Why adults should watch more kids' shows, (or Why My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic may be the greatest thing that's ever happened to me)

Okay, so if you know me, or even just read the first entry of this blog but are otherwise entirely unfamiliar with me, you know Clinton and I both really love My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. We own more Pony collectibles than I care to admit, own the movie on Blu-Ray, and were even Rainbow Dash and Big Macintosh for Halloween two years ago, (but if you Google search those two names together, for the love of God, please put the safe search filter on).
If you are like most people, you probably find this odd. We are grown adults gladly and proudly watching a show meant for families with small children, (who are probably girls), of which we have none. And we don't love it the same way we love cartoons we watched as kids either, which is mostly out of nostalgia. We first saw this as adults, and we love it as adults. And we're not the only ones; the whole brony phenomenon is proof of that. But this is still weird. Even we acknowledge it as weird. But I think that someday, it will be not-so-weird. Because I believe that adults should watch more kids' shows, and doing so should be perfectly socially acceptable.

Ask yourself this: What are the kinds of shows that adults usually watch? TV dramas or comedies of various kinds, most of which deal with very real, often very harsh issues. Even your run-of-the-mill crime show makes references and whole episodes about sex, drugs, and various groups and subgroups of people that are really not very nice. One of the biggest and most respected adult dramas right now is Breaking Bad, a show about a man who starts making meth to provide for his family. Comedies, though light-hearted, are hardly different. Adult comedies seemingly can't exist these days without sex jokes, and how many TV and movie comedies have a "stoner" character or two thrown in there? This is what we watch; what we follow; what we become engrossed with. Think about how that could affect a person. It's certainly not stuff we want kids watching until they're old enough to understand from us having talked to them about such topics first.
Now, this isn't to say that these shows are bad, even for adults. They're pretty damn awesome and entertaining, even the terrible ones, (and I mean terrible here as in off-beat in a very serious way, not necessarily literally bad). One of my favorite shows is Archer, an adult cartoon comedy with about the raunchiest, vulgar sense of humor you can possibly find on television. It is most certainly not for the faint of heart. But just think about how much these things surround us. Even though most of us are not cancer patients with meth labs, there are real-world issues presented in these shows that we identify with, and that's great. It's just that sometimes, because we're so worried about not only our own problems but the problems of our fictional friends as well, we forget about stuff. We forget about the small things in life. We forget the lessons that kids shows taught us decades ago. And that's why we should watch them now, as adults, on our own, on purpose.

To the surprise of no one, Clinton and I spend a pretty good amount of time on the internet, and a few years ago, the sites we frequented were exploding with My Little Pony posts. And we reacted like everyone did: ...what? Ponies. My Little Pony. Those stupid little toys that have existed longer than I've been alive. The silly cartoons that existed solely to sell said toys. EVERYWHERE. ALL THE TIME. We slowly became familiar with the concept of Bronies over this time period, but were still super skeptical. Sure, there are teens and young adults who still like cartoons to some degree, (ourselves included), but seriously?

But one fateful day, we finally said "to hell with it", and brought up that first episode on YouTube...

..

Ughhhhhhhh.....

We groaned. It was cheesy. Why did everyone like this so much? But we stuck it out. And eventually this dude came up, and I couldn't stop laughing.

I don't know when Clinton's official love of the show cemented, but I would assume around the same time, (I tried to find this whole scene, but couldn't. YouTube has failed me...). So I kept watching the episode, and it got to the final big showdown with Nightmare Moon, which was admittedly cheesier than the opening. But this time, I didn't groan. I actually didn't mind the cheese. Because the cheesy kids' show was suddenly pointing out important things.
To summarize the ending of the pilot episodes, the Mane Six, (Mane. Instead of Main. Mane. Like a horse's hair. Get it? Har har, internet), defeat Nightmare Moon after utilizing the Elements of Harmony, which they realize they harbor inside themselves the whole time. Jesus, even that short description sounds terrible, doesn't it? But here's the thing...The Elements of Harmony are as follows: Honesty, Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, and Loyalty, which when combined together bring out a sixth element; Magic. Replace the word "Harmony" with "Friendship" and you can see where the show gets its name. Obviously, being honest, kind, generous, loyal, and remembering to laugh are important things to teach kids, but I found myself realizing then, as Princess Celestia showed up and summarized the importance of everything that had just happened, that I sometimes forget to be and to do those things myself, even though shows similar to this one told me to do so twenty years ago. In my adult life, I sometimes get so caught up in everything that some of that stuff falls by the wayside, and I am very willing to bet that this is the case for most, if not all, adults. The remembering to laugh part, especially. Digesting these ideas is easy as a kid, because the show is telling you to do so almost verbatim, and what else do you have to do? Poop? A little bit of homework? Sure, whatever, that's easy. But as an adult, we have so many more responsibilities than we had as kids. We have bills, we have debts, we have houses or apartments, we have jobs, we may have a spouse, significant other, or even child to worry about. We therefore end up viewing kids' shows as a chore; yeah, yeah, we know this crap already. But think about it: do we? Do we really? We know it, it's in our brains somewhere, but are we truly conscious of it? Or are most of us like me, and only start to realize how much better I could make life for myself and others, (with just a little effort), because a kids' show reminded me of things I had forgotten?

