A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend.

Willow ,'Conversations with Dead People'


Veronica Mars: Annoy, Tiny Blonde One. Annoy Like the Wind.

[NAFDA] Spoiler Policy: Seasons 1-3 and the movie are fair game. Spoiler font two weeks for new content presented all at once (e.g. Season 4 on Hulu is fair game as of Aug. 9, 2019). New content presented as weekly episodes may be discussed with no restrictions as it is released.


Nilly - Sep 25, 2005 8:46:35 am PDT #403 of 5730
Swouncing

Lily seemed like a typical high-school student, in a Cordelia kind of way, but in the flashbacks, Veronica came across as just this sweet, compliant good girl who would never cause trouble or do anything bad

Wouldn't a character as strong and going-my-way (sorry, can't phrase today) as Lily like a compliant friend, who would follow her in her adventures and not tell on her to the adults?

Also, on top of what Jars said, Veronica seems to have it both ways: the good girl who has enough strength to her to pull off hiding stuff from the grownups as well as not going all the way with her less-good friend. Having it both ways, perhaps, for the both of them?

So maybe I can get the 'technical' reasons for them getting along, I guess. Huh. It's just, I can't see any friendship between them, in any of the flashback scenes. With any other interaction with the people who were her circle in the past, I think I can see the depth of the relationship, but not in the flashbacks with Lily. Not the kind of deep connection that would generate such a fierce loyalty and such a determination to look for the truth. Maybe it's me.

Maybe it's because it's Veronica's way of clinging to her past, to the innocent girl she was before all that mess, when she had the wonderful boyfriend and the great social status and both her parents and much less to worry about and fight against than after the murder? So it's like Veronica's way of finding something to hold onto, to figure out, in a way in order to try to solve and figure out all those changes and problems? Not something inherent about their connection itself, but about what it represents to her now, her past life, the one she lost forever. And the loss started with Lily's death.

Or, still, it may be just me. [Edit: who also can't spell today, on top of the lack of phrasing-abilities.]


meara - Sep 25, 2005 8:58:44 am PDT #404 of 5730

I think you're all totally right (and eee! Nilly into Veronica Mars!!). In Lilly, Veronica had an exciting friend who would push her into fun/unsafe things she probably wouldn't do otherwise. In Veronica, Lilly had a friend who would do what she wanted and let her shine and lead and be fabulous, and who ALSO pissed off her mother. Perfect! And the fierce loyalty? Well, I figure at some point if she'd lived, Lilly probably would've fucked Veronica over, perhaps even without meaning to, and the friendship would've been done for. But she didn't get the chance, and Veronica maybe subconsciously trying to find the murderer as a hearkening back to more innocent/fun/happy times? Yeah, y'all put into words things I agree with but don't manage to say.

I'm so excited there's a VM thread here! Wheee! Of course, I fear I may never manage to keep up...


Gris - Sep 25, 2005 9:02:41 am PDT #405 of 5730
Hey. New board.

Her name is, oddly, spelled "Lilly." I... am not sure why I'm certain of that, but I am. And that's all I got today.


Nilly - Sep 25, 2005 9:38:43 am PDT #406 of 5730
Swouncing

meara! With even more exclamation points! I miss posting with you!

Her name is, oddly, spelled "Lilly."

Oy. I'll never be able to spell it correctly, then, I'm afraid. If I tried, I'm pretty sure I'd turn it to my own name, and her being a dead fictional character and all, I wouldn't want to go there. So I apologize in advance.


Polter-Cow - Sep 25, 2005 2:09:45 pm PDT #407 of 5730
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!

Nilly!! Oooooh.

Something bad happened to her, and then another and another, and not all of them seemed connected to each other, so it made it look as though some evil entity looked from above and targeted that poor girl for "more bad things happen here, please".

This is a complaint I've heard before. I wasn't too keen on the pilot for the first half because I kept getting jerked around by the exposition, but Lilly's murder piqued my interest, and then "You want to know how I lost my virginity? So would I" sealed the deal.

Veronica is dressed in a combination of pink and green, which in my eyes is not such a common obvious combination of colors.

Yeah, there're actually some really interesting LJ posts about the clothing on the show. Check out Veronica's wardrobe. And here's someone who noticed the same thing you did:

Veronica has always been covered in pink and green. They're her colors. We know this and associate them with her. She is able to retain her femininity with the pink but still embrace a gender neutral shade in green, a soothing color associated with growth, healing and safety. This corresponds well with Veronica's personal growth and rehabilitation from the emotional damages done to her in her past. And Veronica's office (the girl's bathroom)? Greens and blues.

Pretty interesting.

I'm so horrible with names - that computer-genius girl

Mac.

the blond 'good girl' (who is portrayed by an Israeli actress!)

Meg, played by Alona Tal, who is preeeeetty.

And I'm not even just talking about the sexual experience which some of the characters seem to present at tender ages of 16 and 17 (Lily was around 16 when she was murdered, not much more than that, right?), the nearly every-day way they treat being drunk (or even very drunk), drugged or dealing drugs. I know that I myself may appear in the dictionary near the definition of 'vanilla', and I really have no idea about 'kids today' in general or in any of the demographic the show tries to portray in particular, so it may totally be a 'me' thing.

