd decided what to get at Toys R Us, the two-pack with Twilight and Flash. But every single copy Toys R Us had featured a stray glitter problem. It was shedding off of Twilight's skirt and getting everywhere. That didn't seem appealing at all, so I wondered if I'd rather get the characters separately and buy a Twilight without that skirt. I turned my attention more fully to the two-pack I'd tried to get in the summer, with Sonata and Aria from the second movie. There were only two copies of those, they're phasing out, and with the sale they were only $13.99. That was definitely the best deal. (Well, actually, the best deal was Photo Finish and her two band members, but I don't really know those characters other than Photo Finish herself. They don't even have any dialogue.) So I preferred Sonata and Aria. I still debated for a moment, feeling guilty as always to get antagonists, but I knew I really wanted them. They bicker like sisters, which makes me have a certain fondness for them. Plus, I knew I probably wouldn't be able to find the set before long. And I have a chance to get the Adagio doll from someone on the forum, so I wanted to have the other girls in the band right ready in case I could. It would be too sad not to have the whole group.

(Also, I have plans for a story where Sunset finds them post-movie and tries to extend friendship to them. One thing I did like in the book version of the second movie was that she felt some pity for them. I can definitely picture that, since Sunset had some similar goals of wanting to be popular/well-liked.)

With that taken care of at last, I wanted to just try one more Wal-Mart looking for Sunset Shimmer. (We'd tried one around the time we got the stuff for Mom.) That was a fizzle, of course. We had planned to try one more store looking for DVDs for the adults, but it was so late by then and I was exhausted and panicking, knowing Mom would be so upset and worried that it was taking so long. So we went home, arriving over twelve hours after leaving home. GAH. Mom didn't like the long time we'd been gone one bit, but she did like seeing what I'd brought back and was happy I'd been able to get those items, so that made me feel a little better.

I felt awful that I was too exhausted to stay up for long with Ladyamberjo and JP, though. That's the night I chat with them and Ladyamberjo and I have had all kinds of trouble having a conversation the last several weeks. And of course, on the night when Ladyamberjo tried extra hard to be available and awake, I'm so tired I'm falling over in the chair.

With weather reports of storms coming up this week, we decided we needed to look for the other DVDs on Tuesday. That was just two towns over. We left earlier than we do sometimes and spent the latter part of the afternoon checking out the DVDs at K-Mart and ShopKo. I also discovered that K-Mart's two-packs of Twilight and Flash are glitter-free and gorgeous, so I'm back to wanting the two-pack again and not to get the characters separately. I wonder if it would be worth paying full-price for it to get a nice glitter-free one.

I still couldn't find Sunset Shimmer, but I did at last find a good Scootaloo at Wal-Mart! All legs were the same length and her face wasn't shaped weird (yes, those are problems with Funrise sometimes), so I decided I should get her.

Also, I very randomly saw the 12-inch Applebloom at ShopKo. It was frustrating, because from a distance I momentarily thought she was Sunset. Sigh. But it was interesting to see a rare character turn up at ShopKo, of all places. ShopKo doesn't even have any Friendship Games dolls yet! I wonder if seeing her is possibly a good sign. Scootaloo just started showing up last month, and now an Applebloom.... Maybe, possibly, Sunset will still come? I don't hold out much hope of that, though. And I still wish I had taken that person up on her offer to get one for me in the summer. I was worried about shipping costs and I was fully convinced back then that we were just about to get her for fall stock. And then we didn't.

Well, anyway, we had some good luck with the DVDs, and I got a couple of Christmas presents, and it was a pretty nice little outing. We got back in time for me to chat with Crystal.

I also had good luck with one of my survey companies and got an Amazon gift card again already! I got a couple more Christmas presents with it, as well some more Get Smart for myself. Hopefully it will arrive in time for me to send one of the presents on and have it arrive before Christmas....