And the real-life lessons for adults don't stop at episodes one and two of this show. Almost every single episode has something in it that has struck a chord with me, some more than others. Here's a random sampling of ones that hit me pretty hard.

You can't always make other people happy. If you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one, least of all yourself. (S1E3 and S1E14). Relevant to adults in the workplace and at home. Decisions have to be made, and yes, they may upset people, but that's part of life. This happens to me at work a lot; I try to be the "nice" supervisor that everyone will love, but sometimes, you just can't do that.

Listen to what everyone has to say, even if it seems stupid or nonsensical. (S1E10). You owe it, especially as grown-ups, to listen to everyone's point of view and everyone's opinion of something. You don't have to agree or disagree, but what they have to say may end up being really important, and if you just dismiss it without giving them a chance to explain themselves, it's your loss. Not to mention it implies a lack of respect for the person speaking, and most people deserve basic respect.

Never be afraid to ask for help. (S1E4). It's not a sign of weakness, it's a sign of wisdom and a self-awareness of your own abilities and limitations, things we as adults are expected to have. And yet, I almost feel this one applies more to adults than kids, as it seems the older you get, the more embarrassing asking for help becomes.

Friendships, and relationships of all sorts, are hard and you will, at some point, have to fight for them. (S2E1 & 2, and the movie Equestria Girls, to some degree). Nothing in life is easy. We almost expect friendships to be one constant in our lives that we don't have to worry about, since we have so many other things to worry about, but it isn't always. (An alternate lesson for these episodes is that John de Lancie is freaking awesome, but that's a given).

Not everything in the world has to be about accomplishing a specific goal. (S3E8). This, I think, is the most obviously for adults lesson I've found in the show. Kids already inherently know this; that's what playing is for. Adults forget to play. We forget to enjoy simple things like company and family and talking to each other. We forget to breathe. We forget a lot of things.

For the love of God, don't forget to smile! And laugh! And be a person who makes others smile and laugh, too! (S2E18). Though not the primary "lesson" of the episode, this is the main thing I personally get out it, thanks to this song:

Though it's long and doesn't escape the kids' show cheese, my face actually hurt after I watched this episode for the first time, because I was smiling so hard after hearing this song. It's a beautiful and wonderful song, and haters gonna hate all the same, but you know what? Doesn't matter. Smile. Your smile makes someone else's day. Their smile makes your day. On your sad days, reach out. Call a friend, tell them you're having a rough day, and be that person for them on their bad days. It's kind of stupid how much a smile or a chuckle can turn a day around, but it does. So c'mon everypony, smile, smile, smile!

All of these are things I was reminded of when watching this show. And it's one thing for someone like me to just sit here and tell you all these lessons, but it's quite another to be watching them happen to fictional characters that you find yourself starting to relate to. It's the same draw from our adult shows we watch; we identify with stuff and start to care more about it, but in the case of MLP and other kids' shows, it's happy things that we're identifying with. It's good things. Not the struggles and the problems of characters on a CBS drama, but the lives and the joy of colorful ponies in a magical land. With catchy-ass songs and good writing, to boot.

This show has affected both Clinton and myself more than we could have ever expected from any work of fiction, and it's a kids' show! It makes us smile. It makes our worries seem less...well, worrisome. Watching these six rainbow-colored friends honestly makes life better for us.

