Filed under: Feminism, Flicks | Tags: Gerald Anderson, Kim Chiu, Paano Na Kaya
So there’s this whole debate on whether to take Buffy comics, season eight, as canon. Joss actually said it was canon, and there’s this notion that because he is (dudududududun!) the real father of Buffy, he has a complete say on what is canon and what is not.
Problematic because
1.) If you’re someone’s father, you don’t really get to dictate everything that happens in your daughter’s life… but I don’t really have to use a father-daughter metaphor, let’s just tell it straight.–Buffy the Vampire Slayer is what it is precisely of everything and everyone that made it. I’m not saying that if one of the regular writers stopped writing for Buffy, it won’t be Buffy anymore, or that a Buffy without Joss Whedon is still Buffy–just saying that it is TEH PROCESS that makes it happen. The conditions around writing and executing Buffy is what makes Buffy, Buffy. There are key elements of course that would have to stay, like of course, the creator, the long-time writers, etc (for who would know Buffy more than those who gave birth and mold her, etc) which brings us to two things:
2.) Firstly, medium used. The conditions around writing and executing would have been more similar if comics were not the medium used. That’s why the flick Serenity worked for Firefly. Relatively, movies have a similar feel to television–which is why, hello, television movies. There’s basically the screen, live actors, directors, etc. Firefly is about 40 minutes without the commercial breaks, and what, Serenity is another I guess, 40 minutes longer than that? It’s just like watching a two episode special. Comics well, are comics. Even with the same writers and directors, it’s different because comics draw the characters and give them their own version of acting. Also, the limitations in television and films are relatively absent in comics. They could go crazy with special effects (ex Angel After the Fall got dragons in them) making it easier to leave everything that the world of television and films can offer, making it over-the-top different.
3.) Secondly, it’s not just the creator and writers who know Buffy well. It’s those who watch and help her grow as well. That’s actually why Buffy is relatively more “alive” than other television shows, Buffy has an actual massive community who cares deeply about her. Who would fawn and debate over such things like is-this-canon-or-not. Is-this-Buffy-or-not. Fans have the same hand in writing Buffy, their reactions, their fanfictions, their meta, and the mere fact that the creator and writers engage with the fans all contributes to the process of writing and executing Buffy. When Whedon went to make Buffy into comics, he kind of lost a chunk of fans’ hands–that’s like losing a gazillion of long-time writers.
4.) That is why movie adaptations of comics (Iron Man, etc) are precisely called movie adaptations.
5.) I love the Buffy comics, I really do. Not as much as I love the series, of course, but I do find it enjoyable too. And I kind of worship the ground Joss Whedon walks on and he can’t do anything wrong in my eyes, and I really really really wanted season 8 to be canon BUT Joss Whedon himself said so that he would discard whatever happened in the comics if Buffy would be made into film. Come on, how could I treat season 8 as a canon after that? (Couldn’t find the link of him stating that, am lazy and haven’t eaten breakfast, please google it and comment me back)
I can’t remember why I promised myself not to put Buffy and Angel stuff in blogs exclusively for my reviews, but I know that these decisions were backed-up by thorough thinking and time–as I take my blogging quite serious sometimes–so I trust my past-self and back up her decision.
So Angel’s second season’s second episode:
One of those episodes that makes me flashes my hands and scream BEST EPISODE EVARRR.
It’s kinda like a puzzle. The ‘who died horribly ’cause Angel screwed up 50 years ago’ game?- Cordelia
1. Is it me or would they be starting the mood of the second season with courtly-like trials aka Law and Order Style. The pilot of second season takes this very literally and though the pilot is boring, it makes a pretty good set-up of the second season pushing The Tribunal’s essence to more humanely (and well, more ugly and maybe the reason why it’s more beautiful) facets. But maybe that’s just me, I mean, Angel has always been about judgment, guilt, redefinition of innocence, and redemption so…
Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m stuffed! God I love people! Don’t you? They feed me the worst and I kinda serve it right back to them, and the fear and prejudice turns to certainty and hate, and I take another bite and mmm-mmm-mmm! What a beautiful, beautiful dance! Oh, you got your feelings hurt, didn’t ya? See now what happens when you stick your neck out for ‘em? They throw a rope around it! And you thought you’d made a friend. - Thesulac Demon
2, Forgiveness. Even though Whedon is a card-carrying aesthetic, he’s also a humanist, which is very religious based if you ask me. But being religious based doesn’t have to be bad, I think. I mean, there *are* reasons why such religions sprout all over the world. And Angel has always been about the philosophical as Buffy has been more about the psychological. Besides, Tim Minear writes best when he’s dealing with religious-self-righteous-like fanatical angry mobs which ups the sins, and also upping the stakes of redemption. I love it when the villains are humans. Also, the idea of forgiveness being the only savior of those who are guilty (and all the ugly side of humanity) rings the weepy cheesy bell of the audience (unless, of course, you’re a psychopath, but that’s a whole different discussion).
