#how effectively the metaphors were used/how well done this arc for willow was done/how it reflects on queerness etc is another thing

[annyankers]

I’m once again irrationally mad about how people complain about the magic metaphors in buffy work (the whole dark magic=addiction, wicca = gay shit thing).

Like I cannot express how frustrating it is to see people bitching about how things like Dark Willow “don’t make sense” because “magic/Wicca was a originally metaphor for queerness“ or whatever as tho the first two major episodes in the series where magic was used (1x3 “Witch” and 2x8 “Dark Ages” ) weren’t all about the dark/inappropriate/destructive/abusive use of magic.

People loooooooveeeeee Giles’ past as Ripper and delight over things like “Band Candy” where we see him go Full Ripper but cannot for the life of them seem to remember that we first even LEARNED ABOUT THAT PART OF HIM IN DARK AGES WHERE HE TALKED ABOUT BASICALLY MAGICALLY PARTYING SO HARD HIS FRIEND DIED. THIS IS OUR FIRST MAJOR CHARACTER EPISODE THAT’S GOT MAGIC AS A MAIN FOCAL ELEMENT! THIS IS THE ORIGINAL METAPHOR!

The queerness is still kinda baked in there because of the Ethan Of It All but it’s first and foremost a metaphor about like, all the shit that classically leads to substance abuse and the worst outcomes that can come from it. Willow and Tara are an example of the “good” side of magic ( I’ll say Jenny is also in this section but they do so fucking little w/ her technopagan-ness so). They’re also pretty explicitly said to be “Wiccans” which I also have some issues with because of how Wicca is portrayed/talked about in the show (the Silver RavenWolf energy of it all is so galling). But like, that’s literally a whole fucking different subsection/practice of witchcraft/magic. This is like getting mad at water polo for muddling the metaphor of jet skiing. Like yes, they both are water sports but I think you’ll that they’re not the same fucking one and work completely differently.

Magic is not just 1 set of spells and rituals, it’s a multifaceted, multilayered, multi-pathed thing. With Giles we see how it can go Very Wrong and with Willow and Tara in S4-5 we see how it can go Very Right (and how it can be used to help get the Gay in the show around the Fox Censors). Willow increasingly having issues with magic/substance abuse is NOT a mixed metaphor/bad writing/ruining the gay metaphor and implying gays are bad. It’s USING THE OTHER ALREADY ESTABLISHED MAGIC METAPHOR AS PART OF HER CHARACTER ARC. WILLOW CAN BE QUEER AND ALSO HAVE A SUBSTANCE ABUSE ISSUE! GILES ARGUABLY DID IT FIRST ANYWAY (again, the Ethan Of It All)!

Willow has ALWAYS been insecure, a lil bit of a control freak, someone who wants to be HER REAL SELF and also someone TOTALLY DIFFERENT. Like she wants to be Willow but only if it’s a Willow who’s better/cooler/stronger/prettier etc. Someone who’s not the “pathetic loser” she still sees herself as even in season 6 and hasn’t totally shaken in season 7. These desires both to feel more In Control/Better and Not Yourself are classic reasons people will turn to substance abuse. For Willow is it MUCH easier to do a wizard spell to “fix” a problem than it is to like, fucking confront her issues of self-loathing and self-worth and like.... go to therapy. And that’s what gets her in trouble just like it has for so many others before her. Like in many ways Dark/Addict Willow is like seeing Giles’ Ripper Era live and on screen plus maybe a lil bit on steroids.

Magic can be used as part of more than 1 metaphor and the substance abuse metaphor came first. Stop pretending like it never existed in the show until season 6.

[ettadunham]

A Buffy rewatch 6x19 Seeing Red

aka dick move joss

Welcome to this dailyish (weekly? bi-weekly?) text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and go on an impromptu rant about it for an hour. Is it about one hyperspecific thing or twenty observations? 10 or 3k words? You don’t know! I don’t know!!! In this house we don’t know things.

And after today’s episode, who’s ready to get drunk and do some math? *points to self* It me. I’m drunk.

Seeing Red has not one, but TWO of the show’s most controversial scenes in the entire series, so that’s a distinction I guess. One that I should probably be talking about, but… you know. Turns out that when you drink the rest of your apple liquor in one sitting, your ability to form critical thought exponentially deteriorates with each and every second.

But math? Math is easy. You can do math drunk while walking on your hands. So let’s do math.

So, did you guys know that Amber Benson appeared in the most Buffy episodes per season while not being in the credits? It’s true. I made a very detailed excel sheet.

(Yes, these are all the actors who appeared at least 14 episodes of the show. I didn’t really need to include all of them to prove my point, but I did it anyway.)

Those purple highlights you see? Those are for actors who appeared at least 70% of the episodes while not being part of the main cast in a season. Apart from a few special cases where someone has been promoted to the main cast during a season (like Michelle Trachtenberg after one episode in season 5 or Marc Blucas following the first 10 episodes of season 4), the only ones this applies for is Kristine Sutherland and Amber Benson. And the latter’s 18 appearance during season 5 (aka 82% of the season) is our biggest outlier among those even.

Now, to be fair, actors who are part of the main cast never actually go below 83% in their own respective season appearances on Buffy (see the blue highlights that show the two instances that goes below 90% even), but like… Appearing in 16-18 episodes of at least two 22-episode seasons in a major capacity is still a fucking lot by any TV standards.

So the fact that neither of these actors have been promoted to regular status during their run is kind of weird. Maybe Joyce was often forced into the background, but Kristine Sutherland was a huge presence in season 5 in particular. Up until Joyce’s death in The Body, she appeared in all episodes, and had a cameo later in The Weight of the World. She should’ve been in the credits for that period, imo.

Similarly, if you look at other characters who occupied a comparable role to Tara – so, basically characters who were introduced as love interests to one of the Scoobies –, each and every one of them have been promoted to the main cast by their 3rd year at the very least. And Emma Caulfield, who was one of those third year joiners, only appeared in 5 episodes in her first season. Seth Green, who with his 10/22 appearance is much closer to Amber Benson’s 12/22 in their respective debut seasons, was part of the credits by his second year on the show.

