Yeah? You and whose army?

Deathly Hallows, Part 2. The end of a fandom era.

Reading Deathly Hollows was a swift blow. Tears and laughter and joy and all the more tears. No more books. But we still had the movies left to enjoy.

And now it’s done. The last movie has been released, and short of locking JK Rowling in a cellar and making her write more (and believe me, we all have ideas), there will be no new Harry Potter.

It’s sad. And it may explain why I cried more during this movie than I have at some funerals I’ve attended.

Many people, including TBF’s hubs, have said they were disappointed by the film. They expected more. I am rewatching the film as I write this (which accounts for the horrendous cam-quality pictures I’ll be interspersing throughout the entry), but I cannot see anything in this film that would cause me to be grossly disappointed in it. The bits that were left out were for obvious reasons, and what I was annoyed about most pales in comparison to what I loved.

So, let’s begin.

RIP Amy Winehouse

All I can ever be to you,
Is a darkness that we knew,
And this regret I've got accustomed to,
Once it was so right,
When we were at our high,
Waiting for you in the hotel at night,
I knew I hadn't met my match,
But every moment we could snatch,
I don't know why I got so attached,
It's my responsibility,
And you don't owe nothing to me,
But to walk away I have no capacity

He walks away,
The sun goes down,
He takes the day but I'm grown,
And there's no way, in this blue shape,
My tears dry on their own,

I don't understand,
Why do I stress a man,
When there's so many bigger things at hand,
We could a never had it all,
We had to hit a wall,
So this is inevitable withdrawal,
Even if I stop wanting you,
A perspective pushes true,
I'll be some next man's other woman soon,

I shouldn't play myself again,
I should just be my own best friend,
Not fuck myself in the head with stupid men,

So we are history,
Your shadow covers me
The sky above,
A blaze only that lovers see

I wish I could say no regrets,
And no emotional debts,
Cause as we kiss goodbye the sun sets
So we are history,
The shadow covers me,
The sky above a blaze that only lovers see,

He walks away,
The sun goes down,
He takes the day but I'm grown,
And in no way,
In my deep shape
My tears dry

RIP Amy Winehouse. You were too talented and too smart. I looked forward to your next album, and I'm horribly sad I'll never hear a new song by you.

Pre-Potter

Yesterday I worked early at the boring job so I could see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in the evening with TBF, her hubs, and a friend of ours from high school (who should have a better title, but that’s what he gets).

This was me before, at work all day:

This was me during and after:

If there’s one thing you should know about me, I take my time on blog entries, so the Deathly Hallows entry isn’t done cooking yet.

I do, however, have thoughts on the trailers pre-Potter.

Birthday Girl (Writer)

If Joss Whedon is the King of TV Writing, Jane Espenson is the Queen.

Sharp and witty, with such deep heart and sincerity, her writing is always deeply felt, and can pull the heart strings and punch the tear ducts.

Jane has had her fingers in so many scripts from my favorite shows. Anytime she’s involved in something, I sit up straighter, because I know she’s going to give me beauty.

Most importantly, it’s thanks to her Twitter Writing Sprints that most of my blog entries get written. Yes, blame Jane Espenson.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episode 5x12 - Checkpoint

“I’m fairly certain I said no interruptions.”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episode 3x18 - Earshot

“My life happens to, on occasion, suck beyond the telling of it. Sometimes more than I can handle. And it's not just mine. Every single person down there is ignoring your pain because they're too busy with their own. The beautiful ones. The popular ones. The guys that pick on you. Everyone. If you could hear what they were feeling. The loneliness. The confusion. It looks quiet down there. It's not. It's deafening.”

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episode 3x06 - Band Candy

“Oooh... Copper's got a gun.”

And my newest fandom, which I got into solely so that I could watch Caprica, a show helmed by the lady herself.

Battlestar Galactica Episode 3x10 - The Passage

“What you did was harder than facing a bullet. And you did it without putting one other soul in harm's way. Don't know if I could've done that. I wish there something more that I could give you.”

Forcing myself to stop with just these. See her IMBD page for all of my other favorites. Seriously.

We love you, Jane. Have an amazing birthday.

Bloglet: Traumatizing Childhood Movies

I thoroughly enjoy watching movies from my childhood.

I was an 80’s kid, and I lapped up all of the great 80’s movies. Including ones I never should’ve watched at that age (Sixteen Candles, anyone?)

There are some truly traumatizing children’s movies. I mean, have you seen Old Yeller? Bambi? Even E.T., with it’s cute short little alien with the extendable neck. Go re-watch the scene where he’s white and dying. Last time I managed to make it to that part, I was sobbing so hard I was hyperventilating. That was in my 20’s.

But the most traumatizing movie scene is one that is very rarely mentioned when you talk about upsetting movies. And it shocks me, because I was so upset by it as a child. It broke my then-fully-intact heart.

