ways_back_room | DE: It was awesome

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DE: It was awesome

So, we've talked before about plot holes and other things our canons have gotten wrong. How about we switch gears and look at what they got right. Was it character development? Representation? World building? Plot twists?

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For all its flaws, I do appreciate Fallout 3's handling of racial and gender representation, compared to other video games. I can't give them full credit because the graphics for people's faces and ages aren't the best, but cases where you can tell who's what:

- The Overseer of Vault 101 is Hispanic- his name is Pedro Almodovar.
- The chief of security in Vault 101, Paul Hannon Sr., is black, as is the Vault's only teacher, Edwin Brotch- and game lore says that his family has been providing the Vault's teachers since the Great War. The main character's father's primary assistant and the Vault's only native-born scientist, Jonas Palmer, is black- although he dies as part of your origin story- and the most decent member of Vault security, Officer Gomez, is Hispanic.
- The mayor and primary lawman of Megaton, Lucas Simms, is black. So is Megaton's doctor, Doc Church, even if he is kind of a jerk.
- The major non-Brotherhood forces for reclamation of human science, engineering, and overall learning are all women- Madison Li and several of her team in Rivet City, Moira Brown and her Wasteland Survival Guide project in Megaton.
- The largest settlement in the Wasteland, Rivet City, is run by a council composed of an Asian woman (Dr. Madison Li), a black man (Bannon), and a white man who is, in fact, an android and a fugitive slave (Chief Harkness). I also find this funny because the formation of this council caused one of the original founders, an old white man with a high opinion of himself, to stomp out in disgust and sulk in the other end of the ship for eighteen years rather than talk to anybody who didn't sufficiently appreciate him.
- The closest thing to a law enforcement organization that exists in the Wasteland, the bounty hunting group known as the Regulators, was formed by and is currently headed by a Hispanic woman, Sonora Cruz.
- While the head of the Brotherhood of Steel is an old white man, the second and third highest-ranked members of the combat authority structure are both female- Sentinel Sarah Lyons and Star Paladin Cross. Cross, for bonus points, is black.
- Several evil authority figures are also black; Eulogy Jones, the head of the slavers of Paradise Falls, and Leroy Walker, head of the slavers holed up at the Lincoln Memorial. According to the Fallout Wiki, Ishamael Ashur of the Pitt is classed as African-American by game code, but TBH he doesn't really look it- I honestly thought he was just one of the many, many, many extremely dirty people in his city. His wife is probably supposed to be South Asian, given that her name is Sandra Kundanika and her coloring is overall about right. And while Tenpenny Tower is owned and run by an old white man, his community's doctor, Julius Banfield, is black and his chief of security, Gustavo, is Hispanic.
- The founder and chief of the most potent mercenary organization in the Wasteland is a woman, Reilly of Reilly's Rangers. (I count the Rangers as more potent than Talon Company because when you find them in-game, they have successfully slaughtered their way through an entire hotel's worth of supermutants and are only pinned down by more because they're running out of ammo, and there are a total of four of them alive, whereas Talon Company shows up in groups of three against the Lone Wanderer and dies a lot.)

I'm not counting ghouls or supermutants as representation goes. I'm also less than thrilled with the very few examples we have of non-heterosexual couples in the Wasteland, since there are two that I can think of and the lesbians are both ghouls. (The male couple are Flak and Shrapnel, Rivet City's weapon sellers.) But racially and gender-wise, FO3 is pretty good about things.

I also have to admit that when I played Fallout New Vegas in front of a friend's older relative, and explained the premise was a post-nuclear world in which the 1950s had never ended until the nukes fell in 2077, said relative started watching the graphics closely and said, "wow, they even got the Formica tables right" and made several other similar comments about pre-War objects' styling and presentation. So there's that too.

Edited 2014-03-18 13:38 (UTC)

How much am I cackling that the CA2 clips and trailers are showing Natasha as being snarky, warm, and teasing towards her friends when she's not stressed (be it by Tony Stark, or facing down an invasion of her planet + the kidnapping of her bff + the deaths of 80 coworkers). Vindication can be miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine.

I'm also pleased that, while MCU continues to completely fail with superheroines*, they persistently show women in leadership roles and being professional and ambitious in a wide field of careers.

