A Fanfic Idea for The Americans
May. 29th, 2018 09:05 pmOne of my favorite genres has always been time travel, going back to when I first heard about The Time Machine. I've enjoyed seeing it in Harry Potter, Arrow, and The 100, among other fandoms.
So I got to thinking, naturally, what might happen if it could occur in The Americans-verse?
Premise: Paige has learned some very bitter lessons about herself and near the end of her life, manages to get involved in a Russian project to turn back time. Being as she's so old, if it doesn't work, at least she tried.
But it works, and she wakes up in her younger self back in 1981.
Armed with her foreknowledge, what can she change?
And what can't she change?
Dun dun dun... :)
So I got to thinking, naturally, what might happen if it could occur in The Americans-verse?
Premise: Paige has learned some very bitter lessons about herself and near the end of her life, manages to get involved in a Russian project to turn back time. Being as she's so old, if it doesn't work, at least she tried.
But it works, and she wakes up in her younger self back in 1981.
Armed with her foreknowledge, what can she change?
And what can't she change?
Dun dun dun... :)
Annelise and Philip in "The Americans"
Feb. 16th, 2015 08:00 pmHow realistic do you think it would be that she never tried asking her "Swedish" handler to talk to her in Swedish? I don't know how well-trained P&E were in any languages besides English, but if Philip is going to pretend to be a Swede, he should at least have a basic working knowledge of the language, no?
For someone like her, I can easily imagine her teasingly asking Philip, "How do you say 'I love you' in Swedish?"
For him to hem and haw at that point could've raised her suspicions, but I can't imagine him knowing enough to toss off a "jag älskar dig" and give it the right pronunciation so on the off chance she met a real Swede she wouldn't wonder why Philip spoke actually rather crappy Swedish.
Or maybe it just never came up?
For someone like her, I can easily imagine her teasingly asking Philip, "How do you say 'I love you' in Swedish?"
For him to hem and haw at that point could've raised her suspicions, but I can't imagine him knowing enough to toss off a "jag älskar dig" and give it the right pronunciation so on the off chance she met a real Swede she wouldn't wonder why Philip spoke actually rather crappy Swedish.
Or maybe it just never came up?
More on "Symmetries in The Americans"
Oct. 8th, 2014 01:34 pmI would like to just briefly revisit that topic by pointing out that the creators of the show appear to be explicitly pointing them up in subtle, and sometimes not so subtle ways:
Take a look at the above picture. Would you know which country was which?
... not until you see the flags.
I think that juxtaposition was very deliberate: it shows two countries at the peak of their political and economic power, representing opposites in their philosophies about organizing societies, and yet - strangely alike in many ways.
People own cars. They go to work. They go out to eat. They fall in love.
In short, they conduct their daily lives in ways that seem almost independent of the system in which they live, and it shows in the very similar cityscape scenes.
I like that touch.
Take a look at the above picture. Would you know which country was which?
... not until you see the flags.
I think that juxtaposition was very deliberate: it shows two countries at the peak of their political and economic power, representing opposites in their philosophies about organizing societies, and yet - strangely alike in many ways.
People own cars. They go to work. They go out to eat. They fall in love.
In short, they conduct their daily lives in ways that seem almost independent of the system in which they live, and it shows in the very similar cityscape scenes.
I like that touch.
If so, check out the ATLA fandom comm!
http://www.journalfen.net/community/atla_fandom/
It's very hard to get a Journalfen account (try anyway at this link) but I have enabled anon commenting (if it isn't, please let me know and I'll fix that), and I know people with paid accounts can give out accounts to others. I think mine is still paid up, incidentally, so I might be able to get accounts made.
So, see you there if you're a fan and want to chat about the episodes or any other aspect of the fandom. :)
http://www.journalfen.net/community/atla_fandom/
It's very hard to get a Journalfen account (try anyway at this link) but I have enabled anon commenting (if it isn't, please let me know and I'll fix that), and I know people with paid accounts can give out accounts to others. I think mine is still paid up, incidentally, so I might be able to get accounts made.
So, see you there if you're a fan and want to chat about the episodes or any other aspect of the fandom. :)
Replayng CoD...
Jul. 7th, 2014 05:56 pm[ X-posted to JF ]
So I had time to kill on the plane ride back from AX 2014 and I had nothing else to do, since TRON: Legacy was finished before the plane took off since the flight was delayed.
What else but to switch from the video player to my CoD app on my iPad Mini? X-D And holy shit I must have spent the entire plane ride ONLY GETTING TO LIKE CHAPTER FIVE of Volume ONE, over a space of like three hours.
No wonder this goddamn game can take up days and weeks of your time. The storylines are really involved and the game makes you work for those 100 detective points, heh.
Also, I replayed "First Date, First Kiss, First Kill" and OMFG JACOB FALLON in First Kill! He was such a hysterically funny wise-ass to Maria the entire time, and it's really kind of weird how he had a level of respect for her even though she didn't like his methods and had Internal Affairs looking into him all the time.
So I had time to kill on the plane ride back from AX 2014 and I had nothing else to do, since TRON: Legacy was finished before the plane took off since the flight was delayed.
