Thoughts on Kaitou Ace from Naoko Takeuchi's Sailor V

I was browsing through the Sailor Moon tag on Tumblr and I just happened to come across this confession:

prettysenshiconfessions:
I thought Kaitou Ace was awful and creepy, a borderline villain. Why do so many people want him together with Minako?! [Link]

Ace Kaitou was very sinister, creepy and disturbing... and that’s what makes him interesting. Unlike the Shitennou in Sailor Moon, who had their duty and memories warped and removed, Danburite was fully aware of his actions from beginning to end and seemed to genuinely relish in having the “last laugh” over Minako, and by extension Venus. That is what makes him such an fascinating character. I agree I don’t understand people who genuinely wish he and Minako were a couple, but I can understand why the relationship is interesting because the source of Danburite’s discontent towards Minako is the bitterness he feels about his previous life, Adonis’s unrequited love for his Princess Venus and that all his life she never looked at him twice. Or even once.

On the one hand you do feel sorry for Adonis because he always admired and dreamed about being noticed by Venus but she always put her duty as a senshi first. Perhaps he could have lived with that if that meant she would not give her love to someone else. He felt sad about it, sure, but at least no one else would have her.

All he wanted to do was be as close to her as possible.

Then, while serving in Endymion’s army, just to stay close to his princess, he happened to notice a telling exchange between Venus and his Terran commanding officer. That was when he made another bitter realization.

In a weird way, I think it a cruel irony that out of all the players in this story it was the lowly foot solider who was reborn with his memories in tact. Minako, whoever Kunzite was before Beryl got to him, the other Senshi and Shitennou, even Luna doesn’t remember everything - all of them are in the dark. In this life he is the one who is one step ahead, who holds all the secrets, and yet he uses it to commit crimes and stand against Venus.

Danburite puts a lot of emphasis on paths. He sees Adonis’s path as one of endless struggle, reaching out to Venus yet never reaching her. That he chose in this life to hurt her shows an underlining bitterness that appears to have two roots: the one he blatantly stated - that her duty to Serenity made her unattainable - and then we have the one only hinted at through the panels but its inclusion at all makes it an important factor in Danburite's choice to become a villain: Venus's heart belonged to another man.

It is the latter which was, in my opinion, the straw that broke the camel’s back for Danburite. Takeuchi depicts the “other man” twice within a few panels. First, with Adonis standing directly behind him (OT: Oh hai, Jadeite!) and second, of him and Venus together. This is presumably from Adonis’s POV as they are being viewed from behind, accompanied by a sorrowful expression from Adonis at what is clearly supposed to be a tender moment between Venus and Kunzite. The inclusion of the tiny circling stars between their eye lines with Adonis's own swirling off into nothing, indicating that he is not only watching them but that while their eyes are for each other, his have no inter-locker. Adonis is alone. This moment is so clearly burned into Danburite’s mind that he has to flippantly wave it away by accusing Minako of “always falling in love back then too”, showing that the pain (or resentment) Adonis felt in that second was still vividly felt by Danburite. Had this really been another one of Minako/Venus's one-minute crushes, it would not have been included in his memory. Recalling it proves that whatever passed between Venus and Kunzite was mutual.

There is no point in sugar coating it. It is blatantly implied in this moment that one of Danburite’s key motivations for growing to spite and work against Sailor Venus was this moment. It boiled down to one key emotion:

Jealousy.

The fact that he serves the Shitennou in this life too is another cruel irony. Aside from working for the force that will “rule the world” and is working against everything Sailor Venus stood against, it goes further than that. Presumably Danburite knows how the love story between his Princess and his Commander ended - in tragedy - and being in the know while reporting to the shadow-of-his-former-self Kunzite perhaps gave him some perverse satisfaction. For one thing he had the upper-hand over the man who the “hands of fate” had favoured, the man Venus had loved. Kunzite is still his commander, yes, but Danburite is more aware of the situation than he is. The former has the power but the latter is holding all the cards.

Another thing to remember is that Danburite is also holding the cards tightly to his chest. In doing that, he is denying Kunzite his freedom and Minako the full story. Just like he never could reach Venus, Minako will never again be able to reach out to her (presumed) soul mate. Danburite dies taking the knowledge of Venus and Kunzite’s love affair with him, leaving both of them forever in the dark.

