lizbee | An assortment of things

I'm still putting together my thoughts on last week's Discovery, mostly because the story unfolded so differently from my expectations that I need some extra time to figure out how I felt about it. But I do have a crack theory, in which the Red Angel is Michael (Saru got a pretty good look, the "angel" is clearly wearing a mecha suit, but has a slim, feminine build with hips like Sonequa Martin-Green's), and while she thinks she's completing a predestination paradox, she's actually a pawn in a war between Section 31 and Section 31 From The Future.

Why? How? No idea. It just sounds cool.

Reading

I'm halfway through The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal, which is one of those books I enjoy reading over lunch at work, but never feel compelled to pick up at any other time.

The plot: a meteor wipes out Washington DC and a big chunk of the east coast of North America in 1952, this is going to be an extinction-level event in the long term, so the space program goes from "maybe a satellite lauch?" to "we need to colonise Luna and Mars by the end of the century".

This is feminist hard SF, and although it feels a bit heavy handed to me, as the heroine learns important lessons about racism and intersectionality, it seems to read more subtle to people who haven't been following those discussions in SF publishing for years. My main criticism is that it has some of the worst sex scenes I have ever encountered in published fiction. They're not graphic, but ... there are rocket metaphors. It's unfortunate (and unsexy). Fortunately I was warned in advance, and could brace myself.

(Also, I've seen it being recommended as a good book for people who want f/f romance in their SF? I'm over 50% through, and if there are any queer characters at all, so far they haven't come out to the heroine. I truly hate when media is recommended for inclusiveness it doesn't actually have.)

Watching

I'm into season 3 of Bron | Broen, the original Swedish/Danish version of The Bridge. A lot of Scandinoir is driven by coincidence, and this is no exception, but I think it's my favourite entry in the genre that I've seen -- mostly because Saga Noren is such a great character. But she has a temporary boss in this season, who is basically the Dolores Umbridge of police captains, and I'm spending a lot of time silently shouting STOP TRYING TO MAKE SAGA ACT LIKE A NEUROTYPICAL PERSON at the screen.

("Dear Ask A Manager,

My temporary supervisor is determined to make me reconcile with my abusive mother, and tricked me into attending my father's funeral. Is this legal?")

I also watched the first episode of Russian Doll, and hated it a lot. It wasn't bad, I just hated the main character, and also every single other character except the cat. So that was easy to drop, and hopefully one day Netflix will stop telling me to keep watching it.

(I mentioned this on Twitter, and a stranger popped up to tell me I needed to give it a few more episodes before I dropped it. There is no faster way to make me angry than by recommending something I already know I'm not into (see also: Leverage, where I was initially bored and indifferent and now I actively hate it), so that earned them a nice, fast blocking.)

Current Mood: thoughtful

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

sixbeforelunch

Hah! I loved Russian Doll, but it's the last show I'd say needs time. If you don't like the first episode, you won't like the rest of the series IMO.

From:

lizbee

LOL, yeah, I know there are twists and turns, but I didn't get the impression the entire setting and premise would suddenly be changed.

From:

sabotabby

I think the Red Angel is going to be Michael. The fact that it was obviously a woman suggests that it's a woman we've met, meaning that Michael, Tilly, and Georgiou are the most likely suspects. And it looked closest in terms of build to Michael.

People keep trying to make me watch Russian Doll but someone helpfully pointed out what kind of plot it was, and that's my least favourite genre plot after possession.

From:

lizbee

And it looked closest in terms of build to Michael.

Agreed, although we didn't get a closer look at other Angels -- I would not be hugely shocked if there's another Red Angel, and it's Spock.

People keep trying to make me watch Russian Doll but someone helpfully pointed out what kind of plot it was, and that's my least favourite genre plot after possession.

I don't mind time repetition, but the constant deaths were stressing me out, and I just didn't like any of the characters enough to stick with it. (I bounce pretty hard off media about Cool Arty Queer Hipsters, mostly because they're always so much more awful and less interesting than the actual Cool Arty Queer Hipsters I know in real life?)

From:

kore

SUDDENLY I WANT IT TO BE EVIL GEORGIOU

....it makes sense it might be Michael, but I don't know if I would be into that.

From:

tree_and_leaf

I found “The Calculating Stars” more compelling than you did, but the sex scenes are so terrible. I don’t know what the editor was thinking to let it pass.

From:

kore

a stranger popped up to tell me I needed to give it a few more episodes before I dropped it</i OMFG, that drives me crazy, even if it turns out later they were right. Stop telling me that I need to see more of this thing I don't like to know if I don't like it!

From:

aristofranes

I watched the whole of Russian Doll this weekend,
and although I ended up really rooting for Nadia, the only reason I made it past the first episode was that I was literally too unwell to really care what we were watching. Odious Rich New York Arseholes in Impossibly Large Apartments is my least favourite flavour of character. But I was weirdly ambivalent about it overall, and found the ending fairly trite after some heavy stuff. Eh. The cat was good, as was the other main character who pops up a few episodes in, but ... eh.

I've been mulling every single female character as the Red Angel (because hips). I just ... can't figure out motivation? So I am firmly on board with your Michael theory. But I'm glad my Landry-is-the-Angel crack theory can't yet be disproved. Also, Amanda. Because why not. Trying to look after her idiot boy and going too far.

Basically, I got nothing, is what I'm saying.

Edited Date: 2019-02-25 05:57 am (UTC)

From:

lizbee

There's a genuine theory on Reddit about Amanda being the Red Angel! Complete with creepy amounts of hip size estimates!

I'd dismiss it, but -- as with "Kat was really Georgiou" last week -- I keep remembering that Reddit was the first to spot the "Javid Iqbal" deception.

So far, I think the only female character we can definitely dismiss is Tilly -- her hips are too thiccccccc.

From:

aristofranes

(Bless you for venturing into Reddit so the rest of us don't have to.)

That is ... huh. The only reason I had Amanda is a) ladyhips, b) the Spock and Michael link and c) she stormed out of there pretty determined and hasn't been seen since. But equally, she knows how badly the Angel traumatised Spock, so it falls down pretty quickly as a theory.

I'd quite like it to be Michael, because this series has ... really not been all that much about her, but again, ????

Whoever it is, they've Deus Ex Machina-ed about 5000 violations of the Prime Directive and they are in TROUBLE.

(Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's not Tilly. The only other female character I've discounted is May, because the Angel doesn't look pocket-sized. Or particularly fungal.)

From:

lizbee

That is ... huh. The only reason I had Amanda is a) ladyhips, b) the Spock and Michael link and c) she stormed out of there pretty determined and hasn't been seen since.

This is the post with the original theory, and this is more ... I hesitate to call it "evidence", but it's definitely something.

But equally, she knows how badly the Angel traumatised Spock, so it falls down pretty quickly as a theory.

Ahhhhhhh, but now we come back to my predestination paradox theory! (And it wasn't the Angel that traumatised Spock, it was his parents gaslighting him about it! SHE'S ALREADY CAUSED THE TRAUMA!)

(Oh no, I think I really love this ridiculous theory.)

From:

aristofranes

I kiiiiind of love it too, except I can't figure out why Amanda!Angel would be faffing around saving Kelpians and WWIII humans when all she really wants is for her idiot family to be collectively less idiotic.

Enter: Kat Cornwell!Angel, who really really wants to try and make up for that whole almost-genocide thing and thinks maybe saving a planet or three would help with that. Maybe has a vested interest in hanging around the teams tasked with finding the Angel, to make sure they don't.

(Except then I can't figure out why Michael and Spock, and I'm back at square one.)