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iariaThere is a post here at io9 by Charlie Jane Anders about a genre mashup she'd like to see which she calls 'the Evil Overlord Romance'.
It’s kind of tongue in cheek and I actually can’t tell just how serious she’s being but at the end she says: "Admit it: You want to read a whole Evil Overlord Romance novel now. And my answer is pretty much: hell, yes. I’ve never thought of it as ‘evil overlord romance’ but that is a trope I love. I would be ecstatic if it actually became the new big thing in books. I would read all those books. I would love for this to become a real genre option.
A lot of my fannish pairings would fit under this genre and even more if you look at them in a slightly AU way. This includes Sarah/Jareth (who were pictured in the article), Clark/Lex, Xavier/Magneto, Ares/Xena (or ubber Xena/Gabrielle), Doctor/Master, Carolyn/Riddick, Ba’al/anyone, Elena with pre-show Damon or with Katherine/Elijah/Klaus, BOSS’s Eriko/Nodate seemed set to fit this genre at the end of season one... I would be all over a story where say Lucy Diamond actually did live up to her press and seeing how her relationship with Amy progresses with that true.
“Unless you're going to make Wendy herself into the superhero/world-saver who accidentally falls in love with her arch-nemesis, in which case go for it. But having some other hero besides Wendy just takes away from the all-important focus on Wendy as our protagonist and the light to the Overlord's darkness.” This was a quote from the article that I particularly loved. Why does there have to be a third person, another male character to be the ‘hero’ and oppose the overlord? Why the hell can’t the heroine be that too? Heroes falling in love with their arch-nemesis, especially if there is a more complicated past relationship happening between them, is something I eat up with a spoon. We need more female heroes who don’t have to share the spotlight with a male hero. Actually we need more female Overlords and awesome bad guys as well. And just once I would love nothing more if both main characters in a sci-fi/fantasy/action flick could both be female. I’m dreaming I know but it’s such a nice dream.
An okay episode but for the finale not great. I do not believe for a second that the show would kill Sarah on her and Chuck’s wedding day. If it had been Mary then I’d maybe believe it but not Sarah. This just isn’t that type of show. So it wasn’t really that impressive a cliff-hanger.
- I’m curious about how the show is going to get out of it though considering every other time the weapon was used everyone died within minutes. The only thing I can see is that Vivian somehow weakened the effects or if she turns it off before Sarah died? I don’t know.
- I liked the glimpses we got of Vivian trying to become the head of a criminal organisation.
- It seemed to me that the obvious thing for Chuck to have said to Vivian at the end would be “you have an amazing grandmother out there who wants to see you; you father is still alive and he loves you. You are not alone”.
- I liked the Mary vs Sarah bits with Chuck caught in the middle and the bystanders (Casey, Morgan) backing away. Casey’s “Hell, no, I’m staying with Chuck” made me giggle.
- I liked Mary’s blasé “I’ll just endure a couple of rounds of torture and then I’ll find a way to break out and get it”.
- I was amused by Chuck showing off in front of his Ellie in the beginning.
- I liked how the episode played out with Gibbs hallucinating Franks and taking the hallucination back through what happened. I found it different and interesting.
- I liked Mike Franks and it’s sad that he was killed but it didn’t really get to me.
- I loved the elevator season between the team. It was really just a perfect moment. ♥ Tony and Ziva in the elevator with him comforting her and then the elevator opens to show Abby and McGee hugging each other and the four of them look at each other (Tony and Ziva still holding each other) and Tony reaches out with one arm and says “Bring it in” and with their arms still around each other Abby and McGee go to them and they wrap around each other, leaning in, soaking in the comfort of being together... it was wonderful.
- I was actually expecting EJ to be standing outside the elevator and thus get some triangle centred moment but instead it gave me made-family and comfort and shared grief and I loved it.
- I was a little taken aback by Ziva’s “I don’t think I can take any more”. I can understand her being in that place because she has had some really hard times since coming to NCIS and lost a number of people but it doesn’t feel like there was any build up to it. I don’t remember her showing any fatigue or dissatisfaction with working at NCIS at all this season so it was kind of weird. I think the fact that she was so upset over Franks death added to that off feeling because I didn’t think they were that close. I feel like I missed episodes of them bonding.
- I really liked that when EJ’s team split up at the trap she went off by herself while her two underlining’s paired up and there was never any question as to whether that was the right move or not. Now I don’t think them splitting up was a great idea but that EJ wasn’t treated as ‘the woman’ and thus needing male support/protection was awesome. If it was Gibbs no one would question him going off alone and it just pleases me that there was never any question about EJ doing the same just because she was female.
- “EJ that’s an order” But of course she ignores Vance and follows Cobb anyway which is such a Gibbs move. Maybe he dislikes her so much because she is too much like him?
