Tell it like it is
May. 7th, 2003 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynReally big-ass spoilers for Buffy May 6, Touched -- really! Spoilers!
Lots and lots of spoilery discussion!!
Boy, did we get a glimpse of Old Spike in this episode. The Spike who tells it like it is, the one who says the things no one else will say, the one who challenges and confronts others and hits their buttons, who zeroes in on their weaknesses and issues. The one who has no problem kicking ass and taking names, and can then turn around and be loving and adoring to his girl. Oh, that the rest of the episode could have been as good as the Spike bits.
I’ve been saying all year that they played their Big Bad card too early, and I think this ep really shows how detrimental that is to carrying through the plot. If things are moving to the point the First says they are, if they’re really in an imperative state, then I’m not sure why they’re standing still, waiting for stuff to happen. I guess to give everyone except Spike and Buffy a chance to have sex... but still. A lot of this was annoying filler, especially that stuff at the beginning with the arguing and the collective decision-making process (anyone who’s ever worked at a cooperative or collective would know there is no such thing as decision-making in a collective). What bugged me was twofold: that everyone feels free to diss Buffy now that she’s gone, including Faith, whom everyone gave such props to last week for not trying to hurt Buffy or undermine her deliberately; and the fact that none of them seemed to understand that they simply traded one slayer leader for another, and that this slayer leader, saying the exact same things (while dissing Buffy out of the other side of her mouth) like “follow and do it my way,” isn’t as competent as the old one at making decisions. That’s not Faith’s strong suit — she’s not, as Spike said of himself, known for being a thinker. She’s a natural reactor, and that’s her power (and her weakness). It was especially galling to see PodGiles congratulate her on her leadership when she was not only doing the exact same as Buffy, but not really making good solid strategic decisions based on intellect and experience. I wanted to throw things at the screen. Though I did enjoy the fact that she showed her true colors to Wood when he thought he was in good with her after the humping, and she just dismissed him.
I also despised Giles’s attempts to mollify Dawn by saying it was the right thing to do. How could it be the right thing to leave the First’s greatest enemy out on her own, broken and despairing, to be potentially killed — or worse? What the HELL is that man thinking, and what is ME thinking by trying to convince us this is our Giles? So my god, was I glad when Spike just stuck that knife in and twisted it, and as badly as it hurts to think of Giles being browbeaten, I don’t know that Spike is inherently wrong about what he’s saying. Maybe that really is what’s going on in Giles’s mind right now. But probably even worse than PodGiles is Kennedy, quite possibly the single worst “good” character they’ve ever had on the show. Please, give us Riley back if it means getting rid of this horrid girl. I was so excited, thinking that she was out sulking, and that she might get offed. Then I remembered the plan, and was disappointed. I’ve never wished so hard for a character to die horribly than I have for this girl.
What’s worse, maybe, than just her relentless awfulness is that not only are the rest of the SITs not that much more pleasant (if Kennedy dies, can Rona go with her? Did ME really think these girls were likable and interesting?) and not worth all this anguish and concern, but she is a terrible, terrible actress whose every line sounds the same. It doesn’t matter whether she’s speaking with tender love for Willow or trying to be tough girl “yo, Faith,” she sounds exactly the same, has the same monotone delivery and annoying lack of affect. And there’s absolutely no chemistry with Alyson Hannigan. While I wouldn’t say that AH and Amber Benson were as chemistry-laden as other couples on the show, especially compared to the chemistry that AH had with Seth Green and Nick Brendan, they did have a connection and you could feel something wonderful between the two actors when they were on screen. Their scenes had oomph even when all they did was gaze longingly, while this sex scene with Kennedy had about as much passion and intensity as wet concrete. I wish that the Spuffy scenes hadn’t been so intertwined with the passionless writhings of them, and Anya and Xander (I kept wanting to scream, watch out for his eye! when she was fondling his face), and DeadWood and Faith. Although I was amused by the conversation between Anya and Xander, because it reminded me of Jeff Goldblum’s Big Chill character talking about how he was sure people were having sex all around them.
After finally getting to a place where I liked Faith, it was hard to be annoyed with her again. It was frustrating to see how quickly she was willing to ditch her support of Buffy, and even when the Mayor laid it on the line — showed her exactly what her weakness was and poured that evil honey in her ear, she still didn’t see what she was doing herself or recognize how easily she’d fallen into a trap. I was thrilled that Spike kicked her ass and called her on her own deep-seated ambitions, and I wonder just whether she’s going to understand next week that she isn’t half the leader Buffy could be with her support. I loved the little excitement in Buffy when Spike told her he’d hit Faith. Now if Spike could just do that to Kennedy.
