Review

Book Club: 2011-01a // The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

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Finished my first Book Club book, albeit a little late (and I haven’t even started on Dust yet, fortunately I’ve read it before). This first book was N.K. Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

Synopsis

The book is about (and narrated by) Yeine Darr, the still fresh ruler of the small country Darre, up north. Her Arameri mother ran away from her homeland; and her father, the king of the world; when she was young to marry a non-Arameri. So Yeine, although raised Darre, is also half Arameri. And as the book starts, her mother has recently been murdered and she has received a summons from her grandfather to come to the capital city of Sky.

Once there, she learns that her grandfather, Dekarta, is getting older, and has designated her his third heir besides her two cousins. Over the next days, Yeine strives to learn more about the circumstances of her mother’s death, since she is convinced one of the Arameri family has done the deed, or at least ordered it done.

While working on this, Yeine meets that which allows the Arameri to rule the world: captive gods, used as tools and weapons after they were conquered by their brother/uncle, Bright Itempas. The gods want to be free, and they convince Yeine to help them pull this off. When Yeine learns that her purpose is not to be a true contender for the throne but instead a sacrifice necessary to transfer the power, and that the gods have been using her for longer than she thought, matters get complicated.

Review (there will be spoilers but I’ll try not to go overboard)

I’m a bit in two minds about it. It has intriguing world building,with the many, many small(er) lands overruled by Sky only because they have the captive gods to do their bidding and thus force them to behave. I also liked that, despite worshipping of Itempas becoming mandatory, the different lands keep their culture. Too bad we were not really exposed to any of it, not even the cultures of Darre and Sky, beyond superficial glimpses here and there. Although we do see more of Sky, than of Darre.

Darre is a matriarchal society, with a strong warrior culture, and men are protected as prize horses. Of Sky we only see what is going on there, the actual lands surrounding it, hardly even mentioned. The city, however, is Arameri only. The only people allowed there (overnight, anyways) are family members. And that means that down to the last servant, everyone has Arameri blood. The level of purebloodedness is indicated by a marking on the forehead. And in turn, that marking determines how much control the person has over the captive gods. To be in Sky, at night, without a mark is very dangerous.

Yeine gets a fullblood mark, even though she technically is a halfblood. This makes her power over the gods almost absolute, only Dekarta can overrule her. At least, that’s the plan. Except that by the time she gets the marking she has already agreed to assist the gods, and her marking has been neutralised by them. The gods have agreed not to harm her.

I found the idea of a god killing his sister and enslave his brother and his children into human captivity refreshing. I don’t think I’ve read something like this before. It also made the desire of these entities to be free again, and how far they would go for it, much more believable. After all, they are gods, they made the universe, they were free to take whatever form they choose, and now they’re stuck on a planet, in a shape that is more or less unchangeable, and that for centuries.

The characterisations of  the captive Nahadoth and Sieh were well done, they really became people to me, with a history and feelings and good qualities and flaws; as did Yeine. With the other characters, however, I felt this much less. While I get that not every character can be as well fleshed out, it was disappointing that most of the often used secondary characters felt like cardboard to me. Viraine was okay, but Scimina… She’s Yeine main rival for the throne, yet she never becomes more than the standard villain-because-we-need-one. What drives her, and her treatment of Nahadoth, is never made clear. Relad was very promising in the beginning, but got neglected later on, which made his sudden semi-importance near the end come out of the blue.

Then Yeine herself. While we get a good idea of her personality and her appearance, the way her culture has influenced her versus how things are in Sky gets glossed over. I presume this has a lot to do with her mother’s influence on her, who was after all the heir to Sky untill she ran off, but Yeine shows remarkably little cultural surprise to how basic things work in Sky. Even something as seeing men being treated as something other than a show horse, to be kept at home and safe, should have taken some adjustment after growing up in a culture like hers.

For me the biggest turn-off however, for at least the first half of the book, was the jumpy narrative. The story is told as a big flashback, but is often interspersed with short bits of Yeine in the present just talking. Most of this are loose remarks, disjointed comments, and often she will later remember or forget something she mentioned earlier. These bits were terribly off putting at first as they interrupt the flow of the story, and their purpose is unclear. All it did for me was annoy me. Halfway through, though, when we learn that Yeine is sharing her body with the soul remains of the goddess Enefa, things change a bit, and for the better. From that point on, the interruptions become more and more internal dialogue between Yeine and the soul of Enefa, and they start to frame the story better.

In the last few chapters, as the end ceremony takes place and, of course, nothing goes as planned, it all finally fell into place. The pace of the plot picked up, and when Yeine died and became the goddess Enefa… That for me felt as the beginning of a story. It sort of worked as the ending, but it somehow made the rest of the story very trivial and more a too long prologue. The other bits that happened, with Kurue and Viraine, felt a bit like Jemisin pulled a rabbit from her hat. Viraine… it was to be expected that he would do something, that he had something to hide was pretty clear throughout the book, but Kurue came out of nowhere.

Bottom Line

I liked the book, even though the narrative threw me off. It was because of that mostly that it took me way longer than normal to finish the book. I’m interested in the sequel, but as I read that this has a different heroine, I’m not sure I will actually pick it up. I want to know more about Yeine’s adventures as a goddess, and more about Naha & Sieh. The review at Jawas Read, Too, gave the book a 7, and that’s a grade I think is quite fitting.

Links

Book Club Blog Review/Discussion

N.K. Jemisin’s website

In Short

Pro: Nahadoth & Sieh. You should read the book just for them.

Con: Jumpy narrative, not always very cohesive, and sometimes slow-moving.

ISBN: 9780316043915

Books 2010 // Runemarks

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Finished Joanne Harris’ Runemarks yesterday, definitely a recommended book for teens and adults alike. Despite the teenage protagonist, the book does not read as a young book. The magic/religious system, utilising Norse mythology, is complex in nature (and not just because Norse mythology can be quite complex to those not familiar with it), but Harris manages to explain and describe it clearly, without lecturing.

Maddy, the main character, is a likable heroine. Slightly the stereotypical ‘regular girl who’s an outcast in her society discovers she isn’t what she thought she was’ but well pulled off. It helps that, as the book starts, Maddy already knows she not like everyone else. Saves us from having to go through a whole forced discovery.

The character progress Maddy makes develops from the story and is plausible within the book’s system. The secondary characters are mostly well fleshed out, with multiple character traits, and personal development. I especially like how Harris’ portrayed Loki. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Trickster, and prefer the slightly more soft portrayal here, where he works for himself, but is capable of forming relationships and attachments beyond that me-me-me drive.

The story starts off 500 years after Ragnarók* with 14 year old Maddy using her magical talent to fix a problem. The people around town are aware Maddy is different, she was born with a rune birthmark, or as the townsfolk call it: a ruinmark. They have some fleeting knowledge that she has abilities no one else has, but are mostly in denial of it. Maddy tries her best to fit in, but knows she never will.

The only person she feels comfortable with is One-Eye, a traveler she met as a young girl. He comes by every summer, and teaches her about the old days, the stories of the Gods, and the things she can do. The summer of her 14th year though, everything changes. Starting with One-Eye who is late in showing up, it leads to Maddy using her power to open a portal to the World Below. Which then, as Maddy has been seen by a village boy, leads to a whole host of people getting involved. All with their own goals, everyone ends up trying to stop everyone else.

First person to get involved is Sugar-and-Sack, a goblin. He shows her around World Below, leading to Maddy meeting Loki. And from there the action really starts. Because one thing is for sure, as long as you’re with Loki, you’re in for one hell of a ride, for better or for worse.

*In Norse mythology, Ragnarók is the final battle between the Gods, the end of the world.

In Short

Pro: Well fleshed out characters, very interesting world-building,

Con: For the scope of the story, it seemed to happen in too short a period of time

ISBN: 9780552555753

Booklist: 2010

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Oh, wow, I haven’t posted a booklist update since July, heh, bad me 😀 At least I’m speedier with this overview, the 2009 list didn’t get made until March this year. As per ususal I didn’t make my (unofficial) goal of 60, but I got one closer than last year. So I will valiantly set it for 60 again, and am convinced coming year I WILL make it! The book clubs I signed up for will make it easier, since that’s already 24 books. So, without further ado:

My favourites for this year, in the order as they appeared on the list:

  • Sarah Monette – Mélusine
  • Joris Luyendijk – Het zijn net mensen {They’re just like people}
  • Louisa May Alcott – Little Women
  • Erika Mailman – The Witch’s Trinity
  • David & Leigh Eddings – The Belgariad & Malloreon

The ones I liked least:

  • Karen Chance – Basically, after the first book I started enjoying the series less and less with each following book. I still have the fourth one to read, and I will do that, but I’m glad I borrowed books 2-4 instead of buying them myself.
  • Jeff Lindsay – Bit the same, I have the first two Dexter books and I liked those, then I borrowed part three and I’m just losing interest in it, it’s not pulling me in anymore. I haven’t even finished part three yet and it’s been lying around the house for six months or so now.

