The Subtle Born Wesen

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen last Friday's episode of Grimm or read The Golden Compass/Northern Lights or The Subtle Knife, please leave the blog and come back later. The following reviews contain spoilers.

Grimm - "Natural Born Wesen" - Review

Okay so... "Natural Born Wesen" is essentially  a vehicle to introduce a new player in the form of the Wesen Council. Mind you, we don't know yet if the Council will play a huge role in the series. It is kind of nice to know that the Council is there and that the Wesen have their own sort-of police. Nice bit of world building.

As for the rest of the episode, I thought the back robbers were fairly standard bank robbers. It's usually a group of three, most often two guys and a girl. One of the group wants out after people end up dead. That person then ends up murdered by one or more of the others. This is exactly what happened here. Guy wants out, other guy murders him, girl gets in on the murdering. Standard bank robber plot. Fairly boring. The only part of this bit that was fun, was Monroe. His utter lack of under-cover skill his always hilarious.

As for the carry-over from last week, I thought it was interesting that Juliette and Renard essentially had to drink some of Nick's blood to be cured. Not what I thought would have happened, but interesting. Another thing I found interesting about this bit: no one goes to check on Juliette. She spends all night next to her door and no one notices. No one thinks to check on her at all that night. Nick's one phone call was really short and it was one phone call. Girl's been through a lot and not a one of the "Scoobies" thinks to check on her. What? Gah!

I did find Juliette's hallucinations interesting. My theory: the chasm represents her memories of Nick and the electrical motes represent her synapses firing, trying to regain the memories. Or something. Hope she finds out what's actually going on soon, because this beating around the bush thing is getting old.

Overall, the episode was interesting. It seemed like a lot of filler, especially after the whirlwind of last week. Hope we get more plot stuff next week.

The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman

I finally finished the second book in the His Dark Materials trilogy, The Subtle Knife. I liked it a lot more than The Golden Compass, though it still wasn't stellar. The Subtle Knife is very much a setup book. People are being introduced and then moved into place. The reason for the moving around isn't explained in any satisfactory manner and I still don't understand most of the character motivations.

Lyra still irks me. She is much too bubbly and friendly for her own good, even when trying not to be. I do not understand her at all. One point really stuck out to me, during the beginning of the book. Will tells Lyra to go wash herself up and she tells him she doesn't know how. Now, granted, it's been a very long while since I learned to wash myself, but I'm pretty sure I learned how by observing my parents washing me. Lyra's apparently been washed by servants or something her entire life and still doesn't know how to wash herself? How is she such an observant child and yet doesn't know how to do that? I know it's a nit-picky thing, but I about wanted to shake her over it. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Will Parry, I found much more believable and interesting. He's had to deal with a mentally ill mother on his own and then accidentally murders someone trying to get away from them. It really wasn't his fault the guy tripped over the cat. I found Will rather smart, savvy and properly wary of the people around him. Though I don't quite understand the Subtle Knife itself, I think Will is an excellent choice of a bearer. At least he's had it stolen less than Lyra did with the alethiometer.

We get to learn more about Lee Scoresby through his search for Grumman. He's every inch the practical man I thought he was. I enjoyed his daemon, Hester, as well. When she wasn't being quiet, she was wonderfully sarcastic.

Serafina Pekkala was... meh in The Subtle Knife. She didn't really do all that much besides lead the witches to the Citigazze world. I thought it was interesting that her magic could not heal Will's hand, but I'd have liked an explanation as to why.

Overall, I found The Subtle Knife much more interesting than The Golden Compass, though it still didn't engage me as much as I would have liked. I've started the last book in the trilogy, The Amber Spyglass. So far, it's... meh. I dislike angels in fiction and their ridiculousness. But that's all I'm saying for now.

Gaiaonline Easter Event

It's coming! Today we had a storyline update about Gaia's Easter Bunny. I thought it was interesting and slightly fairytale. I can't wait to see what happens with the event!

Housekeeping

So... I did a little tweaking on the "Reviewed" page. The "Movies" section now has a table separating the list in two. This was done so that the page wouldn't be longer than it has to be... which is already really long. I was thinking about doing something similar with the "Books" and "Fanfiction" sections, but I'm not sure how that would work exactly... the titles and their authors are just too long, I think.

I'd like to know what you guys thought of the latest episodes or whatever of the stuff I reviewed. Let me know in the comments, if you would take a few moments. I'd greatly appreciate it.

Love ya, Jessie.