#karaszorelsdanvers

[ozonecologne]

The worst thing about Eileen's death for me was the fact that I didn't think she was really dead. I thought it was a fake-out for some reason? IDK. It was just framed really weirdly and I honestly could not believe they'd honestly kill her off this early. It just sucks to think that she's dead now for real and it wasn't fake. =(

Eileen’s death was very abrupt. It was totally wrong for a recurring character that is clearly a fan favorite to be thrown away like that in the first minute of an episode. And in near complete silence as well. My friend Christy wrote a really great analysis of why this was on Twitter.

I think the suddenness of it is what made her death feel “fake.” They didn’t give us time to absorb it. It was hard to really tell it was even Eileen at first. I was left wondering, “Wait, is she? Is she dead?” It’s only when you see her body in the morgue later in the episode that you’re like, “Oh. Shit. So that happened.”

I’m really pissed off and really sad about it. I loved Eileen and she deserved a better death than that at least, if she had to die at all. A better reaction from the people that knew her too. Jared did the best he could with a shitty script. That letter scene was :(((

[sulietsexual]

One thing I really love about Dawn is how she is still the key. She wasn't born in a traditional sense. She's not supposed to be as human as she is, but she is and I think that's really awesome.

Dawn’s origins are definitely interesting (although the poor girl probably goes through the occasional existential crisis, I mean, how do you deal with not actually being real?).

However, I really wish the show had expanded more on the whole Dawn-as-the-key angle, I mean, they just kind of dropped it after Season 5. They never even said if she was still “active”, if she had any power connected to being the Key, if she could still open the portals etc. There was so much untapped potential to Dawn being the Key, and the show just kind of wasted it.

[thevioletcaptain]

As someone who just started watching SPN after a long break, what is buckleming? From what I've seen on Tumblr in the last few days, I've gathered that they're two writers who the fandom seems to hate, but I'm unclear on the exact reasons why? I can kind of understand just from criticisms I noticed from the last episode, but what other bad episodes have they written?

Buckleming is a portmanteau of writing duo Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming. They are often represented by this creature:

[source]

Buckleming wrote a grand total of one episode in season one and then disappeared for six glorious years.

Then, in season seven... they returned. 

Nobody is quite sure why, but given that between them they’ve only got one IMDB credit between their one episode in 2006 and their return in 2011, and that Ross-Leming is married to Bob Singer, I could take a pretty good guess.

Anyway. Nepotism aside, here’s some episodes they’ve written and the reasons people don’t like them.

8.15 Man's Best Friend with Benefits A witch in a relationship with his familiar! Great concept! Such potential! ...except that the witch is a white guy and the familiar is a Black woman who spends half the episode wearing a collar while she calls him master, and the other half in dog form.

9.03 I'm No Angel Castiel is newly human, naive and homeless and looking for help! Oh look, a nice woman is giving him food and shelter and now she’s coming on to him and coercing him into sex and whoops she’s actually a reaper who decided to trick him into bed for no reason and now she’s gonna kill him -_- AKA, Castiel was raped. And so was April Kelly, the woman possessed by the reaper. None of the consent issues were addressed. 

10.21 Dark Dynasty Charlie, our only (at the time) canon queer character, loses all of her basic reasoning skills and is murdered by literal Nazis before being dumped in a blood-stained bathtub for shock value.

12.02 Mamma Mia The one where Sam is essentially drugged via mind control and raped by Toni Bevell. Like with Cas, these consent issues aren’t addressed.

12.08 LOTUS Lucifer pretends to be President Rooney, and sleeps with his presidential aide, Kelly, who has no idea. Oh, sorry--did I say sleeps with? I mean rapes. Multiple times. And then she falls pregnant & has a bunch of men telling her what to do with her own body.

Beyond those specific stand-out moments, their episodes tend toward excessive exposition in dialogue, weird, uneven pacing, an overabundance of unconnected plot lines, a complete disregard for prior canon, and what can be best described as a penchant for unfortunate implications.

These things are all so common, in fact, that we’ve been playing Buckleming Bingo since 2013.

TLDR; Buckleming’s episodes are predictable, poorly structured, generally offensive, and so far below the standard that the rest of this show’s writers consistently deliver that they should have been fired years ago. But nepotism.