Special mentions

The Belgariad & Malloreon gets a special mention. This was the series that got me well and truly hooked on epic fantasy and made that genre my First Love Forever in terms of books. I’d been reading fantasy and sci-fi type books before, but then without truly realising they were that. When I started reading The Belgariad at age 12 or so, it got me hooked. I wanted to be Garion so badly!

I read them in translation back then, but decided this year I wanted to read them again, and this time in the original. Since I hate how the omnibus volumes look, I decided to hit the second hand book stores to get all the single volumes. I got lucky with that, as I found a complete Belgariad in one store, and a complete Malloreon in the other, and both sets in good condition too.

I started reading them in November, and decided I would go right through, all ten in a row, and I found on rereading that I still love them just as much as I did when I first laid eyes on them as a wee 12-year-old. These books get a lot of crap for being repetitive and cliched and such. And while I’ll go with it for the cliches, I disagree in terms of the repetitiveness. Not that there isn’t repetition, but what so many reviewers seem to miss is that, for these series at least, the repetition (see what I did there 😛 ) serves a purpose and fits thematically in the book.

Sure, I’ll give that Eddings probably wrote the Malloreon from a commercial point of view, and that they chose a slightly easy path for it, but they did find a nice way to explain that in-world. The point being that, since the event that split the universe and caused the two Purposes to exist (this will only make sense if you’ve read the books, BTW), the world can’t move forward. Everyone continuously cycles through the same things, different people, different locations but similar enough that, when you pay attention, you see the repeats. Garion and consorts realise this about halfway through their quest in the Malloreon. The new people that come along on the Malloreon quest are thematically similar to those that were on the Belgariad quest but couldn’t come for this one. In the same vein, certain situations they go through or people they meet have a direct counterpart in the first quest. And unless the Purposes are finally united again, everyone is doomed to continue repeating itself.

So, bottom line, I don’t mind the repetition in these books very much. In fact, it gives me a moment to go back and relive a certain moment from a previous book too when something is similar. And it’s nice to see if I can spot the repeat even when the characters don’t.

The List:

2010
1. Sarah Monette – Mélusine
2. Naomi Novik – Throne of Jade
3. Naomi Novik – Black Powder War
4. Kat Richardson – Greywalker

5. John Scalzi – The Android’s Dream
6. Paulien Cornelisse – Taal is zeg maar echt mijn ding {Language is, like, my thing} [Dutch]
7. P.C. & Kristin Cast – Betrayed
8. P.C. & Kristin Cast – Chosen
9. Naomi Novik – Empire of Ivory
10. Joris Luyendijk – Het zijn net mensen {They’re just like people} [Dutch]
11. P.C. & Kristin Cast – Untamed

12. P.C. & Kristin Cast – Hunted
13. P.C. & Kristin Cast – Tempted
14: Louisa May Alcott – Little Women

15: Louisa May Alcott – Little Men
16: Louisa May Alcott – Jo’s Boys
17. Brent Weeks – The Way of Shadows

18. Star Trek: The Next Generation – Resistance (J.M. Dillard)
19. Brent Weeks – Shadows’s Edge

20. Ryan Sohmer & Lar DeSouza – Looking For Group Volume 1
21. Ryan Sohmer & Lar DeSouza – Looking For Group Volume 2
22. Brent Weeks – Beyond the Shadows
23. Preeta Samarasan – Evening is the Whole Day
24. Jeff Lindsay – Dearly Devoted Dexter

25. Terry Pratchett – Unseen Academicals
26. Bert Benson – Euro 5 antwoordt niet {Euro 5. Not answering} <A sci-fi series from my childhood, I recently stumbled across a second hand store that had almost the entire series. I only read maybe two or three of them back then, so am really enjoying the newness of most of these>
27. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Dreiging van de H-Mannen {Euro 5. Threat of the H-men}
28. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Duivels van de diepzee {Euro 5. Demons of the Deep Sea}
29. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Slaven uit de ruimte {Euro 5. Slaves from Space}
30. Bert Benson – Euro 5. De Monsters van Dr. Einling {Euro 5. The Monsters of Dr. Einling}
31. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Op drift in de tijd {Euro 5. Adrift in Time}
32. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Machten uit het heelal {Euro 5. Powers from the Universe}
33. Karen Chance – Touch the Dark [reread, in preparation for reading parts 2-4 which I borrowed from a friend]

34. Karen Chance – Claimed by Shadow

35. Erika Mailman – The Witch’s Trinity
36. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Ruimteschip Freya uit de koers {Euro 5. Spaceship Freya off course}
37. Michael White – Equinox
38. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Contact met Atlantis {Euro 5. Contact with Atlantis}
39. Star Trek: S.C.E. – Have Tech, Will Travel (SCE Omnibus 1)

40. Neil Gaiman – The Graveyard Book

41. Karen Chance – Embrace the Night
42. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Groot alarm voor Sectie 5 {Euro 5. Red Alert for Section 5}
43. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Paniek op de Noordpool {Euro 5. Panic on the North Pole}
44. David & Leigh Eddings – Pawn of Prophecy
45. David & Leigh Eddings – Queen of Sorcery

46. David & Leigh Eddings – Magician’s Gambit
47. David & Leigh Eddings – Castle of Wizardry
48. David & Leigh Eddings – Enchanter’s Endgame
49. David & Leigh Eddings – Guardians of the West
50. David & Leigh Eddings – King of the Murgos
51. David & Leigh Eddings – Demon Lord of Karanda
52. David & Leigh Eddings – Sorceress of Darshiva
53. David & Leigh Eddings – Seeress of Kell
54. Bert Benson – Euro 5. Het Geweld  van de zwarte orca’s {Euro 5. The Violence of the Black Orca’s}

The World Heaves With My Torment

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Pain… Agony…
My hatred burns through the cavernous deeps.
The World heaves with my torment.
Its wretched kingdoms quake beneath my rage.
But at last, the whole of Azeroth will break.
And all will burn beneath the shadow of my wings.
~Deathwing

The Shattering has been a week now, so I figured I jot down my thoughts so far. I’ve been questing with Asraelion (80) as well as Yathra (47) and both are enjoying the new 1-60 questlines/zones. Asra, obviously, is racing through it what with his level, but unlike when I was doing Loremaster and scrounging for those last quests, I’m taking the time to read the quests and really enjoy the stories. With a lot of those random kill x of that, collect y of that quests removed, every thing you do in a quest line feels relevant to the story.

Asra has been questing in Stranglethorn, Westfall, Redridge and Duskwood. In Stranglethorn I’m really fond of the quests that basically serve as an intro to Zul’Gurub. Very nicely done how you find an egg along the way which hatches a little t-rex who runs along with you as you keep questing until it suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, finds something and such leading to another quest. It feels very natural. Plus the epic conclusion of that particular quest line! Trying to escape Zul’Gurub as the t-rex, it was heart-stopping on occasion, I got pulled in that much. It also took some good thinking and patience, very nice to not be done with a quest in 5 minutes 😀

In Westfall, the whole CSI: Miami quest line. One word: Awesome! Assisting Lieutenant Horatio Laine (with trademark sun glasses and bad puns) solving the murder of Blanchy the Cow and uncovering the identity of the Shadowy Figure who’s trying to resurrect the Defias.

Redridge, while the questing experience is much improved, and following a story line, felt less epic to me though, although that is probably because I did it with Asra, and some of the assistance provided by the quest objects was unneeded for him so he raced through it. I did love the tank ride though 😀

Duskwood feels much, much better. There’s some real Worgen story going on there, so it’s nice to get a preview of Worgen background before next week. By now I’m already honored with Gilneas and the faction isn’t even fully in play yet 😀

Yathra, on the other hand, since I’m kinda trying to level her pretty quick, is doing stuff her level. She’s not done a whole lot of quests, but she has been running around for flight paths. I love (although maybe slightly overdone) the myriad of flight paths in Eastern Plaguelands. She has been questing in Western Plaguelands, and the quests and stories do a very nice job of showing how the Alliance reclaims the land from the Scourge. Andorhal is partly reclaimed, and it, plus Sorrow Hill, look great and green again.

The Badlands, where she has also done questing, is awesome. It’s kinda tricky getting there as Deathwing left a huge gash between Loch Modan and the Badlands, but if you look closely, there’s a path across. In the middle of the Badlands is a gash where Deathwing burned and tore through the earth. The canyon-like feature is filled with Earth Elementals, and an unlikely threesome of friends in the middle.

Three quest givers stand on a peak in the middle and each of them tells you about the day Deathwing came, and how they killed him… It’s part cinematic, part quest where you play the part of the quest giver. And since all three tell rather tall tales, the quests are hilarious! Plus in the foreseeable future this will be the only way you’ll ever get to kill dear Deathwing 😀

There’s only one week left until Cataclysm (and I so hope Bol will actually deliver my pre-ordered Collector’s Edition on the day itself) and then my Worgen will be created. I’m not sure yet what he or she will be in terms of class, but I’m looking forward to it very much. And in the mean time I amuse myself with thinking up potential names and seeing if they’re taken (which, unfortunately, most I like already are 🙁 ).