I also discovered that I need to watch every episode of The Persuaders!, ohmygoshsquee. It's wonderful! I plan to buy the DVD set with my next gift card. Meantime, I found it on YouTube and watched an episode in the morning. The friendship between the main characters is glorious, and it's even more awesome because they start out hating each other, and they go from that to really caring about each other and being really close friends. It's such a shame it only ran one season. It should satisfy my Roger Moore withdrawal nicely. I love his character, and the friendship with Tony Curtis's character, and I won't be surprised if I want to write fanfic somewhere down the line. As much as I love Simon Templar, he's a loner, and it's harder for me to relate to writing for loners if they don't have one good friend or family member to interact with. And if they're the only steady character in the cast. Then they work better in crossover fics. I really love to write about friendships. (Plus, I still worry about the fact that I prefer the TV show Simon while the few fanficcers prefer the book Simon. I'm still going to write that one fic with Simon appearing to be dead and Inspector Teal reacting to it, though. Then it flashes back to tell what led up to it, comes back to the present, and of course Simon will be alright when the drug wears off.)

I also became obsessed with the song Little Talks by Of Monsters and Men. It's absolutely haunting and gorgeous. I'm thrilled Ladyamberjo found that song and shared it with me! I am totally going to want to write a fic based around it at some point, although right now I'm unsure what characters such a fic would involve. I'd also like to sing it, but I don't know how well it would go over if I tried recording me singing it, since it really does need to be a duet.

So I was re-reading the two separate The Batman Strikes! comics and the graphic novel compilation I have. As I mentioned before, I thought the third Riddler comic was very badly done and OOC for him. There were always oddities in their Riddler stories, however, and I found myself wanting to believe the comics were a separate continuity and did not take place in the same verse as the show.

Some of the specific oddities: The Batman Strikes! Riddler is always blowing things up. Compare this to The Batman TV show Riddler, who threatens to blow things up, but actually only has lime Jell-O in the canisters. LOL. He isn't trying to hurt random innocent people; he just wants a distraction to keep Batman away from where he's stealing technology information.

Also, while I loved the first of the three Riddler comics, one thing I always found a little strange was that in the climax, he's built himself what looks like a throne. Now, he's a very arrogant fellow, it's true, but that seems a little extreme even for him. In the TV show, he never does anything to give the impression that he actually thinks of himself as royalty/a king/etc.

To me it feels like the comics have a sense of who this Riddler is, yet they miss the mark and never quite grasp it all the way.

Yesterday I found proof that the comics are indeed their own verse. In the TV show, Bruce Wayne meets Selina Kyle at a dinner party in the episode From Ragdolls to Riches. They become more or less friendly and continue associating. But Bruce starts to become suspicious of her and is surprised when she cashes a large check he gives her and donates it to a pet fund. She wasn't fond of Bruce's dog art. Oddly, neither he nor Alfred ever considered that maybe she liked another animal instead of dogs. **rolls eyes.**

In the comics, he meets her for the first time at an animal shelter event, where she adopts every kitty there. He wonders if she's going to give some away, since that's a lot of cats, and she says she could never give one of her darlings away.

I suppose it could be argued that since in the comics they just had the one meeting, maybe Bruce had forgotten it by the time they met in the TV show episode. However, it would seem he would remember eventually, especially considering she adopted all those kitties. That's not something one could easily forget! And if he remembered about the kitties, he wouldn't be surprised at her donating the check to the pet fund.

Therefore, I can only conclude that the comics meeting came before the TV show episode aired and each is meant to be their own verse. It makes me feel a lot happier to have come to that conclusion.

I wish the comics had been a little better with their Riddler characterization; I love new adventures featuring the versions of characters that I love. But it seems like in general, whenever I venture into a media type other than the TV shows, I'm disappointed by the characterization or other things in them.

I was excited when I heard about the Diagnosis Murder series of novels that would be written some years back. However, they were written by one of my least favorite writers from the show, Lee Goldberg. I know he's usually praised, but I think a lot of it is misguided hype. I find it disgusting how his scripts and also the novels tend to feature death in the most bizarre and gruesome ways, like one episode where a man is crushed by a bed of spikes plunging through him. Horrifying! Also, he tends to rely a lot on stupid scatological humor more than other writers. And I don't always like his characterization. I wasn't entirely fond of his version of Jack Stewart, and in his Monk novels, I think he misses the mark on Monk's characterization and also on Sharona's. One novel even features Monk chasing after another character over continents because he can't stand them going away. That is not Monk. He might feel like doing it, but he doesn't do it. If he was going to, he would have done it when Sharona left.