Danburite is perhaps a better villain because he is so aware. Kunzite, the other shitennou and even Beryl are ultimately pawns in someone else’s game. Upon realising the truth of who he was, Kunzite was consumed with guilt and sorrow. Ultimately, he had to have all autonomy taken from him to keep him under Beryl’s thumb. Even transformed into a crystal, he rose up and told Mamoru what he needed to do to defeat Queen Metalia. Ultimately we are shown that Kunzite is a “true knight” - always looking for the light even when surrounded in darkness. Danburite knows what he is doing from beginning to end and even with the opportunity to finally get his Venus, the darkness consumes him.

That is what makes Danburite/Ace good villain. He is complex like Kunzite but is also bad for the sake of being bad, which I admit I like. In the second life he is give the chance to finally win the love of Venus, but he opts instead to use her nativity and habit of giving love out as a weapon to hurt her. It is an act of a man who wants nothing more than revenge. Idealistic Adonis died chasing an unobtainable woman. Danburite died spiting the unobtainable woman by breaking her heart and cursing her love life.

You are left wondering at the end - was it his obsession with Venus that drove him to his nefarious deeds or deep down was he always ultimately a creepy, nasty piece of work? I know what I think - but what about you, um?

__

I posted this to my Tumblr and DeviantArt pages as well.

Thoughts on the Shipper Nazis Attacking Makers/VAs of Sailor Moon Crystal

So, I originally posted a lot of this on my Tumblr but as with everything else I wanted to shift it over to this place and actually make use of this silly little nook of the internet.

Anyway, the thing that sprouted off this long post I made was an Anonymous message in my inbox:

After I posted a vintage Hermione GIF using the cool new feature Tumblr has that allows you to summon any number of GIF to illustrate your response (Making the thing that Tumblr is best known for ten times easier), I actually put down my own thoughts.

The bottom line is this: anyone who has such an immature reaction to another person’s opinion should be ashamed of themselves. Very often these reactions are born of very small minded and closed off individuals who invest far too much on their feelings into fandom and this is especially potent when it comes to shipping.

I wouldn’t give such a pointless individual the time of day if they came a-knocking on my blog and would only ever post their message to the viewing public in order for my followers to laugh at how idiotic it is.

The rest of this point is an in-depth rant, so feel free to leave now.

(What lies below is basically my opinions on the comments made towards those who worked on SMC, the misunderstandings about what SMC supposedly did to warrant these comments and an in-depth look at Rei/Sailor Mars and the issues some people take with her relationship with Jadeite. If that interests you, feel free to read.)

What makes the whole “Senshi and Shitennou” bashing worse is that a lot of it is built on what appears to be a misunderstanding of the source material. I see the terms “queer erasure” and “hetronormancy” or whatever made-up word it is thrown in to make it sound intelligent. Not only are these words just buzz words to try and make like-minded people get all fired up over nothing but are to begin with. As Sailor Moon Crystal is based more closely on the manga, the writers chose to expand - ever so briefly - on the story thread that Naoko Takeuchi did slip into the manga for at least two of the pairings (Venus/Kunzite and Mars/Jadeite) and stated wanting to explore the relationships one day in her artbook.

The “anger” comes from these small number of people who seem to be under the misapprehension that Kunzite and Zoisite’s was conceived as a romantic one (when it has only ever really been portrayed as such in the 90′s anime), and that the Sailor Senshi are going against character by falling in love with men especially Rei. These two arguments have always boggled my mind because the the K/Z one is a non-issue (Zoisite is described as being “the baby of the family [of the Shitennou and] like a younger brother to Kunzite” in the Materials Collection, not a romantic relationship) and the Rei one is nonsensical. It has always irritated me when people claim that the Senshi being in love with the Shitennou weakens them as characters or is OC, as if women loving men is a flaw in their character. But here’s the thing guys: falling in love isn’t something you choose to do, it just happens.

I know a lot of people take issue with Rei falling in love with Jadeite as a break in character, as she voices several times that she distrusts men and has no desire for marriage. However these are characteristics of Rei not the Sailor Mars who loved Jadeite. Rei’s feelings are likely as a result of watching her parents’ marriage and her resentment towards her father for his treatment of her mother when she was dying. Her attitudes towards marriage can be likened in a sense to Elizabeth I. Elizabeth’s mother Anne Boleyn was executed on false charges of adultery when she was 2-years-old and bore witness to her father’s various troubled marriages thereafter. Elizabeth was lorded as the child “most like her father Henry VIII” and she lorded it proudly in public because it was necessary. In private, she never stop loving her mother nor likely forget what her father did to her: her devotion lives forever in a secret locket on her coronation ring, which contains a portrait of Anne. Elizabeth never seemed to be able to bring herself to marry - and who could blame her after witnesses nothing but disaster and pain come from marriage. Rei’s exposure to crappy relationships are minimal - just her father and his Jadeite-look-alike secretary who she appears to have had feelings for - but the point is that just like Elizabeth I, Rei likely has decided that marriage is not for her. Yet that still didn’t stop Elizabeth I from falling in love with Robert Dudley. There are many reasons why Elizabeth couldn’t marry Dudley (”I shall have one mistress here and no master! No man will rule over me!” being one, the necessity for foreign alliances another) but a lot of it likely stemmed from a genuine fear of marriage itself.