Glee 2.06 Never Been Kissed

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I can’t wait until I’ve caught up to season two in my reviews before reviewing the newest, so I’m going to do 2.06 now, then do 2.01 – 2.05 and then continue season 1 while keeping up with season 2. Season two is turning out so incredibly awesome!

Last night’s episode marks the start of an arc with increased focus on bullying, it had a couple very good turns and an awesome twist that I did not see coming. Taking this thing storyline by storyline, since there’s three running concurrently in the episode.

– – –

Kurt and Homophobia

Dave Karofsky

The bullying that Kurt has to endure at school is intensifying. Besides the verbal abuse and the dumpster tosses, he’s getting more physical abuse as well, specifically from Karofsky. He goes out of his way to hurt Kurt, pushing him into lockers, hard, and threatening violence.  Kurt, who’s been getting more depressed lately, what with all the crap happening to him, plus not feeling challenged enough at school, is not taking this well.

Mr. Schue has the list with the Glee club competition for sectionals, one of them are the Warblers from the all-boys private school in Westerville, Dalton Academy. Santana immediately has a head full of gay jokes, and Kurt just has an exasperated look. This kind of pervasive homophobia (because that’s what it really is) is the big undercurrent all over school. Even if a lot of the kids don’t realise that they’re continuing this undercurrent by these small remarks. It all adds up.

Will catches the last of Karofsky shoving Kurt into the lockers again and takes Kurt to his office for some water and a chat. The look on Kurt’s face as he looks at the cup that Will offers him says it all. Contempt for the amount of support he’s been getting, and, as he accepts the water, resignation that it won’t change. It is only now that Schue asks if he can do something. The bullying has been going on forever, but only now does it really register. Kurt waves the offer away, claiming it his hill to climb alone. He knows that even if he were to ask for help, he won’t get it.  And more evidence that Schue really doesn’t know Kurt. He says: “I think it’s getting to you. Usually this stuff rolls right off your back.”

Oh, he couldn’t be further from the truth. Kurt’s scathing look as Schue says this… Every single thing Kurt has to go through builds up on him. He might try to let it roll off him, but he can’t. Every time he gets abuse, it adds another brick to the wall he’s building around himself. He tries to be strong, but at some point he will break. Schue then continues and, instead of offering any kind of support, actually lays a blame on Kurt, saying that lately he’s been getting belligerent and angry and pushing people away… Well surprise there Mr. Schue, that’s what happens when you get no support at all and have to face the daily crap alone like Kurt has to. Plus, pushing people away has been Kurt’s standard mode of operating since the start really. It’s only lately that he’s not taking it anymore and getting vocal about it.

Kurt remains polite, though. As is usual for him, he talks to adults as if he’s an equal, and I love him for that. He calls Schue on how much the school has let homophobia slide. And gets in a jab about the boring and repetitive lessons he’s been giving. “To answer your question, yes, I’m unhappy. And yes, being the only out gay kid at this school gets me down. But most of all, I’m not challenged in the least here.” And of course he’s challenged, challenged to just live, but not challenged academically in the least.

This gets Will thinking so he adds a twist to the challenge: the boys must sing songs from girl groups and the girls must sing songs from boy groups. As if this really makes it more challenging…

Kurt is a little happier though and shows his idea to the group: feather boas and animal prints. Artie gets a point in here by bringing up that it’s supposed to be opposites, and that Kurt in a dress and feather boas is something they would expect. There’s a bit of validity in his point, but he simultaneously ruins it by mentioning a dress. Kurt even says so: “who said anything about a gown?”

Score: 2 for undercurrent homophobia.

Then Puck pipes in, and basically asks Kurt to leave. He suggests checking out the ‘garblers’ to see what they’re up to, he’d fit right in with his feathers and boas… Score: 3 for undercurrent homophobia. It’s so saddening and maddening to know that, after being in Glee club for so long, he remains the outsider even there. He is never really included.

Kurt is speechless for a moment, too tired to fight. He takes his board and leaves. Mike and Finn shared a confused look, that Kurt would actually leave. Something is stirring in their heads, I hope. Let’s also hope it sticks.

Kurt manages to get in at Dalton Academy to spy on the Warblers. And there he finds the place in a frenzy as kids are running to get somewhere. He asks a random kid, who introduces himself as Blaine (Yay! Blaine!) what is going on. Blaine explains that the Warblers throw impromptu performances sometimes, and now is such a performance. Kurt is surprised, the Glee Club here is cool? Like rockstars, Blaine says. He drags Kurt along on a short cut (although really, the slow-mo, and piano music as they run… come on!), and surprise, surprise, there it turns out Blaine is one of the Warblers. They sing Teenage Dream, and it is Awesome! Kurt agrees, at first apprehensive, his smile grows bigger and bigger. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen my boy that happy 🙂

And also, in this short little bit, Blaine has touched Kurt three times, first by shaking his hand, then by taking him by the hand leading him to the performance, and then by straightening his jacket. And it lights up his face that another boy would so easily touch him without any form of fear or apprehension or expectations. Because at McKinley, Kurt doesn’t get touched, unless it’s to hurt him. And if someone does touch him in a (somewhat) positive manner it’s a girl.

Blaine

Blaine and his friends, Wes and David, have figured out Kurt’s a spy, and are buying him a coffee after the performance. Kurt’s flabbergasted at how nice they are and really just waiting for them to beat him up. And then it’s like heaven has opened up as he asks if they’re all gay and the boys explain they’re not (well, Blaine is) and how there’s a zero-tolerance for bullying, “everyone get’s treated the same, no matter who they are.”

Kurt can scarcely believe it and is close to tears by this. Blaine asks Wes and David to excuse them so he can talk with Kurt. Kurt explains about his life at McKinley, and Blaine gets it. He really, truly gets it. Because his life was the same, and all he got from his school was, sorry, you’re gay, you’re life is just basically gonna suck.  So he transferred to Dalton when he couldn’t take it anymore. Even though I want to know more about the kind of bullying he got, as he phrases it as taunting, and I’m not sure if it was of the level that Kurt is going through now.

He tells Kurt he has two options: come to Dalton, but since tuition and all that at Dalton is kinda steep that’s not an easy option, or refuse to be the victim. Stand up and try to teach them, since prejudice is born from ignorance. Blaine regrets letting the bullies at his school chase him away, and encourages Kurt to pick option two. A bit simplistic advice, Kurt is already standing up, and what with the violence of late, standing up could have dire consequences, but Kurt is inspired, he has a support now.

Back at McKinley, Kurt gets a text from Blaine, just one word: Courage. As he re-reads it, you can tell from how he smiles, how he walks, that he feels the weight on his shoulders get lighter. He has someone now who knows what’s he’s going through, someone he can turn to for help and advice and friendship. And right through that, Karofsky barges in, slaps the phone away and slams Kurt against the lockers, again. And as he stands there, trying to regain his breath and internally assessing if he’s badly hurt, he decides he can’t take it anymore. He runs after Karofsky and barges into the boys’ locker room where Karofsky went.

Kurt: Hey! I’m talking to you!
Karofsky: The girls’ locker room is next door.
Kurt: What is your problem?
Karofsky: Excuse me?
Kurt: What are you so scared of?
Karofsky: Besides you sneaking in here to peek at my junk?
Kurt: Oh yeah, every straight guy’s nightmare, that all gays are secretly out to molest and convert you! Well, guess what, Hamhock, you’re not my type!
Karofsky: That right?
Kurt: Yeah, I don’t dig on chubby boys who sweat too much and’re gonna be bald by the time they’re thirty.
Karofsky: Do no push me, Hummel!
Kurt: You’re gonna hit me? Do it!
Karofsky: Don’t push me!
Kurt: Hit me, ’cause it’s not gonna change who I am. You can’t punch the gay out of me anymore than I can punch the ignoramus out of you.
Karofsky: Get outta my face!
Kurt: You’re nothing but a scared little boy who can’t handle how extraordinarily ordinary you are.

Karofsky is silent for a second, and then he kisses Kurt.

That was the second awesomest moment of the episode, and I didn’t even see it coming, even though it’s really rather classic. The bully who bullies those that are like him, because he can’t face himself. Kurt is completely thrown off, too. He didn’t expect this. Karofsky goes to kiss him again, but now Kurt pushes him away. He’s shocked, and disguested and violated. Karofsky punches the lockers and runs out.

Kurt asks Blaine to come and help him in talking to Karofsky about his sexuality and kissing Kurt. Karofsky doesn’t want to though, and he shoves Blaine against the fence. Kurt pushes him off and tells him that he needs to stop this. Karofsky runs off, confusion all over his face. Blaine takes it pretty easy with a “well, he’s not coming out anytime soon.” Kurt, however, is more shaken and drops down on the stairs. Blaine sits with him and asks why he’s so upset. “Because up until yesterday, I had never been kissed,” Kurt answers. And now the experience of  his first kiss will always be the memory of something violent, something unwanted, something clad in homophobia and anger and fear.

I like that they’re not making Kurt instantly smitten with Blaine, and that it’s really a friendship growing. I think I’d prefer if it stays this way. I’d approve if they grew it slowly and it might get into romance near the end of season, but I’m definitely favouring friendship.

