Dandesun

Well, thanks for nothing EJ! I have no doubt that your ridiculous and inexplicable tongue-bathing of Abby resulted in Miss Entitled deciding to 'stand up for herself' to Sami and brag about the magical connection between you and all that noise. Given that I never really bought Abby feeling bad for what she did (never seemed sincere to me) I certainly didn't buy 'I did feel bad but now I don't!' At this point, though, I have no faith in the writers to actually bring the hammer down. On anyone. Oh, and EJ's favorite artist is Raphael? Are we sure that it's not his favorite ninja turtle? Because that I would believe. Stupid EJ. Why he's as desperate as everyone else in town to make sure that Abby feels really awesome about herself in the midst of this is beyond me. Come on, Show. What are you doing here? Well, now I'm really disappointed.

You know, I'm willing to buy that Abby doesn't love EJ but something is bugging her about this whole thing... more than getting found out or whatever. I think it's because she wanted to continue, she wanted to be the other woman that he desired so much that he couldn't tear himself away, if it meant lying to his fiance and then wife, so be it... but it seems to me that she wanted very much to be wanted by him. But he said no. At this point, I think what gets her the most is that he really doesn't want her. That she is not, in fact, an irresistible temptation for him. If she were, if he wanted her to be his mistress then she could probably walk away easier... or believe that she had the power and control in the situation... but she doesn't. She wants him to want her and he really doesn't when it comes down to it. He values other things more than her... he values another woman more than her and is not attempting to hide that at all. It's all about Sami for him and Abby was a mistake. That has to gall her... that's what I think galls her the most in this. That throwing away her vaunted reputation (though she hasn't really suffered from that at all) or even bearing the brunt of Sami's revenge might be one thing if EJ really and truly wanted her... but he doesn't, so it makes it all so much more pathetic in a way. Or at least that's how it should be playing out more...

I've updated A Sort of Homecoming, too. In this chapter... I totally change who was responsible for holding Todd captive because Ron's story was stupid. And now I have the power. MWAH HA HA HA HAAAAA!! Here's the link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9748078/69/A-Sort-of-Homecoming

Everyone kowtowing to Abby in this isn't necessarily her fault, this is true. For me, as much as she seems to be taking responsibility, she always follows it up with this passive-aggressive 'You don't hate me?' to whomever she's talking to and that takes the shine off big time. It makes it feel like she's only taking responsibility as a means of getting people to kiss her ass for it all. A part of me wishes it were more overt manipulation on her part... I could at least get behind that a bit as a means of using her Holy Horton-ness to get excused for her despicable behavior. And if she was sincere then saying thinks like 'You mean, you don't hate me?' with this hint of a little girl whine completely wipes it out and makes her seem kind of... dumb. As it stands, this all comes across as rather cowardly... Fine, let all of Salem decide that she hasn't done a damn thing to be ashamed of or whatever... but why can't anyone question her as to WHY she did any of it? Why can't anyone ask anything of her instead of immediately going 'EJ must have made you, it's all his fault, you didn't do anything wrong and Sami's totally out of line for being upset about this.' I don't even get that.

There was this whole bit with Gabrielle and Blair in "Atlantic City" when Blair was trying to figure out who Walker/Todd/Not!Todd actually was. There were a few on-going shenanigans at the time but I loved Gabrielle noticing Not!Todd going into the private elevator and then seeing Blair and asking her if she was looking for him and kind of giving her the 411 on what she saw. And then they both did this bit where they were purposely playing nonchalant with the guards as they sized up the situation. It was actually kind of nice to see, especially after the whole Gabrielle Blackmails Todd into Giving Her a Job Because She Overheard David Blackmailing Him on the Docks mess which was a definite low point for all characters involved... especially as it progressed. And I still love the Trading Places stuff because James DePaiva was absolutely magnificent as Gabrielle. As far as I'm concerned, he was easily the funniest participant in that. He had the parody down pat. People always talk about Roger Howarth playing Viki/Niki but aside from his getting to say a'tall a lot and then flirting with the Ben-as-a-Nun whatever that was I think it was mostly because he was in drag and started dancing which were things Todd Didn't Do. JDP's turn as "Gabrielle" especially when 'their music' started playing... hilarious.

If those are the choices, I'll go with the fire. At least it's something.

