Nightfall's Nest: A Room of One's Own

What I remember myself is his saying during the debates that he never said he wasn't concerned about Bin Laden YES HE DID. Sorry. Saw the quote. He said he wasn't really worried about him. Thanks, Mr. President. I didn't vote for you, but I pay my taxes and I pay more of them so your friends don't have to, and I just can't tell you how warm and fuzzy that makes me feel. And I'm actually, as a general rule, not horribly worked up about the terrorist threat compared to most of the people I know.

Now I hear you, (rl person), when you say Kerry wouldn't have been the solution--but Bush is the problem. And he's going to keep on being the problem. And no, the world probably won't end in the next four years, but those years are going to leave us with a government stuffed with conservatives who hide their greed and grubbing behind piety--and will appoint more of their own kind. Fantastic.

And I hear you, Sora-kun, when you say that Edwards is a complete bastard. But what I have to say on that subject (aside from total sympathy for the damage your people took from the ambulance-chaser, and that I do appreciate the stinkiness of the position you were put in) is--well, yeah. Politician. Politicians are shmucks. They have to be, to get anywhere. And the function of the vice-president is to be so obnoxious that the president will not be assassinated.

Anyone else miss Monicagate?

No, seriously. With Clinton, we had a slimeball who was slimey mostly in regards to his personal life. Maybe I have low expectations, but I don't think slimeballery is avoidable in a position of high prestige and authority, and I'd rather have a president who screws his intern than his country. Conduct like that affects one's credibility, of course, but I prefer a leader human and closely watched to slick and righteous.

In my line of work you learn to hate the righteous and the entitled; People who think that they're somehow better than others or that just because they're good people they not only deserve everything they want but have a right to it.

Well, no. What this country gives us is the right to try for what we want. Not for that thing itself.

Of course, Kerry's a bit glib himself, no question. And yes, he changes his mind sometimes.

Good.

Yes, perseverance is good. Pigheaded perseverance without solid data to back it up? Less good. Give me a leader who will, yes, CHANGE HIS MIND when data comes in that shatters his old position. Perseverance is good, but flexibility is also not a bad thing! Teddy Roosevelt's world is gone, and we can't afford (speaking economically, as well) a president who's a bear anymore. Today's world is politics and sneakiness. We need a weasel, not a rhinoceros.

We especially don't need someone with a history of despising his constituants.

11/3
Conceding the Day
4pm, buy hair ribbons,
yellow leaves burn clear on a blue sky.
Tawny in grey morning's gutter,
not autumn's strewn petals--
the strangled ghosts of spring

10/25
Saiyuki/Sith Academy, because Kanzeyori caught Sanzo honing his rage.
UruSAAAAaaaaaaaAAAAAAAI!
Die, youkai scum!
Sanzos don't do 'sweet.'
Tank top. Sex. Now.
Soon, soon we shall rise up and whack the heck out of those morons in the back seat.
The dragon lifted its head and kyuued. Sanzo obediently went to Hakkai's backpack and opened a bag of monkey food.
"Use the sutra, my disciple. Let the angst and UST guide you."
Rage and hatred, good only for harisens they are. To fold paper airplanes, one with the pot you must be.
Karma hates me.
If you meet the Buddha on the road, drop-kick him across the Grey Side.
Sanzos Kick Everything.
Always four there are, no more, no less...
Five.... four.... three... two... one... OSHISHOU!!

10/7
Just watched 'Rhinoceros,' with Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel. Aside from being a classic example of absurdist theater, it also features Gene Wilder shimmying down a latter right in front of another guy (not, thankfully, Zero Mostel) and I do mean right in front, who grabs Wilder by the seat of the pants before plastering himself to his back, and then suggests that after this they go to a motel. Heh. And there are more slashy bits before it's over, folks...

9/26
This is disturbing.

Here's the background:I'm a true-blue Trekkie from, oh, 7th grade or so on. By Trekkie I mean I'm a TOS girl. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Nimoy and DeKelley all the way. And I'm such a fan of the show that I have no sense of humor about it. Zero. None.

Don't get me wrong, I love TOS humor fics, if they're gently done. I own the blooper reels and will show them at the slightest provocation. But I can't take the parodies, and Shatner makes me want to hide under the seat half the time recently--my hands were over my eyes for most of his screen time in Miss Congeniality, for example.

That's my point--I adore Jim Kirk. Wrote reams of him before I could write. Tortured him up and down the neutral zone and home to Iowa. Such is the love of a nascent slasher, and he lives on in my muse closet. So his actor in his own person, while I can acknowledge him as not a bad guy for a TV star and I can also laud his commendable ability to poke fun at himself, makes me cringe.