The next day, Kurt has made up his mind. He’s taped COURAGE to the door of his locker, underneath a picture of Blaine. He’s wearing bright colours (which he rarely does) and is happy. And then Karofsky comes by and shoves him into the lockers again, much harder than before. Kurt falls to the ground and for a second they just look at each other. Nothing’s gonna change, at least not anytime soon. It might even get worse, because Kurt is much more of a threat to Karofsky now. Kurt pulls himself together a bit and just sits there, resigned, for now.

Afterwards, it’s time for the boys’ performance. Kurt and Mike are by far the best dancers of the group, and Kurt seems to actually enjoy himself. He’s smiling, and even dancing interactive with Mercedes as the song ends. And then the guys hug with Coach Beiste, and Kurt is excluded. He just stands there and does not get a hug, does not get that touch that he craves, the touch that tells him he’s accepted and seen.

– – –

Coach Beiste and Reverse Objectification

Finn and Sam are bonding over them not getting any, and methods of ‘cooling off’. Finn has his trusty almost-killing-the-mailman-with-the-car scene, but Sam has nothing. So Finn directs his attention to Coach Beiste and suggests he use her as a turn off. Sam agrees.

I get that they need something to keep from exploding, but to use a specific person for that, and degrading her just because she does not conform to society’s standards of what is ‘hot’, even if only in your mind, for your own benefit, is all sorts of wrong.

I expect Finn to suggest that, after all, he has been showing a marked disregard for things that aren’t directly related to him, but I thought Sam would be different. It’s okay for him to not find her attractive, after all, we all have different tastes, but to go so far as to actively use her, abuse her really, no, not what I was expecting of him…

Sam tries his new cool off during his next make out session with Quinn. It works, though he gets Quinn suspicious by saying ‘Beiste’ when Quinn wants him to say her name. Quinn goes to Sue for help. Not the best way they could’ve thought of to get Sue in the storyline. Sue wants Quinn to get Sam to confess to liking Beiste, in public.

Sam has been talking about the new method to ‘cool off’. Mike discusses it with Tina, who finds it funny and wants to try it out. And again, another person I would not have expected it from runs with it. She, too, says Beiste’s name while making out with Mike. I do like that they show it’s not just boys who do this kind of behaviour. This is a visual that gets mirrored in the Puck storyline, where they role reversal as well.

(Although, side note, the mind sequences with Beiste in the cheerleader and ballet uniform are done very well by Dot-Marie Jones, I really like her!)

Quinn starts a fight with Sam, per Sue’s instructions, in the hallway. From there it goes from bad to worse as Coach Beiste overhears her name and gets a clue about what’s happening. First with Quinn proclaiming the quarrel she’s having with Sam is her fault, and then Mike barging in telling her to stay away from his woman. Beiste is confused, and so is Will, who walks in on this.

Will drills Mike and Sam until he gets the story, and then chews them out for doing this. I think the chat he had with Kurt is giving him at least some insights (let’s hope they stick) and he’s saying mostly all the right stuff. And then he tries to keep it a secret…

Coach Beiste knows something is going on, so she comes to talk to Will to find out what it is. He doesn’t want to tell her, but when she tells him that he is the only one at the school she actually trusts, he knows he has to tell her. Except he goes about it the wrong way, he starts of with defending the Glee kids and asking her not to take it personally before he spills the beans. Very clear where, in the end, his priorities lie. Not with Beiste and her being bullied (which it really is) but with keeping his Glee club, correction, keeping the more or less normative kids of his Glee club, out of trouble.

Beiste, who really has never been anything but bullied and harassed her entire life, has had enough. She quits.

For mash-up, the Girls sing Start Me Up & Living on a Prayer, dressed in leather outfits and rock star hair. Nice performance, not that special. After they finish, Becky runs in with a note from Sue, she wants to meet Will in the auditorium.

There Sue stands on the stage, with two confetti cannons. They got what she wanted, Beiste quit, and their budget has been restored, so she got her two cannons. Cue full on villainous laugh. Best of all, she says, in the end it wasn’t even her who got rid of Beiste, it was Will’s kids, they got over that whole shiny happy people thing and just got mean. And she’s right.

Will is chewing out the Glee kids over  basically says the wrong things about how it was wrong because she’s an outcast. It isn’t wrong because of that, it’s wrong because she’s a human being, period. He orders them to come up with something to apologise.

Will goes to talk to Beiste, but she interrupts him, saying screw this. She’ll find her bliss somewhere else, maybe as a cooler in a Honky Tonk bar, or as a trucker. Will gets angry and tells her stop it, he gets it. Everyone is scarred by their High School experience, and people like them are then even crazy enough to come back to it as adults to relive that every day.

But Will really doesn’t get it. This isn’t about High School scarring, this is about something Beiste gets everywhere, always. Inside that tough and occasionally intimidating exterior, she’s a regular woman, who wants to be loved for who she is. And instead she gets ridicule all the time. Will tries to fix it the superficial way, he tries to offer to help her get a date… Really, Will, that’s all you can come up with.

Beiste just shakes her head, she knows it’s not gonna work. And she has resigned herself to that, because even something so small as being kissed has never happened for her. I knew then that Will was gonna kiss her. And I was going all noooooooo, don’t. So Will barges in with another of his patented surface solutions and he kisses her. Seriously Will, “and now you’ve been kissed.” You really think that’s gonna solve anything? The issue is bigger than that. Plus, you’ve just robbed her from having a true meaningful first kiss. Her memory of her first kiss is going to be clad in pity.

Then it’s time for the boys do to their Mash-up. All suited up they’ll perform for the girls, and Coach Beiste. Finn almost ruins it because he talks too much, but when they start singing their In The Name of Love & Free Your Mind mash-up, it’s fun. They suck at dancing though. At the end, Coach smiles, she liked it, and they hug. But they hug because Artie instigates, Beiste goes along with it, but it doesn’t come from her. I think I’d like to see some Beiste-Kurt connecting going on, that would be interesting.

– – –

Puck and Artie and Being Bad Ass

Yay! Puck’s back! Although I must say, the Puck story line in this episode, while it has some good bits going on, doesn’t really interest me.

Puck’s out of juvie, on probation on the condition that he do community service. Puck got his probation officer to agree to him “helping out a crip” instead of picking trash. So Puck corners Artie and makes him his project. Artie, from experience, expects Puck to push him down the stairs when he grabs the chair and starts wheeling him away. We don’t see Artie being bullied on screen as much as we’ve seen Kurt, but these little nuggets make it clear that he gets a good amount of crap as well.

Puck’s also desperately projecting his tough guy image, acting out even more so than before, because he doesn’t dare admit that juvie scared the crap out of him and he never wants to go back. So he puts on his tough face and goes back to being the school bully.

Puck wants money, so he uses Artie, and his disability, to go busking at the school grounds. Singing One Love, they bully their classmates out of money and make a good $300. Artie confesses he likes Brittany and kinda wants her back. Puck wants Santana back, so he suggests taking them to Breadsticks.

Puck and Artie barge in as the girls prep their costumes. It’s a bit of a role reversal here. They’re being all tough which prompts the girls to want to take them out, which they refuse. Puck then tells them to be at Breadsticks the next day, and if they don’t find cute girls tonight, they might meet them there. Santana is aware of what the boys are playing, but goes along with it anyway. She doesn’t really have a lot of sense of self

At Breadsticks, during dinner, the guys keep playing hard to get, and it works. Puck is also telling tall tales about his time in juvie.  At the end of dinner, Puck suggests skipping without paying. He and the girls leave, but Artie can’t do it, so he pays. He’s been trying to become more bad ass, but when it is about to hurt someone completely unrelated to them, he can’t do it, he sees the humanity. Now for that attitude to cross over to his personal life so he can actually start to see Brittany as a person as well. Puck is disappointed in Artie paying and abandons him there.

Figgins barges in during rehearsal wanting to see both Will and Puck in his office. Puck’s probation officer is there. She was under the impression Puck was working to rehabilitate a Crip, not a cripple, and is not okay. He has 24 hours to come up with a better idea or it’s back to juvie. Puck makes a scene, but it feels off, it’s not as bad ass as you’d expect, giving his reputation. The adults don’t pick up on this, they just see the trouble maker.

Puck and Artie talk, and Puck comes clean about what really drives him. Juvie scared the crap out of him, he thought he was bad ass, but the guys in there are much worse. He doesn’t want to go back. Artie makes a deal: do the trash pick up and I’ll tutor you in geometry, because really you’re a smart guy and there’s no reason you shouldn’t ace that. By offering a true solution, and in a way that preserves his dignity, Artie has done more for Puck in five minutes than the adults have all through this situation. Puck agrees.

Glee 1.04 Preggers

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First and foremost, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Kurt and his Single Ladies dance. I can watch that sequence on repeat forever Emoticon met brede lach

Kurt’s dad, in one scene being sketched as the quintessential ‘man’ (watching Deadliest Catch, all about sports, the lumberjack shirt, dirt bikes etc…).

Terri gets herself even further into the pregnancy mess when she tells Kendra and Kendra convinces her not to tell. Stupid Kendra.

