Saturday woes

[zinnith]

When am I going to learn that I just shouldn't watch the last thirty minutes of Serenity. Damn you, Joss Whedon! Five years and I still bawl my eyes out. Every. Single. Time.

I was going to catch up on Supernatural today but I think I've had my heart torn out and stomped on enough for one day. Might finish the latest Dresden Files instead. Or maybe not, if what I've read so far is any indication to how it's going to end. (See: heart torn out and stomped on. And no, I do not want to be spoiled!)

Soooo... sitting down and waiting for Doctor Who? Check.

By the way. Am I the only one who has trouble finishing a book or a show or a movie if it looks like it's going to end badly for my favourite characters? Just to take an example - I was spoiled for the end of Torchwood and I still haven't been able to bring myself to see Children of Earth. (Let's not even talk about SGA. The last episode is sitting unwatched on my harddrive. I know what happens but it's like, if I watch it, it's going to be over for real.)

These are the things I ponder on a Saturday evening. How about you, dear f-list?

Comments

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

(Let's not even talk about SGA. The last episode is sitting unwatched on my harddrive. I know what happens but it's like, if I watch it, it's going to be over for real.)

This is me. I haven't watched the last *four* eps of SGA yet for the same reasons. Ditto your thoughts on TW and I was a huge TW fan. I watched Serenity before I ever saw Firefly--I find, oddly enough, I can treat Serenity as a complete AU story and I'm cool with that.

But I'm with you on the 'don't hurt me by killing my characters' thing. There was a long period of time when I only read or watched light fluffy stuff because every day was spent dealing with life and death issues and I just didn't need that when I got home too. My shows, my characters, were my refuge and sometimes, my only friends.

I've developed a tougher skin with the passage of time from those days, but most days I still need to know the good guys are going to make it and the ending will be happy.

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

The weird thing is that, intellectually, I like the dark and angsty with the unhappy endings. If it's good storytelling, my writerbrain will love the hell out of it. My heart, that's a completely different story. Then again, my heart has the consistency of a marshmallow.

TW actually managed to kill off every single character I cared about! Maybe some day I'll be able to watch CoE but not today and certainly not tomorrow or any other day this year. I don't need happy endings but I need hopeful ones.

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

The weird thing is that, intellectually, I like the dark and angsty with the unhappy endings. If it's good storytelling, my writerbrain will love the hell out of it. My heart, that's a completely different story. Then again, my heart has the consistency of a marshmallow.

This, this, this. A thousand times.

I like your summation too, not necessarily happy, but certainly hopeful.

[lavvyan.livejournal.com]

I left Changes lying around for a day before I could bring myself to tackle the last two chapters. So yeah, I'm with you. *snuggles*

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

Just finished it (against better judgement). OMG! I need something diabetically happy and fluffy to cheer me up now!

[lavvyan.livejournal.com]

But it was so goooood! Depressing as hell, but really good.

Holmes/Watson not-quite-porn

*whistles*

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

I agree, very very good. Also, no matter how depressing things get, Harry & co always manages to make me smile.

Yay for Holmes and Watson!

[mesmorizee.livejournal.com]

There are so many episodes of SGA's last season I haven't seen either because I've heard bad things about them or because I just don't want it to end. My friends keep looking at me oddly evey time I say that I refuse to watch the last episode. I't nost like I don't know what's going to happen anyway.

I pretty much always put off reading the ending or watching the end if I know or even suspect that it's going to end badly. Or if I am really in love with a book or show and just don't want it to end I can put off doing it for weeks. It's hard when things end! And even worse if it ends badly!

And for what I am doing this Saturday, I started watching Burn Notice instead of studying. I really like it so far. XD

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

There were plenty of S5 episodes I would've been better off not watching, but there were a few jewels (The Shrine!!!! Vegas!!!!!) I've started watching the last ep a couple of times but I only get a few minutes in before I turn it off again. Not quite ready to let my Show go, I think ;)

Burn Notice is awesome! Which reminds me, I have some of that to catch up on too :)

[mesmorizee.livejournal.com]

I have um... Actually not seen Vegas. It is one of those episodes I was supposed to watch really, I don't mind not having seen or ever seeing the last ep. But I was supposed to watch Vegas and then things happened and I got distracted and... Well, I still haven't seen it. I probably will watch it eventually. Some time... And the last episode, well, I know kind of how it's going to end and just thinking about it makes me annoyed because I don't think they should end it like that so I'm not going to even try watching it.

I love Burn Notice! I've seen like eight episodes today and I am completely in love with it! It is so great! :D

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

Vegas is another one of those stories that will tear out your heart and stomp on it and you'll love it while it happens because it's just that good.

[mezzo-cammin.livejournal.com]

You are so, so, not alone on this!