Folks, the illness may be spreading. I just read a Saiyuki humorfic (KARose's 24 Candles, if anyone's interested; it can be found on ffnet, and then go to hir homepage and look at hir toons) which is hilarious. Really. It is. If anyone wants to read about Sanzo squeaking like a gerbil and believe it, go check this fic out. By the end of part 2 I was ready to put it on my favorite stories list.

As they say in Slayers, though, BUT BUT BUT!

About part 3 or so, I wanted to reach through the screen and strangle this poor innocent (well, okay, not innocent, but undeserving) author. Why?

Hakkai! Travesty!

I'm sitting here at one o'clock in the morning with raised hackles, having violent reactions to the casual promiscuity and ruthless autism of a cartoon character. Good grief. Nightfall, take two grains of salt and call back in the morning...

I'd better go read some Slayers or something. I never have this problem with Xellos.

9/5
Here's something about the Saiyuki fandom that gets to me: people (and I used to be one of them; probably everyone who's read Xi You Ji has been at one time) complaining about the liberties that were taken with Jouney West, about how our guys are nothing like those guys.

Well, yeah. Saiyuki is not Xi You Ji. It was never meant to be. It was very clearly never meant to be, and I have canon evidence.

Everybody remembers the fake-Sanzo-ikkou, right? The Hakkai who was enormous with a piggy nose, the wimpy Sanzo, the Gojyo who didn't have much in the way of personalilty, and the Goku who had a certain cunning and acted as a kind of a leader?

These were much closer to the original characters, and that's a small part of my point. What I mean is:

* at the beginning of that first episode with the fake-ikkou, the village elder is telling the story of the Sanzo who passed through the village a long time ago (note please that it's the village elder who's saying this, and that he doesn't place the event during his life) and saved it from youkai. Was that our Sanzo? Absolutely not. Sanzo's not old enough, as he tells Goku.

Was it Sanzang? ...Probably also not. The sutra that was used in fighting the youkai was the Maten Sutra. Even if Sanzang had had that sutra at the time the was passing throught the village (and been able to distinguish it from all the others as a weapon), he probably wouldn't have used it. He had his own, spoken sutras to defend himself with--sutras he was accustomed to--as well as his disciples. Also, the Maten was a holy relic to him. Sanzo wouldn't hesitate before using a holy of holies as a relic, of course, but Sanzang was considerably less irreverent.

* Sanzo is not the first holder of the title. There was Koumyou before him, and some thirty-odd before him. And that's just the holder of Koumyou's sutras, never mind the three others.

* But he is a Sanzo. Sanzang was never a Sanzo as Minekura uses the title. A Sanzo is someone who protects the Holy Scriptures. Sanzang wasn't protecting them--he was aquiring them. And when he was finished, he became a Buddha. Not a Boddhisatva. As soon as he reached the West, he was enlightened and out of the game. Or maybe he decided to stay after the curtain came down; that would make more sense in Saiyuki terms, since they're both supposed to be the Golden Cicada.

(And also since Sanzo is as cranky as we could expect someone who's denied satori to be. So, was Homura really after his Original Yang? Was that what all that was about? ^.^ )

What all this means is that Saiyuki is Xi You Ji's future, not its self. But that was obvious the moment Sanzo lit up and they climbed into an automobile, even disregarding the differences between Sanzo and Sanzang's missions.

This does present us with a problem, of course: names. Or, why do they have the ones they have? Genjo Sanzo as a name is easily dispensed with; there have probably been a dozen Genjo Sanzos since Sanzang, and Koumyou would have wanted to make him look as legitimate as possible, given his age.

Gojyo and Gonou also present no difficulties. These are just good, if probably high-flown Buddhist names. They may even have been given them as a joke, especially Gonou, since the surnames match. And as for Hakkai... either Sanzo or the gods gave him that name, and my money's on a certain smirking Boddhistatva, who may have considered it fair warning (I think I'm going to have to write that).

Goku is the real problem. He has not only Monkey's name and title but his origin story. There are a couple of possible explanations for this, among them that becoming a Buddha didn't take for the itan and Seitan Teisei is now in a state of permanent betrayal over being abandoned by Sanzang, or that Monkey got bored with Nirvana (not improbable, given Monkey) and decided to get born from his mountain again at the next turn of the Wheel. Heaven would have been watching Fruit and Flower mountain very carefully, of course, and snatched him up before he could build up another power base of monkeys or learn any Taoist tricks.

These are a couple of possible explanations. I eagerly encourage people to come up with their own--call it a reconciliation challenge! How does Saiyuki square with Xi You Ji? If people are interested and want to give it a shot, I wouldn't mind putting up a page for that. Fiction, art, just telling how it could have happened...

