gdp's Comments

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Guards! Guards!': Part 14

Fri, 20 Feb 2015 10:49:41 +0000

While I totally understand why Mark might not have made the inference it still allows for ALL THE NUNS! :)

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Guards! Guards!': Part 1

Wed, 14 Jan 2015 15:29:14 +0000

Oh no! If we do the whole book then there are a whole host of characters that I would love to act - Flovy is clearly the best but I am SO GREEDY, I want to play them all!!

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Guards! Guards!': Part 1

Wed, 14 Jan 2015 13:21:19 +0000

So excited about this - this was the first discworld book I read :D Also, if a dramatic reading of this actually happens - I totally call dibs on Brother Watchtower! :D :D :D Also, DRAGONS!!!!!!!

Mark Reads : Mark Reads 'Pyramids': Part 18

Tue, 13 Jan 2015 20:15:22 +0000

YES YES YES - this is one of the few series on MarkReads that I will be able to go into unspoiled (since somehow I never got round to reading this, shameful I know!) - now that I have the books for an amazing price the only problem is going to be restricting myself to a chapter by chapter reading once Mark starts! :D

Mark Watches : Mark Predicts 'Supernatural': Season 6

Thu, 28 Aug 2014 11:24:09 +0000

But isn't it *Jimmy's* craving for meat that affects Cas during My Bloody Valentine?

Mark Watches : Mark Predicts 'Supernatural': Season 6

Wed, 27 Aug 2014 11:14:45 +0000

V npghnyyl oevrsyl unq n urnqpnaba jurer Nqnz'f fbhy tbg gb tb gb urnira fvapr ur'q qbar uvf cneg - nsgre nyy rirelobql ryfr tbg ng yrnfg n fbeg bs erfrg ol gur raq bs Fjna Fbat, jul abg uvz? Gura Nccbvagzrag va Fnzneen unccrarq naq rira gung jnf gnxra sebz zr! Vg nyfb znxrf zr guvax - jung ba rnegu unccrarq gb cbbe Wvzzl Abinx???

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Revolutionary Girl Utena': Episode 11

Tue, 3 Jun 2014 13:42:05 +0000

This is interesting, as I watched this series so long ago that, apart from the first few episodes, I have little recollection of how this all pans out (V erzrzore gung Nxvb'f gur cerfvqrag naq Nagul vf jnl zber pbzcyrk guna fur frrzf, ohg abg fher ubj) and am avoiding rot13 so as to recreate a sense of coming to this new. However, I remember vividly my original reaction to this episode. I know Utena doesn't realise her power over Anthy, but it was SO frustrating to see her ask Anthy's opinion and then not let her actually *state her opinion*. While, I know Utena does truly care for Anthy, here she felt very much like that well meaning do-gooder who never actually bothers to check what the recipient of their do-gooding actually *wants*. That's why I thought she might actually lose the battle this time. Of course Touga has his role to play with his manipulations (JERK JERK JERK), but I think the narrative also suggested that Utena lost some of her original nobility - she went from defending Anthy from those who wanted to own or shape her, to fighting so that she too could shape Anthy, albeit into the kind of person that she thinks Anthy wants to be. Maybe that's a bit harsh on Utena but basically I just really wanted to be able to hear what Anthy actually felt about the situation and was pissed that I didn't get the opportunity and the frustration was even greater on this second viewing. I have basically no idea what happens from hereon in though, so am very excited for the rest of the ride.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Revolutionary Girl Utena': Episode 1

Mon, 19 May 2014 16:53:53 +0000

Oh Lordy, it has been over a decade since I saw this. This was my first exposure to anime of any kind and what a start! It confused the hell out of me and burrowed its way into my soul. Bless you Utena!