- We kept getting these hints throughout the episode that Franks was sick, possibly dying, and it makes me wonder if he didn’t antagonise Cobb on purpose so that he could either kill him and/or die fighting? Rather like Jenny did actually.
- I hope EJ survives. I like her and I like her with Tony. I think she’s good for him. They’re cute together. I like how their relationship plays out at work, which so far is all we’ve seen of them, and I don’t think it comes off as any less professional than any of his relationships with the team.
That was okay. I didn’t dislike it but I don’t think I'll have any urge to watch it again either.
- My favourite scene was when Amy and Henry cried out Rory and Toby’s names respectively and ran to them – and the Doctor called out “The TARDIS” and ran and hugged her. Aw.
- The Doctor abandoning the TARDIS when she started to leaves by herself was... weird. It felt off. And of course if he’d stuck with her she’d have taken him right to the source and he would have figured everything out much quicker.
- “TARDIS runs off on its own that’s a bit of a new one.” – well, not entirely. Didn’t she do something similar in The Lodger? Plus she does it all the time when the Doctor is in her (I’m thinking of The Doctor’s Daughter specifically). I think that the Doctor ending up in a wrong time/place happens just as often because the TARDIS has decided that there’s somewhere better he needs to be as because he’s a rubbish pilot.
- I liked this little bit of canon: “You only call me Amelia when you’re worried about me.”
- I liked Lily Cole’s ‘siren’, or mermaid as they kept erroneously calling her, and that she was actually an alien ship's holographic doctor. She didn’t have any lines but she was very pretty and neat and I liked the effects used for her.
- My biggest issue was the end and the Doctor sending the alien space craft off – with a bunch of seventeenth century pirates in charge of it just because he liked the captain. Um. First, Toby had to stay because he was dying but Lily also took people if they got so much as a cut so wouldn’t it have been far better for all those pirates with non-life threatening injuries to be left back on the ship?
The fact that Henry could fly the advanced alien spaceship at all, because all ships are the same, is so completely ludicrous.
I don’t know what the Doctor could have done, except closed the hole between dimensions (which, um, shouldn’t that have been a bigger issue?) but I don’t love what he did do. Actually – is the new alien pirate space ship in this dimension or in the dimension the ship is from?
- The whole Rory drowned/is dead thing on the TARDIS didn’t work for me. I was pretty ‘whatever’ and in fact even fast-forwarded through a bit of it.
It’s kind of tongue in cheek and I actually can’t tell just how serious she’s being but at the end she says: "Admit it: You want to read a whole Evil Overlord Romance novel now. And my answer is pretty much: hell, yes. I’ve never thought of it as ‘evil overlord romance’ but that is a trope I love. I would be ecstatic if it actually became the new big thing in books. I would read all those books. I would love for this to become a real genre option.
A lot of my fannish pairings would fit under this genre and even more if you look at them in a slightly AU way. This includes Sarah/Jareth (who were pictured in the article), Clark/Lex, Xavier/Magneto, Ares/Xena (or ubber Xena/Gabrielle), Doctor/Master, Carolyn/Riddick, Ba’al/anyone, Elena with pre-show Damon or with Katherine/Elijah/Klaus, BOSS’s Eriko/Nodate seemed set to fit this genre at the end of season one... I would be all over a story where say Lucy Diamond actually did live up to her press and seeing how her relationship with Amy progresses with that true.
“Unless you're going to make Wendy herself into the superhero/world-saver who accidentally falls in love with her arch-nemesis, in which case go for it. But having some other hero besides Wendy just takes away from the all-important focus on Wendy as our protagonist and the light to the Overlord's darkness.” This was a quote from the article that I particularly loved. Why does there have to be a third person, another male character to be the ‘hero’ and oppose the overlord? Why the hell can’t the heroine be that too? Heroes falling in love with their arch-nemesis, especially if there is a more complicated past relationship happening between them, is something I eat up with a spoon. We need more female heroes who don’t have to share the spotlight with a male hero. Actually we need more female Overlords and awesome bad guys as well. And just once I would love nothing more if both main characters in a sci-fi/fantasy/action flick could both be female. I’m dreaming I know but it’s such a nice dream.
Chuck 4x23 ‘Chuck Versus the Last Details’
An okay episode but for the finale not great. I do not believe for a second that the show would kill Sarah on her and Chuck’s wedding day. If it had been Mary then I’d maybe believe it but not Sarah. This just isn’t that type of show. So it wasn’t really that impressive a cliff-hanger.
- I’m curious about how the show is going to get out of it though considering every other time the weapon was used everyone died within minutes. The only thing I can see is that Vivian somehow weakened the effects or if she turns it off before Sarah died? I don’t know.
- I liked the glimpses we got of Vivian trying to become the head of a criminal organisation.