The Red Shoe - Who Framed Roger Rabbit

I don’t believe any one scene from a supposedly children’s movie has ever upset me as much as this scene did. And I am a soft-hearted freak. I ran over a rat the other night and was in near hysterics.

First of all, shoes come in pairs. They’re partners. Friends. Compatriots. Lovers.

(Don’t think of your shoes being lovers, it’ll freak you out.)

So, this poor little shoe’s partner? Is now alone. What’s that shoe going to do? It can’t find a new partner, all the other shoes are already paired! Plus those sassy purple heeled boots look like bitches.

Find a cartoon with a peg leg, who only needs one shoe? Well, yes, he could do that, but all his life, he would feel the emptiness of his missing partner.

Did you see the eyes on that shoe as he was put into the dip? Ignore the cartoon open mouthed screen. Look at the third screenshot. That is a broken shoe. That looks painful. And he screams.

Seriously, I think of this scene and it upsets me, and I really love this movie.

This is, by far, the most traumatizing moment from a children’s movie. Ever.

I don't make suggestions. If I want to toss a baby out an airlock, I'd say so.

In May of last year, I wrote an entry about how much I loved Season 1 of Battlestar Galactica. How the ending was so incredible, and had definitely sucked me in, and snagged me for Season 2.

Promptly after the entry, I popped in Season 2, and watched hungrily. I was ready for more Cylons, more Starbuck and Six, what was going to happen to Adama, and Sharon’s baby. I was READY.

And I watched it. And thrilled. And tweeted, and screeched, and gasped, and cried. My friend Joey gave me the entire series on DVD, mostly because he got a set free, but also because he rocks.

And then nothing happened for over a year. I became distracted by other TV shows, other movies, other life. The DVDs stared at me, accusingly. Jamie Bamber started on Law and Order: UK, and I had constant reminders of how great the show was, and how much I was not watching it.

So, out of nowhere a couple of weeks back, I decided it was time to jump back in, feet first. I set up with my work phone and knitting, and was determined to finish a Season 2 rewatch, in preparation for Season 3.

Took over a week, then even longer to finish this entry. But wheeeeeeeee, BSG.

I worship at the Whedon Altar

I’m not the kind of person who would celebrate a celebrity’s birthday as though they were someone I actually know. Wish them happy birthday on Twitter, yes. Acknowledge it publicly and personally, and do a little happy dance that they’re still in the world, and were born at all?

Pfft. That would never happen.

::cough::

Today is Joss Whedon’s 47th birthday. And I can’t think of a better person to get their own birthday blog entry.

Technically, I have been a Joss Whedon fan since I was 7 years old. I watched Roseanne religiously as a child, and he wrote for that show. Even before that, I watched the old school Captain Kangaroo, and you couldn’t tear me away from The Golden Girls. And that was his father. Not to mention? As a Nick at Nite child, I was a huge fan of The Donna Reed Show, and The Dick Van Dyke show. Guess who wrote on those? His grandfather.

Love for Joss Whedon is in my blood, and I didn’t know it on a random day in 1997 when I flipped through TV channels and saw John Ritter on my screen. I stopped to see what it was. Hmm. Robot. That’s odd. Oof, he just went flying down the stairs. Wow. And I changed the channel.

It wasn’t until Season 3 that I started watching the show, and I think it was more the sexy brooding guy and extremely sexy bad girl that got me coming back. But there was no denying this show had something special. And it was all thanks to the man behind the Grrr, Argh.

My love for the show grew with each episode. By 1999, I was an internet junkie, and I devoured every bit of information I could about the show, and its creator. By 2001, I had found a board on AOL to discuss the show with other fanatics, and it was really only then that I learned who Joss Whedon was, and got to discuss how amazing the writing and actors and everything was.

I didn’t watch Firefly at first. It was more a technical error than anything else. I set the season premiere of Buffy and the series premiere of Firefly to record that day, and neither came ended up recording. (Anyone remember VCRs?) Naturally it didn’t stop me from watching the Buffy, but I let Firefly fall by the wayside. It wasn’t until 2005 that I finally watched the entire series, and nearly cried from losing such greatness. After the pain of losing Dollhouse, I’m actually glad I wasn’t there for the original loss of Firefly.

RyAn is a much braver person than I, and he listed his top 10 favorite Whedonverse characters. This will not happen, as my brain is perfectly content not exploding. I will say that in the Whedon realm, nothing tops Buffy for me. It was the first, it was the best. Despite what happened when Marti Noxon took the helm.

With one glaring exception that RyAn will be quick to point out, I will and have watched everything Joss Whedon is involved in. Like many obsessive fans, he can essentially do no wrong in my eyes. I am not a comic book fan, but I will watch The Avengers, and I am genuinely looking forward to it.

Happy birthday, Numfar. Thank you for being you.