Friday, August 14, 2015

5 Fandom Friday: Five Favorite Fandom Phrases.

By Grabthar's hammer*, in the two months since I started participating in 5 Fandom Friday, this has been the most difficult prompt for me: Five Favorite Fandom Phrases.  Great Scott, narrowing down my favorite fandom quotes down to just five is like trying to harness 1.21 gigawatts in 1955*!

So...I'm going to cheat a little.  (Pirate!)  Because, really, these prompts are more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules*, right?  So I'm going to list the five fandom quotes I think I actually use in conversation the most, but I'm not going to let that stop me from using other quotes and references, because one does not simply type up four pages of favorite fandom quotes and then discard them*.  (See how many you can recognize--may the odds be ever in your favor!*)

1. Clever girl... (Robert Muldoon, Jurassic Park)



Muldoon may have been my favorite character in Jurassic Park, and this was certainly my favorite line.  I loved the raptors (hence me wanting to adopt one), but Muldoon was the only one who grasped just how intelligent and therefore dangerous they truly were (don't blink: blink and you're dead--they are fast, faster than you can believe!*).  Alas, these beauties were what did him in in the end, but not before he gave us this simple, yet fantastic and oh-so-usable, phrase.  I make regular use of it pretty much any time I happen across an intelligent female, and it's always thought--if not said--in Muldoon's accent.

In a crazy random happenstance*, a bosom friend* happened to call me "clever girl" in this way once--I didn't even realize she was a fan of JP.  But it delighted me to no end, as, indeed, I am no man*, and brainy's the new sexy*, after all.

2. I aim to misbehave. (Captain Malcolm Reynolds, Serenity)



This quote is a favorite among most of us who solemnly swear to be up to no good*, but my appreciation for this line runs particularly deep.  Here's the context of the oft-quoted line (after the discovery of the Alliance's attempt to weed aggression out of Miranda's population with Pax):

"Y'all got on this boat for different reasons, but y'all come to the same place.  So now I'm asking more of you than I have before.  Maybe all.  Sure as I know anything, I know this: they will try again.  Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground, swept clean.  A year from now, ten?  They'll swing back to the belief that they can make people...better.  And I do not hold to that.  So no more runnin'.  I aim to misbehave."

I appreciate sci-fi that recognizes that man is not inherently good, and that mankind is not moving towards becoming better.  Futuristic portrayals of mankind advancing toward complete peace through education and civilization are one of my biggest pet peeves in science fiction, because I don't find it realistic--people cannot be made to be better.  It's true that there's some good in this world worth fighting for*, and that there are people and communities that choose to be kind and compassionate, but the whole of human history evidences that man is flawed, that power far more often corrupts than not, and that with progression evil merely becomes better-rationalized and more efficient.  This quote isn't just about bucking authority: there are times when good people need to "misbehave", because the alternative--behaving--means standing aside and letting evil grow.

But I think most of us actually use the phrase more light-heartedly, anytime we're feeling a bit rebellious, whether or not we have the intention of saving mankind from itself. ;-)

3. There are three flowers in a vase.  The third flower is green. (Adelle DeWitt, Dollhouse)


I can't say much on this one without giving away major plot points of this brilliant show (Spoilers!*).  This phrase happens during one of those HOLY CRAP DID THAT JUST HAPPEN moments that the show has so many of.  If you haven't watched it yet, drop everything else you have planned for the weekend and binge-watch the whole two-season run--I mean it.  (Anybody want a peanut?*)  I swear by my pretty floral bonnet*, you won't regret it.

I tend to use this phrase any time a movie or show has a particularly shocking plot twist that I like.  Also, any time I see flowers, or a vase, and sometimes just when I'm bored (sometimes life needs a plot twist!).

4. Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal! (Hoban "Wash" Washburne, Firefly)



"Yes.  Yes, this is a fertile land, and we will thrive.  We will rule over all this land, and we will call it...'This Land'."  "I think we should call it 'your grave'!"  "Ah, curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!"  "Hahaha!  Mine is an evil laugh--now die!"  "Oh, no, God!"

This is such a usable quote....Traffic make you late to work?  CURSE YOUR SUDDEN BUT INEVITABLE BETRAYAL!  Salt shaker spill when you try to use it?  CURSE YOUR SUDDEN BUT INEVITABLE BETRAYAL!  Puppy chew your shoes?  CURSE YOUR SUDDEN BUT INEVITABLE BETRAYAL!  Surrounded by idjits*?  CURSE YOUR SUDDEN BUT INEVITABLE BETRAYAL!  Internet go down?  CURSE YOUR SUDDEN BUT INEVITABLE BETRAYAL!  There are just so many real-life situations in which it accurately applies.

Fox cancel your favorite TV show?  CURSE YOUR SUDDEN BUT INEVITABLE BETRAYAL!  But given that we're most likely past the point of realistically hoping for a renewal, that last one's really a moo point...yeah, like a cow's opinion--it just doesn't matter.  It's moo...*  (All right, all right, so working that one in was a bit of a stretch...but I just had to make it so*!  HA!)

5. Allons-y! (Tenth Doctor, Doctor Who)



"It's French.  For 'let's go'."  Never mind that I can't manage a French accent in the slightest, this has become my new favorite sign-off, online or in person.  I mean, look at that adorable grin (and the hair!)...resistance is futile*--you can't help but love Ten and want to invoke him into your daily life by adopting his catchphrase.  So say we all*--all we Whovians, anyway! :-)

So there you have it--the five fandom phrases I use most regularly...and a few other quotes and references.  You can't take the sky from me*! :-)

18 comments:

  1. My son says Clever Girl all the time. And my dad walks around his house quoting Firefly on occasion. Cracks me up!

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  2. I picked Clever Girl too! High 5!

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  3. Kicking myself for not including "I aim to misbehave." I love that line so much.

    Great list!

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    1. Thanks! I feel like I forget something every week! Confession: I TOTALLY forgot about Galaxy Quest entirely, and River Song's "Spoilers!" (until YOUR post!) when I first wrote this--I edited the post to add those two refences, because it just felt incomplete once I realized it! :-P

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  4. Clever Girl - ahhh so good!!!
    xx mal @ www.badwolfbrunch.com

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  5. I also aim to misbehave :p Awesome list!! :D
    xoxo
    dePepi.com

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  6. Haha, I LOVED this post! I had a lot of fun catching all your references (I was pretty excited when I got to the Joey one:P). Good list, and thorough.*

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    1. Thanks! I had WAY too much fun writing it! :-)

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  7. YES TO ALL OF THESE!! I so use "clever girl" in real life as well, but totally forgot to include it on my list! Fantastic list!

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    1. Thanks! I had so much fun with this topic, but there are just too many quotable quotes to cover no matter how you do it! :-)

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  8. "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal". YAAASSS

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