Lost Girl Season One Episode Three: Oh Kappa My Kappa

I am really starting to get into this show.  This episode of Lost Girl begins with Bo and Dyson waking up in bed together.  She unsurprisingly is thrilled to wake up after a night of sex, with a live partner.  When Kenzie walks into the bathroom and finds Dyson brushing his teeth she is excited.  Bo tries to calm her by saying, "we had sex, it doesn't have to mean anything more."  Kenzie's excitement however cannot be calmed that easily because she answers back, "sex doesn't but sleeping over does."  I loved that Bo is more than capable of just having a one stand and not feeling shamed by it in the least.  Too often when it comes to female characters unless sex happens in a well defined relationship there is tons and tons of slut shaming.

Because Bo wants to earn her money honestly, instead of glamoring people out of things that she needs, Kenzie hands her fliers that she created advertising her as a private investigator. I am not in the least bit surprised by the chosen occupation but I am pleased because it would be nice to see a woman saving the day on a regular basis rather than waiting for her knight in shining armor to rescue her.

Their first assignment is to find a missing college girl. At first, I was not pleased when Esther approached them to find her missing daughter Gina but as she pleaded saying that a mother would know if there is something wrong with her daughter, I started to warm up to the idea.  Granted, a woman of color going to a White woman to be saved is filled with a history of racial problems but watching as Esther used her motherhood to bolster her case really rang a bell with me, simply because the motherhood of woman of color is historically not respected or even in many cases acknowledged in the same way that the motherhood of a White woman is.

Dysan gets Bo a job on campus security and Kenzie becomes a co-ed to pledge at the sorority that Gina was pledging to. She makes it clear that she is not pleased with her roll in this investigation and says that Gina owes her one.  She says to Bo, "I can handle scary monsters but privilege freaks me out."  I thought that this was a great commentary on class.  It is clear that Kenzie has had a lot of struggles in her life and going into a situation like this has to be unnerving.  When she meets the fellow sorority girls they are all perky with large smiles and almost like living barbie dolls.

Turn Coat by Jim Butcher, Book 11 of the Dresden Files

Morgan, the Warden who has made Harry's life a misery, the Warden who has assumed Harry was a Warlock, persecuted him, attacked him, constantly looked for an excuse to drive Harry over the edge and give Morgan an excuse to execute him – arrives at Harry's door. He's injured, he's been framed for a crime he didn't commit and he's being chased by the other Wardens. And he wants Harry's help – to shelter him, to hide him and to help clear his name.

The Black Council is upping the ante – the White Council is buzzing with news of treachery and it's manipulations not only dragging in the White Council, but setting them up for a confrontation with the White Court as well as involving some of the greatest powers in the US. The White Council itself seethes with politics where truth and justice are rapidly pushed aside in the name of power, appearance and strength.

And Harry dives into all this feet first, as he ever does.

The Walking Dead Season 2 Trailer

I don't know about you but I am getting really anxious for the start of The Walking Dead.  The following is a trailer that I found.  It really does feel like a tease.  Is the group really going to split up?  How many characters are we going to lose this season and who will be added?

Lost Girl Season One, Episode Two: Where There's a Will, There's a Fae

In this episode, Bo is approached by Will a wood sprite, after his jewels are stolen.  He promises to tell her about seeing her as a babe in the woods if she will retrieve his treasures. It seems that wood sprites spend their time tracking precious jewels in the forest, that is when they are not busy setting things on fire.  Kenzi tries to negotiate for a percentage of the returned jewels but Bo stops her because she believes that the information is far more valuable than any sort of monetary gain.  Bo leaves her with a backpack and tells that is all he knows about the thief.

Upon opening the backpack, she finds a gun and of course takes it right to Dyson to have him do a search on the weapon because his cover is a cop in the human world.  I don't know about you but I am not really buying Dyson as a cop, perhaps that's because his acting leaves so much to be desired.The writers seem intent on creating some kind of relationship between Dyson and Bo, but for me they have long way to go before the reach anything resembling chemistry.

While they are waiting for the trace to finish on the gun Dyson takes her to the fae bar The Dahl which doubles as a way station.  Inside the bar is considered neutral territory, and it is run by what appears to be elf named Trig. When Bo is asked to sign in and reveal her parentage she names her adoptive parents.  Trig tells her that if she does not know her fae parents that she has to sign in as herself.  He tells her that to have powers, both her mother and her father had to be fae but when she tries to press him for more information, he tells her that asking to many questions can be dangerous -- you see -- the fae have been at the brink of war for nearly one thousand years.  If the war actually did start, this would mean not only the end of all of the fae, but the end of humanity as well.

Dyson gets a call revealing a trace to the owner of the weapon.  When Bo and Kenzi arrive at the address, the door is triggered to cause a shot gun to let lost a round.  Bo pushes Kenzi out the way but still manages to get shot herself.  When a neighbour shows up armed attempting to find out what two women are doing in her neighbour's trailer, Bo kisses her even as she is protesting that she has never kissed a woman before.  So far all of the same sex scenes have occurred as an act of feeding for Bo and are starting to have a very predatory feel to them however, I know that for Bo -- sex cannot occur without a transfer of energy and it is balanced to show that women are equally attracted to her. Kenzi has to break up the feeding to save the woman's life, and Bo thanks her for the "cock block".  I really wish that the authors had chosen another word because it implies a male/female binary to Bo feeding off the trailer park woman.

Fangs for the Fantasy podcast, Episode 32

This week we discuss the horror that was True Blood's latest episode "And When I Die".

