Doctor Who: The Angels Take Manhattan

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This post contains spoilers.

Anika: We’re back to wrap up the short first half of DOCTOR WHO series six, specifically the episode The Angels Take Manhattan aka Farewell to the Ponds.

a still from Doctor Who; young Amelia Pond, waiting

So, the three basically filler episodes in between “Asylum of the Daleks” (which was SO GOOD, now having seen the rest of the half-series) had lulled me into the mistakenly safe idea that maybe, just maybe, the Ponds would leave on their own terms. That they’d make their own adult decision, as I wished for in our earlier roundtable, and stop traveling because they wanted to. But no, that was a false sense of security (to quote seemingly all of tumblr: Damn you, Moffat), and the Ponds were ripped away and lost to time. It made Amy even more like Rose (I feel like I am the only person in fandom who thinks they are similar but they are So Similar!) and it made for a heart-breaking half-series ending.

I cried.

Sam: Yeah, I went back and watched “The Eleventh Hour” today, as a way to heal the horrible wounds of sadness that were torn into my very being. Not to be… dramatic (too late!). It’s always sad when the Doctor’s companions leave, except Martha, because she deserved to go out the way she did. Poor Martha. I have to say that I’m kind of glad my favorite Old School companion (Ace!) never got an official send off, because I probably would have been wrecked.

Anyway, to the episode at hand: I had a vague idea, just from the fact that the Angels were the bad guys, how the Ponds would go. But the reality was so much more nuanced and heartbreaking than I had even thought possible. I basically cried from the moment Rory stepped up on that ledge to five minutes after the credits stopped rolling. I think it’s because, even though the last few episode had been filler, like Anika said, they did a good job of building up the emotionality of it. “You’re the first face this face saw,” has been in my head all day, and it makes my heart hurt. It’s so sad and so hard to say goodbye to people you love.

Jessica: I guess I’ll have to be the curmudgeon again, alas! I’m not sure if it’s resentment or just that my brain fires on a way different wavelength than Moffat’s, but I never cry when he wants me to. I will say that I think this episode was almost really great — it had a lot of fantastic elements. For one, even though I’ve never been a big fan of the Ponds, I did appreciate that their best feature — their love for each other — was prominently and sweetly displayed. But there were way too many plot holes for me to totally buy into it. I think that Moffat cared too much about exploiting the deep affection most fans have for the Ponds and not enough about actually writing a cohesive story. It probably doesn’t help that I loathe River Song and I have problems with the characterization of the Doctor in this episode. Still, overall I liked it! It was definitely the second best one of the season, after “Asylum of the Daleks”. It almost makes me wonder if “The Power of Three” was intentionally horrible, to make this one even better by comparison…

Sara: I agree with you, Jessica. There’s something about Moffat telling me how I should feel that turns me into a toddler, stomping my foot, yelling, “No!” This time around, I really did feel for the Doctor and the Ponds, but it was nowhere near the heartbreak I felt at Donna’s end (DONNNNNNNAAAAAAAAA). I did like the Ponds, but I never loved them, so this episode was emotionally okay for me.

The problem with this episode (which I will only go into a little, because I really did like this episode) was a recurring problem with Moffat’s writing in general. He’s SO OBSESSED with writing a story like a tangled web of misdirection and fake-outs because he’s banking on the big finish, the awesome reveal — kind of like a magician and his bag of tricks. It works well for some of his characters, Sherlock especially. It would work as well for the Doctor if he didn’t do it again and again! He’s messing around with time and space (ha, duh!) to tell this incredibly intricate tale, which, at the time, people might buy into. When you go back and think about it just a little harder, however, the plot holes are enormous! It’s off-putting and kind of insulting. I don’t want to be a kid marveling at the quarter that magically appeared out of my ear, I want to be taken seriously as an educated audience member.

Le sigh. Now, for the good things!

JUST WHEN I THOUGHT THE ANGELS COULD NOT GET ANY CREEPIER, ONE FREAKING SMILES. I WAS TERRIFIED.

a still from Doctor Who; a smiling angel

LET ME BE HONEST, I’M STILL TERRIFIED.

I hate you, Moffat. Do you have any idea of how many stone statues there are on my block alone? Let me tell you, walking home last night was an exercise in calming my heart down so it wouldn’t burst out of my chest.

Something that I really liked about this episode made me realize what truly separates Moffat from Davies as a Who writer: the relationship between the Doctor, the companions, and the audience. It’s not too much of a leap of logic to say that, in the past, the companions have been a device for propagating the plot and also, more importantly, to give the audience someone to identify with. We (or at least, I) can’t exactly see ourselves as a brilliant alien genius, running around like a madman and solving all the world’s problems. We can, however, see ourselves as the person running alongside that madman, yelling at him to slow the heck down or rethink that course of action or simply stating the fact that he is indeed mad. That’s how it’s always worked. Whether you see more of yourself in Rose or Mickey or Martha or Donna, the companion is the person we are, while the Doctor is the person we aspire to be.

