(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

[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!