Dianthus

I have yet to watch a single ep of this misbegotten "requel" and it doesn't seem like I'm missing much at all, except that I was watching the show with a friend, and we haven't been spending that time together. A & E really are the worst sort of hacks.

I got a text earlier from a OUaT watching friend, and I was, like, "oh yeah, that." So, you can see how excited I was for this whatever it is. Nothing I've read/heard about this has me feeling good about it. Haven't thought about Burn Notice in ages.

So I finally got to sit down yesterday and watch these last three episodes. Damn I'm glad I knew what I was in for from the start! I'll admit I got a little verklempt at the wedding. Too bad Regina and Zelena couldn't rise to the occasion. It wouldn't have been so bad if Regina wasn't always so f*cking smug about her magic. The Captain Charming bromance was cute, but CS would've meant a lot more to me. As others have said, they made such a big deal about getting the bean, and Hook using said bean, and Emma's flashes of memeory/ the pic of Hook as the book was burning, but then ignored it all entirely. WTF Show?!? A & E are even more delusional than I realized if they think they're going to attract a whole bunch of new viewers with a reboot, especially if they're going with what looks to be a retread of s1. Speaking of...I haven't really been rewatching the show (aside from the CS movie), so seeing s1 Henry again was really jolting. I'd forgotten just how young he was then. Also, wasn't the little girl supposed to have a perpetual spark of mischief in her eyes or some such nonsense. I didn't see any of that.

Which was/is completely nuts. A pirate captain doesn't trade away his ship/home/livelihood for you unless he's serious about you, especially if said ship is also his last physical link to his beloved elder brother.

I'm going with 'dread' myself. I couldn't believe this when I saw it on my Twitter feed. ETA: Typical. I'd like to be happy about this, but...

Today we went to the zoo. It's literally built into a mountainside, with mostly native birds and animals. The trail is steep in places, and not paved. It's been raining off and on here lately, so it was swampy in spots. Still, we survived it, and didn't wimp out on doing the whole thing (you can skip part of it if it gets to be too much). Pretty good, considering we live more or less at sea level. Tomorrow we're going to Cajas National Forest for the day.

Checking in from Cuenca, Ecuador. We did a bus tour of the city earlier, now we're holed up in our room due to rain. Taking lots of pix. Getting here was a trial. It's like we left our brains at home. Flew out of San Jose, many hours late. They originally sent us to gate two, but our plane left from gate nine(?), without us. We should've checked the departures board when it became clear that we were in the wrong place. Have spent more time in an airport over the last two days than in the whole rest of my life. Here's a tip, if you're thinking of Cuenca. They don't want you to put your used toilet paper in the bowl. You just put it in the trash. Not sure I'll be able to catch the show Sunday. We have a TV in our room, but neither of us could get it working. It'd probably be in Spanish anyway.

I may be a bit thin on the boards (but nowhere else...ba-dumb-bum) for the next couple of weeks as I'm leaving Wednesday for Ecuador. Not counting an hour or so in Ensenada, this will be my first time outside the states. I really should be packing, but you know how it is. Will check in if I'm able.

If they even put that much thought into it...Snow has a thing for bluebirds. The picture she put up in the mayor's office (that Bitchy Regina later torched) featured bluebirds.

I don't necessarily mind that Hook asked Henry to stand up with him, but he's a charismatic guy with all kinds of cool stories to tell and a confident leader of men, so you'd think in all this time he'd have made at least one friend who wasn't related to his fiancé. Did I mention how much I hate Regina? No? How remiss of me. Stupid bitch snipes at Hook for (quite reasonably) asking her bona fides before just handing over the magical McGuffin du jour. F*cking cow.

It just really hit me, after watching this, how small Hook's world has become. He's found his Happy Ending, so that's good, but he's lived his whole life (until recently) as part of a tight-knit group, and now the only one he can ask to be his best man is his soon-to-be stepson (who isn't actually a man quite yet). I mean, where the hell is Smee?

People like watching stories about...people; especially if those people are likeable/relatable. Plot, plot, plot isn't really about people. Sure, Emma and the gang are running around reacting to things and solving crises, but it's not nearly as satisfying as it could be, because they're not allowed to react to stuff in a relatable way. They're basically just pawns. The action figures almost seem redundant, since that's how A & E treat them anyway.

So I almost felt bad for Zelena by the end of it. When Reggie's all you've got, you are well and truly f*cked. My friend coined a new term For R & Z (Z & R?): they're "Narssisisters!" Colin's face is so delightfully expressive.