*do not even talk to me about Feige's latest comments on a Black Widow movie. I cannot.

Edited 2014-03-18 13:33 (UTC)

Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes - what did they get right? Gene Hunt. He became an icon. They are also massively funny shows that can also break your heart, packed with 70s and 80s nostalgia, kickass soundtracks and character relationships to die for.

Nolan-verse Batman - I'm sure there are people more well-versed in historical Batman lore that could answer this better. But I thought it was a great modern update, I though Bale made a great Bruce/Bats, Heath Ledger as The Joker was a triumph, Gary Oldman rocked it as Commissioner Gordon...actually, I can't think of a performance I didn't like, and that includes Katie Holmes. And Michael Caine as Alfred! Doesn't get much better than that.

Incredible Hulk/Avengers - dude, what's not to love? I mean, TIH wasn't perfect, but it was decent in many areas. It did a good job of showing Bruce's isolation, his smarts, his angst over what happened. But he came took a step towards coming to terms with it, at the end. The Abomination was gross, there was a Tony Stark cameo, the battle sequences were generally badass. And then, the Avengers! Rufalloooooooo. It was so fun. Superheroes! Shit blowing up! One-liners! Bruce and Tony being science bros! It was great. :D

Robin Hood - this gets panned a lot, but I really love it. The Robin/Marion relationship is really sweet, and often funny; it's a tale of how a legend started, it's full of English royal and social history (I'm a history geek), lots of battles and badass arrow work, the Merry Men are great, and Russell Crowe's beard is the sweetest.

Les Mis - um. What's not right with it? OK, it's 1700 pages long, and very much written in the style of its times. If you don't like detail, or word safaris off into the history of Waterloo, slang, and the Paris sewers, you're going to struggle a bit. But it's a classic for a reason; someone once called it the single greatest book on grace ever written. It's heartbreaking, and beautiful. The character arcs paint so many different shades of struggle. The themes of the power of love, redemption, justice; the commentary on the worlds of social justice and law, and humanity, our relationship to God and, even more importantly, each other...augh. It's like a massively long manual of what makes people, people, and what the world/system/other people does to them, and oppresses them. But even though that sounds depressing, and almost everyone dies, it's still - I find, at least - a massively hopeful book. If one man can rise above what was done to him; if a group of privileged students can care enough to die for the rights of the oppressed; if even Javert at the end can come to realise how wrong the system is - then there's hope for everyone. It's gorgeous. Also very funny in places, and Hugo's love of puns and wordplay is a delight.

I am going to stop before this essay gets any longer. I still have a RL essay to write. :\ But I love my canons! :D

I have to give the original Half-Life massive amounts of credit for two things. One, the graphics made it the first FPS that didn't make me motion-sick to play; I kind of adored it for that. And two, maybe it was just me, but I got a very real sense from the game that Gordon was an ordinary person who was almost completely overwhelmed by a situation nothing in his life had ever prepared him for- which is what they were trying to do in the first place. The game really delivered on the sense of confusion, betrayal, and desperation, which is something a lot of works never seem to be able to pull off.

HL 2 followed through with a very real sense of WHAT ON EARTH IS WRONG WITH EVERY SINGLE OTHER PERSON HERE, WHY ARE YOU ALL TREATING ME LIKE THIS. Plus I thought it had pretty awesome graphics, and it delivered on a pretty cool enemy and their development, so there's that.

Also: A female NPC companion who felt like an actual fully fleshed person rather than a pair of tits that could fire a gun. And was a woman of color, to boot.

Good Lord, yes. Alyx was a wonderful character to encounter.

For whatever you can say about Warehouse, it's actually not that bad when it comes to diversity. In the main cast, you have: a senior-citizen who is Jewish, someone from foster care, a gay man, a recovering alcoholic, a bisexual female Victorian author, and Myka. Pretty much anything else they've fucked over in some way or another (even the world-building to some extent) but the diversity, they've been pretty good at.

Ender's Game is excellent at world-building if you ignore the 'postcards on a bad day' aspect of it. It is a very vibrant and diverse world, even if I hate the characters sometimes.

Rent has some amazing characterizations for being so short. It says a lot that in fandom you don't get that different versions of characters. (just sexualities, but this is Rent.)