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Band of Brothers': Part 10 - Points

Fri, 16 May 2014 17:51:46 +0000

They would have to rejoin the world as best they could I 100% agree with you on how moving this line is. We get only the tiniest glimpse of how difficult it might be for these men to go back when Shifty mentions not being able to talk about it to anybody and Winters saying that Nixon faced some dark times. The veterans too in their interviews from other episodes mention it (and god, knowing that it's Malarkey in the run up to Breaking Point whose voice breaks when recounting his fallen friends makes it even more heartbreaking), but nothing quite sums it up like that line. [Spoilers for the Pacific] Nygubhtu V qvqa'g rawbl gur Cnpvsvp nf zhpu qhr gb vgf zber fcenjyvat angher, jung ernyyl fgehpx zr jnf Fyrqtr'f fgbel naq gur qvssvphygvrf ur unq hcba uvf erghea ner fb unhagvat.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Band of Brothers': Part 10 - Points

Fri, 16 May 2014 15:01:22 +0000

CONT. Of course, he can’t use that solution for everybody, and with all the men nervous with anticipation, with too much drink and not enough to do, naturally things are charged and begin to spiral horribly. Liebgott searches out a former German soldier who was supposedly in charge of a concentration camp and convinces the replacement to gun him down. War’s over. Anybody would have run Whether or not Liebgott’s information was true, to watch someone tracked down to his house and then shot in the back while running for his life, it’s hard to stomach. Then there is the senseless death of the soldier Webster talked with (don’t know his name, and am doing this from memory!) and Sergeant Grant being shot by a replacement. One thing just piles on top of another and it is AWFUL. Goodness knows how much further such self-destruction might have gone on. I was so tense when Speirs went into the room, I was just convinced the replacement was going to die there and then. The speech by the surrendering German Commander gives me goosebumps. I still find it hard not to associate him and any senior officers with ‘Why we Fight’ but I appreciate the fact that, for many of the German privates and soldiers, their experience on the front lines was equally miserable and harrowing (hence, them not crossing the river in Hagenau because they too had roofs over their heads). ‘You’ve found in one another a bond that exists only in combat, among brothers…I am proud to have served with each and every one of you. You all deserve long and happy lives in peace’ – no matter what side you’re on, there are some things about war that only those who fought it can truly appreciate. Oh those interviews! I’d been told before I started that the men were all veterans of Easy but didn’t know who was who. I figured out Winters pretty quickly – there was just something about the way he talked about handling fear in Day of Days that clued me in. It was so moving to finally attach names to the faces, and I just could not stop the tears from flowing. Not a day goes by that I do not think of the men I served with who never got to enjoy the world without war We were a close knit group. So brave, it was unbelievable. I don’t know anybody I admire more. Sometime it makes me cry. The real men, the real heroes are those buried over there and buried at home SO, SO DONE.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Band of Brothers': Part 10 - Points

