It's like the Chocolate War, only not

So I've been Netflixing Popular lately (basically, Glee - Musical Numbers - Hamlet 2 - Jane Lynch, but the femslash starts at the title card and doesn't let up, so props) and I don't know how they did it, but they managed to make me side with an unrepentant homophobic bully that isn't played by Walt Goggins. And not in an "oh, her little sister has cancer" sort of way. In a "sure, Venom is bad, but he's not as bad as this group of 90s villains he's fighting" way. They did a sexual harassment episode and if the premise of the episode is that it's hellish to spend time being lectured about sexual harassment... why would you make an episode devoted to lecturing the audience about sexual harassment?

( I will try to keep my diagnosis of the fail short and sweet. )

Research: Blood of the Fold Chapters 10 and 11

Chapter 10

More villainy. Ho-hum. Our Big Bad gets in arguments with old ladies and proves that he was always picked last for debate team. Because smart villains are for Commies!

Basically, he figures out that Kahlan faked her death with magic. You know that scene in Inglorious Bastards where Hans Landa figures out there are Jews hiding in a house? Well, imagine that scene if the farmer were serving him milk and all the time going "Man, them Jews love them some hiding. Why, you could say there are Jews right under the floorboards!"

Chapter 11

Still more villainy. Apparently, the D'Harans spent two hours doing devotionals to Richard, which I feel would've been a good time to exercise his new casual, hands-off managerial style. I'm sure even the Tea Party doesn't pledge allegiance for more than ten minutes. Maybe the difference between him and the evil Darken Rahl is that Richard allowed potty breaks.

Newly-crowned Richard also invites Brogan, the villain with the dubious accent, to a party. Maybe he intends to show him a be-movie. Hey, if Goodkind can keep this up, so can I. Brogan is all het up to go to magic nun las vegas and figure out the magic that's hiding the Mother Confessor, but Richard is swinging his army-dick and man, Brogan isn't fighting his way past an army just to get out of going to a party, not unless it's an MTV Movie Awards after-party or something.

Oh, and Brogan's men are torturing an old lady and a little girl. You know, it's hard to tell with all the moral ambiguity and shades of gray in this book, but I think they may be the antagonists.

LotS fic: Hen Night! (Cara/Kahlan)

So things are looking a little dire in the other Cara story -- have you seen how many comments I'm getting? :( -- so here's another installment in the happy-go-lucky courtship of Kahlan Amnell by the soldier Cara Mason.

Title: Hen Night
Fandom: Legend of the Seeker
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2,191
Characters/Pairings: Cara/Kahlan, Richard/Denna, mention of Cara/Triana
Previous: Do you take this woman?
Summary: Cara and Kahlan are almost married. But when Kahlan hears a prophecy that Cara will cheat on her, will it be matrimony or cacophony?

( For the past week, Cara had been retired from the service and all Kahlan's to do with as she wished. Which, in this case, was planning their nuptials. It was such a load off to be able to trust Cara's fine tactical mind with seating arrangements and food arrangements and arrangement arrangements (since they didn't want people sitting in the food). )