Alphabet meme, D
Jan. 3rd, 2013 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
indigozealDain, Lunar: Like Ghaleon, more old news, but I'd be remiss not to talk about him when I had the opportunity. I love Dain. He's not smart, but he is wise, and I've never encountered a better or more endearing personification of unconditional love. This entry isn't much more than a declaration of affection, but in the respect of eschewing analysis for pure emotion, it suits its subject well.
(Bonus reflection: Stop teasing TnK Dain about his nose! What's wrong with his nose!? His nose is just fine! Stop it!)
Dixie Cousins, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.: A while ago, I made the unfortunate decision to revisit the Scream movies, which only cemented my conviction that stretching out "hey, we're pointing out how stupid the thing we're doing is before we do it" to film length even one time, much less three, is not a viable form of entertainment.
Anyhow, this endeavor had finally dwindled down to Scream 3, when I was distracted from the first attempted fake-out by trying to figure out from where I recognized the opening-act victim's girlfriend. I finally hit the IMDB, where I was floored - Dixie! Of course! Kelly Rutherford; she was Dixie Cousins! It's sad that Brisco County is so far from my mind (and that Kelly Rutherford got such a limited, thankless role, however bad the movie).
Dixie's role in the program is one of my favorite examples of smart storytelling. Dixie was a dance-hall girl who early on was slotted as the "bad girl" love interest for the adventure-western-comedy-sci-fi program's hero (Bruce Campbell - yes), poised opposite the fresh-faced daughter of the recurring mad-inventor character (John Astin) who appeared in the TV-movie pilot. TPTB, though, saw that Rutherford had such presence onscreen and such chemistry with Campbell that the daughter was never seen again and Dixie was bumped up to female lead. Nothing was wrong with the daughter character per se, but the show saw no use pretending that Dixie's behavior was borne of genuine malice rather than playfulness or in spending time on false posturing that they could on meatier stories; seldom do you see a program so swift and confident in identifying its strengths and willing to eschew convention so freely.
Daniella, Haunting Ground: The woman from my default icon, a supporting character in the meant-to-be-Clock Tower 4 title Haunting Ground, Daniella is memorable for one remarkable scene that signifies her definitive break from reality. The setup in brief: Daniella is a created being deemed unworthy by her creator; she can never rise above her hollow existence as a emotionless puppet. Her awareness of her lack of the spark of life leads her to develop an unhealthy envy of the protagonist, who is a flesh-and-blood, home-grown Real Girl. This mania reaches a head during the heroine's stay at Daniella's castle home: one morning, when the heroine wakes up, she finds Daniella standing by her side, staring covetously at the functional womb she herself lacks; the maid flatly and robotically informs the girl of her inexpressible bitterness that she is "not complete." Daniella then turns and calmly, unblinkingly beats her forehead against a mirror until it shatters, whereupon she takes a shard to use against the girl as a weapon. That is commitment to your insanity. That is an Argento-level fusion of art, violence, and character illustration.
Derek Cuttlebrink, The Cat Who...: There's this old Archie story I remember about Betty quitting the band because she didn't feel she added anything of value - "I just stand up here and shake the tambourine! Big deal!" At the gang's next, Betty-free concert, however, the audience is predictably unenthusiastic about the change-up - despite the band lacking only a tambourine, it's just not the same without Betty. Derek's the Betty to Moose County's Archies; he's seldom of practical use in Qwill's investigations and his activities never really have any relevance to the plot, but the books wouldn't be the same without Qwill dining at the site of his latest underachieving restaurant job and receiving a cheerful visit from his carefree universe. I thought he made a cute couple with the similarly breezy and sunshiny yet more self-directed young heiress-turned-independent aspiring businesswoman Elizabeth Hart, where Derek's world grew a little bit without betraying his core character, but then Elizabeth was killed off in the final books' "I woke up today and hated absolutely everything" stretch with nary a bat of an eye from Derek. I've no idea what poor Elizabeth did in LJB's eyes to warrant such a summary execution (or what Derek did to get such a character assassination), but the E's have passed us, haven't they.
Dietrich Troy, Spy Fiction: I'm glad the letter D got postponed until I got the chance to meet Dietrich - "Or 'unbelievable,' as the ladies call him. All the android ladies." After a while of watching supergreatfriend's LP of Spy Fiction, the Metal Gear Solid clone Swery developed before Deadly Premonition, it began to feel like a bit of a slog - supergreatfriend was doing his best, but the game simply seemed unremarkable.Then comes the second ending, and the scene on the bike where one character is two at once, and the confrontation where the villain explains to his only two friends his reasons for killing the good man he could have been, and, well, the game's remained in my memory for longer and more favorably than Deadly Premonition, which was memorably daring and endearing most of its play length but, in my view, crashed in the last act. The whole incident stresses the importance of ending well.