I tend to lean towards crap writing more often than not. But it's true... this is ri-god-damn-diculous. I can't even appreciate the fact that Abby is trying to take some responsibility for this because everyone is bending over backwards trying to excuse her and fawn all over her... and they can't do it fast enough! It makes me even more ragey about Jenn's 'Sami was out of line' bullshit. No. Given how the entire town of Salem can't kiss Abby's ass fast enough and tell her how wonderful she is... I declare Sami to be completely IN line. For everything. So there. Suck it, Salem.

I have... I think most of the Sims 2. I will forever have a soft spot for that one because they created Veronaville that was filled with various Shakespearean families and, man, did I have fun with that one. I had Romeo and Juliet break up, Juliet ended up marrying Mercutio while Romeo and Tybalt ended up falling in love and moving into the Capp family home which infuriated the patriarch so much that he died shortly after. So Romeo and Tybalt ended up filling the house with their kids... actually, they moved another guy into the house and had a polyamorous situation going on there. And I took all of the various families out of the bin and populated the entire town with Capps and Montys and Summerdreams. Most places I went to had great love of Strangetown but my geekery goes in a different direction.

They invoked Gambit today. Best. Show. Ever. Gambit happens to be my favorite X-Man, too. Although he doesn't live in New Orleans anymore. He's from there but now he lives at Serval Enterprises which, I believe, is somewhere along the Atlantic Coast, possibly near DC. I'd have to look that up. And even that's questionable since he recently banged the boss' wife. (I wonder if Chase knows about that.) He didn't know that it was the boss' wife, to be fair. And the only reason he was outed was because the wife wanted to be caught since her husband is banging his assistant... said assistant came upon Gambit and Boss' Wife after their night o' fun and she ratted him out... self-preservation probably because the wife totally confronted the assistant about the affair with her husband and assistant lied her ass off. And the boss decided to leave Gambit behind when he had the rest of the team teleported to safety in a confrontation with a bad guy. So Gambit got beaten and tortured a bit and now the question is... what happens when this all comes out in front of the rest of the team? Yes. Comic books ARE a soap opera... except with more explosions, super-powers and even more questionable outfits. But budgets are easier to come by when you're drawing things. They could totally draw an amazing gala... I actually wish they had just done that for the gala... go to the storyboard! At least there would have been more people there instead of what we got. (I'm going to be forever bitter about the gala. Soap galas are supposed to be awesome, dammit. I get that they don't have the budget for it but if that's the case and they all know it then don't talk about it a gala you can't ever show! Figure out something else!) Still, the fact that Marlena is Lady Sinister and now they've brought up Gambit... it's like the Marvel Universe is bleeding slightly into Salem. How delightful. For me.

I really don't know how the Thor as a woman is even going to play out. And I read Thor. Falcon taking over as Cap now that the Super Soldier Serum has been sucked out of Steve is less jarring to me. I'm actually excited by it. It's not the first time someone has taken Steve's place (although when Bucky did it, I believe the world was supposed to think he was, in fact, Steve Rogers... that would be harder to pull off with Sam in the role) and Sam has been a part of the Captain America world since very early days. Steve will be back. They all come back and that's fine, too. But Sam as Cap is something I'm totally okay with, to be honest. Thor as a woman doesn't bother me but I just wonder how that even comes about. His book has been dancing along timelines with stories taking place in the past, present and future simultaneously and there hasn't been a hint of this. Granted, I'm not reading the majority of the Original Sin storyline save for anything that actually hits a book I do read and the Thor & Loki: Tenth Realm story that ties Angela in so it's possible I'm missing significant story plots. Or does Thor change gender during the upcoming Axis storyline? I don't even know but I'll admit to being curious about it.

It's Rocket and DON'T YOU DARE!! Rocket Raccoon is made of unabashed awesome and his best friend is a sentient tree. And Abigail isn't worthy to be in the same galaxy as Groot. Rocket and Groot at least know that they're thugs and operate on the fringes of society. Jen and Abigail think that they ARE society.

