Xena'd!

I watched the first couple episodes of Xena today, and ohhh, my. I had forgotten how much of a cheese casserole this show is. With cheese sauce, and cheese topping, and I dunno, cheese noodles or something. With CheezWhiz decoratively festooning the top. But they obviously delight in the cheese, so it's all win. (Um, except for Xena's "ay-yi-yi" yell, which is at exactly the right pitch to set my teeth on edge. I don't remember it doing that before, so I'm going to assume she uses it less in later seasons.)

Back to speeding through my Schools of Lit Crit primer. I realize I'm hopelessly old fashioned, but I think structuralism is pretty awesome, as far as theory goes. (For reference, last I heard, there is currently debate about what to replace post-structuralism with, so, you know. I'm behind the times. Oh, well.)

Fic: "Five Things That Never Happened to Susan Ivanova" [B5]

Title: Five Things That Never Happened to Susan Ivanova
Author: icepixie
Rating: PG
Timeline/Spoilers: These take place over the same five years as the series, with (very) roughly one for each season. Spoilers through season four in numbers three and four; number five is meant to be read with the events of S4 in mind, even if they aren't directly referenced.
Wordcount: 1243
Summary: Scenes from five lives Susan Ivanova never lived. Contains angst, romance, action, UST, gen, Ivanova/Marcus, Ivanova/Garibaldi, and Ivanova/Talia in various combinations.

( Five Things )

Pictures and Crusade

Pictures from two weeks ago. (Includes mountains, Gatlinburg, and Pezzers.)

*

Got my first Crusade DVD from Netflix today. Much to my annoyance, the episodes are in TNT airing order, rather than the order they actually go in. I don't think it's supposed to make much difference from a plot standpoint, but I can already tell there are characterization moments that aren't working correctly in this order.

That said, five non-spoilery observations:

1. So, this is JMS pretty much saying, "All along, I wanted to write a fantasy series, and now I can! Mwahahahaha!" isn't it? Obviously, the technomages are the biggest part of that, but the townspeople in "The Long Road"? Uh, the folks at Stargate called, and they'd like their medieval villagers back, please.

2. So far, my favorite characters are Dureena and Eilerson. Since they're the two who map most obviously onto Ivanova and Garibaldi from B5 (not that I'm saying all the characters do that *coughGalenistotallyKoshandMarcusstucktogethercough* *coughGideonisn'tentirelydissimilarfromSheridancough* or anything...) in thier sarcasm and practicality, this is not surprising. I rather like Galen and Gideon as well. (I think Lochley might've been my favorite when I was watching this back in first-run. Eh, I was like fifteen when it was airing, and I think my first episode might've been the one where she and Gideon, ah, "make contact," shall we say. I shipped them hard.)

3. I...had forgotten the enormous sentient jellyfish that wanted to mate with the ship. I think I will try to do so again.

4. All the questions that are asked in the credits now have much more resonance for me after seeing B5.

5. ( Okay, this one is a bit spoilery for B5 )