In conclusion what I’m saying is that fuck you Joss for pulling that opening credits shit on us. No. This should’ve happened two seasons ago, and now you’re using it to play on the audience’s attachment to this character, dangling that promise of having more of her on the show just to take it away.

Not cool, my dude. So very not cool.

In other bad news, making that excel sheet sobered me up a bit (damn you, math), and now I’m just kinda tired and sad. It’s starting to dawn on me that this is the last I’ll see of Tara during this rewatch.

Maybe I should just start over from Hush? There’s an idea…

There’s also a reason why this episode is cited as such an egregious example of the Bury Your Gays trope even after almost two decades. With the show having been limited on what they can show of Willow and Tara’s relationship early on, the inclusion of the many sexual moments in this episode especially jumps out. Having that precede Tara’s death somehow manages to maximize the negative impact of it even more, reinforcing pre-existing harmful associations in the audience.

But then again, would it have been better to not have these moments at all? I don’t know the answer to that.

In any case, when I talked about character deaths earlier on this show, I mentioned that there are two criteria that I judge those: story impact and social impact. Meaning on one hand, that when you kill off a character, you want that to have a meaningful impact on your story and characters. It needs to have a purpose and long-lasting effects for it to satisfy your audience’s emotional needs. And on the other hand, there’s also the bigger media and societal landscape to consider. Especially when you’re killing off a character, who’s already part of an underrepresented group.

I think I probably already alluded to how I consider Tara’s death to be well-executed story-wise, despite being extremely poorly done in the latter regard. There are arguments to be made of course about how maybe the show could’ve killed a different character to achieve the same effect in the story, etc. – but I find the following arc captivating as it is regardless.

Then again, I also love Tara, and definitely wouldn’t have complained if the show just randomly brought her back from the death, story be damned. Unbury your gays, you cowards.

I guess I’ll also need to touch on the other controversial scene in the episode, huh? Well, I don’t want to.

But fine.

Hot take, but I just don’t connect to Spike. Not during this rewatch. And looking back at my feelings on it, I think that part of that is the very association that’s textualized here.

See, vampires are giant rape metaphors. Well, they can be metaphors for a lot of things, this is Buffy after all, but that’s definitely a big part of them. And the show’s been playing up this aspect with Spike in the past – usually it’s just been done for comedy.

Think about his scenes with Willow in Lovers Walk or The Initiative. The latter is especially chilling with the way he attacks Willow on her bed and turns up the music, right before we cut to black… and then we find out that Spike’s “impotent” and can’t bite her, and suddenly she’s comforting him? And it’s a comedy?

That scene is super weird. And uncomfortable. And that was probably part of its purpose, but it also means that I’m just not shocked by what he almost does here.

Spike’s a romantic, but he’s also a soulless vampire who can’t differentiate between love, death, sex and violence. He tells Buffy in a previous episode that he wouldn’t hurt her, but while he may believe that, it’s not true exactly. He doesn’t understand what Buffy needs. They share an understanding, but in this, he’s unable to empathize with Buffy beyond a certain level.

Afterwards though, he does seem to understand what he’s done, and given what we know of vampires, that’s pretty fascinating. He finally realizes that he can’t love Buffy without that empathy. And he can’t be the monster he used to be with these conflicts. So he’s off to rectify that.

Meanwhile Buffy’s out there, fighting superpowered nerds right after that fucking traumatic experience. Which… don’t get me wrong, I can definitely see how beating up Warren can be therapeutic, but there is also something to be said about the show not giving Buffy enough space to process certain traumas, and focusing more on Spike’s development instead.

Again though, it’s not that I don’t get it. Spike’s an intriguing character, and I can definitely see how a lot of people connect with him. His more negative traits are balanced out by his vulnerability, and his ability to self-reflect and grow. Just because I have a hard time relating to him, doesn’t mean that others shouldn’t enjoy his character. God knows that I have plenty of problematic faves...

Oh yeah, and Xander and Buffy share a nice scene by the end of the episode. Still, I guess I wanted a bit more out of it? Like Xander acknowledging how putting Buffy on a pedestal leads to him judging her more harshly, and how it’s something he should be working on in order to be a better friend to Buffy? Maybe I just want too much.

A character who was just perfect in this episode though? Dawn. Actual picture of Dawn Summers looking at Tara and Willow.

Same, Dawn. Same.

The last three minutes of Seeing Red? I don’t know her.

[inhumansforever]

Ms. Marvel #22 Review

spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers

The topical ‘Mecca’ story-arc comes to an unexpected conclusion in this latest issue of Ms. Marvel from the creative team of  G. Willow Wilson, Marco Falla and Ian Herring.  Full recap and review following the jump.

The story so far has seen the municipal government of Jersey City taken over by the dastardly Chuck Worthy.  Worthy, a villain who has had ties to Hydra, has weaseled his way into the mayoral office, riding a wave of xenophobia and demagoguery.  Jersey City is right across the Hudson from New York; in the Marvel Universe New York is filled with all manner if super powered beings, heroes and villain, Mutants and Inhumans.  Worthy has proposed to make Jersey City free of such weirdness, a place where only normal, non-powered humans are allowed.  And through the power of fear and some tricky back-door political shenanigans, Worthy has replaced the mayor and instituted his normies-only agenda.  And to enforce this agenda, Worthy’s office has deputized a force of baseball hat-clad goons to round up and deport anyone who doesn’t fit in with their idea of what constitutes normalcy, led by the chief lieutenants, Lockdown and Discord (two teenagers empowered by specialized suits).  

The xenophobic fever has spread through Jersey City, with neighbor rating out neighbor and Worthy’s goon squad roving the streets, apprehending anyone they see as not belonging.  Among these detainees has been Ms. Marvel’s brother, Aamir, who possessed superpowers for a short while during the Last Days story-arc.  

Of course Ms. Marvel (Jersey City’s very own super hero) is the one ‘freak’ Worthy’s forces is most interested in detaining and deporting - seeing her as the main source of what has brought Manhattan-style super powered mayhem to the peaceful confines of Jersey City.  

