[smallerdemon’s second level] Back to the Village – Arrival

To sit down and begin to watch The Prisoner is a somewhat daunting task. While only 17 episodes, it goes to unusual depths. Watching The Prisoner is to television drama what reading Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings is to the fantasy genre in that when you sit down to partake in it you realize more than once that what you’re experiencing is the invention of a genre. For Tolkien it was the invention of high fantasy, and for The Prisoner it was the invention of open-ended, philosophical storytelling on television. Continue reading

[smallerdemon’s second level] Back to the Village – A Rewatch of The Prisoner

I was introduced to Made of Fail through the fantastic series of posts rewatching Farscape. Farscape being a favorite of mine made me thoroughly enjoy the appreciations of it as well as the sometimes spot-on critical observations.  It made me end up follow Noel on Twitter and discussing other shows that I would like to see them rewatch. When I suggested a rewatch of The Prisoner Noel suggested I might as well be the one to do it. And so I thought I might as well give it a try and go back to one of my favorite television series of all time.

That is the simple reason I am going Back to the Village. To see it again anew. To watch it and record my own reactions and observations to it. To see if it’s just as important to me now as it was in the early 90s when I first discovered it on the SciFi Channel. This might be easier for me than some, since I have collected a few wonderful books on The Prisoner that make researching other people’s observations on it much easier. While not a “collect everything and anything about The Prisoner” style fan, I have loved it enough to have maps of The Village, the DVD set and a couple of wonderful books. But I haven’t watched it in years, and I feel like I might need a refresher in exactly what grabbed me about it in the first place.

[The Ohtori Archives] The Twins Put a Spell on Haruhi

Episode 11…in which there is Hallowe’en, the Twins are dicks, and Tamaki is a Glitter-pire.

Our scene opens on an autumn day in late October-presumably Hallowe’en, otherwise Cosplay is a transmittable condition and has finally been spread via Tamaki (*cough*manwhore*cough*) to the entire school. Continue reading

[Red Pen Reads] Wrapping up A Game of Thrones and future plans

I’m so glad I did this.

Writing down my thoughts as I’m reading proved a really interesting experience. It made me analyzes the book, think about it, much more so than I ever have before. It’s more work, what teachers call “active reading,” but with the right book, it’s a worth-while experience. Especially so when reading one for a second time, specifically looking to get something new, something more out of it.

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[Red Pen Reads] A Game of Thrones – Daenerys

The last chapter! We started this book north of the Wall and we’re ending it across the Narrow Sea. I think this is symbolic of the series as a whole, since I suspect that it will come down to dragons versus ice-zombies. Well, it’ll be a long time before the series gets there, meanwhile we’re on Essos, getting ready for Dany to finish her transformation from scared little girl into ass-kicking warrior queen.

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[Red Pen Reads] A Game of Thrones – Catelyn

Ned and Catelyn were married at Riverrun, it was there he left her when he rode off to war, and there that she gave birth to Robb. Now, Riverrun is indisputably Robb’s birthplace, and it is Catelyn’s home, but I wonder at her considering Robb’s return to it as a homecoming. There’s something really wrong about calling Riverrun his home, and I don’t think it’s just my prejudice against Catelyn talking. Robb may have the Tully looks, but as Ned’s heir and Lord of Winterfell, I think his ties to the North are of paramount importance to him, and I don’t know that Catelyn is doing him any favours if she influences him any way towards divided loyalties.

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[Red Pen Reads] A Game of Thrones – Jon

You know what scene at the end of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone where Harry, Ron, and Hermione are sneaking out to go after the Stone and Neville stands up to them and asks them not to go so as to not get the Gryffindors into trouble? This scene is exactly like that, with Jon, his horse, and FYC being Harry, Hermione, and Ron, and Sam being Neville. This makes the horse the smartest person in the scene.

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[Red Pen Reads] A Game of Thrones – Tyrion

Tyrion, my little ray of sunshine in a sea of misery and horror, how I love thee. Tyrion is with his father as Tywin is being notified of Jaime’s capture. Tywin is distraught at the danger the son he gives a damn about is in. Tyrion is distraught at the danger the one family member he loves and who loves him back is in. An assortment of Lannister captains and bannermen are also present, whether or not they are distraught, I couldn’t say.

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[The Ohtori Archives] RuPaul’s Drag Race: Ouran Edition

Episode TEN (Hell Yea~h…we’re in double-digits, baby!)…in which there are cross-dressers galore and everyone wants Haruhi to be their bitch.

We enter the scene just outside of Ouran’s gates. Poor Haruhi is cursing her luck for being forced to do the bidding shopping for the lazy twins who, apparently, cannot figure out how to navigate the local grocers for a container of instant coffee. Continue reading

[Red Pen Reads] A Game of Thrones – Sansa and Daenerys

Sansa and I finally have something in common — when things are horrible, we hide under the blanket in our beds. For some time after Ned’s execution (at least several days), she spent all of her sleeping and waking moments there, when she slept, she dreamt about Ned’s death, then her own. And then Joffrey arrived to make her real life even worse than the nightmares.

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