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Feb. 23rd, 2009 03:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
satoshi_pallasI watched all of the Oscars last night. Well, I missed the first five minutes, as I had been attempting to get my digital TV to work for the past half hour, but it was refusing to pick up any signal at all. So finally I admitted defeat. "I won't be able to watch the Oscars at all!" I moaned (and I was far more upset about this than I was about possibly not getting into that fiction class, which I think reflects amazingly on me). But then I remembered that I'm awesome and always obtain whatever I go for. So I immediately found an illegal UK stream online and watched that cheerfully for the entire broadcast. Sorry, Academy, but this is the 21st century, and you've got to be ready: Give me a stream on your site, and I'll watch that, 'kay? (Amusingly, I was linked to that streaming site from the Academy's forums.)
So anyway, everyone seemed really gracious at the Oscars this year, and I thought the speeches were actually pretty good for what they usually are. I nearly cried at some of them, seriously. And I was satisfied with everyone who won. Hugh Jackman was also a lot better than I thought he'd be-- Smart move going for performing instead of a comedy routine. (But was I the only one who felt that every time he said something like, "The musical is back!" that he was trying to stab us for getting rid of Viva Laughlin?) Of course, my favorite parts of the show were whenever they showed Dev Patel, who always looked so happy, oh my gosh.
Okay, now I'm going to devote the rest of this entry to Gundam 00, so...yeah.
I was more emotional over the Academy Awards than I was over this episode. I don't know if this means I'm more rooted in reality or that there just was no reason to really care, haha. No, I shouldn't be that harsh. I DID feel really bad when Anew died. But the thing is... Anew's personality was pretty much limited to being calm and kind. Basically, all her conversations were with Lyle, and they only had about three or four of them before this episode. I heard that rumor that the sponsors wanted a romantic plot, so the director created the Lyle/Anew plot rather than having a spy vs spy thing, and after what happened with Geass (not to mention stuff that happens here in the States, like what NBC told News Radio to do), that actually seems really plausible. I wouldn't say that Lyle/Anew was stuffed in there, but it...just wasn't developed as well as it could have been.
Basically, Anew didn't have enough of a personality or a role in the story to make any of this that exciting. So she turned out to be a double agent. Was there really anything to indicate this earlier in the story, other than her resemblance to Revive, the way both of their eyes shone that one time, and her offbeat name? No, not particularly. So basically, it was an "Oh hey, I'm evil now" move that I don't think really obtained any emotional impact whatsoever (for me, at least). That's great. She's evil. But I don't feel particularly betrayed or anything. The only really "tragic" part came at the very end, when she was going to go back to Celestial Being, but Ribbons hijacked her body. And that's mostly tragic just on the basic principle that she and Lyle were "finally going to be together," although... Why should I really care about that either? For me, the real tragic part of what Ribbons did is the future implications-- This means he could easily take over any of the other Innovators, which potentially means he could make Tieria kill everyone.
Okay, going back to the whole Lyle/Anew romance thing... I don't actually have anything against Lyle/Anew. I actually like it, or at least I could have liked it if it had more development. And I did like the part where Lyle was trying to get Anew back in the battlefield. (Even though there was that really painful "I'll make you my woman again!" line, which I'm trying just to brush off as something that doesn't carry well in translation. But on that note, between Anew, Marie, and even Louise, the women with boyfriends in this show often are portrayed as somewhat dependent and told often to leave the fighting to the men. And this isn't a theme in Kuroda's or Mizushima's other works, and it's not something usually portrayed in Gundam in general, so I'm a bit confused to from where it's coming.)
...ANYWAY. I read some complaints about how Lyle was acting in reference to Anew's death, about how he was more upset over her than he was about his parents or his brother. I think we can actually discount the parents part of that argument; since that wasn't covered in the show (and I don't think it was that addressed in the novels, but I haven't read them, so this could be wrong), we don't really know how he reacted about them. For all we know, he might have been really upset back then. Additionally, the situation with Neil's death was pretty different than Anew's. Lyle hadn't really been in contact that much with Neil, from what I understood; he simply received money every so often. Neil didn't even tell him he was in Celestial Being or anything, so I get the feeling that they didn't really have that much of a relationship. (And even for being twins, it really seems like Neil had the clear big brother role, and Lyle couldn't relate much to him. Buuuut that's just my general take.) Plus, four years had gone by without Lyle receiving any word from Neil whatsoever, so quite honestly I can understand his reaction of, "Nii-san's dead? Oh, okay." Neil just wasn't a person he had a huge connection with.