[zaritarazi]

I really love listening to your Legends in Review stuff. Even when they're kinda depressing and critical, I just love listening to your opinions and your voice is so pretty. So thanks. =)

thank you so much! we don’t mean to be that critical but this is stuff that matters to us, and so that can be how certain episodes come out just based on the content- but i’m glad we still make you want to listen!

[softlenaluthor]

now jake is going to be able to say he's read 22 books. it's amazing. i cannot stop smiling from that goddamn scene. they're just so good for each other, and he loves her so much.

the purest relationship. two people who are genuinely interested in each other’s hobbies. these are the sort of people we need to see more of. at the risk of sounding cheesy, i’ll say...........#goals

[diannaofthemyscira]

Heads up to my followers:

I’m going to change my URL to diannaofthemyscira in a few minutes because I cannot get over the WW movie after having seen it for the third time.

[sulietsexual]

UO: I love Laurel Lance and I feel like parts of the Arrow fandom seems to treat her much too harshly most of the time.

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

I adore Laurel and when I first started watching Arrow I honestly could not understand why she was so hated within the fandom. She is an amazing character, who deserved so much better! I still can’t believe that the show killed her off.

[sulietsexual]

I know you don't watch Supernatural anymore, but they recently watched a Wayward Sisters spinoff. =D So far, they've only signed on the actress who played Jody Mills, but I'm just so excited and a Supernatural spinoff with their kickass ladies is so cool. And I love female lead shows, which is what this is planning to be.

Oooh, a ladies-centered spin-off? I could get on board with that. Although, since they’ve killed off practically every single major female character on SPN, who will be left to populate the cast? Conundrum. 

[sulietsexual]

Was there anything about Buffy S7 and/or Angel S4 that you liked?

I like that Dawn was allowed to mature as a character and come into her own during Season 7. And there are several standalone episodes which I do enjoy, such as Lessons, Same Time Same Place and Help.

As for AtS Season 4, I love Faith’s appearance and mini-arc. I also don’t mind the overall arc of AtS Season 4 until Jasmine’s appearance. And, as with BtVS, there are several episodes which I love, especially in the early part of the season.

[sulietsexual]

UO: I used to ship Fred and Wes A LOT until I realized all the misogyny associated with Wes' character. I also didn't see him as majorly at fault for the Connor thing until I really thought it through after my first few viewings.

strongly agree | agree | neutral | disagree | strongly disagree

So, I was never a huge Fred/Wes shipper, but I do remember finding the pairing quite sweet on my initial watch of AtS. But, as everyone who visits my blog knows, Fresley is now one of my biggest NOTPs due to Wesley’s misogyny and the way Fred is hurt, violated and fridged all for his arc.

I have always blamed Wes for the whole Connor-being-kidnapped debacle, but I did used to view his actions less harshly than I currently do.

[thevioletcaptain]

You mentioned your endgame for Sam in your last review, scorecard thing. Do you have an ideal endgame for Dean and Cas? And do you think that it will actually happen on the show? And do you think Mary is going to stay alive? Sorry for all the questions, I just like hearing your opinions. =)

You never have to apologize for sending me questions! 

I love answering them, but I don’t get a lot anymore–presumably as a side effect of my occasional unannounced Tumblr hiatuses, so people probably assume I’m not around.

Anyway. I’ll start with the Mary question…

Bringing Mary back signalled the start of what I can only refer to as Dabb’s quest to fix the show’s past mistakes. It was the ultimate unfridging. Her being killed again wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense, imo.

She’s definitely being set up for a redemption arc, and while SPN does tend to dish out narrative redemption via self-sacrifice (Gabriel, Naomi, Gadreel, Metatron, Meg), that’s something generally reserved for people who started off as true antagonists. Mary’s not a true antagonist–she’s one of the good guys, making questionable decisions for the right reasons. 

She’s not season eleven Metatron having a change of heart and doing something for the greater good at the last moment. She’s season six Castiel. She wants to keep everyone safe and thinks this is the best way to go about it.

And yeah, season six Castiel did get redemption via death in 7.01/7.02, but remember–subversion is the name of Dabb’s game. 