Star Wars the Old Republic:

The character story lines are really well written and engaging. (There are a few things I'm altering for Milliways, but there is very little that I'm cutting.) You also find out, as you play different classes, that the different story lines do tie together or cross in different ways.

The game does an excellent job of not presenting either the Republic or the Empire as all black/white morality wise. Both sides have done horrible things to one another and are currently planning more.

There is a sense that, though your character is important, you are not the be all and end all of the universe. History matters, politics matters, culture matters, and your ability to steer things is thus, necessarily, limited.

Starting with Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman:
Created in an era where female "clones" of male heroes were springing up like crazy, her origin story had nothing to do with Spider-Man!
The expansion of her friendship with Carol Danvers in the past decade. Honest and supportive friendships for the win!
Her budding friendship with Natasha (comic book) and her mentoring of Anya Corazon.
Super spy action!
The almost X-files type stories from her first solo series.
How Fraction wrote the break up with Clint. I hated seeing my gal hurting but I loved the way the scene was written and that Clint didn't let her physically abuse him. For those who haven't read it, Jess slaps him hard once, then they stare at each other and she goes to slap him again but he catches her wrist and says, "You're angry. I get that. But you don't get to hit me."

For Quin: His story is very interesting as it has so much intrigue. It starts very Bourne Identity, with him having no idea who or what he is. Then, after he recovers his identity and memories, somewhat, he nearly loses himself to the Dark Side while working undercover to infiltrate Count Dooka's cabal.

They also do a great job of showing just how bloated the Republic was and how much the economically disadvantaged were being screwed and ignored.

And as a finale, we get to see Quin go all Schwarzenegger (ala Predator) when the clones execute Order 66 and turn on the Jedi. He not only survives but manages to fake his death and disappear into the galaxy.

Also of note for Jess, the only healthy romantic relationship with a male she had in the entirety of her first solo series was with an Asian man. This was in 1984.

OUaT: I love how each of the woman on the show are strong in their own ways. Even Aurora, the rescued princess, gets her own moments to show her strength. They, also, read as people and not Bad Ass Female (tm).

Edited 2014-03-18 15:55 (UTC)

This. Women can be strong and badass and independent, whether combat oriented or not, with complexity and depth, without being the often-not-really-strong Strong Female Character (TM), and OUaT has them.

Golden Sun does two things really well: music and magic integration. Just take a listen at some of the themes, and remember that these were coming out of a GBA's speaker, and you'll hear what I mean there. And the magic ("Psynergy", but who's counting?) is much more broadly useful than in most RPGs. Usually you've got battle spells, and maybe one or two things you can use outside of battle to avoid an obstacle or set barriers on fire. GS has both of those categories, with considerably more in the latter than most, and then it has things that straddle both - Frost, for instance, and Ply in Mercury Lighthouse.

Also I really like the look of it.

(I may be back for the others later, if I find I can articulate their strengths.)

Invincible.

Mark is, in the end, a work in progress. He gets cocky, makes mistakes, is insensitive, learns, changes, tries new plans, succeeds, fails, realizes, laughs, cries, loves, hates, and lives. He's a person.

Eve does something that I thought was the most amazing idea for a superheroine. When confronted with the world, and all its failings, the woman who can create any type of matter from any other type of matter, decides to take off the costume and go do something where her powers can actually help people. Unfortunately, I think she became too popular a character, and Kirkman brought her back as a superhero, but I think headcanon will have her doing some of it for longer than she did in the books. It just makes sense that she would be out there, helping the world actually be a better place, rather than beat up criminals.

Villains By Necessity: Excellent philosophical grappling with the nature of Good and Evil (as Sondheim put it, 'nice' is different than 'good').

Warehouse 13: The history is impeccable. Like, I was dubious about pirates on the Great Lakes in 1914? But no, the guy's on Wikipedia and everything. To add to Quinn's diversity notes, the Warehouse has a clear history of hiring people society at large overlooks - consider Mrs. F for a moment. (Or the black guy who goes to a military facility in 1944 and tells them to shut down the demo that's underway.)

Percy Jackson: The kids are believable teenagers, for all they're grappling with potentially world-ending events. (I also particularly like the bit where Nico's gay, and to some extent the fact that he struggles with it - between the 'son of Hades' thing and the 'born in the FDR administration' thing, he would.)