What else but to switch from the video player to my CoD app on my iPad Mini? X-D And holy shit I must have spent the entire plane ride ONLY GETTING TO LIKE CHAPTER FIVE of Volume ONE, over a space of like three hours.
No wonder this goddamn game can take up days and weeks of your time. The storylines are really involved and the game makes you work for those 100 detective points, heh.
Also, I replayed "First Date, First Kiss, First Kill" and OMFG JACOB FALLON in First Kill! He was such a hysterically funny wise-ass to Maria the entire time, and it's really kind of weird how he had a level of respect for her even though she didn't like his methods and had Internal Affairs looking into him all the time.
Paige-fic: Beta Requested
May. 24th, 2014 09:21 amSo hey, I'm writing that Agent Paige story and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need someone to bounce ideas off of and beta this; if interested, could you drop me a comment here? I'll PM you through DW to avoid personal contact details getting into my comment section. :)
TV Show Question Meme
Mar. 26th, 2014 02:34 pmSo! Q&A time! I stole these questions from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jae, who I hope doesn't mind that I'm going to now do my own Q&A with the same set of questions. :)
( Read more... )
I had fun answering these. :)
jae, who I hope doesn't mind that I'm going to now do my own Q&A with the same set of questions. :)( Read more... )
I had fun answering these. :)
HOLY SHIT REVOLUTION I WAS RIGHT.
Mar. 13th, 2014 11:44 amRemember this?
Latest episode of Revolution actually has one of the high US government officials confirm that "70% of our population will be lost".
Score one for me being able to use math to ballpark an estimate later confirmed as canon. X-D
PS. So, apparently Revolution has a tumblr.
Latest episode of Revolution actually has one of the high US government officials confirm that "70% of our population will be lost".
Score one for me being able to use math to ballpark an estimate later confirmed as canon. X-D
PS. So, apparently Revolution has a tumblr.
New Opening Credits Easter Egg
Feb. 27th, 2014 11:04 am
That transliterates to "Drugie* Makhendru", which is "Comrade Mahendru" :P Rather fitting considering who she plays in the series! :D
(Also: Keidrich's name is still not transliterated in the opening credits)
---
* Ironically, I know "drug" means "Friend", "Comrade" from Serbian/Croatian, not from Russian. :P (I've seen quite a few "Drugi Tito" pictures)
Symmetries in "The Americans" Part 3
Feb. 22nd, 2014 01:52 pmAs promised, I'll continue on! :)
A bit of an aside, however; the fact of my handle has some relevance, since it's what I do, more or less, in my real-world studies. And in quantum mechanics, what's been found is that one of the most fundamental aspects of nature is driven by something called a "broken symmetry": the weak interaction.
What this means is that a mathematical symmetry still exists, but it's been hidden or modified so it's no longer obvious in a simple way.
And one thing I've noticed, in studying the women of this series, is that the symmetries aren't so exact. They're also broken symmetries.
( Read more... )
I think for parts 4 and onward, I'll explore some of the plot arcs in the series, because just as with the opening credits, I believe that the writers have purposely and consciously chosen to show, in microcosm, how similar and alike - how symmetric - the erstwhile diametrically-opposed ideological enemies actually are: in this series, we're seeing the best and brightest spies on Earth capable of calling on the vast resources of two entire nations to do their bidding in their hidden battles with one another.
A bit of an aside, however; the fact of my handle has some relevance, since it's what I do, more or less, in my real-world studies. And in quantum mechanics, what's been found is that one of the most fundamental aspects of nature is driven by something called a "broken symmetry": the weak interaction.
What this means is that a mathematical symmetry still exists, but it's been hidden or modified so it's no longer obvious in a simple way.
And one thing I've noticed, in studying the women of this series, is that the symmetries aren't so exact. They're also broken symmetries.
( Read more... )
I think for parts 4 and onward, I'll explore some of the plot arcs in the series, because just as with the opening credits, I believe that the writers have purposely and consciously chosen to show, in microcosm, how similar and alike - how symmetric - the erstwhile diametrically-opposed ideological enemies actually are: in this series, we're seeing the best and brightest spies on Earth capable of calling on the vast resources of two entire nations to do their bidding in their hidden battles with one another.
Symmetries in "The Americans" Part 2
Feb. 20th, 2014 12:47 pmI'm now going to zoom in on a more "personal" level and look at the most obvious symmetries first. These are people whose roles could most easily be interchanged if we were to swap and call this show "The Soviets": sleeper American agents in the USSR, for example.
( Read more... )
Part 3 will start exploring less obvious symmetries, and focus more on the women of the series as well.
( Read more... )
Part 3 will start exploring less obvious symmetries, and focus more on the women of the series as well.
Symmetries in "The Americans" Part 1
Feb. 19th, 2014 07:01 pmAs the second season begins to ramp up, I want to revisit "The Americans" from the point of view of the symmetries I've seen in the series, starting with the opening credits.