So take a step back from adult life every once in awhile. Put your Netflix account on the kids setting and watch something. Be reminded of the things that are important in life, and breathe a little more. Remember those same lessons you learned as a kid, being presented to you again in a more stressful time of your life where they take on so much more weight and importance and meaning. You have the life experience now to know what these lessons were really all about in the first place, so absorb them. And most importantly, have fun.

Brohoof!   /)(\

(Disclaimer: There are obviously exceptions to the kids' show thing. You gotta find something like Ponies that's aimed at the younger kids. When you start getting into stuff that's more meant for 10-year-olds and preteens, you risk running into mindless dribble that may be entertaining, but won't have the same value.)

A Pointlessly In-depth Examination #1: Is Dr. Horrible evil?

Welcome to Pointlessly In-depth Examinations, whose full title I like to think of as, "Pointlessly In-depth and Long Examinations of Things That Don't Really Need or Require Examination," because those are the only types of things I tend to think deeply about. Not the normal deep-think stuff like, "What is love?" (baby, don't hurt me...), or "Why am I here?" or "Is there life after death?". No, see, I worry about things like whether or not a character from a 43-minute webseries who calls himself evil and aspires to be a supervillain is, in fact, actually evil.

I could stare at this .gif for literal hours. There is something mesmerizing about the movement of NPH's fingers. 

And I bet his husband would agree. 

This particular examination happened after Clinton and I were on a kick of showing Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog to anyone we had immediate access to who had never seen it. And by Clinton and I, I mean mostly me, because he insisted I show it to one friend, and I was immediately reminded how awesome it is and proceeded to show it to many other people after that single friend. But I digress. After we were done with these showings, I had it on the mind and we just started talking. And that talk became rather pointlessly in-depth, as often these things do, (See: Title of post). And we came up with the following conclusion: I think he is evil; Clinton thinks he is not. 

But before we begin any discussion of whether or not someone is evil, we must first know what to be "evil" really means. As the passage of time and the writing that accompanies it clearly show, the word has had many meanings, and said by different people can mean different things. But in order to get as clear a definition as possible and avoid sweeping generalizations, (Oh, wait. Too late for that part), I did what any sensible person would do: I Googled "definition of evil."

I got this:

Which is all well and good, (or just "well" if you're an even more hard-core Grammar Nazi than I), but malevolent is a big word, and I don't know about you guys, but whenever I read this word, I misread it as Maleficent. As in the witch from Disney's Sleeping Beauty, even though I haven't seen that movie in at least two decades, if I've ever actually seen it in its entirety at all, (which I'm not positive I have). So let's click "malevolent" and see what we get for that then, shall we?

.................

Well, that could have gone better. But thankfully, Google gave us two words to define evil--the other being "immoral". So, is Dr. Horrible immoral? Well, whose morality are we judging him by? Because everyone has their own, and though it may be true that there is a general and widely-accepted idea of Right Vs. Wrong in most cultures, it is vague at best and entirely problematic and contradictory at worst. It still ultimately comes down to each individual person's idea of morality. Ask just about any, "Do the ends justify the means?" kind of question, and you'll have half the people say yes and half of them say no, even if they were raised in the same culture or even the same household. So is Dr. Horrible immoral? To you or I, maybe. But does he think he is? I'm gonna go with a solid nope. He feels he is entitled to and deserving of all of the goals and aims he is trying to achieve. Thereby, anything he has to do to rule the world and get the girl is totally okay. His ends will justify his means, and therefore are not ultimately immoral, at least in his own mind. Killing is the only thing that gives him pause, and even that is quickly remedied as soon as he realizes there is someone he'd really love to kill after all. 

Sometimes I feel like throwing darts at Nathan Fillion's face too, but only because he's so awesome and it's really not fair to the rest of us. 

So that makes defining evil as "immoral" problematic, too. Thankfully, there is more than one online dictionary in the world, with more than just two words to define "evil". 

So let's knock some of these out, shall we?

- Wicked: A word which can be defined as, "playfully malicious" and I can't think of a better visual representation of that definition than this face:

So I think we have wicked covered. And really, you have to admit that playfully malicious is a pretty good, concise explanation of Dr. Horrible's character in general. 

- Harmful: ...Is there some part of "This world is going to burn" and "The birds are singing 'cause you're gonna die" that is difficult to understand? And even if these are just hypothetical empty threats, the climax of the series kind of clinches that in a tangible way. Harmful--Check. (Which is also a check for injurious, which in case you're like me and you don't know and had to Google it just now, is a big, fancy-pants way of saying harmful). 

