Of Swords and Parasols

Incidentally, I've gone back to Laura as my default avatar(though it may not stay this Laura)  Haven't had her as my default in about a year, I don't think.

Anyway, I've been thinking(and have since I first saw Veronica Mars) that really, Nancy Drew is NOT the female detective people should compare Veronica to.  Sure, there's the "blonde teen detective" bit, but take away the superficial parts, and really, there's no resemblance.

Now, I LIKE Nancy, but really, she's something of a goody goody.  Veronica?  Completely not a goody goody(at least, not since Lilly's death.)  Veronica will lie, cheat, manipulate and con whoever she has to to get what she wants, none of which Nancy would ever do(the small deceit or manipulation?  Sure.  But nothing on Veronica's levels.)  But Laura Holt?  The woman built a famous detective agency around a con and a fictional boss, and she carried out the con for years, both before and after a "real" con artist wormed his way into her con.  Lying, breaking and entering, manipulation...heck, even fraud...they're all acceptable to her if it'll let her run her own life the way she wants...Steele is(initially) just another thing to work and control to meet her goals. 

Now Nancy?  Could and would never do that?  Veronica?  Tell the girl she can't do what she wants with her life because she's not a man and put her back in the relative stone age of technology(as she would see it) and she so very much would.  In a heartbeat.  Probably faster than Laura did.

No, Laura isn't as obviously underhanded and devious as Veronica is and is far more subtle, but it's definately there.

Also, Nancy is all about the boyscouts.  Laura and Veronica?  Well, they may TELL themselves they like the boyscouts(Veronica a lot more forcefully than Laura) but really, they're all about the bad boys.    Even without Logan, there's just this feeling of "wrong" with Veronica/Duncan(even before I started liking LoVe is s1, I was hoping they wouldn't get back together) and I understand it's even worse in that regard with Veronica/Piz.  And Laura?  Girl had the perfect nice guy right there in Murphy.  If she were ever going to fall for a nice guy, it would have been him(poor Murphy...and Bernice...you were both so missed after s1...) and none of the guys who liked her ever stood a chance.  If she had ever REALLY wanted to be rid of Steele, she could have been...she's not exactly a stupid woman.  But she wanted him there, so he stayed.  And, of course, when they DID actually bring in a romantic rival for Steele...well, sure, he sometimes SEEMED to be the nice guy, but really, he was  just as sneaky and underhanded as they were.  If he hadn't been, he wouldn't have appealed to Laura at all.

(note: I do like Nancy Drew and the old old old Nancy Drew books were one of my first major intros into reading, just....you know...the Nancy/Veronica comparison kinda gets to me...I guess)

Hrm...I am sleepy and have NO idea if all that makes sense...

Yeah, quick check of flist and then bed...

Maybe I should be greatful my internet went out.  If it hadn't I'd likely be sitting here all ansty because  had 1 episode of Veronica Mars left to watch.

I'm thinking this will be extremely spoiler heavy, so...



And on that note..I need to get me some Veronica Mars icons...

Internet went out sometime yesterday at home, hasn't come back yet. As I'm at work today and tomorrow and at the parents Sunday and Monday,it's not overly much of an inconveience just yet.  However, it had better come back up soon.

Flipside of that is that itlet me finish Veronica Mars without distractions.  Will be posting about that later.

My chair was stolen again today, and they ripped my sign off of it(you know, the one stating to NOT remove it from our department.  Unhappy.

My Musashi and Nobuta wo Produce DVDs came today.  Musashi looks fine, but the Nobuta DVDs have no subtitles.  There was also something called "Nanisama" thrown in as a "free gift"  Never heard of it, shall investigate. Probably supposed to placate me in regards to Nobuta.  Have sent an email to the seller.  Annoyed, as I'd been hoping to watch it this weekend.  Did watch the first couple minutes, and it looked quite funny.  Too bad I had no idea what was being said...

Now to continue on the daily rounds.

So, just finished ep 12(I had 2 eps left instead of just 1...not that that's a bad thing...)

Let the random and occassionally focused babbling commence...

Wallace's biological daddy:  I don't like you.  Not only are you rather stalkerish, but you are seriously jeopardizing my 20 years of Mars-Fennell family Christmases and Wallace and Veronica blackmailing each other into doing each other's chores and plotting anniversary gifts.  The fact that we haven't seen Alicia since Wallace ran off with you(another thing, while it was less than a day for me, you stole Wallace for many moons and shall not be forgiven for that) doesn't make me like you.

Then there's Jackie.  Jackie, I like you, but if you make Wallace and Veronica fight again, there's shall be words.  Harsh words.  Maybe blood.  And hopefully, you have learned your lesson about trying to interfere there.  You're basically asking the guy to choose between you and his extremely protective yet(to him) fragile sister, not you and his ex.  Also, does anyone else think her name should be Betty?  Or at least, some version of Elizabeth...

Allyson Hannigan and Charisma Carpenter were clearly having the time of their life in their scene together.  Which is funny, because Trina is basically Cordy if she never grew up, and Kendall is Cordy gone bad.

