Reviews

[sagacious_c]

I’ve been almost totally offline for a few days because I spent the weekend devouring Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy.  (Thank goodness I did this on a weekend - and double extra thank goodness I waited to read them until all 3 books were available - I think I’d have gone crazy otherwise.)  Background for anyone unfamiliar: They’re YA novels

Comments

[hmsharmony]

Since it's a two-parter, I guess I'll withhold my full judgment until we see the conclusion since this was mostly setting things up.

Good point. It's definitely a set-up episode, but that didn't prevent me from reviewing anyway. XD But it looks like we're in for an EPIC second part (should I just assume now that all first parts will fail and the second parts will be the most amazing episode ever?).

[sagacious_c]

I'm sure hoping there will be some epic-ness! The previews look promising... I also hope part 2 moves the larger plot along somehow (it would be nice to see Uther affected in some larger sense).

[themadpoker]

Wow, reading all three books in a row must've been brutal. I had a year in between each, I went crazy waiting but it also gave me enough time to get over things beforehand. I feel like I'm the only one who was okay about Cinna being confirmed dead in Mickingjay? Mostly because I was sure he was dead after Catching Fire and I had plenty of time to mourn.

[sagacious_c]

In my blur of reading the books back to back (embarrassingly so: I finished book 1 at 3 am and immediately opened up book 2), I missed that that was unresolved! I could see people being upset about that -- (trying to write cryptically since I don't know how to do that blackout thing!) since the set-up did seem to imply a grander plan on that issue... :(

[themadpoker]

This is the code! <*span style="color: #333333;background-color: #333333">Spoilers here.<*/span*> Just remove the asterisks. =D

The worst ones for me were Finnick and Prim. Especially with how all Finnick got was a line? It was like Remus in Harry Potter: the sequel. Except I never loved Remus as much as I did Finnick. ;_;

[sagacious_c]

I'm going to try it!

I KNOW, Finnick! And Prim! Wah! It was all so rushed, and Katniss was out of commission for so long that we, the readers, never got the chance to mourn Finnick adequately. I know Suzanne Collins sticks rigidly to her 27 chapters in 3 parts rule, but maybe a little more flexibility was needed. I mean, the denouement for a trilogy is going to take more than just a single book...

[mojitochica]

I have to admit laughing AT the show rather than with it when Morgana and Morgause were brewing the mangy looking cornstalk (the mandrake root?) in a vat of what looked like mud or crude oil.

Yeah I spend most of my time laughing at Merlin. The vat reminded me of nutella, lol. I'm hoping 3.01 holds up better when viewed with 3.02.

[sagacious_c]

CAULDRON OF NUTELLA! I'd volunteer to be under THAT spell! Funnily, my fiance's mom just mailed us 52 ounces of nutella. It arrived today, and knowing us (me, really), it won't last long.

[victorialupin]

I bought a copy of The Hunger Games a few weeks ago but I haven't had a chance to read it yet. Definitely looking forward to it, though. :)

I'm really hoping that the season premiere of Merlin will seem better once we see 3x02. I'm not too upset about the over-the-top things--I`ve always found the show a fairly laughable, albeit highly entertaining, show--but I agree that it was frustrating to see Merlin do nothing but get picked on by Arthur. I'm really sick of the constant resetting of their relationship. As soon as they make any sort of progress, they're back to the same banter by the next episode. Which is entertaining, sure, but I'd like something more. It'd be nice to see a step toward Merlin taking on a more advisory role to Arthur. Unfortunately, I don't think the show will have Arthur find out about Merlin's sorcery any time soon (which is pretty ridiculous considering how painfully obvious Merlin's powers have been lately), but I would like to at least see Arthur consult Merlin or seek out his help as more than just a

[sagacious_c]

It won't take you long to get through The Hunger Games -- it's a fast read, and has some sort of addictive property. The author likes to end chapters with cliffhangers, so that might be part of it...

I thought this year they weren't resetting the relationship as much, and that it was just supposed to be friendly teasing, but I thought it was on the mean-spirited side and, worse, not actually very funny.

I heard you on the no-magic-reveal stance. I think the producers want to wait on the reveal until the very end, that seems foolish to me. For one thing, it's getting stale. It also makes Arthur look dumb and Merlin weaker than he is. Is he actually developing his magic skills? He sure couldn't get out of those Morgause chains! Maybe part 2 will show how far he's coming along with his magic and will give us a good explanation for the chains. I'd like it if Morgause figured out Merlin had magic...

Basically, they need to be shaking things up more, not getting bogged down in their formula.

[victorialupin]

Yeah, I don't think their relationship was reset nearly as much as it had been in 2x01 (which basically put Arthur and Merlin at the point they had been at in the pilot) but I still don't feel like they were as close in 3x01 as they should have been, given all that they've been through.

Oh, yes, the whole thing is making Arthur look really stupid. Especially after he passed out last season and just accepted the explanation that he beat the dragon.

I think they've been flip-flopping on the extent of Merlin's powers. It's almost as if he was more powerful when the series started than he is now; at the beginning, he was done wordless magic based on instict, not learning. Gaius implied that that was incredibly rare, if unheard of. And now Merlin is doing mostly verbal spells that don't seem to be instinctual. I'd love some clarification about the extent of Merlin's powers, since season one seemed to imply that he was ridiculously powerful (in a previously unheard of way), but I'm no longer getting that impression.

[sagacious_c]

but I'm no longer getting that impression

Maybe doing a two-part opening with the episodes separated by a week wasn't the best plan... because Merlin could have something awesome up his sleeve that we won't see until next week.

We know he's a Dragon Lord, but I too had an impression that he was ridiculously powerful and feel like it should be something beyond his Dragon Lord powers...

[genesse]

I read the first two books within days of each other in March and played hooky from work the day Mockingjay came out and read it straight through. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it and I really, really want to re-read it but am not allowing myself to.

[sagacious_c]

My cousin also called in sick to work when Mockingjay came out! She was actually not feeling great -- due to staying up until 4 am reading, though. ;)

Why aren't you letting yourself re-read it? I think there was too much pain for me to re-read the third one... But I don't re-read Deathly Hallows, for example, for a different reason: it was so good that I want to treasure it and not erode the freshness of it in my brain -- and the impact it can have on me -- by too many re-reads.

[genesse]

I wasn't feeling that well, either, but a lot of *that* was because my co-worker made me so mad that I didn't want to have to deal with her the next day. I had been all prepared to buy my copy on my way home from work.

I won't let myself re-read just yet because it was sooooo painful (Fennick's storyline, in particular, was hard and Prim's) and frustrating (I was Team Gale but by the end I really didn't want anything to have to do with either guy, and I hated the situation they were in in District 13) and - this the biggest reason - the more I want to understand it, the more I won't be able to let it go. Like with Lost, however much of life I devoted to it, I knew I would never really understand it so I've not thought about it at all since the finale.

[sagacious_c]

The District 13 situation at the end really got me -- just this hopelessness that people are bound to make the same mistakes over and over again. Heaps upon heaps of despair... :(