The Marci Rating System

It’s from 2007, which I guess is maybe old in internet years? I’ve been thinking about Harry Potter and its (crazy) fandom, thanks to the new movie previews everywhere. HP was my first crazy fandom, and the first fandom that I read vast amounts of fic in. Good fic, bad fic, and everything in between. The HP fandom was a lot of firsts for me, and I love fanfic for its power to make me look at things (particularly societal/cultural expectations/norms/taboos) in different — and hopefully more open-minded — ways.

When I first tiptoed into HP, the whole HP/SS thing was all, “Ick, no thank you.” But, in the way of these things, it turned out that lots of good authors were writing HP/SS, and (as I told myself at the time) after all, they magically have extra-long lives, making the age difference less significant. Anyway, I got over it.

And then I read this story, which turns the whole age dynamic thing around the other way, which made me look at it all over again, and see how I felt about it. I think of this story frequently, as an example of how perceptions shift.

The Living Years, by DementorDelta
HP, Harry/Severus, post-war, Severus was de-aged to an infant and is taken in by Draco, Harry becomes part of his life as he grows up

“Severus wants to meet you,” Malfoy said as Harry shook himself out of the memory. Malfoy looked over his shoulder and Harry followed his gaze. Snape was holding on impatiently to Gabrielle’s hand, craning his neck to see them both.

“Oh,” Harry said not sure why he was suddenly nervous of a seven year old, “Sure.”

Fic Count: 80

I did a lot of re-reading this month, and I also did a lot of cheating and not recording everything I read. (O HAI st_xi kink meme!) I also watched a lot of tv this month — between Netflix, Merlin, and So You Think You Can Dance, it ate up a lot of home time.

June Shout-Out: *Andrea turned 30 this month! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!! (The exclamation points let you know it’s *extra* important.)

June Check-In: Now that we’re halfway through 2009, it seemed like a good time to check in with my birthday goals from January. ::cough:: Right. Well, let’s see. 1, 2, 10, 17, and 24 are going well. (Thumbs up dental checkup — achieved!) 5 is literally giving me nightmares, and 23 (which I thought would be easy) continues to slip down the procrastination list. On the other hand, 15 is well and truly solved. I may have to get technical with 11 — does it count if there’s a kiss but not really a romance?

July, here I come!

June fic complete, just under the wire! I can’t believe this took me so long! As per usual, my current feeling is, “I’m so glad it’s over!” And look, here comes July right around the corner — another month, another writing project, and I have *no idea* what I’ll write about! Ack!

(Note: “Sparks” was written first, as a birthday gift for starandrea. “Home Fires” is the (slightly) longer, (slightly) more plotty companion story. Does it matter what order they’re read in? No, not at all.)

Sparks, Five at Six
Wordcount: 1100
Rating: G
Warning/Summary: the bridge crew is turned into children

Keep the Home Fires Burning
Wordcount: 3000
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: language
Summary: McCoy and Scotty run the ship while the command crew is kid-ified.

Fleet Security was going to have a field day with the reports from this mission.

The most emotionally affecting moments of my Transformers 2 experience came watching the previews, most of which were for movies I never want to see, which is a clear indicator of a not-very-good theater experience. Two caught my attention in particular:

1. 2012
I was all “disaster movie, etc, etc,” because that’s really 95% of the preview, and yes, I guess we should all assume it’s fun to decide in CGI what the end of the world would look like, because movie makers just keep doing it, over and over, and then — ooh, there at the end of the preview — *spaceships*! And then I thought, “Doctor Who Utopia shout-out!” Except, sadly, John Cusack is no Jack Harkness. Still, it was a fun moment, in a typically Doctor-Who-ian “don’t get on that ship!!!” kind of way.

2. ::sigh:: Harry Potter
I *really* wish I could get over this. I haven’t even *read* the book, and I didn’t watch the fifth movie, and I just want the damn preview to stop affecting me so much and driving me to rant angrily to anyone around me. Because this preview? It makes me want to cry. And scream. And possibly throw things. And say, “No! No, it didn’t have to be that way!”