What’s the point of all this?

Well, who’s to say that Sailor Mars did anything other than fall in love with Jadeite? After all, he appears to have been bound by the same vows she was - to put his Master above all else - and likely would not have had marriage on the plate either. But they still could have fallen in love. You can’t help who you fall in love with. You can choose to kiss them, sleep with them, marry them – but you can choose whether or not you love them. That just happens as a result of getting to know someone. Mars could have done just that: she got to know Jadeite and fell in love with him. She needn’t have done anything else; she just loved him.

I admit I do take issue with people who claim that that character like Rei who is supposedly “empowered by not needing a man” falling in love somehow weakens her. Rei is not “empowered” by the fact that she does not need a man - that is just a choice she has made and has nothing to do with empowerment. If we followed the logic that Rei is strong because she doesn’t need a man, then surely we must conclude that Makoto is weaker because she does want to find a man and get married. But they are both equality complex characters who are stronger from their life experiences. That is what makes them worth while characters.

Anyone who takes issue with Rei being in a relationship with anyone including Jadeite, that’s fine, but to call it “hetro-normacy” or whatever the buzz word of the hour is, is a bit of a stretch especially since canonically all Jadeite did was express an attraction for Rei that he didn’t understand. As for Rei did was regain her memories and remember her feelings for Jadeite, which are implied to have been love.

To dislike a ship is perfectly fine but to then be needlessly bigoted or even threaten people who like it is completely reprehensible. Let’s not kid ourselves, we are all here in fandom because we take this stuff way too seriously, but I will afford no time or respect to single person who goes that far with their behaviour. People like that in all walks of life need to be condemned for their poor behaviour.

That goes for all fans who can’t be decent human beings regards of which characters you like or who you ship.

Inherently, this whole incident shows how people on the internet do seem to take the relationships of fictional characters serious, perhaps more so than the relationships they have in real life. I used to put a lot of value into them myself but I have since grown up and got older. While it is debatable whether I got any wiser from my experiences as a "shipper" of the die hard variety but I know for certain it is a world I do not want to return to.

The Power of Shipping in Fandom

I have recently been reflecting on my consistent days within that taboo word amongst non-members (i.e. non-fangirls) of the dreaded land known as 'Fandom'. Sounding like some forgotten village out of the Internet Religious Bible, Fandom is both a mystical, magic and moronic place to spend your time. It is friendly, ugly and frighteningly addictive. Many a young girl might just enter into it and find herself pulled, dragged, sicked, kicking and screaming into its very dark and murky depths. It is where hardcore fans gather and, more often than you'd think, it where genuine love for the very thing they are celebrating goes to die.

The picture I am painting sounds like a terrible, deadly waste land, doesn't it? Yes.

I am writing this article not just to explain the habitual habits of a fan within an internet fandom. This may not only warn early visitors (referred to as "lurkers" in the fandom) of what to expect if they decide to make their presence more known, but also aid the parents of the younger fans about what it is their children are getting into. Believe me, some of the things that come out in fandom posts and comments can be more damaging to a teenage girl that some idiot writing "COCK!" every five seconds on an internet chatroom. I say that not to underplay the danger of internet chat room, but instead to alliterate the fact that, in some cases, the wrong people within fandom torment a girl or boy almost as dangerously as someone within a chatroom environment.

It is the most positive same-sex relationship fanclub you will ever see, but also the must disgustingly racist sector you can come across. It promotes feminist ideals while at the same time beating them, spitting on them, downright pissing all over them as very often one female character will be idolised while another is vilified. It is one of the most positive and excitable places you can be, while being the most negative and tiring death-trap you will ever stumble into.