- It seemed to me that the obvious thing for Chuck to have said to Vivian at the end would be “you have an amazing grandmother out there who wants to see you; you father is still alive and he loves you. You are not alone”.
- I liked the Mary vs Sarah bits with Chuck caught in the middle and the bystanders (Casey, Morgan) backing away. Casey’s “Hell, no, I’m staying with Chuck” made me giggle.
- I liked Mary’s blasé “I’ll just endure a couple of rounds of torture and then I’ll find a way to break out and get it”.
- I was amused by Chuck showing off in front of his Ellie in the beginning.
NCIS 8x23 ‘Swan Song’
- I liked how the episode played out with Gibbs hallucinating Franks and taking the hallucination back through what happened. I found it different and interesting.
- I liked Mike Franks and it’s sad that he was killed but it didn’t really get to me.
- I loved the elevator season between the team. It was really just a perfect moment. ♥ Tony and Ziva in the elevator with him comforting her and then the elevator opens to show Abby and McGee hugging each other and the four of them look at each other (Tony and Ziva still holding each other) and Tony reaches out with one arm and says “Bring it in” and with their arms still around each other Abby and McGee go to them and they wrap around each other, leaning in, soaking in the comfort of being together... it was wonderful.
- I was actually expecting EJ to be standing outside the elevator and thus get some triangle centred moment but instead it gave me made-family and comfort and shared grief and I loved it.
- I was a little taken aback by Ziva’s “I don’t think I can take any more”. I can understand her being in that place because she has had some really hard times since coming to NCIS and lost a number of people but it doesn’t feel like there was any build up to it. I don’t remember her showing any fatigue or dissatisfaction with working at NCIS at all this season so it was kind of weird. I think the fact that she was so upset over Franks death added to that off feeling because I didn’t think they were that close. I feel like I missed episodes of them bonding.
- I really liked that when EJ’s team split up at the trap she went off by herself while her two underlining’s paired up and there was never any question as to whether that was the right move or not. Now I don’t think them splitting up was a great idea but that EJ wasn’t treated as ‘the woman’ and thus needing male support/protection was awesome. If it was Gibbs no one would question him going off alone and it just pleases me that there was never any question about EJ doing the same just because she was female.
- “EJ that’s an order” But of course she ignores Vance and follows Cobb anyway which is such a Gibbs move. Maybe he dislikes her so much because she is too much like him?
- We kept getting these hints throughout the episode that Franks was sick, possibly dying, and it makes me wonder if he didn’t antagonise Cobb on purpose so that he could either kill him and/or die fighting? Rather like Jenny did actually.
- I hope EJ survives. I like her and I like her with Tony. I think she’s good for him. They’re cute together. I like how their relationship plays out at work, which so far is all we’ve seen of them, and I don’t think it comes off as any less professional than any of his relationships with the team.
Doctor Who 6x03 ‘The Curse of the Black Spot’
That was okay. I didn’t dislike it but I don’t think I'll have any urge to watch it again either.
- My favourite scene was when Amy and Henry cried out Rory and Toby’s names respectively and ran to them – and the Doctor called out “The TARDIS” and ran and hugged her. Aw.
- The Doctor abandoning the TARDIS when she started to leaves by herself was... weird. It felt off. And of course if he’d stuck with her she’d have taken him right to the source and he would have figured everything out much quicker.
- “TARDIS runs off on its own that’s a bit of a new one.” – well, not entirely. Didn’t she do something similar in The Lodger? Plus she does it all the time when the Doctor is in her (I’m thinking of The Doctor’s Daughter specifically). I think that the Doctor ending up in a wrong time/place happens just as often because the TARDIS has decided that there’s somewhere better he needs to be as because he’s a rubbish pilot.
- I liked this little bit of canon: “You only call me Amelia when you’re worried about me.”
- I liked Lily Cole’s ‘siren’, or mermaid as they kept erroneously calling her, and that she was actually an alien ship's holographic doctor. She didn’t have any lines but she was very pretty and neat and I liked the effects used for her.
- My biggest issue was the end and the Doctor sending the alien space craft off – with a bunch of seventeenth century pirates in charge of it just because he liked the captain. Um. First, Toby had to stay because he was dying but Lily also took people if they got so much as a cut so wouldn’t it have been far better for all those pirates with non-life threatening injuries to be left back on the ship?
The fact that Henry could fly the advanced alien spaceship at all, because all ships are the same, is so completely ludicrous.
I don’t know what the Doctor could have done, except closed the hole between dimensions (which, um, shouldn’t that have been a bigger issue?) but I don’t love what he did do. Actually – is the new alien pirate space ship in this dimension or in the dimension the ship is from?
- The whole Rory drowned/is dead thing on the TARDIS didn’t work for me. I was pretty ‘whatever’ and in fact even fast-forwarded through a bit of it.