The first thing to remember about this movie is that it makes no sense. At all. You thought Star Trek had plotholes? This movie is nothing *but* holes — not even the thinnest of tenuous plotlines could make heads or tails of the so-called “continuity” of this movie.

Things to Complain About:
1. For a movie that introduces (according to a newspaper review) *40* new transformers, none of them ever *do* anything! I thought there was less transformer interaction than in the first one, which was both inexplicable and disappointing.

2. Sam clearly needs relationship counseling, because he is *not* treating Bumblebee with respect. At all. I wanted to give that car a hug, and tell him to stand up for himself in that relationship! Don’t let Sam push you around all the time!

3. Fewer funny moments than the first movie, and tossed in some seriously disturbing scenes that made me question all the young children in the audience. All the debate about warnings on fics? This movie was rated PG-13, but it could have used some definite warnings, including torture, attempted non-con, violence, dismemberment, intentional killing of a robot fetus, and suicide. Plus a car-dropping scene that was definitely a panic attack moment for me.

4. Zero emotional bonding with the characters. If I hadn’t seen the first movie, and already known who the characters were, there certainly wasn’t anything in this one to make me care about them.

5. This movie has to have failed every test there is, from Bechdel out. Women, people of color, sentient alien races… you name it, they failed it.

TARDIS Big Bang is live! Woohoo! 45 long, plotty stories to read and enjoy, plus lots and lots of art to “wow” over.

What I’ve Read So Far:

1. Sing Morning Out of Night, by Copperbadge (sam_storyteller)
Hey, it’s by Copperbadge, what’s not to love? Has Sarah Jane and Luke, plus Torchwood, plus UNIT, plus assorted mysterious folks and happenings. Made me cry, but ends well - promise!

2. Better Natures: Memory, by Gray Shadows
Jack gets amnesia, Sarah Jane (plus Luke and Clyde) visit the Hub, Donna shows up (along with aliens who keep shooting at people), and Rhys brings everyone cheese toasties. Fun, with bonus Donna-fixing and a surprise cameo by the lost moon of Poosh!

3. Guard Them, and Him Within, by etharei
Ianto gets Rift-ed to the future, meets a Jack who doesn’t remember him, and ends up in the middle of a war. This is the third “Ianto ends up in the future” fic I’ve read, and the third I’ve enjoyed. Gets v.plotty all of a sudden, with bonus Doctor appearance! (Also, awesome Author Summary!)

4. And Indeed There Will Be Time, by kaydee falls
Torchwood 4 FTW! Switches between 1919 (Dublin) and 2009 (Cardiff). Torchwood 3 (plus Mickey and Martha) investigate dead bodies, which leads them to aliens, Donna Noble, accidental time travel (Ianto), and dealing with moving on — the letting go kind and the holding on kind.

Okay, this movie cannot *possibly* be as confusing as the wikipedia plot summary makes it sound. I feel like I should have a study guide, and some flashcards!

The Good News:
Through clues, the Matrix is found in Petra but it crumbles to dust in Sam’s hands. Nevertheless, Sam piles the dust into his sock.

Any movie where someone putting dust in their sock is a major plot point gets a gold star from me. (Why his sock, one wonders? No pockets? No backpack? Based on the amount of running they appear to do in the movie, I’d rather lose a shirt than a sock, but maybe that’s just me.)

The Bad News:
I couldn’t get through the whole summary the first time I tried, which really isn’t a good sign. Now that I’ve gone back (well-rested and not trying to watch tv at the same time) it appears that at the end of the movie, things are pretty much just like they were at the beginning, except with significant death and destruction all around.

The film concludes with Optimus proclaiming that the Transformers and humans now share an untold history and will combine their differences.