My DVR didn't tape Friday's episode... which was Thursday's I guess. So I have yet to see any full on confrontation between That's Not George Hazard and Jammy Sue. I'm conflicted about it, to be honest... but probably not in the way the show would like me to be. So I watched Princess Abigail decide that the best way to not feel shitty about herself was to go find someone 'lower' than her and make them feel shitty. Wow. She's so totally awesome and I hope she gets everything she wants in life. The previous sentence was brought to you by sarcasm. Seriously, Abby's an asshole. It's weird enough that the entire town would prefer that EJ have forced himself on her than acknowledge that she has shitty taste in men and also has a fetish for men already in relationships... but the fact that this alleged 'heroine' of the show goes out specifically looking for someone to unload on simply because she made some really bad decisions herself and has been exposed for it puts her fully on my 'I loathe her' list. Eve is no saint. I get that. I get that hardcore because the show has made no bones about the fact that she is the Anti-Christ and everything she does is vile and horrible. I see that Eve is manipulative but so what? So is everyone else in this town. Queen Jennifer is as manipulative as Eve is when it gets right down to it so I really can't be bothered to care. I don't even give a shit that Eve over-stepped regarding how Jack would feel about Abby. By that time, Abby had gone specifically looking for this woman to verbally abuse her and humiliate her out in the middle of the square because of Abby's own personal shit. I guess she thought that Eve would just have to stand there and be chastised and brow-beaten because she's Eve Donovan and, therefore, the lowest of the low as she, the majestic Abigail Devereaux lambastes her with all of her faults because that's what she deserves. JJ explaining how Jack died was actually a good means of getting through to Eve (although Abby and her shocked expression of 'I don't know what I'm doing! What did I just do?' Oh, go fuck yourself, princess. I have had it with you. OFFICIALLY.) but I really could have done without his Hortons Are Awesome speech. Yeah, I get it writers... you've made it abundantly clear who I'm supposed to root for and who I'm not. Guess what? I loathe that kind of manipulative, lead-them-by-the-nose crap. It has the opposite effect on me. I don't like being TOLD who to root for or who to like... I like to make up my own mind. Eve's not going about any of this particularly well but, at this point, she's still not doing anything outright evil and Jennifer, despite her saintly attempt to 'give Eve what she wants' is really more about looking better than anything else. And also, she's so clearly horrified at the mere concept of Eve possibly being right about the movie deal that she won't even consider it. I think it's being telegraphed clearly... Eve's not going to get anything because I don't see them sending Paige off to Stanford when they have this whole Romeo/Juliet bullshit storyline to milk. So Eve's going to lose out because she's 'greedy' and her daughter will miss out on this glorious educational opportunity because her mother sucks (according to the show) but it's also kind of okay because she'll be able to be with JJ and somehow that will be fine. Or something. And then everyone will gather in the town square to stone Eve for being such a greedy, scarlet woman blah blah. It's too bad because, frankly, I don't consider Eve to be doing anything particularly evil and she's being pretty damn up front about what she wants out of all of this as well as pointing out that it will help the vets as well. But God forbid more money be had for this AMAZING book that Jack wrote. I really just can't with the Horton-Devereaux's in all of this. I find them to be utterly grating and holier-than-thou snots. JJ's still the only one I like out of that clan and that is on shaky ground when he's with the distaff side of the family because they are horrible. Oh, here's a scene that I totally and absolutely LOVED and I want more of them because they are awesome: Marlena and Daniel. It was sheer, unadulterated BRILLIANCE. You've got Daniel: The Man Who Feels Too Much and Marlena: I Gave Up My Emotions Years Ago in some sort of bizarre cage match of Daniel trying to bizarrely empathize with a woman who has no use for feelings. Even her face where she was clearly attempting to mimic human emotions at him because it was clearly what he was expecting from her and she was fascinated by how much he really wanted her to feel and be given the opportunity to feel for her. Best thing ever.

Aside from the fanfic thing, I could have lived without Wolverine. But I hate him. I can live without him, period. This whole death storyline that's coming up doesn't excite me because I can't believe that Marvel would dare keep Wolverine out of every single book they publish for more than three months. What I would love to see happen is for Wolverine to stay dead as long as Jean Grey has... even before they brought her in as Teen Jean. But I definitely know that ain't happening.