However, I need to say this first:

To clarify, a majority of the people within fandom (who, it must be said, are chiefly women aged from as young as 12 to as old as 60) are nice people who want to share a particularly keen to share their views and theories about a certain TV show, film series or novel they are reading. They are not bad people, they conduct themselves properly and they will usually not engage in so-called "ship-wars".


Now, some of the biggest fandoms out there, none of which (admittedly) I have ever been a part of, include Glee, The Vampire Diaries, Game of Thrones and Smallville. I cannot speak for these particular fandoms, but I can speak for slightly smaller fandoms which I have interacted with since I was a shockingly young age right up until towards the end of last year when I finally started to tire of being a "professional fanatic". Some of the fandoms I have been a part of in the past included Doctor Who, Merlin and Being Human and also a very brief spat with the Torchwood fandom. It is from these personal examples I will draw on.


From my time in each and every one of these fandoms I have discovered one thing in particular, and that is that it is very clique orientated. That is to say, in true Mean Girls style, due to being a chiefly female-dominated dominion, many fandoms that run for as few as three episodes will quickly start to have preferences for certain characters and, with that, certain ships.

The way this develops depends on many things but it usually comes down to two factors: the type of show and the number of primary characters.

A fandom like Doctor Who usually only has a few ships at any one time, due to the low-level of primary characters. In the current show, for example, as the Doctor (Sometimes referred to as "Eleven" in the fandom or general DW fanbase), Amy Pond, Rory Williams and River Song. Due to the small size of the character pool, there are a very limited number of ships. Ones that are more common (For obvious reasons) are Amy/Rory, Amy/Eleven and Eleven/River, with the first and the third being more popular than the other. Moreover, it helps also that River herself is a recurring character, meaning she is not always part of the action, meaning that most fans watch the interactions between Eleven, Amy and Rory, and because Amy and Rory are married it is generally accepted with good grace that they are a leading ship, and generally there very few serious conflicts - known as ship-wars - in the Doctor Who fandom.

This goes in to a little theory I have called the 'Threeway Theory', which has probably been proposed by more qualified people who have studied the fandom in academic circumstances. It basically states that three is the magic number. It is usually proposed in linguistics and communication studies that people respond better to words that are delivered in three. It is the same principle with fictional characters. If a show has only two to three main characters, then logically the character pool is smaller and the number of ships people can make is more limited, which means less conflict and more room for preference either way.

Of course there can be situations where the reaction is all the more harsher because the act of having three people at the centre of the show can create more friction, especially in a male-female-male or female-male-female situation because this anticipates a very literal triangle. This can sometimes be the case but the manner in which a show can deal with this is by defining the characters by other things. For example, the lack of conflict in the Doctor Who fandom generally revolves around the fact that a good portion of the fandom accept the Doctor, being an alien, is not the same as Rory, who is a male human.

Moreover, Steven Moffat established very early on that Amy/Rory were going out, that they were going to get married and that Amy was in love with Rory, which left the fandom with no choice but to accept this. In comparison to Russell T. Davies, who dragged out the relationship between the Doctor, Rose and Mickey, ultimately created a fiction within his own fanbase, especially when Rose left. The reaction against Martha Jones's character was similar to when Henry VIII switched Queens. Imagine Rose Tyler as Catherine of Aragon and Martha Jones as Anne Boleyn. By adding another female character while giving the previous leading female a sad, but ultimately unsatisfying send off, it invited the fandom to hate the character who was replacing her.

This led to 'ship-wars' centred on characters, rather than specific couples. Some Rose-fans, who may or may not have shipped her with the Tenth Doctor, would witchhunt anyone who dared to say they preferred Martha. Yet when Donna Noble came along, the fandom's loyalty was spread three ways and there were fewer ship-wars.

However when there are more than three characters, this is when the wars become more tense. The simple reason for this is variety. Logically, if there are more regular characters, there are more interactions that can be twisted into romantic gestures. After merely a few episodes of the first series of Merlin, the chief (and only real) ship had emerged - Arthur/Gwen, and with that Gwen/Lancelot (Lancelot being a secondary character and therefore not really applicable). The set up of Merlin meant that, logically, with Arthur as a Prince and Guinevere as a Servant, they were going to fall in love 'across the class barrier'. However due to the shows failure to affectively suggest this in a realistic light until episode 10, the fans formed ship-ideals that were not only completely dead in the water but downright wrong.