After catching up on the conversation, I just have to say that I find it very difficult to sympathize with those claiming Emma was acting selfishly in this ep when you've got a character like Regina around for comparison. For one thing, she's already saved Reggie's ungrateful ass multiple times. She also risked going full Dark One to save Robin at Regina's request, only for him to die anyway later on. Plus, Emma's now been punished multiple times for her "selfishness," most recently in the wish realm. One wonders if Reggie's hands were still covered in grit from crushing the hearts of Emma's parents.

It's weird, though, because Jane E. worked on BtVS and they did an episode (Tabula Rasa) about Willow doing a memory wipe on Tara to make her forget about an argument they had, which subsequently ended up affecting the whole gang, and led to Willow and Tara's break up. Angel and Buffy's night of passion was also statutory rape (and definitely a much older man[pire] with a teen), even as they made a big deal out of it being Buffy's birthday and she was supposedly (barely) legal. The Age of Consent differs from state to state (I think). In CA, that's 18, so she was still a year shy of that milestone.

I think that's what bothers me most of all. If they acknowledge how genuinely terrible it was for Snowing to miss out on raising Emma, they can't really go on and on about how it was actually a good thing their beloved Reggie cast the curse, you see, because "reasons." So they make Snowing give up on raising their child. Once again, it's all about Emma somehow being better off growing up frightened and alone, deprived of her parents, so she could fulfill her destiny (Destiny! Destiny! That's for me!). I really f*ckin' hate these guys. Also too: This is only the second(?) time we've seen Hook and Emma asleep together, both times fully clothed (not even in pjs), never mind that they're confirmed True Love, living together, and engaged to be married.

Operation Cobra was Emma and Henry from s1. Operation Dumbass was Mongoose. They kill cobras (like Riki Tiki Tavi). Sorry. Late to the party. Signing in with Facebook wasn't working for me for a few days.

So here's something that came to me the other day, but I'm not sure what to do with it: rock, paper, scissors...Hook. anyone else wanna take a crack at it?

So it seems Hook and spike have one other thing in common. EW got all the stars and Joss Whedon together for a 20th anniversary reunion. At one point they asked Gellar, Whedon, and Marsters: Spike or Angel? Gellar was firmly in the Angel camp, but I kinda knew that already. Whedon was like, well Spike did win back his soul, but yay Bangel. Even Marsters was like Angel's the One for Buffy, but it's impossible. Maybe in time Spike would be worthy. As stupid as it seems, I've been low-grade bummed about it all day. Spike was tortured by a hellgod, fought at Buffy's side, and made the ultimate sacrifice, but Angel gets all the love. I just can't.

She already knows everything she needs to do so. It's not like she's gotta reinvent the wheel here. After, my friend was like, "wasn't Emma still on duty?" it's true. She responded to what she thought was a legit call, in her police cruiser and everything. SB's Finest, y'all.

How would Nemo and Liam 2.0 even get back to the Nautilus at that point? These are the people Reggie supposedly loves, but hey, it's not like there's any hurry in breaking the curse. It's not like they have a baby to look after...oh, wait. Contrast her indifference with Hook's obvious desperation to get back to his Swan. SMDH!

Regina seriously needs to FOAD already! She's a shitty friend, and a drunken Girls' Night Out is not what Emma needed at that point (at least they weren't at a total dive like the Rabbit Hole). Sadly, what she did need was a good slap upside the head for doubting Hook. Besides which, Gideon was able to get her tears for his magic. At least this time Emma got Hook's message. Score one for magic vs. technology.

I'm a huge fan of Spike, but I think part of the reason his redemption journey resonates so strongly with me is because we actually got to watch it happen. A bunch of little changes added up to the point where he realized he couldn't stay the way he was. There's something to it that reminds me of any group (PoC, women) who've fought for recognition against prevailing stereotypes. Angel was (mostly) already redeemed by the time he became a regular, and most of his redemption after falling off the wagon was off screen too. It does seemstrange sometimes that I love this one formerly evil character, but hate the other one so much. Still, Whedon's a better writer too, which makes a huge difference.

Still stunned by the Hook/Snow scene. I mentioned to my friend that it was the first one ever, and he was like..."Really?" Watching this show has become like an episode of MST3K for me, it's that bad.

I was out of town over the weekend. so I just watched this ep last night. I so really didn't care about most of what was happening (which I said aloud more than once), and what little I did care about was undercut by the idea of Emma seemingly going thru Hook's stuff, which I thought was a bit OOC for her. Mostly, I flashed back to the scene where she let Hook in on the contents of her memory box. My friend (who has low-vision) asked at one point if we'd even seen Emma yet. I said Hook had talked about her. He then said something about Emma leaving the show, and I told him not to joke about it. It sux that we can't see Hook and Emma both being happy together for more than 30 seconds at a stretch.