- All of definition #3: Pretty much everything that happens to or around Dr. Horrible is unfortunate, and occasionally--as in the case of the ending--can be disastrous. 

- Definition #4: No, I don't think attempting and planning a murder and numerous heists is bad conduct at all. 

- Marked by anger or irritability: Though I wouldn't call Dr. Horrible someone who is perpetually angry or necessarily quick to anger, he is certainly irritable and not beyond getting real mad real quick.

I think this entire song is evidence of that. Look at those furrowed eyebrows, man. 

(And no, there isn't any point I can't back up with .gifs, but thanks for asking)

So Dr. Horrible qualifies for all but that which we cannot judge him by for reasons previously stated. He is, by these definitions, evil. 

But these are all arbitrary, arguable definitions of evil, you may be saying. More likely you're wondering why in the world you're still reading this, but hey. Well, let me present to you my really simple definition of evil, which I take from no dictionary:

An evil person is just a really, really not good person.

Yes, I realize that is almost not eloquent enough for even Captain Hammer, but I'm serious. Evil to me is basically just an absence of redeeming qualities, or so very few redeeming qualities that it hardly matters, all lovingly sprinkled with apathy, misanthropy, and occasional sociopathy just to top everything off. Is Dr. Horrible entirely devoid of redeeming qualities? No. Here's a list for you, because I really like making lists, (I once scoffed at my friend Ashley when she told me, after I watched RENT for the first time, that I remind her of Joanne. I told her I don't make lists in my sleep, but hell, maybe I do). 

1.) He is, at least at first, really against killing someone, (and to some degree, hurting people in general).

When the Bad Horse tells him the only way he's getting into the Evil League of Evil is to kill someone, he seems traumatized when he hangs up that phone, and deliberates it with Wolowitz Moist shortly thereafter. Granted, he writes it off as "not my style" rather than "horrifying" and "why in the world would I do that?" but the hesitation is still there. This tells us he has some kind of moral compass. Though, as I stated earlier, his morality can be all his own, it's nice to know he's not entirely amoral. Similarly, when Johnny Snow calls him out for not showing up for a showdown via email, (very tough of him), Dr. Horrible says, "...also, there's kids in that park so..." as a reason for not showing up. In the final showdown scene, he doesn't shoot his Death Ray at anyone, just in the air to scare people.

2.) He is in love, and tries very hard, (and very awkwardly), to impress the girl of his dreams.

This whole concept is very normal, and very human. 

3.) He's Neil Patrick Harris.

This shouldn't be a valid redeeming quality, but come on now. 

4.) He does care about the well-being of society, (although in a scary kind of way).

He says society needs an overhaul, and that when he's in charge, there will be social change. He proposes anarchy, if not his complete and total rule, but hey; he's got some happy things in his heart. 

5.) He likes frozen yogurt. 

6.) He's a male who actually does his laundry. 

This is enough to make him a winner in the eyes of most girls. 

7.) Even at his most despicable moment, he cares about the feelings of his girl.

"No sign of Penny, God, I would giving anything not to have her see..." Despite everything else, he still cares what Penny thinks and doesn't want her to see him doing his more blatantly evil deeds. 

8.) He likes Harry Potter.

Pay attention during "Brand New Day" when he sits in his huge chair, (that I wish I owned). Though I don't know why he only has #6 and #7, or why he has two copies of each. 

See? He's not without merit as a person. But he falls into the second qualification of evil I gave; someone who has redeeming qualities but their bad qualities make their good ones superfluous. He may be all of those things that I listed, (and possibly more), but he's also a man driven entirely by his own selfish ambition to rule the world, who usually doesn't give any mind to other people who may stand in the way of that. He acknowledges that there are social problems, but thinks he's the only one who sees them and that him being in charge will change everything just the way he wants it. And even when he says he'll solve those problems when he's in charge, he only mentions them as an afterthought to "cash" and "fame". He intends to impress and win over Penny by achieving his goals. Does he ever wonder what Penny may want? No. Would he care if he knew? Probably not. Though initially against killing anyone, when he decides to kill Captain Hammer, he is dead-set, (no pun intended). He misses his meetings at the laundromat with the woman he loves so that he can make and perfect a Death Ray to kill his nemesis, proving his ambition is ultimately more important to him. He will kill Captain Hammer. He will get into the Evil League of Evil. With their help, he will rule the world. And when Penny cries because he murdered her boyfriend, she can have Australia and that will make everything better and she will love Billy unconditionally. Obviously. 

