Derren Brown Probably Gets All His Powers From Dark Eco.

newbie1990 linked to this video of Katie McGrath and Angel Coulby talking about Merlin, and asfdhashdjdgh they are so adorable. It is mildly spoilery about character arcs in the second series, I should warn you (nothing you won't have guessed if you're familiar with Arthurian legend), but adorable! So adorable! Hugging! Thumbs-up! Gwen wants to lock Morgana in a dungeon 'in a good way'!

I love the Merlin cast so much.

Oh, and here is a rather lovely Angel-and-Colin radio interview! In which we discover that both Angel Coulby and Colin Morgan are fans of Derren Brown (Colin has even been to one of his live shows), and that Merlin is the secret behind Derren's powers. I always suspected. (I am also having terrible Colin/Derren ideas. NO, RIONA. BAD.)


I recently started thinking about the Jak and Daxter games for the first time in ages. The Jak fandom was the first fandom in which I actually settled for a while, rather than writing one fic and then moving on, and it was the fandom in which I met eva_kasumi and established one of my earliest lasting Internet friendships, so I have a lot of fondness for it.

In this bout of nostalgia, I started a new game of Jak II today, and realised very quickly that I had forgotten how ridiculously tricky it is (do I really have to restart the Sig pumping-station mission every time I fail?). But it is such a good game! And I love Torn in all his raspy-voiced hating-everyone sullenness.

I still can't quite believe that Jak and Daxter and Jak II are part of the same game series. Who saw the shift from 'gentle, colourful platforming with a boy and his animal sidekick' to 'THEFT, REVENGE AND MASSIVE DIFFICULTY LEVELS IN DYSTOPIAN FUTURE' coming? Not that I'm complaining, because Jak II is a brilliant game whilst Jak and Daxter is just a fairly good one, but it was a bit startling.

(Speaking of startling: did anyone understand the BAM SUDDENLY JAK/ASHELIN in Jak 3? Anyone? Seriously, they build up Jak/Keira for two games and then LOL SURPRISE. (Did - did anyone understand why Jak II used Roman numerals and Jak 3 didn't?)

Keira was very unpopular in the Jak fandom, wasn't she? Was there any reason why? She was a cheerful, intelligent, skilled mechanic, and I don't remember ever seeing any particular reason to dislike her. Come to think of it, I'd love to see her hanging out with Winry of Fullmetal Alchemist.)

IMPORTANT QUESTION: were Jak to have a Pokémon, would he have a Dark-type, or would he have a Buizel? I am very tempted by the Buizel idea, just because Daxter would hate it so much. (All of the Krimzon Guard have Houndour. Torn kept his Pokémon after quitting, although by now it has evolved into a Houndoom. Keira has a Bulbasaur in the first game; it is an Ivysaur by the second. Ashelin has an Arcanine. Samos has a large collection of members of the Oddish family in various stages of evolution.)

Actually, you know what the Jak series would cross over with beautifully? Silent Hill. Of course, everything can be crossed over with Silent Hill, but throwing post-experimentation Jak into the town could work particularly well. Dark Jak is a ready-made Pyramid Head.


Thank you for your well-wishes regarding my back, by the way! The pain is almost gone. I'm still trying to sit up straight and not to bend over or turn my head too much, but I think it should be fine. Hooray!

And Apparently He Wears A Magnetic Bra.

So, tonight was Derren Brown's intriguingly-named How to Be a Psychic Spy. Sadly, this was not Derren Brown's debut as the next James Bond, although I am hoping that fanfiction about Mr Brown's putting his abilities to more dramatic uses than causing people to think of an image will appear before too long. Nobody can quite remember why Agent Brown was permitted a licence to kill. He was very persuasive.

My immediate reaction to the end, and to the results of my subsequent scramble for a newspaper: Derren Brown! You are such a liar, but you certainly put effort into your lies. I love it when you conceal your true methods beneath layers of confusion and misdirection.

I also love it when you manipulate people into committing crimes. You are so fascinatingly attractive when you're being completely evil. Should you ever decide to take over the world, we wouldn't stand a chance; half of us would be stuck to our seats, and the other half would be unwittingly working for you. (Members of my flist were actually too afraid to watch How to Control the Nation for fear that Derren Brown would implant subconscious commands to turn them into murderers, so I was quite amused when he brought up the concept this week. (AMUSED AND ALARMED. I watched How to Control the Nation! How can I be certain that I have not already stabbed somebody?))

I like to think that Derren goes out to cafés and mirrors-and-leads strangers into falling asleep to amuse himself whenever he gets bored. According to interviews he is (or at least was pre-boyfriend) in the habit of going to restaurants on his own, which is presumably because any companion would say, "So, did you think... Derren? Derren. Derren, I know the service hasn't been great, but can't you just look at me instead of subliminally manipulating that woman over there into punching the waiter?"

One more Event to go! I will be quite sad when Derren Brown is no longer shamelessly deceiving us every Friday.