I only watched the last three episodes of SGA last month, and only because I wanted to write about what happened afterward. You know, when it really doesn't end, and they steal Atlantis and go back to Pegasus without IOA approval, so this time they're really, really stranded, but good, and oops, Jennifer really didn't want to come, but she helped them escape, anyway, so she gets to be a good guy and Rodney gets to move on, already, and if I hadn't watched the last episode I would have never known about the wormhole drive Rodney had been working on in his spare (!) time, so I'm glad I did. Finally. But I was still very sad, because it did seem like it was over, a little. But not forever over in my mind, at least.

So, yeah - I really, really didn't want to. Same with Serenity. I wanted to see it, but I didn't want to see the end of it, and I was kind of prepared, but no way was I really, truly prepared for what happened. I jumped a mile, and cried afterwards.

I'm with Madison on this - life is hard enough without my entertainment making me sad, you know? I don't mind if it makes me think, just please don't go stomping on my heart, and killing off my peeps, okay?! *puts shield over heart*

I only know Torchwood through the vids on YouTube, so the ending came as a shock to me, too. Now I will never watch it, because I guarantee I would have been 'emotionally invested' in that pairing. Damn straight.

I don't know if that level of denial is healthy or not, but I think of it more as self-preservation. :o)

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

Definitely self-preservation *nods*. Like I told Madison - the weird thing is that I really like the dark angsty unhappy endings as long as it's good storytelling (not a big fan of torment just for torment's sake...) If there's one thing I can't stand, it's the happy ending cop-out where the characters are put through all kinds of terrible things just to have it all miraculously fixed in the end and live happily ever after. But my soft squishy heart would really need one of those shields you mentioned and would prefer if I watched nothing but children's Disney for the rest of my life. Too bad it doesn't get a vote...

[wanted-a-pony.livejournal.com]

Yes. What you & sgamadison said.

It's a sort of an extension of a violence/humiliation squick, for me. I can bear some violence (especially 'fantastic' violence like vampire/Wraith attacks) toward, or a little humiliation of, characters I like in the service of a valid plot- or character-development point. I have no patience with violence/humiliation-as-entertainment: I don't find them funny, & I don't get a thrill from either experiencing or inflicting them on others (even vicariously). Any person of sufficient age & acuity can experience & imagine pain (both physical & mental), disability & death perfectly well without having it shoved up our noses & being told it's gritty realism or how the real world works, let alone paying for the abuse.

/rant
Sorry. My hobby-horse, let me show you its paces....

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

*pets the horse*

I couldn't agree more. Angst just for the sake of angst makes my writerbrain cringe. There has to be some kind of meaning with it. I just don't like to watch my people suffer needlessly and it doesn't matter if they're real or fictional :)

Then again, I once wrote a novel where I killed off all my characters except for two. It was all in the interest of the plot, I promise! *coughs*

[anyanka-eg.livejournal.com]

I'm writing an NCIS: Los Angeles smutty slash (Sam and Callen of course) snippet and I'd love a beta. Any chance you want to? It'll end well for them. Nothing kinky, just a little revelation with a big helping of sex.

Oh, and I'm trying to download last week's Dr who on the BBC i-player because the internet in tokyo was too sloooooow to do it last week. Not being much faster here.

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

Yay for NCIS:LA slash! (So. Extremely. Married.) Just send it over! Do you have my e-mail? Otherwise it's zinnith (at) gmail.com

[anyanka-eg.livejournal.com]

They are married aren't they?

Anyway, might take a week or so to finish as I was delayed with it yesterday and now my brother and his girlfriend have arrived for a week so probably I won't get much written. Thanks for the beta-ing when it's done.

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

They even said so themselve! "We've been together longer than most married couples in this town." Which I translate to mean: "The moment gay marriage is legalised in California, we'll be the first ones to tie the knot!" (They'll have to hurry if they want to get there before EP!John&Rodney of course...And now I have ideas for crackfic.)

I'm looking forward to it!

[brightknightie.livejournal.com]

>"I know what happens but it's like, if I watch it, it's going to be over for real."

I'm fully in favor of leaving an episode unwatched, when you can. Or a made-for-TV movie, or professional novel, or extra footage, or whatever is available to leave some piece of canon unknown, and therefore an object of endless curiosity -- a humbling impediment to ever knowing everything about a best-beloved fandom, but also an inimitable catalyst for continuing to ask questions and find new stories long after canon closes. My best-beloved series was canceled fourteen years ago; leaving a smidgen of canon unknown really works.


Um, hello! You probably don't remember me, as I don't comment very often. I pop by from time to time to see if you've posted new fiction; I'm quite fond of your "Entangled Particles" series.

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

Hi! Have some cookies and make yourself at home! I've been in a writing slump for a while, but there's still hope :)

As a writer I want to know every single little detail there is of canon so I can get my stories right. As a fan, however, I just want to have something left to look forward to. Makes it tricky sometimes, especially when it comes to SGA where I'm both a writer and a fan...