The greatest oddity of all comes from the overwhelming number of women who openly ship (quite seriously) Arthur/Merlin, despite no suggestion whatsoever of a romantic relationship. It is very tempting to pad all this down to an expression of female sexuality, a reverse on the male fantasy of two women together. However, in my experience, some of the girls who support these types of ships (i.e. male characters together who are NOT homosexual within the show), they also seem to despise with every fibre of their being the female character who is really the object of the hero's affections. This is sometimes the case with Gwen. For me, it stems from several reasons. A minor section of them, in the particular situation, are simply racists (Had to be said, I'm afraid), while others appear to be self-hating women. This is the negative affect of fandom as basing their entire love of a show around a ship, one that can never be truly realised, is frustrating. This then leads to overall negativity and fighting with other sections of the fandom that they don't agree with.

Eventually, the fandom will realise that these fights are a problem and, so, in the case of somewhere like LiveJournal or on a general internet forum, certain "cliques" of the fandom retire to "communities" or threads specifically for that ship or character. More often than not, shipping communities are more active than general communities. At its height, the Arthur and Gwen community on LJ for Merlin could get over 4000 comments on an episode post, while a general community would be lucky to get more than 100 comments.

This is the cyber version of the Great War, an all around "stalemate". That isn't to say that shippers do not occasionally clash and fight, (usually the younger members aged between 12 to 14 who are unaware of the stalemate). It is a nuclear missile strike situation: neither fanbase wants to be targeted as having 'struck the first blow' against another. Neither group can make a move towards peace because, and this is a fact, a significant portion of fandom-dwellers, (I was one of them once), prefer the safety of their fellow shippers with whom they are more likely to agree. Bizarrely enough many of these people might have nothing whatsoever in common, in regards to their feelings and theories about the show or just in general, yet they still prefer each others company to someone who they know hates their preferred ship.

That is not to say that people do not ship more than one thing nor have friends who prefer different ships. After all, there are always exceptions. Nonetheless it is generally true that people who have an OTP (One True Pairing) will prefer communities about that couple to any other. Once the Group Think has sent in for someone in the fandom, that is when they get sucked in.

In the past, it has been easy to prevent cyberbullying and attacks of fans, particularly young ones, on communities as places like forums and LiveJournals often had moderators to ensure that no one was personally insulted by anyone within the fandom. However with mediums such as Twitter and Tumblr, two things I just can't get along with myself, becoming more popular, it is becoming harder to avoid cruel comments or upsetting statements.

Anyone outside the fandom would probably think it stupid for someone to be so invested in a character or couple on a TV show so personally, but they would equally be surprised how quickly one disagreement over something a petty as a fictional couple can turn bloody.

I am not saying that people should BAN fandoms. They are great places: centres of discussions, debates, networking, art, fiction, videos and all sorts of brilliant things. I just ask anyone who is just getting into it to be weary of how easy it is to get sucked in and carried away. Try not to use it everyday, and even if you do only for a short period of time, no more than an hour. It's great to make new friends but don't become obsessed. And for parents, be aware of your teenagers emotions. Fandoms are great places for them to boost their self-esteem with with fanwork and being able to communicate with people their age who might like the show too from the safety of their own home. Nonetheless, be aware of how quickly it can upset them too. Don't immediately block or ban it, just be understanding and talk it through with them. Be that other voice, outside the fandom, reminding them that its all fictional.

Most importantly be more aware of fandom itself. Look into it yourself. See what it's like. Overall, you will see its a good place and filled with remarkable things besides ship-dedications. Just try to understand its nature. Only then can any of us tame this beast.

Review: Why BBC's Merlin Episodes Need to Be 50 Minutes Long

Last year the fans were horrified when the fourth series of Merlin was commissioned and there was a suggestion that there would only be ten episodes rather than the usual thirteen. I admit I was one of the aforementioned horrified because the thought of the show being cut down for what was ultimately budget cuts seemed unfair. The show wouldn't have gained an extra few minutes, just have three episodes cut.

But following the end of Series 4 I cannot help but feel that the show could do with some sharpening. For one thing, anyone who has now bought the series on DVD will see that a wealth of material was cut from all the episodes for no other reason than the episode was clearly running too long and had to be shaved. For example in The Wicked Day which saw the demise of King Uther Pendragon and the accession of Arthur loped off an entire side-line in which Arthur and Gwen talk about the moral issues surrounding using magic to cure Uther. They were deep, rich scenes and I thought it was an outrage that they were cut, especially since rather painfully cringy scenes involving 'Emrys' and Arthur were kept in.