This episode made me realize this was not the case in Moffat’s Who. Well, not entirely in any case. With all the Doctor’s crazy ripping-of-last-pages-of-books and I-hate-endings-declaration, for once, we were put into a position where we were utterly and completely identifying with the Doctor. He was the person voicing all our inner thoughts and feelings. He was our representation on screen. He was the one desperately grasping with us at the fleeting images of his best friends. And he is the one that is just as lost as we are now. For once, we have become the alien with two hearts–even if both are broken.

a still from Doctor Who; the Doctor, alone on a bench in Central Park

Sam: First off, I think it’s great that we have different reactions to the episode. It helps me put my unabashed love for the show in perspective. That said, I’m not sure I have a problem with plot holes in Doctor Who, honestly. It’s my show the way Once Upon a Time is Anika’s. I hear the criticism and understand it (sometimes, sometimes I really just don’t understand it at all) but I don’t really care. I’ve managed to get what I need from each series since the reboot, and I kind of like how Moffat has reframed our connection to the show. I definitely agree that series 6 was pretty weak (but not as weak as series 3, because of how the Doctor – and RTD – treated Martha) mainly due to Moffat trying too hard with the timey-wimey. I didn’t really get that sense in this episode. Like “A Girl in the Fireplace” and like the entire arc of the Doctor and River, it felt more like The Time Traveler’s Wife and less like the convoluted mess that was “The Wedding of River Song”. Plus the Dixon Hill episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Generally, I think comparing Sherlock to Doctor Who (which I see over and over) is unfair, since Doctor Who has to take into account the younger audience, even if it’s no longer aimed purely at them. This is meant to be a show the entire family can sit down and enjoy… or hide behind the couch and enjoy. Sherlock doesn’t have that limitation, and so can treat its audience accordingly.

But back to the episode! I love noir, so I loved the nods to that genre. And I love the Ponds, and how they love each other (including Melody). The only thing I won’t give them is the Statue of Liberty, because there’s just no way that makes sense. But I don’t even care, because it is kind of a little terrifying to even think about.

Jessica: I think the reason I can’t overlook the plot holes in the show are because I love it so much. Let’s face it, any show about time travel is going to be inconsistent, especially one that is this long running, but I think my main problem is that I don’t feel like I get any payoff from the plot holes that Moffat creates. It’s not like all of these logical fallacies are present BUT I feel like the characterization is really good, or that these episodes add much to the world of the Doctor. Rather, I feel like Moffat sacrifices these things and tries to do something spectacular that doesn’t pay off. Thus I resent these plot problems! It feels like Moffat traded the quirky little show I love for something that is trying to be different, trying to be edgy, trying to be exciting, but just comes off as bland when compared to the way it used to be.

In this particular episode, I just couldn’t bear the way it all hinged on technicalities. One angel just randomly survived the paradox? How is that even possible? Did it not get zapped somewhere? How could the paradox get rid of the Statue of Liberty Angel but somehow this one weird survives? It just doesn’t make sense! AND THEN, even then, it would have been okay if Rory had just been looking in the right direction at the right time. What? That’s not even really going into the fact that the angels look at each other ALL the time in the episode, which they are not supposed to be able to do. And who is that collector guy? Since when do angels look anything other than weepy? How is a baby angel even created? Also, why, exactly, can’t the Doctor go back and visit them? Even if he can’t go back to the exact spot where they were sent, can’t they travel somewhere else and he go visit them? Can’t he go to like 1942 or something instead? I don’t understand how he can be blocked from ever seeing them again if they are in the same universe.

The only other problem I have is probably more of a personal one, of me not liking the the personality of the 11th Doctor that much. Even though I appreciated his attachment to his companions, I couldn’t quite buy into his reactions in this episode, like Amy leaving, to River’s hand getting injured. The Doctor is literally ancient. I’m all for him being emotionally tortured–his humanity (time-lordy-ness?) is what makes you care about him, but I thought the particular reactions in this episode were more on par with a small child that had been through a trauma than an 800-year-old immortal being. It seems like he would have accumulated more coping mechanisms than this. Further, it just doesn’t seem to mesh with the overall emotional picture of the Doctor Moffat has been giving me ever since 11 showed up. Many a time have I ranted that Moffat’s Doctor doesn’t seem to care when he has to kill people, or commit genocide. He doesn’t seem to bat an eye, as long as he and the Ponds make it away okay. And now he is suddenly unable to cope with even a few laugh lines around the eyes? Sigh.

Okay, rant over, maybe. As I said earlier, I also thought there were some really good parts to the episode! It’s probably the first time I haven’t been super annoyed at Amy/Rory in a really long time. They were great! I wish they were like that all the time. I would have been satisfied, and had many more rosy feelings about the Ponds if they had perished after they jumped off the building. Or even if they just disappeared somewhere. That was noble. That was brave. That would have eliminated like half of my problems with plot inconsistencies. I also really appreciated the focus on relationships between the Doctor and his companions. I miss touchy feely-ness sometimes. Probably what I liked the most was that the Angels were scary again. Blink was so terrifying. And then Moffat made the angels lame. But now they are really scary again. It’s the first time I’ve been scared by Doctor Who in a long time. In the end, I can say that this episode gave me hope that future episodes of Doctor Who might be more satisfying. For me, the legacy of season seven is this: next season might be better.

