Claire and Frank (possible spoilers, you've been warned)

Based on information from IMDb forums and Season 3 synoposes

Not actually spoilers, but a theory nonetheless, so half-spoilers.

Rape is one of the reasons Claire might have decided not to have children.

I think Frank is the one in the marriage who is unable to procreate. It's possible Claire might have tried and not had any results from Frank. (I wonder, though, if Frank knows it himself.)

All that would then explain why Claire had had three abortions; because despite having had an otherwise healthy marriage with Frank, she could have been conceived by other men (the day-after pills don't always work), but a different-looking child would eventualy become obvious. And then there's DNA testing.

Claire's biological clock ticking, she decides to get preggers anyway. That's why she wants to separate from Frank and a possible divorce, because she is very certain the child is not his in the first place.

If she's pregnant, then it's possible she might be using it as pretext to disassociate herself from Frank, because she knows that he killed Russo and Zoe. If the murders are eventually revealed as such, she can later claim some plausible deniability. The moodiness might be caused by pregnancy or might even be intentional to throw Frank off the loop, because she needs her female moodiness and the pregancy to disassociate herself from him.

Corrida (Estonia, 1982)

Synopsis

Osvald and Rita, a successful academician with his young wife and former secretary go to live away from city sprawl on a small island and enjoy their idyllic marriage.

Suddenly, a young man Tarmo appears from the sea.

Rita suggests from the outset that he's her ex, and the handsome Tarmo begins to capture her fancy, much to Osvald's chagrin.

The ensuing bad seas trap the three on the island, and both Tarmo and Osvald and Rita are aware of the situation between the three.

Constrained in one place, Tarmo and Osvald become in time more acquainted with one another: Tarmo shows that he's familiar with Osvald's work, but also critical; while Osvald realises that Tarmo is intelligent, he does not let Tarmo know this, and chooses to taunt him back.

Still harboring feelings for Rita, and believing that Osvald stole her from him, Tarmo encourages Rita to bring out her youthful streak in order to woo her to his side.

Rita's is only able to interpret Tarmo's encouragement of youthfulness in one way, but begins instead to let out her primal self, which turns for the worse.

Alone with Osvald, Tarmo lets slip that Rita has a child from before their marriage, and confides further that he doesn't know if he wants to raise another man's child.

Rita's deteriorating conduct has turned her restless, then uncontrollable, cruel and indifferent.

Tarmo sees that Rita is unable to handle herself in a critical situation, and realizes that she's not intelligent enough to do so in the first place, and therefore not really worthy of his attention.

Having made up his mind, Tarmo leaves the island.

(In the interim, Tarmo and Osvald appear to have resolved their dispute, as Osvald is more willing to put up with the restless Rita than Tarmo, who, as a young man, has more choices before him.)

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How we remember a movie

In reply to this post on IMDb

I've never seen the original Jurassic Park film at the cinema, so I think I finally saw it on tv once. But then seeing that film turned out to be such a non-event, that I probably forgot that I ever saw it whole, and so mostly remember getting to see it in parts in my old home. It's as if seeing the original did not make any impression on me. Except "It's a UNIX system! I know this!".

I kinda think that this may be related to how one watches films, and whether it's alone or with someone, and then also where and in which setting. When I see a particular film or documentary at home, then I take the time to watch it, and invest the necessary mental resources to think along.

Another interesting point is whether I've consumed any similar [visual] content on the same day: Of the two movies I might have seen in a day, which one of these will I remember seeing? Will I remember one or the other, or the one I saw later?

How would I have spiced up Star Trek: Voyager

I would have wanted Kim to be kicked out (there were many opportunities), for Kes to stay, and then become the most awesome BFFs with Seven of Nine.

Ronald D. Moore should not have been induced to leave Voyager.

If I had the wisdom that I lacked when I was younger, which was during the show's run — and if I were something like an exec or executive consultant like Gene Roddenberry was — I would in addition have spiced the show up this way:

• Neelix should have by accident succumbed to his own food;
• Chakotay should have left (=died in an accident, or kidnapped, or joined his genetic ancestors);
• Janeway would have become more and more homesick and then deranged, at which point the crew would remove her from command. Tuvok would then have made an awesome acting captain and make good decisions on advice from Kes and other crew.