But… well. There’s certainly narrative support for her eventually choosing to go back to Heaven. Though it’s still a little ambiguous. 

We’ve seen that choice offered to her twice–the first time, in Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox, she considered it but ultimately said no. The second, in First Blood, she offered her life when Billie announced that she didn’t care which Winchester she reaped.

So that’s one time she considered it but said no, and one time she said yes but was saved anyway. 

If she’d considered and said no twice, I’d be leaning toward her saying yes next time she’s given the option. If she’d been willing to die twice but survived, I’d be leaning toward her changing her mind and choosing to live.

As it is, we’ve had one of each, so predicting where her story might go is a little more tricky.

After all that, the best answer I can give you here is that it could really go either way. Ack.

As for your first question… 

Do I have an ideal endgame for Dean and Cas?

Team Free Will defeats the last big threat. There’s no apocalyptic nightmare looming, no shady organizations lurking in the shadows, just the old standards left to fight. 

Ghosts, shifters, witches, ghouls. Werewolves and rogue faeries. The occasional low-ranking demon.

The three of them drive back to the bunker, tired and dirty but good. None of them cursed or dying or even seriously hurt. Dean pulls the Impala into her space, and they all sit there a moment. Just relishing the fact that they can afford the pause for once.

“You guys really had something back there,” Sam says when they finally climb out, and he’s right. Dean and Cas fight side by side with the kind of finesse that could fool someone into thinking they share a psychic link. They just work together, anticipating one another’s movements, passing a blade between them as easy as if they were in a quiet kitchen instead of a bloody fight. “I barely even had to do anything this time.”

He’s right about that, too. They’d split up to approach the big bad from three directions, but by the time Sam got through the three goons blocking his way, Dean and Cas had already taken out everyone in the main room. Only the leader remained, and as Sam watched, Cas had swept the guy’s legs out from under him, handed Dean his blade, and Dean had finished the job.

Dean looks a little guilty, like he thinks Sam is annoyed they did all the work before he arrived.

“It’s actually kind of a relief,” Sam hurries to add.

“How so?” Cas asks.

“I’ve just been thinking... maybe it’s time for me to back off. Put some of that Men of Letters training to use.”

“You talkin' about retiring, Sam?”

“Not exactly. But how many people have we run into who’ve told us how much Bobby used to help them? When he died... nobody really stepped up to take his place. I mean, Garth did for a minute, but he’s got his hands full these days. And this place has so much information. So many resources. Think how much it would help other hunters to have access to it.”

It takes a little work, a little getting used to, but Sam sets up a network, and Dean and Cas go out on the road on their own. 

For a while, the bunker is still home--they’re there almost every week--but it turns into more of a hub, more of a workplace as Sam recruits some other hunters to help him out.

They keep hunting. Keep helping wherever they can.

Eventually, when Dean has said “I’m getting too old for this shit” so many times that it’s stopped being a half-kidding Lethal Weapon reference and started being 100% serious because his back is goddamn killing him, he and Cas settle in a farmhouse near the bunker where they offer training and instruction to novice hunters, referred to them through the connections they’ve made. 

Dean focuses on the art of faking your way into any situation and gun maintenance and, hell, some basic mechanical stuff that he’s used to get out of more than a few jams.

“Any hunter worth their salt should know how to get their busted-ass car working,” he tells whoever will listen. 

Cas focuses on handheld weapons training and strategy and first aid, because even if you don’t have powers, you can still help someone heal.

They take in strays from time to time, too. Young hunters who’ve been hurt and need a quiet place to regroup. Hunter’s kids who Dean sees too much of himself in. He jokes that even though Sam was the one who claimed to want to take over Bobby’s old role, he and Cas ended up doing it, too.

Oh, and they’re married. Did I mention that? Because that’s also a part of it.

[sulietsexual]

I have an odd question. What do you like to see more in shows, an under developed character that you like, or a well developed character that you just don't connect with?

Probably an under-developed character whom I like, because then I can make up my own headcanons and backstory for them, and it gives me more meta-opportunities to try and figure out what motivates them.

[sulietsexual]

Angel + Not Fade Away

Short opinion: Favourite.Series. Finale. Ever.