Anika: I really only have one thing to say. It wasn’t Amy and Rory that made me cry. It wasn’t Amy and the Doctor that made me cry. It was Amy and Melody.

a still from Doctor Who; Amy prepares to leave as the Doctor begs her to stay and River watches

See…I love River Song. I love her for the reasons people tend to hate her. She bends all the rules. She basically lives in plot holes. She doesn’t make sense. She personifies the fact that it doesn’t have to make sense — it just has to be fun. I spent a lot of this episode laughing at how coincidental it all was. It was rushed and random and I didn’t find the angels particularly scary. But I enjoyed it because River was there. And I cried because Amy called her Melody and talked to her like a mother to a daughter. That’s enough for me. I suppose it means I don’t love the show in the way you all do, but that’s okay.

Sam: Different perspectives are great! And, like I said, I love all the Ponds. But despite my sadness at the loss of the Amy and Rory, I really can’t wait for Christmas. Even though I don’t think it would kill the Doctor to recognize one of the other religions’ winter holidays on his beloved Earth, having Doctor Who around is my favorite part of the season. And I can’t wait for Clara, or the return of Madame Vastra, my favorite Victorian lesbian Silurian.

Strong at the “Broken” Places: Once Upon a Time

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by Anika

This post contains spoilers.

When ABC’s fairy tale television series Once Upon a Time premiered last fall it was the new show I most anticipated. I love fairy tales. I love Disney. And I love Allison Cameron (House) so I was excited to support Jennifer Morrison in her new role. I enjoyed the pilot but it was the fourth episode that hooked me. Specifically this speech made by Emma Swan to Ashley Boyd, the Cinderella equivalent:

“People are going to tell you who you are your whole life. You just gotta punch back and say: No, THIS is who I am. You want people to look at you differently? MAKE them. You want things to change? You’re going to have to go out there and change them yourself because there are no fairy godmothers in this world.”

That was the moment that caught my attention, that made me care. I made a video about it. I put together a playlist. And that was when I started to call Once Upon a Time “my show”.

a still from Once Upon a Time; Emma Swan

It’s interesting, that shift from a show I watch to a show I enjoy to a show I care about to a show I inexplicably and unreasonably take ownership of. I used to watch at least one episode of Law and Order every day but it was never “my show”. I’ve written fanfiction for Doctor Who but it’s not “my show”. I am highly emotionally invested in Fringe but I don’t refer to it as “my show”.

La Femme Nikita was my show (not the current one, the one that starred Peta Wilson). Battlestar Galactica was my show (the recent one with Kara Thrace). Star Trek Voyager was my show. E.R. and House were my show. All of these disappointed me, especially in the later seasons. But they held me.

Once Upon a Time has a lot of flaws. It’s convoluted. Its cast lacks diversity. It’s redundant. I love, love, love that the show defines “true love” as something beyond just a romantic couple, but I wish that every single history wasn’t about parents and the children they disappoint. Don’t get me wrong, that is a very powerful story that I am always interested in watching explored. But if everyone’s drama revolves around the complicated and ultimately, in the world of Once Upon a Time, damaged relationship between parents and children it becomes less relevant. And it steals something from the drama I want to be most important: the love story of Regina and Henry Mills.

Emma has been called “The Hope” but “The Savior” and “The Knight” fit her better. She is a hero, a true born hero. She rushes into the fire, every time. Henry is the real “Hope”. Henry is the believer, the storyteller, the heart of the adventure, and the key to happiness. In the season two opener, “Broken”, Henry asks the good guys — Emma, Mary Margaret, David, and Archie — to save Regina from the angry mob because “She’s still my mom.” Whatever else, whatever very real evil she has done, she’s still my mom.

a still from Once Upon a Time; Henry Mills: She's still my mom.

And Henry is still a child.

Children believe in fairy tales. Children believe in dragons and magic and good and evil. Children believe.

And children are impatient. Children want change right away. Now. Now! Because they believe. Impatience belies belief. Later in the episode Henry tells Regina to prove her love for him and to him. Not because Henry wants to punish her, not because he thinks she doesn’t love him. No. Henry believes her, he wants to believe her, and he wants her to prove him right and everyone else wrong.

a still from Once Upon a Time; Regina Mills and Henry Mills: I love you./Prove it.

I want her to prove him right and everyone else wrong.

I believe. That’s why it’s “my show”. I believe that happy endings don’t exist, but fairy tales do.

Q&A #173: Pick a character who has appeared in a film — what does he or she think of their portrayal on screen?

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In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

Pick a character who has appeared in a film — what does he or she think of their portrayal on screen?

CAROLINE

Wolverine wishes to be clear about one thing: he does not wish that he were taller. That might be something that bothers other strong, tough masculine men and leads them to have insecurity complexes (can you imagine how hard Cyclops would be to take if he were short? That probably explains that Marsden guy’s career.)

Anyway. Wolverine does not in any sense wish he was as tall as Hugh Jackman, who he could totally take in any kind of fight.

