Otherworlders

During my city getaway, I let episodes of Marina play in the background, so I think I made it through maybe a dozen or more over the weekend, since the episodes are under 20 minutes once you skip the opening and end credits. The status quo has changed where I am now (episode 66/188) but throughout at least the first 40, or maybe 50 episodes, it was very cool that the plot for the show was driven so thoroughly and fully by the female characters. Marina, of course, is titular character and there's her mother Esther and Esther's faithful emotional support servant/employee Pilar, and Pilar's mermaid-hating daughter Isabel, and Marina's magical mermaid friend Sheila, and Sheila's witchy mother Dugong, and the main villainous witch Victoria and Victoria's magically-attuned daughter Luna, and the helpful Lorelei (who has her own really cool subplot fighting Victoria in the village). The only exception in this coterie of plot and magic-knowing characters is Esther's ex-husband Elias, but he doesn't really count because he's cursed through most of these early episodes and is kind of just there although he is trying his best. Oh, and there's Pearly, who is Dugong's captured turncoat sidekick, but I say he also kind of doesn't count because he's gay and a character of humour rather than conventional handsomeness.

There are male characters in the show, but most of them are limited in the spheres of the love storylines, either in triangles or unrequited pining or as desired by the female characters. A moment that really drove this home to me was when Isabel was cursed to get a tail and she had a traumatic screaming session as the Pilar, Marina, Esther and Sheila were frantically trying to help her, while the male characters in the resort were all milling about outside having no idea this plotline was going on and being like, where's Isabel? Where's Marina? And they have been like through all the earlier episodes, mostly ignorant to the drama happening elsewhere. That has changed since then, with a couple of the male characters now in the know, but that they kept that going for as long as it did was fascinating.

Marina's love interest Rodge has also entered the show after build-up and with fanfare (though with the way they pronounce it I keep hearing it as "Raj" and picturing a Hindustani romantic lead) but it's fascinating that the majority of his interactions to date are with Luna, not Marina. The show's declaration of him as Marina's "true love" is doing the heavy lifting, because they have not interacted earnestly at all, as he has been under Luna's sincere and then spell-induced-non-con influence since he showed up.

This has clarified some things to me, because when I started the show, I skipped to the final episode's youtube comments to know what to expect, and it's apparently an unhappy ending for Marina because Rodge ultimately ends up with Luna due to body-switching shenanigans, and my immediate response to that was, WHOA what a downer, people must be so mad after following them for almost 200 episodes. But then during my own "watch" I've hit the episodes where Rodge shows up and right now as far as Marina is concerned, Rodge is more a symbol of Marina's freedom, as she needs true love in order to break Victoria's curse and become human again, and she wants him out of a belief of the promise of a happy ending that he represents to her, rather than affection for him as a person if only because she doesn't know him to love him. They haven't interacted meaningfully at all!

And that helped me recontextualise the show, in its being a deeply ensemble story of generational betrayals and love and revenge and redemption, that the romance of the main pairing is just another ingredient in the stew and not at all a priority, which makes the endgame not a priority either. While this may change, it looks to me that Marina's journey living out and perhaps growing past her parents' mistakes is what it's about, though I expect some swerves to come that might make me mad, but we'll see! This also totally explains the mermaid teleseryes that followed in its wake, especially Kambal Sirena, which has the romance so front and center that all other storylines are subservient to it.

Further on from that, since I'm about a third ways into consuming Marina, I figured that it'd be safe enough to start the Indonesian sinetron that is its namesake, i.e. Putri Duyung Marina. Unfortunately I can only find the first episode online and none of the others (so far, I'm going to keep looking), but I did watch that first episode and my immediate response is: this show has nothing to do with the Filipino Marina. This is a mermaid-born-to-humans romance-centric drama where the lead is a gentle soul beleaguered at all sides from people who would take her down, i.e. Dyesebel with some of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid thrown in, what the hell are they talking about this being an adaptation of Marina??? (Again, based on the first episode only.)

It's been years and years since I'd done puzzles. Hobby interests wax and wane, and there was a period where I was very into puzzles, regular 2D as well as 3D, with some trick 2D puzzles along the way like double-sided ones. I even did little timing challenges to see how fast I could do a 1000-piece, 2000-piece and, finally, a 5000-piece (which did take me longer than I expected). Looking back, that 5000-piece challenge for myself totally capped off that era, though I did still occasionally get those small 3D puzzles every once in a while.

I'd been feeling creatively restless lately, and not interested/able to channel that into writing fic, and I didn't feel like opening a model kit, so I thought I'd do a puzzle. It'd been so long since I went into a puzzle shop, and I picked a 2000-piece of artwork that I would enjoy looking at for extended periods.

I did osmose that the puzzle trends these days were that larger puzzles would presort the pieces into multiple bags so you can work on them in sections if you want, and if you don't, you can open all the bags and mix the pieces together. I did not osmose that puzzle technology had improved since the last time I was into them, that puzzles now could be made out of stronger materials that click really tight despite the cuts not being all continuous (sometimes the joints are at angles) and also do not have those little leftover dust/shavings that make such a mess when you open the bag. This is great! And have made handling the pieces really easy for someone who lives with multiple cats.

On the downside though is that when I lock in, I really lock in and have trouble mentally tapping out unless I pre-set a target for me to stop for beforehand. The other night I kept going even though it was way past my bedtime and I really needed to go to bed because it had been a long day, but I could not until I hit a particular target.

Anyway the puzzle I got was the brand PieceRelax and I'm about a quarter done with it and am seriously considering getting another larger one.