I’m going to treasure the scenes with Buffy and Spike, every moment, for a long time. I have a huge thing for intimacy — not a kink thing, I don’t think of it that simplistically. For me it’s a larger thing about trust and openness, a willingness to give oneself over to another, and this whole portion of the episode was about an intimacy between the two that was never achieved in all their time together last year. This is what I write about, what drives every story I’ve ever written. Buffy says it when she says they never connected deeply — and now, they have. She let herself need someone, and Spike let himself be needed in a different way than he’s used to, and it was heartbreakingly gorgeous. I’ve never really had that kind of intimacy with anyone, and so I tend to want it desperately in my entertainments — I’m all about the love and the trust and the caring. It was the thing that drew me to Buffy and Angel initially, and seeing it between Buffy and Spike at long last was almost worth the wait. I wish these scenes could exist in their own time and space separate from the rest of the ep.
But it also left me feeling hopeless for the future. Between that glimpse of Buffy and Angel together in the teaser, the fact that we don’t know what the note said, that Buffy finds it so hard to let go and love, I don’t have much faith that I’m going to get the love I want to see before the end, and I’m convinced at this point that the whole season has led up to Spike being sacrificed for the ending. I’m just totally convinced of this. Whereas in Becoming, Buffy killed Angel only after he got his soul back and they had that brief moment of love, and had had real love earlier, I fear that this beautiful scene with Buffy and Spike is all we’ll get and then Spike does something to sacrifice himself for Buffy and humanity, and there will have been nothing more. I can’t help feeling like they deserve more, like we deserve more than just this. Yeah, their scenes here were more profound than the horny rutting of Faith and Wood, Kennedy and Willow, Anya and Xander, but I still can’t help feeling like this is it — and it’s not enough. It’s actually making me get all weepy thinking about it.
My Farscape friends were upset about the cliffhanger ending of the show, but I know a bunch of people who said that at least John and Aeryn (sp?) got to have that love, got to be with each other, at the end before being turned into piles of dust. And if I’d been into the show, I think that would have helped me a lot. I could go happily into the end if I knew that there’d been that real love, that intimacy and happiness, before they went poof. What’s scaring me now is that I don’t think ME will let Spike have that. He went and got a soul for this woman, he loves this woman beyond reason, and whatever happens to him, without her in his future he will, to my eyes, be badly cheated. He hasn’t had that sense of love returned... I know I’m babbling at this point, but I can’t ever remember feeling this emotional about anything except maybe LFN.
When La Femme Nikita ended, the original S4 ending was horrid, a violation of everything we knew and loved about the show. And we were supposed to be left believing that Nikita didn’t love Michael, even though everything in the show was about her feelings for him. When the series came back for a truncated last season, we got the ending I wanted — tragic, haunting, and bittersweet, but they both had the chance to love each other, and to make sure they knew their love was returned. And Nikita told Michael that he would always know where she was after they parted, so that when the time came, they would be together again. That, I can live with. Spike being denied what he’s done so much for, and Buffy being with Angel and possibly pushing Spike away for the past... this leaves me feeling as betrayed as LFN did originally. Tragedy I like, but tragedy built on love. If Spike’s denied this, if this night with Buffy is the only thing he’ll have to hold on to, I’m not sure I can deal.
I don’t have much faith in ME. I’ve loved this season mostly, despite its boring villains up till now and how they played their hand too early, and the discontinuities bother me a lot (not to mention the character assassination of Giles), but overall I’ve had a much better time than many. But I’m desperately afraid that this ep paved the way for the destruction of the romantic tragedy in Buffy and Spike, and that none of these horrible events of the past two weeks will be addressed and resolved before the end. Bittersweet, yes please; bitter and putrid, no thank you.
Lots and lots of spoilery discussion!!
Boy, did we get a glimpse of Old Spike in this episode. The Spike who tells it like it is, the one who says the things no one else will say, the one who challenges and confronts others and hits their buttons, who zeroes in on their weaknesses and issues. The one who has no problem kicking ass and taking names, and can then turn around and be loving and adoring to his girl. Oh, that the rest of the episode could have been as good as the Spike bits.