Anew, on the other hand, was the person who Lyle was wholly committed to, and it really seemed like his world was revolving around her by this episode. (And this can be backed up with how he told her he loved her last episode when he was supposed to be leaving for battle-- The war isn't exactly going to wait for you to get done with your confession, you know!) So, especially with all these other random people hanging around who I still don't think he has much of a friendship with (otherwise, why would he skulk around eavesdropping on them like when Saji and Setsuna were arguing?), Anew was really the only one who he would talk to. It was his version of obtaining a perfect world that I think he had been striving for, by joining Katharon without Neil or anyone knowing [...for a while...] and then later with Celestial Being. So, it wasn't really like she was his reason for fighting the war; it was more she was his reason for wanting there not to be a war, so he could live peacefully with her.
So, from that standpoint, it was really sad that Anew died. I think that it could have been even worse (or, rather, impacting) if, once again, Anew had actually been more than simply a nice person (although she actually seemed really bubbly when she was about to die, which was way more of an interesting side to her than what she had previously shown). That's really, when you get down to it, my main criticism. (Hence why I keep repeating it, urgh.) And also, if she hadn't been so wishy-washy-- why was she a double agent? Why didn't she want to go back? Was she just being a Ribbons follower? Did she even have any attachment to this world other than Lyle?
Of course, now that Lyle's had the love of his life taken from him, it'll be pretty interesting to see if he takes revenge on the Innovators. (And by "interesting," I mean, "hopefully they'll actually address it if it happens and not ignore that awesome speech he made earlier this season." I'm not actually that confident in this at the moment.) He's already hardcore beaten up on Setsuna (which was HILARIOUS, especially how Tieria and everyone else were just like, "aaauugh stop it...okay, not getting involved"), which is pretty much exactly revenge, but I'm just going to brush that off as an in-the-moment, grief response thing. He does collapse and start sobbing into Setsuna's chest (HAHAHAHA) while still pathetically hitting him (HAHAHAHA), so... He's obviously just not in a good mental state right now. But if he does start going after the Innovators for the express purpose of revenge, it'll completely invalidate that speech he made, and any distinction between his character and Neil's. Plus, it'll pretty much push the message that revenge is a-okay if you've had things you loved stolen from you. And that goes against everything else in the show, so.
Basically, my already-depleting love for Lyle is dangerously in jeopardy depending on what the writers choose to do from here. HOPEFULLY GET BACK TO A PLOT Y/Y?
ALSO I DON'T CRACK-SHIP LYLE/TIERIA ANYMORE. :( They've had, like, no interaction together. I am so disappointed. Then again, Neil/Tieria jumped out of nowhere this late last season, so maybe I should still have hope!
...I have no idea how coherent any of that was, since I failed to sleep well last night. OH WELL.
Geez, and after writing that essay, I have to go write that Ethics one.
So anyway, everyone seemed really gracious at the Oscars this year, and I thought the speeches were actually pretty good for what they usually are. I nearly cried at some of them, seriously. And I was satisfied with everyone who won. Hugh Jackman was also a lot better than I thought he'd be-- Smart move going for performing instead of a comedy routine. (But was I the only one who felt that every time he said something like, "The musical is back!" that he was trying to stab us for getting rid of Viva Laughlin?) Of course, my favorite parts of the show were whenever they showed Dev Patel, who always looked so happy, oh my gosh.
Okay, now I'm going to devote the rest of this entry to Gundam 00, so...yeah.
I was more emotional over the Academy Awards than I was over this episode. I don't know if this means I'm more rooted in reality or that there just was no reason to really care, haha. No, I shouldn't be that harsh. I DID feel really bad when Anew died. But the thing is... Anew's personality was pretty much limited to being calm and kind. Basically, all her conversations were with Lyle, and they only had about three or four of them before this episode. I heard that rumor that the sponsors wanted a romantic plot, so the director created the Lyle/Anew plot rather than having a spy vs spy thing, and after what happened with Geass (not to mention stuff that happens here in the States, like what NBC told News Radio to do), that actually seems really plausible. I wouldn't say that Lyle/Anew was stuffed in there, but it...just wasn't developed as well as it could have been.
Basically, Anew didn't have enough of a personality or a role in the story to make any of this that exciting. So she turned out to be a double agent. Was there really anything to indicate this earlier in the story, other than her resemblance to Revive, the way both of their eyes shone that one time, and her offbeat name? No, not particularly. So basically, it was an "Oh hey, I'm evil now" move that I don't think really obtained any emotional impact whatsoever (for me, at least). That's great. She's evil. But I don't feel particularly betrayed or anything. The only really "tragic" part came at the very end, when she was going to go back to Celestial Being, but Ribbons hijacked her body. And that's mostly tragic just on the basic principle that she and Lyle were "finally going to be together," although... Why should I really care about that either? For me, the real tragic part of what Ribbons did is the future implications-- This means he could easily take over any of the other Innovators, which potentially means he could make Tieria kill everyone.