He likes the jacket, though. That’s pretty badass.

a still from X-Men; Rogue and Logan on the train

MARIE

Rogue’s a little miffed that Anna Paquin doesn’t assume a proper southern drawl, even though she’s perfectly capable of doing so as that waitress on True Blood. She feels a bit wistful at the film’s choice to have her first join the X-Men under Wolverine instead of the Brotherhood under Mystique. Her younger self on screen seems much less angry and bitter than she was as a teenager. “What if?” bubbles to the top of her mind, a question that plagues her too often. But being who she is, she shakes herself out of it and thinks about asking Professor X if she can get that black leather outfit in her size.

SIGRID

He likes that Heath Ledger fellow. The man seemed to grasp the nuance and complexity of a comedic life.

So what about you? Pick a character who has appeared in a film — what does he or she think of their portrayal on screen?

It’s in the little things: Fringe’s final season premiere, “Transilience Thought Unifier Model-11”

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by Gabby

This contains SPOILERS.

Last time we saw Olivia, Peter, Walter and the gang, they were all smiling and a lot of people agreed that the fourth season finale could have acted as a series finale.

Call me selfish but I wanted MORE. Always and forever.

Thankfully, the show runners (now show runner, singular) heard my prayers and cortexifans are getting a 13 episode fifth and final season.

Arguably, the biggest mystery of the Fringe-verse resides in the Observers. Since the pilot, these bald, suit-wearing, pale dudes have been showing up at decisive moments in the show’s history. Every once in awhile we’d get nuggets of information about these strangers. For instance, how they like jalapeños because they can’t taste anything, or how some of them have feelings for humans. However, the observer I most connected with was September, portrayed by Michael Cerveris.

an Observer from the tv series "Fringe"

Last season in the episode “The end of all things”, Peter made contact with him, entering his subconscious. September explained many things, like this important and foreshadowy bit of info here:

… we are you — we’re human… many generations after your lifetime. We are one of countless possible futures for humanity. Our technology has uniquely afforded us the ability to travel within and outside of time so that we may observe our beginnings.

Then, in the staple “weird” episode that has become the seasons’ 19th episode, we flashfowarded to 2036. We landed in bizarro world; the observers have taken over planet Earth, in a way that would have George Orwell running for his money.

Now the season premiere is upon us, promising to delve into the trials and tribulations of yet another Universe that Fringe is exploring. However interesting this concept may be, I’m not exactly watching for this.

I’m watching for Walter’s many nicknames for Astrid. I’m watching for Olivia’s secret smile reserved for Peter. I’m watching for the forever troubled Broyles, and the ever-enigmatic Nina. I’m watching for the eventual fleshing out of Etta Bishop’s character, for Gene the cow, red vines and strawberry flavoured death. I’m watching for human relationships, for love, for family.

And the season premiere did not disappoint.

This episode was all about the little moments.

a still from the tv series "Fringe": Peter and Olivia, on a date in the park

Olivia and Peter on the blanket. Etta kissing Walter. Astrid touching Walter’s cheek. Olivia reuniting with Etta (especially this one).

As for the plot, it left me wanting more, which is always excellent. What exactly happened after Etta was taken in Boston? We know that Peter stayed, and Olivia went to New York to try and save the world, but where exactly did their daughter go? How will the Fringe team rally the many factions of resistance that seem to have sprouted up? What is September’s plan? Will they be able to make sense of the pieces of Walter’s brain that have been erased or moved by Captain Windmark?

Let’s talk about this for a second. First, how amazing is John Noble? His work here as the tortured Walter is made so much more amazing by the fact that we know he was most probably battling severe sleep deprivation at the time of filming. My heart was swelling in pain as I watched his whole body shake with tremors and his eyes get bloodshot. Second, can we give Walter’s brain a BREAK? In “Letters of transit”, Henrietta and Simon had to inject a part of his brain to make it whole, and in this episode, Captain D-Bag basically scrambles it into one of those disgusting looking egg sticks! And that’s just what happened after he got de-ambered, not taking into account the countless abuse it’s been under in the past four seasons. Quick, somebody make a Save Walter’s Brain tumblr!

As awesome as it will be to answer all these questions week after week, I am really grateful that I’m getting more time with these characters that I love. I feel I need that time to get familiar with these new people who have spent the last 20 years of their life trapped in amber. They are being thrust into this unfamiliar world, two of them with a daughter that’s aged and become a full grown adult woman. I fully trust this Fringe family to go where I need them to in order to reach a satisfying end. I trust them because hope is a central theme in Fringe, and this hope did surface in the season premiere.

It comes from the single yellow dandelion that ends “Transilience Thought Unifier Model-11”. Where a white tulip was a sign to Walter from his god, and also a sign of bonding for Peter and Olivia, we’ve moved past this. The Universe is different now, and hope now rests inside that yellow dandelion that springs forth from the rubble; Henrietta Bishop, the light at the end of the tunnel.

Gimme an F-F-G…RELAUNCH!!!

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Cheri Spirit, a cheerleader, with pom poms
HELLOOOOOOOOO FANTASTIC FANS!!!!

I’m Cheri, your friendly neighborhood fangirl, and I wanna welcome you to the new and improving

FANTASTIC FANGIRLS
media blog!

