Sexualized Saturdays: On Shipping Questions and Questionable Ships

How many of you here are in the Supernatural fandom? Yes, all of you? Then you probably know about NJWank2013: one of Supernatural‘s many chances to gank us all with angry feelings before the season finale. Let’s recap the events: At a Supernatural convention in New Jersey (“Salute to Supernatural 2013″), there was a panel with Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, otherwise known as Sam and Dean. The first questioner at this panel was a young lady who started her question with “I’ve loved seeing Dean’s character become more comfortable with himself this season. I’m bisexual and I’ve noticed some possible subtext…” She was immediately drowned out by a chorus of booo’s. While a bodyguard confronted her, Jensen said that he couldn’t hear the question, and that he planned to move on. “I meant no disrespect,” said the girl, and that was the end of that story.

Psych.

In Brightest Day: The Common Factor

In fiction, there are usually common concepts that drive a work. It’s the action that drives the main character towards the story’s resolution. Sometimes, the concept can be something as simple as a contest. Sometimes it’s as complicated as a war.

Ink and Luce Talk About Racial Issues: “Following the Plot”

Luce: Welcome back to this edition of Ink and Luce Talk About Racial Issues—can I just say that your username being Ink brings up a lot of issues?

Ink: Right?

Luce: Like, Ink is a black person, of course he is. But let’s get back to Rostad’s video.

Ink: Okay, last post we made a bunch of decisions about the whole piece, except for the last two paragraphs. Frankly, I find them to be the most interesting—they’re not about just Cho Chang, JKR, Harry Potter anymore—now we have this whole issue of what the Asian female-white male relationship looks like. My impression is that there’s this recurring trope of a white male and an Asian female—really, there’s a recurring trope of a white male and every kind of other ethnic female in fiction and popular culture, particularly film, and in a lot of ways that’s because we respond to that much better than the other way around—

Luce: Hold on. You say we respond to it better—but I don’t think that’s the case. I think writers and producers of media think we respond to it better, so that’s what they write. I do think that people would accept, for example, the idea of a protagonist being gay, if only they were given the chance. It’s the same thing with the idea of an Asian male and his white female love interest.

Ink: I think it’s a bit of both actually. First off, let me clarify that when I say “we,” I’m referring to our culture at large—I do believe it’s true that we respond better to a white male and an ethnic female, but let me explain why.

Ink and Luce Talk About Racial Issues: “To J.K. Rowling, from Cho Chang”

Ink: Hi, my name is Ink, and I’m new here.

Luce: And hi again, I’m Luce! So recently, Saika brought this video to our attention, and as it turns out, we had a lot of thoughts about it.

Ink: We’re both people of color, which we think may give us some perspective on the issues Rachel Rostad brings up in her video. I’m an African-American guy, and Luce is an Asian-American girl. I’m also a researcher in the social sciences, dealing specifically with issues of race.

Luce: And this is us, on vacation in France:

Oh, My Pop-Culture Jesus: vocation, Vocation!

Within Catholic-flavored Christianity, you’ll sometimes hear people talk about Vocations and vocations. A “vocation” or “Vocation” concerns the big questions of what you’re going to do with your life. It usually involves a combination of figuring out what you want to do, what you actually could do, and what your deity wills for your life. ”Little v” vocations are something like being a doctor, being an artist, or being a teacher—they involve you practicing your skills in a particular field, usually include a significant time commitment, and in some way contribute to the rest of the human race.

France Info thinks some people are “called” to work for them.

In Brightest Day: Draco Malfoy

I’ve been avoiding this character profile for a while. You see, Draco Malfoy is one of those characters that splits the readership of Harry Potter so much that it becomes almost comical.

On one hand, there are fans of the books and series that hate Malfoy for the hell he put the trio through, both the petty and the borderline evil. Others feel sympathy for the poor Malfoy child. I’m a bit in between. You see, for the majority of the Harry Potter series, Draco Malfoy is a simple bully. And boy, is he a stereotypical bully.

Oh, My Pop-Culture Jesus: Women & the Good News of Easter

It’s Easter!!! Happy Easter, everyone!!

Let’s talk about Mary Magdalene, the resurrection, and pop culture.

In Brightest Day: Anger Management Issues

We all have gotten angry. Someone has gotten under our skin and we’ve gotten mad about it. Maybe we yelled. Maybe we screamed. Maybe we hit someone. Maybe we started seeing what our enemy’s pet snake was looking at.

Derp

Alright, probably not that far, but anger is part of life. As I alluded to, some of our favorite characters have to deal with anger management issues. Sometimes, the anger management issues add an interesting element to the characters. Sometimes, it makes the character one-dimensional.

Pottermore: A Closer Look

Remember that thing called Pottermore? No? Well, maybe there is a reason for that.

That reason being it is boring as… the most boring thing you can think of. Watching paint dry. Watching a kettle boil. Like those, but on the internet. Now, the internet is not supposed to be a boring place. I guess Pottermore got it wrong.

Now, why do I think Pottermore is so boring? Because all you do it click to the next page with limited interactions with the story. Are you supposed to be Harry, or some random student? The game has a really hard time defining that, because it treats the player like s/he is a combination of the two.

Now I understand that the website is supposed to be super safe for kids, but that doesn’t explain the lack of interaction with the chapters of the book itself. I feel like I go through the chapters each time they come out hoping that something exciting will happen, but nothing ever does. It’s a total letdown every single time. And while I do get some enjoyment out of casting spells, the user interface for that feature is convoluted to say the least. And don’t even get me started on potions. It’s so difficult to use and time consuming that I get no enjoyment out of it.

And speaking of chapters coming out, when does that happen? How long has Pottermore been public? A year and a half? And how many chapters do we have? Forty two? That’s sad. I guess it is faster than the rate the books came out, but come on. A year and a half in internet years is a century. And I’m sorry, but that’s just too long to hold anyone’s interest in something that is boring to start with.

I had really high hopes for this site. I don’t think I’m wrong in saying a lot of people did. But the rate at which chapters are released is way too slow and the game play is too dull to hold anyone’s interests.

Top 20 Romantic Couples in Geekdom (10 Canon/10 Fanon): 2013 Edition

Those of us here at LGG&F are back again and working tirelessly to compile and vote on this years top 10 canon and top 10 fanon pairings in Geekdom. Last year’s list can be found here.

Now onward to see who made to this year’s list!!