An Ode to Changeability

I think one of my greatest pleasures as a reader/watcher is the moment when, through the unpredictable progression of a story, I begin to feel radically different about a character I thought I knew.  In this first impressions really matter.  Someone can put you off instantly and yet as the story winds its way around you come to see the best of them.  Or quite the opposite, a character you thought likeable does something that you simply cannot approve of.

I love characters like this, because they are proof that the story is progressing contrary to how you thought it would.  So here are the 10 that have most surprised me.  The 10 that have caused me to change my opinions of them most drastically.

10. Samwise Gamgee (The Lord of the Rings)

Sam started out the story as a bit of a loser.  Smart and likeable too, but there was no doubt he was the sidekick and Frodo was the hero.  However by the time the third movie comes around you realize just how much of the weight of ring falls on Sam’s shoulders.  And he rises to this challenge in a way that exceeded all my expectations.  He is the hero, and Frodo is just the guy that he defended, put up with and half-carried to Mount Doom.

9. Light Yagami (Death Note)

From the very start of Death Note we become aware that Light is a bad person.  That he is a killer. However his logic is understandable. Who among us doesn’t wish that the world were a safer place? A place filled with only good people? Yet as the story progressed all the admiration I had for Light was turned inside out.  Slowly you began to see how sick he was, how cruel, how unfeeling.  By the end of the story I was cheering for his demise, the same character that in pilot I was sure would become one of my all time favourites.

8. Brenda Chenowith (Six Feet Under)

Originally there was absolutely nothing I liked about Brenda.  She was crazy, she was a liar, she was near-incestial and most of all she was a sex-maniac.  But she changed so much when she became a mother.  It seemed to suit her instantly, and you really begin to wonder who was the real crazy one, her or Nate? In the end she was still far from my favoured character but I could appreciate her. She was strong, she was brilliant and unlike Nate she managed to solve her mental-problems whereas he couldn’t.

7. Jayne Cobb (Firefly)

Jayne comes off as an asshole.  He’s misogynistic.  He’s unloyal.  And his role in the crew is clearly just “muscle”.  However as the show continued you also get to see how sweet he can be, how funny, how human.  Sure he might not be a good person, but that doesn’t make him a bad person.  And shamefully he has wormed his way into being my favoured Firefly character, I cannot get enough of Jayne and that stupid hat of his.

6. Jamie Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire)

He threw a six year old from a window because he wanted to keep fucking his sister.  That’s the reader’s first impression of Jamie.  He comes across as a guiltless, lustful villain, without even a little bit of mercy inside of him.  However in the third book when he becomes a PoV character suddenly everything is thrown into a new context.  He’s in love. He’s desperate.  He’s lonely.  Jamie has a way to win you over to him.  You feel for his pain, specially when you know what a freaking hoe bag Circe is.  Poor bloke.  Things would be so much easier if he was in love with Tyrion…

5. Roger Sterling (Mad Men)

When Mad Men started Roger Sterling was a laughable old prick who chased after all the wrong woman and who’s life was symbolic at best. Don was the guy to be.  Don was the hot one.  Don was the clever one.  Don was the one who was getting places in the world.  Only as the show went on, season through season you realize what a cruel person Don is.  Roger might not be a Saint, but he’s a better human being than Don could ever be and by season six the only paring in the whole show I care even the least bit about is Roger and Joan.  Those two belong together, hell they’ve already got the baby.

4. Littlefinger (A Song of Ice and Fire)

Littlefinger is introduced as a douche bag.  A sleazy, creepy, pedophiliac dandy.  I always wrote him off as just that and no more.  And then the last chapter of a Storm of Swords happened, and I realized that Littlefinger is actually responsible for like 90% of the shit that has happened in Westeros.  Yep, he’s actually one of the big players, and I had no idea until now… Well played G.R.R.M… Well played.

3. Severus Snape (Harry Potter)

This one doesn’t need explaining. We all thought Snape was bad. And then we learned that he was actually just a bitter old guy with a broken heart. Sweet, no? Well, not exactly, but he was a better person than I gave him credit for.

2. The 11th Doctor (Dr. Who)

Here’s one that a bit difficult to explain.  Let’s begin by saying that Tennant is my Dr.  He always will be my Dr.  I adore the man.  However when Smith came along I took to the transition really really well.  He was adorable and funny, sort of like a cross between a disoriented cat and a small child.  I was with him all of season 5 and season 6.  And even though I never for one second though he lived up to Tennant (cause who could?) I did love him.  And then season 7 got here and I have never been more disappointed in my life.  His acting went down the toilet and I just couldn’t even look at his face anymore without getting angry.  It took me longer to get through season 7 than the previous 6 seasons combined and multiplied.  By the end of Smith’s run I had lost absolute all the love I had previously harboured for him, and these days I’m just screaming for Capaldi to get here already.

1. Walter White (Breaking Bad)

I don’t think this one needs an explanation either.  During Season 1 I didn’t like Walt, but I felt sorry for him.  Much like Light I thought that in some ways his action were justified.  I could understand it.  But with every person he killed, and every person he screwed over that became harder and harder to believe. By the time Season 3 hit I loathed him, and now (I am currently half-way through season 5) I am looking forward to his coming death with relish.

 

The Dispersal of the Holly Grail

Let me be clear that this has absolutely nothing to do with religion, or any Dan Brown shit. I am talking about something infinitely more significant, the Holly Grail of the Sci-fi genre – Firefly.

Firefly is one of those rare thing the can be easily agreed upon by others as a masterpiece. It has everything good fiction should: riveting character, an original premise, humour and drama in equal measures, good acting, and most important to my sensibilities good writing. The show also comes with a reputation as one of the great tragedies of TV History since it was horrifically cancelled after the first season because of lack of viewership.The show’s premature cancellation resulted in 14 measly episodes, plus a movie.

Now, to be honest when my boyfriend and I began watching the show I didn’t think it would live up to hype. First of all I think I have unreasonably high standards, second of all cowboys in space sounded kind of stupid, but most importantly I was not a fan of Joss Whedon. However from the very first episode I recognized the show for what it is, the holly grail of Sci-fi.

But here comes the real difficulty, how is a treasure like this to be enjoyed? My boyfriend had the inclination to binge it in 24 hours like we have numerous shows (American Horror Story I’m looking at you). But I knew this was too precious to be consumed with such rapidity. If this is the best of the genre (which I believe it is) and there is so little of it, how can you morally afford to swift through it in a day.

I wanted to hold off watching it, to treasure it as a rare treat like Christmas. I even threw around the idea of only watching one episode a year so as to give the show some longevity, however in the end my boyfriend and I came to a compromise. We started watching it in January, and through months of abstinence and days of double-episodes we have reached number 12.

I really don’t know how to continue from here though. Greedily I want to finish the show, but rationally I understand that there are just two more episodes, and that once these are squandered then there’s no more Firefly, forever. That last word sort of churns my stomach but it does calm me down enough to realize that this time I am not giving in to my boyfriend. These last two episodes will be cherished, and I can assure you they will not be viewed in 2014 no matter what he says.

Am I overreacting and taking this way too seriously? Probably, but hell that’s what being a fangirl is all about…