If you've read the comic they put out, you learn he originally aspired to be like the heroes, but saw in them the same attitude he saw in his childhood tormentors and became obsessed with defeating people like that. Of showing them that smarts could outweigh strength. And the smart people were the bad guys, so he became a bad guy. Saw in every villain who won against a hunky hero an idol to be revered. It's doubtful he ever considered what negative consequences the villain's victory may have had on every day people, or anybody else besides the hero, for that matter, and it doesn't seem that he ever considers the consequences of his own actions either. He wants what he wants, and he'll get it, no matter the cost.

And he does. At a cost he probably would not have been willing to pay, had the option been presented to him on a silver platter with a note telling him, "If you do this, then you're in." But it wasn't. It was an accident. A consequence. One he never considered. One that ripped whatever part of him that was good that may have remained out, chopped it up, stomped on it, then picked it up again and spat on it, just for good measure. And herein we have the most damning evidence of all: he flicks the light switch of his feelings to off. He won't feel a thing, he says. He has everything he wanted, and what it cost to get there doesn't matter anymore, because his feelings; his humanity; his goodness; are gone. If you turn off your own feelings, do you think you care about anyone else's? About what happens to anyone else, or even what happens to you?

No. You don't. You've become a sociopath, and there's no turning back. 

And let's be honest. After what happened to him, do you think Dr. Horrible won't finish the job if he ever sees Captain Hammer again? And remember, he's got the ELE behind him now. 

Dr. Horrible is inherently evil. Is he pure evil? No. Is he still likable? Oh, hell yeah; I love him, and there are parts of him that I think all of us can relate to. I even own a full costume of him which I wore to work once. There are tons of awesome evil people that we love. The Joker. Darth Vader, (yes, at least for awhile, he is evil. That's a whole 'nother argument, kids). The Master, (either the Doctor Who or Buffy villain. Take your pick, though I think the former is better). KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNN. Ganondorf. Oh, good baby Raptor Jeebus, do I love Ganondorf. Take your pick; they're all over, and we adore them despite their inherent evil.

Obviously, you're welcome to disagree. That's the point of a discourse like this. That, and shameless attention-grabbing. But hey, what are blogs for, right Doc?

That still got a bit dark near the end, didn't it? Here, have some Freeze Ray to cheer you up. Stops time. Freeze ray. Tell your friends.  

On the merits of significant others being other species.

So I'm in the process of watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a show I kind of sort of watched in middle school, but never finished or saw 100% of.
I come to the episode where Buffy and Cordelia are kidnapped by some frat boys and almost fed to a giant snake played by the guy who voices the Medic in Team Fortress 2, (No, for real, that's him under all that makeup--watch the credits!). The rest of the Scooby Gang are outside the frat house, and realize that Cordelia's car is still there so she and Buffy must still be inside. Angel flips a minor fuck and vamps out when he realizes they must be doing something to Buffy, because love and stuff.

This would be vamping out. Semi-Klingon face with eyebrows nowhere to be found. 

So he starts kicking some very serious frat boy ass, all the while making lion-level roaring sounds, (anyone else ever notice that about vampire growls in Buffy?). At the end of the episode, after the day is saved because it always is because Buffy is a bad-ass, Willow tells Buffy how it was kind of awesome how Angel went all "Grrr!" when he knew she was in danger and muses that not many guys can do that. I would have to agree with Willow that it is kind of romantic, because I am a sci-fi and fantasy dork and my idea of romance was skewed long ago. I told Clinton of this and he smirked.

"Do you wish I could do that?" he asked.

"Do I wish you were a 241-year-old vampire? No, not really. A 900-year-old Time Lord, though....maybe." (Because any conversation the two of us have has a 57.42% chance of coming back to Doctor Who). 

"I could be," he says, "I may just not remember."

"That's true, you could have used your Genesis Ark for some reason, and become human. You have a pocket watch, don't you?"

"Yeah."

"Have you opened it any time recently?"

"I don't believe that I have."

We both smile at each other because love and stuff. 

"You know, though," Clinton continues, "If I were a Time Lord, and I opened the watch, the personality that you know would be gone. I wouldn't really be me anymore."

