Small Talk: The Quiver

[Starfish35]

I'm also wondering when Amy Acker's popularity skyrocketed? I like her as Fred on Angel, but I haven't seen that much from her besides some tv roles. I don't watch POI, is it that mainstream?

I don't know, but both the POI ladies are kicking ass. Amy Acker is beating Stana Katic (Castle) 71%-28%, and Sarah Shahi is beating Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) 75%-24%.

On the OUAT front, only Lana Parilla is winning, against Lena Headey (Gane of Thrones), 64%-35%. Jennifer Morrison is losing to Candice Patton 59%-40%, and Ginnifer Goodwin is getting trounced by Caitriona Balfe (Outlander) 79%-20%. That one I'm not at all shocked about. I double checked, and it was actually Sam Heughan that won the Alpha Male Madness poll. Colin O'Donaghue was runner up.

ETA: The three "The 100" actresses also seem to be handily winning their rounds.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Starfish35

[tarotx]

As for as Amy's popularity, I think it's because of two reasons. Amy has been in almost every cult fan favorite show and now on POI, She plays a (crazy)hacker genius who has a crush on a literal kick ass women.

[lemotomato]

I think the POI fandom comes out in force to vote to get the show some buzz because it is/was on the verge of cancellation.

[manbearpig]

Atwell/Acker as doctor and companion would probably be the only pairing that would make me watch Doctor Who. Or Simmons and Bobbi from Agents of Shield!

Edited August 21, 2015 by manbearpig

[Morrigan2575]

I'd be OK with a female Doctor but, not with an American Doctor (male or female).  LOL

[tarotx]

I feel a transition into a female regeneration fits The Master but doesn't the doctor. I feel the life a doctor lived affects his regeneration. I would need a good story leading up to that kind of change. But I'm not totally against it. The doctor does change so if they find a good story and not just do it for shock or PC value I'm all for it. And yes I know shock and PC value will play a part off screen which I understand. I just want more than that.

[BkWurm1]

I love Lois on Smallville. She was the one single character that made me not hate Clark too.

But then, I'm only well-versed in the post-Goughlar seasons. [i've seen selected eps from S1-S7, but I've only obsessively rewatched S8-S10.]

Watching TV Wrong is the name of my next band.

I can't imagine the experience being the same even if you were binge watching from the beginning but starting in season eight would be like starting with a different character. (Which was also my reaction when Season eight started, lol. Well ha,ha now but then I was not laughing) You'd come into the show with accepted assumptions that I had felt the previous seasons had squashed to the point where only showing a serious journey of how and why she had changed would have got me back on board with her. That decidedly did not happen. I believe there was a French Maids uniform invoked. Sigh.

Watching a show in real time gives you more time to build up hopes and expectations not to mention get attached to certain characters that were meeting said expectations. Smallville had ten years of messing with my head. They might say one thing but constantly show something else. Or my favorite - say a little something, show a little more and then leave it to the fans to decide what the bleep had happened or was intended or was being hinted at.

"On any other show" was a regular phrase in the chat rooms. On any other show the dialogue or framing of the shots or shared significant glances or wistful longing would have been loudly telegraphing specific things. Not knowing how everything turns out allowed me to believe they were telling a far more complex and IMO more interesting and clever story.

Even now re watching episodes and knowing how it all goes, I find I still have the same gut reactions to what is happening on screen, the same certainty of the story they were telling. I'm left to believe either the plans changed or the more likely, that they didn't know what their final plans were going to be so they kept all their options alive. The thing is, with the traditional Lois/Clark option ending, all they felt they needed to keep it alive was occasionally drop anvilicious lines hinting at the Comic destiny. They spent more time actually showing the relationship between the non canon character thus in my mind giving more weight to that relationship.

On any other show it would have meant something. On a comic book show, seven or eight years of characterization and history can be trumped by a horn solo.