Fri, 16 May 2014 15:01:16 +0000

“Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?” Grandpa said, “No. But I served in a company of heroes.” *Collapses into pile of Kleenex, sobbing* This series has just been such an intense journey and emotional rollercoaster. Even in this last episode things are not straightforward. Thankfully, there are squishy moments like this: Are you offering me a job? We’ll see how your interview goes, but a man of your qualifications. I think I can scrape something up commensurate with your current salary. <3 <3 <3 <3 It’s surreal, after so much combat, the Company reach Berchtesgaden (wouldn’t want the French to beat them to it!), to find all the Nazis gone, and finally have a chance to relax. The reactions to Winters telling the officers about the German surrender is beautiful (as is the fact that he gifted a whole wine cellar to Nixon!) Of course, VE Day does not mean that everything is over and the men get to go home. It must have been so weird for Easy to watch the newsreels from the Pacific, knowing how little their own newsreels represented their own experiences. We know that the war is nearly over and that they won’t have to ship out, but it must have been awful for the soldiers to think that Austria was just another temporary reprieve before having to go out into battle all over again. While I understand the whole points system, it just seems so cruel after watching what these men have been through to know that most of them still don’t have enough points to go home. Oh, Shifty – the men seemed so genuinely happy for him to be able to go back, and it is as he’s on his way back that he gets hit by a truck. What the hell?! :( His goodbye scene is so poignant. Shifty struggles to express how much the Company has meant to him and wonders how he’ll explain all of this when he gets back home. Because how could anybody who wasn’t there ever truly understand what these men went through? And then this - I wish I could say he was our only casualty in Austria DO NOT DO THIS TO ME, SHOW. Guts and Glory asked for a transfer Are you in on this? I can’t let him go by himself. I am so moved and in awe by the fact that many of the officers decided to stay on with the men. This could have been it, they’d done their duty and could go home (and I’m glad for Welsh that he decided to do just that), but instead they chose to carry on, for the men and for the war effort. Frankly, your men earned the right to keep you around THIS. TOTALLY THIS. I love that Winters does his best to get as many people as possible out of the fight. Bless him, and Lipton and Malarkey. It hurts to see them leave and Easy Company breaking up, but I am so so glad that they can get away. I also love that Winters tells Lipton in no uncertain terms that army logic is screwed up and of course the men of Easy respect him as a commissioned officer.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Band of Brothers': Part 9 - Why We Fight

Thu, 15 May 2014 17:43:54 +0000

Thank you so much for sharing your story. Even at the age of 8 she knew she might have to run at any moment This reminds me somewhat of my 'Uncle' (really close family friend) who similarly always carried a bag with him when he was younger. During the Bangladeshi war of Independence his family was targeted by both sides, by the Pakistanis who shot two of his cousins in front of his house, as well as by some of the Bangladeshis who sometimes assumed that his pale skin and Urdu sounding name meant he was Pakistani. Seeing the soldiers realise that they would have to close the gates again, along with the dismay on the faces of the people they had just liberated, that was probably the hardest part of a very hard episode to watch. That prayer is so beautiful.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Band of Brothers': Part 9 - Why We Fight

Thu, 15 May 2014 17:24:24 +0000

I struggle with this. I definitely think it is so important to confront the worst humanity has to offer, but I struggle with the fact that sometimes the worst just seems so outside my sphere of comprehension that I don't know where to begin. I worry that anything I say will just be so completely off the mark, or inadvertently end up sounding crass or ill-considered. Of course, not saying anything can have repercussions too - if everybody chose to do that then we certainly would be sanitizing the past. I just find it difficult to know *how* to talk about subjects as horror-filled as the Holocaust.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Band of Brothers': Part 9 - Why We Fight

Thu, 15 May 2014 15:01:21 +0000

I haven’t rewatched this episode yet, because I don’t think I am quite in a position where I can handle it. In spite of all the signposting and even the goddamn title ‘Why We Fight’, I was so completely unprepared for this episode. I kept expecting Easy to be attacked in the woods and I was genuinely confused for the whole time Perconti was demanding Winters to come along, without explaining anything. Because it is unexplainable I want to say something meaningful and profound – but what is there to be said in the face of such horror? I genuinely don’t know. The ‘reasoning’ behind such camps as these boggles belief. I don’t want the human race to be capable of this and yet we are. We fight atrocity, but we also commit it, and wilfully blind ourselves to it, and when I watched this episode all I could feel was nausea. Here, more than anywhere else in the series, I am confronted by my own ignorance of experience, by the fact that some things, much as they should never be forgotten, can never be understood.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Band of Brothers': Part 8 - The Last Patrol

Thu, 15 May 2014 08:14:42 +0000

Oh, I definitely think Webster eventually comes off as sympathetic - I was trying to explain the emphasis on hostility from Easy Company's point of view. I think in the episode it is shown that he does try to lighten the burden on everybody. The episode also shows that much of the Company's wariness also simply stems from exhaustion and losing so many - after his shower Malarkey is still hollowed out but he is able to take the time to tell Jones that the rear is the best position to be placed (think that happens, doing lots of this off memory); also, once they know they are being taken off the front everybody just has the chance to relax and actually welcome newcomers/returnees once more... And yeah, I get the whole difficulty of ever determining what is historically 'accurate'