I’ve been saying all year that they played their Big Bad card too early, and I think this ep really shows how detrimental that is to carrying through the plot. If things are moving to the point the First says they are, if they’re really in an imperative state, then I’m not sure why they’re standing still, waiting for stuff to happen. I guess to give everyone except Spike and Buffy a chance to have sex... but still. A lot of this was annoying filler, especially that stuff at the beginning with the arguing and the collective decision-making process (anyone who’s ever worked at a cooperative or collective would know there is no such thing as decision-making in a collective). What bugged me was twofold: that everyone feels free to diss Buffy now that she’s gone, including Faith, whom everyone gave such props to last week for not trying to hurt Buffy or undermine her deliberately; and the fact that none of them seemed to understand that they simply traded one slayer leader for another, and that this slayer leader, saying the exact same things (while dissing Buffy out of the other side of her mouth) like “follow and do it my way,” isn’t as competent as the old one at making decisions. That’s not Faith’s strong suit — she’s not, as Spike said of himself, known for being a thinker. She’s a natural reactor, and that’s her power (and her weakness). It was especially galling to see PodGiles congratulate her on her leadership when she was not only doing the exact same as Buffy, but not really making good solid strategic decisions based on intellect and experience. I wanted to throw things at the screen. Though I did enjoy the fact that she showed her true colors to Wood when he thought he was in good with her after the humping, and she just dismissed him.
I also despised Giles’s attempts to mollify Dawn by saying it was the right thing to do. How could it be the right thing to leave the First’s greatest enemy out on her own, broken and despairing, to be potentially killed — or worse? What the HELL is that man thinking, and what is ME thinking by trying to convince us this is our Giles? So my god, was I glad when Spike just stuck that knife in and twisted it, and as badly as it hurts to think of Giles being browbeaten, I don’t know that Spike is inherently wrong about what he’s saying. Maybe that really is what’s going on in Giles’s mind right now. But probably even worse than PodGiles is Kennedy, quite possibly the single worst “good” character they’ve ever had on the show. Please, give us Riley back if it means getting rid of this horrid girl. I was so excited, thinking that she was out sulking, and that she might get offed. Then I remembered the plan, and was disappointed. I’ve never wished so hard for a character to die horribly than I have for this girl.
What’s worse, maybe, than just her relentless awfulness is that not only are the rest of the SITs not that much more pleasant (if Kennedy dies, can Rona go with her? Did ME really think these girls were likable and interesting?) and not worth all this anguish and concern, but she is a terrible, terrible actress whose every line sounds the same. It doesn’t matter whether she’s speaking with tender love for Willow or trying to be tough girl “yo, Faith,” she sounds exactly the same, has the same monotone delivery and annoying lack of affect. And there’s absolutely no chemistry with Alyson Hannigan. While I wouldn’t say that AH and Amber Benson were as chemistry-laden as other couples on the show, especially compared to the chemistry that AH had with Seth Green and Nick Brendan, they did have a connection and you could feel something wonderful between the two actors when they were on screen. Their scenes had oomph even when all they did was gaze longingly, while this sex scene with Kennedy had about as much passion and intensity as wet concrete. I wish that the Spuffy scenes hadn’t been so intertwined with the passionless writhings of them, and Anya and Xander (I kept wanting to scream, watch out for his eye! when she was fondling his face), and DeadWood and Faith. Although I was amused by the conversation between Anya and Xander, because it reminded me of Jeff Goldblum’s Big Chill character talking about how he was sure people were having sex all around them.
After finally getting to a place where I liked Faith, it was hard to be annoyed with her again. It was frustrating to see how quickly she was willing to ditch her support of Buffy, and even when the Mayor laid it on the line — showed her exactly what her weakness was and poured that evil honey in her ear, she still didn’t see what she was doing herself or recognize how easily she’d fallen into a trap. I was thrilled that Spike kicked her ass and called her on her own deep-seated ambitions, and I wonder just whether she’s going to understand next week that she isn’t half the leader Buffy could be with her support. I loved the little excitement in Buffy when Spike told her he’d hit Faith. Now if Spike could just do that to Kennedy.
I’m going to treasure the scenes with Buffy and Spike, every moment, for a long time. I have a huge thing for intimacy — not a kink thing, I don’t think of it that simplistically. For me it’s a larger thing about trust and openness, a willingness to give oneself over to another, and this whole portion of the episode was about an intimacy between the two that was never achieved in all their time together last year. This is what I write about, what drives every story I’ve ever written. Buffy says it when she says they never connected deeply — and now, they have. She let herself need someone, and Spike let himself be needed in a different way than he’s used to, and it was heartbreakingly gorgeous. I’ve never really had that kind of intimacy with anyone, and so I tend to want it desperately in my entertainments — I’m all about the love and the trust and the caring. It was the thing that drew me to Buffy and Angel initially, and seeing it between Buffy and Spike at long last was almost worth the wait. I wish these scenes could exist in their own time and space separate from the rest of the ep.