Long opinion: NotFade Away is everything a finale should be. It’s well-written, nicely paced,contains some great characterisation and an emphasis on the show’s missionstatement and central theme. It’s a glorious episode which, yes, ends on a cliff-hanger,but what a lot of fans seem to miss when they complain about the end scene, isthat the cliff-hanger is the point.

Here’sthe thing. AtS is not BtVS. I know that sounds pretty obvious, but it’ssomething that must be kept in mind, especiallywhen watching Not Fade Away. At the end of the day, BtVS is, at its’ core, atraditional good-vs-evil story, despite its’ subversive take on many of thehorror tropes it contains. Buffy is the heroine who goes up against the forcesof darkness and always defeats them, and as such, BtVS was always going to end with her triumphing over evil in a big finalbattle, because that’s what was always at the heart of the show.

AtS,on the other hand, was never a show about the hero triumphing over evil, butrather about fighting the good fight nomatter what. Angel might be a hero, but that was never the point of hisstory. The running theme in AtS is that the fight must be fought not for glory,not for victory and certainly not for reward, but because it’s the right thingto do and one must choose to do it.BtVS is about a girl who started fighting because it was her destiny, AtS isabout a man (vampire) who chose tofight because it wasn’t his destiny, becauseit was what needed to be done.

Wealso have to keep in mind that AtS takes place on a much larger scale thanBtVS. While there’s no denying that Buffy faces some pretty threatening BigBads, on a cosmic/destiny scale Angel is a much bigger player, and AtS as ashow is much more tied to fate, the Bigger Picture and the concept of free willvs destiny than BtVS. Wolfram and Hart are much bigger players than any evilBuffy encountered, and are a more structured evil than any of the BtVS BigBads, chessmasters who move the pieces into place and ensure that evilcontinues, that it thrives. There is constant talk on AtS about the final plan,the end game, the Apocalypse andAngel’s role within it, and a huge partof Angel’s personal arc is about fighting against this design, this plan forhim.

Whichis why Not Fade Away is so damn perfect. Angel and his team don’t defeat theBig Bad, they don’t triumph, walking away victoriously. They go out fighting,pushing back against an evil machine that has existed long before them and willcontinue long after they die. They know that what they’re doing won’t make adifference in the great, grand scheme of things, but that’s the point. If nothing we do matters, then all thatmatters is what we do. This is never summed up more brilliantly than in thescene between Gunn and Anne, as Gunn asks Anne what would she do if she knewthat nothing made a difference, that evil would always be there, that theywould never win, and Anne simply replies that she’d get the new supplies overto the refuge.

Metalevels aside, Not Fade Away is a brilliant episode in itself. It’s well paced,contains some great action scenes and really pulls at the emotionalheartstrings, in particular thescenes between Angel and Connor where Connor reveals that his memories havereturned, giving some much needed closure to their relationship. The separatesequences of the team taking out their targets one-by-one are beautifully shotand help add tension and intensity to the episode, and the final shot of thefour standing members is beautiful, as are the final words. All up, I couldn’thave asked for a better finale for my favourite show.

Let’s go to work.

[thevioletcaptain]

Okay, I loved that response. Thanks for that so much, it even made me tear up a little. God, I don't even know what I'll do when this show actually ends. It's so weird to even think about. Do you think Cas will become permanently human on the show? I kind of love the idea, but I'm not sure if they'd ever make him 100% human when he's been an angel for so long.

It’s gonna be an adjustment, that’s for damn sure. Let’s not think about it until we absolutely have to… and even then, let’s not.

I’m of two minds about eventual human (or human-ish) Cas, both in terms of what I want for him and what I expect. So I guess that means I’m actually in four minds. 

That’s far too many minds for one person, and yet here we are.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Mind the first - he should choose to fall

Cas has never quite fit in as an angel, and that’s something he’s been aware of for a long time. He no longer sees the other angels as his family. His true family, his true home, is not in Heaven but on Earth.

When he was human-adjacent after the angel fall, he enjoyed many things which he’s now unable to process properly as an angel–we know this about angels in general from way back in season four, but specifically about Cas from his conversations with Hannah and Sam in season ten.

Also, it’s far too depressing to think about him staying young forever and watching Sam and Dean grow old and die. Particularly if the angels are still pissed and don’t want to let him back upstairs to visit them. 