Edited August 21, 2015 by BkWurm1

[dtissagirl]

Yeah, I realize my experience with Smallville is weird. And sure, I started watching the middle of S8, but I knew enough by proxy of having friends who did the 10 year term SV fandom. Those friends definitely influenced how I viewed the characters going in. They loved Lois, so I was inclined to love her too. And I knew some other stuff, like I was aware of how creepy Goughlar had been about Lana, and I had the basic lowdown of fandom, and the 'ship wars, and the Chloe vs. Lois stans war.

 

I also think the fact that they were blatantly reinventing the show to be more Metropolis than Smallville, and more ensemble too, made it super easy for me to get attached to this version of Smallville. It WAS like watching a spinoff in a way.

 

But I was suckered into fandom by the side 'ship that had nothing to do with Clark, so I basically put myself in the bubble of Chloe/Ollie fans, and never ventured outside of it. It was the best of times. Hee.

Edited August 21, 2015 by dtissagirl

[AyChihuahua]

Every time you guys talk about Smallville it sounds worse.  My only memory really is the theme song, which I quite liked, and some episode I accidentally caught in which the three women were like witches or something?  It was terrible and I never watched again. 

[dtissagirl]

I'll defend Smallville season nine as a legit great season of Super [pun intended] Cheesy Television with all my heart and soul. :)

[Starfish35]

Ha, the witches. That was in season four, when Lana's season arc was that she went to Paris to study art, and came back dating Jensen Ackles (I can't remember his character's name) and possessed by an ancient French witch. Good times. /sarcasm. However, it didn't look so bad after the season six arc in which Lex convinced her that she was pregnant with his baby so that she would marry him.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Starfish35

[manbearpig]

Honestly last season of Arrow is making me look back on Smallville a lot more favourably. Maybe just because season three of Smallville was pretty good and it's easier to block out the awful parts of an older show you're no longer watching every week. While on Arrow this season there was some new level of mess every other week. Plus Chloe is one of my favourite characters, so Smallville at least had that going for it.

[wingster55]

I will defend s1-3 and 5 of SV to my grave

[Sakura12]

What happened with Chloe and Lois on Smallville is why my reaction to what happened on Arrow is so strong. It was a "not again situation". 

 

Especially when early seasons Lois was a dumbass, didn't they make where she didn't know that she didn't graduate high school and had to attend school with Chloe and Clark? I refuse to watch any of her early scenes again to check, but I think that happened. She also had no interest in journalism. Then she magically became the best reporter ever because of her name. Comic book people but way to much influence on a name instead of actual character development. Bringing the personality and essence of the character to life is 100% more important to me than a name.

 

Also for the record I'm not one of those people that thought Chloe was going to become Lois. Chloe was just the better character and was pushed aside for Lois Lane to take her unearned comic book place. If they made Lois earn her place and showed her actually work towards it, I would've accepted it more. The we don't have time for that excuse really gets to me from Arrow as well. We had time to see Chloe grow and learn her skills. Why is it different for Lois and the other one? Just because of their names? 

Edited August 21, 2015 by Sakura12

[Starfish35]

I will defend s1-3 and 5 of SV to my grave

Lol yes 4 is hard to defend. :)

[calliope1975]

Lol yes 4 is hard to defend. :)

 

Four is when I quit. And that had Jensen Ackles! Gorgeous Jason Teague and his dumb story line who I shipped with Chloe cuz they weren't ever going to do Chlex.  

[Starfish35]

Jason Teague, yes, thank you. And his mother was played by Dr. Quinn Jane Seymour.

I actually quit (the first time) after season three, but then was talked into coming back by a friend that was really really into the show at the time. But season six did me in. It wasn't just the baby thing, though that was bad. It was the talk from Goughlar about Clana and how in season seven they were going to put them together and them be together for awhile, because, you know, they'd never had a real chance before! *sigh* (Lana didn't find out Clark's secret until right before her wedding to Lex, whereupon she was going to leave Lex at the altar and run away with Clark, except Lex's dad blackmailed her into going through with it...... Um, and people say Arrow is a soap opera?) So I guess the idea was to put them together now that Lana finally knew Clark's secret. But I just couldn't deal with the Clana any longer. Every time I would think it was over and dead, it'd come back. And so I just gave up. I did kind of want to see Supergirl (Laura Vandervoort, who came on in season 7), but not enough to put up with domestic Clana.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Starfish35

[BkWurm1]

I kind of love that Chloe gets shipped with just about everyone, including Dean over on Supernatural.  I still see those fan fics. Lol. 

