(no subject)

[rivkat]

I have to write an article about video games as speech (as in, the First Amendment). I really wish I knew something about video games. I'm reading, but I don't think playing Shanghai on Yahoo!Games really counts as personal experience with the topic.

Spoilery reactions to Phoenix:

oh, Lex.

I mean, I have other thoughts, but that's the biggie.

1. Was Pete even in this episode?
2. When I am an evil overlord, I will ... I thought Edge had screwed up when he left the Kents alive, but selling Clark to Lionel made much sense. Lex letting Helen get that close to killing him, less so, but then the boy's been a bit shaken up.
3. Dad would have succeeded -- preach it, Lex.
4. Why won't my mental death rays kill Lana? Just the character. I'm sure the actress is a very nice girl.
5. Nobody seems worried that Lana forked a man to death, not even Lana. That puzzled me for a bit, then I realized: after the first death, there is no other. How could killing someone else compare to losing your parents at an early age?
6. This Lex reminded me so very much of Lanning's. In the most recent Identical story, there's a moment when Lex talks about his father's appeal to come back & join him. Clark says, "so you wanted to believe him?" and Lex says, "No. I did believe him." He trusts and mistrusts Lionel not in equal measure but by equating them; Lionel's own lessons in the art of betrayal require this to be so. Trust or mistrust are irrelevant, because Lex is not going to rely on that metric any more. Lionel's eyes were open during the hug, but Lex consciously chose to close his -- evoking Martha's earlier response when Clark asked her what she could do if she could see everything: "Learn to close my eyes." Is Lex any more sincere with his creepy homage to Lionel than he is with Helen? It's not a meaningful question. He's playing his father by admitting his need for his father's love. Like all the best liars, like his father, Lex believes every word of his lies, just as long as he needs to.
7. Relatedly, Lex has learned to say exactly what he needs, and this scares me more than his please-like-me moves ever did before. He initiates the hug with Lionel; he says he wants to be part of the Kent family. He's going to have the relationships he wants if it kills them. Since he's never going to rely on anyone else, he doesn't really need emotional truth, and that makes the relationships much easier.
8. "The look on your face right now": Whoever was saying Welling was taking acting lessons this summer? Dude, they didn't stick. I realize that there's disagreement on this, but I didn't see much of a reaction in Clark's first reaction shot. Poor Lex -- that line makes him seem even more delusional than when he was seeing Lewis. Nice hug, though, and Clark's smile when Lex joins the Kent family pretty much made up for the failure to emote during the reunion. Now, you know I'm All About Lex, but that boy has a very appealing smile, like unto that of my Z.
9. Plot rocks watch: How come near-skin exposure causes crippling pain and skin-cuttability, so much so that Clark falls down in agony for some time after the exposure ends ... and then in the truck having the same rock duct-taped to his skin fails to incapacitate him? Like vamp fighting power in Buffy, Kryptonite's effectiveness varies depending on whether the wind is blowing south or north.
10. Hey! Last time, Clark/Lex parallelism extended to shirtlessness. This time, Lex was if anything wearing looser shirts than usual. I wish to file a protest.

And, random Angel comments: I was really glad to see a necromancer. One of the things in the Anita Blake series that hasn't gotten old is the idea that necromancers have a special relationship with vampires as special variants of "the dead." I, like many of you, wondered what was up with the dubbing.

Comments

[destina.livejournal.com]

This time, Lex was if anything wearing looser shirts than usual.

Well, except for that nummy baby blue thing he was wearing on the plane. To which I say, *yum* and *drool*.

I need a button which proclaims: shallow and proud of it.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Damn, I suppose I'll have to torture myself with another viewing to see if I've overlooked something I ought to look over.

[porntestpilot.livejournal.com]

I realize that there's disagreement on this, but I didn't see much of a reaction in Clark's first reaction shot.

I didn't really see one so much either, but I'm going to pretend it was there, and thus everything else made sense in a non-insane Lex way. Thank god I joined denialcorp a million years ago.

[ter369.livejournal.com]

I, like many of you, wondered what was up with the dubbing.

I thought it was just me, since I watch on slightly fuzzy antenna broadcast that obscures some props in the night-lighting that is requisite on Angel.

But I even noticed the dubbing with the necromancer and Spike. At first, I thought it was an effect with Spike's ghostliness, and that I'd missed it in his first scenes.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

No, it was terribly disconcerting, the kind that's off only enough for you to feel that something's wrong. I like Spike, but perhaps the Angel people don't know how to mike him yet?

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

That puzzled me for a bit, then I realized: after the first death, there is no other. How could killing someone else compare to losing your parents at an early age?

OMG, are you saying Lana's parents are dead??1!!!1/!?

[accommodatingly.livejournal.com]

I was on a panel with an Irish videogames scholar named Aphra Kerr: you might try citing her work, if you need more work to cite. Though I, too, found reading such things no substitute for having played the videogames in question (and I hadn't played the videogames: I ended up talking about poetry magazines on the Web instead). Also, there's a @#%$ HUGE community of people who draw online comics about videogames and gamers, with an extremely intricate web of in-jokes: I know about it only because my former student Annie Vandermeer is one such person

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<www.blue-comic.com>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

I was on a panel with an Irish videogames scholar named Aphra Kerr: you might try citing her work, if you need more work to cite. Though I, too, found reading such things no substitute for having played the videogames in question (and I hadn't played the videogames: I ended up talking about poetry magazines on the Web instead). Also, there's a @#%$ HUGE community of people who draw online comics about videogames and gamers, with an extremely intricate web of in-jokes: I know about it only because my former student Annie Vandermeer is one such person <www.blue-comic.com>. Whether this helps you discuss the games themselves as speech I dunno.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

What has she written about? I want to talk about interactivity, probably.