Anyone who wants to participate, send your entry here.

9/1
Like last week's rant, this Saiyuki musing was prompted by conversation with my fantastic beta, who was wondering what was up with Zenon and Shien's self-immolations. It is absolutely idle speculation. I have no idea what I'm talking about. That was a disclaimer. But...

My suspicion is that it has something to do with why Goujun is about two feet long.

Such as, heavenly beings are actually a different order of being, and although they manifest in human or humanoid shapes, their composition is actually quite different. This could also explain why they're not allowed to kill--it might be that there are real and not just legal repercussions for that. Which could in turn go a long way towards explaining Tenpou--who, as WildeLamassu just reminded me, is a real anomaly among kami for his lack of innocence.

So if their composition is different, it might be of a nature that has faulty compatability with the human and youkai world. Maybe they have to do something to themselves, a transformation or confinement which limits both their form and their ability to interact with that world; to use their full abilities as they otherwise would be able to, but also protects them from some effect of the world, or combined effect of the world on their power, on their selves.

Beings such as the Boddhisatvas and the itan might be an exception, having some mortality in their natures to begin with.

Did I mention I have no idea what I'm talking about? Just spinning speculation here. ^.^

8/21
There's something Very Wrong with the Slayers fandom lately, I feel--on my main stalking grounds, anyway. I may be being unfair, but it seems to have had a golden age two to six years ago (I guesstimate), with slews of good-quality ensemble fics and associations promoting every major character, and quite a few of the more minor ones.

Now it looks like it's occupied mainly by prepubescents. The focus is on the characters meant to appeal to twelve-year-olds and Xellos, instead of being the lighthearted, manipulative, disciplined, evil, capricious, brilliant, unpredictable, almost human and above all *owned* son of a bitch-demon with hidden talents and no sense of shame that he is, is shown over and over again as either a lovesick clown or a heavyhanded brute with a plaster smile.

Today's rant is brought to you by the letters A, R, and G, and by the number yyy.

If anyone knows of an active Slayers yaoi list where most of the members can spell, please, please, tell me about it! I feel all bitter and unmoored, and overwhelmingly too late.

Otherwise, life is good. My Saiyuki projects are going well (finally, progress on my DJ!), I get a badly-needed vacation this week, and we had a sweet little thunderstorm to break the humidity. ^_^

8/13
Friday.
I hate my hormones. In fact, I hate your hormones. In fact, all women under forty-five who are neither pregnant nor trying to conceive should be on some variant of the pill on a matter of principle. ESTROGEN MUST BE ELIMINATED!

And while we're on the subject of positive change, all gossipy oversexed cheerleaders should be sentenced to X weeks of unrelenting shojo anime to get their slimy little so-called-minds focused on legitimate targets for their lustful speculations and to bring them one step closer to an understanding of healthy relationships. They can start with Ranma and graduate to Slayers, and will be much improved.

Today's mini-rant is sponsored by the numbers 6* and 16**, and by the letters P, M, and S.

______
*The number of flaming perky skinny lying trolls I had to deal with today
**Their average age

6/4: Prisoner of Azkaban commentary
May contain spoilers.

Good points first. I really liked what Gary Oldman did with Sirius. I never understood, in the book, why he and Harry clicked so fast. In the movie, I found him less believable (book!Sirius is a lot more like a trauma victim than Oldman's version was), but the dynamic between them made much more sense. This Sirius is still the same indomitable (and insufferable, and adolescant) wizard who graduated Hogwards. He was braver and wittier and more collected than he should have been (twelve years of Dementors? He should have been blasted out of his one-track mind), and I loved him (even if his hair was better cared for than one might have expected).

Especially interacting with Snape. Well, I mean, Snape. Slashers may rejoice in Snape. The balance of power between him and Harry is becoming more equal, he's less of a psychotic raving lunatic than he is in the book, and he's so pretty with every inch of his being focused on his wand at Sirius's throat... Actually aside from that, the interaction between these two was interesting. The director has clearly read the last books; the Marauders are painted more like that flashback than as we see them in the Prisoner book, and Snape's reaction to seeing Sirius again--well, you know. Alan Rickman. He's good.

Remus I can't say as much for. As only a peripheral Potter-fan, I'm extremely curious to see how the real fen, and especially the slashers, are going to react to David Thewles' weak chin. I can hear the Remus/Lily sites springing up, too, I'm afraid, although they're going to have plenty of S/R company. Remus--I don't know. I think the problem may have been that Mr. Thewles was trying to make him three-dimensional without the screen time to do it in. But I may be being generous.