I lost interest in Champions League last year after the semis. I'm not crazy about a final being from the same country and I'm even less interested in the same city being represented in the final. Ugh. It might as well be a derby and, really, I like the Champions League because of the different clubs from different countries playing against each other. Last year was a major let down. It didn't help that I can't stand Real Madrid. My teams are Barcelona and Bayern Munchen and, of the two, Bayern has my heart so, yeah, Real triumphing in an all-Madrid final... bleah.

Or "It's not you, it's me."

At this point, the most interesting thing they could do with Abby for me is to make her a complete predator going after any and every man that crosses her path because she now knows that no one in Salem will blame her or hold her responsible. She should become the most soulless home-wrecker imaginable until she fucks with someone even more holy than she, more revered in Salem than she and then everyone can finally realize what a monster they created with their enabling.

Damn, guys, I am so far behind. Out of town part of last week and this week is Birthday Week in our family (we've got three in the same week -- the 16th, 17th and 19th) as well as Mid-State Fair time... just so damn busy! So I'm several days behind still... All that aside, okay... The Aiden/Hope waltz. Um, channeling Sound of Music much? Especially with Hope being all 'I forgot the steps!' Um, it's a WALTZ. They are, traditionally, not particularly tricksy choreographically speaking. Hope doing the Ballroom Head Tilt was kind of cute but... okay. I admit that I FF'd a lot of the gala stuff since it wasn't actually a gala so much as a handful of people standing in a room with 'expensive' props... and then Marlena on some sort of Live Feed attempting to channel humor when her Dark Science Soul doesn't understand it so she eventually had to fill the room with laughing gas to get the right response. I continue to be utterly confused as to Theresa's motivations regarding Brady. It seemed to me that she actually liked him and was maybe headed to more. Or maybe she just wants him to want/love her because she's a needy creature. Anyway, so there they were in Schmegas (because that wasn't Vegas... cocktail dresses and cheap sequined fabric do not Vegas make. Especially since they were trying to sell us on the idea that they were at a high rollers table even though Vegas cuts you off when you're falling down drunk like Brady was. Actual Vegas is infinitely more expensive looking than wherever the hell Brady and Theresa were because it can afford to be. So Schmegas it is.) and they got married and Brady is so tanked that he's still out of it but Theresa's all "I'm going to protect you, baby" but then immediately offers a payoff from John to annul the marriage... and yeah, I'm seriously confused as to what she really wants. Other than money. This seems like a real dick move to pull on Brady (even before the whacking John with a poker stuff) when he's been absolutely interested in pursuing a real relationship with her. Does she have debts we don't know about that this had to be kicked into overdrive? And when did that conversation with Brady where he vowed to never wed again take place? Oh! Convenient flashback. Mmm-kay. Jen Lilly has got the chops to pull off a lot, even the ginormous mess this is, she's making it apparent that Theresa is clearly in way over her head and is conflicted about, presumably, a lot of things but the writing has, so far, done a shitty job as solidifying what this is all about. The Horton clan just needs to have a thousand seats. I can't even with the lot of them. JJ is still the most likable to me but that plummets whenever he's around the Holier Than Thou Duo. Speaking of which... it is deeply unsettling that the majority of Salem would rather Abby have been raped than to acknowledge that she fucked EJ completely under her own power. I realize that Salem and rape go hand in hand and it's like breaking one's pinky toe given the sheer volume of it in that town but I don't live there and it's really freaking me the hell out. Sami's revenge is the best. I really loved her spelling it all out at the Holy Horton House where she pointed out that the woman she thought was a friend (okay, that's debatable but Sami certainly didn't consider Abby and enemy and I guess that's close enough), the woman who came into her home to bake cupcakes with her kids, etc. etc. totes banged her husband. I mean, come on... that's a legitimate grievance. The fact that everyone is Salem is so gung ho to excuse Abby and villify Sami just guarantees that I will never be on Abby's side in this. Or the rest of Salem's for that matter.

Evolution was my favorite of the X cartoons. It didn't sit right with me when they tried to retell classic X-stories with the 90s characters and it often didn't work very well. Plus, I liked the animation for Evolution better. It just felt like its own entity rather than an attempt to cram decades of history into a very small time/team/area. Even if they alluded to past stories it felt like they gave it enough of a different spin to make it stand on its own.