Another issue that frustrated me was the portrayal of the character Agravaine. This is no slight on Nathaniel Parker's performance but the character was completely undeveloped and unrealised. He was introduced in the first episode of the series, literally appearing from the shadows, and then stayed in the light until Merlin finally kills him in the last episode in a gloriously remarkable scene which has absolutely nothing to do with Agravaine and everything to do with Colin Morgan's amazing acting.

The most frustrating thing about him was that his origins were never explained. He literally appeared out of no where and was then treated as if he had always been there. It is possible that the writers wanted us to think that Agravaine had always been there. It was the only explanation that my mother could come to to explain why the show had failed to give him any background or motivations for wanting to kill his own nephew and replace him with his sister.

Oh, wait! There was an explanation. Agravaine was in love with Morgana, apparently. But why? She never gave him any reason to love her and she certainly never treated him as if he would prosper from helping her. The entire logical of this motivation was completely flawed and filled with holes. Yet the worst thing was that a scene in the second episode of the series in which Agravaine explains his love for her was cut. On the DVD you can watch the scene in which Morgana cruelly twists Agravaine's arm while he declares his undying love for her. Even with this scene it is still a weak motivation for this character who up until now had never been seen or heard, but without it we literally had to wait until episode thirteen for Agravaine to even suggest that this was his one and only motivation. This completely blighted not only the character but the whole backbone of the show.

Still, the show might have been a lot better if this scene had been left in and told the audience immediately what ended up just being wild speculation on the road to nowhere. Therefore I think the show could benefit from being 50 minutes long as opposed to 42 minutes long.

But I also think that in order to achieve this the show does need to be cut down. The creators need to learn not to waste precious screen-time as they did during Series 4. What could have been the best series ever was slighted by numerous screw-ups and poor choices in the editing suite. There were at least two episodes which the show could have done without last series, including the episode in which Elyan was possessed and the episode with the snake-woman Lamia. These were episodes which could have been used to explain other series plot holes, which as Agravaine's backgrounds and other motives (to back up the unconvincing ones he was given) or wrap up the whole story of Arthur's birth - which was never explained and yet Arthur suddenly appears to have full knowledge of.

Agravaine was Ygraine's brother yet he showed no genuine motivation on her part for revenge. The killing of Uther wasn't deeply portrayed enough and could easily have been justified by his flaky and ridiculously conceived love for the she-wolf. Many opportunities were wasted and the show needs to get its act together for this next series.

After all, it is due to be the last one.

___

Review: Being Human, the Half-Way Point

So, I know a lot of us were wondering what the future of Being Human would hold. We all wondered whether we could get by without our Fab Four, with the original cast number being taken down to one. We all wondered whether Annie would be strong enough to hold the show alone or whether the new characters would be as good as George and Mitchell without copying them.

Could the show cope without characters like Herrick as the Big Bad? Could the feared 'Old Ones' really be a massive threat? Could the show come up with a better plot than last years which foresaw the end of John Mitchell, every fangirl's wet dream?

But most importantly, would the show be able to survive the wave of unshakeable fan girls crying at the TV, "It's rubbish without Mitchell!"

Well, after all that wondering and with four episodes down (The Series half-way point) I can say this: Toby Whitehouse has kept the show fresh and alive where other show creators have failed.

For one thing the plot for Series 4 has so far bested all other plots to date. With a fantasy/sci-fi show there is always the pressure to 'top' what has come before. Take Doctor Who, for example. Once RTD brought back Gallifrey and the Time Lords in the New Years Special which also bid Bon Voyage to David Tennant's Doctor, we all wondered how the Hell Steven Moffat was ever going to top it. And what has followed since then?

Series 5 - The Destruction of the Universe and the Second Big Bang resulting in a BRAND NEW reality.
Series 6 - The Death of the Doctor, the Revelation of River Song's identity...

And what does Moffat have in store for the future? An answer to 'The First Question'. The only concern we have here is HOW much more than Doctor Who do after THAT? Because it is clear that the end of the last series foresaw the demise of the Eleventh Doctor (Who, by the way, is the Greatest Doctor of All Time. All Hail Matt Smith!) and from the sounds of things, this will be a regeneration that will make the Tenth Doctor's looking even more dreary and annoying than it already was!

Back to Being Human...


The plot of this series is definitely a step out of the comfort zone for many BH fans as the story has moved far away from its humble origins in a wafer pink house in Bristol. The story focuses on the destiny of George and Nina's daughter Eve who is apparently destined to bring about the destruction of the vampires. With the destiny comes two sets of enemies: on the one side we have the Old Ones, and elite group of vampires who fear the prophecy of the young baby. Then we have the mysterious Woman from the future, speculated by many to be Eve.

