Sanctuary Discussion (Spoilers for the most recent episode)

[jckfan55]

Helen in Requiem

Spoiler:

I felt that we did learn a lot about Helen because she was losing control, since as Will said, she's one of the most measured and controlled person he knows. I think because of everything she's experienced in her long life, Helen fiercely protects her heart and controls her emotions. As the parasite impaired her limbic system, it impaired that emotional control and we saw the darker, more bitter aspects of her personality come out.

She can't continue to gloss over her strained relationship with Ashley, she's pushed to openly admit that she can't relate to her own daughter. She earlier laughed off Will's joke about dinner parties, but is then pushed to confess her feelings of isolation and loneliness concerning her difficulty in opening up to people. She lightly deflected Will's amazement about the amount of history she's lived through, but is then forced to fully confront her own mortality.

So I didn't see the parasite as taking over Helen, but more stripping her self-control and leaving behind all the turbulent emotions of a woman who has spent decades witnessing and experiencing the best and worst of humanity and herself. Rather like how the parasites didn't take over the merfolk, but stripped away their peaceful tendencies and left behind the aggressiveness they always had, since Helen did say they were quite capable of defending themselves, they were just able to control that violence.

I also think the main purpose of having two Helen/Will bonding episodes (Kush and Requiem) was because a major arc of the season was Will's acceptance into the Sanctuary. He was the outsider who had to fit in and hold his own, while Ashley, Henry and Bigfoot were established, contributing members of the team.

An opposing arc, in a way, was the fracturing of Helen and Ashley's relationship, which will mostly likely continue for at least a few episodes next season and will also hopefully be followed up by some Helen/Ashley bonding episodes.

I'm in agreement with you and well said too.

I'm up for episode discussions and I love captioning activities. I'll have to rely on others to post the pictures, though.

ETA:what a run of good posts, well thought out even if I don't entirely agree If you didn't get green from me it's likely due to the jello fridge being locked at the moment

[antoa]

For all you Sanctuary fanfic readers (and writers), a great way to pass the time during the hiatus is to go a re-read (or read for the first time) all the wonderful fic that is offered on http://sanctuaryfiction.net (or on fanfiction.net) and then nominate your favorites for the Sanctuary Fanfiction Awards!

Just send your nominations to [email protected].

More info can be found at http://sanctuaryfiction.net

[morjana]

Sanctuary - SciFi Magazine - TV in Focus:

http://forum.gateworld.net/showpost....&postcount=970

[kes]

I really want, or the ep I really want to see, is one just Ash And Magnus. Like Requiem. Not like the story but like with no more characters. Both stuck somewhere by themselfs.
And Maybe and Ash and Will story too

[Mousie]

I can see that it might have been hard for Ashley. She knows her mum has worked with a variety of people over the years, but it seems that other than the Five, they have all been fairly short term and insubstantial. Helen makes it clear that Will is the first one she really had hope of being able to work the job properly and possibly take over from her, she also made it clear that she has been keeping an eye on him from an early age.

It might have been difficult for Ashley to have this wonder kid come in and have Helen's attention diverted.

On another subject I recently rewatched the webisodes for comparison. I do miss the pray tell, and allowence lines that didn't make it into the tv episodes but over all it is much improved over the webisodes.

Amanda, having had longer to get into the character and refine it, is much smoother and the lines are much improved. Watching the webisodes after the series, the original Helen comes across to me as quite smug, which doesn't show in the tv eps. The same with Emilie, you can see she is more comfortable with Ashley, her delivery is far more natural.

[Tracy Jane]

Thing is, I very much liked Helen's arrogance. The fact that she wasn't instantly likeable appealed to me. Conversely, I didn't like Ashley's brashness in the webisodes.

[kes]

Yeh, Helen' attitude in the webis was better. Snobbish, more to do with the posture and accent. More in your face.
And Ash was more: " I can handle it!" I like her better in the eps, but she's a bit watered down. her reaction to whom her father is was much better in the webis. I hope now that she's evil LOL that she'll be thougher.
Plus we had more info in the webis.

[Skydiver]

helen has been softened up a bit on TV, which really doesn't bug me, but i do like how ashley was toned down.

in the webbies, i felt that she was a bit OTT at times. a bit too hard, a bit too forceful.

she's a bit more vulnerable in the TV version and i find it more pleasing to me.

a lot of times when they try to write and film a woman being all forceful and tough they can go too far and she's just a bit comical - as in a comic character, not real

I do kinda like how helen is more comedic at times, more loose and sarcastic. WebbyHelen was a bit stiff (which i think is amanda finding her way into the character, and by the time we got to the TV version, she was more comfortable and chilled out)

[JenniferJF]

helen has been softened up a bit on TV, which really doesn't bug me, but i do like how ashley was toned down.

in the webbies, i felt that she was a bit OTT at times. a bit too hard, a bit too forceful.

she's a bit more vulnerable in the TV version and i find it more pleasing to me.