I consider this. "Fair point, but when the Doctor becomes the Doctor again, he tells Joan that everything that John Smith was is a part of him, and that he's still in there. But I guess that means your current personality would only be one part of you, and I'd suddenly have other parts to contend with and who knows how I'd feel about them."

"So it's probably best if I don't open my pocket watch, then." 

I continue, "You know though, in both of those cases, you'd basically be immortal. And I wouldn't be. I'd still get old and wrinkly and you'd never really die. I don't know how I feel about that."

"Yeah, but I would still love you."

And you know what? I don't doubt that he would. He's weird like that. 

Lengthy text message conversations about Doctor Who

...A fairly normal occurrence between me and my friend, Turner.


Turner:
The Doctor's "first" kiss with River? OMG, I just died.

Me:

The one where he's all squirmy?

YES.

Lolz. 

Also, I can't help thinking how selfish Amy is in two streams. 2,000 years vs. 36 years.

Yeah, she's totally selfish. Also selfish and stupid for "giving up" Rory cuz she couldn't have kids. 

The sad part is Clara makes you wish Amy and Rory were back on the show.

Yeah. Because she has NO personality and is painfully boring. Amy had mild, tiny personality. That's better than none.

Painfully boring gives her too much credit, lol.

Lol, Clinton says we're really mean. But he's the type of person that character is designed for.

Tell him he knows it's true.
Blech. And you married him?! What does that say about you? ;) lol

That...I married a straight, nerdy guy?

Lol

Did I ever send you the article about manic pixie dream girls?

YES, IT WAS SPOT ON.

I know! But people like Clinton--straight, somewhat socially awkward men--are who manic pixie dream girls are designed by and for. That's why he's okay with her.

True.
I miss Donna, and I really wish she didn't have to have her memory wiped. She'd make a fantastic Sarah Jane.

Right? 

At least Amy had enough personality that I actively disliked her. Clara I just don't give even a single shit about. 

Oh, and you know what else upsets me? That Clara will get to see him regenerate. 

I KNOW. But I hope 12 pisses her off.

I mean, it's not absolutely always been the case, but USUALLY it's really important, meaningful characters that are with him when he dies. Sarah Jane sees Three become Four, Rose sees Nine become Ten. 

Donna saw(ish) a regen. She saw Ten regenerate his wounds anyway. And had a freaking human-Time Lord metacrisis.

Yeah, but she's the best, man. 

I know! I want her back! *sobs uncontrollably*

I know!!! But she is very firmly written out.

But almost as good: bring Wilf back?

YES PLEASE. Wilf never even saw 11.

I know. That would be an interesting conversation, I think.

It would be, as Ten would say, brilliant.

When I rewatched the End of Time, I didn't cry at the end, like I did the last time I saw it. I cried when he and Wilf are talking and Wilf starts crying. You know, when he's trying to convince him to take the gun? "I think you're the most wonderful man and I don't want you to die." SO MANY FEELS.

More than so many. ALL THE FEELS.

ALL OF THEM, WE SAY.

Have you and I ever debated the merits of Rose/Nine vs. Rose/Ten before?

I think so, but I'm open for more.

Lol, you're my favorite person to talk Who with. This is why you so desperately need to watch Next Gen so we can add that to our repertoire. 

Well, I prefer Rose with Nine than with Ten. Thoughts?

Well, my problem is the writing for Ten and Rose was so much better, but Nine and Rose had much more on-camera chemistry. Granted, the writing for Ten was overall much better.

The chemistry is why I dig it. They're the true couple to me; after he regens, they just become too comfortable with each other and it's not as interesting for the audience.
Yeah, Ten's writing was better, but I love the fuck out of the season one finale. And really just season one in general.

Season one was fantastic, but it's a reboot season. There's so much explanation in each episode.

True enough. But without that, we'd have been lost. I think a season with Nine after all of that would have been stupid amazing. His character could have truly shown. But alas...

True. It would've needed insane levels of great writing. 

Well, they had that.

Very true. I feel like Eccleston just wasn't as good at the part as Tennant.

True. Tennant is my favorite doctor, but I love the shit out of Nine's personality.

True. The Dickens episode solidified my love for Nine.

I love characters with anguish. And he does legitimately seem alien, due to his views at the time. Whereas once you hit Ten, you almost forget he's an alien, because he's more gentle-natured, more willing to forgive, to fit with the human idea of morality.