Actually, and this was interesting, this Remus didn't really strike me as Canon!Remus so much as Fanon!Remus. He was that kind of stiff-upper-lip you-can't-tell-what-I'm-thinking-or-which-way-I'll-jump Brit. We really will have to wait for the extended version to get the sense of him, I think. In the meantime, though, I can't help but feel we've been shorted, hopefully only temporarily, on one Rowling's most interesting characters.

Malfoy looks less and is more of a prat than ever. This Dumbledore is no match for the one we've lost. Emma Thompson is wasted in the role of Trelawney, but she doesn't despise it, and her scenes are a lot of fun.

As for the Big Three--Ron hasn't changed (At. All.), and Hermione is her sympathetically prickly self. Harry is getting more like Toby Maguire with every movie. I was actually kind of weirded out towards the beginning of the movie--he was a dead ringer for my little brother, who until just recently responded in those very same grunts with that exact sour expression. Even if he does, as the review I read said, have a tendency to blink and look nervous when he's supposed to be boiling mad, I think he did everything else very well. His action scenes struck me particularly, in that he and Hermione both seem to be developing their ability to keep a cool head in a crisis.

Overall impression? The movie is very pretty. It didn't seem to me to have quite the power of the first two. Whether that's because of the director or because this one is more strongly driven than the first two by a plot I already know, I couldn't say. In any case, I enjoyed it. And now I'm waiting for Evadne's next breadbox. ^,^

5/25: Random NEXT trivia!
Just some notes I jotted down the last time I watched Slayers: Next. No real point here, just things I didn't notice the first two (many, lots) times I saw it.
These aren't the names of the episodes; I don't have that list on me.

Episode 1: Meeting Martina
* Rezo has definitely been to Xoanna--they have a HUGE statue of him, looking triumphant. Lina uses it in battle and displays no animosity towards Rezo's memory.
* Amelia is very glad to see Lina.
* Martina is very glad to see Zel. ^.^
* Zel, for his part, looks mostly depressed, in that nasty-edge way.
* Shabby was revived 1000 years ago, with help from the Claire Bible. That must have been what the Kouma Sensou (the war of fallen evil) was about. Something of a misnomer, much? Evil seems to have done pretty well, unless the evil that fell is meant to refer to Gaav.
* King Moros (his name is Morose! ^.^) calls Amelia dono, not hime, and Xellos calls the Mazoku lords sama, not dono. So I'm guessing sama and dono are the equivalents of sempai and kun for the nobility, with the first being lower to higher and the second being higher to lower?
* Zel says "Omae o korosu!" Hiya, Heero! Whatcha doing in this anime?

Episode 2: Meeting Xel
* Zel's hood is seperate from his cloak. And I've been drawing Xel's cloak wrong for years--the wings seperate off to the right, not in the center. (gloom)
* For somebody with a reputation for subtlety, Xel... sheesh. The entrance is a bit much. But I love the Sylphiel imitation he does for Zel, with the s-curved torso and the clasped hands.
* Gourry is starry-eyed at the Fighting Dragon's Blood Macho Battlers. I can't tell whether Lina is, too, or if she's just mocking him.
* Xel gives Lina free strategy tips and an indirect kiss, which she doesn't slaughter him for. o.O
* Xel does floor-to-window backward handsprings, and it's a high window, too. This does not, of course, mean anything about his physical condition, but it does give us a pretty good indication about his ability to know where he is in space.
* The Xzels are united in their love of melodrama.

Episode 3: Roast beef and wizard's duel
* Let's not forget--Zel may not need to eat much, but he does care about good food.
* It's known that Lina the Pink does come from the Sorcerer's guild, but her belt is a nice touch. All the guild-folk wear the same winged circle. Phil's headband echoes this theme, too, although not precisely.

Episode 4: Meeting Halciform
* Amelia shows her crest in Atlas City and the guards kowtow. Now, we know that Sailoon is a Power from the way Amelia throws her weight around in Xoanna and the way Phil tactfully refrains from looking dangerous (he looks dangerous in person, of course, but it seems that he actually acts like the pacifist he says he is while he's got his Prince hat on). Anyway, we know that, but kowtowing is something else. I had wondered if Atlas might be part of the Sailoon hegemony, but my map places it in the Lyzeillian empire, half a peninsula away.

Episode 5: Seeking the pledge stone
* Halciform has a copy of that little statue from the first season, the one with the philosopher's stone in it.
* Lina: (sets off a trap)
Amelia: "You were right, Zelgadis-san."
Zel (calmly): "In this situation I positively don't need the compliment."
^_^
* Halciform's lab looks like a microchip. No, really. The water-trenches in the floor make the room like a memory card or something.
* Seigram has a woman's figure.
* ...The jellyfish called by Zelas Burst have hearts on. Okaaay, Zelas-sama...