But that would have made him the second black captain, since Sisko was already captain on Deep Space Nine. This arrangement would maybe have looked superfluous back then, but perhaps in the longer run this would have made a positive effect towards 2014 and 2015. (OTOH, there was an African-American President in the "Deep Impact" feature, and another one played by Dennis Haysbert in "24".)

And since this was the first Trek show with a female captain, it was bound to end in success.

I think Kes, in turn, would have eventually become a non-commissioned officer of Starfleet and an accomplished doctor and scientist. Maybe eventually captain of USS Voyager by the end of the show.

Yea, I really have a soft spot for Kes and Jennifer Lien.

And so, because of the absence of Kim and Chakotay, I would have introduced the first regular gay character on Star Trek and had the first gay kiss happen there to make tv history again, and pre-empt Dawson's Creek.

Sisko and Eddington, Federation and the Maquis. Cardassians and Bajorans.

In response to this comment on YouTube.

The thing Sisko must have been worried about, is this: The predecessors of the Maquis — then the citizens of the Federation — had near the Federation-Cardassian border reasonably successfully colonised several worlds lush with vegetation, and as it happened, the Federation conceded exactly those planets to the Cardassians, who had just left Bajor, which they had occupied and which liberated itself.

Cardassia, on the other hand, had a very flimsy civilian economy, and people there were starving (never mind the military), which fact the clip alludes to, along with one other episode on TNG.

So, having made the just-liberated and ostensibly still a resource-rich Bajor a protectorate, the Federation in return conceded those colony worlds to the Cardassian Union, in order to ensure that Cardassia would not attempt invading Bajor again. (Well, the discovery of the Bajoran wormhole made things quite a bit more complicated.)

The colonists, in turn, were not properly informed about this, and they felt that the rug had been pulled out from under them, which they protested against on the basis of having had a justified expectation that they could keep these colonies to themselves indefinitely. I guess the borderspace colonies were initially allowed to form in order to keep a presence near the Federation-Cardassian border, and avoid the Cardassian Union from attempting to grab uninhabited Federation space.

(I have a feeling that this is what the Federation and the Cardassia Union had had a war over. The externality of that war was, that eventually it became untenable for Cardassia to maintain their occupation of Bajor.

I know there was a peace agreement between both the Federation and the Cardassian Union, but I kinda think Cardassia was on the losing side (note how O'Brien complains about inferior technology on DS9, so this must have been a factor).

There's more: Memory Alpha has it that there was a long-standing and expensive skirmish between Cardassians and the Klingon Empire.

The peace agreement was then just a way to make sure that Cardassia does not completely lose face, or lose the conflict with the Klingons, and that the Federation won't look too belligerent.

But then Bajor happened, and this completely changed the political picture, which meant that some of the Federation borderspace planets had to be transferred to Cardassia, which ceded Bajor.)

The colonists should have seen the writing on the wall.

The colonists should have known that they were positioned at the edge of Federation space next to a belligerent force, despite what at best was a tenuous peace treaty.

Therefore, in order to keep Bajor more or less secure, conceding the colony worlds was just the lesser evil of pragmatism.

In that view, along with aid programmes to ostensibly feed the Cardassians, the Federation must have had humanitarian concerns, which in all actuality was just appeasement, and Eddington saw that through. (Note that even food replicators can be repurposed.) The Federation, though, could not afford another war, now that the Borg threat was looming.

Eddington and the Maquis could not understand this bigger picture, and that in turn made them very stubborn and difficult for the Federation to deal with.

Seksikatest ürgmeestest

Reaktsioon Delfi naisteka üllitisele:
Salakirg: olin armunud seksikasse ürgmehesse, keda tegelikkuses justkui olemas polnudki

Ilmselt oli selleks ajaks mehel kellegagi juba suhe olemas, ning ma arvan, et see mees oli leidnud endale naise, kes mitte ainult ei taha teda, vaid kes on talle emotsionaalselt piisavalt avatud, ning kes tegelikult ka hoolib temast. Sellest veidi allpool.