 

  I also think the fact that they were blatantly reinventing the show to be more Metropolis than Smallville, and more ensemble too, made it super easy for me to get attached to this version of Smallville. It WAS like watching a spinoff in a way.

 

Yeah, I get that.  Over on Stargate SG-1 (another 10 year run) after Richard Dean Anderson retired the show might as well have been renamed (and the grapevine says they pitched the idea and the network said no).  I actually loved the final two seasons on SG-1 probably more than the previous 8 but others hated the shift in focus and tone.  It worked for me because my favorite character was the one getting all the focus and I really enjoyed who they brought in to play opposite to Daniel but I know many disavow those final two season ever happened. 

[dtissagirl]

I actually watched a couple of the Jensen Ackles episodes! All I remember is he had way more sexual chemistry with Jane Seymour than KKreuk. It was creepy, in a HILARITY FOREVER way.

[BkWurm1]

Jason Teague, yes, thank you. And his mother was played by Dr. Quinn Jane Seymour.

I actually quit (the first time) after season three, but then was talked into coming back by a friend that was really really into the show at the time. But season six did me in. It wasn't just the baby thing, though that was bad. It was the talk from Goughlar about Clana and how in season seven they were going to put them together and them be together for awhile, because, you know, they'd never had a real chance before! *sigh* (Lana didn't find out Clark's secret until right before her wedding to Lex, whereupon she was going to leave Lex at the alter and run away with Clark, except Lex's dad blackmailed her into going through with it...... Um, and people say Arrow is a soap opera?) So I guess the idea was to put them together now that Lana finally knew Clark's secret. But I just couldn't deal with the Clana any longer. Every time I would think it was over and dead, it'd come back. And so I just gave up. I did kind of want to see Supergirl (Laura Vandervoort, who came on in season 7), but not enough to put up with domestic Clana.

Seven worked for me because I felt that they showcased why Clana even without secrets was a terrible idea AND that year KK got a movie so they let her out of her contract early in exchange for coming back the following season so it meant season seven had Lana in a coma off screen for a number of episodes.  Of course who know how awful it would be when they brought her back and made the only reason she and Clark weren't together was because she had turned into literal kryptonite.  Oh show.  Honestly, Smallville was so incredibly mean to the Lois and Clark shippers. 

 

They wasted Supergirl so you didn't really miss much.  Barely did anything with her while they had her and then they realized that Clark was kind of redundant as long as she existed in the same world (since they were the same age and she could actually fly) so they kept coming up with reason to get rid of her.  I love that the only reason she left the final time was literally so that Clark could fulfill his destiny.  So what if the fate of the entire Galaxy hung in her decision. 

Especially when early seasons Lois was a dumbass, didn't they make where she didn't know that she didn't graduate high school and had to attend school with Chloe and Clark?

 

Yep. 

 

Sorry for kind of taking over with Smallville talk.  We do have a Smallville thread to keep the rant, er, um, I mean, discussion going.   Bonus that there are two posters currently watching the show for the first time.  Season six has proved a disappointment, ha,ha,ha. 

[Starfish35]

Of course who know how awful it would be when they brought her back and made the only reason she and Clark weren't together was because she had turned into literal kryptonite. Oh show.

Yeah. *facepalm* I knew about that, although I didn't see it for myself. I don't know that I knew about the coma though.

I always thought that season three should have been the natural ending of that relationship. But they kept going back to it, over and over again. :( Other than Goughlar's Lana obsession, I still don't understand why.