With the deaths of Mitchell, George and Nina, three of the original four line-up of Vampire, Werewolves, Human-Then-Werewolf and Ghost had been lost. Many people doubted before the show came back a few weeks back that the show could keep going after having suffered such heavy casualties on the cast list, leaving only the ghost Annie behind.

There is no denying that the original four characters were very popular, especially the vampire Mitchell. I, for my part, could not see the appeal of him as he seemed to demise as a character after Series 1 and by his death at the end of Series 3, he was my least favourite character. Even his finally getting together with Annie for a short interval felt a little empty because Mitchell had lost so much of what made him a sympathetic character. His desperation to hide and run away from his mass slaughter of the Box Tunnel 20 changed him and he had passed the point of no return. There was no going back. Aidan Turner was right to leave when he did because, in all seriousness, there was very little wriggle wrong for Mitchell's character any more.

However the loss of George and Nina, the Golden Couple of the show, did strike me as disappointing. Nina was my favourite female character: feisty and argumentative I grew to love her all the more my love of Mitchell declined. And as for George... he was always the heart and soul of the gang, but without Mitchell and Nina, he lost his edge and it right for him to die.

And so we were flung into Series 4 after the first episode with several things to get used to: a life without them, and a new life with Tom and Hal.

Tom we already knew from the last series as a young and not-too-bright werewolf, the adopted son of the Vampire Slayer McNair. With the death of his father it seemed only natural that he would move into HH with Annie and George, and with the death of the latter he has taken over in the show as Chief Werewolf. One of the appealing things about Tom is that he is so different from George and Nina. Although his lack of basic knowledge outside killing vampires and the cafe in which he works can be annoying at times, it is refreshing.

It is clear that the show is trying to re-create the friendship between the Werewolf and the Vampire with Tom's friendship with Hal. Of course, having spent most of his life killing vampires, this is difficult. Yet following Episode 3 in which Hal was forced by Annie to get a job and help support the household, it was nice to see the trust between Tom and Hal develop. It helps that they are really forced together by Annie, and by Baby Eve.

And as for Hal, the new Chief-Vampire in residence, he had an even tougher act to follow with the popularity of Mitchell. Yet all the fears of the fans have been averted and some (Including myself) actually prefer Hal. The king is dead, all hail King Hal!

The appeal of Hal's character lies in his classy self-control. Even people who still long for Mitchell admit also liking Hal, almost because he is impossible to dislike. He is oddly charming with his anal router of things he has to do to stay off killing and his enjoyment of the Antiques Roadshow (I think all of us regular viewers had a giggle by Tom and Hal's rejection of the "show about conmen...") and BBC Radio 4. But probably the reason why he is so difficult to dislike is because he has beaten Mitchell at one thing many fans, even the ones who adored him, held again him - his constant emo whining about how difficult it was to stay clean.

Hal is an Old One who has been clean of blood for fifty years following his live-in situation with another ghost-werewolf set. Mitchell was a one-hundred-and-twenty year old vampire he didn't manage to stay clean even once during the show's run despite his constant attempts. With every failure, sympathy for Mitchell faded but by bit. With Hal, we can start afresh. Here we have an odd-ball, strangely likeable vampire who has yet to fall off the wagon...

And all of us hoping he manages to protect Eve without killing someone in the process by feeding off their blood.

Fandoms Bleed Into RL

I woke up in a coughing fit this morning but I'm feeling better now.

I wanted to tell you all a story that happened to be but I can't remember whether I told you all or not. I has a morale. The morale is that, whether we like it or not, Merlin is dominated by shipping and fans of the show will seek to identify 'their own' even in RL. Especially when it comes to the stand-off between the two main ships of the show: the Fandom-Fulled Arthur/Merlin pairing and the Show-Fulled Arthur/Gwen pairing. There are naturally other ships too but they are all a minority and small in comparison to these two.

The Arthur/Merlin fans hold dominance in fandom while in RL, in my experience, Arthur/Gwen are on top. In fandom, the 'Arwen' shippers tend to view other shippers with suspicion due to the overwhelming abuse some of them got between S1 and S2, and what they view (Quite rightly IMO although I *am* biased) as unreasonable dislike of Gwen simply because she's the one who 'has Arthur'. They tend to take this as a personal attack which comes not just from a handful of overzealous Arthur/Merlin but also a few people from other ships too. So there is this feeling of "ganging up" from what I have seen in the past. As a result in fandom they tend to shut themselves off from everyone else from fear of causing shipping wars. I am told that from time to from a couple of the idiots from both camps charge at each other and start fighting.