I remember some...harsh...reactions to the bar scene when the episode first aired, but didn't have many details.(Note: referring to when veronica was helping Logan and goes into the FitzPatricks' bar and when she's in there too long, he goes in and rescues her and pulls out the gun)  My take on the scene is that it wasn't the guy itself that freaked Veronica out so much as it was the fact that she already knew it wasn't loaded...if it had been, he wouldn't have been able to keep himself from pulling the trigger, and she couldn't help picturing what would happen if he ever did have it loaded.  Aaron seems to have very firmly raised him to be of the "men fight for their honor with their fists and protect their women at all costs" variety.  Fortunately, though, as bad as things are with Logan right now, and as screwed up as he currently is, I think it's what will keep him from eventually becoming his father.  Veronica knows how violently, and violently protective, Logan was when his life was ok, so she has a pretty good idea of what he might be capable of now(though, I think the videotapes were the needed rock bottom, and he's trying to climb out of the pit now)  I don't think Veronica worries that Logan would ever physically hurt her(he's programmed not to, and if he was, there are several occassions where he would have by now) but rather, what he'd do for her.

And still on the subject of Logan, how wrong is it that it's so right for him and Weevil to be partners of a sort?  I'm almost tempted to say I'd be happy with just those two doing their thing.  They make a surprisingly good team.  One day, I want someone to threaten Veronica while those two are in the same room.  Though...that could get very ugly very fast.

Going back to Wallace for a minute...he can never leave.  Seriously my eyes teared up when Veronica opened the door and there he was...and I don't tear up over TV or movies...

One character I'm starting to like(in a "love to hate" way) is Dick Casablancas.  Now, his character is pretty much a case of their creating a personality to match the name, and he should thank Veronica daily for the fact that she can keep her mouth shut.  However, as much of a spoiled brat of a jerk as he is, I think he really does do his best to take care of his brother and be a good friend to Logan...his idea of a good friend, though, is from the perspective of a 18 year old with no idea of what a "consequence" is.  also, Beaver, you are beyond unworthy of Mac, get away from her.  Unless it means there's even LESS Mac than there is so far, in which case, your unworthy self can continue to hang around her.

Duncan is gone.  This is good.  However, they killed Meg in the process, which is worse(what IS it with season 2 and my favorite recirring characters from season 1...almost no Cliffy, either...)  However, Duncan does get a few points for naming the baby Lilly, but not as many as he'll get if her middle name is Veronica.

And for my last rambly...how sad is it that Keith and Veronica still have the alcohol in the house?  I know it's not theirs.  Keith may go to bars on occassion, but he's a smart man with a 18 year old daughter who has friends over while he's not there...she's a good kid(usually) but she's still 18...it's like, if they throw out Lianne's bottles, then they've thrown her out.  They both know better than to want her back, but they can't bring themselves to completely close that door.

And now to actually focus a bit:

The main plot of this season took a little while to get going.  It hit the ground running in season 1, but a chunk of the first few episodes was spent settling Jackie and Kendall in and establishing the new status quo for all the characters.  However, it's shaping up quite, quite well and I'm getting more interested.  Also, unlike last season where the mysteries WERE good but I guessed just about all of them in advance, I'm not catching on to the mysteries as well this season, which is a good thing.  In fact, I've been flat out wrong once or twice.  For example, in the baby episode(yes, I'm too lazy to get up and go get the episode guide for titles) I figured out pretty easily that Veronica was in on it, but I thought that Logan was too, and that Lamb was chasing him all over the place while Duncan was headed elsewhere, so I was pleasantly surprised when all was revealed.  This is a rarity for me, as I usually figure things out in advance.  This isn't tooting my own horn, I've just read and seen so many that I know what to look for in a fictional mystery, and usually, the best I can hope for is to not figure it out too long before the detective.

Now to make the rounds real quick then get back to the show.

edit after watching the carnival ep:  I take back every kind thing I said about Dick Casablancas and reiterate what I said about Beaver.  Also, I just realized...while I am a diehard LoVe shipper, a small part of me is a Veronica/Weevil shipper...I always do this squee thing at their interactions.  And Weevil has learned from the master. Yes, yes he has...

Gaah.  I finished Gokusen...10 1/2 hour long episodes of subtitles.  Most of you know how I feel about subtitles, but for those who don't:  I hateloatherespiserevile having to read the show or movie I'm watching.  I flat out will not watch subtitles if dubs are available.  The only exception to this was when I watched the "Grave of the Fireflies" anime, and that was only because it was requested by the person who gave methe movie as a gift.  Beyond that, though, I have yet to encounter a dub that was so wretched I'd rather watch subtitles(and I've encountered some bad dubs.  So, for me to watch about 8+ hrs of dubs in the space of 14 hours(minus a chat and not being home for 2 hours) says quite a bit.  Forwhy, go clickyclicky


Also, I have finally started season 2 of "Veronica Mars"(the "watch one episode of Gokusen to check out the subs, the then on to VM with maybe a movie inbetween" plan didn't work so well...)

(warning, season 1 spoilers inside)



Going back to Gokusen a bit...for those of you on my f-list who have seen it..is the special any good?  It sounds like it's probably graduation stuff, after the series ends.  I don't mean the second series...I've been warned off from that, and I can see why, as they pretty much ditched most of the cast(what made it great) and told the same story again. this is a 100 minute thing, that definately involves Shin, at least.