I think about that and my heart turns into dust.

So I want him to make that choice, take that step, become human… or as close to human as a de-graced angel can be.

Mind the second - he should choose to remain an angel

Cas doesn’t need to be human to stay on Earth with his human family. They’d certainly never ask him to give up his angelhood (shut up, spellcheck, that’s definitely a word) and the guilt-spiral that would happen if he did give up his grace for them would be terrible.

Cas also needs to feel useful, and even though WE all know that he doesn’t need his powers to be useful, and that he doesn’t actually need to be useful to be worthy of friendship/love/family/whatever, he still hates to be powerless. 

That loss would be really hard for him to deal with.

Mind the third - they’ll have him make the choice to fall for himself

This is, I think, the most likely scenario. 

Like I said in my other post, I see his endgame as a hunter on the road with Dean. Though he could certainly still have that ending as an angel, there have been so many moments that hinted toward or flat out asked him about whether he wants to be a man or an angel. 

If he was going to ultimately choose to stay the same? It wouldn’t make sense to keep bringing it up.

Mind the fourth - they’ll have him make the choice to fall for ~humanity

As in, he’ll have to give up or use up all of his grace in order to save a specific person (probably Dean, lbr) or humanity as a whole.

This is possible, but it doesn’t seem quite as likely anymore.

All of which adds up to my thoughts and feelings on the matter being something like:

…which is not the gif I was looking for, but it works. I’m keeping it.

Basically, though, I do think he’s likely to end up human(ish) by the series end.

[thevioletcaptain]

I just spent the last half hour going through your dean is bi tag and it's so good. SO GOOD. do you think the show will ever blatantly say that dean is bisexual, or do you think it'll just be very un-subtle subtext forever?

That tag is certainly a nice place to kill some time :P

Something I’ve always believed--based on a zillion little things I’ve spoken about too many times to bother rehashing, though all of them can be found in the aforementioned tag--is that when Kripke created Dean Winchester, he created him as a closeted bisexual character, without the intent to ever bring him out of the closet. This is also in line with literally everything Jensen has ever done with his portrayal of Dean, and his knee-jerk remarks when asked blunt questions at conventions. Jensen knows the subtext is there, and he plays into it. He knows about it to the extent that he riffs on it in multiple blooper reels.

When the show started airing in 2005, forever-subtextually-closeted Dean was about all any of us could expect.

Things have changed, though. The world has changed. They don’t have to leave him in the closet indefinitely.

There have been enough instances of Dean slowly coming to terms with hitherto suppressed and repressed parts of himself in recent seasons that it certainly seems like they’re gearing up to bring him out eventually.

I mean... they made God canonically bisexual when literally everything else about him for the whole time he was back was like being beaten with a sign that said “look how much he and Dean have in common”

He wore Dean’s dead guy robe--which has enough bisexual subtext to be it’s own meta. He nested in the bunker. He watched Dean’s porn. They bonded over bacon. He was obnoxious about his music. Amara was using Dean as a stand in for Chuck. Literally everything about Chuck when he came back in S11 was a big old Dean mirror, and they made him canonically bisexual.

Let me repeat: they made the Judeo-Christian God canonically bisexual. That’s quite a statement, imo. That’s kinda playing with fire.

If they can do that, and do that for no discernible reason beyond one more way to make him a Dean mirror, then they’re probably out of fucks to give wrt “offending” delicate dudebro viewers who can’t see past performing!Dean to the actual guy underneath.

I rambled, didn’t I?

Sorry.

Basically, to actually answer your question--yeah I think it’s possible, even likely, that they’ll make his bisexuality explicitly canon. 

It’s already implicitly canon (see: Dean, Crowley, and the male triplets they did extraordinary things with)

But I do think it’ll stay as super unsubtle subtext until the last possible second.

[sulietsexual]

Buffy + Restless

Short opinion: Dreamscan be pretty cool.

