Monthly Chat - January 2016!
Jan. 2nd, 2016 03:08 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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mi6_cafeHappy New Year! A new year brings in lots of new changes to the comm! Thank you to everyone who took the time to take part in the MI6 Café Survey – we have taken onboard all of your comments and will be releasing information about new comm events over the coming months! In the meanwhile, here is the monthly chat!
Anon commenting is on so you don’t need an account to join in the fun! If you are using anon comments, if you could put your name/handle in the subject line/body of the comments that would be fab (just so everyone knows who they are talking to!)
Weekly Recs
We’ve had many weekly recs over the past 6 months, so whilst we’re getting together the new reccing system, here are the weekly recs from the past 6 months! In the meantime, feel free to rec whatever you like this month!
MI6 Café Book + Film Club
Our next book for book club is From Russia, With Love, which you can find resources for in the links on the sidebar. The next Book Club to discuss this book will be held on the 16th of January, with the Book Club for the second half of the book held on the 30th.
Potential trigger warnings for From Russia, With Love include:
In film club will be watching You Only Live Twice on the 9th of January, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service on the 23rd. Please see the schedules for more information on times!
This month’s questions
1: For those who are familiar with the earlier Bond films, what’s one of the things that you enjoy most about Craig!canon as compared to classic Bond? Is there anything you miss from the Connery-to-Brosnan era?
2: What are your favorite headcanons about Q Branch?
3: Why DOES Bond destroy all his tech?
4: MI6 Squad guilty pleasures: What’s something that our favorite MI6 Squad members enjoy doing but wouldn’t want to tell anyone about? This could be a group secret (video game night?) or each individual’s down-low hobby.
Anon commenting is on so you don’t need an account to join in the fun! If you are using anon comments, if you could put your name/handle in the subject line/body of the comments that would be fab (just so everyone knows who they are talking to!)
Weekly Recs
We’ve had many weekly recs over the past 6 months, so whilst we’re getting together the new reccing system, here are the weekly recs from the past 6 months! In the meantime, feel free to rec whatever you like this month!
MI6 Café Book + Film Club
Our next book for book club is From Russia, With Love, which you can find resources for in the links on the sidebar. The next Book Club to discuss this book will be held on the 16th of January, with the Book Club for the second half of the book held on the 30th.
Potential trigger warnings for From Russia, With Love include:
- violence
- racism (specifically against Romani people, the g*psy slur is used multiple times)
In film club will be watching You Only Live Twice on the 9th of January, and On Her Majesty's Secret Service on the 23rd. Please see the schedules for more information on times!
This month’s questions
1: For those who are familiar with the earlier Bond films, what’s one of the things that you enjoy most about Craig!canon as compared to classic Bond? Is there anything you miss from the Connery-to-Brosnan era?
2: What are your favorite headcanons about Q Branch?
3: Why DOES Bond destroy all his tech?
4: MI6 Squad guilty pleasures: What’s something that our favorite MI6 Squad members enjoy doing but wouldn’t want to tell anyone about? This could be a group secret (video game night?) or each individual’s down-low hobby.
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no subject
Date: 2016-01-02 10:38 pm (UTC)For those who are familiar with the earlier Bond films, what’s one of the things that you enjoy most about Craig!canon as compared to classic Bond? Is there anything you miss from the Connery-to-Brosnan era?
Oh when I watched Cassino Royale I really missed the pure silliness from before, but some of Skyfall and all of Spectre are silly enough, I guess. I kind of miss the creepy vilains as well. Hmm from Craig's era I love Craig himself and the recent MI6's found family vibes <3
What are your favorite headcanons about Q Branch?
R being a badass older lady. Everyone loving Q and missing having him close. Moles being there because Q still tends to trust people.
Why DOES Bond destroy all his tech?
He doesn't care much about things. He doesn't even have many things, does he? Possessions and such. So they are instruments, a means, not an end. He treats his women like this too, sometimes, so.
MI6 Squad guilty pleasures: What’s something that our favorite MI6 Squad members enjoy doing but wouldn’t want to tell anyone about? This could be a group secret (video game night?) or each individual’s down-low hobby.