Episode 6: The Return of the Obsessive Martina
(That really is the chapter title.)
* Xel, ducking out of an awkward conversation, dodges around a tree. In his place is left a cabbit the color of his cloak lining, which gleefully yowls like a Siamese. That same loudmouth cabbit is what Gourry grabs while trying to capture Martina a few minutes later.
* Zel may prefer to bathe alone, but Gourry wants him to stay. Gourry gets his way on this issue at one point (not in this episode), and there's wine. I'm just saying.
* Martina keeps a tiny Zoemelguster in a heart locket.
* When Martina steals Lina's headband during the night, Zel is the one who notices.
* Xellos: "Since I'm just a shadow, all I can do is cheer you on." This is bull, since he intervenes on her behalf more than once over the course of the season, but isn't it a provocative line?
* Gourry, using Baka Power to escape the clutches of the Evil Mint-Haired one: "Is it a pickle? What's a fiancee?!! Is it sour? Salty? Tastes good?"
...No comment.
* Zel looks terrified before Lina even decides to kick him. Does the curse creep him out, or is he predicting the kick?
* I read once in someone's evidence log for X/Z that two of her reasons for thinking the pairing is practically canon are (1) Xel was so worried about Zel when Filia maced him in episode 3 of TRY that he fell off the roof and (2) he always appears next to him. Now, Xel's not actually worried in TRY; he's laughing his tail off; but he really does phase in next to Zel 3/3 times in this episode.

Episode 7: Dragon cuisine
* Xel is impatient with this diversion. Maybe after having been prempted by Lina's knowledge of the Pledge in episode four or five, he thinks she already knows about the toxin.
* Xel has no dignity when he's by himself. He giggles hysterically and yawns like a whale.
* Dammit, I hate the pairing, but I have to admit that Zel's perfectly willing to get CPR from Amelia. He dokidokis and blushes and everything (sulks).
* I like to pay attention to how much attention Xel pays to civilized behavior, and and also to how much patience he displays, which is a lot more than most people give him credit for. So I find it interesting that he sits all day and night and day on the same branch of the same tree--and then he uses a tablecloth for his morning tea.
* Zel would rather be Barnacle-san than stay on shore with Xellos. Even knowing he's going to be the anchor, he gets on the boat three times!
* Swimming, Gourry can pull drag the boat and Barnacle-san! ^_^

Episode 8 and 9: Assassination in Sailoon
* Xel disappeares the moment Amelia pulls rank on the guards.
* Zel worries about what Xel's up to in his absence and breaks sticks by stomping on them. Gee, Zel, I would have thought you'd be glad to be rid of him for a while. ^____^
* Phil understands refusing to use violence so as not to be a threat.
* Gourry has the right to give Zel punitive noogies when he gaffes.
* Zelas Brid summons doves.
* A thought: could Rey Wing really be Lei Wing? As in Lei Magnus?

Episode 10: Sorcery Doctor
* Xel, although he admires Martina, thinks that selling curses (or useless brooches as curses) to the masses might be going a little overboard. So, he's in favor of, what, responsible vengeance? Obsession in moderation? Okay...
* Xel gives Martina no less than three warnings about not messing with Magicless!Lina. Anybody else wondering whether he's the one who set that storm on her? The reciprocal pain curse may have, as Zel thought, have been brought about through pure obsession, but that was small-time. Zoemelguster's other great success (shielding the group against Gaav) was also feuled by someone other than Zoemelguster.
* Xel plays nurse for Kira, holding the tray of ingredients and generally being helpful. He's also able to tell Lina that the mixture looks right. Is he sincere? I think so. He continues to be helpful for the rest of the arc. This indicates to me that he really knows what he's doing--and also that he probably could have fixed Lina himself.
* Xel's happy to let Lina look at the Bible manuscript as long as she wants (note one: he seems to enjoy watching a researcher at work. Note two: did he know about the scribble drawings?), but he destroys it when Martina won't give it back. Personally, I think he's really teleporting them somewhere. This is the second manuscript we've seen him fry, and it seems like a waste.
* Zelas Brid doesn't work for Zel. Is this measure of his power, or an indication that it's only Lina the Metalliums are backing?