Sue gets her TV show. Slightly unbelievable, but adds another fun layer to Sue. Also, she keeps calling Emma by the wrong names, Irma last episode, Alma this time.

Rachel is appalled, Tina is getting the solo. Rachel goes on a rant how she ‘made it clear that anything West Side Story goes to me’ and that ‘Tina knows how much I respect her but…’ Tina’s eye roll look says enough, no way in hell does she believe that even for a second.

Schue keeps his decision though, Tina gets the part. Too bad they make Tina fail at it Bedroefde emoticon

Kurt comes to ask Finn something, all smiles. By now his coming out to Mercedes has made the rounds, obviously, even though Kurt himself is still not saying anything. Finn, self centered as he is, immediately assumes it’s about him and says he already has a date to the prom, but that he’s flattered and that he knows how important dances are to teen gays…

Kurt is flabbergasted at first, then shocked and denies being gay. He just wants a favour. And that’s an introduction to the football team. Finn agrees, because, as he says, the more Glee and Football mingle, the easier his life becomes. He protests when Kurt wants to use his music, but Kurt holds to it, he needs a proper warm up.

Kurt comes up to ‘audition’ for the ‘role’ of kicker. The team laughs at him as he performs the Single Ladies dance to warm up. And then gives the ball a massive kick and scores. Tanaka immediately welcomes him to the team. His mind is on a single goal, he doesn’t care how or what, Kurt can wear a tutu if he wants, as long as he scores like that in the game, none of it matters.

Sue gets another bit of ammunition to undermine Glee club. Her TV station boss expresses his concern about top cheerleaders defecting to Glee. Sue needs to win Nationals.

Quinn drops a bombshell on Finn, she’s pregnant. The moment Finn hears that word, his first thought is if it is his, and then how? He and Quinn never had sex… Quinn reminds him of last month when they were in the hot tub together. While kissing, Finn’s usual method to stop from coming failed. “But we were wearing our swim suits!?” he says. Quinn replies that a hot tub is the perfect temperature for sperm…

This is the ultimate confirmation of the stupidity that is Finn. We now know Quinn isn’t being completely truthful but Finn has no clue whatsoever.

Both of them are more focused on what the effect is going to be on their own particular situation. This isn’t all that weird, they are teenagers after all, but it hits much harder for Quinn. She is the one who actually carries the child and will bear the brunt of the attention and prejudice and stereotyping and all that. It will set her back in her goal to get out of this town, she knows this, shows it by literally saying it: “I really thought I had a shot at getting out of here.” Since she is planning on keeping the baby, this will effectively anchor her down.

Sandy remains creepy, creepy, creepy. I really don’t like him.

Sandy sets up auditions, specifically so Rachel will audition and they can get her out of Glee. Rachel sings Taking Chances (and she rocks that song!) and of course gets chosen.

Schue and Rachel then have a very nice dialogue going on. Rachel actually shows some awareness of how she is seen by others, and admits that this is correct. However, she wants Schue to judge her not on her character but on her talent since “it sounds awful, but I’m the best one in there.”

While she is indeed a very good singer, the others aren’t bad either, and some (Kurt) easily outsing her. Will agrees, however, and tells her so. With Rachel pulling all the weight, the others slack off and they can’t win Regionals like that, Will says, and he has no choice but to give others solos as well so they can all feel like a star…

Really, Will, you’ve made questionable choices before, but you’ve not been that much of an outright jerk before. Completely ignoring the talents he has, he only ever really has eyes for two people: Rachel and Finn.

Rachel doesn’t accept that though, she wants the solo, only her pains matter, only her being bullied matters. It doesn’t occur to her that maybe the others are indeed being pulled out of their shells, but it doesn’t necessarily lessen what they’re going through.

During rehearsal, Tina fails the song (which is really lame, btw, she could’ve easily done it) and takes one for the team when she tells Schue to give the song to Rachel.

Finn seeks out his replacement father figure/older copy of himself in his time of need. Finn speaks out what I wrote above, he’s seen the guys around town who had kids in High School, they’re still here, working menial jobs and just barely getting by. He doesn’t want to be that guy, he needs a scholarship so he can go to college (note how it’s all about him, not a word about how Quinn will get just as stuck). But to get a scholarship, the Football team needs to start winning. Bottom line, he wants Schue to teach the Football team some moves.

Finn is and Idiot. He apparently never has, in his whole 16 years of life, been to a library, or even fucking heard of what a library is… And he wants to go to college…

Kurt is being all cool against the lockers and delivers the punch line that silences Puck Emoticon met brede lach

And woohoo! Teaching the guys the Single Ladies dance. *radiates Kurt love*

Puck finds out Quinn is pregnant and confronts her. And then it comes out, Finn isn’t the father, Puck is. Puck is angry that she didn’t tell him. “My dad’s a deadbeat, but I don’t roll that way!” Quinn tells him she had sex with him because he got her drunk and she felt fat, but it was a mistake and she doesn’t want anything to do with him. Quinn’s responsible though, she doesn’t accuse Puck but acknowledges her own choice in the matter (I had sex with you…).

Terri ambushes Quinn, since she heard from Will about the pregnancy she has realised that this is her chance to get out of the mess she’s in.

Yay! Game time! The team protests about doing the dance routine for real. Kurt sends Finn an imploring look, but he ignores it. Inside he agrees with the team. The game starts and the McKinley Football Team sucks.

Kurt waves at his dad as he climbs the stands, yelling “I told you, I told you”. It’s easy to see Burt’s embarrassment at this as he discreetly waves Kurt down. Finn finally talks Puck into trying it and it works, Puck scores after surprising the opponents by dancing the routine. Kurt then gets to kick and scores. As he is hoisted up he waves at Burt, and Burt is so ecstatic he almost drags the two guys in front of him from the benches as he pulls at their shoulders in happiness.

Then we come to the best coming out to a parent scene I’ve ever seen. Kurt’s in his room cleaning up and working one of his beauty routines when Burt comes down. Kurt has realised, through Glee and Football, that he can be anything and wants no more lies. So he comes out and says it: “And what I am is… I’m gay.”

And Burt, glorious Burt, who’s been sketched as a ‘man’s man’, whom you would expect to not take this well, just says: “I know. I’ve known since you were three.”

Kurt isn’t sure at first what to make of that, but when Burt clarifies: “All you wanted for your birthday was a pair of sensible heels,” he knows and he can start to smile. Burt isn’t in love with the idea but makes it very clear that no matter what, he loves his son and will be there for him, and they hug.

*Side note: Seems a bit odd though that with Burt knowing about the heels he wanted then, why he would make a fuss about a tiara collection and take away his car (1.03). Unless there was another reason that Kurt rather not explain.

Puck is hurt by Quinn’s speech and attitude earlier and takes it out on her with a couple low blows.

Glee club finally gets a full complement with Mike Chang, Puck and Football Mike joining. Why Mike and Mike join, no idea. But Puck joins so he can be closer to Quinn, he meant what he said, he wants to be there for the baby, even if Quinn doesn’t want him.

Will starts rehearsal with the West Side Story solo again, and doesn’t bow to Rachel, go him, even if his motives are still skewed. He gives the solo to Tina again, and Rachel makes up her mind. She quits Glee and joins the musical Sandy is directing, where she can be the one and only, the star.

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Best Lines

Kurt: My body is like a rum chocolate soufflé, if I don’t warm it up right, it doesn’t rise.

Finn: I got this from the school library. Did you know you can just borrow books in there? All of them. Except for the Encyclopedias and stuff.

Glee 1.03 Acafellas

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On the whole I didn’t find this episode that strong, although that could be because the focus lay on the Will story and I tend to like those less. I mostly go for the background kids and their stories Glimlach

Cute intro, Will is bursting at the seams with the news that Terri’s pregnant. Nice fleshing out of Will’s dad in just a few lines of dialogue, the dreams he had. It gets Will thinking about his own dreams, which gets reinforced by Quinn’s disparaging remark/question if he ever performed after High School. So, a completely unbelievable segue later, Will has started an a cappella group with Henri, Howard and Ken. Conveniently, all the other guys are misfits, which automatically makes Will the star.

Terri is getting desperate to actually get pregnant, especially after Will tells his parents.

The moment Will has his new group, he’s abandoning Glee. He wants to be famous himself. And while getting fame by having his Glee club win Nationals is nice, fame by being in the spotlight himself is better. But being in the spotlight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. And when it blows up in his face he goes back to the thing he knows he can do, which is Glee,

Quinn and Santana are on a crusade to break up Glee, under orders from Sue (even though Quinn’s eager to do it for her own reasons). Hence the remarks to Schue, and setting Mercedes up to go after Kurt as a love interest instead of a friend. Which is what they have become. And also trying to get the others to hire Dakota Stanley, who then breaks all of them down, one by one. And then the kids band together, kick out Dakota Stanley and get stronger as a group in the process.