Q loves everything spy, the more absurd the better. He is even secretly working on a game that DOES NOT has Bond as protagonist. Eve has a strange taste in men/women and loves kinky sex so she never introduce anyone to the team. Tanner likes read and reread and rereread the 00's reports; some of them he knows by heart. M likes to meditate and he reads about mysticism all the time.
As a group, they love to prove new food. Every now and then they put themselves in some kind of risk to bring everyone some kind of too exotic/illegal treat.
(Castillon02)
Date: 2016-01-03 04:06 am (UTC)1. I expected people to say they missed the silliness since Craig's Bond has been a bit of a gritty reboot, but I didn't expect the villain answer! What would be your dream villain for the next film be like, in terms of creepy?
Also: YES, MI6 SQUAD 4 LYFE, DEFINITELY! I love found families, so the MI6 Scooby gang scenes in the recent film were A+ for me. (Random rec time: If you like found families, you might like the TV show Leverage!)
2. I'm always into badass old ladies helping Q run Q Branch! What made you think of that headcanon about the moles? I would think Q would be on top of them with all his cyber-background-checking and such!
3. Wow, that's a really good point and a great way of putting it, especially the way you tie it in with Bond's treatment of women. Do you think Bond treats himself as an instrument or disposable object as well? There's that iconic "blunt instrument" line from canon.
4. Haha, these are great! Especially the idea of Q working on a spy game. Would it be a parody or an action/adventure, or both?
Also: MI6 SQUAD FOODIE GANG OMG THAT IS AMAZING, especially when Bond is canonically such a food snob. Epicurean spies with loose morals and the ability to travel internationally without going through customs all the time--I love it!
-Castillon
no subject
Date: 2016-01-03 05:13 am (UTC)1: which is your favourite creepy villain?
3: I love this! it makes a lot of sense
Castillon02
Date: 2016-01-03 04:50 am (UTC)2: What are your favorite headcanons about Q Branch?
Q arranges blind/nameless tests of people's skills whenever he has to hire someone or MI6 is otherwise recruiting, and largely bases his decision on the results of those tests. As a result, his branch hires more women and POC than average and has the most skilled people possible, including his second-in-command, an older woman who's A+ at her job. Also, Q has leadership qualities as well as a genius intellect, and it's his ability to motivate people and his refusal to give up in a tough situation that earns him the most respect from the 00s and the other administrators in the MI6 office.
3: I really love dripepper's answer to this question, but my first thought was about managing expectations. If no one expects Bond to bring back his equipment, then it'll always be a pleasant surprise when he's able to. Also, maybe he kind of resents it when people act more pleased to see that his fancy gun has made it back in one piece than they are to see that he has, so sometimes the fancy gun might have an 'accident.'
4: MI6 Squad guilty pleasures:
Tanner: playing Wii golf and other Wii sports
Bond: keeping up with women's fashion, not just menswear--he'll read fashion articles and know about fashion innovations and what's hot and what's not on the red carpet
Eve: MMORPGs. She kicks ass. (Q especially can never know.)
M: Listens to metal music
Group guilty pleasure: Ganging up on MI5 by "testing their security" and whatever else they can get away with in order to establish their practical dominance in the national security hierarchy. (M rationalizes that it's good for building teamwork and morale, and he always has a butter-wouldn't-melt-in-his-mouth expression whenever the head of MI5 calls to complain.)
Re: Castillon02
Date: 2016-01-03 05:08 am (UTC)3: now that's not something I'd thought of before! and I bet, the more techie/expensive the equipment gets and the more attached Q is to his stuff, the more he loses...
4: M: Listens to metal music oh my GOD AMAZING (which M? either is hilarious)
Re: Castillon02
Date: 2016-01-03 07:26 am (UTC)Re: Castillon02
Date: 2016-01-03 08:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-03 05:53 am (UTC)I'm only familiar with the older movies because I watched the Craig ones first, and the Craig ones are by far my favourites, so tbh my answer to the first past of this question is EVERYTHING. In particular I like that we had Casino Royale as the first one, because there's so much character-establishing stuff in that story.
I think the only thing I really miss from the older ones is MI6 staying more in the background? it would be nice to have one CraigBond movie where M and/or MI6's judgement isn't called into question, even though it does give the characters more depth
2: What are your favourite headcanons about Q Branch?
Q is shite at running missions, which is part of the reason R is R - she's brilliant at it, and she needs a high security clearance to run 00 missions.