Discworld: MOST OF THE THINGS. Particular to Soul Music, on a metaphorical level that is exactly what good music does to you.

Harry Potter: A+ world concept (not to be confused with world-building).

OUaT: I like the subversions to fairy tales they've included. I like that the focus of Red's story after she accidentally her boyfriend isn't on Finding Another True Love, but rather finding her own strength and blossoming as herself. I also like that Belle's brand of badass is 'LET ME CONSULT THIS BOOK.'

It was awesome seeing Red again and I really hope she continues with the show.

Sunshine: Her canon wins for world building and character development. Love it. Some readers have complained that the tangential stories weigh down the narrative, but I relished it because it made it feel like an actual world, with biases, history, and impact. There's so much more to it than what directly touches upon the main character's story. And Sunshine's development in the story, even if the canon is literally just her origin story, is palpable. You can see as parts of her worldview break, and how she works to fits them back together in a different, new, stronger pattern.

Yrael: If there's one thing Garth Nix does well, it's making the reader want to know more. About the world, about the characters, about how things work. Where Robin McKinley fleshes out the world and makes it feel real, Garth Nix hides little details scattered throughout the narrative that might only hint at the overall shape of things, but only makes the reader want more.

BTW, I think I found some footage of Yrael practicing his ballet (link is to a medium sized gif).

*cackles!* Oh that is perfection.

*right-click saves*

Kirk: The future. A future where things are better (which is sorely missing from the reboot). A future where mankind works together. A future, as seen from 1966, that is far more integrated and open minded than what existed at the time. A future that could inspire you.

Knox: The sheer and utter claustrophobia of Gotham. That city is supposed to be an expressionistic nightmare New York, but also a place of wonder and strangeness. As great as the Nolanverse is, it's not strange enough. Most comic book adaptations aren't.

Cyborg: The camaraderie of the Titans. It's played silly but it works so well. And also the reworking of the Judas Contract story from the comics into something a lot less skeevy and problematic into a genuinely painful and moving story of betrayal and heroism.

Howard: Turning a superhero story into a WWII film, more or less. And the clothing.

Gibbs: Ummmm. Look, I love the PotC films. But beyond Johnny Depp's iconic performance and some really good FX and storytelling, these are very problematic films. Hard to think of any one thing that was done right in a way that goes beyond "good filmmaking."

Charlie: The unexpected (for 1986) philosophical underpinnings of the classic comics. And the strange but effective way that Denny O'Neil and Denys Cown told a story that was at once within the DC Universe and removed from it.

OUaT: I like that they have woven all these tales into a larger picture. That's interesting. And they do have some wonderfully complex characters.

Belgariad/Mallorean: ...I... uh. Don't know. They must have done something, because I reread them about once a year, despite wanting to punch them repeatedly in the face. They... made up 7k+ years of history?

Smallville: Lois. I love Erica Durance's Lois so, so much, and for some reason the writers really didn't pull their punches when they began writing her. They made her flawed, snarky, reckless, bright but oblivious, stubborn, more compassionate than she wants to admit to, with an innate understanding of a certain farm boy, tactless and blunt but perceptive and caring enough to try, even if she doesn't succeed. They made her dynamic. And honestly, I love the Lois and Clark relationship at basically every point, both their incredibly snarky interactions that deepen into strong, trusting friendship, and then suddenly turned into more. Friends or lovers, their relationship just makes me smile. Also, season 11 is frankly making me really happy, as apparently it doesn't suck like the nuboot.

Other things Smallville got right: many of their castings (Welling, Schnieder, Durance, O'Toole, Callum Blue, and Glover especially, IMO), finally eventually letting Clark grow the hell up, getting old Supes actors in, and in particular this one season 2 episode where Chris Reeve tells Tom Welling, "You must write your own story, Kal-El." Fangasm of epic proportions. Oh yeah, and also Tom Welling is beautiful. They did that very right. Mmmmmmmyum.