3. If there’s a reason why I keep coming back to this old vampire is he can conjure up episodes solely on his past. I LOVE properly executed flashbacks.
4. I think it’s cute that Angel told Cordelia and Wesley to do research on the hotel knowing what they would eventually find out about it. It kinds of represent Angel’s whole obsession on being mysterious. He likes to stay quiet but he still has the desire for people to actually know him.
5. Form! Oooh, how I love these types of episodes. The panning of the camera interlocking every characters and extras’ backstories and personalities. The stillness of their everyday lives, but the there’s-more-to-the-surface feel, and then of course, the impending doom and boom. And oh, the panning of the camera. 
It focuses on other characters wherein Angel’s actually always in that shot, just behind the scene–though probably unconscious of being part of the scene and minding his own business, he’s still actually part of it–the camera leaves the-characters-and-scene-of-the-moment then follows and focuses on Angel. LOVELY. It also gets lovelier when the camera follows Angel, as usual, and when he enters the lobby of the hotel, he double-takes as he gets hit with the reality that there’s no one there, which is (duh) unusual. There are no other characters, no scene of the moment. BIG OBVIOUS SIGN: The place, the hotel, has totally flipped out. Angel now has the undivided attention of the hotel, and everything’s gonna rain on him. Hello, calm of of the storm. Hello, arrived doom and boom.
6,Which brings us to the importance of SETTING. Yay, meaningful places! Yay, humans bring places to life! I loooooooooove the hotel. I think it represents the show more than anything. Part sexy, part old, part creepy, part beautiful, part mysterious, part brooding, part smiling, and part what-Angel-is. I think the hotel left the mood of the first season in a good way (not that the first season was not any good, it seemed like it didn’t know what it was yet–hi puberty–and with the second season, it now does), and I think that’s one of the reasons why season five totally went downhill (although the downfall of who Angel represents–hero by walking the path to redemption– is actually on purpose–that’s also a whole different discussion where I could talk about Spike as a better hero 
). When they switched from the Hyperion Hotel to snazzy icy capitalist lawyer’s Wolfram and Heart building, the whole world of Angel flipped flopped. They couldn’t even live up to their super apt theme performed by Darling Violetta. (I got to mention Darling Violetta! Points for me! )
Wesley: Angel, surely you more than anyone must appreciate, how for the better part of the last century this place has been host not only to a malevolent demonic presence, but the very worse faces of humanity! This is a house of evil.
Angel: Not anymore.
http://paperpins.multiply.com/journal/item/523/Pain_Perception
Napag-alaman ko noon sa CyberPsychology class ko na pareho daw ang mga prumoproseso ng pisikal at emosyonal na sakit:
Naomi Eisenberger at UCLA has shown which parts of the brain are active when we feel emotional pain.
She devised an intriguing computer game in which participants were deliberately made to feel left out.
Simultaneous brain scanning revealed that the pain of being socially rejected was processed in much the same way in the brain as physical pain and in the same area, the anterior cingulate cortex.
***
But sometimes physical pain can become chronic, long outlasting its original purpose, and emotional pain is the same.
***
Malaki din ang papel ng alaala:
One of the authors, Dr Kip Williams from Purdue, said: “While both types of pain can hurt very much at the time they occur, social pain has the unique ability to come back over and over again, whereas physical pain lingers only as an awareness that it was indeed at one time painful.
“Why aren’t we always suffering pain by recollections of social betrayal and other forms of social pain? Because we are pretty good at keeping these memories at bay.
“We had to induce our participants to think about the details of the social painful event in order to get them to feel pain at the present. Merely saying, ‘oh yeah, my boyfriend cheated on me once…’ is insufficient to cause current pain. They have to steep themselves in the memory, and that’s something we don’t ordinarily do.”
