(no subject)

[rusty_halo]

rabid1st wrote Spike/Captain Jack Sparrow slash. Hehehe. Go read, if you haven't already.

I just started reading the slashficathon stories; my favorite so far is wiseacress's schmoop written for eliade. Read it here. Some silly people I know don't like to read wiseacress's fic because it's too dark, so if you're one of those people, try this anyway. It's sweet and in-character and fun and entertaining; not too angsty at all.

I saw Pirates of the Caribbean Friday night with jaydk, soulmate815, and drujan. (Isn't it cool how I met these people through online Buffy fandom, and now we hang out and do stuff together? I can't get over how neat that is.) I loved the movie, which surprises me, since it's based on a Disney ride and all that. But Johnny Depp gave an amazing performance, Orlando Blood was very pretty, and the plot and characters were all quite entertaining.

I finished the George R. R. Martin "Song of Ice and Fire" books (well, the three that are out; I'm looking forward to the release of the fourth). I liked them a lot, and as expected, I did end up loving Jaime Lannister in the third book. He's a very Spike-like character. He starts off arrogant and cruel (his first major act is tossing a little boy out of a window!) which left me wondering what I could possibly find to like about this character. But then when we get to see things from his perspective he actually does become sympathetic, especially when we see his struggle with all the contradictory expectations that are asked of him (protect the innocent, protect the king, but what do you do when the king is killing the innocent?), his struggle with his father's expectations of him, his guilt and shame over the evil he's committed, his desire for a public relationship with Cersei, etc. And he's got appealling Spike-like personality traits; great snarky dialogue, very straightforward, sees through bullshit and doesn't want to put up with it, etc.

His relationship with his brother Tyrion was one of my favorite aspects of the series, and I'm sad we didn't get to see more of it before it went sour. It's so rare in that series to find people actually caring about each other as human beings without some kind of sneaky hidden motivation, and it's so frustrating that Jaime and Tyrion had that and lost it. (Jaime, it seems, is the only character ever to truly see the truth about Tyrion, that he is a good man, and then Tyrion goes and screws it up royally by claiming to have killed Jaime's son!)

Tyrion, incidentally, is my other favorite character; I always identify with the freak. I also love how he's so clever and often so kind, I'm very sad that no one else seems to understand or appreciate him, and I'm frustrated to see him becoming increasingly corrupted by the evil that surrounds him.

Actually, one of the other appealing things about Jaime is that he might be the only character who actually improves as a person because of his suffering. Jaime starts to feel guilty and to re-learn the value of honor after everything he goes through, and you can see him starting to grow into a better man. Everyone else suffers too, but mostly it just seems to make them corrupt, bitter, miserable, lost, insane, or dead.

I don't get the whole Jaime/Cersei thing, though; it's like Spike loving Buffy. I just want to shout "Dude, what the hell do you see in her?" Why are fictional men so stupid? Though I love how Jaime wants so badly to make their relationship public, and is so totally clueless about how that could never happen. It's pathetic and sweet and sad at the same time; how can he be so blind to what Cersei is? And his frustration with/dismissal of all the political scheming is very appealing, even if it's probably going to get him killed eventually.

I love how we see Jaime struggling, wanting to do the wrong thing, but then doing the right thing. (For example, he wants to hit Brienne with the oar, but instead he pulls her into the boat. Or he saves Brienne from the bear, but then he thinks he should have left her behind.) I love my morally ambiguous anti-heroes. And I love the whole free-will aspect of it; it's so refreshing after the stupid Spike soul story. I always rooted for soulless redemption because I wanted to see Spike succeed of his own free will, not because of some stupid supernatural intervention. At least Jaime does get to better himself through his own free will, and struggle for it instead of getting a get-out-of-jail-free soul pass. Even though it was probably a little too obvious and clichéd, I absolutely adored the scene where Jaime is looking at the page that describes his life, seeing that 3/4 of it is still blank, and thinking that he can write "whatever he chose" for the rest of it. I love that shout-out to free will!

So, now I'm re-reading A Game of Thrones, the first book, because it makes so much more sense now that I know who all the characters are. The first time I read it, it felt like I was just having hundreds of names thrown at me without reason; it was terribly frustrating and made it take forever for me to get into the book. But now that I know who they are and what most of them want, it's so much more interesting. (Is there SoIaF fic? There's got to be Renly/Loras slash, right?)

I spent so much time this weekend reading (books) that I still haven't caught up with LJ for the week that I was away. I'm not sure if I ever will, so I'll just ask: If you posted fic, or you read a fic that you really liked, and you think it would fit AllAboutSpike, can you let me know? I'm sure I must have missed quite a bit, so I'd appreciate any help. Also, sometimes I find out months later that authors were mad at me for "snubbing" them (even though it's usually just that I haven't had time to read their work yet, or to contact them yet), so if you're an author wondering why I haven't contacted you, please feel free to contact me first.

I'm facing another busy week this week. Tuesday (dear god, that's tomorrow!) my former favorite band, Uranium 235, is playing a reunion show at Don Hills in NYC. I'm going with my old friend dizenchanted and hopefully I will get to meet up with many of my other old friends at the show. For those who don't know, U235 was my pre-Buffy obsession; they were a very talented electronic/industrial/goth type band who mostly played along the East Coast. I'm rather nervous about seeing ... some people ... but I will go anyway because I want to see friends that I haven't seen in ages. (And man, I so miss getting all gothed out and going to a show!)

Then Wednesday jaydk, queenofthorns and I are going to see Pirates of the Caribbean again, because queenofthorns missed it the first time. And I'm happy to see it again (Johnny Depp! Orlando Bloom!).