Finn is trying to make it about him by threatening to quit if they don’t go along with what he wants. As ever, he’s yo-yoing between enjoying Glee and worrying about his reputation. Will recruits Finn for the Acafellas so he won’t quit. And there we have Puck getting involved with the Acafellas. I’m not quite sure about his motives, but I’m not convinced they are what he says. I think he just wants to sing, loves to sing, but thinks (and rightly so) that joining Glee will tank his reputation.

Kurt has a kick ass car Emoticon met brede lach Too bad about the window… And too bad it gets taken away. Lousy reasoning too, taken away because he had a tiara collection :/ I’m not sure I buy that.

Kurt was this close to coming out to Mercedes, and then last minute turned it around by confessing he loved someone else. And his look is straight on Finn. But he confirms, even as he gets a frowny what-are-you-on-about expression, when Mercedes turns around and sees Rachel and thinks it’s her. Because he doesn’t quite dare to come out yet. Even though most already suspect or know, as evidenced by Rachel and Tina’s gayvention of Mercedes. Mercedes has some nice lines about stereotyping and judging on appearances. And when it comes down to it, of course she’s right, until Kurt comes out you can never be 100% sure.

And then Kurt comes out, and the person he tells is Mercedes, who has really become his best friend. Lovely moment, very well done. Especially his looking around to see if they’re no one else to hear before he actually says he’s gay. And the tie keeps smiling, even though Kurt is sad, and lonely

Sue chews out Quinn and Santana for failing to bring down Glee. She revokes their tanning privileges, which has Santana in tears. She’s still mostly a caricature at this moment. See also, earlier, where she dumps Puck because his credit score is terrible. She gets fleshed out more later, but is being set up as a supremely self invested girl. Quinn has actually learned a lesson from the whole procedure, she’s learning putting the losers down isn’t all that fun, because she is getting to know the losers, and they’re people too.

Sandy is way, way too creepy.

I LOVE Josh Groban hitting on Will’s mother Emoticon met brede lach

And a nice ending for Will’s dad who’s taking a cue from his son’s dream-chasing to change his own missed dream: he’s enrolling at law school.

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Best Lines

Mercedes: Have you ever kissed someone?

Kurt: Yes, if by someone you mean the tender crook of my elbow.

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Josh Groban (to Will’s mom): Let me tell you, throngs of screaming teenagers don’t do it for Josh Groban. Josh Groban loves a blousy alcoholic.

Glee 1.02 Showmance

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The Kids

Rachel’s not improving much on what was established about her in the pilot. The first words out of her mouth as we see her are to tell Schue that she picked out some music that “feature me heavily in the lead vocal.” Later on, when dancing, she has no idea where the other kids are as evidenced by her almost kicking Mercedes in the face.

Interesting to note that Rachel comes to school alone, Finn comes alone, but Mercedes, Tina and Artie come together, and have apparently been doing things together as well. They’ve started a real friendship.

Kurt is being held hostage by the Football team. Schue, who has been teaching at the school long enough that he should know what goes on, is totally oblivious to the obvious discomfort that Kurt radiates. The look Kurt gives Schue as he walks past is full of contempt and quiet desperation. The moment Schue is gone, the football team gets to business. Kurt’s call for them to wait as he tosses his bag at one of them to keep it safe from the dumpster is a way for him to regain at least some measure of control in the situation. It gets clear here too that Puck is really the muscle of the football team bullying. Finn is the quarterback top dog, and Puck does the hard work.

Kurt and Mercedes are growing a friendship too, they argue fashion and hair and there’s shared looks as Schue talks during rehearsal.

Mercedes gets a solo bit, good, albeit a bit stereotype and very, very short. Schue takes the spotlight, to show it to the one who will get it later, Finn.

Quinn is getting more uncomfortable with Finn being in Glee. She needs Finn to quit, if he doesn’t, it’s her popularity that’s taking a hit (see review of 1.01). Good of Finn to stand up though and stick with something that he really likes.

Rachel keeps impressing upon Finn that he’s good and talented and such, even though, I’ll say again, he’s not that good. But she has a crush on him, plus (or maybe even because) he matches her perfect picture so she can’t stand the idea of him quitting Glee. She even joins the celibacy club for him. The celibacy club meeting scene was mostly just meh… Although it provides a nice bridge to the song the Glee kids do at assembly when Rachel runs out after proclaiming that really all they want is sex.

During the song, Kurt gets to smack Finn’s butt, I wonder if this is where his crush on Finn starts.

After the performance, Quinn is now sure she needs to join Glee club or else she will lose Finn. Puck… there’s more going on in his head but he’s hard to read. He’s into Quinn, so if she joins he’ll go too, that much is sure. Quinn auditions for Glee club with two trusty lieutenants (Santana and Brittany) and nails it (even though her voice is a bit weak). She has no choice, everything she does has to be perfect, so her audition for Glee as well.

The whole picnic on stage thing, over the top much. Rachel’s actively seducing another girl’s boyfriend because he fits her better, and Quinn’s feelings (if she even realises Quinn has them) are irrelevant. And Finn doesn’t mind, to him it’s a natural state that girls are automatically attracted to him. The only reason he runs away is to stop from “arriving” not because he has any thoughts on how it’s not exactly nice to cheat on your girlfriend.

Rachel gets told it’s not all about her when she complains about Quinn joining. Too bad it doesn’t stick. Her rendition of Take a Bow is noticeably auto-tuned. It’s also hypocritical, blaming Finn for putting up a show and leading her on, making her think he might be faithful to her, while it was her coming after him in the first place.

The Adults

I’m only noticing now that Will actually has a Glee vanity plate on his car, nice accessorising to show his obsession with Glee. More evidence Will hasn’t really been paying attention to what is needed for Glee Club to work, but that he’s just chasing his dream (and his past) when Sue waves the rulebook in his face. I would think, when you take over a choir and get the kids’ hopes up with talk of going to Nationals or even just Regionals, you’d look up requirements and such. Except he hasn’t. Sue has to tell him there’s a rule book and that he needs more kids.

There’s not really a coherent base to Sue’s desire to undermine Glee club. The Cheerios are majorly successful, their budget is more than enough, what with Sue’s extra sponsors outside of school and Sue herself is successful. It’s not that she hates music either (even though this doesn’t really get articulated until the Madonna episode). It seems to me it’s mostly that Sue always needs something to challenge, to bounce herself off of. Being afraid of Glee club taking her spotlight is a ridiculous motive.

Emma is aware her crush on Will is wrong (as in he’s married), but she’s not really stepping back. Will isn’t either, he’s flattered by the attention, and likes the fact that Emma is fawning over him instead of riding him, as Terri is. Emma is literally throwing herself at Will. She stands around the corner until he’s there and then comes barging out as if she never noticed him. It takes Ken Tanaka saying it to her face to make Emma realise she can’t be around Will the way she has been, “playing house” with him in cleaning and stuff. Emma sees the light, a little bit, and backs out of cleaning with Will, confronting him with their behaviour, and focusing her attention to someone else. Even if she has zero interest in that person.

Nice cut to Terri in the new house deciding what needs to be done there, as the kids sing Golddigger, except that that isn’t really Terri’s underlying motive. Terri is still annoying, but also kinda sad. And Will… instead of addressing the deeper issues here, he just hides away (submerging himself in the bath), then gives in and gets an extra job as janitor because it’s easier than getting into what’s at the base of Terri’s behaviour.

Terri learns she’s not really pregnant and she’s exasperated at first. This was something she wanted and now it got taken away from her just like all the other stuff. Along the lines of something she said in the previous episode: “why can’t we have nice things!”

Terri wants to tell Will about hysterical pregnancy at first, but can’t when she hears him express his dream of family. So she blurts out that it’s a boy, and backtracks on the new house. Deep down she knows she can’t keep this from him, but she desperately wants to keep him, and she knows that he’s pulling away from her. And the harder she tries to keep him, the more he pulls. But Will wants a family more than getting away from Terri, so as long as he thinks she’s pregnant, he will stay.

The responses in the crowd to the sexy song are fun to watch. Sue is outraged, not just at the kids daring to perform something like that, but also at the reactions of the others. I wonder a bit why she is so outraged, but I’d wager it’s tied to her being not in a relationship, and about over-doing things, beyond the natural state (kinda how she explodes at Santana after her boob job in 2.01). Emma is liking it a lot, Will is horrified and Figgins is swaying to the music barely seeing what the kids are doing. Like always, he seems mostly clueless. He goes with what is best for the school, either in terms of bringing in money or increasing reputation, but what he thinks doesn’t really come out.

Also, inconsistency. Figgins gives Will a list of pre-approved songs they can sing, which are all songs that have Jesus in the title or are about balloons… And Sue is not protesting that, while she later in episode 2.03 protests when the kids want to sing religious songs… It pours more oil on Sue’s fire too by cutting her dry cleaning budget to get Glee new costumes.

Funny Bits

Kurt on doing Freak Out at assembly, with a matching gesture: “They’re gonna throw food at us! And I just had a facial!”

Kurt can express so much with just gesture, posture and looks. *love*

Kurt and Mercedes arguing fashion and hair during the second rehearsal Emoticon met brede lach

Kurt has the best lines Emoticon met brede lach

Rachel: “We’re gonna give them what they want.”