Codex Alera: Taking a lot of the failure modes of the Belgariad and making them not suck. Not kidding when I say this was one of the draws. Being a Standard High Fantasy Series in a lot of ways--but it doesn't try to be otherwise and instead of hiding plot twists, indicates (or says outright) that they'll happen and investigate the feelings instead, proving that being such doesn't mean boring. Creating a world with enough building to play in and enough holes to construct in (mix good-and-bad, that...). Dynamic characters, definitely--Butcher fails at many things, but he's quite good at creating characters and somehow leaving just enough details that you can guess, or even just deduce, a lot about several characters who aren't even on screen. And most of the villains are at least marginally sympathetic. Alera is also interesting in that I think of it as my personal happyplace and it's got a happy ending, it's actually a hugely depressing world. But he doesn't weigh you down with it as you read. I only realize when I start really thinking about it. And I adore the magic system, I really really do.

On the subject of characters, I could seriously just squee about so many of them, but I'll stick with Tavi. He is a protagonist who is genuinely intelligent and wins with his brain and a frankly terrifyingly ridiculous charisma score, not just by fiat or bashing things with a sword or Artifact Of Superpowerful. Also, he grows a lot, we see him change--but the seeds of what he ends as are clearly visible from the start. Somehow he is a character who would be a villain if he weren't the hero, if that makes sense.

My favorite take on Robin Hood is Paul Creswick's version because all the characters feel real. Little John and Will's friendship has an arc that makes sense as they both get jealous and figure things out, also N.C. Wyeth illustrations.

XMFC does a lot of problematic things but the way the relationships are written works and the teenagers being teenagers.

The Vorkosiganverse books are full of amazing world building and complicated, messy families and friendships.

Yuma has all these moments that build up to create a place that you feel like you're getting a glimpse at but it feels real. Its easy to fill in what's missing.

Becoming Jane is sweet and honest about how Jane Austen didn't have a lot of simple choices, I respect that.

Discworld is fun and a place I always love to visit.

Narnia for how short the books are, the world feels very fleshed out.

Pirates of Penzance is full of earworms and joy.

Kamen Rider Wizard: While I think it's one of the weakest KR series of the past five years in terms of story, one thing it - and all KR series, but especially Wizard - does do very well is spectacle. There is an air of almost absurd grandiosity that sweeps you up, and the series is very good at building on that to create bigger and bigger spectacles.

Final Fantasy XII: I - don't have many things that I don't think XII did right, to be honest. Some of the clothing designs are quite awful, and some of the gameplay needs finetuning, but beyond that, there's very little I don't think it did well. Like Wizard, it is amazing at putting on these dramatic, grandiose spectacles; it has a layered and compelling plot; its treatment of women, often awful costumes notwithstanding, is far and away beyond a lot of Final Fantasy games, yet alone video games in general.

If anything had to stand out above everything else, I'd say it's the voice acting and blocking in cutscenes. The voice cast has a lot of thespians and veteran voice actors thespian-ing it up but good, being very dramatic to the point where it's just awesome, and the blocking fits that: The relation of characters to parts of the landscape and camera often creates the seeming of a stage (there's a lovely conversation amongst the Judges that takes place at the edge of a staircase, with the stairs acting as the edge of the stage and the hallway acting as the bulk of it - the two characters having a debate stand in the foreground and deliver their lines forward at the camera, like actors on a stage, while the mediating character is near the back, visible between them.)

So that's nice.

I would also like to make a note on the attention to little detail in the cutscenes - Balthier's posturing and the looks on his face in the background every time Al-Cid hits on Ashe make me cackle.

Doctor Who: So yes, there are problems, there are so many problems, but... there's just so much hope - before the show rebooted, that's why I watched a scifi show with some references that went completely over my head and some truly horrendous (compared to what's possible now) special effects work. It's a show about curiosity, and defending what's right. And it's the show that has Tom Baker, which makes it even more awesome.

Night Watch: I adore the world-building. Also, the way that it keeps being shown that Boris Ivanovich is an utter, utter bastard. And? There's a new book coming out. WOOT!

LotR: This is one of my favorite canons - the world-building is amazing, the attention to detail is astounding. You could write whole series about bit characters that show up for, like, a line.

Star Trek: It's the fuuuuuuuture. Mostly, I love this show for the characters, and how they work together. Spock-Kirk-McCoy is the best of ever.

Foyle's War: Whoever casted Kitchen was a genius - that man can say more with a raised eyebrow than most actors can with a full-on monologue complete with scenery chewing. Also, it's a series about things happening day-to-day behind the huge headlines, and I'm a sucker for those.

