And another thing!
Nov. 7th, 2002 04:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynSpoilerin' for Buffy episode Him, from 11/5 if you haven't seen it yet
Something's been bugging me about this episode since I watched it, as well as been interesting me, in a good way, and I didn't know how to articulate either thing for awhile without sounding like one of the bitching Buffy bashers.
While I liked a lot of the episode, I'm really kind of annoyed that they had the whole Spike's-got-a-soul conversation with the Scoobs off screen, and everyone's all ho-hum about it. Because, frankly, ME dropped the ball of their own creation -- they're the ones who smacked six ton weights on our heads over and over last year to tell us that soul = good and no soul = evil, even when a creature, by choice, tries to be good. As far as we know on Buffy, Angel was always "the vampire with a soul", implicityly stating that this was a unique situation. On Angel the series, people often refer to him that way, as if he was well-known as *the* vampire with a soul, that there were no others (and of course, now we know that they talk about him in the chatty rooms).
It was never stated explicity, but the implication was strong from the very beginning. So now, we have another vampire with a soul, one who didn't get it from a curse, one who chose to get it to be good enough to earn the love of someone he loved, and... apparently? No big whoop. Business as usual. And he's crazy, to boot.
To me, it's a crime that this is nothing for a couple reasons, not all of them centered on me being all Spike-lovin'. One, it misses a huge wealth of dramatic or even comedic possibilities. Xander, especially, because he's the one who reacted so strongly in the negative to Angel at all times in the show, soul or not, and I'd think Buffy telling him about it would be laden with possibilities (maybe even, if we were lucky, a "What? How!? What?" response). Dawn, too, because of her mixed-up feelings. And Willow, maybe most of all, because she could potentially feel more like Spike than anyone understands. I love good, really emotional drama, and I feel very cheated by the fact that this all happened off camera and no one seems interested.
Second, we're missing some telling character details. How Buffy would tell them, and how they would integrate this news into their worldview of vampires and souls and demons and killing, could show us a great deal of who these characters are becoming. What words Buffy would use to explain would show a lot about her that we haven't been getting to see in the balancing pencils on your head characterization she's been stuck with recently. Buffy is so full of complex emotions that she hides or struggles with, and this shorts her character a lot. And how does it integrate into the Scooby worldview? Because at the very least, I'd think they'd want to know how it could happen, and what it would mean for the future (could the big evil that's brewing have given it to him and be using him for its purposes? Can any vampire get a soul, and therefore the slayer can't stake them? What does it mean to their past actions?) There are tons of questions I could see them asking (as Anya did when she saw into him and asked him how he did it), and I just feel so let down that no one is asking any of these questions. If Giles comes back to Sunnydale and goes, "oh, well done, old chap, I say" and that's it, I'll scream. Why didn't Buffy pick up the phone after Beneath You and positively beg Giles to help her figure out what to do? This is such a signicant action, utterly unprecedented, and we got nothing. If ME retcons it later and says that there's lots of vampires with souls, so it's no big deal, then there's nothing we can say, but the universe they created says this is rare and significant, and I feel cheated that we got a (admittedly enjoyable) comedy ep instead of something dramatically charged.
But back to Dawn and her reactions and questions. This was one of the things I liked best in the story. Since she was introduced, Dawn's often served as the voice and eyes of the audience. She's the one who has to tell Buffy that Spike has the hots for her, she's the one asking questions of what it means to be human or non-human, and now she's the one saying "why does it matter if he has a soul? how does that change things?" And these are vital questions, ones which, oddly, the rest of the group is *not* asking. She's like a little Greek Chorus, only with questions instead of explains it all for you voiceovers.
Her conversation with Buffy was illuminating for the main theme of the ep, about love and illusions and trust, and also about Buffy's relationships with others. Dawn's the truth-teller, the one who sees what's going on. I loved that she asked the questions about Spike and the soul, because she's the one who has the most potential to be changed by what he's done, after Buffy. She sees him in a way that's always been different from how others see him, and she looks at the Scoobies differently, too.
Anyways. I love the Dawn stuff, her functioning as our stand-in, and saying, hey, what the hell? Because an awful lot of us have been asking those questions. I just wish that she didn't have to ask them, you know? We missed out on something really cool, and I'm a little bit cranky about that. So now I'll go watch Spike tackle Buffy and steal her bazooka again to make me smile.
Something's been bugging me about this episode since I watched it, as well as been interesting me, in a good way, and I didn't know how to articulate either thing for awhile without sounding like one of the bitching Buffy bashers.
While I liked a lot of the episode, I'm really kind of annoyed that they had the whole Spike's-got-a-soul conversation with the Scoobs off screen, and everyone's all ho-hum about it. Because, frankly, ME dropped the ball of their own creation -- they're the ones who smacked six ton weights on our heads over and over last year to tell us that soul = good and no soul = evil, even when a creature, by choice, tries to be good. As far as we know on Buffy, Angel was always "the vampire with a soul", implicityly stating that this was a unique situation. On Angel the series, people often refer to him that way, as if he was well-known as *the* vampire with a soul, that there were no others (and of course, now we know that they talk about him in the chatty rooms).
It was never stated explicity, but the implication was strong from the very beginning. So now, we have another vampire with a soul, one who didn't get it from a curse, one who chose to get it to be good enough to earn the love of someone he loved, and... apparently? No big whoop. Business as usual. And he's crazy, to boot.
To me, it's a crime that this is nothing for a couple reasons, not all of them centered on me being all Spike-lovin'. One, it misses a huge wealth of dramatic or even comedic possibilities. Xander, especially, because he's the one who reacted so strongly in the negative to Angel at all times in the show, soul or not, and I'd think Buffy telling him about it would be laden with possibilities (maybe even, if we were lucky, a "What? How!? What?" response). Dawn, too, because of her mixed-up feelings. And Willow, maybe most of all, because she could potentially feel more like Spike than anyone understands. I love good, really emotional drama, and I feel very cheated by the fact that this all happened off camera and no one seems interested.