Ms. Marvel had helped Aamir and many of the others escape, but was overpowered and were forced to flee, taking refuge the Masjib (a local Muslim community center).  Yet the villains tracked them down for a final confrontation.  Discord’s suit enables him electricity powers and it turns out this is a substantial weakness for her.  Te electrical volts appeared to have a weakening effect on Ms. Marvel, draining her energies and making it all but impossible for her to use her powers.  

In their final battle, Ms. Marvel unmasked Discord, only to discover his true identity as Josh, one of Kamal’s classmates and longtime friend.  In turn, Kamla removed her own mask and Josh was shocked to discover this enemy he had fought so hard against was actually someone he grew up with.   Their true identities doesn’t change the predicament they find themselves in.  This is whop Josh has decided to be.  It doesn’t matter that that he can be better, that he’s shown himself to be a better person in the past.  Putting back on his mask, Josh states that he will let Kamala go, and keep her identity a secret, but from here on out, they are enemies.   Ms. Marvel departs, ingloriously by flopping out of a window and Discord covers her escape.  

Meanwhile, a large group of citizens have gathered to march in opposition to the unconstitutional actions of the Worthy Administration.  Front and center of this march is Kamala’s sister-in-law, Tyesha and her best friend, Nakia.  Making their way to the Masjib, Tyesha and Nakia have a very interesting discussion of the modernized and more traditional usages of the hijab.   

Armed with a bullhorn. Tyesha demands that Worthy’s forces disperse and release all of the individuals they have illegally detained.  When the head goon asks on whose authority Tyesha can make these demands, she produces a piece of paper and replies: ‘The Third Circuit Court of Appeals.’   Boom

A quick civics lesson.  The American government is split into three separate but equal branches: the executive branch (made up of the president and their cabinet), the legislative branch (composed of congress, the senate and house of representatives) and the judicial branch (which includes the supreme court and state based federal courts).  This divide into three branches is designed so that no one face can try to impose laws that defy the basic tenets of the American Constitution.  

For example, when the trump Administration instituted a travel ban on Muslim majority countries it was unconstitutional in that the constitution stipulates that individuals cannot have laws forced against them on the basis of their religious faith.  The legislation originally came from the executive branch, but was stopped by the judicial branch (namely the ninth circuit court of appeals).  This is how it is supposed to work, with the three branches keeping each other in check and ensuring that no one branch oversteps its authority.    

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals serves New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and the Virgin Islands.  The Worthy administration’s institution of a ban on Mutants and Inhumans was a vast overstep of its authority and the Third Circuit Court has issued a judgement that the act was unconstitutional.   Of course, Worthy’s goons are armed and think their cause is righteous.  They not going to give in to the mob’s demands.  This all changes, however, when the state police arrive to enforce the decision of the Third Circuit Court.

Elsewhere, Ms. Marvel stumbles down the street thoroughly exausted.  She wants to help, but is just too tired and depleted.  It’s hard for her not to feel forlorn.  She’s tired, has just discovered that a boy she’s known since childhood has turned into a super villain; plus she’s still reeling from the fact that Bruno hates her and half of Jersey City wants her gone.  It feels like everyone and everything has abandoned her.  And it is just then that help arrives in an unexpected form.  

As shown in a recent issue of Black Bolt, Lockjaw seems to possess a sixth sense that enables him to know when his friends are most in need.  He teleports onto the scene and takes Ms. Marvel to a local Mediterranean restaurant where the manager sets her up with a deluxe combo and an extra large coffee.  

Ms. Marvel’s embiggining powers use up a huge amount of calories, and gorging herself on an extra large wrap of lamb and vegetables with a bunch of fries is just what she needs to recalibrate her powers.  As she eats, the waiters and patrons comment on how Jersey City has seemed to have lost its mind; that it needs Ms. Marvel now more than ever.  These comments offer Kamala just as much sustenance as the food.  Not all of Jersey City has turned its back on her, just a part of it… the world isn’t black and white, all good or all bad.  Different people have different views and Kamala was naive to think that she could have everybody like her.  She has to stick with what she thinks is right and just and make peace with the fact that everybody is not going to agree with it… but there will always be plenty of folks out there who do agree and Kamala is going to have to fight extra hard for them.  

Invigorated by the food and pep talk, Ms. Marvel and Lockjaw teleport to the Masjib to take on Lockdown and Discord before they can attack the protestors.  Lockjaw tackles Discord before he can use his electrical attack on Ms. Marvel while Ms. Marvel slams Lockdown with a well-deserved embiggoned-fist punch.  Seeing her forces as overwhelmed, Lockdown calls in an airstrike.  Discord argues against such an action, noting that civilians (and themselves) would be caught in the ensuring carnage.  Yet Lockdown is too blinded by rage to listen.  Before she can initiate the airstrike, however, Ms, Marvel uses her powers in a new fashion, reforming her malleable body into a blanket like form, swooping over and completely covering Lockdow.  It’s kind of icky, but nonetheless effective.  

The villains are defeated and former Mayor Machesi has arrived, noting the the Third Circuit has nullified Worthy’s coup and reinstated her as the rightful Mayor.  Discord manages to escape, but Lockdown and her goons are all rounded up and arrested.  Sheikh Abdullah emerges from the Mosque and notes that the Masjib is open to all, just in time for evening prayers.   It’s a happy ending, yet it is clear that much has changed for Kamala.  

And it is here that the story-arc’s title ‘Mecca’ finally makes sense.   To go to Mecca entails a pilgrimage, a journey of self discovery.  One cannot return from such a journey unchanged, horizons are broadened and perspective becomes more focused.  The enhanced perspective allows one to see things more clearly, a more multidimensional fashion.  What was simple has become complex and the pilgrim has to contend with the fact that world is not as safe and simple and easily discernible and they may have once believed.  

This story arc was something of Kamala’s own pilgrimage to a metaphorical Mecca.  Having returned from the pilgrimage she must now contend with a world that is far more complicated than she had once thought it to be.  Not everyone can be trusted; she cannot hope that everyone will love her.  Sometime those who she thought were good and honorable turn out to be bad and selfish.  And there will be people who hate her not for what she has done, but who she is… leaving it her job to fight on and stay true to her own sense of right and wrong.  