Tsitaat:
"Ta oli tõeline naistemees: enesekindel, ilus, tundeline, mehiselt egoistlik, materiaalselt kindlustatud — ta oli mees, kes ei jookse naise järel, vaid kelle järel joostakse, kelle tähelepanu püütakse [...]"

Esiteks pole niisuguse kirjeldusega mehed alati naistemehed, aga see pole ka loo point. Küll leidub palju naisi, kes annavadki sellisele mehele "tõelise naistemehe" sildi külge, sest "kõik teised naised ju tahavad teda." Naistemees tähendab pigem sarnaste omadustega meest, kes jahib ja vahetab naisi, ja seda palju.

Teiseks teavad artiklis kirjeldatud mehed, millised nad on ja võib oletada, et nad teavad ka väga täpselt, mida nad tahavad.

Niivõrd korralikul mehel on valik suur, ning suhtlusportaal võimaldab tal välja filtreerida just sellise nagu ta tahab. See, kes vastab esialgsetele tingimustele, saab suhtlussoovi, mille kaudu hakatakse täpsemalt uurima, millise naisega tegu on.

Kuna seesuguste "seksikate ürgmeeste" järele on naisi loogu nagu viljapäid, siis suurel osal sellistest naistest on ka väga ja väga kõrged nõudmised, ning paljude meeste kartus on pigem see, et välisest hiilgusest hoolimata ei suuda nad sedasorti naiste nõudmistele vastata, sest nad ei tea, millised nõudmised säärastel naistel veel võivad olla. Niskste naiste "armastus" on emotsionaalselt liiga nõudlik: need naised tahavad ja sisimas lausa nõuavad, et neid armastataks.

Tihtipeale võib suhtes tulla kriis kohe kui mees ei ole täpselt selline, mida sihandsed naisolevused tahavad.

Asi on vist selles, et mees otsis endale naist, kes oleks temaga intellektuaalselt samal tasandil. Kõikide maailma asjade arutamise järel sai talle selgeks, et sa päris siiski ei sobi talle, kuna artikli kirjutajal on maailmast juba kindel ettekujutus ja ta pole emotsionaalselt nii avatud kui mehele vaja. 'Emotsionaalse avatuse' all ei mõtle ma muuseas mingisuguseid tundepuhanguid ja pisaraid. Armastust otsides otsitakse ka hingesugulust.

Das weiße Band redux

There has been continual discussion about the film, and there's a scene where the relatively young schoolteacher (who is also the narrator) shows his interest in the young governant Eva, who was just fired from her job by the Baroness. So the 17-year-old young woman went to the schoolteacher's place, because she had nowhere else to go; and to stay there just overnight in order to leave for home the next morning.

Both the schoolteacher and Eva are very fond of one another, so he proposes that they go into the woods to have a picnic, which idea Eva fearfully repels.

In some discussions, it was suggested that Eva probably knew that there were children in the woods, and that they were trouble.

Eva's fears

It was indeed because the children were in the woods, and this is what Eva was afraid of. The narrator also observes that while after school the little kids dispersed to their homes, the elder students went into the woods right after school.

Eva knew about the children in the woods, the Baroness knew somehow or at least suspected, and so did the Pastor; each in their own way.

That is why the Baroness had gone at first on a vacation, and then to maintain a longer stay in Italy, because it was really her escape from the village. She ony returned briefly to check if anything had changed. As the life of her son was threatened, she had no other choice than to leave in order to protect herself and her children.

The Baroness had Eva fired not because of any pretense, but because she knew that Eva was in danger, and firing Eva would force Eva to leave the village. The fact that a girl from outside the village was hired to look after the Baroness's two babies, meant that the Baroness did not have any trust in the many young women native to the village.

Maybe Eva's fate was of little consequence to the Baroness, but she didn't seem to need Eva's babysitting services anymore, because she might have thought it safer to look after the babies herself.

