Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire

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INDEXING: REFLECTIONS episode #1, "Forbidden Doors."

The first episode of Indexing: Reflections is available now! This is your talkpost and discussion zone. There will be spoilers in the comments here. As always on talkposts, I have partial comment amnesty, and will not be responding to everything.

"Forbidden Doors" was a fun episode to write. It's sort of our season premiere, and I framed it like an episode of Law & Order: SVU involving internal affairs. Ciara Bloomfield is manifest story adjacent; in her original tale, she would never even have gotten a name. I appreciate that. With all these princesses running around, it can be easy to forget just how big the fairy tale world is.

It never forgets.

Game on!
Tags: discussion post, indexing
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  • 53 comments
I really like Ciara - she seems sensible and the right kind of clever. I hope we see more of her!
Seconded, I do wonder if she'll pop up again or not.

seanan_mcguire

1 year ago

I blew through this first episode last night! I have to say that when I hit the end I was very sad. I can't wait for the next episode! (TWO WHOLE WEEEKS! At least it's not a month/comic style). I like Ciara and her story just feels ominous to me. She's lovely and seems like her relationship with her Bluebeard is under control. Which in Seanan's world usually means it's all going to heck in a handbasket at some point. I can't wait!
Agreed. Though I'm hoping that if she gets into some sort of trouble, the fact that she didn't "open the door" as it were means the team will be able to save her in a bit of poetic justice.

Still, I worry that she may not make it to the end of the tale.

seanan_mcguire

1 year ago

gement

August 11 2015, 16:53:26 UTC 1 year ago Edited:  August 11 2015, 17:03:42 UTC

I'm pondering rag-tag bunches of misfits.

- Brementown Musicians (type 130) - Group of animals standing on each others' shoulders impersonate a loud and terrifying human to scare off criminals.

- The Six Servants (type 513A) - one can lift anything, one can swallow the sea, etc., and they each cross an individual challenge to meet the objective.

These are just the ones that spring to mind from my own childhood. Anyone have others to add to the list?

My source for codes since I don't own the tome:
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimmtales.html
(Edit: Yes, Wikipedia has the list too, but didn't help me match up the names I remembered.)

--

On a completely different note, I would be SO TERRIBLE at keeping a Bluebeard in abeyance. I want to know if the Agency has tested having a third party X-ray the forbidden garage without telling the wife. Does that trigger the bad ending, or can they arrest the bastard without involving her?

(I do not expect any answer on this topic as it is clearly a subject for current possible plot tension. I just want the damn X-ray results. I would so die in that story.)

lilisonna

August 11 2015, 17:11:50 UTC 1 year ago Edited:  August 11 2015, 17:12:11 UTC

If I were the Agency, I'd have swapped out the key for one that didn't work. Ciara may be great at not peeking, but why take chances?

Also, I apparently have a thing for subverted Bluebeard stories. Ciara's and Ursula Vernon's short story both make me super-happy.

deor

1 year ago

gement

1 year ago

bree_ramsey314

1 year ago

gement

1 year ago

deor

1 year ago

skelody

1 year ago

fooliv

1 year ago

skelody

1 year ago

jenfullmoon

1 year ago

I like Ciara too; I doubt her story is anywhere near as under control as she makes it seem, but then whose is? That's an area where Indexing is very much an analogy of real life; our life is our story, and we may think everything is under control, but life has a tendency to rise up and slap that notion right out of us. In the opening scene it mentions that this is Ciara's 'first day;' clearly this isn't referring to her first day with the ATI Management Bureau, so I'm assuming it means she isn't there just to review Henry's team, but monitor them as well.

I am a little suspicious though. Ciara's situation is very similar to Henry's, in fact one could argue that it's worse. She's a Bluebeard's Wife married to and living with her Bluebeard, which to me would be like Henry living with a prince. One would think under those circumstances she would be the last person assigned to review Henry's team, because she could be sympathetic to her -- the very thing they seem to be worried about in Henry's case. Is this a setup, or is there someone upstairs who wants a sympathetic person supporting the team?

I absolutely loved how Henry responded to the question about why she chose to go by a male name, and especially whether she experienced emotional distress over being called by a boy's name. "No, why would I?" For her it meant nothing, but for Gerald that one small victory, and especially that display of support, meant the world. I wish I had a sibling like that.

Thank you, Seanan, for your wonderful talent and imagination, and thank you for portraying the transgender as what we are, people who just want to live our lives and be happy. It's not something one sees often in mainstream media, and we do appreciate it.
Ooooh, all of these are very good points! I'm wondering too.

Something that I was thinking about while reading this: how fairy tale can one choose to be? For example, Henry can't choose her looks, but she can choose to dress like an MIB rather than wear a stereotypical dress. How much flexibility is there? Ciara can dye her hair (and why does Bluebeard's wife have blue hair, anyway? Tried Googling for that and got nothing) but can't resist the pirate shirt. Sloane can sometimes choose to not poison drinks....

anne_d

1 year ago

bree_ramsey314

1 year ago

anne_d

1 year ago

anne_d

1 year ago

bree_ramsey314

1 year ago

jenfullmoon

1 year ago

bree_ramsey314

1 year ago

seanan_mcguire

1 year ago

I get a giggle when Kindle tells me it should take 30 minutes to read; I spend far too much time jumping to wiki to look up fairytales I'm not familiar with to finish that fast :)
I am squeeing like a lesser goldfinch with a feeder full of thistle seeds. It's good to see the team again, and I'm also curious as to how Ciara Bloomfield will fit into the story.

I'm very taken with the way your characters work around their fairy tales - Ciara seems to be walking a very thin line with her Bluebeard, but it works for them. I wonder how long that'll last.
I am so glad!
Does anyone, other than me, think the title might foretell the appearance of a Magic Mirror? They were mentioned in the first book, in a manner which suggested they were exceptionally rare (perhaps even unheard of) and not to be trifled with.
I would concur with you on this.
I enjoyed this immensely. And I, like many others, am hoping for more of Ciara and her story. She intrigues me.

Yay Indexing!
YAY CORN KITTY
Only for you, Seanan, and for Indexing, I willingly suffered Kindle's frustrating user interfaces!

Not usually a super visual person, but now imagining it filmed up like a TV show as you analogize... hm!

Ever since Pratchett the idea of mirrors, fairy tales, and magic becomes a confluent association of ohnowhatnow for me....
Thank you Seanan! I have a horrific summer cold, and the first episode was just the thing to cheer me up (for the few minutes I'm actually awake and not drugged.)

I like the idea of Ciara's story in happy abeyance-- I've kind of wondered what happens to people who get the narrative's HEA. What was it like for Beauties and Beasts (back before the narrative evolved in a more dangerous direction)? Was it just like the narrative played matchmaker, and that was the end of it? There must have been more to it... Although of course most genuinely happy endings would be outside of Henry et al's job description.

Can't wait for the the next chapter!
Gawd, think of all the various versions of beasts you could end up with.

seanan_mcguire

1 year ago

YAAAAAY Indexing season 2! Devoured the first chapter on the bus to and from work, and a few days later, spent a delightful half-hour discussing season one with two friends while we were stuck in traffic, while trying not to spoil the one who hadn't read the first chapter of Season 2 yet... :-) Thank you for the wonderful treat and the more treats (and tricks, and hair-ripping cliffhangers) to come!
Glee. :)
I'm thinking that both Ciara and her husband are Bluebeards. Perhaps the key around her neck is to HER garage/attic.
Interesting!
Yeah!!! Let the story begin and lets see it trough until the end.
Yaaaay.