time of your life

Ugh once again I find myself angry and disappointed by the Emmy nominations, I don't know why I even bother to expect anything different...*sigh*

My main beef is the way The Borgias once again got snubbed in all of the major categories, especially acting when such average performances as Mr. Bates, Anna, and the Earl of Grantham got recognized, what the hell?! I mean I love me some Downton Abbey, even enjoyed season 2 unlike most of fandom, but it certainly did not deserve to get SO many awards, especially at the expense of better shows that were ignored. (And if they wanted to insist on giving it that many acting ones, they couldn't have given nods to the more talented cast members like Laura Carmichael?) Michelle Dockery can get it though, hope she wins. And I hope The Borgias at least win in some of the technical categories it was nominated in, like music (the music in the finale was stunning) and costumes...should have been nominated for art direction too (one of the most beautiful shows I've ever seen), but oh well. It irritates me though when I see people complaining that Game of Thrones got screwed over or "hosed" because hello, YOU GOT BEST DRAMA AND BEST ACTOR THAT IS PRETTY MAJOR FOR A GENRE SHOW! /rant

Also rooting for Community to win for "Remedial Chaos Theory" (glad it got that at least, ugh) and for Veep (which was very funny and deserved recognition, though I feel it had a big advantage being on HBO, which seems to be where the nominators look first regardless of quality). And I was delighted to see Portlandia nominated for "One Episode More" (the BSG epp, and the only one I've seen actually, lol), because it is so accurate and clever! ;) But yeah, I don't think I will be watching, as usual. It's funny, I watch so much TV these days, and yet the Oscars are still a much bigger deal for me.

+ After 2.5 months of working on it, I finally finished reading Game of Thrones! Unfortunately too late to read the copy of ACOK I borrowed from my GG-and-GoT-loving classmate, since there's only 2 weeks (!!) left in the program and she moves away right after...but I'll find it somewhere else. I'm just happy to be finally done, each of these are so damn long it feels like a real accomplishment, lol.

I was impressed by how well they condensed this monster into the TV show and keep it mostly faithful. I wonder though, will we ever learn more about certain things like Rhaegar and Lyanna (what did she want Ned to promise her?), etc? Because that was a bit of intriguing backstory for me that was mostly cut from the show and which I wanted to know about...and then Ned died before dreaming more about it. :/ But looking back, I do think that aside from Roz and the sexposition scenes a lot of the things HBO added improved on the book, like showing Renly and Loras (explaining why he decided to contest for the crown and showing their relationship) and giving us more insights into Cersei, like that scene with Robert...

And of course Dany/Drogo was waaaay more shippable in the show, IMO, aside from the first scene. I found in interesting the way HBO changed that one scene where she tries to convince her husband to try to take the Iron Throne for her, making it into that intimate scene of her doing his hair when in the book they've just finished sex--amazed that HBO didn't take advantage of that for their usual female nudity quota! Also just the acting, the pain and panic in his voice when he almost lost her, which doesn't translate as well in the books...

One thing I found just as shippable though (if unrequited) was Dany/Ser Jorah...loved how desperate he was in the end when he thought she was going to kill herself! Honestly I don't find much that's shippable in this book so I have to go with what I can. Likewise Jon Snow was JUST as annoying and emo and useless in the book as on the show, contrary to what I had heard. The only way the books are better is that on the show he looks like he's in his mid-20s while he's acting 15, which makes it all so much worse.

Oh and it was nice to have everyone's names spelled out this time, made it easier to follow than it is on the show...for example I totally did not catch that the guy who torments Jon Snow on the wall, Yoren, was the same guy who helped Arya escape from King's Landing. And getting Sansa's inner voice was very interesting, you can better see how her whole worldview changes...

From a cursory flip-through ACOK though, did they move all the Jaimie and Brienne stuff from SoS into season 2 then? :s Since I notice they didn't have POV chapters in book 2...

+ I also finally finished watching Arrested Development for the first time, after starting it on Netflix about a year ago, lol. I hadn't known s3 wasn't a full season so the end took me by surprise....not sure how I feel about some of the twists, but it made for a good finale. I kind of worry about how the "new" season will be, thought it's neat they are actually bringing it back!

+ And finally I snagged this "Guess the Ship" meme from rosaxx50 (I meant to do this when it emerged like a year ago, but um better late than never):

(1) Think of 15 ships you support.
(2) List them using descriptions of the characters involved rather than their names.
(3) Have your f-list guess as many of the ships as they can.

1) London teen helps war survivor heal from trauma as they hold hands through time and space. (Doctor/Rose guessed by sunnytyler001)

2) Brother and sister are each other's romantic ideals and the only other ones who understand each other's literary references. (Cesare/Lucrezia guessed by sunnytyler001)


3) Co-dependent king and ward are miserable without each other's love despite their ever greater clashes of wills. (Uther/Morgana guessed by sunnytyler001)

4) He continues to see and interact with his non-human girlfriend after her death, sometimes holding hands with thin air in public. (Jeremy/Anna guessed by rosaxx50)

5) A pair of young people from very different parts of the city find companionship and love through mutual intellectual interests. (Dan/Blair guessed by rosaxx50)

6) Two curly-haired dead flatmates feel alive when they're together. (Mitchell/Annie guessed by sunnytyler001)

7) A couple of pirates with intense chemistry are more alike than either is willing to admit. (Jack/Elizabeth guessed by rosaxx50)

8) An egoist unexpectedly falls in love with someone besides himself; she falls for him too despite her mission and beliefs. (Gaius/Six guessed by blasterboy606)

9) He makes her feel warm and whole and helps her cope with a devastating loss; she breaks his heart. (Jacob/Bella guessed by rosaxx50)

) He's rebelling against Heaven, she seeks power through the Church; when they're not trying to kill each other, they make out. (Marisa/Asriel guessed by rosaxx50)

11) Two nerds can relate to each other's pasts of unleashing apocalypses through hubris and alliances with demons. (*~SASSY~* guessed by probing_grays)

12) Two best friends often know what the other is thinking without speaking a word and are fiercely loyal to one another. (Harry/Hermione guessed by rosaxx50)

13) A criminal mastermind and a female police agent gradually develop friendship and romantic feelings despite being different species from different worlds. (Artemis/Holly guessed by hmsharmony)

14) Two kids grow closer while fighting in a war together, but are still too shy and awkward to ask each other to the school dance. (Jake/Cassie guessed by probing_grays)

15) A warrior and a seer become best friends and then something more, though outside forces prevent them from ever being together. (Cordy/Angel guessed by rosaxx50)

Also someone please rescue me from Tumblr.
 

This meme has recently been going around some parts of my flist, and dedicated/hopeless shipper that I am, obviously I couldn't resist! ;)  Just vote in the poll for the ships of mine that you also like.  Since I have a ridiculous number of things I ship I tried to limit this list to pairings I feel/felt more passionate/strongly about, though the list still ended up being way too long, lol.[Poll #1673927]

Brownie points to anyone who gets the more obscure literary ones! ;)  Also note the high volume of d00med!ships in this list, lol...