Episode 11
* Lina's recklessness makes Xel hyperventilate. ^.^

Episode 12
* Gourry isn't worried about throwing the SoL (sword of light) at Phil. This, along with a moment (I don't remember which episode, but I think it's in the Phibby arc) where Lina stands up right through it, supports a conjecture of mine: the Sword cuts everything but humanity. And maybe dragons; he doesn't use it on that black dragon in episode 2 of the first season, either.
* Zel's chest is less pebbly in this episode than in the bath. Huh.
* Xel thinks Mazoku should be above taking hostages. Another moment of oddly prim ethical standards from the Lesser Beast.
* Xel's role in NEXT is to keep Lina from having to make those pesky heroic decisions.

Episode 13
* Lina actually uses the advice Xel gave her back in episode two: if you can fool your friends, etc. You'd think there'd be a problem with advice that comes from Xellos, and there is. It sounds good and it works, but it leaves everybody really annoyed.
* Amelia begs Shabby to save Sailoon. Zel and Gourry are all, "ARE YOU NUTS?"

Episode 14: The Song
* When exiting the ruins Lina leaves in her wake, Zel walks backwards with his hand on his sword.
* Mimi and Nene's dresses are just like Xel's in episode 17, only shorter. Modesty? Please. Didn't want to let Martina at his legs with a razor? Could be. After all, no one's supposed to know he's mazoku yet.
* Val must be Gaav's priest. My reasoning: the general would be in charge of the fighting minions, and neither Gaav nor Val has sufficient imagination to come up with this minion. It's bizarre.

Episode 15: Showdown at Artemey Tower. Or, Fun with Puppets
* I'm wondering if Artemey is meant to be Artemis.
* Sub!Xel does a congested deep voice while storytelling. I think it sounds dumb, but it seems to work for him. Everyone is entranced.
* Zelgabunny is Zel-usa-chan, short for Zel-usagi-chan. This pune or play on words would work equally well if not better for Xellos's name.

Episode 16: Brass Racquets
* Zel was born to be a sports commentator. In watching Martina's fancy snake-in-the-hole move, he forgets to keep track of Xel and Amelia.
* It's seems that gumi has the connotation of team, where tachi is just group. So what's ikkou, gang? Sanzo-Houshi-sama, gangleader. ^,^
* Amelia comes about to Xel's shoulders.
* Xel is LOUSY at looking innocent. He hums and is smug.
* --but is a gracious victim. He keels over for Zel so nicely. Good sub, have a biscuit! (cackles)

Episode 17: Slayers In Tights
* When Zel shows up in his dress, Gourry is the only one to blush.
* For whatever reason, Zel gets pissed when Martina says Xellos is cute.

Episode 18: Library
* Shabby is currently sleeping in the far North. I thought that was Dynast. Oh, well (maybe they're shacking up).
* Xel contributes to a wishing well, commenting that the town's economy must be in a slump. No good deed goes unpunished; he gets smooshed.
* Auntie Aqua is magnetic!
* The heartless, magic-using swordsman takes a moment to comfort the camels.
* Gaav's first line in the anime is "Even Xellos must be getting excited now."
* Xel doesn't lift a finger to defend himself against Gaav.
* Who says after beating the tar out of him that Xel alone would have been enough to distract him.
* And appreciates the 'crafty bastard's' 'smart-ass mouth,' and seems pleased when Xellos weasels out of his grasp without giving him any information.
* Let's put that together, shall we? Xellos, who is either somebody else's minion or the closest thing the mazoku have to a mercenary (he's worked for both Phibrizzo's purposes and Zelas's) puts up no fight at all and the War Lord is still giving him props and compliments and taking him seriously? Go ahead, tell me these guys don't have history.
* Xellos admits his debt to Seiryu for helping Lina. In complete earnest. To the Fire Dragon. Whoa.
* On another note, this puts another slant on something that happens in TRY. I have a wav of dub!Xel saying, "Hello, Filia, how's the Fire Dragon doing these days?" She takes it as taunting, but in the light of this debt, he may have been perfectly sincere, or even looking for some way to pay it off and get out from under it.

Episodes with Milgazia In
* When fighting those two color-coded zapper balls (I forget which episode), Amelia throws a Gaav Flare. I understand she's under a lot of pressure, but wow. Not only a dark spell (she's never had any problem with dark spells), but one which is totally useless under the circumstances. Who did she think was powering the zappers, anyway? I'll be fair, though; she's having a rough day. It's about to get worse.
* When Gaav himself explains his situation (again, I'm not sure of the episode), he says that it's the mazoku race, not Shabranigdo, that he turned against. I'm not sure where I got the idea that it was Shabby he rebelled against--might have been canon or fanon. But the idea is out there, and he's refuted it. Mind you, I don't say he wasn't just trying to make himself look better. Still, interesting.