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Band of Brothers': Part 8 - The Last Patrol

Wed, 14 May 2014 19:44:04 +0000

*amazing gif is amazing* Lipton is brilliant, trying to look out for everybody even in the depths of pneumonia - he straight out tells Speirs that all his NCOs need a break but of course, there's no way to engineer that. Hence Martin substituting Malarkey and Look of Doom! (Unless he was always going to go and is now simply pissed that he got landed with Jones?)

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Band of Brothers': Part 8 - The Last Patrol

Wed, 14 May 2014 19:39:08 +0000

I'm glad to know that about Webster and Easy Company. I always found it hard to get a read on his character. I think the show ran away with 'he's doing his duty , but not volunteering for anything' (can't remember exact quotation) aspect and tried to show that, given the propensity of Easy Company to go AWOL to get back to the line, simply doing one's duty isn't always considered enough. From a purely narrative position I can definitely see the benefit in that choice - it allows us to see just how much Bastogne took out of everybody and I think it's plausible that a veteran of it would be wary of Webster and think he was trying to sit out the fight. However, I am reassured that this wasn't actually the case and I agree that if this episode is completely tonally different from the facts then it is disrespectful since everywhere else it has aimed to be so historically accurate. Also, WOW, Jackson :( Plus, the story of that German soldier gives me shivers.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Band of Brothers': Part 7 - The Breaking Point

Tue, 13 May 2014 15:04:09 +0000

(cont. because, I have an inability to be concise) Thank goodness for Speirs (and that’s not something I thought I’d say after watching Day of Days or Carentan!) He switches from terrifying to terrifyingly hilarious when he offers cigarettes to Webb and Perconte. Also, he quickly comes up with a sensible plan and allows Lipton to get the men moving before pulling off one of the most awe-inducing stunts I have ever seen. He just RUNS THROUGH THE GERMAN ARTILLERY BY HIMSELF to get word to I Company. AND THEN RUNS BACK. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK??????? Oh, and obligatory mention of Winters – love him questioning why they needed to keep up morale back in the USA and complaining about ‘another rich arrogant jerk from Yale . Most of all, I love his continued loyalty to E company – he knows Toye checked himself out early from the aid station and so goes to talk to him about it, before acceding to his wish to stay with his fellow soldiers. He wants more than anything for Easy to have a good leader to the point where he so nearly runs out into Foy himself. <3 Watching Dike fuck up that assault is clearly so agonizing to him. Still, in spite of that, this is rightly Lipton’s show through and through – my heart burst with pride for him when Speirs was singing his praises and he didn’t even realize, because he was just doing what needed to be done, without realizing that there was anything special about it. It’s not just his own astounding stunts he pulls, like BEING BAIT FOR A SNIPER (thank goodness for Shifty’s amazeballs skills). Just as, if not more, important are his constant quiet acts of support and caring, his steady competence and leadership. He may have thought that he was doing his job as First Sergeant, but it was so, so much more than that – I’m sorry, I just can’t find the right words to do him justice. Of course the show has to consistently ruin us. Even after Foy there can be no let-up – first the sniper, then the knowledge that there will be no reprieve from the front. Worst of all is the roster of men that’s gone from 145 to 63 and the fading out of familiar faces – NOT OK, SHOW, NOT OK!!!