First, a history lesson:

 

Previously on FANTASTIC FANGIRLS…
a report by Jo Casual 

Jo Casual, the leader of the Fangirls, in an oval frame

(She’s our fearless leader!! ^_^)

Four years ago this blog was started by four fans and friends because they wanted a place where female voices would not just be heard, but be leading the conversation. Comic books, video games, sci-fi dramas and all that jazz were and are still considered the purview of The Boys. But The Girls have just as much to say! September 23, 2008, FFG co-founder Caroline posted our first ever blog post, Icebreaker. It was our introduction to her and to the site. Over the next few weeks, the other founders (Jennifer, Sigrid, and Anika) introduced themselves and our longest running ongoing activity Q&A kicked off. Since then they’ve reviewed all sorts of media, started a (comic) book club, took on podcasting, given out awards, gone on convention field trips… more than four hundred posts were written and consumed. Now with a staff of five plus dedicated contributors, FFG is poised to double that number in half the time.

Cheri Spirit, a cheerleader, with hands on hips Hmmmmmm, that sounds like a challenge!! Now lemme give you the rundown of what’s what, who’s who, and where’s where!!

  • Check out the updated ABOUT US page to get to know all the Fangirls.
  • Follow us on TWITTER or RSS for updates to the site.
  • Follow us on TUMBLR for updates from our Fangirls elsewhere, as well as art, and updates to the site.
  • We also welcome questions from YOU over at our tumblr!
  • The FFG PODCAST is relaunching this month.
  • Finally, I’d like to introduce you to the other avatars* who represent the site. We are an all-girl superteam dedicated to spreading positivity in the sphere of girl-geekdom!! Left to right on the banner above we have Jo, T’Mid, Peta, Player 1, Quinn, Addison and me, Cheri!! We’ll be introduced over on tumblr in the coming weeks and will show up on the site whenever there’s a need for us. #positivity!!!
*Not literal representations of the writers!

Cheri Spirit, a cheerleader, posing

FFG isn’t a news site, it’s a conversation site so consider this your open invitation to JOIN THE CONVERSATION. We want to hear from you ♥

Meet the New Fangirls: Ali

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by Ali

Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved heroes and adventure. From Indiana Jones and Star Wars to Danger Mouse and She-Ra, she was mesmerized. There were rainy Sunday afternoons watching Superman: The Movie, tales of Wonder Woman from her mother and Hobbits from her father. But little girls grow up, and the childhood heroes are replaced by adolescent glossy posters of pop stars. Which inevitably leads to trying to be cool even though you have no idea what that actually means.

I was very much a late bloomer when it comes to comics and geek culture in general. It wasn’t until college when a certain boy wizard found his way into my heart that I got my first taste of fandom. And then the radioactive superhero bug bit me again and down the proverbial rabbit hole I went.

Things really started with Heroes. Yes, the TV series about ordinary people with extraordinary abilities that started out so strong and then went very far off the rails. But that first season will always be amazing to me. It was the first time in what felt like a long time that there were superheroes and villains battling it out on my television screen each week. And while I couldn’t get enough of the show, one of the things I loved most was the anticipation for the next episode. Each week I was on pins and needles waiting for what came next, speculating with friends, and adoring every minute of it.

From there, the jump into comics was very natural. And once I got here, so to speak, I really fell in love with the medium. I love the way a story unfolds throughout the panels. I love the way that layout controls pacing and mood and tension in such a way that it gives you a completely different experience than what you’d get from reading a book or watching a movie.

Comics were also the first thing I loved so much I actively sought out other fans. The comic community, on the whole, has just been so great and welcoming. There are few places in the world that I feel as “at home” as I do at a comic convention. Even when a con is insane and overwhelming, there’s just this genuine, fervent enthusiasm for this wonderful medium of storytelling, of heroic and not-so-heroic characters, of the awesome melding of art and words that is comics. I’ve made some of the best friends I have through comics, and I think my life is all the better having those silly funny pages in it.

Being a fangirl is part of who I am. It’s not all of me–I mean, I can go on and on about curling or marketing theory or my cat but I’m thinking that’s not why you’re here. I’m just very, very enthusiastic about the things I love. And really that’s what being a geek is all about: unabashedly loving what you love and wanting to share that with the whole universe. I think all of us at Fantastic Fangirls feel that way, and it’s why I’m so very excited and so very proud to be part of this team.

Go Team Fangirls!

The Last Airbender Returns in Comic Form

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It’s been a good few months for fans of the Nickelodeon show Avatar: The Last Airbender, which aired on the network from 2005-2008. After the disappointing 2010 live-action remake by M. Night Shyamalan, it seemed like we would pine away forever for Aang and his merry band of friends as they fought to bring justice and order back to the world. But then, in April, the long awaited spin-off series, The Legend of Korra premiered, and hope was restored! The show was awesome, reminding viewers of all the reasons we loved Avatar, plus it starred a kick-ass girl hero, which was totally baller. Still, at least I couldn’t stop wondering whatever happened to Aang, Katara, Sokka, and the others. I mean, LOK takes place seventy years after TLA, and those kids were only like, thirteen when the series ended. Apparently they grew up and had kids and lived lives and stuff.