Long opinion: Tbh, Idon’t have the same love for Restless that a lot of the fandom does. That beingsaid, I would never deny that it is a brilliant episode, with some spectacularcharacter insights, and on a meta level, it’s probably unmatched in the ‘Verse.I think, in order to break down this episode, I’m going to have to godream-to-dream, starting with …

Willow

Willow’sdream is probably the most straight forward and easy to interpret, as it dealswith Willow’s ongoing theme of finding herself and shedding her formerpersonas. As I spoke about in a previous ask, Willow is a character who neverseems at ease with herself, whether she’s speaking from an internal POV orreferring to a Doppelganger or past self. This episode seems to emphasize thisdiscomfort, with the repeated viewpoint that Willow is wearing a “costume” andBuffy eventually tearing it off to reveal the Willow from Season 1 underneath.

Atthis point in the series, Willow is at a crossroads regarding her identity, notquite the confident/dark Willow of the later seasons, but no longer the shyWillow of Season 1. Willow’s dream sequence, however, shows that part of herstill retains her early-seasons persona, and that in her transition from highschool to College, she has not quite managed to shed her former personality,and is scared that other people will see through her new-found confidence andreveal her for the timid, mousy girl she believes she once was, tearing awayher “costume” as Buffy does in the dream.

I’veseen theories floated that the “costume” is a reference to Willow’s sexuality,but I’m inclined to disagree, mostly because Willow never seems to strugglewith her sexuality. She accepts her attraction to Tara readily, and her onlysource of conflict comes not from struggling to accept her sexuality butstruggling to choose between two people whom she loves and is attracted to.That being said, there are allusions to Willow’s evolving sexuality within herdream, such as Oz’s reappearance, the poem she paints on Tara’s back and herimagining Oz and Tara as a couple in the classroom sequence. The interpretationof these events will depend on how you view Willow’s sexuality, but it’s mybelief that initially Willow was meant to be bisexual (and I still headcanonher as such) and her fear of Tara and Oz hooking up and leaving her behind isindicative of this.

Xander

Xander’sdream is a little more complicated than Willow’s, at least on the surface. Theevents of Xander’s dream vary, from his Mrs Robinson-esque fantasy of Joyce, tohis Apocalypse Now sequence featuring Snyder, and the themes of Xander’s dreamget a little buried, but after a few re-watches, they emerge. Essentially,Xander’s dream continues to explore his ongoing themes of the season, focusingon his belief that he is getting left behind, his continued fear of and abusefrom his parents and his need for familial relationships.

Xandergets a bit lost during Season 4 and definitely disconnects from his friendsover the course of the season. Being the only one not to go to college (whichI’m convinced is not through lack of smarts, but from a lack of belief inhimself stemming from years of being told he’s not good enough or smart enough)Xander spends a lot of the season feeling left out and disconnected, as hewatches Willow and Buffy evolve and drift away from him. His dream in Restlesscertainly seems to indicate this. I believe that the scene with Willow and Tarain the back of the van indicates not only Xander’s sexist attitude and fetishisationof Willow’s budding sexuality, but his fear of being left behind as she movesforward in a new direction, as indicated when Willow and Tara offer to let himjoin, yet he can’t reach them as he climbs through the back of the van.

Xander’s need and desire for familial relationships is alsoshown through his interactions with Buffy and Giles, first with him trying towarn Buffy about her surroundings and Buffy responding by calling him “BigBrother” and then with Giles’ statement that Spike is “like a son” to him andXander’s response of “Yeah, I was into that for a while”. Both of theseinteractions are brief, but clearly show Xander’s desires, and how he viewsBuffy as a sister and Giles as a father figure (there is so much more meta tobe written about Xander and Giles’ relationship and how sad it actually is dueto Xander’s obvious need for a father figure coupled with Giles’ thinly-veileddisdain for Xander).

As with Season 6’s Tabula Rasa, Xander’s interactions withAnya in the dream are probably the least personal, indicating even at thisearly stage in the relationship that he is not overly attached to or fond ofher. Her casual mention about getting back into vengeance could indicate alatent fear Xander has of what could happen if Anya ever regained her powers,and her trying to communicate with him while speaking French could indicate alack of communication within their actual relationship.

Running throughout Xander’s entire dream is the underlyingthreat that comes from his family. One often-overlooked part of Xander’s lifeis the fact that his parents – in particular his father – are abusive. Thereare many hints dropped that thisabuse is physical as well as emotional, and the climax of Xander’s dreamcertainly seems to confirm this, with his father literally pulling Xander’sheart out. Xander’s desire to escape his family but inability to break awayfrom them (“That’s not the way out”) is illustrated throughout his entiredream, and sets up his Season 5 storyline of emancipation and eventual escapefrom his family life.