However I have a feeling that this secretive culture has slipped into RL too despite the fact that everyone I asked in RL who do *NOT* partake in the fandom experience, view Arthur/Gwen as the only proper romantic relationship in the show. If you are a hardcore or casual fandom goer however A/G fans seem to have this defence shield they raise up whenever they encounter *anyone* new outside the fandom.

Now I shall tell you my story:

Whether you like it or not Merlin is dominated by shipping even when fans meet accidently in RL, and I have proof:

I shared my Post-Victorian lecture and seminar last year with a girl who watched a lot of the shows I watch. True Blood. Being Human. Doctor Who. She was also a fan of Smallville and liked to complain to me about how much she hated it, lol!

She also mentioned in passing that she watched Merlin too.

Then one day while we were waiting for a lecture to start I happened to mention I watch Merlin too. Guess what the first thing she said to me was?

“Arthur and Gwen?”

Those were her exact words. Arthur and Gwen. Not, ‘Me too!’ Not ‘Oh do you?’ Not anything to do with the past series. Not even “Do you like Arthur and Gwen?” She just said ‘Arthur and Gwen?’

I gave her a thumbs up. She nodded and smiled.

My point is that while this girl is a casual fandom goer from what she has told me, the fandom has still changed the manner with which she interacts with other Merlin fans. Given I was 19 at the time and a girl she quite rightly assumed that I had dealt in fandom. So that was how she related to me.

As sad as it might be, Merlin fans know their own kind and seek to identify them in the real world, especially if no one else they interact with in RL is a fan of the show. I never think to ask anyone about ships in fandom or RL anymore because I suppose I feel cushioned by the knowledge that away from the computer screen I am surrounded by Merlin fans within my own family and friends. I watch the show with my little cousins, their friends, their parents and even their friends parents and babysitters. My friend John watches the show too (one of the few childless adult male viewers I do know). My mother watches the show. Every single one of them consider Arthur and Gwen to be the only romantic relationship in the show. Why? Because as far as they are concerned, it is. You could say Merlin/Freya are also a genuine romantic relationship of the show. In fact my cousin John (That's the Trio's dad not my aforementioned ex-bf, lol) remembered those two - although granted he referred to Freya as "that girl". There is also an argument for Gwen/Lancelot, but nearly everyone I know consider Lancelot more to be an appendage of Arthur/Gwen.

From being with all of them my attitude has come to match theirs for the most part. I retain my fandom quirks as you do but otherwise the reason why fandom has lost impact on me and why I can't be bothered to sweep to the defence of my ships when someone insults them or freak out it might get ruined, is because I don't see the point. Moreover I don't think my friend really sees the point either. She just wanted to know whether I agreed with her or not.

What's my point again? That fandom changes the way some fans think and even how they interact with other fans. Because there are no set forums, threads or communities for fans of ships to talk to each other in RL.

All I will say is I wonder how my friend would have reacted if I were a Arthur/Merlin shipper. I doubt it would have put a damper on our friendship but I definitely think it would have limited what we were willing to talk about. Because fandom shippers are generally good natured and do no like to provoke fights, hence why they stick to their set areas. It's the same in RL. If you know something is a topic you disagree on (Especially if its something as trivial yet infesting as shipping) you try to stay off that particular topic.

It reminds me to a less extreme extent of the rivalry between the fans of different companions in Doctor Who a few years ago. This was especially hot between the Rose fans and the Martha fans. I was a Martha fan and hell and brimstone falls upon anyone who insults me for being so. In fact the reason my PMs are locked to friends only is because I was harassed by two Rose fans during the 2007 run. I had never encountered fandom wars before now because I was *always* a canon shipper and I had always been in the majority. It kind of left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

I makes me wonder whether girls who had a particular companion they liked, when they met other female fans of the show, whether they too simply started the conversation by saying "Rose or Martha?" Because, let's be honest, it *is* mainly girls and women who start these fights. Most boys and men can't be bothered and really don't care about this sort of thing.

Incidentally, I prefer to talk about plots in the shows I watch over ships anyway and so did she. We haven't really talked about ships at all but rather what is going to happen in the show next. The whole ship aspect was really just a security blanket.