Kurt: “Blood?”

Glee 1.01 Pilot

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Since I’m totally obsessed, and the GleeVeeDee is now here, I better put both of that to good use and review it. Mostly since there’s so much undercurrent to Glee that, when just watching casually, might be overlooked. I know it’s taken me until I started watching the second season to really get just how much is going on beyond the superficial layer of the singing and dancing, and the skin of the shows’ character development.

I credit Calanthe from Quite Contrary with a lot of the insights I gained, being trained to dissect text really does make a difference, but I think I’ve added quite some of my own into it as well.

So, with that said, here’s the Pilot episode. It’s not a standard review of “this is what happened and this is what I think of it”. It’ll be more bullet point things I guess, stuff I noticed, overarching themes, the through-line of the season, character development etc…

First thing to notice is how really all of the characters are initially portrayed as stereotype characters, and then this gets twisted as the show goes on. Rachel is the stereotype talented-and -friendly-underdog-turns-star, but is shown not to be that friendly, and to be driven by self-interest first and foremost. Kurt is the stereotype fabulous-but-airheaded-wimpy-gay-guy, but is shown to actually have a good intelligence and reasoning and is full of courage and strength. And so on.

Character by Character

William Schuester: The first thing he asks when Emma mentions that Sandy got fired is who’s taking over Glee club. Not why he got fired or something like that, which is what most people would ask first, even if it’s someone you don’t really like. Hell, especially when it’s someone you don’t really like (gloat factor). But Will is in it for himself, he wants Glee club, has always wanted Glee club and reclaiming the former glory of his own high school days. So as soon as he knows, he’s in Figgins’ office getting his hands on the club. Even going so far as to pay the school for being able to run it, and running the detention class for free.

When the club looks to fall apart because Rachel is threatening to leave if he doesn’t find her a “male lead who can keep up with me vocally” he resorts to blackmail (using the Marijuana he got from Sandy) to get Finn into the club. And it’s not even that Finn is a great singer, it’s mainly that he reminds Will of himself when he was Finn’s age (and Will is, thematically, an adult version of Finn), and he matches with Rachel in her ideal pictured world. And Will much prefers this popular image himself too, as soon as he has a male lead for Rachel, the others get relegated to background and they have to fight for any solos they get (in later episodes). And then I don’t mean the solo pieces they do outside of Glee club (like Mercedes doing Bust Your Windows in the third episode), I’m purely referencing the songs here that are shown to be Glee club show pieces. In them it’s practically always Rachel and Finn that get the solos by default. The others usually have to speak up and protest to even get a shot.

It is admirable of Will to want to go and quit to become an accountant after Terri tells him she’s pregnant so he can better support his upcoming family. One of the few mature things he does in this episode. However, he’s not doing it because he himself makes that choice, but because Terri is making him do it. So I like that he eventually goes with  his heart and remains at McKinley High after Emma talks to him about passion, even if Emma has ulterior motives.

Aside: The audition pieces are awesome insights into the characters, especially looking back, having seen everything at least once now.

Mercedes Jones: The first time we see her she’s on the stage auditioning for Glee club with the song Respect. This really paints her core character with one major blow. She wants respect, she wants to be on the foreground (“I’m not down with that background nonsense, I’m Beyonce, I ain’t no Kelly Rowland”). As a black girl in American society there’s so much baggage to her daily life. So much subconscious (and conscious too) racism going on. Even though Kurt gets set up to be the poster boy of the bullied kid, Mercedes knows what it’s like, because racism is still so ingrained in American culture. This also explains why it’s Kurt and Mercedes who build a friendship pretty quick, they understand each other.

Kurt Hummel: He auditions with Mr. Cellophane, literally singing that his name should be Mr. Cellophane because people don’t see him. He desperately wants to be visible, be seen as the person he is. Yet at the same time, what he does show of himself gets him ridicule and bullying for being girly (and probably already for being gay*, even though they don’t show it, and regardless of him not officially coming out until the third episode). He has built such walls around him. You see it first when the kids want to throw him in the dumpster. He doesn’t let show how much it hurts, deflects by making it about the jacket (even though, as an extension of his personality, the clothes he wears are very important to him). While auditioning, his almost casual looking up and straightening his hair, are all designed to shield how he really feels. How he really wants to be visible. Yet, at the same time he pushes people away, afraid to show who he is. His body language screams this, always positioning himself away from others, and even from the look he gets as he has to swing Tina around in the first Glee rehearsal. The only one he has a more open attitude towards is Mercedes (he actually dances slightly toward her as they perform Don’t Stop Believin’ at the end).

Tina Cohen-Chang: I’m not getting a lot of Tina vibe just yet. She’s in a shell too, hiding behind her stutter. We learn in 1.09 that her stutter is fake, and that only makes it more obvious how she’s using it as a shield now. She’s quiet, and unobtrusive, but wants to be seen enough to let herself be through her outfit. Seriously, the outfits they all wear are almost characters on their own.

Rachel Berry: It has to be about her. That’s not only obvious from her behaviour — first the look on her face as she watches the original Glee club boy sing the solo, and then going crying to Figgins about Sandy’s touching of the boy (which, apropos, was way out of line). The only reason she does that is to get Sandy fired and to get the spot she thinks is rightfully hers, star of Glee club — she even says so through her audition song (On My Own) and in the voice over: “Me, the star.” She’s been prepping to be the Special One since she was a baby. She says so to Schue after the first rehearsal: “Being a part of something special makes you special.” She wants, no needs, Glee club to become great so she can become special (“I’m sorry Mr. Schue, but if you can’t give me what I need…”).

In her mind, the world revolves around her, and even considering that others have feelings, and a life outside of being characters in The Life of Rachel Berry is alien to her. She’s also low on the social hierarchy, unpopular, getting slushied and ridiculed by the Cheerios and Jocks. She does have what it takes to become a popular girl, though. However, being the unpopular one now fits  the story of herself she has in her head too well. She’s living the life of the talented and lovely underdog who has a hard time but gets out at the end. And she does it pretty well. Except…. She’s not putting in enough effort for it to really work. If she really wants to get out of the small town life and become a star, it doesn’t stop at taking various lessons and singing in Glee club. Why does she never work on advancing her talent and career outside of school and her bedroom? No try-outs for music schools or theater or what not. She’s not really living that underdog-turns-star life, she’s playing at living that life.

Quinn Fabray: Even though we don’t really meet her here just yet, it’s obvious she’s the classic popular girl. However, being popular is a lot of work for a girl, she has to make sure she stays thin and looks great and gives the good example by excelling as a Cheerio as well as academically; and through being the celibacy club president, and having a popular boyfriend. She can’t afford to slack off with even one of these things, or she risks losing her position. And her position as top dog is what might give her a chance to ever get out of the shit hole town they all live in. So to make sure she stays there, she not only has to do the work, she also has to make sure the rest stays down.

When she watches Glee club on stage at the end of the episode we know she’ll join. After seeing Finn talking with Rachel earlier on, and now them on stage together, she knows she can’t not join. Part of her popularity is having Finn as her boyfriend. Letting him be in Glee without her, with Rachel is setting the stage for rumours that will undermine her popularity and resulting authority.

Artie Abrams: Not that much Artie vibe either. He gets a lot of crap at school too, that much is clear. His wheelchair is what makes him a target. Like Tina, he gets relegated to the background, especially obvious in Don’t Stop Believin’ where we hardly see him as he plays the guitar until the end of the song where Tina wheels him near.

Emma Pillsbury: The first thing you notice is her OCD. The world has to be in order, her order. She also wants Will, from the beginning. So while admirable when trying to counsel Will on doing where your passion lies, the underlying motive is having him stay so he remains near her.

Sue Sylvester: She actually says it out loud, the whole stereotype thing. High school is built upon a system of preconceived identities, and every kid gets forced into one of these boxes. And if you deviate, you will be put back into your box (see Kurt, who deviates from his box in multiple ways, and how they keep trying to shove him back into it).

Finn Hudson: It’s not until Will hears him singing and blackmails him into joining Glee that we really get an idea of who he is beyond the superficial image. He is the male version of Quinn, the Quarterback on the Football team, and her boyfriend. And just by being that, he is the most popular male, he doesn’t have to do anything else for it. Just be there. He’s not smart (trying to hide his Glee club rehearsal by claiming he had to help his mother after her prostate removal…), he’s not that good looking and he’s like Rachel in the sense that he’s first and foremost interested in himself. He’s also a bully, he has no qualms about slushieing others, and, while he doesn’t physically throw Kurt in the bin in the beginning of the episode, he gives his silent approval as the other guys do.

When he gets forced to join Glee, at first all he does is try to get out again. Later he does realise he likes being there and has a rare moment of insight where he proclaims they’re all losers, however he turns it around by claiming neither the football team or Glee club can win without him (even going so far as barging in and taking charge of the music while knowing nothing about that). He keeps struggling with trying to maintain his popularity in spite of being in Glee. Because in the end, being popular is more important to him. So for him the drive behind trying to get Glee popular is for himself to remain popular. And really, the only reason he gets to be the male lead is because Rachel wants him to be. His voice is mediocre at best, both Artie and Kurt are way better singers than he is, but they don’t fit the popular picture.