And then there's the My Little Pony comics. Someone said that they felt the characterization in the comics is basically the stereotypes of what the characters represent, without really getting into all the facets of the individual characters. To some extent, I agree. I don't like the characterization in the comics, especially of Rainbow Dash, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders drive me bonkers. They're being held prisoner and all they do is sit and talk about how maybe they'll get their Cutie Marks for being kidnapped, and other silly things like that. They drive Chrysalis crazy, so if that was their purpose, it was genius. But instead it seemed like they really were being brainless dolts, talking about their Cutie Marks instead of devising a plan to escape, like I'm sure they would have on the show. And other comic arcs just really make me raise an eyebrow, like the pirate one with Fluttershy. She seemed OOC there, from what I've heard about her trying to keep a fish when it didn't want to stay, and there are others who feel the same.

I think just about the only thing I like in the comics is that they made Trixie a deeper character. In the show and the movies, she's pretty much the most shallow character there. But in the comics, she recognizes she did wrong and is honestly trying to better herself.

And then there's the recent Six Million Dollar Man comics, which are much more gruesome than the show and take things into really bizarre territory, like a scientist getting cut by an alien substance and mutating into an alien creature. And the substance has infected others and the entire base is now under siege by this nonsense. It sounds like something from Superman or Marvel Comics, not The Six Million Dollar Man. And in the main plot, a rampaging robot tore off all the prosthetic/bionic limbs from Barney Hiller, a twoshot character from the show played by Monte Markham. It's treated very seriously and isn't gory, but it's sickening and horrifying and is much darker than the show.

And then there's a whole other category of "this isn't as good" when it comes to The Saint. I still feel like the TV show is better, but I don't think I'd ever dare say that to a nest of Saint fans. Most of them prefer the books and the character in those. Of course, unlike with the other things I've been talking about here, the books came first, so there wouldn't have been a TV show without them. I appreciate the books to that extent. But I really don't like how much more permissive The Saint is in the books and how he'll even let murderers go free if he thinks they were justified in killing. Sometimes, in some books, I believe he even kills himself, and not just in self-defense. I think it's only if the person is particularly evil, like a mad scientist or something, but still.

This week, MeTV has up two episodes based on short stories in the one short story collection I have: The Gentle Ladies and The Ever-Loving Spouse. I don't really like The Gentle Ladies in either incarnation, but I certainly prefer the TV version overall. The blackmailing bad guy is killed by accident when he falls down the stairs, instead of one of the ladies killing him on purpose. In the episode, Simon helps them make it look like the guy was trying to rob the place to avoid scandal about the creep's blackmailing ways. In the book, Simon buries the body in the yard.

The Ever-Loving Spouse follows the plot of the short story a little more than The Gentle Ladies does, but it expands on it favorably and I quite like the TV version. The book version annoyed me not just for Simon's reaction to the revelation of the murderer, but because Simon seemed to just be sitting by and letting things unfold around him. He wasn't really actively involved, except for finding the first body and then confronting the two-time murderer later. And he just lets the guy go free because he feels that blackmailers are so repulsive and that killing two of them isn't a great loss to the world. What he doesn't seem to consider is that perhaps the murderer will someday be afraid Simon will talk and so he'll come after Simon to kill him too! I wouldn't put it past the guy, since he killed twice and since he didn't really seem to trust Simon.

The TV version has the same murderer, but Simon figures things out before the second death and calls the person to try to warn her. Then he comes to stop the murder and is able to, and is going to see that both people go to prison for their respective crimes: blackmail and murder. He expresses a bit of sympathy for the murderer due to his desperation and seeming madness from what the blackmailers are doing to him, but he isn't going to let the guy go scot-free.

I know the idea in the books is that Simon feels that legal justice isn't always good enough for some criminals and so he takes the law into his own hands a lot more. But I guess I'm just a prude; I prefer the more cleaned-up version of the character in the TV show.

So the book I got in that last lot of stuff from Amazon was one of The Saint books, a later installment in the series, as I thought I'd like to try the ones most like the TV show first. I still haven't had the chance to properly read through it, but I've skimmed a bit and already immediately discovered that even the later Saint differs rather sharply from the television version in at least one way.

