Reading/Watching Log #76

Naturally I churned through a lot of stuff this month as I had three whole weeks off from work! Don’t worry, I spent a lot of it outside getting fresh air and exercise, but the evenings were free to settle down with media that I’d been meaning to get under my belt for a long time. Most of my viewing time is usually spent trying to fill in my backcatalogue, but this year has been filled with new projects that I’ve been interesting in seeing, from espionage thrillers to period dramas to fantasy films.

I also managed to get a lot of reading done, though I’m going to hold off talking about Catherynne Valente’s The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland series until I finished all five books (and I may make them a separate post).

Links and Updates

I am currently in the middle of three weeks of annual leave from work, having tried to time them with the peak of the current pandemic. It’s been an extremely fraught time in New Zealand, with anti-vaccine/mandate morons starting a riot outside the steps of Parliament because they’re... not allowed to go into public buildings for a few weeks? It’s disturbing and pathetic behaviour, and watching so many countrymen and women fall prey to the lunacy of the internet’s disinformation machine has been deeply disheartening.

It was announced yesterday that these mandates are ending near the beginning of April, which I processed with mixed feelings: on the one hand, I no longer have to deal with the tantrums of the unvaccinated in the foyer at work, on the other, I think it’s a bit too soon to be relaxing restrictions. The anti-vaxxers have demonstrated they don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves (even as they start filling  up hospital beds) so despite being past the peak this loosening of restrictions is bound to lead to an uptick in the numbers.

So I’m still finding it very difficult to relax, even with a strict no-read policy on current events. I’m taking plenty of hikes though, as well as churning through Catheryne Valente’s The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland books and ticking off films in my To Be Watched list. At this stage I (and I suspect, a lot of people) are just in “get through one day at a time” mode, which isn’t going to change anytime soon.

Legend of the Seeker: Reckoning

And we come to it at last, the final episode of season one and the reason I started recapping this series in the first place. At the risk of sounding over-the-top, this is genuinely one of my favourite hours of television: not only a great story in and of itself, but a fantastic culmination of the last twenty-one episodes, one that pulls together all the narrative arcs that have been carefully woven throughout the season.

It’s an ode to Richard and Kahlan; their love for each other and their individual heroism, as well as a strong introduction to Cara (who fits in so well it’s like she’s been here all along), a subversive send-off to Darken Rahl (turns out he’s bitten off more than he can chew) and a Set Right What Once Went Wrong time-travel story that taps into the best this particular subgenre has to offer.

Although it’s a largely standalone episode, it harvests so many of the seeds planted earlier in the season: not only massive plot-points such as the power of the Confessors, the Book of Counted Shadows and the Boxes of Orden, but things such as the Rada'Han (introduced in Cursed) and the concept of a male Confessor and its inherent dangers (Sacrifice). Shota (first seen in Identity) is a major player here, and even Alina the Mord Sith from Mirror is involved.

The pacing is impeccable: it seriously does not waste a second, and every scene adds something important to the whole. Richard’s ultimate plan in resolving the crisis is as ingenious as it is elegant, and takes into account all the magic-related worldbuilding that’s been established over the season, from the nature of being confessed to the mind-controlling power of the Boxes of Orden to the horrific implications of a male Confessor.

It manages to explore the love story between Richard and Kahlan, but also to build a rapport between Richard and Cara – one strong enough that you can believe she would shuck off an entire lifetime of conditioning for having spent time with him. Likewise, Kahlan has only three brief scenes in which to establish a bond with a one-off servant girl that we’ve never seen before, and thanks to the power of Bridget Regan’s acting, she pulls it off.

Okay, let’s get to it...

Angela Barrett: Joan of Arc

Written by Josephine Poole, this biography of Joan of Arc for young readers is both in and out of Angela Barrett’s wheelhouse. On the one hand, it’s not a fairy tale retelling like so many of her other projects. On the other, she’s illustrated plenty of stories set in medieval times, so it wasn’t a stretch for her to capture the stone castles and bright heraldry of 15th century France.

I’m not Catholic, but since I was a kid I’ve been fascinated with Joan of Arc and what she accomplished in her lifetime, and a lot of her recorded history seems to defy rational explanation: her ability to identify a king she’d never seen before, her accurate prophecies about how certain events would unfold, and the extraordinary horsemanship she demonstrated in the streets of Orleans, when the standard she was carrying caught fire.

It’s easy to assume that she had schizophrenia or some other undiagnosed mental illness, but at the same time, the fact she went from heretic to martyr within her mother’s lifetime is astonishing. Let’s just say most preadolescent girls (even the non-Catholic ones) have a Joan of Arc phase.

Standing Tall #32

This giraffe is unique for having a “mini-me” version of itself that was unfortunately locked inside the visitor’s center at the time of this photograph, and so can’t be featured here. As it happens, there were a lot of mini-giraffe sculptures, though this was the only one painted by artists and not school children, as part of a matching set. (If memory serves, I also think this was the first giraffe I visited).

It’s a little odd that it was featured at the Ilex Center (a café and giftshop) at the Botanic Gardens and not the Christchurch Airport considering it was sponsored by Air New Zealand, and has a very aeronautical theme. Designed by artists JacobYikes (one word) and Gemma Rae Dudson, the large one is called Mapthew and the smaller Head Above the Clouds.

Mapthew is clearly a play on words, as it looks from a distance like a traditional giraffe, only for close proximity to reveal that its spots are in the shape of the world’s countries. Its little counterpart makes fun of its diminutive size by covering its body with clouds and rendering its head in natural colours, making it look like it’s literally got its head above the cloud-line.

Here it is here, though this was taken at the end of the art trail, when all the giraffes were temporarily put on display at Russley Golf Course before the charity auction:

Woman of the Month: Mel Medarda

Mel Medarda from Arcane

Arcane provides a plethora of great female characters – Vi, Caitlyn, Powder, Grayson – and any one of them could have been March’s Woman of the Month, but I was particularly drawn to Mel Medarda, a young politician and aristocrat who holds a seat at the Council of Clans despite her years. Each of the main characters in Arcane eventually gets a flashback to their past to explore exactly where they came from and what makes them tick, and Mel’s (held off until the final episode) is especially intriguing given where she ends up. The child of a warlord, she was clearly raised to be pragmatic to the point of ruthless, but retained enough of her innate sense of decency to work towards a better world for everyone.

In this sense, she reminds me a bit of Margaery Tyrell, another character who uses soft manipulation... for good. It’s such a rare quality to see, especially in female characters, but Mel has an expert hand in gently pushing people where she wants them to be, all while demonstrating genuine warmth toward them. Usually this level of cunning suggests deceitfulness and slyness in a character (and glancing at the fandom, they’ve attributed these characteristics to her out of sheer habit) but when you look closely at what Mel actually does (and does not do) across the course of this season, there’s very little misfortune she can be held accountable for.

For someone in her position she’s also a surprisingly forthright person. She makes her intentions clear and follows through on them – another unexpected angle for a “politician” character to take. Usually such characters would pull strings from the shadows, but it’s clear Mel lives by a moral code she’s laid down for herself, imbuing her with a distinct personal integrity. In other words, she’s perhaps the only person in this show who lives with no shame or regrets.

And her design! Damn she’s gorgeous, from the indigo eyeshadow to the gold beadwork in her hair. Every time she’s in frame she dominates the screen.