Wow, another really intense story-arc in the pages of Ms. Marvel.  With the Civil Warr II story, followed by the Doc.X story and now this, Ms. Marvel has become a pretty heavy book.  Poor Kamala deserves a break.  Cover art for the next issue promises an adventure alongside The Red Dagger and I’m kind of hoping the tale proves a light-hearted (possibly romantic) romp… it’s make for a welcome change of pace.

At the same time, I don’t at all blame Wilson and company for wanting to put forward such a pertinent and topical tale.  I don’t really know how long it takes to write illustrate and produce a comic, but I would not be surprised to learn that this story was born out of dismaying goings-on when the Muslim Travel ban was first instituted by The trump Administration.  Whether you agree or disagree with the rational behind this ban, it’s impossible not to sympathize with all who are effected and the basic message it puts forth.  Religious freedom has and will always be a central tenet to what America is all about.  The ban defies this tenet, hidden behind the guise of keeping the nation safe.  It’s merely a power play meant to further galvanize those who believe the United States should be a Christian Nation (despite the fact that persecuting others is just about the most non-Christian thing one can do (John 3:16).  

Super hero comics have always been an especially fertile soil for metaphor.  Some such metaphors are heavier handed than others, yet sometimes such heavy handedness is warranted.  Ms. Marvel is one of the only (and certainly the most popular) heroes who is herself a Muslim.  It would be irresponsible to completely sidestep the very pressing real-world issues facing American and would-be American Muslims.  Mayor Worthy’s anti-Inhuman legislation is a metaphorical stand in for President trump’s Muslim Ban.  And just as the third circuit facilitated an injunction against Worthy’s unconstitutional actions so too did the ninth circuit facilitated an injunction against trump’s similarly unconstitutional actions.  The ban is now scheduled to be argued in front of the Supreme Court and there is no way of knowing on what side the Court will ultimately come down on.  It’s all pretty frightening… strike that, it’s terrifying.  Instituting laws on the basis of an individual’s religion is as slippery a slope as it gets and ratification of the ban by the Supreme Court could very well usher dark, dark days here in the states.

Considering how frightening this all is, being able to grapple with the matter in the relatively safe confines of The Marvel Universe makes for a nice respite.  

Definitely recommended.  Four out of Five Lockjaws.

[giffingbuffy]

20 Buffy asks: 2, 3, 4, 5

2. What’s your opinion on season 6?

Definitely my least favourite season. Season 6 is not neeeearly as clever as it thinks it is. The reason that it seems so dark is because the metaphors are so sloppy. That’s the word I use to sum up season 6, actually: sloppy. The show has always been dark – just off the top of my head, season 1 alone goes to some dark places: a mother feels her daughter is “wasting her youth” and so she steals her body; ‘The Pack’ is a dark episode so much so that it’s super uncomfortable to watch at times; the child abuse in ‘Nightmares’ etc. Basically, this isn’t groundbreaking.

Okay, so real-life is the Big Bad… I can see how this could be interesting. So much of the conflict feels unnatural and contrived to me, though. It’s like the writers brainstormed everything bad that could happen to a person and tossed it all in even if it would seem OOC. For example, Giles’ reasoning for leaving was ridiculous. Something simple such as needing to leave for important Watcher’s Council duties would’ve sufficed in writing ASH out, but instead this is done in a way to make Buffy’s life even more awful. Giles’ reasons ring untrue to me particularly because he was totally there for Buffy after her mother passes away. Way back in ‘When She Was Bad’ Giles is one of the few to recognise how traumatic her encounter with The Master must have been, especially given that she, y’know, died. And the circumstances in season 6 are much bigger; how is learning that Buffy was in heaven and feeling that she now lives in hell supposed to convince Giles even more that he has to go?? She’s been back for 5 seconds and he already thinks he’s standing in her way? What???

If this season gets its points for being so realistic, then I’m gonna nit-pick. Buffy’s financial issues also feel very contrived and are only there to add to Buffy’s misery; so Buffy comes back from the dead to Tara and Willow living in her dead mother’s room (I get it, this way Dawn doesn’t have to live somewhere else) the point is, there are four people living under this roof – that’s four people using up utilities such as water and hydro, needing twice as many groceries, etc. – and Tara and Willow don’t offer any help financially? What??? Willow could’ve been making some bank given her computer skills, but okay.

How can life be the Big Bad when there are no lasting consequences? This can act as a slight against season 7 as well but season 6 is the one that brings these issues up and the lack of follow-through is just further evidence to me that all of this conflict was contrived. Like, Tara dies and Willow turns world-ending-evil but all she needs to do is chill in a field for a bit? Okay. Spike tries to r*pe Buffy but we’re not gonna talk about it. Xander leaves Anya at the altar but don’t worry, they’ll make up. Money is a huge issue but next season there’ll be like 20 people living under Buffy’s roof, Doublemeat Palace who? Giles leaves but he comes back like three times and realises his “I’m standing in your way” riff was bullshit. Dawn was a klepto for a hot minute, but sneeze and you miss that plot.

And the thing is, there are actual things they could’ve explored with Dawn but the show chose to ignore the whole The Key thing. It’s not like everyone gets their pre-S5 memories back, so everyone still has years worth of fake memories involving Dawn. Dawn could have fears about how everyone she loves only loves her because of fake memories, it’s sad, of course, but that could be a huge worry of hers given her situation.

Then the magic=drugz thing (I can’t even call it a metaphor because it is way too unsubtle) was just… embarrassing to watch lmao. Nothing in the previous seasons indicates that magic could equal drugs; in season 4, it’s used as a way of exploring Willow’s sexuality or something to that extent. Furthermore, I never got the indication that it was the magic Willow was addicted to, but the power. And maybe the knowledge. But anyway, in season 6 we have Willow getting the shakes, hiding magic weed, needing a fix, “I feel so JUICED”

[looks up] Damn, this is getting long! I think I’ve kind of made my point by now lol

To end, though, I believe I saw someone describe season 6 as having an artificial darkness and I think that’s a good way to sum up my feelings.

3. What’s your opinion on season 7?

The thing with season 7 is that it frustrates me because there were ideas that I liked and it had so much – excuse the word choice here – potential to be a great season, but everything about the execution falls flat for me. And when I think of it as a follow-up to season 6, it works even less for me, which I already touched on in the above question.

