Sarah Connor Chronicles: Season 1, ep 3

I have become abnormally attached to Ellison and have deep, deep fears for him.  I blame this on Supernatural, where I liked Hendrickson (or was it Henderson?  So bad with similar and common names...) and thought he was ruthless because he thought he was trying to catch a pair of killers leaving a trail of bodies across the country before they could leave more bodies behind, but the show clearly thought that he was completely evil because he was after Sam and Dean.  Ellison is the same kind of character, only written as all nice and sympathetic and wanting to get to the bottom of things.  I fear for him!  He is the kind of character shows like to randomly kill off at the end of a season!

Actually, after my last genre show and it's race and gender problems, SCC is like the best thing ever.

On to spoilers!  (With a vague spoiler for something that should be revealed within the next few eps.)

( I didn't get killed and she didn't kill anybody. I'd say that's a pretty good first day. )

Um...it has been a long day and my ability to process names is rather shot.  You should see all the name errors I actually caught.  Off to watch the extras on the first disc now.

(no subject)

 rightstuf.com's current sale is 40% off DVD and 33% off merchandise from Funimation.

Funimation seems to be drifting away from 3-5 ep DVDs, and towards 13 ep sets.  More cost effective for buyers in the long run, but why isn't Claymore getting that treatment?  Now to decide whether or not I want to get Claymore as it comes out, or wait for a set, and whether or not to give in to some combination of the sets of Yuyu Hakusho, Ouran High School Host Club, Pumpkin Scissors, and Ghost Hunt.  I think Noir, Gilgamesh, and Emma are also all in the weekly specials, too.

MEANWHILE!

Person who stole my Dr. Pepper  from the refrigerator (in a drawer, so they had to be looking for someone's drink to take):  pray I never find you.

The Shining Court by Michelle West

Some of you may recall that my reaction to The Uncrowned King was along the lines of “Why is the book about this Valedan Guy? Where’s Diora? I like Valedan, but not at the expense of Diora. I want Jewel and Diora, not Jewel and Valedan. But Valedan can still stay.” I am pleased to say that Diora was back in the third book.

Some people (having poked around for reviews of the first two books) seem to be turned off by how oppressive and brutal the Annagarian society is to women. In all honesty, it’s a large part of why I like it. Now, if it were about being in a harem with the hunky lord and/or all about skanky sex, it’d be different. Those things, however, are completely absent here. Instead, that popular fictional environment is stripped of the romantic veneer, and the focus is on how women in that situation survive, but as individuals, and in terms of staying alive itself. Though they’re passive on the surface, they’re able to twist and manipulate the rules designed to enslave them to survive, and they become strong through their relationships with each other, even the rivals, and events that most high fantasy would use to make a woman a victim are used to make her a survivor. In The Broken Crown, both Diora and Teresa started down the path of gaining their independence, and their part of this book focuses on that path. It even allows Fiona, who would be portrayed as an evil, scheming villainess in another book, is able to get in on that a bit. When Diora finally confronts Sendari, the scene is absolutely magnificent.

Then there’s Jewel and Avandar.

( spoilers )

I’m not sure what I think about the Voyani yet. The characters and their plotline are very important here, especially the masks, and many final events involve getting the various players to them, but the characters don’t grab me as much as the characters from the first two books yet.