3: Why DOES Bond destroy all his tech?
sometimes it's out of spite - someone said something borderline rude about how he must bring the thing back, so he destroys the thing. sometimes it's s genuine accident - he did his best but it didn't work. sometimes it's because he doesn't really care - he's more valuable than the equipment, and he knows it
4: MI6 Squad guilty pleasures: What’s something that our favourite MI6 Squad members enjoy doing but wouldn’t want to tell anyone about? This could be a group secret (video game night?) or each individual’s down-low hobby.
Eve does so much, like, stress reducing yoga or something, because unlike M, she refuses to turn to cigarettes (or cigars) for stress relief. Q refuses to be guilty about any of his pleasures, so everyone knows that he hasn't listened to any new music since aproximately 2008 and that he plays scrabble against himself. tanner's only guilty pleasure is being an amazing father despite the job. if a few of them are stuck in the office way too late doing, like, shitty paperwork or something, the alcohol comes out
Castillon
Date: 2016-01-03 07:40 am (UTC)2) Always here for amazing-dad!Tanner headcanons, and I'm lolling forever at the MI6 Squad's drunk paperwork parties.
(Headcanon: M will let himself get drunk around Tanner and Eve, but not Bond or Q; Bond will let himself get drunk around Q and Eve and Tanner, but he's not comfortable getting sloshed around M; Eve hardly ever gets past the threshold of kinda tipsy, but when she does it's only around Q; Tanner usually doesn't drink too much, but when he wants to he can get drunk around everybody because he is the most loved person in MI6, though he feels most personally comfortable drinking with Bond; Q will have a drink with M if it's socially required and a drink or two with Tanner after hours but reserves anything heavier than that for Eve and Bond to handle--drunk engineering isn't pretty.)
Re: Castillon
Date: 2016-01-03 08:18 am (UTC)2: I AGREE WITH ALL OF THIS OMG
no subject
Date: 2016-01-15 11:59 pm (UTC)2. they're all uni or just graduated uni students. or around q's age. old vs new theme popping up again. one or two boffins play the whole: why do we need spies when we do all the work and then james basically is like: because you're too chickenshit to fire a goddamn pistol that's why.
3. because he hates happiness. in serious though, probably because he's thinking on his feet. he has all this cool shit but it's like in video games. you get that really cool ass item but you can only use it once before it disappears. james is basically that main character, found a shiny cool thing, uses it ,and it disappears/breaks after one use.
4. they all play poker once a month and drink, gossiping about the people of mi6 because fuck everyone else, the squad are the only people that get shit done.
no subject
Date: 2016-01-16 06:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-16 07:15 am (UTC)Also, eddie izzard on james bond: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwZbuF40T1M
Castillon02
Date: 2016-01-16 08:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-02 03:06 am (UTC)also, I read somewhere that they used to write the Q scenes after the rest of the story, so they could work out what gadgets he would need
Castillon02
Date: 2016-01-16 08:57 pm (UTC)What did you think about the gadgets we saw in Spectre?
Re: Castillon02
Date: 2016-01-17 05:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-01-16 03:23 pm (UTC)1: For those who are familiar with the earlier Bond films, what’s one of the things that you enjoy most about Craig!canon as compared to classic Bond? Is there anything you miss from the Connery-to-Brosnan era?
What I enjoy most about it is that a) it's more realistic and b) it makes me care about the character. In the earlier films I just had a different look on him; yes, he's great and shiny and sleek, but I didn't particularly care for his well-being or feelings. I feel like ever since Casino Royale, the character was much more fleshed out and therefore as real as he could get; his character developed and I love watching every bit of it.
Achem. Sorry, I got a bit enthusiastic.
2: What are your favorite headcanons about Q Branch?
I've always thought that they all track the agents's missions with great attention even when they don't participate (think about how everyone was staring at what Q was doing when Bond was about to be hit by the train in Skyfall and then went back to their workstations after they knew that he'd gone through). Also, I like to think that they've got their own projects on prototypes/gadgets that they've thought of and they probably go into use eventually.
3: Why DOES Bond destroy all his tech?
I feel like he thinks through every possible solution to a problem he currently has and just thinks, "You know what, a man's got do what he's got to do" and then does it, using whatever tools he's currently got - which is, unfortunately, mostly his tech.
