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Hello there
Oct. 22nd, 2022 04:26 pmHello there from the other side of unemployment. I've finished my first full week of returning to my old job (technically, I've been back for a week and a half, but this was the first full Mon.-Fri. 9-5 work week). This has been an exercise in managing stress and pain levels, but thus far I have survived.
For coping reasons, I am continuing to reread the Thrawn trilogy. I finished Dark Force Rising on Thursday and have since begun The Last Command. Dark Force Rising is a marked improvement to Heir to the Empire in basically every sense, though I maintain that these books still aren't good, per se. It's fascinating, however, to see how Timothy Zahn extrapolated Clone Wars lore from the original films. It's wildly off what we eventually got from the prequels in most places, but the areas of overlap are intriguing. Zahn's take on clones, in particular, I find to be, if not compelling, than at least valuable for comparison to the prequels. I am here for any and all explorations of clone identity. Oddly, one of the elements of this trilogy that I like least upon reread is the character of Mara Jade. Her characterization is consistently shrill and two-dimensional at best. The added context of the Hand of Thrawn duology doesn't help matters.
[HOTD SPOILERS]
Anyway, the penultimate episode of House of the Dragon was something of a letdown. I have come to the conclusion that Sara Hess is going to be the problem writer for me on this show (for GoT it was, believe it or not, Bryan Cogman). I have intensely disliked events and choices in both her contributions to S1.
If there is a silver lining to this messy episode, it's that SOMEHOW HotD has turned me into utter trash for all three of Alicent's children. From the book alone, Aemond was already my Problematic Fave(TM) and he continues to be so, but there frankly wasn't enough of Helaena to form an opinion in the book and I had active disdain for Aegon II. My disdain for Aegon II has not budged, but the actor portraying him in these most recent eps has done such phenomenal work that he is utterly compelling to watch. Helaena remains the least developed on the show (HOW INTERESTING. I WONDER WHAT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HER AND HER BROTHERS COULD BE. HMMM. :///), however the minimal fleshing out she has received has transformed her into an actual person in my mind, instead of just being The Tragic One.
[/HOTD SPOILERS]
In other news, Skate America has started, and I find that I just...don't care. I watched the Men's Short Program replay on 2x speed while reading, only slowing it down for the handful of skaters I still halfway care about it. But truly, I felt absolutely nothing at all while watching. I'm completely ignoring Pairs, and I'll probably only drop in for Chock/Bates in Ice Dance. I might bother with Ladies, we'll have to see. But...yeah. The ISU has finally broken me, I guess.
The book I was reading while pretending to watch Skam (which is the funniest/truest acronym ever) was Goth by Otsuichi because it's autumn and Halloween is nearly upon us. This is my traditional spooky season read. But I find that I'm not really in the mood this year? Idk, I'll probably give it a little more time because the first short story isn't a particular favorite anyway. I did, however, march upstairs and break out the green highlighter for "We were cruel, reptilian high school kids."
For coping reasons, I am continuing to reread the Thrawn trilogy. I finished Dark Force Rising on Thursday and have since begun The Last Command. Dark Force Rising is a marked improvement to Heir to the Empire in basically every sense, though I maintain that these books still aren't good, per se. It's fascinating, however, to see how Timothy Zahn extrapolated Clone Wars lore from the original films. It's wildly off what we eventually got from the prequels in most places, but the areas of overlap are intriguing. Zahn's take on clones, in particular, I find to be, if not compelling, than at least valuable for comparison to the prequels. I am here for any and all explorations of clone identity. Oddly, one of the elements of this trilogy that I like least upon reread is the character of Mara Jade. Her characterization is consistently shrill and two-dimensional at best. The added context of the Hand of Thrawn duology doesn't help matters.
[HOTD SPOILERS]
Anyway, the penultimate episode of House of the Dragon was something of a letdown. I have come to the conclusion that Sara Hess is going to be the problem writer for me on this show (for GoT it was, believe it or not, Bryan Cogman). I have intensely disliked events and choices in both her contributions to S1.
If there is a silver lining to this messy episode, it's that SOMEHOW HotD has turned me into utter trash for all three of Alicent's children. From the book alone, Aemond was already my Problematic Fave(TM) and he continues to be so, but there frankly wasn't enough of Helaena to form an opinion in the book and I had active disdain for Aegon II. My disdain for Aegon II has not budged, but the actor portraying him in these most recent eps has done such phenomenal work that he is utterly compelling to watch. Helaena remains the least developed on the show (HOW INTERESTING. I WONDER WHAT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HER AND HER BROTHERS COULD BE. HMMM. :///), however the minimal fleshing out she has received has transformed her into an actual person in my mind, instead of just being The Tragic One.
[/HOTD SPOILERS]
In other news, Skate America has started, and I find that I just...don't care. I watched the Men's Short Program replay on 2x speed while reading, only slowing it down for the handful of skaters I still halfway care about it. But truly, I felt absolutely nothing at all while watching. I'm completely ignoring Pairs, and I'll probably only drop in for Chock/Bates in Ice Dance. I might bother with Ladies, we'll have to see. But...yeah. The ISU has finally broken me, I guess.
The book I was reading while pretending to watch Skam (which is the funniest/truest acronym ever) was Goth by Otsuichi because it's autumn and Halloween is nearly upon us. This is my traditional spooky season read. But I find that I'm not really in the mood this year? Idk, I'll probably give it a little more time because the first short story isn't a particular favorite anyway. I did, however, march upstairs and break out the green highlighter for "We were cruel, reptilian high school kids."