But it also left me feeling hopeless for the future. Between that glimpse of Buffy and Angel together in the teaser, the fact that we don’t know what the note said, that Buffy finds it so hard to let go and love, I don’t have much faith that I’m going to get the love I want to see before the end, and I’m convinced at this point that the whole season has led up to Spike being sacrificed for the ending. I’m just totally convinced of this. Whereas in Becoming, Buffy killed Angel only after he got his soul back and they had that brief moment of love, and had had real love earlier, I fear that this beautiful scene with Buffy and Spike is all we’ll get and then Spike does something to sacrifice himself for Buffy and humanity, and there will have been nothing more. I can’t help feeling like they deserve more, like we deserve more than just this. Yeah, their scenes here were more profound than the horny rutting of Faith and Wood, Kennedy and Willow, Anya and Xander, but I still can’t help feeling like this is it — and it’s not enough. It’s actually making me get all weepy thinking about it.
My Farscape friends were upset about the cliffhanger ending of the show, but I know a bunch of people who said that at least John and Aeryn (sp?) got to have that love, got to be with each other, at the end before being turned into piles of dust. And if I’d been into the show, I think that would have helped me a lot. I could go happily into the end if I knew that there’d been that real love, that intimacy and happiness, before they went poof. What’s scaring me now is that I don’t think ME will let Spike have that. He went and got a soul for this woman, he loves this woman beyond reason, and whatever happens to him, without her in his future he will, to my eyes, be badly cheated. He hasn’t had that sense of love returned... I know I’m babbling at this point, but I can’t ever remember feeling this emotional about anything except maybe LFN.
When La Femme Nikita ended, the original S4 ending was horrid, a violation of everything we knew and loved about the show. And we were supposed to be left believing that Nikita didn’t love Michael, even though everything in the show was about her feelings for him. When the series came back for a truncated last season, we got the ending I wanted — tragic, haunting, and bittersweet, but they both had the chance to love each other, and to make sure they knew their love was returned. And Nikita told Michael that he would always know where she was after they parted, so that when the time came, they would be together again. That, I can live with. Spike being denied what he’s done so much for, and Buffy being with Angel and possibly pushing Spike away for the past... this leaves me feeling as betrayed as LFN did originally. Tragedy I like, but tragedy built on love. If Spike’s denied this, if this night with Buffy is the only thing he’ll have to hold on to, I’m not sure I can deal.
I don’t have much faith in ME. I’ve loved this season mostly, despite its boring villains up till now and how they played their hand too early, and the discontinuities bother me a lot (not to mention the character assassination of Giles), but overall I’ve had a much better time than many. But I’m desperately afraid that this ep paved the way for the destruction of the romantic tragedy in Buffy and Spike, and that none of these horrible events of the past two weeks will be addressed and resolved before the end. Bittersweet, yes please; bitter and putrid, no thank you.
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no subject
Date: 2003-05-07 01:46 pm (UTC)That pretty much sums things up for me, too.
Thing is, in my experience, if you're an even moderately attractive woman with realistic expectations, then it's usually pretty easy to get kissage, sweatiness and sex. What it's not so easy to find is intimacy, caring and (especially) trust. Which is why I've loved watching those things develop between Buffy and Spike this season. Despite the lack of overt romanticism, I've found their relationship so far to be amazingly touching and really quite satisfying. Yay touching, gazing and intimacy!
But that's about all a dare say, cause I am way, way too spoilt!
It was especially galling to see PodGiles congratulate her on her leadership when she was not only doing the exact same as Buffy, but not really making good solid strategic decisions based on intellect and experience.
I actually think that Faith ahs the potential to make a good leader. But an end of the world show down probably isn't the right time to trial that theory.
That said, I completely share your consternation about Giles' behavior this season. Congratulating and toadying to Faith? Showing next to no concern for what has happened to Buffy? Preaching, judging and censoring? That's just not Giles. And his conduct is simply too 'out there' to be explained away by jealousy, resentment or anything else along those lines. I'm still holding out some hope that ME will come up with some kind of explanation for his sudden personality transplant that isn't simply "bad writing", because I really don't want to end the season disliking Giles.
no subject
Date: 2003-05-08 01:02 am (UTC)They did. As far as shipping in fandom, J/A was the most satisfying ship I've been commited to in a show. They gave us everything, and did it beautifully, equal parts pain and joy. And the last two minutes don't count, because the writers already had the fifth season planned out, and the finale was shot before they knew they were being cancelled. It's the opinion of several that the production company left the last few minutes on (clearly unnecessary to the previous episode parts and only there for cliffhanger purposes) just to give the network their middle finger for cencelling them.