And then of course, this weekend is the Tampa con! jaydk and I are flying together, and we're staying with some people I know and some people I don't know, and I'm finally going to get to meet so many people that I currently only know online. I'm so excited. And I'm making a promise to myself to ignore anything stupid that JM says, forgive him because he's pretty, and focus my attention on the friends that I'm going to be hanging out with.

Comments

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

WHEE! We're going to see PotC again - you and jaydk are SO sweet to forgive my stupid-ass blundering loss of keys last Friday and agree to go again ... Oh, who am I kidding? It's Johnny Depp, isn't it?

So, Jaime ... Isn't he fabulous? I started to fall in love with him in ACOK - the whole "There are no men like me, there is only me" thing he did with Catelyn was part of it. But also, the fact that he loved Tyrion and Tyrion love him - that meant that there *had* to be more to him than what we'd seen, because Tyrion emphatically didn't love or like the *rest* of his awful family.
And I was *so* hoping between Seasons 6 and 7 that Reformed Soulful Spike would turn out like Jaime Lannister - yes, he's changed and he's a better man (or maybe, through Brienne, he got in touch with that youthful seventeen-year old idealist that he had still inside him) but that doesn't stop his wicked tongue from saying very sarcastic things, which just made me love him more.

And re: Cersei - I think maybe he'd gotten in the *habit* of loving her, since he'd loved her for so long, that it took something monumental (losing his hand, their many months of separation) for him to see her differently. And even when he comes back, at first he's still all about Cersei, but it's when she can't understand how and why he's changed, I think that *his* attitude changes towards her.

Favorite Jaime scene in ASOS is the bearpit - he even feels pity for the bear. Second-favorite, I think is the wonderful scene in the baths when he finally confesses why he killed Aerys - he's just so bitter, anguished, proud, sarcastic and all-around perfect there.

Uh-oh, poor jaydk is going to get sick of us gushing on Wednesday night pretty fast isn't she?

self-pimping :)

[circe-tigana.livejournal.com]

Purely for your enjoyment, I pimp some recent stuff you might like:

PoTC fic - Elizabeth POV - By Moonlight

Two bogle scat outtakes based on your wiseacress stories, Laura:

1) Bogle Scat Blues: In which the Scoobs discuss the "situation".

2)Buffy and the Bogle Scat: In which Buffy hunts a bogle.

Oh, and actually, Spander schmoop that might be okay for AAS if you're interested:

Cottage Country

Part 1 - July 4

Part 2 - July 5

Part 3 - July 6


Glad you're back :)

[shapinglight]

No fic recs, I'm afraid, although I adore Nan Dibble's Enemy of My Enemy, which I'm reading on your site (I also adore your site). Have a great time in Tampa. I hope people will ask JM some more redemption-y type questions, so he can say more positive things about Spike. At a recent con in UK, I believe questions about the AR were actually forbidden, and that struck me as a good thing. After all, we know what he thinks about it. We don't need to keep hearing it over and over. I'm more interested in hearing about what he thinks about Spike after Chosen (as long as he keeps quiet on the B/A4eva thing) and in any spoilers tidbits he might let drop about next year's AtS (still hoping for corporeal Spike).

Song of Ice and Fire

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nepthys_/]

I adore Jaime and Tyrion as well, though given Martin's track record of killing off likable main characters, I'm trying not to become *too* attached to them.

Interesting that you should compare Jaime and Spike -- never considered it before, but yeah, now that you mention it... They are a lot alike. And in some ways, his and Cersei's relationship resembles Spike and Dru's. She is by far more heartless, but he'll do anything for her out of love. And much like S&D, Dru is Spike's sire, so he will never be completely able to sever that bond. Jaime and Cersei are twins; that connection's even more intimate.

Anyway, if you do find any good SOIAF story, please let me know -- I'd be very interested in reading it. :)

Re: Song of Ice and Fire

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

I adore Jaime and Tyrion as well, though given Martin's track record of killing off likable main characters, I'm trying not to become *too* attached to them.

Heh! I think Jaime's death may be "overdetermined" at this point, what with all the people he has gunning for him. First of foremost, of course, the terrifying Not!Catelyn from the end of the book - after all, the last words she heard in life were "Jaime Lannister sends his regards..." Eeek! And if Dany ever makes it back to Westeros, well, I'm sure the Kingslayer is pretty high on her list of people whose heads need chopping off ... Sigh! I think my beloved Jaime will be a goner but I hope it's not till Book 7!

As for Tyrion - I still think he's going to be a dragon rider. There are too many hints about how much he wants to do this and he's off to the free cities where he will undoubtedly meet that dude who set up Dany and Khal Drogo's marriage and gave Dany the dragon eggs and at this point, Tyrion is bitter enough that I have no trouble believing he'd try and help Dany to the throne.

Of course, being Martin, he'll confound all my expectations and do none of these things but I'll love it all anyway.

[janedavitt.livejournal.com]

Glanced back and realised that my last few fics _don't have Spike in them_ so are totally ineligible for AAS. World. About. To. End. ::grin::
I did do two very short S/X linked ficlets with a darker tinge to them but I'm not sure if they're AAS material either as they're more from Xander's POV. But if you want to read them for fun they're here,
Bringing it Home
http://www.livejournal.com/users/janedavitt/37580.html#cutid1

and here,
Hand to Hand
http://www.livejournal.com/users/janedavitt/37706.html#cutid1
And why can't I figure out how to make links in LJ? Never mind.

Have a wonderful time at the con!