Vacation (Again)

‘sup. Yep, I’m on a vacation again, somehow spending the past couple of months making up for nearly three years of pandemic sedentariness. I’m trying to spend this time doing the exploring and adventuring thing, something about being present in the vagarities of life and all that. And maybe get some writing done on other projects in the in-between.

Of course, this doesn’t mean I haven’t been keeping up with tv. Andor continues to be excellent through and through, managing to nail that balance between a grittier interpretation of Star Wars while still wearing its romantic heart on its sleeve. I’m not quite sure how it manages to do it so well (and truth be told I get so caught up watching it that my brain doesn’t analyze it), but maybe I’ll figure it out sometime. Maybe it’s got something to do with the relentless, defiant hope that can’t help but peek out beneath the rough facade of disillusioned characters.

Speaking of defiant hope, I have been enjoying Rings of Power. Sure, it’s playing fast and loose with canon in ways that sometimes delight and vex me, but it’s got some pretty solid Tolkien DNA woven into it. One thing I love is that it mirrors a characterization thread wherein characters aren’t always tempted by evil and are tempted instead by their potential to be better people. The conflict is positioned instead with as inertial stasis as the thing to overcome; the Call To Adventure repeats itself on a spiritual level. The result is many characters aren’t decent people trying to resist the allure of evil, but instead are decent people being tempted by the potential to become better versions of themselves.

Anyway. Off to see what else is out there in this wide world.