mcbangle

I'm just going to pseudo-live blog this while I watch it.

( A whole bunch of spoilers )

Anyway, overall, season 3 was amazing, notwithstanding my gripes about one character in particular. People didn't like this season? Did I hear that correctly? I don't understand this. Did they not watch it? Or am I just the exact right demographic to get all of the references and enjoy the hell out of it? Because it was by far my favorite season. All of the characters save one were amazing, excellent new additions to the cast, amazing humor, great action, and managed not to squick me too much. Totally radical.

It's episode 7 of 8 so if you haven't watched season 3 yet, it's all spoilers from here.

( Spoiler alert )

I hope my fellow US Americans had a fun 4th of July. If nothing else, it's always fun to have a day off in the middle of the week or, if you were really lucky enough, a 4-day weekend! I was not one of the lucky ones to also get Friday off, but that's OK. It was a quiet day around the office which is always quite nice.

Reading: I've been feeling a bit conflicted about Leia, Princess of Alderaan this week. I've also been making a little bit slower progress than usual, due to the combination of a day off in the middle of the work week and thinking more about my fanfic WIP than about audiobook listening during my commutes this week.

I'm thinking of returning The Wee Free Men (nearly) unread to the library. I figure I'll keep it around until its due date just in case I feel the urge to read it, but the first 2 chapters just didn't grab me. IDK, I think it's just not my style.

I picked up Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg on Friday. The first chapter was a bit brutal, and it hasn't helped that I have an embarrassingly long number of fanfic tabs open at the moment. Whereas I (usually) make the time to listen to audiobooks on my commute, when faced with the choice of reading fanfic, writing fanfic or reading a physical book while lounging at home, fanfic usually wins out one way or another unless the book is really thrilling or funny or fluffy. I'm not sure what progress I'll make with Stone Butch Blues, but at the same time I imagine I'd feel guilty if I didn't finish it. So, we'll see.

Watching: Stranger Things Season 3. Nope, I haven't finished marathoning it yet. Depending on how things go the next 2 days, I'll probably finish it tomorrow or Tuesday (it's not entirely impossible that I'll finish it tonight, but fairly unlikely considering it's a work night and I can't just stay up until 1 to power through it).

Writing: Depending on whether I count outlines toward my draft word count (probably not? Except some of them are fairly fleshed out and will make it in part into the final draft so maybe?), I have 5.7 K or 6.7 K of the first draft of my Holsom (Adam Birkholtz/Justin Oluransi, for those of you not in the Check, Please! fandom and, uh, sorry for repeatedly having referred to them by the smushname without explaining before now) fake soulmates AU fic written. I've been making major progress over the last 2 weeks. But also, I'm really starting to worry that I won't have the minimum word count for the OMGCP Big Bang.

I expect I'm about halfway through the plot so far, so my choices are to either write it out however long it gets to, and if it's markedly below the 15 K minimum word count then just drop out of the Big Bang and post it on my own, or to flesh out the scenes more to get it up to the minimum word count. At this point and looking ahead at the time frame in which I need to decide this (2 whole months before final drop outs), I still think the latter is feasible; it's more of a question of whether fleshing it out to up the word count would help or hurt the work. I think it could help it; I honestly have to continually fight against my tendency to just rush to the good parts and skip over worldbuilding and pace-setting quieter parts. On the other hand, stressing out over word counts and satisfying others' criteria is exactly the sort of thing that pushes me into burnout and writer's block. At the end of the day, I'm not someone looking to perfect their craft so they can publish original fiction for profit; I'm someone here to have fun and blow off steam, and if it's not fun then I don't want to do it.

In the short term, I think I'm just going to keep riding this creative push, write until I'm done and re-assess when I get there. And try to keep setting word count worries aside as a problem for future-me.

2 more episodes down, and I'm probably not on track to finish it all this weekend but unless something comes up, I'll probably finish it on Monday, or Tuesday at the latest. Which makes me remarkably not that far behind, so go me. Still successfully avoiding spoilers aside from the one I mentioned yesterday.

We'll see how I feel 3 episodes from now, but I'm really feeling like this season is the strongest yet. Of course, it's been 3 years since I saw season 1, so my memory may fail me somewhat there. So far, every character is strong (even Hopper was more tolerable in episodes 4 and 5, although he's still clearly lost his season 1 likeability factor). I am really enjoying Erica's expanded role. If I enjoyed Dustin & Robin & Steve, I enjoy Dustin & Erica & Robin & Steve even more. The funny thing is, despite Erica's near-constant presence in Scoops Ahoy during the first 3 episodes, I somehow did not realize she would play more of a role than tormenting her brother and annoying Steve and Robin. "You can't spell America without Erica" is the kind of perfect line that I was not expecting but was so funny and in-character (and also accurate).

Honestly, so far all of the female characters are strong(ly written*) this season, in a step up from the previous seasons. With all due respect to El, Joyce, Nancy and Max, seasons 1 and 2 had several very excellent and well-written male characters and several female characters who came close to excellence and then kind of backed away from true greatness. "I love Eleven, but... [I feel like I know more of Mike's perception of her than I know of her/why so jealous of Max?/what was up with the punk backdoor spinoff episode?]" "Joyce is really interesting but also... [super crazy/really just cries a lot]" "I liked Nancy at first but then... [she started annoying the fuck out of me]." I actually can't think of similar complaints about Max, but I also had no strong feelings either way about her last season.

Please don't fuck up the female characters in the last 3 episodes of the season! I realize the show's already been created and aired and I'm just shouting into the ether, but please don't have me come back here in another day or 2 or 3 complaining that the show really squandered El's/Joyce's/Nancy's/Max's/Robin's/Erica's potential in the end.

*I started to write that various characters - male and female - were "strong" but then I remembered the "strong female characters" trope and all of the baggage associated with it. So, sometimes I say things that only make sense to me and certain of my friends. During a formative period in my life, certain key people in my life, including myself, were saying "strong work" at lot, wherein "strong work" was like the greatest compliment you could give (unless you said it sarcastically, in which case it was the most cutting insult). So even though it's been years since we were regularly saying "strong work", in my mind "strong" still means something akin to "fucking amazing". My favorite "strong" characters have all kinds of weaknesses and flaws and deffo lots of emotions and I don't actually give a shit about their physical strength although I won't deny that I love seeing my faves slug a bad guy.

The only part that's not really working for me so much is the Russian Terminator. I'm assuming it's an intentional pastiche considering that Cary Elwes referred to him as "Arnold Schwarzenegger", but he's so stilted (much like the Terminator) that so far I only find him boring.

Final thought of the night: why doesn't anybody run on this show? ( SPOILER ) I mean, I know it's a horror show that loves making use of classic horror tropes but I watched a lot of classic horror movies in my youth and that trope never really worked for me.