Ch-ch-ch-changes
Feb. 18th, 2003 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynSpoilers for Buffy episode Get It Done, 2/18 -- warning!
Also warning for strange and nonsensical musings
I’ve been thinking a lot about changes lately, and the fannish disposition of not really liking or embracing changes to characters. It’s seemed like one of the few constants in fandom -- we fall in love with characters as they are, and want them to stay somewhat similar to that character we fell in love with, for as long as the show continues. Most shows don’t last that long, so you often don’t have to endure watching a beloved character mutate into something you don’t appreciate quite as much or lose the appeal that made you keep up with the program. But programs like X-Files, or now Buffy, that succeed for a certain length of time, run up against the problem of such enormous changes to the characters, and with such an involved fan base, they risk the ire of the fans. When you move a character in directions most people don’t want them to go, the bitterness is amazing.
I think last year we saw that with both Willow and Buffy; the shame of Willow’s story was that they tried to couch it in that ridiculous addiction to magic (rather than a more sensible addiction to power, which at least could have been believable), and in Buffy’s it was the "wrong" relationship with Spike. Somehow we were supposed to accept the changes to Buffy post-resurrection as making her an unhappy adult with an unhealthy sexual relationship to a bad boy; this made her seem not so much like an unhappy, confused adult but a screaming bitch more often than not. I never felt they did right by her changes then; now, I feel like they’re doing right by her changes. Last week, Buffy was more realistically adult than she’s ever been, when she argued with Giles. Now this week she’s done the hard thing by being angry and kicking everyone’s ass in the most unpleasant way possible -- a miserable adult side of her that is far more realistically grown up with its bitterness and harshness than bad sex could ever have hoped to be.
But mostly what I think about when I think about the changes in characters and the animosity in some fans about those changes is Spike, largely because no one else has changed as much as he has. This episode proved just how far he’s come, how far he’s fallen, and how far he has yet to go to mesh the two sides of his personality now. And I know a lot of fans have been disgusted with the show mostly because of him and what he’s become -- quiet, soft, incompetent, unhappy, empty. Personally, I’ve only been liking the story more and more each week because of Spike’s changes, and how Buffy is integrating those changes into her picture of him. Seeing him tonight with his old coat on and the cigarette, well, it made me laugh out loud. He’s got his old uniform on, and he becomes the familiar.
But strangely, while I enjoyed the familiarity and had just been bemoaning the fact that he was once again getting his ass kicked and how tiring it was, I have been revelling in all the changes to Spike the past few years, and haven’t minded this toned-down version. The chip was different, the love for Buffy was different... he gets to continually change and morph and grow and circle back again in ways no other character has ever been able to on this show. I think it’s just glorious. I've blathered here ceaselessly since I started this journal about my theory that this year is totally about searching for identity in all the main characters; Spike's massive changes this year, and in the past few years, makes me think he's the identity-search poster boy.
Partly it’s because we’ve had glimpses of him now and again, as he slowly let old Spike creep back out. Last week when he called Andrew "the little boy," and even before that, there was still that bit of him that couldn’t be tamped down completely by the misery of his circumstances. And that may be precisely why I actually don’t mind the changes in Spike this year -- because you can never really take those things out of him.
Spike is so unique within this universe that there aren’t really any superlatives or absolutes you can find that do him justice -- he’s just unlike any other vampire, unlike any other character. And he’s changed so much, back and forth, since the first moment we met him, that to my eyes, watching him change yet again this year by coping with his soul and his rejection from Buffy and all of that, we’re just seeing more of his journey and what makes him the most fascinating character on the show next to Buffy.
In some ways, he’s the one who’s most been allowed to change and grow and evolve besides Buffy, maybe even more than Willow or Xander, who recently have begun to be more like their old selves, only wiser and steadier. Even with the coat tonight, and even slipping into her bitter, angry-at-being-stuck-with-chosenness self, Buffy and Spike are the most different, the most consistently changed, characters on the show.
And because Spike has changed from what many people fell for initially, they resent what ME’s done to him. Buffy’s changed in ways that aren’t always pleasant -- in the ways we change as adults in the world of work and families and painful, grownup responsibilities. Folks in my age cohort probably know what I mean by this. They see new Spike as bad Spike because he isn’t old Spike, he’s missing the trappings of the things they fell for in the character, and change isn’t welcome for them.