Master and Commander: Again, it's another behind-the-headlines type of series, and while the language use can get... heavy, I guess, is the best word, it's definitely not a late-night reader, but it fits the feel of the time. The movie, while a complete and utter mashup of several books, flowed well (and has the benefit of a certain highly vicious and adorable midshipman).

Marvel: Backing up to why I love DW - sure, there's horrible things in the world, but there are people who are fighting the horrible things. Also, I love that women are allowed to be clever in this series (though please, please, can we stop with Simmons being bad-things bait? Please.)

Carol has a long history with a lot of good and bad over the years, but wow, the current Kelly Sue DeConnick era is everything I wanted for Carol's character development. She's got a definite cocky swagger about her, but along with that she's a woman with strong convictions who genuinely cares about people. She's both larger and life and painfully human. That's probably the biggest, most important thing that's absolutely right about Captain Marvel.

For everything "Rescue Me" did wrong, they made up for it in a lot of ways. Post-9/11 New York City. First responders dealing with PTSD, and what their loved ones go through when they don't get help. The self/destructiveness of alcoholism. The bond between firefighters as people, and the bond between firefighters and their job. There was absolutely nothing sentimental about the show, there were no hugs and kisses and orchestral crescendos that made everything better. In fact, off the top of my head I can't think of a happy ending to any plotline (okay, maybe, like, one). It was darkly and inappropriately hilarious one moment, and it was gut-wrenchingly emotional the next.

Tommy's character development wasn't exactly a development, because development implies change or growth or evolution. Tommy? Nope. And to be honest? I liked that. I mean, talk about staying true to the original character, and throughout seven seasons. People around him changed, his environment kept fluctuating around him, shit kept happening to him, but he stayed the same, even though he tried to change. It was frustrating and angering and even sad in some ways, but that's what his character was about, and I think the writers really got him right.

Mother 3 is really damn good at twists. Maybe not all of them, like the Chapter 1 player punch or the identity of the Masked Man, but the next-to-last big twist of the game is a thing of beauty. It's built up since Chapter 1, it explains otherwise inexplicable happenings, and the truth of the twist is laid out in mountains of evidence but never plain terms, leaving the players the task of stating it themselves.

Mother 3 also might win for most unusual rp party? I don't know. Looking at it from the outside, you've got a kid, his dog, a young woman raised by fabulous fairy-type beings, and that neighbor with bad breath and a bad leg. Speaking of the last, let's talk about how awesome Duster is, shall we? Despite having an obvious limp, Duster fights with kicks. And he is fast like greased lightning. Sometimes when an enemy sneaks up on you, Duster will turn the tables by quickly jumping behind them. He doesn't learn any PSI in the game, but he has an arsenal of thief tools like wall staples for climbing and siren beetles for catching the enemy off guard. Not to mention he's the best bass player DCMC ever had.

Heroes - It created a fun playground, anyway.

Avatar: The Last Airbender/Legend of Korra - The world-building is really enjoyable and usually well-done. You can see the effort they've put into it (and by comparison notice when they've put in less, but), and that effort makes the world feel much more tangible and real, and makes it something attractive to engage with. When adding or developing ideas for the Avatarverse, it feels less like filling in holes and more like simply turning corners the show hasn't gotten to yet.

Parks and Recreation - The show I most often have "I love everyone in this government agency" feelings about. Everyone is generally heartfelt and delightful, and watching it almost always makes me feel uplifted. While imperfect, I do think the show's greatest strength is its devotion to creating very different and very flawed but still very likeable characters and framing its stories through those characters and their relationships.

Grim Fandango - Blends very different elements with no visible seams. And it's sooo pretty, and holds up well for a 90s game, likely because there are no flesh humans involved.

Adventure Time - Handled the shift from "let's just be really weird!" to "okay let's build a mythology-ish-thing!" with quite a lot of grace.

How To Train Your Dragon - Dragons that act like cats. DRAGONS that ACT like CATS. Also it's hilarious but DRAGONS THAT ACT LIKE CATS.

