I did this FringeDwelling for Tumblr, but when that collapsed into a flaming pile of rubble, I moved it over here. Enjoy

( I wouldn’t go in there to NOT steal stuff. )

As with the last commentary I did on a film still in theaters, let me caution you, there are spoilers everywhere. This is your final warning.

( Batman singing Aerosmith around the cave or something. )

I am so ready for AOS to be back.

( Is Stan Lee pretending to be Hefner or something? )

Our sermon today was about how God can make good things out of bad ones. "Every negative has a positive." Which is true. And the ultimate example of this is, obviously, Jesus' death. Definitely the most profound negative in history.

But that got me thinking. Because the positive out of that is, obviously, redemption and salvation. Which is the most profound positive possible for the believer. But what does God get out of this?

Us.

...And that's it. Other than that, I can't think of anything.

So, it isn't just that God loves you and it isn't just that He wants to redeem people to Himself. It's that God takes so much joy in His people that the most profound negative in history was deemed worth it because it brought us back to Him, even though it accomplished no other end.

If ever you need a reason to smile, I think that's a pretty good one.

I am in the Seattle Airport (in Washington, bastion of left-wing crazies), cheerfully browsing Jill Stanek's blog. I'm fixing to click over to Live Action.

I feel so subversive and counter-cultural. I suppose this state did turn me into a hipster. :D

This is late getting posted. Thanksgiving was happening. NaNoWriMo was happening (I won, by the way!), and then I went to Iron Bowl Saturday. And holy freaking crap, that was a heck of a football game. So I didn't have a lot of time to type up my notes.

( Coulson totally knows that Skye is just about the opposite of delicate. )

Okay, so since this is a commentary on the movie, there are spoilers every-freaking-where. Proceed at your own risk. This is your final warning.

( Odin is very recklessly superlative today. )

I was all set to do tonight's episode of SHIELD and then they reran the pilot! So...fine.

( They may as well asked Tony to prank call the VP in the middle of tie-breaker senate votes. )

And that's everything for now. I am all caught up to the present in the MCU. It is now 9 days, 17 hours, and 32 minutes until the first showing of Thor 2 in my area. Hooray!

I'm kind of tired of...well, a lot of things, but one thing in particular. I'm tired of people thinking good stories are all always happiness and good stuff. More than a few people I've told about a plot idea have gotten this horrified look and said, "But you seem so nice! That's a really dark plot! How could you want to write something like that?"

Two reasons.

One: I'm capable of separating fantasy from reality. Wanting to torture my characters in fiction, even if it involves actual torture, is not the same thing as wanting to torture a human being in reality. And I can tell the difference between them. Apparently not everyone can.

Two: Stories with nothing bad happening are boring. If everything always goes right for everyone and nobody struggles, or the only struggles they face are day-to-day ones ("O NOES! I must get this presentation to work but I can't flag down a taxi!"), your story is boring. You can't just write about everything being easy all the time.

So, yes. I write about kidnappings and genocides and murders and political intrigues and betrayal. Not because those things are good things, but because they make for interesting stories. Writing about those things is not an endorsement of them, nor does it make me a bad person.

Duh. Geez. Things you should not need to say out loud...