[Morrigan2575]

According to an interview they did a couple of years ago it was because they didn't really know what else to do with Lana but didn't want to lose KK.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Morrigan2575

[Starfish35]

That's pretty sad. Because I think Lana could have been an interesting character if they could have broken her out of the box of being Clark's love obsession. But I'm not surprised they couldn't think of what else to do with her - that was obvious in the writing.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Starfish35

[Sakura12]

What I don't get is if they really liked the actor and they had no story for them any more, wouldn't it be better to let them go to find more work?

[Delphi]

I really only enjoyed Smallville when it wasn't about Clark. I liked their take on Kara. Enjoyed the Absolute Justice episode and most of the mini Justice League episodes. I really couldn't stand all the Clark...or all the Lana.

[Morrigan2575]

Took me forever to find it.

Q: Looking back, is there anywhere you wish you’d taken the characters of Smallville?

AG: I wish we had a better trajectory for Lana Lang. That was probably a three-season love story that lasted six seasons.

MM: It’s so torturous and slow. Ultimately, it damaged Lana in the audience’s mind. Because Clark refused to tell her the truth about his identity, he was constantly forced to lie to her. Although justified, Lana’s response to his behavior made her seem cold and unsympathetic — even though from her POV, Clark was a sneaky, bold-faced liar.

http://www.sundance.tv/series/the-writers-room/blog/2014/04/interview-with-smallville-creators-alfred-gough-and-miles-millar

Edited August 21, 2015 by Morrigan2575

[BkWurm1]

I likes Kara, I just felt there was sooo much more they could have done with her and instead they kept her out of story lines that would have made sense to include her in like the Kandorians.

And they made her think Jimmy Olsen was hot.

Took me forever to find it.

Where did you find it? I think that's the same interview I was looking for a while back.

[AES13]

According to an interview they did a couple of years ago it was because they didn't really know what else to do with Lana but didn't want to lose KK.

 

I worry that the Arrow writers/show runners like John Barrowman so much, they'll do the same thing, long past the point of absurdity.  The logic contortions they used in season 3 to keep him relevant were exhausting; I hope he's written (killed) off soon!  It's always a bad thing when when plotting is overcome by out-of-show reasons and you end up with such inconsistent characterization.

[dtissagirl]

I'm so happy I love Aaron Ashmore now that he's done Warehouse 13-Lost Girl-Killjoys, and I've really adored his characters in all 3 shows *dearly*. Because Jimmy was... yuck.

[Morrigan2575]

Where did you find it? I think that's the same interview I was looking for a while back.

Various Google searches with different phrases containing "Millar, Gough, Smallville". I think the one that worked was "millar, gough, post smallville".

It was apparently from an episode on a show called "the writers room"that featured comics, Robert Kirkland was also interviewed.

Someone should send the link to MG and tell him to give it up, fans apparently will always whine about fan-service

Q: Smallville stirred up a lot of controversy with hardcore comic book fans devoted to the original. How did you guys deal with that?

AG: Like all writers — we tried to avoid it as much as possible! We stopped reading Ain’t it Cool News where we were being burned in effigy everyday, and didn’t go to the San Diego Comic-Con until Season 2.

MM: Listening to fan boys is tiring, frustrating and ultimately futile. Smallville began at the dawn of the fan-forum era — we used to scan the posts to get a sense of the general feeling, but that’s it. If we did course-correct a storyline it would be because the fans’ sentiment mirrored our own. The truth is the so-called “hardcore fans” will find fault with anything and everything. We had no interest in following the established mythology of the D.C. universe or aligning our timeline with theirs.

Edited August 21, 2015 by Morrigan2575

[BkWurm1]

I'm so happy I love Aaron Ashmore now that he's done Warehouse 13-Lost Girl-Killjoys, and I've really adored his characters in all 3 shows *dearly*. Because Jimmy was... yuck.

Poor AA. Every time he's in something new I have to get past the urge to squash his face. I always eventually do, it just takes time. Only last night I had my realization that I had finally stopped seeing Jimmy Olsen on Killjoys. No wonder I was suddenly enjoying it more. :D

[Morrigan2575]

A link to the episode if anyone wants to watch

http://www.sundance.tv/watch-now/the-writers-room

[Starfish35]

Wow. The arrogance in that interview is a little staggering.