Mark Watches : Mark Watches 'Band of Brothers': Part 7 - The Breaking Point

Tue, 13 May 2014 15:03:47 +0000

I’ve seen death, I’ve seen my friends, my men, being killed Everywhere you would look, you’d see dead people… death was all over You don’t have a chance, when your friends go down, to really take care of them as you’d like…… I withstood it well but I had a lot of trouble in later life because those events would come back, and you never forget ‘em… Breaking Point – as if I haven’t broken enough already BEFORE watching this episode! I’ve found this rewatch has been far harder than my original viewing, because I am so much more attached to the characters, knowing what they’ve gone/will go through. And now we get to follow Lipton <3 .Here we get to see explicitly just how vital he is to the company. This is truer than ever during the onslaught of pure awfulness that comprises this episode. Oh Hoobler, I knew as soon as he was so happy about his gun that he was probably doomed – let it be known that happiness is only ever the precursor to despair in this series. God, Lipton reassuring Hoobler as he’s dying that, yes, he is a brilliant shot, just kills me. Then there’s Toye and Guarnere. My stomach falls as Lipton says he wouldn’t have been laughing if he’d known, and then the camera pans out to show Toye’s leg detached from his body. And then Toye, dragging himself along and crying out, I was just shaking. Of course, Guarnere joins in the yells for people to stay in their foxholes, but immediately runs out of his when he realizes that Toye needs help. Can’t believe that even after their injuries, they still manage to engage in banter “Told you I’d beat you back to the States” Oh god, BUCK – his cry for a medic is just something I never want to have to deal with ever again, especially that first part, when he’s so overcome, he can’t even properly form the word. And him dropping his helmet - it is the sign of just how done he is with everything. His breakdown has been hinted at since before Bastogne but I always hoped the culmination would never arrive. I love the acknowledgement that nobody thought less of him for it because you can’t have anything but the utmost respect for Buck Compton. Of course, that is clearly nowhere near enough devastation for one episode. We have to follow poor Luz seeing Muck and Penkala get blown up right before his eyes. Also, GOD, Muck points out earlier in the episode that he and Luz had never been hit - “Consider us blessed’ – JUST STOP IT WITH THE CRUEL IRONY, PLEASE!!! And no, don’t just now give me anecdotes about Muck’s youthful misadventures, and his sweetheart, or Penkala sassing about ‘a bunch of morons who volunteered to jump out of a perfectly good airplane’ . Just stop it, stop it right now! In all this Lipton takes the time to worry about Malarkey and gives him the Luger – he knows there is nothing he can really do or say that will make anything OK but he shows that he cares. It’s mindblowing. Poor Malarkey, his best friends are all out of action, he’s trying to be there for Buck and while he has not withdrawn from everything in the same way, the lost expression on his face when Lipton tells him to get off the line for a bit, just NOPE. But now I was beginning to wonder if any of us was gonna make it through at all This has to be so harrowing for Lipton – he has been there with these guys since Toccoa and now he is feeling their loss just as sharply but he focuses on supporting everybody else. He even gets Luz to stop (brilliantly) mimicking Dike because he is thinking about the ramifications on the morale of the whole company. During this the only outward sign Lipton gives of his own struggle is taking the occasional smoke. What a man. In total contrast FUCK YOU, DIKE! Forget, being a decent leader – in that scene with Lipton, couldn’t you at least be a decent human being??? (Rkprcg abj V’z guvaxvat, rcvfbqr 9 ‘Svar, lbh’er abg n anmv. Ubj nobhg n uhzna orvat?’ V trahvaryl qba’g guvax V’z tbvat gb or noyr gb erjngpu gung). I can’t believe how little he cares about the men, how he abandons them and can’t even be bothered to give the appearance of leadership. That attack on Foy is just one big clusterfuck – he has to be handheld through the planning and then he is just YAWNING after Winters’ talk with him. What the hell is wrong with him???? He does all of the wrong things and completely breaks down in the middle of the battle. SO MUCH HATE for him. If he’d just been incompetent in combat, that would have been bad enough, but I cannot forgive the fact that he shows no concern for Easy.

Mark Watches : Mark Watches \'Band of Brothers\': Part 6 - Bastogne

Mon, 12 May 2014 17:03:52 +0000

Thank you so much for this - her character has always intrigued me, and now I there's more material out there for me to find and watch.