Back in the USA

[osprey_archer]

I am returned home! After a very long day, because after an eight-hour flight from Prague, we spent six hours stuck in JFK waiting for our next flight as it got delayed - and delayed - and delayed. But at last it came, and we went, and I'm home!

And I took advantage of my transatlantic flight to watch all the fannish things I have been vaguely meaning to get around to, although it occurs to me that a tiny seatback screen is not the optimal viewing platform for Pacific Rim. It was enjoyable anyway! Although, as often happens, I am deeply puzzled as to how fandom got from the Raleigh in the movie to the goldenretriever!Raleigh who is apparently endemic in fic. Is it the blond hair? Did that somehow cancel out all his broodingness? He's clearly very fond of Mako, but acres away from puppy-like devotion.

(I was also very fond of Mako, but nonetheless puzzled why so many people in fandom seem to have hailed Pacific Rim as a feminist triumph. She's the only female character with a speaking part, and also unconscious during the critical saving-the-world bit.)

And also I saw the first few episodes of Brooklyn Ninety-Nine, which was moderately amusing, but not enough that I'm likely to continue on with it.

I also saw Thor: The Dark World, and clearly I am alone in this, but I nearly wept during Loki's death scene because I knew it wasn't real. We came so close to getting rid of him! So close! Only for it to be snatched away! In a way that means that Thor is going to wander around mourning Loki's death, when in fact Loki doesn't deserve it at all - not just because he's not dead, but because he arranged his fake death in such a way that he can sit around and enjoy the sweet spectacle of Thor's mourning.

Comments

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

I nearly wept during Loki's death scene because I knew it wasn't real. We came so close to getting rid of him!

You make me laugh so much sometimes. :D

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I'm still not clear what Loki did with Odin (is he locked away in a cellar somewhere? How do you even go about locking the All Father into a cellar?). But these I suppose are minor details.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Ditto this, goldjadeocean :D

[entwashian.livejournal.com]

I can't speak to the Raleigh thing because I'm not his biggest fan, but I think part of the reason people love Mako is because they've had to defend her from others claiming she's anti-feminist, which is blatantly untrue. I mean, the way her character is framed in the film is pretty feminist...

What really, really blew me away about the movie and has stuck with me is the fact that they had father-figure badass Marshal Pentecost turn to his daughter and say the line, "I need you to protect me." No other sci-fi or action flick would ever. Further, this storyline between Mako & Stacker isn't about Stacker & his emotional growth. It's about hers. Unlike in most action movies, Mako is not relegated to sidekick or love interest to the hero; she has a complete story arc from beginning to end with emotional relevance and plot relevance that is capable of standing on its own, away from whatever the 'hero' is doing.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

claiming she's anti-feminist

Did they see her introduction, with the quiet voice and the lowered eyes, and then stop watching the film? Because wow. That interpretation seems very much at odds with the movie.

I guess within the context of action movies, maybe Pacific Rim does count as a feminist triumph; it just seems sad to me that having one solidly engaging female character is so rare in action movies that it's not only feminist, but a triumph. I want my standards for triumph to be a little higher than that.

(Somewhat unrelated: Pentecost and Chuck end up dead, right? I thought they did, but Herc seemed weirdly unaffected by his son's demise, so maybe they escaped and I didn't notice?)

[entwashian.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it kind of depends on the macro and micro ways of looking at it, I guess. Like, in the large scale, she's still a supporting character to a white cishet male, and yeah, she's unconscious for the climax. But on a smaller scale, she's pretty much everything you could want in a female character. Brains, brawn, cares about others, doesn't let others define her... etc etc I could go on.

So on the macro scale, it's not like Beyonce performing on TV in the outfit of her choice to a song she's written in front of a giant FEMINIST sign, but on the micro scale... if we had characters like Mako in every movie, in every tv show, in every book... yeah, that kind of would help solve the problem of why we need feminism so badly.

Yeah, they're dead. Maybe Max Martini is just not your actor? XD They didn't give him much time to grieve, either, pacing-wise.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I was puzzled by Mako too. She was a good, solid, fully realized character, so there's that. But she also nearly destroyed headquarters when she couldn't control the jaeger, and as you say, she lost consciousness there at the end, so... *shrugs*

I guess it must just be the solid-personhood thing, which is a sad commentary on women's characters in action monster movies.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I think it must be a matter of context. Action movies make up a fairly small part of my movie-watching, and in other genres it's not that hard to find well-realized female characters. So it's a little startling to see action-movie fans going nuts because this movie reached what is really a pretty low bar.