True. I'm on the hotel episode, and I am going to call it the bogart episode.

Also, slightly girly moment, but I love the tiny tidbits and inklings of the budding love between he and Rose at that point in time. Dickens episode is a great example: him telling her honestly and impulsively that she looks beautiful, then quickly realizing he really did say that out loud and turns away and adds a quick, disingenuous "considering."

That's my favorite Nine/Rose scene. 

Really? That's awesome. Her flattered but bashful smile is stupid adorable, too.

I mean, it's Billie Piper. Of course it is. 

I'm really counting on her and David Tennant to pull this shit out of the water in the 50th.

Really? I've go so much more riding on Capaldi.

Well, yes, obviously because he's the next. But we won't see him until Christmas. So for the time being, fingers crossed the 50th won't be rubbish.
I'm happy the Doctor is once again an older guy. He always kind of was. Excepting Five.

Ha, that is very true. 
Ooh, I wonder what Capaldi'd TARDIS will look like.

Well, hopefully the same! I think it's silly that it changes all the time now!


(Also, apparently, at least in text message form, we are very fond of the word "true".)

On the acquisition of six packs.

So I'm on my laptop, noodling on the internet, as is often the way of the Suicide Zombie, when I hear Clinton come back from inside from shaving his head, (which he does outside so that he doesn't have to clean up his hair clippings).

"Hey, Beth!" I hear from the other room.

"What?"

"Check out my six pack!"

When I turn away from the computer, this is what I see:

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I.....I don't even....
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An Introduction from a Suicide Zombie

Hi there. If you are reading this, you probably already know me. If you don't, then I am sorry you stumbled upon my blog--which you almost certainly did on accident--but it may end up entertaining you. And if so, I invite you to continue to read it. If not, well, there's always Reddit.

My name is Beth. My husband's name is Clinton. There are many labels we can apply to ourselves and that others have in the past attributed to us. We've gotten nerds, geeks, gamers, weirdos, and a multitude of others, but the one I most gravitate toward is "dorks". No one really likes being called a dork, because dork carries some negative connotation. Dork implies someone who is so wrapped up in their own interests that they kind of don't fully acknowledge the real world around them. And if I'm being honest, that is entirely Clinton and myself. So, I embrace. We're dorks. Really, really big ones, both figuratively and literally. Ask our families; they'll back me up.

Being the dorks that we are, sometimes the conversations and situations that come up in our lives are a bit out of the norm, and--at least we think--mildly entertaining. Not reality-TV worthy, (if worthy is even an appropriate adjective to describe anything related to reality television), but, you know, might make a similarly-minded person or persons chuckle. And that's all I'm really aiming for here. Partially for other people's amusement, but also to remember the things that happen to us that I actually want to remember and look back on fondly through bifocals one day, (which for Clinton may be sooner rather than later). Because we both, in addition to being dorks, have terrible memories.

So here's us in a nutshell: We like video games, Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek, and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic a lot. Like, a WHOLE lot. Expect many of these posts to involve one or more of these five things. We've been together for a very long time and thereby are past all the uncomfortable and embarrassing situations other young couples may deal with. For example, I once told Clinton not to hug me too hard, or he'd squeeze a fart out of me. He did so anyway, and lo and behold, I farted. And it was hilarious.

So fine. It's an average blog of some average, slightly dorky couple. Why is it called Suicide Zombies, and why are you referring to yourself as a Suicide Zombie?
Because Suicide Zombies have significance for us, in the form of a story that I think captures us really well.

I was playing Borderlands, (for those playing along, there is thing #1 of the five things I mentioned we really, really like), and Clinton was watching me. Specifically, I was playing the Zombie Island of Dr. Ned DLC pack, and grumbled to myself when an enemy, deemed, "Suicide Zombie" exploded in front of me and heartily damaged me.

They look like this. And they are dicks. 

Clinton shrugged and said, "Well, that's why they're called Suicide Zombies, Beth."
To which I said, "But if they're already dead, is it really suicide?"

That's the kind of crap you may or may not chose to continue reading. That's how we roll--philosophical questions about minor video game enemies are pretty normal for us. So if that's your gig, I'll see you next post. If not, well, thanks for reading this far, I guess.

And for the internet lurking crowd:
TL;DR: Married couple. Dorkfaces. Like? Read.