Second, we're missing some telling character details. How Buffy would tell them, and how they would integrate this news into their worldview of vampires and souls and demons and killing, could show us a great deal of who these characters are becoming. What words Buffy would use to explain would show a lot about her that we haven't been getting to see in the balancing pencils on your head characterization she's been stuck with recently. Buffy is so full of complex emotions that she hides or struggles with, and this shorts her character a lot. And how does it integrate into the Scooby worldview? Because at the very least, I'd think they'd want to know how it could happen, and what it would mean for the future (could the big evil that's brewing have given it to him and be using him for its purposes? Can any vampire get a soul, and therefore the slayer can't stake them? What does it mean to their past actions?) There are tons of questions I could see them asking (as Anya did when she saw into him and asked him how he did it), and I just feel so let down that no one is asking any of these questions. If Giles comes back to Sunnydale and goes, "oh, well done, old chap, I say" and that's it, I'll scream. Why didn't Buffy pick up the phone after Beneath You and positively beg Giles to help her figure out what to do? This is such a signicant action, utterly unprecedented, and we got nothing. If ME retcons it later and says that there's lots of vampires with souls, so it's no big deal, then there's nothing we can say, but the universe they created says this is rare and significant, and I feel cheated that we got a (admittedly enjoyable) comedy ep instead of something dramatically charged.
But back to Dawn and her reactions and questions. This was one of the things I liked best in the story. Since she was introduced, Dawn's often served as the voice and eyes of the audience. She's the one who has to tell Buffy that Spike has the hots for her, she's the one asking questions of what it means to be human or non-human, and now she's the one saying "why does it matter if he has a soul? how does that change things?" And these are vital questions, ones which, oddly, the rest of the group is *not* asking. She's like a little Greek Chorus, only with questions instead of explains it all for you voiceovers.
Her conversation with Buffy was illuminating for the main theme of the ep, about love and illusions and trust, and also about Buffy's relationships with others. Dawn's the truth-teller, the one who sees what's going on. I loved that she asked the questions about Spike and the soul, because she's the one who has the most potential to be changed by what he's done, after Buffy. She sees him in a way that's always been different from how others see him, and she looks at the Scoobies differently, too.
Anyways. I love the Dawn stuff, her functioning as our stand-in, and saying, hey, what the hell? Because an awful lot of us have been asking those questions. I just wish that she didn't have to ask them, you know? We missed out on something really cool, and I'm a little bit cranky about that. So now I'll go watch Spike tackle Buffy and steal her bazooka again to make me smile.
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Date: 2002-11-08 10:21 am (UTC)That would explain the lack of reaction from people, perhaps. If it's not about the soul, but the behavior, from the Scooby's PoV, the soul itself is big whoop unless it shows in changed behavior. Then you say, look at him last year, and they never give him a break, and! Well, yes, but... I'm probably not the best person to speak, since I'm not a big Spike fan, but from my PoV, so much of what Spike did last year was motivated not so much by selflessness (although that definitely increased over the year), but by his love for Buffy. Sure, this is a big improvement over not doing good at all, but even now, I don't get the sense that Spike really gets good for the sake of good. He's (presumably) on a journey towards redemption, and he's made big steps, but it's not the having of a soul, it's what you do with it. It's not that easy, and I think (although I hate, hate, hate the retcon that he always wanted the soul) he thought it would be simpler. Just being human, having a soul, doesn't redeem you, or make you a good person. You have to do that through your choices, day after day, moment by moment. Willow and Anya have shown a consciousness of wrongdoing of their own actions that I haven't seen from Spike yet. He didn't want a soul to be a better person; he wanted it to give Buffy "what she deserves." When you say he did it to be "good enough," I see an irony, because yes, I agree, but I don't know that for Spike being "good enough" means "being a person who wants to do good."
Beyond that, though, there hasn't been sufficient interaction between Spike and the Scoobies yet for me to say that it's not an issue at all. Maybe having Spike in with Xander will provide more opportunity for both us and the Scoobies to perceive changes in Spike, and give you more of the drama you want? I think, though, it's just simple truth that they'll probably never grant Spike the same level of opportunity and quickness to forgive they offer Willow and Anya, simply because of the differing circumstances, even with Anya.
And I think Xander is in a different position vis-a-vis Angel and Spike. For Angel, much of his antagonism came from jealousy about Buffy, not from experience of Angel's badness. Not so much with the jealousy of Spike, there, more with the knowing what Spike's done in the past, and some of it not so past. For them, the attempted rape is simply confirmation that Spike hadn't changed, because they're not interested in seeing anything from Spike's side. Honesty compels me to admit I am kind of in the Scooby camp on this, but I try to see all sides.
Willow, now, she's shown that empathy with Anya, but Anya's also showing visible regret for her current choices, that she's not the person she was. Maybe from Willow's PoV, she hasn't seen that from Spike? I think she doesn't have that much energy to spare for Spike, too, since she's still trying to figure out where her own life is, right now.
And again, I know I need to see more sense of awareness on Spike's part that he's not changing just for someone else, but because it's a change for the good. I'm not quite there with him, yet. I also think that realistically, Spike just isn't that central a figure for the Scoobies. We're not seeing much reaction about him because he's just not much on their minds, with everything else. This is something that should also change with him right there with Xander again.
Mostly, though, I think there simply hasn't been enough showtime yet, or the right kind of focus, to deal with the things you're wanting. Maybe next week!