***
The students were asked to note how long ago the event happened, how much it hurt at the time, how many times they had talked about the experience, and how painful the experience felt now.
Participants in the emotional pain condition reported higher levels of pain than participants in the physical pain condition, found the researchers from Purdue University in the US and Macquarie University and the University of New South Wales in Australia.
The students also reported less pain when they relived the experience than they had reported before writing the account.
***
Nakakatuwa/nakakatawa lang na kailangang daanan ang alaala para gumaan ang sakit. Kung kaya, kailangan mo munang malunod sa impyerno ng sakit bago makaahon dito. Pero ang isang bagay pa na ikinaaaliw ko dito ay ang paraan ng pag-alalaala na nakatulong ay isang paraan ng pagsisiwalat. Isinulat ng mga estudyante ang masakit na pangyayari, inilalabas sa pisikal na mundo. Siguro ang pananatiling pag-ikot ng alaala sa loob ng utak ang nagpapabigat ng pakiramdam. Sa pagsusulat, ginagawang pisikal ang alaala at mas madali sigurong patayin ang mapanghahawakan, ang korporyal. Parang patunay lang na mas madaling masolusyonan ang pisikal na sakit kaysa sa abstrak na emosyonal. Pero kung ganoon lang sana kadali ang lahat, kung ganoon lang talaga sana ang kagaling ang kakayahan ng mga salita (mga salitang parang napakabilis na manakit pero ang bagal-bagal manggamot).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7512107.stm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2639959/Emotional-pain-hurts-more-than-physical-pain-researchers-say.html
http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/sim/sim/view/20090927-227071/Food-for-Bipolar-Diners
This movie has a fluffy fairytale-like mood in the real world, about a bratty kid always running away from home because he hates his dad and his stepmom’s guts. He believes that his mom died because his dad had an affair with his now-stepmom. Therefore, he wants to be an adult so that he doesn’t have to be brought home each time he runs away.
This bratty kid is so bratty he borderlines evil. I know I should be more sensitive to these kinds of domestic dilemmas, especially sensitive to kids, but it’s a good thing I don’t have the innate tendency to go awww over kids (I’m choosy). I too came from a dysfunctional family (sometimes really, who doesn’t?) but I don’t wave that around as an excuse for being a major brat. And I realized this back when I was freaking seven years old. Every time I see the evil bratty kid, I want to throw tomatoes at him. I mean, it’s so understandable that Karen Mok (the stepmom) eventually blew up and kicked bratty kid out of the house. There stupid one, you don’t have to run away. You’re kicked out! Ha!
I would have done that from the very start–he’s not my kid anyway. Yez, I are evil. Furthermore, it’s Karen Mok. This bratty kid is attacking my Karen Mok (okay, and Stinglacson’s Karen Mok too). I shall cleanse the world of all brats for her, with a song in my heart while I’m doing it.
So anywho, the brat wanders around the park at night and sees this huge tree. This huge tree is special because it wasn’t in the park in the earlier scenes of the movie. A wise old creepy man, doing what wise old creepy men do best, crept from behind the brat and said in his wise old voice, “Ah, yes. Huge tree. I am so great. You saw me earlier in this movie playing with my little test tube of potion. And now, there’s a huge tree in the park. Because of my potion I dropped onto the little plant. And because I’m great. And weird. See my quirky glasses and fake beard? That indicates my weirdness but the kind that’s supposed to be endearing. But if my beard is fake, then am I really that old? Screw it, I’m still wise. I made the potion, didn’t I? Now I’m just going to wave it in front of your face and… why no! You can’t have any of it! Whatever you do, don’t ever, ever steal my potion.”
The brat (of course) eventually steals the potion, runs away, trips and wounds himself. The magic potion seeps into his wound. He falls asleep at the park and when he wakes up, he’s now Andy Lau. Talk about improvement.
If my imaginary audience already thinks that I do spoilers more than I should, my imaginary audience better skip this one fast. Quick, click that X button.
For those who are risky enough, let us proceed and watch a movie with Andy Lau in it. With so many movies he starred in, is Wait ‘Til You’re Older worth the time? Well,
FULL REVIEW: http://dacouchtomato.blogspot.com/2010/01/wait-til-youre-older.html