Episode 22: Phibrizzo
* Gaav says Xel's specialty is attacks from the Astral Plane.
* Xel calls Gaav 'dono.' This indicates either that my little sama/dono theory (see above) is scotched, or that Xellos is one impertinent son of a beast.
* Zel calls Lina his friend. Out loud. O where the brooding chimera of ill fame...?
* And then he says, "No matter what, I can�t just go along with what you�re planning. That�s because, unlike Xellos, I�m *human.That's because, unlike Xellos, I'm human!" And he's all proud. Which is, of course, news in no way whatsoever and on absolutely no front, but it was such a cute little moment of Klassical Khimeric Klaptrap that it deserves mention.
* Gaav has blue eyes.
* Gaav says, after defeating Amelia with a brilliant burst of pure logic, "I despise people who hypocritically brandish justice around." Yaknow, Valgaav is a twisted little momma's boy who doesn't bother to get his facts straight, but I can see his point. Gaav is pretty cool sometimes.
* Gourry has a great line in this episode. He scoops Lina up and looks down at her, all serious and confident, and says, "I'm gonna try to give us all a chance. ...EVERYBODY RUUUUUUUUUUN!"
Bing! Essence of Slayers!
* Shades of TRY, anyone? Killing Gaav was not, in fact, something Phibrizzo actually wanted to do. It looks like he'd been trying for a while to figure out how to separate Gaav from the human soul Ceiphied had attatched him to, and is taking him out only now that he knows the two are irrevocably fused. This was, sadly, inevitable, when you think about it. In a system of polarized ethics, neither the 'good' or 'evil' side is going to let anyone stay maverick--witness the Golds' treatment of the Ancients and the mazoku's courtship of Lina.

Episode 23: Kidnapped Gourry
Which deals with the aftermath, not the event, of his kidnapping.
* In episode one, Gourry didn't just call Lina a kid--he called her 'gaki,' a brat. No wonder she got all stiff and twitchy!
* The clock on Lina's dresser has ten numerals, not twelve.
* As of this episode, Lina and Gourry have been traveling together for a year and a half.
* Even after being hit by one of Lina's Burst Rounds, Sylphiel does not land on her head. And she keeps her grip on the white flag.
* She also acts slightly deranged. To quote Lina, "You're going to use sex appeal on a mazoku??!" I'm sorry, Sylphiel is not boring. Wierd, certainly, obsessed, absolutely. Not boring. * Zangulus's hair is what I call black-plum; black with purple highlights. So in my personal canon he's gotta be from Lyzeille.

Episode 24: Ghost City
* Sylphiel's father calls Lina 'dono.'
* Zel puts himself bodily between Sylphiel and a threat to her, and loses his temper at Phibrizzo for making her cry.
* Sairaag has a temple to Phibrizzo. It's on a little hill. I'm reminded first that it's Sailoon which is the city of white magic, second that we're never told the nature of Sylphiel's shrine, and third that she wears a lot of purple. I'm not drawing conclusions, but these are interesting factoids, taken together.

Episode 25: More Phibrizzo
* All Phibby's servants were destroyed 1000 years ago.
* The underground passages under the old city extend as far as present-day Sairaag.
* Phibby's thoughtful hums are just like Xel's. ^_^
* L-Sama talks just like her spells.
* Xel calls L-sama Konjiki no Ou. No and ou I know. I'm guessing it's nightmare, but if anyone has an actual translation for konjiki, I'd be interested.
* Well known, but I'll mention it. In the presence of his Mother, Xellos takes off all of his masks. He phases in with his Astral form--which is a clean black wind, unlike the monstrous Astral bodies of every other Mazoku we've ever seen in the anime, and he opens his eyes with a grave face on. It's the only time we ever see him really acting like a priest. He kneels and everything. And for someone who's supposed to rejoice in negativity, he completely fails to rub Lina's destruction into her friend's faces. He acts, in fact, like a doctor, with just that respectful, regretful turn of the head to tell them she didn't make it.

Episode 26: Go to NEXT!
* Sairaag is left flooded.
* Sairaag is really spelled Sailague. It's on a sign and everything. I'd go change things, in my fics, but I think Zel's last name is about as much as I can get away with in the realm of alternate spellings.
* When Xel appears to give Gourry his sword back, he doesn't have the Staff O' Doom with him. I think this is a first, and also a last.
* Gourry is left without armor. He'll have it back by TRY, but he got stripped of everything but his everyday clothes on the way to Lina, and the armor went, too.
* You'd think it would be telling that Lina seems to feel she's lost her innocence, but it doesn't seem to have affect her very much. She's the same old Lina during Try.

Speaking of which, moving on!

5/16/03: Random TRY trivia!
Same as above, only for TRY. Still not making any overarching point.