‘Lessons’ ending on the “going back to the beginning” line seemed so promising to me, and it should’ve been a driving force for the season. From a storytelling perspective, it is bananas to me how little focus the original 4 get both as individuals (too much of Buffy’s plots are consumed by Spike) and as a group. The dynamic of the original 4 is tore down in order to make Buffy’s relationship with Spike more significant, which is incredibly irritating. As much as the “The Earth is definitely doomed” callback makes me go :’) the season really didn’t earn it. To be honest, how did we never get to see the new Sunnydale High’s library?

I think the most glaring problems of season 7 is that there is way too much going on, to the point where there wasn’t much room for character work. The Potentials actually don’t bother me that much, but they’re definitely a problem with the season. If they really wanted to go that route, it would’ve been more effective if there were significantly fewer potentials; the show makes it seem like they’re a dying breed but it sure seemed like there were a lot of potentials. I get that it takes away from the ~empowering images in the finale of young women feeling powerful, but I like the idea of the final battle somehow having all of the past slayers. That way, they wouldn’t need to be introduced until much later in the season which would leave more room for character work. And then of course The First turned out to be pretty lame.

Spike was given WAY too much this season and a lot of his stuff was inconsequential. Compare Spike in season 7 to Angel in season 3; Angel really doesn’t get that much to do, which is fine, because it’s not his show! He has this big moment with Buffy in 3x04 and then in the next two episodes, he gets two brief scenes. He gets one big episode in ‘Amends’ and other than that, his arc/plots are more on the periphery. There’s still plenty of room for the original 4 and other than in ‘Relevations’ the Buffy/Angel relationship isn’t used to take away from her relationships with the Scoobies.

Like I said, though, I like some of the ideas of season 7; I like the idea of going back to beginning, I like the idea of the final season focusing on the Slayer line, I like the idea of a Big Bad that can’t physically harm you, only psychologically. More than anything, season 7 is disappointing to me because I can see a path where it could’ve been so good, but it wasn’t the path taken.

4. What’s your opinion on Riley?

I really don’t mind Riley! His associations with The Initiative probably do not help him gain any clout in the fandom, but even The Initiative arc wasn’t that bad to me until Maggie was killed off. Anyway, back to Riley: I think he’s a nice guy and not in a Nice Guy™ kind of way. He fit in pretty well with the Scoobies – on my first watch, I actually thought he was being introduced as a love interest for Willow haha. He was pretty chill and seemed to make Buffy happy for the most part. He certainly has his moments where I’m like, “really???” even before the mess that happens in season 5, but for the most part, he’s fine.

Onto the mess in season 5… to me, a lot of the conflict was cooked up just because he was being written out and so much of it felt weird to me. Like, “she doesn’t cry as much with you” being taken as a bad thing? I found that really stupid. I get what the show was going for; that Riley was feeling useless, didn’t really have a place of his own without The Initiative, and felt Buffy didn’t love him. I just think it could’ve been done in a much better way. I basically already said this but it seemed like everything that happened was because MB was being written out and not because it was in-character; the writers kind of threw everything at the wall to make Riley terrible and because he already wasn’t a well-received character, it all stuck to the wall.

Anyway, his appearance in season 6 worked well enough for me. So he didn’t get to leave on a sour note.

5. What’s your opinion on Dawn?

I love her! It’s kind of weird to me how people can hate children in fiction so viscerally for essentially being kids, particularly when they’re played by kids and all of the other characters are adults. I don’t know, I just don’t have it in me. So right off the bat, I’m sympathetic to Dawn because just like any kid, she still has a lot of growing to do. Why do you expect her to not be immature, guys?? And then of course her situation makes me feel more sympathetic to her; her sister is out saving the world with her friends and Dawn still needs to be babysat but more importantly: her whole life is a lie. That’s a lot for an adult to deal with, nevermind a 14(? 13? idek) year old. It’d be interesting to see a side-by-side of Dawn at the same age as Buffy and co. during high school because I don’t think the differences would be that striking.

Anyway, I think season 7 is a good showing of who she’d become: selfless, wanting to help with the research, mature, etc. And you could see hints of that in seasons 5 and 6; Dawn was willing to jump and close that portal in ‘The Gift’

[tialovestelevision]

A Buffy Dialogue - 6:1-8

T: It’s time for A Buffy Dialogue, this one on the opening act of Season 6. I’m joined here by Dragon, because there’s just so very much to talk about in these eight episodes. They’re sort of the establishing shots of this season, which is, oddly, the one with the most… start-to-end… season arc in the show. Like, there aren’t really any one-shot episodes so far. They all build the season’s story and emotional beats. So, Dragon, what shall we talk about first?

{*\../*} : Well, since the big arc of the season thus far has been about our characters and their personal motivations for their thoroughly disastrous choices, let’s do a character-by-character breakdown for the readers on where people are and what we think the writers are trying to tell us (and are actually telling us, not always the same thing). Some people are obviously not going to need much telling - the Trio basically speak for themselves, for instance, and Anya’s not got much going on except taking over the Magic Shop. But everyone else has issues! So let’s talk about them.

T: I think I’d like to start with Giles. His bad decisions are both fairly straightforward and the one whose mistakes are most understandable, I think. He’s not operating under any great trauma like Buffy, or mystical whatsit combined with the way the show metaphorized mundane problems like Willow. So… he seems like the onramp here.

{*\../*} : So at the end of “Tabula Rasa” we have Giles on a plane going to England because he’s spent the time since flying back in “Flooded” feeling like a barrier to Buffy’s recovery (probably best expressed in “I Wish I Could Stay”), and the evidence is fairly clearly on his side about the truth of that. He can’t stand watching her suffer at this stage in her relationship, and he’s making classically bad parenting-with-adult-children decisions like writing checks he can’t afford to write on a regular basis to cover bills and having parenting conversations for them instead of refusing and letting them make their own mistakes. That Dawn is being cast symbolically as Buffy’s kid is a bit of a problem given the realistic implications of having an older sister with no job or stable support system ‘raising’ a sibling only a few years younger, which the show actually talks about briefly in Season 5 and then drops completely for 6, and plays into the show’s overall failure to make a stable decision about how realistic it wants Buffy’s dealings with the ‘real’ world post-death to be. But that IS the symbolism here, and Giles is aware he’s acting an enabler to Buffy avoiding her responsibilities as Dawn’s guardian/parent. Given that he can’t make himself stop enabling her, removing himself is a logical choice. Maybe even a better one than staying. But from what you were writing about “Once More With Feeling,” you don’t seem to think so?