The Doctor, the Midwife, and their illegitimate child

Someone has the Doctor and the Midwife's illegitimate child's eyes destroyed. I think that the midwife was next, and this was just a preparation for things to come, so that the small child couldn't witness who would hurt the midwife. Note that the small child indicates high fear just as the doctor prepares to leave.

There is another version, whereby the Midwife willfully hurts her own child once sired by the Doctor whom she loved, but who emotionally very hurtfully rejected her. The child was the symbol of their love, and the Midwife was intent on hurting the child as a form of revenge. We see her coming out of the forest, and we see later how afraid the child is of being left with only his mother.

It's duly possible that the Midwife left the child in the forest, perhaps thinking that it might only scare the child and the Doctor. But as the child is found damaged, then I came to a thought that he was found by the youth in the forest. The reason the child's eyes are destroyed is that he inadvertently became a witness to the kids in the forest, and his seeing the children was to be avoided.

Another version is that the Midwife hurt her child, and left him in the forest — presumably to die, because the child no longer served the purpose of tying the Doctor to the Midwife. Unfortunately for the Midwife, the child is found by kids in the forest, and returned to the mother, of whom the child is really afraid of to everyone present. The very next day, the Doctor leaves early, taking the child, and the Midwife is left alone.

Because it was the youth who the other night found the child in a poor state, the Midwife commandeers the bicycle from the Teacher, having promptly realized that the kids are soon going to take their revenge on her. That attempt eventually transpires in a scene where a bunch of kids are looking for the child around the Midwife's house, which is really a ruse to [i]get[/i] at the Midwife herself.

Now, the Doctor realizes that the mother of his child has been far too reckless with the child, so it's safe to assume that the Doctor left early next morning, took the child, and also because the child needed treatment in the city.

Whether the Midwife herself did anything or not, she realises that because her child was in the forest and was hurt, someone had to have been there, and it could only have been the children who were in the forest, given that most everyone knew that the older ones went there after hours. Since that someone, then, was also aware of this, she comes to a rather simple conclusion that she's next.

That the Doctor left the practice and the village in a hurry and with their child, is a sign for her to leave, too, given that the practice was closed, and if she still wants to ever see her child again. It's possible that she had the chore of closing her home.

If we suppose that the Midwife was reasonably innocent, then both the Doctor and the Midwife arranged for the Doctor to go with the child on a postal carriage. The Midwife was left behind only because there was no more space left in/on the carriage. Assuming that the postal carriage came by only once a day, the Midwife planned to ride on the next one. But then she discovers from some distance that the children roam around her house, by which time she concretely realizes who the culprits are, and that they are there after her. Desperate, she takes the bicycle away from the Teacher in order to escape.

At least from the Doctor's perspective, he finally takes ownership of his illegitimate offspring, and leaves. Since the Doctor didn't take the Midwife [i]with[/i] him (if we suppose there [i]was[/i] enough space in/on the carriage), then is a sign that he was looking to part ways with her, as she has shown herself to be very irresponsible with their child.

The Pastor and his children

The Pastor most likely knew what was going on with his children, but didn't know which of the elder children was responsible, so he forced the two of them to wear white ribbons; for if anything happened, his chilren and their whereabouts were easily identifiable. I think this happens after the Doctor falls down the horse.

After that, most dangerous events happen in the dark of the night, because the easily-identifiable white ribbon constricts the pastor's elder childrens' movements. I suppose the Pastor's child or cihldren still call the shots.

The Pastor even has his elder son tied to the bed on the pretense of his touching himself inapporpriately. I think that the son is in fact innocent, and his crying (as seen on the poster) is not because he got the white ribbon, but because he knows that his sister is the culprit, and he is innocent, and he is dismayed that he has been falsely accussed. Strangely enough, he ends up defending his older sister anyway.

The fact that the Pastor only has his son tied down at night, is his way of finding out the culpability of his daughter, which in short time emerges to be true; because her brother is tied down, and she isn't, while dark things happen. The daughter at some point realizes this, but cannot stop herself, because she has a posse to run.

The Pastor gave absolution to his daughter not because she deserved it, but because he was afraid of her, hence his momentary hesitation when performing a ritual on her at church near the end of the film. Killing the pastor's bird was simply a warning.