In one of the stories, The Saint is talking to a guy who wants his help. He woke up in the middle of the night, discovered a girl he didn't even know was lying naked in bed with him, and somebody took their picture. The Saint exclaimed that it must have been disappointing to have not watched the girl strip down to nothing.

Compare that to a TV episode I just watched on MeTV's website this past week, where The Saint is browsing an outdoor booksale and notices one dude looking at a book with photographs of naked women. He actually looks appalled or surprised, and in voiceover says, "Some people!"

I find it infinitely more appealing for a guy not to be such a perv. Chalk another one up for the TV Saint.

Of course, I also saw an episode where this woman is begging him to stay the night at her place because she's afraid of her stuff being stolen, and he finally consents, and she says she'll have the guestroom made up. Simon says to himself, "Now I *am* shocked." What isn't clear, however, is if he was intending on jumping in bed with her or if he just figured she would try to get him to, whether he actually accepted or not, because after being initially cold, she suddenly came on quite strongly to him after he saved her from kidnappers.

I'd be more inclined to believe the latter, as TV Simon seems to not fall for every pretty girl he sees. Not that the book Simon quite does that either, but I get the impression from things I've read that he's much more likely to have a fling here and there than TV Simon (unless we're supposed to believe that TV Simon is doing such things off-camera, but they don't do a good job of implying it, if that's supposed to be the case). TV Simon seems to feel like "This is just business; I'm just helping her" and it doesn't go beyond that. A few times he and the episode's girl seem to be showing some attraction to each other, but it never seems to go beyond a kiss.

So I watch what episodes of The Saint I can find, and I stumble on a smidgen of hurt/comfort in one of them (a knockout), and then I have this awful urge that I want a bigger slice of hurt/comfort. I get the idea of wanting to do a version of "the character is supposedly killed" and have a scenario in my mind of finding the car crashed against some boulders and Simon laying on the boulders, apparently dead. He'd be found by the police, and his sometimes-nemesis sometimes-friend Inspector Teal would be there, because I am curious as to what his reaction would be.

Of course, Simon wouldn't be dead, but instead of there being a double or being dead and coming back, I had an idea of Simon was given an experimental drug to make him look dead. Then the bad guys hit him so it would look like the injury was from the car crash and laid him on the boulders to be found. They wanted the drug to last long enough that he would be buried alive.

Naturally that wouldn't happen. It would wear off at the police morgue and he'd get up and dizzily stumbled into Inspector Teal's office after properly orienting himself.

Problem is, while I want the hurt/comfort, on the other hand I worry that it would be too OOC to have such a large slice of it for this series. Could the clever and crafty Simon ever get into that much trouble? I've heard that when the author agreed to let the TV series be made, he had a few stipulations for them to follow, one of which was that Simon would never be badly hurt. Bad guys giving him a drug to make him look dead would probably qualify there. And I really hate to do anything that the author wouldn't like (even though he's long dead by now).

I'd be curious to know exactly what extent the author went to writing scenes of Simon in danger or hurt/comforty scenes, and if he even did so much as a knock-out in any of the books. Of course, the character isn't exactly the same between books and TV, but it's just the principle of wondering what the author was okay with.

I suppose I could try writing the thing if I really want to and see if I feel too uncomfortable doing it. If I don't, perhaps I'd like to write the whole thing out and post it.

Then I'm also a little terrified wondering what the fans would think. I couldn't find a category on FF.net, but there is a small one on AO3, which seems to largely be geared towards the book version. Naturally that wouldn't mean that the people are purists, but there's always that possibility and the thought makes me more than a little nervous! And in any case, Simon was often playing dead in the series, but to really apparently be dead might make people so upset they wouldn't even read on to see the rest.

EDIT: Wait, I've got it! It would be IC for Simon to be in that situation for at least one reason: because he's manipulating the bad guys. Maybe he took a drug that he knows will shorten the amount of time the bad guys' drug will last, and then he lets them drug him to look dead because he decides it would work better to catch them for them to think they've killed him.

Of course, it wouldn't make the hurt/comfort quite as pronounced, for Simon to be aware of what's going to happen, but I could definitely picture it happening that way.

I'd still like to know if the author ever had anything resembling hurt/comfort in the books, though.