[Morrigan2575]

How so? I actually thought it was an interesting interview.

[Starfish35]

I didn't watch it - just read it. But the sneers at the fanbase really rub the wrong way, along with the general feeling that they don't feel like they did anything wrong, other than the thing with Lana.

[BkWurm1]

The part I appreciate is where they said: "We had no interest in following the established mythology of the D.C. universe or aligning our timeline with theirs."

That was typically the very part of the show I liked.

[Starfish35]

You know, I'm just going to go ahead and admit that it's likely that my intense dislike of those two colored my perception of that interview. Sorry. :( I just do not like them. Other than Stargate's Brad Wright, I'm not sure there's anyone higher on my TV showrunners shit list.

Edited August 22, 2015 by Starfish35

[Morrigan2575]

I kinda want this shirt

https://teechip.com/straightouttahogwarts

[calliope1975]

I kind of love that Chloe gets shipped with just about everyone, including Dean over on Supernatural.  I still see those fan fics. Lol. 

 

Chlean was my top OTP before Olicity came along. Olicity only beats it because those characters exist in the same universe and have actually interacted; it's a bonus that it's canon now. :D

 

I kinda want this shirt

https://teechip.com/straightouttahogwarts

 

I highly recommend buying now or never shirts if you're on the fence. I have a "Hello Deadpool" (Hello Kitty as Deadpool) now or never shirt. I love it, and I always get comments when I wear it. I just discovered there's a hole in it, and while I can find the image, I can't find the same shirt. Maybe I'll throw a patch over the hole. 

[kismet]

Just marathoned unREAL.... Seriously addicting show!! Thanks to those who recommended it. Every episode just go crazier than the last. Having to wait until next season is going to be brutal.

[tv echo]

Have you seen the new Hawkeye costume tweeted by Jeremy Renner?  (Just comparing it to the new Arrow costume.)  BTW, he also tweeted new posters for Captain America: Civil War which show who's on which side...

 

https://twitter.com/Renner4Real

Edited August 28, 2015 by tv echo

[tarotx]

Lol I saw the picture last night and never noticed Ant man. Too cute.

I hope ARROW goes the direction with their Green Arrow suit. One arm as wink wink to the comics is better than a full True sleeveless suit they are going with this season. I'm still hoping Oliver wears a long sleeve leather/spandex/? tee underneath.

Edited August 28, 2015 by tarotx

[Morrigan2575]

I totally missed Ant-Man, how funny. I'm really looking forward to this movie

[Sakura12]

So do we think this will happen then? 

 

 

The Civil War Sides have been revealed as well.

 

Team Captain America

Falcon
Sharon Carter
Hawkeye
Ant-man

Winter Solider

 

Team Iron Man

Black Widow

War Machine

Vision

Black Panther

 

Edited August 28, 2015 by Sakura12

[Morrigan2575]

Spider-man and Scarlet Witch are missing both are in the movie.  

 

Not sure where Fury (confirmed), Maria Hill (rumored) and Hulk (wishful thinking) will end up

[Sakura12]

Scarlet Witch and Spider-man were not on the posters they released. I guess it's a secret what team they are on or they didn't choose a side. 

[Morrigan2575]

Scarlet Witch and Spider-man were not on the posters they released. I guess it's a secret what team they are on or they didn't choose a side. 

Yeah, that's what I meant, they are missing from the poster. 

Edited August 28, 2015 by Morrigan2575

[tarotx]

I love both sides :'(

[Carrie Ann]

I'm so sad Natasha is on Tony's side because I want the whole CA:WS on one team. (Plus...maybe I think she should get over this Bruce thing and just make out with Steve.)

[NumberCruncher]

Yes, having Natasha on Tony's side makes zero sense at all. She's spent most of her time working alongside and bonding with Steve so having her be Team Iron Man pretty much goes against everything they've set up in the movies thus far. I don't care what the comic books say about it.