Hell, the most recent issue has Laura going off with Teen!Angel at the end of it. I swear, I think they're doing this just so they can have a cover of Laura making out with various Original Teen Five characters. First they had her kissing Scott on the cover and all they did in the book was awkwardly hug. What I liked about it was that they had Scott reach out to her as a friend more than anything. The continuity is a mess but I honestly enjoy reading the book. The art is gorgeous and I'm enjoying the characters... although with this last round, I'm pretty much over Baby!Xavier (Charles' son via Mystique... I don't even know how that works) along with Raze (Wolverine's son via Mystique... I mean, come on) and their constant attempts to go back in time and kill the X-Men of the past. Whatever. I don't care about them. I actively root for them to die and never return but you know that Bendis is going to milk that for as long as he can. I loved that period even though it was thoroughly weird in a lot of ways and the editors at Marvel basically trashed it before a year had gone out because the movie had been released and they thought it was absolutely pointless for anyone trying to jump in. I mean, it was also Claremont being Claremont where he had plots in media res that were to be revealed later and had directions he wanted to go in that the fangirls (the Rogue/Gambit ones in particular) refused to accept. Personally, even though I was phasing out of comics at the time after they canned Claremont again, I still love Revolution!Jean. Hell, I wrote fanfic back in the day for X-men (oh, the 90s... what an awesome community that was) and totally wrote an off-shoot universe where Jean/Remy were a thing for real. They're still my crack pairing I know will never happen but love anyway. I don't care!! To be honest, I think the thing that did the most damage to Jean as a character was the animated cartoon. Jean in the comics hadn't been some weak ass, use-my-powers-once-then-faint type of character since Claremont revamped the X-Men and brought them out of the Silver Age. Even before she became Phoenix... hell, just read the issues where she takes on flying the shuttle back to Earth. That's no wilting flower. But the cartoon... it's like no one at Marvel could reach a happy medium between 'she faints all the time and is useless!' and 'she's a cosmic entity that eats planets!' Where's the creativity? In ANAD-X-Men she has her power and developed a new way of using it which is nice because it does open a different door other than the Phoenix one that editorial seems so desperately afraid of. Plus, the Cuckoos HATE Jean and it's hilarious.

I'm loving it. I'm a Jean fan anyway and, like you say, she's allowed to be an actual character here. I like that she has struggled so much with her telepathy and has made massive mis-steps with the use of it and gotten shit for it. It's kind of funny to me that Hank did all of this as a means of getting back at Scott, going to the original five and saying 'You become a terrorist! You must come to the future with me!' but Jean arrives and discovers where HER life is going and it's worse than what's going on with Scott. The panels of Iceman making snow angels while singing 'It's Trikcy' is still my favorite. And I hate the Shi'ar even more with their putting Jean on trial for something that... oh, wait... that's right, Phoenix already went on trial for which resulted in her killing herself. Gladiator got more than he bargained for there with Jean developing a whole new powerset! Whoops! Even though Laura hasn't had much to do, I've rather enjoyed her inclusion as well. I am not a fan of Logan. At all. And I despise the on-going 'love triangle' with him, Scott and Jean that has been played out forever (and it's never convinced me that Jean really loves Logan at all through the decades.) but having X-23 interacting with Scott (it makes me laugh) and the rest of the teen original five has been kind of fun. (Iceman not knowing her name and calling her 'Wolverine clone' was hilarious.)

Agreed, it was Kool-Aid red. Her hair isn't even that red in the comics, which is saying something. And given that she was wearing a red suit as well I was like 'does Jean dye her hair to match her outfits?' It was crazy crazy red, absolutely.