Episode 1: Meeting Filia
* Amelia is not very glad to see Lina this time. She hides. And she doesn't even greet Zel. o.O
* Zel acts completely natural during this episode, not macho or depressed or even repressed at all.
* Filia is a really pudgy Ryu--and she has a shark nose. Okay, so it's probably baby fat.
* Gourry can throw qi/ki from the Sword of Light (hereafter to be referred to as the SoL), like Kenshin.
* Zel and Amelia can do illusions. Carrying sunglasses around in your dimensional pocket I can buy, but not a wooden arrow-sign.
* Apart from it's Zel/Gourry nature, Zel's reaction to the tsunami is incredibly girly. GASP! CRINGE! CLING! ^_^

Episode 2: Letter from Luna
* Zel apparently does not need to eat every day. He's prancing around on the bow while everybody else is withered with starvation. We all suspected it was true, and now we know. The man has the metabolism of a shark.
* Gaav apparently used a waterfall for his audience chamber.
* Rezo invented, or at least experimented on, bombs and gunpowder. He certainly does get around. (glomps the Rezo)
* Amelia used a harisen on Lina! Yatta!
* Filia takes a heckuva lot longer to change into a human than Milgazia did in Next. Zel says that he's heard the transformation is easier for dragons who actually like humans, and she does seem to need less time later in the series. Of course, Lina's first Levitation took about six times as long as any subsequent one, so go figure.
* Listening hard, I heard 'miko' where the subs put Shrine Maiden. Which is a good translation, but they shouldn't put Miaka in the same category as Sylphiel. Oh, the wrongness.

Episode 3: Downtown
* Amelia filks! Remember that Harvest Festival song from NEXT? While she's on the top of that spire, she makes up a song about justice to that tune.
* And while we're on the subject, wow, has her balance improved.
* Xel deliberately gives Amelia an opportunity to look good in front of the townspeople.
* He also has a really juvenile sense of humor involving amphibians and old ladies who deplore the Youth Of Today.
* And he directes the townspeople to the deranged blue thing blowing up their temples. Is this a priest thing? Is he being responsible? Is he just trying to get them all killed by the chimera? I don't know.
* 'I guess I got a little hyper' my ___, Zel. I am so glad someone called him on this.
* Xel still has no dignity. I've seen it written somewhere that he falls off the roof because he's so upset about Zel getting slammed by Filia. Uh-uh. He's laughing his cute little mazoku butt off.

Episode 4, maybe? Fighting Valgaav * Filia might actually have a phobia about monsters--she starts having temper tantrums and throwing lightening before Xel even really shows.
* Amelia clonks Zel on the head with a really big sword for asking about her weight.
* And then he does frog-face again! Hee!

Episode 5: Filia imprisoned
* Filia, to Jiras: "I guess there are different types of evil ones--but the evil one I know is mean, gets away with everything, makes fun of people, has bad taste..."
* The legendary 'dragon finder' is a tiny feather-duster. This is of course classic Slayers, but it's also such nonsense that either Rezo or Xel must have been involved.
* Filia doesn't like being called a reptile. Xellos never calls her one.
* Filia can be taunted into TRASHING townships, Godzilla-style.
* And then she's more concerned about her modesty than the casualties.

Episodes I forgot to number
* When Filia, after lecturing Lina about responsibility, falls down, drugged, Amelia explains it this way: "She must be tired from all that talking." Meow, O-hime-chan!
* Xel is completely willing to be distracted from teasing by a puzzle--and he shares his information. Whether he would have shared it if he'd had more, I won't try to guess.
* The Ryuzoku put their faces on the wheel-spokes. This is exactly the kind of pointless arrogance that makes me sympathize with everyone who hates them.
* Filia blames Xellos for the train waking. --Why???!
* Val's real name was pronounced Val-tie-ah-ra.
* When Gourry is having trouble with his sword, Zel lends him his (smirk).
* The senior dude's excuse for the massacre is that the Ancient Dragons had 'increased hostility.' Whatever.
* Filia is good at cat's cradle.
* Zel's eyes are dark grey. They match his rocks.
* Shabby and Snoozy--I mean, Shabranigdo and Ceiphied fought in the SHINma Sensou (the war of evil's death) not the KOUma Sensou (the war of fallen evil, which is when Xellos had his big moment).
* Xel's mind-bogglingly childish reaction to Filia's constant bigotry: sour grapes, agreement, or just aaaaargh? I'm going with just aaaargh.
* Ceiphied is the red, not the blue dragon, and Seiryuu is the fire dragon.
* Filia's father's name is Bazal or Basil ul Copt, and he's a high priest.