Future parts will explore symmetries between the characters themselves, as I expect this to be an ongoing and recurring theme through Season 2 as much as in Season 1. These posts will be fairly image-laden with clickable thumbnails, so keep that in mind if you're on a slow connection.
( Read more... )
Future parts will explore symmetries between the characters themselves, as I expect this to be an ongoing and recurring theme through Season 2 as much as in Season 1. These posts will be fairly image-laden with clickable thumbnails, so keep that in mind if you're on a slow connection.
( Read more... )
Watching Teen Wolf
Nov. 2nd, 2013 02:51 pmAs regards supernaturalistic type TV shows...
I tried to get into True Blood, but I quit midway into the pilot because the show kind of just spammed in with a bunch of characters all at once who were all about equally important-ish to the plot, and keeping track of all of them wasn't easy.
Teen Wolf is a lot easier to get into: there's a much tighter focus on one or two people, namely Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski, bringing in others as required by the plot and not otherwise, which means the awesome bromance of the guys and the power-couple romance of Scott and Allison are both well-executed. :D
I think what this show really has as its draw is the question of identity: teenagers are already wrestling with that as they grow up, but overlaid on top of this is Scott's lycanthropy: who is he? Is he human? Werewolf? Both? And who can he become when he grows to adulthood? Derek shows one rather bad turn life can take: being perpetually suspicious of anyone who's not in your pack and being only indifferently helpful to humans and/or newbie werewolves.
I'm only in the first season, so I don't know how this will play out. But we shall see, neh?
Bonus: Scott McCall is seriously fucking built. (and hot. :P )
Bonus 2: I wish the show would 'ship Scott, Allison and Stiles, because Allison and Stiles both love Scott, just in different ways. And they aren't really even jealous of each other, because they know they complete Scott in different ways. Oh well, there's always fanfic. :P
I tried to get into True Blood, but I quit midway into the pilot because the show kind of just spammed in with a bunch of characters all at once who were all about equally important-ish to the plot, and keeping track of all of them wasn't easy.
Teen Wolf is a lot easier to get into: there's a much tighter focus on one or two people, namely Scott McCall and Stiles Stilinski, bringing in others as required by the plot and not otherwise, which means the awesome bromance of the guys and the power-couple romance of Scott and Allison are both well-executed. :D
I think what this show really has as its draw is the question of identity: teenagers are already wrestling with that as they grow up, but overlaid on top of this is Scott's lycanthropy: who is he? Is he human? Werewolf? Both? And who can he become when he grows to adulthood? Derek shows one rather bad turn life can take: being perpetually suspicious of anyone who's not in your pack and being only indifferently helpful to humans and/or newbie werewolves.
I'm only in the first season, so I don't know how this will play out. But we shall see, neh?
Bonus: Scott McCall is seriously fucking built. (and hot. :P )
Bonus 2: I wish the show would 'ship Scott, Allison and Stiles, because Allison and Stiles both love Scott, just in different ways. And they aren't really even jealous of each other, because they know they complete Scott in different ways. Oh well, there's always fanfic. :P
I just saw this on F!S
Oct. 22nd, 2013 04:46 pm[ X-post: JF ]
This scares the shit out of me. I'm not getting any younger, and there's fics I want to write (and finish!) and I just think, "Oh my God, what if--?"
I don't mind dying so much (since I'll be dead obviously and likely not around to do anything in this world), but what I do mind is the thought that I might lose my mental faculties and be unable to do and read something I enjoy a lot: fan fiction.
And that really bothers me.
:'(
This scares the shit out of me. I'm not getting any younger, and there's fics I want to write (and finish!) and I just think, "Oh my God, what if--?"
I don't mind dying so much (since I'll be dead obviously and likely not around to do anything in this world), but what I do mind is the thought that I might lose my mental faculties and be unable to do and read something I enjoy a lot: fan fiction.
And that really bothers me.
:'(
Scattered Blatherings about TV Shows
Oct. 22nd, 2013 03:30 pm1. Arrow's Felicity Smoak continues to be (pardon the pun) Smoak-ing. :P Seriously, smart IT lady who went to MIT? She rocks, plain and simple. :D
2. Revolution! One of my hobby horses when it comes to this show is figuring out the physics of that world (see my previous posts on what happens to Maxwell's Equations).
A related thing I like to occasionally consider is what mechanical devices could replace electromagnetic devices in this world, and I have come across Electrical and Mechanical Analogs which starts off by showing the similar equations and parameters you can use to "translate" from an electromagnetic system to a mechanical system.
Bottom line: If it's electrical, you can probably make a much bigger and more cumbersome mechanical equivalent.
Rather neat! :P
2. Revolution! One of my hobby horses when it comes to this show is figuring out the physics of that world (see my previous posts on what happens to Maxwell's Equations).
A related thing I like to occasionally consider is what mechanical devices could replace electromagnetic devices in this world, and I have come across Electrical and Mechanical Analogs which starts off by showing the similar equations and parameters you can use to "translate" from an electromagnetic system to a mechanical system.
Bottom line: If it's electrical, you can probably make a much bigger and more cumbersome mechanical equivalent.
Rather neat! :P