Hannibal - The actors are all kiiind of amazing. They all have these really weird, careful lines to walk while speaking in Fuller metaphor language, and they all pull it off very well. As far as my interests in particular go - part of the reason I'm glad I read Red Dragon is that it gave me a written-word version of Will Graham, which is a helpful reference. Because when playing him, I get really, acutely aware of how physical Hugh Dancy's performance is, with all these little twitches and nods and blinks and trembling smiles and ffs it's really hard to put all these expressions and gestures into words. Like sometimes I swear he has multiple expressions on his face at the same time, it's really hard to describe okay. Which goes with a medium difference, which is the point, but aaaaaaugh.

Captain America/the MCU: I was indifferent to comics for a long time -- I read Sandman and I read a few issues of Hellblazer, but I didn't seek out anything -- and then Captain America came along, and now I read comics. So what have they done right? A lot -- with room for improvement -- but for my purposes I'm going with they created a Steve Rogers to believe in and love. Steve is so solid and good that even Chris Evans asks himself, "What would Steve Rogers do?" I love that.

Merlin...well, as someone who's been semi-obsessed with Arthurian myth for a long time (I did a paper on the Holy Grail in grad school because I already had the reference books) the idea of a new interpretation just made me yawn, but the chemistry between Merlin and Arthur was so wonderful, and the good episodes were so very good, that I wish it were canonical that Merlin and Arthur grew up together. I think the thing they did best was breathe new life into an old, overly-familiar story. Monty Python made their movie because King Arthur is a sacred cow--Merlin made it something new without resorting to parody. (Except for the troll epsisode. YEEK.)

The Hobbit: The best thing Tolkein did was invent hobbits. Anybody can have fairy tales with dragons and elves and dwarves, but Tolkein's heroes are the smallest people in his world, with nothing special to them but their quiet strength and love of home. That's remarkable in any age.

Adventure Time: it draws you in with its charm and humor, and then gut-punches you with some surprisingly mature themes.

I don't think Kings got enough of a chance to show how remarkable it could be, but I'm forever grateful to it for introducing me to Sebastian Stan. /shallow

I'm feeling cynical about Teen Wolf right now, so all I'm going to say is that reinterpreting a cheesy 80s movie was a pretty ballsy move.

The Thrilling Adventure Hour is a lot of fun, and Frank and Sadie Doyle are charming lushes. There are still some rough spots to the episodes, but as someone who loved old-timey radio programs, the new podcast version is a lot of fun.

Welcome to Night Vale is so scary and weird and comforting. They've created a world where monsters are real and they join the PTA, and the thing to really be afraid of is the corporation that preaches about a Smiling God. I love this show so much it makes me want to wave my hands and squeak.

Runescape strength, which it is strong in consistently, is its gender balance. And this isn't by default because it is a MMORPG where players are free to play females if they wish, it is in the NPCs as well. If badass happens to be female, it isn't explained, there is nothing special about that NPC, nothing traumatic happened to her to make her take up that sort of life, she just is because that is what she trained to do. And no one bats an eye. If an NPC stays home to do domestic stuff, male or female, no one blinks either.

Villains do get explanation however, as Amascut is probably going to get one (or several) in a few weeks. But heroes and adventurers in general don't. At the moment, I only recall two instances of damsels in distress, and one was a male dwarf being held prisoner in a tall tower by a princess. :D

I still don't know if I can praise their characterizations, but players who have gone through more storylines than I have seem to be deeply effected by Zanik's, Hazelmere's, and Guthix's stories.

Costumes... hmm... you may get me to rant about the Batwing mage armor and about the fantasy b.s. melee armor that invaded after the graphics engine was improved. But overall, it is decent, especially for a game that is built to run on Java inside of a web browser. There are enough people complaining that female models and clothing choices are too butch and enough people complaining that they're too femme to make me happy :D

Reno911: Creating a satire that hews so close to reality cops approached Lennon and Garant in public and told them how true it felt to them (yes, be afraid).

Brisco: Gets almost everything right; pace, tone, content, wb, etc.

Psych: Is also pretty perfect.

MLP: Manages to tell a great story for girls boldly and fearlessly.

Les Miseables: Manages to tell a sweeping, epic story that grips, which over the length it posesses is a pretty impressive feat.

Edited 2014-04-04 09:50 (UTC)

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DE: It was awesome

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