T: I hadn’t really thought about whether Giles could afford the check or not… I figured that, after Buffy got him three years of backpay in “Choices,” he probably had some extra cash lying about. Maybe not, though… he apparently spent his whole time from being fired by the Council in Season 3 to his return to England in “Bargaining” maintaining both a house in Sunnydale (and a nice one! But Angel had a mansion there and no money, and Dracula conjured a castle, and Glory kept a mansion or really lovely condo on a nurse’s salary, so Sunnydale’s real estate market apparently operates in some base-cthulu numerical system), so maybe he was in debt that the back pay paid off? Anyway, the show obviously wants us to think of the check as a bad thing for him to have done, and “he can’t actually afford it” is a better explanation for that than most.

{*\../*} : Especially if it’s “he can afford this one, but what about the next one?” which is actually pretty typical with parents and adult children.

T: That’s true. Anyway… to your point about how realistic Buffy’s post-resurrection mundane life is supposed to be… that’s kind of the key problem with the writing here, isn’t it? If we were going to treat it as realistic, the right answer by Giles would be to call the Council, inform them that they’re about to have one Slayer who’s in jail and another who’s homeless and can’t do any Slaying because she’s too busy working a menial job, and get them to start providing a stipend and maybe even paying for health insurance, then having Buffy set up six months of weekly sessions with a therapist who, living in Sunnydale, has almost certainly Seen Some Shit. If we’re going to treat it as metaphorical, shouldn’t there be a monster in the pipes? How can literal pipes break and cause metaphorical life problems? We have to keep this very careful balance of literal and metaphorical issues and barriers to solutions that the show never really gives us for any of what Giles is doing to make sense.

If there is no support network available for Buffy to draw from, she needs to keep the support network she has, because even if Giles’s current behavior is going to do more harm than good in the long run… well, the tire is flat. Yes, the Fix-A-Flat means it’ll cost more to repair later and might need replacing, but when it’s that or starve to death alone in the desert on the now-abandoned Route 66, you use the goddamn Fix-A-Flat.

{*\../*} : Yeah. A lot of this season really fails to cohere because it’s trying to apply the same making-metaphor-of-life-problems rules it uses in high school to young working adult drama, and that doesn’t really work very well at all. But since we just watched Willow wipe everybody’s memories and then Giles get on a plane anyway, I think we can agree that Giles is making a choice that will End Badly for reasons that have a lot to do with his personal relationship with Buffy and maybe less to do with an objective view of the overall situation.

T: Which one could say about Willow and the others in “Bargaining,” too, come to think of it. Oh, look, shiny transition!

{*\../*} : They work better when you don’t point them out, honey.

T: In the spirit of Buffy, I’m going to be impressed with the cleverness of my own writing even if my expressions of being impressed make it less clever.

{*\../*} : Fair play. Yes, the time-bomb we set up in “Bargaining” that finally blows up in “Once More with Feeling” by resurrecting Buffy is absolutely about putting personal emotional stuff above the moral or the practical. We talked about that quite a bit in “Afterlife,” but I think it’s important to pull out two pieces of parallel evidence from the rest of this first third of the season that show nobody has Learned Their Lesson at all. They’re actually not obviously related, because one is played as a gag and one is played as Serious Business complete with a Very Sad Song montage, but I think they are crucially connected: Willow’s stunts with first Tara’s memory and then everyone’s, and the fact that Xander summoned Sweet.

T: They’re both afraid. Willow has more power than Xander by far - I actually agree with Buffy that, by the end of Season 5, Willow has more power than anyone else in the main cast - but neither of them really knows how to prevent loss. I’m not sure if Buffy’s death helped form that fear, but I can pretty much guarantee that it’s on their minds.

{*\../*} : Absolutely. But they have another key commonality. If Buffy is currently the show’s metaphor/punching bag for trying to find your way in a world that’s financially unstable and doesn’t seem to care about your trauma while it’s checking you for credentials and contacts, Xander and Willow are both in the middle of another big life transition: adult relationships. It’s more obvious with Xander, because he and Anya finally come out about being engaged in “All The Way,” but let’s look at Tara and Willow for a minute. They’re living a house together, they’re supporting a household (do either of them have jobs? They seem like they must have jobs of some kind, but that’s never brought up. More realism problems), they’re effectively raising Dawn until Buffy comes back and even then they often seem to be acting as the heads of the household. They’re in a long-term, settled relationship. But they have never once, as far as we can tell, had a real actual fight before. They certainly haven’t learned to fight in a healthy way, which is an absolutely critical skill in a relationship where one partner comes from an abusive background.

So Willow’s on the cusp of having a wonderful adult lesbian family life, but she doesn’t know how to resolve conflict in it and she’s terrified beyond words of losing it. And, as we’ve established with Buffy, she’s got a ton of magical power and isn’t shy about throwing it at problems that scare her (Buffy’s death, Glory, maybe even Joyce’s death before that). Frankly, that she tries to magic her problems with Tara away is almost totally unsurprising in both the realistic and metaphorical senses.

T: True. The precise form of magic she chooses to use is, because Willow has spent most of the show as someone with intense emotional intelligence (Tara has more than her, but Willow spent the time before Tara’s arrival basically second only to Oz in ability to understand people’s needs and feelings) and Tara’s experiences make memory modification even worse than it would normally be, but… well, she has a hammer. Everything from death to life to deities to relationship issues looks like nails. She has a really, really good hammer.

