I am biased more towards strong female characters. But the term “strong female character” has this connotation of a stereotype: a mannish looking woman with a lot of muscle and not a lot of personality or a female character with hardened eyes and a chip on her shoulder. There’s a meme that goes around Tumblr: Screw writing “strong” women. Write interesting women. Write well-rounded women. Write complicated women. Write a woman who kicks ass, write a woman who cowers in a corner.... Read more
I am going to do my very best not to let my fangirl squee get in the way of analyzing this episode. I squeed about it enough in the intro to my Firefly Month. The episode starts out at your typical bar (except for the virtual pool). Mal pickpockets a man at the pool table who bragged about coming into money by selling slaves. It’s a small indicator of Mal’s strange sense of morality given that he makes his living... Read more
St. Elizabeth of Portugal also known as Elizabeth of Aragon. Patron saint of people in difficult marriages and of peacemakers. She was married to Denis who was unfaithful to her and acted as a peacemaker between Ferdinand and his cousin, James. She retired as a lay Franciscan to the monastery of the Poor Clares after the death of her husband. St. Catherine del Ricci: patroness of the sick. Devoted to the Passion of the Christ and entered a cloistered community... Read more
What exactly do saints and superheroes have in common? For the most part, saints are ordinary people who eventually went on to do extraordinary things. Not all superheroes fall into that category, since Superman is an alien and Thor is a mythological figure. But what saints and superheroes have in common is that they inspire and help people. And oftentimes, they are also misunderstood from those who don’t really know them. One thing saints and superheroes also have in common... Read more
Bushwhacked doesn’t really raise any moral issues aside from “What is the measure of a non-human” and how the crew of Serenity chose to deal with the dead bodies they found on an abandoned ship. Said dead bodies were of families that were attacked by Reavers. The main theme of this episode is fear. Simon is afraid of getting in the spacesuits and being out in space in general. Jayne is afraid of the dead bodies. River, burdened with the... Read more
Something I learned from teaching CCE last night is that when one kid acts like that very annoying squeaky wheel on the shopping cart, chances are that the problem isn’t you, it’s something else. Kids have this tendency to feel like the entire day gets ruined from one bad moment. Unfortunately, adults have this problem, too, myself included. Sometimes we have this tendency to carry over the problems from yesterday or last week, or even years ago that become a... Read more
You ever have one of those days when you wonder “I wonder how my exes are doing now?” And you get that temptation to stalk them on Facebook? Yeah, I’ve been there. I actually contemplated calling one of my exes last night. By the grace of God, I did not go through with it. Instead, I prayed for my exes. It’s kind of funny how time has a way of changing people. I’m not sure if it’s the fruits of... Read more
The episode, when it originally aired, functioned as the pilot. So, like before, most of the episode is spent establishing the verse and the characters who live in it. The plot starts out as an old-fashioned train robbery, without Mal or the crew asking questions as to what their client of the week, Niska, wants them to steal. It’s not until the robbery goes awry that Mal and Zoe, who are stranded on a planet called Paradisio, find out that... Read more
Timothy Quigley is an actor and filmmaker based in Lancaster. He is the creator and star of the sitcom, “Ordinary”. “Ordinary” is a sitcom about a fresh-faced newly-ordained priest assigned to a parish in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. When his rascal little brother Josh shows up at his new home, Father Anderson finds himself facing more challenges and surprises than he could have anticipated. From handling erratic staff to wrestling restless catechumens, he’ll need to summon all the patience he can to... Read more
Although I love Joss Whedon, I’m not one of those fans who thinks he’s perfect. One major flaw in his works is that he is amazing with finales, but not as good with beginnings. The first episode of Firefly has a lot of great establishing moments and a lot of worldbuilding, but the pacing is seriously slow. Mostly because the episode itself is an hour and 30 minutes long. The episode opens at the battle of Serenity Valley. It’s your typical “against... Read more
Monique Ocampo Writes
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