Which is pretty typical of us fan types. I remember once having a discussion about a type of story I like, what I call "winter of our lives" stories, where characters reunite much later in life, and second chances ensue, where they’re older and wiser. I mused on the fact that so few people like those types of stories, and few people write them, and my friend said, "well, fans don’t like to imagine their characters differently than how they were on the show, what they fell in love with." And that makes sense, I mean, it’s what we’re here for and what we stick around for.
The thing about shows that last this long though, is that you get that change in front of you, that years-long growth of the characters, and by their nature they can’t remain static. We’re being sort of forced into seeing these changes before our eyes, and if the way the characters change isn’t to our liking, we get frustrated and angry. I feel lucky, myself. Spike putting on the old coat, pulling out that vestige of who he used to be to save the day, is funny and wonderful, but I didn’t need it that much -- I’ve enjoyed watching him change because he’s such an extraordinary character with so many facets that each angle fascinates me. I haven’t really been disappointed by the trials he’s going through or the sides of him I’ve seen.
And I don’t mind what’s happening to Buffy, either, because I think now she really is at a level where we can see all the things she’s endured coming together to create a new Buffy. I don’t necessarily need them to go back to their old selves to be satisfied, but I think I’m in the minority on this. I loved seeing this old Spike come out, but what I hope is that we’ll also get to see it integrated with the newer one. And in some ways, I don’t see them as new characters at all -- I think their growth has been in becoming what their core essences are. Everything that they’re becoming now is who they really are at heart.
Now, I wish I could say that about some of the other stories developing. I’m still on the fence about Woods, I don’t like that gleam in his eye, though I enjoyed that little testosterone show with Spike in the basement. If he can’t separate what the FE is telling him from what he’s seeing with Spike, then that’s not so much of the good.
Overall I thought the episode was a strong one, and definitely set the stage for a lot of what’s happening with Buffy’s newfound knowledge and with Spike, Wood, and the SITs, not to mention that Willow is confronting her fears about magic now and working forward. Everyone was on their toes and really strong. Definitely a good one, but I’m mostly curious to see just how far back they want to step with Spike and Buffy in order to mine the fondness for old elements of character.
Also warning for strange and nonsensical musings
I’ve been thinking a lot about changes lately, and the fannish disposition of not really liking or embracing changes to characters. It’s seemed like one of the few constants in fandom -- we fall in love with characters as they are, and want them to stay somewhat similar to that character we fell in love with, for as long as the show continues. Most shows don’t last that long, so you often don’t have to endure watching a beloved character mutate into something you don’t appreciate quite as much or lose the appeal that made you keep up with the program. But programs like X-Files, or now Buffy, that succeed for a certain length of time, run up against the problem of such enormous changes to the characters, and with such an involved fan base, they risk the ire of the fans. When you move a character in directions most people don’t want them to go, the bitterness is amazing.
I think last year we saw that with both Willow and Buffy; the shame of Willow’s story was that they tried to couch it in that ridiculous addiction to magic (rather than a more sensible addiction to power, which at least could have been believable), and in Buffy’s it was the "wrong" relationship with Spike. Somehow we were supposed to accept the changes to Buffy post-resurrection as making her an unhappy adult with an unhealthy sexual relationship to a bad boy; this made her seem not so much like an unhappy, confused adult but a screaming bitch more often than not. I never felt they did right by her changes then; now, I feel like they’re doing right by her changes. Last week, Buffy was more realistically adult than she’s ever been, when she argued with Giles. Now this week she’s done the hard thing by being angry and kicking everyone’s ass in the most unpleasant way possible -- a miserable adult side of her that is far more realistically grown up with its bitterness and harshness than bad sex could ever have hoped to be.
But mostly what I think about when I think about the changes in characters and the animosity in some fans about those changes is Spike, largely because no one else has changed as much as he has. This episode proved just how far he’s come, how far he’s fallen, and how far he has yet to go to mesh the two sides of his personality now. And I know a lot of fans have been disgusted with the show mostly because of him and what he’s become -- quiet, soft, incompetent, unhappy, empty. Personally, I’ve only been liking the story more and more each week because of Spike’s changes, and how Buffy is integrating those changes into her picture of him. Seeing him tonight with his old coat on and the cigarette, well, it made me laugh out loud. He’s got his old uniform on, and he becomes the familiar.