We also discuss the books we've been reading - the Angenou series by Lynsay Sands, Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson. We also discuss Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong and the new show we're watching - Lost Girl

Web of Lies by Jennifer Estep, book 2 of the Elemental Assassin series

Gin has entered her retirement as an assassin - she's now a college student and BBQ restaurant owner, hanging up her knives after her mentor died. Or so she thought.

An old friend of her foster-father shows up in her restaurant looking for help – and someone tries to kill her. Pulled in by the need to help her foster-father's friend (and because she's not tolerating any hits in her own restaurant) she finds them being intimidated into selling their land to a mining developer. Dragged in, she has to find out why their home is being threatened – who is doing it and how to solve it. And as an assassin, she only has one solution.

To add to the confusion, Detective Caine is again involved. Ashland's only honest police detective and he is faced with accepting Gin's less than legal solution, or pretending that there is any other chance at justice.

Of course, in addition, Gin has managed to anger one of Mab's chief lieutenants – and Mab herself seems to be increasingly more interested in her

While I liked this story I felt it was something of a climb down from the first book. I think Gin had much less personal (or monetary) stake in this book compared to the last book, which made me think she was much less of a self-lead character than she was before. She devotes her time, her energy, no small amount of money and risks her life for something she has very little stake in. Yes, it's altruistic but it also removes a sense of her power.

The world remains huge and compelling and I am still fascinated by the various beings living together in such a completely assimilated society. I want to see more of this and see it develop further with more information. Sadly, I wanted to see more of this in this books as well, but I don't think, world building wise, we're any further along than we were in the first book, it hasn't been developed further. It's still an awesome world, but I expected it to grow or to be shown greater depth.

In the first book, I found her relationship with Caine to be distracting, and the same applies. They have sex at the most inopportune times and often the story feels derailed either by Gin lusting after Caine or them bumping into some quasi-relationship issues. I think it distracts from the much stronger and much more interesting main plot.

POC-wise there are a few bit parts, and the primary love interest is Hispanic. Detective Caine plays a much smaller part in these books though. There is a vague suggestion that Mab may be a lesbian or bisexual. Yes, the sociopathic, depraved, torturing, murdering mob boss may be the books only GBLT.

I find Gin a less compelling character in this book, there's more angsty-self-analysis, more romantic navel gazing and, as said above, she seems less self-ruling than she was in past books.

I had hoped that Detective Caine would grow more, step off his pedestal and accept the world for what it is. And for a lot of the book we had that theme, him increasingly realising his rosy view of the world was unrealistic and did nothing for the victims, him adding shades of grey to his rigid black and white world... I enjoyed this and thought it had great potential to develop further. Until we got to the end of the book and the whole house of cards collapsed, it was a disappointment, I'd hoped for better and a nice, nuanced portrayal. I have a feeling we're going to return to this theme though.

This review feels very critical – and it is. But it is criticism that comes from high expectations and a high bench mark. I loved the first book, I loved the characters and I loved the world and I loved the story. The first book set a high standard and I was hoping to see it developed, hoping to see the characters develop, hoping to see Gin develop, hoping to see the world develop, hoping to see the meta-plot develop. And it didn't. None of these things really grew or advanced beyond where we left them in the first book.

But don't get me wrong, this book is still a good book with a good story. It is still set in this world I love and it still involved the characters that interest me. It hasn't gone any further and it doesn't live up to the standards the first book set, but it's still a great book, I never had a problem finishing it and I will happily – eagerly – pick up book 3. But I did expect more.

Giveaway winner!

The giveaway of the True Blood Comics has come to an end and the winner is

ROXIE!

We'll be contacting you via email at the email address you left in the comment section. If you could email us back in the next couple of days we'd appreciate it and will send out your prize immediately.

Keep watching everyone, we have a second giveaway starting on the 15th for Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angel, and to celebrate the start of the new season of The Walking Dead, we'll be having a giveaway for the first and second graphic novels.  This giveaway begins on the 1st October.

Lost Girl Season One: It's A Fae, Fae, Fae, Fae World

I know that season two of Lost Girl has already started but since I just learned about the show, you will have to have patience with me while I catch up.  I am not surprised that the series opener was absolutely awesome, it was after all filmed in Canada. 

Bo is a bartender in a bar and witness a man trying to pick up anything female after the man slips Kenzi a roofie he follows her into an elevator and forces himself on her.  As a person with a history of sexual assault I was extremely worried that this would extend beyond forced kissing and so I was relieved when Bo showed up and kissed him thereby sucking him dry.  You could say that it was justice.  Kenzi of course uses her cell phone to video tape the whole incident, with the plan of putting it on youtube.  Bo begins to leave but when she realizes how incapacitated Kenzi really is, she throws Kenzi over her shoulder and take her back to her apartment.

A succubus is certainly not a creature that we see as heroic and Bo's actions clearly can be understood this way.  A woman saving a fellow woman from sexual assault is also something that is not common in the media.  I loved that there was no shaming Kenzi for the actions of her attacker. He was clearly in the wrong and the audience was meant to see it that way.

Upon waking, Kenzi suggests that they team up because Bo is clearly not taking advantage of her powers.  Not only can Bo kill with a kiss, she can also plant suggestions in people's minds.  The problem is that Bo has no idea who she is, until she is unceremoniously kidnapped. Once there she learns that she is fae and in particular a succubus.  Unfortunately for Bo, she then finds herself in the middle of fae war and is told that she must choose sides but first she must past a test to prove herself worthy. Before entering battle, Dyson another fae offers her some of his power.  She is stunned to realize that she does not kill and feels wonderful after taking his power.  During the test she is told that she is an abomination and is shown the bodies of all whom she has killed.  Bo seriously considers ending her life, until she hears Kenzi calling for her.  Bo manages to break loose and tells all assembled that she chooses neither side in the fae war.  Bo's choice is humanity.