4: MI6 Squad guilty pleasures: What’s something that our favorite MI6 Squad members enjoy doing but wouldn’t want to tell anyone about? This could be a group secret (video game night?) or each individual’s down-low hobby.
Moneypenny probably smokes, but hides it. It's been an ongoing thing since she was a field agent and she thought it'd be bad image.
Tanner collects action figures. I don't even know how that came to mind; he just seems like such a hero-worshipper.
Q likes making destructive tech - things that make too much noise and cause a fuss - but he doesn't admit it, because he knows that someone has to /not/ be hot-headed in there.
Mallory constantly makes excuses to get involved in any kind of fieldwork, because, come on. He's been an agent before; there's no way he doesn't miss it.
Castillon02
Date: 2016-01-16 09:11 pm (UTC)1) Yeah, I totally agree with you there. As someone who got into Bond via the Craig films and has only recently started watching the older ones through the MI6Cafe livestreams, I can't imagine Connery!Bond giving me all the ~feelings~ that Craig!Bond does. Shiny and sleek is a good description for the older Bonds.
2) Yeah, I think Q Branch members would definitely want to stay in the loop! Which is good for work purposes, but also leaves no room for error--Q's got to be 100 percent on, 100 percent of the time.
4) Tanner and action figures! Cute. And I'm laughing at the idea of Mallory wanting to go back into the field. I can picture him with his eye twitching in terrible bureaucratic meetings, like, "I have seen and done and endured things you can't even imagine, you paper-pushers!" but instead of saying that he just does one of his mild-mannered cutting remarks at whoever's pissing him off and gives himself another tick in the 'If you get 100 marks, you can go on a mission!' ledger.
Come to think of it, maybe that's why Dench!M keeps coming to Bond in the films. She's like "IS THIS AN EXCUSE TO GET OUT OF THE OFFICE? HOT DAMN SON SIGN ME UP."
Re: Castillon02
Date: 2016-01-16 09:41 pm (UTC)1. Same here. I started with Casino Royale and I've haphazardly watched some of the old movies (I have yet to catch a livestream, because I live in a ridiculous timezone), but they don't give me the same satisfaction. And when I read the books, I imagine him either like Craig's Bond or some guy who looks nothing like any of the Bonds we've had until now.
4. Mallory congratulating himself on putting up with the whole administration bunch is just too good an image. And you're probably right - Dench!M just showed up whenever, even on the Bahamas, if it meant that she could get a good look at the action.
Castillon02
Date: 2016-01-16 09:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-02-02 03:10 am (UTC)4) and of course Q likes blowing stuff up for fun
no subject
Date: 2016-01-25 05:43 pm (UTC)Better move, in my opinion.
They shouldn't have tossed out all the diamonds and KGB in everyone's business, though, those were fun.
Q Branch:
They do regular geek parties and reference them while working.
If it's a part of a plot to drive M nuts and lead to the Queen's heart stroke remains to be seen.
(But Q secretly wants to get to know Her Majesty's gamer side, too.)
Why DOES Bond destroy all his tech -
Well he says so, it's accidents.
In fact he just wants to test how much it can do, and the equipment doesn't suit his curiosity.
Secret hobbies I'm still thinking of quite heavily. Mostly because I don't want to work just with the movie canon, I just loove the thoughts of book-branches and across-the-canon-lulz.
Castillon
Date: 2016-01-28 06:49 am (UTC)I feel like the KGB would be a bit too retro for the Craig series? But the Russians are always so fun! (I really liked the whole English/Russian bit in the movie RED, the one where Helen Mirren had a Russian lover/counterspy subplot.)
The idea of Q Branch geek parties is super cute, and I definitely grinned at "But Q secretly wants to get to know Her Majesty's gamer side" hahaha.
I've enjoyed reading the book canon too, though I'm only up to "From Russia, With Love"--this week's book club book! Reading the Fleming books has definitely altered my interpretation of Bond a little bit (he's such a fusspot about some things, like his gourmet food!), though Craig is still my primary Bond influence. Have you read any of the non-Fleming books? If so, what did you think?
Looking forward to hearing your ideas about the secret hobbies!
-Castillon
Re: Castillon
Date: 2016-01-29 03:03 am (UTC)