Return of the Rant Meme

[sarolynne]

It's been a while, so I have lots of ranting built up, probably.

Same as before. You provide the topic, I provide the rant.

ETA: And I might as well add these, since I'm posting.

Comments

[askerian]

TRUE BLOOD. If you need limits, Sookie in particular. Anything that bothers you about the character? u.u

[sarolynne]

Okay, I'm going to say it: Sookie is not the character I watch the show for. True Blood has a fairly interesting supporting cast. The story telling quality varies from okay to terrible, with brief flashes of good, and I do like those flashes of good. The accents, generally speaking, are ridiculously bad. Except for Eric's because Alexander Skarsgard is, in fact, actually Swedish. The acting varies from bad to good depending on the character and the performance. But, you know, it's fun, and hilarious

[askerian]

yay! I now know more about true blood than "there's a girl named sookie and a love triangle in it" XD

♥ thank you, hon. And ew at -- oh, hey!

Obviously there is a masterful rant here about "anti-girliness eww dresses and makeup" and "feminism". >D

[sarolynne]

XD

I'll try that later, maybe. Though I think TV tropes has a pretty good page for that.

[redbrunja]

Fullmetal Alchemist, please.

[sarolynne]

Hmm. Got a second choice? I got distracted from FMA a long time ago, and I keep meaning to catch up but then never quite finding the motivation.

[redbrunja]

Sure.

Hmmm.

How about a nice rant about fantasy, since you already talked a bit about sci-fi below.

[sarolynne]

My biggest rant about fantasy would probably have to do with how few people really try to do something different with it. Especially when it comes to settings. I mean, seriously, how many different stories do we really need set in medieval Europe, only with Lysol? There is a whole wide world full of cultures, and a long history to draw from. Expand!

And, you know, there's room not to be limited to just existing cultures.

Fantasy ought to have every bit as much freedom to experiment with gender and other social constructs as sci-fi. And not just fringe fantasy. Seriously, there is so much freedom to the genre, it's depressing to see so little of it explored.

[ellenel13]

Sci Fi and how it portrays sex.

[sarolynne]

This is an interesting topic, seriously. I tend not to read as much sci-fi as I do fantasy-ish things, and a big part of that has to do with how you end up with these authors who are very caught up in progressive science, and would love nothing more than to ramble on about their theoretical futures, while at the same time being socially very... status quo

[ellenel13]

I was thinking about "mainstream" Sci Fi. To an extent, most fiction genres have this attitude that the only thing needed to make a story "mature" is some explicit sex, but it feels like Sci Fi is the worst offender. Maybe it's because the genre is still trying to be recognized as legitimate.

I was thinking of this because I started watching Torchwood, which has been advertised as a darker and more mature spin off of Doctor Who. I've watched the first five episodes of the season, and every single one of them had iffy moments with sex. Even the episode with fairies stalking a little girl involved a close call with a freaking child molester.

[sarolynne]

Oh, the whole "sex/violence makes something more mature!" thing could be four or five whole rants on it's own. Or more. Probably more.

I think you're right that it's worse in fields struggling to be seen as adult or legitimate--I have heard comic books have a similar problem with thinking sex will make them seem edgier and more adult, and video games certainly do.

Of course, the actual effect more often than not makes them seem juvenile, because only teenagers think that throwing in sex and violence for no reason makes something mature. Actual mature people tend to understand that it's things like plot and character growth and development, or dealing with things in a mature way that makes them adult.

And by "mature way" I don't mean, "totally jaded."

[meritjubet]

Three fantasy cliches that make bulging veins appear in your forehead.

[sarolynne]

I had to think about this one. It's so hard because execution is a huge part of how angry I get. There's things that sound terrible in theory, because they're so trite, but if a good author gets to them, they can totally revitalize them. So. Generally speaking

[hungrytiger11]

Do watch Glee? Any rants for it?

[sarolynne]

I do watch Glee! And yeah, I could probably come up with some rants for that. Anywhere you want me to start, or just have at it? XD

[hungrytiger11]

Have t!

[sarolynne]

Dude, Glee needs to decide what it's doing. It's fun, and I really enjoy some of the humor and some of the characters, but it seems to suffer from some indecisiveness when it comes to whether it's genre satire or real life satire or affectionate parody or just straight high school humor in a sort of exaggerated fantasy world of high school--or if it's high school drama in the same world.

It's okay to try to balance some of these things, sure, but it really needs to work on it, because sometimes taking something seriously after it's seemed to be satirizing it undermines one or the other.

Also, ffs, lay of the auto-tune.