Dear Show, I guarantee you that the best way for me to go the exact opposite direction you want me to is to slam home over and over and over again the point you're trying to make. Two Things Dande Doesn't Buy Even Though the Show Really Really Wants Her To: 1. Daniel is the Second-Coming -- You know, I could probably enjoy Daniel even despite the yarn like texture of his hair and that stupid ass necklace he wears if the show weren't beating me bloody with the fact that he's the Most Amazing Man Ever. I have accepted him as an inevitability... like taxes. It obviously doesn't matter what I think, he's going to be portrayed as a living prophet of goodness and perfection and everyone but everyone is held in his sway. It's like he's Mesmero or something. (Yes, I tend to equate various soap characters with X-Men -- heroes and villains -- it's a thing.) And even though I've prepared myself for the inevitability of Eve mewling and whining at him about how wonderful he is and how she doesn't deserve him (we all know this is coming, right?) I'm certainly not going to agree with it. 2. Eve is the Anti-Christ -- Eve is Evil, yo! Know how I know that? Because they've been having every. single. character. on the show talk about her as if she was a pestilence that blew through town and destroyed everything... Salem has apparently only just recovered from Eve's last reign of terror! What's more, they have resident baddie Theresa consistently whining about how she's the 'good one' and then actively seeking out validation that she's 'not as bad.' Then, of course, there's the contradictory bit about her and Jen's high school rivalry. Retcon aside, apparently, a high school girl involved in love triangles was the worst thing to ever happen to Salem... a force of such destruction that everyone she came across apparently suffers PTSD just from hearing her name. Oh, and lest we forget... she's trying to take money away from veterans! Moving on: I honestly felt bad for any of the guys who had to share scenes with Ben on Friday. You know that scene in 'Crazy, Stupid Love' where Emma Stone's all 'Seriously?! It's like you're Photoshopped!' at what's-his-face? Yeah. It was like that. Guy's got a bod and he has clearly worked for it. Well done. I actually kind of hope that Theresa and Eve can develop a legitimate family relationship. To me, it gets boring when you have your pariah wandering around singing 'All By Myself' as the town (generally led by the Hortons, it seems) sneer at them. Sure, at the moment, Theresa and Eve have a mutual disdain for Jennifer but I'd like to see that actually turn into something of a familial bond. The Brady/Hortons shouldn't be the only ones allowed to be a family, dammit. There's no fun in that. Abigail continues to change direction like a windsock. I continue not to get what she's supposed to be feeling at any given time... and not in an 'oh, she's so unpredictable' kind of way. It's in a 'I genuinely don't understand what she's going for here' kind of way. And Sami's revenge gives me life.

That's sort of the downside about Kassie DePaiva. She's tall and then they put her in heels which put her at about 6 feet (if not more) and so she tends to dwarf her female rivals (she is often taller than male co-stars as well) and that results in a sort of 'bully' appearance. Like... 'pick on someone your own size!' And then there is the fact that she is a seasoned cat-fight actor... she knows how to do the soap opera slaps and catfights but good, so when she gets into it with someone, it really is going to look like an unfair advantage. But... hell, I don't care. She's fabulous. I'm kind of enjoying the cat and mouse at the moment, her being vastly amused by Jennifer's histrionics and I can't even imagine she'd take Abigail remotely seriously. For me, it would be infinitely funny if Eve could never remember Abigail's name. "Who are you again?"

Cripes, Will... no one cares about Gabi anymore. Out of sight, out of mind. I hope to hell that Sami tells Will that EJ was holding onto the River evidence AND the evidence of Will shooting EJ as some sort of 'just in case' situation. Maybe then Will might see that a few good deeds was merely a means of 'playing nice' until he didn't have to anymore.

As far as differences between KM and AS, I haven't been watching long enough to make a real distinction. However, in regards to the storyline they are both involved in, the differences are clear. I know exactly where Sami is coming from. I don't even have to read interviews to know this. Sami is fucking pissed. Sami is out for revenge and Sami is going to twist the knife as much as she can. That much is made very clear. Meanwhile, I have no idea what Abigail is supposed to be feeling from one scene to the next because they don't seem to mesh. She seems awkward and uncomfortable, okay, I got that... that works. But I don't know the rest of it... does she want EJ? Nothing seems to be clear here... she's telling him she wants nothing to do with him after the wedding, then looks jealous as all get out whenever he says anything loving about his soon-to-be bride... but she knew he was engaged from the start and he's also the one who turned down her offer to be his mistress because of his alleged love for his family. So does she want him to choose her anyway despite his not giving her any indication that he's remotely torn about his decision? If that's the case, I suppose her bitterness after he was arrested makes sense but it just doesn't go with this 'Oh dear, I'm afraid I can't control myself around this man I desire' vibe that she gives off 50% of the time around him. Sami's motivations are clear and that comes through on the screen for me. Abigail's aren't remotely clear. Perhaps it's all in the writing but, at the same time, KM is giving interviews that just muddy the water even more for me. I'm utterly lost in regards to what she's about.