Giles

Despite being the shortest sequence, Giles’ dream is possiblythe hardest to deconstruct, as not a lot is revealed in it. While Willow’s dreamis an almost straightforward study in character evolution and Xander’s dream clearlyunderlines the character’s desire to escape his biological family and form hisown family away from them, Giles’ dream is not as easily labelled.

Buffy appears as both a child and an adult in Giles’ dream,indicating his conflicting feelings towards her as a human and a Slayer, andclearly demonstrating the fatherly love and concern he holds for her. When shesuccessfully “slays” the vampire during the game at the carnival, Giles’ retortof “I don’t have any treats for you” could be indicative of Buffy’s lack oftraining during the season, illustrating how she has not been coming to Gilesfor the usual advice and guidance.

More intriguing is Olivia’s appearance in the dream, as shefirst appears pregnant and then weeping over an empty stroller, indicating thatshe may either have broached the subject of commitment and children with Gilesand been turned down, or that there actually was a child conceived, which was either lost or aborted. Eitherway, Olivia’s appearance comes across as unsatisfactory, as there is literallyno follow up to her appearances, in the dream or in reality. She disappearsafter Season 4, never to be seen or spoken of again.

Meta levels aside, Giles’ dream contains the coolest part ofthe entire episode, The Exposition Song, which is hilarious and gives us aglimpse of what’s to come in OMWF. Giles’ dream is also the first to reveal whothe entity stalking them is, and it’s fitting that Giles, as a Watcher, is thefirst one to realise that it’s the First Slayer.

Buffy

While Buffy’s dream contains some reflection regarding herarc in Season 4, for the most part it is actually laying the foundation for herarc in Season 5, with some subtle hints dropped regarding Dawn and herinteractions with the First Slayer sparking her desire to delve into her Slayerroots.

Joyce’s appearance in Buffy’s dream seems to represent acouple of things for Buffy. First, it could be interpreted as Buffy’s distancefrom her mother over Season 4, as Buffy moves away from home and startscollege, gaining her first taste of independence. While in the dream Buffyappears concerned for her mother, she is also distracted by people around her,and wanders off, leaving Joyce trapped, which I believe could be foreshadowingfor Joyce’s illness, and Buffy’s concern and fear for her mother, coupled withher “distractions” in the form of Glory, Dawn and Riley. The physical wallbetween Buffy and her mother becomes metaphorical in Season 5, as Joyce’sillness takes her away from her daughter and forces Buffy into something of arole-reversal with her mother.

Riley’s appearance in Buffy’s dream is surprisinglyimpersonal, with the focus being on his role in the Initiative coupled with abelief that Buffy is a “killer”. The latter is indicative of Buffy’s own mindframe, but it’s interesting that Riley’s appearance is tied not to Buffy’s andhis relationship, but to the institution which got in between them and wouldultimately take him away from her. As with Anya’s appearance in Xander’s dream,Riley’s appearance in Buffy’s dream only serves to underline the lack ofconnection and love between them, and could be seen as foreshadowing for Riley’sdisconnect from Buffy due to her Slayer-ness.

The most interesting part of Buffy’s dreams are herinteractions with the First Slayer in the desert, as these scenes really set up her arc in Season 5 ofdiscovering her Slayer roots. As the First Slayer insists that the Slayer mustwalk alone, Buffy reasserts that she will not be defined or ruled by her Slayer-ness,that she is connected to the world through her friends and her family. This isparticularly interesting, given her disconnect from both friends and familyover the course of Season 5 and well into Season 6, and watched in hindsight,this interaction with the First Slayer underlines the extent to which Buffychanges and disconnects in later seasons.

Overall, Restless is a great episode, maybe not quite living up to the hype whichsurrounds it, but a solid meta-based romp, exploring the core fourcharacters whom we have been with from the beginning of the show. Funny,insightful and unsettling, it’s easy to see why Restless is often listedamongst the best BtVS has to offer.

I wear the cheese, itdoes not wear me.