WTF, Optimus? You knew that at the *beginning * of the movie!

The film opens with a short prologue narrated by the voice of Optimus Prime. It depicts primitive human beings in the year 17,000 BC hunting a tiger, only to be interrupted by the appearance of the Fallen which begins to attack them. In the background, more Transformers can be seen constructing a gigantic device before the scene fades to black.

See? Did you really have to destroy Shanghai, and Sam’s house, and an aircraft carrier, and a pyramid, just so humans and autobots could decide to get along? DIDN’T YOU DECIDE THAT IN THE FIRST MOVIE?

Interesting historical note, courtesy of wikipedia:

As previously mentioned, the main character’s name was originally Ralph Hinkley, but after the assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr. on March 30, 1981 (only 12 days after the pilot episode aired), the character’s last name was amended to “Hanley” for the Season 1 episode “Reseda Rose”. For the rest of the 1st season, he was either “Ralph” or “Mister H”. During the episode aired the night of the assassination attempt, the sound of a jet airplane was used to dub over the last name being spoken, and in subsequent episodes there was overdubbing of his students calling him “Mr. H” instead of “Mr. Hinkley.” In the episode where Ralph is given a promotion and his own (tiny) office space, we see the name “Ralph Hanley” on the door plaque. At the start of the 2nd season the name had changed back to Hinkley.

I was reading an article in the AARP magazine the other day… (Hey, it’s a good magazine! No reason only people 50 and over should get to enjoy it!)

… And it was about a guy found Facebook, fell in love with Facebook, spent too much time on Facebook, and ultimately realized the joys he was missing in his “real life” (read: everything he did *other* than Facebook), and cut back his internet time in order to fit in painting and tending his koi pond.

Well, kudos to you, former Facebook-friend-counter, but not all of us like koi fish. (Metaphorically speaking, of course, and no offense intended to the koi.) Personally, I’m at a point in my life where I don’t want to spend my leisure time working in the garden (heat, bugs, dirt) or coaching my kid’s soccer team (no kids, thank goodness). My creative outlets are, for the most part, either online or computer-based. The people whose lives I’m interested in staying updated on are all online. My hobbies? Also online.

This is not to say that I don’t spend valuable and valued time in the “real world.” (The time I get paid for, for instance.) It’s more that when people lump the *entire internet* into one category, and that category is “time-waster,” it makes me want to say, “No, but see this! And that over there! Look at what it can *do*!” Because technology is changing so fast, and it’s exciting and amazing and it can be as real and lasting as you want it to be.

Last night Sunday night, my sister and I watched the first two episodes of the BBC’s Merlin on NBC here in the States. On the subject of showing BBC shows on channels I can actually watch, I say yay! On the subject of the show itself, I say… Well, can I withhold judgement for a while? (Or, and *Andrea said, “It’s not as bad as I thought it would be!”)

First Impressions:
1. The castle interior is HUGE! And clean, and pretty, and well-lit! (And decorated by a huge fleur-de-lis — what’s up with that, anyway?)
2. Gwen! (Not Morgana’s Gwen, Torchwood’s Gwen!) Why is there not fic out there about Gwen-from-Torchwood ending up through the Rift and stuck back in Camelot? And having zero skills (alien hunting not being much in need), but a great song repetoire from all those team karaoke nights? Hah!
3. The dragon. The logistics boggle the mind, truly. I hope dragons live a long time, so that when Arthur becomes King and sets him free, he can have a long and wonderful life doing whatever he wants.

And… on the topic of the Harry Potter HBP “teaser” shown during Merlin, I say WTF? Beyond my usual rant about J.K. Rowling, the series in general, and the movie’s suitability for young viewers, the teaser clip they picked was Dumbledore’s first meeting with Tom Riddle. It could be argued that the moment is important for the overarching plot of the novels, but it’s not exactly a “grab viewers and entice them to the theater” moment. Who, exactly, was the target audience for that clip?