A side note: It's interesting to reflect how both York and Dietrich (and Billy, for that matter) are awfully fond of using pop culture to shield themselves against the harshness of the world. Both young parental desertees in Spy Fiction model their very disparate plans to set things right on the same creaky spy show.
(Bonus reflection: Stop teasing TnK Dain about his nose! What's wrong with his nose!? His nose is just fine! Stop it!)
Dixie Cousins, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.: A while ago, I made the unfortunate decision to revisit the Scream movies, which only cemented my conviction that stretching out "hey, we're pointing out how stupid the thing we're doing is before we do it" to film length even one time, much less three, is not a viable form of entertainment.
Anyhow, this endeavor had finally dwindled down to Scream 3, when I was distracted from the first attempted fake-out by trying to figure out from where I recognized the opening-act victim's girlfriend. I finally hit the IMDB, where I was floored - Dixie! Of course! Kelly Rutherford; she was Dixie Cousins! It's sad that Brisco County is so far from my mind (and that Kelly Rutherford got such a limited, thankless role, however bad the movie).
Dixie's role in the program is one of my favorite examples of smart storytelling. Dixie was a dance-hall girl who early on was slotted as the "bad girl" love interest for the adventure-western-comedy-sci-fi program's hero (Bruce Campbell - yes), poised opposite the fresh-faced daughter of the recurring mad-inventor character (John Astin) who appeared in the TV-movie pilot. TPTB, though, saw that Rutherford had such presence onscreen and such chemistry with Campbell that the daughter was never seen again and Dixie was bumped up to female lead. Nothing was wrong with the daughter character per se, but the show saw no use pretending that Dixie's behavior was borne of genuine malice rather than playfulness or in spending time on false posturing that they could on meatier stories; seldom do you see a program so swift and confident in identifying its strengths and willing to eschew convention so freely.
Daniella, Haunting Ground: The woman from my default icon, a supporting character in the meant-to-be-Clock Tower 4 title Haunting Ground, Daniella is memorable for one remarkable scene that signifies her definitive break from reality. The setup in brief: Daniella is a created being deemed unworthy by her creator; she can never rise above her hollow existence as a emotionless puppet. Her awareness of her lack of the spark of life leads her to develop an unhealthy envy of the protagonist, who is a flesh-and-blood, home-grown Real Girl. This mania reaches a head during the heroine's stay at Daniella's castle home: one morning, when the heroine wakes up, she finds Daniella standing by her side, staring covetously at the functional womb she herself lacks; the maid flatly and robotically informs the girl of her inexpressible bitterness that she is "not complete." Daniella then turns and calmly, unblinkingly beats her forehead against a mirror until it shatters, whereupon she takes a shard to use against the girl as a weapon. That is commitment to your insanity. That is an Argento-level fusion of art, violence, and character illustration.
Derek Cuttlebrink, The Cat Who...: There's this old Archie story I remember about Betty quitting the band because she didn't feel she added anything of value - "I just stand up here and shake the tambourine! Big deal!" At the gang's next, Betty-free concert, however, the audience is predictably unenthusiastic about the change-up - despite the band lacking only a tambourine, it's just not the same without Betty. Derek's the Betty to Moose County's Archies; he's seldom of practical use in Qwill's investigations and his activities never really have any relevance to the plot, but the books wouldn't be the same without Qwill dining at the site of his latest underachieving restaurant job and receiving a cheerful visit from his carefree universe. I thought he made a cute couple with the similarly breezy and sunshiny yet more self-directed young heiress-turned-independent aspiring businesswoman Elizabeth Hart, where Derek's world grew a little bit without betraying his core character, but then Elizabeth was killed off in the final books' "I woke up today and hated absolutely everything" stretch with nary a bat of an eye from Derek. I've no idea what poor Elizabeth did in LJB's eyes to warrant such a summary execution (or what Derek did to get such a character assassination), but the E's have passed us, haven't they.
Dietrich Troy, Spy Fiction: I'm glad the letter D got postponed until I got the chance to meet Dietrich - "Or 'unbelievable,' as the ladies call him. All the android ladies." After a while of watching supergreatfriend's LP of Spy Fiction, the Metal Gear Solid clone Swery developed before Deadly Premonition, it began to feel like a bit of a slog - supergreatfriend was doing his best, but the game simply seemed unremarkable.
A side note: It's interesting to reflect how both York and Dietrich (and Billy, for that matter) are awfully fond of using pop culture to shield themselves against the harshness of the world. Both young parental desertees in Spy Fiction model their very disparate plans to set things right on the same creaky spy show.
