manga: xxxHolic Vol 13

Brief comment on the xxxHolic/Tsubasa timeline, for those who try to avoid spoilers: the beginning of this volume overlaps with and spoils the last fourth of volume 22 of Tsubasa, and the tail end of the volume hints at a major spoiler for volume 23 or 24 (can’t remember how many chapters further it is) of Tsubasa.

( spoilers )

Tithe by Holly Black

Sixteen-year-old Kaye has been dragged all around the U.S. by her rocker mother, until her mother’s latest boyfriend tries to kill her, and they go to stay with Kaye’s grandmother for a while. As a child, Kaye had faerie friends, and she meets them again, getting caught up in a plot of the Seelie Court’s against the Unseelie Court. As the title would indicate, the plot involves using Kaye as the seven years tithe-human sacrifice- that will keep the fae from running loose on the human world. There’s also Roiben, a Seelie knight now bound in service to the Unseelie Queen, and Janet and Corny, Kaye’s childhood human friends.

Like Melissa Marr, Holly Black is pretty determined to strip away the whole faerie-is-shiny-and-romantic-and-glamorous thing and go back to the darker roots. Unlike Marr, however, Black doesn’t seem to have much of a goal in mind with that or anywhere she’s going with it, just exposing it as dark and unpretty. (As Tithe predates Wicked Lovely by several years, I suspect it was a strong influence.) There’s also a variety of tropes I don’t like. Like how Kenny, Janet’s boyfriend, all but sexually assaults Kaye, but it’s not really his fault, because Kaye didn’t know that her fae appeal was developing, and couldn’t control it. And Roiben can’t be held responsible for all the bad things he does, including to Kaye, because the mean evil fae (mostly the Unseelie Queen) forced him to. Except for the times that Kaye controls him and doesn’t realize what she orders. And, of course, Janet, the female childhood friend, is ultimately jealous and suspicious of Kaye over a boy, but Corny, the outcast gay boy, totally has her back. Of course, Corny gets the Creepy Bad Wrong Probably Abusive fae boyfriend, and Kaye gets the Mysterious Angsty Secretly Good fae boyfriend.

And yet, despite spending a chunk of the book wanting to yell at it for annoying tropes, I liked it, and want to read more! I like how Kaye’s relationships with her mother and grandmother are normally antagonistic but still essentially “good” relationships, instead of needlessly antagonistic or negative just to make Kaye’s homelife more difficult. But mostly, I think that, while I can’t stand the more popular romanticization of the Other because of how it so often ends up justifying the worst stereotypes when it comes to gender and relationships between the genders (not to mention Really Awkward Allegories), I just really like fiction that explores the concept of Other as strange and unpretty even when it’s appealing, and how romantic ideas of Other really aren’t romantic.

movie: The Incredible Hulk

Of the Super Duper Extra Big superhero movies last year, I’d put this one somewhere between Iron Man and Dark Knight, with my really enjoying Iron Man despite finding it deeply problematic in some areas, and realizing that Dark Knight is a good movie with good performances, but not really enjoying it. Of course, Iron Man had two major female characters it really really liked, Incredible Hulk had one major female character that the creators seem to be pretty in love with, and Dark Knight kinda didn’t care about women outside of useful double fridging, and sometimes looking scared. I tend to be heavily influenced by things like that.

I’ve never been particularly interested in the Hulk comics, so my only real familiarity going in was fandom osmosis, maybe half a dozen comics, and the 2003 movie with Jennifer Connelly and Eric Bana. All I really remember about that is Connelly, Bana, and Hulk Dogs. Based on the last, maybe it’s for the best? Though, during the Super Compacted Angsty Flashback at the beginning of this, I did get confused as to whether this was a sequel or a reboot. (It’s a reboot.) The plot was pretty decent for a superhero movie, but getting into would require way too much exposition.   All that really matters is that it makes sense while you're watching.

In the interview with the three superhero girlfriends recently, Liv Tyler was the one who talked about dangling from an airplane and about how it was kinda silly that she was the only woman around. There are a couple of minor female characters, but she’s pretty much right. She made a pretty adorable Betty Ross, though, and she and Ed Norton’s Hulk were ridiculously cute. I even “aww”-ed at the absurdly clichéd “rampaging monster is subdued when he hears and sees his slim little True Love” bits. And maybe laughed gleefully when they couldn’t have sex because he turns into a giant green monster if he gets too excited. Which, uhm, means he spent the last several years chastely pining for her as he angsted in South America, and she was getting at least some action? She also elbows soldiers in the nose without breaking her stride.

The movie also starts with a few montages of a shirtless, angsting Ed Norton and later has angsty hugging on the bridge in the rain, so I briefly wondered if it turned into a kdrama. But I’m annoyed by how all Brazilians (except the token girl with a crush on Bruce and the token guy teaching him self control) were either violent street thugs or in awe of his ability to fix things. And the nods to the upcoming Avengers movie pretty much crossed the line between geekservice and gratuitous. I’m a bit worried that Iron Man 2 will be nothing but setup for it.