Spoilers follow!

As if anticipating my every emotion upon watching LOK, Dark Horse handily timed the release of Vol. 1 of The Promise just a few months earlier, with Vol. 2 coming out right around the finale of LOK, and the concluding volume arriving this September. Though not the first Nickelodeon comic to focus on TLA, it is the first to tackle what happens after Aang defeats Fire Lord Ozai. We know from the finale that Zuko is crowned the new Fire Lord and that Aang and Katara totally make out, and that’s pretty much where The Promise picks up. In the opening panels, everything seems to be going smashingly—Zuko and Aang have decided to work together, as Fire Lord and Avatar, to evict Fire Nation colonies from the Earth Kingdom. Sokka, Katara, and Toph are all there too, and everyone seems to think that this will be a positive step towards creating unity among the nations. The project is deemed, “The Harmony Restoration Movement.” During a celebration to honor the commencement of this project, Zuko takes a moment alone with Aang to make the Avatar promise to “end him” if Zuko ever starts to act the way Fire Lord Ozai did. Reluctantly, Aang agrees.

As the Harmony Restoration Project moves along, some members of the gang start to question whether or not these forced evictions are ethical. Many residents of the Fire Nation colonies have lived there for hundreds of years, coming to think of these villages in the Earth Kingdom as their home. As the colonists resist, Zuko questions where is loyalties lie. Everything comes to a head over the fate of Yu Dao, a colony that refuses to be evicted. The sophistication of the politics here impressed me, though shouldn’t have been surprised, considering what I saw on LOK this season. When I picked up The Promise, I really just wanted to know what everyone grew up to be like, and instead found this nuanced and realistic portrait of a society that has just undergone major political upheaval. And that’s awesome!

But the best part about it might be that The Promise doesn’t get lost in its own seriousness—all the humor I loved from TLA is still there, and it shows the characters’ maturation in a subtle and beautiful way. Alongside the major arc, Toph also opens her own school, Katara and Aang are exploring a more adult relationship, Zuko is working out his very complicated relationship with his father, and Sokka…well, maybe Sokka has a little more maturing to do than the rest of them. Really, my point is that the comic immediately took me back to the same feelings I had while watching the show while still allowing the world to progress in a believable way. Occasionally, a comic continuation of a television show doesn’t feel quite on target to me, as if the characters all have the same names but actually act way different than they used to. With The Promise, Sokka is still the goofy, optimistic go-getter, Toph is still way cooler than everyone else, Katara is still feisty, Zuko is still conflicted, and Aang is still silly but sweet. I could hear them speaking as I read, and reading the comic made me feel totally justified in wanting to know what happens to these people.

I’ve just read the last installment, and it doesn’t disappoint. I don’t want to spoil it for those of you who haven’t read it yet, but I’d like to know what you all think of The Promise if you have read it! Were you happy to see the world of the The Last Airbender return in comics? How did you feel about what everyone was up to? Comment below!

Q&A #172: Talk about a favorite character created before 1970.

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In Q & A, a weekly feature of Fantastic Fangirls, we ask our staff to tackle a simple question — then open the floor to comments.

Talk about a favorite character created before 1970.

GABBY

One of my biggest role models is my maternal grandmother (I miss her terribly). Anecdote: when she was 72, she told me that if she was 10 years younger she would get a tattoo. Not only was she the coolest grandmother alive, she was a career woman who dared working full time as an elementary school teacher while raising four trouble-making kids. Keep in mind this was the 1960s; Peggy Olsen had nothing on this woman.

So I want to talk about the ultimate career woman herself, Lois Lane.

Listen, I know that some people have issues with Lois because she fawns over Superman and becomes a love struck blubbering mess of a girl. Well, I’m here to tell you something: I would do the exact same thing. I happen to think Lois is a lot more than Superman’s arm candy, even if she happens to love the best superhero of all time.

Lois was “born” in the 1930s, as a daily planet journalist with goals, aspirations and hard-headedness. As the years went on, her depiction matured with the times, but she always kept those three essential traits.

Superman: The Man of Steel, issue no. 2, 1986.

Lois Lane went through so many adaptations, from comics, to movies, to television, with each writer trying (and succeeding) to add more layers to her personality, to make her a person, and not just “Superman’s girlfriend”.

What I love most about her is her loyalty to her friends and family, her undying passion to get the truth to the masses and her ability to sacrifice what she loves for the greater good. I also love that she’s very human; her curiosity, a side effect of that truth-seeking, brings her to make mistakes and learn from them. Also, her admiration of Superman to the detriment of her partner, Clark Kent, is frustrating. Why can’t she see what’s right in front of her? Why must she be so shallow? I find that very human of her, too.

The only current version of Lois I’m following is in the Smallville: Season 11 comic books. I love to read her adventures in this series written by Bryan Q. Miller because I know backwards and forwards where this Lois comes from, which heartaches and victories brought her to where she is today: a Daily Planet reporter with a huge heart.

Smallville: Season 11, issue no.1, 2012.

