This is a blog - slash - archive of some old blogs - slash - place to throw stuff which makes me feel things. No idea how you got here, but you're welcome anyway.
If only, if ONLY there was some sort of famous historical story about an authority figure invoking cake at an inopportune time. If only we remembered what happened to that person. Oh well.
Yesterday Frankie Boyle criticized Ricky Gervais for his jokes about trans people. I suppose my first reaction was:
But it goes deeper than that. I’m the child of someone with a disability, I have a few disabilities of my own, and it was primarily the comedy of Boyle and Gervais that taught me how the world views people with disabilities. That’s not even getting started on the racism, the anti-semitism, and of course the transphobia that Boyle used to do and Gervais still does. I’m glad that Boyle has done the bare minimum, I want people to change, no matter how loathesome they are I want to believe there’s good in everyone. But he stood on stage and specifically abused a Black child (child!) with a disability, and he made fun of people with Downs Syndrome in front of their parents, and he went on Twitter and talked about how he wanted to rape a Black sportwoman. I don’t feel like his words come from a place of actual empathy and I’m also fairly sure he’ll go back on them as soon as it’s convenient.
One thing I’ve found interesting about this, in an incredibly depressing way, is that until this point Boyle appeared to have a fanbase of, well, exactly who you’d expect. I went through Twitter and it’s all, “I assumed based on Boyle’s Nazi-like attitude to disabled people that he was far-right just like me! What do you mean there’s a tiny spark of decency in there?” And I really hope he knows that those were the kind of attitudes, and the kind of people, he cultivated with his cruelty.
I’m very pleased to announce I just got an article about Spider-Man, Harry Osborn and mental illness published at The Mary Sue! It’s, uh, not positive about Nick Spencer’s writing.
I hope you enjoy it. There are some nice comments on there, including one that actually vocalised something I’ve been thinking for a while – for all the terribleness of this storyline, the backlash to it did highlight how unexpectedly beloved Harry is among Spider-Man fans. (Maybe the real Harry was the friends we made along the way.)
This show makes Natalia Tena as far as I know the only person to appear in Star Wars, Harry Potter and Game of Thrones. I loved her character and I hope she comes back, she was a real standout for me.
I was NOT spoiled for Richard Ayoade’s (voice) appearance! RICHARD AYOADE IS PART OF THE STAR WARS UNIVERSE!
Oh man Kuiil, he was great, I didn’t want him to die. :(
Dang Ming-Na Wen just does not age does she?
I always hated the AT-STs, ever since I was a kid, and I hope Chapter 4 encourages everyone else to hate them too.
I am SO THRILLED to have Termuera Morrison back! Now if only we can get Daniel Logan back too. (Y’know, for a flashback or something, or maybe even as another character. Just get him in there.)
“…like my father before me” had me so dang happy.
Oh the reference to Anakin! Ahsoka still loved him. ;_;
So who exactly has been changing Grogu’s nappies all this time?
I did it! I have finally watched all there is so far of the Baby Yoda Show, aka The Mandalorian. Really I should have before, but when Disney + didn’t release in the UK I was all like “FINE, you don’t want me to watch your show? Then I won’t watch your show” and indeed did not watch the show for about a year even after giving in and getting Disney + once it finally came out. Also y’know life and work and life got in the way.
But hey The Mandalorian makes great Christmas viewing since it’s about a magical baby being protected, and it makes great 2020 viewing since it’s about a guy who never takes his mask off. I did know about Ahsoka and Boba appearing, and I was spoiled last-minute about Luke (sigh) but not much else. And I LOVED seeing them! Luke’s sudden arrival had me practically CHEERING, god I love Luke so much.
I am very behind on Star Wars lore, or what I will henceforth refer to as Manda-Lore-ian. I’m not completely sure who Bo-Katan is, for example, or how Boba Fett got out of the Sarlacc pit, or why Ahsoka is looking for Thrawn… but hey I can find out! And I still enjoyed it despite all that.
I have no idea how season three will go or if the show will even return to Grogu’s storyline (I assume that if they plan to show him training with Luke it will require more uncanny de-aging of Mark Hamill and who knows what dark forces Disney has harnessed to do that) but YES Disney I will watch it, just don’t pull any more bullshit okay?
I want a Grogu so bad, even if he did nearly wipe out an entire family of space lizards.
GOD His Dark Materials is just the most beautiful show ever isn’t it? Now season three has been greenlit I revisited my favourite shots from season one and it was REALLY HARD narrowing it down to just fourteen. Everyone’s face is so expressive! (This was very nearly just a highlight reel of Ruth Wilson’s Mrs Coulter alone.)
Some faves among the faves: The evil monkey whomst I hate staring uncomprehending at an act of self-sacrifice, Mrs Coulter’s animal-like hands silouetted against the light, and the room the captured children are in looking like a blade has divided it.
I also love how many windows there are! Very appropriate right?
This show is so gorgeous that I might do a fourteen favourite shots for every single episode actually.
As Captain Jack Harkness, the omnisexual immortal Time Agent, John Barrowman blazed onto screens in the 2005 revival of Doctor Who and has never looked back. Fifteen years later – via headlining the show in spin-off Torchwood – Jack’s back to battle Daleks on New Year’s Day in the festive special “Revolution of the Daleks”.…
Even as a teenager watching Jack I knew he was important in a way I couldn’t even describe. God, there are problems with 2005 era Doctor Who, but Jack isn’t one of them.
I really hate how it’s been forgotten now what a HUGE GODDAMN impact John Barrowman and Russell T Davies had on a particular generation of British kids. I still see Jack’s character being labelled as “queerbaiting” and it makes me so fucking angry. Barrowman and RTD were two gay men who put their careers at risk to create Jack and that was how they were thanked.