Okay, going back to the whole Lyle/Anew romance thing... I don't actually have anything against Lyle/Anew. I actually like it, or at least I could have liked it if it had more development. And I did like the part where Lyle was trying to get Anew back in the battlefield. (Even though there was that really painful "I'll make you my woman again!" line, which I'm trying just to brush off as something that doesn't carry well in translation. But on that note, between Anew, Marie, and even Louise, the women with boyfriends in this show often are portrayed as somewhat dependent and told often to leave the fighting to the men. And this isn't a theme in Kuroda's or Mizushima's other works, and it's not something usually portrayed in Gundam in general, so I'm a bit confused to from where it's coming.)
...ANYWAY. I read some complaints about how Lyle was acting in reference to Anew's death, about how he was more upset over her than he was about his parents or his brother. I think we can actually discount the parents part of that argument; since that wasn't covered in the show (and I don't think it was that addressed in the novels, but I haven't read them, so this could be wrong), we don't really know how he reacted about them. For all we know, he might have been really upset back then. Additionally, the situation with Neil's death was pretty different than Anew's. Lyle hadn't really been in contact that much with Neil, from what I understood; he simply received money every so often. Neil didn't even tell him he was in Celestial Being or anything, so I get the feeling that they didn't really have that much of a relationship. (And even for being twins, it really seems like Neil had the clear big brother role, and Lyle couldn't relate much to him. Buuuut that's just my general take.) Plus, four years had gone by without Lyle receiving any word from Neil whatsoever, so quite honestly I can understand his reaction of, "Nii-san's dead? Oh, okay." Neil just wasn't a person he had a huge connection with.
Anew, on the other hand, was the person who Lyle was wholly committed to, and it really seemed like his world was revolving around her by this episode. (And this can be backed up with how he told her he loved her last episode when he was supposed to be leaving for battle-- The war isn't exactly going to wait for you to get done with your confession, you know!) So, especially with all these other random people hanging around who I still don't think he has much of a friendship with (otherwise, why would he skulk around eavesdropping on them like when Saji and Setsuna were arguing?), Anew was really the only one who he would talk to. It was his version of obtaining a perfect world that I think he had been striving for, by joining Katharon without Neil or anyone knowing [...for a while...] and then later with Celestial Being. So, it wasn't really like she was his reason for fighting the war; it was more she was his reason for wanting there not to be a war, so he could live peacefully with her.
So, from that standpoint, it was really sad that Anew died. I think that it could have been even worse (or, rather, impacting) if, once again, Anew had actually been more than simply a nice person (although she actually seemed really bubbly when she was about to die, which was way more of an interesting side to her than what she had previously shown). That's really, when you get down to it, my main criticism. (Hence why I keep repeating it, urgh.) And also, if she hadn't been so wishy-washy-- why was she a double agent? Why didn't she want to go back? Was she just being a Ribbons follower? Did she even have any attachment to this world other than Lyle?
Of course, now that Lyle's had the love of his life taken from him, it'll be pretty interesting to see if he takes revenge on the Innovators. (And by "interesting," I mean, "hopefully they'll actually address it if it happens and not ignore that awesome speech he made earlier this season." I'm not actually that confident in this at the moment.) He's already hardcore beaten up on Setsuna (which was HILARIOUS, especially how Tieria and everyone else were just like, "aaauugh stop it...okay, not getting involved"), which is pretty much exactly revenge, but I'm just going to brush that off as an in-the-moment, grief response thing. He does collapse and start sobbing into Setsuna's chest (HAHAHAHA) while still pathetically hitting him (HAHAHAHA), so... He's obviously just not in a good mental state right now. But if he does start going after the Innovators for the express purpose of revenge, it'll completely invalidate that speech he made, and any distinction between his character and Neil's. Plus, it'll pretty much push the message that revenge is a-okay if you've had things you loved stolen from you. And that goes against everything else in the show, so.
Basically, my already-depleting love for Lyle is dangerously in jeopardy depending on what the writers choose to do from here. HOPEFULLY GET BACK TO A PLOT Y/Y?
ALSO I DON'T CRACK-SHIP LYLE/TIERIA ANYMORE. :( They've had, like, no interaction together. I am so disappointed. Then again, Neil/Tieria jumped out of nowhere this late last season, so maybe I should still have hope!
...I have no idea how coherent any of that was, since I failed to sleep well last night. OH WELL.
Geez, and after writing that essay, I have to go write that Ethics one.