SAM

This is… harder than I thought. Apparently the majority of my favorite comic book characters were created either before 1965 or after 1990. It’s an embarrassment of riches! Superman, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, The Question, Bucky, Green Arrow, Ms. Marvel, Spider-Man… how do I even choose?

Obviously it was a good time for great characters. As if they were… golden or silver ages… or something. And I love all of those characters a lot, each in their own way. I’ve attempted to think this through rationally, based on amounts of a character’s comics I’ve read or how likely I am to recommend them to someone else. I’ve tried to come up with objective reasons that everyone can understand and agree with.

But the answer is that I just love Bobby Drake. I will always love Bobby Drake. If I were a comic book character, I would be Bobby Drake. Bobby Drake wins everything, as far as I’m concerned, despite the fact that he doesn’t really win that much in his actual canon. He’s funny and powerful-but-holds-himself back and unlucky in love. He’s self-deprecating. He’s smart. He’s a bit of a nerd (hello, accountant). One time he dated a cloud. A. Cloud. Oh and a lady named Mystique. Maybe you’ve heard of her. He’s one of the founding members of the X-Men, which gives him some serious street cred, and even though I am not a big fan of the movie version of Bobby, he did get to date Sookie Stackhouse for awhile.

Comic!Kitty’s better, though.

Pretty sure I’ve made that strip club joke in my own life.

SIGRID

Barbara Gordon.

the cover of Batgirl Year One Issue One

a panel of Barbara Gordon in a wheelchair

Barbara Gordon and Dinah Lance, wet and embracing

a shot of Oracle, with a Bat hairclip and coffee, stating "Protecting Gotham While You Sleep"

And this fanvid for Batgirl: Year One

Batgirl Year One

I’m not sure what else there is to say.

So what about you? Talk about favorite character created before 1970.

Versace, Ethics, Xiu Xiu, Dredd

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posted by Anika

In preparation for the release of Dredd 3D this Friday, I watched the first film based on 2000 AD’s post-apocalypse hero, Judge Dredd (1995) starring Sylvester Stallone, Armand Assante, and Diane Lane. It was not the first time I’ve seen the film. I’ve watched it at least a dozen times, probably more, probably twenty. At least. I own the VHS.

a VHS tape of the film Judge Dredd

It’s not great cinema. The positive reviews read along the lines of “It’s pretty good — for a Stallone film” or “for an action film” and the negative reviews result in a pathetic 15% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes. I can’t disagree with most of the criticisms. The pacing is odd, the action is stilted, the characters are one-dimensional, the script is built around one-liners, it doesn’t introduce anything new to the post-apocalyptic city of the damned genre. The movie would be much better without Rob Schneider. And the cannibals. And yet, I unironically love it.

Despite opening with the now familiar flash of comic book pages, it didn’t matter — or occur — to me that this is a “comic book movie”, and at least on the slant a “superhero film”, when I first fell in love with it. I didn’t run out and read the source material. Instead I became just as crazy for Xiu Xiu the Sent Down Girl, the film that Joan Chen (Dr. Ilsa Hayden) directed in China. While I have since read some of the original British comics, and own the Judge Dredd and Judge Hershey heroclix, the comic book connection is not what I care about. It’s not why I watch the 1995 film and it’s not why I am excited for the 2012 film.

a still from Judge Dredd featuring Ilsa Hayden (Joan Chen) and Rico (Armand Assante)

I watch Judge Dredd for Joan Chen and the way she says “petulant child”.

I watch for Sylvester Stallone and Armand Assante enacting a lost bromance spewing lines such as “l was your brother, your blood, your friend. Who betrayed who?”. Because really.

I watch for the Garb of Justice (designed by Versace) and the coat (of Justice?) Judge Fargo (Max Von Sydow) wears on his Long Walk into the Cursed Earth (designed by Emma Porteus).

Notably, especially considering it is a comic book movie, an action film, and a sci-fi flick, the female judges wear exactly what the male judges wear. Hershey wears what amounts to a unitard in the locker room, but so does Dredd.

a still from Judge Dredd featuring Judge Hershey and Judge Dredd in uniform

I watch for Diane Lane. I understand that she’s nothing like the Judge Hershey she is named for. I don’t care. She kicks ass. And the way she emotes with her jutting chin is some kind of magic.

But ultimately I watch for Dredd’s Ethics class. Joseph Dredd, so much an embodiment of justice he infamously cries out “I AM THE LAW”, is the moral compass. That’s interesting! And he faces a man who similarly, but less infamously, cries out “I’M THE CHAOS.” It’s a battle between extremes in a world built on extremes, as any real dystopia is. Mid-way through the film, Dredd pledges himself before a statue of Justice and the whole thing ends in the top of the Statue of Liberty. The whole film is a rainbow and a cacophony of symbolism so blatant it’s actually beautiful in its simplicity.

“All of these things you see here are toys. At the end of the day when you’re all alone in the dark, the only thing that counts… is this: the Law.”

I expect none of the things I listed above appear in Dredd 3D, the new film, out tomorrow. But I can’t wait to watch it. I like different. I also like Karl Urban. And comic book movies. And stories! I like to be excited about stories. I like to get excited about stories. You never know where I could end up.

the DVD cover for Xiu Xiu the Sent Down Girl

Judge Dredd led me here.