{*\../*} : I think this another of those cases where the writing kinda trips and falls flat trying to get at the metaphor. Because if magic is power, in a different drama setting where power was fame or money Willow would be covering over their relationship problems with a fancy trip or flashy gifts or something of the sort. If magic is lesbian and/or female empowerment, then she'd probably be covering up their fight with really great lesbian sex instead of dealing with the issue. But Willow’s hammer is magic, so that’s where the writers go, and they’re willing to let Willow look either stupid or callous or both for not thinking about the correlation with Glory.

T: She left the Lethe’s bramble in front of the fire. They are obviously willing to make her look both. I don’t think they know how much both they have her looking.

{*\../*} : True facts. But having made that bed, now Willow is crying on the floor in her bathroom while Michelle Branch plays super-sad music and Tara does the I Am Leaving packing montage. Surely she will take this as a chance to sort herself out and learn better conflict management skills, right?

T: Because the next three episodes are called “Coping,” “Adjusting,” and “Living a Healthy Life.” No, wait, the other thing.

{*\../*} : Yeah.....  Anyway, my point from earlier is that Xander doing something extremely similar with Sweet - to try to force a happy ending with Anya - is played for comedy because Xander himself is usually played for comedy, but he’s basically doing the same shit as Willow but with less power and more stupid.

T: And by the by, how did I miss that the singer in the Bronze was Michelle Branch? I called out Hinton Battle over and over and missed Michelle Branch. I am shamed. She doesn’t have three Tony Awards, but she does have a Grammy.

And… yeah. Xander, look back at your life. You’ve lived the life needed to answer this question. “In all of history, how many times has summoning a demon worked out well?”

{*\../*} : Do Wolfram & Hart count?

T: Whenever they summon demons, they have to find more evil lawyers willing to risk being devoured by demons to hire. I imagine that’s a pretty employee-friendly job market from the start.

{*\../*} : So speaking of that ending musical montage, Buffy is doing a dead stare over the bar at the Bronze and then she’s locking mouths with Spike behind the stairs. This does not portend good things. I think your coverage of her in “Once More with Feeling” pretty much sums up the lousy place she’s in, but I thought she was starting to look up before the big whammy spell took her memories away. Is she basically reverting to bad coping because of the opposite of the King Ralph thing (speaking of Xander playing other people’s serious stuff for comedy beats)? The spell took her memory of losing heaven away and then gave it back, and she’s having a meltdown instead of laughing?

T: That seems possible. Alternatively, she was just getting better at putting on a happy face. Or her emotional arc over these episodes makes no sense. The writers certainly aren’t telling us. It would, though, make the King Ralph line contribute more than a quick laugh at an outdated cultural reference, and Buffy loves doing that, so let’s go with that.

{*\../*} : I think there will be more to say about Buffy after the upcoming episodes, but I did want to note one thing that I thought was interesting - she’s in a weird liminal space in these eight episodes in a lot of ways, hanging between the dead-and-complete heroine and the newly arrived, very harried twenty-something with serious trauma, but one that stands out to me in particular is her relationship with Dawn.

When we see her with Dawn in “After Life,” Dawn is acting almost as a surrogate mother to her - cleaning her, bandaging her, trying to get through to her. In “Flooded” and “All the Way,” Buffy is very distinctly acting in the maternal role toward Dawn - trying to provide, trying to hammer out the logistical kinks of life, trying to manage Dawn’s social behavior. She winds up defaulting to getting Giles to help in all three areas, but she takes them on as her job to then press him to help her with in the first place. But in “Tabula Rasa,” memories removed, she and Dawn revert very quickly to a much more natural role as sisters and seem much happier about it.

T: I think Dawn might actually be the only member of the cast to be really aware of how badly off Buffy is in “After Life,” and, to a degree, the episodes after it. Well, her and Spike. This is a Problem for Buffy, since Spike is basically toxic relationship structures given human form then having had that human form’s soul ripped out and body filled with even more toxic ideas about what love means, and Dawn is a teenager who needs a ton of taking care of herself (and is also, I’ll note, the victim of an inordinate amount of trauma - trauma that starts with finding out that she doesn’t, technically, exist and moves on to watching her friends suffer torture and injury and risk death to keep her safe, being betrayed by a trusted ally, and watching two parent figures die within months of each other, one of whom literally flings herself off a tower to keep Dawn safe). Neither is in a position to do much to help Buffy, apart from simple physical and emotional first aid from Dawn in “After Life.”

{*\../*} : Something that literally just occurred to me while I was thinking about the last scene of “Tabula Rasa” earlier - Dawn is, of course, being played in that scene as the teenage daughter reacting with anger when her abused mother moves out of the house. That was obvious from the get-go. But if she’s being played that way in that scene, and Willow and Tara are being played very much as her parents, who does that make Buffy (who is also being played as her parent)?

Crazy theory - someone in the Buffy writing staff was casting Buffy in the role of a biological parent rebuilding a relationship with their teenage child who’s living with a married lesbian couple that doesn’t include that parent.

T: Wouldn’t that make Willow her ex? That… actually makes a ton of sense, given the family and relationship structure here.

{*\../*} : Her ex who’s still pathologically attached to her and literally drags her back into the life of the family? Wow. This reading is seriously gaining steam.

T: And she does that while still in a relationship with her new-ish partner. A relationship that is, on the surface, quite healthy. Yeah… we’ve got a winner here.

{*\../*} : Healthy right up until the point when Willow starts becoming (magically) emotionally abusive and engaging in (magical) gaslighting, which her ex (Buffy) is too busy with her own issues to remark on.... Shit.

T: Hence “on the surface.” But yeah… I think we’ve found a model by which everyone’s behavior, other than Willow being stupid with the Lethe’s bramble, actually makes sense. Buffy is back somewhere she doesn’t want to be but loves the people there too much to tell them she wants to go literally anywhere else, Willow is trying to drag Buffy back into her life, Xander is Xander, Dawn is watching her family disintegrate for the umpteenth time in the last six months. Everything fits. Except the Lethe’s bramble in front of the fire. But the only possible model to explain that is “... and using magic makes you occasionally suffer bouts of extreme stupidity.”

… Or Willow wanting to get caught, because it’ll get Tara out of the way in a way that leaves her with less guilt (because Tara would be doing the leaving) and lets her pursue her ex again unimpeded.

It’s not that I don’t buy this model. It’s that I hate it.