From what I heard, this portrayal is actually pretty realistic. It's not a high school experience I was familiar with, but many others were.

It's the same with - grr, names again - that kid who at first was portrayed as the most annoying one at school and is getting more and more layers of depth as we go along.

Logan.

Oh, and one more thing. I have no idea regarding episodes names, but it was quite near the middle - the episode in which Veronica bugged the counselor's office and listened to the heartfelt confessions of her classmates?

"Clash of the Tritons."

On the whole, I like the show.

Yay! I liked your post. You made a lot of good points, although I don't really understand the self-confidence issue.

Her name is, oddly, spelled "Lilly." I... am not sure why I'm certain of that, but I am.

Because it's right.


Beverly - Sep 25, 2005 2:25:20 pm PDT #408 of 5730
Days shrink and grow cold, sunlight through leaves is my song. Winter is long.

EeeeeE! Nilly's critiquing teevee again! Whee! (waving)


Nilly - Sep 25, 2005 11:35:04 pm PDT #409 of 5730
Swouncing

t Waves back at Beverly

P-C, thanks for all the clarifications!

I don't really understand the self-confidence issue.

Let's see if I can try and explain myself better. Hmm.

In a way, many of the students look like they're already grown-up, like they have no more maturing to do, like they already know who they are and what's their place in life and what are their principles or lack thereof and how to carry themselves in good balance inside all that. They seem to have the confidence that comes with that - or, well, I guess, with a back of all that money and power. But still.

The new-kid-friend (I want to say Wallace, but there's another character that has a name with a 'W' at the beginning, I think, and did I mention how bad I am with names?), he's nearly the only one who looks like he's still trying to find his place, like he's not, oh, maybe, fully-baked, yet? Which is what being a teenager, on the road to growing up and discovering what you do well and where you can put your trust and how, seem to me to involve.

All these plots and schemes, for example, that many of these kids throw on each other. You have to be out of your own bubble and be able to read properly other people's actions and reactions and plan accordingly, in order to even think about trying to pull them off. The - again this word - confidence in which many of those high school students go about with these manipulations seem to me to be very mature.

I am trying to compare it in my head to, say, BtVS. Not just Willow or Xander who had their obvious issues, or Buffy who may map to Veronica, in the sense that their growth may be the central emotional point of the show, but even characters like Cordelia or Oz, who had confidence, knew their place or how to get it, and still had room to mature in it, to explore not only new other paths, but the person they'll end up being if continuing on this path - they didn't turn into that person yet.

[Edit: ot, for example, the characters from "Wonderfalls", who were supposed to be something like 6-7 years older than Veronica's class mates, and still, in a way, to my eyes, they seemed younger. Jaye didn't lack confidence, so maybe that's not the word that I'm looking for? And she very much didn't know yet what exactly will be her place in the world, so maybe she's not a good example. Oy. I've only managed to confuse myself even more.]

With more than one character on "Veronica Mars" - not the main ones, of course - I get the feeling that they've already finished maturing. Not just in the "one dimensional" sense of them being mostly guest characters and therefore not explored deeply, which is a natural part of their being guests and less center.

[Edit: oh, and another thing. They don't seem to be interested in any sort of thing that any teenager I know found interesting. Their parties could be those of people ten years older, easily, with the amount of drinking and drugs and sex, and they have no aspect to make them look like anything that has anything to do with younger people. It's not the interest or fascination with the grown-up stuff that I'm talking about, because that's pretty much a characteristic of not being a grown-up yet. It's like it doesn't even interest them anymore, like it's already such a natural part of their lives, there's nothing to be expected later. Will they behave any differently when going to college? When having a job?]

I'm not finding a good way to explain myself. It, of course, may be just me so completely detached from these sorts of highschool and growing-up experiences that I try to explain to myself something that I don't understand through stuff that I think I do, and miss the target completely.


Nicklas - Sep 26, 2005 3:02:21 am PDT #410 of 5730
"Either it's murder, or this library has a very strict overdue policy."

Nilly: I understand exactly what you mean. I'm not gosh-wow-best-thing-right-now about the show, but I do like several of the characters a great deal.

That their partying is much more "mature" than it should be is something I have know idea about -- does that kind of partying even exist in real life?


Polter-Cow - Sep 26, 2005 3:04:07 am PDT #411 of 5730
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!

The new-kid-friend (I want to say Wallace, but there's another character that has a name with a 'W' at the beginning, I think, and did I mention how bad I am with names?)

Heh. Yeah, that's Wallace. The other one is Weevil.

I get what you're saying about the confidence, I think, but I don't see it. Maybe I'm just used to the TV-type high school characters. And I think it might also be due to the culture, like you said. The rich kid mentality.


Jars - Sep 26, 2005 3:16:30 am PDT #412 of 5730

The confident-rich-kid-party-lifestyle never struck me as being over the top, or unbelievable. They're sixteen year olds with lots of money, no parental supervision, and horrible adult role-models. Them not partying would strike me as more unbelievable. The thing I always felt was a bit surreal was Weevil and his thuggish bike gang. Again, it could just be a cultural reference point thing.