But strangely, while I enjoyed the familiarity and had just been bemoaning the fact that he was once again getting his ass kicked and how tiring it was, I have been revelling in all the changes to Spike the past few years, and haven’t minded this toned-down version. The chip was different, the love for Buffy was different... he gets to continually change and morph and grow and circle back again in ways no other character has ever been able to on this show. I think it’s just glorious. I've blathered here ceaselessly since I started this journal about my theory that this year is totally about searching for identity in all the main characters; Spike's massive changes this year, and in the past few years, makes me think he's the identity-search poster boy.
Partly it’s because we’ve had glimpses of him now and again, as he slowly let old Spike creep back out. Last week when he called Andrew "the little boy," and even before that, there was still that bit of him that couldn’t be tamped down completely by the misery of his circumstances. And that may be precisely why I actually don’t mind the changes in Spike this year -- because you can never really take those things out of him.
Spike is so unique within this universe that there aren’t really any superlatives or absolutes you can find that do him justice -- he’s just unlike any other vampire, unlike any other character. And he’s changed so much, back and forth, since the first moment we met him, that to my eyes, watching him change yet again this year by coping with his soul and his rejection from Buffy and all of that, we’re just seeing more of his journey and what makes him the most fascinating character on the show next to Buffy.
In some ways, he’s the one who’s most been allowed to change and grow and evolve besides Buffy, maybe even more than Willow or Xander, who recently have begun to be more like their old selves, only wiser and steadier. Even with the coat tonight, and even slipping into her bitter, angry-at-being-stuck-with-chosenness self, Buffy and Spike are the most different, the most consistently changed, characters on the show.
And because Spike has changed from what many people fell for initially, they resent what ME’s done to him. Buffy’s changed in ways that aren’t always pleasant -- in the ways we change as adults in the world of work and families and painful, grownup responsibilities. Folks in my age cohort probably know what I mean by this. They see new Spike as bad Spike because he isn’t old Spike, he’s missing the trappings of the things they fell for in the character, and change isn’t welcome for them.
Which is pretty typical of us fan types. I remember once having a discussion about a type of story I like, what I call "winter of our lives" stories, where characters reunite much later in life, and second chances ensue, where they’re older and wiser. I mused on the fact that so few people like those types of stories, and few people write them, and my friend said, "well, fans don’t like to imagine their characters differently than how they were on the show, what they fell in love with." And that makes sense, I mean, it’s what we’re here for and what we stick around for.
The thing about shows that last this long though, is that you get that change in front of you, that years-long growth of the characters, and by their nature they can’t remain static. We’re being sort of forced into seeing these changes before our eyes, and if the way the characters change isn’t to our liking, we get frustrated and angry. I feel lucky, myself. Spike putting on the old coat, pulling out that vestige of who he used to be to save the day, is funny and wonderful, but I didn’t need it that much -- I’ve enjoyed watching him change because he’s such an extraordinary character with so many facets that each angle fascinates me. I haven’t really been disappointed by the trials he’s going through or the sides of him I’ve seen.
And I don’t mind what’s happening to Buffy, either, because I think now she really is at a level where we can see all the things she’s endured coming together to create a new Buffy. I don’t necessarily need them to go back to their old selves to be satisfied, but I think I’m in the minority on this. I loved seeing this old Spike come out, but what I hope is that we’ll also get to see it integrated with the newer one. And in some ways, I don’t see them as new characters at all -- I think their growth has been in becoming what their core essences are. Everything that they’re becoming now is who they really are at heart.
Now, I wish I could say that about some of the other stories developing. I’m still on the fence about Woods, I don’t like that gleam in his eye, though I enjoyed that little testosterone show with Spike in the basement. If he can’t separate what the FE is telling him from what he’s seeing with Spike, then that’s not so much of the good.
Overall I thought the episode was a strong one, and definitely set the stage for a lot of what’s happening with Buffy’s newfound knowledge and with Spike, Wood, and the SITs, not to mention that Willow is confronting her fears about magic now and working forward. Everyone was on their toes and really strong. Definitely a good one, but I’m mostly curious to see just how far back they want to step with Spike and Buffy in order to mine the fondness for old elements of character.