Noah ‘Puck’ Puckerman: He looks like another stereotype Football Jock, but he actually has something happening underneath that. He has brains (he does know “chicks don’t have prostates” even if he has to look it up, he knows something’s fishy and he at least knows what libraries are for), he has a better voice than Finn has, but he also has a popularity to maintain. He’s Finn’s friend, but also his rival in vying for Quinn’s attention. When he joins Glee club, it’s for Quinn. But he’s also a bully. And very much a physical bully (like locking Artie in a port-a-potty and wanting to roll it over). So he manages to remain popular despite being a member of Glee club by intimidating the rest. It’s clear from his expression at the end that he would like to be there on the stage (I may be reading more into it though since I know how his story goes in further episodes).

Terri Schuester: On first viewing I hated her. She’s whiny and self-absorbed (“I’m on my feet 4 hours a day, 3 days a week, I have to cook dinner for myself?”) and some of the things she does later on… I still don’t like her, but I see where it comes from now. She’s stuck in her high school, teenager persona. She was the star girl in high school, the Quinn Fabray of her days, and fifteen years later, there’s hardly anything of it left. All that high school popularity never led to anything. She married the high school sweetheart in the hopes of having that grand life, but instead got stuck in the same old town, with a mediocre job, a mediocre husband and a mediocre life. She has dreams and she wants things and she believes, from a teenager’s perspective, that just because she is who she is, she should get that. And when certain things threaten to take away what she has, she resorts to drastic things to keep it.

Ken Tanaka: Also in it for himself, very primal he wants what he wants (Emma) and will try almost anything to get it. He also, like Sue, points out one of the underlying cores: the Herd. “The second anyone tries to rise above, tries to be different, the herd pulls him back in.”

Other Stuff

Sue vs. Emma is obvious from the start, they don’t like each other and are not afraid to show it. Will vs. Sue, which doesn’t start until he takes over Glee club,  is more subdued at first. Mostly because Will, like an adult version of Finn, can’t comprehend how someone would want to take that away from him.

The Glee club kids’ faces as they watch Vocal Adrenaline perform are hilarious 😀

I <3 Kurt.

*I base this on how, in the third episode, Quinn and Santana notice Mercedes and Kurt and encourage her to go after him. At that point, both of them are doing this as popular girls, not trying to help Mercedes, but having fun with her. They pretty much know Kurt is gay and are setting her up for disappointment. Later on Rachel comes up to Mercedes for a gay-intervention, trying to let her know that Kurt is most likely gay. We’re still not sure at that point, but it makes clear what the other kids think, and so he will most likely have been bullied because of it.

So… I guess I ran a little long here. I was at 1500 words already by the time I was 1/3 into the episode… Ending with a little over 2700, not bad 😀 And it only took, oh say, a whole afternoon? Regardless of that, this was great fun so I’ll be doing the other episodes as well.

Almost 26

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Me sleeping, at maybe two weeks old or so, in October 1984

As I type this it’s 22 minutes to midnight, 22 minutes until my birthday. And if you really wanna fuck ants* to use a Dutchism, it’ll be another bunch of hours and minutes until the actual moment I age, as I wasn’t born until 17:54 or 17:56, I keep forgetting. I think it’s 17:54.

I celebrated this upcoming occasion past weekend, on Saturday with friends, and on Sunday with family. I tend to split them up as I live in a tiny house that can hold my friends, but not my family. I have a lot of them. 😀

Ingrid was the first to arrive on Saturday, and after chatting and having a drink (and Caek!) we went to play board games. Starting out with some trivial pursuit she brought. It was a topical edition about popular music, so I expected to loose. Ingrid’s a walking pop encyclopedia… However, luck and factoids were with me, and by the time Nienke barged in, I was well ahead. Yay!

Koehandel

With addition of Nienke, we were with enough to play Koehandel (Cow Trading), a game I bought quite a while ago, but never played yet as it needs a minimum of 3 people, and I normally can’t get Nienke to play along. This time I forced her, proclaiming that, since it was my birthday, she had no choice 😀

(If you’re not interested in games you might wanna speed through the next bit as I review the games we played.)

The game was fun, but not one of my favourites. The point is to get as many sets of animals. It starts with an auction each round, with one player being the auctioneer and the other two bidding. The winner then pays the auctioneer and gets the animal. The auctioneer can choose to excercise his right of sale by paying the highest bidder the amount they bid.

After a while, there will be people who have the same animal, and at that point they can barter for it. The one who wants to barter makes a blind offer, and the other chooses to accept or counter-offer. The addition of bluff cards (with a zero value) makes this a strategic part as you never really know what the offer is. If the other counter-offers, he too makes a blind offer and both players give their offer to the other. The one who then paid most gets the animal of the other. Nienke won this game.

Therapy

Then we went on with Therapy. We don’t play this often as it’s best with five or six and it gets out of hand, time-wise, very quickly. The game part of it is a bit long winded, but the conversations this leads to are awesome.

For the game you move around a board with psychiatric sofas trying to be the first one to get the six coloured pins in it. This would make the bed a bed of nails, so I don’t know if it would be very comfortable for a therapy session though…

To move you roll two dice, and then go forward, the square you land on tells you what to do next. This can be a question, and a right answer gets you a pin. Or it can be a question/wait square where you pick whether you want a question or stop your turn. Careful with picking the question here though, if you answer wrong you end up with a psychosis.

Other options are fantasy, where you have to answer a question about a Rörschach test kinda picture, or therapy. Depending on the number of players, this is group therapy or single therapy. If you land on a square in the same colour as one of the player sofas, you go into therapy with that player. If it is an unused colour, you go into therapy with all the other players. The therapist then asks a question (all questions are about the player) from the therapy cards, and the player writes down their answer. The therapist then says what he thinks the player answered, with reasoning. In Group therapy, all the therapists declare what they think the player answered and then come to a mutual answer. If the therapist was right, he wins a pin.

The therapy is the part I love most about the game, it leads to very interesting conversations about how you see each other, how others see themselves and what everyone would and wouldn’t do.

(Reviewy bit is over 😀)

This is what we did for the rest of the evening really, interspersed with more general chatting and eating and drinking and some picture taking.I got awesome presents as well. Ingrid gave me the Boyzone CD Brother. I was a major fan of them in my teens, and even though it has mellowed, I still like their music. They’re special to me because they were quite important to me then, so I do always want the physical CDs they release instead of just downloading it.

Mellien gave me a children’s book I wanted, a favourite I read many times as a kid. Eva gave me something from her and Juut together, a set of iron cutlery, made by Juut himself! It’s totally awesome! It’ll come in handy when we go re-enacting again 🙂 Pictures of this, and other birthday stuff to come along later, btw.

Ingrid stayed over and after Nienke had gone home too we got to talking about (among other things) Warcraft, so I showed her some things about the game, and explained stuff. She ended up with a better idea of what I do when I play and what I like about it. It was nice to share something that I like a lot, with one of my friends who’s not normally into that kind of thing.

Sunday morning I got up ridiculously early at 8:30 (not smart when you go to bed around 02:00…) cause I told my dad to pick me up around 9:00. This so there’d be more than enough time, once we got to the parents’ place, to prep for the family coming that afternoon and evening. I was gonna make a cake (hmmmm cheesecake), but decided against it as mom had an extra cake and we would’ve had too much. This meant I had extra time, and I could’ve (really should’ve) gone to bed for an hour or two longer. But I didn’t. I left Ingrid at Nienke’s for a cuppa while me and all my crap headed over to Parentville.

Had some time in the morning and early afternoon to play some WoW and mess with the Blog (I played with the layout and contents of the 101 list at the top) before the first people showed up. After that it was mostly very busy, very gezellig and very fun.I got two book gift cards, some money, very pretty and lovely scented shower gel and a drawing and a written piece by my two young second cousins 🙂

From my parents I got a book, in two parts, about the excavations in Midlaren, where I was working the second half of 2004. During the summer with the actual excavation, and from August to December with the washing, drawing and cataloging of the finds.

After the last ones left, I basically rolled into bed exhausted. All my energy was gone (that’s what lots of people for a prolonged period does to me, I’m a major introvert). It’s not back yet either. It didn’t help very much I had to work today, which, by necessity, has more people too 😀

Bought some candy to treat my teammates at work with, and made it through the day without too much trouble. Although I did start to notice, half way through the day, that the cold I’ve been seeing at the horizon for a few days has hit home. My nose is stuffed and my energy regeneration is down to half strength 🙁

Scheduled for a full work day tomorrow, but gonna see if I can get off early. Need to sleep some more, and a half day off tomorrow along with Wednesdays usual freedom it should see me through the worst of it.

It’s 00:42 now, it’s my birthday 😀 Got the first congratulatory text message, from Gert, at 00:04, nice timing 😀

And with that I will say goodbye, and good night.

*Mierenneuken as we say means fucking ants, literally. It can also be said as mierenneuker which is to a person, as it means antfucker. It’s English counterpart would be nitpicking.