{*\../*} : Season 6 - when it’s not incoherent, the model for coherence sucks. Thanks for listening to us in this little catch-up, y’all, and having a good night. Coming up next, “Coping,” “Adjusting,” and “Living a Healthy Life.” Really. We swear.

T: I want to live in a world where those are the next episodes. It sounds like a better world. A world where there is a kitten on my head right now, and it’s mewing and adorable. There is no kitten on my head.

[sulietsexual]

buffy: conversations with dead people / ted / primeval

Conversations With Dead People

ShortOpinion: An overrated episode in a season full of lacklustrestorytelling

LongOpinion: Honestly, there are few episodes of Season 7 that I trulyenjoy, and this episode isn’t one of them. I won’t deny that it’s awell-written and well-paced episode, and the interplay of scenes between Buffyand Holden, Willow and Cassie, Dawn and her mother and Jonathan and Andrew are incredibly well done and edited togetherquite seamlessly, but overall, I find this episode quite overrated.

A lot of this comes down to the fact that CWDP is a character-basedepisode rather than a narrative-based one, and I don’t particularly like thecharacterisation in it, particularly Buffy’s, whose conversation with Holdenincludes some statements which I really loathe, such as her assertion that shewas a “monster” during her relationship with Spike (I think it’s actually thereverse) or her nice dash of victim blaming, what with her claiming that she “allowed”Spike to “take her over”. Her whole conversation with Holden is full ofovertones about her relationship with Spike, a relationship I despise. So,naturally, I find Buffy’s portion of the episode extremely irritating, althoughHolden is a pretty amusing character.

Not being a huge fan of either Jonathan’s or Andrew’s, theirportion of the episode bores me to tears, although at the very least, theirstoryline does contain a major plotpoint, with Andrew being the first person to open the seal. But Jonathan’sdeath was lacklustre and anti-climactic, and I’ve always felt that of the two, it should have been Jonathan whojoined the Scoobies and sought redemption, as he’s a character who has beenwith the show almost from the very beginning. Andrew was just such an unnecessary addition to Season7.

Willow’s portion of the episode was okay, but lackedemotional punch. As the whole fandom knows, Willow’s portion was originalwritten to have the First masquerading as Tara, which would have upped theemotional stakes and provided a real emotional punch for the viewers, howeverAmber refused to return, saying she felt it would do a disservice to thecharacter. While I understand her reasoning, I just can’t help but feel thatonce they lost that opportunity, they should have swapped Willow’s scenes withthe proposed idea of Jesse appearing to Xander, which would have provided somegreat emotional scenes and really explored Xander’s grief over Jesse, which wasnever properly portrayed in the early seasons.

Dawn’s portion of the episode is really the only part that Ienjoy, as it’s great to see how self-sufficient and capable she has become. Thescenes of her enjoying having the house to herself are hilarious, in particular when she accidentally shoots an arrow intothe wall and covers it up by moving the plant in front of it, not to mentionwhen she gets pizza sauce on Buffy’s blouse and then shrugs it off, rationalizingthat Buffy will think it’s blood. But Dawn’s shining moment comes when sherefuses to be chased out of her own house by the demon, instead displaying someseriously awesome spellcasting abilities and casting the demon out.

Thatbeing said, I’ve never been able to figure out whether the entity Dawnencounters is actually Joyce or the First. I’m pretty sure Jane Espenson, whowrote Dawn’s portion of the episode, has confirmed that it was the First, butif that were the case, why all the stuff with the demon and freaking Dawn outand making her work to expel the demon before she can see her mother? This isliterally the only time the First puts on a “show”, so to speak, for the personthey’re appearing to, and as such, it casts doubt on whether the writers alwaysintended for Dawn to be speaking to the First, as opposed to seeing her mother’sghost.

As theend of the day, Conversations With Dead People is well written, well-paced and hassome beautiful direction, but for me, it really falls short on thecharacterisation and narrative.

Ted

ShortOpinion: Joyce kind of sucks

LongOpinion: Ted is honestly one of my least favourite BtVS episodes ever. Aside from John Ritter’sunsettling performance as the titular character and a very sweet scene between Buffy and Angel, there really isn’t muchto enjoy about this episode.

For one, it’s not a very well-written or well-paced episode.The action is light, the central plot boring, and the “Mom’s new boyfriend is amonster” metaphor is rather heavy handed, especially for a show which isusually so good with using the supernatural as metaphors for real life. NeitherBuffy nor Joyce come out of this episode looking particularly good. Buffybasically acts about half her age for the first part of the episode, poutingand dragging her heels and refusing to see that her mother is actually happy,whereas Joyce essentially sides with her boyfriend over her daughter, evenafter Buffy reveals that Ted threatened her with violence. I usually likeJoyce, but even I can’t excuse her behaviour in this episode.

The eventual reveal that Ted is a robot takes the show into aweird Sci-Fi place where it neither belongs nor feels entirely comfortable in.The eventual climax of the episode is slow and lacklustre (although the makeupeffects for Ted were pretty cool) and overall, it’s a fairly unsatisfyingepisode which does little to further the narrative of the show.

Primeaval

ShortOpinion: I really couldn’t care less about Adam or The Initiative

LongOpinion: Season 4 contains some great standalone episodes, but theoverall arc of the season is boring and extremely lacklustre, and since thisepisode is the culmination of that arc, I find it to be a somewhatuninteresting episode.

Really, the only good part of this episode is the enjoiningspell, which is actually a fantastic spell, both on a meta level and apractical one. The idea to combine Buffy’s Slayer strength and physical being(The Hand) with the strengths she draws from her friends (Willow’s magic,Xander’s emotional support and Giles’ intelligence) was fantastic and the payoff was extremely satisfying. It’s a shamethat they never attempted this type of spell again, as it definitely worked intheir favour.

Aside from the enjoing spell, I find this episode slow anduninvolving. Riley’s part in the episode is so lacklustre, as is Spike’s. Assaid before, I really didn’t give a rat’s ass about Adam or the Initiative,both were such boring antagonists, and so the conclusion of their storylinebrought relief rather than excitement or satisfaction. All up, not a greatepisode, it’s no wonder they made Restless the season finale instead of thisone.