a lot of times when they try to write and film a woman being all forceful and tough they can go too far and she's just a bit comical - as in a comic character, not real

I do kinda like how helen is more comedic at times, more loose and sarcastic. WebbyHelen was a bit stiff (which i think is amanda finding her way into the character, and by the time we got to the TV version, she was more comfortable and chilled out)

A friend recently commented that it's always jarring to go back and watch the first few episodes of a long-running series as the characters are often so very different from the way they end up and it would be nice if they could refilm the beginning of S1's after they'd filmed the ending's to prevent that phenomenon, after everyone had 'found' the characters. In a way, they got to do just that with Sanctuary... And I do think it's better for it. Personally, I find the central core of the characters hasn't changed to much, but the portrayals have become more subtle. Helen is still, at least for me, not completely initially likeable, but it's less something you can easily point a stick at as 'snobbish' and more, as she rather cleverly points out to Will in answering a question he didn't really ask about her being 'cold': "Some people find me so" (to paraphrase).

Which is a refinement in character, I think, more than a change...

EDIT: Woo... run on sentence much?

[kes]

helen has been softened up a bit on TV, which really doesn't bug me, but i do like how ashley was toned down.

in the webbies, i felt that she was a bit OTT at times. a bit too hard, a bit too forceful.

she's a bit more vulnerable in the TV version and i find it more pleasing to me.

a lot of times when they try to write and film a woman being all forceful and tough they can go too far and she's just a bit comical - as in a comic character, not real

True, but she needs a bit of that: "Dude, I can beat the crap out of you!" attitude back

I do kinda like how helen is more comedic at times, more loose and sarcastic. WebbyHelen was a bit stiff (which i think is amanda finding her way into the character, and by the time we got to the TV version, she was more comfortable and chilled out)

Again, I agree. Amanda is funny and its cool to see her be able to use that here. But still...LOL

[Skydiver]

true, you don't want to soften ash up so much that she's the perpetual 'damsel in distress', that being said you don't want her so tough and prickly that she's unlikeable

One thing that makes Helen interesting is her fluid morals. protect the abbys,but oh wait, i think they're too dangerous, so let's lock those up, but you can't lock them up, only i can. dont' experiment on them,but i can because my motives are better than yours.....etc

by and large, she's law unto herself

which makes her powerful, but also, potentially, incredibly flawed or open to being flawed or corrupted. which makes her interesting because you dont know precisely what she'll do

[kes]

That works for me LOL

[silly sally]

I think sometimes Will takes too much screen-time! Heck, until Revelations I almost thought he was the lead character and not Helen. In S2 I hope they focus more on Helen and her relationships with Tesla and John Druitt; also more Henry would be good!

[samcarterrules]

Okey Dokey, hands up who is having withdrawal symptoms.

*raises hand*

I was thinking we might do a few things to combat it, like revisit each episode with a light hearted review each week (and maybe the webisodes too), post screen caps from an episode for rounds of "Caption This", post links to great vids or fan fic. Anyone interested? If you are, should we do it in this thread or create a temporary one for use until Season 2 starts?

*raises both hands really high* hehe! I'm up for discussion and other stuff.

I'm loving the talk about the eps, I loved Requiem, I think it was a powerful ep quite claustrophobic if you know what I mean, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time b/c Helen was so unpredictable. But I have asking been myself while reading everyone's posts, did I like Requiem so much purely for its storyline or did I perhaps like it more b/c Amanda had said it was the bravest work she'd ever done, so in other words, was I as a big Amanda fan kinda biassed or swayed in my opinion before I'd even seen it?
I'm not saying that I would have hated it if Amanda hadn't said that b/c I loved the story regardless. It was just a thought. Does that makes sense?


Julia(samcarterrules)

[EH-T]

*raises both hands really high* hehe! I'm up for discussion and other stuff.

I'm loving the talk about the eps, I loved Requiem, I think it was a powerful ep quite claustrophobic if you know what I mean, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time b/c Helen was so unpredictable. But I have asking been myself while reading everyone's posts, did I like Requiem so much purely for its storyline or did I perhaps like it more b/c Amanda had said it was the bravest work she'd ever done, so in other words, was I as a big Amanda fan kinda biassed or swayed in my opinion before I'd even seen it?
I'm not saying that I would have hated it if Amanda hadn't said that b/c I loved the story regardless. It was just a thought. Does that makes sense?


Julia(samcarterrules)

Yes, it makes sense. We all come with our biases. One of my favourite threads on GW is the Team discussion thread. Pretty much everyone there admits, while they love the team, they are biased toward one character.

I likely would never have come to find Sanctuary () if it were not for Amanda. I really like the episodes that feature Helen or delve into her background. Is that because I like Amanda or because I like the character so much? Probably a bit of both.


By the way, on the topic of webisodes v. episodes, I don't find a big change in Helen but I do for Ashley. Much prefer Ashley in the tv version. I too miss certain lines (scone, the one about cutting off her allowance,etc).