The Revolution was Televised

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Warning: there will be spoilers for the pilot of Revolution in this post.

I’ll say this first off: I love me some post-apocalyptic science fiction. It’s pretty much my favorite subgenre of the… genre. Obviously there is a lot of overlap in science fiction,  but if a story is set after the end of civilization as we know it, it will appeal to me. Tank Girl, Mad Max, that Highlander cartoon from the 90s… you name it and I probably love it more than I ought to. I also love pretty people and melodrama. I may have said this before, but I am a fan of Grey’s Anatomy.

An abandoned fair ground, with two people looking determined.

The least realistic thing in this image is actually Billy Burke.

As you can imagine, I was cautiously optimistic for Revolution, especially since they seemed to be playing up the Girl With the Bow as the Hero.  I checked out a sneak preview via Zune on my XBox (aside: I think it’s great that networks are finally starting to embrace technology and are making sneak previews of their fall shows available on a multitude of non-traditional platforms) and it managed to hold my attention for the full forty-something minute run time.  That’s saying something these days; I watch most shows in short bursts.

I found a lot of it pretty unbelievable, from the wardrobe to Billy Burke’s fighting abilities, the latter of which involved some of the most obvious Stunt Performer In The Role filming that I’ve seen in a long time.  I mean, make the guy get the same hair cut at least.  I have to suspend a significant amount of disbelief in order to even buy this premise in the first place, and every little extra bit of suspension makes me less and less interested in the effort.

I’m certainly no expert in what humanity would do in the event of a global energy crisis, but I’m guessing hair conditioner and fabric softener aren’t high up on the list of things people would start making.  I don’t understand why all these pretty people all wear clothes that look relatively clean and machine-made.  I’m lucky if I can get my occasionally-worn jeans to last me five years… but fifteen years after things stop getting made, they seem to have plenty of clothes to choose from.

These may be nitpicks, but when you’re trying to build a universe with certain rules, it’s nice if it seems like you’re going to follow those rules. It’s particularly grating when they bother to show attempted rape – something I think far too many stories set in situations like this ignore, as The Dark Knight Rises did – but don’t tell me how hard it is to find those awesome leather boots Charlie is wearing. Or how Zak Orth’s Token Nerd Guy manages to be overweight when nobody else is, while it looks like they eat mostly veggies and do a lot of manual labor.  It’s picking and choosing with “realism”, and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it.  They want Charlie to look good, so she gets cool clothes.  No explanation.  They want Aaron (the nerd) to be a fat nerd, so he’s a fat nerd, no explanation. Then again, this was a pilot and it wasn’t even an extended pilot.  They had to do a lot in less than an hour, and I think it was a fairly decent set up for the broader story, if not the details.  It remains to be seen what they’ll do with it.

As far as the story goes, I wasn’t particularly surprised by any of the twists, even the one they didn’t show in the trailers (involving Monroe, aka THE CAPE).  But I am interested to know how we got from where we are now to where they are now.  I hope we get more than just some exposition from characters.  Especially if that more involves more Elizabeth Mitchell, because I love her.

Speaking of characters, I counted three people of color with speaking parts, two of whom are (currently) villains, and one of whom may or may not be a villain, who knows.  That’s assuming we’re supposed to think Nate is Latino just because JD Pardo is.  I’ll go with it, until I’m told otherwise.  So far I think that makes this one of the most racially diverse scripted dramas that I’ve seen on network television.  I’m only being slightly facetious.

It’s nice to see some women in the lead roles, though.  Sort of.  I wish Charlie – despite the obvious push to Katnissize her – didn’t need to get rescued by Nate twice, but I already find Maggie extremely interesting.  So naturally (spoiler!), they’ve decided not to keep her around. That leaves threeish women with speaking parts, one whom may be dead and only available in flashbacks.  Sigh.

The character Maggie, with a backpack

I really like most of the cast, actually, with the exception of Billy Burke.  Even ignoring the ridiculous idea that that guy was a Marine, and that he is the greatest martial artist on the planet, I’ve never been much of a fan of his acting.  I’ll say he was perfectly cast as Charlie Swan, and leave it at that. But everyone else seems fine so far, and, unsurprisingly, Giancarlo Esposito is a standout.  That man does understated villainy so well, but Tom Neville feels like a very different character than Sidney Glass or, more importantly, Gus Fring.

With so many shows on television – and the internet now, too – diversity in casting and storytelling has become something of a deal breaker for me.  I stopped watching Once Upon a Time because it didn’t live up to its promises.  I’m wary of Revolution, but I’m enough of a fan of the genre and this particular premise that I will tune in.  For now.

I read a few responses that thought the pilot was rushed, but I think it was a fairly good set up for what will probably end up being another too-long American season of twenty-two poorly-paced episodes that would be much better as a tight, thirteen episode arc.  But, cynicism aside, I remain as cautiously optimistic as I was before I watched the pilot.

Revolution is not without its flaws, but I’m intrigued enough to keep watching.